Ad Infinitum

[TranceRolin]

First of many places on my stop. For a few months now, I've been developing gameplay concepts to base a mod off of- While most mods have a background idea and work on gameplay afterwards, I believe that this is a horrible way to go about things, and thus have gone about my way. While a basic plot is done (not finalized, but complete . . . a bit oxymoronic though- complete basic plot. = o) that is not my main concern. Please take a moment to visit

www.infinitummod.com

It has some information on the modification, which will be made for Unreal Tournament 2004. Before I go about dictating what is what with the game, there are a few points that I wish to make: (A) While being a first person shooter, the main gameplay concept is the commander role and working with other players/commanders to simulate a larger, more intense battle scene where even simple tactics such as flanking can produce a huge advantage if the other side is unprepared (B) Being based on AIs, this is obviously the place to go to for advice on how to approach the desired goal- I don't predict built in bots being able to be edited to accept orders properly so I want 3rd party bots built in to act as the AI soldiers, but I'm not the expert here; you guys are (C) I'm looking for not only the professional opinion of everyone here, but their personal opinion- Would they enjoy this game? Would the micromanagement be too much of a hassle in any form? Aside from the technical advice on how to execute the workings of the AI and their coder/coding team, I want the usual feedback from people.

And while I'm busy at the moment with a multitude of other things, some things like me managing the team of the Counter-Strike clan that I'm in will have to be dropped as the modification progresses- The larger it gets, the more time that I will need to devote to the game.

One of the best things for a thinker to have is feedback- Please, help me out with that much.

[HangFire]

Isn't your avatar that dog from Cowboy Bebop?

[TranceRolin]

>.> Yes . . . Not the kind of feedback I was looking for. Ein forever, though.

[HangFire]

Yeah thats the dog's name. Ein was awesome.


Anyway, back on topic. So far it sounds exactly like Natural Selection, and this other mmorg, I forget its name.

The main problem I've found with these games is that humans aren't intelligent enough to function as an organized team and follow orders. They are only concerned with upping their frag count, and attempt to give the commander orders.

You'll probably have to find some way to entice the players to act like subordinates and play as a team.

[MarD]

Heyyo,

Sounds interesting, the idea of AI helpin' you out at least encourages teamplay since most players just go solo. If I had UT2k4, I'd get this mod.

[TranceRolin]

It isn't anything like Natural Selection- You're thinking of that when I say commander. You're the commander of a squad of units but you are in-the-field. You give orders, they act accordingly though not exactly. This is still a first person shooter by all rights. If it was nothing but a commandfest then I might as well of called it Shattered Galaxy. =/

The game is divided into two or three teams (map defined) and each team is divided into squads. Each squad has one human player whom leads that squad during play- The rest of the squad is made up of AI-controlled soldiers whom receive orders from the human player. Larger numbers leaves more room for tactics to be involved; this is the basic premise. If you have a 2v2 in a regular fight, then the only strategy in most games is to either duke it out in pairs or to team up on one player and hope it doesn't leave you too vulnerable. When you make each player not just themselves but also having a group of AIs (ranging from 3-5) it allows for endless possibilities of strategies, not even counting differentiations between classes. Take that 2v2 and make it a 10v10v10 and you have yourself a large scale battle where squads have to work together in addition to micromanagement within the squad- You can have one squad make a two-pronged attack or four squads to do it. I can go on and on, but the point is this; this is not natural-selection. I've yet to see anything like this before. There's no supreme commander or chair to get into, there are no human subordinates. You work together or fail.

Although to entice the personal fragging and not just have commanders sitting back, I was thinking of having a morale system- The ever present problem of when the commander dies but the squad is left behind is dealt with using a sort of morale. The more kills the commander of that squad has, the less likely they are to run back to him and the more likely they are to continue orders and keep fighting even while he's respawning and coming back to the battle line, although the player could always call them back.

[HangFire]

Ah I see. Sounds unique anyway. One suggestion I would have is too keep the command controls as simple as possible. Fumbling with loads of keys and menus is a hassle.

My advice for any developer when making a game is to always follow the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

[TranceRolin]

Heh- I've always looked to a similar strategy . . . Keep it simple by default with the ability for improvement.

[Brainz]

what happened to my post?