Love me some tactics.
Love makin' hard choices about the lives of da boyz
Love finding the optimal path for the real heroes, shitbird squad.
time to dance the design dance.
From the top:
On a map, it'll most assuredly have Features.
Features can be Advantageous, or Disadvantageous depending on your loadout.
Following the axiom of, from Turn 1, players should engage with the Game, then these features must be available from Turn 1.
So what to put there.
Advantageous and Disadvantageous things, of course.
But to design those?
Interact with as many elements in a game, and in the world, as possible.
If you have Health, then there must be things that interact with Health. Like cover. Cover increases one's effective HP.
But, now we dance the Design Dance:
For every element, add a counter to it
For every counter, add an element that's not the same as before.
Surely the cover needs you to get behind it. So there must be a flank to it, has to be.
But if it's not?
A bunker needs Access. Maybe a certain place on the map, that's wide Open and Shootable, has the Access Chit to it.
Bunkers limit visibility. Can't shoot from where you're totally protected.
Then, say, the flank path. Has to be there. Else you're in a box.
The Flank Path can be Open. Better kill me in one shot, Flanklord. Better, 'else you're gonna get lanchester'ed to hell.
Could be Dangerous.
Gotta move there first. Maybe, on the Flank Path, you can't move for a turn from it.
I move to the cover.
Then I throw smoke on my flank.
Because of course I would. I know that I'd take the risk, so I'll mitigate it.
But that costs a resource. I can't do that every time. And if there's enough cover like that, I can't scoot and smoke through the map.
Or I can but, I'm not moving twice to get on the Objective.
Always gotta get on The Objective.
...
oh man is it all just flowcharts?