Help choosing from ideas

[travo]

I was planning one game and was pretty sure I was going to begin on that one, when I had another idea which I particularly like, and now Im not sure which idea I should embark on 1st.

Could you guys vote on which game you would probably play more?

Both games are army themed

Idea 1
Player is Commanding Officer of squadron.
Storyline (basic)
Squadron in desert. Comms to home base and nearby squadrons falls out. On top of that, a squadron which has been positively ID'd as formerly an ally begins to attack them. Succeeding, but losing some of their squadron, they form a base in a nearby village.

The player will use locals to build up the village, comms, garage, barracks, schools, etc. Buildings in villages can produce resources (metal, wood and water) but player can also attack other villages for resources. Player can form or join an army, and they try to dominate the desert.

Idea 2
Round based game.
3 or 7 day rounds (probably 3)+signup day
Hopefully I can get opening and closing of round to work as cronjobs when Im done.
Storyline (basic)
Well, theres no real story line, but here goes
Game similar to Counter Strike in a way.
Im thinking there is 1 day at start of round where no one can do anything except possibly chat, except for joining up for the round, maybe viewing the map of where players are to form tactics. You can not join the round after this day, have to wait for next round.
At start of round you are assigned a team, red or blue. Some fancy coding (havent got it yet, but have a few ideas  ) will work out so there are a few bases for each side.

Aim is to kill all opposing players (each player will start with a set amount of lives), take over all opposing bases (involves killing everyone at one base, then hanging around in the base for 1/2 hour or so, team owning base should have players sent to the base to try to take it back. Team taking over base will have slightly reduced defense, kill all players will usually occur first, unless someone is in transit to another base), or having the most points at the end of the round (points given for level ups, kills, being in a base when taken over, etc, points lost for deaths(maybe) team points is sum of all members)

So, which one would you prefer to play?

[Doidel]

Idea 1. I can't say why, it's just after my fancy
Let's hope for other opinions

[Nox]

Both could be very nice...I'd like the first one more though

[Forgotten]

I like the first one better

[Scion]

idea 1, game play sounds similar to many other games...so if executed well is almost certain to gain a following...however the story is kind of weak....if you were in a squadron comms down in an unfriendly zone your first move would be to hook up with your command again, not set up house in a small village and try and build weapons factories, schools, or undertake research...

idea 2, is somewhat more novel....and could have a high re-play factor if executed well. you may run into balancing issues in terms of players online times...

Either idea could be a worthy game. Ive played variations of both.....and enjoyed them...although id probably lean towards the second idea if you can execute it well.

[travo]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I knew the story for idea 1 was weak, I was almost definately going to change it alot, but I never thought about it like that lol. However I had the game in mind more than the story, the story will just be something that leads to the game and makes the circumstances make sense.

With idea 2, I hope to have that high replay factor, so it will be hard work to make it work properly and be addictive, but at the same time I like a challenge. The online times, I have been thinking about that throughout today. Ive had a few ideas.

Seperate worlds for people from different timezones. Not too many, but maybe 3 worlds for 8 hour timezone groups. Hopefully this will even out the field. But then this led to another question. If I have it setup so I have 3 worldsmade up of the script copied into 3 folders, then 3 mysql dbs, will it cause significantly more stress than having 1 world with all players?

I have also been thinking of possibly having the round open at certain times of the day, eg. world 1 is open GMT 2pm-10pm, any other time players can chat, plan, possibly work on stats, but cannot move or attack. However I think this may ruin the gameplay, so I am leaning towards my first idea.

I have considered and crossed out that players cannot be attacked when they are offline. It will make saving bases/not dying way too easy.

Then my last one. Just leave it, anyone can play at any time of the day. This would then involve more teamwork in the game. Say there are 3 people operating at one red base, and one decides they want to go to bed. The go in the red chatroom and announce that there will shortly be only 2 people at whatever base. They will travel to a base with many people to protect them while they are gone, perhaps the centre red base of the map. A player at a base with many people and not much action will then decide to help out the other base and travel to that base to cover for the person offline.

Hopefully this sense of teamwork will a) create a community of players, even if they will be enemies next round and teammates later, it will be a community none the less, and b) make players want to play more, because of the community atmosphere of the teams.

This may take a while to catch on, but if I create a tactics page on a wiki, hopefully people will read it and catch on...

Ive rambled on too much