Fore-note: Before I say anything else, I must put on my Rajun Cajun voice in order to deliver an important message. Now don't go on dismissing this as some shitty Fortwars ripoff trying to be popular because everyone is making them and they must be cool, right? No. I've had this idea as sort of a "huh, i'm bored, i'm gonna think of random stuff that I wanna do but are likely impossible to do" ideas for a few months now, but after sharing it with a few people and receiving some pretty positive reviews, I think it's time that I share it with a broader audience and improve upon the idea before I actually launch it and hire coders and what-not. Don't worry. I can take constructive criticism and not call you a "baby bitch duck". Usually. Anyway, credits to that one little vanilla server at the bottom of the list playing an amateur game of Fort Defense on gm_bigcity. You inspired me. I love you. Although I forgot all of your names.
And now here's something we hope you'll really like!
[img]http://voepel.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/1699ed33d7ed7f52.jpeg?w=125&h=119[/img]
The gamemode, in it's "drawing board" stage, is basically a Fort Defense RTS with both NPC enemies and other players as enemies in a large open-world environment with various territory claiming - that is, without all of the details and unique aspects that I'm going to share with you below.
It would take place in a large, open-world city map - think gm_bigcity, but with bigger roads, objects to "cover" behind, many alleyways and special buildings everywhere. I'll explain more when someone with real Hammer knowledge offers to help design the map.
Now, each 1-4 people would be divided into various color-coded "teams" and randomly assigned a small "territory square" somewhere on the map, as long as it's far away enough from the opponent's squares. On the Map you pull up out of the menu, that small square would appear as the team's color, along with the current location of all of your teammates and NPCs (but not enemies). You would be given 4 NPCs as you spawn. 1 Builder, 1 Merchant, 1 Tutor and 1 Guard/Warrior.
You need [b]builders[/b] to place and sturdy most props. The more builders you have, the faster it happens, up to the point where it's instant.
You need a [b]Merchant[/b] to buy props, guns and other accessories - The more you have, the higher chance there is that one of them is carrying a "rare" item under their overcoats; Powerful, awesome... and expensive.
[b]Tutors[/b] teach you how to use certain features as a newb, and only spawn when you first play the gamemode on that server. They're not useful after you know the ropes, so you can "Fire" them, but I'll get to that later.
[b]Warriors/Guards[/b] do exactly as their name says. You can command them to "Stand Guard" and shoot any enemies that come into view. If an enemy is "spotted" and the guard lives for more than 5 seconds after seeing the enemy, they'll alert everyone on the team, and 3/4ths of Guards nearby will investigate the area where the enemy was Last Seen and scan the surrounding area for where they might be hiding. The enemy team members to which the enemies were spotted also receive a message: "(color) has Spotted your team member(s) in their territory; Supacoolguy123, Turtleey, GarretB. Location where each member was seen by guards marked in red O". Upon "Spotting" enemy team members, the AI navigates to the last seen location and investigates the surrounding area for where they might've hid. They're provoked by moving props and "special" noises like footsteps or gunfire, and head towards the area where the moving prop/suspicious sound came from. If this is too complex to possibly be coded, tell me. However, each Guard only gets a knife and a pistol at first - If you want them to have an M16 and body armor, you have to buy it for them and equip them with it.
Then, their half-brother, the Warriors. Instead of clicking "Stand Guard", you can click "Follow _____" then selecting the username of someone on your team, even you. They'll then follow you and act as your guards. They will attack any enemies that come into view, and investigate any areas that you point them to, similar to the Rebels in HL2.
Now for NPC Commands (Which are signaled by right clicking on an NPC, either on the map or in-game with your Pointer tool, both of which opens an options list (also, some of these commands are only accessible by the LEADER, who is the only Player on the team unless there are multiple people on the team, in which case it will be selected by the amount of Wins each person has):
Cast Away - Sends an NPC away forever. They immediately leave your camp and go back home, leaving their items behind. However, explained above, you can have multiple of one kind of NPC, so sending away one won't send away all unless you pick them off one by one. You can still get more NPCs by raiding NPC camps or searching buildings, which is explained in the next section below. By "Firing" them, it's basically a refund - you get all of the money they spent and all of the items they got so that you can give them to rest of the troop.
Update - Give the NPC guns, body armor, night vision goggles, and other items so that he/she can defend itself better whenever "Enemy Spotted Alert" mode is on (during this time they can/will shoot at any enemies that come into view, while normally they will just alert the Guards that they saw an enemy).
Information - Gives the player a menu of information on the selected NPC. This is things like what kind of guns he has, how long he has been at your camp, what he sells (if he's a merchant), and his "Satisfaction" rate. More on Satisfaction below.
Give Items - Commands the NPC to give the (selected) items to you. Depending on the item, it can remove a portion of their Satisfaction.
NPC Camps are placed in the "Neutral" areas of the map that are in-between the Team Squares. They're basically a small, pre-built outpost that have a random chance of appearing in different areas. They're usually built in to pre-existing buildings, but they can also be just a few tents around a campfire. The "tent camps" are usually just a few hobos with a knife and a pistol carrying a little bit of cash and a common gun like an SMG or Shotgun. There can also be "Repairing Tools" scattered around the camp that can repair your Vehicles, which are in a later paragraph, such as engines, wrenches, headlights, etc. The "building camps" are usually a shack, bigger or smaller, attached to a building already on the map. The shack is well-fortified, and the easiest way to get in is to ram it with a Modified Vehicle, or go through the building it's attached to and fight off the Gangster NPCs through the various rooms. The building can be anything from an apartment to a warehouse, and each building on the map - especially ones with NPC Camps built into them - has special loot inside. Rarely/occasionally, the NPC Camp can have a "Garage" with a random vehicle inside that you can steal and drive back to your camp.
If you successfully "Raid" an NPC Camp, there will be a random amount of 1-10 NPCs that were either being held hostage by the other NPCs, or captured by you and forced to be a part of your army - random chance which will happen. NPCs forced to work for you will have less starting Satisfaction. More on satisfaction next. Again, there's a random chance of what these NPCs might be - Well equipped merchant with a rare item, badly equipped guard with night vision goggles, etc.
Satisfaction is the amount of Happiness each NPC has. This is determined by a number of factors; How much "Comfort" things you have in your base, like televisions, lamps, books and couches, how much "Light" there is nearby where they 'hang out' (a random flat surface that's well-lit and close to the center of the base), how much valuable things are being stolen by enemies per day, how 'protected' they feel (how many enemies successfully come into the base per day, how many "good" weapons/items they have, and other factors.
Satisfaction determines how well they fight against enemies, their total health status, and if they'll quit your team due to
Sounds like a interesting gamemode idea. What happens when you die when raiding a npc camp? to you spawn back your your main base?
[QUOTE=Darklordabc;30004637]Sounds like a interesting gamemode idea. What happens when you die when raiding a npc camp? to you spawn back your your main base?[/QUOTE]
Yes, you spawn back to your main base. If there are no other teammates in the base when you die, the NPC raid is terminated (for your team) and all enemy NPCs in the base despawn and all of the furniture/bulletholes are put back to normal. If other players (even your opponents) or Warrior NPCs are still in there fighting, it'll keep going on until every enemy NPC is killed, or every one of your NPCs in the building is killed.
However, this doesn't happen with raiding other camps. If you get into the camp and die, there's no "raid terminated". The enemy - if they want to stop you from immediately attempting to raid their camp again - has to look and see how you got in the first time, and think of a solution with their own brain. If they don't have a brain, you can just drive through that gap in the wall you made and try again.
Also, I sort of want to detail on the "Random Events" that might happen during gameplay if anyone's curious.
In the game, there's a day/night cycle (prompting you to place streetlights and lamps in or near your camp so that you may see, also good for stealth missions). Each team has 30 in-game days to defeat every other team. Each day takes about 24 minutes. There's a small chance that each day, a "Special Event" will occur.
For example, one afternoon you're scouting an enemy warehouse for any bullets you can steal with your pal, when suddenly a pop-up appears on screen. "Alert: Helicopter has crashed somewhere in the map! Retrieve it and tow it to your base first to claim it!". Suddenly, you hear the sounds of dozens of cars starting up outside. You look through the window and see dozens of cars racing about hurrying to find the prize before anyone else does. However, through the tall building, you can see the helicopter wreckage - It fell into the green camp and landed on one of their NPCs. This is another strategy aspect - how to get into the green camp without their Spotters noticing you? Do you make a distraction and make them leave their post? Do you go head-on and start killing? Do you wait for one to go into an alley, stab them, steal their uniform then look for the helicopter as a Green? That's what I hoped would make this gamemode unique: There are no silly track-paths that force you to do something (that you don't want to do) in a certain way that makes it quite frustrating to accomplish. In this, you think of the missions you want to do - perhaps you infiltrate a base through a sewer then steal their car to use. Or maybe you'll find a helicopter and do an air raid in order to capture their Downtown outpost. Maybe you won't even leave your territory at all until you've built up a multi-million army where every soldier has their own private helicopter and 5 rocket propelled grenades... then you'll attack.
I thought of this as a full-scale version of Sassilization, after I started to miss it after it was down for 5+ months. Then I started to add on my own ideas and mix in genres from other games, then adding what I wanted in those other very games - soon it was it's own unique gamemode with open-ended strategy.
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