Tutorial Part 1

I know that one of these is going to have to be created, so I think I'm going to do a basic voice over that is done in an annoyingly happy announcer voice.  It will start out by welcoming the new player as a homosapien, explaining that there is no need for alarm, that they have been placed in a very safe environment, and that all of their biological needs will be met with the aid of an life suit.  The voice will then say
"please do not make any attempt to remove the suit or to return to your previous home".
"In analyzing your optical orbits we have determined you are able to detect these frequencies of radiation, please indicate your preference from these options.  Please keep in mind that this choice is permanent."
At which point the factions which are in need of players will be displayed.  At the start of the game all three (or six) options are going to be available up to say 20 players.  Players will make this choice by moving to one of three(or six) possible doors using WASD on a keyboard or left control stick on a controller.  I think that the majority of users are familiar with this concept so there will be nothing else in the room.  Once they make a choice by pressing E on a keyboard or and walk through the door it will trigger the next set of "instruction" which will go something like.
"We now have some basic tests to make sure you are not defective in any way.  Please walk to the next room."
Once they have walked through the door it will close.
"Very good.  We hope you enjoy your new home.  If we may draw your attention to what others of your species have considered aesthetically pleasing."
This will then trigger a look around the room at several flashing screen shot pictures of the landscape.  Looking around will be accomplished with the mouse in a mouse keyboard set up, or the right control stick on a controller setup.  Once the player has looked at the pictures a new opening will appear.
Because this will be really long if I were to write it all out I'm going to break it up into sections.    

Missions

I've had a bit of time to mull this one over and I think that some predefined mission types will help a lot as far as getting people talking to each other and learning how to work together.  This can be a challenge as many players have had bad experiences with pick up groups or "pugs" and try to limit the number of people that they play with to people they know or have worked with previously.  While I recognize that it can be frustrating to work with people who may have a different way of playing a game, it can be equally frustrating to be a new player in a game and have no one who is willing to play with you.  So the "pug" dynamic needs to work in such a way that players are able to find each other quickly and will have a good idea of what they are going to do.  So whoever decides to make a group for a given mission will be able to decide a few things from the beginning.  First of all will be the size of the element, ranging from 4 man all the way up to a company of 96, though depending on what rank of leadership there will be caps at 8 men for all non leader types, 16 men for a squad leader, 32 men for a platoon leader, and all 96 for the company commanders.  This will assure that players don't take on more responsibility than they are ready to handle.  Group leaders will also be able to set a timer that will determine when people need to be ready to go, which will be visible from the looking for group or LFG console.  This could range from as little as 15 seconds up to 5 minutes or possibly more if needed.  Group leaders will also be able to specify what classes they are looking for and how many.  Player will then be able to apply to groups at which point the group leader will be able to say yes or no.  Once the number of players are met then on the middle of the screen of each player will be a popup of "Are you ready?" with a 30 second timer and an OK button.  This will indicate that they are about to teleport and should conclude their business asap.  If all group members click ok then the map will come up and the group leader will be able to decide where the group will teleport to.  Once that decision is made all group members will teleport and off they go.  The waiting period will give the group leader a brief chance to elaborate on the mission before they all go into action.  So now to break down the mission types.

Search and Destroy

I feel this is self explanatory as the group will essentially be out looking for a fight.  It will be a good mission type for repelling lone wolfs and small groups that have come into the faction's territory and are harassing players.  It also could be for going into enemy territory and looking for vulnerable players.  At any rate this mission type says that the group is looking for combat asap.

Infiltration

As the title explains this one is for going deep into enemy territory.  This could be a group of scouts looking for unguarded structures or vehicles to hack, or trying to get an idea of how the enemy has set things up.  This mission could mean combat, though it's more likely that combat will only happen if absolutely necessary since that will draw attention and will mean not getting very far into enemy territory.

Resource gathering

This mission means that the group will be heading into the caves to look for building resources.  I imagine that there will be a lot of these missions as resource gathering will be essential to expanding territory and making better things all around.  These groups will still need all classes as a small group going into neutral or even enemy territory to get resources will be risky business.

Base attack

This is to signify a full on attack and will probably happen only at the platoon and company levels, though it is not unthinkable at lower levels.  The goal it to attack an enemy base in order to either disable or destroy it.

Base defense

This is a call to arms because a friendly base is being attacked by enemy forces.  While this may not actually take a group, by having everyone teleport at the same time there is a much increased chance of success.  Of course this is assuming everyone teleports before the teleporter gets taken down, which I imagine will be one of the first targets in an offensive.  Because of this I'm sure that players will make sure to have back up bases not too far away.

Base construction

This one area where coordination is extremely important.  There may be a few different ways that players want to go about this and for now it is sufficient to say that it is definitely going to be a group type.

Recon

This mission type may or may not be in enemy territory and will mainly deal with exploration.  This could be in the cave system looking for resources or just taking a look around to see what's out there.  This doesn't always require a group, but since everywhere could be a potential combat zone it doesn't hurt to take a friend or 3 along.

I think that if there was something else the players wanted to do that they could loosely fit it into these mission types, and if not well then I might just have a type your own field.  Because of the whole group needing to teleport together players will need to be in the main base in order to both create and join groups.  Players may leave groups at any time, though players who leave groups at inopportune times without explanation often find themselves with no one to play with very quickly.

School update

So I have finished my first week of classes and I'm feeling very confused.  School is looking like it will not be so straight forward as I had hoped it would be, but it is not hopeless.  I imagine I'll feel much better after I have a few more weeks under my belt.  In the mean time I need to start thinking about school projects, and being naturally lazy I would like to relate them to this game as much as possible so I at least have an idea of what to do when I need to sit down and start coding.

So in C++ I plan on doing some sort of player registration where one inputs several variables like their real name, a preferred in game name which has to be checked for availability, and an email address which has to be in the correct format.  Apparently this class doesn't deal with a graphical use interface or GUI so I'm going to have to do it all from the command prompt.  At least it is a step in the right direction.

As far as Java goes I think I prefer the syntax of C++ to it and so I'll be keeping the projects in that class as basic as possible.  It is a beginning programming class anyway, so I don't see us getting to the point where we can do anything of any substance by the end of the class anyway.

AI

So after a few of my classes I'm thinking that this project will need to include artificial intelligence of some sort.  I think I would like to do simple sentry tower that will randomly appear in certain areas which fire at players who come into their line of fire.  I think that I would like to do a simple spotlight pattern that indicates where their attention is focused.  Scouts will be able to hack these devices provided that they can get around to the back side, and just like anything else that can be hacked they can either make them friendly to their faction or destroy them and get the recipe for making them.  In this way there could be simple auto defense for bases so they don't always have to be guarded.  They will have a spotlight of the color of the faction that they are programmed for and they will be white if they are found in the wild.

Sound

This is a big one that luckily I have already learned a little about.  I have noticed that sound in many multiplayer games is really hard to take.  I think that this stems from sound effects being a part of so many events, everything from shooting a weapon to large explosions.  I know that the technology for good sound has been out for a long time, it is just the large amount of processing that goes into good sound effects that will be hard to balance out.  In many war games that I have played the sound effects create an annoying cacophony of noise that it is hard to take for a few minutes, let alone the hours and hours of time that is spent playing.  The other problem I find is that the sound effects drown out voice chat making communication difficult.

So what do I plan to do about this.  First of all I plan on making relatively quiet weaponry.  Since it is all going to be beam based and is fictional in nature anyway, I can make the sound however I see fit.  This will be true of most of the weaponry in the game, even mines or vehicle based weaponry.  I already have a pretty good idea of what I want the sound to be, which will be the initial discharge and a charge up period after.  Recharging will explain the slow rate of fire and is something that things like capacitors do in real life anyway.  I also plan to avoid any high pitched sound effects as I already suffer from tinnitus (ringing in the ears permanently) and I'm sure a lot of veterans out there do too.  Playing video games with high pitches can make this worse.  Structures will probably make no noise at all to cut down on processing when in bases.  For vehicles I think I will use a low hum so players will be able to know a vehicle is around, but not a whole lot more than that.  I'll have to look into this more as I get closer to that point in the creation process.

On another note I start school tomorrow.  Wish me luck.

Planetside

Ok so I tried out a new game called Planetside from Sony, which is going to be followed by Planetside2 sometime in the near future.  I paid for a month and I feel very overwhelmed right from the start.  I also feel very undergeared and unsure of what exactly I should be doing.  It does have the feel of a larger scale Unreal Tournament that I was looking to do.  The new game is a big improvement in graphics based on the video, though I'm not sure how the game play will be.

So here are my thoughts about the game from the few hours I've tried of it.  There is a huge assortment of weapons and vehicles to choose from, which felt overwhelming trying to navigate.  The weapons and vehicles were slightly different for each faction, though I imagine the differences were purely aesthetic as far comparable level weapons or vehicles are concerned.  There are three factions which are fighting for domination on several "planets", and on each planet there are a certain number of strongholds which the factions are able to fight over.  In order to travel between these planets there are large teleport structures which are for use by any factions.

One thing that I noticed right off is the amount of legalese I had to go through to install this game.  I had to "read" through 4 separate legal agreements, all of which said about the same thing, before I could get to the login screen.  Also before I could log in to the game a second time I had to agree to yet another set of legalese, in which I am unclear but I may now owe them my firstborn child in lieu of payment.  It makes sense that Sony would want to protect itself from all possible litigation, but it seemed like customers have to go to court just to play the game.  I also had to sign up for some sort of download system which required it's own login.  The game cost $9.99 to $14.99 per month depending on how many months of service you want to sign up for.  Of course if you want to have the biggest and coolest the game has to offer, much time must be spent being cannon fodder and building ones way up through the ranks.  I really felt that as a new player I was not contributing at all to the battle I participated in.  I tried to aim my weapon at the few enemy players I was able to see before dying, but the larger personal weapons all seemed to be fully automatic with a random spray pattern and the pistols are, well, pistols which are puny in every video game I have ever played.

I know that I will probably never have the resources or remotely stand a chance of competing with a powerhouse like Sony, but I think that Apoidea: Hex Wars could still bring something to the market that hasn't quite been done yet.  I'll be sure to play for the time I have bought to see what else I might be able to learn, though I still think that people would prefer a simpler, yet fun, game.  I guess time will tell.

Scout ability: identify

So I've been thinking about scouts and how to make them more integral in the game, especially for groups settings.  One way that I think will promote their use is that they will be able to identify and distinguish between materials out in the field.  I like to think of scouts as the most intelligent class as the have the hacking, so being able to tell whether a material is high or low quality makes sense.  I don't plan on having a different graphic for high or low quality metal, and I'm pretty sure that the cave system I'm going to set up is going to be a little disorienting as far as players being able to tell just how far from the surface they are.  This ability will mean that bringing a scout along for material gathering expedition will make a lot more sense than it did before.  Other players will not be able to identify materials until they have returned to the main base.  My wife has ponted out that there are people who are greedy and would withhold this information from other group members, so I think that I will have a group status message pop up for any material that enters the scouts backpack.  This won't be necessary for weapons and armor, just for the triblocks that the group happens to be mining.  So to recap a builder is necessary to "mine" the material and a scout is necessary to identify said material.  Soldiers just stand there and look tough, a very necessary part of the game too.

Request system

Ok so I was on a date with my wife tonight and she was being very patient with me once again as I brought up this game idea.  And something that came out of that brainstorming session was the idea of a request system.  Basically inside of a company sized element people can post a desired recipe and what materials are needed for it.  Then as players come back to the base they can choose which projects they want to support by donating materials to them.  Company commanders and officers will be able to prioritize these projects so players will know which ones need to be filled first.  Of course players aren't obligated to donate if they don't want to, but the faster things like bases and vehicles get built the better chances of the faction winning.  It also gives guidance to the player who is confused as to what to do next.  Once all of the necessary materials have been gathered the requesting player will be able to craft the item in question.  I would like to have some sort of notification go to the players, with something like text across the screen or a flashing icon in a corner of the screen.  Players will only be able to request for one recipe at a time so there isn't a situation where a players has spammed tons of their own projects that they want to get materials for.

A clean game

I mentioned in my initial goals for this game that I wanted it to be clean enough to play with my young children.  I have been thinking about how to accomplish this and I keep running into one issue.  The hardest content to control is that which the players themselves introduce.  I really want to have players be able to be creative in weapon and vehicle design, but it was pointed out to me that it only takes one or two players to make something inappropriate or naughty to cause the game to expose people to content which is not appropriate.  In analyzing games that have an E rating like Water Warfare or anything Mario I have noticed that there is very little in the way of in depth personal customization, chat functionality, or any other way for players to introduce inappropriate content into the game environment.  Even in games where there is a very controlled environment like World of Tanks  the chat introduces a whole host of objectionable material which players just throw out there as though it normal to talk of sexual crime or of, well just plain disgusting topics.

So my quandary is how to keep this family friendly without removing the ability of players to interact, communicate, and create in the game.  Chat filters can block any profanity or similarly offensive chat,  and I will have to set up a reporting system for blocks placed in such a way that they represent genitalia, swastikas, or swear words.  I think that weapons and vehicles are going to have to be set in their design as there are too many possibilities for players to make something inappropriate there too.  I feel that because of the possible liabilities of online interactions that the minimum age will probably be 13 in order to play.

Hardcore vs. Casual

In my years of playing video games I have noticed a distinct difference between players and playing types.  One set that players will tend to label themselves is hardcore as opposed to casual.  These two classifications often find themselves at odds with one another.   I think that a big challenge is how to appeal to both types of play style without it feeling like one or the other is being favored in any way.

These two types are usually differentiated by one main criteria, time.  Hardcore players are players who will spend what may be considered abnormally large amounts of time playing games.  What this amounts to is the feeling that they will have an edge on other players in some way.  In an MMORPG what the hours and hours of time translate into is them having really good equipment or an understanding of game mechanics that will make them very powerful relative to other players.  In an FPS game it will mean a greater understanding of the map, a knowledge of where and when the best weapons and powerups are can be located, which again gives them an advantage over other players.  Because of the amount of time that these players spend in a game they prefer a high level of attention to detail, especially to gameplay.  They understand that a game does not have to have the best graphics or largest budget to be fun (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hardcore%20gamer).  Unfortunately the hardcore gamer often has little patience or respect for the casual gamer since they often are in no position to be competitive and will often complain about the unfairness of having unfavorable odds.  Casual gamers often enjoy video games on a much smaller scale, and they do it for the purpose of relaxation and fun.  They also make up over 90% of the market, as very few people can or want to devote hours and hours of time to playing games.  I know that I have played games where the social pressure to play made it seem like a full time job (not fun anymore).

My problem is that there are some hard core gamers who ruin the experience for the casual gamers.  This happens because the hard core crowd has such an advantage in a game and will often do everything in their power to crush any hope the casual crowd has so they (in the hard core mind's eye) are running and crying to mommy.  Now I do realize there are some in the hard core crowd who are not included in this rather unfavorable way of looking at them, but the fact that there are even a small number of players like this in a game can make it unenjoyable and uncomfortable for many, many more players in a game.  I admit there have been more than one game that has been ruined for me by players who felt the need to show me how I had no place playing there.  This quote, again from  Urbandictionary.com, puts it rather succinctly.

Hardcore gamers are no less ridiculous than a "pin the tail on the donkey" elitist, who shows up to a birthday party with their own pins and blindfold, won't shut up about you're "spinning all wrong" then looks shocked, as to why the rest of the guests find them socially repulsive.  

The harsh reality is that casual gamers may not know this game even exists for a long time while hard core gamers will provide the initial audience and will probably determine whether the game is successful enough to make it past the first year of existence.  So how do I appeal to all types of player?  I think that taking out leveling and "the grind" of any kind will help a lot in appealing to casual gamers, who may only desire to spend at most an hour a day playing this game.  And let's face it, there is a lot of competition for the attention of all players out there.  If anyone has any good suggestions on this I would appreciate the help.

Also for more insight into gamers look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamer.

Pheromone trails

In going with the insect theme something I would like to implement is a way to communicate via "pheromone" trails.  This will be something that will fade over time and can only be seen by members of ones faction or via special equipment that scouts will have. This way people can leave a trail back to useful materials when they have found them, and it will provide a "ball of string" for those exploring caves.  This will probably be accomplished by a simple line painting on the ground, or glowing footsteps.  It will also be something that you can turn on or off.  I'll have to look into what it will take to set it up.

A paradigm shift

I have been looking at my own motivations for making this game and what I hope to accomplish with it.  I think what I hope to accomplish is to at minimum plant the idea that there needs to be a paradigm shift as far as online gaming is concerned.  I have been playing games for a very long time and I have seen a great many different kinds.  I have seen the amount of detail that is put into game creation and now that I am learning the process I am very impressed with what some companies have been able to produce.  I know that I have said it before, but I think that they are just repacking the same game with newer and fancier graphics.  So I thought that I would sit down and look at where FPS games in particular are at now and what can be done to break out of the paradigm.

First thing that comes to mind is the map.  Players often complain about how a map gets old after playing it over and over again.  I think the problem is that basic strategy of a map will not change once people have figured out the fastest or most effective way to win on it.  Map creation is a time consuming process and relative to how long someone is playing on a map it may be a 1:1000 ratio, meaning that even if players are also making maps new maps can't be made fast enough before players get bored of playing on them.  I think the problem here is that the average time I have seen on a map is perhaps 15 to 30 minutes.  Once the objectives are reached a new map has to load up and the cycle begins again.  So that would mean that even in a situation where say 100 maps are ready to go at a game launch a player will have played most of them within 50 hours of game play assuming they play all of the different game styles, and within 100 to 200 hours of gameplay all basic strategy and tactics have been established and the game is no longer a challenge.  Humans help a little in this because playing with humans means that there will be an element of unpredictability and challenge simply by virtue of the fact that new players are constantly joining the game and they will all be a different levels of competence and knowledge of game play.  To counter this problem I propose to make simpler maps with an element of randomness thrown in so that things will never get to the point where the game is always the same.  Games like Minecraft and Ace of Spades have shown me that a game does not need to have an immaculate landscape in order to be enjoyable.  Also having a persistent world where there is not a timer saying go and everyone starting out from the beginning spawn points all at the same time will make it so there is no 30 minutes and start over again aspect.

Second thing that comes to mind is the objectives.  Often maps will have one objective which players know from the beginning, whether that is to kill more enemies than your enemies kill you, or to capture a flag, hold territory, destroy the enemy base first, etc.... Often these objectives are accomplished relatively quickly, which means that a new map needs to be set up and the process started over again.  Because people are familiar with these simple objectives they get used over and over again, sometimes with simple variations on the theme, but usually they all come back to the same strategy and tactics that are useful in short term confrontations that will only last for 30 minutes or less.  What I would like to see changed here especially is the length of time to accomplish the overall objective and some player creativity in making shorter term objectives in order to reach the overall objective.  I think that if it took at minimum a day to accomplish an objective then strategies and tactics would evolve more slowly and would have a greater amount of variance. If that overall objective became even longer to achieve then there would be an even greater amount of variance bordering on what happens in real warfare.  By simplifying the system the game won't be as complicated as real life warfare, but it should be much more interesting than a 30 minute skirmish.  The downside to this is that it won't be as action packed as your standard multiplayer FPS, but there are already hundreds of them for the player who needs the high speed action.  Luckily in videogames it is possible to take out some of the more boring aspects of real life warfare, like the days spent in travel, the hours and hours of waiting patiently on guard duty or doing menial tasks while waiting for orders, or the mind numbing aspects of  intelligence gathering and analysis.  These activities will still be there for those who desire to participate in them, but teleporting makes travel a non issue,  bases will still need to be guarded but alarms and base defense items can help with this, and intelligence gathering in games is aided by the simplicity of the system and will doubtfully require a large amount of mind numbingness.

I'm sure there are other aspects I would like to see change, but these are the main ones.  I realize that a paradigm shift takes a lot of effort and much persuasion by those who have the vision of the new paradigm.  I think that sitting down and writing this out will help me as I organize my arguments for why changes need to happen, and maybe, just maybe there is someone reading this who can make a larger difference than I am currently able to.

Gearing up for school

Ok so I think I'm all set as far as school for fall is concerned.  I have bought my books, and I have realized that I will be learning in separate classes C++, C#, and Java.  I have heard that the languages are similar and from what I have seen so far there are only minor changes between them.  I just hope I am able to keep the syntax between all of them clear in my mind, but after Chinese I think that these languages are going to be much easier to learn.  I'm in for a rough semester though.  I hope that by the end of it I will have a much better idea of the process than I currently have.  I feel a little excited about it.  I also feel a little nervous.  Wish me luck.

Behaviors

So since I brought up the topic of psychology I think I need to ask myself what exactly do I want the players to do in my game and what will motivate them to do it.  I think the obvious one is that I am hoping that players will participate in the ultimate goal of area domination and/or whatever winning conditions for a round are.  As a part of achieving that goal there will be the actions of freezing enemy players, collecting raw materials, processing raw materials into gear and useful game objects, and defending bases against enemy attacks.  I don't particularly care for short rounds like the 30 minute skirmishes usually found in FPS games.  Rather I would prefer that even if only one faction was working hard at it unhindered that winning conditions could not be met within the course of a month.  That way there will be longer to plan out strategy and provide a complexity not found in most games.  I want players to work as teams and communicate well.  I do want to encourage specialization in various aspects of the game, like someone who is particularly good at scouting out the enemy or someone who is an expert at navigating the cave systems.

I don't want players to do anything that could be considered rude, lewd, crude, racist, and pretty much anything else that could be considered offensive in any way.  This will mean that there will be strict rules and policing that will have to happen, especially for players who decide to build something that is inappropriate.  I don't want players to destroy anything that will help their faction or to do anything that will hinder their factions in any way, like spying for the enemy or sabotaging a base by putting blocks in the space where a structure should go.  I also don't want players to become addicted to the point where they are neglecting the other aspects of their lives.  I want players to be useful and productive members of society, both in game and in real life.  Preferably I would like the game to be enjoyable enough that someone will willingly come back to it over and over again, but not feel like if they don't play they will get left behind.  To this end I have decided not to have leveling at all.  Everyone will be able to do everything from the beginning, though they will have to be playing the right class to do certain things still.  In this way if someone doesn't play for a time then they can come right back to the game as though nothing has changed.

Skinner boxes

I have noticed and I also admit to being manipulated by what is known as a skinner box.  To make a long story short a psychologist by the name of B F Skinner figured out that he could make pigeons do all kinds of weird things by setting up a reward system for the targeted behavior.  So for example if you want the pigeon to turn around in little circles then every time the pigeon starts to turn a seed is deposited into a feeding tray.  The trick is to drop seeds at longer and longer intervals so that the behavior becomes more and more cemented.  By the time your done the pigeon will circle for minutes in order to get the food.  The reason I bring this up is that the principle is often used in video games to keep players playing games.  This is commonly found in role playing games where at the beginning of the game one gets levels and new equipment pretty fast, and then later on in the game the pace slows down and it takes longer to go up to the next level and get better equipment.  Eventually it may be months in between the time that you see any appreciable increase in the game.  Just as soon as you think you have finally reached the end, you are at the highest level and have the best of the best gear, they bring out an expansion and the whole process gets added onto for the next few months or even years.  And yet players will continue to play because they have been conditioned to do so.

I'm writing this as a kind of rant because I have realized that this process is going on and yet I get pulled into it again and again.  From what I have found in my research this is commonly referred to as a "hook", or an addictive element of a game that keep you coming back again and again even after is ceases to be fun or even remotely entertaining.  The biggest problem I see in this is that people get so hooked on games that they start to neglect almost everything else in their life.  I know that it has been a serious problem in my life on more than one occasion.  So I would like to make an enjoyable game that isn't as addictive as many MMO's have been specifically designed to be.  The other problem I run into is that I know that this is going to take money to work, and not just something to get it started, but upkeep and updates and the list goes on and on. I am hopeful that many people are turning to independent game developers to return to games roots where if it's not fun then players won't play.  It is just the challenge of how do you get people to support the unknown and new.  After all the biggest competition is for the money of the consumer, and business will go to great lengths to get it.  I guess that in the end the goal of making this game and the master's degree will help me even if the game is not successful as I am hoping it will be.

If you are interested to find out more about do a Google search for "video game skinner box".  What you find is pretty eye opening.