Storyline variant: Deceitful aliens backstory

[Bandobras]

Storyline variant: Deceitful aliens backstory.

Several ideas by others glued together by me (thanks folks). A small backstory variant, just to give some support for tech-tree and tactical missions. I think we should leave the rest for fan-fiction.

Reason for Invasion

Unknown. Probably warmongery. Also no knowledge about aliens monitoring earth earlier or if they even knew they will find life on this planet. They are complete mystery even after they are defeated...

But I also like the other ideas for Reason for Invasion:
--- Searching for some artifact (There's something on earth that they want)
--- Hunting someone (there's an alien on earth that these aliens want to capture alive)
Both explain why aliens do not just nuke Earth, especially the first one. Moreover, they would like to use humans as the workforce for the search.

Anyway, aliens would like to terrorize humanity and use them as slaves, rather than fight a regular war with humans and then fight a prolonged guerilla war or be forced to nuke Earth. They are intelligent enough to know that diplomacy is much cheaper than war, especially if you have a huge army as a diplomatic argument. However, they are used to rather crude, brute-force diplomacy.

Phalanx Birth

What aliens sent to Earth is a standard multi-purpose reconessaince/diplomacy/annexation force. Powerful enough to conquer Earth, but slow to prepare for full-scale war. Reinforcements are impossible, because of the distance to their homeworld.

Aliens are unlucky that the approach of their fleet is caught by Earth telescopes several years before they arrive. Phalanx is established by the UN, just in case, because attempts to communicate with the approaching fleet are unsuccessful (for whatever reason, ideas welcome). There is still no base for Phalanx, only organization structure, initial staff, money, and the chief (you). The organization is not secret, but its description is not focused on fighting aliens, so as not to offend them, but rather on research on aliens, doing customs duty service, guarding Earth borders, etc.

After the aliens arrive, they are surprised that humans are aware of their arrival. They hoped to hide and prepare for several years and attack/terrorize/intimidate only after they are ready. Different species are waking from cryogenic sleep with different speed. They have to mine Earth, other planets, moons "in order to amass the materials necessary to increase their robotic army", they are slowly adapting to Earth conditions, such as gravity, level of radioactivity, Solar wind, etc. So right now they can only send limited forces to fight, or hire humans to fight for them.

Therefore their plan is to hold off the invasion, lie about their goals, at the same time establishing foothold on earth, learning about human weaknesses and prepearing for the war. Then they try to terrorize some nations and infiltrate them, while all the time lying about their intentions. "So the aliens try to suppress the humans by winning a psychological victory". For this the aliens have two operation bodies --- the official one declaring peace and blaming incidents on humans or rogue aliens, and the other secret alien forces, experimenting on Earth and humans, infiltrating, terrorizing, and eventually, crushing humans ("liberating them").

So this is a war between the secret service of Aliens and the non-secret UN-governed Phalanx, bound by political restrictions and public opinion reactions. Aliens lie to the very end. "On the other hand we have the Alien "Elite Forces", trying to implement a secret agenda assigned to them by their leaders. Thus we avoid a setting in which a big war between worlds is going on." Big wars are boring when you participate in them on the tactical level (hundreds of thousands of missions would be required and each single mission would be quite unimportant in itself).

Phalanx Duties

"As for Phalanx itself, if it was up against such a potentially overwhelming enemy, it seems like its goal wouldn't be so much as to defeat the enemy, but to find out how to beat the enemy (different focus)." However, humans armies are not what they were before, so Phalanx even gradually becomes important militarily and its experiences with aliens are invaluable for reorganization of rebuilding armies. Governments prefer to send Phalanx to deal with aliens so that civilian casualties are lower than when a regular army waltzes into a city, so that more is learned about aliens and so that soldiers are not demoralized/bribed/infected by aliens. Army is too thin to guard all of Earth, so it is concentrated on guarding dams, chemical factories, government seats, etc. Cities are mostly undefended. The army sometimes does an independent action (a big army unit happens to be close to ufo landing) and the player is informed about it. But these are exceptions.

However, the army can always be called in, though they are usually too late so save civilians and the aliens are often gone. The calling of regular army can be represented by the "auto" feature of tactical missions --- they help Phalanx, so the mission will usually be won, even if the player is a newbie and would have trouble winning the mission alone. OTOH, the number of artifacts recovered and civilians saved would usually be lower than what an experienced player could achieve --- army is not as subtle as Phalanx and it arrives late. It would be nice if the army could be called also for hunting the last remaining alien on a big map --- a button "call the army" that concludes the battle automatically, with percent of additional civilian casualties and destroyed alien artifacts based on the number of remaining aliens.

Complications

Peacemongering (somebody wants to do it diplomatically) --- Phalanx is not secret service and aliens lie a lot, so there will be a lot of trouble, especially at the beginning (this is represented by "gloves off", by the counter-identification trick when player is angry at stupid politicians that believe in scientific cooperation with aliens, etc.).

I think a nice and important thing is to fool player as to the alien strength throughout the game. I propose the following.

At the beginning aliens are surprised, weak and afraid, but try to make themselves appear more aggressive and powerful, hence Mumbai "incident" caused by "misunderstanding" and "human overreaction", just after aliens' proposal to take over and improve Earth power plants and space programmes was rejected. At this stage the player should think the aliens are fools to reveal their power and ruthlessness, but the player is a fool himself in believing in the brute force of the aliens.

In the mid-game the aliens are already considered a force to be reckoned with and quick to anger, but they are still preparing for the total war and still trying infiltration, etc. so they do not attack frontally and do not reveal the scale of their mounting power, just sampling and experimenting. At this point the player should begin to suspect he can defeat aliens on earth, that they are only bluffing, terrorizing, but they can be overcome.

Finally, the aliens launch the offensive and the player should be totally depressed and exactly at this point the hints at the endgame solution should become too obvious for him to miss.

ENDGAME

At the end, after the preparations for war are finished, aliens are too powerful to beat on Earth, they bases flourish, nations drop out, so the player has to attack the alien fleet in the "good old Millennium-Falcon-Blows-Up-The-Death-Star-In-The-Nick-Of-Time last gambit" style.

Addendum

Below is an interesting subplot by BloodMagus that is generally compatible with my backstory. There can surely be alternative or additional subplots that can be woven in, but it is important to have the major parts done first.

"A rather ingenious plot I think would be for the Phalanx to start out as a private committee formed by an Anonymous Benefactor. The player is the committee's leader. You're given goals by the benefactor, and get bonuses for completing them. Eventually you'd be come a UN sanctioned organization. Before that, you'd have the option of convince countries to privately fund you.
You could work some interesting ideas, such as having the first goal of the phalanx being to PROVE the existence of aliens & UFO by capturing one. Having the UN explode in you face after finding out what you'd be doing, and my favourite:
The anonymous benefactor being some intelligent alien that the Antareans are after and we were setup to protect him (unbeknownst to us)."

[BloodMagus]

Some points mentioned:

Phalanx Duties including customs.
I don't think we've addressed the issues of quarrantine very much so far, although I think it came up in a disscussion about transporting alien equipment. I'm sure the concept of quarrantine could form the basis for certain missions, having to go in and cease alien goods or debris. Its an interesting point.

Phalanx Duties 'Call the Army'.
This would undoubtly require new code which is something that requires comment from the admins. Sounds similar to the Delegate option found in UFO Aftermath. Could be useful in early games for new players, but as one built a larger organisation with multiple teams, or one was a more experienced player who could manage things, it would become obsolete.
A cost vs benefit issue I believe.
Still a good point about attempting to include the regular army into gameplay.

Addendum:
Your idea of the aliens being very deceitful does work very well with the idea of an anonymous benefactor. It would be fairly likely that aliens would attempt to 'PR' the situation. It costs less, even though it could take longer.
Arguable you could use several of the points for each section and tie them together, but remember more is less and less is more. Attempting to intertwine all the ideas will result in a complex and confusing mess of a plot.

[BTAxis]

The gripe with the "hunting someone or something" reason for the invasion is that it makes the player feel like he doesn't really matter. The aliens aren't even interested in humans; they're just here for one tiny object or individual. When they find it, they'll leave, and all the fighting we did was just a distraction for them. It lessens the feeling of fighting for your survival. Though it would be a really good plot twist in terms of a startling discovery, I think it would make the player feel obsolete. If we already know the aliens don't want us or our home, then why not aid them so they'll leave as soon as possible? That'll be a lot less costly in lives than trying to fight them. No, I think the aliens must have more than a momentary interest in our planet and/or its inhabitants.

Also, never, ever count on the player to "think something". The player is the one factor you don't have an influence on. I'm referencing to comments like "At this stage the player should think the aliens are fools to reveal their power and ruthlessness, but the player is a fool himself in believing in the brute force of the aliens." and "...and exactly at this point the hints at the endgame solution should become too obvious for him to miss.". It's not a good idea to assume the player notices, interprets or realizes things exactly the way you intend to.

Otherwise, I concur with the things BloodMagus has said.

[Bandobras]

Thank you for warm reception (despite my English --- fortunately I do not write player-visible texts for UFO AI).

Phalanx Duties 'Call the Army'.
This would undoubtly require new code which is something that requires comment from the admins.

I don't think so. There is already the "auto" mode for tactical missions. I do not know how it works, but I suspect it is reasonably realistic and so similar to my ideas (is it?). What I tried to do was to incorporate the "auto" function into the story. That's it.

The "hunt the remaining alien" thing should be a simple extention of the "auto" feature. Just take the status of the ongoing misison as the starting point for the "auto" procedure, I guess.

Sounds similar to the Delegate option found in UFO Aftermath. Could be useful in early games for new players, but as one built a larger organisation with multiple teams, or one was a more experienced player who could manage things, it would become obsolete.

I guess it could also be nice in the mid-to-end-game when you have a dozen of bases, you fought your share of important tactical missions and now you would just like to see if you strategic decisions are right and play only the more interesting or more important missions, concentrating on strategy, until the endgame mission.

[Bandobras]

The gripe with the "hunting someone or something" reason for the invasion is that it makes the player feel like he doesn't really matter.

As I've said, the subplots are not important at this point, because we need a working backbone story that explains game-features and all the subplots can be incorporated later on (and if there are problems, change the subplots rather than backstory or game mechanics). But still, it's fun to discuss those.

...it would make the player feel obsolete...

So the player shoudn't know about it for most of the game. Moreover, when you just won your first/second/tenth mission and the game tells you how UN and people cheer you how alien diplomats rage and how valuable your discoveries are, you are not likely to feel obsolete even if you are spoiled on the game plot.

...It lessens the feeling of fighting for your survival. Though it would be a really good plot twist in terms of a startling discovery...

Fighting with 10 soldiers with rifles agains waves of aliens with tachyon cannons should provide enough of the "fighting for your survival" element, especially with News items reporting helplessness of people against other alien incursions and reporting intimidating speeches broadcasted by alien diplomats. And then after the player comes from the "fighting for your survival" stage to the "I'm no worse than the aliens, we can now duel, bring it on" stage and really starts to rock, build bases, mount carnage and have fun, show him how unimportant he is and that aliens, in fact, laugh at him. Just make the "fun" stage prolonged so that he does not feel pissed off.

If we already know the aliens don't want us or our home, then why not aid them so they'll leave as soon as possible? That'll be a lot less costly in lives than trying to fight them.

This is valid point. A part of the solution can be that the artifact/alien is really hard to find, otherwise they would find him themselves. So it really requires a slave labor of millions for years to find it. Another argument would be that the artifact/alien could be beneficial to us, so UN does not want to give it away and, in the first place, aliens do not want to tell more about it, so that we do not find it for ourselves.

But even if aliens can be helped much easier, of course "not after what they've done". But perhaps our game can have non-linear plot. You can decide to help the aliens, with or against UN, and your missions would then involve search of the Earth, fights with Earth armies, with rogue aliens, plot-twists after you eventually find the thing, etc.

Also, never, ever count on the player to "think something".

I don't count on it. If the player thinks otherwise, the story should still make sense to him, he will just have much less cramps/cold sweat/laugh of surprise. In particular the story should make sense even to completely spoiled player, that source-dives all the time. However, even for such a player, the atmosphere, through music, maps and models, News pieces, proportions of currently involved his and alien power, etc. should be such that he feels fear, despite knowing he has[\b] to win at the end, or feels exaltation, despite knowing that the mission victory was over a fraction of the power aliens will be able to mount at the end.

This is very difficult, but why not try? Just be subtle, do not force, but hint, do not overexplain, but provoke feelings, etc. Much of what I propose should come naturally as the natural effect of emotions involved in fighting tactical missions underarmed or overarmed, against new aliens, at night, etc. Then just, by story, channel those emotions so that they make sense on the geoscape level. Again this is only giving storyline meaning to the existing game-play elements --- emotions are already among the elements.

[BTAxis]

As I've said, the subplots are not important at this point, ...

I'd say the reason why the aliens are invading is pretty damn central to the storyline design, not a subplot.

So the player shoudn't know about it for most of the game. Moreover, when you just won your first/second/tenth mission and the game tells you how UN and people cheer you how alien diplomats rage and how valuable your discoveries are, you are not likely to feel obsolete even if you are spoiled on the game plot.

Probably true, but that makes the disillusionment even worse when you finally do find out. I can't speak for others, but a letdown like that would be enough to make me stop playing.

A part of the solution can be that the artifact/alien is really hard to find, otherwise they would find him themselves. So it really requires a slave labor of millions for years to find it. Another argument would be that the artifact/alien could be beneficial to us, so UN does not want to give it away and, in the first place, aliens do not want to tell more about it, so that we do not find it for ourselves.

The first reason is bollocks. Nothing can be that hard to find, not with the technology the aliens have. The second reason is more interesting. The artifact in question could even be a war machine of sorts that will prove to be integral to winning the war. There's room for thought there, I feel.

This is very difficult, but why not try?

By all means. I think it can't be done, but I may be wrong. The only games that really have an effect on my state of mind are spooky games like System Shock 2. But a game like The Longest Journey, which was supposed to be "emotional", had no effect on me. Oh well.

[Bandobras]

As I've said, the subplots are not important at this point, ...

I'd say the reason why the aliens are invading is pretty damn central to the storyline design, not a subplot.

I disagree. The very fact that the player learns it only in the mid-late-game shows that it is not that important. BloodMagus may be right that it adds depth to the game, but much of the game is ready, anyway, so we may start adding this depth afterward, after the game is completed (though a bit shallow), just as well.

Probably true, but that makes the disillusionment even worse when you finally do find out. I can't speak for others, but a letdown like that would be enough to make me stop playing.

Well, that might be a good reason to stay with more straight-forward plot and leave other ideas for mods and fan-fiction. OTOH, isn't the disillusionment, when you discover at the end of the game that after all you are not able to withstand alien power on Earth, equally painful? And we both agree it is a really nice and classic part of the X-Com genre...

Nothing can be that hard to find, not with the technology the aliens have.

Earth is big. Ever heard of the search for Osama bin Laden?

[BTAxis]

I disagree. The very fact that the player learns it only in the mid-late-game shows that it is not that important. BloodMagus may be right that it adds depth to the game, but much of the game is ready, anyway, so we may start adding this depth afterward, after the game is completed (though a bit shallow), just as well.

I was talking from the designer's point of view, though. True, the player doesn't discover the reason behind the alien attack until late in the game, but that doesn't have anything to do with it. You have to come up with a good backbone story to be able to design a good beginning, and without the basic piece of information of why the aliens are attacking in the first place, you just plain can't do that.

isn't the disillusionment, when you discover at the end of the game that after all you are not able to withstand alien power on Earth, equally painful?

Nope. Doesn't matter, as long as you're the hero at the end of the day.

Earth is big. Ever heard of the search for Osama bin Laden?

We're not exactly searching for him by the billions, though, are we? Or do you check every phone cell you come across to see if he happens to be in there? I don't. What's more, Osama bin Laden is making an active effort to hide himself. Artifacts don't do that.

[Bandobras]

I was talking from the designer's point of view, though.

Ok, you have the experience, so you may see something I don't. So let's agree on the Reason for Invasion story element. I'm open to any of the following, so that we can go further:
--- Mystery, nobody will ever know
--- Hunting someone (there's an alien on earth that these aliens want to capture alive)
--- Egypt deal and Egypt gods as aliens
--- Searching for some artifact (There's something on earth that they want)

What do we do now?

Nope. Doesn't matter, as long as you're the hero at the end of the day.

Ok, so I realize I was a puppet in the hands of the alien hiding from other aliens. But once I realize that, I start making my own informed decisions (the plot has to be interesting here --- no option to actually fight for the alien some more, for money or alien pleasure pills) and I become a real hero at last.

With the alien artifact thing I'm hero all the way, I just stop fighting for Earth that aliens do not really care about, and start fighting for the artifact, against aliens, or greedy politicians, or whatever.

These are real turns in plot that indeed show your heroism was laughable, but empower you to become a mature hero at last. I don't think I would quit playing at that moment.

[BTAxis]

Let's stick with that artifact scenario a bit longer. Suppose the aliens are searching for an ancient weapon of mass destruction, a planet killer, that was to be found somewhere on Earth. Maybe the artifact is hidden deep under the Earth's surface, beyond the reach of archaeologists and miners. Maybe the artifact is split in multiple parts. What it certainly is is indestructable, because it couldn't have survived the erosion of ages any other way.

So, the aliens are looking for this, so that they might gain supremacy through power, a la Death Star. Bit of a problem: the humans are getting in the way. War ensues, etc. By the time the player finds out about what's really going on, the aliens have already located the artifact, or even retrieved some of its parts. It also becomes clear that Eart is to be the test subject for the weapon, both to try it out and to take revenge on those pesky humans that got in the way so much. Ergo, the aliens REALLY don't care about us, yet we still struggle for survival.

So, ending for this scenario? There are several possibilities. Do we take the artifact for ourselves, and use it to defend ourselves against further alien aggression? Do we try to destroy it? That's not possible, though, is it, because it is indestructable. But we could shoot it into the sun, where nobody's going to take it back. Or maybe we build a spaceship and send it to the alien homeworld to nuke their asses. Well, as long as it wraps up the story.

[Northen_Wolf]

So, the aliens are looking for this, so that they might gain supremacy through power, a la Death Star. Bit of a problem: the humans are getting in the way. War ensues, etc. By the time the player finds out about what's really going on, the aliens have already located the artifact, or even retrieved some of its parts. It also becomes clear that Eart is to be the test subject for the weapon, both to try it out and to take revenge on those pesky humans that got in the way so much. Ergo, the aliens REALLY don't care about us, yet we still struggle for survival.

well... when they want to gain power they can archive that with massive invasion, How about they need the artifacts, brought here by theyr enemys, only thing that is/are/can make surrounding area immune to PSI or dangerous to normal aliens...
  BUT the artifact sites are hidden and well guarded (self-escape system?) by some Alliance of humans (Russia or some other country(why you alweys but UN in, put some other country or maybe some group from ancientegypt times)
 So aliens need to first locate the aliving aliens or group members, the time when u find it out that group members are being haunted by aliens (it was "classified" project) your mission is to locate them too, so there will pop up missions like: Aliens landed near of some house go and check out, maybe there is some "group member or hint there" and similar

 Why aliens won't nuke earth? It is immpossible same artifacts protect earth from beinig nuked.

 Why group hides from u and won't show theyself?
Simple, if they would show there could be betreyers inside and if u fail recover artifact aliens will get it.

Why would'nt aliens attack massivly planet?
-radiatsion
-gravitation
-waking up diffrent times
-War lust
- Madness caused by the artifacts (they won't listen much orders perfer search artifacts theyself)

Why do they build bases and kidnap humans or animals
- Artifacts are wery powerful, they can't be transported nor destroyed easly, to transport them they need to fix them for space traveling.
- As they left from theyr home they destroyed it or it was destroyed.
- They need new "base planet"

 Why wouln't they realese the poison gas on world or something?
- Nuclear threat, humans have tons of nuclear wastes stored in underground places?
- They don't know about bacterials (they know about viruses but not about poisonos bacteryals)


ENDING

A)   Aliens mothership will be destroyed, all peons who must build new bases will be destroyed

B) Humans will get the artifacts but they are destroyed against aliens(attackin artifacts) but defence artifacts survive?

C) Mysterious group appers and frees many aliens under the psi control of "master alien race" or ship computer ( u gottu destroy it to free aliens from computer control and theyr war instincts that were planted by computer
D) Mysteryos group or aliens appear when u destroyed alien mothership or planet and accepts u in alliance against hostile aliens?(so the game would have a secuel
E) Aliens are peacful but drived mad by a artifact, u learn that late in the game and have to destroy that artifact, but hostile aliens protect (it/them)

Just some of my thoughts sorry about typos:(

[Bandobras]

I think I'd better make another topic about the artifact ideas and summarize our current thoughts in it.

Just some of my thoughts sorry about typos:(

Thank you for your thougts. Many of them are really to the point. However, what you write is really hard to read for me, not because of typos (why don't you use a spellchecker, BTW?) but because it seems to me very chaotic. I understand that fast writing is good for catching all those nice ideas before they get stale, but why don't you reread and rewrite your posts? That would prevent your good ideas from being wasted (and would let you remove absurd ideas outright so that good ones are easier to spot). Just my thoughts...

[BloodMagus]

Just to continue on rationalising the 'search' scenario, I think the following needs to be established in such a storyline.

The item (or person) that the aliens seek is not indestructable, else they'd have just nuked earth from orbit and search through the rubble. Its capable of resisting the effects of time, but not a close proximity nuclear blast.

If the item was by chance indestructable, it would have to be rather small and not possible to locate by various scans, hence making it impossible to find it in a planet full of rubble.

Its location is prehaps recorded somewhere on earth, and that too needs to be located first. Or prehaps some destructable locating device exists.

These points explain why the aliens didn't just nuke the planet from orbit.

The aliens did not expect an organised resistance. They arrived with a 'pacification' unit to calm the natives, they were not expecting full blown war. Hence they're better equipped, but are forced to deal with the situation by means alternative to straight out violence.

They're not interested in sharing. What ever they're after, they don't want us knowing about it. Hence why we can't help them find it. In fact they attempt to keep it secret as to what they're really up to. One of the goals in stopping the invasion would be discovering why its taking place (this should remain true for all scenarios). Then it becomes a race to see who can find the item first. Then the player is given a choice what to do with it, and endgame proceeds.

Possible artifacts:
Planet Killer (superweapon) - personally I find this rather cliche. zIf used, needs to be done carefully with alot of thought.
Ancient Map - we're home to some intergalactic map.
Prophet/Exile/Convict - Some other alien calls earth home, and his buddies want him back/dead.
Holy Grail - We've got some wizbang item that the aliens want, that does really cool things.
Rare Mineral - We've got some rare mineral that the aliens would like to mine. Unfortunately most of our cities happen to be situated on top of it.

As for the Endgame, giving the alien the artifact results in a bad ending. Outsmarting the aliens (like sabotaging the artifact or sending a fake) results in a good ending.
Blowing it up or getting rid of it results in a neutral ending.


To reiterate what has been said before, to make a good storyline/plot you need to establish why the aliens are here, what they're trying to do, what constitutes a success for them - Even if you don't let the player find out. There needs to be motivations for your opponents even if they're not going to be revealed. From there, you can find ways for the player to throw a few wrenches into the works.

[BTAxis]

I think the "rare mineral" avenue is a bit too far-fetched. If we had any rare resources, we'd have found them and used them up. Look what happened to the oil and gas fields.

What about a treasure hunt, though? Suppose we're actually dealing with a private army of some alien warlord who is out to find, for lack of a better term, the treasure of Captain Greenbeard, who has buried it on planet 3 of this star system, at the X. It'd be silly, but it'd allow us to put eyepatches on aliens!

[Bandobras]

As I've promised I have put a separate topic on the artifact storyline variant. Any discussion on alien artifacts is welcome in that topic, while here I welcome any discussion of the deceitful aliens variant (which may later adapt to the artifact idea, if it prevails).

Thank you.