A first person squad-based shooter -- think Squad, Battlefield, or even something on a smaller scale like CounterStrike -- where the strategy aspect is managed by an AI and the players just have to execute.
In other words, two AI "commanders" (perhaps along with separate AI "squad leaders") duke out the battle with the players being simply pawns. I've always imagined it in a WWII setting, but I suppose really any setting could work.
Imagine -- you spawn in, and your commander tasks your squad with taking control of a church in a nearby village. You and your fellow squad members enter the village and come under machine gun fire. A teammate tags the window where they saw the fire coming from. You all take cover, as the squad leader starts barking commands -- a few squad members stay back and start providing suppressing fire, while you and some others start advancing slowly, hopping from cover to cover. A teammate is hit, and another is tasked with dragging him to safety. You and the few others still advancing finally get to be in range to toss a grenade in that window. You peek from cover, grenade in hand... to see a tank rounding the corner down the road. You tag the tank, and chaos ensues as the squad leader screams at you to retreat. A mortar squad in a nearby section of the map is alerted to the tank and starts dropping mortars as you fall back to your original position, explosions and bullets flying all around you.
Your squad regroups, a few members down, but the strategy is adjusted and you go back in, eventually destroying the tank, capturing the church, and getting control of the village.
At the same time of this battle, similar battles are potentially unfolding in other parts of a larger map, as the attacking and defending commanders dynamically wage war.
Sometimes I want to think strategy in games, but sometimes I just want to shoot stuff. I think if executed properly this could strike a good balance of both reaching meaningful objectives and also focusing on dynamic, moment-to-moment action. Games like Squad can be great -- if you can find a good squad leader or group to play with consistently. As I get older I find I don't really have time for that, and the probability of getting matched with a good squad leader by chance is pretty low. The setup of this game minimizes the risks of poor teamplay and makes the "Squad" sort of experience more accessible.
That's true -- I think the match format would have to be set up in a way similar to Conquest in Battlefield where teams get points for holding objectives. In that case, if the opposing team has more objectives, the AI can't just play defensively because then your team would simply lose -- so the focus on the AI needs to be on score rather than maximizing each player's performance.
Alternatively I think if it were configured in such a way where one team was explicitly attacking and the other explicitly defending it might work out ok as I had envisioned it... though I think that would come with its own problems.
In other words, two AI "commanders" (perhaps along with separate AI "squad leaders") duke out the battle with the players being simply pawns. I've always imagined it in a WWII setting, but I suppose really any setting could work.
Imagine -- you spawn in, and your commander tasks your squad with taking control of a church in a nearby village. You and your fellow squad members enter the village and come under machine gun fire. A teammate tags the window where they saw the fire coming from. You all take cover, as the squad leader starts barking commands -- a few squad members stay back and start providing suppressing fire, while you and some others start advancing slowly, hopping from cover to cover. A teammate is hit, and another is tasked with dragging him to safety. You and the few others still advancing finally get to be in range to toss a grenade in that window. You peek from cover, grenade in hand... to see a tank rounding the corner down the road. You tag the tank, and chaos ensues as the squad leader screams at you to retreat. A mortar squad in a nearby section of the map is alerted to the tank and starts dropping mortars as you fall back to your original position, explosions and bullets flying all around you.
Your squad regroups, a few members down, but the strategy is adjusted and you go back in, eventually destroying the tank, capturing the church, and getting control of the village.
At the same time of this battle, similar battles are potentially unfolding in other parts of a larger map, as the attacking and defending commanders dynamically wage war.
Sometimes I want to think strategy in games, but sometimes I just want to shoot stuff. I think if executed properly this could strike a good balance of both reaching meaningful objectives and also focusing on dynamic, moment-to-moment action. Games like Squad can be great -- if you can find a good squad leader or group to play with consistently. As I get older I find I don't really have time for that, and the probability of getting matched with a good squad leader by chance is pretty low. The setup of this game minimizes the risks of poor teamplay and makes the "Squad" sort of experience more accessible.