I have been thinking about some of the core design of my game, and what could and should not be changed. One thing that I am interested in changing is: making movement values and costs into fractions rather than simple integers. Basically, for units movement on a 2D grid in a strategy game, every unit can move X tiles, and every tile has a cost Y. In the games I have taken inspiration from, both are whole numbers.
Basically, if you have 5 move and all tiles cost 1, you can move 5 tiles; if all tiles cost 2 you can only move 2 tiles; and if all tiles cost 3, you could only move 1 tile. This is very simple but very limited. There is no way for a 5 move unit to move only 4 tiles on a map where all tiles cost the same. This is only possible if the cost of all tiles is 5/4, for example.
Now, in an actual mal you rarely have only tiles of a single cost. This makes predicting unit movement be dependent on players making quick fraction math in their heads, and I think this is a no go. It is actually hard enough to predict unit movement by adding the integer cost of tiles. Seriously, you also have to remember all cost values for all tiles, then remember which tiles are on your path… All this would benefit immensely from being automated. That’s what computers are for!
Anyhow, planning out your moves is actually harder than it should be, because players have no way to see how far an unit can move after it moved, or if something else happens on the map: a unit dieing, getting pushed around, a path being open by another unit moving or something being removed, etc.
I think the pain of predicting unit movement can be alleviated by a “Planning mode” for players. In this mode, you could basically move any unit wherever, and then enable the move and attack overlays to see where everyone can move an attack. You could enable the dangermap or globalRange to see who is in range of the dangerous unit, or if a unit is in range of any enemy. You should also be able to modify the map conditions: create a bridge with a snag, close or open doors, break walls etc. Just as it would do during gameplay, this would modify the map, and then the game engine would do the rest of the calculations to find moveable and attackable tiles. The game interface should list you all modifiable tiles and movable units. Also, enabling planning mode should be VERY CLEARLY DIFFERENT FROM GAMEPLAY. As in: flashing “PLANNING MODE” on the screen, having access to PLANNING MODE TUTORIAL and EXIT PLANNING MODE on the menu at all times, maybe changing the whole screen color to some kind of PAPER COLOR or black and white, etc. Also, in planning mode you shouldn’t be able to do anything else with/to units than moving them.
I hope that this becomes a feature that players can’t imagine not having access to in future games.
Average Bear's GameDev 