I'm not feeling intellectually dishonest...

Thay didn't come out right. It was super late. In any case, have fun with your project. Make it happen!

Interesting project you have here. Great job. When I first looked at it last night from just browsing the forums. The set up from the beginning made me think of Issac Asimov's story "The Naked Sun". I mention this because to me it sounded like a detective game from where the character was sent to a planet to undertsand the aliens motives during the process from learning from eachother all the while trying to get back to earth with your setup stoyrline. But then I realised it wasn't a detective storyline.

I really enjoyed that book. Even though I don't have it anymore. So is this something like a detective format or just to learn and figure out what is happening and why and get back to Earth?

Just to let everyone know that The Naked Sun doesn't involve someone going back to Earth in the book. The detective was hired to investigate a murder. His helper was an android. Visual and detailed. Anyways this is no way of the sorts of a sell out or whatever you want to call it. Just my observation of Durakken storyline to the book.

Is this a detective type game? ...well... not intentionally.

The premises I laid out for the creation of the game idea informed the creation of the "world building" back story...
The back story informs the idea that there is mystery and espionage that needs to be happening...
The fact that you need to get to the bottom of these mysteries to accomplish your goal creates a "detective" esque game.

You have to participate in an information gather endeavor to get home...and if not home, then to gain access to more of the universe. My first reaction to getting transported to another planet might be how do i get home, but once I'm told I'm not able to get directly home and that I'm surrounded by space faring civs my next reaction would likely be i want to explore and to explore this universe i just so happen to have to have to at the very least track down a procure ways on and off planets.

So is this a detective game? At the very least you are going to have to find ways to make money to buy a ship or ships and get information as to a way home... At the very most you are going to have to infiltrate several organizations, gain access to their knowledge, and bring them down OR join them and make once side the victor over another while looking for information on how to get home.

That somewhat answers whether it's going to have detective elements but not so much a clear example, because you could just be lead down that pathway by a FPS... that is more or less an on rails story with no thinking involved...

This game I am planning to make episodic... as in release an episode which advances the story and such while increasing the size of the universe. I plan to make it so that each episode is roughly 10 hours of gameplay, include at least 1 new planet, and that there should be at least 13 episodes in the season...and as pointed out above, at least 3 seasons... This makes for a 390 hour game if i create the entire thing. What does that have to do with anything? nothing...just pointing out that it's episodic and so i can lead into the plot i've come up with for the first episode and you can decide whether it has detective elements or not ^.^

I think this should cover 10 hours and is an ok tutorial for the rest of the game, but it's also the only episode i have planned out so far so easily changeable if there are problems with it.



Ep 01.
Hero is drawn to Sephirot.
Learns that the most likely way to get home is to work for the council.
The council denies him at first.
Various council members are told or coerced into changing this denial and the other members demand a showing of worth before they make him an agent.
Hero must go through training in departments of magic, martial arts, space combat, and intel
->Single character MA tutorial (MA = Martial arts)
->first dungeon = short MA only dungeon where hero recovers a scabbard.
->Hero sent to discover 2nd dungeon with another trainee and told the scabbard is a clue.
->second dungeon = medium length dungeon where a criminal is seen escaping with a sword
->Question people around the area to track the criminal down to the 4th dungeon
->At the fourth dungeon you find that it is sealed magically and you must learn magic
->You are told of Wizard who can help and where to find him
->At the Wizard you are tested on your detective skills by being challenged to look inside the wizard's house and then tell which of several people is the wizard
->The wizard instruct you that to learn magic you have to get a certain weapon inside a dungeon.
->Wizard sends apprentice with you
->3rd dungeon = medium length and forces you to answer several riddles and puzzles
->In the 3rd dungeon you find a device that allows you to use magic and the wizard gives you a tutorial
->You are then able to enter the 4th dungeon where the criminal is hiding out
->4th dungeon = Long, shifts between magic and MA only and makes you solve several puzzles
->At the end of the dungeon is a boss whom you are given the option to let them turn themselves in, but either way you are forced to fight and at the end of the battle you are given the option to kill them or simply arrest them.
-> When you take the criminal or after you try to kill him it is revealed he is your fighter instructor, you are to return the sword to the first trainer and then meet up at the docks
-> At the docks you are given a tutorial in travel around and between solar systems as well as intercepting signals and engaging in dog fights.
->the hero is given the opportunity to practice and are forced to pass a flight shooting course
->When you are done you are told to report to the main training facility.
-> Hero is told he is ready and gets a lecture or praising for how he dealt with the criminal situation as well as an evaluation of how he did in the dungeons.

Hero is contacted by council to report to the council room ASAP.
When the hero arrives he is given the final test
-> final test = A short Dungeon that ends with a boss fight where the boss flees to a shuttle where you are force to battle it and then prosefcute a case presenting facts against the right person.

upon completing the final test various council members will vote and depending on that vote you will be made a government agent or not.

If made a government agent you are given a salary, a basic uniform, some basic weapons. and made put under the command of a captain with a small crew.

If not, one of the representatives will contact you in secret and offer you a smaller sallery to work for them. They will provide you with a small salary, some sarting money to buy a ship, and some gear as well as point you in the direction of a pilot/captain that might be willing to help you

If you turn this down you can turn this guy in and be given what you would have if the vote had gone in your favor but also are given a smaller salary

if you turn this down and don't turn the guy in you when you return to your room you find yourself kicked out and must find some place to stay. Feeling bad for you the person who kicked you out tells you that there is a captain that is looking for some workers and might be willing to take you on.

Once you meet this captain you are offered a job as a worker on the ship as candidates for agents (which he shouldn't know you were) are always welcome on his ship...and you meet the other two characters that were with you during training.

You are told to prepare and wait for the call... End ep1

If however you dn't want to go with the captain you can try to get a job/room/board from elsewhere and work your way till you can afford a small ship, citizen documents, and a pass to use a jumpgate.

This scenario ends ep1 when you get the small ship and plan to take off "tomorrow" You can leave without the docs and pass, but each may lead to various scenarios. Also, at any time you can try to contact the representative that you turned down or meet the captain and join them...also if you were offered the agency position and turned it down you can go back and take it... further you can just ignore the training all together if you want to go the path of getting a job and getting a ship on your own.


So... any comments/critiques on that?



On a side note... Came up with an at least temporary name...

Orsa

Orsa means Beginning or Words, both work. I was thinking of some combination of Orsa and Mundus, but I'm bad at Latin, so even with translators i got either large amounts of text or texts that didn't quite work sound wise or translationally.... I like the way Orsa Mundus sounds but it doesn't work quite right imo translating to "The world beginning" according to google translator.

Sephirot is thaken.

EDIT:

Then again.

"My name is Sephirot."
"Hah, that's kinda like Sephiroth."
"Who is this... Sephiroth?"
"He tried to destroy the world by summoning a meteor, and he murdered Aeris."
"Sounds like quite the go-getter. Can you ask him to send me his resume?"

EDIT 2:

Not Mondus.

Sephiroth is Sephirot... it's one of several transliterations of a thing in Kabbalah... and of course it's taken ^.^ though i didn't like it as a name to begin with.
Mundus also doesn't sound right alone to me which is why it needs something else withit and nothing really sounds good and makes sense.

Something that's not taken....... ....... Pandora? Mongo? ... Earth? Is Earth taken?

I like Orsa because it means words and beginning.

It's the beginning of the 5th age
It's the beginning of you quest
it's the beginning of earth's interaction with aliens

My original idea for a name was Mythos Apokalipsi, or "the story revealed:" as in the myths and legends are revealed in their true form

I like the way Ragnarok Revelations sounds but not sure if it sounds right for genre and won't be mixed up with Ragnarok Online

Orsa sounds fine.

Little else matters. It has meaning to you but not to the audience.

I've decided on the title Aporia. It's a word I stumbled across that I've never heard of that is a philosophical concept. It has a lot of good meaning behind it so I'm going to use it.

2nd I'm gonna update this thread with more information and ideas... which is why I just changed the name of the thread ^.^ to repurpose it away from just that initial problem.

What do you think about Aphoria?

Aporia reminds me of pores.

What do you think about Aphoria?

Aporia reminds me of pores.

Because pores is to degree what it means... a pore is a passage, Aporia is without passage for a direct translation meaning
It has many meaning and applies well to the scenario/story so ^.^