[MOD] The Network

[Drako Slyith]

I was leaning that way. Right now what I'm working on is adding topology code. I may add a 'shortcut' at the end of the first maze to St. Kats and at the end of the second maze to Point Juno.
I like the idea of a reward, because the maze is deceptively hard, and no one would do it for no reason.


Also, I was thinking of creating a new version of this mod (separate of course from this mod) with my Heart of War mod. I could then put a battle at the end of the mazes. Then, the immense loot of the battles could be your reward. Low level maze could have a battle between corporate and Charon pirates, while high level could have my already working Fleet vs Ares.

What do you think?

[ThePrivateer]

I was leaning that way. Right now what I'm working on is adding topology code. I may add a 'shortcut' at the end of the first maze to St. Kats and at the end of the second maze to Point Juno.
I like the idea of a reward, because the maze is deceptively hard, and no one would do it for no reason.


Also, I was thinking of creating a new version of this mod (separate of course from this mod) with my Heart of War mod. I could then put a battle at the end of the mazes. Then, the immense loot of the battles could be your reward. Low level maze could have a battle between corporate and Charon pirates, while high level could have my already working Fleet vs Ares.

What do you think?

Wow, you're really going all out on this thing! I like your enthusiasm!

So, I agree with Atarlost on the Iocrym thing - as I mentioned, be careful not to skew the vanilla gameplay/canon too much, but instead, offer something that improves the gameplay. That way, your mod will age well.

The immense battle idea might be a little exhausting for the player - after finally fighting their way through eight systems, only then to get blown out of the sky because you stumble into a war is a little too much.

Heart of War is good -- but I don't think it has a place in The Network.

Now, the prize on the other hand does sound good. Take at a look at my own Neo Raisu. The coding for the itGiftBox randomly selects an item to give to the player when you 'open' the box.
If you just change the coding to high-level weaponry, it will work well.

Maybe the first, level 2 maze could be run by the Corporations. At the end, they'll give you a (random) Level 5 weapon. Make sure it's not too powerful though, because of reactor drain. For instance, the average level 2 adventurer will be lucky to have a 25MW reactor. Don't give them a prize weapon that uses 50MW of power, then, unless you are going to also upgrade their reactor for free (a valid choice).

The Point Juno-ish maze could be run by the Taikon, as they have pretty cool (and expensive) stuff towards the late game.

A final maze could be run by the Teratons - this fits in canonically well, as they love experimenting on humans.

Remember - the Network needs to add to the game. I learn that with my God Mod. Yeah sure, it's fun to play with, but there is no lasting value in it. But the Galactic Map and Neo Raisu will last forever, because they add to the game, without changing too much. It's a balanced mod you want to aim for.

Hope that helps you!

[Drako Slyith]

Yes thanks for the help. I'm having trouble thinking of a way to make the story of the mazes. Yes it would be great to have one faction running each maze. The problem is the story line. Why would corporations be experimenting, and why would they give you free stuff at the end? Teratons would be ideal; they fit the requirements very well. Very good idea. I could then make a system completely controlled by the respective faction, like Huaramarca for the Huari and St. Kats for commonwealth. Maybe for corporate to give you a prize you have to do an escort mission transporting the president out of system just like the old game. Teratons could just give you the prize because of their 'testing'. I'll just increase the system level so it is much harder to get through. Then you could defend the Taikon capital station from a fleet of xenephobes (obviously, you would get a squad of escorts to help)

[ThePrivateer]

Yes thanks for the help. I'm having trouble thinking of a way to make the story of the mazes. Yes it would be great to have one faction running each maze. The problem is the story line. Why would corporations be experimenting, and why would they give you free stuff at the end? Teratons would be ideal; they fit the requirements very well. Very good idea. I could then make a system completely controlled by the respective faction, like Huaramarca for the Huari and St. Kats for commonwealth. Maybe for corporate to give you a prize you have to do an escort mission transporting the president out of system just like the old game. Teratons could just give you the prize because of their 'testing'. I'll just increase the system level so it is much harder to get through. Then you could defend the Taikon capital station from a fleet of xenephobes (obviously, you would get a squad of escorts to help)

Hm, well, think about the Corporation. They're a conglomerate, spanning the breadth of the human sector of space, their finger in every pie getting as much cash as they can. And just like real corporations, they're prone to some....scrupulous....acts everynow and again (*hint towards the plotline of Hell's Trinity *)

So, let's say the Corporation claims they are interested in testing some new technology. You, the plucky young pilot on the way to the core, sign up for the experiment, promised by the Corps that you will be rewarded for your time.

They just want to test some new software they want to give their pilots. So, you sign up, they give you a ROM and tell you to get to the end of the maze for your reward.

What the player wasn't told, is that inside the closed maze, they will be attacked by ships -- Charon ships.

The player is prompted to open the ROM they were given -- infact, it is not a ROM, but a tracer beacon that is attracting Charon pilots -- what you have entered is not a testing facility for the Corporation -- it's a training facility for the Charon!!!

The corporation bigwigs are getting paid a fortune to send young pilots to the charon training facility, so the pirates can train rookie fighters. Now, you have to fight to survive!

So the player fights through the systems, ultimately facing off against a large missile ship ( the level-2 equivalent of the Iocrym command ship the player will fight at teh end of the real game).
The player's reward?

Not only do they get to loot the missile ship, but the specially designed ship will have a guaranteed chance to hold a level 6/7 consummable item - a real prize to the beginner pilot.

So, how's that sound? Just something I whipped up quickly!

[Drako Slyith]

That sounds good, but if you look at the Shipping Stations they are Corporate. Why would Corporate get paid by what is basically their only enemy in the universe? It could work if they are using you to test the offensive capabilities of the Charon to develop a new weapon and at the same time they are being paid by Charon to send pilots into their maze: that sounds like the Corporations I know and love. Corporate could give you the weapon they want testing, and the rom. Your reward is the weapon.
Corporate wins on all counts: they get a powerful, tested weapon to use against the pirates, who then pay them and give them a place for the testing. The player, the only person outside of Corporate to have one, is then killed by the Charons, who then think that Corporate have upheld their side of the Bargain. But of course, the player survives, and Corporates' planes are foiled, upon which time the Charon become angry Corporate killed their fleets and goes back to war... Wow, the player succeeding does make everything devoid of life



Also, if anyone wants to help me with graphics for this, that would be great. I am completely rubbish at station graphics; even worse at ships.

[ThePrivateer]

That sounds good, but if you look at the Shipping Stations they are Corporate. Why would Corporate get paid by what is basically their only enemy in the universe? It could work if they are using you to test the offensive capabilities of the Charon to develop a new weapon and at the same time they are being paid by Charon to send pilots into their maze: that sounds like the Corporations I know and love. Corporate could give you the weapon they want testing, and the rom. Your reward is the weapon.
Corporate wins on all counts: they get a powerful, tested weapon to use against the pirates, who then pay them and give them a place for the testing. The player, the only person outside of Corporate to have one, is then killed by the Charons, who then think that Corporate have upheld their side of the Bargain. But of course, the player survives, and Corporates' planes are foiled, upon which time the Charon become angry Corporate killed their fleets and goes back to war... Wow, the player succeeding does make everything devoid of life



Also, if anyone wants to help me with graphics for this, that would be great. I am completely rubbish at station graphics; even worse at ships.

Perfect story! I love it!

As for stations etc....eh. I don't do modelling. My advice though, is to get the whole story line going - it will take you a fair while to get dockscreens and scripts going anyway, trust me, I know that from experience doing all the dockscreens in Hell's Trinity.

Use a 'placeholder' graphic for stations now, until you get the new image. At the very least, stations only require one image, so the modelling should be quick.
Maybe try modding an existing station, or ask SiaFu if you can use one of his graphics (I would do that personally )

I think this is shaping up well. You've gone from a simple mod that added more systems, to a full fleshed out mod with mazes and missions and now even new graphics!

[Drako Slyith]

I think I can use current graphics for the Corporate story, the tricky part will be the teratons. I would really like to not have a simple Teraton station as their 'capital'. Also, the reward from the Teratons is difficult. At that level, most non-unique items are accessible by the player. Taikon could give the player the IM90 cannon, it would be a nice award for the player. The teratons work on science a lot, especially organic science. Maybe they give the player a one-of-a-kind organic weapon?

Also, the corporate story will make the other stories seem shallow, especially the Teratons. Perhaps you have to clear some of their enemies from their capital system. They the 'fess up and tell you it was all a test.

[ThePrivateer]

I think I can use current graphics for the Corporate story, the tricky part will be the teratons. I would really like to not have a simple Teraton station as their 'capital'. Also, the reward from the Teratons is difficult. At that level, most non-unique items are accessible by the player. Taikon could give the player the IM90 cannon, it would be a nice award for the player. The teratons work on science a lot, especially organic science. Maybe they give the player a one-of-a-kind organic weapon?

Also, the corporate story will make the other stories seem shallow, especially the Teratons. Perhaps you have to clear some of their enemies from their capital system. They the 'fess up and tell you it was all a test.

Well, making a new weapon isn't all that difficult, so if needs be, you could make a new, one-of-a-kind organic weapon, or even an organic shield that converts a percentage of damage into fuel.

As for the Corporate storyline being too good...you just have to think up good ones for the Taikon/Teratons.

Teratons, they want to test on humans - but why? What if everything came into a big loop? What if the Teratons were testing drugs on humans that change how they perceive flight, etc. What if those drugs -- highly illegal in the Commonwealth --, what if those tests were being paid for by the Corporation!!!. At the very fringe of space, the Corporation is still doing business!!

So, hours and hours later, after the player has fought through the initial Corporate maze and thought they had got clear of the evil bigwigs, things could just come back into a big circle.

As for the Taikon, we don't know much about them, so you can have fun creating something in place of real canon. Maybe the Taikon want you to go into a maze of systems infested with pteravores that are damaging their mining/production operations?
Just place lots of blown up stations and ships into the systems and copy in a (much weaker) pteravore. The player has to fight to remove the infestation -- also in the system are Ferrain miners, enslaved by the Taikon operations.
The player then has the option to murder the Ferrians to get the ore -- subsequently ticking off the Taikons -- or to ignore them and continue on killing the pteravores.

So, how does any of that sound?

[Drako Slyith]

Sounds good. What we do know about Taikon is they are very mad at the xenephobes. Thy send you after a ship which is essentially a city for part of a device. The story could then have you fighting to "clense" the 'Taikon Space' from the pesky xenephobes.

The teratons.. yes I quite like the idea that corporate is paying them to do the testing. I have actually been meaning to make a shield that takes certain energy types and turns them into healing points for the shield. They could be working on an advanced shield for corporate. It sounds like them to keep their development teams from knowing of each other and conspiring.

Now, what if you had the Corporate story, a black market story near St. Kats, a Taikon story near PJ, and a teraton story in the last few systems... then the teratons send you to a mysterious stargate they discovered in their system. You go through and you have to face what corporate has been creating: a corporate dreadnought- equiped with the gear you have been helping them develop. They get mad you constantly stay alive- so they trick you into fighting their dreadnought with level 9 versions of all the devices. The taikons could be developing armor, the teratons developing shields, Korlov a weapon, and the Black Market is developing a launcer.

You blow up the dreadnought and corporate is too afraid to attack you, for political reasons, they don't want it known they were developing a super ship.

[ThePrivateer]

Sounds good. What we do know about Taikon is they are very mad at the xenephobes. Thy send you after a ship which is essentially a city for part of a device. The story could then have you fighting to "clense" the 'Taikon Space' from the pesky xenephobes.

The teratons.. yes I quite like the idea that corporate is paying them to do the testing. I have actually been meaning to make a shield that takes certain energy types and turns them into healing points for the shield. They could be working on an advanced shield for corporate. It sounds like them to keep their development teams from knowing of each other and conspiring.

Now, what if you had the Corporate story, a black market story near St. Kats, a Taikon story near PJ, and a teraton story in the last few systems... then the teratons send you to a mysterious stargate they discovered in their system. You go through and you have to face what corporate has been creating: a corporate dreadnought- equiped with the gear you have been helping them develop. They get mad you constantly stay alive- so they trick you into fighting their dreadnought with level 9 versions of all the devices. The taikons could be developing armor, the teratons developing shields, Korlov a weapon, and the Black Market is developing a launcer.

You blow up the dreadnought and corporate is too afraid to attack you, for political reasons, they don't want it known they were developing a super ship.

WOW! Now that's a good plan!

I *love* that!!! So, basically, in the end, it's the Corporation all along. The player thinks each mission is for the respective race, but in the end, the Corporation once more is directing the whole operation.

Gee. This could be a whole game all of its' own.
This is exactly what I meant by adding to the game -- a whole bunch of awesome missions and plot twists that will get players coming back for more.

I've almost forgotten what the original idea of this mod was!

Edit: This mod ties in well with Hell's Trinity actually.
The following is a *SPOILER* for Hell's Trinity. It is meant for Drako Slyith to read, but if you are considering a Corporation-aligned story, by all means, feel free to read this. 1pt text, copy into Notepad to view.

Hell's Trinity bounces the player around to the three systems and the Corporate station within each station.
The player slowly is involved in the conspiracy - Ares warriors are in boardrooms, ares ships "protect" the coporate stations...the Corps track you in each station and murder a janitor who tries to help you.
//The following will be included with 0.9 Beta.
At the very end, after fighting the supposed enemy - the Ares -- the player destroys an Ares Phobos-class ship....only to realise that there are humans on board, as well as Ares.
When you go back to confront the corporation, they attempt to kill you with their very best ships. Docking at any corporate station will see you arrested.
You finally back your way back to Lincoln - your home station - and seek refuge with the Rebels you helped earlier on (or not).
They inform you that they were suspicious of the corporation all along and give you a weapon to use against the Corporate Flagship sent after you.
You destroy that Corporate Flagship and interrogate the Director on board.
He tells you the whole story --
The Corporation approached the Ares to get materials off them that would sell in the Trillions of credits. In return, the Corporation willingly allowed the Ares to come into the Trinity and occupy the systems, building ships to wage war on the Commonwealth in the Outer Systems.
The Corporation was planning to betray the Ares at the last minute, but the Ares planned ahead and sent Ares ships to circle every Corporate station.
The Corporation didn't want their dirty secret exposed, so that's why the player was hunted down.
The corporation promises to remove the Ares in return for everything to be kept quiet -- they fear the Commonwealth would move to shut them down in the Human Sector.
Thus, the player saves the Trinity.

[Drako Slyith]

Nice story line.

Anyway, while I am flushing out a good story line here, I am still developing my topology. In the next release I am creating systems where you can jump to a different branch.

The only problem I can think of with my story line is that the items are all different... so maybe they gave you a toned down version for testing, then pump more energy through the weapon/shield/launcher and gave you a very thin version of the armor. Then, they get results and you aren't a threat.

Thanks for all the help! I would never have thought of the story line without your help.

[sdw195]

iirc wolfy was making a /really/ cool Teraton station for TX2 (AKA TSB) when it was still called TX2

[Ttech]

wow great ideas comming out of this thread, very interesting to see how it will come out.

[Aury]

iirc wolfy was making a /really/ cool Teraton station for TX2 (AKA TSB) when it was still called TX2

Aeonic was doing all of the teraton stuff for TX2

[ThePrivateer]

Thanks for all the help! I would never have thought of the story line without your help.

No problem! I'm glad to help other modders, and this mod especially showed promise.

I hope it works out for you!