Task Force Command: Unification Wars (RTS) (Help wanted)

[HKurban]

Concept Art Coming Soon (As soon as I can figure out how to work my bloody copier/fax/scanner...)

In case you didn't pick up on it from the topic title, Task Force Command: Unification Wars is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game, similar to Command and Conquer or Starcraft in the way it looks and feels.

Story:

In 2020, a man by the name of Carlos Songalez has drafted a plan to end all conflict in the world and bring international peace and tranquility between all nations for an extended period of time. His plan involves the United Nations demilitarizing hostile nations by any means necessary and then taking responsibility for security of that given nation. In other words, the nations in question will retain sovereign power, but the governments will no longer control a military force.

You are one of several military commanders hand picked by Dr. Songalez. Your mission is to command an expeditionary task force that will be dispatched around the world to establish a long lasting peace. This mission will not be an easy one. You will face terrorist organizations, waring factions of divided nations, and dictators who are not very willing to step down their arsenals.

"Its up to you to fight the war that will bring us peace." -- Dr. Carlos Songalez

Conceptual Gameplay Features:

Task Force Command may at first look like your run of the mill RTS, but this game will have many features that set it apart from the comercial strategy games on the market. Several of these key features are to include:

-- Accuracy based combat: In most RTS games, the victor is simply determined by who has the bigger guns. In TFC, range and accuracy both come into play. Infantry will try to seek out nearby cover if they are standing in the open. When units gain experience and get promoted, their accuracy will increase.

--Health, Leadership and Fuel: Aside from the standard "health" featured in most RTS games, units will also have a measure of leadership (infantry) or fuel (land and air vehicles).

When vehicles run out of fuel, they will simply be imobilized, or they will crash in the case of air vehicles. Fuel trucks can be added to battle groups to provide fuel when units are away from bases. Fuel trucks are, however, very volitile and make juicy targets.

Leadership is a measure of a unit's morale. When a unit is outnumbered, the leadership level will drop. When a unit is part of a force outnumbering an enemy, then the leadership level will increase. When the leadership level drops to zero, the unit will either retreat, or stay in place and surrender. Leadership and fuel levels increase when a unit gains experience and is promoted. Leadership also increases if an officer is nearby.

When an infantry unit's health drops below a certain point, the unit will become incapacitated. If a medic can get to them in time, the infantry unit can be returned to combat strength. If an enemy gets to the unit, they will "execute" the unit.

--Non-linear missions: most RTS Games follow one or two linear storylines. Task Force Command takes you along a branching storyline where very often, failure does not mean the end... just a different outcome. There are also missions that require the player to make a personal choice, such as who to allign himself with.

If you are interested in helping, there are several spots open on the project. I do have someone who will be doing most of the programming, but he can not do it alone.

Job info:

Developer: "Rifle Dance Studios"

Publisher: "Joint Task Force: Media"

Positions held:

-Project Design Lead: Alex Urban (myself)

-Programmer: James Elmendorf

-3D Model/Animation lead: Alex Urban

-Level Design: Alex Urban

Positions Available:

-Programmers

-Asst. 3D Animator(s)

-2D GUI Designer

-Audio Editor

-Soundtrack Composer

-Texture Artist

-Asst. Level Designer

-Webmaster

If you are interested, please let me know by either replying, sending a private message, or emailing me (allies_vs_axis@yahoo.com)

Also, if you have any questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to ask. I'll be more than happy to answer them.

[BlindSide]

Is there any pay in this

[HKurban]

If we get this off the ground, then most likely, yes.

[BlindSide]

Sweet, that will encourage more people to join, good luck

[rogerborg]

Unfortunately, I don't have the time to commit to it, but I just wanted to note that you've made a good solid pitch. Concept art would really help to get a buzz going about it, but you already know that.

Best of luck, this looks far more achievable than the traditional "OMG MMORPG!" announcement.

[HKurban]

One question for you guys: what kind of concept art do you prefer. Do you like simple sketches of units and such, or do you prefer pictures of conceptual gameplay? Or all of the above?

[kburkhart84]

One question for you guys: what kind of concept art do you prefer. Do you like simple sketches of units and such, or do you prefer pictures of conceptual gameplay? Or all of the above?

I say, all of the above. You do more than most do and actually bring something to the table. I'm too busy with my own stuff and work to help much, but good luck(seriously, not sarcasticly) and I think the design ideas are pretty. Make sure you thouroghly test the balance of the games units as well, and also, when your leadership level is higher or lower, what does that affect as far as gameplay. Maybe I missed it, but if it affects accuracy, wouldn't that kind of be unfair, that because I have a bunch of smaller infantry, they all have high leadership, and high accuracy because of it, so where 5 tanks should be able to destroy such infantry because of overall strength, since their accuracy won't be the same it will be lower, so the infantry would win though my opinion is that they shouldn't. Also, how do plan to balance the "teams." In C&C you have GDI and NOD. The teams have advantages and disadvantages so they balance out in the end. You have clarified one team(no details yet though) but you haven't clarified the other. It can be as many teams as you want it, not just 2, but remember you have to balance them with each other as in all of them. Any two teams have to have equal chances. You can't have any two teams that one has an advantage and the other doesn't have an equal advantage, even if it isn't the same advantage. Like GDI and NOD. GDI's superweapon, the Ion cannon, is faster to recharge, but NOD's Nuke Cannon is much stronger, but much slower. They are balanced in that the advantages aren't the same but they are comparably equal in quality. This can be done between any number of teams, but in your description, you have many countries/teams you fight against, so exactly how were you planning to do this?? I would recommend you limit the amount of "teams" you have so you can balance them easier, and organize the different countries/terrorist groups/whatevers you have into one of your 3-5 teams. Any terrorist type could use one set of units, which could include IRAQ/Israel type situations, where the US might be it's own team. England and other "higher" European countries probably would also use the same type of units as the US, so would share the same "team". You could even change colors in each country, so long as you leave the units the same. I think it is too much hassle to have so many teams to balance. I have never seen a commercial RTS with more than 3 such teams. C&C Generals had 3, Dune 2000( the newer one) had 3. Red Alert 2 had two such teams, but in multiplayer, you had the choice of country, which works like I described, except that each country adds a unit, so maintains the balance. But the team base is still the same, with a small edition.

Whooh, sorry so long the post. I hope it gives you some stuff to think about adding for when you start your official design document.

[HKurban]

As of right now, we only plan to have one playable team at the games release: the UN. The player will face various factions including the Last Jihad (Terrorists), National Defense Armies (all 2nd and 3rd world countries will share the same weapons and vehicles, mostly russian made), A Communist alliance (Includes China, N Korea and Cuba, but based off of mostly chinese weapons), and several other factions which I don't want to spoil at this time. All I can say is, depending on your victories, and depending on your decisions as a player, you will face different factions at different times. These decisions are heavily driven by the backstory, so this is not the kind of game for people who just "press A to skip" whenever a cinematic comes up. Since we're low on programmers at the moment, we arent planning on having an internet multiplayer upon the game's initial release, although we will have Skirmish against AI players, which will provide the nescessary feedback for releasing a multiplayer enabling expansion pack, which will allow you to play as each of the factions described above (and the others I didn't describe). We're also planning to introduce with that expansion, short campaigns for each of the factions to familiarize the player with the units and structures of each faction.

As for leadership, the only major effect it has right now is if a unit completely looses morale, the unit will retreat (soldier runs towards the base or edge of map with hands on head) or surrender in place (soldier puts hands on his head and kneels). There is also EXPERIENCE which is seperate entirely from leadership, (although experience has an effect on leadership). When units (including vehicles) rank up (Private to private first class, PFC to corporal, etc), their general skills increase. This includes their accuracy, their health, and their leadership level (possibly speed too).

Game ballance, I'm glad you mentioned that. After several rehashings of the UN Units, the choices of units the player has at their disposal is large, but the player will have to make a decision on which units are best for what situation. For instance, the UN's two main armored units are the Tomahawk Tank and the War Eagle Support Artillery. The Tomahawk Tank is an incredibly heavily armored battle tank with a short ranged Heavy Cannon, which can fire while the vehicle is on the move. The War Eagle is a bit smaller, and has fairly lighter armor. Its medium cannon is much longer ranged, and the vehicle must stop to fire. The player must choose which vehicle to build with the resources he has, or how many of each to build to better complete his mission.

I had not considered particullarly creating advantages for the enemy factions, so I'm glad you brought that up.

Since you asked for details, here is a comprehensive list of all of the Units available to the UN Forces (Still hashing out the details for the structures list):

Infantry:
Light Infantry
- Lightly armed and armored soldiers, extremely cheap, good for missions requiring fast action such as recon or hit and run raids.

Medium Infantry
- More heavily armed and armored than Light Infantry. These troops make up the meat of the UN Forces. Armor is environmentally sealed.*

Grenadier
- Armed with a grenade launcher, these troops are effective against clusters of infantry and light vehicles. Armor is environmentally sealed.*

JAVELIN Launcher
- These troops tote a large heat seeking guided missile launcher, effective against heavy armor and aircraft, but ineffective against infantry. Because of the size and power of the weapon, the JAVELIN Launcher must deploy to the prone or kneeling position to fire. Armor is environmentally sealed.*

Marksman
- The marksmen use sniper rifles to take down infantry targets at long ranges. Their ghillie suits allow them to remain unseen when not firing or moving. Armor is environmentally sealed.*

Officer
- An officer’s primary purpose on the battlefield is to maintain leadership and morale among the front line troops. Armor is environmentally sealed.*

Field Medic
- A field medic can very simply heal troops on the battlefield to keep the front line strong. Armor is environmentally sealed.*

Combat Engineer
- A combat engineer has several roles on the battlefield. Each engineer is armed with 2 explosive charges. These charges can be either mines or demo charges, and can be used to create traps or destroy obstacles and enemy structures. Engineers can also repair structures and vehicles. Armor is environmentally sealed.*

Heavy Infantry
-These soldiers are slow moving and clad in heavy power armor (Akin to Space Marine Terminators or Starship Troopers Marauders). They carry a shoulder fired minigun, and demo charges. Because of their speed, they are best used on defense or transported directly to their objective by vehicle when on assaults. Armor is environmentally sealed.*

Ground Vehicles:
Rover
- The rover is a general purpose fast assault vehicle. The Rover is armed with a machine gun and can carry 5 infantry.

Recon Rover
- The Recon Rover is important in maintaining a communications and intelligence network on the battlefield. The recon rover is equipped with long range sensors and can carry one infantry.

Contractor Truck
- The Contractor Truck is a multi-use vehicle. The Contractor Truck can build structures, gather supplies, and carry 10 infantry.

Fuel Truck
- The fuel truck is built off of the same chassis as a Contractor Truck, but it refuels vehicles. The fuel tank is very vulnerable, so keep this unit heavily guarded and away from enemy antitank units.

Amphibious APC
- The Amphibious APC Carries 8 Troops and can float on water. This unit is heavily armored compared to previous units.

Escort
- Perhaps the closest thing to a “light tank”, the Escort is a four wheeled light assault vehicle. It carries a 35mm Auto Cannon and a Rocket Launcher effective against armor and air units. As its name implies, it is effective at escorting convoys or other defenseless vehicles that are too fast for tanks to keep up with.

Tomahawk Tank
- The Tomahawk Tank is extremely heavily armored and therefore slow moving. The Tomahawk’s 270mm Short Cannon is powerful, but only effective at short ranges.

War Eagle Artillery
- The War Eagle’s job is to provide long ranged firepower where the Tomahawk can not. The War Eagle must deploy to fire, but can fire shots at extremely long ranges. The 200mm Cannon is significantly weaker than the Tomahawk’s 270mm Cannon. The War Eagle can fire 5 shots in quick succession. It can also switch between saturating an area and firing at a specific target.

Mechs:
Fox Powersuit MK. I
- The Fox Powersuit is less like a mech than a Servo suit. Armed with Two auto cannons and a back mounted mortar.

Fox Powersuit MK. II
- The Fox Powersuit MK II is slightly faster and more heavily armored than its counterpart. The Fox MK II totes a single 150mm Cannon and a Back mounted Rocket pod.

Wolf Battlemech
- The Wolf is a powerful unit, with the strength of several tanks combined. The Wolf has 2 independently firing 270mm Long Cannons, but its main attraction is its Triple Barreled 350mm heavy cannon, which is devastating at short ranges. The Wolf’s weakness is a lack of anti-infantry and anti-air defenses. The Wolf is much more powerful than most mechs developed by our enemies.

Aircraft:
VLF Fighter
- The Vertical Lift Flight Fighter is the mainstay of the UN’s Air Force. The Fighter is particularly effective at Air to Air using missiles, but it can also fire rockets at ground targets.

VLF Bomber
- This larger, slower big brother to the VLF Fighter has no anti air defenses, but can deliver devastating payloads to ground targets.

UAV Drone
- The UAV Drone can provide quick recon of an area or stay in one place and provide long term surveillance.

EWS Flier
- The EWS Flier is designed as a naval surveillance vessel with both radar and sonar, and a compliment of depth charges to hunt submarines, but the EWS can also provide land surveillance on a larger scale than a UAV.

VTOL Transport
- The VTOL is the primary method of delivering troops and supplies to the battlefield. The VTOL can carry 8 infantry AND 1 vehicle.

VTOL Gunship
- This version of the VTOL has slightly heavier armor and is outfitted with 4 Auto cannons. This removes the ability to carry troops, however the VTOL Gunship can still carry vehicles.

Missiles:
Smart Missile
- The Smart Missile launches as a single missile, but then delivers 5 conventional warheads to predetermined targets. Smart Missile warheads can even track moving units, provided that they remain in visual range.

Nuclear Missile
- Simply put, this missile delivers a nuclear payload to a given target. The damage both short and long term from this weapon is extensive. Think heavily before using it, especially given the potential for collateral damage.

Smoke Screen Missile
- The smoke screen missile fires a single warhead payload to a given area. Rather than destroying anything, the smoke screen missile unleashes a smokescreen bubble around the target area, reducing the visibility inside to zero. All activities within the smokescreen cloud will halt until the smoke clears.

Rail Gun Satellite
- This rocket will launch a satellite into orbit that fires a successive burst of rounds from space into a target area. The only way to destroy this satellite is to destroy the Satellite Control Center.

Mass Driver Satellite
- The mass driver satellite is launched in the same method as the rail gun satellite. Once in orbit, the mass driver satellite will periodically fire asteroid mass at a given target. This weapon has highly destructive capabilities, but does not produce radiation like the Nuclear Missile. The only way to destroy this satellite is to destroy the Satellite Control Center.

Marine Vessels:
LCAC Landing Craft
- The Landing Craft Air Cushioned (LCAC) is the primary method for ferrying troops and vehicles ashore in an invasion. The LCAC can carry 20 troops OR 2 vehicles OR 10 troops AND 1 vehicle.

Patrol Boat
- The patrol boat is lightly armed, and is unlikely to stand up against any larger warships, but the Patrol Boat carries depth charges which make it useful against submarines.

Destroyer
- The Destroyer is the smallest capital ship, armed with a twin 4 inch gun. It also houses a lift pad which houses an EWS Flier. This flier can be replaced with any other air unit.

AEGIS Cruiser
- The AEGIS Cruiser has no cannons. Instead, it is armed with Surface To Air “Interceptor” missiles and a small compliment of cruise missiles.

Warship
- The largest sea unit in the game. The Warship combines the strengths of an Aircraft Carrier and a Battleship. The Warship’s offensive capabilities include 3 tri-barreled 12 inch guns, and 2 cruise missiles. The Warship also comes with 12 LCACs, 4 VTOL Transports and 2 EWS Fliers. It can house up to 14 aircraft, 150 infantry, and 20 vehicles. In order to micromanage the units inside, and which to send out on LCAC transports, there will be a popup window on the GUI detailing which units are where.

Attack Submarine
- The attack submarine rides silently in the waters, its torpedoes allow it to fire upon unsuspecting vessels without revealing itself.

Nuclear Submarine
- The nuclear submarine still has torpedoes, although only half as many as the Attack sub. The submarine also, of course, has a nuclear payload, which ruins the stealth capability because of radiation. Still, this unit can run silently under the water, out of range of most surface vessels.

*When I say armor is environmentally sealed, it means the infantry is not suceptable to environmental hazards like radiation and nerve gas. It is assumed that all vehicles follow the same safety procedures


Edit:
Also, here are the Infantry units of several of the other factions to give you an idea of gameplay balance. Note that all of these below are still pending.

United States

Infantry:

Ranger - Standard US Infantry, with a scoped M-4 Carbine and light body armor.

Marine - US Infantry with an M-16 and an M203 Grenade Launcher.

MOPP Infantry - US Infantry with an M-16. Armor environmentally sealed.

SIPE Infantry - A heavily armored, technological battlefield masterpiece, similar to the soldiers in ghost recon

Support Gunner - Carries a Squad Automatic Weapon with a high rate of fire, but low accuracy and effective range.

TOW Gunner - Similar to the UN's JAVELIN

Scout Sniper - Similar to the UN's Marksman, but with a lighter sniper rifle

Field Medic - Similar to UN's Field Medic

Combat Engineer - Similar to UN's Combat Engineer

Last Jihad:

Infantry:
Insurgent - Armed with an AK-47. Can blend in with crowds.

Rebel - Armed with an AK and Molotov Coctails. Most effective in groups. Can blend in with crowds until attacking.

Terrorist - Armed with explosives. Suicide bomber. This unic can blend in with crowds until attacking, then the terrorist will utter his final rites before blowing him and all around him to kingdom come.

Sniper - Self explanitory, right?

RPG Gunner - Armed with an RPG Antitank rocket

Stinger - Armed with a stinger guided missile

Worker - Not much different from the CnC Gen counterpart. Gathers resources, builds things.

Terrorist Hijacker - Retrofits abandoned vehicles with bombs.

National Defense Army:

Infantry:
Rifleman - Armed with an AK-47

Gunner - Armed with an RPK Support Gun

RPG - Armed with an RPG Antitank Rocket

Stinger - Armed with a Stinger Guided Missile

Sniper - Still a sniper, still self explanitory

People’s Global Alliance:

Infantry:
Conscript - Cheap, low morale and low armor soldier armed with a semiauto rifle.

Red Infantry - Medium cost soldier with armor and an assault rifle.
Black Guard - Elite communist soldiers. Weapon details pending. Wear grass matts to hide when not moving or shooting.

Sniper - Do I have to say it again?

RPG Gunner - See previous two RPG Gunners

Stinger - See Previous two Stingers

Sapper - The PGA(no pun intended)'s demolitions experts. Armed with explosive charges. Wear grass matts to hide when not moving or shooting.

Thats it for now. Feel free to leave comments on the units.

Concept art update: most of the art is on lined paper (sorry) so I'm redrawing stuff to be critic-friendly. Expect it sometime soon.

Further Edit:

I just realized, I sort of do have some art for you. First, some 3d concept art. Particularly of the Tomahawk Tank.





I'm going to change some minor details to it, or failing that I might redo it altogether, but its pretty close to what I wanted.

Also, here is an actual, albeit unskinned model for the game. This is the light infantry. I made him sunday.




More traditional concept art still on the way.

[BlindSide]

Please be careful with this kind of thing. Alot of people are sensitive when it comes to terrorism and the portrail of "terrorist countries" or the iraqi war.

Thank you.

[Halan]

yeah in germany C&C was cencored and the terrorists were "cyborgs"... imo it makes no difference

greets,
Halan

edit: try bump and espacially detail textures on the tanks... itll look great

[HKurban]

Thanks for the warning, but note this is 15 years in the future, some parts of the political climate have changed, and in fact, Iraq isnt in the game, only Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan (from that region at least), and I am not one to blanket steryotypes upon the middle east. I've looked into the histories of several middle eastern countries, and not one is the same.

[BlindSide]

Oh ok, that sounds cool then What was the 3D art made on? Blender?

[HKurban]

yep. The last one of the Tanks was edited in Gimp to get the nightvision effect.

[Midnight]

His plan involves the United Nations demilitarizing hostile nations by any means necessary and then taking responsibility for security of that given nation. In other words, the nations in question will retain sovereign power, but the governments will no longer control a military force.

lol yeah only in the real world you would have to pry the guns from cold dead fingers even in none hostile territories. this obviously would create world war 3 but thats a good thing for your game I guess.

the game sounds great and your U.N. tanks are very believable. as for a realistic sounding story line I think yer a touch off.

world peace brought about by a man named carlos? lmfao yeah and pigs can fly monkeys crawl out their butts hell has frozen over and jesus has returned.

btw I got this pesky bridge anyone wanna buy it?

[HKurban]

lol yeah only in the real world you would have to pry the guns from cold dead fingers even in none hostile territories.

Note the "by any means nescessary" part

this obviously would create world war 3 but thats a good thing for your game I guess.

As the player, your job is to prevent world war 3 by bringing the fight to the badguys.

as for a realistic sounding story line I think yer a touch off.

I'm afraid I cant really portray the entirety of the story through text, so you'll just have to wait and see how things turn out.

world peace brought about by a man named carlos? lmfao yeah and pigs can fly monkeys crawl out their butts hell has frozen over and jesus has returned.

We shall see...

btw I got this pesky bridge anyone wanna buy it?

o_O ???