But isn't it usually obvious when someone has been incubated? I mean, assuming the person hasn't been encased in mucus or whatever, even if you don't find the dead facehugger around, that guy in Resurrection was having all kinds of convulsions hours before he got chestbursted (gave birth?) I suppose it would work if the people who "save" the character after he gets incubated have no idea what's going to happen, which, barring any early involvement in the story by characters from the movies, is highly probable.

 

So given that, how do you even have a character who's been incubated, given the fact that the player knows all sorts of things the character doesn't? You can't have a "race against time" scenario. The PC has to be clued in on how the process works before a character gets incubated, lest you end up with Alien again, and Obsidian can't possibly pull that off effectively.

 

Right now I'm wondering if they're going to have the PC incubated, and if so, if they're going to make it clear from the start or make it a twist. And if it's the latter, how they could not make it painfully obvious (I don't know how they wouldn't) Perhaps PC incubation could be only the first part of the story? It would be just like Fallout, instead of having a number of months to accomplish your mission, you have a few hours, and instead of the Vault dying out, an Alien violently rips through your chest cavity.

 

Fun!

 

*edit -

Random impregnations for each playthrough would be awesome.

Maybe, but I'm not seeing much upside. The thing about the Thing (heh) was that an infected NPC could in turn infect other NPCs. You don't have that dynamic with Alien. Random incubations would just be random NPC death sentences, and is that really suspenseful? Given the relative weakness of chestbursters (or rather, the fact that there will surely be many hundreds of aliens to kill that are more powerful) and given the presumed usefulness of NPCs, there's not much reason not to keep an NPC around as long as possible, especially if there's some chance of saving the character.

 

No, it would be better if they had set characters being incubated that you need to save. For instance, if the PC got stuck on an alien-infested planet and the only person capable of flying off of it got incubated. That's more effective than rolling a die. Nominally you get less replay value, but there are plenty of ways to branch a plotline like that.

 

You could also possibly split the difference and have all CNPCs capable of being infected, but make infection incumbent upon the PC's in-game choices. For example, you're investigating a hive, and you have to split up. Sending CNPCs A or D out to a certain location results in incubation / death. Sending CNPCs B or C results in "success". You switch these up over the game, and you make it so that if the PC is smart, he can prevent most CNPC deaths, or he can hamstring himself with bad choices.

Edited January 4, 200719 yr by Pop

And with body awareness like in Dark Messiah you could be able to look down at your chest when the bursting happens. ^_^

There are a couple of scenarios where this is possible, one being taken from the very example you gave from Resurrection. Without Ripley snffing the alien on him, no one could tell he was infected. From memory, he managed to control the convulsions he had for the first time, and only during the second did the alien spring out. A similar event could set thing in motion for the PC - thawed out of cryogenic sleep, the PC finds out that he or she were part of a slave shipment that never made it to its destination, and no one can tell who were buying them or what was planned for them. What if they find themselves in a derelict vessel owned by a company known to have made experiments with xenomorphs for military purposes? That's a simple basis for suspicion of possible contamination, and is enough to create suspicion even without disclosing that there is an actual contamination.

 

You could also suggest that adapting to a new environment takes longer when coming out of cryogenic sleep, which could explain small convulsions.

 

The environment itself may help hiding an NPC's condition. A crew that needs to perform several duties in a large spaceship isn't always under the PC's scrutiny, or the PC may only take a short number of party members with him or her. Prison facilities or mining colonies are examples of groups of people whose routines make it easy for that kind of symptoms to be dismissed as something, anything - and not what it usually is.

Romance with an Alien, but would it feel good?

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.

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Nice idea.

 

I would like to see a situation that's more about suspense than itchy trigger fingers, something like Carpenter's "The Thing". Where the PC must work together with NPCs for a while but that the suspicion of incubation was ever present for all - and that the actual host was a different NPC at each replay. Many kinds of interactions could be made with the premise that no one is trustworthy, and that suspicions may overshadow the reality of the situation (ie, fear of incubation when there is none).

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Picture this:

 

The PC and 3 NPCs find themselves in a tight spot. They fight as well as they possibly can but end up being overwhelmed and knocked out.

 

Later the PC and the NPCs recover their senses. One or several of them may have been Kaned. (if they were unconscious for a short period of time, it is unlikely any of them have been Kaned...if they were unconscious for a long period of time, it is very likely one or several of them have been Kaned...the PC must make a judgment call to determine the odds of either scenario...dead facehuggers lying nearby could be used as additional clues...)

 

The PC may have been Kaned too...in which case visible symptoms will soon lead NPCs to distrust, fear, hate and destroy the PC.

When the PC realizes they have been Kaned, they must acquire a certain drug that will tremendously slow down the development of the parasite.

 

The entire set-up creates a context where interrelationships and tensions may develop between the PC and the NPCs...and between the NPCs themselves.

Or three people go to sleep in a room, they wake up and find one dead facehugger. They have no technology available to tell which is infected, if it is indeed only one of them.

 

Set up as desired.

Oh yes, maybe some incidents with....cats? Certainly not my most creative contribution, but cats can add some layer of creep-factor too. That's why you always should have them locked up in a cage.

 

Otherwise, shoot everything that moves with your Smartgun in little pieces. Like this eerie Alien here, disguised as a kitty, just thinking it could sneak away so easy....No No you slimy Alien you!

 

But isn't it usually obvious when someone has been incubated? I mean, assuming the person hasn't been encased in mucus or whatever, even if you don't find the dead facehugger around, that guy in Resurrection was having all kinds of convulsions hours before he got chestbursted (gave birth?) I suppose it would work if the people who "save" the character after he gets incubated have no idea what's going to happen, which, barring any early involvement in the story by characters from the movies, is highly probable.

 

Nobody knew Kane was incubated. You don't need to be trapped in the hive (as again, Kane shows) to be incubated.

Why do I have the feeling you guys are focusing on one short scripted scene in the game instead of discussing the scope of the game?

 

I want to know if this is going to be a corridor crawler or a full blown universe!

 

I, of course, want the latter. Let System Shock (or Bioshock) do their thing and Obsidian do something else. Be the first to really squeeze the juice out of UE3 (assuming it is what you'll be using)! Streaming maps )

Do we really want vast Mass Effect landscapes in our Alien RPG, though? At least in the movies (comix probably buck the trend) everything was intentionally confined, so as to better convey a nowhere-to-run claustrophobia and facilitate pop-out-of-the-corner scares.

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't want the entire game to take place on the Peragus facility, but c'mon, those future-industrial corridors with poor lighting were pretty awesome.

Yes, I want narrow corridors with ceiling plates that fall down with an alien peeking in through the hole too. But what stops Obsidian from making the "dungeons" in the game like that? Why not create a whole universe for the player to play in and let the main quest bits play out in the typical Alien settings. Like if you have to go to a distress beacon somewhere, you jump out of your ship (after landing on the planet of course) and have to actually find the wreckage yourself. When you've found it, you'll be able to enter and you'll be able to have your dark corridors galore as much as you want.

 

I just think the scope should be larger than just a building or a spaceship that the game takes place in. I want to know more about the universe, the mega corporations, the alien race themselves and the way humans of that time live. I still think it's better to aim for the stars (like in Boiling Point and Gothic 3). At least you might hit the moon.

Yes, I want narrow corridors with ceiling plates that fall down with an alien peeking in through the hole too. But what stops Obsidian from making the "dungeons" in the game like that? Why not create a whole universe for the player to play in and let the main quest bits play out in the typical Alien settings. Like if you have to go to a distress beacon somewhere, you jump out of your ship (after landing on the planet of course) and have to actually find the wreckage yourself. When you've found it, you'll be able to enter and you'll be able to have your dark corridors galore as much as you want.

 

I just think the scope should be larger than just a building or a spaceship that the game takes place in. I want to know more about the universe, the mega corporations, the alien race themselves and the way humans of that time live. I still think it's better to aim for the stars (like in Boiling Point and Gothic 3). At least you might hit the moon.

An open exploration type Alien game would worry me. Mainly because it would imply mass infections of many worlds. We're talking doomsday scenario here, people.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want the entire game to take place on the Peragus facility, but c'mon, those future-industrial corridors with poor lighting were pretty awesome.

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No PC vent-crawling.

Oh yes, maybe some incidents with....cats psychic monkeys? Certainly not my most creative contribution, but cats psychic monkeys can add some layer of creep-factor too. That's why you always should have them locked up in a cage.

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Fixed.

I saw Alien for the first time yesterday.

 

Hype is a too lithe term for my expectations concerning this game.

I saw the 25th Anniversary Edition today.

 

Expensive creatures, they are.

I saw Alien for the first time yesterday.

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Ha! I

Heh, I'm going to watch it tonight

 

I saw pieces of if when I was small kid, but I was way too scared to properly watch it :D

Watch it alone and in the dark. Unless you suffer from photoepilepsy - it has a lot of strobe effects.

An open exploration type Alien game would worry me.  Mainly because it would imply mass infections of many worlds.  We're talking doomsday scenario here, people.

Oblivion is an open exploration game and it takes place in one country (16 square miles?).

There are people here who haven't seen Alien.

 

:S

 

You are hereby forbidden to express any opinion about sci fi untill you have redeemed yourselves.

:D

 

Don't worry, my hole in general education will soon be gone

 

And I've seen other Alien movies.

 

Well, that doesn't save me I guess :ph34r:

 

I'm much more positive about project now than when this topic was first started, I'm even getting hyped

Edited January 5, 200719 yr by Xard

An open exploration type Alien game would worry me.  Mainly because it would imply mass infections of many worlds.  We're talking doomsday scenario here, people.

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You could have open exploration within just one city and the surrounding area and still have a pretty open RPG.

 

Just because it's Sci-Fi doesn't mean it has to take place on several worlds or solar systems.

"

Oblivion is an open exploration game and it takes place in one country (16 square miles?)."

 

Moving from place to place is good, I think limiting a computer game to one location is not really feasible, but my personal preference would be exploration resident evil style; creeping through the suburbs to reach the spaceport, breaking quarentine and escaping the infected planet, trying to find allies to strike back at the alien threat. What use would a wealth of exploration - oblivian style - really be, there aren't going to be any wizard towers. At least I hope this is not going in the looting and leveling direction.

Edited January 5, 200719 yr by Gorgon

I actually like the idea of having one fully realized colony instead of those little pathethic excuses of places that Bioware named "planets" in Kotor. Assuming Obsidian will use the UE3 for this project, huge maps should be finally feasible, maybe representing whole districts of a colony (think of dividing it in functionality: brothels, terraformer-worker district, brothels, military district, researcher dictrict, brothels, some sort of a park district, brothels etc.) should add to the realism of the place.