New multiplayer mod: homeland security

[The_Captain 0]

I'm going to babble now about my new mod that I'm releasing shortly to the public.

(Edit: Can a mod please move this to A&M: complete?)

If you don't want to read the whole post, I'll give you a brief overview:

-Homeland Security is a mod for OFP based on the popular Global Ops/Counter Strike gameplay "frame" - But don't fret! It's much better than either

-The mod forces people to cooperate to win - If a team doesn't cooperate, they usually lose, so random people actually chat and form strategies to up their chances

-The mod not only makes use of all OFP weapons, but people actually use just about all of them by their own free will - including berettas, submachine guns, and "lesser" assault rifles like the AK47 and Xm177e2 - no 15 person teams of respawning G36 snipers!... well, not unless that team is winning and can afford them

-The mod has a virtual economy - The usual money for kills, and for winning the round system, which is then used to purchase weapons and equipment

-The mod is centered around small arms combat - No flying choppers or driving tanks.. though APC's and other ground vehicles make an appearance

-Classes! Pick from recon, sniper, demo, heavy, or commando - makes a big difference in how you play, because each has special abilities and weapon pools. A well balanced team uses all of them.

-Small teams - Teams are limited to 6 players to encourage teamwork and the importance of each player

-Round based gameplay - You play one round after another, with only one life per round. Your successes or failures in each round affect the next, so people really try to both win and survive, and don't throw their lives away meaninglessly

-Current objective is "assassination", where each team tries to kill the enemy leader to win, but they also have to protect their own. If one leader dies, the round ends.

-Small combat arenas - usu. 600 by 400 meters

-Randomly generated missions - Engine picks a spot to play around nogova for the full 6 rounds, and changes insertion points, time of day, and weather for each round. (What? People actually using NVG's in MP without complaining?)

-Tactical combat, instead of sniper fests -> teams stick together and move around the map, picking their engagements, instead of setting up sniper walls, blundering into each other, and instantly respawning.

-Randomly generated maps -> Randomly placed and appearing objects, changing insertion points, and cycling time of day/weather.

List of cool things I've discovered in weeks of beta testing and countless hours of play: (They're not bugs, they're features!

-Random car chases

-Tactical assault of buildings where a leader is hiding - Yes, CQB assaults of a building as a *decision* by *random people*, not forced by a map designer

-The fact that people will actually use a handgun over an assault rifle, so they can save up for something deadly

-New shotgun weapons that BLOW people into the air.

-Booby traps, sniping, and combat with knowledge - You know where your target is, just not his buddies

-Random car chases

Balanced team classes and the need to rely on your buddies - Call your sniper to take out far away targets, your demo boy to blow up a car or building, your commandos to storm a building, your recon guy to spot targets with his Motion Tracker or call in airstrikes, and your heavy guy when you need extra firepower

-The need for supressive fire - they want to assault your position, so you spray and keep their heads down

-Apprehension and anticipation - You know they're coming... but where are they? How many of them are there?

-The fact that by the end of a game, people usually know the names of their teammates from chatting about how they don't want to die - and it makes a team pretty strong when that happens, because the people on your team are essential to your survival and success, they're not just nameless targets

-The hide body command - It's great to strip an enemy's corpse for weapons, and then hide the body so the former owner can't get his guns back

-The fact that teams stick together - Since at the beginning of a round, you're inserted in the same place, teams usually stick together or split up into small groups

-Random car chases - When an enemy hops in a truck, often people on the other team will also get into a car, and proceed to chase each other around - Because it's fun.

-Shooting out lights -> It's fun when the other team forgets their night vision

And finally...

-That feeling you get when, as the leader, your whole squad just got cut down, you're hiding in a building with half a clip in your glock.. and you can hear the terrorists breathing and walking around in the next room, hunting you....

I'd say one of my favorite multiplayer strategies is, in the first round choosing the "demolitions" class, and loading up with a satchel charge for $750 and not even buying a handgun. Then, while my squadmates cover me, placing a satchel charge in the bottom floor of a building (usually petrovice). Then, you just wait for the enemy to storm the building looking for you (or whoever your leader is, because they can see him on the map). Once they get near the building, or come inside, you blow the charge, and have snipers on your team in the surrounding buildings take out the stragglers.

In urban environments, though, sniper class and heavy class are both pretty deadly as well, and the commando with his XM177E2/AK with underslung shotgun is the perfect class to storm a building with. You just can't say no to an XM with four semi automatic shotgun shells, when you can't be bothered to aim at the guy two meters in front of you.

The best part is, people that have never played together always end up cooperating to some degree,  because if they don't cooperate, their team starts losing rounds, and people can't buy those fancy weapons they wanted. With cooperation, you'll start to build up enough cash to buy expensive weapons, but if a team is disorganized and runs around and dies, then they need to start working together.

One of the greatest parts is that maps are usually pretty close in score - Usually teams are pretty evenly balanced, and teams alternately win rounds as they get better, learn, and pick up better equipment. It's not terribly hard to come back from near defeat and kick some ass.

Okay, the mod structure is this:

Class Selection: When the game starts, everyone is in a helicopter on their respective side. Players can choose from one of 5 game classes, Recon, Demolitions, Commando, Heavy Gunner, and Sniper. You can only choose your class once, at the beginning, and you keep it for the rest of the map. Each class can purchase different weapons.

The Map Overview: This screen pops up, and shows a view of the map's randomly generated location on your screen. It notes the insertion points for both teams and gives you a few seconds to think up a strategy.

Insertion & Weapon purchase: All players will then be placed in a helicopter, which will fly them to the mission zone ofr the first round of play. All players have 30 seconds to buy equipment.

The Mission: You are then transported into the mission zone. Note that the time of day, weather, and your insertion point change each round, but the mission location stays the same. Each mission round lasts for five minutes. The "Assassination" objective consists of trying to kill the enemy team leader while keeping your own alive. If the leader on one team is killed, or the time runs out, the round goes to the debriefing. You receive money to buy equipment by killing opponents and killing the leader. Kills are $250, and if the enemy leader is killed in any way, your team receives $750. All players receive $500 for a new round, regardless of outcome, and players that were killed receive a $500 bonus.

**NOTE** Both teams *always* know where each team leader is just by checking their map: The positions of both are updated in real time, to prevent running and hiding.

**NOTE** You CANNOT leave the blue dot/radioactive sign map oval in any way, or you will be punished. Stay within the mission boundaries.

**NOTE** Vehicles and bodies stay where they were left in the previous round.

**NOTE** If you die, you cannot keep fighting for that round, and your screen turns into a spectator dialog where you can watch the rest of your team fight.

Debriefing: When the mission ends, this screen shows all players, who won (if at all), and what the current score for both teams is.

The Next Round: The round then resets, and all players are back in the insertion helicopter, buying more equipment. Once the 6th round ends, the mission is over and a winner is declared.

There are a million strategies that people use that I never even thought up when I wrote the mod.

The main thing that forces cooperation, is that if a team leader dies, that team loses the round, and the other team wins, and that team now has more cash to buy equipment. Teams have to keep their leader alive while hunting down the other, because if theirs dies... then they're at a disadvantage later.

The reason in normal OFP MP that people don't often cooperate, is that they don't have to work towards any sort of tangible goal, with a negative threat hanging over their head. Okay, you get the flag, or capture a C&H point.. but.. so what? If you die, no big deal, you respawn, and if you capture it, big whoop, your team gets bragging rights.

In Homeland Security, if you lose, you generally curse wildly and throw things out the window. If you win a round, you squeal with glee and go buy new weapons. If your teammates are doing dumb things, you want to correct them and help them out so you have a better chance of survival. Rambo tactics don't work very often.

The great part with a weapon economy, is that all weapons and items tend to be used, because it takes work to get them. If you're just picking up G36's from ammo crates, there's not much reason to use anything less. However, if at the start of a round in HS, you have a beretta and $2500, you can decide whether you want to keep the handgun and save for the $3000 G36, or just buy the $2500 XMS...

Rough price guide ->

Night Vision - $500

2x hand grenades - $500

Handguns - $500-$1000

Basic assault rifles - About $2000

Scoped assault rifles - $2500-$3000

2 extra primary weapon mags - $500

LAW/RPG - $2000, $500 per rocket

Mines/Satchels - $500-$750

6G30 - $4000

Auto Shotgun - $4000

M21/Dragunov - $4500

And there's an arseload of more equipment and weapons, 48 total for both sides. Each class gets a choice of roughly four primary weapons, a half dozen or so items, and 3-5 handguns.

Bonuses -

$1000 at the start of the game

$250 per kill

$500 bonus every round

$500 stipend if you die

$750 for winning the round, for all team members

NEGATIVE $1500 for team killing (plus, all players get a message that you're a team killer, AND the team killer instantly loses his weapons.)

This amounts to:

If you die without killing anyone, in the next round you get $1000 ($500 + $500) and, of course, lose your previous weapons

If you kill three guys and your team wins, you get $500 for the next round, $750 for winning, and $750 for the three kills: $2000

If you don't die, kill one guy, and your team loses, you get $750 in the next round, but you do keep your old equipment

Oh, and yes, there's a full featured cooperative mode, where you and up to 5 other counetr terrorists can kick the ass of some AI terrorists. The game playes exactly the same to the normal HS multiplayer, but it can be played by yourself, it has variable difficuly settings (Very Easy through Insane... it's very hard to win more rounds than the Comp on insane by yourself... I've never literally beat the comp on insane), and on the higher difficulty setting, it requires teamwork.

I coded the AI in coop mode to play similar to normal counter strike players. Therefore, they can sometimes appear challenging if you try to be a 'rambo', but if you use teamwork and tactics, you will find that it's possible to kick serious ass. Coop mode is intended as a training mode for players, where you can either test out strategies with a full squad of humans, or or just gun it alone and get your ass humbly handed to you on INSANE. It's supposed to be proof that working together is a prime way to beat people that don't cooperate much other than just bunching together.

Excavation + Very hard/insane is a VERY popular choice.

I can't remember if it was Peter Moleneux or Sid Meier that said it, but according to one of them, a game is a series of informed decisions. The amount of decision making in HS is multilayered and each decision has impact. In normal OFP multiplayer, people often have a set of decisions they make and they don't waver much from... In HS, you're constantly confronted with little decisions to make that have a tangible impact on the combat. I can't run through what all of them are, because there are just too many to count. *grin*

Homeland Security is not exactly just an OFP map, it's similar to... maps like CTI or RTS in the sense that it's almost a new game written into OFP multiplayer.

I'm releasing a public beta with it's own suite of *fullly dedicated servers*, with *no required addons* in about a week or so. The full version will have required addons and be retail.

Things I'm adding in the future:

Commander class who can buy vehicles and 'interventions' (friendly ai squads, in game respawns for dead players, ammunition crates, airstrikes, etc.)

Laser guided airstrikes && 'aliens' inspired motion tracker for recon

M2 turret/sandbag deployment for heavy class

Coop mode where you play as the terrorists

Custom island (far in the future)

Purchaseable vehicles, such as the M113 (m2a2 is a maybe), and demolition busses for terrorists

Price balancing if needbe

Possible 1 or 2 new weapons to fill in some holes

AA launcher for commando class, to fight off airstrikes and in-game reinforcements

Placeable cameras by recon + sniper class, helmetcam/placed cam viewer by officer/commander class

Medical kit for healing self/other players for one of the classes (exact class undecided as of yet)

To recap:

5 classes (Heavy, Commando, Sniper, Demo, Recon)

48 weapons and equippable items (Everything from toks and berettas to hunting rifles and automatic shotguns)

10 map locations (Petrovice, Lipany, the Dig Site, The Airfield Island, the Factory , etc)

Full featured Coop mode with difficulty levels

1v1 feels like "Spy vs. Spy, the video game", while 6v6 feels like full tactical combat

Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork

Thoughts?

Please don't bitch about the realism of 'buying weapons', because it's been discussed a million times before, and HS was just supposed to be me building a "better Counter Strike Mousetrap"...

...A rather ironic comparison, because I've always felt that CS games were like hunting rats/terrorists in mazes...

My website goes up "soon", as will the beta and the beta servers. I'm thinking there will be one primary server and a half dozen alternates. I may up the number of players per side to 10 for the major games, if the gameplay is preserved.

Random: Is it just me, or does anyone else find UT2K3 to be "PacMan 3d... with guns!"? *grin*

The Captain

President of Privateer Studios

http://www.privateerstudios.com

[RED 0]

Sounds good, looking forward to playing it.

RED

[LowLevelFunctionary 0]

hmmmmm.... sounds interesting. I play a lot of HL mods myself and it does sound promising . But heres a tip, dont RUSH it. If you are going to make a mod like this just take your time because eventually you will get it right.

[The_Captain 0]

Lol, lowlevel, all of that is already done.

[hovmand 0]

Sounds great Cant wait.

Where in the world are the servers located?

[SFG 1]

Ive played it .. its really fun Cant wait for the final Captain.

[The_Captain 0]

We'll have a main high speed one (Clanzone.at's 150 Euro a month plan) in germany for european players, and a few alternates in the US.

[hovmand 0]

*Bump*

So how is it going, can we expect a release soon?

[x_rich 0]

Since I have a few servers not doing much on a 100Mb link I would be happy to host it if you can tell me where I can get the code from

[JRMZ 0]

Looking very good Captain!

Keep up the good work

[leec 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I'd say one of my favorite multiplayer strategies is, in the first round choosing the "demolitions" class, and loading up with a satchel charge for $750 and not even buying a handgun. Then, while my squadmates cover me, placing a satchel charge in the bottom floor of a building (usually petrovice). Then, you just wait for the enemy to storm the building looking for you (or whoever your leader is, because they can see him on the map). Once they get near the building, or come inside, you blow the charge,<span id='postcolor'>

HAHA If your ever playin with the capn and he "says go to building and ill goto bus stop" Do yourself a favor stay in the building He is very very prtective of his bus stop