05-23-2007, 06:01 AM
As you may or may not know, I am very interested in getting into the game development industry. I've attended several expos, try to keep up with the business end of things, and have tons of hands-on experience. In the process of trying to keep myself up to snuff with what's coming out, I've done tons of short little game designs and concepts. This is one of the more in-depth concepts I've come up with and I'm very interested to see what people think about it.
If you want to give some input, please do, however I ask that you respect a few things:
What I'm looking for:
What you like
What you don't like
Why
What you think would appeal to other players that is already there
What I'm not looking for:
What you would change
What you would add
What you would remove
Thank you to anyone who decides to give me some feedback.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dome (working title)
Game concept:
The action in Dome is based on player-versus-player interaction. These interactions take place in the form of physical competition augmented by a special technology that allows players to achieve super-human feats. These feats can be as mundane as jumping higher to being stronger, or as extraordinary as firing powerful beams of energy or jets of fire.
Through winning competitions, the players will be able to accumulate a way to increase their own powers and abilities. This will allow players to customize their skills to create a fighting style that best suites them.
Game Mechanics:
The most obvious mechanic of Dome is the player?s ability to develop their own fighting styles and customize their abilities to their liking. Each player-character is equipped with a small device that is the source of their powers. This device will probably come in the form of a large band worn on their forearm. Customizing fighting styles will be done in the form of purchasing and installing different parts for these armbands.
Players fight in specific arenas referred to as ?Domes.? The actual battlefield within the Dome is generated using a special technology and can take virtually any form the combatants wish. Watery ruins, a desert, large mountain ranges, or even grassy fields can all be generated by the Dome for players to fight in and each battlefield has its own pros and cons.
One of the biggest things I want to emphasize with Dome is range of movement. Combatants capable of super huamn feats should not be restricted to a single plane of movement and fluid player controls should reflect that. A simple control scheme that allows for intuitive movements, dodges, or even flight should be a high priority for Dome. Conversly, mastering complex manuevers and acrobatics should not be required in order to effectively combat other players; if you want to fight by standing in one place, that should be a (somewhat) viable option.
Since range of motion is a big issue in Dome, how you experience that motion should be as well. Whether it be leaping from one end of the arena to the other, whizzing across the ground at break-neck speeds, or dancing through the air, a player should be able to choose a method of movement that best fits their play style. Additionally, the different methods of movement should be balanced properly (yeah, flying lets you get anywhere, but maybe you take an accuracy penalty for it).
As mentioned above, arena setting should also play a largepart. One of the combatants will be given the priviledge to choose which arena they fight in (the method to determine which combatant chooses has yet to be decided). This allows for the player to choose an arena that emphasizes their strengths (like choosing an arena with lots of cover if your fighter has low defense values), plays on an opponent's weaknesses (like choosing an arena that is mostly water on the bottom, so your ground-based opponent is restricted in how they move around), or one that does neither (a variety of "neutral" arenas will be choices).
In order to increase their fighter's strength, a player will need to buy upgrades to their armbands, or buy new armbands alltogether. To do this the player need to spend money. Their will be two intended ways of getting money. The first is by simply participating in fights (the general idea is that damage done to an opponent is proportionate to the amount of money recieved with modifiers for winning/losing) and the second way is through a system of micropayments (give us 5 real dollars and we give you 500 game dollars). To help alleviate some of the "money grind" that often accompanies systems like these, a wager system will also be availible, letting players risk some, or all, of their money in winner-take-all fights. I'm somewhat hesitant about the wager system because of scammers or cheaters, but that's something that only time would show to be a problem.
To accompany the money system is some kind of rank or level system. While characters won't have levels in the sense that leveling up gives you stats/abilities, they will have some kind of overall seperating system. As with money, participating in a fight will yield some sort of "rank progress." Once the requirements have been met, a player moves up a rank. Higher ranks open up new upgrades and armbands for purchase. This is done to avoid someone joining and then simply "maxing out" their character with micropayments. As nice as it would be to just take their money, that's not fun for the other players.
The third "currency" for players to spend are skill points. There will be several skll "trees" that allows players to unlock various abilities to use in combat. These may range from powerful beams of energy to super-strong melee attacks, or even defensive barriers. Skill points will also be awarded for winning fights and can be spent between fights to give players various new combat abilities. The trees will need to be very diversified in order to allow for maximum customization. There will probably not be multiple levels of each skill (ie. no "Power Beam (rank 1)" and "Power Beam (rank 2)" nonsense) in order to place more of an emphasis on armband customization and upgrading. Additionally, players will be limited in how many skills they can aquire; no one will be able to do everything.
As an alternative to spending money on armbands, players will also be able to purchase costume pieces in order to modify or enhance their appearance in the arenas. While these costume pieces may provide cosmetic enhancements, they will have no effect on a player, statistically.
Game Setting
Dome takes place in the future. An actual year has yet to be picked (and may never be picked) but its fairly irrelivant. Scattered throughout the world are massive ?Domes.? These Domes house massive competitions of strength between individuals (or occasionally groups) that have been empowered with superhuman abilities. These abilities are granted by the technological marvels of the era.
?Fighters? (or people who compete in the Domes) gain their powers by customizing their ?Bands.? Many years before the year that Dome takes place a meterorite crashed on Earth. Or at least people were told it was a meterorite. It was, what scientists call, a piece of sophisticaed alien technology, possibly create for the purpose of travel. By taking apart, studying, and reverse engineering (to the best of their abilities) scientistis were able to create many new devices intended for the betterment of mankind. Bands were originally created for military purposes, but the results were far beyond what anyone could have imagined. As soldiers fought with Bands, many were stolen, lost, or taken from the bodies of the fallen. Soon these band-bearing Super Soldiers were commonplace. The battles between Super Soldiers quickly escalated and ended up devastating the world. In the final, official act of warfare involving a Super Soldier ended in the destruction of most of North America.
With this devastating tragedy as a catalyst, several nations banned together to find a way to curb the destruction that these Super Soldiers were capable of. The result was the invention of many powerful satellites. These satellites, in effect, forcibly turned off all of the bands. The methods used to do so was and is the greatest secret in the world. If someone found out how the bands were being nullified, there was too great a risk that they could find a way to counter the satellites.
Political tensions exploded after the launch of these satellites. The few nations that had banbed together to create a cure for these Super Soldiers had, in effect, forced their will upon the rest of the world. When military action was threatened against not only the nations who had created the satellites, but against the satellites themselves, a compromise had to be reached. One scientist (to be named later) jokingly suggest the idea of the domes. An enclosed area where ?Super Soldiers? could beat the living daylights out of each other. Despite his nonchalant tone, the idea was well received. Those who were against the satellites to begin with figured that if things didn?t work out, they could always get things done the old fashioned way. Those who were for the satellites saw this as an opportunity to sway popular opinion to their side.
The first several dome fights were representative of wars between nations.. The Super Soldiers fighting were told to go all out, using as much of the power of their bands as they could in order to test the safety features that had been built into the structures. When the fight had concluded, bits and pieces were leaked to the media for public viewing. The public, for the first real time, was given a glimpse of the kinds of battles these Super Soldiers were capable of having. When word got out of a second fight to settle national dispute, several underground betting rings formed. Some of the soldiers who had fought in the first fight were once again fighting and they were almost instantly seen as favorites.
It was a logical jump for the various nation to offer nationally endorsed betting and for high-speed cameras to be installed in the domes. The unbelievable amounts of money that nationas made of the betting and the public fervor for the intense and previously unparralleled action quickly turned the whole dome experience into more of a sport than a way of settling national dispute
Currently, fighters flock to the domes from every corner of the globe and all walks of life to compete. The Band technology that had created Super Soldiers was streamlines, toned down, and made availible to those recognized as fighters. This new, widely-availible technology produced various different results as different people used these bands. As scientists experimented with these results they found ways of creating specialized parts that can fine-tune a band to produce different results in different individuals.
While the majority of the gameplay is intended to be based on one-on-one combat, there will be a team-battle option, allowing players to team up with one or two of their friends to fight with. As of right now, I have no intention of implimenting a "guild" or "clan" mechanic for the game. I don't think that kind of system fits Dome, which is relatively small in scale.
Within ranks, various titles will probably be awarded for various objectives that have been met. These titles will stay with a player until they have had the title taken by someone else or until they have ascended to the next highest rank (at which point the player will be archived as having had the title and it will be passed on to the next in line). These titles will be given out for things like having the best win/lose ratio, having the best winning streak, the longest losing streak, and things of that nature. The title not have any statistical bearing on a player, but may provide alternative effects (ie, bonus money for beating the player with the "best win/lose ratio" title or a money penalty for beating the player with the "longest losing streak" title). Titles are not intending to have a large effect on the game directly, but rather to stimulate competition, provide a sense of accomplishment, and give players something of a goal to work towards.
There will be some method availible for players to "respec" their characters throughout the game. Though I haven't given it too much thought, it will probably be by completing some sort of "training session" (read "series of boring fights you have to go through because you get to respec so stuf about it") provided by an NPC. How many times a respec will be availible to a player has lso yet to be determined; players will have the option to create multiple avatars, so respecs will probably be limited in one way or another.
"Story" Mode
Though the main emphasis on the game will very obviously be player-versus-player combat, there will be something of a plot for the players to experience. The plot will unfold through a series of Player-versus-NPC fights and will, among other things, serve as a way of introducing the player to the basics of the game. The story events will not be forced upon the players (if you don't want to play the story, you shouldn't have to in a game like this), but it will be strongly encouraged.
By completing story events, players will also be awarded with bonus money, skill points, or even some special upgrade items. Though these items will be unique to story events, they won't be anything that makes or breaks the game. "Useful but not necessary" sums up Story Mode in its entirety.
Specifics
Player Characters
As stated above, players will be able to customize their abilities. The biggest effect players will have is over their stats. Player statistics will be a quick way to gauge a character?s strengths and weaknesses. Some of the stats will be Physical Strength, Speed, Agility, ?Energy? Strength, Physical Defense, and ?Energy? Defense. They?re fairly self explanatory, but will be explained to the players as follows:
? Physical Strength: the power of physical attacks such as punches and kicks.
? ?Energy? Strength: the power of energy attacks such as beams of energy or blasts of ice and fire. These will mostly be ranged attacks.
? Speed: a measure of a character?s top movement speed:
? Agility: a measure of a character?s acceleration and dashing abilities.
Skill Trees
Skill trees provide the players with the option of specializing in specific types of combat, or mixing skills from the various trees in order to create their own hybrid fighting styles. Some of the trees will be more straight-forward (like the Offensive Melee tree) while others take a different approach to combat (like the Barrier Mid-range tree). While the emphasis will be on creating an avatar that fits has a unique set of various skills, each should be balanced in order to stand alone. Meaning, if a player wanted to, they could take only the skills from a single tree and still be an effective combatant in the arena.
-Melee Trees
--Offensive
--Defensive
--Offensive Debuf
--Defensive Debuf/Buff
-Mid Range Trees
--Offensive
--Defensive
--Barrier
--Area
-Long-range
--Snipe
--Artillery
--Barrage
--Support
Upgrades
Very generally, there will be a fixed number of parts a player can upgrade their armbands with. Larger stat bonuses will be offset by penalties in other areas (a high Strength bonus might also give a penalty to Defense, for example). Upgrades with smaller bonuses will make it harder for players to specialize, but will also not provide any inherent weaknesses. Story-items, off the top of my head, will either provide medium bonuses with no penalties or combinations of bonuses that might otherwise be hard to come by.
As stated above, with increases in ranks, also come a wider variety of shop upgrades. Though the upgrades themselves will provide higher increases, the priciples of the mechanics will stay the same (high bonus = potentially high penalty). It will be important throughout all the ranks, however, to make sure that there is an ample supply of diverse upgrades. The upgrades should be as diverse as the player styles will (hopefully) be.
Players will be able to sell upgrades back to the NPC shop, but not to other players. This is to avoid higher level players trying to sell off higher level parts or "funding" other members. It also not necessary for players to have any upgrades at all. If they want to run with the bare-bone armband they have equipped, that will be an option.
Armbands
Hopefully I'll come up with a better name for these than "armbands" but bear with me in the meantime. These devices provide the basic stat bonuses for players and, like upgrades, will be availible for purchase in the shops. Higher rank armbands will provide a variety of new functions, such as open up new upgrade "slots", provide more significant stat bonuses, or even grant players combat skills they didn't already have. Like upgrades, armbands can be sold back to the shop, but not to other players.
Ranking
Winning battles (or even losing them to some extent) will progress a player towards their next rank. Players will not be forced into the next rank as soon as they reach the required number of points, instead they will be free to challenge an NPC in a "Rank Battle" to move up. If they win, they will move up in rank, while losing will cause them to actually lose some rank.
For the following, assume there are five ranks, with five being the lowest rank and one being the highest. In regards to fighting other players, a rank 5 player may challenge a rank 4, but a rank 1 player may not challenge a rank 3 player. The exception to the latter is when the rank 1 player is using all rank 3 (or lower) equipment.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Also, if you are a programmer, modeler, or can do any 3D animation and are interested in working on this, please let me. I think I have an artist set up, but lemme know if you're interested in that also.
Again, thanks.
If you want to give some input, please do, however I ask that you respect a few things:
What I'm looking for:
What you like
What you don't like
Why
What you think would appeal to other players that is already there
What I'm not looking for:
What you would change
What you would add
What you would remove
Thank you to anyone who decides to give me some feedback.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dome (working title)
Game concept:
The action in Dome is based on player-versus-player interaction. These interactions take place in the form of physical competition augmented by a special technology that allows players to achieve super-human feats. These feats can be as mundane as jumping higher to being stronger, or as extraordinary as firing powerful beams of energy or jets of fire.
Through winning competitions, the players will be able to accumulate a way to increase their own powers and abilities. This will allow players to customize their skills to create a fighting style that best suites them.
Game Mechanics:
The most obvious mechanic of Dome is the player?s ability to develop their own fighting styles and customize their abilities to their liking. Each player-character is equipped with a small device that is the source of their powers. This device will probably come in the form of a large band worn on their forearm. Customizing fighting styles will be done in the form of purchasing and installing different parts for these armbands.
Players fight in specific arenas referred to as ?Domes.? The actual battlefield within the Dome is generated using a special technology and can take virtually any form the combatants wish. Watery ruins, a desert, large mountain ranges, or even grassy fields can all be generated by the Dome for players to fight in and each battlefield has its own pros and cons.
One of the biggest things I want to emphasize with Dome is range of movement. Combatants capable of super huamn feats should not be restricted to a single plane of movement and fluid player controls should reflect that. A simple control scheme that allows for intuitive movements, dodges, or even flight should be a high priority for Dome. Conversly, mastering complex manuevers and acrobatics should not be required in order to effectively combat other players; if you want to fight by standing in one place, that should be a (somewhat) viable option.
Since range of motion is a big issue in Dome, how you experience that motion should be as well. Whether it be leaping from one end of the arena to the other, whizzing across the ground at break-neck speeds, or dancing through the air, a player should be able to choose a method of movement that best fits their play style. Additionally, the different methods of movement should be balanced properly (yeah, flying lets you get anywhere, but maybe you take an accuracy penalty for it).
As mentioned above, arena setting should also play a largepart. One of the combatants will be given the priviledge to choose which arena they fight in (the method to determine which combatant chooses has yet to be decided). This allows for the player to choose an arena that emphasizes their strengths (like choosing an arena with lots of cover if your fighter has low defense values), plays on an opponent's weaknesses (like choosing an arena that is mostly water on the bottom, so your ground-based opponent is restricted in how they move around), or one that does neither (a variety of "neutral" arenas will be choices).
In order to increase their fighter's strength, a player will need to buy upgrades to their armbands, or buy new armbands alltogether. To do this the player need to spend money. Their will be two intended ways of getting money. The first is by simply participating in fights (the general idea is that damage done to an opponent is proportionate to the amount of money recieved with modifiers for winning/losing) and the second way is through a system of micropayments (give us 5 real dollars and we give you 500 game dollars). To help alleviate some of the "money grind" that often accompanies systems like these, a wager system will also be availible, letting players risk some, or all, of their money in winner-take-all fights. I'm somewhat hesitant about the wager system because of scammers or cheaters, but that's something that only time would show to be a problem.
To accompany the money system is some kind of rank or level system. While characters won't have levels in the sense that leveling up gives you stats/abilities, they will have some kind of overall seperating system. As with money, participating in a fight will yield some sort of "rank progress." Once the requirements have been met, a player moves up a rank. Higher ranks open up new upgrades and armbands for purchase. This is done to avoid someone joining and then simply "maxing out" their character with micropayments. As nice as it would be to just take their money, that's not fun for the other players.
The third "currency" for players to spend are skill points. There will be several skll "trees" that allows players to unlock various abilities to use in combat. These may range from powerful beams of energy to super-strong melee attacks, or even defensive barriers. Skill points will also be awarded for winning fights and can be spent between fights to give players various new combat abilities. The trees will need to be very diversified in order to allow for maximum customization. There will probably not be multiple levels of each skill (ie. no "Power Beam (rank 1)" and "Power Beam (rank 2)" nonsense) in order to place more of an emphasis on armband customization and upgrading. Additionally, players will be limited in how many skills they can aquire; no one will be able to do everything.
As an alternative to spending money on armbands, players will also be able to purchase costume pieces in order to modify or enhance their appearance in the arenas. While these costume pieces may provide cosmetic enhancements, they will have no effect on a player, statistically.
Game Setting
Dome takes place in the future. An actual year has yet to be picked (and may never be picked) but its fairly irrelivant. Scattered throughout the world are massive ?Domes.? These Domes house massive competitions of strength between individuals (or occasionally groups) that have been empowered with superhuman abilities. These abilities are granted by the technological marvels of the era.
?Fighters? (or people who compete in the Domes) gain their powers by customizing their ?Bands.? Many years before the year that Dome takes place a meterorite crashed on Earth. Or at least people were told it was a meterorite. It was, what scientists call, a piece of sophisticaed alien technology, possibly create for the purpose of travel. By taking apart, studying, and reverse engineering (to the best of their abilities) scientistis were able to create many new devices intended for the betterment of mankind. Bands were originally created for military purposes, but the results were far beyond what anyone could have imagined. As soldiers fought with Bands, many were stolen, lost, or taken from the bodies of the fallen. Soon these band-bearing Super Soldiers were commonplace. The battles between Super Soldiers quickly escalated and ended up devastating the world. In the final, official act of warfare involving a Super Soldier ended in the destruction of most of North America.
With this devastating tragedy as a catalyst, several nations banned together to find a way to curb the destruction that these Super Soldiers were capable of. The result was the invention of many powerful satellites. These satellites, in effect, forcibly turned off all of the bands. The methods used to do so was and is the greatest secret in the world. If someone found out how the bands were being nullified, there was too great a risk that they could find a way to counter the satellites.
Political tensions exploded after the launch of these satellites. The few nations that had banbed together to create a cure for these Super Soldiers had, in effect, forced their will upon the rest of the world. When military action was threatened against not only the nations who had created the satellites, but against the satellites themselves, a compromise had to be reached. One scientist (to be named later) jokingly suggest the idea of the domes. An enclosed area where ?Super Soldiers? could beat the living daylights out of each other. Despite his nonchalant tone, the idea was well received. Those who were against the satellites to begin with figured that if things didn?t work out, they could always get things done the old fashioned way. Those who were for the satellites saw this as an opportunity to sway popular opinion to their side.
The first several dome fights were representative of wars between nations.. The Super Soldiers fighting were told to go all out, using as much of the power of their bands as they could in order to test the safety features that had been built into the structures. When the fight had concluded, bits and pieces were leaked to the media for public viewing. The public, for the first real time, was given a glimpse of the kinds of battles these Super Soldiers were capable of having. When word got out of a second fight to settle national dispute, several underground betting rings formed. Some of the soldiers who had fought in the first fight were once again fighting and they were almost instantly seen as favorites.
It was a logical jump for the various nation to offer nationally endorsed betting and for high-speed cameras to be installed in the domes. The unbelievable amounts of money that nationas made of the betting and the public fervor for the intense and previously unparralleled action quickly turned the whole dome experience into more of a sport than a way of settling national dispute
Currently, fighters flock to the domes from every corner of the globe and all walks of life to compete. The Band technology that had created Super Soldiers was streamlines, toned down, and made availible to those recognized as fighters. This new, widely-availible technology produced various different results as different people used these bands. As scientists experimented with these results they found ways of creating specialized parts that can fine-tune a band to produce different results in different individuals.
While the majority of the gameplay is intended to be based on one-on-one combat, there will be a team-battle option, allowing players to team up with one or two of their friends to fight with. As of right now, I have no intention of implimenting a "guild" or "clan" mechanic for the game. I don't think that kind of system fits Dome, which is relatively small in scale.
Within ranks, various titles will probably be awarded for various objectives that have been met. These titles will stay with a player until they have had the title taken by someone else or until they have ascended to the next highest rank (at which point the player will be archived as having had the title and it will be passed on to the next in line). These titles will be given out for things like having the best win/lose ratio, having the best winning streak, the longest losing streak, and things of that nature. The title not have any statistical bearing on a player, but may provide alternative effects (ie, bonus money for beating the player with the "best win/lose ratio" title or a money penalty for beating the player with the "longest losing streak" title). Titles are not intending to have a large effect on the game directly, but rather to stimulate competition, provide a sense of accomplishment, and give players something of a goal to work towards.
There will be some method availible for players to "respec" their characters throughout the game. Though I haven't given it too much thought, it will probably be by completing some sort of "training session" (read "series of boring fights you have to go through because you get to respec so stuf about it") provided by an NPC. How many times a respec will be availible to a player has lso yet to be determined; players will have the option to create multiple avatars, so respecs will probably be limited in one way or another.
"Story" Mode
Though the main emphasis on the game will very obviously be player-versus-player combat, there will be something of a plot for the players to experience. The plot will unfold through a series of Player-versus-NPC fights and will, among other things, serve as a way of introducing the player to the basics of the game. The story events will not be forced upon the players (if you don't want to play the story, you shouldn't have to in a game like this), but it will be strongly encouraged.
By completing story events, players will also be awarded with bonus money, skill points, or even some special upgrade items. Though these items will be unique to story events, they won't be anything that makes or breaks the game. "Useful but not necessary" sums up Story Mode in its entirety.
Specifics
Player Characters
As stated above, players will be able to customize their abilities. The biggest effect players will have is over their stats. Player statistics will be a quick way to gauge a character?s strengths and weaknesses. Some of the stats will be Physical Strength, Speed, Agility, ?Energy? Strength, Physical Defense, and ?Energy? Defense. They?re fairly self explanatory, but will be explained to the players as follows:
? Physical Strength: the power of physical attacks such as punches and kicks.
? ?Energy? Strength: the power of energy attacks such as beams of energy or blasts of ice and fire. These will mostly be ranged attacks.
? Speed: a measure of a character?s top movement speed:
? Agility: a measure of a character?s acceleration and dashing abilities.
Skill Trees
Skill trees provide the players with the option of specializing in specific types of combat, or mixing skills from the various trees in order to create their own hybrid fighting styles. Some of the trees will be more straight-forward (like the Offensive Melee tree) while others take a different approach to combat (like the Barrier Mid-range tree). While the emphasis will be on creating an avatar that fits has a unique set of various skills, each should be balanced in order to stand alone. Meaning, if a player wanted to, they could take only the skills from a single tree and still be an effective combatant in the arena.
-Melee Trees
--Offensive
--Defensive
--Offensive Debuf
--Defensive Debuf/Buff
-Mid Range Trees
--Offensive
--Defensive
--Barrier
--Area
-Long-range
--Snipe
--Artillery
--Barrage
--Support
Upgrades
Very generally, there will be a fixed number of parts a player can upgrade their armbands with. Larger stat bonuses will be offset by penalties in other areas (a high Strength bonus might also give a penalty to Defense, for example). Upgrades with smaller bonuses will make it harder for players to specialize, but will also not provide any inherent weaknesses. Story-items, off the top of my head, will either provide medium bonuses with no penalties or combinations of bonuses that might otherwise be hard to come by.
As stated above, with increases in ranks, also come a wider variety of shop upgrades. Though the upgrades themselves will provide higher increases, the priciples of the mechanics will stay the same (high bonus = potentially high penalty). It will be important throughout all the ranks, however, to make sure that there is an ample supply of diverse upgrades. The upgrades should be as diverse as the player styles will (hopefully) be.
Players will be able to sell upgrades back to the NPC shop, but not to other players. This is to avoid higher level players trying to sell off higher level parts or "funding" other members. It also not necessary for players to have any upgrades at all. If they want to run with the bare-bone armband they have equipped, that will be an option.
Armbands
Hopefully I'll come up with a better name for these than "armbands" but bear with me in the meantime. These devices provide the basic stat bonuses for players and, like upgrades, will be availible for purchase in the shops. Higher rank armbands will provide a variety of new functions, such as open up new upgrade "slots", provide more significant stat bonuses, or even grant players combat skills they didn't already have. Like upgrades, armbands can be sold back to the shop, but not to other players.
Ranking
Winning battles (or even losing them to some extent) will progress a player towards their next rank. Players will not be forced into the next rank as soon as they reach the required number of points, instead they will be free to challenge an NPC in a "Rank Battle" to move up. If they win, they will move up in rank, while losing will cause them to actually lose some rank.
For the following, assume there are five ranks, with five being the lowest rank and one being the highest. In regards to fighting other players, a rank 5 player may challenge a rank 4, but a rank 1 player may not challenge a rank 3 player. The exception to the latter is when the rank 1 player is using all rank 3 (or lower) equipment.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Also, if you are a programmer, modeler, or can do any 3D animation and are interested in working on this, please let me. I think I have an artist set up, but lemme know if you're interested in that also.
Again, thanks.
![[Image: RadOct.jpg]](http://frozendust.com/sig/raditzu/RadOct.jpg)
"In this world, his world, life is just a game you play"
![[Image: Dirty_Harry.png]](http://fp.profiles.us.playstation.com/playstation/psn/pid/Dirty_Harry.png)
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