Failed plot 2

Discussion

This plot is more like the kidnapped express train movies, where passengers turn heroes. Only, there is no timeout. The main problem is that this does not match the strong building, owning and improving element of the game. It's our ship, our hope for independence, we've chosen it, we've paid for it, we defend it, we make it better and neither aliens nor humans will make us stop building out future. The fight is just one more opportunity to learn and earn and make the ship better. We lose this Wild West spirit if the heroes are in it by chance, interested only in their survival.

If we stick to this plot, there is actually no reason the heroes should own the ship, so perhaps the heroes should be just passengers on a particularly cheap space trip and the captain and his deck mechanic are slain or escape in the only shuttle. Perhaps there can be other passengers on the ship, who just wait for a rescue from outside or can be recruited to the squad or help in the medic bay, training rooms, etc.

In this plot everything takes place between leaving the Neptune's moon and retaking control of the whole ship or dying. The only motive is survival; the riches of this world are worthless, even character advancement is worthless in the long term. The main goal is to get out, to quit the game, essentially. The ship flees fast into open space, so external interventions are sparse, fixed, one-way only and with the same outcome in every game. No big, difficult decisions for the heroes nor for the player; the script is quite linear. OTOH, lots of small decisions, linked by an evolving survival strategy.

The original text

The game should start with a clear goal for the player and non-zero tension, because it's the tension here, not greed nor ownership and attachment, that drives the player. Being free to wander happily around and pick up useless shiny stuff is cool in the middle of the game, but disorienting for a new player. So, let it start at the point when a fuse in communication panel providing radio connection to the outside world gets blown, supposedly because the radio was old and long unused (the heroes will never learn, but it was a current surge caused by aliens). The goal is to find a new fuse inside some abandoned electric equipment on decks 2 or 1. tension: 1, quest: find a fuse and fix the radio

Investigation of the decks, in search of a fuse, first brings a pleasant surprise: they look hastily and long ago abandoned, but contain some valuable and sometimes vaguely useful items. Then a nasty surprise: they also contain unnamed horrors. Hidden, guarding some of the treasure, not coming out until approached, quite mindless, weaponless, but deadly assassin monsters. At this point it's not obvious if they are animals deformed beyond recognition or something entirely different. tension: 2

The obvious implicit goal becomes to eliminate the threat and a side-goal is to find/build weapons. There is a single set of welding equipment on the deck 1, which may be used as a weapon a this point, in addition to clubs, etc. The fuel won't run out, unlike ranged weapon ammo --- that's the right level of abstraction. The foes, even when attacked with makeshift weapons, occasionally manage to injure the crew seriously, but fortunately the medical bay on deck 2 is of the most expensive kind and in perfect order, so not even scars remain, nor the old scars and imperfections the heroes had before.

The fuse (if found by this point, if not, the same happens later) lets the crew fix the communication set. They start chatting with the Neptune's moon docking officers that supervised their launch, the moon men offer to let the space police know about the vaguely described issues and then the radio falls silent, because the antennas are cut off. tension: 2.5, quest: find something to work as an antenna When a new antenna is found (really, any piece of wire) only short-distance radio works. (TODO: do something with the old version: << Only the receive mode works, they can receive personal walkie-talkie signal (each crew member has one) on the main communication panel, but no broadcast at all. The space is silent. tension: 3, quest: survive until space police arrives >>)

BTW, let the crew be also unsure, for the whole game, how much the outside world knows about their plight and how much it believes. OTOH, let it expect help, perhaps let it even know at which date a given ship will arrive and at which point the rescuers will enter the ship, so that the crew can break through to this place in time (if it cannot, not a lot changes, though, just one less cut-scene and missing the fun of seeing and assisting in the lost battle; getting the weapons is what affects the balance permanently, not helping kill a few more aliens, which spawn continuously, anyway).

After a fixed time from the start of the game, when an experienced player will be close to fully exploring the decks 2 and 1, the ship's engines change the tune. Soon, the navigation panel plots a new course for the ship: away from the Sun and at 43.5 degrees away from the ecliptic plane. Navigation computer shows blank readings for the engines, but they can be clearly heard (seen? felt via vibrations?) from the other end of the ship. The wires from the navigation panel are traced down to the deeper levels. Barricading and waiting for help may not work, since the ship is speeding away from help. tension: 4, quest: find the cause of navigation panel failure

The heroes pop the entrance to deck 3 open with the welding equipment, kill the first thing that jumps at them and level 3 is never silent ever again and welding the entrances shut will never again hold the nasties below for long. These are clearly aliens, sometimes intelligent, sometimes armed, the deeper the nastier. tension 5

The cables of the navigation panel end up on deck 4 among completely smashed computer racks. No trace of the navigation cables going any further, every piece of wiring around is completely torn apart. This won't be quick. tension 6, quest: fight through the other end of the ship, to the engine servicing rooms, and reset the course

There was a greenery on the ship and some of the gardening supplies can be used as crude weapons. There is also a lot of construction equipment, even some pneumatic rivet setters and nail shooters (TODO: research).

Later the police and then the army board the ship. This gives the player weapons and brings the fun of big battles between AIs, which the player can join or just watch. So, a few days after the distress signal is sent, a local police vessel tries to contact the crew (TODO: what police?). The police says in a few more days they will catch up and board the ship. They bring pistols, a shotgun and some ammo. The police says, space marines in a small, fast ship, are managing to catch up and, if needed, will attempt to take control (quest: survive until marines arrive). They would bring pistols, shotguns, rifles, stun grenades (no explosive grenades, due to decompression risk, no single sniper rifle, due to ship curvature, which limits the range). In either case, the authorities are incredulous, they don't give weapons to the crew, charge the aliens outright and are wiped out by them. The crew, much more experienced and not shocked so easily any more, may try to support the authorities and use them as cannon fodder and a distraction, but eventually the main prize is the weapons. This may also be the time when a single policemen or soldier is resourceful enough to survive and joins the crew, falling under the control of the player. Perhaps let marines, when they are facing defeat, tell the heroes that there's an unidentified ship coming their way, the last human ship that will manage to catch them in many years, due to planet configuration; TODO: who are they? will they help the player in the final battle or earlier? what weapons? TODO: what happens to the ships that bring the boarding parties? Best if they do not dock and are emptied before the boarding and then shaken off by aliens. Is it realistic? If not, perhaps let aliens EMP/jam their computers, so that the ships can't communicate back to where they came from and so that they don't keep up with the ship, but stay behind with turned off engines. Or let the ships panic when the main squad is slaughtered and flee to get support. BTW, the police and marines will be measuring infrared, vibrations, etc. to determine when a crowd is located and because there was only a few member of crew, they know it's probably the terrorists. That's why they always puncture the ship and enter where the alien forces are and not where the crew is.

In time the crew recovers and learns to use alien weapons. In time they get control of most of the ship and learn the last piece of the puzzle of alien plans. The final battle for the control of the main rear cargo bay and the engine service rooms will be fought for the survival of not only the heroes...