Xenocidairing (Patreon)

Work continues at what I think might be a good pace. 

I was incredibly stupid to think I could just reskin a tutorial follow along and throw that up in a week--That moronic claim I made a month ago. Reskinning is a process because I am learning as I go along and I want to make something good, something memorable. 

Then I also have a tendency to get distracted and run off after fun ideas, something that I'm finding is disastrous when it comes to programming, where learning how to follow through with one of these ideas is very time consuming. 

To-do lists have me back on track though and I'm feeling optimistic about the whole thing. I think when a demo is posted here it'll be something you'll find entertaining, at least aesthetically. 

In the meantime, here's a little lore dump, according to the current canon that evolves as I make models and plan gameplay features. Some aspects may change but I think most of this will remain the same:

Earth is gone. The awakening of the wormhole gates which now dot the solar system (23 navigable holes found, with a dozen more that come in and out of being in cat's cradles of Cherenkov radiation) swallowed the earth, gutting the home world and killing billions. What's left of the Murdered Earth is consumed by the ever multiplying gate parasites, the silicon creatures that invariably emerge from unguarded wormholes. 

The PC is a Cytherean, that is, they're a human born in one of the aerostat cities of Venus that form the bulk of the Democratic Dictatorship of Cytherea. The Cythereans are unified, driven, focused and ruthlessly committed to hyphenation: self-criticism,  cell-secretaries, joint-captaincy, marxist-leninist-stalinist-mengistuistism...And so on. The Democratic-Dictatorship system is complex, byzantine, bureaucratic...but the PC is born into it and understands, even if the player does not. 

Your home base is an enormous rotating ship that contains factory and agricultural modules, Cytherean People's Party cell meeting halls and recreation centers, cetacean habitation areas and everything else the Cytherean People's Democratic Dictatorship Extrasolar Expeditionary force needs. 

The ship does not have a single captain but rather a council of joint-captains and a chairman who has the power of veto but can be countermanded by a full vote from the Joint-Captaincy Committee and the cooperation of the cell-secretaries (the CPP is  is organized into a cell structure, with cell-secretaries coordinating cells with regular reports to the Blue, or Mother cell in a structure first created during their terroristic beginnings). 

The Collected Works of Sub-Chairman Hoffman Vol. 3 won't read itself, Soldier. 

The Cythereans economy is post-monetary, according to their own definitions, and while there is a great deal guaranteed to all citizens (even the cetaceans, the hateful things in their water filled habitats, drifting in the orbit of Venus, little parodies of Earth) they use labor vouchers (LV's, or livs or livvies) to simulate a price signal. 

A little mood board for the Venusians for me to keep some of their basic concept features in mind: a militaristic but bureaucratic and slightly corporate social structure, vast spherical space ships, dolphin ceta-citizens, power armor, and weapons inspired by weird, canceled Soviet rifles. 

The PC will be awarded LV's as they struggle against aliens, splitters, martians, and more. I'm thinking that some of the upgrades and gear will come through the story and finding shit out in the field. Customization and tweaking will be handled through LV's, as well as various goodies, drugs, illegal or black market gear, and some things in little visual novel style sequences I might make at a later date to add a little life between missions. 

Your gear is going to be varied, from the standard issue Type-69 assault rifle to more exotic things like this Igniter: a silicon based life form wrapped around a kernel of some bubbling, energetic, exotic matter. 

You'll also have allies who'll help you along the way, like this NeuroFilarian interrogator and its human host/platform/"workmate". The neurofilaria is an important piece of sentient biotech: a worm that can interface with a variety of nervous systems and transfer knowledge and experience between them. The NF is a part of how the mech and hardsuits are piloted (more on them and the drugged, nutritive yolk the pilot is immersed in later). 

Sharp eyed viewers may remember the first ever mention of the neurofilaria here: a preview of a mission in which you must clear the way for an NF unit to interface/interrogate the Instructor, a leader in the study-cult on Giraffe. 

The rival of Venus is, naturally, Mars (unlike the Cythereans who never use the term "Venusian", the Martians refer to themselves as Martians. Reveling in their Martianity. Their Martianosity). The Martians are techno-fascists, according to the definition from Janis Mimura's "Planning for Empire", a book I highly recommend if you have any interest in Imperial Japan and the weird theories of economic planning taking place at that time. 

Mood boarding the Martians

The Martians and other humans are likely going to show up as rival factions to fight against (and maybe, sometimes with) in pursuit of alien goodies on the planet. The wormholes that have opened in the solar system allow humans to come and go in extrasolar (and sometimes extradimensional) space in rapid but chaotic ways, so attempts at claim jumping are not uncommon. 

Thinking about the privateers. Also a texture pack that is being used to make them.

The privateers are another (mostly) human faction you'll encounter. Pirates and scavengers (which the PC is as well, really) who operate under the purview of as yet unnamed alien empire/civilization who collects tribute from them in exchange for protection/not exterminating them like insects. 

The privateers are descendants of extra-solar colonists, from one of the waves of attempted expansion that included the Nigella (the Nigellans mentioned in a previous Xenocidaire lore post). 

As these factions get fleshed out more I'll drop more info in future posts. I think I might make more smaller posts going forward in the style of those threads where I'd post a picture and an idea of what they are. 

Completed weapons will get a full write up with gifs, as well as some characters (doesn't Blowie deserve his own post?) on the Patreon, as a preview of the sort of codex I want Xenocidaire to include. 

I'm going to expand on the aliens in the next lore dump, probably, but here's a couple of threads where I was brainstorming about them outloud: 

The herkogamous: https://twitter.com/cdbunker2/status/1463973530068946944?s=20

General setting ideas https://twitter.com/cdbunker2/status/1461644710439636993?s=20