Heroes For Hire, A Game Idea That I'm Trying To Create

Stormsinger

May 13 2007, 01:43 AM

Consolidating all of the posts into one massive post, which i can then hopefully add to

We have 2 developers so far, and we're totally willing to have anyone else with any and all coding experience, or anyone that wants to help work out game kinks. Right now theres more kinks then game. If your at all interested, come on down to http://heroecommand.zedsi.trap17.com/developers_blog/ and sign up, or pm me or email me

INTRO

So yeah, i'm trying to think of a game idea to create. I'm a computer science student, 4th(out of 5) years. I'm looking for a summer project for myself and i thought i'd try and create something productive. So here we are.

Before i go on,
Thoughts, Impacts? Feedback???? Any of it I'd love
Only second to the love i'd give for anyone that wanted to help out, whether conceptually or codingly.

Please post:) I want this to be a huge developement(at least for me), anyone that wants in, can see the vision, just post it.

Alright so

If anyone thinks they can help it, that'd be so sweet. If nothing else it will keep me on top of things and motivated

The game idea -

You are a something... a coordinator of some description. You have a series of heroes that you send out on missions.

I'm not sure whether it should be medievalish... as in swords and spears, or futuristic with fleets and technology.. I'm leaning towards Swords and spears, because i love that stuff smile.gif

I want to try to have a huge political component in it.

Im thinking of a possible clan component, with clans having leaders who take all the missions available, gather intelligence on them, and post requirements and such.

Possibly a clan wars component, clans taking land and resources from each other for supremecy.

Thinking of a multi-level arrangement, someone can become a leader of a group(or clan), then a clan can dominate to the point where all the members become area supervisors, and so on. Continually able to advance yourself.

I want a dynamic advancement system. If heroes on missions are faced with issues they can't solve, they can test against their intelligence or creativity aspect to come up with a possible solution. Then they can carry that solution with them to new missions.

POLITICAL:

So the political component, i want huge rivalries. I want it so that you are being compared to everyone else, and judged. If you want to make a hit on an opponent, and you send out heroes or troops to raid an opponenets "territory", then you'll get busted. So... what you do is you hire out some lowbody to make the hit for you. For the same money as hiring a quality merc, you can hire out a low person and they can make a profit on it. Everyone's happy, and it promotes the lowbodies.

I want there to be a huge chain of command. People don't know where other nations are, so staying small and hidden will be adventagious except that it limits your growth.

Knowing info about your opponents is valuable. Mutually assured vulnerability is a valuable tool, and it can be crazy interesting.

You want alliances, enemies, resources... etc.

So, clans and such.

clans and a misleading term.

So the mission list, i want it to break down like this. There is a list of missions, globally, constantly being repopulated.

I'm not sure what the missions will be.

Perhaps theirs a world condition where there are valuable resources constantly being spawned

Possibilities:

There's monsters invading the world, match your heroes abilities against the monsters abilities, loot and such and such
There is a meteor storm of magical infused material constantly falling. The material often attracts attention so their will often be opposition... etc..

So theres a list of missions.

Whoever is your commander, (there's always someone higher then you, even if its a computer commander), they will be giving out missions which are alterations on the other missions.

The commander will have goals, and will set out rewards for specifics missions accomplished, or accomplished in a certain fashion.

--Oh, a note on another section, I want there to be options for splitting up your team and running multiple missions at once.

Heroes:

I want you to be able to gain heroes by training them, finding them by chance, or buying them

For stats, i'm thinking something like..
Strength Dexterity
Endurance Awareness
Mind Charisma

Whatever the rolling system is, it will probably be based on a combination of two skills for most things.
For examples:
Str - Dex Melee Attack, Physical Actions
Dex - Awr Ranged Attack, Perception
Awr - Cha Social Perceptions
Cha - Mind Lying, Cheating, Trickiness
Mind - End Willpower
End - Str Toughness

Besides their stats, i want personality traits
Traits may be either advantageous and disadventageous
Or they might be split into advantages and disadvantages

For example, conviction. The hero runs with their emotions, if the hero sees acts against his beliefs, he will be inclined to resolve them, against better judgement, but he will be motivated to and act more effectively for it.

I want heros to have alignment, personal beliefs, etc.

Problems:

Ok, i don't know how i'm going to put in a graphical component to my game.

I know how to do the whole java thing with swing and stuff, but i don't know an EASY way to make it prominent.

I think the idea was to integrate the mysql database to hold all of the variables and things for each individual person, then have the graphical interface reference the database to get information and such. That way it would be easy to have people interacting with each other, because there is one communal database where all the data is being stored.

One major problem is trying to get a php script interacting with the mysql database to connect and reference the 2d graphical environment.. and vise versa

galexcd

May 13 2007, 02:33 AM

A few questions:

1) Is this game going to be coded in c++?
2) Is this game going to have 2d or 3d graphics?
3) Are you going to use opengl?
4) Do you need a web developer to code the home-page of this site? If so, I'd do it for you.

Stormsinger

May 13 2007, 02:47 AM

killed

zachwyler

May 13 2007, 03:20 AM

I should warn you that re-posting the same messages over and over again, wont count, and will be considered as spam. But its pretty easy to get enough credits, just post once a day, and you'll have enough credits at the end of month, and will probably have a lot left over to last the next month as well.

Stormsinger

May 13 2007, 03:25 AM

killed

jlhaslip

May 13 2007, 04:27 AM

cleaned up duplicate posts, oops's, and added quote tags.

TypoMage

May 13 2007, 05:03 AM

I find it very amazing that some of you people say I am going to make a game. It is so cool. I wish I could do that stuff. Heck I would be happy if I knew how to make flash games.

Stormsinger

May 13 2007, 06:02 AM

killed

jlhaslip

May 13 2007, 07:55 AM

stormsinger,

instead of making additional posts, use the Edit button to add or modify your previous posts, otherwise, a member will report the consecutive posts and a Mod will need to reply to the post, meaning you could be reprimanded. It makes the entire Forum cleaner and the credit script will adjust your count so that you earn the same number of credits for adding to a previous post as you would with a new posting.

*merged posts*

galexcd

May 13 2007, 07:49 PM

Alright I know java, but if you read my sig, you'd know how much i despise it. If you need help with the gui i could help you with that. I'm also not bad with photoshop so I could do some of the graphics for the site. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much time I would be willing to devote to this game, I am already working on 4 other games simultaneously, so I'm not sure how much time i'll have. But i graduate in 2 weeks, and I should have plenty of time over the summer.

Aim I getting paid for this?

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Stormsinger

Jun 8 2007, 02:15 PM

Ok thats all tentative, i created half that as i wrote it.

So... the monsters are constantly attacking outposts and things
Crystals power everything.
There is a very small content of hard metals, so its difficult to use guns or anything, theres just no resources for it
Crystals quickly become the currency for the system.
Crystals are harvested in meteor showers on all of the planetoids.
There is quick travel between the planetoids
The crystals attract the creatures to the area, so often you will be challenged.. mision fights etc

The guild has been created, it is a code and mission list
People are respected and honored through the guild
People post requests and rewards for specific tasks, can pick up the missions
It becomes like a honorable thieves guild type dealie

There is heavy contention for "owning" the various hunting grounds, asking for help with specific monsters that are plaqueing your area.

Theres little direct fighting between players, more underhanding and backstabbing.

I'm trying so hard to put in a huge political component, i want people to have guild rankings, and power approximations
Therefore challenges can be set and "the fairness" can be set off of the conditions of the challenges and the relative power between the two.

For example if a more notable and powerful player challenges a lesser player it will be considered unfair, and will not be penalized heavily if you refute the challenge.

Whereas if your a higher power and some bad deals go down, leaving you with few resources(tired hurt heroes, few crystals, or something) but its not public knowledge because its not honorable, and someone does find out. They can challenge you.

Even though they are unfair conditions(you are in bad shape) because its not publicly known it will be a fair challenge and lose some major honor/respect if you decline or lose it badly.

The challenges might be direct combat, or more likely missions, retrieve these crystals from overthere in this time period, or a race, etc.

Ok, thoughts comments as usual, we are 2 and a few hopefuls working on this atm, if you have input, want to help, anything, post/pm me or signup on the website

If anyone knows how to get more political tell me, i'd love to know

Stormsinger

Jun 8 2007, 02:12 PM

Ok, here's a tiny fractional update(i haven't posted since due to technical issues)

I'm thinking of resetting the timeperiod as suggested. I kind of liked the roman era idea, but i've also been thinking of a quasi-cliche homegrown scenario.

Opinions, thoughts, etc, for this.

Sci-fi futuristic. There exists high speed interstellar travel, but its energy costly based on the mass. We've colonized a handful of systems, and they are now all called core worlds. Resources are always problematic and scans showed that there was an interesting star system a long distance away. Probes were sent, and there was found to be a unique energy source in the system, a kind of quasi-radioactive(not radioactive, just acts similiar with decay and such).

So a fleet of generational ships was sent out and the system colonized. (the system is a whole slew of small planetoids, so space isn't an issue for the setting)

3 problems.
1 - The planetoids are inhabited by monstrous creatures.
2 - The Crystals once found decay into more stable forms, while in the system and can still be used for a power source.
But the hitch is that once the crystals leave the system they have a very high likelihood of even the most stable forms losing stability. So much so that it takes more energy to transport them. So the colony is nearly considered to be a bust.

3 - The system starts to change people, they begin to be able to control their environment "like magic".
Then some people start to change too much, and start to resemble the inhabitants.
And the generational ships were one-way.

So they're stuck there, are getting near to no support from the core worlds who regard them as a "failed venture", and now its a struggle to survive.. etc etc.

So now the people are trying to find enough supplies to live, the crystals are found to nourish and create extreme growth in plants and animals, and it seems the most feasible way to support themselves with food is to gather the crystals to create sufficient harvests.

Stormsinger

Jun 5 2007, 02:23 PM

amit nigam
adriantc

Thanks the both of you for your posts. I like the ideas.
(i'm still split on a specific historic event of the past or a low tech future)

In either case, i think even if you guys don't want to code i have a million and a half ideas that i could use a great detail of help on. I keep wanting to figure out formulas for exactly how things work, and then make them simple enough to do them a few thousand times a day. Any and all input and ideas would be spectacular, sign into the forums if you would, or send me a message

That goes for anyone else as well, we want as much help coding and non as possible

amit nigam

May 26 2007, 09:21 AM

hello stormsinger and other friends,

i feel that your idea is very good stormsinger...i feel that i can help you out in places where decision making tasks are involved...i am not so good in coding but i am a good manager, i think. also i like playing these sort of games therefore i think i can give you tips about things that i feel are either wrong or missing in other these sort of games....i wish you best of luck for your endeavour..

to start with, in the start you had said that you are thinking over two things....one is the time factor that is in which age to place the game and the second is whether it should be three d or two d...also you had said that you want to place more emphasis on political analysis and strategy making rather than just fancy fights...

i am writing this post just to tell you that if you stick to your idea of giving more stress on strategy making than just fighting then it will be a very good and slightly different game from other such games...since your real decision making ability is tested more in peacetime than in times of war therefore i feel that if you will put more stress on political decision making then it will be great test of ones capabilities...

also i feel that instead of having the time span of past, like medieval ages etc., i feel that if you place your game in future than it will be great....there are, i feel, two good points regarding this....first your game will be different from most of the games like these since most of the popular strategy making games are based on historical events...so if you put it in future then you can have your own wars created and own kingdoms made and also you will be different....the second good thing is that the scope of the game will increase..why so??...because then you can give the players not only the option of winning kingdoms etc. on earth but even on other planets...i feel that if you add in some way some sort of intergalactic type of things in your game then it will be amazing...

also i feel that the game should be in two d and not in three d....because three d will shift the concentration of you as well as your players from the basic aim...for you the basic aim i feel should be not justto build visually great game but strategically sound game...and for players also strategy making must be the focus not just roaming around in great environments...

by the way this is what i feel...if you would like to discuss something else then i am always open...i wish you best of luck..

ok bye...keep writing..

adriantc

May 25 2007, 11:35 AM

Why not place the action backwards in time... let's say during the Roman Empire, the beginning of its downfall. Your heroes would be the roman generals doing the best they can to preserve the empire from collapsing. Or, why not, the users would be one of the barbarian commanders trying to take down the empire. Think carefully before choosing any period of time because the users like to be in a position that give them glory, where their deeds could make a very big difference.
Maybe even create some historic battles which the user can play and by doing so altering the course of history... That's got to be interesting! So maybe you could use the game to teach a history lesson (I would like that) and also to explore some alternate timelines...
But if you choose to place the action further in time (in the future) you will also need a story, something to explain how things ended up that way. In fact before even starting to code you should work out a story and study the period of time you want to create... like the cloths , the weapons, the amour, the building, even the social behavior.
From what I understand from your posts you want to create something like World of Warcraft single player style. I would take that even further. You should make you game more like Black&White. You should try to do what Black&White failed to do... make you hero inspire the ones below him like the henchmen and the brute squads. You should give the user the chance to turn his hero into a positive hero or a evil one. Of course I don't know if you can do that since I think it requires hours and hours or programming. And since we are here I think you should spend more time on the programming part first.... it's far more important to make the characters and the world of the game behave as you want rather then spending countless hours on an armor or on a new weapon. Take the time and shape the world as you like and program the AI (which must be very smart) and then start working on graphics.

Keep us posted when you start working on the game... If you need beta-testers count me on...

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Heroes For Hire, A Game Idea That I'm Trying To Create - me just explaining a game for feedback and ideas

Heroes For Hire, A Game Idea That I'm Trying To Create - me just explaining a game for feedback and ideas

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