I have many of these ideas floating around in my head. Over time and wad of similar ones collected in my head and made this. I am not one for game designing or coding really, or if this is even game material, but here my idea is for those that see something they like in it. It is much more deep than this but I got in what I could in a mildly simple time-line. I would really like to see this made into some form of the medias one day so please give your feedback.

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In Humanities Future:

2112:
Invention of proton warp...
...Object can be accelerated past light speed...
...Humans cannot survive


2234:
~Containment of the wormhole...
...Instantaneous transport of organic material from one gate to the next
~Massive rearming of world powers

2239:
First large-scale deep space colonization
~Subjugation of inferior races to Humanity
~Economic boom
~Rise of militarism
-Explosion of Human population
-Explosion of Organized Crime and Resistance to Colonization
~Begins slow fall of the governments into Dictatorships

2243:
Signing of the Meriam Periapt
~Divided up deep space territories to the nations
~Systematic Crushing of Anti-Human resistances and the Mafias
~Rules of inter-stellar warfare
~Demilitarization of Earth to an embassy planet
~Illegalization of weapons in space

2243-50:
Apparent Universal powers have arisen
-The Formation of an American Empire
-The Rise of a Second Soviet Union
-And the People's Republic of China
-The People's Republic of India
-The Rebirths of the British Empire
-A Kingdom of Hungary
-A Fourth Reich of Germany
-And a Second Japanese Empire

2250-2300:
Universal arms race
-Universal competition for the colonies
~Secret defiance of the Periapt:
Weapons built and hidden in space
~Extreme Nationalism


Developed and Advanced Weaponry~

Radiation Net: Fields of radiation cast in space to destroy even slightly damaged or unporotectd ships

Androids: Simple robotics, clucmsy and stupid but numerous in combat. Effective only against armored units

Human Genome Projects: Artificial growth of "super-soldiers" designed for various military pruposes

Ion "Valence" Weapons: Metallic ions added to bullets for quick, painful,and assured deaths

Rail Weapons: Magnetically Propelled Projectiles cause massive damage
The Laser: High powered energy beams used only in large weaponry because of high energy costs, but devastating all the same.

2310:
Tensions strain to breaking point

2311:
American Empire Weakening and Desperate

2312:
Desperation turns to Action
Falling in a bad economy and unable to support itself without more resources
America forcibly takes colonies from the Soviet Union
Erupting hostilities expose many countries hidden arms
Countries by this time looking for an excuse for war
Practical Free-for-All between Powers. Few Exceptions.


Immediatley Devastating
Radiation nets encircle planets...
...Locking soldiers and civilians inside, unable to receive outside support...
...Such planets known as "Dead"...
...While space navies war in space above hoping for surface troops to dissapate the fields
~Starvation
~Mass and Desperate fighting between armies
~Mass Murder of Civilians
~Mass Crime for Remaining food and Weapons
~At the Height of the Desperation...
...Final Resort to Cannibalism of enemy dead
~Men become animals, "Death of the Soldiers' Souls"
The occasional groupd of reinforcements overwhelmed by the fear; fall fast
Casualties reach Billions within months
More soldiers and civialians lost in combat than ever imagined
But the Universe is Big
And the war continues...

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So those are the basics. Could go on to say that this is a strategy game, or you play an FPS as one of the soldiers on a Dead World, but honestly I have a story with no game.

If you say this sounds somewhat like WWI, then good for you.

[Edited by - StEmeric on December 15, 2010 4:14:29 PM]

Summary:

Opportunity and greed lead to a war that turns humanity into savagery.

it remind me a pre-WW2 geopolitical settings

Pretty much. History tends to repeat itself, this is the most realistic cause and results of future conflict I can think of.

If anyone has any question whatsoever (as long as it relates and isn't intentionally stupid) I would be amazingly happy to answer it.

Questions:

o What happens to religions when alien races are discovered?
o What happens to UN?
o Given that the technology (~2234) opens humanity to an abundance of resources, why would humanity turn militaristic? What is the cause of the tension?

Well certainly one of the most affluent agent of change is the time that has passed and changes in the society structure. I do enjoy you questions though.... very good ones.

Whenever there is the opporitunity for expansion, people will take it, especially the extremists. The new-age space race is seen as a way to solve over-population, bad economies, poverty etc... The nations taking advantage of the situation form intense pride in their country for its exploits.

With the discovery of alien races, most religions are immediatley shot down or formed into new denominations to account for the discovery. Naturally, humans being non-understanding of the new races and far technologically superior subjugate them.

That proton warp I mentioned isn't free. It takes more and more energy to travel farther on it, and it also requires many jumps at different times to avoid hitting celestial bodies much of the time. Point is, its much cheaper to stay close to home, so the new Empires are formed tightly clustered around Earth. Resource rich planets in the core area are subject to most tension so they were split up amongst the countries. Population and crime growth cause resources to be more necessary, but expanding borders does no good because it costs too much to maintain outposts in the periphery. Even the universe's vast resources (ofcourse those actually accessable) begin to strain under humanities demands. Border disputes on previously mentioned core worlds arise and become violent at some points. Anti-human feeling amongst conquered races still remain. Powerful armies keep up the sense of national pride, and loyalty, but more importantly, largely immobile deal with the local threats.

Wormholes, though effective, are small and take a long time (and much energy) to send things through them. Most are on ship for the transport of crews after warps (humans die in warp) or on planets for exchange of resources and troops (although not often).

To control such vast empires and deal with growing problems the old systems of Democracy are ineffective. Dictator extremists come to power, promising to strengthen the empire and solve the growing crisises. "It isn't our fault, don't give up on our Empire! The blame lies on our inferior sister nations!"

Then the Meriam Periapt promises to solve everything. A document revising the UN saying the armies of the empires should be used together to fight crime and insurrections, sets borders in disputed areas, for the continued safety and prevention of war sets limits so that no country may arm a space-faring vessel or cause military action on "Embassy Earth". Forced into signing it or risking a worse fate in erupting warfare and possible break-ups of their empires, feared by leaders they reluctantly sign it. Anyone who breaks it is subject to declarations of war as always.

Every nation, believing it is acting alone, builds up armies in hopes of overthrowing the oppressive system they feel is holding them back. Armed space vessels are built, although to keep them hidden they are kept few and far between. Countries make advances in weaponry.

Eventually the countries can no longer do anything to support themselves, empires are on the verge of collapse. America is the first to reach out for more territories in hopes to supplement itself. The attacks are brought to [UN] court. Illegal weapons of America exposed. America then exposes all other nations illegal weaponry (being armed space craft). By the Periapt every nation is required to declare war on the others, and perfectly willing to because of large ground armies growing more mobile, young space navies, advances in technology (which each country is convinced none of the others have), extreme nationalism and a suffocated need for resources from the other nations (will simply subject conquered to slave labor). This "loophole" of sorts desintigrates the "UN" while still keeping it intact.

The first attacks send masses of ground infantry onto planet surfaces (remember space navies are young so cannot mount an assault as such). Panicked defenders turn the Radiation nets as a form of shield from enemy reinforcements. No one has developed an "antidote" for nets and so the worlds remain locked down.

Thanks for reply. After reading your timeline and the comment at the end, it seems that your timeline pertains to the backstory, and the game starts after 3012. So in some sense what you have isn't the story itself.

At the end of your first post, listed two game types: Strategy and FPS. It would probably be easier to continue the design if you had decided the type. But to me it becomes an interesting question to ask: How could one keep designing a story so that the game type could be either Strategy or FPS?

Do you intend to continue and designing a story?
Or did you mean that 3012 is when the game ends?

I meant to say that the game design would continue forward. But it is impossible until you have a game concept to base one off. Such as would it have a set story that you follow like today's typical game? Or is it one that develops (like in the old style rtss or civilization). Exactly the problem.

I attempted with my php abilities to single handedly create such a strategy game... but I pretty much lost inspiration because it took a long time, I had no support (not even a beta group), so all play testing and design, coding, etc... was done by me. Eventually the server I was working on shut down but I saved a copy of the database and code on my flash drive.

To answer your question one could go about designing such a game in a Supreme Commander fashion. Where it is a strategy where you command units while being portrayed as a field commander at the same time.

I do enjoy your questions though, and I have read your post on the morale story telling, (or absence of story telling) and find it interesting (although I personally do not think it would sell well and being a pain if not impossible in these days to program) I applaud your creativity.

Quote: I meant to say that the game design would continue forward. But it is impossible until you have a game concept to base one off. Such as would it have a set story that you follow like today's typical game? Or is it one that develops (like in the old style rtss or civilization). Exactly the problem.

How about you do an inventory of your story assets:

List the most important main factions (no more than 5).
Then for each faction, write down one thing special about it,
and one interesting character of that faction.

Example:

Faction: Empire A
Speciality: The faction with the most resources and military power, the one most ready to fight
Character: Admiral X who is ready to attack the other territories

Faction: B the pirates
Speciality: Has no territory, but has a mix of members in all territories
Character: A slave (space potato peeler) on a pirate ship.

...

You play as a relatively inexperienced American soldier that takes part in the raids that start the war.

As American armies rapidly fan out he gets caught on a Dead-World,and watches his army buddies die one by one through the vicious fighting and constant struggle against starvation and thirst as well as other things. (most all the water is polluted from corpses and electronic remains etc... and food is hunted scarce). The only objective is to bring down the radiation net generator holding them captive at any costs, the Russians fighting at any cost to keep them from doing so. They need even more desperately to do it in time because if the Russians liberate the planet before they can get off they are all essentially screwed.

When he hears from a rare reinforcing unit that in a sudden counter-attack his home world was made dead he is crushed by the loss of his family and everything else he held dear to him.

Slowly he becomes more and more experienced as a killer and survivalist... army unit organization turns into sort of rival packs of desperate people fighting everywhere in small units of on average 100 each, with a hierarchy based on who can get the most food, water, and ammunition either by scavenging from abandoned neighborhoods or from people they have killed.

In the final culmination of the game the main character (I have no names for people) and others go in on a suicide mission to knock out the radiation generator. He is the only one left alive at the end and sacrifices himself in the detonation. Relief soon comes for the survivors.

~~~~~

As you can imagine a very deep culture within the soldiers could be developed and displayed and show a reliance between the character and his friends on each other and the effects on the others when they die. It might seem kind of dark, but thats the way war is. And also, these people are stuck on the dead world a very long time.... in the neighborhood of years.

~~~~~

As a soldier you will have to keep alive in your group through much of the game by killing the enemy and taking their supplies, and scavenging though the ruins in an rpg style. Maintaining a high position within the unit by doing so could allow you to be a part of or be the commander (telling the other soldiers in your unit where to move to). Of course with the exception of the opening and closing sequences of battles and some in between.

[Edited by - StEmeric on December 15, 2010 3:42:51 PM]