Wargame vs "Living world"

[Thudz]

For this you need good AI. You need that group of Orcs (that was previously content to sit by the same tent in the East commons for years on end) to have some goals in life. They need to aspire to build up their resources, conquer new tents, perhaps even leave the East Commons.

I think you could do a lot with some fairly simple scripting.

For example, this orc camp holds up to 20 orcs.

As soon as it reaches a population of 20, 5 orcs will break off of the camp and head out to attack the nearest enemy camp (or perhaps they head to some orc "staging area" where orcs from other full camps will split off and trickle into until they have a good number built up, then the whole staging camp sets out). Maybe they pick a target based on a fairly simple formula involving "distance", "value" and "difficulty".


As long as you can come up with a good AI / pathing routine for groups of NPCs doing cross-country travel and fighting, I think the "war" would be fairly simple to implement.

I'm liking this. Take this along with the faction idea. You could make faction mean something here. For example, if you go help the orcs who happen to be invading a nearby camp of dwarves, then you'd get faction with the orcs. If you get enough faction, they will start taking some basic commands from you, such as suggestions of the next base to attack.

If I have more faction than you with the Orcs can I tell them you are actually a Dwarf spy and they will attack you?