M.E.R.C.

[KingM]

First of, superb idea!

On for some quote's o_O

 

The first thing that the player will have to deal with is raids from other factions who will also want to control the military base. These raids will vary due to what faction is attacking, but some will be overwhelming and there is a possibility of multiple factions attacking at once.

Will those factions allign towards you or will they fight one and another aswell?

Would look kinda wierd if Mutants and Talon are to gang up and fight side by side.

 

You will be notified when you base is being attacked, but you will not be able to directly teleport to it – only to a near by location. The more staff you have and the better equipped your staff is, the better chances they will be able to defend it while you are away.

Are the attackers scaled with the defence of the base?

Lets say i've only had money for a couple of guards and i can only equip em with 10mm and a couple of SMG's.

 

The next stage of the mod will involve contracts, similar to that of Talon Company and Riley’s Rangers. I hope to implement a territory system (Like GTA SA), but I haven’t outlined the details of it yet. The idea will be for your MERC faction to be hired by various groups in the wasteland for protection. This can be as simple as having one of your soldiers hired as an additional escort for a caravan. As stated, I would like to have territories or areas that you will be able to protect and control. Your faction will be paid for the services it provides, so what will you do with extra money? You will need to purchase supplies, weapons, and any other items that your faction needs to keep fighting the good fight… not to mention the payroll.

Theese quests i presume are repeatable for as long as life it self?

And is there an messege telling if the mission is a succes or fail (when sending a soldier/squad)?

 

The player will still need to acquire items, check up on the locations their staff is at, and assist with tougher contracts.

So is there some form of a container/locker/box where you can add items, like an "base pool" of weapons and ammo.

And a way to add funds to the base?

 

Additional Elements I want to make sure that this mod will not interfere with other modifications out there.

This question is kinda linked to the mechanic staff, the "Repair Rethought" mod where you can use all kind of crap in the wasteland to repair with, is that taken in account?

 

 

Now here your ideas realy start to shine out

The second quest will be the contract side of it. This is where I need feedback (granted I'll take feedback on everything). The question is, should this be a long single quest with multiple stages or should each "contract" be an individual quest?

individual quest! Hands down.

Break up the quest line with a reward for each part as en extension/uppgrade/unlock for the completion of the base.

(i guess/hope we where talking the quests of the key personel here)

 

Also since there is plenty of EXP to gather from other places, I figure the quest rewards for this will be the new items, money, and some custom perks.

100% agree with you there zero (0) EXP, you get enough of that as it is even with pacer.

Now this is just my oppinion waste the perks. With alot of overhoul mods that changes the perks for the better as it is there is no need for more, again just my oppinion.

 

Finally, what type of contacts would you guys like to see?

- Protection & Escort

- Assassination

- Territory Control

 

- Espionage / Theft / Raids

All of them! Why not they are all great ideas. Just make it so there is an option to choose what your poision is.

So its not Today we have assasin, day after there is Espio and so fourth.

Dont know if you ever played SWG "Star Wars Galaxies" they had a terminal from where they could pick up quest wish was kinda random.

An addition could be to aquire a random spawned item and a choose location that are well guarded aswell, the item could be document or a research gizmo just what ever none game breaking item.

A protect and hold a strategic point for a sertain time, say an road crossing or an ruined building.

Free/Capture slaves.

Only the mind is a limit here to be honest.

 

I would like a freelance style of play too. To the extend that you can look at a map and assign personnel to an area. At which point your men/women will invade that area and kill all enemy related factions.

Exelent idea!

With MMM's mod and the interior spawn mod i can see wounders with this. Cant wait to send some troops to Fairfax Ruins :thumbsup:

 

 

Now for some random questions.

 

1. Are there some form idea to call troops from you base like "Enclave Commander"? (that are not over powerd)

2. Base expansion, what are there? can you buy turrets for example?

3. Will you be so damn kind an add a binocular to the game :yes:

 

Last one is more of a "getonmykneesbeggingwithpuppyeysandearsdown" kinda way.

 

 

Regads

Mike. H

[sumoftwosins]

I'll try to cover everything you have asked. There have been some changes to the original concept due to restraints. Each phase was design to determine what was possible for the next phase. I've finished P2 and am starting with P3, the final stage to add the new modes/systems.

 

Question 1 - Attacks

They will not help each other. As you are fighting... say Talon, you might also get hit by another faction from another direction.

 

Question 2 - Attacks

The enemy attacks will be based on your reputation which also ties into contracts. These are in tiers. So if you are at a high level, you have a more difficult attack, but to be in that tier you will have more resources. Basically, the more successful you are the more people will want what you have. If you are in a low tier then their will be little response.

 

Question 3 - Contracts

This has changed a bit. For contracts you have personal details which you are to guard an individual. Then you have organization based contracts... say Megaton. Then you will have territorial contacts to hold certain areas similar to Talon trying to take parts of the DC area. All of the contracts other than territorial ones will have not actual mission to the point of success/fail. They are just ways to generate funds. The territorials ones will be the opposite. You can assist your people or not. The quest should be repeatable, but you will loose money or reputation for failure. I'm still trying to work all of this out at the moment.

 

Question 4 - Supplies / Money

As seen in the beta, there is a well stocked armory that I get bitched about. However, in P3 this armory will be fairly empty and as you progress it will fill up. I wanted to have something along the lines of what you specifically asked, but I'm not sure how it will work. However, all of your staff will have a base type of inventory per class. The way it seems it is going is that the items you add will help keep things repaired. So if you add a bunch of AK's then the staff will not start using AK's, but instead use parts to repair things. The funds will be directly tied to the players inventory. Upon a successful contract the money will be added to the player. When a player purchases something for the faction it will come out of their inventory.

 

Question 5 - Conflicts

I am not specifically sure what you are asking.

 

Question 6 - Quests

I'm pretty sure I will be going with 3 quests. The first is acquiring the essential staff and building your initial faction. The 2nd will be the contracts and the 3rd will involve the free-play mode.

 

Question 7 - EXP / Perks

In P2 there is some small XP... like 200 total just being used as a test. The perks I will be keeping as a reward for recruiting the 7 special people. Though there is not a significant boost. We're talking like 5 points to a skill, but with all 7 people every skill will be covered. So for people using no super-mods, you will get an even spread of 5 points to every skill.

 

Question 8 - Contract Types

I will be incorporating most of them and I didn't think of retrieval... that's a good idea and I will put that into the mod. Most of the contracts will be permanent in the since your staff will be there for a while and others will be temporary. There is still a bit up in the air as I try to script it. The Geck provides some limits and unlike other SDK's where I can rewrite what is hard coded.

 

Question 9 - Free Play

As started for the Quest 3, you will be able to... at will, assign personnel to locations to perform one of 3 things: Raid, Occupy, and Eradicate. Raiding will add to your inventory and money. Occupy will have the people move to the location and only kill enemies. Eradicate will have them killed everything in the radius - if they can.

 

Question 10 - Misc.

I would like to have something similar to the fact that you could call in support. For example on the territory missions where you would assist. If you didn't think the current personnel can handle it, then you could assign more while you are on location. You can't hire new staff from the field, but pull from your existing pool.

 

In P2, I experimented with turrets, internal and external. The problem is "spawning" them. So what the plan is to do is have them already in place and as you progress, you can activate them.

 

Binoc's, I thought about them... but not for my mod, but just as something that did need to be added. I will try to come up with something that will at least give the player the ability to zoom in fairly well.

 

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Due to the massive storm front in south central US, I have been without power for a couple of days, not to mention other crazy poo. I had a chance to work on my notes and here is what will be added/incorporated.

 

Personnel

You have 3 types. Essential staff that involves the 7 people you recruit. If you fail to recruit one the mission isn't failed, but limits contract options. An example is one character is an assassin and she will unlock those specific type of contracts. The next set of staff will be the base personnel that will unlock as you go and will not do anything other than defend and operate. The next is the hired staff to fulfill contracts. When you hire there you will have options to pay for more training and the better trained they are the more you can make from the contract. Certain contracts will require higher trained people.

 

There are three classes that you can train/promote those you hire to:

1. Security Staff, combat armor and regular weapons. Decent spread of skills.

2. Soldier, power armor and more points towards weapons.

3. Commando (originally Officer) that will using a camo uniform and have specific skill sets and silenced weapons.

 

For contracts needing bodyguards, they will request commando's. People need heavy protection will want Soldiers. People wanting general and internal protection will accept security guards. Each of the classes will have 2 groups of specialization, e.g. Soldiers can be trained in big guns or energy weapons while both have skills in small guns and explosives.

 

The problem I am having now is providing the ability to upgrade people you've already hired. With my tests I have no problem setting the training level as you hire them, but altering existing NPC's is the current challenge. I may end up using perks or actor effects that get added to them. We'll see....

 

 

Phase 2 has been/being tested by a dozen or so now. We've been able to locate several issues and I'm trying to get them lined out. I hope to release something soon for the P2 version, but I might just wait for P3. Regardless, I hope to have a very in depth mod for everyone to enjoy.

[KingM]

Question 5 - Conflicts

I am not specifically sure what you are asking.

Basicly what i mean is, do the mechanics need a 10mm gun to be able to repair a 10mm gun.

Or is it compatible with mods like "Repair Rethought" that uses tin cans/bats/nail boards/Aprox and such to repair items aswell. Then there would be another reason to start pick the waste clean of crapp.

 

Question 10 - Misc.

I would like to have something similar to the fact that you could call in support. For example on the territory missions where you would assist. If you didn't think the current personnel can handle it, then you could assign more while you are on location. You can't hire new staff from the field, but pull from your existing pool.

How will the support you called in arive? will they have a ground travel time or called in by air?

 

In P2, I experimented with turrets, internal and external. The problem is "spawning" them. So what the plan is to do is have them already in place and as you progress, you can activate them.

Sounds like a good plan, is there an idea how to manage upkeep on the turrets? like battery/money or som sorts?

 

 

Mike. H

[sumoftwosins]

Repair items are not specific, but need to be in the same class. Any type of energy weapon will repair any energy weapon.

[lollerbike]

the best ways i can think of for upgrading your soldiers would be:

1) paying them. but that's too simple

2) based on how, and how many they kill. might be harder

3) temporarily making them unusable. also might be a bit hard to make

4) a quest you have to do based on what they do. might be easier

[bladiebla]

Just a question about your P2-model. Are you planning to launch this version or do we have to wait for the full version?

And if we get a P2-model when will it be downloadable?

[sumoftwosins]

I was planning on launching it, but I ended up starting on P3 while trying to resolve some bugs. So actually it is a bit further than that and was thinking of waiting until the mod was completely finished. I might do an in between release or something.

 

So at this time, I don't know what will be released other than the Armor Pack I released yesterday.

[bladiebla]

Ok, in that case, do you have any idea when it's finished?

I've played the beta and well it's awsome;).

kudos;)

[sumoftwosins]

Ok, in that case, do you have any idea when it's finished?

I've played the beta and well it's awsome;).

kudos;)

 

I really don't know. It will probably take about 2 weeks to do all of the contract and recruiting side of things done. I'm torn on some ideas right now. What I have been thinking is releasing the base mod that has all of the required structure and release content upgrades for it like the DLC was for the main game. So basically you get the mod with the main mission and I release addition mods that add new contracts and things like that.

 

It's just trying to plan all this out and to determine which route to take. I don't want it to drag out to the point that when it gets released everyone is tired of game. I myself am getting burned out on the normal missions.

[sumoftwosins]

I really need to setup a blog for this. I need somewhere to vent and log things and after the latest changes, players will need a manual to play this mod. I was finally able to nail down some of the ideas and pick a direction. So here are the new developments on the Phase 3 side of things.

 

Contracts

There are going to be 4 categories of contracts: Personal, Faction, Regional, and Undisclosed. Contracts will either be a one time deal or a permanent position unless canceled. The permanent ones are:

 

1. Personal Contracts - Simple as bodyguards and escorts. These contracts deal with individuals.

2. Faction Contracts - Provide security and what not for factions or towns.

3. Regional Contracts - Occupying and defending certain areas that can benefit multiple factions (trade routes)

4. Undisclosed Contracts - One time deals that range from assassination to retrieval.

 

Staff & Personnel

There will be 3 types of personnel that break into smaller classes and categories. Each type will obviously be used for different purposes and can include non-combatants and combative NPC's

 

Base / Support Staff

Staff in this category will solely work at the base interior and exterior. They are not used for contracts or for your personal missions. They do however alter various factors of the mod and the contract system. There are 22 positions you will be able to hire and fulfill. Once you do this, a pre-designed NPC will spawn and begin their duties. I wanted to make it dynamic, but to get the AI packages and stuff to work out correctly I had to take this route. Staff will cost you money up front, but will modify different factors of the contract system. It is all about investment and planning.

 

Contract Staff

As it sounds, these are the NPC's that you hire to use for contract fulfillment. You can select from 3 levels of training: Security Guards, Soldiers, and Commandos. They cost more respectively, but have additional bonuses in the long run. From that point you can select different classes that dictate their inventory like heavy weapons or sniper rifles. You will never see the contract staff until they are assigned to a contract. Essentially when you hire them that will be in "reserve".

 

Private Staff

At some point as you progress you will be able to hire people for the Free Play mode. You can use them as bodyguards or whatever. They work the same way as the contract staff. They will be in "reserve" as well, but you can activate and deactivate them at will.

 

Mod & Contract Factors

I had to develop a system that would force the player to make considerations in recruitment and to allow the player to progress as they go. Rather then just giving a list of things they can do and they can do it... the player will be able to advance in the mod. To accomplish this I created several factors that act as modifiers to the mod. As stated with the support staff, they will provide some benefit to your faction. It works similar to SPECIAL attributes where if you have more perception, you can detect enemies from a further distance.

 

The essential characters you recruited in the first quest get you started with the modifiers. So if they get killed (doesn't fail the mission), then you just lose those modifier points.

 

Reputation

This is the most important modify because it is the only one that determines what contracts are available. Certain contracts require a specific reputation level and rep also effects how many security units you need for contracts. Essentially the client might demand more security units if your rep is low. Whereas if your rep is high they are confident in the service you provide. Rep can be increased through a number of ways. It is multiplied by the players level in the game, support staff, and previous contracts. Rep also determines the size and difficulty of enemy attacks.

 

Revenue

There is obviously a base amount of money that you will receive for each contract. However certain support staff, barter skill, and speech skill can also increase the amount of money you make.

 

Defense

This is an obvious one and essentially calculates the success/failure when your base is attacked by an enemy. Defensive support staff increases your chance of repelling an enemy attack. Your defense modifier also calculates whether or not the enemy might gain access to the lower levels of the base.

 

Detection

The detection modifier improves your defense, but primarily determines how effectively you are notified about an attack. A high detection modifier will allow you to be warned before the attack. With a low modifier you are likely to be notified during the attack.

 

Looting

This modifier effects how effect the enemies raid will be. If you have a low defensive modifier then the enemy will likely make it into the interior base. From that point, the Theft modifier steps in to calculate the enemy's ability to loot. This also increases your factions ability to loot in Free Play missions.

 

Morale

The Morale modifier effects a number of small things in the mod. Anything that can improve the conditions of your base will increase the morale of your staff. This decreases the recruiting cost and improves health regeneration of your staff.

 

Technology

The Tech modifier doesn't dictate what weapons or armor are available, but how well equipment is maintained and the cost of the equipment. Tech is a large factor in the Morale modifier as well.

 

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So that is about it. As you can see with the contract system it should make the player be mindful of recruiting. When your initial cash is low, you have to choose between defending the base or boosting your revenue. Some support staff boost multiple things. Everything is coming along very nicely now that I've worked out those things. I hate having to implement math and calculations into mods, but it is what I need to do to get the job done. I suppose the mission of this mod is to give the player extra things to do as they advance through the retail game. The contract system definitely adds some content to help with those dull moments between missions.