Other Roguelikes > AliensRL

How to make AliensRL fun

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bgrunge:
In regards to NPCs and narrative, a few things. Aliens was profoundly different from Alien, in that it focused less on ripley, and more on the survivors in general; it had memorable secondary characters like vasquez, Hicks, Hudson, Bishop, and Newt, and these added a reason for the protagonist (Ripley) to fight the aliens beyond pure selfish survival, unlike the first movie in the series. Indeed, the biggest showdown in the movie comes as the result of Ripley risking herself to save Newt; an action she could have decided against.

As well, another interesting thing to note is that unlike Alien, the goals of the protagonist and her allies in Aliens change over the course of the movie (in alien, the only goal ever was to kill the alien/survive). First, the goal is to investigate the colony. Then, the goal is to rescue the cutoff marines; then, (after the dropship crash) to reach a transmitter to secure a ride off the planet; then, to survive until the dropship arrived, and then to rescue Newt; then, to kill the queen. This is a more compelling narrative for gameplay purposes; each of these goals could be considered a link in a quest chain, and provide the player with interim goals beyond just building up to kill the queen.

So, I'd propose a few ways the narrative could be enriched.

1.) Base the game and its goals around a colony command centre hub which assigns goals to the player, and whose population changes procedurally based upon game events and current alien infestation levels, etc. Give the player the ability to bring NPCs with them, and to deploy defenses in this area to reduce casualties as they are accomplishing goals elsewhere. (casualties will of course be inevitable, and will mount as the severity of the infestation and scale of attacks increases) Imagine going off to repair a damaged power grid connection to restore access to an area and having a key NPC grabbed while you were gone, which affects the narrative flow; a side objective this NPC would have offered may no longer be available as a result. HOWEVER, the game could be designed with the expectancy of one or more key NPCs getting killed before offering their quests; (say, you have 10 key NPCs. they all have 2 objectives to offer. In an average game, you should be completing on average 10 objectives, meaning that the game is designed with the expectation of 5 of them getting snatched before offering an objective). This allows for a procedural narrative, which is different every game. This makes the game random and non-linear, while still providing solid sequential goals for the player.

2.) Begin the game not after significant infestation, but right at the very beginning of it; I.E., after the first alien related casualty occurs. This allows early goals to be based around "Bug Hunts", where the player is investigating disappearances, or hunting down a lone alien or two. This provides a natural contrast with the larger pitched battles that might occur later in the game, makes the early game much more suspenseful, and involves the player more strongly with his objectives; the faster he can get things done, the more colonists may survive. (Note that the game should be balanced such that it is a challenge to keep any amount of civilians alive to the end of the game, and a significant one to keep a moderate amount of them alive)

3.) Cast the protagonist of AliensRL as not a member of the military, but as a civilian member of the colony; the classes would be roughly analogous; Security, Surveyor, and Engineer would match up to Marine, Scout, and Technician in turn. This would allow the player to observe and selectively participate in events beyond their control, such as the conflict of the local marine garrison with the alien infestation at appropriate infestation levels. Say narrative-wise, that the marines are uncooperative and not interested in investigating the disappearance of one or two colonists at first, as they consider that a civil matter; this necessitates the player's involvement. Later, after the player has bagged an alien or two, and proved there is a threat, the military starts sending out patrols procedurally. When the appropriate large scale conflict/rescue operation is planned, participating in the operation could be an option available to the player, leading to the type of situation seen in aliens, where the marine squad is inevitably overwhelmed, and has to fall back. Being in the middle of a firefight like that could be quite fun, IMO.

4.) As infestation levels increase, large scale raids should occur on the inhabited sections at night, with random abductions happening during the day. During raids, alien encounters in non-inhabited sections should decrease. this makes the player consider the time he is exploring, and adds in a tactical question: do I try to help defend the colonists, or continue my objective, knowing that it will be easier since the aliens are busy kidnapping kids to infect and such?

5.) This is a smaller narrative idea, but I'd suggest that "towers" be replaced with "complexes". In the movie, the only tower was the cooling tower for the atmospheric processing array. Everything else was a complex, which had nowhere near the same vertical height. In fact, youll notice the command center complex is only about 3 stories tall, with a few levels apparent below ground. Since the cooling tower is gonna be alien central, having it be very tall and filled with catwalks and such would provide for very different combat than in a military or residential complex, say, where potential alien access is limited to certain points. On a separate note, if such points were generated along with the map, this would let the player identify such points and attempt to move NPCs, weld doors, and position sentry guns to prevent such intrusions as much as possible, and aid in defending against the progressively increasing alien raids. (note that sentry guns balance wise should not be available till after the marines are pretty much decimated, as until they are, they are not too cool on a civilian accessing military grade hardware.) The cooling tower, on the other hand, is far too open to really control passage of aliens in any significant way; there are hardly any doors to weld, aliens can appear anywhere on a catwalk (since they could climb up from below onto it), and in general its far more combat oriented as a result.

Anyways, I think having things like that would make the game more compelling from a narrative perspective.

szopin:
I would actually prefer the game to keep its UI as simple as it is now. Sure, flashlight would be great (that damned storage tower grrrr) same with crowbar, but inventory management is something that currently is non-existing and the game can be played with few keys = awesome. Vents/between tower areas would be nice, facehuggers, hive with eggs, or 'survivors' would add flavour. NPCs yes yes yes. Having a team of marines arrive for your extraction few days after sending SOS from radio tower and cooperating against hordes would also be cool (second movie-likish). This game has a LOT of potential, really looking forward to 0.8.5
EDIT: flares (like grenades - 4 maybe?) get some vision further down that corridor and shoot the bastards before they reach you. Would be awesome with npc marines and keeping perimeter while someone fixes that goddamn radio...

skarczew:

--- Quote ---I don't mind staying consistent with the Aliens universe, and it's good that you bring it up. However, if I'm not mistaken, this game is set at a time when the "Alien species" was virtually unknown. If this is the case, we need to be careful in introducing certain equipment or, at the very least, keep such equipment rare, since there's no reason for it to be all over the place. Motion scanners would probably be limited to the Security Tower, and image intensifier headsets would likely only be issued in the Military Tower, though perhaps certain classes could start with one or the other based on what you'd expect them to think is necessary equipment. We can also think up some antiquated equivalents that would appear in other towers (surely the Engineering Tower would have something like a motion scanner or image intensifier).

--- End quote ---
Nightvision exists nowadays, Motion Scanner was something developed before the people had knowledge about aliens. Equipment could work in a slot - you can use only one at a time.


--- Quote ---What I get from this is that aliens should basically have full vision (distance can be figured out case-by-case) regardless of the light sources present. Thus it is the player's job to make sure they're around light sources as often as possible, which alone remarkably affects the combat mechanics in a positive, horror-like way. Regarding aliens that seek to destroy light sources, I would limit this to the more intelligent aliens and, to some extent, worker-type aliens who may have been assigned with the task of removing or relocating them.

--- End quote ---
The way it looks like in AvP series, the basic vision is similar to human one. The difference are: field of view - the cone is wider (can translate to bigger distances in roguelike), and the aura (even in total darkness, an alien is able to sense living organisms, but that doesn't mean it can see other objects; in recent version of AvP it went even further - an alien can sense targets through walls, and can sense how hostile is the given organism).
Second mode is just a very strange negative-like mode, thanks to which it can see in total darkness (but the range is limited and seeing other organisms is much more harder).
Check the links I post.

Of course AI should depend on the age, type and few other factors.

bgrunge:
2nding the motion scanner thing: The motion scanner was standard colonial marine equipment, same as pulse rifles, smart guns, and flamethrowers. It was not a response to the alien presence in any way. In fact, in Aliens, there is no equipment shown PERIOD that was designed to fight aliens. remember, as of that time, their existence was unknown. (well, except to ripley)

skarczew:

--- Quote from: bgrunge on October 14, 2011, 01:31 ---(well, except to ripley)

--- End quote ---
Also creators of the better worlds, Weyland-Yutani Corp.

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