Mercenaries - Total Conversion

[Muukalainen]

Hello,

I started working on a new mod Mercenaries. It will be a bigger one and will involve new code that I have already started to work on. Instead of saving world your goal is to make money by completing missions / jobs. There will probably be some kind of Highscore screen after you decide to retire or you have completed enough of missions.


Mercscape

Geoscape and baseview will be combined and replaced with a new Mercscape. There you will equip your team, hire new mercs and buy / sell new equipment. Instead of showing the globe it will show you missions that are available. These will be generated and there might be some unique ones too.


Missions

Mission types I want to at least have are:
Raid - destroy enemies and get paid by the number of kills.
Occupy - secure the area, destroy all enemies and get paid only if you eliminate all enemies
Assassinate - eliminate the target or targets ( laser squad level 1 )
Rescue - rescue the target units, this is a trickier one, but should not be too hard to code ( LS mines mission and many movies have this)
Destroy - destroy the targets ( xcom base missions, LS level 2 where you must destroy all the databanks on moonbase assault...)
Capture - capture the target, alive ( think about Alien movies, or just people that know too much, or simply take some hostages for the rival faction )
Patrol - Take part in some war and move though sectors eliminating enemies. Combines raid missions.

Basically the harder the mission the better it will pay. And ofcourse you can keep and sell all the loot.


Maps

The setting will be futuristic sci-fi where you can do missions on Earth, other planets, moon bases, space ships. Xcom generated ufo maps are ok, if you change the ufos into some kind of small bases, hideouts, outposts, research facilities... Maybe also some unique maps.


Weapons, armour and other equipment

I would like to use many mods on this. The prices will be adjusted and balanced. I also thought about having a new value on every item, rarity. It would determine how much of the items are available on the market, if any. The prices could also slightly fluctuate if you sell or buy something too much.


Enemies

Again good opportunity to use mods. I would like to see more human factions as enemies than only aliens. Droids would also be nice. And when you think about it, it would be nice to be able to buy and hire droids and mutants for your own team.


Help

I can do the code, but I welcome help on other areas. Ofcourse help on the code is also welcome

There is already many mods that I would like to use on this.

Maps. I have never tried map making, so this is one area that I know very little about.

English. I am not english and there is some parts where help would be welcome. For example I am not yet sure how to call them missions, missions? jobs?

Enemy factions. I have many ideas already and would like to use mods like MiB and the new armours to make factions like Omni-Corp and generally to have more human opponents than only aliens. Alien, mutant and droid factions though will also be in the game.

If you are interested to take part in this, let me know.

[niculinux]

Wow excellent, thanks. As for a goal, i think a minimum of plot may be needed. The objective of the game may be to establish a monopoly in the mercenary business by taking out the rival  business, a bit like syndicate?

[Vulgar Monkey]

'Contracts'?

[Muukalainen]

Wow excellent, thanks. As for a goal, i think a minimum of plot may be needed. The objective of the game may be to establish a monopoly in the mercenary business by taking out the rival  business, a bit like syndicate?

I will think about it.

The current plot is now to make enough money to pay the starting debt and so you can retire and live the rest of your life without money problems

Taking out rival businesses would be nice. But when you think about mercenaries I don't think you can really have a monopoly. When you think Syria it would be kind silly if the same mercs were on the both sides But, well, thou it will be possible in this mod, to be a real bastard , but you can only change sides after missions and not doing both sides the same time.

I would really like to make a gang warfare mod too and it would fit better that kind of mod. Capture alive the enemy agents, interrogate and try to locate their secret HQ and take it out.

[Muukalainen]

'Contracts'?

Independent contractors. Yes, I think Contracts would be better than Missions. Thanks.

[niculinux]

I will think about it.

The current plot is now to make enough money to pay the starting debt and so you can retire and live the rest of your life without money problems

heck that's would be also my dream xD

Taking out rival businesses would be nice. But when you think about mercenaries I don't think you can really have a monopoly. When you think Syria it would be kind silly if the same mercs were on the both sides But, well, thou it will be possible in this mod, to be a real bastard , but you can only change sides after missions and not doing both sides the same time.

Well, maybe the future mercs may have some code of honor of whatever the bounds them to their firm or somothing  The game would start in the year 2100 not in 2011,  mots likely

I would really like to make a gang warfare mod too and it would fit better that kind of mod. Capture alive the enemy agents, interrogate and try to locate their secret HQ and take it out.

Don't klnow but a gand mod wouyld not fit in a worldwide scale such ufo enemy unknown was, but just my impression

[Mr. Quiet]

Great idea for a mod. I hope you make great progress before the end of the year! Will you go toward making it a little like Jagged Alliance? Hiring unique mercs?

I have a mission idea for you. I'll explain the inspiration first, but skip this paragraph if you don't wanna read it , but please read the next paragraph.
I got this idea from watching Heat so many times throughout the years. It could be really intense too. It's an exchange-type mission, to end a contract. You don't know if the exchange will go smoothly or go wrong in so many ways. Meeting place is always some slum back alley or abandoned building, or maybe at a public park in broad daylight. I remember an indie multi-player game that sadly died, because of the lack of fan interest, but it involved making a criminal exchange. Both sides would be really tense getting ready for anything as they're heading to the table to make the exchange. An artifact in exchange for the money promised. Once both items are placed on the table, one side counts the money while the other checks the artifact. At anytime, either side can pull out weapons and take both the money and the artifact. They even had vehicles in it too. I forgot the name of that game though ><! Since this really appeals to me a lot, I understand if most people don't really feel the same way. Payday 2 has a mission where you exchange the paintings you robbed for the money reward you're promised. I played it during free weekend, it was pretty cool.

Implementing this into Mercenaries - Total Converation
At first, after completing the contract, these dirty underground contractors will pay you 10% up front as you're starting out, then you gotta meet somewhere to collect the rest, but don't worry, this up front number increases as you're growing in power and strength so you'd have less fear of the galactic governing sniffs investigating and retaliating against the larger transactions made electronically. You'll also have an option if you wanna collect it all at once with high risk, but it depends if the contractor wants to give you that benefit as it affects them too. Informants will let you know if any agency is on to your organization, if they are, eventually they'll get jurisdiction to assault your bases, show up in your missions, or even surprise you in contract stings(rare and hard). So risk getting hit by high tier agencies, or collect the long way early on
So anyways, this can be a "dispatch mission", you choose how many mercs you wanna send out to collect the money, then they'll leave for a day or more and come back with the results. Will they come back with the money, with bad news, or find them dead and arrested on the front page newspaper? This is where it gets good if you like reading random encounter style messages. The more mercs you send out, the better equipped, and the more experienced they are increases the probability of seeing them through alive and collecting safely without them getting too nervous in the exchange. Now if the other end of the table is planning to kill your mercs, then you can't control that probability, but depending on your mercs. They'll either take control of the situation and bring back prisoners, or let a few escape, take casualties, bring back wounded, etc. You can make anything out of this. Which is why I love reading those kinds of messages. These would be debriefing messages to read how it went and what they brought back.

As for other ideas, it would be neat if you added a minor plot as niculinux said. A plot opens up the use of interesting enemy organizations for the sake of having a memorable experience. These factions also don't have to all be merc rivals. I'm sure you got this down if you're adding MiB. I like that . Just update the black suits since this is sci-fi.

[Muukalainen]

Unique mercs? Well that would be amazing, but it would take loooooooong time to make.


About the plot or plots.

I thought that there is lots of different conflicts going on in the galaxy, and you can choose what contracts you will take. And there is randomness involved so you can always select from, let's say 3 different contracts. Do one, and the game generates you another 3 and maybe some unique ones that make the plot move forward.

Some examples:

From Laser Squad: Omni-Corp vs. Rebels, this is almost the same as in Star Wars, Imperium vs Rebels.

Completing contracts could raise your trust level on the factions and on the contrary generate heat on the rival factions that you attacked. Gaining trust would open up special missions, like in the end of the Rebels special contract tree could be multi-stage grand assault mission on some Doom Star, where you must blow it's reactor and cooling units.

If you generate too much heat on some faction there could maybe be a retaliation assault and you would have to defend your hideout or lose the game.

Omni-Corps missions / contracts could involve something like in the Alien movies, you have to go to some space ship or distant prison colony and capture one of those aliens alive.

Other conflicts could be something like:
Sectoids vs Some government
Mutant Horde vs Some science colony that made them and must now fight against them for their survival ( this could actually be Omni-Corp colony )
+ the biggest factions like Omni-Corp could have conflicts with everyone.

But we will see. The first versions will be simple. And the first goal is now to make it playable.

----

I have spent many hours coding it now and the new Mercscape looks horrible The basescape and geoscape use their own palettes so mixing them up will make the others graphics look very bad. It would probably be best to design completely new graphics for it.

[Solarius Scorch]

Wow. This looks like a major threat to gamers' lives.

[Muukalainen]

Ok.

Worked couple of days on this. Tried to make a new Mercscape and remove all the stuff I don't need including the globe. Well, could not get even the starting base working. Wasted 2 days, but probably learned little bit of C++ and YAML. Though it still feels like a gibberish and dirty language with all the STDs and crazy syntax.

Started again with more down to earth attitude and with the globe. Finally started to make slow but steady progress.

Here comes the first earliest of the earlies version 0.1, if somebody is interested in this.

Installation:
Make a new folder again. This is new .exe and will overwrite  rule files.

You can't do much yet, but by clicking INTERCEPT and then selecting craft, it will send it on a mission. The missions are randomly generated from what there is available. Nothing special yet. Basic alien hunting only.

[Dioxine]

The idea is great, but you're basically writing a new game here, losing all the OpenXcom devs/community support... can you really do better? If so, I definitely could help, but for now, I remain skeptical.

[Muukalainen]

The idea is great, but you're basically writing a new game here, losing all the OpenXcom devs/community support... can you really do better? If so, I definitely could help, but for now, I remain skeptical.

Better than xcom? Well probably not, I don't think anybody has done clearly better yet, while games like Jagged Alliance could be thought to be on the same or almost the same level.

Yes, it is basically a new game. Something I have wanted to make for a long time ( or wanted for Gollop to make something like that ). It is a huge project to make alone and I thought that with Openxcom code and all the mods there has already been done I could actually make this. Another option would be to make a completely new independent game and code it's own engine.

I worked on this yesterday, but today felt exhausted and wanted to make something more crazy and fun. So I spent my coding time examining the battlescape code and thinking how much work it would be to turn it into Real Time Openxcom

But yeah, I have to weight the scales and think what is possible to do and what is too much. And I should try out your Piratez mod. I watched one video of it and it sure looked interesting Though I have not even finished the vanilla Openxcom campaign yet

[Dioxine]

I have notes somewhere on a XCom/Syndicate game I envisioned years ago... apart from a wealth of mission types (some of which you could use), there were 2 aspects yet undiscussed here:

1. Camouflage/Spotting. Armors providing camo (less visibility range/acc penalty), spotting skill used to combat that (crucial point: spotting has no effect if the conditions are perfect). Camouflage could be rolled together from armor, sneaking skill, soft cover (like hiding in the hay - tile has a cover value, easy solution without the need to calc vision trajectories), darkness/smoke.

2. City Missions. Basically, during city missions, you can only take weapons and armor that can be concealed.

haha, found these missions, ctrl+c ctrl+v

-negotiations security
-installation security
-personnel security
-conduct hit (HIT)
-steal Information
-steal prototype
-kidnap
-industrial sabotage
-raid and pillage (RAPE)
-hostage rescue (HR)
-contact individual
-vehicle recovery
-terror hack
-escort individual
-surveillance
-transport mission

Wait what? Real Time Strategy? Go to hell with that oxymoron

[Muukalainen]

I have thought about camouflage and about implementing it on my real vision mod.

I have the algorithms for line of sight trajectories in my head. That is not the hard part. The problem is that it would make the game more easy. Unless someone could make the AI much more intelligent so it could use those good cover spots too. Light/shade would also affect this, how well the unit can be seen.

--------------

Actually now when I think about it, the AI part is not too hard. I could program it, but not sure if I can make c++ cpde of it.
-the enemies simply calculate the visions of your visible soldiers, with the new cover los algorithm.
-then they add those values into new cover map, and simply choose the best spots where to go. The AI could even gain some advantage from this as it could calculate the covers more precisely. But the AI would probably still be prone to flanking and other more advanced tactics.

After realising that, the hardest part would be actually to add the cover value for every tile and wall. I have not studied this aspect yet, so I can't say anything about it. How many different tiles there are in the game?

If the AI could not be done, another way to compensate it could be to make the enemies more tough. Something like "terminators", you would really need to work to eliminate them.

-------------

About the cover los code:

A--------------X--B

A = soldier A
B = enemy alien
X = bush, cover
- = los

Lets say that bush has cover value of 10.

When B calculates if he sees A. We can see that the bush is almost next to B. So the bush decreases his vision with cover value 10 and lets add 2 extra for the range the bush is. Total block of sight 12.

When A calculates his own los, the bush again has basic value of 10, but because it is farther away from him, he gets a much higher extra penalty from it. Lets just say now it is 20 with that range. This penalty could then be enough for A not to see B, while B can see A.

You could also add value for weapons, that determined how much firing them made your unit more easily visible. Then we could have silencers and other silent weapons like crossbows.

[Dioxine]

Adding arbitrary cover values to tiles is basically what I have proposed, and you rejected, only to replace it with the same just more convoluted... The only remaining option  is to ray-trace "light" coming from the target to the eyes of a soldier, thus finding the effective visible square area of the target... or, in other words, the number of non-blocked trajectories between the eyes and the target... an effective cross-section, if you will... that way you could do away with set vision ranges, or other arbitrary values altogether, as the area will decrease as the distance increases (darkness and sneak skill would only be a % penalty to the effective cross-section size). Heck, even do away with the accuracy penalty, as the number of valid trajectories does influence accuracy - the % number displayed does not take cover into consideration (unless you have 100%, then the game will almost always select the perfect trajectory). If that 100% is bothersome, a more complex accuracy function can be implemented - such as where to-hit bonuses are approaching infinity, the effective hit chance approaches 100% but can never reach it.

The hard part could be that such cover engine would be very unituitive, as the player has no access to the 3d part of the engine - he must rely on 2d sprites to navigate the world. However, you could equalise the chances by putting a random error algorithm into the AI 's cover calculations (depending on units' Intelligence score). A visual aid like in JA2 could also be helpful.