Hello everyone
To make a good impression, I'll start with a bit of ranting. Please bare with me, this is going to be a very, very long post :)
I personally strongly believe that the amount of actual changes to the original game isn't the thing that makes a mod good. Nor do I believe that making some loong (and often quite cheeky, cliched and boring, you know, in the future.. aliens and such..) backstory is the key either.
It's good to have goals, but when the founder of a mod states that "My mod is so muc different n bettr than al teh othurs!11!!! Im gunna mak3 TEH mod of teh mods, U can GO TO MOON and BLOW it UP, wer gon model EVERY PEOPLES on EARTH and U CAN FIRE NUKES TO RUSSIA and you have to PAY income TAX and BAKE COOKIES!" - it is more than obvious that it's never ever gonna happen. (ok, maybe I exaggerated a bit back there, but you probably know what I'm talking about, right?
)
When you think out, what it is exactly that you want to do AND you do some pondering regarding how to actually achieve what you want before even starting, you're a lot better off.
So, on we go to my mod concept here. I started thinking, how to achieve the biggest possible impact on gameplay, with minimal changes required.
Me and my buddy have played 1 on 1 matches with BF2 a few times. Usually it boils down to both of us being snipers, just trying to outwit each other. I pondered my concept a bit further and the result was something (if you don't mind me saying) quite different than any of the other mods in works at the moment.
So, what happens when you:
-Remove all vehicles
-Remove teamplay (it doesn't work anyway :p)
-Equalize all kits
-Remove flag capping
DM? Not quite. But yes, something like that.
In regards of my previous philosophy, I'm now going to lay out pretty much everything the mod is going to feature and how I'm planing to achive it, so those who potentially feel like joining in, know what they will be up against and what is needed. Someone might rip off these ideas, and it is quite possible that I'm unknowingly ripping someone elses ideas, but such is life and there is very little any of us can do about it :)
I realize that some probably don't find the concept appealing at all, whist I'm quite certain that others can quite appreciate what I'm thinking here. It's really something quite different and not really even planned to be the mod of mods, just a bit of fresh air and change to be enjoyed every now and then.
The Concept
[SALES SPEECH]
Survival Of The Fittest.[1]
You are a scout[2]. Toughest of the toughest. Mean, lean killing machine. Expert on survival.
Looking for fast paced, action packed, gun-ho shoot outs with bunch of team mates to mess around with? Wrong mod, sorry, carry on.
In SOTF, there is no one to back you up. Your sole survival depends on your wits and resourcefulness, yours alone. SOTF is all about outwitting and outmanouvering your enemies, using guile to dispose your enemies. Enemies whose sole purpose is to do the same to you and everyone else.
With your trusty MSOR and an array of different equipment you are to eliminate everyone else and try to remain alive during the process. The last man standing, wins everything.
In SOTF, the winner isn't the one with the best aim or the quickest reflexes. No, the winner is the one with the best strategy.
[/SALES SPEECH]
[1] Wip-name
[2] Lacking any better term
So, the actual game mechanics and features:
-All kits carry almost an identical gear: knife, silenced pistol, the MSOR*, booby traps* and alarm*. Instead the of gear the kits differ in Special Items*.
-Up to 16 players, last man standing type of gamemode (kill everyone else and remain the sole survivor). The last one alive wins the round.
-Due to aforementioned, no respawning, the dead are moved to spectators
-The emphassis is not in exact realism, but strategic gameplay
-Difficulty based scoring, id est: the longer away you take the shot, the more score, knife kills provide more score than pistol kills
-Bigger trees are climbable and you can shoot from the trees too
-Enhanced sounds. Meaning: when you take a shot, pretty much every one can hear it and thus pinpoint your location. So you really have to think is the shot worth it and wether you can escape the scene before everyone in close vicinity if there to kill you. Also, different movement causes different sounds, ie. if you sprint in a bush, it will be quite loud and you risk exposing your position.
-Maps located in vast wildernesses around the globe, forrests in great ravines, desolate deserts in which hiding is more difficult than anything, deserted cities and tropical islands of Death etc. Due to the fact that there are no outposts, the landscape is the most important aspect of the map.
* = explanations are to be provided later
Explanations of various terms and concepts
MSOR
Standing for Modular Special Operations Rifle. A flexible concept rifle that the soldier can modify to accomodate his needs. Each scout has one and the idea is that the "weapon change", during which the player is immobile (ie. switching between the setups) takes some 15 seconds and both modules/setups included provide their own advantages and disadvantages and that the player has to think what will he need, BEFORE entering the situations.
I know that something like this isn't quite realistic and should anyone actually design a rifle like this, it would be quite different. But gameplaywise, it provides a nice little tactical aspect now don't you agree?
A picture is worth a thousand words they say, so here's a concept shot.
Do notice that this isn't the final outlook of the weapon by any means. It's just photoshopped concept to visualize my thoughts, nothing more.
BOOBY TRAP
Basically just a claymore that can attached. Nothing special, detonates when the target enters, say a 4 meter range
ALARM
This is just a small movement detector that goes off when someone enters the range. Gives out a loud beeping sound and a puff of smoke, very good for pinpointing the movements of careless enemies and a when placed correctly, the warning it can provide can quite easily save your life.
SPECIAL ITEMS
To add to some variance. Like the original kits, there are seven of these. The idea is, that they are all quite desirable and provide a nice little edge over the enemies, but also have their disadvantages. The current WIP ones are:
Scan - can be used once during the round, pinpoints the location of all the other scouts
Advanced camo - "the wookie suit" that blends in to the surroundings (ie. if doable, changes colour in correspondance to the environment around)
Thermal camera - for picking out the heat signitures of enemies. To balance out, the max range is 50-75 meters and the usage time is limited to 2 mins
Protection - usually a scout isn't equipped with a body armour, and single MSOR sniper round can take him down. With this kit, the scout receives a body armour that is able to stop even the sniper rounds. He is also provided with a healthpack. The downside is the lessened sprint speed and endurance.
Runner - Due to special training and gear optimization, the scout can run a bit faster and quite a bit longer than usually. Normal running (not sprint!) is almost silent
Supply drop - Munitions do occasionally run low, even for experts. Supply drop can easily save the day.
Aim detection - a nice little piece of hardware that detects the miniscule laser given out by the MSOR's range-detecting the laser. Meaning that when held out, this little lifesaver tells you know when you are being aimed at. Start doing those evasive manouvers, soldier!
Because of this system, it is best to make it impossible to pick up dead scouts kits.
THE STRATEGIC ASPECTS
So what makes this mod so strategic you ask?
Well, everything. To flesh out my thoughts, I shall just write a little, imagined gameplay scenario about how I imagine the mod to be:
The round starts. I know that the other scouts have randomly spawned all around the map. How to proceed? Should I just stay put and hide, hoping that some careless scout wanders by, providing an easy kill? Should I try to move to a good vantage point? Should I use the trail I see ahead of me, which is more silent to travel but more exposing and more likely to contain booby traps and alarms than the bushes around? Trees ahead, should I climb up to one of them? Is there someone already up there, just waiting for me to expose myself? So I take the trail, in hopes to quickly run on to a nice little cliff some ways ahead of me. I assmble my MSOR to assault setup because close encounters are more likely than the need for long range marksmanship.
A little ways on, I see another scout entering the trail, some 150 meters ahead of me. I don't think he saw me. Damn it, I've got the assault setup on, so if I tried shooting him, I'd probably just expose myself to him and get killed by him because he has the sniper setup. No time to change setups. I am a Runner, I think I can catch him and get a hefty 10 points for a knife kill, he hasn't seen me after all. I start running, I'm closing on him pretty fast. Damn it! I ran over a branch on the ground and the crack brought me to the other scouts attention. What now? He's running away? I suppose he thinks like I think; for a scout, it's better to be alive than to be honourable. Well, what the heck, I think I can still catch him! *kaboom* Oh ****! That sneaky little bitch dropped a booby trap to a bush while running.
I made the worst mistake a scout can make, I wasn't aware of my surroundings and now I'm dead.
Ofcourse there are virtually hundreds of different possible situations in which quick wits and determination can mean all the difference :)
Plans regarding how to achive The Stuff and The People Needed to do The Stuff
I'm looking for all kinds of people and there is no predefined amount of dedication required, if you feel like contributing, it's all welcome. You can do a little something for SOTF as a little side-project along your primary mod project or hire up as a more integral part of the team if you feel like contributing more, it's all good. Feel free to submit your suggestions in this thread or via other methods too.
I, Jimiz, personally have had some modding experience with HomeWorld and HL2, I'm pretty good with everything sound related, I know my way with graphical designing and I've got some experience with modelling too. I'm sort of a Jack-Of-All-Trades-Master-Of-None.
So there, I don't have much experience with modding BF2, I freely admit that, I've been messing around with the various tweak-files of BF2 and fiddled around with the editor but that's about it.
Yet, the overall amount of work for this mod isn't very great, as I'm about to show soon, and though I probably could slap it all together myself through trial and error, people good at what they do, can provide a lot better result, and after all, teamwork I a lot more rewarding now isn't it? PLUS due to the fact that there really isn't much to be done, with the workload shared, the initial release could be out quite early too :)
So without further ranting, to What Needs To Be Done and How To Do It - section, shall we?
The Game mode
I haven't actually tried this out yet, but to make it really crudely simple:
remove the minimap and communications, tweak the autobalance so that everyone is on the same team, remove nametags and tweak the scoring so that the [Teamkills] is changed to [kills] and teamkill provides +score instead of minus. To further edit the autobalance, the dead are transferred to the other team and they can specate what transpires amongs the living scouts. Say To All option is disabled, only Say to team is available, meaning that living can taunt each other and the dead can comment the events amongst themselves :)
There is probably a more elegant way around, but if nothing else is available, I strongly believe that this is doable. I could probably do this by myself through trial and error, but I suspect that someone knowing python could achieve all this a lot easier
So, a Coder is more than welcome to join in :p
THE MSOR MODELS, TEXTURES AND ANIMATIONS
Not much about this, someone with better modelling skills than my own would be highly appreciated :)
I have to admit that I have no animating skills so a separate animator (or the modeller) would be good to have too.
There is a bit of a question mark here though, I don't know how doable the "weapon transit animation" ie. the player assembling the different modules is. I mean, I know that the amount of time that the weapon change takes can be modified and that the animations can be implemented pretty easily, but what I don't know is what will happen when the player, say, first has the sniper mode MSOR in use, then switches to pistol, then to booby trap and then to assault. Ie. to make it correct, when changing from booby trap to assault (while sniper is on) there should be the assembly animation again. So I guess that's another job for a coder.
OTHER MODELLING STUFF
Not much really, the pistol and the knife can be ripped straight from the vanilla, booby trap and alarm models contain no animations and should be quite easy to make. That leaves the Aim Detector model which doesn't need much animating either.
CLIMBING TO TREES
There are two approaches here that I can think of: make the actual tree mesh a ladder or just simply place a couple of invisible ladder meshes within the trees. I supppose slight adjustments to animations should be done if the player is to be able to shoot from the trees.
MAPS
Two viable approaches here too: modifying existing maps or making new ones from scratch. I suppose the Random Spawning function is something the "mapping department" has to figure out. If I remember correctly in BF42 there was this area defined within which the players would randomly spawn. If such is the case with BF2 too, then the random spawning really couldn't be much easier, just expanding the spawn area to fill most of the map.
I'm thinking that the initial release could contain just a couple of maps.
OTHER STUFF OF WHICH I'M NOT CERTAIN ABOUT
Then there is the little issue of the planned heat-camera. To be quite honest with you, I haven't got a clue how to achieve this. When I think rationally of it, it comes to mind that this has got something to with having the textures display in a spesific manner under spesific circumstances (ie. when looking through the cam).
Also, I'm not quite sure how have only the spesific players to see the scan and be able to request the supply drop, but I'm thinking that they aren't anything that couldn't be solved.
OTHER STUFF
In top of the mentioned, I suppose there is a bit other stuff to do, mostly just tweaking the files, creating sounds, graphics; icons, menu graphics etc., possibly a website etc.
Contact
So intrested? Well then, please do either PM or Mail me, /msg JustinSan in quakenet or ircnet or just join #SOTF-BF2 in Quakenet ^__^
Final words
I thank everyone who has had the patience to read through my ranting here, I deeply apologize for all the inconvenience and bad english.
Your sincerely,
Jimiz
To make a good impression, I'll start with a bit of ranting. Please bare with me, this is going to be a very, very long post :)
I personally strongly believe that the amount of actual changes to the original game isn't the thing that makes a mod good. Nor do I believe that making some loong (and often quite cheeky, cliched and boring, you know, in the future.. aliens and such..) backstory is the key either.
It's good to have goals, but when the founder of a mod states that "My mod is so muc different n bettr than al teh othurs!11!!! Im gunna mak3 TEH mod of teh mods, U can GO TO MOON and BLOW it UP, wer gon model EVERY PEOPLES on EARTH and U CAN FIRE NUKES TO RUSSIA and you have to PAY income TAX and BAKE COOKIES!" - it is more than obvious that it's never ever gonna happen. (ok, maybe I exaggerated a bit back there, but you probably know what I'm talking about, right?
)When you think out, what it is exactly that you want to do AND you do some pondering regarding how to actually achieve what you want before even starting, you're a lot better off.
So, on we go to my mod concept here. I started thinking, how to achieve the biggest possible impact on gameplay, with minimal changes required.
Me and my buddy have played 1 on 1 matches with BF2 a few times. Usually it boils down to both of us being snipers, just trying to outwit each other. I pondered my concept a bit further and the result was something (if you don't mind me saying) quite different than any of the other mods in works at the moment.
So, what happens when you:
-Remove all vehicles
-Remove teamplay (it doesn't work anyway :p)
-Equalize all kits
-Remove flag capping
DM? Not quite. But yes, something like that.
In regards of my previous philosophy, I'm now going to lay out pretty much everything the mod is going to feature and how I'm planing to achive it, so those who potentially feel like joining in, know what they will be up against and what is needed. Someone might rip off these ideas, and it is quite possible that I'm unknowingly ripping someone elses ideas, but such is life and there is very little any of us can do about it :)
I realize that some probably don't find the concept appealing at all, whist I'm quite certain that others can quite appreciate what I'm thinking here. It's really something quite different and not really even planned to be the mod of mods, just a bit of fresh air and change to be enjoyed every now and then.
The Concept
[SALES SPEECH]
Survival Of The Fittest.[1]
You are a scout[2]. Toughest of the toughest. Mean, lean killing machine. Expert on survival.
Looking for fast paced, action packed, gun-ho shoot outs with bunch of team mates to mess around with? Wrong mod, sorry, carry on.
In SOTF, there is no one to back you up. Your sole survival depends on your wits and resourcefulness, yours alone. SOTF is all about outwitting and outmanouvering your enemies, using guile to dispose your enemies. Enemies whose sole purpose is to do the same to you and everyone else.
With your trusty MSOR and an array of different equipment you are to eliminate everyone else and try to remain alive during the process. The last man standing, wins everything.
In SOTF, the winner isn't the one with the best aim or the quickest reflexes. No, the winner is the one with the best strategy.
[/SALES SPEECH]
[1] Wip-name
[2] Lacking any better term
So, the actual game mechanics and features:
-All kits carry almost an identical gear: knife, silenced pistol, the MSOR*, booby traps* and alarm*. Instead the of gear the kits differ in Special Items*.
-Up to 16 players, last man standing type of gamemode (kill everyone else and remain the sole survivor). The last one alive wins the round.
-Due to aforementioned, no respawning, the dead are moved to spectators
-The emphassis is not in exact realism, but strategic gameplay
-Difficulty based scoring, id est: the longer away you take the shot, the more score, knife kills provide more score than pistol kills
-Bigger trees are climbable and you can shoot from the trees too
-Enhanced sounds. Meaning: when you take a shot, pretty much every one can hear it and thus pinpoint your location. So you really have to think is the shot worth it and wether you can escape the scene before everyone in close vicinity if there to kill you. Also, different movement causes different sounds, ie. if you sprint in a bush, it will be quite loud and you risk exposing your position.
-Maps located in vast wildernesses around the globe, forrests in great ravines, desolate deserts in which hiding is more difficult than anything, deserted cities and tropical islands of Death etc. Due to the fact that there are no outposts, the landscape is the most important aspect of the map.
* = explanations are to be provided later
Explanations of various terms and concepts
MSOR
Standing for Modular Special Operations Rifle. A flexible concept rifle that the soldier can modify to accomodate his needs. Each scout has one and the idea is that the "weapon change", during which the player is immobile (ie. switching between the setups) takes some 15 seconds and both modules/setups included provide their own advantages and disadvantages and that the player has to think what will he need, BEFORE entering the situations.
I know that something like this isn't quite realistic and should anyone actually design a rifle like this, it would be quite different. But gameplaywise, it provides a nice little tactical aspect now don't you agree?
A picture is worth a thousand words they say, so here's a concept shot.
Do notice that this isn't the final outlook of the weapon by any means. It's just photoshopped concept to visualize my thoughts, nothing more.
BOOBY TRAP
Basically just a claymore that can attached. Nothing special, detonates when the target enters, say a 4 meter range
ALARM
This is just a small movement detector that goes off when someone enters the range. Gives out a loud beeping sound and a puff of smoke, very good for pinpointing the movements of careless enemies and a when placed correctly, the warning it can provide can quite easily save your life.
SPECIAL ITEMS
To add to some variance. Like the original kits, there are seven of these. The idea is, that they are all quite desirable and provide a nice little edge over the enemies, but also have their disadvantages. The current WIP ones are:
Scan - can be used once during the round, pinpoints the location of all the other scouts
Advanced camo - "the wookie suit" that blends in to the surroundings (ie. if doable, changes colour in correspondance to the environment around)
Thermal camera - for picking out the heat signitures of enemies. To balance out, the max range is 50-75 meters and the usage time is limited to 2 mins
Protection - usually a scout isn't equipped with a body armour, and single MSOR sniper round can take him down. With this kit, the scout receives a body armour that is able to stop even the sniper rounds. He is also provided with a healthpack. The downside is the lessened sprint speed and endurance.
Runner - Due to special training and gear optimization, the scout can run a bit faster and quite a bit longer than usually. Normal running (not sprint!) is almost silent
Supply drop - Munitions do occasionally run low, even for experts. Supply drop can easily save the day.
Aim detection - a nice little piece of hardware that detects the miniscule laser given out by the MSOR's range-detecting the laser. Meaning that when held out, this little lifesaver tells you know when you are being aimed at. Start doing those evasive manouvers, soldier!
Because of this system, it is best to make it impossible to pick up dead scouts kits.
THE STRATEGIC ASPECTS
So what makes this mod so strategic you ask?
Well, everything. To flesh out my thoughts, I shall just write a little, imagined gameplay scenario about how I imagine the mod to be:
The round starts. I know that the other scouts have randomly spawned all around the map. How to proceed? Should I just stay put and hide, hoping that some careless scout wanders by, providing an easy kill? Should I try to move to a good vantage point? Should I use the trail I see ahead of me, which is more silent to travel but more exposing and more likely to contain booby traps and alarms than the bushes around? Trees ahead, should I climb up to one of them? Is there someone already up there, just waiting for me to expose myself? So I take the trail, in hopes to quickly run on to a nice little cliff some ways ahead of me. I assmble my MSOR to assault setup because close encounters are more likely than the need for long range marksmanship.
A little ways on, I see another scout entering the trail, some 150 meters ahead of me. I don't think he saw me. Damn it, I've got the assault setup on, so if I tried shooting him, I'd probably just expose myself to him and get killed by him because he has the sniper setup. No time to change setups. I am a Runner, I think I can catch him and get a hefty 10 points for a knife kill, he hasn't seen me after all. I start running, I'm closing on him pretty fast. Damn it! I ran over a branch on the ground and the crack brought me to the other scouts attention. What now? He's running away? I suppose he thinks like I think; for a scout, it's better to be alive than to be honourable. Well, what the heck, I think I can still catch him! *kaboom* Oh ****! That sneaky little bitch dropped a booby trap to a bush while running.
I made the worst mistake a scout can make, I wasn't aware of my surroundings and now I'm dead.
Ofcourse there are virtually hundreds of different possible situations in which quick wits and determination can mean all the difference :)
Plans regarding how to achive The Stuff and The People Needed to do The Stuff
I'm looking for all kinds of people and there is no predefined amount of dedication required, if you feel like contributing, it's all welcome. You can do a little something for SOTF as a little side-project along your primary mod project or hire up as a more integral part of the team if you feel like contributing more, it's all good. Feel free to submit your suggestions in this thread or via other methods too.
I, Jimiz, personally have had some modding experience with HomeWorld and HL2, I'm pretty good with everything sound related, I know my way with graphical designing and I've got some experience with modelling too. I'm sort of a Jack-Of-All-Trades-Master-Of-None.
So there, I don't have much experience with modding BF2, I freely admit that, I've been messing around with the various tweak-files of BF2 and fiddled around with the editor but that's about it.
Yet, the overall amount of work for this mod isn't very great, as I'm about to show soon, and though I probably could slap it all together myself through trial and error, people good at what they do, can provide a lot better result, and after all, teamwork I a lot more rewarding now isn't it? PLUS due to the fact that there really isn't much to be done, with the workload shared, the initial release could be out quite early too :)
So without further ranting, to What Needs To Be Done and How To Do It - section, shall we?
The Game mode
I haven't actually tried this out yet, but to make it really crudely simple:
remove the minimap and communications, tweak the autobalance so that everyone is on the same team, remove nametags and tweak the scoring so that the [Teamkills] is changed to [kills] and teamkill provides +score instead of minus. To further edit the autobalance, the dead are transferred to the other team and they can specate what transpires amongs the living scouts. Say To All option is disabled, only Say to team is available, meaning that living can taunt each other and the dead can comment the events amongst themselves :)
There is probably a more elegant way around, but if nothing else is available, I strongly believe that this is doable. I could probably do this by myself through trial and error, but I suspect that someone knowing python could achieve all this a lot easier
So, a Coder is more than welcome to join in :p
THE MSOR MODELS, TEXTURES AND ANIMATIONS
Not much about this, someone with better modelling skills than my own would be highly appreciated :)
I have to admit that I have no animating skills so a separate animator (or the modeller) would be good to have too.
There is a bit of a question mark here though, I don't know how doable the "weapon transit animation" ie. the player assembling the different modules is. I mean, I know that the amount of time that the weapon change takes can be modified and that the animations can be implemented pretty easily, but what I don't know is what will happen when the player, say, first has the sniper mode MSOR in use, then switches to pistol, then to booby trap and then to assault. Ie. to make it correct, when changing from booby trap to assault (while sniper is on) there should be the assembly animation again. So I guess that's another job for a coder.
OTHER MODELLING STUFF
Not much really, the pistol and the knife can be ripped straight from the vanilla, booby trap and alarm models contain no animations and should be quite easy to make. That leaves the Aim Detector model which doesn't need much animating either.
CLIMBING TO TREES
There are two approaches here that I can think of: make the actual tree mesh a ladder or just simply place a couple of invisible ladder meshes within the trees. I supppose slight adjustments to animations should be done if the player is to be able to shoot from the trees.
MAPS
Two viable approaches here too: modifying existing maps or making new ones from scratch. I suppose the Random Spawning function is something the "mapping department" has to figure out. If I remember correctly in BF42 there was this area defined within which the players would randomly spawn. If such is the case with BF2 too, then the random spawning really couldn't be much easier, just expanding the spawn area to fill most of the map.
I'm thinking that the initial release could contain just a couple of maps.
OTHER STUFF OF WHICH I'M NOT CERTAIN ABOUT
Then there is the little issue of the planned heat-camera. To be quite honest with you, I haven't got a clue how to achieve this. When I think rationally of it, it comes to mind that this has got something to with having the textures display in a spesific manner under spesific circumstances (ie. when looking through the cam).
Also, I'm not quite sure how have only the spesific players to see the scan and be able to request the supply drop, but I'm thinking that they aren't anything that couldn't be solved.
OTHER STUFF
In top of the mentioned, I suppose there is a bit other stuff to do, mostly just tweaking the files, creating sounds, graphics; icons, menu graphics etc., possibly a website etc.
Contact
So intrested? Well then, please do either PM or Mail me, /msg JustinSan in quakenet or ircnet or just join #SOTF-BF2 in Quakenet ^__^
Final words
I thank everyone who has had the patience to read through my ranting here, I deeply apologize for all the inconvenience and bad english.
Your sincerely,
Jimiz
) or atleast make it impossible to interrupt the change (excluding killing), for the "weapon-change" animation will consist of removing the barrel and clip etc. so basically, should the transition be interrupted, the player would end up with a gun without a barrel 
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