ramcord

Very excited about this game, DarthMod. I'm a gameplay programmer at a big publisher on a MASSIVE team, and I'm always interested in the development of games like yours. I love to support crowd-funded projects, give feedback, and keep up to date with the latest news. With that said, I have some questions/ideas/advice: Questions that a lot of people might want to know: Do you plan on crowd-funding this project? Is there an over-world campaign map, or is this simply one battle that is played on an enormous scale? Besides realistic graphics, what are your team's limits? What will the differences between PC and tablet be? Will this be available on iOS AND Android tablets? Ideas for the game: You're probably looking to set your game apart from the Total War series. Obviously the Civil War is one period Creative assembly has left out (probably because the studio is outside of the U.S.) which is a great idea and I'm sure everyone loves this as much as I do. But there are other ways you can do so. No over-world campaign map. The entire game is one simulating battle that is happening in real-time. This is difficult performance-wise, but the large PC rigs will appreciate it, and you probably shouldn't be targeting graphics on a tablet anyway with a large scale strategy game. To do this, you use LOD to your advantage. Zooming out shrinks armies into single objects and shows large text and landmarks, while zooming in reveals smaller units and groups and allows for control. You can separate micro and macro strategy but allow them to play together. When zoomed out, the game relies on statistics to resolve conflicts. But zooming in relies on precise A.I. and player control. The player can pause the game and give precise orders or use time controls to fast forward through night-time, conduct night raids, etc. Having a real time simulation with time controls makes the world seem a whole lot bigger and can give a single battle dozens of extra hours of gameplay. This could put Total War's turn based gaming to shame. More than just combat and movement. Supply lines, civilians, bridges, and attrition, were important factors of the Civil War, and have not been micro-managed well in Total War games. If you're fighting in the North, there should be civilians that must flee to the north to seek shelter with Union troops. Likewise, southern armies have the opportunity to raid civilian properties for supplies, or hold up in them over night. destroying bridges can hurt the enemy's supply lines, and staging ambushes on caravans could be a cool mechanic. Supplies must be transferred to the front lines every day to feed the men who need them the most. More scripted events. Total War battles are not very scripted, which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, if you're not going to have a clear and interactive over-world campaign map, then individual battles will need more things to happen to make them lifelike, interesting, and fun. Imagine men of the local population joining the South because the Union soldiers burned their houses down. Caravans can move around the map and deliver supplies. Bridges can be destroyed, forcing troops to find other ways to cross rivers. If your army is forced to retreat, maybe you choose to burn everything in sight and leave nothing for the enemy. But that could cause more militia to side with the enemy. Artillery may destroy a forest that could have been used for cover. Prisoners can be taken. Dead bodies need to be cleared. Wounded need to be tended to. You may not consider a lot of these ideas because of development resources, another vision, or you simply don't think they're that interesting. Doesn't matter. Just something to think about. Friendly Advice: Crowd-fund it! What do you have to lose? If you do crowd fund it, be sure to include some footage of whatever sort of prototype you have. It goes a long way to see a single cool feature in action. Release developer videos Talk with other developers. A video of a conversation between you and a Creative Assembly designer or someone else would be really cool. Brainstorming sessions can excite a lot of the community. Don't forget to talk about what this ISN'T. Your history with the Total War series will continuously come back into this development process and you don't want people thinking you're making a Total War clone of the Civil War era with this game. Set yourself apart, but you also don't want to get caught up in debates about. Do some videos of you playing strategy games and talk about what you like/don't like about them that your game plans to address. Don't give up, although you don't seem like the kind of person who does. Good luck, and I look forward to hearing more about Ultimate General: Gettysburg in the future!!!