Korath campaign: first contact, establish lore, side story, and Korath-protected smuggler's haven #85
Conversation
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It doesn't. |
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The images won't actually be in the 2x repository. If someone installs the 2x mod, they won't be in there. The campaign will still work, but it'll have 1x images. |
The images have been PR'd to the normal 2x repository for quite a long time. I cannot guarantee they'll be merged in our lifetimes. |
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Hmmm... The high-dpi plugin is a bit of a problem. It's got one or two images (like the main menu) that replace Delta's and is wrong and messes things up. I can't manage a stand alone delta-high-dpi repository. I'm curious as to how many people playing with Delta need it to be small. If there aren't any (if everyone would prefer to have the high-dpi images), then we could just include the high-dpi images alongside the regular ones. Build it right in, effectively. |
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By "need it to be small" what do you mean? |
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I like the idea of putting the |
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Historically, the purpose behind the high-dpi mod was to allow the main game to remain a very compact download. Right now, despite all the graphics involved, it is only about 265Mb. In contrast, the current 0.10.09 release of the high-dpi plug-in is 600Mb. For some people, this difference in size was the difference between being able to download it, and not. For some it was due to internet speed, for some it was due to data limits. For example, until quite recently, downloading the whole ES artifact from a PR was something I could only do a few times per month (because data was precious), and would generally take somewhere between half an hour (if I was lucky) and close to two hours on a bad day. Typical time was somewhere around 45min. While my personal connectivity has improved, for others it has not. (This was part of the reason that problems with being able to build locally were a show stopper for me. Git is very efficient for data transfer, since it only transfers that which has changed and stores stuff in the background, and most of ES doesn't change from branch to branch.) So while I am not averse to including new images at |
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Just to clarify my previous comment: I think including new high-dpi content in Delta is a good idea (until such time as we have a high-dpi specific plug-in or repository for it to go into), but I don't think we should pull content that is already included in the high-dpi plug-in into Delta. So new stuff is good in Delta, but leaving stuff already merged into the HD plug-in solely in the plug-in. |
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Does this also mean you would like the HDPi images this PR will add to be removed once the other PR is merged? |
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OK, as a general note, I've already approved this upstream based on reading the files and liking the looks of everything. This review is based mainly on playing. Using the Cut Shirt pilot file. Please note this will be sort of a stream-of-conciousness thing RPing as Cut Shirt, with ocasional drops into meta commentary. Doing so helps get me in the frame of mind of someone who hasn't seen these things before.
Landed and took off, got the first contact conversation. That is a fun (if somewhat confusing and uncertain) conversation. And by those, I mean the real confusion and uncertainty of playing charades with aliens. The text itself was pretty clear about what is going on. So it's the good kind of confusion. Might even be not confusing enough, honestly, but I think it strikes a good balance between confusion of language and thought barrier and useful gameplay experience. Good so far.
Taking off, I'd like to learn more about these aliens. Not sure where to go from here. Explored the next system over, nowhere I can land. Try the next system, same thing. Jump to an unexplored system, and find a planet I can land in.
Atmospheric stuff. I like it! I'm using my (character's) piloting and technical skills to figure out a way to land safely. The only part of this that I'm dubious about is the description of extending my ship's antigravity field out around me to the surface. I'm not sure it's necessary for the story, or appropriate, to assume that all ships from all factions will have antigravity fields. (the planet description has no mention of significantly strong (or weak) gravity, so no indication as to why it would be necessary. Given all the talk of radiation both in the planet description and the sequence of conversations, though, changing that to refer to my ship's shields and omitting the antigravity part would probably improve it.
OK, so after my fourth landing here, it's a neat world, but despite seeing some loading cranes nothing else is happening. Interesting, but time to explore some more.
OK, they're not friendly there. Some of them ignore me, but some shoot at me. Time to go. Hey look, I discovered a Black Hole. Seems kind of weak, but perhaps it's just this fast awesome ship I'm flying. Anyway, moving on. One hostile system, another hostile system, and I arrive at somewhere I can land: New Tortuga.
Sounds like an interesting place. Overall I like the description of the arrival, although I note the description talks about the turret with heat signatures higher than a breeder reactor. If I have a thermal scanner, this is a great detail, but it's out of place if I do not. (I'm not sure if this ship has such scanning, or if this could be made conditional. Ideally, I'd love this to be a conditional change depending on the presence of thermal scanning capabilities.)
The idea of someone flying around an old Jetmaster is highly entertaining and memorable. Good character intro. New Tortuga is nice! I will have to remember this place for the future. Very advanced shipyard, nice array of outfits. Good retrofitting planet.
Hmmm. An asteroid turned into an Aquarium? The galaxy still has wonders and novelty for me, it seems.
A few fish trading missions back and forth, and I start wondering about Iris. Time to go have a chat. The asteroid is still marked restricted, though, so I'll grab another fish delivery as a way to get in.
Huh, apparently they didn't need the fish delivery, and the port authorities accept my wanting to talk to Iris as reason to let me land. Not sure I like that.
I like the conversation options exploring the Korath culture and the significance of the feather. This really sets up some good Korath motivations and identity, and makes them quite alien but also more understandable, kind of.
Uh... Iris meditates and sees my future part of the galactic stage? Is she a prophet or a seer or psychic or something? This seems weird. I wish I could ask her about it. Is she just insightful and hopeful that I might be a good ally for them? Does she actually have mystical powers?
None of that actually needs an answer, the mystery is better than facts. But I do feel that my character should be able to ask her what she means by that. Is it just a turn of phrase because she deals with a lot more religious people and cultures than typical? Or something else. (Note: I wouldn't expect her to divulge anything significant here, perhaps even be evasive. Maybe it's better to just not have the option to ask. I'm not sure. But I know I and my character would love to do so.)
A few more fish delivery missions, and all is quiet.
That's all for the moment. So far, overall, it looks great. Thanks for creating this.
Only three points that I'm not 100% on:
- Antigravity field reference.
- The way wanting to talk to Iris is framed and getting easy access instead of needing to use a fish delivery to gain access seems... almost too easy?
- Iris' mystical pronouncement about my future seems like the sort of stand out thing I should be able to ask about.
Looking at the files, I know there's a break here with a timer and more missions beyond it. I'll continue from here in the near future.
Co-authored-by: Loymdayddaud <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Loymdayddaud <[email protected]>
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@Zitchas - I don't know what you want me to change. Most of your text was a list of personal observations.
The Korath use this technology in some weapons. Also, human-space hails refer to gravity control plating in human spacecraft. It is likely used for all sorts of things.
You're being sent to Iris as an evaluation of whether you'd make a good new smuggler for the Korath. If you make it out alive, then you're being given the next step in the evaluation. The player might deduce this or not.
Yes, I would like to add some questions the player can ask. |
Ah, clever. I was just sitting there going "Huh, I just asked and they let me in to a restricted port. Too easy!" Now that I know it is deliberately that way, I'm going "wait a second, they want me to go talk to Iris, she's expecting me.... I'm kind of nervous." Re the antigravity reference: I know some places (especially the Korath) do use antigravity. I'm just not sure it's universal, so it is heavily dependent on the ship the players are flying. And there's a huge chasm of capability between "can conveniently extend an antigravity field to encompass an area adjacent to a ship" and "the ship has an antigravity plate that enables it to take off more easily". The later is a very fixed application in area and scope, the former is very flexible and adaptible, and could even be used offensively or defensively in certain situations (Let's make a strong antigravity field around our ship to make things fall away from it to slow down (if not completely repel) missiles and boarders!, for instance) I'd be good with Korath or Quarg doing something fancy like that, but not humans. |
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@Zitchas - Can you remind me of where you're seeing this anti-gravity reference? EDIT: I mean in this PR's changes, not in Endless Sky as a whole. I don't know where the problem is that you want me to fix. |
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A moment ago, I:
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The last remaining issue I can see in your list is letting the player ask some questions. I need to go back to sleep, but I'll dream about solutions over the next few nights. Can you find any other problems? |
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You can put the artificial gravity back on the Jetmaster. :) I haven't been able to get through the test of the missions yet, so nothing further to add. |
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I misunderstood my quick skim through the missions, I thought that was a pause before some more missions, but that was all of them.
Anyway. So I really enjoyed these missions.
It's a very good lead up, just enough to intrigue, without overdoing it. The lore dump by Iris is heavy, but it also matches the context of what she is trying to accomplish. It also leaves a lot of questions unanswered, with a lot of room for the character to wonder why. That being said, she is clearly in control of the conversation, so it makes sense that the player doesn't get the chance to dive into every question they might have.
I must admit that New Tortuga seems a bit too good. Such good ship access in the shipyard, well behavaed pirates, so much prosperity... I feel almost like I set foot into a kid's Never Never Land of make believe idealized pirate port. I don't think this particularly needs to change, just that it will need some good justification. One thing that would make it a little "less utopian" would be replacing a few ships in the shipyard with variants that have descriptions stating or implying that they are repaired, salvaged, stolen, or otherwise not being manufactured here. A decent shipyard with good repair facilities is much more believable than a straight up awesome shipyard. That's not something that needs to be changed in this PR, or even a for sure necessary change down the road, but an idea that would be worth keeping in mind. The shine doesn't need to come off immediately, just that eventually there needs to be at least a bit of grime underneath the polish we see. Of course, this being the start of the story, not necessarily even the starting action, I'm sure you've got something planned, otherwise there'd be no story. I look forward to seeing what it is.
I'm good to merge this. It's a great lead off point. I did make one suggestion up above, which just undoes the deletion of the anti-grav reference for the Jetmaster ship description; since as discussed some degree of anti-grav technology is entirely justified within our setting. (and it's really the only way a Jetmaster could go orbital...) And as far as our early discussion of anti-grav goes, an anti-grav device that shields something it is installed into does not necessitate being able to dynamically project fields. (Projecting grav and dynamic grav manipulation is something much more in the Korath's ballpark than humanity's)
Provided you are good with merging that suggestion, I'll wait for that and then merge this once it is in.
Thanks for working on this!
Just reverting a change made in a misinterpretation of a change request I made
Content (Artwork / Missions / Jobs)
Equivalent
endless-skyPull RequestThis is the same as endless-sky#8752
Summary
This adds the beginning of the Korath campaign and an early side-story. It is based on @ravenshining's Korath, described in the Korath lore document whose GitHub discussion is endless-sky#7777. If you want to discuss this on Discord, you will find ravenshining and I on Swizzle6, but not the main server.
Changes:
The fourth item is transformative in the early game, since it gives players a new way to make money early, through morally-justifiable smuggling and emancipation missions designed for early ships. It also expands the New Tortuga shipyard and outfitter, so you don't have to travel all of human space to equip smaller ships. Once you want big atomic engines and a liquid helium cooler... you have to shop around. All of this is made possible by the Korath, as explained in the side-story.
A consequence of these changes is solving the lore problems caused by Korath raiding human space. The Korath have a vested interest in avoiding widespread visibility, and have human allies to help with that. Korath don't raid Syndicate-populated systems and have a strict rule against landing military vessels on a planet, or shooting at one. Pirates want to keep the Korath a secret due to the financial benefit of a pirate-friendly New Tortuga. If someone starts to talk, those governments will eagerly take extreme measures the Hai and Navy would never use. The level of suspension of disbelief needed to believe the Korath are secret, is now lower than the level needed to believe the Hai were ever a secret.
To Do List
language: Korathtolanguage: ExileOther minor changes
There are a few.
<last>can finally fight slavery.slavery banattribute that prevents slavery missions from picking a planet as a destination. Only New Tortuga uses this, but it could be added to pirate planets.proselytizing, is available. Religious individuals give religious quotes about forgiveness and repenting. New Tortuga is deeply religious and has pirates, so proselytizing just happens.utils/korath-cipher.py) is no coincidence and will feature prominently in the Korath translator story.Noted Problems
... that I can't fix.
@Arachi-Lover 's Drak Trouble
This is a problem with the lore document, not the missions themselves. The lore document presently implies the Korath could destroy an Archon. (The missions just say the Korath thought they had injured an Archon, and it is second-hand information.)
Discuss here: endless-sky#7777 (comment)
Questions and Answers
Friendly Human-Korath interactions are impossible without a story like this.
But lizards are so huggable. Why wouldn't they love me back?
The Korath are deeply paranoid, have strong emotions, religiously-driven moral codes, and are in a precarious situation.
Ordinary pirates and the Syndicate are fundamentally incompatible with the Korath: religious oppression, slavery, dishonesty, abuse. None of that would go over well. As soon as the Korath suspected anything, they would start shooting. Other groups, like the notoriously-honorable Navy, may have better luck, but there are other problems.
Under the Korath understanding of the vague terms of exile, they aren't even allowed to enter most of human space, and their actions in the few areas they can enter, are highly restricted. Humans, in particular, are a protected species, so doing significant harm to them puts the Korath at great risk. Really, anything beyond raiding or minimal trading is too much of a risk.
Even if you took all of that away, the Korath still wouldn't interact with humans, due to their own deep paranoia. The inability of the Korath Exiles to trust is legendary, and is biologically-driven. Without the ability to introduce oneself through skin or feather consumption, there is no easy way to earn their trust. Kind words aren't enough.
Initiating peaceful relations with the Korath would require a momentous event almost unique in their history. The New Tortuga fish and feather story provides such an event. The Korath have a trusted intermediary. This makes New Tortuga a possible route to friendly relations.
In other words, this New Tortuga story is your key to unlocking campaign and story ideas involving peaceful Human-Korath relations.
Why would scientists and engineers ever move to New Tortuga?
Why, indeed?
Safety, excitement, diversity, freedom, "discovered" artifacts (from Korath), and a well-stocked "free trade" zones (black markets).
It is not a pirate world, nor an anarchist world, and there are already job board jobs that explain the immediate attraction: the jobs are "lucrative." Most real-world employee poaching works by giving high pay and good job perks.
Next, the jobs give you access to alien artifacts to study. Some of these "poached employees" are double agents, feeding information back to the Syndicate (or whoever else) in return for trickles of information about human technology. Most are just fascinated by the opportunity to study something new.
If that were not enough, it is also a diverse religious planet, with a broad array of cultures in one place. (This is thanks to the Syndicate's oppression driving their people to New Tortuga.) Ethnic and religious diversity is enough to draw many people.
Lastly, there's the excitement of being on the frontier, in a planet that is nonetheless well protected. Local authorities have deals with pirates, to keep the New Tortuga cities safe. The presence of Korath keeps the skies free of unfriendly authorities. There's enough policing on the ground to keep ordinary crime to a minimum.
Another attraction is the black markets. Anything illegal you can get on a pirate planet, you can get at New Tortuga, other than slaves.
You can do all of that on New Tortuga.
Hypothetical Examples of Keeping the Korath Secret
Some people play dirty.
Reporter finds out too much
Republic intelligence: Hey, Syndicate? You wanted us to keep an eye out for news of lizard people? There's this reporter...
Syndicate: I'm sure it'll be an interesting story.
[Reporter is charged with embezzling funds from Syndicate.]
Syndicate: Hey, bounty hunters! There's this horrible criminal...
[Reporter is dead.]
Bounty Hunters: Thanks for the 250,000 credits! We're glad to have brought this terrible person to justice.
Pirate gang threatens to talk
Bigger pirate gang: Hey, New Tortuga, someone's causing trouble.
New Tortuga: That's unfortunate. Have them fly out of Stormhold, and they'll soon be at peace.
New Tortuga: Hey, benefactors: troublemakers. Wanna kill some slavers?
Korath: Yay! Target practice!
[Pirate gang's ships are pillaged by Korath, and "accidentally" destroyed.]
Human merchant in Hai space threatens to go public about evil Lizard People
Republic intelligence: Hey, Syndicate, some more news of lizards, off in squirrel town.
Syndicate: Sounds like a diplomatic issue. Eh, Navy?
Navy: Yup.
Navy to Hai government: A merchant among you is going to expose the Korath publicly in the Republic.
Hai government: Golly! We'll never hide our nuts if that happens.
[Human merchant is exiled from Hai space.]
[Human merchant is never seen again, outside of Republic maximum security prisons.]
Tarazed Corporation finds out
Tarazed: Hey, Quarg, about these Lizard People?
Quarg: Yeah, a sad story [... two hours of dialog ...]
Quarg: Oh, and a race even more powerful than us put them in exile.
Tarazed: Hey, New Tortuga? Interesting racket you have going on. Any advice on plasma engine improvements?
New Tortuga: Uhh... uh... uh... Yeah, sure! We're open to a collaboration.
Drak, Pug, and Quarg find out
Yeah, as if they didn't already know.
Hai find out
Human merchant: Help! Help! The Korath helped some slaves free themselves! Now they're protecting persecuted human religious refugees!
Hai: It's great to see them having friendly relations again. They were once peaceful artists and explorers. Perhaps these new friends will help them heal.
Human merchant: Ugh. That is so obnoxiously Hai.
Interactions with Other Campaigns
Korath Exiles are not big dumb greedy lizard pirates.
Pirate-Korath Deals - Unfettered and Pirate campaigns both have this, to some extent. Direct interactions between pirates and the Korath would never happen. (See Friendly Human-Korath interactions are impossible without a story like this, above.) They need an intermediary who forged a bond of trust through an extraordinary event. This story was written to ensure these Pirate stories can happen.
Syndicate "taking care of the Korath problem" themselves - Supposedly, this was part of MZ's original Syndicate campaign plan, back when the Korath were big dumb greedy lizard pirates. They're the opposite of that in the Korath lore document, and it's cemented in this story.
The "Korath problem" driving their hostility towards the Syndicate is legitimate grievances with the Syndicate's treatment of their fellow human beings. That can only be fixed from within, by a transformation of the Syndicate corporate culture and seeking of forgiveness. If the Syndicate changes their ways, makes amends with the people of New Tortuga, and provides alternative food sources, then the Korath might consider not shooting at Syndicate and merchant ships. They'll still kill pirates, though.
Of course, the Syndicate could try to "take care of the Korath problem" militarily, but it would not be in their best interests. The Korath raids keep the pirates to the east under control. Korath slowly leak tech to the Syndicate, though not intentionally. Also, the Korath live in a fleet of thousands of advanced, nigh-invincible, battleships, so a Syndicate victory in a direct conflict is unlikely in the extreme.
The direction this PR takes Syndicate-Korath relations is that the Syndicate has been manipulating the situation from afar. This has resulted in profit boosts the Syndicate would not want to lose. Any further Syndicate-Korath actions would either be to facilitate increases in profits, or make amends for wrongdoing (while making a profit).
Unfettered-Korath Alliance - Well-justified by the Korath lore, but not relevant to this PR.
Korath-Alpha Interactions - Already happens in Endless Sky, and planned in several campaigns. I'm not giving away any spoilers. However, this PR doesn't affect any Alpha work that I know of.
Korath-Remnant Interactions - Have remained carefully untouched by this story.
Hai Reveal - There is absolutely no mention of Hai in this story, and none of the planets involved in Hai Reveal are touched.
How does New Tortuga maintain independence? What sort of environment does it have? How did all of this come to be? How? What? Why? Where? When? Etcetera?
New Tortuga lore document. Warning: early draft.
This is a draft lore document for New Tortuga. It covers the human side of the story, not the Korath side, and will answer many other questions. I haven't posted a github discussion for it yet because I haven't applied finishing touches. It is not my document alone; there are other authors, and I need to put in an author list.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fpMh27zA3M4HoeFlVTv87-MoBfbIaqKPJlXkDcTXxpc
Save File
There are two aspects to testing this. One is the story missions, and the other is the smuggler's haven.
Testing the Story Missions
This is a good save for the story mission: Curt Shirt~no first contact.txt
To test:
Testing the Smuggler's Haven
Here's some ship options:
Herr.Bastard.3015-06-12.escaped.slaves.to.New.Tortuga.txt
The key to surviving dangerous systems in the early game is to never move in a straight line, especially when entering a system or departing a planet. I usually press and hold forward and left, or forward and right, whichever takes me out of danger. With this trick, I play a large part of the game with a Sparrow, meeting the Coalition, Remnant, Wanderers, Korath automata, doing some spaceport missions. In comparison, New Tortuga is easy to get to. I have terrible reflexes, so I suspect a lot of other players will find this easy too.
Or you could just use the Leviathan and blow up the pirates.
Spoiler Screenshots
The text and art may be out-of-date, and will be increasingly so as the review progresses.
Edit: I just took out most of the screenshots because they were very out-of-date. I'll make new ones in 10-20 hours.
Independent Governments and New Planets
Screenshot
Early-Game Missions to Lure the Player to New Tortuga
Screenshots
The New Tortuga area is intended as an early game area for daring pilots. There are missions that lure you to New Tortuga early.
A Difficult Landing on Rabasot Pa'ah
Screenshot
La'ab Bamen Jobs
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These jobs fetch animals and plants from throughout human space for the Korath to study as potential food sources.
New Tortuga Jobs
Screenshot
A wide variety of unusual smuggling and slave rescue jobs.
Artwork Checklist
@2xversions of these art assets: Korath campaign: first contact, establish lore, side story, and Korath-protected smuggler's haven endless-sky-high-dpi#364