Untitled Mod Thing. Yeah.

Okay, guys. I have this fun little idea, but it's not too complete. I have point A and point B, but the line in-between is like it got water spilled on it and the ink flowed away and now it's this cloud-ish shape.

Before we get started, I'd like to make sure that you all know one thing: I am going to be in way over my head with this. I'm hoping you guys can help me out. I plan to use this thread for the development of the plot and characters of this "mod" because I'm expecting way too much from it already and I know that if I/we ever made it, it would likely be one of the most horribly gigantic mods in the history of MGF.

Now let's begin with some of the exposition:

Spoiler

[boring] Here's a basic rundown: The world is currently far past its prime, having faced a nuclear holocaust several generations prior. The world was beginning to recover at first, but as soon as society managed to find its way back into shape, war broke out again. The world is in a state of peril. ***There are two so-far unnamed sides that each control a few of the remaining inhabitable places in the world (i.e., not full of ruins and radiation like most of the world).*** They're on a pretty level playing field in terms of supplies, morale, and people still willing to fight. This war has been going on longer than anyone can remember and it has on multiple occasions nearly destroyed every shred of human existance on the Earth. That's where the third side comes in. It's a company made up of random people from different places across each side that were originally just a group that protested the war. When the Earth first faced the nuclear holocaust, there was little left whole save for some text-books and story-books scattered around the world. With so little left of the world, the humans' God granted this third side the ability to wholly experience what happened in these books, records of the past, so that we could learn from our past mistakes and try to stop this war.

Essentially, they've gained the power to read. Yeah. Well, only sort of. They can actually go into the books and watch as events unfold before their eyes, being able to experience tragedies as if they were a part of it, not like when you heard about Genocide on the news in the morning and say "oh, that's kind of sad I guess." Of course they would use this power for evil. For there to be anything left so that this power could be used, the God granted them all texts detailing the past of everything found on the Earth. That's not a terrible, terrible idea, now is it?

Okay, now these people have all gone corrupt, but they haven't committed any of the atrocities that they could be. They're all highly-skilled in whatever their different trades may be, and work entirely in the shadows, outside of any public view. They're enigmas that work independent of each other, each discordantly working for themselves. At the rate things are going, the world is doomed. [/boring]

Basic plot so far:

Spoiler

Here is how the mod will begin:

Spoiler

The main character wakes up in a small, dark, lonely cave all by himself with no explanation as to how he got there (WILL BE EXPLAINED LATER). He is nameless and without any real intentions one way or the other. As far as the player can tell, you are blundering randomly through where-ever-the-hell-you-are. As you progress through a few short areas all filling the role of "first cave," the appearance of the levels should be true to a cave, but as you pass through the areas (multiple maps, hopefully), you would see a distinct change in the set-up of the map itself. They would go from simple formats like the First Cave, to whimsical formats made up of unexplained buildings, rock formations, floating bridges, platforms, and whathaveyou. This should be a quick sight-seeing process for the player with maybe a cutscene or two throughout. Remember the beginning of the Sand Zone when you see Curly, and she's just sort of there for no real reason other than so that you can see her? Something like that, with one of the people from the "third side." You will not see him/her for a very long time except for a very similar cutscene further in the game.

Here is some long-term plot movement:

Spoiler

The idea after that is that you find yourself in an open area, followed by a GIGANTIC FUCKING TOWER. This should hopefully span several maps to climb from the bottom to the top so that the player could spend the whole game here. Physically, that is. The tower would be one giant dungeon with a few stops at a few floors. All other floors are full of A LOT OF MONSTERS AND A LOT OF MAP. Once you would complete a goal, you would essentially move up a floor or so in the tower. Climbing a few mapped-out floors between plot floors. NONE OF THIS IS ABOUT THE TOWER ITSELF BECAUSE THIS IS NOT BORING LIKE YOUR MOD, S.P. At several stops along the way, you will find yourself at a handful of different books, and you will read them, therefore exploring them. [plot]HOWEVER[/plot], the books will be filled with all manner of evils that require extinguishing. Why? Because history is being rewritten in favor of one being in the world. THIS GUY WILL SHOW UP LATER AND YES IS THE FINAL BOSS. He's moseying along and changing the history detailed in the books as he goes so that everything will pan out with him on top.

How can this possibly not be boring?:

Spoiler

I want this to involve a lot of gameplay and while being ENTIRELY STORY-DRIVEN, give the player a chance to absorb the world created for them, not give them a one-way ticket to Hugewallsoftextville. I'm hoping that we can get every book to follow a different theme, take place in a different area (desert, forest, maybe an urban area) to show the passage of time throughout humanity. Each one should contain a suitable but highly-comparable conflict with each other.

IMPORTANT SPOILERS THAT ARE SPOILERS THAT I KNOW ARE DEFINITELY SPOILERS AND WILL TAKE AWAY FROM THE GAME BUT WILL MAKE ALL OF THIS STUFF MORE INTERESTING:

Spoiler

THIS IS A SPOILER

Spoiler

DONT LOOK IF YOU DONT NEED TO

Spoiler

WAIT I CHANGED MY MIND ITS A GOOD IDEA TO LOOK

Spoiler

Alright, here's the spoilers.

The final boss, whatshisnameorwhateverthefuck, will be an omnipotent force of... Stuff. Basically, his mother was pregnant with him when their actual God did all of that stuff. He was born after all of that happened, so he wasn't there to experience it all. He did not grasp the conflicts going on around him. Years after he was born and others around him aged, he remained a child. This is because He was the Son of the God Himself. He would live forever and would not mature for many, many years. Around the time of the game itself, the main character comes into play and finds out about how this guy is hording all of the books for himself. He is intent on stopping him and retrieving the books, but upon arriving at the Mangodthingguydude's place of residence, he is greeted by a huge pile of tattered books, which had all been rewritten. When he actually confronts the guy, he finds that the guy knew that he was coming and had found the book belonging to the main character himself. His history and his existence. So he's all "GIVE ME THAT SHIT," and the Bigbadbossguywhohasthebooksandstuff tears the back cover off of the book. Normally, the books would continue to write and add pages until there was nothing left to be written, but this book had lost its back cover and could no longer add pages. It had a finite end. Luckily for the main character, there were still many pages left, being in his adolescence. UNFORTUNATELY (dur), his story would end the moment the pages filled up.

He gets butthurt when he feels a portion of his soul being wrenched from him, and the boss pounds him into the dirt. He loses recollection of what had happened and eventually finds himself in the start point dazed and weakened. He will remember everything in a nightmare at some point in the game when everything is at peace. At that moment will be a turning point and shit will get real.

What's the point of the tower?

Spoiler

Having the whole game be a tower gives me or whoever an excuse to make a linear dungeon. Of course, 90% of the game is supposed to be spent elsewhere (technically you're there the whole time you're in the books), but it adds mildly to the plot in that it's the place of residence mentioned in the spoilers, it is being fought for by both warring sides, which will probably play a part, and that there's an excuse to have books laying around.

If any of you stuck around to really read the whole thing, you might notice that I have most everything that happens pre-game, and a very obvious ending in mind, as well as a few bits here and there in the middle. I know exactly how I want the plot to go, but I need it all fleshed out so that we can do this thing. This will probably be cleaned up into a timeline and posted in this thread at a later date. GAWD MY HANDS DAMN YOU LACE

Hidden text highlight (or click) to view:

Also, the main character dies after he beats the bigbossguythingdudeman. He explodes and the tower falls. This is obviously the best way to end it.

 

ill sit down and read it all before bed tonight. Can i help in any way Fire?

 

tl;dr
Stephen King inspired!
lol
You basically nuke him to end the story!

Yeah...


Ok, this is a REALLY good idea, but so complicated and huge it would maybe even take years to complete.
I'm no good at hacking or modding, but I can help with the plot st00f.

 

ill sit down and read it all before bed tonight. Can i help in any way Fire?

You know, I was honestly debating on whether or not to put "I WILL ACCEPT HELP FROM ANYONE EXCEPT FOR JETHAWK," but I didn't.

And yeah, I really need help getting the plot and everything ready, but if you want to help make it, you're going to have to wait until I make an actual thread for it.

 

Hour and 20 isn't that bad for a post, eh?

GAWD MY HANDS DAMN YOU LACE

The two main things you seem to want our help on are the stories you play through in the tower and between when this shit gets real and the ending, correct?

I'll focus on the tower for now.

Spoiler

The first level of the tower is filled with bookshelves, all empty, some toppled over, and exuding an air of eeriness. A single stone staircase would rise out of the gloom, but if you tried to climb it, you would find the stairs shattered by some unknown force and unpassable past a certain point. The level is almost entirely deserted, but if you walk to the right for a loooong time, you find a bookshelf with a single book on it, and a rather grumpy looking, pistol holding scientist standing in front of it. Boss fight here, but with no weapons and no escape, it is quite impossible. The only thing you can interact with in the whole wide room (sides getting shot to death) is the lone book on the bookshelf, which you can read. Reading this book whisks you away and cues a scene in a laboratory where a group of scientists and priests are arguing about the sanctity of life. The priests are talking about how all life is sacred, no matter how small, and that the experiments of the scientists upon (something) is blasphemous. In turn, the scientists say that experimenting on said thing will save the lives of millions, and that the argument of the priests is quite invalid. To prove his point, the scientist beckons at you and tells you to "show the nice priests one of our experiments". You go and fetch an object that barely looks like it was ever alive, and the scientist starts talking about how the tests they have done on this object have identified many diseases and stopped billion from dying. The scientist starts to cite an example, but with a little jolt of the screen changes his mind, stops talking and shoots the priest in the head. Then, with threating waves of his weapon, he orders you to lock the specimen in a metal container and to ship it off to the nuclear studies branch, talking to himself about how all the diseases held within it, plus the immunization to nuclear blasts will turn it into the perfect weapon. As you carry the specimen off to a door labeled "METAL CONTAINERS", the scientist tweaks out and tries to shoot you. Ducking into said door, you find a weapon and hide out until a nuclear blast blows the facility away. You return to the base floor of the tower, still holding your weapon and can then kill the scientist (who has an item that lets you get to the next floor).

Spoiler

The next floor of the building is decidedly more alive, with grass crawling from between the stone blocks that make up the walls and a swath of animals, both vulnerable and invulnerable, crawling between the shelves. Yes, there are still more shelves populating this floor, and quite a few have them still have books. (I really don't feel like writing out five stories for this floor, but here's one that far less cuttlefish than the last) - As you pick up one of the books, you are ohnoezwhiskedawayagain. This time, you end up near the top of a mountain, and you climb towards the top (death below). At the top of the mountain rests an old temple which you can enter. Inside, several shaolin monks are fine tuning their skills, and you can enter into battle with any of them, as they have accepted you as an apprentice to their fine arts (I like this idea. You'd have to make tons of agility involved tho, and not just x-spamming). Each monk, whether you beat them or not complains a bit about the world outside, how nuclear devastation has ripped the lands below them apart, how diseases run rampant among those who escaped, and about the two main parties that have been attacking eachother since time began. They also point you to the leader if you want to know more information, and each monk provides a different reason why. One says that he has access to teh intorwebz, and get information from that. One talks about how he was trained in several different religions, and is thus more in touch with god, etcetera etcetera. When you finally do talk to this head monk, he starts rambling on about how not only the mundane world but also the spirit world have been changed with this cataclysmic combat, and starts spewing nonsense about sons, gods, thirds, activists and so forth until a jolt rakes the screen, and one of the monks walks in and snaps the leaders neck. Either boss battle or fleeing, and then you reappear in the second level of the tower, knowing more stuff.

I personally like the second story a lot more. Flowed out of my mind better. Feel free to use or not use either, but I shall finish in saying that this is a most excellent idea.

Actually, no I won't. I shall finish in saying that only one or so book per level should be absolutely necessary to progress, and the other books just make it so you understand the plot better and have more gameplay and more fun.

Edit: Double niinja'd. Woo.

 

Re: Hour and 20 isn't that bad for a post, eh?

The two main things you seem to want our help on are the stories you play through in the tower and between when this shit gets real and the ending, correct?

I'll focus on the tower for now.

Spoiler

The first level of the tower is filled with bookshelves, all empty, some toppled over, and exuding an air of eeriness. A single stone staircase would rise out of the gloom, but if you tried to climb it, you would find the stairs shattered by some unknown force and unpassable past a certain point. The level is almost entirely deserted, but if you walk to the right for a loooong time, you find a bookshelf with a single book on it, and a rather grumpy looking, pistol holding scientist standing in front of it. Boss fight here, but with no weapons and no escape, it is quite impossible. The only thing you can interact with in the whole wide room (sides getting shot to death) is the lone book on the bookshelf, which you can read. Reading this book whisks you away and cues a scene in a laboratory where a group of scientists and priests are arguing about the sanctity of life. The priests are talking about how all life is sacred, no matter how small, and that the experiments of the scientists upon (something) is blasphemous. In turn, the scientists say that experimenting on said thing will save the lives of millions, and that the argument of the priests is quite invalid. To prove his point, the scientist beckons at you and tells you to "show the nice priests one of our experiments". You go and fetch an object that barely looks like it was ever alive, and the scientist starts talking about how the tests they have done on this object have identified many diseases and stopped billion from dying. The scientist starts to cite an example, but with a little jolt of the screen changes his mind, stops talking and shoots the priest in the head. Then, with threating waves of his weapon, he orders you to lock the specimen in a metal container and to ship it off to the nuclear studies branch, talking to himself about how all the diseases held within it, plus the immunization to nuclear blasts will turn it into the perfect weapon. As you carry the specimen off to a door labeled "METAL CONTAINERS", the scientist tweaks out and tries to shoot you. Ducking into said door, you find a weapon and hide out until a nuclear blast blows the facility away. You return to the base floor of the tower, still holding your weapon and can then kill the scientist (who has an item that lets you get to the next floor).

Spoiler

The next floor of the building is decidedly more alive, with grass crawling from between the stone blocks that make up the walls and a swath of animals, both vulnerable and invulnerable, crawling between the shelves. Yes, there are still more shelves populating this floor, and quite a few have them still have books. (I really don't feel like writing out five stories for this floor, but here's one that far less cuttlefish than the last) - As you pick up one of the books, you are ohnoezwhiskedawayagain. This time, you end up near the top of a mountain, and you climb towards the top (death below). At the top of the mountain rests an old temple which you can enter. Inside, several shaolin monks are fine tuning their skills, and you can enter into battle with any of them, as they have accepted you as an apprentice to their fine arts (I like this idea. You'd have to make tons of agility involved tho, and not just x-spamming). Each monk, whether you beat them or not complains a bit about the world outside, how nuclear devastation has ripped the lands below them apart, how diseases run rampant among those who escaped, and about the two main parties that have been attacking eachother since time began. They also point you to the leader if you want to know more information, and each monk provides a different reason why. One says that he has access to teh intorwebz, and get information from that. One talks about how he was trained in several different religions, and is thus more in touch with god, etcetera etcetera. When you finally do talk to this head monk, he starts rambling on about how not only the mundane world but also the spirit world have been changed with this cataclysmic combat, and starts spewing nonsense about sons, gods, thirds, activists and so forth until a jolt rakes the screen, and one of the monks walks in and snaps the leaders neck. Either boss battle or fleeing, and then you reappear in the second level of the tower, knowing more stuff.

I personally like the second story a lot more. Flowed out of my mind better. Feel free to use or not use either, but I shall finish in saying that this is a most excellent idea.

Actually, no I won't. I shall finish in saying that only one or so book per level should be absolutely necessary to progress, and the other books just make it so you understand the plot better and have more gameplay and more fun.

Edit: Double niinja'd. Woo.

They're nice, obviously, but I don't know if it's what I was looking for, exactly. It wouldn't be hard to use them and it's certainly a doable thing but it might considerably shorten the mod.

Thinking about it, I might use some of these as part of some others, but I will clarify: the "stories" I'm looking for are more like little mods within the big mod. You would sort of detour from your climb and instead go play a different mod, basically. In the end, it would all be explained, as there would be a similar conflict in all of them and that would be central to the plot.

I guarantee they will still be used in some way.

 

OOOOOOOOOOOOOH.
okay.

I gettit now.

So do you want ideas for the minimods or what happens after this shit gets serious?

 

Well, probably when shit gets serious. I don't really know how I'm going to connect the steady flow of the plot to the end when everyone goes boom. But keep in mind that the seriousness of the shit will be in the real world and should involve a lot of Quote-esque badassness and should involve those third guys that are obviously so important. Maybe get some of those armies in there.

ALSO! There are a few things I forgot to add. See, the human god is a perfect being and as such is capable of rewriting history due to the fact that he has no tragic flaw. The son of this god had believed himself to be capable of it for this very reason. In the end, he goes completely mad because his tragic flaw is his unstable mentality and inability to interact socially. As such, he goes fucking batshit Giygas and... Yeah.

Anyway, the main character's was his foolhardiness and he was doomed to eventually be killed by DA BIG BOSS. To that effect, when the back cover (the end) of the book was torn off, that definite fate was removed entirely and this is why you can still beat him. The reason this was done is because DA BOSS thought that the main character was a danger and was trying to remove "you kill boss" from the book, but mistakenly removed "boss kill you."

 

Well it's about time

Geez this even sounds vaguely familiar to what I'm working on, only sort of in reverse in a sense. And more warrish. This is giving me mental images of sweet greyscale flashbacks and multiple paths and such.

*Keeps reading*

...Tower Story? Or SMT:Jesus' Revenge. Or The Book of Lies (actual novel series I have sitting around).

Initially the idea of someone re-writing the past gave me the idea of that person having their eyes so set on the past that they fail to predict the future, but I don't think that will fit in. I could just churn out ideas for the stories in each of the books, but that would be too easy inefficient. I think the first book should have somewhat of an introductory feel to it though, to maybe explain some of the broader lore that will pop up repeatedly throughout the mod. Either that or something completely tangential that won't be relevant for ages. I love Lace's idea of screen twitches though

There could be a series of books with a recurring character, whose story slowly gets revealed over the course of the mod and maybe ties in with the tower somehow. Or there could be an area involving Chrono-esque (if you're familiar) sciency stuff and the concept of time itself. Having the tower itself in colour and the book parts in greyscale/sepia could be a nice touch, but the effect might wear off after a while. Or as a twist the tower could be in b/w and and past scenes in colour. Or the main character could be the only thing in colour while in the past ideasideasideasideasideassdfdsf.

Anyways I'm always available as a proofreader and I could easily write a couple of the flashbacks, I'm just not sure about going into specifics because I hate feeling like I'm making someone else's mod for them :/ Then again that's kind of what you want to a degree so eh. This idea has a truckload of potential and it'd be nice to see something come of it.

 

Geez this even sounds vaguely familiar to what I'm working on, only sort of in reverse in a sense. And more warrish. This is giving me mental images of sweet greyscale flashbacks and multiple paths and such.

Honestly, I wouldn't have posted it at all if people hadn't been completely picking apart every little bit of this idea without knowledge that I had it in this idea. Seriously, there's been a lot of things I've had in mind people have already talked about/done.

...Tower Story? Or SMT:Jesus' Revenge. Or The Book of Lies (actual novel series I have sitting around).

I don't know if a title is too important right now. There's a few things I can't say because I don't have them completely worked out, and those are incomplete because I don't have them named.

Initially the idea of someone re-writing the past gave me the idea of that person having their eyes so set on the past that they fail to predict the future, but I don't think that will fit in.

I could just churn out ideas for the stories in each of the books, but that would be too easy inefficient. I think the first book should have somewhat of an introductory feel to it though, to maybe explain some of the broader lore that will pop up repeatedly throughout the mod.

Well, I want those "third in the middle enigma guys" to be a major part of the story even though they tend to pop up just to say something, and then disappear. I was hoping a lot of them would be insane and be bosses that all fight differently, some of them would be good and try to help in their own different ways, mostly dieing, and then a handful of them would be just sort of in the background and unrelated, as far as plot goes.

Since they're central to the plot, we need to develop their characters a little and then try to fit them in. Really, your idea fits in quite well.

Either that or something completely tangential that won't be relevant for ages.

lolentiremodkthxbai

I love Lace's idea of screen twitches though

Shit does get quite real. I'd hoped to stay away from anything too... codey(?), but I think having lots of added special effects could not hurt in the least.

There could be a series of books with a recurring character, whose story slowly gets revealed over the course of the mod and maybe ties in with the tower somehow.

I wanted all of the stories to begin far in the past and then the different stories would actually show the passage of time, like the first being hundreds of years prior when the conflict first began, and the last one taking place in the game-time cities belonging to one of the warring sides, showing the advancement of the technology but the effect the war is having on all of the few remaining people.

The recurring characters would have to be different members of the third side who go into the past hoping they can remain there, back before any of the travesties occurring in "now" time. These would have to all be neutral and some of them would become good guys, some of them bad, and then some of them would just be left up to their own devices and never be seen again.

Maybe the screen should flash when you walk past one of them.

Or there could be an area involving Chrono-esque (if you're familiar) sciency stuff and the concept of time itself. Having the tower itself in colour and the book parts in greyscale/sepia could be a nice touch, but the effect might wear off after a while. Or as a twist the tower could be in b/w and and past scenes in colour. Or the main character could be the only thing in colour while in the past ideasideasideasideasideassdfdsf.

...Somebody make it so you can switch MyChar.pbm's mid-game. Nao.

Anyways I'm always available as a proofreader and I could easily write a couple of the flashbacks, I'm just not sure about going into specifics because I hate feeling like I'm making someone else's mod for them :/ Then again that's kind of what you want to a degree so eh. This idea has a truckload of potential and it'd be nice to see something come of it.[/QUOTE]

I'd like it if everyone contributed in their own way, and not just so I don't have to do anything. Since really nothing about it is completed, everyone should be able to contribute something.

 

Honestly, I wouldn't have posted it at all if people hadn't been completely picking apart every little bit of this idea without knowledge that I had it in this idea. Seriously, there's been a lot of things I've had in mind people have already talked about/done.

Yeah that's what happens when you spend years trying to make one D:

I wanted all of the stories to begin far in the past and then the different stories would actually show the passage of time, like the first being hundreds of years prior when the conflict first began, and the last one taking place in the game-time cities belonging to one of the warring sides, showing the advancement of the technology but the effect the war is having on all of the few remaining people.

I was meaning more just a non-fighter character, an everyperson (I'm thinking girl) from one of the sides, who just has patches of her life story revealed through other people's. To sort of represent the effect the world has on the little people. Well, at first >_>

The recurring characters would have to be different members of the third side who go into the past hoping they can remain there, back before any of the travesties occurring in "now" time. These would have to all be neutral and some of them would become good guys, some of them bad, and then some of them would just be left up to their own devices and never be seen again.

Maybe the screen should flash when you walk past one of them.

This is a great idea though

...Somebody make it so you can switch MyChar.pbm's mid-game. Nao.

Oh is the second character slot already planned for use? I was just thinking he could just use the two spritesets, for colour and b/w.



I was thinking about this last night and a couple of other things came up. Is the dude a silent protagonist? And how exactly does he interact with the past? The way it sounds at the moment is that he appears in the past and other people are aware of his presence, but also act like he's always been there rather than just magically popping out of nowhere. It also seems like he's more learning about the past than actively changing it. Will the things he does change have an immediate effect on the world around him? What about other books? If one book is in anothers' future then its story would be affected. Can he just change whatever he wants?

There could also be ways to change the past to allow items or weapons to be picked up in the future. Maybe he could get sick at one point and send himself medicine O: Or there could be one section where he changes something that causes some of his own actions to never have happened, but that the player has already done.

If someone finds their own book, they could potentially travel into their own past and all sorts of hijinx could ensue. I feel like there should be a set of rules or limitations that govern the third faction's abilities, just to prevent everything from getting too complicated.

 

Oh is the second character slot already planned for use? I was just thinking he could just use the two spritesets, for colour and b/w.

I had already planned something for the alternate costume for the original, but now I'm thinking these things or multiple costume-changes would be appropriate and therefore warrant a new sheet. Of course, we could scrap that if we wanted to be lazy.

I was thinking about this last night and a couple of other things came up. Is the dude a silent protagonist?

Silent protagonist with one line in the entire game, so he'd eventually need a facepic just for that one line.

And how exactly does he interact with the past? The way it sounds at the moment is that he appears in the past and other people are aware of his presence, but also act like he's always been there rather than just magically popping out of nowhere. It also seems like he's more learning about the past than actively changing it. Will the things he does change have an immediate effect on the world around him? What about other books? If one book is in anothers' future then its story would be affected. Can he just change whatever he wants?

None of the conflict that was in the past was there before it was rewritten to be that way. He can rewrite things as well for reasons that are revealed later (he is a perfect being), and sets them about as right as they're going to get. It will have no immediate effect on the world around him because the conflict in the past starts up again as soon as the next book does, failing to change the future in any meaningful way.

There could also be ways to change the past to allow items or weapons to be picked up in the future. Maybe he could get sick at one point and send himself medicine O: Or there could be one section where he changes something that causes some of his own actions to never have happened, but that the player has already done.

The player's weapons and such will remain in the past and cannot be re-obtained unless you return to that book just to dick around/get something. Except for the final boss. Since the boss is perfect, you'd need to use every last bit of ammunition from every single weapon to kill him. If you were to miss even once, the boss would become impossible and you'd have to retry. There would have to be some explanation as to how all of your weapons would appear at once, like a rift in time or something, but yeah.

I think it'd be easier to give the guy an uber-low-range one-damage weapon that he can take everywhere, like his fists, etc. and have all of the books use whatever native weapons the player would find.

If someone finds their own book, they could potentially travel into their own past and all sorts of hijinx could ensue. I feel like there should be a set of rules or limitations that govern the third faction's abilities, just to prevent everything from getting too complicated.

No, there are no real rules, other than the fact that changing them for your own benefit causes the opposite to happen by rule of tragedy. These hijinks are the entire point of the mod.

 

No, there are no real rules, other than the fact that changing them for your own benefit causes the opposite to happen by rule of tragedy. These hijinks are the entire point of the mod.

I meant more in terms of consistency. Time travel always lends itself to plotholes and pime taradoxes, provided anyone will care that much >_> I guess working from the most distant point forwards is a good way to avoid that.

Also restating this:

And how exactly does he interact with the past? The way it sounds at the moment is that he appears in the past and other people are aware of his presence, but also act like he's always been there rather than just magically popping out of nowhere.

It's hard to get scene ideas together in my head when I'm not sure how people notice his presence. Then again I guess that's up to him. If history is being actively rewritten in each book flashback, it will be important to convey to the player what it is they're actually trying to do/fix. Maybe it could be explained at the start of each 'journey', since it's assumed the main character already knows what to do. E.g.:
=12 April 20XX=
Date of the Reactor 12 explosion. 5000 lives were lost, and the resulting fallout left masses of land uninhabitable even to this date. The cause of the explosion was suspected to be bomb, planted near the central reactor core and detonated remotely...
That might take away the element of mystery/nothavingacluewhat'sgoingon, but otherwise it'll just be the player being effectively guided through each flashback, unless that's what you want.

At the moment I'm still sort of trying to understand how you're intending for the flashbacks to work. E.g. looking at Lace's ideas, he had DA BEEG BAWS interfering, which I'm not sure will work because if I'm gathering this right the point of the flashbacks is to fix what's been mucked up, step by step.

 

Also restating this:
It's hard to get scene ideas together in my head when I'm not sure how people notice his presence. Then again I guess that's up to him. If history is being actively rewritten in each book flashback, it will be important to convey to the player what it is they're actually trying to do/fix. Maybe it could be explained at the start of each 'journey', since it's assumed the main character already knows what to do. E.g.:
=12 April 20XX=
Date of the Reactor 12 explosion. 5000 lives were lost, and the resulting fallout left masses of land uninhabitable even to this date. The cause of the explosion was suspected to be bomb, planted near the central reactor core and detonated remotely...

He has a goal in mind. He's looking to fix whatever it is that got the world in the state it's in. That's what they're all trying to do. It's just... They've gotten off-track, for the most part. He's trying to fix the problem at the source, and they're still trying to cope with it.

That might take away the element of mystery/nothavingacluewhat'sgoingon, but otherwise it'll just be the player being effectively guided through each flashback, unless that's what you want.

It's like I said; he has a vague idea of what he's there to do. Player does not. Player is just along for the ride.

At the moment I'm still sort of trying to understand how you're intending for the flashbacks to work. E.g. looking at Lace's ideas, he had DA BEEG BAWS interfering, which I'm not sure will work because if I'm gathering this right the point of the flashbacks is to fix what's been mucked up, step by step.

Look at it this way: it's not as if he's reading the book, it's like he's INSIDE the book. It's like he's playing a videogame. People in the books perceive him because he actually is present. He's not erasing and rewriting the text in the book, he's just changing the story and the book with change accordingly. He's changing the history that had already happened, as DA BEEG BAWS had prior.