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[Micro102]

guns that shoot different ammo based on the fuel you give them, the fuel can come from different "planes" gotten to by naturally or man made portals, each with their own enviornments and creatures.

If you want a story, DO YOUR JOB 

[eerr]

Actually I like the steampunk Idea.

Just copy bioshock, no shame. Just like the idea of an FPS has been done a thousand times, you too can make your own steampunk. In fact, it's new compared to an ordinary fps.

If people claim you copied bioshock tell them thats what inspired you.
possibly some sort of gritty bioshock-fallout 3 mix.



On the topic of aliens, IT would be really awesome if the hero could make some "deals" with the aliens, like making a deal with the devil. A private deal with the hero. Like if you steal a crate of random earth-guns from a factory and give it to one faction, they beam you a blaster ray. But aliens will defend themselves from earth-guns better.
Or you beam the other faction 100  human dna samples, and they enhance your strength. But aliens can now genetically engineer other humans.

[Shaostoul]

-Steampunk is out, sorry.
-As far as I can tell, time travel, magic, and superpowers and supernatural stuff is out.
-It is 1-4 player co-op.
-I don't think there is going to be a team vs team deal.

Apologize for the late reply.

I'm going to try my best to get the player immersed into the game. We'll see how that turns out.

[Jakkarra]

I still vote for an alien squad.

You could have four guys there, with bots replacing the non-played characters.

[Cheeetar]

As for reasons why the aliens might be attacking, maybe they're clearing planets out of the way for some big project, and the easiest way to do that is to drill to the core and place a big bomb in it or something?

You could have four guys there, with bots replacing the non-played characters.

Like L4D?

[Dr. Johbson]

It's hard to just give ideas for something I really don't know what is. So, I'll just talk about what makes me happy in games.

First of all, likable characters are very nice. Anyone who's ever played anything in the last 4 years knows what I'm talking about. No 'witty' one-liners please. Emotions are cool too.

Lighting is the most important part of graphics. Now, I'm not a big graphics guy, but I do know a beautiful game when I see one. Lighting, and lack there of, is better than polycount and resolution.

Sound is also very important in the immersive factor. Nothing like the sound of footsteps slowly approaching, and getting louder, as Mr. EvilDude (and his shadow) slowly creep around the corner, and when he finally turns the corner, you know his face was frozen in shock as you plunge you knife into his throat, and that your grinning face was the last image he saw.

..Ok, maybe I like stealth games more.

[Jakkarra]

Like L4D?

Maybe...

[Zangi]

Like L4D?

Maybe...

Sounds interesting.  Now make teamwork actually matter.

[Cheeetar]

Like L4D?

Maybe...

Sounds interesting.  Now make teamwork actually matter.

What.

[Halmie]

Maybe the first third of the game you are fighting alien A but as you get to know their weaknesses and abilities you find out they were actually running from alien B. Alien A's plan was to lay low on earth but how do you hide 50 million aliens coming in? First they used fake asteroids. Doomsayers thought it was the end of the world (2012?) but soon it was discovered there were aliens and we attempted to catch them. It then progressed into all out war. In the second third the two alien factions fight it out and the primary goal is to survive (maybe helping alien A?). Alien A gets owned time after time. But its not the end. Alien B thinks we are harbouring some of them and sends reco troops that you have to defeat.

It starts out organised troops in the first levels but as time progresses earth is being turned to shit and you have to go in solo. Maybe an ending cinematic where you manage to come to an (temporary?) agreement with Alien B.

Probably a bit unflexible with what you already have but imo you should sorta have something similar.

[Micro102]

-Steampunk is out, sorry.
-As far as I can tell, time travel, magic, and superpowers and supernatural stuff is out.
-It is 1-4 player co-op.
-I don't think there is going to be a team vs team deal.

Apologize for the late reply.

I'm going to try my best to get the player immersed into the game. We'll see how that turns out.

Wow you just pushed off about 90% of all FPS's...Even one of the call of duties has zombies in it.

your choices are now war, consipracy, gangs, or .......well i cant think of anything else.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Well, that leaves sci-fi team-vs-world. My plot still qualifies, sans the later stuff with superpowers. Anything up to driving the first batch of aliens off the planet will work, with the arriving fleets of other races as a sequel hook.

Start out with modern military fighting a hopeless struggle to keep the aliens out, continue with the Resistance operations against the invaders, finish with a complex assault on the aliens using their own weaponry.

If you want, you can attempt to incorporate the Battle Mastery technique from Banpresto's SRW series. Basically, dynamic difficulty based on completion of optional goals, with rewards thrown in. So, if you storm through the beginning of the mission and arrive before a certain time, you'll have a chance to, for example, avert or tamper with the launching of some missiles. The reward will be armored backup or advanced hardware in some future mission from whatever area you saved, the difficulty will be that for one, you'll still have to deal with the original goal (and from a less advantageous position), and you'll see an increase in the number of guards around such places in the future.
Add a plot fork or two to get the player to feel like he's having more influence on the events than is actually possible. Say, the player character attends a meeting that discusses two parts of the same operation, and is given a choice to volunteer for one or the other. Both would succeed and the plot will return to the same stream afterwards, but there would, again, have to be some future repercussions for choosing either route. So, if you choose to assault the alien labs, you can complete an optional goal and get yourself an advanced gun a little earlier in the game, but if you don't choose to attack their airfields instead, you won't have friendly air support in a future mission, which you could have earned in that branch.

[qwertyuiopas]

Loading screens might be somewhat bad, so if there is a mission breifing, load the mission itself during the breifing. Prevent the player from starting until loaded, but otherwise, at least the first time through, they might not even know that the level had to load!

Also, if the maps are done well, you can break them up into smaller sections, and the game keeps the nearby sections loaded at all times so that, somewhat like the metroid prime games, it never has to give you a "area is loading" screen. Though unlike metroid, it would be on a more advanced system, so it would be better to load all near areas so that the player doesn't even have the problem in metroid where a door takes a second or two to actually open, depending on how long it takes to load the next area.

Maybe even load the first area and the most recent save's area during the title screen. They would likely be discarded when the player loads a save/starts a game, but the good chance of letting the player play as soon as they hit the button...

Long startup times are annoying as well.

Atmospheric effects are probably very important. Rain actually making things look "wet", even if it is just a texture effect applied to preselected parts of the ground. Lighting where shadows in view of the sky are still partially lit by it, even though they aren't lit directly by the sun. Pushing an object like a heavy crate across some surfaces might leave scratches, or for grass might temporarily flattern it.

All those are little things that would add up to make any game better, as long as the base game was well made.

[HideousBeing]

You could make a team game where you fight off aliens while trying to reach a specific destination. There could be special aliens like ones with long tentacles that grab you, pregnant ones that explode tiny aliens on you, fast ones that rip off your face, and an enormous one that just runs you down. You would want to stay near your teammates because they have to save you if you get attacked. Possible game names: "Back 4 the Future", "Left 4 Being Impregnated by Creepy Aliens", or "This Isn't Plagarism!"

But really... steampunk style that makes good use of overdone and unreasonable weapons. Magma gun anyone?

EDIT: I see steampunk is out although futuristic games can go pretty much anywhere. How about making the main character a sentient robot? I still would love a completely over the top style. Perhaps an evil genius style atmosphere.

[Shaostoul]

@Dr. Johbson (and everyone else for the matter), that's what I want to hear about as well, what makes you happy or enjoy a game?

Just an FYI if any of you know the name Paul Meegan, I hope that gives you a better understanding what type of group I'm working with. Maybe Epic Games or Sinister Games maybe?

This game has the potential to be a lot like Halo 1,2,3 in the fact that it could use multiple games to get the story out. There is going to be a long ass story from the sounds of it, but I'm not the head of story writing for it, so I'm not a 100 percent sure.

Also, I believe the game is taking the path of straight up war.

@EVERYONE - I'm doing this because I want to see a game that tons of people love. I want people to see stuff in the game that they love about video games.