The Narrative Roundtable stream was actually really good.
- Thread starter Chro
- Start date
Call me a fuddy but....I thought it was a bit pedestrian and misguided. A lot of it was speculation (which is fine) but is not really a lore stream.
A lot of it was predictable as well ("I'm an indie pilot and view all powers and superpowers as evil" type stuff is well.....dull.)
A lot of it was predictable as well ("I'm an indie pilot and view all powers and superpowers as evil" type stuff is well.....dull.)
not sure I would really want them introducing new lore in a stream - I prefer it in the game 
Exactly my feeling on it. It was okay for what it was, but I was expecting a discussion on the actual lore so we can finally get some (official) confirmation on what the current canon is as nobody seems to know anymore.
All we got was speculative discussion, which is fine, but it doesn’t lead anywhere conclusive for the actual lore.
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It didn't really deliver on it's promise, for me.
The participants while engaging characters didn't really offer any additional insight into lore. At points it felt to me as though they had been prepped on what to say. The stream format itself felt chaotic, with little direction or structure.
I suspect the real purpose of the stream was to highlight areas of the current story that haven't yet come to fruition, using persons who the CM team currently consider to represent amenable Elite streamers.
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The participants while engaging characters didn't really offer any additional insight into lore. At points it felt to me as though they had been prepped on what to say. The stream format itself felt chaotic, with little direction or structure.
I suspect the real purpose of the stream was to highlight areas of the current story that haven't yet come to fruition, using persons who the CM team currently consider to represent amenable Elite streamers.
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I'm amazed that you didn't like it?!
Shocked. Shook.
My feelings and expectations exactly.
I feel the existing body of lore (some of it now 5-6 years old) and the 'previous' writers* knew how to craft a 'meaningful' lore that looped, twisted and turned AND involved the mechanics of the game (...and the players) but at the same time headed for a meaningful and logical conclusion.
But those writers* and their body of law are no longer active. Whereas I'm sure FDev in it's recent period of lore culled state will NOW be happily claiming full success in how the tinfoilers are so fired up with the way the lore currently exists (languishes?).
.. FDev Manager: ''I say, we must be doing something right; look at all the furore and speculation running riot over our Elite 'stories'... things must be in a good place.. not sure how or why but let's just say that was the plan all along!!!!'... now what does it all mean???'
Because things are now so 'fragmented' that 'tinfoilery' is the current and last port of call. I think Arthur Tolmie has somehow grasped the lore nettle and has been a driving force in reinvigorating just where the previous existing lore is now headed... which is a pretty unusal role for a CM.... perhaps a nettle no-one else wanted to grasp?
The stream certainly had it's entertainment value, and worth repeating but revealed nowt new, nor anything to actively 'play the game' for.
All IMHO! o7
*Writers such a Michael Brookes et al. (In Mike Brookes time there was purported to be a hand-written/typed manual/bible/book/tome/in-house-guide of Elite Lore that outlined all the major threads and where they should head, along with things to be revealed in due course, and insights, backgroud story and hidden details to guide future lore writing.... lets hope that 'mythical folio' hasn't been mislaid and is once again being referred to in presenting ongoing storylines and LORE!!!!)
EDIT: See following post on the 'Lore Guide Books': (N.B. Allen Stroud is the guy who worked alongside DBOBE in pinning down the history behind Elite and Mike Brookes was the power-house behind bringing that lore into being as it were. Check out Allen Stoud's original Elite Music Scores... they rock especially ''Lave Revolution''! : Source: https://soundcloud.com/allen-stroud-1
)
Elite Dangerous's core lore person isn't Michael Brookes .. examining the breadcrumb trail of Allen Stroud
This is a repost from Independent Raxxla Hunters discord where someone had mentioned the lore stream and the fact there might be Raxxla references elsewhere. This is my response because it is has become increasingly evident Michael Brookes while instrumental in building the Elite Dangerous...
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Up is down, left is right, I don't know if I'm coming or going, my world has been turned upside down!Indeed mate, indeed lol
I credit the return of Galnet storylines to a series of very well put together videos by Drew Wagar. Credit to Arthur for championing that cause, though . It just goes to show, where there's a will...
The gap in Galnet was most unfortunate, unforgivable really. But I guess there is a limited number of commanders invested in the lore. Much credit to Art! o7
Positivity?
NO! Bad forum!
NO! Bad forum!
This is something I'd disagree with - I don't think we've ever really had all of those bits come together at once, so much as now.
Initial storyline (2015): lots of regular Galnet articles, connected with in-game events through CGs a little bit. The game mechanics of the time were pretty basic in what they allowed, of course, but it was a good start. (Nowadays, it'd all be routine - standards for what people want to see in game have rightly risen! - but at the time it was all new and a good introduction to "what's changed since FFE")
Delegated Era (2016): still lots of Galnet articles but almost all of them player-submitted. The big events of this time - Distant Worlds 1, founding of Colonia, Dangerous Games - were memorable but almost entirely disconnected from the existing lore and plot.
(Note in terms of "Michael Brookes" and "the original writing team" that Michael Brookes was still the lead on ED at this time. The good and bad points of ED storytelling really can't be blamed or credited on one person.)
Premonition (late 2016 / early 2017): the book may be good as a book, but virtually all the action took place off-screen from the point of view of the game. There were a few Galnet articles (many of which should have had in-game representation but didn't), some surface sites, a single CG, and of course the final event was memorable and player-involving but also going well beyond what the game was capable of. The major gaps between in-game Premonition events were largely filled by player-submitted CGs.
Beyond (2018): lots of inter-related storylines but again not much connection to things players could get involved with beyond the occasional CG. We did get Nova Imperium out of it, though, which is somewhat significant if accidental - but other than that, there was a feeling that the writers weren't allowed to do anything which might result in changes to the status quo. Together with the repeating Thargoid skirmishes and raids it all felt very static despite the regular articles. Again, player-submitted CGs filled the gaps with generic "build X faction a station" work.
Initiatives (2019): only four storylines total, but all pretty good - especially Enclave - in mixing CGs with other game mechanics and in-game changes to both tell a story and result in persistent changes to the game world. The downside is that there were only four of them for the entire year with large gaps in-between, and the rest was pretty quiet.
Dead (late 2019/early 2020): it doesn't get much worse than "nothing at all happening", does it.
Current: (late 2020 onwards): lots of overlapping story arcs, picking up a whole bunch of things from previous lore - Admiral Vincent, Marlinism, Nova Imperium, the fallout of the Enclave initiative, Thargoids, Sirius, the Club, Black Flight, etc. - with fairly consistent in-game representation through CGs (including some new developments in CG capabilities), points of interest, and other game mechanics ... as well as there being more in the way of consequences of player decisions to support one side or another.
The last few months have felt a bit samey, unfortunately, in terms of game mechanics, but I can't imagine that going from "Odyssey release late 2020" to "Odyssey release on PC May 2021, consoles ... sometime in 2022" has helped much for anything new that they might have wanted to do with the story, or for having dev support for less routine activities. And the non-CG side of it through Galnet and POIs has still been fairly interesting. If anything it feels like they've picked up the old lore books and are starting to try to do something with them - including actually getting some of that content where we can see them rather than just where a few NDA'd writers can see it.
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Which is exactly how I finished my tuppence worth with the comment......
''... the manual/bible/book/tome/in-house-guide of Elite Lore that outlined all the major threads and where they should head, along with things to be revealed in due course, and insights, backgroud story and hidden details to guide future lore writing.... lets hope that 'mythical folio' hasn't been mislaid and is once again being referred to in presenting ongoing storylines and LORE!!!!)
o7
A number of people contributed to the original lore guides back in 2013. Work was split up in different directions depending on interest (e.g I know that Dave Hughes pretty much exclusively did the "Galcop" guide for instance as it was his area of speciality.)
The contributors were:
David Braben
Michael Brookes
Dave Hughes
Andrew Gillett
T James
Allen Stroud
Michael Brookes oversaw much of the lore implementation into the game from Alpha to around mid 2017. Those lore guides were no longer in use by 2017 (when major retcons occurred in the the ED universe) though they may have since been picked up again in more recent times.
Cheers,
Drew.
Thanks Drew
You have cleared up a few things for me. P.S. I have just replied to your PM.