A Perfect Game

This is an entry to the Perfect GAME competition for the chance to win a Wii U from GAME.

 
Sanidine – The Perfect Game
Sanidine is a multiplayer real time grand strategy game, featuring persistent battlegrounds and a team focused resource management and construction system.  Think of a cross between Company of Heroes and Hearts of Iron.  The objective of each player team is to control territory, which in turn produces resources that can be spent on building infrastructure or units.  Each team has to not only worry about having an army of a suitable size to be able to tackle any threats from other teams but also having the background infrastructure to support the units and to increase their economic position.
 
But this sounds like any other RTS!
The main difference is in the scale.  Games will be hosted on dedicated servers that run the game in a persistent setting.  Each side can have anywhere from a single player (in which case it becomes much like a normal RTS) to ten people on each of ten teams, with an ideal number being 3-5 people and 2-6 teams.  Each player can drop in and out at will, and the world will be simulated whether they are connected or not.  Units can be automated in a number of ways, from simple patrol routes to complex scripts that control resource collection and usage.  Being on a server, the world is fully able to run without any human interaction but is also able to support micromanagement of units at critical points in battles.
 
Why need more than one player on a team?
The scale we’re talking about is huge – the average map would be about the size of Europe if set in the real world.  While a single player might be able to control a team on a grand strategy level, the constant individual conflicts would very quickly overwhelm the player.  Multiple players allow people to be assigned roles, one player might be responsible for attacking while another is in charge of resource collection.  Every player works together to complete a shared goal.
 
So, where’s this set?
Sanidine is just a codename, but the game will have a deep and rich universe in order to fully immerse the players in the game.  Set in the near future, space exploration has become mostly privatised and corporations are constantly seeking for planets to be exploited or colonised.  When a new planet is found, it becomes a race to see who can organise their forces and secure the territories as quickly as possible.