Build a real plot ("The Cult of the Red Gate") into the sample game

[scrom]

Although there's a couple of short story arcs and loads of side-quests, there's still not a real plot to develop/follow.

Time to build a real plot - ideally 2 that tangle together.

Options:

• "First day at work". - most of the side quests cover this already and it's pretty mundane.
• "The Dave and Roger Zombie apocalypse" - at the moment this is essentially coffee - wait - crash - rescue - party. There's not really a build-up so this one has legs.
• "Spy" - the spy's really obvious at the moment. It might be better to identify the spy by achieving other things first. We could even link the spy to dave and roger's zombie plane crash in some way - that'd be neat. I think a first step is to rename the spy "Jordan Miller" - a "real" name and only establish that they are the spy by talking to/examining everyone before revealing the spy. (spotting they're carrying a hard disk might be a start but we'd be looking for odd behavior in some way too). Some acts of sabotage would be good and taking the hard disk from them / killing them should only be obvious much later. Potentially in the early parts of the game, the spy's affinity should be positive/normal and they should not obtain the hard disk and "kill" mission until some later point.

I think that's a plan.

[scrom]

I also see a "good/evil" option in this - befriending the spy offers a set of missions (that should include more sabotage) and potentially alter the plot. It'd be better still if you the player somehow unwittingly caused the crash - perhaps by installing software onto a machine that messes with GPS or something. that might be a bit much though.

[scrom]

So I've roughly woven all of these together. get latte, complete a few side-quests, optionally get approached by a worried lucy, plan crash happens, (spy appears), resolve contagion, (spy dislikes you more), get approached by simon to track down missing data, retrieve disk, return to simon, visit mark, organize party. Optional hidden side-plot - befriend the spy to do a few bad things.

What we're missing from this is a lot more narrative and story from characters etc. We need clues.

[scrom]

I think after the plane crash I'd like to investigate a couple more sabotage missions and decrease the spy's affinity more slowly as each of these is completed. Possibly not give them the hard disk until some time later.

[scrom]

Added "modifyObject" as mission reward. This allows us to add the hard disk to spy after "saveRedGate" is completed. Game data changed to do exactly this! This is tested and working :)

There's a separate issue for sabotage missions. Once they're implemented, I'll string things together in a longer thread and add the disk even later. This is much improved already though!

[scrom]

Rough plot... get coffee - do a few mundane tasks - lucy asks about dave and roger - plane crashes - dave & roger go on zombie rampage and Jordan arrives.

• Simon wants you to dispose of Jordan but if you don't and befriend him instead, you'll eventually be given the hard disk he's carrying. (you'll need to do a bunch of bad tasks to prove you're not a cult member)
• If you install the hard disk in a pc somewhere, you'll see that RG is actually the "cult of the red gate" and that alice is a mole.
• if you give the hard disk to simon and get everyone on the party bus, more bad things start happening (the bus blows up - note Alice, Jordan and Simon all refuse to get on it!, some nasty creatures are spawned that need killing before they kill others). After surviving a bunch of bad things Jordan makes a plea for help and exposes Alice as the mole.
• if you Kill Jordan, Alice turns against you but you don't know why. You may or may not find a clue on her (or in her possessions) .

Either from the hard disk or through talking to Alice You'll find out lots of evil research and learn about the existence of a book of summoning (hidden somewhere in a secret room accessible (and only visible) in some secret way.

At some point you'll be invited to a "release party" where a number of red-gaters will release a demon that will kill all of them and attack you.

If you survive the demon summoning, You'll need to summon a lesser god into a room and attract simon G to it (without anyone else going in there and getting killed). At that point, a battle ensues and the demon possessing simon is banished.

Cue ending, recovery, mundaneness...

[scrom]

Next steps:

• Add computer, implement "install" keyword (or put in), add "install hard disk into computer" hidden mission. (returns an explanation about the cult and codename for Mole (Alice))
• Reduce affinity for Alice if killing Jordan. At the same time, add a clue elsewhere about who Alice is any why.
• Implement a chain of research about the cult of the red gate (a series of readable item drops generated sequentially)
• add secret room and book of summoning
• add about 5 "bad" events + bus explosion, kill NPCs on bus (and exclude Alice, Simon, Jordan refusal) spawn demons or similar to be killed.
• implement "body count" to opening of red gate (unhide the stat after some mission)

[scrom]

Exploding bus implemented for party bus mission.

Need to sort the hard disk part out. Plan: If you install the hard disk, there will be clues about a bomb on the bus. A player will likely choose to deliberately fail the bus mission. Bodycount from the exploding bus isn't implemented yet though. - It'll be part of "removeLocation"

[scrom]

bodycount now implemented

[scrom]

party bus mission now available after retrieving disk,not after killing spy

[scrom]

Ensure hard disk is provided even if player fails the zombie mission as well. - main difference will be score and affinity modifiers. (saving lives will make Jordan happy, deaths will make SG happy)

[scrom]

Also ensured that SG already has antibodies for the zombie attack - (cannot get killed) - may sometimes make the mission easier if he gets bitten too - and that might cause suspicion :)

[scrom]

Trying to get the hard disk installed in a server in order for a related console to show information is tricky. Will need a mission to install the disk in the server. When completed this will unlock a mission on the console that will be completed by just examining the console.

[scrom]

Mission to install disk in server implemented and working. Follow-on mission needs writing.

Also want to change Jordan gaining hard disk to be event based or when Jordan reaches server room.

[scrom]

Rather than follow-on mission for disk, I've consumed the disk and altered the console attributes to show the next clue :)

[scrom]

Next step is to have Alice/Jordan hunt down player (much like Lucy does earlier in game) and start building trust.

Also need to work out the thread if you give the disk to Simon instead.

Oh - and change Jordan gaining hard disk to be event based or when Jordan reaches server room.

[scrom]

Jordan gaining hard disk now set for when he reaches the server room. Need to plumb back together the retrieve disk missions to get sequencing right now.

[scrom]

done - player can start the party bus missions without returning disk to simon.

[scrom]

Simon's A3 sketchbook now has a clue in it.

Need to builda Jordan-related mission to run after "stealvaluables". Something along the lines of having built trust, Jordan gives you something to take to Alice. By giving this token to Alice, she recommends you check out the contents of Jordan's hard disk (if you've not already and if you still have it). (if Simon G has the disk, she might offer a backup - this requires some more mission logic to generate a specific thread based on some conditional stuff which will be tricky (but very useful). Once you've viewed the disk, there's another research mission to find clues. If you've already viewed the disk, this should jump straight to the research mission.

In order to prevent reading the disk early, I think I might leave the server in the machine room broken and trigger Amanda going to fix it.

[scrom]

If saveredgate is completed before the "find dave and roger" mission is completed, we should delete/force fail the find dave and roger mission - done - this is removed when event "playerreachescrashsite" is completed

[scrom]

This issue needs cleaning up and breaking into smaller trackable pieces

[scrom]

if jordan is bleeding he'll now head to alices home location (and will probably heal once too). if jordan is killed, alice receives a letter. (this may only trigger when you discover jordan's body - I think that's fine

[scrom]

this issue has now been split into a series of more detailed lot issues. Closing this one down now as it's too hard to see what's actually going on with it.