Squad Based Planet Assault Game

Imagine, you come out of your cryo-tube, blood warming in your veins. The Alarms above you are blaring, red lights flashes. A voice over the loudspeaker hollers orders, “Stations People! Ground Assault Initiated.” You grab your gear, choose a rifle and a sidearm, and board the elevator filled with dozens of other real people, not bots, to the flight deck. Of course it is you who is doing this, not the cinematic, you. At the flight deck, drop ships mount up, and drop onto the planet below. The ships are piloted by real people, who are trained (through tutorials) on how to operate that ship. Planet side soldiers are roused from their sleep and arm themselves. Pilots board fighter ships to engage the enemy in space combat. Civilians (the only bots) are evacuated to neighboring allied planets. This, gentlemen, is my idea of the perfect squad based Shooter game. Let me explain.

Every time I play a shooter game there are scenes that have so many characters, and so much space being covered that it is impossible to avoid bots, and only using small areas of the battle to portrait what’s happening in the full scale of things. My video game disintegrates all of that. There are no bots (except civilians which no-one wants to play as), no left out parts of the battle. The entire planet is involved. Someone plays every soldier. That means thousands, in a more popular game close to a million players in one game.

With so many people in one game their would only be enough people for one game at first, later moving on to two or three. A game would last about a month, with players coming into and leaving the game as they please, which means even more players are needed so that there are a sufficient amount of players at one time.

Of course, with so many people all together, there has to be some order. Players can be grouped into squads, regiments, battalions, and armies. Squads of say… 100 people. A regiment of 50 squads (5,000 players). And a battalion of 10 regiments (50,000 players), A player chooses which army to join when he joins a game. The armies can be of an unlimited size, and a player can choose any army he or she wishes. Each army has different specs that I won’t get into.

Each army has different default weaponry; one army would have a different standard gun from the next. When you earn your army’s required licenses, you will be given their standard equipment. You can exchange this by picking up new weapons on the battlefield, or purchasing new ones via a kind of store. Credits would be earned through your salary (per game).

A computer can put the battalions, regiments, and squads together according to rank, skill, and other statistics to make them equal. You would be much more likely to end up with someone on your friends list than not. If the leaders of a squad wish to do so, they can make their squad specialized, or request certain members to use more specialized equipment and weaponry. I do not think however that it would be fair to force members to use certain things.

While we’re discussing keeping order, let’s bring up the issue of bad behavior in the game. If you team-kill there must be some harsh punishments for them. A single good player lost in combat to an unskilled, or unfriendly teammate can turn the tied of a skirmish. Therefore leaving an entire area to the enemy. Possible punishments could include loss of licenses or rank, a ban from the game, or future games. Ect. However, I think that it would more fun and realistic to have repeated offenders removed from there army. They could then join another army, or a group of mercenaries, or be a solo mercenary.

Of course becoming a mercenary isn’t really a punishment unless there are some disadvantages to them. I think it would be faire and realistic to apply some. For example, a person could gain more points for killing an enemy mercenary, and less severe punishments for team-killing one. As a mercenary, you are not supplied with any weaponry to begin with, you must find one, or buy one. Also a mercenary has varying degrees of dividers, which take away from your total points earned depending on your offenses. Of course, you don’t have to have had committed a crime to be a mercenary. You can choose to be one from the start, and have no penalties other than no default weapons.

Now what is all this stuff about a game lasted for over a week? People would never play that long, they need sleep! My answer to that is “re-spawn points”. To leave a game you must report to a “portal”, which are located throughout the planet. Just step through it, and BLAM! you’re in the lobby. When you re-enter the game, you spawn by the closest team orientated re-sawn point to your squad, or regiment. It is possible you will spawn into a combat zone. Your lives are very precious you will find, since you only have 5 lives, so to prevent spawn killing, you have thirty seconds where you can do nor take no damage.

When you are not playing a game, you have the option to go through the many tutorials available on, or offline. These tutorials range from basic controls to commanding the bridge of the main super cruiser orbiting the planet. The tutorials are important, they give you certification with to use certain things. Without the required license, you cannot pilot a drop ship for example because you could end up screwing over every-on of your innocent passengers. But wait, go back a few sentences. Did I say you could command a bridge? Yes, remember, no bots. You can also be a tactical commander, or a Navigations Officer. But each one of these requires a license.

Before the game starts, each team is given a week to prepare. The attackers decide their point of entry, their tactics, ect. The defenders set up fortifications, evacuate civilians, and explore their own planet. This week is called prep-week.

Let me explain some of the less action packed rolls in the game. The Tactical Commander plays a kind of RTS game using video footage from deployed satellites orbiting the planet and scouts. He can zoom in on any area of the planet where a satellite is overhead. From there he can plan ambushes, how to oppose a fortification, and so on. He can talk to the officers planet-side and warn them of approaching enemies, or where an allied fortification might be. He can also bomb an area. The Tactical commander is always high ranked and knows what he’s doing.

The Navigations Officer helps steer cruisers, and performs tactical combat moves. He alerts other pilots of incoming enemies and plots courses for the ship to follow. He also is similar to the Tactical Commander in the sense that he plays something similar to an RTS Game, except with the ships in space. Navigation officer is also high ranked.

The Bridge Commander holds everything outside the planets atmosphere together. He is always the highest-ranking player on a ship (of those who have to appropriate licenses) and has full authority over almost anything the goes on. He can however be over stepped by the Supreme Bridge Commander, who leads the super-cruiser. He can do anything he likes, in terms of the jobs. If the situation is desperate, he can even go Planet side, risking the discoordination on his ship in hope of winning the game, or in a last final stand. The Bridge Commander is extremely high ranked and experienced.

That’s enough for the attackers. Let me explain the defenders. The defenders have a different situation on their hands. Not only do they have to repel the attackers, they have to protect the lives of as many civilians as possible. They find out what part of the planet the attackers are landing on, and get there before too many lives are lost, and the enemy is fortified. The beginning of the game, for the defenders, is chaos. The advantage they have is having a week to explore their planet, and make plans for the suspected attack. They are not allowed to begin evacuating civilians until 3 days before the game. When an attack is eminent.

The people playing as the defenders will notice that they are very similar to the attackers. They spawn in the same way and have to same amount of lives. They are organized into squads, regiments, and battalions the same way. They need the same licenses and a lot of the rolls are the same. A few of the rolls that are different are in the following paragraphs.

The Orbital Cannon Operator. These guys operate the cannons orbiting the planet. They get one shot every 10 minutes. They use information from the tactical commander and his own satellite to locate and shoot down large enemy vehicles. When he is waiting for the next shot to charge he can board a turret and defend his gun, which will almost always be under attack.

The Fortification Officer. This guy picks out places to set up a base. It can be anywhere. There is one fortification Officer per squad. When a place has been chosen he is in charge of when and if to move on. He supervises set up and teardown. He is on the ground, and has to fight as well. He must stay in communication with people who can provide info regarding his job.

The pilot is a roll that both teams have. A pilot could be anyone who drives an air or space ship with a partner or by himself. He could fly a fighter ship, a drop ship, and aircraft, anything. This is a roll that requires multiple licenses, including a license for the type of ship he’s flying.

High-ranking officers hold the ability to give orders, and assign objectives and priorities to those lower to him or her. This aspect makes the game similar to a campaign where an objective is assigned to you, and it is your job to fulfill it with whomever you are with. You don’t have to. But lots of extra credits, skill, and other bonuses are added for the smallest objective, so it is to your benefit to do so. It is the responsibility of the higher ranking officer for the award of objective completions, since an objective could be something not register able to the game. It is the responsibilities of the officer’s peers to make sure awards are fair.

Now that you realize a fraction of how big this is, without mentioning to time, money and effort put into making this game, I bet you’re saying, “Savage, you have gone absolutely insane, this is impossible.” In reply I say that it’s impossible right now. But do a little research. In the near future (25-75 years) we will have Holographic Memory, and “The Grid” which is like the Internet only 10,000 times faster than the average broadband. We will have a larger population (hopefully with a smaller percentage living in 3rd world countries); computers that can do come close to reasoning, possibly even quatum computers (but not close enough for bots). This will be possible soon, unfortunately not soon enough for me to enjoy in my youth. But when my grandchildren are enjoying this game, I will show them this article and say, “I’ve waited a lifetime for this, and here I am watching you play it,”

I owe this article to everyone who has ever played a video game with me, or expressed their opinion on them. I would like to thank companies like Bungie, Square Enix, Activision, and Ubisoft for their positive influence on my taste in video games. I would especially like to thank Donald Dennis for his excellent ideas and opinions that went into this essay. Thank-you.