Just a question or two on a story I'd like to make on the Foundry...

lonnehart · December 2014

Just a story I've had in my mind for a long while now for a Foundry mission and it goes something like this...

Before the story begins there's some history. One a world within Federation space there are two factions. There's the peaceful technological faction who has shared their discoveries with the rest of the world. While they have their own objectives, they attempt to foster peace throughout their world, making it a better place for everyone.

Then there's the other faction, who has nothing but absolute hate for the "superior" faction. Everywhere they go they force everyone think as they do, follow their traditions and acknowledge them as the superior faction. Anyone who doesn't convert is gotten rid of.

This faction harasses the peaceful faction with kidnappings, bombings, and defamation.

The peaceful faction eventually has enough and will not take anymore. But rather than use their superior tech to crush the opposition, they decide to leave the planet. And as they do they wipe out any trace of their space technology in the hopes that they will not be followed.

Quite some time later (several hundred years) the Federation makes first contact with this peaceful faction, who are quite happy that the Federation shares their views on peace.

And now for the questions... If a hateful group who is dedicated in the eradication of all that they think is an affront to their thinking had the planet left to themselves, would they finally be happy that they can rule the planet as they like? Or will they find some excuse to follow the target of their persecution, even if it meant ruining the garden world they were left with?

Heck... is a story like this even appropriate for the Foundry?

thay8472 · December 2014

Sounds like an awesome story. I'd defiantly give it a go when/ if you publish it.

I'd say said group would either turn on each other... or launch into the stars and start attacking races they judge to be inferior.

markhawkman · December 2014

A race that bloodthirsty would find an enemy. Even if it meant killing each other.

grylak · December 2014

I would say they would either:

a) follow them as quickly as possible and try to destroy them.

or

b) Remain on the planet, build up their space arms and have a totalitarian society. There would be small groups of rebels springing up from within, as is always the case with such extremist society. But once they had enough weapons, they would strike out into space, rapid and aggressive expansion, destroying every civillisation they come across who do not convert to their way of thinking, always with the ultimate goal of hunting down the 'Peaceful Society' and taking them out. They know they're out there, polluting space, they would not let go so easily.

And I think that could be a mighty fine story.

castsbugc · December 2014

The foundry is meant for many things, most especially storytelling
so yes, yes you have no reason not to create it

as far as your other question, I agree with one of the other commenters about fanatics finding someone else to hate once they 'win'

drogyn1701 · December 2014

There's one big question you have to ask yourself: where is the player in all this?

By necessity, cause it's how the game as a whole is designed, the player is the main character of every mission. Everything happens to them, and everything that happens has to be from their point of view. We don't have a cutscene tool, and getting around that fundamental principle can be done but it's very clunky.

What you have so far is backstory, and I think quite interesting backstory. Now you need to figure out a plot that gets the player involved.

adverbero · December 2014

Sounds like a good set up.

But yeah where does the player fit into to the conflict?

I had what I thought was a great Idea for a mission, then I came to realise the back story is all well and good but I didn;t have a clear role in the conflict for the player and I had to rework the whole thing

psycoticvulcan · December 2014

If a hateful group who is dedicated in the eradication of all that they think is an affront to their thinking had the planet left to themselves, would they finally be happy that they can rule the planet as they like? Or will they find some excuse to follow the target of their persecution, even if it meant ruining the garden world they were left with?

I would say the latter. A government like that would not survive long if the people didn't think it was justified. By continuing to attack people who don't support their positions, they could theoretically remain in power for a long time. Look at how long Hitler remained in power. It wasn't just because he controlled the military, it was because he was a brilliant public speaker who knew how to sway the opinions of the masses.

And yes, this sounds like a very cool idea for a mission. But I'll echo what the posts above this say: make sure you can find a good way to integrate the player with the story. A game is a lot different from a TV series in that the players are the main character of the adventure and they are the ones who determine what happens to the others.

wombat140 · December 2014

Another possibility is that a peaceful movement might arise all over again, though without the technology since the first group took it away with them. Some people might start thinking that the high-tech society had had the right ideas - especially if the society the "winners" created is really nasty, as it probably would be with a start like that. The new peacenik groups might dream of making contact with the people who left the planet all that time ago, thinking of them as possible saviours - they'd have stories about them, most of which, by that time, would probably be quite wrong or exaggerated. And of course, the rest of the society would be down on them like a ton of bricks - as Psychoticvulcan says, they'd want to do that anyway, since having someone to persecute would help them say in power.

It would be interesting/funny if the new peacenik groups were imitating things that they think were part of the high-tech society's way of life, but (as the player knows, having actually met them) they actually weren't. Like those New Age groups following terribly inspiring Celtic or Native American practices that no Celt or Native American ever actually had. They might even be believing the high-tech group to be more wonderful and saintly than they actually were, or are by this time.

Maybe they DO manage to make contact with the original high-tech emigrants, and that's how the player gets in on it?

lonnehart · December 2014

So where does the player fit in all of this? For what I have so far, the player is meeting with the escaped faction so they can begin their integration with the Federation. So why I ask whether the hostile faction would try to follow the targets of their persecution or not? Well...

The Federation player will end up dealing with them. The hostile faction wants to exterminate the peaceful faction so much that rather than existing peacefully on their world, they make... changes...

BAD changes...

The player gets to encounter one of those changes as a giant rocky meteorite targeted at the planet the peaceful faction settled on.

Eventually the player will journey to the planet where this all started, gathering all the information on the people who had been left behind and their sad fate as well as see the ruined state of the planet.

The player will have to stop the meteorite armada from hitting the peaceful world, but that involves taking a very terrible action to do so...

psycoticvulcan · December 2014

One possibility: you could have the peaceful faction wanting to stop by their homeworld and see how things are going there, and they've requested a Federation ship to help with any talks that arise, or defend them if necessary. That could be a simple way to get the player involved, though it might lack some of the "discovery" the OP is going for.

grylak · December 2014

Surely the player would be involved in the First Contact with the peaceful society that the OP mentioned is happening? And while that's going on, the warlike guys turn up?

adverbero · December 2014

lonnehart wrote: »

So where does the player fit in all of this? For what I have so far, the player is meeting with the escaped faction so they can begin their integration with the Federation. So why I ask whether the hostile faction would try to follow the targets of their persecution or not? Well...

The Federation player will end up dealing with them. The hostile faction wants to exterminate the peaceful faction so much that rather than existing peacefully on their world, they make... changes...

BAD changes...

The player gets to encounter one of those changes as a giant rocky meteorite targeted at the planet the peaceful faction settled on.

Eventually the player will journey to the planet where this all started, gathering all the information on the people who had been left behind and their sad fate as well as see the ruined state of the planet.

The player will have to stop the meteorite armada from hitting the peaceful world, but that involves taking a very terrible action to do so...

Sounds good, especially if your planning to present the player with a difficult choice/responsibility to deal with, Tough choices are the burdens of captains after all, I like mission that remind me of that

wombat140 · December 2014

Actually, it had maybe better not be the Federation's first contact with the peaceful faction. If they're not already members of the Federation, then you start to trip over the Prime Directive.

Thinking about it, it seems to me that to make this convincing - Let's call them Zogs and Zigs - you need to know why the Zogs were attacking the Zigs in the first place, why they hate them so much.
"Religious" crusade like Isis?
Military-industrial complex threatened by the rise of a peaceful society?
Just a standard dictatorship threatened by the rise of any other power at all?

If it was the first, then maybe they would still feel, even after that long, that they were duty bound to finish off the "heathens" as soon as they got the chance. But if it was the second or the third, "practical" reasons in other words, after several centuries without any further contact with the Zigs - without even any proof that the Zigs ever reached their destination - they'd surely have to admit that the Zig problem had kind of solved itself, and find somebody else to beat up. In that case there'd have to be another reason why they hadn't given up. They might, for instance, be determined to grab the advanced technology back. Or, as I say, a dissident movement might start that thought the Zigs' way of life was better after all, and try to contact them for help; that would make the Zigs into An Issue again, and the Zogs would respond by trying to blow them up before it went too far.

One thing that occurs to me: if you make it a "religious" thing, you'd do well to indicate in passing that the Zigs have a religion too. Otherwise, 9 out of 10 readers will just take the whole thing as a "Religion is evil" story and ignore everything else. It would be particularly neat if it was nominally the same religion, but with completely different results, like normal Muslims.

Hope all this back-seat driving isn't bothering you. It's just because your idea is pretty amazing, so we're naturally interested!

taylor1701d · December 2014

Sounds like a great backstory so far, reminds me a little of the Asimov novel, "Nemesis"

I believe the faction left planet side (let's call them "The Killers" for now) would turn to civil war.
Perhaps a group of radical thinking "Killers" makes it their mandate to find and harness any remaining tech left behind by The Peaceful Faction.

Meanwhile the Elders from the Killers faction want nothing to do with The Peaceful Factions Technology (Even though harnessing the Tech could cure a deadly diesease that's ravaging the population).
This creates a rift in the Killers society.
This would plunge the world in a state of civil war.

At this point your story could go a number of ways..
- What's the Peaceful Factions Responsibilities here ?
- What are The Federations Responsibilities (in regards to the Prime Directive) Can they intervene ?
- Is one side in the Civil War slaughtering the other side (Maybe the tech harnessed by the radicals is giving them a tremendous advantage in the war) ?
- If either side wins, what are the consequences ?
- Do they harness the Tech and follow the Peaceful Faction ? And to what end ?

Those are just some of my thoughts, and OF COURSE you can do this, you're not breaking any rules here.... Your backstory is really great so far, I'm intrigued at how you will resolve the story.

lonnehart · December 2014

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions, guys. I'm working on the basics of the story at the moment, but I eventually want the player to get the backstory via interactsions with the locals of both sides. This isn't the first contact for this race. In fact, part of the story is how they reach out to the Federation upon learning to use a warp drive.

Other things I plan on adding into the story...

1. It could apply to any ideology or religion, one side desiring peace and harmony and the corrupted side wanting to dominate everyone (I have to admit that the story is inspired by real world events).

2. How each side does its "conversion" to its version. The peaceful faction simply stating what it thinks and allowing those who listen to decide on their own. The hostile faction going so far as implanting a chip in the brains of its citizens (including newborns) that will kill anyone who is not in line with the thinking the leaders want.

3. The peaceful faction is completely open to new ideas and very willing to accept them while the hostile faction has extreme hate for any ideas but its own (which is part of the reason why they will sacrifice everything to exterminate the peaceful faction)...

4. The peaceful faction wants to join the Federation as doing so will allow them to explore and learn from the Universe. The hostile faction believes they were destined to conquer the Universe, and sees Klingons and other such species as being lower than they are and will defeat them to show them their "proper" place in the Universe... that is... far beneath the hostile faction. However, the state that faction is currently in may prevent that...

Just a question or two on a story I'd like to make on the Foundry...

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