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After reading the Nontechical EV Bible (A good read, if you haven't seen it already) I was inspired to go and have a little look back at some of the smaller projects that I abandoned in light of a bigger picture. Now that the bigger picture has grown slightly smaller again for me, I thought I'd post this up for comment.
It's the story for a small scenario/TC, which orginally, believe it or not, grew out of an experiment with missionbits. It would have, in completion, no more than around seven or eight continous systems, with perhaps a few extra on the side. Tell me what you think, and maybe I might even think about doing it, if there's good response.
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In 2060, the colonisation of Mars finally becomes a reality with the establishment of a permanent base there. Fed by water from the surprisingly saturated regolith, the base grows, abeit slowly and clumsily.
Then, in the year 2070, a radical discovery was made that changed the entire nature of travel between the planets. A group of researchers discovered how to experimentally increase the likelihood of wormhole creation to a certain range to a near total probability, with the addition of a little impulse energy. Encouraged by anxious governments and greedy corporations around the world, they quickly developed a framework for a series of transfer stations which would cut the travel time between Earth and Mars from weeks and months to a matter of days.
Martian colonisation really boomed after the construction of the stations, with massive influxes of immigrants eager to escape the crowded and polluted environs of Earth. Within 5 years, Mars population trebled. However, the gigantic cost of building the transfer station nearly crippled the governments that built it, forcing them to raise taxes spectacularly. These taxes were raised especially on Mars, in inhabitants of which are seen as having got an easy escape. This increased resentment between the two planets, both sides angry and envious of the other.
This resentment came to boiling point in 2087, with the introduction of a new oxygen tax levelled specifically at Martians, to pay for pollution cleanups on Earth. The resistance movements that were once small and in the background exploded with ferocity onto the centre stage. In a horrible massacre, the entire administrative staff were butchered overnight in one fell swoop. To follow up, the rebels destroyed the transfer stations between the planets, to symbolically cut links.
Unfortunately, they were unaware of the terrible consequences of doing so. The already unstable energy balance between the stations was thrown wildly off-kilter, and the resulting backlash destroyed all the stations in the network. Both Mars and Earth had several transfer stations close in orbit around them, to facilitate transport. Their destruction rained debris down on both planets, causing massive destruction. On this day, civilisation as we know it was destroyed, and Earth and Mars were forced into isolation.
Fast forward four hundred years. Both planets crawl out of their enforced seclusion, both convinced that the destruction all those years ago was the fault of the other. Years of separation have turned idle speculation and gossip into folklore and myth, distorted outrageously. Children on both planets grow up learning that those on the other planet are despicable, sinister mutants, evil beyond all description. Tentatively, both sides rediscover and reuse the transfer station technology, slowly and cautiously. But both planets are reaching the end of their usefulness, their resources depleted and their ecosystems raped. Each side envisions the other world as an Eden, populated by unworthy savages, waiting to be taken.
Governments in this age are not the ones we know. Earth, in total, is ruled by a despotic monarchy, its militaristic tentacles spread all over the globe, Its decrepit leaders, born and bred in warfare and hatred, spoil for the chance of another conquest. Meanwhile, the masses endure a kind of techno-feudal slavery, toiling away in massive, dirty factories night and day.
Mars has become an ultra-communist state, ruled by a secretive and all-powerful committee. Efficiency is the watchword here, partly due to the unforgiving nature of the Martian environment. The people live in sprawling living complexes, sliding between assigned tasks so that noone can ever know anyone else too closely. Total, unswerving loyalty to the Party is called for, and everyone spies on everyone else for the chance of reward.
There are no good guys in this universe, only less bad ones. But which side is worse? Is there even a difference?
Tech Descriptions -
The Kingdom (Earth) - A gigantic techno-monarchy, ruled over by a vindictive and scheming old man, kept alive by machinery. Their focus in shipbuilding is on large, oversized ships with devastating broadsides. Their ships are inevitably slow, unwieldy but highly armed, technological nightmares. Their weapons are ridiculously inaccurate, due to nepotism and general corruption among the scientists, but just about make up for it in sheer weight.
The Collective (Mars) - A sprawling communist state, focused of maximum efficiency and minimum cost, due in part to the unforgiving nature of the Martian environment. Their ships are small, lightweight and generally fast. Their weapons are also much more accurate. However, due to resource insufficiencies, they fire slowly, and their ships are protected with at best minimal armour. Survival of the individual pilots is seen as a secondary requirement, if at all.
Both sides have rough parity of forces, based on the power and numbers of their ships.
You start as the young son of a nobleman from The Kingdom, a third in line and therefore ineligible for inheritance. So, instead, you have been parceled off to the Royal Kingdom Navy, to become a pilot. The transfer stations have finally met in the middle, and at their meeting, skirmishes are taking place, although none can say for sure who started it. Feeling is, however, against the Martian scum. You yourself are unsure, but who are you to argue? You know in your heart that the Martians are twisted creatures that deserve nothing less than total eradication. With this thought in mind you are posted to Eros Base, near Earth, no doubt the first of many assignments.
The outfit and ship arrangements are slightly different here. You're a member of the military now, and as such, they don't charge you for your ship equipment and such. That would just be ridiculous. Fuel costs do come out of your pay, however, but they should be quite adequately covered if you don't go off gallivanting. Chem-rocket restocking and reammunition are all free, but there is little or no selection of equipment. You are offered the chance to move up to command of bigger and better things as you progress. You might even be offered special modifications by technicians, but those would no doubt come out of your own pay.
So, what do you think? Is it good enough for translation into reality? Or is it dumb and simplistic, and should I just go home?
Service With A Smile :), Aegywn
------------------ And the Lord said unto his children, "Look to your submachine guns and grenade launchers, for they are great damagers when fired on full-automatic" -Before & After
Sounds pretty good to me. But I can't help but be reminded of the same "humans reached a peak in civilization then a major war occured and threw everyone back in the dark ages then slowly relearned lost technology" theme that Nova has. But despite of that, your story is one of the more original ones I've seen in a while.
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Originally posted by kulong: **Sounds pretty good to me. But I can't help but be reminded of the same "humans reached a peak in civilization then a major war occured and threw everyone back in the dark ages then slowly relearned lost technology" theme that Nova has. But despite of that, your story is one of the more original ones I've seen in a while.:)
**
Ahh... But have they really learned the lessons of the past? That, I believe, is the question.
And Scifiteki, remember to throw in at least another gov, kinda like the Miranu (completely uninvolved), but a lot smaller (only one or two systems) and maybe one or two independent systems. Just nice places to go, probably resort worlds. Small groups of renegades/pirates would probably also be a nice addition: somebody would get the bright idea of capturing a disabled Royalty or Collective vessel or three... Then disabling and capturing a few more, just to sell them to their original (or enemy) government... The idea of a small TC is good. Don't add the stuff I suggested just because I suggested it, or just because your plug is too small. It'll be a welcome change from huge TCs. Just give the player a few things to explore, and make sure that there's somebody out there with a wider perspective than either of the other governments.
------------------ Youre only given a little spark of madness. You mustnt lose it. -- Robin Williams
---------------- And Scifiteki, remember to throw in at least another gov, kinda like the Miranu (completely uninvolved), but a lot smaller (only one or two systems) and maybe one or two independent systems. Just nice places to go, probably resort worlds. Small groups of renegades/pirates would probably also be a nice addition: somebody would get the bright idea of capturing a disabled Royalty or Collective vessel or three... Then disabling and capturing a few more, just to sell them to their original (or enemy) government... The idea of a small TC is good. Don't add the stuff I suggested just because I suggested it, or just because your plug is too small. It'll be a welcome change from huge TCs. Just give the player a few things to explore, and make sure that there's somebody out there with a wider perspective than either of the other governments. -----------------
Well, it's better response than jeering and boos, I guess.. Maybe I should have removed all the punctuation, so that more people shouted at me for my crappy grammar, and increased attention.
No, I'm interested in that. Perhaps I didn't make the whole kind of setting quite clear enough.
This particular universe isn't particularly a nice place to live. In fact, it's pretty darn far from a ideal futuristic utopia. The only non-military people who have access to space travel, in this place, are the Royalty on one side, or Party Officers on the other. There's no pirate groups out there for the same reason there's no pirate groups in space today. It's just to expensive for anyone else to do it, and both sides guard their territory fiercely.
I would like the idea of a kind of Miranu-ish 'inbetween' government, but... The whole point here is, there are no heroes. Not you, and not anyone else. There's no secret organisation trying to make the world a better place. People are just too busy trying to stay alive. The thing I liked about FH is that there weren't really 'bad guys and 'good guys', except for the pirates and the Nine Democratic Worlds. You could go and kill Riagellians, but then everyone else would hate you.
But in most other scenarios theres a UE/Rebels-type body, all sweetness and light, doing good whereever they went. But, if you think about it, there's not really such a thing in our world. Nobody's perfect, and most are far from it. Such as it is in this place. The Collective and The Kingdom hate each other with such a passion that there's no longer a noble and ignoble side.
More illustration of this is in the way the player would progress through the game. In just about every plugin, you're the plucky merchant/scientist etc. captain who prevails against overwhelming odds and changes the universe irrevocably. Here, you might play a part in the events of the universe, but you're rarely the centre of them.
So, what do you think? Would I make a good, different, original plugin? I realised after I wrote it down that it was a bit EVNish, but curiously enough, I came up with the idea before EVN. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Actually now that you explained your plug-in in more detail, it starts to sound even more interesting. Even though this may not be too original but it would be interesting if there is another faction involved, even if just slightly. I think you made it very clear that both the Kingdom & the Collective have very strong control over their territory so how about an alien race who wants to take advantage of this great conflict between the human race and eliminate them all at once? Or maybe they can just play a small role and have like one or two systems with many empty systems in between.
I was just thinking of someplace the player could go hide if he manages to royally (pardon the pun) tick off both gov's...
---------- I was just thinking of someplace the player could go hide if he manages to royally (pardon the pun) tick off both gov's... ---------
Hmmm.... Perhaps a short way into the plug, I could open up the asteroid field a little, as both sides scramble to gain resources to finance their continuing war, and the resulting kind of uneasy truce where both are just trying to get resources. A kind of brief Wild West sort of hopeful dream. Which will undoubtably get pulled apart rather quickly. The whole point is, that you start off WORKING as a pilot for the Kingdom Navy. So you shouldn't be going around killing their ships immediately.
Which brings me to my next question, that terrible question that plagues the boards both night and day.... <drum roll....>
Is anyone interested in doing, <ding!> graphics for such a wild notion? You'd have quite a lot of creative freedom and latitude for doing what you wanted to do, and it's not a wildly grandiose idea, so there shouldn't be a massive amount of things to do.
But, I won't be unduly bothered if noone feels up to it. I'll just fall back onto my original plan of reusing the EVO sprites in an unusual and interesting way. I'm a remarkably resourceful.. (Or should I say scavenging ;)) person when I have to be.
Service With A Smile :), Scifiteki
------------------ "If you keep your mind sufficiently open, people will throw a lot of rubbish into it." William A. Orton
sure, with such a small plug i could probably do some, if not all of the graphics. I can make just about any line drawing into a full polygon mesh. The only thing i hate doing is taking rendered frames and making them into a sprite grid. If interested, send me some email.
------------------ Yes, the answer is 42. For an interesting quote, look elsewhere. -Me
Already done, my friend. Anyone else interested, or are we full here?
Depending on how many you need, I might be able to do some landscape graphics for you. I'm pretty busy with SRE right now, but this sounds good enough so I could probably come up with a few scenes for you. Just give me a general idea of how many you'd need, because I can't do too much.
rockaddict2000@yahoo.com
Another thing to keep in mind: there will always be a few individuals who will try to stand up to tryanical governments. In this galaxy, they probably wouldn't be too sucesfull. But maybe the player could have to put down a protest or pathetic rebellion attempt sometime. Perpahs a bunch of renegades hijacked a small fleet of ships and made a mad dash for the asteroid belt in hopes of finding a better world, and the player has to destroy them so they don't become a threat down the road to whichever power they fled from. Just an idea.
------------------ Cuz I'm a 21st Century Digital Boy I don't know the Monty Python but I've got a lotta toys My daddy is a Renegade, his name is Hellcat Helian Wait a second...
Sounds like a great idea. And I think I agree with the people who make a mad dash for freedom...but that's probably a little cliche, huh? Especially since they would probably dash for what they think is Eden...
------------------ Sounds like a great idea. And I think I agree with the people who make a mad dash for freedom...but that's probably a little cliche, huh? Especially since they would probably dash for what they think is Eden.. -------------------
Actually, now that I think about it, this idea gets better and better. And I have just the thing in mind for our little intrepid pure-of-hearts... And it's unlikely to be pretty.
Awww...poor them. Does it make a big boom? Or does it make lots of pain in the torture?
Originally posted by SNM: **Awww...poor them. Does it make a big boom? Or does it make lots of pain in the torture?
Big boom-booms are nice. Very nice. Of course, torture can be interesting, too...
Well... Right now, I'm tossing up weather either: If the player joins the renegades, he/she unwittingly betrays them, and is forced to watch all the people he came to love be killed in the slow death reserved for Kingdom traitors, or... Their base is simply wiped from existance while the player is out on recon, leaving the player alone in the universe without hope... Or having to wait for a Nova-type sequel. But that's far too far in the future at the moment.
So, what d'you think? Which one is better, and less clichéd?
Service With A Smile :), Scifteki
I'd say they're both clichéd, but not severely enough to worry too much about it. Personally, I'd go for having either one happen depending on the player's actions.
Here's another idea that occured to me this morning, upon remembering reading that one of Saturn's moons might be habitable (but is covered with 100 feet of solid ice right now).
The rebels learn of that moon, and decide that's where they make thier mad dash for. They are pursued, but about half the hijacked fleet manages to lose thier Kingdom pursuers in the asteroid belt. They then land on the moon and set up base camp, including stolen power generators and solar pannels.
Then they realize just how astoundingly cold this moon is. As they crank up the heaters hooked up to the power generators, however, they start to melt the ice they're on. So they have to turn them down from turing everywhere they go to into a lake. So now they're freezing, and thier power generators are being severely drained by producing so much heat, even though most of it's diffusing into a sparce atmosphere that's about 225 degrees below zero (I think absolute zero is 317 below). The other thing they didn't count on is that this far away from the sun, it's rays were much weaker. So thier solar pannles couldn't produce the amount of energy they needed to feed the power generators.
So they basically could
They choose #3, but by now they've tapped into thier ship's power cores as well. So only one of the ships can leave, and there's only room on it for a fraction of the people. The player has the option of sneaking off with a small group of people and abandoning the rest of the rebels to freeze to death.
If he refuses, then the rest of them freeze to death and he's left alone in the universe without hope.
If he accepts, they go to Mars where they, after some difficulty (and partially depending on the player's reactions to the question-missions at the beginning)(This is something sifiteki and I talked about), they accept the player and the rest of the "rebels". The player then continues to play, only now for the martians.
As the game progresses from there, the "rebels" soon realize that they've become just as bad as the people they've fled from. Perhaps you could also have one of them that the player was particularly close to commit suicide when s/he realizes it.
Very interesting possibilities...but now I've been inspired to come up with my own. Dang all you.