IDEA: Mercenary life emulation

[taro8 806]

Greetings everyone!

Just yesterday I found how awesome SecOps and ACM modules are. When playing around with them I got an idea. I thought that it could be possible to create a mission that would put player in shoes of something like mercenary, he would be able to buy his own weapons, vehicles and support. The missions would be divided between main tasks and side quests (more on that later).

Basically I want to rip off ideas from Mercenaries 2 :p. Also remember that I'm not concerned with realism of my idea of PMC.

All of my ideas require extensive scripting so thats why I posted it here. i cannot do much about the scripting part, but I can do 2D graphic stuff like menus and something like that.

All of my ideas can be divided into few blocks:

I. Money system

I thought that for the start it would be best to simply use player score as money.

II. Buy system

At first lets forget about selling. So lets say that player will have a laptop, in his base of operation, that allows him to buy stuff. As I said before at first player score would used as money, so scripts are needed to check if player has enough money to buy stuff and to subtract money from player's account.

Buying weapons should be important, scripts should be easily changed so its easy to add or remove weapon from the shop. I think that it should be possible to use a chest somewhere off the map as shop's supply, you can add new weapons there.

Once you buy weapon they are spawned in chest in your base, maybe it should be 2 or 3 chests, for different weapon kinds (rifles, rocket launchers, special equipment, ammo).

Another important thing is buying vehicles. You can have one vehicle of each kind: car, light armor, heavy armor, helicopter, plane (for supports). Its important to make vehicles work with support options. I thought that it should be possible to create new vehicle and give it a name that is called in support script (player_car etc.). The question is: is it possible to remove vehicle, then create new, different one with same name that will still respond to player requests.

Another block is soldier recruitment. Player can either "complete package" with all equipment or just soldier that you have to equip yourself (it should be cheaper to equip them by yourself). when recruiting player should be able to choose recruit's skill (more skill=more money). Recruits stay in base so you can either take them into your group or let them stay in base so you can call them in in the field to reinforce your squad.

This are all my ideas about buying, I think that buying interface should look somewhat like this:

Buy weapons

Buy Vehicles -> Cars -> UAZ

Recruit

III. Support

This is a big one. Player can buy support one at the time, then he will be able to call in artillery strike as many times as he had bought it (there should be cooldown timer). Player should be able to call in transport by bought vehicles as well. I think all should be squeezed into some kind of palmtop so players can easily choose what support they want to call in, like SAM support script.

IV. Missions

Missions would be divided into main task (lots of moniez) and side tasks. main tasks would be set like normal missions. Side missions would be something like cross between dynamically generated random missions and some set stuff. Set side missions would include High Value Targets, either people to kill (catch? more moniez?) and stuff to blow up.

Randomly generated side missions would be from SecOps manager, player would only get them if they "talk" to radio building in his base. This is to prevent mission from spawning inside player base. Also there should be counter that counts how many secops mission player that so it can be locked after some amount, but unlocked if player does more main missions. Supports given as a reward from SecOps should be disabled

V. Reviving

Im aware that respawing messes up ACM and SecOps synchronization. To prevent this player should be invincible so he cant die. When wounded in a way that would kill him normally player is teleported to base, some money take from him as medical bill and all of equipment save for pistol is gone.

Well this all for my ideas, I just wanted this out of my system :D.

Edited November 27, 2010 by Taro8

[TovarishMimino 10]

Wow.... I love the general idea. The details and all that are extra and can be worked out, but overall this sounds pretty awesome, especially if you can include pvp in there somehow. Never played Merc 2 but I played Farcry 2, and it was pretty fun.

[kremator 1065]

All of this is really possible with current scripting. It just takes the effort to do it. It sounds like it would be great fun !

[Egosa-U 10]

There is already something like this:

Soldiers of Fortune.

[ArmAriffic 10]

working on a sp mission like this at the moment, got the black market up and running but i need ideas for missions to be selected randomly, got ideas;)

Edited April 20, 2011 by Rellikki
No need to quote the whole post

[Militant1006 11]

you could use UPSMON for enemies to be around constantly, side missions, hmmm... I wouldn't recommend using SecOps because it is sort of repetetive, as for recruitment you could probably get something out of Warfare, so you would be avoiding the respawn problem, but hey, there are a few ideas.

[ArmAriffic 10]

yeah screw SecOps, i'm making actual "missions" that spawn bases/camp/units that i have made via the 3d editor to prevent lag, i have done 3 missions so far and plan to do about 10. In one mission file not a campaign.

currency is done

"black market" is done

bus travel like in far cry 2 is done

3/10 missions are done

its on duala

Edited April 20, 2011 by ArmAriffic

[taro8 806]

Wow, thats really neat. I would propose adding revive script by Norrin:[http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=6273

I tested this out and it works rather nicely, it allows you to revive AI or AI to revive you. Its also very customizable.

As for missions. would it be possible to make small Secops-like missions that will show up randomly in random places?

Edited April 20, 2011 by Taro8

[-)rStrangelove 0]

@ArmAriffic:

sounds great. if FC2 would've had better missions it would've been a decent game.

Another game that does the dynamic scenarios pretty well is RedDead Redemption imo.

Some scenarios you stumble over in RDR:

1. A women runs to you, screams for help. Her vehicle has been stolen. The player usually races after him, shoots the driver and returns the vehicle. Rewards is given when the women sits in her vehicle again.

2. A sheriff screams for help, he's wounded and you see 2 bandits running away in 2 different directions. Once you shoot or arrest them you get a reward from the sheriff.

3. A guy is hunted by 2 others. Turns out he's a criminal and 2 deputies are on his tail. If you shoot him you get a reward in $ from the deputies, if you shoot the deputies, the bandits thanks you and hurries off. (i think your stats intown drops somewhat or you get a prize on your head)

4. 2 guys are working on explosives around a tent. if you wait too long one starts smoking and blows everything up by accident. If you draw ur gun and aim at them they both run away, leaving you to pickup the explosives for free.

5. A guy is threatening to eat an arrested guy and roast him a bit on a fire. If you wait too long the killer is opening fire on you.

6. A guy is standing next to an arrested guy, saying he can't bring him to the next town. if you do the transport you get a reward.

7. A girl stands in front of a vehicle broken down, asking for help. After you close in a group of bandits come out of hiding and start shooting. The girl runs away.

8. Somebody wants you to wait, then steals your horse. Normally you're free to shoot him right away.

9. Several hunters ask you if you play a game, you need to shoot animals in a specific amount of time to win the game. etc etc.

[ArmAriffic 10]

yeah PM me with all suggestions for missions/scripts/ideas, i am in school holidays for the next 2 weeks so i will try to get as many missions done as possible

i dont know if i will finish the whole mission before then but i will try