This is an idea that I had for a specific game that I'd like to make if ever I have the technical aptitude or know someone who does, but here goes. A post-appocolyptic open-world survival-MMO set after WW3.
The story: One day, the world was absolutely fine, kids playing on the streets, peace on earth, world hunger ended, and the next it all went to hell. Without warning the dead started rising in Germany. At first it was nothing serious, the dead ambling out from a car wreck, quickly being out down by police and systems for the dead quickly devised, but this had a profound mental affect. Seeing the dead climb out the grave doesn't just make the news, it signals the apocolypse. As panic started spreading throughout the world, people attempting to repent to reverse the divine wrath, the Infection spread. Israel, France, the U.K, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, China, India, Japan, the U.S., Mexico, Brazil. The governments of the world tried to deny the impossible nature of this Black Undeath, claiming that it was a highly sofisticated bio-weapon developed by the a power-hungry country. America blamed Russia, the only major power not yet infected. It did not take long before nukes were aimed at major cities between the U.S. and Russia. Many loyal U.N. members opposing this war turned their warheads toward the two powerhouses, receiving equal treatment form their targets. North Korea happily pointed their nukes at the U.S. with South Korea opposing them. Quickly, every country with a nuclear program was prepared to make use of it and in the most of the tension and the heated debates, one was launched. It is lost to history who fired first. The few Russians still alive today claim the U.S. Americans say Russia. Others claim North Korea got trigger happy, but soon most major cities had been wiped from the map. Moscow, New York, P'yongyang, Washington D.C., Seoul, Baghdad, Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, Paris, London, Berlin... The list goes on. In the aftermath, countries fell into pieces of their former selves. Many smaller countries became little more than groups of warring raiders and factions. The zombies of those killed by radiation poison and the aftermath of the Great Nuclear War filled the world with walking husks, forever changing it. 20 years later, the hordes of been thinned somewhat (though still massive), societies are stabilizing and on the rise, and you're here, ready to forge a new life.
Features:
•A body part, disease, hunger, hydration, and blood level-based damage system. 1 damaged hand makes most 2 handed items unusable and creates severe penalties for others. 1 damaged foot or leg gives a limp and prevents running. Broken bones cause great pain which need proper treatment. Burning limbs can be put out but will increase in intensity quickly, causing pain and semi-permanent to permanent damage.
•A faction multiplayer system in which players join a faction that slowly works it way up from a small clan to a sovereign state. Diplomatic states including:War (Reward for killing enemy), Hostility (small amounts of organized attacks, such a raiding with extra reward) Neutral (no relation. Can still fight) Truce (fighting forbidden. Members of the other faction will be highlighted blue and you will be notified of their presence when near) and Allied (Sworn to aid eachother during war. Can be done by sending resources, or combat assistance.) At later stages, alliances with other player factions and NPC countries.
•NPC countries. When the server spawns, these are placed from a premade list. Contain trading havens, in which any conbat will instantly make you hostile to the country and their guards that patrol the place. Player factions can trade caravans with countries.
•Trading caravans that can be raided by NPC countries, players, or player factions. Guards can be hired to prevent this.
•Dangerous AI and NPCs
•Set amount of raidable resources when the server begins. This includes scrap metal, rock, items, and wood that can be found lootable/extractable in structures and remnants of civilization.
•A pool of resources for NPC countries that determines everything they own or can build. Trade posts, guards, guard towers, military bases, and cities(contain many items to loot, but are heavily guarded. Toppling the capitol can destroy an NPC's country.). Profits made by trade and acquisitions by raiding parties add to the pool.
•A highly detailed crafting system that allows you to easily craft primitive weapons with sticks and stones without special equipment and gets more complex, useful, and rewarding with higher level crafting equipment. (Workbenches where you can build weapons, ammo, and armour from scratch using your resources and items.)
•As your faction progresses, the ability to create complex, automatic operations to gain raw resources from different constructions.
•A wide array of detailed and useful constructions to build, each requiring realistic resources.
•A wide variety of guns and ammo that you can find and build. Assault rifles, marksman and sniper rifles, shotguns(low and high-spread), machine guns, submachineguns, pistols, and machine pistols. Ammo: AP, HE, Incendiary (dragons breath, HEI HEIP(High-explosive incendiary + propellent, essentially a small incendiary bomb shot from a gun used for setting fires and area-denial. Shot by very few weapons (mostly large machine guns))and API) subsonic, varying calibers fitting different guns)
More details, the list goes on.
•New ammo- junk ammo. Some weapons are made to launch pieces of junk at lethal speeds and shotgun rounds can be loaded with an old rusty nail or other suitable item. Very likely to cause an infection.
•Wide variety of melee weapons, including maces, clubs, spears, swords, knives, bayonets, hammers, axes, and impromptu whacking sticks, like crowbars. Different attacks that can be blocked. Horizontal, generally faster. Vertical- most damage, slow. Stab/prod-has most reach, not as slow as vertical. Some items may not have workable points, making this either not an option, or an ineffective one. Special attacks for different items (spears having light and heavy stabs(more reach damage, and time)or being thrown for example). These will also allow one to hit different body parts more easily (overhead from behind knocking the enemy out easily, horizontal cut to the knee crippling a leg, or a precise stab at an organ or the throat.
•Primitive ranged weapons that can be crafted and found including recurve bows, longbows, compound bows, crossbows, throwing spear and atlatl, and slings that shoot rock or junk. Different types of arrows and bolts with different fletching (flight path), shaft length, (flight path)material (durability) and tips(shape and material)(damage and armor piercing. Can be poisoned or made of lead.) Will either brake or be retrievable after shot based on durability.
•Tools including axes, shovels, pickaxes, and farming tools. Used to chop, mine, dig, and farm for resources.
•Faction XP system in which the faction gains Unity points as members of the faction do quests and activities that benefit the faction.
•Faction based quests that can be undertaken only one at a time at any time. Can be defending a trade caravan, raiding an enemy caravan, or manual domestic tasks.
•Player based XP system in which the player has an increasing multiplier to faction XP earned by themself.
•Map that spans the entire globe with available resources, NPC countries, land, loot, and nuclear wasteland depending on location. Different areas are good for different reasons. Europe is a great start because it has a lot of early game loot, but as early game loot disappears, it will be crowded by the more experienced players. North America, more spread out. Good early game loot. More desirable mid-game. South America, little of note, good for late game base-building. Africa, full of warring countries that can be made hostile and fought for XP. Can be good for late game base building due to most people avoiding its desolate regions. Asia, bad early game due to the millions of zombies, but good to awesome loot in the mid game when the hordes can be thinned. Japan especially has much high-tech loot.
•Faction XP that determines the level of a faction and things they can build. For example, clans can make semi-permanent to permanent camps, and states can build cities, mining operations, lumber operations, oil wells, quarries, an plantations to be worked in by the population the cities support.
•Dynamic gameplay. Early game requires looting resources to survive, while late-game focuses on large states harvesting resources and building high-tech things themselves.
•Wide variety of vehicles to be found and to be made/customized, including boats, cars, trucks, APCs, jeeps, ATVs, sportscars, helicopters, fighter jets and bombers, stealth bombers (super expensive!), and more.
•Wide array of explosives,including molotovs, home-made grenades, frag grenades, HE grenades, grenade launchers, incendiary grenades, rockets, incendiary rockets, rocket launchers, vehicle mounted rockets, guided missiles, mini-nukes, nuclear missiles, and interception missiles for nuclear missiles(I think they're called IBCMs? Not sure exactly), and more.
•Robots, including security or attack turrets on buildings and vehicles, recon drones, combat drones, and miniature disposable tanks. Range from primitive miniguns mounted on an RC platform to drones that can be outfitted with guided missiles.
•Cybernetic and genetic mods that can be given to a character and lost upon death.
•Multiple game modes for more casual players, more serious players, and full (or as close as possible)realistic simulation.