Since this site is dedicated all things DEUS EX, as well as to the love of DX1 modding, I thought that this was the best place to state my ideas. A decade ago, I visualized an expansion pack for DEUS EX. Since I was a fan of HALF-LIFE's expansion pack at the time, OPPOSING FORCE, and loved the idea of playing from the point of view of the military force you went against, I thought: why not make the DX expansion centered around the point of view of an NSF?
The idea is as follows: you are an NSF newly trained from crummy outskirts of NYC, tasked to seize shipments of Ambrosia, and deliver them to Grey Death infected ghettos. Since the protagonist is not nano-augmented, the interface plays more like THIEF rather than DX 1 or SYSTEM SHOCK. The vizor on your mask acts as night-vision, and visualizes things around you slightly like JC's interface, but that's it (since you're just a terrorist outfitted with low-grade technology). The choices you make range from avoiding unnecessary casualties, civilian or foe, to just being a sociopathic radical. There are consequences, however, to sparing the lives of foes, though.
The locations I have in mind range from NYC and Long Island, to Ohio, Pennsylvania, Japan, Germany, Washington D.C., and Northern California. The weapons I have in mind include:
Remote controlled LAMs
GEP styled Grenade Launcher
Ninja Blade
Molotov Cocktail (Jars with clear gasoline liquid, different from TNM's cocktails)
Revolver
UZI
Mech-grade Riot prod (you can knock out Mechs more easily with this thing. That means you can knock out the Anna and Gunther with it).
Animal Tranquilizer Darts (knock out animal life without killing them with one dart)
Xeno Tranquilizer Darts (for Greys, Greasels, and Karkians)
Sleeping Gas Grenades (gas which knocks enemies out)
EMP Canon (borrowed from SS2. Shoots an electrifying projectile which disables machines instantly)
Rubber Bear Trap
Brass Knuckles
Double-barreled Sawed-Of Shotgun
Minigun
Rail Gun (with ASMD gun qualities)
21st Century Magnum Pistol
Somewhere along the game, depending upon the choices of the player, the protagonist has his body engineered with Black Market nanotechnology, devised by a crazy Majestic 12 laid off scientist. The technology comprises of new augmentations that are efficient, but highly experimental. This, of course, comes off as a problem for the protagonist, who is anti-augmentation, and so are his comrades (except for Paul).
You'll get to interact with characters you only got to see briefly in the original game, such as the NSF leader on the Liberty Island, and Lebedev. There'll also be a brief run-in with JC Denton, with some interactions with him. You'll definitely meet Walton Simons, who'll capture you when you're not too careful around him (which will therefore lead you to a UNREAL 1-esque secret level).
In the Washington DC level, you'll get to lead a squad infiltration of the White House and take President Mead hostage.
As you progress, the protagonist comes against beta soldiers engineered by Majestic 12: biologically augmented assassins, who kind of the SS2 Hybrid equivalent of Mechs. All their augmentations are derived from the tissues of the Greys, Karkians, and Greasels, and organs genetically grown from Grey Death cells. They're extremely quick, and carnivorous sometimes (when they have no weapons, they rely on their teeth). Their energy relies upon engineered monstrosities, similar to how Mechs rely on Maintenance bots, except these beasts have the intelligence and self-awareness of a computer AI. It be your goal snuff out these creatures when situations turn grim.
Eventually, when you're in Norther California, Area 51 is destroyed, and the Great Collapse has begun. You'll get to witness life in the world of DEUS EX after the Dark Age ending, and at some point acquire the aid of Sandra Renton.
This is just a brief outline of what I had in mind. Only I can pursue it if I wanted to, but I can't really. Does it sound good to you?
NSF OPERATIVE: The DEUS EX Equivalent of OPPOSING FORCE
Moderators: Master_Kale, TNM Team
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Brad Denton
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Re: NSF OPERATIVE: The DEUS EX Equivalent of OPPOSING FORCE
The whole 'Opposing Force' idea sounds great to me. There is a LOT of NSF back-story mentioned in the game as you might know. I would be very interested to 'find out' about the roles of Jojo, Paul Denton, Lebedev, Harley Filben and the Illuminati in relation to the NSF and how the NSF came about. Gameplay aside, there is a gold-mine of story-telling opportunity here to be embraced.
Overall I think you should limit the extent to which you branch off the storyline from DX. I'm not saying that if the story is a bit average then the mod will suck, but it would easier, more believable and I think more interesting if you stayed close to the DX storyline and drew from events mentioned but not played out DX.
The UNATCO raid on the NSF base in NYC would be an interesting event to play out from a different angle than JC Denton. The player could be one of the guards in the base and have to slowly fall back and fight UNATCO troopers, eventually having to escape. There could also be a level in the mole-people tunnels.
NSF attacking the Whitehouse is a little bit far-fetched in my opinion. The Illuminati might order such a raid, but I doubt that politicians are powerful or influential enough to warrant a fully-fledged raid - remember, MJ12 are the ones in power. I also feel like playing out a raid on the Whitehouse ventures into cliché territory. If I were you I would be inclined to have the player take part in the raid on the Paris Cathedral instead- Morgan Everett mentions in an infolink that he is about send an NSF battalion to the Cathedral to take the gold or something like that.
It's up to you if you want to take the story beyond that, but you may not have the time, motivation or writing ability. It may be more realistic to make the mod a short one, and if it's of good quality then there's nothing wrong with that.
Your gameplay ideas sound fine; it would be interesting to see what run-of-the-mill weapon technology looks like in the 2050s, or just technology in general, so you could go into that with the items and weapons available to the player. Just because the protagonist doesn't have augmentations, it doesn't mean you have to ditch the aug system - you could modify it so that the player takes 'stimulants' or has psychic abilities like in SS2. You could keep the skill system and perhaps modify that, too.
If you decide to make a start at this then I wish you luck.
Overall I think you should limit the extent to which you branch off the storyline from DX. I'm not saying that if the story is a bit average then the mod will suck, but it would easier, more believable and I think more interesting if you stayed close to the DX storyline and drew from events mentioned but not played out DX.
The UNATCO raid on the NSF base in NYC would be an interesting event to play out from a different angle than JC Denton. The player could be one of the guards in the base and have to slowly fall back and fight UNATCO troopers, eventually having to escape. There could also be a level in the mole-people tunnels.
NSF attacking the Whitehouse is a little bit far-fetched in my opinion. The Illuminati might order such a raid, but I doubt that politicians are powerful or influential enough to warrant a fully-fledged raid - remember, MJ12 are the ones in power. I also feel like playing out a raid on the Whitehouse ventures into cliché territory. If I were you I would be inclined to have the player take part in the raid on the Paris Cathedral instead- Morgan Everett mentions in an infolink that he is about send an NSF battalion to the Cathedral to take the gold or something like that.
It's up to you if you want to take the story beyond that, but you may not have the time, motivation or writing ability. It may be more realistic to make the mod a short one, and if it's of good quality then there's nothing wrong with that.
Your gameplay ideas sound fine; it would be interesting to see what run-of-the-mill weapon technology looks like in the 2050s, or just technology in general, so you could go into that with the items and weapons available to the player. Just because the protagonist doesn't have augmentations, it doesn't mean you have to ditch the aug system - you could modify it so that the player takes 'stimulants' or has psychic abilities like in SS2. You could keep the skill system and perhaps modify that, too.
If you decide to make a start at this then I wish you luck.
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Brad Denton
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- Posts: 44
- Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2011 6:36 am
Re: NSF OPERATIVE: The DEUS EX Equivalent of OPPOSING FORCE
Thanks for liking my idea, kdawg88! I've been thinking that it was a good idea for so long, that I have been surprised that Eidos and Ion Storm didn't consider doing an expansion in that vein. I'm surprised that SYSTEM SHOCK 2 never got an expansion pack, but oh well.
Your suggestions are reasonable and helpful. I particularly like your suggestion to have mission where the NSF raid the Paris Cathedral. If I ever get around to programming, I think the NPC AI needs work, at least for them to work well as a squad team. I was recently toying with the idea of incorporating RAINBOW SIX's tactical map plan system, where you could coordinate where you want your squadmates should move, and where and when to attack. It would be interesting to choose which weapons your squadmates should use, especially when it comes to squad-stealth missions (tricky for DEUS EX, I know). As for the Washington D.C. idea, I was thinking more that the NSF would infiltrate the building through really old forgotten passageways, not raid it head-on. Perhaps the White House mission should be optional: a really hard mission with TONS of security, and if you manage to complete it, you get a lot of skill points. In actuality, this mission idea was based on earlier concept, where you were among the NSWF when they first raided Washington with thermo-camps (whatever they're called). I realized that this incident took place LONG before the events of DEUS EX, so the hero wouldn't have been old enough to partake in it. Maybe, the level could be flashblack, from the point of view of an old NSF leader who reexperiences the groups past triumphs, and greatest losses. Imagine attempting to take a look at what the NSF were originally like in their first incarnation. What if the protagonist hooks himself up into a memory machine, which somehow has archived the memories of old NSF members (extracted by torture, perhaps?), and he explores the memory in order to realize the seeds of the present conspiracy, and what was really going on in the early days of the NSF. This idea does sound cliche, but if you have a better idea of how to make it work, I'll be glad.
In order to get this game going, I need to write it out first. A well written script and design document is what I need before attempting any programming, texturing, coding, animating, or art designing
Your suggestions are reasonable and helpful. I particularly like your suggestion to have mission where the NSF raid the Paris Cathedral. If I ever get around to programming, I think the NPC AI needs work, at least for them to work well as a squad team. I was recently toying with the idea of incorporating RAINBOW SIX's tactical map plan system, where you could coordinate where you want your squadmates should move, and where and when to attack. It would be interesting to choose which weapons your squadmates should use, especially when it comes to squad-stealth missions (tricky for DEUS EX, I know). As for the Washington D.C. idea, I was thinking more that the NSF would infiltrate the building through really old forgotten passageways, not raid it head-on. Perhaps the White House mission should be optional: a really hard mission with TONS of security, and if you manage to complete it, you get a lot of skill points. In actuality, this mission idea was based on earlier concept, where you were among the NSWF when they first raided Washington with thermo-camps (whatever they're called). I realized that this incident took place LONG before the events of DEUS EX, so the hero wouldn't have been old enough to partake in it. Maybe, the level could be flashblack, from the point of view of an old NSF leader who reexperiences the groups past triumphs, and greatest losses. Imagine attempting to take a look at what the NSF were originally like in their first incarnation. What if the protagonist hooks himself up into a memory machine, which somehow has archived the memories of old NSF members (extracted by torture, perhaps?), and he explores the memory in order to realize the seeds of the present conspiracy, and what was really going on in the early days of the NSF. This idea does sound cliche, but if you have a better idea of how to make it work, I'll be glad.
In order to get this game going, I need to write it out first. A well written script and design document is what I need before attempting any programming, texturing, coding, animating, or art designing