Ramblings in focus...

Spurious comments and your insightful feedback on the mmo I am developing, graciously received, and the long, winding road to it's realization.

Author: biofellis

Some time ago I saw some damn impressive video for an independent dev team- Project Offset (videos here). They threatened to stun the world with some kickass Fantasy FPS goodness in a custom engine which was unbelievable for a tiny team. Then they sold out to Intel, and have been working there for more than a year. Since then their web page has gotten ugly and cluttered with distracting bs, and two more videos have come out. Since 2005- 6 vids. wtf?

So, other than some really impressive models and eye candy (mostly shaders), we still know so little about the 'game' that it's pitiful. But the world they envisioned was beautiful...

I liked the idea of a Fantasy FPS- a lot, and at this point that'll be my focus. Last night I started sketching out some of what I want to flesh out in the FPS (Step 1, as mentioned in this blog post), and I really started thinking about how the modern FPS has changed- dare I say- Evolved?

It used to be in an FPS you had pretty much three things to learn. The map, your weapons, and how not to die. This of course is a gross understatement, but particular techniques notwithstanding (the headshot, the bunny hop), mostly an FPS was about every character being equal except in the skill in the player behind it.

That's all changed.

Team Fortress 2 has classes, which include offense, defense, and support. Toe to toe, the classes are not necessarily 'balanced'- but have to be played in accordance to their design and skills, thereby achieving 'situational' balance. This is not exactly a game where uncoordinated individual excellence can trump planed strategy and execution of a lower degree. Then there are a slew of 4 class games with some type of Engineer(anti-tank), Infantry, Medic & Sniper classes packed in. But that's not the big deal. The big deal is Levels (er- ranks).

Now a lot of these games have online level progression, that unlocks better equipment or what have you as you get more kills/assists/captures. Noobs (er- privates)- get to suck it up. Even worse, some of these games actually kludge in some aspect of hitpoints/armor for higher ranked chars. I've been a private before, and can headshot another private dead, but can headshot a general six times before he realizes he's being shot at, looks for me, finds me, and then runs up into my face and kills me dead with his pistol. So, is the FPS having classes and levels a good thing? Is it something I want to embrace with my design?

Classes? That's easy to answer. No Fantasy game can really do too well without them. But levels? I don't know if that really works well even though it's being used. Seems cheaty somehow to me- but that's based on what I was used to, I guess.

What about skills? Many FPS's now have some character development path where you can unlock equipment- thereby 'learning' new skills. The Modern FPS is an MORPG. Who knew? Just add 'Massive'.

Another issue is coding this so that when I evolve it to an RPG, then an MMO, I'm not rewriting too many routines. Abstracting powerups and such is going to be interesting depending on how I handle the classes. This is going to be a bit of a challenge because in planning how I can move forward after this step, I have to intentionally leave out options here and there. Even worse, step one is almost on par with Step 3 in character design. I might need to strip back to a 'one char fits all' classic FPS design to get something demo'd, build it up as I go along.

When I think about this game, I do think about a lot of really cool stuff that would be tricky to code flexibly. I'm also going to have to do some motion capture sooner or later, which really doesn't please me as I don't have good quality equipment, so I'm sure to be doing a ton of clean up. This is why features get cut. :(

I think some of the design differences for this game working are:

• Shooting is fun, and getting close and getting tagged usually means 'game over'- which shouldn't necessarily be the case. I don't want 'deep' close combat- but some would be good.
• Stagger effects- getting hit should shake camera or 'floating star' field of vision. Not too much though- no sense disorienting someone who's already gettin' beat on.
• Lock and key tools/things. Pushing button/turning wheel activates ammo chute/drawbridge. Certain items/power-ups needed to enable some. Make you change weapons/go places for things.
• Moving environment- machines, slides, thingies- you know- stuff. If it can't be recognized at a glance though, it's not in. Waterwheel. Windmill. Pulley system elevator. stuff.
• Extremely fast-paced with 'hidden locales'- Learning to keep your character moving quickly should be half the fun. Give level designers tools to make shortcuts and 'back alleys' like an 'obstacle course' to adventure. Maybe scrying crap & a button to activate a remote thingy.
• Dark areas, telltale sounds, traps- hidden & obvious for players & maybe for level- Sneaking should be possible/preferable/occasionally necessary. Searching things should be occasionally needed. Time wasting to an end. Caution should be occasionally needed, but the game should stay fairly fast-paced, and the traps should not be so deadly as to overburden a players desire for speed.

It's late. I often lose adjectives when it gets too late. Hence the excess of 'thingy' & 'stuff' (though I like them). I'm gonna start sketches for the character types tomorrow.

Any feedback is appreciated.

PS I know this is an MMORPG site & I'm talking about an FPS. Read this post here for why.