Ok guys, here is a my more coherent and beefed up version of my idea. It goes over stuff already in this thread, but I hope it makes more sense.
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The campaign/mission structure was inspired by Roughnecks: Starship Trooper Chronicles. In that cartoon, the war was the overall 40 episodes, but was split up into 5 "story arcs"; mini-campaigns set on different planets.

We are going to have between 20-25 missions, and the idea is that the plot and mission structure is split into 3.

- The overall war operation on the planet, which is the background story to the game. Everything that the player does contributes to this story.
- The campaigns, where they player and his squad are sent off to some part of the planet to accomplish a task that command has set out for them.
- Missions, which are separate objectives of the campaign.

Missions themselves are split down further into objectives, but all these are accomplished in that one setting.

So, my idea is to make 5 or 6 small campaigns where the player must effect the outcome of the war. So for an example campaign, we have "Capture Alien Technology". That is the overall campaign, but its then split up into "Neutralise ground defences", "Rescue the Support team who were shot down coming to support you", "Clear air defences", "Capture alien technology". That''s one campaign with 4 separate missions, each with there own clear objectives.

Of course, capturing alien technology helps in the overall war. So for example, after the next arc, they might get some new funky weapon, or defence against an alien weapon. They also get a little more background info about the overall war. For that entire campaign, the player is really in the dark about the background events. The final campaign though is the conclusion to the story, and the war - the player is a great hero.

Though the story is linear (each campaign will be chronological), mission events will affect later missions. For example, if you fail a mission to defend a communications tower, that will make a later mission harder - but it won''t change the overall plot, as the mission can still be achieved, they’re just harder. The idea is to let the player feel that they are part of a bigger picture, and they are not the only ones on the planet fighting the aliens, that they are also just another squad - command just think of them as cannon fodder. Of course, the player will ALWAYS be at the front of the action.

There will also be side missions that the player can choose to take, or that only become available due to an event in an earlier mission, but these won''t affect the overall story - they are just to add some more background plot.

We also have a stats-like system for the PC and NPC''s. For example, if the player uses a sniper rifle more than heavier weapons, they will become better at aiming weapons and more agile, compared to a bulkier player who uses heavy weapons


Tane Piper
Lead Designer - ZZICT Entertainment
http://www.zzict.nl