Dev Log

[Friday]

Writing rumours for all the Gallia NPCs is on of the major tasks that needs to be completed before 4.86 can be released.

It's not easy. Gallia is a whole new addition to the mod, so the amount of lore the writers have, on which to base rumours, is very limited. We have the lore outlines listed here on the forums, some base and commodity infocards...and that is pretty much it!

There are also a staggering amount of rumours to be written. Three rumours per NPC, multiple NPCs per base, multiple bases, multiple systems. Gallic Core Worlds in particular are jam-packed with all kinds of NPC goodness.

Rumours are divided into generic, and trade rumours. I do most of the trade rumours, having access to the relevant trade data. Xoria is now taking more of an oversight role - when tickets are complete they get passed to him for final spellcheck and formatting. It's good that less experienced people like myself can free up people like Xoria to focus on more technical aspects of the mod.

So what can one expect from Gallic rumours? Well to be sure, expect plenty of simple one-liners among the more fleshed-out rumours. Some aspects of the Gallic story, as well as the Gallic systems themselves, need a lot of work that is beyond the scope of the Rumour Mill.

That being said, we are over halfway done now. The vast majority of Core Worlds rumours are complete. The focus is on getting a good batch of rumours in for every faction in every system. Once we have something in place for everyone, the next step will be to chase up writers who are yet to finish (or in some cases even submit) any work.

The overall 'flavour' of rumours will of course depend on the faction. I have tried to encourage people to balance their rumours in terms of the opinions expressed by the NPCs - some should be positive towards their faction, some negative. I know for myself, writing rumours for factions such as EFL and Solar has enabled me to let in some technical descriptions of Gallic fuel commodities and how they work.

Other generic rumours speak of Gallia's motivations for going to war in Sirius. For some its all about the glory, for others its about staking a claim over new resources, for others its a last-ditch effort to stave of the imminent collapse of Gallic society. The overall impression one gets of Gallia is one of grandeur and decadence. A society that combines perhaps the worst aspects of the old Imperial "let them eat cake" France, and the rampant consumerism of modern Western society.

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[Friday]

Here is an example of a 'negative' EFL rumour.

EFL brings in daily shipments of Oil from our planet-side operation in the Maine system. The official word on Gallic fuel reserves is that supplies are virtually unlimited. Those of us in the know will tell you nothing is further from the truth. Even if all of Gallia's planets were made entirely of pure Oil, they would be just a few drops in the bucket compared to the fuel sources used by the Sirius foreigners. I think that is the real reason the government is making war - our survival depends on it!

Quotes will get posted in this log from time to time, to promote House Gallia and give people a little taste of th 4.86.

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