Sci-fi Fps

#1

Quote:2042 August 16: France materializes in the Atlantic Ocean.

Yess...

But seriously, this is the most interesting sci-fi setting I've come across for a long time! Although I think it deserves a bit more development than "A hostile alien species is discovered". If you're dealing with universes that have different laws of physics, aliens there will obviously be so irrecognisably different to umans, in appearance as well as psyche, that communication would be all but impossible. I'd be really interested in a video game that presented conflict as a breakdown in communications over time, rather than something like Halo's mother-of-all-cop-outs.
Of course, this might not be the direction you want to go with the game. If not, I wouldn't be disappointed, because I'd like to use it in my SF setting :P

Quote:2043 March 17: China, not yet using Hanson's device disappears entirely, leaving a great canyon in its wake.

2043 March 21: Astronomers discover the remains of china half way between the earth and the moon.

Seems like it took people quite a while to notice that...

You could work up some excellent gameplay with this, but it sounds extremely difficult coming up with sets of different physical rules. What about a universe where gravity acted to force masses apart? Where opposites don't attract - or where there are three magnetic poles? Complicated :P

#2

Quote:"2043 March 17: China, not yet using Hanson's device disappears entirely, leaving a great canyon in its wake.

2043 March 21: Astronomers discover the remains of china half way between the earth and the moon."

Seems like it took people quite a while to notice that..

Well, thats when it was officially announced anyway

(why can't you nest quotes???)

#3

Quote:Although I think it deserves a bit more development than "A hostile alien species is discovered"

Sorry this is just something that I ran up in ten minutes, i will be editing the original post throughout the week.

Anyway, those species are the ones that where trying to get to the neighboring universe and once they discover that the equipment used by the small marine force has the same markings as the 'stopping the warping of the universe device' (i will give it a name sometime) they attack the forces.
They want the universe to infinitely twist as their initial goal of traveling between galaxies hasn't changed, they now need to crush humanity to continue the disruption in space. Their will be eventually allies but I do not want to lose that feeling that halo did about fighting a losing war. Halo originally had it but then in halo 2 you got the alliance with the elites and it just lost some of its soul.

I WILL be having lots of different universes, and hopefully I will be able to manage some of the cool things you described, however I do not want the game to turn into a fanfare of strange physic rules. It needs to stay real, and hold back the suspension of disbelief

#4 Very interesting story, the different physics and universal laws could be amazing for single player play and could make multiplayer amazing too. Just imagine sing weapons that take advantage of space-time warping. You throw a "warp" grenade, once it explodes, suddnly everyone around it is picked up and randomly thrown around. Some may end up inside of buildings walls or inside others (which would be where the damage comes from) A large chunk of terrain is "ripped" from the ground and appears 80 feet away in the air. Or a gun that when fired creates a rift allowing anyone to enter from where the shot was fired, teleporting them to where it hit.

I'm sure some more will hit me later and I'll just have to say it.

Quote:2044 April 2: A hostile alien species is discovered in universe Ox: 133k, they initially appeared friendly but then after 'examining' the equipment they turned on the small party of marines and destroyed them.

Ahh... Really? I've never got to fight besides aliens before... (The arbiter Halo doesn't count!)

Quote:They want the universe to infinitely twist as their initial goal of traveling between galaxies hasn't changed, they now need to crush humanity to continue the disruption in space.

I have read The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy WAY too many times. I keep thinking to myself "Vogons!"

#5 Begins qouting Vogon poetry....

#6

Quote:2042, June 24: On an alien planet in the Galaxy Ox: 3a72 an attempt to warp the fabric of space, providing a portal to its neighboring galaxy failed, causing a infinite twist in the universe.

This is just a little weird. How could they get to a different galaxy if they haven't gotten warp technology to work? If they can't warp, they would have to fly there. And I think it would take a little bit longer than 34 years to fly from one galaxy to another at an acceleration humans can handle.

I like the idea, but you might want to rethink some of the elements of the story. It also seems sort of silly that a country would be warped by its political borders. Maybe if the warps took place in random chunks, like instead of all of China warping, maybe just a massive piece, not really following any imaginary borders.

#7

Quote:It also seems sort of silly that a country would be warped by its political borders.

I think the thing with China was that it wasn't using the magical space-pinning technology, so it basically was the political border that was undefended. But I agree with your point.

Quote:and once they discover that the equipment used by the small marine force has the same markings as the 'stopping the warping of the universe device' (i will give it a name sometime) they attack the forces.

That's better ;)

Quote:however I do not want the game to turn into a fanfare of strange physic rules. It needs to stay real, and hold back the suspension of disbelief

That's just my personal opinion, then - I don't think in terms of 'what physics stuff can I play with to make a great game' - I think of 'what are the fundamental rules of physics?' And then change those. If I saw something in a game like abnormally strong gravity, or random teleportation, that'd ruin my suspension of belief - because I don't think of physics that way. :P. This is getting pretty rambly...

Quote:Just imagine sing weapons that take advantage of space-time warping. You throw a "warp" grenade, once it explodes, suddnly everyone around it is picked up and randomly thrown around. Some may end up inside of buildings walls or inside others (which would be where the damage comes from) A large chunk of terrain is "ripped" from the ground and appears 80 feet away in the air.

Awesome :D See, that sounds like great fun - but I don't think of this sort of gameplay as resulting from changes in the fundamentals of physics. They're macroscopic things, whereas the microscopic behaviour of the game world is unchanged.

Okay, okay, I'll stop it.

How about a gun that turns players inside out? ;)

Quote:2044 June 23: Alien forces attack several settlements across various universes.

You forgot to mention when these settlements were made. No biggie, just reminding you ;)

Quote:Their will be eventually allies but I do not want to lose that feeling that halo did about fighting a losing war. Halo originally had it but then in halo 2 you got the alliance with the elites and it just lost some of its soul.

Yeah, that's good. I agree about the Halo 2 thing. Though I never really felt overwhelmed by the Covenant at any point. I got far more of that sense when reading the books (The Fall of Reach in particular). As far as the MC goes, it's all roses - he just kills Covenant. I think to pull off the sense of fighting a losing war, you'd have to allow the player to see the large scale, the bigger picture.

#8

Quote:Awesome :D See, that sounds like great fun - but I don't think of this sort of gameplay as resulting from changes in the fundamentals of physics.

This wouldn't happen because of changes in physics, but by using weapons that take use of the technology that infinitely twisted the universe, in a more concentrated area. It doesn't seem possible to be able to take the physics of one universe and turn it into a weapon in another.

And besides what fun is it simply changing physical constants for another universe? :p I mean sure, lower gravity or strange anti-grav is out of the ordinary, but it has more of an planetary or spacey feel. I'm sure we could come up with hundreds of really crazy physics (the difficult part would be finding one that is humanly survivable, and fun to play in.) Imagine a world in which gravity was based on light. You stepped in a bright sunlit area and would be pressed down harder. Hide in complete shadows and you could be lifted from your feet.

Just my 2 cents on to make the other universes seem really insane. :-)

Quote:As far as the MC goes, it's all roses - he just kills Covenant. I think to pull off the sense of fighting a losing war, you'd have to allow the player to see the large scale, the bigger picture.

I agree with that too, it just never gave you the feeling that they were any threat. Show the 'fighting a lost war' side is to show the player his own forces losing, either watching the larger scale war and seeing the humans units being pushed back to near defeat, or by having a group the player is in lose a fight and get most or all of the soldiers killed. You have to watch that one though and make sure the player is forced to retreat or find an alternate way of killing the aliens which killed his own team or the player will just chalk the loss up to bad team AI and not overbearing enemies.

#9

Quote:Imagine a world in which gravity was based on light. You stepped in a bright sunlit area and would be pressed down harder. Hide in complete shadows and you could be lifted from your feet.

Sweet :)

Quote:This wouldn't happen because of changes in physics, but by using weapons that take use of the technology that infinitely twisted the universe, in a more concentrated area.

Okay, I guess I misunderstood the intent.

Quote:It doesn't seem possible to be able to take the physics of one universe and turn it into a weapon in another.

I agree. But I think the OP talked about having distince 'sets' of weapons for each universe - that utilise the physics of that universe in wierd ways.

#10

Quote:I agree. But I think the OP talked about having distince 'sets' of weapons for each universe - that utilise the physics of that universe in wierd ways.

Basically, but they do not need to be to weird IE make the player cannonball into whatever happens to be behind him and hope its sharp, they can still be realistic as well. A set that I have come up with is the 'Glassers' they basically operate in a universe where heat and electricity can make glass materialize with kinetic energy 'built in'. It basically flings glass at people (in that universe, use a regular gun and it explodes)

Quote:I agree with that (halo losing its sense of fighting a losing battle) too, it just never gave you the feeling that they were any threat. Show the 'fighting a lost war' side is to show the player his own forces losing, either watching the larger scale war and seeing the humans units being pushed back to near defeat, or by having a group the player is in lose a fight and get most or all of the soldiers killed. You have to watch that one though and make sure the player is forced to retreat or find an alternate way of killing the aliens which killed his own team or the player will just chalk the loss up to bad team AI and not overbearing enemies.

Exactly what I was saying!

The first 'level' has you escaping a (large) marine base thats being overrun by the aliens (side note - anyone have a name for them?). At the end of that level you evacuate in a carrier (large plan thing - will upload some concept art) and you have a whole lot of patrol aircraft, at one point you split up and then later you narrowly avoid the ships wreck and you get a shot of more escort ships under heavy fire. Anyway, work in progress.

Quote:You forgot to mention when these settlements were made. No biggie, just reminding you ;)

Well I just don't think its practical to include everything that happens, IE there are a lot more country swappies, I just don't have time to list all 307. I can see your point though, and i will edit the post including something like that.

Quote:This is just a little weird. How could they get to a different galaxy if they haven't gotten warp technology to work? If they can't warp, they would have to fly there. And I think it would take a little bit longer than 34 years to fly from one galaxy to another at an acceleration humans can handle.

I like the idea, but you might want to rethink some of the elements of the story. It also seems sort of silly that a country would be warped by its political borders. Maybe if the warps took place in random chunks, like instead of all of China warping, maybe just a massive piece, not really following any imaginary borders.

First; the aliens planet & the humans planet have a comment correlation, the disruption began on the alien planet & the halting of it was on Earth. Their is no textbook way to control rifts but there are certain ways to get them to go to landmark areas. The Aliens destination is no more likely than any other planet when it comes to it. And anywhere the humans go they set up the device things, which causes certain rifts to open near them.

Second; Give me a rest PLEASE, when I said china I did not mean exactly china, I meant a large majority of it and large chunks of its surrounding countries. However the fact that it very roughly warped was because there were already dimensional experiments being done in many of china's city's and when the dimensional space near the experiments gave way, so did a 3000 km radius.

However I will edit the post to make it more accurate, and for god sake, everyone "NOTHING IS SET IN STONE". If something is so silly its just plain stupid its probably because I skimmed over that part in an attempt to get the thing done quickly, I will go over everything in more detail, explain all patchy subjects, and I will include every milestone in universal history.

wow, big post

#11

Quote:First; the aliens planet & the humans planet have a comment correlation, the disruption began on the alien planet & the halting of it was on Earth. Their is no textbook way to control rifts but there are certain ways to get them to go to landmark areas. The Aliens destination is no more likely than any other planet when it comes to it. And anywhere the humans go they set up the device things, which causes certain rifts to open near them.

I was reading last night and an idea hit me. Maybe the aliens warp technology did work, though it still twisted the universe. So space-time is still broken and physical objects and countries still move about randomly. After inventing the Hanson device, it stabilizes the universe around those sections of Earth. And whenever the aliens warp, they are drawn to the stable areas instead of their destination. So the only way for them to return home, or resume expedition to other galaxies would be to destroy earth and any other planets with the "universe pinning" technology.

Quote:A set that I have come up with is the 'Glassers' they basically operate in a universe where heat and electricity can make glass materialize with kinetic energy 'built in'. It basically flings glass at people (in that universe, use a regular gun and it explodes)

Cool.

Quote:The first 'level' has you escaping a (large) marine base thats being overrun by the aliens (side note - anyone have a name for them?).

I don't think they should be given a very scientific or concrete name. When aliens suddenly begins invading your planet, no one makes it an effort to classify them. And naming them after their planet is hopeless until you can know where they come from. Look at the movie Cloverfield, while the monster attacked the city the military didn't even name it. It was simply "the target." It could also add to the losing battle effect.

#12 As a point of note, as i am reading this, i am awe that we are all humanizing any aliens. a example

Quote:

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A set that I have come up with is the 'Glassers' they basically operate in a universe where heat and electricity can make glass materialize with kinetic energy 'built in'. It basically flings glass at people (in that universe, use a regular gun and it explodes)

a gun? why not a armband device, that gathers it out of thin a and uses the phyics of their world. as soon as you start giving aliens guns and 2 arms and 2 legs, you really start turning them into humanized soldier, then you name them, and start ranking them? Its a classic fps storyline. Maybe some originality. A example of a recent game that is like this. Dead Space. Original Alien monsters based on a different biological process then we understand. Fresh and new. Same with the phyics of the world. If we are altering light to be a gravity effect rather then a heat source, that is cool. Think outside the box and stop thinking like a human. think Galatically, or spacially. What we think of as normal, doesnt apply when your in a 7th dimension, both perceptially and physically, a monster might "step through a dimension" as a natural form of movement. leaving behind a rip. and so forth.

#13

Quote:As a point of note, as i am reading this, i am awe that we are all humanizing any aliens.

Quote:Same with the phyics of the world. If we are altering light to be a gravity effect rather then a heat source, that is cool. Think outside the box and stop thinking like a human. think Galatically, or spacially. What we think of as normal, doesnt apply when your in a 7th dimension, both perceptially and physically

Couldn't agree more. That's sort of what I was getting at, but didn't express as well as you did.