Baul

[Kwayne]

Working on the Baul animation.
Removed the joystick.
Replaced the antenna with some gizmo, to put something animated on the right side.
Otherwise complete face, both hands and the supercomputer are already animated.

[dczanik]

Now that the Baul art is complete, let's brainstorm and get the story written for this guy.

Kwayne, you've probably thought about this guy more than anybody....

If writing isn't your thing, I'd really like your input on this.  He's your baby.

What do you guys want in the story? What about gameplay elements & missions?

As far as I'm concerned, writing dialog is pretty easy now using the new dialog language.  I think I've got a really good handle on it now. I can write something if nobody else is volunteering, but I'd like to know the main plot elements involving them at this point. What I've seen so far, is maybe... 5-10 minutes of gameplay? 

Ideas are good. Written dialog with those ideas is even better.  Nothing is written in stone here.  It's a plain text file.  We can change things if it doesn't work.  Nothing has to be perfect right now.  I have no problem if anything I write is completely replaced by something better. :)

[drac...@aim.com]

What do you think of the idea that the Baul were uplifted by the Foon-Foon... an uplift that was a bit on the exploitative side?


By the way... I would point out that in terms of actual effectual gameplay, in SC2, the VUX are around 5 minutes, tops.

You can have fun talking with them with no mechanical effect for an hour, easy.

We don't need to connect the dots with the shortest possible lines.

Luke

[Damon Czanik]

Fair enough sir! :) There was a fair bit of travel, exploration and searching though for items, talking to the Melnorme, etc. 

I don't see much of that in the plotdev. Lots of backstory though. 

Does everything take place in the same sphere of influence? Is the Baul homeworld far off from the Foon-Foon's?

It's been a while, so there's been a fair amount of stuff added in the plotdev from what I remember.

I'll put together a list of the plot variables that's in the plotdev document I have.

To recap, from the Plot Dev: 

There's a lot of 'eastern block mentality' in the Baul. Their whole culture is based around
hierarchical domination in which individuals are competing all the time for better standing in the
system. This makes Baul individuals rather two-faced – they appear brownnosed and groveling
towards their superiors, all the while planning and scheming how to overthrow them and rise up
the social ladder. And of course they're ruthless and contemptuous towards their subordinates.
On closer inspection it’s clear that the Baul are not just dominating each other. In the last
15 years or so, a renegade faction led by an ambitious General has taken to enslaving and
leeching off another race (Foon-foon) for his own benefit.
The Baul are namely divided into two factions:
1. The General's faction. The General's space navy which has separated itself from the
government and gone subjugating and leeching off the Foon-Foon. They have enforced their
rule by installing a gigantic cannon on the Foon-Foon homeworld's moon (called the "Moon
Cannon" ... don't expect much imagination from Baul naming habits), pointing at the planet's
surface. They threaten to blow up the Foon-foon's home planet if the Foon-foon don't do exactly
as they say. Since the General controls the war fleet, the Baul SoI is centered on the Foon-foon
homeplanet, so that it's inside the Foon-Foon SoI.
2. The Premier's faction. Premier is the Baul leader. He and the government are civilian leaders
wielding no military strength. They would rather see the space navy at leash length. They reside
on the Baul homeworld, which needs to be found first. No Baul ship captain is keen to reveal
their homeworld's location for free.
Luckily everybody in the Baul army bakes his own pie, and you can randomly encounter
captains who seem to have something to trade in small packages - military rations, booze, fuel,
Foon-Foon crew – aaand state secrets! One of these secrets is the location of the Baul
homeworld. Trading secrets is nasty though, some of the info are mere gossip and half-thruths,
yet they still cost you some collectibles of the more rare and valuable type. The Melnorme info
about Baul and their homeworld location could be placed as the last item the Melnorme sell.
This way it wouldn't be too easy to obtain the Baul homeworld location. It should be hard-to-
acquire-knowledge because striking a deal with the Premier reaps the best rewards in the game.
The Foon-foon are rightfully pissed off at the Baul domineering. They are planning a
rebellion. The Player will have various ways of dealing with the Baul – Foon-foon situation:
1. The easiest solution: Help the General - find and destroy the Foon-Foon rebel base. As a
reward for doing so the Baul donate you a small private army! However, you also lose Foon-
foon friendship and get frowned upon in NAFS (like selling slaves to Druuge in SC2).
2. Mediocre solution: Aid the Foon-foon in their rebellion against Baul. You must find a way to
eliminate the moon cannon before the Baul can use it on the Foon-foon planet. You kill off a lot
of Baul members this way and lose their friendship. BUT you gain Foon-foon alliance.
3. The hardest solution: Help the Premier (and also the Foon-foon). This option incorporates
the Foon-Foon rebellion mission of destroying the Moon Cannon (and therefore grants Foon-
foon alliance too). If you find the Baul homeworld, the player can make a deal with the Premier
about assassinating the General. If the deal was made, the Captain can rightfully engage the
General in combat and let a puppet general take his place who will steer the Baul SoI back to
their homeworld. After the Baul SoI returned to the Baul homeworld you can cash in the Baul
alliance - and attend to a sophisticated victory ceremony of drinking, beating up each other with
dried rods of salami... and drinking.
4. Take too long and the Foon-foon attempt the rebellion by themselves. This fails, the Baul
blow up the Foon-foon home planet, but the Foon-foon also deal massive damage to Baul fleet.
So Foon-foon practically die and Baul are rendered useless.
You will need certain amount of allies to win the game. If you kill both Baul and Foon-foon, at
least you have less allies in the end to kill the Exotics properly. Killing both won’t yet prevent
you from winning the game, but add losing VUX, not gaining Faz alliance, Shofixti suiciding
etc. and you’re running thin.
The Lurg are behind the Baul/Foon-foon conflict. The Lurgs have made a deal with the Baul
General to seek out Precursor stuff and such. The Lurg want to keep the deal very hush-hush.
This way they have no official ties to the Baul, just what they have arranged privately with the
General -> In case the Baul / FF situation blew up the Lurg don't have to take any responsibility:
the General and his cronies would take the fall.
The Captain can cut himself away from gaining the Baul alliance in the following ways:
1. By attacking the Baul homeworld
2. By attacking the General's Punisher ships
3. By attacking Foon-Foon ships while they're supervised by Baul officers (see Foon-foon desc.)
4. By helping the Foon-Foon rebels without making the deal with Baul Premier
5. By doing nothing (see Foon-Foon description)

[Damon Czanik]

Here's what I've got for the variables with the Baul:

These are mostly just the shared variables for the overall plot:

// BAUL DIALOG 

// =============

// Baul Variables used in plot

// =============

// The following plot elements happen, variables shared between races:

// BAUL_HOSTILE: Baul is no longer your friend.

// FOONFOON_DEAD: Foon-Foon has been wiped out.

// FREED_FOONFOON: You freed the Foon-Foon.

// ALLIED_GENERAL: Allied with the General.

// General_faction: If this ship is part of the General's Faction (else it's the premiere's faction)

// LANDER_CLOAK: Lander Cloaking device acquired.

// GENERAL_LOCATION: Whether or not you know the location of the General.

// MOON_CANNON: Whether or not you've found out about the moon cannon.

// BAUL_HOMEWORLD: Whether or not you've found the Baul Homeworld.

// Rations: # of rations you bought (needed?)

// Booze: # of gallons of booze you bought (needed?)

// SHIP_FUEL: How much Ship fuel you have.

// FOONFOON_CREW: Whether you purchased Foon-Foon Crew

// FOONFOON_REBELLION: Whether the Foon-Foon Rebellion has started

// DAYS_FF_REBEL: Number of Days until the FF Rebellion (Probably FOONFOON_REBELLION & DAYS_FF_REBEL can be combined)

// DESTROYED_FF_BASE: You destroyed the Foon-Foon rebel base.

// CAP_REPUTATION: Captain's reputation with the NAFS (needed? consequences?)

// DESTROYED_MOON_CANNON: Destroyed the Moon Cannon.

// ASSINATED_GENERAL: Whether you assassinated General

// ALLIED_PREMIERE: Allied with the Premiere

// BAUL_DEAD: Baul are dead...or effectively useless.

// BAUL_LURG_ALLIANCE: Whether or not the Baul/Lurg Alliance is found out (needed? It's not really stated. Consequences?)

Am I missing anything?

[Gergely Sinkó]

How much I can write depends on when I get back to having a quiet PC, which I'll find out tomorrow.

I'd place the Baul homeworld about half or two-thirds map length from the Foon-Foon one, but much closer to the Xen-Weyi one. They were uplifted by the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za not long ago so they can take care of the Xen-Weyi while they wage their war against the Alliance, then the Kohr-Ah. At the end of the Second Doctrinal Conflict the Lurg told them that the Quans are gone, and made a deal with their General which ended with the Baul space navy subjugating the Foon-Foon. They can't crack Slave Shields so they left the Xen-Weyi and the Faz alone.

Their SoI is not anywhere near their home, the location of which is unknown, unless the Captain buys this info from the Melnorme or bribes the Baul to break military discipline and spill some secrets -- though their information is not always relevant, mostly just interesting gossip.

For bribing the Baul I'd prefer using a specific family of expensive elements, because they require exploration (+playtime) and they are also involved in other mechanics of the game (which means you need to sacrifice potential RU for something that is maybe relevant). Nevertheless the Baul shouldn't do slave trading. For them the Foon-Foon are not property but pushovers. This is also to avoid repetitiveness (no Druuge2 please).

The Foon-Foon rebel base is also off both the FF and Baul SoI, and it won't jump in front of the Captain either. Finding that base is important either the Captain wants to kill the rebels there or needs to beat the General. Neither way ends with a destroyed StarBase, in fact it will become a secondary base that builds Punishers and/or Typhoons depending on who we support.

Finding the rebel base is a bit complicated because everyone has only crumbs of info about it, and they don't know what "it" is. It's a new thing even for the Melnorme: they know of the exact location because it was also the home of the "cloakers" -- the original owners of the Ilwrath technology -- , but the only addendum they got to that is that "it seems the star system has new inhabitants" (according to their sources).