Heh, I was going to suggest a Siege map too, but I guess AB beat me to it.
Well, you know for the fact that we are basically a blatant rip-off from Full invasion, except with persistant character creation(not that rip-offs are a crime, and Full invasion was fun, more variety doesnt hurt in making more Cool M&B mods), but the idea of a "Nord invasion" doesnt seem to ring in the bells of this fantastic one-of-a-kind of a co-op mod. I was thinking of rather, making multiple game modes that differ form the usual "Defend this Spot" matches. They hold good weight of good mindless team takedowns, but it's more refreshing if we have different game modes.
The two game modes that I can think up of that can be consistent to the concept of Nord Invasion is
Siege(like AB said) and
Infiltration(I'll explain later here). I believe that these two modes that will summerize the idea of a "Nord Invasion", Swadian castles falling to Nord huscarls charging into the Lord's castle, and Swadian Commandos rushing into towns, seizing vital documents and taking out key enemy generals can be as exciting as it can be epic for an occupied country by the ferocius enemy.
I would think of the
Siege mod in this forum as an obstacle course towards defending an important character/place/object. Say, this mod takes a native Siege map, but puts some blockades around and walkmeshes for the enemy AI and of course to tweak it to look more naturally like a besieged castle, and you got your own basic siege mode for NI. You got a Noble lord armed with only a sword to defend from the enemy, and say. a 10-15 minute time limit to protect him before the enemy and you will get a big reward if you successfully defend the lord.
The enemy AI will spread outside the castle, rushing into the one or two "lanes"(Which lead to the lord) that are stretagically placed to allow for tactics and chokepoint defense. The "lanes" however, are varied, with multiple lanes that are well-protected by enemy archers but needs teamwork to cover that area to open chokepoints that the enemy can only cross to, but your own players will be exposed to arrow fire. Siege defences can also be placed like throwing rocks(again, another blatant rip-off from Full Invasion, hehe :
) to boiling oil that give no experience to the player in use, but can take out some pesky enemies.
For spawns, the enemy will outnumber the players 3 to 1, with groups of 3 spawning into the game for every player. If that group is killed, a new group will spawn but with better weapons and armour. This continues on until the time limit expires. Players who died from battle will have a 45 second spawn to even out the massive horde that the enemy rushes in.
For infiltration, think like a squad co-op, with a troop of maybe 6-10 players can participate in infiltration missions, be it a castle or an enemy camp, players will be up against decent standard troops to huscarls. The mission is to either retreive important documents/kill a VIP/ steal gold or something. Enemies will be placed in scripted form that they will come attacking a player when they step into a trigger such as a castle gate, with archers placed on the battlements to surpress incoming players. To make the modder's life simpler, perhaps placing the enemies in rooms with doors or barricades that the enemy can try to break down before the start of the mission. The enemies are not as massive as the default game mode, but have decently equipped troops that can stand their ground on a 1-on-1 fight. There should be a checkpoint system/limited life system where players can respawn again since this will be a much harder game mode than the others. Mission objectives can be varied (gold rush can have gold bags to loot for reward, killing VIPs can have higher chance of giving out better items) to make this game mode more fun.
So, what are your thoughts, peeps?