My lander team has discovered a mystical Precursor artifact called
"The Plot Development Docs"!
It seems to have very peculiar properties, at least it definitely is
superconductive between the temperatures of 18 and 22 degrees C.
I shall now submit it to your scrutiny via this e-mail.
A short explanation: There's a lot of text, most of it in black, some
in red. Those red text snippets are problems/plot points we've not yet
completely tackled. They definitely need some attention and
suggestions. But don't hesitate to comment that black text either:
Almost nothing is set in stone in this point.
Jaakko Markus Seppälä
the evil, slavering slimelord from outer space
Anyway, can we start picking implementation tasks from the parts that
have stabilised? How should we manage them? (Issues in the issue
tracker, spreadsheet, etc.)
2011/5/7 Jaakko Seppälä <jaakko.mar...@gmail.com>:
The spreadsheets Cedric used to make were great at least for the
smaller team we had back then. But perhaps the issue tracker is better
since it is more handy to "pass around" than e-mailing .xls files.
Also, there would be no risk of someone operating on an outdated
version of the task list if we used the issue tracker.
Edmund, can you add Ariel (ariel...@gmail.com) to this mailing list
if he already isn't on it?
Let's see about the things we could start implementing. Plot/Dialogue:
-The Arilou, Shofixti and Spathi (at least the "setting them straight"
mission) seem to be the most ready at this point. Also the VUX/DAX
plots seem pretty finished to me. We could already start implementing
these? The Shofixti dialogue stuff is prioritized to Ariel.
-Taalo still need fashioning of their character and speech patterns
even though their plot is more or less ready. The same goes for almost
all the new races. Before we can start working on them we must
brainstorm and agree upon what they look like, how they behave, how
they speak. Ideas?
-The Chmmr/Mmrnmhrm are pretty much ready, but we'll have to go
through the suggestions by Ariel (and maybe others soon) before
starting on them.
-The Androsynth are a bit of convoluted mess, but they're my mess ;)
Like Chmmr/Mrn plot, they'll be ready to work on soon.
-Ariel threw in an interesting proposition: The Masterrace/Slaverace
could be Druuge/Burvixese(or Gg) at a new colony. There are several
kinks with this approach, like how come no one knew/mentioned about
other Druuge empires in SC2... but in case we run out of ideas for new
races this is one possible solution. What do you think? I actually
would prefer having new races.
Graphics:
-Except for the "Exotics' gravity bombs", the existence of which is
still a bit uncertain, all the devices listed in the doc are
definitely gonna be in the game. The graphics on these could be
started on.
-We know what Mrns, Androsynth and also Taalo are gonna look like.
These also could be started on. Also, DAX?
Programming:
-At least implementing the hi-eff cargo bay and double rate lander gun
come into mind.
Who wants to do what?
Jaakko
Jaakko
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I vote for using the tracker, at least as a way to coordinate things.
I've no problem with additional spreadsheets/docs/etc. where they may be
more suitable.
Most plot is conversational and there's no harm in putting in skeletal
conversations that let the player run through the plot. Where there are
partial conversations written, we should put them in too even if they're
not complete. I think it will help with motivation if the workers can
see part of the final product working. ;)
To be honest I'm not sure what to do to move the ideas from those docs
into the game.
I might start by making issues for some of the boxes on that
spreadsheet? I'll pick one or two to start with, just to add its
GAME_STATE variables and wire in some conversation to the relevant
races. I'll also make issues for larger items like new ships, devices,
modules. Just to remind us what's outstanding. If there are small
programming tasks that come up, we should make an issue for them. This
provides some introductory tasks for newcomers.
--
Of course we're dependent on a lot of writing, graphics, and audio
being produced. I personally can't do much in those areas but I'm
going to have a shot at implementing some of the plot points and
hopefully we can flesh them out with the media assets when the experts
get round to them...
Cedric:
It'd be great indeed to have your help with marshalling troops! I've
assigned the Shofixti dialogue stuff to Ariel Azia (and related
Melnorme dialogue: them telling the player about the Shofixti
legends), but other stuff I haven't yet had time to assign to anybody.
Let alone trying to get new people on board!
Joris:
Thanks for your feedback. You've got several really good points there.
I've started reading through your doc and will start commenting to
that googledoc next week. While I'm at it, I could add Ariel Azia's
feedback into that googledoc since currently he's only e-mailed it to
me as a word doc.
Edmund:
Do you feel like you could start dividing some of the most ready plot
yarns into action items that could be assigned to people? This is an
example of how Ariel's Shofixti stuff is divided:
1. dialog subtree with regular shofixti ship directing you to Beta Gorno III
hint of religious fanaticism should intensify with time.
( a new more omnious line every few months )
2. complete dialog tree with Hiroku
-- general colony and shofixty information (politics, religious)
-- the mythology (reluctant to talk about it)
-- description of religious sect political overtaking overr time
-- quest item related dialog
-- dialog of failure (after suicide)
should be a memorable somber experience for the player
3. historical data on the shofixti from the melnorme (the myth)
Jaakko
Would anyone object if we did either of:
1. Put it in the project Wiki, with the same structure, spread over
multiple pages.
2. Put it as a .doc into the source code in this directory:
http://code.google.com/p/project6014/source/browse/#svn%2Ftrunk%2Fsc2%2Fdoc%2Fmod
I volunteer to do step 1.
Edmund.
I completely agree with sharing the document and letting the team update it and add comments. However I'd like to tie it in a bit more closely with the other files...
Would anyone object if we did either:
1. Put it in the project Wiki, with the same structure, spread over multiple pages.
2. Put it as a .doc into the source code in this directory: http://code.google.com/p/project6014/source/browse/#svn%2Ftrunk%2Fsc2%2Fdoc%2Fmod
I volunteer to do the step 1 (since I have
Edmund.
On 14/05/2011 5:33 a.m., Joris van de Donk wrote:
I've been perusing the plotdevdoc suggestions and been making headway.
At first I commented back all the comments in the Wiki, but also added
all the stuff in the .doc file in the end: I found the .doc file
easier to read than the singular wiki items.
Thanks to Megagun's and Ariel's comprehensive review of the
plotdevdoc, plus everyone else's comments (you know who you are ;)
we've made again a lot of progress.
- The Slylandro/umgah plot is now more logical and also more fun, and
it also hosts a possibility to bring an annoying Umgah scientist NPC
onboard!
- Also, the Arilou guard plus orzspace entering plots work better now
and feature a new choice for the player to make. What do you think?
- Various odds and ends with Melnorme, Mrns, Earthlings and other
races have been amended, making this whole shebang yet more solid.
- It's beginning to look apparent that there is no bullet-proof
solution for the Kohr-Ah menace... and nobody actually wants to come
up with one, me included. We can do well without a "final solution"
for the Kohr-Ah. Let's exterminate them in the next sequel ;)
The biggest unsolved thingys: (see the newest attached .doc or Wiki)
- Do we make the Exotics directly communicable or not?
- Is the Black orb a insta-communication tool like Megagun suggested?
I actually like this approach. It would explain nicely why the Exotics
notice it. It could still be gravitational technology, and we could
still leave it vague to the player what it actually is. The other
suggestion Megagun made was that the rainbow worlds could be
Precursors' attempt to duplicate this technology! They act as a
cheaper, larger, yet less effective version of the orbs since the
Precs just aren't as good in the gravitational tech as those who made
the Orbs. (If we make the Exotics directly communicable, the Black Orb
could be then a part of the exotics communication tool. Like Ultron's
rosy sphere & co.)
- Do we want to have the Umgah Scientist NPC onboard?
- Can the Lurg be thrown under the Exotics' bus? Since apparently we
don't want to give a final solution to the Kohr-Ah, it would be nice
to have some sort of resolution for the Lurg problem. (In SC2 there
weren't many races that couldn't be "solved", mainly VUX).
- Names for the slave- and masterrace? Zrunti and Tanashov, anyone? ;)
- Plotwise the Yehat still are little more than "the followers of
Chmmr"... and the Spathi are completely useless :-p Ideas?
Jaakko
- It does seem a illogical that all these civilizations cannot support
a small fleet. The lander mini game is nice, so now we need good
reasons for the plot why it is still necessary to gather minerals!
First, I think your plot arc has great potential.
Now for my thoughts:
Niven's ancients are fun, but the history of the two races you have suggested
is similar to the dnyarri and ur-quan story. If we choose to adapt your idea,
you need to make it more distinct How about we combine your idea with
the Gou'auld? this way the master race is hiding in plain sight.
The master race is a parasitic entity that instructs the host to act
in the parasite's best interest. I think most of what you have written
creates no conflict,
including the near-utopian past of the slave race.
perhaps you can learn of the past the slave race from the Xen-Weyi who know
them as completely different from their current status
I personally love the paranoia aspect, the dialog should be fun to write.
I think obvious good and evil choices (once the protagonist becomes aware
of this) are to free the slave race or gain control over the master
race "programming"
An idea to tie in this plot arc to UQM will involve the Spathi, as
they are the paranoid
archtype. perhaps the master race and the spathi are related genetically
maybe the spathi are also under the influence of this parasite, but
the host race
was susceptible to this control to begin with. regardless, the
protagonist will take
advantage of this fact.
Obviously a Taalo mind shield could be useful if we are going with
telepathic domination.
that's it for now
Ariel
Niven's ancients are fun, but the history of the two races you have suggested
is similar to the dnyarri and ur-quan story.
How about we combine your idea with
the Gou'auld? this way the master race is hiding in plain sight.
I personally love the paranoia aspect, the dialog should be fun to write.
An idea to tie in this plot arc to UQM will involve the Spathi, as
they are the paranoid
archtype.
perhaps the master race and the spathi are related genetically
maybe the spathi are also under the influence of this parasite, but
the host race
was susceptible to this control to begin with. regardless, the
protagonist will take
advantage of this fact.
Obviously a Taalo mind shield could be useful if we are going with
telepathic domination.
that's it for now
Ariel
I previously suggested that the Spathi leave with their entire solar
system (a la puppeteers)
so it is reasonable they need require such technology from somewhere.
I did suggest to tie this
with the gravitational theme of the exotics somehow.
>> perhaps the master race and the spathi are related genetically
>> maybe the spathi are also under the influence of this parasite, but
>> the host race
>> was susceptible to this control to begin with. regardless, the
>> protagonist will take
>> advantage of this fact.
>
> Sorry, this is far too retconny for me. On the other hand, what about if we
> somewhat allude to the mythical Black Spathi Squadron perhaps possibly being
> under the influence of some alien race? :)
>
So should the two races share more than just similar mindsets?
>>
>> Obviously a Taalo mind shield could be useful if we are going with
>> telepathic domination.
>
> Yeah, this is why I initially went for a non-telepathic form of domination;
> I'm sure the original Taalo shield might still float somewhere around in
> space, or other Taalo shields might be found somewhere else, and this would
> make this entire subplot way too easy to resolve... ;)
>>
Joris, overall the plot arc is established.
But you need a few characters before I can really feel the story.
Specifically, what emotions are conveyed by these representatives
during the plot arc?
Megagun, Your MasterRace character and plot descriptions kick some
serious butt!
Here's some thoughts.
MASTERRACE:
-"The intelligence of a MasterRace individual is the inverse of their
skills in the Ability..." is just that interesting 'something' that
these new races in the plotdevdoc have yet been lacking! It creates a
dramatic tension into the society and the very nature of the race.
After all, the thing about the races in SC2 was that each of them had
a unique character, which was reflected on their society. This is just
that. It's also great that the player gets an option to use this
knowledge (if he obtains it) to affect the game!
Your MasterRace not only contains the eastern block authoritarian
control type of paranoia (East Germany, USSR), but also something from
mother Russia... many of the classic authors like Dostoyevski have
pondered the "russian nature", which makes a man grovel in front of
his superiors and cruelly trample those that are beneath him in the
society. I think this is good: Your MasterRace is not an obvious
allegory of either, but still contains echoes of something very
recognizable.
-"Every individual of the MasterRace is ranked according to the number
of citizens that he dominates..." is a cool idea. The number could be
used in the dialogue exactly like we use the ranks Captain, Major and
so forth, like "Attention, unknown alien, this is 268124867 of
MasterRace..." without any further explanation at first.
It would arouse interest and would spawn some more dialogue choices.
Of course, the average dumb Masterracer would not (and could not since
he doesn't know) reveal everything about the control
ability/intelligence stuff, just the basics about the number of
controlled individuals.
-All in all there's not much I would change about the MasterRace and
am willing to overthrow the old MasterRace from the doc and substitute
it with your vision... (a true MasterRace individual would approve of
this kind of action, no? ;)
SLAVERACE:
As you said, whilst your MasterRace is thorough and well fashioned,
SlaveRace still needs some more work done on it. Currently the race is
functional but pretty generic. It lacks that personality and
originality that the MasterRace has.
The "past filled with horrors and a co-operation gone sour" is much
better than the "evolved on a very peaceful world" scenario. The
latter just feels quite implausible to me and on the other hand has
been done quite a many times. A slow resentment that has been slowly
building up in the Slaverace towards the Masterrace is a great shaper
of their character! It alone makes them so much more concrete than the
vague "peaceful hi-tech beings" premise. So I suggest we go with the
plan that in the beginning the Masterrace/slaverace relationship
(perhaps) benefited both, but now they're on the brink of the
slaverace rebellion.
At first I thought that whilst the communication blackout device is an
interesting proposal, there might be a tad too many options with it in
the plot. I also thought that we should have in its place an
alternative "-Assist the SlaveRace rebellion and kill off a lot of
MasterRace in the process",
but then I realized: The communication blackout device IS the way to
assist the SlaveRace rebellion! The SlaveRace, being technically
superior, has secretly developed such a device. But they lack freedom
to move to activate and utilize it in suitable locations. So, they
give you the device if you agree to help them. You can either assist
their rebellion or rat them out to the MasterRace. How 'bout it?
SPATHI:
We do need more stuff for the Spathi... but using slaverace tech for
this is a bit tricky. If it was slaveshield that the slaverace
develops for them, it could just be cracked open again by the Chmmr or
the player with the shieldbuster. The wormhole tech which allows
escaping to some unknown place en masse is better: the slaverace would
want to use it themselves, but they can't since the masterracers are
amongst their planets, many of them are on masterrace planets and they
don't have the freedom to move about in general.
However, there might be too many "hi-tech oriented races" with this
approach: Androsynth, Xen-Weyi and the SlaveRace. But then again, we
could have the Xen-Weyi not be all about tech, but instead they excel
only in the bio-engineering plants department since it was mandatory
for the race to develop something like them to survive under the slave
shield.
Ariel: Do you have thought further about tying in the Spathi with the
gravity theme somehow? How would the Spathi acquire the tech?
Jaakko
Maybe that would lead to the worst option: The
now-dumb-as-fuck-masterracers would eliminate the Slaverace as the
first thing they do since they don't want any "foreign influence"
polluting their culture. And they would pretty soon kill themselves or
render themselves incapable because of their stupidity somehow.
So this choosing this alternative would practically result in the
destruction of both species.
Jaakko
2011/6/20 Jaakko Seppälä <jaakko.mar...@gmail.com>:
As I said before, In my suggested plot arc, the Spathi wish to "pull"
their sun out of the quadrant.
They need a gradual but consistent gravitational pull, this sounds
very similar to what the exotics can do,
or something the exotics can take a great interest in, that is the tie
in to the major plot.
Stopping the Spathi from doing this might buy some more time before
the arrival of the exotics, for example.
Who is helping the Spathi to accomplish this? suggestions:
- Someone who was paid for their services (like the Melnorne).
- Someone who is interested in getting rid of the spathi for some reason?
(maybe all spathi know a terrible secret about the ultimate evil?
maybe they are frightened and paranoid
with a good basic cause), I am not sure who would that be.
- A really smart and charismatic Spathi (one that was born with what
may be considered backbone
in spathi standards). Obviously it can be based on another race's
technology, but If we go with a Spathi
then we get another character that may be fun to write.
BTW I don't think there should be such a thing as too many "Hi tech
oriented". Technology is power and
each race can strive to develop technology that suits its psyche.
The slave race rely on developing new technology to appease the master
race, so they have a very ambivalent approach
to it, while the Androsynth treat science a little like religion. (as
a suggestion)
Ariel
It depends so much on how we eventually shape the Exotics. But I'm a
bit leery about other races making alliances / being able to
communicate properly with them.
Yeah, technology is a medium that every race will and must develop to
some extent. It becomes problem if tech itself becomes THE defining
characteristic for many races. But as you said, the slaverace can have
an ambivalent approach to technology (or somehow else differ from the
androsynth attitudes). However, then the slaverace also need something
else defining their character, in addition to being tech wizards.
Otherwise they'll be quite hollow. I bet Joris is cooking up something
good for them!
Jaakko
MasterRace
The MasterRace are a race with the ability to naturally detect if they can influence another individual, and if their attempts at influence have been succesful. This ability is based mostly on body language and behaviour.
Interestingly, the intelligence of an individual is the inverse of their skills in the Ability: the smartest members of the MasterRace suck the most at the Ability.
-"Every individual of the MasterRace is ranked according to the number of citizens that he dominates..." is a cool idea. The number could be used in the dialogue exactly like we use the ranks Captain, Major and so forth, like "Attention, unknown alien, this is 268124867 of MasterRace..." without any further explanation at first.
Random bits of thoughts:-The MasterRace do not have words for "parent", "child", "father" and "mother". Although they reproduce in similar ways as we do, as soon as a MasterRace individual is born, his true father and mother forget about him and place him somewhere at the bottom bits of the MasterRace pyramid.
One of the things I tried to keep in mind whilst thinking about this was that it would have to integrate neatly with some other ideas that have been floating around. If we want to, we could use the MasterRace-SlaveRace situation to explain some of the communication tool ideas (Exotics comm tool / rainbow worlds) floating around. We could also use the 'player getting their own private army' scenario as some kind of place to go to if Hayes and the guys at Earth decide that they should break contact with Zelnick..
This did get me thinking, though: how about instead of having a peaceful past, the SlaveRace have a past filled with horrors?
I personally love the paranoia aspect, the dialog should be fun to write.
Yes, that's what I thought. I'm picturing the paranoia more as a Cold-War esque form of paranoia, though. Not really too obvious, but once you start noticing that it's there it might get quite interesting and hilarious. Subtle, yet effective. I think that most of SC2's writing was like that, which is probably why it was so damned great. :D
It depends so much on how we eventually shape the Exotics. But I'm a bit leery about other races making alliances / being able to communicate properly with them.
It becomes problem if tech itself becomes THE defining characteristic for many races.
As I said before, In my suggested plot arc, the Spathi wish to "pull" their sun out of the quadrant. They need a gradual but consistent gravitational pull, this sounds very similar to what the exotics can do, or something the exotics can take a great interest in, that is the tie in to the major plot. Stopping the Spathi from doing this might buy some more time before the arrival of the exotics, for example.
chris, they are moving their entire solar system!
are you saying this technology is science fiction ? :)
a gigantic hyperspace module .. hmm. maybe it can be powered by a sun nearby.
maybe the energy from that neighbor sun can be drained and start to
accelerate the whole spathi solar system.
if the other sun is far enough, it should be unfelt by the planets
themselves ( astrophysics buffs, correct me)
Ah, I was a little rushed when writing my reply. I also couldn't find
your original proposal of this plot arc, was it sent to project6014-dev?
> a gigantic hyperspace module .. hmm. maybe it can be powered by a sun nearby.
> maybe the energy from that neighbor sun can be drained and start to
> accelerate the whole spathi solar system.
Moving a solar system at any speed less than a significantly large
fraction of the speed of light seems rather pointless to me. It's likely
the Spathi race would be extinct by the time their solar system arrived
at its intended destination.
I can only assume moving an entire solar system using a hyperdrive would
require a god-like amount of energy. Consuming nearby stars, and the
stars you pass by would be one way you could rationalize this.
Chris.
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