Command & Conquer: The Helios Wars, A new type of mod, a new type of gameplay. Options

[daTSchikinhed]

Mod Name:
Command & Conquer (?): Helios Wars

Type of Gameplay:
Ground and Space battles. (former is debatable)

Setting:
6859 Earth Year, starting January 10th,
Milky Way Galaxy.

Factions:
Major:
Heliopolis
- More advanced society. Advanced weapons, armor and speed, but units are generally very expensive, with low rate of fire. Energy weapons are preferred. Very centralized and established command structure. Specialized units and attacks are preferred over brute force.

Kings Cross
- Less advanced societ. All units are easy to produce, but lack in shielding and engine power. They prefer Kinetic weapons over energy weapons. Sacrificing power for higher rates of fire. Somewhat organized command structure. Brute force in numbers is preferred tactic.

Minor:
Earth Survivors
- Very basic society. Use of stolen technology is only fighting style. Very difficult to locate on ground. Spacecraft are all very light and nimble. Suicide bombings are predominant in the space theatre. Guerrilla warfare is the only tactic used. Make for good mercenaries.

Tolnev Alliance
- Broke off from the Republic of Kings Cross and formed their own nation. They are a civilian based faction with limited resources and limited military structure. They prefer to remain neutral. Follow a "You scratch my back, I scratch yours" tactic.


Storyline:
(Background)
Heliopolis began it’s expansion into space well over 5000 years ago. Earth was found in the early years, and chose to remain independent. Earth eventually fell into chaos and nuclear war. Its people destroyed the planet and the people of Earth ceased to exist. Few Earth Survivors are left on it's small colonies. The Heliopolis Empire, however, flourished, expanding into new world and inviting anyone it met to join the Heliopolis Empire with open arms. Heliopolis gave nations it met the choice to join or stand alone. Few ever refused to join, because Heliopolis had so much to offer. The Heliopolis Empire continued to grow, ever expanding. 200 years ago, they came across the Kings Cross Federation. Kings Cross had only just recently begun their expansion into space. The Kings Cross Federation did not wish to be assimilated into the Empire, but still wished to forge a powerful alliance. For the first time in nearly half a millennium all leaders of the sub-nation banded together as the Council of 13 to discuss an issue. Most internal issued were resolved by the Queen herself. The Queen at that time, Her Majesty Alexis (name) decided that the issue was too large for her alone to decide. She called in the council to discuss it. After nearly a year of discussing, an alliance was forged, called the Helios-Cross Alliance. Trade flourished between the two, and Kings Cross quickly caught up in space travel technology. Internal corruption, and economic instability soon lead the Kings Cross Federation into dismay. Just over a century ago, the Kings Cross Federation fell upon itself. Anarchy reigned for two years before a new political power was set up. The Republic of Kings Cross took over the government, purged it of any corruption, and stabilized the economy. The Heliopolis Empire continually offered economic assistance, and during the reign of anarchy, it was accepted. However, fearing infiltration by an outsider, coupled by a fierce feeling of independence and nationalism, the new government disregarded the assistance and denounced the Helios-Cross Alliance. Many citizens fled the Kings Cross nation, fearing that Heliopolis would retaliate for breaking the alliance and formed their own nation; The Tolnev Alliance. Their fears, however, were calmed when the Queen of Heliopolis, then Queen Alexis II publicly announced there would be no retaliation and Heliopolis would recognize the Republic of Kings Cross as an independent nation.
During this time, each of the nations couldn’t help but fear that the other was planning an invasion. This underlying feeling led to the largest military buildup in the history of the galaxy. Both nations expanded their military sectors by over 1000%. Twenty years ago, Heliopolis launched The Guardian Project. The Guardian Project is a series of 36 supermassive satellites that produced a shield around the planet. The design was that of a brilliant one. It shielded the planet in huge hexagonal sections, so if one was attacked and failed, the others would stay up. Then all defenses could be concentrated on the opening. During the day, the Guardian Shields were not noticeable, however, during the night, one could watch the sky and see lines of what looked like extremely dim lightning fly through the sky. These shields were impenetrable to even the most powerful Heliopolis weapon. A sense of safety shrouded the citizens of the Heliopolis homeworld.
Soon after the Guardian Project was launched, the Republic of Kings Cross announced it’s latest weapon, called Project Alexandria. It was a massive magnetic launcher, which could fire asteroids at near light speed. The rings that orbited Kings Cross were composed of mostly iron, and responded easily when the launcher was activated. At this, Heliopolis feared for the safety of its homeworld. The Alexandria was formidable, yes, but not effective at long ranges. It was not until Heliopolis discovered that the Alexandria was equipped with jump drives that they began readying for war. A mobile weapon such as Project Alexandria was too much for Heliopolis to take. The Council of 13 proposed a sabotage mission. It was to go black ops, and never to be recorded. The mission failed. The saboteur was caught, his identity and mission revealed. On October 22nd, 6838, the Republic of Kings Cross declared war on Heliopolis. For the first time, both nations knew that much blood was about to spill. The Helios War had begun.
Project Alexandria was repaired in just under a year, and immediately fired on Heliopolis. An asteroid nearly 2 miles across struck the shield. The impact damaged one of the satellites, causing one of the shield sections to fall. The shield took the blunt of the impact and the asteroid was blown to small pieces, which burned up in the atmosphere, save some that were large enough to strike the ground. Just under 800 were killed and nearly 2100 injured when the fragments rained on a small farming town. The damage was done, but Kings Cross had made a mistake. They had fired Alexandria within range of Heliopolis’s ground based anti-ship defenses. Kings Cross had never developed shielding for their ships, and the Alexandria fell to the onslaught of Heliopolis defenses. Before retreating, Kings Cross ships stole the damaged satellite. They went home and developed their own planetary shielding. However, the data lost during the assault was not recovered, so the shields were much weaker than the Guardian Shields of the Heliopolis Empire. The war raged on. Two of the most formidable nations in the galaxy waged a seemingly endless war against each other. It is time to end the Helios War.






I've laid out three missions for Heliopolis, and am working on more. There is a new type of gameplay. It will feature both Space and Ground missions. Due to unit limitations of standard TS, the NUMBER of units in both will be severely limited. If the mod is expanded, an EXE that allows more units/structures could be implemeted. Space gameplay is going to be a MAJOR part of this mod, unlike others.


I've got models and whatnot that I'm working on. With 3ds Max, and Photoshop, this should not be difficult to do.

[jadems]

Hmm, DaTS, where have I heard the word Tolnev before?

And how would you go about making space maps? Would it be like changing the tileset so everything looked like space...?
I like sci-fi