Idea Info Name: The War to End All Wars Index: Primary Category: Simulation Submitted: 10/2/2002 2:44:47 AM Written By: DarkLink Game Architecture and Design: A New Edition Book Highly Recommended !

The War to End All Wars

"Never in human history have casualties in a war ever been this great. In centuries of warfare there has never been so much suffering...so much death. The smell of rotting flesh curses these trenches, like a plague that can never be subdued. Mustard, Chlorine gas...making it's way into the depths of our lungs, filling them with an acid and flames. Will this war ever end? I cannot say. This pointless war seems like it's been being carried out forever...I only hope it doesn't last that long..."

Gameplay: The year is 1914 and World War I has just gotten underway. You must pick a side, the Allies (Great Britain, Canada, France, Russia, Italy, (and to a lesser extent) the U.S.) or the Central Forces (Austria-Hungary, Germany, Turkey and Bulgaria). There will be two modes of play, Simulation and General. In Simulation, no matter what you must follow suit according to the war. If you pick General, you are in command, telling your army which areas to strike and what to strike with. You must be careful though, you have limited resources but if there are some days in which your nation/team (Allies or Central) doesn't fight, you can spend the day accumulating your resources. In General you can change the outcome of the game by taking over territory that was in actuallity unconqueored.

You won't just be thrown into the war. You'll get some background knowledge on the war through a few cutscenes from the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, trying to escape assasination (unsuccessfully) in his car, to a declaration of War from the Austria-Hungarians to a Declaration of War by France, Germany, Britain, Canada, Russia, Italy, Turkey and Bulgaria. The cutscenes won't be too long, it's just to give you insight on why you're fighting in the war.

The game will be in chronological order of all main battles. Ypres, Somme etc. You will be equipped with the latest gear of the time, depending on who you chose. The battles include every major battle at sea, land and air. You can command German U-Boats in an offensive against the British, fly clunky spy planes to survey enemy territory, or later in the War, fly state of the Art Bombers.

Missions include but aren't limited to the Battles of Ypres, Somme, the western and eastern fronts of France. The attack against Italy by Austria-Hungary. etc.

It won't be a total 3rd person FPS. There'll be a LOT of strategy involved, sneak attacks etc. Of course due to the craziness in the war, there were a lot of men wounded, killed and thensome. It'll be kinda hard to make it a SIM if there were that many casualties in the War. Either when you die you will take the role as General and will dispatch more units depending on where you're fighting. Once more units have been dispatched (all in real-time, the war won't pause for you to get your troops) you can choose which person you want to control. You can switch from all your Allies in the area. If you chose to switch your character from the trenches to the ground in another area (like 1 km or something away) the characters will continue what they are doing but they won't be stupid not to defend themselves. You can call up your allies Pikmin style and setup your formations. You'll then be given several options. A small list would be used by 4 buttons (like Rogue Squadron II) but a much more detailed list of actions will be brought up in the missions table (press start to display). You can then order your offensives like Raze a particular building and automatically search and kill any troops in the area etc. There'll be many objectives in a battle. They'll almost definately follow what happend during the wars.You must also guard the medics and the hospital team on the battlefield from time to time. Online play will also be supported through a server like in StarCraft. If it makes it to consoles, a controller keyboard hyprid or a headset will be issued. A co-op/counter-op mode will also be available from 2-4 players split screen.

Control, Music, Sound: The control scheme will follow suit with most 1st/3rd person shooter. I cannot give many details as there are many different consoles and setups but using a gaming pad (new one) if released on PC would be the ideal choice. The only real thing I can say at this point is that the start button will show how many men have been killed, wounded or taken prisoner.

The Music would use all instruments that were used in war during that time (drums, trumpets etc.) they will all sound war-like. Depending on your situation the intensity and song of the music will change. If you were in a surprise attack mission, it would use quiet flutes and clarienets etc. If you were in an intense battle, the music would be just as intense.

There would be a major sound quantity. Mortar, guns, moans, battle cries, painful agony sounds, footsteps, reloading sound, ripping of clothing and flesh through barbed wire etc.

Graphics: All graphics will be true to the times. The areas will try to be detailed but there's a lot of information for the system to handle so the graphics may not be cutting edge but they'll be fairly good nonetheless.

Well, that's about it for now. Almost everything in the game will be true to life, with a few omissions of course.

Gimme some feedback on what you think of the game :p. Thanks.

Edit

During warfare, there will be an exact fraction of HP to those who fought in the battle, for example, if the war had 1,000,000 fighting in it, there could be 500,000 men in the game w/ and HP of 2 or 100,000 w/ an HP of 10, of course the game will do further compensation like instead of dividing in right on the spot for HP change, it will be say 1,000,000 to 2,000 then divided by ten so there will be 200 soldiers with an HP of 10.

During trench warfare, you can man different types of artillery. If you arrive to an unmanned mortar station, you can unleash a mortar attack, same if you find chemical weapon artillery. For the most part, missions will be in Chronological order so if a sea battle takes place on the date in the game, then thats your mission so there'll be a lot of variability. The AI wont do the same thing twice and will slowly learn your strategies, increasing the difficulty as you move on to the climax of the War.

If you have any other questions pertaining to gameplay, please ask so I can make my idea better. Thanks

Some things that inspired me to think of this game was the fact that I read much on what the soldiers had to go through and it was VERY difficult to make it out alive. I want to give players the same experience as being there, in the front line. Also, the Canadians inspired me as they fought hard and relentlessly alongside the British. The Canadians aren't given the credit they deserve during the war as they were always taking 2nd to the British and Americans, even though the Canadians started from Day 1 while the Americans joined merely a year and a half before the war was over.

Sorry for the double post