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Hello again people, I'd first like to say thank you to the positive response I've received about my mod idea, I'm very grateful for your comments and the help I've been given so far. What I would like to do now is expand much further on my idea, relaying you a proposed storyline and more details of what would be in the game.

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Hello again people, I'd first like to say thank you to the positive response I've received about my mod idea, I'm very grateful for your comments and the help I've been given so far. What I would like to do now is expand much further on my idea, relaying you a proposed storyline and more details of what would be in the game.

Now this fairly lengthy and I've done my best to avoid it being messy but it might not quite flow properly so please read carefully...

This is the storyline I've come up with, I wanted to go for something a bit different than we're used to in games.

"No one can recall quite how it happened, but at some point there was another world war and after the bombs fell, the Earth was left in ruins. The former Yugoslavian republic of Serbia suffered massive devastation to it's land, but the great capital of Belgrade although damaged severely, had survived the conflict. But survival had come with a price, man has become infertile and unable to produce children for over 10 years. With the last of the youngest approaching manhood, extinction is inevitable if the human survivors cannot reproduce.

2054 AD, Stefan Brajović is one of the few outside the city that has managed to avoid annihilation, trying to make a new life in a scarred existence. Like many he serves no great purpose other than to try and help rebuild his nation, thinking back to his childhood dream of serving his country in the armed forces. That is until one of his mentors is mortally wounded whilst gathering supplies, before dying he entrusts Stefan with a secret which cost him his life.. a girl has been found underground in the remains of Belgrade's metro system... and she is pregnant. If news of this were to reach public knowledge then word could spread and the unborn child's life would be in danger. Stefan is sworn to secrecy along with a few other members of his village outpost and a mission is set in motion - travel to Belgrade, find the girl and protect her at all costs... or all hope may be lost forever."

Protagonist's name is something I just threw together, doesn't have to be final...

Now, this storyline concept is inspired by the film "Children Of Men". It's about a dystopian future where the United Kingdom has become an martial state and the population has been unable to produce children for 18 years. The protagonist of the story is contacted by his ex-wife to help transport and protect a pregnant girl on her way to being delivered to people who can help her for the future.

More can be read here;

En.wikipedia.org

I love the film and thought that it would be interesting to use that basic concept for a game, it gives the player a sense of great purpose. Hopefully you feel the same way too.

How do we get around the obvious problem of the game turning into an escort mission once the mother is found? Well, I can instruct the AI to have her take cover during firefights and she will only move when it is safe. Perhaps she can be armed with a gun too just in case someone manages to get close to her.

Locations
---------

Most of the mod's locations would be fictional with no real-life names used, except for Belgrade itself.. which will be both made up of real life parts (like Republic Square) and made-up sections to fit in with the game. Belgrade's Metro system is inspired by the Russian Metro (lines from all over the country such as St Petersburg, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod etc), Bulgarian Metro and of course the existing Beovoz system in Belgrade itself, especially Vukov spomenik.

Surrounding areas outside the city like villages, industrial zones shetering survivors can be breathed normally, radiation hotspots are sign-posted by survivors. Belgrade itself is almost completely inhabitable and anyone walking through the city has to use a gas-mask/respirator, in addition some parts of the metro system have harmful fumes likely caused by damage to the tunnels exposing them to the surface.

I would be aiming for old hub-based gameplay in some sections like in Kingpin and Quake2.

Factions
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I touched upon this before, I've expanded on it a little now, so I'll present these proposals;

One thing to note is that I really want to include women as combatants... they will be civilians also but I think that certainly for a country like Serbia.. there are plenty of women who would want to get their hands dirty so to speak, so hopefully that can be realised!

The neutral faction - Stefan is one of them... just trying to make a new life following the devastation. Usually stick together, several families living in Fallout shelters built in villages, guarded by appointed people with combat experience.

Bandits - Not much to say about them, surviving criminal elements that will have no trouble taking you out if there is much to be gained. Always hostile and cannot be trusted.

Drifters - Some people chose not to live in outposts with others and become "drifters" of sorts who look after no 1. Most are ex-members of military special forces and police and some will help you out of good spirit or if they will help you if there's something to gain.. some wont help at all and wish as little contact with others as possible. They will rarely be hostile unless you do something to provoke them.

New Yugoslav Army - Individuals with a nostalgic feel for the old times of the communist regime.. Tito is their idol, anyone who speaks against their great mentor is executed for so called "mutiny". They have claimed several parts of the area as their territory and people wishing to pass through must have a valid passport or other means of identification.

The Brotherhood - A fanatical religious group that worship a great serpent who they believe created the Earth and destroyed it because it was furious with the way mankind had treated it's sacred planet. Extremely dangerous faction, they shoot first and do not ask any questions.. anyone who does not believe in their cause is the enemy.

Weapons and supplies
--------------------

Some ideas I've put together.

Supplies;

Portable First aid kit
Gas Mask
Protective helmet
Body armour

Weapons;

Knife
Handgun (possibly Glock or something more specific to Serbia)
Shotgun (Benelli m3, spas or something else)
Zastava m70 (The "bitch", left to Stefan by his mentor, decorated with name and number of kills)
Zastava m21
G-36C (with scope)
Mp5-SD
M-93 Black Arrow Sniper Rifle
Grenades
RPG

Some kind of heavy machinegun...

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I'll leave it at that for now. I'm working on some stuff to show you.. until then any questions, queries... please post them below.

Thank you!

Post comment Comments
D3ads Author
D3ads

Hope it's alright to keep posting news articles on here about this, it seems the most appropriate place to share stuff with you all and gain feedback!

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Sanguinius
Sanguinius

Hehehe nice main character has my name lol :D Stefan ftw :P

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D3ads Author
D3ads

Glad I chose it then :D

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Brca95
Brca95

Dude,this kick ***!I realy like the idea of metro in Belgrade,and prety much everything else.The storyline is very interesting (humans can't reproduce)-prety nice.Just I didn't understand the part why is child in danger.And the factions,remind's me of stalker:neutrals - lone stalkers,the brotherhood - monolith,drifters - duty,bandits,army...
All in all it's going to be an awesome mod :D

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D3ads Author
D3ads

The child is in danger simply because everyone would want it.. there have been no newborn children in 10 years so if news of a baby were to become knowledge among everyone... all sorts of people would want to get hold of the child and take them away from it's mother...

Factions reminding you of STALKER... well that can't really be helped, STALKER's factions are Ukranian/Russian equivilants of games like Fallout and the like. You can't be 100% original all the time, look at today's games... how many of them are original?

If you can think up some different factions that are not alike to STALKER then please go ahead, I welcome all input!

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Brca95
Brca95

Thanks,now I understand.I'l let you know if I find any new factions. =)

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HrcAk47
HrcAk47

Very interesting.

However, what you should know about Belgrade is that it contains a significant amount of tunnels from the old times.

There are tunnels leading from the Central Railway Station towards the Saborna Crkva (Belgrade Cathedral) area, made in the 18th century - it allowed the besieged German soldiers to escape the encirclement by the partisans and Soviets in 1944. Wine cellars are also an interesting thing, and Belgrade is riddled with them - mostly 18th/19th century heritage. Belgrade churches contain vast crypts beneath them. There are also 3 lines of Roman aqueducts of 1 m diameter running underneath Belgrade - interesting thing is that the water still flows through them. Kalemegdan fortress contains crypts in various levels, some passageways go back to Roman times. And not to mention the recent additions of air raid shelters (air filtration systems were a standard on them) which are quite common in Belgrade. Also, the sewer system in the old part of the city, dating from 19th century is quite vast and still in use.

Many ideas to break from the socialist concrete tunnels. They're kinda monotonous. :)

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HrcAk47
HrcAk47

Regarding weapons, there are other more interesting weapons you should consider instead of those you mentioned.

Pistols: Most common ones are M57 (TT) within the civilian population - the military and the police use CZ99 as standard. Glock is too fragile for the postapocalyptic setting.
Shotguns: Serbia was never a market for pump action shotguns - even amongst the hunter population. What you'll find to be common are the hunting rifles from Zastava - officers going in retirement are offered hunting rifles at syndicate prices, so they're quite common.
Zastava M70 is a classic choice. Just model it right = it's not the same as AK47/AKM.
Zastava M21 is still considered limited issue weapon in the terms that it is still not perfected enough. M70 is the mainstay, by far. There was a prototype rifle in the 80's, called M85. I fired both, guess which i liked better. Also, M85 included a collimator scope as standard issue. :)
G36 is excessive. There are rifles which could be used instead: M53/66 PAP (SKS Simonov) or M48 (Kar98K Mauser). Why? Definitely more common, also ammo would be significantly more common for them. Note that Serbia has currently no significant stock of 5.56x45 NATO ammo - so weapons in that caliber can work as bats, i guess.

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HrcAk47
HrcAk47

MP5 is, however, quite common - there is a weapon which it can supplement - M93. That's like an AK74u, but firing 7.62x39 ammo.
M93 Black Arrow is too big and too heavy - noone would like to lug a rifle that large through the sewers. It has 16 kg, and its extremely unwieldy due to that. Better alternative is the M76 marksman rifle - plus, it utilizes a lot of parts from the M70 rifle. Not to mention how much more common it is.
Last thing: RPG. Never used by the Serbian/Yugoslav army. Closest thing that resembled a RPG was M57, but even that was developed from Panzerfaust. Not to mention it was out of use even before Yugoslav wars.
M80 Zolja is the single shot weapon, and M79 Osa is the multiple shot reloadable weapon you should use instead.

Those are my two cents. Good luck :)

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D3ads Author
D3ads

Wow, thanks so much for all that information, very useful!

The tunnels you've talked about sound similar to what I had planned to break up repetition, Metro 2033 had sewers and underground passageways too and yes I agree the tunnels can get old, so I'll try not to have too many of them.

I'm still not sure about Kalemegdan fortress, it's geography makes it somewhat difficult to reproduce... it can certainly be included in background scenery.

Ok gotcha, no glock.. it's used to death anyway, I'd prefer as much stuff native to Serbia as possible.

Don't worry I know that the M70 isn't an AK, it'll be modelled right :) M21 might not be used that much today, but take into account that the war took place several years into the future.. I don't want to be specific because it's not relevant.. but let's say that the M21 has been produced and used much more before chaos ensued.

M85 and m90 could be used as well.. I don't want too many Ak-looking weapons though, because it'd start to be repetitive.

Hunting rifles would certainly fit the post-apocalyptic setting better I must admit. As for lack of 5.56x45 NATO ammo... if Serbia were to join NATO (in the fictional timeline.. in real life, it's a controversial issue), then that could increase a lot too.

M93 is an ak like weapon too? I thought that was the Black Arrow? (confused!)

M93 has been chosen over the M76 because again, it's another Ak like weapon... I'm not going for realism here, so I would just dismiss the weight being an issue.. and also you carry many different weapons in your inventory at once, so realism goes out the window ;)

When I say RPG, I meant a generic rocket launcher really, the M80 is really the kind of thing I was looking towards.

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D3ads Author
D3ads

The G-36C was chosen because I've seen several photos of special forces using them (PTJ, Hawks most often)

These weapons have been chosen as they are because the codebase I'm using already has code for several different Russian weapons which are;

Knife (...)
Stechkin APS (M57)
Glock (CZ99)
Ak74 (M70)
Aks (M21)
Spas-12 (Benelli M3)
Mp5 (with grenade launcher) (Mp5-SD)
AS VAL Sniper (M93 Black Arrow/M76)
OC-14 Groza (G-36C)
RPK machine gun (?)
Grenade (...)
RPG (M80)

I'm using existing open-sourced code because it cuts down development time massively. I can of course have some code changes but I don't want to end up having to find a coder to change loads of stuff.

But of course, all of the above can be changed providing what is suggested works in a similar way.

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D3ads Author
D3ads

Here's an image of Hawks with a G-36 and M3 shotguns...

Media.moddb.com

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HrcAk47
HrcAk47

Oops, sorry about the M93. Was a typo, what i meant was M92.
Zastava-arms.rs

M93 is the heavy sniper thing. If you, however, want a sniper, i'd go with something custom made, like a M48 with sniper scope or M53/66, scoped. There is one custom made sniper used by the JNA (albeit very briefly - for 3 years - quantity overcame quality...), M69. Its a superb rifle, really good, sub-MoA accuracy (maybe the only dedicated sniper rifle (not a squad marksman rifle) in Yugoslavia up to today (note that that new M07 rifle Zastava advertises is new furniture on the M69 mechanism)). Many were refurbished as hunting rifles and are in civilian possesion. But rare.

As for MG, RPK is a standard. Its locally produced, and its named M84. Troops call it "Ceca". Only difference is that it usually uses a full stock. But, what i guess is that you're looking for a static weapon - check out the M55 AA gun (3 barrels x 20 mm). 'Twould seem to be a prized possesion for any of the groups. :)
Going with AK series may be a plus - if you manage to implement the use of all weapons draining from a single ammo pool (well, sorted by calibers), it would simplify the logistics considerably.

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HrcAk47
HrcAk47

Regarding those shotguns, I can claim that police/spec forces have no more than 20 in their arsenal. You should be aware that the exotic weapons used by the Serbian special forces are war trophies. For example, there was an incident in Zagreb, just before the war had started - military captured a plane full of various modern weapons that were originally being shipped to the Croats. The most notable are the huge stocks of South African R4 rifles, which were used by the various Serbian paramilitaries, Red Berets, 63rd Para and now, the Special Brigade. They all come from that same plane :) So, they have pretty much all the modern weapons ever made, but they are just curiosities. Standard issue is M70 still, and it will remain like that for quite a while :)

Serbia can (and does) manufacture 5.56 NATO ammo, however i'm talking about the wartime stocks - which are vastly dominated by 7.62x39 and 7.92x57 mm ammo - which would be the most available rounds if a war/catastrophe is to happen :)

As for the grenades, M75 Kašikara is the standard choice.

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D3ads Author
D3ads

I'm very much for including as much weaponery from Serbia and the former Yugoslavia as possible, but take into account that it's not until 2044 roughly when Serbia is attacked... so by that time anything could be possible.

If the shotguns are captured war trophies, you could think that perhaps Zastava could try and make their own shotguns based on them later in the years.. who knows :)

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