Creating a plot for the 1.3 Community Project: Part 2

[bb1]

We've been there done that with chasing something through a wormhole... think back to what I call "stock."

[ScrapPool]

I'm not telling anyone they can't discuss, but it seems pretty funny to me that people say "I DON'T LIKE THE TIME TRAVEL... DO SOMETHING ELSE" when there is a vote right there

[Tempest Storm]

IMHO, I think what we have here is a good collection of well thought out plot lines each with their own individual pros and cons. I have to be honest, there is not one story line that I think is 100% on the money; however I do see a lot of potential in some stories over others.

I like the idea of time travel just a little bit. My main problem with it is that I don't think it should be the backbone of the entire storyline. Having an entire campaign in the past sounds like it could get old pretty quickly. Although I think that it could make some pretty good SP missions. I think that it is pretty important to have a story line that will not only provide something interesting to follow, but also provide a fun and original single player experience. It is one of the reason why I didn't vote for scrappool's story initially; it's a great story, but I feel like the campaign that would follow it would just be stale. :/

FE, Uler, QF, FS, etc had highly successful SP campaigns IMO because they had fun and original levels to compliment the standard "Destroy the enemy Recycler" objective. This is where time travel could play an interesting role in a campaign. I could see a level where something malfunctions or your recycler is destroyed at some point when you are in the past and you have to use the technology available to you being an interesting change of pace. (I could imagine commandeering some ancient hadean/olympian tech to be quite interesting! ) Or perhaps during a space battle there is a level where the ISDF carrier gets boarded by the enemy or perhaps even the opposite. They are really more ideas rather than suggestions but its stuff that is surely possible to do, and also has not been done before.

On the subject of alien races, the BZ storyline makes good use of Earth mythology as the backbone for the Cthonians, and if you include the Uler MOD as part of the story the Ulerians were another bio-metal aware race that had an influence on Earth's culture and was defined by ancient Egyptian Mythology as the Cthonians were based on the Greek Myths. There are also a lot of unexplored parts of the BZ storyline that could be worth bringing back with a new race/faction. Look at the Core system for example. We know that the ruins on the core system planets differed; the ruins on Mire, Rend, and Bane looked like they belonged to seperate civilizations. At the same time the Mire ruins were noted to have a writing system that was quite similar to the Cthonians (Another possible to link to a mythological race that made its presence on Earth at some point?) which could fit well with a 3rd cthonian faction or cthonian like faction as mentioned in Mr. X's storyline. It might be interesting to find that there are indeed remnants of the civilizations that lived on Mire and Bane out there somewhere that were a part of a coalition of races like the Cthonians. Take Norse mythology for example; originally the Aesirians and the Vanirians would have been at war with each other eventually allying themselves as a faction. What if during their war they discovered bio-metal? But rather than destroy each other like the Hadeans and Olympians did they joined together as one? Once again, just ideas to try and give an example of what I am getting at. Mainly, rather than creating race X from somewhere beyond the distant stars (which isn't necessarily a bad thing though) there are plenty of ideas to brought about that would provide new races with an original play style as well as something in the spirit of BZ.

All in all though, as I mentioned earlier I think that the stories that we have gathered so far have a lot of potential and need to be fleshed out to maximize that potential. If an interesting time travel plot can be decided on that would provide something fun and new I'd be all for it. Essentially I guess as a bit of a breakdown of what I am trying to say is that the story should be as fun to play as it is to read. And having it feel like it fits with what has happened along the current BZ storyline is also a huge plus IMO. (Although at the end of the day it is still fiction, and fiction can really be anything you want it to be)

[ScrapPool]

I like the idea of time travel just a little bit. My main problem with it is that I don't think it should be the backbone of the entire storyline. Having an entire campaign in the past sounds like it could get old pretty quickly. Although I think that it could make some pretty good SP missions. I think that it is pretty important to have a story line that will not only provide something interesting to follow, but also provide a fun and original single player experience. It is one of the reason why I didn't vote for scrappool's story initially; it's a great story, but I feel like the campaign that would follow it would just be stale. :/

Finally some really insightful, thought out analysis.
(not that nobody else said anything interesting)

Yup my story really just uses "time travel" as an excuse/premise to have a rather "normal"(non-time travel) campaign.
Call it the Conservative Democrat of BZII1.3CP stories which contain time travel.   (If you don't see how that makes sense, you should watch more news.)

So you suggest intricate use of time travel maybe even within missions in the story? Yea. I can dig it! I cant write a story which contains it in time for it to join these discussions, (my abilities to present self-predestining time paradoxes which make sense is limited and general) but that's a pretty damn awesome idea!

[Clavin12]

Maybe after this vote users could submit their versions of the chosen stories for combining.

[Nielk1]

The people of at least bane are still alive, somewhere... We continue to find more and more of their 'leftovers'. Who knows when we will find the evidence of where they went.

Time travel could spawn the creation of entire new groups from scratch. You think it was the NSDF vs the CCA? No, we've got the Nazis up there too! What, another one, the Pan Asian Space Coalition?

[Mr X]

The people of at least bane are still alive, somewhere... We continue to find more and more of their 'leftovers'. Who knows when we will find the evidence of where they went.

Time travel could spawn the creation of entire new groups from scratch. You think it was the NSDF vs the CCA? No, we've got the Nazis up there too! What, another one, the Pan Asian Space Coalition?

You know, my story could be easily modifyed to include any of those factions. Could be very interesting.

Also, in some cases the bad guys messing with them could be what wipes the out/ causes them to abandon their homeworlds. The scions trying to keep history on track could provide some interesting missions...

I also think think it might be a good idea if we go with timetravel that the only reason the bad guys can time travel is because they saw how the scions did it - essentially its the scions' fault.

Finally, does anyone think that the cereberi would work as the bad guys in such a storyline?

[Clavin12]

I think we would need a more developed bad guys with more personality. All antagonists have to have a redeeming feature, just as all protagonists need a flaw in order for a good story.

[Nielk1]

If anyone wants I can read all the stories extremely closely and process out a combination that fits well with everything else we already have.

[Clavin12]

I can probably do that to. If anyone wants that is. And yes I would keep some form of real time travel.

[Mr X]

I've been thinking about it too,

Ahadley has been, to me anyway, pretty clear that he is going to be very inflexible with his story because he wants it to be a mod, which could be a problem in terms of combining.

I do, I think, have a solution for combining mine and scrappool's

My view could be that you go with my story for a few missions (going from time to time, stopping the bad guys from screwing up history) and end up in an altered version of Scrappools story except that the world it is taking place on is the homeworld of the third Cthonian faction from my story. (note, we alter it to not include the loop in which biometal exists because it exists, unless someone can write it in. everyone has biometal) the third faction has just been wiped out and the Olympians and Hadeans are fighting over the technology, they hadn't been able to use the timeportal that you go through because the key had been on the other side.

The third faction had used their technology to create a gravity well to bring the planet's moon crashing down to obliterate it. You get the option of joining the Hadeans or Olympians (like in SP's), whichever side you do not join the bad guys you have been chasing do.

You travelling through the portal has drained the last of the planet's power, but the Hadean's have set up machines to restore it, if you joined the Hadeans it becomes about holding off the Olympians and their allies (they will take a starportal that they have erected to take them to their homeworld and they will send you home through the timeportal). If you joined the Olympians it is about breaking through the Hadean defenses.

Anyone like it?

[Clavin12]

Personally I think time travel is a lame, worn out subject, but from a plot combination point of view I think its good.

[Mr X]

Personally I think time travel is a lame, worn out subject,

A) You've mentioned this like a bjillion times, and you complaining is getting lame. I think we can pull it off as long as we resist the urge to shove in obscure references to stuff like doctor who.

B) Looking at the vote, a lot of people disagree. 

But thanks anyway for your compliment.

[Warfreak]

Would be wierd having a Blue PoliceBox crashing into a Biometal Carrier... Even wierder if some random 6ft SaltShaker rammed against the hull of said Carrier.

[Nielk1]

Personally I think time travel is a lame, worn out subject,

Three words:
GET
OVER
IT


I am getting quite annoyed at your constant attempts to steamroll out the time travel. TOO BAD. Get over yourself.