Ground Zero City Generation + Combat Demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewN2qBXQKXY
I'm from a small development group which is creating a post-apocalyptic role-playing game as a modification for Doom 3, under the working title Ground Zero. I posted here a while back; we make public releases every few months to share our progress, though our last prototype was unplayably slow. Hopefully this demonstration is more user-friendly.

We've been working for about a year now, although most of the content in this release was accomplished in 3-4 months. This is a side project for the core team members, who are working in the game industry and related fields. The project is expected to continue throughout 2007.

The Big Picture
You control one or more characters in the tumultuous formative period 30 years after a nuclear holocaust. Several political factions struggle within a 4X-style framework for control over the wasteland and how civilization should be rebuilt, and your character/s can become involved in this conflict as little or as much as you want. Gameplay focuses on exploration and relationship development, "transcript as story," and in-depth tactical combat.

Prototype Overview
This prototype demonstrates the ability to procedurally generate a game location based on variable inputs, in this case the ruins of a pre-war city. You set the average number and height of buildings, the strength of hostile forces, and amount of damage inflicted on the ruins. Explore the city and defend yourself from opponents in our form of turn-based combat.

All graphics, characters, weapons, props, etc are placeholders using temporary custom art, or stock Doom 3 assets. This release does not in any way reflect our final artistic vision.

Future Versions
The next milestone will allow the player to travel between several persistent cities via a world map. The cities will intially be randomly generated, then interact and develop in a transparent 4X-style strategy game that determines their parameters (population, technology level, etc). Player actions can have a discernable impact on the progress of this 4X game.

Beyond this, we will be implementing a social network simulation to handle NPC relationships and quest creation. This consists of an event tracking/generation system and relationship database to construct the histories and decision making of NPCs. Diplomacy, espionage, and economics will have an equal if not greater impact on world events than purely combative solutions.

Instructions
PLEASE open the the Readme for detailed instructions. The PDF manual provides some background info and introduction of general interface concepts, but is not up to date.

You need Doom 3 v1.3 installed to play this game. Drag the contents of the archive to your Doom 3 directory and double click the "Ground Zero" shortcut to play. You may need to modify the .bat to match the installation path of Doom 3. Alternatively, launch vanilla Doom 3 and select the game from the mod menu.

Set the parameters of the city before clicking "launch prototype". Load times can currently be very long, so please be patient. If performance is poor, try reducing the "LOD" range in the options screen, reduce quality settings, or change the city parameters to minimize the number and height of buildings.

Our turn-based system (Step Based) breaks turns into individual moves (fire a weapon, walk several paces, change stance or facing direction, etc) which have specific action-point costs. Focus initially goes to whoever started combat, during which no other character may act until a move is chosen. When a move is selected, the required AP are spent and focus goes to whoever currently has the most AP. When every participants' AP are depleted, a new turn begins.

http://files.moddb.com/5619/download-gr ... ation-pro/
http://www.groundzeromod.net/files/grou ... otype3.zip

-Jonathan Lamb
GZ Project Lead

- the destruction shown isn't any better from that in Red Faction (from how many years ago? 6?)
- cant comment on the art
- cant comment on the RPG element (please at least give us decent interaction with characters and multiple ways to solve quests. since it's post apoc, i presume you're familiar with Fallout.)
- kinda skeptical on the 'random generation' and the gameplay impact that has. if you can pull it off, it's great, of course.
- AP point of view is interesting, if balanced correctly.

so overall, not much to see yet imo, but please do keep me/us posted.

PS: Ground Zero is a stupid/attentionwhore working title.

PPS: the black 'smoke' is totally off, might require some looking into, but i guess that goes with the other 'art'

Lot of text for a spambot. A real human would contact the news people and maybe do an interview even.

Heh, should I? Sorry if I came across as a spam bot If someone actually wants to ask us a few questions we'd love to discuss the project.

- the destruction shown isn't any better from that in Red Faction (from how many years ago? 6?)

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Red Faction was also a conventional linear shooter in which destruction served a marginal, gimmicky purpose. And I don't remember being able to bring down a building in it It doesn't look that fantastic at the moment, we know... decent art assets will eliminate the grid-like appearance and crappy particle effects.

please at least give us decent interaction with characters and multiple ways to solve quests.

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That's what has driven this project from the start, but we need a framework first. Our take on "quests" is that they simply be a set of one or more conditions to meet, which can be fulfilled in whatever way you devise using the skills and tools provided. Some might be fairly specific by their nature (I need this item delivered to "A"), but more general ones will allow a lot of creativity (We want this city's manufactured goods output reduced by "X" amount). Balancing will be tricky, but this is an experimental system.

jlamb said:

Heh, should I?

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Yes you should. Or least add a link to buy cialis.

Well, I think it looks interesting anyways.

We're going to have a choice of having 1 to 4 party members or am I reading that wrong?

It also seems like more of a Strategy game than an RPG. There's nothing wrong with another turn based strategy game, but i'm curious about the RPG elements since you labeled GZ as one?

The number of controllable characters is not defined yet. I expect 4-6, with the ability to have an undetermined number employee/minion followers. It remains to be seen how many character can be active in a scene at a time. We've talked about taking a path similar to Mount & Blade, or some other method of abstracting the actual numbers into actual gameplay.

There are definately strategy game overtones. It is to be set in a high-level strategy game played out by computer controlled organizations, and you COULD focus entirely on how your personal activities and decisions impact the result of that game. The experience however is intended to be that of a role playing game, on character development and relationships. The high level game is there to provide a living world where your personal decisions have a real impact, and the consequences are not pre-determined.

Hello everyone, I'm the lead programmer of GZ.

The original reason we implemented the destruction system was to allow us to create realistic war torn cities that had randomly applied damage. For this to work a destruction system that took structural support into account was necessary. The end result is that we can generate a city with an average damage setting that determines the chance that a particular building segment won't appear. If that segment does not, then those around it will be affected, and possibly collapse. The players ability to do this in game is merely a bonus, and will not be considered a major aspect of Ground Zero. Though being able to assassinate someone by collapsing the building they are sleeping in seems pretty cool to me, and is already possible with the current system.

Deavile

P.S.
The title Ground Zero is a placeholder, and we intend to change the name once we come up with a title that we think fits the project.

Though being able to assassinate someone by collapsing the building they are sleeping in seems pretty cool to me, and is already possible with the current system.

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I'd love something like that, I really would, but only if bringing down the whole apartment would bring its own consequences and possible quest branching or changing the route of main quest. For instance, if there are some NPCs from a certain faction when you brought it down, that faction would put a reward for your head and a rival faction would welcome you with open arms, provided that somebody saw/knew you are the one who did it. Things like that. Also, take additional care for giving some firm purpose into even the simpliest quests, especially the fedEx quests. Everybod hates FedEx quests. Everybody with a brain which has more than enough functioning brain cells.

The title Ground Zero is a placeholder, and we intend to change the name once we come up with a title that we think fits the project.

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There is a post-apoc iso-tactical polish (I think) game with the same title, which has, so far, gone completely under the radar of the Codex. When I saw the thread name, I thought it was that. Good that you're still working hard with this one and achieving some progress. I've thought it would be another vaporware, especially because of so manny wannabe modders for mainstream games.

Deavile said:

Hello everyone, I'm the lead programmer of GZ.
Insert Game stuff

P.S.
The title Ground Zero is a placeholder, and we intend to change the name once we come up with a title that we think fits the project.

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I'm glad the name isn't sticking.

Assassination by way of building collapse is one of the cooler features I've heard lately.

So, how do your characters progress? Do you gain XP and distribute points at each level? Do you just improve skills as you use them? How many attributes/skills will get to choose from roughly?

I never intended for the name to stick this long TBH

There are currently 5 character attributes on a scale of 1-10 (Power, Agility, Perception, Cognition, and Charisma), and 25 skills with up to 50 points in each (complete list here):

http://www.groundzeromod.net/forum/view ... ?p=252#252
http://www.groundzeromod.net/forum/view ... ?p=251#251

A character's base % chance to succeed is modified with each point in that skill. The value of each skill point is based on two related attributes for that skill. Small Arms for example references Perception and Agility.

Skills are divided into 4 fields with two sub-categories each. For every 5 points placed in a skill, you receive a bonus point in each of the other skills in that sub-category.

Attribute selections are permanent, but they can be temporarily modified during play by wounds, drugs, and possibly implants or other technology. The first is the most significant factor, since each wound carries an attribute penalty which in turn adversely affects all related skills (and number of action points).

There is no conventional levelling system. As a reward for completing quests and successfully applying skills, you are given skill points to distribute within the field related to the reward trigger.

There is no conventional levelling system. As a reward for completing quests and successfully applying skills, you are given skill points to distribute within the field related to the reward trigger.

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Let me see if I understand you. Say for example a quest requires you to repair a car. The skill points you get for a reward would only be able to be spent on repair type skills?

That is the general idea, yes. Personally I would like the set you can choose from to be one of the four main categories (combat, social, survival or technical). So fixing a car would let you increase software, hardware, engineer, lockpick, or demolitions.

In addition to skills we want to implement a system similar to fallouts perks. To acquire a perk you would spend accumulated skill points, though there would most likely be some attribute and skill requirements before you could choose the perk.

I really want to avoid a leveling system similar to that found in the elder scrolls games; where I never felt that gaining points in a skill changed the way I played the game. You natural hit harder with your sword over time, but your enemies will have more hit points and armor, so the end result is the same.

I like what i'm hearing so far and you guys seem to actually be making something that might not just be vaporware. The Doom 3 Engine thing really put me off initially but it looks fine. There is no real plot or over arching story though? It's just a different random generated series of cities each game where you choose how much influence you want to have on their progress?

You should contact Role-Player or Vault Dweller here about doing a more official thing. Do they know about you over at DAC and NMA?

Yes, just to second Deavile's post and clarify what I said, the idea is that you get skill points in one of the four related fields.

I've always liked the *theory* of needing to play a role to develop in it, but there is also the fact that in life, you will often have an epiphany about something while doing a seemingly unrelated activity.

We think this approach could be an acceptable middle ground. Overcoming your opponent in a knife fight could provide insight into timing that also applies to pistolcraft, while successfully coercing information out of a subject could rub off on your general negotiation and bartering ability. But if you want to become a handyman, you really need to do SOMETHING technical to grow in that field.

I've always agreed that the Elder Scrolls were heavy handed and removed any real sense of reward and choice from character development.

It's just a different random generated series of cities each game where you choose how much influence you want to have on their progress?

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We can have as much or as little control as we want over how random game locations are. It was agreed early on that we will do the general layouts of major locales by hand, with specifics randomized between campaigns. What you describe is roughly the next stepping stone toward a more fleshed out gameworld. We'll have to see how much randomization best fits gameplay.

That looks pretty fucking cool. Seems like the tech for a good X-Com clone more so than Fallout, but hey.

Edit - The 4x factional stuff sounds unique.

jlamb said:

Red Faction was also a conventional linear shooter in which destruction served a marginal, gimmicky purpose. And I don't remember being able to bring down a building in it

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bringing down buildings in Red Faction would've been problematic since it was underground on Mars
unless you want to die a squishy death

(other than that RF had no special features & was a craptic shooter btw, i agree)

jlamb said:

*snip*

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rest looks promising, but as always, it's the execution that's the hard part.

be sure to submit news to nma-fallout.com once you get a lil' further (and get rid of the working title)

From the video I gather that the player has to aim on a specific body part with the mouse in order for it to be targeted and that the percentage shown is the probability of a hit, correct? If that's the case I'd rather see a system where you can choose what body part to aim for without pixel hunting akin to the one found in Jagged Alliance and Silent Storm.

As for gaining "targeted" skill points I see one major caveat with this system and that's that it requires some major balancing of the quest "pool". Say you want to play a diplomatic character, the there has to be several diplomatic "type" of quest in order for the player to advance his/her diplomatic skill. If there are few, or none, quest of this character it becomes hard, or even impossible, to play as a diplomatic character since solving diplomatic type of quest is the only means for advancing as a diplomatic player. The same applies to any skill, or set of skills.

I suppose you are going to apply somehing akin to tags to your quests? So that if I solve a quest using diplomacy, I get skill points to spend on diplomacy. Whereas if I use combat, I get skill points to spend on my combat skills.

The damage model consists of location-based wounds that cumulatively degrade the character's attributes (and thus skills) until death. Wounds are: flesh, moderate, traumatic, crippling, and mortal. This can create a pretty severe spiral, but we intend for combat to often conclude without necessarily going to the death--characters can elect to cease fighting appropriate to the situation (especially with "barroom brawl" type scenerios, scrapping over a chunk of food or petty insult).

Mortal = 2 Crippling wounds, Crippling= 2 Traumatic, and so forth. When the equivalent of a mortal wound is reached, the character dies.

There are currently no called shots. If a character hits, a body zone (head, L/R arm, torso, legs) is randomly selected with weighting toward the larger areas. Zones that are not visible cannot be hit (so if only the head is exposed and you hit, that's where your attack will land).

The actual wound inflicted is based first on the weapon damage code, modified by armor and margin of success in the attack role. Each body zone is also weighted toward certain wound types, so a strike to the head will almost certainly upgrade the injury unless the attack barely succeeds.

We will implement a called-shot system, which will bring up a diagram of visible targets. There will be multiple targets within a zone.

Have a ballpark idea on system specs yet?

Does how much of the target is showing affect the hit chance? I'd hope so.

Yes, the penalty is a direct correlation to what percentage of the targeted character is visible.

The check is actually set up such that profile and stance affect % to hit the same way. If a character is turned sideways to his attacker as opposed to squared off, much less of his body is visible, so the chance to hit is reduced significantly. Characters do not have to actively "use" cover, anything in line-of-sight to the target has an effect.

So cover, concealment, angle, and posture make a tremendous difference in a firefight.

Ballpark system specs... we are developing as if it were being released a year or so from now. I'm running a Geforce 6800GT, Athlon64 3200+, with 1GB RAM. At this point we think the finished game will probably need something around this mark to run comfortably at moderate settings, but we'll do our best to make it playable on older hardware.

I like the social skills you've listed, particularly the breakdown for Diplomacy, Coercion, Enticement, and Subterfuge. I hope that these won't all be means to the same end, however, and that skill choice will lead to diverse consequences.

Same here, we'd rather trim redundant skills than have them in for the sake of percieved complexity. With the relationship/event system we've designed, they might be used to the same ENDS some of the time, but even then will impact your relationships and reputation very differently.

So when are you going to have a standalone version? Or will this project always require Doom3?

We would love to make this standalone, but unfortunately that requires a D3 engine license, which last I checked ran for around $500,000. Of course if we find a free engine with all the capabilities of D3 we will happily switch to it.

I like the social skills you've listed, particularly the breakdown for Diplomacy, Coercion, Enticement, and Subterfuge. I hope that these won't all be means to the same end, however, and that skill choice will lead to diverse consequences.

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We intend to make social skils just as large a part of the game as combat skills, and plan to create a relationship system complex enough to let you complete any task through the use of any skill category. You could assassinate someone by blowing up the building they are in (technical), or poisoning him (survival), or hiring someone else to kill him (social), or convince his wife/gf that he is cheating on her, and then talk her into killing him (social), or framing another murder on him and have him hung for it (social), or of course, shoot him.