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22/06/00: Q3A Single Player Ideas: General ideas and suggestions - Specific story and design ideas
Note:
These are just ideas and suggestions for a Q3ASP conversion. I have no intention of making a conversion that follows these suggestions or uses my original idea, nor getting involved in a Q3ASP project. So please don't contact me on the assumption that I'm doing anything with these ideas. However other mod-makers are free to use any of the following ideas, on the condition that their mods will be extremely high quality if released. There's quite a lot of writing here so take your time...
General ideas: Introduction:
These are some general suggestions and/or guidelines for planning a true Q3A single player mod (as opposed to a Q3A-engined total conversion). Based on a long time discussing Q3A, it's lack of single player, and single player potential (see IRC chat logs page), as well as careful consideration of Q3A's strengths and weaknesses.
Golden rule:
There is one rule that any single player conversion would have to obey, otherwise there would be no point attempting it:
Any released product should be professional quality, i.e. at least as high quality as Id would make using the single player ideas chosen.
This is not to say that it should be as good as what Id would have made if they had made a single player game, just that all aspects of a single player mod should be at least as good as the aspects already within the game. This, of course, is a golden rule that should apply to any user made product of any format: if it is not high quality, it should not be released.
Goals:
A suggested goal for a Q3ASP mod would be:
To provide a high quality proper single player experience that takes advantage of the technology, designs, themes and effects present in Q3A, in a full single player format, that also provides potential for custom single player maps to be made.
Obviously some mod makers may have ideas that are completely unlike the style or themes of Q3A - real life mods, for example. However I believe those are not the way to produce a true Q3ASP conversion, rather they are total conversions using merely the engine, indeed in the line of new games like FAKK2 or TWINE. A true Q3ASP conversion would be a single player game in the disinctive styles of Q3A. Aspects such as being high quality and providing custom map potential are obvious.
What would have to be changed:
This is more for people who understand the workings of the engine and modifiying the game, but some changes are obvious:
> Full save/load game implementation.
> Normal dying/restarting functions added, with all respawning entirely removed.
> Progression through consectutive linked maps with appropriate map changes.
> HUD altered to properly fit style and theme of game instead of spoiling it.
> Bouncing items entirely removed to fit style and theme of game instead of spoiling it.
> Health itmes remade to provide a sense of coherence.
> Physics, head bob, weapon bob, and poor damage indication fixed to provide control and precision.
> Addtional monsters, and changed monster attributes to provide proper SP gameplay.
> High quality reskinning for weapons, ammo boxes, and most likely monsters.
Obviously there may be other important changes I'm unaware of...
Themes, styles, and maps:
Themes and styles should stick broadly to the themes established in Q3A itself, while exploring many possible variations of those themes. This is to ensure the SP mod would be recognisably and clearly Q3ASP, and would capture the strong themes that make Q3A distinctive, e.g. Gothic, Tech, Space. Of course within those themes, via various texture combinations and design ideas, there are infinite variations on themes to explore - and indeed many very underused aspects that could be brought to the fore (lava, water, outside areas, cliffs and rocks, for example). People may falsely claim that Q3A's styles are limited and overused - that is due to the limits of what people attempt rather than a specific problem with the raw materials. All it takes is some vision and experimentation to use Q3A's styles in fresh, exciting, but recognisably Q3A ways.
Map designs would be down to the mod ideas/story chosen, but generally they would need to be large, spectacular, and specifically designed for semi-linear single player gameplay and progression. Aspects such as DM-style connectivity or jumppads for example, wouldn't be present. Obviously other important aspects would include flawless build quality, perfect theme, strong atmosphere, and logical progression between levels.
Monsters and AI:
Again this is down to the mod ideas/story chosen, but there are a few general suggestions:
Monsters should be monsterous, to fit into the style of the game. Q3A has a strong style, tending towards, dark, gothic, sci-fi, fantasy, so monsters would need to fit into that. Real life, human, or similar enemy generally wouldn't be suitable. Also, Q3A has a fairly diverse set of bot models, some of which could be well used (with suitable AI modifications of course) for proper monsterous enemy. So it could be useful to use some Q3A bot models, with some extra custom monsters that also fitted in with the current model styles.
AI should ideally be varied and quirky. Q3A couldn't do lots of monsters, so dumb hordes are out, realistic intelligence wouldn't suit Q3A's style, and proper bot AI would be far too similar to Q3A botmatch. Hence, AI that focuses on unique and varied traits for the monsters, rather than just pseudo-human realistic behaviour, or extreme combat skills. This would give the combats a lot more interest, while working within Q3A's engine limits and avoiding replicating botmatch style difficulty.
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Specific ideas: Introduction:
This is an original idea I came up with while chatting to Mindcrime (of Nehahra fame), and have developed more thoroughly recently - it's pretty much a design brief now!! I believe it provides a coherent and high quality idea that would be ideal for a Q3ASP mod in it's entirity, though individual ideas may also be inspiring.
Overall design goals:
Further to the general goals above, these specific design goals:
1. A conversion that provides an experience somewhere between Quake and Unreal: Quake for the strong visceral combat, and the more arbitrary and dark atmosphere, Unreal for the sense of exploration and visual grandeur of the maps. I believe this is the best way for a conversion to play to Q3A's strengths, as it would be much harder to compete with the distinctive features of other classic games: The horde based combat of Doom, the interaction and strong story implementation of Half-Life, or the diversity and rich design features of Daikatana, for example. It should be accepted that the Q3ASP world is an arbitrary, bizarre, sci-fi/fantasy world, and work on that basis.
2. To provide a type of conversion that would be feasible for amateur coders, modellers and mappers, working within Q3A's limits and balancing ambition with reality to ensure the conversion would get made.
3. To provide a conversion specifically in the styles and themes of Q3A - while using those themes in imaginative ways, and exposing underused themes - to ensure this remains as true to Q3A's original and distinctive styles as possible. This refers specifically to the textures, weapons, effects, and monster styles.
A story / background:
This story was devised during the above IRC chat, to provide a means to have more logical conflict, to have some reason for fighting and for the monsters to fight you, and to provide a context for the maps. It also fits in with the Q3A background. It's not supposed to be a fantastic, indepth story....then again no FPS game stories are. Obviously this story could be modified and tweaked to fit specific aspects of monsters, maps, or gameplay.
Millennia after the initiation of the Vadrigar combat arenas, and their discovery by mankind, the combat training they provided has turn mankind into a superior military force. Using this experience humanity has imposed a rigid discipline on both itself and the areas of the galaxy it has colonised. Desensitization caused by widespread arena combat has lead to a perculiar acceptance of this draconian regime, and mirroring ancient Earth history, humanity is imposing it's strict values on other species in a series of crusades. In a twist of fate, the anarchic Vadrigar arenas are now a primary target, as mankind rejects the barbarity that gave it such power. This includes penalising - often permanently - supporters of the arena combat, which on many planets has taken the form of a feverish religious cult. Mankinds crusades are now to destroy a religion, rather than impose it.
You are a recent conscript into the inter-spacial military, on a crusade to "convert" a particularly devout planet colonised by diverse and bizarre followers of arena combat. Many ships have made planetfall, and human troops quickly move into most areas of the local territory - though not all. Your fighting skills are renowned....your ability to follow orders and self-discipline are not. Gradually your superior officers begin to lose patience with your hot-headedness, and privately worry about your lust for blood and unrestrained combat. As your behaviour goes increasingly against the military doctrines, they have no choice but to imprison you, and a few similarly brutal soldiers, in a ship brig, until the crusade is less sensitive. Of course, you're not having any of that...
Once you manage to escape the brig, and try to find a way out of the ship to continue fighting - on your own if needs be - you discover a further twist: You find intelligence reports showing that the ship has landed fairly near to a temple town/complex of Vadrigar followers, that has been curiously ignored by your fellow troops. Further information reveals that hidden within this complex is an inter-dimensional power core, set up by the Vadrigar to provide power for the arenas and their followers' settlements. Destroying such a mechanism would be a great blow to the arena devotees, now fighting for their lives and existence....but would mostly likely destroy the entire planet. Hence, no military move against it....yet...
This story allows for / encompasses the following aspects:
> Encompasses all the Q3A themes while encouraging their use in original settings.
> Allows the use of some non-human Q3A enemy as monsters.
> Allows a diverse style of monsters working together for a common cause.
> Explains why the monsters are hostile and why they are waiting to fight you.
> Encourages scripted conflicts using human "enemy" against the monsters to further immersion.
> Sets the scene for starting with a team of cooperative, if deranged, humans.
Game goal:
As you might guess, your task is to escape, with your fellow psychotic prisoners, get off the ship, find the temple town, gain access to the power core, and destroy it on a suicide mission.
Maps and themes:
I'd suggest the conversion would be mission pack size, containing roughly 15 full size (i.e. large) single player maps. The maps and progression through the conversion could be linear or slightly non-linear, but the emphasis is on combat and exploration rather than complex back and forth tasks. The conversion would be divided into 4 units: Ship (tech style), Canyons (outdoor rock style), Temple town (gothic style in town layout), Power core (gothic style blending into space/tech styles). The idea with these maps is to use the Q3A themes and textures (with almost no custom textures needed), but use them for innovative, original, and spectacular designs. Suggestions as follows:
Ship: (3-4 maps).
Hi-tech textures, pseudo-realistic ship designs, unlike Q3A's entirely arbitrary hi-tech maps, this should feel like a proper, functional ship - which still leaves a lot of scope for creative design. Engines, power cores, control rooms, decks, storage sections, vents and ducts, loading equipement, living quarters, barracks, communications and security sections could all feature. It would be good to use the hi-tech style on some big, impressive designs. Also useful would be an overall schematic of the ship, to give it coherency and fit all the areas together properly. A nice idea would be to show outside the ship through windows - and perhaps see those same scenes later on in the canyons. Progression would be quite complex, including bypassing sealed off sections, exploring alternative routes, dealing with security systems. As well as human soldiers, there might be some "accidents" where you release some captured arena monsters...
Canyons: (3-4 maps).
Outdoor, rock textures, cliffs and water being prominent. Initially fairly calm, flat, swampy lands, gradually getting more hostile, with more oppressive textures, steeper terrain and cliffs, more chasms, lava, etc etc. Would have increasing numbers of gothic style outposts and watchtowers built in as player approached temple town. Opportunities to show spectacles such as lava falls and lakes, bizarre flora (and fauna), varied 3D terrain, and Q3A's visual effects in a "natural" way. Possibility of using living flesh embedded in cliffs as player approaches town. Progression would be quite simple due to the more open nature of the maps, but would include tricky manouvering around cliffs, and non-linear exploration.
Temple town: (4-5 maps).
Classic (and very overused) Q3A gothic style, but used in a new way. Instead of arbitrary enclosed arenas, this would be proper, if exotic, buildings and streets. Obviously this wouldn't be a real life style town, but something far more exotic. I'm thinking stern, squat, rounded buildings, winding streets, ruined sections, gothic and hi-tech details intermingled. Buildings could include major and minor temples, living quarters, breeding / repair centres, slaughterhouses, dungeons, barracks, watch-towers, experimental laboratories, museums to the arenas, etc. Of course visual impact, combat suitability, and careful blending of gothic style with any hi-tech designs would be more important than realism. The important last map in this section would be a colossal main temple that hides access to the core - penetrating this should be a matter of (siege?) tactics, with heavy defenses in place and some cunning required. Progression otherwise would be a combination of exploration - as towns tend to be non-linear - and performing simple key/switch puzzles to gain access to certain areas. Exploring across and through buildings to gain thief-like access would also be good.
Power core: (3-4 maps).
Space style maps with mixtures of heavy hi-tech designs and rocks. Perhaps the hardest design concept to understand: space maps that use the void as an atmospheric setting rather than as an aspect of gameplay. A mixture of Q3A's space maps - particularly the more hi-tech ones, Half-Life's Xen (sans jumping puzzles), Unreal's Skytown maps, and also using styles inspired by the Meatpak2 maps. The idea being, massive, functional, machinery and rock islands suspended in space. Lots of dramatic effects would be important. Progression would be the usual matter of some exploration, and some tasks to perform, as mentioned the void should not be a noticable gameplay feature, while hugely vertical 3D design should be.
Monsters:
Monsters should indeed be monsterous. A combination of the more bizarre Q3A bot monsters, with similarly styled but diverse custom monsters. Additional types of monster would need to include flying and swimming monsters, in addition to much slower and much faster monsters, to give a full range of combat experiences. I haven't any specific ideas for custom monsters, but generally they would need to be alien / reptilian / biomechanical / robotic / insectoid in design, to fit in with the general style of the game. Given that the monsterous Q3A bots are still mostly humaniod, completely non-humanoid monsters would be the most appropriate additions. This could include behemothic beasts or vicious carnivores, used in arena combat in the same way they were used in ancient gladiatorial combat. As far as the monster attacks go, a blend of Q3A weapon attacks - but with each monster having a specific weapon attack - with more diverse and interesting attacks including close-combat, would be appropriate. No specific ideas about attacks yet, these would be dictated mostly by monster design and chosen AI.
In addition to monsters, there would be human troops occasionally fighting against the monsters - and fighting the player for the first few levels as they try to escape the ship. Q3A has a good selection of humans to chose from, though some high quality reskinning for military uniforms would be good.
General AI traits:
Here's some general AI trait ideas I've devised for more interesting and diverse combat and monster behaviour:
> "Beserker": Enemy armed with close-combat weapons, fast and manouvrable, will always attack player up close.
> "Sniper": Will always attack from a distance, retreating to maintain distance if necessary, thus tricky to kill.
> "Rear attack": Cunning enemy who will always attack from back and avoid any head on conflict. Thus will make good use of cover and map design, though attacking in numbers would be less likely.
> "Coward": Enemy who will generally tend to run away, unless well supported. Would be most dangerous in prescence of commanding figures, e.g. Tank Jr.
> "Self preservation": Enemy who will attack, but consider their own hide first. Thus excellent use of cover, good accuracy, but low aggression.
> "Hungry!": Bestial aggression to satisfy hunger, will attack readily but also feed on the dead, including own troops.
> "Distracted": Vicious in combat but lacks focus with low concentration span. Other noises and action in the area will attract monsters attention, and this trait could be used tactically by player.
> "Bemused": Low intelligence monster that is confused by the player attacking. So initially would be docile and curious, only when attacked - or witnessing fellow monsters attacked, would then be very aggressive.
Specific AI traits:
Here's some ideas I've come up with relating to specific AI / combat traits, using the monsterous Q3A bots - which thus lists the bot models suitable for this conversion idea, some reskinning may be useful:
Human troops: Discplined, military, emphasis on quick, clean kills while preserving own safety. Therefore skilled, effective fighters, but not particularly tough or brutal. Would call for back-up and work in teams.
Bones: Rises from the dead - skeletons and random bones scattered around the maps will gel together when the players back is turned, then attack.
Klesk: Insectoid, therefore very fast and agile attacks would be suitable.
Orbb: Would function more as an observer, with a specific trait of climbing on walls and ceilings, lurking in shadows, then skittering off along ceilings to warn other monsters of the player's prescence.
Sorlag: Cutthroat reptile mercenary, no honour, therefore an abusive attitude towards own troops. Would hide behind them, use them as cannon fodder, attack from behind, kill own troops if they were ineffective.
Tankjr: Would have commanding traits from Tank Commander heritage, would stay at the back of fighting, give orders and command own troops, quell any disobedience (see above), and encourage fighting. Also would be slowish but very tough.
Uriel: Demonic, thus similarly amoral as Sorlag, relentless, brutal, would try to kill player at all costs with little concern for own safety. Tough to kill and resistant to enviromental hazards.
Coop bots:
Otherwise known as the team of fellow psychotics you bust outta the brig with and go to smash some skulls. Main reasons for including coop bots would be simply FUN, and that teamplay bot AI is already present and should be easily usable for coop bots. The idea being the bots would be skilled, useful, but expendable (unlike DKT). I.e. you could keep them with you, and with the right commands and concern for their health, they might last to the end. Or they might die on the ship levels. Doesn't matter either way - this allows the player to play the game how they want, while incorporating a feature that should be a whole lot of fun. Some changes like an improved order menu, to take into account sharing health and items, would be needed (similar to DKTs, probably). A suggestion for the number and style of the bots would be 3 bots, each with specialist weapon skills: assault soldier (skilled in sustained fire weapons - MG and PG), sniper (skilled in precise weapons - RG and LG), and bombadier (skilled in area effect weapons - GL and RL). Having bots with specific skills would add to the overall tactics of using them, should the player keep them along.
Further additions and tweaks:
In addition to the necessary changes to make a single player conversion, the urgent changes to the hud, items, physics, and damage feedback, and the increased bot commands, a personal computer would also be needed. Something like Unreal's personal translator at the least, but a comprehensive database like Serious Sam's "NETRICSA" (details here) would be even better. This would provide the player with information on enemy and weapons, as well as useful hints as how to progress, and information to further the story - particularly useful when finding the "mission" on board the ship.
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