A Sonic Strategy Game - Ideas? Issues?

[Tani Coyote]

This topic came up with the Sega's 2013 plans thread and I figured I'd split it off to prevent it from clogging the thread.

With Sega's acquisition of Relic, it now owns two very big strategy game franchises. Sega's been branching into more and more board games, and could probably very easily get its own variation of RISK if they so desired.

So, Sega now being the owner of Warhammer 40K and Total War, I raised the fantasy of Sega one day making a Sonic strategy game. And gave some possible ideas for it.

How do you think Sega would go about it, if they decided they'd give the gimmick a try?

My proposal, having run several Sonic-themed geopolitical sims in forum games on other sites, is composed of several ideas.

One key feature that would need to be done is somehow toning down the importance of the main cast. We'd be focusing on the politics and not the personalities of the Sonic world. This would be key to making a strategy game work - the bulk of the gameplay would need to center on armed forces, not on a few mutants with nifty powers. Of course, we can always nerf the characters so they are Hero units, rather than overpowered game changers, for the purpose of this game.

Next, how would factions be decided? Would we have a dozen or two dozen countries, like in Total War, or would we have two or three overarching factions, as in Command and Conquer? I think the CnC setup would work best; it'd be easy to arrange factions into Empire (Eggman), GUN, and say, the Black Arms. The continuity would need to be bent so the antagonist factions are mainstream and not fringe in their holdings, which means this would very easily take place in an alternate universe.

There's of course the possibility to change the exact time the game takes place. We could have it set in the future, far enough the heroes aren't really a major factor anymore.

One of my proposals was having it set a little over fifty years before the current games. The world could be in the grip of a harsh Cold War, much like ours was at the time (indeed, the 60s are the point humanity has come closest to nuclear war). We'd be able to see the impetus to the creation of Project Shadow as a means to turn the tide in GUN's favor, and possibly learn more about Robotnik's family. For all we know, the processes of the Shadow project could have somehow influenced the gene pool, laying the foundations for the mutations that created the many superpowered heroes we know of today. After all, it looks like the world is mostly human with a few superpowered furries, and given that Shadow is the first on record... who knows.

We would likely need to create a new faction to make this proposal work, however, someone who opposed GUN and presumably collapsed prior to the formation of the Eggman Empire. Maybe Eggman built his modern empire from the ruined nations that opposed GUN?

 

The problem with setting a game in the past, of course, is that it creates a more rigid continuity. Sega would need to openly state it's an alternate universe and is not canon to avoid the bind of a set geography and history.

These are just a few ideas as to how one could tackle a Sonic-themed strategy game. If for some reason Sega decided the experiment was worth it, how do you think it would go? What ideas would you propose? Please discuss.

Edited March 1, 2013 by Ogilvie Maurice

[Jolt_TH]

If you wanted only a few factions I think tis would be the ONLY game where the Atchie characters would be involved. You have G.U.N, The Eggman Empire and the Kingdom of Acorn, you even have things like the Dark Legion and the battle bird armada, you could even replicate the Great War between Acorn and the overlanders Granted it'd be VERY hard to follow if you didn't know who the factions are.

Possibly set in Blaze's dimension? You have her army (she has some sort of system as evidenced by SRA) and Eggman Nega's forces?

I'm not too sure really how I'd make it work!

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

actualy, the battle bird armada is nebulous game-canon(maybe maybe not), they were the antagonist of tail's adventures for the Game gear. So, they could be a faction without even having to bring in archie

Edited March 1, 2013 by Mandobardanjusik

[w00tkins]

I don't think making the main cast less important would be a good idea. After all, the series is primarily character-based, and lessening their presence would reduce the appeal of the game. I mean GUN is kinda boring and most people would rather see Sonic. It might be possible to expand on the lore of each faction or something but ehhh.

 

What you could do is have Sonic and friends showing up be a noteworthy event within a match (I'm assuming a less story based approach here, something like Age of Empires?)

 

Let's say you're playing as Eggman commanding the Eggman Empire. You're building structures, creating robots, conquering small establishments  etc. As your influence grows, GUN is alerted to your activity and dispatches their troops.

Suddenly, Eggman shouts "sentry buster!" "It's that hedgehog!" as Sonic appears on the horizon. 

 

This is the part where I lose my train of thought and start rambling about something else, but hopefully you were able to understand what I was trying to say!

 

There could also be an option to employ some of the more neutral characters like Rouge or Fang as spies or mercenaries.

Edited March 1, 2013 by w00tkins

[Spin Attaxx]

Anyone play Star Wars: Empire at War?

 

I'd want it to be somewhat like that, with the Eggman Empire and G.U.N. being the primary factions. Sonic and friends would be G.U.N. heroes, while Metal Sonic, Mecha Sonic, Eggrobo etc. would be E.E. heroes.

[Diogenes]

One key feature that would need to be done is somehow toning down the importance of the main cast. We'd be focusing on the politics and not the personalities of the Sonic world.

But then, who would care?

The series has had enough trouble making its main characters compelling and interesting; who's going to care about the big political sort of groups? Largely faceless, largely irrelevant to anything the series has done or been...who actually, genuinely gives a shit about GUN?

Plus you're suggesting so many changes to the setting, changes to the focus...does it even have anything to do with anything "Sonic" anymore? It'd be practically an entirely new property aside from some tangential connections to Sonic. Might as well be honest about it, cut the connections, and make it its own thing.

[Kuzu]

This honestly sounds to disconneted to even be Sonic anymore, the series is more character driven than anything else and they've already toned down the importance of most of the cast, you can't really expect people to care if Sonic and co. are't the main focus.

[Tani Coyote]

The proposal to tone down the characters was only one. There are many variations that a strategy game could take. It's the joy of brainstorming: nothing is set in stone.

 

There's always the ability to add characters as Hero units of sorts, though naturally Eggman or whoever the antagonist would be would need their own hero units for balance purposes. I guess that's what the Metal series is for though. Spin Attaxx has the right idea.

 

Regarding the Archie references, that was one of my other concerns. While the idea is tempting I can see that going southward fast. Some sort of setting loosely related to the current game canon would be best.

 

Though if we used an Archie-esque setting where Eggman rules a fair chunk of the planet already, that in itself actually nerfs the power of the main cast, making them viable as active participants. If Sonic was so powerful he would have surely toppled the Empire by now in that timeline, so the same would apply if Eggman was given the same power status in an actual title. He and his friends seem more akin to tactical nukes than a full nuclear assault.

 

Actually come to think of it the more I think about it the more I think this would do well in the Chronicles timeline. It had a Sonic the Comic-esque twist with Eggman taking over in Sonic's absence, after all. This would logically make Eggman far more dangerous than before, as he's now an actual superpower and not just a large terrorist organisation. If he can build those fleets with relatively miniscule resources, picture what he could do with an actual empire that covered half or more of the planet? Eggman's reach would be so great Sonic and his friends couldn't turn the tide alone... they'd need actual conventional assistance.

 

I like this approach as well I must say.

[Kuzu]

The problem with this, this is mostly assuming that all of the characters are allied in some way, while they do tend to work together a lot in the games, for the most part everyone has their own little group they tend to stick to so you'd have to divide the strategy up with those groups. Take the Heroes setup for instance:

 

You got Team Sonic(Sonic, Tails, & Knuckles. Team Dark/GUN(Shadow, Rouge, & Omega), Team Rose(Amy, Cream, & Big), Team Chaotix(Epsio, Charmy, & Vector), Babylon Rogues(Jet, Wave, & Storm), Team clusterfuck(Blaze & Silver), and the Eggman Empire(Eggman, Metal Sonic, Orbot/Cubot). And these are just the recurring characters, so you'd probably be adding new characters apart of it.

 

So you'd have to divide focus among seven different factions.

Edited March 1, 2013 by Ragna the Bloodedge

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Well, if you want to just go out there and throw in factions that we know from the games, we actualy have a few if we want to pull back to the past as well:
1)Eggman(of course, possibly a modern and classic? classic has more general classes, but fewer multi-function, whereas modern relys on less classes, but they are more general in function)
2)GUN
3)Bird Armada(Their origin is infact tail's adventures for the gamegear. like eggman they would have had to reform)
4)Ancient Echidna tribes(wheter pacahmas time displaced tribe, or the nocturnus, nocturnus would proably be better, even if you do need an excuse for why they are there)
5)? has anyone considered that under the right circumstances that Tails might have made an army of his own? he does have the robotics skill, and there might be a need. also it would proably be a smaller but powerful force
6)What about a criminals faction? we know that every world has an underworld, would proably be alligned with eggman, but they could be seperate as well
7) oh and Black arms I guess......

8) oh and a group of rebuilt reprogramed damaged robots backed by an evil genius perhaps?(not out of the question of proability)

all these guys are possibilitys, and more or less game canon(or at least were at one time), or in one or two possibilitys(underworld and rebuilt robots). Also what I see is that with heroes, is that depending on events, they could switch factions, and factions could switch alliances as well. also, in a story mode, this would all be set up as the story goes. though of course they would be preset for a skirmish/ multiplayer mode, however the possibility of your actions causing alliances or even having heroes switch teams due to your actions would make for an interesting aspect

Edited March 1, 2013 by Mandobardanjusik

[Solid SOAP]

I know it'll never be made, but a strategy game ala Fire Emblem where you play as Gun Soliders against Dr. Eggman's mechs would be pretty cool. Sonic & co. can make cameos but it'd be mainly focused on GUN and Eggman.

[Kuzu]

I know it'll never be made, but a strategy game ala Fire Emblem where you play as Gun Soliders against Dr. Eggman's mechs would be pretty cool. Sonic & co. can make cameos but it'd be mainly focused on GUN and Eggman.

Outside of Team Dark( and by Team Dark, I mean Shadow & friends) does anyone really care about GUN? They don't really a notable presence in the series.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Well, if you really want to think about it, it is possible that by the time we get the game GUN's forces have either been destroyed, or undermined by spies, and its possible their forces have never been allowed to get strong because of politics. They are like the UN, they are there, but they are no powerhouse, and generaly only end up doing the clean up duty.

[Blacklightning]

Outside of Team Dark( and by Team Dark, I mean Shadow & friends) does anyone really care about GUN? They don't really a notable presence in the series.

The fact that they've only been seen once since ShTH (and even then only as a throwback) might have something to do with that.

[Someguy]

I think a way that would work well would be to have two or three stories/sides like SA2, each with their own twist or gimmick but, as people would want in the main games too, otherwise sticking to the same gameplay.

 

There'd be a "Hero" story, which would focus on smaller sets of strong units. Most levels would feature Sonic, Tails and a few other pals, some would have level-exclusive characters just passing by, and some levels would change focus to another character like Shadow or the Babylon Rouges, one who might have different goals or such but would still play the same and probably have the same overall goal of "BEAT ALL THOSE EGGMANS ROBOTS" or whatnot.

 

You'd probably have 2 to 6 of these Heroes under your control, they'd be strong enough to take out quite a few bots with ease, able to move longer distances, have larger attack pools and soak up a decent bit of damage. The counter to that is that you are stuck with who you have there. Tails might be able to create some weak disposable bots or such, but if a Hero character goes down you'll have to go out of your way to "revive" them, perhaps avoid them getting taken by Eggman for his nefarious schemes. Sonic or his equivalent going down or letting a character be taken or stay KOed for too long would be usual lose conditions.

 

These Hero type characters might be able to use certain gimmicks around a stage without penalty, springs and such. Some characters might be limited on a few things, some might have exclusive gimmicks, but it wouldn't be as severe as Chronicles, most everyone could go through loops or use springs or tubes, which would be a way to get away from robots that can't jump or the like. Then again, one could crowd a whole pack of robots right outside of such an area, knowing that someone like Sonic would want to take that route.

 

Then there'd be the Eggman story, and/or a similar GUN story. The focus here would be more on a single commander ordering an army of expendables from their own single equivalent to a Hero character. Eggman would be able to use up a pool of points to create whatever combo of bots he wants, slowly replenishing, gaining more from scrapped GUN units, possibly saving up enough points to make/repair a single "Hero" strength robot such as Metal Sonic. Eggman himself would pilot one of several strong boss machines, which would count like a Hero type character with multiple moves, but would lack the general maneuverability, making up for it with extra strength and defense. If this goes down it would count as a loss.

 

Eggman would be able to set traps for the opponent like spikes or crushers that his robots would be immune to or not activate, though again someone like Tails or Rouge might be able to do a lightweight version of them. The puppy thing from Tails Adventure, those bombs from Sonic Battle, they'd be more a bonus advantage for them rather than a major feature.

 

Something like GUN would probably be the middle ground, able to produce robots but lacking as many super boss type units, but being allied with characters like Shadow would mean they could have one or two Hero types on their team without having to spend like Eggman.

 

To make it feel more like Sonic, the hero side at least should try and streamline things, make the pace feel a bit faster. Perhaps follow Sonic Chronicles and have you set every action and then have them go and move out/attack at once? Though just having the right music, UI and attack animations set at 60 FPS could give it a speedier enough feel, setting up the hero stages to avoid characters simply standing around bashing each other(tieing into the ability for hero characters to take down normal bots with relative ease, so long as they don't slip up and get surrounded while weakened)

 

 

Sorry, I might have gotten carried away there.

[Tani Coyote]

I think a way that would work well would be to have two or three stories/sides like SA2, each with their own twist or gimmick but, as people would want in the main games too, otherwise sticking to the same gameplay.

 

There'd be a "Hero" story, which would focus on smaller sets of strong units. Most levels would feature Sonic, Tails and a few other pals, some would have level-exclusive characters just passing by, and some levels would change focus to another character like Shadow or the Babylon Rouges, one who might have different goals or such but would still play the same and probably have the same overall goal of "BEAT ALL THOSE EGGMANS ROBOTS" or whatnot.

 

You'd probably have 2 to 6 of these Heroes under your control, they'd be strong enough to take out quite a few bots with ease, able to move longer distances, have larger attack pools and soak up a decent bit of damage. The counter to that is that you are stuck with who you have there. Tails might be able to create some weak disposable bots or such, but if a Hero character goes down you'll have to go out of your way to "revive" them, perhaps avoid them getting taken by Eggman for his nefarious schemes. Sonic or his equivalent going down or letting a character be taken or stay KOed for too long would be usual lose conditions.

 

These Hero type characters might be able to use certain gimmicks around a stage without penalty, springs and such. Some characters might be limited on a few things, some might have exclusive gimmicks, but it wouldn't be as severe as Chronicles, most everyone could go through loops or use springs or tubes, which would be a way to get away from robots that can't jump or the like. Then again, one could crowd a whole pack of robots right outside of such an area, knowing that someone like Sonic would want to take that route.

 

Then there'd be the Eggman story, and/or a similar GUN story. The focus here would be more on a single commander ordering an army of expendables from their own single equivalent to a Hero character. Eggman would be able to use up a pool of points to create whatever combo of bots he wants, slowly replenishing, gaining more from scrapped GUN units, possibly saving up enough points to make/repair a single "Hero" strength robot such as Metal Sonic. Eggman himself would pilot one of several strong boss machines, which would count like a Hero type character with multiple moves, but would lack the general maneuverability, making up for it with extra strength and defense. If this goes down it would count as a loss.

 

Eggman would be able to set traps for the opponent like spikes or crushers that his robots would be immune to or not activate, though again someone like Tails or Rouge might be able to do a lightweight version of them. The puppy thing from Tails Adventure, those bombs from Sonic Battle, they'd be more a bonus advantage for them rather than a major feature.

 

Something like GUN would probably be the middle ground, able to produce robots but lacking as many super boss type units, but being allied with characters like Shadow would mean they could have one or two Hero types on their team without having to spend like Eggman.

 

To make it feel more like Sonic, the hero side at least should try and streamline things, make the pace feel a bit faster. Perhaps follow Sonic Chronicles and have you set every action and then have them go and move out/attack at once? Though just having the right music, UI and attack animations set at 60 FPS could give it a speedier enough feel, setting up the hero stages to avoid characters simply standing around bashing each other(tieing into the ability for hero characters to take down normal bots with relative ease, so long as they don't slip up and get surrounded while weakened)

 

 

Sorry, I might have gotten carried away there.

 

Excellent post!

 

One-shot kill hero units are standard in Command and Conquer and I presume most strategy franchises, so making it so heroes avoid sluggish combat is easy. So long as Heroes don't have to engage eachother all will be well. Presumably any time heroes of opposing sides would meet up would be solely in cutscenes to avoid slowing down gameplay.

 

I can see Team Dark fitting more with the playable good side Hero units as they'd probably be more open to stealth operations, as hero units are usually purposed for (as an example, see Tanya's mission to shut down Soviet nuclear silos in Red Alert 2).

 

If Sonic was a hero unit on the other hand, I'm imagining him getting into a lot of trouble due to his impatience and tendency to jump right into things without planning. Could always be a humorous mission, for example, where he attacks the enemy, leaves the job half finished after having some fun, and Team Dark now has to sneak into the enemy base against much worse odds. Never mind putting the Blue Blur on the map would surely have some humorous issues arise, so actually having him as a playable hero unit might not be the best idea.

 

Fortunately the benefit of an Eggman Empire that encompasses much of the globe is Sonic and co. lose their biggest advantage. As it stands, they're basically GI Joe beating up on Cobra. It's not too hard to win against someone who's not too widespread. But if Eggman rules half the world, it'll take more than just them to beat him; they'll need actual armies as allies.

 

Maybe GUN could finally prove its competence as a military power.

 

I know it'll never be made, but a strategy game ala Fire Emblem where you play as Gun Soliders against Dr. Eggman's mechs would be pretty cool. Sonic & co. can make cameos but it'd be mainly focused on GUN and Eggman.

 

Really I've always thought that was a potential storyline to be developed with Shadow, now that he's one of GUN's senior agents. Shame it never got off the ground.

 

We can presume he'd be an excellent ace to play if necessary, though, which makes him a perfect hero unit.

 

So you'd have to divide focus among seven different factions.

 

Doable! As people who have played Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 can tell you, having varied subsets of each faction is very doable. The Allies and Soviets had 5 and 4 subfactions in that, respectively, each with their own unique units. Such an idea could easily be expanded on and repurposes for this theoretical title.

 

Given their rankings, I assume Team Dark and Team Sonic would receive the most attention. I'm seeing Team Dark as standard hero units, whereas Team Sonic would be the units deployed in those special unit-centric missions (as CnC had a few of those). The issue is unit-centric missions tend to rely more on stealth... and I can see Sonic not going along too well with that plan.

 

For balance purposes hero units should be able to "die," as in being removed from the map. The hero unit for the Allies in Red Alert 2, for example, could die in some missions and you'd just get a quick cutscene of them telling you they did all they could and they would need to rest for a while as they were loaded into a med evac helicopter. These units are good, but you will avoid using them recklessly if you wanna keep them for a mission!

 

Well, if you want to just go out there and throw in factions that we know from the games, we actualy have a few if we want to pull back to the past as well:

 

These are all interesting concepts certainly. A strategy game allows for more depth overall I think, which means there can be factions that only appear in such a title.

 

Hence the suggestion we could simply create a new timeline altogether.

[Salamander]

I haven't played many strategy games, but honestly, Fire Emblem seems the way to go. All of your units are their own character, which suits Sonic's massive cast to a tee, and then there are quite a few which would make sense as neutral or enemy units to be converted - Rouge, gullible Knuckles, etc. Then for the more generic enemies you have a huge variety of Badniks to choose from. Then maybe the actual "battles" when characters confront each other could be action-based instead of turn-based (i.e. just trying to jump on a Badnik or boss without getting hit too many times) and instead of health, a set amount of rings each character has at the start of each level with but can pick up more of as you move around the battlefield? You can still involve the likes of GUN, although they'd be better off in the background - just say that they're cleaning up after your advance force of colourful furries, because GUN are just the most generic military in the world and there's not much interesting you can actually do with them. You can have a level set in a GUN base or fight against tricked/brainwashed soldiers another time I guess, but I don't think they're ever going to be enough of a selling point to be made main players, and that's if they aren't an active deterrent to potential purchasers. Yeah, that's what'll save Sonic's bacon, realistic soldiers on the cover art!

[Someguy]

One-shot kill hero units are standard in Command and Conquer and I presume most strategy franchises, so making it so heroes avoid sluggish combat is easy. So long as Heroes don't have to engage eachother all will be well. Presumably any time heroes of opposing sides would meet up would be solely in cutscenes to avoid slowing down gameplay.

I figured that a hero unit battle would be where things would "slow down" just a small bit, in the same way the games often lock the screen in a boss battle, you'd have to deal multiple hits or wait until they are worn down by enough of the weaker badniks or GUN robots or Chaos Spear potshots. I guess the same would apply to a Hero vs Eggman boss mech, but those would be easier to run away from(though probably also easier to be crushed by)

 

You can have a level set in a GUN base or fight against tricked/brainwashed soldiers another time I guess, but I don't think they're ever going to be enough of a selling point to be made main players, and that's if they aren't an active deterrent to potential purchasers. Yeah, that's what'll save Sonic's bacon, realistic soldiers on the cover art!

When I see people going on about GUN playing a role, I like to imagine less random soldiers and more the robots and piloted mechs from Sonic Adventure 2 and the like, with at most a few soldiers in cutscenes with the commander, useless redshirts if you were playing as Eggman or maybe visible/chatting inside the mechs that would basically be good guy badniks. GUN's Hero/Boss unit equivalent would be the GUN truck.

[Jolt_TH]

GUN bosses could be diablon? Dont Forget big foot and hot shot too! If they could pull it off then I'd love to play it, I loved games like Age of Empires and the warhammer game (the one time I played it)

It'll be easy with Eggman but its just finding another faction, G.U.N would make sense, but with no "hero" units to speak of. Sonic and Co. would be another choice, but they don't have any disposable troops either, so it's a bit hit and miss as to how it would work

Eggman is lucky really, he has disposable units and "hero" units like Metal Sonic/Knuckles/Tails that he could deploy along with any number of boss Mechs (callback to any retro bosses anyone?) like big arm, egg dragoon ect.

EDIT; in fact now I think about it it might work well after all. You could count it as two different play styles, one with "hero" units that don't respawn when they are "dead" instead they leave the battlefield to heal or something for the remainder of the mission, and then you have G.U.N who can make as many disposable units but with less power (maybe one or two hero units aka shadow and rouge). Therefore that gives you two play styles and maybe two campaigns/stories as well as Eggman's? Maybe even have a fourth unlockabke where it is the hero units AND G.U.N or maybe as the last mission or something against Eggman and all the metals?

Edited March 3, 2013 by Jolt_TH

[Tani Coyote]

When I see people going on about GUN playing a role, I like to imagine less random soldiers and more the robots and piloted mechs from Sonic Adventure 2 and the like, with at most a few soldiers in cutscenes with the commander, useless redshirts if you were playing as Eggman or maybe visible/chatting inside the mechs that would basically be good guy badniks. GUN's Hero/Boss unit equivalent would be the GUN truck.

 

Really I can see this as the best option overall. Sega would undoubtedly want a semi-lighthearted theme so it'd probably be robots versus robots.

 

in fact now I think about it it might work well after all. You could count it as two different play styles, one with "hero" units that don't respawn when they are "dead" instead they leave the battlefield to heal or something for the remainder of the mission

 

It's been done before to explain how supers like Tanya could be killed on the map yet be back in future missions; she simply sustained injuries and was evacuated. Same would go for any hero units really!

 

As a note I find that I kind of drifted the topic towards suggestions of RTS, whereas Sega's invested in turn-based RTS as memory serves. So the Fire Emblem idea might be onto something, while also enabling some character-centric strategy.

[MamboCat]

STC/O strategy game, please! [/predictable post mode]

 

Surely the factions would be:

 

Freedom Fighters

RBR Empire (depending on when it would be set...)

The Flock

Sky Pirates (perhaps including The Spice Maidens)

Nameless Zone foxes

Knuckles and his Guardian robots?

 

Uuuh... who else?! Geez... :B

[JezMM]

Okay I just skimmed this topic because Strategy games bore the hell out of me, but from what I can see the whole debate seems to be completely based on the idea that a Strategy game has to be based around two factions fighting each other on equal ground.

 

 

Have you guys ever played Rock of Ages?  I'm not the biggest fan of it but essentially it involves defending your castle against a rolling rock from the top of a large, elaborate Marble Madness-esque course by setting up tower-defense style hazards and using coins earned when you are rolling YOUR rock down the opponent's hill to unlock additional units and upgrades for your rock.

 

 

I think something more streamlined that retains action game elements like that would be far more appropriate for the Sonic series.  (The obvious comparison of course is swap the castles for Eggman's base and Station Square, the commanders being Eggman and Tails, the rolling being streamlined, perhaps Unleashed/Secret Rings'-esque platforming (I realise the irony of swapping out a physics-based action game like Marble Madness for non-physics based stuff when transferring it to a Sonic-based format), and the rocks for Sonic and Metal Sonic.

 

But obviously it'd have to be more original than that.

 

 

I mean think about it.  There are a million strategy games with wars and armies out there and the people who play them aren't gonna care about a Sonic one.  The people who will play this are those who are already Sonic fans, and kids.

Edited March 3, 2013 by JezMM

[Badnik Zero]

I posted here one time about an Eggman RTS that's part Starcraft, part Pikmin, and part first-person elements.

 

In essence it would be a tower defense game, but not in the traditional sense. Instead of fighting waves of more difficult enemies, it would be Eggman against one of the Sonic characters invading his base, and they are vastly more powerful than your Badnik army.

 

The game would have a top-down 3/4 perspective and levels would take place in familiar or new Sonic locations. So let's say you're in Green Hill - your objective would be to farm resources like any RTS game (rings or maybe a new material) and build familiar scenery props like spikes, spring obstacles, dangerous see-saws, trying to turn the zone into a dangerous place before the hero arrives. You'd also be building Badnik factories that use up small animals - and you'd be riding in the Eggmobile capturing animals yourself. Like every RTS game there's a tech tree that allows more hazards and even more Badniks (some are zone-specific) and maybe lieutenant robots like Metal Knuckles, but eventually you'd be able to upgrade your Eggmobile into a boss robot, like some drill copter, or fire-spitting thing. You'd control the map in order to put build orders, but you'd also be controlling Eggman as a main character plus the Badnik army like Pikmin. You could first-person in the Eggmobile for a nice view, but I'm thinking that's only for specific situations. In time the hero would arrive (after a countdown clock) and you get to see if your base and army is strong enough to hold. You'd win by capturing Sonic's friends. Each level would present new challenges like lava, uneven terrain and so on, and the invading hero would have new abilities with Sonic obviously being the final boss of the game. Only problem with this is Eggman would have to lose in the end, but I'm thinking you could tell a story where Eggman wins at the same time, even though Sonic's freed his friends.

 

There could be a level against Knuckles where you syphon power off the Master Emerald, a level versus Shadow, Rouge, and Omega, a level where Tails flies the Tornado against you requiring you to have air defense... Any ideas work.

[JezMM]

I think the biggest point for me would be if they're making a strategy game where you defend from a little platforming Sonic, I want to play that Sonic at certian points, or at least in a versus mode.  So another issue would be making sure it's still a fun experience for the Sonic player.  I.e. It is always at least POSSIBLE to get through, though the more damage you take along the way affects how much damage you do to Eggman at the goal point, etc.

[Badnik Zero]

^ I suppose that's possible in this game concept, but the bulk of the game is Eggman's strategy and level set-up, followed by Pikmin-styled tactics in head on battle. On the other hand the hero's job is just to run in and wreck shit - you'd have to make sure the AI was solid to present a challenge. So multiplayer would definitely be cool with a human Sonic opponent, but all the work would be on the Eggman player to set up, while the Sonic player is essentially an overpowered wrecking ball. But I guess that could be fun, I know there's some mods like that in custom Warcraft games, I think... Something to do with uhh... vampires, peasants, and slayers? It's been a while since Warcraft 3.

Edited March 3, 2013 by American Ristar