Your Dune? My Dune? Oh wait, NO!

[adam]

Oi vey, what a conundrum you'va all built here. I guess my consulting skills are needed again. I put this in the A2K folder as it encompasses lot of topics.

Story Line:

Let's get the big fish outa the way first. In my Opinion (flee now!) the current story line is CRAP. Not because it doesn't involve the Harkonnens (In D2K I played them for the Devestators not those wimpy Sardaukar.) or messes with Herbert's Universe. It's CRAP (must think of interesting acronym) because it goes so out of the way to explain why a battle is being fought on a planet. Far too much detail and specifics were put into creating a linear story line for a completely random war. Not to mention that most of the people who play A2K won't have read past "Dune", or be willing to read through the briefings describing their plight to fight with might in spite of the odds against them on a nameless backwater planet with only one export.

If "I" (What you haven't 'flee'd yet?) were to make a story for a computer game I'd like to take in a few details about the 'users' playing this game first. The average gamer; cares little about plot, will often skip single player campaigns to jump into multi player so that they can beat their friends up, will only play a "good" (Define "good" Adam... What the HELL!?! Define it!!!) game for up to a month and has Attention Deficit Disorder.

Taking this into account I believe the best way to introduce people to a story is the way Westwood did it back in 1996 with a lil old game called 'Command & Conquer'. How many of you said, "What the hell, Adam, Dune2 was the first RTS?" Now. How many of you can describe C&C's opening cut scene, provided you played it? Now how many of you can describe 'Age of Kings' or 'Brood Wars' opening cut scene? Hmm... what did C&C do with their opening cut scene? They Immersed the player. They showed you the C&C Universe, the people, the politics, what was deemed of value and a sweet workout video. 'Age of Kings': two guys playing chess. 'Brood Wars': people being slaughtered by aliens.

I'm not asking that you do TV surfing for the Arrakis opening, I'm asking you to show the people the universe you've thrown them into so that the shock won't be as bad.

To Canon or not to Canon...

Ah... the Herberites vs the freedom of tanks. I'm surprised this wasn't considered, if it was it was in secret. After Leto II's golden path there really isn't much of a reason to fight. And between Dune and the fore mentioned event there really isn't a space to put in a war. Okay so the Herberites say "Yes we can't mess with 'The Man's' Universe." Fine. What do you think the Universe was like before all this peace and tranquility? House Corrino holding leash on the Universe for some thousands of years. Other houses greedy for this wonder spice ginkobi... I mean Melange. Kanly being arbitrarily placed on different houses cause they don't like each other. Needless to say I don't imagine it as being all to content that everyone sits down and sings Kumbiya. If you need further persuasion, How many movies are about the past? About the future? Do you have any idea how many books their are about the American Civil War? More than their are one World War I & II. History intrigues people. (For those of you who think I've lost it at this point, there is a tangent to be drawn here, I'm just looking for it.) A majority of the books on Wars are fiction. This is because people love to see the relationships of others and how they interact in different circumstances. Why do the people do what they do? (Rent "Cube" a great Canadian movie.) Then next step is the reaction of societies, and how they interact with other cultures. (How many of you are saying, "What the *$%& Adam?")

What has been stated so far: People are voyeuristic and love to see what others will do. Wars make great novelty. The past is an option, but still, why is it better?

The most obvious reason the past is better in the Dune Universe is that everyone lives happily ever after in the end. In Fiction writing the Past is easier as you have a base of society and technology in a given time. This lives the much simpler task of creating a story to fit in this reality. You already have the hardest part laid out for you. The government and the artisanship. Creating a person or group of people is very easy as we can base it off the common knowledge everyone has of each other. What are people? People are violent, loving, unpredictable helmsmen of their own destiny. They make choices for themselves and for others. They can express emotions which give them limitless ways in which to interact with each other. (Yes, if you really want to, you can leave.) Simply put it is far easier to create a universe when you know how it will end up. You can do anything you want to it and it will always have the same ending. People just happen to be very funny people to mess around with in any universe, silly humans, killing each other and all.

Oh my god! Adam you idiot! Now that this universe's end won't change why on earth should we change it? Because "It's the Journey that Counts." Winning the Girl and getting the gold ain't gonna cut it if you can justify why they had to be won and got.

Gameplay!

Fog of War, Radar, Line of Sight, Revealed Terrain and the such. All nice things to talk about and toy with. For heaven's sake, lets get the engine running and then test each one out and see what works and what doesn't in this game you're trying to make. ("I think a combo of Line of Sight and Radar would be nice." "Shut Up! Let them test them first to see what's feasible and what fits into the flow of the game." "Sorry.")

The Big Three vs. The New Kids on the Block!

(My money is on Ford, Chrysler and GM) So you wanna have a House party and only invite those Houses that count. Well not only am I going to give you a suggestion I'm also going to solve the unit crisis too with one big sweep. (Grabs broad sword. Ah! AHH! Damn Carpel-Tunnel Syndrome.) You take all your funky houses. You then put describing words to each house, several words in fact. Good examples are Noble, Creative, Deceitful, Powerful, Bloodlust etc, etc, etc... You then lock that list away for awhile.

Next comes the brainstorming. You start making Units and Structures. Each one unique. Maybe a Power Generator that uses the wind to move turbines to produce static electricity which is stored in capacitors and then is used by this evil out to give lightning sized electric shocks to passersby. Possibly a Giant Black cat that is trained to eat, little children in stilsuits with Red Hawk's on them, who you call Laza Tigers. Anyway you just start spitting out units and structures no matter how weird, you write them all down until you have a list of 250-1000. Then you take out the yellow piece of paper that had funky names with words next to each of them. You take Units from your list and see with which funky name they most likely go with.

Now you have Houses and what they use in their arsenal against each other. Then comes the hard part of seeing which Houses would interact the best with each other to produce a great war, I mean, story.

When all is said and done...

Congratulations you've ended up with "Plot." By the way while you were doing this, the technical geniuses were busy building the game engine and seeing what they can make it do and how far it can be pushed. By now you should have a graphical interface that will support what's necessary for your "Plot." Now is when these two groups combine to create the "Story." (Plot and Story should not be confused. Plot is what's happening Story is how it is being related to you.) "Story" will most likely involve; pictures, animations, interaction, an interface and other elements you see in computer games. (By the way, music is a plus and I believe you guys have someone who want to produce music for your game. Please respond to him.) From here things start rolling down hill. During the "Story" faze you'll work out and information that needs to be relayed and smooth out the "Plot" to fit into the limits of the "Story."

Well now I hope I've completely confused you, (Adam do you know what you're even talking about?) or Inspired you to slow down and look at what you're making and how to go about it. This has all been the opinion of Adam (No! Me me me!) and thus is to be taken at your own discretion.

Adam 'of Nod'

(Okay, I'm going to bed now. Oh, and Thufir, RA = clicking fest.)

Flaming will begin in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

[gil]

FLAME !

[gil]

Hehehehe, you were never flamed like that were you?

Okay, just this: if you read between the lines, you'll see that everything you said has been done ... ;)

[adam]

You didn't read this did you? Or did you just skim over it? That was a nice Flame though...

[davo]

I think Adam, you are jumping the gun about the so-called story of Arrakis2k. I have not written a story for the game, neither has Gob nor any other of the Arrakis2k team. What was posted is A BACKGROUND to the game, in which provides the BASIS for the so-called (using your definitions) "plot", "story", units etc. All which was explained in my earlier response to your previous reply. Why the background was written as such was that Sefan asked Gob in writing a "plot" for Arrakis2k, to make it set after Dune and as close to the books as possible. If u think it is "CRAP", that is ok, but remember it isn't the "plot" or "story" of Arrakis2k.

Therefore, the "plot" and "story" can have as much detail or as little detail as the team wants the game to portray. In affect the whole background in which Gob and myself wrote, might not be mentioned in the intro or the game (or even in any txt file that comes with the game).

[gil]

Actaully, I read it ... ;D

I did forget about the music guy. I really think domeone should reply to him. Not me, though, I lack the power to allow peolple in the team. ;)

[garth]

If it is so terrible why arent you doing anything about it?