Ok first andintroduction:

Airgear is a manga/anime written by Oh! Great. It is set in Japan in the nearfuture where technology has evolved greatly. Motors with the power of sportscars have been shrunk down and put inside of 2-wheeled roller blades enablingusers to gain incredible speeds. These roller blades are called Air trek orA-T. People, mainly kids in high school would form StormRider teams and competefor territory and A-T parts. There is also a class system with F being thelowest and A being the highest.

Isit just me or does it seem that these elements would make for a really nicemultiplayer/single player game?



Game play:

Playerscould form their own teams or even have a matchmaking kind of thing. Playerscould create their own A-T using parts they buy with points they earn frombattles. There would be 6 kinds of battles.

AClass Balloon: A balloon is set a float and the team to grab it first wins. Thecatch is only one person the “Panther” is allowed to touch the balloon. But thePanther must hide because if it is known who it is they will become the soletarget of the other team. There is also other Player Classes:

[font=Wingdings][size=2]§ [/font]Decoy -lures enemies away, pretending to be the Panther.

[font=Wingdings][size=2]§ [/font]Ultimate -battles the other team.

[font=Wingdings][size=2]§ [/font]Middle -assists the 3 people in front.

[font=Wingdings][size=2]§ [/font]Keeper -stops the enemies’ attacks.



BClass Disk: this is usually played with 5-6 players per team. Players must takea Frisbee back to their goal. The other team is only allowed to attack theperson holding the disk. Ten points to win.



CClass Air: Air consists of ten platforms, each with a specific number. After acertain amount of time set at the start of the battle, these platforms are successivelyknocked down in random order. This means that riders must fight against theother team in order to gain solid footing. The last team standing wins thematch.



D ClassCube: Every member of a group goes intoa spate enclosed space/cube. Then a one on one battle is fought. Which everteam wins the most wins overall.



EClass Hurdle: A race with large obstacles in the way such as buildings.


FClass Dash: a simple 1 on 1 race to the finish. Team with most individuallywins, wins overall.



[size="4"]Graphics: I wasthinking very simple futuristic looking graphics. Buildings would be made withsimple cubes and rectangle with not many textures. Kind of like Mirrors edgegraphics but even less detailed.



[size="4"]RPG Elements: asPlayers compete in battle they gain experience which they can use to buy newand better parts. Also large amounts of experience can b used to learn new andunique tricks.



I also want to saythat I am probably not going to make this game for a while. I just want to getthe idea out and refine it a bit.

Well that probably a good idea but I also really like the whole Parts and territory war Idea and also the different battle types. Could anyone suggest some alternative modes for battle??

I REALLY loved Air Gear. One of the best damn anime I've ever watched -- great music, fantastic setting and ideas, albeit a bit short

The main concept behind your game is: freedom (go wherever you wish, how high you want), speed (reinforced by the freedom aspect) and customization (allowing players to express themselves in a meaningfull way). These features are included somewhat in an MMO I recently picked up, Champions Online. That is the form of freedom you are looking for, substract monsters and the hero setting.

So it could be:

#1 The future with people having cybernetic legs -- i toyed around with an idea for a freerun game. The concept is below, VERY messy, sorry:

In the distant future, humanity has grown weak. People became obese, lazy and selfish. Each chore was performed by machines - feeding, entertaining and even transporting their masters. The human race was fit to burst with its population - infants were born fragile and most of them did not know the warmth of a mother. There was never a better time in the history of mankid for an invasion.

From the galactic void came an object like none other - a sickle shaped silver both, transcending through space with amazing speeds. It stopped its misterious voyage behind the moon, away from the debris of space probes and shuttles stuck on the Earth's orbit. Aliens controlling the vessel gaped in ave at the planet - vast oceans of drinking and breeding water. A plentifull supply of CO2, with all sorts of flavor adding extras. Exotic machines that practically took care of the planet 18 hours a cycle 10 cycles a week. The only obstacle, and a formidable at that, were the strange alien creatures - they seemed to harness the machines power to their own ends

Clearly misjudging the might of the human race, the aliens decided conventional firearms, no matter how powerfull, would not eradicate the tyrants slaving the planet. Intead, a viral solution was made and sprayed over the atmosphere of the planet. Changes were radical - wildlife became ferocious, mutated and wild. The ecosystem destabilized, creating deserts, green plains and dense jungles where they were never seen before. Sour rains melted flesh and metal, winds blowing upwards sent countless souls into space and jagged blizzards shredded everything in their paths.

Those still young enough not to be spoiled by culture, society and the remnants of religion saw what was happening - apocalipse, as in the old books, was occuring. Would life cheat them out of a pleasurable existence somewhere in a flat? No! they yelled, No one will take away our future! We Will Fight

Ancient technologies stored on forgotten drives were reopened - biomechanic factories once again roared with life. The young generation saw their weakness and decided to forge themselves stronger - capable of taking down wild beasts, surviving harsh deserts and hurricanes. A long forgotten excitement of adventure, the real thrill of survival, awoke - the SaviorZ were born

SaviorZ is an online multiplayer game. It takes place in the distant future, where humanity became weak and accustomed to their own affairs. After the aliens triggered rapid changes in the enviroment, a certain group of people emerged, becoming stronger by the year - the SaviorZ. in the game, players take the role of such a Savior, a mechanically enhanced human being capable of performing feats available to the people of our age, sometimes greater. Considering the culture of the furute, they can be considered super heroes of their times

Players will mainly communicate with other SaviorZ or machines capable of interfacing with humans. Rarelly will they see the obese parodies of people on the streets or buildings - skeletons placed in destroyed, melted and shattered parts of the city will be enough to tell the story of degeneration

The objective of the game is to uncover what triggered the rapid changes and how to stop them before humankind will perish. Players advance via levels - the milestones of such evolution is gaining the SprintZ function in the place of fast travel and mounts, Vehicles in the place of flying mounts and epic mounts and gang bunkers/structures in the stead of guilds. Endgame content will include boarding the alien ship and procuring an anti toxin for the world. Their understanding of alien technology won't be enough tho, so the anti-toxin will only work for a brief time, halting some enviromental hazards, lowering creature stats and improving game art a little. After a time things revert to normal

Boarding the alien ship should be some kind of epic raid, allowing only a small amount of players to enter and decide the fate of the day. Such a raid will be possible only once a week. Reminds me of epic raids in L2 - which were quite popular.

Sprintz is a function connected with the player's legs - since humanity was so weak, those components had to be replaced permamently. Only later will each individual player acknowledge the strenght of his new legs and be able to sprint at high speeds through landscape. During SprintZ physics apply, jumps are increased and so on. One can control the speed of the SprintZ - from level 1, which would be a standart mount speed, up to level 3, making it a WoW fast travel speed. During SprintZ players cant attack or be attacked, they are vulnerable to hazards such as acid rain or blizzards. Players cant use this function in cities beyond level 1, as any faster would cause chaos and some accidental deaths

The main weaponry in the game would be futuristic - including pistols, rifles and heavy weapons. Melee weapons would be extra durable and exotic - wave swords, afterburner hammers, chainaxes, pneumatic knucles, covered in electricity, ice or fire


#2 Make it with any other personal sports gear -- jetpacks, gyroscopic rocket powered monocycles, partial power armour enchancing legs and hands (making them look like tiger claws, rawr!), synthetic beings controlled by humans (watch teh movie Surrogate) -- it can really be anything

#3 Make Air Gear regardless, without the name of Air Gear, music or characters. No one can sue you effectivelly just cause you made a Tony Hawk clone with rollerblades.

#4 It just struck me - make the world frozen and use rocket powered skates instead! Now wouldn't that be cool?

I really like your story and setting idea, but I was thinking that the game would be more fun as a team based multiplayer game than as an MMO. Also it would be alot easier to develop. Another thing is that players should be able to attack and defend while using Sprintz.. I think that Sprintz should be more central to the gameplay, not just something that lets you get to places really fast. The way you descirbe it it seems that a player will attack someone, run very fast, and attack someone again.

As I wrote, it is a very messy idea I just had to write down before it fled my mind ^^ Now that I read it, yes, The SprintZ was supposed to be the central feature - i would like it to generate the feeling of freedom, newness, something exciting - I mean, you have new legs, move at speeds that make your eyes water, you are free to do what you wish, gravity does not bind you, you are the king of the world!

I am open to any suggestions - team based multiplayer is fine with me. It could then involve team games, such as SprintZ dash for treasure, Enraged BullDragon escaping or Freeform assault.

The problem I see with the SprintZ and attacking at the same time is the speed itself. It would be downright hard to keep up the pace if everyone flied about -- newcomers would have a rought time containing dizzyness from the speed and veterans would take advantage of that. Champions has the same problem, but they partially solved it by restricting the speed to level 1 (out of 3) duting combat, which didn't make such a dramatic difference. Maybe throw out normal combat out the window alltogether? Have homing taser projectiles chase the players, so basically it would be more a game of evade rather than shoot, which should enforce the badassery of such stuns.

EDIT: Regarding the hit n run tactics, ofc the SprintZ would be restricted to usage only out of combat. The system needs to warm up, your body needs to interface with your new legs and basically you need to focus NOT to end up as a tribal painting on a wall.

Maybe instead of projectile weapons it could be melee only. In the original Air Gear there were almost no guns or anything. Any weapons that were used were either part of the A-T or in this case SprintZ. such weapons could be whips, hammers, blades, possibly just even punches and kicks.

Why not - I mentioned that melee weapons would be a feature, why not make it the main feature. Or focus on leg combat alltogether. Add hidden blades, tazers, power fields for protection as well as funky kick boxing air combat moves. I could easilly make up a story for any of that and why would the kids care to do such things.

That sounds good. About the graphical style. Do you think it should be very gritty and realistic or very simplistic and sleek. The realistic style would really help flesh out the world but i feel that the simplistic would really add to the feel of "speed".oh and should the character be kind of cartoony? I am personally with the simplistic style.

I heard you mention Mirrors Edge as simplistic - I am quite fine with that. The future can be a mix of art styles, depending on the zones one can encounter -- dark, foggy and depressing where acid rains ravaged, bright, slutty and colorfull in UltraVegas, breathtaking and clear on former Sahara Desert where green plains now sway in the wind. As far as cartoony graphics go, I am not a big fan of that style - it kind of breaks immersion and states clearly "I am a game", which does not work well with the immersive movement freedom the concept is centered around. I can't pull a comparison from the top of my head now, but anything that isn't too eye poking should be good enough.