The idea of the OtherSpace reboot is interesting to some, but really, they wonder, isn’t it just another huge change for the sake of change?
If that were the case, I could certainly see how the novelty of such a change might quickly wear off. But I think the sort of “huge change for the sake of change” I’ve initiated in the past, such as the shift to the Ancient Expanse and the evolution of the multiverse, provided a change that was acceptable to some veteran players, a turnoff for others, and an over-complication of an original theme for potential newbies.
With the upcoming OtherSpace reboot, I’m taking the altogether new approach of essentially saying we can forget everything that’s happened in the past 16 years and we can also dismiss all of the pre-OtherSpace Drive canon. We’re taking the lore back to new roots, a century before the original game began, with the following ideas in mind:
- The OtherSpace Drive doesn’t exist yet. Mankind hasn’t broken the speed-of-light barrier. In our reboot, some player or group of players – rather than an NPC on a staff-devised timeline – will get credit for the discovery.
- Humans haven’t made first contact with any alien races yet. When they do, it’ll be accomplished by players.
- Humans haven’t colonized any worlds beyond Sol System. Ungstir, Sivad, and Quaquan aren’t even the stuff of dreams or distant myths. They flat out don’t exist. Any new colony worlds will be settled by players.
The trend I’m hoping to encourage here is a renewed and strengthened sense that players who show initiative and creative ambition can really make their mark in a whole new way, compared even to our first go-round.
In the original OtherSpace, it was possible for a player to inherit the role of Lord Fagin the Pirate King, but that was essentially slipping on the costume of a shadowy figure – albeit an important one to the game mythos – until they went inactive and got replaced by someone else. That’s not quite as big an accomplishment as establishing one’s own version of a pirate king or queen, building their own rogue-ish empire.
It’s certainly my hope that the OtherSpace reboot will provide fertile ground for players who want to lead, follow, or challenge their peers for the race to make new history.
All these Idea’s sound great to me. Allowing the players to do all that and get credit for what they have accomplished will attract plenty of people.
The fact that so much isn’t yet discovered or created means it will be so much closer to RL that even new players might have little to no problems stepping in. But that’s my point of view. Time will tell if that assumption correct.
One question rises thought. But this one might be more of a conformation for myself then an actual question.
You mentioned that nothing beyond the Sol system has been discovered or colonized. Does that mean that planets like Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and so on, are discovered? and how many of them are actually colonized?
Oke, an other question. To what degree has space travel come? Can we travel to all the planets in the Sol system? Or only to a few of them because others are to far away?
The answer to these questions might actually help me with thinking up a background for my character and give it a place in the OS reboot.
I can answer some of these. The Solar Consortium at this point consists of Earth, Mars, and Luna (the moon). The rest of the planets are known but at this point are mostly unexplored by manned expeditions.
Space travel is at a point very much like it is portrayed in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Take off from a planet surface is via a magnetic launch rail and then using engines to break the grip of gravity after the ship is accelerated off the rail. Landing is like the space shuttle lands. Re-entry, then glide in using wings and control surfaces. Some space craft are space only that travel from space station to space station or to low gravity areas like the moon. Anti-gravity in this era is a recent discovery, and thus is glitchy and not very reliable. Once out of the gravity of a planet the sublight engines of a ship can propel it at a decent speed but travel to Mars is still a bit of a trip, which is why the outer planets have yet to be truly explored.