and yeah, knowing space jockey actual name and spellings is not stuff known by people who has seen the alien movies...

Apples and oranges. Alien crpg players are a subset of the film audience. I wouldn't expect to find such minutiae in a 110-minute movie on a 2-dimensional screen, but many gamers devoting 40-100 hours to an interactive experience will expect that kind of detail. The films don't include readable micro histories of weapons and alien cultures, but I'd be surprised not to find these in the rpg--in, say, item descriptions, character sheets or readable tomes. In alien settings (elves or ufos) language histories are relevant. Seems like a simple layer to add. Heck, perhaps discoveries of such minutiae will be part of those side-quests that increase the illusion of non-linearity.

 

That said, I appreciate your warning about the limiting effects of established source material, and I share your concern about franchises -- esp one that for many has exhausted the capacity to significantly awe and surprise. (That's even more of a concern when a game is tied to a film release .. oh, this one isn't, right?)

 

Still, in this case the developers are not restricted by pre-established rules and game engines. (Right?) Moreover, as Sawyer and others have said, the setting and story are not entirely predetermined. The Alien history and lore are foundation, but they've flexibility in building roof and wall. That's the structure we'll inhabit.

 

As you said, Sawyer's the big picture guy. I don't know his history very well, so perhaps you're justified in being concerned that he'll micromanage or otherwise obsess at the expense of larger issues. But so far I've seen nothing to suggest that's inevitable. I've yet to see evidence that past failures (IWD2 et al) were personal instead of systemic.

 

 

I think it's weird that you still believe I'm "slavishly" devoted to things considering the modifications I proposed (or implemented) for IWD2 and the huge amount of stuff that I was changing or outright ignoring for The Black Hound and F3

 

Were those changes primarily to rules & interfaces or to settings & stories?

Edited December 22, 200619 yr by blue

It really depends on what the premise of the game is going to be. The "We've lost transmission from planet X and we need you to investigate" is as good as I can think of right now, although it cuts really close to Aliens' premise.

 

Yes, it does. But it opens up a theater for Weyland-Yutani, xenomorphs and Colonial Marines.

 

Finding another The Derelict on another planet would seem phony.

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There are plenty of different angles you start the game off with. Treachery by "the Company" is perhaps the only theme that is persistent across the movies, novels and comics (not counting Aliens vs GL or Batman lol). The whole Alien-verse which has been created is totally ripe for the whole industrial espionage angle. Weyland-Yutani must have enemies and competitors, even the governments of Earth.

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Hmm, you know, I've thought about that, and it doesn't make sense to me. There were no governments to speak of in the Alien-verse, it was more of an ultra-free market corporate latifundia deal, complete with private mercenary armies. A rival corporation would fit in pretty well, but governments... I don't know. The Alien-verse was pretty prescient for 1978 (Ridley Scott was pretty damned good with sci-fi dystopias)

 

Somehow I see MCA going nuts with that. I'll expect to see at least one communist character.

Oh, do be very careful of the details(Be zealously meticulous in fact) in the Aliensverse this time MCA, Josh. I hope you haven't forgotten with the argument you had Avellon with a Star Wars fan regarding of the change of design of the Mandolorean drop ship which I can't even remember the name.

 

On a side note, I rather hope Obsidian has the right to reboot the Alien franchise starting from the third series. An alternate possibly of what could had happened. Like the Batman franchise before, Aliens franchise is pretty much fecked up and rebooting might be a good idea.

It really depends on what the premise of the game is going to be. The "We've lost transmission from planet X and we need you to investigate" is as good as I can think of right now, although it cuts really close to Aliens' premise.

 

Yes, it does. But it opens up a theater for Weyland-Yutani, xenomorphs and Colonial Marines.

 

Anyway, it's just one idea among many possibilities.

 

I'll brainstorm some more and find another angle.

 

Finding another The Derelict on another planet would seem phony.

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I am watching Aliens right now.

 

Weyland-Yutani did explicitly send the colonists to survey The Derelict.

 

So, the colonists would have reported their findings to Weyland-Yutani. Hence, it's also plausible Weyland-Yutani would have asked the colonists to ship some specimen to one of their labs.

 

Another point is that LV-426 was not necessarily destroyed.

Bishop says the terraforming facility explosion will destroy everything within a 30-kilometer radius, equivalent to a 40-megaton nuclear explosion.

 

We don't know if the terraforming colony was farther than 30 kilometers away from The Derelict.

 

Finally, there is another potential vector, a funny one, Jonesy, the cat. He made it back to base after Alien and he doesn't go back with Ripley in Aliens.

This is true, there are a lot of openings that can be used.

Finding another The Derelict on another planet would seem phony.

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What if the Derelict wasn't of alien origin?

Were those changes primarily to rules & interfaces or to settings & stories?

All of the above.

Ridley Scott talked a bit about using Jonesy as a red herring on his commentary track. A lot of people were betting on him being some sort of story catalyst in Aliens, but he wasn't, and I don't know how he could be. They'd have to stretch quite a bit to make that work. He couldn't have been incubated on the Nostromo or in the lifeboat.

 

Has this game gone into development proper yet, or is it still in the concept stages?

Finding another The Derelict on another planet would seem phony.

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What if the Derelict wasn't of alien origin?

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What do you mean? Like a human derelict spacecraft that crashes and infects someplace? That could work.

 

*edit - whoops, sorry for the double post

Edited December 22, 200619 yr by Pop

Micheal Bay is so bad, I wrote off Black Hawk Down before it came out

 

What do those two things have to do with each other?

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Hehehe, I was thinking the same thing

Finding another The Derelict on another planet would seem phony.

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What if the Derelict wasn't of alien origin?

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What do you mean? Like a human derelict spacecraft that crashes and infects someplace? That could work.

 

*edit - whoops, sorry for the double post

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Hypothetically?

 

A WY craft that found some Aliens, had problems, crashed... and the PCs find... not knowing what the heck they've found.

 

Salvage? Woo! :joy:

 

Oh crap! What's taht in the egg! Run away! Run away!

Finding another The Derelict on another planet would seem phony.

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What if the Derelict wasn't of alien origin?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What do you mean? Like a human derelict spacecraft that crashes and infects someplace? That could work.

 

*edit - whoops, sorry for the double post

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Hypothetically?

 

A WY craft that found some Aliens, had problems, crashed... and the PCs find... not knowing what the heck they've found.

 

Salvage? Woo! :joy:

 

Oh crap! What's taht in the egg! Run away! Run away!

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What about The Pilot? The Pilot is an integral, biomechanical part of the ship and The Pilot is clearly not human. I don't see how The Derelict could be related to Weyland-Yutani.

Were those changes primarily to rules & interfaces or to settings & stories?

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All of the above.

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Thx. I assumed you were design but not lead.

 

Also (anyone), Black Hound was BG3, correct? And bore no connection to TORN?

Ridley Scott talked a bit about using Jonesy as a red herring on his commentary track. A lot of people were betting on him being some sort of story catalyst in Aliens, but he wasn't, and I don't know how he could be. They'd have to stretch quite a bit to make that work. He couldn't have been incubated on the Nostromo or in the lifeboat.

 

It was just funny to imagine a facehugger on Jonesy.

What about The Pilot? The Pilot is an integral, biomechanical part of the ship and The Pilot is clearly not human. I don't see how The Derelict could be related to Weyland-Yutani.

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I don't think that's what she's saying. She's proposing something akin to what you were suggesting. WU has eggs on a ship en route to somewhere, and it crashes. Then the PCs come across it.

 

That's actually a pretty good idea. +1 Darque. PC or PC friend gets Kane'd or Weyland Utani comes looking for their ship, or both, and the PC has to go to the place where the ship was headed in order to be saved.

But even with the crashed ship, they still have eggs! Zomg!

And then PC must save humanity from itself.

 

But as an aside, I don't think the pilot of the Derelict was originally fused into the ship. I think something similar to the Alien deleted scene (what a shocker that was) was done to it.

 

It was just funny to imagine a facehugger on Jonesy.

Heh, the facehugger was about as big as Jonesy, I don't know how one would fit him

Edited December 22, 200619 yr by Pop

Ridley Scott talked a bit about using Jonesy as a red herring on his commentary track. A lot of people were betting on him being some sort of story catalyst in Aliens, but he wasn't, and I don't know how he could be. They'd have to stretch quite a bit to make that work. He couldn't have been incubated on the Nostromo or in the lifeboat.

 

It was just funny to imagine a facehugger on Jonesy.

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Pffft, Jonesy was too smart to get facehugged but I suspect that he got a kick out of getting people eaten though.

 

"That's right, you scrawny bugger, follow me straight into the waiting arms of the monster over here. That'll teach you to steal my katnip"

It really depends on what the premise of the game is going to be. The "We've lost transmission from planet X and we need you to investigate" is as good as I can think of right now, although it cuts really close to Aliens' premise.

 

Yes, it does. But it opens up a theater for Weyland-Yutani, xenomorphs and Colonial Marines.

 

Finding another The Derelict on another planet would seem phony.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

There are plenty of different angles you start the game off with. Treachery by "the Company" is perhaps the only theme that is persistent across the movies, novels and comics (not counting Aliens vs GL or Batman lol). The whole Alien-verse which has been created is totally ripe for the whole industrial espionage angle. Weyland-Yutani must have enemies and competitors, even the governments of Earth.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hmm, you know, I've thought about that, and it doesn't make sense to me. There were no governments to speak of in the Alien-verse, it was more of an ultra-free market corporate latifundia deal, complete with private mercenary armies. A rival corporation would fit in pretty well, but governments... I don't know. The Alien-verse was pretty prescient for 1978 (Ridley Scott was pretty damned good with sci-fi dystopias)

 

Somehow I see MCA going nuts with that. I'll expect to see at least one communist character.

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That bit about the governments of Earth would be in reference to Alien: Resurrection. I do agree with you in that governments dont really fit in with the initial concept, but all the movies are canon.. unfortunately.

There was only two Alien movies, Alien3 and Ressurection was only something that was dreamed up in a drug induced coma..

There was only two Alien movies, Alien3 and Ressurection was only something that was dreamed up in a drug induced coma..

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Heh, the thing is that I like both David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet as directors. Alien 3 was just... bad. But Resurrection wasn't so much bad as it was weird and grotesque and disjointed with the rest of the series. On the one hand, it has Wynona Ryder and a natural-birth queen with motherly instincts, on the other hand... Ron Perlman! it also had some truly nutty camerawork and cinematography.

 

But Obsidian can't ignore those two. Them's the ropes, unfortunately.

 

*edit - I should take this opportunity to plug City of Lost Children, which is from the Resurrection director, also stars Ron Perlman, and which comes from the same of "WTF" bizarro sci-fi, but works much better as a movie.

Edited December 22, 200619 yr by Pop

There was only two Alien movies, Alien3 and Ressurection was only something that was dreamed up in a drug induced coma..

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Heh, the thing is that I like both David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet as directors. Alien 3 was just... bad. But Resurrection wasn't so much bad as it was weird and grotesque and disjointed with the rest of the series. On the one hand, it has Wynona Ryder and a natural-birth queen with motherly instincts, on the other hand... Ron Perlman!

 

But Obsidian can't ignore those two. Them's the ropes, unfortunately.

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Only thing I liked in Ressurection was Ron Pearlman. I'm still disappointed that he didn't snap Winona Ryder in two pieces...

"There was only two Alien movies, Alien3 and Ressurection was only something that was dreamed up in a drug induced coma"

 

This is true, they were really just a bad dream. Everything is still ok, there was no Resurection, no AVP and no Alien 3.

 

Phew. I was worried for a moment there !

I have no idea what you d00ds are talking about. Alien 3, Resurrection & AVP DO NOT exist, whether in a dream state or in reality.

 

*represses memories*

I liked Alien 3. An interesting thing about the Alien franchise is it's a lot more fluid than others. Each of the first three installment tries a different type of movie using the Aliens as an object in the movie. The first was outright horror, the second was action, the third tried to be a thriller. The fourth tried to go back to action.

 

I think a lot of the problem people have with Alien 3 is they see it as a major diversion from the previous two films. Myself, I see them all as a diversion from each other. So, I can't view it that way. And that's probably one of the things I liked most about the movies, originally. How the simple concept of an alien running loose could be used in so many different types of film. And it's honestly something I wish I could see continue. It's probably not an opinion I share with many other people, but it's still an opinion Is gots!

 

And heck, those might be the only type of films you can do with it. Buddy movie? No thanks. Comedy? Nuh uh. Documentary? Whaa? Fantasy adventure? Hmm... is possible... but doubtful. Maybe it's best, for me, that Alien 3 just be viewed seperately and I view the franchise as action/horror.

Edited December 22, 200619 yr by Tale

There was only two Alien movies, Alien3 and Ressurection was only something that was dreamed up in a drug induced coma..

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These movies are true masterpieces when compared to AVP.

I like Alien 3 and Ressurection.