Gameplay

Groups.
Students are divided into groups, consisting of corporations, environmentalists, government / EPA, and hospital workers. Each group will have certain advantages over other groups

• Corporations: The money of these big businesses allows their agents to have more RESOURCES (possibly even regenerate RESOURCES while in the field). The downside is that their disregard of environmental issues leaves them with not as much background knowledge as other groups.
• EPA group: Classified lab techniques and government funding allow the EPA to have more labs that are superior to the other groups’ (e.g. they work just like independent lab, but are free). People don’t like G-men asking personal questions so some interviewees may be hostile if approached incorrectly (translates into less likely to get blood samples and other info).
• Environmentalist group: Being very environmentally aware, this group has developed tools that allow field agents to scan and extract much better than other groups. People are also more willing to help them since they fight for the environment. Unfortunately they do not have as much RESOURCES or labs as the other groups.

Extension Groups.

• Rouge environmentalist group – a choice for players mid game. Should they place information in the environment and sabotage the corporation? Could also be NPC.
• Hospital – the surprise ending (if chosen as such). Can offer diagnosing services on interviewees, but ends up being the source of chemical leakage (people leave healthy but are ill soon after due to being so close to the source?) .

Resources
This is the "currency" of the game that allows agents to perform important actions. When an agent runs out, they must go back to HQ to replenish his/her supply.

Exploration Sites
There are 3 types of exploration sites: spills, people (interviews), and field stations. Each member of each group can act as an agent as well as control 1-2 virtual agents who can bring back interview data.. Spill agents have a good number of RESOURCES while Interview agents have very few (only enough for 1 or 2 lab visits). All agents can go to lab stations.

Spill
The game flow proceeds from as follows:

1) map levels
2) gain background information
3)scan location
4) gather data & extract chemicals
5 ) Analyze data & build plume model
6) Report

Scan, Extract, and Analyze
Once at the site, the player can scan the area for chemicals. The scan uses RESOURCES but not too many. Scanning is done by switching the device to scan mode and walking around the area. Scan mode collects data from areas within a 3ft radius of the device. A color map (looks like a infrared scan, different colors representing different chemicals, hue relates to amount of chemical present, brightness relates to accessibility for extraction) of the area is compiled from the area scanned and the player can choose an area to extract from. Certain chemicals can be extracted from the environment.

Report
There are 2 kinds of reporting: HQ reporting and News reporting. Most information found will go to the player’s HQ for compilation. Certain info reported to HQ will increase a team’s point total. Some info can create new areas of interest for a team (finding chemicals near a playground could trigger interview spots). Should a player come across evidence that points to a particular group, that evidence can be reported to the News. All players will receive the headline and the finder’s group will gain bonus points.

Interview

Questioning. A simple dialog tree for the player to traverse and gain info on what symptoms a sick person has, where people have been recently, etc. What info the player gets is dependant on what questions are asked and the order asked (questions eliminated as certain ones are asked until tree comes to an end). Players will be able to take notes on places and objects mentioned in interviews. Places will spawn more areas of interest while objects can be examined and collected.

Examination. Players can pay to have key witnesses or victims examined by their own team of docctors to determine what illnesses they have. For example, some people will have been affected by chemical leakage, while others' symptoms may be due to allergies. Each person has a tell-tale sign as to what kind of illness (spill vs. natural) she has. Certain tools must be applied correctly to yield proper results.

Lab Station. Labs serve the function of performing analyses for free and performing tests that spill agents are unable to. Labs are in general faster than manual analysis, but there are not too many labs and once a person is using a lab station, no one else can use the station until that person is done. Each team has certain labs dedicated to them and there a couple independent labs. Dedicated labs are free to the group, but independent labs cost RESOURCES and have the most tests and work the fastest.

Copyright 2002, MIT.