Howdy all!
Still hard at work on the video game (we are at the point where you can load up some AI enemies and watch the game play itself...) and I am running into the trouble of balance.
The game will have three playable factions to start... NATO forces, the Dictator forces, and the Resistance forces.
The NATO force has a pretty good "feel;" lots of vehicles and armor, expensive top-quality troops with a wealth of gear. An expensive force which will usually not be huge, but VERY tough in combat.
The Resistance force will be interesting in that it does not have a ton of badass units... its only vehicle is a technical, which is a Toyota pickup with a machine gun on the back! They also don't have any serious combat units like the Spec Ops teams for NATO or the Presidential Guard for the Dictator, and very little access to the different mercenaries. However, what the Resistance force DOES have is a few units that can infiltrate enemy lines, bypassing the well-manned fronts to get to the soft underbelly of the enemy, where they can disrupt the different resource generations. A resistance player will need to be tricky... you cannot just fight on the front, but you need to get behind the enemy, sneak into his resource centers, and sabotage him from within with insurgents and suicide bombers (who, by the way, have the greatest animation ever seen.)
But that leads to the "middle" faction... the Dictator. We are a bit stuck with him. He cannot obviously be as badass as the NATO force, combat wise, although he has some good combat units... he doesn't have the sneak factor of the Resistance faction... so what makes the Dictator faction tick? Right now our eyes are on resources... that the Dictator has the best access to oil and money... but is that fun? Or does there need to be something else?
It is interesting how you have to make sure each side has its own unique play style and fun... and it will be fun, moving forward, making sure that the Dictator side does too!
Thought folks might enjoy another few screenshots, this time showing off the troops/gear list. Above you can see a unit of zealots, equipped with AK-47s and light body armor and upgraded with an Insurgent Captain. They are backed up by a technical with a big machine gun on the back! On the righthand side you can see a unit of insurgents, armed with AKs and then kitted out for vehicle-killing with some IEDs and an RPG.
You can also get a peek at the new icons on the lefthand side that show what is in the square you are currently occupying. The shot at the top shows that there are an apartment building and two houses in the square... lots of population, which as a Resistance player I need to maintain my forces! The shot on the right is a good money square, with a gas station, a small store, and some warehouses. On the left you can see a bunch of the feature shots, including an oil field, an oil refinery (ahhh the NATO player loves that!) and a poppy field.
Icons like that are remarkably tough to do... my buddy who does the coding did the by-hand sketches and then I made them graphics... I am much more a literal artist than an abstract guy, so I needed the help!
