Again, let me stress: I have no affiliation with Electronic Arts or Bioware. I do have a great deal of respect for the original iteration of Anthem; I dearly love the core ‘flight and fight’ experience. But once an idea gets in my head, the best (sometimes only) way to get it out is write it down. Anthem remains the property of its IP owners.

The purpose of this exercise is two-fold. First, to establish design principles to which the team can refer as we navigate the design, development, testing and deployment phases. Second, to identify, in broad terms, functionality and content being introduced to support and extend the core ‘flight and fight’ experience. Please note the order of entries matters; the lower the number, the more fundamental the requirement.

1. Fun alone; fun with friends
2. Every player decision will have consequences.
3. Players will enjoy a viscerally satisfying experience fighting and navigating in a javelin.
4. The out-of-javelin experience should echo the in-suit experience.
5. Players will have constant access to a voice-activated help system (a la Alexa, Siri or Hey Google), which can answer lore, flora and fauna questions (‘Jupiter, who is General Tarsis?’), assist in world navigation, track progress through quests or challenges and provide on-demand game tutorials.
   1. Code name: Jupiter will not speak unless prompted.
   2. During multiplayer, only one instance of Jupiter will respond to players’ input.
   3. Players may replace Jupiter’s speech with an on-screen text display.
   4. Players may choose to respond to Jupiter by typing.
   5. Extensive content for Jupiter will be created in anticipation of cynics, comedians, and gamers with bad tempers and/or language.
6. Players will be able to choose between male, female and gender non-conforming main characters. Players will be given a variety of customization options for both face and build. Inside cities, the player’s face and build will be visible in some camera modes. Outside, if a player is within a javelin, no face or build will be visible.
   
7. The player game experience will consist of three primary modes.
   1. In-city (out of suit) quests and free play. Single player (plus friends or NPCs.) Players cannot wear javelins inside cities. Players will have access to a limited subset of weapons and stealth capabilities.
   2. Outside quests and free play. Single player (plus friends or strangers.) Players will be able to navigate some areas despite not wearing javelin armor. All areas not blocked by tail winds should be available to javelins. NPCs with meaningful dialogue trees/quest givers and communities of NPCs may be found in the Outside. World events will occur on a regular, unpredictable basis, with multiple benefits for participating player characters. Cosmetic rewards will be offered to players who engage with the game on a regular basis.
   3. Forge/Inventory
8. Combat will be available in the form of missions/contracts, strongholds and world events. Random combat-focused encounters will also be triggered as players travel. Missions, contracts and events will vary in the number of acts from two to four. Vocal instructions for missions, contracts, strongholds and world events will typically be provided by Jupiter (see #5.)
9. Additional quest types will be considered for design and development, including (but not limited to) the following:
   1. Build: personal settlement/compound/showcase (1P. Display showcase 1-4P)
   2. Cards: custom game or traditional (1-4P)
   3. Crafting: stuff for your personal compound (1P)
   4. Diplomacy: negotiating peace with the Scar (1P)
   5. Diplomacy: negotiating peace between factions (1P)
   6. Exploration: areas available seasonally, for a limited time. Not impacted by faction choice. (1-4P)
   7. Exploration: areas impacted by faction choices. (1-4P)
   8. Herd: local wildlife through Outside terrain while wearing javelin (1-4P)
   9. Hijack: Strider in wilderness (1-4P)
   10. Hunt: rare versions of local wildlife. (1-4P)
   11. Hunt: bounties on outlaws/ Corvus agents/Freelancers (1-4P)
   12. Puzzle: Find a password by listening/reading flavor text materials. (1-4P)
   13. Puzzle: Bounce light off mirrors (1-4P)
   14. Puzzle: Match a melody (1P)
   15. Puzzle: In-city, herd local wildlife through series of pens (1P)
   16. Puzzle: solve crime questioning suspects (1P)
   17. Stealth: avoid guards, no weapons allowed. (1-4P)
   18. Stealth: observe interaction between NPCs while remaining unseen. (1-4P)
   19. Tower defense minigame (1P)
   20. Timed: match a button/key sequence flashed on screen (1P)
   21. Timed: race other javelins (1-4P)
10. Player characters will have the ability to join one (only one) of the following factions: Imperial, Outlaw, Dominion. Each faction will have a unique storyline and benefits for completing that storyline.
    1. Players who refuse to join a faction will have a unique storyline and benefits for completing that storyline.
    2. Sufficient advancement of faction plots will result in permanent changes to player’s world. Those changes might include transformed city maps, new or altered NPCs, and new questlines reflecting new circumstances.
    3. Faction membership will never impact the ability of players to share sessions/missions with other players.
    4. During shared sessions, the world displayed will reflect the party leader’s choices.
    5. Faction membership will impact the attitude of NPCs towards the player character and any player characters in his party.
    6. Players will be able to create and manage multiple player characters.
    7. A player character may disavow faction membership at any time, albeit with in-game consequences.
       
11.  Cities and named settlements will have five states through which they may pass, depending upon player choices.
    
    1. Idyllic
    2. Content
    3. Unhappy
    4. Chaotic
    5. Apocalyptic
12. Not all or most NPC characters’ dialogue will be altered during a state change of one degree, but a shift of two degrees or more should be reflected in the dialogue and demeanor of NPCs.
13. Unique vendors and cosmetics will appear when a given location reaches either extreme position.
14. As locations approach the apocalyptic end of the scale due to player choice, players will encounter more adversaries, both within the locations themselves and the regions of Outside adjacent.
15. As locations achieve idyllic states due to player choice, players will encounter fewer adversaries, both within the locations themselves and the regions of Outside adjacent, but more and better drops from those remaining.
16. Night will follow day. Weather will impact the world and player activity.
    
17. Players with late game characters will be asked to give speeches in cities and large settlements. Players will have the option to try to frighten listeners, calm or inspire them. Results will influence the movement of nearby cities and regions through state changes.
    
18. Players with late game characters will be subject to occasional assassination attempts by rival factions, both within cities and Outside. Players who kill would-be assassins without needing to respawn will be rewarded.

In real life, this kind of documentation would go through a series of tortured revisions. You need buy in from the money people, the technology experts, and the members of an extended creative team. But my experience is that things move much more quickly if someone is willing to plant a flag.