Actually there will be a layer of disconnect between the game itself and the Codex entries. Your MC won’t be able to access the documents, but you will. I just want to give them a little flavour by making them technical documents, written passages and private notes from different people and places. So on the Noble path you might find the Library in the Royal Palace and you’ll unlock a codex entry about it, but that entry might be a letter sent from a servant to their family describing the palace library and their awe at it, and possibly have a little micro-story where in another codex entry you learn that the servant taught themselves the sciences in their spare time and maybe they became an important legal philosopher or something.
Little stories and lore snippets that are given a little flavour rather than simply being cold explanations of something you’ve seen.
Ah, okay. I thought as much - the separation makes sense, and flavor is always a plus. I just… For some reason, I briefly pictured the MC zoning out in the middle of a conversation, pulling out a pile of documents and reading through them while the person they’re ignoring keeps talking on and on…
This makes me wonder how/if codices are supposed to be implemented in-universe in other games. Is Shepard looking through their files on their Omni-Tool while the Geth thoroughly thrash the rest of their team…? That sort of thing. But… that’s neither here nor there.
Nice! Always happy to know more backstory… also… facepalm. i just remembered the line “this is the lady/lad/citizen who was brought up last week”. so Flash has been here a week? What took you so long Burning Man gang??
Holy wow! i love it. & lol, usually with my rpg’s I settle on one favorite ‘canon’ route and just repeat variations of that with each playthrough. It seems in this case I’m definitely going to have to break that habit a bit!
Sounds good! Despite its faults DA2 is one of my faves, the personality system might not have been ideal there but I think it has a lot of potential for text-based stuff and rounding out our MC. So is this talking about the personality of the character we’re play, aka MC? Or do we have an option to choose the personality of the Flash character?
Ooh the gene-mods lend to unique abilities?? interesting… So maybe could they have an affect on the personality of our Flash? I guess my original question is, would our appearance ever be referenced in game at all aside from the initial choice. Even though it won’t have an effect on our capabilities (for example a skinny short MC will still be just as strong as a tall muscular MC if i’m understanding correctly). I mean I still enjoy the choice for its own sake, as it lets us get a feel for our characters, but I also would like when text-based games work in ways to refer to your physical appearance in the actual game, ex. your black hair is dripping from the rain. (although that kind of example is usually awkward… lol) I haven’t seen it often but the better example is when the narrative works in clever ways to remind you that it remembers your character’s physical appearance, for example, changing the color of the MC’s outfit depending on their hair color, a relative with a similar physical appearance, an npc giving you a specific gift because it matched your eyes etc etc,
You are too kind!
Ahh sounds intriguing. Like I said I think I will definitely be giving this multiple playthroughs! But I also hope that we don’t have to play through different branches in order to get a satisfying conclusion to all issues in the story? Like, choosing one branch doesn’t cut us off from certain developments in a jarring way? ex. Arinthas swears he’ll get you in the noble/rebel storylines but then disappears with no explanation because you didn’t make the right decision ? (Kind of like in Dragon Age Inquisition, where making a certain decision is the sole factor in whether or not certain characters appear in your game at all, and otherwise they just don’t exist. I’m not a huge fan of this kind of thing tbh, it just seems too. gamey ? In the case of finding out more about the Forge/the Rebels/the Nobles, I can understand why that might not be a concern to the MC according to which path they follow. Still, I’d love to see some kind of plot elements from the other branches crossing over to others, despite the fact that they aren’t a prominent focus they’re still an important part of the character, at least in my mind. If that makes any sense?
Are… are you me? Because I, too, have a bad habit of repeating (more or less) the same playthrough over and over…
Get out of my head.
Homeboy simply can’t force the MC into following him, so he goes off to play the waiting game. I think that the whole “I’ll get you my pretty” thing was more of a final bluff/threat attempt (with some promise added in, of course) to try to get the MC to go with him right then and there.
“Hey, did you guys know that FTL stands for faster than light? There’s a whole bunch of neat information on this thing!”
“…Commander, I think Kaidan’s bottom half might be-” anguished screams, gurgles “- scratch that, is definitely no longer attached to his top half.”
Heheh, keep this up and you’re going to be the new Jack Vance, when it comes to worldbuilding at least. (fortunately not in your treatment of sexuality).
I think that’s quite simple Calinas instructed someone, most likely her trusted butler and mr. Gray then chose Flash.
So the real question would be why did he choose Flash?
Well myrmidons do seem to be mostly biological constructs with their own DNA, but I suppose it could be possible that some traces carried over.
Well it is sort of the tutorial so even if the player makes a “wrong” choice here maybe have the characters around them intervene to save their butt and let the player get a sense of what works with their chosen path and character class and what doesn’t.
Oh, the Rebel and Noble paths seem made for this and I think we’ll be viewing some of the same events on them, from radically different angles.
Every time I see just one of these long posts by someone, I think that the demo that I’m playing is not the most recent one but then I finally read it and realize it’s just them going into deep discussion about the game.
Sorry, stepped out for lunch with a lady of questionable virtue, but I’m back now.
I imagine it’s more of a getting lost in thought thing, like your squad mates are screaming at you to decide whether to go support Ashley and Kaiden, Liara yells your name and you just sort of look at her blankly for a moment.
“Hmm? Oh, sorry. I was thinking about how they make those little glowy things things that we put on our armour… Have you ever really thought about that?”
There is a teaser scene that explains that, I believe it involves Momo, some brandy and checking the toilet for corpses (something I learned tending bar as a student. That was a weird job…).
We have a three-step problem that we’ll enrol you in as soon as your cheque clears.
Most of Flash’s character is somewhat set in stone, purely so that you can distinguish yourself from them. That’s (hopefully) going to add to the drama by having a defined persona that you just aren’t matching, which will be very upsetting for your rescuers.
Green-skinned people have a mild photosynthesis ability which while not all that nourishing will give them a slight boost in mood and energy when in direct sunlight. It would give you a sort of mild Seasonal Affective Disorder that would make you peppier on warm days.
Blue-skinned people have higher levels of Myoglobin in their blood, which among other things allows them to more effectively utilise oxygen. This has the immediate effect of allowing you to hold your breath underwater for longer than the average human, averaging between 15 minutes and half an hour.
Red-Skinned people have greater heat resistance and (oddly) better spatial awareness than baseline humans. This is because this particular mod was popular among people who preferred living underground, so being able to navigate without landmarks through tunnels and caverns was an excellent skill to possess.
It will definitely be mentioned again at several points, as I like to have a little continuity with these things. I won’t dwell too much on it but things like your eyes, hair and skin do help a player feel like they’re really getting into the soul of their character, and I don’t want that feeling to disappear after the prologue.
I don’t necessarily want to have the player be too influential and powerful in the story, as I feel it can be too jarring. I like a bit of escapism but it starts to break down when you’re the King of the Rings and the Leader of the Rebellion and the Opener of the Way and the Archmage of the College of Winterhold and the Leader of the Companions and the General of the Minutemen and the Vice Treasurer for the Imperial Army’s Taxidermy Club and anything else that someone might conceivably want to be.
For this reason I’m going to fairly firmly separate the three stories at the point of divergence in the prologue. If you follow the Mage, you won’t be around to witness the Rebellion, if you follow the Nobles, you won’t be able to take time off to overthrow 4000 years of religious orthodoxy and so on and so forth.
There will still be some mention of what happens in the other paths, but it will be more focused on the fact that you aren’t there for those vital moments where you snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, so the other two paths won’t progress very well without you.
Flatterer.
Yes, we have perhaps gotten a tad carried away… Nevertheless, do come in and take a brandy, won’t you? All the pertinent information is at the top post, updated… well… I’ll get to it! I promise!
…I’m fairly certain I know why you’d have to do this, but these sorts of things always have a story behind them. Color me morbidly curious, I guess? If… asking isn’t a gross misstep on my part in any fashion… and if it’s not too off topic.
I know that this is 100% not serious, but… wouldn’t you be rebelling against yourself at this point? For the sheer ridiculousness of the situation, I respectfully ask that this be made possible.
I’m curious to learn how mage MC hears about the goings on of the nobles and the rebels… and what exactly the rebel and noble MCs will be privy to re:Arinthas. I suppose the mage MC could wind up being a bit less cut off from humanity than I’m imagining and will catch things from traders/the odd traveler they come across.
But… I can’t think of any way for the others to see how the mage path progresses without them… unless Arinthas pops up every once in a blue moon to give them a status update. Or… hmm… does the mage path even move on if the MC goes with Calinas or Radjack? Or does Arinthas actually put his plans on pause and wait until the very end to collect his prize? His plot seems to depend the most on the cooperation of faux-Flash…
That was the last task you did before locking up at night, always “Check the toilet for corpses”. Otherwise they’d be there in the morning.
And nobody wants that.
Frankly by that point in the evening most of the corpses were upright and ordering a Baby Guinness for the road…
…and the mythical Dragonborn, and the King of Kyrat, and the Lich King Ascendant, and the God-Emperor of Mankind, and Boss of the Third Street Saints, and Secretary General of FEMA…
With the Mage Path, given the path you’re on, will you even want to know?
“Among other things” is a bit of an understatement, more efficiently utilising oxygen would be of great benefit in a great many athletic disciplines too. If they still had it pre-fall I can even imagine separate events for “blues” at things like the Olympic games or their equivalents.
Though I chose to give my space hunk Flash blue skin entirely for its sexiness factor.
I wonder what the yellow/gold eyes gene mod was supposed to do? Better hand-eye coordination is one possibility and would certainly have come in handy for real Flash’s magic tricks. Better low-light vision might be another one.
But back to the sexy blue skin, from a biology text: "Oxygen intake, uptake, and assimilation is critical to the body’s energy and as an inhibitor to disease and decay. Movement invites need for more oxygen but to move uses up oxygen. To digest and assimilate food uses up oxygen. Probably every bodily function uses up oxygen in varying degrees. "
The drawback to all that extra potential muscle, durability better resistance to most diseases and indeed holding one’s breath for longer would be that , unless the blues also have commensurately lengthened telomeres, they would probably tend to age somewhat faster. oh, and they probably also need to consume more calories to keep all of that up and stay healthy compared to baseline humans.
For this reason I’m going to fairly firmly separate the three stories at the point of divergence in the prologue. If you follow the Mage, you won’t be around to witness the Rebellion, if you follow the Nobles, you won’t be able to take time off to overthrow 4000 years of religious orthodoxy and so on and so forth.
Makes sense, youve convinced me. Altho for me it can be part of the fun to figure out ways that a player character could be involved in multiple factions without breaking the story (ex. play New Vegas as the sower of discord/backstabber type, or Fallout 4 as a triple agent- railroad heavy, paladin, AND director of the institute; choose ur true allegiance for the ending then when its over retire and be a farmer/general of the minutemen) I have to admit there are some games like Skyrim however where such involvement (being in charge of everything) isnt quite as fun and just doesnt make a lot of sense. In this case I can see how being involved with multiple factions would probably not work out so well. So im just going to have to cross my fingers that each branch will be important and satisfying in its own unique way and allow for thematically satisfying narrative no matter which branch is taken. & it sounds like you def have plans on pulling that off
and by the way, im curious how your writing plan is going to go. No need to answer, im not trying to pry!! but im curious how youre going to release the rest of the game. Do you prefer working on/ releasing all three branches simultaneously? Or concentrating on one at a time?
Corpses? Drinking Guinness? …dad, is that you? cue laugh track
Me? Yes. Definitely. Calinas is on the warpath if you side with the rebels, and her Flash doll was much closer at that point. I can’t imagine she’d be much happier if the guy she threw money at to work the magic box ran off with her toy. I just want to know just hardcore pissed she’ll get… and whether she’ll throw Finn in mage MC’s general direction. And if she’ll blame the Burned Man’s intervention in any way and march on the slums with a vengeance… How doomed is Radjack and company if we don’t help?
I can also see a mage MC being vaguely interested in learning a bit about the people who tried to coax 'em to their sides, if only to answer the question of “who were those strange people?”
And… well, ultimately, they’re doing what they’re doing for humanity, so it’d make sense to me if they tried to keep up even a little bit with what’s happening away from them. It may also have the effect of turning the MC off humanity, so that might not actually be a good idea…
yet another thing im wondering (whoops) but do you have it worked out what powers the special eye/hair colors entail as well? have to admit im kindof liking the idea of yellow eyes and/or white hair on my ‘canon’ Flash… (now that i think of it getting unintentional witcher vibes now ) i like the idea that Flash was selected on account of having gen mods that made them physically stand out in a crowd… and i also cant help thinking it would make for an interesting scene in the Rebel storyline where somebody learns that the usual power associated with their eye/skin/hair color is actually gone. Cue yet more angst!
Understatements are not a common occurrence for me, give me a moment to savour it…
Ok, done.
I would imagine so, yes. It would just be a fantastic gene-mod aside from the extra potential mass to look after.
Luckily Myoglobin alone would not turn a human’s skin blue, that is still a separate cosmetic mod that has become associated with extra myoglobin in the blood (perhaps a few members of a particular tribe or society that specified this genetic variant were among the original survivors who took shelter behind the Rings).
Also, remember that this particular mod has been mixing with baseline humans for the better part of 4000 years, possibly reducing the efficacy of the mod in all that time, offsetting their gifts while maintaining the skin colour and mild use of the effect. People in the early days would likely have been more likely to foster long-living children with this gene-mod, growing the population from let’s say 0.05% 4000 years ago to maybe 5% of the modern population, the cost being reduced efficacy due to extensive blending with other baseline Humans and other Augments.
Well, at the moment I’m just taking it one day at a time, and I recently held a thread vote for which section was wanted most. The Rebels won by a slim margin, with the Nobles one point behind, so for now that determines the order.
There are six planned chapters for each path, and I’ll write each chapter for each path in sequence (Rebel Chapter One, Noble Chapter One, Mage Chapter One, Rebel Chapter Two etc.)
As mentioned, I’m currently working on the Rebel Chapter One, titled An Upright Machine.
Those in ‘the business’ will know that a Baby Guinness is a measure of Kahlua with a shot of Irish Cream carefully poured over a spoon on top. It’s the kind of drink that’s a bugger to make when it’s 2am and all the other pubs have tossed everyone out so there are a thousand people wanting a thousand fiddly drinks and I’ve got to check the shagging toilet for shagging corpses!
…Sorry, flashback…
I haven’t really decided yet. They may yet be simple cosmetic mods, but you do make a compelling case for them to be something more.
Three paths? With 6 chapters each? That’s… not a good omen.
Six chapters per, though? And considering what’s been given so far just in the teasers… I’m feeling kind of spoiled, not gonna lie.
Pssh. Get your real world facts out of here… (Wait, I think I know that drink… Just not by that name. Trying to trick me…)
…eh, it still works, I think. He liked Irish beer… Irish Cream isn’t beer, but Irish cream, close enough… Kahlua’s coffee flavored, and he liked coffee…
Yeah. It’s still funny. resume laugh track
But, uh… can I assume that the bits dealing with Momo’s establishment will be authentic and factual and all (as ‘authentic’ as a bar found on a closed off part of one of three ringworld rings can be considered) given this part of your background?
Don’t worry, I’ve sanctified the folder with rituals from several religious denominations just to be safe.
Well… You’ll check the toilets for corpses. That part is authentic.
I don’t know how much authenticity I can wrench into a bar trapped within three very large rings that are themselves built into the inner side of another ring that is more than 600 million miles in length and a million miles thick, with exterior walls a thousand miles high to keep all the atmosphere in.
Insofar as authenticity can be applied to this particular scenario, it will be authentic.
“Oi Barry, fancy a Baby Guinness later?”
“Think it through, you knob! Where would we get the Kahlua?!”
“…Sorry Barry.”
She inherited the bar at 15 from her Uncle, who was a randy old sod who would pinch the arse of anything pretty that strayed within reaching distance, and had a laugh so filthy it could stain brass.
He did not possess strong views on subjects such as ‘hygiene’ or ‘organisation’, so Momo has generally been seen as an improvement, if only begrudgingly.
So these gene-mods are passed down to children? (I might be horribly misreading) Or are you saying that the children would receive the gene-mods as well? If they are passed down to children, could a child theoretically get a more advanced form of these benefits?
Like if a parent with green skin and a parent with blue skin had a kid, would the kid have blue-green skin? Would they have the benefits and drawbacks of both skin colors?
EDIT: Okay, weird idea, have any gene-mod procedures ever horribly backfired? (I don’t know what the implications would be… bubbling skin? Skin turned inside out? Death? Probably death.)
Yup. That’s how all mods are found, they are essentially indistinguishable from plain ol’ Natural Selection to the Layman (which now means everyone).
I haven’t actually worked out how the dominant genes and chromosomes stack up, but the mods will likely be chromosomal in nature, essentially producing a version of humanity that has more Chromosomes than the baselines.
Oh my God, yes. Genetic misfires are all-too-common before you start tampering with the genome, so who even knows what sort of debilitating genetic diseases may manifest nowadays, especially as the baselines have interbred with the Augments so completely that the term ‘Baseline’ doesn’t even apply anymore.
Ha! You’re coming dangerously close to me here, my Flash has blue skin, white hair and yellow eyes and since learning what the blue skin gene-mod was originally supposed to do above average height and musculature.
I imagine they would have and it also explains why the blue augments haven’t taken over completely as they would have been (significantly, at least before blending extensively) more difficult to keep healthy amidst a dwindling resource base.
I think if that carried over a bit to modern Flash and not myrmidon Flash I think one of the first things his fellow Rebs would be likely to notice might be a decreased appetite with no apparent ill-effects on new Flash. Unless of course myrmidons also consume more food for energy.
I wonder if the blue skin colour on those old super-humans may have had a more sinister purpose then, like setting them apart as a ruling or military caste on (some) pre-fall worlds?
A potentially chilling thought, my modern Flash being descended from some old space-tyrant “blue bloods” blues who lived some 4-5 thousand years ago, or so. And a delicious irony if he ends up as the Royal consort now, I suppose.
Wow, you’re spoiling us and so far each potential branch seems to have at least one or more male Li’s I think I’ll really like. Radjack on the Rebel one. Mr. Gray and the young Prince on the Noble one and Vitruvian on the Mage one, maybe, unless Vitruvian doesn’t have those parts and feelings anymore, of course.
Poor Flash, considering how pretty he is/was.
Theoretically it’s possible but I think that from this carefully genetically engineered pinnacle there’s a greater chance that the random mutations occuring with natural reproduction would be somewhat deleterious rather than beneficial.
I think that’s one of the reasons the old (presumably upper class) humans may have had those baby making forges, such as the one that survives in the royal palace, in the the first place. To preserve their genetic “purity”.
Nothing so spectacular as that, I would think, but a painful, miserable short life as a result of the tampering, certainly. Though it seems the pre-fall humans were already mostly past that stage. Such things would have been more common in the start-up period of these gene-mods. Edit beaten to the punch by the author on this one.
In the case of finding out more about the Forge/the Rebels/the Nobles, I can understand why that might not be a concern to the MC according to which path they follow. Still, I’d love to see some kind of plot elements from the other branches crossing over to others, despite the fact that they aren’t a prominent focus they’re still an important part of the character, at least in my mind. If that makes any sense?
) i like the idea that Flash was selected on account of having gen mods that made them physically stand out in a crowd… and i also cant help thinking it would make for an interesting scene in the Rebel storyline where somebody learns that the usual power associated with their eye/skin/hair color is actually gone. Cue yet more angst!
