The basic concept behind our game is, in a very basic form, capture the flag. The game will be 2v2 ONLY. There will be no 4v4Comp or 1v1. The objective will be to steal jewels from the other teams 'outpost'. These jewels will be gaurded by the players, and by towers that will shoot at enemies with arrows and stuff. The number of jewels that a team has to steal before it's game over is up to the game master (the one who hosts the game). It can be 1 jewel or it can be 100 jewels, it's the players choice. Each person chooses a class from a list of 8 different classes; Fighter, Ranger, Elementalist, Mesmer, Diviner, Rogue, Beastmaster, and Conjurer. The players get to learn and choose different skills based on their class as they level up.
The players will have free movment on a map that typically resembles a warcraft 3 style map. When a player encounters another player, or a creep, they will enter into an ATB (Active Time Battle) Battle System. The camera will rotate down so they are viewing a semi-side of their character. When each players bar fills to full, they can act. Actions can consist of attacking, using magic, using skills, defending, or fleeing. Most experience points are earned during battle. XP is granted for each successful attack, skill or spell. If you kill an enemy player you will recive an additional xp bonus. When a player dies, he/she will be knocked out for x ammount of seconds where x equals Player Level x 3 + # of deaths x 2. So if you die and you are level 2 and have died two times you will be knocked out for 10 seconds ((2 x 3 = 6) + (2 x 2 = 4) = 10). After those 10 seconds are up, you are 'warpped' back to your outpost and can continue game play as usuall. If a player flees from battle, a smaller xp bonus is granted to the oposing player/team, you are also warpped back to your outpost.
If 2 players (one from each team) engage each other in battle, that battle is viewed by the other 2 players on the world map. Because there is an ATB type battle system, players will be able to join a fight mid fight. If Player 1 and Player 3 are fighting, Player 2 can join mid fight. Player 2 will be able to act as soon as his ATB bar is full. Players will also be able to partake in Skillchains. This is where Player 1 and Player 2 use 2 different skills just seconds after one another to create a more powerful elemental 'chain damage'. So if a Fighter uses Slash and a Ranger uses Aimed Shot just a second after the Fighter's Slash, they will combine to create a more devasiting attack.
Random items, powerups and creeps will also spawn on the map. Items will be anything from potions to things that boosts stats when in inventory. Once these are picked up by a player, they are removed from the map. Powerups work the same way as items, except they do not go into your inventory. They are either permenant (adds x ammount of xp) or last for a duration (focus increased by x for x seconds). Creeps are, well.. creeps. NPC monsters that will move around map and attack unsuspecting players. Creeps also serve a higher purpose.. to give Beastmasters something to tame.
Theres the basic concept of our game, but before I finish I'd like to add some more misc info. We are going to try and design the game so that it only takes 10-20 minutes to capture one jewel. The battle system will be designed so the fights will be quick and seemless (1 - 1.5 minutes TOPS for a fight). Our goal in creating this game is to provide players with a free, addictive short game with high replay value. Because we will be offereing 8 different class selections, all with thier own individual weakness and streangth and different strengths and weaknesses based on their paird class, we feel that no two games will ever be the same.
I welcome any and all opinions, suggestions, comments or anything about our idea. We would like to get our idea critiqued and made solid asap. All I ask is that you try and refrain from posting things like "X Engine would be 100 times better and easier to do this in". I understand there are better, more powerful engines out there, but we have made up our mind to use Irrlicht and are confident we can accomplish our final goal with it
Thanks in advance!!!!