ITT: Yuo help me design the greatest simulation evar (lots of mmo possibilities)

[-espionage-]

so a while ago i was given the wonderfull opertunity to sit in the car for 8 hours for a ride home from san fransico. while staying at my cousins place, i caught a glimpse of an mmo he was putting together, not for buisness or profits, but because he was doing shit that no companies would bother to do. so on the car ride home, i began thinking about what kind of things i liked in certain games, and certain things that havent been done yet.

eventualy i came up with so many different things that should be integrated into one game... why it hasnt been done, id say probably technology restrictions. what i have in mind may just have too much random shit to do, or have go on at one time. the only way the game would work would be one giant server, like EVE.

So on to the friggin game.

First of all, the entire premise is based off of a book ive been writing… well that’s a lie… off the ideas for a book that id like to write some day… feel free to skip this part down to the features and other shit if you like.

Some time some where at some place, two nations inhabit a galaxy home to many planets that support human life. Not gonna go into a lot of detail on how these fuckers got here… Engale is the so called democratic corporate giant of a nation run by its corporations and willing consumers. Chain companies bring in billions in revenue every day, and share blatant interests with greedy politicians. Engale is always the first to discover the latests and greatest in technology.

Corsia is the remains of old warring tribal factions spread out among planets far away from Engales space borders. Long ago, engales government was hush about the tribal worlds and studied them, as they slaughtered each other with primative military technology. theres a lot of backstory, maybe ill post it later.. ill just sum it up here

Cliffs on back story:
1. nation called engale study a bunch of tribal’s killing eachother.
2. asteroid storm heads through engale space in the direction of the tribal homeworlds.
3. Engale offers to evacuate planets to safe zones. Some planets purposely left with people on, vids of planets destructions played to the once warring tribals who are all crammed together on fewer worlds together.
4. tribes united under the Corsian banner.
5. Engale scientists determine extremely high yields of valuable ore in the “planet graveyard.” Mining operations quickly set up
6. Engale businesses and corporations set up shops in new Corsian planets.
7. Corsian explorers head to the graveyard, find engale corporations mining the souls of their dead ancestors for profits which are later on used to fund war against them. Yay!
8. sort of happy times. Corisans updated with the latest and greatest as Engale markets are forced upon them
9. long time passes. tensions rise as higher prices lead to uprisings in Corsian planets. Engale businesses are looted in riots. Engale sends small military personel to suppress them. They get their asses whomped by the tribals natural talent for combat.
10. Engale cuts of relations with Corsia.
11. first great war is fought… lots of stuff would be happening here..
12. war comes to a lull after hundreds of years of fighting. Ceasefire eventually signed.

And right around here the game would take place, with the threat a second war looming on the horizon.





This is where the fun beings



Features: A brief sum up of some of the things which are explained in greater detail later

· Two super powers to live under, or become a neutral mercenary.
· Unlimited customization. Thousands of weapons, tools, gadgets, and veichles. Take up the fight on foot, in a tank, up in the air, or up in space.
· Built in voice communications system, allows customizable “tiers” of command for passing down orders.
· Politics. War times, peace times, trade embargos or other player created treaties. Each faction has a unique political structure and culture. Leaders start out as NPC’s, and can be seceded by players. Even assassinated. Players can become the Engale President or the Corsian Overseer. War time and Peace time can mean a very different pace in the game world.
· No person is invincible. Although layers of security protect the most important political leaders of the universe, no man or woman, player or npc, is immune from destruction. Anyone can become a great leader, or a despised pirate.
· Massive Universe. Sprawling metropolis planets filled with urban life, industrial planets rigged to the core with machinery and factories. Massive ore mining operations in space. War torn battlezones. Any celestial being can be explored and inhabited.
· Everyone deserves a home. From cheap city apartments, to condo rooms atop a highrise building, to luxurious mansions… even personal planets for the families of the biggest corporate CEO’s.
· National Resources. Each faction generates different revenues and has different expenses that the leaders deal with. Factions generate material resources, npc military reserves, and must stimulate an effective economy. If not enough items are avalible for npc consumers to be happy, or if items are over priced, the faction currency can lose value.
· Jobs. Going to work provides you with a paycheck every week, and a way to increase your skills through work. A car repair shop can help you beef up those mechanic skills, while working for local law enforcement can help you out with your leadership and weapon skills.
· Entrepenur. Don’t want to work for someone else? get your own business going. Set up a store, and control the market for a certain product type. Business skills allow you to see the prices of all things sold over the years. Consumer trends will greatly effect the ability to sell certain products in areas. The primary market consists of all things legal. If you are the number one supplier of materials to both npc and players in a region, you will effectively control that market and bring in bonus revenue every week. Competitors will always look to under price you however.
· Gangs. The alternative to a job, a gang will work to control the secondary market of things not sold at normal retailers. Weapon rings, drug circles, and military tech can be pushed in the right types of communities. Street smart skills allow you to view all the illegal needs of citizens. Push enough weight and control the market, and your gang will bring in recruits that can be requisitioned by gang members. Control the illegal market and you’ll get bonus revenue every week. Cause too much commotion and the police will be on to you however. And rival gangs will look to raid your safe houses and stashes.
· Smuggling. While corsian drug laws are far less restrictive than Engales, certain substances are banned in both nations. They can most effectively be produced in neutral areas outside the space boundries of both sides. Pirate cartels are notorious for their drug rings set up along the giant asteroid fields in the northern sectors of space.
· NPC squad support. hiring hands or using requesition points allows players to have customizable squads to move out into combat. A group of two players could easily become a squad of fifteen.
· Discover the ancients. Many legends are murmured of the ancients. The artifacts speak louder than the tales. Mystical tech with foregein words can be discovered on the less desirable planets with little or no human population. Underground installations, hill bunkers, wrecked starships, and other mysterious technologies cause speculation among the citizens of Corsia and Engale.





How shit will work:

Skills:
Skills are rated by two different ways. The skill category, as in, small firearms, mechanic, science, command, etc. Category ratings are 1%-100% (specialized training could allow this number to increase to 150%).
Then there are the specific actions in the category. Small firearms would be Pistols, Energy Pistols, Machine Pistols, etc. these would be rated anywhere between 1%-100% (200% with specialized training). The category rating increases the effectiveness of all skills within it. Each specific skill increases with use. Using rifles will increase that skill, and at the same time, raise the Large Firearms category.

Attributes:
Physical Attributes affect certain skills. The main attributes are strength, perception, endurance, charisma, luck, and intelligence. Corsians have the divinity attribute, which affects there chances of divine intervention (yes, basicly a roll to see if you can pass a god check) and more.

Jobs:
Jobs provide players with a paycheck every week, and way to raise their skills by going to work at whatever employer they may have. Car shops are looking for handymen to make repairs on crashed automobiles. The army is always looking for new blood. Working at a job can be done whenever you want. However, you have a certain quota of work to complete each week. If you don’t do enough jobs (I guess you could call them quests if you’re a fairy douche) your check will be docked.

Other types of jobs may only be temporary, like a Mercenarys work. Mercs aren’t typicly sought out by employers in the main cities, but they can find work from shady government officials who may be looking to off the opposition. Get caught on that job however, and you’ll be paying a heafty ticket and stiring up some controversy. If your hit is notorious enough (say, I don’t know, the president of Engale perhaps... yes it is possible), you could be permantly exhaulted from the area.

If hitman work isn’t your thing either, you could always take the entrepuneral route. Save up some money, buy yourself some blueprints and a factory for production. go retail with your own military hardware or leisure items.

And if that doesn’t work, theres always drug dealing.

NPC support:
Leadership skills, military rank, or even spending money on body gaurds, will allow you to a certain amount of NPC’s follow you and your commands, depending on your skill level. Their skills and weapons will match your own. They will come with default loadouts for whatever class they are. Certain types of support will take up a certain amount of requsition allowed. Bringing around a ten man squad of infantry will cost one requesition point per troop. Or maybe you would want to equip one of them into a mech, which would take five requesition points. You can use the points however you want, and can buy any specific gear for the npc to use, as long as you can use it yourself. Requesition can be used for off field support as well, like artillery bombardments, air strikes, or even planetary bombardments.

With the maxed out requesition, you can even have a secondary Starship tag along with you in space. Aero fighters can fly with numerous npc wingmen along with other players and their npc wingmen. Of course, it will run you a bit of money if your paying for it. Luckily for military commanders, the lives of the soldiers come at no cost, as they receive a certain amount of free requsition points which takes from the factions resources.


Combat:
Combat is unique for each style of fighting. Any engagement can be fought through first or third person views. Certain items or skills let you utilize sattelite uplinks to view engagements from any angle.

Targets are selected through either a menu of current players in your area, or by looking at them at targeting them. Controls for fighting on foot would be like your average fps. The only thing that is different is when you target someone, you only have to look in their direction to fire at them. Depending on what both of your skills are, and what modifiers are affecting both of you, you’re accuracy and damage will vary while attacking the selected target. This applies for any type of weapon, as the general method of attacking. Targeting multiple people at once will let you switch between who your firing at.

Certain weapons will obviously have a large variety of attachments you can fit. If you’ve got a spot to hook it up, you can do it. Some skilled mechnics may even be able to soder on an extra turret, or an expanded clip holder. On scoped weapons, zooming in will greatly increase your accuracy. But depending on your large firearm skill, and sniper rifle skill, your effectivness with the weapon will vary. It is a good way to make decisive shots, how ever you become much easier to hit and immobile, or very slow, when zoomed in.

All veichles will be supported by joysticks, mouse, keyboard, or any combo. The most effective way to utilize most types of armor is with copilots. A player operating a veichle with multiple positions can switch between the weapons and abilities whiles till being able to drive the veichle, but may have a hard time of it. There are also the solo operated mechs, which perform basicly like a giant infantry unit.

In an aero plane, High Orbiting will place you as close to the atmosphere as you can get, without burning up (unless the veichles capable of traversing through space). Pilots will get a good reading of the land around them. They can scope out anything happening on the ground around them, and orbit the planet looking for targets. However, they are easily picked up by other players radars at this height.

During dogfights, flying in first person will give you a nice view of the cockpit and controls. Targeting is done again through the list interface or looking at them and manually targeting. Missiles will track down their lock, but can be thrown off by countermeasures. Machine guns and laser turrets can sometimes be a better bet, especially against slower moving bombers.

Bombing Runs can be carried out in different ways. You can have your computers show you the best angle to dive bomb at, or the best path to take higher in the sky. The accuracy depends on your skills and equipment.

The Navy is perhaps the most important division in the Military for both factions. It secures the spaces around borders, protects trade lines, and allows the sustained invasion of other planets.

Small engagements in space take place just like in the atmosphere. Some fighters are capable of traveling down into the atmosphere and acting as aero planes. Massive Starships are capable of acting as mobile space stations for players. Some are designed for troop carrying. Others for planetary bombardment. Some to carry more navy fighters. Some do it all. The biggest menace of large slow moving starships are the Anti-fleet batteries mounted in bases on the surface. While some can be identified by satellite and taken out quickly, other are stealthily deployed underneath the surfaces or in the ocean floor. Ion Cannons can wreak havoc on tightly packed fleets.



PvP:
One of the biggest part of the game is the on going political and military struggle between Engale and Corsia. Players can go at it in all different fashions. Two ways are through the Engale or Corsian Military. Joining the Army provides the player with a job, with room for promotion and gaining special combat abilities.

When inside core Engale or Corsian systems, law enforcement and NPC members of the Military will be ready to respond. That doesn’t mean you cant get away with murder, but your chances of succeeding will depend on your skills, and your technique. Corsia is plagued gangs in its run down industrial planets. Gangs can fight each other for control of the streets, much the same way as Engales businesses compete for control of the consumer markets.

Pvp doesn’t really need to be elaborated on. At any time, any place, a player or even npc could easily end your existence. Which brings us to the next point.

Death:
Death is handled differently in certain situations. If a player is in a veichle, there is a chance that they can escape the flaming wreackage if its destroyed. But if you are actually killed, not only did you lose the costs of whatever equipment you had and whatever you were piloting, but you will have to purchase a new clone and any physical augmentations or implants you had. Medical bills can be hefty. You will be cloned at the nearest hospital or military base, depending on your settings.

However, death for certain players can mean trouble. Any player in the political field, for example, will have to wait a certain amount of time before resuming their political career. If the current president is a player, and that player is killed, new elections will be held, and the player will have to wait until the next election to run again. If the current Overseer is a player, and they are killed, they will have to wait one month before returning to their position. They can choose a successor to lead in the mean time.



Voice Communication:
One unique feature will be the in game voice support. the highest ranking official of a group is the designated Squad Commander, aside from whatever their ranks may be. Any squads can create or join a link of connected communications. Players can be organized into any groups they want, by ranks, squads, or individual groups. Then, the groups are organized by tiers. The highest tier is the Operation Commander. He can choose at any time to speak to any group. The second tier would usually consist of the squad leaders, who would receive orders from the Op Commander, and decide what tactics they would use to carry it out. Meanwhile, the third tier would be the bulk of the squads. But again, any specific groups could be created, with rights assigned to which groups it would speak to.

The Markets:
There are different types of business to compete in. the legit way would be to work enter the Engale or Corsian stock markets, or join the business retailer world. By competing in business, you have to control the sale of whichever items you are trying to get out to the people. Trends in buying over the years can be analyzed by players. It will show all information sales throught the regional market. NPC trends and player trends can be separated. Insider advice can be bought off from certain NPC’s to give you an idea of what the people complain about. Galactic news stations usually dedicate sections to consumer affairs, giving expert anaylists opinions.

If you’re the shady type, with the correct street smart skills you can figure out what other activities the citizens partake in. players can set up fronts for gangs, drug circles, or weapon circles in cities. Again, all the information needed will be there. The purchasing power of the people in the area, who currently controls the market, what people are looking for, etc. controlling a market type means that you are the number one supplier of materials for the area. Be carefull though, because the person your trying to outsell can see who else is getting a lot of sales in their region. Starting a gang war and raiding other players safe houses or factories can help you gain the edge. This kind of foul play isn’t encouraged in the business world, however. And getting caught by local law enforcement can lead to an engagement with police, which will force you to kill off the raid party and relocate your stash. If your entire group is killed off by the police, your clones will be fined for assaulting police officers and whatever materials were recovered.




This isn’t everything I’ve wrote down so far, just everything I’ve made semi organized… it would seem to me that this isn’t a game that’s going to be made any time soon. But that’s not what its about. This is about perfecting the ultimate simulation, where you can make whatever you want happen. It can play as first person shooter, a dogfighting game, a fleet battle, all out wars on a scale you’ll never see in battlefield2 (eve can come close with its huge fleet battles, but with ground, sea, air, and space wove together, the possibilities become endless. you could have specialized command centers set up for certain players, where they wont even see the game in a traditional sense. They would see it as a strategy game, and issue orders to the operation commanders, who would issue orders to the field commanders, who would then issue commands to their squad leaders, who pass down even further individual tactics amongst the bulk of the players, people who just logged on and wanted to blow stuff up before work.

It could be a game you play to power level all of your skills to gm status, or one you just log onto for a frag fest. You might just build a corporate empire, producing your own special brand of luxary cars, or maybe a military arms dealer like Lockheed.

So.. what do you think genmay?


TLDR LOL FAG

[Macktheknife]

Originally Posted by -espionage-

In an aero plane, High Orbiting will place you as close to the atmosphere as you can get, without burning up (unless the veichles capable of traversing through space). Pilots will get a good reading of the land around them. They can scope out anything happening on the ground around them, and orbit the planet looking for targets. However, they are easily picked up by other players radars at this height.

During dogfights, flying in first person will give you a nice view of the cockpit and controls. Targeting is done again through the list interface or looking at them and manually targeting. Missiles will track down their lock, but can be thrown off by countermeasures. Machine guns and laser turrets can sometimes be a better bet, especially against slower moving bombers.


TLDR LOL FAG

Caveat: airplanes can't get high enough to orbit (unless powered by something that does not aspirate from the air, like a rocket). You need a rocket-powered device to get high enough to orbit, and once you're in orbit, the trick is not going too low to gain fricative losses and slow down and fall out of the sky. Low earth orbit starts at about 120 miles altitude. If you come INTO the atmosphere too fast and at the wrong angle, you burn up. Conventionally powered planes are unable to ascend much higher than 12 miles, and space starts at 62 miles.

[Fletch]

So this will only take like 9 years to make right?

[-espionage-]

well it will take 9 years for servers to be good enough to run it

[Fragmatic]

I'd love to see an operation flashpoint MMO.

[stereoheads]

You've got some pretty elaborate structures going on there. What I would change is your line. It's pretty overdone... evil corporation who has too much power versus rebellious tribe. If you have a really compelling and unique story in addition to this stuff, I think that it would be an epic game.

[JALbert]

Even the most trite will get interesting as soon as it comes out of the realm of scripted backstory and into the realm of humans writing the drama in realtime.

Sounds great, some good ideas. I doubt I'll ever see this happen though, but we can all dream, can't we?

[-espionage-]

Originally Posted by stereoheads

You've got some pretty elaborate structures going on there. What I would change is your line. It's pretty overdone... evil corporation who has too much power versus rebellious tribe. If you have a really compelling and unique story in addition to this stuff, I think that it would be an epic game.

that was just the sort of shape of how things became what they are... the timeline should be huge, and tons of different things would have went down up untill the game would take place.

but the potential for the players making the story would be huge, unlike other mmos where they say your taking place in some epic adventure and your actions (grinding quests) changes the game world. all s...

take for instance, in WoW. theres horde and alliance. wouldnt it be cooler if a player would actualy be in charge of the faction? and then they have a collective pool of different resources they have to manage and can spend it on what they see neccesary. the players corp would become like his cabniet.

[Zeagle]

I'm amazed that its been all positive responses so far.

I've always found for me that, with large projects that take months, is that my own style of coding and target goal shift significantly over the course of development. With something as massive as this...

[-espionage-]

well naturarly a lot of stuff here would needs to be further elaborated on or rethought completely. like the death system, i didnt really figure it out all the way yet. but for political players there would have to be some bigger drawback than money if they die, other wise why go through all the risks and troubles to assisinate a leader?

[JALbert]

The death system was actually an interesting balance of death having an impact vs. losing all the time invested in a character.

IMO if you're not in it for money it'll never get made though, unless you're doing it text-based.

[-espionage-]

i think the potential to make money off the idea is enourmous

for instance, you can even have certain types of accounts that offer a form of limited gameplay. players that would only want to play the game for combat purposes could have a $5 a month account, that servers purely as a character in the Corsian or Engale militarys. one of the unique things i had in mind would be the ability for leaders to have a selectable pool of players, who they could drop into a combat zone where they saw neccesary.

or you could have a $5 account that would let you have a character who can only be involved in some form of industry.

[Defiler]

I liked reading it, it was a nice step away from the traditional that WoW, EQ, EQ2, and even SWG fell into. The best way to get people to play, and get hooked, is to give them a true feeling of not knowing whats gonna happen next. The thing i noticed is that if you remove all "reward" items, and remove "stats", make it so that you never truely know where you stand, it forces you to play on your intellegence, and knowledge rather than, "OMG my stats are way higher, im gonna pwn this nub." People who can get involved into politics and use their own method to advance is far more exciting then the man with teh biggest stats. When an MMO offers a real feeling of adventure, its far more exciting. People like the feeling of progressing, with out knowing how far they can really go. The best way to offer that feeling, is to remove the ability of one player to compare himself with another player with numbers.

The other thing is that although you have some really good ideas, you have to balance out what factors make a game fun, and what make it tedious. on one hand, i dont forsee too many people going for it because it doesnt offer that much enjoyment untill you have been playing for a while and established yourself. On the other hand, having a true sandbox, where you choose your characters path with your actions rather than a skill trainer, is fucking awesome.

[stereoheads]

The 5 dollar account idea is actually brilliant. I could see a lot of casual gamers going for that, myself included.

[2slow]

Why would I want to play your game?