It's awesome, yes.

 

But so is the giant spaghetti monster and neither that or your idea has a chance of actually becoming reality.

I can kind of see your point about the families, but it's even less likely than a talking dog. I mean how many families do you know that would actually work in taking on Aliens? Mine are more like the Royal Tenenbaums.

I was hoping to see something in the lines of several character archetypes stranded on a ship/facility/petri dish, with one or more Aliens loose. The characters would all be of different classes (ie., Medic, Marine, Tech, Artificial Person) and the game would switch between each of them in a way similar to Project Eden, with the player trying to overcome certain obstacles by using each character's specialty in required areas. Eventually one - or possibly more - characters have been infected and their performance would decrease. Somewhat akin to The Thing, but without the whole "i'm gunna eat u up and shapeshift into you and no one will notice me until their heads are going down my throat" bit.

 

I like Pidesco's family idea but am not too keen on creating every family member. I'd favor an alternative where the family would be a fixed number - father, mother, small kid, big brother and sister, hey, throw in a dog or something - and the character you'd choose to play as would influence the appearance of the rest of the family (minus the dog, duh). Let's say you'd pick the kid as your starting character. Whatever physical and social attributes you'd choose for him (ie, green eyes, black hair, surly manner) would then be retroactively assigned to the parents and the siblings, giving the sense that they actually share DNA and physical/social traits and these elements would surface on them as well.

what about playing as an alien?

 

start off as a fresh chestburster and slowly as you go up levels become an adult drone or something

 

you could even have things like feats for tail-stabbyness, or jabby-mouth thing

 

just a random thought. it would make stuff like skills kinda redundant though, and would be more action oriented, so maybe not such a great idea after all...

'specially since hte last game that had me play as a facehugger left me throwing hte game away after reaching a roadblock.

 

"Hey. Being a facehugger is pretty cool. *scurry* Look, two scientists! Oh. That could be a problem"

 

You take one scientist, and the other immediately calls a security team, who proceed to kill you. Most frustrating moments of my life.

You're meant to avoid them via air vents and find a sleeping security guard, IIRC.

Yeah, there was a portion where you had to dodge some fire from guards, IIRC, but the majority of the facehugger section had you traversing the complex via rafters and ducts.

 

It's always been one of my fave fps moments.

'specially since hte last game that had me play as a facehugger left me throwing hte game away after reaching a roadblock.

 

"Hey. Being a facehugger is pretty cool. *scurry* Look, two scientists! Oh. That could be a problem"

 

You take one scientist, and the other immediately calls a security team, who proceed to kill you. Most frustrating moments of my life.

You fail at life gaming.

Actually, I was thinking today of ways in which an Aliens RPG plot might work, while leaving the whole saving the world schitck alone. And I actually came up with something, so here's my idea:

 

Setting:

 

Some far away, relatively densely colonized planet that is, at the start of the game, in the beginning of the process of being invaded by aliens.

 

Lead character and main quest:

 

Some average bloke/gal with a family that is trying to save said family from the aliens by getting the family out of the planet. However, this goal is made much, much harder by Weyland-Yutani who for some reason are keeping people from escaping the planet.

 

Side quests:

 

Most should be about helping get people or stuff off the planet. Other possibilities are finding out what's the deal with W-Y, or helping someone face the aliens

 

People:

 

Organized crime members, random blokes, close friends, total bastards, people that might (or not) help you get your family off the planet.

 

Stuff:

 

Drugs, research data, natural resources, some love letter, or whatever.

 

Narrative progression:

 

In the beginning, it might not be immediately clear that the aliens are around. However as they start killing people, and gaining ground, it should be clear that they will win the war. So, the amount of stuff to do and places to visit should decrease as time passes. Also, of course, the opportunities to get your family off the planet should be less and less as time goes by. It should have multiple endings, like getting the family off the planet but not yourself; saving your children but not your wife; you and your wife being the only ones left on the planet and die together under the onslaught of aliens; screwing your family, and leaving the planet alone, you being the only human left alive on the planet and nuking the planet into oblivion. Also, ala Fallout, there should be a final sequence detailing the consequences of your actions during the game.

 

 

There was some other stuff I thought off, but I can't remember it anymore. What do you peeps think?

 

So you're never off-planet?

That would be the idea, yes.

Actually, I was thinking today of ways in which an Aliens RPG plot might work, while leaving the whole saving the world schitck alone. And I actually came up with something, so here's my idea:

 

Setting:

 

Some far away, relatively densely colonized planet that is, at the start of the game, in the beginning of the process of being invaded by aliens.

 

Lead character and main quest:

 

Some average bloke/gal with a family that is trying to save said family from the aliens by getting the family out of the planet. However, this goal is made much, much harder by Weyland-Yutani who for some reason are keeping people from escaping the planet.

 

Side quests:

 

Most should be about helping get people or stuff off the planet. Other possibilities are finding out what's the deal with W-Y, or helping someone face the aliens

 

People:

 

Organized crime members, random blokes, close friends, total bastards, people that might (or not) help you get your family off the planet.

 

Stuff:

 

Drugs, research data, natural resources, some love letter, or whatever.

 

Narrative progression:

 

In the beginning, it might not be immediately clear that the aliens are around. However as they start killing people, and gaining ground, it should be clear that they will win the war. So, the amount of stuff to do and places to visit should decrease as time passes. Also, of course, the opportunities to get your family off the planet should be less and less as time goes by. It should have multiple endings, like getting the family off the planet but not yourself; saving your children but not your wife; you and your wife being the only ones left on the planet and die together under the onslaught of aliens; screwing your family, and leaving the planet alone, you being the only human left alive on the planet and nuking the planet into oblivion. Also, ala Fallout, there should be a final sequence detailing the consequences of your actions during the game.

 

 

There was some other stuff I thought off, but I can't remember it anymore. What do you peeps think?

 

That doesn't sound half bad, I'm not sold on the family part though, personally I think a self-preservation theme would be the better. You do this and that so you can get off the planet, you do side quest to further this goal, be it for favours, money or for more time to escape etc, throw in some morally wrong side quests from Weyland in there too.

The family thing is mostly a way to get emotionally invested in the game. I think it's doable, as long as the family isn't pushed on the player and is part of character creation. Anyway, the actual point of my idea is to have a sense of surviving by the skin of your teeth throughout the game, and make things progressively harder and more closed up as the game progresses. It's all about increasing the tension and fear in the player as much as possible.

They should integrate Sims and Aliens.. you start as a Sim (making a family if you choose) and suddenly aliens invade and you have to decide if you wanna save your family and/or friends.

 

on second thought.. let's not go there.

I've been reading reviews of Fallout 3, and it sounds as if the family aspect is extremely well done.

nice idea

Edited August 3, 200817 yr by gold

I think that the RE4 scenario could get a very nice adaptation. Like, you are an official, your sister/daughter/wife/mother/whatever is working in this colony project and at sometime you stop receiving news from her. You visit the colony to investigate her whereabouts to find out she is kidnapped. Nobody from her workplace seems to know anything and her superiors are being very secretive. Along the way you find another official, who's been drawn into this story simply for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, and an agent for Weyland-Yutani who is there on his/her own agenda.

 

Further into the story you find that the project is actually to breed xenomorphs and control them in order to use them for genetic experiments on humans, creating mutants for a multitude of applications. At some point, you find out that these people have also kidnapped your loved one, you get captured and experimented on, along with any other person that joined you, so now you also have to find a cure. Eventually you get to confront a captured Hive Mother and all her big ugly kiddies, the mutated operative of the colonial project, rescue your loved one, who has also been experimented on, while the agent gets away with the data from the experimentations.

 

Not the deepest of scenarios, especially since it's a cheap ripoff but it could work nicely within these lines. AND you got a nice ending for a plot sequel

or rather have marine 'missions' travel to planet and other ones too, fixing things with a bit of destructive entourage . and such the player is introduced to the fellows and get 'attached' before the big pile of crap happens. escaping. crap, didn't escape and crap follows to unexpected party. shortcut to mushroom (clouds). crap not impressed by mushroom and blames humans, filing for court order and sentence death penalty to all. quickly followed by mystery man in black armor that smells of elderberries. followed by a series of questions and answers, that raises even more questions then answers. then go home _credits_

wut

I think he is trying to tell Obsidian how not to make the game.

As long as there is at least one person at Obs who had a similar reaction when reading that, I think we're fine.

Then again, let's not be too hasty, for all we know that post could be a stream of consciousness masterpiece.

Edited August 24, 200817 yr by Moatilliatta

Then again, let's not be too hasty, for all we know that post could be a stream of consciousness masterpiece.

 

Possible, but for now I will stick with wut.

Then again, let's not be too hasty, for all we know that post could be a stream of consciousness masterpiece.

 

Hmm...

 

riverrun, past Eve and Adam

I'll secondf that wut. cause Hell I was trying to be funny in my sleep deprived state... but it just doesn't come off as that now

@Xard

Finnegans Wake is more of a puzzle than a book.