So I was thinking, Cataclysm already has small elements of cyberpunk with all the biotics, the distopic corrupt goverment and the hiden elaborate undeground instalations. So why not add corporate warfare to the lore too and add some small hints into the game?
We already have Rivtech and Doubletech as candidates to military contractors that should be over each other necks, as they already kinda have somewhat defined and clashing characteristics and ideologies, and should apparently be very big.
Doubletech brands itself as the hero behind every great action of America and cares a lot about its public image, specializes itself in robotics and electronics, dominating the CBM, Powered Armor and Robotics fields. Rivtech instead seems much more shadowy, they don’t care whatever you think about them, they just let you know that the guns they produce the best in the market, and they know you want to buy them. They specialize in combat gear for special operation teams and at the end of the day, seem not to be very affiliated with the US goverment (or at least not affiliated to the degree Doubletech is), which gives the idea that they are more willing to go with whoever is the highest bidder.
It seemed like a pretty interesting thing to me, and I thought that it would be very cool if the two companies had their back stories elaborated and their fields of expertise better defined, and once we had that, get references of the arm race between them into the game with their respective office buildings and research instalations (and given time and assuming they were big enough to survive, have their remains fighting each other for the control of the new world)
Sure it all comes down to whatever Rivet and Williham think about having their companies fight each other, but I thought that throwing the idea at them was worthwhile.
Based the company flavors on the flyers and items in game, and on the way Williham speaks for Doubletech in this forum, so they could be very wrong.
I like the idea of adding more story/lore and backstory, but I’m not sure of the best way to put it in. As I’ve found with my own RL (which is completely cyberpunk) adding quite abstract lore (like corporate warfare) is hard to do in a subtle/discrete way. Similarly, once the player already knows the lore, any indications become just annoyances/meaningless. You don’t really want to force it upon people either, especially if it isn’t central to the story, as it just adds to confusion.
I think the best way to add lore in is through missions (when we get that up and running) or through meaningful events/objects. As you said, having any remnants fighting each other would be good way to do this. Similarly, having a Rivtech turrent hacker which is made by Doubletech could allude to a corporate war, or finding a dead rivtech assassin in a Doubletech base.
This might have be better off over in the Library board where they discuss lore related things for the actual lore content.
As for adding lore into the game, once we get both more common and working computers, more signage, and especially working NPC’s and the quests they give those things will greatly increase our abilities to put lore into the game.
one company, an evil corrupt thing that employs junkies, gangsters, arms dealers and such while selling drugs and weapons to kids and militant third world nations…
One company, a light for good in this evil world that fights for freedom, democracy and profitsss–
[spoiler]
implying they’re not both subsidiaries of a larger corp creating conflict to turn a profit.[/spoiler]
You see, that way you can profit from both sides of the problem.
God bless capitalism, god bless MJ-12 and god bless Deus Ex.
By the way, if anyone can give me some suggestions I might be able to work at least part of this into the military expansion I’m thinking of, but right now I don’t see anything concrete to implement aside from maybe a dead corporate spy somewhere.
Rivtech and Doubletech factories both have considerable amounts of mechanised security. Well beyond those little turrets they have in the labs.
If you could somehow impersonate an authorised individual that security would be much less of a problem. How do to this? Well paying the ‘unspecified services’ department in their competitor’s office building a visit might provide some ideas…
I like the sound of this. Once NPCs/advanced missions are implemented you could have a mission strand in which the remnant corporations are making a play for dominance over the post apocalyptic world, building towns and settlements and trying to entice independent survivor enclaves to join them, offering protection in exchange for cheap (free) labour. I’m a total sucker for my popular culture shady megacorps.
[quote=“i2amroy, post:3, topic:5171”]This might have be better off over in the Library board where they discuss lore related things for the actual lore content.
As for adding lore into the game, once we get both more common and working computers, more signage, and especially working NPC’s and the quests they give those things will greatly increase our abilities to put lore into the game.[/quote]