Rumour system?

[Prophet]

This is not a request, just an idea to bounce around in here to see what others think.

I am a new player, love the game, and I understand it is a work in progress however, while playing through the game I found it difficult to follow the main story and was wondering if the plot elements were being kept secret until the full release?

Some of the specific problems I had were the Domina Powers, Teraton research/fabricators, etc. Most interactions that were expecting specific items/actions. After donating most of my creds to the Sisters nothing happened; I tossed all kinds of items into the teraton fabricator glue and it was never happy. It crushed my stuff and threw it out, no thanx, nothing! (I will avoid spoilers but I had to find the proper items/actions here in the forums)

Now to the point of this post;
I thought a rumour system would be an interesting way to fix some of these issues add some more story to the game and possibly introduce some new elements. Essentialy, in a station where there is a social element (Victorian, Commonwealth residential, Officer's bar, etc.) add a "check for rumours" option on the Dockscreen which would then search a "rumours" list for level, faction, type,category, etc. rather than hard code specific responses.
Some Examples could include:
->At the Victorian - a man asks if you have any ampules, no? Give player location of closest black market base
->Commonwealth res -> "there was another pilgim in the system recently and he/she had saved some citizens from the slavers! The Sisters were very pleased..."
->random bar - "Oh man, lemme buy you a drink! I just made a killing selling a load of (commodity) at (nearest Restaurant) that I bought from (Ice Mine) for almost double what I paid!"

There could also be a custom tag for <RumourAdvExt> added to the existing stations to pull the initial "Plot hook" for custom adventure extensions without having to mod a unique station to drop into the game. Of course, a custom station could have its rumour look for a unique tag specific to that adventure.

Other possible uses of the rumour system:
If the rumours themselves can fire scripts, an easy way to spawn a mission/event.
Find rare equipment (obviously at a price)
Provide tutorial hints (how to mine, how to get rins, trade routes, identify barrels/roms/autons etc.)

I'm just rambling now, so I'll cut this off.
I am new to transcendence so I apologize if this is rehashing stuff that I haven't read yet and I have no idea if this is even possible but I felt it was a half decent idea, what do you think?

[digdug]

hi Prophet, welcome to Transcendence Forums,
the game is rogue-like, just like Nethack, so most of the things to do are not explained explicitly.
And this is one big part of the fun of the game, trying to find out how to trigger missions, or how to use properly a Teraton Fabricator, or what items you should bring to the Tinkers, or what the Sisters like.
With nearly every version George adds something new for the players to discover and enjoy another run of the whole game.

I understand that some of them can be quite difficult to find, but the game is intended to be played more than 1 time, and some missions exclude or trigger others, so that you cannot see everything in 1 single run.

However i agree with you that more plot elements should be accessed from casual talking, but balancing that without obviously revealing the plot it's not easy.
One example I can bring is how to trigger the Huari missions, you will find many thread on the topic where people laments that's too difficult to find them.

[F50]

It should be almost trivial to make and has not been discussed much (either people have been playing for a long time and figured it out themselves or were spoiled by looking through the XML and such).

The easiest way would be to make a bar at every CW station and then give various hints similar to the CW Militia bar. However it would be so much more interesting if this was made like fortune cookies or the Mad Minstrel from ADOM.

Here's an idea, create a "data ROM" which act exactly like fortune cookies. If they are very common, then that could really help.

For the Mad Minstrel (which I very much like the idea of)...If the sisters had a "Wisdom wall" or something like that then you could read it as much as you like and get cryptic rhymes.

Also, one of the quantum cubes contains a HIG3 consciousness which could dispense riddles when used with a CPU.


I think that this is a good idea. Should I make a separate thread for cookie/riddle messages or should I just ask here? They shouldn't give direct hints but should lead the player to experiment in the right manner. Some of them should be misleading.

[digdug]

nice ideas F50,
we could make a Trafalgar Pub Mod, with lots of riddles and small helps for the beginner player.

[Prophet]

I totally agree, no spoiler rumours but subtle hints and nudges.

other uses could be to add some flavour/history like the "Fun Facts" at commonwealth stations.

What about the issue of tagging the rumours?
When a player starts in Eridani they shouldn't be getting rumours about the Fabricators.

I definitly like the idea of misleading rumours...

Is it possible to have a rumour spawn an event?
Say I'm sitting in the bar at a Fortress and a group of pilots come in. You overhear them talking about an enemy freighter. Can the script then spawn a freighter and some gunships in the system for the player to then go and find?

I am no good at modding but would be happy to help with writing some rumours.

[F50]

Is it possible to have a rumour spawn an event?
Say I'm sitting in the bar at a Fortress and a group of pilots come in. You overhear them talking about an enemy freighter. Can the script then spawn a freighter and some gunships in the system for the player to then go and find?

Most certainly.

Furthermore, if you like, you can put loot on a ship (you might have to wait until the ship is dead) even if the loot usually doesn't appear on that ship in the ship's XML definition.

(sysGetLevel) can be used to filter out the teraton rumors if you wish, but personally I wouldn't mind giving the player out-of-depth hints, they will act as misleading rumours until the player gets to the proper place in the game.

If you write the rumors, then I think you can be certain people like me will write them into code.

[FAD]

Another idea would be to have information terminals in CW stations and maybe TP's or wherever. Cost the player 5-10 credits to access and read the bulletins each time. Some could be humorous, others serious and those that drop hints.
It's also possible to have triggers that set certain bulletins at times as well.
A lot of stuff can be done with this.

[schilcote]

I can write a list of rumors! How many do you want?

[Prophet]

Wow, sounds great!

Where should we write the rumours, here? start a new thread?
Should there be some sort of template or guidelines? (no obvious spoilers)

Rumor:"Those ringers really love their ore. What ore? Do I look like an info terminal to you, buddy?"
Lvl:1
Faction:Commonwealth

[digdug]

let's post them here, and Prophet, you can edit your first post and add them to it.

[F50]

Some of these aren't so great, but most are fairly cryptic.

"It takes a captain to get the Point of this message."
"Tentacles like rare food."
"Antimatter has many uses."
"Antimatter is a very good lubricant."
"Use sustainable fuel!"
"The bees are ripe for harvesting."
"Try to fabricate raw materials, if possible."
"The Hurin are just a harmless military power that wants you dead, don't worry about them."
"The black market is rich."
"The Commonwealth Militia likes to use cargo containers as target practice"
"For the duplication of A Beneficial item Recall the Icelandic Courtesy: 'Add Three Or one and Repeat'"

[Iocrym Destroyer]

I don't have any rumors, but f50's are actually really good!

[Atarlost]

- Shields and armor are usually less effective against exotic energy types.
- Reactors run too close to their limit can produce dangerous power surges.
- There's no shame in running from battle.
- Real men don't use omni-turrets.
- Beam weapons usually aren't much good against installations.
- I had a run in with the Dwarg once. Particle beams just bounce off the big ones and their ion bolts can shut down your ship systems if you lose shields. That's when you start praying.