Vehicular Combat RPGs are rare; I can't name a single one, though I have come up with one.

As the tag Suggests, it is called Illogical Fallacy.

While Illogical Fallacy is not exclusively a vehicular combat RPG (it has on-foot sections similar to Dragon Age: Origins and has enough dialogue sequences and plot emphasis to count as part visual-novel), it still has emphasis on vehicular combat that takes precedence over the aforementioned plot and on-foot sections.

With Illogical Fallacy, the vehicles in question are spacecraft, ranging in size from small, agile frigates to massive battleships. This system is, rather obviously, based of EVE Online's pattern of spacecraft, but these craft are controlled much differently; the player controls their ships directly via the use of the WASD keys or a control stick.

In addition, weapons are operated in a manner that is similar yet different (depending on the case) than EVE; turrets are activated or deactivated and fire upon nearby enemies or their projectiles, while missiles and heavy non-turret guns mounted on lighter ships are fired on command towards a specific target (in the case of missiles) or in the direction of the mount (mounted guns).

Finally for the vehicular combat is the tactical pause system: known as "ascension mode", this version of tactical pause relies on a limited resource to execute (a meter that depletes with every usage except for the last one, which regenerates. players who have lower than the starting and max numbers of ascension bars can increase the meter by striking an elemental weakness with an attack ability or an elemental strength with a heal or buff), and uniquely causes the battle to switch from real-time to turn-based (though players can skip out on an enemy-activated ascension), with all special moves going in turns dependent on the speed of the ships and drones in question.

Story/Plot/Characters:

Illogical Fallacy is a cerebral post-cyberpunk game with overtones and themes regarding social engineering, social change regarding technology, and freedom of information. It takes place in an alternate version of 2007, an alternate reality in which the internet remained property of the US government and military, but the technology used to create it led to the creation of specialized intranets. One of which hosts the first virtual-reality intranet-based video-game (this world's first MMO). Called StarRealm, this new concept received massive public attention and sold extremely well, attracting millions of players worldwide. StarRealm is played in virtual reality and connected to via a VR mask (similar to The World of .hack and the eponymous Sword Art Online)

One of these players is Dragomir Grigorescu, a 45-year-old ex-Romanian Air Force pilot turned writer who first plays the game and eventually convinces his adopted daughter to play. However, while money grinding, Dragomir's daughter is destroyed in-game by a mysterious enemy ship that he could not target, and is revealed to have fallen into a coma after her adopted father exits the game after she does not respawn. It is soon discovered that these mysterious enemies are manifestations of a malware that is capable of crossing intranet barriers, and that they could potentially infect every intranet if left unchecked.

Vowing to save his adopted daughter, Dragomir replays the game and is met by a ship piloted by a mysterious boy named Animus, who grants him a mysterious program that Animus claims will let him target the malware enemies. After meeting and allying with an aggressive and hotheaded female player usernamed "MaryWhite", Dragomir (who's own screen-name is "Vultur" after the jet) begins to hunt down the malware and quests to find who is spreading it, gaining allies and forming an in-game group known as "Illogical Fallacy". Along the way, he begins to notice that some of the areas, enemies, and events he encounters have in-game labels that correspond to locations, characters, and concepts from a modern Epic poem that he read while he was in East Germany years back. This dredges up painful memories of two people (the poem's author, an East German teenager upset with the regime, and her obsessed lover) from his trip, the latter of which was behind the creation of the game, and appears to be somehow targeting Dragomir from his position within StarRealm's distributor (CK Limited), which itself appears to be hiding a great deal from it's own customers.

i'd like two opinions: one about the vehicular combat sections (is it too vague?) and about the story (what do you think of a refined modern gentleman as a cyberpunk protagonist?).

care to share?

Vehicular Combat RPGs are rare

Depending on your definition, there have been several over the years. The Star Wolves series is an example, Space Pirates and Zombies is basically an RPG, if we squint a bit. (and of course, the late, great Star Control II). Dark Wind Online for the Autoduel crowd. The new Battletech game from Hairbrained.

As for your questions:

1) Too vague for whom? Who are you trying to explain the combat too? A programmer who has to implement it? Somebody who wants to fund the game?

2) Seems like a decent enough concept, only nitpick is the the damsel in distress trope, though at least it's a daughter and not the wife/girlfriend.

Vehicular Combat RPGs are rare

Depending on your definition, there have been several over the years. The Star Wolves series is an example, Space Pirates and Zombies is basically an RPG, if we squint a bit. (and of course, the late, great Star Control II). Dark Wind Online for the Autoduel crowd. The new Battletech game from Hairbrained.

As for your questions:

1) Too vague for whom? Who are you trying to explain the combat too? A programmer who has to implement it? Somebody who wants to fund the game?

2) Seems like a decent enough concept, only nitpick is the the damsel in distress trope, though at least it's a daughter and not the wife/girlfriend.

I actually aimed the first question at programmers, though I could see why a sponsor would have to look at it.

What's interesting is that by using an older protagonist, I can explain things to the player without using the amnesiac cliche (Dragomir is simply less tech-savvy than most of the other characters, who are all either script kiddies or hackers). Plus it helps to avert another major post cyberpunk and cyberpunk cliche: reckless protagonists (Neo, Kite, Kirito, the list goes on..)

Finally, while this isn't an immediate project (I plan to write the plot down as a novel first, then use the money from that to fund the game), I'd like some more detailed opinions regarding the ascension mode (tactical pause) mechanic and the plot (while it is, admittedly, heavily based off .hack's plot, I did throw in some original attributes).