New Dev! news - Fall of Sol mod for Sins of a Solar Empire

Good day, Ladies and Gentlemen! My name is Matthew (my friends call me Matthew), and I'll be hosting today's news segment!

I have a thing for dramatic intros. Ye.

As aforementioned, my name is Matt (or Slont), and I'm your newest member of the development team working on Fall of Sol. I've spent many a lonely night pondering on what job description I fit... and, unable to come to an agreement with myself, I have decided I'd coin a new term for my involvement in this project. I am Slont, the Executive Editor! Sounds impressive, right?

Right!

My job is to pretty much speak some kickass English. And speak English kickass-ly I do! I'm a self-proclaimed decent writer (perhaps you'll be subjects to some fan-fiction or something cool like that some day soon), and after a number of years roleplaying online, I think I've got the gist of things down. I'm going to be pretty much in charge (taking advice from the lead of the whole operation) of the lore of the mod. I'll be fleshing out the backstories of each race... their goals, intentions, ethics, etc. I dare say it's not as important a role as modelling or coding... but playing with a drummer always makes the final song sound better. (that was a pretty good metaphor right there, ye?)

I'm also a pretty busy fellow. I work a job with fluctuating hours, and am at my last year of school. With earning lots of $$ and preparing for my eventual advancement to Teacher's College, I can be understandingly somewhat busy and/or unmotivated at times. Fear not, though... if you need me for whatever reason, I make a habit of being on the computer as often as I can in a day.

So - down to business. Ehem.

My first plan of action is to be completely revamping the ideas behind the playable factions. I don't know, as of this present moment, how extreme my modifications to established lore can go... but it's hard not to see so much potential in a mod like this. Why stop at an excuse to send humans into the technological revolution? I say work around that! Build off it, and work it into the greater story. Sometimes bridges are better utilized not just as plot-fillers, but as tangible elements to the story at large. Even the smallest details sometimes have a way of finding their way back into the inter-galactic boiling pot of plot ideas... this I learnt very quickly from my days of roleplaying.

All this being considered, I wish to see factions that don't just feel like an excuse to stick in a different style of ship, but rather factions that you get to realize as personalities. A good example is classic Star Wars (I'm going to assume you've watched Star Wars. If not, what are you doing here listening to me? Go watch it, then come back).

When you think of the Empire, you think of sleek, very sharp-looking spaceships. They're always very, well, Imperial looking. They fit in with that bigger idea of uniformity and order.

Rebellion ships, on the other hand, don't look nearly as neat or tidy. They're often smoothed-over masses of discolored metal - again, representing what they stand for: disorder and resistance to the status quo.

See what I mean?

This is the kind of approach I would like to see in not only in the lore of the Fall of Sol, but in the ship design too. But again, I am no modeller - I shall leave that up to the two other brave soldiers of this three-person battalion.

Anyway! I feel like I've ranted enough, and that you now know me better as a person. I feel a little closer to you, too. Hopefully my speal hasn't been anything short of entertaining - even if it's for the fact that my babbling idiocies keep you amused. That's cool, too. I can dig.

I hope you'll be hearing from me in the near future. Reading this has already been the first step in our friendship.

I never know how to end these things.
I think I'll just sign it off with my name.

-Slont/Matt
Yeah, that was good.