EPIC: Plz give us more story in the game

[Taleweaver]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned a link to the similar Atari thread, so far. Unlike usual, I agree with most of the replies there.
Kinda strange that the majority of people are voting in favor of more story there as well.

Anyway, I think Discord expressed my feelings better than I could do myself:

The next attempt at a story needs to kick off with, "So. You remember all that stuff we told you in '03 and '04? Well, forget it. We were just pulling your leg. Here's what REALLY happened..."

And furthermore, I don't give a rat's roast about the individual characters, I never have. Malcolm, Brock, Lauren, even Xan... just don't care. I love the Malcolm and Xan models, the models I care about. The characters? Meh.

"Necris process." Don't make me larf.

Now here's a short- and- sweet and IMO somewhat satisfying potential plotline for the next UT game:

The year is now 2384. The success of the tournament has exceeded everybody's wildest expectations and become a staple of modern popular culture... not to mention a cash cow. Wage- slaves and criminal scum the galaxy over have come to see the tournament as a way out of their squalid existence and the key to fame and fortune, and now time- honored sporting fare like Deathmatch and Flag Capture continue to command a following.

In an effort to yank some of the profits away from Liandri Mining, notorious arms manufacturing concern Axon Corporation has started its own league offering huge outdoor arenas, over- the- top combat featuring bleeding- edge military hardware (read: ONS and CON) and slicked- up production values.

Despite the growing popularity of the Axon Extreme Combat League (as it's come to be known) and corresponding annual revenues of truly epic proportions, the new tournament with its enormous production costs is expected to operate at a net loss for the 8th year running. This fact combined with scarcely- concealed interest from some of the shadowier circles of galactic society has sparked rumors that something far more sinister than bread and circuses is actually going on here...



And there you go. You don't need a helluva lot more, really. And there's no corny magic there, just some nice scuzzy intrigue and corporate malfeasance.

As far as single player campaign goes, meh... do what you like. I'll probably (once again) blow through the ladder just to say I did it and then head off to the servers.

IMO, that's all the kind of story you'll need :tup:

(okay, I suggest a part that talks about YOU entering the tournament instead of some character, but that's it).

 

[JaFO]

The way that story is written it sounds like it's from someone that can't stand ONS/Conquest.

Of course you could try what Tribes did from the start and 'explain' the matches particulary those in ONS/Conquest as a sort of stylized/televised form of warfare. It would help to explain why some maps weren't completely 'fair' and why competing teams have different vehicles (they bring their own).

In other words : no hiding behind "extreme combat league", but a 'real' war that's fought in battlefield-sized arenas with 'official' rules with companies/criminals and even some teams earning a few extra credits by betting on the results.

It could become something like the tournaments of the medieval era on earth. There'd be plenty of chace of 'cheating' and other dirty games as well.

 

[empty_other]

Come on! How many of you played UT99? Was it only me who enjoyed reading trough every bot's bio? Enjoyed reading who was in the war, or what personal purpose they had...

And anyone of you played Unreal 1? Did you play that just because of the graphics? Why didnt more people play Unreal 2 then? And it was even more action than Unreal 1, so you didtn not play Unreal 2 for the action... The only two things who made me hate Unreal 2 was the storyline and the weapons.

So i say YES to a storyline in Envy! Amen.
(you are welcome to try to talk me off my opinion. Should anyone come with an argument good enough, i will join your side instead. If not, go play Quake3. They have action, good weapons, and NO story).

 

[JaFO]

*eh* Q3A did have a story :
"Mysterious aliens kydnap 'famous' fighters to use as gladiators in their own arena"
Even the characters had a 'story' of sorts.

The only real difference is that Id didn't even try to tie them all together into something that was somewhat coherent (IIRC they used time/dimensional-travel as an excuse a bit too often).

 

[Killavirus]

**** story. Give me WAR!!!

Hit the nail on the goddam head

 

[Taleweaver]

Come on! How many of you played UT99? Was it only me who enjoyed reading trough every bot's bio? Enjoyed reading who was in the war, or what personal purpose they had...

Ehm...I don't know what your definition of a "story" is, but a bio is just that...a few reasons on why they are in the tournament.

And anyone of you played Unreal 1? Did you play that just because of the graphics? Why didnt more people play Unreal 2 then? And it was even more action than Unreal 1, so you didtn not play Unreal 2 for the action... The only two things who made me hate Unreal 2 was the storyline and the weapons.

The Unreal's are singleplayer games, so they don't count. You don't want to have a translator in Envy that gives you messages from fallen warriors that give hints/tips on how to proceed while you're in the middle of a DM fight, right?

So i say YES to a storyline in Envy! Amen.
(you are welcome to try to talk me off my opinion. Should anyone come with an argument good enough, i will join your side instead. If not, go play Quake3. They have action, good weapons, and NO story).

How about the argument that so far, more people like the UT99 storyline instead of the UT200x one? No matter how you look at it, UT200x had more story than UT99. It introduced characters in movies (as opposed to "just" bio's). who had a certain relationship to one another, the different teams/races had personal reasons to fight, and so on.

IMO, subtility is the key. It is the player who is going to do the fighting, so don't disrupt his/her ideas too much on how (s)he sees the tournament. It's a complete given that you're going to keep fighting until the end, so any sidestory on the who and why is doomed from the start.

 

[NeoNite]

*eh* Q3A did have a story :
"Mysterious aliens kydnap 'famous' fighters to use as gladiators in their own arena"
Even the characters had a 'story' of sorts.

The only real difference is that Id didn't even try to tie them all together into something that was somewhat coherent (IIRC they used time/dimensional-travel as an excuse a bit too often).

Seeing how you're involved with bots and their feelings, you must've checked those bot chat files already ;O)

You can find some interesting things about the characters in there.








(I wish UT also would have had a bot chat system. OPTIONAL, that is.
You could simply disable/enable it.
It's fun making a bot in Quake3.)

 

[gregori]

UT2k3 had brilliant looking character models and cool themes and planets a big improvement on ut99, then they messed it up by having no real story,no development so you aren't immersed in that universe, the themes weren't exploited enough and all the voicepacks are the same.

It's Bullsh#t to say a fps doen't need story, of course it does, otherwise their would be no need for good graphics or any graphics for that matter. Ut2k3 just felt overwhemingly flat souless compared to it's predessor, all the levels are lifeless factory levels., and over balancing of the weapons took out fun factor of the game. GTA:vice city is a very simple game with run and gun gameplay and it still has a well acted and entertaining storyline that doesn't get in the way of the gameplay, instead it makes it immersive.

UT2k3 was originally meant to be set 200 years after the original UT, with a wierd empire race, liandri where long gone, then they got rid of this idea for 2k4.That was a stupid thing to do, having to different timelines in the unreal universe and two different sets of races would have been cool it Epic had the imagination to pull it off!

 

[Dark Pulse]

UT2k3 was originally meant to be set 200 years after the original UT, with a wierd empire race, liandri where long gone, then they got rid of this idea for 2k4.That was a stupid thing to do, having to different timelines in the unreal universe and two different sets of races would have been cool it Epic had the imagination to pull it off!

I dunno where you're getting that idea from. Malcolm was still tournament champion in UT2003 - surely, as a human, unless some sort of "Fountain of Youth" were discovered, Malcolm would have either died or been defeated during that time!

 

[gregori]

there was no malcolm in Unreal championship/ut2k3 originally then he was added at the end of development cycle in anyway, you can read this off the gamespot e3 preview from years ago now, it was set 200 years in the future minus one liandri corporation, in anyway they don't need a fountain.if they can bring people back from the brink of death in ut surely they can prolong life.An even better idea would to have for example Malcolm III or some lark like that, where his decendants fight keeping the honourable family name or maybe his blood line has been cloned repeatedly so on so forth.Titles like numerals would bring in the whole empire thing into the story.

 

[carmatic]

Let me show you the unreal timeline, which is GREAT, http://www.unrealtournament.com/general/timeline.php. Now the only problem is that MOST people dont care about that and will never read about it because it is just TEXT.

wheres that part about the vortex rikers crashing on na pali?

 

[gregori]

that happens years before the human skaarj war when humans meet the skaarj for the very first time, of course it sucks they have put specific dates on it,it's better you don't know the exact time but it's untold years into the future......

 

[carmatic]

UT2k3 was originally meant to be set 200 years after the original UT, with a wierd empire race, liandri where long gone, then they got rid of this idea for 2k4.That was a stupid thing to do, having to different timelines in the unreal universe and two different sets of races would have been cool it Epic had the imagination to pull it off!

eh ??? thats definitely new to me... where did you get that from?
besides, after playing through so many custom maps , it kind of wears off on you that any attempts at weaving a story will end up being shredded by the realities of playing a game... like you would just want to forget about the storyline sooner or later when you have a game that's like ut2k4 which is so community powered with custom maps, characters, and other stuff... if on the other hand, you play a mmorpg, then storyline is very important... but since envy is going to be community based and much like ut2k4, then i dont think that a storyline would do much good...

 

[carmatic]

that happens years before the human skaarj war when humans meet the skaarj for the very first time, of course it sucks they have put specific dates on it,it's better you don't know the exact time but it's untold years into the future......

i meant like, that attempt at a timeline was missing something.... like, no vortex rikers crash on na pali = no unreal

 

[gregori]

so a story can still be fleshed out althought its not as important as the one in a rpg its definitiley important you connected the various characters,worlds,themes and visuals togheter, since their bringing the krall+stinger into Envy looks like their integrating in the original story, they definitly should have some maps set on na pali, and explain why the skaarj wanted tarydium so much, i reckons it's neccisary for space travel and various other machines, and human/skaarj war was over control this resource, travelling trough space is too slow without it. Why would the skaarj invade earth anyway? coz their evil? it's just like the gulf war being fought over oil and the like, that story fits

 

[gregori]

the 200 years later thing comes from the original story for uc with the empire seizing control over a liandri dominated galaxy. you can read it from the uc preview at e3 on gamespot from some years ago i think 2001

 

[NiteX]

I don't want story, I want better gameplay!

 

[gregori]

yeah true, but this is a thread about more having more story, give out about lacking gameplay elsewhere!

 

[Bullet10k]

Bump!

This game REALLY REALLY NEEDS story!

 

[Bullet10k]

I don't want story, I want better gameplay!

Did you know you can have both without sacrifising one or the other?