Jungle Warfare
by Robert Richey · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 03/22/2003 (8:49 pm) · 1 replies
What influenced this idea? Watching the movies "Black Hawk Down", "Tears of the Sun", "Predator", "Platoon", "Full Metal Jacket", "Rules of Engagement", possibly others that elude my mind.
What would make this idea different from other games that are similar in nature? The focus will be predominantly on the atmosphere, tension, suspense, drama. In the game Half-Life: Opposing Force, the "Boot Camp" tutorial was extrodinary, so much so that I feel it was successful in fostering my thinking to be more of a soldier than that of a FPS player. This helped me to understand and accept the responsibility of being careful and applying patience. The player will learn these skills by passing a rigorous "Boot Camp" before the mission begins. I foresee this "Boot Camp" as being so very much integral to the game that it is not a mere tutorial. It is teaching a methodology, in mind blowing detail. It teaches a way of life. Rules of engagement. It will teach you about your character's limitations and abilities. It will teach how to optimally utilize your surroundings; your environment to accomplish your mission. It is hard to over emphasize how important I am envisioning this "Boot Camp" as being. If it were to be completed in anything less than 10 hours of gameplay, I say thats too fast.
Rather than take your character to a shooting range to fire a few bullets, you will learn how to calibrate your weapon to compensate for wind, your character will earn skill points based on how accurate and how well you do during this "Boot Camp". You can apply those points to the relevant skill category when you have finished "Boot Camp"... Let's say, your really good at twitch, so as a result you are really good at hitting moving targets. This will earn you a high percentage of points to apply toward your Marksman skill category. In this category, you can decrease your ammo reloading time, you can increase your accuracy (cross hair will become steady, faster), increase accuracy during burst and automatic firing, etc.
You may say, "But, people will just keep restarting the "Boot Camp" until they max their skills". And I say to that, the player cannot restart the "Boot Camp" until a full real-time hour has passed. This should be sufficient in limiting min/max'ing.
What will the content be? The game will ship with "Boot Camp" and 5-10 missions. Each mission will be multi-faceted with multiple objectives. The goal is to semi-facilitate real time with game time. 12 hours in real life = 6 hours in game; 6 hour night/day cycles (depending on where you are geographically). You will lead a squad of elite military personnel. Each capable of a specific task; medic, communications, demolition, sniper; but not limited to their specializations. There will be a basic package that all are equiped with (9mm, Assault Rifle, Knife). There will be multiple ways to achieve each objective. Either by means of stealth or full assault or any combination there in. Reward the player for a good approach to any situation. Obviously by allowing stealth as a viable option, it really would be the optimal method since the enemy cannot fight what they cannot see.
No really, WHAT will make this game different than all the other Jungle Warfare games? The A.I. scripting will be revolutionary. The NPC's will not be activate by means of a triggering event. The world (although static) will be persistent for the length of the mission. NPC's will have objectives/goals and will be attempting to carry those out simultaneously to you and your squad. This means, don't sit on your arse all day or the mission might be lost. Also, code in solid dialogue between the squad members. Splash in some comedy, drama, technical jargon; believable dialog that one might expect to occur in similar real life situations. These squad members are not just NPC's. They are your friends, family, people that will die for you, for the good of the mission.
Choices made in early missions can have an effect on subsequent missions. Case in point, watching the movie "Tears of the Sun" is a good example. If those soldiers had merely completed their mission by the book, then a large number of innocent people would have died and the millitia would have stayed intact, continuing their genocide.
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Yet another $0.0186 contribution by me. Hope it was insightful to someone. I hold no IP over this.
-Robert
What would make this idea different from other games that are similar in nature? The focus will be predominantly on the atmosphere, tension, suspense, drama. In the game Half-Life: Opposing Force, the "Boot Camp" tutorial was extrodinary, so much so that I feel it was successful in fostering my thinking to be more of a soldier than that of a FPS player. This helped me to understand and accept the responsibility of being careful and applying patience. The player will learn these skills by passing a rigorous "Boot Camp" before the mission begins. I foresee this "Boot Camp" as being so very much integral to the game that it is not a mere tutorial. It is teaching a methodology, in mind blowing detail. It teaches a way of life. Rules of engagement. It will teach you about your character's limitations and abilities. It will teach how to optimally utilize your surroundings; your environment to accomplish your mission. It is hard to over emphasize how important I am envisioning this "Boot Camp" as being. If it were to be completed in anything less than 10 hours of gameplay, I say thats too fast.
Rather than take your character to a shooting range to fire a few bullets, you will learn how to calibrate your weapon to compensate for wind, your character will earn skill points based on how accurate and how well you do during this "Boot Camp". You can apply those points to the relevant skill category when you have finished "Boot Camp"... Let's say, your really good at twitch, so as a result you are really good at hitting moving targets. This will earn you a high percentage of points to apply toward your Marksman skill category. In this category, you can decrease your ammo reloading time, you can increase your accuracy (cross hair will become steady, faster), increase accuracy during burst and automatic firing, etc.
You may say, "But, people will just keep restarting the "Boot Camp" until they max their skills". And I say to that, the player cannot restart the "Boot Camp" until a full real-time hour has passed. This should be sufficient in limiting min/max'ing.
What will the content be? The game will ship with "Boot Camp" and 5-10 missions. Each mission will be multi-faceted with multiple objectives. The goal is to semi-facilitate real time with game time. 12 hours in real life = 6 hours in game; 6 hour night/day cycles (depending on where you are geographically). You will lead a squad of elite military personnel. Each capable of a specific task; medic, communications, demolition, sniper; but not limited to their specializations. There will be a basic package that all are equiped with (9mm, Assault Rifle, Knife). There will be multiple ways to achieve each objective. Either by means of stealth or full assault or any combination there in. Reward the player for a good approach to any situation. Obviously by allowing stealth as a viable option, it really would be the optimal method since the enemy cannot fight what they cannot see.
No really, WHAT will make this game different than all the other Jungle Warfare games? The A.I. scripting will be revolutionary. The NPC's will not be activate by means of a triggering event. The world (although static) will be persistent for the length of the mission. NPC's will have objectives/goals and will be attempting to carry those out simultaneously to you and your squad. This means, don't sit on your arse all day or the mission might be lost. Also, code in solid dialogue between the squad members. Splash in some comedy, drama, technical jargon; believable dialog that one might expect to occur in similar real life situations. These squad members are not just NPC's. They are your friends, family, people that will die for you, for the good of the mission.
Choices made in early missions can have an effect on subsequent missions. Case in point, watching the movie "Tears of the Sun" is a good example. If those soldiers had merely completed their mission by the book, then a large number of innocent people would have died and the millitia would have stayed intact, continuing their genocide.
----------------------------------
Yet another $0.0186 contribution by me. Hope it was insightful to someone. I hold no IP over this.
-Robert
Torque Owner Christopher Dapo
The RTS/FPS derivative game I've designed, Universal Genocide, which places FPS based troops into full blown geurilla warfare could definitly use something similar to this in order to properly train players before they become Active Recruits.
The AI for the game will be based on some very realistic and creative Platoon Tactics, yet the action will promise to be fast as well, based on speed and accuracy in the ordering and/or helping of your platoon while deep within enemy territory as well as under fire.
Players will generaly be rated on their performance and experience within the game, and though the game itself takes place in all aspects of warfare, from the small and covert to the large scale battles, into account, as well as the manning of weapons systems and vehicles, the soldier will remain as the backbone of any confrontations. Everything from guns to machanized interstellar space suits will be implemented, and all tied in to each other through very organized gameplay which will be enforced by the RTS overseer and their commanders for each warring side, all on a intergalactic battlefield.
Yes, very deep!
I have already designed a coherent form of the game for pen and paper, similar to AD&D style games, and I'm looking forward to bringing this game to life in the future. I've worked on the design for this for over 5 years now, and as you should know, there's yet been anything that has reached it's complexity, and I expect there not to be untill this game is completed.
As for now, the game is yet to be started, due mostly by the lack of my skills to bring it about on my own (and the lack of any interest so far by developers who would have means to help), but I think this game would greatly appreciate a 'Boot Camp' system such as this.
I believe you know where I'm headed with this, so if you would be willing to provide or otherwise see this idea implemented in the design I mentioned, I would be greatly honored. For discussion, I would appreciate any response, be it this forum or by email, and I would be willing to discuss any aspects, including the gain that could result from this game after it's release.
Sincerely,
- Christopher Dapo ~ Ronixus