Open-Chromehounds, would it be possible?

[NalydRelwof]

Hello everyone,
Let me start off by saying that I don't know the first thing about game development. I have programming knowledge (very general knowledge), and that's about it. But that hasn't kept me from coming up with a new idea for a project.

Last night (Dec. 25th, 2011), I had a long conversation with my cousin about a mech game that we used to play on Xbox 360 a couple years back called "Chromehounds" which was developed by FromSoftware and published by Sega. The game was very well done in terms of gameplay and customizability, however it did not sell well due to a lacking of advertising, a lame single player that served only as a tutorial for the online portion, and bad press on the part of game reviews (IGN trashed it for visual pop-in and bland ground textures). However, the game had a strong following from its core community, and the online mode's scale and clan support were, in my opinion, one of the best I have seen. There were some flaws, such as long distance pop-in, some issues with lag in player v. player matches (some matches could be done player v. CPU), and the occasional ghost lobby (where some players would be trapped in their own lobby apart from their fellow clan members). In January 2010, the online servers were brought offline by Sega, for what game, I do not know.

To get to the point, I would like to see about reviving the general formula of Chromehounds in an open-source, platform independent way. The name will NOT be Open-Chromehounds since that is the quickest way for Sega to sue the pants off of whoever will take up the challenge.

So here are my ideas for what would need to be done, feel free to correct me or add suggestions:

Story:
-Needs a new fictional region
-Needs three factions fitting the original's templates (Morskoij = Russia, Tarakia = Western nations, Sal-Kar = Israel(?) (that or a generic Middle Eastern Nation).
-Needs a reason for war (The original's was that Sal-Kar built a base on the three nation's borders)
-Single-player is optional as the online mode was the main feature of Chromehounds
Weapons:
-Weapons need to be *inspired* by, but not a copy of the originals. Meaning the weapons can look like the originals, but not be an exact copy.
-Weapons need to use the same hexagonal mounts for standard guns, mini-frames for smaller versions of weapons, and irregular frames for heavy-weapons such as the Heavy Cannons, Heavy Missiles, and Heavy Rockets.
-Sensors need to be remade
+Thermal (1 for each nation, with the Sal-Kar equivalent having the most efficient, and the Morskoij equivalent having the longest range)
+Night Vision (1 for each nation, same factors as the thermal)
+Mine Sensors (1 for each nation, same factors as thermal)
-New weapon cam mechanics
+Better sights for indirect fire weapons, ones that do not move upward with the gun
+New mountable sights that the guns will automatically center on. This would allow for better aim for symmetrical gun position at the cost of one weapon slot.

Mobility Bases
-Again, need to be "inspired by" Chromehounds, and not a mere copy.
-Need to have reverse-joint legs, forward joint legs, quadruped legs, hover, wheeled, and tread bases.

Generators
-Again, need to be "inspired by" Chromehounds, and not a mere copy.
-Maybe some new generators are needed.

Armor
-Need to have armor similar to the original, but not a 1:1 copy
-Need more!
-Types
+Reactive-Explosive for deflecting HEAT shells
+Angled/Sloped for deflecting Armor Piercing rounds
+Flat plates as an intermediate between the two

Global Inventory
+Any weapons you buy on Joe-Schmoe's server you can carry over to John Doe's server and vice-versa
+Would need to be localized and secured to prevent inventory editing.

Servers
-Non-centralized, just the same as every other PC game where people can create a server and run it as they see fit.
-Customizable
+Store
*Hosts can select the weapons and other items that are on sale for each nation
*In game currency ONLY, no need to purchase weapons with real currency. I just want to make that clear.
+User inventory
*Can be read by the servers, and the servers can lock weapons as the host sees fit. Example: Don't like skinny rocket launching HOUNDs? Ban spacers and ban rocket launchers.
+Map
*Starting territory can be modified
*Don't like Sal-Kar always starting with 5 territories? Give 'em more.

Rolling Updates
-One thing that Sega/FromSoftware never did was fully utilize the Prototype Weapon system. For several seasons they had special parts that had to be won in a lottery, these were usually lighter, did more damage, produced more power (in the case of Generators), or were generally more effective. After some time, these weapons became normally purchased weapons.
-One thing that could be done is to continually add new weapons/generators/cockpits/items/etc. gradually via this function.

This is not something I would be working on any time soon, this is just an idea I had and I would like to see if it is feasible. If it is, I might see if I can get some people together to start it. Any input on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

[charlie]

Mech game? I would recommend looking to work with either Linwarrior3D or Coldest.

Linwarrior3D: http://hackcraft.de/games/linwarrior_3d (forums are hosted by ours-truly!)
Coldest: http://www.coldestgame.com

Both projects may not have all the features you are looking for, but both have been in steady development for a significant period of time. Creating a game is not an easy task - large teams take 1-2 years to make a commercial game. Small teams of periodically-available part-time volunteers are always up against it. I would strongly consider bolstering an existing mech game and influencing it in the direction you want to go (by contributing!) rather than starting from scratch.

[hc]

Thumbs up for what chalie suggested with some additions and thoughts

1. Implement the galactic scope as a separate central hub layer (using ordinary webservers, databases and 2d clients)
2. Consider making a mod or total-conversion to a mature multiplayer fps game like Red-Eclipse acting as "de-centralised" gameplay servers for the local scope. (LinWarrior is singleplayer)
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Combine these two layers only losely. Ie. use layer one for initiating games on the second layer.
Players and teams find each other on the central hub, get to know the address of an available local server and join there.
And the local server gets the information which map to start from the central hub, too.
Maybe indirect by the players joining a certain map.