Lets have Aien sims, where you could, you know talk to other Aliens and decide what clothes they should have and where they should live you know virtually, like, in cyberspace-

Actually it's basic economics.  If you spend resources (time) on one thing, then you don't have as many resources to spend on everything else.

Don't know if you're defending Grommy's pov or just explaining it, but I don't agree.

 

Maps are going to have some degree of detail to them. Model skins will have to be textured. Dialogues will have to be written all the same. Now, if that work is done (or supervised) by someone that is familiar enough with the setting, I don't think the kind of easter eggs Josh mentioned (derived from his examples from the Name of the Rose) would mean a timesink important enough to make the project suffer as a whole.

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Sure that is true enough.

 

However, if the details swamp the design you might end up with ... Waterworld :ph34r:

Lets have Aien sims, where you could, you know talk to other Aliens and decide what clothes they should have and where they should live you know virtually, like, in cyberspace-

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Awesome. Plus they could make love on the couch.

So Aram when are you going head over to the Aliens thread and offer your opinions on the weapons presented in the Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual?

 

Just how closely are you going to stick to the "manual," and how much improvising can we expect? Aliens, in my opinion, featured the greatest fictional arsenal ever compiled for a Sci-Fi movie, so you'll hear few complaints from me as long as we get pulse rifles and smart guns, but six types of weapons is going to be limiting for a traditional RPG. Can we expect to see customizable versions of the established weaponry? Customizing a pulse rifle, like fitting the grenade launcher on separately or adding some more elaborate sights, a futuristic recoil dampener, or a rate of fire modifier and so on, as well as having the options of mulitple types of ammunition for both the rifle and the grenade launcher, would be very cool.

Hey, that would be cool.

I think the most important question has yet been asked...

 

Will there be a end user tools set? PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASE say yes!

Edited December 28, 200619 yr by Sand

Sure that is true enough.

 

However, if the details swamp the design you might end up with ... Waterworld :ph34r:

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I actually enjoyed that movie. Meh.

It wasn't terrible. There are worse Kevin Costner movies.

From the looks of it they use unfancy, uncumbersome automatic pistols in Aliens, at least the guy who set off the grenade in the vents did. At least they never mentioned it as an antique, like the Ithaca. Perhaps they'll do something like they did with KOTOR2, with plain non-upgradeable antique weapons and more advanced upgradeables. They'd still have to standardize ammo, though, which wouldn't be too difficult. 9mm, 7.62, 12gg, what have you.

 

I'm curious as to sights and long-distance ranged combat. When you're dealing with Aliens, you'd think the last thing you want is to limit your field of vision and rate of fire.

 

I keep wondering about how the party dynamic will work, if it will work at all. One of the unique things about the Alien movies (never read the comics ) was that none of the main characters, save for Ripley post-Alien when she emerged as the central character, were ever guaranteed to live. In fact, all the characters you'd assume to be "strong", the Captain in Alien, the drill Sergeant in Aliens, the Doctor in Alien 3, the head smuggler in Resurrection, all die relatively early in their stories. Hell, aside from Resurrection, EVERYBODY dies except for Ripley in the movies.

 

I don't know how they'd preserve that dynamic in an RPG, if they intended to. Either they'll have some ultimately expendable "hirelings", ala Fallout, or a few deep NPCs that don't easily kick the bucket. ala KOTOR2/NWN2. Much as I'd like deep characters who can also die, it will probably be one or the other, and the other in this case better fits the setting

 

But on the other hand, I could easily see something akin to how the movies worked with Ripley. You've got the main character in the middle of the game, and a revolving cast of CNPCs who shuffle off or die and are replaced with others, a whole cast of Shandras but wouldn't it be nice to have some NPC that stuck with you throughout most of the game? I wonder.

Apone's not dead man!

 

And to be quite frank, I wouldn't mind if not a single NPC made it through the entire game with you. As long as it makes sense. I wouldn't mind DiD for party NPCs, since the universe is particularly unforgiving.

Edited December 28, 200619 yr by alanschu

I wouldn't mind it much either, but I'd prefer it if they didn't pre-doom said characters. Some of them, at least. Maybe there's a guy who's been incubated, and if you manage to get the Alien out of him (they never actually did that, did they?) he can live to the endgame. I'd like some NWN2-esque character writing and depth with the possibility of tragic, gruesome death.

It'd be different to have someone saved from incubation.

 

I would prefer it if it were possible for people to last until endgame, assuming you were keen enough to help them out along the way to work with them to prevent them from dying.

I would prefer it if more games branched from the "you can save everybody from certain doom" themes. Ripley survives the first two movies by the seat of her pants and despite her best efforts, she can't even save a little girl that reminds her of her daughter. And even Ripley eventually dies.

 

It's gritty and it makes the franchise. You don't survive an encounter with Aliens, you just survive longer than everyone else.

Edited December 28, 200619 yr by Tale

"Customizing a pulse rifle, like fitting the grenade launcher on separately"

 

I'm pretty sure pulse rifles already have two launchers, one above and one below the barrel.

And to be quite frank, I wouldn't mind if not a single NPC made it through the entire game with you.  As long as it makes sense.  I wouldn't mind DiD for party NPCs, since the universe is particularly unforgiving.

I would prefer it if more games branched from the "you can save everybody from certain doom" themes.  Ripley survives the first two movies by the seat of her pants and despite her best efforts, she can't even save a little girl that reminds her of her daughter.  And even Ripley eventually dies.

 

It's gritty and it makes the franchise.  You don't survive an encounter with Aliens, you just survive longer than everyone else.

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So instead of having a "Do X action in time to save Y person" you have instead "Do Z action in time and Y person won't be quite so horribly mutilated when they eventually die?" )

Sure that is true enough.

 

However, if the details swamp the design you might end up with ... Waterworld :ph34r:

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I actually enjoyed that movie. Meh.

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Which proves my point, really: you were about the only one ... "

 

... And the science was laughably poor, too.

Actually it's basic economics.  If you spend resources (time) on one thing, then you don't have as many resources to spend on everything else.

Don't know if you're defending Grommy's pov or just explaining it, but I don't agree.

 

Maps are going to have some degree of detail to them. Model skins will have to be textured. Dialogues will have to be written all the same. Now, if that work is done (or supervised) by someone that is familiar enough with the setting, I don't think the kind of easter eggs Josh mentioned (derived from his examples from the Name of the Rose) would mean a timesink important enough to make the project suffer as a whole.

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Sure that is true enough.

 

However, if the details swamp the design you might end up with ... Waterworld :ph34r:

 

Obviously, details can divert from more important things.

 

Yet, that seems obvious. It is true with everything else as well. For instance, you could spend 99% of the time on the graphics engine and the game would suck too.

 

Great things are conjunctions of factors, not disjunctions of factors.

So, once the top priorities are covered, details are what makes the difference between a good game and a great game.

I would prefer it if more games branched from the "you can save everybody from certain doom" themes.  Ripley survives the first two movies by the seat of her pants and despite her best efforts, she can't even save a little girl that reminds her of her daughter.  And even Ripley eventually dies.

 

It's gritty and it makes the franchise.  You don't survive an encounter with Aliens, you just survive longer than everyone else.

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+1

 

That's the true spirit of the series...

 

Xenomorphs are rare...very rare...they never are the objective, but they crop up as you try to reach the objective...then it's a matter of how long you can survive...

"I would prefer it if more games branched from the "you can save everybody from certain doom" themes. Ripley survives the first two movies by the seat of her pants and despite her best efforts, she can't even save a little girl that reminds her of her daughter. And even Ripley eventually dies."

 

Lots of games already do this. Of course, it be nice if the Alien game has it to.

Sure that is true enough.

 

However, if the details swamp the design you might end up with ... Waterworld :ph34r:

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I actually enjoyed that movie. Meh.

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Which proves my point, really: you were about the only one ... "

 

... And the science was laughably poor, too.

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You had a point?

Sorry to interrupt guys but I just wanted to post my suggestions for the game. I've got some suggestions for Obsidian to consider

 

1. To end the debate on whether or not it should be 1st person or 3rd person, just do both as an option to the player. Personally I prefer 3rd person but I know I'm outnumbered on this opinion, but i'm pretty sure that the amount of people that want to experience the Alien franchise as a 3rd person game is significant. For example Star Wars Battlefront series gave the player the option so u never see complaints about the game's view from their fans on their message boards. Everyone gets their cake and eat it too, problem solved.

 

2. Follow the original movies storyline closer. Even if u don't want to follow the specific movies at least give us a story that will fit into the canon of the Alien Quadrilogy. While I loved the AvP franchise I couldn't stand that the stories just seemed to ignore Ripely's contribution. Remember I'm not saying rip off the movies, just don't ignore their contribution. The novels and comics seemed to suffer this the most with stories that had little if anything to do with the movies.

 

3. Keep the alien designs faithful, especially the warrior design developed by James Cameron's Aliens, u know the Alien without the cased skull, I like the rib cage like cranium design from the 2nd film. And while I appreciate HR Giger's design I don't like when the Aliens design is ignored. The Alien only games of the past like Alien Trilogy always seemed to ignore this design.

 

Thanks for the opportunity to contribute ideas.

Sure that is true enough.

 

However, if the details swamp the design you might end up with ... Waterworld :ph34r:

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I actually enjoyed that movie. Meh.

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Which proves my point, really: you were about the only one ... "

 

... And the science was laughably poor, too.

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You had a point?

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Shhhh! Don't let my secret out!

Hey guys I

Hey guys I