I wasn't sure where to put this thread, but in the art section seemed most appropriate. UT doesn't really have that much of a story, but it would be kinda cool if design of all the games assets and the blurbs attached to maps where guided by an underlying story, that is: hints at the universe this takes place in.
The character designs that are official are going towards a slightly paramilitary feel, but that feels more like the original UT, which had mercenary characters, terrorists and so. Lightly armored, instead of the tank like power-armored juggernauts of UT3. That was okay for UT3 as that game was set in a war. I like the overall feel of how its going now.
So I really wanted to open this thread for people to discuss developing the lore of this game.
Personally, I think it should borrow from all the other games without being rigidly attached to some canonical thing, because all of the previous games kinda made no sense put together. So, take the DNA, but don't be absolutist or afraid to retcon something. Definitely, this has to be set in the tournament and not a random corporate war. It should have a slightly sports feel, like this is to the future a mix of Reality TV, Racing, The Olympics and UFC! I say Olympics, because the characters in this tournament display the full range of human athletic and mental abilities in all the various game types. I think references to modern social media culture wouldn't be a terrible idea, if done in a tongue in cheek way. This would give a bit of an updated feel and it could be incorporated into things like advertisement in a city map and so on.
For the Necris/Phayder, my own idea for them is that Nanoblack is a substance that was discovered by xeno-acheologists prospecting the newly discovered Omicron 6, as this was possible planet for human colonies. The world had the decaying architectural remains of a previous alien civilization, but no apparent life. The Phayder Corporation in secret spent years experimenting on this new substance without revealing its existence. It was hoped to be a possible nano-weapon, but they found it could delay aging and death when injected into organisms and controlled by macroscopic implants. This made for very effective but psychotic assasins, as they nanoblack warps the users mind and slowly corrupts them. The older Necris will look more transformed by it. Phayder monopolize this miraculous substance and only allow this modification process for those wealthy enough or loyal enough to the Corporation. They have it all sewn up so that the tech can't be just copied someone else and that they are the gatekeepers to the most advanced nano-tech in the Galaxy. Their culture is based on trans-humanism and nihilism, sort of the tenets of Nietzsche but they despise life, see it as inferior and want to wipe it from the galaxy and replace it with their own "superior" civilization to the ever reproducing virus of life. They can't reproduce, only transform new organsim into necris, but they se this as a good thing and that life is a plague. Naturally all humans want them dead (this time for good!) as see their belief system as a threat to the Galaxy. So they don't believe in a God, but they do hark back to the previous Omicron civilization in a cultist way, but might have interpreted it completely wrong as they only have fragments of it to go on. What happened to the previous race on Omicron...that's a unsolved mystery. Ideological transhumanist fundamentalist fused with alien technology, to sum it up.
My idea for Xan is to at least move him away from just being a robot and make him possibly a guy in a suit (Iron Man?) or at least leave that open as a possibility, that he secretly is the the CEO of Liandri, but highly modified with power armor that mimics his body, that's powered by a small nuclear reactor. Or a possibility is that his body did die eventually but his mind was uploaded to a future version of the armor.
My Idea for the BioRfile goo is that its called a GES Biorifle because processing Tarydium uses an organism that digests the crystals (like an alien microbe, amoeba or algae indigenous to Na Pali) and the green stuff in Green Exploding **** really is, well ****, its the biological substance excreted by it.
My idea for the Izanagi, would be to make them look more like cyberninjas, rather than Ronin tanks, but without being too stereotypical or antiquated. Their armour would be streamlined and not too complex, and with ghost-face logo on it. Will probably have to draw that one to explain what i mean. Added onto it would be items like futuristic shurikens and grenades and so on. The reason there are old looking buildings on their colony worlds even though their a modern corporation, is that this is a nostalgia thing in the hyperindustrial world of the future, and tech has become almost invislble or integrated into everyday objects, so colonial corporations operate what are essentially "theme worlds" in the future to get away from it all! The new expanse of lands opened up by jumpgates and jumpships enabled worlds like this to be built for rich enough colonists and retirees. Behind the facade, its all run by corporations and technology and is basically fake.
I think it should be implied that on winning the Earth-Skaarj War, humans also eventually overtook Na-Pali and the NEG's second largest base is here, with a jumpgate over the world. Its their crown jewel, but the Skaarj want it back and are constantly testing ite defenses. So, some maps set on occupied Na-Pali...except the humans are now the occupiers and have a tenuous relationship with the Nali, that is not completely terrible. Some Nali believe their Messiah will come gain to remove the NEG millitary forces. After winning the war, use of tarydium and Skaarj tecnology became widespead on Earth, and all wonders were achieved from respawners to 12 mile high buildings using this new power source. It was a leap forward for humans, but the war came with the consequence of a semi-dictatorial government, that is run by a council of leaders from the former separate nations of the world, kind of like a corporate board, rather than a single emperor figure. Before the Earth-Skaarj war, humanity was separate power blocs and nations fighting each other, with their respective chartered corporations for new colonies in space, and the fight for human survival forced a single earth government to be formed. A Map with a rusting ISV-Kran hull or Vortex Rikers would be cool.
Oh and if anyone is making Niven or a similar map, i think it would be cool if part of its back-story isn't that is just a random orbital nuclear reactor (what would that be useful for), but that reactor actually the power source for an obsolete 'second cold war' orbital energy weapon (like ion painter satelite, but the size of a space station)
And deep lithosphere mining is a controversial technique in the future as it's rumored to cause Earthquakes (DM-Liandri/Deck-17). There could be a map set, with all these worming metal tubes sucking lava out of the mantle up into a fissure in the earth, with little force-field ports that allow you see through to the glowing magma. UT3 had no lava levels
anyway, long post. Anyone who wants to add their general ideas of what the lore should be, feel free to chime in!
The character designs that are official are going towards a slightly paramilitary feel, but that feels more like the original UT, which had mercenary characters, terrorists and so. Lightly armored, instead of the tank like power-armored juggernauts of UT3. That was okay for UT3 as that game was set in a war. I like the overall feel of how its going now.
So I really wanted to open this thread for people to discuss developing the lore of this game.
Personally, I think it should borrow from all the other games without being rigidly attached to some canonical thing, because all of the previous games kinda made no sense put together. So, take the DNA, but don't be absolutist or afraid to retcon something. Definitely, this has to be set in the tournament and not a random corporate war. It should have a slightly sports feel, like this is to the future a mix of Reality TV, Racing, The Olympics and UFC! I say Olympics, because the characters in this tournament display the full range of human athletic and mental abilities in all the various game types. I think references to modern social media culture wouldn't be a terrible idea, if done in a tongue in cheek way. This would give a bit of an updated feel and it could be incorporated into things like advertisement in a city map and so on.
For the Necris/Phayder, my own idea for them is that Nanoblack is a substance that was discovered by xeno-acheologists prospecting the newly discovered Omicron 6, as this was possible planet for human colonies. The world had the decaying architectural remains of a previous alien civilization, but no apparent life. The Phayder Corporation in secret spent years experimenting on this new substance without revealing its existence. It was hoped to be a possible nano-weapon, but they found it could delay aging and death when injected into organisms and controlled by macroscopic implants. This made for very effective but psychotic assasins, as they nanoblack warps the users mind and slowly corrupts them. The older Necris will look more transformed by it. Phayder monopolize this miraculous substance and only allow this modification process for those wealthy enough or loyal enough to the Corporation. They have it all sewn up so that the tech can't be just copied someone else and that they are the gatekeepers to the most advanced nano-tech in the Galaxy. Their culture is based on trans-humanism and nihilism, sort of the tenets of Nietzsche but they despise life, see it as inferior and want to wipe it from the galaxy and replace it with their own "superior" civilization to the ever reproducing virus of life. They can't reproduce, only transform new organsim into necris, but they se this as a good thing and that life is a plague. Naturally all humans want them dead (this time for good!) as see their belief system as a threat to the Galaxy. So they don't believe in a God, but they do hark back to the previous Omicron civilization in a cultist way, but might have interpreted it completely wrong as they only have fragments of it to go on. What happened to the previous race on Omicron...that's a unsolved mystery. Ideological transhumanist fundamentalist fused with alien technology, to sum it up.

My idea for Xan is to at least move him away from just being a robot and make him possibly a guy in a suit (Iron Man?) or at least leave that open as a possibility, that he secretly is the the CEO of Liandri, but highly modified with power armor that mimics his body, that's powered by a small nuclear reactor. Or a possibility is that his body did die eventually but his mind was uploaded to a future version of the armor.
My Idea for the BioRfile goo is that its called a GES Biorifle because processing Tarydium uses an organism that digests the crystals (like an alien microbe, amoeba or algae indigenous to Na Pali) and the green stuff in Green Exploding **** really is, well ****, its the biological substance excreted by it.
My idea for the Izanagi, would be to make them look more like cyberninjas, rather than Ronin tanks, but without being too stereotypical or antiquated. Their armour would be streamlined and not too complex, and with ghost-face logo on it. Will probably have to draw that one to explain what i mean. Added onto it would be items like futuristic shurikens and grenades and so on. The reason there are old looking buildings on their colony worlds even though their a modern corporation, is that this is a nostalgia thing in the hyperindustrial world of the future, and tech has become almost invislble or integrated into everyday objects, so colonial corporations operate what are essentially "theme worlds" in the future to get away from it all! The new expanse of lands opened up by jumpgates and jumpships enabled worlds like this to be built for rich enough colonists and retirees. Behind the facade, its all run by corporations and technology and is basically fake.
I think it should be implied that on winning the Earth-Skaarj War, humans also eventually overtook Na-Pali and the NEG's second largest base is here, with a jumpgate over the world. Its their crown jewel, but the Skaarj want it back and are constantly testing ite defenses. So, some maps set on occupied Na-Pali...except the humans are now the occupiers and have a tenuous relationship with the Nali, that is not completely terrible. Some Nali believe their Messiah will come gain to remove the NEG millitary forces. After winning the war, use of tarydium and Skaarj tecnology became widespead on Earth, and all wonders were achieved from respawners to 12 mile high buildings using this new power source. It was a leap forward for humans, but the war came with the consequence of a semi-dictatorial government, that is run by a council of leaders from the former separate nations of the world, kind of like a corporate board, rather than a single emperor figure. Before the Earth-Skaarj war, humanity was separate power blocs and nations fighting each other, with their respective chartered corporations for new colonies in space, and the fight for human survival forced a single earth government to be formed. A Map with a rusting ISV-Kran hull or Vortex Rikers would be cool.
Oh and if anyone is making Niven or a similar map, i think it would be cool if part of its back-story isn't that is just a random orbital nuclear reactor (what would that be useful for), but that reactor actually the power source for an obsolete 'second cold war' orbital energy weapon (like ion painter satelite, but the size of a space station)
And deep lithosphere mining is a controversial technique in the future as it's rumored to cause Earthquakes (DM-Liandri/Deck-17). There could be a map set, with all these worming metal tubes sucking lava out of the mantle up into a fissure in the earth, with little force-field ports that allow you see through to the glowing magma. UT3 had no lava levels

anyway, long post. Anyone who wants to add their general ideas of what the lore should be, feel free to chime in!
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