Overall story:
o Set prior to Keen 4. We're told that the council previously 'owed him one'. This trilogy shall explain why.
o The council has been captured. [By whom? Not Mortimer, since up until AAMB, Keen was of the belief he was dead.] They threaten to destroy Gnosticus IV [laser, bomb?] unless the council activates the oracle for some evil purpose.
o Somehow [this detail not important right now] Keen is contacted. By the council/oracle? Or an intentional part of the antagonist's plan?
o A forcefield or timefield* surrounds the city, so Keen can't access it directly. He must land in the Shadowlands (somewhere East of the area used in Keen 4) and find a way to shut down or pass through the force field.
o Inclusion of Princess Lindsay in the plot somehow?*Robo Blue wrote:In my idea, it's not a force field, it's a time field. Anything that enters it is completely stopped, with the exception of light.
Without time, there can be no motion.
Only the oracle has that power, and only the council members can deactivate it.
Episode 1
o Early progress is blocked by a river village, whose slug inhabitants demand the retrieval of a stolen artifact hidden in another location. [Who stole it, what and where is it?] Gotta be more to the story than just this, though.
o Objectives involve activation of some kind of ancient technology. Statues were suggested. Steering well clear of the typical 'collect four items' mentality.
o Possible game finale finds Keen entering a mine shaft, which collapses behind him, preventing his return. The only option is to forge ahead.
Episode 2Robo Blue wrote:How about this:
Episode 1: turbulence
after crashlanding, keen wanders around the area, slowly gaining information from whatever we replace the yorp statues with. He learns about the past, the war, and he discovers that if he activates 4 statues, the council members will take note and deactivate the time field. He deactivates the statues, and the field is gone. However, he still has to get past the network of guard stations surrounding the city, and with the BWBMR out of commission...
o Set in a massive underground cave/mine network.
o Find a way to deactivate the time field, or signal the council that it's safe for them to do so? Or just enter the city via a back door tunnel, under the water.Yowza wrote:BUT not necessarily all for mining. These tunnels could connect to mining tunnels, but there could also be underground temples in here (with the statues inside).
Episode 3KeenRush wrote:This idea just came to my mind, but there could be some high-tech stuff on that place, it could be something base under the ground. With lot's of tunnels and so on, there could be some ancient mines, water, oil, diamond and some escape-ways from the city. :)
(o) Floating city reminiscent of Miragia and Coruscant.
KeenRush wrote:Keen get's in to the city. He must get on the top buildings of it, but the problem is that they are some kilometers higher. He must use lifts, jump from in great heights, and fight his way from hovering building to other, smash some enemies and grab some candy. :)
MiscellanyYowza wrote:Maybe we could have a few underwater levels aswell.. Not with Keen swimming, I mean with tube-like structures that go underwater..
KeenRush wrote:Ofcourse destroying the planet wouldn't affect to immortal Ancients, they would just be blasted around in the space after that..
Hmmm, I think that this city could be very important to the galaxy (because of the wise Ancients and Oracle), like that galaxy's capital. That's why I suggested the name Capitoll. :)
KeenRush wrote:Hmmm, my point of view: The city is the brain of the planet. It is only socialized place, place of wisdom and so on, place of Ancients and Orace, but maybe some others' too. The other planet, there are now cities or other stuff that would have the laws of galaxy, the city is the only place in the whole planet where are those.
The other places are wilds. There can be bunch of creatures that think they own the planet, they may have some own buildings and so on.. :)"
I continue to be astounded at how much depth we can find in the story surrounding Gnosticus IV.Scizor CT brilliantly wrote:Let's say that on Gnosticus IV, a combination of odd tectonic forces and gravitational pull have made possible the existence of an element that is capable of quite a bit more than your average rock. Through a bit of research, the Gnosticines discovered that it could be used to A. Make stuff float, and B. Fiddle with time. The first discovery of this element was when the Lifewater Oasis first appeared: A mineral spring bubbling up from the depths of the planet, which may or may not have anything to do with the Ancients being immortal, but that's beside the point. Mining operations later found more of it, although under incredible pressure and uncomfortably close to large pockets of magma. Unfortuately, a few foolhardy miners blasted through to some magma, which resulted in the entire operation being shut down. The Chasm of Chills and Cave of Descendants can be seen as the remnants of the earlier mining. Later operations were further east, preferably as far from the Shadowlands as possible. What was finally mined of the material was transported to the city and mostly used to make it float, thus defending it from most of the monsters on the planet. The rest of the material was kept in storage in the city until needed. Unfortunately, the *whatever we're calling the invaders* found the combination of the rock and the power of the Oracle to be a potent force. Although they can't directly use the Oracle, they can siphon off its power to create the time field. Now, Keen needs to venture back into the old caverns to find some of the element himself, as it's the only feasible way of getting through the time field.
...
The more I've thought about it, the more it seems like that idea fits into the Shadowlands though. Out by the Lifewater Oasis are Sand Yego and Miragia. Why? Perhaps Sand Yego was once the stockhold for the mined ore before being shipped elsewhere. It seems like Miragia is an abandoned test site for the ore, really. Some really funky stuff occurs there with no real reason why, and the scenery there is found no where else in the Shadowlands. Perhaps the Wetsuit was once used to explore the Oasis? At any rate, I'd be willing to wager that Miragia would be a good basis for the city graphics of Ep. 3. Still, other locations like the Perilous Pit (looks as much like a mineshaft as anything I've seen) and the Isle of Tar (deep with huge tar pits. Sound like a failed shaft to you?) just seem logical.
NOW...
I think the overall story is sufficiently established for now. The details need a bit of attention, though. For starters let's answer some of the questions I've put in [square brackets].
It's a waste of time debating which engines to use for each episode, so I'm making an executive decision to use Keen 1-3 in their original order. We start with Keen 1 in the Shadowlands.
We need to know the objectives for each episode, and tie them in with the main plot. We have a beginning and some semblence of content for each, but the endings need work.
Once that's out of the way, I believe it should be practical to design Episode 1's progression. The only concrete idea we have so far is a slug village and some unnamed item needed to pass it. What's beyond this village? Where is the item located?
We don't need to focus yet on the appearance of the levels, but we do need some general themes as to their terrain and purpose, where the key item(s) will live, a basic idea as to the flow of the map, and so on.
I don't mean to sound too dictatorial, but somebody's gotta make some decisions about this project. The less time spent thinking about the trivial ones, the better.
*passes baton*