The story has been evolving as time has passed. I would like to create a real story experience, that really immerses the community into a wonderful experience unlike games previous that only offered similar experiences to a single-player environment. The way the game will work, will be in chapter and book increments most likely. I’m unsure how exactly I want to go about the game advancing through the story. There are a few ways to go about the progression mechanic, but as of yet I’m unsure.
**\— > The game and it’s mechanics **
**The game** at it’s core should feel very sandbox for most of the mechanics, but will provide a definite story-line as seen by the development of the game. The varied types of player vehicles and the characters themselves will be modular and highly-customizable. Very reminiscent of many games out today.
**Player advancement** will not be as traditional as, you slay X amount of creatures, you level-up a few times, you move to bigger and badder creatures. Advancement in skill and level will provide a bonus that will add additional elements to the game. A player of sufficient skill, but lower “level” should be able to best a less skilled player of a higher “level”. However, a player of higher “level” will have more access to more and more mechanics of the game. It is traditionally safe to assume a new player won’t understand a game as well as a veteran player. So, to reward those who invest enough time, they will have access to more advanced elements. However, a player that doesn’t have the time to invest, should be able to experience the story just as well as any other player, but just not as full as the prior person.
**PvP** is not the main focus of the game however. PvP will most likely be arena based to test your skills against another player. On-lookers will be able to place bets on who wins and who loses. As a benefit to the participants, they’ll receive a portion of all bets, but of course, the winner takes more of the winnings than the loser.
**PvE** being the main focus of this game is going to be somewhat difficult in my opinion as I’m not sure how I want it to play at the moment. I’d prefer to avoid set spawn points for monsters, you go out and grind, come back and you’re richer and high level. It will most likely play similar to I’m guessing EvE in some respect. More on this later as the game gets further along.
**Vehicles and the many variations of them and the game environment.** Being a game that’s going to be in many different settings, a wide array of vehicles is a necessity in my opinion. However, there will be two distinct settings. Space and land. Space will specifically the void of space where there is no breathable atmosphere. Land will consist of the colony spacecraft, military spacecraft, planets, etc. and the atmospheres readily accessible that those provide. All large spacecraft, planets, etc. will have player character accessibility to a large degree. As much of it as possible will provide some sort of use. If a clan of players that frequents the game on a daily basis and has “setup shop” in a portion of the ship, the ship will be customized to provide usefulness to the clan. Individual players will be granted at the very least a living space and garage to accommodate their vehicles. This should provide a more immersive environment for many players. You actually own something within a video game, it is yours and other players can visit it. The players will be able to build onto their place hopefully to a large degree. A specific planet will be a large focus of the story and players will be able to construct a fortress, which they must defend. More on this as time progresses.
**Player death** is something that’s going to occur, it happens. However, I don’t want players to run around without the fear of consequence for their death. Player vehicles will suffer the most. Either outright destruction (depending on ordnance used and location of death) or chance of retrieval, if the player can get back out their to retrieve their wreck. Being PvE focused, players will not have to worry about malicious players on a regular basis, quite hopefully keeping malicious acts against another player to a minimum.
**\— >Other notes**
This game is a project of mine, very similar to the way Dwarf Fortress is a project of Tarn “Toady-One” Adams. My game will hopefully reflect the type of care, ingenuity and complexity that the game Dwarf Fortress has to offer, but of course, in a different sense.
I’m accepting of input from other people in all departments: 2D art, 3D art, various audio work (including music and weapon noise and all that kind of stuff), etc. I just ask that if you decide to provide artwork, if it is 2D, make it schematics or blue-prints or something to work with, if it is 3D, make it accessible in Blender.
A focus point of my project is to prove that you don’t need millions of dollars to make a fantastic game. I’m using very affordable products for everything I’m working on. Blender for 3D work, Gimp for 2D work, Unity for the game engine, etc. Unity is by far the most expensive item, but at $1500 it is far more affordable to some alternatives out there.
Sand Slag was developed by Shaostoul
Sand Slag was Released on Windows
Sand Slag is a MMO game
Sand Slag