Strategic Gameplay Proposal
Currently CC lacks any strategic control. Here are a few thoughts on how I propose we fix that, taking into account variable control schemes as best as possible.
NOTE: Though this may seem unrelated, this builds upon and requires multi-level pie menus. For more details, see here.
When in the free look mode (i.e. holding one swap actor butting and pressing another), the player would be given strategic control and shown some strategic information.
For strategic control, the user would have a cursor they can move freely with the mouse or movement buttons (as normal but showing a cursor icon), and the fire and pie menu buttons would perform context sensitive actions.
If the user presses fire on a friendly actor, it will select or deselect it (again, think RTS'). To support multiple control schemes it would probably be best if selecting is additive and has to be cleared manually, so selecting one actor and then another would make them both be selected and clearing selection would either be done by deselecting each actor individually or through some clear selection command in the pie menu (see below). Alternatively, we could rely on combination button presses (i.e. press jump + fire to add to selection, press crouch + fire to remove from selection).
The pie menu button would no longer leave the free look mode. Instead, if the user presses it with actors selected it would perform a context sensitive action - move, attack, guard, dig, etc based on what it's pressed over. Modders would be able to define context sensitive actions for things the button is pressed over and for the selected actors/equipment (e.g. a door breaching charge could define a context sensitive action to place it on a door).
Holding the pie menu button instead of pressing it would open a context sensitive pie menu, based on what actors are selected and their equipment (or if no actors are selected), what it's held over, etc. It would rely on the multi-level pie menu proposal linked above to avoid being too crowded, here are a few suggestions:
- Squad management - Opens a sub-menu with the ability to create/delete a squad from the selected actors, assign it a squad number (see strategic information section below), etc. This may be able to stay as a single button.
- AI Mode management - Opens a sub-menu with the various AI modes. Selecting one would cause the actors to go to the rough location and perform the action, so you could dig gold or patrol in a specific area with it. Doing this on one of the selected actors could instead perform the action in place, so you can gold dig or patrol in the general area.
- Request transport - Opens a sub-menu that would allow you to quickly retreat the selected actors by automatically ordering crafts to take them back to a previously defined safe location, or allow you to ferry the actors to the point you opened the pie menu by calling in crafts to move them quickly. This concept could be expanded as needed.
- Relevant normal pie menu actions - buying stuff, etc.
The specifics of the strategic information shown will need to be determined. One thing I'd suggest is to implement RTS style control groups for squads, that show up as icons on the screen in a way similar to Company of Heroes games.
See image below for more details (you may need to zoom in):
- Pressing fire on unopened squad icon would open it, display its actors and select the squad, also closing any other open squad icons and deselecting any other actors.
- Pressing fire on an opened squad icon would select all its actors if they're not selected. Otherwise, if they are selected, it would cycle your view through its actors, moving your camera through them with each click, while still keeping them all selected. You could then use the swap actor buttons to change to the actor easily.
- Clicking an actor's icon would select the actor and move the camera to it. Double clicking the actor's icon could swap control to it and leave the strategic view. More details will still need to be fleshed out if this idea is to be implemented.