"Historically the Freeholder war bands have worn a wide variety of styles, but as the fascination with uniforms driven by contact with the garrison of Supply Outpost 2-46C took hold, a measure of ad-hoc standardization took hold, as each band would aim to match as closely as possible, though this effort was limited by the lack of a unified production structure. Despite this, many Freeholders have adopted a hostile attitude towards the inhabitants of 2-46C and those who trade with us, even while adopting our customs." - Site Anthropologist Trisen Clerk

Title is self explanatory. I spent probably ten or so years trying to get my friends to play co-op RTS games with me and it literally has never gone well.

It's not that they don't like the genre, I feel like most of us RTS fans find like minded people pretty quick, but the feedback I'm getting is that most of the RTS co-op games were designed to help teach someone else the game, not to have fun together. I either see clunky shared control that feels like an afterthought for the devs, or you get something like Starcraft's Archon mode: literally the exact same game, except now two people are fighting over the same units, or one person is sitting on their hands for the first ten minutes while the other plays.

I'm currently building co-op as a core feature from the ground up in The Old War to avoid all of that, but I am also starting to realize why no other studios have done this, it is a MONSTER to figure out, oh my god. I'm here to talk through what we're actually trying to do before we get too deep into it.

The problem my team is trying to solve

Most RTS co-op, in my experience, asks: "How do we let two people play the same campaign?"

I've been asking: "How do we make it so you actually care that your friend is there?"

So for context, in The Old War, you and your friend or co-op partner or whatever share a single faction. You train, upgrade, and lose a persistent army together across a long war. Every battle will either hurt or help your shared forces. If your friend loses a veteran unit you've been upgrading since the first mission, that loss is yours too. The consequences are shared, which also means the stakes are real for both of you.

What we're still figuring out

Right now the game is in a state where two people can play together, but we're working through desync issues and trying to make shared control feel smooth instead of chaotic. UI is a big question mark, how do you communicate clearly who is doing what when you're both controlling the same faction?

So here's my question to the RTS community

What actually would make co-op cooperative in an RTS for you? Is it shared resources? Divided roles? Asymmetric information? Or is it just having someone to blame when your macro slips? Anything in between? Anything and everything you can think of would be super super helpful here.

If you want to follow what we're figuring out: Wishlist on Steam, and we're going to be opening a free playtest in a few months (hopefully!) so you can try it out yourself.

Link of the Prologue: The Prologue

I've got a couple design panels planned out, but I draw slow and burn out fast, so here's the first of many.

The diagram is a presentation for one of the fundamentals of my Forever War setting. Humans have souls, and their mental resolve can influence how strong their souls are, similar to sanity.

Those who are weak of mind are more easily susceptible to the influence of void contamination, which takes the form of an intangible black mist. Prolonged exposure to the black mist will test and apply strain to the mind, like a cognito-hazard. Succumbing to it will cause the mind to break and the flesh to mutate, turning the victim into a rabid husk currently named 'Anomaly'.

Regardless of whether one was killed as a human or an Anomaly, their souls are materialised by unknown properties of the Abyss. This freshly 'resurrected' form will undergo an irreversible transformation. The cause is unknown, whether it be radiation or frequencies; the phenomenon is only known as the Song of the Void.

The end product of the transformation is known as Abyss-born, creatures with an insatiable hunger and orb-like eyes that can only see souls as a bright glow. A concept in development is that Abyss-borns grow through absorption of flesh.

Humans with strong resolves are more resilient to the cognito-hazard of void contamination. However, this plays in favor of the Abyss when they die. Their repressed traumas will be magnified by the Song of the Void, reflected in their grotesque transformation, resulting in a much stronger Abyssal-born.

(The presentation on the bottom is representative of someone who blames themselves for failing to save someone dear.)

🔴 A Martian Calendar With 30 Sols Per Month

This isn't meant to be an official proposal or a scientifically necessary calendar. It's simply a worldbuilding experiment: what would a Martian calendar look like if every month lasted exactly 30 sols?

Mars doesn't currently have an officially established month system like Earth does, so I decided to make one for fun.

The first 12 months keep the familiar Earth names, while the additional months use names inspired by Latin numbers.

🔴 Martian Calendar

Month	Name	Duration
M1	January	30 sols
M2	February	30 sols
M3	March	30 sols
M4	April	30 sols
M5	May	30 sols
M6	June	30 sols
M7	July	30 sols
M8	August	30 sols
M9	September	30 sols
M10	October	30 sols
M11	November	30 sols
M12	December	30 sols
M13	Undecember	30 sols
M14	Duodecember	30 sols
M15	Tredecember	30 sols
M16	Quattuordecember	30 sols
M17	Quindecember	30 sols
M18	Sedecember	30 sols
M19	Septendecember	30 sols
M20	Vigintember	30 sols
M21	Unvigintember	30 sols
M22	Duovigintember	30 sols
M23	Tresvigintember	8 sols + 14h 12m 37s

Note: A sol is one Martian solar day. Since a Martian year is slightly shorter than 23 × 30 sols, the final month is shorter to account for the remaining time.

I'm mainly curious what you think of the concept and whether you would design the Martian calendar differently. 🔴🪐

A resource to help with both generating big threats, and comparing big threats in your world to existing examples

Here you can find a height chart of all the major and minor human races of the empire

Persequori (basically real world humans) make up the bulk of the human races that serve in the Legions, but the Empire has never been shy of using auxiliries and later of integrating other human kinds into their armies proper, the Dweorg (dwarves) make up the second largest portion of the Legions.

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Current doctrines are based around utilizing the Persequori-Dweorg combination, where the Persequori focus largely on holding the line, enduring attacks and providing their Dweorg comrades opportunites to strike at the enemy in short explosive bursts, then covering their retreats back behind their wall of shields and spears. This is because the Persequori have one of the greatest endurances among all the human races while the Dweorg have some of the greatest strength and toughness, but tire quickly. Their cooperation covers both of their weaknesses while preserving all advantages.

The Persequori (and other human) Legionnaires will also cover other roles, such as archers, spear men, cavalry, etc.

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Other human races don't have roles entrenched doctronally nearly to the extent of the Persequori and the Dweorg, but they do fill 'unwritten' archetypical roles as well.

The large Orqindi (orcs) make up the third largest portion of the Legions. Their strength is even greater than the Dweorg's and their endurance on par with Persequori Legionnaires, but their lower population prevents them from being utilized en masse in large formations. They usually fall into two archetypes:

-Heavily armoured line breakers, sent in to create openings and cause chaos/confusion among the enemy lines

-Artillery, their great size and strength allowing them to utilize great bows the length of sometimes even 2.5 meters. Alternatively, they can also chuck gigantic spears at the foe, or rocks and boulders, if gear is in extremely short supply.

They are also useful for logistics related roles, such as pulling and carrying siege equipment and other heavy gear to the battlefield.

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Of the other major human kinds of the Aelnyyraean Empire, most fill scout-like roles, instead of being frontline combatants. Small statured humans usually fill these roles, such as the Pygmaioi (gnomes), the Kobelini (goblins) and the Dimidimviri (halflings)

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Ielves (elves, shocker) usually fill leadership positions within the Legions (along with mostly Persequori, Dweorgi and Half-Ielves, though members of any human kind can also be found among leadership positions, if a bit rarer)

But the rare, very unfortunate, Ielf who may find themselves among the ranks of the Legions' soldierly will usually be utilized as an archer or sometimes as a frontline fighter. They can slot into Persequori roles relatively seamlessly too.

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Of the minor human kinds within the Empire, none exist in large enough numbers to have exclusive archetypical roles. They can usually slot into one of the established roles.

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That is, with the exception of two.

The first are Harpies who, while rare, serve in disproportionate numbers, mostly in Legions stationed in provinces with large Harpy populations. They can serve multiple roles as aerial scouts, aerial artillery, aerial harrasment units, etc. Harpy auxiliries are extremely sought after, just as Harpy Legionnaires are.

The second are Centaurs, even rarer, which excel in cavalry roles, especially when paired with capable archers, or harpies, their mobility making up for the harpies' inability to fly for long distances without rest. They are also useful in logistics related roles.

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The Legionnaires also often serve side by side with Mages of the Magus Consortium, the Heroes and Adventurers of the Imperial Consortium and other Heroes and Adventurers of the Independent Heroic Consortiums, but their roles are rarely standardized and vary vastly due to their vastly varied abilities.

A ideia não é impor nada; é só um experimento para ver como seria se tentássemos fazer cada mês em Marte com 30 sols de duração.

Na verdade, não tenho certeza se Marte já tem meses oficialmente definidos, rs, mas fiz isso mesmo assim. Espero que vocês acham legal!

E realmente não há necessidade de insultos ou algo do tipo, por favor. É só uma ideia. :)

🔴 CALENDÁRIO MARTIANO

Mês | Nome | Duração

------+---------------+-----------------------

M1 | Janeiro | 30 sols

M2 | Fevereiro | 30 sols

M3 | Março | 30 sols

M4 | Abril | 30 sols

M5 | Maio | 30 sols

M6 | Junho | 30 sols

M7 | Julho | 30 sols

M8 | Agosto | 30 sols

M9 | Setembro | 30 sols

M10 | Outubro | 30 sols

M11 | Novembro | 30 sols

M12 | Dezembro | 30 sols

M13 | Onzembro | 30 sols

M14 | Dozembro | 30 sols

M15 | Trezeber | 30 sols

M16 | Quatorzeber | 30 sols

M17 | Quinzeber | 30 sols

M18 | Dezesseisber | 30 sols

M19 | Dezesseteber | 30 sols

M20 | Dezoitober | 30 sols

M21 | Dezenoveber | 30 sols

M22 | Vinteber | 30 sols

M23 | Vinteumber | 8 sols + 14h 12m 37s