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Game Progression


Overview:

Game progression describes the flow of the game, how the player would "move" from region to region, accomplish tasks, change the games’ storyline, and progress through the game as they wish. If they go NWC or Rebel it would (to an extent) be mission-based like, if the player went NWC, they would have to report for duty for the day and do that 5 days of the week then in their down time they can do whatever they want, while on duty the player would go on patrols, ambush enemy units, be assigned other tasks for the day (which could be any one of a number of pre-programmed "missions" that the player could be assigned to) they can still have the freedom to back down and do something else but that may result in a demotion or loss of respect or something else bad. While on the missions the player can still do whatever they want, they won’t be “locked in”.

What I am also thinking is that if the player just goes in and does the mission nothing within the game will ever change. If the player “goes above and beyond” their duty and does certain things such as accomplishing hidden objectives (like, does thinks that aren’t assigned to them but will be presented in-Game in such a way as to make the player think “hey, what if I did this?”) then the game will move on. If the player never accomplishes these “hidden tasks” then the game will not progress in favor of either side. These would be like the “turning points” that will increase the players’ aggro that start to change the storyline of the game.
Within each of these hidden events will be several different paths for completion. Paths that can favor the Rebels, favor the Federal/NWC side, change the perspective of the civilians’ view of the players’ side, strain the NWC/Federal alliance, or do any combination of the above and/or more.

Missions will serve to increase the players’ reputation, let the player get a feel for what the game is about, and to affect the storyline, however there will also be a considerable amount of work the player will need to do when not participating in missions. When the player is in their down-time in the game they will have the opportunity to explore elements in the game but will also need to make use of this time to find and befriend people and make acquaintances with people who could potentially help them later on.

[The idea that I am thinking of is that when the game starts off the battle lines between the Rebel and NWC/Federal forces have stabilized, there is still fighting and such, but no major progress in being made on either side. The player then enters the story line of the war and can change evens as they want. They can lead the Rebels of the Federal forces to victory or create a peace between the sides, or make everyone burn, or something else.]

Mission structure for both sides will be divided into two types: The first type will consist of missions in the respective faction city that the player has sided with for the region that the player is acting in. This will happen either once the collective reputation for that faction in that region has decreased to the point where riots and enemy presence is seen inside the city or will be the default set up for when the player starts acting in that region (only the Northwest and Northeast regions for the Federal faction will start out this bad due to the poor NWC government bodies in those regions and the Central, Southwest, and Southeast regions for the Rebels will also be like this). The second type will consist of missions in the outlander and enemy areas. These will be more intense combat missions with more depth and detail.

If the payer goes neutral there will also be side quests that they can accomplish to earn reputation with other people or gangs. These quests will not be as combat intense as some of the Federal or Rebel missions but will be necessary in order to explore the game. There will also be additional side quests for the player in their down time, regardless of which faction they go with, that will be similar to those if the player had went neutral.


NWC Progression:

*After the conversation between Andy and I the other day, concerning the ‘special operations’ unit that the player will be assigned to in-Game should they go with the Federal Faction, I am thinking a unique type of special ops unit, where the members of this organization are “jack-of-all-trades” type people, receiving training in broad fields and receive a lot of skill sets (ok, so real Spec. Ops. are the same way, but it fits for the story…). These people then become temporarily “attached” to various police/paramilitary/Federal/NWC units and support those units on brief assignments (about 1 Week of in-Game time, maybe 30 minutes or so actually) during each their deployments. They move around a lot from group to group and are highly valued for their training and wide skill set range. This will kind of explain the wide mission types that I have created.*

[As a name for this elite team I am thinking something like “Joint Coalition Task Force” or “New World Task Force” or give it no official name just use aliases in the Game such as “The Unit” or “The Community” or something like that]

If the player goes with the NWC faction, missions will be more “high-profile” in that there will be less covert operations going on. Going out on patrols, attacking Rebel Encampments as part of a lager force, and protecting construction convoys in the outlander areas will be some of the types of missions that the player could be assigned to. There will also be less faction focused missions (as will be discussed in the Rebel section) whereby the player will not be scavenging as much for resources for the Federal side but, instead, will be engaging the enemy more. It will be consistent like this throughout the entire Federal campaign.

Mission types will include:

In the Cities:

Rebel Cache Hunts: Where the player will be attached to a small police teams searching for Rebel cell fighters in the cities.
Sub-mission types to this may involve participating in and supporting police forces in a drug bust, “checking” civilians at major transportation depots (airports, rail/bus/water-ferry stations), and inspecting vehicles at major checkpoints.
Riot Control: Where the player will be dispatched to assist police forces in controlling riots. This may also include finding those responsible for starting or leading the riot, pro-Rebel leader(s) of some sort, and arrest/incapacitate or kill those individual(s).
Counter-Sniper/VIP operations: Where the player might have to look after political figureheads, escort them through the cities and outer-lands and protect other types of VIP’s or cargo.

*A lot of these sound sort of boring so most always there will be some sort of shoot out or puzzle tied in to the mission that the player will have to resolve.

In Outlander Areas:

           Counter-Sniper/VIP Escort: As described above.

           Emigration: Where the player will be assigned to Boarder/Customs type units and patrol looking for people who have not been implanted with chips.
     
                       Sub-mission types to this: I was thinking something like detention centers also being present in the outlander areas (places like that police bus stop in Children of Men. A very brutal and harsh looking place where the NWC and Federalists hold political prisoners, captured Rebel fighters, and other Loyalists. The player could be attached to a Customs or NWC unit guarding these people, gather information about the enemy, and build contacts with enemy fighters to act as spies and gather information.
Search and Destroy: Where the player partakes as a member in a large Federal task force going out and finding enemy positions and outposts and attacking them.

            Defense: Where the player gets assigned to a Federal or NWC outpost near the Rebel boarder and supports those units during various attacks.
Sub-mission types to this could be where the player protects construction crews, gas refineries, and rail depots in the outlander areas.

In Rebel Territory:

            Search and Destroy: As described above
            
            Assault: Where the assignments will be similar to Search and Destroy, but there will be heavier and more prolonged combat scenarios with larger forces on both sides. These will be where the player attacks larger compounds and cities in the Rebel areas.

            Hold-Out: This one will be tricky but awesome. Where, somehow, the player gets put into a situation where they are in heavy combat but then their forces have to pull out and the player has to survive for as long as possible (a few days, in-Game time, 15-20 minutes actually) until they can be rescued. I am thinking that any Assault or Search and Destroy mission can turn into this scenario once certain criteria are met, say, the players side starts to lose the battle. If the player is in command of a number of Federal troops then they will be stuck with the player, some may retreat and get killed, but if the player is in command of some troops they won’t be totally alone.

            Assassination: This will be a more covert mission type where the player is attached to a special operations unit and has to find and kill a target in enemy territory.

            Hostage Rescue: Where the player will be tasked to a special operations unit and sent deep inside Rebel territory to recover any number of hostages. Will be very fast paces but very short missions, danger will be getting in and out, stealth and precision shooting will be required. Could happen at random intervals in the game and would not happen very often.



Rebel Progression:

These types of missions will be more “low-profile”, will have a more covert aspect to them in their execution. They will, initially, involve more trivial situations that the player will have to resolve, be more oriented for players that want to think a lot and take their time with the game. These missions will start off as more faction-focused in that they will involve the player doing things not only to survive for themselves but also to help the Rebels along as well. The Rebels are more of scavengers and are very technologically inferior to the Federal and NWC factions, being such they need to constantly stay on top of upkeep with their vehicles and weapons, searching for new/replacement parts, finding new ways to beat the enemy and get the upper hand.

A lot of work on the Rebel side will be devoted to jerry-rigging weapons together, making haphazard fortifications, fixing odds and ends, or doing other miscellaneous tasks. The player won’t necessarily be doing all of these themselves but will see them happen but will take part in collecting and finding objects, bribing/mugging/killing people to get what is needed, and stealing what is required. This will also require many trips into the outer lands where gangs and other threats roam.

As mentioned before the mission types will be divided into two parts, ones focused in the main faction area and others focusing on more outside areas and attacking the enemy. With the Rebels, missions in the main areas won’t necessarily be constituted by declining collective reputation as there will be a lot of interaction needed between the player and people within the Rebel faction. In short, regardless of collective rep, there will be a significant amount of working inside Rebel controlled areas before the player gets into a position where they start attacking the enemy themselves.

Mission duration won’t be as regimented or as structured, like specified duration of deployments (“x” number of minutes in-Game time, and such) instead, they will be more like a “laundry list” of tasks that people will assign to the player as they meet new NPC’s and go through the game. There will be no time limit for each of the tasks, but not completing them after the player agrees to take on the quest will result in loss of respect after a period of time or may affect performance of the Rebel faction later on, say, the player was supposed o find parts for tanks that are to take part in a battle in 3 days, then the player forgets, the tanks can’t be used in the battle, and so the Rebels take heavy losses, or the operation has to be aborted.

Mission types will include:

In Rebel Areas:

          Gathering: Where the player goes in search of various objects or is tasked to help various NPC’s with odd assortments of tasks. This will be more like the aforementioned finding parts for tanks.

          Recruiting: Will be where the player has to go in search for new people to join the Rebel cause and fight. These will be more conflict resolution missions where the player has to resolve conflicts between ethnicity, run into problems gaining peoples trust based on their own ethnicity that they selected in the beginning of the game, and have to gain respect with NPC’s on the Rebels side in the outer lands as well.

          Theft: “Temporarily borrowing” items from other Rebel encampments, getting caught may increase tensions between encampments, loss of respect, and maybe even result in internal fighting.

          Cleaning House: This one will be optional, but I think it will be interesting if tensions get so bad among Rebel leaders that they start ordering hits on their own people or say, the Rebels in the Southwest start actually fighting each other (I am thinking this may only happen in the Southwest and Northeast regions, the racially divided ones) so they start assassinating each other’s leadership in order to gain more power or to remove people who are not acting in line with the collective cause of the Rebellion.
      
                   [The aforementioned mission types will be in Rebel territory, for when the player is initially starting out, but only when the Rebels in that Region have good a collective reputation. My thinking is that when starting out, the player will be the “rookie” and will be assigned remedial tasks until they prove themselves to the Rebels at which point more combat oriented missions will start to happen]

Counterintelligence: Where the player has to gather information about NWC informants and either give them disinformation or kill them or turn them in.

Sub-mission type to this, and this would be really really cool if it could work, could be where the player deliberately gets captured, sent into the aforementioned detention centers, and has to silence some informants who are giving information to the NWC and then they have to break out on their own or cause a riot or something and use others for help.
[These would be the missions that are assigned when collective reputation has gone down too far]

In Outlander Areas:

Patrol: Where the player would be part of a small team actively searching for Federal or NWC units and to attack.

Ambush: Where the player will be part of a team, have already obtained information about a NWC or Federal convoy that will be at a location at a specific time, then have to set up an ambush in that area.

Recruiting: As mentioned above. This could also be where gaining trust with gang members and earning reputation with them, by doing various side quests for them, could come into play.

Assault: Were the player will either be assigned a group of fighters or have to recruit them on their own, and attack small NWC and Federal outposts and depots. The player could also choose to attack detention centers and gain fighters that way too.

Sabotage: This is just another optional one, where the player would have to sneak into a compound, disable vehicles, or security systems, or whatnot, in preparation for a larger attack.

Bombings: This would be an interesting type of assignment that the player could choose to do, where if they did it, it would greatly help the Rebels militarily but hurt them politically by shifting the collective reputation further away from the Rebel faction but the player would also have the option to decline, like the rest of the other mission types, but it would have the opposite effect. Such assignments could involve bombing police stations, government buildings, Federal Guard Recruiting Stations, MEPS buildings, and other targets of opportunity.

In NWC/Federal Territory:

Assault: As mentioned before, only this time, the player and the Rebel NPC”s acting under their command would be attacking the military bases themselves in that region. These would be more combat intense missions where the pace is much faster.
Cell: This would be similar to recruiting; only the player would have to organize Rebel cells inside the NWC controlled cities to use as a base of operations to launch internal attacks. This may be a prerequisite for bombing and other mission types. This mission type could also be used in the outlander areas as well.

Bombings: As mentioned before, only inside Federal territory.

Smuggling: This may be a mission type that becomes available after a cell has been formed where the player recruits and trains fighters to run weapons and other needed items into a city to support the cell.

Assassination: Where the player will be given a time and place that a key political or military figure will appear and have to find a way inside NWC controlled territory to kill or capture the target.

Sabotage: As mentioned before.