Hello all,
Below I’ve detailed my idea for a game called Convoy. Convoy would be an open-world sandbox game with RPG elements centering around Truckers, Motorcycle Gangs, and other outlaws in the US in the period falling the Second World War.
Please comment and tell me what you think of my ideas. I would love to get any new ideas from you guys, as well. This game has been an idea of mine for a very long time, so I thought I should try and get its ideas down on paper. It includes some ideas that were initially meant for other games, but I decided to mesh them into this one.
Please do note that this is only a CONCEPT for a game; I fully acknowledge its impracticality as currently proposed, but I wished to propose it in this way nonetheless.
PLEASE ALSO NOTE that this post is not complete at the time of initial posting. It has taken me quite a while to write all of this so far, so a lot of it is incomplete. I may add to the post later on if I like any of the ideas you guys come up with. Please try and read all, or at least most of it before responding, as I explain some things in more detail further down the post.
Thank you for reading!
Dreadnought
Introduction
Convoy would be an open-world, first-person sandbox game. Beginning in 1973 on the East Coast of the United States, the game’s story centers around Patrick O’Hannigan, a 26-year-old who returns from the war in Vietnam to his home in Gatesville, North Sylvania (a parody of Greensboro, North Carolina - more on that below). Patrick returns to find the family business, the O’Hannigan Trucking Company, in disarray, due to his younger brothers abandoning the business to protest the war. His father, ill from Parkinson’s, is barely able to continue working, so Patrick takes charge, helping to run the business.
However, soon after getting the business up and running, Patrick finds that things are not all as they seem. On one run north to Calvertston (Baltimore), Patrick encounters one of the family’s trucks burning on the side of the road. He is able to figure out that a biker gang, the Idolatrous, destroyed the truck after the driver refused to hand over his cargo of liquor. Patrick is enraged until he talks to his older brother, Walter, who informs him that the driver who was killed was in with a rival of the Idolatrous, the Archangels Motorcycle Club. Patrick arranges a meeting with their leader...
The GameConvoy would be a first-person game, centered around driving, shooting and other combat, as well as NPC interactions and other activities. In this way, Convoy would be a mix of traditional sandbox, open-world games, such as Grand Theft Auto or Saint’s Row, as well as Role-Playing Games such as Skyrim or Fallout. In the first part of the game, driving would take up a lot of the player’s time as he works to deliver loads for the family trucking business. As the game progresses, the player would become more involved in the violent world of outlaw motorcycle clubs, and combat would become more common. Throughout the entire game, interactions with NPCs would be very important, and be essential, not only to progression of the story, but also for side activities, missions, and quests.
GameplayConvoy would be a first person game. The player would control Patrick O’Hannigan, a 26-year-old who has just returned from the war in Vietnam.
Since gameplay is such a varied topic, I will go through the various features proposed in each area of gameplay.
Core Features
MovementPatrick would walk at a moderately quick pace by default, though he would slow down once indoors. Holding down the run key would speed you up slightly, while hitting it repeatedly would make Patrick break into a sprint, though this is possible only over short distances. Hitting the jump key would allow not only short hops, but also allow Patrick to dynamically cross obstacles - think Battlefield 3 for this one. This would not only be possible for static props, but Patrick would also be able to, say, dive through or out of a window.
Crouching and going prone would both be possible relatively easily, as well as various other dynamic poses - such as leaning against a wall, pushing an object such as a car, etc. Further, there would be a ‘stealth’ pose, which would make Patrick walk slower and make less noise, as well as running between crouched poses. This feature is from Red Orchestra 2 - the player is in a crouched or prone position, and is able to run a short distance and then immediately go prone again. This is very important in combat. Various other combat-related movement is detailed below.
Customizing your CharacterWhile Convoy would not allow the player to make their own character model from scratch, it would allow the player to dress Patrick as they see fit. While this will change the appearance of Patrick, it will also apply some small statistical differences to him. For example, if one is wearing a pair of running sneakers, they will be able to run faster and longer than if they are wearing a pair of heavy boots. However, the player still has to dress appropriately for the weather outside if realism mode is activated - see below.
Patrick would also be able to get different haircuts and grow facial hair.
Driving
Driving would be relatively standard, at least when going forward. As said above, there would be an option to enable manual transmissions on cars that have them. The difficulty in driving would be maneuvering trailers, especially when backing up. Like many trucking games, delivering the cargo on time and with a minimum of damage would allow you to earn a higher profit. However, unlike many other similar games, hazards in this game would not be limited to road obstacles - there would also be rival gangs trying to take out your truck, as well as shippers trying to shortchange you.
By the 1970s, freeways were in full use in the area that Convoy’s map covers. This means that a lot of driving between major cities would take place on an open freeway, with a minimum of grades or other difficult obstacles. Of course, an ever-present obstacles of the police would be present. Unlike most other games, the police in Convoy would be looking out for cars and trucks that are speeding. Further, sometimes your truck will be forced to submit to inspections at weigh stations. In the case of interference by the police, bribery is always an option, as is attempting to run from the police. This is detailed further below.
Besides freeways, smaller roads, including many two-lane country roads, would crisscross the Convoy map. Driving on these is more difficult due, not only to corrupt ‘County-Mounties’, but also dangerous country drivers, wildlife, etc. Fortunately, a lot of driving in trucks would be on the freeway, but country roads would certainly still be a major part of the map.
Non-Player CharactersAnother way that Convoy would be different is its focus on Non-Player Characters. While there would naturally be a lot of NPCs simply roaming the streets of large cities, boarding buses, driving cars, etc., every NPC would have thought put into their identity. Every pedestrian on the street would have a place they are at least tentatively going to, and which they might actually go to if the player sticks around to watch them.
Pedestrians would still spawn in and out of an area normally, instead of always being active around the entire map, but would spawn with a location they are going to in mind, instead of simply spawning and driving around aimlessly, hoping the player will drive out of range before they notice their wandering. This would allow the player to observe life going on around them with much more realism.
For example, if the player wanted to go from Queensbridge to Dandridge by train, they would be able to drive to the train station. They might see a taxi on the way there that is going to the train station, as well. When they get there, they would be able to watch the NPC in the taxi get out, pay the driver, and go in to buy their ticket. After doing so, it would be possible to follow the NPC onto the train and, in Dandridge, see them get off and go to a hotel, or a house, or something of that nature. In this way, pedestrians have a story behind them.
You would also be able to speak to random pedestrians and respond to what they say to you. In addition to this, there would be many, many NPCs which have small errands, missions, or quests for you, in addition to the main mission-givers of the game. This can range from a guy wanting you to help him move his broken-down car out of the road, to a construction site manager wanting you to drive a truck for him. In this way, many odd jobs would be available that would expand replay value.
InteractionBeing a mix of an RPG and open-world sandbox games, Convoy would have a different interaction system than most sandbox games. Rather than having a set of things that the player says in response to NPCs, the player would be able to select what they want to say. For example, if discussing a mission with someone, the player would be able to influence how the mission was done by selecting the way they want to respond. Rather than selecting exactly what to say in response, as in Bethesda’s system, the player would select how they want to respond - for example, positively or negatively, affirming or denying, etc. etc.
This would be a very important part of the game because it would affect what type of missions you would get, and how NPCs feel about you. For example, if you constantly dislike the plans of a certain mission-giving character, he will stop wanting to give you missions, and you may eventually stop getting missions from him. This is detailed further below.
Besides talking face-to-face, it would also be possible to talk to NPCs over the telephone (landline only) as well as over the CB Radio. This is a special part of Convoy; the CB (Citizen’s Band) radio would be a way you could communicate with other drivers and get warnings about the presence of police and other hazards, as well as warning NPCs of these dangers. Of course, CB slang would be used when communicating this way:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CB_slang .
Affecting the StoryConvoy would also be different from most open-world sandbox games in that actions would have momentous effect on the story. Every character would be killable, which would have a major effect on the story line. For example, if you go to meet with the member of a motorcycle club and kill him, then, if the club finds out, they will be very upset with you unless you had a good reason to do it. In this way, the player would be able to individually affect the storyline in a big way.
Naturally, the player would have to select to save, or something of that matter, in order for the storyline to be affected. If he accidentally ran over an important character, he would have the option to go back and undo it, so the storyline isn’t affected in a negative way.
Non-Human Non-Player CharactersBesides the many humans present in the world of Convoy, there would also be a lot of wildlife since Convoy is set in a forested region of the United States. Animals like deer, bears, raccoons, foxes, wolves, snakes, hawks, and jays would all be present and contribute to the world either by their presence or the noises they make. Deer would run into the road and may get hit by your car, and, if you encounter a bear or a snake, it might attack you instead of simply running away.
All of this would contribute to the somewhat dangerous nature of the woods. As the player starts to take on biker gangs, many of which hide out in the woods to escape from authorities, they may encounter wildlife on their missions to end the bikers, which in turn may kill them.
Law Enforcement and other AuthoritiesAnother major NPC aspect in Convoy would be the police and similar other authorities, like the Federal Investigation Directorate, which try to stop the player from doing illegal activities. This includes not only things like killing people or brandishing a weapon, but also speeding in a truck or refusing to submit to an inspection.
This would work via a ‘notoriety’ system, which would depend on the authorities recognizing the player. Basically, if a police officer observes or is told of a crime the player has committed, they will look to find the player and try to pull him over for questioning, or arrest him. The player can then submit or try to resist arrest. If they resist arrest, then the police officer will communicate to other officers about the player’s whereabouts and, for example, what car they are driving. If the player kills the officer, then he will be unable to do so, but others may witness that crime, and, in turn, report it to the authorities. The more or worse crimes a player commits, the more notoriety he gets.
This would be both a long and short-term system. For example, if a player flees a certain town because they committed a crime there, then the police will recognize him when he returns.