Written Story Capture in Real-time

[dukegunshow]

I just watched Tynan's GDC 17 and was struck with an idea that I wanted to put to the forums.

The game clearly has an idea of when a significant event has occurred, based on the level of emotional toll it takes on each of the pawns. Positively or negatively, the larger the impact the greater the chance that a significant event has happened to the colony. Beyond that, the general scripts seem to suggest that AI story tellers make decisions at given times to disrupt the general flow of the colony, thereby creating drama or triumph.

The log system shows a series of lines and numbers that really do not indicate a story, more of a graphical representation of colony and pawn health.

What if the log system was more of a time-lined written capturing of events of significance (anything from completed research to the death of a loved one in the game) and a permanent record of the storyline of the colony. With the messages we get in-game, there is clearly already a written transcription of events that the AI generates, so why not create a timeline of events as a log?

Additionally, allow the system to capture sound bites from your microphone either as a narration to events going on or as a reaction in real time to specific events, whether cruel or beneficial. If the system could not only capture a players voice (either transcribed roughly or a simple recording of voice) and align it with the timeline of significant events it would not only be interesting for the purposes of remembering the events that happened over a 100 hour game, but also the reactions and emotions experienced by the player. This, in turn, allows for much more elaborate recollection of the story for sharing not only with friends, but also the community at large.

The argument could be made that videoing the entire playtime would also capture the mood and emotions experienced by the player, but would cut down on the "dead" times where little to nothing was happening. Surely some sort of a written timeline could be captured from original code and displayed either in-game, or through a notepad type output.

For those who were really into the narration of the story-line, an entire book could be built from the ups and downs experienced in game. I feel like without a system like this in place, the real objective of creating a meaningful story would be lost if you put the game down for a series of weeks, only to come back and forget where you left off. If the entire purpose of this game is to create an interesting story, there should be an innovative way for capturing that story which focuses on the highlights (and lowlights) of the colony and its characters.

Just a thought...

[AileTheAlien]

The unstable branch already has a written log of events and messages. So... the feature's already done?

[DangitRandy]

I really like your idea of weighting events by mood impact. The result would be not quite a proper work of fiction, but more like an AI-generated story. The player could then fill in subtleties if they want.

We all love the stories that come out of each RimWorld scenario. By automating some of the tedium, more of these stories could be shared.