Design: Storyline

[BTAxis]

Plain story: a game mostly based on tactical combat and Ufo interceptions, until the point where the player finds the alien mothership on the dark side of the moon. Tech-tree research reveals already an important part of basic story elements like what the aliens are like, what weapons and technology they use etc. Also basicly we know that Phalanx reports to the UN and goes to special missons to rescue civilians, rather than engaging in the battlefield.

Yes, this is the basic premise. Now we'll have to flesh it out. If we disregard the whole thing about aliens having to Earth before for a moment (more thought needs to go into that), we have the Gloves Are Off event as part of the ongoing storyline. Not a big part, but it's something that will fit regardless, I think. What else can we think of? Weapon technologies. there's been some thinking about that, but the weapons that are being added to the game have nothing to do with the proposals. Yes, we need mattn and Hoehrer on this one. What else? We have aliens taking over governments, possibly as a result of the regular army failing. We have aliens building bases. Maybe a stage of the game where you have to destroy a certain number of bases to gather required intel? We don't have a fixed endgame yet. Proposed are moonbase or mothership, but we have maps for neither. Perhaps an earth-based cannon that is to blow up the mothership? Not believeable. Plus we don't have a map for that.

So... Other than weapon and alien descriptions (those will come along eventually), what can we do to fill up the elementary storyline?

[altugi]

We have then:

-basic premise

+

-aliens taking over governments

-We have aliens building bases (Do we?)

+ event scheduler

We don't have a fixed endgame yet.

Big problem.

But a much bigger problem is to make up an endgame for something that has only neighborhood maps at hand. It seems to be a hard task to find a final that has to be played on a neighborhood map and still would be believable enough to represent the defeat of the aliens :roll:

[altugi]

what different terrain options do maps have right now? can we use the mapping tools you mention in the tutorials to modify maps, so that we could at least create some sort of variety depending on which spot on earth tactical combat takes place? say, we have snow for a mission in scandinavia and canada, lots of vegetation in a mission in the amazone, desert for missions in egypt?...

is it dificult to have code of an invisible grid that chooses the appropriate terrain according to the spot where the mission is going to be? or do we have something like this already implemented?

I ask the same for architectural elements... do the mapping tools give us chances to implement different architectural styles? Or does that need also support of modellers or texture artists?


I think in X-Com you had 40 unique buildings...  alien incidents happened in these building based on random selection I think. That was quite a lot to keep variety in the game, even if missions were basically the same.

[Thought]

I haven't been able to get the beta to run on my computer yet, but it seems like it would be relatively easy to turn a human neighborhood into an alien city/ship. That is, aliens need buildings too and we could add the details in the texture and skins of the buildings, while keeping the same models (or so it seems). Heck, a simple invert of colors could make for an unusual location (until players realize it is only an invert). Even at that, however, given the limitations of what is actually implemented so far, some of the storyline will have to reference things that aren't present. Intercepting UFO's for one (random side note, it would be really cool if it were possible to board a UFO in flight, but that is a thought for a different time).

How is the majority of the story to be revealed? In X-com it was mostly through the Ufopedia. You didn't really have to engage in the story line if you didn't want to. However it appears that popup message windows have already been added to the game (at least, I think it has) so part of the story could be revealed in that manner. Assuming we have both options, it might be best to have a bare bones story progression in the message windows, with greater detail presented in the Ufopedia. I would expect that there would be entire research branches that only really provide information, rather than practical benefits.

Thus, ignoring the Ufopedia side of the storyline for now, it appears that the messages that will add to the story currently are:

1) Introduction (assuming the story begins with the player assuming supreme command of Phalanx)
2) Gloves Off (The Geneva convention really is nonsensical as applied to non-humans, but given the world culture of 2084 we could just play off of basic human decency instead).
3) Something unknown, possibly several somethings.
4) End Game event.

If I may fill that in a little from the X-com story.

3a) Nature of Alien Threat (what are their short term goals)
3b) Source of Alien Threat (where, generally, are the aliens coming from: Earth, Near Earth, Solar System, Extra-Solar, Interstellar, etc)
3c) Specific Source of Alien Threat (where specifically in the solar system, so an attack could be launched)
3d) Preparations (discovering the tech necessary to reach the alien source)
3e) Specific assault plan developed (basically, when the attack is possible, you'd still need a plan of what you're doing when you get there)
4) End Game event (currently alien city, be it on the moon or in a space ship, seems most probable)

There is also the possibility of throwing in discoveries of what, exactly, the aliens want from earth, and the relation between the different sorts of foes that the player faces. Of course, that has been done before so we'd want to expand on it and add intrigue.

Given that the aliens appear to use tachyon technology, it can be assumed that they are capable of very limited FTL travel (tachyons travel between 1 and 1.5 x the speed of light, if I recall). As such, the aliens can't expect reinforcements for a while (though they will be coming, possibly in 100 years or some such). Since their army is mostly machines, they might even be mining other planets in the solar system for their resources (which humans would eventually discover).

Anywho, just a

Thought

[BloodMagus]

As far as getting the plain storyline together, how about we brainstorm the individual bits seperately. That is work out some possible reasons for the Aliens invading, work out some possible scenarios for how the Phalanx has come into existance and why the player is running it etc.

so the 'modules' of the story would be:

Reason for Invasion
Phalanx Birth
Phalanx Duties
Complications - the various conflict the player encounters.
ENDGAME - how we stopped the invasioned.

Reason for Invasion:

Annexation (as sugested earlier)
Warmongering (taking other people's stuff by force)
Searching for some artifact (There's something on earth that they want)
Hunting someone (there's an alien on earth that these aliens want)

Phalanx Birth
UN planned for it, and finally needs it.
Private Organisation that goes paramilitary
Secret Organisation that comes out of the closet
UN agency that gets 'rennovated' once the threat becomes real

Phalanx Duties
Stop the alien invasion
Save civilians
Protect the earth
Carnage and mayhem.
Develop tech.

Phalanx Conflict
Rival organisations
Peacemongering (somebody wants to do it diplomatically)
Outlawed Activities.
Funding cuts.
Biohazards.

ENDGAME
Deus Ex (we get a more powerful alien race to help us)
Negotiation ( we talk our way out of it)
Heroics (nuke 'em)
Cunning (biological warfare)


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. Evenutally you'd be come a UN sanctioned organisation. 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 existance 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).


As for a more plausible theory on aliens seeding earth. What they were responsible for sending bacteria to earth to make it fertile. and the SETI project let them know that the planet was ready for colonisation.


The idea that the aliens would make a once off attack needs to be carefully thought out. Why attack unless they thought they'd be sucessful. Why only one main attack. Why not a bigger army. Why there and somewhere else.


As for setting goals, I'm sure we can use the UFOpaedia to that effect as done in XCOM.

[altugi]

<snip> how about we brainstorm the individual bits seperately. <snip>

Cool.

Below is a summary of what has been posted in the last few days. I cut and pasted the relevant parts together... Let's see if we can work out a core plain storyline.

What the engine supports

Basics

What we have
-a message system that reports nearly everything that happens to Phalanx&the world. These things currently are mostly static (see below for the future plans)

-A research system that you all know from the original games (not quite finished, but it'll get better)

Planned

-The Ufopedia currently contains information about 'items' such as weapons/aliens/technologies but it will be extended to display "plot-points" and certain news.  

-a pre-defined event-system where you can define certain plot-devices at a certain time with dependencies on prior encountered/researched/etc.. things or events.

-'news' reports.  you (Commander of the Elite Force assigned to defend earth) would have an intel officer to inform you of the latest alien related events around the world

-background events shown, just in small dialogues, that the player doesn't directly experience


Mechanisms

system to feed-in new enemy squads

Ufo Interceptions + aliens building bases + human enemies(natural or as result of infiltration)
create/result in...

1)  tactical missions in buildings, neighborhoods, alien bases, own base
2)  tactical missions in alienships that we succeeded to shoot down
3)  Infiltration that causes human organizations to attack us

What does a tactical combat mission produce?:

Dead human and alien bodies - anatomy, inner organs etc
Injured people and aliens - healing processes
Live humans and aliens - research behavior PLUS all the above
Broken Equippment -research material they are made of
Equippment - research design, functions, mechanism, PLUS the above

Soldier stats
an editable log for each soldier

Objects etc
weapon or any object stat be changed during the game by a specific event (like a technology) without using a new model ? This could prove useful, like for the medikits


The functions of the world and its regions

1) All regions have to offer a certain goods and service that are valuable to us. infiltration results in denial of these goods and service.
2) Rival organizations or human enemies attacking us from time to time.
3) Damage in these regions or civilian losses cause our budget to decrease or sympathy towards aliens to increase (making infiltration easier)

support of a nations currently the following things will vanish/change as well:
* monthly money (minor factor in the later game)
* monthly new scientists
* monthly new soldiers
* (planned) number of buyable items from the free market.
* (planned) Additional alien bases will pop up in this nation.
* (maybe) We'll even lose the control of bases located in this nation. (or at least the location is revealed to the aliens and attacks will follow)
* (maybe) This nation even tries to attack us.

nations turning against Phalanx resulting in items disappearing from the free market, and a decreased supply of personnel


bases
ways of building facilities


Tech-Tree
-puzzle type research
-research iterations that gradually increase the number of revealed paragraphs in the ufopedia + unlock new research topics


AI

aliens prefering death over death through torture
-difficulty levels which are "sensitive" to players skills
--Make the difficulty go up if the player turns out to be overwhelmingly good.

General Story Structure

Reason for Invasion

Annexation (as sugested earlier)
Warmongering (taking other people's stuff by force)
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 "stage" a climatic change



Phalanx Birth

UN planned for it, and finally needs it.
Private Organisation that goes paramilitary
Secret Organisation that comes out of the closet
UN agency that gets 'rennovated' once the threat becomes real


Introduction (assuming the story begins with the player assuming supreme command of Phalanx)

The military would protect major cities, key strategic points, but you'd still need a highly mobile reactionary force to defend everyone else. Thus, Phalanx.

the U.N. had passed the "Phalanx Protocols" decades ago but they were never implemented (like so many UN resolutions).

After 9/11, the worlds secret services, led by the USA, decided to fight Terrorrism on a global scale and established a Global Intelligence Service, also knows as "Sector 911". Sector 911 was an umbrella organization that combined the databases and resources of almost all the secret services of the world in order to maintain global intelligence and to conduct counter-strike activities against enemies. In 2027 a report titled "The Possibility of Extra-Terrestial Terror" resulted in fear and paranoia amongst the leaders of "Sector 911". They decided to set up a unit that would prepare for a fight against such Extra-Terrestrial Terror. As a solution, they came up with the idea to integrate Phalanx into "Sector 911" and give a Elite Force into its command.

Phalanx Duties
Stop the alien invasion
Save civilians
Protect the earth
Carnage and mayhem.
Develop tech.
Research the enemy


As for Phalanx itself, if it was up against such an 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).

This does include protecting innocents from terror attacks and preventing governments from being infiltrated (in classic X-Com style) but each action is taken with the intent of determining enemy weaknesses, not so much killing the enemies.

Indeed, I would expect that as soon as Phalanx discovers new technology that that information would be passed along to the military and that it would see all sorts of field action.

-Nature of Alien Threat (what are their short term goals)
-Source of Alien Threat (where, generally, are the aliens coming from: Earth, Near Earth, Solar System, Extra-Solar, Interstellar, etc)
--Given that the aliens appear to use tachyon technology, it can be assumed that they are capable of very limited FTL travel
-Specific Source of Alien Threat (where specifically in the solar system, so an attack could be launched)
-Preparations (discovering the tech necessary to reach the alien source)
-Specific assault plan developed (basically, when the attack is possible, you'd still need a plan of what you're doing when you get there)

researching your KIA soldiers
Live aliens experiments
Active interrogation methods
--needing a high-ranking alien commander to research
or needing to complete certain missions first in order to start certain research

Complications - the various conflict the player encounters.
Rival organisations
Peacemongering (somebody wants to do it diplomatically)
Outlawed Activities.
Funding cuts.
Biohazards.


the Phalanx [is 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. Evenutally you be come a UN sanctioned organisation. Before that, you have [to] convince countries to privately fund you.

the first goal of the phalanx [is] to PROVE the existance of aliens & UFO by capturing one. Having the UN explode in you face after finding out what you'd be doing,

discoveries of what, exactly, the aliens want from earth, and the relation between the different sorts of foes that the player faces.

Perhaps private states formed similar units to specifically protect their territory. These organizations might occasionally help Phalanx, but they could also be infiltrated (it might be interesting to have missions where the enemies are actually human turncoats).

organisation is outlawed by the UN, and you're operating in secret

aliens trying to make themselves appear more powerful than they actually are


ENDGAME - how we stopped the invasion.
Deus Ex (we get a more powerful alien race to help us)
Negotiation ( we talk our way out of it)
Heroics (nuke 'em)
Cunning (biological warfare)

good old Millennium-Falcon-Blows-Up-The-Death-Star-In-The-Nick-Of-Time last gambit

The anonymous benefactor is some intelligent alien that the Antareans are after and had us set up to protect him (unbeknownst to us).

aliens {were] seeding earth and the SETI project let them know that the planet was ready for colonisation



How to reveal story

bare bones story progression in the message windows, with greater detail presented in the Ufopedia.


Modules

General mechanism and structure of modules

Modules: They COULD have
-their own stories, which add something to the plain story and gives it depth... like revealing something about the backstory of the aliens interest in our planet (but still without any modules, the plain story should makes sens)
-branches unlocked in the tech-tree, that reveal unique research items and eventually introduce this items for use... these would add depth to the tech-tree and the different arrays (weapons, vehicles etc) we have already at hand... but even without the unique items, basic array is sufficient to maintain the plain story.
-New unique units dicovered(?)... new types of aliens, some of them even just one-shot types, that dissappear after the particular module is played to end
-new types of base facilities in order to hunt down the mystery of that particular module... say the Egypt module would start with a mission where you discover something about language, but the follow up would require a linguistics lab, from here you would be able to research a parser or whatever...
-module related events

players decisions during the plain story, would determine which modules are activated into the game resulting in different game story depending on content of triggered modules.

suggestions for modules to implement
Chariots of the Gods mythos and include “archeological” missions were Phalanx has to find and retrieve certain alien storage devices hidden in the Sphinx, Pyramids, the Mediterranean, Atlantis, Lemuria, Mu, Aztec temples, Templar Churches, etc. That is, the aliens were here, but they also left information storage devices (as well as other devices of power) that humans can use to further their understanding of the aliens.

Sort of like the artifact missions in TFTD, but focusing on search and retrieval rather than search and destroy.

Such mission might even open up research avenues, and it might also diversity the sort of people working in Phalanx to include more than just “scientists” and “engineers.”

You might need “Historians/Archeologists” to point you in the right direction for finding these artifacts and “Linguists/mathematicians” to crack the alien language and to encrypt your own messages in greater complex

"Mariana Rift"
"Egyptian Connection"
"Ice Age Devices"


Events

Basic Events
Module Specific Events

"The Gloves Are Off" + built up + separate facility to study aliens in secret
-performing live research it provokes the aliens and leads to the next level of alien attacks

[BTAxis]

About the maps: I don't think we can make a believable endgame with the maps we have now. We need additional content to make the game any sort of complete. This means new maps for special areas, but it also means more models for aliens, UFOs, weapons an armor types. I don't think any attempt to work with what we have is likely to result in something that cuts the cake. So, if any of you knows some artists, make them create some content.

The maps are to be built up randomly from smaller parts. These parts are pre-compiled and can't be changed ingame. So:

I ask the same for architectural elements... do the mapping tools give us chances to implement different architectural styles? Or does that need also support of modellers or texture artists?

Yes, you can implement any architectural style you wish. Of course, you have to model it all from scratch.

Okay, random time.

Given that the aliens appear to use tachyon technology, it can be assumed that they are capable of very limited FTL travel (tachyons travel between 1 and 1.5 x the speed of light, if I recall).

I don't know if you can say that so easily, though, since while tachyons can (supposedly) go FTL, that doesn't mean ordinary matter can. But that's not a discussion I want to go into, as this is a game and all. 1,5 times light speed is still peanuts at those distances, though. However, it might help explain away why the aliens didn't die off from old age during those 100 years of travel.

1) Introduction (assuming the story begins with the player assuming supreme command of Phalanx)

There's a basic text for this already in the design docs. It's not too terribly long and maybe it needs a rewrite, but it's there, kind of.

1) Introduction (assuming the story begins with the player assuming supreme command of Phalanx)

As you rightly predicted, the UFOpaedia. However, altugi came up with an idea for a newswire feature. I thought that was nice, so maybe mattn or Hoehrer can add it in the future. [EDIT] The basic mechanism is already there, see events.ufo in /base/ufos. Not functional yet.

The idea that the aliens would make a once off attack needs to be carefully thought out. Why attack unless they thought they'd be sucessful. Why only one main attack. Why not a bigger army. Why there and somewhere else.

Read Thought's post a little bit back. He came up with reasons why the alien force would be small. In addition to that, it's not really a once-off attack. It's just the first in a series, the only attack you don't get to respond to as Phalanx.

[Mattn]

what different terrain options do maps have right now? can we use the mapping tools you mention in the tutorials to modify maps, so that we could at least create some sort of variety depending on which spot on earth tactical combat takes place? say, we have snow for a mission in scandinavia and canada, lots of vegetation in a mission in the amazone, desert for missions in egypt?...

we have desert, arctic and gras right now. the decision what mission appear at what place is done via campaign.ufo the bases are assembled automatically as the terrain type they were build

is it dificult to have code of an invisible grid that chooses the appropriate terrain according to the spot where the mission is going to be? or do we have something like this already implemented?

the code is there already - just have a look at the map_earth_mask image im base/pics/menu

I ask the same for architectural elements... do the mapping tools give us chances to implement different architectural styles? Or does that need also support of modellers or texture artists?

what exactly do you mean?

I think in X-Com you had 40 unique buildings...  alien incidents happened in these building based on random selection I think. That was quite a lot to keep variety in the game, even if missions were basically the same.

well, we have as many building as we have random map tiles
see here and here

each random map assembly can have several "themes"

[altugi]

I ask the same for architectural elements... do the mapping tools give us chances to implement different architectural styles? Or does that need also support of modellers or texture artists?

what exactly do you mean?

I think BTAxis gave the answer. I was wondering what additional help would be needed to have buildings of say, far east style, modern style, arabic style etc..

it all needs to be modelled ...

[BTAxis]

As this thread is now too chaotic to be very useful, I've made a new thread for talking only about the contingency scenario. I suggest you guys make new threads for other scenarios, so we can discuss them separately and stay on topic.

[altugi]

There hasn't been much talk about storyline recently... so what's going? Anyone having new ideas? Or is Storyline/Final already the final?

[BTAxis]

There's nothing in there except the background thing that was there all the time. I'm willing to flesh out the contingency scenario, but there's not been much discussion about that, so I don't know. I haven't seen any really concrete alternatives either. There have been some ideas in this thread, but they're mostly fragments, not a workable whole.

[Bandobras]

I think Alien containment should be available from the start, but can be used only for detention as letting them die would be worse.

Sounds good. This should help in the build-up of the "gloves off" thing. You already detain aliens, but you see you have to wait to interrogate them. It also precludes the frustration when I knock out an alien with a lucky grenade throw, but he dies on my hands, because of lack of Alien containment.

...6th event. (News) Triggered 1 day after event 5
UN establishes first contact with Aliens. Aliens propose scientific cooperation as first step towards peace...etc...etc...

Brilliant. I guess even the current messages system can be used for that, not dialogs needed right now.

I particular I like the idea of aliens hiding their purpose and even deceiving humans about their intentions. This is coherent with the build-up of alien missions and of Phalanx power. I also like the counter-identification trick. It made me scream "bullshit --- everybody should know aliens are no good" and that was an anger aimed at the politicians not the the game-creators; in other words I became immersed. I guess BTAxis said the same "bullshit!" and though he shouldn't put nonsense into the game. Oh, yes, sometimes you should.

I also like the secret lab, if it costs you nothing, but makes costs of interrogation very high. Then you have an interesting strategic option of using the lab to obtain some crucial technology early on or rather build another base with the money and thus have more missions. This only works if "gloves off" are not very early and there is a very important technology, for example the ability to use a single kind of recovered alien weapons for your soldiers, obtainable from an early alien interrogation (ask him where is the trigger). The choice of strategy may then depend on difficulty, e.g. with higher difficulty you would rather opt for additional weapons, unless you really rule the battlefield even with knives...
 
But I would just as well do with no interrogation at all before "gloves off" and even with  "gloves off" as only a story item with no game-play effect (what you keep doing just becomes legal and you have the nice feeling that you were right from the very beginning).

[Bandobras]

At least you can't expect the player to believe that Phalanx is the only thing standing between thousands of alien forces alone, can you?

Actually, I think this is the most important thing to make the player believe, so that he can feel really special, his every desicion gravely important, his every victory unbelievably profound. It is our job to make this believable. At worst, we can build this in stages...

But since brainsucking has been tried, why don't we use a swarm of nano-aliens? They get into you body, and once they are in, they control the unit. Actually they are all different ways to stage the same scripted event, the takeover of units by enemy AI.

Once you have found an interesting thing to stage the event, you can further develope it. From the swarm we can reach its antitode. You can kill the swarm with a flamethrower.

I don't like the PSI thing, but I like (very limited) taking over units and yours is the best scheme I every heard. I also thing one could try to take over fully robotic human or alien units by taking over their communiaction channels, etc. Just, please, no psychic, levitating, half-robotic, half-ghostly, after-life-dwelling aliens reaching into your head through the fifth dimension. UFO AI is not horror, it is science-fiction. Straight science-fiction.

[BTAxis]

There are, or will be, half-robotic and psychic aliens, though. That's got nothing to do with horror. It's just an aspect of the game that's there to add variety.