GTA clone design document; read OP before posting. - Games

Hello FP, I had ideas for a game that would be like GTA in many aspects but will also be at least slightly original. First off, this is not a game I will make, I am simply sharing my ideas. Second, I don't want any flaming of any kind; if you want to flame me, save it for a PM. I just want discussion, ideas, and criticism. Here we go; this will be a long read so I hope you expected this long post. [RELEASE] City Sandbox Design Document [B]-Index-[/B] [B]I. [/B][B]Intro[/B] [B]II. [/B][B]Driving[/B] [B]III. [/B][B]Combat[/B] [B]IV. [/B][B]Mission[/B][B] Types[/B] [B]V. [/B][B]Freeroam[/B] [B]VI. [/B][B]Inventory[/B] [B]VII. [/B][B]Cellphone[/B] [B]VIII. [/B][B]Music Player[/B] [B]I. [/B][B]Intro[/B] This document details features of an in-planning [I]Grand Theft Auto[/I] clone. In-depth details will be highlighted below. This game will – if made – follow the player through a series of missions; both good and bad types. It will allow the player to drive realistically while obeying traffic laws – or not in certain missions. Have a good read and leave comments in this thread. Feel free to PM me with any questions or comments as well. [B]II. [/B][B]Driving[/B] The most important feature of any [I]GTA[/I] clone is driving. In this game, driving will be a useful (and obvious) form of transportation across the game world of Edgar County, but will also be a little minigame, requiring you to obey traffic laws, use turn signals, and so on. - [B]Traffic laws.[/B] In the game world of Edgar County, there are set traffic laws that you must follow or face being ticketed or arrested. 1) Stop at red lights and stop signs, slow down at yellow lights. If you disobey this law once, you will be ticketed with a fine of $7. If you don’t do either above action three times, you will have a minimal wanted level. The police will attempt to pull you over and arrest you (further elaborated in the “Freeroam” section). 2) Follow your speedometer. The speedometer tells you how fast you are going and you will have to go at the maximum speed (55 miles per hour). If you go over the maximum speed, you will be ticketed $7. 3) Use your turning signals or face vehicle damage. When you’re at an intersection and the light is about to turn green, turn on your turning signal’s left or right signal, depending on which location your GPS tells you to go. If you don’t do this, fellow motorists will crash into you, resulting in minor or major vehicle damage. You will then have to get your car repaired at an auto garage, which will cost from a mere $50 to over $1000 in damage. Turning signals are manually toggled, so you can drive like an 80 year old with your blinkers on. 4) Traffic cops direct traffic in busy areas, do what they motion. If a student is crossing the street after school hours, let him pass. The traffic cop is a law enforcer as well and can alert local authorities. Like in real life, you do as they motion you to do. - [B]Toll booths.[/B] We all hate them but they exist in the game world too. Going from one city to another? You have to pay the mandatory $1 toll; if you refuse, you will immediately receive a minimal wanted level. Highways have the same toll as well, and the booths are harder to maneuver around. You can purchase a toll booth ticket which can be used as many times for one in-game day. These tickets will make any toll free. However, they can only be used once per day, and they aren’t always available. Let’s just say that the tourists took them all. - [B]GPS.[/B] The GPS on your radar can tell you where to go; you will hear a nice ‘beep’ as you near a turn. It will also give you the locations of any unlocked location (restaurants, safehouses, toll booths, hospitals, etc.). You can place a waypoint, or if you on a mission where you have to get to a destination, one will be placed for you. - [B]Accidents and other unfortunate things.[/B] You will have an accident with your car at some point in the game. These can range from an empty gas tank to a dead engine. You can call a tow truck to come to your location and they will fix your problem halfway through so it can get fixed professionally. This means that if you have an empty gas tank and a dead motor, the tow truck driver will fill your tank halfway (at the price of $2) and tow your vehicle to the nearest auto garage. The auto garage can fix up your vehicle depending on the damage (for example, a new motor costs $700; a totaled vehicle will have to be replaced [or hijacked]; a replacements costs $8500, no matter what car it was). It can also respray your vehicle to whatever color you want which will cost you $45 a pop. This system is more in-depth than [I]GTA[/I]’s “Pay-n-Spray” system. - [B]Gas.[/B] Gas usage in games like these is rare. You can stop at any gas station or auto shop and refill your gas tank for $4. Your gas amount is indicated next to the speedometer as a black circle; it will slowly go down as you drive. Turning your car off will disable this effect; leaving it on will be bad for your car as the gas (and engine) will slowly diminish. Gas stations can be used to purchase small health items (such as pop cans or cigarettes) as well as get gas. [B]III. [/B][B]Combat[/B] Combat in this game is similar to [I]Grand Theft Auto IV[/I]’s combat, as this game utilizes a cover system and a health/armor system. Weapons will be categorized here and explained in the inventory as well. - [B]Cover. [/B]Cover in this game can be anything from a wall to a car to a light post. Cover can protect you from enemy fire and allow you to bandage your wounds. Not all cover is effective; cars, for example, will explode if shot in the gas tank. You don’t want to be crouched behind that. - [B]Health.[/B] Health is indicated by a small bar in the lower left corner of your screen. As your health goes down, you get weaker and can take fewer hits. You can only take two rounds from an assault rifle with a full health bar, that’s how fragile you are. - [B]Weapons.[/B] Weapons can be purchased from either underground, back-alley storage closets or from a target range. The prices from either don’t change, but the types of weapons are different. For example, you can buy a full automatic AR15 from an underground shop or a semiautomatic AR15 from a target range. [B]IV. [/B][B]Mission[/B][B] Types[/B] There are two types of missions which are explained below. - [B]Casual missions.[/B] These types of missions are given early in the game. They are any type of non-combat mission which may include overseeing a peaceful deal between two men for tobacco or any other kind of good, getting a drivers’ license so you can legally drive around Edgar County, having a shooting competition or any kind of laid-back, easy mission. These are sometimes rewarded with cash or some other item (drivers’ license; old car, etc.). - [B]Action missions.[/B] These types of missions are spread evenly among the casual missions (see above). They usually involve, but are not limited to: kidnapping, assassination, bank robbery, or interrogation. They are always rewarded with cash and occasionally some other bonus (discount from certain stores, free guns of ‘x’ type, etc.). [B]V. [/B][B]Freeroam[/B] Now onto the fun part of any city sandbox game: freeroam. You can do whatever (with repercussions, of course) and generally just chill out between missions. There are many aspects of freeroam, including: - [B]Safehouses. [/B]Safehouses are used to save your game, stash weapons and change your clothing. That’s generally about it; the rest of the world is outside. They can be bought for various amounts of money or some, such as hotel rooms, can be rented for a maximum of one week. Each day costs one-fifth of what the price would be if you had bought that property. Please note that certain safehouses, such as hotel rooms, can only be rented, not bought. There is also a garage of some sort, be it a parking lot or three-car garage; these are used to save any car you have. These cars are repaired after saving at a safehouse nearby. - [B]Money.[/B] Money is very important in city sandbox games. How money is handled in this game will be very different. You will always have a wallet on you, in which you can carry a maximum of $2500. Any other money you earned from missions is stored in your bank account. You can either use your bank account or wallet to purchase goods such as food, clothing or cheap weapons. However, you have no choice but to use your bank account for expenses such as medical costs and jail charges. - [B]Transport.[/B] The Driving section was already outlined in detail; let’s go over other modes of transport. The Edgar County Railway Department (ECRD) offers a county-wide railroad transport. Trains stop at three stations per city (of which there are three, totaling nine stops) and it costs $20 for a train ticket. This ticket can last you for an in-game week. You can save and heal up on the train at no extra cost, as those expenses are included in the ticket. There’s also the option of a taxicab. They cost $0.50 per mile, so if you were to go from Edgar City to Friarstone (a journey taking about 36 in-game miles), it would cost you approximately $18. Then there’s riding a bike (you have to take a class costing $85 and will net you a free, constantly-respawning mountain bike), which takes more time than by vehicle but an advantage is that the bike will never get damaged. Or you could walk; you wouldn’t want to walk across the county but maybe around a few blocks to meet up with someone, sure. - [B]Strangers.[/B] Like in [I]GTAIV[/I], you can do tasks for strangers, who will give you either a small cash reward or some other bonus, such as a free train ticket. These missions are always the casual type, and are easy enough to do while going about your business. - [B]Old cars.[/B] Old cars are tasks from a mechanic with whom you do missions with. This guy wants you to find a total of fifteen old cars (such as vintage cars from the 1950s, or even a Model T). These you can keep or sell for a large amount of cash (around $10000 per car). - [B]Crimes.[/B] If you commit a crime, you get in trouble. Simple as that. If you commit any minor offense and are seen by a cop, you will be ticketed $7. Do it again and you'll be ticketed $14. Do it a third time and you will attain a minimal wanted level. This wanted level is when the police attempt to pull you over and arrest you. The next one is a moderate wanted level. The police will put up spike strips and send out police dogs to sniff you out. If you brandish a firearm in public, and aim and/or shoot anyone in the vicinity of a cop, you will get a major wanted level. The police will set up spike strips, send out search dogs, increase security and send out heavily armed and armored SWAT teams. They will gun you down with their full automatic rifles so be cautious. Or, you know, just obey the law. [B]VI. [/B][B]Inventory[/B] Inventory in this game is handled with the use of a backpack and your pockets. In your pockets, you can carry your cellphone, wallet, a pocketknife, and a pistol. In the backpack, you can store one long weapon (like an assault rifle or shotgun), a submachine-gun, five magazines/clips of ammo for any weapon you have, and four small weapons (such as grenades). [B]VII. [/B][B]Cellphone[/B] Your cellphone carries your contacts as well as 911 emergency services (paramedics, police, fire department, and tow truck). It can also give access to the Pause screen. This is a useful and invaluable tool in your journey across Edgar County. [B]VIII. [/B][B]Music Player[/B] Accessed from the Pause screen, the Music Player is in all cars, replacing radios from games like the [I]GTA[/I] series. How it works is that you can upload any .mp3 audio file to your Music Player and listen to it while driving. You can even use it while on foot or anywhere else; it can only be used in cars during missions, however. The Music Player will hold up to 300 files, so you can upload music from your iPod or any similar device that you have saved on your computer so you can listen to it in-game. The best part is, for some at least, is that there are no ads or no need to have separate radio stations: just put your music in and you’re set. And thus complete this design document. I hope you enjoyed it. Like I said above, feel free to leave a comment in this thread or PM me with any questions or comments.[/RELEASE] Read it, enjoy it, feel free to PM me or leave a comment here. Thanks.

Sounds like it's trying to be too realistic and will likely get people bored because the majority will just want to get on with missions and shoot shit instead of deciding if they should leave their smg at home so they can carry more assault rifle ammo. Some things I kinda naturally do most of the time during GTA style games such as stop at red lights and whatnot and sometimes get annoyed at the fact cops don't chase if you're speeding down the wrong side of the road or running red lights... Some points can make a game more interesting but some just seem a little extreme and unneeded. I don't really know what else to say, I'm sure I've seen a GPS and turn signal used in another game but instead of manually activating the signals, it lit up depending on if you were moving the analogue stick to the left or right, I think even GTA4 has GPS in some cars, not all though and they say directions too but I could be mistaken. It feels like most of the things such as fuel costs, tickets could just be an extra setting for difficulty within the next GTA, if you want to have slightly realistic difficulty then sure. Also obeying traffic laws on a congested road would be really annoying, get out your car and walk faster and then because you own that car, they track the license plate to you and you end up with a large fine through the letter box and your car is in nearest lockup and you have to pay X to get it back. :ohdear:

I agree with you. This idea is trying to be a more realistic version of GTA. If it's ever made, I could put in a 'fuck shit up' mode akin to the 'free ride' in Mafia.

I was expecting 'Fuck Shit Up: The Game'. Came into over realism nightmare 2000.

Like I said in my above post, if this is ever made, I'd be sure to put in a fuck shit up game mode. You can set options for police, weapons, money, etc.

Too much work. If I wanted realism I have a set of realistic shooters for that.

[QUOTE=Pinut;22546918]It feels like most of the things such as fuel costs, tickets could just be an extra setting for difficulty within the next GTA, if you want to have slightly realistic difficulty then sure. Also obeying traffic laws on a congested road would be really annoying, get out your car and walk faster and then because you own that car, they track the license plate to you and you end up with a large fine through the letter box and your car is in nearest lockup and you have to pay X to get it back. :ohdear:[/QUOTE] Don't worry, that license-plate tracking wouldn't happen. I doubt I've seen a game like this and I'm thinking some people, including me, would enjoy playing this.

I don't think that it should be [i]too realistic[/i]. Try removing the ability to pay for a speeding ticket and replace it with a minor wanted level. However, that game in general would be a perfect multiplayer RP.

That's what I don't like about GTA. If you go through a red light in real life, you aren't automatically arrested. think the ticketing system works like the one in Mafia, only you have to pay the fine.

I am considering going ahead with this idea. What engine would be best? I have the Source engine ruled out (unless it can be used for freeroam) and am considering using either the Panda 3D engine or the UDK. Advices?

UDK for definite, I dunno what Panda 3D is but I doubt it'd be suitable for such a huge game world.

I thought the Unreal engine couldn't do an open world; can it do an area about half the size of San Andreas or so?

It should be able to, I'm pretty sure TERA uses the Unreal Engine 3 and that's an open world MMO afaik, or atleast large zones.

Hah, you know Unreal can support unlimited level space through streaming? It's listed as one of the features on the UDK feature page.

Really? I'll have to look into it, maybe get some of a city done and show it off.

The music player seems like an awkward addition that sort of contradicts the realisticness. It's like having a media player on shuffle in the background, except you can't use it outside a vehicle in missions. I'm just not sure how it fits into the game world - does the player have his headphones in all the time?

Instead of going through all the hassle of having many radio stations and getting certain tracks licensed which costs a lot of money I don't have, and then getting radio DJs, the player simply has an MP3 player with them. Not sure how I'd do it; I'm planning on this to be a free game as of now. Radio or MP3 player?

All i care is that if you speed past a cop, he'll go after you like in Driver

He will.

[QUOTE=AmericanInfantry;22568691] Radio or MP3 player?[/QUOTE] I'd go MP3 player. It always annoyed me that I couldn't listen to the radio on foot in GTA.

Alright. All I need is a story, help from someone who knows how to map in UDK, someone who can model/animate, someone who can code in UnrealScript, and someone who can help with sounds and I'm set. Game dev is hard.

If I wanted to worry about filling up my gas tank, I'd go driving around IRL.

The gas diminishes slowly even if you're going at a high speed.

[QUOTE=AmericanInfantry;22568974]Alright. All I need is a story, help from someone who knows how to map in UDK, someone who can model/animate, someone who can code in UnrealScript, and someone who can help with sounds and I'm set. Game dev is hard.[/QUOTE] Haha oh wow

[QUOTE=AmericanInfantry;22568974]Alright. All I need is a story, help from someone who knows how to map in UDK, someone who can model/animate, someone who can code in UnrealScript, and someone who can help with sounds and I'm set. Game dev is hard.[/QUOTE] Oh, I see. You're the idea guy!

I'm not the idea guy; I'd be mapping, hence the words "[B]help[/B] from someone who knows how to map in UDK". Learn to read. [editline]21:54[/editline] I said I was considering making this game, I said it might not be made. It's just an idea that might happen. God.

[QUOTE=Pinut;22546918]Sounds like it's trying to be too realistic and will likely get people bored because the majority will just want to get on with missions and shoot shit instead of deciding if they should leave their smg at home so they can carry more assault rifle ammo. Some things I kinda naturally do most of the time during GTA style games such as stop at red lights and whatnot and sometimes get annoyed at the fact cops don't chase if you're speeding down the wrong side of the road or running red lights... Some points can make a game more interesting but some just seem a little extreme and unneeded. I don't really know what else to say, I'm sure I've seen a GPS and turn signal used in another game but instead of manually activating the signals, it lit up depending on if you were moving the analogue stick to the left or right, I think even GTA4 has GPS in some cars, not all though and they say directions too but I could be mistaken. It feels like most of the things such as fuel costs, tickets could just be an extra setting for difficulty within the next GTA, if you want to have slightly realistic difficulty then sure. Also obeying traffic laws on a congested road would be really annoying, get out your car and walk faster and then because you own that car, they track the license plate to you and you end up with a large fine through the letter box and your car is in nearest lockup and you have to pay X to get it back. :ohdear:[/QUOTE] Mafia 1 told me to drive safely or cops will cap my ass off. [editline]11:04PM[/editline] [QUOTE=AmericanInfantry;22568974]Alright. All I need is a story, help from someone who knows how to map in UDK, someone who can model/animate, someone who can code in UnrealScript, and someone who can help with sounds and I'm set. Game dev is hard.[/QUOTE] I'll come up with a very crappy story but all gta's had crappy one so. You were a undercover cop working in the mob but you got to tied into it and quit the force and became a crime lord. Then the cops try coming after you so you need to clear your name and leave the country. Holy shit that sucked. [editline]11:05PM[/editline] [QUOTE=MadCatMkII;22568746]All i care is that if you speed past a cop, he'll go after you like in Driver or [B]Mafia[/B][/QUOTE] Am I the only one who played that game? [editline]11:09PM[/editline] [QUOTE=CoolKingKaso;22547333]I don't think that it should be [i]too realistic[/i]. Try removing the ability to pay for a speeding ticket and replace it with a minor wanted level. However, that game in general would be a perfect multiplayer RP.[/QUOTE] Would you waste 12 $50 bullets on cops trying to kill you because you were speeding instead of paying a $20 fine? I thought so. [editline]11:10PM[/editline] Yep never mind I'm not the only one playing mafia.

[QUOTE=cdr248;22570189]I'll come up with a very crappy story but all gta's had crappy one so. You were a undercover cop working in the mob but you got to tied into it and quit the force and became a crime lord. Then the cops try coming after you so you need to clear your name and leave the country. Holy shit that sucked.[/QUOTE] I actually like that story a bit. Except instead of leaving the country, you leave your old home (New York or some shit) for small town Edgar County. [QUOTE=cdr248;22570189]Am I the only one who played that game?[/QUOTE] Nope, I played it too and served as a basis for this game idea. Hella fun, it was. Except I never played the PC version. :frown:

[QUOTE=AmericanInfantry;22570361]I actually like that story a bit. Except instead of leaving the country, you leave your old home (New York or some shit) for small town Edgar County. Nope, I played it too and served as a basis for this game idea. Hella fun, it was. Except I never played the PC version. :frown:[/QUOTE] So instead of leaving the country how about you go away from L.A. because cops and shit yada yada yada so you go back home which is Edgar county and the cops find you and your friends and family get involved so you need to protect them then clear your name RDR style by killing everyone important in your old gang. Also Mafia for consoles sucked the controls were very clunky and stuff.

Kinda seems fun, but rather than a clone it should be a mod for GTA. The traffic thing is a must, I get so annoyed in GTA when you're going down the road at 88 mph smashing sign posts down and the cops don't stop you.Same with when you walk around with a glock and nobody does anything until you start shooting. It should have Riddick style health too where you have a few blocks of health which are all mini-regen systems, but when one goes to zero it doesn't regen and starts eating into the next one down. Each regen block should have a lower tolerance for damage so eventually you can be killed in one shot.