Announcement

[Obrusnine]

Standoff: Frontline Combat is a non-commercial project currently in development by Circuit Studios (Name just there to spread our rep, ).

Anyways, Standoff: Frontline Combat is a unique TBS game that takes place in modern times. It will use GTBS.

By, "unique" I mean that the game will be a strategy game fused with heavy RPG story elements, and takes place in the near future. The story revolves around the decisions of the player, and uses a deep non-linear story, but more about that later. Or rather, in the first spoiler box (it's not really a spoiler, but you knew that!).

We're currently recruiting artists, mappers, and voice actors. That's all we really need at the moment. Mappers are more for later use, and voice actors will begin receiving work as I write the games completely non-linear story. There's more about what we need in the "What We Need" Spoiler below.

I have already said that this game is unique, and I mean it. To prove it, I have made a teaser trailer that showcases the human element of the story. There is no gameplay footage because the game isn't actually being built inside the RMVX engine yet. But I think you'll find it an interesting watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keVUipk0t5Y...p;feature=inbox

It also shows off the games non-original music. I have made a conscious decision that original music wouldn't be beneficial to the game unless performed by a full orchestra. As it is, I can select thoroughly epic music from a very wide selection of non-original tracks. Of course, if someone could compose something good enough to impress me, I would like at least some original music within the games soundtrack. I would like an original main theme regardless, but it isn't needed.

The song is Sad 3, by the SGI Mod Team. You can find out what SGI is here.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/stargate-invasion


Story

Spoiler:

The game is based around a World War 3 conflict started by China, the player is a Colonel in the United States Military, Chinese Military, or French Military. In the United States Military, the default last name for the player is Newarth. The others I still have to decide upon. The default last name is so that voice actors can call the player by some name, it makes the acting more natural.

This is the script for the games introduction (which will be fully voice acted). It tells a story that takes place at the same time as the games main events. This is the first of 10 or more segments that will be in the final game.

It's an autobiographical narrative by Nicolas Bauer, a reporter whose family is killed in the first strike of the war. A war that no one wanted.

A war that no one knows why it started.

Spoiler:

Date Stamp: July 24th, 2021

It was so long ago now, I barely remember it.

I was riding in the backseat of a limo back to DC after I just made a journalistic trip. I�€™m not even sure what it was for. I don�€™t think it matters.

But anyways, I was riding. Then, as the city crested on the horizon, there was a huge explosion. It was so unexpected, gasped and backed up in my seat. Pinched myself to make sure I was awake. Too bad I was.

The shockwave didn't reach us for a few seconds, but we saw a huge cloud of dust thrown into the air in a mushroom cloud. Then I couldnt see anything. I had heard of this, flash blindness.

I told the driver to get down. The shockwave suddenly hit us; the windows and the windshield were blown in. I think I got cut from the flying glass, I�€™m not sure. But I was sure of the blood, some of it got onto my eyelids, after I closed my eyes didnt really matter if they were open since I couldnt see.

I found out later that my driver hadnt been able to get down in time. He had been killed by the flying glass from the windshield; I on the other hand had escaped with just a few cuts. I wonder what has become of that driver, his family I wish I knew his name now. I wouldve been able to tell them I was sorry, sorry for not doing something to help him.

But, that time of mourning is long over.

I wasnt picked up by rescue workers; I knew none would come if that had been a nuclear weapon. It was too dangerous. The radioactive dust would start raining soon, and I knew I would have to get moving. I climbed into the front seat of the car, I found the driver still not knowing if he was dead or alive. But I knew I didnt have time to check.

I looked around with my other senses and unlatched the seatbelt. I pushed him over. I sat down, and I felt for the pedals under my feet.

At that point, I wasnt sure why I was trying to save myself. My life was over as far as I knew; my family had been in the city. I knew that they were most likely dead. But I guess that I held onto a faint glimmer of hope. How foolish I was, hope isnt something you come across often anymore.

Anyways, I knew I wouldnt be able to help my family if I was dead. I had to get away from this place, before I was caught in a radioactive rain.

Without knowing where I was going, I turned the car around and drove straight on. I had to try and remember which way the road turned. Luckily, the wind wasnt blowing in my direction. But I knew it could change at any moment.

Miraculously, I didn't crash. After quite a while, my vision started to come back. In the beginning, I could just see shapes and faint lights. But it soon got better. I managed to get back to the last town we had been in, cant remember what it was called. Not that it matters.

Thats when I found out the driver was dead though, the EMTs who picked me up said so at least.

From those weeks on, the reports flowed in. Someone had hacked us a few hours before that bomb had landed. They had shut down any kind of missile detection systems we had far before the bomb was even launched. But they actually had made it look like everything was still running.

The President had apparently died in the explosion as well. President Andrew Johansen. He hadnt known the bomb was coming, and so was sitting right there when it detonated.

NORAD managed to hack into its detection hardwares logs, as they had been put under a new encryption by someone, and managed to find out the missiles source.
They tried to reverse track the hacker as well, but the signal had been bounced around the worlds servers the source nearly impossible to identify.

The missile had been fired from a station in China. One that our intelligence had absolutely no knowledge on as it turned out.

Still, our President had been killed. Nearly the entire United States Congress had been wiped out. The Vice President, Jason Stalcon, had been lucky enough to not be in Washington at the time. He took over the country, and for the first time in United States history, declared war without approval from Congress.

They launched a nuclear missile back at China before giving them a chance to explain themselves. We have no idea why they made no effort to stop the missile so far, and this war has been going on for almost six years. In his anger, the now President Jason Stalcon seized the neutral territory of the UN and kicked out all of the Asian diplomats. The Europeans were allowed to stay.

But anyways, the nuke we launched hit its target. Taipei was decimated. The death toll was now in the millions. Still no one knew why. Nobody longer cared.

The Chinese and United States refused to talk to each other as they marshaled their forces for full-scale war as this happened, all of the UN representatives for the Europeans retreated to their country and all of those countries declared neutrality.

It turned out that the Canadians and even the Mexicans were appalled that a nuclear attack had been submitted on their continent. They offered to join the United States in a full military alliance so that they could protect themselves from damage. Both countries also felt they needed military recognition to make their countries more powerful.

From these talks, the North American Alliance, or NAA, was formed, all three countries now at war with China.

This news eventually reached the Chinese. Using their military power, they threatened many smaller countries into allying with them. Sympathizers from across Asia also allied themselves with them, having heard the huge death toll from the nuke on Taipei. This eventually resulted in the Asian Federation of Nations, or AFN, a military alliance that declared war on all countries within the North American Alliance of Nations.

Australia immediately declared themselves neutral and started an embargo with all countries connected to either alliance.

Europe, having all declared themselves neutral did not seize trade. To appear more threatening, they formed an alliance themselves to make sure that neither side attacked them. The Nations of Europe Neutrality Coalition, or NENC.

That didnt work; both sides pushed the Neutrality Coalition to only trade with them. The AFN went as far as to make a military threat. The Americans meanwhile accepted their stance.

But the military threat from the AFN made the Neutrality Coalition try to embargo all trade with the NAA. This unwise decision bracketed threats from the NAA in anger. Fearing retaliation from both sides, the NENC embargoed all trade with nations outside of Europe. The Asians were so angry that they declared war on the Neutrality Coalition.

The NAA relationship with the NENC was also crumbling under the pressure. But the real overboard happened when a bomb killed the rest of the remaining Congress members while they were meeting. The bomber was revealed to have come from Europe, and the bomb was found to have chemicals only found in bombs specifically made by the French Government.

That put them over the edge, the NAA declared war on the NENC. The NENC said it had not been their bomb, but they were not believed.

Finding no other choice, the nations of the NENC escalated their alliance to a military one. They changed their name to the International Alliance of the Nations of Europe, or IANE.

In this chaos, I was stuck with no news of my family. But I had thought for a while that they were dead. I noticed the changing role of the Press Corps from covering the President to covering the war itself. Using my old journalistic connections, I joined them. I was immediately dispatched to cover the 35th Battalion under command of Colonel Newarth. He was using a brand new system to command troops in far-away places. I was with the men of course, so I didnt actually see him using the new tech but the signs were everywhere.

Every single one of the soldiers now wore augmented reality goggles. This allowed them to visually see any order given to them by their commander in real time. I actually had the chance to try one on, they really work.

The commander is sitting inside a virtual reality environment back at home; from there he can see a view of the section of ground via a satellite. Using his hands inside of a virtual world, he guides troops and tells them what to do. The moment to moment decisions stay under the discretion of the soldier, but overall command is much easier and order relay is instant.

I remember thinking that this was one incredible future we lived in but also a deadly one.

That was before I got personal experience covering a battlefield. Wish I could go back to then. When I still thought what we were doing was for the good of the world, and what was right in revenge for my family.

It was before we went to Paca, France.

End Recording.

While the player is situated in one of those specific military's, that does not mean he is not supporting the war effort of the entire alliance.

There are 3 different campaigns, but they all have similar events (the writing for three completely different non-linear campaigns would be murder!).

As I have said, the player is a Colonel in one of the Alliances, he uses a new technology called Ocular Oversight and Command, or OOaC for short. This technology allows a commander to command his troops from his home country. All of the soldiers wear augmented reality goggles and see their orders in real time. But this isn't the main focus of the games story.

The main focus of the story is on the characters decisions. The player himself speaks and makes decisions on his own merit. The games story plays out more like Mass Effect or Dragon Age then any linear RTS or RPG. The player makes conscious dialog decisions throughout, and changes can be significant. It's my objective as a writer to make sure that everyone has a completely unique experience. The story has a huge human element to it, which is another reason the game will be fully voice acted.

I don't think I've ever played any strategy game like this, and it's another one of my objectives to make the game itself standout from everything else.

Gameplay

Spoiler:

While the game doesn't have any screenshots yet, we have already decided to use GTBS. We will have completely modern looking sprites and maps.

We'll have more specifics about gameplay at a later date.

What We Need

Spoiler:

Artists

Spoiler:

We need artists for spriting, facesetting, and tilesets. Spriting will consist of tanks and other current military hardware as well as soldier sprites. The player sprite as well, which will be different in all three different alliances.

For facesetting, we would need facesets for all of the sprites in the game.

For tilesets we will need modern things such as buildings. Because some of the maps will take place off of the battlefield, and in cities, we're going to need flags and cars and the like.

Job assignments for spriters would start immediately, as I already know what I'm looking for. Tilesets will start later, when I've written enough of the story to know what I'm looking for.

Mappers

Spoiler:

Mapping will consist of battlefields, indoor modern environments, and outdoor modern environments.

Your work will not start until I've written enough of the story to know what I'm looking for.

Voice Actors

Spoiler:

Voice work needs to be good enough to be believable. I need samples before I start listing you as an active team member. A lot of actors will probably be assuming multiple roles because of the slightly big need for voice work. Main character voice actors need to be better then average and need to sound VERY believable, otherwise the entire point of voice acting is naught.

Voice Acting work will start in like a week from now. I need to get more writing done before I can decide what I'm looking for.

Please support Standoff: Frontline Combat, copy and paste this code into your signature! It's Standoff's Userbar Code.

CODE

[url="http://www.rpgmakervx.net/index.php?showtopic=35485"][img]http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy276/fallengamer13/Company/StandoffBar.png[/img][/url]

Current Team Members

Spoiler:

Project Lead: killzonly

Lead Writer: Obrusnine

This post has been edited by Obrusnine: Jan 18 2012, 01:10 AM

[sgt massacre]

Hey Obrusnine, I got your sprite request, I will get onto them at the weekend as ive just started full time work so only get weekends off, will do soldiers first then the jets then tanks so expect them in that order as and when I can upload them Shouldnt take any longer than 2 weekends but could be more

[Obrusnine]

Hey Obrusnine, I got your sprite request, I will get onto them at the weekend as ive just started full time work so only get weekends off, will do soldiers first then the jets then tanks so expect them in that order as and when I can upload them Shouldnt take any longer than 2 weekends but could be more

Ok, awesome, looks like we're finally gonna get this show on the road.

[sgt massacre]

ok ive started them now cuz i just got sacked got injured and then they said im no use to them (a**holes), anyway back to business, just to confirm you have ordered 9 sprites out of your 10 limit per month, If you wish something to be changed this will not affect your limit order, your limit order will be replenished on the 1st of every month, whenever you have orders left in your order limit pool at the end of the month these are transferred to your new pool.

[Obrusnine]

ok ive started them now cuz i just got sacked got injured and then they said im no use to them (a**holes), anyway back to business, just to confirm you have ordered 9 sprites out of your 10 limit per month, If you wish something to be changed this will not affect your limit order, your limit order will be replenished on the 1st of every month, whenever you have orders left in your order limit pool at the end of the month these are transferred to your new pool.

Ok, don't be so businesslike, we're friends right,

Thanks anyway, and sry you got sacked

O, and once your done with those, I made a new unit type announcement, so you can work on those to. Make sure there are diagonal versions in those spritesets please. Don't need any facesets atm. Will need much later in development.

O, and remember to add our userbar into your sig, .

This post has been edited by Obrusnine: Aug 26 2010, 04:09 AM

[aaronfeld]

Hmm this sounds good. I'm in two projects now but if you despretly need help I'll see what I can do. I can be a playtester anytime though. PMing me would be nice.

[Obrusnine]

We are desperately in need of help, any that you could provide would be really awesome. Also, if anyone from your two other projects would be willing to help, I'd be willing to trade my (excellent, not that I mean to brag...) writing skills for the help, .

Remember to put up that userbar! And, which section of the team board do I add you to?

This post has been edited by Obrusnine: Aug 27 2010, 10:14 PM

[aaronfeld]

Eventer? I did not see that up there but...I'm getting the demo right now. Is there a up to date verson out there.

I can't read it...

This post has been edited by aaronfeld: Aug 27 2010, 10:41 PM

[Havic]

Is this gonna be like advance wars? If so I have the charactersets . . .

[aaronfeld]

Hmm that's an idea but it's an RTS I believe.

[Havic]

Advance Wars Duel Strike had rts in it. Pretty fun too.

[aaronfeld]

Hmm I'll check that out then. I've only played the first one and not much for that matter.

[Obrusnine]

This isn't advance wars. It's it's own RTS. It will have a unique story, and unique gameplay twists. Whenever we get someone to edit our script at least, >.<

[Havic]

You never went into detail on what kind of tactical control you wanted. I really do like this battle system but it is hard to use.

[killzonly]

I think I finally solved my login problem! I noticed that the totally f**king stupid highspeed was the problem, so I set up a free dial up connection with NoCharge.com to have an internet that could only remain static! I'm really hoping that this posts, that way things can really get moving!

EDIT: YEAH!~ It worked!

This post has been edited by killzonly: Aug 28 2010, 08:46 PM

[Obrusnine]

You never went into detail on what kind of tactical control you wanted. I really do like this battle system but it is hard to use.

We want the ability to click on a unit, then, moving your cursor across the map, click again to send the unit to that spot. And if a unit is in that position, the unit you are controlling will attack the enemy unit clicked on. Obviously, it's easy to say, and hard to do. It would also help if we could get a draw box, but it really doesn't matter.

Also, we seem to not be able to assign buildings health. Although I think I could event it anyway...

This post has been edited by Obrusnine: Aug 31 2010, 03:43 PM

[killzonly]

Actually, I do have a way of giving buildings health. I figured out how when studying the script that we are using.

[Obrusnine]

ok, cool

[Havic]

I'd like to know how myself lol

[killzonly]

Its simple after you notice the treasure chest parts of the script. Obviously, I would need a MEGA big sprite sheet of a building about 4x the size of a normal one, if not larger. The treasure chests that randomly drop down or spawn from a creature actually have a HP of 1 and a DEF of 0 making them One-Hit-Kills. I could create a player-team unit that starts at the beginning of the round with perhaps a HP of about 500 to 1000 with 50 DEF and 0 to 50 ATK depending on the building type. Obviously a research center wouldn't fight back as compared to a barracks that would be filled with troops!