Coop mod idea

[dsm]

Well, well, seems like I'm in my "idea-getting" period :-)

I thought of RtCW's team multiplayer and suddenly I thought: What if there was a specialized team coop game modded on for Doom 3?

My idea is basically a mod with maps specifically designed for cooperative play, which of course must be implemented by the mod team first, (but can also be played solo) with class based gameplay.

So far I've thought up three classes: Combat trooper, Medic and "Engineer" (until I find a better name for this class).

* The "Engineer" can remove certain obstacles, allowing his team to advance (he is therefore very important), but he is also armed with explosive weapons (Rocket launcher as well as the grenade weapon, provided that Doom 3 has such a weapon be it hand grenades or a gren launcher) apart from an smg/assault rifle and his sidearm. Apart from the engineering tasks, he can also hack into computers and sabotage security systems (again clearing the way for the rest of the team).

* The Medic is self explanatory, but I'll go through the details anyway: He can heal team members, but he has limited supplies for that - I haven't actually decided whether there should be health supplies in the level for the players to pick up, but if I decided for it, my idea would be that the medic could store medical supplies for the other soldiers. When players lose all health, they're wounded (like in RtCW) and the medic can "revive" them. If players die, they respawn at the level start after a certain delay. The medic is equipped with his sidearm and one of the two shotguns (either db shotgun or sb shotgun - this is for the player to decide at the start of the game).

* The Combat Trooper is basically what it says - he's the dude with all the heavy firepower. Apart from the standard sidearm, he carries one of the two shotguns (decided by player) and one "heavy weapon" that would be everything above the smg/assault rifle except for the rocket launcher (and the grenade thingy), because the engineer has this - the heavy weapon is decided by the player at the start of the game.
So basically, the Combat Trooper is the guy who's sent up front to deal out the most damage in cases where the team faces the TOUGH enemies.

I don't remember having seen or heard about class based coop play, but in RtCW and in Team Fortress for HL it seems to work in Team play against human opponnents.

Any thoughts on this? Does it sound like complete garbage? Or do you think it could be pulled off?

[edit]I just realized that this can't be pulled off until a couple years out in the future, because of the current issue of Doom 3 only being able to display up to five characters - including player models - on screen, d'oh![/edit]

[uniQ]

coop with a twist. y not.

maybe a heavy weapons dude class should be added as well: slow but powerful. letting them have different skins within each class would add some uniquness to the mod, too. this was one thing that i wished for team fortress: know somebody when you see him by having different skins AND not just having one model with one skin per class. but by having only "bots" as enemies it would make this mod a little boring and not very replayable, wouldn't it - unless its a really huge map compilation with varying objectives and the players can enter at any time they like...hmmm...

by the time that mod might be finished i think displaying more then 5 models at once will not be the problem as the mod has not be so "mass" compatible as the basic doom3.

[dsm]

uniQ said:

coop with a twist. y not.

maybe a heavy weapons dude class should be added as well: slow but powerful.

That was kind of what I was thinking with the Combat Trooper guy. I hadn't thought too much about the Combat Trooper class when I started thinking about this mod idea two hours ago, spent more time considering the engineer and the medic, so it'd be nice to see suggestions for this particular class.

Oh yeah and different skins is a must - but they should all have a typical Doom soldier look to them (since it takes place in the Doom universe and since they're all soldiers).

[IMJack]

Shieldman: Limited to small, one-handed arms because his other arm is taken up by a big-assed riot shield. On the plus side, the shield will stop bullets, claws, and teeth, can be used to shove hostiles back, and can take a ton of damage from bigger attacks before finally falling apart. This guy goes in first.

[dsm]

Y'know, I'd actually prefer to have as few classes as possible (due to possible technical limitations that might still be around when, and if, this mod is done).

Small teams would also fit better in the typical, "narrow-corridors-and-small-rooms" environment that dominate Doom 3

[Fredrik]

Also consider "Camping Faggot" and "Cannon Fodder" :P

[AirRaid]

This sounds like a great idea. I think it could be done, but it'd require acrapload of work. Entirely new maps tec, co-op code, that'd take time.

[tsareppsun]

"A mod with maps specifically desighed for co-op play(*but also be played SOLO)with class base gameplay."

Are you talking about being able to play(solo)with "NCP" class base Bots? Hell yeah!! I would luv it! Imagine what It'll do for replay value if your PC don't have the GUSTO to play online.

Your "Engineer" character reminds me of the same type of character thats needed to get around certain areas in the "Thing" for the PS2/XBOX.

I always dreamed a sinario on a "HELL ON EARTH" map where you can take a small 6-8man crack unit into ruins of an destroyed city (city name? whatever.)in a attempt to take out 1 of several RADAR satellites that the doom demons are using around the main starport to keep any people(*thats left alive)from escaping into the outer space colonies or getting any help from outside sources. The mutants/Demons are everywhere, you have to sneak your team around the hordes hangin around the Radar stations using the ruins and devestation of the city for cover(Try imagine the ruins of "Hue City" in the movie "FULL METAL JACKET" without the buring palm trees.) The sky is errie dark, black and red swerlly sky even during daylight hours. The ground areas around you look much like the ruins of the area of the World Trade Towers just after it's collapse. Off in the distance, the horizon in sillietted with sharp jagged edges of fallen buidings and other skyscrapers and a occasional quick flashes of light and delayed thundering explosions far away(*Possibly Cyber Demons firing it's rockets at something)And the and huge geyshers of black smoke rising from all over the place help making the sky darker like the buring oil-fields in KUWAIT city during DESERT STORM. With all of this happening around you, you sneak your team into the underground bunkers under the satelletes set charges and knock-out the RADARs dishes, than you have to battle your way back out to open ground and escape the area with your team. The co-op mode can have a series of small tasks during one big mission(*like in SOCOM) Or go through missions with other NCP teams kinda like what you go through in Medal of Honor"Spearhead" DAMN YO, Just thinking about this makes want to start "Hell Blazin" on UT in co-op tasks with the bots. Know what? I think I'll just do that.

I'm gone.......

[dsm]

tsareppsun said:

"A mod with maps specifically desighed for co-op play(*but also be played SOLO)with class base gameplay."

Are you talking about being able to play(solo)with "NCP" class base Bots? Hell yeah!! I would luv it! Imagine what It'll do for replay value if your PC don't have the GUSTO to play online.

Uhh no, I'm actually talking about maps that are built with coop in mind, but it is also possible to play through them in a regular single player campaign so that you can download the mod not just for mp play - afaik, coop bots work like shit.

[uniQ]

i overread that "The Combat Trooper" should be the heavy weapons dude. therefore a standard soldier class should be in, too. a relativly fast and light armored soldier that can carry some "more" precise weapons. this class could do some scout-jobs etc.

but for such a mod the enemies AI should be at a fairly good level - otherwise its no challenge. the original coop was challenging because there were lots of enemies but only few resources (weapons, ammo, medpacks).
further it would make it harder to fight the hellspawn that when getting killed you had to wait a reasonable amount of time before you can respwan. give the enemies a chance :) - if all get killed very quickly the enemies could regain your previously won yards.

[dsm]

uniQ said:
but for such a mod the enemies AI should be at a fairly good level - otherwise its no challenge. the original coop was challenging because there were lots of enemies but only few resources (weapons, ammo, medpacks).

I think it'll depend on how you balance the individual classes and how you design the maps. Good AI is out of the question; we already know that Doom 3 won't have spectacular AI, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the game can't be challenging. In the old Dooms, many of the custom made maps I've tried are pretty hard because of monster placement - not always because of hordes of monsters. Placing an Archvile in a nasty spot where you don't have much else than a db shotgun to beat it with can be hard.
It seems to me from what I've seen of D3 so far, that the monsters will be a great deal harder than in the old game (the imps seem like they're really challenging - especially when placed right).

further it would make it harder to fight the hellspawn that when getting killed you had to wait a reasonable amount of time before you can respwan. give the enemies a chance :) - if all get killed very quickly the enemies could regain your previously won yards. [/B]

Well of course there has to be a reasonable amount of time before you respawn after getting killed, but maybe you're referring to the "wounded" state?
I am considering this stuff and maybe the medic should carry limited and very few supplies for "reviving", so that you'd want to stay alive - the medic's revival skills should only be a last resort (in cases where people ARE downed). Plus if the team loses the medic, they won't have anyone to revive the others until the medic is respawned and has found some "revival" supplies.

i overread that "The Combat Trooper" should be the heavy weapons dude. therefore a standard soldier class should be in, too. a relativly fast and light armored soldier that can carry some "more" precise weapons. this class could do some scout-jobs etc.

Hmm, could be a good idea, but then again, I never really considered a scout class to be that important and I'd like to emphasize that the team should be kept as small as possible to keep the game challenging. Actually, I considered that the game should have a team cap on 5 players (1 Trooper, 2 Medics and 2 Engies would be the optimal team). Having a fast moving scout class could ruin any chance of making the game challenging - I'm more in favour of a "the-team-must-stick-close-together" based game where everyone moves at typical Doomguy speed and are only seperated from each other in terms of what they can do and what weapons they brandish.

[MaCvILeWhOrE]

This type of thing sounds awesome, but don't you think it might be cooler in quake4? I mean, Strogg versus Humanity on the front lines, you CANNOT get any better than that, to me, a shitload of dudes versus demons kinda lowers the fear factor for me, unless you meant humans versus humans, than I'm all for it, I don't know I'm a dumbass :P

I'm not saying your idea sucks or anything, I'm just brainstorming here.

[dsm]

MaCvILeWhOrE said:

This type of thing sounds awesome, but don't you think it might be cooler in quake4? I mean, Strogg versus Humanity on the front lines, you CANNOT get any better than that, to me, a shitload of dudes versus demons kinda lowers the fear factor for me, unless you meant humans versus humans, than I'm all for it, I don't know I'm a dumbass :P

I'm not saying your idea sucks or anything, I'm just brainstorming here.

Dunno about that - to me it conjures up images of Aliens, but that's just me.