starsys 9
background conceptualization
This is just a video game I’ve designed in my head (and some on paper) and have no real way of making happen, but it’s cool, and I can write about it. Basically it features three factions: 1 human/robotic, 2 various aliens, and 3 magic/inter-dimensional. So you can play as an elvish paladin serving an inter-dimensional “god”, and fight an alien cyborg in a setting that allows for such crossover.
The first goal of this game is to showcase the endpoint of the updates-and-DLC trend, which I believe is a game wherein developers are eternally developing it - the game is not a meal to be finished and served, but a garden to tend forever. I have a bunch of specific ways this can be great, from public events that feature developers playing as the enemy, to cosmetic doors that randomly become actual doors to newly mapped rooms and buildings as time goes by, so that you are never truly done exploring every corner of any part of the map. On-going guided development of the game as an experience is a thing I explore, providing reveals and pacing, etc. Lots of ideas.
The second goal is to provide an FPS strategy battle game wherein players can control NPC subordinates, issuing orders mid-battle while participating as a combatant. Like a squad leader. So, say I’m a necromancer serving a dark inter-dimensional god-thing. I can have like, five zombies and a franken-beast, and can pull up a “command” menu (basically a communication wheel) and give them orders... For example, ‘bodyguard’, which might mean target anything that does damage to me; ‘shield’, could mean stand between me and the thing damaging me; ‘tactical target’, may mean attack anything I’m damaging; or ‘berserk’, you know, so they fling themselves at the enemy nearest them. Or whatever, you smell what I’m cooking. I’ve got a lot of interesting thoughts on this game, and I’ve half designed 9 character classes per faction, each with 3 subclasses, and outlined how each faction does mostly it’s own kind of damage and there’s a rock/paper/scissors thing going on, and each of the three factions require three of the five resources to be found, yadda yadda yadda. It’s an awesome game concept, and since I have no idea how I would ever create this game, I’m just going to create a source book for it as if it were a table-top RPG. Because that's what I grew up playing, and I can write and (kind of) draw, but I can't code.
what I want in a game
What I want in a game.
Oh, just some simple stuff, your basic story-driven strategy MMORPGFPS with PVP MOBA and PVE sandbox elements. I get the value of the “do one thing and do it well” ethic... but what about take a little of the best of everything? And add to it?
Specifically, though, I want these things:
Rogue Play.
I want Rogue characters and abilities to matter even in FPS environments. You don’t just go to the spot and shoot the lads, you go to the spot but there’s only one gate so you disguise yourself as the enemy and infiltrate the spot but then your disguise isn’t adequate for the inner circle so you sneak unseen to the basement and pick the lock and go in and steal the blueprints to the spot so your team can have the map on their radar and then you pick the officer’s pockets for the gate key and go let your team inside... to shoot the lads. I want passes and papers so rogues can make forgeries. I want to sit in the darkness and spy on characters to discover where the caravan route will be; you know, for robbing. I want lock picking and pocket picking to be micro game actions that you can have real skill in - bump the button wrong and you alert the person or line the skeleton key up wrong and break the lock. I want rogues to be good at setting, seeing, and dismantling traps, better at finding secret passages. I want assassins and snipers to be played as a part of team strategy, deployed to counter the enemy’s top player or cover the open space between bunkers. Snipers with rifles should be able to one-shot, assassins with a blade should be able to one-hit someone from behind, you just have to do things to balance that out: give them a lot of hiding and movement bonuses and keep their health small, so they have to sneak in or stay far away undetected; make the crit spots challenging to hit, things like that.
.....
Team Leadership
I want an FPS where you are a team leader over NPCs, and can be one of several such groups on a team of players. I want to play an FPS where you strategize, a game for which where, when, and WHETHER you shoot are all considerations.
I want a game where you do battle but you don’t actually kill anyone. I want to be able to explore and make friends and make enemies and experience revenge and fame and go on quests and adventures and defend my home from attack and I want to acquire resources and goods and gear and be able to gift, trade, and sell those things and become rich and open a business and have a home - I want to be able to squirrel myself away in a cave somewhere or build a grand castle. I want to be able to set up my castle with guardians and traps knowing other players may come by to test my defenses. I want to be able to not just fight wild animals, but have a neutral encounter, and even tame them. I want to be able to meet an enemy, see that they are fighting off the same horde as I, and make a temporary truce that leads to a lasting peace between me and them. I want a game where I can learn about other cultures and lifeforms... first through observation, then tentative contact, then immersion.
I want a game where i can explore playing with any number of natural abilities found here on earth; use bubbles to dive, and sting with poison, fly by gliding, spin silk traps and trip wires, change color to hide...
I want a game where I can explore playing with any number of imagined technologies; teleporters and force fields and hospital sarcophagi that operate and regenerate and use organic materials to 3D print...
I want a game where i can explore any number of magical powers and fantasy realities; hell-beasts and angels and zombies and witches and elemental avatars, elves, dragons, and dwarves.
I want a game wherein I can have social power over NPCs and social interaction with player characters. I want a game that allows me to go into battle or business as an active leader
Therefore: animals and aliens: encountering, hunting, befriending -
Firstly, each faction must have a bastion of natural environment, wherein animals specific to each reside within a reasonable ecology suited to them. Humans in Starsys 9 terraform nearby moons, where cities and parkish wilds can be found, as well as vast empty spaces. The alien coalition has huge colony ships that contain interlocking niche environments and overlapping territories, suited for the quasi-wild populations of various alien species that travel with them. Dimens have access to the hellish dimensions of their previous conquests (from which various humanoid and/or mythical creatures originate, such as elves, dwarves, giants, devils, were-creatures, goblins, mer-folk, harpies, etc) and can visit those realms via rift, portal, and teleportation - each of which offer an opportunity for various inter-dimensional creatures to arrive on the main planetoid of Starsys 9 (or indeed, anywhere). Some humans illegally land colony “pioneer” “ark” or “wagon” ships, which allow earth-origin flora and fauna opportunity for embarkment in the starsys 9 wilds. And the alien coalition just brings their everything with them, full invasion style.
Secondly, a small range of communication must be made inherently available to every type of character, with which to signal intent and disposition, possibly a yes/no, a stop/go, point/wave or calm/threaten. Additionally, creatures met in the wild should have an adjustable mood or wildness/tameness
In all cases, players begin their faction experience in training and story missions that are not on starsys 9 proper
In the Alien faction you start off in the Royal Wars of Homeworld, learning the burdens of management as a genomorph Colony Queen, laying eggs in spore-sludge pools, overseeing resource acquisition and allocation, and directing or defending against raids, strikes, and sieges. You unlock different species/character classes, and move toward heat-of-battle experiences on the front lines of starys 9. Then you unlock your Battle Queen class and can play all your characters at once. At that point, you enter the royal rankings, allying with one or two of the top ranked queens while trying to climb to the top. Top queens and their allies get... bonuses.
In the Human faction you start off on the front lines in the Company Wars of some other starsystem, learning the woes of support as a gun-loader (called a Sidearm) for a mech team, and move through healing engineer and scout to battle engineer and commander, unlocking character classes and moving to the public stage of starsys 9, culminating in the unlocked Mobile Command, which allows you to play as all your characters at once and forces you to maintain your own supply lines and manage your company. At that point, you become a Mercenary Company, and hire out for battles or go into business for yourself.
In the Dimen faction, you start off as a fledgling thrall in the service of one of several Dimen godlike entities, themselves allies to: the Shadowed (death, destruction, dominion and evil) the Bright (life, personal service, sacrifice and holiness) the Grey (nature, chaos, genius, and adversity). These entities each chose Favorites, who receive special powers. Like certain fledgling birds, you compete viscously among the other fledglings for dominion, as you seek to experience power in all its forms, from displaying brute destructive force, to feeding on the worship of vast throngs of followers. In the world outside your nest, there exist the old powers, that have survived and conquered on starsys 9 - you dare not challenge them, but you dream of replacing them. You try raising hordes of zombies, gathering worshipers, becoming a conduit of pure death energy, being a deadly fearsome beast of great strength, and finally unlock the (un)holy arm class, allowing you to play as all your characters in a position of relative power.