Anyone for a trip to mars?

[TrooperScooperMKII]

 

I personally don't think this fits at all, sorry :ohdear: For a start, beam/teleport/wormhole technology hasn't even been attempted in the FO universe as far as I know. It could come from the alien tech I guess, but it's still a massive jump to make. It's pretty unbelievable that the americans won't utilize teleportation tech for the war effort, but have no problem using it to build a cosy home in space? You've got to ask why it was built and why such a powerful resource has never been used, otherwise it just breaks immersion and lore.

Doesn't Old World Blues give you a teleporter to take you to-from the Sink? Of course, an alien ship is an option...

which brings up the possibility of "malfunctions" or FUBARS, anything from non-human interfaces to alternate atmospheres.

 

I prefer the idea of the slideshow and 30 day penalty, with the only way to or from mars being the rocket you get back in. Thing is, the way this mod is going currently, it has a lot of gritty realism. I think adding really sci-fi-ish elements could jeapodize that atmosphere.

Do you mean that instant-rocket travel is too sci-fi or that a starship/mothership is too big..?

I suggested an orbiting ship because it eliminates the need for a launch/reentry... that takes a LOT of fuel/resources, and post-apocalyptic society probably wouldn't have too many rocket flights worth of fuel...

What about a space elevator? Or a limited number of flights, IE you can only go to Mars five times via rocket.

really, anything's good.

 

EDIT: However! Looking at the link to the vertibird mod you attached, I can perhaps see a faction bonus being a hovercraft like the playground one featured in the FO3 concept art (can't find a link to an image atm). It would only be for fire support or player transport though, probably not a luxury player home :tongue:

 

Yeah, I doubt anything beyond a mini Sink-type lab-rat's nest would fit in there..

[TrooperScooperMKII]

i have three questions:

first, when we talk about the aliens, are they all extinct? I assume that there was a "civilization" but when you say alien, do you mean Prey or Predator? Is it a Sphere "menace" resulting from human ignorance/vice, a Dead Space Marker with a grudge or an andromeda strain/Metroid/Alien parasite/scourge?

 

Also, what, exactly, was the "situation" and game plan of the colony? IE was it ever intended as a refuge for enclave/elite personnel, or just a research/recovery gig?

Is it "developed" enough that a mid-level bureaucrat would "re-purpose" a ruin for his "apartment" or make a "special" request for earth-export? Those glowing crystals are just begging for an egocentric life-sized statue to desecrate the dig-site.

 

 

Anyway, some acronym fun:

 

Martian

Oversight [for?]

National

Security

 

Terraforming,

Recovery,

Infrastructure, &

Alternative

Defense/Development (and possibly)

Science

 

Mars

Orbital

Nuclear

Suppression [of]

Obstructive

Organizations &

Nation-states

 

basically, Nuke em from orbit; the BOMB platform.

as a followup, Jovian Ire as a potential codename for a nuclear bombardment;

Aside from being the Roman Zeus stand in (and the king of Olympus) Jupiter is the next planet over (though in distance it's several times farther than Earth, IIC) from my understanding, it's basically a lump of hydrogen/helium too small to successfully ignite, and Jovial/Jovian is associated with, jolly-ness? because of superstitious beliefs linking Jupiter's presence to happiness/cheerfulness.

Edited March 20, 2012 by TrooperScooperMKII

[greenknightfury]

i have three questions:

first, when we talk about the aliens, are they all extinct? I assume that there was a "civilization" but when you say alien, do you mean Prey or Predator? Is it a Sphere "menace" resulting from human ignorance/vice, a Dead Space Marker with a grudge or an andromeda strain/Metroid/Alien parasite/scourge?

 

Also, what, exactly, was the "situation" and game plan of the colony? IE was it ever intended as a refuge for enclave/elite personnel, or just a research/recovery gig?

Is it "developed" enough that a mid-level bureaucrat would "re-purpose" a ruin for his "apartment" or make a "special" request for earth-export? Those glowing crystals are just begging for an egocentric life-sized statue to desecrate the dig-site.

 

 

Well all our talk of aliens that we haven't shot down has been about a now ruined base of an offshoot/rebel group of the aliens from Mothership Zeta dlc for FO3 (and the Wild Wasteland trait only crashsite in the north for NV). They are all dead but some of their abomination experiments (the human/alien hybrids) still might be in the ruins in sealed areas deep within, possibly frozen in failing stasis fields/pods.

 

As for the colony..it has been established I think very fully that it was the first part of the planned settlement of Mars as it's terraforming research and mission was complete. The research into the alien ruins just helped justify it to the upper brass that weren't Enclave for funding it, though the idea of access to a whole new world of resources would have been a huge enticement (and actually an argument for why the Enclave and other high government officials would have very happily made the gamble of trying using the teleporters, from whatever the source of the alien tech the Enclave had thier hands on and allowed to trickled to outside sources for research, to establish a link so any resources not needed for the colony or research could be sent back to Earth easily).

 

But whatever it's intended purpose all contact with Earth was lost during the war on Earth and then the conflict between the American and Chinese bases. In fact a big part of what we had decided was that it was very recent that the mainframe had gotten the final repairs done to signal Earth, after the loss of Central Command to a force of crazed Ghouls (if we are still going with th ghouls taking that part over lol never saw differently). With different tribes and societies having grown up in different dome facilities tied together only by the few traders that move from dome to dome trading food from the only accessible (to them) agri-dome to the other domes to trade for things they have/produce they want. Not all of the domes have people in them of course a few have fallen to the experiments within, and at least one (if we are still doing the Elio/Morlock dome, which was the second agri-dome) cut off by the redesign of the terrain by the Chinese bombardment.

 

Not that I'd stick my nose in the air to some of the domes (or at least one) having a statue of some important figure in glowing crystal *chuckles*.

Edited March 21, 2012 by greenknightfury

[kibblesticks]

Do you mean that instant-rocket travel is too sci-fi or that a starship/mothership is too big..?

Both really. I think it detracts from the feeling of epicness if you can just zip between planets in a second, with a brief stop at a luxury hotel with a ton of amenities.

 

Regarding the ruins; For my part, I always saw the martian ruins as just that. ruined. Like so badly damaged and corroded that the actual structure is hard to determine. This makes exploring them more like delving into a tomb in a fantasy genre game, rather than exploring an alien building. I like the idea that deep within the complex there are cryo pods and bio-researches, as this is where we're saying the basis for FEV was first discovered. Like GreenKnight said, I think we're going with the zeta alien architecture, but retextured to look like it's been abandonded for a few thousand (million?) years.

[TrooperScooperMKII]

OK, I'm starting to see it.

as a side note, what about a Yuuzhan Vong look/feel for the ruins? It's nice and creepy, exotic, even...

the ship/door/gun/building is alive. :laugh:

[kibblesticks]

OK, I'm starting to see it.

as a side note, what about a Yuuzhan Vong look/feel for the ruins? It's nice and creepy, exotic, even...

the ship/door/gun/building is alive. :laugh:

 

I like the idea of having a different look for the ruins but you'd have to find someone else to make a custom tileset for them. I hate making tilesets :tongue: Mine never fit together properly.

[devinpatterson]

kinda thing?

 

I was thinking mars with it's two moons where the circle of stars are, but what you have there looks pretty damn good. I like how you used the 13 stars of the commonwealth (seeing as how the USSA is a federal agency). That emblem is going to look sharp on some power armor :thumbsup: I may still muck around with mars in place of the ring of stars, and maybe make a lunar version with the moon substituted (just to leave a little bit of lore alluding to a moon base), but I doubt it will look better than what you'v got there Kibblesticks.

 

has anyone thought out a main quest for this mod?

 

We will probably put a outline up soon (under a spoiler tag), but check back about a half dozen pages, and look at our expansion of the Dr. Presper/van burnen thread to wipe all non human life from earth.

 

I'm picturing an enterprise-ish player home/starbase which beams you up/down

 

Yeah I think I have the same problem as Kibblesticks in re: to your suggestions. It just goes way beyond the type of setting were trying to construct here, it sounds more akin to a star trek type game.

 

Don't get me wrong I'v been wanting to do a black mesa type research project for the fallout world. Not with the alien invasion of half-life, just the scope of a huge research facility that focuses on applied advanced physics and has developed limited teleportation and other marvels of science. But I digress......

 

But with references to beaming up, starship, laser strikes etc it sounds like ideas better suited for another game setting.

 

EDIT: However! Looking at the link to the vertibird mod you attached, I can perhaps see a faction bonus being a hovercraft like the playground one featured in the FO3 concept art (can't find a link to an image atm). It would only be for fire support or player transport though, probably not a luxury player home

 

Definitely been thinking about vehicles. Most (including the vertibird mod) use a variant of illyism's Rideable Creatures, which I have a tiny bit of insight into. I really wanted a rocket plane, but any elevation means we have to generate more landscape over the crater wall or a raging sandstorm, so I was hesitant. But we might be able to do something like a hovercraft, especially if the model doesn't include any animations.

 

Doesn't Old World Blues give you a teleporter to take you to-from the Sink? Of course, an alien ship is an option...

 

It does, but its a one off, a prototype and only allows t-port back to the BigMT. Plus it appears to be developed after the war, so it's not really tech that the military/gov had access to for the mars project. You could imagine that if they did, they would use t-port tech instead of (or in addition to) plasma rockets. So I think we're better off leaving t-port as that one unique item, at least in regard to this mod. However the aliens have t-port pads (doubt we'll have a need for it story-wise though).

 

first, when we talk about the aliens, are they all extinct? I assume that there was a "civilization" but when you say alien, do you mean

 

They're the zeta mothership aliens. This martian base is abandoned and has been for a very long time. It would be a minimum of at least 500 years (since the saucer has been here since the 1600's when they picked up the samurai), but is open ended on how long ago it could have been. It was definitely a base, but not a native martian civilization per se, the zeta aliens apparently come from outside our solar system. I know we tossed around the idea of native martians in the thread so your confusion is understandable, but there's a few good reasons for using the zeta aliens;

We're firmly in lore, were depending heavily on a tie in with their human hybrid experiments (which is central to the FEV plot), and we get to use zeta resources that are in the main bsa (although hidden, and we'll be tweaking them somewhat).

 

I'd like their research (human hybrid via FEV virus) to be what caused the bases abandonment/loss. I think it adds a moral to the back story and a symmetry to the story line. Plus it fits well with the aliens themselves. Although very technologically advanced (FTL travel, advanced bio tech, starship sized deathray, t-port etc), they aren't what you'd consider a wise and benevolent race. In fact they're kind of little asses. You can see that in the tapes of abductees, and some of the backstory of the human survivors revived from cryo. So to me it makes total sense that they could have created something that got out of hand, the S hit the fan and the aliens either fled the base or where killed. I suppose it's possible there might be on in cryo or something, but I just assumed they were all long gone.

 

Also on a side note there is some chat in the wiki talk tab that humans didn't push the button, but instead the aliens sent the launch codes (non-canon, just speculation). Pehaps the human race was becoming too advanced and space travel was becoming far to feasible for the aliens comfort level. I could kind of see that because they show some hallmarks of a stagnant or even regressing race. They certainly don't seem to be spiritually or morally enlightened.

 

Also, what, exactly, was the "situation" and game plan of the colony?

 

Well according to official lore they (the aliens) were definitely confirmed by the 1960's. But I think we should assume the gov has knowledge and artifacts from the aliens starting with Roswell. Canon lists various items that were developed via or based upon alien tech (from biogel to energy weapons to perhaps even buttercup the mechanical pony). So alien tech is the brass ring of the escalating arms race. Due to a meteor impact (or other cause) some of the alien base/ruins were uncovered by a U.S. martian rover and determined to be of (obviously) unnatural/artificial origin. That technology is the true/prime purpose of the mars mission. It held the promise to turn the tide of war (and if the U.S. had more time it might very well have, the FEV can obviously make super soldiers as evidenced by super mutants). The main mission is top secret/need to know only basis. The pre-enclave shadow gov, high ranking commanders on mars and a few scientists have this knowledge.

 

In actuality there are multiple secret projects besides alien tech recovery like; terraforming tech (both flora and fauna), potentially risky bio engineering (read bio-weapons) projects that are too dangerous or morally ambiguous to perform earthside etc. Various projects have various security levels and some are more secretive than others, but their specific contractors and related scientists are aware of the programs. For example future-tec (a division of vault tek), the creator of the geck, is a contractor at work on terraforming. Their scientists and gov scientist work in collaboration but future-tec scientists may have no knowledge of the bioweapons research being done in a neighboring facility.

 

The official cover story of the mars project is research of the red planet itself for scientific progress, possible resource exploitation and colonization. I should stress these aren't just cover stories, they are works in progress and important parts of the mars program. I'm not sure if the mars project is even known by the populace at large.

 

IE was it ever intended as a refuge for enclave/elite personnel, or just a research/recovery gig?

Is it "developed" enough that a mid-level bureaucrat would "re-purpose" a ruin for his "apartment" or make a "special" request for earth-export? Those glowing crystals are just begging for an egocentric life-sized statue to desecrate the dig-site.

 

I don't think it was originally intended as a refuge per se, but enclave personal saw it as a refuge, as the clock ticked closer to war. That's a backstory to bloomfield, where in the enclave were trying to convert the rockets to travel to Mars but ran out of time. But the ruins wouldn't be open to a mid level bureaucrat, that alien tech would just be far to valuable and is kept under wraps (read top secret).

 

Well all our talk of aliens that we haven't shot down has been about a now ruined base.........

 

I think that's a pretty accurate summation of what we have going on with a few small differences; The main purpose is the alien tech, but other aspects of the mars project are important as well. The aliens can be an offshoot/rebel group, but we don't really need them to be.

 

I like the idea that deep within the complex there are cryo pods and bio-researches, as this is where we're saying the basis for FEV was first discovered. Like GreenKnight said, I think we're going with the zeta alien architecture, but retextured to look like it's been abandonded for a few thousand (million?) years.

 

Yeah I think this is going to be our "go to" because it means some relatively simple re-textures and maybe tweaking the material properties a little, but it shouldn't require a lot of manpower.

 

OK, I'm starting to see it.

as a side note, what about a Yuuzhan Vong look/feel for the ruins? It's nice and creepy, exotic, even...

 

I think in the interest of time and considering the scope of the mod we already have, we probably don't want to delve into a new tileset.

Edited March 21, 2012 by devinpatterson

[kibblesticks]

I was thinking mars with it's two moons where the circle of stars are, but what you have there looks pretty damn good. I like how you used the 13 stars of the commonwealth (seeing as how the USSA is a federal agency). That emblem is going to look sharp on some power armor :thumbsup: I may still muck around with mars in place of the ring of stars, and maybe make a lunar version with the moon substituted (just to leave a little bit of lore alluding to a moon base), but I doubt it will look better than what you've got there Kibblesticks.

Thanks! I did try adding in a red circle for mars, and messed around with moons and other shapes but it seemed to detract from the military feel a bit.

 

We will probably put a outline up soon (under a spoiler tag), but check back about a half dozen pages, and look at our expansion of the Dr. Presper/van burnen thread to wipe all non human life from earth.

Regarding Presper; I know up until this point the quest has begun via a radio signal sent from Mars. I was thinking though, if Presper left with a contingent of NCR soldiers 20 years ago, someone would notice they were missing surely? Perhaps we could alter the idea of [a communication relay being fixed] to [someone asks you to track down their son/squadmate/father who left 20 years ago and has never returned]? Maybe not that cliched, but something relating to Presper leading you to the discovery of Bloomfield. It's just that the idea of communications being broken for over 200 years, then suddenly being fixed and the radio signal only being sent to Bloomfield seems a bit too convenient, whereas a hunt for something else (maybe a wanted criminal, or specialised piece of tech) leading you to Bloomfield could inadventantly begin the quest to discover the rocket's purpose, without beating you over the head with a "You recieve a strange radio transmission. Answer it!" message. Just a thought :happy:

 

Also on a side note there is some chat in the wiki talk tab that humans didn't push the button, but instead the aliens sent the launch codes (non-canon, just speculation). Pehaps the human race was becoming too advanced and space travel was becoming far to feasible for the aliens comfort level. I could kind of see that because they show some hallmarks of a stagnant or even regressing race. They certainly don't seem to be spiritually or morally enlightened.

I've never seen anything about that, but I have seen speculation (actually in-game) that the Americans were forceably pushing for a nuclear apocolypse so that they could bugger off to colonize another planet without competition. Unfortunately for them, events got a bit out of control and the project basically went to hell, along with the rest of their grand designs. Not sure where that would fit in with the mod though, or were you just making an observation? :turned:

 

 

Their scientists and gov scientist work in collaboration but future-tec scientists may have no knowledge of the bioweapons research being done in a neighboring facility.

Lots of interesting rivalry and saboteur potential.

As an interesting aside; here's a list of Pre-war Companies in the Fallout franchise. Might be worth spooling through to see if any stand out as potential investors in the Mars project. Obviously General Atomics International, RobCo, Greenway Hydroponics, Posideon Energy, West-tek and BigMT are first on the list.

 

I'm not sure if the mars project is even known by the populace at large.

If we say it's top secret we can keep it completely seperate from the FO world, so that's what I'd go with.

 

Edit: Had a breakthrough on the Dome walls. I was trying to make them too complex and I just couldn't get enough detail for the scale we were looking at, so I decided to go completely basic instead. There is now an outer wall and an inner wall. They're now high enough to obstruct the player's view of any errors where the dome and ground meet, as well as preventing the player from seeing in properly (and thus breaking the dummy building illusion). I found the hoover dam texture works quite well to just tile all the way around. I'm imagining that between the dome interior and the inner wall will be a fenced off perimeter with watchtowers and warning signs. This is to prevent terrorists and saboteurs tampering with the dome's structural intergrity. It'll take quite a lot of placement (a few hours) to create a perimeter fence which extends the entire way around the dome, but once we've made one we can just create a SCOL and replicate it for every dome after that.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j454/kibblesticks/Dome03-1.jpg

 

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j454/kibblesticks/Dome02-1.jpg

 

 

The new wall setup:

 

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j454/kibblesticks/Dome01-1.jpg

 

[TrooperScooperMKII]

 

Yeah I think I have the same problem as Kibblesticks in re: to your suggestions. It just goes way beyond the type of setting were trying to construct here, it sounds more akin to a star trek type game.

 

Don't get me wrong I'v been wanting to do a black mesa type research project for the fallout world. Not with the alien invasion of half-life, just the scope of a huge research facility that focuses on applied advanced physics and has developed limited teleportation and other marvels of science. But I digress......

 

But with references to beaming up, starship, laser strikes etc it sounds like ideas better suited for another game setting.

 

The moon, perhaps? :teehee:

Fallout Tech Rule #1: If it's possible in pulpy sci-fi, then it's possible in Fallout.

Fallout Tech Rule #2: If it's possible but not present, then it's a government secret.

Fallout Tech Rule #3: If it's a government secret, then it has a secret research facility.

Fallout Tech Rule #4: If it has a secret research facility, then Sh** went down.

 

Definitely been thinking about vehicles. Most (including the vertibird mod) use a variant of illyism's Rideable Creatures, which I have a tiny bit of insight into. I really wanted a rocket plane, but any elevation means we have to generate more landscape over the crater wall or a raging sandstorm, so I was hesitant. But we might be able to do something like a hovercraft, especially if the model doesn't include any animations.

We've got the metro/monorail/subway, the rocket trip to/from mars...

what about a dune buggy? IIRC someone posted a STALKER? model/port...

 

It does, but its a one off, a prototype and only allows t-port back to the BigMT. Plus it appears to be developed after the war, so it's not really tech that the military/gov had access to for the mars project. You could imagine that if they did, they would use t-port tech instead of (or in addition to) plasma rockets. So I think we're better off leaving t-port as that one unique item, at least in regard to this mod. However the aliens have t-port pads (doubt we'll have a need for it story-wise though).

What about relics?

Or even better: malfunctioning (read: human-killing) relics?

 

The Golden Rule of Fallout Tech: The more elaborate, expensive, and advanced a given project or piece of technology becomes, the greater the scale of contrived cascade failures, lethal operator negligence/arrogance and insanity-induced body counts.

 

They're the zeta mothership aliens. This martian base is abandoned and has been for a very long time. It would be a minimum of at least 500 years (since the saucer has been here since the 1600's when they picked up the samurai), but is open ended on how long ago it could have been. It was definitely a base, but not a native martian civilization per se, the zeta aliens apparently come from outside our solar system. I know we tossed around the idea of native martians in the thread so your confusion is understandable, but there's a few good reasons for using the zeta aliens;

We're firmly in lore, were depending heavily on a tie in with their human hybrid experiments (which is central to the FEV plot), and we get to use zeta resources that are in the main bsa (although hidden, and we'll be tweaking them somewhat).

 

'd like their research (human hybrid via FEV virus) to be what caused the bases abandonment/loss. I think it adds a moral to the back story and a symmetry to the story line. Plus it fits well with the aliens themselves. Although very technologically advanced (FTL travel, advanced bio tech, starship sized deathray, t-port etc), they aren't what you'd consider a wise and benevolent race. In fact they're kind of little asses. You can see that in the tapes of abductees, and some of the backstory of the human survivors revived from cryo. So to me it makes total sense that they could have created something that got out of hand, the S hit the fan and the aliens either fled the base or where killed. I suppose it's possible there might be on in cryo or something, but I just assumed they were all long gone.

 

 

 

Also on a side note there is some chat in the wiki talk tab that humans didn't push the button, but instead the aliens sent the launch codes (non-canon, just speculation). Pehaps the human race was becoming too advanced and space travel was becoming far to feasible for the aliens comfort level. I could kind of see that because they show some hallmarks of a stagnant or even regressing race. They certainly don't seem to be spiritually or morally enlightened.

 

Interesting; is the mothership aware/concerned about the colony/ruins?

That could be a possible twist to the ending: eliminating/weakening the mainframe's belligerence (or prester's? power) would potentially pave the way for an alien invasion; Prester might use that pitch to sway the player (possibly opening up an alliance) and claim that he's keeping the aliens from "destroying humanity's future all over again."

 

 

 

Well according to official lore they (the aliens) were definitely confirmed by the 1960's. But I think we should assume the gov has knowledge and artifacts from the aliens starting with Roswell. Canon lists various items that were developed via or based upon alien tech (from biogel to energy weapons to perhaps even buttercup the mechanical pony). So alien tech is the brass ring of the escalating arms race. Due to a meteor impact (or other cause) some of the alien base/ruins were uncovered by a U.S. martian rover and determined to be of (obviously) unnatural/artificial origin. That technology is the true/prime purpose of the mars mission. It held the promise to turn the tide of war (and if the U.S. had more time it might very well have, the FEV can obviously make super soldiers as evidenced by super mutants). The main mission is top secret/need to know only basis. The pre-enclave shadow gov, high ranking commanders on mars and a few scientists have this knowledge.

 

As a followup to the above, what if the US government's increasingly belligerent/suicidal pre-war attitude was "justified" as a preparation for the alien incursion?

It reminds me of speculation that the Star Wars Emperor Palpatine was aware of and trying to prevent the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, and that the new Republic's subsequently decentralized/demilitarized galaxy was a lot weaker than the early empire...

would be a nice shade of murky gray layered over the standard "evil government" schtick.

[kibblesticks]

 

Interesting; is the mothership aware/concerned about the colony/ruins?

That could be a possible twist to the ending: eliminating/weakening the mainframe's belligerence (or prester's? power) would potentially pave the way for an alien invasion; Presper might use that pitch to sway the player (possibly opening up an alliance) and claim that he's keeping the aliens from "destroying humanity's future all over again."

 

As a followup to the above, what if the US government's increasingly belligerent/suicidal pre-war attitude was "justified" as a preparation for the alien incursion?

It reminds me of speculation that the Star Wars Emperor Palpatine was aware of and trying to prevent the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, and that the new Republic's subsequently decentralized/demilitarized galaxy was a lot weaker than the early empire...

would be a nice shade of murky gray layered over the standard "evil government" schtick.

 

I think we batted around the idea of including the aliens themselves a few dozen pages back :P The zeta aliens are just too cheesy and don't fit into the atmosphere of creepy ruins at all. I kinda like the idea of defending against an alien invasion in theory, but in practice, I think Presper being a purist who's obsession is NCR ideology taken to extremes makes him a more interesting character. Restoring the world to a pre-war state by the deployment of warheads seems like a much more symbolic and falloutesque idea than defending against a threat hitherto unknown in the Fallout universe. Plus, where would he have discovered the alien threat from? Why does he think a group of post-apocolyptic tribesmen wielding primitive weapons could hope to match up to a highly advanced race with death rays and spaceships? Why would the aliens even care about us enough to invade us, since they only abducted about 100 people tops in the last few thousand years? It just seems like too much effort to cram an explanation into the story for a relatively minor plot point. Again, I think it's the whole cheesy sci-fi versus gritty realism thing.

 

In my mind the only alien beings on the planet would potentially be a few frozen genetic soldier specimens in the heart of the ruins. Personally I'd prefer not to have those at all but I know other people seem to like the idea and I'm not that fussed :wink:

 

Had another idea about the ruins btw. The original excavation team goes silent after everything goes to hell. The excavation facility was compromised in the bombardment and the team were forced to move inside the ruins for protection and shelter. It took a long time for the other domes to sort themselves out, by which point the escaped F.E.V mutants had already began to cluster at the ruins. By this time the jungle had also began to spread out from the bio-domes, making exploration dangerous. The excavation team became trapped within the ruins. Those who tried to leave were killed by mutants or fell victim to the harshness of Mars' surface. At some point in the last 200 years, the inhabitants of the ruins became tribe-like. They worshipped the aliens as gods, building shrines to them and treating the ruins as holy ground. They excavated further and discovered something something new.. long story short it's the thing that creates the "attraction" that draws the F.E.V flora and fauna towards it. It has midly affected the minds of the excavation team over time, causing feelings of devotion and protectiveness. It's actually a device (possibly a highly advanced AI or just a program running on "auto-pilot") designed to control the alien's genetic experiments and has been running since the facility was abandonded. Of course the player doesn't discover this until they reach the very heart of the ruins. Perhaps a quest by a xenologist could be given to find the source of whatever is attracting the mutants?

 

Anyway that's the long and short of it, sorry for spelling mistakes but it's late and I should be in bed :geek: