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The Long Journey Home- - Star Control 2-inspired roguelike from Daedalic Entertainment
- Thread starter vonAchdorf
- Start date
LESS T_T
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2012
- Messages
- 13,582
PCGamesN interviewed Cobbett and director Andreas Suika: http://www.pcgamesn.com/the-long-journey-home/the-long-journey-home-steam-preview
It is the near future, and the NASA-like IASA have invented humanity’s first jump drive. To test it, they bring on a ragtag, PR-friendly team to prove that space is for everyone. Among them are an archeologist; a botanist; a blogger; an astronaut recently diagnosed with cancer.
“Shocking nobody,” says The Long Journey Home writer Richard Cobbett, “it goes a bit wrong.”
The landmark ship is instead catapulted to the other end of the galaxy, where four not-exactly space experts are left to pilot it back to Earth via the scenic route. Will they make it home without accidentally declaring interstellar war, or at the very least, irreparably upsetting a procedurally-generated ecosystem of alien races? Will they bollocks.
The Long Journey Home comes from Daedalic Entertainment Studio West, the German point-and-click specialists’ largely independent Duesseldorf outpost. Under the direction of Settlers veteran Andreas Suika, they’ve built a game about getting lost and coming home. It sits somewhere between FTL and Star Control 2.
You’re in charge of slingshotting the ship between planets in a top-down perspective, deploying a landing craft in 2D, trading with aliens given random IDs like ‘Little Starkiller’, and fighting in an overhead naval-style view that invites comparison with Sunless Sea.
“We basically give you a universe and a destination,” explains Cobbett. “Everything [after] that point is up to you.”
You have only one life, but to call The Long Journey Home a roguelike doesn’t tell the whole story. Nor does it feel quite right to call it an RPG, despite the trading, factional decision-making and reams of quest dialogue Cobbett is still now stuffing into the game.
“We call it a reverse RPG quite often,” helps Suika. “So at the beginning you have this big fat ship and everything is fine, and then you fall apart and try to keep it somewhat together. That’s the reason you land on planets and try to get resources, and either sell it to aliens or try to fix your ship.”
You’re not going to get home without chatting to aliens. Apart from anything else, they control the jump gates that allow you to travel from one sector to the next. Crucially, however, there’s always more than one gate in a sector - so you’re never stuck pleading with a race who despise you because you fed their ambassador to another faction. For instance.
The idea is that while every decision is imbued with permadeath tension, there are none of the surprise, anvil-drop deaths you might associate with the roguelike genre.
“Not every fight which you have is to the death,” Cobbett points out. “I personally hate that in RPGs. In our game the enemy might surrender, or they might offer you surrender. The traders might ask you to give them some money. The slavers might ask you to give them one of your crew.”
Similarly, if you raise your shields, a militaristic race might take that as a sign of respect - while another might find it unsettling and refuse to negotiate.
“We see everything that you do as communication,” says Suika.
Unreal 4’s openness has allowed for this. Daedalic have been able to stitch not only a unique flight system into the engine, but their own dialogue tools too.
“Andreas basically made the biggest mistake a creative director can make,” says Cobbett. “Which is that he programmed in this system where the crew would have dialogue throughout the course of the game, and he handed it to me, a guy who likes overwriting more than anything else in the world.”
What was first intended as a series of pop-up windows to offer players feedback about their crew’s wellbeing is now a well of Baldur’s Gate II-style back-and-forth banter. Throughout the entire game, your crew natter about each other, previous decisions, and the items you’ve picked up along the way.
“You look at Farscape, Red Dwarf, Battlestar Galactica,” suggests Cobbett. “There are fascinating interactions that happen when people are stuck together in a small space.”
Even when three of the crew have been sold into slavery, killed in fumbled planetary landings or vapourised in combat, there’s dialogue for the sole survivor.
“We want those two sides of the experience,” Cobbett intones. “Yes, the awesome space adventure, but also trapped alone on the edge of death.”
Broadly, though, The Long Journey Home is notable for its lively comms, with characters on and off the ship. That’s embodied in the Insta-style handles picked by the crew. The botanist who likes to get high is ‘IASA Grim Reefer’. The sarcastic archeologist? ‘IASA Snarkiologist’.
“Space games, a lot of them, tend to lack personality,” says Cobbett. “Any point that we can squeeze in a bit more personality we’re taking.”
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2011
- Messages
- 100,516
Blog post by Zoe the the blogger chick: http://blog.tljhgame.com/post/151978523142/zoetropeissue-1
ZOETROPE/Issue 1
This newsletter sponsored by The Long Journey Home; the ultimate space adventure RPG. Coming soon…
Hey-hey. Zoe Creed here, coming to you from the International Astronaut Training Centre in Cologne. If you’ve been following my videos over on ZOETROPE - and if not, why the hell not? Go watch ‘em, I’ll wait - you’ll know I’ve been in basic training with the rest of Team Daedalus as we prepare for next year’s mission. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Six months, for what, just 24 hours worth of space-time? Hell yes, I say. We’re talking being one of the first twelve human beings to get up close and personal with Alpha Centauri, AND stick it to my old physics prof for a D that I won’t lie, I’m still kinda bitter about. Good thing I’m not the kind of gal who holds a grudge. Mrs. Welch.
Anyways, thanks for subscribing. Every week, I’ll be bringing you the latest on the people and events as we prepare for what IASA’s marketing peeps tell me I’m supposed to call an ‘unprecedented moment in the history of our species’ development’. Go check out the ZOETROPE archives on VirrTube for all the latest vids and 360 degree pics I’ve been shooting, and ping me any questions or things you’d like to hear about atdeepspacezoe@gmail.com
And now… ONWARDS!
- ZC / October 18, 2066
INTERVIEW - SIOBHAN HARTIGAN, ARCHEOLOGIST
Doctor Siobhan Hartigan has had something of a controversial career, being praised as the savior of as many crucial ancient relics as she’s been accused of ‘liberating’ from some of the world’s most dangerous archaeological sites. With the backing of the Minerva Consortium, she’s led teams into Iraq, Afghanistan, and into the Korean DMZ. Where next, but Alpha Centauri?
ZOETROPE: So, tell me about your most recent trip. Iran, right?
HARTIGAN: That’s right. Not my smartest decision! Minerva’s geo-mapping is getting pretty good at locating sites via satellite, and this one wasn’t far off the old town of Susa. Now, you know the fighting round there of late, but we figured we could get in, check it out, and get out while the insurgency was busy. Not so much. Not sure when we got made, but around 3AM two days later a patrol just happened to swing by and… well, things got unpleasant.
Z: Unpleasant as in…
H: Could have been a lot more unpleasant. Luckily we were all sleeping with guns under our pillows and had hired some very big security guys. Managed to stalemate things at least until we could talk everyone down, but I won’t lie. Spent several hours behind a half-excavated statue of Inanna thinking the bullets were going to start flying at any moment. Wouldn’t have been my first shoot-out. Thankfully got out of the last one with just a few scars.
Z: Jeez. Is that what you expected when you became an archaeologist?
H: Expected? More like hoped, a little. If you want a safe life, go dig up Bath or somewhere. Me, I had the best role-models growing up. Indy. Lara. Adele Blanc-Sec. I wanted to be Lara so badly. Even practiced that iconic dive in our local pool. Never could get it right. Always ended up back on the surface, choking. Still, she taught me a lot about getting into trouble as a kid, and I guess that need to get into a bit of trouble never really went away. “Adventures”, I called them. Just me and my backpack against the world.
Z: I’m guessing there weren’t many ancient temples to raid near… what part of Ireland was this?
H: Cork. And no, not so much. That’s okay. I made my own my own. Like, one time I decided I was going to raid the teacher’s lounge at my school and steal their biscuits… sorry, I mean, The Bourbons of Destiny. So, I hid by the bushes, all this exciting action music playing in my head. When they went to assembly I went up to the door and opened it. Snuck past the music teacher who was already snoozing in his chair and there. Mission complete, and victory tasted sweet. Except then I heard the door opening. The whole lot of them coming back and me with crumbs still on my lips. Had no choice- dived under their sofa. Was stuck there all day. Might have been stuck there all night if the caretaker’s brush hadn’t caught me a whack to the ribs while sweeping up.
Z: Ha! How much trouble did you get into for that one?
H: Not enough. At least, not enough that two weeks later I didn’t try sneaking into the military camp just outside of town. We’re talking guards with guns, spotlights, dogs… anyway, a fourteen year old girl trying to break in went about as well as you’d think. Luckily they thought it was funny. Gave me some orange squash along with the bollocking and a lift back to town without calling my parents. Thank Christ. Not sure how long I’d have been grounded if they’d heard about it back then. I’d probably be getting out sometime around now…
Z: Doesn’t sound like it taught you much of a lesson though.
H: It taught me to be a bit more careful. Not quite so ambitious, without a proper plan. In any case, we moved to South Africa not long after that for my father’s work and. That’s where I realized I actually liked the archaeology side of being an archaeologist. Travelling the world. Finding treasures, valuable or not. Solving puzzles. I love good puzzles. True, in our line of work it’s mostly the likes of ‘who would have drunk from this cup?’ and ‘why are there five hundred arrow-heads here but no sign of a battle?’, but I’ll take it.
I guess it didn’t hurt that was it was the archaeologists who let me tag along on a local dig who really told me how badass the real ones can be, even without a whip or cannonball tits. You know Indy was largely based on a real guy? Or the history of the Bone Wars? And what really got me was hearing about some of the women. I’m talking Gertrude Bell, Lady Hester Stanhope, Jane Dieulafoy - Read their stories. I mean it. Whenever I’m up to my knees in a shit-filled ditch or dealing with some guy who doesn’t know how to talk to someone without a dick swinging between their legs, or the few times I’ve looked right down the barrel of a gun, I’ve taken great satisfaction in being in their footsteps.
Z: And nothing’s ever made you think of jacking it in?
H: Bonekickers, maybe…
Z: Brrr. So, the obvious question I’m sure readers are thinking. What’s the role of an archaeologist in space? Isn’t your specialty kindof on the other side of history?
H: The simple fact is that the universe is older than we can possibly imagine, and if there is sentient life out there, the odds of it all being around at the same time is… no. Just, no. A million cultures could have risen and fallen before we made it out of the trees, and their secrets buried just as deeply as our own. The things we could find! One single piece of precursor technology could jump our whole civilization ahead by millennia. A cultural artifact could tell us more of the universe than any sensor or scanner ever could. Perhaps the galaxy is nothing but dust and ash. But can we really take that chance?
Z: And if it’s protected by alien traps, temples, robot guardians and the like?
H: Ha! Just try and hold me back…
Z: Awesome. Thank you for your time.
VIEWER MAIL
This week, a question from Robin Isles of England, asking:
“Hi Zoe. I know you probably can’t be too specific, but how fast is the Daedalus-7’s engine compared to the jump drive? Don’t we have enough to explore closer to home?”
Hey Robin. Good question! The exact safe cruising speed of the KNOSSOS drive - that’s the main/system/impulse drive, in case you don’t know - is still being worked out. At the moment though, Professor Lebedev tells me it maxes out at 6AU/hour, with a recommended cruise speed of 2 or 3 AUs per hour, depending on the nature of the system you’re navigating, radiation levels, gravity, and all of that other fun hoopy space stuff. More than that for a prolonged and you’re at risk of shaking the whole ship apart around you, and giving the inertial dampeners a seriously bad day.
Now, AUs? That’s not 6 Australias we’re talking, but Astral Units. One Astral Unit is the distance from the Sun to the Earth, more or less. So, how does this compare? If you were to head out right now and sign up for a tour of duty on the Schiaparelli mining bases on Mars, you’d be looking at a week’s not particularly comfortable travel. With the KNOSSOS drive, you’d be there faster than taking the Atlantic hoverrail. Unfortunately right now the building and operation of the thing costs far too much for it to be commercially viable, so, basically, still pack your VR headsets. It’s going to be at least ten years.
Anyway. To get to another star? Our nearest neighbour, Alpha Centauri, is 4.367 light years away. That’s roughly 271,000 AU. If we say 3 AU/hour, that gives us 90,333 hours, which when divided by 24… divided by 365 to keep it clean… a hell of a long trip, put it that way, with nowhere to pick up food. The Daedalus drive meanwhile uses space-folding technology to accomplish that in again, a matter of hours. The only catch? You can’t just jump anywhere. There’s got to be a sun’s gravity well to lock onto for the length of the fold.
What happens if you lose lock while space folding?
I… don’t know. I don’t *want* to know.
But if there’s anything *you* want to know, about the mission, the technology, or the people leading - one second, what was it? Ah, yes, this ‘unprecedented moment in the history of our species’ development’.
I’ll get that memorized right soon, I’m sure.
Remember, all your questions: deepspacezoe@gmail.com
FINAL NOTES
That’s it from me this week. I’m typing this in my room to try and distract myself from the fact that this afternoon, we’re all being sent for our turn on the dreaded Vomit Comet. I can’t tell from the expressions whether this is an essential part of training, or just hazing from the ‘real’ astronauts. I guess I’ll let you know next time, if I survive, with or without dignity intact. Either way, you know where to catch the footage in all its barfy goodness.
Just, please, no new memes, okay?
(Yeah. I’m absolutely positive that’ll do it.)
That was Zoe. Signing off.
This newsletter sponsored by The Long Journey Home; the ultimate space adventure RPG. Coming soon…
Hey-hey. Zoe Creed here, coming to you from the International Astronaut Training Centre in Cologne. If you’ve been following my videos over on ZOETROPE - and if not, why the hell not? Go watch ‘em, I’ll wait - you’ll know I’ve been in basic training with the rest of Team Daedalus as we prepare for next year’s mission. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Six months, for what, just 24 hours worth of space-time? Hell yes, I say. We’re talking being one of the first twelve human beings to get up close and personal with Alpha Centauri, AND stick it to my old physics prof for a D that I won’t lie, I’m still kinda bitter about. Good thing I’m not the kind of gal who holds a grudge. Mrs. Welch.
Anyways, thanks for subscribing. Every week, I’ll be bringing you the latest on the people and events as we prepare for what IASA’s marketing peeps tell me I’m supposed to call an ‘unprecedented moment in the history of our species’ development’. Go check out the ZOETROPE archives on VirrTube for all the latest vids and 360 degree pics I’ve been shooting, and ping me any questions or things you’d like to hear about atdeepspacezoe@gmail.com
And now… ONWARDS!
- ZC / October 18, 2066
INTERVIEW - SIOBHAN HARTIGAN, ARCHEOLOGIST
Doctor Siobhan Hartigan has had something of a controversial career, being praised as the savior of as many crucial ancient relics as she’s been accused of ‘liberating’ from some of the world’s most dangerous archaeological sites. With the backing of the Minerva Consortium, she’s led teams into Iraq, Afghanistan, and into the Korean DMZ. Where next, but Alpha Centauri?
ZOETROPE: So, tell me about your most recent trip. Iran, right?
HARTIGAN: That’s right. Not my smartest decision! Minerva’s geo-mapping is getting pretty good at locating sites via satellite, and this one wasn’t far off the old town of Susa. Now, you know the fighting round there of late, but we figured we could get in, check it out, and get out while the insurgency was busy. Not so much. Not sure when we got made, but around 3AM two days later a patrol just happened to swing by and… well, things got unpleasant.
Z: Unpleasant as in…
H: Could have been a lot more unpleasant. Luckily we were all sleeping with guns under our pillows and had hired some very big security guys. Managed to stalemate things at least until we could talk everyone down, but I won’t lie. Spent several hours behind a half-excavated statue of Inanna thinking the bullets were going to start flying at any moment. Wouldn’t have been my first shoot-out. Thankfully got out of the last one with just a few scars.
Z: Jeez. Is that what you expected when you became an archaeologist?
H: Expected? More like hoped, a little. If you want a safe life, go dig up Bath or somewhere. Me, I had the best role-models growing up. Indy. Lara. Adele Blanc-Sec. I wanted to be Lara so badly. Even practiced that iconic dive in our local pool. Never could get it right. Always ended up back on the surface, choking. Still, she taught me a lot about getting into trouble as a kid, and I guess that need to get into a bit of trouble never really went away. “Adventures”, I called them. Just me and my backpack against the world.
Z: I’m guessing there weren’t many ancient temples to raid near… what part of Ireland was this?
H: Cork. And no, not so much. That’s okay. I made my own my own. Like, one time I decided I was going to raid the teacher’s lounge at my school and steal their biscuits… sorry, I mean, The Bourbons of Destiny. So, I hid by the bushes, all this exciting action music playing in my head. When they went to assembly I went up to the door and opened it. Snuck past the music teacher who was already snoozing in his chair and there. Mission complete, and victory tasted sweet. Except then I heard the door opening. The whole lot of them coming back and me with crumbs still on my lips. Had no choice- dived under their sofa. Was stuck there all day. Might have been stuck there all night if the caretaker’s brush hadn’t caught me a whack to the ribs while sweeping up.
Z: Ha! How much trouble did you get into for that one?
H: Not enough. At least, not enough that two weeks later I didn’t try sneaking into the military camp just outside of town. We’re talking guards with guns, spotlights, dogs… anyway, a fourteen year old girl trying to break in went about as well as you’d think. Luckily they thought it was funny. Gave me some orange squash along with the bollocking and a lift back to town without calling my parents. Thank Christ. Not sure how long I’d have been grounded if they’d heard about it back then. I’d probably be getting out sometime around now…
Z: Doesn’t sound like it taught you much of a lesson though.
H: It taught me to be a bit more careful. Not quite so ambitious, without a proper plan. In any case, we moved to South Africa not long after that for my father’s work and. That’s where I realized I actually liked the archaeology side of being an archaeologist. Travelling the world. Finding treasures, valuable or not. Solving puzzles. I love good puzzles. True, in our line of work it’s mostly the likes of ‘who would have drunk from this cup?’ and ‘why are there five hundred arrow-heads here but no sign of a battle?’, but I’ll take it.
I guess it didn’t hurt that was it was the archaeologists who let me tag along on a local dig who really told me how badass the real ones can be, even without a whip or cannonball tits. You know Indy was largely based on a real guy? Or the history of the Bone Wars? And what really got me was hearing about some of the women. I’m talking Gertrude Bell, Lady Hester Stanhope, Jane Dieulafoy - Read their stories. I mean it. Whenever I’m up to my knees in a shit-filled ditch or dealing with some guy who doesn’t know how to talk to someone without a dick swinging between their legs, or the few times I’ve looked right down the barrel of a gun, I’ve taken great satisfaction in being in their footsteps.
Z: And nothing’s ever made you think of jacking it in?
H: Bonekickers, maybe…
Z: Brrr. So, the obvious question I’m sure readers are thinking. What’s the role of an archaeologist in space? Isn’t your specialty kindof on the other side of history?
H: The simple fact is that the universe is older than we can possibly imagine, and if there is sentient life out there, the odds of it all being around at the same time is… no. Just, no. A million cultures could have risen and fallen before we made it out of the trees, and their secrets buried just as deeply as our own. The things we could find! One single piece of precursor technology could jump our whole civilization ahead by millennia. A cultural artifact could tell us more of the universe than any sensor or scanner ever could. Perhaps the galaxy is nothing but dust and ash. But can we really take that chance?
Z: And if it’s protected by alien traps, temples, robot guardians and the like?
H: Ha! Just try and hold me back…
Z: Awesome. Thank you for your time.
VIEWER MAIL
This week, a question from Robin Isles of England, asking:
“Hi Zoe. I know you probably can’t be too specific, but how fast is the Daedalus-7’s engine compared to the jump drive? Don’t we have enough to explore closer to home?”
Hey Robin. Good question! The exact safe cruising speed of the KNOSSOS drive - that’s the main/system/impulse drive, in case you don’t know - is still being worked out. At the moment though, Professor Lebedev tells me it maxes out at 6AU/hour, with a recommended cruise speed of 2 or 3 AUs per hour, depending on the nature of the system you’re navigating, radiation levels, gravity, and all of that other fun hoopy space stuff. More than that for a prolonged and you’re at risk of shaking the whole ship apart around you, and giving the inertial dampeners a seriously bad day.
Now, AUs? That’s not 6 Australias we’re talking, but Astral Units. One Astral Unit is the distance from the Sun to the Earth, more or less. So, how does this compare? If you were to head out right now and sign up for a tour of duty on the Schiaparelli mining bases on Mars, you’d be looking at a week’s not particularly comfortable travel. With the KNOSSOS drive, you’d be there faster than taking the Atlantic hoverrail. Unfortunately right now the building and operation of the thing costs far too much for it to be commercially viable, so, basically, still pack your VR headsets. It’s going to be at least ten years.
Anyway. To get to another star? Our nearest neighbour, Alpha Centauri, is 4.367 light years away. That’s roughly 271,000 AU. If we say 3 AU/hour, that gives us 90,333 hours, which when divided by 24… divided by 365 to keep it clean… a hell of a long trip, put it that way, with nowhere to pick up food. The Daedalus drive meanwhile uses space-folding technology to accomplish that in again, a matter of hours. The only catch? You can’t just jump anywhere. There’s got to be a sun’s gravity well to lock onto for the length of the fold.
What happens if you lose lock while space folding?
I… don’t know. I don’t *want* to know.
But if there’s anything *you* want to know, about the mission, the technology, or the people leading - one second, what was it? Ah, yes, this ‘unprecedented moment in the history of our species’ development’.
I’ll get that memorized right soon, I’m sure.
Remember, all your questions: deepspacezoe@gmail.com
FINAL NOTES
That’s it from me this week. I’m typing this in my room to try and distract myself from the fact that this afternoon, we’re all being sent for our turn on the dreaded Vomit Comet. I can’t tell from the expressions whether this is an essential part of training, or just hazing from the ‘real’ astronauts. I guess I’ll let you know next time, if I survive, with or without dignity intact. Either way, you know where to catch the footage in all its barfy goodness.
Just, please, no new memes, okay?
(Yeah. I’m absolutely positive that’ll do it.)
That was Zoe. Signing off.
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2011
- Messages
- 100,516
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2011
- Messages
- 100,516
Another blog post: http://blog.tljhgame.com/post/152270936612/zoetropeissue-2
Cobbett enjoys this too much.
ZOETROPE/Issue 2
This newsletter sponsored by The Long Journey Home; the ultimate space adventure RPG. Coming soon…
Morning. Afternoon. Evening. Night. Thanks to Physics, I’m not feeling so great right now. Stomach’s already up in space. Hair’s still blue, only a shade closer to white. Seriously. Best day of my life. Let’s not repeat it any time soon, kay? More on that in just a moment. Thanks again for subscribing to the text-version of ZOETROPE, in association with IASA, as we count down the weeks to the Daedalus-7 mission next year. For the first time since flying out here, I’m actually starting to feel it. Zoe, girl, you’re actually going into space. This is a thing that’s happening, and it’s happening real soon.
God, I hope it’s not as messy up there. Anyway, as ever, go check out the ZOETROPE archives on VirrTube for all the latest vids and 360 degree pics I’ve been shooting, and ping me any questions or things you’d like to hear about at deepspacezoe@gmail.com. I know, retro. Still, I dig retro. You dig?
- ZC / October 25, 2066
ZOE VS. THE VOMIT COMET
“Don’t fight it. If you’re going to be sick, it’s happening.”
I glanced over at Commander Barrasso – Kirsten – as she finished belting into the rigging. Best of times, those weren’t comforting words. Never mind with a camera strapped half a metre from my face by Producer Frankie in the hope of catching the whole thing in glorious slow-mo. Her advice? “If you start feeling weird, just think of warm pork in the sun. Curdled milk in a butter churn-“
I’m asking for a new roommate.
It was 10AM at the Cologne facility, and we were Team A – myself, Commander Barrasso, Benoit, the scientist I’d not had much time to talk with yet, and what should have been Simon, only he’d decided this was a waste of his valuable time. It’s not like anyone at IASA’s going to tell a Schiaparelli VP that he can’t go on the flight his company spent billions on. Besides, the Daedalus-7 has the latest in gravity systems built in. This old-school flight into adventure was supposedly so we’d all at least have some zero-G experience in the event of a problem. Really, I’m calling hazing from the real astronauts. It’s not like they’ve been unfriendly, but… well, there’s a certain friction between our group of mostly civilians, and the guys who’ll be taking over once our quick trip is over. They’re going to be the real explorers, and they don’t let us forget it. We’re with the marketing department.
But screw ‘em. Politely and gently, of course.
The Vomit Comet’s a particularly old-fashioned training device, but it still works and is still cheaper than sending up a shuttle. The basic idea is that you go up-diddly-up into the atmosphere, around 35 thousand feet. Then, down-diddly-down. The parabolic flight-path gives everyone aboard around 30 seconds of weightlessness, then gravity catches on. Rinse. Repeat for about two hours. Officially, IASA calls them Weightless Wonders. You can guess why they’re better known as Vomit Comets.
Kirsten squeezed my hand as the engines revved up. I gave her a weak smile, suddenly regretting this. Weirdly, she seemed most excited by this than the rest of us, despite being the woman with more hours logged at both ISS platforms than anyone else. “Imagine getting out of a bath to be told you can never have one again,” she said, gesturing to the big empty space in the gutted plane. “Then, five years later, you’re offered a go in the most opulent jacuzzi you’ve ever seen.”
She didn’t need to say more. One of the unspoken rules of the project is we don’t talk about her recent diagnosis. At least, not casually. The day we got official word that she’d been cleared for the Daedalus-7, Miriam threw a small party. Cue Benoit pointing out her survival chances were at least 90% better if she started the chemo then, not afterwards. She didn’t care. Not even a little.
For the moment though, I thought of me. Trying not to dribble for the camera as we got up to speed. Shooting a glance at Frankie over in her harness, clearly itching to get her phone free and start taking video. Thankfully, not long to wait. We unhooked from our rigs after takeoff and everyone was ordered to lie down on the well padded floor in the main part of the plain.
“Everybody ready?”
A chorus of approval. Our team. The IASA science team there for real work. A few students who’d won a competition. And then… the floor fell away from my back with my stomach along for the ride and-
I just started laughing, camera in face completely forgotten. I’d expected it to be like- hell, I’d never expected it to be like this, but I think in my head, even with my physics degree, that I expected it’d be like swimming underwater, not kicking against nothing. And then, it was over. Gravity caught up with us and I fell on my butt on the padded floor, still laughing. Soon enough, back we went.
Benoit was regretting it already. But Kirsten – Kirsten was like a mermaid, only without the tail, the clamshell bra, the water…. Okay, look, bad example. But you know what I mean. It’s not just that she moved through it with such practiced ease, but the look on her face that said “I’m home.” While the rest of us did 360 degree flips and Superman flights and standing on the ceiling, she basked in the raw sensation and only really stopped to lend a hand to someone who needed it.
This, I thought, was amazing. No problem at all!
But here’s the thing. Turns out it’s not the initial sense of weightlessness that gets you, but the constant stop and start. I’d skipped breakfast this morning for obvious reasons and thought, ha, loophole. With a sudden burp, the remains of yesterday’s dinner made their presence known. Oh, shit, I thought, suddenly very aware of that camera. Look. As long as I wasn’t the first to break, at least I figured some honour would be retained. True enough, most of the non-astronauts amongst us were looking a little bit green around the gills at this point. Benoit was sweating hard. Frankie was holding onto the rigging. Kirsten was… obviously, Kirsten was absolutely bloody fine.
Still, I swam across to Frankie, my phone recording. “Warm pork,” I whispered.
“Zoe!”
“Curdled milk… Churning butter…”
And it would have been the perfect crime… if being violently sick wasn’t more contagious than the average bubonic plague outburst. But I’m guessing you’ve already seen the Slow-Mo-Zoe-Heave-Ho video Frankie locked me out of our room to upload. If not, don’t be eating. If it’s too late, sorry.
And sorry, IASA, I did my best. I’ll try to do better on your new ship. Pinky-swear..
FINAL NOTES
That’s all for now, folks. Gotta cut things a bit short so I can lie down for a few hours. Head’s still spinning. Don’t get me wrong, I’d not change today for anything… but I’ll definitely look back on it more fondly after eating… something. Sorry. Even thinking about eating something is…
Bluuuuumph…
Sorry, Zoe gotta go. Signing out… as fast as possible…
This newsletter sponsored by The Long Journey Home; the ultimate space adventure RPG. Coming soon…
Morning. Afternoon. Evening. Night. Thanks to Physics, I’m not feeling so great right now. Stomach’s already up in space. Hair’s still blue, only a shade closer to white. Seriously. Best day of my life. Let’s not repeat it any time soon, kay? More on that in just a moment. Thanks again for subscribing to the text-version of ZOETROPE, in association with IASA, as we count down the weeks to the Daedalus-7 mission next year. For the first time since flying out here, I’m actually starting to feel it. Zoe, girl, you’re actually going into space. This is a thing that’s happening, and it’s happening real soon.
God, I hope it’s not as messy up there. Anyway, as ever, go check out the ZOETROPE archives on VirrTube for all the latest vids and 360 degree pics I’ve been shooting, and ping me any questions or things you’d like to hear about at deepspacezoe@gmail.com. I know, retro. Still, I dig retro. You dig?
- ZC / October 25, 2066
ZOE VS. THE VOMIT COMET
“Don’t fight it. If you’re going to be sick, it’s happening.”
I glanced over at Commander Barrasso – Kirsten – as she finished belting into the rigging. Best of times, those weren’t comforting words. Never mind with a camera strapped half a metre from my face by Producer Frankie in the hope of catching the whole thing in glorious slow-mo. Her advice? “If you start feeling weird, just think of warm pork in the sun. Curdled milk in a butter churn-“
I’m asking for a new roommate.
It was 10AM at the Cologne facility, and we were Team A – myself, Commander Barrasso, Benoit, the scientist I’d not had much time to talk with yet, and what should have been Simon, only he’d decided this was a waste of his valuable time. It’s not like anyone at IASA’s going to tell a Schiaparelli VP that he can’t go on the flight his company spent billions on. Besides, the Daedalus-7 has the latest in gravity systems built in. This old-school flight into adventure was supposedly so we’d all at least have some zero-G experience in the event of a problem. Really, I’m calling hazing from the real astronauts. It’s not like they’ve been unfriendly, but… well, there’s a certain friction between our group of mostly civilians, and the guys who’ll be taking over once our quick trip is over. They’re going to be the real explorers, and they don’t let us forget it. We’re with the marketing department.
But screw ‘em. Politely and gently, of course.
The Vomit Comet’s a particularly old-fashioned training device, but it still works and is still cheaper than sending up a shuttle. The basic idea is that you go up-diddly-up into the atmosphere, around 35 thousand feet. Then, down-diddly-down. The parabolic flight-path gives everyone aboard around 30 seconds of weightlessness, then gravity catches on. Rinse. Repeat for about two hours. Officially, IASA calls them Weightless Wonders. You can guess why they’re better known as Vomit Comets.
Kirsten squeezed my hand as the engines revved up. I gave her a weak smile, suddenly regretting this. Weirdly, she seemed most excited by this than the rest of us, despite being the woman with more hours logged at both ISS platforms than anyone else. “Imagine getting out of a bath to be told you can never have one again,” she said, gesturing to the big empty space in the gutted plane. “Then, five years later, you’re offered a go in the most opulent jacuzzi you’ve ever seen.”
She didn’t need to say more. One of the unspoken rules of the project is we don’t talk about her recent diagnosis. At least, not casually. The day we got official word that she’d been cleared for the Daedalus-7, Miriam threw a small party. Cue Benoit pointing out her survival chances were at least 90% better if she started the chemo then, not afterwards. She didn’t care. Not even a little.
For the moment though, I thought of me. Trying not to dribble for the camera as we got up to speed. Shooting a glance at Frankie over in her harness, clearly itching to get her phone free and start taking video. Thankfully, not long to wait. We unhooked from our rigs after takeoff and everyone was ordered to lie down on the well padded floor in the main part of the plain.
“Everybody ready?”
A chorus of approval. Our team. The IASA science team there for real work. A few students who’d won a competition. And then… the floor fell away from my back with my stomach along for the ride and-
I just started laughing, camera in face completely forgotten. I’d expected it to be like- hell, I’d never expected it to be like this, but I think in my head, even with my physics degree, that I expected it’d be like swimming underwater, not kicking against nothing. And then, it was over. Gravity caught up with us and I fell on my butt on the padded floor, still laughing. Soon enough, back we went.
Benoit was regretting it already. But Kirsten – Kirsten was like a mermaid, only without the tail, the clamshell bra, the water…. Okay, look, bad example. But you know what I mean. It’s not just that she moved through it with such practiced ease, but the look on her face that said “I’m home.” While the rest of us did 360 degree flips and Superman flights and standing on the ceiling, she basked in the raw sensation and only really stopped to lend a hand to someone who needed it.
This, I thought, was amazing. No problem at all!
But here’s the thing. Turns out it’s not the initial sense of weightlessness that gets you, but the constant stop and start. I’d skipped breakfast this morning for obvious reasons and thought, ha, loophole. With a sudden burp, the remains of yesterday’s dinner made their presence known. Oh, shit, I thought, suddenly very aware of that camera. Look. As long as I wasn’t the first to break, at least I figured some honour would be retained. True enough, most of the non-astronauts amongst us were looking a little bit green around the gills at this point. Benoit was sweating hard. Frankie was holding onto the rigging. Kirsten was… obviously, Kirsten was absolutely bloody fine.
Still, I swam across to Frankie, my phone recording. “Warm pork,” I whispered.
“Zoe!”
“Curdled milk… Churning butter…”
And it would have been the perfect crime… if being violently sick wasn’t more contagious than the average bubonic plague outburst. But I’m guessing you’ve already seen the Slow-Mo-Zoe-Heave-Ho video Frankie locked me out of our room to upload. If not, don’t be eating. If it’s too late, sorry.
And sorry, IASA, I did my best. I’ll try to do better on your new ship. Pinky-swear..
FINAL NOTES
That’s all for now, folks. Gotta cut things a bit short so I can lie down for a few hours. Head’s still spinning. Don’t get me wrong, I’d not change today for anything… but I’ll definitely look back on it more fondly after eating… something. Sorry. Even thinking about eating something is…
Bluuuuumph…
Sorry, Zoe gotta go. Signing out… as fast as possible…
Cobbett enjoys this too much.
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Richard Cobbett writes about TLJH in his weekly RPS column: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...s-weekly-rpg-column.98319/page-8#post-4831790
Also sheesh he did two more of those blog posts: http://blog.tljhgame.com/post/152598690932/zoetropeissue-3
http://blog.tljhgame.com/post/152904284252/zoetropeissue-4
Also sheesh he did two more of those blog posts: http://blog.tljhgame.com/post/152598690932/zoetropeissue-3
http://blog.tljhgame.com/post/152904284252/zoetropeissue-4
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Two more: http://blog.tljhgame.com/post/153530778147/zoetropeissue-6
http://blog.tljhgame.com/post/154181973272/zoetropeissue-7
Last one was over two months ago. I wonder what's up with this game?
http://blog.tljhgame.com/post/154181973272/zoetropeissue-7
Last one was over two months ago. I wonder what's up with this game?
Never heard of this until today, it looks kind of cool and interesting. Should I be cool and interested?
Oh, and
http://steamcommunity.com/games/longjourneyhome/announcements/detail/558846854615961821
http://steamcommunity.com/games/longjourneyhome/announcements/detail/558846854615961821
A Very Quick Update (And Phone Wallpapers!)
FEBRUARY 10 - SENESCHAL
Hi folks! Sorry things have been a little quiet of late. We've been locked down for the last couple of months finishing the text and last few quests for the game. We'll be back real soon now with some updates and more info.
While waiting, though, why not check out these funky mobile phone backgrounds featuring a few of the team, astronaut Kirsten, a pretty moment on a distant planet, and one of our more... impolite... alien races. You'll be getting to know them very well soon enough, not entirely to their pleasure.
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Ask and you shall receive: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-weekly-rpg-column.98319/page-10#post-4963658
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OK. Maybe Crooked Bee can try to convince her Twitter buddy Richard Cobbett to send some keys our way.
Not sure anybody here actually has time for that though.
Not sure anybody here actually has time for that though.
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Nope.
TBH if you're interested in writing something, it's better to wait for a press review copy.
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https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/05/11/the-long-journey-home-preview/
The Long Journey Home is a wonderful space odyssey
Adam Smith on May 11th, 2017 at 6:00 pm.
The Long Journey Home [official site] is a game about being lost in space and being somewhat insignificant against a backdrop of elder species who aren’t quite sure what to make of these squishy bipedal nomads called humans. It’s tempting to describe the game by breaking down the list of ingredients that appear to have gone into its preparation. There’s a dollop of FTL, a pinch of Captain Blood, a healthy dose of Star Control and a little bit of Space Rangers 2. Season with the essence of Thrust and Lander, and there you have it.
Except, no. That’s not really it at all.
All of those inspirations certainly seem to have made their way into the game, but the resulting dish doesn’t quite resemble any of them, and feels like its own unique spread rather than a fusion mash-up. It’s a witty, weird and experimental trip that I’d been wary of, but fell for almost as soon as I sat down to play it.
The set up is simple. You pick a crew of four from a collection of ten pre-built characters, each with their own unique starting item, personality, job and skillset, and then get lost in space. Plot-wise, you’re making an FTL trip and end up stranded very far from home, but the real story takes place after the jump. There is an optional introductory segment set in our own solar system, where a tutorial guides you through the controls in the various phases of the game, but for the bulk of your time you’re out among the procedural stars and the planets that orbit them.
Before you meet the aliens that live out in the unknown, or explore the wonders of far-flung planets, you’ll need to figure out how to navigate each system. I managed to break my crew’s bones before we’d even managed to land on Mars, where a refuelling tutorial takes place. That’s because The Long Journey Home simulates the gravity of celestial bodies, so rather than flying into a planet, you need to use the mass of planets and suns to slingshot as you drift, guiding your ship into a gentle orbit before ‘docking’ with the surface. Then you send out a lander with a single crew member and, depending on the weather and other factors, thrust your way to the surface and whatever useful resources or fascinating mysteries exist there.
Both of these segments, navigating systems and atmospheres, feel like minigames, and they’re good minigames. It took me far longer than I’d like to admit to figure out how to ride the gravitational tracks between planets, but once I had, I found lining up with an orbit so satisfying that I was gliding alongside hellish lava planets that I had no intention of committing my crew to just so I could practice my new-found skill. The lander isn’t quite as demanding, or as entertaining to pilot, but every planet that I saw had a new sight to enjoy, whether a scorching atmosphere or a surface strewn with enormous skeletons, so that jetting about to scoop up fuel and metals for repair at least takes place against a gorgeous backdrop.
The ship isn’t the focus of the game though – the journey itself is. Each time you play, a galaxy is generated and you’re dumped at the far left sector of that map. Your goal is to make your way from one sector to the next, trying to make your way back to Earth. Right after the jump your crew discover an artefact that allows them to translate alien languages and shortly after you’re likely to meet your first alien species. They might intercept you, forcing an encounter, or you can flag them down and hail them.
What I love about these encounters is the insignificance of your ship. You’re not the saviours these aliens have been waiting for, you’re just a ramshackle crew of weird creatures from who knows where. Some don’t particularly care about you and trying to tell them about your journey leads to the conversational equivalent of a yawn and quick check of the watch. “Are you done yet?” they might as well say.
Some will try to use you though, asking for help with certain goings-on around the galaxy. I met a chap who seemed somewhat transcendental and he asked me to go down to a planet with a curative device to save the people there from an infection. He couldn’t go himself for… reasons. I trusted him and his ship followed me from system to system as I tried to get to the afflicted planet, a timer ticking down, but I was too late. I landed and everyone had become goo.
Worried that I’d be in trouble for failing so dramatically, and letting the population of an entire planet perish, I panicked and tried to flee, but my ship wasn’t fast enough. Far from being angry, however, my new pal said the blame was all on him, because he’d trusted a ‘young’ species with a task beyond them. Then he gave me some kind of bomb and asked me to drop THAT on another planet to wipe out another infection. That was worrying because he was still tailing my every move and I no longer trusted him. I think he wanted me to do a terrible murder. I also had to stop playing before seeing the end of the story.
The trick is to figure out what each species really wants, how you can help them and how they can help you. Some want to trade, some want to give you quests, and some want to fight. The way you approach them – shields and weapons at the ready or not – can influence their reaction, and I was pleased that a creature that referred to itself as a Knight and kept asking to duel me was impressed when I next encountered it with my guns at the ready. Even though I refused to fight, I’d earned some respect simply by being armed and showing my (meagre) strength.
Some words or concepts aren’t all that easy to comprehend, even with the translator, and that’s where the Captain Blood part of the game comes into play. Anyone who remembers that game, with its spectacular theme tune, will probably think of the difficulties involved in figuring out alien languages through trial and error rather than the plot or the wireframe landing sequences. Journey Home is much simpler, giving you the basics of grammar and vocabulary, but it involves some educated guesswork when dealing with complex linguistic, technological or social concepts.
And it’s all quite fantastic. I haven’t even tried combat yet, though I have blown a few asteroids apart to scavenge minerals. There’s a No Man’s Sky type inventory system, though much more streamlined and less fiddly, for production of fuel for in-system movement and for jumps between systems, and I suspect a big part of the game will involve searching for materials to continue the journey. But there’s a whole other layer, involving the interactions with aliens and that’s where the real pleasures lie. It’s important that the fundamentals – navigation and scavenging – are made so enjoyable though because otherwise they’d just be the busywork in between the fun stuff.
We’ll have a review before release, which is at the end of this month, so I’ll dig into the finer details then, including how well the crew members traits and tales work, as well as combat and any repetition that arises in the encounters. That’s my only real concern, that there won’t be enough mysteries to sustain me across several playthroughs (around six hours is the length of a typical Long Journey, though detours can be very lengthy and entertaining as well). It’s an impressive game already though, helped by strong writing from Richard Cobbett, whose words have been a presence on RPS for many years.
The Long Journey Home isn’t a clone of any of the games that it resembles, but it is both familiar and strange. It doesn’t have the immediate appeal of FTL or the dynamic complexities of Space Rangers 2, but every single one of its components is working at full strength, and the combination is absolutely delightful.
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The preview isn't negative. The guy just had a particularly unlucky playthrough.
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$40 isn't a crazy sticker for a "single A" game. And I'm sure there will be discounts and whatnot around the release date. I like everything I'm seeing, hoping to grab it for around $25 sometime soon.
I'd kind of get more hyped if there was any information about the characters. The idea of building a crew of four from a pool of ten specialists sounds neat, but right now I have no opportunity to care because I have no idea who the hell any of them are. I want to hear about The Commando! The Archaeologist! The Engineer! The Dentist! and so forth.
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The thread is only four pages... http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...alic-entertainment.101901/page-2#post-4513905
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