Some mod ideas.

[Mr.Reak]

Hey guys, I just want give you some ideas on doing something unique with your mods. Because quite frankly let’s face it, you get tired of seeing another render of AK-47 for a cool mod, where you play as SWAT team leader fighting terrorists. Or save Earth from aliens, why? Well, because they are aliens, that’s what they do, they take over the world and kill everybody. So here is some ideas, most of the challenging, but hey, maybe, just maybe, will like some of it and does something of it.

1.) Detective Mod
World set in 1930s style, but it is a future, around 2078. You get flying cars, holograms, advanced weapons like lasers, everything future has, but with that 30s feel. Big buildings go up to the sky, where rich people live, but you are not a rich guy, you are broke detective, with no money on your account, you live in the lower part of a city, that was frozen in the past.

Now, you got yourself an office, small room, like your base. When you take missions, you get money, which you can spend on ammunition, better equipment, furniture (for example before that you had regular phone, so when you were on the mission, you could miss out other missions, because you had no voice mail, but you can buy one after you get more money). As you progress you can buy yourself a new office, somewhere on a higher level with a better view through the window (just imagine flying cars during the sunset as you look on the reflection on the skyscrapers, at background). You get more respect, more clients.

But the main thing, is HOW you solve your quests. You can’t just run in and shot everybody in the face, if you do, you going strait to jail. First you need to get some evidence on these guys, try to sneak in (I hope Halflife 2 engine supports sneaking in the shadows), or bribe someone in the mob, go undercover. You spend a lot of time on one mission. Sometimes when you come back from some case, you will get a call, to know what are consequences of your actions, were there enough evidence. What if there weren’t? Now you know some pissed of mob boss is after you, and next time you are coming back into your office, you will find it trashed and some mob guys waiting for you.

Also, it is better to have a mob with 6 different guys, than with 100 clones. Let’s for example take this: You need to sneak into mob house, to get something, and while doing so, you hear these two mob guards talking. One called Jonny, another is Mike. Mike talks about his family and children, how he needs more money, but boss doesn’t pay enough. So you listen, probably don’t really care. So you get yourself evidence, get greenlight from Police, and later you come down, basting guards asses with your laser gun. Jonny and Mike go down. Who cares, you get yourself money, right? Well, next time you come to your office, you see Mike’s wife and two children. Wife starts to scream at you, why would you do something like that, we are homeless now, children will get no education, and so on. The main point is to make player understand, that his action affect the world around him.

Oh, yeah, and the music! Imagine, 1930s style future, you have a shoot out with some thugs, and you hear jazz music playing. Freaking heaven, I tell you! Then you luck up, but you can’t see a sky, it’s blocked with different platforms, on which skyscrapers are build, you forgot that you are part of a poor community, you live in slums.

Well, something like that. What do you guys think?

To be continued…

 

[Majestic XII]

I like it, but it can be a pain in the lower parts to make. Very complex... but I like it.

You should have the same type of music you find in The Animatrix when the robots are building things, I really like that song.... its funky.... I also like the song when they "kill" the sky.

Funky stuff.

 

[Mr.Reak]

Problem is, this is too much programming on AI part, voice acting and so on. Much easier to do some generic multiplayer mod, where there is two teams, and so on. But oh well, never underestimate power of user made mods

 

[Majestic XII]

Amen to that brother

Im kinda in the same situation, but Im trying to keep it as simple as possible so it wont take a lot of time, but i still want a lot of things. We'll see how that goes

/me jumps back in to Word again.

 

[Mr.Reak]

Okay, I will check that link out and will post back.
As for the rest of ideas, not a lot of people seem to care, but I can post it if you want.

 

[phantomdesign]

The depth of interactivity and consequences appears to be the only problem. You really can't do it too much better than GTA 3 without wasting countless hours on stuff gamers don't care about. The lack of real negative long-term consequences is one of the reasons people play video games.

Otherwise….AWESOME IDEA!!!

 

[qckbeam]

Mr. Reak, I love your idea. It kicks ass my friend, it really does. Maybe not all of it is feasible for a mod team, but I think lots? of it could be done (although you?d have to be quite clever). The core idea though is really something great, a very different style of game-play that could open up some very interesting avenues. Great idea

 

[Mr.Reak]

Okay, I read some of your thoughts on this issue, and I will disagree. The point is not about open-ended world (Morrowind) and big spaces to drive (VC), it’s about choices and how they affect that world and you.

Let’s take Deus Ex 2 for example, you had a lot of choices in the game itself, in the story. You could join one of the organizations, do their missions. But are there really any consequences of your actions, expect few dialogue changes, and bunch of guys becoming hostile in the last mission? Not really, you can practically butt-rape all of them during the game, and they still will crawl to you, and in the end you feel like you accomplished absolutely nothing, because choices you made during whole game didn’t matter at all. So, the real choice is given to you only at the last mission, and for the rest of the game… well game was screwing you all that time. Maybe it is a wonderful thing, maybe it is small step towards great gameplay and real freedom of choice, but story suffers because of it. You don’t care about characters, because your actions don’t affect them.

There is a great book by editor Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now, English Patient) called In the Blink of an Eye. In there he talks about what audience really care during the movie, and he is absolutely right. This what you need to think when you edit a movie:

1.) Emotion 51%
2.) Story 23%
3.) Rhythm 10%
4.) Eye-trace 7%
5.) Two-dimensional plane of screen 5%
6.) Three-dimensional space of action 4%

You see what are the two most important things are? Emotions and a story, this what drives us, as humans. We need to get emotionally attached to something. Games are the same way, without emotions and story, game becomes really dull. Like multiplayer games, they are fun, but they are dull after awhile, you just addicted as you addicted to the drags. In games like that you will never find a memorable moment, because it’s just one blob of emotion, that dies after awhile and turns into mindless fun.

Now, you gave example, Morrowind. Great game, open-ended.. yeah. But the only thing I remember from the game is the story, which was not that impressive either. You didn’t really had any choices, now did you? You could wonder around this whole empty world, killing everybody, but you never felt guilty. You couldn’t change a story because of your actions. Oh yay, I just killed of my partner Dark Elf. Did I care, not really, there is 99% of others like him. I am sorry, but linear Planescape: Torment is much MORE memorable than GTA and Morrowind put together (both games had their strong selling point around open-endless). Well, at least Vice City had funny story line, but after it ended, I became quickly bored of the game, you just drove cars without any purpose. It became mindless fun.

I guess what I am trying to say, the size of the world doesn’t really matter, but choices with REAL effects, which waken your emotions to the fullest, are the way to go. Build a design for the mod, basic concept, than build whole game around the story. After that branch off from this story, but don’t think about them as unimportant parts. Make each branch of the story with a passion, like you did with main story. Empty and unemotional, but open-ended worlds are not the way to go at all.
But many developers seem to forget about it, they just want super graphics, which will be beaten by the next year, cool rag-doll effect (became a gimmick in the games), plus put bunch of vehicles, and forget about everything else. Yay… bleh

I am happy that Mr.Badgers team going this way, a story driven mod, with actions that really matter. Game like that will be much more memorable experience (even if you played it once) than any multiplayer mods.

 

[Bleeder]

it just kinda sounds like bladerunner to me......not that that is a totally bad thing mind you.

 

[Lucifer Crass]

Mr. Reak, Ur mod idea is awosome, but in fact u are pretty much describing fallout 2 missions. Lol, Maybe someone could make a Fallout 3 mod

O yeah cept for Flying cars part