Jump to content

magnatron

Member
  • Posts

    46
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by magnatron

  1. November 30 2536, somewhere on the east coast of the north American continent. I have been awake for 4 days solid at this point, running different hacks and confidence schemes. just a few more steps before the finish line, and then i need to deal with that corpse in the other room. oh dear lord that corpse is starting to smell rancid, next time i have to kill someone i need to remember to do it outside or something or at least not in the building i need to work out of. "scripting and identification processing complete, one hour until wide scale update of all UN server clusters is complete" and with that statement the AI that ran this server began its own version of scorched earth as it permanently deleted all data then proceeded to increase the voltage to the server components to the point the entire machine melted into slag. its odd that i felt more guilty over forcing an AI to commit suicide than i did beating in the skull of this monstrous human whose identity i just stole. i sure hope this guy didn't have a lot of friends aboard what ever arkship he is assigned to, but i guess ill jump off that bridge when i get to it. i had planned to just burn the building down on top of the corpse i needed to deal with, but there was a lot of people in the area and i couldn't risk someone busting in and attempting to rescue the evidence i was attempting to cover up. so i decided to just go with tossing it in the trunk of a car and ditching the car in the ocean somewhere. in the end i was shocked at how much harder stuffing a rotting corpse into the truck of a car was then i thought it would be, and i think its going to take years to get this nasty stench out of my sinus's. just as i was getting ready to go the door i was going to drive the car out of bust into high speed shrapnel and blinding light. between the ear piercing explosion and the bright light i was brought to my knee's covering my face, when the disorientation passed i looked up to see a tall slender woman with fire red hair standing over me holding a gun to my head. "you are not the man we expected to find here" she says in a disappointed tone, letting the aggravation show on her face. "cant say i was expecting company either, or explosions for that matter" trying to put a smile on my face to cover up the fact that i am absolutely freaking out thinking about whats going to happen when they look in the trunk. and then it happens, i hear the noise of the trunk mechanism releasing followed by "holy shit, major you need to see this" "one second" the beautiful lady with red hair says as she finishes up restraining me with those plastic ties these UN types are so fond of. as she makes it over to the trunk of the car i hear her start laughing, a loud and of all things a happy sounding laugh. "now that's who we expected to find, just not quite so dead" at this point i really had no idea if i was going to be put in a prison or just shot on the spot, with only two years until the end of earth what difference would it really make. "Sergent knock that man out and bring him with back to HQ with us" says the woman who apparently is named major. December 2 2536, UN Headquarters office of Major Rebeca Cathwright i think i have been here for days, but i cant be sure as i have not seen a window or a clock. now i find myself sitting in front of this beautiful red head, and im pretty sure she just might be the most dangerous human i have ever encountered. "well well mister ghost, it seems there is nothing in any of the systems worldwide that can identify you as anything besides Douglass Santiago. but i know for a fact that you are not Douglass Santiago" "Douglass Santiago was a rich playboy that moonlighted as a rapist and murderer, he had numerous political and corporate connections that he leveraged to maintain his freedom and ultimately they also where able to secure him a spot aboard the arkship Novark. had i not been doing an investigation to capture this piece of scum you would have been able to quietly get away with your crime mister ghost" yup i think this woman is going to kill me, will it hurt or will she make that happy laugh while she does it like when she saw Douglass's corpse. "the truly frustrating part mister ghost is the fact that although i know you are not Douglass Santiago there is no evidence to prove that fact. what ever it is that you did you have completely taken every part of his identity, the finger prints and DNA in every file i can find for Douglass Santiago match yours completely. to the point that i would be put in for disciplinary action if i where to try to charge you with anything besides misappropriation of human remains. seeing as the corpse we found at the time of your arrest is registered as being a corpse found on the street and assumed to be a homeless person who died of natural causes" at this point she reaches across her desk and activates a privacy device. as i sit there doing everything in my power to maintain my composure. "i'm going to level with you mister ghost....i was that scums last victim and i narrowly escaped with my life, after that i had only a single desire. to capture that man and see to it he never made it to that arkship so he could die here with the rest of us that don't have a place on one of those ships." and just like a light switch she went from a warrior goddess, to actually looking human and vulnerable. and the fact that that scum could have that kind of effect on a woman like this filled me with uncontrollable rage, the same rage i was filled with when i caught that scum. "you are mistaken major" i growl out before i could stop myself. at which point the fire and anger came back to her with a vengeance. "you where not his last victim, his last victim is what brought about his current situation. taking what i hold dear to me has a high price that must be paid, paid in blood if need be." with that statement her entire demeanor changed, now she was looking at me like a comrade whose situation deserved her pity. then she reached across the desk and placed her hand on top of mine and whispers "i'm sorry, i'm so sorry we couldn't stop him" then pulls her hand away to wipe a single tear from her left eye. after a few moments of silence she reaches to the privacy device and turns it off. "well mister Santiago it seems the whole world is running off its rails in fear of the coming end of the world, so we have been ordered to send you directly to the arkship Novark so you can be put into cryo sleep as they intend to launch as soon as all the pioneers are aboard. there is no need for you to worry about this clerical error, with the situation we all find ourselves in proper maintenance of our databases has not been the priority it once was" and with a sly satisfied smile she hit a button on her phone and a few seconds later two guards step in the room with us. "please escort mister santiago to the transport heading to the novark. Mister Santiago i wish you and all of the pioneers all the luck i can, and i pray that you can avoid making some of the same mistakes as we have here on earth." after all the military types where done saluting each other the guards rushed me out the door and through a maze of hallways. then i found my self in a parking lot with your average civilian shuttle piloted by a man who looked so old he just might have borrowed a dollar from Jesus way back when. in two hours i would be aboard the Novark, i would be one of the small percentage of people who will at least have a chance to live, to be revered and reviled all at once and by many. i wonder what they all would think if they knew the truth of how i got here. December 2 2536, Arkship Novark. CRYOGENIC PRESERVATION Authorized personnel only. "kind of a frightening a sign when i know i am about about to do a very convincing ice cube impression. what kind of effects can i expect to deal with once i get thawed out doctor?" "nothing all that bad pretty much just a small amount of temporary memory loss. we have perfected this technology for centuries now and i assure you we have gotten quite good at the process. and the AI's we are using now are the highest grade top level AI that human technology is capable of, you are in very good hands sir." says the good doctor with a smile no sane human would trust. "somehow that does not make me feel any less nervous" well i guess less nervous and more scared out of my mind. he spent the next 20 minutes explaining the process i was about to go though like i was a fellow doctor, as Douglass Santiago had attended medical school. so i was sure to just look nervous and scared and hope the fact that i didn't understand what the doctor was saying wasn't very apparent. eventually i was taken to a cryo pod and told to "strip and get in" then they proceeded to hook tubes and wires to me. once they where done they all stood tall and gave me a salute and wished me luck on my journey. these could be the last faces i see, the last words i hear, and the last thing i experience. kind of a depressing thought, i sure hope my last memory ends up being something besides having myself frozen on purpose.
  2. there is a couple month old thread that had a response on resource regeneration im sure some of you haven't seen. "At the moment, it is not planned to have resource respawning. If for some reason, there are a real necessity to add some resources on a planet, meteorite rains could be an interesting alternative. Unless we encounter some unsolvable scenario where it could stuck players, we will avoid the "artificial resource respawn" at all cost. Best regards, Nyzaltar."
  3. well i don't think ill ever get used to calling RCS "adjustors". aside from that i thought the build tools looked pretty good, i really liked the adjustable grid. it takes out that guess as to just where exactly the middle is.
  4. i personally am hoping to be able to turn a poor unsuspecting asteroid into a manufacturing fortress. with nothing on the surface except for a landing pad, hanger access, and a gratuitous amount of weaponry.
  5. i logged into mumble and someone had set the channel comment to this website.
  6. ancient ruins would be a great way to expand ark zones on planets beside the starter world. basically once the players find these ruins they could have the option of repairing them, once repaired they would activate an ark zone generator which would create a new ark zone like the one around the ark ship where we all will start our DU lives. but instead of it being an asset for a particular organization it would be a public space, i think this would be a great way to foster the construction of public trade hubs outside of the initial starting area. also it would be neat if the group that brings the thing back online could give it a name and be recorded as the founders of that safe zone. as i envision it taking a large amount of work and resources to bring one of these facilities back online. this would also serve to keep these type of sites something players would always be on the look out for, as even years down the road it would still be desirable to add a safe zone on the front lines of the spread of civilization. and if you can find these places periodically it would alleviate the need for players to be able to setup private ark fields that would more than likely just end up abandoned as players move on from an area or the game itself.
  7. interesting idea, and i see no reason not to allow people to have this option although i think i would avoid it myself. although it may be easier to just reset a character back to new and allow a player to redo its appearance if they would like too, instead of just deleting it. if you want to roll a new name for your toon you could elect to delete the character and name at that point. this would allow the same function as permadeath but avoid the whole situation of people taking your name before you can reroll your character.
  8. i can really only speak for myself, but i for one would lose a lot of interest in this game if it got turned into just another SE or minecraft by making it private servers only. i can understand your feelings on the matter, especially since you mentioned you have a child that you game with. but the fact of the matter is there are already a lot of options available for you to setup a private server and control who enters your gaming environment. but a sever lack of even mediocre options for voxel mmo's for those of us who are looking for a more massive option. then we have to consider the fact that the devs have spent their time up until now on creating the foundation for a single shard mmo experience. seems like it would be a waste just to do the same thing every other builder game has done. and i will abstain from commenting on your payment arguments as we already have 2 or 3 mega threads on the topic that has said about all that can be said on the topic.
  9. big yes on loosing implants on death if implants are a thing. i wonder if people should have the option of trying to dig implants out of their opponents corpses, perhaps make it have a high likelihood of destroying the implant. then again having players run around carving up the dead might be a tad morbid. although listening to people fight over who gets to carve up the dead guy on the floor would have its own off color sort of humor too it.
  10. haha i never thought of it that way, but so true.
  11. in APB reloaded you could link your car stereo to your last fm account. and i don't think there was any legal issues as that game has lived for years without making very much money. although most people decided to play the most annoying music they could find just to drive all their opponents nuts. then again that game is basically grand theft auto lite.
  12. you should take a look at the FAQ, there will be skills in this game. none of us really can know what that skill system will be like, but the FAQ makes it very obvious that there will be a skill system.
  13. consider in that NQ-Nyzaltar said in the ask us anything event thread. "We have in mind to introduce FTL drives at some point. We want to gamify this notion, to make the FTL drive a central element of a large ship infrastructure. You can imagine being heavily damaged during a battle and unable to flee because the FTL drive is detroyed or scrambled, which would start a race to try to repair it and escape. Some people in the ship crew will most likely be dedicated to maintenance of the FTL drive, no matter what. To clarify: the goal of FTL drive is to allow your ship to do interplanetary travel. Interstellar travel will be the realm of Star Gates, which is another matter entirely. FTL is just "super fast speed" with something like the Alcubierre warp bubble as the underlying tech, and Star Gates are about "instant travel between two nodes" with something like wormholes as the underlying tech. We are not yet sure whether ships in FTL mode will have a physical presence on the server side, if they will effectively travel in some hyperspace and can be intercepted." this sort of makes me think that once the drone reach's the new system we would be able to link a stargate to it and have a one way system to send players there. once on the other side they could make the stargate to jump back. not sure i like that idea, as i think it would be cool to at least have the ability to take the long way to a solar system and avoid using the gate networks.
  14. really i think we need more information about just how skills are going to work in DU. we know there wont be levels like wow, so i think we will be safe from the whole level 80 character smashing the level 2 character. i haven't been able to find it, but i remember a post from NQ saying they where thinking about using a system similar to eve and perpetuum. in witch case we could see a system that has a vast array of skills, with each skill having its own cap. and any one activity would only use a fraction of the overall skills, this way you can specialize in a particular activity and be able to be on par with the rest of the population in a week or two. and able to max their skills for that particular activity in about the same time it takes an average gamer to reach level cap in wow. this way a combat character can only get so powerful, and needs to use ingenuity and tactics to become a true terror. and the old vets would not have an insurmountable skill advantage over all the new players. they would just be able to be skilled in multiple professions for lack of a better term for the time being. this way no matter how long a person plays they can feel like their character is still improving. and the real gulf between the new and old players would be knowledge of game mechanics and wealth. but this is all conjecture i really have no idea what the devs have in mind for skills for us, they could come up with something none of us have seen or thought of before.
  15. we could go with the Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination, the idea of all the players carrying around bags of funny plastic disks is quite humorous to me.
  16. i think you may have just won the internet today captain.
  17. i have gotten the word out to a number of people, they all found the idea interesting but where rather reserved. but there just is not very much that has been released yet. and people don't seem to want to get their hopes up when a game is this early in production. too many failed kick starters and steam green lights seems to be the theme of their apprehension. once we start seeing some solid alpha video with more game features i think the hype might start getting a bit more noticeable.
  18. you know as well as i do that closing this thread would just breed at least two new ones. better this thread 100 pages long than 100 separate threads on the same topic. at least in my opinion anyway.
  19. i intend to sell implements of destruction to everyone. i wont be happy until my factories fuel a war so big it will hit the news like the big ones from eve.
  20. lets say you make a mod for this game and it ends up going into the game, are you willing to continue development for the next 15 years with out being paid for it? while you pay $15 a month to play the game yourself. on top of the fact that this is a single shard mmo, which means every person that plays DU ever will play on the same server. this also means that every mod that would be made would also be forced on every player the game ever sees. if you have some great ideas for the game or somethings you would like to see the ideas forum is the place to outline them. development is so early on this game at moment that its very possible that the really good ideas could very well make their way into the game. so moral of the story, although i do love mods for games like space engineers or minecraft. they just have absolutely no place in an mmo setting.
  21. i had no idea they ported ark to console until a friend came by with her kids. a week later i had to build pc's for her kids as they didn't want to play ark and minecraft on a console anymore. you would have thought those kids found god or something the first time they saw minecraft full of mods.
  22. i guess we might be able to call the game mechanics the universal government. and in that case it would be the devs that have total control. and i for one welcome our new developer overlords.
  23. my understanding from some of the posts from NQ was this skill system was going to be more like eve. so im not sure grinding skill points is going to be something available to us. if we can grind those skill points back then skill loss wont be as punishing,but i still think skill point loss would drive more players away than something like a food mechanic. and while i was looking for those posts from NQ i came across this in the game FAQ. "You won’t lose any skill point. However, what you had on your character at the time of his death will be partially destroyed and partially dropped on the ground where he died." i guess this whole conversation is a bit futile....what ever we are gamers and for us doing something like trying to push a rope is nothing more than a challenge.
  24. First of all, the only good Barney is a dead Barney. just a friendly message from the mother republic . now on to relevancy, your track didn't have a bad sound Yamamushi although i kept wanting it to do a little more than it did. but that was also my feeling of the music you linked in the other thread. it just felt like it wanted to reach that level of epic that would make just standing around looking at a hill feel like an epic adventure but fell short. but perhaps a more ambient music would fit for the out of combat situations in the game, but i do hope there is some epic combat music. what ever music this game ends up with i hope its good as opposed to a lot of the other games i have played where i just mute the music because it got annoying after a couple of week of play. like eve, if you ask about the music in eve the vast majority of us would say "eve has music?". and i have to agree with the captain, the music in both of the planetside games was full of win. i cant tell you how many times the victory music that played when you captured a base in the first planet side inspired me to jump out of my chair fists raised in the air. in fact the neighbors even called the cops on me once for making too much noise in my jubilation.
  25. i think that may have a really really bad effect on the player base. every time i saw someone lose skill points in eve because they messed up and forgot to buy a clone ended up with that player unsubbing. in fact those where some of the most epic rage quits i have ever gotten to witness. loss of all your stuff should be more than enough incentive not to die, seeing as in most mmo's death just means you need to run back to where you died to pick up where you left off.
×
×
  • Create New...