Hi again!

This post is about the core mechanic of Warnet and what makes the player experience fresh, according to us. So again, our goal is to create a game that emphasizes the strategy aspect of RTS games. Read on if you're interested in how we're trying to achive that!

Core mechanic = terrain

The foundation of Warnet is the terrain or the map. It is generated anew for each match and is composed of "uneven" cells (Voronoi cells, to be exact). The twist is that the edge length dictates the throughput of that edge. A long edge has a high throughput, while a short edge has a low throughput. What is throughput used for? Your units use it!

In the current state of the game, players need to find the optimal routes to their target cells, by selecting edges that provide the highest throughput. Keep in mind that the lowest edge throughput of a route limits the entire route's throughput (it propagates back to the source). You can circumvent this by splitting the route or creating multiple routes.

Below are some screenshots to illustrate the concept:

Img. 1

Img. 1 shows the map in its initial state.

Img. 2

In Img. 2, the player connected the cells as desired, forming a route from the start to the target, utilizing it with one unit.

Img. 3

In Img. 3 the player increased the attacking force by doubling the route into two at the beginning and merging them together later.

This is the very core gameplay loop. Of course there is more to it. See next/upcoming posts if you are interested.

We would greatly appreciate any feedback, thoughts, ideas, etc., even though this is an early post with limited details :D.

Prototype Insights

Here are some screenshots of the prototype:

Img. 4

Img. 4 shows the early, symmetrical generation of the map. The players will start on the left and right sides (no multiplayer planned for the release ;((, but it might be added later on; we're preparing for that).

Img. 5

This shows the routing and unit "movement" (in a picture? :D), which greatly disregarded the throughput limitations due to technical and programming complexity..

Thanks for sticking around. Hopefully, I'll see you again soon. Cheers!