Topic: The 3 Paths

[contingencyplan]

I figure it'd be a good idea to informally formalize the paths the Player can take throughout the game.  I'll post some about each area in additional posts, to break the line of thought up a little bit.  In my view, there are 3 paths the Player can follow:

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• Soldier (FPS aspect) - The Players on the ground, in the trenches, fighting using guns and rockets and grenades and whatever weps they have in the future.  They advance by successfully completing tasks (individually) and their missions (overall).  As discussed previously, as a Soldier increases in skill and rank, they gain access to better equipment - the big guns, the better armor, etc.  Further, they also pilot ground vehicles (more on those in a later post).
  
  
• Pilot (Flightsim aspect) - The Players in charge of running the ships in the game.  As with Soldiers, as they perform well and win missions, they gain access to better ships and weaponry. The major difference between Soldiers and Pilots (other than the obvious change in venue) is the Pilot spends most of his/her time in the ship, while Soldiers only spend part of their time in vehicles. For the Soldier, the vehicle is more a minor thing, while the lives of the Pilots revolves around their ships.
  
  
• Commander (RTS aspect) - The Players concerned with commanding the other troops in battle.  In theory, the Commander is in some physical structure of some sort, like a destroyer or carrier or battleship or whatnot.  Thus, the foremost priority for the Commander is protection of that ship - if it dies, he dies.  Past that, there's a chain of command - one Commander is given the order to take the planet, so he orders his sub-Commanders accordingly.  One sub-Commander is tasked with taking the continent, so she orders her sub-Commanders to destroy certain bases and take strategic points.  If the whole system works, then the planet is taken over, and that particular side wins.
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  Naturally, the FPS side is going to be the ubiquitous one of the three - everyone is going to be in FPS mode at one time or another.  However, if their character's stats + their natural ability moves them towards one direction or the other, then they can choose to go down each path.  Furthermore, every Player can do any of these, but going along with the experience system tossed around, Soldiers who have not spent a lot of time in a spaceship won't be able to pilot it as well as those who have followed a more Pilot-centric path.
  
  ~Brian

[Morgul]

While a good deal of what you wrote is true, there are a few comments I would like to make. For one, there are numerous professions that will be available to people.... and these 'three paths' are more a conceptual thing than anything that will be programmed in the game. however, you're right that most people will follow one of theese three paths.

--Chris

[fehknt]

hrm.  In alternity, there was your profession, and your (can't remember name, just calling it class) class.  your profession was simply descriptive of your character, and meant that you would probably do certian things, and have certian equipment, and have certian skills, but it really was just flavor.  There were no rules associated with it, and we used it as a "profession before all this happened"

[Chii]

You also can't forget about the people that just stayed home and didn't want to go out and fight. I'm not saying they wouldn't be affected, but it'd be kool to be able to play life from the other side. Like a kind of woman at home with the children while dad is at war type of thing to use a horrible stereotype. I mean, some business is going to have to go on as usual.

For example, what if I wanted to play a Psychologist(surprise surprise, that's my major). That's the kind of thing that would still be needed during a war, in fact moreso. War tends to screw people up :P

[topher]

There should be no set class/profession/whatever you wanna call it.  In real life I could go from a computer programmer to a male stripper in a moments time (assuming i qualified of course   ).  I'd like to see skills or abilities that I can learn and that way I can do whatever I want.

Keeping it wide open is the way to go.

[contingencyplan]

The only problem I see with this is that people will become masters of all, something that does not translate to real life.  iirc, I mentioned something about this in another thread, that we should have skills degrade over time with non-use.  However, I do agree that we should keep the skills as wide-open as possible.

~Brian

[Morgul]

If you read, this is specifically for Military players. It didn't say that, and prolly should. This is the path someoen who joined the military would take, in general.... not all players.

Now, openendedness is good. What's better is having both. Basically, you're profession would be Military -> Navy -> Fighter Jock, or Civilian -> Technical -> Programmer....

Now, professions are the *main* thing you want to do. Inorder to switch, you'd need to meet certain requirements in your stats. Making something your profession will affect a few things, but not your stats. However, all unused stats will degrade over time.

--Chris