I’ve had the idea for a while to produce a realtime version of Diplomacy, something of a mix between Risk and Europa Universalis and Defcon. Using Unity, I’ve programmed a RTS map, units you can order and a basic city placement system. I’m just after some more ideas from this community about the kind of features you’d like to see, but first let me tell you what concept I have in mind, as it’s quite foreign to Diplomacy itself.
I have in mind a real-time game played over weeks like Diplomacy, where orders take many hours to execute. E.g. if China decides to send bombers to the USA, they will arrive there in 10 hours rather than 5 minutes. So I envision players periodically logging on to track their fleets and aircraft, with an emphasis on Diplomacy-style play (alliances and stabbing). Players can choose to share radar with allies or to hide it, can support units similarly to Diplo, can let allied planes refuel at their airbases and so forth, leaving many opportunities for turns of play.
The player will choose their nation or place a starting city, and then cities will grow over time in population. Higher populations, control of resources and won battles will increase profit, the currency being an international currency, which the player can use to build more cities or bases, military hardware and so forth. I also envision that the players sphere of influence (border) will grow with the population until they hit enemy borders. When this occurs, if the players are not allies sectarian violence may ensue, the player having the option to fund the insurgency and capture territory.
I’d like to stay away from the Defcon nuclear war element, although nuclear weapons perhaps are attainable in the very late game by superpowers. The combat will focus on using combinations of units (fighters protecting bombers, destroyers protecting carriers), luring the enemy into range of AA, encircling the enemy tanks, etc, with the goal being to capture the opponents cities and hold them.
So that’s enough of the general idea, I’d like to know what would interest you guys?