My idea of 'Starcraft Online'

lionzion

I dont know why I'm posting this, I just really had to get it out of my brain.  Hopefully eventually to Blizzard.  Or atleast into a conversation. Ayways here goes.



Think of playing Anarchy Online with Third Person Shooter style like Gunz : The Duel and add pinch of Planetside.  All 3 races playable.  All items, upgrades, classes, etc.  are race specific. Heavily pvp oriented.  Missions/whatever most likely involve pvp.



Classes:

Terran - Marine/Firebat, Ghost, Medic

Protoss - Zealot, High Templar, Dark Templar, Dragoon(maybe?)

Zerg - Zergling, Hydralisk, Infested Terran(maybe?)



Abilities:

All Terran skills are consumables and trinkets ie. grenades, medkits, stim pack, cloaking device, etc (class specific)

Protoss only race which has so called "mana" for psionic spells and skills.

Zerg players have poisons or organic type of abilities ie. zerglings can do quick movements (like in Gunz when wielding melee weapons)



Mounts/Vehicles:

No permanent vehicles.  All vehicles are destroyable/repairable.  How this is going to be done I'm still thinking about. Mounts are also class specific.  And usable in combat.  Hence the reason for non permanence.

Terran - Goliath(only available to Marines), Vulture(for Ghosts and Medics?), Tanks(for Firebats)

          AIR: Valkyrie(only available to medics),  Wraith(only available to Marines/Firebats and Ghosts)

Protoss - There aren't really any ground vehicles in Starcraft, so i don't know what would be good for protoss.  Besides I think Protoss will be over populated in a starcraft game anyways. If there are Dragoons, they could qualify as one i suppose.  Remember this is all just an idea and I need help in developing it.

          AIR: Scout(for Zealots), Arbitor(High Templar), Corsair(Dark Templar), no aerials for dragoons.

Zerg - All Zergs can Mutate into higher beings.  I don't know how this is going to work.  I figured cause zergs will be the least populate race and be the easiest to kill it balances out.  Also since zerg don't originally have any support classes, they can mutate into a queen or something. We'll figure it out eventually.  This is my idea so far.

          GROUND: Defiler, Lurker, Ultralisk

          AIR: Scourge, Queen, Mutalisk, Guardian



Multiple planets.  Space Stations, moon, Terran Starships/Protoss Carriers can be instances.  No such thing as looting epic/rare items.  Everything is like a FPS game (similar to the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.)  All items looted is used for upgrades to equipment and crafting equipment/weapons at vendors.  Both of these will also require minerals and gas(which can be mined.)



Anyways this is what i got so far.  I will be happy to hear everyones ideas/opinions on this.

Dristol

I say you let Dragoons be the Terran equivalent of tanks for Protoss.



Each race should function differently as per the original game.



Terrans being mildly expendable.

Protoss being tough, but expensive.

Zerg being cheap and highly expendable.



I think you've done a good job at organizing which basic units can evolve into later units, so far.



Since there's always tons of zerglings I think it would be great if everyone on the zerg started out as a zergling. From here the players can organically evolve to the next level of their chosen path for specialization. This ensures that there's always an abundant supply of zerglings and gives a nice flow into the lore of the species.



Have the pre-requisite for evolving to the next unit work like PlanetSide with skill selection. You don't need classes, you just use the unit types as the class type which is just temporary since players would be able to devolve at death and can upgrade as they see fit. Devolving at death encourages war as players will not have a problem dying if it opens up new possibilities in positive light. Obviously dying will use up some type of resource, Vespane and Minerals of your species, but that's the price you pay.



Crafter types can be the SCVs, Drones and Probes.  Each of these units works for their species to build both support structures as well as offensive structures.



The best way to handle this type of game is to use the Savage system where it mingles both FPS play as well as RTS play.  This is key in my opinion, since StarCraft is an RTS game after all.



Here's what I think is interesting. Just as in StarCraft multiplayer you can have terran vs terran and zerg vs zerg, I think you should be able to set up the same thing in this game instead of making the species hard barriers of enemies. You don't need the RvR model, what you do need is a faction model.  Each planet should start off as being ruled by a primary faction, consisting of any of the 3 species.



Factions should be able to form alliances and declare hostile factions as enemies.  Resource trade should be possible.



Players should be given higher ranking control and responsibility depending on two things.  Player leadership, this is natural player charisma in organizing players, usually these people are the guild leaders of most games. The second thing here is that these players should have to maintain the vote of their faction in daily or weekly votes depending on how this is finalized. What this allows for is the potential to overthrow a leader you no longer want to see in power. This makes it so that you can lead your faction but you must prove to your comrads that you are a capable individual.



What would also be good is if there was a system which automatically created leadership candidates based on each field of management in the game. For instance you have the Engineer Leader, the Combat Leader and the Trade Leader. Engineer meaning construction of buildings. Combat Leader meaning in charge of strategy and waging war and setting up battles. Trade Leader being in charge of resources and diplomacy with other allied factions for making big time cash for upgrading units.



Then the system takes the top 8 or so (just a random number I came up with for now, this can change later) players who are the most dedicated and put in the most time and energy into doing faction missions and quests. They are basically at the top of the list as the hardcore gamers with some leadership potential.  After all, this creates a good niche for the hardcore gamers who play all the time and keeps the casual players in the game doing the things they want to do, fighting and crafting and base building.



So these 8 candidates can be voted for as the new leader every day or week depending on what is finalized. Once this is done that player is then in charge of that faction and the primary movement of that player, meaning whatever field they are in is how the faction prioritizes tasks and missions. That would be fighting in wars, base building or resource management.  Just like in StarCraft how you first need resources, then you need bases to build up units and then you build your armies and attack. Makes sense to have 3 main fields of study or practice.



Terrans should have to construct machines and mechanisms, protoss should have to summon in their buildings within the field of energy and zerg should have to build on the creep, each player effectively sacrificing himself as the building.





The potential for this type of game is utterly amazing... I will contribute more once I hear other responses.

Dristol

I am surprised that no one else has any comments about such an idea that most around here are calling for.

DarwynFOUR

Aren't they already working on SC2?

Dristol

Originally posted by DarwynFOUR

Aren't they already working on SC2?

You'd think so, but as of right now that's just speculation.

DarkGriever

maybe in 5 years when wow is dying

Dristol

Originally posted by DarkGriever

maybe in 5 years when wow is dying

I've got news for you, WoW is already losing momentum.



Many of those who got into the bandwagon later than the first wave are now calling it quits and heading out.



Some speculate that the expansion The Burning Crusade is a direct culprit of this decline.



I have no hard proof that the subscription numbers are actually going down, but I would like to bring attention to the large number of advertisements that seem to be showing up all over the internet for World of Warcraft trials within just the last few days.



One other interesting tidbit to this is that I, among others I am sure, have received emails from Blizzard inviting us back to their multi-million dollar title.

lilreap2k3

Not meaning to hijack your thread or anything, but I don't see SC2 getting here for a few more years. WoW is just such a huge success why bother working on any other games until subs start dwindling.

I am waiting on Diablo 3 myself, but I am not holding my breath. Blizzard seems to be at a perfect score of 4-0 when it comes to online games. SC,WC,D2,WoW were all huge successes.