Mech Designs

drew some ideas down of mech units these will change later depending on what type of technology i will be incorporating into each commander mech so these are just test drawings, just to get some ideas about how i would assemble them.

Pieces

I want to produce three types of unit, a medium bi or Multi-pedal mech, a light hover craft based mech and a tracked heavy mech. below are some examples of already existing robots. These are important because they are usefull for the construction of my Commander mechs and the structure inwhich to build them from.

Board Game Layout

I've been looking into board game layouts, i want to produce a similar layout to Cluedo where you have rooms and things in them. I want to produce a 3d environment for my units to encounter and cross, each unit will have a specialization in which to reach certain ways into rooms such as a tracked heavy unit can cross highly rugged terrain, where as a light high tech hover craft unit can go over pits and avoid oil spills that would otherwise limit movement speed.

The arenas would not be as symmetrical like Cluedo but rather it would be equally balanced so that the arena is different wherever you start without giving an advantage to anyone. the player's objective would be to eliminate the other players while gaining control of factories that would produce small units that would be used to attack another player. each factory would be of a different type and the unit produced would be dependant on the players choice of starting unit.

These elements are a combination between four games, RoboRally, Supreme Commander, Z Steel soliders and Warhammer 40k Squad Command.

RoboRally
this is because of the area based style of what it is played in, the units would navigate a board while trying to distroy eachother with gainable weapons and devices


Supreme Commander
I'm taking the element of having one unit as the commander. the only way to survive is to build units, when the player's Commander is distroyed the player loses the game.


Z Steel Soldiers
The aim of this game is to capture control points around the map. some control points have factories which you can build units from.



Warhammer 40k Squad Command
The reason I'm looking at this game is because it has the turn based element that i want, also I want to take the 'fog of war' (which the map is covered in fog untill explored) from it to give the player and uncerntainty of other players as well as covering the player's own tracks.

Idea

Idea:

i wanted to create a mech orintated game, i had in my mind of creating a mech and giving it life. the problem with this is that there is no real basis to what to build the mech from meaning that i needed to find something such as an existing game to build from. this doesn't mean that i can't adapt a or a group of games for my needs, it just means i need a solid base to start off with. after talking to Alan about the idea he said i should look into boardgames for insiration, one of which is 'RoboRally' a programable boardgame which two to eight players would battle against eachother with numerious weapons and devices to obtain

Roborally:

"In RoboRally, players assume control of one of many "Robot Control Computers" in a dangerous widget factory filled with moving, course-altering conveyor belts, metal-melting laser beams, bottomless pits, crushers, and a variety of other obstacles. The goal in a game of RoboRally is, apart from survival, to be the first to reach a pre-designated number of checkpoints in a particular order. However, the real difficulty in RoboRally is movement, which is accomplished with the randomly dealt program cards.

The program cards specify movement, such as move one space forward, turn left or U-turn. The cards have to be arranged by the player in the specific manner they wish the robot to move. Each player receives up to nine cards each turn. They use five of the cards to specify their robot's movement for the given turn, playing each card face down into one of five available "registers". All robots move simultaneously, each player revealing each register in turn. Robots attempting to move into the same space at the same time are resolved by priority numbers printed on the cards. Players with damaged robots receive fewer cards: with one point of damage, the player receives eight cards, with two points, seven cards, and so on. When a player's robot takes five or more points of damage, its registers become "locked," keeping specific program cards in play until the robot is repaired. Each player has a very limited amount of time to place their cards, which combined with the unpredictability of the plans of the other players, often leads to one's robots moving in unexpected ways.

Robots can also carry optional weapons and devices, which add to the carnage and mayhem. These devices can cause additional damage, allow robots to move differently, affect the movement of other robots, and disrupt opponents' plans in other ways.

The basic game includes six different boards, which allow players variety of play as well as the ability to alter the length or difficulty of games." - Wikipedia

Adaption:

the game has different units to chose from but this offers no real difference to the game where as if i were to produce an adaption it would consist of a range of attributes and skill that would effect the playing style of each unit also the weapons that you aquire would then be added to the unit in 3d rather than using a card so the option for visual customisation is possible.

selection of the boards

http://roborally.gamerjeff.com/gto.php