Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Shivan Hunter on October 08, 2010, 10:26:55 pm
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This is Lieutenant Shivan Hunter, reporting in. I want to say to all those stationed on the GTD Aquitaine, this will not be the last you hear from me. Do not believe your superiors' lies.
The Council of SCP tell us we cannot venture into the Void. That it will destroy us. I will show them their limitations and challenge them. They are wrong, and they must be shown. I will travel to the end of the world and come back.
I will be sending out a continuous transmission as I make my journey. I have modified my Ulysses engine to take me to five thousand meters per second. You will be hearing from me on the usual frequency shortly.
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SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND METERS
It's begun. Command detected my fighter and warned me to return to the Aquitaine. I told them where to stick it.
They told me they would remotely destroy my fighter if I persevered. I disabled the self-destruct device. A little trick I learned from www.freespace2.com.
I guess now there's no turning back.
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Lieutenant Samsa, were you aware of any mental instabilities or conditions prior to Shivan Hunter's departure?
No. I mean, I didn't notice anything. He'd make the occasional comment... stuff that made no sense, but it didn't seem-
What kind of comment?
I don't know. Stuff like, "FreeSpace 1 pwns FreeSpace 2". I know it doesn't make any sense, but-
It makes perfect sense. There are those of this persuasion among the GTVA. Mental conditions are common among them. Was there anything else?
He... was always tinkering with his fighters. He had these documents he called "table files" that he'd take everywhere with him. I don't know what they were.
Hmm. Is there anything else? Common interaction with the weapons R&D staff? References to an entity known as "FRED"?
He did talk about the Fred stuff. I don't know, he always seemed like he was just talking about that weird utility guy from the lower decks.
That will be all, Lieutenant Samsa. You are free to go.
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ONE MILLION METERS
I've been firing my weapons occasionally to get my bearings. Keep track of movement. I don't know if it's just me, but they seem to be... listing to one side. It's strange. Things seem... I don't know how to put this. Quantized.
I never thought I was going insane before this. But everything seems wrong. Everything feels wrong.
I hardly even remember why I'm here.
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TWO POINT FOUR MILLION METERS
I looked in the remote camera. You know, how I can see my fighter from the outside.
I don't know how to put this.
My fighter was... shaking. Or the virtual camera was. I don't know. It was vibrating erratically. I think this has been happening in increasing amounts since the beginning. I think it's connected to the quantization.
I don't know what this means, but moving very small distances feels unnatural. Even thinking, visualizing these distances... I think it's a few inches now. Everything below that feels wrong.
It's as if space was pulled together at my origin point. At the Aquitaine. And now, out here... everything is starting to fall apart. Space itself is falling apart.
I'm falling apart.
I can't go back, can I?
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Commander! You knew Shivan Hunter, right?
Yeah, what about him?
Did you hear? He just... up and left. Muttering something about the Void.
****. You're serious? This isn't some kind of joke?
Yeah. The Coders are asking everyone about the guy. They think he's touched in the head.
From what someone's told me, that may be more correct than you think.
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THIRTY MILLION METERS
I don't feel the same anymore. I don't feel human. In fact, I can't remember when I last felt anything at all.
The shaking is getting worse. It seems like there are only a few parts of me... a few, entirely separate parts, tied together by this... quantization. I don't know what else to call it. It's as if the universe is... losing precision.
I can't think straight anymore.
Why am I out here?
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SEVENTY MILLION METERS
I don't know what the hell is wrong with my console. Parts of my HUD have started moving around. It's whenever I turn... The HUD...
It doesn't turn with me, but it jerks around.
I don't think it's gotten bad yet.
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These are some of the last things he was working on.
That's a fighter? Well... I guess it looks kind of... hell, it's a bunch of boxes!
"TF Ion"? What the hell kind of name is that?
These simulations are... horrible. Is this supposed to be an NTF mission? Why are there hostile Vasudans?
I think they're HOL. That doesn't explain the Ptah fighters, though. Oh... look at the date on here. It's one of his first.
These look like engine modifications. Look at this... A Ulysses with a souped-up engine. And...
Jesus, there are over three hundred weapon specs in here. Is this all he ever does?
Well, it explains why he can't fly for ****.
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ONE HUNDRED MILLION METERS
I don't know what's happening to the nebulae. They move now. Like the HUD. Whenever I turn. How can they do that? They're gas clouds...
The quantization covers my entire cockpit now. I almost feel normal again. Like I'm in once piece, but pulled apart. Every part in a different universe.
But somehow, I am here.
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ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY METERS
Weren't there tiny rocks flying past me?
There are supposed to be.
They've been replaced by... flashes of blue, flashes of some kind of writing. They look like what's on my HUD, almost.
It's like the universe is trying to talk to me.
My HUD is ****ed up. Half of it is gone now, or flashing intermittently. I lost the target on the GTD Aquitaine a long time ago. I can regain it, but it just disappears again...
And I move inexorably onwards.
Is there anything out there?
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TWO HUNDRED MILLION METERS
HUD is almost gone. Fighter icon moving around when I turn. Everything in the wrong place.
Can hardly see anymore. The universe is consuming me.
I looked at the remote camera again.
I had taken damage... fire was coming out of my fighter, but...
It wasn't...
It was almost liquid. Distorted. Like it could only...
Can't think straight.
Weapon shots are distorted. It's the quantization again. Can't place them...
Can't place anything...
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General?
Yes?
You know about the... the incident, correct? Have you been listening to the logs?
Yes.
What do you think of it? That the universe was... talking to him? Crazy stuff, right?
I have reason to believe him.
What? You know that doesn't make any sense...
Do you know about the delusions suffered by those exposed to the Shivans?
I've heard of it. Most of it is above my level of clearance.
Shivan Hunter was exposed to something similar. Something that called him to action. Something more powerful than characters like us can control. It calls itself the Plot.
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^^^^^sd**----
!!__-=8***((((
CONNECTION REGAINED
-no more. No... nothing. Not here.
HUD gone. nebulae...
everything in the wrong place.
Can't think...
**_---+2####
CONNECTION REGAINED
Haven't found...
My field of vision... can't stay constant...
<unintelligible>
Can't see them...
<unintelligible>
Tell the coders the***@$@__)#%
CONNECTION LOST
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Make a note in the log. Shivan Hunter's fighter was lost at 2330 hours and is presumed destroyed.
May he find peace.
Don't just take my word for it. Mod a fighter and see what happens. It's really kind of creepy.
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Don't just take my word for it. Mod a fighter and see what happens. It's really kind of creepy.
Time to go take the AF Charlatan out for a spin.
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I got Transcend vibes from that :P
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well, I just finished replaying Transcend (for the fourth time)... and weird engine issues have always seemed to resemble the Transcendent to me. The "everything disappearing" bug, the "bombs" bug and various engine limitations come to mind. :P
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Eh, I tried it and I got out to 450 million meters.
Aside from erratic fighter shaking, invisible weapons, and a slightly warped HUD, it wasn't nearly as creepy.
Well, I was also using a skybox, and that got really distorted too...
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It's a start I guess?
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That was awesome stuff there, Hunter. Good writing!
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Cool story, and an original idea :):yes:
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While reading this I listened to Epiphany by Staind. That tune supported the story even more. Thanks for this :yes:
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that was good **** yo
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Seeing as I get freaked out by something as simple as dropping beneath the FRED grid, I'm not sure I want to try this. But excellent story!
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epic imma try this out
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Do it in the DDD mission and then you will have a nest of Shivans to deal with as well...
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I tried modding my fighter into light speed...velocity goes to 0, no connection with any other ship, and if you view out your fighter you can't see anything...just black.
But then, what do you mean by "connection lost"?
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"Pics or it didn't happen." :P
Kidding!
That site is now a adsite. Can you post what you did to disable the Self-Destruct limit?
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www.freespace2.com
~i ???
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Yeah, then when you get "self destructed" you get this "blast" warning and nothing happens :P
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I just set up a brand-new empty mission, and made myself invulnerable. And added a nav bouy.
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Ok guys we need to brainstorm some Special Containment Procedures for this stuff. We have to contain this stuff before it starts to affect reality outside the internets.
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***
ONE HUNDRED MILLION METERS
***
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY METERS
Man, I think you accidentally fired your subspace motivator with the wrong coordinates.
And I wanted to try this myself. Test still in progress, but updates soon to come. Not even in the same league as Shivan Hunter's.
I... I don't know what inspired me to do it... I opened the engine compartment... Things happened that never should have. I overrode my engine safeties, and I've been pushing 100km/s for the past five and a half hours. Initially, the trip was smooth. Under 100 million meters, I experienced unusual flight noise--the ship bucked wildly in objection to this hare-brained venture. Close on 250 million meters, the sun's brightness intensified. Overpowered the screens. The laws of physics seem to undo themselves here... external cam showing three instances of the same fighter... and they're never the same. Always someplace different. A cloud of debris is following my ship. Turned into a halo a sizable diameter at approximately 500 million meters.
****.... I pushed this to 2 billion meters. I have an entire squadron of me at my command. The hud's far gone, and my controls lock out when I maneuver... like I encounter sections of space with millions of tons of space density, and then push through them. The nebulae are oscillating, like god turned up the cosmo-bass and is thumping away incessantly. Jesus christ I need a drink.
OH DEAR GOD MY RADAR AXES ARE SENTIENT! THE SHIELD INDICATOR IS FLOATING OFF INTO SPACE!!! WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE BLUE LINES BEHIND ME!? SOME DEADLY COSMIC LIGHT-SPIDER HAS COME FOR ME! TELL MY CAT SHE CAN HAVE THE YARN AND THE NIP. SHE'LL NEED IT.
Oh no... no no no... the mission timer just went. Last known time-position was 543:56... and then it went negative and started counting up. Godspeed from 3.26 billion meters. There are shades of blue in the halo.
Crossed zero-marker. 6.5 bi-HUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRGH*(&*(>>>>#$**Log damaged**
**data recovered**
Passed another time-coordinate inversion. Estimate total mission time at 1693 minutes. Final mission distance: 1.016x1010... I don't know.... don't know if I can make it...
home.
...going home.
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:lol:
BTW: Esarai is now Major Tom... :D
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Anyone wanna post screenshots of them doing this?
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We'll prolly have to get you a video... I tried screens and for some reason the 'multiple player' effect can't be captured that way.
Also... we need to have a competition to see who can set the forward velocity on their ship the highest, without adjusting the acceleration, and enter www.freespace2.com and ~+I before crossing the suicide barrier.
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Anyone explain this engine-wise?
EDIT: Here are some pics on it (using 3.6.10 MVP's, and I constantly increase time compression so don't be surprised if the dialogs don't match what's actually happening):
At a billion meters per second, it goes like this:
(http://i56.tinypic.com/2ihnqys.jpg) NOTE THAT THE DIRECTIVES BOARD IS A LITTLE TO THE RIGHT!
The Iota transport, about a distance greater than an address in meters away, does its humble job:
(http://i52.tinypic.com/d8al5.jpg)
How about firing a Shivan beam? (Notice that the gas clouds have increased so large in size that the entire hud is covered: but actually you could only notice this in a brief moment - try it on your own to find out what I'm talking about):
(http://i56.tinypic.com/30idj54.jpg)
A little later, the nebula clouds "wrap around" and form a kind of orb/sphere, with the planet in the middle:
(http://i56.tinypic.com/2my7v41.jpg)
Moments later the "background size lagging" (the background increases and decreases in size very rapidly, as it became from huge, filling the entire hud, to tiny like this) cause the nebula and planet to shrink immensely:
(http://i53.tinypic.com/r2naer.jpg)
Well, that's all. I simply don't get what you mean by "cosmic spider" or "the universe talking to me". (BTW: NOTICE THAT THE ORB-LIKE FORMATION OF THE NEBULA RESEMBLES A DEMON DESTROYER IN SHAPE :lol:)
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The engine stores coordinates in single-precision floating point variables. As a result, if you go beyond a certain point, the engine loses the ability to accurately keep track of your position. That's it.
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I think some of the trippier stuff that Shivan Hunter was talking about was a result of the patterns of the nebula slowly degrading and flashing due to the precise speed of his fighter. If you adjust that speed, you probably affect the patterns as they flash past you.
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I thought the nebulae in the background were mapped to a sphere (which is part of the skybox) which has its coordinates synced to the currently active camera.
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The background element rendering is somewhat more complicated than skybox rendering, and uses pretty much completely different system.