ID:39451
 
This time in a more readable format I guess!

Anyway, long story short I am in the process of making an action game. Originally it was going to be some sort of zombie survival horror game, but I decided zombies are boring and overdone. So I changed the games settings to thousands of years in the future and replaced the zombies with aliens. Other than that the game remain pretty much similar, only it has more funky and exotic content.

Game Modes
At the moment I have the following modes planned.
Survival Mode - This is the mode that I was originally going to use. The objective is to simply survive for a set amount of time. You can do this however you please, a good method would be fortifying an area and then working with other players to fend off aliens.
No Hope - No hope mode is basically survival mode, but there is no time limit in the game. You simply try to survive for as long as possible. (The mode is called No Hope because it is simply impossible to win.)
MVP - In this mode a player is picked at random, and the objective is to protect that player for the time limit. If the MVP survives then the game is won, but if the MVP dies then the game is lost.
Territories - Similar in nature to something like capture the flag. Only there is several flags around the level and the objective is to protect as many of those flags as possible. The side with the most flags (or territories) by the end of the game is the winner.
Extermination - Extermination mode basically means that! You have to kill every alien on the current level to win the game. You lose if your team is wiped out.
Traitor Mode - This mode is somewhat different from other modes. A single player is selected as a traitor. That traitor has to kill every other player in the game (other players don't initially know who the traitor is). How this is done is upto the traitor, but I'd imagine running in guns-a-blazing wouldn't be to effective and would get you killed pretty fast. So at the moment I plan on adding a lot of interactive objects on the map which can be used in various ways to rig up traps among other things. I still need some help with this mode and how to make it work effectively.
Story - At the moment this mode might be added, but it might not. Basically it will play in a similar way to many FPS games, you go from level to level shooting aliens while trying to complete some sort of objective. It will be playable in single or multiplayer mode. But as I say, at the moment it might be added, or it might not. I am still in the process of working out a storyline for it, and then I have to actually add it to the game. So if it is added it'll probably be one of the last modes to be added.

Aliens
The alien species in the game is somewhat generic actually. In terms of appearance they are insect like in nature. They are very basic in terms of technology and don't make use of any types of weaponry and prefer to rely on their strength and large numbers.
They aren't particularly evil in nature despite the fact that they are trying to genocide the human race! They are just trying to survive and expand their race. The way they expand their race is somewhat strange as their is two methods.
The first, most common method is simply a queen will lay eggs, which hatch into baby aliens! These aliens are all born with a single purpose, find a suitable host from a new race for the next queen. They will go out and hunt for a suitable host, killing anything that is not suitable and taking pack potential hosts to the queen. A suitable host is one that has all the ideal features of a race, and no defects.
This leads to the second method of reproduction. Once a suitable host is found a queen will infect that host with a queen egg. Initially this has little effect on the host other than pain from the egg being inserted into the body. But as the egg hatches it will possess the host and take over their mind (in traitor mode the traitor will be a host with a queen inside of them at this stage). As the queen matures the hosts body will physically begin to change, and take on some aspects of all the previous races used as hosts, while keeping some aspects of the new race. For humans this would most likely be their intellect, which in the hands of such a rapidly changing alien race would be a very dangerous weapon. All aliens born from this new queen will also take on the qualities and aspects of this new race.
Aliens are divided into the following types.
Queen - Queens are usually big and horrid looking, they look like a horrible fusion of all the other types of aliens. They are strong, smart and hard to kill and are capable of laying eggs in large amounts to further expand their race. Killing a queen will usually deal a crippling blow to all other aliens as they are reliant on the queens superior intellect and orders (without this they are no smarter than wild animals).
Rippers - Rippers are one of the smallest of types of alien. They look like large lobster/scorpion hybrids. The purpose of them isn't well understood, as they are too small and have very little protection or offensive capabilities (even the claws they possess have very little use as they would only be effective if they can wrap around and "hug" something) to be of use in combat, and they possess no unique features. Cannon fodder is about the only purpose they serve.
Tearers - Tearers are mature Rippers. Though still small in size and lacking protection they have at least more potent offensive capabilities. Their claws have lengthened and they have much longer almost spider like legs that are also razor sharp. The also appear to possess a developing tail which is of little use. Again, they serve little purpose other than cannon fodder.
Shredders The fully developed form of Rippers. They are larger and faster but still as unprotected. They however possess suprizing offensive caabilities, they have a fully developed tail, which plays a similar role to a scorpions tail, and a single sting of it inject some of the Shredders acidic blood into the poor victim. Though this ability is quiet potent over use of it seems to have negative effects on the Shredder, up to the point where it can even be fatal to them.

Warriors - Warriors are the basic fighting unit of the aliens. They are physically well build and agile, and quiet capable of ripping a person to pieces! In terms of appearance they look like large, humanoid insects, but have a gorrila like posture. They slightly resemble a stag beetle.
Dreadnaughts - Dreadnaughts are the mature form of warriors. They are bigger, stronger, faster and smarter. Appearance wise they are much more bulky and tend to walk on all fours (but are capable of walking on two legs).
Juggernaught - The fully matured form of a warrior. They are terribly strong and fast and can take a beating. In this form they almost exclusively walk on all fours, due to them having developed a tail (this also helps to protect their exposed stomach, making them much harder to hurt or kill). Their natural armor has also into smaller plates which make them much more agile, it also happens to have several large spikes. This combined with their tendancy to charge blindly into enemy likes is what earned them the name of "Juggernaught".

Rhinos - Rhinos are massive heavily armored insects. They are generally slow moving and offensively very weak (about the only way to get kiled by one is to stand in front of it and let it walk over you), but their sheer size and the thickness of their armor makes even killing one stupidly hard. They are relatively easy to spot due to their massive size, but look similar to a woodlouse.
Mammoths - Mammoths are mature Rhinos, they are even bigger and more heavily armored than even Rhinos, making them insanely hard to kill. The armor of Mammoths has developed in such a way that it is covered with small holes of a sort, these holes are used by smaller alien species as a method of transportation. A single Mamoth can host upwards of 20 aliens inside of their armor. Another feature that seperates Mammoths from Rhinos is that Mammoths have two arm like limbs, though they are somewhat undeveloped and have little use.
Behemoth - Behemoths are fully grown Rhinos. They are the biggest and most heavily armored of all aliens. They posses much of the same abilities of a Mammoth, and are just as capable of hiding aliens within their armor. However, the arms of a Behemoth are fully developed, and are potent offensive weapons at short ranges.

Shadows - Shadows are quiet large aliens and very vicious in nature. They have a spider lick appearance, but only possess six limbs, of which two are vicious scythe like weapons. Shadows are lone hunters and will quietly stalk and kill their prey, they are aided in this by their ability to become transparent, making them very hard to see.
Wraiths - Wraiths are mature shadows. They are much bigger in size, a Shadow is slightly bigger than a human, but a Wraith is twice the size of a Shadow. Other than their size Wraiths are more or less identical in appearance to Shadows, and serve the same role, but they possess a much more developed stealth ability, making them almost impossible to see, especially in areas with poor lighting.
Fiends - Fiends are fully developed Shadows. They are suprizingly large and can stand as high as 20ft. However, this height is mostly due to their long, spider like legs. These legs are unique in that they have a large number of joins and can be bend and contorted to allow the Fiend to squeeze into very small places, desptie the height that they stand at. The camoflague ability of Fiends is fully developed, and grants them as close to invisibility as is possible, and seeing or even noticing them is for all intents and purposes impossible.

Drones - Drones are the only flying type alien. They are small in size and very fragile, they posses the ability to spit out their acidic blood but this ability is just as fatal to the Drone as it is to their enemies. Drones seem to play the role of scouts for the alien race due to the ability to fly and their rapid movement speed.
Scout - Scouts are mature drones, the only major differences is that they are slightly larger in sze and possess an extra set of wings, which grants them extra maneuverability while flying.
Alarm - Alarms are fully developed Drones. They are again very similar in appearance and nature, but have one unique ability to let out a high pitched buzzing noise, which attracts nearby aliens to the Alarms location (hence the name Alarm).

Flesh Borers - Flesh borers are the smallest of all the types of aliens, averaging out at about an inch in size. As the name suggests, they are capable of quickly boring into flesh. They do so by swarming in very large numbers and basically becoming suicide attackers, they jump at their enemies and pop releasing a splash of acidic blood which rapidly burns holes into any unprotected enemies. Individially they are nothing more than a pest, but the sheer numbers of them makes them a suprisingly dangerous foe.

Tyrant - Tyrants are probably second only in rank to Queens. They generally act as bodyguards to queens, or to aliens transporting potential new hosts to the queen. They are very strong, fast and vicious and possess an array of dangerous weapons. Razor sharp claws, scythe like limbs, the ability to shoot acidic blood and they have have armor filled with small holes, possessing hundreds, maybe even thousands of Flesh Borers. Appearance wise they look like Juggernaughts, but have extra limbs, always walk on two legs, have more more spikes and armor and are larger in size.

That is more or less it for the aliens. As you probably notices, most aliens possess unique roles and abilities, and a lot of aliens will even evolve as the game progresses. Starting out as their most undeveloped role, and if allowed to live for long enough they will fully develope into much more powerful and dangerous foes.

Weapons, Items and tools
The game at the moment possesses quiet a lot of different weapons, but I am still looking for more exotic weapons to add to the game.
Ballistics - Ballistic weapons are the cheapest and most common of all weaponry. They fire out basic inert projectiles at high speed. They take solid slugs of steel as ammo, when the gun is fired this slug has a small part of it sliced off and that part is fired. As such any suitable metal that will fit into the guns magazine slot can effectively be used as ammo for these types of guns.
Gyrojet - Gyrojet weapons fire out ballistic bullets too, but these bullets are actually miniture missiles. Gyrojet ammo comes in a massive variety, from solid projectiles, explosive rounds, rounds that shoot out lots of small fragments, rounds that deliver deadly electrical shots upon impact and more. Because of the nature of Gyrojet ammo it is quiet uncommon and expensive to produce.
Laser - Laser weaponry is very common. It is characterized by it's relatively high accuracy, good damage and firing rates. However, laser based weaponry has a very small effective area, it might be capable of blasting a hole through something, but that hole is very small and wont do major damage unless it hits a vital spot. Laser weaponry runs on Power Cells, which are fairly common as they are the standard portable power supply of Humans in the game (basically they are like batteries).
Plasma - Plasma guns are another common type of weaponry. They fire out pulse of superheated ionized gas. This pulse though very damaging (and sometimes explosive in nature) is slow moving (for a projectile weapon) and not very accurate at long ranges. Plasma guns also tend of have low ammo capacities and overheat if fired in rapid succession. All Plasma weaponry uses Ionized Cells as ammo, which is relatively common.
Fusion - Fusion weaponry fires out an beam of intense heat, anything hit by the beam is as good as dead. Larger fusion weaponry is capable of turning tanks into lumps of scrap metal in a single shot. However, the intense heat fusion weaponry generates means they need regular maintenance and are prone to rapidly overheating. All fusion weaponry takes U235 Cells, which is not too common.
Disruptor - Disruptor weaponry fires out powerful waves of force. These waves though not particularly deadly in nature are capable of stunning or even knocking down foes hit by them. Disruptor weaponry however has one major drawback, a lot of the energy in the wave of force is lost as the wave travels outwards, making the guns less effective, and even useless at long ranges. All disruptor weapons take Vibration cells as ammo, which is uncommon.
Missile Launchers - Missile launchers come in several varieties, but they all work more or less the same. They fire out a missile which explodes on contact. The most potent of all missile launchers is the Havoc Missile launcher, which is capable of firing out upto 6 missiles simultaniously for mass havoc (hence the name).
Needle Gun - The Needle Gun is a strange weapon. On it's own it fires out small needles, which are not particularly damaging in any way at all. But these needles are hollow and are usually filled with some substance, which can range from poisons and acids to medicine such as painkillers or sedatives. This gives the Needle Gun a massive variety of uses, both as an offensive and support weapon.
Web Gun - The webgun fires out a stream of a very strong and sticky substance. Though it is not lethal in anyway at all anything caught in the webbing it fires out will be incapacitated for a long time.
KB 3023 Chemical Launcher - A new weapon specially designed to fight the alien threat. It shoots out a chemical that is harmless to most every race, except for the aliens. The chemical, called "KB 3023" (also called bug spray) acts like a poison and will rapidly kill swarms of aliens.

Grenades/Mines - Grenades and mines come in a massive variety. Frag, incendiary, smoke, poison, cryonic (freeze), acidic, EMP (disables electrical equipment), tanglefoot (fires out mass amounts of the webbing used in Web Guns), plasma, fusion and flash are just some of the types. Grenades are thrown, while mines are set and then triggered once something steps on them. Most mines have a weight trigger than can be set, anything over this weight that steps on them will set them off (as such a human might never set them off, but smaller aliens might not set them off too).

Melee Weapons - There is also a large variety of melee weapons in the game. From make shift weapons such as knifes, DIY tools, pieces of scenery or furniture (such as a chair leg) to weapons designed for combat, including chain weaponry (similar to chainsaws), energy weaponry (think lightsabers), shock weaponry (electrocutes stuff!) to more dangerous and specialized weapons, one such weapon is a Power Maul (a large hammer that can be loaded with mines, which will explode when it is swung and hits something, for maximum devastation).

Items
Useable items come in a large variety, from healing items such as medpacks, to repair kits to repair damaged machinery and so on.

Tools
Tools is another type of varied item, tools can be things such as torches to help see in dark places, or even night vision goggles. Hacking tools to help gain access to systems that make things easier. Types or armor and shielding devices aren't uncommon, shielding devices can shield from damage, make you invisible to machinery such as security cameras or even make you totally invisible!

That is all I have planned for now. What I need from you people (if you're even still reading) is ideas.
What sort of things do you want to see in these game modes or what sort of levels would you want to play on? Any sort of aliens, weapons or items you think would be cool? If so they say, anything will help (because when it comes to futuristic and scifi settings I pretty much suck and have no decent ideas!).
Instead of aliens...Go with mutated creatures. For example a nuclear blast or some chemical thing happened. Then you could name it Fallout :P

As for how I think it should work, take a look at games like scarey game2, murder mansion...Things like that. You should be able to do things like shut down the power, have NPCs that shut down the power, and then you can only see a few steps around you. Operating vehicles like bulldozers or something to plow through hoards of monsters would also be a neat feature, building barricades/fences...Pushing objects infront of a door would make the door unable to be opened from the other side, unless they had a specific item like a crobar or hit it with a car or something. There should be things like water/electricity that are a necessity and would require you to go outside and turn back on, that way people wouldn't stay boarded up inside of a base all day. Also it'd be fairly easy if the people were only playing against NPCs, so maybe there would be some third-party class that would have to eliminate the humans...For example some governmental guys trying to "control" the situation.
As for how I think it should work, take a look at games like scarey game2, murder mansion...Things like that. You should be able to do things like shut down the power, have NPCs that shut down the power, and then you can only see a few steps around you. Operating vehicles like bulldozers or something to plow through hoards of monsters would also be a neat feature, building barricades/fences...Pushing objects infront of a door would make the door unable to be opened from the other side, unless they had a specific item like a crobar or hit it with a car or something. There should be things like water/electricity that are a necessity and would require you to go outside and turn back on, that way people wouldn't stay boarded up inside of a base all day. Also it'd be fairly easy if the people were only playing against NPCs, so maybe there would be some third-party class that would have to eliminate the humans...For example some governmental guys trying to "control" the situation.
There is already obsticals in the game. They can be pushed/pulled around, climbed over and destroyed. Some of them when destroyed have effects, chairs/tables produce weapons (chair/table legs), crates might have things inside of them, barrels of oil will spill all over the place, and then the oil can be ignited, dangerous storage units will explode and so on.

As for vehicles, it is an idea I am still playing with, as well as friendly NPCs (in the form of automated droid robots which will follow players around). But a bulldozer might not work! Provided these aliens are big and strong enough to punch holes in and even throw around tanks!

As for the electricity idea, that is again something I am trying to do. At the moment there is access points, which can be used to enable/disable things like lights and security sysems (which can be hacked and made to attack specific targets), open/close/lock doors, look through/enable/disable security cameras and so on. Most of these objects will also be destroyable.

As for trying to stay boarded up in a base all the time... It wouldn't work. You'd need a lot of ammo and supplies, and the aliens would eventually break into the base (smaller aliens are even capable of bypassing blockades because they can crawl under/around them).