Battle Lines is a cooperative TBS. You, the players, will be working together to beat one enemy that has an advantage in numbers (that is, if this were a 1v1 fight, but it's 1vTheAmountOfPlayers, so you will have a large force as well). The enemy will be played by me.
If you're interested in joining, what do you want, a campaign or random battles?
A campaign will feature a story and unlockable units, while random battles allow you to purchase whatever you want if you have the money for it.
A campaign will also have a 'setting' that affects the terrain. The settings are named after WW2 fronts they were based on.
'Western Front' setting: Big cities & small forests.
'Eastern Front' setting: Big Forests, Small Cities, large tracts of open land
'Desert Front' setting: Lots and Lots of open space. Next to no forests, and only small cities. Perfect for large tank battles.
'Pacific' setting: Lots and Lots of water and dense forests. Terrible for Vehicles.
I'll put up a poll so people can vote, and you can ask questions that you have here.
Also, for those of you who were interested in the Resistance RP I was talking about, it'll be up when I've decided on some names. It won't take long.
The map is made out of Tiles, and each tile has 4 sections. Each Section can house 1 unit, with some exeptions. Medium Tanks & Medium Tank Destroyers take up 2 Sections, and Heavy Tanks/Heavy Tank Destroyers take up 4 sections, aka 1 Tile
There are specific types of terrain that affect combat & movement:
Terrain types that cause units in it to take 1 damage less:
Forest, Ruin, Trench.
Terrain types that cause units in it to take 2 damage less:
Building
Terrain types that turn into a Ruin when a vehicle with either the Armoured or Heavily Armoured tag enters it:
Building
Terrain types that give units in it +1 range:
Hills
Terrain types that force units moving into them to stop: (Engineers are unaffected by this.)
Forest, Ruin, Trench, Building, Hill, Shallow Water, Fordable Water.
Terrain types that can't be traversed by Vehicles:
Shallow Water
Terrain types that can't be traversed by anyone:
Water, Mountain
Direct Attacks, Indirect Attacks, Line of Sight & Inaccuracy:
Attacks can be either Indirect or Direct. If the unit has the 'Indirect' tag, the unit can do an indirect attack. Units without the ability to use an Indirect attack can only do Direct attacks, but units with the ability to do Indirect attacks can also do Direct Attacks.
Direct Attacks don't need to roll for accuracy, but can only be used on targets that are within range and in the attacking unit's line-of-sight.
Indirect Attacks need to roll for accuracy (If they fail, the attack will hit an adjacent tile instead), but the target does not have to be in the unit's line-of-sight, only within range.
Radio units are special, as they can call a Strike on anything that is within their line-of-sight, even if it is unknown whether or not there's a target in said tile. The Strike's stats depend on the type of strike
Accuracy is rolled first, then damage.
Accuracy rolls are done with a d10. The number corresponds with the hit tile:
Reconnaisance:
You can't fight without knowing where the enemy is. Your precious Heavy Tank might be capable of destroying everything it sees, but what if it doesn't see anything? In the open field there is little place to hide, so it can defeat any enemy. But when you enter the forest, your tank is in trouble, as it has no idea what's going on around it, and BAM, some hidden infantry or AT Gun has taken out your Tank. Well, how to prevent this? Recon units of course.
Recon units have very little combat power. Unarmoured and weak weapons, their main purpose is spotting where enemies are. Spotting Enemies comes in multiple stages.
Stage 1: You have no clue whether or not there are enemies in a tile.
Stage 2: You know that there's enemies on a tile, but not how many enemies, nor whether it's a vehicle, a bunch of soldiers, or a Gun.
Stage 3: / You know how many enemies there are on a tile, and whether it's either a Vehicle or a Gun/Infantry unit, but not what type of unit.
Stage 4: You know how many enemies there are on a tile, and what type of enemies.
Combat Rolls are done with a d10, a unit has 10HP. If the rolled number is equal is or lower than a units FP, a hit is scored, decreasing the target's HP with 1. Units can shoot diagonally, but not move diagonally.
Each player starts with 230 funds to buy unit. If a unit is killed, the player that kills the unit gets 50% of the unit's value. Unless the unit is killed by the building being turned into ruins, in which case the player that killed the unit gets only 25%.
Units with the Transport tag can carry 1 Infantry & 1 Gun Unit
Line of Sight & Range:
An Unit's line-of-sight is endless, but is blocked by certain objects
(Hills, Forests, Buildings, Units with the Vehicles classification).
Units with the 'Foot' tag spot up to stage 2 if something is in their sight, stage 3 if within range, and stage 4 if adjacent.
Units with the 'Vehicle' tag spot up to stage 2 if something is in their sight, stage 2 if within range, and stage 3 if adjacent.
Units with the 'Gun' tag spot up to stage 2 if something is in their sight, stage 2 if within range, and stage 4 if adjacent.
Units with the 'Recon' tag spot up to stage 3 if something is in their sight, and stage 4 if within range of the unit OR if it is within range of an allied unit that is in the range of the unit with the 'Recon' tag.
So, a bit of an explanation on why this thread is so inactive:
- Nobody has commented.
People have voted, but no one has expressed any interest in this game besides it.
- It involves a lot of work with paint.net
Like, really. For every player I have to make a huge amount of sprites. Each player gets a different colour to be able to distinguish the units, but that means that I have to make 10 sprites per unit (for damage) * 29 = 290 * 4 (Each section of a tile) = 1160 sprites per player. That is a lot.
Does anyone have any idea how to make this easier for me? I don't really want to make 1160 sprites per player with the only difference being unit colour, I'd quite like to keep my brain cells intact.
Yay, people are interested
Anyways
The main problem still is the fact that I need to find a better way to represent the units on a map; I don't want to make ~1160 nigh-identical sprites that only have minor differences...
Yay, people are interested
Anyways
The main problem still is the fact that I need to find a better way to represent the units on a map; I don't want to make ~1160 nigh-identical sprites that only have minor differences...
Just make 1160 sprites, and then duplicate and change the colors for each team like I did for all the explosion backgrounds I use for my avatar. Or just use multiple layers instead of one layer.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My avatar is a Nuclear Ender-Creeper in SPAAAAAACE! My RP: An Island
Why 'Fire at Will'? Why not Bob, Joe, or anybody else?
Veni, Vidi, Vici Caelus!
What didya expect, the Spanish Inquisition?
¿Ðïd ♥ ¥ΩÜ ♪ knòw ™ yóu ☺ çæñ ♂ τypε ▲ Ãll † øf ↔ thi§ ± wîτЋ « ÿöüΓ ♫ k€ЏßØα®d?
Just make 1160 sprites, and then duplicate and change the colors for each team like I did for all the explosion backgrounds I use for my avatar. Or just use multiple layers instead of one layer.
Yeah, but that still takes ages. Once I have the sprites though I have everything I need. Tiled allows me to work with layers and only make screenshots showing certain layers. But still, making 1160 sprites takes ages...
I've thought of a workaround, but it's a tad more confusing.
Since tiled allows me to make images of select layers, I can make 4 different images of the same map showing units. This is confusing as you'll have to look at multiple different maps to have an idea of what units you and the enemy have, but it means that I'll have to make less sprites. As for damaged unit sprites, I could use text instead. (example: Reserves 1 on tile C-I has 8/10 HP left, Reserves 2 on tile C-I has 4/10 HP left.). I could also revert to 1 unit per tile. Suggestions are welcome.
I've thought of a workaround, but it's a tad more confusing.
Since tiled allows me to make images of select layers, I can make 4 different images of the same map showing units. This is confusing as you'll have to look at multiple different maps to have an idea of what units you and the enemy have, but it means that I'll have to make less sprites. As for damaged unit sprites, I could use text instead. (example: Reserves 1 on tile C-I has 8/10 HP left, Reserves 2 on tile C-I has 4/10 HP left.). I could also revert to 1 unit per tile. Suggestions are welcome.
Just paste one image on top of the other, while making sure you have a transparent background.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My avatar is a Nuclear Ender-Creeper in SPAAAAAACE! My RP: An Island
Why 'Fire at Will'? Why not Bob, Joe, or anybody else?
Veni, Vidi, Vici Caelus!
What didya expect, the Spanish Inquisition?
¿Ðïd ♥ ¥ΩÜ ♪ knòw ™ yóu ☺ çæñ ♂ τypε ▲ Ãll † øf ↔ thi§ ± wîτЋ « ÿöüΓ ♫ k€ЏßØα®d?
Just paste one image on top of the other, while making sure you have a transparent background.
That still means I have to make images for a unit being in the top right, top left, bottom right, bottom left. The idea I mentioned shows 1 unit in the center of a tile per layer, so I don't have to make as many sprites.
I mean if you're a warhammer player that number is zilch... But I can understand your pain.
Cant you have 1 sprite representing multiple units (when the individual units move away from each other then you add another sprite. Also you could write the number of units (that the single sprite represents) on the sprite (which could also be considered as an overall HP)).
I make a lot of games IRL so I can help with some problems that you run-into if you want
I could try and 'zoom out' a bit to have less units.
Anyways, the only thing I'd need help with is balancing. I'm terrible at balancing things like this, so if you think a specific unit is either too OP or too weak, please tell me.
ft]
For example,If we scale 12,000 units to 12 (because I can't be bothered to ctrl+v 12,000 times), then the units would look like this (if they were next to each other...
Imagine that as 12,000...
So instead we could do this; (The "12 Units" tells us how many units there are, the largest border tells us where the outermost units are,)
If two seperate 'divisions' are close together, to avoid confusion you can add lines from the corners to make it easier to find the border and identify the seperate the units;
Anything else?[/left]
But what if you have multiple different units in a tile? How would that work?
Anyway, an Idea I have is to go from squad level to division level or something. This would mean that there'd be less different units and maps would represent a bigger area.
Some news: I have gotten some new ideas for this game thanks to my work on TBWD++, and I'll be remaking this game with a lot less sprites. Instead of the old choices there'll be new ones:
Early War:
Infantry are the main part of your army. Motorised troops are relatively new, and so are Tanks. What would later be called a Medium Tank is a nearly unbeatable.
Mid War:
Tanks are becoming very popular, and the first large tank battles have happened. Mechanised troops are commonly used to aid tanks, and Anti-Tank Guns are more and more common. Heavy Tanks are becoming more and more popular.
Late War:
Super-Heavy Tanks, Bazookas and other Heavy Weapons are commonplace, but expensive.
Welcome to my new Forum Game, Battle Lines!
Battle Lines is a cooperative TBS. You, the players, will be working together to beat one enemy that has an advantage in numbers (that is, if this were a 1v1 fight, but it's 1vTheAmountOfPlayers, so you will have a large force as well). The enemy will be played by me.
If you're interested in joining, what do you want, a campaign or random battles?
A campaign will feature a story and unlockable units, while random battles allow you to purchase whatever you want if you have the money for it.
A campaign will also have a 'setting' that affects the terrain. The settings are named after WW2 fronts they were based on.
'Western Front' setting: Big cities & small forests.
'Eastern Front' setting: Big Forests, Small Cities, large tracts of open land
'Desert Front' setting: Lots and Lots of open space. Next to no forests, and only small cities. Perfect for large tank battles.
'Pacific' setting: Lots and Lots of water and dense forests. Terrible for Vehicles.
I'll put up a poll so people can vote, and you can ask questions that you have here.
Also, for those of you who were interested in the Resistance RP I was talking about, it'll be up when I've decided on some names. It won't take long.
------------------------Rules------------------------
The Map:
The map is made out of Tiles, and each tile has 4 sections. Each Section can house 1 unit, with some exeptions. Medium Tanks & Medium Tank Destroyers take up 2 Sections, and Heavy Tanks/Heavy Tank Destroyers take up 4 sections, aka 1 Tile
There are specific types of terrain that affect combat & movement:
Terrain types that cause units in it to take 1 damage less:
Forest, Ruin, Trench.
Terrain types that cause units in it to take 2 damage less:
Building
Terrain types that turn into a Ruin when a vehicle with either the Armoured or Heavily Armoured tag enters it:
Building
Terrain types that give units in it +1 range:
Hills
Terrain types that force units moving into them to stop: (Engineers are unaffected by this.)
Forest, Ruin, Trench, Building, Hill, Shallow Water, Fordable Water.
Terrain types that can't be traversed by Vehicles:
Shallow Water
Terrain types that can't be traversed by anyone:
Water, Mountain
Direct Attacks, Indirect Attacks, Line of Sight & Inaccuracy:
Attacks can be either Indirect or Direct. If the unit has the 'Indirect' tag, the unit can do an indirect attack. Units without the ability to use an Indirect attack can only do Direct attacks, but units with the ability to do Indirect attacks can also do Direct Attacks.
Direct Attacks don't need to roll for accuracy, but can only be used on targets that are within range and in the attacking unit's line-of-sight.
Indirect Attacks need to roll for accuracy (If they fail, the attack will hit an adjacent tile instead), but the target does not have to be in the unit's line-of-sight, only within range.
Radio units are special, as they can call a Strike on anything that is within their line-of-sight, even if it is unknown whether or not there's a target in said tile. The Strike's stats depend on the type of strike
Accuracy is rolled first, then damage.
Accuracy rolls are done with a d10. The number corresponds with the hit tile:
Reconnaisance:
You can't fight without knowing where the enemy is. Your precious Heavy Tank might be capable of destroying everything it sees, but what if it doesn't see anything? In the open field there is little place to hide, so it can defeat any enemy. But when you enter the forest, your tank is in trouble, as it has no idea what's going on around it, and BAM, some hidden infantry or AT Gun has taken out your Tank. Well, how to prevent this? Recon units of course.
Recon units have very little combat power. Unarmoured and weak weapons, their main purpose is spotting where enemies are. Spotting Enemies comes in multiple stages.
Stage 1: You have no clue whether or not there are enemies in a tile.
Stage 2: You know that there's enemies on a tile, but not how many enemies, nor whether it's a vehicle, a bunch of soldiers, or a Gun.
Stage 3: / You know how many enemies there are on a tile, and whether it's either a Vehicle or a Gun/Infantry unit, but not what type of unit.
Stage 4: You know how many enemies there are on a tile, and what type of enemies.
Units: (Unit images can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/EqOBo)
Combat Rolls are done with a d10, a unit has 10HP. If the rolled number is equal is or lower than a units FP, a hit is scored, decreasing the target's HP with 1. Units can shoot diagonally, but not move diagonally.
Each player starts with 230 funds to buy unit. If a unit is killed, the player that kills the unit gets 50% of the unit's value. Unless the unit is killed by the building being turned into ruins, in which case the player that killed the unit gets only 25%.
Units with the Transport tag can carry 1 Infantry & 1 Gun Unit
Line of Sight & Range:
An Unit's line-of-sight is endless, but is blocked by certain objects
(Hills, Forests, Buildings, Units with the Vehicles classification).
Units with the 'Foot' tag spot up to stage 2 if something is in their sight, stage 3 if within range, and stage 4 if adjacent.
Units with the 'Vehicle' tag spot up to stage 2 if something is in their sight, stage 2 if within range, and stage 3 if adjacent.
Units with the 'Gun' tag spot up to stage 2 if something is in their sight, stage 2 if within range, and stage 4 if adjacent.
Units with the 'Recon' tag spot up to stage 3 if something is in their sight, and stage 4 if within range of the unit OR if it is within range of an allied unit that is in the range of the unit with the 'Recon' tag.
Updated the OP, included the rules. Will post unit icons & terrain icons in a bit.
Terrain:
- Plains
- Fordable Water
- Forest
- Hill
- Trench
- Mountain
- Shallow Water
- Urban
- Ruins
- Water
Unit List: http://imgur.com/a/EqOBo
So, a bit of an explanation on why this thread is so inactive:
- Nobody has commented.
People have voted, but no one has expressed any interest in this game besides it.
- It involves a lot of work with paint.net
Like, really. For every player I have to make a huge amount of sprites. Each player gets a different colour to be able to distinguish the units, but that means that I have to make 10 sprites per unit (for damage) * 29 = 290 * 4 (Each section of a tile) = 1160 sprites per player. That is a lot.
Does anyone have any idea how to make this easier for me? I don't really want to make 1160 sprites per player with the only difference being unit colour, I'd quite like to keep my brain cells intact.
Interesting... I might jump in.
Yay, people are interested
Anyways
The main problem still is the fact that I need to find a better way to represent the units on a map; I don't want to make ~1160 nigh-identical sprites that only have minor differences...
That is true. I don't know how too fix that.
Just make 1160 sprites, and then duplicate and change the colors for each team like I did for all the explosion backgrounds I use for my avatar. Or just use multiple layers instead of one layer.
My avatar is a Nuclear Ender-Creeper in SPAAAAAACE!
My RP: An Island
Why 'Fire at Will'? Why not Bob, Joe, or anybody else?
Veni, Vidi, Vici Caelus!
What didya expect, the Spanish Inquisition?
¿Ðïd ♥ ¥ΩÜ ♪ knòw ™ yóu ☺ çæñ ♂ τypε ▲ Ãll † øf ↔ thi§ ± wîτЋ « ÿöüΓ ♫ k€ЏßØα®d?
Yeah, but that still takes ages. Once I have the sprites though I have everything I need. Tiled allows me to work with layers and only make screenshots showing certain layers. But still, making 1160 sprites takes ages...
I hadn't seen it before, I'm interested.
I'm not graphic artist so I can't help you with the sprites though.
All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost
From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring
Renewed shall be the blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king
I've thought of a workaround, but it's a tad more confusing.
Since tiled allows me to make images of select layers, I can make 4 different images of the same map showing units. This is confusing as you'll have to look at multiple different maps to have an idea of what units you and the enemy have, but it means that I'll have to make less sprites. As for damaged unit sprites, I could use text instead. (example: Reserves 1 on tile C-I has 8/10 HP left, Reserves 2 on tile C-I has 4/10 HP left.). I could also revert to 1 unit per tile. Suggestions are welcome.
Just paste one image on top of the other, while making sure you have a transparent background.
My avatar is a Nuclear Ender-Creeper in SPAAAAAACE!
My RP: An Island
Why 'Fire at Will'? Why not Bob, Joe, or anybody else?
Veni, Vidi, Vici Caelus!
What didya expect, the Spanish Inquisition?
¿Ðïd ♥ ¥ΩÜ ♪ knòw ™ yóu ☺ çæñ ♂ τypε ▲ Ãll † øf ↔ thi§ ± wîτЋ « ÿöüΓ ♫ k€ЏßØα®d?
That still means I have to make images for a unit being in the top right, top left, bottom right, bottom left. The idea I mentioned shows 1 unit in the center of a tile per layer, so I don't have to make as many sprites.
Hm. I might have to jump in.
As for making the sprites, if you could use MS Paint I have an idea. Say you have one color you want to change to another.
1. Set the color you want to change to Color 1.
2. Set the color you want to change into to Color 2.
3. Get out the eraser tool.
4. Hold the Right Mouse Button and go over the sprite.
If you did everything properly then all the Color 1 pixels should turn into Color 2 pixels.
If you can't use MS Paint then sorry, but I can't help.
Watch out for the crabocalypse. Some say the day will never come. But it will.
Feel free to drop by for a chat whenever.
If you'd like to talk with me about other games, here are a few I play.
Team Fortress 2
Borderlands series (Borderlands 2 is my favorite game, ever. TPS combat is a lot of fun and makes up for the lower-quality story, in my opinion)
Elder Scrolls series
Warframe (IGN is something like That_One_Flesh_Atronach)
Pokémon series (HGSS forever)
Rocket League
Fallout series
Left 4 Dead 2 (Boomer files always corrupt though)
SUPERHOT (SUPERHOT is the most innovative shooter I've played in years!)
Dead Rising series (Dead Rising 2 is one of my favorite games, and the 3rd was a lot of fun. 1st has poor survivor AI and the 4th is bad)
Just Cause series
Come to think of it, I mainly play fighting-based games.
The problem is not that I don't know how, the problem is the quantity. Making 1160 sprites per player is not fun, I assume you agree with me on that.
I could try and 'zoom out' a bit to have less units.
Anyways, the only thing I'd need help with is balancing. I'm terrible at balancing things like this, so if you think a specific unit is either too OP or too weak, please tell me.
Anyway, an Idea I have is to go from squad level to division level or something. This would mean that there'd be less different units and maps would represent a bigger area.
The way it is now, a 'reserve' represents a squad of soldiers, a MMG represents an MMG with some soldier manning it. A tank represents 1 tank.
Also, most of my ideas can also be found on my profile, there might be some interesting info there.
Some news: I have gotten some new ideas for this game thanks to my work on TBWD++, and I'll be remaking this game with a lot less sprites. Instead of the old choices there'll be new ones:
Early War:
Infantry are the main part of your army. Motorised troops are relatively new, and so are Tanks. What would later be called a Medium Tank is a nearly unbeatable.
Mid War:
Tanks are becoming very popular, and the first large tank battles have happened. Mechanised troops are commonly used to aid tanks, and Anti-Tank Guns are more and more common. Heavy Tanks are becoming more and more popular.
Late War:
Super-Heavy Tanks, Bazookas and other Heavy Weapons are commonplace, but expensive.