Design Underground/Lore and Single Player

Robert "Designopatomus" Irving and Eric "Wingman" Peterson discuss the lore of the game and the single player campaigns.

* 1:24 - Earth in the future has run out of resources. Populations have grown to cause starvation, government unrest, and poverty. Corporations have taken over.
* 2:20 - This has led to a space race to the asteroids. Some have gone looking for a new place to call home, but they haven't returned yet. Meanwhile the corporations are going to mine the resources from the asteroid belt to sustain earth until they return.
* 3:06 - Initially everyone went out in manned ships. There was a lot of competition, like the US gold rush. There was a lot of fighting. Corporations realized it was expensive to replace pilots, so they got together and decided to use unmanned drones instead of piloted ships. They will still fight in drones.
* 4:08 - Someone decided, "hey, why don't we televise this!", so people back on earth get entertainment from the drones fighting each other.
* 4:32 - Not everyone agreed to do drones. They thought that people should be piloting the ships. Yes, it's hazardous, but it lets people feel like they are important and are protecting and empowering the people of earth.
* 5:18 - There was another group that wanted to use robots to automate the mining process.
* 5:43 - There are three different groups: unmanned drones, piloted ships, and robots.
* 6:16 - This leads into the prologue single player mission. The story begins with you as a drone pilot out there doing your job, competing with other corporations on the day to day job. Your first maps will be learning the different drones with the different roles. You will learn about mining and how to fight.
* 7:20 - First, you will be fighting other drones. Then, there will be robots that you fight that are "defending" themselves.
* 8:05 - You get introduced to the two factions in the game. High-level backers will get to name some of the corporations and factions.
* 9:00 - This will introduce a lot of diversity to the game, and will show how teams are important.
* 9:28 - You are also introduced to cores that you will sometimes have to come in and blow up, but there will be some twists to the core.
* 10:25 - There will be around 12 missions for the prologue. Afterwards, there will be an epic single player campaign, but they need to do the multiplayer campaign first to fund it and to get the mechanics and balance right.
* 12:06 - The maps will be familiar, in a way, to people who have played in Descent. The whole thing is one big puzzle, but with newer things added in. Instead of rescuing hostages, you'll be mining for pals. There will be similar hazards, doors, and things familiar to Descent, but with modern game play, these mechanics will be extended.
* 13:52 - It is noted that the music used so far in the Descent Underground videos is placeholder music. The community will likely be involved in selecting the music for the game.
* 14:37 - The new style will make the roles of each ship very important to what is being done. You may be able to go back with a different ship and discover things that you couldn't find before.
* 15:39 - You can change the environment which affects the game, but your opponents can do the same thing.
* 16:10 - AI will start out fairly basic, but they want the AI to use the same kind of tactics players can use.
* 16:42 - Map design can be more important than what the AI can do, and can enhance the user's experience. "If we can do all the things I want to do with the bots, they are going to be PLENTY creepy."
* 17:49 - Powerups will be in many of the hidden areas.