Ludum Dare 43

Theme: Sacrifices must be made

TBS: Temple-Based Sacrifice

• setting
• TBS combat
• fog of war
• basic unit types
• basic building types
• unit-vs-unit combat
• unit movement
• terrain difficulty
• land ownership
• cycles
• sacrifices
• gods

Setting

The game is set on a Earth in the distant future (21XX). Various powerful factions have turned back to their roots and worship gods of Ancient Greek times. Due to the surge in believers, the gods have awoken to the new times and provide their worshippers with benefits – in return for ritualistic sacrifices.

TBS combat

The combat is turn-based, on a hex grid. Players take turns one after the other. During a player's turn, they may take an action with each unit and building they owned at the start of that turn (i.e. not the ones that were produced or captured during the turn).

A unit action in general consists of:

• movement
• attack / defense / capture / support

Fog of war

The map is covered with a fog of war which reveals the terrain and building types, but not units, building ownership, or land ownership. Fog of war is cleared where a player's unit can see (VIS range), where they own a building, where they own land (land ownership).

Basic unit types

• CYC Cycles to produce
• HP Max health points
• MP Max movement points
• ATK Attack
• RNG Attack range
• DEF Defense
• VIS Vision
• STL Stealth

Special attributes:

• Charge - ATK increased by hex distance from tile before movement
• Terrain affinity - TDF = 1 for the given terrain
• Repair - Can restore 2 HP on a friendly unit
• Amphibian - Ground + Swimming
• Camouflage - STL set to remaining MP at the end of turn
• Kamikaze - Dies when attacking
• Siege - Cannot attack if any MP was spent during the turn, cannot counter-strike
• Medusa gaze - Any attacked unit immediately turns neutral (no counter-strike)
• Weak start - Produced with 1 HP
• Attack health - ATK = ATK + HP
• Max count X - Cannot produce another unit if the player already owns X or more (can still capture)
• Capturing - Unit can capture buildings and units

Tier	Type	CYC	HP	MP	ATK	RNG	DEF	VIS	STL	Special
	Ground
0	Wolf	4	2	3	3	1	0	3	0	Capturing
1	Spider	4	2	4	1	1	0	3	1	Capturing, Desert affinity
1	Monkey	4	1	2	0	0	2	1	0	Capturing, Repair, Mountain affinity, Hill affinity, Max count 2
2	Bombardier ant	6	3	2	2	4	0	1	0	Siege
2	Chamois	6	4	4	1	1	0	2	0	Charge, Mountain affinity, Hill affinity
3	Bull	10	6	3	2	1	1	2	0	Charge
4	Hog	9	10	3	0	1	0	2	0	Weak start, Attack health, Max count 1
	Flying
0	Bat	5	2	8	0	0	0	4	0	Max count 1
2	Bumblebee	4	1	5	6	1	0	1	0	Kamikaze, Siege
2	Mosquito	5	2	3	3	1	0	3	1	-
4	Eagle	10	5	3	3	1	1	4	0	-
	Swimming
1	Octopus	6	4	3	4	1	0	3	1	-
2	Squid	10	2	3	4	4	2	1	0	Siege, Max count 2
3	Swordfish	9	4	6	0	1	1	2	1	Charge, Max count 1
	Amphibian
1	Frog	2	1	1	0	0	3	1	0	-
2	Snake	5	3	3	2	1	0	3	0	Capturing, Camouflage
4	Medusa	15	4	3	1	2	2	3	0	Medusa gaze, Max count 1

Basic building types

Type	Special
Temple-tron	Captured = owner defeated, Effects of Shrine, Effects of Factoreon
Factoreon	Produces ground units
Dock	Produces swimming and amphibian units
Eyrie	Produces flying units
Forge	Increases available production tier by 1 when owned
Fortress	Units on fortress tile get +1 ATK, +1 DEF, +1 VIS
Shrine	Provides ownership of nearby land

Unit-vs-unit combat

Unit-vs-unit combat depends on the stats:

• ATK Attack
• RNG Attack range
• DEF Defense
• VIS Vision
• STL Stealth

Additional functions:

• dst(a,b) Shortest distance in hex tiles between a and b
• max(a,b) Larger number of a and b

The attacking unit (AU) can attack the defending unit (DU) during the AU owner's turn if the following conditions are met:

AU.RNG + AU.VIS >= dst(AU, DU) - DU.STL (visibility)
AU.RNG >= dst(AU, DU) (range)
AU.ATK > 0 (can attack)

The attack consists of two phases:

1. Strike
2. Counter-strike

Strike

During this phase, AU deals some damage to DU. The amount of damage is subtracted from the HP of DU, and is:

DMG = max(0, AU.ATK - DU.DEF)

At least one point of damage is always dealt.

Counter-strike

During this phase, DU deals some damage back to to AU. This phase only happens if:

AU.RNG + AU.VIS >= dst(AU, DU) - DU.STL (visibility)
DU.RNG >= dst(AU, DU) (range)
DU.ATK > 0 (can attack)
DU.HP > 0 (did not die)
!DU.defended (did not defend this turn)

This phase will not take place if DU was destroyed during the previous phase (fourth condition) or if DU already defended against an attack (last condition). The amount of damage is subtracted from the HP of AU, and is:

DMG = max(0, DU.ATK - AU.DEF)

Unlike the fisrt phase, it is possible that the defending damage is zero. DU.defended is reset at the beginning of DU's owner's turn.

Unit movement

A unit (U) can move at the beginning of its action. The distance it can move depends on:

• MP Movement points
• SLW Slowdown modifier
• Occupancy of tiles
• TDF Terrain difficulty

At the beginning of U's action, the MP of U is set to:

U.MP = U.MAX_MP - U.SLW

From the starting position of U, A* is used to determine the reachable tiles. The neighbours of a tile are the six tiles that touch it on a side. The cost of moving from tile AT to tile BT is:

if occupied by enemy:
  COST = inf
else:
  COST = max(AT.TDF, BT.TDF)

U can then move to any tile where:

TOTAL_COST <= U.MP
not occupied

Note that U can move through tiles occupied by friendly units, but never ones that are occupied by enemy units. U can never end on a previously occupied tile. After movement, TOTAL_COST is subtracted from U.MP and U continues to the next phase of its action.

Terrain difficulty

• TDF_G = TDF for non-flying, non-swimming units
• VIS_G = VIS modifier for non-flying, non-swimming units
• TDF_F = TDF for flying units
• TDF_S = TDF for swimming units

Terrain	TDF_G	VIS_G	TDF_F	TDF_S
Plain	1	0	1	inf
Desert	2	0	1	inf
Hill	2	1	1	inf
Mountain	3	2	2	inf
Water	inf	-	1	1
Void	inf	-	1	inf

Land ownership

Players can own land based on Shrines they have captured. The range of ownership around a Shrine is the tile of the Shrine itself and any neighboring tiles. Void tiles cannot be owned.

Any owned tiles:

• fog of war is cleared on them
• provide one cycle at the beginning of their owner's turn

Cycles

Cycles are the currency of the game. They are used to build units or purchase upgrades.

At the beginning of the game, each player has 10 cycles. At the beginning of a player's turn, they receive as 1 cycle for each tile they own.

Units can be produced in factories. Starting the production takes CYC cycles.

Sacrifices

As the action of their Temple-tron, a player can perform a ritualistic sacrifice. The effects of the sacrifice depend on their faction's god. They may sacrifice:

• a unit - if it can perform an action this turn, but has not yet (i.e. not units that have just been produced, nor units that have moved / attacked / ...)
• a turn - if they have performed no other actions during that turn
• money - 100 cycles

Gods

Active abilities have a 30 point charge-up.

• Sacrificing unit - gain max(floor(CYC / 2), cyclesDestroyed) points

Faction	God	Characteristic / effect
Juggernauts	Ares	Destruction
	- passive	+1 ATK on siege and charge units.
	- active	Siege units no longer have the siege modifier. Charge adds twice as much damage.
Harlequins	Dionysus	Trickery, Confusion?, Charm?
	- passive	All flying units can capture.
	- active	All units can capture. Flying units have +1 DEF.
Zephyrs	Hermes	Teleportation / transport
	- passive	All units have desert and hill affinity.
	- active	TODO: Every unit gains +1 max MP. Ground units have +1 DEF when not in Plains.
Reapers	Hades	Death? Stasis?
	- passive	Monkeys, Bats, Frogs have 4 DEF.
	- active	TODO: Thorn defense (any damage cancelled by DEF is dealt back to the attacker). Wolves and Spiders have +1 DEF.

TODO

• main menu - choose factions, map selection

• player hand over

• faction fixes

• fix camera turning

• multiplayer hahaaa

• larger tiles (outline against same colour???)

• fullscreen

• moved / acted indicator

• model

  • AI?

• audio . create sfx