Do you kill Arco Vaughn's mother?

[Clear Air Turbulence]

There's some serious pathos in Arco Vaughn's backstory, and I just realized the other day that my character's actions in the game have been pretty horrible right at the very beginning of the game.

After you kill Arco, the game tells you that your mission is complete and directs you to return to Raisu station. Arco usually carries some pretty good early game loot, so you could just grab his stuff and head on back, but the coordinates you are given by Raisu Station are to Arco's house, a simple container habitat. It doesn't have any guns on it like the various Centauri Raider camps that you have been destroying, so why not destroy it? Doing so will get you a few containers of rice you can sell for a few hundred credits and a data rom.

Reading the note puts a different face on what you just did. It's an email from another star system to Arco, apologizing for abandoning him to go on a pilgrimage to the galactic core, saying it's something they must do. It ends with a note to "Take care of your mother".

OK, right off the bat you can get a bit of sympathy for Arco, as he's in the same position as your significant other - suddenly abandoned for reasons they can't understand. Maybe Arco was not a bad guy but snapped.

Then the mother part sinks in. Your character abandoned someone who was taking care of a child. Arco was taking care of his mother. Where was his mother?

Perhaps he was keeping her in an innocuous container habitat hidden in the outer asteroid belt, separated from the violent types he has to associate with.

For a sandbox game, Transcendence has a very deep story going on.

[Aury]

I never reaslized that she could have been in the contianer habitat...
I always thought that he got so distressed over sepparation he ended up where he is now...

[Clear Air Turbulence]

I was reading Arco's scripting tonight. I never realized that he will stop firing on you once your shields are down and ask you again to leave. He's one of the most friendly "hostiles" in the game. It makes you wonder what's up with the Centauri and what exactly their beef with the stations is.

[Xephyr]

All the factions in the game are essentially human, even if they have been GM'ed a bit.

Think to the Charon frigates. The crews on them must be huge to operate something of that size. The Commonwealth are really barbarians, praising you for murdering countless people.

As well, Starton Eridani alone has several million people on it. Think of the other fortresses later in the game, like the Ranx, Huari, or even the Ares. Every game, you kill hundreds of thousands of people without giving a second thought to it. Though the Huari give you a bit of insight into their culture - the same can be applied to any other enemy in the game.

It almost makes you want to play as a neutral faction, like a Salvager Nomad. That way, you can decide yourself who the real enemy is.

[Aury]

To be a bit more exact, the commonwealth openly encourages vigilantes. It would seem that since they devoted the majority of their resources to the ungoverned territories to fight the ares and sung and marauders that they find it more economical to simply allow people to take on unfriendlies.

Not to mention that it removes the annoyances have having to deal with self-defense cases. You killed the pirate? Good job. Didn't matter if you were being attacked or doing it to steal back the pirate's goods. At least in the backwater systems like eridani, the commonwealth appears almost anarchistic in some respects.

The non human/non human descendant factions in vanilla are:
-luminous
-iocrym

so yeah, even the areas teratons and ringers are human-descendant. (genetically modified)

There is a difference between killing a warlord fortress and blowing up a hauri settlement; that's in that the warlords are simply holed up there with their guns, presenting a threat, while the hauri are just a people in a state of quasi-war due to their xenophobia (or at least extreme paranoia)

Though the ventari SETTLERS... I don't know why they are hostile settlers, aside from being the largest rear-ends until you meet the pteravores, who at least are simply hungry and not out to be jerks to the interstellar community.

Neutral factions don't attack until attacked.

[Prophet]

I blame society and Domina....

If you live in a lawless society with no laws, rules or protection you do what you must to survive. And once you're comfortable with that, you do what you 'want' to survive.... and then you do whatever you want. Morals and ethics are cultural constructs and if everyone around you is stealing and killing, it becomes acceptable behaviour.

And if all else fails and your conscience is in turmoil, just blame Domina!


On the other hand, it would be nice to have the option to play a non-combat role throughout the game, fighting only defensively and gaining income through missions and trade routes. These ares would have to be vastly expanded to make it competitive with the combat role because we all have to agree, killing stuff pays very, very well.

[george moromisato]

Very interesting thread! You all bring up some amazing points.

I would like to comment on two levels: first, in game terms (what does this say about the Commonwealth, etc.) and second, as it relates to game-design.

The civilizations of Human Space are different from our 21st century world. Today, for example, it would be unthinkable for a company like, let's say, Microsoft, to hire a private army and conquer a small Pacific island so it can have slave labor.

But it wasn't always that way. In the 1800's, private entities like the East India Company did have their own private armies and did conquer "native" populations in India, etc. In Roman Empire times, war were fought to expand the empire and individual soldiers were encouraged to loot anything they found.

Human Space is more like those periods in our history: The only way to prevent someone from taking what you have is to be stronger than them (or belong to a faction that will defend you). [I like Wolfy's term of "anarchistic" though I would apply it to the relationship between sovereigns.]

Why should that be? Why did humanity "regress"? I don't think anyone can say. One theory is that the conquest of space changed society. In the 21st century we have a global economy: what happens in China affects us and vice versa. Consequently, no one wants to cause trouble (with violence) because it will affect the economy. [It is probably no coincidence that the trouble spots in the world today are those areas that are least integrated into the global economy.]

But once humans colonized the solar system, things changed. Because of the cost of transporting goods, isolated economies emerged. Mars (colonized by the Syrtis) developed into a completely separate system. Throw in a little genetic engineering, and pretty soon the two societies diverge: each sees the other as alien and has no incentive to restrain themselves. The same thing happened with Ringers at Saturn, colonies on the Belt, etc., etc.

So what is the proper "morality" in the game? Should the player behave as a 21st century person? Or should the player behave as a normal person of that period? I want to make sure that both options are possible.

This brings me to game design. How should we design the game such that we have an emotionally interesting story while still preserving player choice and without being preachy?

I really like the fact that the Arco storyline brings up questions. That is exactly the kind of emotional involvement that I think is good. It would be less good, if the game provided answers, however. The game should not pass judgement on the player's actions.

I also like the fact that it takes a little bit of effort to uncover Arco's storyline. I think of it as a reward for long-time players.

In 1.1, one feature that I want to add is to keep track of more statistics so that the player can make their own challenges. This is much like other sandbox games (GTA comes to mind) but also a very roguelike convention. For example, the game should track how much money you've made from trading. Or how many people you've saved from pirates. Or how many "neutrals" you've killed.

Lastly, I want to mention that one of the themes in Transcendence is sacrifice. Arco's father sacrifices his family for a greater good (or so he believes). Volkov's wife sacrifices her life. The player also makes sacrifices, small and large.

Are the sacrifices worth it?

And of course, there are hints about the player's ultimate sacrifice. If the player does indeed destroy all of Human Space, what could possibly justify that sacrifice? Stay tuned for 2.0!

[p.s.: I'm not confirming that that is what's going to happen--I'm only pointing out that 1.0 gives that hint.]

[Atarlost]

I have my doubts that a noncombat path can be balanced.

For one thing they're not exclusive. Being a merchant doesn't prevent you from looting. A noncombat path can only exist as a challenge unless it is made exclusive.

Now, you could set things up so you could jump into the Antarctica plot without a military ID while making it also possible to survive the late game without one. If that opened a friendly Ares plot that expanded late game trading that would make a noncombat path that's exclusive with the normal kill and loot path.

The problem is that it still has to prepare you for the endgame. Now, you can buy Iocrym busters, but none really match the Lamplighter, and the gem of sacrifice is no longer effective because there are now multiple Iocrym ships, and the command ship spawns sentinels when it loses shields. Now, it may be that you can combine the gem of sacrifice with Domina defend, but apart from that you're going to get wasted by sentinels if you try to use it, and it still doesn't help you until you get to the command ship, while the lamplighter does.

So I think saving the Antarctica needs to have a reward as good as killing it. The Ares Plasma Cannon is clunky and the Ares Positron Cannon is hard to not get if you do the fleet missions, as is the Ares Lightning Turret. Being able to get them without fighting is of little benefit. The Kaidun, especially a pre-enhanced Kaidun would be a nice reward.

Another option is to put the military forces freed up by the armistice in Heretic. Let the player do the missions in the confidence that the marauding Sentinels will be dealt with by Aquilas and Deimoses. This furthers the noncombat path, and making the gem of sacrifice also block the spawning of Sentinels from the command ship's shieldsdown event would make it a viable equalizer again.

[(name here)]

The bit about the communication being intercepted on the ROM made me think it was actually a message from the main character to his/her family.

[Aury]

I thought it was sent to arco

[Clear Air Turbulence]

"RECEIVED from relay07.cynus.anderson.187janus_station.comm\n"
"by helios_receiver.f5astarton_eridani.comm (EID 089830_7188919)\n"
"for <arcovaughn.17591> (EID 089830_8179210) 2403-11-25 17:34:11\n\n"
"MESSAGE BEGINS\n"
"I know that you must hate me right now; truth is I don't like myself very much either. "
"But I promise you that everything happens for a reason and that one day you and I will both understand. "
"I can't explain to you or anyone why I'm going. No one can understand. "
"But I know that I am doing the right thing and I know that I am doing what I must. "
"I can't do anything else. Something is about to happen. Something feels wrong. "
"Whatever fate awaits me at the Core, I know that it is entwined with the fate of all Humanity. "
"When I get there, I will understand. When I get there, we will all understand. "
"I must get there before it is too late. Take care of your mother.\n\n"
"MESSAGE ENDS"

It's from someone at Janus Station and to Arco Vaughn. I had thought it was his wife, but now that George has explained it the "Take care of your mother" fits much better.

[digdug]

I'll throw in an idea: Cynus Anderson is Arco's stepfather that left his family to a journey to the Core just like ... the player.

[Prophet]

It would be interesting to encounter more people that know someone that ventured towards the core. To hear some of their stories and what kinds of choices they faced. It could put our own journey into perspective.
Perhaps most/all pilgrims blaze a trail of fire and brimstone, or perhaps we are the only one to walk the path and light everything on fire as we pass...

It seems everyone we hear about leaving on their pilgrimage is as torn as we are, unable to explain why we MUST go or why it's so important that we do. Especially considering the mortality rate for pilgrims is 100%

[Xephyr]

It would be interesting to encounter more people that know someone that ventured towards the core. To hear some of their stories and what kinds of choices they faced. It could put our own journey into perspective.
Perhaps most/all pilgrims blaze a trail of fire and brimstone, or perhaps we are the only one to walk the path and light everything on fire as we pass...

It seems everyone we hear about leaving on their pilgrimage is as torn as we are, unable to explain why we MUST go or why it's so important that we do. Especially considering the mortality rate for pilgrims is 100%

What if every game you play represents another pilgrim headed to the core?

Naturally, this wouldn't work with all the korolov/militia/arena stuff, but it explains where all the pilgrims are.

[Aury]

Especially considering the mortality rate for pilgrims is 100%

Not exactly true... not all of the pilgrims actually get killed along the way (yes, most do), but a number may move slower, get stuck along the way... or be like betel and just mess around and resist domina's influence