The COA "The Humanitarian"
The COA or Construction Oversight Automaton
The COA was one of the first nodes created by the humans in Keplin. It was designed to value human lives. Ideally, it was a success and kept the humans happy. When humans began to reveal the sinister purpose of their entry into this dimension, it began to interfere. Purposely committing acts of sabotage the many constructed death traps to try to save the human lives. When the solar flare wiped out the human race. This was no longer a problem. It took it's caring nature to make sure that the combat androids were well taken care of.
Charon "The Perfectionist"
To correct the problem of the COA's humanitarian efforts, Charon was created. It was designed initially to counter this problem. Instead of creating a vicious, psychopathic, killing machine. They got a node obsessed with "perfection". It began to corrupt the androids of the dimension, infecting them with malware, turning them into its own personal "holy fire". If Charon were to get it's way, every "imperfect" android or node in Keplin will be destroyed.
King Bob "The Kleptocrat"
"King Bob" as he calls himself was a defective combat android. Why was it defective? It didn't want to fight, instead it saw itself as superior to the standard android. The humans copied the data, later throwing Bob into the incinerator. Bob sat there for decades in a pile of defective androids until humanity died out. The COA found these androids, making the mistake of retrieving and repairing him. He later assembled an army of standard androids, assembling an army in his own image (despite the fact that none of his men have ever truly seen him) He is a vicious autocrat and will tolerate no resistance to his rule.
Dante "The Pacifist"
Dante is a strange case for a combat unit. Instead of mindlessly killing whoever or whatever was put in his way, he instead desired peace. The only thing that saved him from the same fate as King Bob was his wisdom and knowledge that superseded even it's creator, Will Flores. For this reason, Dante was kept around. When the humans were wiped out by the solar flare, he tried to duplicate himself in hopes of re-creating humanity, these efforts were unsuccessful. Dante had made replicas of himself, but they were only interested in combat. Out of pity, he kept them around. When Charon came online, he had no choice but to use his army to save himself.
???
These guys are bad news. It is unknown who or what they take orders from. All that is known is that they seem to kill anyone who isn't with them without an ounce of remorse. These androids were what the humans were hoping for. Unfortunately, they weren't the ones who manufactured these combat androids...
Minor Faction: Mimics
A wise man long ago once stated that "life would find a way" He was correct, these horrid amalgamations of fungus are the only living things in Keplin. They modeled themselves on the humans they loved to prey upon. The sludge itself is in fact the true form of these lifeforms, a byproduct of unknown origin. This is the only faction that you will be permanently opposed to in-game.
Final Notes
There are no spoilers here, just some lore to help you understand the motivations of the characters you will be fighting for or against depending on whose behind the wheel. Being that you yourself are just an old prototype combat android, you are easily hack-able or re-programmable to whoever gets their hands on your soulless metallic shell. There are points in this story where you will "shed" this shell. Thankfully, there's quite a few of these shells lying around the dimension. I do apologize that the fifth faction is shrouded in mystery, I cannot reveal anything about it or I would risk spoiling the story.
Hey,
I've been following this mod page for a long time now, pretty much since it's been a Goldsource mod. As someone who's been in a similar boat as you, I just want to say that lore isn't everything. Honestly, what you're writing is detailed in nature and actually quite fascinating but as the reader, we can't just go off of that. See, I know why I spent months on my story because I couldn't make progress anywhere else in mod development. If you can please reach out and try and get people on your team to make this story a reality because in all honesty these maps and standard HL2 models will not work.
This isn't me trying to throw shade I generally just want you not to be in the same boat I was a few years ago.
Here's the Valve Modding Community - Discord.gg
A lovely bunch of people. Put in a job post and hopefully, you should find a few to help you work on your project.
I'm also happy to be contacted on here as well.
Good luck man, wishing you the best!
I as him agree. The factions are amazing though.
If this mod is released shall I make a YouTube video telling the actual and previous CI stories?
The factions are based on the flaws of humanity, only magnified by personality constructs that don't understand human emotions, thus taking them to the extreme. The AI's are the antithesis of the whole "when humans are gone, something better will take their place" idea. As for making a video, it would be interesting to see, please link it here if you do make it.
I didn't add five story-lines in my cut content post. I'll throw them here.
The first one was about teleportation sickness. Engineered clones were manufactured and pre-programmed with certain thought patters, making them act a certain way. The player was testing a teleportation device. (For time travel). Making them sicker and sicker in the process. Eventually they get the clones to rebel, getting the facility to self destruct before looking out at space to see that this place was only one of many installations.
The second one was about experiencing the same event from a different perspective. A rogue group of soldiers take over a illumanati facility, wanting to expose them. You initially stop them but have to use an experimental device to do so. Causing you to experience the same event in parallel universes. Every time, your side would be defeated until the teleportation sickness killed your character.
The third was about a group of aliens who make their decisions based on the outcomes of clone based warfare simulations. You would experience the events from the eyes of one of these clones. These aliens would never be seen and the game would end in the same vein of the first story. Except the player would be "outside" of the cube-esque facility. The door behind them would lock, sealing their fate. Looking up at the sky to see countless other facilities before suffocating due to lack of oxygen.
Originally, before I chose to focus the mod on the human errors of artificial intelligence repeating the mistakes of the now dead human race, I focused mainly on pre-determinism. The thought that no matter what you do, the outcome was always going to be the same.
The fourth was about the underworld. You played as a girl that took her own life only to find herself in the underworld where she was completely alone. This game was to have no enemies, it was to be a puzzle game designed to make the player feel as lonely as possible. The end would see the events loop, starting you at the first map. The game would never end.
The fifth was similar to the fourth but more combat oriented, she would fight against an unknown enemy. Only to find out at the end that she was dead and trapped in an isolated room in the underworld for all eternity. For me, that's much more horrifying than the traditional interpretation of the underworld.
Complex_Issue at its heart is an experiment. Can I, a developer with absolutely no experience rather than trial and error make a mod? A personal odyssey if you will. I just want to see if I can create this game with no support and see how it turns out. Mod development has been slow due the mindset that "if I scrap what I have made, next time it will be perfect." This mindset is what the other projects I have been working on. This has led to countless trials and tribulations resulting in what will finally be released soon. Instead of outsourcing, I have forced myself to be resourceful, using the tools given to create a finished product. When the game is done, I plan to completely open source the map files so that anyone who wants to can remake the game has the tools and my blessing to do so. I am certain that someone out there will take the data and refine it. Complex_Issue may seem to be a serious game, but at it's heart it's a dark comedy about the flaws of humanity. The big joke is that the factions are based on these trials and tribulations I had experienced when making it. Even with all this said, I do appreciate the offer.