Well, initially Demigod was described as playing Assassins would be more RPG-ish, controlling a single character. Playing Generals would be more RTS-ish, controlling the general's creeps. So, that's primarily what I'd like to see. Ultimately, playing a General who can't  control his minions "somehow" is really no different than playing an Assassin. Sure, you'll probably have lower damage output and different skill focus to complement your minions that would in theory be following you, but that's still just some extra creeps on the battlefield. Giving Generals the ability to control their own minions, along with making those minions substantially more powerful than normal creeps would be my preferred implementation. How that control is done is the tricky part. As you said, the standard RTS method of point and click will be very difficult. But what about at least generic AI commands? "Attack my target", "Protect my target", "Follow", "Guard me", "Patrol this area", that kind of thing? It would be much easier to manage I think, you would just need to add an extra UI bar for the minion commands when a General is played and make the minion AI respond to commands..

How cool would it be if you could order your minions to go help out a teammate, while leaving yourself unprotected to capture a flag away from battle? This would open up great tactical options as well. If the enemy sees minions in battle but no General, finding and killing that unprotected General becomes pretty tempting!

Yeah, That could work. I figured the general could slap down a creep spawning building as an ability (perhaps you get more buildings or creeps spawning from them as you level up) and it would spawn creeps every now and then. The creeps would come in, say squads (dawn of war style) for lesser creeps, and you give the squad / control group an order instead on individually. This allows for some micro, but not enough to overwhelm new people. You could choose what creep type spawned from a building in a similar method to picking items. (different creeps have different spawn times).

This way if you go for the generals creep spawner, he's in a lot of trouble. Also, if he keeps it at the base, then the creeps spend ages getting there (he might also have to be near it to pick a new creep type) So it opens new possibilities for cutting legs out from under them, but also gives the generals the choice of keeping it safe but slow or unsafe and fast.

Key general functions I would like to see:

1. the ability to control the type of creeps that get spawned

2. spawn squads of creeps or have an ability to easily control groups of creeps rather than an individual creep click fest

3. issue orders to creeps such as protect target, protect me, follow me, guard area.

4. way points

5. basic creep formations (horde, line, wedge)

6. spawn target area (assign a location or locations where spawned creeps will initially travel to)

I would really like to see the generals have TOTAL control over there minions. I don't want my creeps mindlessly running around like the AI controlled creeps. I want to point and click where I want them to go, who I want them to attack etc..... I would also love the creeps to have the feature of being healed at the healing stone. Generals should have buffing and debuffing abilities that work on there minions and the creeps that spawn from the portals. I don't know how balanced a buff would be if they buff other demigods. For example 4 general demigods all buffing each other in a 4v4 game unstoppable? I think generals should either be able to produce there minions at a building or portal. If this is not the case then I believe that there should be a number of creeps that is with you all the time and that respawn after they have been killed like demigods do. Kind of like a penalty of dying like demigods or a recharge time like the mana bar. The creeps would then level up with you or you would get more creeps as you level up for example: 3 at level 1, 4 at level 2, and so on.....  That is all for now.

I think the General MUST have control over its creeps, but I think that having a squad is a great alternative to sending out individual units. My initial idea about the general was actually that the general never left the base, but sent out creeps. While his creeps were sent out, they'd gain the xp for him, and while the general can't die, having all his minions dead would stop him from recieving gold/xp. If the creeps were sent out as a squad, then when the squad dies, the killer could recieve the last hit and get the gold as if killing a demigod. I realize that this is probably very different from what a lot of other people had in mind, but I thought it was an idea worth considering.

That is exactly what I would like to see.  I DON'T want total control of the minions.  I don't want to be stuck mico-managing them.

I would also like to be able to set a retreate point for minions so when they are getting thier ass kicked they will turn and run to that point (That is guarded by my ranged creeps Ambush!).

Sammual

In my opinion, Generals should:

1)  Be able to choose from at least 2 types of units for guard creep.  Maybe a heavy group and a light group, a ranged mag or an archer.  The combos could be different based on the general if you like or vary depending on your baracks upgrade status (see below).  This group can be all  one type or mixed as you choose to suit your strategy.  For example you could have all healer or 6 archers and 2 healers.  You choose for your needs.

2)  Base building that can be upgraded.  So generals will be able to upgrade their barracks for better units or upgrades to existing units.  They should also get a reduction in upgrade costs to things like the stronghold and portal creep escalation.

3)  A super power (weapon) or super unit.  Assassin demigods get a lot of COOL stuff, so should generals.  Give them either a huge super power with a long cooldown or a super unit that can only be built at large cost and only one on the battlefield at a time.

4)  Standard point click interface with complete RTS control.  Just like a demigod can be commanded, the guard creep should be directly controllable.  If you want them on hotkeys so all archer do this, all heavy "tank" units do this, or all units do this, that is fine, but point and click is essential.  The essential include:  Go here, attack here, and waypoints.

5)  Buffs that enhance his force and entice the general to go out into the battlefield.  This does two important things, it keeps the focus on the demigod in the action and it tempts the general to get in the action even though it can cost him his life.  With out proximity buffs, I will leave my general in the base and have him fight from their.

6)  Ability to withdraw and heal units.  Some of us care about unit losses and hate playing games that don't give us the choose to save units.  If the assassins can go to the stone to heal, then the guard creep should be able to move to the stone or the barracks for health regen.

7)  Strong enough units to take out an assassin demigod.  If the units aren't strong enough to take out assassins, there will be no point to the general.  There damage should be on par with 2-4 giants and 2-4 catapultasauruses in mid-late game.

So far this game is very cool and I am really looking forward to it, but I bought the game for generals.  Please make generals as cool as you made the assassins; as epic and unique; give them that "wow, that's perfect polish" that you seem to have with the assassins and all will be fine.  Don't worry if you don't, we'll bitch at you until you tell us why you can't or change it.  JK.  Thanks.

so mostly we see tis going into a semi-Overlord type game (if youve played it, and love it)

Overlord has minions fallow you, you say "go here" and they go, if theres an enemy, they attack it, if an object they take it, and there are little marks used that they sit at, but of course you get a bit more control like other people say, Overlord was only a comparision

for me? I would like to see the generals be able to build small bases:

-They create a building that spawns certain minions of theres ( or you buy it, like an RTS) this also effects your gold, but heres another...

- ability to summon a small gold mine (lets say only one), this allows generals to get more gold for his minions, while able to get items. OR we can just skip this and have the generals have to pick between items or better units.

-have a small tower (smaller then a light or archer tower) basically just there to guard the 'base'

-ability to summon a shop anywhere that has certain items for demigods (maybe some consumables, some gloves, and something else) this allows other demigods to stay in the field longer

Generals should be GENERALS, so dont have like, um, small # of units, only 10 yetis? (or whatever the achievement was) I want a damn army!

I also think Generals should have different minions they can get, so...

Vampire Lord: Zombies, Skeletons, Bats, evil things

QoT: Shamblers, little Treant people, sprolings (Magic the Gathering anyone?)

those are some examples. Im tired right now, and will think of better ways to convey what I think they should be like later...

I for one do not like the idea of creeps building anything.  They are here for one thing...complete destruction or fodder depending on how you look at it.

I may be in the minority here, but one thing I don't want to see is direct control over creeps.  For one thing it'll make the interface for the different types of Demigods too different.  Also, I want to spend my time controlling my avatar thinking strategy, not micro-managing creeps in a click fest.  What I think generals should do is:

1. Direct creeps.  They should be able to plant rally points.  One of the things that Assassins suffer from is the inability to hold back creeps until there's a good number, then launch an attack.  If a General has this ability to build up waves, it's of great benefit, as you can let the enemy batter themselves against your defenses before "unleashing hell".
2. Buff creeps.  Speed, attack, defense, invisibility etc
3. Coordinate creeps.  Possibly much like 1), it's the ability to focus creeps efforts on key enemy - catapaultasaurus's, healers or Demigods for instance.
4. Confound enemy creeps.  Misdirection, stalling, debuffs, lay traps, that sort of thing.

I'd like to add to the list from above:

8)  Repair buildings at the cost of gold or as an ability.  This allows towers to stand longer and the ability to quickily heal the stronghold between waves.  Could be set up so that buildings can only be repaired when not under attack.

Capt Sealy-->  As per a discussion on another thread, it seems like most people want direct contol over the guard creep but no/minimal contol over the portal creep.  For the sake of discussion, please specify which creep you refer to.  Hopefully others can do so as well, to increase clarity and communication.

What I think would be really cool is, instead of cluddering the field with barricks or spawn points is you go to the portal and puchase your units there and then gain powers that will help you control the battelfield, like creating walls that let your creeps through but maybe also let you garrison your archers along it, or something to that manner. I would like to see ways to improve both your controlled creeps and the normal AI creeps (going along side yours, complete control is a no) Stuf like mini portals to pull units up to your farthest controled point (flag). Which would make things really cool, if you as a general and a few assasians took a flag near or inside the enemy base and you had units start piling out right there. I wan't him to not so much be about buffs, but they need to be fast and versaile, like flying or something, and in that way weak, but at least hard to kill. The key is to ensure that you have control over troops, but keep it simple so your forced to keep using your general, unlike SC where (while it's a bad idea) after awhile you really don't need your commander anymore. Also like people above had said, it would be cool if you or your oponents could set (or if the computer automatically had it) a retreat system/routing system to make sure fights aren't just about hitting each enemy one after the next, but that if you are just barely defending your base instead of trying to fight swarms of minions you just need to fight through and kill the enemy general and maybe the enemies will break off and retreat giving you the overwhelming numbers agianst the assassians left.

I'd like to see the generic AI commands for Generals' creeps like Annatar said, but also be able to control them directly if needed. You're the General. You should be able to order the poor sods to their doom at your whim.

Smarter AI for the Generals' creeps compared to the normal creeps.

Generals' creeps should be much more valuable than a normal creep. You should be able to use them intelligently, rather than just drawing fire. Cannon fodder if the situation calls for it, but that shouldn't be their only purpose.

I think they should make Generals Awesome.