WIP: Siege

[Jeff-20]

I revisited an old game I worked on years ago and came up with this today...

It's a simple, turn-based war game. The fortress is under attack, and there are only 7 units to defend it.

There's a strategy to stop the persistant invasion. The difficulty may seem to vary greatly from game to game. It's a work in progress. There is still lots of room to improve the BASIC and add a few more ideas I have.

https://jeffdaniels.itch.io/siege

[chysn]

I love those graphics! It's always fun to see PETSCII used so effectively. I haven't had time to play the game yet, but I will tomorrow. It looks kind of like a Stratego concept?

[Jeff-20]

More like Rock, Paper, Scissors in its combat simplicity. I also misspelled "Siege"...

[Victim_RLSH]

Also quite similar to Runic Chess, a minigame from Star Ocean 3. Love the idea, and the clever use of PETSCII for the vehicles.

[Vic20-Ian]

Looks great - please enter it in the Things we want to see / hear competition.

[chysn]

I like the game design a lot, and the graphics and sounds are nice. It suffers from the lack of any kind of look-ahead AI. It won't press an advantage, capitalize on opportunities, or defend its pieces. It doesn't usually attack into guaranteed loss, but given enough chances, it will.

And you wouldn't need to do actual look-ahead in BASIC. It's a simple enough game that even some heuristics could go a long way.

But in the end, even though I knew I wouldn't lose, I still played about a dozen games, because it's fun!

[kokkiklhs]

Great PETSCII graphics design, it rules!!!

[Jeff-20]

I like the game design a lot, and the graphics and sounds are nice. It suffers from the lack of any kind of look-ahead AI. It won't press an advantage, capitalize on opportunities, or defend its pieces. It doesn't usually attack into guaranteed loss, but given enough chances, it will.

And you wouldn't need to do actual look-ahead in BASIC. It's a simple enough game that even some heuristics could go a long way.

But in the end, even though I knew I wouldn't lose, I still played about a dozen games, because it's fun!

Thanks for playing! Great feedback! It's still a work in progress. I had hoped a bit of hidden information and constant reinforcements (until you cover the landing spot) would keep up the challenge of a dumb enemy.

I am thinking of adding a luck based system: there wouldn't be a guarenteed victory. A dominant unit may have an 80% chance of success with a constant possibility of mutual destruction. Maybe advantage might go to the attacker to give incentive to equally matched units. So, maybe a weaker unit attacking a stronger unit might have a 15% chance of success and a 10% chance of mutual destruction. I would just need a way to visualize the probability to the player so it doesn't seem unfair.

Maybe it could actually be some sort of mini game: a skill based game like Archon? Or a chance based game like a roulette wheel? Or would luck kill the fun? Maybe it should stay static like chess. What do you think?

I've never played Risk, but I imagine that's the system that dice game uses.

Also quite similar to Runic Chess, a minigame from Star Ocean 3. Love the idea, and the clever use of PETSCII for the vehicles.

Great PETSCII graphics design, it rules!!!

Thanks! I still may tune them. I'm wondering if the units need to be identical on both sides. Could the enemy tank have a different design from the player tank and not confuse the player?

Looks great - please enter it in the Things we want to see / hear competition.

... I'm working on it!

[chysn]

I had hoped a bit of hidden information and constant reinforcements (until you cover the landing spot) would keep up the challenge of a dumb enemy.

In practice, I don't think either of those help much, because it mis-uses the reinforcements so aggressively.

A random component could make it more challenging. But another option is to keep all enemy pieces hidden until they're attacked or they attack you, and then reveal them. Then there's a "random" component without it really being random.

[Jeff-20]

I had hoped a bit of hidden information and constant reinforcements (until you cover the landing spot) would keep up the challenge of a dumb enemy.

In practice, I don't think either of those help much, because it mis-uses the reinforcements so aggressively.

A random component could make it more challenging. But another option is to keep all enemy pieces hidden until they're attacked or they attack you, and then reveal them. Then there's a "random" component without it really being random.

Good advice. That's actually the idea I had in the first version of the game... here's a download (zipped with instructions). In this version, the player has to remember what kind of unit the enemy has. I'm not sure which game is better. I was thinking of removing the reinforcements and hidden pieces all together until reading your post.

A roulette component could add a push-your-luck element, but the trade offs are obvious. I think a skill based minigame could also work, but I'd need to make enough space in memory to make something engaging without being too repetitive.

[Jeff-20]

Updated game with new colors and added some difficulty. Individual combat victory is no longer certain; there will always be a chance for "mutual destruction" in any battle. Still thinking of how to make it more interesting within the restrictions of unexpanded BASIC

https://jeffdaniels.itch.io/siege

[JavaJack]

Maybe it could actually be some sort of mini game: a skill based game like Archon? Or a chance based game like a roulette wheel? Or would luck kill the fun? Maybe it should stay static like chess. What do you think?

Maybe you have a finite amount of currency to ration over the game and spending some ups your odds for a battle. Maybe it could be like Advance Wars for Game Boy Advance. Units are actually representative of a whole squad and so they get whittled down randomly over the course of 2-3 battles.

I've never played Risk, but I imagine that's the system that dice game uses.

Risk is: Offense rolls (up to) 3D6, defense rolls 2D6. My best die faces your best die. My second best die faces your second best die. Defender wins ties.