Randomized Missions

[jim]

[frag.machine]

This sounds a lot like what I was planning to Realms of Quake (RoQ), a single player/coop mod I worked on /off for a long time until I gave up for good.

[Dr. Shadowborg]

Sounds a lot like what I've been planning for Smash, except that there would still be weapon / health / ammo pickups (surplus items you didn't need would get picked up and count towards money instead), less randomization, taking areas (usually involving a boss / miniboss fight) would actually unlock weapons / reduce weapon / ammo / supply costs (maybe even track limited war supplies), more advanced defenses / troops, etc. and impair the enemy war efforts (sometimes resulting in loss of unit / weapon types). Each area would have some kind of storage lockers / vending machines with goodies that could be accessed too.

Defense missions wouldn't always require your attention either, allowing your defense units the occasional victory. (enemy force strength vs. player allied force strength)

I was also thinking about doing Bionic Commando-style "meet the enemy on route" / "get intercepted by enemy defense forces" type missions where you'd control a gun turret on a APC or something, then deploy to destroy the enemy APC /whatever.

Just proves that Star Raiders-esque ingame strategic gameplay ideas haven't died just yet...

[jim]

I thought that player could also buy some automated turrets and other defence stuff. They could automatically handle some defence missions without player needing to go to the mission. The turrets/etc could also appear in the missions. The extra lives could be more soldiers for player that could be taken to a mission. They would have some kind AI, try to follow player and shoot the enemies. Maybe player could also switch control. Then every soldier should have own inventory, and the inventory size would probably be smaller than if it's just one soldier per mission. But these things are something for later. Now I want to get a prototype done with the Start level and couple mission levels.

There could be some shops in the mission levels. These could have a different inventory than the shop in the Start level. They could even have items that are not yet available in the Start level. If player buys something from these mission level shops, the items would go straight to the soldier's inventory, which would also mean that player could only buy a limited amount. Selling stuff in the mission shops would also only allow selling the stuff on the soldier. Ammo would also take space from the inventory. The base inventory in the Start level can have unlimited space.

Player would also have some unlimited ammo weapon, a pistol, that takes no space, can't be dropped or sold. Player could buy an extra pistol, which would take space, can be dropped and sold. Maybe there's also like max weapon slots. Player couldn't take every weapon into a mission, even if they would fit into the inventory space. The extra pistol would probably use one weapon slot too, otherwise it would probably be so small size that player could take it on every mission. Maybe some large weapons would use more than one slot. At least the rocket launcher I made looks pretty big.

[Dr. Shadowborg]

[frag.machine]

[jim]

Yea, I guess inventory stuff can get complicated, which why I wouldn't want more than the (Shop,) Base and Player inventories. Also I think the player's inventory should be something like in Deus Ex. Pistol(s) always in slot 1, and other weapons/weapon like things can be assigned freely. Player could have some 3-5 other weapons. I think the equip interface can be just text on a graphic background. Press the slot number key, select a weapon from a list, and it's assigned to the slot, or select drop weapon to drop it/place it back to the Base inventory (if in the Base). Every slot would have some weapon number/flag assigned in the code, so the game knows which weapon is in it.

Player could probably also make a melee kick with run and/or jump keys if close to an enemy.

I've thought to have a day/night cycle (don't know if I'll actually do it), which could make outdoor levels appear different. Some lamps on at night, bright skylight at day. But this would require them to be realtime dynamic light entities or making some 4 versions of each level. The time would probably only change between missions. The sky wouldn't change smooth anyway. But then some people might always abort night missions for them being too dark or something.

Maybe then every mission would be both attack/defence type. If player aborts/fails the mission, player lose an area. If player completes the mission, player captures an area. Player should immediately start the game with some areas, otherwise player would lose the game right away if player failed the first mission.

Player probably gets a little bit of money for every killed enemy, so player could get some money even if the mission failed. Maybe some of the openable boxes can contain money too.


I always played SoF with the custom difficulty. Sometimes I played with unlimited inventory, sometimes limited. Sometimes dumb enemies, sometimes ridiculous amounts of very angry enemies.