Since I am seeing some highly productive building and quite a bit of talent, but some confusion and a touch of uncertainty about "where to take things" I thought I would start a thread on pointers(at the behest of @Escarli ) and while I would normally make this sort of thing more private(i.e. in messaging or steam or something) I realized that others might be able to gain some insight and this would let ole @Hummel-o-War + other Devvies weigh in on things if needs be. This is primarily for @theScriptHD and @HeckenDiver but anyone else can chime in with questions or if you want some brainstorming help. So, how can I assist? Did you want some idea about how to set up the lore for a faction, the faction creation template, or POI ideas? Need a space to type out ideas and I can, in turn, give you an outside perspective on things? A little heads up - I am nice, but I will also be very direct with my feedback, so please take criticism in stride and be aware that I *might* prod to help bring ideas forward. Doubt is the bane of all creation and imagination. Administrative stuff: I want to be VERY CLEAR to any and all; the ideas here are NOT to be stolen or hi-jacked without the express permission of the writer. If this is discovered to be the case, that faction will be inadmissible. Oh, and so we continue to be clear, I am best buds with @ravien_ff and @Vermillion so, nope, not Eden or reforged either. Lets respect that some ideas are likely to be similar as we all derive and imagine from common culture and literary bases, but let us also respect each others ideas. Lastly, please refrain from any sort of put downs or derisive toxic unpleasantness - the creative process is sometimes unfocused or the creator needs a space to make mistakes or feel things out.
This is a really cool idea! i suck at lore and kinda want to tell a story with each POI and OPV for the Wastelanders, so I will definitely come back to you! Also, I think that the Faction I’m trying to build is really cool but in the end, the Players play and mess with it, so having another persons opinion is really good! Me and the others really appreciate the help you are willing to give!
So tell me about the wastelanders. You initially posted them as a pirate faction, and then there was likely some consideration that they could be a pirate subfaction, and now maybe they are a similar faction that is in competition or is in conjunction to...? The pirates? Polaris? Also, when you say, "I want to tel la story with each POI and OPV" - GOOD! That is exactly as it should be. Just make sure to vary the depth of that story depending on the situation. A "dungeon" POI will have more depth, and a supply depot will have less. Meaning, you should spend more time with some and less time with others. This will help with the pacing of building and will let you move away or towards certain POI's in the event of exhaustion; sometimes it is better to build two supply depots and one armory than just one dungeon and the former is far easier to complete. Haha, yup. They will. I promise they will find things with it that you will not anticipate no matter how well you try too. But we build and we write for them, so let it happen and enjoy it.
so, first idea was them to be a sub-faction of the pirates because of the similarity. then i thought, maybe having a rivalry going on with them would fit better. quote from the lore: "Blind with revenge they started to take on a role similar to Pirates, pillaging, stealing, and killing all who had something they wanted." because they had nothing left anymore, they had to go towards "being" pirates. quote: "However they wanted to be something different, something greater than just "pirates"." but because of them raiding and pillaging, also "stealing" targets from the said pirates, their reputation with them went pretty much down the drain and since then, they are "mortal enemies" with each other. of course the lore is not written out completely yet and has some holes in it, but i think it goes into the right direction. regarding to the "poi's and opv's telling a story", yes, for an example, a settlement won't have a story like a lord of the rings book, but atleast some that say "hey, we build this settlement like this because we only had left overs from a cargo spaceship"..but a dungeon or a more "complex" poi should have a story within the story.
What you are describing is a faction more aptly named "The Ravagers." Working with the name Wastelanders describes apathy, or more, indifference - perhaps even consumed with survival. Do not get me wrong, I do not think that you should change your name to "The Ravagers" just want to point out the difference in feel "blind with revenge" and "wasteland" produces. If you keep the name "wastelanders" definitely include some violence in their behavior/story/lore, but also some degree of a sense of indifference and a removal from society. Also, a sense of great hardship - a wasteland does exactly denote easy access to plants/water/food from fauna. Do the wastelanders live in wastelands? Do they prefer them(hence their name?) Do they prefer dead planets? Do they prefer desert or metal planets? These would be really good questions to consider when building up their backstory. Why "wasteland" in their name?
Another thing to add is the importance of mystery - that is the single most important element to all of writing and, consequently, the key to successful writing for video games or contributions to video games. So when you are considering the backstory of the wastelanders, make sure to build in some sense of mystery; you do not have to answer everything; keep the players hungry for more.
i'm sorry i didn't clarify that earlier. here is a quote from the lore that i came up with for now that explains it: "After not meeting the demands of a Xenu Commander their planet was ordered to be destroyed by Nuclear fire and weaponry. With their world now plunged into chaos they were scattered to the ends of the universe. Those who survived learned how to live off the scraps of war. Blind with revenge they started to take on a role similar to Pirates, pillaging, stealing, and killing all who had something they wanted. However they wanted to be something different, something greater than just "pirates". Together the civilians, engineers, and soldiers of this lost homeworld joined forces, creating a faction known as the Wastelanders. Their primary goal was to seek revenge on the empire that destroyed their beloved home - the ZIRAX! Using gurilla warfare and tactics, the Wastelanders were able to take down and steal enemy ships." and yes, their planet homeworld will be a Barren Scorched one, that fits the story with planet destroyed with nuclear fire the best. and they will mostly be found on desert/arid planets.
Consider that "wastelanders" is not a racial name. It is more diffuse or general. Since the Zirax may have destroyed many worlds, could it be a collection of species that have joined up that share a common ground? A single species home world blown up = that species is still their name, like the Tuy'liel(just an example name.) Add in a few more... Example: Lets say the Zirax came to earth and committed some Nuclear hijinks. We would still be Terrans and probably call ourselves that. However, what if the Zirax went to some of our neighbors, did the same thing, then we all learned of each others presence, they, or we, might propose a group; The Wastelanders Alliance, or The Wastelanders Union. However, if the Zirax completely annihilated our world and the only survivors were a few hundred in orbit, THEN they did that same thing to other neighboring species, the survivors would be more scattered and sparse and could be called the wastelanders in a more generic way.
They are mainly Human/Terran, they dislike/do not trust (which can change, trust needs to be build after all, so there might be some exceptions with other races) other species because of their bad experience with the Zirax. The name "Wastelanders" comes as an sort of "Tribute" to their destroyed Homeworld, which is a Wasteland after the nuclear stuff. They welcome anyone (mainly Terran/Human) who also had bad experience with the Zirax and wants to join the fight against them. But oh boy, this questioning is really "intense", I LOVE IT! i come up with so many lore ideas that can fit so well into the whole story. thank you for that, i really appreciate your help!
First, i have to say sry that i totally missed this Post, and mostly a very good opportunity to have the opinion from a lore-pro ! I have setup a .txt-file with the little bit of lore/philosophy ARC as Orgasnisation once had, and as faction now have. (I have only bad Oxford English, so sorry in preparation), but i have someone who will proofread my stuff before i do the ARC-Faction-suggestion-post on the Forum here. Ive put a lot of thoughts/ideas into it just when they came up, so its a little bit messy, but there are some first Factionstandings worked out, for now with Spanj, script and Escarli . Also started to gather some of the technical additional Infos... i need to read a lot of English stuff lately, so this is my whole ARC worked out stuff that i´ve got so far... and for my defense.... i started playing and made a Colorsheme before ive build my first block, the LCM colors were totally different with colors, LCM stands for Lunar Corp Mining, so lorewise self explanatory...... With ARC it was the other way around, and now i search for a good meaning of the letters ARC, that fit somehow the Lore that i have in mind. But beside from my massiv blabla, i would like to send you that file, Fractalite, so we have some kind of basic foundation on infosi have right now. And whats important to me too, is to say one thing, thank you Fractalite, thank you that you take and spend your time teaching me and Script some bits of the past lore, hopefully a lot of "how-its-done-right!"-knowledge.
Oh ****! I did not see these messages! Sorry! I have no idea why people cannot message me, but I will start one now that I know you are interested. I turned off all my notifications because if I do not I get like 4000 a day and it gets tedious to try and check them all. Somehow the website interprets that as "Fractalite cannot be messaged." Edit: Actually, is there anyway that you would be interested in posting here? I know it is public and that can be really intimidating, but it might be helpful for other people/players to see you work through things!
Sure, I have no problem with a conversation in, maybe i get some more opinions then, as i said, im still learning the "other side" of building for EGS and happy about any opinion/good critics i can get^^ Ive gone through the Forum for about 4 weeks and tryed to read all i can find about POIs/Factions and how to set them up correct, ive put all my thoughts and ideas into that metioned textfile and tryed to get it in line with the existing lore.
Can you upload the file to one of these posts? Or can you copy + paste the text here in a spoiler? You create a spoiler by clicking on the "insert" button in the toolbar at the top of these text entry boxes(along with the options to change size, bold, color, etc.)
Ive made a Factionpost here: https://empyriononline.com/threads/npc-factions-call-for-papers.92373/page-3#post-437862 wich is basically the "clean" version of that textfile, all i had so far gone into this post, the textfile only has some more info copyed from your factiontemplate...
Okay, so a simpler faction then. Mercenary - or a "Mercenary faction for hire." Some things to consider would be: - Zirax: hated; ARC fought in many wars against them for many other factions and sometimes for their own. -If you keep this faction as a mercenary faction, why would they have hated relations with the Zirax? Why not neutral? Why could the Zirax not hire them? In addition, with the exception of the Progenitors(which are not really a "faction") the legacy(also not really a faction despite them being so,) the Tesch, the void; all of your relations with other factions should be "neutral." Yours is a faction for hire, it would not make any sense for them to be preferential but then claim in their advertising that they are more widely available. - ARC was formed up in the early days of humanity to fight planetary and orbital wars for the Polaris and a few others - Humanity came to Andromeda on purpose, but what resulted upon arrival scattered their efforts. There isn't a direct link back to the Milky Way or Terra for more Terrans to come to populate a Terran-centric mercenary group. - Legacy: neutral, some weapon prototypes changed its owner, but any meeting could end in war. - The legacy are not a faction that you have "neutral" relations with if you are another faction. I know this is confusing because the player technically has standing with them(it should always be hostile but that is something the Devvies need to address at some point) but the legacy are not something you fight a war against, they are more something that you desperately try to survive against. ************************************* Might I ask; with your prodigious building ability, is there any chance you might want a more... substantial faction?
All 3 Points that u mentioned are clearly unclear because of my lack of loreknowledge. So, for the Legacy Factionstanting, i just delete that one. And for the forming up of ARC, i will go into the game and have again a readthrough in empyriopedia. (it was most of the time written like this line from my ideas-text: ARC was formed up in - INSERT ALREADY EXISTING WAR EVENTDATE OF EXISTING LORE HERE! - (maybe having a chat with Fractalite about existing Lore) to fight planetary and orbital wars for - XXXXXXXXXX -) can u maybe give me another place where i can get the lore in textform? And last but not least, for the standings with Zirax i choose this because i wanted to have ARC on the good boys-side, like Polaris or Talon. Do i need to set them to neutral or can i maybe do a little lore part , why they are in this kind of standing?
Just my thoughts…. -1 I guess you could say they are neutral to zirax even if they don’t like them because of wars against them in the past, I mean as Merc’s for hire money is money right? -2 as with other factions that are made up of aliens and humans would it make more sense if they were more like that and formed like Polaris or waste landers. That way not limited to just humans -3 makes more sense if they are hostile like you say. -4 would it be better for the game if they were a more substantial faction?
To make things easier > everyone not bothered by severe spoilers and interested in actually - doing writing for story missions - helping with story missions writing (and improvement) - setting up real factions that shall tie in the game more .. send me a message as PN with a google account email address
