Several months ago I read a novel whose title and author unfortunately escapes me for the moment. It was a murder mystery set in the far future, and the main character was the assistant to an interstellar archeologist. The basic premise was that mankind had been in space for thousands of years (at least two thousand, if memory serves.) Mankind's space had expanded and contracted for various reasons (wars, poverty, years of plenty, etc) and as a result space stations had been built, lived in, and then left behind in hundreds of systems, some of them thousands of years old.

A few still had working power in some sections. Some were little better than enormous shadowed hulks of twisting wreckage containing equipment destroyed by centuries of null-gravity and equipment bouncing around in the interiors, breaking screens and damaging things. (Imagine leaving a data pad on a desk, then leaving the station. Artificial gravity shuts off and the station's erratic orbit causes a slight spin, not enough to provide the semblance of gravity, but enough to bounce that data pad off the nearest wall. Repeat for 800 years.)

I found the premise fascinating. Archeology has always caught my interest, and the idea of mankind's FUTURE containing a thousand or more years of forgotten history, where the events of 2006 are as little-known and badly understood as the events of Golgotha in AD33 captures the imagination.

Here's my idea: the Devs are going to bring more and more of the universe online over the next couple of years. As it expands, there are assorted ideas for potential archeological discoveries: splinter groups of Itani and Serco that wandered or were driven beyond the boundaries of known space and perished after building a station or three, exploration groups from the UIT that launched with some fanfare and were destroyed by neutron pulsars that crumbled flesh but left equipment and buildings untouched, warlike groups (especially Serco) that sought to find an undefended "back door" into enemy space... imagine every significant archeological discovery of the last fifty years with a potential science fiction counterpart: the discovery of Troy (The legendary station that stood against the Serco for more than a decade before a "Trojan Horse" virus infected their command-and-control computers, allowing the Serco to obliterate the inhabitants.) to Teotihuacan (An archaic station, seemingly abandoned in perfect working order.)

Does this capture anyone else's imagination the way it does mine? A completely uncharted sector, nothing listed on the map, in one of the new systems. You jump in and there's a station there. No station guards. The station doesn't respond to hails (assuming that we can ever hail stations.) Signal lights are dark. The docking bay is damaged, but appears functional. When you dock, the station news reports are last updated some 232 years before:

"Unknown artifacts discovered!

"Professor D'pon Atool of Althereon University has announced the discovery of artifacts of seemingly alien origination on the outskirts of the Oorla Cluster. The artifacts include what appears to be a fully functional coldsleep container of vastly unusual design. The container is approximately twice the size necessary for a normal human, and may contain a living alien creature of some kind. This discovery was originally made over two years ago, but Professor Atool today announced the intent to activate the coldsleep container in two cycles."

Then nothing. Stonehenge, 4430AD.

I envision these stations as "clue points" for ongoing mysteries that may never actually be solved in the game. (Why did dinosaurs die out? Who really build the pyramids? Why does the Sphinx have water erosion runnels?) Not all mysteries have answers. It's unnecessary for the station to be a functioning part of the economy; it need only EXIST to provide a dramatic backdrop to the universe.

Of course, if the Devs decided to develop a series of these abandonded stations with a backstory and solvable mystery, that's cool, too.

Any thoughts?

~D.
"Nigel"

Sounds really cool!

You might want to hire Ambrosia SW's and/or ATMOS's writers for that one. Sounds EVNesque to me.

Yes, but...

*drool*

Lector;

Not being an MMORPG gamer prior to VO, I'm not sure exactly what you're talking about. Can you elucidate for me, please?

~D.
"Nigel"

He's referring to quite possibly the most immersive space game ever created (it's a compliment). The only drawback (or attraction, arguably) was that it was (and is) a 2d scroller.

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/

This sounds outstanding.

However, it would require someone (or some of us) to write "content". Then that content would need to be approved and worked into missions.

The mission editor is a first step towards this. Some players have had limited access to it, and have created some test missions on the test server.

Once the mission editor becomes more usable, I think we'll find that some of the old-school players, guides and devs will be able to make some rather excellent mission threads.

However, some of the mission threads will require new "objects" like the space hulk you mentioned. Maybe some of them will require persistent NPC characters. New objects will obviously require someone to MAKE those objects, and apparently right now that's just good 'ol Luis. So having cool unique objects/ships/etc. for everyone's mission threads is probably not an option.

Although Incarnate has said that Luis is working on "Space Junk", so some of that may be usable for new missions and storylines, especially some of the ancient Archaeology-type stories that you discuss, Coach. :)

Cool. Thanks for the link, Snax. I had never heard of it before. Lector is right, there are some amazing similarities.

Wish I had thirty bones to give that a whirl. Ah hell, if I had thirty bucks I'd probably spend it on Diet Pepsi and Skittles.

So, it's a 2d scroller, I assume that there's no flight combat? Have you played it before, or is it just a game you've heard of?

~D.
"Nigel"

Leebs;

Well, I've started writing some stuff of my own. I'll probably submit it to the devs once I get enough material put together if they're interested.

You're right, it would be an enormous undertaking and it involves shifting the partial focus of the game slightly. For the idea to work, there would have to be enough "hulks" floating around to make interstellar exploration and investigation worthwhile. Since I have no clue what kind of undertaking that is for a dev, I can't say whether that's the easy part or not.

I wish I knew more about programming in general and VO development in specific. I never know if my ideas are going to involve one tiny tweak of code, or months of hardcore research and development.

~D.
"Nigel"

Oh its got combat. In fact, the majority of suggestions for this game can be traced back to gameplay features from EV, mostly because the 78% of us have played it (okokok I made that up).

But I do like your idea.

Thanks. If I have time in a couple of months I might give it a shot as a comparison to VO. I don't really have a lot of gaming experience, especially online, with the exception of X-Wing and X-Wing v. TIE Fighter, so it might not be a bad idea for me to get some broadening.

~D.
"Nigel"

Haha, you'll vanish from VO for a month or so whilst you play Escape Velocity: Nova.

Actually if you've got a Mac, coach, you should just purchase the entire game library from Ambrosia, it's well worth it and they're a great company. They also make anothery type of game called Ares which is a cross between EV:Nova and Homeworld.

Just, remember to come back here when you're done.

What was that book Klabbath?

Kix;

I don't know. It's killing me. In all honesty, the archeology was a smaller portion of the book, it wasn't the main focus, which was a murder mystery/conspiracy, but it was still way cool.

As soon as I can remember the book and/or the author I'll post it.

~D.
"Nigel"

This Archeology suggestion made me think more of Frozen Heart and its sequel FemmeFatale which are plug-ins for Escape Velocity Override mad by Martin Turner. Frozen Heart was also about an archeologist and in it planets that were settled in the Great Expansion were abandoned.

Never heard of it, Bob. While I admit that I kypped the idea from someone else, it sure sounds like I wasn't the first person to think of stealing it.

Tell me more about this Velocity Override. It sounds like it could either be a book or a game. If I'm going to flesh this out into anything written decently for possible use in the game, then I need to explore as much as possible the ideas of other authors.

Thanks;

~D.
"Nigel"

Escape Velocity Override is the second in the Escape Velocity Series of Games made by Ambrosia Software.
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evo/
Frozen Heart is a Total Conversion plug-in for Escape Velocity Override and a novel made by Martin Turner.
For the plugin:
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category=plugins&display=downloads&file=FrozenHeart104.sit.bin
For the Novel:
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category=plugins&display=downloads&file=Frozen%20Heart%20-%20the%20No.hqx
Femme Fatale is the sequel to Frozen Heart.
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category=plugins&display=downloads&file=FemmeFatale.sea.bin

You can open the files with Stuffit Expander:
http://www.stuffit.com/

Way cool. Thanks Bob. I'll look them over this weekend. I appreciate you taking the time to look up all those links for me. Thanks!

~D.
"Nigel"