Final Conflict - Concept of My Dream Game

Final Conflict is currently a concept that I am developing and hope to one day make into a game. It will be a cross-genre MMO, mixing grand strategy with real time strategy styles of gameplay, but also features RPG character development aspects. Every player character will be unique and all assets will be recorded using a public blockchain.

The setting for Final Conflict will be within a massive post-apocalyptic warzone. When a new player enters the game he/she must choose which of the two sides to enlist with. The initial enlistment period will be a set amount of game time and should take the player several months of playing to complete. While enlisted, players earn regular wages as well as bonuses for exceptional performance. Enlistment also guarantees that you will not lose glory credits upon death. Death in Final Conflict is handled in a rogue-like manner, respawning a clone some distance away from any fighting.

As players progress, they will accumulate both time-in-rate, and Glory Credits(in-game currency). When a set amount of these two things have been reached the player will be promoted to the next rank. Rank dictates how much control over the battlefield a player has. A rank 1 (Private) will only have control of their own character. Once they have experienced battle for a while they will be promoted to rank 2, Corporal. A Corporal will have their character and partner, either an NPC or a rank 1 player. Rank 3 (Lance Corporal) will lead a lance of 3 other soldiers. Rank 4(Sergeant): 7 other soldiers. Rank 4 will be the highest rank achievable within a player’s first enlistment.

Upon the completion of a players enlistment period, they will have an important choice to make: A) Re-enlist and unlock enlisted rank 5 (Staff Sergeant) and 6 (Master Sergeant), with 15 and 31 soldiers to lead respectively; B) Attempt to become a commissioned officer; C) Become a mercenary.

Not everyone will be selected to be an officer the first time they apply, also some people might find that they do not want to be officers. If selected for commission, Officers gain rank similarly to before, but their roles will be very different. They will be assigned portions of the map to be responsible for, their duties will be to distribute resources, order troop movements, assign missions, and generally oversee attacks and defence. Officer rank 2 will grant the player a wider area to command and 2 subordinate, rank 1 Officers to delegate responsibility to.

There are 64 Rank 1 Officer (Lieutenant) positions for each side in Final Conflict. 32 Rank 2 Officers (Captain), 16 Rank 3 Officers (Colonel), 4 Rank 4 Officers (General) and 1 Supreme Commander Rank 5. With each advancement in officer rank, a player will be able to zoom out of the map farther and have access to the map information of every soldier within his/her command. Orders are issued and are repeated down the chain-of-command from Supreme Commander to every Private in his/her army.

Playing as an officer will introduce grand-strategy style gameplay, in which players will monitor large sections of the map where units, buildings and objectives will be represented by Icons. As Officers gain rank they will have larger areas of responsibility and larger budgets for supplies to distribute to their troops. Officers are rewarded with a percentage of Glory Credits collected by all troops under his/her command therefore they are incentivised to lead effectively.

Becoming a mercenary is another options for players. Mercenaries do not earn regular wages and they will have to pay to respawn out of pocket, but they also have advantages and will appeal to many players. Firstly, they exist outside of a chain-of-command, thus are free to do whatever they want within the game world. Instead of time-in-rate, mercenaries need to gain “influence” points by completing bounty missions for one or both factions. Mercenaries will also be able to hire “subcontractor” mercenaries in order to be able to complete high value, high risk missions. This is also the area of the game where guilds may develop and an ad-hoc, player command structure can form.

Players will be in and out of the game world. In order to have seamless leadership, when a player leaves the game, his position will available for any appropriately ranked player in the area. Barring that, the position will be A.I. controlled until a suitable player arrives. When Final Conflict first launches, the game’s Development team, selected community members and A.I. will control leadership of both armies. Players will be able to take over these roles as they gain rank.

The playable area will be very large, requiring considerable time to travel from one section to another. To make the gameplay more consistent A.I. controlled soldiers will be used to populate the map, their numbers and difficulty levels will be dictated by area officer’s budgeting. These bots will also serve to fill player controlled squads.

Glory Credits, the games native currency, will be pre-mined before launch. The majority of credits will be used to seed the starting economy, the rest will be sold to players as part of a “Starter Package” containing their playable character, basic equipment and enough credits to play comfortably through the early game. In-game markets will provide other equipment options, including the resale salvaged equipment and items that can boost specific skills.

Player characters will have extensive skill sets, every usable item in the game will have its own associated skill. In this way every character will develop differently. Items that a player uses frequently will have their skills raise while ones that are no longer used will decrease (slowly).
Besides item related skills, there will be skills related to leadership, economy, etc.

Final Conflict is still in the conceptual stage of development and is rapidly evolving. It is my hope to find some like minded individuals who can share my vision and help make my dream game a reality. To help make a mental picture of what this game would look and feel like I have assembled some stock screenshots of some "similar" games: Company of Heroes 2, Total Annihilation, Total War Arena, Hearts of Iron 3, Ultima Online (Character Skills). The cover shot above is borrowed from what I believe is a PS4 game, although I am not certain of the title.

P.S. Please don't steal my original ideas. I would love to see this game developed, but not like that.