Online Strategy Game Survey, What would you like to see? (in Off-topic)

I am currently working with MySQL, ASP and SVG in a merge to create a completly online strategy game with rounds as the tick (you select all actions to be performed and then when the round ends, all actions is performed simultaniously)

Now, I would appreciate if all those of you who like strategy games (Board Game style) online, what function have you often felt you was missing when playing these games? Or have you been just thinking it would be cool to see?

I will be pleased to see any contructive feedback in this thread, thank you :)

Final Fantasy Tactics like game please, I will be your first tester.

Well, I'm unable to think of any features at the moment, but maybe some more info would help us flush out an idea or two. Like for example, is there fog of war or is the entire playing field visible at all times? I assume the board will be tile based? I'll also assume there is fighting, but what about diplomacy and trade? Are the battles like AoW or are they simply calculated? Do characters in your army move as units or individually with no stacking multiple characters on one tile? Those are the only questions I can think of for now that might lead to features. Can't wait to hear more about it though.

Okay, more information, seems I forgot to mention a lot which could mean a world i difference :)

Setting: Present

That means unit types should be in the style of Infantery, Tank Squads, Plane Squads and Ships, more of each kind I plan.

Victory is planned to be calculated with some random thrown in for a bit uncertenty, but most will be desided by the strength of the units present.

The Final Fantasy battle system would be hard to incorperate as it would either require:

(1) Computer Opponents, not possible with my programming skill yet (or it would be a very easy AI)
(2) Opponent present during battle: WIth a planned update of 1 time pr. day or less, to let people think about moves and set it up right and play against people on the other side of earth, this could prove to be impossible.
(3) Peer set defense control, making all his units use special moves always on defense and set them each time he plan to attack, could be done, but I rather stick to a strict system using the same calculations each time, sorry

you requested a map, which I mostly finished today (the look), I still need to add the interactivity by ASP&MySQL linked up to a SVG script, but you can see the basic land and, atleast for now, how it is divided into squares, need atleast a bit of fine adjustment before being playable:

http://www.silverdragon.dk/WarGame/land.JPG (copy+paste to a new browser window, 1mb pic, 2100x2100)

You will be able to have more of the same sort of troops on each square in the game, and they will all move as individualistic models, by using drop down menues, is atleast my plan.

Game mostly got inspiration from Axis and Allies and Empire Forge (Banner Link Exchange with our dear CB)

Hope this gives you more information :)

almost forgot!

All relations between the nations is controlled ingame, planned relations is:

WAR = Obvious
Neutral = nothing
Trade Alliance = Can't go to war directly (without some punishment atleast ;)) and enables trade of goods
Military Alliance = Enable military units to pass through each others land and sea areas and to join each other in attacks

You can't see each others alliances with other opponents.

And for fog of war, I plan to atleast conceal capitol cities for each nation, but maybe also add fog of war to all areas not owned by you, and allied or within 1 square of area owned by you or an allied.

Will it be possible to upgrade your troops? Buy better weapons/armour/tanks/ships?

I am deciding to these I guess as we go along...

Upgrading troops sounds nice, so if we say the worst trooper type is C, you can upgrade them to B for a little above the difference in normal price.

Have to make sure that buying troops as level C and then upgrading to B is more expensive than if you had done right judgement and bought the B from start.

Not to be a wet blanket, but please do this:

1. Come up with the "core" or "elevator pitch" of your game design first, before you so much as install a dev tool.
2. Don't let suggestions turn into a design by committee.

(from past experience...)

1) Explain deeper... you mean I should make the gaming interface first or do you mean I should come up with why my game stands out comparing to all the other games out there already?
2) I am not, I listen and comment, if I end up using them all depends how it modifies balance and if I like them a lot or a little :)

I think what he means to say is make an outline of the game as you know it. Pretend the game already exists and see of you can write an FAQ or walkthrough of the entire game. You'll find that as you do this things need to be explained or certain features need to be limited or restricted for game balance reasons. Things like whether or not units are upgradeable should not be determined in a democratic fashion.

But honestly, you can take suggestions and ideas if you want. As long as everything you take in is tentatively in place. If your at the stage where you are not sure about what the game is yet or what it's focus is then a little dialog goes a long way.

However, it might be safe to say that you aren't quite ready to be drawing up maps to be used in the actual game just yet. Maybe for conceptual purposes, but I wouldn't take it to be a final product.

The map is excatly for that, contructive purpose..

Need it in the start of the game when I need to code the moving sequences into the game.

And yeah, a bulk filled with documentation is probarly a good idea to do as soon as possible, but by now, I am in the creative part of creating, need inspiration so I can get all (or at least most) of the ideas that is going to make it to the final game.

When I write the doc, a lot of the things I might have found nice will be cut if it doesn't fit with the rest, logically, the game need to have a good sence of realisme to it, and be easy to control, 2 of my major points while creating it :)

Good :)