Phantom Ops: Gameplay Teasers

[phantomdesign]

www.GryphonAuto.com/Phantom-Ops/

I've been working on getting new media ready, but most of my efforts have been going into various research aspects to optimize the game itself. There is some more information on my site (www.GryphonAuto.com/Phantom-Ops/), but information and media is relatively limited at the moment. If you want a MINOR taste of what is to come, read these teasers below. My favorite feature of those listed is the multiplayer communication (which is mostly being kept a secret).

PLEASE feel free steal the idea for vehicles (and only the idea for vehicles). Just send me an email with a link to your MOD website, and put me somewhere in the credits when you release the game...special thanks, MOD ideas, or something like that.

Please indicate your level of interest in the poll. It is for my own personal use only to test ideas and ensure the highest quality MOD possible.




www.GryphonAuto.com/Phantom-Ops/
GamePlay Teasers
Phantom-Ops strives to feature the most diverse game play seen and incorporate innovative features to push game-play, versatility, fun, strategy, and skill to the next level.

The second most important aspect of Phantom-Ops is to be diverse and widespread in a way that encourages players to develop skills and strategies, even highly advanced or complex ones. Players are encouraged and have the capacity to develop their own entirely unique style of fighting that suits them best. While there are many ways this is achieved, a mere taste of what is to come is described below.

Vehicles
Players are encouraged to do what they do best, regardless of their style. Nothing is more frustrating than having a highly advanced skill, but being unable to reap the benefits. While this achieved in many ways, one innovative feature is a kill by one of the gunners is automatically split between the gunner and the driver. Traditionally, being an excellent driver is never rewarded while the guy with the big gun in the back gets all the glory.

Multiplayer Communication
Multiplayer consists of 2 teams mode (main), anarchy mode, 2-man teams. Multiplayer uses an innovative team communication technique for vastly more advanced team communication. This technique allows players to quickly and easily comprehend multiple communications, easily allows for complex coordinated attacks, and is extremely simple to use. This revolutionary communication technique will only be one of many surprises that Phantom-Ops has to offer.

Sniping
Phantom-Ops diverse game play appeals to snipers, assault players, and many other styles of gameplay. Players are more difficult to snipe than many current games, but Phantom-Ops diversity offers multiple unique advantages to snipers never seen in games.

Feel
Most experienced gamers know the feel of a game is important. When a game absorbs you, making you forget the physical world you. and causing you to have extreme amounts of fun, that is what makes a game worth playing. Many games achieve this to varying degree and in varying ways, but Phantom-Ops promises to push this aspect of modern game-play further than before. Phantom-Ops will have impressive visuals, many things to explore, diverse gameplay, and more, but when you first touch the mouse and keyboard, that is when you will understand what truly makes Phantom-Ops what it is.

Balance
Some games can be frustrating to many players in many ways. Phantom-Ops strives to reduce frustration level by an absolute minimum. The main aspect to achieve this is balance. Balance is extremely important other wise a game falls into cheap, but less enjoyable gameplay such as grenade-spamming, snipe-fests, camp wars, vehicles only, etc. Each style of gameplay is given the tools they need to achieve their custom style of play in a realistic, but effective way. Additionally, frustrations of too fast or too slow gameplay are eliminated in a variety of ways. Even while considering elements of balance, diverse gameplay speeds, and more, the game must be fun to all that play whether it be a highly experience player or one which can not seem to get any kills.

 

[Javert]

I'm sure more interest can be accrued after the release of media. (A picture's worth a thousand words, I would know.)

 

[phantomdesign]

The thing about interest is it lets me gauge stuff. For example, the poll above would be useless by itself. It's the successive polls, which will allow me to gauge things like popularity, and whether or not the media/info released is worth much. It is more the increase/decrease/no change, which is important.

 

[alco]

Sorry but your vehicle idea has already been planned for a long while already in another mod... *coughhostilefreedomcough*

Of course, it's just a small part of a much larger feature. We'll talk more about it when we reveal the game.

 

[Javert]

Originally posted by alco
Sorry but your vehicle idea has already been planned for a long while already in another mod... *coughhostilefreedomcough*

True, as with many other mods, so comparisons are baseless. It shouldn't discourage a similar approach.

 

[Letters]

I can't say, from what I've seen so far, that I can be very interested in this.

team-based multiplayer first-person-shooter that provides addictive and enjoyable gameplay. A wide variety of vehicles, weapons, and terrain encourage combat of all types and teamwork.

That isn't really telling us a whole a lot. It's sounding pretty much just like a slew of other MOD's if you ask me...

Players are encouraged and have the capacity to develop their own entirely unique style of fighting that suits them best.

I'd be interested to know how this works. What will make one sniper different from the rest? Or is this just saying that people will have different amounts in how much they choose to drive around, run-and-gun, snipe, etc.?

An innovative reward system encourages players to develop skills and strategies.

Does that tie back in to making each player unique?


I know it's early, but I'm just not seeing a whole lot of an original concept here, and that's really all we have to go by at this point in terms of interest. If it shapes up to be everything that is stated in that overview, though, it sounds like it'll be a great MOD, though! I know I'll take another look once you've added some more stuff.

 

[phantomdesign]

I suppose as a general response, I’d like to indicate these are teasers, meaning that what you see here consists of less than 0.5% (which is not 50%) of the cool features to come. Many of the ‘for instances’ are mere teasers of how I will accomplish a goal. I may have 50 or more related ideas that allow me to achieve that goal.

Also, I think people are getting the wrong idea about that ‘interest meter,’ so I’m going to eliminate it from my further posts. I apologize for that. Could any moderator delete the poll?

alco: Well, not than anyone would admit they didn't plan that feature (kidding you of course), because after it is mentioned, it seems so obvious. This is why a lot of planned features will remain hidden until the release, and I’m being rather vague about other features (like that multiplayer communication technique).
Anyway, I really don't care. I want every mod to do that...because I'm both an extremely good driver and an extremely good gunner, and the last thing I want is to be the driver which no one can hit, but gives the gunner all the good angles, but doesn't get any kill points. On the other hand nothing sucks worse than a shitty driver. In the back, you're helpless, and as good as dead.

Javert I’m not comparing my MOD to any other MODs. If any MOD wants to compare themselves to my MOD, fine, but don’t expect me to compare my self to you.

letters Good criticisms/questions

I'd be interested to know how this works. What will make one sniper different from the rest? Or is this just saying that people will have different amounts in how much they choose to drive around, run-and-gun, snipe, etc.?

It’s a combination of the two. It partly has to do with the ability to customize your player, and also has to do with a carefully planned and constructed environment. There are all other sorts of features such as the vehicle scheme mentioned. I’ll continue to answer your question in the post below.

 

[phantomdesign]

Now there are many ways in which diversity is encouraged. It mostly has to do with the in-depth planning described below, but there are MANY MANY additional features which enhances this aspect of gameplay, which are mostly unrelated to what is described below.


Well, the sniper is only one of about 25 different main styles of play I have planned. I even have multiple styles of sniper gameplay that go into the equation. Without going into detail, I ask the question, what makes a sniper a sniper. First, a sniper is an advanced class / skill which should be difficult to master. A fresh noob shouldn’t be able to snipe without any practical skill, otherwise, the entire game becomes a huge boring snipe fest. On the other hand, a person who is actually a highly skilled sniper should be able to do what suits him best. What makes a sniper a good sniper? What would make a person who is an extremely good sniper not want to / chose not to be a sniper? What would make being a sniper fun or boring?

Now, there will probably be 8-12 player classes you can chose. Initially, each player class offers very little advantage. You have to earn your special capabilities. You may say that sounds like a standard RPG, which I suppose in some ways it is, and other ways it isn’t. Each player class ports to about 2-6 general styles of gameplay, like the 25 mentioned above.

This ties in by encouraging players to maximize kills and minimize deaths. There is a balance created by a reward/lack of reward system. How it works is you only earn money when a kill is achieved. Now it doesn’t stop here, as this would encourage players to run out into the battle field, and try to get as many kills as fast as possible disregarding death. Now, the money earned for each kill is determined by something called ‘rank value’.

Rank value one of the key features which makes Phantom-Ops what it is. It is the entire basis of the reward system, and the primary ‘goal’ of those who play the game. Rank value uses an innovative formula which encourages players to achieve many kills, but also discourages deaths. Basically, on a superficial level, the more kills you get, the more money you get. The more deaths you get the less money you get. The formula isn’t that basic, but overall, the ultimate goal is to ‘own’ everyone while being untouchable yourself. Even if you are no where near that ‘ultimate goal’, and totally suck, the game will still be extremely fun. The idea of rank value is to be #1, you HAVE TO develop skills and strategies. Most of the rest of my MOD is tools to allow you to develop your unique style, and have the maximum amount of fun in the process.

If you tie this back to the money issue, you have to achieve kills fast enough to have good weapons and equipment and not get slaughtered yourself, but on the other hand, if you die too much in the process, it doesn’t do you much good either.

Now I mentioned that players are pretty much the same when they just start out. You earn your skill. Each player class gain unique attributes and advantages depending on how high of a ‘rank value’ you have. You can actually loose skill (except you won’t fall below the default skill level) by dying. Rank_value encourages you to play smart by rewarding smart gameplay with increased skill attributes, which believe me, increased skill attributes will be incredible amounts of fun to play with.

A miscellaneous idea…
Now I’ve actually though of causing players to increase in skill, depending on how they play, for example if you snipe someone your sniper skill increases or a knife/blade take down increases your knife/blade damage. I’ll have to review options for coding this and figuring out how to determine what determines which skill you are using/used before I make any solid decision here. I think rank_value does this just fine, and would caue the least amount of frustration. I can already see it now “WooT, I sniped Yo @$$. WhereZ MI Skillz Iincrease?”


Questions?
Perhaps instead of presenting information I select, I should allow all of you to ask questions, and from those questions I’ll be able to pick and choose the information that will be most relevant to those who might be interested in my MOD. What makes my MOD what it is, is the depth in which my MOD explores all sorts of things, and the way it applies these concepts.

 

[Neutrino]

What is this "2-man teams" mode?

 

[phantomdesign]

2-man team mode is where you have teams of 2 people. Like if you gave 12 people on the server, you have 6 teams fighting against each other. People can switch teammates with each other, and they have the option to fight alone.

One important element of Phantom-Ops is it encourages players to link up and form small groups. One way this is achieved is by an innovative multiplayer communication technique. This technique will be very influential in Phantom-Ops success, so unfortunately I cannot say much more about it. There’s another long-term aspect of Phantom-Ops, which I’m formulating now, which will encourage players to join up, learn each other’s strategies, techniques, and communications. Team-play can be extremely useful, and what I do is provide the proper tools. Basically, I encourage players to join up that way they can get a feel for each other’s style of play, and become a very strong tactical unit. I know the description is vague, but hopefully it will help you understand the mission.

Now, not everyone will want to join a clan, or have the effort to establish their own bad-ass clan, but team play is still really important. Now coordinating between 2 players which know each other’s styles, strategies, movements, etc can be extremely fun and effective. A group of just two people, if done right, can defend or assault a rather large territory. I’m not going to say how, because that is up to the players themselves. Basically lets say you’re an elite player, and you own everyone like noobs. You could join a clan, but how do you know which clan is the best, and why join a clan if the other members aren’t any where near as good as you?

Well, while playing phantom-Ops one day, you’re owning everyone like usual, your rank_value is high as usual and you’ve got all of your specail abilities, but some asshole from the other team keeps sniping you, running you over and nabbing you with grenades. You kill him a bit also, so he’s probably pissed back. Well, I suppose what happens typically is the elite player either finds another server to join (cuzz he’s a whimp) or he decides to fight this equally matched player for experience.

Well, instead of that…you might say, “Wassup Yo!! PhantomDesign, you totally owning me like no one. You gotz the SkillZ! Lets hook up for a 2-man team!” So, you hook up with this teammate, and you guys have excellent coordination and stuff and you two as a two man team always own everyone. Now if you are playing in a regular 2-team mode, your little newb tag-alongs are reaping all the benefits, while instead you could be owning them also. Well, instead, you go join a 2-man team server (basically anarchy with a twist) and you two can dominate all you want. Most importantly, that establishes a comradeship between players.

Another thing is if you’re an over confident SOB like me, and thinks anarchy is too easy, you might want to join a 2-man team server, and stake out your own territory without any teammate.

Overall, this is just another element that makes Phantom-Ops gameplay flexible, but enjoyable.