Metroid: Working Title MOD/Campaign

Hey there. I'm a bit of a fan (and by that I mean Huge lol) of the Metroid series. I was sitting down in front of WE and thinking "wouldn't it be great if there was a Metroid RTS?" and I remembered that WE was open. So, I got this idea that the game should be in true Metroid style, and that it should not stray too far from the official Metroid titles, however, with the vastness of WE a little creativity has to be thrown in there. So, here are my ideas at current:

Melée Maps (although not classified as this becuase of custom data):

-Resources will be: Credits (gold), Scrap (lumber), Power (food).
Credits are mined from impact craters (the ores inside being sold for example)
Scrap is collected from ruins (or any other form of scrap meta)
Power is provided by generators

-The game will be balanced and add a lot of strategic options that WC3 doesn't have, like army management. In WC3 you can sling a few powerful units together and kill everything, but in Metroid everything will be balanced, so that you can create battle plans and have an exciting match of tactics rather than "who can press the hotkey fastest". For instance, flying units can only be destroyed by certain units (like WC3) BUT the it will be stressed to extent that you need to send in some specific anti-air troops to take them out. let's take an in-game example. Say, I have some... Feather Knights (woo flying Chozo) and I send them again my opponent's army. Feather Knights will have an ability that is called Avain Agility (for now anyways), which allows them to avoid ground unit attacks easily. In order to defeat them my opponent must attack them with his Jet Pack Pirates. In WC3 you would not need to mindfully target certain units, but Metroid will be balanced to add a tactical element.

-Normal Units might have exp (Fulla)

-The four races will be:

Galactic Federation - Samus and co
Space Pirates - Ridley, Kraid, Mother Brain and their vast armies
Chozo - The mystical bird-like aliens
Parasites - The "X" that shape themselves like the creatures from the series*

*Before Fusion haters object to this race - I chose ti include the Parasites becuase it allows for creatures like Zoomers, Horntoads and even SA-X to appear in the game. They can also add to the story in the campaign

-The heroes will mainly be characters from the game and I have planned out a few heroes so far, as well as a few units:

GF Units:
-Engineer (builder unit)
-Scouts
-Snipers
-Soldiers
-Scientists
-G Troops
-Luminoth Psykers
-Luminoth Gladiator
-G Hunters
-Beam Jets (vehicle)

GF Heroes:
-Samus Aran
-Baby Metroid (as seen in Metroid 2 and 3)
-Luminoth Elder (I was thinking that the Luminoth could be a minor race in the campaign, sort of like the Naga)

Pirate Units:
-Drone Praite (builder/bassic attack unit)
-Power Pirate
-Wave Pirate
-Plasma Pirate
-Ice Pirate
-Phazon Pirate
-Metroid
-Hunter Metroid
-Omega Metroid
-Pirate Rocketeers (those ones with jetpacks, forgot their names!)

Pirate Heroes:
-Mother Brain
-Kraid
-Ridley

Chozo Units: (these are difficult to come up with. Would feature many specialist units)
-Carrier (builder unit)
-Warrior
-Chozo Ghost
-Chozo Haunt
-Relic Guard
-Feather Knights
-Templar

Chozo Heroes:
-Pharaoh
-Rune Keeper
-Venerable Spirit

X Units:
-X Parasite (builder unit. In blob form ready to turn into the structure, kinda like a Wisp)
-Most X units will be various creatures from the series, which I have yet to choose.

X Heroes:
-SA-X

I have not listed structures because I am preparing a few tech-tress to post up within a few days. For research and upgrades ideas, I was thinking that the Gf could research upgrades for Samus' and G Troops/Hunters' armour and weapons like: Power Armour (Starting) -> Varia Armour -> Gravity Armour -> Phazon Armour. They could also have: Power Beam -> Wave/Plasma/Ice Beam. I'm not sure how it would work exactly (because having all three would use up all of Samus' ability slots) but the skill would be like Cold Arrows.

Pirates would have to research all the Samus-copying equipment in order to produce the Power/Wave/Plasma Pirates. Pirates can also research Phazon Fusion, in order to increase their units' armour, but also to Produce the Phazon Pirate.

X can research cloning of creatures in order to unlock them.

Of course these are not the only reasearches, just ideas.

I'll post campaign ideas up soon.

The project is open for ideas, and so any that are contributed and used in the final version will have credits given to the person who's idea the feature was.

Each races' units, structures and such will be themed around relevant areas:

GF: Samus' armour and human technology
Pirates: Phazon and theft of technology
Chozo: Nature and well-being
X: Cloning and adaptation

So please keep your ideas in-line with mine and others'.

Finally, creating this on my own would be a daunting task, so I'd like to declare the project open for team members to help in the making of this mod. I will keep an updated list here.

-Lucavixp (head designer, producer, composer)
-Seth (composer)

Open Positions:
-Skinners
-Texture Artists
-Moddellers (most wanted)
-Map Designers
-Unit/Structure/Feature designer

I'll keep this post as updated as possible. Thanks!

Erm, sorry for double post but could this topic be moved to the create/join a team forum? I think it belongs in Capaign Teams. Sorry, i didn't notice it.

Moved.

Thanks!

Nice idea, but I have some BIG comments: it's pretty hard to get that many models, I'm having enough trouble just getting a few improtant ones for my map. Second, a lot of models and skins may not fit in less than 4 mbs, (it needs to be under 4 megs to play on bnet).

This will sound a little hopeful (although not quite as hopeful as getting your project finished), but this would make an awsome Starcraft 2 map if and when SC2 comes out. Realistically, it could take until SC2 to get all the models for this done =p Plus, you wouldn't need custom models for the buildings and many of the units, since the sci-fi SC stuff would fit in so nicely. Even a future Project Revolution map could be a better option. There's also some WC3 maps out there with starcraft-ish models you could borrow (with permission, of course).

If you're REALLY willing to go through with it though, good luck, be prepared for things not always going your way with team gathering, and making some compromises for things not working in the WE. It is a great idea though, and as long as you can get enough good modellers it might not be as daunting as I'm assuming.

(And please let me leech off your models! =P)

Thats good advice, I wouldnt rely to much on modellers. The important things is that it has fun and exciting gameplay and is alot differnet from standard war3 melee.

The gameplay doesnt have to be like warcraft 3, you dont necessarily need 3 heroes and a few units. You could for example make every unit able to levelup a bit, perhaps cap their level.

Also the Starcraft 2 idea sounds awesome, sorry to go off-topic, if you ever decided to go down that path Id definetly be there with you :-)

Good luck

Thanks! I didn't know about the 4mb limit. The only way around it that I can think of is by compressing the skins before they are converted to .blp format.

ALso, I was thinking of re-using some models and just modifying their skins a little as to cut down on the modeller's workload. Like the Power/Wave/Plasma Pirates could use the same but with diff/ coloured weapons. Furthermore, the weapons could use seperate textures, while the same body blp is used for all the pirate models, thus cutting down on files.

EDIT: Just read Fulla's post. I was thinking of making normal units level actually. And I was also going to make the map w/o custom models, and then let people play it, to get some interest. Then I was thinking that someone might be interested. Does the 4mb apply to campaigns btw? Ive got a custom soundtrack and all.

4MB Limit is only for maps to be played over battlenet.
Single player, no limit.

Thanks for that. At least in my campaign I can use lots and lots (if I have that stuff), which will mainly consist of music files.

More comments are always welcome.

I have always been a fan of the Metroid series. To combine it with RTS? I'm intrigued, I'd like to see where this goes.

Hey Propheto, why don't you join the team? I'm concerned about the custom models, but everything else is going smoothly.

At the moment I am editing units/objects and writing guidelines to follow for the balancing and gameplay mechanics.

I don't think I'd be of much help. I always a klutz at the editor, and my modeling projects always turned out ugly. The only thing I might be able to help with is AI, I have knowledge on Java and C++ programming if it is in any way similar to JASS which I never really looked into.

why don't you people gather your efforts in creating something original instead of making maps after other games?

Because adaptations can be fun too? Look at Quentin Tarantino, nearly all of his movies were material from other people's ideas and he is now known as a great director and writer.

Actually, this is a secondary project (it's just something I'm working on inbetween this and that).

My main project is a Custom Hero Seige (this is my main because it's quicker to make, and then I can at least have 1 map to prove my skills), which is pretty original. It's nearly in beta-condition so expect a thread on it soon.