Why?

For a long time I have been wanting to do a open source project. Partly to return to the community what it has given me - free and excellent software, partly to learn new a new programming language, meet some people, have fun, fun and more fun.

I have always spend hours playing Command & Conquer, Red Alert and the likes. I am also a fan of Warhammer 40k, both as a board game and less the shitty computer games in the Warhammer universe.

So as I lay restless last night I came up with the idea to create a mix of all my favorit games.

The idea is to create a game that is written in C++ (I want to learn that language better than helloworld.cpp), OpenGL/Mesa but not starting from scratch. That means using something like SDL, CrystalSpace or whatever to cut corners and come closer to finishing this project within a reasonable timeframe.

The Game

The game itself is to take Warhammer 40k Epic Space Marine, and put it into a 3D environment. Players should connect to a gameserver (much like Quake/Netrek/..) and join in wonderful battles. Gameplay should end up being split up in 3 parts. Planning, execution and aftermath.

Planning is done simultanious by all players using a 3D overhead map like in Red Alert. This part will typically have a time limit for all players to finish. If a player has not submitted his moves, the game server will put his units on guard, and fire defensive fire. When a player is done planning the next turn, he submits it to the gameserver.

Execution is the gameserver running the submitted plans and displaying this in the client. This is done in a 3D world like Mech Warrior. I hate most other turn based games because they only allow the moves of one player to be enacted at a time. This is not like in real war. All fire in unison. During the turn the game server will have to query the players on events. An example is a tank set to defense mode. When an enemy unit comes into range, the player see the scene from the tanks point of view, and have to decide if to fire, and with what weapon. If he waits, the enemy unit may have killed him before he gets another chance.

In the execution fase one could at a later point implement a 3D action part, where it is the players that do the shooting and not the game server calculating the outcome. But that is for version 2.0 - if ever :-)

Aftermath is the players resupplying their units, and maybe do some repairs. Also reinforcements are thrown into battle at this point.

Misc ideas

An idea is to have a central experience/history/ranking/profile server. The idea is that the player has an army that he keeps and nurtures. If they survive battle, the unit gets experience points and they can be used in later games. Experienced players with good battleworn armies could clash against each other.

That idea leads to another - taking enemy prisoners and including them into your own. When you defeat an enemy, you reward could be either troops from outside joining your ranks, or taking one of the loosers units as your own.

Multiple races/technologies. It would be great with some plugin structure for units and races. Maybe even tech levels. 10000 native indians against a single Warhammer Titan or such.