In terms of a goal... hmm *thinks to self*

In the creation of this game, I'd be looking to create the most dangerous kind of game... the kind that doesn't have an end. Much like in Eve online, I'd be interested in creating a "playground" for people to make their own. To create a world large enough to spread out and explore... with unique landscapes that people can recognize and perhaps even call home. Since the game would be about "bases" in large part, players would literally be able to claim and establish territory as theirs. Three of the largest, most compelling reasons to fight (at least that I can think of from mmo's) have to deal with friends, enemies, and the place you call home.

In Eve-O, I was part of a group who had made a home in some of the deepest fringes of space... in an area called Paragon Soul. It was basically like a small cul-de-sac relative to the vast expansive universe of that game... but we had established ourselves out there and as months went by ... it really felt like home to us. Eventually, a large, neighboring group of players who had been at peace with us until now, suddenly betrayed us... and we defended the territory with our lives... until we were run out of there completely. Over the next two years in the game... a couple of our over-arching themes were

1. Try to return to our home in Paragon Soul. (the guys who had lived out there for longer remember it with great fondness... it was a bountiful area and rather peaceful in comparison to everywhere else)
2. Give some payback to those ASCN son's of *****'s that stabbed us in the back...

if there were a third compelling focus... it was to protect one another... our guildies/corp mates... our brethren... for any of you who have played a game where you have been involved with a clan or a guild/etc... over time, you form a bond. And I had been flying around with several of these guys for over 2 years in that game... using vent to connect with people in australia, austria, england, africa... and more... basically all over the world.

The way for an MMO to really succeed in my eyes... is not about the money that it makes necessarily... (it helps) but it's from the ability to create "long lasting" friendships. Creating "close" friends.... despised enemies... and finally, the most fulfilling game, in my opinion, is the one that is able to make you feel "at home". That sense of familiarity.. of safety and feeling secure. This feeling being in stark contrast to the world outside of this boundary, whether it is in the form of a castle wall, or merely an open field.

I want a game that captures that feeling I get when playing baseball and I am stuck in the middle of a pickle and after being stranded inbetween bases for a while, I make a dash and slide to safety and the umpire calls "SAFE". I stand up and dust myself off, and smile , looking up at the sky... knowing that right now... right at this moment, I am where I need to be.

I want a game that gives me that thrill of danger as I cross into enemy territory and lay seige to something in uncharted territory. Where is my home now? It's too far away, and I can't go back now. This time, I must press onward in order to survive, so that one day I may return home to where I am safe.

I've probably already gone too far, but... think about Lord of the rings ... think about the Hobbits... they left their home where everything was safe and familiar and comfortable... and journeyed to the most dangerous parts of their world so that they could, one day , return home to a safe/familiar/wonderful place. That is definately something worth fighting for, I say.

So...? What was the reason of all this rambling? It is the driving force behind my desire for such a game to exist. I do very much wish to become part of a game design team in my future. And this game could be everything a good game needs to be. As I've said before, it is totally an fps and the majority of combat would be done that way... but structures and defenses would be a major aspect of this game... more so than any other game of its kind.

The landscape would really be one of my favorite things about this game. I know some crazy things are possible with flight simulator engines and what not, but I can only speak from experiences with other games I have played. But I do not wish to be held back because of what has only been made already... so I will speak as if there are no/few limits. The world I have in mind will be immensely huge. So huge, in fact, that to cross from the "north pole" to the "south pole" that it would take at very least 24 hours on foot. If this cannot be achieved on one planet... then I'm not opposed to the idea of having the game span multiple planets. Indeed, multiple planets are a main reason why the Star Wars galaxy is so intriguing. Every being in that galaxy has a home planet, no matter how far off it may be or how long it has been since they were there.

The idea here is that there are vastly huge and beautiful places to explore and travel across. And there are places that you can become better aclimated towards and can call your home. This game (no matter how closely it would end up resembling Tribes...) would be set in the future where there is something wrong with our earth, or it basically just won't be able to sustain as much life on it anymore. Perhaps the natural resources are nearly depleted and too much harm has befallen it... the damage is irreparable, and thus, you, the player, needs to take the next flight off the planet. "Earth" would serve as the tutorial / starting zone, and then you could be shuttled out toward a number of other beginner cities from a selection of a few planets perhaps.

The idea is that not only is there vastness, but also detail in each area. Sure, our actual Earth looks busy, but the landscapes in this game would be mostly new worlds... with sparsely populated city hubs. Varying degrees of transportation would be available in the more populated areas, however, there is an incredibly vast world out there still untouched... and I don't want the game to only have this feeling for the first few months after release... and then for the veteran players to have already covered the globes... like back in Ultima Online days... there was no free space to put your own home since all the potential places were already taken up. As a solo player, unfortunately, you won't be able to create a base by yourself. You can, however, find an area that you really enjoy and that you want to call your hunting grounds... and you will, over time, be able to have options for adaptation in your own character and your technology to better adapt to your surroundings.

For instance, if it is a lusch terrain area.. wetlands or swampy area.. perhaps after spending time (a goodly amount) exploring the area, sampling the terrain and its inhabitants... and yes, perhaps some kind of leveling up(through some new innovative way that doesn't involve grinding), perhaps your suit is able to adjust to obtain new advantages while in this terrain. The sky's the limit for potential boosts / advantages. Some obvious ones might be better mobility in this type of landscape, some weapons that you create would be better for this type of area. Perhaps there's a lake somewhere with forests all around.. your group decides to establish a base underwater at the bottom of the lake. As your team spends more time in the water and performing tasks around the area, you gain "adaptation points" that represent your own familiarity with the surrounding landscape. If you have supplies and technology to perform research and developement of your own in this area, your team can work on improvements to your base and to each of your teammates individually. Your team as a whole could be researching some new forms of weaponry... and I don't just mean from the set arsenal of weapons that we'd create the game with... I'm talking unique weapons that have unique characteristics that the players have created themselves. Perhaps they've created some weapons that float up from the bottom of the lake and explode like proximity mines... fellow teammates' suits/technology would send out a signal to the mines to set them on standby while they move past them, however... so the mines aren't set off by friendlies. Or perhaps advanced bullets that move better through water... amphibious base defenses that patrol the lake and nearby forests... as a desperate measure, perhaps the base itself could rise from the bottom of the lake, and maybe even lift off the surface of the lake temporarily (or if the base floated in the first place, it could possibly submerge).

That scenario of a team setting up and establishing their base is but 1 example of so many that would happen. It would be so much fun to handle the upgrading of my character in certain ways due to where I have spent my time. I would actually have an advantage over some enemy scout just plunking around in places he doesn't belong if it were taking place near my "home".

Why would people go out and fight eachother then when they could just work up their own defenses? Well, there'd be some npc's normally for those times when players aren't fighting eachother, but also.. if your team somehow sets up base in some extremely remote location... there's still plenty of danger and fun to be had. But hey... players will attack eachother just for the hell of it.. because that's fun. Also, they want to test out their weaponry/armor they have created on others, and they can see how formidable their neighboring players are. Also, and this is a main point, perhaps there is a plentiful source of resources that are being contested for.. and your team needs these resources in order to continue R&D and improvements ... so it is important to fight over these strategic points of interest.

... More to come another day... this is just the tip of the iceburg of what could potentially be done with this game. More input would be nice as well. Even if I have this specific vision for a vast game, there is plenty of room for ideas from everyone else, so don't be afraid to throw something out there.

Another example of an idea I had... let's say a player had chosen to acclimate themselves to a desert area. In this game, I would also hope to implement various weather anomalies that would make things a little dicier. There might be regular sandstorms in a desert, for instance. And a person who was new to the desert would have a tough time moving or seeing through the sandstorms. However, a player who had been living out in the sands for quite some time would have adapted to the sandstorms already, and they would hardly be hindered by them. A player who was acclimated to the desert would be able to see through the sandstorms clear as day and they'd probably end up sniping the newcomer fairly easily for instance. hehe. Or... alternatively, perhaps they'd have developed some technology that allows them to quickly burrow down into the sand in an attempt to ambush their enemies. I would imagine, in order to survive in such an environment, however, that the "sand people" would have to obtain basic resources, such as water and food.

Water and food... would having these open a can of worms? Maybe, but it wouldn't have to. Perhaps it would be best for us not to make that feeding process complicated at all... since everything else is sounding complicated. hehe.. so perhaps food and water would come in the form of something universal.. instead of having many types of meat, dairy, plants, etc... but instead, in the future, perhaps everything that is gathered is processed, condensed substance that is preserved until eaten. I don't want to have to deal with food going bad or whatever either. Food and water will be yet another resource that is necessary to gather. If there is no readily available source of water to be found, a base structure addon will be necessary in order to create potable water or food. However, these facilities will require other resources in order to run. But if this other resource is available for gathering (or is able to be bought relatively closely at an adequate price) then it can serve as the solution to that problem.

Ideally, Food/water won't be as big of an issue as it is realistically today. If you, while away from home for days, run out of food or water, your suit will provide you with emergency life support rations... due to the suit having to switch power to this function, you will suffer certain drawbacks of functionality until you are able to restock your personal food and water supplies. Food and water will be consumed at the same rate for the average player. However, in certain climates/styles of play push you to be away from your base or other reliable sources of food/water for longer periods of time, certain players may have adapted in such a way that they are able to make more out of less, and/or are able to store more food/water in their personal supply... OR they've created a more condensed / potent food substitute that keeps you going longer per unit of food/water than normal.

Another idea that I was tossing around earlier tonight was that of reverse engineering... and what I mean is that let's say a newcomer to an area actually takes down someone who is a native and is using certain technological advancements that the newcomer doesn't have. The newcomer could attempt to scavenge and salvage what he can of the dead native's equipment and bring it back to a place where there is a facility that can perform reverse engineering on those peices in an attempt to steal some of the technology. In any well planned seige attempt, I would imagine that some forms of subterfuge like this would go a long way towards helping the attacking force deal with certain defense mechanisms that the defending force has employed.

A well executed seige would include (but is not limited to):

1. Reconnaissance
2. Technology adjustment (Becoming at least partially acclimated... whether by spending time in the area or perhaps "Capturing" some of the defender's tech secrets as well)
3. Cutting off defender's supplies
4. Perimeter breach
5. Strategic dismantling/destruction of key facilities
6. Mop up


In every MMO of any kind, it is impossible to create a "prick-less" environment... however, creating a death penalty that is actually meaningful helps to keep some of the senseless chaos down. Weapons/ammunition/gadgets have a cost to replace... and whenever you are killed, you must spend at least some currency / resources to gear back up. Even your suit (and what about your body???? *shrugs*) costs something to replace, so if you want to go around killing everything in sight, be aware of the potential cost of you yourself dying when everyone around knows that you are a senseless killer who enjoys taking the lives of others often and at random.

On a different note, terrain, as I have said already, is likely one of the top 3 focus' with this game. Everything revolves around the kind of terrain the player is on and what kinds of ways the terrain in a certain area helps or hinders. For this reason, it would be a sad thing for vast forests to fall victim to some pyromaniac's evil schemes... at least, trees ought to grow back at a much faster than normal rate to prevent the permanent destruction of the physical world. People looking to ruin some of the fun that others are having in the forests of the world might think it'd be hilariously awesome to take some flame throwers to them and see how far and how much they could burn of the forests. "Wouldn't it be cool if we caused there to be no living trees left on the entire world?!" someone might say... and while I can understand that desire to make a lasting impression on a huge world... I do not wish to have fire fighters coded into the world that would prevent such things from destroying too much. The more simple solution would be to either make fires die out easier, trees grow back much faster, or some combination of these and perhaps other solutions. Though the destruction of a habitat might be seen as quite the effective way of laying waste to an adversary... I won't let that be the easy way out of a tough fight. If a team of players wants to get rid of another team that happens to be well established, then they'd better put in the time, effort, skill, resources and creativity in order to triumph.

***Once again, I'll have to continue my thoughts on this another time.***