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Custom Wars Tactics Core Document
Hello CWT Team,
Welcome to where the entire game will be fleshed out, and the main place where ideas will be sorted out and realized for Custom Wars Tactics. I am JakeSamiRulz, and this documents sole focus is to outline exactly which mechanics are being considered for inclusion into this game, and why these inclusions were done.
I want this to be an iterative process, the goal is to slowly chip away at any bad ideas within the document until we get a solid game for Custom Wars Tactics that takes elements for the previous Advance Wars Games and pushes it into one unit. The main sources of inspiration for CWT Main is Advance Wars 2 and Advance Wars Days of Ruin.
Without further delay, I’ll be laying out all design elements into chapters for organization purposes. When completed, I will probably create a table of contents for quick browsing of the material until we can get a final draft completed of the data. This document will cover the first initial drafts of what the game play of Custom Wars Tactics will consist of.
Before going to in-depth, I want you to know my yardstick for improving Advance Wars. Every game has problems, but I feel the closest game comparator to Advance Wars is Chess. This brings in some pretty distinct philosophies when improving the game from a multiplayer setting.
Players must have access to all available units in the game from the start Any game abilities can not affect what units are available The map must be constant, and items within it must have clear distinction
In short, when making any choice regarding this game, I ask myself if such a concept would work for chess before proceeding to implement it. Chess gives us toys with a simple moveset, but the amount of complexity comes with how those toys interact. That essence is a major part of what I feel is the ‘core of Advance Wars’, and each decision made I try not to detract too much with what made Advance Wars the game we know and love today.
This document was a long time coming and was created to outline the direction of Custom Wars Tactics. To keep things concise, the plan is to make a game that will encompass the universes of Advance Wars 2, Advance Wars DS and Advance Wars Days or Ruin. Our goal is to expand and streamlining the experience without over-complicating the game
0.2a - This game will not attempt to compromise the ability to create Advance Wars 2, Advance Wars Dual Strike, or Advance Wars Days of Ruin within the engine
We will try to encompass all the Advance Wars games and their mechanics under the engine roof to the best of our ability. Even if this game idea doesn’t hold up, we can always fall back to the base games and build up from there.
Our engine will be built from parts used to create custom elements in the game. With enough time and interest, people can build their own custom elements in the game. The process of creation is not guaranteed to have a user interface, but it’ll most likely need a text editor for simple changes, and some scripting knowledge in JavaScript for bigger changes.
We will try and build as close to the metal in JavaScript to cover as many architectures as possible. In short, we’ll have an interface that works for the following:
- Windows PC
- Linux PC
- Macintosh PC
- Android Phones and Tablets
- Apple Phones and Tablets
0.2d - This engine will try to tackle Versus/Multiplayer first, and build on single player experiences second
This is more of order of operations, but the game base we are working on has to be as smooth and functional as possible before moving on to anything bigger. The game has to work well, and all core features (basic game play, unit functionality, graphics, menus) should be in before moving on to any bigger features (campaigns, in-game lobbies, war rooms, etc).
The core of the game lies in the units, and it is a primary focus of Custom Wars Tactics. Of the units, there are ones that I’d like to refer to as Core units, which reduces the list to a main roster of units that’ll be always available in the game. The job of the core units is to represent the Advance Wars games of AW2, AWDS, and AWDoR, while giving each unit a distinct role in the game. Underlined units are the ones that are representative of their class in AW.
- Infantry - Cheap, quick, low damaging, captures buildings
- Mech - Heavier, slow but consistent, moderate damage, capture buildings
- Bike - Quick, low damage, capture buildings
- Recon - Quick, good in Fog Of War, early harassment
- Mortar (Flare) - Quick, aids in Fog Of War, mid-game harassment, flamethrower unit
- Anti-Air - Excellent against air and infantry, slightly weak against vehicles and tanks
- Tank - Well balanced ground offensive and defensive option, great vs vehicles and inf
- Medium Tank - Stronger than tank with a little less movement
- NeoTank - Stronger than Md. tank with a little more movement
- War Tank - Stronger that Neotank with the least movement of all tanks
- Artillery - Indirect unit with tiny range and strength comparable to Tank
- Anti-tank - Indirect unit with tiny range, strong contender vs Tanks and copters
- Rockets - Indirect unit with moderate range, strength comparable to Md. Tank
- Missiles - Indirect unit with moderate range, strength comparable to anti-air
- Piperunner - Indirect unit only capable of running on pipes, can fire on all unit types
- APC Rig - Made for repairing units, ferrying soldiers, and building temporary facilities
- Interceptor (Fighter) - Direct unit based on air to air combat, king of the skies?
- Bomber - Direct unit based on air to ground combat
- Stealth - Air unit that can hide and fire on all unit types
- Duster (Lt. Fighter) - Direct unit based on ground and air harassment
- Seaplane - Air unit built from carriers, made for heavy harassment
- Black Bomb - A exploding missile that weakens (but doesn’t kill) units in range
- Battle Copter - Air unit for harassing ground units, strength comparable to Tank
- Transport Copter - An air unit made for ferrying soldiers
- Battleship - AWDS driven, boasts largest indirect range with great damage
- Destroyer - AWDoR Battleship with a disadvantage against ships, move and fire
- Carrier - AWDS Carrier able to build, launch, and load air units, indirect anti-air
- Submarine - Capable of diving, menace to landers, battleships, and destroyers
- Cruiser - Direct unit menace to air units and submarines
- Lander - Ferries Land units
- Black Boat - Builds buildings, heals and repairs units for little HP
- Missile Boat - One shot weapon, ferries foot soldiers
Attributes for a unit is the little icons that show up for a unit, split into ailments and static
- Hit Points - How much Hit Points a unit has, can be healed by property, unit, or CO Power. CO Powers, terrain abilities, or units can also lower HP directly.
- Movement - How much a unit is allowed to move in a map, replenishes daily
- Movement Type - Affects how a unit is hindered by terrain
- Fuel - A unit has a limited amount and it’s depleted by either movement, daily rations, or weather. Running out means death for air and sea, and land units will not be able to move. Replenished by supplying on a property or using an APC. As an ailment, it shows when you have 33% or less fuel.
- Ammo - A unit cannot fire primary weapons without ammo. Is depleted when an enemy fires or counterattacks. Can be replenished by properties or an APC. As an ailment, it shows when you have 33% or less ammo.
- Materials (optional) - Used for limiting the amount of an item you can build from a unit, like temporary airports and temporary seaports.
- Disabled (ailment) - Shown when your unit is forced to use the Wait command at the start of a turn.
- Load - How many units are currently garrisoned within this unit
- Rank - The amount of rank your unit has amassed, either by kills or usage of CO powers in the game. Ranks currently are I, II, Veteran and Ace
- CO Unit - Shows when your unit is a commanding officer unit, which has the added bonus of emitting a Commanding Officer Zone which boosts stats for unit further.
- Infantry - Movement type of foot soldiers, able to traverse all terrain but sea but has difficulty passing rough terrain.
- Mech - Movement type of foot soldiers, able to traverse all terrain but sea equally
- Bike (Tire A) - Movement of Bike Vehicles, decent movement on all terrain but water and mountain tiles
- Tires (Tire B) - Movement of Vehicles, decent movement on all terrain except water and mountain tiles. Exceedingly slow movement on forest tiles.
- Tread - Movement of tanks, decent movement on all terrain except water and mountain tiles
- Oozium - Movement of Oozium, able to traverse all terrain but sea
- Pipe - Movement of Piperunners - Perfect movement on Pipes and Factories only
- Lander - Movement of landing units allowing traversal of sea and shoals
- Sea - Movement of Ships allowing traversal of sea and sea bridges
- H.Air - Movement of jets - Unhindered movement over all terrain, unaffected by weather
- M.Air - Movement of bi-planes - Unhindered movement over all terrain
- L.Air - Movement of helicopters - Unhindered movement over all terrain
This is a small look into abilities that exist for units both passive and impassive
This ability enables an allied direct unit to call aid from allied indirect units able to fire upon the unit being targeted, given the direct unit wasn’t able to fire upon this unit themselves. Doing so will cause the direct unit to wait and the indirect unit to use an ammo.
This ability enables units to have a passive ability in battle. Created as a way to make sea units have a better price justification for their abilities. These abilities are automatic at the start of each turn. Below will have a list of Siege Abilities the units have.
The Siege range is: [1~<The maximum firing range of the unit + 1>].
- Resupply (APC Rig) - Resupplies allied units
- Barrage (Battleship) - Prevents enemy capture
- Ballistic (Destroyer) - Able to Move and Fire indirectly
- Air Support (Carrier) - Able to build air units
- Espionage (Submarine) - Able to stop enemy passive abilities
- Scramble (Cruiser) - Stops loading and joining, ½ enemy funds and repairs
- Buyback (Lander) - ½ funds returned from sunk loaded units
- Restore (Black Boat) - Repair heals and supplies allied units
- Raid (Missile Boat) - Can capture temp properties
A unit is allowed to upgrade to a Commanding Officer Leader Unit if it meets the following requirements.
The Commanding Officer is at least in Veteran Rank (may change) You have ½ the funds of the unit required to upgrade The unit you are trying to upgrade is within the Commanding Officer Zone
Leader Units can also be produced from a corresponding base, airport, or seaport for the full price of the unit without being in the commanding officer zone. Losing the commanding officer does not mean losing the leader unit.
A semi-controversial mechanic which allows high air units (like the duster and seaplane) to maintain enough height to not get shot by machine guns, but low enough to not be able to fire upon interceptors, bombers, and stealths in an attempt to make higher tier units more worth their price.
A unit ability that explodes and creates fire within a tile. Fire causes tiles in a 3x3 radius around affected tile to be visible in Fog of War to all sides and also reduces the terrain stars on that tile to zero. Fire has piercing vision the tile it’s on, does not block unit traversal, nor does it hurt units within it. Lava tiles will create a fire effect indefinitely, and movement will act like plains. Oil rigs explode like a silo when ignited by one of these mortars, causing 3 hp damage in a 2x2 range area.
A unit ability that allows units to see through Fog of War as though it is clear as day within their vision range. In CWT, It also has the added bonus of letting hidden and dived units be visible.
A mercenary unit is a unit with a special symbol. This unit cannot use the ‘Wait’ command, but using any other command will pull the unit out of mercenary status. If the day ends and the unit is still a mercenary, the unit will leave the battlefield. This is to create temporary units that die at end of day.
This is a look into the classic abilities porting over from the original Advance Wars
This causes a unit to wait, effectively skipping its turn.
This causes a unit to traverse the map, largely affected by the movement modifier and also the terrain cost for units. At the end of a movement, the unit is forced to perform another action or wait.
If a unit movement path crosses a unit that is hidden (via Fog of War or ability), then the unit is forced to wait on the space before the collision.
This causes a unit to fire upon another opposing unit within its firing range. The opposing unit must be a legal target. Direct enemy units will counterattack if they are able and adjacent to enemy unit.
This causes a unit to attempt to gain control of an enemy or neutral property or facility. Usually reduces the capture points according to the remaining HP of a unit, but can be altered by Commanding Officer effects
This causes a unit to top off the fuel and refill the ammo of all units surrounding it. Units are not allowed to resupply themselves.
Similar to capture, this allows a unit to build a temporary property using its remaining HP to determine how quickly the item builds.
This functionality is extended in Custom Wars Tactics, where instead of material cost each temp building has an HP cost, which is the minimum remaining HP the unit can be before building the structure.
After the structure is built, the unit will take (X) HP lethal damage where (X) is the HP cost of the temporary building. Units destroyed in this way will drop the loaded unit on the tile they are on (or be forced to use unload if there are multiple loaded units) after successfully building the structure.
This will allow an allied unit to occupy the same space as another unit, given that unit has load slots available for holding that unit within. Losing the unit carrying another unit will cause all units to be lost.
If a unit is carrying another unit, the unload command will become available. This will drop the carried unit onto an adjacent valid space and cause both the unit carrier and the unloaded unit to wait.
If a unit is carrying another unit, the launch command will become available. This will drop the carried unit onto an adjacent valid space and that unit will be able to perform movement and another action as normal. This causes the unit carrier to wait.
If a unit is trying to combine with the same unit, and the unit in that spot is less than full HP. The units can combine together to form one unit with the combined HP of both units. Any excess HP is converted into funds.
A unit can choose this command to hide. Hidden units can only be seen by units adjacent to them (or detected), and can only be shot by units that are within their height or depth tier. Using this will cause your unit to wait.
A unit can choose this command to become visible. Visible units usually absorb less fuel, but using this command does cause a unit to wait.
This allows a unit to build units like properties do. This can be for either air, sea, or land. Units built this way are placed within a unit loading slots.
This allows a unit to launch a missile from a Missile Silo, which has various effects depending on where it was launched.
This allows a unit to load a commanding officer unit, which has the added bonus of emitting a Commanding Officer Zone which boosts stats for unit further.
This allows a unit to destroy itself, causing HP damage over a wide tile area that doesn’t kill
This allows a unit to destroy itself, but the unit cannot be waiting for this to occur
This allows a unit to heal a unit by a certain amount of HP, usually targeted but can also be in a radius around a unit.
This section is for explaining the damage formulas within Custom Wars Tactics. CWT uses a combined damage formula capable of performing both games damage calculations.
A key of terms for describing damage formulas
- DMG% - Total Damage (expressed as a percentage)
- B - Base Damage (in damage chart) [Default: 55%]
- ATK% - Attacking CO attack value (130 for Kanbei) [Default: 100%]
- R - Random percentage (0% - 9%) [Default: 0%]
- ATKHP - HP of attacker - [Default: 10HP]
- AW2DEF% - AW2 Defending CO Defense Value (80 for Grimm) - [Default: 100%]
- AW2DTS - AW2 Defending Terrain Stars (plain = 1, wood = 2) - [Default: 0TS]
- AW4DEF% - AWDoR Defending CO Defense Value (80 for Grimm) - [Default: 100%]
- AW4DTS - AWDoR Defending Terrain Stars (plain = 1, wood = 2) - [Default: 0TS]
- DEFHP - HP of defender - [Default: 10HP]
DMG% = {[B * ATK% / 100] + R%} * (ATKHP / 10) * {[200 - (DEF% + DTS * DEFHP) / 10] / 100}
DMG% = [B * (ATKHP / 10) * ATK%] / (DEF% + DTS * DEFHP / 10)
DMG% = [(B * ATK% + R%) * ATKHP] * [200 - (AW2DEF% + AW2DTS * DEFHP)] / [1000 * (AW4DEF% + AW4DTS * DEFHP)]
Terrain is the traversable land mass in Advance Wars. Terrain can either be traversable, destructible, or impassable. Determining which terrain affects which unit is done by the terrain cost mechanic, which tells you how much movement points is needed for a unit to cross a particular terrain. The other element of terrain is terrain stars, which tells you how much defense a unit will get on a particular traversable tile. Destructible terrain is always impassable until it is destroyed, in which it’ll turn into a passable tile. The two major factors which affect a terrain cost and terrain stars are CO abilities, weather, and in CWT, anything that casts fire on a tile.
In Fog of War (FOW), terrain tiles are only visible if within a units vision range. Certain tiles require units to be adjacent to them in order to view those tiles. Piercing vision allows units not to have to be adjacent to a tile in order to see into it.
- Plain (PLIN) - A grass or desert tile that allows little hindered traversal for land units
- Forest (FRST) - A difficult land traversal tile great for hiding land units in FOW
- Mountain (MNTN) - A foot soldier traversal tile with really high defense
- River (RIVR) - A foot soldier traversal tile with really low defense
- Road (ROAD) - A easy land traversal imperative for moving all land units quickly
- Bridge (BRDG) - Allows traversal of land units over seas and rivers
- Reef (REEF) - A sea tile that gives little defense for sea units
- Wasteland (WTLD) - A destroyed piece of land, minimal defensive properties
- Ruins (RUIN) - A destroyed building, provides a bit of defense
- Shoals/ Beaches (SHOA) - A tile that allows landers to drop off and pick up land units.
- Marsh (MRSH) - Shallow seas which allows lander, hover, tread, and foot soldier movement
- Seas (SEAS) - A deep sea tile for traversal of sea and undersea units
- Meteor (METR) - Destructible terrain that conducts plasma pathways
- Plasma (PLZM) - Indestructible terrain that blocks unit movement
- Plasma Pipe (PLZP) - Indestructible tile that conducts plasma and blocks movement
- Plasma Pipeseam (PZPS) - Destructible tile that conducts plasma & blocks movement
- Pipe (PIPE) - Indestructible tile that blocks movement
- Piperail (PIPR) - Traversable terrain that allows all land units to cross it
- Swamp (SWMP) - Forest terrain located within a marsh/ river tile for foot soldiers
- Mist (MIST) - Forest like terrain found in seas that allow sea units to hide
- Rough Sea (RSEA) - A sea with a little bit of a higher movement cost
- Fire/Lava (FIRE) - A cracked tile revealing lava which causes a permanent fire effect
- Null/Void (NULL) - A tile that has 0 movement cost and is all black [created in AWBW]
These are abilities of the terrain that specifically affect the tile itself and the operation of that tile
This is a count of how much defense a particular tile will give a unit sitting on it. The more stars on a terrain, the higher the defense. This bonus usually only affects ground and sea type units by default.
This number counts exactly how much movement points it costs to traverse a particular tile. It is separated per unit. Some tiles can’t be crossed by any unit, and those are denoted by an X in the cost (or -1 in the sheets)
Fog of War causes units to be invisible outside the vision range of allied units, unit abilities, buildings, terrain effects such as fire, and commanding officer effects. Units can change tiles of fog of war to visible by driving over them. They reset to normal each day.
Mist of War is a weaker Fog of War that allows players to see into the tiles where units are, but doesn’t allow them to shoot into the tile until the units are within the vision range of the tile. It follows all the same rules as fog of war.
A tile set on fire has the following attributes:
- Defense stars on the tile will be set to 0
- Piercing vision is on the tile
- Tiles within 2x2 range has vision for all players
- Tile is traversable, and units sitting on the tile can’t be hurt by the tile
- A tile set on fire lasts for one full day, until start of next turn of player who started it
Properties are an extension of terrain, and therefore share a lot of qualities with terrain and terrain type. One of the biggest defining features of properties is that they are the way the player interacts with the map. Properties can allow the player to retrieve funds, heal units, damage units, or build new units into the map. Some properties are destructible and have an Hit Point Value and a place on the damage table list. Below is a list of properties in the various games, and their function.
A ‘Player Funding Property’ will give a player funds each and every turn. It’ll also repairs and resupplies units of a particular type, depending on the building it is.
- Headquarters (HQTR) - Player funding property where capture leads to defeat
- City (CITY) - Most common player funding property
- Factory (BASE) - Player funding property used to build land units
- Airport (APRT) - Player funding property used to build air units
- Seaport (PORT) - Player funding property used to build sea units
- Communication Tower (CMTR) - Property used to increase unit combat capabilities
- Missile Silo (SILO) - Neutral property used for firing a non-lethal damaging missile
- Missile Silo Platform (PLTF) - Neutral property after firing a Silo missile
- Radar (RADR) - Neutral property for improving Line of Sight in a map
- Temporary Airport (TAPT) - Property for repairing and resupplying air units
- Temporary Seaport (TSPT) - Property for repairing and resupplying sea units
- Rubble (RUBL) - Neutral property representing a burned out building
- Pipeseam (PIPS) - Destructible Property representing points of weak pipe
- Stronghold (STRH) - Property for holding down a land position
- Research Lab (LABS) - Player funding factory for unit research, defeat if all captured
- Oil Rig (ORIG) - Player property for improving funds of properties, resupplies sea units
- Wall (WALL) - Destructible property representing a blocked off area for non-air units
Attributes for player properties and destructible properties
- Hit Points - How much Hit Points a property has, usually can’t be repaired once damaged
- Capture Points - How much time a building takes in order to be captured and/or built. Most buildings have 20 Capture Points, which means they have 2 days to get captured by a full health unit. Units with less HP take longer to capture, as capture speed is determined by remaining HP
- Terrain Stars - Borrowed from terrain, it is the amount of defense a building gives a unit
- Funds - Certain properties give funds to a player each turn, which can be used to build, upgrade, and repair units.
Inventions are special properties that allow special function on a turn by turn basis. They are mostly used for campaign in order to give an extra varied challenge and majority of invention take up more than 1x1 tiles of space on the board. Whether it be a natural barrier, or a cannon bent on destruction, inventions help make campaigns memorable.
They aren’t important currently, but they will be later and will be listed at that point.
This is the abilities that properties have within the game
This ability allows properties to build units of a certain type or group of types depending on the building. The building will place the unit in wait on top of the property when built, and units can’t be built if there is another unit sitting on top of the property. Units usually cost funds from the players player pool of Gold.
Firing allows an invention to fire a non-lethal danaging shot on an unsuspecting enemy unit. Firing can also be automatic, and will occur at the start of a turn.
This sheet will go over the abilities and attributes associated with Commanding Officers, rather than talking about the commanding officers themselves. That topic is so broad, it’ll probably warrant its own sheet.
Each Commanding Officer has a Morale Bar, which is the amount of damage output is taken by a Commanding Officer before they are allowed to use a super powered turn. The amount of charge varies depending on the Commanding Officer.
Each star is 9000G, and increased by 20% for each use. After 10 uses, each star is then reduced to 18000G (200%) permanently.
Same as AW2, except the value is determined by star values, which vary depending on the type of unit
- Light Units = 0.4
- Medium Units = 0.6
- Heavy Units = 0.8
- Armored Units = 1.0
- Heavy Armored Units = 1.2
Destroyed units gained experience, which ranked up units and also allowed them to fill up the Commanding Officer bar. Kills from a CO Unit netted double the amount than kills from units within the zone. 10 kills gave a free power (or 5 if using just a CO Unit)
This game will use a hybrid of the AW2 and AWDS systems for charging. AW2 outside the CO Zone, and AWDS within the CO Zone. Unit Ranking is the only thing determined by kills, and units can’t rank until the CO unit is of veteran rank.
These abilities occur daily, and is usually a list of abilities that a Commander has that slightly differentiates them from their counterparts
These abilities also occur daily, but only within the Commanding Officer Zone. Any ability listed in this slot will stack with the daily ability. Commanding Officer Zones are only available when loading in a Commanding Officer Unit.
Commanding Officer Zone in CWT has a default range of 2x2 diamond tiles. The zone can be grown by charging the Commanding Officer Power (COP) and Commanding Officer Super Power (SCOP) Morale bar to full without using the power. A unit gets +1 zone when passing the COP mark and +2 zone for filling up the bar to maximum.
This ability is triggered by the player, and gives a powered up turn of stats that stacks onto the Daily Ability and Commanding Officer Zone.
This ability is triggered by the player, and gives a powered up turn of stats that stacks onto the Daily Ability and Commanding Officer Zone. This power is usually stronger than the Commanding Officer Power
This ability is triggered by the player. It costs one rank to perform, and extends the CO Zone to cover the entire map for 1 day.
By filling up both Commanding Officers Morale Bars to each have their Power, the user can perform a Commanding Officer Merge power, which combines the Commanding Officer Stats of both Commanders for one turn, and forces a commander switch at the end of turn.
By filling up both Commanding Officers Morale Bars to full, the user can perform a Commanding Officer Tag power. This creates one turn using the first Commanders super, followed by a switch to another immediate turn using the other players power.
When playing with multiple Commanders in a team, this command allows you to switch to the other commander at the end of the turn
When commanders are playing on double front maps, they are allowed to send units from the secondary battlefield to the primary battlefield. If implemented, CWT should allow this to happen both ways.
Units that are no longer of any use can be removed using the ‘delete’ command. This action can not be used on units that have used up their action, unless overridden by a Commanding Officer ability.
In AWDS, affinity boosted luck in Tag Powers. In CWT, affinity will control how fast a CO bar charges in general if both of those members are in the same team.
This forces a player to lose the match completely, triggering the loss
This ends the turn for the player, giving the opponent a chance to counterattack and resetting all the wait commands.
Unlike yield, this lets the player quit without seeing any defeat quotes and sends them to the main menu
These go over the menu options for each screen
The title screen just displays the title of the game, with a press start icon for testing.
Enter - Sends you to Main Menu
The Main Menu will have items specific for the main game. This list will expand as need for more menu items becomes necessary
- Versus - Starts a typical versus map (currently for 2 players and no AI)
- Back - Sends a user back to the title screen
This is the place where the game happens, and where we will test out the various abilities of the game itself. For brevity, there will be nothing listed in this section, as it is pretty much covered by all the other sections and below.
- Map changes, if any
- Resources
- Tools
- Development
- Design Documents
- Archive