it's interesting i promise.

Well, I dont have much time to work on my plug.. (3000) but I finally wrote a pen and paper outline for all the missions...

Something happens at the end that threatens most the galaxy. I'm having trouble deciding...
I'm faced with a decision.

The thing happens in all 3 of the main strings.

The minor strings.. They're kind of blah compared to the big ones. (Compare UE or Voinian string from EVO... to zacha or human renegade... or even fuzz trader.)

Now, when the big thing at the end happens... I dont know what to do with the slew of minor governments. Should they all have their own part in it, (maybe 6 missions each) or have one really good long dramatic string with the main govts forging a temporary alliance....
Im asking, because every govt will have some missions...
and Nova and I both have limited time and space for missions...
(As far as the missions are concerned... The actual number of missions won't approach the max missions in the nova engine... but numerous small effects will use up a chunk of the bits...)

This post has been edited by -REDCHIGH- : 11 March 2006 - 11:55 AM

could you give more information? Like what the smaller and larger govts are? but based on the information you've given, I'd try to have each of the smaller govts have their own smaller part in your event that decides the fate of the galaxy, but that also interacts with what the larger govts are doing.

The above would make more sense if I had examples to work with.

Yea you're right...

Well, I hate to ruin the plot really...
There are three large governments. The story takes place in the future (not too far) and humans with like ideals joined together. IE one is more republican, one is more democratic, one is communist.

The other governments are smaller companies and factions that broke off....

There's a trading union.
A interstellar legal company, unnamed.
a pirate faction
a terrorist faction
and several (a dozen or so) independant worlds...
There's also a Guard faction... Originally a bodyguard-escort service for underarmed independant worlds and trading operations, but it's become corrupt... So they do pretty much anything for money... They're similiar to the mafia.

A New enemy appears (depending on the major storyline you chose, you get different information, but it's all the same enemy. The same thing happens in all the strings, but you get to see how the diff governments react to it.)

I cant say much more...
In one storyline a govt is mysteriously obliterated and infested, and the others have to band together.

in the next storyline, they assault the enemy head on.... and hope for the best.

And the third...well... they band together.... but some strange things happen along the way.

The minor govts will have a small string regarding the new threat, whether it's escorting the last fleets to the front lines, or evacuating civilians to the larger govts for protection... Just wondering how much I should concentrate on making the smaller strings...

I'd recommend that you get a different string from each of the major factions. Each faction should have its own unique way of dealing with the threat. Compare this to the Alien mission string in EVC, with the Rebels and Feds each having their own string (granted, the strings could have been better-differentiated). If the player joins one of the factions because it's the enemy of factions the player doesn't like (for example, players who like the Rebelllion's moxie in EVC and think of the Federation as overbearing), then discovering that your chosen side has decided on a whim to buddy up with your enemy would be a bit irritating.

If done well, you'll end up with players replaying the game from different sides, because while the ending is the same, the path you take to get there varies and the challenges are different. If you have each major string end the same way with the same missions, though, then people will be less inclined to replay the game because they already know what the climax is.