Anti-tankspy
Nucleus
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2017
- Messages
- 1,031
- Nebulae
- 2,881
BEFORE YOU READ!
The concept you’re about to skim through is just that - a concept. Whether or not everything presented here will be moved past a preliminary development stage will depend entirely on the amount of interest the presented concept will generate, while also skimming through the feedback and questions that will be provided by those who show interest.
As obvious by the thread’s title, this post will present a setting of World War 3 Roleplay that I’ve been brainstorming and experimenting with for some time now. Unlike all the other WW3RP servers in recent years, I went ahead and sort of inserted somewhat of a sci-fi element to this setting by replacing the Cold War rhetoric with the fictional universe of Command and Conquer; an RTS video-game franchise and the pioneer of modern real-time strategy games.
I decided to post this thread in order to garner feedback and hear your opinions on how this setting could work as a WW3RP iteration, as well as answer any questions about the setting itself. The setting, specifically, would be set in the First Tiberium War which throws the Global Defense Initiative, a UN-funded international counter-terrorist military force against the Brotherhood of Nod, an ancient society which seeks to control & harness Tiberium; an alien substance that has arrived on Earth in the mid 90’s.
INTRO: What is ‘Command & Conquer’?
As previously mentioned, Command & Conquer is an RTS game released in 1995, with the plot being set sometime in the near future. An alien substance known as ‘Tiberium’ contaminates Earth, causing a global war to occur between the UN-funded Global Defense Initiative, which seeks to contain the threat of Tiberium and eradicate the substance from Earth completely, and the quasi-state revolutionary Brotherhood of Nod, which seeks to harness Tiberium with its leader, an enigmatic self-proclaimed prophet identified only as ‘Kane’, claiming that Tiberium is going to bring forth the next stage of human evolution.
Command & Conquer has taken inspiration from many wars of its period, with Westwood Studios, the original developers of the game, confirming that the game is particularly inspired by the Gulf War, basing the game on a modern warfare setting. The prequel to the game, Red Alert, is set in the same universe where, in the aftermath of World War II, Albert Einstein invents a device, the Chronosphere, which allows him to travel through time. Through this device, Einstein time travels to Landsberg Prison in 1924, at the exact moment where Adolf Hitler, the future Chancellor of Nazi Germany, was released from prison.
Einstein removes Hitler from the spacetime continuum and returns to the year 1946 to a social democratic Federal Republic of Germany, preventing the rise of national socialism. However, with the threat of Nazi Germany removed from history, a new threat emerges in its wake; an imperialistic Union of Soviet Socialist Republics under the leadership of Joseph Stalin launches a massive ground invasion of Continental Europe, setting the stage for an alternative Second World War.
(Pictured: Allied victory parade in Moscow, 1953)
This alternative WW2 has been confirmed by Westwood to share the same universe with the original Command and Conquer (later referred to as Tiberian Dawn). The leader of the Brotherhood, Kane, was confirmed through video game cutscenes to be the shadow dictator of the USSR in that period of time, having been a personal adviser to Stalin and the main culprit behind the invasion of Europe. The ‘Second Great War’ ends sometime in 1952-’53 with the Allies occupying the Soviet Union, and Kane disappearing behind the scenes, scavenging resources & equipment from both war-torn empires to slowly build up the strength of the Brotherhood. While what happened in the aftermath of WW2 and 1995 was not commented on by Westwood nor Electronic Arts, it is heavily implied that history went on as it did in real life.
Tiberium, a mysterious alien substance arriving on Earth through a meteorite in the 90’s, slowly terraforms Earth and hails devastation of the planet’s ecology; through cutscenes in the game, deaths related to Tiberium poisoning have ranged up to be in the millions, with the devastation brought to Earth’s crops & livestock causing famines and uprisings worldwide, setting the stage for a dark, gritty, post-apocalyptic and war-torn Earth. I believe this, alongside the political ramifications inflicted upon nations which face havoc due to their alignment with GDI or the Brotherhood, and the devastation brought by Tiberium, establishes an extremely roleplay rich environment for WW3RP that I don’t think has been before implemented, giving players a goldmine of information & events to encourage developing their characters.
In-characters commanders & players of both factions would have the option to take certain decisions (whether it authorizing certain weapons, specific moral actions, treatment of civis etc.) which would affect their faction’s reputation & shape the world around them, giving the playerbase a way to worldbuild and assisting them with further ways to develop their characters; an action which I believe heavily & effectively prioritizes roleplay over shoot-to-kill.
Now that the setting has been explained, it’s time to go into depth regarding the most important aspect: your character.
In previous WW3RP settings, I always felt that a character’s backstory and development were limited by their affiliation. Another reason for me experimenting with this setting, is that this would not be the case here.
For example, the Global Defense Initiative, despite being an exclusively G8-funded military force, still operates under the wing of the United Nations and recruits its troops from all over the world, and is heavily endorsed by sitting member states of the United Nations Security Council. This means you are allowed to create a character which hails from any of the 193 member states, and nothing at all stops you from roleplaying how the political ramifications, as well as the current state of the world affects your character’s background and personality.
Similarly, the Brotherhood, while exclusively manipulating third world nations, has recruitment programs all over the globe, massively utilizing the newly invented Internet (we’d be starting in 1995-1996!!! dont forget!!!!) to launch propaganda campaigns, bringing revolutionaries and defectees from all over the world under its wing, giving your NOD character a sensible reason to why & how they found themselves in the position they’re in.
This means that, in the Brotherhood, your choice of character can be a simple Nod revolutionary who’s harbored a pro-NOD ideology in his bedroom, all the way to a disgruntled military officer or a defecting intelligence agent. In this setting, I wish to emphasize a ‘The world is yours’ motto, giving players the ability to shape their characters, the in-game universe in their own way.
Now that we’ve talked about the character, it’s time to talk about the factions.
GLOBAL DEFENSE INITIATIVE
The origins of GDI trace all the way back to the aftermath of the Second Great War; where the United Nations, newly founded and determined to prevent future conflict, vowed to form a ‘global defence agency’ responsible for utilizing unconventional methods in order to maintain postwar peace. Afterwards, this ‘global defense agency’ was instead publicly disbanded, and reformed to a classified UN-sponsored unit known as ‘Special Operations Group Echo, Black Ops 9’.
While Westwood has given very little information on this, it’s implied that this unit was this universe’s equivalent of Rainbow Six. Covertly combating terrorist threats worldwide until the emergence of the Brotherhood, SOGE was reformed into GDI and its operatives being dismissed, recruited as regular GDI commanders or declared dead.
The Global Defense Initiative seeks to combat the spread of, contain, and eradicate Tiberium. As previously mentioned, GDI recruits high performing soldiers & officers from all over the globe in order to combat the unorthodox and unconventional combat methods of the Brotherhood.
(Pictured: X-66 'Mammoth' Tank Mk. l)
GDI forces generally prefer heavy armor and superior firepower over speed and mobility. This is epitomized in their usage and extensive funding of their armor divisions - encompassing, quite literally, the toughest tanks & other armored vehicles mankind has to offer. Due to GDI’s variety in sponsoring member states, ingame, the faction would have a mixed Eastern-Western arsenal for its infantry, armor, and aircraft, as well as access to prototype versions of near-future weapons (the SCAR, for example) that were not yet put into mass production at that time period.
Again, you’d be allowed to make a character from whichever corner of the world you prefer. Characters with varied ideologies would be welcomed and heavily encouraged, as I believe this could fuel inter-faction conflict and provide more roleplay opportunities.
BROTHERHOOD OF NOD
The Brotherhood is an organization with the characteristics of a religious movement, a multinational corporation, and a nation-state. The origins of the Brotherhood are shrouded in mystery; albeit high ranking members of the organization claim that the Brotherhood has existed as early as 1800 B.C. Until the arrival of Tiberium in 1995, the Brotherhood was known to have secretly infiltrated the international political climate and has been scheming major world events while keeping itself out of the public’s eye. Recovered CIA documents on the organization have confirmed that the Brotherhood were ultimately the true culprits of the Soviet invasion of Europe in 1946, displaying the Brotherhood’s political power and ability to shape the world to its image.
(Confirmed sightings of Kane date back to 1800 B.C.)
While GDI intelligence agencies have dismissed the idea that the Brotherhood originated millennia ago as exaggerated, it did identify NOD as an ‘ancient & secret society’. Several pieces of evidence supporting Nod’s claim of an ancient origin were found during a GDI rescue mission in Egypt; Scorpion statues and several ancient artifacts apparently depicting the killing of Abel by Cain were seen in hidden NOD temples constructed in Cairo, seemingly lending credence to the Nod belief that Kane was, in fact, the Biblical Cain.
Ever since its rise to prominence, NOD consistently portrayed itself as the voice of the oppressed masses, with much of its power base in developing countries. NOD propaganda characterized its nemesis, the Global Defense Initiative, as an elitist organization, subservient to the western first world nations. Kane himself has been known to use anti-establishment, anti-western rhetoric to ensure compliance within his armies & utilize human fanaticism to its fullest extent in order to accomplish his objectives.
The Brotherhood viewed Tiberium as the single most powerful substance on the planet and the future of mankind. Though the Brotherhood acknowledged Tiberium was a dangerous substance, it believed its benefits outweighed any risks. A core belief within the Brotherhood was that as Tiberium transformed the planet, humanity would be transformed into a new race capable of surviving in the new world; a rhetoric shared by many of the Brotherhood’s members who have mostly hailed from poor third world countries, as well as disgruntled first world dwellers who view Tiberium as an opportunity for wealth blocked by the world’s governments.
It has been shown that NOD has a functioning military industrial complex of its own, having operated multiple private military corporations in order to gain the experience, as well as harness Tiberium to gain the wealth; NOD operational doctrine states that commanders should control the tempo of combat operations, avoiding direct contact with the enemy until the time and place are just right. Stealth, speed, mobility, force composition, and operational flexibility are the key to success.
Like GDI, NOD would have a varied arsenal encompassing all corners of the world. NOD is believed to heavily outweigh GDI in terms of technology due to their stealth & infiltration capabilities, with one cutscene in the first game showing NOD making use of F22 Raptor fighters. A counter to GDI’s ‘big army’ tactics, the emphasis on asymmetrical warfare would be present; with either side having to take advantage of its pros and downplaying its cons in order to score victories over its adversary.
(Pictured: NOD utilizing an M1 Abrams as part of its diversified arsenal)
Despite NOD recruiting mainly from the third world, you’d still be allowed to create characters from any nation you like; the Command and Conquer game manual, as well as ingame cutscenes have showed characters of European, American and Southeast Asian descent working in both propaganda and combat roles.
I wish to heavily emphasize that while the Brotherhood is a cult in origin, by no means are you obligated to roleplay a cultist. While there will be a political enforcement subfaction for those who are interested in this type of roleplay, your NOD character archetype is by no means mandated and you are free to create whatever you like, ranging from regular mercenaries and NOD cannon-fodder revolutionaries all the way to disgruntled veterans and defectors with varied ideologies; like GDI, fueling inter-faction conflict.
I felt like going into depth further about information regarding the Brotherhood due to its nature, name and origin, possibly disinteresting readers & new players alike, hence why there’s a plethora of information to the faction compared to GDI.
GDI and NOD will be the two standard factions that you can choose from upon loading into the server. A basic civilian faction will be present for the playerbase. Regular civilians will not be an applicable faction, and anyone in the community may create one from the character selection menu; however, the flow of weapons in the economy to civilians, as well as combat rules, will be tightly controlled as to not turn it into a free-for-all faction where players can shoot whoever they like whenever they like. Other than this, all of the basics from previous WW3RPs will be brought back, in which you’ll roleplay a lost civilian who, for some reason, was not evacuated from the warzone and has been left to die in their wartorn hometurf.
Civilians who wish to establish anti-GDI/anti-NOD guerillas would have to present a thoroughly structured character authorization-like format to senior staff with valid reasoning which, upon acceptance, would allow said guerillas to receive supplies from the faction they’ve been aligned to on a weekly basis, assuming faction leadership have ICly authorized the flow of supplies to said guerillas, similar to the contracted cell system established in HL2RP². Outside of this, civilians will be heavily discouraged from engaging either of the main factions unless they absolutely have to (ex: self defence).
GDI and NOD will have their own civilian departments; manifested in the form of science divisions who wish to study Tiberium and its effects on Earth, humans, plants, and other living creatures. In order to keep them active, both departments will be given objectives to complete by their faction’s central command (server director/senior staff), upon which they may request manpower & resources from faction leadership IC in order to accomplish said objective, having a civilian/military interaction occur on a regular basis, as well as fuel further inter-faction conflict should said objectives conflict with one another.
To fully embrace the Sci-Fi element of the setting, I’ve been thinking about adding the following concept as a fourth faction (ptsd warning for frundtech gamers):
MUTANTS
Tiberium exposure has been confirmed to be, in 97% of Tiberium poisoning cases, fatal. Upon contact with the substance with one of your limbs, the affected limb would initiate an extremely agonizing and painful crystallization effort of your bone & muscle tissue if not quickly amputated upon contact. This process can last from a few minutes, to several hours, to several days, and is very likely to result in said person’s death.
(Pictured: An unfortunate victim of Tiberium poisoning.)
An estimated 3% of Tiberium exposure victims began to show signs of genetic mutation and a variety of Tiberium-based maladies. While typically similar to the effects of extreme radiation exposure, the most heavily affected members were physically altered, causing Tiberium crystals to appear on their bodies. A cult of fear and hate had risen up around everything to do with Tiberium radiation and the individuals who began to exhibit the alien crystal's properties were especially despised. Even friends and family would turn their backs on them, with the general populace referring to them with the derogatory term of ‘shiners’. Ostracized and persecuted for their condition, these people were driven from civilized society and went on a self-imposed exodus.
This fourth faction would be the precursor to a CnC ingame faction known as the Forgotten; tribal and nomadic mutant societies who organized themselves prior to the Second Tiberium War, thirty years later after the end of the first war. This would be the only faction on the server that you’d have to apply for, and the number of mutants will be extremely limited. By the start of the server, mutated individuals would have near urban-legend status, and players who hold mutant qualities will be dragged under their regular faction’s tab in order to keep their mutated status as secretive as possible from an OOC and an IC level.
A mutant’s abilities are varied; the bare basics are increased durability, enhanced strength, and the ability to use Tiberium to heal mortal injuries. However, a few mutants were shown to extort extraordinary abilities in cutscenes; the leader of the Forgotten had a certain, albeit limited degree of foresight into the future, and another mutant was shown to be able to summon ion storms.
If your character’s condition was to be discovered, you’d be declared ‘burnt’ on a hidden roster viewable only by senior staff, at which case you’ll be actively hunted by both GDI and NOD. GDI wishes to capture mutants in order to observe the rare condition, conduct experiments and discover a possible counter to Tiberium related disease & conditions, as well as classify the existence of mutants as much as possible. On the other hand, NOD wishes to weaponize mutants and seeks to further worsen and replicate their condition on volunteers in order to create their own version of a ‘super-soldier’.
Both factions would be willing to go beyond the moral bounds, and being captured & pacified by either faction would most likely inflict painful circumstances on your character, as both will still view you as less than human. Think of it as a type of SCP/Chaos Insurgency dynamic.
The concept of this faction is just a thought-out idea and nothing is written down for it yet, nothing is final. I want to see the type of feedback it garners and if people would specifically like to see something like this.
That concludes everything I have to say regarding the factions. Let’s move on to what I think will be the most controversial topic of the thread.
WW3RP AND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
(Pictured: GDI's premier superweapon, the Ion Cannon)
Something I felt was extremely shunned in recent WW3RP iterations were WMDs. Things like biological, chemical and nuclear weapons never made an appearance from recent memory. I wish to change the case in this iteration.
Both GDI and NOD were in possession of nuclear weapons; however, both sides displayed extreme restraint. GDI never used its nuclear arsenal, while NOD used tactical nukes on more than one occasion. In order to prevent a nuclear holocaust, GDI’s science divisions developed an excellent counter to NOD’s nuclear arsenal; the Orbital Ion Cannon.
An actual usable superweapon within the game, the Ion Cannon can strike targets anywhere on the planet with deadly precision and sufficient destructive capability, eliminating the threat of radiation that nukes bring forth, as well as being able to more accurately strike military targets as opposed to civilian ones. This rendered no purposeful usage for GDI’s nuclear stockpile. Instead, GDI relied on the Ion Cannon in order to give it the push should GDI forces find themselves overwhelmed.
(Pictured: Temple of Nod, NOD's field HQ building and missile launch silo)
On the other hand, NOD made active, albeit restrained usage of its tactical nuclear arsenal, avoiding usage of nukes as much as possible in order not to shun itself publicly & avoid massive civilian casualties. Both GDI and the Brotherhood, however, do not shun themselves from using the more sophisticated conventional WMDs; napalm, nerve gas and white phosphorus saw active usage during the First Tiberium War, with both sides being held questionable the more they used them.
WMDs were absent in the recent iterations I’ve played under the reasoning of ‘they would immediately destroy each other!!’, which is an excuse that I personally find to be lazy and a killer of creativity. I wish for WMDs to be present in this universe in order to give it a further dark and sinister outlook, as well as instill a sense of fear & dread into the characters of both sides due to the over looming threat of annihilation at any moment.
I would like to see what everyone has to say regarding this matter, as I personally believe that the existence of WMDs in-universe would further enforce a sense of seriousness and fade away from the arcade-ish and unserious nature of WW3RP when it comes to the roleplay.
GAMEPLAY, MISC. AND CONCLUSION
As mentioned previously, this is a fun concept I tampered with alongside a few friends during a brainstorm. The concept is still in a preliminary stage, and has gone through a comically large number of rewrites before it has been finally settled on this. Should this become a full server, I plan to the introductory phase Eastern Europe, where GDI forces, formally declaring a global war on the Brotherhood through a UN decree after the fall of Poland and the Baltic States to NOD occupation, launch an invasion on Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Poland from the Russian Federation, in order to bring the exiled governments back to their seats of power and undermine the Brotherhood’s influence in Europe, effectively beginning the First Tiberium War.
Above is the proposed possible setting - now, let us talk about how the actual server itself will be run. I’ll begin with the elephant in the room and WW3RP’s main problem in general; the shoot-to-kill mechanics and the toxic mentality they tend to produce.
I’ll start off by saying this - in this concept, racking a high amount of kills on the Gametracker list will no longer net you a promotion. I’ve found various addons on the workshop and we have several plugins that will ensure that any shoot-to-kill scenarios on the server will be tactical experiences - there will be no way for you to come out alive from a firefight with the enemy force unless you coordinate with your teammates, and pure S2K skill will do little to help you if you decide to do otherwise. The squad system - a militarized version of the Protection Team system in HL2RP and something previously implemented in most other WW3RP iterations - will be making an expanded return in order to assist with this, to help new players to the gamemode stretch their arms, while keeping a nostalgic element that will sit well with the older players. To make the gamemode easier for new and returning players alike, OG traits such as the ‘green man’ squad leader and highlighted squad members will be making a return, explained in-character as part of your battle interface (yes, these do exist in the actual game).
On the topic of promotions, something else I’ve wanted to address was non-commissioned officers and their commissioned counterparts. After conducting a small survey with prominent members of the WW3RP community and hearing their opinions, I’ve come with the conclusion that there has to be a standard set for a soldier in either faction to reach ranks of this type. As previously mentioned, pure S2K skill will not get you into the upper hierarchy of your faction. It will be your character’s leadership abilities, your OOC attitude, and your ability to set a standard. NCOs will also be required to have an IC quota of patrols to take out to ensure that they gain experience, as well as get themselves/enlisted participating in their patrols awarded for exemplary conduct. I’ve said this a lot, and I’ll keep saying it: your actions in the battlefield will be deciding whether or not you’ll get a medal and whether or not you’ll get promoted. Not your one-tap abilities.
Branches where you can specialize in a specific role will be re-implemented in both sides, presented in the form of a regular infantry that are able to acquire Medical flags (medics won’t have their own sub-branch anymore, medical knowledge that allows you to heal other players will be presented in the ‘M’ medical flag instead). A military police branch to deal with military law enforcement and the civilian population, and combat engineering to deal with ground vehicles and heavy weapons.
The POW system will also be making a return, as I feel this is a perfect opportunity for both factions to interact with each other aside from staring down each other’s gun barrels. You may take soldiers prisoner, you may interrogate them, and you may make contact with the enemy force in order to organize a prisoner trade.
To not prolong this any further, the final thing I wish to talk about is storyline progression. Again, like most other WW3RP iterations, it was usually one side that was constantly dominating the other in events (coalitions always winning against globalists, soviets almost always winning against nato etc.), which in turn made the lore dull and uninteresting. To counter this, faction leaderships on both ends will be encouraged to make actual strategic decisions & planning with their officers with the equipment they’ll be given in major operations (that being storyline affecting events). This will stop either faction from constantly dominating the other, and for interesting changes to actually occur in the setting’s lore. You’ll win some, and you’ll lose some.
WW3RP holds a very special place in my heart and I see a lot of undiscovered potential in the gamemode that has not been tapped into just yet. This is purely a passion project that I think would be extremely fun to divulge into and I’m sure I can do something cool with this.
Please post your feedback and any questions you might have in the replies below. Your opinions matter a lot and will have an effect on how everything will be run, if this is brought to life.
Reactions:
List
