Notrium Story - For Reading and Inspiration for Our Own UFOAI Story

[odie]

Eloz folks,

I know some of u have been hearing me talk about Notrium...

Here's the consolidated story (mind u, it was chapter 1 first, then a few person wrote chapter 2 and best one selected, then moving on to chapter 3 until the full story evolved! OMG.)

Story of Notrium (The Novel)

PS: This is a highly moddable game that came up with this awesome story, competition style, CHAPTER by CHAPTER until its complete.

Maybe we could be inspired to have something like tat?

[Ildamos]

Wait what's this about? Is it a freeware strategy game?

Edit: Well hell, it IS a freeware game! Nice! It's not tactical though but... nice! Will give this a spin mayhap next week. 

[Winter]

Sure, we could use that as our inspiration! And then our story would be shit too!

Notrium is a decent game, I played it ages ago, but it's no use pretending that that construct is anything resembling good writing.

Regards,
Winter

[BTAxis]

I feel the same way. Making it up as you go along is a fundamentally flawed way of coming up with a solid whole.

[odie]

Notrium is a decent game, I played it ages ago, but it's no use pretending that that construct is anything resembling good writing.

Regards,
Winter

I feel the same way. Making it up as you go along is a fundamentally flawed way of coming up with a solid whole.

Sure, we could use that as our inspiration! And then our story would be shit too!


BTAxis & Winter.... u mean that the story was bad??  (PS: U read the story yet at all??) Who is "construct" anyway?? The author of that novel was harmlesshermit.

I thnk it is pretty good, since when is it "SHIT"? Hmmmmm.

Besides, i ONLY say perhaps we could consider tat as inspiration for our storyline (subject to approval plus ALOT OF proofing / refining will be required). Btw, that was the final product (and pls read it if u have not, and dun critic if u have not.....). There was alot of hiccups in the original thread anyway.....

Wait what's this about? Is it a freeware strategy game?

Edit: Well hell, it IS a freeware game! Nice! It's not tactical though but... nice! Will give this a spin mayhap next week. 

Yes! It is freeware, and highly moddable, in fact very easily u can churn a whole story - in fact, the original is not even 1/2 as good as one of the mod - Werivar mod. Make sure u download tat and play it once u get the hang of it.

AND FREEWARE! Omg! Yes it is. Lol. And its a lil tactical strategy required (though a lil luck in startup and getting initial survival is required). U need establish a couple of 'base' followed by a MAJOR base (for Werivar mod - which is what i will not spoil for u)..... PS: It has at least 7 diff endings i have encountered so far....!! Gulps.

[Winter]

BTAxis & Winter.... u mean that the story was bad??  (PS: U read the story yet at all??) Who is "construct" anyway?? The author of that novel was harmlesshermit.

I thnk it is pretty good, since when is it "SHIT"? Hmmmmm.

Yes, it's bad. Very, very bad. If this were submitted to my publisher (or any other publishing house out there) it would get rejected on the first few paragraphs alone. Ghastly prose, misuse of punctuation, dialogue so stilted and awkward that it's a struggle to get to the next sentence -- it reads like it was written by an amateur, and obviously it was.

Besides, i ONLY say perhaps we could consider tat as inspiration for our storyline (subject to approval plus ALOT OF proofing / refining will be required). Btw, that was the final product (and pls read it if u have not, and dun critic if u have not.....). There was alot of hiccups in the original thread anyway.....

Why in god's name would we consider it as an 'inspiration' for our storyline? Unlike pretty much any other open source game out there we have a qualified writing team on the job, but you'd rather have the uncoordinated flailings of random people taking care of it? Way to make us feel appreciated.

What you describe is exactly what UFO:AI was like before I joined, and back then the project was in total design chaos, with people haphazardly adding and removing bullshit without any rhyme or reason. It is, in fact, the reason why I joined up, to stop that from happening and tearing the project apart. Nowadays I don't know why I still bother, since the only thing people seem to want is to run the project into the ground.

Regards,
Winter

[Destructavator]

OK, I wasn't inclined at first to get into one of these discussions about this project's story and plot, but I've just gotta ask: Why the "eff" does almost friggin' everyone who comes to this forum sooner or later want to change the story and background of the game, specifically change it in different areas and in completely different directions?  I'm not trying to "take sides" here, but I've been on this forum long enough to see so much of this behavior I just don't understand it anymore.  I can see why if the story was opened up to change at this point how it could easily slip into chaos, with everyone editing things that wouldn't work together - much like what Winter's talking about.

I've also worked enough jobs and seen several different career fields to know that if decisions are made "by committee" it creates a "collective unintelligence" that results in horrifically awful results.  It really is much better to have just one or two people who are in charge where they get to make a final ruling on things and stop the madness right there, with results that make much more sense.  Even if those results are ones that not everyone agrees with, it's better than chaos from the "group committee" with everyone adding their own thing that doesn't necessarily go with the ideas of all the others.

That, and there just isn't any storyline that can please everyone complete and total, it just can't happen like that.  It is much like the story of the old man, the child, and the mule - the one with a moral that can be interpreted either as "If you try to please all, you please none," or "You can't please everyone (completely)."

Sorry, I'm not trying to be an A-Hole here, but I think some people need to look at it as "OK, this is just a game, this looks like fun and although it isn't done exactly the way I would have designed it if I were making it and I were in charge, it looks good enough..."  Heck, lots of things in life are like that.

(Sorry for ranting.)

[odie]

Yes, it's bad. Very, very bad. If this were submitted to my publisher (or any other publishing house out there) it would get rejected on the first few paragraphs alone. Ghastly prose, misuse of punctuation, dialogue so stilted and awkward that it's a struggle to get to the next sentence -- it reads like it was written by an amateur, and obviously it was.


Why in god's name would we consider it as an 'inspiration' for our storyline? Unlike pretty much any other open source game out there we have a qualified writing team on the job, but you'd rather have the uncoordinated flailings of random people taking care of it? Way to make us feel appreciated.

What you describe is exactly what UFO:AI was like before I joined, and back then the project was in total design chaos, with people haphazardly adding and removing bullshit without any rhyme or reason. It is, in fact, the reason why I joined up, to stop that from happening and tearing the project apart. Nowadays I don't know why I still bother, since the only thing people seem to want is to run the project into the ground.

Regards,
Winter

Winter,

I believed u might have misinterpreted my initial idea altogether.

I merely suggested the way a story was put together using notrium's method. I am NOT asking we adopt the story of someone lost on a strange planet being put into our ufoai's story and changing it.

And yes, I do know that initially, this project was kinda messed up until u guys came along and helped Mattn and BTAxis to coordinate things - things of which the community, INCLUDING MYSELF, definately appreciates. I never intended that :

Unlike pretty much any other open source game out there we have a qualified writing team on the job, but you'd rather have the uncoordinated flailings of random people taking care of it? Way to make us feel appreciated.

Ah well.

Aniwae, i also did not know why this kick up such a flare amongst you and perhaps some unwritten ppl, but the idea of this thread was meant for the community to just have new ideas injected.

Its up to the team whether to just laugh it off, dismiss it, acknowledge its good / bad, adopt or dismiss em, or simply consider in future, or clarify never to use it.

As my mentor used to say: A good brainstorm session never put anyone down harshly, they keep all ideas, and dilute some over time eventually dismissing unwanted ones. They keep fresh ideas coming in, until one gets the priority.

I would say, hardly a good brainstorm session / random discussion here can be opened up w/o fear of being gunned down like a sad case of homeless dog?

Just my rant this time.

[Winter]

Winter,

I believed u might have misinterpreted my initial idea altogether.

I merely suggested the way a story was put together using notrium's method. I am NOT asking we adopt the story of someone lost on a strange planet being put into our ufoai's story and changing it.

I know exactly what you meant, have always known exactly what you meant, and it's a horrible, horrible idea. There are no misinterpretations on my part. I was just pointing out that your quoted 'success story' of this method is a half-baked abortion of a novel and this can be objectively verified to be true.

Aniwae, i also did not know why this kick up such a flare amongst you and perhaps some unwritten ppl, but the idea of this thread was meant for the community to just have new ideas injected.

Its up to the team whether to just laugh it off, dismiss it, acknowledge its good / bad, adopt or dismiss em, or simply consider in future, or clarify never to use it.

As my mentor used to say: A good brainstorm session never put anyone down harshly, they keep all ideas, and dilute some over time eventually dismissing unwanted ones. They keep fresh ideas coming in, until one gets the priority.

I would say, hardly a good brainstorm session / random discussion here can be opened up w/o fear of being gunned down like a sad case of homeless dog?

This is just more silliness. Brainstorming time has been over for more than two years, you simply do not try to change the main plot in mid-project unless you want to kill it off, same as programmers know what it means to change engines in mid-project. We have a full storyline plotted out from beginning to end, and it's a good one. Why the fuck would we want to change it?

In fact, every post of this kind just makes me less inclined to incorporate the few changes I do want to make to the story. It makes me less inclined to work on UFO:AI at all.

Regards,
Winter

[BTAxis]

That said, I'm locking this topic. It's pointless to continue this discussion.