After thinking about how to make a strategic battletech game for years, and seeing the horrible trend with new products when it comes to "leaving out all the details", I figured out how I'll make my strategic battletech game!
It won't be battletech!
Well the history will pretty much mirror battletech. There will be a massive plague at some late point after space exploration (I need to do the math) at which many planets had entire populations die out and were forgotten (places to find neato old stuff!) and the populations of worlds are at most, tens of millions. This fixes "fasanomics".
Another change is the houses. I loathe how the houses are all just the same now. They have the same mechs, the same formations, same tactics, same *everything*. The only difference is, well, the unit names. So, to heck with that.
Instead, I'll create factions based on modern nations/continents. For example, the Terran Hegemony area would be mostly NATO nations. China, India, Asia, Mideast+Africa, and South America+Mexico would be "major houses". Pirate nations would be Russia (the most powerful), Israel, maybe Australia+New Zealand, not 100% sure on those yet. Each spread out in an arc from Terra with a chunk about equal to their populations today (each of those major factions is about a billion folk today).
All the planets will have new names, and be random each game. This way lets say you go towards the Chinese faction, the systems will have names of Chinese rivers, mountains, lakes, personalities, cities, and regions. This way there is a "feel" for the uniqueness of each "nation", though there will be some crossover, especially around the borders.
Units will also follow this. The units of the NATO region will be named after US, British, Canadian, and various European nations.
Each "house" will have a way in which they fight. China would use lots of less effective and cheaper units with horrible morale, the Mideast+Africa would use guerilla tactics, India Tribal tactics (think FWL), etc. Again these aren't 100% absolutes, just preferred ways to fight.
There will still be jumpships, though now called "starships", dropships would be "systemships", and small craft "planetships". I may keep the original names, but this would help differentiate it from CBT.
I'm sure I just lost 2 of the 3 people reading this site as I'm planning on straying from canon, but it is just the only way to not have to go through 5000 pages of printed text ensuring there are no contradictions, and filling in the blanks with a HUGE amount of non-canon data anyway, as its simply missing.
Since the game will be 100% "moddable", if you want to change some strings and turn it into CBT you easily can, I just won't touch it as I have some weird issue with accuracy.
Good news is this makes *everything* easier. Especially units and combat, as I can do my own system without regards to things like "clan tech". I should have something playable MUCH faster (like months instead of years... assuming I have no help).
Oh, the clans are "America". I picked them not because I'm American, but because America now has a serious ego and thinks they are just better than everybody. Take this mentality, give them the best military, and let them go live somewhere alone for a hundred years or so, and imagine the ego they'll have when they come back!
If you want to be a part of this, I could REALLY use some help. I need the following:
- Somebody to create lists of random system names to use for each faction (I created India/China in just a few hours, but they need to be looked over).
- Somebody to find the names/nicknames of every single military unit throughout history for the factions. Even extinct nations like Persia or Rome would have units represented.
- Though 100% optional, somebody to write the storyline with these changes. I can't write (obviously!) worth a crap, and could use somebody to help flesh out the universe.
- Somebody to give me a hand with some planetary engineering algorithms. Help when plotting planet coordinates in 3D space based on their aphelion/periphelion/date, transfer orbits, proximity/la-grange points, etc just seem to elude me and my community college level math skills.
- Somebody to draw the interfaces. No code, they can be drawn in paintbrush, photoshop, or even excel. Just a way to interface with the game. This wouldn't be necessary till more code is done.
- Somebody to draw 2D graphics. Small icons for dropships, unit types (like nato symbols), etc, would be very helpful. What would be better is also somebody to draw 2D world textures and unit crests.
- 100% optional, but nice, would be somebody to write out unit/faction histories once the story was written.
If this turns into a great application I may charge a couple bucks for it, and if I get multiplayer working it may be a few bucks each month, but would be have hundreds or thousands of players possible. Multiplayer like that would be WAY after a single player release though :)
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