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Aftershock Story Mod


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Aftershock has some brilliant plot elements - but dare I say; some inconsistencies...

 

First; let me disclaim - I realize it's always easier to criticisize or back-seat drive than DO;

and editing - in writng is a completely different skill than writing.

Further, some of the "inconsistencies" are completely intentional, an excellent plot device representing that different factions or research levels have different perspectives on what has and is happening. Also, some of the inconsistencies stem from re-tooling a story already told in AM ( and in AL, some of what happens in AS seems inconsistent, of course).

 

Nonethless, playing AS again - mostly to try mods and playtest my own budding modifications- there's quite a few things that glare out that didn't register the first time around, patially because I was in awe, partially because you don't have the knowledge to second-guess what you're being told. I think largely, there are some actual inconsistencies simply because the various, often brilliant elements, simply weren't co-ordinated as well as they were written ( editing is a seperate skill.. so is managing and directing a project team).

 

In interest of some plot .. modifications I was interested in; I started looking at what could and couldn't be done.

 

 

In the short term: I was trying to change the events/missions so that when the Wargots attack; they attack a BASE

(interetingly, I just noticeed the starghost attack clearly states they ARE attackinga base - i suppose this was changed at some point)

 

anyway; i've poked around in a few of the mission & event files -

 

and i figured it was smart to ask now - ( in case I'm wasting time )

 

is this hardcoded or moddable?

 

I have a bad habit of learning what i think i want to mod is actually hard-coded. ( let's not discuss longbows in Total war; or trying to make magic swords "sharp" in T/ElementalWeevil... or making zombies grapple. LOL)

 

Anyway; ideally; I want the wargots to attack the player base, not resource

 

AND

 

if they win; instead of it going to the mutants, the cultists take control.

( i was looking at some of the pointers, which now i can't remeber where i saw them, hoping to find the "pointer" where starghosts mission fail/ignore goes from mutant-control to uninhabitable.)

 

If you could clear up if the attack target , much less result, are even moddable; I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

 

Long-Term "goals"/ Issues:

I thought i was original for thinking the Myrm. was actually underwater the whole time (in AM, i always wondered how much of the bio-mass was under-water; and in AS I couldn't believe sea-trade route were "safe" if there are land mutants.. what would the sea produce? !!!.. if the idea of the myrm. underwater driving everyone insane sounds too much like a certain Lovecraft entity; so be it)...

... then i noticed a forumite ( accounting troll, i believe) had already posted fan-fiction "amending" the myrmicol to underwater - so much for originality.

 

I find it odd the "male" myrmicol don't have a psychic presence... I thought the Starghost was it's 'astral projection' - see below - and kept expecting to have to face the Starghost on the wargot myrmidol missions. (in my original game, unaware of the cultist-base bug, i was constantly crippled due to losing my own bases, and had no idea the starghosts were a seperate ship/race for a good while).

 

I found it VERY odd that the Wargots don't destroy the Laputa; but that's another issue altogether. (as a Texan, I can't see LaPuta and not hear it with 'Spanish' ears :) ).

 

I find it very odd the Cultists need an electronic transmitter to communicate; perhaps a psychic booster, but, really?

The Wargot ship uses an electronic code to decide who can come onboard? REALLY?

Who ELSE does the dang thing think is flying around up there? Is it implying the cultists are making shuttles? Hoping rides on wargot transports maybe i can buy - but if they are making pilgrimages to the 'temple' (talk about the belly of the beast!) - which i can, perhaps, buy - why did we see none of them in the Wargot-Myrmecol assault missions?

 

My longer-term goal is to "fix" it so that the psionics, not transmitter and codes; are how the wargot's host Myrmie is communicating with the cultists -

the consequence being when you got to the temple; you are on a kidnap mission - for the high priestess that IS the real transmitter.

Only having HER; not the wargot access code, allows you to get on the Myrm

( death shield? my idea is; the MYrm has the panic ability we associate with Vivid Image circlets - and makes the crew kill each other - in turn, implying the starghost has the ability).

 

Even better, during the attack , she calls for help - so the temple kidnap mission is the followed by a "break-through" mission: through wargot reinforcements. If you're hurt, hope you don't mind stealth...

 

Blah blah blah... sorry, can't curb my enthusiam.

 

Proposed modding: (Longer-term)

 

-Story elements to support my, er "alternate history"

- Starghost may appear in Wargot missions, at least in the "ship".

- Starghost will be given the "panic" ability (which it should have anyway, even if you reject my idea of the SG as the Myrmicol's astral projection...)

- (partially done) change in Vivid Image circlet - it nows confuses, the was-confusion projector I'm trying to make into the panic device, this is for play balance as much as story

- trying to mod some psychic defense -and drop in psychic abiltiy - for each cybernetic component added to a cyborg

- (failed) added 'prone' or crouch requirement to some heavier weapons; particularly the BGF Barrett ( i laugh at the elfin Cultist Psionics shoulder-firing that monster, even though I read it's recoil isn't that painful) - was hoping to further balance such weapons with manuever loss

- making the Barrett primarily used by Cybrogs, and MSG (or Dragonov) the trademark Cultist Psionic Sniper weapon

- WArgot overhaul. Cosmetic - and otherwise. They should be frightening; and not solely by appearances.

- (complete)Plasma weapons: the Wargot double-barrel has a burst mode that is both barrels firing. other plasma rifles, including human plasma weapons, have only single-fire mode. *cosmetic change: human plasma rifle now looks lie the only plasma most people ever see: Lightning.

- (complete)Laser changes - all the rebalance commentary i read on this seems to overlook that smply reducing the recoil of lasers makes them much more effective, even if nothing else is changed...

- Civilain weapons: it's post-apocalypse and everyone has exclusively top-line military weaponry? Expect to see mutants and militia types with revolvers, hunting rifles, and double-barrel shotguns ( ammo capacity: 2 shots or 1 2-barrel burst)

- "area of effect" fire mode for machine-guns ...! I need suppressing fire!

- Ocean-born mutants

- Attempt to utilize unused mission types included in text data files

- near-monomolecular blades that have improved armor penetration

- psionic suits that improve protection by user's psychic stat * cosmetic "runic" alteration to psionic suit

-"Psionic Ninjas" - they have natural cloaking ability, why wouldn't they find a way to channel their psychic powers into a , for example, sword? "sword" weapons with powers currently associated with the projectors. ( beware psionics with the stalker ability)- after all, ninjas and assassins were[/] "cults"

- Various retexturing because I think I'm an artist.

- other ideas I forget for now. ;)

 

Thank you for your - I hope- interest and feedback.

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My apologies for cross-posting, but certain discussions about my "take" on the AfterShock story made it seemto me that my intention might be mis-understood; and that my desire to give a different 'take' on the AfterShock events was somehow "heretical" in that I wasn't honoring canon.

I meant to be clear I wanted to mod the story as well as mechanics; I also want to point out, so far as "canon" is concerned, Aftershock intentionally tells an alternate stoy than AM -nothing wrong with AS being a new twist, in my opinion.

 

I, for myself, would make a more horror-oriented "man is stranded in the black seas of infinity" mood in the story - which i think is, I attempted humorously, what i was trying to get across in the post that mayhap should have been in this thread (mayhap not - the point was this theme isn't confined to any one game).

 

I see the myrm's as the race- the zerg, the tyrannid, the warp demon genestealer, the evil on a magnitude that is as far above mankind ( and wargots, reticulans, starghosts,etc. ) as man is above ants.

I would portray them as such - as :

"The Cthulhu Mythos was first revealed in a group of related stories by the American writer H.P. Lovecraft. Beginning with "The Call of Cthulhu" in Weird Tales, Lovecraft began referring in his horror stories to a pantheon of beings known as the Old Ones, who had descended to Earth from the stars in pre-human times. First worshipped by the non-human races of the planet, the Old Ones were later banished or locked away by the elder gods. The elder gods do not enter into the stories much, and their identity is a mystery. They left the Old Ones weakened, but not destroyed. When man appeared, he found traces of the older civilizations and remnants of the pre-human races. Religions grew up around the Old Ones and legends of their imminent return to power -- especially around Cthulhu. Bits of the old lore were discovered and transcribed into books, extremely dangerous books."

Hell, maybe the "Elder gods" that contest with them would be the reticulans?

 

I already suggested that in such a continuity the myrmecol ability to psionically... subvert .. or contact lesser beings could be responsible for untold earth superstitions...

 

The idea that the myrm isn't "making" biomass - but rather; like Geiger's Aliens, or Warhammer's 'one-step-further' Genestealers - IS the biomass, that by "sperming" Earth, it in fact is mutating Earth's biomass INTO itself -

the idea of a whole planet merely being the host of a being's "chrysalis" into it's next stage of life - remember "The Thing"?

Tell me that wasn't basically a Lovecraftian Shoggoth. Hell; it even happens in the artic, as in "mountains of madness".

So :

I mentioned more and nastier "mutants", I'm not just talking about modding in having to go prone to fire a barrett.

 

As to the BioMass/ "The Myrmecol is in the ocean right now zerg-converting Earth into it's new body" tangeant, Cthulhoid/Yog-Sothoth nastiness ensues...

what that would mean in terms of mutant game play; i hoped to whet one's appetite for with some choice images....

 

re-think that myrmecol octopus you say isn't scary

https://www.cinestatic.com/infinitethought/uploaded_images/innsmouth-778275.jpg

brainman?

https://christophergoodman.com/Shadow%20over%20Innsmouth%201%20small%20web.jpg

 

we make cultists priestesses this way...

https://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z45/Rastel777/InnsmouthBride3.jpg

biomass mutant/spawn, sorta more frightening than scuttlebugs, eh?

https://trismegistus.org.uk/ATSN/MIGO.jpg

 

inspiration for modified cultists...

https://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z308/fragsie_babes/CultGenestealer.jpg

 

looks like some of the AM monsters that didn't make it into AS

https://www.3x6.net/vhoorl/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/elder_god.gif

 

That is not dead which can eternal lie;

- especially if it has psychic powers that lets it warp minds - and call for mates....

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Modding:

  • Story elements to support my, er "alternate history[/b]"
    Some progress. text and wave files can be replaced to change the "results" of research or event occurences. I'm looking forward, for example, to recording the "distress call" from the Laputan probe's crew that falls victim to a confusion assault and starts to kill each other...
    Unfortunately, having the Myrmecol "eat", attempt to mate with, or simply ram the Laputa out of the sky and have the La Putans bound to earth until they finish their new shuttle doesn't seem like an option.
  • Considering using "Starghost" to represent Myrmecol "astral projection" - further discussion has made me question this - the female certainly never interefered THAT directly; and while the second male could very well have been the starghost (in story it was an other humanoid race) - the implications of them being able to foucs that directly I haven't fully explored.
  • Starghost will be given the "panic" ability (which it should have anyway, even if you reject my idea of the SG as the Myrmicol's astral projection...)
  • change in Vivid Image circlet - it nows confuses, the was-confusion projector I'm trying to make into the panic device, this is for play balance as much as story
    * misunderstanding of EFFECT FIELD - post to access Effect INT database.
  • trying to mod some psychic defense -and drop in psychic abiltiy - for each cybernetic component added to a cyborg
  • added 'prone' or crouch requirement to some heavier weapons; particularly the BFG Barrett ( i laugh at the elfin Cultist Psionics shoulder-firing that monster, even though I read it's recoil isn't that painful) - was hoping to further balance such weapons with manuever loss (*fixed with assistance from PeteriB)
  • making the Barrett primarily used by Cybrogs, and MSG (or Dragunov) the trademark Cultist Psionic Sniper weapon
  • All in-game SR's are semi-automatic. debating effects of giving any or all "burst" mode. Dragunov - meant to be mutli-role; is likely to be added and given this abiltiy. Soviet weapons seem favored by the Cyborgs, so it rather than SR-25 may become their trademark.
  • Restored: burst mode on SR's uses mechanical skill rather than long range (no burst body part target, strength helps keeping aim)
  • Wargot overhaul. Cosmetic - and otherwise. They should be frightening; and not solely by appearances.
    • now a seperate mod entry. This thread started as asking if their "crusade" could be modded so that they attack bases rather than resources, and hand control to the cultists rather than mutants.
    • (complete)Plasma weapons: the Wargot double-barrel has a burst mode that is both barrels firing.
    • Wargot rail or gauss weapons, no reason anyone using plasma need still propel with gunpowder. Needler 'sniper' weapon in trial. Gauss weapons do NOT leave a blue trail outside of old video games. or bad movies.

    [*]Other plasma rifles, including human plasma weapons, have only single-fire mode. *cosmetic change: human plasma rifle now looks lie the only plasma most people ever see: Lightning.

    [*](complete) Laser changes -

    • all the rebalance commentary I've read on this seems to overlook that simply reducing the recoil of lasers makes them much more effective, even if nothing else is changed...
    • Non-Reticulan Lasers lose "pulse laser" burstmode - only Ret. technology can sustain that fire rate. Human lasers gain a longer "beam laser" mode that allows the to do better than un-modded damage if your accuracy is good.

    [*]Civilain weapons: it's post-apocalypse and everyone has exclusively top-line military weaponry? Expect to see mutants and militia types with revolvers, hunting rifles, and double-barrel shotguns ( ammo capacity: 2 shots or 1 2-barrel burst)

    [*]More Dakka!!! "area of effect" fire mode for machine-guns[/b] ...! I need suppressing fire!

    -in trial

    [*]Ocean-born mutants - limited by ability to put new models in AS.

    [*]Attempt to utilize unused mission types included in text data files

    [*]near-monomolecular blades that have improved armor penetration

    [*]psionic suits that improve protection by user's psychic stat * cosmetic "runic" alteration to psionic suit

    [*]"Psionic Ninjas" - they have natural cloaking ability, why wouldn't they find a way to channel their psychic powers into a , for example, sword? "sword" weapons with powers currently associated with the projectors. (beware psionics with the stalker ability)- after all, ninjas and assassins were "cults" (thugs, too)

    [*]Psionic melee weapons [/b] - the inability to mix damage types or specify multiple effects within a mode limits this; but so far i have a sword that can mode psionic or "blade" damage. A sword that could use psi-amplification to become for example, armor piercing or energy damage might be more picturesque - or a sword that paralyses (like a cattle prod) rather than being used to cut; is probably where this is headed.

    [*]bayonet "fix" [/b]- in experimentation. If successful, may allow wargots to use "power fist" attacks without seeming to switch weapons. If so - you won't be wanting to charge up to 'space marine' elephants anymore.

    [*]Various retexturing because I think I'm an artist.[/b]

    • additional mutant skins, some more fierce.
    • The Wargoth textures exist in sketches; I'm assured they look more imposing.
    • New skins for Hybrids : Hybrid reticulan. Hybrid cultist.
    • Considering skins for psionics implying they have some Hybrid as well.

    - other ideas I forget for now.

 

Thank you for your - I hope- interest and feedback.

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update:

  • The bayonet is a GO. This opens up several other possibilities, including wargots not "switching weapons" to kick you or smash you with their giant armored power-fists ( the grandiers with no side-arm have been quite vulnerable). now if we can only get the AI to use any of these (experimenting with cultist bayonets first- how many cultists have died while they changed weapons to pull a knife while under fire?)
  • Full-auto MG mode still doesn't seem to do much but add amode where they're firing even more bullets - but the area fire aspect, so far, is apaprently ineffective. Still testing.
  • testing visual effect for cloak device.

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