Game News The New World Update #24: The Wasteland

[Fenix]

It makes me think of a wound in the fabric of reality but not of gutted decks inside a spaceship.

it's going to be part of the industrial, patchwork, scavenger lingo.

I think inhabitants of the ship have no understanding - very different from our at least wht does "industrial" mean.
They don't know anything different that metall, they see metal everywhere, and for them its as natural as for inhabitants of Amazonian jungles trees and lianas.
So, industrial isn't the word they could use, at best they can differ organic sector of the ship - there are places with trees or something like tht right? - from non-organic.
Also, if they didn't degrade to the level of caveman, they understand that they totally dependent on the ship and its systems and its working condition - they need air, need air circulation, heating, cooling, and if anything goes wrong even in slightest they they'll die a terrible death.
And the ship is as big and complex that they can count it as living organism.
That was my logic.


But the Deadfall sounds good too.

PS Also, how about MULTIPLE names for that sector?
Like different groups call it different - some who feel the Ship like or almost living being can call it The Wound, other with different point of view can give it another name. Thus you can utilize a few good names for it. )

PPS That was Mission Control right? Brains or spine of the ship.

 

[Tigranes]

Wound & Deadfall are decent, yes - treads the line so it's not too pretentious.

The multiple names, I would support - have the game use its 'official' name most widely in use, then have various folk pop out with the colloquial nicknames - 'mission control', references found deep within, can even be one of those competing secondary names.

 

[Vault Dweller]

It occurred to me that I've been looking at it the wrong way. The center was gutted and all but destroyed a 100 years ago or so. Now there's nothing but a gaping hole there, a hole that's been avoided for a better part of a century.

Then scavs explore it a bit out of curiosity, find some mummified corpses and set up shop there, start going deeper and deeper. So one of the key concepts there is depth or deep. It's not some ruins to them or mission control or wreckage or wasteland. It's depth that can be mined, sorta like an inverted mountain. Or the Mariana Trench. So something like [Name]'s Deep, that would be commonly referred as the Deep.

Alternatively, it's depth containing dead bodies. Abode of the dead, that sorta thing. Graveyard? Necropolis? Barrow?

 

[Daedalos]

Why not The Void, then? It's big and empty, or just deep and big and mysterious. A gaping hole = a void. Like space is. Dark and big and scary.

Or the abyss? Or The Expanse? The blank waste?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Void means unoccupied area and thus more suitable for space and certain fantasy realms. Abyss was used in AoD.

 

[Tigranes]

I think avoiding direct references to death, etc. helps give it more nuance - the Trench, Deadfall, etc. will do just fine, a name that could just as easily refer to a geographical area and not necessarily a disaster. (After all, the Glow was literally 'big hole nobody goes into), as well.)

Please no void, abyss, hell, and other direct grimdark words - after all wasteland is problematic because while it's supposed to just be a bleak and barren area, it has acquired all sorts of apocalyptic connotations.

 

[Infinitron]

I keep thinking a dungeon name with the word "Authority" in it might sound interesting.

 

[Alienman]

The Deep Wound
The Gaping Wound

 

[Bohr]

2020: In an effort to finally nail down a replacement name, nominations were solicited on shoutbox and a Codex poll held to determine the popular choice. Unfortunately, it resulted in a dead heat between The Gash, The Axe Wound, kingcomrade and The Slit. The area was later scrapped and replaced by a pocket plane.

Felipepepe's Illustrated History of RPGS, pp 1823

 

[MF]

I don't think it's that big of a deal, but 'The Wasteland' feels weird because it's an obvious writer insert.

Colloquialism doesn't really work that way. People don't start calling something by another name unless it's shorter, more descriptive or somehow cathartic. The Wasteland is, arguably, none of those things compared to Mission Control. People would much sooner just call it 'The Shithole' or something. Biblical reasons for polite naming conventions might be in play here, but even then I would pick something like The Cemetery. You could even have people who are unwilling to be recycled for religious reasons go there to die instead, in an ersatz burial ritual.

Another route is if people would, for example, refer to it as the site for the 'Battle for Mission Control', which would be abbreviated to 'Bamco' or even 'Bam' or something within a decade. "Stay out of The Bam" actually sounds something people would say. Being an explosion onomatopoeia helps. Alternative shorthands: The Mole, Mish, or Miscon like Jack mentioned above.

 

[Thonius]

I'm personally partial to "Names that stuck out of sheer accident". Something like how the "No Vacancy" sign in Fallout New Vegas lead to the town of "Novac".

So how about something ominous like "Miscon" or some shit like that? The only intact sign in the entrance to the area took so much damage and gunfire, and only these letters remained.

"Miscon" or "con/miss" or "control" sounds like something scavenger would actually use to name it, without being branded as edgy...

 

[Saduj]

Spoiler

Spoiler

He's not changing it anyway.

 

[AbounI]

(New) Sheol? as in the Old Testament, the downhole of the dead.
Proverbs 27:20

 

[Goral]

"The Wound" is the best. Give Fenix some cookies for that.

 

[Jimmious]

(The) Dead Man's Hole

 

[Pequod]

Hollows
Guts
Gorge
Well
Gap
Breach

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

Another route is if people would, for example, refer to it as the site for the 'Battle for Mission Control', which would be abbreviated to 'Bamco' or even 'Bam' or something within a decade. "Stay out of The Bam" actually sounds something people would say. Being an explosion onomatopoeia helps. Alternative shorthands: The Mole, Mish, or Miscon like Jack mentioned above.

Spot on.

 

[Pequod]

They'd call it Ehm See.

 

[Outlander]

No Man's Sky Land.

 

[Au Ellai]

I haven't been following the lore through every post so this might seem like a dumb question, but If the mutineers had access to the ship's admin center, why would there even be a months long battle? Couldn't they just pretty much shut any other place down and/or vent places at will? Seems kinda weird to be holed up and under siege and losing while essentially controlling the entire ship. If there were ways to limit the control of the central admin center externally, than it kinda implies that the features of the "central brain" would be available elsewhere on the ship as well making it a less valuable center, but if it really was the "central brain" of the ship, why didn't whoever held it have the rest of the ship at their whim? The area sounds totally awesome though, pretty hyped for the game. I've loved the colony ship idea since Phantasy Star III and surprised we haven't seen it used more often.

 

[hivemind]

sorry but the wound sounds really bad

just leave it as the wasteland honestly

 

[Vault Dweller]

I haven't been following the lore through every post so this might seem like a dumb question, but If the mutineers had access to the ship's admin center...

They didn't. It was sealed from within and never breached, which is what makes it a top prize now. Anyway, as mentioned previously, it's an admin center (meaning the government) not the control center, which declared neutrality:

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,7520.0.html

John Miller was nearly seventy when he decided to step down and pass the Chief Technical Officer chevrons to his daughter Ava. When the Mutiny broke out, his grandfather promptly sealed the Environmental Control and Life Support System center, declaring that neither side will use the ECLSS in their war. Those who wished to leave were allowed to do so; the rest remained with CTO Miller, committed to supporting life on the Ship.

Fearing that the ECLSS will fall apart after his death, Miller reshaped it into a religious, monastic order, following the teaching of Ecclesiastes: “one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.” The struggles outside the hallowed halls of the ECLSS were meaningless squabbles of children who didn’t know better. There was no greater purpose than serving the Ship and supporting life.

Over the decades the conditions slowly worsened and by the time Ava Miller took over, most systems operated far below their capacity. The length of the voyage had exceeded the ECLSS capabilities a long time ago and it was a miracle that it was still operational.

Thus Ava faced a dilemma. The ECLSS needed help fast but requesting it, let alone accepting it, threatened everything her family built. She knew enough of the outside world to know that such help would come with strings attached, that whoever helps her will control the ECLSS whether she wants to or not. On the other hand, doing nothing like her father had done, will doom both the ECLSS and the Ship sooner rather than later.
​

The area sounds totally awesome though, pretty hyped for the game. I've loved the colony ship idea since Phantasy Star III and surprised we haven't seen it used more often.

Thanks!

 

[Infinitron]

So there's an Admin Center, a Control Center, and also a Bridge. Who controls the bridge, anyway? Is somebody piloting the ship?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Nobody.

 

[Infinitron]

Nobody.

Is that the answer to both of my questions? Is there no faction located in the bridge (even if they aren't piloting)?