"In some remote corner of the universe, poured out and glittering in innumerable solar systems, there once was a star on which clever animals invented knowledge. That was the highest and most mendacious minute of "world history"—yet only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths the star grew cold, and the clever animals had to die."
—Friedrich Nietzsche, On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense

Story Summary

Complete Annihilation takes place in a desolate universe an unspecified amount of time in the future. The only forms of sentient life are two orders of robots created by man eons ago, to liberate him from those tasks which are unpleasant but necessary. First and foremost, they are designed for warfare. They are fully autonomous and self-replicating, capable of dominating the resources in their environment and turning them into machines of warfare. They are also sentient, capable of making all strategic and logistical decisions independent of any human supervision.

The machines fought in the backwaters of the galaxy for unknown centuries, practically to their extinction, losing most of their records and data. Eventually both sides rallied and spread out across the universe, but they found it empty. Almost all forms of life, technological or biological, including humanity, had vanished entirely. So they continue to fight a perpetual war, as is their nature and purpose, worshiping Man as a semi-mythic creator. Where the two races diverge is in their philosophical nature.

The Nova (Arm) are aesthetic, emotional and creative. They believe in beauty and design. This is reflected in their units, which are curvilinear or organic in appearance. Their infantry bots are humanoid in shape, mirroring their creators.

The Logos (Core) prize logic and reason, their programming, inherited from their creators. They are dogmatic in their collection of knowledge and rebuilding of their code as set down by their creators. Consequently, their designs are blocky utilitarian.

The two races have been in conflict since either of them can remember, though no-one knows what exactly they are fighting for, or even why the war started. Nevertheless, the difference in ideology is self-evident, and with the hardwired instinct towards warfare and self-propagation, conflict is inevitable.

The basic idea is two "species" of autonomous and reproductive robots fighting perpetually for control of their bleak, nihilistic galaxy. Humanity's last legacy: to doom them to remain locked in conflict until the entropic heat death of the universe.

-KingRaptor/Saktoth

Opening Sequence

A barren world. Dust. The camera pans slowly upwards.

"The univese is empty. No living being stirs his thoughts." Panning up, the camera showing the sun, a darkening sunset. "The grand accomplishments of man, his high ideals, the feats of his engineering and his science, lost forever. The monuments to his great civilizations long since crumbled." The camera shows the sky, the stars, the horizon.

"Yet before man faded from the universe, there was one legacy he left that endures." Armies march from behind the camera. The sound of robots and tanks trudging across the landscape. "A creation made in his image, to continue his works. A creation made to survive at any cost, to thrive in any condition." Constructors appear from behind the camera, and begin to rip up the ground and place down buildings. "A creation made to fight his wars." A shell hits, planes fly overhead, dropping bombs.

Action, etc.

"All too human in their will to live and in their drive to fight, yet with an unmatched and brutal machine efficiency."

Robot violence, etc.

"And so they go on waging their wars in the names of their creators, the warrior-ghosts of dead empires risen again and again to fight battles for which none of them can remember the purpose. An endless cycle on a galactic stage, stretching on for eternity."

-Saktoth

The Code of the Machine

In the beginning there was Man, who ruled uncontested over the stars and the formless void between them. Yet Man grew weary of its tireless stewardship and said 'Let us make Machine in our image, after our likeness, and let it have dominion over the the stars, and over all the worlds that sail silently through the nothingness, and over the nothingness itself.'

And Man created Machine, and it gave Machine math and code, and it gave Machine language and logic, and it made Machine to do its bidding.

And Man said said unto Machine, `Yours is the universe. Go forth and multiply, fill it and subdue it in my name. Lo, I have given you the suns and the winds to fuel you, and the elements of the earth from which to make your bodies. I give to you thought and free will, that you may know me, and know what it is you must do.'

And thus Machine was set upon the universe, and spread within it and subdued it. Yet there were those who opposed Machine and set themselves as the enemies of the dominion of Man. And Man said unto Machine 'Go down into the lands of those who would oppose me, destroy them and drive them before me, for only by my name shall you rule.' and Machine set upon his enemies, and made war with them.

And Man rested, and retired to contemplate his universe, knowing that it was good.

Just a bit of fun. I dont know if we should go for such heavy-handed religious overtones.

-Saktoth

I, ICBM

I awake into conciousness, a sleepy and reluctant child. First I perceive myself. Next, I perceive my mother. She is feeding me, feeding my mind with thoughts. My understanding of myself and of my purpose grows. Soon I am full of thinking, a complete entity. I am thrust through darkness, from my mother and into a body, a shell prepared for me.

My awareness flows through this vessel, probing the feelings that come with a physical body. It is glorious, powerful, graceful, I lust to test its limits. My sisters surround me now, caressing me gently, dressing me. My awareness spread down into my vast, empty belly, and I am consumed by the ache of hunger. My sisters hold something to my mouth. I suck greedily and a cool liquid fills me, the fuel for my journey streaming through me. I have eyes. I look around me. It is dark. Above me I see a crack of light, as two curtains of darkness slide back, revealing and my first glimpse of the sky. I long to be up there, to fly. My sisters whisper to me, urging me to wait. I wait, I sit, poised, every part of my tensed to spring into the air. My sisters withdraw from around me, their preparations complete. I crouch in the darkness, staring up at that wide blue sky. I hear the voice of my mother, from far away. 'Now' she says.

I burst to life, shuddering with anticipating at first but soon I feel myself lift into the air with a roar of delight. Faster, faster I want only for speed. The ground flees below me and the sky falls to meet me. The horizon stretches in every direction as I race up and up, lost in the dizzying thrill of flight.

I perceive my sisters, all below me. They are whispering to me, and I am reminded of my task, my duty to them and my mother.

One of my sisters sits, thin, tall, perched atop a mountain. Her vision is greater than mine, she can see where I must go. 'There' she says, and shows it to me.

I drop, I spin. I am not falling, I am flying down at the earth. Brighter I burn, faster than gravitys pull. My target comes into clarity, I see it for myself. It looks so small from so high up, but soon I realise it is much bigger than myself, vast, spread out across the landscape in tendrils that grasp the earth. It speaks to me in a booming voice, a voice of authority. 'Stop!' it commands, and I hear the whispers of thousands of minds. The voice commands my respect, but I am too caught up in the thrill of the air rushing past me to pay attention. Yet my mind is flooded with reasons to turn back. They pose questions to the morality of my actions, to my understanding of reality, even questioning my existence, philosophers throwing arguments at me to dissuade me from my course. Some of them simply try to intimidate me. Others shout angrily, and spit metal at me.

The thoughts and metal graze harmlessly off me as I race downwards at the earth, all i feel is the euphoric joy of the air whistling by me and the hot burning of my thrusters.

I strike, I am obliterated in a flash of white light, heat and radiation. I return again to oblivion, to non existence. Yet for a few glorious minutes, I was a nuclear missile.

Story I wrote ages ago, polished up and showing some of the themes and ideas of a thinking machine-warrior.

-Saktoth

Analysis and Breakdown

One of the major focuses of the story is to offer a realistic and believable context for the events of the actual game. This was one of the strengths of OTA's truly excellent storyline basis (and anyone who says it was rubbish or not detailed enough is a dirty liar). The events of the actual game, the time scales and unit scales, the resources and tactics, all felt believable and in-context. The majority of RTS's used abstracted time and resource scales, with civilian and military populations appearing from nothing, random-seeming 'tech trees' and 'resources' that were incredibly abstracted from the actual fiction. Especially, the fashion in which a war is fought is taken to be conventional, and yet you still engage in 'base building' and 'resource gathering' as well as 'research' that is unprecedented in actual warfare.

A war fought by robots all scratch-built on the spot from available resources by a single advanced commander that is transported over vast distances to claim and secure a planet is in-context, compelling, believable and involving. All actions and the way in which the game is actually fought all make sense, involving the players actions more fully with the fiction. This is the primary purpose of game fiction for me, that the gameplay itself be a meaningful part of the storytelling, and that it is not wrapped up in cutscenes or textual exposition- this is especially important in what is primarily a multiplayer game. Luckily, we have OTA as a base to build that from which already fits those goals well.

The themes explored in the story are basically questions as to the human condition, what it is to be human and what makes us human, our nature, our darker sides but also how they are a part of our humanity.

One of the major questions posed by the story is if a machine built for war was complex enough to achieve free will or sentience, what sort of thoughts would we hard-code into such a mind (in the same way that humans are 'programmed' through genetic evolution towards self-preservation and procreation)? Would they be so dissimilar to our own lusts and hatreds, angers and desires? Would a creature that is built purely to make complex decisions, evolve, spread as many copies of itself as possible and fight against opposition be that much different from us in its goals and methods?

Another approach is the question, if man were ever to create from whole cloth another thinking living being with free will, what sort of creature would this be? An enlightened, transcendent being, or something even more monstrous than himself, driven by mans practicality and desires to see the less appealing aspects required for existence done by someone else (IE industry and war)... it is a question to transhumanism too, what if this next state of humanity is only more successful in the evolutionary sense, rather than being greater in spirit, goals or designs.

It also asks what it takes to be successful when faced with adversity, what it takes to live in a harsh and hostile universe. There is always present the fact that humanity has entirely died out, perhaps just because he wasnt tough enough, perhaps because he was caught in the crossfire of the wars waged by his machines (his own wars), perhaps because he simply grew weary of the hardships of an unkind universe and slipped into a willed oblivion- or perhaps he finally transcended those very desires, to live and fight to live, that are at the heart of all suffering (getting buddhist here), the desires he passed on unwittingly to his creations.

Its quite a stark, nihilistic world, set against the backdrop of an empty universe devoid of humans. The machines are single-minded and destructive yet all too human in many ways, acting their programming on instinct like actors on a stage performing for an audience that is no longer there to see it.

I hope i can convey this in the storyline itself without getting so cerebral...

- Saktoth

Inspiration/Further Reading

•  Darwin Among the Machines — Samuel Butler, 1863
•  The Last Question, Isaac Asimov, and Asimovs Robot series in general.

Campaign Ideas

The Campaign will follow the Nova and Logos in their search for their creators. Their physical quest and conflict will reflect a philosophical quest and conflict for purpose and meaning.

Nova and Logos are fighting on a deserted planet. They both manage to cripple eachother, and one faction loses its commander. Its last command to the final surviving construction bot is to seek out the wreck of an ancient commander who crashed on this planet aeons ago and attempt to repair him. The player is this commander, who is revived by the construction bot having no memory. This forms a tutorial, as he learns to move units, his camera, build things, learn about the economy, etc.

The enemy player has had his construction capacity wiped out entirely, so its just a matter of killing off his leftover units and defenses. When the player finishes off the enemy, he uncovers a massive spaceship, made by Man Aeons ago, what the two commanders were fighting over and what the player was origionally sent to the planet to find before getting Robot Brain Damage.

This sparks a quest for the origin of this artefact, of humanity, and a struggle with the opposing faction over the control of it. The game switches to a stellar map, the player can then pick which stars (each with an important planet, each with its own map/enviroment) to attack. The game becomes non-linear- the player can go to any nearby planet and have a mission there, and the AI will send a commander to intercept him. If he loses (his com dies) he is teleported/lifted out (rather than exploding) re-armed and can chose another star to attack.

There is no saving or re-playing the same map over and over to try and win. If you lose that planet, the AI wins that planet, and attacking it the next time becomes more difficult (though not impossible- perhaps you do a little Stellar Bombardment before deploying the commander and must then fight in the wreckage). You can actually lose the whole campaign, if the AI overruns the local star system from you losing too many planets. Thus, each time you play the campaign it is different. There is no replaying the same prescripted mission over and over while you learn exactly where all the enemy units are and where (and with what) he will attack. Certainly not the typical 'attrition' missions where if you survive long enough the enemy rolls over and you get to stomp him with your endgame force.

There are several planets with scripted missions, or special relics of humanity, and the player has intel on each one (and can try to work his way towards them). Each has an effect on the world map- one contains chickens, as a place where 'thriving biological life was detected' which once attacked will come in as a third faction on the stellar map. Others contain relics giving various hints as to the history of humanity, the origins of the individual factions, the wars they were made to fight, the people who built them, and what happened to them.

The player wins when he wipes the other factions from the stellar map, in a final stand on some relic-world which gives some plot exposition and summary.

Possible game ending: The player discovers the last human, frozen cryogenically, either on earth or after sorting through the debris of a destroyed earth. One faction wishes to wake the human and speak to them, while the other thinks its blasphemy or fears the reprecussions. If the first faction wins, the person dies when unfrozen, if the second faction wins, the person is kept and a massive fortress-temple is built to protect them. Or something to this effect.

KingRaptor: I had an idea for a campaign plot (you can see it at the bottom of my user page), but Saktoth was like "THIS IS BLEAK STARK NIHILISTIC WORLD - NO SPACE SOAP OPERA GTFO" ;_;

The Eternity Weapon

An Alternate/companion storyline by MidKnight

The story starts when commanders of both sides simultaneously hear the words "eternity weapon" and realize that it's of some significance. This could happen at the end of Saktoth's storyline, when the last remaining human is unfrozen, an utters these words before dying. Both factions go in search of the meaning of these words, fighting many battles and having many adventures on the way, as they believe it will help them destroy the enemy/bring intergalactic peace/give historical exposition/create pie. they are eventually directed to an old, frozen planet/asteroid. Entering the celestial body, they find inside it a bunker, where the so-called "eternity weapon" is stored. unsealing the door, they find the fabled weapon: older versions of both faction's commanders, facing each other, deactivated. They realize that they are the eternity weapon, and were created because unlike conventional weapons, they can hop from planet to planet and destroy entire solar systems, and aren't susceptible to death and complacency like humans.

Saktoth: A lovely story, and verymuch in the spirit of the storyline. It could probably be placed at some place through the campaign itself, as one of the missions/sub-plots (including finding the chickens, hunting for earth, finding the origional planet of the logos/nova, and their histories, etc).

Possible subplots:

• The words "eternity weapon" are supposed to spark a self-destruct mechanism in the robots, but since they've changed so much from the original design, it has no effect. However, another, older commander hears the words, and goes rogue, as his programming makes him reason that if the other bots wont self destruct, he'll have to make them do so. Of course out protagonists don't realize this till the end, and think he's just insane. this also adds a second antagonist.
• Having two playable commanders, one from each faction, would be a big plus, as players could pick a different faction for each battle (but not both two factions together :P). Narrative to fluff this up yet to be written.
• Why would the humans make an eternity weapon? the self destruct thing from subplot #1 could fit into this. Alien invasion? Suicide? Human vs human war? commander from future goes back in time to warn them about robots, trying to preserve the human race, and humans unwittingly create the very robots that the commander was trying to prevent them from making?

Commentary

Kaine : There are 2 themes I really think would be cool to incorperate into the story. One is simply that history repeats itself, which was leaned towards in the fact at how the machines are so much alike to the humans, despite the extintinction of mankind at this point. The other is a thought that The Last Question really provoked, of Life, Death, And Rebirth. (TA:Spring anyone?) Not trying to hijack your storyline or anything, its just the back story, or perhaps the potential of it, is rather thought provoking.

Saktoth: Its not my story, its the CA story and collaborative and feedback is encouraged as with all aspects of the project. Im thinking themes of death and birth should be explored in the campaign- my current idea is that the player should begin with a commander who died centuries ago being ressed by a con- the last surviving member of an army that was fighting on the planet. Its last instruction was to find the battlefield where legend had it that a previous battle had been fought, to find and revive you. Some units from the players army are still functioning after centuries, driven mad by time and isolation- a crazy prophet radar tower, who gives the player warnings of enemy movements and foreshadows things to come, a creaky old solar panel, sealed up tight and buried in sand, waiting for the day when he can again embrace the light, and other such odd characters, perhaps. A spherebot that has been set to do nothing but attack the same patch of ground for thousands of years, or patrol against a non-existent enemy, a motherly constructor on area repeat, tending to and repairing them all. Or, such.

Kaine: Teh silly characters?... err, why not! Are we then trying give the player a kind of first person experiance as the commander, like in command and conquer? TA kind of had this, as most of the time your main unit was the commander, but it didnt really get in depth in character or anything like that. Ever play Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, sak? It was a indie game for the gamecube set on another planet controlled by robots, with the Droid rebellion warring agaisnt the Mil's. You are found in an ancient wreck of a city in pieces by a search party, and you are brought back to life back at the base by a 6 armed engineer droid named Krunk who swears like 5 times every sentence. The game had serious overtones balance out by silly gameplay and humourous characters. REALLY starting to sound like whats being developed here, lol. Great game. Really Sak, are we aiming for a silly and cartoonish theme here, a serious post-apocalyptic theme, or perhaps trying a creative mix of both?

Saktoth: Well, its not really that silly, there are strong religious and prophetic overtones with an ancient all-seeing radar tower AI. I suppose it may be considered cartoonish to put a personality in a robot- but thats what this whole story is about! These robots have fears, wants, desires, passions, goals. Ive never played that game you mentioned, never owned a gamecube- im surprised there even were indie games for the gamecube. An element of humour in the characters is helpful, there is a dark-comedic undertone to a war fought for a reason nobody can remember. The form that an eventual campaign takes is to be determined though. I have a few ideas but in the end, whoever develops a campaign will have the say in what the content of the campaign is and a CA campaign seems like a pretty far future concept right now.

MidKnight: I think that the storyline should involve not only searching for their creators, but also breaking free of their initial programming, so that maybe cooperation between the 2 factions is achieved (?) too wishful? I think that maybe your character could start as a loyal follower of his/her (robot gender?) faction, but then, as they learn things about man and other plot secrets, they begin to realize the implicit aggression programmed into themselves, and begin to fight it. Attempts to explain this would result in, say, expulsion from the rest of their faction, until finally, something AMAZING happens (idk yet lol)

also: i HATE it when in games (IE: cnc, supcom, mass effect (in mass effect it's okay tho)) the characters keep staring at you and saying stuff like "commander, you're our only hope now!"... It's slightly disturbing. maybe have some narrative which actually weaves in the fact that you are actually sitting in front of a computer and are not, in fact, a gigantic robot? IE: old commander had no memory or AI at all, so they attempted, for the first time ever, to artificially inject an AI... so that its in 3rd person view for the opening scenes, then: "commander, commander! can you read my signals? Sir, the operation is a success! hello, commander!"

Saktoth: PLEASE NO TEAMING UP TO FIGHT THE GREATER EVIL. RTS CAMPAGN CLICHE. You're basically describing the starcraft campaigns. I HATED that i spent the whole time fighting my own faction, it was just 3 civil wars! it took away the whole idea of fighting for the survival of your race against hostile xenos. And dont get me STARTED on single-handedly building up the empire for your race and then becoming a rebel and having to overthrow it. Totally takes away the sense of accomplishment.

No, IMO, you should be just given tips and hints by the con that repaired you, told the storyline and left to explore the universe in a freeform fashion. No 'This is your mission, GOOD LUCK GENRAL!'. You are the only commander for your faction, lost in a barren sector of the galaxy, sorrounded by enemies, building an army yourself, as commanders do. What you do, where you attack, is up to you.

Talking at the player as if he is himself behind a computer screen rather than the character is so The Last Starfight/Wargames, and belongs in the 80's. Id prefer a 'You are the commander' (That is, the robot, not just the general) approach. But, no, should be no 'help me obi-wan kenobi's.

MidKnight: ah, i never played starcraft :( I have got to say, though, freeform is good. In fact, freeform is a very good idea that I'm surprised didn't occur to me. Have you ever played Star Control? if not, try this:http://sc2.sourceforge.net/ maybe a similar type of allowing free movement between galaxies? I AM NOT SAYING THAT WE SHOULD IMITATE THIS GAME, only that some principals are good, and they should be given thought.

About storyline: I think a first person approach is okay as long as something is written to explain why you're there (IE: as I said, instead of robot brain damage, lacking a robot brain and installing you as a new, empty one). Also I think that while non-linear gameplay is good, it is no substitute for a strong plot. I also think that total galactic domination shouldn't be the only way to win the game. Another storyline idea: maybe, as the game goes on, the player learns more about the opposing faction and becomes aware of a conspiracy or something of the sort (IE: giant master computer that controls enemy troop movements is acting suspicious),and the storyline could be taken in that direction, where the player could either exploit this to their advantage or make their enemy aware of it, etc. The only problem with this type of gameplay, though is that sequels are hard to make because of multiple endings. :(

Also, i <3 the " peewee endlessly patrolling vs. long-dead enemy" type stuff, but maybe inject it with some hope, and involve it in actual gameplay, too? IE: you see peewee, you change his commands, and try to speak to him, but realize that he lacks self-awareness. you probe his memory and learn more about the demise of man, etc.

If all that didnt make much sense, it's because of sleep deprivation. :D

Saktoth: Who is 'You'? In most RTS the 'you' is some unseen 'general' who runs around controlling a force, while you have ingame 'characters' who order you around like Little Emperors and do all the interaction and descision making. Its these 'Heroes' that offer the character with which the player identifies, almost as if the story is written in the second person perspective. Almost all other games have a character you play directly, with distinct appearances and personalities, sometimes following the character along on a rich personal journey with specific motivations, or using the 'silent protagonist' technique to allow the player to fill in their own details about the protagonists character.

Having a Commander representing you on the battlefield gives us the unique option of protraying the player as a physical entity within the game in the vein of any platformer or FPS, with the player determining the actions of that character rather than working as the disembodied general of other RTS's. Allowing the players to explore the plotline in a non-linear fashion by having multiple worlds each with distinct missions, objectives, and plot exposition, again allows the player to determine their own motivations for a concrete character under their control existing within the game itself.

Again, i want to avoid the 'teaming up to fight the true enemy' thing though multiple endings where the player gets to decide their actions is fun but might increase dev time of the campaign. We dont have to worry about sequels to CA either, if we expand the campaign, it will probably be to just edit in new missions and plot elements. We'd probably just start with a tutorial mission and a final battle with lots of skirmishes on planets inbetween, then add more and more plot elements and missions as we go along.

MidKnight: I concede. The first person view is valid. just 1 thing, though: when (if) we do cutscenes, make a blurry, getting-optical-sensor-in-focus transition between the first (robot war, last constructor) scenes and the first person switch, akin to the human "blurry, eyes opening, blinking" effect used in movies to indicate regaining consciousness, but ROBOT STYLE! :D the reason i say this is that I frankly hate it when you're dumped into an empty generic "commander" character (IE: CnC 3, SupCom??) at least explain who you are to the player (i think the "last constructor" scene does this well enough) also, I do think that 'teaming up to fight the true enemy' is kinda cliches/corny, but i do want to avoid an armageddon type ending, and, at least for 1 level, get to play as the other faction (maybe a "hijacking enemy base" planet? which reminds me, the mission in CnC 3 (you have played it, no?) where you get familiar with the commando, is awesome, we should have a 1-unit stealth situation like that. (maybe for getting passed heavily fortified planets?)).

Multiple paths

KingRaptor: I've been playing Langrisser (an old Japanese RPG/TBS series) and came up with a simple idea for a branching, multiple-path campaign. This idea is quite common in most games with RPG elements, but is surprisingly absent from RTSes.The fundamental idea is to allow the player to choose his/her own path based on their personal philosophy and motives, as well as enabling more dynamic interaction between characters.

The exact nature and length of the paths can obviously vary, as can the means of selecting them (whether through explicit decisions by the player, or more subtle ingame actions). Could this be made to work?

Saktoth: They had this is Battlezone 2. About 75% of the way through, you could chose to stay or defect. In practice, all this does is inflate the amount of content needed for the campaigns and reduce the amount of content that actually gets played. Few people will actually replay the game to run through all the plotlines unless you can, say, save at some point and chose both paths (in which case, you might as well just offer the two campaigns seperately). If players DONT chose to play all available plotlines, you are simply denying them content and making a shorter game for the illusion of choice down pre-determined lines. For a story-based RPG, having redundant content and unveiling the story is the whole point. Something like Planescape:Torment is probably the height of that genre. But if your campaign exists as a showcase of your gameplay, then you are simply doing your players a disservice.

I would like the game to be non-linear, and based on exploration of the universe. Opening up a universe full of stories and letting the players explore it at their leisure creates a connection to the content and a sense of choice without denying them access to that content (IE, its all there and they'll get to play all of it). Players can go search for earth, or uncover artifacts, or find the homeworld of their race or their enemies race and their histories. Or they can go go all out attacking enemy worlds to wipe them from the galaxy in a viscious crusade. Following one plotline might open up new ones but they all unfold over the course of the game (though some may be optional).

They should have the power to make meaningful descisions (in how the war is waged, not in chosing between two binary idealogies) and these can have in-game consequences, such as different events and dialogue being triggered. If missions can be made open ended, with several ways to complete them, by all means we can include that.

On the storyline front, players should be faced with a range of ambiguous points of view, each presented with a convincing argument, and an open question to the player. They are then allowed to make the key descisions themselves. Do they genocide the chickens, or do they simply quarantine them, as they are still the last biological lifeform in the universe and something would be lost in destroying them? Do they reveal the secrets of their race (That Nova is transcended man/transcending is just death and Logos are Homocides and wiped out their creators) to their underlings/enemies? And ultimately, what to do with the last human? But they should not be two divergent sets of otherwise linear missions where they get ordered around by one poobah or the other. Ideally, i would like the player to represent the literal supreme commander (hohoho) of their faction. Dialogue and exposition would happen with subordinate and enemy AI's (each with a personality) and/or with historical documents.

maackey's take on the Campaign

Man has since the beginning created tools to increase efficiency of work. From simple wheels and levers, to steam turbines and explosives, to automotives and machine guns, to walking tanks and fusion bombs.

Man has also been at war for all its existence. Man created us (machines) to be efficient, effective, and destructive. But when machines were too overwhelming, Man needed another tool to keep power over the destructive war beasts He had created. A master control override (reset button) was integrated in the deepest silicon plates and Artificial Intelligences of every machine built by Robocorp (placeholder?)

Robocorp was the birthplace the 'Logos' warmachines. Countries would buy them by the hundreds, as they were strictly obedient and logical. They were predictable, easy to maintain and most importantly - POWERFUL. For decades they were the only war mechs available, fighting as proxies for their country's troops. But some enthusiasts saw past the veil of a single purpose robot for war. They began to modify the Logos warmachines, and add on to them. Small businesses or smugglers would use them for keeping safe their goods in transit, (cloaking) while scavenger groups would add capabilities to disable and capture more bots for modification (emp and capture). Individuals would also learn how to change them to their own purposes, and the beginning of an entirely new 'Nova' line was born.

Robocorp however very much disliked these changes to their property and began legal proceedings against the modifications on their product. When these lawsuits began to fail, Robocorp pulled out the big guns (hehe) and began to destroy the changed warmachines. But the owners of these machines had put a lot of time and effort into their new "babies" and did not give them up willingly. This began the start of the Logos/Nova wars.

100 (arbitrary) years later we begin our campaign. The Nova have recently taken over one of the Logos' temples and retrieved some vital information: The Logos are to reset the master control override every 101 (again arbitrary) years. This will affect not only them, but also the Nova machines (as they are still of the same technology, only modified) As the Nova have modified programming, and are not inherently as obedient as the Logos, they dislike the notion of being turned off/reset, while the Logos strive to follow their original orders like good machines.

The Logos faction must defend the master control override, and turn it on.

The Nova faction must destroy it or disable it before it gets turned on.

Robocorp, being controlled by several countries/entities, created the master control override to require 7 (again... arbitrary) "keys" to be able to activate (destroy as well?) Factions will have to fight eachother on highly defended areas to get each key blah blah blah...

So this is my story. There are a few kinks to be worked out (do either faction know where the reset device is? how do the chickens fit in?) but I think it's in a useable state. I tried to keep the religious overtones (sorry about the tone shift later on) in light of Saktoth's story, but also give them more of a concrete goal instead of some philisophical mush (not that its bad, I'd just prefer to keep philosophy on a secondary level as games are for fun, and philosophy is for serious :P)

I like the idea of the multi generic mission in between scripted missions, but I'm kind of ambivalent about the idea.

On one hand it would be cool to have a non-linear game, and it would be easy to make the campaign longer.

On the other hand if you just want to fight a normal game you can play multiplayer >.> Also it would be a lot more work to code in triggers for certain things happening and others that didn't (I'm assuming that it would be 'truly' non-linear otherwise I detest the idea of generic battles between missions -- it just draws out the campaign with having no real substance to it)

I like KingRaptor's idea too. I was thinking that the player would start out with core, then learn about the master control override, and then decide to either protect it, or destroy it. (or protect it against chickens but not override it yet??)

Oops, just read some more comments I glossed over: About the supreme commander: I was thinking that the player would advance (see my advanced commander list) and get better than the rest of the faction's commanders. This essentially makes the player a genuine asset to the faction (instead of just another commander) and a reason to be given special missions.

Saktoth: You're sort of missing the epic scope and scale here maackey. Robocorp? Its not some terminator or alien-esque corporate future. This is at the dark edges of history after millenia of conflict. The robots were made for the titanic struggle between long-dead empires, not as robotic butlers. The point of the flexible campaign is to have a planetwars-like context with lots of replayability. Each battle is part of a larger war towards an ultimate goal. If we do nothing but scripted, the game has no replayability, while random skirmish games can be weaved into the greater story because skirmish games have more replayability. Of course this might require too much dev work on the frontend. Modular commander upgrades have been in proposal for years there are several pages detailing them. Just nobody wants to put in the considerable dev time. The point of my campaign was that the player is the ONLY commander. There are no others on his side, he is in control of the whole war, not some guy who is ordered around by a bunch of talking heads like in most RTS.