Okay, time to flesh out some of the design for you. The game might work more like DefCon than XCOM. I was thinking of base raids etc. but in order to keep the game flowing, probably need to be realtime, so a very basic system. But that'll come later if I think it's needed
# You build bases over the world
# Each base can mine (gain income), house craft, weapons/supply, labratories and workshops
# Additional radar stations can be built on the geoscape - both "regular" and "stealth". Regular shows to all players immediately, stealth have to be uncovered, like bases
So each player starts with a fixed amount of money. From there they can spend it as they wish (any number of bases, none if they want), and they click Ready. When all players are ready, the game begins, and income is generated from mining facilities within bases.
You will be able to buy two types of craft at the start - a fighter and a bomber.
# Both craft can be used for visual confirmation (fly it over a surface base, or stealth rader to uncover)
# Bombers have no air to air weapons, and are used for bombing bases and radars.
# Fighters carry air to air weapons only
Aerial combat will consist of a view where all craft engaged in the conflict are lined up at the bottom of the screen. All your opponents' crafts (you may have more than one opponent in aerial combat) will be lined up across the top of the screen. Combat will be realtime, and you'll technically be able to have several dogfights at the same time (just to keep things interesting). You can also send addition craft into the fight part way through etc.
In the dogfight, you'll be able to select which enemy to target, which weapon to fire (if your craft has more than one), when to fire, bank the craft, and barrel roll. I'll probably need some basic AI options too like Aggressive and Evasive, so if there's a couple of battles on, you're not getting totally overrun. We'll see on that bit.
So the idea is you command each of your craft, dodging incoming fire and shooting your opponents down, but making it possible to be a bit of a mad free-for-all.
I think combat will work really well, I just hope I've explained it well.
My next plan is building a prototype of the combat only, so maybe a few people might help me playtest it when I've got something running. Once that's running and is fun, I'll look to combine back the rest of the game and add all the nice features like craft and weapon research etc.
