ACM: Ideas

Alien Control Scheme Idea

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:50:27 GMT

A possible Xbox 360 control scheme for xenomorphs.

Secrete Infestation
While facing an infestable surface, holding this button in would cause the alien to secrete infestation.

Brood Behaviour
Press and hold to access pop-up brood behaviour menu wheel. Allows the player to assign behaviours to individual aliens within the brood. Again similar to ME.

Behaviours:-

Stalk (Default Behaviour) - The brood member, will switch to stealth mode and stay in the shadows at all times trying to avoid being seen. If attacked they will retreat. They will only attack if given the order or cornered.
Swarm - Brood members with this behaviour will attack (as a whole). They will attack on sight, but attempt to close the distance using as much cover as possible to avoid being hit by weapons fire.
Free Will - Disbands the alien from the brood allowing the A.I. to act independently of the player.
Hunt - Will disband the alien from the brood and send it to seek out a host. Once accomplished the alien will bring the host back to the player.

Physical Actions
Similar to the marine physical actions button. This would also be context sensitive with different actions being available dependent on the player location and situation.

Bulrush / Bash Door - Similar to the marine sprint, while already moving, tap to break into a bulrush. Slamming into a marine will injure him and knock him off his feet. Slamming into a door will bash the door.
High Jump - Double tap to high jump, or push off the wall.
Leap - While in crawl mode, pressing this will make short range leaps from surface to surface. No bulrush while crawling.
Evade - Holding this control in while moving will cause the alien to duck and dodge incoming fire, making it difficult for marines to hit them (not impossible).
Overpower - Pressing this rapidly in quick succession, will overpower any prey that has been grappled.

Caste Special Abilities
Warrior / Drone - Paralyse: Tapping this while targeting a host would perform a quick tail sting. This would not kill the victim, but instead paralyse, putting them out of action for easy return to the hive.

Juvenile / Dog - Pounce and Pin: This would be a pounce attack that would pin its target to the floor if successful. While pinned the target could attempt to fight off the pin manoeuvre by rapidly pressing resist attack button. Spray Acid: Holding this button would spray out a cone of acid, which would corrode any destructible surface. Including pinned marines.

Praetorian / Juggernaut - Tail Stab: Tapping the control would stab the aliens bladed tail out. It would be a slower and more lethal attack than the basic claw combo, but would have a much greater range, due to the castes unusually long tail. Shield: Holding the control would lower the aliens heavily armoured head and curl its bladed tail around in front of it as a sort of defensive shield. The player would move much slower like this, but be almost invincible from the front.

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I didn’t include a special vision / sensory button, because I think any sensory capabilities the alien might have would be active at all times. Oh yeah, and crawl mode should have an optional toggle for the lazy fingers out there.

Marine Control Scheme Idea

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:48:13 GMT

Here is a possible control idea for a marine control scheme on Xbox 360.

Physical Actions

This button would control all of the characters physical actions. It would be a context sensitive control that would do different things dependent on the player characters environment and situation, similar to Gear of War. For example:-

Sprint - While already moveing, tap to break into a sprint. Any other action while in a sprint will cancel the sprint.
Vault - When near low obstacles like walls.
Hop - When near very low world objects, hold the button to hop or jump over them.
Mantle / Climb - When near high walls, press to make the character mantle up and climb over or ontop etc.
Melee - Press when near to human opponent to melee attack them.
Resist Face Hugger - Press rapidly to fight off face hugger attack.
Assist Team Mate (when face hugged) - Press rapidly to help team mate out.
Sprint from Cover - (while in cover mode) Instantly break away from cover and into a sprint.

Reload / Interact

Pressing this button would reload the current weapon and briefly displays the ammo reserves. Picking up weapons would work like Halo, where you hold the X button to exchange the one on the floor with the one in your hands. This button would also be used to interact with the environment by briefly holding it in, like in Halo. For example: Open / close door, press switch, board vehicle, mount turret, talk to NPC, (If player has a hacker gadget) then hack terminal, bypass door lock-down, lock-down a door, (If player has a first aid kit), heal a team mate, revive a team mate.

I think everything else is fairly self explanatory.

Eggs

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:49:00 GMT

Another thing I would love to see is egg animations that show their contents wake up from its dormant state. Like in the original Alien when Kane touches the egg and sees it moving inside before it opens up. It would be extremely cool to run into a room full of eggs and then see them transition from their dormant state.

Aliens Plot Idea

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 07:59:35 GMT

Here is the first part to my Aliens: Corporation War story. Not much characterization Im affraid since its not really my strong point.

Aliens

Corporation War

Prologue

You begin the game, playing as a rookie colonial marine private. For the first couple of levels, its just a typical days work in the life of the colonial marine corps. Maybe freeing some off world VIPs from crazed terrorists or suppressing colonial rebellions. These first missions are just to get us into our characters shoes, and something to divert our attention away from what is going to happen later on. Anyway, the missions go well and we are promoted to Private 1st class and then to Corporal, at which point we are attached to Bravo Company of 2/8th USCMC.

The Setting

The story itself, takes place on an isolated mining planet located just within the Outer Rim, called Regulus 51. It is orbited by a single large moon twice the size of Earths, that has a liquid ocean beneath a thick ice surface. Regulus 51 itself is a cold, dry, gray, barren planet with extreme winds and a weak nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. The planet has a surface gravity comparable to Earth, but the planet is only just capable of sustaining life without outside aid. However it is loaded with highly valuable heavy metals, which influenced Weyland-Yutani to colonise the planet just over forty years ago. It is one of W-Y first and oldest established colonies with a population in the thousands and several mining settlements covering the surface. For the most part, Planetside living is an extremely harsh existence, with cramped living conditions, severe electrical and dust storms, and high mortality rates.

The colonist inhabitants rely heavily on W-Y for off world deliveries of food, medicine and other supplies. They have little in the way of luxuries apart from the odd bar or recreational facilities scattered throughout the settlements. Over the years the colonies population has grown dramatically and is on the verge of breaking point. Life down there is pure hell, and the inhabitants are breaking their backs and dieing like slaves so the company can make huge profits. None of this ever reaches back to Earth, and the general public haven’t a clue what is going on in these most remote of deep space mining colonies. Recently the company outright refused to provide further funding to relieve any of these problems.

After exhausting all political avenues, key members within the Regulus governing body formed a clandestine agreement with an unnamed company belonging to The Union of Progressive Peoples. The U.P.P are a Russian, Chinese, South East Asia Syndicate created in response to the formation of the United Americas in 2104. They are direct rivals to the United Americas, and compete for territory and mining resources throughout the outer rim and core systems.

Note: I borrowed the UPP idea from the unused Alien 3 script, you can find floating around the net.

The deal is to circumvent W-Y, and sell a quantity of the valuable raw materials on the side. After several years W-Y eventually catch onto this mainly due to the drastic decline in production making its way to their refinement factories. After being confronted, the colonials own up, but at the same time declare independence from W-Y regulation. Over the past six years and with their new found wealth, the colonials where able to acquire armaments and build their own private army, with the help of the U.P.P.

The main defence force numbers are largely made up of a colonial militia, who are a resourceful and hardy bunch, and have been trained well by their U.P.P friends. The colonials have also been supplied with a large number of high-tech arms, illegal combat synthetics and have hired a small number of professional mercenaries.

Upon this realisation, the United States Space Command at W-Y’s request immediately send out a single Marine Space Force, Eridani starship to quell the rebellion. As the MSF starship enters Regulus space, the colonist rebels transmit a warning, that they will defend themselves if the starship attempts to enter orbit or land any contingent of ground troops. Ignoring the threat, the marines proceeded into orbit, and in the ensuing encounter the starship is destroyed. Shipping of minerals from the planet continues. But, from that point onwards, military action escalates further with three more MSF starships sent out to blockade the planet and to attempt to land an invasion force on the ground.

Current Day
The year is now 2121, exactly seven Earth days before the USCSS Nostromo and her crew of seven, leaves Thedus Spaceport, bound for Earth, with a new replacement science officer onboard. At this time there are NO KNOWN contacts on record with a sapient extra terrestrial life form.

The story continues as you, the Corporal are stationed onboard a USCM starship named The USS Argo. Which is one of the three starships sent to retake the rebel held planet. The whole operation seems like just another colonial rebellion OP, though an extremely high priority one. It begins with the Corporal waking up in his cryo-sleep capsule just as the Argo is about to enter into Regulus space. He, along with his platoon are briefed on the mission, armed and prepped for deployment to the planets surface via dropship.

PART 1 - Into The Fire

0800 Hours, June 5, 2121 - Morning

As the three MSF starships approach orbit, the colonial rebels transmit their threat of defensive action. Again ignoring the threat and with orders to take the planet by force, the starships enter into Regulus’ orbit, and start to deploy heavy starlift shuttles and dropship's from their undercarriage launch bays. Suddenly the sensors on the bridge of the Argo, begin tracking multiple contacts from all sides. Down on the planet, the rebels have just activated their orbital mine defence system. The MSF commanders realise this too late, and a massive explosion fills the sky as the lead MSF starship and two of its already deployed transports collide with densely packed orbital barrier mines. Just in time, the commander of the Argo orders deployment of countermeasures and breaks orbit, while its already deployed transports manage to weave through the loosely placed barrier mines. The third starship is not so lucky however, with it knocked off course and thrown into the planets gravity well. The starship holds together just long enough for its three transports to deploy.

Pieces and chunks tear off the starship as it enters into the planets atmosphere and burns up on re-entry. The twisted and scorched inner structure holds together somehow, and finally ploughs straight into one of colonies nuclear power plants. Upon impact, the fusion reactor instantly goes critical and explodes, nuking everything within a 5 kilometre blast radius, killing thousands and leaving a giant mushroom cloud in its wake.

Fortunately, the invasion forces landing zone is far away from the explosion, and the subsequent fallout. The Corporals UD-4H Dropship makes it down to the planets surface unharmed, but is buffeted and rocked about under a hail of enemy anti-aircraft fire and surface to air missiles. As the dropship lands the Corporal sees on the monitors several more dropship's deploying chaff and smoke screens as they land on the planets surface. Then a heavy thump as the dropship's landing struts touch dirt. The onboard M577 APC unbuckles from its moorings and rolls off the cargo ramp, a lucky enemy artillery shell hit’s the dropship point centre, exploding it on top of the APC. The APC is crushed and pinned beneath, but its occupants are safely protected inside by the thick armor plating. Gearing up the NCO pries open the APC’s heavy door and steps into the dusty gray openness of the battlefield. Looking around the Corporal sees that several more dropship's and HL-70B Heavy Starlift Shuttles made it down to the surface safely, and are now deploying their consignment of troops and armor. Nearby a heavy starlift shuttle deploys its M22 Jackson Tank and the squad hitch a ride on the tanks exterior. Taking up positions behind a dozen other armoured vehicles, the M22 moves towards the enemy lines. A couple of enemy T34 Hopper VTOL's thunder overhead unloading their missile payload into the heavy starlift shuttle, and destroying it in a massive explosion. Enemy mortar rounds and shells are now zeroing in on the invasion forces location. Explosions begin peppering the landing zone, taking out, yet another heavy starlift shuttle. The Corporal looking up, spots a dropship fly overhead and unleash a full spread of banshee unguided missiles into the enemy artillery line, finally silencing the deafening explosions.

Rumbling forward and reaching the entrenched enemy defensive line, the squad deploy on foot and take position behind a nearby M577, away from enemy machine gun fire. Here the platoons NCO turns to the Corporal and informs him of his new objective. An enemy jamming station, is preventing both short and long range communications. It must be located and taken out to allow an up-link between the marine ground forces and MSF starships. The section leader gives the Corporal command of a four man squad. Flipping down their head/helmet mounted displays (HMD), the NCO brings out his PDA and wirelessly uploads an aerial map of the current area to each squad member. Within the miniature HMD windows, a topographical map appears with several locations marked and circled in red. He informs that these are the six mostly likely spots the rebels would set up a jamming station, and then orders the Corporal, to search each one in turn. With their new orders in mind, and splitting off from the main assault force, the squad acquire a four wheeled LAV. And make their way to the first site marked on the map.

Along the way the squad encounter rebel defences and scores of rebel foot soldiers, but they are easily evaded or dealt with by the roof mounted 15mm machine gun. Checking the first three sites turns up nothing more than more rebel fighters, until they come to the fourth. As the squad approach they are opened fire upon by a couple of rebel infantry fighting vehicles (IFV's). Bringing the LAV to a stop within a low sheltered dip, the squad dismount the vehicle and grab the phased plasma infantry gun (PIG), from the back. The Corporal splits his squad into two fire teams and orders fire team one to flank left and create a diversion while his anti-armor team with the PIG, takes out the IFV's. Thirty seconds later and with no friendly casualties the squad successfully manage to eliminate both the IFV's. After a short breather, the squad continue on foot towards the defensive position, which sits atop a high mound. There, a trailer supporting a jamming transmitter can be seen. Guarding the transmitter is a well armed group of rebel militia, also supported by combat synthetics. The militia should be no trouble, but the androids are another matter entirely. Intel said the rebels might be using synths, so each squad was equipped with M17 EMP grenades for use with their PN 30mm grenade launchers. Loading the EMP grenades and sending a volley into the androids, immediately causes them to overload and shut down, allowing the squad to make a final attack on the militia. Defeating the enemy forces and satchel charging the transmitter takes it offline and restores the marines battlenet communications network.

PART 2 - Relay Station
1400 Hours, June 5, 2121 - Afternoon

Now up-linked with the Argo’s commanding officer, the players squad receive new orders to locate and capture the enemies Relay Station, which allows the rebels to control and track the orbital minefields. Flipping down their HMD's a small Intel video is streamed over the battlenet to the squads miniature displays. The video shows a topographical map of an old way station left over from the initial colonization of the planet. The commander states that this is the most likely location for the Relay Station. He then explains that the station should not be destroyed until the orbital mines have been deactivated. Until this happens the Argo cannot enter into a geostationary orbit and provide support.

Note: The orbital barrier mines are tracked and controlled from a secret ground base. They are usually deactivated to allow haulage freighters into orbit for transporting the raw materials mined from the planet.

Rearming and taking another vehicle, the squad rendezvous with an M22 Medium Tank diverted from the frontline's by command. The squad and armoured support now head for the relay station. Upon arrival the squad encounter heavy enemy defences, consisting of four more IFV's which are supported by hypervelocity intelligent missile systems (HIMAT's). The squad, now on foot must destroy the HIMAT's and rebels defending them, allowing the M22 to engage the IFV's. After an hour or so of brutal fighting, the squad finally break through the Relay Stations defences. Reaching the bases entrance, the squad blow the door with another satchel charge, and head inside to clear out the remaining rebels. Finally, they locate the control room, and the squads com-tech hacks into the system and disables the barrier mine network.

The USS Argo now enters into orbit and begins scanning the surface of the planet. On the bridge of the Argo, the ships android is scanning the site of the nuclear explosion, and notes that the fallout is blowing safely away from the marine invasion force and the ongoing ground battle for the Spaceport. Good news, but then he detects a strong power source emanating from a location on the very fringes of the blast zone. He is positive, that the power source was not there before, and nothing of human construction is capable of giving off readings that strong. It appears that the nuclear blast has reawakened something laying dormant underground. At first the female W-Y adviser, who has come along to over watch the operation, isn’t too pleased about the loss of such costly property, not to mention the loss in human lives. But after discovering the power emanations, she becomes intensely interested. After scanning the power source extensively, she reports it back to her superiors back on Earth. Eagerly the advisor encourages an expedition to investigate the site. It is decided that a small team made up of the company adviser herself, the ships android and a small squad of marines for escort duty, should go to investigate the emanations, while the CO stays aboard the Argo and continues to over watch the invasion.

Note: The ships android is a Hyperdyne Systems model 120-A/2. (Same as Ash). Known for their odd behavioural programming, the 120-A/2s tend to be flawed machines and are often disliked by the marines and crew who work alongside them. The Argo’s company of marines and crew are no different.

PART 3 - First Contact
2030 Hours, June 5, 2121 - Evening

The company advisor and android take the remaining dropship in the Argo’s hanger, piloted by the two remaining pilots, and rendezvous with the Corporals squad. Once accompanied, they head off to the rocky plateau where the power source is located. They deploy by dropship on the outskirts of the plateau, and travel the rest of the way by APC leaving the dropship behind. As they draw closer to the power source centre, they see on the APC’s monitors. That a large chunk of earth has given way atop a high hill, revealing a strange organic looking structure that disappears into the ground. The structure is definitely not man made. Oddly the Geiger counter is not detecting any strong radiation levels within the surrounding area. So donning NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) protective suit’s, just in case, the team leaves the safety of the APC and approaches the structure on foot. Along the way the android theorises that the nuclear blast reactivated the buried structure. Maybe to protect itself with some sort of defensive shielding. It may also be possible that the same defensive shield is somehow responsible for the low radiation levels.

As they reach the structure the group suddenly begin to feel strange, as the air seems to condense and close in around them. They can feel the hairs on their bodies stand on end as a prickly, electrical sensation washes over them. The surface of the structure, has an unusual biomechanical texture to it. Stepping closer, the group see that a large oval section has an opening in it revealing an entrance inside. Stepping through the elliptical orifice and crossing the entrances threshold causes the air to suddenly pop as if the electrical current in the air had some how been negated.

Within the unnatural interior of the bizarre structure, our group come into a high oval biomechanical passageway. Proceeding further inside they come across many otherworldly sights and unfathomable edifices. The structure now appears abandoned, and the maze of high corridors and circular chambers seems to go on forever. Within one room a sphere like, biomechanical machine appears to one side. The machine is about head height with a helmet sized hole at its top. Circling around the hole is a thin layer of green mist.

Without a second thought, the company advisor climbs up onto a nearby ledge and passes her gloved hand through the mist, as if to feel its consistency. It reacts instantly with a high pitched whine. Otherworldly symbols begin to take shape within the mist along with strange three dimensional images. Everyone gathers around and the android notes that the symbols keep oscillating. Removing her hand from the mist, causes the symbols to freeze in place. A few seconds later and the mist returns to its symbol-less dormant state again.

Suddenly, a noise is heard behind them, it sounds like human voices, back the way they came in. As our group back-track through the high oval corridors, they run into another, much larger, investigations team. This time sent in by the colonist rebels and supported by combat androids. As the two investigations teams cross paths, fighting breaks out and during the chaos the combatants finally end up in a room that looks like some kind of storage area, or on closer inspection, a testing facility. Within the centre of the room is a basin shaped space filled with organic looking jars or eggs. The basin is covered over with a blue mist that reacts (Just like previously), with a high pitched tone, as our group passes through it, to take cover at the opposite end of the chamber. Around the sides of the room are dozens of machines all facing the basin. Unnoticed to the fighters the eggs begin to open, and suddenly the room is filled with screams of terror as horrific looking creatures begin leaping out of the eggs. Soon the basins floor is writhing with activity, and the rebels, who at this point are in the centre of the basin, are dropping like flies. Seeing this and forced back by the well armed combat synths, our group retreats deeper into the structure. After several more gun battles with the androids and strange spider like aberrations, they finally end up at a dead end chamber. As they step into the circular dome like space, the ground shudders for a moment, then suddenly drops vertical into a shaft a few thousand meters into an enormous cavern, like a fast moving freight elevator.

After a few seconds the platform finally comes to a stand still. A smaller platform appears to one side of the lift platform. Looking over the side, the shaft continues down into an indeterminable expanse below. From looking around the cavernous space, it seems the only way back out is up the lift again. So the group looks around for some sort of control mechanism. In the far corner of the smaller platform is a smooth pedestal shaped machine. The machine is about six foot high and has a thin layer of green reactive mist layered over its surface. However at the base of this machine is what looks like an alien body. It is fossilized into the floor at the foot of the machine. The creature is a bi-pedal humanoid, and looks to be around fifteen foot tall. It has a biomechanical appearance about it, similar to the structure. Its chest appears to have a large hole in it that looks like something erupted from the inside out.

The female advisor moves up closer to the alien and the pedestal, and looks the scene over before turning and saying “Well I’m not putting my hand in there, you saw what happened to the colonials”. The Corporal looks around and sees that everyone else is unwilling also, so lowers his weapon and places his hand into the thin sheen of green mist. Again, the mist reacts with a high pitched tone and the odd symbols appear to form. Once more while physically within the mist, the symbols constantly shift form. The android then speculates that the mist layer is some sort of user interface. An alien version of a computer terminal. He observes that the interface requires physical contact before it becomes operational. He then theories that the interface may require organic physical contact to work properly. The advisor asks the android to elaborate and he looks towards the Corporal and replies “Try removing your suits glove, allow direct contact with your skin“. The android then further speculates that the machine could somehow read chemicals transferred through the skin. The Corporal nods and withdraws his gloved hand from within the mist. He removes his glove and places his hand back into the mist. Instantly, the thin layer of mist reacts turning from green to red, and the symbols change and freeze within. Then a small, bullet sized hole flicks open within the centre of the machine and a small biomechanical tendril emerges. A couple of seconds later and a tiny needle sized projectile shoots forth from the tendril straight into the Corporals domed helmet. It shatters the face plate and embeds itself into his cranium and dissolves into the tissue. The Corporal falls unconscious into a deep slumber.

A kaleidoscope of bizarre thoughts or memories explode directly into the Corporals consciousness, initially the memories are undecipherable to the human mind, only presenting themselves as a hopscotch of bizarre moving shapes and ghostly alien sounds. After what seems like hours, the world fades black before a flash of white light and then a rapid slideshow of still images in reverse order. The slideshow gradually slows down and freezes on what appears to be a bi-pedal biomechanical alien. (Not the xenomorph, but a Pilot). Just like the fossilized one found at the base of the machine.

The vision now begins to play at a more regular speed. It shows one of the aliens standing at a machine and observing another alien surveying the eggs, within the basin shaped test facility. The observer alien quickly looks around as if to see if anyone is watching and then performs a downward motion with one of its appendages, towards the green mist covered machine. Straight away, a blue reactive mist springs to life and covers the entire floor of the egg basin. The appearance of the blue mist startles the surveying alien. It immediately looks up at the control machine, but the observer alien is nowhere to be seen. As the surveyor quickly looks back he sees a nearby egg begin to open. The surveyor begins to back away and the vision dims just as a many fingered nightmare leaps out.

Next, the Corporal sees the observer fleeing into some kind of bioship (The crashed derelict space craft from Alien). The vision dims again and then shows what appears to be a large circular room inside the bioship. In the centre of the room is a telescope shaped machine. The observer activates the green mist interface at the base of the machine, and a large spherical ball of blue mist forms directly above it. Within the mist sphere, a three dimensional star chart springs to life. The observer can then be seen plotting a course away, from what is obviously Regulus 51, to an unknown distant star system, and passing through the ZETA 2 RETICULI system (Where Acheron / LV-426 is located) and further out past the outer veil. The vision dims again and one last image is displayed and that is the cargo hold of the bioship full of eggs. The vision dims permanently.

PART 4 - Downtime
1700 Hours, June 9, 2121 - Evening

Ninety-six hours pass before the Corporal awakes from his short term coma, and finds himself, safe and well back on the single remaining colonial marine starship, the Argo. He wakes up in the med-bay on an operating table. The med-tech checks him over and calls in the ships commander. Apparently a full bio scan has been performed and no traces of the needle like projectile could be found anywhere within his body. However his metabolism has significantly increased and his body seems to have undergone some form of minor change, on a cellular level. The commander questions him about the blackout and the Corporal describes in detail the the alien visions. He describes the biomechanical life forms, the eggs, the bioship and the alien star map. The advisor asks the android if he can extrapolate the plotted course of the bioship, from the details given in the vision. The android replies “I should be able to". A nod from the commander sends him off to perform his calculations. The commander then tells the Corporal to get some rest, and turns to the med-tech and says "monitor him". The Corporal sinks back down onto the padded table and drifts away.

Several hours later and the Corporal is awoken and called to the briefing room and debriefed on events over the past four days of his unconsciousness. During the debriefing, the Corporal learns that the rebels deployed orbital barrier mines into orbit around the planet and that these, destroyed the other two MSF starships during the initial invasion. The Argo is the only surviving starship, and has a single flight capable dropship remaining. The Corporal also learns, that the invasion force, met stiff resistance as it approached the rebels main defence line, and that the assault on the Spaceport failed. Most of the marine invasion forces are now either KIA or MIA. And without enough men and orbit capable craft remaining to deliver supplies and reinforcements, those still in communication went to ground and dug in to await back up. However, since the encounter with the strange eggs and alien life form, many of those teams have had a loss in communication and are also currently listed as MIA. Worse than that, transmissions received from the planets surface indicate that strange, biomechanical life forms run amok among the planets population, and marine and colonist civilians alike are calling for evacuation from the surface. So far, only twenty survivors have been rescued and evacuated, including a squad of Charlie company marines and a handful of civilian colonials. The Argo’s orders, for the past four days have been to hold in near geostationary orbit around the planet, maintain communications between remaining ground teams, and monitor any transmissions coming from the surface.

As the debriefing draws to a close the commanding officer tells of recent developments. The company back on earth, have become extremely interested in the alien structure, and especially reports of the strange alien life forms. They are sending their own science division and more Colonial Marine reinforcements with an ETA of around seven months. But until then, the Argo's crew have been tasked with rescuing as many survivors from the planets surface as possible. Recently the Argo has been in communication with 2nd squad, from Bravo company. They are dug in near to Regulus` main colony settlement, known as Columbus’s Wealth. These marines are asking for immediate evacuation and have been sending back reports of their contacts with the hostile biomechanical life forms. The Corporals new objective is to rendezvous with 2nd squad and evacuate them to safety.

PART 5 - Infestation
2100 Hours, June 9, 2121 - Evening

For the second time, the Corporals squad deploy to the planets surface by dropship. It does a brief flyby of the settlement, where the Corporal spots a moment of sporadic fighting on the APC's monitors. As the camera pans around, infrequent gunfire can be seen through the main complex's windows. He also notes that most of the streets are blocked off with makeshift barricades and heavy vehicles. The dropship swings around and touches down temporarily, just long enough for the APC to roll off the ramp, before it takes off to safety again.

Deployed near the centre of the colony, the APC travels a short distance north towards the main complex, and comes to a stand still just outside the front entrance. The APC's roof mounted spotlight powers on and washes across the moonlit settlement. The squad disembark, and the driver slides shut the heavy armoured door behind them, and covers with the turret mounted twin 20mw PPC (phased plasma cannon). Moving on foot towards the complex, the squad momentarily hear, distant automatic weapons fire. Switching on their own shoulder mounted lamps, the squad look around and see signs of a recent battle, but no bodies, just discarded marine and rebel equipment. Evidence of gunfire, and explosions litter the entire area, along with what looks like melted structural damage. During re-entry, communication with 2nd squad was lost again, so now the CO wants the marines to search the settlement starting with main colony complex.

Note: The main complex is a massive four level building consisting of a sublevel basement storage area, a ground level full of offices, an infirmary and scientific research facilities, and a second story operations centre overlooking the colony. The complex also has a second sublevel basement area for maintenance use.

The battered doors to the complex are sealed shut, so the Corporal gives the order to bypass the lock-down. A few seconds later and the com-tech has the heavy metal doors sliding open. The squad proceed inside and find themselves on the main ground floor. To their left is a set of stairs with an arrow pointing up to Operations, straight on takes them to Administration, and to their right a corridor leads to the Infirmary. The Corporal brings out his locator, but the reading is locked at 000, signifying that 2nd squad is out of range. Command orders motion trackers online, and the point-man lowers his weapon and brings up his tracker, scanning the area with his offhand. The marines hear a soft, reassuring, intermittent blipping as they head down the corridor to the Infirmary. The complex is running on back-up power so the marines rely on their shoulder lamps to light the way. Entering the room, they see several of the many fingered life forms stretched out on examining tables with medical instruments pinning back their fleshy interior organs. It appears the colonists where performing an autopsy on these creatures. To one side, the Corporal sees a researchers laptop. It is still working so he links it to his PDA and copies over the files. He accesses an audio file labelled 'Internecivus Raptus, Stage 1', and plays it back through his headset.

He hears an elderly mans voice describing in detail, the life forms biology. It was way too technical for the Corporal to understand, but something about acid for blood and it requiring a host to inject its egg into. Sounded horrible but made more sense of what the colony survivors where saying, back on the ship. After doing a thorough search of the Infirmary and uploading any other information they found, the CO orders the squad up to Operations, to hack into the colonist computer network, in the hopes of finding out more information about exactly what is happening.

Backtracking down the corridor and moving up the stairway to OP's, the squad see more devastation. Scorch marks on the walls and what looks like melting. Massive holes appear in the stairway, its like the metal steps have been corroded away by acid. The marines can see straight down to the ground floor and also into a section of the subbasement. The damage is pretty severe and makes navigating the steps up to OP's fairly difficult. At the top, a makeshift barricade seems to have been ripped away by some powerful force. The doors are still sealed however. The Corporal orders the com-tech to bypass the lock down, but the doors still don't move. "Must be welded shut" the com-tech says. The Corporal pulls out his own personal mini welder and sets to work on the door. Three minutes later and the squad are able to pry the door ajar with the help of a nearby loose pipe.

Now the marines are gathered around one of the still working terminals in Operations, the com-tech begins uploading colonist data to the Argo via battlenet. Leaving him to his work, the Corporal looks around and finds another nearby terminal, he accesses it and scans the files. A few seconds later he finds a surveillance video marked with June the 6th. He downloads the log to his PDA and plays back the grainy video on his HMD.

Within the miniature display, a colonist armed with a shotgun can be seen, firing through a door at an unseen assailant. A high pitched inhuman screech can be heard off camera, along with a woman's cries of terror. The colonist continues to unload his shotgun into the next room, when suddenly, black biomechanical appendages burst through the ceiling directly above him. Bending metal, the arms grab the guard by the head and pulls him through the hole headfirst, leaving only a pool of his blood behind. The woman's cries intensify as another black shape moves over the wall mounted surveillance camera. It is impossible to make out due to its closeness. The out of focus black shape, purposefully, slowly crawls over the camera and disappears, a few seconds later the woman falls silent. The video ends.....

Abruptly the motion tracker begins pinging. Straight away! the point-man with the tracker spins around and begins scanning in every direction. He pinpoints the direction of movement and the Corporal signals the squad into formation behind him. The point-man moves towards the readings, which takes him back down to the ground floor. The readings take them through offices, storage rooms and a cafeteria area, but no signs of life can be seen. What ever is causing the readings seems to be keeping its distance. Indoors the tracker only has a detection radius of about 15m, and the fleeting signals only show themselves at the very edge of the trackers detection range. The readings almost seem to be drawing them further into the complex.

The squad draw deeper still, and further signs of acid damage and a recent battle are discovered along with what looks like strange, fleshy, shedded skin. The med-tech bends down and picks up the molted skin with her knife, she moves it closer to her nose and sniffs, withdrawing in disgust as the odour over powers her senses. They continue, still drawn on by the intermittent tracker readings until they come to an arrow that marks the subbasement. Here the squad stop dead in their tracks, what used to be the stairway down into the subbasement has now been replaced by some major structural changes. Grafted onto the inner foundations of the building is some kind of solidified resin material. It formed a rounded almost burrow like entrance, that lead down into the lower levels.

On orders from their CO, the squad enter into the alien tunnel. As they traverse the steep uneven, slope, that bends in a spiral to the right, communications begin to break up. Eventually the squad find themselves at the bottom, probably in the second subbasement of the complex, and in a matrix of narrow running passageways that all adjoin to one another at different angles, some at vertical slants. The battlenet comm's link is completely garbled now, and almost undecipherable, but they just manage to hear their CO give the order to proceed on mission, before the transmission completely breaks up. Continuing on, and taking the passageways with the most even ground, the squad walk into an antechamber where they see human bodies mounted into the walls. They all appear to be dead, with large holes erupting outwards from their open chest cavity, just like the alien in the ancient subterranean structure, and just like the rescued colony survivors described back on the Argo. They also spot the jar shaped eggs from the biomechanical underground structure. These ones have already opened, and a cluster of the many fingered horrors lie dead about the floor. As the squad proceed into a second antechamber, they hear distant human moaning, and then screams of pain farther off. Suddenly the tracker begins pinging, motion is detected all around them and is off the scale, the squad are completely surrounded.

At this point our squad have walked straight into a trap. In disbelief the squad look on in terror as eight foot tall, biomechanical monsters, materialize straight from the living walls of the alien chamber. These biomechanical life forms aren't the same as the ones the Corporal saw in his vision. These ones have ridged elongated heads, and are exactly what the colony survivors described as Xenomorph's back on the Argo. With no time to think or react, the point-man is instantly lifted off his feet and dragged away into the shadows, along with his motion tracker. With survival instincts kicking in, the remaining squad members open fire with their pulse rifles. The alien warriors attack ferociously and from all directions, disorientating and confusing the marines. The squad, minus one, retreat firing their weapons as they go, and fight a running battle of survival, in an attempt to reach the exit.

The three remaining squad members, hearing more gun fire up ahead, and taking a wrong turn to investigate, enter into the largest antechamber they have seen yet. The room is a horrifying sight, a hundred or so human bodies cover the entire surface of the chambers walls. Screams of pain cry out in chorus, along with the whimpers of the barely conscious, pleading to be set free from their cruel bondage. Hundreds of eggs litter the entire floor of the chamber. At the back of the chamber the squad can see the source of the gun fire. A number of rebel combat synthetics are battling with the deadly black assassins, while at the same time attempting to free the still living colonials from their prisons. The androids, due to their directives and seeing the marines enter, immediately open fire on them too. But more alien warriors rush the androids, perceiving them as the greater threat and forcing the androids to re-evaluate their threat assessment. The squad return fire into the room and back out the way they came in, knowing there's little they can do to help the colonists, especially with those androids being there. Thankfully this little diversion pulls attention away from the marines and allows them to back track all the way to the exit of the alien tunnels. Moving as fast as they can, the squad reaches the exit passageway. But just as the squad are about to climb the upward slope, a lone smooth headed xenomorph, appears out of a vertical shaft overhead, and punches a hole clear through the med-tech's helmeted head, with an inner set of striking teeth, and disappears with the female marines body. In dismay, the remaining two marines fire up into the shaft, but hit nothing and see nothing. Turning they climb the steep incline and the Corporal primes a satchel charge and slings it down the slope, collapsing the entrance behind them.

Back now in the less infested portion of the complex, the Corporal contacts the on standby dropship, but for some reason there is no reply, the only answer he receives is from the APC driver who claims to have picked up 2nd squad and is still waiting outside the complex. Still moving and hearing more movement behind them, the remaining squad members retreat to the complex's exit, and finally emerge into the openness of the moonlit sky. Still pursued by Xenomorph's, the duo dash for the safety of the APC as its occupants cover them with a volley of hot plasma from the PPC. Sliding open the heavy APC door and climbing in, the Corporal catches a glimpse of movement off to his right, but before he has time to warn the com-tech following up behind, the alien warrior has already cleared the distance and snatched the marine off his feet. The com-tech lets out a scream as the xenomorph bears him away. Slamming the door shut and jumping into the drivers seat, the Corporal sees multiple black shapes materialising out of the surrounding darkness through the APC's forward window. He hits the accelerator and speeds the APC away feeling a slight thud as if something just bounced off a wheel. Now onboard the Corporal inquires about the whereabouts of the dropship, and the APC driver in the back, replies that the CO ordered it back to the Argo.

Columbus’s Wealth is a maze of narrow streets, crossroads and irregular buildings. Speeding along, the APC meets dead end after dead end, as the Corporal tries to navigate it around the rebel erected barricades, living accommodations and military defences. The alien warriors are relentless and seem to be flooding from every dark corner, door way and window, leaping from rooftops to land atop the APC as it passes by. Most hit the side or go sliding off, but the ones that get a grip, begin scraping chunks of metal from the armoured roof. The terrified APC driver is controlling the roof mounted PPC from the control console in the back. Attempting to dislodge the xenomorph's on the roof, he fires the PPC at point blank range, instantly killing himself and exploding the creatures in a superheated explosion of plasma and acid, that also rips away the turret and the back section of the roof. More Xenomorph's attack and the Corporal opens fire with the forward cupola mounted 20mm gatling cannon. Two more Xenomorph's some how find their way onto the roof and attempt to climb in through the plasma and acid burned hole, but the three surviving marines from 2nd squad take them out with 10mm LAP rounds from their pulse rifles. Finally, after a gauntlet of never-ending dimly lit dead end streets, the Corporal finds a side gate in the perimeter wall and rumbles out of the compound. As the APC leaves the built up area, the Xenomorph horde seems to slink back into the obscuring darkness. The ravaged and torn up APC, speeds away to moderate safety.

Weapon Implementation

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 06:33:10 GMT

Weapon implementation and how those weapons feel to fire is the most important aspect of any FPS. Getting this wrong can seriously damage how well the game is received. So I thought I would list a few examples of what most FPS fans like and what they don't.

Bullet Penetration
The Pulse Rifle and other weapons in the film, fire 10mm explosive tipped, light armour piercing rounds. So it would be nice to see them go through the average wooden crate and other weak surfaces. I want to be albe to fire through sealed doors at aliens on the otherside like Vasques does in the med lab scene. And we’ve seen destructible cover in the BIA:HH videos, so hopefully this feature should be a given.

Depth Of Field
As seen in Crysis and CoD4 when aiming down the sights, this is an awesome effect and really adds to the immersion. Also in the game Black, DoF is used to focus on the weapon when you reload, so that might be worth looking into. How about if you brought out you motion tracker, welder or hacking gadget? The DoF effect could blur out everything around them as if you are focusing on the task at hand.

Load-out
The player should not be able to carry more than 2 rifles and 1 pistol at any given time. I hate it in games like HL2 and Doom 3 where the player carries his entire arsenal around. For starters its not very realistic, and secondly it brings no fun to the choice of weapon you choose to take with you. Also, heavy weapons when equipped should make the character move slower, and the player should never be allowed to carry more than one heavy weapon at a time. For reference Drake carries his heavy smart gun and slings a flame thrower he as salavaged over his shoulder.

Selectable Fire Modes / Grenade Launcher
The standard M41A Pulse Rifle has, burst and full auto selective fire modes. Other weapons including M41 variants sometimes have single shot which is handy for us accuracy obsessed types. Selectable fire modes make the weapons feel more tactile and realistic and it makes a good gameplay feature, allowing players to conserve ammunition with burst or single shot settings. There should be an animation for this, where the player characters thumb manipulates the fire selector switch. Also the control button that switches fire modes needs to be easily accessible. We don't want to have to go into sub-menus like GRAW and R6 Vegas.

For the grenade launcher attachment, this should be fired with a separate button, similar to the film. Like the M16 M203 grenade launcher, the operator has to reposition his trigger hand onto the magazine so he can pull the GL's trigger, which is located just in front of the magazine well. So the game should have a separate fire button for this, a secondary fire button. However, unlike the secondary fire in other games, the GL should NOT fire instantly. Remember the operator has to reposition his firring hand first. So in game it would be cool to see the players character actually reposition his hand onto the magazine. It actually might be better to make it so the first press on the secondary fire, actually switches the PC's hand position, pressing it a second time would then fire the GL. Obviously for any weapons that have GL triggers closer to the rifle trigger, there will be no delay in firing the GL.

One last thing, the grenade launcher shouldn't auto reload by itself when it runs dry, forcing the player to wait until the reload is complete before he can fire his rifle again. Perfect Dark Zero does that and its really annoying.

Weapon Animations, Reloading
Detailed, slow, authentic and as realistic as possible is what I want to see from the reload animations. Also I like to see animations like pointing the weapons barrel down when the player is facing a wall or friendly marine, or bringing the gun up to shoulder height when the player comes to a standstill as you do in the Call of Duty games. Alternate reload animations for when a weapon still has a round in the chamber etc. I hate stiff looking weapons and those super fast reload animations like what you get in Halo 2.

Partially Empty Magazines / Tactical Reloads
Partially empty magazines or what is known as tactical reloads, is when the ammunition still remaining in a magazine after it is removed from a weapon is sorted back into the players inventory when he reloads. With the sort order determined by the magazines number of rounds left. Re-supplying or salvaging discarded magazines would sort them into the players inventory with the least full mags being replaced so as not to exceed the players ammo quota. This idea often only ends up in the most realistic shooters, but I think it might work well in an aliens game since pulse rifle magazine can contain up 99 rounds of ammunition. Always getting that 99 rounds back on each reload maybe a bit overkill. What if the player carried a total of six magazines each with 99 rounds in them, thats just shy of 600 rounds. If partially empty magazine are implemented then the player wont always be using mags with full loads.

To be honest with you, I wouldnt mind if GBX actually reduced the pulse rifles magazine capacity to a more realistic amount, say 40-50 rounds. I don't know how you guys would feel about that, but I think it would deffinetly make the devs job of balancing the weapons a lot easier. It might not be accurate to the films, but then in the films it wasnt really accurate anyway.

Crosshairs Animated, Static and Laser Dots
I would like to see options for selecting our on screen crosshair or switching it off entirely like in BIA. Also, simple crosshairs like a red dot are much better than animated ones like FPS tend to have a lot these days, in my opinion the non static crosshair can be quite annoying and distracting when your crosshair keeps expanding and shrinking to represent the effects of recoil or character movement. Another thing with crosshairs is colour changing when passing over an enemy target. This can be a real game killer. Target IFF (Identification Friendly / Foe) gives away enemy positions, even when they are hiding behind soft cover like bushes etc. This is really unfair, especially in multiplayer when trying to be stealthy. I would imagine this feature would be the number complaint by any alien player in a MP game.

One of my favourite little features if weapon modding is put into the game, would be laser modules that give you a red dot crosshair like in Hitman. R6 Vegas had lasers too, but they didn't give you the red dot to use as a crosshair, so they where pretty useless. If it was up to me, and its not, I would remove crosshairs entirely, and instead let players rely on aiming down the sight, or if they like shooting from the hip, then give them laser aiming modules with a red dot to point centre.

Newb Reload Messages
And for the love of all that is good and fair in the world. Please no dumb-ass "RELOAD NOW OR YOU WILL DIE" style pop up text messages when your weapon is running low on ammo. Nothing kills immersion quicker than those stupid pop ups. If they absolutely have to be in there for the newbs, keep them on the easy difficulty setting or maybe just for the training level. In fact it would be cool to remove the ammo counters entirely from the screen, loads of games have done this in the past and I never really missed the counters. Just have the counter pop up when you reload your weapon, so you can check how many mags you have left.

Aim / Scope Sway
I'm not talking major earthquake style wobble here, just a subtle sway to give that feeling of aiming through a magnified optical lens or down a weapons iron sights. Obviously the greater the magnification the more sway should be apparent. It would also be nice if a steady aim feature was included as well. Overall it would just give weapons a bit more depth and make them more fun to use. I don't like how in some games, you aim down the sights and it is perfectly still, you take your shot but it goes way wide of the target area. If sight sway was implemented you would be able to see exactly where the bullet is going to go.

Aim Down the Sights
Aiming down the weapons actual iron sights as in BIA is a favourite feature among most FPS gamers. What we don't like though, is when the weapons sights are too close to the screen, blocking the players view. The way they are done in RB6 Vegas or COD4 is pretty good.

When aiming down iron sights, there are two things that happen at the same time, the view zooms in and the weapons position is centred in the middle of the screen, with the crosshair being replaced by the weapons actual sights. What a lot of games do is centre the weapon and also reposition the weapons rear peep sight too close to the screen, blocking off a lot of the players view. Another thing that makes this worse especially when targeting enemies at close range, is they often apply too much zoom level. I mean that is okay for weapons with scopes, but with iron sights and reflex sights it should be a minimal zoom, or no zoom at all with iron sights. Below are a couple of videos I made using STALKER to demonstrate.

Rifle Demonstration

Pistol Demonstration

Both the zoom level and how close the sight are to the screen are controlled independently. So removing the zoom wont always change how large the actual iron sights appear on the screen, and vice versa. In each video I prefer the first clip, because the sight positions feel more natural and the zoom level does not hinder aiming like it should with scoped weapons. The player has a good peripheral view and doesn’t become disorientated when looking around. In other words the distance of the eye to sight feels realistic and comfortable. It is okay to pull the rifles iron sight closer to the screen, a little because that is what you do when looking down the sights and pulling the rifles stock into your shoulder. With pistols it is different however, instead the firer outstretches his arms, making the sights appear further away, so in game this would have the appearance of the weapon moving further away from the screen when it is aimed.

So, for pistols & machine pistols, without a stock - Remove all zoom effects and push the sights further away from the screen.
Iron sighted rifles, SMG's, Shotguns - Should have a minimal zoom, no more than 5%, and don’t bring the sights too close to the screen.
Weapons with Reflex type sights - Should have no more than a 10% zoom effect.
Scoped weapons - The percentage of zoom can be determined by the scopes magnification factor.

Another thing, when aiming with scopes, or other optical sights, make it so the player looks through the actual weapon models sights, rather than instantly jumping to a static screen overlay with a reticule. We want to see our characters arms centre the weapon and look through the actual scope, so we can see the outline and edges of the scope. With reflex type sights, the player should also have a good peripheral vision outside of the sight.

And last of all, if ADTS is implemented, then for console don’t put it on the right thumbstick button. It needs to be on the left trigger, where it feels much more comfortable and natural. On the thumbstick it can be very, very fiddly, like not aiming when you want to, or accidentally pressing it down when you are just looking around. Happens all the time in Halo with the BR and Carbine and it drives me nuts. Also it should be a hold control like the COD games, toggle can be too slow.

Weapon Balancing
This can be a real game killer also. Giving weapons unrealistic values that don't correspond to their real life counterparts can create some serious forum activity. I have always thought the best way of balancing weapons, is to let the weapons balance themselves by giving them real to life attributes. Obviously since weapons in the aliens world don't actually exist, except for the blank firing props built from world war 2 era firearms, this is kind of difficult to do. So, to get this right the following basic rules should be followed:-

Calibre, Ammunition type and length of barrel = Damage
Calibre and length of barrel = Range
Calibre and rate of fire = Recoil
Weapon handling characteristics and character stability = Accuracy
Weapon size and weight = Move / Aim / Reload / Equip Speed

I know it is a lot more complicated than that, but you get the idea. Make it so that the weapons behave the way the gamer expects them to. If its got a long barrel then it shoots a long way, if it fires large calibre ammo then it does more damage.

Quick Draw Pistols / Quick Targeting
One of my favouirte things from the COD games, is quick draw pistols. Switching between rifles takes time, but switching to your pistol in an emergency is fast, allowing you to get the drop on an enemy reloading his weapons when you both run dry at the same time.

Another cool feature from those games is the Quick Targeting feature with the left trigger. Very handy for console play.

Smart Gun Operation
I think it would be cool if the smart gun could feature as more than just a uber auto-aim cannon that requires little skill from the player. Below is a description from the CM technical manual that describes how the weapon acquires and tracks targets.

"This system monitors a 30 degree cone in front of the gun, and transmits high resolution thermal images in the 8-10um range to a miniature video display in the operators eye piece. If a target is detected, the tracker will overlay a lighted box or rectangle on the screen over the targets centre of mass. The articulation arm will self-steer the gun to aim at this point, and as soon as it has done so, a target lock circle on the screen lights to indicate that the target is bore-sighted. If multiple targets or infrared false-target decoys appear in the sight, the operator simply steers the lighted box to bracket whichever target he actually wishes to engage."

In Lost Planet the player is able move the crosshair with a degree of free play before his view begins to turn. I think Star Trek Elite Force 2 (PC) had a similar feature. What I am proposing is that this is how the smart gun would operate in IR tracking mode. With the HMD sight flipped down the reticules as seen in the CMT manual could be displayed on screen. The gun would auto-track like it does in AvP, but the player could override this using the above system to target alternate targets Just like it describes in the manual. With this system players could attempt to target certain alien limbs like going for head-shots etc. Switching to manual mode would remove the free-play allowing the player to aim as normal.

Weapon Concepts 06

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:44:48 GMT

My ICW (Infantry Combat Weapon) and MWS (Modular Weapons System) concepts. If Aliens where made to day, I imagine that the pulse rifle might have looked something like this. Maybe this weapon could be used by human opponents in GBX game. It stands to reason that any human enemies would be using their own firearms instead of USCM issued weapons.

Click for larger version

Weapon Concepts 05

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 10:46:50 GMT

Here are a couple more weapon concepts. The first is the M42A Scope Rifle from the Aliens Colonial Marine Technical Manual and the second is a new design for an automatic assault shotgun.

Click for larger version

Power Struggle - MP Idea

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:49:22 GMT

This idea for a multi-player game, is sort of a fusion, between the popular zombie game type and the standard team objective game type. Lets say the games story takes place against the backdrop of a corporation war, down on the surface of a distant colony planet overrun by aliens. There are two human player teams, Colonial Rebels and Colonial Marines. There is also a third faction which is the aliens. Initially the aliens are ONLY controlled by the computer. The maps are designed in a triangular fashion, with human teams in one corner each, and the alien faction at the remaining corner.

Faction / Goals

Marines - The players on this team have goals to obtain a certain quota of alien specimens and to survive against the alien horde. (Alien Specimens: This could be DNA samples from eggs, a sample of shedded skin from a growing alien and /or a sample from the queens egg sac.)

Rebels - The players on this team are tasked with preventing the Marines from achieving its goals while at the same time surviving the alien horde.

Xenomorphs - This faction must overrun completely both the Marine and Rebel teams by abducting players and turning them into aliens.

Custom and Base Classes

Just like in the single player campaign, players should be able to create their own custom characters similar to the create a class feature in COD4: MW. Though there should be a small selection of base classes for players that want to jump straight in.

Marines: Med-tech, Com-tech, Recon (point-man), Support.
Rebels: Colonial Militiaman, Hired Mercenary, Combat Synthetic.
Xenomorphs: Warrior Alien, Elder Alien, Juvenile (dog) Alien.

For the character creation ideas, see my character editor post.

Bases

Planetside Maps - Maybe an APC or Dropship for the Marines and a make-shift Command bunker for the colonist rebels. Aliens would have their hive.
Space Maps - Bases could be on upper and lower decks with the alien hive in the centre.

Armoury

Both sides get access to a wide assortment of military grade armaments. They can be different due to suppliers of the armaments. But it is important that both human sides can take it to one another equally.

Upon re-spawn, players start off with a basic pistol, nothing more, but can equip themselves with better weapons and equipment from armoury stations found within their bases. Depending on how well the teams are doing, better items appear within the armoury stations. This could actually be tied to secondary objectives. For example, to have a flame thrower appear in the armoury, the players must capture and hold a workshop room. To get the smart gun, the team must capture and hold a weapons lock-up room, etc, etc

Also rather than have a forced class system, where players are given equipment that they cannot exchange. Using this system, players can simply go to the armoury, and switch equipment at will. Motion tracker for welder, med kit for sentry gun or shotgun for flame thrower etc. It would ensure teams and individual players always have access to anything they need, without having to kill themselves and spawn as a new class to get the equipment they need.

Re-spawning, Death and Switching Sides

If a human player is killed by another enemy player or an alien, then he re-spawns back at his base. However, if a human player is abducted by an alien and returned to the hive, then he cannot re-spawn. Instead he must wait until his team either rescues him or he becomes host to an alien. If left to the latter fate, he changes sides and his old team becomes one man down, and the player that was abducted re-spawns as an alien.

As a chest burster, the player must then help the Alien faction overrun the remaining human players. But first, he has to feed and grow through to adulthood, before he can help by abducting more humans. Dieing at this stage will always re-spawn the new alien player as an infant or juvenile alien, dependent on his progress. Once adulthood has been reached the player will always re-spawn as an adult from that point on-wards.

Winning and Scoring

The human team that completes the most objectives and survives the longest, wins. The game ends when all human players have become aliens.

At the end of the game there will be a dual score board. One team score board and one individual player score board. All players will appear on both score boards. Alien players score very high points from kills and abductions. Any points scored while over on the human teams are carried over and added to the players alien scored points. So you may loose on the team score board, but still win on the individual player score board.

More winners means more happy gamers.

Opposing Mode Coop / MP Idea

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 23:50:24 GMT

I have been looking at the zombie game Left 4 Dead recently, and it has a very innovative use of player versus player gaming. It has been mentioned a few times previously on the GB Aliens forum and it seems like four players take on the roles of human survivors, and have to fight through a horde of zombies in true coop style. However two more players can join the game as zombie sub-bosses.

Personally I think this is a great idea and it kind of reminds me of the Counter Operative mode in Perfect Dark (N64). In that, players could jump into the bodies of bad guys and take control of any enemy in the level. So for GB's game why not merge the two ideas together and call it Opposing Mode or something.

For example (I will explain it from the Marines perspective, though this could easily be done from an Aliens perspective instead), four coop marine players are up against a horde of A.I aliens. Two more players join the game as observers and are given the option to join the game on the side of the A.I aliens. Now to make this more interesting for alien players, initially they should only be allowed to jump in as face huggers, with their goal to score a sufficient number of head humps / accumulate a sufficient percentage of damage on the marine coop players, Once done then they get to take control of more powerful creatures with more abilities. This then continues with the opposing Alien players gradually getting to take control of more and more powerful Aliens, in an effort to stop the coop team.

I think this would be great, as a replacement or addition to your typical multiplayer versus game. Since the teams wont have to be even and players can experience both coop and versus multiplayer in a way that would capture and be truer to the atmosphere of the films. Playing as the marines would be like Cameron's Aliens with Marine player up against a horde of aliens, and playing as an Alien coop team would be like Ridley Scott's Alien film with only four alien players up against a huge number of A.I and player controlled humans. Multiplayer levels could be designed in a way that would allow both game play styles.

Career Mode Idea

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 22:03:04 GMT

I felt like expanding on the coop idea a little more with some sort of long term career mode and XP gain, ranking up etc. Something similar to what MMORPG's have, where friends can meet up online and go adventuring together. But instead, hosted by players and doing one off missions on stand alone maps. Kind of a cross between Diablo and Rainbow Six: Vegas.

Career mode could be a split screen / LAN / online capable coop, multiplayer game. Players would work cooperatively together to try and complete missions against A.I opponents. Since players are not competing against one another, games should be fairer with less cheating going on in an effort to level up. And by going up against A.I opponents the teams will not have to be balanced on a one versus one player basis. Instead players can be thrown up against a horde of Aliens, (or Marines if the player chooses to play as an Alien). Also weapons / abilities can be powerful without having too many problems with nerfing things down for balance sake.

As I said above, players could choose between playing Marine coop games versus A.I Aliens, or Alien coop games versus A.I Humans. So, a player can create either a Marine persona or an Alien persona. By completing missions the players chosen character would earn experience points and level their characters up over time in a form of career. Marine characters would gain ranks and unlock new weapons, equipment and avatar customisations. While Alien characters in career mode would start off as the lowly face hugger and progress up the sub-species list and unlock more powerful abilities as they go along. Maybe even have unlock-able missions that can only be accessed at higher character levels.

Individual players could then be ranked on a competitive high score table. And information like campaigns and missions completed along with statistics like, total number of kills, deaths etc are recorded for all to see. It rewards players with an online persona detailing personal achievements and time spent with the game. And since its all coop, players would know that all scores and ratings would have been obtained legitimately. From experience this type of gaming is extremely addictive and always keeps me coming back for more with me wanting to reach that next level or rank like in Battlefield 2 (PC).

Number of Players

1-4 players LAN / Online.
1-2 players split screen.

Also 2 players on split screen should be able to join up with other single or split screen players over LAN / online games.

It would also be extremely cool if 2 additional players could take on enemy roles like in Left 4 Dead, and fight along side the enemy A.I.

Cooperative Campaign Ideas

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:58:56 GMT

This cooperative mode could be like Halo 3, Rainbow Six: Vegas or Gears of War coop story modes. Where gamers and their friends get to team up and take on the single player campaigns A.I together. Players should be able to play 2 player split screen on the same console or join LAN / online hosted coop games and play through the entire story (cut scenes and all). The difficulty level should either scale to suit the number of players, or alternatively, harder additional difficulty levels should be available to compensate for increased player numbers.

Number of Players

1-4 players LAN / Online.

1-2 players split screen.

Split screen coop should have two options, one for a horizontal split screen (my preffered method) and one for vertical split.

Also 2 players on split screen should be able to join up with other single or split screen players over LAN / online.

Weapon Concepts 04

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 08:24:55 GMT

Here are some more weapons concepts I did for alternate pulse rifle types. Both the M41 with television sight and SAW variant are mentioned in the colonial marine tech manual, and I always wondered what they might look like. So I decided to do a couple of concepts for them, and here they are. I also did a carbine version because I love carbine weapons. Also a few people previously asked for weapon customisation in the new Aliens game. Although I really liked the idea, originally I couldn’t see how it could be done without bolting on things to the standard M41 that might make it look cumbersome. Then I thought what if the shrouding on the weapon could be switched out for a RIS style shrouding with rails for attaching scopes and lasers, similar to the real world M4 SOPMOD kit. This would allow for weapon customisation like seen in COD4 and Rainbow Six: Vegas.

Click for larger version

Thanks to Raider65 for the pulse rifle variant information.

Interactive Environments

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:43:42 GMT

Things like destructible light sources, flammable containers, usable computer terminals, door security / lock panels and maybe even light switches would do a lot to immerse gamers into the world. Also the landscape and scenery should be destructible as much as possible. I would like to see bullet impacts, explosive craters and acid melted grating etc.

Marine Armaments

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 17:04:02 GMT

I would love to see every weapon and gadget from the films modelled for the game, and maybe have GBX introduce newly designed armaments like light machine guns, carbines, sub-machine guns, machine pistols, automatic shotguns and multi-shot grenade launchers etc. All with similar aesthetics to the film weapons. Here is a list of weapons directly related to the film that I have found.

The Basics:-

VP70 Pistol (Real world name)

Seen in the film, this is a 9mm x 19 caliber, semi-automatic pistol. It has a 18 round magazine capacity. Hopefully GBX will include the VP70 in the game, maybe update it a bit though. As it has aged a lot since Aliens was made and now seems a bit outdated for the Aliens universe. Especially compared to weapons like the Pulse Rifle and Smart Gun.

M4A3 Pistol

Mentioned in the CM Tech Manual. This is a 9mm x 19 caliber, semi-automatic pistol. It has a 12 round magazine capacity and is the standard issue marine sidearm. The image in the CMTM looks very much like a Colt 1911A1. Again I hope it is in the game, but I also hope they update the visuals for this weapon as well.

M41A Pulse Rifle

The real star of Aliens, the M41A Pulse Rifle, is the workhorse of the USCM, and can deliver high volumes of fire from its 99 round high capacity magazine (though in practise it is normally only loaded to 95% capacity to reduce jamming). It fires the 10mm x 24 caseless, explosive tipped, standard light armour piercing round using an electronic pulse action. It also comes fitted as standard with a under-slung 30mm pump action grenade launcher, which has a internal 4 round magazine.

M42A Scoped Rifle

This weapon also mentioned in the CMTM, but not seen in the film would be a decent addition to the marine armoury in GBX game. Its essentially a bullpup sniper rifle that fires the 10mm x 28 round of the smart gun and has 15 round magazine capacity. The weapon comes fitted with a flash hider, bi-pod and multi-spectral scope.

Ithaca Pump Action Shotgun

In the film this is Hicks antique Ithaca shotgun. Definitely not standard issue, but it could feature in the game as a homage to the film. Its a 12 gauge pump action shotgun with an internal 6 round magazine. Could be fun as an unlockable, but again the game really needs an updated shotgun for taking on the xenomorphs.

M56A2 Smart Gun

In the film this enormous weapon is used by Vasquez and Drake. It is the colonial marines machine gun. Fully portable using a special boom arm and harness. It fires 10mm x 28, rounds from a 500 round capacity drum and features an auto targeting computer that and steers the weapon to bore down on enemy targets.

M240 Flame Thrower

Another must have weapon for the game, the flamer seems to be an essential bug hunting weapon. It is designed for use in close combat scenarios at the squad and fire-team level. It uses pressurised, ultra-thickened napthal fuel which is ignited by the forward burner as it is leaves the nozzle. It can shoot flame up to 30 meters and the fuel droplets will stick to surfaces and continue to burn for around thirty seconds. It has a detachable fuel reservoir for up to twenty seconds continuous shooting. The flamer can be used to blind angle burst around corners and through defencive slits. Also the flamer can operate in a wet-shot mode, which sprays out unlit fuel, allowing the operator to ignite it by switching the burner back on and creating fireballs and fiery walls of death.

Multi-Shot Grenade Launcher

Not seen in the film, but if you look through some of the archived photo’s in the collectors edition of Aliens, you’ll see a 6 shot 40mm grenade launcher. I think Cameron originally intended for there to be one in the film, but for some reason we never got to see it. It would be fun to see something like this in GBX game.

UA571-C Remote Sentry Gun

Seen in the DC of Aliens. This weapon fires the 10mm x 28 round of the smart gun and has a 500 round ammunition drum. It operates in an automated state from a laptop, but can also be directly taken control of using target acquisition gear as described in the CM Tech Manual.

M40 30mm HE fragmentation grenade

Used by the pulse rifle, and can also be used as a ad hoc hand thrown grenade by popping off the cap. The 30mm GL munitions also come in several other types including HE armor piercing, Canister buckshot and air-burst fragmentation rounds. There are others including non-lethal and flare rounds, but I don’t think these would make effective game play features.

The following weapons are mentioned in the Colonial Marine Technical Manual.

M38 Light Machine Gun

Apparently the Marines still have access to the older model M38 that was replaced by the Smart Gun. The M38 sounds like a modern day M249 LMG or M60 machine gun. So this could be a further weapon to bolster the marine armaments. Maybe this weapon could be available first with the more powerful Smart Gun only becoming available later on.

M41A Pulse Rifle with Television Sight

A variant of the M41A pulse rifle mentioned in the Colonial Marine Technical Manual. It is fitted with a 3x Television sight.

M41A-E2 SAW

Another M41A pulse rifle variant. This one sounds like a squad automatic weapon variant. It has a larger magazine and it fitted with a bi-pod and a heavy duty barrel.

M5 RPG

A shoulder fired rocket propelled grenade launcher. Very similar in looks to the real world RPG-7

M83A2 SADAR

Another shoulder mounted and fired missile weapon. This one is disposable like the real world LAW.

M78 P.I.G

A Phased Plasma Infantry Gun. The details of this weapon in the manual are a bit vague to be honest. As far as I can figure its powered by plasma and actually fires small vaporized cadmium telluride pellets. Has a thirty round magazine and comes with a power pack.

M112 HIMAT

Basically it’s a deployable weapons system, mortar style, two shot missile launcher. The operator targets and fires the weapon using some form of target acquisition sight like a laser designator. The weapon also operates in an automated state much like the sentry gun.

M5A3 Bounding Mine

A pop up mine that launches 2m into the air before detonating when sensors are triggered.

Some of these weapons could lead to unbalanced gameplay unless nerfed in someway. However, I don’t think weakening them by making them less powerful is always the best way. In the single player these weapons could feature in limited quantities, only being available on certain missions for very short periods of time. For multi-player, I think it would be best to feature them as map specific pick up weapons. Like in Call of Duty, heavy weaponry was only available at limited supply cache points with the player able to replace one of his weapons to pick one up. Possibly make it so that the number of these weapons available scales with the number and types of enemy opponents on the map.

Also I don’t like the idea of marine players hefting these large bulky weapons around on their backs, its not very realistic. Well, the mines and anti-tank weapons are okay, but the Sentry and HIMAT should not be all that mobile.

Weapon & Equipment Management

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:17:35 GMT

It would be cool if weapons, ammo and equipment management was a big part of game play. Having each team member including the players character only able to carry a limited supply of weapons, equipment and ammo that actually runs out rapidly, would create some extremely tense game play where the whole squad often ends up starved for supplies and looking to salvage as they progress through the level, similar to SS2 and Resident Evil etcl.

Standard Equipment:-

Combat Armour, Combat Knife (Is only equipped if all the players weapons run dry), Shoulder Lamp, HMD (Head/Helmet Mounted Display - Shows objectives, map and displays PIP mini video screens similar to GRAW), Infrared Vision.

Sidearm Slots x1

Allows the player to carry one small pistol sized weapon.

Primary Weapon Slots x2

Rifles, SMG's, shotguns, smart guns and RPG's etc, would fit into these slots. Though players should be restricted in only being able to carry one heavy weapon at a time. Also heavy weapons should prevent the player from sprinting.

Inventory Item Slots x4

Motion tracker, first aid kit, welder, hacker, SR-90, bounding mines, alternate M40 grenade types, alternate hand grenade types, laser sights, suppressors and scopes etc. The types of items chosen would define the players role within their squad, it would be like the create a class in COD4 mp, but for SP as well. Also I think using four inventory slots and including weapon mods among them would be a good way of balancing gun modifications. For example a player could choose a hi-cap mag, scope, suppressor and fore grip for his M41A Pulse Rifle. This selection would allow for a nicely modded weapon but at the expense of not being able to carry other stuff like grenades or motion tracker etc. The weapon mods like, hi-cap mags and scopes would passively take up the inventory slots.

Ammunition Quota / Tactical Reloads

Players should only be allowed to carry a limited supplies of ammo for all their weapons. Though unlike most games where the player has maximum pool of ammunition that is drained each time the weapon is reloaded, in this game it would be cool to have an actual real life magazine limit. How many rounds are left in those magazines is something the player would have to keep a careful eye on.

First Person Body

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 04:24:09 GMT

Not the most important feature in the world, but it does detract from the immersion a little when you look down and you have no legs. Same with climbing ladders or vaulting over walls and not seeing your arms etc. Little things like if you are wearing a space helmet or gas mask, they should be seen on-screen as they add to the immersion factor.

Marine Weapon Concepts 03

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 14:26:00 GMT

Here are a couple more concepts I did.

The first weapon is a similar deisgn to the Neostead dual tube shotgun. The dual tubular magazine has a over barrel configuration with cartridges being loaded in from both sides at the top for easy access, and ejected out of the bottom when the foregrip is pumped.

The second concept is a personal defense type weapon. My design is mainly influenced by the FN P90, but operates slightly differently with the projectiles pointing down towards the barrel. It features a similar rotating breach mechanism similar to the HK G11 that the caseless ammunition idea of the pulse rifle was based upon.

Click for larger version