RabidJester's Mod Idea of the Day

[RabidJester]

So, I wanted a place to dump the crap ideas that come into my head, in case anyone thinks they aren't crap and wants to run with them.


RJ'S MIOTD:

01/23/06 - Capture and Hold meets the Science Fair?

Height of the Cold War, an international delegation of NATO and Warsaw Bloc physicists meet for the unveiling of a new device: A time machine. But the demonstration goes (predictably) wrong, tossing both groups of scientists and all the equipment from the lab to some random point in time with them. They met under the banner of knowledge and peace, but now they form sides with one goal: Getting back home. One on side, the Soviets, the other, the Capitalists. Tongue-in-cheek humor, etc, etc.

Gameplay would revolve around the objective: The Time Machine. It needs to be repaired, and there are tools from the lab scattered across the map. Depending on how many people are on the server, or a server preset, a certain amount of players have to collect these tools or parts and use them on the Time Machine to repair it. The team that holds the machine (has all of their players in the control radius), and does the final repair, gets sent back to the present, stranding the other team. Repairs would be universal, both sides can use them, meaning you might let your opponents start doing repairs and them ambush them to try to take it and do the last repair bit.

Settings for the maps could include: Victorian London, a midwest US town during the Wild West, Rome during the height of the Empire, a futuristic floating city, etc, etc. Maps would be built to have outside dangers as well, related to the time period depicted. I'm fighting the other team to get this Widget in place, but oh crap, here comes the Byzantines.

Comments?

 

[Crispy]

Interesting concept. It has elements of Red Alert (Einstein's time machine) and Half-Life (the cascade disaster).

I'd see it work better as a weird RTS-style mod. The player view would be much like Alien Swarm. Players would form small squads and navigate the map. The native inhabitants (of that time and place) would appear as 'creeps' on the map, and they'd simply hang about waiting to attack forces from either human team. Certain players on each human side would be diplomats, and they'd draft in these natives, adding a few bot-controlled units. Meanwhile, if anyone saw a unit type they liked the look of of those that had just been drafted by the diplomats, they could switch to that (exotic) unit for some interesting play (different weaponry and attack style/gameplay).

Gameplay would still revolve around the time machine, which could be placed centrally (equal opportunity) or nearer to one side's spawnzone (attack and defend). Various parts of the time machine could be scattered around the maps, perhaps defended by creep groups or even carried by their chieftains/leaders. To acquire these pieces the teams would either have to use the diplomats or attack and kill the creeps.

As everything would be top-down with not too high a level of detail and simplified weapons (~2D) there could be quite a few AI-controlled creeps to add to your forces.

 

[Sulkdodds]

That sounds pretty cool. Russians + Dinosaurs = win.

 

[RabidJester]

Interesting concept. It has elements of Red Alert (Einstein's time machine) and Half-Life (the cascade disaster).

I'd see it work better as a weird RTS-style mod. The player view would be much like Alien Swarm. Players would form small squads and navigate the map. The native inhabitants (of that time and place) would appear as 'creeps' on the map, and they'd simply hang about waiting to attack forces from either human team. Certain players on each human side would be diplomats, and they'd draft in these natives, adding a few bot-controlled units. Meanwhile, if anyone saw a unit type they liked the look of of those that had just been drafted by the diplomats, they could switch to that (exotic) unit for some interesting play (different weaponry and attack style/gameplay).

Gameplay would still revolve around the time machine, which could be placed centrally (equal opportunity) or nearer to one side's spawnzone (attack and defend). Various parts of the time machine could be scattered around the maps, perhaps defended by creep groups or even carried by their chieftains/leaders. To acquire these pieces the teams would either have to use the diplomats or attack and kill the creeps.

As everything would be top-down with not too high a level of detail and simplified weapons (~2D) there could be quite a few AI-controlled creeps to add to your forces.

Crisps, this is why I am going to love having you in this thread.

I want to support the notion that originality is still alive and kicking.

What I pictured as really being the pull of this mod would be the fact that the players would be these relatively defenseless scientists who would have to avoid the "creeps" as much as possible. But this adds some definite fun to the mix. Have different levels of local flavor, some who you can defeat or awe into helping you, and some that you have to run from before they kill you.

 

[Crispy]

I see it pretty much as Warcraft III. There is a range of creeps from tough to weeny. Both teams would have to start with the weeny ones to progress up to the tough ones.

So players could switch to the little creeps they drafted in, leaving their scientist body on botmode, and about as capable as the hostages in CS 1.6. The trick would be to keep your scientists safe (maybe each team has to have all scientists alive to progress?). You could have small camps (spawn zones), with minimal, makeshift automatic defences where each team could convoy back their scientists and leave them there. If you died as a 'tribal warrior' or 'swordsman' you'd revert back to your scientist character.

For a random thought of the day it sounds pretty fun

 

[RabidJester]

1/13/06 - Rooster 17

10 minutes till midnight by my clock, so a quickie:
A spoof of WWII mods, this game would consist of players taking on the roles of barnyard animals who live in a German POW camp. They would form sides and have mock battles over piles of feed or king of the hill for the perch on top of the main prisoner barracks. Classes would be the different animals, each with separate abilities, which (if successful) would be very funny. Hazards on the map would be the crazy Nazi chef looking for his next grand meal, jeeps zipping back and forth. Some maps would allow access to the secret tunnels the Allies are digging under the camp.

 

[Naudian]

^

You need sleep...

 

[Crispy]

Not so hot on that one, mainly because of the parallels it draws between German-held POWs and barnyard animals...

 

[houndeye]

Not so hot on that one, mainly because of the parallels it draws between German-held POWs and barnyard animals...

I don't think the animals are supposed to be POWs... They are just the animals from a farm on the POW camp grounds. Presumably there would be Nazi animals and Allied animals, each with there own section of the barnyard as their base. Keep in mind it wouldn't be a satire on WWII, it would be a satire on WWII games.

Perhaps a farm on the wartorn French countryside would be better than the POW camp setting. There could be a large pond for a D-Day simulation, with the Allied porcine invaders riding rudimentary rafts and facing the overwhelming bovine army. There could be duck dogfights, and turkeys flying recon. If you included the other two fronts, there could be kamikaze chickens flying into the Allied rafts, and the sheep from the other side of the farmhouse could attack the Nazis from that side. There could even be a young sheep sniper who is charged with taking out the chief cow sniper from the Nazis, and that mode could be called Enemy at the Picket-fence Gates.

Yeah, after all that, I honestly agree with Crispy. Tasteless and unhumorous.

 

[RabidJester]

I don't think the animals are supposed to be POWs... They are just the animals from a farm on the POW camp grounds. Presumably there would be Nazi animals and Allied animals, each with there own section of the barnyard as their base. Keep in mind it wouldn't be a satire on WWII, it would be a satire on WWII games.

Perhaps a farm on the wartorn French countryside would be better than the POW camp setting. There could be a large pond for a D-Day simulation, with the Allied porcine invaders riding rudimentary rafts and facing the overwhelming bovine army. There could be duck dogfights, and turkeys flying recon. If you included the other two fronts, there could be kamikaze chickens flying into the Allied rafts, and the sheep from the other side of the farmhouse could attack the Nazis from that side. There could even be a young sheep sniper who is charged with taking out the chief cow sniper from the Nazis, and that mode could be called Enemy at the Picket-fence Gates.

Yeah, after all that, I honestly agree with Crispy. Tasteless and unhumorous.

It was supposed to be satire on WWII games, but you're right, it doesn't really pan out.

I'm not claiming all of these are going to be good. I'm just trying to stimulate some conversation on new gameplay models.

 

[Crispy]

I eagerly await the next one

 

[RabidJester]

So, I missed yesterday.

I'm on the job hunt, and the rest of the day was spent in faceposer, building scenes for Law & Order: Combine Investigation Unit

 

[Crispy]

Yeah I'm job searching, too. Tell me if you're searching for games industry jobs within the UK because I've found some great resources

 

[RabidJester]

I'm actually searching for IT jobs in Washington, D.C.

Well, was searching. Hopefully the second interview tomorrow will seal the deal.

I should think about a 3D platformer in a cubicle farm today. Maybe they have a VGUI screen with a remote camera where the boss gives you tasks to do and you have to navigate the maze of cubicles, jumping obstacles and stuff to complete the tasks.

You could be armed with a rubber band gun that you have to blast through red-tape to access important areas, interact with certain other employees, avoid the loud guy from accounting who is chasing you around trying to sign you up for the company softball league.

hmmm, maybe I should try a different concept.

 

[houndeye]

hmmm, maybe I should try a different concept.

No don't. That's gold!

 

[RabidJester]

Track with me here.

You can put remote cameras that display on screens in the game, right? Can you put them on VGUI screens?

If so, you would be running around in this maze of cubicles in sort of a rotatable isometric view, and the way I picture it, whenever you talk to someone, a screen would pop up with the remote camera looking at the higher res model of them (or at least from the chest up, to save polys) and they would give you information or instructions on what to do next. Will you be able to file those TPS reports before closing time?

The stealth mission would obviously be avoiding the managers so you can leave early.

Hell, it could probably even be transformed into sort of a 3D pacman type game.