TGT Left4Dead Mod
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[edit] Campaign overview
(by Tsujigiri)
The survivors are holed up on a large powerless river barge in the middle of a widened section of an old canal, specifically for docking. This builds on the info from Death Toll which states that zombies can’t swim.
The idea is that there is a train or road bridge crossing the canal, and the survivors have to get up there, to throw supplies off the bridge into the canal, and then retrieve them later.
Originally they leave on one shore, fight their way through warehouses, up an embankment, across the rail/highway which is littered with trains/cars/trucks, drop the supplies, continues on down the other side, through shops/houses and back to the waterfront.
The finale could be achieved by a passing powered riverboat offering to tow their own barge to a place of safety and they have to hold off the bosses while their rescuers attach a towing rope and move back to the bank of the canal.
Scene 1:
Leave barge via small boat or pulling barge to the shore, enter lower level of warehouses and fight to safe room.
Scene 2:
Leave saferoom and climb to second level of old brick warehouses, cue lvl2 weaponry, survivors have to jump from one old warehouse to another to reach the beginning of the embankment. The embankment is a lightly forested open area rising to the beginning of the train tracks/motorway, ideal for rushes. Perhaps opening the door to this area triggers a rush. Safe room could be a train caboose, or a truck on the motorway.
Scene 3:
Fight along the motorway/railway. My thoughts on this are to make it a relatively short area, but to make the path very convoluted, so the bridge itself is broken and they have to traverse the girders/infrastructure until they reach the supply wagon. Releasing the supplies triggers a horde which they have to defend against and jumping into the canal kills them.
After the supplies the bridge is intact, and I’d restrict tanks spawning to after this point to make it easier for the tank to navigate. Safe room is at the far end of the bridge in a security office at the entrance of a shopping mall.
Scene 4:
The survivors fight their way down through a shopping area in order to reach the canal. I considered an alternative to the mandatory “Horde Event” triggers in this section (the door, train switch, sewer bridge) and instead would like to see a lot of shops with alarms, shop metal and security detectors & etc
This would mean the survivors had to be very careful as the number of hordes could be significant, or if they are clever none at all. However, to avoid “none at all” we could rig it so that a few of the infected were shoplifting and set of a couple of the alarms
Scene 5:
Barge Rescue. As they exit the shopping centre a barge is arriving on the far side of the canal, the pilot of the barge tells them by tannoy that he can rescue them, there is a conveniently situated megaphone shop nearby and they reply.
Then all they have to do is wait while the guy drags their boat around in a wide (and very, very slow) circle to rescue them.
Please feel free to make suggestions about all of this!!!
[edit] Map
[edit] Tsujigiri
This is a rough sketch for you to lookover
I will be updating it with the routes, noted event points & etc but have delierately left it non-specific so that the level designers can have fun with it.
http://www.thegroupthing.org/images/Big_map.png
[edit] Suggestions
[edit] NoSoup4U
[edit] Added campaign suggestion
How about adding this to the scenario:
Once there's a zombie apocalypse, some people will take advantage of no punishments for any bad deeds, and therefor can act upon their worse desires.
Let's say that once our survivors approach the shore, they can begin to notice evidence of a survivor in the area who may have become unhinged. Boris and his activities will slowly be revealed, but he will always remain a shadowy figure. This will increase the replay value of the game and avoid the figure becoming predictable, unintentionally amusing or boring.
To accomplish this believably there should be CCTV-cameras set up around the maps (making a loud noise when rotating around, as to make it obvious to the survivors the CCTV still works, and that it's the means Boris is able to keep a watch on them). When the group is in view this will trigger a sound as if it's coming from loudspeakers I'd suggest a glitch in the early maps, clicking or buzzing as if something isn't functioning. Again this will heighten the sense of foreboding, like recieving a call in the dead of the night...
Upon the next few chapters, the bad man is never in sight, but always just one step ahead of the survivors (sortof like the G-Man is to Gordon Freeman in Half-Life)
Throughout the chapters the group is always made aware of his presence. Think of the loudspeakers, but also of events that are triggered as if to 'test' the survivors. This could be events such as blowing stuff up (and barricading/trapping the survivors), but also triggering hordes/releasing hordes.
Once the final event map is up Boris will amke a choice either randomly or based on their actions in the first part of this map he: He sees that there -might- be a way out of this all, and he's able to trigger a very big explosion once the barge comes around to rescue the survivors, as to drag along some zombies in it. He -will- try to make a run for the barge (either visual with an animated model, or with sounds you hear from him) he could be the guy who pilots the barge across the river to save them
I also added an additional bit to scene 5. Boris has a caged tank, and the use of it int he map can create a lot of fun for the survivors as well as adding to the storyline.
Being rescued by this figure who they have come to distrust is another mindfuck for them, because once they are on the barge the game ends leaving the matter unresolved. This is a perfect open ended storytelling device for our character and storyline and will feul speculation, which will in turn make the players look more closely for clues in the maps on replay.
This is something that can be shown when the escape-sequence-video is rolling.
[edit] Profile of Boris (the 'Sociopath')
We want all players to identify with this guy and for part of their minds to consider what they themselves would do or be capable of in this situation, their imaginations will create a greater sense of foreboding.
History: Boris in the mall in a security position and so has access to the keys and security cameras and measures, through discovering a couple of his hideaways during gameplay the players should be able to determine that he is a gamer, I'd suggest the obvious PC with a shelf of games and junk food.
There should be NO family pictures, we don't want Boris to have a reason to leave.
When the infected his the area he was working the night shift, so he decided to stay put and ride out the storm. As it has been made clear that the infection spread slowly and then accelerated in the later stages this will explain why he is most noticeable on the mall map and on the bridge and final maps, less so on the first maps.
Name: Boris
Age: 33
Hobby: Gamer
[edit] Added suggestions to previous scenes
Changing name to something slightly more amusing.
Scene 1: Upon reaching the shore the survivors are unaware of the existance of Boris although subtle clues will exist in the form of graffitti and the occasional camera. Locked doors and gates should also give a clue about this but there are no clear definite facts. With this we start to build the feeling of tension, the players already know that something is wrong because of the vast amount of infected, what we need to achieve is an element of tension on top of this, so we are aiming to add psychological suspense to the existing horror of their situation.
Scene 2:
More evidence for the existance of our resident sociopath starts to emerge, the players find that the observable clear path through the map is obstructed, some of this is obviously the result of infected and their victims but some is obviously the work of a survivor. Doors with metal plates or wooden planks blocking them.
In this scene the players find Boris's keycard to access part of the map, the card will be accompanied by some form of written documentation of this is possible in game, perhaps a map of their area showing where he has blocked routes and laid a trap. A whiteboard could be useful for this.
There is still no evidence or show of Boris, but we could have rooms and buildings on emercengy lighting, but with functioning security cameras that clearly track the players.
Scene 3:
The bridge map is intended to be one of the hardest to navigate and should offer a lot of challenge and frustration to the players, essentially they have a narrow straight path to follow, but can't do so due to burning vehicles, broken architecture, live rails & etc.
There could be a distant camera visible throughout most of the map, but as this is set during dusk and there is mist I'd also suggest this as a perfect point to see an ill defined figure run across the unreachable top supports of the bridge, maybe after "helping" the survivors, but in fact checking on them.
The analogy of the priest in Half Life 2's "Ravenholme" map is a goo one, although the figure never makes himself as obvious.
Scene 4:
When the survivors enter the mall, they have stepped into the area that Boris has inhabited as his safe zone, this is where his imfluence will become more obvious through graffitti, security cameras, deliberately blocked routes and evidence of non-infected inhabitation. Dead infected, especially a dead tank/witch would be a powerful visial tool at this point and serve to make the players feel as if they have another potential risk in addition to the infected.
It would be interesting to have an event including Boris that is only triggered if the survivors do certain things, for example if they destroy x number of security cameras, or if they use his keycard to access a supply area he has set aside for himself.
There should be visible supplies behind coded doors which the card doesn't work on, not just ammo but hoarded food.
Even if triggered, Boris should remain a vaguely seen and threatening figure.
Scene 5:
In the last scene, Boris may have decided that the survivors are worth joining or worth killing this could be defined randomly or by their shooting security cameras, key card use etc. Whatever he decides he isn't successful, but this event should not be the final act.
I had the idea of Boris having a caged tank, and either releasing it on the survivors and then disappearing, or their discovering a corpse outside the open cage and being forced to wonder initially what was in the cage, and in subsequent games wonder where the damn tank has gone.
After dealing with this threat we will have the scripted ending leading to their rescue by the canal boat (Possibly with Boris piloting) or of course their deaths.
