[RSE] Series Concept Development

gawainviii

Jolan Tru, all loyal citizens!

I'm putting this thread together to outline my RSE series and maybe get some feedback and ideas. Also, I'd like to encourage others to build their own [RSE] missions. Feel free to use the stuff I've put together, and submit anything you create for others to share.

For my part, my initial plan is a series of missions parallel to the official storyline.

Green - Live/finished missions
Gold - Live/in-review missions
Yellow - In production missions
Red - Planned/not started missions
Blue - STO Episode missions (included as a time-frame reference)
White - Multi-part story arcs (not missions, but included as a header, describing the story arc)

Gawain_VIII's [RSE] Missions:
Citizenship - Introductory mission; player begins as a civilian that stumbles upon a plot that could destabilize the Star Empire & joins the Star Navy to do his part.
Turning Point

Romulan Civil War - The Romulan Republic is a separatist rebellion that relies on terrorist methods.
Operation: Khelian - Starfleet is coming. Evacuate the camp before it's too late! (The other side of Preemptive Strike.)
The Gallia Campaign - Even newly discovered worlds deserve the chance to join the Star Empire. (Inspired by Julius Caesar's "Commentaries on the Gallic Wars".)
A Tale of Two Histories - The Republic tries to sabotage an archaeological expedition on the remnants of Romulus.
Defensor Fortis - The Republic is assaulting Rator III. We need you to defend the capital!
Whispers and Rumors - The population of Cirini Prime are loyal to the Star Empire, but it's governor has defected to the Republic. Can you out-diplomacy the Federation to keep the planet under Imperial control? (Linked to Shadow Play.)

Internal Investigation - Investigating the Tal Shiar, uncovering corruption leading to a denunciation of Hakeev
Assimilate the Borg - In war, a little thing can be a big advantage, and Borg technology is no little thing. (Lead-in to Desperate Measures, includes back-story for Gaius Selan.)
Untitled - Investigating the Tal Shiar
Plots and Ploys - Uncovering Taris-Hakeev-Iconian connection
Cutting the Cord

Schism - With Sela gone and Hakeev dead, the Star Empire falls into chaos, multiple factions vying for control. The player tries to hold things together until the Senate can sort it all out.
Ad Regem Aut Nihil - One of the factions vying for power decides to proclaim it's own Praetor and puppet Senate on another world. Rator has a problem with this which you must solve
Primogeniture - An all-out assault to recapture a defected Romulan world is doomed to fail, but the attack is a cover for a secret rescue mission.
Operation: Alcatraz - A successful jailbreak takes time. This is a prelude to the Incident At Mol'Rihan Center
A United Front - One last push to unite the loyalist factions back under the control of the Senate... this time with Sela's blessings.
Uneasy Allies
Midnight

A New Dawn
Expansion - With the Star Empire and Senate now in firm control of it's half of Romulan space, it's time to establish a new colony world, untainted by the Federation and Republic influence.

rllaillieu

I like where this is going. I hope to see some of those planned missions become reality soon.

kodachikuno

Really need to get onto doin these on my KDF Rom

gawainviii

Latest update: Second mission, Operation Khellian, is well underway. I've expanded the idea to be a bridge between two removed Fed missions: "Divide et Impera" and "Preemptive Strike".

It begins when you receive a distress signal from Commander Selok on Vendor Station... you arrive just in time to see a single Fed ship warping away. Now you have to go and provide assistance to the station, and see what damage was done, and exactly how many secrets the Feds stole....

... then, in the course of the mission, you are led back to Rator to defend the capital world from a Federation invasion, only to find out that Federation "scientists" planted subspace weapons for Starfleet to, conveniently, discover as justification for their "preemptive strike".

vorwoda

I really hope you continue doing these! I THOROUGHLY enjoyed playing Citizenship more than most of STO's official episodes (especially the later ones).

The only thing I see from your outline that I hope you'll reconsider is the implications of the last five words of the description of "A United Front". Considering the amount of time which has passed between her disappearance in Cutting the Cord and her recovery in "What's Left Behind", the other factions vying for Praetor would have left her completely in the dust. She's an inept half-human failure whose reign saw both the Empire descend further into collapse, and the rise of the Republic. Surely there are a multitude of better full-blooded Romulan leaders to take us out of this quagmire? There must be a number of Senators or Fleet Admirals better qualified to be Praetor. Possibly "Ad Regem Aut Nihil" might provide an opportunity to restore a rule more like the glory days of Old Romulus, by abandoning the last of the "Sela-ists" and supporting a more traditional Imperial faction among the rivals. After all, when Sela does return, all we see her in is a Q-ship. And one with an enemy spy aboard as well. Her support from the Empire is demonstrably slim by that point. So much so that by the time she shows up in the Iconian War, her followers aren't Romulan. So who in the Empire would really care by the time of :A United Front" that this time it's "with Sela's blessing"?

All I'm saying is that it doesn't look like she has any real support from within the Empire by the time of her return, and that a love of the RSE does NOT imply any love or loyalty to Sela, who is (more than anyone else) responsible for its current depleted state, and is, in the end, not even REALLY Romulan.

Personally, I'd rather support Praetor Gaius Yulius Kesar's faction. Wholeheartedly! Ave, Kesar!

Or lead a mission to liberate Donatra from the Borg.

Either way - Death to Sela the Pretender!

Anyway, that's my 2 denarii.

Again, great work on "Citizenship", and I truly look forward to the rest of the series, whether you agree with my observation/suggestion or not.

[EDIT: Typo]

gawainviii

@vorwoda, thanks for your generous comments. I do intend to complete the story. I've, unfortunately, hit that indomitable brick wall called 'writer's block'. Rest assured, I am not done. I've been binge-watching all the intrigue laced shows I can find on Netflix for inspiration (currently working my way through 'Reign').

There is quite a bit more to the outline, already written, that I have not included in these introductory teasers, which may change your mind about your Sela reservations. I need to keep this story in parallel to the official story. Since we don't know what Cryptic intends to do with Sela, I've kept her involvement intentionally vague and open. Needless to say, since Kesar is, naturally, my character--modeled after his namesake, his faction will, doubtless, seize the day. After all, as Riker reminds us, the Praetor's power has always been the Romulan fleet. I will let you in with a hint, though: For the future of the Star Empire, I'm taking a queue from Roman history (albeit, in reverse).

And to you, Hail, Caesar Ave, Kesar!

gawainviii

And after a long delay... the next mission in the series is nearing completion: Look for [RSE] Primogeniture soon. I expect a release by this weekend.

vorwoda

I am truly DELIGHTED to hear that!

I just played (on my FED-aligned Republic Rom) a wonderful trio of Foundry Missions, "Valley of the Shadow". It has excellent writing, and is very much written for Romulans, but not so much for Imperials. It's very heartening to see that your work on this is continuing, and nearing a second episode.

gawainviii

Update on Primogeniture. Details here.

gawainviii

Primogeniture is now live, under the Review tab!

vorwoda

Just started playing it, and haven't reached the surface, but I found a bug (I think). While approaching under cloak after defeating two waves of defenders, I encountered a battle between a Fed frigate and a REPUBLIC warbird. Both were shown as red enemies, but they were firing on each other! I'm going back to the mission now, but wanted to post this feedback while the details are fresh.

gawainviii

vorwoda wrote: »

Just started playing it, and haven't reached the surface, but I found a bug (I think). While approaching under cloak after defeating two waves of defenders, I encountered a battle between a Fed frigate and a REPUBLIC warbird. Both were shown as red enemies, but they were firing on each other! I'm going back to the mission now, but wanted to post this feedback while the details are fresh.

Yeah, it has to do with the way I set it up & the default ally/enemy flags... To be able to get the "correct" enemies & allies--I had to swap Romulan mobs & Republic mobs by reskinning them. So you're actually fighting RSE (reskinned as Republic) while allied against Republic (reskinned as RSE). If you look closely, you'll notice the weapon types are wrong.

I ran into the same problem on the ground... I had originally set up larger battles with Fed & Republic against you together, but had to separate them into smaller Fed-only and Republic-only battles so that the allied Opposition Forces wouldn't fight each other.

I went ahead and left it the way it was in space, because its was predominantly intended as background combat to make the space battle seem larger than it is (only 8 mobs). I figured since it's background, it was a rather minor edit, and easily overlooked until I find a better way to "fix" who fights who.

vorwoda

gawainviii wrote: »

vorwoda wrote: »

Just started playing it, and haven't reached the surface, but I found a bug (I think). While approaching under cloak after defeating two waves of defenders, I encountered a battle between a Fed frigate and a REPUBLIC warbird. Both were shown as red enemies, but they were firing on each other! I'm going back to the mission now, but wanted to post this feedback while the details are fresh.

Yeah, it has to do with the way I set it up & the default ally/enemy flags... To be able to get the "correct" enemies & allies--I had to swap Romulan mobs & Republic mobs by reskinning them. So you're actually fighting RSE (reskinned as Republic) while allied against Republic (reskinned as RSE). If you look closely, you'll notice the weapon types are wrong.

I ran into the same problem on the ground... I had originally set up larger battles with Fed & Republic against you together, but had to separate them into smaller Fed-only and Republic-only battles so that the allied Opposition Forces wouldn't fight each other.

I went ahead and left it the way it was in space, because its was predominantly intended as background combat to make the space battle seem larger than it is (only 8 mobs). I figured since it's background, it was a rather minor edit, and easily overlooked until I find a better way to "fix" who fights who.

Ah, I see. I ran into the same situation on the way out (now that I've finished), so at least I know why. And I'm glad you were aware of it.

Other than that, and a couple of minor typos, great job!

Otherwise, my only issue was the Senator not telling us who our objective was. I understand that you did that for suspense, but honestly, how can one realistically know who to rescue, without knowing the identity (or, at least, description) of the target? If it wasn't for the map pointers, and the fact that there's so much hand-holding by the game, I'd have figured I found the target when I rescued the other Senator and other Romulan prisoners. While it may be obvious to the PLAYER that that's not the target, there's no justifiable way currently provided for the CHARACTER to know that more is required. Not game-breaking, but could use some shoring up.

Lots of fun, though, and it's always nice to serve the RSE!