NationStates Jolt Archive

i was just looking at Google Earth around my neighbourhood and i realised... why isn't there a RTS or rome/civ-style strategy game based on real-world GPS satellite imagery? is this a cool idea or is it just me? the game could be huge (and detailed down to street-level)... mmm...



edit:
i made some mock-ups earlier and think street-level action would be feasable, though it couldn't be controlling individual men/tanks etc, more Rome/Total War style control of units (represented (badly) in my mock ups in Rome style army units... i dunno but you get the picture)

medium level (http://www.hlj.me.uk/misc/pompey%20war%201.jpg)
"street level" (http://www.hlj.me.uk/misc/pompey%20war%202.jpg)
strategy level (zoomed in of course) (http://www.hlj.me.uk/misc/pompey%20war%203.jpg)

(and anyone who knows the area should see that this is a war of Southampton invading Portsmouth ;) :D (and somehow negotiating the evil roads there... grrr...))

i was just looking at Google Earth around my neighbourhood and i realised... why isn't there a RTS or rome/civ-style strategy game based on real-world GPS satellite imagery? is this a cool idea or is it just me? the game could be huge (and detailed down to street-level)... mmm...
Like Cybernations but better?

Like Cybernations but better?

i don't know cybernations :(
perhaps i should have added the poll option [it already exists, stupid]

should also think getting this imagery data is fooking expensive (but then offset that against the cost of designing and building your own game-world)

i don't know cybernations :(
perhaps i should have added the poll option [it already exists, stupid]

should also think getting this imagery data is fooking expensive (but then offset that against the cost of designing and building your own game-world)
It is nowhere as indepth as you suggested but, one up from NS...
http://www.cybernations.net

I'm thinking a world size pacman game going along the roads

It's a bit like my idea of a further merger between RTS and TBS.

It's a pretty good idea, but I don't think it's feasible yet. Aside from the fact that the game would have to be enormous, with all the problems that would bring, I also don't think GPS is detailed enough yet. If you think about how blurry Google Earth gets if you try to zoom below about 1000 feet, it's difficult to see how you could have street to street action.

I'm thinking a world size pacman game going along the roads

You could try what these guys do (http://www.pacmanhattan.com/)

You could try what these guys do (http://www.pacmanhattan.com/)

That was umm... interesting.

It's a pretty good idea, but I don't think it's feasible yet. Aside from the fact that the game would have to be enormous, with all the problems that would bring, I also don't think GPS is detailed enough yet. If you think about how blurry Google Earth gets if you try to zoom below about 1000 feet, it's difficult to see how you could have street to street action.

i do agree that the sheer scale of the game would actually be a turn-off, unless there was a lot of automation or it was divided up into different continents or something. even then it'd be massive... maybe taking control of a key building in certain major regional cities would work best? still lots of street-to-street fighting, but it wouldn't be all about that and there'd still be enough top-level strategy going on to be good.

anyway i made some mock-ups earlier and think street-level action would be feasable, though it couldn't be controlling individual men/tanks etc, more Rome/Total War style control of units (represented (badly) in my mock ups in Rome style army units... i dunno but you get the picture)

medium level (http://www.hlj.me.uk/misc/pompey%20war%201.jpg)
"street level" (http://www.hlj.me.uk/misc/pompey%20war%202.jpg)
strategy level (zoomed in of course) (http://www.hlj.me.uk/misc/pompey%20war%203.jpg)

(and anyone who knows the area should see that this is a war of Southampton invading Portsmouth ;) :D (and somehow negotiating the evil roads there... grrr...))

anyway i made some mock-ups earlier and think street-level action would be feasable, though it couldn't be controlling individual men/tanks etc, more Rome/Total War style control of units (represented (badly) in my mock ups in Rome style army units... i dunno but you get the picture)


The only way I can see it feasibly working as a proper "game" is if you make it a turn based strategy wargame similar to Panzer General or the Operational Art of War series, with the satellite images of the cities/landscapes divided into hexes. Y'could just use standard NATO map icons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APP-6a) to represent the individual batallions, etc.

That would be really entertaining...with all sorts of scearios as well, no matter how improbable!

The only way I can see it feasibly working as a proper "game" is if you make it a turn based strategy wargame similar to Panzer General or the Operational Art of War series, with the satellite images of the cities/landscapes divided into hexes. Y'could just use standard NATO map icons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APP-6a) to represent the individual batallions, etc.

gah, they look too boring to me. i really am thinking like a modern-day Rome TW (which i've been playing a lot of lately, hehe)... a turn-based strategy map but also a real-time battle map. but with google earth (or similar) there wouldn't necessarily be the need for starting a battle and then loading it and the two elements being totally seperate, but rather just zoom in to the street level and it turns into the RTS game instantly - the units become animated and very graphical (if not 3D, as that would be incompatible with the real-world satellite map). i don't know how it would work but Rome is certainly a good basis for what i, at least, was thinking of.

but the idea of dividing the cities into regions (or hexes, whatever) is certainly a good one :)

i'd also like to see the ability to send units to occupy buildings and things like that.

Personally, I've long wanted to play an FPS set in a sort of post-apocalyptic version of towns I've been to.

gah, they look too boring to me.

Yeah. See, the games that use it (http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/8375/toaw3du4.jpg) generally aren't your quick fix fancy graphics types.

i really am thinking like a modern-day Rome TW (which i've been playing a lot of lately, hehe)... a turn-based strategy map but also a real-time battle map. but with google earth (or similar) there wouldn't necessarily be the need for starting a battle and then loading it and the two elements being totally seperate, but rather just zoom in to the street level and it turns into the RTS game instantly - the units become animated and very graphical (if not 3D, as that would be incompatible with the real-world satellite map). i don't know how it would work but Rome is certainly a good basis for what i, at least, was thinking of.

So how do you implement that? Rome TW has a 3D tactical map, and satellite imagery is pretty unsuited to that - it's been tried in flight sims before, and while it looks very pretty at high altitudes and stuff, it turns into a muddy, blurry, unrecognisably ugly mess (http://img2.kult-mag.com/photos/00/00/04/07/ME0000040742_2.jpg) at low altitudes. With a real-time strategy game, you're zoomed in close for almost the entire time. Not only that, you have to differentiate the buildings from the rest of the muck in the coding so that your guys don't walk all over them. If you were going to do it truly like Rome TW you'd have to 3D model the whole city anyway. (which I don't think is what you're getting at)

i'd also like to see the ability to send units to occupy buildings and things like that.

Ever played the original Close Combat series? (not the new one - here, another linky (http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~ianboys/cc3_2.jpg)) Sounds like what you might be looking for, although the scale is a little too small for google earth to represent accurately. And you'd still have to do some modelling for all of the buildings, alas. But it might be a little more feasible.

So how do you implement that? Rome TW has a 3D tactical map, and satellite imagery is pretty unsuited to that - it's been tried in flight sims before, and while it looks very pretty at high altitudes and stuff, it turns into a muddy, blurry, unrecognisably ugly mess (http://img2.kult-mag.com/photos/00/00/04/07/ME0000040742_2.jpg) at low altitudes. With a real-time strategy game, you're zoomed in close for almost the entire time. Not only that, you have to differentiate the buildings from the rest of the muck in the coding so that your guys don't walk all over them. If you were going to do it truly like Rome TW you'd have to 3D model the whole city anyway. (which I don't think is what you're getting at)

well as i said, the battle view couldn't be 3D. animated with pretty looking units and the like, yes, but top-down (or with very slight tilt). the price you pay for that kind of realism without pouring shitloads of money into recreating the whole world or even just a whole country's satellite data.
i'm not saying 3D at all. and differentiating buildings from roads would have to be done either manually (slowly, but better than recreating the whole lot), or using the road data that already exists.

and the problems with unrecognisable ugly mess... not the case. this is why i was saying to base it on Google Earth/satellite imagery data - you can zoom from orbit to street level quickly without it turning to blobby messes (as with textures in flight sims etc)


just look at 51°29'38.39"N 3°11'20.92"W in google earth and turn on the roads option to see what i mean. i do think its possible.

I agreed with every poll option as I read them...so I clicked them all.

Sorry!

bump?

bump?

You don't have to bump. Just reply to people one at a time, slowly.

You don't have to bump. Just reply to people one at a time, slowly.

i replied to people. wasn't too sure how to reply to yours though lol

i replied to people. wasn't too sure how to reply to yours though lol
I'll help you out.:)
You don't have to bump. Just reply to people one at a time, slowly.
Explain please.

How about just a whole college campus? The suburbs are just repeating units while college campus offer a range of tactical environments. You got open fields, as well as a CQB areas, as well as very interesting places to fight (high-energy laboratory anyone?)

Explain please.

Well, let the thread get going, don't reply to people too much while it's still on the first page. As it starts to go onto the second or third page, reply to somebody. That will bump the thread without making it look like you're bumping the thread. Continue as needed and watch your thread be the most popular ever.

yeah. maybe like a version of cybernations that doesent suck arse?

i replied to people. wasn't too sure how to reply to yours though lol

Don't worry about it. :D