Conflict 2010 (Long summary)

This post is explains the features a lot more in depth than the normal summary and the short summary on CH. The other 2010 summary post here is quicker and easier to read, though.

This will be a game in the under-represented and exciting genre of MMOFPS.

Players start off as a military recruit in one of two (or more) main cities. These starting cities will have everything they need to get out, explore, and fight.

They can then freely choose one of a few courses of action:

1. Go straight to the front line and either go it alone or join some other players for some immediate action.
2. Recruit your own personal army/group of computer AI and other players.
3. Build and explore your own dynamic cities using pre-made structure options.
4. Infiltrate the enemy's city to wreak havoc from the inside.
5. Get rich and build your power over cities, other players, and resources such as weapons and vehicles.

The point of the game is to eliminate (over a course of what could be months to over a year) the opposing armies' cities by killing all the players in the city and claiming (or destroying) their cities/land.

In the beginning, main cities start out with extremely good defenses that won't be able to be taken out until the opponent's army is technologically advanced and is decent size, making the main city extremely safe until later on when the opponent has deminished its defenses and obliterated its suburbs.

This game will not have many MMORPG elements in it, it will try to zone away from that and be more of a real war simulator. it will have quite a few RTS elements in it, though, like researching new technology with city funds etc.

The few RPG elements will include skill that you and your troops have with guns, such as better handling of recoil, and a few driving/flying skills, such as steadiness of flight controls and speed and handling of vehicles. This way, the player both builds his own skill but will have a reason to want to keep certain troops alive.

Also, merchants will get cheaper prices when buying wholesale products as they do it more, experienced politicians will get more control over automated aspects of cities and approval ratings.

Instead of running 1 guy out to his death, you recruit your own personal army of computer-controlled soldiers. You can recruit, say, 100 of them, and although you'll play FPS mode on one of the guys (doesn't matter who), you can control a team of around 10 computer soldiers who follow behind you and follow your directions. When your guy dies, he's dead for good, but your view switches to another of your group and you begin to play as that soldier. When your whole group of 10 or so dies, your view goes back to one of your soldiers back at your base. Whoever you are controlling can command the other soldiers.

That system gives it a more realistic, bloodier feel to the game, while essentially being just as useful as the typical MORPG corpse systems.

Cities will have civillian worker computer AI in them that are intrucate to keeping your soldiers at home alive and maintaining the city.

You will be able to build whole cities and defenses like you do in games like Warcraft, but it's in a 3D environment and the 3D structures will be fully explorable. This will give the game endless cityscape possibilities.

Players will function within a dynamic economy. Good players will be able to set up shops to sell equipment to other players and eventually be able to buy expensive vehicles, gadgets, and weapons for their team.

If a city is playing it's cards wrong, however, the war approval rating goes down and it will become harder to get new recruits and buy more equipment. A country will drop in approval rating if the war is going badly, such as losing many battles, being stomped by terrorists, having many civillian casualties, etc.

There will be lots of modern weapons and vehicles to choose from just like you'd expect from a war game, but with unconventional weapons as well, such as swords, bows, or chainsaws, if the player wishes.

Another unique thing about this war game will be the existance of terrorist cells, spies, assassins, and thieves.

There will be no friendly fire in this game, which will prevent the large amounts of random crime you would encounter if so, and therefore, terrorists will be from the opposing team posing as members of your team. This will give players the option to actually police their establishments; finding and eliminating terrorists, spies, thieves, and assassins by finding evidence to prove guilt and taking them out.

The game will use an evidence system to do this. If you have no evidence against somebody that appears to be on your team, you cannot shoot them, but if you uncover evidence at the scene, and can find matching evidence on them (in a search on them or on their property) or can find a witness that can ID them, you will be able to shoot them.

Any witnesses to their crime will also be able to kill them, though civillian witnesses are possible too.

As implied, the game will have many different careers you can pursue. You can be a foot soldier, drive war vehicles, fly planes, police your city, infiltrate opponents' bases posing as part of their team, become a filthy rich politician, or all of the above! It's completely open-ended, and all choices will be designed to be a blast to play as.

Your main mission is to defeat the other country, but a sub-missions system will be set up so players can set up goals for their group or other players, with rewards for those goals, and an automated missions system will also automatically give goals and rewards when certain events occur. For example, if there is a murder in your town, an auto-mission will come up to track down the murderer. This gives optional linier goals to players as events roll out.

This game idea is great because it will emerse players into a much more realistic kind of war simulation. They will collaborate with lots of other players, manage troops and cities, and tactically take out large-scale enemy cities without harming civillians.

Players would really get attached to this game for a number of reasons. The dynamic gameplay makes every day and every scenario unique, and the action keeps it exciting. Also, the constant need for players in each army would make players stay longer, login whenever they can, and have a blast helping their team out, because unlike most online action games, your main goal is accomplished over a course of months by more activity. You have to play it more often to win the game, in other words.

This game will be a great mix of MMOFPS, RPG, RTS, and simulation. I could see this as becoming an instant classic.