Unlike my previous post, this is a brief description of unique features I would love to use in a game.

First I shall begin with the basic playing mechanics, inspiration from where I got them and how they would play on in the game. I'm hypothesizing that somehow this game is on a console.

--> The first of many things that would set this game apart from any other console game is that, while you weapon may be out, it isn't always being held in the field of view. If you look down at your player model you can see yourself and the weapon being held at a relaxed position. Once the left trigger is pulled, the weapon becomes visible. Depending on how much you squeeze the left trigger, the weapon is held higher and higher on your shoulder, until the left trigger is held completely - at this point the player is looking directly down the sights of the weapon.

To add a sense of realism, the weapon will have more felt recoil if the weapon is higher up. If the player is firing from a low "hip-fire" position, he/she can rapidly shoot with control of the weapon, but obviously cannot place accurate shots. Another key addition is a dynamic is the squeezing of the trigger. The slower one squeezes the trigger the more accurate their shot will be. If the trigger is depressed in a quick motion, the shots will be less accurate but can be more rapid.


--> Another thing I would like to try is the "free look," used in ArmA 2. Basically on a computer this means that, unless you press the Alt key, the gun you are holding is pointed every direction you look. On a console I would definitely want to try this, both for a realistic feel and to make my game stand way apart from the others. How I would use this would be again through the left trigger. If the left trigger isn't pressed, the player's head moves around to look at things while the body stays in place. If the player is moving. then the head will turn to look and the body will follow while walking/running. Once the left trigger is pulled (to any extent, even just slightly) then the body, head and gun will all turn relatively at the same time.


--> It seems to me that guns in almost every game are WAY underpowered. Just image, for example, an AK47, or SKS being fired at a wall in a standard house. Basically you have a piece of copper, lead and steel about an inch long, 1/3 inch in diameter going extremely fast - much faster than the speed of sound. That bullet is going to go through virtually everything in that wall, knocking a fist sized hole on the other side and sending shreds of wood and plaster everywhere. Bullet impacts are comparable to small explosions, and are just as lethal. In my older post (which I believe may have been removed due to it's age), I talked about mechanics of a more realistic damage system without having the annoyances of sudden deaths (in simulators like Flashpoint or ArmA 2).


--> The last thing I would be sure to include would be weapon realism. Even simulators mentioned previously have fairly unrealistic weapons - HOWEVER the bullet dynamics like drop and ricochets are extremely realistic, the weapon models themselves are not. Many hammers on pistols in these games aren't even back, the slides move in an unrealistic fashion and the realism of reloading is atrocious.

What one has to remember about firearms is that there are extremely high pressures and powerful forces during firing. A pistol slide moves back nearly faster than one can see, and has the potential to cut a finger clean off during operation. Firing mechanisms on rifles such as M16's/AR15's, SKS's, AK's, and the like use massive recoil springs, and the bolt slams forward and back with near-jackhammer force.

So with all these forces, you would expect to see huge flashes and sparks at the end of the barrel when a gun is fired, right? Actually there is virtually no muzzle flash on these guns during daylight hours. The only time you could see a flash would be either in low light situations or in the black of night - and even then, the burn is a dull orange, and is so brief that you can just barely see it. What is visible is a small amount of smoke that puffs from the end of the barrel for a brief moment. Sometimes (especially during cold weather) smoke will slowly pour from the barrel, like in all the movies or pictures where a gun is featured. However, the weapon has to be fired quite a lot for this to happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMae8-vOrBU


That's a wrap! Please give feedback on these mechanics.