How would you change the ACM story?

[RagingDragon]

You ASSUME they didn't have... Maybe it was used to evacuate the last few survivors... We were never said they did, but also we were never said they didn't.... SO, what they DIDN'T say, can be used without CANON troubles... Therefore, yes, there could have been ships, we just never got to see them... The same thing with Hadley's Bar and the rest of the complex... We mainly stick around Operations and Med Lab... WHat about the rest of the colony?  LOTS of places to go exploring... 

If there were a ship, or any survivors, they most likely would've met up with the Sulaco, or headed back to Earth. They could've sent a transmission, at any rate, warning the inevitable rescue party of the biological hell they'd narrowly escaped.

It would've also been known by Burke, most likely, who seemed to know a lot about the colony. Or most likely discussed by the marines when they were searching the complex.

I've talked about this in another thread, but I don't think they had a ship there permanently. The evidence weighs heavily on that belief. I personally think it's goofy to not even have a small ship in case of emergencies, but that's how it appears to be lol.

So we're back on topic, I would've changed the story by having Hicks get a 45 kill streak on the Sulaco, then ram it into the Sephora in a fit of Abyss-level madness. Would've made more sense that way.

[SM]

Some might but not "all".

It's a headache trying to argue anything when we don't all have the same 'canon'. We need one of the mods to become the canon lawyer

In this instance I don't imagine the colonists would have pulse rifles.  Just the small arms (pistols, shotguns) mentioned in the dialogue.

I like to treat the books as gospel, they've got a lot of interesting expansions that help parts of the films make a bit better sense in places, or just some interesting thought provoking pieces.

Not that it really matters, because neither of us can prove the other right or wrong. C'est la vie.

I take a lot of the stuff in the novels as canon, generally where they don't conflict with the film.

[Kalawaki]

How do you guys like my ending?

I think you'll have some pissed off players if you end it like that.

Pissed off or not, it adds some nice PLOT and some decent levels of immersion to the game, both of which are currently lacking.

The fact that it would get them angry for not seeing it coming would make it good plot. Because to cause an emotional response to the player during a cutscene is to have good immersion.

[Local Trouble]

Can you set it all inside a wooden space station?

[SM]

The fact that it would get them angry for not seeing it coming would make it good plot.

People didn't think it was "good" when they got angry with the current ending.

[Xenomorphine]

True enough, but then I was under the impression we all took the Novelizations as gospel ^^

I generally don't, largely because they're mostly just adaptations of an early draft of a film's script.

Useful for theoretical 'what if' stuff, but that's about all. Same as the 'Colonial Marines Technical Manual', in that regard.

YMMV.

[YutaniDitch]

You ASSUME they didn't have... Maybe it was used to evacuate the last few survivors... We were never said they did, but also we were never said they didn't.... SO, what they DIDN'T say, can be used without CANON troubles... Therefore, yes, there could have been ships, we just never got to see them... The same thing with Hadley's Bar and the rest of the complex... We mainly stick around Operations and Med Lab... WHat about the rest of the colony?  LOTS of places to go exploring... 

If there were a ship, or any survivors, they most likely would've met up with the Sulaco, or headed back to Earth. They could've sent a transmission, at any rate, warning the inevitable rescue party of the biological hell they'd narrowly escaped.

It would've also been known by Burke, most likely, who seemed to know a lot about the colony. Or most likely discussed by the marines when they were searching the complex.

I've talked about this in another thread, but I don't think they had a ship there permanently. The evidence weighs heavily on that belief. I personally think it's goofy to not even have a small ship in case of emergencies, but that's how it appears to be lol.

So we're back on topic, I would've changed the story by having Hicks get a 45 kill streak on the Sulaco, then ram it into the Sephora in a fit of Abyss-level madness. Would've made more sense that way.

In my story, I mentioned that any survivor ship would have been met by Wey-Yu to prevent any loose ends... And the Sulaco could very well been blocked from receiving any transmissions from any aircraft around, courtesy of yours truly Carter Burke... SO, any possibilities can fill in the blanks...

I think given the remote location of LV-426 and if the ships' schedule are any way close to the ones in Fury 161, they would have supply ships periodically and at least, enough ships to evacuate the 158 colonists

PS - The amount of ships for evacuation would be in case of nuclear meltdown of the APS... Like the evacuation of Pripyat, the city close to Chernobyl...

[CONKERSBADFURDAY]

I'm digging the idea of playing what happens between the infection and the Colonial Marines showing up. I think that's logically the easiest and best way to go with expanding the story without risk of breaking canon.

Plus, it has that feel of being underpowered in a bad situation, which adds more horror to a game than "I'M A BADASS MARINE" which is too much action.

One of the reasons Dead Space worked so well was you weren't a soldier. You didn't have training in fighting awful monsters.


Barring that, I'd keep Hicks dead.

[szkoki]

yeah having 2 playable characters...Newt and a deputy maybe with whom you would experience some action aswell while with Newt only hiding, escapeing, terror



but so much wanna hear what was going on in the meeting about the story of ACM

[redxavier]

There's nothing wrong with playing as a marine and having a fast-paced action FPS. Sure, Alien fans (on these forums) tend to get rowdy over the creature being treated like a bug, but the poor execution in this case led to the game just not being fun to play. A tactical, squad-based co-op campaign is what I wanted most, with tension and fear rather than horror, and a story based on search, discovery, engagement and survival.

I genuinely don't understand why I can't just play a game adaptation of Aliens. The flash version of boardgame is one of the best games I've ever played and it's playing levels from the film

[chupacabras acheronsis]

for the first part of the game i would have made the exploration of the Sulaco done in zero gravity, wearing an atmospheric suit and exploring it's pitch black, eroded interiors with a lamp, a jetpack and the pulse rifle in all three dimensions. The first objective would be to restore power and seal all hull breaches, while slowly finding clues of WY presence and what befell them.

Once gravity is restored the few xenos left in the ship become active and stalk your group similar to the lurker encounters. In this section both you and the aliens have 1-hit kills, you because the pulse rifle is absolutely devastating without atmosphere and the aliens because a suit breach would be lethal for you in seconds. Here the story branches, if you manage to keep everyone alive and hunt down all xenomorphs and take control of the Sulaco you take both ships back into LV-426, if not, you scuttle it. Then you found out the company only took over the Sulaco in an attempt to aid extracting their people from there being it the closest ship, ultimately failing, getting it infestated and causing the fire.

Then comes the Colony/AP exploration, also done in a HAZMAT suit because, naturally there's nothing's left but a flat, extremely windy and irradiated wasteland there, in which xenomorphs would move unnoticed thanks to the extreme conditions screwing with visibility, sensors and instruments. Here would the first stand up fight take place, and a bit marine fanservice with the APCs and dropships providing occasional support while Aliens try to flank your position. After that, the marines would trace the aliens back to the derelict which has been sacked empty by WY and only the remains of the people researching the space jockey tech and skeleton are left.

After getting info of the whereabouts of the WY op, they track down the Patna to Fury 161, which, being a WY private facility has been turned into the alien research facility off the record. At first they encounter no resistance and the WY goons peacefully agree to let them land and enter the place but then quickly turn on you and release the xenomorphs, gets on the Patna and makes a run for it.

from then you fight your way out only to found out the Sephora has been sabotaged, if the Sulaco is present you can wait for them to reinforce you and pick you up, if not, you have to race to get a hold of the WY ship and properly nuke the place from orbit.

if the former is the case, you get one extra mission of the Sulaco chasing the Patna down and boarding it, and only then you get to fight WY PMCs.

good enough?

[OpenMaw]

The fact that it would get them angry for not seeing it coming would make it good plot. Because to cause an emotional response to the player during a cutscene is to have good immersion.

It's not just about causing emotion. If you piss the player off because the game itself is frustrating them, you aren't doing it the right way.

[YutaniDitch]

Yes, it's official: from this thread and even re-reading my own, I have come to a conclusion: There is no way an Aliens game won't get heat from one fringe or another from the fandom! I mean, there are so many dopey ideas, my own included, that really, I probably would be better off to just leave it to the developers and praying to be pleasantly surprised!

I mean, some weird ideas floating around, guys (literallly, it seems, in your case, chupacabras... )

The fact that it would get them angry for not seeing it coming would make it good plot. Because to cause an emotional response to the player during a cutscene is to have good immersion.

It's not just about causing emotion. If you piss the player off because the game itself is frustrating them, you aren't doing it the right way.

I agree and disagree with you, from my own experience... For instance, after ACM, I re-played FEAR and it is frustrating as hell, because you have very little ammo pickups and you HAVE to spend a lot of rounds to kill your opponents! Also, the AI is quite irritating in the good way, because they flank you when you weren't expecting because the layout was only partially lit... I find that aggravation motivating, but the ammo thing is quite annoying because you unequivocally nned a lot of rounds, especially on the assault rifle, and there is no fire control switch, the ammo you pick up from faling enemies is like 10, 15 rounds... That is frustrating but it is good, because you adapt your gameplay to it and yuo eventually manage to chose a strategy that works against those odds! This FEAR game is a perfect example of how I want my AI to be: they don't just charge and be vulnerable to ambush, they wait for us to show and they deploy intelligently in general... They throw grenades to flush us out and such, but it is credible and realistic...  I am enjoying this game more now than at the time it came out because I have seen such bad crap afterwards that further makes this a classic! Ok, the scenery is all offices, maintenance rooms, and rooftops, but it is fun... and let's not forget the occasional ALMA appearance...

SO, long story short, FEAR proved that triggered events inside gameplay could immerse more the player, as well as having Aliens AI behaving realistically in terms of purpose and survival instincts... Also, they are not zombies, they are cunning and they are fast! HOwever, for gameplay purposes, it is not realistic a guy shooting at a dozen Aliens and surviving! It has to be fewer numbers and more cunning and unpredictable (the setting could make it work, with them coming from the ground, from airvents, from the ceiling, etc, in no predictable order or place)... 

[RagingDragon]

You're getting into gameplay discussion, Yutani. That's nice, but everyone else seems to be talking about the story alone.

Even if the Aliens had perfect AI, the story would still be retarded enough to make people go cross-eyed while playing the game. It's absolutely horrible from the get-go, makes no sense, is completely impossible, ignores every eventual circumstance that would occur after Aliens, and just generally f**ks it all up just for the sake of revisiting film locations. Even the events in the campaign aren't consistent with their own freaking non-story!

It's totally useless garbage that doesn't even begin to fit anywhere, and nothing makes a lick of sense.

There's that small outburst.

I love reading all of these ideas, though.. every single one is astronomical units better than what's there.

[Kalawaki]

http://www.google.com.au/url?source=imglanding&ct=img&q=http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lja4r1C42G1qg03nz.png&sa=X&ei=RRYsUaeBM4ankAXx64CABQ&ved=0CAkQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNHV9TDv1BZZ9L3e0itA2BjNnK-nJg

The fact that it would get them angry for not seeing it coming would make it good plot.

People didn't think it was "good" when they got angry with the current ending.

They were angry with the entire campaign, not a specific cutscene nor a part of the plot that they did not expect.

It's not just about causing emotion. If you piss the player off because the game itself is frustrating them, you aren't doing it the right way.

I said nothing about gameplay. My ending the player would feel used and betrayed, and Weyland Yutani would actually look like a competent antagonistic corporation.