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[MonkeyHead]

What games? Well, anything flash based/online, or free/share/abandonware. Buying specially for the gaming would be a no no... I do own a number of TBS and RTS (Homeworld series, tropico, civ3) games though.

Games like 10 min space strategy sim or strange advantures in infinite space could lend themselves well to this sort of thing, as they are complete games, free, dont take long to play and are highly random in outcome.

[Sappho]

Here's a list of some of my favorite games on Kongregate. Maybe some of these could be worked in somehow.

Mastermind: World Conqueror (Strategy)
The King's League (Management/Strategy)
Rebuild (Zombie Strategy)
Villainous (Tower "Conquest")
Hack Slash Crawl (Dungeon Crawl)
I Am An Insane Rogue AI (Nerdook game, you are an evil computer)
Deadly Neighbors (Nerdook game, strategy, you fight your neighbors with random objects)
Picma Squared (Picture-Drawing Puzzle)
Loops of Zen (Puzzle)
The Endless Zombie Rampage (Zombie Action Defense)

Deadly Neighbors could be particularly interesting because you can upload families for other people to play against. The person making missions could make an evil family to be taken out and link to it so everyone fights the same battle.

[Sowelu]

Hm, I will look into those!

Okay, the plot is coming together.  On the list so far:
-Doom or Doom II (yes, I was once a prolific level designer)
-X-Com
-Alpha Centauri
-SpaceChem

I'll look for more ideas, flash games next.

As for after-action reports, those will depend on the game and mission.  For Doom, a screenshot is meaningless for proof for example.  IDCLIP anyone?  SpaceChem, yes, upload your solution.  The best AARs win extra, make sure your team is the one who gets that!  Short LP-style things can help there, but don't waste a day on it.

Each submission gets points for your team, even a failure, as long as it has an AAR.  Each win is a little extra.  If at least one player completes a given mission, big extra points...so if nobody else is going to do Doom this week, make sure you are!  The story is driven by that "at least one win" principle.  Points will sway the tide, but if one team abandons a field of battle completely one week or can't pul off any wins, it can have a major impact on the story.

I'm leaving time travel behind for the first campaign, which will be a 4-8 weeks long with at least one weekly scenario for each game for each team.  I may take a week between the conclusion of one set of missions and the start of the next, to write plot and plot-critical missions. No multiplayer until we're off the ground and I have experience running it, but I do like some of those ideas.

"Alchemy" aka "Free SpaceChem prequel" will make it into a future campaign.

I will try to add more puzzly and non-war stuff but the game list so far probably hints at what's coming plotwise.  <3

[ExKirby]

Upon seeing games list- =D

Upon realising that I don't own any of those games: D=

And I'm not really into Single Player FPSes.

...

Portal 2 doesn't count =/

[a1s]

-Doom or Doom II (yes, I was once a prolific level designer)
-X-Com
-Alpha Centauri
-SpaceChem

I can not help noticing those are all proprietary games.

[Sowelu]

Aside from Freedoom, point me at a replacement for any of those.  They are, however, games that a lot of the forum population already has...hopefully.  I know we love AC here, I can probably make it work on Doom shareware + zdoom, Spacechem needs a good replacement, and anyone without X-Com...Well...Hm.  I don't even know what to SAY to you.

Find me a good free sci-fi TBS and I'll swap that in for SMAC, that includes a solid FreeCiv mod.

Still looking for more good puzzle games where I can post a homemade puzzle to solve.  Sci-fi theme or neutral theme is ideal.

Honestly, proprietary games are often easier to mod, use, set up, and play.  So...I guess a big thing in the first couple weeks will be seeing how many people actually play which games!

EDIT: Oh hey, Mechwarrior 4 is free now.  Would anyone give that a spin?  I'm realizing I can't please everybody, so if you want a game point it out, if you don't then don't play it <3

[a1s]

Aside from Freedoom, point me at a replacement for any of those.

I think you need some of the original files to use Freedoom. In the same vein, there was an updated version (Aliens are better fleshed out, and some features are put back in, like the horrible, horrible self replicating snake-men *goes into PTSD shock*) of X-Com, but it needs the original graphics to run. download taken down for copyright issues.
If we're not going with that, there's Ufo2k, for healthy multiplayer fun (same deal- you only need the original graphics to run it). Could be a fun mission in the time travel segment.

Honestly, proprietary games are often easier to mod, use, set up, and play.

I would not have guessed that, but I guess that is a priority.

[Sowelu]

The reason I favor 1-player experiences so much is that, well, I'm starting small.  There might not be anyone to play against who your schedule matches up with, at least that you can set up in a week.

This also means that competitive (non-puzzly-solitaire style) games need good AI, unless they are Doom style monster squishers.  Which puts X-Com remakes out of reach.  Sad ):

I WILL look into Ufo2k though because it IS fun <3

I will aim for an October 7 "release" and I'll announce it in Other Games a few days prior, once the plot is all settled.  God I hope you guys can balance the teams, haha.

[a1s]

There might not be anyone to play against who your schedule matches up with, at least that you can set up in a week.

I wouldn't worry, as long as the teams are big enough we should hit all 3 major time zone... er zones.

[Sappho]

Okay, I guess count me out. I have none of those games and no interest in playing any of them. If anyone starts up another one of these using different genres of (free) games, I'd totally be up for it though.

[Sensei]

A lot of the free games mentioned are big downloads, and you have to learn a bit to play. Also, I don't see how you can avoid people just trying missions over and over until they succeed- so unless you make the challenges ridiculously hard, it really comes back to who's willing to play the games in the first place- and that's if you just give a smaller bonus for failing! If there were penalties, you'd probably see people going as far as making accounts to post failures on the opposing side. I'd like to say that Bay12 practices better sportsmanship, but remember the 'Who Would Win' thread? It was a frivolous game organized by polls and people actually created dummy accounts to rig the votes.

[a1s]

How about we go with more than 2 teams? Teams are determined before the game starts so we can we can weaved them into the storyline or whatever we have. Each team is overseen by a team captain, who before the start (announcement) of each challenge determines who is at that moment on or off the team. So if you just create a dummy account you get nothing. And if you make a rival cap believe this dummy is a good fit for his team, you get mad props, and they get a bad player.

If we are going with this, I'm announcing my team captainship for the "Awesome a1ss team" (tell me if it doesn't fit the naming scheme)

[Sowelu]

People who create extra accounts for this kind of thing are sad, sad people who deserve only pity.  Besides, this is for fun, not for SRS BSNS.  Losing is fun, and it's not like people on the losing team will just keep getting shafted, just that the plot will go a little differently.  That, and I think I can apply some common sense where sheer numbers of people completing missions are concerned (re diminishing returns, or something similar).

Difficulty isn't going to be absurd for most stuff.  A reasonable newbie to each game (but still a gamer in general) is likely to complete, oh, easily half the missions although some will be a big challenge to finish.  There'll be more hardcore ones too, sure, but I'm aiming for "it's fun having varied experiences I wouldn't otherwise have, and watching the plot evolve around me while I get occasional shiny medals and ribbons".  It's not "I must prove my internet-tough-guy value by winning everything forever".  Friendly competition; I'm sure you people are capable of it, and the world won't end if some guy on the other team is a douchebag.

As for multiple teams, are you trying to kill me?  Writing plots and fun missions for two teams is going to be time-consuming enough, considering that they aren't precisely symmetrical.  Besides, it's still casual enough that people can hop in or out of the game at any time without wrecking their team.  "Oh god I have to play this week or my team captain is going to be angry" is, well, not what I'm after.  That, and only having two teams means that I can write a bit ahead of time, and it's good proof against people who drop out and leave the plot hanging.

MechWarrior 4 is here:  http://www.mektek.net/projects/mw4/download.html  It's kind of weird, but that program is a neat (official!) matchmaking client that includes a torrent-thing that downloads the actual game itself.  You tell it to install the game, then it'll want to grab a patch, and poof it works.  It's like a gig and a half, but it's a solid game on its own.

Doom:  I'm personally going to do my Doom stuff in either ZDoom or Chocolate Doom (which is a source port with, like, zero extra features whatsoever except that it works well in modern OSes).  I'll start it out with Doom 1.9 Shareware.  Snag ZDoom or Choclate Doom and the Doom 1.9 Shareware WAD (bottom link).  You can run it with the full version of Doom 1 or 2 as well, but the shareware makes it a free game.  <3

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri:  The free demo will NOT work for this, sadly.  But you can still play it!  Even if you don't get it for this, you might still have fun with it.

X-Com, I'm not even going to try to screw with the demo version.  But hey, the full version is five bucks on Steam and Direct2Drive and probably other places.  Then again, if you like games like X-Com you probably already own it...but who knows?  (For the record again, X-Com missions if I can get them to work will be battlescape only, no geoscape.)

SpaceChem: The demo won't let me make custom levels.  But again, see if you like it, it might be your thing.

[a1s]

Besides, this is for fun, not for SRS BSNS.

I doubt anyone though it was for a Software Requirements Specification of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. 

[RedKing]

Interesting idea. I've got X-Com, I've got SMAC, and I'm not above a little yo ho ho for things I might not have.

And I have to say, the idea of competitive Kerbal Space Program is epic lolz. Please don't assign that mission to me, unless the mission is to have to the shortest flight and/or most spectacular failure.