Welcome to the Tundra Trek Round Robin!
I'm changing the rules of engagement here because I've gone through four people from the old list and no one was available. Soo...
This is now a first come first serve Round Robin. Simply be the first to post that you are editing the last posted edit, give us an idea what your working on, and give us an idea of when you'll be done. Take your time, but try to keep it down to a few weeks. Then when your done, post it here on the thread.
In order to keep track of which edit of the bin we have, lets start adding an edit number to the end of the bin name, kind of like a version number. So, whoever does the first edit, name your bin 'Niffforum - Something with snow e1.knytt.bin,' the next person 'Niffforum - Something with snow e2.knytt.bin,' etc.
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Plot:
Juni, by some unknown and probably inexplicable happenstance, finds herself in a tundra, one which perhaps should not even be as it is in a tropical zone. Perhaps she has heard about this region and/or its religion and came to investigate. Perhaps a friend lives here which she has come to visit. Her reason for coming is undecided, so feel free to decide on one or make one up.
She finds an abandoned cabin with no wood and begins to look for some. As she looks, she begins encountering labs, and information about an ancient religion centered around two deities which control the four seasons.
These two gods have always been in balance in this region through the religious practices of the indigenous people. (note: should the village be the decedents of these people? If so, lets use ego's interiors to do some backstory of the religion.) However, at some point in time, the people began abusing their "powers" over the gods, and they inadvertently gave the winter god full power over the region.
*** It should be noted that at this point, it is not fully implicit that there are actual "gods" or if there are only seemingly magical yet natural forces at work. However, there is a hint that there might be actual gods in lab 3. For now, however, I'll just refer to these powers as the two gods. It may in fact be more interesting if whether there are gods here or not is never actually revealed explicitly.
The Labs: At some point, a group of scientists have come to this region to investigate the strange weather patterns of this area. They discover the artifacts of the religion and find that they all have unique properties which they begin to experiment with. Among these are updrafts, portals of time and space, an influx of life giving energy, and a black portal that consumes life energy. These energies are discovered to be like positive and negative polls which try to stay in balance, but the method of bringing these energies into our world can be regulated, creating more life and warmth, or less. An experiment with the negative force causes the experience in lab 3 and several other labs to be shut down. The labs are abandoned except for one lone scientist who is determined to solve the riddle of the gods and their forces: the ironically named Dr. Wood.
SOOOOoooooo, this is where we are so far.
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Endings:
We need to decide on an ending or endings, and how best to achieve them. Greencookie suggested these 3 endings and I've edited them to what I think would fit the story thus far best:
Bad ending: Juni simply finds firewood somewhere and returns to her cabin. The end, eternal winter rules.
* Needs a location for the wood, and an inside to her cabin.
* May need more of a reason, like she discovers her friend and leave with him/her, or she simply decides she's had enough of cold.
Balanced ending: Juni is able to reestablish a balance between the Summer and Winter gods and the region returns to its former cycle before the ancient people messed up the balance.
* Needs a location for the Summer goddess' power to be reestablished, perhaps by bringing to it an invention of Dr. Woods, or an ancient object.
Summer rules/end of odd weather for a tropical region: Juni is able to not only reestablish the Summer goddess (balanced ending) but goes on to lock the Winter god away from this region, returning it to a tropical region.
* Needs everything for the balanced ending.
* Needs a location for locking the winter god away. I might suggest Juni must go into the black tunnel with an object that protects her and doubles as the lock. The black tunnel will probably be an "it wait's below" like area.
SOOOOooooo, how much work do we want to keep putting into this? What is the interest level? Basically, if someone is willing to take on an ending or part of an ending, I think we should keep going until they are all done. But if we get to a point where no one want to contribute, than let's at least do just the balanced ending.
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Additional issues:
* Decide on an opening sequence. I feel we can leave this in the hands of any one person who wants to make the opening cut scene.
* A scene with Dr. Wood, furthering the plot, and perhaps receiving an object that helps disable the winter.
* Fix messages like, "I don't have a sound card." and, "I ran out of time." Also, fix bad spelling and grammar.
* A place where the underwater section exits (not into the sky)
* Add lab 1... maybe.
* Voids/SGEs
* Redevelop the room(s) at the end of the lab 3 radiation area to be person free and more key to the plot.
* Flag3 is broken. Do we want to fix this with something in lab 2 or 3, or just remove the whole flag 2 and 3 issue?
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Further plot and level suggestions:
* I'd like to see the insides of the village to the right of Juni's cabin and have that area tied into the plot. I like the idea of these being the descendants of the ancient culture. Perhaps the reason it doesn't snow in the village is someone there has an object we will need to get the balanced and tropic endings. Maybe we need to get their trust by doing something like investigating the labs, the cave, or something from Dr. Wood.
* I feel kind of bad for the way I've handled streightflames and his area. I think I tried to sweep it under the rug because I couldn't figure out how it could fit. Then someone said "perhaps it doesn't need to." Right. So, any suggestion on this? If not, I'm done trying to manipulate this area.
* The summer goddess area could be a cave (perhaps full of lush life, or maybe dead trees and such) with an alter/statue/thing that is somehow broken or blocked causing the influence of the summer to be blocked.
* The under water section MIGHT be an interesting place for the summer goddesses cave, as in you come up out of water and into the cave. Or, perhaps more fitting, maybe a flooded lab 1 is down here, though that might need some plot tie in. Maybe Dr. Wood needs something from there and can't swim! That would fit with the mechanical background. Either way, the "no climbs" would need to be removed so you can get back out of the original entrance, or else there needs to be a second exit from the water area. Would Evil like to be involved in finishing this area??? It is his after all.
* The "failed experiments" area in lab 4 might be a good place for the Black Tunnel. Either that, or Dr. Woods helps you unlock the Lab 3 lockdown. Hmm...
* Some thoughts on the conversation with Dr. Wood: "I don't believe it! You've been able to get all the cards so far? I soooo need your help!" He's trying to figure out how to end the eternal winter, and asks your help. There perhaps needs to be 2 visits to him, one for the compromise ending, and one for the tropical ending. Or perhaps it is the indigenous people who want the tropical ending because it means an end of the whole sources of power thing, something Dr. Wood would probably not want.
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egomassives' suggestions:
The Decline: The ruins are all alters that draw in extra warm power from another space. Many years of easy living caused the people to become lax in their maintenance of the alters. As alters failed the climate began to cool attracting the curious scientists. In their study of the remaining functioning artifacts they inadvertently cut the connection to the warm space. This allowed the cold god to assume complete domain.
Dr. Wood: When the cold god nearly destroyed lab 3, most of the scientists ran. Dr. Wood, however, stayed to fix the climate change he feels responsible for. With his machine he is trying to open a window to the warm space, to set things in balance.
Linear Greenfire Road: If portals exist to other spaces, then this is just another space. The alter must be misaligned. The character there could explain this and even hint that the darkness in lab 3 is due to a door to a cold space.
I also have a proposal for the opening. Juni is visiting an elderly friend who asks Juni to fetch some wood before his fire dies. The winter was longer than expected, so he ran out. It ties into the bigger plot. It explains why Juni is there and why she can't just leave. Also, all the endings described by Headgrinder would satisfy the old man's need for warmth.
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sergiocornaga suggestion:
What if the water section (which doesn't currently have a purpose) were to become the area for locking the Winter God away for the third ending? The surface could be frozen over at first, and only become accessible after re-establishing the power of the Summer Goddess.
This is a little against Headgrinder's suggestions, but I believe it would involve less work, and thus finishing this level faster.
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Last of all, I was as confused as heck about the flag business and how to get into the ice cave. I'm pretty sure the reason is that I broke flag3.
At any rate, since I took the time to put together a walkthrough, here it is too:
Lab 3, obtain Level 1 (flag0) key card in Private Quarters area
Lab 3, Reactor area to lean what you need keys for (flag2)
*** Apparently I broke flag3 to get to the ice cave when I rebuilt Lab3, so this needs to be fixed, as mentioned above.
Lab 3 with Level 1 (flag0) key card, red, blue and purple keys to get Level 2 (flag1) lab card.
Lab 4 to Dr. Wood... incomplete
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For my own sake, I think I will be extending the deadlines to 2 week intervals rather than 1 week.
I would also like to discuss some alternative methods for completing portions of the level. Since I've seen a lot of people who would like to help but don't know how, One way could be to drawing numbers to see who finishes which part of the project. Another would be to re-ask for contributors who specifically want to see this level finished asap, and put them on a permanent rotation until it IS done.
I'll contact everyone on the current list and advise them of this.
Here's to finishing a knice level!