Hell Divers

Gameplay Synopsis

Early jet tech focused air combat against fighters, airships, and floating isles. Fly combat missions, patrol sectors, perform harassment raids, protect convoys, penetrate blockades, ram shit at Mach speeds, you name it. Run missions for factions to gain their trust, unlocking new ammunition, parts, and aircraft, and affecting the world on a dynamic level. Tensions are high between the two major nations, and a third is on the rise. What end will your actions ultimately lead to, and will you actually care?

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Player Role

With an emphasis on going fast at the behest of structural integrity, the Player leads a mercenary squadron of jet dive bombers known as the Hell Divers. The amount of "lives" allotted to the Player is limited to the size of the squadron, hence the Player is not representative of anyone in particular, but of the squadron itself. The Player is not a major power, but a minor faction among many, but all Player actions or inactions carry far-reaching consequences. The Player can pick sides, stay neutral, or make enemies of all for the hell of it.

Difficulty

Difficulty levels determine starting squadron size (number of lives), how good the AI is at shooting you out of the sky, what happens when you reach 0 lives, and probably some other things. However number of difficulties the final game will have, there will be one with infinite lives, one with one life only, and more than likely a custom difficulty setting.

Setting

Three major factions, representing nations founded on different ideals, none are meant to be considered inherently good or evil or perfect in any way. Many minor factions, representing different mercenary squadrons, one of which belonging to the Player. Two of the three major nations have been around for a long time, and never quite on good terms, and the third is on the rise; none of these three get along, but each have different relationships with the various minor groups.

Currently, the three major factions (as represented by their style of government) are as follows:

  1. Meritocratic Monarchy
  2. Technocratic Aristocracy
  3. Cellular(-Democratic) Confederacy

The world setting is similar in many ways to shows like Last Exile and Storm Hawks, with floating islands, limited land resources, and a focus on air combat and aerial themes. The atmosphere has two layers of major importance, classified as Upper and Lower cloud layers (working title). The upper layer is where most everything tends to reside, and its composition is integral to the proper functioning of most aircraft/airship propulsion systems. Dipping below the threshold separating the layers, causes most turbine propulsion systems to fail (for plot-specific chemistry reasons), meaning you'd have to rely on momentum and your failing engine(s) to glide back out or run the risk of plummeting to your death. The third major faction relies on this mechanic and has means to compensate, since most of their territories reside in and around this layer, but this makes their craft ill-suited to high altitudes. Thus, fighting them on their own turf is usually a bad idea, even before engaging in combat; but allying with them will most certainly give access to their special aircraft.

Immersion

Large open world, broken into quadrants like Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Unlike most open-world sandbox-esque games, the world here is populated. Despite high tensions and frequent border conflicts, economies prosper on trade between the major and minor factions. Trade convoys and military patrols abound. Unprotected convoys and weary travelers are vulnerable to pirate attacks or ambushes from rival parties. Freight lost in transit to industrial centers and dry docks, lead to delayed production of ships and such. Delayed production of a ship could spell disaster for a future conflict where that ship did not partake, turning the tide in that battle; or perhaps its presence never really mattered.

No RNG or Random Encounters

Ideally, if the Player were to remain idle for the game's duration, global events should occur consistently and conclusions reached be constant regardless of play through. With how data will be handled in the background for quadrants the Player does not reside in, events that should have occurred one way, will inevitably turn out slightly different by simple way of the Player's mere observing presence. If that turns out to be the case, I am leaving that in as a feature showing off the Observer effect, maybe even make a quote defining that effect in the opening of the game.



Actual Progress

Still working on a flight model.

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