I had a really silly idea for a competitive multiplayer mode! Well, 'mode'. It's only really a mode to the monster. Anyway! So let's say you want to summon a monster! Maybe you want resources, maybe you want to advance your technology, or maybe you're doing it for the hell of it! It really depends on the rewards of the system. And let's say someone else wants to wreck a village! Maybe they want to investigate settlements and obtain blueprints from them, maybe they want to snatch resources, or maybe you just want to wreck it! Again, it depends on how the system works! So, you set up a monster summoning circle of some sort. And then you choose the option that says "find me a 'human' player". And the someone else has previously entered the Be A Monster queue. Once connection is established, Someone Else will have connected to your game and become a Lovecraftian horror! At this point, you two's goals are different. You have to subdue the monster and reap the rewards before your city becomes a smoldering pile of brass and copper and broken dreams, and Someone Else has to reduce the city into said smoldering pile of blah blah broken dreams! Of course, the matter of how the gameplay actually works is a different beast altogether. Though I would imagine the Omnipotent Village Guy's gameplay style would be something akin to Starcraft or perhaps Pikmin, and Someone Else's gameplay style would consist of a (perhaps maddeningly simple) DotA-style interface and controls! Be it however it is, if OVG subdues the monster before any major damage is done to said city, he might gain a reward--but if SE reduces your blah blah blah broken dreams, you lose and he gets the reward instead! Or hey, maybe that's too hard of a task and simply him wrecking SOME stuff gets you both a reward once he loses. But it really poses a choice. "Do I want to queue for a 'human' player so I can get those ten madness teardrops and risk getting a really pro player? Or do I painstakingly harvest them from this single once-in-a-literal-blue-moon plant and play it safe?" Clearly, however, if there's a choice between an AI monster and a player-controlled monster, the AI one ought to get less rewards to OVG. Gee, my thoughts were really scattered here. Still, that's the gist of it.
Which brings me to the question: Will I be able to use summoned beings in MP to attack my enemy? Aside from this gamemode here that would be nice, too.
I absolutely love the idea, but I must temper that love with the line: "as a mod or expansion." I want the game done sooner rather than later. But tell you what, if that game mode doesn't make it into first release, us Modders will probably try and figure out a way to make it work! (I can see it now..."Clockwork Empires: The Monster Mash")
