gameplay that you would like to see in a mod.

[rambler]

By this I don’t just mean, RPG or RTS, I also mean things like iron sights. The RTS element is being implemented in the oppression mod. I personally would like to see an RTS type thing happen.

i also think iron sights would be very nice if implemented properly. a way you could get around the clumsyness of ironsights though would be to make more of a feature of the crosshair. you could make it look like some sort of tactical overlay generated by an implant. there could be weapons that disrupt this, causing it to distort and flicker. maybe a replacement to the laggy smoke grenade (not that it really is laggy anymore), could be a sensor disrupting grenade.

i would very much like to see some useable vehicles in game also, ideally some ghost in the shell type tanks - if only.

my one biggest comment would be that fast is not necessarily better. you can create a hectic atamosphere without ramping game speed. i find HL.CTF very dissapointing because i think it is stupidly fast, in my opinion it would benefit from being alot slower.

maybe another nice idea to force the battles to be bigger and more coordinated would be to have two bases on wither side of the map with an announced countdown to a dropship launch, say every five minutes. this gives you time to gear up and get onboard ready for the drop to a central battleground where the other side are also being dropped.

there could be sections where the ships fly side by side giving you a chance to fire on the passengers, and they at you, before the drop. there could be support fighters that could be manned, or dropship turrets - ahhh the possibilities are endless and unfeasable.

my last comment would be that i am always a fan of the armory. if you were spawned with only a pistol and you had to go and grab your gear before entering battle that would be a nice touch. perhaps you would be able to access different levels of the armory depending on your position on the leader board.

 

[Beerdude26]

Link.
'Nuff said.

 

[rosseh]

http://www.fortress-forever.com/
http://www.planethalflife.com/tfc/http://www.fortress-forever.com/

 

[Humidor]

There are 6 different characters in the game, each have an instrument on their back, and each carry their own unique weapon. When you spawn, you get a sheet of music on the top of your page where each note represents a specific character. The objective of the game is to complete your randomly generated song and play it on your instrument. The only way to collect the notes for your song is to destroy the specific enemy's instrument that lays on their back, attacking their body does not hurt them. When your instrument is destroyed you respawn again with one note missing from your song.
The setting would be rather abstract, most levels would take place inside small buildings with relatively cramped spaces.
Every character is balanced in different ways concerning their instrument and weapon. One large character may have a big cello on his back, but he would carry a deadly single shot firearm. Another character might have a small instrument and a quick rapier, their speed would make up for their weakness. Only 6 people can play at a time using each character, which is a benefit in itself, and is also great for private games and lan parties.

I think that's a pretty interesting idea for a game. Talk to me if you have the pure audacity to pursue it.

 

[sharp]

I think I heard a shot :upstare:

 

[Crispy]

There are 6 different characters in the game, each have an instrument on their back, and each carry their own unique weapon. When you spawn, you get a sheet of music on the top of your page where each note represents a specific character. The objective of the game is to complete your randomly generated song and play it on your instrument. The only way to collect the notes for your song is to destroy the specific enemy's instrument that lays on their back, attacking their body does not hurt them. When your instrument is destroyed you respawn again with one note missing from your song.
The setting would be rather abstract, most levels would take place inside small buildings with relatively cramped spaces.
Every character is balanced in different ways concerning their instrument and weapon. One large character may have a big cello on his back, but he would carry a deadly single shot firearm. Another character might have a small instrument and a quick rapier, their speed would make up for their weakness. Only 6 people can play at a time using each character, which is a benefit in itself, and is also great for private games and lan parties.

I think that's a pretty interesting idea for a game. Talk to me if you have the pure audacity to pursue it.

Man you should work for Nintendo. It sounds very original and I like the fact that it's effectively aiming at the smaller audience, which isn't really covered at the moment. The main problem would be getting everyone to decide on a character they liked, or finding a way to get around that, like random character assignment at the beginning of each round.

 

[Sathernut]

*ahem*

http://www.fortress-forever.com/
http://www.planethalflife.com/tfc/http://www.fortress-forever.com/

^^

 

[Kalashnikov]

TFC is a great game and I see Fortress Forever being just as great. I've seen a lot and they really know where the core of gamers are with the Fortress community and what they want. It's great to see a dedicated team as well as experienced on the project.

 

[Crispy]

Yeah FF rules. I'm so confident in them recreating the TFC experience and thensome that I don't even feel the need to follow what's happening with them. It's just a matter of time.

 

[Majestic XII]

I really want a new version of TFC (go FF!), but the game dev part of me is saying something else. I want to see more conceptual, "We dont know how the **** it will work" kind of mods. Moddings main advantage over the real game biz is that we dont have to think about money, we dont have to think about to sell as many copies as possible, we dont have to think about the publisher and so on. This gives us the advantage to really develop some unique and fun new gameplay. Some one got a crazy new idea? Great, prototype it with a mod, you dont loose anything.

But do people use this advantage? No, not by a longshot. Its sad, because I know that the real game devs are watching mods and the developers for new creative talent.

 

[Crispy]

Just because mods aren't being made, that's not to say that there aren't original ideas out there. Some people might have brilliant ideas but not have the time or the skills to put them into effect. Others may just be waiting for the right engine or the right opportunity. Modding still shares some of the same problems that real games do. The more ambitious a mod, the more time it takes, and however much you might encourage wacky ideas, nobody wants to put 1-2 years into a mod that never gets played.

 

[Majestic XII]

Just because mods aren't being made, that's not to say that there aren't original ideas out there. Some people might have brilliant ideas but not have the time or the skills to put them into effect. Others may just be waiting for the right engine or the right opportunity. Modding still shares some of the same problems that real games do. The more ambitious a mod, the more time it takes, and however much you might encourage wacky ideas, nobody wants to put 1-2 years into a mod that never gets played.

I understand that, but originality doesnt automatically renders a mod useless and not fun. We should not underestimate the players, the biz does it all the time. People who play CS all day and night arent scared of new games, even if most people think so.

Most people will look for new mods and try them out, if they like them, they stick with it. If not, they just move on to another mod.

When people try to make something that they think players will play, they usually end up with CS/DOD clones (since they are the most played atm). It would be better if they just dropped that and did some thinking out side the box, without any restrictions, we would have a lot more interesting mods. You have to do unique AND fun mods, if you can get that right then the players will flock to you.

Also, it might even take a shorter amount of time to do unique mods since they mainly focus on gameplay. For example: Nintendo games. Very simples games, with simple gameplay but still great fun and you can get alot of hours of gameplay from them. Same should apply here. Sure, hours and hours of long SP mods might be fun, but they dont offer alot of innovation (Havent seen anything from the mods ive taken a look at). What they do offer is a hell of a development cycle for the developers. Instead, they could have used their creative minds to think of a wacky new unique gameplay feature and make a game from that.

The reason most people join the more mainstream/clones are because they want to get something released, and when a whole lot of people think that, it will get released (as long as the leader dont **** up). If people could just be more interested in the smaller innovating mod teams, that would be great.

I would rather fill out my portfolio with innovative mods rather than a clone of some generic game (that isnt really as good as the game it wanted to be in the first place). Companies will notice this.

I'm not trying to diss the big SP mods, its kinda ironic I said that because Im developing two SP mods myself...

 

[Crispy]

I think you also have to bear in mind that a lot of people bought Half-Life 2 packages just to play CS:S and DoD:S, and before that CS, DoD, TFC and DMC (to a lesser extent) would have also swung the vote Half-Life's way. The mods that clone them now may not be innovative, but Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat and Team Fortress got a lot of things right (eventually) and tearing players away from that is no easy task. I'm not denying the fact that there are people who own copies of HL2 (or others who don't yet own HL2) that would embrace innovation, but I think it would be harder to generate an audience for sheer quirkiness for this engine than you'd imagine. I definitely agree that simple ideas make for great gameplay, though.

 

[Ome_Vince]

I think running "after the facts" is not going to give your mod the "fame" or amount of players it deserves.
Making a mod that looks like CS only tweaks it a bit will catch a few players yes, but i see plenty of awesome mods with super graphics that immitate CS and/or DoD.
Result is they get mediocre exposure, rather than if their gameplay/setting would be more innovative, they would draw much more attention.

For instance, who would get more "fame" Elvis, or an impersonator.
Crummy example but you know what i meen.

Second, the fun part about modding is you can experiment with game-types without falling on your face like if your EA or whatever.
They tend to run after succesfull concept and "do it better". Since then its less of a risk.
Innovation therefor mostly comes from mods atm.

Let me know what you think

 

[Crispy]

I'm not neccessarily talking about CS/DoD clones, I'm talking more about FPS Team Deathmatch and gameplay elements like 'spawn waves' and the 'rounds' system. I don't see a lot of mods breaking away from these sound gameplay elements. Half of this is a lack of self-belief, half is because these elements work very well.

 

[Ome_Vince]

Its a solid startingpoint.
Like in movies telling the story from A-B-C rather than mixing it around.
Some director comes with C-A-B ( Quinten Tarrentino ) and now directors are more open to the subject.
Same needs to be done with gameplay.

 

[rambler]

tarantino wasn't the first guy to do that. i personally can't wait for neotokyo.. shame that there wont be any tanks in it though. still, it kicks the hell out of dystopia, which i think sucks a little bit.

 

[Crispy]

Its a solid startingpoint.
Like in movies telling the story from A-B-C rather than mixing it around.
Some director comes with C-A-B ( Quinten Tarrentino ) and now directors are more open to the subject.
Same needs to be done with gameplay.

Lol I have a mod story written that does that... :O

 

[rambler]

you truly are a genius

 

[Crispy]

It's not quite C-A-B. It's actually more like William Gibson than Tarantino, meaning you follow the storylines of seemingly unrelated characters that all meet up as circumstances intertwine their motives. You also get to play as different characters to see how the same events and situations were important to a character whose story hasn't quite been explained yet.

3 (playable) main characters which all have separate storylines which bring them into the same place mid-game. At certain parts of the story multiple characters appear in the same locations, and playing as different ones gives you different storylines and mission objectives for the same scenario, as they weave in and out of the levels, meeting up at certain points to link up their abilities in order to overcome obstacles. The levels generally follow a chronological timeline, although there are flashbacks at times, and completing certain levels unlocks levels that take place in the past, playing as a different character.

I suppose I could play around with the C-A-B storyline, though. But wouldn't it be weird to have a game that finishes with the final Boss? I couldn't really do that with this story because I've tried to structure it with plot twists that would be spoilt if you saw the ending before the beginning.

 

[rambler]

what are you talking about. way to make the thread all about you.

 

[Ome_Vince]

Pulp Fiction was a C-A-B kind of thing.
Vincent Vega and Jules are the ppl you follow, true Bruce Willis etc get entangled later on, but Vincent vega is killed half-way through the movie, and it ends with Vincent Vega finishing off the caffeteria robbery with Jules after they've returned from point A.
Weird composition but it all works. Bruce willes, Vincent Vega and Jules are the lead characters being entangled, but their scenes are all but chronological. They're totally messed up Which makes it more fun.