The idea is to have two separate battlegrounds. One a mental metaphysical and the other physical. Players can choose to invade other player's minds, attacking them from the inside-- while engaging them in physical combat complete with spells. Defeat an opponent enough mentally, and their physical selves will shut down, leaving them completely open and vulnerable to any physical attacks. But as an added layer of strategy, I've devised two types of units that are metaphysically incompatible.
The first type, the psions, are biological. They wield psionic power akin to the protoss, and have it well within their power to invade each other's minds. So far I've devised two archetypes of psions:
Psion A master of wielding psionic energy, this archetype has a focus towards the active psionic abilities and mental prowess.
Kineticist A user of psionic energy for more physical means, he focuses on becoming swifter, stronger, and tougher.
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The second type, the AI, are mechanical. They are limited to their programming, but nonetheless can be fearsome opponents. They are immune to the mind-invading powers of the the psions, but are vulnerable to being hacked by another AI. Additionally, they lack the elegant abilities of the psions, but are more powerful and adaptable.
Guardian Combat is the Guardian's forte, and they possess subroutines and upgrades specifically for this purpose, but do not possess very much memory for many other functions.
Sentinel Sentinels are designed to do just about anything. They could become jack-of-all-trades or extremely specialized in a particular field. They have good memory capacity and a wide range of subroutines.
AI Development
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So this idea of AI being drastically different has certainly piqued my interest, and I've done some work on their entire structure. Character creation is done in several steps:
1| Select a construct.
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Constructs are the unit and framework of the machine. They range in size from small to large, with varying advantage and equal draw-backs. For example, a large construct can carry a larger, and likewise more powerful, equipment. It also can house larger reactors, which generate more power.
2| Select an archetype.
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The archetype is the more subtle, and metaphysical, aspect of the machine. While the construct is the framework, the archetype is the circuits and cyber infrastructure. It is the determining role in program installation and specialization.
3| Install programs and hardware.
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After the fundamentals have been arranged, the first upgrades can be selected.
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Now allow me to explain some more gameplay mechianics. The psions develop just as you would expect them to. They have skill trees and and spell abilities that allow them to do various things. They're very classical, in the sense of AoS.
AI, however, is a different matter. They do not possess mana, psi-points, or skill trees. Instead, they have memory that can be upgraded. This memory can be filled with various programs that enable them to perform certain actions. As they accumulate more memory, they can store more programs, or more sophisticated versions of existing programs. Additionally, they have "upgrade slots". They do not level up in a typical fashion, but must install additional hardware. They run off of energy, which is constantly supplied to them by a reactor unit (which is itself upgradable). This energy is required for all functions, such as moving.
In addition, archetypes are not hero types, but merely personality types. You could have a Psion as a melee unit, or a Sentinel as a very slow moving unit. It's not entirely up to you, but there is a lot of choices.
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My question to you all is should I pursue this? Y/N and why. Suggestions or ideas are also helpful.
Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Dec 9 2011, 9:10 am by Sacrieur.
None.
