Hey all,

Do any of you remember a WIP for the Amiga computers called 'Explorer 2260'? I used to be involved with that as an Independent Developer. I was a contributor to the CEG or 'Collins Encyclopedia Galactica'.

The project was a big deal for a while, featuring in the games mags of the time, such as CU Amiga. I even featured in the WIP they did on E2260. They showed an e-mail conversation I had with another ID, about a race I had invented.

All this was part of the background, the universe we were creating. Nowadays we have fan fiction, but what we did was more as part of a team of writers in the same way there are writers here that are working with FD.

Unfortunately the project just...vanished. The e-mail stream dwindled, ideas were not being discussed anymore. The Lead Developer, Chris Paige disappeared. I never had an explanation or a confirmation the project was canceled. And I have always wondered what happened and why. Maybe I missed the offical announcement of the cancellation, but I don't think so. His Co-Developer was Ed Collins.

The vision was great, it was to be what ED is going to be now, but Chris imagined it all back in the 90's when Babylon 5 was the good stuff. The universe was to be inspired by that. Chris was creating what was called a 'DUM', a Dynamic Universe Model. Exactly that what FD is gonna do in terms of economies en human player interaction and impact on events and all that.

I think it was all brilliant. But now I have only suspicions on what must have happened. I believe it was too much to handle, the responsibility, the pressure and perhaps, to some extent, the level of expertise required. Maybe we were all naive at the time.

But Chris and Ed vanished. At the time other things started to happen in my life and so I lost track of it all.

I was writing a story for the game. I have about 40 pages and 22,500 words of it. The idea was to publish it along with the game, just as the original Elite had. I worked on it in good faith. I was young and eager.

Today I read the story again. It is okay but English is not my native language. Over time I have improved my skills, but it will always remain difficult to write fiction in another language. I could do better if I rewrite it but most likely it would still be under par to what a native English speaker can put out there.

Still, there is a possibility to rewrite the story. It has loads of references to the lore that was established over time in the discussions on the mailing list we had going. I would have to edit all those out and insert the details that are set by FD about game mechanics and what not. But it can be done.

The story remains unfinished. Maybe I can finish it. I have to think about this. I wonder if this would be helpful. It seems that most writers started almost a year ago to submit fan fiction.

The story itself is about a bountyhunter who finds himself the target of a conspiracy that ties back into his youth, involving his family, corrupt Station Management, a dangerous pirate and it brings him across the 'Union of Independent Worlds' to find out the truth.

I have an outline somewhere of where I was going with it. It kind of got out of hand as I wrote it. It could well develop into a 100 pages or more, or 100k words.

So what do you guys think. Should I rewrite the story to fit the ED universe? Would that still be useful at this point?

Any thoughts appreciated.
 
Last edited:
I imagine it would be hard to convert the story that easily. But if you want to revive it, then by all means do so within the Elite Dangerous context. There's a big lack of fanfiction around beyond the drabbles.
 
If you still have the passion for that story and want to make it more E: D then go for it! If the passion isn't there I think it will show in your writing, I think you know what I mean. Darren is right though, not enough fan fiction out there.

I wouldn't worry about the language thing. I say, if your hearts in it, go for it. If it's not, don't worry.
 
Thanks for the support guys.

But tell me, why do you think there isn't a lot of fan fiction? Is the community still too small?

I wonder all of a sudden as I sit here if I would be a developer if I could somehow create some sort of approach for fan fiction writers, to harness their energy.
But I guess writing tools already exist.
 
Thanks for the support guys.

But tell me, why do you think there isn't a lot of fan fiction? Is the community still too small?
I think it has more to do with time. Fan fiction tends to be a pursuit of television fans (and to a lesser degree movies). People spend about 45 minutes a week watching their favourite show, for a very limited number of weeks in the year, and fill a lot of time around that core with scribbling outside its margins.

For games, people spend a lot more time on the core pursuit - playing. There's less time and indeed need to be extracurricular :)
 
But tell me, why do you think there isn't a lot of fan fiction? Is the community still too small?

Well it is still quite small. But more importantly I think the game just isn't out yet. There's a fantastic drabble thread (100-word short stories) with a huge number of fan-written drabbles. And there's plenty of old Elite fiction about. But nothing serious has been written about the new game without some further details of the new game's universe.

I'm sure when the game is released we'll see more stuff appear.
 
For games, people spend a lot more time on the core pursuit - playing. There's less time and indeed need to be extracurricular :)
Probably true to an extent, but there are a lot of fan fiction stories about Elite and FE2 and FFE around to disprove the theory at least partially. For me, writing the Marcan Rayger stories was a way to expand upon the foundation of FFE - everything that wasn't possible in the game but kept harassing my imagination.

Much of the fiction of FE2 and FFE still holds, so those games are a nice background to start developing EliteD fiction - as long as you are ready to revise bits and pieces of it when the game and the official stories come out that show the things that have changed.
 
Probably true to an extent, but there are a lot of fan fiction stories about Elite and FE2 and FFE around to disprove the theory at least partially. For me, writing the Marcan Rayger stories was a way to expand upon the foundation of FFE - everything that wasn't possible in the game but kept harassing my imagination.

Much of the fiction of FE2 and FFE still holds, so those games are a nice background to start developing EliteD fiction - as long as you are ready to revise bits and pieces of it when the game and the official stories come out that show the things that have changed.
It may be that my perception of what "a lot" means is coloured by the huge quantities of fan fiction that exist for television (especially scifi and fantasy)... going strong for decades and exploding with the popular rise of the internet.

I would quite like to write some Elite fiction, but finding the time to get caught up on the lore is daunting. Drabbles I can do :)
 
Last edited:
I would quite like to write some Elite fiction, but finding the time to get caught up on the lore is daunting. Drabbles I can do :)

I'd love to see a long piece from you! And since it's fan fiction it doesn't have to be too lore-fitting...
 

Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
Well, if you are still interested in bringing the story into the Elite Dangerous universe, I will volunteer to take a look at the language (English) side of what you produce.
 
Absolutely do it if you can take the time...

My one annoyance so far is that i have yet to continue and finish my own fantasy novel i started years ago. Wrote over 15 chapters... But as all writers here know, it takes time, a degree of discipline and more time.

Time that i have used to game and now have a family.
I was in a band also for a few years doing gigs etc, so that took up a fair amount of my creative time. I certainly hope to return to my project, so my advice would always be, don't leave it unfinished! :)
 
Well, if you are still interested in bringing the story into the Elite Dangerous universe, I will volunteer to take a look at the language (English) side of what you produce.

That is a very kind offer and if i can muster up the energy to create something I might take you up on it. I noticed you are from .nl as well, so your English better be as good as that of a native English writer ;-)

I wondered if there are many Dutch people on here. Any idea?
 
Absolutely do it if you can take the time...

My one annoyance so far is that i have yet to continue and finish my own fantasy novel i started years ago. Wrote over 15 chapters... But as all writers here know, it takes time, a degree of discipline and more time.

Time that i have used to game and now have a family.
I was in a band also for a few years doing gigs etc, so that took up a fair amount of my creative time. I certainly hope to return to my project, so my advice would always be, don't leave it unfinished! :)


One thing I know is that in order for me to get going I need a lot of support. It is hard to write for me in isolation.

I admire the writers that have gone all serious with ED. I really do, with some envy. I always wanted to write, but writing is bloody hard!

One of my main issues has always been is a well known pitfall. To identify too much with your character. I like him so much, I don't want to put him in a lot of trouble. But if you do so, there will not be character progression in terms of personal growth and understanding and so on and so forth.

There is actually a Litmus test for writers. Maybe you know it, if not, drop me a PM and I can get it to you.

I hope you find time and courage to finish your novel. Writing is perspiration more than it is inspiration. I have talked to a published writer who had this very rigid format for every book he write. He could basically predict the amount of chapters and paragraphs per chapter etc. Makes you wonder doesn't it.

At the moment I am just taking in as much info as I possibly can, just watched all of the vids on YouTube. There was some information there that was inspiring. I didn't pick up there was an actual faction beside the Empire and Federation, the Alliance of Independent Worlds... Perfect. That is where my story already is taking place.

My initial goal back then was to write a long short story. You know the different categories by length I assume. But as I was writing it it got denser and denser.

But if I see how much editing is being done, goping over a story again and again, getting the fluff out, rewriting chapters, it is just a daunting task isn't it. I am not so much a writer as I like to think I am. But I am good at creating background material, which was great fun working on the CEG for E2260.

I even submitted missions for Infinity: The Quest for Earth. And I was pleasantly surprised when DB explained something about mission failure and that the outcome of a mission might be the result of a deliberate action. For Infinity I created some very different sort of missions that were divided into parts and they all had different outcomes and rewards, depending on what paths were chosen. So that idea is going to be in ED as a matter of design.

So you wrote 15 chapters of a novel. What is the word count on that? If you like, you can PM with a small outline, I'd be interested to know what sort of writing you did.
 
That is a very kind offer and if i can muster up the energy to create something I might take you up on it. I noticed you are from .nl as well, so your English better be as good as that of a native English writer ;-)

I wondered if there are many Dutch people on here. Any idea?

I think around ten.
not sure tough.
also think you should finish the story.
lose ends never feel good.
 
Only ten? That is terrible! Where are our fellow countrymen?

I wonder what the sales were for the original games. I know my brother had a copy on his MSX. That is the one I played, without his approval, just like Kate Russel did with her brother :)

I haven't checked the Dutch game mags. But maybe I should check the Gameplay (used to be PC Gameplay). See if they are following this. We could use more hype.
 
I decided to mess around with my story, see what it feels like to write again. I can tell even now my mind works differently then when I wrote this. So far not a single sentence feels quite right. If I continue with this, I expect to have to basically rewrite everything.

Don't expect anything for a long time, I find this hard and need to gain some momentum.
 
Back
Top Bottom