Creating a plot for the 1.3 Community Project: Part 2

[Warfreak]

It's the best way though... The Cerberi in themselves were like this if you never payed attention. Originally Hadean Craft and then their own faction. Sounds sudden to me.

[bb1]

The ending with FC as-is has the ultimate shock- "We were back in the past that whole time. None of it has even happened yet...the EDF's creation, the bio wars, not even humanity. The order that sent us into that hell hasn't even been given yet... and here we are, plummeting to the fearsome planet we called home."

How's that for a Grizzly 1esque narration? The fatal flaw I see in FC is that you must explain that the portal does not affect time but not make it obvious. Otherwise, you will have people confused as to what the big hubbub is all about; exiting the portal and being back in time or going through the A.D doing it will need to be elaborated in a briefing or VO somewhere. Else players will default the portal to the time travel device, losing all impact.

About a third race, I think that just puts lard in the frosting. Going back in time gives you free run with the Olympians of the time and the Hadeans of the time. They are all wiped out in FE, but in the past the Olympians were probably fierce with their sticks and rocks.

[Warfreak]

Yes, considering they littered the solar system with their feats of epicness and layed the road of destruction for us, they must have had pretty nice sticks. 

[Clavin12]

It's the best way though... The Cerberi in themselves were like this if you never payed attention. Originally Hadean Craft and then their own faction. Sounds sudden to me.

Well it would never work in a book...but then this is a game so...

[sabrebattletank]

Why even brink humans and scions into it?

It's an odd question, but I think it's one that deserves a good response. Why not do something completely separate? A different part of the Universe, a different reason for conflict, a different outcome. I think it might be refreshing to create something new, not re-hash the same players again.

[Warfreak]

That is exactly the kind of ideas i've been thinking up.

[VSMIT]

Well it would never work in a book...but then this is a game so...

And why wouldn't it work in a book?

[Clavin12]

It's a sign of a lazy writer not to have an introduction for their characters. I read this in the writers handbook for 2004 so...

[bb1]

Because this is a community project for the 1.3TA5 Battlezone II patch, not the Remake Project for the ever improving Battlezone Engine.

Also, resources aren't that widespread. Look around...in a community of a hundred or so, you could pull off a remake. Asking the small community to redo the entire game, races, stories, buildings, terrain, planets, and everything is going to alienate potential modders (although invigorate quite a few others to be fair) and extend the time for production from a few months to years, at any which point it can get lost in developmental hell, people losing interest, or dropouts. This project is already much better organized than 1.3CP1. Don't ask too much or this one may feel the same fate.

[Mr X]

I have it!

Its mentioned in the plotline for battlezone 2 that the Cthonians were probably the ones that created biometal, so I'd like to suggest that the third Cthonian faction were the ones who created it by infusing adamantium(or some other uber tough metal) with living tissue, with the peaceful intentions of creating settlements on inhospitable worlds.

The Headeans attack and wipe out the third faction in order to acquire this material and use it to win the war against the olympians, the olympians find out and to deny the Hadeans of the advantage in the war they make planetfall shortly after, both sides adapt biometal tech in their own unique way. In a final act of defiance the third faction created a gravity well to bring the moon crashing down, and so the war for the planet turned into a frantic struggle to obtain as much biometal as possible and the means to replicate it before it was too late.

During this the scions appear, with both sides thinking that they are the enemy the ark III is blown out of orbit by missiles from both sides. The wreckage scatters across the planet, giving both sides different aspects of scion tech to add to their growing knowledge of biometal.

The scions try to recover as much of the ark as possible but abandon this when they discover that the Hadeans found their ftl(faster than light) engines. Stuck in no mans land, they must pick a side. They must join the olympians and fight to overwhelm the Hadeans and fight to retreive their engines or join the Hadeans and attempt to hold off the Olypians while the engines are recharging.


If no one minds, I'm gonna start writing a history for the third faction.

[Nielk1]

It's a sign of a lazy writer not to have an introduction for their characters. I read this in the writers handbook for 2004 so...

That is just not true. What you always need is a plan though. It is only the simply low level stories that follow this. I have one I've been writing for something else actually where the characters start nameless and faceless till they get fleshed out in a specific chapter (I plan to rewrite this but still). The story still works, there is no sign of laziness in it.

[ScrapPool]

It's a sign of a lazy writer not to have an introduction for their characters. I read this in the writers handbook for 2004 so...

That is absolutely, 100%, NOT an indication of a lazy author. Especially when it comes to the nature of the antagonist in a story... in fact an unknown enemies' slow elucidation is often an integral part of the most profound plot twists... thank you The Village... (i didn't say they would be pleasing plot twists to science fiction fans... ... frikin guys in pig suits... )
The same can be applied to protagonists. Slowly revealing that they are relatable characters builds connection and meaning for the reader. Which of course is the primary goal if you want to take said reader on that ever enjoyable emotional ride when one of the characters you have grown most attached to is killed or turns out to be evil... etc...

Of course it is sometimes seen that the viewer/reader is thrown into a story without any introduction in any form. Like most people, I don't like this device much, but it is used to create a effect/experience of chaos and confusion. Often times this is attempted with little success in movies. It works better in books.
Point is: I promise that the author of your writers handbook for 2004 is no Vonnegut, and certainly is not known for their own groundbreaking authorship. But to be fair, I'm sure that it is a book aimed at novice writers, and if I were to write a book I should certainly like to pick it up for the other more practical advice on how to write a simple plot which is undoubtedly contained therein.

I have it!

Its mentioned in the plotline for battlezone 2 that the Cthonians were probably the ones that created biometal, so I'd like to suggest that the third Cthonian faction were the ones who created it by infusing adamantium(or some other uber tough metal) with living tissue, with the peaceful intentions of creating settlements on inhospitable worlds.

The Headeans attack and wipe out the third faction in order to acquire this material and use it to win the war against the olympians, the olympians find out and to deny the Hadeans of the advantage in the war they make planetfall shortly after, both sides adapt biometal tech in their own unique way. In a final act of defiance the third faction created a gravity well to bring the moon crashing down, and so the war for the planet turned into a frantic struggle to obtain as much biometal as possible and the means to replicate it before it was too late.

During this the scions appear, with both sides thinking that they are the enemy the ark III is blown out of orbit by missiles from both sides. The wreckage scatters across the planet, giving both sides different aspects of scion tech to add to their growing knowledge of biometal.

The scions try to recover as much of the ark as possible but abandon this when they discover that the Hadeans found their ftl(faster than light) engines. Stuck in no mans land, they must pick a side. They must join the olympians and fight to overwhelm the Hadeans and fight to retreive their engines or join the Hadeans and attempt to hold off the Olypians while the engines are recharging.


If no one minds, I'm gonna start writing a history for the third faction.

Love it! All of it!
This third faction is really growing on me... not only because they provide an excuse to cause a moon to come crashing to a planet 

[bb1]

In Clavin's defense, I think he was referring to "universe" rather than character, and laziness as in we stick with the edf BZ universe all the time instead of just redoing it all and scrapping canon stories.

[Nielk1]

I've got 2 story lines for other projects that go with an entire alternate timeline and one post ISDF BZ2 ending. This just seems to be what the story submitters wanted, more of the EDF timeline.

[Mr X]

This third faction is really growing on me... not only because they provide an excuse to cause a moon to come crashing to a planet 

Actually, my main reason for including them is the implication that a peaceful society with peaceful intentions creates the weapon that takes war to a whole new level and results in their own destruction and the deaths of many others at the hands of more violent factions. Meanwhile the warlike societies manage to survive. Evil trumps good.

It also means that it isn't your bog-standard "there's biometal on a planet so X and Y who hate each other are fighting over it" storyline.

In Clavin's defense, I think he was referring to "universe" rather than character, and laziness as in we stick with the edf BZ universe all the time instead of just redoing it all and scrapping canon stories.

But its better to add depth to something that exists than to create something completely new. Thats why all the really good stories get sequels