endless-sky
[Content] "Visiting Home" mission in human space
Content (Artwork / Missions / Jobs)
Summary
This is the third mission I'm PRing written by Wisp (aka davidwhitman on Github). This mission was originally written as a plugin for a different game, but Wisp has released these missions under the GPL-3 and given permission for them to be used in Endless Sky. I did not write these missions; all I did was (badly) convert them to Endless Sky's mission format and edit them slightly. This mission features Riley, a person in need of transport to see her dying father. The player has the option to meet him and see his reaction to his death. I'm a bit hesitant about this mission because it features tech, specifically AI, that may not be appropriate for humanity's tech level as established in Endless Sky. I set this mission in the Deep and other high tech worlds, but feedback on this front is appreciated. Marking this as a draft because I suck at mission syntax and I'm sure I've made mistakes with it. I'm inexperienced with actions in conversations, so I probably messed up something there.
Here's the original mission for reference: Stories_Riley.txt
The link to all the files is here: https://github.com/davidwhitman/stories/tree/master/src/main/resources Thanks to davidwhitman (Wisp on Discord) for providing the writing.
Punctuation for actions go within the parenthesis, as well. Too many for me to make suggestions on.
I changed the destination to Memory. I wanted to keep it rural and rather isolated in order to justify Riley moving to a more populous planet for her job, but at the same time have a substantial research industry.
Regarding the tech level concerns, do you believe that the mission in its current form is salvageable? How can I 'tone it down' so that the tech shown is more in line with what humans are shown to be capable of in ES? My logic is that if Alphas can build the Oracle, something that surpasses human intelligence, normal humans, with the technological capabilities of the Deep, can build an AI that mimics a human intelligence.
Regarding the tech level concerns, do you believe that the mission in its current form is salvageable? How can I 'tone it down' so that the tech shown is more in line with what humans are shown to be capable of in ES? My logic is that if Alphas can build the Oracle, something that surpasses human intelligence, normal humans, with the technological capabilities of the Deep, can build an AI that mimics a human intelligence.
I've got two ideas on salvaging the mission if it's not usable in its current state.
- Church dies normally with no AI revival. Mission still carries some emotion so would remain a good addition in my opinion.
- AI revival happens, but is a failure - maybe with some kind of horror twist? Like Church's voice comes through the computer, but he's wailing or it's just some kind of scary, garbled mess? Essentially the AI fails - maybe the program fails after a minute or even shuts itself down. Not sure, just spitballing. Would still be tough to write, and I'm not sure where that'd fall for other folks in terms of human capabilities.
Regarding the tech level concerns, do you believe that the mission in its current form is salvageable? How can I 'tone it down' so that the tech shown is more in line with what humans are shown to be capable of in ES? My logic is that if Alphas can build the Oracle, something that surpasses human intelligence, normal humans, with the technological capabilities of the Deep, can build an AI that mimics a human intelligence.
I've got two ideas on salvaging the mission if it's not usable in its current state.
1. Church dies normally with no AI revival. Mission still carries some emotion so would remain a good addition in my opinion. 2. AI revival happens, but is a failure - maybe with some kind of horror twist? Like Church's voice comes through the computer, but he's wailing or it's just some kind of scary, garbled mess? Essentially the AI fails - maybe the program fails after a minute or even shuts itself down. Not sure, just spitballing. Would still be tough to write, and I'm not sure where that'd fall for other folks in terms of human capabilities.
@Anarchist2 thoughts?
Option 1 is fine. The mission can definitely stand on its own ending with Church's death.
I don't like option 2. It's a trite, forced solution that clashes with the tone of the rest of the mission, that, as mentioned, would be very hard to write.
I'd say that the circumstances of the Alphas and Church are vastly different enough for them to not really be comparable. Beyond it never being stated that the Alphas developed the Oracle, the Alphas also have mostly unrestricted access to advanced alien technology. Church, on the other hand, is stuck in a hospital bed and has to avoid raising the suspicions of Deep Sec. The purposes of the AIs are also different. For a computer, crunching numbers to make predictions is easy; mimicking a human being is not.
If the idea is that the "uploaded" Church is just an AI replica, then I would lean into that angle more, perhaps by making AI Church look more artificial (he seems to only respond to certain parts of statements, repeats responses, loses his train of thought easily). That way, the AI Church doesn't seem weirdly above the rest of humanity's capabilities. It also introduces a dilemma: is it "right" to let Riley take comfort in a poor replica of her father, or does she need to accept that she needs to move on with her life?
If the idea is that the "uploaded" Church is just an AI replica, then I would lean into that angle more, perhaps by making AI Church look more artificial (he seems to only respond to certain parts of statements, repeats responses, loses his train of thought easily). That way, the AI Church doesn't seem weirdly above the rest of humanity's capabilities. It also introduces a dilemma: is it "right" to let Riley take comfort in a poor replica of her father, or does she need to accept that she needs to move on with her life?
I think this is the most interesting angle and the one that preserves the most of the original mission without conflicting with the game's tech level. I'll try rewriting the mission with this in mind, but I'll be pretty busy for the next few weeks so I'm marking this as a draft for now.
I had some free time so I tried to edit the missions accordingly. Please let me know what you think.