Vince



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DeveloperPosts: 8337 CSG update #1 - introduction « on: January 26, 2016, 11:01:15 am »



* * * The Setting



Before we start looking at quests and characters, we have to define the setting, both the relevant past that defines the present and the present where the game takes place. Any Colony Ship setting starts with 3 key questions:



Who launched the ship?

What was the social system/order?

What caused that system’s collapse?

Answer these questions and you’ll have a detailed and logical setting. Here’s our take on it:



The Founding Fathers:



Who’d launch and most importantly pay for an undertaking that costs so much yet delivers so little? Even if Earth were overpopulated, launching a ship to Alpha Centauri – a flight that would take hundreds of years if you’re lucky enough to have mystical elven Engines of Speed X10 (thousands of years if you don’t) – solves zero problems and thus gets zero cash.



Thus, it would have to be a private enterprise with a pinch of religious zealotry. Would a neo-Christian American foundation pay to establish a 100% Christian God-fearing colony on Alpha Centauri in the distant future? They conquered the New World once and by God’s grace they can do it again - even if it takes a thousand years to get there! Yee-Haw, gentlemen!



The First Generation:



The first generations are zealots who believe in the Mission. No sacrifice is too great, no suffering is too unbearable. They will never see Earth again; they will never see Alpha Centauri either. Their children, grandchildren, and so on are doomed to live and die on the ship in the name of the Mission. They will never see the sunlight, never swim in a sea, never sit under a tree, all because they had the misfortune of being born on the ship, chained to a fate they didn’t choose or want.



The Social Order:



Clearly, a flight that lasts hundreds of years must be carefully managed. Strict order would have to be maintained at all costs. Individual rights and freedoms would have to be temporarily suspended, all in the name of the Mission.



So the first generations would be ready to sacrifice everything for the dream. Their zeal would cement the totalitarianism and the loss of freedom that comes with it. For the greater good!



The goal is to deliver ready to go colonists, skilled in the trades the future colony would require in nearly exact proportions: farmers, metalworkers, chemists, doctors, administrators, armed forces to protect the colonists against all dangers undoubtedly lurking everywhere, etc.



So you can't just leave it to chance and hope for the best. You have to keep and maintain the knowledge within a certain group. You have to restrict freedom of choice for the greater good of the colony. This faith will weaken with every generation, but the change won't be as noticeable until you reach the boiling point where suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, everyone is unhappy.



Population would have to be controlled as well, so a two-child policy would be established. A child born into a “farmer” family would be taught the farming trade (aeroponics and simulations), forced to start a family of his/her own, get the mandatory two children, shove the much hated and useless knowledge of farming down their throats. Rinse and repeat for hundreds of years.



The second generation would still be under their parents’ spell, but the fourth or fifth generation wouldn’t give much of a fuck about the Mission or Christ the Savior, which brings us to the second act: the mutiny.



The Inevitable Mutiny leading to new societies emerging. In any collapse, there is a movement that wants to go back to the good ol' ways (the South shall rise again!), a radically different movement (freedom for everyone!), and a religious movement (what would Jesus do, hmm?):



Totalitarian traditionalism - what was good for our fathers is good enough for us; we must maintain the Laws of the Ship. The traditionalists believe that the old laws were necessary and that they were the only way to keep chaos at bay. Open-minded people would recognize the wrongs but see them as necessary and lesser evil.

Fuck totalitarianism, give power to the people, embrace democracy!

Democracy? We are on the ship because White Christ wills it so we must accept it and honor He Who Was Reborn as we shall be reborn when the ship reaches the destination.

Can't we all just be left the fuck alone? Life's hard enough without your bullshit getting in the way. :deadwood:

So the idea is to explore how this giant ant-farm is affecting people, how societies and ideas governing them evolve over time (something we didn't do in AoD), etc.



We want each faction have a range of characters and beliefs, from extremism to liberalism, and I want the player to be able to push your faction toward a preferred end of the spectrum. Democracy, for example, can evolve either into a cheap popularity contest (Idiocracy) or earning the right to vote (Starship Troopers), all the way to ‘only the wise and infallible Senators can vote’.



* * *

The Overall Design



As mentioned previously, we want the CSG to feel and play differently from AoD. The core design (turn-based, choices & consequences, non-linear, text-heavy) would remain the same, of course.



So the new design elements are:



Party-based. It’s a fundamental change that affects every design aspect, most notably content “gating”. If you have 3-4 party members, most likely you’ll have all skills covered.

Feats. Feats require character levels (another departure from the AoD design) and will replace (and greatly expand) skills’ passive abilities. Our aim is to offer greater customization of your character’s abilities and builds’ support. So far we have the following categories: General (feats like True Grit or Critical Thinker), Specialist (Pistolero, Fast Draw, Paint It Red, etc), On Kill (Bloodlust, Second Wind), Target (anything related to the target: type, number, awareness, etc - Crowd Control, Duelist, Bounty Hunter, etc), Party-related (Warband, Magnificent Five), Combat (Adrenaline Rush, Headhunter), etc. No filler +1 to skill or +5 damage feats but meaningful feats that fit and strengthen your particular gameplay style.

Focus on ranged combat. While melee builds will be viable, most enemies will use guns. We’ll discuss it in great details later.

Focus on exploration rather than working your way up in a faction. While factions will get a lot of attention (see above) and play a large role, you won’t join a faction but will remain an outsider, free to work for and deal with all factions, which fits the setting better as these factions aren’t guilds but different hubs. However, many quests would have conflicting interests and reputation would play a stronger and more immediate role than it did in AoD, so you won’t be able to please everyone for long.

Multiple-piece armor. AoD had a very basic “body armor + helmet” setup. With the CSG, we want to go a bit further: helmet, chest, right arm, left arm, legs. We’re thinking of cumulative DR against general attacks and individual piece’s DR against aimed attacks. We’ll test this system in the dungeon crawler to build up some experience in this area and see how it works.

* * *

The Character System



Expect the same 6 stats (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Per, Cha). So far the main changes are Cha determining the number and type of party members and Int determining the number of tagged skills (faster progression) instead of a SP bonus, which is a more elegant solution. A smarter person can excel at and master more skills than a person of average intelligence.



So far we're planning to go with 18 skills, grouped in sets of three:



Melee

Fist

Bladed

Blunt

Firearms

Pistol

Shotgun

SMG

Energy Weapons

Pistol

Rifle

Cannon

Science

Medical

Mechanical

Computer

Speech

Persuasion

Streetwise

Trading

Stealth

Lockpick

Pickpocket

Sneak

As mentioned earlier:



All firearms are ship-made; most are crude, angular weapons. It’s a 'rediscovered' tech (we all know what flintlock weapons are but we don’t make them, so if we have to start making them again, we’ll have to rediscover the tech we’re vaguely familiar with).



They have relatively low accuracy but most firearms tend to be multi-shot weapons (either more barrels or revolving cylinders or burst). They are made by various smiths for the militia and 'adventurers', so they vary in form and style.



- Pistols use powerful 0.45 ammo but most are single-shot guns. More advanced models add more barrels or revolving action.

- SMG use cheap 9mm and have burst mode.

- Shotguns use cartridges and have the widest spread.



We can consider ammo variations within each class but it’s not necessary as 3 different types are more than enough.



Energy weapons are Earth-made. Since they have no recoil, large stock isn’t necessary, so whereas the firearms and crude and angular, the energy weapons are elegant and curved (think flintlocks). They are single shot weapons that are extremely accurate but slow to fire. They use energy cells (one ammo type for all weapons) that are very rare. Some places sell re-charged cells but they are less effective.



- Pistols

- Rifles have the longest range and best accuracy; the sniper’s weapon

- Cannons (weapons that were mounted on mechs); consume an entire cell when fired.



* * *

In the future updates, we’ll give you a proper overview of the four factions and 16 locations and talk about design. To promote design transparency and keep everyone amused for the next {insert a number you're comfortable with} years, we'll post monthly updates showing our design process from day one and how it evolves over time.Before we start looking at quests and characters, we have to define the setting, both the relevant past that defines the present and the present where the game takes place. Any Colony Ship setting starts with 3 key questions:Answer these questions and you’ll have a detailed and logical setting. Here’s our take on it:Who’d launch and most importantly pay for an undertaking that costs so much yet delivers so little? Even if Earth were overpopulated, launching a ship to Alpha Centauri – a flight that would take hundreds of years if you’re lucky enough to have mystical elven Engines of Speed X10 (thousands of years if you don’t) – solves zero problems and thus gets zero cash.Thus, it would have to be a private enterprise with a pinch of religious zealotry. Would a neo-Christian American foundation pay to establish a 100% Christian God-fearing colony on Alpha Centauri in the distant future? They conquered the New World once and by God’s grace they can do it again - even if it takes a thousand years to get there! Yee-Haw, gentlemen!The first generations are zealots who believe in the Mission. No sacrifice is too great, no suffering is too unbearable. They will never see Earth again; they will never see Alpha Centauri either. Their children, grandchildren, and so on are doomed to live and die on the ship in the name of the Mission. They will never see the sunlight, never swim in a sea, never sit under a tree, all because they had the misfortune of being born on the ship, chained to a fate they didn’t choose or want.Clearly, a flight that lasts hundreds of years must be carefully managed. Strict order would have to be maintained at all costs. Individual rights and freedoms would have to be temporarily suspended, all in the name of the Mission.So the first generations would be ready to sacrifice everything for the dream. Their zeal would cement the totalitarianism and the loss of freedom that comes with it. For the greater good!The goal is to deliver ready to go colonists, skilled in the trades the future colony would require in nearly exact proportions: farmers, metalworkers, chemists, doctors, administrators, armed forces to protect the colonists against all dangers undoubtedly lurking everywhere, etc.So you can't just leave it to chance and hope for the best. You have to keep and maintain the knowledge within a certain group. You have to restrict freedom of choice for the greater good of the colony. This faith will weaken with every generation, but the change won't be as noticeable until you reach the boiling point where suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, everyone is unhappy.Population would have to be controlled as well, so a two-child policy would be established. A child born into a “farmer” family would be taught the farming trade (aeroponics and simulations), forced to start a family of his/her own, get the mandatory two children, shove the much hated and useless knowledge of farming down their throats. Rinse and repeat for hundreds of years.The second generation would still be under their parents’ spell, but the fourth or fifth generation wouldn’t give much of a fuck about the Mission or Christ the Savior, which brings us to the second act: the mutiny.leading to new societies emerging. In any collapse, there is a movement that wants to go back to the good ol' ways (the South shall rise again!), a radically different movement (freedom for everyone!), and a religious movement (what would Jesus do, hmm?):So the idea is to explore how this giant ant-farm is affecting people, how societies and ideas governing them evolve over time (something we didn't do in AoD), etc.We want each faction have a range of characters and beliefs, from extremism to liberalism, and I want the player to be able to push your faction toward a preferred end of the spectrum. Democracy, for example, can evolve either into a cheap popularity contest (Idiocracy) or earning the right to vote (Starship Troopers), all the way to ‘only the wise and infallible Senators can vote’.As mentioned previously, we want the CSG to feel and play differently from AoD. The core design (turn-based, choices & consequences, non-linear, text-heavy) would remain the same, of course.So the new design elements are:Expect the same 6 stats (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Per, Cha). So far the main changes are Cha determining the number and type of party members and Int determining the number of tagged skills (faster progression) instead of a SP bonus, which is a more elegant solution. A smarter person can excel at and master more skills than a person of average intelligence.So far we're planning to go with 18 skills, grouped in sets of three:MeleeFirearmsEnergy WeaponsScienceSpeechStealthAs mentioned earlier:All firearms are ship-made; most are crude, angular weapons. It’s a 'rediscovered' tech (we all know what flintlock weapons are but we don’t make them, so if we have to start making them again, we’ll have to rediscover the tech we’re vaguely familiar with).They have relatively low accuracy but most firearms tend to be multi-shot weapons (either more barrels or revolving cylinders or burst). They are made by various smiths for the militia and 'adventurers', so they vary in form and style.- Pistols use powerful 0.45 ammo but most are single-shot guns. More advanced models add more barrels or revolving action.- SMG use cheap 9mm and have burst mode.- Shotguns use cartridges and have the widest spread.We can consider ammo variations within each class but it’s not necessary as 3 different types are more than enough.Energy weapons are Earth-made. Since they have no recoil, large stock isn’t necessary, so whereas the firearms and crude and angular, the energy weapons are elegant and curved (think flintlocks). They are single shot weapons that are extremely accurate but slow to fire. They use energy cells (one ammo type for all weapons) that are very rare. Some places sell re-charged cells but they are less effective.- Pistols- Rifles have the longest range and best accuracy; the sniper’s weapon- Cannons (weapons that were mounted on mechs); consume an entire cell when fired.In the future updates, we’ll give you a proper overview of the four factions and 16 locations and talk about design. « Last Edit: March 24, 2018, 07:25:40 am by Vince » Logged