Defining Custom Wars Tactics
Hello, JakeSamiRulz here, the current lead of Custom Wars Tactics. Now this is going to be a departure from how I usually write documents, because the goal here is a bit more casual. I am trying to convey a concept of why we are designing something, and what makes a project like this worthwhile. Now, we are all here because we love the game of Advance Wars in some capacity (I hope), and we want to see the game get better. (I mean, I know I like the game a lot.) So a lot of the difficulty of managing a project like this is trying to define how to make it better.
So, let's get the elephant out of the room, not all ideas are going to make it into Custom Wars Tactics.
Why? Because we only have limited time and as much as I'd like to help someone put an "mythical magical ogre with 16 guns and each tile moved generates a different random Commanding Officer power", it just isn't going to be realistic if we are trying to complete this project in a reasonable amount of time. The 'custom' part is more about adjusting a set of pre-built Lego pieces, rather than creating an entire game from scratch. We provide the pieces for people to build custom sets and rules for an Advance Wars like game.
A good way to think about it is this. Yes, you can build a canoe out of Legos. It might be able to float, and it'll be a decent water faring vessel. But, don't expect it to perform as well as if you were to build the canoe using wood yourself. Custom Wars Tactics is providing the Legos, but this project will never be as great as one that someone creates from the ground up. So, let's lower those expectations down, this project might not be able to create your vision of Star Wars mixed with Harry Potter and a splash of Godzilla just yet.
This game is heavily influenced by AW, and the concepts and ideas CWT is heavily drawing from Advance Wars 2, Advance Wars Dual Strike, and Advance Wars Days or Ruin. This is a fan game, so the idea is to take these concepts and evolve them. A lot of the core Lego Pieces will come directly from these games. It'll be much easier to realize an AW-like game within this engine than using something generic like Unity or even a turn-based game maker.
A game is a lot more than just raw mechanics, and Advance Wars is no different. People have actually quantified the term 'game feel', which is making the game play give off the essence of an Advance Wars experience. A lot of design is a gut feeling, and I feel in a lot of cases it is highly opinionated. Since I've been working on this game a while (10 years), there is a few themes that come up when trying to conceptualize what makes an AW game an AW game.
- Tight Controls - Controls must be responsive with a lot of purpose and direction
- Crisp Visuals - You can tell what is going on even if the graphics are on a digital watch
- Tile Based Strategy - Needs to be, this isn't an RPG
- Commander Personalities - Commanders (the lore and the abilities) need to be distinct and memorable
- Rock Paper Scissors Game Design - Units must have weaknesses, and hopefully exploitable strengths
- Game Swinging Abilities - There is a reason Sturm is so memorable, nothing changes a game more than his Super Power
- Custom Elements - Different modes, different maps all dictate how you play the game
- Progression Variety - War Room and Campaign scores give you different goals to reach
As you can quickly tell, there is a huge thing missing here. 'Balance'. When you ask people what they want to see in the new Advance Wars, this term is never brought up. Why? Because deep down, balance doesn't actually define what Advance Wars is. It is just something that generated because people wanted to bring competitive to a turn-based-strategy game. I always keep this in mind when designing for this game, that competitive is not the point. People do like the idea of playing this game and having a fair experience, but I feel it is not one of the core values that make AW, AW.
Okay, so with all that disclaimer and opinionated stuff out of the way. I can actually get to describing some mechanics.
Disclaimer (yes, I know I said it was out of the way): This game is still very much a work in progress, and ideas here have a huge chance of changing, especially when a working product is out where we can test these ideas and see what works and what doesn't. What I'm hoping these explanations do is understand the direction I'm taking CWT and in tangent, the AW series as well.
Custom Wars Tactics mechanics are a blend of Advance Wars 2, Advance Wars Dual Strike, and Advance Wars Dark Conflict (or Days of Ruin). So you can expect to see the Daily Abilities, Commanding Officer Powers, and Commanding Officer Supers of AW2, the dual maps and partner CO setups of Advance Wars Dual Strike, as well as the Commanding Officer Zones, CO Units, and Rank up systems of Advance Wars Dark Conflict. Units, Commanders, and overall game mechanics of all three of those games will be heavily represented within the structure of CWT.
In addition, Custom Wars Tactics takes a lot of inspiration from the older Wars series (like Super Famicom Wars and Game Boy Wars), as well as adding a lot of mechanics all its own to try and make a multi-layered experience that should scream AW the moment someone plays it. The theme is to pretty much take all the things that made Advance Wars a great game, and turn up the dial on them to the maximum.
Unlike AW, though, turning up the dial doesn't mean make Commanders that are obviously overpowered compared to the rest of the cast. Even though Von Bolt is boring, it shows that there is a way to make a boss CO still be viable for normal competitive play. The plan of Custom Wars Tactics is to keep the wild craziness of the Daily Abilities and Powers, but make it so each Commander has a chance of defeating the other. I'm expecting the power levels and craziness of the Commanders in CWT to be a lot higher than in the original games. Since everyone is going to gain access to something extremely overpowered, in theory, it should still be a balanced experience. In theory lol!
The base experience I'm building this game off of is Advance Wars 2. So you'd want to bring your mind set to that game, and build the rest of what I'm talking about from that experience. I'm going to use Advance Wars 2 to describe the direction of CWT and the mechanics as a whole. For those who haven't played Advance Wars 2, you can probably use Advance Wars 1, Advance Wars Dual Strike, or Advance Wars Dark Conflict as a loose base. If you haven't played any of those games then... (what is wrong with you, get to it jk lol!) Also this is mostly covering game play, not the game modes.
This is the general direction of things without trying to go into too much detail. I'll try to cover some of the more advanced stuff in future sections, but this should give a general idea of the direction the game is taking.
From Advance Wars Dual Strike (AWDS)
- Adding Units, Terrain, Properties and Commanders - Extra stuff, yay!
- Adding Dual Commanders - Two commanders on the same team, as well as Commander switching
- Adding Dual Maps - Two maps on the same map
- Adding Tag Powers - Tag Powers are awesome, if not a bit overbearing
- Adding Force Ranks - Optional Boosts to help with handicaps
From Advance Wars Dark Conflict/Days of Ruin (AWDC)
- Adding Units, Terrain, Properties and Commanders - More stuff, yay!
- Adding Commander Zones - Can load up your Commander into a unit to blast stuff
- Adding Rank Up - Units that kill others can Rank Up
- Adding Temp Buildings - There will be an assortment of temporary buildings in the game
Custom Wars Tactics (CWT) Map Inspirational Differences
- [AW2] Morale Bar - The star meter that lets you know when your CO Power is ready, is more influenced by AW2
- [AWDC] Rank Up - Regular units can't Rank Up over the Commanding Officer unit. Still regulated by kills.
- [CWT] Merge Power - It combines two CO Powers stats together in one turn, then forces a switch
- [CWT] Flash Ability - When a CO spreads their CO Zone over the entire map
- [CWT] Indirect Unit Assist - Allows Indirect units to assist direct units that can't kill the enemy themselves
- [CWT] Multi-Tiered Air - Three tiers of air units (High, Mid, Low)
- [CWT] Leader Units - A special unique unit for each Commanding Officer (upgradable or buildable)
- [AW2] Weather - There are more weather types, more influenced by AW2
- [AWDC] Fog of War - Fog of War is more influenced by AWDoR
- [AW2] Terrain and Proerties - Properties and Terrain Costs are more influenced by AW2
- [AWDC] Unit Damage Table - Damage Table is more inspired by AWDoR
- [AW2/AWDS] Meter Charging - Charging is inspired by AW2 outside of COZone, and AWDS inside of COZone
- [AWDS] Affinity - Two separate boosts for overlapping zones and overall Commanders working together
- [CWT] Funds Shortage - Going negative in funds is allowed for Commander abilities, but doing so will not allow you to purchase or create anything until your funds are positive again
- [CWT] No Materials - Building Temporary Buildings will be based off of HP rather than materials
This section goes into more detail regarding some of the concepts in Custom Wars Tactics. This document is a lot less rigid than the design document, and is definitely not a representation of what will be in the game. So just use this document to understand the direction, and we can in the future use the concepts described here to craft the design document and the overall game.
No Materials
The APC/Blackboat is allowed to build temporary buildings, but instead of costing materials, it'll be based solely on HP. Here are the rules regarding this:
- Unit must be full HP to start the structure
- Once structure is built, Unit will lose some HP, but it will not kill the unit and leave it at 0.1 worst case
Here is the cost after building for the temporary buildings:
- Temporary Airport - 50% of remaining health
- Temporary Seaport - 50% of remaining health
- Stronghold - 100% of remaining health (leaves unit at 0.1 HP)
- Sea Fort - 100% of remaining health (leaves unit at 0.1 HP)
CO Unit
The Commanding Officer Unit is a powered up unit with your CO's direct influence:
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To activate, unit must be on an allied property
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Costs: 1/2 the unit value in gold
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Unit gains access to CO Zone abilities
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Unlike in AWDoR, does not rank up to Veteran immediately
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Unlike in AWDoR, unit can actually rank up
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Normal units can't rank up past Commander's max rank up value (so if you have multiple, it takes the highest one)
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One Commander Unit per each CO in a players team (for Dual CO's, you can have 2 Commander Units)
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No usage limitation upon CO Unit death except cost
CO Zone
A field around the CO Unit that gives extra daily abilities to the unit within the zone. Abilities are either activated start of day if they are static (like heal +2) or all the time if they are dynamic (+20% firepower). The default range for a Commanding Officer Zone is 2x2 (or a 13 square field surrounding the unit in a diamond shape).
Affinity is activated when Commanders are within CO Units, and the effectiveness of the Zone firepower, defense, and luck boosts are tied to it.
Morale Bar
The morale bar is still star based, like in AW2:
- 9000G per star
- Increases 20% each use until 300% per star
- Then after 10 uses, stays permanently at 200% per star
- Within the CO Zone, it gets a star value multiplier attached based on AWDS
- (+10 off/ +10 def) default boost during powers
The Morale bar is split into two sections, and for purposes of this document, each CO in the team manages their own morale bar. Below shows some effects of the abilities.
- CO Power Charged - Access to CO Power, Commanding Officer Zone (+1 range)
- CO Super Charged - Access to CO Super, Commanding Officer Zone (+2 range)
For Dual COs:
- Both CO Power Bars Charged - Access to Merge Power (CO's without a Power can't access this, like Sturm)
- Both CO Super Bars Charged - Access to Tag Break
Having a CO Unit will make Morale Bar charge faster within zone, but losing the CO Unit will also make you lose morale, so be careful.
Unit Rank Up
The Ranking System is tied to Commanding Officer Units, and regulates how much power a Regular unit has when fighting an enemy.
- No Rank - (+0 off/+0 def) - 100% loss of CO morale if this CO Unit destroyed
- Rank I - (+5 off/+5 def) - 75% loss of CO morale if this CO Unit destroyed
- Rank II - (+10 off/+10 def) - 50% loss of CO morale if this CO Unit destroyed
- Rank V [Veteran] - (+15 off/+15 def) - 25% loss of CO morale if this CO Unit destroyed
- Rank A [Ace] - (+20 off/+20 def) - No loss of CO morale if this CO Unit destroyed [Leader Unit Rank Only]
Leader Units
Leader Units are special units that are available when a Commanding Officer is loaded into a CO Unit.
- Leader Units can be purchased at a factory, airport, or seaport
Veteran Commander Units can upgrade Base Units to Leader Units from the CO Zone. Each leader unit has a base unit that it upgrades from. (Example: Commandos upgrade from Mechs). To perform the upgrade:
- Unit has to be sitting in CO Zone of correct CO. (So, in a dual match of Max and Sami, Max can't get Commandos in Sami's CO Zone.)
- It costs 1/2 of the unit's price to upgrade into a leader unit
- No limitation on how many of these units can be upgraded
Leader Units are unique to each CO and have the following effects:
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Has a Leader Effect that makes it stronger than a normal unit
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Has a special rank up above normal units [Ace Rank]
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[Ace Rank] Has a pocket CO Zone that sits underneath the unit
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The Mega Tank is a non-upgradable honorary leader unit available to all Commanders in addition to their unique unit
Leader CO Unit:
This happens when you either upgrade a CO Unit into a Leader, or place a CO Unit within a leader unit. This is the most powerful combination in the game, and gives even more effects:
- CO Zone range for this CO Unit is amplified x2
- [Ace Rank] Normal Leader Units now gain bonuses from Morale Bar (+1 Pocket Zone Range [COP Charged], +2 Pocket Zone Range [SCOP Charged])
Flash Power
Commanding Officers in a Ranked Up CO Unit can amplify their influence by using resources of a Headquarters. Doing so will generate a flash that will increase their influence over the entire map for as long as they remain on the Headquarters. However, it'll drains their ranking to keep this influence. Stats on the ability are detailed below:
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CO Units ending the day on a Headquarters will activate Flash on the start of their next day.
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Flash spreads the CO Zone influence over the entire map.
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This will absorb 1 rank from the CO per day, as long as the CO Unit stays on HQ.
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Losing the CO Unit will immediately stop this ability.
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Having no Rank will immediately stop this ability.
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Moving a CO Unit off the HQ will stop the ability at the end of the day.
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The Headquarters doesn't have to be allied to use this ability.
This is mostly a defensive tactic for recovering after losing a lot of morale, but it can also be used offensively. It can be used after the CO Unit hits Rank I or above.
Anomaly 'Gambit' Power (This will probably not make it in the game do to many design flaws)
Boss Commander Units have a one time special ability that greatly enhances the potency of their Super Power for one turn called the anomaly power. To activate, the following conditions must be true:
- Flash Power must be active
- CO Super Power must be fully charged
- Didn't do anomaly already
Doing the anomaly has the following effects:
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Super charged super power, so Boss CO's get access to their true roots for a turn (one time)
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CO Zone Flash Power is permanent for the rest of the game (no longer tied to HQ)
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CO Unit is upgraded to [Ace] status regardless of unit type (one time)
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Losing your CO Unit ends in defeat for the rest of the game
Okay, this about wraps it up for now. There is a lot more, but the information above pretty much shows the direction that this project is intending to take the game. It is a lot more options, a lot more interactions, and a lot more of well, everything. The goal is to saturate the options available, and therefore make it a lot more difficult to come up with a real solid strategy for dealing with a map. Commanders will also have 4 set of statistics, and a unique unit, which will make the amount of options in the game even higher. Add in the tag abilities, and yea.
But, at the heart of it all, I wanted to introduce saturated concepts, but still keep the simplicity. A lot of effects are made to be simple. Like Flash is organized around the HQ. Upgrades are organized around CO Units. I want this game to retain its charm, and hopefully the cleaver I used to try and make it fresh wasn't too rough. Anyway, everything here is up for change, so feel free to expand on the ideas.