Making the Kheldian war more visible

[Greycat]

As a Kheldian, you get special arcs from 1-50 dealing with the Kheldian war. You face Voids, Quantums, threats to the existance of *you,* and the like. But as far as the rest of the world's concerned, it's pretty much a shadow war. Yes, there's moonfire, and I *think* a bit of dialog somewhere - was there still a mission where redsiders got a Q-gun? - but not much.

 

So, how about introducing the rest of the playerbase to the war in an appropriate way? Lore-wise, there are only a few points where this happens (Dr. Winslowe's Cosmotron goes from being "limitless energy!" to "oops," for instance, and a Nictus plan to forcibly implant Nictus into various leaders is thwarted by Kheldians visiting said leaders, taking up residence and fighting them off.) But we could make this work for the playerbase as well, while keeping it somewhat of a "shadow war" feel.

 

These would be open to blue, grey and redside. (Sorry, goldsiders - lorewise there's no reason for any of this there. If these trigger during Prae arcs for Praetorians, they'll show up once you pick red or blue side.)

 

Setup:

We know already that the Council provides Quantum weapons to various and sundry groups to use when they encounter Kheldians. (These show up as Quantum gunners when you team with a Kheldian.) Well, these weapons need to be stored *somewhere.* Any time you have a "Confiscate weapons" (glowie hunt) or "Stop/disrupt weapons deal," including safeguard/mayhem missions, those glowies have a chance (probably 5-10%) of containing a Quantum weapon. (Percentage can be adjusted, there are a *lot* of these after all.)

 

This does two things:

1. A clue shows up talking about this "odd gun you found." It seems really complex for something that just blasts energy...

2. A badge placeholder shows up with 20% progress.

 

It doesn't matter what mission it is, or what level. You have a chance of finding a Quantum weapon. Once it happens five times (with the clue slowly expanding,) you get a badge and some arcs will unlock, going a bit farther into the Kheldian war.

 

Specifically, heroside you'd start investigating the weapons, eventually shutting down production in one arc. Investigating more about N-fragments and what they're doing with War Wolves, Galaxies and Voids. And finding and shutting down a Void Hunter training establishment (which would be *fun* for Khelds as yes, I can see a *lot* of void hunters in that last mission...)

Redside, well, who needs contacts. You decide to look into these weapons and figure out just who they can be used against (sorry, no, they won't do extra damage against player Khelds.) Investigate the shards - perhaps even with a mission you get to play as a War Wolf (before your body rejects the shard for whatever reason - may have to be a branching mission with a yes/no choice there.) And take down - or take over (another branch...) that Void facility.

Khelds will already know this stuff through their own arcs, so likely would get alternates coming from their contacts to shut everything down.

 

Obviously the story arcs can be fleshed out, added to, etc. as this is a pretty rough idea right now, but I think it'd be interesting to give non-Khelds a peek into this little behind-the-scenes war.

 

(Edit: Yes, I want at least one, possibly more full strength, Nictus-spawning Cysts in that last mission.)

Edited September 28, 2020 by Greycat