Well, I opened this thread up for general commenting and questions. I will try to check this daily so don’t be surprised if I respond right away.
To kick it off, I have 4 different “Origins” stories you can play through once the game starts. These origin stories will have a much more direct impact on the game than many others that I have read (being an avid CYOA reader myself). As I said in the post revealing my project, I have it planned for this and two more follow ups to be prequels to a true novel. The time frame between everything is still up in the air. As far as story time goes, I expect the sequel to this choice to take place 15ish years after, and the next about 60 years later. I have 3 different very important events that these choice games will take place, each with their own minor events.
While it will be a prologue to Terran Chronicles, I will try to have the endings as open as possible. I don’t want to spoil to much but I think you will be surprised with how much you can immerse yourself into world I am building.
Sadly, not at the moment no. As I said, I am not far enough into the story to warrant a demo in my opinion. I have two origin stories complete, but I want to redo a portion of the Earth origin as well as finish the other two. I could possibly justify a demo after I finish a short scene after Origins, and the first major event scene (I plan for two subplots to unfold before the main plot at the end).
That said, I really don’t like demos, since they can give away too much of the story if they are not worked correctly. So any possible demo would probably be up to right before you make a major choice at the end of the first subplot.
Just spent all day moving stuff around in my room to make it more comfortable for typing. Will definitely be making more progress with TC1 now, especially since I have opened up more of my week towards just typing. Earth Origins has split into one minor, and one major arc. The origins for Earth are a (Wealthy) New York and a (Orphan) Mecca Opening. The Mars opening has been started again, since I wanted to add a better and more realistic feel to the origin than was already there. I want to tweak the New York origin, and need to finish the last 2 choices in the Mecca Origin (which I believe has come out quite exceptionally so far). I have decided a demo would probably be good for helping gain interest in this project. As such, I will release a demo with Earth and Mars origins, the (training) graduation scene, and the conclusion of the first mission. That in itself should be as long as the entirety of Choice of Broadside so I think it will be more than enough to get a feel for my writing and determine individual interest levels.
Pfft I wish. Really, I have been waiting to reply, hoping for better news but sadly it has not come. I have been really busy lately and I think I have to shelve the project at least for a little while. Sucks cause I just had some great inspiration for the main story line last night :/.
Well, I remember it vividly since it was a dream, but I was already waking up if that makes much sense. And the most important thing it gave me was a way to turn the plot for the novel. I don’t think this will even get mentioned in the choice games, or if it does, it will be briefly mentioned. I still have to figure out how to tie it in in the first place. None the less, I have the basic idea for number 1, and for the most part, number two already. I have the premise for number three started as well. I need to do some studying into modern war tactics and hierarchy, modern and future space travel topics, and the known geography of mars. I basically have the entire first game wrote in my head, but I need some more detailed information to make the story feel fluid and believable. This isn’t helped by pressing matters at hand. I will still try to write when I can, and will be taking notes down in my journal periodically, but progress will be much slower than me as a writer, or you as a reader desire unfortunately.
Hopefully when I get back to you again, I will have good news!
It is a good thing I decided to look at the geography of mars because technically, the capital city, Eden, would be under water with its current placement. I have all of today free, so I expect a lot of productive activity today ;).
I have just recruited some people to draw up some concept art for single/double manned aircraft/spacecraft. With any luck I will have some concept art to post here in a couple of weeks for every one!
I think I can open this up to settings questions. If anyone has a question about the setting and such for Darwin 2, let me know and I will answer them as accurately as possible without giving away spoilers! Since I moved the Capital of Mars to Hellas Planitia, I also renamed it Nova Athenica or New Athens in laymen terms. Mars has a giant ocean I have yet to name on its entire northern pole. It also has a brackish swamp/marsh in the north eastern hemisphere along the ocean coast. The giant volcano in the west is continually erupting, but not violently. There also is two giant alien looking towers shooting electricity into the sky and ground on the North and South poles. As one could guess, the North Pole Obelisk is partially submerged. And when I say partially, It reaches a few miles down to the sea floor, to give you an idea of the colossal size of the monoliths. There is also a permanent thunder storm above the second tower, receiving electrical jolts and conversely shocking the tower back. The southern obelisk doesn’t have enough water in the immediate surrounding area for such a storm to form, but flying is restricted in this region as the intense biuld up of electrical charges plays havoc with most flying equipment and anything conductive, including people!
Atm, I am still working on the story. When I finish Origins, Training Graduation and *Main Event 1* I will copy the entire thing over, strip out two origins and their related paths further in game (since chrome users can see the code apparently), I will post it up. Please keep in mind I work part time and am looking for another job while still maintaining some semblence of a social life. Their are some other things but the point is I know its going slow, and I am sorry. This is why I am getting concept art way before I should, and when I probably can’t afford it. I have been working on Origins for a while, but thats because I am basically setting the groundwork for the entire game ahead, while doing four “Chapters” in one scene. I fully intend to have your origin impact your experiences along the way, and I don’t want your character to just drop from no where like some games (unless you want that, but even then, I am tying some plot reasoning into it and in the final main scene, you will learn why everything happened. Phone is about to die, so I can elaborate later.
So I might just add Demolitions as a specialty today. I don’t want things to be too easy for the player though, so I haven’t decided yet. Currently, the character will be able to become a professional in one specialty, and hobby another. The standing specialties are Xenobiology, Mechanical (Engineering), Technical (Cyber Warfare), and Physics (Piloting). There is also one specialty that is a secret unless unlocked. Players will have the standard three measurable traits (Strength, Dexterity and Charisma) as well as having your unit’s morale measured. If at any time your morale hits zero well… very bad things happen to you.
Back to Demolitions, what are you, as the readers, feeling in terms of the aforementioned specializations. Do you feel any to be unneeded, or did I miss more than that? Is there something I just must add? Also, what would you, as a reader, like to see in a science fiction, war novel? You may think these are trivial questions but hearing from you, the readers, is a great help when determining how and where to steer the project.
Yeah, but Xenobio will not be terribly important until main scenes 2 and three. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of including it. So to counter its general uselessness, I was going to have it act as a Medical secondary usage. I could also call it medical at stage one, and xenobio at level 3 of the specialization. As it stands though, I am going to keep it as xenobio because it is just too cool XD. There are also 7ish stages of unit morale ranging from level 0 Mutinus (Yeah, your team kills you :p) to level 9 worshiped (They would probably follow you into hell and back, committing genocide all along the way lol). It was supposed to be -2 to 7 but the code doesn’t like negative numbers. For all intents and purposes, I treat level 3 morale as zero. I am probably going to write a different death by mutiny every time that you end up losing a morale because having a vanilla, u got shotz by ur peepz would just be very lame lol.
