design input

[UnfluffyBunny]

Ok, wasnt sure where to put this so it can go here as strictly speaking it is for a game.

I'm on the building team for a new "sim" in second life, the sim is named "Dresdale", it's a near future "mad max" style city, based on an island which was connected to a central mainland but has since had it's bridge destroyed and underground system mostly caved in, most of the city is overun by a war between a fanatics group and a mercenary police style group.
we're using a widely used combat system which allows level progression, power aquisition, and of course, metered combat (health, stamina and a third faction specific meter)

what i'm coming here for is to see if anyone has any advice for a munitions pack i'm modelling and scripting which will be used in the sim.

the munitions pack is being designed to provide deeper levels to combat, and also provide a ground for things such as roleplaying explosive devices with actual consequences, deployable quickly via predetermined hotkey or HUD button.

current features include:

Oil Drums (set on floor, explosions cause scaling damage depending on distance from object, explode after taking damage, explode if caught in another explosion, able to be set alight which activates a timer before exploding)

molotov coctails (thrown item, explodes on impact, characters caught in the explosion take damage over time, and will appear to be on fire for up to 10 seconds after leaving the flames, will burn for a minute, any characters who get to close to the flames will be set on fire and take damage over time, sets other items on fire)

pipe bomb (set on floor, explosions cause scaling damage depending on distance from object, explode after taking damage, explode if caught in another explosion, able to be set alight which activates a timer before exploding, can be set with a timer, tripwire, proximity sensor or remote control detonation)

C4 (set on wall, explosions cause scaling damage depending on distance from object, explode after taking damage, explode if caught in another explosion, able to be set alight which activates a timer before exploding, can be set with a timer, tripwire, proximity sensor or remote control detonation)

Pineapple Grenade (thrown object, can be set to explode on variable timer or on impact, explosions cause scaling damage depending on distance from object)

flashbang grenade (thrown object, causes blinding lights and high pitch sound to affect character for 30 to 60 seconds)

smoke grenade (thrown object, comes in white, red and yellow, causes a thick blanket of smoke cover for upto 60 seconds)

sticky grenade (thrown object, sticks to objects, explosions cause scaling damage depending on distance from object, can be set with a timer, tripwire, proximity sensor or remote control detonation)

Landmines (placed on ground, explosions cause scaling damage depending on distance from object, activates when pressure is applied, explodes when pressure is relieved)

RC bomb (placed on ground, remote control car which can be driven and remotely detonated, explosions cause scaling damage depending on distance from object, explode if caught in another explosion, able to be set alight which activates a timer before exploding, driving the car prevents your character from moving untill you are finished)

tripwire (placed on ground, used to trigger C4 and pipe bombs from larger distances)

and currently thats it, i'll try and post some images later if there's interest, but i'm currently looking for any ideas on how to expand and/or improve this system.

thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully, taking the time to reply

[edit]
a pic of some of the stuff

[UnfluffyBunny]

no-one?
i'm playing with the idea of seperating the weapons by faction, the merc faction might have some better equipment and the radicals might not, like maybe mercs get pineapple grenades and c4 vs the fanatics getting sticks of dynamite and pipebombs

[Uncle Yuan]

I can't think of anything you'd need to add in terms of explosive power, but for the visual "fun" you might add good old red sticks of dynamite (with the classic plunger detonator) and the classic cartoon black iron ball grenade.  And if you want to beef up the role playing, then a nice complex "don't cut the green wire" time bomb could work well.

I also don't know how difficult it would be to find the various explosive in-game.  I would imagine a molotov cocktail would be more common than C4.  I would also think you'd want to scale the damage so that the common-but-makeshift bombs have a lot less punch than the higher tech ones.  Would make stumbling across a package of C4 a very big deal.

I don't know enough about how the world would work to suggest anything about the factions.  Is there some sort of skill system?  If so then something like "demolitions" could allow you to significantly increase your boom-for-the-buck.

[tommyboy]

Trouble is, you already have pretty much everything covered, judging by your first post.
My only idea, and I don't know if the game would let this happen, is ignitable/explodable ammo crates. So if they catch fire or get hit  they randomly shoot out bullets in all directions, as seen in just about every film/tv programme that's ever had ammo crates in.
It would add a frisson of danger to the whole "run over the ammo pack" thing if you knew a stray bullet could set the whole lot off.
The effect could last a variable amount of time, randomly set, from say 10 seconds to 30 seconds.
There might also be a random chance of a medium sized explosion to represent the whole lot going up at once.
That's all I got.

[UnfluffyBunny]

thanks for the input, I know I laid alot out in the first post, this is the 3rd upgrade on a system I started about 3 months ago (the original had basic landmine, flashbang, smoke and remote control packs, the second was a star wars version which integrated with a vehicle system)
as far as finding the items, all the items are stored in a HUD object, so basicly if you have it equipped you could have access to all the items all the time, but the plan is to have certain requirements within the sim to gain items, ie visit a scrap yard and pick up a barrel, the HUD then adds 1 to your barrel ammo for use in dresdale, outside of dresdale there's no limitations, which makes it a viable item to use in regular combat sims.
the ammo box is a nice idea and is certainly doable, I now have the mantal image of boxes being thrown out the back of cars, lol.
dynamite and plunger would be classic, and would make for an interesting change, and the minigame bomb deactivation is cool, i've done minigame interactions in secondlife before but mostly things like terminal hacking and lockpicking, so i'll see what Ideas I can think of
thanks for taking the time to post guys, very much appreciated

[lugaru]

Mmmm... I should mail you a copy of fallout 3 and pull you to the dark side... it is already very mad max and a great enviroment for mod makers right now...

[UnfluffyBunny]

I has fallout 3 and love it, there's just no chance of multiplayer roleplay with it which is what draws me to secondlife (that and the money >_>)

[edit]
reminded me, lol, off topic but some of the fallout 3 stuff I've built in SL



(ignore the psg1, ppsh, long barreled shotgun and thompson)