Hold The Line Windows, Mac, Linux game

Hold The Line

TheMadChemist | TBD

Hold the Line

Intended Player Count: 1 - 10
Hold the Line is a multiplayer and singleplayer game focused on battlefield combat where players lead an individual squad. The maps are filled with NPC squads of infantry, vehicles and field artillery. Using their squads and abilities, players must break the lines of the enemy and gain supremacy over the field.
The multiplayer has been tested with up to 400 NPCs! Bandwidth used for the game host was comparable to playing Battlefield 1 or similar games. The CPU load is light on clients.

www.htlgame.com

Battle AI

The game's AI uses a Recast system for basic navigation. The real advantage, however, comes from the flexible AI logic system developed solely for my projects. Emergent AI behavior can be achieved by giving individual characters independence of thought. This, however, can create challenges to design if you want them to also work together.

A balance was achieved by creating a system that allows individual AI to scale itself up and down based on the needs of a situation; a second layer allows them to think and move together. On top of this, like a synchronization gear, a mechanism allows the AI to evenly spread its thinking without constantly calling expensive global variables.

The result is an AI experience that sees them hold formation, identify and move to cover and work together as squads to overcome battlefield obstacles, such as infantry encountering a tank.

Construction/Destruction

The simple building system allows players to create defenses to hold strategic areas on the battlefield. NPC soldiers will be able to navigate in and around objects and structures and recognize locations where they can take cover.

Powerful weapons can destroy objects, reducing them to debris. If parts of a structure are no longer supported, they will fall as well. Anything build by players and any ambient structures can be toppled, opening more strategic choices.

Squads

Below is a list of squad types already implemented, more are in development and more abilities will be added over time.

Rifle Team:
3 Bolt-action Rifles, 2 Semi-automatic Rifles
Abilities: Frag-Rifle Grenade, AT Rifle Grenade

Support Team:
3 LMGs, 2 Semi-automatic Rifles
Abilities: AT Rocket Laucher

Shock Troops:
3 SMGs, 2 Semi-automatic Rifles
Abilities: Frag Grenade Volley, Sticky Bomb

Engineers:
1 SMG, 1 Bolt-action Rifle, 2 Semi-automatic Rifles
Abilities: AT Mine, Able to Build Advanced Defenses

AT/Field Gun Battery:
2 Field Guns, 4 Crewmen
Abilities: Switch between HE/AT Rounds

Medium Tanks:
2 Medium Tanks
Abilities: None (To be added)

Air and sea unit prototypes are functioning but need artwork.

Game modes

Hold The Line
The premiere innovative mode featured in the game. This mode is won by forcing the opposing team from the map. Battle lines are established and AI divisions switch back and forth from offensive and defensive stances. By supporting the AI, players are able to push the enemy lines back. Victory is achieved when most of the map has been captured by one team.
Strategic Victory

This mode centers around the classic point capture style game. There are several strategic points which must be captured and held. Victory is achieved when one team holds the majority of the points long enough or if the enemy force is depleted.

About the Development

Hold the Line was started in late 2015, but was shelved due to a lack of time. In the past few months, I began work on several projects again, including this one. If this kick-starter succeeds, I will devote all my effort to this project solely.

Credits

Music in video by The United States Army Field Band and the Musopen Symphony.

Some sound effects were processed from raw sounds obtained from a variety of sources, full list included with the game.

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July 4th Update and Future of the Game

Jul 4 2017 News

July 4th Update!

Some new mechanics have been in the works based on user feedback. These mechanics are far from ready but in the meantime you can play one of the original concept maps, based in the 1700s. Also, the AI tank squads have been added to the WW2 maps. Use the link below the video for the Windows version.

Download Alpha v0.015:

Feedback Considerations:

After playing with a few people and talking it over, there were a few good conclusions we came to.

1. A large scale battle is cool, but does it make for good gameplay?

While playing, you often find yourself surrounded by combat while fighting a small engagement yourself. And while you are having an impact, it feels too far removed to really make it seem like progress is being made.

Solution:

First, a mini-map will help give you a better sense of the battle unfolding and where you need to be.
Second, using some suggestions I received on discord, the ability to enter an overhead command mode where you can issue orders to nearby AI squads will give you more control over each engagement.

2. A multiplayer-based game requires a player-base to really work well.

Solution:

There is no easy solution here. With so many games out there, its hard to expect a new game to have the community it needs to play well.
The overall game will be refocused from a simple multiplayer, competitive game (although it will remain in the game).

Future Direction:

The future direction will focus on making the primary game-mode a mission based, RPG-like war game. The current game gives a good combat base to work off. To accomplish this, a great deal of content and new mechanics need to be developed. In order to work towards this, I will be starting a separate project which will allow me to experiment with more open-world mechanics while using a graphically simple style.