Idea For Space MMOFPS

DISCLAIMER: This topic is just to put my ideas on paper. If you wish to post in this thread, please make your comments and suggestions constructive. Coming in here and simply saying "This would never work" isn't the type of thing I'm looking for. There IS a potential for this to work and those who wish to pursue it can feel free to post in here to tweak the ideas.

I don't know the markets for space FPS for anything, but I figure I'd put my ideas forth for the space MMOFPS I've been dreaming of.

Well, I'm going to take my FPS part from FreeSpace 2. It was pretty much sticking you in a fighter and you'd have to destroy an enemy cruiser/frigate/capital ship. It was pretty much a space fighter sim with two or three massive capital ships (per side) duking it out.

CLASSES:

-Recon: Light armor and ability to cloak. Fast hit and run capabilities. Firing de-cloaks them.

-Space Superiority: Good speed, but sacrifices armor. Decent firepower. Midrange between heavy fighters and recon.

-Heavy fighter: Heaviest armor but speed isn't the fastest. Heavy firepower.

-Bomber: Heavy armor. Only ones able to use bombs. Only ones really able to destroy any type of big/capital ships.

-Support ship: Does have defenses but not meant for fighting. Buff bot and repair. Would have some special abilities to make it a viable class.


CAPITAL SHIPS

Capital ships are boardable. You can dock your ship on one and move around inside of it. THere wouldn't be much to see in there. THere would be a market, a science center, sensors and battleplans, maps, repairs for your ships, paint jobs... These would be the place where you would re-arm and repair during a battle. If you want to, you can also customize the look of your ship by changing colors, motif, decals and the like.

An idea that can be toyed with is you can have all the different ship classes, but you would need to level them up individually much like you need to level up different characters on World Of Warcraft. The difference would be that it would be like changing armor. You'd dock in a capital ship or station and then switch to the other ship.


SYSTEMS

There could be different systems to fight in. Different types could be nebulas, asteroid belts, over planets and the like.

You would need to jump from system to system like the Planetside warpgates used to work before BWG were introduced. To get to a specific system, you might need to travel through enemy or contested territory.

Perhaps owning different systems would yield different benefits much like bases do.


GAMEPLAY

Well, the gameplay would be very similar to FreeSpace 2. A bunch of capital ships from both sides meet and engage each other fighting for control of the system. Systems can be huge and sport three or four massive battles at a time.

You would get re-inforcements in the form of one or two capital ships every hour. The point would be to take out the enemy capital ships. If you clear a system of enemy cap ships, you would claim that system for your empire and the global battle lines would shift.

Possibility for the third side (if there is one) to come in and fight would be an outfit would be able to call in ONE capital ship. Outfit points could be used to fire OS missiles (we would make it expensive) and to purchase capital ships (twice or three times the price of the OS missile) with a limit of one capital ship at a time per outfit.

The specifics aren't ironed out. That's what other input is for.


LEVELS

Ok, we want everyone on a level playing field, but at the same time keep them coming back and rewarding them.

Pretty much, levels would be just like in Planetside. Each class would have it's own tech tree and would need to get experience to gain access to different gun and missile types. There could be AoE missiles, EMP missiles, dumbfire missiles, swarm missiles, homing missiles... Same thing for bombs for effects on capital ships. "Cert points" would be account wide so you would have to choose what your main focus is.


WEAPONS AND ABILITIES
Which weapons or ability goes where can be determined later. Just get types on the table.

-EMP to disable systems

-Stealth detection (darklight type thing)

-Area Of Effect

-Anti-missile point defense

-Anti-capital ship bombs (Bomber only)

-Deployable defense turret (Support only)

-Deployable space mines (Support Only)

-Repair friendly ship (support)

-Repair area (support)

-Afterburners

-counter-measures

COMMAND RANK

We need something like command ranks because it's a great idea. Only capital ship destructions would count toward command ranks. CR abilities are account wide.

CR1: draw on the system map

CR2: show where your forces are.

CR3: show current class % for your side at your battle

CR4: Show current class % for your side at all battles and enemy % at your battle. System wide communcation. Ability to fire a missile that would be like a small OS. When fired, it shows up on EVERYONE'S hud with a warning sound and would have a specific fuse timer before it detonates. This will also have the ability to damage capital ships for a maximum of 1% or 0.5%.

CR5: Show current class % for both sides across the system. Empire wide communication. Ability to fire more powerful version of OS missile. Able to damage a capital ship for a max of 1 or 1.5 or 2%.

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS WITH GAME DESIGN

-Everyone getting into bombers and just killing capital ships to gain systems. One possible fix would be to make it really tough to destroy a capital ship and make it require help from others. Have NPC patrol ships.

-Repetitive play. It will get repetitive, but so is Planetside when you think about it. Hopefully we can come up with ideas to spice things up.