Idea Info Name: America: Freedom Lost Index: Primary Category: Action Submitted: 12/14/2003 6:32:32 PM Written By: hipboyscott

Scenario:

it's 2008, there hasn't been much on the terrorism front lately, and it has drifted from the public mind. Crime rate has been on a decline, while the average state of the country seems to be getting better.

then it happens.

New York, Chicago, Phoenix, San Francisco, L.A. and other cities are suddenly struck by massive terrorist attacks. Airliners that have been getting lax on security after a 5 year lul in criminal activity pay the price by having 24 airliners hijacked in total that day. 

bombs and ground forces mobilise from their sleeper cells an start attacking anyting of significance.

The presidant, among thousands of others, is dead. The Capital Building is in ruins and the country is in turmoil.

The government mobilizes soldiers. Immidiate and strict 24/7 curfuw is enforced. any people found outside are detained or worse.

There is figting in the streets not seen since Baghdad, terrorists and US soldiers fae off in every conceivable place.

After a few weeks it is assumed that all threats have neutralised. over 150,000 american citizens have been killed due to the figting, including the 35,000 from the initial strike. The governemt is in chaos trying to decide what to do, the vice president resigns under the sudden load, and the replacement has strong ideas.

Special Forces are sent overseas to disrupt terrorist activities, America is united to stand up against the treat, money pours in and there is a high approval rating for the military. it's 9/11 ten times over.

but, the govenrnment is becoming mad with power.

after 5 months curfew remains, US soldiers, Police, and the FBI are now deployed to investigate every home in the united states.

citizens are taken prisoner for the slightest misdemenor, and others are killed on sight.

The government imposes more and more 'security' measures as small terrorist aftershocks disrupt towns much like the isreali-palestinian conflict and it's constant terrorist activity.

more and more the people have grown tired and disrpted, and a massive resistane group emerges.

Soon, America is in the throws of a civil war, a coup to reclaim the freedoms lost. The corrupt government officials throw everything possible to settle it, but, the outcome is uncertain...

You; you are a victim of the First Day of the Rest of the World, the day when america took a major hit into the downward spiral of self-disruption. you get to choose from 10 characters, who are cought in different cities and victim to different events. regardless of the start, they end up in the American underground, trying to sabotage the corrupt government. there are thousands of outposts, and during the course of the game you will hear of other outpost's exploits and failures. you may hear of major busts where surviors may trickle in while the others met unfortunate results with the U.S. 'gestapo'

the game should turn from "survive the attack and the Terrorist ground forces, figting WITH the government to survive", to the second half, which morphs into a very underground resistance game. There should be a pretty WWII feel to it, with the country basically imprisoned by it's government.

AS for gameplay...you can do a lot of stuff, you can sneak around stealthily and sabotage military outposts, or go in with a group of buddies and assault a gov base or defend from a gov assault on yours. speaking of all the outposts, you don't have to visit the others, you just hear about them, and sometimes feel the aftershocks.

a lot could be scripted, with pre-defined missions that you get called on to do, but I also want to leave room for creative ideas, so there will be times between major events where you can send your team out and do some of your own missions. and, scripted events may have a random occurance, where they happen in random order and or at random differences in time.

I want the game to control in different ways depending on the mode you choose. theres three modes; stealth, combat, and under-cover. instead of just choosing different characters and being limited in that regard, all characters will be able to use all three, just some are better then others. switching can be done on the fly by just pressing a button, like L1 or Black button or some key on the keyboard.

there's goona be some squad tactics, such as telling your squad where to go, but it wont be quite as tactical as Ghost Recon. when available you can have maps and make a plan, but not always. I want to somewhat focus on personal development.

BUT, you still can tell your men what to do, not just follow or go into suppress mode or recon mode, you can like look at a guy, and hit a button and it will give him a command, and then you can point to the area and hit a complete button and he/she will do the corresponding action at or to that place or thing.

like, hit the d-pad left or right to cycle through teammates till you get to billy, (if you want, you can select the person, then hit the up or down on the D-pad to uick save that person for fast reference to someone you use often) let go and you've selected Billy, and if you hit the button to throw a rock, and he'll; be like 'where?' and then you click a button when you have that area or thing selected and he'll be like 'OK' and chuck the rock.

I'm thinking that there will be different types of communication. what I'm thinking is that if your in stealth mode or alert mode you're all using hand signals to communicate info, but, those cannot be interpereted unless the teammates can see them, whereas if you are in combat mode you can talk or yell and communicate the info even if things keep you from eyesight.

as far as combat I'm thinking toggle between FPS and 3PS, but have both developed well. some areas will be developed a little more for FPS (open gunfigting) while others will be suited to TPS, such as Stealth and hand to hand combat modes. they will be entirely up to the player what modes, but it will generally be pretty obvious what viewpoint would be better.

Also I'm thinking that for teammates they will develop skills, and I want to include the average cross section of America. some will be police officers or deserting soldiers, while others are farmboys or city slikers. each will have different personalities and a core group of players will develop to support you, while other peopel you can use but are not major players in any event if anyone dies, you continue the mission and find a replacement. Major characters usually build up more skills and are harder to take out but are not invulnerable. different people have different skill levels, but they will grow in skill after a whilwe regardless of being in your squad or not, weather they are running security shifts or act as sentrys to guard the vans while the other people do something, they will eventually get more and more skill.

I want to include a kind of rebel faction feel by having buners and outposts that sometimes DO call for help, and sometimes characters will atempt to desert to join the governent in hopes of surviving and you must find those people out and deal with them, otherwise it can jeapordise the cause. if the outpost falls you will have the option to escape to another one close by even.

I am thinking of having real-time events happening at locations despite you not being there. such as going out to sabotage a bridge over the local river and then hearing that the base is under attack. you may be in your outpost while one of the sentry's is like "oh crap I se APCs" and then a call to arms sounds and everyone grabs their weapons and takes positions.

during free times you could help to organise the rebels by doing fire drills and by setting up mock attacks so everyone knows where their battle stations are.

another goal is to recruit and rescue civilians to join you, and otherwise supplement your rebels with food water and ammo. the longer you go without these things the more morale and ability decrease, however each time you send rebels out to get supplies there's a chance that military can attack them, or follow them back to find your outpost, so it's best to get as few trips as possible, while getting the most supplies. you also need to collect weapons and ammo from government bases and from dead GIs whenever you can to make sure your people have god figting abilities.

It's almost like the movie Taps now that I think of it, but the rebels are ragtag groups of mad Americans and not quite like trained cadets. but, um, well I hope you get the idea.

oh, as for the buddies, I wouldn't always call it a group of specialists. A lot of time the peope will be bob the former store clerk, Jim the former school principal, and Sally the bank clerk, all very pissed and ready to join the cause. I want to give the player a feeling of rag-tag vs. the good stuff that is oftern portrayed in games, but this time YOU are the rag-tag, and THEY are the good stuff. eventually you'll collect equipment and supplies from military sources (dead soldiers, bases ect.) but even then not everyone will have the latest Tactical gear and such, half the time it's guys in their huntin cammies with a Ruger mini 14, or an AR-15, with a surplus .45. almost all of the weapons you get at the outset are gona be cilivianised weapons, thus yu have to deal with lo-capacity, and semi-automatic, but eventually you can order 3-shot bururst upgrades, maybie hire a gunsmith to fix them up, and or just phase them out with military grade weapons (the Black market is certainly having fun, and all sorts of russian and other third-world type weapons will be available, but at inflated prices)

just to let you know that you wont be trying the latest- and greatest usually. and if there is a special gun, you want to protect that soldier, or grab his gun if he dies becasue those weapons will become treasured pieces in the game.

I want to have a base infrastucture and you manage tht and all supplies are handled through that.

I also want to add that people from the local towns, some will have special skills, like a gunsmith, a chef, a gym trainer, scientist type people from the local university, ect.

also, there will be many cituations. from rural combat in mischigan or somewhere in the mid-west, to urban conflict, wher eyou may even join up with gangs who want a chance to topple the governemtn for their own reasons and are willing to ally for a price, and you operate within the city streets' subways and other things.

Oh other things to stress: I want there to be a LOT of player sympathy with characters. thers' gonna be some Sims like attributes to non-combat situations, like having a wingman or apprentice whom you are entrusted to train into combat ready shape to make sure there are members around if things go sour or it draws out to being a long affair. you will have various relationships with people, you will make rivals within the ranks who you don't like, friends who will stick by you and save your butt if you get into a jam. someone special who sticks to you no matter what.

I want to try and make a system where your compatriots will have some sort of guage that will tell you how much or little they appreciate or trust or respect you. if it's high and you get into a jam they will have boostesd stats as their emotions lead them do do whatever they can to save your ass, even if it endangers them, if code gets complex enough you could have it to where they may value saving you over their own lives, or at least be able to figure out weather saving you would be more beneficial to the cause then them surviving. that would be cool to have real-time heroic NPCs. while rivials may not care and even leave you behind if things get hot. THAT would be cool, as it would make you want to be kind and helpful to whomever you can.

and if you wanted, you could have the NPcs have personalities. some hard-asses will want to do thing themselves and not WANT your help, or NOT like you and you can't really do anything 'bout it. That would add diversity to the game even more.

regarding stats: I'm thinking that there WILL be skill points, but those are for when a character is at normal status. If they are motivated their skills will improe, and if they are wounded and/ or pissed they will perform worse, there will probably be a 2-3 point fluctuation either way depending on the player, and the stability stat will make it to where characters will be able to suck it up more and thus will have less negative effects from things, but also loose a little bit of emotion and such. a new recruit will be ready and ambitious to do things, and may get clouded judgement and try to save you or something cuz your his role model, but if he was more stable he would realise it may not be a good idea to run across the road to help you, and be more cautious. but, at least it means they wont be like "I'm mad, I'm not gonna fight today"

stat's rundown:

Speed: speed of player movements and reactions; running speed.
Stamina: how long actoins can be performed well
Accuraccy: snap-shooting skill; stability when scoping in
Strength: power for climbng faster, moving heavier items, stronger melee attacks
Stealth: how quiet/still one can be.
Judgement: (for NPCs only) how good a decision an NPC will make given a situation (such as waiting to make a shot if an enemy doesnt seem to be aware of the NPC's presense, weather to stay behind a bunker for a second or dash out, ect)
Mental Stability: how calm-headed the character is and how stable their emotions are. Rookies will have more emotion on the field, while veterans will push emotion aside and think from a more strategical standpoint.

stuff like that.

as for damage: normal Unreal style arcade health seems too unrealsitic, but for this game I don't want you to loose buddies a lot for the sake of havign a somewhat stable story. Thus, a compromise may need to be implimented.

I think that an Arcade type thing will be implimented, but if I can retain a sort of realistic style I may opt for it. maybie have a character be able to withstand a hit now and then but if cought in rapid rife, the succusive shots get more damaging each time (taking ten hits over a half-housr mission will not kill you while taking a 6 shots to the same places with the same gun but within a 20 second time frame, you won't be able to recover from injuries and such.

one system would be where a hit will take 20% or something.
After a few seconds, it will start to restore up to 10% of what the hit took, so that you can recover, and on smaller wounds you can apply a bandage and it will heal it almost completely.

but even then a torso hit may only do 20% damage, while a head-shot may be instantly lethal.

oh, and for organising and recruiting rebels, it's not like you have a pool of people and tell them they can or can't come. its basically "last ditch we'll take anyone who can hold a rifle." type of a thing, where you help people who aren't good at combat get better through training sessions and the ones who are good at it can be assigned to teaching those sessions until battle calls. The better teachers, the faster your recruits will get better, isn't that cool?

for example: you have three brothers from the City who want revenge on the government but they cant shoot a gun to save themselves. so, you take some of your best men and have them teach some shooting and combat movements to the greenhorns and they will improve a lot. however if you use average people for training then the recruits will take longer to get to the same level. And some teachers will not be able to teach certain skills. Veterans will be able to teach advanced commands to recruits while lesser teachers will not. Thus, while not out on active duty, you have the 'back at the base' experience, biding your time with bolstering your ranks, and managing the base.

Oh and just so I dont foget, each character will have a story, just it'll be like an RPG in that the events are not strict and linear like most shooters, think of it this way:

you get to the outpost, you quickly position yourself as a major player in the base's leadership, and there's a lot of scripted events. after a while there will be AI controlled areas where it wil randomly generate goals and such for you and theree will be times where you will be free to do what you want as a leader (send your troops out, lay low and build your forces ect) and some opportunities will be available only by doing certain thnsg (there may be some goodies at a base if you choose to raid a military outpost.) but then after a while of unscripted actoin some turning points or whatever you want to call them will force you into a scenario.

one scenario for a character: you are given word that the military has sent in some toops to raid a neigboring outpost, you are supposed to go and suprise them.

it shows a custcene, and a few of your friends and best people will be like "we want to do this" and they select themselfes for you. then you go out and on the way there find out it was a trap, you get ambushed, and everyone splits up and drives off in different directions you and whomever you chose as your partner drive off into the woods and drive a long time, a cutscene shows you driving with a hummer in hot pursuit, then you turn off the lights after spotting a route and basically loose the hummer in the dead of night. the hummer keeps going, and going off into the night, and you figure you lost it.

you camp out in the woods, and theres some experiences that change depending on who you chose, and playing the game over with different combos is the way to experience them all.

your partner wakes up after a long night and the woods are pristine. the sun is glowing warmly and the dew sparkles on the ground. and your friend is the only one up, you're still asleep. the cutscene has him walking around stretching and suddenly a red dot appears on your friend's chest, and he's like "oh shit!" and then it shows you suddenly wake up after hearing a loud noise. you sit really still, look over and find your friend missing. then the usual grab the gun from the pillow, creep out, and find your friend's body and then you're like "SON OF A BITCH!" and then the game put you in control, and a sniper guy is like shooting at you so youhave to keep moving, find cover and run to the truck to get the hell out, and then you drive all around until you get to the road and then it shows youdrive off into the distance and then your back at base and then theres a lot of other stuff.

yea, that's the only cutscene I can think of right now.

but then basically after that whole shebang theres a little bit more scripted stuff then you eventually have complete control over what happens, then it eventually lead to more scripted stuff, and it continues that cycle for a while until the end of the game.

so yea. base building can be a major factor depending on how you look at it. a good base will probably have a 100 fully-capable occupants while there may be more whom are in training or acting as workers. a lot of the people will be relegated to guarding the base and performing tasks such as construction and such, while a core group of commandos is built up to go out and do covert sabotage raids. sometimes you'r base will come under attack and you will be mobilising your people to different posts. think of it like Helpms deep in a way, basically the enemy is sending a mighty army and you have a rag=tag group of men and women to defend your base.

the military has night vision, autmatic weapons, laser sigts, all the latest high-tech gear (the Land-warrior system is startng to see it's initial deplyments, this is a good testing ground) and so basically your' royaly and totally screwed unless you can use your cunning, wits, and smarts to outsmart the government.

this is the REvolutionary war all over again, the military has turned a bit british on you and it's time to go gurreilla, just like we did in 1776, and use our unorthodox pracitices to take on the american regime.

to get new recruits you basically scower the local town for anti-government pople, take in surviors from other rebel bases that were taken out, take in defectors from the military, and eventually you will be raising the children to become the next generation of revolutionaries as well. 

heres a situation where the government tries to raid your base:

a kid comes running to the base yelling "the GIs are coming, the GIs are coming" and an alarm sounds and everyone is like "get to your battle stations" and then you're like running up with everyone else and get behind sandbags, a few guys grab stolen M2 machine guns and load the precious .50 caliber ammo into the breeches. Bolt action hnting rifles come to bear, and yuou can hear people yelling to each other bolts get cycled, magazines get clipped. an explosion rips through the air, the lights all flicker then die. it's pitch black. BANG the main gate get's blasted off, smoke grenades roll and tear gas starts to fill the air. "GAS!!" and your people start to sling thier masks on. the ones without start to cough. flashlights flicker on and wave about sending beams of light swinging around the night. Bolts of light flare up form the muzzles of weapons, trraccer rounds pund through the flickering darkness as the M2 machine guns pound the door. a man with an RPG steadies on the door as the sound of treads can be heard over the gunfire and you cant see through the dark and the fog but you know that a tank is entering the gate. FWOOM the RPG hits home and an explosin flares up and you can see for abrief moment dead GIS and rebels alike on the ground as the flames flicker and wave high into the sky. flashes of light still appear as the report of guns fills the air. Shell casings drench the floor, your men cycle the bolts as fast as they can, while the GIs just hold down on their triggers.

after the combat settles you realise that you lost 40 people, while the GIs lost 56, and an APC. a bittersweet victory.

you police up the automatic weapons and ammo and grenades frm the fallen soldiers and feed them out to those with outdated weapons, and hope that next time you are more prepared and better armed.

basically this is gonna be intense becuse you no longer have a big advantage over the enemy as far as weapons and gear as you do in other games.

do you get it?

Sabotage mission would be like "sneak in, cut the fences, avoid the searchlights and patrols, plant C4 on a few barrels of gasoline, under some tanks and strap a bunch of TNT onto a weapons warehouse and then sneak out to the woods, detonate, and run befoer the enemy sees you. Or, yo go in, shoot the barrels, launch a few RPG rockets at the tanks, grab all the weponas you can , throw some TNT on the ground before leaving and blow the weponaas cache to hell and back and then blow up the pursing hummers and soldiers.

either way will work well, depending on your characters skills and weapons. 

SO....in closing...the game involves YOU an average joe, getting cought in the midst of turmoil. Then it turns into revolutionary chaos where you hide from a smarter, better equipped enemy, and you must rely on your will-power, bravery, and cunning. All ths while leading your fellow rebels to doing as much as possible to return America back to the free state it was.