Idea Info Name: Factions & Firepower Index: Primary Category: Simulation Submitted: 6/2/2003 8:49:42 PM Written By: kibbied Game Architecture and Design: A New Edition Book Highly Recommended !

For those who love the joystick, I modestly (hehe) present to you a game which will leave you craving for more firepower. For those who love real-time strategy venues, I offer a chance to prove your worth and ultimately end up directing a game with thousands of online members as your pawns. 

Alright, enough of the pumped-up garble. Let me tell you a few general notes, and then I’ll give you a more thorough run down of its game play.  

F&F is a massively multiplayer game that is designed to allow five-hundred people play in a single game without having any of them feel disoriented. As will be discussed later, once a player earns enough money and experience, he will be given a chance to assume a different-type or higher-standing position. Factions & Firepower's best feature will be its ability to create a multi-class playing environment, where some players have assumed a position of command over others.

One important note before the real explanation begins: Because minerals are the life-force of the factions, it is critical for teams to explore into new sectors and spread themselves out as far as they possibly can (without exposing vulnerabilities). Therefore, while there may be several hundred players in a single game, only a fraction of that number would ever be in virtual contact with each other. (Ships travel through warpholes, which connect adjacent sectors to one another.)

Story

Two factions are engaged in a violent war with each other. The World Conglomerate is determined to create a universal and all-compassing government, while the unified resistance shuns these efforts and struggles for independence. The rebel faction has only recently instigated the war by assinating the World President. The two sides have markedly different ships and technologies. Because the rebels have been wiped-out on Earth, the war is fought primarily in space; the rebel factions trying desperately to secure their holdings.

In F&F gameplay, both teams operate similarly, using outerspace resources to fuel their industry and production. The "World Conglomerate" team for instance, can not launch attacks from Earth.  

How you begin:

 After logging on to a game, the players are sent to a base of their choosing. From here, they will pick a basic fighter, pick his or her weapon assortment, and then launch. Once in space, you will most likely be given an order by a CO and can use your radar to locate enemy targets.

       If you don't have or wish to pay the money needed to buy a basic fighter, you can find a well-paying gun-turret-job instead.  

Gameplay

       Factions&Firepower a 1^st person shooter on the surface, allowing a player to join a faction in outer space that is competing for minerals with the opposing faction(s) and trying to protect and build structures. His job is to be as good as he can be at what he does and aid his team in succeeding.

       As a fighter-pilot, you can disrupt enemy convoys, attack enemy mining units, participate in massive assaults, and demonstrate your valor by winning dog fights. By following orders given to from your CO and helping to do the previously mentioned tasks, you will be paid a constant salary and gain recognition exp points. As your experience points rack-up, you will be granted raises by default. The money you earn can be used to upgrade your ship's weapons, cargos (cloaks, missiles, countermeasures, etc.), scanning systems, and engine or engines at the local base. A player also can sell and buy old and new ships. One can usually find someone to sell his or her ship to because the game will make sure there is always a slightly greater demand than supply of good ships on the market. Vessels have varying cargo sizes, armor plating, weapon mounts, and engine mounts.

If a fighter pilot happens not to obey orders from a "player in command" or C.O. (Commanding Officer), it does not mean that his or her salary will decrease or that he will not receive a raise. It is imperative, however, that direct-orders from an officer ranking at General or higher must be obeyed, or else that person will be at the mercy of the General.

Enough money (money comes quickly in this game) will eventually give you the option of buying a "command ship" and then becoming a Lieutenant or low ranking Commanding Officer. The command ship is a necessary (and expensive) purchase before being allowed to command. [Note the following: 1.) Command ships facillitate low-ranking command positions.  2.) The game will not let too many command ships be sold in a single game, which will limit the number of command positions.] 

     Before I proceed any further, let me say that not becoming a Commanding Officer definitely has its own advantages, and the game is designed specifically for the enjoyment of the first-person shooter. By no means is it expected of a member to become a CO; it’s just what makes the game cool. If you remain a fighter-pilot, you can assume point-man responsibilities, earn veterans points, and be sent on more daring missions. If you’re good enough, you can be recommended by your CO and join a crack-unit or Ace Squadron—used by the Generals for high risk missions (more about that later). Aces will usually find themselves involved in assignments that incur dogfights with aces of an enemy faction.

Commanding and the Levels of Command

    If you choose to command, you must first spend time in the cockpit of your recently acquired command ship (which you bought with the extra dough you earned as a fighter-pilot). As one might expect, the first and lowest level of command one assumes would be boring if the responsibility needed to make things interesting had not been bestowed to you by your peers. Therefore, the Command Ship is different from all others, it’s small enough to act and feel like a heavily-armed fighter and can be piloted by yourself, but when things get really hot and you need to send two of your fighters on a diversionary attack to protect the mining base or something---you can hit the “c” key. While your character retreats to the rear-quarters and gives you a chance to direct the battle, the command ship is put on auto-pilot, moving you away from the action and allowing time to concentrate in safety. From the rear quarters of your command ship you have access to a digital overlay of the 3-D battlefield. Orders can be given, which the fighters will choose to or not to follow.

        Since most auto-pilots of any ship lack the elusory moves needed to escape a direct pursuit, making a greater investment in a CO ship--such as one that has ball-turrets and a spot for a co-captain/gunner--would be a wise choice. You will be responsible for paying for part of the gunners' salaries as well though.

Let me re-emphasize a very significant point that was integral to Allegiance and is to Factions&Firepower: Resources mean everything to the structure of the game’s social environment. Because there are resources, there are assets, and when there are assets—someone must be responsible for coordinating the defense and expansion of them. Factions & Firepower will bind many sections of the universe (connected by warp holes) and thousands of individuals into a single organized game. This is why players must respect the authority of a higher ranking official in F&F. Without any authority, the framework of this type of would fall apart.

Allegiance, a similar kind of game, flopped for several reasons (one being that high-bandwidth internet had not caught on yet), the most important being the following: there was no peking-order and no way to know whether or not the guy commanding you to—“Fight  the most heavily armed fighters. There are some really good reinforcements right behind you.”—really knew what he was talking about.

In F&F, it is up to you to coordinate successful missions, wisely reward and tempt your fighters with money (or at the Lieutenant’s level veteran’s points) so they will remain loyal, and master the art of deception. As you do well as a Lieutenant, you will be gaining Authority points and slowly rise in the Peking Order. Even if you choose to leave your post and become a fighter-pilot again, your Authority points will never leave your profile.

After you obtain a certain number of points you will be asked if you would like to be promoted to a higher position. These Majors work out of the nearest HQ ship. Most will begin by trying to micromanage some missions but, for the most part, will give the inferior Lieutenants the brunt of the workload until they feel comfortable with the controls. Once the Major gets accustomed to the routine, he will assume responsibility for constructing new mining posts (one of the most important duties), protecting all of the existing assets within his jurisdiction, constructing Research and Development labs, launching pre-emptive strikes against enemy bases, protecting convoys entering and exiting his sector, and keeping in contact with the coinciding sector’s officers. Majors can slightly cut the salaries of fighters that fail to obey or succeed in a mission and, on occasion, can prevent a CO from receiving an Authority point. In any local HQ ship, many factories, refineries, and storage depots will be operating; therefore, it is the highest duty of the Major to protect it at all costs.

Keep in mind that no player can be a major without the specific qualifications. If there aren’t any qualified players then the position will be controlled by AI.

It will take hours of work to finally become a General but the position is meant to be especially rewarding. Generals get to do everything a Major does with the addition of controlling the empire’s budget, signing treaties, constructing capital ships as well as bases, and forming crack-units by recruiting Fighter-Ace material from throughout the empire. (Fighter-Aces get paid very well, once a part of a crack-unit.) Generals are told everything and know everything. A direct order from a General will be obeyed simply because those who receive it would be afraid of the consequences of not obeying.

Only several cumulative hours of maintained success results in the option of being a General, so once that level is reached all of the incompetent people would have been weeded out. Inept people simply won’t achieve the highest positions, and it is for this reason that this game is not destined to flop like Allegiance.

In F&F, leadership is a necessity because the logistics of the game expose far too many vulnerabilities for either team. In contrast to a game like Allegiance, once minerals have been extracted from an asteroid and then moved to a temporary mining base, the minerals aren’t ready to be used. First they have to be loaded on a convoy and then shipped to the nearest refinery (most of this can be done automatically by AI), which causes those valuable resources to be exposed to enemy assault. While the mission to protect this convoy would probably be coordinated by a Lieutenant, the convoy carrying newly developed (and thus technologically advanced) EMP missiles would most make even a General nervous.

Fighter-Ace units (made up of very talented fighter pilots) will, at the command of a General be deployed on critical missions that hold the balance of the game. The first-person-shooters are almost always guaranteed a good fight.

Generals make a heck of a lot of money and eat well, too.