Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Happylisk]

Major spoilers ahead, proceed with caution. 

Kyzrati has been posting a blog series about how to weave a plot into a roguelike/procedurally generated game.  It's definitely worth a read.

Part 1:  http://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2016/10/weaving-narratives-procedural-worlds-part-1-value/

Part 2: http://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2016/11/weaving-narratives-into-procedural-worlds-part-2-characteristics/

In part two, he posted a fascinating graph: 



This graph depicts every major NPC in the game; where you can find them; their faction; and the impact they have on future events/other NPCs.  Or as Kyrzrati put it, the "major NPC encounter visualization ... showing those with a direct effect on some later encounter (arrows), as well as those with a relatively significant long-term impact on gameplay (bracketed length)."

Let's try to decipher it!  I haven't thoroughly explored Testing, Armory, or Quarantine so I'm not well versed in the plot events in there.  People who have seen more of the end game will probably have a much better idea than me about who some of these dots could be. 

First off, assuming I am not colorblind, we have 8 majors factions.  Interesting and more than I expected. 

The first one is the easiest.  The red dot on the left is revision 17, since that's the only early game NPC.  What about the other two red dots?  I believe the middle is O7 and the third is revision 17 again in Archives.  I'm not the biggest lore/branch junkie though so correct me if I'm wrong!

The lime green one is probably data miner.  You encounter him early and he can potentially change the rest of the game.  Fits the bill.  Interestingly, if I'm right that means Data Miner is not partied with the other factions.  No other lime green dots.

I believe orange is Zhirov's faction.  The orange dot on the far left is probably O8, who can be found in Zion and gives you that hack to summon help when needed.  Two of the central orange dots are Zhirov himself, representing that he can be found in archives or the caves.   The far right orange is Zhirov again, since he can show up in access under certain conditions.  If I'm right that Zhirov = orange, there's one orange dot I can't account for.

Note that one of the oranges links to black.  If I recall correctly, Zhirov gives you a Main.C related hack... perhaps black is Main.C itself?

There's a free floating yellow dude.  No idea who that is.  Could be O7 if some of my assumptions are wrong.

Warlord is either light yellow or purple.  I suspect purple, since that would allow one of the other purples to be God Mode.  I have no idea who the other purples are and no idea who the light yellow is. 

No idea who light blue is.

Finally, it's worth noting that the branch off of Zion is locked.  I bet there's a major NPC in there that no one has seen yet. 

Lots of robots still to meet (and blow up).   

[zxc]

Red is definitely R17. That is the only one I am certain of. R17 shows up in Cetus and in Research, so the links seem to match up well.

I believe I know what light blue represents but I can't be certain. I also don't want to say, but Sherlock would know as well.

I think orange is data miner's faction (either just him or he is part of a group). I could be wrong... but there are a few things I suspect. And I can't really say much more than that...

I think Zhirov might be pale yellow. I would not be surprised if he were orange though... but it would mean that he is teamed up with some NPCs that I don't suspect. I figure Zhirov to be a loner. Zhirov does indeed show up in Access under the right conditions, so I think these are the only two possibilities for him. Strongly suspect pale yellow.

Purple looks like it could be Warlord. There should be a link between two dots of the same colour because of the scheduled attack. The purple dot at the end of the link also is shown to have far-reaching gameplay consequences, which fits the bill.

Yellow, green, and black are mysterious. What are we missing? Zion could factor in as a faction. Perhaps yellow. Zion might also be a free floating purple. Maybe purple indicates 'derelict faction'.

Actually, I have a small suspicion about the black dot. But it's also something I can't mention in here.

So far, my guess is that all the dots exist in the game currently, and none of this features the Access branches. I could be wrong, though.

[Happylisk]

The two things we can say for sure are purple is Warlord and Red is Revision 17.  You convinced me that Zhirov is light yellow and not orange.

You also convinced me that Data Miner is orange.  If you attack data miner, some high tech grunts teleport in.. very similar to the grunts that zip in if you disable Zhirov's cloaking, and they're clearly not Main.c forces.  This clearly suggests that Data miner has allies. So... 1) who the hell is Data miner allied with? 2) Who is the mid game data miner NPC that links to black? 3) Who is that standalone light green?  It looks like someone you can encounter around -7 or -6.  I suspect this is an NPC hidden away in the branch still locked in Zion.  Is there some NPC you can find in storage that I've never heard of?

I really need to fool around with some flight/stealth builds and explore the new late game branches thoroughly.  It's a pity that my preferred play style is not conducive for tourism. 

[zxc]

The grunts in DM are actually waiting in the walls. You can spot them with sensors, or by digging. Also, DM says something like 'I have just received orders...' near the end of his dialogue.

I believe I know the orange dot that links to the black one, and what the link is, but I am not sure what the black dot actually is (I need to do more runs).

I also don't think every dot is a unique NPC. It might be the same one but triggered in a different way, or in a different location. We see that with Warlord's purple, for instance.

There is definitely an NPC hidden just within the doors of Zion's locked area. I saw it with sensors, but unfortunately I didn't have a signal interpreter. I don't believe we have an access code for the door yet, so maybe it's inaccessible. Sherlock and I have been discussing theories on how to open doors without hacking or a code, however...

You might be right about the yellow dude being 07. I need to take him to Cetus to see what happens...

[Happylisk]

Interesting to know about the data miner grunts.  If you dig em out, do they attack on sight? 

[zxc]

Nope. I tried rewiring one though, and then they turned hostile along with DM.

[Happylisk]

Too bad you can't create traps in this game.  Be nice to dig em out and lay some landmines in front of them before attacking DM. 

[zxc]

Clarifying and expanding on what I said earlier: DM says 'I have been given permission to aid you...' which implies he is subservient to another entity. He then says 'I've just received further instructions'.

[Kyzrati]

I'm surprised Sherlockkat hasn't shown up in this thread yet given how much he knows, but I guess he's hoping to track down the same missing chunk of lore he's been after for a while now.

Too bad you can't create traps in this game.

There are... some unknown ways

In fact, even I'd forgotten one of the more esoteric methods, but was reminded of it while working on the latest map today and came back here to comment. My guess is it'll be a very very long time before anyone figures this one out (by accident). But it's quite powerful...

[zxc]

Sherlock and I have been discussing the dots on discord though. I am not sure why he hasn't posted in here, but the secret hunting might have something to do with it.

[zxc]

Current guesses:

Red: R-17
Green: ?? Possibly hidden Zion NPC or new branch NPC. Possibly DM if Team DM is broken up a bit.
Orange: Team DM
Yellow: ?? Possibly hidden Zion NPC or new branch NPC
Purple: Team Derelict/Warlord
Light Yellow: Zhirov
Light Blue: [REDACTED]
Black: Main.c (in Command or something) or an undiscovered Alpha 11 secret

[Sherlockkat]

Yeah, I have been trying to hunt that missing piece. No luck yet .
But, I pretty much agree with what zxc had posted. One thing that did surprise me was that rev17 seemed to be separate from the Data Miner. I thought there was some evidence connecting those two. One thing was the rev17 was pulled out of the Cetus Mainframe by someone. Also, he has sleeper commands which tells him to focus like 07 and some of the derelicts in Zion do. That's why I made the DM connection. Interesting...

It could also be that 'o' series of programmers are a faction onto themselves. I am basing on that on a piece of dialogue when I was visiting warlord.