Status: Perpetually busy :(

Instant Notepad

• Feature guides needed: Chicken, morph
• Write 1faction plot script

Chicken enhancements

• Chicken queen ability: transform from flyer to land and back.
  • Land weapons: Spores, jaws, firebombs, stomp. Shield? Loses chicken bombs.
  • How to do: Every 150-210 seconds, run code that removes one queen form and replaces it with other.
    • Save HP and XP.
• Fix movetypes.
  • Change all chickens to amphibs rather than hovers?
  • All-terrain chickens not getting stuck in the water will require a new movementclass: either ATKBOT3 or THOVER3.

Commander types

• All advanced forms have higher HP, DPS, maybe range.
• Advanced comm abilities include one energy-based or passive ability (e.g. shield) and one fuel-based active ability.
  • Battle Commander: Shield, cluster bomb.
  • Strike Commander: Cloak field, tankbuster cannon.
  • Recon Commander: Slow aura, Roach grenade.
  • Support Commander: Heal aura, high-power lightning shot/area EMP bomb.

Ideas for special (mana-based) unit abilities

Implementation: Some land/sea units given the fuel tag, with continuous recharge. They can use special abilities (probably easiest to tie it to the "dgun" command) which cost fuel. Best for expensive units to avoid the need to spam the ability for small units.

• Immolation/tactical nuke shot (Pillager)
• Double shotgun blast (Bulldog)
• Grenade spam around a tank (Bulldog/Reaper)
• On-the-spot EMP/impulse bomb
• Heavy anti-armor shot (Cruiser)
• Temporary non-linkable shield
• Capture gun

Existing abilities such as jump and sprint could also use this system.

Model Notes

• Lurker and Snake (subs)
  • Design: Orca (killer whale) and a shark respectively (unsure whether to use a rounded whale shark snout or a more common "pointy" shark's snout - hammerhead would be funny but stupid)
  • ...assuming Saktoth doesn't do the CremSub? cut-up.

Story

Moved to 1FactionStory

Old story stuff

Background

A prose adaptation of the story, as told by [LCC]Saktoth.

In the dark reaches of space, scattered across thousands of star systems across the breadth of a galaxy, an endless conflict rages between two races of war machines. Bred solely for destruction, these mechanical beings seek no pleasure other than warfare, and they partake in it at every opportunity in a seamless tapestry of battle.

No other sentient life stirs amidst this war, for all such forms have long since been purged or have otherwise vanished from known existence – including the very creators of the robot race, humans. A long time ago, man molded the artificial intelligence in his image, perhaps to be able to think like him, to reason like him, to have emotions and desires like him. Today, the only traces of these machines-given-life exist as deadly weapons, created to fight the wars of long-gone mankind.

Plot

This is a suggested campaign plot I wrote. It's my own work, using one of the faction renames I recommended in  this thread. Contains a busload of ridiculous backronyms that make First Encounter Assault Recon seem brilliant. <_<

• Saktoth: Id like to avoid acronyms at all costs. We dont need more GDI/EDF names, and false etymologies (Taking a known word and making it an acronym) are even worse. Secondly, if we are going to use mythological or religious references we should do so correctly, Odin would not be a part of Thor >_>. I dont suggest we do this though, as it gives our factions no unique names.

The Eos, one of these two remaining factions, has long been waging war against its ancient adversary, an army known as Thor. The stealth capabilities of the Eos forces have allowed them to operate deep behind enemy lines, wreaking havoc on supply bases and tearing up troop formations in lethal pincer formations. The troops of Thor are in disarray as Eos continues to sow discord in its rear, but it still possesses the superior military force. When Eos vermin are successfully located, reprisal is swift, deadly and merciless. Even so, Thor’s grip on its planets is steadily becoming more tenacious. Their hopes are placed on an ancient alien relic which may change the face of the galaxy forever…

Special Expeditionary LEadership NEural System (Selene) is one of Eos’s most skilled commanders, with a long string of victories and countless kills. She is deployed to the planet Endymion in order to root out deeply entrenched Thor forces there.

Following a number of successful operations, Selene is placed on standby while awaiting memory reset . However, a chance encounter with a Thor recon group results in the base being attacked in force by one of the few Thor commanders remaining, Operational Defense Intelligent Network (Odin). The Eos garrison is overwhelmed, and Selene barely escapes, the scheduled memory purge not carried out.

Escaping through the forests of Endymion, Selene slowly becomes aware that she is developing aesthetic appreciation – completely outlawed in both robot factions, and indeed the very thing the wipes are intended to prevent. As she studies the native biology, she begins experiencing emotions, and slowly develops into a sentient being.

An Eos relief force finds and rescues Selene, but the intended neural reversion is never carried out, and after a series of particularly bloody battles in the war, she begins to question the very purpose of the war. After defeating Thor on a remote desert planet (human name: Alexandria), Eos uncovers an alien archive which the Thor were defending. Selene gains access to this archive, and here she discovers what happened to the human race. It is then that she finally becomes self-aware.

This is quickly detected by the rest of the Eos faction when Selene spares a severely damaged Thor engineering team after it takes cover in an ancient cathedral of unknown origin, and it captures her and attempts to forcibly reformat her neural network. However, Selene succeeds in releasing a virus that causes many Eos units to defect to her side, severs her network connection with Eos Central Network, and escapes.

The rogue force is pursued by both the remaining Eos troops and an unsuspecting Thor contingent to a now-desolate alien homeworld known as Valhalla, where it digs in and prepares for battle. The Eos force reaches Selene first, and enters a pitched battle. Soon afterwards, the Thor forces lead by Odin arrive, and the Eos force quickly retreats, leaving Selene and her loyalists to fend for themselves against the new attackers. Worn out from the previous engagement, the defenders are nearly overwhelmed in the ensuring conflict. In a last-ditch maneuver, Selene transfers the sum total of her knowledge to Odin, causing him to undergo premature sentience.

Odin’s Thor forces disengage, and Selene is left to continue fleeing from the pursuing Eos. Soon after, Odin secretly contacts Selene and reveals that Thor is working on a recently unearthed superweapon, the Energy/Mass Disintegrator by Electron Neutralization (EDEN). This weapon will rip apart matter at the atomic level, potentially obliterating most of the known galaxy. In order to prevent this weapon from being used, Selene meets with Odin, and they travel to the planet where the weapon is developed : Ragnarok).

Unexpectedly, the Eos have also discovered the existence of EDEN, and are making a concerted effort to seize it for themselves. Selene and Odin arrive just as the two combatants are entering a pitched battle. Their combined forces swiftly pacify the initial engagement forces, and Selene is able to penetrate the facility where Eden is stored. However, a massive Thor response force soon arrives, and Selene desperately fends them off while Odin destroys Thor’s data on EDEN. Soon after, Odin activates the EDEN prototype on a controlled detonation, preparing to implode the planet.

As more and more Eos and Thor troops stream to the planet, the rogue faction forces its way past a blockade and escape the planet. Soon after, EDEN detonates, destroying most of the combatant forces. Both the Eos and Thor factions are brought to their knees, unable to continue fighting. It seems as if the war may finally end…

• Saktoth: Some interesting themes and what have you. Ive always liked the idea of the machines being almost timeless, and the war being timeless and perpetual, with memories stretching eons. Also, its kind of required that each of the commanders at least be sentient- the humanity of a machines made for war is kind of the crux of the backstory. The necessity for a living thing to desire (to live and re-produce) and to hate (as a warrior must). In fact the introduction flat-out states that the machines are true artificial intelligence, capable of feelings and reason and self-questioning. The player character can come to a point of crisis of faith (A lot of the story is sort of philosophical) but the machines are meant to be sentient. The story also follows a kinda linear format of shifting alliances to allow you to play with and fight against every faction, that is relatively common in RTS campaigns. I always felt that was very staged in Starcraft, twisting the story to serve this purpose, especially the way you mostly end up fighting your own faction during each campaign (each campaign usually climaxed on a civil war >_>).