RJL'S PROFILE

I'm currently considering a possible project (purely in concept stage, may go nowhere) which I want to be somewhat distinctive, and I'm trying to think how to create an interesting and yet original battle system.

Considerations:

1. I like the idea of having large battles in a game as the idea of only ever fighting a handful of enemies at a time is normally quite unrealistic. (Why on earth would the demon lord or whatever cliche villain you have send his men at you 5 or less at a time?)

2. I also love how in an RPG you can gain an attachment to characters and so I want a system where you control a small number of individuals.

3. I want a system that feels realistic, not in the sense of real world this concept is a fantasy game, yet in the sense the combat accurately simulates what a fight would be like.

4. My theorised world would have some characters who can act exponentially faster than others and I want the combat to represent that

5. The game if it is made will be 2d and I really don't like most 2d action RPGs and don't want to make one

Analysis: the clear answer to 1+2 is a fire emblem style system, but it falls down on 3, the fact you can get various advantages based on the order you have people act in FE always irked me as there is no reality based justification.

Traditional combat systems e.g. old final fantasy games (and most rpg maker games) have no good way of showing a big battle.

The idea I've come up with is for an "interrupted" real time system. With a battle taking place in real time with a Fire emblem style (moving around a map with multiple units etc), the first problem is how to control such a system, fire emblem works because it is strictly turn based, hence the "interruption".

Combat would happen for around 5 seconds it would then pause and you would queue up movements and actions for your units (with every action using AP and each unit having a set amount of AP based on their speed) combat would then resume for 5 seconds with the actions you've queued being performed before pausing again etc.

Your characters would have a mini AI to react to enemies moving out of the way + collisions.

The big problem I've run into is I'd have to limit the battle maps to what fits on the screen as otherwise you won't be able to see what all your characters are doing as it would all happen at the same time. This may undermine the while idea of larger scale fights.

What thoughts do people have on this concept and the potential downside I highlight + any other issues?

Can anyone think of a better answer to my 5 criteria?

(Don't worry about the practicality of making the proposed system I'm a pretty good scripter, though I admit it would probably take me months to make what I describe above if I ever work on another project I'd rather it be good than quick)