The Somme Valley (WW1 Modification)

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About The Somme Valley
In 1914, the world was tossed into turmoil when Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by a Serbian radical, bringing Europe, and the world, into a 4 year, 8.5 Million Lives Lost struggle, which we call The First World War. In every war, there are a few battles which stand above the rest, for whatever reason. In WW1, The nearly 6 month Battle of the Somme stands out as the biggest mistake of The Commonwealth.

The Somme Valley is a modification for Half-Life Two, based on the Battle of the Somme. The Somme Valley aims to be a balance between realism, and playability, giving the player a taste of what war was like, but keeping the experience fun and enjoyable. The mod isn't just meant for a good time, but as a history lesson, and a lesson into the flaws of human nature.

420,000 British, 200,000 French, and 500,000 Germans lay dead or wounded by the end of the conflict, making it one of the worst battles, and most drawn out battles of the war. Weather those casualties were caused by bullets, gas, disease, or artillery shrapnel, The Battle of the Somme will be forever remembered in the minds of those who fought there, and those of us who weren't.


Special Features
Gas Attacks: Using a particle system, poisonous gas will be ordered onto the opposing teams' area. The team being attacked with the gas can defend against it by using the Gas Mask feature, but at the expense of vision. Once a gas mask is put on, there are only two blurry eye-holes for the player to see out of, and fire from. If the player denies the use of his/her gas mask, the user will begin to choke, losing health at a steady pace, until the player is dead.

Gas attacks can only be issued when the teams commanding officer (see The Classes) orders it by clicking his/her use button on a radio, which will be located near the players spawn point. Only one gas attack may be issued every ten minutes, and last for two minutes at a time.

Artillery Attacks: Artillery played a big role in The Somme. Artillery will be issued the same way that gas is. An officer uses a radio near his/her spawn point, and artillery reigns down on the opponents map area. Artillery strikes can be issued once every five minutes, and last only twenty-five seconds each.

Detachable Bayonets: Using a specified button that the player designates when customizing his/her controls, the player (when using a class that has a Rifle) can attach or detach the bayonet associated with that weapon. Attaching it will allow the user to use the bayonet as a second fire function, but will lower overall accuracy of the rifle (due to the added weight and length of the weapon).

Detaching the bayonet will increase overall accuracy, and send the bayonet to the Secondary Weapons list, which the player can switch to if needed. When the bayonet is detached, the player can use the "Butt Smack" as a secondary function (see below).

Butt Smack: In Day of Defeat, you may have seen this; The M1 Garand "Butt Smack". The end of the rifle (the butt) is used as a weapon, causing severe damage to the opponent. When the bayonet of a rifle is detached, the butt of the players rifle may be used as a weapon in case of emergency.

Officers using a Pistol can also "Pistol Whip" their opponent, which is when the barrel of the pistol is hit against the opponents neck, causing pain.

Campaign Style Map Rotation: Similar to the map rotation of Global Warfare for Half-Life, when a team wins a map, the next map is brought up in historical order. But, if the team is defeated on that map, is pushed back to the previous played map, until that player is pushed right out of the battle, and loses the campaign. Team Fortress Classic also uses a variant of this in the map "Dust Bowl". Once the attacking team wins, the spawn points are moved up to another portion of the map. If the defenders win the match, the attackers are pushed back.

The Somme Valley will be implementing a larger scale version of the Global Warfare version.

Stationary Machine Guns: Similar to the machine guns in Day of Defeat, a Stationary Machine Gunner will have the option to setup his/her stationary machine gun on pre-setup tripods in strategic locations. Machine Guns were devastating tools of war, especially on charging soldiers over No Mans Land. Stationary Machine Gunners will have more limited ammunition, so they don't totally control the game, and they can only shoot when their gun is setup on one of the pre-set tripods.

The stationary machine guns will also, such as the MG42 in DoD, overheat if abused. This is historically accurate, as Machine Guns of the time were highly volatile, and could only be fired in 4-6 round bursts (safely).

Links & Contact
Website: http://somme.hlgaming.com
Forums: http://somme.hlgaming.com/forums
IRC: #somme @ irc.gamesnet.net
modDB: http://mods.moddb.com/2746/

Help Wanted
Can I Be A Part Of The -TSV- Development Team?
We're always looking for new team members here at -TSV-, and we'd love to hear from you! Currently, we are looking for people with the following skills:

- Programming
- Weapons Skinning
- Weapons Animation
- Player Modeling
- Player Skinning
- Player Animation
- Level Design
- Texture Design
- 2D Design
- Sound Design

If you have one of these qualities, or feel you have something else to contribute, please feel free to contact Chief Phillips directly, or stop by our Forums. However you choose to apply, be sure to include samples of your work (if you have any on hand), and any past experience you may have.
 
ummm one question. How are you gonna get a million people to play all at the same time? It's my personal opinion that WWI games aren't very fun because there wasn't very much choice in WWI. It was mostly officer gives order to attack, so you and your hundred thousand buddies run at the enemy machine guns and die. Then the enemy runs at your machine guns and dies, then mustard gas kills everyone left and then rain and mud makes all the bodies all puffy and smelly.
 
Dan said:
Then the enemy runs at your machine guns and dies, then mustard gas kills everyone left and then rain and mud makes all the bodies all puffy and smelly.
And here I thought the smell came from my overclocked videocard.
 
seems alright, never experienced a ww1 game before.
"The mod isn't just meant for a good time, but as a history lesson, and a lesson into the flaws of human nature." sounds good, hope you can live up to it :)
 
Dan said:
ummm one question. How are you gonna get a million people to play all at the same time? It's my personal opinion that WWI games aren't very fun because there wasn't very much choice in WWI. It was mostly officer gives order to attack, so you and your hundred thousand buddies run at the enemy machine guns and die. Then the enemy runs at your machine guns and dies, then mustard gas kills everyone left and then rain and mud makes all the bodies all puffy and smelly.

So, the same should be said about World War 2 games then? More than 32 people stormed the beached at Omaha I can tell ya that, but WW2 games manage to pull that one off, dont they?

The reason there were so many soldiers in any given battle was the length of the lines. Miles upon miles either way, we compensate that fact with not making miles upon miles of front line, but we scale it down, just like WW2 games do.

So before you try and rip apart a project you know little about, think first, because we're not the only ones out there putting history into a 32/64 person server.
 
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