Reality Revision

A concept I’ve been trying to grasp in my head, which must be settled early in order for proper design of both game balance and code/class architecture, is how to handle the scope of the battles in TIP. For early game this is hardly a problem since most battles are small scale, along of lines of skirmishes between small units or characters. As a matter of fact, the Archiry breakout battle might be the largest engagement of all early game combat. The effects of the Leadership aura system will be grossly undervalued in these circumstances, and the Tactics score of characters would almost seem useless. However, this is sharply contrasted by the massive field battles that will be the focus of late game ( and Astraea Arc if the player screws up with Tolkin ). The question is simply a matter of how to handle these epic battles, for it’s certainly unrealistic to fit tens of thousands of troops onto the game screen ( actually that’s very doable, but would create quite the mess ), and even more so to expect the player to control all that in a turn-based game while maintaining a sense of the situation. A game scenario like that isn’t “tactics”, it’s just pure “chaos”, not to mention insanity on the matter of time consumption for a single battle …

A common approach would be to scale down military organizational units into smaller representations. By shrinking platoons into a single being and companies into small squads in the SRPG battle, an entire brigade, the central unit of the Steel Legion and later the Imperium Legion military organization, can be portrayed by the existance of only maybe a hundred or so units. Cutting out the fact that most logistics, supply, and support vehicles have no place in the battle control and this’ll cut it down to between fifty to a hundred - that’s certainly manageable, and those who can’t manage it has no place playing an actual tactics game.

I should note that I never did figure out where in the commonly accepted S/TRPG genre is tactics portrayed, not when the only “tactics” needed to beat the game were the simplicity of not overextending your offensive, dragging out the NPC forces due to their stupidity, prioritizing attack focus and healing, and managing basic linear formations. Seriously, these are concepts a peasant-turned-soldier Greek hoplite of the Hellenistic era of warfare could understand. In the end S/TRPGs relied on understanding how to level one’s characters properly more than anything else… which simply made a mockery of the word “tactics” or “strategy” conveniently placed in the genre name ( probably cause anything synonym to turn-based and grid-based sounds stupid ).

Back on subject. While scaled-down representation is certainly a viable option, I do not believe it is the best one, nor is the results very realistic. The reason is simple - the main characters / commanders certainly aren’t one-representing-forty ( or some similar ratio ). Should the common unit templates be massive scaled in stats to compensate? Another commonly done deal, although it feels put-off when your glorious party characters have trouble dealing with some common soldier, even if it does represent an entire platoon of them. And what about early game when a platoon of soldiers are resources Exelar does not have? How will this tradeoff be balance and transitioned from early to late game? Certainly not very cool when your Arcanum knight squad is suddenly shrunk down to one guy and seems more like another character besides Lothair and Farad rather than a small force of elite cadres.

And because of all these thoughts, my brain decided to consider another idea on how to handle “scope”.

The Steel / Imperium Legion utilizes a rather old, if not completely romanticized concept - field commanders who lead from the front. The Centurions are generals who are skilled in both their ability to fight in the front and their insight in tactical organization and command. Reminds me of the Panzer- and Fighter-Ace-turned-Generals of WWII ( such as the real Air Marshal Aleksandr Pokryshkin ) whom could command the battle while engaging in combat themselves. The concept does wonders for morale and force performance ( by shortening the excessively long chain of command ), but the costs are paid by the field commanders themselves when they forfeit their lives to the slaughter of mass combat. Although thanks to all the improvements they made in defensive technologies from EMS to better tracker/defense systems for LSDWs, the odds are nowhere as bad as they would have been during the renaissance and modern era.

Our focus is on the main characters, many of them either are ( well, only Aoric ) or would become Centurions of the Imperium throughout the storyline. During the battles, their immediate command is whom we focus upon, and it is this portion of the overall battle which will be the most significant and decisive, its results impacting the battlefield situation all across the line. Therefore my idea is simple: we narrow down the scope of the battle to the immediate circumstances around the main characters.

As a result, only a small portion of the battle as a whole is displayed, and the objectives ( mostly the frontline command centers ) of both sides would be compressed within said area. The starting units on both sides are those under direct control of each side’s commanding officer, which of course will also be a representation of each side’s unit density across the entire battlefront - the more total forces, the more ended up under direct control. This is somewhat similar to the other approach, except the units don’t have to be all hyped up in stats, and elite squads aren’t compressed to a single unit representation. Although no more hyped up stats isn’t necessarily true… since those fighting at the focal point between the two force commanders are likely their best troops. Furthermore to address the fact that this IS indeed only a portion of the battle ( and its most significant focal point ), reinforcements from both sides will continuously pour into the engagement from the rear. The reinforcements will obviously be affected by the Field Advantage score that your commanders may or may not be contributing through their Tactics score.

Another field to enhance this idea would be to add a meter that shows the overall progression of allied forces in the battle as a whole ( I’ll need to figure out a system + how to code this in if I plan on implementing it ). This’ll affect a few things:

1. Obviously, reinforcements. The amount you receive as the battle progresses is directly related to how well your forces are standing up in the battle. Reserves are obviously spread thin across the line if the friendly forces are doing poorly. While if they’re doing well, then you can call upon all the reserves for your own efforts in crushing the enemy command.
2. If the player’s side is doing poorly, an offensive time limit might be pressed. This will be an indication of how long you have to destroy the enemy command before your forces across the field are pressed to such a point where defeat is inevitable.
3. If the player’s side is doing well, a defensive time limit might be pressed. This is the reverse of the offensive time limit, and is how long your opponent has to defeat your command before they lose the battle automatically.

This actually makes for another interesting approach: whether to develop and select characters to maximize field potential in a battle, or would the player choose their best heavy hitters and attempt to break through and strive for a quick victory before the enemy can gain too much ground?

Furthermore, I’ve pretty much decided to remove all long range artillery units from the player’s direct control. Instead, the player will have the following options, accessible from the Command Unit:

• Call Reinforcements: This’ll call in additional reinforcements from along the line, which will boost your position at the cost of your battle meter. May also have the ‘Call Reserve’ function which will have similar use.
• Artillery Barrage: This’ll bombard a selected area with Imperial Zamburak heavy artillery, some delay after calling.
• Rocket Barrage: This’ll bombard a selected area with Imperial Katyusha MLRS rocket salvos, some delay after calling.
• Air Strike: This may get put in depending on graphics.

There might also be options that’ll allow the player to perform certain actions that either adds points or detract points from the battle meter, and the tradeoff will always come from their local combat - like going without reinforcements or artillery for a few rounds in order to grant support to the rest of the battle.

Well, I guess in the end this has became more of a way of explaining things rather than a new method of carrying it out. Interesting concepts born out of this brainstorming session though.