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How we handled voting for story in the original BZ2CP was through iteration. Everyone posted their concepts and a vote was held to see which held up. Then the top bunch were retained and discussed further and voting proceeded. The result was a couple that were tied so I blended them into a concept that stuck and resulted in a working framework. Then art got in there and started all sorts of interesting in-progress ideas to flesh out the resulting world. Looks like the first part of that's what sort of happening here too.

We also tried to stay more with the initial "backstory" and conceptual illustration of the races involved at the major-events level only, instead of designing an entire campaign with every event known at the beginning. This enabled people to create SP maps after the fact that could be slotted into the campaign, provided their starting and ending points meshed with the overall schedule of accomplishments that materialized later. It created the risk of disjointed storytelling, but allowed greater flexibility later and the mapmakers didn't feel like they had to be robots to some scriptwriter's wishes.


That being said:
- I'd vote against backward time travel of any sort. It's not a native concept to the previous BZ universe and can create a lot of headaches when people get into different visions and expectations of causality and paradoxes. It creates that horrible logical faultfinding Terminatoresque question "Well, if they could timetravel during situation A, why didn't they timetravel during situation B to stop A from happening?". Forward time travel is easily accomplished without invoking causality issues. Two possible substitutions are using distance, not time movement, to logically separate one foe from others until it's the right moment to bring them onto the stage (e.g. an ancient spaceship with a busted FTL drive on a 3000-year orbit drifts back into the solar system), or a cache or forcefield that freezes time within it until it's disabled or expires to reveal a new enemy or plot twist.
- Would be really good to revisit some of the original settings found in BZ1 and BZ2 as a nod to continuity and, at minimum, an opportunity to reuse existing models or assets. I still vividly recall the Mons Olympus missions on Mars and would love to see it again. Plus it closes the loop for players that might be new to the mod without spending a tremendous amount of time spelling out all the things that happened to get to where the races are today - pivotal historic events can be encountered and explained within the missions themselves as the players stumble across old wrecks or memorial plaques.
- Some concept sketches of major plot physical assets would be a good plot selling point. The art direction can help determine the race attitudes and aptitudes. As an example, you know from their appearance that the Cerberi are not the good guys, and the Hadeans' ship skins helped make them look very structured and regimented. If an artifact is central to a proposed plot, what will it generally look like? Sketches and early models can really contribute to ideas.
- Finally, the initial BZ2CP movie was a very good concept solidifier. When designing your concepts, consider how much work it would take within an initial explanatory cutscene or separate movie to actually explain to the audience what is going on enough for them to buy into the plot and game. The preamble to the first mission should be small and simple, and the work to get there light and easy to comprehend. If you have to take ten minutes of explanation to get to the point where the player can boot up a mission, that's too long.

Well the moral of Terminator is actually quite the opposite effect you suggest. The story suggests that no matter what someone thinks once they know the situation, that is the only manner in which the events could have transpired if they were to occur at all (if they were to cause themselves to happen via time travel), ergo: one cannot say "why didn't they just go back in time and stop it all from happening?" because if they did, there would be no story, and you would never have asked that question. It finally comes together in T3.

Although this is exactly the same reason I am against time portals and "easy" time travel, instead favoring realistic/relativistic "difficult" backwards time travel. Because they inevitably lead to that credibility busting "wait, this story should never have existed because a smart alien would use time travel as a very effective weapon. it is after all, time travel."

[chord progressions]

While I'm glad that people do pay attention to DCI, most of the music played is too "in your face" to be good background music.  A large bugle line like that doesn't provide the correct sound for game background music usually.

Haha I was doing a poor job of being sarcastic.

I actually said:
"I also really do think that some of the chord progressions (favored by arrangers in DCI) can be harnessed to the effect of great drama- as that is what they are designed to do."
Note the use of the phrase 'chord progressions'. Not 'bugle line'.
This is why I try to be thorough when I post- that strategy is better for sharply defining what is going on in my brains so that it is easily transmittable to your brains as information. 

A more thorough elaboration of what I said might be:
AS Someone with decent experience in the matter, for me it is worth putting forward that the chord progressions used often in DCI are designed to profoundly interact with the brain in a chemical sense on a level which is not normally achieved with "normal" M, m, or IV chords seen in "everyday" music. Versus the nonstandard, yet intricate and explorative chords.
In short, DCI chord progressions are a means to project interesting chords in a non-boring way.
It is also worth noting that I never suggest their use in actual looping, background game-play music. It was instead implied that they could be used as a constructive tool during independent times of intricate story development (via the use of the term "drama"). (Maybe a cutscene is an example?)

I dunno, I'm kinda partial to selections from this... or better yet...
And this...
(I DO expect that all three videos will be watched to completion!)

No seriously Dance please is great... reminds me of the menu cycle from FE.

I also really do think that some of the chord progressions favored by arrangers in DCI can be harnessed to the effect of great drama- as that is what they are designed to do.

I like example 2.

[ScrapPool's "Blend"]

The following is the story proposal which has my full backing.
Sorry, this is about as distilled (I would say: unthorough) as its going to be from me...


Call it: ScrapPool's "Blend"

This is mostly a re-post from the "Creating a plot 2" thread... mostly.

"The blend goes something like this: it could be presented as a three "act" or "part" story.

PART I: EXTINCTION OF THE THIRD FACTION AND HIDING OF THE DRIVE

This part would be concerned with the extinction of the Third Cthonian Faction in a fight with other Cthonians over the Third Faction's superior technology.

This part is rather vague to me... and so I kind of want to nod to Mr. X's history of the Third Faction for this part... but it might be centered around the Hadeans trying to get their hands on a significant piece of Third Faction technology: the Alcubierre drive. The third faction hides it successfully, and then are killed off (but not before activating their gravity well to bring the cthonian moon down, more on that later).

One might play as a Third Faction Cthonian (in the "past"), as one of the last defenders of the team hiding The Drive on the a distant and ancient world accessible only by a special portal. (If it fell into the hands of the Ancient Hadeans, they would surely become the dominant race in the universe.)

The Cthonian's homeworld's moon might be partially terraformed, the Third Faction would have culturally separated from the other two cthonian factions because they are accustomed to the day-night cycle of the moon. The Cthonian Homeworld itself does not have a day-night cycle, it is tidally locked, and so has one side of the planet in constant night (home to the olympians) and one side of the planet in constant day (home to the hadeans). As the third faction is exterminated, it activates a gravity well designed to crash the moon to the planet.

PART II: CERBERI HUNTING AND DISCOVERY OF THE DRIVE

Part 2, we jump ahead to the future (possibly after Perfidious, just so that that story might remain in tact) and we join the Scions (player=the ambassador from full circle, on EDF oversight duties) as they are hunting the last of the Cerberi.
Our scions follow the retreating Cerberi through modern Hadean space portals, fighting and exterminating them, until finally the Cerberi discover a rather more-ancient, buried portal, activate it, and retreat through. The scions follow, and once they reach the other side, discover a wold filled with Cthonian relics. Here they exterminate the very last remnants of the Cerberi, but at the end, discover the Alcubierre drive hidden by the third faction in the distant past. At this point, all seems calm and concluded, and the scion forces return to mire with their prize.

NOTE: There is potential, before the Cerberi start to retreat through Hadean portals, that they have spread to SOL worlds, eg., Mars, the Moon, Europa, Titan, etc, and so, we could, for a few missions, go Cerberi hunting on the worlds from BZ1 as scions! This possibility excites me the most.

PART III: CONSTRUCTION OF THE ARK III AND MODIFIED "FULL CIRCLE"

The Third Faction's Alcubierre drive, discovered by the Scions at the end of their Cerberi hunt, is the centerpiece for the construction of the ARK III...

Here we resume the plot of Full Circle to conclusion with the following suggested modifications:

The ARK is brought out of warp by the gravity well activated by the third faction on the cthonian homeworld, not by crashing through the moon.
Cthonians DO NOT reverse engineer biometal, instead they use fallen pieces of the ARK as their source, just as the scions do.

There are some other suggested modifications to full circle that I wanted to include but I cant remember what they are at this time... they were really good too... if yall could er... re suggest them, id like to have them in here....

IMO: -this plot reconciles the "portals/no portals" discussion, because portals are included, but are not the main recurring theme of the story.
       -this plot reconciles the "cerberi/no cerberi" discussion, because there are cerberi, but they are exterminated.  
       -we would (eventually) get to play as each of the three proposed races of cthonians, in addition to the scions. (the third faction by default, and either the hadeans or olympians when you are prompted to join each of these factions in the eventualities of FULL CIRCLE)
       -we would get to re-visit mars, titan, europa and even the moon as we go cerberi hunting. and so, this plot could solve one's desire to return to those worlds.

The one bit this plot does not include, and the one discussion this does not resolve is the time portals. But you already know that I am anti-time portals. So their exclusion in this draft is very explicable. HOWEVER, I BELIEVE that if the cerberi are causing trouble and inciting damaging shenanigans as they are retreating through these hadean space portals, that the same plot-sense effect is achieved (as if they were traveling through time), and that is: lets follow these guys through this portal and stop them from causing trouble. Same thing as the time cop, but without the time portal. "



DISTILLED SUMMARY:

Play As:           Third Faction Cthonians (Name TBA), Scions, Ancient Olympians or Ancient Hadeans.
Play Against:    Ancient Hadeans, Ancient Olympians, and Cerberi.

Contains:
-"BZ2 Mission 14" Campaign fork, in which one must join either the ancient Olympians or ancient Hadeans in order to defeat the other and escape the falling moon. (See FULL CIRCLE)
-SPACE portals
-Cerberi
-FTL (faster-than-light) "accidental/relativistic" time travel
-Cthonian Homeworld (Possible)
-A closed timelike curve, or "time loop" (NOT PARADOX! (@ VSMIT)) in which the events of this story cause themselves to happen.
-Scion-Human Love Story
-Possible channels through witch the nature of biometal might be reavealed (third faction's expertise w/ etc...)
-Possible re-visitation of Mars, Venus, The Moon, Europa, Titan, etc...
-Possible channels through witch the history of the Cthonians might be fleshed out
-A moon crashing to a planet
-The possibility of an epic boarding party/defense mission.
-LOTS OF FASCINATING SCI FI SHENANIGANS LIKE: the Alcubierre drive, Faster-than-light "time travel", Habitable tidally locked planets, and Closed timelike curves, amongst many many other great and numerous possibilities (perhaps biometal is another version of the Monoliths from 2001 (that is, inorganic, self-replicating machines designed to explore the universe, alien space probes) or an inorganic life-form) ...
If you're bored, thorough reading of each link in the above list might prove a boredom-resolving and maybe even mind-blowing activity.

And if you haven't read  this yet, I highly recommend that you take the time to accomplish a thorough reading of it so that you might have a little bit of context for this blend. But I think I've made that quite apparent by my extensive linking to it in this post.

Virtually everything is possible with this framework except direct time travel.

[could]

Why not play the campaign as a member of the third powerful Cthonian faction?

Or, more broadly, why not play the campaign as a non-human/scion entity?

Could be interesting, at least as an idea to vet.

That would wreck the storyline because they're supposed to get wiped out before the real fighting starts...

 * experimentation? [with biometal? with another, foreign substance? with native fauna?]
 * colonization? pets/slaves? [--> then they rebelled?]
 * to be a superweapon? [in conjunction with biometal?] [but they failed/escaped/were set free because they were too powerful?

  * a fusion of biometal and human and Cthonian? (has this been done before?)
  * a fusion of biometal and human and something else -- native plant/animal?
  * a fusion of biometal and human and some non-living entity: stone? metal?

Feel free to add on/subtract reasons and such. Also, feel free to submit reason D. And Reason IV.

Discuss. What do you think?

OH MY. These suggestions fit in rather well with a little proposal I was cooking up for something of a bend.
Im excited now.

The blend goes something like this: it could be presented as a three "act" or "part" story.

PART I: EXTINCTION OF THE THIRD FACTION AND HIDING OF THE DRIVE.

This would be the first part, it would be concerned with the extinction of the Third Cthonian faction in a fight with other cthonians over their superior technology.

This part is rather vague to me... and so I kind of want to nod to Mr. X's history of the third faction for this part... but it might be centered around the hadeas trying to get their hands on a significant piece of third faction technology: the Alcubierre drive. The third faction hides it successfully or something, and then are killed off (but not before activating their gravity well to bring the cthonian moon down, more on that later).

One might play as a third faction cthonian (in the "past").

PART II: CERBERI HUNTING AND DISCOVERY OF THE DRIVE

Part 2, we jump ahead to the future (possibly after Perfidious, just so that that story might remain in tact) and we join the scions (player=the ambassador from full circle, on EDF oversight duties) as they are hunting the last of the Cerberi.
Our scions follow the retreating cerberi through Hadean space portals, fighting and exterminating them, until finally the cerberi discover a rather more-ancient, burried protal, activate it, and retreat through. The scions follow, and once they reach the other side, discover a wold filled with cthonian relics. Here they exterminate the very last remenants of the cerberi, but at the end, discover the Alcubierre drive hidden by the third faction in the distant past. At this point, all seems calm and concluded, and the scion forces return to mire with their prize.

NOTE: There is potential, before the cerberi start to retreat through hadean portals, that they have spread to SOL worlds, eg, Mars, the Moon, Europa, Titan, etc, and so, we could, for a few missions, go cerberi hunting on the worlds from BZ1 as scions! This possibility excites me the most.

PART III: CONSTRUCTION OF THE ARK III AND MODIFIED "FULL CIRCLE"

The third faction's Alcubierre drive is the centerpiece for the construction of the ARK III...

Resume plot of Full Circle to conclusion with the following suggested modifications:

The ARK is brought out of warp by the gravity well activated by the third faction on the cthonian homeworld.
Cthonians DO NOT reverse engineer biometal, instead they use fallen peices of the ARK as their source, just as the scions do.

There are some other suggested modifications to full circle that I wanted to include but I cant remember what they are at this time... they were really good too... if yall could er... re suggest them, id like to have them in here....

IMO: -this plot reconciles the "portals/no portals" discussion, because portals are included, but are not the main recurring theme of the story.
       -this plot reconciles the "cerberi/no cerberi" discussion, because there are cerberi, but they are exterminated.  
       -we would (eventually) get to play as each of the three proposed races of cthonians, in addition to the scions. (the third faction by default, and either the hadeans or olympians when you are prompted to join each of these factions in the eventualities of FULL CIRCLE)
       -we would get to re-visit mars, titan, europa and even the moon as we go cerberi hunting. and so, this plot could solve one's desire to return to those worlds.

The one bit this plot does not include, and the one discussion this does not resolve is the time portals. But you already know that I am anti-time portals. So their exclusion in this draft is very explicable. HOWEVER, I BELIEVE that if the cerberi are causing trouble and inciting damaging shenanigans as they are retreating through these hadean space portals, that the same plot-sense effect is achieved (as if they were traveling through time), and that is: lets follow these guys through this portal and stop them from causing trouble. Same thing as the time cop, but without the time portal. Know what I'm sayin?



ANYWAYS this is really just an amalgam of suggestions and things we all want to see...
Its primary drawback is its potential sheer size and length. This would be no short mod... Although if we have something like 5 missions per part, (something i think is highly possible) the potential  size of this story could be rather nominal.

In a greater and greater way, me too.

The Acclubiere Drive causes a bubble inside which time is normal, and outside which time is normal, does it not? The only issue I can see causing time travel is the collapse and formation of the bubble. Though IIRC it is impossible to enter or exit the bubble or make one, it must have always existed, or some weird stuff like that.

Being science fiction, they make the bubble and collapse it, but how does the collapse of a space dilation wave cause time travel? And at that, wont the front and back of the wave cause opposing time travel if that did occur thus canceling each other out? I mean, one is a space 'expansion' and one is a space 'contraction' so how does this work? On that note, do we represent a space 'expansion' as a void that light moves around if it shows at all, and a space 'compression' as a liquid where light collects if it gets in at all?

I mainly like the time portals because in my mind I have drawn up an explanation for it I can understand, granted, we can literally have both.

A. I agree. Time portals are easy to understand. They are also impossible and lead to inevitable credibility destroying "why didn't they just..." scenarios.

B. The time travel is not caused by the actual drive itself. Its caused by the fact that it is used to travel faster than light. One would never be able to see the ship while it was in warp, so the point of the warping of light around the expanding space behind the ship, although a cool idea, does not apply. If you watched the ARK III come out of warp, it would seem to pop into existence out of no-where, because no radiation is fast enough to contact it and reflect off.

As for the effects of the warping of space, like I said before, this has nothing to do with time travel, it is merely a "legal" way to accelerate mass to (apparently) faster than light speeds. There is no "front" or "back" of the warping of spacetime. (In addition, it is nowhere specified that nothing could enter or leave the bubble, only implied through logic, as as the bubble moves forward, it "makes room" for itelf from a singularity "pushing aside" the rest of the universe, but so fast that before relativistic or light-based mechanics could "notice" it. According to radiation based detection mechanisms, it was never there, and this is technically true, because the "ticks" of time (plank second) actually happen slower than the ship is traveling. O_o) That is a 2-D representation of a 3-D concept. In reality, inside the "bubble" nothing is happening at all. The drive moves space around the craft, pushing a small section of space along at faster than light. Imagine if you had a wind-up toy truck on a piece of paper. The truck could only go so fast because of its mechanical limitations. Now imaging that you cut a circle around the truck. You could then push the paper along (with the truck on it!) as fast as you like. If you happen to push it faster than the speed of light, then, well, when you come out the other end you will be "back in time" from the perspective of you departure point.

[I personally don't see how an FTL crash is going to cause time travel, and I personally like the portals more. What do you all think on this?]

I am thinking we might go with Mr. X's time travel and Scrappool's major plot events.

I personally don't see how an FTL crash is going to cause time travel, and I personally like the portals more. What do you all think on this?

Its really hard to explain...
"I have read that if one was travelling on a beam of light, that one would measure no elapse of time and no distance covered, no matter how far the observer on earth measured the light beam to go. but if the guy on the light beam measures no time elapsed and no distance travelled, how could he at the same time, measure the earth observer's clock to be going more slowly than his own, which has measured no time at all ?" ... "THat is the time dilation from his view for earth would be infinite." ... "How can the observer on the light beam see the earth move at the speed of light, when time dialated for him is infinite? For the beam it would take 0 seconds to travel from A to B. Of course it is physically impossible to observe from a beam of light." ... "Time does not exist for a photon, since it is travelling at the speed of light, and so it makes no sense to discuss how fast the photon sees the observer's clock to be moving."

Its really just a logical extension of the principle of time dilation. The asymptote of the time-dilation curve approaching infinity is at the speed of light.
Essentially, as you get closer and closer to the speed of light, time elapses slower and slower, until when you are traveling at the speed of light, time does not elapse at all.
By the normal laws of physics, it takes an infinite amount of energy to accelerate even a proton to the speed of light. Not practical. But if you circumvent those laws by bending the universe around the object you are "accelerating" to get it to achieve a "speed" which seems to an observer to be faster than light (really, you aren't moving at all.) via the Acclubiere Drive, what happens to you from the perspective of the observer?
One assumes that you experience negative time dilation- that is, dilation "past" the point when time does not pass at all (for a photon), essentially, back in time. This model is supported by physics of general relativity and examples of light reaching our eyes from stars far away (what would happen if you went faster than that light, at it?)

Re: realistic time travel.

[framework]

I'm not comfortable with the whole "cthonians got biometal from the scions who got it from the humans who got it from the cthonians" circle. For lack of a better word, I think it's cheesy.

Well that's perfectly reasonable.

And I agree that this story is rather brave and presumptuous- but Battlezone is only alive today because of the community, so I find myself more comfortable in this universe making up "canon" than in say, Halo, a very owned and manufactured story.

Although I would list that as an example of something which is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from "cheesy"... unless you were listening to the theme from Babe when you read it or something.
(Ah family movies...)

Anyways, we are actually highly considering dropping that idea all together, in order to better honor the deepest and darkest ether of BZ1 canon, and to create a more driven resourcing experience.
(It would be that all the biometal in gameplay within the story would originate from fallen pieces of the ARK III. In addition, this take could imply that the events of this story inspired the Cthonians to invent biometal in the "distant future" (the past, from the perspective of BZ1), but not necessarily)

Finally, I would say that a small disagreement like that is certainly not sufficient reason to disqualify the other potentially interesting elements of a story framework.
But I am super stoked for what Mr. X has come up with as far as blends go...

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 

[As to why it happens, there are a lot of ways to explain it. Maybe the Hadeans and Olympians are doing wormhole experiments of their own and space is warped in the vicinity of their planet, throwing off the ship's instruments. The ship is also, after all, the first of it's kind and maybe it's just not up to the task what with the experimental instruments and drive and all.The ship could be time shifting the whole time the drive is active and the moon simply wasn't there a minute ago.]

First of all, I liked it... I'm a sucker for time-travel stories and I think this one survives the initial round of "WTF?" thinking that such a story always brings on...   And to be clear, I think Adam and Eve starting the human race is a time loop and not a paradox.  A paradox is going back and shooting your Grandfather before your Father is conceived, while a loop is going back and actually becoming your Grandfather. (ewwww)  A paradox usually implies some sort of impossibility, a loop is just hard to grasp.

I'll over look the reversing of the Ancients, as the Olympian artifacts are gold and shiny while the Hadean artifacts are black and red, not the other way around. No big deal, just switch sides of the planet.

I'll offer a few suggestions:

The ship passes through the moon, and yes the 'spacewarp' drive bit warps the moon around the ship but causes massive damage in the process.  Coming out on the other side it's immediately apparent that the ship is done for and the order is given to abandon ship... the incoming attack waves are just icing on the cake and a good example of Murphy's Law in action.  "Could be worse...  could be raining!"   (cue thunder).  

As to why it happens, there are a lot of ways to explain it.  
Maybe the Hadeans and Olympians are doing wormhole experiments of their own and space is warped in the vicinity of their planet, throwing off the ship's instruments.  
The ship is also, after all, the first of it's kind and maybe it's just not up to the task what with the experimental instruments and drive and all.
The ship could be time shifting the whole time the drive is active and the moon simply wasn't there a minute ago.

Love the approaching moon bit...  love it!  Very dramatic and the best motivator known to man.  

Abandoning ship consists of boarding the already packed Dropships and scattering to escape the incoming attackers.  Each Dropship already holds a mixed bag of Tanks, Troops, and a Recycler.  The escaping ships land at various places along the twilight zone, with many of them being destroyed in flight.  After this mass exodus some join up with Hadeans, some with Olympians, and it's up to the Player and his missions to sort it all out. Guarding the Dropships will be necessary given the ending, as they'll be the only way through the wormhole.

Going through the wormhole at the end means hopping back in a Dropship and heading out.  Going through could also determine 'when' you come out the other side.  If Adam and Eve are the very last ones to go through it could be that the approaching moon warps the wormhole, and they end up waaaaaay back in time, much further than the other forces that went through earlier.  You could have the wormhole flickering, warping, and changing color to indicate this.  This is why they're back before the Hadeans and Olympians, before the planet is habitable, and able to seed the beginnings of life on Earth.  The warping wormhole could also be why their ship is trashed, and they could even leave it in orbit when they discover it's inoperable, something for the future Hadeans and Olympians to discover.

***

I have, btw, both Ancient Hadeans and Olympians fully operational although not completely done.  I plan on using a lot of DLL help to make them interesting...      I have some maps made as concepts for the Hadean and Olympian parts of the planet, but no missions scripted yet.  I have missions outlined in Word, but nothing coded.

I don't see this story as conflicting with my ideas all that much, as it takes place so far back in history compared with my own intended stories.  

I don't know how to explain them having biometal, and then not having it so that Nexus can invent it as stated in their records found in BZ1.  Maybe they don't actually know how to make their own but are using the huge amount that fell from the Ark III?  Maybe they devolve into savagery when they get through to Icarus and have to start their civilization all over again?  Losing their history and technology for a few hundred or thousand years adds a bit of flavor to the story anyway...  

Good work for a mod start...  simple enough to work with but interesting enough to allow for a lot of options.  

-Av-

I am perfectly willing to say that the Cthonian's entire source of biometal in this story is the ARK III. In fact, I love that idea and would like to modify mine to have that be an integral part of the plot, could be a useful motivator in those intermediate missions. It might also prove a source of inspiration for the cthonians to "re-invent" biometal down the road on thier own, if you like that idea.

Alright Avatar! You have spurred me to retype my post. We could probably merge these ideas into one. Since I am a sucker for biometal and think its inherent properties need to be focused on more (think of one time in FE that biometal was the chief ???WHAT??? factor for something, like furies in bz1- BIOMETAL COMES ALIVE O_o!111! )

So here it is: the abridged first amazing post.

1.) Ark III, as it flies through the universe at ExTrEmE speed, enters uncharted areas. Every so many millions of lightyears or so, they pull out of "warp (allow me to use this word for consistency sake)" to use their highly advanced sensors to plot a course safely for a much longer distance. Mapping out the places they've been and gathering some data, in short.

2.) In one such instance of this "drop out," the sensors go mad. [Original post: some strange disturbance] The Cthonian's were conducting space-portal experiments * to av* and it was sending off huge power disturbances. The scientists on board insist on investigating, due to the fact the mission is scientific in every sense, although it is really a publicity stunt. Scions are weird like that. Despite others and "your" objetions, the ship's path is routed toward the disturbance.

3.) Pulling out of warp, Ark III comes across a moon and planet (not through it initially, it is WAY too random and I refuse to believe it would collide randomly with an object so relatively tiny in space.) Detecting that there is life on the planet, the Scions prepare or do something unimportant. Suddenly:

4.) OH NOES D: !! They are sending aerospace fighters toward your position in huge numbers- they don't care who you are, but they want you gone (Potentially mistaken you for another faction that had been giving them trouble??? (THE THIRD FACTION OF MR. X's!? -SP) The onslaught begins. Scions, knowing the harsh ways of the universe, armed the Ark III to some extent and equipped it with one of their Scion Deflectors^TM. The fighters begin launching their antimatter rockets... not just a few, but tons. Say 6-8 from each ship with hundreds of ships firing. Lots of missles. They get closer to the Ark III, and---- Science lesson.

5.) Remember what happens to deflectors when confronted with biometal weapons? It pulls it in, negates what damage it can, and distributes what remains through the armor. Keep in mind, though, the missles are not biometal, and I remember reading in some form that regular weapons are useless against it. If you shot an auto rifle at a sabre hull for a few hours, it wouldn't dent. Remember the paintball weapon? Same effect. Shields, though, have a different effect.

6.) The missles contact the shield. As there is no biometalalic energy to absorb by the shield, it does its other function: deflects (small meteors, asteroids, space garbage. Those missles are like toothpicks with blunt ends to the ship the size of the Ark III). Every wave of missles that strikes it bounce off in some direction, some off into space harmlessly, some toward the planet to burn up in the atmosphere when they run out of fuel, but mostly toward- you guessed it- the moon, as Ark III has been drifting towards it for some time. They are both in close proximity. Many (say, 200-300?) antimatter rockets begin plummeting toward the moon... all armed and hot.

7.) Cutscene! (As if that all wasn't one?) Gigantonormous explosions erupt in concentrated areas on the moon's near side, and when I say near, I mean close to the Ark III. The moon, unstable to begin with, begins to break apart from the impacts. As it is breaking up, the missles continue to barrage it, catapulting enormous pieces of the moon in unpredictable locations... one such chunk right at the Ark III. The shields, normally repelling non-biometal impacts, become overwhelmed due to the incredible mass and inertia being forced against it and eventually fall. Although slowed slightly, the piece (crushes? Smashes? Collides? You pick) into the starship and breaks in two moon slices before finally floating off into space (and later into orbit of the planet) With hull breaches everywhere and the aerospace fighters now fleeing for their lives, the Ark III begins to crack and crumble in many places. The shields are down, so any residual missles still locked on continue to hit the mighty ship, along with moon chunks. The initial first piece that hit the ship was enough to crack it open, the rest take her down.

8.) Chunks of the moon plummet to the planet surface while it is now knocked out of orbit from the barrage it could not withstand. The Ark III is going down with it, although at a much faster rate. Resume here with Full Circle Story.

8.5.) The big big reason I like the Cthonian attack indirectly killing the moon (doesn't have to be missles, can be anything) is because it NAILS the history-repeating itself theme throughout BZ: The Cthonians destroyed their first home planet through their rash choices and decisions, as they would do to Icarus billions of years later.



Edit For Av: The portal at the end of the game is a position->position portal only, he has stated this and is adamantly firm it remain this way. When you get to the Cthonian system in the first place, you are already back in time billions of years. You just don't know that yet. That is the shock factor when you go through the portal. Either way, they probably won't have time to figure it out. It'll be left up to the viewer to decide, unless you give it a bone-chilling Grizzly 1 narration of how the drive pulled them back in time.

That really, really, really, works. I can dig it.

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. (YES!) 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?

With those modifications, I LOVE it! of course, those are pretty significant modifications...

Let me be very clear. I will be opposed to any story which is centered around or contains random, easy, inconsequential (and therefore impossible) time travel. (Obviously) its nothing personal, I simply feel that this is an unnecessary and comparatively weightless plot device which itself invalidates the credibility/believability of the story to such a degree that the interesting ponderousness brought about by its inclusion in the story is nullified by the easily-reachable logical paradoxes and physical law breaking apparent in its inclusion. I think it works very well in Back to the Future. But unless it is our intention to script a notoriously comedic plot, I don't think it can be made to work here. A good story forces one to reach the conclusion that the only possible paths presented in it are truly the only possible paths one could have taken in such a situation. Apply the previous sentence to a logical imagination. An example of a story which doesn't do this well is Battlefield: Earth. In it, a single high-powered nuclear bomb is used to destroy an entire planet because of a reaction that the heat of nuclear fission causes in the planet's atmosphere. But this wasn't just some planet, it was a planet on which a galaxy dominating alien race evolved to the point that they could use worm-holes to teleport across galaxies. My argument in this context is: HOW IN THE HELL DID THAT KIND OF RACE EVOLVE TO A TYPE II CIVILIZATION ON THAT PLANET, (Which, i might add, orbits a sun which is, like all stars, constantly producing "nuclear fire") WITHOUT BLOWING ITSELF UP!???
So that's that.
I can hear it already: WTF he only likes time travel that's in his story....
Answer: Don't make me explain the difference between realistic time travel and Back to the Future AGAIN. Pretty please don't make me. I promise that I'll love any story which presents time travel in a realistic way. Id even love any story which contains time travel which explained to be realistic.

So anyways, I am completely behind all the proposals not in strike through in the above quoted text. Especially those in bold.

@ Mr. X: Dude, awesome. Keep throwing ideas around... i seem to be temporarily out of brain juice... but I plan on excreting my own two-story reconciliation ideas soon...

And also: I didn't mean to keep anyone waiting, in addition to my holiday, I've been doing some preparations for my first year at the ol' U Oregon...
; D

[pneumoniae]

So, you're saying that we evolved from Strep?

Finally, a witty fish!

Almost!

I'm saying we evolved from the primary cause of bacterial pneumonia.

(re: S. pneumoniae)



Then again that's just me pre-fleshing out one of the "Oh wow!" interesting possibilities of realistic time travel.

by the way i have a quick question, if the microbes from both "Adam" and "eve" eventually evolve into human beings, would that imply the the microbes from eve would pass on microscopic amounts of biometal into every thing on earth?

Well, no, they aren't scion-like microbes. They (would be) regular microbes. You know. Earth Amoebas. Streptococcus pneumoniae, etc.

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!