Why the COH style?
That's because COH is one of the very few RTS games out there where armor does not get damaged by small arms fire (even to the point where the open top M10 Wolverine could not be destroyed with a grenade, despite the open top spelling 'grenade bin, pull pin & toss in'). It also uses squads and not individual soldiers, and your units are not complete morons. Furthermore the game allows for cover and suppression, and different weapons actually serve different purposes (however the .50 cal svcks).
Still some changes have to be made:
Allow the player to fight against his own faction (COH only allowed Axis vs Allies)
Remove the Commander trees (there's no need to restrict some units to only one Commander)
Remove all off map support (I hate superweapons, and any weapons you can't counter or destroy)
Remove the pop cap (I always hate pop caps in strategy games and I always mod them out/disable them if that's possible)
Much larger maps (the transports were useless because the maps were too small)
More resources
Resources are no longer generated by holding resource points, but by having resource generating structures in place, your HQ also generates a small amount of each resource to keep you going
Change the basic infantry squad size to 5 soldiers (unique units may vary in size)
No 2 weapon specializations per squad, but 1 specialization for 2 members
Include unit profiles/stealth values (a unit with a high profile is easier to detect)
Allow units to be detected beyond LOS (you can hear there's something there, but you don't know the exact location or the exact unit, good enough to fire artillery at it, or to saturate the area with machine guns/miniguns)
Destroyed units cause no damage to anything they crash into (I'd rather see planes removed completely though, but I am willing to consider vertibirds and helicopters if they exist in Fallout)
What resources would be in the game
Manpower (includes the amount of hours free people put into training troops, constructing vehicles, etc)
Food
Water
Equipment (including building material, weapons, armor and what not)
Explosives (including the powder charge in bullets)
Power (used in anything powered, including some vehicles, EW, PA and structures)
Fuel (for some vehicles and fire based weapons, may be changed to chemicals to incorporate acid and liquid nitrogen)
Money (whatever currency is used by the faction in question)
There will be no upkeep in the game. Resource generating buildings will be limited to only a few (around 3) per resource, this amount may vary depending on faction. Each faction will have bonuses and penalties to resource income (the Capital will have a bonus on water, Vegas will have a bonus on caps, etc).
Units
All infantry can be suppressed. Suppression is caused by the sheer number of projectiles flying towards squads. Suppressed infantry units have to find cover before doing anything else, they can only crawl to their cover. From behind their cover they can return fire. There is also an emergency option to retreat them, but this causes them to run back to your HQ. You can also use another unit to take out the suppressing unit. Units forced into hand to hand combat can not be suppressed. Double clicking an enemy infantry unit gives your unit the order to charge them. After researching the proper upgrade, your HQ can heal any nearby infantry and any lost members can be replaced by either an HQ or the appropriate infantry training facility.
EW will do more damage against PA and other powered units. Guns will do more damage against NPA these bonuses come after DT. Explosives do not gain a damage bonus, their users are smart enough to use the right shell/missile/grenade for the right target.
As far as vehicles (including helicopters) go, front armor is 100% of the vehicle's DT, side armor 90% and rear armor 80%. As far as top hits go, the game takes the direction from where the hits come, same for mines. Weapons will not have a fixed damage statistic to them, but it will vary, like an AT gun doing 200-250 damage, if the side getting his had a DT of 230, some hits will bounce off and some will hit, if it has a DT of 240, most hits will bounce off and only a few will hit and the ones that hit do very little damage. There will be no mobile artillery or armored artillery, I feel they make the fixed position artillery obsolete. Your faction's transports can carry around all heavy weapons and their crews to make up for it. Turrets have no separate DT. Tanks will also keep their machine guns, the co-ax MG is upgrades to become an EW. Vehicle crews can only be killed if their vehicle is destroyed. Vehicles can be healed by engineers or by being near the vehicle production facility
Heavy weapon teams fortify themselves after some idle time. Over time they improve their fortifications, provided they remain idle. Their fortifications include sandbags, earth walls, digging ditches, camouflage. They only fortify their own positions.
All units will have a profile, this profile comes down to how stealthy a unit is, this in turn comes down to the range at which they can be detected and how accurate the detection is. Profile is calculated against another unit's perception. Profile includes the range, terrain, noise and how visible the unit is. Units can be detected outside LOS, but it may be less accurate to make out what unit it is and where exactly the unit is. A large group of moving units, makes more noise than a small group of idle units, heavier units make more noise than lighter units. Firing will always draw attention to the unit. A lighter unit will usually be more preceptive.
All units can gain 5 levels. Each increase makes them more accurate, allows them to reload faster and fire faster. Experience also makes infantry units harder to suppress, they move faster and their hand to hand increases as well. Furthermore experienced units are more perceptive and can move more cautiously.
I have decided to give each faction 2 bonuses for units, one for the weapon and one for the unit itself. I think a 10% increase would be the best. Possible bonuses include
Weapon bonuses
Damage (when it leaves the barrel, makes it easier to punch through armor)
Rate of fire (this also means more suppression to all weapons)
Cost (a 10% decrease obviously)
Accuracy (possibly, it may be too useless)
Unit bonuses
Armor (here's where it's interesting, as the 10% goes to any DT a vehicle may have, so adding 10% DT to a vehicle raises the front armor to 110% when compared to a similar vehicle lacking this bonus, and 90% from the new armor value is 99% of the other vehicles front armor
Mobility (unit moves faster, turns faster and weapon deployment times are reduced)
Profile (a decrease in profile, makes your units more stealthy)
Cost (again cheaper)
I am considering the use of allies, these would be minor factions/mercenaries all related to the appropriate factions. It would work similar to Emperor Battle for Dune, but not all factions can use all allies. For example, the NCR could deploy Vault City allies, CL could use Khan allies, some factions could hire Talon Company etc.
The Infantry
For basic infantry squads there are 4 types of armor, light vs heavy and powered (PA) vs non-powered (NPA), and 2 types of weapons (guns and EW). This results in 8 basic infantry squads, their normal rifles are equipped with bayonets, specialized members lose their bayonets, some factions may use other melee weapons instead of bayonets, but they still lose their normal melee attack. Infantry can not be run over, your units are too smart for that.
Light NPA with guns
Light NPA with EW
Light PA with guns
Light PA with EW
Heavy NPA with guns
Heavy NPA with EW
Heavy PA with guns
Heavy PA with EW
These squads can all be specialized with the following weapons, where the EW squads will use EW variants with the same function (except the missile launcher, that counts under explosives). Any specialized squads will move into the range of their specialized weapons.
Missile launcher (can hardly hit infantry, but does wonders against any vehicles, including air power)
Scoped rifles (more accurate at long range, fire slower)
Assault rifles (good at medium range, does not hinder movement)
Shotgun (good at close range)
LMG/5mm miniguns (longer range than AR, great at suppressing squads)
Flamers (great vs infantry inside structures)
Other infantry includes
Engineers, repairs vehicles, builds structures and defenses, can place and clear traps and demolitions. And engineer is armed with an
Grenadiers, they throw grenades and have a very high melee attack
Special forces (like NCR rangers), good vs infantry, can place (but not clear) traps and demolitions, stealthy
Sniper teams, do not gain from faction benefits and suffer no faction penalties, perfect stealth, one shot kills, can only target infantry and heavy weapon teams
Heavy weapon teams
MMG teams (.30 cal, 7.62mm miniguns, MG34) cause massive suppression, limited to firing arcs
HMG teams (.50 cal) causes less suppression than MMG, do more damage, work great vs unarmored vehicles and heavy infantry, limited to firing arcs
Mortar teams for use as light artillery, no firing arcs but it does take time to rotate the mortar in the right direction, not that useful vs vehicles can fire smoke to keep units hidden
Howitzer teams, among the best artillery you can get, takes time to set up, restricted to firing arcs, but still can not damage medium and heavy tanks, can fire smoke to keep units hidden
Rocket artillery, fires all rockets at once, but takes much longer to reload than other artillery, per hit not as effective as howitzers, not restricted to firing arcs
AT guns are restricted to firing arcs, they are fairly accurate and are highly efficient vs vehicles
Vehicles
Unarmored vehicles (motorcycles with sidecars, technicals, hummers, buggies) they are armed with light machine guns, their purpose is to hunt snipers, run on electric engines. Despite their name they still have a DT stat, but bullets can punch through (except sniper fire)
Light armored (Panzer 3, Matilda 2, Greyhound) they are armed with 20mm or 30mm chain/gatling guns. The first vehicle to be immune to small arms fire, still reasonably fast and very effective vs unarmored scouts and heavy infantry.
Medium armor (Sherman, Panzer 4, Panther) a decent mix between cost, firepower, speed and armor, the vehicles require a dedicated attempt from specialized troops to take them out. Front armor is near immune to the light armored main guns.
Heavy armor (Pershing, K?nigstiger, M46 Patton) while the vehicle is slow and expensive, their frontal armor absorbs huge amounts of damage and their main guns pack a punch.
Transports, I do not have them mentioned separately as I'm currently using light armored and unarmored vehicles for that. Each faction will have a transport, and factions with higher armor generally use unarmored vehicles as transport, while factions with high mobility use light armored transports (their unarmored usually comes down to motorcycles with sidecars)
Gunship helicopter/vertibird, carries missiles and guns, but doesn't have that much armor can double as infantry transport
Defenses
There are several defenses in the game, all are constructed by engineers, and some (the exploding ones) can also be constructed by special forces. Defenses do not gain from faction benefits, because they have no mobility. Some are also free. Defenses include
Sandbags, free and provide cover, can be run over by vehicles
Ditches, free can provide cover, come can also be used to hinder the enemy
Earth walls, free and provide cover
Barbed wire, can only be destroyed by special forces, engineers or a vehicle driving over it
Mines, AP mines are used to kill infantry and AT mines are used to damage vehicles, can be placed by special forces
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-587-2267-24%2C_Italien%2C_befestigte_Stellung%2C_Inspektion.jpg like defenses can fire in all directions, relatively small, not overly powerful, but equipped with a main gun and the co-ax laser, does reasonable damage vs armored, can't be garrisoned
Bunker with MG, a fixed machine gun in a bunker, the machine gun can not be moved and is restricted to it's firing arc, can be garrisoned
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/10.5cm_Gun_Casemant.JPG also restricted to firing arcs and no troops can be garrisoned inside
Game modes
I am thinking about several game modes. The first would be campaigns (complete with stories), followed by a skirmish mode (where you can fight against the faction you chose as well, unlike COH). Additional modes would use territories (smaller than States) in an all out war for North America. You pick a faction, it is set in it's default starting position (controlling several territories) and you must destroy all other factions all over America. The other option is that you start with a single territory and you have to conquer it from your rivals (probably using the same faction as you have). From that point on, you have to conquer every single territory.
Factions
Their bonuses, weapons and possible unique units.This includes non-canon and semi-canon, feel free to include your own faction and tell us what you think should be done with the canon factions or other faction in general. Factions can use several weapons in the same role, in that case the stats won't change, only the models. The factions are still a work in progress, so don't expect them to be balanced just yet.
NCR
For their Brahmin Barons, they gain a food income bonus. For accepting ghouls and not using slaves, they gain a manpower income bonus. Their units are cheap and cheap. Their service rifle is the one they use in NV and possibly the M1 Garand (maybe experienced units or heavy units get the M1). Light powered infantry is the Mk 100
As far as vehicles go, their unarmored vehicle is the Boudicca, light armor goes to the greyhound (doubles as transport), medium to the Sherman tank and heavy to the Pershing
BOS (using Barnaky's MWBOS for this one)
Limited in manpower, but they have increased power and equipment income. They gain a bonus to armor and ROF. They use the H&K MP5 as SMG. Pacifiers form the light PA troops. Hummers are their light vehicles and transports, Behemoths are rearmed with a turreted 20mm Gatling gun, Their medium tank is an uparmored Sherman equipped with the M1A1 main gun, as a heavy tank they use the M-48 Patton or the Siege Tank from Starcraft (not figured out which one they should use)
The Capital
Higher water and manpower income. Because they only use T-45 PA it is their heavy PA infantry. However they do not throw troops away. They do use Gatling weapons, so I think their troops should have a bonus to ROF and mobility.
For vehicles, I think the jeep makes a nice transport and unarmored, light armored would be the http://starshiptroopers.wikia.com/wiki/Marauder_%28film%29 rearmed with 2 20mm guns, medium goes to the http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/Wolverine_Mk._II rearmed with 2 75mm guns and heavy armor is the http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/Titan_Mk._II rearmed with a 90mm gun. Their ultimate water generating building is obviously Project Purity.
CL
I don't know what income bonuses they should get. Their units strengths are armor and damage. Their unique unit is the Legion Contubernium, a 10 man squad, armed with riot shields and machetes, 2 members also carry throwing spears. Their heavy tank is the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion_tank
Indy Vegas
Their income advantage is obviously the casinos, and their HQ structure is the Lucky 38. I have no idea about unit advantages here. The first casino they place would be the atomic wrangler, the second casino they place would be Vault 21, the third is Gomorrah and the fourth is the Tops. I was thinking about making the can Graffs to either train EW infantry, or use them as an equipment generating building, Gun Runners would also produce equipment, or they would be used to train guns infantry.
Their infantry includes the Kings, howitzer artillery is handled by the Boomers. Securitrons are unique units, you can construct both types. They are versatile and can be very deadly, but they can not use cover. They are also limited in their movement range, as they can only move so far from a broadcasting tower. Indy Vegas can however construct broadcasting towers (no limit, but they're Indy only structures) so the securitrons can move there too. If a broadcasting tower is destroyed, any securitrons that are now outside broadcasting range from another tower are destroyed (as in they can't link up to another tower). This however includes any broadcasting tower, not just the ones from the player they belonged to. In fact, they try to link up in 4 steps, first they look for your broadcasting towers, next they search for allied broadcasting towers (this does mean you lose control and the securitrons now belong to your ally), failing that they look for towers belonging to a neutral faction, and after that they try to link up to your enemy's towers, meaning that they can become hostile to you. Failing to link up at all will cause them to be destroyed.
The Enclave
They gain bonus income to equipment and energy, their strengths are armor and damage. Their EW infantry uses Plasma weapons
The Confederacy
Units gain a bonus to armor and damage. If you've read my other posts regarding them, you probably know what they'll use (German weapons and vehicles). Their resource income is difficult to balance, and I can't really say they gain more in set areas, or that they suffer in others. They shoot ghouls mutants and robots alike, combined with using slaves that counts against their manpower. The slaves do cause farms to flourish and they use farms for almost everything and their farms can be upgraded. It is entirely possible that the Confederacy lacks certain resource generating structures and they have to make up for it by using structures from another resource and upgrading them to use the leftovers to compensate for this (as in a hog farm produces food, and with a tanner upgrade it also produces equipment)
Unique units include the http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Marine and the http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Firebat. I have some sketches for mission to create a story behind this. The mission will involve a starship graveyard, with numerous references to both the Terran Confederacy from Starcraft and the Terran Confederation from Wing Commander. There will also be references to other sci-fi.
So is it any good, and how would you like to see a game like this.