New mod idea - post your interest and ideas

[R@S]

Hey y'all

The Blue Sun Mod is almost done and I fear the abstinence I'll get once it's done, so Dodger Bullet and I have started talking about the next project. Here's the basic idea:

It will be very similar to Reloaded, but using the 7.62 maps and weapons from BSM. The mod will be for those of us that wants instant action and only have a few hours now and then to play.

We haven't decided if it'll be linear or if the player should be able to choose which map/ mission to play. Here's some ideas for missions I know the source code could handle:
- Rescue hostage before time runs out.
- Defuse bomb before time runs out
- Capture the flag
- Kill 'em all/survive
- Kill target, but no others

There are more things that can be done within the code limitations, so feel free to offer suggestions.

The good thing about this is that the game will be more stable, it'll not be as sluggish as the vanilla since the player wont do the badly coded missions from that.(I'm thinking of the random missions which are quite badly written and leaves some stuff in the memory. I haven't bothered fixing it, it would be to a great task for someone with my limited skills)

We could use one map as base, where the player could collect weapons and stuff from fallen enemies and he could hire the mercs he wants.

We could have a trader there, selling all things from the start, but the player needs to do missions to get money for them.

Is it just me and Dodger that would like to play something like this or are there others?

Edit:
How about having the player choose between 3-5 skills after every mission, the skills depending on type of mission. The player gets to choose from, let's say five skills, and get a 5 point bump in the skill the chooses. That way the player could customize the character in a more controllable fashion.

[0a.Archangel.a0]

Hi R@S,

man u really got in deep on this :-D
Thought I might give few ideas, hope some are applicable.

Missions:
Kidnap: Kidnap ... and leave sector.
Sabotage/Espionage: Infiltrate+place bug/and or explosive on given location.
Enemy forces weakening: Prevent ... (mainly patrols) from reaching point (mostly other side of the map).
Threaten: Find NPC ... and melee it few times, if requested-shoot it in requested body part. (saw that this is possible without enetering combat during gameplay).
Theft: Find object ...
Escort: Person X must reach location.
Replacement: Infiltrate and escort person x to location ... Eliminate person ... and aquire his uniform+give it to the escorted person(+aquire guard uniforms for your team)+help person reach location within compound or anything else+leave the person there and leave w/o gunfight.
Ambush: (Simplest) atack convoy-bring whatever is requested
Survival: W/o weapon at the start survive til time expires or leave sector.
Defend the fort: While bunkered in your position, prevent enemy from taking your fort or destroying/killing something important at your base.
Street brawl: Settle street hooliganism-no weapons only melee combat thru the level or some silent weapons or melee weapons when police cant see you.
Dodge ball: Arena of somekind only with throwing weapons, prefered knives to grenades :-D, best to be divided in middle so the teams cant reach each other.
Arena battles: (sidemissions for some extra cash) Eliminate other group within sector or kill enemy in the sector(1vs1)-the enemy should be some camped f.... with better weapon than you and the sector should be mined for better fun.

Multilevel missions:
1.Reach point without being detected.
-possibility on the way: aquire disguise, weapons, traps, demo etc.
2.a) wait till all targets are present - eliminate targets, eliminate target one but with target two seeing it, eliminate using traps, eliminate using demo charge,eliminate targets and aquire info.
2.b) overwatch meeting, protect person ..., protect person if failed retrieve data. Overwatch meeting collect info, leave sector.
2.c) eliminate guards, kidnap persons ...
3. bring object to ...
3.a) leave area till time expires
b) hide till hour X than meet your transport/guide at location x
c) Eliminate hostages in front of civilians or on location x
d) Eliminate hostages+hide bodys/request their uniforms(one merc must be left with them as guard+take uniforms-infiltrate location x and aquire y.

Hope this will inspire at least a bit.
cya

B.t.w. or for laughs: I was traying to create zombie textures - resolved in quite a joke LOL :-D. But its creatable. (wanted this for some of my own editing and extra missions with own storyline-I simply love survival horors :-P). Tried to create new bones to the 3D object mesh of NPC and give some new movement but it hell camed down at me. Well within the 3D it looks quite nice, but the game CTD in unavoidable at the start, gotta learn more with the scripting I guess :-D. The worst is saving action: 'zombie atack'. Man i got the BSoD (Blue screen of death) whens tarting the game :-D so I kind give myself a fea days to cooldown before I f.. my PC :-D

[R@S]

Thanks for all those ideas, I'm sure some of them will appear in the mod.

If you'd like you could join our team, we need more people with scripting skills. And if you plan to make your own mod, it would be an excellent way to learn the engine limitations and how to script missions. We'll only work on this 2 or 3 months, so it won't take too much of your time.

[Redjac]

How bout a good old fashion Guerrilla hunt. Search and destroy. Your merc and his 3 mates have to patrol from one city to another and in the frontier have to clear the road sectors.

Make it to the next city and collect your dough.
(if there is still another mod coming out)

[R@S]

Yeah, there'll be another mod from our team, but there has been a change of plans. This new project will have a Fallout-ish gameworld and there'll be a whole new storyline.

I've changed the starting map, removed the old towns and replaced them with new ones. We'll populate the cities from scratch and our expert writer, Dodger Bullet, will give it a very special atmosohere.

We do need any help we can get, especially someone that can edit the character skins so that we can have some new and exciting models for the characters. Drop me a PM if you think you can help.

Here's a pic of the new global map:
Edit: new pic that has loyalties and fits better
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/9708/globalmap01.jpg (http://img15.imageshack.us/i/globalmap01.jpg/)

[0a.Archangel.a0]

R@S

its looking nice:-D good Idea with the postapolypticum, My favourite worlds :-D, like i mentioned before I love survival horors, and whats better for this than the whole world ruined ? :-P :-) Only in game ofcourse.

Sorry for not replying sooner but i needed to get to work, to get to internet.
Guess what, my PC meltdown, the harddisk that is. Shit simply stoped working and is no longer detectable in BIOS( 500GB Seagate Baracuda - bi.. now I found out that the seria was reported to have bugged firmware and need regular update to prevent it form becoming non-detectable, stupid buy, didnt knew that at that time. Claimed that one today, also buyed me few terra-disks for the future :-P just for insurance. The bad thing is that i lost everything on it so I have to start from scratch. :-( Not to mention the info gathering, manuals and programs. OMG heavy bullshit incoming!

If you will be still working on the mods when i get the rocket online again then I would gladly contribute in whatever area I can, till then sorry that I cant assist ya.

BTW: Looking forward to meeting the simpsons and Moes Pub in Springfield. Maybe have a few snipe shots at Flenders house or a Grenade party in da house :-D If there can be a flamethrower than also burn Mr. Burns :-D

LolL, good luck with the moding.

[R@S]

Sorry to hear about your problems, I hope you'll get up and running soon and can join the fun. The more people involved with the code, the more we can accomplish. We still need graphic guys to work on some skins, loading pics and whatnot, but that'll come later down the line. Right now it's all about setting up the world to fit this new concept.

I've updated to pic in the prvious post to update y'all withut having to post a new one. I've been playing around more with the source code and figured that we can have a more strategical elemet in the game. With any luck we'll get the capturing town scripts to work as they should, and that means we can have the player work for 4 factions fighting for dominance.

I've also removed the safe zone, the player will get ambushed everywhere on the map. We might alter that so that some cities will have a sphere around them where no encounters will happen, but that'll come later.

I've also made a patrol script for the tactical map, it will be useful when scripting sneak/avoid NPC missions. I'm working on a steal item mission right now where the player will get 4 different options on how to complete that mission. It's a hoot:-P

[0a.Archangel.a0]

Thx, i am reinstalling the s... . F... the install already :-D Installled automaticaly the Slovak language in it and afterwards all programs automaticaly switched to Slovak, shit I hate that. Why? There is simply low support for systems and programs in Slovak alocation. Already got denial on update for several programs. Man I am red from it. But this is not the main point.

Had a few questions: :-D

WIll there be ski masks? Something to hide the face.
- Usage: I would like to see one day in a game that once no one can identify my face=I wount suffer reputation penalties, offcourse not even gains, plus in real world this will lead to higher overall threat awareness and distrust.
- Example: Quest to eliminate drug dealer but the fu.... is loved by the stupid civilians as they dont know it. So put on a mask, shot him dead and scram, maybe put down some cops on the way out, self defense offcourse. So I put down the target (sad civilians would lead to decrease in reputation among them, dead officers would create a war between the towns police and me, friends of the dead target would make me the next target,) but with the mask all these reputation decreases are avoided. Paranoid theories are in place but noone would point me directly :-P. Only reputation gain would be by the one who ordered it, event can be further improved by some means of leaving a mark as the custommer would not believe that I was the one who put the target down.
- Quests resolved like this wont grant a good reputation gain as there are almost no witnesses but they can be also rewarded otherwise like for example the trade permit from Stefan Uribe.

- But You can improve the factions importance by doing the dirty work in their uniforms - leading to greater power for that faction.
- Unless you deal with someone directly your actions would have an impact on the Mercenary fraction. This means all mercs would suffer from your actions just like you have to suffer from the acts of all the similar characters
in any game.
Example.: stockkeeper is a regularly used NPC (hope everyone agrees) so doing something in front of him would lead in direct affection on your characters repution excluded he is not ok with bribes or simply doesnt care for your actions. Warning: In case u became well know among the civilian fraction(like when dealing 'good' missions without the mask and improving your reputation among them) it is simply clear that everything u do when they are somwhere near affect u directly and not the complete mercenary guild or whatever.

The game CGL should not be like an instant spell, Like when u progress and everybody around u is immediately armed with paras or Beret SR while u have the simple mp5 and ur best mod is dual clip :-D. THe guards should be armed acording to the fractions power and should be rearmed to more powerfull models overtime not instantly. DONT BRING HARPY POTTER INTO THIS! :-D

More camo outfit is a must, both Sniper camo, and soldiers camo. E.G. green/brown camo provides bonuses in jungle encounters and white/black in towns.

I had more ideas before the meltdown, but curently I am so up on my knees and nervous that i might happen to s... on it all.

Things i was trying to solve, maybe some can inspire.

Ability of soldier s to sneak and knife kill(silent) instantly.
Restrain ability, knockout ability, threaten ability, free give (conversations) of items to other NPC. brawl ability-kick anyones ass in meleecombat(police fee and possible imprisonment for some time to cool down), jail break :-D, Map rework: bushes provide high CAMO but make a lot of noise if you move inside them(good camps :-P), targets on roads are easily hit. Bribe and negotiation options on encounters, buying merc groups for your dirty work(sending them on single missions), Body can be picked up and transported (kinda wanna give my teammates a proper burrial at the home base and maybe spike some bodys of my enemies on entry :-P), uniforms with camo bonuses, accuracy boosting helmets and head addons, thermal googles, complete vehicel implementation - fataly heavy modification(requires complete work out of vehicles for this game so it propably wont be ever made :-( , Base management (guard upgrades, helipad, uniforms, saluting guards and such :-D ), Mission dependant repplies to orders from other mercs.

Guess thats enough of poetry for now :-P

[R@S]

Balaclavas are possible to add, but it requires a lot of work. You'd need to go into every actors\monsters\*.azp pack for all the RPC's, 30 girable mercs and 6 for the payer models. There you'd have to add the head models in the description file. I'm not planning to do it, my time is limited and I have other things more pressing.

Uniforms are the same, unless you alter the already existing ones. The it would be a matter of opening up the Pack0.azp and find the TGA/DDS file that are for that uniform model. I'm not that good at texturing and won't do it myself. But if anyone feels like doing it I'll try to help as best I can.

I've been trying to make NPC's unconscious in the scripts but have failed. If I find a way, having stun weapons could be possible.

Knife kills(instant kills) can be done by scripting, I think. I never tried it, but the user functions that would be needed are there. You'd only have to add a check to see which kind of weapons was used to kill an NPC and then force kill that character.

Enemy inventories can be changed with the built-in inventory editor. Just set the load-outs to appear a few CGL's after they turn up in shops. I think it would unbalance the game a bit, but that's just my humble opinion.

[R@S]

This is the story so far and what we've got planned.

The short version is that an ELE(Extinction Level Event) has wiped out most of mankind, jungle warfare rules the world. The people who survived it will call that event the SHINING. It's a description as well as a name. The player will start with his home base, a small faction that is neutral towards the other 3 factions that is fighting for control of the region. In the lower CGL's we'll have more simple missions, escorting people, bounty hunting and such. The higher reputation he gains the more more missions will be available. At higher levels the player will get more involved in the war, being able to join another faction of try to take over the region for himself.

A disaster caused the cities in the Zone to become highly radiated and no survivors were left to talk about it. The player can only stay in the Zone for less than an hour, the parameters decreasing the whole time. There's be some meds to restore the radiation sickness, but in severe cases a special doctor is needed. Once the player has a gas mask he can stay in the Zone for 6 hours and with a Hazmat suit 12 hours.

There are 4 factions:
Federation, Structured government, police force and legal traders.(Green)
The Union, Fundamentalists , independence irregulars, "Browncoats".(Red)
The Hansa, trading company that owns territory, trade routes, arms dealer(Light blue)
The Free State, (Purple)

Sheriffs, Police department in Old Haven.
Sons of Anarchy, biker gang, traders and gun runners.
Slaves, low skills and parameters, cannon fodder.
Various other Gangs and bandits.

Game Start
The player is released from prison. ElVertigo map. Starts outside the gate where an old friend is greeting him. He'll follow the player back to the Army Base.

Here the player will get his old gear stashed in the safe. There will be a caravan heading out to Old Haven, the player gets asked to join. Ambush. In Old haven other missions will be available. Other escorts, bounty hunting, cop missions and such. The factions will have some missions too, but the main Faction missions will be available at their main city.

There will be missions to acquire NPC's at your base, like traders, valet, doctor and merc consultant.

Later in the game the player will get gas mask, then a hazmat suit, making it possible to stay in the Radiation Zone longer. There'll be a bunch of missions taking place in that Zone, but as for new monsters, we are limited to existing ones. But that might change.

There will be mission and loot in the deserted cities inside the Zone, those cities are Tombstone(Campesino), Dodge City(Puerto Viejo), Springfield(Sagrada), Deadwood(SantaMaria) and Harbor(Secret).

There will no longer be mercs, but STALKERS that will join the player to loot the Zone and to **** with people. These STALKERS will be available through the Consultant or placement in the cities outside the Zone. They wont be available until the player has reached a "STALKER" status.

The player will start as a noob being able to climb up the ranking system and gaining skills and parameters.

The new ranking system:

Deputy -> Bountyhunter -> Agent -> Stalker
Deliveryboy -> Bodyguard -> Merchant -> Stalker
Killer -> Hitman -> Assassin -> Stalker

Once Agent, Merchant or Assassin has been reached, the player can become a STALKER after completing a special mission and gets a gas mask.

The player can join 3 of the factions or be an independent
Federal
Hansa
Union
Independent

We should have the slaves in the game more active, the player could even own slaves keeping them locked up at the base. Some missions could involve rescuing and then be asked to let go or keep the slaves. Could even use them as cannon fodder.

Gang wars inside the different cities and the player will be asked to assassinate and steal from other gangs for rewards.

The factions outside the zone will also be in a war against each other.

[ivanra78]

This looks AMAZING, GREAT :grin::grin::grin::grin::grin::grin::grin:, when it will be done ? :)

[R@S]

It'll be done in a year or so, but there might be a beta version available for some testers in a few months time. If anyone wanna help test it, send me a PM and I'll add you to the tester list. Then when a beta version is ready I'll send you the link.