After some time spent fiddling with the mission editor, I would like to try and make some story-driven missions. Problem is, for that we need a story.
I found some backstory here :
http://code.google.com/p/zero-k/wiki/StoryIs it still up-to-date? There are quite some big points I would like to discuss about this story, and the forum seemed to be a better place for that than the wiki.
So, about the story itself.
According to Burnside's Zeroth Law (see
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/prelimnotes.php#zerothlaw ), it's a bad idea to speak about 'silicon ships' instead of human (or other) beings. So in a setting with only machines fighting each-other, they have to be sentient and not just mindless programs following their programming.
The problem is, such a world where there are only (sentient) machines left whose only goal is to exterminate each-other, there isn't much to do and keep the player involved. What is the point? Once they will have exterminated all their enemies, then what? If it ever happens. If it will never happen, what is the point in fighting? To be able to continue to fight? It wouldn't exactly catch the interest of most players.
A setting like that, basically Warhammer 40k with only Necrons left, wouldn't be the best to create story-driven missions, as the driving force, conflict, seems quite pointless. Also, it would probably be quite a poor setting, story-wise.
The other problem with a machine-only setting is that it's harder for the player to identify to the character. A world with only machines would be so different to what we know today that a player wouldn't have much marks, and would feel alien to it. Or it would be like our world, but then having machines would be quite pointless too (and then feel like bad writing). We don't know how artificial intelligences would work (which would also make it harder to write), but they would have to be quite different from us.
That's why there is often, if not always, a human-like character that the player or spectator can relate to. They don't have to be the hero, though they have to be important enough in the story. They also don't have to be human. Cyborgs, uploaded minds, artificial intelligences specifically built to be human-like (e.g. androids) can also work.
But it means that there have to be some human or human-like being left in the setting.
Now, about the realism, or, more exactly, about the believability.
Saktoth seems to have at heart that the mechanisms themselves of the game are believable enough. Indeed, a believable system helps to the immersion. That's why there are justifications about the capability of a commander to build an entire army (nanotech) and why commanders are sent alone (very hard to send mass over interstellar distances).
The problem is, it's not enough. Here, fridge logic begins to kick in, and can't be waved away with the "it's not meant to be reality-like", like would do a StarCraft.
For example, if they can build an army in a matter of hours, why isn't every commander arriving somewhere greeted with a nuclear hail? After all, in days, the entire planet should be covered with silencers, doomsday machines and big berthas.
Or, if they can send a commander, why don't they send a micro black-hole or other planet-buster instead? If they are in total war, it would be easier to destroy the enemy planet, or at least slag its surface. After all, they can rebuild it after.
I spent some time thinking about that while (and after) playing Supreme Commander, who precisely failed to answer those problems. Which is one of the main reasons why the single-player campaign didn't work, which is in turn why the game itself didn't fare better, but I digress.
And yet, by changing the setting, we can make Commander warfare far more believable.
The easiest way, IMO, is to see Commanders as advanced paratroopers instead of main WMD. See, you send a Commander when you want to take an area fast, before the enemy has time to reinforce it. After some hours, you have a foothold. The brute-force battles would be done with starships, fixed battlestations and other massive and slow/immobile weapons.
And why aren't planets covered with units? Because the units of a Commander break down after days, if not hours. Commanders occupying a place have then to spend time repairing their units. And while resources are unlimited in the scale of a battle, after days, metal points and others begin to dry out. (We can always handwave that others somehow reappear to explain why the entire galaxy isn't depleted yet.) So after a while, the Commander can't maintain its army. If we want, we can also add some wear and tear on the Commander itself, meaning that it has to stop from time to time to repair itself, and then can't efficiently repair its army non-stop.
It would mean that anyone arriving hours late against an enemy commander is screwed, but if you arrive weeks late, you have a chance.
We also have an explanation about the starting zones. If they are teleported, they can only be teleported there because (technobabble). Same explanation about why commanders of both sides are teleported at the same time. If they are thrown from orbit, that's the only window where your ship can send you without you being shot down (or even detected) during the descent.
There are ways to refine those explanations, but here are the basis.
The interesting point is, it allows for more varied missions.
For example, instead of having the two commanders arriving at the same time, the attacker arrives alone, while the defender already has some installations and units in the map. On the other hand, the defender arrives later, and can not begin to build right away.
You also have time-limited missions. You have to destroy an anti-aerospace field generator before your fleet has to retreat from orbit, letting it open to enemy ships who will carpet-bomb you from there. Inversely, you have to resist long enough for your ships to come and carpet-bomb them. For the ships, just create icon-less units at the maximum possible height. You can even create units with placeholder or even no 3D-model, as the players wouldn't see them anyway. But you could then use them for attacks from the sky.
The problem with story-driven single-player is that we will need some models in addition to the ones used in multiplayer. Some civilian units and buildings, maybe even super-lowpoly humans; some non-Commander-built units and buildings, possibly bigger and more powerful than anything a Commander has. Anti-aerospace installation, also.
With those, it would open many possibilities. We can have attack/defence of civilian settlements and cities; we can have more complex defence systems... We could even have missions where you have to fight lone super-powerful units instead of (or in addition to) hostile Commanders.
If we have starship models, we can even have cutscenes with space battles. A huge empty map, invisible water, skybox with the planet drawn on it, some scripts, and we can have starships fighting each-other across massive distances, and even firing at/be fired at from the planet.
(In an ideal world, the models and textures would be re-done so their looks are more coherent with each-other, but this is not and ideal world anyway.)
Now, here's a setting that would work well IMHO, for example.
The hero is a mercenary. Mercenaries are far cooler in SF than IRL. Also, as such he would be quite removed from the varied worlds, and then learn about them at the same time than the player. He's a young one (so he has more to learn - like the player), in the fringe of the Galaxy (where stuff happens, not like in the ordered and locked 'civilised' parts), and work with an older one who teach him what he knows (and then we have our tutorials).
They have missions like, protecting settlements against local bandits/pirates, chickens, or even armies when caught in the middle of a war. They are also recruited by the local powers to help in their wars, as they are well-trained professionals with good equipment.
The overarching story could be about finding what are the chickens, and where they are from. Or it could be about a large conflict growing and threatening the entire region, where the hero would have to make difficult choices. Or it could be about a dark conspiracy set by ancient sentient machines (say, the Zero-K), trying to get their hands on lost artefacts without anyone suspecting them. Or all those linked together.
You don't have everything unlocked at first, because those technologies are expensive, or even experimental (Singularity reactor), and not everything is installed on your Commander.
Across the Galaxy, there are also major powers. Their movements and conflicts are not wars, at the scale of the hero. They are natural disasters. Fortunately, they will often pay no attention to the inhabitants of the fringes, and avoid being involved to keep things simpler for them (and overextend). Yet, there can be shady operations from those, trying to influence the locals for their own unfathomable purposes. It can be by causing wars, preventing them, secretly helping one side...
We could even have a mission with those fighting each-other with gigantic all-powerful units while paying no attention to you and your opponents, but destroying/terraforming a part of the map in their battle, or leaving incredibly rich wreckages around from time to time.
Such a setting (very summarised here) gives lots of potential for varied missions, but also compelling stories.
Thoughts?
