I had thought that we might breach this subject too. It seems that there are quite a few out there who have suggested ships and are even rendering a few. Well, now its time to get some missions underway.

I'm a big firefly fan, but a newcomer to EV. So I'll do what I can, but right now all I am able to do is suggest a few things.

First, its going to be pretty obvious that most of the missions already in EV would work well in a universe such as Firefly's. However we can add a few unique ideas, such as:

- Illegal Salvage ( from a derilict in a specific system )
- Companion Transport
- Distress Call Responce
- Bounty Missions
- Blue Sun Sponsored Mission Packets ( unless this TC is going to place you into the
cockpit of Serenity, in which case this could not apply.)

I'm sure you can see where I am going with this. Anyway, this is just a start. In a few days I'll post a more detailed description of some ideas for missions. Then maybe we can get a few ideas on some story lines to take our crews.

This TC will follow Mal from the end of the war through the beginning of the main part of Firefly. It's essentially a prequel.

All I've really planned, storyline-wise, is that as the game progresses, you'll pick up the various crewmembers one by one.

So Blue Sun missions are not out of the question.

One of the early ideas I've had, which I'm still fleshing out, is that Mal doesn't initially take Zoe with him after the war----she stows away on his ship instead, and when he gets into trouble fairly quickly, she bails him out. I'm still working on specifics, though.

Well Capshaw, the Holden Boys, Horowitz, Gurviek, Tanaka, and Monty should provide lots of Pre-Firefly storylines. ;)

Precisely. There's lots of material there-----we just need to figure out a way to make it all fit together in a coherent and, hopefully, interesting way.

My idea for the beginning of the story is to have Mal be a first officer to start with. That's reflected in the introduction dialog that I've currently got.

I've got two constraints: 1) Mal shouldn't be in complete control of his destiny until he buys Serenity. There always has to be someone over him prior to that. 2) Mal can't be so far down the food chain that it doesn't make sense for the player to be controlling whatever ship he's on.

Maybe Mal could be captian of the ship but not owner, he could have taken a loan out from someone to buy Serenity (we don't need to start Mal out on Serenity) to pay the loan off he has to work for the person who gave him the loan.

Reasonable idea. I was thinking that he works for others for a while, setting aside enough to buy his own ship..

I think we should hold to what we know. There is a movie on the way and we have no idea what it will reveal. I'd hate to be contradicting the feature film.

Mal might have taken loan out, he might not have, he may have stolen the money, he might not have. THe point is we don't know. What we do know is that he bought it and that it is his. We should let it remain his.

As for Zoe stowing away. I'm not an expert on Zoe due to the fact that there has been very little revealed about her, but I cannot imagine her stowing away on Mal's vessel. And I could NEVER beleive that Mal would not bring her along. They bonded in that war like few other people can claim.

Just my opinions. Oh, and my mission ideas will be posted tomorrow. Still working on the outlines for them.

First of all, while it's possible this project could be done prior to Serenity's release, it isn't certain by any means. Better to put some story framework in place for now; it can be altered later as needed. Besides, I don't think the movie will be dealing terribly much with that period of time, so at most we'll have a passing reference or two to cope with. That's part of the reason I decided to make it a prequel, rather than a sequel, to Firefly.

Regarding Zoe, I was thinking that Mal decides to go without her for some reason (haven't thought up specifics yet), Zoe stows away because she knows he'll get into trouble, and after he almost immediately does get into trouble, she bails him out.

Or something. I just want some form of unexpected-Zoe-rescue-of-Mal very early in the plotline. People who never saw Firefly are going to be playing this, and while it's all well and good to say "the bonded in the war (before the start of the game)", there should still be some significant bonding event in-game for the player to live through.

Also, given EVN's gameplay, I'd like to come up with some reason why the player could be allowed to buy whatever ship they wanted early in the game. Because once they're flying Serenity, there shouldn't be any more ship changes possible. So it would be nice to take advantage of that aspect of gameplay early on. However, I haven't yet come up with a good in-story reason to allow that.

I was thinking that at the start of the game Mal finds work with one of the last Indi commanders who has turned smuggler kingpin. Maybe he worked on the Logistical side of the war and was the commodore of a convoy of supply ships (inspired by WWII here) headed for Hera when the war ended, he then took what ships he had that weren’t hunted down by the Alliance and went in to business. He brings Mal in to his group of spaceship captains and loans him some credits to buy the player's starting ship and some fuel money in exchange for working for him. He operates like “you finish your work for me and what you do on your own time is your own business” so he let the player buy whatever ship and gear he wants.

That's a pretty good starting point. It needs a few twists, though....some reason that arrangement wouldn't work for Mal in the long term. Betrayal, possibly, or perhaps a feud with some rival group....including Patience, perhaps?

Hey there. I sent in a couple planet descriptions last fall, then fell out of the loop until I remembered it today. I just had a question about this:

Let me first say that I haven't been able to download the mod (no internet connection at home, and a large download at work would be noticed. I will download it closer to my last day, which will be in May. At any rate, I am unfamiliar with what's been done.

Forgive my ignorance of all the details that have been hammered out already, but the mod isn't going to force everyone to be Mal, is it? I've always liked the fact that you can play whatever side you want in EV.

I think that there should be an option to be Mal, and that option should give you broad freedom in most cases, but still force you to keep a few things consistent (ie can't sell Serenity or put guns on it).

I for one would love to have a reaver story line - the background info sets you up as a normal person (passenger, crew member, whatever) whose ship got boarded, and you got turned. You'd just fly around, taking over ships, maybe even building a fleet. Maybe you'd be allowed to purchase some modifications that people in the other story lines couldn't (operating without core containment, etc). Though I'm not sure how you'd buy them . . . I don't think any civilized planet would let you dock. You'd have "felon" status on all the core planets, of course. You'd just have to keep disabling and boarding ships. I don't think there'd be many missions available, unless some very rich and evil person was able to offer something as payment for raiding a border world and destroying it's settlement. They could enter your system and offer the mission via transmission, so that a personal meeting wouldn't have to be made. Mostly it'd just be fun to be destructive. It's fun to play pirate sometimes and just take over as many ships as you can.

Definitely some familiar missions, like
*shipping medical supplies to Paradiso and construction supplies to that planet in "Dead or Alive",
*picking up a mud shipment from Canton
*stealing medical supplies intended for Paradiso
*and of course, black market beagles.
*Oh, and a high risk mission inwhich you deliver organs a la Tracey
*Niska could provide a nice string of missions, escalating in risk and pay as you gain favor with him. I'm assuming his space station has been put on the map - of course, doing so would require that a stance has been taken as to whether or not it is stationary; I vote for no. But if not, then wouldn't you need to make it a ship? I'll phrase this in a new reply in the "ship ideas" thread, so don't reply to it here.

Last fall, on the FFF.net planet thread, we discussed the Barnum and Bailey system. Don't know if that made it on the map as two separate, fueding planets, but if so I still like my idea of each planet having a silly mission about putting elephant poop in the cotton candy machines or stealing the other planet's monkeys. Definetly opportunity there for an escort mission string, taking the circus around the verse. At one point, the caravan could get attacked by reavers, and you'd have to help fight them off (though not in the Mal story line, because you wouldn't have any guns!)

This isn't a mission/story suggestion, but can we have a cry-baby for purchase on some of the border worlds? and fruit should be added as a high-end trading item.

Again, some of this may have been done already.

Unfortunately, the Windows version of EV Nova does not support multiple character options. The Mac version does, but the Windows port was rather sloppy.

For the moment, I'm working from a Mal-centric viewpoint. When I eventually complete that, it's entirely possible I'll release a patch that allows you to be someone random (drop it in the plug-ins folder, and the storyline changes, etc).

I've come up with the basics for an interesting storyline regarding the initial period after Serenity Valley. I'd like to run the basics here, so we can come up with further details and/or correct problems.

-Mal is hired on as a replacement first officer by a passing trader captain with Independent sympathies. For some reason (undetermined), Zoe doesn't come along right away. Perhaps "something about the captain bothers her", or whatever, and she doesn't want to come.

Pretty soon Mal learns that this man works for another, who actually was an Independent in the war. This would be the "commodore" mentioned above. He coordinates a merchant fleet which operates under Alliance radar.

Before long Mal realizes that his new captain is running some additional cargo on the sly---slaves. He has a problem with this, and says so. Things get sticky for awhile; eventually Mal feels the need to take a stand, and the captain threatens to kill him.

At this point, both the commodore and Zoe come back into the picture. I haven't worked out all the details yet. Zoe saves Mal and kills the captain, the commodore expresses shock and outrage at his underling's behavior, and offers to bring Mal on as a full captain of one of his fleet (not necessarily the same ship, bad blood with the former crew and all).

Things progress smoothly for awhile, until Mal gets upset about something the Commodore is doing as well. Not slavery, but something. This is a repeating pattern throughout the storyline----every time Mal tries to work for someone, either he ends up fighting for his life, or philosophically opposed to something he's ordered to do, or betrayed and left to rot when things get tight.

Anyway, this convinces him that it's long past time to go freelance. That's when he starts saving to buy a ship of his own.

What about Piracy? Maybe the Commodore has his ships raid settlements and spaceships on the Rim. He originally just focuses on Alliance ships but starts expanding to innocent civilians (greed at work here) and starts massacring the survivors to make it look like Reavers did it. As Mal said: "I don't kill children".

There's some possibilities in there, yeah.

I'm going to start working up an outline, which I'll post here at intervals. Anyone should feel free to contribute ideas you've got, and I'll try to find a way to work them in (or incorperate them as mini-strings).

Once the general direction of the story comes together, I'll start looking for writers to actually come up with mission text. Shouldn't be too hard---that's pretty much how I got the planets done.

After the War, Malcom Reynolds Was a fugitive. A Browncoat probably was lacking in safe harbors for a while

(note: I would like to see your starmap. perhaps you could send a Link my way, Lindley?)

Consider this tact.

After Serenity Valley, Malcom has to flee the Alliance's consolidation efforts. Zoe was with him there, so perhaps they stick together for a while. At some point, I imagine they part ways long enough that Zoe meets up with Wash and they get all Lovey-Dovey. But anyway, I am betting that they were travelling companions, depending on each other while fleeing the Alliance's eye, drifting to the frontier worlds. Perhaps they are doing part-time work, doing job after job, working as mercenaries, or serving as crew on a ship. Bottom line is they get to a point where they decide to get a ship and run it together. Enter the tv show, and the events of the (unaired) pilot.

What has been mentioned above would likely fit into this framework, don't you think?

Perhaps the TC could give you the option of playing as MAl (or Zoe?) or some other random guy?

The trouble with this is that this stuff all happens /before/ they get a Serenityand thus would require some explaination as to you are able to fly around space.

How about this: Here is my attempt to put together the ideas of what has thus-far been introduced in this thread:

>When you start the game, you get the text screens that explain 'the story so far' who you are, why you are here, and what happens next. Then (like the tutorial in EVN) you see the diologue with the option (or perhaps no option) to begin the above mentioned plotline.

>beginning in a basic ship, as 'First mate' aboard a small smuggling ship, or perhaps as a fightor pilot, whatever, you are guided through a series of events.

>hereafter ensues a series of trials and tribulations where Mal continually finds his employers to be extremely dissapointing in some way or another (as Lindley mentioned above). In the process he is amassing a miniscule amount of wealth.

>The decision is made, he and Zoe start shopping around, and here you are, supplied with a little old rustbucket of an obscolete Firefly freighter.

>At this point, your are relatively freelance. A captain's goal is simple: Find a crew, find a job, keep flying.

>This is where a bunch of random-type missons can occur which don't lead anywhere in terms of the central plotline. Like those mentioned by Grrarrg. You go to the bar, and perhaps you will meet somebody who is looking to get someone or something transported to somewhere or somebody else, discreetly and with few questions asked. Or you can go to the "Space Docks/station/Landing area" (renamed from 'Mission computer') and meet with people who are advertising a need to travel, or transport cargo (like the doctor and the Shepherd were doing int the pilot).

>While all this is going on, other mini storylines are hidden to be discovered, perhaps ones that emulate the stories from the series. And (maybe) even another major storyline, which could be yet-to-be determined, that leads up to the start of the television series, which would be where our story ends, and Joss Whedon's genius begins.


This is just a rough fleshing-out of what has been already discussed here, My attempt to put things together. Now feel free to praise/criticize/tear apart what I have here for you. :cheers:

I'll send you the link to what we've done so far.

The whole "on the run" thing doesn't ring true for me. Former browncoats were not depicted as criminals per se on FF; I'm guessing that noncoms were simply disbanded.

However, if Mal was forced to work in an Alliance mining facility.....hmm. If he's given a chance to leave, but they can only get him out, no one else, that could explain the intial Zoe-less period of the story before they are reunited.

I didn't mean 'On the Run' I just meant that after the war, the Independants 'Drifted to the outer planets'

I'm sure they weren't exactly welcome in a lot of places after the war.

What happens to disbanded soldiers on the losing side of the war. Perhaps we could turn to the inspiration for this plot scheme, the American civil war (ignoring certain details, like the slavery issue).

The soldiers were probably disarmed, made to swear an oath never to take them up again, unless told to do so by the winning side, and then sent away. Higher ranks probably had to maintain low profiles, as they would likely be killed, imprisoned, or at least very closely watched for the rest of their lives.

The rank-and file soldier would eventually return home, and find that it is not home anymore. Thier worlds have been devestated by war. If they had land or other property, most of this was probably siezed by the winning side and awarded to thier businessmen for the purpose of 'reconstruction'. The people will be suffering terrible opression under the winning side. Lives are shattered, destroyed. Familys have become refugees, relatives may never be seen again. Feeling the legacy of thier defeat, and perhaps haunted by a guilty sense of failure, these shamed warriors look elswhere, (drift to the outer worlds) trying to carve out new lives for themselves.

About Zoe, Malcolm returns home (wherever that is) and then leaves again. At some point down the road he meets up with his old comrade Zoe agan, who has at this point also picked up Wash.

How does that sound?

I just checked out what you have so far. Cool. like what you've got. And I guess with my last post I was already thinking along the lines of what you've set up already, and didn't even know it yet.

Do you think that there is a decent general outline here?

Well, Wash doesn't come into the picture until later (re: "Out of Gas"), but other than that, I like it. Definitely some possibilities there. In fact, the player's initial ship could be something Mal steals after finding nothing left for him on Shadow.

However, my current planet description for Shadow is a little too feel-good for that to mesh. It may need to be modified.

Well, the planets name is 'Shadow' for crying out loud! It makes me think of loss, wastelands, death, and Mal's shadowy past. It is a part of him that is now gone- lost.

I like the tone, but I'm going to edit a bit of the content. Definitely thinking in the right direction, though. Shadow was one of the first planets I wrote a description for; I should have anticipated needing to change it eventually.

Feel free to suggest any other revisions to planet descriptions.

I'm currently working on standalone missions that are not tied to any larger story. Feel free to post any ideas you have.

I was thinking of a mission where a group on Osiris asks Mal to impersonate a hired Alliance or Corporate ship to steal a cargo shipment. Basically a merchant ship is waiting in a nearby system for the player to board her and take the cargo but a couple of escorts the player didn't know about are waiting and ask for authentication (simple sign>countersign Alfa, Tango, Victor>Zulu, Foxtrot, Kilo etc). –I know in another plug a player is given a choice of correct or incorrect answers- So one of X number of countersigns will allow the player to dock the others cause the escorts to attack and the mission to fail.

I figure there could be a GalPost minor storyline similar to the UN Shipping one in EVN.

I've added a few extremely generic transport missions. They pay poorly; you actually have to check whether the payment is worth the fuel expenditure. I want the player to be constantly fighting to stay above water financially, unlike in regular EVN.

I've had a hard time figuring out how to make these types of missions Firefly-specific, however. Any ideas on that would be appriciated.

I think passenger missions should pay quite little, so that it only really becomes economic when you've got several going to the same destination or you're taking cargo there as well. Also would it be possible to start a mission string in the BBS and then continue it in the bar? I'm thinking along the lines of "X requires ship for job", and after accepting it, you'd go to the bar to continue.

I've a thought regarding territory too. You're going to be working on the shady side of the street, right? Why not make governments correspond to the various unsavory types such as Badger, Constance and Burgess? You could have say three or four 'major' ones, and naturally going to work for one would annoy some of the others. It's a way of getting around the single government issue at any rate.

That may be doable. Certainly it would be if the bar in question were on a different planet as with "The Train Job".

I'd already done a bit of that, but expanding it to really use the govt resource as "area of influence" is a rather interesting idea. I'll have to think about it.

What do you think of this idea? Basic transport missions have three possible outcomes: you get paid, you don't get paid and are screwed, or you don't get paid, and then find an alternate buyer.

What about a slight modification of that:

a) You get paid
B) You don't get paid (but maybe you can go after the person that ripped you off in a later mission)
c) You find an alternate buyer, but the consequence is they will only take it for a lower price

Makes sense. It would be minimal extra work, and I think it would add a bit of atmosphere.

I just finished reading that 1st mission discription you added and wanted to try my hand at contiuing it.

BTW I got the names from here http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm

Yeah, that'll work. I think I'll make it start at <any stellar>, despite the fact that it's meant to start at Zeus, just to make sure players don't get screwed up immediately. So they'll see the previous text box, get the "Welcome, it would be a good idea to land" bit, do so, and then get that.

A start for the next mission:

I think a few side storylines could come off this mission, and this mission could be pushed back in the storyline if needed.

Oh before I forget here are a few character notes for some of the characters I made up in the last posts. Of course these are meant to change over time to better suit the story:

Commodore Walter Chang: Former Browncoat, was a captain for a rim shipping company before the war. Commanded a convoy of transport ships and a hand full of escorts near the end of the war. When the Browncoats surrendered he took his ships to the rim.

Micha: Chang’s second in command. Smart, skilled and professonal. She is from the core worlds but joined the Browncoat navy. She attended the Alliance Navy Academy and looks down on Enlisted solders like Mal and other non-professionals like Mercs and hired guns. She dislikes Change too but she still follows his orders since she he was appointed above her during the war and she has no place to go since she turned her back on the corruption of the core worlds.

Captain Hunter Tarring: One of Chang’s underlings. He’s the captain we talked about earlier who is doing things on the sly.

Thad Ji: Does things just to get under the skin of his fellow crewmembers. Doesn’t bathe for weeks, leaves garbage everywhere etc. Think Lister on Red Dwarf or a more disgusting Jayne minus the violence.

The rest of the characters are fairly open to ideas. Fritz Villao is fairly nice but thats all I can think for him right now. Althogh I think he is there to keep an eye on Mal.

Don't forget, Zoe was with Mal shortly after he bought the ship. They are seemingly inseperable.

Interesting plots might be how they pick up Jayne, Kaylee and Wash.

I think the Story Thread where you Pick up Jayne should just be inserted into the end of a random Mission.
It should be a typical Mission, one which the Player may have performed dozens of times before. At the end of the Mission, the Clients double-crosses you.
The Player will start to feel upset with the situation, but then the dialogue from Out-Of-Gas is introduced and you end up with a new Crewmate.

Also, Commission-based Crewmembers like Jayne (10% of Nothin' is… well let me do the Math) shouldn't negatively effect the amount of income from missions. The Mission should pay more when you have a larger crew, since the Job would be performed more efficiently. This would be analogous to the Marine Platoon in EVN. An Exception could be Bester. Having an Engineer on board would be a drain on Income until the Player reaches the middle of the Kaylee Story Thread.

The reason for these developments are to encourage the Player to progress through the Game Story. Also, what Incentive is there for Mal to take on new crew members if it means he's just going to loose more money on commissions?

Don't worry----Zoe won't be out of the picture for long. I've got plans for her.

A couple of quick mission ideas, if you like them I can type out real descriptions:

- Mal is asked to deliver several crates of apples to an Alliance warehouse on one of the core planets.
If he accepts: On arrival, when the crew is unloading the apples, one of them falls and explodes, causing a chain reaction that destroys the warehouse... making the Alliance go after Mal.

- Barfight on Unification Day.

That gives me an idea. Slowly throughout the storyline we put the player in bar fights on U Day. At the beginning about half the bar sides with Mal then as the years go on fewer do till its just Zoe.