MOD:WCU:Privateer3:Storyline

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Special Acknowledgement

• Thanks to CharlieG for cattle-prodding our asses into using this wiki. -- chuck_starchaser

Introduction

WCU being a union of Wing Commander and Privateer maps, ships and factions, needs something special for its (new and original) Privateer - Part 3 storyline. Spiritplumber dreamt of a fusion of privateering alternating with military career stints, and also threw in the idea of there being another Privateer (an evil one?) that Burrows must overcome. But there was no "plot" per se, and spiritplumber did not want to be the plot-writer, or even to be perceived as veto-ing alternative plot line ideas. The "Rival" idea comes from the original Privateer 3 design documents.

Plot-writing actually began with Captin cocksniff's brainstorming a "19th Fleet" stint idea, plus some stuff happening afterwards. Pretty good ideas, though I (chuck_starchaser) didn't think so when I first jumped into his thread. Unfortunately, and for various reasons, none of those early ideas have remained. (Did I kill them? ^^) For example, the 19th Fleet happens a bit too early in WC canon to be able to "make it" to it. Not that this precludes a "20th Fleet" for lack of a better term, and this idea is in, as of this writing.

The rest of those original ideas were interesting, but later we began to analyze the Priv/RF plot in more detail, and something different emerged...

It seems to us, Origin came up with a "deep" plotline, much more complex than meets the eye. If that was indeed their intention, they did a great job: The storyline of Priv/RF is chock full of hidden hints to stuff going under the surface. It is this stuff, we realized, we needed to understand fully well, before we could come up with a continuation of the story.

Thus, what's in this continuously evolving wiki, comes mainly from the 'storyline ideas' forum thread, which began here: storyline ideas and, for technical reasons, continued here: storyline ideas (part 2) If you wish to understand the full evolution and discussions surrounding the plotline, by all means, read those threads in their entirety. This WIKI does NOT document the evolution of the storiline, but is rather a destillation of its current status. It's like the latest CVS version of code. I will try, however, to provide links to specific posts in those, and other discussion threads, where the justification for some concepts may not be too obvious.

The plotline for our yet to be named "Privateer 3" begins at the end of RF (Righteous Fire) and overlaps the end of the Kilrathi War; --and probably the Black Lance saga, and beyond. Thus, it happens long before Privateer 2 :-) but may tie into it somehow.. And, before you ask, NO, no Stelteks, and no Nephilim... well, maybe...

Rough Roadmap

The rough, early version of a roadmap for putting together the plot is as follows:

1. Collect canonical information about the Wing Commander universe
2. Begin making up new stuff for the plot

Work has been done on number 2, but what we'd like to focus on is gathering information on the WCU setting, then set up the motivations for characters, figure out what it is they want to do and when they want to do it, and then worry about throwing Burrows into the mix.

Research into the Wing Commander universe will be assembled here on this wiki. Plot ideas will be located in a separate location (this location will be forthcoming, once it is set up; please be patient while everything gets set up)

Setting

The first phase of creating the WCU plot involves collecting a great deal of information on the factions, characters, and geography of the Wing Commander universe. There are two important parts to this: Collecting canonical information and making up new things for the player to encounter.

1. Factions
   1. Governments
      1. Landreich
      2. Border Worlds
      3. Firekka
      4. The Confederation
      5. The Kilrathi
      6. The Grovsner colonies
      7. The Oasian Neutral System
      8. Tri-System (later known as "The Tri-System Confederacy")
   2. Organizations
      1. The Merchants' Guild (Let us avoid using the "MG" acronym)
      2. The Mercenaries' Guild (Let us avoid using the "MG" acronym)
      3. Church of Man
      4. Rondell
      5. Bronte
      6. We Need more here
      7. See also Privateer's corporations
   3. Other Groups
      1. The Varni
2. Characters
   1. Christopher Blair
   2. Roman Lynch
   3. Tayla
   4. Governor Menesch
   5. Salman Kroiz
   6. Lynn Murphy
   7. Masterson
   8. Monkhouse
   9. Monte
   10. We need more here
3. Events (timeline)
   1. A bit of WC 2668
   2. Introduction to WC 2669
   3. WC 2669 - Privateer Timelines combined
   4. WC 2669 - Righteous Fire Timelines combined
   5. A bit of 2670 for now...
   6. About the Privateer/Righteous Fire timelines...
      1. WCU Timeline - 2669 (obsolete; backup only; see separate priv/rf timelines above)
      2. Priv/RF Timeline (obsolete; see "About..." instead)
      3. 2670 (obsolete, see 2670 above)
      4. etc
4. Sectors: What's in canon? What are we going to make up? (this may overlap heavily with other sections)
   1. Gemini
   2. Vega
   3. Sol
   4. Enigma
   5. Hari
   6. Tri-system
   7. Avalon
   8. Trk'Pahn
   9. Vukar Tag
   10. GMarktu
   11. Hawking
   12. Kilrah
   13. Argent
   14. Epsilon (also called "Deneb")
   15. M'Shrak
   16. Landreich
5. Other
   1. Ship classes, sizes, roles

Most of the info used in backgrounding comes from various internet websites, including,

• WCnews' encyclopedia
• LOAF's timelines and maps
• Wonder Chicken's exquisitely detailed timeline zoom
• factbites
• And many more I forget...

Backgrounding has two parts to it, with a gray line between them. First comes establishing the existing, or inherited background, or canon. This process may be a bit more creative than it might sound, though... Read on:

• The Privateer/Righteous Fire storyline dissected -- MUST READ!!!
• Observations and elucubrations about the much longer Wing Commander plotline
• WC canon timeline overlapping our "Privateer3" timeline.
• Maps, systems, map expansion chronology, eploration, the "Gray Zone"...
• Privateer's corporations listed alphabetically -- e.g.: Azuma Weapons
• Miscellaneous tidbits of possibly useful data
• Factions, subfactions, sub-subfactions, sub-sub-subfactions, ...

== The Plot == (WARNING: ***Spoilerish, read at the risk of your eventual fun.***) PART A

• The Start Soldier of Misfortune
• Military stint 1 Diversions
• Military stint 2 Black Ops

PART B

• Factional Sub-Plots (in undecided order as of yet, and possibly some of the sub-plots may be playable in no particular sequence)
  • Border Worlds subplot 1
  • Border Worlds subplot 2
  • Landreich subplot 1
  • Landreich subplot 2
  • Firekkan subplot 1
  • Firekkan subplot 2
  • AWACS subplot 1
  • AWACS subplot 2

PART C

• Gray Ops subplot 1 Political Purity
• Gray Ops subplot 2 Military Shakeup
• Gray Ops subplot 3 Militia Homecleaning
• Gray Ops subplot 4 Pirate Alignment
• Gray Ops subplot 5 Kitty Detente
• Gray Ops subplot 7 Retro Retraction

PART D

• Exploration Going where no man... (except Pilgrims...)
• Build-Up Getting ready...
• Armada Conflagration (defeating Kroiz, getting back the gun)
• The End And a New Beginning...

All the above subplots except PART D might be typical subplots, involving 4 missions each. If so, we'd have... 18x4= 72 missions. PART D I won't speculate right now but these subplots aren't "mission-oriented", and might last quite a while. Thus, the plan as it stands would be much longer than Priv/RF together.

Technical Requirements

• Carriers modelled inside and out...
• Faction Relations need to be twisted...
• At bases and in space, shall we talk?
• All but one of us want to read mags.
• Ship upgrades/gadgets for exploration, colonization and stuff.
• Aramada control and ship captures