LOCKDOWN is going to be a (hybrid) choose-your-path sci-fi survival horror which I'm currently working on. It won't be a rushed project, and I'm looking to finish the project before the end of the year. There'll be a lot of RPG elements to it too, and will focus quite strongly on the player/chooser's decisions throughout, meaning there'll be several different endings, all of which will be unique and reflect on what the player/chooser does overall (and this won't mean they'll all be similar endings. Only two of the endings are even remotely similar.) Depending on what the player does to help, they will be presented with different bonuses and items to help them in the RP.
What this means is that you approach the RP exactly how you want to - You can treat it as an action RP and go around with guns blazing, treat it as a stealth game and go around as quietly as you can, or even treat it as a pure survival horror game where you may decide you don't want to use any guns at all. It all comes down to what you want, and everything - literally, everything - is done your way.
PLOT
The premise of LOCKDOWN is similar in some parts to that of System Shock 2 - It's set in the far off future in a time unknown at the beginning (revealed later on in the strory), on board of the SS-A COPERNICUS, a giant military-grade destroyer ship created by the US Government, which is being auto-piloted through the deepest parts of Space with a couple of other minor ships escorting it, the SS AURORA and the SS PARADON. It is unknown to you, the character, what the ship was created for nor where the ships are headed to or what the primary mission is, but this is all revealed the further the player goes into the game. Your character, which is entirely built from the choices you make at the beginning of the RP (and will also have an effect on where you start), has been brought out of cryostasis for the incredibly long ship journey, confused and unsure of what is going on. Most of the rest of the crew is also in cryostasis, but due to malfunctions caused by the invading forces on the ship, many of them end up never being let out. The first few (in-game) minutes of the RP are quite linear, to familiarize the player with the ship, the atmosphere and the choices they'll (possibly) make later on.
INTERFACE
You'll be displayed with information regarding the choice you made and, if any, the clear effects it has had, similar to any normal RP post. You'll then be given all of the options which are available to you there and then, but if there is only one option for you, the description will continue. For example:
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"You arrive outside of the Medical Wing. The blood on the floor appears to be fresh, and thanks to your medical expertise, you know it's no more than 3 hours old. You think you can hear noises inside.
>[GO IN]
>[PEEK IN]
>[MOVE ON]
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You will also be given the option to have your own input depending on the choice, such as ">[ENTER CODE: --- ]". Here, you may decide to use the code "01934", where you would put "Enter code: 01934" or however you choose to specify your decision.
The items you pick up will have colour indicators. The indicators are: Weapons, Aid kits/items, Keys, Armour/clothing, Weapon upgrades and Character upgrades/implants.
Your character will also have 7 different leveling skills and 7 different leveling core attributes, which depend on what the character's typing is, what they choose to specialize in and what upgrades/implants they decide to use (upgrades for the skills, implants for the core body attributes.)
The Skills are:
- Weapons (How good you are with weapons, and your ability to master bigger and better weaponry)
- Engineering (How good you are at repairing things, and governs what you can build and how well you build/repair)
- Stealth (How quiet you are, and depicts what can see you and what can't)
- Research (How effective your research is, and depending on what you research, what bonuses you gain)
- Medical (How good you are with medical items/boosters, and improves your gains from items)
- Psionics (How efficient your Psionic skills are, and governs how strong your skills are and what skills you can use)
- Hacking (How good you are at hacking, and governs what you're able to hack.)
The attributes are:
- Strength (How much you can carry, how effective you are with weapons and how strong your melee attacks are)
- Agility (How agile and flexible you are, how quick your reactions are, where you can go and helps greatly with stealth.)
- Endurance (How many hitpoints you have, how much you can resist and how fit you are.)
- Psyche (How strong your Psyche is, determining your mental health and how strong your Psionics are.)
- Intelligence (How much you know and can learn, and effects how good your sciences are.)
- Perception (Hidden things which your character can see, and how well they perceive things.)
- Luck (Affects your Risk choices, if you choose to make any, and the likelihood of good things happening.)
Note that all attributes and skills have a total score of 10. All attributes have a base value of 5, whilst all skills have a base value of 1. These can be raised (or lowered) depending on the choices you make to build your character at the beginning, and what upgrades you choose to have during the RP. Not all of the skills or attributes need to be used. You may end up not needing some of these skills at all, depending on your play style and approach to the RP.
WHAT MAKES THIS UNIQUE?
You choose the story - There are 5 different story paths which the player can choose to go down, each of which have their own rewards and/or punishments. The player will have the option of taking the other 4 paths whenever they feel is necessary in the RP, eliminating any sense of a linear storyline.
Your character is molded to your fit - You practically "create" your character from a blank slate at the beginning. They may be a military shooting guy, they may be a mechanic, they may be a scientist, or they may even be a more all-rounded individual. This has an effect on where you start at the beginning of the RP and what gear your character has at the beginning, which is all suited to fit your specialties you choose. Here is a list of some of the character types:
- Soldier (Focus purely on firearms and combat)
- Special Ops (Focus on stealth and intelligence)
- Engineer (Focus on repairs and itemcrafting)
- Doctor (Focus on booster drugs and health kits)
- Psionic (Focus on telepathic powers and psyche)
- Scientist (Focus on research and special augments)
- Computations expert (Focus on computers and hacking)
There are more character types available which all depend on what specialties and perks you choose to have, and will effect what you have access to at the beginning and may also have an effect on how your character can deal with certain things.
Everything will be affected by your decisions - From what enemies may appear to who trusts you, from where you can go on the ship to who tries to kill you, it all depends on what you decide to do. You may be seen as hostile by the automated security on the ship, or you may even be seen as friendly by few of the supposed "enemies" in the RP.
The more you risk, the more you're rewarded - There will be some rather risky, yet purely optional, decisions which the character will be able to take. These will have an effect on things and in a couple of cases prove to be catastrophic of they go wrong, but the more dangerous it is, if you can pull through, the more you'll be rewarded for it. Do note that a couple of these risk choices will be highlighted depending on the risk factor, and may vary from minor rewards/punishments to major rewards/punishments.
Your behaviour and approach to situations will have an effect - You may decide that you don't exactly care for the entire plot and perhaps decide to go around killing everything. In this case, other characters who are of a good nature may opt to stay well away from you or even think you are infected. Whatever decisions you make, whoever is watching you in the RP will be constantly judging you. You may also have the full truth revealed to you, or be completely clueless on what is going on by the end, too.
The RP is organic - Nothing will be "fixed". Some things will come down to a matter of chance (although these chances won't have any majorly helpful or crippling effect), whilst some things will have changed depending on what you do. Enemies in the RP will also have different ways of acting and some things in the RP won't be pre-determined. You will also be able to open up your own paths depending on your skills and attributes, whilst they may also remove some paths from you.
I promise this is all true and, if you decide to be the player, you will not be disappointed with the flexibility of the RP.
If you'd like to assist with the project, I'll be more than happy to welcome it.
