[SUGGESTION] xonotic single player --- this time its different :D

I know that xonotic single player has been brought up again and again in the past ...

although activity in this area has been pretty slow recently so im assuming that not much is getting done in that direction...

Whats different about my approach?

-- I designed it to be light on the development side. Meaning I try to use as much of what we got ... and ask for little new stuff programming wise . All of the earlier proposals I saw were about big grand campaigns with tons of customly programmed pieces ... thats just not going to happen ... even at xonotic's speedy development rate.

-- Its general and specific ... meaning that I point out the major events ... and leave the details to whoever wants to create them ...

-- its simple ... at least i think it is ... everyone should be able to understand how it works

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Tada! ... isn't it pretty? ... ok now i have to explain it....

note :: this is loosly based off of the tech conglomeret story line ...


PREFACE

hundred of years in the future the entire known galexy is engulfed in a never ending four way war. All for sides buy thier weapons from the Xoni Cooperation (Xoni Corp)

Whenever a side is losing xoni corp comes in and gives them upgraded weapons (secretly of course)... whenever a side is winning xoni corp hits the kill switch and thier weapons malfuntion ... or explode... If 2 sides try to truce ... or make peace ... xoni corp assassinates their leaders (and makes it look like they shot each other)

The 4 sides correspond to 4 factions...
(yes I did change away from xonotics ugly default colors)

EMBER -- color = scarlet
Ember focuses mostly on strength ... and having strong weapons ...
GUNS = RL , mortar, fireball ...
VEHICLE = spiderbot
MAPS = stormkeep - anything strait-forward and closed in

THREAD -- color = cobalt
Thread focuses on accuracy, sniping, and camping
GUNS = nex, rifle, electro, seeker ...
VEHICLE = speeder, flyer
MAPS = afterslime - anything big ad open

JADE -- color = uhh ... jade
Jade focuses on armor and defeating opponents by having more HP
GUNS = anything ...
VEHICLE = spiderbot
MAPS = apace? anything with an excessive amount of health

KNOT -- color = snow (white, grey or gray)
Knot focuses on confusing the enemy with bounces, teleports, warpzones, etc...
GUNS = crylink, seeker, rifle, portolaunch ...
VEHICLE = flyer
MAPS = glowplant hyperspce anything confusing to noobs



CHAPTER 1 -- "scattered thoughts"

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for the first part the player can pick any of the four factions -- each faction has a string of levels the player must complete, and a single character the player controls(one for each faction) (I would suggest Shanon Herb Xillion and Gakly ... but I'll leave it open for other suggestions)

The player must complete every level from every faction (probably about 4 - 6 each) in order to move on to chapter 2

Chapter 1 is mostly the factions fighting eachother for small gains - introduction to story and tutorials.

The little split you see on the Knot's time line is when part of them split off as a fifth faction over a disagreement about teleporters vs warpzones.



CHAPTER 2 - concentration
[cutscene]
in the cut scene at the end of chapter 1 there is a big key hunt between all 4 factions ... when one of them wins they stop and thing "f#*k these keys lets fight" and a big 4 team dm ensues... alot of troops are sneaking around in the grass ... all four of the player characters are in the grass and happen to all bump into eachother at the same time...

They point thier guns at eachother and realize that the killing is pointless ... so the team up and leave to an old abandoned base (running man?) and form a fifth faction
[/cutscene]

DASH color = brass
dash focuses on speed ... and out running / maneuvering the enemy
GUNS = laser ... all of them
VEHICLE = speeder, flyer
MAPS running-man ... all of them

Chapter 2 is about the new faction and its conflicts with the other factions as the 4 main character try to gain ground

At this point onwards the player can choose any of the 4 characters for the levels



CHAPTER 3 - starring contest

At the end of chapter 2 the four characters decide to attempt to attack xoni corp using steath methods. The first half of the chapter is them attempting this

in the middle ofr the chapter they get caught by xoni corp and are sent to the arenas to be used as training dumbys for xoni - corps elite troops

to move on to chapter 4 the player must beet all the arena matches ... but in any order they please (there may be 6 or so)

At the end of the chapter they escape (and set the facility to self destruct in the process)



CHAPTER 4 - seizure

as the main character return to their base (runningman? ) they find that the leaders of all 4 factions are waiting there to make a truce ... and help take down xoni corp. (the exploding space station distracted xoni corp long enough to allow this)

The first half of the chapter is the main characters fighting xoni corp (this time with large numbers) each time getting closer to the head quarters located on ancient earth.


BOSS FIGHT

they do eventually run ito xoni himself... the xoni fight is difficult... it is a regular dm ... however you have every gun ... xoni has the secret prototype minsta nex.

the xoni bot ai has perfect reaction time and aim ... so if you ever get in xoni's line of sight ... you are instantly dead..

the arena is also full of transparent objects the player can maneuver around...

to beat xoni the player mus use weapons that can scor indirect shots
-- RL crylink, rifle(through some walls), electro, mortar, seeker, fireball (blast penetration), etc

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after defeating xoni the head quarters go to self destruct (of course) and the last levels are about escaping the further doomed post apocalyptic earth
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more details --

the levels will be like the normal xonotic sp levels ... although there may be more specialized assault levels

I would also like to see anew game mode ... survival ... go from point a to point b without dieing (pretty much race --- with fighting and no time limit)

I would also like to see some drones/ robots for such survival levels. ... (i'm thinking a descent style type of thing (higher poly though))

development required
-- change colors ...
-- allow 3-4 team ctf/dm/tdm
-- some drones
--- survival mode
-- some way to specify at level start the weapons you start with and HP
-- variation in bot ai (campers/ xoni/ pedestrians/ followers)

art required
-- maps (of course)
-- cutscenes (could mix up something stylized first ... then do something more sophisticated later)
-- drone models

thats about everything ... what do you think of it?

For some reason, I like the concept. However, I'm not sure about the part where the 4 guys meet, and suddenly they think "peace, brother!". That's just a little bit "meh". I'd suggest there some sort of true merge between the 4 factions, like real, a new entity being of super powers could be achieved, if 4 individual souls of the 4 battling factions came to a peace at eachothers, and fuse into one. This is well know by the "Xoni" corp., that's why they keep the 4 factions at war, because they fear this über entity.

On the other hand... I'm not trying to shoot down your idea (I especially like the beginning part, sort of introducing the maps/guns in a tiered way), but this still requires TREMENDOUS work: I'd imagine 2-3 mappers for making new maps, at least two experienced coders, and 2 modellers, who can make high quality props. And these 6-8 people would have to work ONLY on the single player campaign. The whole Team Xonotic would have to focus on this...
So I don't want to be negative, don't get me wrong, but to make this happen, we'd simply have to double the developer count.

the key part is most of the troops fighting ... don't want to be in the war ... the 4 guys make peace because they don't want to die ... and when all 4 of them are in a situation where they are all going to die in the process of killing each other ... they make the truce ................

i am open to better suggestions though


double the developer count? I specifically designed this so we wouldn't have to...
all the developers "have" to do is change the colors, allow 3/4 non keyhunt team stuff, and mix up some menus...
the rest is optional (but still nice to have), and the xoni bot ai ...

also note ... the main reason that the player gets put in a faction favoring speed is so that the developers dont have to improve the bot ai... to explain why bots seem stupid and slow ...

although the mapping and modeling requirements would be high ...
I would suggest that a mapper would take a three level segment ... and make a mini story loop using three levels
then the single player consists of many small story loops that relate to the main plot

I like the idea for the new gamemode, survival. Might be a lot of fun to play, especially in coop. You can also look at Descent 3's drones for the enemies, those are at least decently detailed compared to Decent I and II.

If you look at it, there are generally 2 types of single player campaigns:

1. The more arena tournament based ones (Unreal Tournament, Quake 3 arena, the Xonotic campaign concept you posted)
2. The more survival-ish ones in which you have to find the end of the level or complete missions (Unreal, Doom, Quake I, Quake II)

Now the second type will probably require much more work, though it would be a lot of fun to play.

Still, the first type is the one that'll probably fit better to Xonotic, because it'll also prepare the newer players for multiplayer. Yours is from this type

I like your concept for the single player campaign, but having perfect aim on a bot in the bossfight will make him pretty much impossible to beat. Maybe he should get some other handicap? Like slow movement? Or a big model so he's easy to hit?

I never played d3 (computer used to be too old ... now its too new and incompatible) ... only d2 and d1 .. but I think the bots from d1 are the best (after getting past the low poly ... just add some wires ridges and stuffs) the d3 bots I have seen are more scary than the would-be-cute-and-adorable-if-it-were-not-trying-to-kill-me bots of d1...

the survival gamemode is actually an attempt to mix your two sp campaign types ... that way players can have both ... and we can still use the maps we already have


slow moving ... and big ... are good ideas ... but note he is the FINAL BOSS ... he shouldn't be easy ...

I'm curious, does the single player mode have to be a cinematic experience like what is suggested here. i've got a half-baked idea in my head for something that caters to xonotic's lack of voice actors (i'm not certain of that last part; there is a lack of voice actors, right?).

I think to myself: how about staring this after releasing 1.0?
Then in 2.0 we would have also a finished singleplayer and more multiplayer maps based on theese from the singleplayer while finished multiplayer game is gaining popularity

All these props, textures and maps could be used in multiplayer with some sight modifications.
So developing SP campain would also benefit MP.

I'd personally like to help with some small props and maybe music, and/or ambient sounds and SFX for the singlelplayer mode.

The only mode I can see working in SP is CTS, for the rest MP is usually much more fun. If you want more than just shooting and running around you could try to establish Assault on online servers. If the bots work well there you could have nice objective-based, coop games with your friends and other people.

I was planning on there being many cts levels ... however ... with the right story and situations SP can be fun even with the usual game modes

coop sounds cool ... is it possible to do split screen?

also it is very possible to do cinimatics w/out voice actors ... just look at most any nintendo game ever made (excluding starfox) kirby superstar ultra (yes... the ds game) is a supreme example of cinematics w/out voice acting ... the homestuck web comic also has many good voiceless video segments

Do many people downloading a FPS game expect to have a sp mode with many CTS levels?

I did not mean that many ... more like one every five levels or so ... WHEN it matches the storyline (escaping explosions) (dashing to reach a lifting off rocket) ... other cool stuff... really its the only game mode atm that has point a to point b travel... if something else were added (SURVIVAL) then that could be used instead