05-29-2009, 03:58 PM
This is kind of long, but it's a breakdown of the horror/armagedon world I've been thinking up. I tried to break it up to make it easy to read.
50-100 years in the future the world is engaged in a world war. How isn't important, but I like the idea of religious fundamentalism being the spark, with somehow a military industrial complex pushing buttons behind the scene.
Earths population is down to a few hundred million following nukes, biological weapons, famine, etc.
The first entrance of horror (other than nuclear war) is the zombies. I'm thinking one side went too far and created some sort of virus or something that zombifies people. Once the virus breaks out the population takes another hit, dropping a couple hundred million before defenses go up and a stalemate is reached with the zombie hoard.
Following the zombie disaster humans go out on zombie hunts, searching everywhere for pockets of undead to eradicate. So far it's all very similar to the book WWZ or Resident Evil or 28 days later.
During these search and destroy missions they find small communes out in the middle of nowhere that are extremely resistant to a search of their communities. But the zombie menace is a big deal, so they force their way in to make sure it's clear.
That's when the search parties start disappearing. Cut to the chase? Werewolf and Vampire holdouts, who had been waiting out the war in hiding, living off animals and human farms (captured humans, breed and used as food, how sinister!).
Humanity puts its differences aside in the face of a new enemy, and it's all out war again. Werewolves vs Vamps vs zombies vs humans! Rawr!
I haven't gotten too far with the mechanics, but here's what I got so far. It's all very basic, and I'm not married to it.
Humans:
Decades of war has produced advanced weaponry. Enter the Space Marines! Well, they are more like Terra Marines, but same thing. They can have ranged weapons, melee weapons or some combo of both. They are well armored and can go toe to toe with a Vamp or Wolf, maybe with a slight disadvantage due to the ranged capabilities.
I'm also thinking you could play as a non-armored soldier and control a small squad of npc pets. Maybe 4 or 5? You could set up complicated commands to get them to do different flanking manuevers and such, ala Republic Commando. Arm them with different weapons and abilities.
Werewolves:
I'm thinking melee berserker. Super strong, regenerative powers, very fast and can jump all over the place.
Vampires:
I don't know. I'm thinking stealthy? One way I was thinking of doing it was giving them some kind of "shadow hide" ability, where they are close to invisible in the dark, and have to navigate from shadow to shadow to stay hidden. Their combat mechanism could be that they triangulate their attack from a shadow, in the light to attack, then back into the same or other shadow. Defense would be to use lights to illuminate shadows.
Zombies:
This one is kind of different. Playing as a zombie would be like controlling the spread and evolution of the virus. You would start with one zombie and try to build your numbers and evolve different strains of the virus. Then you would control things from above, kind of like a RTS, sending your hoard out to attack in whatever maneuvers you want.
There are lot's of holes that need to be worked out, for instance the "it's always dark" point Slamz made, and I'm sure tons of others, but nothing that would be a deal breaker, I don't think.
50-100 years in the future the world is engaged in a world war. How isn't important, but I like the idea of religious fundamentalism being the spark, with somehow a military industrial complex pushing buttons behind the scene.
Earths population is down to a few hundred million following nukes, biological weapons, famine, etc.
The first entrance of horror (other than nuclear war) is the zombies. I'm thinking one side went too far and created some sort of virus or something that zombifies people. Once the virus breaks out the population takes another hit, dropping a couple hundred million before defenses go up and a stalemate is reached with the zombie hoard.
Following the zombie disaster humans go out on zombie hunts, searching everywhere for pockets of undead to eradicate. So far it's all very similar to the book WWZ or Resident Evil or 28 days later.
During these search and destroy missions they find small communes out in the middle of nowhere that are extremely resistant to a search of their communities. But the zombie menace is a big deal, so they force their way in to make sure it's clear.
That's when the search parties start disappearing. Cut to the chase? Werewolf and Vampire holdouts, who had been waiting out the war in hiding, living off animals and human farms (captured humans, breed and used as food, how sinister!).
Humanity puts its differences aside in the face of a new enemy, and it's all out war again. Werewolves vs Vamps vs zombies vs humans! Rawr!
I haven't gotten too far with the mechanics, but here's what I got so far. It's all very basic, and I'm not married to it.
Humans:
Decades of war has produced advanced weaponry. Enter the Space Marines! Well, they are more like Terra Marines, but same thing. They can have ranged weapons, melee weapons or some combo of both. They are well armored and can go toe to toe with a Vamp or Wolf, maybe with a slight disadvantage due to the ranged capabilities.
I'm also thinking you could play as a non-armored soldier and control a small squad of npc pets. Maybe 4 or 5? You could set up complicated commands to get them to do different flanking manuevers and such, ala Republic Commando. Arm them with different weapons and abilities.
Werewolves:
I'm thinking melee berserker. Super strong, regenerative powers, very fast and can jump all over the place.
Vampires:
I don't know. I'm thinking stealthy? One way I was thinking of doing it was giving them some kind of "shadow hide" ability, where they are close to invisible in the dark, and have to navigate from shadow to shadow to stay hidden. Their combat mechanism could be that they triangulate their attack from a shadow, in the light to attack, then back into the same or other shadow. Defense would be to use lights to illuminate shadows.
Zombies:
This one is kind of different. Playing as a zombie would be like controlling the spread and evolution of the virus. You would start with one zombie and try to build your numbers and evolve different strains of the virus. Then you would control things from above, kind of like a RTS, sending your hoard out to attack in whatever maneuvers you want.
There are lot's of holes that need to be worked out, for instance the "it's always dark" point Slamz made, and I'm sure tons of others, but nothing that would be a deal breaker, I don't think.