End of Line (Tron hack)

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Suna

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End of Line (Tron hack)
« on: January 12, 2011, 07:46:26 AM »
I know, hacks based on hype over movies tend to drift away and end up as abandoned project, but it's been a while since I thought of making a game or hack that makes you play in the world of Tron (and it's recent sequel Tron Legacy).

So here's my initial ideas. I'm not an informatics expert, so probably the way I'm rephrasing the basic stats and moves will cause more than one brow raising. I'd love to hear your ideas on the first render I did:

Stats:
Weird=Meta (it's used when a program interfaces with his user)
Cool=Stable
Hard=Effective
Sharp=Versatile
Hot=Graphic

Hx=Log

 
basic moves:
when you attack another program (go aggro)
when you try to scan a charged situation
when you act outside of parameters (when you act under fire)
when you try to scan another program's functions
when you interface with another program (seduce or manipulate; an exchange between programs would here be meant to be a manipulation attempt. The code of both programs tend to change, and I'd like to try and reflect that in-game).

peripheral moves:
when you try to crack a code
when you try to rewrite another program (seize by force)

There is no barter.
Color codes are going to be related to the program type (playbooks). Certain type of programs (a keygen, for instance) would limit the choice. From the movie and videogames:

blue: believer (in users)
orange: nonbeliever (usurper)
red: MCP
yellow: hacking program
green: virus

These would be the basic patterns I recognized.

Any thoughts or suggestions so far?
Next would be figuring out which program types should be playable and with what type of dedicated moves..
"The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ, /Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit /Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, /Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

--Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat

Re: End of Line (Tron hack)
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2011, 12:11:53 PM »
Motion.

Lots of it.

One of the ideas behind Tron: Legacy was to capture elements of Capoeira and Parkour and (despite the fact that I saw far more of the former than the latter) I think I buy that idea.

Vehicles are important.

The Isos walk in from the wilderness and get wiped out to a man, CLU rules the grid with lightgliders and lightcycles and lightfighters.

Some kind of Chase mechanic.

Maybe a riff on Dead Weight's Flow.

There should be ways to escape, race, outpace.

Program hacking and manipulation is a near-mystical ability.  We only really see the (somewhat messianic) Kevin Flynn do that sort of thing.

Weapons are simple shapes, Rods and Discs, so any relative power might well come from the User rather than the form.

Character types should probably account for Isos, Users, Programs (and Program types... Viruses?) it would be nice to resurrect Bit and his ilk, although I doubt they would be playable.

Hm... bit of a stream of consciousness, that, sorry.

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Suna

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Re: End of Line (Tron hack)
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2011, 03:25:58 AM »
Thank you, very helpful points. Indeed, maybe something akin to Dead Weight's flow might come in when cycles turn into wall of light mode, raising speed but also raising the danger. I will definitely consider that and the importance of vehicles to be accessible to all.

Regarding character types, in both movies we only see two users manage to reach the Grid, which are the two Flynns. Other users do not appear to have access to the net, so I am considering whether to avoid creating the user playbook or to create it and not care too much about fidelity to the movies (it's a story game after all!)
Bits are definitely nonplayable. They cannot interact with the world except for saying "yes" or "no".

Weapons should be something that is part of the program. Discs surely are. Other weapons might be considered extensions or upgrades. Vehicles definitely are not part of programs.

Regarding hacking, now that you point it I see two types of hacking. In the first movie, the first Clu is a hacking program, and he tries to break in the system. While what Flynn does in the second movie is something similar to rescripting programs.
Possibly an ability to be restricted to users.
"The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ, /Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit /Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, /Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

--Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat