Hey guys. I'm working on a single-player mission with a fair amount of map.ini edits and I thought, "hey, why not turn this into a series of missions, with a narrative and overall plot?"
So here's the basic outline, subject to change at will or suggestion. Here we are:
Zero Hour: Agent O-Range
------------ Mission 1 - No Man Left Behind (Placeholder title)
The opening cutscene shows a USA Cargo Plane being shot down by Stinger missiles, and crashing into the city. The mission briefing text informs the player that this happened about an hour ago, and there are a few survivors, the most notable one being a "highly valued hero in the GLA Wars", and that he and his team are hiding out at the top-right corner of the map. The city is locked in a gang war between two gangs: the villianous Red NODs and the fairly-decent Yellow SCUDs. The Red NODs are far stronger and have control of most of the city.
The camera then zooms over to the bottom-left corner of the map, and shows a Humvee dropping off a CIA special agent; Agent O-Range. The player must use O-Range to locate the surviving Officer and his team and escort him back to the corner of the map where they'll be picked up by a Combat Chinook.
The player will enlist the help of the Yellow SCUDs to raid a nuclear power site controlled by the Red NODs in order to power down their base defenses and reach the surviving Officer. Once they have reached the Officer, several massive squads of Red NODs make a beeline to kill Agent O-Range and the Officer, but the US Army also paradrops loads upon loads of Rangers and Missile Defenders into the map to cover their escape. When they reach the Combat Chinook, it flies over the crumbling city and the mission is complete.
------------ Mission 2 - The Conspiracy
Agent O-Range is thanked for his successful rescue of the Officer, who is plainly revealed to be the former Colonel Burton (though ranks higher than a Colonel now). O-Range's next assignment is described; he is to go to Syria to locate and kill Jarmen Kell, who has confirmed to be in charge of a small GLA terror cell there (what remains of the GLA, at least).
The player controls Agent O-Range and locates Jarmen Kell, who surrenders immediately. He tells O-Range the reason he is here; to learn more about a Chinese conspiracy he discovered during one of his assignments from the GLA. He came here because the USA base in the region had files within the Command Center that would likely tell just who is involved in the conspiracy. Kell says the only reason he hasn't killed O-Range yet is because he considers the Chinese a bigger threat.
Agent O-Range decides to investigate the Command Center, and once he reaches it, he enters and discovers the files Jarmen Kell was talking about. They reveal that General "Pinpoint" Townes has secretly allied with the Chinese and is part of a plan to invade and take control of the United States. Unfortunately, O-Range is caught, and the base is in fact controlled by General Townes. O-Range fights his way through and exits through the back door of the base, and heads for his Combat Chinook pilot James Flannel at one of the corners of the map. Unfortunately, once he gets there they are surrounded by General Townes' forces and and forced to surrender... And thus, the mission ends...
------------ Mission 3 - Escape from China
Agent O-Range awakes in a Chinese prison, but the Minigunners standing guard at his prison cell are quickly dispatched by off-screen fire. "Colonel" Burton soon follows through and arrives at the door of O-Range's prison cell, blasts it open with a Remote Demo Charge, and gives Agent O-Range his super-pistol back. The player must control them and first locate James Flannel in the prison, and then break them all out of the prison, head through the dried-up canals, and fight their way through the city to escape via stealing a Helix at the local airport. Simple!
------------ Mission 4 - The Tides Turn
Agent O-Range, Burton, and James land in an area in Europe with a Chinese intellgence base nearby. Their objective is to "infiltrate" (read: blast and shoot their way to) a Chinese intellegence building in order to find General Townes' location. It is a difficult mission, with a lot of laser defenses and units everywhere. Upon exiting the building, General Townes himself confronts our heroes and a boss fight follows. Once he is defeated, he leaves in a Chinook and is quickly pursued by our heroes in their Bunkerlix. Although they damage the engines of the Chinook, the Helix is soon shot down, but thankfully our heroes survive. The next objective is too find a new means of transportation so that they may bring the fight to Townes in his base in Chinese-occupied Germany.
They search the town and discover Black Lotus, who sides with them due her disgust with the Chinese army and government after they have taken a very imperialistic additude following their victory in the Second GLA War. She sneaks them aboard another Helix and they leave for Germany...
------------ Mission 5 - Endgame
This map looks familier... It's the same map used in the final GLA mission in Zero Hour! It seems that General Townes has moved in and set up a massive base where the original USA base used to be, in the top-right corner of the map. General Kwai, General Fai, and General Tao have also set up small outposts across various points of the region. On the island in the top-left corner of the map lays loads of General Townes' power plants, protected by numerous base defenses and with no way for our heroes to reach it (the Helix would get shot down).
The solution lays near the village in the middle-left of the map; an abandoned GLA SCUD Storm that can used to knock out the power for Townes. The player must guide Black Lotus with Burton and O-Range to the SCUD Storm and then capture it. Jarmen Kell also shows up to assist!
Once they have capture the SCUD Storm, it launches the SCUDs and destroys every bit of the island, knocking out General Townes' base defense power. However, Townes retaliates with a massive arrey of Laser Cannons (Particle Cannons with longer beam time but less damage at once) firing at the SCUD Storm and destroying it, as well as destroying the nearby village. The USA launches an airstrike of Aurora Alpha Bombers and King Raptors to destroy Townes' powered-down defenses and the Chinese generals' outposts. The final objective is to get all of our heroes to the building near the to-right corner of the map. The building controls the massive nuclear reactor that exclusively powers the Laser Cannons.
When the player occupies the building required, an end-cutscene follows. General Townes himself with a group of Rangers and Pathfinders comes up to the building and Townes desparately pleads for our heroes to stop. Our heroes don't listen, as Black Lotus sets the reactor and the Laser Cannons for self-destruct. Our heroes exit the building and RUN. Townes' men enter the building in an attempt to stop the self-destruct, but it's too late for them. Townes tries to run as the reactor melts down and the Laser Cannons begin to self-destruct one by one, as the camera changes to show our heroes running away from the explosions that destroy Townes and all the Laser Cannons while awesome music plays.
Insert a fade-to-black, and then an epilogue:
Agent O-Range, Burton, James, and Black Lotus went down in history as heroes to the United States. A long and brutal war followed between the USA and the Chinese, until both sides reached a treaty to end the war. In the end, China lost its briefly-held place as the new world leader, and the US began to reassert itself in that position as it rebuilt its shattered miitary and restored its economy and trade with the world...
[Insert a cool quote here]
THE END
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Thoughts? Criticisms? Volunteers for scripting and all that fun stuff?
