Indie Total War-like Game Prototype

**gabe13654** · January 05, 2023, 01:32 AM

Hello, I've been working for awhile on an indie Total War-like real time formation tactics game, but that is a bit slower paced and involves more wargaming rules like anarchy charges, ZoC, priority shooting targets, pursuits/evades, delayed commands with couriers, etc...I have a very early build up on itch.io.

itch.io link:
https://gabe1010.itch.io/formation-t...ototype-battle

There are no win conditions currently, and it is not multiplayer yet (you can just control both sides), you can restart with the 'r' button, move the camera with mouse movement, right click and hold, double left click and hold middle click, and WASDQE. You can single click or loop highlight units, and give them commands to move with right click and drag (hold control to queue up waypoints). You can only give manual shooting or attack commands once already within anarchy charge range (for the most part you move the units and they pick their targets). There are advantages to flank attacks, bowmen are poor in melee, light foot evade, cav are more effective on charge except vs spears, etc...bowmen can only shoot over allies if at a higher elevation. The game is just a single scene/battle currently. Swordsmen and cav are impetuous and anarchy charge at a greater range, and spearmen are not and instead end up 'zoc locked' if facing an enemy nearby without a charge command. Units show their current state and level of disorder on their banners. Routed units do not rally. There currently is no disordering terrain, and I'll add that eventually, but overlapping units disorders them.

It is in a very early and brittle state right now with plenty of issues, but I thought I would post a build to gauge interest and get some feedback.

Thanks for your time!

**Maximinus Thrax** · January 05, 2023, 03:41 AM

Moved from General TW Discussion.

**alhoon** · January 06, 2023, 02:49 AM

Good luck to your efforts, friend!

**MoLAoS** · January 07, 2023, 05:37 PM

Good luck. Always good to see more competition against the lazy, decadent big names.

**gabe13654** · January 08, 2023, 08:51 PM

build is significantly improved here:
https://gabe1010.itch.io/formation-t...ototype-battle
better, larger map, more units, simple AI (you only control blue side now, red is AI), lots of improvements to bugs and some to performance.
let me know what you feedback you have, especially concerning the basics of movement, command, control, attacks/charges/flanks etc...

**gabe13654** · January 09, 2023, 01:19 AM

**gabe13654** · January 09, 2023, 01:21 AM

**gabe13654** · January 15, 2023, 02:55 PM

the latest build on this (build11) is substantially improved with a larger map, more units and unit types, lots of bug fixes, better performance, and a basic AI controlling the red team btw, if anyone is interested in giving it a try. I'm very interested in getting in feedback on the basic gameplay and mechanics from TW veterans.

**gabe13654** · January 21, 2023, 01:01 AM

I've uploaded a substantially improved build14 with more units, better performance, various bug fixes, and added tooltips describing why a unit can or cannot charge/fire, and increased manual charge range, making it a lot easier to understand and control units. There are shift mode options now where, if a unit is winning, you can have it either pushback (more than normal), hold position (guard), fallback, or recoil from combat altogether, depending on what that unit type is capable of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3prwA6b3sA

**gabe13654** · January 21, 2023, 01:02 AM

**gabe13654** · February 01, 2023, 06:32 PM

Latest build21 fundamentally rewrites a lot of the movement code, adds top down view banner info, adds concealment of units based on LoS (through hills and other units), and fixes a bunch of random issues. See other devlogs since build14 as lots of things have improved.

**gabe13654** · February 04, 2023, 02:48 PM

build 22 video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxcfSPTctnQ

**gabe13654** · February 12, 2023, 10:26 PM

the latest build25 has unit selection, larger armies, horse archers (with model variation and weapon swapping prototype for them), and a large variety of gameplay fixes and improvements (see devlog).