Setting Background Overview #1

So, here it is, the first small essay about where exactly What Remains takes place, and other cool stuff. Some parts the cautios reader already knows, some stuff is new. Everything is still vague enough to don't drop in spoilers by accident.






What Remains will take place in the northeastern region of the former United States of America in the year 2097, precisely in the Midwestern Commonwealth, merged from the states Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan or Illinois for example. Even though the region might sound familiar to our real life universe, the war has left scars on the actual people living there, the fauna and flora, and the very landscape itself. Craters as big as cities, former flatland now turned into big ranges rendering the travel impossible, former lakes or rivers either dried out, or with now complete altered courses, all due to the devastating power of the bomb.

In prewar days, the Midwestern Commonwealth consisted of many lakes and rivers, so does the postwar area look like. There are many swamps and riversides, it's rainy, but there are also parts where the land completely dried out and turned into a desert. In the north, you have radioactive snow falling down, you don't want to go there (eventually you must in the game, though). Ash and death is everywhere.

You'll meet a lot of new critters, consisting of natural (although perhaps mutated?) animals, aswell as human organisations trying to come by.

At the start of the game, you'll only find a very inaccurate wethered prewar map, like this here. (*) You'll really want to find someone who can draw you a better one as soon as you can, as the landscape has changed and trusting prewar maps may be a certain death for your character.





*not the final version.

• The game tells a linear story, staggered into chapters, with always some months, sometimes even years between each chapter, to compensate the huge size of the actual gameworld.
  
• The slated number of actual hours spent with gameplay is around 20 hours, maybe a bit more.
  
• Depending which traits you choose, what age your character is (and other variables) the start of the game changes.
  
• A huge part of the game will be spent on your characters story and progression, to connect loose ends, to answer questions about yourself (and maybe even the player himself?)
  
• Although What Remains is not aiming for an "epic-safe-the-world" campaign, you'll be able to alter the very future of the locations and people ingame, aswell as your characters future.
  
• Help communities ingame, or watch them dying. It's your choice. Often choices won't come out as you expected, though.
  

_____


That's it for now - it's not much, but we will go into detail (e.g an actual ingame NPC you'll meet) next time. I hope some things are relevant to your interests, as I prepared some thread here where you can ask all the stuff you want and I'll answer it.

That's it for now - have fun.
Regards, Frank.

Radioactive snow? Just like in the comic "El Eternauta" where I took my name from. Finally my name will make sense in Fallout!

I love the concepts explained in your posts. It really sounds like you are taking a big step and making a whole different game. Be proud of your work.

Also:

(and maybe even the himself?)

I think you forgot to type a word there?

Eternauta wrote:Radioactive snow? Just like in the comic "El Eternauta" where I took my name from. Finally my name will make sense in Fallout!

It's a pain in the ass to edit all those tiles and graphics to fit in a "snow/ashgrey" look, but the effort is worth it - it looks really good, heh.

I think you forgot to type a word there?

Oops! Fixed. Thanks!

The map pic is missing

Hm, for me it loads just fine.

http://h-6.abload.de/img/map071t.png


Maybe it's the forum, it loads very slow today, can't do much for it unfortunately.

Actually, I could not see the pics in the Taringa! post so I thought the link to the pic was not working. Anyway thanks

The map isn't the final version as it says there. Also I don't know what is the current look of the map, but may I suggest something?

The single piece of paper somehow looks bit poor in the hands. Maybe making it look like something similar to this would help it?
http://www.straferight.com/photopost/data/500/far-cry-2-gold-ak47-map.jpg

Opera wrote:The map isn't the final version as it says there. Also I don't know what is the current look of the map, but may I suggest something?

The single piece of paper somehow looks bit poor in the hands. Maybe making it look like something similar to this would help it?
http://www.straferight.com/photopost/data/500/far-cry-2-gold-ak47-map.jpg

Jup, it looks somewhat stiff, the hands/fingers don't fit too well to it aswell. It was just a showcase and I'm not sure if the picture will be ingame at all.

well, nice job Frank, keep up teh good work!

I guess there is no point in opening a whole new thread to ask the question I have in my mind...

In every Fallout game, the protagonist/player character received a name to be identified with: (Vault) Dweller, Chosen (One), Warrior, Initiate, Prisoner, Lone Wanderer, Courier. This was probably done mainly not to have problems with the PC's gender (at least not in English ) but was a rather cool little detail anyway.

So. What will the name for the player character in What Remains be? Have you thought about it?

From what one can read in this background overview, I suggest the Survivor or the Badlander... but both sound a bit "simple" and maybe something more related to the actual game story would be better.

I am not entirely sure if I stick to this one, but for now it's the Carrier, but it sounds bad because Courier is a very similar term. Let's see if I find some synonyme.

Also, sorry for the long time of no activity here - summer is almost over now and we can return to post more regular here. Also, we've got one more hero at the front of writing/story now! But I'll elaborate more on that soon.

"Courier" is similar, but it's related to a job, it somehow means you have to give what you're carrying to another person, and you're carrying it because some else wants and is paying... while "Carrier" is rather general.

I bet the player character of What Remains will be able to carry anything, depending on his/her choices: an object of importance, a message, a memory, a scar, hope, death. He might even choose to be a courier.

The Carrier could work as a nod at the Courier from NV, but later during the game, one could also explore the differences that can exist between the two. I personally think Carrier is a good one

Offtopic: the new forum banner is awesome That's The Road, right?

Hehe, yep it's from The Road, it serves as a placeholder until I render a similar scene on my own, so no one can say I've stolen it from somewhere.

At the name - "Carrier" - I guess I have to sleep a night over it and then decide. While it has a nice ring and the meaning fits perfectly, I just don't want to make it cheap, like "ololo that sounds like Courier xD". Let's see.