Mass Effect Online: Game Structure (the structure of the world and the gametypes)

After a very well spent Christmas Break (and some sleep lost over Far Cry 3), I'm back and I'll kick off with talking more about the setting and the structure of the game. I'm not COMPLETELY shore up on every little detail of the Mass Effect Universe so try not to crucify me too much. And please feel free to comment, I'd love some feedback, yes you 20 some odd regulars and you 6 other people (math is totally off but to hell with it!), tell me what you think.

MEO, as I've dubbed it, is set approximately 200 years after the Reapers' defeat with the Crucible. During this time, the races of the Council have perfected the Reaper's technology, now that the threat of indoctrination was null and the millions of dead husks floating adrift after the battle to salvage, gaining the ability to construct Mass Relays and rebuild the Citadel space station.

As the Citadel nears the end of its construction, tensions begin rising as an exceedingly heated topic of discussion raises up among many of the sentient races of the Galaxy; who should receive credit for the fall of the Reapers, and thus the increase in prosperity that has encompassed the whole of the galaxy. Old issues rise to the surface as the question soon enveloped the minds of even the Council.

Open violence broke out even among the council and soon every race found themselves scrambling for arms to defend their beliefs, or scrambling for shelter to avoid the Galactic Civil War that erupting in the heart of the newly rebuilt Citadel.

The player begins just before the climax of the the debates, and gets to bare witness to the events that start the war firsthand by the end of their first 'area' or about level 10.

We of course do not want to force the player to experience the story if they don't want to, though its likely to become a main focus for many of the players in the game, and we want them to encourage the multiplayer aspect of the game. We don't want the game to seem like SWTOR was; A singleplayer game built in an MMO.

During the course of the story missions and soloplay, the Player will have access to Squadmates, or AI controlled party members that will assist the player through their game play. The squad will be automatically tailored to the player's specialization choices, and evolve as the player progresses through soloplay AND PvP. But, as the Squadmates belong to their respective military, the player cannot use them in Endgame PVE content which is filled in the role of a private contractor. I'll cover these NPC's at a later date.

Gameplay will be divided up amongst three different gameplay 'types'; Storyplay, Merc-play, and Conquest.

 In storyplay, the player will be placed in story specific areas and situations in an open world that evolves as they participate in the action. As the story in a certain area progresses, the area begins to change. As well, this is not a solitary instance but an open 'planet' where players and squads can still interact. PvP can happen between the two or three factions depending on who is fighting for the system or the planet.

In Merc-play, players will participate in a more traditional PvE experience. While taking part in this, all faction restrictions are removed, allowing players to trade, buy and sell while in the Hub, and allowing them to party together to handle contracts and operations, which fill the role of Dungeons and Raids respectively, as well as fullfilling smaller time contracts in concert which fill the role of more daily activities.

Players can also compete in Arena and tournament style PvP in the Merc-zones of the game which function like Guild Wars 2's Structured PVP system and equalizes all participants and brings the focus in more on strategy, build, and player ability.

And finally, in Conquest, the Player will join their race in their bid for the Citadel in a massive Six-way evergoing battle. Here the player will have access to their squad and will be able to join a battalion under the command of a player general who will wage war against each other for territory. 

All six races have a specific wing of the Citadel that was designed by their race. Certain areas carry certain bonuses or advantages, such as a Factory will reduce the requistion time of Heavy Vehicles (Non-player controlled but still devastating), or a Hospital will reduce the downtime of routed squads (player 'deaths' when all units under their control have been incapacitated). 

As well, every wing will have a unique building that provide bonuses tailored to the race that built the wing, such as the Asari Ward Research Center, players will be able to teleport to . As well, the Wards will contain Shuttle bays which allow squads to cross between Wards depending on where their connecting Bay is, which require squads to assault the connecting bay until they can capture it, which will allow for safe transit between the Wards. 

On every race's home ward, there is an Operations Base that cannot be captured or assaulted due to extremely heavy fortifications. This is also where players will join the action, leave the Citadel, regroup, as well as where Heavy Vehicles for the home ward spawn.

The Presidium is the goal, the ideal capture, which allows the controlling race to deploy NPC support (Heavy Vehicles etc.) along all six wards as well as their own, as well as make any points they control take twice as long to capture, a counter to this however is that the controlling race also has a capture delay as it takes longer to set up fortifications.

Players start out exclusively in Story-play, until they complete a certain series of quests which gets them a full squad, up to speed on the game setting, and have themselves immersed in a character.

After the players reach that point, they're free to do as they please, which is preferably level 10.

The Story players experience will be a combination of semi-random events and  missions as well as pre-set story missions that are dictated in character creation. 

Tomorrow, I'll cover Character; Creation, Customization, and Comradery.

Extending my Break until after Christmas folks, when I come back I'll be posting once a day, keep an eye out, its going to be a quick two days.

So today I'm going to be taking a break from posting, and I'm going to just try and post once every day. So I'll see you tomorrow readers.

Mass Effect Online: Combat Mechanics and Pretty Titles

So today I'm going to get more indepth about the combat mechanics, and show you some of the art work I cranked out (mainly just this title). 

I do not own rights to this title/logo.
I think I'll head my posts with that from now on until I get the C&D, but I think I'm in Fair Use as this not a blog about me building this game with my own hands, just a fan posting his ideas.

Anyhow, onto the actual meat of the post, Combat Mechanics.

In MEO, combat will be based mostly the same as the Original titles, cover-based shooting, superior positioning, ability use and some serious gunplay. In early gameplay, cover will be less substantial, the player could likely run and gun through much of the singleplayer and non-story content. However, in more difficult content, the player will find utilizing cover to be a major boon. Some will be able to get by on clever use of abilities and movement.

Positioning is also a major factor of combat. Your enemy can't effectively engage something behind him or on his flank. As well flanking exploits weaknesses in armor and vision, making strikes likely to be more damaging and more likely to not be avoided. 

Abilities will play the same role as they did in Mass Effect 3, specific powers used in concert will create devastating Detonations, dealing large amounts of damage over a wide area. For instance, setting a creature on fire and then following it up with a detonator will cause the foe to detonate in a fiery explosion that devastates any armor struck, renting it and leaving it vulnerable, burning, and flailing in panic.

Of course, this wouldn't be Mass Effect without GUNS, GUNS, GUNS. Gunplay is both a very basic and intricate part of combat. A soldier equipped with a rapid fire weapon can suppress an enemy, lowering their damage output and accuracy and with every hit has a chance of triggering an effect based on the soldier's ammunition, leaving the target vulnerable to detonation. Certain weapons as well have special properties. A Light Machine Gun for example has a broad range of fire, a high fire rate, and a higher suppression ratio, but also deals lower damage, and has a longer cool time than an Assault or Battle Rifle.

Players will also be able to Melee and Heavy Melee like in Mass Effect 3, however, some Specialization Combinations offer replacements to the Omni-blade, sometimes giving you two, or replacing it entirely with an Omni-shield or a Nanomolecular Blade. 

The aim is to make combat as intensive as the player chooses. More casual players can focus on arms, making gunplay a larger part of their experience while more veteran players can play more ability based classes and weave intricate and devastating combinations.

To demonstrate, I'll give you an example fight.

I am playing in a fireteam of Humans. We have a Paladin (Tech Tech Biotic), a Devastator (Pure Arms), a Tempest (Pure Biotic), a Technician (Pure Engineer), A Shadow (Arms, Biotic, Tech), and a Sniper (Tech Arms Arms) and we're fighting a Krogan Tank (a big mean ugly stationary turret based vehicle).

My Paladin will go up the middle and begin using his abilties to debuff the Tank,  debilitating its ability to aim, snap freezing armor plating, and distracting the main gun which the Paladin is able shrug off if its watching properly.

The Devastator is going to stay with the Paladin, adding his debuffs with his Turret Mode and Machine Gun, and setting up a Flame Detonation with his Inferno Ammunition.

The Tempest will keep close to the Devastator as the powers she focused on don't benefit from flanking. In between the Devastator and the Paladin, she's able to envelop them in her Biotic Sphere, reinforcing their Shields with biotic barriers and altering their abilities to set up Biotic detonations. The Tempest could play in another way, focusing on ripping apart her foes with massive Mass Effect fields, but ours is playing the role of a supporter.

Our Technician is going to go for the sides, and focus on destroying the tank's vulnerable Mass Effect Lift Generators that keep its turret mobile and contain large amounts of Eezo fuel. As the armor on these weak points is already scorched and burning from the Devastator's near endless volley of bullets and rockets, our Techie is going to simply detonate, and let his class ability go to work, causing the entire tank to errupt in a chain detonation of Flame, making much of it vulnerable to assualt.

The Shadow is going to focus on the tank's body itself, cutting and blasting away armored plating and warping its main turret to shreds from the safety of their Cloak. The Shadow deals massive damage through its melee strikes and Tech and Biotic powers, as well as use of their shotguns, however, the Shadow sacrifices durability for its tri-disciplined prowess.

Last but not least, our Sniper cloaks on the high ground of a crashed Alliance Shuttle, taking precise and careful shots to injure the crew within with its piercing power from its high-caliber rifle. The Sniper, however suffers the same fate as the Shadow, trading in armor and Kinetic shields for combat from a distance.

This is just one of the many scenarios that are possible, and many of the classes have a wide variety of roles they can perform. 

Fun and Games: Mass Effect Online Part 2

The other night I left you all at the beginning of class structures.

Players will start out as a classless recruit at level 0, players will be subjected to a series of optional training missions to familiarize themselves with the game's basic features.

After the Training session the players pick their first Specialization, Arms, Tech, or Biotics and gain certain abilities based on their selection. As players level up they will earn points to augment their abilities as they did in the original titles.

The above is an example of the abilities you'll see across a playthrough, with each increasing tier upgrading the last tier's abilities. The player's investment in, Biotics for example, increases their prowess and power of their biotic abilities. Pull upgrades into Lash, Warp into Reave, Throw into Slam. Singularity gains an alternate fire where the second usage causes it to detonate in an explosion, which later evolves into an explosion that sends ripples of biotic energy out from the center.

Tech functions similarly, while Arms grants Weapon Proficiency Ammunition powers, weapon powers, and Combat abilities like a shoulder mounted cannon, Adrenaline Rush, Fitness, and Concussive Shot.

Players already familiar with the series will likely adjust easily, and find this system very easy to use.

Fun and Games: Mass Effect Online Part One

Before anyone gets too excited I'll remind any readers that this is purely theory-crafting speculation, concept design and more of my own time and fun, no information leaks here, just some idealistic fantasizing.

Mass Effect has been one of the largest and most successful Roleplaying games of this generation (certainly mine), and definately the most popular Science Fiction series to come about in the past 20 years. With the conclusion of the Commander Shepard story, the question most on several people's minds is, can the world series on its own, without Shepard? 

My answer is; Yes. But, with the most recent failure of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the biggest issue with continuing the series stands with its developer Electronic Arts, which brings into doubt whether an open experience is possible. With blinding optimism of the sudden and completely unexpected act of EA wanting to salvage its reputation, I bring my idea to the table.

Mass Effect Online. The idea itself is ambitious, let alone the game design. The game (as I'm writing it) is set in a time of turmoil (not cliche at all) some time after the fall of the Reapers. Following the completion of the reconstruction of the Relays and the Citadel, a bloody and viscious war breaks out among the forerunners of the Council Races. The Asari, Salarian, Human, Krogan, Turian, and Quarian face off in a territorial war that spans the whole of the Milky Way. The ideal is a six sided conflict along racial lines, but there is potential for two factions along Council (Asari, Turian, and Salarian) and the Outcast (Human, Krogan, Quarian). 

Players take the character of a military recruit in one of the 6 races and slowly distinguish themselves as heroes of the war. Progressing through the game and the story raises the rank of the player character. 

Gameplay will take a form very close to the style of the original, attempting to make the combat variable, skill-based, and visceral. Players will independently control their weapon with left and right mouse clicks, and have a series of quick-slot bars for abilities, quick weapon mapping, and items. Players will also be able to take cover in  and will be a major function in upper difficulty game and instance play. 

Players at the start of the game will pick a discipline of either Tech, Arms, or Biotics. This selection will be a permanent part of your character, and unlock specific abilities depending on the discipline, and will dictate the player class later on.

Every twenty levels the player will be able to select a specialization, or a secondary discipline. Specialization will allow players to customize their playstyle and their character as they get stronger.

With the selection of the player's second specialization (their third discipline) the player will receive special abilities based on their combination.

Keep an eye on Myx Theory for more information to come.

MYX THEORY GAME, SYSTEM, AND MECHANIC DESIGN

Welcome to my blog, the first post of course, possibly the shortest in recorded blog history, but I'm near on crashing. With this blog I'll be hatching, developping, and designing for games already out (as a 3rd party blabber mouth) as well as some Game Idea and System Design of my own.

My area of preference is Roleplaying, Strategy, and Unrealistic Shooters; basically, anything that allows for a freedom of creativity.

So recently I've been juggling around the idea of a Mass Effect MMO. The idea is more of a spiritual successor to Tabula Rasa, for those who've played it. I'll post up what I have so far later when I'm not feeling as useless as tits on a Hanar (it'd also require EA to be WILLING to actually let a game finish... yeah the idea is pretty garbage because of that but I can dream!)