April Proposes a Game: Sisters in (Combined) Arms

Hahaha, you get it? You get it? Because combined arms is a term for a kind of military action where many different sorts of weapons systems contribute, and brothers in arms is a term for an army, but because I’m me all the NPCs and squaddies are going to be women? Ya get it? Tell me I’m funny. Please.

Anyhow, I want a mech strategy game. We’re getting one, which is awesome, but as much as I love the BattleTech world, their focus has always been on the big stompy robots (They’re not robots! They’re mechs! Fake geek girl! Faaaaake!) to the virtual exclusion of all else, at least in the video game incarnations of the series. Tabletop BT was a little different, with lots of options for infantry, artillery, and tank support, but mainly it was about four to twelve battlemechs on a side slugging it out with each other until the mission was over. That’s fine. They’re great games, I love ’em to death.

But I want a mech combat game where the other combat arms aren’t window dressing and canon fodder. Where you take control of a company sized formation that includes all sorts of units, and each one of those units has a vital purpose. Sure, the mechs may be the stars of the show, but they’re not omnipotent and unassailable.

Here’s what I imagine: You’ve got your mech platoon, your tank platoon, and your infantry platoon. The mechs get the main work done. The tanks are nearly as powerful, and you get more of them besides, but they’re not as versatile and are not as good at spotting the enemy. Infantry are the only unit that can capture and hold objectives, and when they’re dug and have a good line of fire for their rockets, are nearly as powerful as tanks or mechs.

There’s no rock paper scissors in this game–any one of these unit types can be dangerous. But there is a consideration for using the right tool for the job. You don’t let your infantry lead an attack. You don’t let your tanks stray into rough terrain without recon to back them up. You don’t send your rock stars, your mecha, out on a sideshow errand.

Instead of going for a turn based game, I think it’d be fun to make this game real time tactics instead. But real time at a variable pace that can be paused, slowed down, or sped up at any time. You should never feel rushed playing.

Now, I said that I want combined arms, and I stick by that, but come on, giant robots are wicked sick, so the mechs would be the main part of the game. They’re the one platoon you can directly control. The other platoons under you are indirectly controlled by giving orders to the officers in charge. They accomplish the mission as best as they can, though since they were trained to fight as part of a company they will get anxious if you send them away from the main body of the company.

The art style for this should be cartoony, I think. This isn’t a grim macho game for grim macho grognards. People who are scared of bright colors should not play. Your subordinate officers have pop-up portraits when they acknowledge or react to your orders. Through these portraits and their voice acting, you get a sense of their morale, though you can check for yourself at any time as well. As you complete missions, they improve their skills and become more adept at accomplishing the tasks you set them.

The mechanics would aim for being quick to learn, tough to master. Realism–whatever that means once you’ve got giant robots in play–is eschewed in favor of clearly presented information and interesting choices. In real life, you don’t know if you’re well hidden until the enemy either spots you or fails to do so. For example, in this game, once you hide your guys in a copse of trees, they go all shadowy and dark. Lines of fire and lines of sight are clearly and easily displayed, without an overlay feature if possible. You get a preview of what your LOS will be if you move to a given position before you move there. I don’t ever want the player to regret a move on the basis that she didn’t know she wouldn’t be able to see or do what she wanted to do from that new position.

Everything about this game should be geared towards welcoming newbies into the fold, and then building them up to the level where they can be competitive in multiplayer, if that’s where they wish to go. If they choose to stay with the single player campaign and skirmish mode, that’s cool, too. To that end, the campaign should start with a very clear, very simple set of tools at hand, and then gradually up the complexity. Upping the complexity is NOT the same as bumping the difficulty, by the way. The game should start moderately difficult, and then end a bit more difficult. I don’t like single player strategy campaigns that are boring to start and a chore to finish, so that’s not going to happen here.

The single player campaign shouldn’t be too long, either. A big thing that scares newbies away from strategy games is their boasting about how long it takes to complete. I want this game to feel like a satisfying experience in 12 to 15 hours, with robust NG+, multiplayer, and skirmish mode options giving you extended replay options. If you want to put 200 hours into the game, that’s wonderful, but it shouldn’t be required just to finish it or feel like you’ve explored what the game has to offer.

I think a skirmish campaign feature might also be cool. You link a number of skirmish missions together into a dynamically generated (if, by necessity, narratively flat) mini-campaign that can be played in an afternoon. That way the strategic layer remains a relevant gameplay consideration over the long haul.

As for the story? I think that with the cartoonish art style and the nerdy affection for combined arms warfare, a project like this would greatly lend itself to goofy dark humor that doesn’t take the proceedings very seriously.

This isn’t the most cogent thing I’ve ever written. I just put 1500 words into my manuscript and my brain is kind of fried. But I wanted to get this up here.

For you

Because I care.