Saturday, August 2, 2014

Gone too long

I have been busy with a great many things, and lots have been going on outside of this project. Ergo, I have not worked on it in some time. However, I have done a lot of deving in the as week as there has been a major shift in the idea behind the Hollow.

First and foremost, the idea of consciousness and the definition of "life". This game is an exploration of that idea (sort of). It might be more accurate to say that I am plugging my own ideas on consciousness and the definition of life into this game. My research into this subject was restarted with the discovery of the "off/on" switch of consciousness.

 http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/elusive-on-off-switch-found-for-human-consciousness-140707.htm

Thus, i began to look again into the science and mechanics of consciousness, and discovered a great many things. However, the most influential piece of material was the video linked below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpUVot-4GPM&index=12&list=LLyeZ8eKmfe4w0_gskX2HFuA

Though I don't quite grasp the mechanics of everything he is saying, his ideals, at least, for the definition of consciousness versus intelligence align very nicely with my own.

What does this mean for the Hollow??? Well... alot.

The Field produced by all sentient being is now that of a Quantum Field. Sentient, conscious beings are Quantum Singularities, capable of collapsing Quantum Information.

The Observers create Quantum Information out of Chaos with their powerful Aether Field.

The Fae are Quantum Field Engines; they are not Singularities. They cannot create information, but they can breakdown and modify that information that already exists with their Anti-Causal Field.

 Singularities (the characters) are capable of influencing Quantum Information (i.e. Mancy), but they can only bend the rules, not break them as a Fae can.

Sentient beings are protected by a Fae's Anti-Causal Field by their own Quantum Field; a Singularity cancels the Fae's ability to reconstruct Information... at least in close proximity. However, if a being were to drop unconscious, they are left exposed, and the Fae may destroy that being.

The Hollow was a bit much of a Hyper-Advanced Civilization... I had to downsize. 

That is, the Factories were OP... I really like the idea of distilling energy into matter which may then be programmed to construct anything and everything the peoples of the Hollow could desire... but... Star Trek did that with replicators, and they REALLY shouldn't work that effectively. At least, not on the level of civilization I want.

Sure, the Observers are technologically beyond anything else in the Hollow, but is it feasible to have one piece of hyper-advanced tech which is incredibly limited versus an infinite fountain of resources down at your local Factory.

Think of Ghost in the Shell and Mass Effect and add some Borderlands and Destiny to grunge it up a bit. Ideally, that it what I am looking for in a setting.

New Resource and Resource System

Orichalcum (Ore) is still a thing, but it has changed dramatically.

Ore are now solidified shards of energy used to power most things in the Hollow. Ore is "mined" in Factories as they were before, but they cannot be condensed into matter to form equipment and the like as they could before. They are still a standard currency used in the Hollow, but only for non-Restricted Equipment.

Glass is congealed, unbound Hadrons which are used to construct all raw materials required in the Hollow. It is a less common form of currency required for those less than common items on your shopping list. For anything beyond Restricted, or if you want to Upgrade your current equipment, you will need Glass.

If they character wishes to fence any of their Equipment, they may disassemble it at a local Factory of other such facility. The character is provided Glass equal to half the total cost (Ore AND Glass) of the item they are disassembling.

Cold Iron is the third, final, and most precious currency. Each piece of Cold Iron is a knot in space-time geometry which, upon activation, collapses its own bound Quantum Information, destroying itself. When forged into munition, it has proved incredibly effective against Fae. However, Cold Iron is incredibly difficult to produce, and is thus, very difficult to come by. Many will pay a great price for a single Blok of Cold Iron.