A different kind mod topic (ideas go here)

[CastleBravo]

This topic is the reverse of all those "join my mod" posts. You know, the ones where guys who have an idea, but no technical skills or organizational ability, ask for people to make their mod for them. About 1 in 100 ever produces a team, let alone a mod.

This topic is different. Here, the people posting ideas aren't looking to make a mod team and make themselves team leader so other people can do the work for them because they have no skills. Instead, the idea is that you share your ideas (give them away, really), and if people with technical talent want to turn your idea into reality, they will tell you. After all, alot of people with good ideas can't, or don't want to, try to make a mod team anyway, but their idea might still be good enough to be worthy of being realized by somebody else.

This topic can also have the benefit of consolidating all the random mod brainstorming that can take up dozens of topics at once.

Do's and Don't's for this Topic:

Yes, I have no authoritah. Bear with me anyway. :dork:

Please DO share any ideas you have that are relevant to a mod. Story ideas, gameplay ideas, design ideas, and so on. Anything that could be relevant to a potential HL2 mod is fair game. They can be little snippets or full-blown concepts. Big, small, doesn't matter.

Please DO NOT TRY TO RECRUIT FOR YOUR MOD. This is not a recruiting topic. The idea is that if your idea is so damn cool, the people who can make the mod (coders, mappers, what-have-you) will approach YOU to use your idea. You will get recruited, instead of doing the recruiting, if your idea is that good. If not, well, you'll get ignored, which is no different from what happens to most people try to recruit people to do all the work on their mod while they try to take credit anyway.

Please DO riff off other people's ideas to come up with new and hybrid ideas, and post them. Use ideas to build other, better ideas.

Please DO NOT JUST ASK FOR MODS BASED ON STEALING OTHER PEOPLE'S INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. For instance, don't say stupid crap like "HL2 Aliens vs. Predator would r0xx0rs d00d!" On the other hand, mod ideas influenced/inspired by other games/books/movies etc. are fine, just try to be somewhat original.

Please DO suggest improvements to other people's ideas. Just DON'T be an ass about it. Constructive criticism is rare, but we might as well give it a shot.

Please DO give credit to somebody for coming up with an idea if you use it in a mod. There is no way to make anybody do this, but it would be the decent thing to do. A story or concept credit doesn't cost you a dime.

And finally, did I mention DO NOT USE THIS TOPIC TO RECRUIT FOR YOUR MOD? :thumbs:

I've got some whacked mod ideas I'll post later.

 

[RabidJester]

I had a thought for a Junkyard Wars type mod. Each team would have a huge pole sticking into the air with a hoop at the top. The players on each side would spawn with a grav gun, crowbar, and pistol. Spread throughout the whole map would be all sorts of junk and debris, that they would have to collect and stack to create a climbable tower to the hoop. Meanwhile, the "ball" would be randomly spawned in out in the middle somewhere.

You'd have to build your tower, defend it, try to capture the ball (which could even have a random AI attached to it, like the snitch in Harry Potter, so it moves around on it's own) and get it in your hoop. Beyond all of that, you'd want to stop the other team from getting it and try to knock over their tower as well.


Just a random thought for something new. Thoughts?

 

[HEaP]

Half-Life2: Emergency Medicine

Half-Life2: Emergency Medicine…
….a nice idea that came to me while defusing the bomb in counter-strike. Well what it is, is that you play a medic during the city 17 uprising (still working on what would be a good narrative for this character) and I was thinking a key aspect of the game play would be healing your dying comrades. You would find them in non combat zones and during combat. Wound can be minor, broken limb, that needs a splinter, or life threatening gunshot wounds or cuts, maybe CPR is needed.
The player will have a certain amount of time before the character dies from blood loss or not enough oxygen reaches the brain. The more serious the wound the less time. A race against time. This will up the tempo adrenaline rush of some battles, having to beat all the enemies make the area secure before trying to heal your team mate, even being interrupted by the enemy while healing forcing you to stop what you are doing and eliminate them quickly and continue saving your mate before time runs out and they die.

This could also be easily integrated to the puzzle element where you have to save certain characters who contain key information that will enable progress through the game (codes for locked doors, computer access) and failing to save them ends in mission failure.

The healing will not be like, press use key, oh your automatically healed! as I said earlier the inspiration came from defusing the bomb in counter-strike, and from the adrenaline rush that comes with waiting and preying for the loading bar to fill quickly before the bloody terrorists ambush you seconds before defusing the bomb!
So healing a wounded character will be like defusing a bomb in CS. The more serious the injury the longer time it will take to heal. I was also thinking a healing animation, sterilising the wound, stitching, and applying the band aids or casts. Or the player is involved in healing by selecting the right equipment (selecting iodine/morpheme with the mouse and placing it on the wound.) grabbing the bandage and maundering it over the wounds. Clicking in a certain rhythm over the characters chest to get CPR correct etc. 123 click 123 click etc.

Rewards maybe received for healing your team mates, the more serious the wound healed the bigger the reward, for example the maximum heath would be 100, but only through healing a new limit of 200 hp can be obtained, (a 10hp bonus for every healed team mate) if the player’s hp he reduced below 100 the only way to get it over 100 is to heal more team mates (100+hp you can not use med kits)

Sound like a game i would enjoy playing.

Im kind of proud of this idea, I think im gonna reward myself by nailing some combine to the wall with my crossbow!

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Kinda clever idea, HEap, although I think the actual healing should be more involved. Like a VGUI appears, and you've got to treat the problem graphically (apply bandages, torniquets, and all that stuff to the right locations), so you can stop an ally bleeding to death before you deal with other problems, like infections.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[HEaP]

:cheers: still in the first person view, and you can have a heads up Display that analyses the patient, listing the injuries in order of priority.

yes, i agree The healing should be a big part of the game play, not automatically done, where would the challenge that would be boring, and very repetitive.
Like the player chooses a gun to kill the enemy, the player will have to choose the correct medical equipment and manoeuvre it to the correct wound.

For example, to inject morpheme, the player has to first select the needle and morpheme, manoeuvre the needle to the morpheme jar, pierce the seal, click, to suck up the morpheme into the needle, manoeuvre the needle to the patient , click and inject the morpheme into the patient and remove the needle.

For CPR the player has to place his hands in the right position and for every click equals a compression, a second non heart team member can deal with the kiss of life wile you deal with the compressions.

But some procedures may be too time consuming and complicated, the bandaging and splints, the player will have to manoeuvre the bandages and splints in place select the right equipment that sets to an animation that finishes the procedure.

teach some basic first aid that can be used in the real world maybe.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Definately would make a change. A first person shooter involving the saving of life, rather than the taking of it? You may have stumbled upon a £1,000,000 idea.

And don't forget you've got to bring the veins to the surface of the arm by tieing something around their bicep, before needling them.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Henry]

Actually, Castle Bravo, I do have a response to your "team leaders that have no skill" statements. Yes, I can understand what you are saying, how many people post their idea on the board and are hoping that a group of people will do the entire project for them. But, in reality, the Project Manager position is one hell of a position. Many people do underestimate manager positions, but they are what keep a team together. I have seen this many times, and once on one of my own projects (which I have fortunately learned a great deal from, and I truely respect the responsibility given to managers). Every position in a team is equally as important

 

[Sir Phoenixx]

Definately would make a change. A first person shooter involving the saving of life, rather than the taking of it? You may have stumbled upon a £1,000,000 idea.

Except that there has already been several games released that are like that.

 

[CastleBravo]

Actually, Castle Bravo, I do have a response to your "team leaders that have no skill" statements. Yes, I can understand what you are saying, how many people post their idea on the board and are hoping that a group of people will do the entire project for them. But, in reality, the Project Manager position is one hell of a position. Many people do underestimate manager positions, but they are what keep a team together. I have seen this many times, and once on one of my own projects (which I have fortunately learned a great deal from, and I truely respect the responsibility given to managers). Every position in a team is equally as important

Read closer.

This topic is the reverse of all those "join my mod" posts. You know, the ones where guys who have an idea, but no technical skills or organizational ability, ask for people to make their mod for them.

 

[CastleBravo]

By the way, here is part of one of my ideas... basically it is an idea for a premise for a story.

OK, here is one of my ideas. It is a story concept. I admit it is not totally original by any stretch, but for some reason it sort of sticks in my head.

Some time in the near future, all the men on Earth are killed by a biological weapon of some kind. Furthermore, it stays in the environment, so that male fetuses are always stillborn. At the time the main story takes place, it has been long enough that no woman has a direct memory of interacting with a man. All their knowledge of men is secondhand: movies, books, and so on. Of course, women don't need men to reproduce, thanks to artifical insemination. So human society, after the initial upheaval of just under 50% of the population dying, kind of just goes on and develops without men.

This opens the door to alot of potentially interesting things. What happens when there is no direct male influence, let alone presence, and society develops from there? Are things (architecture, automobiles, urban design, furniture...) made more feminine, or are some things “masculinized” to subconsciously make up for the absence of men? Or both? Maybe there is all kinds of curvilinear architecture on one had, and 8’ hulking labor droids lumbering around that look like gorillas? Anyway, this sort of thing would be a hell of a pretext for coming up with a truly original visual style for the mod.

And how would culture develop? What would people's attitude towards history be, and the role of now-extinct man in it. Would they even think of men as human anymore, or just some kind of alien influence from the past?

But naturally, things get really interesting when a man, the player, is found in an archeological dig site in this manless future and taken out of stasis... :smoking:

 

[Sir Phoenixx]

But naturally, things get really interesting when a man, the player, is found in an archeological dig site in this manless future and taken out of stasis...

It would be a very, very short mod... Since the "biological weapon" stays in the environment, he would die as soon as he was brought back to life.

Some time in the near future, all the men on Earth are killed by a biological weapon of some kind. Furthermore, it stays in the environment, so that male fetuses are always stillborn.

 

[HEaP]

It would be a very, very short mod... Since the "biological weapon" stays in the environment, he would die as soon as he was brought back to life.

Well a slight modification can be made, the biological weapon ONLY effects the male flatus causing the male population to die out only leaving a world full of females.

But wont this cause the female population to die out too? Well no, not really, why? Because they store large amounts of sperm so the women can artificially inseminate themselves long after male population is extinct! So when the man is found in stasis he is safe, because he no longer is a fetes .

Interesting idea but my main question is, what will the main narrative of the game be? What will the whole point of playing? The sperm banks are running low and you, on your own have to replenish the supplies? :E (just a joke-not a put down)

 

[Angry Lawyer]

I thought of a rather odd idea for a new mod based in the Half-Life universe.

How about...

The combine invasion came like a stroke of lightning - sudden and brutal. Earth was defeated within hours, enslaved within days, and the future looks hopeless.

But, one man rises out of the ashes...

Gordon Freeman - equal rights protester.

Stand up for your right to be heard through peaceful protest! Chain yourself to the combine citadel, and refuse to budge until Humans get their voice heard! Croud outside the nexus and wave angry plackards alongside other peaceful protesters. Run like a madman as Metrocops come to arrest you/beat you with sticks!

Only with your help can humans and Combine live in peace, and finally have equal rights.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Kangy]

I thought of a rather odd idea for a new mod based in the Half-Life universe.

How about...

The combine invasion came like a stroke of lightning - sudden and brutal. Earth was defeated within hours, enslaved within days, and the future looks hopeless.

But, one man rises out of the ashes...

Gordon Freeman - equal rights protester.

Stand up for your right to be heard through peaceful protest! Chain yourself to the combine citadel, and refuse to budge until Humans get their voice heard!

-Angry Lawyer

What, and then the wall moves forward and crushes your mortal coil? Sounds short and repetitive

 

[Kangy]

Oh, on top of my Today Mod, I have an idea that could serve as a bit of experience for the team I'd hope to manage/write for, but still be great fun and work the Source engine well.

TF: The Plague

Okay, so basically, it's very much like Team Fortress, but there's only one playable side. The story is very generic and will hardly shock anyone, but it's basically a year long disease that paralyses the brain into thinking it is somehow not human. It has no emotions, cannot feel pain and there are a lot of mutations. Over 3 billion humans were infected, and the entire continent of Africa was consumed within 4 months. The USA annihilate the entire West coast with nuclear weapons in order to stop the North American infection.

Cities left over after the initial plague are left under attack by the smart mutations acting as "leaders". The cities were in the process of building inpenetrable defences, but the smart mutations caught on and sent wave after wave of army at them until the defences could not be completed. Their armies and populations dwindling, the remaining nations combined their military prowess, intellectual knowledge and resources to create teams capable of finishing the jobs.

The team would consist of:

Scout:
Capable of climbing buildings and using lightning fast scout bikes. Carries a pistol, 3 incindary grenades and a flare. Has no armour protection.

Grunt:
Holds the line and can carry out a few basic tasks. Can have 100 health and 100 armour. Can load sentry turrets and man gunning stations. Is equipped with a pistol, and any 2 out of a shotgun, a flamethrower, a SMG with nade launcher, a gravity gun or a battle rifle. Also has 5 incindary grenades and 2 flares.

Engineer:
Capable of building sentry turrets, baracades and scout bikes (from a kit). The engineer can perform advanced tasks for a scientist, as well as fixing machinery and any vehicle. Carries up to 80 armour, the engineer is equipped with a welding+gravity gun, resource box (holds the resources an engineer needs to build sentries etc.) as well as a shotgun, 2 i-nades and a flare.

Scientist:
Much like the VIP class of the original TFC, this nerd has 75 health, a ball point pen and a crappy pistol. Oh, and a flare if he gets left alone with just the pen to fend off the zombies. A scientist is often required to start work on the main objective, eg. fixing an energy barrier and computer network. Can die safely once work has begun.

Pilot:
This guy can drive any vehicle, but is screwed if he flips it, or has to bail. Can make a scout bike from a resource box. Carries no armour, or guns, but has a cool EMP device if some mutant bastard starts shooting rockets at him. His other weapon is a crowbar, which can be used to crank open doors of old tanks and vans. Is required to take reinforcements into battle.

Big Guns:
This guy is the muscle bound action hero. He has 200 armour, and can carry 2 of the Grunt class weapons, as well as a heavy choice. The heavy choices include a rocket launcher, a gun that destroys all life forms nearby (very limited ammo) and a quadruple barreled shotgun. Can perform heavy labour (lifting up that car stuck in the generator) as well as smash down some doors with his bare hands. No melee weapon other than his fists, which can smash a zombie's head like a melon. Holds 10 i-nades, and 3 flares.

Espionage Classes:

There are 2 types of espionage classes available. One is much like the spy from TF, only instead of tranquilizers, he carries vials that slowly reverse the mutation and kill the former human. Has a variety of advanced scout moves, such as wall leaping and limited gliding. Has a shotgun, a sword, some explosives and his vial gun. Holds 3 i-nades and has 80 armour. Useful for eliminating leader mutations, or potent mutations.

Sniper:
This guy sits on the rooftop and snipes quite happily. Has 3 types of sniper rifle, including one that does a similar job to the bio-gun of Big Gun. The others are pretty much clones of the other TFC ones. May need to be supported to a good location by team mates, or protected for a short time.

The Zombies:
The generic zombie is simply a human without emotion or the ability to feel pain. They can weild guns, but they're rubbish with them, so very commonly just charge lines armed with spades and clubs.

Zombie mutants are often horrific in appearance, and can vary from a combination of normal zombies, to a towering mound of dead flesh. These very commonly use guns such as the rocket launcher (which has been reportedly absorbed into one mutant in Liverpool) or lead huge armies fearlessly. Can also drive vehicles if they're small enough.

Maps:
I have the image of about 10 maps on release, all roughly set around big cities in the world. A brainstorm comes up with Liverpool, Paris, Brussels, Toronto, Perth, Tokyo, Beijing and Calcutta as good locations. Variety of locations and feel, but with the same ability to be "urban" in their feel.