This new idea is my current dream. This is the game that I feel will take the industry to the next level. I call this Project: Bellicose. Bellicose means war-like. It's very apt.

Well, just to get things out in the open, I'll state what this game is. It's a FPS (First-Person-Shooter) sci-fi game, meaning there is space travel and mechanical suits, etc. It is based in a realistic world, meaning that if you don't have armor, a single bullet can kill you. It's a cooperative online game, meaning that you are a member of a team that must work towards goals to accomplish your mission, and succumbing to a "death match" mentality will cost you the battle. It is a strategy game, meaning that there will be commanders who can see the entire map and command/suggest to their troops directions to go for combat, assistance, supplies, and fortifications. It is a conquest game, meaning that land can be gained and held, and victory means a larger domain.

Now for the surreal.

It is a resource-based strategy. Meaning that in order to supply all the weapons and vehicles, you must mine minerals and raw resources (yes, still in a FPS environment). It is an RPG, meaning that your character has stats, makes friends, creates items for the world, can own land or shops, and can sell items for the war effort. Finally, it's based in a persistent world, like Ultima Online and Everquest. This means that as your character grows in skills, the better weapons he builds. As you conquer land, you keep it from one real day to the next as long as you can hold it. As you form friendships, you can create a guild that, through wise leadership and battles, can earn you prestige and honor in the war effort.

It's a large pill to swallow. Let me illustrate the basics of the game in a resource cycle involving many online players. What you may want to do is imagine a world split in half, with one hemisphere rules by one King, the other half by another, and these two monarchs have been battling against each other since history can recall. Each has a large palace, almost at polar distances from the other, to keep their King safe. Near this palace is a Spaceport, allowing the transfer of information and resources to an orbiting Frigate. On this Frigate are housed the generals and scientists who do research and organize the attacks. Think of these Spaceports as elevators. Note that in this game, I've come to the conclusion that space battle would be limited to large vessels firing at each other with *very* limited maneuverability. (Dog-fighting in space would be a waste of precious fuel, so no "small" vessels are used in space with the exception of transport to and from the planet below.) For this reason the Frigates are rarely within sight of each other, primarily because if they did enter combat, they would destroy each other, and there would be no clear winner, just losses for both sides.

Hunter Gatherer Our first character, the Hunter, is located near the Capitol and the Spaceport, both of which are (usually) far from combat. He's earned this rank as a reward for service to His Lordship. At any time he can return to combat on the front lines, but he knows that His Majesty's army is low on Plasma Rifles. In a quiet mountainside near his shop he's probing for iron and hoping for diamonds (iron of course being very useful, but diamond are a good financial find). He finds only three usable diamonds, but is able to unearth sixteen loads of iron. Satisfied with his purchase he heads to the Capitol to sell his goods. He decides to hurry, as he hasn't seen any Enemy trooper for quite some time, and feels as though his luck may be running out.

Commerce Having dedicated his time to creating weapons, the Manufacturer has become extremely skilled at making high quality rifles. So much time has been dedicated to the manufacturer of rifles and the stocking of his warehouse that he doesn't have the time anymore to gather the raw materials necessary for construction. This is why he pays others to perform the often-dangerous task of delivering iron to him. Luckily, enemy activity has been low this close to the Capitol this week, and many free agents have been bringing him supplies, such as the last one who sold him a whopping sixteen loads. Satisfied that he has the supplies necessary, he sets to the task of finishing a batch of Plasma Rifles to be supplied to a government contract. As soon as this batch is delivered to the War Effort Distribution Center he'll be payed (nicely) for his work. That money will go towards purchasing better and faster equipment for his Rifle development.

Control The Commander looked over the maps of His Majesty's land and wasn't as happy as the others. Yes, they had been pressing the assault and the enemy was retreating, but they were spreading themselves too thin. A gain of land without an increase in men results in poor defense, and this weighed heavily on him. A call came in from a Troupe based in the outer fringes of His Lordship's lands, a mountainous region. They had just fought back an enemy assault and, although victorious, required more equipment. He looked at the lands near them and spotted an area nearby that would work well for a supply drop. He checks the list of pending drops and luckily it's empty, and *luckily* there's a flight agent available. He puts in the order to have a batch of Plasma Rifles picked up from the War Effort Distribution Center (luckily they're in stock) and delivered to the drop point. He radios back to the Troupe and sends them the coords for the drop point. After a quick conversation with the flight agent, he informs the Troupe of an estimated ten-minute ETA. Now that these orders have been processed he refocuses himself on the front lines, and sends a few orders to a couple of Troupes that have proceeded outward too far to pull back and fortify the boundaries until a few reinforcements can join up.

Transport The Flight Agent hurries to the WEDC to begin his mission. He looks through the selection of available vehicles for the mission, picking a drop ship that can carry light loads, but is fast enough to get in and out of the battle zones. His last mission had been to deploy a Heavy Walker, which is a sort of MechSuit for the shock-troopers to use as mobile-human tanks. Heavy Walkers, of course, are extremely heavy, and this was just *had* to be deployed deep in the war zone. So there he was flying a beast of a transport that was about as nimble as a flying rock, right over the heads of enemy and friendly alike. He barely made it out and the ship was nearly destroyed, but my-oh-my the payment! With the money he'd made of that flight he was able to pay the down payment on these elite fast ships. If he damages the ship in battle, the damages come out of his down payment. Luckily, he rarely damages the ships more than his down payment, and the Federal Payoffs for these missions make the dangerous jobs he undertakes a bit easy to handle. Picking up the batch of Plasma Rifles, he loads them into the FalconXT Dropship and takes the controls (it's so much more responsive than that heavy deployment ship, and oh, so much faster!). After about ten minutes of rocketing over first grassy then mountainous terrain (he saw a lone enemy trooper that had slipped past their defenses, and radioed in the location to Command) he comes close to the drop point, highlighted on his HUD. He's got to drop it so that it falls onto the drop field assigned by his commander, a large flat mesa on a rocky hill, in order to collect fully on the Federal Bounty. However, you don't just stop a Dropship in mid-air without risking and engine burnout. This drop while moving forward as slowly as possible, but not slow enough to cause a burnout.

Troupe They'd been hiking across the region for about ten minutes now, and the drop zone was near. They numbered only five now, having lost two of their comrades during the firefight twenty minutes ago. This drop of supplies would give them a new lease on the battle. In a hurry now, they rushed to the drop zone. Of course, they had to get there quickly. The enemy may have had spies planted that would allow them to know when and where their resupply drops would take place. Losing this supply to the enemy would crush their offense. Luckily they reached the drop point in time, and in a few short minutes a drop ship rocketed overhead it's payload parachuting squarely within the drop zone. They sent word to command to let them know that the drop was successfully planted within the drop zone (on-time!) and that the flight agent should be fully compensated. Shortly afterwards orders came down that they would be traveling further into enemy territory. Rumors persisted that the enemy had developed a type of flying suit that could utilize heavy plasma. Their orders were to confirm this and, if possible, capture a sample of this armor. Scavenging was always a nasty part of the research cycle.

Losses Two soldiers awoke in the Capitol, angry. They had only just moments ago been fighting with their comrades in the Northern Mountains when an enemy Troupe caught them by surprise. The first to awaken was lucky; he'd had enough money to pay for a full DNA Replication and body restructure. This meant that all the skills and attributes he'd developed in the months of fighting in His Majesty's Army wouldn't be lost. His partner however was not so lucky. With insufficient funds he was forced to choose either a full mental or full physical replication. Having served as a foot soldier, he chose the physical replication so that he could still carry the heavy weaponry. This meant, however, that the skills he'd developed in setting explosives, and other more mentally challenging skills, would be lost. A price of war, or a price of losing.

Research Later, a couple of the Scientists were delighted to know that a Troupe was able to confirm reports that the enemy had indeed succeeded in developing a Heavy Flight Suit. They'd been trying to pull this off themselves for quite some time, but failed repeatedly. They told command that a sample of this suit would vastly increase their chances of developing their own. The Commanders were certainly anxious to send a few Troupes to enemy territory with Heavy Flight Suits.

As you can see, there would be many roles in this game. Everyone starting the game for the first time would only be able to play as a shock trooper. After advancing as a shock trooper, your life is free to choices. You could remain on the front lines as a veteran, therefore more eligible for heavy equipment and vehicles. You could go homeward to the Capitol and supply the resources and machinery for the battle, carving a name out for yourself as a merchant. You could move in ranks to a Commander position, or take on a position in research. You could become an agent, taking jobs as a Flight Agent moving supplies to and from the front, a Free Agent who is allowed to infiltrate the enemy lines and harass their supply lines and hunters, etc. All roles performed in the first-person perspective.

Finally, the actual network structure of the game would be based on first a single WORLD server that contains all information about the world, land, and terrains. This server must be available at all times. This world server would not handle any of the combat, but merely process results of combat and set up other battles. Many other servers would run MELEE servers, much like the structure of any online game nowadays. These MELEE servers would actually run the battles, and get whatever environmental and world information from the WORLD servers. By this, a persistent world would be created; one in which territory gained and damage done one day would last until tomorrow.

What about guilds? I'm toying with the idea of guilds working like this: A group of people applies to His Majesty to make themselves available to the War Effort. As long as they devote time, manpower and services to the War Effort, probably in contributions to the WEDC, they'll be granted a piece of land. Guild disputes and battle would be possible, but only through request. Namely, if one guild would like to take over another, they can issue a direct challenge. The opposing guild must accept the challenge and a battle would be scheduled, victor winning the lands, or whatever the terms of the battle would be.

This concept is extremely large and requires a great deal of thought into play balancing and interest. I expect a massive research tree. I expect a gargantuan list of equipment that can be utilized, controlled, and developed for combat. There must be a wide range of vehicles. Also, characters in the game can't learn every skill. Far from it, if the character just learns a little of everything, he'll learn little indeed. Character must specialize. In this way, each character would be important for some task. People who just want to log in and fight would log in as a shock trooper and accomplish their goal. Commanders receiving reports of "bad apples" would have the ability to remove said trooper from the field. The game would depend on players forming groups and governing themselves, for only those who do so would succeed and thrive. Through this, they would advance.