(A short walk in history)
In early StarCraft, BattleCruiser Command was developed - and then abandoned by its maker. So Zhoragh took over the map's development and completed the map. It was well-played.
Later, Fleet Command came along, and was explosively played...and then it's playbase suddenly died as fast as it had come into being.
Then BattleCruiser Command came back.
No, the player bases for these have never been huge, but those who love BattleCruiser Command know what I'm talking about.
I now present Carrier Command: while I don't claim that it matches the genius of BattleCruiser Command, I've nonetheless attempted to create a new game of the same kind that is nonetheless - quite different. Anyone who has played BattleCruiser Command will recognize the game setup immediately, but the gameplay will require some additional notes.
PLAYERS: Full house is required. (6 players)
Style: Heavy teamwork and communication game.
Ultimate game objective: Destroy the enemy Command Carrier.
The game consists of four forces. The first slot in each force is a team 1 player, the second slot is a team 2 player. I will describe each force in turn...beginning with the 4th. (I have my reasons...)
The forces are Command Carriers, Battle Assemblies, Heavy Fighters, and Fighter Wings.
Fighter Wings
The Fighter Wings are computer-controlled forces. Each team's Carrier is a very REAL Carrier - and the Fighter Wings are each Carrier's fleets. Each Carrier begins with one fighter, and can have a maximum of seven. A new fighter is purchased by the Carrier player at the Barracks by building a Firebat.
-each fighter is more powerful than the one before
-the fighters are always purchased in sequence from weakest to strongest (if you have fighters 1, 2, and 3, and the 2nd fighter dies, then your next firebat will purchase fighter 2 again)
-each fighter is more expensive than the fighter before
Fighters fight with their standard weaponry, and also have a complement of Missiles and Bombs that will target air and ground units respectively.
The Fighter Fleet is given orders by the players in the Heavy Fighter slots with the overlord that player controls. The orders are as follows.
Attack Enemy Carrier: The Fighters will ignore everything else and charge at the enemy Carrier. [NOTE: If the enemy Heavy Fighter is nearby, some damage may be diverted to it]
Attack Enemy Base: The Fighters will only attack the enemy Battle Assembly, and particularly focus on Assimilators.
Attack Heavy Fighter: The Fighters will engage the enemy Heavy Fighter if it is on the field. {NOTE: If the enemy Carrier is nearby, some damage may be diverted to it]
Random Assault: Fighters will do their own thing.
All Enemies Hostile: Fighters will head towards Assimilators, but are willing to attack anything they come across.
Escort Carrier: Fighters will mill around the friendly Carrier and attack anything in range.
Escort Heavy Fighter: Fighters will mill around the friendly Heavy Fighter if it is on the field.
Full Retreat: Fighters will retreat to the Carrier and dock with it.
-When a fighter docks with the Carrier, its Missiles and Bombs are reloaded, and when all Fighters have docked, "All Enemies Hostile" is automatically set
-If the Heavy Fighter is not on the field, any orders relating to the Heavy Fighter are cancelled and "All Enemies Hostile" is automatically set
The Fighters are unique in the sense that they do not have real Hit Points. While all other units in the game are damaged normally, Fighters are monitored with a triggered set of Hit Points. What this means is that only particular weapons can harm them.
-> The Carrier's interceptors will smash into Fighters and do 1 damage each
-> Missiles will do 4 damage (I think...)
-> Photon Cannons that Fighters come near will do 1 damage per second (damage is non-stacking: that is to say, 1 cannon will do 1 damage per second, 2 cannons will also do 1 damage per second)
-> Corsairs near enemy fighters will do 1 damage per second (non-stacking)
-> Battle Assembly Carriers' interceptors will hit for 3 damage each
-> Observers crash into Fighters doing 6 damage (I think)
-> The Heavy Fighter has special warheads that do 2 damage each (represented by Queens)
Each fighter has a set maximum Hit Points - when they run out, it dies. Each fighter also has a "prudence modifier" - when a Fighter takes a certain amount of damage, it will retreat to its Carrier to repair, regardless of its orders.
Ex. A Wingman has 20HP and a Prudence of 11, so when it takes 9 damage, it runs away.
-Each fighter's Hit Points can be upgraded by the Carrier player, using the lowest Overlord
-Each upgrade adds 5 HP and 2 Prudence, and upgrades can be done infinitely so long as money is available
Heavy Fighters
Heavy Fighters also have the name "Crewmen". They have a very simple job, but are at work all the time.
-The Carrier will require ammunition - the Carrier player purchases the ammunition, and the Heavy Fighter player will arm the ammunition by bringing it to the beacon with his drone.
-The Heavy Fighter player, as aforementioned, controls the Fighter Fleet with commands from his overlord.
-The Heavy Fighter may also launch his own ship - a Heavy Fighter.
The Heavy Fighter is the primary unit for repelling Fleet Fighters. Its anti-fighter warheads have infinite ammunition. When an enemy Fighter enters the Heavy Fighter's range, it will immediately start cranking out warheads which will hone in on the target.
-> These warheads have splash damage. (If there are multiple Fighters at the explosion area, they will all be hit.)
-> If the target leaves the Heavy Fighter's range, warheads will target a different Fighter in range.
-> If there are no targets in range, all warheads are destroyed.
-> The Heavy Fighter's warheads will fire faster if the player upgrades his ship.
The Heavy Fighter has four classes of ship. A Scout (no speed upgrade), two Arbiters, and finally a BattleCruiser. The Heavy Fighter's ship is upgraded when he hits 10, 30, and 70 kills. The most logical thing to target for kills is enemy Probes - as this both gets the kills and cripples the enemy (although, a decent builder won't get slowed down by this terribly much if his team is doing its job...)
-> If the Heavy Fighter is destroyed in combat, the player's drone cannot function, either - the player is effectively eliminated.
-> The Carrier player may revive his Heavy Fighter by purchasing a Ghost from the Barracks.
Battle Assemblies
The Battle Assembly is, quite basically, a builder. He's the one who virtually plays normal StarCraft while everyone else is doing all these fancy things. However, some things to note.
-> The Battle Assembly only requires GAS to build anything [Assimilators have a -LONG- build time but are basically free to build]
-> An unpowered inaccessible Gateway is provided to the player, so a Cybernetics Core can be built immediately
-> Some buildings do special things, some buildings are unavailable, and some units are unavailable
-Dark Templars, Reavers, and Arbiters are unbuildable
-Flak Cannons can damage enemy Fighters. They also function as normal Cannons.
-A Robotics Support Bay is a Repair Bay - hovering a Battle Assembly air unit over it for about 45 seconds will repair its hit points.
-A Fleet Beacon will cause the friendly Carrier player, if he is nearby, to become invincible, as long as he stays nearby
-As aforementioned, Assembly Carriers, Observers, and Corsairs will damage enemy Fighters
-An Observer that crashes into the enemy Carrier, Heavy Fighter, or Battle Assembly air unit will turn into a bunch of scourges
-Corsair Disruption Web instantly destroys any buildings under it, and then vanishes
-Ground units are disproportionately powerful to their air counterparts (the map is a slew of islands)
It is important to remember that the Carrier player on each team will require healing. This can only be done through the use of Shield Batteries. When the Carrier player moves between a Shield Battery and a Pylon, the Battery and Pylon will shift ownership to the Carrier player. When the Carrier leaves, the ownership will change back.
Also, there are minerals on the map. Any minerals mined by the Battle Assembly will instantly transfer to the Carrier player (only Battle Assemblies can mine minerals). However, all islands with minerals cannot fit a Nexus, so transportation is required.
Last Note: The Battle Assembly player begins with 3 flying Command Centers. When these Command Centers land, they instantly each turn into a Nexus.
Command Carriers
The Carrier players' positions basically determine where the power is on a team. This is the place where the most powerful unit is, where fighter launch and dock, and where the Heavy Fighter comes from. The Carrier player's tactics are extremely important to gameplay.
The Carrier's attacks are not normal (Battle Assembly Carriers, however, attack normally except against Fighters). To attack, the Carrier smashes its interceptors into enemy units. There are three attack modes (selected by the player's highest overlord [he has three]).
Anti-Fleet: The interceptor will smash into any enemy air unit it comes into contact with, and turn into a Scourge. [Exception: if an enemy computer Fighter is hit, it does instant damage without a Scourge]
Anti-Carrier: The interceptor will only smash into the enemy Carrier, and turn into a Scourge.
Anti-Ground: All interceptors except 1 are eliminated. The final interceptor, if it comes into contact with any unit or building on the ground, will turn into an Infested Terran (the Carrier can hover over a building and bomb it to kingdom come).
Each one of these interceptors is ammunition. If the Carrier runs out of ammunition, it cannot attack. To purchase more ammunition, the Carrier player must build a Marine at the Barracks. It is then the Heavy Fighter's responsibility to arm the ammunition. Each ammo casket provides 25 ammo, and ammo is shown by the Carrier's GAS level. (the Heavy Fighter will also see this Gas level)
Of course, the Carrier has 9000 Shields, and Shield Batteries are expensive - so recharging with Shield Batteries will not be practical. When the Carrier is near a Battery which he owns, he may purchase a Medic from the Barracks. The Battery and Pylon will both become invincible, and be fully charged with energy for the next 10 seconds - this will come to around 1000 shields for the Carrier. The Carrier may purchase numerous Medics at a time to extend this duration.
As aforementioned, the builder can mine minerals for the Carrier. The Carrier also has a natural Mineral generation (the money just comes, and that's all there is to it) for purchasing anything and everything.
-A Forge is available to the Carrier to upgrade its shields - this can be quite useful.
Finally, the last important feature available to the Carrier player is his 2nd overlord. There are four options in here.
Load 3 Probes
Drop 3 Probes
Load 5 Troops
Drop 5 Troops
This refers directly to the Battle Assembly player. While the Assembly player can purchase a Shuttle for his own use, the Carrier itself can be used as a gigantic dropship for moving stuff around. With the Carrier as dropship, the Battle Assembly can quickly establish new bases, mine minerals, create forward assault bases, or simply build ground troops to attack with.
Final Notes
-If either the Carrier or Heavy Fighter leaves the game, then the other of these two takes complete control over the other player's matters. Unfortunately, if your Battle Assembly leaves, you're SOL.
-The game is fully playable, but I may be developing a few more versions and adding a few more things in the future.
And now some pictures!
An entire fleet's worth of missiles hit purple's poor scout to create those scourges - yes, it dies.
The result of Flak Cannons attacking Fighters.
The Drone's spawn spot. Directly below it is where ammo would be if there was any to arm. Left, the orange beacon is where one launches the Heavy Fighter, and below that would be the arm ammo beacon. Further left one sees red dots and a green dot - those are the overlords.
Evidently team 2 isn't doing too well.
Upgrading a fighter.
A Heavy Fighter that's overextended his boundaries. Remember, Heavy Fighters are slower than the computerized fighters.
Enjoy!
-Gidoza
Version 2.5 is now available, adding and fixing a couple of things.
-New Building: Structural Shield Emitter - Makes nearby Buildings and Probes invincible.
-Probes are now restricted when inside Carriers so they don't end up stealing Ammunition and making it useless.
-Starting Shield Generators for Team 2 have been corrected (0 initial starting energy).
-Cruisers are now stronger.
-Air Armor and Weapons upgrades cost more and take longer to research.
-Flak Drones now have double the build time, double the Hit Points, +50% cost, +50% ground damage, and slightly higher air damage.
Until the next version!
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Post has been edited 8 time(s), last time on Mar 22 2010, 2:29 am by Gidoza.
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