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-Travel in the game will largely be based around vehicles due to the large scale of the game map. There will be no instantaneous travel/teleportation between points in the game. Thus your character will have to heavily rely on the vehicles he finds/creates. In the beginning of the game, it will be the simplest of vehicles. You might find some beat up old clunker on the side of the road. More than likely you will have to fix up the car, if it runs on gasoline you might have to retrofit it depending on if you have access to gasoline. You will have to see if there are missing parts, if you have the parts around to fix it. Another route will be to kill a character in game with a car and take his keys or borrow from someone. As the game progresses you will gain the ability to fix up vehicles much better, with better skill and access to better parts. You might have a tow truck and be able to tow a new car to your garage to work on it. Once you fix your car you can use it in game, upgrade it how you see fit, or sell it to NPC characters. Storing it will take up space which would potentially limit how many vehicles you had. Upgrading vehicles will give you many options you will be able to change tires, engines, armor plate, even mount weapons as you see fit. Augmenting will take place based on blueprints/schematics and will be reality and physics based. Selling the vehicle would either be done at your shop, through someone finding you, or finding a buyer.

Types of Vehicles
-sedans, coupes
-sports cars
-trucks, Humvee
-utility(tow truck, fire truck, van, police car)
-Motorcycles
-Busses
-battle vehicles(vehicles augmented with weapons)
-tanks/APCs

Vehicles are also useful to players by allowing them to store items and weapons in the trunk to greatly increase the amount of items they are allowed to bring with them.

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Ariel Vehicles

Throughout the game there will be many different scenarios in which you might need to rely on Air travel and support. Ariel vehicles for the NWC military will be mainly helicopters and attack aircraft. The rebels will probably have small single or dual engine aircraft and old helicopters. Initially on the NWC side all you will be able to do ride in helicopters and be the door gunner on a helicopter. Your character will not have the "ability" to fly aircraft naturally, since this is realism and most of us do not know intrinsically how to fly. However if flying is something you are interested in you could learn how the basics of flying and would be able to fly a helicopter or a small plane. The first couple of times you are in an aircraft  the controls will be very shaky since your character is probably scared out of his mind. You wouldnt have to go through flight school per say, but you would need multiple lessons before being allowed to say make air deliveries for the rebels or pilot a chopper on a secret recon mission for the NWC.

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En route

While driving by vehicle on a long route from city to city (say san diego to houston) you will enter sort of a highway mode where you are driving along and there might be a randomly generated firefight encounter with NWC forces or other violent rebels. you would have to pull over to interact with them, could be good interaction or bad ie you could run into a lone gunman looking for a job or you could run into traders and you could get new items. You could also end up in a violent skirmish with NWC or raiders. These highway encounters will not happen all the time but when they do, they will add substance to the game.

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Story Elements:


Ok, so Black Market deals.

The two routes we can take this are either:

One, there'll be a dealer who you will have to either stumble upon or seek out, based on information you hear or pay for, in order to find. He will have connections to perhaps some foreign government or (I don't want to say terrorist group, but that seems most logical... "Political faction", there we go...) that is not allied with the NWC (because we have not stated that the NWC consists of ALL other countries). He will intermediate exchanges, money for whatever weapons/vehicles/upgrades/munitions you request from him, that he has to offer. From there, it will take a few days of "in-game" time in order for the equipment to be ready (you know, shipping and handling, all that jazz). At which point he will contact you on your.. Cell phone?... and let you know where to pick up the goods.

To elaborate more, there can be two other options, you will be limited in what vehicles/equipment you can buy based on what you already have mastered (which I don't like that so much) or the man can show you the in's and out's of the good on the spot when you go to pick them up if you don’t already know them. This, of course, will give you just enough ability to utilize that unit at the time; additional mastery will come through further experience.

This will give access to foreign weapons, BMP's, T-90's, AK-200's, TAR-21's, Mil-8's, Mil-24's, RPG's, Armor upgrades, Different Ammo Types, Different Box Magazines, etc...

*Just saying, I want the guy to be a Russian and I want his name to be Sergei.

The second option (and I don't like this one because of perhaps complicating the story line) But, there will be a government agent, part of the NWC, who will be playing both sides in order to turn a profit. In order to make contact with this person you will have to go into a NWC city (the player, again, won't know which one(s) unless they happen to stumble upon or pay for some information about it) and go to the embassy (or make contact, either via an acquired phone number or some other communication) and meet with the agent. At which point the deal will be made and the rest is same as above, like with good ole' Sergei. This will give access to NWC assets and technology (pretty much, same as above, because they are multinationals)


And, likewise (either way, whether with Sergei or the Gov. Agent)  if you opt to go with the NWC, you might hear about this guy and try to have him killed.

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Ken there are some things that I like and don't like from your post.

Things I like: The idea of having a black market. This is great! I mean, think about it, the country that was America is now in burning wreckage, yet most of the world is fairing better, so what better to do than benefit from America's misfortune? I'm sure there would be people coming in with connections looking to pawn off vehicles and weapons at high rates. Both factions, looking to gain control would eagerly finance there dealers by purchasing/trading goods.

However there is a bit of conflict with putting it the way you did. Having a black market being the main way to get vehicles/guns goes against the way we want people to play the game. We want players to have to pay more attention to the subtleties of the game to find the good stuff. For example, if you know that the NWC has good stuff, then you find a NWC soldier and see what you can do to get his gun (kill him, steal it, trade, get recruited, etc.) Having someone that you can just go to and pay off removes this level of desperation we want the player to feel.

At the same time, having the black market dealer would be good. He should be able to supply you with international goods. Things not regularly found in the playable area, but not necessarily better. There could be times when he has something that is very good, but you'd have to be ready to pay an arm and leg for it. This would really add some spice to the game, and throw in more options as to how you want to play.

About the double agent: I see him/her the same way as the black market. They would be able to provide you with the parallel weapon for the faction you are not currently aligned with. (Or possibly both if you are a freelancer)

Oh, and I'm digging Sergei!

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Also adding on to what Cyle said, the Black market dealer would be a great way to get base level vehicles if you didnt want the hassle of using your mechanic skill. as for "mastering" a vehicle not really sure what you mean, the way we see this is its all survivalist. You are going to be out on your own a lot and you probably are nt going to have a whole heap of cash on you. Also with this being a war torn country. There are going to be a ton of vehicles both civilian and military just lying around. In order to get vehicles youd have to find them and fix them. At the most basic level youd be able to get the engine to start. then as you level up youd be able to add armor or weapons even if you pleased. However if at any point in time you are with the rebels and they want you to get like 10 APCs then yeah theyd probably get you the cash to go to Sergei(great name by the way) and get them. Since that would be a huge inconvenience for you to fix all of those cars. The main point is from a survivalist standpoint, any money your characters would have would probably go to buying clothes, guns, or ammo at the very most. Vehicles are expensive man and Black market dealers aint exactly known for cutting deals. Main thing would be getting your own individual vehicles working first then maybe after you sold a few youd have the money to buy an APC or a tank from a dealer.

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Ok, I see what both of you are saying.

To Andy and your "survivalist": Maybe, just like with the special buildings, Sergei could be part of a side quest; like, you go into an area and the Rebels want you to acquire a some tanks and APC's, they tell you of a rumor, or something shady like that, about some guy who lives in Area A, and to go find the guy. But if that is too hard then you could just look through the ruined areas of the city for vehicles that are not too far gone to be fixed.

And to add to what you said about vehicles, like aircraft and such and things that you wouldn't " innately" know how to operate: These vehicles will require someone to drive them, if the player has not already learned how to fly or drive that vehicle Sergei could train them on the spot on how to use it, and same thing goes for weapons too, like what you said about how they may jam on you and you'd have to know your weapon to use it or fix it.

What I'd really love to see is, say you bought a helicopter for the Rebels and bring it back to them. You would not have gone through the Rebel's flight program yet to fly, even though you would have been taught by Sergei initially; and so you do the Rebels flight because you want to fly helos, and you are with an instructor for the first time and he says "I see you learned from ole' Sergei, he's a crazy ass Russian that guy..."

*To add to your survivalist deal though, and I feel it would be this way realistically: After you get to a point in either organization (excluding the neutrality route, in which case it would really be a "sole survivor" mode) you would have a place to stay with on either side, you wouldn't be an outsider anymore, you could ask them for things and they could provide, limited things... this is especially true with the NWC [In either case, I would not expect the player to be commuting back and forth to their cave up in the hills at the end of the day]  you would be employed by them, earning pay, be issued 'some' weapons and equipment (that's how I am seeing it). Not to mention, that getting to the point to where you get to hear and acquire info about Sergei (drawing back to the example where the Rebels tell you to go buy some armor) will be way later in the game, not right off the bat; they would not trust you enough at that point still, and it would take time before they get you to go on quests like that for them.

To Cyle: About the: Main way player would get guns and other good stuff; it wouldn't be the case at all. Again, the player may never hear of this guy or even find him if he goes with total neutrality, and even still, it'll be an option to use Sergei, not a "YOU MUST" deal. The player can still scavenge for materials if it becomes too much of a hassle to find the guy. Also, he'll be dealing weapons (I am thinking, since this is in the future a mixed variety of "present day, 2011" and contemporary futuristic ones) and depending on which, the price may be fair or jacked up hella much, but not too unreasonable. Again, money would be required, and making money in post-apocalyptic USA is a hard deal, or so I've heard. But I like Andy's thought about the Rebels giving you a heap of cash to buy things like that.

Maybe, if the player just stumbles upon Sergei playing around, they may have enough to buy an older weapon, some ammo, but nothing close to what will be needed to survive. A lot of that stuff will be reserved for the Rebel quests that they send you on... unless the player just works their ass off to buy a tank...

This does bring another thing into the game that I think would be a little ridiculous but doable: a bank account. There could be a national bank set up by the NWC, if that's the route the player chooses, or some sort digital system for the rebels, not necessarily online (as I am thinking that Rebels would not have infrastructure for that sort of thing and most of old American internet would have been bombed out and destroyed already), but a barcode they could scan and tell you how much is in the bank, or deposit money that way if they send you on missions like that to ole' Sergei.

*I am thinking, a limited “Intranet” deal inside each rebel encampment, where the commanders can keep tabs on and communicate with their own troops, deposit money, but nothing like going from one rebel encampment to another. (Don’t worry; this won’t be a big part of the story, just a rational explanation in case someone wonders about it)

You would have the money, but it couldn't get "robbed" from you if you were attacked. And Sergei would have a means of reading the barcode and transferring the money.

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Customization of vehicles

Every vehicle you encounter, be it civilian or military, are going to have elements of customization in each of them. This will include things such as changing out tires or suspension, adding armor plating to doors and the structure, removing the doors on say a jeep, if you have enough mechanic skill you could even change out or supe up the engine, mount weapons, possibly even change out the fuel source. Keep in mind though if you choose to "pimp out" your vehicle, it will become an easy target and likely to be destroyed.