What follows is a design document for my current project, it may or may not actually happen, but I have high hopes (and have started work).
Captain and Commander: For glory and profit!
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Overview:
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Captain and Commander is a management game where the player is a mercenary captain. The player
selects a background (which effects starting funds, skills, reputation, etc) and hires some starting
troops. These troops are then used to complete contracts (of which there are many kinds) to gain more
funds, skill, reputation, etc as needed to hire better troops and so on.
Most of the game consists of manging your mercenaries and their gear, while you do have control of
combat it is fairly abstract.
Very little of what is described here is implemented, and the game is not yet playable.
This design document is current as of 8/12/15 (m/d/y).
Attributes and Skills:
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Every character in the game has attributes and skills that define his (or her) physical and mental
make up. Some skills are more useful for leaders than normal troops (and vice-versa). For example a
pikeman needs high strength, heavy weapons skill and armor skill. A squad leader or your captain should
focus more on intelligence, charisma, and tactics.
Attributes are generally fixed, but as you grow older your strength and agility will slowly go down
and your intelligence up (to simulate growing older and gaining experience).
Skills can be raised by working with an assigned trainer or by using them in the field. Training
with a trainer goes faster the higher the trainers skill. Training uses the trainers raw skill (not
his effective skill), this is so that old veterans who are no longer strong enough to fight may be
used as effective trainers (as the old age attribute reduction will not effect their training abilities).
Physical attributes (strength and agility) are special cases, and may be trained like skills (although
much slower).
* * *
Attributes are caped at 25 points. The absolute maximum raw attribute a troop may have is 20, actually
reaching 25 would require attribute boosting equipment (which is rare). ~7 points is average for most
people, with good troops averaging 9-15, 20 is basically superhuman.
### Strength:
Physical power, used for melee combat and other physical tasks (such as healing).
Strength is important for healing wounds and determining personal combat results.
### Agility:
Physical agility, effects ranged weapons, movement speed, riding ability, etc.
### Intelligence:
Brain power, used for tactical planning and other brainy activities.
Intelligence also governs how fast you learn, so being smart is very valuable.
### Charisma:
How good you look/talk, used to get better deals when bargaining for contracts and things like that.
Troops are more likely to work for a charismatic captain, even when they would normally be wary of
your reputation. Generally low charisma can be offset by a good reputation and other skills, but
being charismatic is easier.
* * *
Each skill is governed by a certain attribute, with high levels of that attribute providing bonuses
to the associated skills. You can have high skill with mediocre attributes, but your skill will not
be nearly as effective as it would be with high attributes.
Skills max out at 100 points. The absolute maximum raw skill a troop may have is 75, actually reaching
100 requires skill boosting equipment (almost every piece of equipment boosts one skill or another).
### Strength Skills:
* Heavy Weapons: Sword and shield, spears, pikes, etc.
* Armor: Higher skill reduces your chance of being injured.
### Agility Skills:
* Light Weapons: Bows, knives, and other light weapons.
* Scouting: Locating the enemy, hiding your presence, etc.
* Riding: How much you can get out of a horse, useful for scouts, skirmishers, and cavalry.
### Intelligence Skills:
* Engineering: Building fortifications, building and operating siege engines, etc.
* Tactics: How good you are at controlling a battle, gives bonuses based on your opponents tactics skill.
* Field Medicine: Improves healing time for troops, higher skill allows better care and care for more
troops at once. Less useful for your captain, but a critical specialist skill.
### Charisma Skills:
* Bargaining: This governs how much you pay for everything and how much you are paid, very useful,
as more funds is always a good thing.
* Dissembling: Modifies your perceived reputation, basically reduces any bad reputation effects.
Reputation:
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Every action you take effects your captain's reputation, slowly defining what the rest of the world
thinks of you. Different mercenaries like different reputations, and will be more willing to hire on
with a captain that has one they like. In the same vein clients will be more willing to give contracts
to captains that have a reputation they think will be beneficial to them. For example if you have a
reputation for being cruel you may find it easier to hire on with a noble that wants a rebellion put
down with maximum force, but you will probably have a hard time finding caravan escort, garrison, or
scouting jobs.
Reputation is only possessed by your captain, other troops may have reputation preferences, but they
do not themselves have reputations. Clients and NPC captains also have preferences, and these
preferences can be viewed as their reputation, but these preferences are fixed and will not change
for the length of the game.
The following list of possible reputations is not exhaustive! Some of these may not actually be used,
and others will probably be added.
* Cruel: Are you likely to take prisoners, or just kill them all and let the gods sort them out?
Cruel polices may be expedient and save funds, but some clients may look on such things with disfavor.
On the plus side sometimes a show of force is all a cruel captain needs, enemies may not want to
fight a close battle if they are worried about what will happen if they lose. Of course a cruel
captain will have a harder time getting outnumbered enemies to surrenderer...
* Subtle: Charge right in, or scout and sabotage? Subtle captains use specialists to take the indirect
path to a solution. For example you find a bandit camp, an unsubtle captain may just charge in and
kill them all, where a subtle captain may use scouts to remove their sentries and attack by surprise
at night.
* Lawful: Are you likely to do things that are less than legal? If so shady merchants and greedy
nobles may like you better, but their more law abiding counterparts may be less happy. Also towns
may be lees willing to hire you as a garrison or for bandit hunting.
* Reliable: This one is probably the most important reputation you can have. Do you deliver on time
and just the way the client wants it? Many clients are willing to overlook other flaws if you always
deliver, but this reputation is slow to grow and quick to fall, so a little bad luck can ruin it in
a hurry. Probably best not to rely on this one too much...
Reputation grows more if the action taken was difficult, for example completing hard jobs is more
likely to raise your reliability, and going out of your way to protect refuges from bandits will boost
lawful and lower cruel more than if you had done it as a central part of a contract. Of course if you
take extra time to make sure the bandits die painfully, cruel will rise rather than fall!
Troops and Equipment:
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There are many different kinds troops to hire and pieces of equipment to buy. Troops range from green
recruits armed with rusty spears to highly trained veteran specialists. Each man has his own preferences
and skills, with veterans being much more expensive and picky than untrained farm boys with visions
of loot and glory.
It may make sense to hire a few older veterans and a bunch of recruits and train your own army, but
this takes time (and funds!) that you probably do not have to spare early on.
Troops will bring their personal equipment with them. The quality of this equipment varies widely,
with veterans commonly having better equipment than recruits. Sometimes you may hire on a veteran who
is down on his luck with crappy equipment, and sometimes you may get a recruit with a well off family
who spent the funds to make sure he was well outfitted, but these kinds are the exception, not the rule.
Generally troops will want to be well equipped, and the better the equipment you supply them the
happier they will be. The more experienced the troop the higher his expectations, so equip your veterans
well! Troops will maintain their equipment in their down time, providing replacement parts and repair
supplies will make this easier and result in better quality gear. No one likes to have to repair gear in
the field, so it is always better to have spares on hand and do your maintenance in winter garrison.
Specialists in particular tend to be quite picky about their equipment. A skilled scout will want a
good horse and a light weapon, heavy armor and a pike will make him rethink his employment contract!
You can assign anyone to any job in your company, but if you do not carefully balance skills and
load-out things are unlikely to work out well!
To keep things simple weapons and armor simply give skill bonuses, better items give bigger bonuses.
Most armor gives bonuses to the armor skill, but some light cavalry armors, for example, give bonuses
to riding as well. In general light armors give bonuses to non-armor skills, where heavy armor is
focused on armor skill bonuses. Weapons mostly just give weapon skill bonuses, but some oddball weapons
may give other bonuses instead (for example a shovel "weapon" that gives an engineering bonus).
Battle:
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When you take a contract the first thing that needs to be done is to march appropriate forces to the
location. Once you reach the region where you are to operate you will be shown a simple map of the
area with your troops marked. As you scout, last known positions of enemy troops may be added to this
map as well.
One tricky thing to remember is that this map does not show things as they are, it shows them as you
think they are! All of your orders are subject to time lag (as they need to be carried to the squad
in question by couriers) and any scout reports will only reach you if the scout squad has assigned
runners or you send it a recall order. It may happen that you reach one of your advance squads only
to discover that it has been wiped out by an enemy ambush several hours before! Fast couriers and
scouts are critical! Of course if you move as a body time lag does not effect your orders and the
responses, for this reason it is generally a good idea to keep everyone except your scouts close.
In addition to basic movements and such like many other actions can be carried out, for example skilled
engineers will allow you to dig in or build siege engines for tactical bonuses in defending and attacking.
Once battle is actually joined, either main forces or small skirmishes, each side will have a combat
power generated based on skills, equipment, situation, numbers, and a bit of randomness. The combat
power of each group is compared to determine the results of the round, with some of each side being
killed or wounded in proportion to their combat power (with skilled troops being less likely to be
injured than rookies). Once all of one side has been killed or incapacitated (or manages to withdraw)
combat ends and the winner can gather his spoils (if tactically possible, enemy reinforcements may be
on the way!).
At some points it may be possible to take an action based on an ongoing enemy action, things like
sending reinforcements to an ambushed patrol or setting a trap for an enemy party that your scouts
have spotted would fall into this category. This will make combat and field maneuvers more dynamic
and interesting. These opportunities will be mostly governed by your skills and how your company is
situated. For example if you have a scout platoon watching the enemy front, and your tactics skill
is enough higher than the opposing general or captain you may have opportunities to force battle on
favorable terrain or ambush parts of his force.
Contracts:
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Contracts will be randomly generated from a list of possible employers and possible job types.
Employers will be semi-random, with different kinds weighted to certain behavior, likes/dislikes, and
jobs. For example a noble is more likely to want you to attack a neighbor or hunt bandits, towns will
want garrisons and patrols, and merchants will want escorts, but sometime you will find a merchant
who wants a rival caravan ambushed or a town that wants a neighbor raided.
All contracts are paid in some combination of the standard coins:
* Copper Slugs: The smallest and least valuable coin, many rulers do not bother minting anything but
the simplest designs, and some don't even do that, leading to large numbers of plain copper disks
in circulation (hence their common name).
* Silver Crowns: Minted with all sorts of random designs, silver crowns take their name from an ancient
silver coin minted in the days of the empire. One crown is worth ~10 slugs.
* Golden Suns: Suns are generally minted with a sunburst on one side and the face of the ruler that
minted them on the other (although other designs do exist). One sun is worth ~10 crowns.
All currency is made to banking guild standards (or else!). Rulers who do not follow the banking guild
monetary standards quickly find that the banking guild wields a great deal of subtle (and some not
so subtle) power.
The World:
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The game world will be a fractured set of minor kingdoms and holdings perpetually fighting amongst
themselves, perfect climate for mercenaries.
Time will pass, and clients can and will die of old age and be replaced by new ones. In some cases a
client may die in battle (maybe with your company!), in which case their heir will take over. Lands
may be conquered and reconquered by the different factions, with and without your help.
The game ends when you die or retire, it is possible to die of old age, but you are more likely to
retire before that point. I will have some kind of option to allow play as as successor or such like
for those who wish it.
I have not decided if I want the player to be able to declare himself a king (like Mount & Blade), but
that could be interesting if done right (which would be hard to do). It would probably be better to
focus on small unit management and at most allow you to set up a small freehold around your base town.
Speaking of your base town... An established company will have winter quarters where recruitment and
training takes place. Early on you will either setup camp somewhere for the winter or try to get a
garrison job someplace warm where you can relax and train replacements, but as soon as you can afford
it building a long-term settlement with permanent buildings (and basic fortifications) will be the
way to go. Here you can leave training cadre and support troops to prepare replacements, tend wounded,
and maintain equipment all year long. Over time merchants and such like will settle around this fort,
catering to your company and making use of the protection it provides. You will be able to set polices
for how the resulting town is treated, which will effect it's makeup and provide you with tax income
if it does well.
Not everything about the base town is good, as it will introduce it's own set of headaches, but it
should at least be an interesting change of pace for the mid/late game.
Technical:
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The game will be written as a web server with the UI being done via HTML forms. The pages will be
loaded from user customizable templates, so providing custom appearances will be easy.
The templates will be provided lots of extra information that is not required but may be useful, for
example battle screens will be told what the notional terrain is like so that if someone wants to vary
the background image based on terrain or something like that it will be possible.
Game turns will be variable length, with maximum turn length being about a week. Turns will run from
action to action, with each action taking a certain amount of time. This way time can be fine grained
without having too many turns (because clicking the "next turn" button over and over isn't fun).
During battle turns cover a minute or two, but in garrison they will cover several days.
The player will be able to set the desired maximum turn length, so it will be possible to stop whenever
you want for maximum flexibility.
To keep things simple the game will use a 360 day calendar where each of the 12 months has 30 days.
The smallest time unit will be the minute.
Maps used to depict battle fields and the like will be generated from a simple square tile set. This
will make map image generation simple. Unit positions and other details will be abstract, as this is
not a game focusing on fine-grained tactical control (just the opposite in fact!).
Map images will be generated server side and slugged to the browser as a static image.
Example map image. This map was generated by the game's map generator from a static terrain map (which is less detailed than the final maps will be).
Yes, the hand sketched look is intended, and yes this can be customized by the user.
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Topic: Captain & Commander: Early planning. (Read 1154 times)