Early Development of Field Offices
Cogdominiums, officially branded as "Field Offices", were intended to bring brand new and uniquely styled contents to the streets. There was intended to be four different types of Field Offices in total.
Events Leading To Field Offices
- Main article: Toontown Fiscal Year 2010 (FY10) Story
Game Design of Cogdominiums
Overview
Toontown Cogdominium is a major content expansion that will add new Cog buildings, mini games, boss fights and a new “currency” to the game. Toons will be able to group with other Toons or solo a new Cog building, and earn “Cog Awards” that can be used to purchase new and existing items from the catalog.
When a Toontown building is taken over by the Cogs and turned into a Cogdominium, the takeover show will basically look the same as the current Cog building takeover. The actual buildings themselves will be differentiated from regular Cog buildings both in architecture and texture.
Game play will be optimized and balanced for multiple Toons, in groups of 4, but all the floors and mini games will be soloable, and some game play and difficulty elements will scale to accommodate the solo player or smaller groups.
Buildings and Floors
Each building will be comprised of one to five floors, plus a final rooftop Cog battle. Each floor will be themed for a particular cog type, and feature a “Game” element that the Toon must play through, and a small Cog fight they must win, in order to progress through the building to the next floor. Each building will scale, where appropriate, to become more or less difficult, based on the neighborhood where the building spawns.
The Games
Each of the floors in the Cogdominium will present the Toons with a challenging game to play. Initially, we will be delivering 4 games, themed around 4 primary Cogs from each of the Cog types.
The 4 games will be:
- Flying Game
- Maze Game
- Boardroom Game
- Crane Game
Please note that these are working titles only.
Each game will have a mechanism for determining the performance of the Toons in the group, for example, on the Flying Game, there will be a timer that counts down to zero, and performance is based on how quickly Toons navigate the game play element of the floor. The more time that is left on the timer the better the Toon has performed. This performance metric will vary from game to game, but ultimately, the performance will determine the Laff boost given to the Toons, going into the floor’s Cog battle.
The Laff boost will be in the form of "reward barrels", containing bonus Laffs, and will be situated in the anteroom before each floor's Cog Battle. The number of these reward barrels will be tied directly to the Toons performance in the game play element of the floor.
The difficulty of the floor games and the Cog fights will scale appropriately for the neighborhood the building appears in. Similarly, only level and neighborhood appropriate Cogs will appear in the floor games within a building. There are 3 main ways we will manage the overall difficulty of a building; the Cog level in battles, the number of floors in the building and the overall difficulty of the actual floor games, defined through game specific parameters and settings.
Cog Awards
Toontown Cogdominiums will launch with support for a new currency system, in the form of “Cog Awards”. There will be 2 types of “Cog Awards”; Gold and Silver, that will be awarded to Toons as they work their way through the Cogdominium. Toons will receive a Silver Cog Awards for each floor (or game) they successfully complete, and a Gold Cog Award for defeating the Boss in the final Boss battle. Toons will be awarded all their earned Cog Awards (both silver and gold), once they have defeated the final boss. Cog Awards will be recorded in the Toon’s Schticker Book, and can be traded, at least initially at launch, for items from the catalog.
For launch, the catalog system will be extended to support the new currency and feature a new tab of items that can be purchased with Cog Awards. Depending on the schedule, we intend to have a mixture of existing items and a few new items, such as animated furniture, cog-y furniture and unique shirts, available for purchase at launch.
Eventually, the Cog Awards system will be extended, and tied into a bigger storyline that involves the “Toon Resistance”. Cog Awards are actually prized items, given to Cogs for doing terrible things to Toons, and by defeating the Cogdominium Bosses; Toons are actually liberating these awards, and taking them from the Cogs. Sometime after launch, Clothing Shops, will be re-branded as Toon Resistance Outposts, where Toons can turn in their horde of Cog Awards for extra special items, including new Estates, costumes, merit clothing, etc.
Framework
All the games and floors will be tied together with a common framework. Toon buildings will be taken over by new Cogdominium buildings in exactly the same way as the current Cog buildings. Graphically, the new Cogdominiums buildings will be distinct, with new geometry and textures. Toons enter the building just like the current buildings, through an elevator. When Toons come out the other end (they are now inside the building), there will be a new show based on the floor/game they are entering. This will be a movie which will show the Toons getting out of the elevator and "staging" themselves at the start of the mini-game. Instructions will be given to the Toons, detailing how the floor game should be played, and what the object or goal of the game is. We may need a particular show/movie per floor type, or similar floor types could share the same camera positions/angles/blocking/shot with minor tweaks.
Game Flow
All floors/games have basically the same flow.
- Toons enter from an elevator. Show a fly through revealing the level if appropriate, then a faked movie establishing game rules via host NPC (shopkeeper). This movie doubles as a ready check, and if all Toons hit “Play” the movie is skipped and the game begins.
- Game starts.
- Game played.
- Game finished.
- Where appropriate, give Toons who finish early some way of “saving” barrels from destruction.
- Toons wait in staging area. Once all are done with the level, reward is determined.
- Toons are taken to the barrel room, with a short movie. The number of bonus barrels is based on performance of the team. Average reward between all Toons or Best Toon determines award. All Toons are free to collect their bonus Laffs by touching the barrels. This is compensation: we want to encourage group play, training for factories/HQs.
- Toons have a Cog battle (in the barrel room).
- Toons enter elevator and go to the next floor (NPC/Shop Keep possibly with them, but not a must)
Sellbot Field Offices (Maze Game)
- Main article: Field office
Lawbot Field Offices (Flying Game)
- Main article: Legal Eagle Field Office
Overview
Toons must use their Cog propellers to navigate a long room, patrolled by various Cogs and environmental hazards (see obstacle section below), and get to the final platform before all the bonus Laff barrels are destroyed. Each propeller the Toon uses has a limited amount of power to reach the next safe landing platform, so there’s no time for lollygagging! As the Toon progresses through the level, they can collect bonus pickups that can help them in various ways.
At the start of the game, Toons are shown a movie outlining the rules and showing them the bonus Laff Barrels, situated at the end of the level. They are told that the barrels will be slowly destroyed by big stompers, as time passes, and that they should try and get to the end of the level as quickly as possible, in order to maximize their bonus Laffs. They are also told that they will have the option to slow the rate the barrels are destroyed, by standing on big buttons, at the end of the level to disable the stompers, one by one. They will be shown the boxes of Cog spare parts, including the box of propellers the Toons must use to fly from platform to platform.
- Toontown Cogdominium Footage Found!
Gameplay
Toons have free movement within the environment, and are controlled using arrow keys; forward, back, left, right, and CTRL for lift. Toons will constantly fall (with acceleration), unless they use the CRTL button for lift (like a jetpack). Visually, the Toons are using Cog propellers, held in their hand like an umbrella.
The overall goal for this game is to get to the end of the level as quickly as possible, without losing all your Laffs, and without losing all the bonus barrels. The short term goal is to make it to the next platform to get a new Cog propeller, so you can fly to the next platform, and so on. Spare part platforms will be located at regular (but challenging) intervals, at different elevations, throughout the level, and feature boxes of various spare parts, including the all important Cog propellers. Toons collect a new propeeler by touching the propeller box.
As the Toon flies around the level, the Cog propeller’s charge is depleted, and if the Toon runs out of power before they reach the next spare parts platform, they will be shown a movie of them falling into the dark depths, after which they will be reset back to the last spare parts platform they reached.
Spare parts platforms will be big enough for the Toon to stand and walk around on, and some will have minions patrolling on them, to add difficulty.
There will be pickup, bonuses hidden around the level for the Toons to find, including inside the Legal Eagle nests. The bonus pickups will include stealth, speed up, bonus Laff, invulnerability, or fuel up.
On hitting a Cog, the Toon will lose Laff and get knock back a small distance. If the Toon goes sad or the propeller runs out of power, and falls into the dark depths, they will be transported to the last spare parts platform they got to, with Laff decrease.
After 3 minutes, any straggling Toons will be sent to the end of the level and lose a considerable percentage of their remaining Laff. When a Toon reaches the end of the level, there will be a large platform area with 4 buttons on the floor. Standing on a button will freeze the Toon, and disable one of the barrel stompers in the barrel room. This will be made apparent to the Toon, with several cues, including a sound effect, and a sign that reads out the number of active stompers.
When all the Toons have reached the end of the level, and stood on their buttons, a movie will show the barrel room door opening and the Toons entering the barrel room.
Obstacles
Legal Eagles: Legal Eagles sit solemnly in their nests constructed from pieces of office equipment, paper and pencils. They will guard their territory relentlessly, and will swoop down at you from their perches, if you get too close. Once you enter an area around a nest they will defend it, and Toons will be able to use teamwork to lure a Legal Eagle away and get into the nest to receive some kind of bonus power up, like stealth, speed up, bonus Laff, or invulnerability.
Minion Cogs: Level appropriate minion Cogs will fly around on preset patrol paths, and will provide challenging obstacles to the Toons progress. Minion Cogs will also patrol some of the spare parts platforms, to add difficulty.
Storm cloud: Storm clouds are environmental obstacles that drift around a limited area around where they are triggered. If a Toon touches a storm cloud, they will lose Laff, and get knocked back a short distance. It might be nice to have some sort of electrical effect associated with this damage.
Whirlwind: Whirlwinds are environmental obstacles that drift around a limited area around where they are triggered. If a Toon touches a whirlwind, they will receive minor Laff damage and be thrown tumbling in a random direction for a short distance.
Updrafts: Updrafts are columns of air that rise up from the dark depths of the level. They are represented graphically, by a transparent cylinder of geometry with UV scrolling textures to signify the direction and movement of the air. Flying through an updraft will give the player some extra lift, and may help them go further on their limited propeller power. Be careful though, the updraft may also throw the Toon into a Cog minion, or close to a Legal Eagle!
Fans: Fans are represented by simple geometry or animated textures, situated on the walls of the level. They emit a column of air that will travel either left or right, horizontally, that will push the player in that direction, if they fly through it. Like updrafts, the air flow is represented graphically, by a transparent cylinder of geometry with UV scrolling textures to signify the direction and movement of the air. Fans are more of an obstacle, designed to hinder or mess with the Toons progress.
Cashbot Field Offices (Crane Game)
Bossbot Field Offices (Boardroom Game)
Barrel Room
- Main article: Barrel Room
The barrel room will be common to all the games, and will contain bonus barrels the Toons can touch for bonus Laffs. The Barrel Room is also where the Cog Fight will take place. The number of barrels in the barrel room is determined differently, depending on the preceding game. For example, on the Flying Game and the Maze Game, the barrel room starts with a max number of barrels, and stompers slowly destroy them over time. Whereas, in the Crane game and the Boardroom Game, the number of barrels is determined by the Laffs gathered while playing, and the number of “Barrel Destruction Memos” picked up, respectively. After any game has been completed successfully, the Toons will be taken, via a movie sequence, to the barrel room.
Once in the barrel room, the Toons will have free movement, and can walk around and collect their Laff bonuses from the remaining barrels (if there are any). Set in the back wall will be elevator doors with an indicator above. Toons will have around 30 seconds to collect their Laff bonuses, before the elevator indicator starts to flash, warning the Toons that the doors are about to open. If the Toons collect all the Laffs before the 30 seconds is up, the indicator will start flashing immediately.
A few moments later, the doors will slide open and the Cogs will rush out and the Cog fight will begin. The Toons must fight and defeat all the Cogs in order to advance to the next floor. When all the Cogs are beaten, a movie will show the Toons entering the elevator, and then exiting again ready for the next floor.
