For a long time I thought I had an idea of what A:CM was supposed to be. Of course it turned out differently lol but over the years I had some expectations of the game as well as a personal Ideal. The kind of game that I thought this game would be in a perfect world. I figured id go ahead and share for fun because lots of this was inspired by my impressions of how A:CM was going to be.
Spoilers everywhere to keep details neat and organized, but in general the concept is a survival horror game, really about choices. The kind of game that you think youre gonna die, your probably gonna die, if you dont die itll be a miracle or because of solid teamwork and careful descision making. I think that you could spend a mission trying to construct a hamburger and bring it across the map and still be scared, yet determined to succeed.
Basic Concept:
Spoiler
Single Player with 3 AI squadmates or a mix of Players and AI that never dissapear for story reasons. ALWAYS 4.
A Single human controlled Alien that can randomly drop into your map and cause immense suffering with his AI buddies.
Xenomorphs on the map are in amounts relative to the size of the map itself and do not respawn. Large map may have 12 and thats pushing it because each Xeno is like tryng to kill Jason Vorhees. They are designed to hit and run, make noise, get pissed for various reasons and above all else, kill you when youre at your most vulnerable. Try to be a team, try to stay alive and make your shots count.
Thats the general idea, just get from point A to point B without wiping. But heres some specifics to give a solid idea of how it all
goes down.
The Basic Classes
Spoiler
-Tank: moves faster while carrying smart gun, dufflebags, sentry guns.
-Engineer: faster bypass/repair/seal/unseal/hack.
-Android: better motion tracker/ does not provoke Aliens when standing still.
-Medic: easier to evade Encounters + faster/better emergency first aid.
Each player can do everything the others can, but with more or less efficiency... except provoke Aliens.
Aight, how about Xenos...
Spoiler
- Adult Xeno. Period. You choose the head/hands/tail in your own settings and RP to your hearts content.
- Face Hugger. It hugs your face and you die.
- Queen. Last boss.
I know I know, it actually seems like innovation compared to some of the things weve seen over the years. So how do these Aliens
work?
Spoiler
- There will be a finite amount of Aliens per Map.
- There will always be more Aliens on the map than ways to kill them all.
- AI Aliens will always start noisier and more passive.
- Each AI Alien will progressively become more quiet, but more aggressive as game time passes. So if you think you can jerk
around or stay walled up for forever youre asking for it.
- Each AI Alien will become more quiet, but more Vengeful toward the player which has damaged it the most.
- Vengeful AI Aliens are more prone to initiate Encounters with those players.
- Vengeful AI Aliens are more prone to target those players in open combat situations.
- Vengeful AI Aliens will not be labeled as such, leaving no indication for the players as to what they are up against.
- AI Aliens are not meant to be killed in a single encounter or open combat situation, rarely this can happen.
- AI Aliens will retreat if damaged too heavily and will regenerate a portion of health (segmented life bar internally)
- Aliens will periodically perform "ShiftChanges" where they will switch relative positions with each other.
- ShiftChange will ensure that activity is promoted causing noise, Encounters and open combat situations.
- ShiftChange will ensure diversity between human/Alien interactions with unpredictable results. Damage, aggresiveness, hatred
toward a player.
- Itll take a couple clips to put a single Alien down for good.
Neat so... what about that human controlled Xeno?
Spoiler
- A single human controlled Alien may drop into your game and follow you for the duration of the current mission.
- Human controlled Alien is removed from current game instance if dropped/kicked or killed.
- If PlayerGroup defeats human controlled Alien, no other human controlled Aliens my enter current mission.
- Players will be notified if Human Alien enters or leaves game mission and will show up in the list of pings.
- Human controlled Alien will not be labeled as such in game, leaving the Players scared @#$%-less.
- human controlled Alien can be PlayerKicked if the game lags above threshhold or Alien has not moved in "X" minutes.
- Human controlled Alien has jaws/tail/swipe abilities blah blah blah.
- Human controlled Alien can pounce but initial attack does no damage. Attack instead initiates an Encounter (if desired).
- The Human controlled Xeno will have the ability to emit a secretive resin which acts like a temporary beacon for Aliens to the
desired area.
- This ability can be used once and recharges when a Human Player has been killed.
- Resin has a significantly limited range so Human controlled Aliens must choose the time and place wisely.
Wow, you mean a tough as @#$% Alien with human intelligence? Thats like a whole mechanic itself! Btw... wtf is an Encounter?
Encounters:
Spoiler
- General Guidelines for Encounters.
- AI and Players are subject to the same rules, situations in regard to encounters.
- AI and Players holding Dufflebags and LargeQuestItems may not defend themselves during Encounters. (unless SP)
- Both human controlled and AI Aliens may be killed during Encounters.
- Aliens recieve reduced damage during Enounters.
- An Alien initiating an Encounter may provoke other Aliens to perform Encounters or engage in open combat. (if in the area)
- Acid is not a factor in Encounters since Players would be utterly destroyed otherwise.
- Players are subject to Encounters when performing repairs or reinforcements.
- Encounters are initiated by both Human and AI Aliens in the following forms.
- Top down: Alien 3 style.
- Players grabbed in Top Down encounter are subject to death of not freed quickly.
- Players pulled through Ceiling are dead.
- Top Down Encountered player may not attack or shake free in this position (unless game is SP)
- Other team mates may fire on the Alien or tug on the player to break its grip.
- An internal counter will increase as the Alien takes damage or players tug on their comrade.
- The Encountered player will see nothing but spit and teeth during Top Down Encounter.
- Floor: Hudson Style.
- Players in a Floor encounter may attack the enemy or be tugged by TeamMates.
- Players may survive a Floor Encounter on their own at a great expense of ammo and health. (less so in SP)
- Player pulled through a Floor are dead.
- Low-Wall Style.
- A player walking too close to a wall may trigger this Encounter.
- Players are pulled to the ground but may fire back, have players fire at the Alien and be pulled to safety by TeamMates.
- Player pulled into a hole or vent in a low wall is dead.
- Full-Wall Style.
- Aliens may crash through the wall, initiating a pounce Encounter or open combat.
- More prone to do this in aggressive/vengeful modes.
- More prone to do this if other Aliens are nearby.
- Ops Drop Style.
- Aliens may crash through the ceiling, initiating a pounce encounter or open combat.
- More prone to do this in aggressive/vengeful modes.
- More prone to do this if other Aliens are nearby.
- Pounce Encounters are just like every generic Alien QTE or grapple on the ground...
- Upright full body Style.
- If a player is too dumb to stay away from a gaping hole in the wall this Encounter may be initiated.
- If a player is tasked with repairing a previously damaged wall, this Encounter may be initiated.
- A player may not shake free or fire on an Alien during this Encounter (hands are grabbed) (unless SP)
- A player pulled through the wall is dead.
How exactly do you plan on preventing these awful things from happening?
Sealing Things:
Spoiler
- Walls, vents, doors, windows, may all be repaired or reinforced.
- Player will magically produce repair materials when performing a repair (deal with it)
- Aliens can (and will) attempt to damage repaired surfaces.
- Aliens who are aggressive/vengeful are more prone to damaging or destroying repairs and reinforcements.
- Aliens may destroy/disrupt repairs and reinforcements without causing an Encounter or open combat.
- Aliens damaging barricades and making noise might just be messing with you.
- Projects that require two hands will require the Player to PUT DOWN HIS GUN unless gun has strap, otherwise it is holstered.
- Players may choose to take down barricades, reinforced areas or unseal doors and are subject to Encounters while doing so.
- Explosives may damage walls, floors, ceilings and repaired areas in addition to heavily damaging Aliens.
Man they just cant catch a break huh... how do they defend themselves, what can they get?
Spoiler
Ammo, gear and Items
- Every class has a loadout.
- Pulse rifles, smart guns blah blah blah.
- flashlight works on a battery as always.
- everyone has a motion tracker.
- Everyone has a welder.
- Players can find limited medical supplies and ammo, spare guns and upgrades.
- Consumables are limited.
- Excess items (more than one full sized gun, medical stockpiles, key items etc) must be carried in DuffleBag or make multiple trips.
- Person carrying DuffleBag may only Melee or has to put down the DuffleBag to attack.
- Players may choose to pick up a DuffleBag or perform ammo reloads/inventory management.
- Players may choose to drop weapons and ammo, or trade.
- Players will have an inventory overlay to see everything carried by all players and in DuffleBags.
- Dead players may be looted if they are not pulled away in an Encounter.
- Item locations are randomly generated each game.
- Youll never have enough to kill them all.
Forget I asked... Alright gimme an example of the game part.
General Gameplay:
Spoiler
-Roles
- Action situations will arise where gameplay will pause and players will have 5 seconds to choose a role. 1out of 4
- Players who do not choose a role are automatically assigned one.
- AI players will choose leftover options in order most useful to their class.
- Roles are subjects of events and mission ojectives.
IE: player 1 barricades the door.
Player 2 fixes a security monitor.
Player 3 sends distress call.
Player 4 is left to shake what his momma gave em.
- Roles can be switched after an initial cool down period
- IE: Player 1 wanted the PowerLoader but player 2 accidentally picked it. He can wait a few seconds to jump in and Player 2
will do something else.
- This prevents a player from jacking the PowerLoader out from another player since that player can enter it before him as the
event unfolds.
- Order of Role selections on screen is randomized each time to prevent experienced players from doing the "coolest"
or "easiest" roles every time.
- Players must use teamwork. because...
- Aliens are attracted to story events and Role Based Situations. : )
- If players are careful with their motion trackers and ears and sense of timing, Situations may not incur much, if any Xeno activity.
- Players may also recreate the Ops scene in Aliens and be obliterated.
-Life/Death
- A Player who Drops will leave a Lootable Corpse.
- If that player rejoins the same game, that player WILL NOT get a new gun or ammo.
- If a player is killed and respawns, that player WILL NOT get a new gun or ammo.
- A player who is pulled through a vent will leave Key Items and DuffleBag (if he was holding one).
- A player who is dragged away will not drop his gun or ammo, they are lost.
- If a Player is killed, he will respawn as a new "Found" Player in one of many predetermined spawn locations.
- That player may speak or type but may not move from his current position, look at his map and his screen vision will be blurred
until found.
- Retreival of a Player may prove to be both adventurous and dangerous for the group. Its your choice as to how it is handled.
- Found Players will show up on motion trackers when in range, otherwise it is up to the Player to best describe where he is as
best he can.
- AI replacements will have specific descriptions of where they are located for simplicities sake.
- A player who jumps in mid-game can only do so if atleast 1 Player is AI controlled and the game is set to drop in/drop out.
- That player will act as a "Found" member somewhere on the map and players can choose to kick him, or replace an AI with him.
- The AI to be replaced is put to a vote and on success, that AI dies wherever it is, leaving its loot.
- AI cannot be voted out during a Role or Encounter.
- The team will be short a man while retrieving a Found player so care must be taken when to Kick the AI.
-Maps
- EXTREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEMELY NON @#$%^&* LINEAR.
- Get from point A to point B however you can.
- Mostly interior and sometimes limited exterior areas.
- Aliens will be mostly prone to attacking outside at night... mostly.
- The Alien Player and AI will enjoy a massive network of ducts, shafts, hiding spots, access areas not available to the player.
- map design will favor Alien Players who stalk their prey, terrorize humans and wait for the right time to appear at all.
- Things not included
- New Alien types or abilities
- Chestbursting or chestbursters (unless script calls for it)
- Commandos
- Morons screaming mission objectives at you over a comm system constantly.
- Clean Underpants.
So even a player joining or leaving is a big deal and presents the group with issues to sort out at often inconvinient times.
When i was a little kid Id go outside at dusk and pretend Aliens were swarming just out of my sight. Id sneak around corners and get imaginative that a Xeno would pop out of someones shed and Id have to run because nothing stops those things! After a while the shadows got creepier and every sound meant something. Eventually id scare myself back inside thinking something was out to get me.
With a game like this... something IS out to get you and you cant stop it. Leave the explosions and cawwadoody bull@#$% at home. I dont need a story or canon or predators or freakin donuts, I just wanna get scared. My Ideal.
