I posted a game idea on this forum ages ago and I liked the engaging feedback I received last time. This is sort of an evolution of that idea, although I assure everyone this is very different than last time. The title reads like game descriptions thrown into a blender, but I think that's because I don't have a unifying term to describe a new twist to co-op gaming. On that note, when I say "co-op" I am referring to those games you play in campaign mode with a friend (i.e. the Halo series), not the umbrella term first used to describe all multiplayer games back in the 90s. I know everyone who plays games today is jaded and skeptical, but please read my ideas first with an open mind, trying to envision the gameplay itself, then crank up the criticism. Finally, I typed my ideas up on a free blog site, then pasted them here. Feel free to stop by because I may have some more posts about game design in general that I'd also appreciate opinions on. Thanks. Game Summary This is my idea for a team-based online co-op 3rd-person shooter. What on earth does that mean? It means that you and a friend will be playing cooperatively -- like a traditional co-op game -- but online with other pairs of teammates against a team of enemy players. Each pair will choose which AI squad they want to help in completing specific combat objectives. How is this different from offline co-op games? For one, you and a friend will be playing with other pairs of teammates. More importantly, you will be pitted not only against enemy AI, but also a team of enemy players just like yours! Furthermore, the AI will find some objectives so important that you will be sharing them with other pairs of teammates. The game will be large-scale due to the presence of so many AI units and, yet, mostly balanced because teams will never become too "stacked" or overly unfair with too many good players on one side. The game will be more engaging than standard offline co-op games because the biggest threat will be enemy players, who are always more entertaining to fight than enemy AI. Game Idea ver 1.0 part 1 The goal of this game is to help AI squads push the enemy off the battlefield by successfully completing various combat objectives. The game is played in a gigantic metropolis partitioned into several hexagonal battle zones. The game will dynamical scale the battlefield by changing the number of battle zones in play depending on the number of players in the server. With so many battle zones, there are countless combinations of potential battlefields, keeping players guessing and the "maps" fresh. Each player will be equipped with a nearly-bulletproof suit that can be destroyed by shooting off the suit's limbs, causing hydraulic fluid to leak from the sockets. When enough hydraulic fluid is lost, the suit will stop functioning and the player will have to continue as a regular soldier. As such, the player will not be able to dual wield weapons or carry the very large firearms of suit-wielding soldiers. Players who have been dismembered can reattach limbs to stop leakage and retain full functionality. Game Idea ver 1.0 part 2 Battle-suits can carry one large, anti-suit rifle and two anti-personnel sub-machine guns that are dual-wielded. These sub-machine guns can be independently aimed by the player by toggling the "F" key. If the player targets an enemy who has been previously targeted by the HUD, the suit will auto-lock on the enemy for a short period - allowing the player to quickly re-aim their other sub-machine gun. Players can also equip their suits with even larger anti-personnel or anti-suit guns that replace 1 or both arms, although the downside is obviously that they cannot reattach dismembered limbs. Battle-suits are nearly bulletproof and are best dealt with by blowing off their limbs. There are susceptible areas near the joints and back where shooting with anti-personnel guns will cause small amounts of hydraulic fluid to leak out. If a battle-suit is destroyed, the targeting information saved to the HUD -- helping players auto-lock and dual-wield effectively -- will also be destroyed. When a player receives a new battle-suit upon dying or getting a new one off a dropship, their new HUD will have none of their previous targeting information. Moreover, targeting information acquired from a group member's HUD will disappear if their battle-suit is destroyed. Game Idea ver 1.0 part 3 Players are essentially the cavalry in each battle, deciding which squad of AI soldiers they want to assist in completing a specified objective - weighing the importance of one objective over another. Successfully completing objectives will bring teams closer to pushing the enemy back. However, choosing the best objective to complete is also important - saving a tank from an enemy ambush may not have the same short-term effects as eliminating a squad of easily-flanked soldiers, but in the long-term, that tank may deliver the final blow to the enemy if it had been saved. Objectives are always focused on combat. Never will an AI squad request players to do things that do not require engaging the enemy (like repairing assets or hacking enemy computer terminals). Rather, AI squads will request help when attacking or defending a position and ambushing or defending an asset (dropship, tank, etc.). Game Idea ver 1.0 part 4 Players work in pairs, much like a co-op game. The smallest possible match would pit 2 groups of players against each other with 3 AI squads on each team (each AI squad consists of 5 soldiers). This way the players must choose to help only 2 of the 3 AI squads, leaving one squad to fend for itself. The ratio of players to AI squads will always be one greater than 1/2. In this manner, it would be impossible for opposing teams to entirely avoid each other - at least one skirmish will break out between opposing AI squads assisted by players. If 3 groups of players are on one side, there would be 4 AI squads; 4 groups of players on a side would require 6 AI squads to be deployed (1 + 1/2(6) = 4). In a server of 10 v 10 (players), there would be 70 soldier units altogether. Considering only 20 of these units are player-controlled, it may be possible to have even more than 70 units on the battlefield. (Link to my blog: http://leftclicktofire.blogspot.com/)

The basic idea of working in pairs, possibly with or against other players, sounds fun. It reminds me of Star Wars Battlefront, a game which I've had a lot of fun playing with friends.

I'm not so hot on the whole bulletproof suit with blow-offable arms, though. I liked Part 1 up to that point. As for the rest, it depends on whether you want it to be more of a strategy game or a shooter. Most of your ideas sound fun to me.

One other idea I had was that you could have a persistent world, and players could take part in an ongoing conflict, which, if they got personally engaged in it, could bring players back to the game again and again.