Add clues IG as to the origin of the infestation

[UnKuT]

CM Version (alpha or Regular): Both?

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary): Make it so the marines can actually find out why the Nostromo/Planet infestation occurred.

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole): Add plenty more opportunities to passively RP, the marines can actually do their jobs and find out what happened.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc): There are lots of different ways to do this. There can be IG documents on the areas more meant for higher staff that have clues written as to the origin, such as stating that experiments on alien creatures were being made there, or that a cargo container carrying strange eggs was broken into and the content stolen, etc. Imagination is the limit really. However these documents/newspapers/computers containing this information shouldn't always have the same origin story, it should be random each round.

Also, maybe someone spawning in as a survivor gets the origin story as text at round start?

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it): Make a list of several possible origins stories that are lore friendly, then make it so that only one of several origins stories is automatically picked at each round start, so it is always random.

[Triel Wolfblood]

yaaay

[UnknownMurder]

Story would be nice.

[speedybst]

Agreed, this would be good, and i've got an excerpt from an Aliens novel that should work for this, i'll post it tomorrow sometime, since its on my other PC currently.

[UnKuT]

That sounds like a good idea.

[Lostmixup]

This could open up a lot of RP chances. I like it.

[Butterrobber202]

Easter Eggs. Everyone round 2 peices of 'Old Paper' spawn giving some of the story and the total number of pages being 16, and a random chance of each one spawining, or just use a RNG

[Lostmixup]

Easter Eggs. Everyone round 2 peices of 'Old Paper' spawn giving some of the story and the total number of pages being 16, and a random chance of each one spawining, or just use a RNG

If players find all the secret papers, everyone gets a lore prize on the forums and wiki? Perhaps an admin ran event later relating to the event?

[Sargeantmuffinman]

So it would be around the map in certain areas like research or any where near or around the base.

[UnKuT]

Yes, definitely in areas where it would make sense. Other than research and other high ranked areas there could also be journals and diaries found in the crew quarters or something where they mentioned or talked about the origin of the accident

[Felkvir]

+1. Yes. Why don't we have this?

[Butterrobber202]

CM Story. It all started with Beer

[Kovain1812]

+1, Gives the marines something to discover once they have landed and secured the area, it got a little bit tower defense last time i played so giving a reason to push into the wild would be really cool.

[Triel Wolfblood]

everyone should get free beer when whole lore is found

[speedybst]

Right, here we are, the excerpt.

► Show Spoiler

Excerpts from the script if the top-secret audio-visual presentation "Theory of Alien Propagation," by Waidslaw Orona, Ph.D. Note: This script/compgen AV recording is/are classified military document(s) and require a clearance of A-1/a for reading/viewing. Penalties for illegal uses of this/these document(s) may include Full Brain Reconstruction and/or a fine of up to Cr. 100,000, and/or imprisonment in a Federated Penal Colony for up to twenty-five years.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

FADE IN:
COMPUTER GEN PIX: Deep space, a b.g. of stars. Centered is AN ALIEN, sideview, curled into a fetallike ball. MUSIC PLAYS: Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries."

V.O.
Humans suffer from the self-centered notions as to the nature of life.

The Alien slowly uncurls. MUSICAL STING.

V.O. (CONT.)
Humans assume that alien life forms should conform to standards that match our own, including logic and morality.

The Alien is uncurled in its full glory now. Slowly it rotates to face the camera. MUSIC CONTINUES OVER.

V.O. (CONT.)
Even amongst humans, morality is ignored when expedient. Why should we expect more from an alien life form than we demand from ourselves?

The Alien stretches out its arms and legs and tail so that it becomes a parody of the man's-reach-should-equal-his-height illustration by Da Vinci. PUSH IN SLOWLY. The Alien expands to fill the screen.

V.O. (CONT.)
If we know nothing else, we must know this about Aliens: First, they will not be like us. Second, truly understanding them will be nearly impossible.

THE ALIEN fills the screen; DIAL DOWN MUSIC and PUSH THROUGH TO BLACK.

CUT TO:
EXT. ALIEN WORLD - DAY - ESTABLISHING SHOT
Here is a bleak, rocky planet. Very little greenery, vast stretches of nothing.

V.O.
Judging from the dense exoskeleton of the alien and its demonstrated adaptability, we must assume that its home planet is harsh, desolate place.

CUT TO:
EXT. HIVE

This is a ridged, antlike mound rearing up from the cleared area around it, composed of alien spittle, laced with local plants and the exoskeletons of alien prey.

V.O.
We know from our previous encounters that the aliens have a queen-based hierarchy and that they form hives to protect their eggs and young hatchlings.

INT. HIVE - EGG CHAMBER

The giant QUENN, monstrous egg sack attached to her rear, deposits eggs on the floor of the chamber.

V.O.
At the proper time, drone workers provide host bodies for the newborns.

TIME CUT TO:
INT. HIVE - EGG ROOM

A GROUP OF PREY BEASTS held in place by WORKER ALIENS are attacked by HATCHLINGS I THEIR LARVAL FORM. (These are hand-shaped lumps with fingers and tails, the latter which wraps around the prey beast's necks to secure them as the ovipastors are extruded and inserted down the prey's throats. See comp-image #3 for stock footage.)

V.O.
The parasitical breeding process is offensive to some in the scientific community, but completely natural for aliens living in a harsh environment.

CUT TO:
PREY BEAST

Its belly bulges from within. It screams, but silently, (MOS).

V.O.
Birth of the next stage is violent and fatal for the host.

C.U. - PREY'S BELLY

The skin bursts, tissue spews, and A BABY ALIEN, looking like a fat snake with sharp teeth, emerges

V.O. (CONT.)
The young alien chews its way forth, where there may be a battle for dominance with other newly born aliens. We can only speculate at this point.

A GROUP OF BABY ALIENS rip and tear at each other.

CUT TO:
EXT. HIVE - DAY

Overhead a spaceship ROARS by; below on the ground, A GROUP OF WORKER ALIENS watch the ship.

V.O.
How the aliens escape their world is, of course, complete speculation.

THE SHIP lands and a SUITED FIGURE emerges, carrying assorted collecting gear and a wicked-looking hand weapon.

V.O. (CONT.)
However, it seems likely that some... outside force, perhaps a spacefaring species, interacted with the aliens.

THE SUITED FIGURE returns to the ship, an alien egg inside a clear specimen bottle. From the size of the egg compared to the Collector, it is apparent that the collector is much larger than a man, perhaps three times so.

CUT TO:
INT. COLLECTOR'S SPACESHIP

The collector approaches the alien egg. Leans over it. The egg's portal flaps splay open. The Collector peers into the egg's interior.

V.O.
A small mistake in dealing with such predatory creatures would, of course, prove to be dangerous in the extreme. Probably fatal.

CUT TO:
EXT. COLLECTOR SPACESHIP

The ship lies crashed upon some world, fog swirling about it.

PUSH IN AND THROUGH TO:
INT. COLLECTOR SHIP

The skeleton of the Collector, its chest burst open from within, sits in the control seat of the ship. In the b.g. are THREE HUMANS IN SPACESUITS. Light beams play over the dead giant as the humans examine it.

V.O.
Humans rely on technology to the point where they believe it has made them invincible. When dealing with creatures who have adapted to extremely hostile environments, such a belief can also prove dangerous.

EXT. COPERATION LANDER

The lander lifts from the planet's surface.

CLOSER - ON THE LANDER

Clutching a strut on the lander's underside is AN ALIEN.

V.O. (CONT.)
Because an unsuited human cannot survive in the vacuum of space does not mean that some other complex life form cannot.

INT. COPERATE STAR SHIP - CARGO BAY - HIGH ANGLE

Across the bay walk TWO MEN.

PULL BACK TO OTS (OVER-THE-SHOULDER) - ALIEN

It watches the men. Drool drips from its lethal jaws.

ALIEN'S POV - THE MEN

It moves in. They react in horror as it attacks. BLOOD SPLASHES, blanking the VP.

CUT TO:
INT. AIRLOCK

The hatch opens and the alien is ejected by the outward blast of atmosphere. TRACK WITH IT as it flies into space, turning slowly.

V.O.
Ultimately, our limited contact with these creatures indicates they have simple imperatives that control their lives. They kill, they breed, and they survive.

THE ALIEN floats in the vacuum. It should be dead by human standards, but it slowly curls itself into a fetal ball, tail wrapped around the massive claw-hammer head and spiky body.

V.O.
Properly utilised, such aliens would make excellent warriors. Research into their composition could yield advances in armour, chemical and biological weapons, and perhaps even new ways to induce suspended animation for stellar travel.

PULL BACK - THE ALIEN

Dwindles into a tiny dot, then vanishes altogether in the cold blackness.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

End of script/AV extract. Reader/viewers are once again warned that unauthorized use of this material may result in severe penalties, per MILCOM stat. reg. 342544-A, Revision II.

[UnKuT]

That looks sweet. Several parts of that excerpt could be scattered and placed around different parts of the base map for a round. Then add a few different excerpts or journals or WY/high ranked documents for other rounds so it's not always the same origin/excerpt/story and we have a go.

[Triel Wolfblood]

aliums die in spess

[TopHatPenguin]

Well if you wanted to add more Rp.. you could have it so the map is edited so that a meteor crashed into the station ( When marines come the meteor would be apart of the station so no atmos fuck ups ) and you could have it like... the Aliens came from the meteor when the scientists did this" " and this " " then we got left out to die by CC/ WY

[TheFlagbearer]

Definitely a +1 from me. Way back in the days of old, I used to spawn paper scraps all across the station and corpses that would tell what happened to the station. Most of the time it was something uncovered by Xenoarch. Notes chosen from a randomly selected list would be a great way to shake things up every round.

[speedybst]

aliums die in spess

That wasn't true when this novel was written, that excerpt is from the original sequel novel to Aliens, so at that time they were still considered space-proof.
For those that are interested, the novel is Aliens: Earth Hive, and may be part of the basis for the 5th Aliens film storyline, which will ignore 3 and 4.

[UnKuT]

Bump for importance.

[Lostmixup]

So this idea originally originated in this topic here: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=2707

Basically the topic was asking for in game clues for what happened before the marines arrived. The idea eventually evolved into papers being scattered around the map that would entail what happened before the marines showed up; like audio logs in Bioshock or something (it'd be really sweet if we could do it with tape recorders too).

Now I thought about the [Removed] that abby had mentioned one day in the skype chat, and that she also provided a picture for (which I'd appreciate if you could post up here, 'cause I'm not digging through the skype chat), and figured since it was going to probably be an event mob or something anyway we may as well connect it to this idea because it seems like it'd fit well with this idea.

So essentially I'm saying:
- Create a small lore relating to some form of [removed] research.
- Leave it around the map in some player accessible form.
- Once all of the lore has been discovered, we do a special [removed] event that would be the player's permanent (as in the event can used as a normal event from then on) reward for finding all of the pieces of lore.

Now, I've got a few ideas about how to handle figuring out if lore has been found/collected and such:
1: We tell players to a-help it in when they find a piece of lore and "release" the info in said document onto the wiki until all pieces have been found. We then release the event afterwards.

2: We let the players piece together what happened on the alpha map based on things scattered around the map that may, or may not, spawn in a quasi-random fashion; possibly with mild guidance and hints along the way from us to help them keep interest and figure it out. Once the players had pieced together a theory/story that kind of closely resembles what happened, we release the full story on the wiki and do the event.

3: We say "fuck all that" and just put pieces of paper around the map with random bits of lore, and we play the event anyway. The bits of lore would possibly tell of the [Removed] weaknesses and would only spawn when the event is happening. This is basically just doing what the original suggested.

So I made this suggestion to the staff and no one replied, so instead I'd like to know what you guys think of it. I edited it some from my original post.

[UnKuT]

I think that's a good idea Lostmixup, particularly I go with option 2 or 3. The only doubt I have is that originally I thought the evidence containing the lore would be present every round so that marine players always could opt out to RP finding out the origins of the accident, but with your suggestion I believe you're saying once all the lore was found it would be posted as the official backstory somewhere on the wiki/forums. After that would the evidence still be scattered every round and the option to find out the origins of the infestation an option?

[Lostmixup]

I think that's a good idea Lostmixup, particularly I go with option 2 or 3. The only doubt I have is that originally I thought the evidence containing the lore would be present every round so that marine players always could opt out to RP finding out the origins of the accident, but with your suggestion I believe you're saying once all the lore was found it would be posted as the official backstory somewhere on the wiki/forums. After that would the evidence still be scattered every round and the option to find out the origins of the infestation an option?

My suggestion specifically is related to an special event we may or may not had planned to be adding, so the pieces of paper containing the lore surrounding said event would probably disappear, unless said specific event was happening, and be replaced with standard backstory pieces that are like "omg alien experiment gone wrong" or something.

[UnKuT]

Well then I am all up for it, and I'm sure the majority of the rest of the players will be too.