(Regarding the poll, if you'd also post your answer in this thread so we know exactly who will be willing, that would be helpful)

There have been a few mentions of this idea by myself and by a few others, but I would like to implement this idea into a single post where I can state my thoughts on it.

Firstly, the idea is that OpenClonk could have (as the title states) a strategy element to the game which acts as a command map, close to what Clonk2 had. Whether it would be hosted by the master-server or just a campaign mode (with npc enemies, such as rival clonks or monsters), or both, is up to debate.

The Command Map

• The command map could be a tiled map of a world (possibly one which loops like a cylinder... see Civilization2) in which each tile is a landscape your clonks may enter.


• The type of map generated for each tile would be generated from the type of tile. This could have many factors, such as climate (desert/jungle/mild/snow) and formation of the landscape (mountainous/mesas/plains/canyon). The variables would be shown as different terrain types on the command map, so the generated scenarios correspond to the tile's terrain type.


• A crew of Clonks (though you could have more than one crew across the command map) could enter an area on the map (a tile) and do things such as building a settlement, mine resources, etc.

Crossing Tiles

• Terrain simple to cross such as plains could simply be crossed without needing to enter the map (probably the most common terrain). This could lessen the tedium of travelling.


• To cross difficult terrain (ie: mountains), the Clonks would need to enter the map and make it to the opposite side to cross the tile (after they have already made a trail, they could just cross over it in the command map. A trail could be visible on the command map as a road or something). If the crew of clonks had created a blimp and are using it to travel, then they would be able to cross over tiles such as mountains without needing to enter the map (though if they wanted to land, that should be possible).

Towns

• A town would be any settlement owned by a player. Thusly, if a player has built a settlement, that has become his town which will be shown on the command map.


• If a clonk (or crew of Clonks) has died, they could be resurrected/respawned at a town.

Special Tiles

• To cross or enter an ocean tile, the Clonk could use a boat (obviously simpler to produce than blimp). Ocean tiles could have things like lots of fish or oil reserves under the sea floor; and obviously, sharks. Maybe some sunken treasure if you're lucky. :)


• Some rare tiles could have sky islands floating above them, which could only be reached by flying a blimp. Sky islands could provide an excellent base to defend from enemies, but if a clonk falls off the bottom of the map, he's dead.


• Digging off the bottom of the map of a normal ground tile could send you into a lower layer of the earth, where it is more dangerous (lava and whatnot) but there could be more valuable/rare resources to be harvested.

Tile Refreshing

• If a player hasn't visited a non-settled tile in some amount of time, that tile's saved data would be deleted, regenerating a map when a crew of Clonks enters that tile again.


• Sparsely settled tiles such as mining areas would eventually break down (though it should take long than an unsettled tile), and regenerate the map.

Battling the Enemy

• To engage in combat with an enemy, you would move your crew of Clonks onto a tile which is currently occupied by a team of enemy Clonks/monsters(or whatever else can organize an attack on a Clonk), such as besieging a city or simply finding enemies out in the world. This would cause the attacking crew to enter the defending crew's tile, and thus starting the battle. Obviously whoever loses, their crew/pack of monsters is removed from the command map.


• Normal wild animals such as sharks and wolves probably shouldn't appear on the command map, simply exist in their respective tiles.

I may have forgotten a few things; if I have I suppose I shall add them later.

Of course, this would not replace the current selectable-scenario type of gameplay that was in CR, but simply be another option. Also, this is all completely theoretical, and I realize it could be very difficult to implement (I would be willing to create any necessary 3D graphics, of course), but I'd like to hear some feedback on this.