[Campaign] BIG PLANS! - Overhauling Unit Training, Resource Gathering and More!

[Sapprine]

First and foremost, this is less of a "I need help" and more of an idea showcase thread, but I do appreciate any kind of feedback, suggestions and am always willing to answer any questions.
(Oh and if you are someone who's good at triggers with extra time on their hands and want to help put this masterpiece together, please do tell! I'm more of a terrainer/writer myself.)

Secondly, these mechanics are going to be a part of my big custom campaign project! If you haven't read it yet, you can here: The Story of Lem and the Great Fievdom

Without further ado, let's get into the MEAT.
About unit training, first of all, EVERY SINGLE unit the player gets to control in my campaign is unique from one another!
Here are some examples:

Spoiler: Some Unit Examples

Every single unit will get a detailed, fully fledged name, title, slightly varying stats, RP info and some nice interesting flavor text that adds to the unit's personality and the rich world around them. Some units also receive a "Special Trait", which grants them unique bonuses and advantages at the cost of other attributes. (eventually) Every unit variant capable of obtaining Special Traits will also get slightly varying appearances and special effects attached to them based on what trait they possess. Some examples here:

Spoiler: Special Trait examples

But you ask, why would you put such a buttload of effort into writing 100's of such unit descriptions for every single mission?
Well because just like heroes, experience points and items, I want units to carry over between missions as well!
With the only exceptions being Chapter 1 and 2, at the end of every mission, you as the player get to pick up to 8 of your remaining units to take with you into the next mission! Does your remaining unit count at the end of the mission not equal up to 8? I'm sure some very kind (but slightly lame) 'filler units' will volunteer to tag along instead.

I'm yet to start on the bank file nonsense, but the method for players to pick and select unit for the next mission is pretty uniform and user-friendly.

Spoiler: How it works

Mission done? All of your remaining units (apart from workers and heroes) will be teleported to the bottom right of a small secluded area like this at the end of every mission. The bottom of the area will visually represent the setting of the mission you've just completed, while the top visually 'hints' the setting of the next mission I'll do my absolute best to make each of these little endgame areas into eye candy.

Btw, if you have less units remaining than the limit of units to store in this mission, some permanent Militia will walk out of Inn and say something like "Need help?"

How it works is simple, you order an unit you wanna take with you to walk on the very obvious Circle of Power that's been renamed to "Move Unit Here to Take With You". Once they touch the circle, they'll get stored, disappear and a little counter window will show you how many spots are left. Once all spots are taken the mission will forcefully end.

To prevent stupid people, map breaks and soft-locks, units in this area will receive a very OP regeneration aura and I'll probably add some kind of text message command to force the mission to end if the amount of units--for whatever reason--cannot be met.

I plan to integrate this system into the very essence and design philosophy of the maps. I already have lots of plans for optional quests, creep camps and special/hidden mercenary camps that will reward you with special and unique units that will be compatible for the unit saving system.


So, if every single unit is truly unique, how will I manage to avoid duplicates and manage to have endless variations if someone decided to train extensive amounts of the same unit from a barracks?
That's actually the point what I ran stuck on for months until I got an absolutely amazing revelation a couple days ago (which inspired me to write this thread).

I've decided to Overhaul the very essence of troop training by replacing it with a simple, but ingenious "Unit Squad" Hiring System.
Basically, instead of training a single unit at once, you get to "hire" them in pre-determined (pre-named, pre-statted, pre-ect.) groups of about 2-6 units at once. (They will have approperiate training times though). For each mission, the player's production structures of each type only has a set, limited amount of unit squads, leaving them with a limited hard-cap of units total per mission.

The unit Squads will have a lot of personality, lore and depth put into them. I'm planning to make them more than just some amount of the same but slightly different units. A lot of them will be like: 600 gold, 250 lumber, 8 food, Hires 2 Melee and 2 Ranged units sorta deal.



Up next: Another feature idea I am very excited about!

Ever wondered what's it like to be a peasant and see the inside of your gold mine?
Well, now you can!

For future missions, I plan to make every map in which you get to control a base in 2x as wide with a complete underground tunnel section running parallel to the above ground area map layout!
Gold mines will be replaced by a purely decorational doodad with a reskinned Waygate (circle of power without the sound/visual teleportation effect) in front of it.

You can now enter Gold Mines with any unit! Not just Peasants, but beware! The inside of these tunnels can have enemies and enemy attack waves can even decide to attack your base via the inside of your gold mine!

The interior of these tunnels will have lots of destructible rock chunks and also yellow-tinted rock chunks renamed to "Gold Ore Veins". The Gold Ore Veins are Actual invulnerable, reskinned Gold Mines that your peasants can harvest from, each of them holding about 200-1200 gold each. For the extra trouble, workers will be able to haul up to 40 gold per trip and can be upgraded to haul 60 gold per trip and get increased movement speed!

You might even be able to acquire special/unique workers with special traits that allows them to yield even more gold per run (or even be statted like viable combat-potential units)

Additionally, some gold ore veins can often be found around gold mine entrances on the above ground parts of the map on lower difficulties.
The enemies inside gold mines will also drop generous amounts of gold, lots of gold pick-ups may be found and these tunnels are often connected with multiple entrances throughout the map! Allowing you to use your gold mine as a fast travel point! (you can even attack the enemies' base via their gold mine lol)

The Waygate entrances fuction like normal WC3 waygates and after some testing, I found out that with a little trigger work (and many leaks ) workers actually managed to use the waygates and remember what gold ore vein they were mining from pretty well. However, I didnt get so far as to actually seek out new nearby ore veins on their own.

Some above ground easter egg areas may actually EXCLUSIVELY only be accessible via the gold mine cave system, so happy spelunking!


So, those are all of my ideas for now!
Unique personalized units
Special Traits
Unit Squad hiring
Unit Saving System
Immersive gold mining

Let me know what you think of my ideas down below! And if you're someone who's good at triggering and want to help me realize this masterpiece, please do reach out aswell!

 

[Goffterdom]

Hey there.

You've put quite a lot of work in the process, whether it'd be worldbuilding or these mechanics.

I'd like to ask a pretty simple question: what's the interest of having different unique footmen (or any other units ofc) in a RTS game?

I do understand the interest when playing a game such as XCom, but I'm failing to see the interest in a RTS. And even more, I feel like it might be a bit overwhelming for a player.

I'd like to hear your opinion on that part.

Keep up the good work nonetheless!

 

[Sapprine]

I'd like to ask a pretty simple question: what's the interest of having different unique footmen (or any other units ofc) in a RTS game?

Well, these examples I shown in this post in particular are just for the very first mission. So they're quite weak and toned down, but later on nearly every unit will appear more like a demi-hero of sorts.

There's also a mechanic where you get to save 8 of your left over units from one chapter into the next one. If these were just plain units like footmen and knights, every player would just train 8 knights, take them with them and leave the rest behind.

With the every unit is unique mechanic, there may be certain knights weaker than certain footmen. And even entirely special units you obtained via optional quests or clearing creep camps. Or the player might pick units that are particularly good at tanking, damage, have support abilities or even aura's and form certain "builds" where one might plan ahead on what units to obtain and pick. All up to the player.

However, the penalty being that if a unit dies, its permanently removed in the future.

I'm failing to see the interest in a RTS. And even more, I feel like it might be a bit overwhelming for a player.

An unit's stats and traits are all very clearly formatted in their tooltips, easy to compare and there's a set amount of special trait variants throughout the entire campaign, making them uniform and less random as time goes on.

The picking units mechanic is visually very simple and even optional in the earlier missions, giving the player time to slowly get used to the mechanic without it mattering so much early on. (as new, stronger units can be obtained throughout future missions anyway).

There are a couple exceptions planned in the later missions such as the Bonebarrow Chasm and the Thumbaak Arena which are both escort mission where players will only receive their heroes and the 8 units they picked. Their success in how many trails they can pass within the Thumbaak arena will be based off how many units they managed to keep alive during the Bonebarrow Chasm mission.

The rewards for passing the Pajoon's trails will award you items, permanent stat upgrades, more starting gold in the next mission and some strong units unlocked for the rest of the campaign.