I'd like to point out a few for some replies in this thread. TL;DR below for those who doesn't like wall of text.
Some people disagree with the idea because they don't know any friend who are reliable on RTS or the other way around. I propose to integrate a matchmaking function wherein your skills, the skills of your enemies, the skills of your teammates are put into the equation. It will randomly find people to play with you.
A lot of frustrations that come from online with RTS aspects like DOTA/Heroes of Newerth/LoL are the teammates. That's why the game integrated matchmaking functions. I know HoN integrated this. I could suggest copying some stats from the aforementioned games such as APM (actions per minute), Kill:death ratio, Average time in battle, resources farmed,W:D ratio, etc. etc just to get the feeling of the other player's skill. You could also create some type of rankings like leaderboards. It increases their "bragging" rights. Who wouldn't want that?
I know this system has its faults. For example, an uber hardcore rank 1 gamer is teamed up with the lowest tier skilled player to accommodate the balance, but, in Dragon commander's case, I think the problem is remedied because only ONE player controls the RTS and ONE player control the dragon. They are two different apples. Meaning it's not like the games I've talked about earlier (HON/DOTA/LoL) wherein the players have the same roles (controlling the HERO).
I played HoN during its Beta stages, and they have faulty system with how you are teamed up with someone before (or doesn't have the matchmaking function). They improved it with patches. If you ran out of time implementing such, I think your only choice are future patches.
Sometimes the opposing players will put some "spy" on your team to feed the other team or be an informant to the other team. I quit HoN right after encountering numerous spies on my team. I hope you can address this issue.
With the reasoning I've said above, I'll agree with Stabbey. This is not simple as it looks to implement.
TL;DR The problem I found in implementing the system is looking for a GOOD teammate to fight with and, perhaps, the communication between them.
It is never a problem to play with a friend because you're doing it for bonding purposes, but with some random guy you've just met a second ago?
EDIT: Also, the biggest backlash I could think of is the monotonous actions the dragon will do. The RTS can make variety of decisions but the dragon can only breathe fire and fly. Being a dragon could be boring don't you think?
Perhaps this could be remedied via creating different dragon classes with different set of skills other than breathing fire, or the player has the option to play other units such as gatherers of gold, artillery, etc etc..
Last edited by henryv; 05/07/12 05:33 AM.
