I like the idea of a commander unit. It could allow control over the local neighborhood (immediate neighbors) to "halt". It wouldn't even have to be too expensive in that case because it's value is limited and it immediately 'outs' itself the first time it halts the 3x3 block when it should move forward.
Edit: it also nicely follows the meta-game progression... which would be that you start with basic troop types but as your kingdom expands you gain new training facilities to provide extra capabilities.
Yay, I helped!
Heheh. It helps that I still have no idea where the game is going so everything is still on the table. I had a concept that I wasn't sure would work (seems like it might) and some concepts on the meta-game (which have already changed completely from my original ideas). The rest is balance and iteration and new troop types.
On the side, I've been nagged by this idea alot... what if there was a kind of "large scale" mode that represented individual units as large crowds or something without actually changing the gameplay? To simulate a battle in a full-on war.
In my mind, each single unit already _does_ represent a group. But even in 3D form, I don't think it will be animated that way... but it is an option.
Would this game ever support mods? If so, what kind of mods?
I don't know. My current monetization strategy is to control the means of producti... I mean servers.
It's unfortunate because I understand the "success through user-modding" model pretty well. It just seems hard to implement in an MMO style game.
Would people be able to host private/modded servers?
Not under the current monetization strategy... at least not officially/legally. But within those constraints, I want to try to support as much custom match-up as I could assuming it gets that far...
Will we be able to customize the board size between matches, within reason?
...to continue above, yeah. I'd like that. Different game styles, board sizes, obstacles, piece limits, resource caps, etc.. I even had the idea for a game mode where every resource you spend ends up in the other players pot, and vice versa. So games are essentially endless if you play right. Coming up with a lock down strategy in that case would be tricky.
Anyway, coming up with good ways to match such games will be interesting but I think it most likely that you'll be able to match-up general games by criteria but that if you are already 'friended' with someone then you can collaborate with that friend on a custom game setup. Some kind of lobby or something.
The interesting thing is that like games like scrabble, I could even support non-real-time gameplay. Make a move... come back some time later to see if the other player has gone yet, get notified, whatever.
So far this game is nice to work on because there are almost no moving parts. So until I get more than 30 minutes here and there to work on something, it's my current pet project.