Oblivion game concept
Oblivion was the code name for Allegiance. This information was found by Raveen on one of the CDs that Peter Arisman (aka Repete), the MS Art Lead for Allegiance, gave to Adaven in 2009. This article gives some insight into the origins of Allegiance.
- Oblivion
- Game Design Overview
- Robert Girling
- July 8, 1998
General Description
Oblivion is a team-based action/strategy game. The setting is deep space, in a war between 3 civilizations (2 human and 1 alien) for a precious resource - 'Helium3.' The setting is 200 hundred years in humanity’s future.
Multiplayer Scale
The design goal of Oblivion is to support in the region of a maximum of 60 players and a minimum of 6 players in a single game. Players can play the game as individuals but the preferred mode of gameplay is in teams of between 2-30. Several games of the largest size can be supported concurrently on a single server.
A Walkthrough
After installation of the product, the player is treated to a cut scene that is a brief, narrated story describing the nature of the 3 civilizations - Iron League, Crimson Wing and Rixian Unity. It visually describes their cultural personalities and unique characteristics.
Players arrive at the start screen before connecting online. From this screen they are capable of stepping through any of three offline, narrated training missions or a single offline practice game. Alternatively they can directly connect online and play. For the first-time player we draw special attention to the training missions button.
Training (10-30 minutes)
The first offline-training mission is entitled Basic flight. Players follow a step-by-step narrated script of tasks in order to complete the training mission. The tasks introduce and explain the HUD, peripheral radar, targeting, thrusting, side thrusting, afterburners, picking up objects, stations, landing, weapons and a couple of other basic user skills.
The second training mission is Combat training. In this mission players are told to retrieve objects that are defended by moving and stationary targets. This introduces missiles, shields, ammo, energy, the HUD menu and it reinforces flight skills for dogfighting.
The third training mission, entitled Execution, teaches players about command view and sending orders. The player has to use several drones to defend a station from attack while mining for specified amount of Helium3.
The fourth mission is simply target practice the longer you stay in the mission, the tougher and more numerous your opponents get. This mission will be separated from the other training missions and is meant to be where we point players back for offline practice. It will not include step-by-step help and instruction, as the other training mission will.
Players are free to play any of these missions at any time. The missions are woven into a story through the narration and the layout of the sectors.
Logon
When a player has had their fill of training and practice, they can return to the main screen to sign into our game. When a player presses any button which requires a logon (missions, character info, leader board, etc.) the game automatically brings up the logon screen. They’re asked to enter a user ID and password. They are also presented with a button which says “create user id” which, when pushed, takes them to the Zone create character id page for Oblivion. Once a player receives an authentication they can return to the game and type in their new ID and password. They then hit a ‘Login’ button to connect to the Oblivion servers on the zone.
Pre Game Stage. (5-20 minutes)
When a player has logged in they see the Mission board, which describes all the games that are waiting to start and that are being played currently. Players can filter this list, for example, to look for games of specific skill levels, or of specific victory condition types. In addition to filtering, players can sort these missions to look for specific attributes of the games including number of players required, how long the game has been waiting to start or how long it has been running. Large-scale, Zone-sponsored Deathmatch arenas will be at the top of the list by default which should encourage first-time “online” players to go into these arenas to get a first experience where they’re able to “shoot em up”.
In a sample scenario a novice player will come to the Mission screen with the list filtered by default to show Novice games. (Note: Zone Servers will always have at least one ‘Arena’ style mission running for all skill level groupings (e.g. beginner, intermediate, advanced). In addition to these spawned missions, all players have the ability to design a custom mission and post it to this screen by pressing on the create mission button (more on this later).
When a specific mission is selected, the players can instantly see a description of that mission, including an opportunity to look at the sector layout map for that game. This map describes the sectors (nodes) and Aleph jump gates (links). Note: all maps are generated dynamically. In addition players can see a list of the teams and players currently participating in that game. Players can join any mission, as long as they meet the requirements (e.g. minimum rank, member of a guest list for private arenas, etc.) The first player to join one of the teams in the game is the team leader. The team leader is immediately taken to the Civilization screen so they can choose which CIV the team is going to play, name the team and specify its color and camouflage style. (Note: Each team has a unique color and can choose from one of six camouflage styles.) Once a civilization is selected, the team leader goes to the team strategy room where they can wait for additional team members to join them. All players can discuss strategies on this screen, view other teams’ information, and select a starting sector. Players can also group themselves into communications squads. This allows them to quickly communicate with each other and quickly select each other later in the game. As players wait for others to join in, each player must visit the Loadout screen to use their starting money to buy specific equipment for the start of the game. When all teams are ready (all the individuals have specified they are ready, or the team leader has selected “team ready”), players can launch into the game.
Scenario One: Domination
The main game style is called Domination, and is similar to conquest styles in other action/strategy games. The default victory condition (which can be customized by the player who defines the mission.) is destruction of your opponents’ star bases or capture and ownership of the majority of them. In a typical game we anticipate that for every 10 players on the same team, a new sector is spawned onto the map. Players start out in teams of a maximum of 10 players in one sector, a number of drone mining ships and a star base.
Mining
Each time a mining ship makes the round trip from an Asteroid (scattered around the sector) back to the star base the star base is fed Helium3. The base consumes Helium3 at a constant rate and requires constant feeding. When the Helium 3 level is above a set amount (it is at that amount at the start of a game) all the players receive a payday. If the amount of Helium 3 ever reaches the minimum bar the station begins a countdown to self-destruction — due to its Reactor becoming unstable.
Game Phase One: Setup. 10-15 minutes
At the beginning of the game, each player starts out with some money (defined in the mission creation screen) but there are few things a player can buy. They can equip themselves with a small weapon and either a fast, agile-but-puny scout ship or a mining ship. Players can choose to go out and scout for other stations, start killing other players for a cash reward, mine Helium3 for the team, invest in something for the team (like a drone miner) or just wait for a payload so they can buy better stuff.
As the individuals in a team receive more money, they face an increasing variety of ways to spend the Credits. They can get better stuff for themselves by buying better ships, shields, equipment and weapons or they can invest their money towards team advancement in one of four different ways;
- Donations
- Players can give each other money
- Research
- They can research the technology, which will allow them to buy new types of things in the loadout (e.g.: cloaking device),
- Advancements
- They can invest in improving “global team bonuses” (e.g.: Better shielding for all ships on the team).
- Team Purchases
- They can make team purchases (a drone turret that will defend a specified object or place).
Most of the team investments described above are substantial costs that no single player could usually afford; this forces a team to pool its funds toward a specific strategic development path they wish to undertake.
The team challenge of the early phase of the game is to balance individual advancement with a coherent team strategy for spending. The team that fritters money away on non-critical path technologies, or selfish spending will be at a disadvantage to the team that executes coherent, focused spending.
A good strategy in the early phase is setting up the infrastructure for income, digging in to protect your base and investing in the core building units of the tech tree. (Building a research center, a factory, a turret defender, more miners, shield generators, etc). Additionally, players need chat and negotiate their specific roles; for example; scouting out the enemy locations, mining asteroids, protecting the miners, raiding enemy mining ships, defending the base, managing the economy, etc.
Game Phase Two: Mid game (30-120 minutes)
The transition to mid-game is either when the side decides its infrastructure and resources are at a sufficiently advanced state to attempt some offensive maneuvers, or the amount of He3 left in their locality demands that the team find additional sources. In both situations the building of garrison outposts, or mining platforms in other sectors is a good strategy. A garrison building acts as a strategic platform from which to launch offensive actions. They allow team members to refuel, change their current loadout, rearm and invest their money. Mining platforms allow the miners to travel shorter distances to re-supply the Star base.
The continued shrewd investment of team money is especially problematic for a team here as the number of spending options increases. The tradeoffs increase in complexity. The teams ask themselves, “Should we get better shields? Manufacture turret defenses?, Research better weapons? Purchase better weapons for ourselves? Missiles?, Afterburners?, Better turning? Cloaking? Etc.”
Players will find they may have to switch roles at certain points in the game as the number of specific roles increase (e.g. miner, builder, scout, base defender, commander, fighter, bomber, cap ship pilot, ambulance pilot, tactical support pilot, drone controller, station takeover pilot, investment manager, etc.). Having a spectrum of ship classes is a good attacking strategy, as the smaller more agile ships can cover the weakpoints of the heavier ships, which are doing the majority of the damage. (See table below for unit descriptions).
End Game (15-45 minutes)
The first team to reach a point where they have a shot at hitting the win condition roughly defines the End game. For the team that is attempting to takeover multiple star base’s, they will need to capture and hold some percentage of their opponents’ star bases. For the team that is attempting the wholesale destruction of their opponents, they must apply enormous firepower to the destruction of all opponents’ buildings. The weapons of mass destruction are typically just available at this point in the Tech Tree. These mass destruction weapons include the cruiser ships capable of doing horrendous damage, the remote Super artillery weapon that fires at targets anywhere in the game, and Atomic missiles.
Capture of an opponent’s base involves a coordinated attack from a team of players. First, any shielding the station has in operation must be attacked and brought down. At the moment the shields are destroyed a player flying a special class of ship, dubbed the Takeover ship, must attempt to land at the station they are trying to capture. This ship is vulnerable and needs significant support to succeed. The ship is packed with engineers and marines that will take the station by force. All players who are in the station at the time it is taken over, are warned to leave 10 seconds before they are forcibly ejected in their own ship, or an eject pod.
General Gameplay
Additional income can be obtained for killing opponent players. Bounties are paid to the killer by your Civilization based on the skill level of the player killed. Novice players are not worth any reward.
Scan range and signature provide the game with mechanisms for limiting the visible area a pilot can see. Each ship and subsequent loaded equipment add together to provide the ship with a signature and a scan range. As ships move in and out of the visible scan range they gradually fade in and out. Ships with high signatures are visible beyond the normal scan area of a ship. Ships with low signatures may not be visible until well within your scan area. All players can always see all their teammates regardless of where they are. They can even see what their comrades can see if the team purchases a Team scan widget.
Players can choose where to spend their money in a screen called the Loadout screen where it is possible to view all your civilization’s possible advancements. Many of the specific advancements have dependencies on other technologies, for example research isn’t possible without a research center, the construction of large capitol class ships isn’t possible without a shipyard, etc.
When a player’s ship is destroyed, the player is not killed. Instead, they are ejected from the ship at the last moment. The ejected pod can be flown very slowly back to the nearest base so the player can purchase another ship. Players can rescue each other by picking one another up but must fly the pilot back to a nearby base. A special ship called the Ambulance can instantly transport ejected pilots back to the nearest base.
Players can access a special ‘command view’ at any time in the game. This view shows a player an overview map of the sector he is currently in with all friendly units and all enemy units that are in the player’s scan range or which are “designated targets” for the player and are in someone on his team’s scan range. Players can use this screen to issue ‘quick commands’ and communications to each other. Using the mouse, the player can select an individual or group of individuals and send a message or command to the group, and if appropriate, specify an object. Players can also go to a sector overview map, which shows the specific relationships between sectors and their jump gates.
An example of using the command view would be to instruct a miner to move to a specific asteroid or to tell a squad of bombers to attack an enemy cruiser. Alternatively, I could simply select another player and type “Hi,” to communicate specifically with that individual. The recipient of the command gets a special alert when issued a command, explaining the nature of it. If they wish to fulfill the command they can “accept” it in which case it will be designated in their HUD as a “command.”. They can also ignore the command, in which case it is overwritten by subsequent commands. There is no penalty for not following a command. This is simply a quick and explicit means of communicating actions to other players. A teammate can target an object that is out of my scan range and then send me an order to attack it; as long as anyone on my team can see that object then so can I.
Post Game (2 minutes)
At the end of a game (defined by the specified win condition(s) being met), all players get taken to a special screen which allows them to see their standing compared to others. They can also chat about the game, inspect the “frozen” sector and command maps. Players are notified if they have received a rank advancement for their contribution. All players on the winning side get medals for their victory.
Rewards and Advancement
There are 15 or so ranks in the game that act as titles for players. Each experience level establishes a player’s skill level and experience in the game. (Additionally it defines the bounty available for killing that player). Each rank has a requisite number of accomplishments that must be met before a player advances. The requirements that a player must aim to fulfill are listed on their own player profile page described below. For example, the rank of Lieutenant requires a player to have; won 10 games, Killed a total of 50 players of equal or lesser rank, 20 players of high rank, saved 25 players, captured 1 flag, mined 1500 Helium3, spent less than 50% of income on self in a game that was won by player’s team, and spawned at least one game. This list is some suggestions; the final list will be developed once the beta has shown the attributes that are important to being a well-rounded player. The goal is to have an average player achieve the rank of Lieutenant after about 25 hours of game play. The higher the rank someone wants to achieve the exponentially higher the requirements.
In addition to rank advancement, players are awarded medals for victories and special accomplishments. These are permanently recorded in the player’s profile page. Each civilization awards a number of different medals for consecutive victories for that side. Special awards are given for outstanding achievement in a single game or for reaching the permanent high scores list in one of six special categories, best new player, most deadly player, most saves, most generous, best all round, most wins.
Leaderboard Screen.
This screen shows players scores. Players can search for individual names by entering the name in a search box. The tabular format allows the list of players to be sorted in one of eight different score categories, or by player’s name or rank. They can filter the list to show the following: today’s best, yesterdays best, this week’s best, and the “all time” best. A player can search for himself in the list by clicking on a ‘Show me’ button.
Profile page
The Profile Page is a place where players go to review each other’s or their own individual accomplishments. Also on this screen is contact information if the player wishes to provide it. All the Civilization victory medals are presented here, along with the player’s current scores in 8 categories and their targets for the next rank advancement. Players can review another player’s information by pressing on the other player’s name anywhere it appears in the game UI.
Motivation to Return
Once a player has played several games he may wish to define a mission with alternative win conditions, start conditions, lower or higher rank requirements, more or less starting resources, or a variety of other gameplay options. (These are listed at the end of this document). Players hosting private missions can also specify that they wish to accept or reject players who attempt to join their game. All these options can be defined in the “create mission” screen. Note: The zone will be able to establish “guest lists” (a list of people who will automatically be accepted if they apply to play in an arena) for private arenas so that they can hold tournaments, etc.
Obtaining better statistics, higher rank, a place in the hall of fame, or additional medals will provide players with personal objectives that focus on the individual rather than the team.
Civilizations & Units
Each of the different civilizations has different strengths and weaknesses. Good players will have a different strategy for winning, depending on which civilization they play. Trying out each of the civilizations will add scope and length to the gameplay.
- Iron League
- Formed by the United Nations to monitor and police the corporate mining of the lunar surface for Helium3. They are a massive military force technically advanced comprising of multinational fighting teams and a huge US marine force. The role of the Iron league transitioned to that of United Earth protector at the time of the defection of the Bremen, Yuzell and Crimson Freedom movements. Their key strengths are good armor, afterburner technology, projectile weapons, tight turning, inexpensive ships, and excellent scan range. They have missile technologies. Their general weaknesses are high scan signatures, poor shield technologies, no energy weapons, poor side maneuvering and ammo based weapons.
- Crimson Wing
- A secretive private Militia created by the hugely powerful Drexel Corporation initially to sabotage competing mining operations on the Lunar Regolith. When the Iron league police force attacked this Crimson wing, it caused the Drexel Corporation to reject the UN’s authority and declare itself a separate state. The Huge multinational corporation began the colonization of Mars shortly thereafter and has subsequently become one of the most formidable and wealthy powers. Their technologies have benefited from blending Terran advancements with some replicated Rixian ideas. Their strengths are fast ships, they have both energy and particle weapons, their afterburners make them the fastest of all the sides, they have ok scan range, medium signatures. Their disadvantages are poor armor, poor shields, poor side thrust and fewer barrel attachments for mounting weapons.
- Rixian Unity
- One faction of an ancient and extremely devout Alien civilization, known as the SAR. Their evolutionary story is similar to that of mankind, except several millennia older and less fraught with conflict. The species aligns itself strictly to a religious faith defined by an ancient Tome known as the Asotan. The individuals of the Unity are consumed with a desire to pursue status in their civilization for discipline and duty. Their general strengths are Speed, Regenerative hull technology, Energy based weapons systems, Low signatures, Stealth technology, good side maneuvering, Great shields. Their weaknesses are no afterburner technology, poor armor, no projectile weapons, poor scan range, sloppy flight models, expensive ships.
Unit Balance
Three central components to the balance model.
- The civilizations will have the global attributes listed above to modify the individual unit specs.
- Availability of only some units is an additional balance.
- Specific special technologies and capabilities will give each civilization the unique differences.
Examples of each of the above.
- Rix are 15% faster, IL have 20% better Hull strength with all unit types.
- The Rix don’t have a scout ship, the CW don’t have a destroyer.
- IL have only Projectile Weapons, Rix have Cloaking and regenerative hulls.
Ships
Here is a list of the base classes of ships that you will be able to get in the game at different points in each different civilization’s tech tree. Not all civilizations have all classes. Performance in each category will vary so two same-class ships from different civ’s will not be equal.
| Class | Function | Pros | Cons |
| Miner |
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| Boarding Ship |
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| Builder |
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| Scout |
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| Lt Fighter |
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| Fighter |
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| Fighter Bomber |
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| Ambulance |
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| Bombers |
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| Tactical support |
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| Frigate/ Gun platform |
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| Destroyer |
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| Cruiser |
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Buildings and Base Units
Here is a list of the base building types that you will be able to get in the game at different points in each different civilization’s tech tree. Not all civilizations have all classes. Statistics and exact Development requirements might vary in different civ’s.
| Class | Game play Function | Capability | Requires |
| Starbase |
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Game type includes Stations. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research Facility |
Is prerequisite to advance global statistics, and develop special equipment. |
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Starbase |
| Fabricator |
Allows the construction of:
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Starbase |
| Armory |
Allows the development of better Weapons and Ship classes. |
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Starbase |
| Mining Platform |
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Factory |
| Garrison |
A cheap advance base that acts as a staging point for combat maneuvers. |
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| Turret |
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| Missile Turret |
Defend a place or area, larger spotting. |
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| Advanced Turret |
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| Shipyard |
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| Team Scan |
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In Command View, all the scan ranges of your teammates are visible. |
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| Shield Generator |
Protects the building it is designated to. |
Generates shields for Buildings. |
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| Advanced Shield |
Better Protection and recharge of building it is designated to defend. |
Generates shields for Buildings. |
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| Super Gun |
The ultimate offensive weapon. |
Major damage to opponents units. |
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Backstory (non-essential reading)
- 2021
- The Ecological problems on Earth eventually forced Mankind to find viable alternative energy sources and living space. The UN focused Earth’s greatest scientists and technologists on solving these two problems and created the Terran League foundation.
- 2024
- It was discovered that in supremely energetic nuclear reactions, such as occur within a star, one in every ten thousand helium atoms comes out missing a neutron. This is Helium3 (He3). It is carried on the solar winds and is deposited on non-atmospheric celestial bodies. He3 is used in a reaction with deuterium to produce energy: The deuterium and helium-3 atoms come together to give off a proton and the resultant is Helium4 (He4). He4 weighs less than the initial components, as the missing mass is converted to energy. It is proven that He3 will reliably and safely be a source for fusion energy production, but the down side is that there is very little on Earth.
- 2027
- Man succeeds in extracting Helium3 from the Lunar Regolith surface. Private corporations began extensive mining of the lunar Maria, under the watchful eye of a UN force ‘nicknamed’ the IRON league.
- 2035
- The competition on the moon heated up, sabotage and terrorism caused the Iron league to take ‘forcible’ steps to keep the mining corporations in line. The powerful corporation’s fought back, 2 declared themselves independent states and rejected the UN authority. War resulted.
- 2037
- The war moved from an active phase into a guerilla war as the separatists moved away from Earth.
- 2045
- The Crimson Wing discovered the first inter-spatial galactic wormhole in the orbit of Neptune. The first human passed through the Aleph successfully and was transported hundreds of light years away to the orbit of a red dwarf star. The historical transmission back through the aleph dubbed the place ‘Oblivion’.
- 2046
- Further Aleph jump gates were discovered in Oblivion. He3 was discovered in large quantities in Asteroids orbiting the Red dwarf star.
- 2050
- Crimson Wing Pilots engaged and captured a UFO, tracked moving through Oblivion at very high speeds. It was the first contact with the Alien civilization, later to be known as the SAR. Analysis of the captured vessel’s flight logs and the dead pilot gave the Crimson Wing insights on the nature of the alien race and clues to the ships origin.
Mission Creation
Players will be able to select their own winning conditions and their own game properties when creating a new mission, in the New Mission screen. All of these come in the form of check boxes so player just checks the winning conditions and game properties they want to apply to customize their game.
Victory Conditions
Victory conditions can all co-exist. In other words, a mission author can mix & match any of the win conditions below to create their own game:
- Time Limit – Most $$ at the end of the time limit.
- Time Limit – Most kills at the end of the time limit.
- Goal – First team to make X $$.
- Goal – First team to capture all the artifacts (flags).
- Goal – First team to capture X% of all stations (the percentage is settable by the mission creator).
- Last team standing (implicit) – In all cases, if a team has killed off everyone else in the game, then they win.
- NO WINNING CONDITION – A game can be set (by Zone people only) to be “no winning condition” in which case the game will basically be a perpetual arena where people can come in and just play by themselves, ala Fighter Ace, Warbirds or Tanarus.
The mission creator will be given canned “game types” to choose from which will automatically select a few of the victory conditions above. We’ll decide which are most appropriate through balance testing. The creator can customize any of these game types by just selecting or de-selecting victory conditions that are not part of the preset. In that case, the game type becomes “custom.” Game Attributes A mission author can select the following game attributes:
- All techs (yes/no) – All techs allows a civilization to get all of the technologies for their civilization from the beginning instead of going through a tech tree.
- Stations (yes/no) – Determines whether or not there are ownable stations in the game. If this is de-selected, then “garages” are scattered throughout the sector map. These garages can not be taken over and are available for anyone to land in and do loadout changes from.
- Invulnerable stations (yes/no) – This makes all stations in the game invulnerable to attack and takeover. This may or may not be made available to users. This is something for the zone so they can set up “fighter ace” style arenas.
- Min # of players per team
- Max # of players per team
- No teams (yes/no) – If “no teams” is selected then the game is basically a free for all. If “no teams” is selected, then “stations” must be set to no .
- Scores count – Players can play “practice games” where the scores don’t count. Scores NEVER count in games where there are no winning conditions.
- Allow joiners (yes/no) – This allows people to join after the game is started (only up until the max players ceiling is hit).
- Private teams (yes/no) – If private teams is “yes” then team leaders can (if they choose) make their teams private and choose to not let players join their team. Team leaders can always, however, set their individual teams to “auto-select.”
- Minimum rank (X) – Players must be at least X rank to play in this game.
- Maximum rank (Y) – Players can not be over Y rank to play in this game.
- Lives (##) – This indicates the number of times a player can be killed and can restart the game.
- Description (Text) – Mission author can type in a description of the game.
- Eject pods (Yes/No) – If eject pods is set to “yes” then when a player dies they are ejected from their ship. If it is set to “no” then they restart at a base automatically when they die.
- Random encounters (None/S/M/L) – This determines if and how many random encounters a team will have with the following throughout the game: pirates, cruise liners (offering bounty for protection), comets, etc.
- Sector size (S/M/L) – This determines how big the map will be.
- Sector type (Ring/grid/etc.) – This determines what shape the map will take. See spec for more details.
- Starting $$ (X) – Determines how much $$ each side will start with.
