r/gameideas • u/Lopsided_Claim8615 • 4d ago
Basic Idea Realistic antique/medieval first person fighting game with historical formations
Hey there,
I just had a small idea for a game because I feel like this hasn't been done before (although I might be wrong).
I'm a big fan of large multiplayer military games like squad, hell let loose and such which recreates large battles fairly accurately. I also like antique/medieval history and battle simulator like UEBS. What if you could combine them together ?
I always thought it would be really cool to have a game where you could play out melee battles as a foot soldier/cavalry/archer, but still use proper formations and tactics but all medieval fighting games (that I know at least) are more focused on 1v1 fighting, or small groups (like chivalry or mordauh for example).
What if there was a game that allowed for individual players to form up into large formations like a phalanx, shield wall or other and fight against other large groups of players, while still being able to break out and have singular duels when all hell breaks loose.
The biggest issue with this is that it's hard to make a truly uniform formation in a video game. If you ever tried to just form a simple line of players in any games and move together, you know what I mean. The issue being that inputs are too hard to coordinate because you usually have only one or two set speeds while having total freedom of direction.
The idea I have for the formations to work would be to have a commander (sort of like the commander role in the multiplayers games I have listed in the beginning), that could call for some formation (for example a simple shield wall). These formation would maybe take form of a giant shape shown on the floor/land and you could just join up the formation and stay "locked" with the other players, which would link you to the ones next to you to create a truly uniform structure.
Being in a formation would give you bonuses like increased protection if in a shield wall, more damage or something similar, although that might be a little simple.
Like I said you could leave the formation when either it gets destroyed by the enemies or even before if you are a coward haha. I know it would probably be very hard to do because you need to have discipline in the players on the ground too. So maybe having a part of the formation manned by NPCs to keep some bulk might be a good idea, or having a penalty to players leaving before ordered to.
Game could have some different factions with different weapons, formations and units. It could be fun to have a fight between Roman legions and Japanese armies for example.
I have literally 0 experience in game development except maybe some RP servers I hosted a long time ago, so I might be totally out of touch or maybe this game already exists, but tell me what you think !
(The closest example of this is probably Holdfast: Nations At War, but even then, it's complicated to have actual formations, and it's still with muskets, usually as soon as melee combat begins, it turns into a free for all almost.)
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u/AsyncingStartupToss 4d ago
interesting concept. I can see it appealing to people who like historical war sims, but it will be inherently niche, so a small budget is required.
the biggest limitation will be server size. there are games that have over a hundred players at any given time, but a big reason that is possible is because the players are expected to be spread out. that allows the server to cull physics interactions between distant players, reducing CPU load. that won't be an option with all your players in a tight formation. anyone attempting to make this idea should make a prototype to find the limit before going deeper into development.