SST RPG on the PC?

[LtLeonJonson]

hey Matt, I was playing Icewind Dale 2 again, and I thought it should be a good way to get some more people playing SST RPG. I mean the Feat system is already down pat and the Weapons would work like the bows and other missile weapons in the game.

You could start on a ship. then it gets boarded by some anti-SICON people, Black Cross perhaps, then you suit up and drop to the planet, then go through a couple of patrol and other 'quests' and level up that way. And then fight the Bug offensive, chapter change, more patrol, evac the civvies, raid the nest, main battle, change, patrol, rear guard action, evac to ship, rest and train up, drop in and secure the area, defend the contruction team, main battle, next chapter and so on.

Promotions could be done by how many kills you have, so after 5 you are PFC, 15 Lance Cpl, 25 Cpl, 50 Sarge, 100, Sarge Major, 175 Platoon Sarge, 250 Lt.

You, if this can be programed in, which i think it can, you can have a Feat, for example Command Training with three slots, and with that you can command one more squad member and requisition better weapons etc, If you are in a Powersuit you can add another member to your squad with Command Training 2, and another on three slots, but if you take a squad of Exosuits you only are able to get better supplies, like better Ammo.

If you go off and do more of the side 'quests' you can earn the Pathfinder Training trait, then you get access to Pathfinder missions, which are harder, but get you more exp and bigger guns and more requisition ability.

To change chapters, or campaigns, you could have a big battle once a certain number of requirements are met, such as if there are three primary patrols, and once they are all done the battle starts.

Other Feats could include Intel Training, Jumpball Player, Master Sniper/Medic/Comms/Engineer, like the Spell Focus:X Feat, Close Combat, Latent Telepath, with more Feats of powers, such as Cancel Power and Tremor, you can get the idea.

Instead of Gold as the unit of currency, you Requisition, each mission you get earns you more requisition, and a Morita Long, is say, 90 Requisition and a Shredder is 125, with ammounition packs being 15 each.

Classes are Trooper, Sniper, Engineer, Medic, etc etc from the RPG. And take the Skills and weapons from the main RPG book and the up coming MI Field Manual. The only class I would add is Pilot, so ythat you can take things like Marauders and Exosuits out and about, and maybe even some Gecko's, so if you do a particular mission you can get in one of the chapter main battles a Heavy Gecko.

Inventory would have the suit, with slots that you fill, such as Grenade slots, and ammo slots, and then you have three weapon slots, so you could have a Morita and Pistol, but because the Morita has a Underslung GL that is the third slot taken, bigger weapons could cost two slots, like Javelins and Shredders, where as the smaller Triple Thud and Hel Flamer. Emplacements can be used with the restricions in the SST War game rule book.

Rank can change, so a Sniper after say, 15th level would be a Master Sniper, Medics become Doctors, Engineers become surveyors and other things, Pilot stay pilots, have thought too much in this area yet. same goes for medals.

 

[Oldbury]

Hey i love this as an idea it'd make a really interesting game. My only question would be by adding team members would they be just ordinary troops or could you say add a medic/engineer/heavy weapons trooper and control how they develop? What about a Knights of the Old republic sytle basis? You could have it like; prologue - boot camp, then from there to Pluto and onwards along the road to victory. With things like various upgrade's like Marauder or Exo-Suit training. You could also have it sort of you can do X amount of missions and then choose when you want to take part in the big battle at the end of the chapter, say have a minimum of 3 side missions to unlock it.

Regards Oldbury

 

[LtLeonJonson]

you create the sarge, then the five others, you get the Command Training feat, then you can call in extras, any class level 1, so if you have Pathfinder training on your character then they will, but i want this only to apply for the powersuit based squads, six exo's or Marauder suits would be nasty.

for example for the basic squad
Sarge
Trooper
Trooper
Medic
Sniper
Heavy Weapons

for the maxed out Command Training(Command 3 for short)
Lt
Trooper
Trooper
Medic
Sniper
Heavy Weapons
Engineer(First Extra gained at Command 2) he is a mister fix-it
Comms(Second extra at Command 3) Airstikes, once per game hour or so

Game wise they will function as a normal charcter, a new normal character, under your control, so you can tell them to do whatever, so if you get to a point where you can train your engineer you can make him a demolitions expert, and give your Comms guy/gal Fleet Liason training which gives you move abilites to call down upon the Bugs and skinnies.

As for the missions I was thinking you have three or four primary missions, with about double that secondary, if you do the secondaries you get more requisition and support for the final battle, so one secondary could be repair the space port, and your engineer is the character you control and you repair it, then you get a Heavy Gecko in the final battle that turns up to deal with Tankers,

or you do that extra recon and you some emplacement assests, like a Ammo dump, or a bunker, or some weapons. You go off and help the Exosuit squad repair, and you can have them as NPC allies that you control for abit. Or do the lone sniper to kill the brain/tyrant and they are not as organised/less numbers to deal with.

With saying that I don't want people to be able to o them all, most of the sub-missions are to be class specific , so you can send your medic into the field hospital to heal up some others and assist in operations and you get more troopers to help, and the engineer functions as O&A for abit and you get more allies of a suited variety, namely some Exo's and Marauders.

 

[Oldbury]

hmm interesting idea i like it by exo-suit and marauder training i meant you could have one of your troopers in a chickenhawk or ape suit like they have in the roughnecks where doc and gossard wear the suits. Perhaps you could also have sort of a medal system? like you do a spefic mission or something outstanding and you recieve a various medal for it and you could get a medal at the end of each campaign theatre? so for example at the end of pluto you could get a medal for fighting on pluto. Perhaps have it your stationed aboard a ship and you get various missions offered up for you to choose from and you can say right mission X i'll take 2 troopers and an engineer with me?

Regards Oldbury

 

[LtLeonJonson]

you take the squad for most missions, for the sniper i am thinking lone wolf, unless there are two snipers in the squad. Engineer i am also think lone wolf, as the squad guards you doing the work, your skills would tell you which choice to make, or how to blow up the objective and so on.

I am thinking in each chapter you have an outpost or starport as the base, with facitilites with in and NPC's that can train you up, if you have the prerequisite level, say, Fleet Liason 1-Fleet Liason 2, and change titles, such as Sniper to Master Sniper, Engineer to Demiolitions officer, Sarge to Lt, and so on.

Medals, I am not so sure on, I am not sure how to impliment or award, a campaign medal for example would be a good thing, but is a campaign a chapter, or two, or maybe even three.

Edit, if you vote, please leave a comment, i'd like some feedback. It would be appreciated, alot.

 

[Kristovich]

Sounds good! I haven't read it all yet but I'll do it as soon as I get the chance.

EDIT: Read through it and I like it! That about promotions after kills souns good as well.

 

[LtLeonJonson]

any more, please say so if you really like the idea, because if enough people are I'll send it off to Matt S, and see what he says.

 

[Makoto]

How about sth in the lines of Fallout Tactics, but w/ paper RPG mechanics?
This way people would not only get more attracted to the universe, but would already familiarise w/the ways of playing "normal" RPG in it.

Titles/ranks could simply develop along w/character level (ie. 1-3 = PVT, 4-6 = PFC and so on, with cross-trainings it'd go by each level)

 

[LtLeonJonson]

"head drops" that's the point of Icewind Dale 2, you have the story, and your six characters, combat is done using the Pen and Paper mechanics for damage, hitting, spell casting etc etc, pretty much it would be D&D Lite, because it is cut down abit(tiny ammount, spell descriptions change, but the core is the same) and you don't need people to play, or the various manuals.

Ranks I am still not sure on, you do it by levels, everyone is a Lt at the end of the game, or you do it by class and earning badges, Sniper-Master Sniper, Engineer-Demolitions, Construction and Maintenance, Heavy Weapons-start at Gun Number, then go up to Gunner, Second Class, then Gunner First Class, you get the idea.

You earn the badges by doing the side quests, and if you earn the badge it means you can access more equipment and some other bonuses. So, for example, you earn the Sniper badge using that class for a sub mission, you then can get a Ghillie Coat/Yabberwokie suit, and more powerful ammunition.

Your squad does the Pathfinder training sub missions, two or three a chapter and ten or so total, you get the Pathfinder Training badge, and you can buy Pathfinder weapons, get Pathfinder armour and equipment, and I am also thinking to allow Morita rifles/carbines and pistols to be suppressed.

 

[Makoto]

Oh...
Should've check out what exactly Icewind Dale is first... --'

As for ranks imo it wouldn't do to promote everyone to officer levels unless the main party would be supposed to lead different platoons/parties (like in Romancing Saga, but that'd turn the game into sth a bit epic-like).
Maybe use the idea from STT:Terran Ascendancy - troopers gain XP and "level ability increases", but may gain rank only if proper slot is available (ie. for 6 character party there can be a maximum of 1 Lt, 1 Sgt, 2 CPLs, 2 LCLs, so if there is already a sergeant no one can gain this rank until s/he gets either killed or promoted)
Obviously there is no problem w/cross-training ranks - there are 3 levels each specialisation and each can have it's name, earned as character climbs the level. Those ranks would be independent from the "proper" military ranks (enabling ie. PFC - demolitions officer status)

 

[nezeray]

Actually this should be done with NeverWinter Nights! It's 3.0 mechanics and works MUCH better than IWD or BG.

Also it's 3d so it's quite cool. There's also a builder for custom maps/scenarios. There is some coding involved, but I know that there are people who could do it.

They already have Giant Spiders in the game too, so you'd just have to modify the model for warrior bugs.

I'm willing to playtest if someone does do the hard stuff.

Nezeray

 

[Makoto]

I'd suggest staying with 2D graphics - they do very well too, and don't make all those annoying lags during play.
Better to put more into playablity than graphics

 

[nezeray]

I can't remember any lag in NWN.

James / Nezeray

 

[Neo]

I can't remember any lag in NWN.

James / Nezeray

Depends whose server you are playing on online, how many on it, what they're doing etc.. lag can be a nightmare on some servers as far as the multiplayer aspect of NWN goes. However as far as the single player game goes only way it would seem laggy is if your graphics card is not upto the job or if you lack enough RAM. You can typically resolve such issues to some extent by turning down or off the graphics and sound options in the game options menu, wont be as pretty but will be smoother.

 

[nezeray]

I definately agree with you there. Usually we play NWN on a local network or on a mostly empty server.

I noticed a big change in gameplay when I ugrade from my old graphics card to my new one with 256mb ram. It's just a clone of an ATI card.

James / Nezeray

 

[Kristovich]

I can't remember any lag in NWN.

James / Nezeray

I CAN!
Pretty much everywhere off-line. Never tried multiplayer. Go with 2D!

 

[Oldbury]

I got so sick of the lag i never actually finished the game it was awful.

Regards Oldbury

 

[nezeray]

I just went back and played an hour or so, I've been playing Dawn of War and Dungeon Siege so much I forgot some of NWN.

The combat is slow but I think that's to allow you to actually micro-manage your party. The loading screens are a bit annoying, but other than that I've had no problems.

Nezeray

 

[LtLeonJonson]

i had considered the NWN engine, being fairly pure D&D, but that means single player only virtually and even if you got a squad it would mean you need some serious power under the boot, but if you go and the IWD 2 system, which is D&D 3.0 I believe you get the best part of the RPG, and the squad tactics and you get to have more fun that way, there is nothing like taking a squad from Point A to Point B in a game, like Ghost Recon 2, or perhaps Rainbow Six.

The thing is with choosing the engine I think it needs to be a IWD 2 engine over NWN, because if it was NWN it would just be a fancy shooter, rather than a PC RPG.

 

[LtLeonJonson]

more ideas, here

you choose your character class, and during the game you can earn a badge certifying you to be able to perform a mission type, alla Scout, Demolitions etc, you can do it before, but this is the mark that says you do it offically.

Your ranking on that badge determines what choice of mission you get, the harder the more exp and bugs to kill, the more prestigue and if you complete so many missions you can earn Pathfinder Training. Because you are a certified X(Insert character class and badge here) you can then buy equipment, like Rangefinders, scopes, suppressors, ghillie coats, demolition packs, better ammunition and so on.

Ranks are controlled by what badge level you have and what character level, at the start of the chapter your non-command type characters are promoted, ie Private to PFC, PFC to Lance, Lance to Cpl, and it ends there. You also have your specialist ranks, like Sniper, Scout, Demolitions Officer, Signaller etc

requisition, basically the gold of this universe, what you can buy with it is simple, but you only get so much so use it well. Feats and higher Command ranks mean things cost less than before, but you have more choice, like a MicroSupport platform, or a Command type Marauder suit.