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Dear Hoplite

Advanced General Mechanics (Backstory)

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NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS POTENTIAL BACKSTORY FOR FREEDOOM

 

Advanced General Mechanics. Alongside Sword Industries and Polaric Energy Co., AGM is a highly advanced company working for the military. Civilians know AGM for helping local construction crews rebuilding after the eruption of Olympus Mons, for creating the AGMvision TV set, for building planes and shuttles. The military knows AGM for building the chassis for tanks, for manufacturing modifications for the SwordTech Buckshot Tactical Shotgun, for building military bases. Advanced General Mechanics, led by CEO Natalie Miller-Smith, is a massive company; with its roots in humble Charlotte, NC. Advanced General Mechanics never meant to open a gateway to Horizon (a planet taken over by the hostile alien menace that the military was fighting), and quickly refused all implications that they were responsible. As all this was going on; Natalie contacted the military, got them to send a ranger to their little "mistake" on MX9L, and then attended thousands of conferences spread over the galaxy trying to quiet down rumors. She sent a personal bodyguard to stir up trouble in a competing company, planting evidence of drug related crimes in their CEO's office. Still, the event cost AGM trillions of dollars, and they're trying to get their reputation back. They personally offered the ranger a job as he got back, offering thousands of dollars in return for his silence. 

 

Cut to a few years later, and they're successful again. The company stood at the edge of failure and came back. However, this reprieve was short lasting as the ranger caught wind of news of another invasion, this time at an old military checkpoint. AGM owed the hero a favor, and kept everything quiet as they armed and armored him to the best of their ability. An AGM shuttle carried the hero to the checkpoint, desperately flying as fast as they could as they approached the moon it was on...

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We need to collect all the various stories proposed for Freedoom, many of them make for an interesting read. I remember one that was a novelisation of sorts, and very nicely done one! (actually I just realised that its author has in fact published several books).

 

Anyway, what I wanted to say is that for some reason, background story proposals that have been floated here never seem to include any directions on how these stories would further translate into how actual gameplay narrative would be structured. The background story corresponds to exposition in the classic narrative structure, while the "meat" of the narrative is in the levels themselves. Think of the levels as chapters. What happened to the protagonist? Where is he going? What is his objective?

 

I believe that Freedoom doesn't have to, and really shouldn't, copy the original Doom's approach to this. Subsequent FPS games by other developers and community creations alike have shown that within the gameplay framework of a Doom-like FPS, there can be an interesting story told through the surroundings encountered by the protagonist on their journey. For example, Build engine games like Duke Nukem 3DShadow Warrior and Blood took the "theme park" approach of creating each level after a familiar real-life location, and then loosely tying them together into a fun ride which is also the journey of these games' characters towards the final boss.

 

But you can also build the narrative around a more definite goal split into stages that correspond to individual levels. For example, in Eradicator you're supposed to infiltrate a fortress and shut down the protective shield, and level progression is through the various parts of the fortress, from the entry point to the core of the base. The player's objectives along the way are structured accordingly: open the gate or find your way around; turn off shields, unlock doors, knock out generators that power base defences etc.


Finally you can have what could be called mission-based approach. Think Star Wars: Dark Forces where every level takes place on a different planet. Mission briefings actually could be done in the same way as intermission screens for Hell to Pay and Perdition's Gate. This could help bring in quite a lot of variety within a single episode, although I guess the objectives would be all pretty similar.

 

Here's what I meant by saying that the story should structure the levels. Just off the top of my head, here's what the level progression could be like:

  • Level 1: Freedoomguy is held prisoner in a military medical research facility, overpowers a guard (it's guarded by those genetically altered former humans) and escapes. This one should be easy to structure: get out of the prison ward, through labs were experiments are carried out, unlock the doors/gates, get to the surface (if the facility is underground). Let's say he hijacks a truck at the end of the level.
  • Level 2: He manages to get to the nearby town but it's overrun by hostile creatures. The corporation that owns the research facility has its office here, so he sets out to get there. The level could be a track through the town with locales like a shopping mall, gun shop etc.
  • Level 3: Inside the corporation's building. Offices, some labs, an underground section and finally a train taking you to another secret facility.  I'm shamelessly borrowing inspiration from the first level of HacX here.
  • ...
  • Level ?: Freedoomguy gets to a launch facility and travels either to a space station or to a different planet. Or, he could find the teleporter (no sense in not using this) to the same.
  • Level ??: With an appropriate texture set, a time travel scenario could be pulled off, or at least one involving excavations of archaeological sites in the search of alien artifacts.

Disclaimer: The above is just for illustration purposes/wishful thinking, but I do indeed believe that this approach would help bring about the unique identity of Freedoom, or at least for an interesting gameplay twist.

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Your background gives a strong focus on AGM and its CEO while almost nothing is said about the main character of the game. Basically the only thing that the reader learns is that he's a ranger and gets the job done (supposedly).

 

While Doomguy is also a nameless silent protagonist with very scant background story, don't forget that the first thing the readme tells about him is that he was sent to Mars for an act of insubordination when his commanding officer ordered to shoot civilians. This establishes the character in a much stronger way than if they told you his name was Chainsaw McFisticuffs.

 

Personally I've always imagined the AGM as the bad guys who struck a deal with the aliens to gain access to outworld technologies, while the aliens and their eldritch allies had an invasion on their minds. But that's just my interpretation of the game's assets.

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10 hours ago, MrFlibble said:

Your background gives a strong focus on AGM and its CEO while almost nothing is said about the main character of the game. Basically the only thing that the reader learns is that he's a ranger and gets the job done (supposedly).

 

While Doomguy is also a nameless silent protagonist with very scant background story, don't forget that the first thing the readme tells about him is that he was sent to Mars for an act of insubordination when his commanding officer ordered to shoot civilians. This establishes the character in a much stronger way than if they told you his name was Chainsaw McFisticuffs.

 

Personally I've always imagined the AGM as the bad guys who struck a deal with the aliens to gain access to outworld technologies, while the aliens and their eldritch allies had an invasion on their minds. But that's just my interpretation of the game's assets.

 

I never liked the evil corporation trope. I was going to write a background on the Ranger anyways

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