I was thinking while trying to drag my friends in for a game that Zero-K could use new objectives and modes. Most of the matches in this game entails destroying the other opponent on varying maps. The only other game mode is chickens which people can enjoy once in a while. We can still change things up like mutators, or throwing chickens in a team versus match, but there's obvious limitations. I'm not saying to detract from the RTS elements like Warcraft and Starcraft custom mapping did at those games' peak (i.e sprouting off a completely different gnre), but mainly from the POV to keep the game varied. For example, an FPS can involve variants of deathmatch like 1v1, teams, or FFA, but often there are other objectives beyond wiping out other players. RTS has a lot of features, so I think it should be possible to design something original without distracting from the genre itself.
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You might try the new ZeroWars, a completely different game mode. Agree that even more map mods like this would be really cool.
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I suppose Zero-k could have some "classic" gameplay modes commonly implemented into other RTS, such as King of the Hill, Point Control, etc. Although I suspect gameplay wouldn't be changed much, other than maybe making games end faster after the're decided, since you don't have to control mid and then assault the enemy's base, just controlling mid wins. More complex alternate modes like Zero Wars would be fun but also require a lot more work to implement. We technically already have "assassination" in the sense of that there is a setting that will make a team auto-lose if all its commanders die. But since commanders are easy to hide, it tends to not change much in large team games. Maybe there could be a variant where commanders are more powerful, but also always visible?
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These whole map mods are cool, zerowars is great, but it's more of a total conversion mod. It's a very cool total conversion mod though, and adds totally new units like nebula/bomber, even if they were 'new' years ago. The general goal in an RTS is to destroy the entire enemy presence on the map. Age of empires comes to mind with other win conditions: regicide, defend defenceless king unit, wonder, build the highest tech and expensive wonder building and have it stand 5 mins, nomad where you start with no town center and chose a location yourself. Ashes of the Singularity has a win condition resource, that once you have enough of it you win, concentrating fighting for a brief game around the win resource points. Dawn of War had capture the critical locations and territory control similar to that. But a territory goal(capture 80% of territory) is not really a new game mode, cause the game is over before that happens. Most of these conditions can be ignored by preventing the enemy from achieving them themselves: wipe them off the map like a normal game. Could we have an RTS where striking someone from the map is impossible, and still have the game be fun? Or should beating your enemies the conventional way be a valid win condition always? Anyway, here's an idea I just thought of: Mothership King of the Hill. On a largish map with no metal extractors, players control a single fabrication mothership that flys around the map, able to function like a fully armed factory anywhere on the map, spawning an army of your choosing. Reclaimable metal and energy exist around the map, and periodically reclaimables will spawn around the map via airdrop or meteor, and one or more capture points spawn around the map that can be captured with units on the ground KOTH style for victory points/countdown clock.
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Well I say this with single player campaign modes from other RTSs in mind. Many missions have an AI opponent, but some other ones do creative objectives that still utilize core mechanics of RTS, but apply it to different goals. An easy example is Survival, which we have chickens. But there's others like "Time Attack", "starting off with one Necromancer and building an army and base" type missions, and so forth. It could just be designed for co-op and not necessarily balanced for versus.
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would capture the hill work? a middle thing you have to hold.. i guess capture the mex is already kind of that
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There used to be king of the hill but it was weird and hard to make work
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if you have played Unreal Tournament: Domination Game Mode. There are markers placed all over the map. (most times in an uneven number). * while you have a building/unit inside its radius (e.g. glaive-like, or even like a metal-spot so only one can "build on the spot"), and the enemey has not, it is owned by you. * while you own this, it generated win-points for you * when one team has reached a certain point-level, you win. * win-points are visible for everyone through UI (needs wupgettery?) * FFA also possible ############ i also liked the "assault" game mode in UT, where 2 teams have different tasks. e.g. defend a position, and the other one assault it (there were more if i recall, e.g. stop a train etc). 2 rounds are played, with switching roles. time limit for each round. very map-specific conditions to achive objectives in a certain order to assault. like 'destroy A so B gets accessable', bring a unit to B and a teleporter C is functioning etc. the win condition is, who can make more objectives and how fast. i do not know if this is possible in ZK, it sounds like a mission and would be very map-specific. but for a shooter, it really grided my gears.
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Domination sounds like the easiest objective to port across, although in some ways it already exists. Take the four super-mexes on Terra. A teams that controls three of them for a decent length of time is likely to win. King of the hill is just domination with a single control point. Assault-style objectives existed as side objectives in Planetwars. The defending side has a number of neutral structures on the map to defend and a means to teleport each of them away, saving them permanently. The attacking side wants to kills the structures before the teleportation ability changes, which takes about ten minutes. These objectives had no impact on the battle itself, rather they had an impact on what is destroyed on the planetwars map. I agree with   Manored that commander assassination modes are a bit weak since commanders are so easy to hide. For a proper assassination mode the aim could be to assassinate a neutral structure. Crazier stuff is possible. Capture the flag for example. A problem with a lot of these suggestions is that they further incentivise defending a few locations. If players were able to reach into each others bases with ease at the moment then Singu would be terrible. A few modes exist at the moment. Chickens can be added as a third side to a teamgame to create a threat that can be weaponised against your opponents. Zombies does something similar but in a less aggressive way.
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here is some objective that could work on all maps: mex rush: mexes are indestrucable (and can't self-d) but units still are: the goal is to either control more than half the mexes or have the most mexes. game ends if either: #1 player has more mexes and #2 and uncontrolled combined (so #2 cannot catch up no matter what) no uncapped mexes remain. (player with most mexes wins, if draw then all drawing players win) Domination (FFA maps only, inspired by diep.io domination): there are 2 teams on opposite spawns, all other spawns have a "dominator" - a superporc (maybe desolator + lucifer + cereb + funnelweb) that can't be killed and canstantly spawns AI units for it's team. dominators start on grey but can be capped by dominotrix (after being capped no control line is drawn so if the capping dominotrix dies the domintors donst change teams). team with all dominators wins Greed (starcraft greed) get a certain amount of reasources. Ground Zero: Nukes stockpile at 180X speed (so stockpile takes 1s if you have the resources) and antinuke is one-use (so they are destroyed after they block a nuke). players start with a (non-reclaimable) antinuke so you can't cheese? Lobsterpot (inspired by a thread called "floasam dam is finnally a dam): water level continously rise, with anything that touches the water dying instanly (even hovers) so either get to the high ground or terra away! Apocalipse: (similar to zombies) zombies but over 9000: everything is at half cost. zombies will spawn randomly(same algorithm as roosts) around the map. the catch?: anything that dies (and i mean ANYTHING except missiles) will come back as 2 zombies (so if you kill a glaive 2 will spawn). also grey(zombies) have infinit resouces so if you kill a factory 2 will spawn and start pumping out zombies! players probably should all be on one team.
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what if we had a time-attack coop mode where an AI is resurrecting a (modified) Detriment, and the player has to fight against obstacles (that the map is designed for). The players can win by either destroying the AI before the Detriment is resurrected or destroy the Detriment and the AI (harder). the map would have to spawn a detriment wreckage somewhere. There'd have to be some reasonable challenge for the players to reach it and interrupt the resurrection process like shooting down the athenas.
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i might be the only one but i would happily play "mex explode like singu on death" mode
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quote:
Lobsterpot (inspired by a thread called "floasam dam is finnally a dam): water level continously rise, with anything that touches the water dying instanly (even hovers) so either get to the high ground or terra away! |
there is such a thing already implemented, lava rises periodically: http://zero-k.info/Maps/Detail/19055
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quote:
i might be the only one but i would happily play "mex explode like singu on death" mode |
Given how many maps have nearly uniform mex coverage, i am looking forward to seeing the inevitable chain reaction and mutation, contaminated population Or more realisticaly, noone ever building mex becaues "build mex and then enemy sneaks one flea nearby" means your everything blows up
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exactly =P perfect bravo!
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as much as i like this i think id like less then total chain wipeout after killing 1 windgen
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"blastwings are nukes" mod when
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capture the chicken, chickens spawn on five chicken roosts generated on a line crossing the middle of the map which is parallel to the longest line that can be formed from side to side of the starting box which is perpendicular to a line that starts on the middle of the map, the chicken is immortal and you can only get chicken score by recycling it, the chicken can be captured and transported
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We had also Duke nukem map? Do it even works now? It was great map for fun play. Interesting would be create something like dota version but with limited com skills it could be hard to make. Zombie mod also was funny for some time.
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