Yes, I know, we all wish this or that game would get done. Or we think we have these great ideas and no one else thinks of them.

So yes, I'm gonna post a few ideas of games that I've been toying around in my head. Being that I've been busy working on more important stuff - and the industry is very happy with their current trends, they haven't progressed past this stage. But, who knows, maybe some company will see this series of posts and the future may bring me a game :D, or at least parts of it.

Should someone already be working on this kind of game, well, perfect

Game I - UFO meets Rainbow Six, FBI or SWAT if she's prettier

We enjoy or develop tactical shooters. Yet we still cling to this linear campaign structure where the player has to win level A in order to get to B, and then its always level B.

Wasted opportunity IMO. Of course, I'm a dynamic campaign freak, being a player of simulations.

Now imagine if instead of predefined levels, Rainbow Six (parts 1 to 3 of the series) would have a campaign overlay with random events going off around the globe. As in UFO, you play the organization commander with the following responsabilities:

• recruit/train troopers from all over the world, decide who gets to rest, who gets squad command
• establish training procedures, work the troops, study their performance, rest them when needed
• develop and buy new techs, weapons
• manage funds, build training facilities
• study intelligence, deploy special agents from
• communicate with government agencies and law enforcement officials from all over the world, establish connections which will lead to authority to respond to crisis in those locations and later funding;
• Establish cross-training that get your troops new skills and enable them to perform new missions

Once a situation errupts somewhere, you study the preliminary situation report and who goes to the site. Then you make the plan for the assault and even conduct it in normal Tactical FPS way.

Taking the so-called Delta Force as a usable example, one may not be limited to CT ops but also to counter insurgency. This would open the way for mini-campaigns that you start in a country and have people committed there for some time - and thus unavailable for other work.

The mission/events that I could think of are:

• Terror site - Terrorists barricaded with hostages or threatening to detonate something big, your team storms the situation.
• Site Defense - Bodyguard work/Facility defense when there's a credible threat. You establish the team and loadout and once/if it materializes you get to play the situation.
• Assasination - well, sometimes people have to disappear but you've gotta have enough intelligence to both locate the guy and get a license to kill approved
• Person snatch - Kidnap some guy. Again intelligence is vital to have this approved. You may cheat and get it during interrogatories, but if not, you're in for lots of trouble
• Drug work - Long term campaign against drug lords, with part of the team deployed in the country and working with friendly Law enforcement there
• Raid on terrorist facility/training camp
• Intel ops - sneak R6/Splinter Cell style into someone's house/office and plant bugs

So your challenges is to have as many of the situations resolved and terrorists caught, while not getting yourself into any trouble with foreign governments and losing their trust. There should be a large intelligence part to be done in order for you to prevent something like 9/11 from happeneing and some mangament work to ensure that you get funding, troops and intelligence, and that the troops are available for the situation when it erupts.

From a developer point of view, the trick would be to have the events random in location and type, but build up to a larger picture. Connecting pieces, intelligence that you get if you're good, you discover the bigger picture and take down the head of the terror cell. And then the game ends; or you continue to play and a new threat appears; Not sure about it, could work either way

Returning to the random location problem, its actually a huge issue considering that you want the player to enjoy this game for a year at least and still think he's looking at new locations. So this needs either tons of levels being build or (better) some sort of modular technology for the levels/maps.

The same campaign structure could be used at city or nation level, with SWAT forces or FBI HRT as the unit in question.

Considering how much money they're spending on games that are far easier to design, I have my doubts on something like this.



The Jedi Master

Great ideas and I'd like to see that!

Game II - The Grand Strategy First Person Shooter

I enjoyed playing Battlefield 2 or 1942 quite much, but somehow felt that the game would benefit by putting the levels into a larger context - where each of your results would be important and we would work towards a larger goal instead of just "winning the level". Having an evolving "war situation" would keep players joining around the clock, trying to better the other side and gain an advantage.

I thought a little about it, and figured the campaign structure of Close Combat V Invasion Normandy would be great as a strategic overlay to the levels actually played in 3d shooter fashion in the game. Here's how the campaign map looked in that game:



Each "level" that you play in the game would represent one those locations in the grand map. The game would have a grand scale strategy part with decisions being taken twice a day and results being played afterwards.

In the grand strategy screen, players of high enough rank decide the moves to be taken for the next 12 hours. A simple interface orders "units" one of the following actions:

Available actions for an unit (may depend on unit type):

• move
  
• attack (move into enemy territory)
  
• Paratroopers drop (drop a qualified unit in a empty territory)
  
• Helicopter Insertion - ditto but helicopter borne, requires your side to own a helipad/airfield site
  
• refit (reinforcements are received) - can't move for the next turn, requires direct connection to a supply point or a beach landing site.
  
• SF raid - hit and run attack against enemy targets, preferably of high value

Terminology:
- Location, section, level - each of the levels that may be played in 3D
- map: the grand strategy campaign map, composed of many locations, some generic (field, hills, river crossing, etc) but also some with special importance

Locations of interest on the map:

• Artillery base - allows calling Artillery support on nearby sections, during actual 3D play on that level.
  
• Airfield - allows calling in airstrikes over the whole campaign map
  
• Supply dump - keeps connected sections of the map in supply
  
• AA site - denies chopper insertions or Para drops over a range. Makes airstrikes against nearby sections difficult/costly.
  
• Beach - permits landing of troops and light equipment from ships
  
• Harbor - allows landing of heavy equipment. Interesting to take over with paratroopers and then use as starting point for offensive.

Number of available actions per turn would be limited by resources of "your side". These would be in direct connection to your performance during the campaign.

Once the strategy part decides that there is some combat to be played (the two teams have units in the same sector of the map), the appropriate level is loaded. Unlike the current BF2 way, the player character and classes choices should be limited to what units are available as a choice in the game.



This of course is the key to the importance of the strategy part. Are we playing a Spetsnaz raid against a FARP site? Then the defenders will be limited to playing mechanics, grunts and other 2nd line poorly armed and performing characters. Could they fight off the assault? Yes, but it would be hard. On the other hand, any losses suffered by the Spetsnaz players will be felt later in the campaign, and the number of Spetsnaz/SF like units would be limited. They can't be everywhere, and may not have respawns available in their raids.

Once the level is concluded, the next one of the current 12 hours turn is played. When all combat is resolved, we get results update on the grand strategy scale. Perhaps we have taken over an enemy airfield but the enemy has taken out our Artillery base. This is dangerous, and we still need to track down the enemy SF present behind our lines.

The idea is, of course, for each level to be played in a faction of the time that a Battlefield level takes now. Therefore, quicker loading times would be required too.

Yeah, probably. But I have to get them out once and for all, it will make me feel better

Post deleted by Top Echelon

Pretty cool idea :D. And get involved into black ops, face betrayal, assasinate witnesses. Wow. Opens up a new level of gameplay.



I'm not sure I get you here... the game is supposed to have a "real-time" strategy part where you're governing your organization and witnessing events in the world/country/city (again, depending on the unit "simulated"). And there's the First-person/tactical shooter part where you play out the events.

So there's not realy a RPG part!?

And now for a bit of necro-posting.... meet Heroes and Generals. Somebody is making a game similar to what i desired in GAME 2

http://www.heroesandgenerals.com/2/index.html

I only have one wish. Hidden and dangerous 3!

Yeah same here but I don't think it will happen at this point. H&D 2 came out 8 years ago.