idea....

[operative x]

As time continues to advance forward into new centuries and millenniums, so does the population of the Earth. Year after year the population multiplies, which in return, causes the Earth’s pollution to increase as well as our resources to decline. Because of this, humans are forced to expand themselves by finding a second home. After years of planning two ships are constructed to explore regions that have previously been discovered and speculated to have similar planets as Earth.

After two years of exploration has been completed, one of the ships faulty Fusion engines has been exploited and caused them to drift in space just as they were passing through a radiation cloud, a cloud that was hugely miscalculated as “small” The crew of two hundred passengers are now forced to signal for help to the “Brother” ship and go back to their deep sleep at the Cryochambers because the radioactive cloud is slowly eating through the ships exterior. So as they send the help signal and emerge back to a deep sleep at the Cryochambers, the ships AI construct decides if this is the most “Accurate” decision. He decides to cancel the signal because it is too much of a heavy burden for the second ship. As two years pass, the radiation has managed to contaminate small areas of the ship that are closest to the walls and has contaminated most of the Cryochambers, causing in mutations in 75% of the crew. Finally, the radiation eats through the Cryochambers control center and eat the computer harder ware which causes the safety device to release the crew.

The player takes control of a low level scientist who has two choices:

1)Fight against the AI system and mutants to send the signal for an evacuation.

2)You will fight against the mutants in order to sacrifice yourself and the ship by helping the computer destroy it so it will not burden the mission given to the 2 ships.

 

[Fluffy Kitten]

How can you cancel a distress signal ?

If you mean by sending a "False alarm, don't worry !" message after it, surely it'd still get attention when nothing else was heard from the ship for 2 years ?

 

[operative x]

Well you can't just send a signal then 'BAM' its there, it takes time to travel millions of miles, so, when they send it it takes a few weeks to reach the other ship and displays on the screen the progress of the signal. The AI cancels the signal and it stops from reaching the other ship. After no response for 2 years, after the failed contacts it then just assumes the worst and is ordered to continue the mission. I hope this clears things up:/

 

[Neutrino]

Um sorry, but it doesn't work that way. You can't send an electromagnetic signal halfway across a distance and then stop it. You either send it or you don't.

 

[operative x]

Can we please get back on topic? i didn't post this to get told that "500 years from now" that its is IMPOSSIBLE to stop a signal. PLease focus your attention the idea, thanks.

 

[Neutrino]

Sorry, but it just makes no sense. Once a distress signal is sent there is just no way of stopping it. If it's an electromagnetic signal you can't just stop the wave of electromagnetic radiation. If it's some sort of faster than light signal the same applies. I thought maybe you could make it a drone signal but that doesn't work either because inorder to stop the drone you would have to send out a light speed or FTL signal to the drone, which makes no sense because if you had that capability your wouldn't have used the drone in the first place. I just think it is something that would have to be worked out.

Ok, to go on to the idea in general. So the player has two choices right? One, to fight against the A.I. and the mutants and two, to fight agaisnt just the mutants. Well I'm just wondering what is the players motivation come from? I mean given that choice I would certainly prefer to take on just one foe rather than two. Why would a person want to fight both the A.I. and the mutants together? Also, how does the A.I. fight? Were you thinking A.I. controlled robots or something like the A.I. controls the ship? Just curious.

 

[operative x]

No, you see, the choices are
1. the player fights against the AI and mutants to send the signal
2. the player helps the Ai destroy certain parts of the ship like say... a generator and somehow blowing it up. But to get through to the generator, he has to go through the mutants.

Basically the mutants are always your enemy its whether you want to go against the ai and do various tasks to shut him down to send the signal or help him destroy certain things to make the ship explode. The AI fights by say... remotely unlocking certain rooms where large groups of mutants are or locking doors to certain places that the player has to get through. And various other ways to 'stop the player'. And for the signal... how about the crew set the computer to send it within a few days of them being asleep, but, the AI decided to not send it.

 

[Neutrino]

Good idea with the signal and I see how the AI fights now. But I'm still unclear on my other question. You see it's still a case of on one hand you fight one foe and on the other hand you fight two foes. What I mean is what benefit is given to the player to choose going against both the AI and the mutants?

 

[operative x]

Its basically up to the player to decide what is the moral way to go. Does he want to sacrifice himself to not burden the other ship by it having a chance to be attacked by these mutants and completely screwing up the mission? or is it worth it to save a few lifes and fight for his survival? that’s basically the motivation for him. There is no 'right' or 'wrong' way to beat the game. Its up to the player to choose the ending he finds morally correct to him.

 

[Neutrino]

Alirght I see your point. But what I'm saying is that you have to consider that this is a game idea. So morals don't really affect people since nothing is real. In order to have a player make a choice I think you'll have to give them concrete benefits to choose the harder path.

 

[operative x]

I see what you mean, i will develop the 'pros' and 'cons' of the two paths but for now im trying to get a solid backstory.

 

[babywax]

I still don't see why they would wait a day or 2 to send the signal...
Why not make the AI just say it sent the signal when it didn't? Makes more sense.

Why not make one way have you try to fight zombies and the AI to get to escape pods. The other way could have to fight to set the ship control to "manual," and fight mutants along the way.

 

[operative x]

...... back to this.... ok.... they programmed it to send it in a few days THEN whent to the cryochambers and they are asleep but THE AI canceled it OK!?!?!

 

[Fluffy Kitten]

Well, you say you're trying to get a solid backstory, we're just poking at the very un-solid bit until you fix it.

 

[operative x]

well can you say whether you like it instead of poke at one spot all the time lol

 

[babywax]

...... back to this.... ok.... they programmed it to send it in a few days THEN whent to the cryochambers and they are asleep but THE AI canceled it OK!?!?!

I still don't see why they would wait to send it instead of sending it right away?

 

[Neutrino]

I still don't see why they would wait to send it instead of sending it right away?

Well I'm sure it could be worked out with a little bit of thought. Le's do like he said and comment on the rest of the story as well.

 

[operative x]

so do you guys like it or not?

 

[Neutrino]

It's pretty cool overall. I definitely give you points for a much greater amount of originality than a lot of other mods out there. I think if you put a lot of thought into it you could create something really fun.

The one area I don't really like is the mutants. Radiation and mutants/zombies are incredibly overdone in my opinion. I just really don't enjoy fighting mutants/zombies anymore unless there is something really unique about them. Since you have it set in a scifi universe I think you have a lot of possibilities to play around with. I'm sure you could come up with something more original that fits in nicely with the story.

Aside from that nice idea.

 

[operative x]

Do you guys have any suggestions on how i could 'patch' up the distress signal thing? i am open to ideas.

 

[babywax]

Just have the computer say that it sent the signal when it really sent nothing.
No delay of the signal is necessary.

 

[operative x]

here is a huge story update, just skip the first paragraph if you have already read it becuase it was not changed.

As time continues to advance forward into new centuries and millenniums, so does the population of the Earth. Year after year the population multiplies, which in return, causes the Earth’s pollution to increase as well as our resources to decline. Because of this, humans are forced to expand themselves by finding a second home. After years of planning two ships are constructed to explore regions that have previously been discovered and speculated to have similar planets as Earth.

After two years of exploration after the launch of two ships assigned to find another home, one of the ships chose to pass through a strange gas that was blocking a known “Hot spot” for similar planets as Earth that was hugely miscalculated as “small”. The gas surrounding the ship had eaten through the Fusion Propelled Jets as they were passing, causing the ship to drift into an the abyss. Five engineers were sent out to repair the problem. After several hours of work, they started to develop an itching sensation and reported to be taken immediately back into the cargo bay. After examining the suits they realize the gas surrounding the ship had been eating away very thin layers and in some cases piercing holes into the suites. They were quickly examined then quarantined. Soon the engineers started to develop a violent cough that after tests were conducted, revealed small bacterial organisms had been found in the blood samples which were soon labeled as very contagious air-born infection. This air-born transferring infection soon created a chain reaction of infections that individuals had contracted by coughs and sneezes from the doctors and scientist that had been infected by the engineers coughs. The survivors were forced to manually start the ships filtering system that would be able to filter 60% of the infection but in order for this to take place, it requires the oxygen to be replaced which would be killing the infected. Before deciding to manually start the filter, the Captain ordered the AI to send a distress signal to the other ship as they sleep in the Cryochambers. But the AI decided that 70% was not enough and that it is too dangerous to risk the second ship from being contaminated, so, it instead canceled the signal from ever being sent. The infected crew members then started to mutate and adapt to the low oxygen filled ship and began to now await for the crew to come out of their sleep.



please feel free to add suggestions and let me know if they're are any 'holes'. THANKS!

 

[operative x]

Agreed But you have to have both a good story and gameplay, but you got to pick something to start on first

 

[operative x]

Thanks. Do you think that it's interesting whcih may draw people to play it? And btw i am currently writing a design document and will soon post a link to download a really cool voice demo (in mp3 format) of the AI talking so stay tuned.

 

[babywax]

Mutating doesn't happen over night, it takes thousands and thousands of years
However, it doesn't matter that much, it's just a game.

I think it would be interesting if you made some other enemy besides humans... Maybe gas could be the enemy? You get a fan and can blow it away etc... Maybe other crew members who aren't crazy or anything, but are trying to abandon ship and you want to wait, so you have to stop them from getting to the escape hatches or whatever. Along with fighting the AI that would be pretty cool.

Have some of the gas eat away at parts of the computer, causing it to malfunction and permanently close some doors. So it is sort of like a puzzle game too, you have to work out ways to get to the manual air filter control. That, coupled with a map that shows contaminated areas and locked down areas could be very cool, you could also allow players to lock down certain areas of the ship to stop the spread of the gas and give them more time. A race against the clock

I'm just kind of brain storming here, so some ideas might not work.

 

[operative x]

"Maybe gas could be the enemy? You get a fan and can blow it away etc" I was thinking of the same thing too, (when using some sort of rifle (oh yeah I am think of making mouse 2 zoom into iron sights) you can press down some sort of button to hold your breath so you can aim better)) BUT can also be used to not breath in the infected air (remember the gas never actually gets in, its the infected air exhaled by the infected people that infects you), so it won't be just a realistic feature to just aim better, but also serve as a way to not get infected aswell.

 

[operative x]

Here is a talking AI demo (mp3) for download. Tell me if you guys like it
and remember this is based of the old story but this will give you an idea on how it will persuade you to join it.
http://www.w-i-m-p.net/Hosting/Operativex/AI_demo.mp3
so tell me if you like it!

 

[Neutrino]

Here is a talking AI demo (mp3) for download. Tell me if you guys like it
and remember this is based of the old story but this will give you an idea on how it will persuade you to join it.
http://www.w-i-m-p.net/Hosting/Operativex/AI_demo.mp3

Pretty cool, but I could barely understand it.

 

[Neutrino]

Didn't mean to be critical in my last post or anything. I really did think it was pretty cool. It's just that quite a few parts seemed a bit garbled and I couldn't tell what was being said. I'd like to hear more though.

 

[kalayq]

sounds good, but pieces of it (content not story) sound like system shock 2. Now Thats not such a bad thing since it was a great game. I don't mind when older good ideas are incorperated into games, as long as there is also new content to go along with it.

If you actually go through with this idea, maybe add some kind of twist to the story. (don't talk about it here or it won't be a twist

 

[Paintballer]

thanks to microsoft sam right?

 

[operative x]

Muwhahaha

 

[Darg]

Its basically up to the player to decide what is the moral way to go.

Computer Gamers have no morals.

 

[dscowboy]

I like the concept, a lot of potential. Something to think about: ever seen Solaris? I think it would be fun, instead of fighting zombies, to be cooped up in this space ship, going nowhere, with a bunch of crewmates who may or may not be going completely insane. With the facial-animation capabilities you could make some pretty interesting interactions between characters, and it would be a guessing game as to who is going to flip out next and try to kill everyone. And of course there would be a surprise ending, like, the hot chick who you thought was on your side the whole time turns out to be the cause of all your problems and you have to unite with the remaining crew to stop her. Just some ideas. I like your concept alot, good luck with it.