Multi-person Combat

[Marieh]

Hi guys, I'm in the process of making a mod which enhances the feeling of combat, creating a "true" battle ground so to speak, where you should be able to have your forces fighting other enemies.

 

This is assuming a typical combat between Stormcloaks and Imperials, or Dawnguard and Vampires, or Werewolves and Silver Hand.

 

If any of you have played the Dynasty Warriors games where you must secure strategic locations, or bases (such as the Empires levels) this is the similar style of combat, with each location secured by a "supply chain"; securing the bases which make a supply chain to the base makes them secure from enemy assault from that direction; once a certain number of waves have assaulted the base, you have a breathing space of where you can lead your squad of soldiers to the enemy bases and secure them. Your goal is to defeat the enemy commander and his retinue who is Essential until you have a route of supply to the enemy camp; the commander will be boosted by stat ups and support from troops from an unsecured supply chain.

 

Eventually I plan to include other variants like a capture the flag style mission, where you gain "points" for stealing banners which will demoralize the enemy, resulting in a victory. Be warned, there are other elite "PC" style enemies who are matched to your level who will attempt to stop you, and waste your resources.

 

These battle locations will occur in a temporary world space accessible only during the conflict so as not to spill over, and leave debris that's unintentional.

 

This is the reason why I'd like to see how well your game would perform under such your typical play settings. If you're interested, perhaps create several tests using the console commands, and have them duke it out, with you in the middle. This would allow you to run about, hit things, and see what happens. I'm not expecting most people to be able to run hundreds of enemies in combat at the same time, but some people with PC Specs high to make God cry I could imagine would appreciate being able to participate in a battle pertaining to mass combat.

 

As a quick aside; is there any mod which adds in NPC enemies using Horse Combat; I know of Horsemen MCE mod, but I've not seen it in use by NPC's, if anyone can confirm that is does work as such, and if it works in any numbers, I'd be appreciative.

 

My thanks for your time, and I hope to soon put the information towards make a non-laggy Mass Combat Mod.

[noveltyh3ro]

very nice idea! i also had this idea in my mind for epic battles...10vs10 really did not feel like the imperials or the stormcloaks cared so much about whiterun.. :/

maybe if you find a way around the way npcs interact...then the computer can handle it way easier, i think you can do that with the script extender

[zombierelic]

While I cant say I know much about the subject I'd recommend modifying the AI in such a way that while they would have minimum usage during certain task. As a example in dynasty warriors quite a few npc simply exist but don't activate until your near or only complete simple task, so in similar vane you could either truly or artificially enhance the "epic" feel by having certain troops with a bare minimum "move/stay/don't activate until *event*" AI to ease the load.

 

Only being seen for a few moments before say flanking out of sight or moving in to some passageway or another which also adds a strategic feel.

 

Having multiple stages. Stage 1 is a simple battle, Stage 2 a trap where the opposing side brings reinforcements from a hidden position, Stage 3 the commander enters the battle with his elite troops from the command tent/room/hill.

 

Or doing something similar to the battle of Kvatch back in oblivion where the city was cut up between multiple sections having many npcs over the whole rather than all in one place.

 

Minimizing things like grass, trees, or even weather.

 

Making custom armor and weapons to lessen the load of have so many on screen npcs.