PLOTSSSSSSS!

Admin wrote:What about something like a drug that was designed to help people do something good, so most people ended up taking it, but after 20 years the people that took it have mutated. The main character would have been one of the people that didn't take the drug because he felt that it wasn't tested well enough.

Thats basically what i was goin for earlier. :3

kimchipr0 wrote:

StrykerX49 wrote:An environmental disaster could occur. I mean even in our present lives there are a lot that can go wrong. But I see your point, genetic mutations take decades even centuries so unless it's paranormal or sci-fi radiation I still have to think about it. I would like to note that in real life a zombie virus is possible but only in attacking your brain and shutting down sections to make you act like a zombie not actually become a living dead ^_^. :/ Another possible source for inspiration could be the Cartoon Network show Generator Rex where a government funded nanobot project imploded and every living creature on Earth ingested the cloud of nanomachines. If you've seen the show the machines randomly mutate people and the hero is the only one who can control the nanos and cure people. I believe it was cancelled before it's 2nd season. IDK. But I will agree that a gov't involved disaster or corporation is cliche. I personally want this to be the entire human race's fault.

I APPLAUD THE HUMAN RACE FAULT. Who needs a government to screw things up when everyone just fucks up royally.

What would the human race have doe to cause such a disaster? We cant go chemical reation tree like in the Happening. We all know M Night Shamylan is crap. But i do agree that having it be the whole human race's fault is a good idea.

Serotonin deficiency will either cause premature heart failure and death in mammals or growth is normal but only increased aggressiveness. The mutation isn't any horrific physical change only behavioral. Human deficiency in serotonin would just cause infant death (I'm not so sure what would happen if a grown human lacked serotonin). And besides, lack of brain serotonin is partly compensated with intestinal serotonin.

As for the entire human race deal, I find nuclear disasters a quick and easy explanation.

But nuclear disaters (missiles) are caused by the government. Nuclear disasters (generators) are caused by almost non-existant human neglect or natural disasters. (2011 Japan earthquake/taunami)

True, but nuclear disasters gov't caused or not is still less cliche than a gov't genetics project or mad corporation like Umbrella. Either way I think we should stop formulating a back story for now and focus on protagonists, antagonists (if there is one), conflict/cause, and level progression. Work out the game's immediate plot rather than the "past" and work with the concept artists on developing people so we can get to modelling.

We could always keep the cause of events vague and unknown to make it a little enigmatic when in reality we have no god damn idea to write.

Good idea. Let's do that and focus on the actual gameplay plot. I don't mean to sound pushy and I know we've just begun but the concept artists can't do any specific character designs until the storyline team agrees on a story and character. Until then the modelling team is also sitting idle. Just saying... :\

I second that as well

Sorry for just jumping in now, especially because we should be focusing on characters.
How about we do something like uknowingly everyone has a very minor devolved form of a disease, say like rabies, and the pollution in the air causes it to advance at an accelerated rate, making people mutate. Then places that are really fresh and away from pollution are like safe havens and people begin to flock to them, i.e. farmland or really cold un-technologically advanced places, and larger dense cities are quarantined. So we have the main character be trapped in one of the quarantined cities, and your trying to escape.

I like that safe haven and quarantined idea. Finally, a story concept other than an explanation for the disease. We should definitely implement that. Maybe we can even add another character that's a relative/friend that gets separated during the mass panic and is on the safe side of the quarantine and have both characters have a story that meets in the middle as they fight their way to find each other.

CampbellChickenNoodleSoup wrote:Sorry for just jumping in now, especially because we should be focusing on characters.
How about we do something like uknowingly everyone has a very minor devolved form of a disease, say like rabies, and the pollution in the air causes it to advance at an accelerated rate, making people mutate. Then places that are really fresh and away from pollution are like safe havens and people begin to flock to them, i.e. farmland or really cold un-technologically advanced places, and larger dense cities are quarantined. So we have the main character be trapped in one of the quarantined cities, and your trying to escape.

i rather like this idea, and it should be brought up at one of the meetings

I concur. This is the most substantial plot development so far.

ictaurus wrote:

CampbellChickenNoodleSoup wrote:Sorry for just jumping in now, especially because we should be focusing on characters.
How about we do something like uknowingly everyone has a very minor devolved form of a disease, say like rabies, and the pollution in the air causes it to advance at an accelerated rate, making people mutate. Then places that are really fresh and away from pollution are like safe havens and people begin to flock to them, i.e. farmland or really cold un-technologically advanced places, and larger dense cities are quarantined. So we have the main character be trapped in one of the quarantined cities, and your trying to escape.

i rather like this idea, and it should be brought up at one of the meetings

I RATHER LIKE THIS IDEA AS WELL. in fact, it's quite a nice idea. indeed i like this. INDEED.

CampbellChickenNoodleSoup wrote:Sorry for just jumping in now, especially because we should be focusing on characters.
How about we do something like uknowingly everyone has a very minor devolved form of a disease, say like rabies, and the pollution in the air causes it to advance at an accelerated rate, making people mutate. Then places that are really fresh and away from pollution are like safe havens and people begin to flock to them, i.e. farmland or really cold un-technologically advanced places, and larger dense cities are quarantined. So we have the main character be trapped in one of the quarantined cities, and your trying to escape.

I like this plot a lot. I thought of an addition to it that may be interesting, and i told a few people today. What if throughout the game there are hints that lead you to find out about a group of people that founded a colony on a different planet as a large-scale safe haven. The end goal would then be to find a way to get to the planet and escape the pollution on Earth.

CampbellChickenNoodleSoup wrote:Sorry for just jumping in now, especially because we should be focusing on characters.
How about we do something like uknowingly everyone has a very minor devolved form of a disease, say like rabies, and the pollution in the air causes it to advance at an accelerated rate, making people mutate. Then places that are really fresh and away from pollution are like safe havens and people begin to flock to them, i.e. farmland or really cold un-technologically advanced places, and larger dense cities are quarantined. So we have the main character be trapped in one of the quarantined cities, and your trying to escape.

I think that this is a very good idea, but since this is in the possible future, maybe like 2020's -2030's, and society has been broken down for a while, quarantine zones still can be referred to as quarantine zones, just that they haven't really been able to hold things inside of their walls, explaining for the mutants roaming the country side, plants in the city outside of the city, etc. Instead of escaping, why not go into the quarantine zones in search of supplies for the communities, because this a hackandslash, there needs to be plenty of enemies, and going into the dangerous city will set a good place to have all of these monstrosities and also lets us kind of play around with different environments based on mission like a Mall for clothing and stuff, Farmer's Market for food, maybe a Train Station?, Hospital, etc. But i like the idea of the devolved form of disease and pollution, it's all the humans' faults.

In my own contribution to the story, I think that nature should play a part in man's destruction, bringing back my spore idea from before.

Nice job Soup! (Whuzz ur name?)

StrykerX49 wrote:Good idea. Let's do that and focus on the actual gameplay plot. I don't mean to sound pushy and I know we've just begun but the concept artists can't do any specific character designs until the storyline team agrees on a story and character. Until then the modelling team is also sitting idle. Just saying... :\

Well, technically, we need character models first before we can model, mostly a main character model. (though I could probably model something freehand tomorrow for you guys).

That's what I meant. The work all stems from the story writers. They make a character, concept artists draw them and then we model them. What did you think I said?

I very much like the idea of quarantine zones due to some sort of plague occuring twenty to thirty years in the future. Maybe we can have technology that is more advanced than right now, but realistically so.

That's exactly what were going to do. The Admin suggested an ending where the hero escapes Earth on a shuttle to a new human colony built to evacuate our forlorn homeland. So we are definitely heading towards the sci-fi direction although a bit decrepit until the protagonist makes it to safer and obviously less run down areas.

So for the main character, we do have to decide where we want the game to take place. Are we in California, Japan or whatever. This heftily decides on not only the name but even the look of the main character(s). Also if we are escaping from or going into a quarantined city which city are we going to base it off a real city or make one up. Finally a little rendition of my plot idea after reading other suggestions, how about the charcter works for a group of people and is sent into or from inside a quarantined city to round up supplies so this society or group of people can start a colony on a new planet/asteroid/wherever the hell Earth isn't.

I was thinking of keeping things ambiguous. Most metropolitan cities look similar anyways. As for the plot there will be many subplots for different characters. But I was thinking we use your idea of escaping the quarantine zone with my twist of having a friend/relative going in to find the character along with other characters and plots that all end up with them escaping Earth on a shuttle. Probably to a space station. Let's not go too far into sci-fi and make it an alien planet...maybe the moon. Anyways, we need to come up with a character(s) fast or the Admin will start with his character first for the sake of progress. (fair warning to all and please pass the message thnx)

Ok sounds good, and as for the charcter i was thinking at the last meeting we talked about different types of people to be the main character so i thought maybe it could be like: You start out as kind of weak and very your on person. So you are manipulted to get supplies for these people to start a colony(so lets not go to science fiction) on a supposed really fresh unpolluted area and when you bring back the supplies they leave you to die in the center of a mutant infested city. This makes you distrust people and you become a lone wolf type person. Then through word you hear that supposedly your best friend actually escaped and you decide to find them. Once going through hell to get to them you decide to get revenge on the people that left. Then we could have like the people that left you, they kinda screwed up and polluted this supposed perfect safe haven and become mutants themselves. As for looks which country you want to base it in.

I made a character bio. But the forum or my computer derped and I couldn't post it. Gimme a few minutes to rewrite it, and plz dont post anything until i finished, so this way i don't derp again.

Okay here's a character for Progress's sake:

Leonard Morgan
Age:25
Hair color: brown
Eye color: blue

Description: Heavily built, has scars on arms and legs. Wears gray t-shirt and old blue jeans and leather boots.

Overview: Leonard's father Francis was a former fireman in the local fire department. After the initial outbreak and the subsequent breakdown of civil protection and rescue efforts, Francis escaped the city with his 3-year old son Leonard. Leonard and Francis spent the next few years roaming the countryside trying to find a group of survivors like themselves. As Leonard grew up, his father trained him to be physically fit and taught him survival skills he learned as a rescue worker and a hobbyist camper. Due to his lack of human interaction, Leonard was a quiet, reclusive boy that had learned manners from his poorly-educated, but good-spirited father.

In his teen years, Leonard and his father were able to find a small settlement of survivors on the outskirts of another city and were allowed in due to Francis's survival knowledge and limited medicinal knowledge. However, Leonard was not able to fit in with the other teens in the camp and was outcast due to his quiet, shy behavior and his impressive physical stature.
Later, Leonard was finally accepted following an attack by mutant animals where he and his father defended the settlement's food supply while killing a number of the creatures. Leonard began talking with other people and becoming fast friends with the other survivors, even signing up for the settlement's supply runners, running bids into the surrounding countryside and very shallowly into the city for food, medicine, and other necessities. Leonard finally found happiness being a part of a group of people he could call friends.
This happines was not to last.
At age 20, Leonard's father fell ill to the plague that had killed many people during his escape. Leonard desperately looked for a way to heal is dying father, to no avail. Francis died while his son was on a supply run, looking for antibiotics, bain killers; anything that would help his father.
After his father's death, Leonard secluded himself again, becoming quiet and unapproachable once more. He refused to speak unless required to, and would only work with others unless called upon. He would train himself to become faster, stronger, and healthier so he wouldn't die the way his father had.

Mentally, Francis had become unstable after his father's death, and would often lapse into believing his father was still alive, only to see him die again. This would cause him to almost lose his life on numerous occasions.

Uhh yea. Thats basically a rundown of what i had before :/

Building on Orphan's idea, I'd think a loner type would be more lean than strong, faster rather than stronger. Instead of having a basic betrayal, maybe we could have it where he sees the group break down due to basic human greed, friends killing friends, family killing family, and loses his faith in the idea that humans can work together. We could have this be the start of the game, with the trainer/tutorial person killing his father over something small and being the level boss. Building on Stryker and Campbell's idea, we could have him trapped in a quarantined area, and have him fighting his way out, through mutated monsters, and "broken" people. He meets up with the person fighting their way in (John, for convenience's sake), who's looking for a way to get to the colonial project (Which is a governmental space station designed to perpetuate human life in the event that Earth becomes inhabitable. For volunteers, of course.) so that John can help the human race. This character would slowly start seeing light human lives again. IF we decided to have multiple storylines (NON-Branching, but different from the start, similar in the start, completely different in route, and similar in end. Sort of like add on stories, to add depth to the world.) We'd have him talk with all the other characters at some point or another, and slowly get better. Me and Stryker thought that we could have players start as a character that wouldn't that wouldn't be playable from the rest of the game, and me and some other people (Can't remember WHICH people at the moment,) were thinking that you would see the main character(s) in their youth, with hints at their personality, you would choose them, and see parts of their backstory play out, and get to the main game. I'm thinking that you could start as a traveling merchant, or someone traveling around various settlements, and that you help train whichever character you decide to play as.