Adding a story line to the game . . .
- Thread starter Cohen the Worrior
- Start date
I had suggested long ago that they get a writer (or some writers) and just make up little stories to spread around the galaxy. They don't have to be an overarching epic quest. More kind of like the location stuff in say a fallout game. Each building had a story. It wasn't earthshattering.
Can just add a few at a time over time.
As an example, we had the one at Obsidian Orbital. Some woman reported her husband was missing.
That one happens to lead you to a thargoid ruin, but it doesn't have to.
We have something similar at the various ruins. You collect messages and piece together what happened.
Can just add a few at a time over time.
As an example, we had the one at Obsidian Orbital. Some woman reported her husband was missing.
That one happens to lead you to a thargoid ruin, but it doesn't have to.
We have something similar at the various ruins. You collect messages and piece together what happened.
I'm experimenting with these ideas on my twitch channel at the moment (replays here on youtube if you're interested).
We're writing/playing an evolving narrative based around an initial premise and available lore/game play mechanics.
My initial thoughts after 5 episodes are:
Positives:
Drew.
We're writing/playing an evolving narrative based around an initial premise and available lore/game play mechanics.
My initial thoughts after 5 episodes are:
Positives:
- It's fun with lots of community participation (typically 200+ viewers and dozens of CMDRs in instances)
- It's unpredictable - players do their thing... which is a challenge for a writer to embrace and maintain a cohesive story line
- It embraces all the available game play mechanics (trade, piracy, engineers, exploration, combat etc)
- There are some capabilities in the game that help (eg. external cameras, wings, multicrew, BGS, FCs)
- You can weave the game progression into story progression to an extent
- You can't make any changes to the ED universe without dev input, thus "dramatic" opportunities are very limited. Stories need stakes and emotional involvement/cost/risk - hard to do in ED.
- Instancing, instancing, instancing - it gets absolutely game breaking when you try to pull lots of players together
- Needs a lot of "dungeon mastering" because you can't change the universe and thus runs the risk of story seeming too "curated/on rails"
- Doesn't scale beyond a few hundred players ("chosen ones" syndrome) at least not with a single part-time writer
- No story telling tools in the game at all (at least not accessible to players) thus all content has to be manually created - time consuming!
Drew.
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Thanks for pointing that out cmdr Wagar!
There were mini narratives in the early days.
Many stations had local herald articles that lead you on a small quest, unfortunately the gallery history was wiped and they were forgotten about.
However you can still find them on the Cannonn website if you dig a little, search for unregistered comms beacons.
My favorite was rescuing the undercover agent from the human traffickers outpost.
Many of the assets are still in game and DO work, you just have to find the start point.
Drew Wagar, an official ED author, has recently put this together
Source: https://youtu.be/pt7veHoh4sM
He broadcasts live on Twitch every Thursday 8pm-10pm game time.
A number of commanders join him in game as the story evolves based on everyone’s actions.
It’s terrific fun!
Edit: sorry, just read the post above about Drew, and you knew it already. Anyway, never mind, it’s still great fun
He broadcasts live on Twitch every Thursday 8pm-10pm game time.
A number of commanders join him in game as the story evolves based on everyone’s actions.
It’s terrific fun!
Edit: sorry, just read the post above about Drew, and you knew it already. Anyway, never mind, it’s still great fun
It does seem simple to string a wide range and number of increasingly difficult missions together with an audio narrative and perhaps 3 or 4 scripted sequences /battles within it.
It could be played within private solo or open and would be a guided tour of the features available to the player leading at the end to an open ended game (current).
It could be played within private solo or open and would be a guided tour of the features available to the player leading at the end to an open ended game (current).