[rtnp] Unreal: Return to Na Pali Episode IV: Na Pali War

[Dozey]

showing quick. Enjoy.

Thanks Bleeder for joining.

[radios]

this should be excellent!.

[salsaSkaarj]

I'm really confused with this Return to Na Pali II, III and IV.
Reading through the 3 topics brings me to a couple of websites but it's not clear who is working on what and how the storybooks align (or not).
I mean, I've read through pages and pages of webpages but I haven't a clue concerning projected number of maps (for each episode, around 20 for one of the episodes I recall, I think) , linkage, type of gameplay, (rough) status of development, and (perhaps I'm totally confused here) I read somewhere that Creavion quit mapping? and I vaguely remember someting about Cpatain Clark leaving (or am I fuzzed up by a change of name?).

Any chance of a brief overview?

[Delacroix]

Of course. Here goes.

Dozey started first, with his ambitious plan for Return to Na Pali II: Na Pali War, taking place years after Return to Na Pali, the original Legend's mission pack. Initially, the storyline was to feature Prisoner 849 again being captured by the UMS and given the chance to cleanse their name by battling the Skaarj on Na Pali and thoroughly liberating it. That was the initial story. In walks CaptainClark (now SteadZ, he didn't leave the Unreal scene, merely renamed himself) with Operation Stealth Claw, his own campaign featuring a Bodega Bay survivor by the name of Captain John Clark, set way earlier than Na Pali War. They both worked independently on their campaigns and in walks my humble self, with two projects being on hold due to lack of team and some resources to provide. I decided to share these resources with them both as well as aid with "canonizing" the storylines so that they don't contradict as well as merging the codebase and resource base due to similar plans of these two talented men for their projects. Instead of each one creating their code and models independently, they now work in concert.
In walks me. Two of my projects got canned (one unannounced, by the way) because of lack of volunteers, so I decided, as I have mentioned already, to donate content I made or was provided with to them... and canonize the storylines, eliminating illogicalities and contradictions.
So came to be the youngest of the three episodes, The Manhunt which bridges Operation Stealth Claw and indirectly Na Pali War to Return to Na Pali itself, explaining who survived, how they got out, what happened to Prisoner 849 and the Talon Datacores that were the initial objective of the UMS in this sector.

As for the projected number of maps... it is unknown. Each episode will contain between 12 to 20 maps, but how many exactly, unknown. MISSIONS, story arcs, these are mostly fleshed out, how many .unr files will a given mission take, that is to be seen. We aim to tell a certain story: Commander Victor Delacroix' story in Manhunt: Crashed, Captain John Clark's story in Manhunt: Captured and Operation Stealth Claw and the young Aida's story in Na Pali War. Prisoner 849, clearly identified as Zofia Mozelle from Hard Crash will be featured in all three projects extensively as an NPC, so will the Skaarj officer and overlord Karrikta. There'll be more important characters in and it is them who count more than the .unr number. For all I care we can make each room a separate map and have 1000 .unr files, or each mission a single map and have 30-40.unr files in all three projects combined. It is irrelevant. The storyline is and it must be told in full.

The main features of all three projects will be:
- over-the-shoulder TPP gameplay (FPP will most likely be kept as an option, but The Way It's Meant To Be Played <TM> will be this TPP),
- vehicular combat, both groundside and aerial (including space battles),
- varying environments all across Na Pali -- and in Episode IV: Na Pali War, we'll even have a sidequest at Sulferon,
- more complete Terran ordinance, featuring the Unreal II weapons instead of the three RTNP ones,
BUT FIRST AND FOREMOST:
- a storyline that with minimum retconning (in fact I hope almost no retconning at all) will tie in to Unreal II and the UT series as far as Earth vs Skaarj conflict is concerned
- many mysteries of the universe unveiled (what happened to Jrath after Unreal PSX? What happened to Prisoner 849 after RTNP? How did the Prisoner end up on the ship from Firestorm? <and yes, I know its name from a tester of an old version of FS, hope it's up to date, help me out here Turboman, please!> Did the assault on the Mothership that ended the Seven Day Siege really have that much of an impact or was there anything else? And so on, and so on. What we're aiming to provide is satisfying and enjoyable-to-discover answers to those questions,
- multiple NPCs to probe for information and receive side missions from, including Nali priests and UMS officers.
- actual squadmates providing combat support and insight on the situation on the field,
- and more! There's definitely more stuff, much more, described in detail in the private subforum for UMS R&D, but I really would like to avoid spoilers. I've said quite a lot as it is and I'd really love to leave big stuff for the players to discover on their own.

[Jigoku]

Why are you dragging NVIDIA into this? (The Way It's Meant To Be Played thingy). And I cannot wait to download this, but take your time!!!

[Z-enzyme]

It's gonna take some time. We all try to keep the quality as high as possible and that needs time.

[TheIronKnuckle]

So you're merging a whole bunch of packs... Why not bring ISV Dragonfly and Day of the Titan into it while you're at it? There is nothing which I anticipate more. If this is where Qtit is hiding out let him merge his stuff too! (i'm completely joking. the thematic clash would be too great :p)

[Delacroix]

Yeah, I get your drift. No, we're not merging the packs literally. They're still largely separate. It's just the codebase and resourcebase that gets merged quite simply because we're having similar, practically identical views on how the projects should look like. The storyline having been connected is another, next logical step. But still, the episodes will be released separately one after another and not at the same time.

[salsaSkaarj]

@ Delacroix

Thanks man, I just got my bearings back (I think ).
BTW: apologies to Captain Steadz (damn, namechanges should be disallowed forever )

[SteadZ]

It's ok, Salsa, I get confused my self sometimes

Hmmm... maybe I should change my name to:
Captain SteadZ!!!
(lol, joking)
.......
SZ
.......

[Delacroix]

One of the most iconic locales from Unreal beta, the temple of Jrath is undergoing a redux for the purposes of inclusion in RTNP IV: Na Pali War. As closing the Jrath storyline arc is one of the more important matters, we considered that it is a necessity to give the players an opportunity to revisit this location.

[Delacroix]

As written on Facebook:

This is Commander Victor Delacroix, reporting in:

Recently, Dozey has sent me his synopsis for Na Pali War, so I can finally sort out that episode fully. I am in the process of splitting it to individual scenes, writing dialogue and events as well as refining the mission order. I should be done within today. What does this mean for you?

Well, we've had plenty of mappage already made by Dozey but the storyline isn't fully written and thus it isn't properly organized. Writing it down properly means the team will know what is our current situation, what 's ready and what needs to be done. In essence, that means I'll be able to come up with a proper progress report, which I'll spruce up further with some new screenshots for you to enjoy.

This is Commander Victor Delacroix, UMS R&D, signing off.

EDIT (OCT. 28, 2013):

This is Commander Victor Delacroix, UMS R&D, reporting in with an update on the storyline status. The episode's synopsis has finally been fully organized and I'll soon begin writing scenes and dialogue for all the missions. The level order has been finalized and it's only a matter of time before we assess our current stage of progress. So, a proper report still is far from possible, but we're getting there.

[Jigoku]

This is too epic! Need to get this when done (and all the other ones ).

[Delacroix]

Startpost updated to reflect the current state of the project. Enjoy!

[Dozey]

Hey guys. Long time without me on the playground resulted with this:
http://speedy.sh/9Ds97/ksunset.mp3
Enjoy. Video will be uploaded on the YT soon.

Title: Kaar'Mua Sunset
Authors: Me (Dozey), One of big Unreal composers (I can't tell right now who)