Exterminus (RTS Concept)

Nothing here is set in stone, nor do I have the intention of actually making this game myself as I lack the time and skill to make a game. Now let me introduce you to the concept of my idea with this low quality photoshop paint thing.


Exterminus Not settled on the name.
This game's theme is very based on several elements from other titles. The setting is very reminiscent of Terminator or the Matrix, where you play in a world where the machines rise and try to destroy the humans, but in this game, you play as the Mother Brain of the machines, and your objective is to destroy the remaining humans hiding away in the world after the Great Machine War.

My idea features a top down RTS that is all about micro managing your mechanical minions to do tasks for you like in Starcraft or Warhammer. You will need to secure resources, protect your operations from foreign threats, and find and eliminate the humans, which is one of the victory conditions.


Base Building
Base Building in my mind would behave similar to other sandbox management games like Dwarf Fortress, Factorio, and Rimworld.
- The Super Computer Building that houses the Mother Brain is essentially your HQ as if you lose it, the game is over, and it can research basic techs.
- A Communication Arrays is essential to being able to communicate with your buildings and minions without cables. You will need to gather resources in order to build facilities and units to expand your power.
- An Extractor will mine resource nodes and provide an income of specific metals, which will need to be hauled off for refinement.
- A Refinery turns the metal ores brought up by the extractors into workable material, which at last can be used to construct buildings and units.
- A Manufactory will also use materials to build minions and units.
Finally, all buildings and units use energy to run, so different forms of power generation will be crucial to keeping your operations going. One such example...
- A Power Generator will add to your energy currency if fed certain resources.
- A Laboratory is the only way to unlock the more advanced techs in the game, as there is only so much the Mother Brain can do by thinking to itself. These buildings are relatively late game and one of the largest consumers of energy.
- A Maintenance Bench will keep your units running as their durability bar drains from activities and combat.
Terrain Tiles and Effects
In order to construct buildings, the natural terrain will need to be cleared away and turned into Foundation tiles before construction can begin. Be careful as the destruction of the environment and activity will create Waste tiles which are generally unpleasant for everyone, and I mean everyone, including you. The natural tiles may be a pain, but the player will have to decide if they want to deal moderately annoying terrain, or really annoying terrain.

Several kind of tiles exist as of this writing; Foundation, Soil, Grass, Prairie, Woods, Jungle, Snow, Ice, Sand, Rock, Scrap, Waste, Battlement, Building, and Base. Jungle, Snow, and Rock tiles are the only ones that have serious effect on units, most being movement hits, and Jungles and Woods blocking vision. Waste tiles will damage anything that walk onto them. Flying minions are not effected by terrain, but are not immune to the vision cancelling effects of Woods and Jungles.

Inspirations

Minions and Units
First off, there is no real difference between Minions and Units, nor any categorization between those two. Minions are mobile entities created to carry out your will. They will go out and do specific tasks that their unit type specializes in. There will be 3 main types of units;
- Construction units will mainly focus on just what you think, the construction and deconstruction of buildings, terrain, and Titans.
- Cargo units only really carry materials and resources from place to place, usually acting as convoys or mobile containers.
- Combat units are designed to fight foreign threats, and will often be your most numerous unit type.

Units can be designed to suit their task, whether it be fighting enemies, construction, or cargo carrying. Units can have their "Blueprints" modified by changing out specific parts for different ones or adding and subtracting them all together. Different parts will have different effects on the minion, examples being;
- A turbine will allow a unit to fly and ignore terrain effects in exchange for a high durability drain.
- An armored component is like the standard form but will offer resistance to damage but take a hit to stats.
- A wheeled unit will have a significantly lower durability drain for movement types, but a legged unit will be effected less by difficult terrain such as Jungles, Battlements, Fortifications, or Scrap tiles.

When a minion's durability bar hits zero, it will collapse and create a Scrap tile where it perished. Scrap tiles can be harvested to receive resources back. In order to keep giant piles of scrap from building up and inevitably creating waste and pollution, keep your units maintained.

Now Finally...
The Human Enemy
Now we get to talk about the Hoomens. Here is the kicker about them, they can literally do just about anything that the Machine Player can do but with different rules, Base Building, Recruiting and Training, and Scienceing and Teching. When it comes to production and minion making, the Machines will always have the Humans outmatched, but they have their own advantages. A program/AI is only as good as what it knows, and the Humans will almost always have the Machines beat in terms of Tech and Research unless the Player gets a Laboratory. In the best and simplest way of putting this, the Mother Brain can research its own tech tree, but without improvement, its not very fast. The player needs a Laboratory in order to get to all the juicy techs, like Magnetics and Lazers. To top it all off, each Human unit gains experience either from combat or from training, and eventually get to the point where high level humans will essentially be Hero Units.

The Humans are not a threat that the Player should ever underestimate as unlike the Player's Hive Mind of units that need orders, each Human Unit acts individually, making them harder to predict. A few Human bases will be hidden in the map, but each base is its own faction that acts independently from all others, but if those bases coalition, you are in for it. Humans will tend to hug their bases or around whatever they need, and sometimes they will send small squads to go out scouting, and if they find something of yours, like say a Convoy, they will start harassing it eventually taking it down and looting the scrap in hit and runs, but if the player acts fast enough, they may be able to catch the Hoomens still picking through the junk and loot. Human Units will generally have a strong sense of self-preservation, as if they think they can't win that fight, or if they aren't defending their base, they will run away. I think its time to move onto the final subject now.
Victory Conditions
These are the ways that the Player can beat the game.
- Extermination Victory : Destroy all the Hoomens on the map, simple as that.
- Countdown Victory : Go down a path that will eventually lead to a countdown to completion. Usually the themes of a countdown victory is along the lines of building a Super-weapon or trying to destroy the world by exploding the core or Nuking the planet, if the Player is feeling a little evil. If a Victory Countdown initiates, the Humans will be set to aggressive and seek to stop the Player from completing the Objective. This is a good way of forcing the Humans to come out from Hiding and throw themselves at the Player.
- Science Victory : Generally through lots of tech, and is a form of a countdown victory, with the theme generally being building a space craft to escape this rotten planet.
- Peace Victory : Somehow you managed to convince the Hoomens to forgive you... somehow...

I likely forgot a number of things, but now I present my idea to the people, and am "braced" for opinions.

 

I am so ghetto.

Either way, my best at visualizing unit customization through photoshop.

So no one gets mad at me or just stupid, the left one is a snap from Hearts of Iron 4.