Squad Control

[Mephs]

Hey guys!

Now... before Pyabo does the usual routine and jumps in and to tell me to get a move on with my project once more, I must say that this post is not related to my current project... it is more of a general contemplation on the subject of squad control that I am posting in my work break. You can rest assured I am being an eager beaver with my project at the moment ;)

I have often wondered about designing a good control scheme for controlling a small team of players in a game. Say for example a squad game like Cannon Fodder or a team ball game like Chaos League or Speedball.

I just find that usually the control schemes for controlling multiple avatars in realtime are somewhat clumsy and wonder if anything could be done about it to make it more streamlined.

I had half wondered if a good control scheme might be something like the mini map in Guild Wars where players can draw on the map to show other players where to move. Perhaps a system where you select a point that is close to the troop or teammate you wish to move and then drag a line (or perhaps a wiggly path) to the point you wish them to move to. You could also draw an orthagonal line to the direction of travel in order to get team members to stop abruptly. I'm sure this kind of "draw your strategy" method could be quite interesting and could probably be expanding with lots of other gesture based elements. If you can think of any other additions to this line of thought it would be much appreciated :)

I think this could give a game quite a strategic feel, but it does lack a bit of fine control over squad members and does still leave the question of how we would direct squad members to target a certain area or individual opponent to fire at. Also, having various paths drawn on screen or on a minimap could get messy and confusing, so perhaps these need to fade away and/or leave a marker at the end of the path perhaps?

Alternatively we could have a player only controlling a single individual with AI handling the rest and the player switching between players either on demand or as a result of perhaps in a football style game the person closest to the ball being the active player. I'm not too keen on this though as the AI becomes subject to intense scrutiny as nobody wants to lose a game because the AI did something stupid.

I have also thought about perhaps having a system which is pseudo turn based where gameplay is in realtime but the game cycles you through each of your squad members in turn allowing you to perform one action at a time be it moving or firingor taking cover. Now this isn't the most realistic method as ideally we would want members of a squad acting as they would if controlled individually, but if both players had the same limitations, realism aside, it could be quite strategic and because we only ever control a single player at a time we have full control of that player as an individual and must plan ahead for how that team members actions will impact upon the next teammate to have their turn.

Alternatively, you could use a system like Chaos League which plays kind of like a cross between Bloodbowl and a mini-RTS. Drag box selecting to choose players or selecting portraits of individuals and using mouse buttons to move or pass IIRC (which I may not!) with separate buttons for casting spells. This is probably the most familiar scheme for controlling squads being used in almost every RTS out there, but I'm not sure it is the most intuitive.

Then there is of course Cannon Fodder where the squad act as an individual, but you are able to split off squad members into separate teams and then switch between teams with mouse buttons directing the squads to move and/or fire. This works okay, but I'm not sure that having squad members act as an individual entity is the most graceful solution to team control.

I suppose the ultimate goal is to try and control a team of perhaps 4-10 individual characters and have each act as a distinct individual.

Do you think this is possible? Is it even desireable? Which control method do you like best including any you have seen in other games not mentioned, and/or do you have any suggestions for anything better?

I hope this becomes an interesting discussion :)

Cheers,

Steve

[Pyabo]

rest assured I am being an eager beaver with my project at the moment


Good to hear. I will refrain from the "usual routine" this one time.

As for the discussion at hand... I feel that you've touched on something that is fundamental to the design of a particular game. It's like asking the question, "which is better, 2D or 3D?" It's all up to your design, there are no correct answers.

[jefferytitan]

It is a very pesky problem. I suppose you may have different approaches depending upon whether you are likely to want to control all squad members equally, and how real-time it is.

It might be nice if you initially create a battle plan, or perhaps something like an American football play, and the AI attempts to perform the plan. For example in a battle game there might be standard techniques that can be built up into a plan, or perhaps a more free-form drawing style could be used, e.g. a pincer attack is described as a line around one set of obstacles and a line around an opposing set of obstacles. Then you just tweak the individuals to make the plan more effective.

Or there are various grouping strategies, for example you create squads, give them individual missions, and perhaps you assign a squad a "buddy squad", e.g. they will stay within firing range of each other where possible and provide cover as necessary.

For something like soccer you might nominate certain players that need to be kept covered, and apart from that you can cycle through the highlighted players that are near the ball clockwise and control them individually. The other players will compromise between covering members of the other team, following the ball, and staying near their position.