We are developing an online robot fighting game in an arena-style environment. The best way to describe it would be as a combination of the old 1995 game One Must Fall 2097 and MyBrute.
Our game is called RobotWarz and is an online flash-based game. We're currently only in the very early development stage, but have a good underlying programming core currently developed. We're also currently using temporary placeholder graphics until the design team is brought in to work on the graphics and animation.
While the game is currently playable at an extremely basic level, it's constantly being modified and improved so it's still in early alpha stages. We hope to offer a public playable beta version sometime in December, possibly a private beta version before then.
The reason why I chose to post this thread on TeamLiquid is because I'd like to get your ideas and feedback on the game. I am a huge Starcraft fan myself and have been an occasional lurker on TeamLiquid since what seems like since 2002 or so. I know just how detailed and analytical you guys can get when it comes to balancing issues, and in gaming in general so I'd love to get your honest feedback on RobotWarz.
There is so much to the game and it is still so early in its development that it is difficult for me to try to describe it as I'd like to, but here's a rough of idea of how RobotWarz is played and what it's all about:
Players create a free account and their own robot which is highly customizable. They begin by choose between one of 3 possible robot 'cores': Androide, Industrial, Tank (we need a better name for this one). Each core has a distinctly different look and has different starting attributes and strengths. For example, the Androide has a higher Intelligence attribute but lower armor.
Players are given a certain amount of starting credits, the game's currency, in which they can purchase upgrades for their robot. The level of customization is the biggest feature of the game, as not only does it allow for a unique character, but it also provides a strategical factor to the game.
Credits can be earned by winning fights and referring other members, and are used to purchase upgrades, weapons, etc. Experience points (XP) are earned solely through combat, in both winning and fighting (obviously winning fights will yield more XP).
The actual fights are not controllable by the user but are predetermined based on how the opposing robots are built. Each fight result between the same opposing robots is different since a high amount of probability and chance based on various elements is factored into the game engine.
While many people will be put off by the fact that you cannot directly control the robot, we chose to make this gameplay decision as it instead forces players to make strong decisions on how they build their robot, as opposed to how fast they can move their fingers. In that sense, RobotWarz is more of a strategical game than anything else.
======= Add-Ons ======= To begin, there will be a total of 20 different weapons and other improvements that can be physically added to the robots.
For example, there will be a basic laser gun (pew pew), a plasma shield, a laser-targeting system that will improve the Accuracy attribute, etc.
More add-on's will be available in the future.
============ Special Abilities ============ Special abilities are essentially "special moves" that provide the robot moves and maneuvers that do special things.
A special ability is used in lieu of a normal attack with a weapon and costs Capacity (or energy). Some special abilities will require more Capacity than others, so if players wish to utilize a lot of special abilities, they will need to focus on obtaining a high Capacity attribute.
There will be a total of 20 different special abilities to choose from, with more being added in the future.
Here are some Special Abilities we have planned for RobotWarz:
Reflect: Reflect 25% of the damage + (0.25 * Intelligence) of a shot, taking no actual damage itself. Self-Repair: Repairs 15% + (0.1 * Intelligence) up to a maximum of healing up to 50% of its total Condition. Should only have a chance to "roll" if Condition is below 70%. Can only be used once per fight. Overdrive: Launches an extra attack (not special ability attack) during its turn. Trojan Horse: Destroys 2 Add-On's. Can only be used once per fight. Virus: Seizes the robot, essentially voiding their turn. Reboot: Repairs 40% + (0.5 * Intelligence) up to a maximum of healing up to 85% of its total Armour. Should only have a chance to "roll" if Armour is 0. Can only be used once per fight. Analysis: Provides a 100% Accuracy and draws a weapon to shoot.
======== Attributes ======== Attributes dictate the different attributable measures of the robot. There is a total of 7 attributes:
Armour: Armour reduces the amount of Damage taken. This differs from a shield add-on which will take 100% of damage until it is destroyed.
Condition: The core condition of the robot. Essentially Hit Points or Health. Once this reaches 0, the robot is considered "dead" or "broken:.
Damage: The robot equivalent to strength. Determines the strength of its attacks.
Mobility: Dictates the speed of which it can dodge attacks.
Accuracy: Dictates the accuracy of its shooting abilities.
Intelligence: Affects how certain add-on's and special abilities function.
Capacity: Used solely to determine how many special abilities can be used. A higher capacity attribute will allow for more special abilities to be used in a fight as well as more powerful special abilities which may require more capacity points.
Special Features of RobotWarz ------------------------------------
Credit System - As mentioned above, players get to choose exactly how their built their robot. There is so much to choose from and consider that it will be very rare to see 2 robots that are even closely identical.
Helper Bots - Players can add small 'Helper Bots" which will aid them in their battles.
Team Play - While not planned for the initial release of the game, this will probably be available in the future, allowing for 2v2 and possibly 3v3 or 4v4 teamplay, allowing for real robot wars.
Tournaments - Again, not scheduled for the initial release, tournaments will be done in a ladder-type style, with the winners possibly receiving credits and/or actual prizes.
Rebuilding - For those familiar with World of Warcraft, RobotWarz will offer a rebuilding option, which will cost 1 credit and increment by 1 for each time it is used thereafter, which allows users to effectively start from scratch, regaining all of their credits to rebuild their robot. This is similar to how players can "respec" their characters in World of Warcraft.
Early Preview ------------------------------------
Below is a very early preview of RobotWarz. I want to emphasize that this is an extremely early version of the game and really isn't meant to be seen by the public.
All the graphics are temporary placeholder graphics that are being used by the programmers until the graphic team is brought in.
I'd like to remind you all how Starcraft 1 looked like when in its Alpha stage:
Here then, is a very early shot of RobotWarz.
I've love to hear your comments and feedback. With so many different elements, balancing will take a while to perfect, and I'd also love to hear any ideas and/or complaints you guys have.
Thanks in advance!
Last edit: 2009-11-08 12:58:40
NeverTheEndlessWiz Singapore. November 08 2009 14:26. Posts 820
I don't really play these kinds of games so I don't have much to say. All I can think of is, make sure the AI of the robots is very good. Personally, seeing my robot act like an idiot in a battle would really turn me away from the game.
Also, I'd try to avoid turning the game into rock-paper-scissors, because if my robot is rock and yours is paper, then why would I fight you?
WebPublisher Canada. November 08 2009 14:42. Posts 44
NeverTheEndlessWiz, yeah, I photoshopped one of the backgrounds from it to use just temporarily. It's just a placeholder graphic for now.
Bill307, yeah, the "hard counters" issue is something that needs to be considered and balanced in a way that prevents a roshambo situation. Then again, RobotWarz is more about how well your bot does on average, and overall - not necessarily how well it does against one certain opponent. Therefore, the best bots will most likely be the ones that are well-balanced.
One thing that's nice about the way the game is built is that you really can make bad robots and it does take some foresight into the game mechanics in order to do decently. There is so much variation available, for example there could be robots that:
- Have 5 helper bots but has generally low attributes and few add-on's - Have a very high capacity and high-tiered special abilities, but low attributes and few add-on's - Have high power and accuracy, but weak armor and other attributes.
Bill307 Canada. November 08 2009 14:43. Posts 8575
After giving this more thought, imo this game really has a very simplistic strategy: design your robot so that it beats the most common designs that the other robots have. Beyond that, you're simply learning or guessing which attributes counter each other.
NeverTheEndlessWiz Singapore. November 08 2009 15:17. Posts 820
I did look at that game, but RobotWarz is very different from that as we're not a 3d real-time fighting game where you control the moves. The original OMF was indeed one of the inspirations for this game, however.
NeverTheEndlessWiz Singapore. November 08 2009 15:37. Posts 820
With many customizable options and features for each robot, it reminded me of how long it look me to master every single robot/character combination in both single player and tournament mode in OMF 2097. Maybe I am a little bias for the old game, as what seems to matter more is fluidity of the game.
The game might be overwhelming for beginner players who are expecting a SF style fighting game. OMF 2097 solved the problem by allowing players to learn the game in story mode 1st, then later move them on to tournament mode, where things start to get more complex.
How does this one work? 'Virus: Seizes the robot, essentially voiding their turn.'
Retired Brood War player / WCG SG Top 8 for 2002, 2003, 2004, retired, then made minor comeback to Top 8 at 2008. 2009 = bleh xD
WebPublisher Canada. November 08 2009 15:49. Posts 44
NeverTheEndlessWiz - I always played Jaguar on OMF and got really good with it (I found the game really easy as Jaguar actually, although some robots were really difficult to play) since it's the first robot you started with and thus were more likely to get good with it.
The Virus special ability basically will probably show some type of quick seizure animation of the robot, and then their turn it voided (they will forfeit their next turn).
RobotWarz is really geared towards MyBrute players who enjoy this sort of game. Depending on how well the game is received, we plan on porting it to Facebook and the iPhone as well.
As it has been said before, the game sounds really simplicistic. With your current concept, you'd need a ton of different items/abilities for a large number of viable builds, so that the long-term goal of a player becomes following the trends that develop of and optimize his own setup accordingly. For example: There are items that deal A, B, .., N type of damage, and some that have defense against A, B, .., N and are weak against another - The player's goal is to find out which of the damage types and defenses is most commonly used, and create a build that counters this.
However, a Flash game isn't comparable with games like Starcraft or other tactical/strategical PC games you buy at the store with a neat box and DVD and play for years to come, but rather something people who are bored during classes or just randomly surfing the net play. You can't expect the majority of those people to dedicate themselves to analyzing statistical appearances of certain item-builds.
The fun in most games comes from interaction, and seeing how you are leaning more towards a strategic than an action-game, I'd propose the following:
Implement interaction during the actual fight. A grid similar to chess (but smaller..) where you move your bot turn-based, selecting an evasive and offensive skill every round, delayed by one turn. Meaning: First turn you input the first set of actions, second turn begins with the input of the second set and then has the execution of the first - or, to make it more intuitive, make the first commands a setting you choose during your build / is predetermined by your build, that automatically gets applied at the beginning of every fight.
This would allow a large range of weapons with different attack-patterns, adding the complexity of having to design a build that allows you to corner the enemy so he can't evade anymore, and accordingly having evasive patterns and special skills to supplement both of them on top of the underlying stats of the weapons and armors, which are already weak or strong against others.
With that you'd have less of obscure numbers battling, and more of the player actually experiencing each change he makes in his build for himself. It would also allow you to actually make truly DIFFERENT types of bots, like stationary kill-before-killed area-damage tanks, mobile glasscannons or special-attack whoring oneshot wonders. Whereas in a purely numerical fight you'd go "Oh yeah, so I'm not 19 str anymore, I got 14 int and 16 agi, lets see how different this is - - - oh well, the battle screen was the same as always, but after 40 more fights I'll know if I got an improvement in my winning percentage! Go me!"
I guess you see what I'm getting at..
WebPublisher Canada. November 08 2009 16:30. Posts 44
Thanks for the comments Elaeli, you make some good points.
Regarding: "Implement interaction during the actual fight. A grid similar to chess (but smaller..) where you move your bot turn-based, selecting an evasive and offensive skill every round, delayed by one turn."
This is actually something we have been considering, or something like it. It probably wouldn't happen until after our original plans for the game were released though, as it would require a lot of changes in the core programming.
I was thinking of implementing a battle system akin to what Betrayal at Krondor used (image below), which is one of my favourite games of all times and from 1993.
It uses a grid pattern, and each character has a mobility attribute where they can move so many grid squares per turn. You get 1 turn per character, then the computer (enemies) move, and chose their attack, etc. In a sense, it's a lot like chess. I suppose there are many other games that use this turn-based attack style; I think Final Fantasy might, but I never played it so I can't say for sure. But Krondor is different in that it's the positioning of where you stand and move is very important, as it can really change the outcome of the battles.
If we did something like that, coupled with the ability to use certain special abilities at certain times, that could really turn the game into one complex strategical game...
But again, this would be a fairly large undertaking. I'm definitely open to following this direction in the future, but right now we need to stay a bit closer to our main gameplay pattern.
[X]Ken_D United States. November 08 2009 20:22. Posts 4292
First, good luck with the project. I'm a programmer myself and I understand how hard projects like this are.
Second, try to think of a different name maybe? I mean RobotWarz is extremely generic and if I Google it I find hundreds of different things. And personally, I hate that whole Z in replacement of S gimmick. :X
Third, what's the link to the site for us to test it?
Fourth, I started a month ago my own MyBrute-esque game too. It's StarCraft themed and will have SC artwork. I programmed the game and designed it all by myself. You can see the almost ready beta version of it here: http://vgstrife.com I don't know flash, and the final version (non-beta) of the game will have fully animated fights powered by JavaScript, which will look like this (of course with actual characters instead of the boxes): http://vilegaming.com/sandbox.x
Normally I hate when people replace z's for s's, but I thought that it would be okay for this type of game since the target demographic are males in the 12-25 range, most of which like that type in games. I did try acquiring the RobotWars.com domain but the guy wanted $55,000 for it so I had to pass :-)
My marketing plans for the game is for it to spread virally, which is partly aided through the fact that players can get extra credits for referring others to the game. Therefore, I am not concerned about SEO for the game.
But I understand what you're saying. Worst case scenario, we can always change the domain in the future.
The link to the site is private at the moment, mainly because the game is still in such early infancy stages that I am too embarrassed to show anyone it and don't want people to get the wrong impression that it's anything what the final version will be.
I have heard of your site actually - I was checking it out the other day.
Yeah, I don't know Flash either. The last time I worked with it was about a decade ago (seriously). I hired out for this project, so fortunately I get to focus mainly on the gameplay options.
What I like about your game is how you're controlling multiple units (squad fights). There are so many ideas and possibilities in my head for RobotWarz that I often lie in bed at night thinking of everything that we could do :-)
I just thought I'd give an update on the progress. Here is a YouTube video I just added. Obviously the game is still in its very early stages and the graphics are just temporary:
WebPublisher Canada. November 08 2009 12:46. Posts 44![[image loading]](http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/6133/comingsoonqw.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/3613/scalpha.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/9085/alphau.jpg)
NeverTheEndlessWiz Singapore. November 08 2009 14:26. Posts 820
Bill307 
Canada. November 08 2009 14:26. Posts 8575
Elaeli Germany. November 08 2009 16:13. Posts 5![[image loading]](http://buckyschwarz.net/uploads/images/2ndplayer/combat2.png)
[X]Ken_D United States. November 08 2009 20:22. Posts 4292
Spartan United States. November 10 2009 12:55. Posts 1174
Chuiu November 10 2009 13:11. Posts 2627
El.Divino United States. November 10 2009 14:35. Posts 943
