Quest Mod idea (project animalia)

[oOkagsOo]

Hey all,

 

I wanted to talk about a mod idea that I think would be very time consuming but if done correctly could be a pretty interesting payout.

 

The main parts of the mod is; New planet, Quest, new companions, alternate start (optional) and new races that put you into the alternate start.

 

TLDR: a mod they takes you to a planet that's made up of animal like beings.

 

this is just a brief synopsis with no specific dialog or names of characters. The backstories and lore also wont be discussed. if more interest is generated i will add more through questions. Currently i am in the process of drawing concept work for the cities and characters.

 

The quest has 3 starting points..

 

1. a quest giver for a government entity tasks you with destroying a downed ship on a distant moon.

2. you find a mysterious android on display at a museum are are tasked with restoring it.

3. you create a character using the new races that puts you on the planet.

 

if you follow the first quest, you arrive at a seemingly simple space wreckage with various androids ejected from the ship and destroyed. as you enter the ship you find a terminal along with a still intact but strapped in android. you are given the option to activate him (there will be other options as well like diary logs and self destruction protocols to complete the quest for the corporation along with a distress beacon).

 

After activating the android it tries to talk but it sounds like a jumbled mess. so it raises its visor and uses its LED eyes to communicate along with hand gestures. if you pass the intelligence checks, he will become your companion and you will have options to modify him as your relationship grows along with repairing his voice box. when you get to a certain relationship leval, he will begin to talk about his home world and will eventually give you directions to follow to get there.

 

Once you follow the marker to this hidden planet and land, you are approached by animal like individuals wearing suits and guns fixed on you. they are asking how you got here and who you are. eventually your screen fades to black and you are in a research area in a unknown location and the android you are with is no longer here. during your interview you find out that the entire world is made up of animal like beings and the city is very primitive with exception of their androids. you also find out that the android you saved was apart of the first team to ever leave their solar system. they lost contact some weeks ago and assumed they crashed landed. at that point they were waiting for a distress beacon which never came so they had no idea where they went to mount a recue.

 

the interview drives on and you let them know that you were sent there to destroy the remnants of the ship for a corporation. the interview looks shocked that you know about them and almost lets it slip that they know more then they are saying. as they leave to talk to their boss. as you wait. you can try to picklock the door and sneak out, or wait until the interviewer returns. if you wait, the interviewer will conclude the interview and after sometime will take you back to your ship and tell you to never come back. IF you sneak out of the building you run into your android which assists you in your escape.

 

If you escape, you have to find your way to your ship. the android takes you to hide within the great ruins which is guarded by tactical robots. (that's what I have so far for the first option)

 

If option 2 is chosen, you find a mysterious android head and torso at a museum. when talking to the curator, he tells you he's not quite sure where it came from but says he bought it off a vendor. He then goes on to talk about how amazing it would be to activate it again to find out. if you accept his quest you will be tasked with searching for parts to the android along with having a sufficient repair skill. you will have to barter and explore planets to find the parts needed to repair the android.

 

Once all the parts are found you are paid for your work and invited to come back once its ready to be turned on. after 3 in game days, you are contacted by the curator that's says the android is ready to be activated. He asks if you want to attend the activation? If you accept he will wait for you to return before turning it on. if you refuse 2 days later you receive a distress signal from the museum.

 

Assuming you go to the activation. you see wealthy people along with clerks serving drinks. He invites you to stand front row to the activation. You along with the rest of the spectators are viewing through glass as you see the completed android laying on a table. The curator enters the room along with an armed guard. He then goes to his terminal and activates the android. The android shutters to life and looks around the room. The guard keeps his hand on his gun as the curator begins to talk to it gently. The android feeling threatened grabs the curator and slams him against the control panel. The guard pulls out his gun and attempts to shoot the android. The android then uses the curator as a human shield before throwing him at the guard incapacitating him. the android then looks around the at the window as people begin to panic. The android looks at you directly and begins to punch the glass shattering it. before pushing you out of the way and leaving the museum.

 

you hear the curator coughing and sputtering as he tells you he embedded a tracker into the android. He then asks you to stop it before it hurts anyone else before dying. You use the tracker to find the android in a cave. you are given a dialog option to talk to it due to it seemingly not being hostile to you. The android asks if you were friends with that monster. if you say you didn't know him personally and was just doing a job. it tells you that its AI chip was active the entire time it was on display and that he was torturing it trying to activate it. It then apologizes to you then thanks you for putting it back together again. after some more questions you can let it know that police will be here and they will think you are rogue. you can invite it to become a companion. if the android agrees it'll become your companion and just like the other android from the first starter, you can customize the android to what you like. once you get to a certain level of the relationship, it'll tell you about the planet it was made in.

 

It'll then merge with the narrative of the first option except some different options since you were able to find the repair parts and assisted the android in escaping. throughout the narrative there will be options to change your character from human to animalian or to android. i just don't know how to include it into the narrative yet

 

 

Custom Races and Alternate start:

 

This is only for people who want to start option 3. This gives you the ability to choose the android race or the animalian race. You can choose between, wolf, fox, or cat (with more in future updates).the other race is the Android race called a guardian. these ones you can choose between the space explorer, the recon, or the service guardian. these units are all canine oriented with specialized perks. They also do not have to wear space suits (optional).

 

In terms of narrative, if you choose any of these characters you will start our working for the space department of the vulpine institute of science and technology. after you choose your stats and go through a brief narrative of working within the institute. you receive work you have been selected to go search for a missing exploration vessel with a 2 crew members (that you choose either android or animalian). after launch the guidance android takes control and you go into cryo sleep with the rest of your team. eventually you hear a warning blare and you wake up. you are locked into your cryochamber as you hear the system saying there is critical damage to the reactor. you thee the guidance droid run to the cryo room and begins launching the pods to space and activating the distress beacon. as he gets to you he puts his hand and the glass and wishes you luck before pulling the lever launching you to space. as you float away you see the ship explode behind you. shrapnal hits your pod knocking you out. as you wake up you see rubble from the ship surrounding you. you do not see where the other pods went. soon you see a light and a ship stop around your wreckage. the rubble is moved away and the person who sees you his shocked. he radios that you are alive and need to move you into the airlock stat. after arriving into the lock the cut you out of the chamber and pull you out. this then start dialog to which they ask you if you remember what happened and if there is anyone else.

 

After completing your dialog you are given two quests. one is to help the people that saved you and the other is to find out what happened to your missing friends and what caused the destruction of your ship. (thats all I got so far)

 

The narrative is still in a super rough draft and will require more time to flesh out how you get access to the below features naturally through progression no matter what race you choose.

 

As you can see there is A LOT going on and it will require me to figure out the constraints of the game before delving into development along with finding a team of designers and voice actors to bring my vision into a reality.

 

 

Below is the feature set im wanting to has in the mod:

 

New planet with 4 to 5 major cities

Custom Races

Customizable android race

Custom clothing and space suits for the races and androids along with patches to make generic suits compatible with the animalian and android races.

a means to make your own androids at your settlement or in ship

custom weapons

Radiant dialog if you choose the animalian or android race (like "is that fur?" or what are you animal or human?)

 

 

Anyway let me know what you think or if you have any questions!

 

UPDATE: i have made a twitter for the project! (link: https://twitter.com/Animalian_Lore)

Edited July 15, 2023 by oOkagsOo

[chibidoragon]

Just some random ideas I had, three cents worth.

 

Maybe something like Vargr from Traveller ( https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Vargr ) Animal / human hybrids taken from earth by ancient aliens in the distant past and planted to a new planet.

 

New species should be doable, if we keep normal human body (just add tail) and some animal-like heads. (Assuming the clothing works like it does in oblivion/skyrim/fallout) should be fairly doable, harder if the custom race is playable.

 

They should have some "weird" quirks in their society so that it would be interresting for regular humans to explore their homeworld. Maybe entirely different cultural norms, depending on wich species they are based on.

[oOkagsOo]

Just some random ideas I had, three cents worth.

 

Maybe something like Vargr from Traveller ( https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Vargr ) Animal / human hybrids taken from earth by ancient aliens in the distant past and planted to a new planet.

 

New species should be doable, if we keep normal human body (just add tail) and some animal-like heads. (Assuming the clothing works like it does in oblivion/skyrim/fallout) should be fairly doable, harder if the custom race is playable.

 

They should have some "weird" quirks in their society so that it would be interresting for regular humans to explore their homeworld. Maybe entirely different cultural norms, depending on wich species they are based on.

thats a solid idea! the story as a whole is that the planet was quarantined due to a disease that turned the population into animals and wiped their memory of humans after about 400 years of evolution and quarantine. the biggest hurdle would be finding someone to assist in creating the different animalian races for both planet and player race. They would be relatively the same human model as you said they would just need a animal head and tail (maybe custom legs as well). im currently in the process of writing the story but your more than welcome to reach out via the twitter i made for the project!