Massive FPS Action Game

[[THM] Lexaeus]

Gameplay Information:

*deeep breath*

• First Person Shooter (holy shit)

• Aiming for "T" Rating

• Wave Respawn

- You spawn in "timed waves" and you spawn in with your squad.

- Some lucky squads get to paradrop into the combat zone or ride in on APCs

• 256 players online

- Can be on screen at the same time, so it is not broken down into split areas of the map

• Strictly multiplayer - Online only

- Possibly only retail release (Ed Byrne stated, "MAG is too massive to be a mere downloadable title)

- No splitscreen (Mike Gutmann stated, "We've got huge environments and lots of streaming going on to achieve fidelity - split screen would cause some real limitations)

- There will be an offline training course to let you get up to speed with controls, weapons, and all the equipment

• Action Shooter at its core

• Long Term Goals

• Vehicles including ground and air combat (unmanned)

• Destructability only with objects that can be destroyed or repaired, not full destruction.

• Set in the near future, 20 years from now

- Many weapons in the game are weapons currently in experimental/testing phases

• Audio cues (like air raid sirens after anti-aircraft positions are destroyed) inform teams if the attacking team is making ground

• Game modes ranging from 64 to 256 players

• Biggest maps are appx. 1 square kilometre

- Maps are based on three global regions - Alaska, Central Asia, and Central America

• Matchmaking fast and streamlined

• Push to talk (PTT) mics

- Squad channel

- Command channel (allows squad leaders to talk amongst themselves, as well as platoon leaders)

- Company channel (allows platoon leaders to talk together with the OIC)

• FREE online play



Player Roles:



• 8 player squads

- Inspiration from real life military operations

- 4 squads form a platoon, 4 platoons form the company

- Each squad, platoon, and company have specific objectives to complete along with secondary objectives assigned by OIC

- Allows for a team dynamic even when not in a clan, so the game is more approachable by casual players as well as hardcore players

• Lead by people who are "proven" to be good leaders

- Squad Leaders vs Even higher Chains of Command

- After reaching a veteran level, players can enlist in the leadership tree

- Squad leaders can plot waypoints and call in UAVs

- Proven squad leaders can be promoted to platoon leaders

- Leaders can issue FRAGO commands (Fragmentary Orders), in which they assign an objective by clicking a button that tells the squad to complete something like destroying a bridge

• Officer in Charge (1 per team, highest level of command)

- Has the ability to call on Strategic Maneuvers, which affect all players on one side or the other

- Tactical Asset Recharge is an example manuever that recharges the squads leaders abilities to call in air strikes, special abilities, etc.

- Abilities include satellite recon sweeps, enemy blockades, signals jamming, air bombardments, precision strikes, etc.

- Still a player on the ground like everyone else

- Players around him gain better abilities, like running faster, planting a bomb faster, etc.

• Leaders have access to the Command Network Interface (CNI), which is a tactical map overview that allows them to zoom and scan the map and show objective locations, etc.



Character Development:



• Character advancement tree to fine-tune your character

- Character development is about customization, personalizing, and specializing

- Not a linear progression benefiting the player (ex. not like COD, Battlefield)

• Character cusomization (face, voice, armor)

• Each player carries a primary weapon, sidearm, melee weapon, and three gear perks (smoke grenades, frags, med kits, rocket launchers)

- Can save three loadouts in your armory and switch freely when you respawn

• No set classes

- Free-form kit creation

- You earn skill points and decide how to spend them

- Another example is sprinting where you can increase sprint duration by sinking EXP into it if you're the kind of player that wants to get around in a hurry

• Earn double experience for completing objectives, killing enemies, healing teammates, etc.

- As an example, a sniper can earn extra points by killing enemies in a target area that you are attacking

- Earn weapons, perks, and leadership poisitions as you rank up

- Reward players for working as a team

• Medal/Award system will be in place

*deep breath*

Game Modes:



• Domination (256 players)

- Attackers start scattered along the map edges and move on foot or ride in one of a few transport vehicles

- Defenders must take outer defensive positions to meet the oncoming attackers

- Each defending squad is responsible for holding specific areas of the base

- Attackers must eliminate front line defense emplacements (bunkers, turrets, tank traps)

- Once in the inner base, attackers must take down anti-aircraft batteries and radar sensors

- Destroying things like the anti-aircraft batteries allow the attacking team to launch UAVs

- Attackers must capture and hold objectives and inflict enough damage to the defenders base to win

• Acquisition (128 players)

- Escort style requiring attackers to steal two protoype transports from a rival faction and escape to the extraction poin

• Sabotage (64 players)

- Attackers must infiltrate rival communication facilities and hold two control points at the same time

- Once achieved, a final demolition objective is revealed and must be destroyed to win

• Suppression (64 players)

- Pure infantry battle

- Only mode that does not contribute to the "Shadow War"



Factions:



• Three warring factions / Private Military Corporations (Raven, Sver, Valor)

- Their power struggle is dubbed the "Shadow War"

- You must decalre your allegience to one faction when starting the game

- Your PSN friends can only be on your team if they are in the same army as you

- You can change your allegience at a later date

- Each battle you fight impacts your factions standing

- Team with the most prestige plays as the defending team

- Once your faction wins enough in a specific mode, your faction gains the contract for that mode

- Earning contracts gives you bonus points, perks, weapons, or vehicles

• Raven

- Have high-tech futuristic weapons

- Play style will appleal to fans of sc-fi shooters like Halo or Resistance

• Sver

- Weapons arsenal may not be as powerful, but players are more adaptable

• Valor



General Information:



• Zipper has been working on the game for about 3 years

- Created a brand new server architecture to make the number of players possible in game at once

- 256 (players) is a number that fits well into the packet structure

- Dedicated server structure

- Servers make intelligent decisions to relay information to each player's console, optimizing each player's fixed bandwidth

- Eliminate cheating by monitoring server activity (tests probability of rate of fire, movement, and player damage)

- Algorithm writen that searches for gameplay anomalies to eliminate cheating (similar to PunkBuster for PC gaming)

• Almost everything developed in house, which includes: codebase, renderer

- Reason being they needed to get all the power they could get from the PS3 and to utilize it efficiently for the game

• 30+ fps (hopefully locked at all times)

• Has been running 256 player play tests since November 2008

• Originally built as a tps, but changed to fps to increase "immersion" (via PSM3)

• Will NOT carry the SOCOM franchise name (Confirmed via PlayStation Blog) & (Confirmed via Abigale)

• 2009 Release -> Sony confirms MAG for '09 (Press Release via Wired)

- Fall 2009

• Currently in Alpha stages (confirmed in developer interview - 4/30)

• Plans for both closed and open betas

- Beta details soon

[[THM] Becque]

It is a First Person Shooter!!!!!

[[THM] SGT-BRYAN]

Is it a 1st person shooter? LMAO