Mod Idea - [MP] Commander Battle

[Narthir]

I really like the troop trees you have set up. Of course, it would take some testing to properly balance them, but the idea is quite good.

I'd take the initiative to start the mod myself but I have no M&B modding experience (though I do programming experience) and between work and school I don't have a ton of time to do the modding. The ideas are alot easier to do since you kinda come up with them without time just spent thinking 

 

[Rend]

Also, I think that there might be an issue of how to operate servers using this mod. If there are only two commanders in the match, then the server size would only be something like 2 people, and it would be costly to maintain enough dedicated servers for all these matches. One possible solution would be that if you wanted to play a match, you would host a server for this mod and those seeking matches could look on the server list to join. Another solution could involve making each match have several commanders on each team, each managing different troops. To make this possible you would have to change the bot code so that more players in the server wouldn't dramatically reduce the bot number and find a way to assign commanders effectively.

I like it. I think making it possible for there to be more than one commander on each team could be cool.
If you want to just play against your buddy you could host your own server and limit the number of players to two. Just like you would in native.
If you want to have more players on each team then join a server that supports that, or set the settings accordingly.
Maby you could have a setting that determines how many bots each player would have available. If you are running a server with more than one player on each team, then the number of players max, multiplied with the number of bots per player, would determine max population of soldiers on the server.
Or you could have the number of soldiers per player change dynamically, depending on how many players are on that server, at the time. Then you just set how many bots there will be in the game and devide them between the players that online atm.

 

[Narthir]

That makes sense. I think most of these limitations would probably have to be determined by coders, since they know the limitations of the system well enough. Multi-commander mode would be fun, but due to lag constraints you couldn't probably have more than something like 16 players on a server at the most.

 

[Scarf Ace]

The whole player amount & bot amount thing's already dealt with well in native, if there's bots you can choose what class(es) you want to command and you are then given a fraction of the amount of bots on your side. So if there's 50 bots on a side, 2 players will get 25 each, etc. I don't think this mod would really need any scripting or so in that department, the native system works good enough. Simply implementing more troop types and making them balanced would already create a very solid mod.
Imagine 100 bots per team and 4 players on each team. 2 players could be on the wings of the battle line, one in the center and one uses mainly cavalry. With just 8 players on the server you'd already be getting some pretty sweet battles with lots of tactics and teamwork and all that jazz. The more players, the less troops each individual player controls, and the more you'll have to work with your team mates to stay alive. If there's 16 players on the server, there would be quite a lot of complexity.

 

[Narthir]

Yeah, it is very well done, I just think there might be issues if two players claim control over the same units or fight over which units they control using the Native system. I was thinking that maybe using classes would work well by having your class choice designate who you command. For example, if you choose the class "Commander", you lead all the troops. If you choose "Commander" but there's a cavalry captain, you command all but cavalry. If you choose cavalry captain and there is no commander, then the rest of the troops behave with default AI and your cavalry obeys you. Each group leader would also have attributes/equipment options for their troops as well as themselves. Example: Archer group leader can outfit his archers. He can also equip himself, but his stats and capabilities are similar to those of his archers.

Using this system, you could have up to somewhere between 4 and 8 leaders on each side, each with his own role. You would then have to cooperate in order to use effective strategy and win.