Elements
Emblem: The Characters personal symbol integrated into his organizational symbol
Europe: Various obvious land-marks
Emotion: Fear based reduction of ship stabilization - counteracted by confidence
Economics: character supplies self through trade between underground organizations in-between mini-levels
Setting
300 years in the future. After the resurgence of space exploration by major world powers due to colonization of Mars by the Chinese, space flight soon become the modern-day equivalent of air travel. As more and more corporate colonies are created, the organizational structure becomes less and less maintainable, and breeds a highly organized and complex underground civilization. Thus, these un-taxed pirates, stealing and trafficking goods illegally are met with stern measures. Mainly a well equipped police force licensed to kill pirates if need be. You are an entopic freedom fighter and an anarchist. You are a pirate. All though all planets are heavily colonized, trade between them is slow due to distances, and earth is still the central beacon of humanity.
Cut-Scenes
I will do comic-panel graphics, set with voice over acting (and sub-titles). Panels will be shown one at a time then animated transitions between the current and next frame will be used to further pronounce the action or scene. IE if the movie is of the pilot taking a hit, then the panel showing the explosion will shake slightly during the rumble sound effect immediately following the transition. This will be awesome, and I already have the animation engine. All I have to do is script the order and do voiceovers. Luckily, my cousin does voice acting for fun: check it. Depending on my modeler's time, we might have a 3D animated final cut scene. Who knows?
Visuals
The game is a fast-paced, 3D flight-simulator which takes place from the cockpit view only. Or you have the option to buy a rear mounted camera for an optional (if I have time) 3rd person ship view. We will make use of rudimentary particle effects, and rough 3D equivalents of European land-marks. We will then upgrade as needed to allow for maximum appearance and performance on the test system. Probably the only thing that will look nice will be the characters ship.
User Interface
Cockpit view. There will be no HUD view to turn off visual effects and give a wider, bare-bones display showing only crucial information. The cool part will be how most of your weapons surround your cockpit; you can see them in action. Remember Mechwarrior's pilot-view rotations? That was cool...but again that will be an optional feature, I highly doubt the game will appear as cool as I want, but I feel like dreaming today.
Targeting
Manually targeting specs of light on the horizon is un-realistic. In the future (even today) there are many, many assistance utilities. Thus Targeting will be similar to Robotech Battle Cry, in that the computer will automatically highlight other vehicles. It will also automatically determine hostilities. It will be your job to place your reticule on the enemy highlight and attempt to lock on. Locking on will take about 3 seconds. To lock on you must hover over an enemy for at least .5 seconds. Then as the locking-on bar progresses, you will have a larger and larger threshold of movement, because obviously, it would be impossible to keep it exact for 3 seconds. Once locked on your turrets will automatically compensate for enemy locations to an extent. You will have a boundary of motion you can move around in, but you have to keep your reticule in the general area of the enemy. The turrets compensation is rough approximations, and does not guarantee hits however. If another enemy flies within your reticule while you already have an enemy targeted you must unselect your current target via a hotkey, or hold your reticule over the enemy for one additional second.
Weaponry
Twin Vulcan turrets: These cannons fire high-velocity armor piecing rounds and are the cheapest ammunition to purchase. These partially rotating turrets are the weapons that lock-on and auto adjust to an enemy's location. This is the only ammunition offered for this weapon.
Center Mounted 115mm Cannon: This is weapon uses either armor piercing round for quick kills against larger targets, or explosive rounds for use against more maneuverable targets. Accuracy is low as these projectiles are entirely unguided. This is the second most expensive ammunition.
Twin missile launchers: This weapon fires either explosive tracking rockets similar to the mounted cannon, or encased plasma rounds. Plasma rounds do no explosive damage but ignore physical armor creating hull breaches. This is a good weapon for very specific occasions, but is incredibly expensive.
Emotional Engine
The concept: The pilots focus is affected by damage which affects the way the user must pilot.
Fear - Fear is increased by taking any form of damage. Under normal conditions, the pilot instinctively stabilizes the ship from debris collisions and drafts, etc. However, the more fear accumulated, the less the pilot is able to focus. Thus, transparent his stabilization is, and you have to start picking up the slack. The ship will begin to rock and bounce slightly, and damage effects from enemy weapons and debris will be much more noticeable. As an immediate result to these effects, it will be harder to aim, obviously.
Recovery - Fear diminishes over time naturally. However scoring kills against an the enemy, or avoiding damage from a hostile entirely and escaping increases your confidence level which acts as a buffer which permanently reduces the amount of fear you take in combat. Essentially you're getting used to the environment.
Infamy - This is not really an emotion. At the end of the game you will be classified as various forms of pirate or privateer. In a commercial release this would determine how other companies think of you and what types of jobs you are offered. Infamy is determined by the amount of people you kill. A good privateer keeps a low profile because he doesn't want to get caught. A blood thirsty pirate doesn't care and just wants fame and fortune. The problem with infamy is that you become more and more 'wanted'. Thus the amount of enemies per level increased based on the previous levels report. Regardless you keep escaping which increases your infamy anyway. Basically anytime you break a law and are noticed, you gain infamy. Some organizations won't let you in unless you've proven yourself very infamous. This wont be noticed in the demo game, and the only effect infamy has is the amount of units sent to stop you. In the future infamy might also have a similar effect to confidence.
Locations
At least 4 notable locations throughout the European continent will be displayed. These places will be background features and hold no other significance other than marking your progress to your final destination, the impound yard.
Economy
You stop at each of these locations to restock your ammunition and refuel. You be careful to manage your funds from the beginning though. You receive only a models income from the Moonrunner's (see below) and the more infamy you gain the less likely the guild is going to support you.
Misc
Organizations: subject to change
Interplanetary Union: The ruling body of the colonies, presiding over interplanetary trade and travel. Each planet and colony is represented by its own individual government. Think of the IPU as the UN.
The Democratic Union of Earth: The chief ruling body over the earth. Most of your opposition will hail from this group.
Advocates of Mutual Exchange: The chief corporate sponsor of 'privateering'. This group is a political party which officially has no direct ties to pirating, but lobbies for their cause in the political channels.
Merchants for Free Trade and Transactions Most guilds hold the guidelines and ideals of this organization to be the true law o-the-verse(firefly rawks)
The Moonrunners The private organization the character is a part of. They are a privateer group who shy away from violence unless necessary. Focus strictly on trade of all goods.
