I’ve got RTS’s on the brain, having just seen one of my colleagues playing the gorgeous Battle for Middle Earth 2. My 10-minutes- watching -over-the-shoulder impression is that they did a great job bringing Lord of the Rings into a fairly standard RTS implementation. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I love the standard implementation. I will probably buy this game, and I will probably buy several other standard issue RTS’s throughout my lifetime.

But the standard issue is not what Design a Day is about. It’s about me talking crazy talk. So here it goes.

Today’s Design: Infectious Gameplay

In my earlier life as an animator for science documentaries, I had the opportunity to learn a great deal a about cellular biology and infectious disease.

So the germ of the idea (sorry) is this; a Real Time Strategy game where the driving metaphor is not combat, but infection, propagation and passing on your DNA. Again I stress, metaphor. This is not Fantastic Voyage: Disease Vector the RTS. I’m saving that one for a future posting, and then only as a red herring.

Here are some mechanics that grow out of this approach:

Asexual Reproduction

There is no build tree, no series of buildings that unlock a predictable set of skills. You start the game with one variety of self replicating unit, with a basic attack skill.

Mutation

One method of generating new skills is to take and hold mutation hot spots. Once controlled, random mutations happen to the basic troops stationed there. Some may grow weaker, some stronger, some may develop special skills.

Viral Transfer

As troops with mutations mingle among their kin, they can momentarily bond, and pass on that mutation. In addition, when taken by the enemy, friend or foe, they have a chance of being infected by the new skill.

Subversion

Enemy troops are not only defeated by destruction, but also subversion. When you subvert an enemy unit, they are not killed, their “DNA” is replaced with your “DNA,” and they now fight on your side, with your skills. You may also acquire one of their skills through Viral Transfer.

In this metaphor, you are two competing infections. There may also be an immune response that is triggered when one side reaches a critical mass. The immune response generates “Antibodies” that initially attack the largest infection, but will attack both when the infection threshold is crossed.

There is a depth to the immune process that is both spotty in my memory and complex enough to fill several pages. The simple and probably mis-remembered version includes:

T-Cells

These identify invaders, and begin to produce antibodies. I think the approach here is that T-Cells sneak up on your troops, and quietly begin to sample them. The longer the sample, the better the antibodies they produce. Short samples increase the likelihood that only a single attribute may be sampled, one that may be common to both (or several) sides. A concerted attack on a T-Cell can subvert it into a troop factory, which is much the way the AIDS virus works.

Memory Cells

These remember the identifying characteristics of invaders, and facilitate a quicker response time to infection. Destroy the memory cells, and the T-Cells have to learn your profile again.

Antibodies

These attack and neutralize the invaders. Mutate far enough away from your known profile and the antibodies will forget you.

This Sounds an Awful Lot Like a Virusy-Infecty Kind of Game

Man, do I have to do all the work around here? Oh…yeah. I do. I’m nearing the end of my available posting time, so here’s a couple quick and dirty approaches.

The world has been ravaged by war/global warming/overpopulation/intense food allergies. Warring factions of self-replicating robots compete for the dwindling natural resources (Ok, I’ a Philip K. Dickaholic, this is Autofac : the Game).

You play self replicating robots. The mutation points are high radiation areas that cause errors in the replication process, or libraries where different combinations of technologies are blindly tried. Technology is looted from the dead and reprogrammed, and spread via short-range LAN to nearby friendly bots.

The immune response is an ancient planetary defense system built by the last surviving humans to try to contain the von Neumann outbreak.

It would also map to a fantasy game with multiple warring tribes of mages trying to convert the other tribes to their beliefs. In that scenario, I would replace the Asexual Reproduction mechanic with Conversion, where there is a supply of neutral units which can be converted to one side or the other. New magic is gained from holding and studying at ley-line intersections. The immune system…dragons?

Oh, and I supposed if you were so inclined, you could also make a virusy-infecty game. That would map pretty well.

And that’s…

-game over-

Thanks for reading another action-packed installment of Design a Day. For background on the Design A Day challenge, take a peek here and here.