Just starting work on a Napoleonic video game...

Howdy all!

As some of you may or may not know (well, I guess if the options are may or may not, EVERYONE qualifies) I have done some work on video games in the past… I helped make Napoleonic Total War and American Total War, worked on a little dungeoncrawl type of game, and recently wrapped up my first XBOX 360 project.

So one of my buddies and I are now starting our next project; a very, very basic, single player squad combat game set in the Napoleonic period… basically a chance to build up a little group of soldiers and play out Sharpe's sort of scenarios.

Right now we are just starting to put code together and futz around... at the top you can see the results of basically the first day of work:) I think it will be similar to Sharpe's Practice (although I've never read the rules) in that your "squad" will have a few characters, each of whom will lead some "regular" troops… characters will have a command radius that can be increased, and troops within that radius will benefit from special bonuses, and the troops and characters both can advance with experience…

Right now we are VERY much in the planning stage, so I wanted to ask… what sorts of features would people like to see in a fun Napoleonic squad based game? The game is really being made with the idea of being able to make it flexible enough for any era with a little tweaking, and will likely form a part of a larger project down the road, but I thought I would ask to see if folks have any interesting ideas!

Right now I envision the two rosters being something like… (names are just the basics right now)

French line
Voltigeur
Old Guard
Sappeur
Dragoon (cav who can dismount and shoot)
Artillery of some sort
Cav of some sort which cannot dismount, like cuirassiers

British line
Rifles
Highlanders
Guard
some sort of Spanish guerrilla
Haven't through through the British cav yet, although might go with the basics.

Then, on top of that, you would have the characters who lead each unit, each of whom would be named and have certain abilities… for example, you might have a guy who is a "combat leader" which gives all squad members within his command radius a +1 in close combat, or a guy who has the "booming voice" trait, which increases his command radius by a bit, and so on and so forth. Which skills each character would have access to would be partially random, partially determined by nationality, and partially determined by their "base" class… for example, a character based on a British rifleman might have a better chance of getting the "marksman" skill, whereas a character based on a highlander might have a better chance of getting access to the "combat leader" skill.

I envision that, at the end of each fight, your men get experience, which can be traded in for increases in stats or even special abilities. Regular troops would have a ceiling, although I would like to do something where they can eventually become NCOs or something… like a step between regular soldier and character. Also I think there should be some sort of pillage of the battlefield at the end, and you can divvy gear up.

I want to do away with hitpoints, and indeed make the damage system "invisible." Basically you would get "results" from combat like "You missed!" or "The guy is slightly wounded" or something similar. Characters would simply have a MUCH higher chance of getting results like misses or "It is just a scratch," but they CAN still be killed. I want to avoid a straight up, mathematical system because I feel like that takes away a little of the romance. Indeed, I want to avoid visible numbers all together, if possible!

Thanks!