Many questions

I dread the constraint of definition here, especially in what I consider the brainstorming part of making games (I really don't know if this is the brainstorming part of the game)
but I wish to ask these questions so that some clarity can be achieved (which I must value over freedom an demonstrated in this post)

I do wish to emphasize that the examples given are there as suggestions as how to answer. They are not meant to constrain the answer.
1. How long will the game be within a 5 hour margin of error?

2. how will the game be "segmented"
will it have levels? E.g painkiller, quake 2
or chapters? E.g Halo 3, MW2 bioshock.
episodes? FF12, eternal sonata.
or continuous\sandboxy? E.g skyrim, GTA4, Mercenaries2, prototype

2b. How long will each segment be?

2c. how many segments will there be?


3. what are some of the enemies we will have to evade, defeat in the game?


4. What kind of tools\weapons will we be given? (are we going for a dues ex style of gameplay)

4a. will those tools/weapons require ammo? Or will those items use a regenerating resource?

5. What kind of abilities will the player have?

5a. will those abilities require some kind of resource and/or stance to work?

5b. will those abilities require the use of a regenerating resource?

6. will there be an inventory in the game?

6a. How will the inventory be handled?
space/block based like dues ex and planetside
slot based like WoW and minecraft
weight based like stalker and skyrim?
will it be defined slot based like halo 3, bioshock, ninja gaiden 2
or will it be infinite space but requires that you "prep" the items before combat like in eternal sonata, diablo 2

6b. will there be money (bits) in the game?

7. How will life be handled? (regenerating,medkits, or checkpoints (like amnesia))

8. Will there be lifesteal, or similar success and/or situation oriented effects that replenish life, or replenish resources of any kind (think restoring mana)

9. Are there going to be objectives one has to do in order to complete the level\mission. like in goldeneye007?

10. will there be level completion rankings? (s,a,b,c,ETC)

11. Will there be cutscenes and/or camera flybys?

11a. Will there be QTE Quick time events?

12. Will there be vehicals in the game?

12a. will there be vehicle hijacking in the game?

13. will there be bosses?

14. multiplayer?

15. Will there be NPC factions

15a. will some of the factions be allied to you, and some of them be enemies to both you and other factions? (think stalker clear sky, mercenaries 2)



scraped questions (skim these, but don't seriously consider answering them)

1s. will there be environmental hazards that will function as the puzzles in the game?

2s. Will the game be like tom clancy?

3s. will there be small minigames in the game (think the pac-man game in the beginning of prey)

4s. will cocktrice eyes be a weapon in the game?

Whats this? Some one on this forum who has also played Deus Ex? Excellent. We need to convince piedoom to play it...
Well, I know I can answer some of your questions, because I asked the same ones in the earlier question threads.
It should be noted that a lot of this stuff is not set in stone. We are in early stages of development, and though we have done some coding, and some modeling, and some writing, we are in early stages.
I'm going to let piedooom use his infinite wisdom and discretion on most of these questions, and I will say that some of your questions will be answered on the weekend (we want our next press release to be over the weekend) but lets see what I can answer for you.

The player will have several types of abilities. There is the standard movement in all FPS's that you know and love (a little different now as a quadruped), there are spells (we have mentioned telekinesis), there are handheld items, and there are back mounted items (such as a glider). As for the different types of items? Eh... I can say that combat is not the focus of the game. Take what you wish from that.

As for medkits, I never really got a straight answer on that. As far as I can tell it's going to be use an item take some penalties while using it, recover some health sort of thing.

As for inventory? We have revealed that we want to have penalties for carrying to many items. We have not publicized how. So... I'm not really in charge of revealing any more...

I will say this: A lot of the questions you ask we have worked on and put effort into. I just don't have clearance to answer them. Next time Piedoom is on though he can decide what he wants to reveal right now.
So yes! I hope I help at least a little...

In following procedure, lets speak my general disclaimer first.
Lets see, I'll answer all the questions I can, since most seem to be pertinent to the gameplay, which I don't hesitate in revealing. As Neveda said, none of this is set in stone and will most definitively change over time. Also, I apologise for some of the short answers, we are so early in development, I can only hazard a guess at them.
Anyway, lets begin.

1. How long will the game be within a 5 hour margin of error?
Sincerely, I have no clue whatsoever. My original outlook was actually a few years (Yikes, right?) But I'm sure I'll be receiving more and more help as we release our super suave content.

2. how will the game be "segmented"
I was thinking levels.

2b. How long will each segment be?
Unsure at this moment.

2c. how many segments will there be?
Still too early to tell

3. what are some of the enemies we will have to evade, defeat in the game?
So far from what we've done, government persons and guards.

4. What kind of tools\weapons will we be given? (are we going for a dues ex style of gameplay)
Silent-y stealthy stuff! Unfortunately I have not played Dues Ex, though I might try since both you and Neveda seem to know a bit about it.

4a. will those tools/weapons require ammo? Or will those items use a regenerating resource?
I think requiring new ammo would be a more strategic approach.

5. What kind of abilities will the player have?
We know he will be able to fly, shoot weaponry (both mounted and handheld) and use magic. More on that later.

5a. will those abilities require some kind of resource and/or stance to work?
Some do, some do not. Again, more on that later.

6. will there be an inventory in the game?
I'm hoping for one! It would add a whole new dimension to puzzle solving. Even something as simple as Amnesia's inventory would be cool.

6a. How will the inventory be handled?
block based like dues ex and planetside
slot based like WoW and minecraft
weight based like stalker and skyrim?
will it be defined slot based like halo 3, bioshock, ninja gaiden 2
or will it be infinite space but requires that you "prep" the items before combat like in eternal sonata, diablo 2
Too early to tell.

6b. will there be money (bits) in the game?
Me an Neveda also talked over this and are still deciding.

7. How will life be handled? (regenerating,medkits, or checkpoints (like amnesia))
I like the idea of medkits, it makes for more strategic gameplay.

8. Will there be lifesteal, or similar success and/or situation oriented effects that replenish life, or replenish resources of any kind (think restoring mana)
No clue! Hehe.

9. Are there going to be objectives one has to do in order to complete the level\mission. like in goldeneye007?
We discussed various things, such as having a main mission, with various sub-missions along the way.

10. will there be level completion rankings? (s,a,b,c,ETC)
I don't see a need for them. I'm thinking a moral system would be neat, though. Depending on how well you do decides on how well your allied NPC's feel and do.

11. Will there be cutscenes and/or camera flybys?
I never cared much for cutscenes, I always like them to be interactive cinematic sequences, though we'll have to see.

11a. Will there be QTE Quick time events?
No idea yet.

12. Will there be vehicals in the game?
That would be sick. Maybe have an awesome tank or something.

12a. will there be vehicle hijacking in the game?
Halo 3, anyone? Unknown yet, bit specific to answer.

13. will there be bosses?
I'm not sure about just one boss, but all games have a climax in where the difficulty of the game skyrockets.

14. multiplayer?
Now that would be cool! Something way down the road, though.

15. Will there be NPC factions
Yes. More on that in our update.

15a. will some of the factions be allied to you, and some of them be enemies to both you and other factions? (think stalker clear sky, mercenaries 2)
See above.

TOTALLY ANSWERING ALL THESE TOO

1s. will there be environmental hazards that will function as the puzzles in the game?
Totally. Environmental hazards are so much fun to bypass. They made Half Life 2 one of my favourite games ever.

2s. Will the game be like tom clancy?
The ironic thing about me being into game development, is I actually have not played many games. Same thing with many other situations; I love to write, yet rarely read. I love to write music, but hardly listen to it by others. Somewhat of an odd disposition, but...

3s. will there be small minigames in the game (think the pac-man game in the beginning of prey)
Huh. Might be a cool idea. Sort of like Bioshock's hacking system. Certainly something to consider.

4s. will cocktrice eyes be a weapon in the game?
Totally making that an Easter Egg weapon, haha.

Again I ask you these questions so that answering them might bring clarity to those who try (piedoom and crew) but I do not wish to constrain the imaginings of those who answer them.

As before the suggestions below the answers are meant to, suggest, not to constrain the nature of the answer.

I become more aware of my real intent, these questions are more intended to be suggestions than questions, I just cleverly disguised the suggestions as questions so that can post in this board. (you might want to open up a suggestions board to mitigate this trivial abuse of your forums)

Gameplay questions


1. will there by phychological-horror themes in the game?

1b. will there be phychological-mental based attacks in the game? (like the controllers in stalker (including their aura), the rage plasmid of bioshock, the "do suicide if you are around me for too long" ability of the one of the enemies in the mod "cry of fear" as demonstrated in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHalF60_KxY around the 8:15-9:00 mark.)

1c. will there be stats that influence the effect of psychological/mental based attacks and/or defenses, abilities, ECT.

2. how will flying be implemented? is it going to take the form of gliding? or some other form of limited airtime ability? Or can the airtime be indefinite?

3. I assume you are combining elements from amnesia and half-life, how will the enemies turn out? (I keep imagining that most enemies will have high health almost to the point of being minibosses and have highly suppressive attacks/powerful (think Gatling gun or proximity bombs) that inflict negative effects (think stun) , but have weaknesses in immediate mobility (no dodges or rolls) and detection. Somewhat like the armored dudes in F.E.A.R. and the big daddies in bioshock.

4. will the player have access to deployable traps?

4a. will there be environmental traps the player can use against his enemies?

5. will the player have access to alternate sensors? (think x-ray vision, night-vision, or anything the predator has in the game "aliens vs predator
" or any kind of purely auditory ability that enables you to physically hear your enemies)

5a. will the enemies have alternate sensors?

6. will there be character development/enhancements? (like in every RPG)

6a. will character enhancements require EXP from doing tasks or defeating enemies or some other kind of resource?

6b. how will character enhancements be handled?
(will there be set upgrades like in eternal sonata?
will the upgrade be entirely selectable like in bioshock?
or will there be some combination of set and selectable?)


7. will there be buffs and debuffs?

8. will there be less than lethal tools/weapons in the game?

8a. how will less than lethal weapons work? (will it put enemies in some "dead" state that can only be recovered from by allied NPCs like in deus ex?, or will it be temporary?)


9. how will the morality system be implemented?

9a. If applicable, how will the morality system effect gameplay? (I imagine that it would just effect some NPC dispositions I,E thieves like bad characters, guards like good characters)

10. Will there be some kind of reward mechanism for using the right amount of force for each situation. (kind of like a cop? or and thief with a code of honor? This question was inspired by the "use of force continuum" on wikipedia)

11. will there be speech (audio) in the game?


11a. will it be possible to enter communication mode with NPCs (like in skyrim and STALKER)

12. will there be ability cooldowns?

13. how will player death be handled?
(will it be like bioshock where you aren't really set back for dying,
or where you are penalized a bit and sent back a bit like in mercenaries 2?
or will it be the conventional go back to where you last saved?)

14. will the player be able to equip disguises?

14a. how will disguises by handled?
(will the disguises be like a temporary buff?
or will it be permanent but have various restrictions E.X. dogs can sniff you out? Or the spy from TF2)

15. will the game be mostly outdoors or indoors?

15b. What are the average distances that the player might need to travel to get from point A to point B in a level/area?

15c. What will be the average distances combat will take place at?

15d. Will there be sniping of some form? Or a binocular set item?

15e. Will there be melee weapons in the game?

16. Will it be possible to return to previous completed levels/areas?

16a. Will some of the levels be reused? But in altered forms? (think having your home destroyed like in ninja gaiden 2, and the legend of zelda the ocarina of time)

optional/lower priority/silly questions


1. will you have allies in certain parts of the game who will assist you in combat?

2. how will speech (audio) be acquired?

3. will the gameplay be like the game tom Clancy's splinter cell:chaos theory?

4. will there be a interactive torture scene/interrogation scene?

5. will there be execution moves?
(think skyrim and mortal combat)

6. will the player have combat pets or weaponized animals as weapons? (think snarks in HL)

7. will there be a hunger meter, and/or some kind of slowly depleting resource in game?

8. will the game use the ESDF movement layout?

9. hats/outfits in game? (think TF2 and the game "the darkness")

10. will your character make statements depending on what you do or depending on his situation like in postal 2? (like in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85nv4EqBKHk&feature=related between times 0:14-0:17)

11. Will there be a evil clown level? (like in painkiller. Here is a video example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPmVjD-5fQU)

I actually do have a suggestion board within the Application board titled "Submissions" where general ideas go. ( https://immolation.forumotion.com/t5-submissions ) Though just starting an actual thread with many questions is better suited in this board, which I will rename "Questions and Suggestions."

To save on having an unreadable wall of text, I have deleted the questions that I can not answer or am unsure of.

2. how will flying be implemented? is it going to take the form of gliding? or some other form of limited airtime ability? Or can the airtime be indefinite?
Flying will be implemented in form of gliding. The player will not gain altitude, rather be able to descend from a high point slowly, like a parachute with lateral movements.

3. I assume you are combining elements from amnesia and half-life, how will the enemies turn out? (I keep imagining that most enemies will have high health almost to the point of being minibosses and have highly suppressive attacks/powerful (think Gatling gun or proximity bombs) that inflict negative effects (think stun) , but have weaknesses in immediate mobility (no dodges or rolls) and detection. Somewhat like the armored dudes in F.E.A.R. and the big daddies in bioshock.
That will be decided upon gameplay testing. The real difficulty of the game will be in avoiding conflict whatsoever, so I'm guessing to balance that out, enemies will have to be pretty difficult. Of course, there will be different strategies that different players will adopt according to their style and skill.

4. will the player have access to deployable traps?
That would be cool.

5. will the player have access to alternate sensors? (think x-ray vision, night-vision, or anything the predator has in the game "aliens vs predator
" or any kind of purely auditory ability that enables you to physically hear your enemies)
Neveda and I have discussed such things as seeing through walls, and other things like that via magic. This depends on the skill of our coders, which I am competent in.

8. will there be less than lethal tools/weapons in the game?
I'm sure of it, as the point isn't too kill, besides when you are assassinating.

9. how will the morality system be implemented?
My thoughts are that your squad is happier based on how successful you are. If many members die, everything falls apart. So the point is to keep everyone alive. I'm sure though that Neveda has some good ideas to suggest to me on this.

11. will there be speech (audio) in the game?
Yes.

12. will there be ability cooldowns?
For many of the spells we are considering cool downs. Depends on how it plays out.

13. how will player death be handled?
(will it be like bioshock where you aren't really set back for dying,
or where you are penalized a bit and sent back a bit like in mercenaries 2?
or will it be the conventional go back to where you last saved?)
I was thinking the conventional methods.

14. will the player be able to equip disguises?
It'd be neat, but that is far down the road.

15. will the game be mostly outdoors or indoors?
As of this moment, indoors.

15c. What will be the average distances combat will take place at?
Depends on the sort of fighting-
Assassinations will either be point blank or very very far away, where as general combat will be a median between the two.

15d. Will there be sniping of some form? Or a binocular set item?
That would be very, very cool. I might actually start modeling a rifle in the near future for our first actual weapon.

15e. Will there be melee weapons in the game?
Yes. Mostly used for assassinations.

16a. Will some of the levels be reused? But in altered forms? (think having your home destroyed like in ninja gaiden 2, and the legend of zelda the ocarina of time)
Or the flood level in Halo 3. I think it's super-awesome when games do that, so if I'm provided a chance, definitively.

optional/lower priority/silly questions

1. will you have allies in certain parts of the game who will assist you in combat?
I am thinking yes as of now. But for the larger part of the game, I am thinking solitary combat.

2. how will speech (audio) be acquired?
In game, or technically? For in game, there will be general conversation. Technically, I plan to get some condenser mics for myself, and seek out some good voice actors.

3. will the gameplay be like the game tom Clancy's splinter cell:chaos theory?
I've never played the game (or at least not recently enough to recall it) so I am unsure.

4. will there be a interactive torture scene/interrogation scene?
Depends on the story. I am really hoping to avoid terribly gory scenes, as it turns off the Brony community greatly.

7. will there be a hunger meter, and/or some kind of slowly depleting resource in game?
I hate these sorts of meters myself, so probably not.

8. will the game use the ESDF movement layout?
I actually have never heard of ESDF, WSAD is more conventional, and is what I plan to use. Unless I completely misunderstood your question.

9. hats/outfits in game? (think TF2 and the game "the darkness")
NO. NO HATS EVER.
Okay maybe. But I liked TF2 so much better before the 8 gigabytes of updates...

11. Will there be a evil clown level? (like in painkiller. Here is a video example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPmVjD-5fQU)
I'm... gonna say no. Though that game looks like a ton of fun.

I realize my input here is on a bit of a diminishing return here, but I come here on the hope that the benefits of clarity will grace the minds of those who answers these questions.

Again I wish to make the statement that these questions can be precieved as a minor abuse of your forums, (some of these questions are actually suggestions in disguise).

More importantly, any suggestion on how to answer the questions are meant to suggest the answer, not to constrain it.

1. will there be weapon/ability combinations/synergies in the game? (like in bioshock and in halo3, (electrocute and wrench, plasma pistol and battle-rifle))

2. will there be potions in the game? (or other consumables that have spell-like effects dependent on the item?)

2a. will there be some form of potion making in the game. (like in oblivion-skyrim or resident evil 5)

2b. will potion making be a important part of the game? Or will it be peripheral? (Think how QTE are distanced from the normal gameplay)

3. will spellcasting be a player ability in the game?

3a. will spellcasting use a regenerable resource to use? (mana)

3b. will spellcasting be an important part of the gameplay?

4. will there be spellcasting scrolls in the game as a player resource/ability or as tools enemies use?

4a. will the spellcasting scrolls be consumable?

4b. will the spellcasting scrolls be your equivalent of a unicorns horn? (slowly recharges and can cast known spells) (so you can cast spells as a earth pony much like a unicorn does?)

4c. will the spellcasting scrolls be a critical part of gameplay? (and necessitate recharging your scrolls by sucking magic from unicorns or the environment?)

5. Will some levels have feature high areas that can be glided down from to promote integrated gliding gameplay. or will gliding be somewhat distanced from gameplay? (think a alleyway with high buildings forming it.)

6. Will enemies have huge health pools (like I imagined) such that it makes assassinating/incapacitating them difficult?

7. will there be weapon/abilities the player has other than close combat assassinations/knockouts, that will it be possible to instantly defeat enemies economicly? (EX. sniper headshots)

8. Can I test some of the early builds of the game? And more importantly give feedback?

9. Do you have any suggestions as how I should ask future questions?

10. I'm concerned about there being a lack of male pony models in the game, are they just a upcoming feature? (I already asked this question, I just added it here for a sense of completion)