1000 years in the future, your country will not exist. 1000 years in the future, man will not be the only dominant life on the planet. 1000 years in the future, you have some serious problems. The Earth has finally paid for man's mistakes. The desctruction of the eco-system and two great wars have finally taken their tole. The first war was enevitable, it was the first mass-nuclear war which crippled the world's superpowers, and plunged hunamity into a dark age. The second war, the AI war was man vs. machine. Machine won for the most part, but man's final retribution was a weapon that should never have been used. With the force of 1000,000 megatons, most of the machines and indeed, most of humanity was wiped out. The world groaned under the destruction. Super-earthquakes, tidal waves, massive tectonic shifts, and the melting of the icecaps altered the landscape forever. The world is now split into two vast, arrid continents, seperated by a dangerous and turbulent sea. Incredibly man has survived, like some viral disease the world just can't shake. Small settlements dot the landscape, the cities that are still standing are desolate and swarming with mutants. Large areas are completely uninhabital due to deadly radiation. The Machines own city, a shadow of its former self, diligently continues as the AI perseveres and plots. Sending raiding parties out to harvest and destroy any life it finds. Gangs of pirates and murders rove the wilderness in hastily reconditioned/custom built vehicles, attacking trade caravans and looting to occasional town. Technology is now something to be scavanged and looted, not many exist that remember how to use the things that were taken for granted so long ago. Science is a myth.

Just wanted to add, my inspiration has come from the following sources:


Movies
The Mad Max trilogy
Waterworld
The Matrix

Literature
The Stand
The Dark Tower Series
War of the Worlds
The Time Machine

Games
Fallout

[Edited by - coldreboot on July 15, 2005 5:57:32 AM]

Why is it the future is never nice?

How come you don't see something like:

1000 years in the future fluffy bunnies frolloc with happy little elves in the pretty poppy fields of Smily-Happy land.

1000 years in the future guilt free sex is freely available with the hot woman of your choice in Randy City.

1000 years in the future, some people have problems, but then they remember about the guilt free hot sex thing, and suddenly it all seems OK.


I'm only teasing. [wink]

My honest opinion is that post-apocolyptic worlds are becoming too common a theme in games, its almost become a cliche. However, well written post apocolyptic worlds can really work if thought out thoroughly; for example Half Life 2 or the WH40K universe. Another thought is that game programmers and game players are quite pedantic, if you have holes in your fictional world they'll pick at them until you yell "All right! I didn't think about that!". You get similar problems in D&D fantasy worlds.

I guess you could try fleshing out some fictional stories in your new world to make it seem more real and give you a better idea of where its going.

Jon

Thanks :-)

Sorry about the vagueness I know, but because its for an MMORPG I felt it was better to set up a beginning - albeit one lacking in detail, and let the player decide for themselves how its going to play out. I want to incorporate alot of elements straight of movies and books, as familiar homages. Thereby, rather than "just another post-apocoylpse", I end up with something that's embracing its roots, rather than claiming to be completely different. A bit like HL2, as you mentioned. You had whole levels devoted to certain movies/genres: The opening level is very 1984, Ravenholm was Dawn of the Dead, The buggy bits were Mad Max, The parts with the Antlions was Tremors and the final stuff with AI teammates and striders was War of the Worlds.

I was actually considering contensing the entire story you've just read into a single face-paced FMV intro. Remember Buck Rogers in the 25th century? That intro where the year counter was going up and you were seeing everything that happened while he was asleep. That would the way I'd want it done if it went down that road.

If you think that perhaps a few fictional stories based in the world I've created would help set the scene, then I can certainly oblige :)