Fall of the Empire, an inspiration for a Battlefield 2 mod

[Guest JediIgor]

Working Title: Fall of the Empire

 

Synopsis: A Star Wars Battlefield 2 mod, hopefully pushing the engine to its limits. If not, the mod could be scrapped and recycled for a different engine.

 

Disclaimer: With the last Death Star destroyed by the Rebel Alliance, with the Emperor more likely than not dead, and a dent in the Imperial Navy following the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance are turning out to be more than a couple of ragtag soldiers and more and more like a full-fledged government. It is only a matter of time before they become a new republic, marking the fall of the empire.

 

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My Flexible Vision So Far:

The mod could take place post-Endor, which means none of the cliche movie battles will need to sneak in (or I guess they could, but that would be really low priority). There would be mainly two factions, the Rebel Alliance (later the New Republic, basically a different icon and more advanced tech ) and the Galactic Empire. As time goes on there could be more factions (Imperial vs Imperial [Warlords], Ssi-ruuvi, etc).

 

The starting basics don't need to be changed much. There are already both tanks and lighter transports in the universe, mostly from Force Commander. The mod could heavily use the EU stuff, I know for one I am very comfortable with it unlike a lot of other modders (heh). There would be equivalents for all of the BF2 vehicles and then some (i.e. F-35B=X-wing, MiG-29=TIE/ln, etc). Since BF2 goes up to 64 players easily there could be a lot of variety on one map alone.

 

Maps themselves could start out similar to BF2, but then I foresee a huge gameplay change:

Urban "Conquest" maps: Think of some Star Wars city, probably in the Outer Rim (as there's no space backup), and both sides are fighting over it. Basically your average urban conquest BF2 map.

 

Plain "Conquest" maps: Same as above, but not in [a completely] urban environment and it would have basic air support (atmospheric fighters).

 

Here's where everything starts deviating:

Assault maps. No longer will the assaulting team have a permanent beachhead on the level... oh no, they will start out in space on an ISD or an Mc-90b (or whatever we see fit). They will take AT Barges or Sentinel shuttles to the ground, or take the spacefighters for a spin. It gets better. The enemy will have shield generators so bombardment would be useless until you were able to land and successfully take over the land generator (either objects could pass the shield at low speeds, or there would be a hole somwhere, not sure yet). Other map types could have smaller shields that would need to be walked through (think Episode 1).

 

Space Conquest maps: Both sides start out with a small? fleet and several beachheads on the planet below. Fight the battle up in space, but remember that the team holding the planet will win the day! Naturally there would be ground-based turbolaser/ion cannons like in Rebellion, and probably the Commander would be able to control it .

 

Space Battles only: What needs to be said? Coral Sea version of Battlefield 2, take out all the enemy ships before they take out yours .

 

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What makes it different gameplay wise?

Fighters would be completely re-done, the only things resembling the BF2 jets would be the atmospheric fighters like a V-wing/Airspeeder. I am thinking they would have Repulsors (that you can toggle and use to move up/down vertically). So you could set your velocity to 0 and just hover there with the repulsors . Naturally the correct fighters will all have shields . And rechargeable ones, you will be able to change the recharge rate, etc. Think X-Wing vs TIE Fighter. The space combat would hopefully be completely similar to XvT/XWA.

 

Capital ships would be controlled in several locations, definitely a Bridge for moving the ship wherever the captain sees fit (ableit slowly) and the other locations (2-8?) would be in control of the many turbolaser/ion cannons/lasers of a ship for shooting the other ships of course . I could even see it that during a bombardment the players would lose temporary control of the turrets as they would automatically bombard the planetary surface (the equivalent of BF2 artillery). As the ground gun emplacements got taken out, the smaller ships like VSDs could be landed, although at that point the team with the ships would probably have won already.

 

Planetary shields, I mentioned them earlier..There can be big shields which protect the entire map from bombardment, and smaller shields which protect a smaller flag from being penetrated by ground-based laser fire (ep1 again). I can see the bigger shields as being sabotaged or taken over by the enemy.

 

Speaking of bombardment, I wouldn't mind seeing the whole map being destructable. All of the buildings could have hitpoints and then after those are destroyed it could turn into [generic] rubble. Would be more fun than just having a few bridges than can get destroyed anyways .

 

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Class Specifics:

I haven't really given this much thought yet, but there would definitely need to be

Medics, Assault, Anti-vehicle, Sniper, Engineer for repairing and maybe flying. For Support I am thinking he could deploy an E-Web/Rebel equivalent? Special Ops maybe could be commandos with those "satchel charges" we see in Ep6. No jedi! Dark Troopers I don't see as too big a thing (after all, how often are they mentioned in the books..), although maybe they would make it in a map like Coruscant?? Then we'd need to model guys like Royal Guards too then, after all the Empire would use all their elites to defend the planet.

 

Each class would have a recognizable (or not) weapon like a BlasTech DH-17 for Rebel Assault class, Finbat Anti-Walker Concussion ML for the Anti-vehicle class, etc. No generic weapons like "Blaster Rifle" though . Fighters would have lasers, ion cannons (some), missiles, ion bombs, and countermeasures . With missile lockons and hovering dogfightnig should be way more fun now .

 

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So what kind of people would a team like this need?

 

--Programmers:

BF2 uses Python, so a knowledge of Python or a similar language would be useful. I personally don't know Python but I know others like Java, C++, PHP, Small, and only the syntax is different . Programmers would do all of the stuff like coding shields, shield generators, repulsors, ground cannons, capital ships, spacefighter handling, etc.

 

--Mappers:

Anyone familiar with the BF1942, BFV, BF2 map editor would be the most experienced, but I don't see why anyone who made maps in the past for any game couldn't do it for BF2. The first map could be a quick Tatooine prototype with future maps being places like Coruscant, Corellia, Bilbringi, etc.

 

--Modelers:

Self-explanatory, needs to make good Star Wars models, a lot of things have never been modeled before and some don't even have an official picture so you might have to use your imagination!

 

--Animators:

Make the animations naturally, should be limited to things like opening S-Foils and moving the legs of an AT-*T.

 

--Texturers:

To texture the models of course . And the map .

 

--2d Artists:

To make all of the icons, art, sprites, drawings, sketches etc, could be the same position as a Texturer but not necessarily.

 

--Media people:

Makes all the sound, music, and movies -- this is very important if we want a real Star Wars feel to it!

 

--Webmaster/designer:

Someone who will design a website and keep it updated with information. Needs to be purty.

 

--Story writer:

Writes all our stories that you see during map loading, fills the website with beautifully woven articles, and the like. Good public relations and all this person doesn't even need to know anything techy .

 

--Public relations:

In charge of the mod's public image, this will range from driving recruiting efforts of an able team, to sending out news updates to all BF2, game, and Star Wars news sites.. in three words: hype the mod.

 

--Test Coordinator

Will be in charge of the closed/open build testing, this is probably the least important in the beginning but one of the most important as the mod leaves beta and heads into stable territory.

 

--Stats Balancer

Ultimately makes sure none of the weapons/vehicles/etc in the game are too powerful or underpowered, and if possible remains true to the Star Wars universe.

 

--Star Wars Researchers

For those "in the know" of Star Wars, they should have a very good expertise of the universe (enough to answer 70% on a Star Wars test equivalent of a U.S. History course Wink). Mainly they make sure everything is "true" to the SW universe and compile a list of things from the universe we can use in this mod (such as weapons, vehicles, ships, etc) -- their stats, descriptions, and anything deemed helpful to the efforts of everyone else.

 

--Idea Proposers

The idea proposers bring their own fresh ideas to the table, they criticize existing ideas/plans, and they try to steer this mod into being the best. These folks don't need to join the mod team, they can contribute to the public forum, although members' ideas will probably take priorities.

 

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That's all, I'm just throwing out this idea, if you want to give me feedback and if anyone knows if all this is even possible (engine limitations) just throw me a bone. If people think this could genuinely work and are interested maybe its time to start recruiting, if not, oh well .

 

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UPDATE: For those interested in possilbly joining, please visit the Group CP clicking on Forums -> Usergroups, then hit "Fall of the Empire" and go to join. Then go to the forum index and look for "Fall of the Empire - Members Only" and click on it.

 

Read the introduction thread for the introduction and occupation! If this gets off the ground there will be a public forum too, but until then I want to keep it small yet a place to hold all the ideas.

 

Please understand that the first month is committment-free. I say this because the first month will either make us or break us. So if in that time you don't think we are going anywhere, then feel free to leave just by leaving a note on the forums.

Edited August 10, 2005 by JediIgor

[Eko]

I like it! Sounds like a really good plan, the only problem will be the feasibility of it all, a project of that complexity would require a dedicated team for a long period of time, with quite a lot of people tied up in Reloaded it might take a while.

 

The only sort of service I might be able to contribute is that of Story Writer, i'm working on Python (i've literally just started so thats that) and my 3d modelling is in a similar relaxed state i.e. complete beginner

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

So basically you want to turn BF2 into what Battlefront and it's sequal should have been (or should be in the case of the sequal).

 

I think this is a fantastic idea. You want to make a Star Wars mod, but you also want to avoid cliches. I'd like to help, but I have no modding skills. I'd be more than happy to help in any way I can though.

[NIIIC]

That sounds like a great idea, have you tried the SW mod for BF1942?

 

A few points:

 

The mod could take place post-Endor, which means none of the cliche movie battles will need to sneak in (or I guess they could, but that would be really low priority). There would be mainly two factions, the Rebel Alliance (later the New Republic, basically a different icon and more advanced tech Wink) and the Galactic Empire. As time goes on there could be more factions (Imperial vs Imperial [Warlords], Ssi-ruuvi, etc).

Don't forget BF2 is mainly multiplayer, so they can't be much of a story line, because people take any battle at any time. I think that adding different factions would be really complicated, and not that useful, even though the idea seems great.

 

Fighters would be completely re-done, the only things resembling the BF2 jets would be the atmospheric fighters like a V-wing/Airspeeder. I am thinking they would have Repulsors (that you can toggle and use to move up/down vertically). So you could set your velocity to 0 and just hover there with the repulsors Wink. Naturally the correct fighters will all have shields Wink. And rechargeable ones, you will be able to change the recharge rate, etc. Think X-Wing vs TIE Fighter. The space combat would hopefully be completely similar to XvT/XWA.

If the Reb's have shields, and the Imp's don't, then I think there should be, or more Imp's fighters in the map, or they should respowne ( I don’t know how to spell that word) faster (but I don't know if that is possible) than the Reb's fighters. And of course there would be the speed and all the rest difference. You could also try to make a difference between space and atmospheric dog fighting. Some ships cold be advantaged in atmos. and other in space... just an idea.

 

Capital ships would be controlled in several locations, definitely a Bridge for moving the ship wherever the captain sees fit (ableit slowly) and the other locations (2-8?) would be in control of the many turbolaser/ion cannons/lasers of a ship for shooting the other ships of course Wink.

That is really cool, but the problem with that is that if you count 2-3 main ships per team, counting each 1 one the bridge and 6 for canons, it make 3x7=21 and there are only 32 in each team, if the team is full. So that leaves only 11 fighters. Now you can count at least 5 players in the game who will play around doing nothing, which brings you down to 6 fighters. Well, what a dogfight... mostly if the map is big enough for 6 capital ships. Do you see what I mean?

 

Having said all of that, I can't help you for any programing/modding/3D or whatever. I can hardly do/implant a new card for SW Rebellion...

 

Sorry

[Guest JediIgor]

UPDATE: For those interested in possilbly joining, please visit the Group CP clicking on Forums -> Usergroups, then hit "Fall of the Empire" and go to join. Then go to the forum index and look for "Fall of the Empire - Members Only" and click on it.

 

Read the introduction thread for the introduction and occupation! If this gets off the ground there will be a public forum too, but until then I want to keep it small yet a place to hold all the ideas.

 

Also, I made a list of all of the Rebel and Imperial Vehicles ever to be in the Star Wars universe, so be sure to check that out .