Factions, Antags, and Lore - #37
DuckManZach wants to merge 7 commits into
Conversation
Nyxilath
left a comment
Nyxilath
left a comment
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Overall a good start I feel to what we want to define by factions. May also be worth figuring out how we'll fit minor "freelance" companies into the scope of this, like Arnold's Pizza, but I don't think we need an answer for that right away.
| ## Factions | ||
|
|
||
| There are decidedly 4 major factions: | ||
| - Nanotrasen |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
We need to also decide if it's Nanotrasen or NanoTrasen, officially. In some versions, NanoTrasen was formed from the merge of two separate companies, hence the distinction.
There was a problem hiding this comment.
I see Nanotrasen as an obvious parody of Microsoft, so it perhaps would make sense for Nanotrasen to have followed the same development as originally Nano-Trasen, then NanoTrasen and now Nanotrasen.
This is also just an agendapost insofar as I hate "NanoTrasen" and love "Nanotrasen".
| - Nanotrasen | ||
| - The Syndicate and their member organizations | ||
| - SolGov (Owners of earth and the Sol System) | ||
| - Galatic Liberation Front (Name pending but some sort of revolutionary faction, USSP deemed to memey(decide on something before you merge this)) |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
| - Galatic Liberation Front (Name pending but some sort of revolutionary faction, USSP deemed to memey(decide on something before you merge this)) |
Maybe worth omitting until we settle on what we want to call it.
There was a problem hiding this comment.
I'll add, I'm less inclined to use 'Liberation Front' either as that's stepping on the toes of S.E.L.F. a bit - I would suggest something like 'Galactic United Core', or some variant.
though GUC might be a bit weird, IDK.
There was a problem hiding this comment.
I would rather not omit, unless we decide we don't want such a faction conceptually. This is the likely the place where such would be decided, at least publicly.
Co-authored-by: Nyxilath <colton.malone@gmail.com>
|
|
||
| ## Antagonist Integration | ||
|
|
||
| Antags should rarely be "a guy who is evil"; they should be associated with a faction of some form wherever possible. Their objectives, equipment, and so on should be associated with that faction as well. By tying antags closely to a specific faction, you give clearer prompting for how they should act and what motivates them, beyond just what their objectives entail. |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
| Antags should rarely be "a guy who is evil"; they should be associated with a faction of some form wherever possible. Their objectives, equipment, and so on should be associated with that faction as well. By tying antags closely to a specific faction, you give clearer prompting for how they should act and what motivates them, beyond just what their objectives entail. | |
| Antags should rarely be "a guy who is evil"; they should be associated with a faction of some form wherever possible. Their objectives, equipment, and so on should be associated with that faction as well. By tying antags closely to a specific faction, we give clearer prompting for how they should act and what motivates them, beyond just what their objectives entail. |
I think "we" matches the rest of the style better.
|
|
||
| Antags should rarely be "a guy who is evil"; they should be associated with a faction of some form wherever possible. Their objectives, equipment, and so on should be associated with that faction as well. By tying antags closely to a specific faction, you give clearer prompting for how they should act and what motivates them, beyond just what their objectives entail. | ||
|
|
||
| The relationship between factions shouldn't purely be antag versus non-antag, there should be room for ambiguity and middle ground, leading to situations where there is uncertainty and room for intrigue. This can produce varied and exciting outcomes, and it slows down many of the potential knee-jerk reactions that can happen between crew and outsiders. No newline at end of file |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
| The relationship between factions shouldn't purely be antag versus non-antag, there should be room for ambiguity and middle ground, leading to situations where there is uncertainty and room for intrigue. This can produce varied and exciting outcomes, and it slows down many of the potential knee-jerk reactions that can happen between crew and outsiders. | |
| The relationship between factions shouldn't purely be antag versus non-antag; there should be room for ambiguity and middle ground, leading to situations where there is uncertainty and room for intrigue. This can produce varied and exciting outcomes, and it slows down many of the potential knee-jerk reactions that can happen between crew and outsiders. |
Punctuation fix. If not a semicolon, that should be two separate sentences.
|
|
||
| ## Writing Lore | ||
|
|
||
| Lore should focus on providing a background or explanation for certain parts of the game. Anything written should be a brief, broad overview, like the first few paragraphs of a Wikipedia page. It should not be long, monotonous, or overly detailed. One page maximum. |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
"certain parts" would read better as "specific parts."
| @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ | |||
| Factions, Antags, and Lore | |||
| ===== | |||
| This document details how introducing limited sections of lore around certain elements of the game can improve immersion. This primarily concerns factions and species. | |||
There was a problem hiding this comment.
You say "This primarily concerns factions and species," but there's not really anything here about species.
|
Might be worth addressing how to handle the potential friction between Moff lore and general SS14/13 lore, if and when they disagree - players might have general assumptions coming to Moff from other servers that don't apply here. (I'm not sure general SS14 lore always agrees with itself, even, so I figure this is inevitable.) On the flip side, maybe some guidance on how - or at least when and where - to help Moff lore match or at least accomodate general lore? IMO, it's good to have that shared background, even in the details that live somewhere in the shared mindspace of the playerbase without ever being written down anywhere. |
|
|
||
| Lore should not be restrictive; people should easily be able to integrate their existing stories into any proposed lore. It is a building block for people who want it, not an all-encompassing document on how characters should be written. | ||
|
|
||
| Lore documents should be mostly self-contained. They should not cover miscellaneous events that don't relate to any specific portion of the game (e.g. a random battle between The Syndicate and Nanotrasen). |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Perhaps mentioning that something like describing, briefly, how a specific altercation between NT and the Syndicate lead to $specificIngameThing would be reasonable.
| ## Factions | ||
|
|
||
| There are decidedly 4 major factions: | ||
| - Nanotrasen |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
I see Nanotrasen as an obvious parody of Microsoft, so it perhaps would make sense for Nanotrasen to have followed the same development as originally Nano-Trasen, then NanoTrasen and now Nanotrasen.
This is also just an agendapost insofar as I hate "NanoTrasen" and love "Nanotrasen".
|
|
||
| There are decidedly 4 major factions: | ||
| - Nanotrasen | ||
| - The corporation which owns and manages the stations the players are on. They are a phoron/plasma research company which rose to prominence through their development and subsequent monopoly on energy weapons. This monopoly gives them a unique and uneasy relationship with SolGov, their would-be overlord, granting them immense sway in SolGov's internal affairs. |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Unless my baseline lore is just wrong:
"Overlord" doesn't make sense as NT wouldn't be a subsidiary of SolGov, it'd be a private enterprise operating in territory that's nominally SolGov's jurisdiction.
Alternatively, it could go the way of the East India Company where NT is legally incorporated under SolGov law and therefore is beholden to SolGov, BUT in the space the station is actually in, distant from Sol, NT is given legal autonomy because SolGov doesn't wanna deal with it.
Bottom line, SolGov is a political entity, NT is a corporate one.
| - Nanotrasen | ||
| - The corporation which owns and manages the stations the players are on. They are a phoron/plasma research company which rose to prominence through their development and subsequent monopoly on energy weapons. This monopoly gives them a unique and uneasy relationship with SolGov, their would-be overlord, granting them immense sway in SolGov's internal affairs. | ||
| - The Syndicate | ||
| - An organization of several different groups of various sizes and forms, united by the goal of diminishing Nanotrasen and their influence in the sector. Founded by Cybersun Industries, the organization effectively acts as a counterbalance to Nanotrasen's growing influence. |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
It probably ought to be fleshed out some other time, but I see "The Syndicate" as being a shorthand for a complicated, interconnected, shadowy cabal of the involved companies/entities.
It oughtn't be anything official, legally.
And it doesn't make sense for a syndicate to be formed by one company, perhaps it'd make sense to say "it started as an informal agreement between Cybersun and Donk to oppose NT's growing dominance".
Specifically, it should be that it started between two corporations as a business strategy that bled into the terrorism and mercs on top of the business parts, that we know today.
| - The Syndicate | ||
| - An organization of several different groups of various sizes and forms, united by the goal of diminishing Nanotrasen and their influence in the sector. Founded by Cybersun Industries, the organization effectively acts as a counterbalance to Nanotrasen's growing influence. | ||
| - SolGov | ||
| - The de-jure government ruling over both Nanotrasen and the Syndicate. In practice, their rule is flimsy and highly contested. SolGov rules over a vast number of systems from their capital, Earth, and their governance is highly bureaucratic, inefficient, and Kafkaesque. |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
"de-jure government" is redundant.
I'd describe it as "the sovereign political entity with nominal governmental authority over both...", and I'd say it's not "contested" but rather "irrelevant".
SolGov "governs" (administers?) rather than "rules" as "ruling" implies a more autarchic structure where I presume SolGov is just a devolved whole-earth democratic republic.
Edit, I guess the rule is "contested" by GIC, but since they're a rebellious faction, I'd say that's more "opposed" than "contested".
|
|
||
| ## Factions | ||
|
|
||
| There are decidedly 4 major factions: |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Swinging back around after commenting on these, I think it would be useful to come up with a sort of word-cloud set of descriptors for each faction to give a feeling for what each is.
|
Personally, I take the position that lore documents are best used as a bedrock to help keep things consistent, and should say nothing whatsoever that isn't already communicated in-game in some way or another. The lore documents should reflect the game, and not vice versa. Anything they say that doesn't exist in-game shouldn't be treated as true. They should also reflect the game as played. If the players have a common understanding of something that contradicts the lore docs, it should be the players who are right. The lore should be updated accordingly. I think this is in line with what this document's already saying - I'm just being more extreme about it. |
4 participants
This is my proposal on how factions, lore, and how these things should effect antags.
There have been some discussion of these things ongoing for quite a while, so I thought I should put my thoughts into writing.