BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago 
I thought we were using the link in the readme to disuse future topic like this.
Open BraedonWooding opened 7 years ago
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago
I thought we were using the link in the readme to disuse future topic like this.
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago 
I love it. What kind of mechanics would we need to make a story mode?
We should let modders add storydriven gameplay where you have goals and an event chain, but also randomized events that has some depth. We should implement any campaign/story mode as an internal mod so that we know the API is available.
@WardBenjamin Can you add this to feathub?
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago 
Yep! Added!
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago 
@bjubes isn't that more for suggesting ideas not to discuss them?
Am I correct in assuming that this ties in with a game tutorial?
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago
@Tranberry The feathub votes will establish a roadmap, it's pretty crucial to get things on there if we want them prioritized
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago
@vogonistic Some topics there are lacking good descriptions, I'm probably a bit nit picky but an idea is barley an idea when it just says "What about aliens". But if the idea is to 'brainstorm' ideas that later will be fleshed out I kind of understand it. I'm fine with it either way I just didn't get it.
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago
@Tranberry I'm not sure which topic you are talking about, but ideally the better fleshed out one's will win. The problem right now is I think people will want everything. I wish we had something where people could vote for 3 items, and 3 only.
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago
@vogonistic I'm going way off topic trying to reply here. I guess I'm just in agreement with you.
But this will be useful for making a game tutorial right, I mean a scenario is not that far off from a tutorial anyhow.
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago 
In my opinion df-likes don't benefit from a story. Yes, there is a premise: three pawns stranded on a rim world/strike the earth. I believe it should be as simple as possible to establish the game's setting and situation. The premise is only a frame for the true story, which is told in terms of game mechanics, an emergent narrative. Who was crushed by elephants, whose loved one got shot, how did the colony of pacifists survive etc.
Of course, there are also games like Theme Hospital, which consist of a campaign of multiple scenarios. Here, a story could be useful to connect the scenarios in one narrative. However, I personally prefer Dwarf Fortress's way of giving you an empty canvas to draw inappropriate things on.
I like Rimworld's way of giving control over the premise to the players via scenarios. If all starting conditions were defined via xml/lua, one could easily create alternative scenarios - with alternative premises.
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago 
@lincore81 I think your last paragraph about sums up what I think. The base game could have a simple backstory (Space miners stranded! More at 11!), but having specific scenarios that you can play through (and that you can create for others to play through) would be hugely beneficial.
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago 
It seems to me that a 'story' (i.e. specific turn of events that lead the characters to the place they are now) is much less important than a 'setting' (i.e. the universe and its history that the current events unfold within). Are the space-pirates members of a naturally violent race, or were they a peaceful and resource rich race before some great injustice left them scattered, weak, and hungry for a return to power? Are robotic aliens an ancient and incomprehensible threat (i.e. Rimworld's mechanoids), or are they autonomous mining drones built by a moral-less corporation with little regard for collateral damage? I personally like the idea of a low level threat being a mining drone attacking your ship simply because it can't tell the difference between a space rock and a space ship. This of course leads to the question, are alien races pre-made and hand crafted to fit a particular theme, or are they procedural? I think hand crafting them allows for more control of themes and emergent story (i.e. dwarves, elves, humans, goblins in DF), but a procedural system could lead to some really cool replay-ability later on.
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago 
Hello there, I am new here.
I have an idea for you.
This kind of games where you build a base need to have a purpose. So you build a base.... why?
Answer to this question is simple
What I am trying to say is: Your base at begining could be escape pod from station destroyed by unknown alien species. You are a sole survivor and you need to rebuild and search galaxy for resources/survivors to defend yourself and your allays from other aliens/pirates etc. (I am not saying all aliens are bad.) You can use the machines and buildings you built to do something other than stay alive. You can salvage unknown structures and research new materials, new technologies and even improve upon them. Your motive can be returning to your home planet while escaping from alien force.
On the other hand I really like how in your idea for a plot a company send you to space showing you middle finger as you start off. In that scenario your motive could be getting back at the corporation and ruining their economy or something.
These are my thoughts. This is not my game but I plan on trying it out maybe even commiting some code in future. This is a really nice project. I love the idea of crowd building a game.
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago
I'm the opposite of you, I want a game to be as story driven as Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Dwarf Fortress and many other -in these games what you do and what happens makes the story.
This means that the game have to have a more refined system of interlocking game mechanics to not make the game seem like the same as last time you played it. That said, I absolutely think a starter scenario would be great for people to learn the game and so and why not have a static story for that?
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago 
@mattomwit Welcome! @Tranberry With a proper scenario system we could accommodate both of you! Even better if the scenarios are moddable. That probably won't be for v0.1 though...
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago
yeah I'm dreaming of v2.1. This is just my ideal outcome of the project.
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago 
See also #1078 #1076 and #1070 for some of the game play discussions that have happened on this subject.
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago 
I think this intro text adds a lot of flavor. It doesn't have to dictate the goal of the game as revenge, but you could have missions or trade opportunities, that were references to greedy quillcorp.
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago
While it's a very important topic, is this really vital for v0.1?
https://github.com/TeamPorcupine/ProjectPorcupine/wiki/Milestone-0.1
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago
I say let's close this one, but add the other ones that I referenced to the list of topics we need to review for 0.1. They are what I was really thinking of for the 0.1 milestone. I'm okay with leaving this issue opened too, BTW.
BraedonWooding
commented
7 years ago 
We should have a Wiki page for things for future milestones so that we can add them to a milestone when we want to, but still have them documented somewhere.
For a while we've had some kind of basic story outline (See #263), something along the lines of
Basically the concept is that you get screwed over by QuillCorp, and stranded with no fuel and only a basic drill and power source, and your smallish station.
Any discussion? What does everyone think about this?
Let's get the ball rollin'!