Ok guys I have an idea for a futuristic FPS set in another universe. It will have humans, aliens, robots and other various characters all entangled in a galactic war. You however are a merc (human), not allied with any side, just doing what you are asked for cash. You will travel through 8-10 planets (sometimes during battles) to complete different objectives. The planet types will vary and will all be inhabited by many different types of characters. You will choose missions from a rather large list at your "HQ" and each will present a different cash reward with various other incentives. You may choose to ally yourself with a "side" and take missions from only this group gaining their trust and possibly their funding to upgrade weapons, armor, experience and your ultimate goal which has not been figured out yet =). I would like some comments on this idea good or bad and would like to see some additions to it as well. Desert Fox, Ian Cheshire "Don''''t fight a battle if you don''''t gain anything by winning" -Erwin Rommel

So is the main difference between your idea and a typical FPS that the character is a mercenary that has to make a living and not just someone trying to save the world?

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http://www.3dcgi.com/

Yeah..it seems most FPS game ideas just seem to give the player a rather cliched reason to shoot things...the gameplay is basicly the same across the board...just the story reasons to justify killing things is different...

How about this:

Play up the mercinary aspects of the story...but do so against the players expectations...

Example:

Mission 1: You are hired by Alien race ''B'' to aid thier troops in conqureing a starbase owned and operated by alien race ''A''...job pays something like $10 million credits/dollars/whatever.

Once the mission starts, and the player is abord the alien race ''A'' starbase. he/she is confronted by innocent civilians and not the alien race ''A'' troops that were expected...these innocent civilians don''t want to fight the player...they just want to go about thier normal everyday lives...but at the sight of Alien race ''B'' troops the civilians grab whatever item they can to try and fight the troops off (to no avail)

So it comes down to the players moral stance as to what they will do...will they continue the mission by killing the innocent civilians and thus collect the job fee...or would they take the moral ''high-ground'' and help the civilians defend themselves from the same alien race that hired the player...and in doing this they won''t get the pay promised or the weapon/armor upgrades it can buy


You could even play up the situation between the two races further:

Alien race ''A'' (the innocent civilians in mission 1 above) has a large population but very secritive and focused government...the government had placed a huge bomb on the starbase that the innocent civilians have no knowledge of...the governemnt controls/manipulates this large population of civilians through fear of the enemy with news coverage like "the savage unprovoked attack from Alien race ''B'' caused millions of innocents to die"

Alien race ''B'' (who hired the player in mission 1) generaly have a small population with limited resources...they know about the other sides use of bombs onboard starbases...but don''t have the resources to deeply infiltrate alien race ''A'' controlled space...so most of thier war stratigy has been to simply defend thier boarder from the numerious starbase bombs that they come across...they view the alien race ''A'' civilians as stupid, nieve and "not worthy of the space they occupy in the universe" and so they kill them with extream predujice.

You could easily create numerious ''moraly conflicting'' missions basied off this general conflict...with the player makeing the decisions as to how the war is resolved (and his/her place within it)

MSW I like your idea... I like it a lot. It actually makes the player make choices giving them a sense that they are effecting the outcome of the game.

Desert Fox,
Ian Cheshire



"Don''''t fight a battle if you don''''t gain anything by winning" -Erwin Rommel

This is not a bad idea for the story. Actually quite good, nothing ground-breaking though but then you never said it was.

humm.... You''ll want to provide a reason for earning money too.. Maybe getting money allows you to buy ships or more advanced weapons, or even to pursuade the the enemy to turn against themselves??? But you will need to put in some unpredictability.

Yeah I was thinking of having tons of weapons and armor, along with lots of different uniforms and experience you could costomize and upgrade with the money you earn/steal. I am also pondering the idea of giving you an AI controlled squad that would be bought by you with your money.

Desert Fox,
Ian Cheshire

"Don''''t fight a battle if you don''''t gain anything by winning" -Erwin Rommel

Lets get somemore ideas going here guys!

Desert Fox,
Ian Cheshire

"Don''''t fight a battle if you don''''t gain anything by winning" -Erwin Rommel

This would require the game to transform a bit, but what if
we only deal with one starbase? After all a team from race
A might land and be mostly decimated - and possibly stuck.

How do you convince the civilians that they''re in peril?
Who on the base knows that a bomb is there and therefore knows
how to trigger it or disarm it?
I''d be very interested in this story, you''d have to worry about
so many people trying to kill you-race B, your teammates once
they figure out that you want to disarm the bomb, the bomb.

What if the base you land on is the site of secret meetings
that are supposed to end the war? Who on your team knows
about the meetings and wants to stop them or help them along?
Who of race B know the meetings are going on and are going to
try to stop them by blowing up the starbase? Those people
would also be looking for whoever knows how to arm/disarm the
bomb. There would lots of chances to blow stuff up of course.

I can see one of the missions as follows, maybe a little before
halfway through the game, you''re trying to contact a delegation
from race A, you''re out in the street, walking to where a bunch
of vehicles and a building where there''s a meeting, but a bunch
from race B attack the delegates and you have to save them.
Also, if race A is on the station they probably have to go in
disguise and a firefight breaks out everytime they get
uncovered. Then of course there are mobs and security forces
when they get uncovered because of the propaganda even though
race B''s government(or part of if) is trying to end the war,
thus bringing up the moral issues once again.

Keep em coming I like what I see so far!

Desert Fox,
Ian Cheshire

"Don''''t fight a battle if you don''''t gain anything by winning" -Erwin Rommel