Tincs - Backstory Poll

[Dutch_Cap]

Thanks for the positive feedback and the votes, guys. My ego is now thoroughly stroked. :lol:

Hard decision. I think dutch caps backstory is very nice.
Thus reminds me of Deus-Ex with regard to implants and would give the game a nice feature, especially for a multiplayer game.

Deus Ex is quit possibly my favourite game of all time. I guess it shows. I also got some inspiration from Star Trek's Borg and the Cybermen from Doctor Who.

i really like dutch's story and i know its more or less a draft, but i think the corporations need some depth too...
so we dont fall into this stereotype of theenemy being bad because they eat babies and do all the evil stuff... they definitly need some charm and character
since its an online shooter and you kind of dont want to always play the babyeating suckers

I agree, I don't like a very black-and-white world, I prefer shades of grey where no one is entirely good or entirely evil. So the corporations probably need a more nuanced backstory, where the guys at the top aren't fully aware of the evil consequences of their decisions. The consequences should still be very, very evil, though.

And of course the OCEM (Open Cyber Enhancement Movement) isn't a bunch of goody-two-shoes, just a lighter shade of grey. But I think the story got that across.


Edit: WILL SOMEONE ALLREADY FIX THE FORUM TO PROPERLY HANDLE MAGIC QUOTES FOR FRAKSAKE!!!!

 

[Butterman]

I've just been playing Deux Ex actually, The Nameless Mod was just released.

I'd be most happy if TINCS didn't turn out like Dystopia. As mediocore as that mod is, I really didn't like it. I was thinking, we're going to have to include implants in our gameplay to match the backstory. The path that Dystopia took for this sucked, as cool as customizing implants is, the novelty value soon vanishes and it becomes apparent that it's just a gimmick. We could, split players into classes, each class having different implants that relate to their "mission statement" if you will.

 

[Vorporeal]

The implant could be built into the class, but the binding would be a "Use Implant" binding which would just use that class's special ability. Maybe it could be charged by doing a certain class-dependent action and then used once it's fully charged (to prevent spamming). Sorta like how the medic in TF2 needs to heal a certain amount of health to build up the charge to use an Uber on someone.

 

[Dutch_Cap]

I personally really like customizability (RPG-lover here), so I'd enjoy being able to mix and match implants. I never played Dystopia, but I though Deus Ex's system worked pretty well. (I'm curious to hear more details about what sucks about Dystopia's system?) For people that just want to jump in, a number of predesigned units, classes so to speak, could be included. For the tinkerers there'd be "build custom unit" and "customise unit" buttons.

Like Deus Ex there could be implants for different parts of the body, like legs, torso, arms, head, skin etc. Each implant would have different advantages and disadvantages. For example, an armored exoskeleton would make you harder to kill, but also slow you down and reduce your jumping distance.

But off course hundreds of possible combinations of implants would be much harder to balance than a dozen classes.

Story-wise it'd make sense if the corporate units were less customizable than the open units (assuming my backstory wins, knock on wood).

 

[Sphinxter]

Can't put what the game is all about in a single sentence much less a single concise paragraph = fail.

You = fail. Would you have put a wall of text up, that nobody would read? If you took the time to pay attention, you would realize that I've put links up to larger versions under every backstory. Hurp durp.

This is simply the foundation. We're going to continue to expand upon it as a team.


Fail to comprehend why this is written like a bad Hemingway contest entry making it so hard to read. Even after stumbling through it I have little idea as to what the game needs from me. Not sure, will I be a robot, government or the people, rich or poor, how will I advance and will I be controlling one entity or an entire species with the goal of making peace there. I think a game promoting the peaceful resolution of conflict a great idea if that's what it is. Role playing might want to start with a premise of, 'you are', such as;
"In 2516 you are leader of a race of robots attempting to enslave earth. The humans have been fighting a civil war between rich and poor and have reduced the planet to two tribes differing in their available power source, the rich can afford electricity in their fortified cities, the poor have devolved to steam out in the badlands. The enemy has sent an emissary to negotiate peace and you will be representing the robots."
Just saying, keep the flow short and smooth, those attention spans aren't getting any longer out there, tell them up front what's expected. Think the old 7 w's of journalism to a good lead in, who what when where why, in what way and for whom.

QUOTE

Its the year 2516, humanity should have been pretty advanced by now. But the problem is: It isn't, instead of worrying about the species in outer space, we worried about our own.
Let me explain you, we have to go back to the 18th century when Benjamin Franklin invented electricity, it was meant as something for everyone, but some greedy rich people bought it for their own.
They started building strong fortified cities, the locked all smart people in and the rest out, doomed to use only steam. After a while we were pretty advanced with steam, but they were far more advanced with electricity. People became angry and they started to rebel, they started to attack the cities. Ofcourse the governement of the cities started to attack back and so they world was doomed in a civil war.
To make it worse a robotic species from space arrived called the Zephyr, they had bad meanings and now humanity is reduced, everyone who was left moved into the cities, but they were almost destroyed , only debris was left. And the electricity is still only avaible for the rich.
We are going to die in war, all humanity if we dont peace each other soon.

 

[Dutch_Cap]

You and your friends play a bunch of cyborg dudes. Some other people play a bunch of slightly different cyborg dudes. For whatever reason you're at war. Shoot the other cyborg dudes.

 

[Butterman]

QUOTE
We are going to die in war, all humanity if we dont peace each other soon.


This line really hit me emotionally.

 

[OrR]

Sometimes, I love customization. However, a multiplayer FPS needs to be well balanced and easy to get into so things should be kept very simple IMO. How about something like this:

One enhancement slot in your legs. Equip with faster running OR higher jumping OR faster turning.
One enhancement slot in your head. Equip with easier spotting of enemies OR map of the level OR augmented hearing (to spot enemies approaching from behind or hiding).
Two slots on your arms. Equip with different weapons or weapon-like things. Some weapons take both arms or have special dual wield effects.

A body armor could take both, your legs slot and one arm slot. A sniper rifle could take both, your head slot and one arm slot.

Differences between the factions could be that the bigcorp armor is more powerful but the rebel armor only needs the legs slot etc.

Also, I offer all ideas I wrote down in my entry up for integration in Dutch_Cap's backstory, if you want to use them. I think some parts could fit quite well together.

 

[Butterman]

Yes, we really need to simplify the system down. I like breaking it up into body parts like Deus Ex. Mixing up augumentations and physical stuff would be intresting too, like, you could get an armour vest on your torso OR somthing like increased sprinting capacity.

I also think that most augumentations should be passive, I really don't like having too much stuff to take care of at once. Like in Dues Ex I very rarely use my augumentations because I just don't think about using them at the time. Most of my encounters in my psuedo-stealth are random and I don't have time to go, "hey, I should probably hit F6 to activate armour about now".

 

[Vorporeal]

Can't put what the game is all about in a single sentence much less a single concise paragraph = fail.

You = fail. Would you have put a wall of text up, that nobody would read? If you took the time to pay attention, you would realize that I've put links up to larger versions under every backstory. Hurp durp.

This is simply the foundation. We're going to continue to expand upon it as a team.


Fail to comprehend why this is written like a bad Hemingway contest entry making it so hard to read. Even after stumbling through it I have little idea as to what the game needs from me. Not sure, will I be a robot, government or the people, rich or poor, how will I advance and will I be controlling one entity or an entire species with the goal of making peace there. I think a game promoting the peaceful resolution of conflict a great idea if that's what it is. Role playing might want to start with a premise of, 'you are', such as;
"In 2516 you are leader of a race of robots attempting to enslave earth. The humans have been fighting a civil war between rich and poor and have reduced the planet to two tribes differing in their available power source, the rich can afford electricity in their fortified cities, the poor have devolved to steam out in the badlands. The enemy has sent an emissary to negotiate peace and you will be representing the robots."
Just saying, keep the flow short and smooth, those attention spans aren't getting any longer out there, tell them up front what's expected. Think the old 7 w's of journalism to a good lead in, who what when where why, in what way and for whom.

QUOTE

Its the year 2516, humanity should have been pretty advanced by now. But the problem is: It isn't, instead of worrying about the species in outer space, we worried about our own.
Let me explain you, we have to go back to the 18th century when Benjamin Franklin invented electricity, it was meant as something for everyone, but some greedy rich people bought it for their own.
They started building strong fortified cities, the locked all smart people in and the rest out, doomed to use only steam. After a while we were pretty advanced with steam, but they were far more advanced with electricity. People became angry and they started to rebel, they started to attack the cities. Ofcourse the governement of the cities started to attack back and so they world was doomed in a civil war.
To make it worse a robotic species from space arrived called the Zephyr, they had bad meanings and now humanity is reduced, everyone who was left moved into the cities, but they were almost destroyed , only debris was left. And the electricity is still only avaible for the rich.
We are going to die in war, all humanity if we dont peace each other soon.




Seems from your post that you don't quite understand what this poll is for. The backstory isn't for a single-player game. _You_ are not a dude running around with a mission. It's entirely multiplayer (at least for a while). Imagine each game as just some battle in the war between the two factions. The backstories are to help determine who the factions are, how they came about, and information like that to allow us to implement ideas for the gameplay (augments, from Dutch_Caps's backstory, for example). We're not trying to put the player into a scenario, but into a world.

 

[Butterman]

^^ 100% correct. You know, while playing Deux Ex, I've been really thinking about a single player campaign.

Oh, ya, the poll ends tonight, if you've been holding off voting, now's the time to vote!

 

[Butterman]

Voting is now over. dutch caps backstory has won.

 

[Dutch_Cap]

If you people want me to do any more writing (backstory, dialogue, menus, buttons, tooltips, error messages), I'm up for it.

 

[Butterman]

Yes please. It would be great if you could start fleshing out the backstory a whole bunch!