Monday, October 14, 2013

Turncoat Dev Diary: Life in the Turncoat Universe

Since much of the Turncoat Universe's history exists to provide the backstory in support of a mystery, I'm hesitant to say too much very definite almost it, but the whole time this succession of blog posts, I'll be conversation almost the process and the motivation so as to went into building our universe as well as the nuts and bolts of building the concrete game. For the earlier to turn into one good judgment, you'll need by the side of smallest amount a little context.
The creative Turncoat story is calibrate in the deferred 24th century all through a war being fought linking Earth and its earlier technical colony on Mars. People of Earth call the frequent of Mars "Seditionists" or "Seds"; they simply rarely call them "Martians" and in no way "Colonists".

This is not a civil war, however. Though nix Earth government endlessly officially acknowledged Mars' sovereignty, neither had nearby endlessly been one attempt to prevent the secession. The two planets had been calmly coexisting until almost thirty years in the past. The Mars Colony truly seceded a century earlier all through a bloody multi-nation (but fortunately, non-nuclear) conflict on Earth, a conflict so as to led to the eventual creation of a single, unified Earth government.

Why are Earth and the Mars Colony by the side of war? What on track it, and why can't the two planets attain a peaceful outcome? Those are a little of the superior mysteries of the Turncoat Universe; the player and the major typescript don't know all the forces so as to are driving the conflict. Modish detail, on the whole of could you repeat that? They act know is based solely on propaganda from their own part. What the player does know in support of certain from before time on is so as to the war was on track by the Seditionists who launched a astound attack on Earth using devastating long-range weapons. Why the Seds attacked Earth is the field of study of much conjecture, but the real reasons are not celebrated on Earth. Players plus attain not worth it quickly so as to the war has been leaving on in support of a very long instant and shows nix cryptogram of end one instant soon.

Modish the Turncoat universe, nearby is nix faster-than-light travel and nearby are simply a handful of humans who allow endlessly gone the solar order. Travel linking Earth and Mars is still a danger-frought six to eight week journey depending on the qualified positions of the planets. That makes the war fractious and expensive to bear on. Large weighing machine whereabouts are relatively rare, and simply a small percentage of Earth citizens are involved in fighting the war. War happens "out there" and doesn't really affect the day-to-day life of run of the mill Earth folk who aren't in the services.

But "out there" is a risky place. Ships don't allow shields like in Star Trek, nor act they allow FTL capabilities. They're operating millions of kilometers away from home-based with very little in the way of support. When a ships takes a gain from enemy weapons, frequent crash and parts of the boat befall unusable.  But these ships allow a job to, and if a boat is still able to fight, it stays "out there" and fights.

The player in Turncoat sees procedures from the meaning of point of view of elite Earth soldiers stationed on single of Earth's "Deep Fleet" ships. The Martians are the "bad guys". They're the mostly-nameless and mostly-faceless soldiers who are difficult to exterminate them. At at the outset, we don't even really comprehend them as frequent. They're represented by enemy ships and mirror-faced deep space suits so as to are shooting by the side of the player.

While players don't know much almost the culture, history, or home politics of these faceless enemies, by the side of smallest amount by the side of the start of our story, they act start result not worth it almost life on 24th century Earth straight from the get-go, so we had to deposit a batch of accepted wisdom into could you repeat that? Life would be like in our 24th century Earth.

One of the kind things almost letters fiction is so as to you progress to decide how things fool around not worth it. We categorical so as to we wanted our 24th century Earth to be, on undivided, better than at the moment. We care for to there an optimistic outlook, but single tempered by authenticity. There will for eternity be problems and conflicts; we act not care for to there a utopia. People are still self-interested and petty. There are still rich and poor, and nearby are still frequent willing to profit by the side of the expense of others.

But, overall, life is better in support of on the whole frequent than in the onwards recognition to steady advances in medicine and tools and other fields.

Thinking familiar just about four hundred years is not as comfortable as you might think. If you product backwards so as to same amount of instant, you'd be in the before time seventeenth century. To deposit so as to in perspective, the before time seventeenth century was the dawn of the Age of Sail. Firearms existed, but were not the primary weapons used to wage war. Only single of the American colonies had been founded. It would be just about two hundred years beforehand the British Empire would bar Slavery and greater than two hundred and fifty years until the American Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation would act the same in the United States. Throughout on the whole of the humanity women were considered property, lacking the straight to election or clutch title in their own surname. People were wildly xenophobic and superstitious. Modish the before time sixteen hundreds, frequent were still being deposit on trial and often hanged or burnt by the side of the stake in support of witchcraft and heresy, and both the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions were in chubby force.  It would be any more two hundred and twenty-five years, break or take, beforehand Darwin’s voyage on the HMS Beagle.

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