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B)
Introduction
C)
Gameplay
3.
Space
Combat
7.
The
Captain
10. The Ship Count
11. Launch Platforms
D)
Classes
E)
Ships
F)
Weapons
1.
Ship
Weapons
2.
Hand
Weapons
G)
Maps
H)
Art
Eternal Silence 2 is a mod being developped on the new Half-Life 2 engine from valve. It is a multiplayer only mod. Eternal Silence 2 will put you in the middle of a massive battle between 2 space ships. You and your team will control a massive space capital ship in a 1 on 1 against your enemy. You must use your bombers to take down the enemy, and your fighters to keep the bombers in the air. Infantry will allow for special operations inside the enemy ship and the possibility of boarding the ship without making a dent in the hull. Eternal Silence 2 will create a simple problem with more than 1 anwser, players will be able to take part in a battle simulation. ES2 combines open ended gameplay with fast paced action into a sci-fi polished sci-fi bundle.
You must choose between the United Terran Forces or the Galactic Militia to take part in a massive war which has just broken out. You will travel to many systems including sol and alpha centauri to fight off the enemy and regain peace. Serve your country well.
The objective behind ES2’s main game mode is to destroy or capture the enemy capital ship. This will involve the coordination of the captain, space and combat infantry forces. There is no 1 set path to victory and the problem can be approached many different ways. ES2 will give the player many objectives and options in a very simple scenario. Its a 1 map fits all gameplay, but you have so many possibilities and options to achieve victory that every game is different.
-by Annihilation: Destroy enemy capital ship through the use of weapons and demo experts, however if the enemy has control of some control points on your ship, the fight will still be fought inside of your ship until all enemy control points are neutralized.
-by Conquest: Capture the enemy capital ships various control points until the entire ship is secured, your ship must also be secured fully.
-by Endurance: Outlast the enemy by keeping more ships alive and allowing the enemies ship count to dwindle to 0
Control points are locations that any player on foot (not in a vehicle) can capture if he stays in its radius for a sufficient ammount of time. This gameplay mecanic is similar to Battlefield 1942s control point system with the exception that in ES2 control points will represent rooms which may or may not contain subsystems. Once the point is captured, the team holding the point will gain full or partial control of the subsystem, depending on what it is. For instance if you captured the engine room you would gain access to the engine/navigation subsystem. Once a hacker is present he can log into the subsystem and control it, this makes the hacker vulnerable though. The teams captain DOES NOT have direct control over an enemy ship until it is 100% captured.
The space combat in ES2 will be split on 2 levels. The first being the dogfighting between small, 1 man craft, in open space. This is also the level that deals with infantry. The second level is the “superweapons” level. This is the combat between capital ships and frigates on a massive scale. These two planes of combat will very seldom make contact with each other except through specialty units (such as the Bomber and Infantry to damage the capital ships, and the Turret Defense Grid to damage the space craft). These bridges will be what drives the gameplay. Infantry will fight inside the enemy ship to destroy vital systems which can only be accessed from the outside. Bombers will pound the hull causing structual damage and the TDG will attemp to shoot down (automaticly or with the players assistance) enemy craft flying by. The capital ships will also be able to duke it out, for more see the section on Capital Ship Combat.
Capital Ship Combat is a highly tactical form of combat (versus the “twich” gameplay for infantry and space craft). It will resemble RPG combat much more than FPS combat. The 2 capital ships will exchange fire in a long and strategic battle fought between the Captains of the 2 ships. The captain will be able to launch massive rail guns and beam lasers to chop up the hull while keeping Hull Repair Systems and various Jammers online. These battles will demand lots of thinking and will be much slower in terms of pace.
Capital ships are destroyable maps, they are the only place the player will be able to walk around and shoot his hand weapons. Upon destruction of the capital ship all players on the exploding ship will die, and the game will end with a victory for the surviving team. Capital ships will also contain a varying ammount of control points, depending on the ship (a list of the ships can be found in the contents section). This will allow players to fight inside ships for control of its rooms. This will allow scenarios where one team has no where near the firepower to take out the enemy ship and must instead focus on capturing it.
Each capital ship, depending on its size will have a number of systems which directly effect the captains ability the control the battle. These systems can also alter some important game variables and tip the scale in 1 teams prestige. Luckily they can be repaired slowly by the ships automated repair systems or accelerated by an engineer class who helps out. These systems can be affected by infantry placed inside the ship, some of them can be destroyed from the outside. For instance if the communications array is destroyed by a demo expert then that ship will recieve a penalty on the time between reinforcements. If the demo expert destroys the engines or the weapons of the ship the captain can no longer use them. These systems can also be captured and then used by hackers to gain the advantage.
INTERNAL:
Controlling navigation allows you to maneuver the ship around to line up cannons and put it in the right position for an attack. This is an especially useful system on the smaller ships such as the corvets and frigates since these ships are particularly maneuverable
This subsystem controls the power of the entire ship. This subsystem allows you to manage the different power settings for shields, guns and engines. This subsystem also has an On/Off switch (or off when destroyed) which will cause the ship to revert to auxiliaury power, reducing visibility and greatly weakening shields and weapons. This subsystem has the fastest repair rate though (so controlling it instead of destroying it is better, since turning it off wont initiate an auto-repair). This subsystem is especially important in large ships which are hard to takedown. Eventually though the ship will reroute power to a different reactor so the effects of on/off may only last 15 min if hacked and 5 min if destroyed.
This subsystem is responsible for the reinforcement waves. If you lose communications it will take longer for your troops to respawn on that ship. This is shipwide and not global.
Controlling this system will allow you to see the inside of the ship you have sensor control of. If the captain loses this system he will not be able to see inside his own ship, weakening defenses and if it is controlled by a hacker he will be able to see the action inside the ship.
EXTERNAL:
Destroying these will render the ship immobile
Destroying these will greatly weaken the ships defenses, recharges over time
This will cause the enemys ship count to go down a little faster than normal. Its a hard target to hit and has its own protective shield seperate from the main shields.
The infantry combat in ES2 will involve a series of objectives to either destroy or capture. Every player, apart from the Captain, will spawn as an infantry man of his respective Class. He then has the choice of piloting a ship, guarding the objectives on his capital ship or taking the offensive in a transport to attempt to board the enemy capital ship. We expect about ½ to 2/3 of the combat to be waged by infantry because of the short availability of space craft (although the captain is responsible for that). Infantry will play a big role in actually winning the battle since they are the only ones apart from bombers capable of ending a match. We want to keep the gameplay for the infantry very fast and exciting.
The captain is probably the most interesting responsibility you can get while playing ES2. The captain is the most powerful person on the battlefield. He controls which Space Craft spawn on which Launch Platform. He gets an overview of the battle from a HomeWorld like perspective. He is responsible for keeping the team orchestrated and well supplied. He is also the only person capable of waging combat on the Capital Ship level. Being the captain is all about strategy and tactics, not so much about mad action. The captain will be selected through a very special system which will allow players to decide who leads and for how long. A full list of the captains capilities is provided here.
- Redirect power
- Spawn Ships
- Fire capital ship weapons
- Order Waypoints to spacecraft
- See the battle from a HomeWorld perspective
- View the current Ship Count
- Form Squads or Teams
At the beginning of the game, a captain is selected at random. After 5-15 minutes (the admin selects) a voting window is displayed to all players and they are asked to vote for keeping the current captain, or getting a new one. If more than 50% of the players vote for a change of captains, the person with the highest score will be asked if he wants to lead the team. If that player declines, the next player on the scoreboard is asked until a leader is found.
Captains will benefit from a prestige system. If your team is succesful in battle by having a higher kill ratio than the enemy, military command will give you access to more ships, better ship equipment such as new weapons and will allow you to upgrade the capital ship’s shield, hull or weapons. Prestige is gained steadily if your kill ratio is higher than the enemy. The bigger the difference the more prestige you gain. You then use this prestige to buy upgrades or more ships.
The ship count is the main ressource in ES2. Each capital ship contains a hangar full of available ships. The ammount of ships in this hangar varies depending on the Size of the ship aswell as Admin Settings. The ship count also contains the type of ship. So for instance a type 2 capital ship might have 30 bombers, 60 fighters and 10 transports in its hangar. Whenever one of these ships is spawned, it is removed from the hangar. What this does is balance the ammount of a certain ship that can be produced and also serves as a way of ending the match. The ship count does increase very slowly depending on your teams kill ratio. A high kill ratio causes the regeneration rate to slow down and a low kill ratio causes it to increase, this assures proper balance in a 4 vs 8 game. Once the ship count reaches 0 the game is over and the team with ships still left wins. The ship count can also be modified by infantry who plant bombs or sabotage the hangar.
Each capital ship in ES2 will contain a set number of launch platforms. Each launch platform can hold 1 ship and launch it out into the battle. The captain chooses which ship will go on which launch platform (he can decide to place 6 fighters and no bombers... or 3 bombers and 3 fighters). This gives the captain some control over the ship count and allows him to dictate the flow of the battle (if the enemy has lots of bombers, get lots of fighters). Each launch platform can only sustain 1 or 2 ships so there will never be more ships fighting than the number of launch platforms on the field.
More than 1 captain in a large ship?
Limit 1 ship per launch platform or unlimited?
Captain can see inside of his ship and view infantry?
Aliens or no aliens?
What kind of special gameplay mecanisms will aliens have vs humans?
Should we have ground combat, or just space?
The gameplay in ES2 is class based. You choose a class in the spawn screen and you keep this class until you die and respawn or until you pick up a dead players kit. You will not be able to pick up individual weapons, only kits. Each class will have its main weapon and a special ability to aid the team. These classes are described below.
This is the main class and the most basic one. An infantry man will have a Standard Assault Rifle, 3 fragmentation grenades aswell as a Pistol sidearm. This class has no special ability per-say except he does have a very flexible rifle, capable of many upgrades and add-ons. Wether or not these upgrades (built by the captain) will be featured in the main game is a matter of gameplay. This is the only class capable of attaching things onto its rifle, such as a grenade launcher, tank buster cannon, scope etc...
The medic is a very important class, it is the only class capable of healing team members on the field. This class has 2 methods of healing. A passive healing aura, encouraging players to stick together aswell as an active med kit to accelerate the process. The medic has a very basic arsenal with an SMG like weapon, a pistol sidearm and a med kit.
This class is a very brute force class. Its only responsability is to kill everything in its path. Players playing this class will have a slower movement speed and reduced aim if they go too far off the center pitch point. This class has no special ability since it is already powerful enough. Its main drawback is the fact that its weapons are close range.
This class has a high powered sniper rifle for long range fights, a light sidearm and most importantly a laptop allowing him to hack into enemy subsystems once the control point associated to them is captured. A Hacker can be a valuable tool in setting up an enemy ship for destruction or capture. The hacker can be the turning point of a fight, he needs to be guarded while he is hacking and using an enemy subsystem though, as he is totally vulnerable.
This class specialises in explosions. Its the best at destroying the inner systems of a capital ship. Its weapons are mostly for large groups of people so they cant defend themselves in a 1v1 situation againsts infantry. His special ability is his demolition pack with a 30 second timer. Everyone can diffuse it but demo experts get a speed bonus for diffusing.
This section decribes the type of ships, its handling and special abilities, concept art may be provided as a visual guideline.
The scout is a very fast, very agile ship. Its hull is covered in a stealth plating which bends the light around it causing the ship to be nearly invisible in movement. It can only be spotted in radar when it is very close. Finding one will be hard but once found it wont pose much of a challenge. The stealth hull plating causes shields to become unusable and greatly reduces hull strength. It has a very light weapons load out of 1 20mm cannon mounted on a computer assisted turret on the front with no missiles. The computer mounted turret allows the scout to track its target without being perfectly on target... however the cannon isnt of much use againts shields.
The fighter class is a Jack of all trades but master of none. Its main weapons consist of 2 medium lasers and 2 light lasers, which on some configurations are swapped for 2 heavy lasers. It has a total of 6 missile hardpoints which are usualy equipped with some scatter and homing missiles. The hardpoints have no reload. The fighter has shields and a medium strength hull.
The interceptor is made to intercept ships as quickly as possible. The interceptor has a main arsenal of fire and forget weapons. You lock onto the enemy from a distance, fire and strafe off. It has shields and a medium hull, although not as reinforced as the fighter's. It only has 2 medium lasers but it hard 8 reloadable missile hardpoints that hold homing missiles for an easy fire and forget takeout. It doesnt stand much of a chance in a dogfight, but it can be a menace from a distance.
The bomber is really more of a fighter-bomber combo. It has 10 missile hardpoints which hold high explosive dumb fire missiles. These hardpoints reload and fire in quick succession. The bomber also has a turret mounted behind the pilot with 2 medium lasers. The pilot only has 2 light lasers available to him. The bomber isnt very agile but its capable of evasive maneuvers. It has a sluggish control compared to the fighter or intercepter. It has shields aswell as a strong hull, but a squadron of fighters will make quick work of them. They are effective in groups.
The heavy bomber is a slow and steady craft. It NEEDS fighter support to stay alive. It has a very large missile or bomb loadout capable of carrying up to 20 heavy missiles or a smaller number of specialty missiles such as napalm. It has 2 turrets, 1 behind the pilot and another on the tail facing down. Each turret has 2 medium lasers. The bomber has the special ability of polarising its hull causing the targetting systems on homing missiles to malfunction. This ability can only be used once every 2 minutes for 10 seconds. It has a very strong hull and shields.
The gunship is a porcupine in terms of design. It has 4 turrets each with either 20 mm cannons or medium lasers. The turrets are computer controlled, the copilot simply has to specifiy a target and keep the reticle on it and the turrets will follow. The turrets can also be locked into a forward firing position for strafing. The pilot controls a 2 missile packs on the sides of the craft that each shoot 10 very small very light missiles for ground support. The gunship has shields and a medium-strong hull. Its main purpose is countering fighters and interceptors and also providing ground support for troops. Its not particularly fast but can still make a run for it. It can also carry 5 other infantry men and carry them into battle.
Corvettes are large tactical ships which can be built from the corvette bay on the battleship and cruiser. They are about the size of the millenium falcon and they are support ships. They cost prestige to build.
The medevac corvette supports ground troops during landing by providing a large passive healing radius which adds to the Medics healing rate. Its very helpful for boarding. It has medium armor and medium speed.
The support corvette supports fighters by providing repair bays which the fighters can fly through to repair the hull. They also have a large surveilance radar which helps mark out and target stealthy scouts.
The heavy corvette has lots of turrets and heavy armor, buts its slow. Its mainly used to defend the battleship or frigate by providing extra firepower.
The light corvette makes a good offensive support ship since it can keep up with bombers and has decent firepower. Its great escort help for bomber wings. Its fast but has light armor.
The frigate is the lightest warship in ES2. Its main purpose is scouting and quick rescue missions. It doesn’t have very many guns but it can defend its own againsts many other ships. The frigate is very maneuverable and fast. It carries a light load of craft with hangar space for only 80 tactical space craft and only 2-3 launch platforms, making it a weak choice for a long fire exchange.
The destroyer is slightly stronger than the frigate. Its an all around vessel with enough armor to last a good fire exchange. It has 120 ships of hangar space and has a few big guns. The destroyer has 4-6 launch platforms, it’s a formidable ship, but simple doesn’t have the power of a battleship. The destroyer has a chance of taking out a cruiser but it has no chance againsts a battleship. Its mainly a patrol ship to guard convoys and other important objectives in combination with the frigate. Its good speed makes it good at intercepting ships before they reach the bulk of the fleet.
The cruiser is a more maneuverable but slightly weaker version of the battleship. It can run and has a good ammount of guns but it lacks the armor the battleship has. The cruiser has 200 ships worth of hangar space and its usualy the first big ship in the battle, before the battleships get there. Cruisers have 6-10 launch platforms making it good at air superiority. These are the core of lots of fleets and they are one of the most powerful ships in space.
The battleship is the largest ship you will find in ES2. It has the most guns, the most armor but its also the slowest and least maneuverable, so much so it tends to remain immobile in most fights and uses its gun to take out the other ship while the armor takes the punishment. The battleship can carry a hefty 300 ships which make it very good at outlasting an opponent. It has 8-12 launch platforms making it a 1 ship army. With a crew of 12,000 taking one out isnt easy.
The transport is a cargo ship with light armement but heavy armor. It’s a small ship that’s very maneuverable with a large hangar capacity of 200 for its size. The transport ship only has 2 launch platforms but it can transfer its load of spacecraft to other ships in the fleet. These ships are important in some missions as a supply line for troops. They need to be escorted to stay alive.
This section describes each weapons primary and secondary firing mod aswell as a description of how it should handle. Concept art may also be provided to aid the artists.
Power Required: 1
The light laser is a weak but fast firing laser. It doesnt drain very much power and can be put on just about any ship. Its ok against shields but no good against armor. Should be coupled with a good hull weapon or with a medium/heavy laser for max effectiveness
Power Required: 2
The medium laser is average in just about every respect. Like the heavy laser it fires long drawn out beams of energy which can inflict good shield damage and decent hull damage. The medium laser is all purpose, reliable in just about every situation and a good choice for any craft. It does drain a reasenable ammount of power and may not work on very light craft.
Power Required: 3
The heavy laser is has very good damage at the expense of firing rate. It fires a long drawn out beam which inflicts very good damage against shields and hull. This laser however has a rather slow rate of fire which makes shooting down fast ships rather difficult. Its main purpose is taking out turrets and slow bombers. Not a good choice for dogfighting.
Power Required: 4
The siege laser cant be placed on any craft other than bombers. It requires a massive ammount of energy to fire and fires very slow. The beam is long and destructive. Its main use is turrets, its horrible at taking out anything that moves. Some compare it to a glowing dumbfire missile.
Power Required: 1
A good rapid firing cannon. This weapon is good in combination with an energy weapon. Good at taking out infantry also. It has an ammo value unlike the energy weapons and needs to be reloaded every once and a while. It has a very high rate of fire but its poor against shields.
The heat seeker is a good all around missile. It can be used pretty effectively against fighters and interceptors but since its a heat seeker it can be blocked pretty easily with counter measures. If this missile misses its target it has no chance of reaquiring it and will act as a dumb fire at that point. It carries a medium sized warhead which is pretty effective against hull plating
This missile uses a ships radar signature to home in on its target. The major advantage of this missile is its very hard to lose it without using a radar jammer or polarizing the hull. Since the targeting on the missile is very good it has a smaller payload but its more agile and fast. A very hard missile to get rid of. This missile requires a lock to work properly, where as the heat seeker doesnt.
This missile is fast and has a bigger payload than most. It can be used in dogfights at very close range but its much better at taking out small turrets and ground vehicles. The pilot must calculate the lead precisely to get a hit.
Another dumb fire missile. This one is much slower but much heavier than any other out there. It has a massive radius and damage but its slow enough to be shot down by enemy ships. You can use the momentum of the ship to speed it up a little though. A few of these can easily destroy a capital ship.
This missile is aspect seeking, when it hits a target it will make create a strong radar signal as a beacon for the capital ships beam cannons and turrets. Any ship hit with this missile is usualy dead in about 6 seconds.
This missile is a dumb fire projectile with 2 phases. Phase 1 involves firing the missile. As the missile travels away from the ship the player presses the fire button a second time to denotate the missile causing hundreds of tiny bombs to disperse around the area and explode after approx. 1 second. This weapon is excellent at suppressing fighter and bomber wings when defending an objective. It’s a hard missile to use because of the timing aspect.
The M34 is an assault rifle is an assault rifle. Its firing rate of 750rpm in automatic mode and 900rpm in burst mode makes the M34 very good at taking down targets fast and effectively. The M34 has built in counterweights to counter recoil and make this rifle more effective at long range. The M34's main advantage is its flexibility. It can be equiped with a number of standard addons including a miniscope, a grenade launcher, a light and a tank buster cannon.
This gun is specialised in suppressive fire. It boosts firing speed at the expense of accuracy. Good at close range, its effective damage is greatly reduced as range increases. This weapon is capable of a light attachement.
One of the possible weapons for the Heavy Weapons class, this weapon is extremely strong against vehicles and systems. It fires a continuous blue beam of ion energy towards the target. This beam cannot be focused at long ranges so the beam has a maximum range. Its secondary firing mode fires a short burst of ionic energy in a dense sphere causing a very fast very powerful ion charge. However this will cause high stress on the reactor and requires a long cooldown before normal use can continue.
The second possible weapon for the HW class. This weapon is simple and powerful. It fires a large blast of fire towards the target. Once again there is a maximum range on the primary fire limiting the flamethrower to close range engagements. The secondary fire for this weapon sprays flamable liquid on the ground which can then be lit by any spark and burst into flames for a slow, continuous burn. This is the only weapon capable of inflicting burns on its target which last up to 30 second after direct damage.
The final choice for the HW class. This is the only gun with no maximum range on its primary fire. It’s a heavy machine gun with a high firing rate and a large 100 round clip. This weapon has pretty low accuracy unless deployed with a tripod. When deployed the firing rate increases making this weapon a defensive one. The secondary fire key deploys the machine gun and the primary fires bullets
This rifle is the weapon of the Spec Ops/Hacker class. This weapon is very accurate, has a zoom and is mainly a long range weapon. The hacker has the option of remote controlling the rifle on a tripod if he isnt controlling any subsystems. Alt fire places the rifle on a tripod to then be logged on by the laptop and remote controlled.
The M34 carbine is a lighter, less obtrusive version of the standard M34. It has a retractible stock, its lighter, but less flexible. It cant hold the grenade launcher or tank buster cannon of the original but it can still have a light and mini-scope. It has the same specifications as the original gun.
This is the standard sidearm issued to all soldiers. It is a semi automatic pistol with a 16 round clip. It has a high firing rate and it has 2 firing modes, semi and burst.
This is a standard grenade issued to most soldiers. It has a 4 second fuse and can be held in the hand to shorten the detonation time. This grenade is strong against infantry but does very little against vehicles
The BMIS Diva is the pinaccle of modern information warfare. This laptop is capable of interfacing with subsystems inside an enemy capital ship giving the user control of the system. The player using this weapon will not be able to control himself and will instead control the subsystem, making him extremely vulnerable. This weapon substitutes the captains power until the ship is fully controlled.
Primary Fire: Hold to Log into and begin using the subsystem, the player will go into a crouching positition
Secondary Fire: Quickly kill the connection to the subsystem.
The medkit is a special weapon which only medics can use. It has a passive healing aura for all players in a 7 meter radius aswell as an active healing power to accelerate the healing process. The medkit can also reverse any status changes on the targetted player such as burns, poisons…
The demo pack is the Demo Expert’s special weapon. It has a 30 second charge after placement and is the only weapon capable of inflicting significant damage to subsystems because there is an EM Pulse emitted before the actual blast. The demo pack will also vaporise any living being in a rather large 15 meter radius.
2 Battleships fight to the death. All victory methods can be applied to this scenario since the fight is an equal one. Probably the simplest of all scenarios. Capture, Destroy or win by indurance in a fight to the finish
2 destroyers face off against 1 battleship. Capturing is the safest decision to make and will give the team with the destroyers a trump card to deal when their ships are lost. Destroying is also an option if the team is skilled enough but it would require coordination. This scenario is similar to 2 frigates vs battleship but air superiority will play a higher role
The frigates have no chance at destroying the battleship. They must quickly deploy gunships and land on the enemy battleship to capture it. This mission will focus on infantry battles and ships probably wont have much of a role. Once the 2 frigates are out the battle will be on the battleship itself.
Defence is the focus of this scenario. 2 destroyers will attemp to escort a transport across the map to a jump node. The mission lasts a variable ammount of time, set by the server. The escort team will have a much higher shipcount and will be able to deploy more fighters against the battleship. If the battleship is destroyed the scenario is finished and if the transport is destroyed the scenario is finished. A hard mission all around
All text and images located here are copyright 2003-2004 Eternal Silence Mod, this document dates from September 2003
