Designing A Co-op RTS

So what would co-op probably look like? What ideas are there?

I like SC2's co-op for the short time I spent in it, I definitely liked the variety of commanders. It felt more relaxing. Kinda like a Super Smash Bros. of RTS. According to reports, co-op is the most widely played mode in SC2.

One thing I feel like is being missed, though, I don't see too much synergy between players, at least to its potential. Or maybe it's just the commanders I've played.

All-In-All, What Is The Point Of Co-op, Anyways?:

The thing about co-op is that there are other players that, for good or for ill, will affect you. If one messes up, it is your job to shoulder the team, so to speak. This can simply mean you are just in the same team fulfilling the same goal, destroy everyone else, but that seems hollow to just limit co-op to your normal RTS multiplayer alliance. If you want to be independent and not be disturbed by people in your game playing, then play multiplayer. So co-op is made to mess around with friends or whatever.

I'm not saying all these ideas are good or viable, just that they exist.

Allowing Others To Build On Your Land:

This I think is the very least most team RTSes see coop, not very far from just being on the same team and not shooting each other in multiplayer. This does help in survival, or such as squirreling away a construction or worker unit in your allied base just in case your base is destroyed.

Map Marking, Notifications, Voice Chat, and Communications:

Cooperation is based on communication. Marking on maps what your intents are to attack or to move or whatever seems like another floor for a co-op game.

Also notifications are very important, I think, to make a successful coop RTS. Most coop games have the players nearby, or other players will not reach you.

An in-game voice chat is probably necessary. I actually hate voice chat, tbh, but I know I would use it for games of Call of Duty with friends.

Pre-Planning Phase:

There are co-op games with pre-planning phases. There was a game like PayDay 2 that did it well, can't remember the name of it, but it had the tools necessary to actually draw out the plan. And the maps were randomly generated, so planning was a must. The plan was drawn on the minimap equivalent during the game.

Classes as Sub-Factions:

Command and Conquer 4 had the idea of classes for each co-op commander, divided into defense (infantry and base defenses), offense (tanks), and support (air and support powers). Other than it being a horrible game, I saw where they were going at.

They are basically very specialized sub-factions/races.

Not sure if it should reflect FPS and MOBA game classes. Though I think it's fun to make up classes in my mind at least. A sniper RTS class would have artillery and superweapon focus. And an economy class handles economy, harvesting, etc. A healer class would have the medics and repairers.

The new co-op Dwarfheim RTS has classes, but I don't know much about them. They are Warrior, Builder, and Miner, and Miner sounds like the economic class I threw out there.

More Explicit Reviving and Supplying Of Other Players:

To look at other games that are not RTS, I liked how Left 4 Dead did co-op. You are able to easily heal a fellow player. You can eventually "resurrect" a player by finding them if the other players don't die.

In Killing Floor, not only are there healers, but you can get explosives and bombs from the ammo guy.

What if there was a mechanic to resurrect your fellow player?

Unit and Resource Exchange:

How about a unit exchange mechanic? Where you can trade or lend or borrow units from your fellow player? Instead of just shooting off credits or resources to your fellow for nothing (though the option could be good), you can get something back for your trouble.

I do envision it being more packs of units being exchanged, rather than just a single unit everytime. So a squad, battalion, or whatever. Maybe there could be an in-game specific structure they can be exchanged in.

Letting Other Players Command or Lead (Some of) your Units or Structures (Sometimes or Partially):

Instead of necessarily doing a unit exchange, this can be done as well. Maybe there is a command you can use to toggle your own units that it can be used by an allied player, and an indicator and notification will notify your ally that they can use them. Then you can take back control by toggling out or the player can toggle out himself as well.

Or one can do partial control. I envision this is mostly for structures, but things like having allied harvesters drop at your refineries will add resources to their pile, and could charge them a fee for using your structures or something. Or do it for free like usual, but harvesting can take up space from other harvesters.

Special Units or Technology When You Have Certain Combinations of Factions/Classes:

I always loved the CnC mechanic where you capture the other enemy's tech, and then you can build your own units from other factions. Even better, the spy system in the Red Alert games lets you get a spy in the tech labs, and you get a super special unit that is a chimera of the factions. For example, in Red Alert 2, your Allied spy getting to an Allied Battle Lab will give you Chrono Commandos, a teleporting Navy Seal. Going to a Soviet lab will give you a Chrono Ivan, which is a teleporting explosives lobber. Going to a Yuri lab would give you Psi Commandos, Navy Seals with a mind control device. This idea gets even crazier in mods, like Mental Omega.

With co-op, one could have access to a unit that only those classes or factions share when they play together.

Edit: Added a couple of points