<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Martyn:
Ah yeah, that'd fix it - the only reason I mention the crosshair was that I was trying to play JK t'other day in third person with the croshhair off, and it's REALLY hard to even attempt to aim centre-screen, I got all disorientated (maybe I'm just not very good..!)
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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by phoenix_9286:
Turn off the crosshairs in the options and try from First Person. It isn't easy for me to shoot without cross hairs, but I'm semi decent.

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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by jEDIkIRBY:
Are guns git good ame, du you're's?

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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">INTRODUCTION
For the past two or three years, I have been very interested in the idea of making my own online game. I've tried out a good many online games: first person shooters, adventure games, mmorpgs, etc. Over the years I have been taking ideas from popular games and adapting or implimenting them into what I think would be a project I would like to work on, say, as a hobby. Now it's come to the point that I've got so many ideas and I think of so many more every day that I think it's time to document my ideas in a clean and organized manor. This site is the organization of my ideas for this project.

The game will take place in a universe I've been conjouring up for some time. It is a slightly sci-fi atmosphere, but not an unbelievable one (ie, the technology is very similar in appearance to present day technology). In this universe our galaxy and planet are not mentioned, so for the time it is unknown whether it exists. Most of the game revolves around space travel. Many citizens live in orbital space stations or on board large star cruisers. Most of the planets will be of conditions too harsh for civilization, but this does not mean players can't don an environment suit and venture out into the wilderness.

The game was originally going to be a singleplayer adventure game with possibly a multiplayer feature, but it was soon changed to be a massively multiplayer online game. The original story was to be based around a prototype super-battle-ship that was to be the perfect battleship design which all others from that time forward should be designed from. However, the prototype was lost for reasons which I had not invented yet, and drifted about space for some lengthy undetermined ammount of time before it was discovered again. The game was going to be about the rediscovery and salvage of the paradigm battleship, which is why I originally titled the game "Paradigm Astray."

Now that my hopes are mainly to create this game as an online adventure, obviously it cannot be based around such a strict plot, so chances are the title will change (although I still plan to include the lost paradigm, perhaps as some superquest in the game). The links provided on the menu to the left should detail my ideas for each aspect of the game.
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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">PLAYER MOBILITY
First off, I have to admit when I first played the Splinter Cell demo I loved the movement controls and that's where most of my plans for player movement came from. Players will see the world from a third person perspective. As the player is standing still, the mouse will move the player's head up and down and side to side, with the camera directly behind it. Because a human's neck will not turn a full 180 degress, there will be a limit to how far the player can turn his or her head without moving his or her body, so in effect a player can stand facing north and turn his or her head to the left or right to see anything in the west, north, and east directions, but the player cannot turn his or head far enough to see directly behind him or her. To see south, the player must reposition his or her body (which will probably be accomplished by pressing the activate key, which will then automatically align the player's body with the direction the player's head is facing).

Movement will be achived via keyboard. The default keys will probably be the generic wasd configuration. Again, the player will move very much like in Splinter Cell - "w" will cause your player to move forward based on the camera's position, "a" will cause the player to move to the left, again relative to the camera, etc. Speed will most likely been controled with the mouse wheel, although I'm working to revise this since many people do not have a mouse with a wheel. Jumping, crouching and prone will also be available.

The player's ability to jump will be a realistic jump (as opposed to many games today in which one player can jump clean over another player's head) and will depend much upon the weight of your character (determined by how much is in your inventory) and your character's strength, as well as the environment's gravity. While in air, the player can grab on to ledges and things, but not automatically. The player must be facing the ledge, in mid air, and holding a certain key (probably either the jump button or activate button) to grab hold. I decided it should be this way to add realism and to avoid annoyances such as the player grabbing onto ledges he or she didn't intend to.

The inclusion of vehicles is vital to a game such as this. As mentioned in the introduction, players will probably spend most of the game on board orbital space stations and large star cruisers (which I would very much like to be player controlled, but I haven't quite formed the details to this yet). In addition to these larger vessels, players will also be able to board smaller transports, personal ships, or perhaps even fighters and dropships. Ground vehicles will probably also be available, but I have not put much thought into that yet.
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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">INGAME COMMUNICATION
I tried to think of a communication system for this game that would stay true to the objective of staying rather realistic. Unfortunately, this is the best I've come up with.

The player's main form of communication will be by pressing a key that will allow the player to type what he or she has to say, then press the "enter" key to send it. Players within hearing distance will then see the text above the player's head, and the text will also appear in a chat history box somewhere on the player's screen. There will also be commands which the player can input, such as "/whisper [text]" to communicate within a smaller hearing distance so people further away or behind obsticals will not see the player's message, and "/shout [text]" to emit the message over a larger hearing radius. For combat and covert purposes, there will also be commands that cause the player to perform hand motions only (such as waving, pointing, etc), so that players can then communicate visually to avoid the risk of enemy players hearing them during combat.

While many games provide personal messaging features for players to contact eachother when apart, to keep with the realism, long distance communication will be provided via phone-like devices, radios, etc. Players who use these devices will do so by activating the item in their inventory, then speaking normally. Other players standing around the one with the radio or phone will be able to hear his or her side of the conversation, but will not hear what the player hears through the phone (unless the device is designed as a speaker phone).

Player identification is one of the most original ideas I think I've had for this game. Each player will create their character with a registered name, but other players will not see their name. Instead, players can choose to associate whatever name they want with other players. This way, when you first meet another person you do not know their name. Then, they can tell you their name is John, and you then access a menu and choose to associate the name "John" with that player. From then on when you see that person, your character will "recognize" them and their name as will be revealed to you as "John." Another way a player can identify another player is if they are provided with a picture of that player taken by an ingame camera. This way, player1 can take a picture of player2 and give it to player3. Player3 can then associate the person in the picture with the name "Susie," and from then on when player3 sees player2, player2's name will be revealed to player3 as "Susie." There will be other features too, such as disguises a player can wear which will hide all other players' name association with that player as long as the disguise is active. Also, a player does not have to provide another player with his or her character's "real" name. For example, if a character's regestered name is "Timothy," that player can tell other players his name is "Tom," or he can outright lie and provide his name as "Frank" which could provide for infitration techiques. Players will be able to reassociate names with other players at any time, so that if Tom tells Bob his name is really Frank, but then Bob finds out from a friend that Frank's real name is Tom, Bob can reassociate that player with the name "Tom," and erase the association of "Frank" with that player.
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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">PLAYER INVENTORY
The player's inventory may or may not be accessed by an inventory window - I haven't decided on that yet. Regardless, the game will be different than others in that each player isn't given a free space. Items must be kept in wearable containers, such as clothes pockets, backpacks, etc. There will be nine possible areas of wearable inventory on the player's body, and they will be accessed by keys on the number pad corresponding to a body map displayed on the hud: for example, the "3" key on the numberpad will access whatever item is stored on the player's right leg pocket, the "4" key will activate whatever item is stored on the player's left hip, etc. Each area of inventory on the player's body will only be usable if there is actually a container there to store an item in. For example, if the player is wearing nothing but a shirt and pants, the right hip container (accessed via the "6" key) will be unavailable. On the other hand, if the player purchases or finds a holster that is worn on the right hip, the player can wear the holster and store a weapon in it. Then the player can grab the weapon in the holster or store it again by pressing the "6" key on the numberpad. The bodymap is as follows:

1 - left leg
2 - back (backpacks, sheaths, etc)
3 - right leg
4 - left hip
5 - chest (strap pockets, etc)
6 - right hip
7 - left arm/under arm
8 - head (eyewear, etc)
9 - right arm/under arm
Accessing other player's inventory will also be possible under certain circumstances. A player can attempt to access another player's inventory. When this is done, the other player is then notified that the first player would like to access his or her inventory, and the second player can then choose to allow the first permission. This way if players are holding private establishments, they can search guests before allowing them to enter to avoid unwanted violence.

There will also be a surrender command. By surrenduring, the player will throw down any weapons he or she is holding, and put his or her hands in the air. The player's maximum speed will be reduced to avoid escape, and other players can freely access his or her inventory without permission to remove any other stored weapons.

The last way one player can access another's inventory is if the player has thief abilities. In that case, the player can attempt to steal from another player. The success will depend directly on the player's skills as a thief and the victim's awareness. If the thief succeeds, he or she can access the victim's inventory and take whatever he or she wants as long as the victim player stays within reasonable range. If the attempt fails, the victim's character will notice the thief and it will be announced to the player that someone was trying to steal from them. The victim player will then have a chance to retaliate, and the thief player will be taken by surprise and will not be able to equip any items for 2 or 3 seconds and will not be able to attempt stealing from that player again for a minute or so, leaving the thief player with the only option to run from their angry victim!

Players with covert skills will have the ability to conceal weapons and items, so that if their conceal skills are high enough the weapons will not appear to others accessing their inventory. This way it will be possible to sneak items and weapons into places in which they are not allowed, and where there are guards searching people's inventories before allowing them to enter.

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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">SKILLS AND COMBAT
In most games with skills and abilities, skills are increased by the player killing creatures or players and gaining experience points, which can then be allocated to certain skills of choice by the player. In an attempt to make the game more realistic and fluid, skill points will be hidden from the player. The player gains skill points of a certain area by practicing that area, and as the player uses that skill the player will gain skill points and become better at it. However, the player never knows the number value of his or her skill in any certain area: he or she can only tell his or her own skill by the character's performance in that area.

Skills will not be devided into classes, and even each skill type will be hidden from the player. Skills will range from combat (firearms, hand-to-hand, etc), to piloting, to medic, and even covert skills which will give the player abilities to go unnoticed in certain areas and even steal from other players.

To keep each player from learning every skill, characters must keep in practice of skills or else their skill will deminish. For example, if a player practices with rifles often and becomes skilled in that area, their character will perform better with rifles than a player who is not as skilled. But if the player then stops using rifles for a week, his or her skill with them will slowly drop until the player starts using the rifle again.

Combat will work very similar to a first and third person shooter. In a neutral mode, the player sees the world from a third person view that follows the direction of the character's head. When a player draws a firearm, unlike many games there will not be a crosshair for the player to aim by. In this mode, the character will hold the firearm and still move like he or she would normally, but the player cannot aim as well with the lack of crosshairs. As a result, pressing the fire button will cause the character to simply fire very innaccurately in the general direction the character is facing. To aim properly, the character must press a precision button which will change the view from third person to first person, though there will still not be a crosshair. Instead, the weapon will be held out infront of the player's view as one would hold a gun in real life, and the player must actually use the sights on the gun to aim. This can be difficult, because the character cannot hold the gun perfectly still. The steadiness of the character's hands will be determined by that character's skill with that weapon. In this view, the player's speed will also be reduced.
Hand to hand combat will be faught from a third person perspective.
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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">MISCELLANEOUS IDEAS
This page is designed to be a place I can jot down ideas that come to me quickly and do not belong in any of the present categories.

Perhaps a "search" or "frisk" skill for countering the "conceal weapon" skills

No gravity in small space vessels - only in large structures with artificial gravity devices

Perhaps large cruisers will sometimes randomly spawn in space as abandoned drifters to be salvaged by players who find them

Police authorities are players who volunteer for the job, and are not given special abilities such as kicking or banning players from the server. Offenses such as killing other players and stealing are only punishable by capture or open fire. Only server admins can ban people from the server or delete their accounts, and such penalties are reserved for major offenses such as hacking, cheating, or causing serious disruption with other players.

While in first person view, the player's view will be very much obstructed by the player's own body (arms holding the gun, the player's legs if the player looks down, glasses if the player is wearing them, etc). This is to add realism.

Attachments such as lasersights on weapons to improve character's accuracy in third and first person perspective.

Middle mouse button could be used as a hotkey to draw most accessable or last used weapon on the player or store anything the player already has out.

Practice areas for most popular skills that will increase the player's skill quicker than using the skill in real situations (ie, training areas for medical skills, shooting ranges for firearm skills, etc). This would eleminate the ever-so-frustrating "hunt and grind" aspect of most popular mmorpgs today.
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