Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-24640107-20150114175716/@comment-4794494-20150117011838

Nikoli the rebel wrote: I can't wait. Whenever you get the first couple pages worked out I wouldn't mind reading it on a blog post. I dunno if it's gonna ruin the feel/atmosphere we've established here. So far, the main character is Doyle Alshwind (I'll find some way to fit in somebody named Tyler), who's graduating in the year 3100. At that point, humanity has clearly spanned beyond earth and the sol system. FTL, Cryo-sleep, all the Sci fi stereotypes are there.

The main "power suit" features are called ancillaries. Basically, it's nano-suit armor with specialized purposes that resides on a person's body, usually in the form of a backpack, fanny pack, belt, etc. When needed, the ancillary activates and reconstructs itself around the wearer as armor. There are different kinds of ancillaries, and it's become the norm of that age (similar to smartphones of today), although the higher end ancillaries are restricted to most.

Two types of colonies; planetary and orbital. Planetary colonies are simply settlements on the surface of terrestrial worlds, whereas orbital colonies are based in massive cylindrical space habitats modelled after O'Neill's Cylinder (The High Frontier - 1976). As with usual space operas, multiple governments have spawned due to the vastness of human territory, other sentient races are encountered, and there are awesome original concepts for planets/ships. At the moment, I've written out a 6-page planning sheet, and basically stockpiled all the ideas erupting from my brain.

At the moment, I've only fully completed one other race besides humans, and that's the Dervish. I've kept the Dervish as pretty much the same race encountered here on the wiki; red-skinned, quick-tempered, hairier-than-thou humanoids. The plot is probably the weakest element so far, as it's still a bud that doesn't look like it's going to bloom, which I'm working on improving. I'm trying to build a story around a world, rather than a world around a story, because it allows for much more potential, and I'm less likely to end up in a dead end.

Plot synopsis thus far: 

Doyle's senior class, for their final, is assigned to navigate an unexplored region a local (in-system) frontier world covered in snow and ice. All goes well, except Doyle accidently falls into a crevice and discovers a strange, and incredibly massive, artifact buried deep within the ice caves whose origin is unknown (Foregunners!). As their assignment is postponed and a research team is sent over to uncover more about the relic, bad stuff starts to happen. A group of pirates (nod at the Guardians of Eden) raid their research camp, and murder bunch of their classmates, forcing them to flee the planet and head back to their orbital colony.

They return a day later with armed reinforcements, but are shocked to see that the artifact is gone. They initially accuse the pirates, but discover the mystery runs much deeper after realizing that the Pirates had nothing to do with it. In addition to the galaxy being on the brink of civil war, a dormant evil extends its hand into the light once again.

But I have no idea what it should be.