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| - There obviously was central planning for the parts Ryan built (and coordination with others who put their fortunes into building THEIR chunks of Rapture) The terrain itself was a limitation. Solid Rock is good to build on to anchor structures properly , while plains of silt and debris rock are problematic. Connections to other buildings and transportation infrastructure would need to be made at various points. Outside Rapture itself there was much available space, but distance was the issue - until it became the reason for building in such places. "Wide Open" did result in irregular/halphazard building often following the terrain, when people built where they wanted allowing for the above limitations. "Mining Law" which is often the accepted law system where higher organization doesnt exist, allows for staking claims (limit per person), but having to do some reasonable amount of development work within a limited term to maintain the 'claim'. Common building standards would be imposed on building connected to the rest of Rapture. --- --- --- --- - Empty food cans - past repasts - Splicers have to eat like everyone else- Canned Food/Water jars - basic sustinance - someone somehere still was canning stuff for it to last into Lamb's era- Bed Mattress - need some basic security to be able to sleep...- Candles - need light to read all those books and to keep the night terrors away (shrines seem to require alot of these...where do they all come from - ADAM muttated bees??)- Eating Utensiles/Pots/Pans - some of that mold and slime they eat at least can be made tasty- Various bits of Clothing (often on a washline) - gots to keep up appearances- Tenting - hard to sleep with water dripping on your head- Suitcase - convenient for frequent moves and all that other stuff- Cigarette butts (several places) - where is this tobacco coming from (in BS2)??- Booze, often - Raptures real medicine- Radio/Phonograph - long hours to while away- Books (including Lambs) - gotta keep up with the intelectual stuff - though might just be used for TP- Grafitti (frequently) - slogans reassure one (or are expected when Lambs commissars pay avisit)- Jars/Buckets of 'harvested' food (barnacles, seaweed) - Bounty from the Sea....- Bathtubs full of green slime - EVE production? Pet Seaslugs? Tasty algae (cant taste worse than Vegamite)- Trash Barrel filled with burning stuff - Much of Rapture is Cold and Damp- Lantern - safer than candles and portable when getting up in the middle of the night- Dead Cats (frequently) - live kitties keep the rats from gnawing on you while you sleep....- Shrine to Lamb (Frequently in BS2) - Deluded half-insane Splicers - Nuf Said.....- Accu-Vox Recorder (frequently) - Modern Technology assists you in talking to yourself.... (or listening over and over to someone elses long ago thoughts)- Money laying around (sometimes), small amounts of CASH, which might be enough for minor items in Vending Machines.- Case for Musical instrument(some) -- 'Singin the Blues' aint hard in Rapture (you be turnin blue if you dont get some heat...) --- --- --- --- --- Does 'Altruism' intersect with (real) family (NOT that manipulative 'Rapture Family') values??? Going to Rapture cut most peoples extended family connections. Solo Games didnt much address numerous NPC's immediate family -- other than using it to try to fool you that Atlas was worthy of the Players empathy - Atlas's FAKE family (which Ryan could have told you about, if he was watching and listening and didn't have his own game in play). - Mark Meltzer- Lutzs- Baby carriage- "Three Little Angels - they are all gone now...."- Eleanor vs Sofia (mother from Hell)- Ryan himself refuses to kill his (sort-of) son, who has been programmed/mutated into being his assassin by his enemy. But remember, it was Fontaine/Atlas who turned Rapture into hell (despite painting Ryan as 'the evil one'..). Plot called for a dystopia, so they threw together a dystopia... (an incomplete illogical society designed to fail) . In the MMORPG, the historical events have made possibility of most families disjoint. How much of even the Player's Avatars (and all the other ex-Splicer NPCs) memories from 'The Before Time' remain ?? Cant have a proper full blown MMORPG unless you have Players 'marrying' each other In-Game .... This area is a whole 'nuther kettle of fish' for the MMORPG that I can only speculate on (what the game company would see as permissable - game already has a 17+ rating - or what they may simply ignore because of the complications). --- --- --- --- --- Look at the pictures of the Pacific Electric cars from LA Noire (circa 1947, the design is actually from the mid 30s) to see what a proper Trolley car should look like in Rapture. The pre-consolidation 'old' cars (Seen in BS2 near Apollo Square/Olympus Heights) reflect a design more represenative of 1900. The post-consolidation version reflects the later 30s improved designs, with larger passenger capacity for a City sized transit system (28 new, vs 18 old), minimized fancy details, and maximize interior capacity without changing external size profiles (to fit the existing companys' track curves and tunnel passages). Two units would be joined back to back to double capacity and be able to reverse without turning, when required. The Trolley system in the MMORPG will be more than a few incidental 'props'. And the newer ones actually have a convenient item called 'seats'.... --- --- --- I have the feeling that it is the Bioshock Developers who hadn't a clue for what Rapture population's real reaction to Fontaine's and then Atlas's mayhem and murdering and destructive rebellion should have been. The people there in Rapture had only just come out of World War 2, which had many restrictive measures put into place as 'War Measures' which were subsequently lifted after the war was won. Curfews, ID checks, Restricted Areas, Shortages, Rationing, Locking up Seditionists/Traitors/Spies, Reall attacks on Civilain targets, family members killed, etc.. --- all things they had gone thru 'for the duration' of that war. Today there is whining when the least little minor thing is imposed (not so much by many same whiners when Constitutional Freedoms are stolen/ignored). THAT is more the fabricated mindset projected in the game upon the denziens of Rapture, and little to do with historical reality. Fontaine is finally cornered as the arch Smuggler (and 'Oh my !!', his ill-gotten gains are seized). Splicers are murdering people in the streets and Atlas's followers are disaterously disrupting the City. Atlas stirs up destruction that threatens the livings and even lives of most of the City's inhabitants. And RYAN is allegedly the 'hated' man for imposing security measure to try to stop all those things and return the City to normal. The Whiners whine "Why cant we just get along" as murder and mayhem is happening (WE see the result of what has happened to Rapture). Ryan contains the threat (and the whines start in about him 'abandoning his principles'). The voices we hear don't seem afraid of the murder in the streets -- as if its just a normal everyday thing. So it all must not be as bad as 'evil' Ryan there says it is. BS. The majority of survivors would be CHEERING restoration of order by Ryan. We have simply been fed the usual clueless PC take on things - created by people who never faced any REAL threat in their entire lives. People in Rapture would not be like how the designers/developers think they should be - they would have lived thru seriously hazardous times and KNOWN who's side they were on - Ryan's. --- --- --- Should have also heard the song from the 1933 Marx Brothers movie "Duck Soup" : They got guns,We got guns,All God's chillun got guns!I'm gonna walk all over the battlefield,'Cause all God's chillun got guns! --- --- --- If you could afford it, and after a sales spiel about having Peace of Mind when living in a City 600 feet under the ocean... The System seperates your home from water that may pour in through some major leak. With automatic systems that will slam shut (just in case it happens while you are asleep - and the Water Alarms start going off.) Not just Securis doors (or equivalent), but seals for all the miscellaneous utilities and air systems. System might include a self-contained air and power reserve (for electric and heat if that gets cut off), provisions made for some adaquate period which you might have to wait. Deluxe systems might include an emergency submarine docking port to allow rescue from the ocean side. Less expensive options would be a 'Safe Room' -- which would be sealed and contain sufficient air and supplies for a long period before rescue. Not quite as safe as the more expensive system - it relies on the human getting to the Safe Room in time before their dwelling was inundated and they could be swallowed by a horrible watery death. --- --- --- With New Rapture being in a reasonable state of repair, what will happen to all our beloved water effects (dripping/streaming-down-walls/pooling/puddles) ?? Same for sparking electrical shorts/flickering lights/steam jets/flames/etc... Well, there would be plenty of fountains and other water decorations (see WE control the water - it doesnt control us !! ) and periodically there will be a leak that will require repairs (Citizens grab your buckets !!! ) --- --- --- Look what a state Rapture is in after Sofia Lamb has run it for 8 years (or her part of it - for all we know the rest of it is doing fine except for this 'quarantine zone'...) What did she do in all those years? Not much by the look of the place and the untidy old corpses left laying about. The latest thing is this experiment which destroyed Gil Alexander, has started kidnapping children from the Surface (and attracting attention), and she plans to 'experiment' on her drugged out daughter (Mother from Hell). Her delusions and self-loathings are not abating (you can hear it in her endless whines at you and those unfortunates under her power). She plans on 'saving humanity' by destroying it. I doubt she has told her minions that she will leave for the Surface when the 'Lamb is well done', and leave them to their fate (they probably will be better off for her going). After the events of BS2 (if she survived) Sofia is now up there in a mental institution for the criminally insane, getting her daily dosage of Thorazine to keep her 'calm'. If instead you wasted all those annoying 'bosses', then Sofia's molecules have probably gone around the Oceans 'Circle of Life' a few times already. --- --- How exactly is that supposed to work? The 'link' was broken when Sofia won the All-time Bad Mother Award and smothered Eleanor (stopping her heart, temporarily - now how is THAT supposed to work - didnt see a Defibrilator in Eleanor's room ...). So how is 'getting out of Dodge' supposed to fix Delta's deterioration?? Excuse to use the Life-Boat thingee (and handle all the stuff blocking that from happening), and Sofia along for the ride and final disposition (we got cheated out of OUR final 'moral choice'.....) Eleanor is wearing a diving suit, Delta is wearing a diving suit. Balloons made out of plastic baggies or equivalent would take them to the surface (fix a bathysphere/steal a sub/whatever) . Once they are there is waiting at the Lighthouse any worse than floating in the LifeBoat in the Ocean 300 miles from anywhere ??? --- --- (Note - for the young folk, was a 1962 movie starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, which I dont think they have done a remake of with Will Smith (yet...) Anyway, for 'one of those' odd ideas -- showing the creative potential of this MMORPG mechanism even if its mostly to produce groans... : What does happen to all the 'old' Little Sisters? Eleanor - an early operational Little Sister , was 17 by BS2 and the MMORPG timeframe is a few years later. Not all the orphans became Little Sisters and not all surviving Little Sisters became Big Sisters. SO what happened to the rest?? Sold on to Daniels Wales and other such operations?? Seedier side of Sofia Lambs little 'Family' might be quite shocking. (BTW - how many 'orphans' werent useable (just didnt work out) and what happened to them? - thats another potential story for the MMORPG to explore... With Lamb's less caring ways, were her 'conversions' done with less finesse and a higher mortality rate ??? Shocking room off Fontaine Futuristics containing countless children's corpses ... There WERE those crematoria ashes stored in Persephone... Lets not forget the kidnappings (see SitS) which might not have gone 'as planned' ... where are the Newspaper cutout articles on botched abductions and 'murders', where the red glow was seen in the Sea ????) Did we not hear so many detractors of Sofia Lamb because they just werent making any Accu-Vox any more ?? Would have been interesting to hear things others said about her -- they could at least scrawled it on the walls (in obscure places) the way Lamb's supporters plastered their worship of her.--- --- --- 1946-1959 Rapture already should have had some population growth (beyond the immigrants themselves). Would Ryan have spent money to build space that would not be occupied for decades? Did he have enough money even to do so ?? So likely there would be expected at least some continuous construction (and as technologies advanced additional construction/improvements to get rid of the claustraphobic feeling some citizens complained about). The Suburbanization phase of the City was mentioned elsewhere (and gives us more environmental variation for the game). Retirees?? 13 years til Rapture hit the fan (yet another social pattern/evolution). --- --- --- Porter returned from Rapture -- wasnt he Spliced up (Players progress in Minervas Den?? with plasmid/tonics etc..) This wasnt the short duration for Delta who went bye-bye in the end - but 'Good' Jack mustve faced the same thing (who knows how long 'Bad' Jack lasted... or If he ever undid his Splicing). If not the usual genetric disruptions/turbulance, then ADAMs addictive effects (probably varied alot from person to person) ??? Big Daddyimizations undone (vocal cords grow back ?? Probably thats the least of the changes made to BDs to restore to 'human') Needs explaining - for Porter, it may have been possible thru Tenenbaum's new developments in undoing/curing ADAM 'disease' at the time both returned to the Surface (eventually). --- --- --- If Sinclair wanted to 'sell' Rapture to the Surface, why did he hang around for 10 years (doesn't make sense). He appears to be a man with a sense of self preservation. He should have managed a way out years previous (to BS2) unless there were other reasons. It is quite likely he may have squirmed out of his visible fate in BS2 (some quaint saying about 'playin possum' no doubt). Ten years to make the Vita-Chambers work for him (and he WAS one of that systems developers.....) SO its not to hard a stretch. The expanded Lore of Rapture could explain this and other things (you think the BS1/BS2 developers had problems making most of it cohesive, wait until more details have to be filled in to the existing information to explain the larger story --- alot more decisions to make instead of "it would be neat for this to happen, so lets add it to the plot". Will poossibly need some twists and turns to get it to fit (fortunately alot of the details we heard are from second-hand sources - some quite biased and limited to what that person was able to see). Sinclair was actually a technologist on par with Suchong/Tenenbaum/Alexander/etc.. He was instrumental in the work on the Vita-Chambers which was an advanced and significantly different (need I say revolutionary) technology - combining Pharmaceuticals (his specialty), Ryans Power technology (sourced from his Ryan connection) as well as various ADAM technology (adapted for this different 'external use'). He also was likely adept at managing other people to reach his goals (like his captive 'brain trust' in Persephone). --- --- --- Many MMORPG have some kind of Housing system with varying utility. Some it is just a place to put trophies, play interior decorator, or serves as some minor additional storage space. Others functioned as Player guild/kinship/association meeting/gathering places/bases. Many games have very meager Housing selection and customization options. A few allow the users to add crafting facilities, to have massive storage (including museums of oddities) or to serve as 'maprooms' (for games that allow portals/jumps to premarked locations in the World). In this MMORPG's design, a Player's "Residence" is meant to have significant utility and to act as a base of operations, and to be flexible enough for many potential uses. Since Rapture is being 'rebuilt' and expanded, there are lots of opportunities for the Player to get more space - provided they are willing to work/put effort into to developing it. A Player would have a number of 'Team' NPCs which need to be housed (part of their employment deal...), as well as storage space for all the bulk 'loot' accumulated (in New Rapture, recovered lumber and wall panels are valued for 'fixing up' the City to its proper state. YOU might not have the tedious job of reclaiming all that stuff (its why you have NPCs to do grunt work), but if you want to 'fix up' your Residence to match your social standing/prestige/needed utility, or to accomodate specialized facilities, you will deal with such stuff one way or another. Commercial ventures can overlap with 'personal space', and that workshop/manufacturing area can be conveniently (and cheaply) maintained where you live. The MMORPG City Map is huge so there will be no problems as other games have with all the available space being absorbed (Ultima Online for example) or clumsy cloned areas (as they do in LOTRO). You still might have a ways to walk from the City Center unless you want to 'spring' for the expensive 'good' locations. Of course out in the boonies, neighbors dont complain as much about raucous parties, screaming captive Splicers, or constant freelance target practice. This reminded me that it can be possible in THIS game to setup enclaves further out from the safer parts of New Rapture, to provide services to adventurers (convenience IS worth money) or work camps for extended reconstructioon projects. The mechanisms would be the same as normal Housing, except that concerns for maintaining security would take larger effort. --- --- --- --- --- . . .
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