"Commandos" style gameplay

Hi

This is probably in the wrong forum, but I couldn't see a forum for game design/discussion. Please move if appropriate.

Basically I am wondering what would be the best way to create kind of gameplay like Commandos/Desperados where you have a few characters with abilities moving around a map.

Obviously I think Isometric tiling is kind of outdated and doesn't suit the gameplay. Do these games generally model their levels and then import the models rather than using terrains etc?

Would it be better for example to use planes to define the boundaries of a forest you can't enter and then paint trees inside? Or try to script that the trees prevent your character moving that way? Alternatively maybe you just program boundaries in the player.transform parameters?

A few things I am bearing in mind is water and mountains. Water for example is presenting in 2d, I don't want characters swimming downwards but across the water. But I do want them to walk up mountains so height is essential.

I know this subject is something games have been particularly creative about, Total Annihilation for example. So if you were to make a Commandos or Company of Heroes type clone how would you go about programming the map itself?

 

Some of this is just less-than-well educated guessing, but some thoughts anyway...

I think most of the map in Commandos was just a painted background with colliders in place to mark areas the player couldn't enter or were meant to act as a height barrier. It's been quite a while since I played it the last time, but I think the characters weren't actually able to move behind an obstacle and out of sight of the player.

Water can be crossed just like normal terrain - the simplest way to achieve this would be to set up a collider around it and change the player sprite/animation once he gets inside this collider.

In an isometric 2D environment you wouldn't have to make players actually climb upwards as long as the background image looks like it's higher above the ground, like the ramps and plateaus in StarCraft or Command Conquer for example.

Total Annihilation used an actual 3D environment which took care of some of these issues. Commandos (well, the first two) were 2D only.

 

Thanks for the reply. I guess what I'm asking is whether I should go 2d or 3d, isometric or not, for a game with Commandos-like gameplay. Obviously technology has improved so would a 3D environment with a top-down camera be better than a 2d/iso one? And if I do utilise 3d landscape then how do I create those kind of barriers between unclimbable or unpassable terrain like a forest? Just invisible meshes with colliders? Or are there better ways?

See Company of Heroes for a slightly different 3D angle, but which presents the same kind of gameplay I want to create.

 

May I suggest a different question? Try asking yourself which path will enable you to create a product and FINISH it, in 12 weeks. 2D, 3D, Isometric, and other techs are just the glitter of gold calling you to distraction.

Gigi

 

I agree. I'd do a simple idea that's possible to execute in a reasonable time. If you come up with an original-ish idea then that's great as well.