ZIM: A Mothership Zeta Follower Mod

[Cyberweasel89]

@Nadin: Crap... I'm not familiar with HGttG. Mind writing some references to slip into the dialogue for us? You'll be credited in the finished project, of course.

 

@tnu: Hmm... I'm not sure. I'd think not. I'm not exactly sure how that works with modding. Is it possible to run back to the cell, get Zim, and walk through each area again? Or would the quest objectives being complete affect that? And if they do, would they affect that in a good way or a bad way?

 

@apaosha: Hmmm...

Lone Wanderer: Hey, Zim. What's up with those Giddyup Buttercups?

Zim: Oh, those old things? Death machines.

Lone Wanderer: ...What? Death machines?

Zim: We intended to launch them as a toy line complete with advertisements. Then when the time was right, activate them as battle drones to strike back at the humans who loved them. A fail-safe should our presence be discovered.

Lone Wanderer: Seriously? You're joking, right?

Zim: We never got around to fully implementing the plan, though. Your planet's apocalypse happened. The resulting background radiation ended up short-circuiting the receptors meant to receive the death machine activation signal.

Lone Wanderer: Please tell me that's bulls***...

Zim: No, the Equestrian Battle Drones don't excrete like normal Earth mounts. And certainly not the excrement of the Earth bovine.

Me: X3

 

@tnu (again): Dad Lives? I recall seeing it while browsiing the mods, but is it relevant somehow?

 

@Jay33721: Ummm... let's see...

 

Dialogue sample lines:

"Cease hostilities, human! I am of your faction."

"And a speedy injection... radiation removed."

"Your assumption is correct. You do require medical attention. How fortunate that you have me with you."

"Why you thought it wise to experiment with drug use is beyond me. But I shall cleanse your systems nonetheless."

 

Battle sample lines:

"Target acquired!"

"Eons of evolution are on my side!"

"I use far more of my brain's capabilities than you!"

"A shame we could not settle this peacefully."

"The doctor is in."

 

Idle sample lines:

"Fascinating..." (said with wonderment, not sarcasm)

"Still less boring than interstellar travel..."

"Tell me more about the function of the Earth towel..." (only Hitchiker's reference I know)

"I must phone home about this."

(we'll probably actually have Zim use that one as an E.T. reference)

 

For Lulz sample lines:

"Take me to your leader."

"We come in peace."

"Filthy monkey!" (Destroy All Humans reference! Yay!)

"Dammit jim, I'm a doctor, not a mechanic!"

[Nadin]

Just slip in the number 42 somewhere. Or add a dialogue where the player says, modestly, "It was nothing", which the alien takes literally, chiding the player whenever he brings the subject back up.

 

Of possible use, I had constructed a set of alien gibberish for another, similar project that fell through. Any way it could be of use?

[Cyberweasel89]

@Nadin: Hmmm... How about... Zim is 42 years old in Earth years, but still fairly young for his species? And I'm not sure how one would chide another over saying "it was nothing". Is that "it was nothing" as in "you're welcome" or "it was nothing" as in "false alarm, I didn't see anything"? I'm not sure if the alien gibberish will be useful. It depends on why Zim can speak English. I have two ideas for that, which he'll explain when the player asks him. Either he's using a translation machine, in which case he'd never speak his own tongue; or he studied the English language from the abductees and artifacts, in which case he might have a few in-battle lines that he uses in his own language. Actually, alien expletives is a good idea. I might consider option B for that...

 

@Jay33721: Forgot to mention. Jay, any way you could post the samples as a file on the Nexus? I'm not sure if it would be allowed, but we could label it as a resource file, then delete it after I look at it.

[Jay33721]

@Cyberweasel89: Well, I kinda already sent you a couple links to some samples that I put on 4shared, via the Nexus' message system. I kinda need your feedback before trying again (and again, and so forth until you're happy :D).

[Nadin]

It was nothing, as in You're welcome. It's a direct reference to Zaphod Beeblebrox--an alien companion. That is, follower. Not a courtesan companion. You know what I mean.

 

And alien expletives during combat sound like as good a usage as any for the file.

 

Oh, and consider that using the machine translated option can allow for "interesting" mistranslations.

Edited December 1, 2010 by Nadin

[Jay33721]

I tried out the sample lines that Cyberweasel89 gave me. I had to try twice before I could accurately contain my laughter, but here they are.

 

Zim Samples

 

I hope everyone likes them. I know I did! LOL :D

[Nadin]

Dem's good samples. But it seems a bit too human, still.

[Jay33721]

Add a slight phaser effect, then convert to mono. Presto, there's your alien. I'll try that and upload it later.

 

 

Added Later: Edited for more Alienlike-ness. Sounds really weird now. Maybe a bit too much of the effect, let me know what you guys think:

 

Zim Alienlike Samples

Edited December 2, 2010 by Jay33721

[Nadin]

I tinkered around with it a bit. For a better alien voice, I suggest dropping the pitch by about 20-30, and setting an echo with a delay of 0.1 seconds and a decay of 0.3. This doesn't sound like a zeta alien, but it's simultaneously alien and understandable, and a bit intimidating.

 

Just an idea, but wouldn't it be better if the alien spoke in a more-or-less monotone, seeing as human is his second language? The speech seems very human, and it may or may not be too much coming out of an alien body.

[apaosha]

It's a bit british for an Alien. Unless Zim is a public school boy...