Legacy:Solid Snake/DesignDocument Battlefield40K

Introduction

The general idea of this project in a small gist is to use the War Hammer 40'000 universe within the Battlefield gametype.

The obvious question to ask first is that why am I using UT2004 versus Battlefield 2, as wouldn't remaking the entire Battlefield game type be more work than anticipated? In short, yes it will take some time to make the Battlefield gametype as such, but in the short of it, it would take us longer to understand how Battlefield 2 works so that we can implement the ideas that I propose in this document. All the ideas in this document are ideas that I know are achievable.

The second question that may spring to mind is that why use UT2004 and not UT2007? UT2004 is a very versatile engine, and some of its functions aren't known if they will transverse across to UT2007, such an example is DataObjects which I find very handy. Also it pays to know the current technology and use it well, rather than trying to predict what may be in the UT2007 since the risk of losing a lot of work is there.

Game type

There would only be one game type available to the players, that being your battlefield (although more akin to Onslaught in some ways) gametype. A simple break down of the game type is as follows:

• There are two teams competing in a single map. It is unknown whether to support more than two teams.
• Each team starts with a base amount of 'points'
• Within the map are capturable strategic points
• When a team holds more strategic points, their 'points' increase in the ratio of how many strategic points they have over the other team. Thus, points += 1 * Number of our strategic points/Number of their strategic points
• The team that destroys their enemies main base wins the game

Key ideas

There are several key ideas that differentiate the gametype sufficiently enough from Battlefield and Onslaught to grant the production of this module as such. However I will discuss ideas that were present in both to explain why some of those ideas should exist.

Strategic Points Linking

This is the same idea as Onslaught. This idea does several things for the gametype:

• Prevents early rushing of the bases
• Prevents annoying habits of taking strategic points where battle isn't occuring
• Encourages hot spots of activity in large maps
• Provides some strategies into what strategic points should be captured

However, vehicles will not occur at these strategic points. Vehicles are discussed later in the document. Capturing strategic points are essential for winning the game as well as providing advantages during the game. The advantages gained for having a strategic point are:

• Respawn point. Players can quickly come back into the battle without the need to travel distance by spawning into that position.
• Requisition modifier. Requisition is basically money for the team. Requisition is gained normally, but as described above, having more strategic points than your opponent grants your team more requisition.
• Recovery point. Because strategic points are usually protected areas, if a point attack is failing then troops can retreat back to this strategic point.

Some differences between the Onslaught Power Node and the Strategic Point is that:

• Your squad cannot teleport between strategic points

Terrain type

While this idea is present in many strategic games it appears to be missing in the majority of FPS's. It could be that this idea simply doesn't work within FPS's but I see no real reason as to why that is. This idea is that there are areas in the terrain that can add modifiers to your squad. Modifiers can be both good and bad. Visual aids are important to make sure that players can plan their attack strikes that involve the terrain, thus they are often highly exagerated or clearly defined. This idea originated from Dawn Of War and I believe it works very well. Some examples of terrain types:

• Negative Cover (Within a body of water)
  • All squad members receive an armour detriment, thus receive more damage when hit.

• Heavy Cover (Within a large crater, presumbly made by a large artillery shell)
  • All squad members receive an armour bonus, thus receiving less damage when hit.
  • All squad members receive a speed detriment, thus move slower at all times.

• Heavy Camouflage (Within rubble)
  • All squad members receive a visibility bonus, thus are partially invisible.
  • All squad members receive a speed detriment, thus move slower at all times.

• Heavy Bunker
  • All squad members receive an armour bonus, thus receiving less damage when hit.
  • All squad members with heavy weapons have a quicker setup time, thus can initiate heavy support quicker.

These are just some of the possible terrain types at this stage in time. There are no random percentages as such, as in if you are in heavy cover you will always receive a fixed percentage bonus. This takes away any form of strange flukes that arise from randomness. What this brings to the table is that strategic points aren't the only areas of contest, as holding key areas in the map can also lead to victory or allow staged attacks on a strategic point.

Squads

Every player is capable of becoming a squad, although players choose if they wish to become a squad. The idea behind is brilliantly captured by a game called Republic Commando. The idea behind that is that as the squad leader your team members follow your position and cannot be told to do orders that are too far away location wise. Otherwise you can order your team mates to do specific tasks, depending what type of unit they are. A couple of unit types and commands suggestions are:

• Heavy Bolter Unit
  • Supression fire (Fire over areas continuously to supress activity, or to cover other squad members)

• Acolyte
  • Heal (Heal damaged units)
  • Words of the Emperor (Increase the morale of the squad)

There is no need to add members to your squad if you don't wish to. The current way that a squad is formed is that when a player levels up he is awarded with attributes that can be put into a 'tech' tree. One of the trees involves squad based skills. Thus adding members to your squad is done through this way. This allows people who do not wish to form a squad to put their rewarded attributes into other areas of expertise. This 'tech' tree will be discussed more later.

Squads (Morale)

This idea originates from Dawn Of War, so if you played the game you will know about it.

A squad has a shared resource called Morale. Morale always regenerates when the squad is not in combat, or when the combat is in favour of the squad. When a squad loses all of its morale, it is said to be 'broken'. Squads with their morale broken receive detriments in the offensive and defensive but receive a bonus in speed to allow the squad to escape the battle. During low morale, squad members will not follow the specialized orders issued by the player, but will rather try to stick together. Squad members will always attempt to follow the player at all times.

Squads (Unit Specialization)

As described above, squad members can be of a specialized unit types which allows them to have different commands, abilities and other squad effects. Essentially they are squad members that are of a certain class that we see in many other class based games. Several examples are described above. You do not have to specialize your squad members if you do not wish.

Squads (Squad Specialization)

Squads can also specialize in the role that it does. While the individual units within a squad may differ from each other, the action that a squad does can differ a lot. A good example is a squad which is specialized to drive the Predator Tank. The benefits of specializing a squad is that it is more efficient at doing a particular role, but there are no detriments when not doing the role. A tank squad are just as effective in combat outside a tank, but they are more effective when in a tank. Some examples are:

• Predator Tank Crew
  • The squad is more effective while in a predator tank allowing them to effectively use a predator tank with more dead efficiency.

• Anti-Vehicle Squad
  • This squad are experts in able to take out vehicles with the weaponry they have, which are mostly rockets, flak cannons and lascannons.

Squads (Branched Leadership)

Obviously some squads can get quite large for a player to handle by himself/herself. This allows the player to promote a squad member to a higher rank to allow him/her to sub contract other squad members to the promoted squad member, thus forming a smaller group within the large squad. This allows collective orders to be issued. Other benefits such as morale gains need to be discussed.

Player 'RPG' System

This isn't a true RPG system, as RPG systems suggest that you role play a character through a story and so on... but what is taken from RPG's as such as the character leveling up. However, in this module the leveling up system isn't as complex as existing RPG's, what is simply tracked as such as experience and skill sets. There is no real need for stats, as that would only serve to complicate the game with no real gains in terms of game play. How experience is gained is open for discussion, but at the moment I am tying it with things such as killing enemies, capturing strategic points, helping other team members etc, which seem reasonable enough. While the door has been closed on stats, further discussion may open the door.

Player Skill Tree

This idea is inspired from Diablo 2, with their skill system. Every player gets the same skill tree, although this skill tree may change depending on race (Races discussed later). Essentially, everytime a player levels up he obtains a skill point which he can spend 'purchasing' a new skill or upgrading an existing skill. Skills are a generic term and sometimes don't have to do with the individual self. Currently the skill sets (Space Marines) as follows:

• Self
  • Regeneration (Passive)

• Squad Members
  • Add Squad Member
  • Equip Squad Member with Heavy Bolter (1 free squad member)

• Squad Specialization
  • Anti-vehicle Specialization
  • Predator Tank Specialization (4 squad members required)

Some skill sets have prerequisites that must be met, and if lost the skill is impaired either partially or fully. Obviously this is no way near complete obviously, other skills need to be discussed and planned.

Races

At this moment, only the Space Marines have been discussed. And even then, the chapters within the Space Marines such as the Blood Angels, Ultra Marines and so on haven't been incorporated. At this moment, it is much better to focus on implementing the key ideas and the Space Marines rather than deal with the other races, as they should differ a lot (Differences in Orks and Space Marines should be made)

Requisition

Requisition is basically money that is earnt.

Comments

Foxpaw: Minor point of contention, but the idea of different terrain types providing modifiers to your units did not originate in Dawn of War. The first Ground Control had such modifiers, though I also doubt that it was the first, it's the first I can think of. Earlier games like Shogun: Total War also had things like Morale.

Solid Snake: I wouldn't be surprised. However what I meant was that the idea proposed here and wrote was originally inspired to me by that game, in order to give credit to where the idea came from. I've reworded it so it sounds like that, rather than ambigious.