Help me with my real time combat system

Yes!
Me!
I attempted!
I failllllled! At making it Real Time. It simply has not been done properly before if it comes to combat.

This is what I got:
- So I kept it random turn based with "sub turns". Actions per turn if you will, some forced, some by "cutting in" of other players.
- I do have attack types and unit types (and can expand too without much trouble).
- Combat can be resolved within 1 to 5 minutes for 2 or more battling players. (would like to have it faster too but...)
- I do have several randomness added to the combat, but there is a certainty effect with the unit types and after spending certain experience.
- Unit types, yes, you get them if you design the right damage and armor together. Also, I have different ranges and speeds. This all combined gives unit types that are all useful. (An useless design with your formula means your formula isn't perfect).
- Tiers, sort of yes if you count a simple tech tree. CY builds barracks, which train Infantry. Some need more then 1 barracks. Same goes for my Jeeps and Tanks.
- Damage formulas? you mean balancing? What do you have? Do you mean calculating the costs of an unit? Or how they fight?

- PS- this has been cross-posted on the BGG design forum ?????????? Where?

Due to effects of the damages, damage types, armor types, speed and range. I get all kind of types in a natural way. Do you? These effects are comparable with the known RTS like C&C and StarCraft. Well, mostly C&C.
- All round units that can be meat in one situation, but support in another. This due to damage and armor types.
- Meat units that only serve as bait. Most are melee or short ranged. But some can be long ranged too.
- Support units that only participate when other units are around. The long ranged versions are good in destroying defences. Some are powerful enough to destroy a certain enemy before that enemy could reach them.
- Defences, which are stronger because they lack in speed.
- WALLS, yes. Walls that also can block.
- Hit and run units that have a lot of speed and range, however, are weak. Mostly used to annoy enemy units.
- Hit and run units that have only a lot of speed, they are used for harassing structures that are poorly defended.
- Super annoying units that do almost no damage, just stand there with a lot of armor. Harassing you from great distance. (With my old formula, they where twice as expensive, thus incorrect balanced, now they are a choice, a good choice).
- Juggernauts. They can have several weapons systems.
- Steam rollers. Lots of armor, medium amount of damage, slow in movement. Range, well, whatever.

But you need to see this yourself what kind of unit types you have. By looking at the statistics that are provided with the game.
What do you do for balancing?

Maybe you have seen this before on the Dune2K forum?

I went for strategy when I had to make the choice.

But if you really want real time. There is a way if you have a deck of cards.
This was once my concept. But you could use it as a basis.

To have real time, you need to understand that all players play at the same time:
- They need to have the same amount of chances or actions if they want to have the feeling of fairness.
- And they are forced to make decisions within a period of time. 30 seconds, 1 minute. Whatever you think they need.
- Players don't want others to know what kind of decisions they make in that period of time. So there is need for hiding what they decide.
- Players also want to keep an eye on each other. So there needs to be a time of review. And there needs to be a time of consequences. This is not limited in time. No timer needed for this.

Now, if you play with cards, each player can draw a number of cards. Within the 1 minute, they decide what to do with these cards. Some are discarded, others are played. Each card is placed faced down.
If you think in the MTG style, then players simply wont know what the others did until the time ends. Then all are faced upwards.
If you think in Stratego, the cards keep faced down, unless there is action with the card. Then it is faced upwards. Then you could even choose to add the rule that they have to be faced down after the action.

Battling could occur if a player pushes one card to another card, in that same period of time. Or in a second period of time after the first one. Both cards are faced upwards in the review time to see which one bites the dust.

Please let me know what you think about it.

I just tried to imagine a true RTS board game. Oh my goodness it would be so much havok! Actually having to move each of your workers to grab resources and then put them into your pile, then needing to spend them to buy troops, then moving your troops around on the board to try and kill the enemy. Oh wow, that would be one intense game to watch. Calculating dmg would be insane in a game like that.

Sand timers for workers/income. That idea is actually awesome. I tried to do combat with the sand timers first. Silly me.

Although, are you using 1 timer for all players? Or does each player have a timer?
How do players check on each other income?

Does a timer also determine when something is finished building?

Why all the fuss about REAL-TIME in a board game? I mean board games were designed to be TURN-BASED... Heck even the MOST popular strategy Video Games like Final Fantasy are turn-based (and those are really, really popular).

Here is one idea about RTS: limit the number of troops to a manageable size. If you only have like 3-5 units, it is more likely you can create a real-time combat for such a SMALL pool of units. Too many units and you can forget any real-time gameplay.

That's my only opinion...

Maybe if you created a HYBRID of Turn-based and Real-Time combat that might more feasible. Some options could be:

1. Use a sand time to limit the amount of time a player has to move his units.
2. Use a sand time to limit the amount of thinking a player can do.

So the first option is straighforward, player take TURNS but each turn is limited to a certain amount of time. Option #2 is a little bit different in that player are given a certain amount of time to think about how they move the units AND THEN they get to move the units.

I think option #1 would be the more common approach. This combines "thinking" and "moving". The REAL-TIME component is the SAND TIMER which allows a player a specific amount of time to move his units. This is a hybrid between real-time and turn-based movement...

Picture #2 as being a game of competitive CHESS: each player takes turns but turns are timed... Each player has a limited amount of time to determine the best possible moves for his troops.

I don't think I explained option #2 correctly... It's hard to explain, still not sure if it can be done... But basically it would be like PRE-PROGRAMMING your units and their movement... You could say that a unit A will move 3 spaces forwards, then turn to the right and be ready to battle any opposing unit nearby.

But again this would be HARD to do if you have more than 3-5 units... 5 might be the MAX, 3 is probably more acceptable for a "pre-programmed" scenario...

You would probably need to use Action Points (APs) for the pre-programming aspect and then maybe wait for the "Combat Phase" (as being different than the movement phase).

However, you need to think of a way where all players decide. And all decisions are revealed at the same time.
No problem if you do only cards. But on a board with a lot of regions, you need to point out the regions as well. That is the only reason why I even discarded the STS system. I want big and random maps. However, if you keep things small and only on 1 map. You might pull it of with an STS.

Ow, and the RTS board game. Several people back then asked me if it was possible. But that was back then. I never said that I am still attempting.

This.

Also, I second the thought that the sand timers is an interesting concept. I guess you won't know until playtesting whether it really works, but good on you for trying something different.

Have you thought about using really short timers for combat? I move a unit (or stack of units) into combat with one of yours, and flip a 15 second timer. Both of us can keep bringing in reinforcements or playing other modifiers to affect the combat, and then when the timer expires we pause the game, resolve the battle results, and then continue. This system would involve a brief pause for resolution, which is not ideal, but would allow a greater range of variables to affect the outcome.

Keep up the good work, and I hope you get a system that you find fun to play.

Regards,
kos