basic storyline suggestion.... - by DreadLord
DreadLord on 15/5/2009 at 01:29
I think in order to continue the style of the series, it is important to create a storyline which is designed as a TRILOGY - even if the other parts will never be realised, it would create appropriate depth (again each part would highlight one of three (fanatic) factions)
So this are my ideas:
after the disappearance of the glyphs INDUSTRIALISATION got more and more powerful. The development caused that the trickster got a myth- the townsfolk started to think of him again as a never-existant fairy-tale character.
Even among the Hammers, mystics and priests, who believed in the Builder as actual god become only a few, the "mainstream-hammers" started to belief only in men and technology-some sort of a dark version of humanists. Unlike the Trickster, the Builder was never really manifest anyway.
Because of that,obvious magical phenomena (divine powers of hammer-priests included) got rarer,so that the common belief in gods and greater-forces vanished.
Economy, technology and money got more dominant and this caused corruption, poverty and disrespect for nature to get more dominant than ever.
Maybe the seperation even caused that the different districts look like different time periods: the poor districts remain in a dark-middle-age-state, while the rich-district represents an industrialized art-déco civillization - so progress is limited to the rich. (Through that idea, (minor or major?*) technological progress (relatively to Thief 1-3) could be integrated without harming the dark middle-ages elements)
So what does this technological extreme cause?
"Mystical/magical extremists" on the other side. United by the common goal to reassamble faith and belief in greater forces among the people of the city, hammer and pagan priests unite (though hostility remains) and ask the mages guild for support, which kept its secrecy during the whole development.
They hope that by making the existence of magic public, faith will be reastablished.
Maybe this causes internal conflicts among the mages guild as well. Pagans hope to summon forces of chaos with the help of mages, while hammer priests want to make it clear, that technology comes from forces other than men, namely the builder.
So we have materialistic, narrow-minded, atheistic technocrats, who would industrialize everything and dominate society on one side and a secret, UNDERGROUND group which contains magic, crazy mystics and god-worshipping, on the other side. Of course, the magic-side is too extreme as well, because they want to create a world order in which people are suppressed by priests and gods.
So again, keepers have to keep balance, this time between Magic and Technology. Because glyphs are gone, there tools are a combination of magic and technology (which is appropriate for the middle), maybe there is also support through non-fanatic members of both extremes (like wise-mages and nature-respecting industrialists)
Maybe this time the MAJOR objects of theft are experimental, technological devices and magical artifacts. Maybe the thief-guild plays an important role among the economies of the industrial side.
I suggest to plan the whole thing as a new trilogy, so this game could focus on stopping the magical side, which would otherwise accomplish some sort of mad plan - like summoning gods in order to destroy technological science or something... (in a way this would echo Thief 1, while creatin something new at the same time, which is the right combination in my opinion).
*
I´m not sure about that point: originally I only thought about additional steam-elements. But imagine a co-existance of spot-lights and rough-stone walls and swords (recently I saw a wine-cellar with modern, minimalistic, silver spotlights and rough, curved stone-ceilings. Maybe it works for Thief - maybe it doesn´t - in the end it does not influence the core of my story-line.
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Thief13x on 15/5/2009 at 03:36
I couldn't make it through Deadly Shadows so I'll pass :D
belboz on 15/5/2009 at 04:27
There's always the chance that they've already asked the person who wrote the story line for the first 3 games to write a fourth one.
jtr7 on 15/5/2009 at 04:39
They all wrote the story together, but TDS was mainly Terri Brosius with a lot of input from the others. The whole team writes the story, and it evolves as new ideas the team likes are integrated in, while other things are cut out, for thematic reasons and limitations.
At this time, we've been told that the first draft is already outlined and that's what they used to get approval to make the next game, and this just happened less than a month ago. The story can go through many changes now until the end, but they are all chipping in ideas together.
theBlackman on 15/5/2009 at 07:48
I dislike the entire suggestion. I've posted thoughts on the potential new game elsewhere.
But why in the world does nearly everybody get hung up on it's a new game therefore it MUSTdeal with the future, add mechanical toys, new BFG etc.
I think it must be the TV mentality. A TV series starts and progresses forward. Makes sense. That's what we grew up with and must have. A movie sequel, makes sense. Or does it.
Star Trek the new movie takes place IN THE PAST. It has outsold nearly every Premier for the last 4 to 8 years.
THIEF could do the same with NO DISTORTION OF THE GIVEN EPISODES.
But, but, but, it's a Star Trek movie. The series is franchised into many spinoffs, and they start at A and move through TIME to Z. How dare they go into the past?
How dare THIEF not move into the future like "Days of our lives" etc.
It's a violation of all the Lost, Days of our lives, Seinfeld blaah blaah blaah TV addicts are accustomed to.
DreadLord on 15/5/2009 at 19:19
Quote Posted by theBlackman
I dislike the entire suggestion. I've posted thoughts on the potential new game elsewhere.
But why in the world does nearly everybody get hung up on it's a new game therefore it
MUSTdeal with the future, add mechanical toys, new BFG etc.
I think it must be the TV mentality. A TV series starts and progresses forward. Makes sense. That's what we grew up with and must have. A movie sequel, makes sense. Or does it.
Star Trek the new movie takes place IN THE PAST. It has outsold nearly every Premier for the last 4 to 8 years.
THIEF could do the same with NO DISTORTION OF THE GIVEN EPISODES.
But, but, but, it's a Star Trek movie. The series is franchised into many spinoffs, and they start at A and move through TIME to Z. How dare they go into the past?
How dare THIEF not move into the future like "Days of our lives" etc.
It's a violation of all the Lost, Days of our lives, Seinfeld blaah blaah blaah TV addicts are accustomed to.
If you say you dislike it then bring arguments please! Without them how should I see the flaw and make it better?
Secondly: the principle of my story doesnt focus on technological advancements in the sense of NEW technology but in the sense that the hammer way of thinking will dominate over pagan thinking compared to earlier times....Apart from that: what happened in Thief II? :p Have you seen Mechs in Thief 1?
jtr7 on 15/5/2009 at 19:26
Just the steampunk and Tesla beginnings and Garrett's Mech Eye, and the metal worker gas-welding in a location with cranes and girders, all near a statue holding a rust-coloured gear aloft. They were there and on the move before the movie faded out. But that's beside you main point.:cheeky:
theBlackman on 15/5/2009 at 19:32
Not a FLAW. You have expressed an opinion on modernizing the game.
I don't like the idea, but there is no counter argument. You like it I don't for many reasons which have nothing to do with your suggestion or wishes being faulty.
It's much like you say you would like to have a Lamborgini, and I say I would not like to have one. Nothing wrong with you or the car. But "I", in this example, would not like one.
That's why there are Scotch drinkers and Bourbon drinkers. Neither is wrong, it's a matter of taste.
My taste is for the general tenor of the current era of THIEF at it's current level of development. There really is not a large gap between TDP and TMA.
Dammit JTR, do you ever sleep? :)
Even TDP had electrical power in The City, and as a necessity, some mechanics and industry. But MORE is not always BETTER.
jtr7 on 15/5/2009 at 19:36
There ya go!
Re: Sleep
Not much and not on a schedule, I'm afraid. I'm working on it.:eww:
DreadLord on 15/5/2009 at 19:53
Quote Posted by theBlackman
Not a FLAW. You have expressed an opinion on modernizing the game.
I don't like the idea, but there is no counter argument. You like it I don't for many reasons which have nothing to do with your suggestion or wishes being faulty.
It's much like you say you would like to have a Lamborgini, and I say I would not like to have one. Nothing wrong with you or the car. But "I", in this example, would not like one.
That's why there are Scotch drinkers and Bourbon drinkers. Neither is wrong, it's a matter of taste.
My taste is for the general tenor of the current era of THIEF at it's current level of development. There really is not a large gap between TDP and TMA.
Dammit JTR, do you ever sleep? :)
Even TDP had electrical power in The City, and as a necessity, some mechanics and industry. But MORE is not always BETTER.
But my point is:
my plot does not focus on technological advancements at all!
In my context INDUSTRIALISATION means: not a new time-period but only more of the same technology which we already have seen in Thief1(more lights, more steam engines).
The major point in my story is there is a change in thinking: common religious faith decreased, which causes a religious underground group on the other side...
