AP Community Project [Released]

[thraxorion]

@thraxorion: X3TC was made with the help of alot of the XTM members and the ANH plot was made by several members of the community.

How remarkably democratic. I gladly stand corrected in my assumptions, then. The degree of community investment with this series is rather astounding, isn't it? They better get Rebirth right or things could become quite. . . sour. That's a lot of pressure.

As far as the Split female character goes - I just wanted to point out that the Split needn't necessarily have obvious sexual dimorphism. I actually always found it rather irritating that science fiction has produced so many reptillian, insectoid, avian, etc. female examples with unnecessary cleavage and what have you. Boobs are for mammals only ! Also, the Teldai we interact with in game are all supposed to be females, with the males relegated to remaining on their home world, correct? Their voices, however, are what we would describe as masculine sounding. (At least in the English voice work.) Anywho, I'm just pointing this out to suggest that a more liberal idea of what a Split female should look like would free up the use of existing portraiture.

Anyway enough about that - all this talk of Split and gender is causing me to imagine how those things might reproduce. Having an active imagination can certainly have its downside.

[Scion Drakhar]

Okay. I can work with all of that now that I understand what to focus on. To that end what would you all like me to work on first? Linear progression of the plot? Beginning to end? Or something else?

I'll check in later.

[X2-Illuminatus]

I think it would be the best to first have a basic outline for the whole story from beginning to end.

[Killjaeden]

Maybe we should discuss about what happens after the discovery of the new sector ... as of yet no smallest common denominator was found iirc. Where should the end of the war happen (this plot, or the one with corps&own sector)?. Letting the player choose if to end the war is an option that was 'presented' to us by ES - but that would need some serious story backup otherwise it wouldn't feel right.

[Scion Drakhar]

Okay, I'm more than willing to move forward. As KJ points out, however, nothing has been decided with regard to the new sector. As far as I know there has been no consensus on what is found there, and the only hard information I have is that the ancients and sohnen are borderline no-no's. Not completely off limits but definite danger zones. Personally I favor some form of Xenon tech, maybe in the form of an inert station or M0 that the player can explore and acquire data from, maybe some kind of missing link that helps explain the leap into self awareness. This would also explain the Winters-Yaki-Beryl-Jonferco presence in the plot.

End of War, cease fire. What would appease the terrans? The destruction of the ring by a (rogue?) Argon agent caused the hostility. So what do the terrans want, other than to kick everybody's ass?

A quick note: I do apologize for being absent from the Devchats' the last few, and probably next few days, but conditions in RL are making that time slot difficult to free up. I do check this forum daily and have been checking Roguey's regularly, as well. So if any ideas are posted I'll read them.

[DrBullwinkle]

Appeasing the Terrans is only one way to stop the war. Alternatives include Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), and making the war economically impossible to maintain (like the Cold War).

[Jumee]

Appeasing the Terrans is only one way to stop the war. Alternatives include Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), and making the war economically impossible to maintain (like the Cold War).

another way would be for one of the sides to blow up the Heretics End/Circle of Labour gate thus disconnecting the direct route between Argon Terran (the connection through Xenon sectors would still be there but could become too dangerous due to extreme increase in xenon activity)

p.s. ill stop writing nonsense in this thread after this post. promise

[jack775544]

No that is actually a good idea. However I would be more in favour of the gates being redirected, simply so it will still be relativly easy to get to Terran space and vice versa.

[eldyranx3]

ES said no to Realigning / Shutting down gates aside from the Hub.

Edit: Is there something wrong with DevNet atm? I can't seem to get in.

[Killjaeden]

Is there something wrong with DevNet atm?

Yes, it doesn't work.
Perhaps the xenon technology poses such great danger that their futile little feud is nothing compared against this and they have to work together. But the player can choose not to end the war - so maybe he has to convince both governments of the great danger everyone is in, to get them to bring their best scientists to this 'thing' to get rid of it. The player has the option to convince both governments, but he needs at least one. If he goes to both-> end war, only one -> continue war. Of course we need to inform the player of the result prior his choice. Perhaps the Goner suggest that both sides work together (and maybe make the missions to disable it easier if he convinces both sides).

The 'thing' could be invincible to laser/missile/normal physical damage, so some other method has to be found. It could be something that activates itself in a few years/decades and then ... eats the universe, whatever While doing missions it could suddenly begin to activate (as in "grand finale") and you have to work against the clock - only narratively of course.

I have no idea how the war could be settled without a bigger common foe tbh.

[eldyranx3]

Yes, it doesn't work.

I appreciate the heads up Killjaeden

I have no idea how the war could be settled without a bigger common foe tbh.

This brings up a great point, and ties into how Egosoft raised with stakes with the introduction of 'The Outsiders'. I'm not a huge fan of introducing a major threat that can't be reasoned with / understood. I'm even less of a fan of brushing them into a corner to collect dust once their perceived threat level drops. The Xenon and Khaak are prominent examples.

Why would the war end? Historically, its usually been because one side vanquishes another. Obviously, we can't go that route, as we dont know how all sides come out from the Terran Conflict. Sometimes one side runs out of resources. While there is ingame merit in the Terran Core systems having a bad economy, this would make the Beryll/Jonferco the victor. Sometimes there's an unbreakable stalemate, but we know this wasn't the case.

The Torus is gone. The ten billion strong fleet of assembler drones only stops when Elena Kho lures them into a jump gate that is force connected to a black hole. (F-16) Only the Hub can do this. And was this black hole the final result of the Supernova?

I've always felt that the reason why the war 'ended' is because both sides couldn't reach each other. Depending on how you interpret the dates in the X-Encyclopedia, Operation Firebreak occurs on December 17, 2947 (B-30). The Torus Aeternal blows up on February 5th, 2948 (B-29). If you accept these dates, the Assembler Drones get stranded in the Sol system when the gates shut down, but still attack Earth after the Torus blows up. The Drones fall into a black hole, but the war ends because of Operation Firebreak.

X3AP opens with the destruction of the Torus. Yet the gates are still functional. Typo? Retcon? It's hard to say.

But I'll propose this. The player DOES have the Hub. And the player must CHOOSE how to align the gates. Perhaps this is what Bernd is hinting at.

[apricotslice]

It has been documented how to use the Hub to completely isolate a region of space. So it would be possible to end the war by isolating Terran space.

However, "end the war" - is that even possible ? How do you get rid of the red sectors and the endless spawning of war fleets ?

[eldyranx3]

My guess is pull / shutdown stuff like !lib.war.watch and such. XRM did it.

We are told that shutting down / realigning gates aside from the Hub are a no go, so we cant pull the Aldrin Expansion plot device again.

[DrBullwinkle]

Dillpickle knows how to do it. He already did for his "TC Plots for AP".

[Killjaeden]

Only the Hub can do this. And was this black hole the final result of the Supernova?

It doesn't matter what the result of the supernova may have really been, because it does not matter for us - those events are many years into the future of the time we want to do that plot. We can't use it. An end to the war ingame doesn't mean it's peace - it could turn into a war again in the near future that the player can't experience in AP.
So a wonky ceasefire would be enough, they don't have to shake hands.

I'm not a huge fan of introducing a major threat that can't be reasoned with / understood.

It's fiction, everything can be explained if you have to. There's no other hostile dangerous race that we can use (we don't have the assets).

is that even possible ?

Yes, with ES's support. Other ways won't work without major disadvantages.

[Ketraar]

Dillpickle knows how to do it. He already did for his "TC Plots for AP".

That route is not possible in our case and it does not really end the war, all it does is prevent to load war assets. This method would require a new start so that's not an option for us. But fear not there will be help from those that know their ways around these things, worry not.

As to the explanation, I would go for a cease fire, its a more feasible way to force a halt in hostilities without major intervention in lore or future repercussions. Having the player conduct diplomatic missions and contact both sides to reach a cease fire. This could be in name of the Teladi as trade is slow due to the war sectors. Alternatively it could be a Goner effort to bring the brothers to the diplomatic table. This could be a few missions that require the player to gain high rep on both sides, maybe a few contact/talk steps where we can introduce some of the lore related as to why the Torus was blown up etc. eldyranx3 post with the black hole is an example, even if this is just sent to the player via IMs or gets added to the encyclopaedia.

MFG

Ketraar

[apricotslice]

I like the idea of it being a Goner effort to stop the war.

There is all sorts of ramifications to Goner play, such as ships with no guns ! Thats a type of play very few people take, hence something interesting to force on the player in the name of the plot.

I've done Goner versions of some of my ships, so its easy to do, and a version of whatever player ship they are being forced to use could be done with all its guns ripped out. Just getting to the peace conference with no guns would make for an interesting mission, especially if someone is trying to stop you.

[dillpickle]

Dillpickle knows how to do it. He already did for his "TC Plots for AP".

That I would say is probably a text book case of a hack...

And as Ketraar says, not an option.

As to the explanation, I would go for a cease fire, its a more feasible way to force a halt in hostilities without major intervention in lore or future repercussions. Having the player conduct diplomatic missions and contact both sides to reach a cease fire. This could be in name of the Teladi as trade is slow due to the war sectors. Alternatively it could be a Goner effort to bring the brothers to the diplomatic table.

If we go the diplomatic route, there is something I've done with conversations to quite effectively give the impression of three or four people involved in the conversation...

[Killjaeden]

Perhaps the player discovers something that "shows" (no idea how that part would be done) the terrible things that will happen (X Rebirth setting) and the NPC's involved interpret it as "this must be because of the war, we must stop it"?

[X2-Illuminatus]

I like the idea of the player finding something, which presumly is the cause of "terrible things that will happen". But I don't think that it should be caused by the war or that the races should think that. I would rather choose an approach along the lines of the player finds this dangerous thing, tries to stop the war by convincing Argon, Boron and Terran that this thing is more dangerous to everyone than their current enemies are to them and that the only way of unlocking the secrets of this thing is researching it together.