torpid said:
Will be their be a main quest
Hell no! See first post, I have played way too many RPGs where you save the world or have to do something else of universe changing importance. I am totally sick of it. There will be nothing resembling a "main quest" in this game, and the player's actions will be refreshingly irrelevant to the grant scheme of things.
of sorts or will the game simply consist of progressively more difficult contracts?
Not even that. I will try to avoid the standard RPG grind: fight enemies to get stronger so that you can fight stronger enemies to get stronger so that you can fight stronger enemies so that.. etc.
I mean, the progression from an unknown, weak warband to a strong, famous one is supposed to happen provided that the player is successful but this hopefully won't be a one way road. The player won't have perfect information about what he is signing up for, you know.. Defeat happens and coupled with permadeath and the Mordheim rule "all equipment of a killed character is lost".. I hope to create a more real life like "up and down" (as opposed to the standard RPG "always up") experience. A real world company can be amazingly successful for decades .. then go bankrupt because of a series of unfortunate events / mismanagement etc.. I am aiming for something like this as opposed to the player simply becoming stronger and stronger with every completed contract. There should be Pyrrhic victories for example i.e. contract fulfilled but you lost more than you gained in the process. And despite permadeath I want to avoid sudden "game over" moments. I.e. a player who manages his warband in a limited risk kind of way will keep some reserve funds so even if his entire warband gets wiped out the game isn't really over (remember you are the owner, not one of the guys on the battlefield). He has just "fallen down the latter". He can still claw his way back up. I want such situations in the game because I like them. It's more emotionally satisfying than success -> more success -> yet more success -> victory/game over.
Will the player be competing against rival groups
No. The Empire isn't a lawless place, your business is legal, and your enemies will be the enemies of the Empire, not other legal businesses. I.e. it is most unlikely that you will clash with other mercenary companies given that you are all subjects of the same power. We are not talking about Landsknecht style mercenaries here i.e. entire armies who fight wars (against other mercenary armies), but smaller "private security firm" style groups.
The - again real life inspired - idea is that the security apparatus of the Empire is simply insufficient, and that's where you come in. This was a pretty common problem in the past, the government failing to provide adequate security in many cases, I mean.
or will he only be trying to beat the game?
I aiming for a sandboxy feel here, so "beating" the game isn't really the point. You can try to unlock all achievements of course, or simply try to beat your own high score.