Mike_NZ on 8/5/2007 at 08:44
Sorry about the delay for those who are awaiting it, delays in the real world postponed this for a little while.
Just letting you know I should have some stuff up on OR before friday :)
Thanks for the last few posts, nice:thumb:
Mike_NZ on 11/5/2007 at 12:05
Just so everyone knows and to clarify, as I'm seeing script being posted about, all I'm really doing is having some fun in my final year of design by creating my own design work and Von Braun, based heavily on System Shock 2.
It's a purely theoretical film adaptation of the game so I'm free to do pretty much whatever I want.
As far as the story is concerned, I have chosen to combine the Von Braun and UNN Rickenbacker into a single design and to design the 'new' Von Braun from scratch, for my adaptation I've decided that TriOp and the UNN created this one interstellar starship in a joint venture.
My reasons why I have chosen this are;
Story-wise
• A few functionality issues with existing design
• You hardly see the UNN Rickenbacker in game
Design-wise
• Juxtaposition of physical 'part' aesthetic (UNN Military vs. TriOptimum Corporate)
• The Von Braun will be a mix of battleship and elegance such as the mothership from 'ID4' Independence Day.
• The Many being the primary antagonist WILL be wrapped around the ships FTL drive and surrounding structure
• The Swiss artist H.R.Giger displays a particular sence of creepy/horrificness with his references to the human body, this type of disturbing approach to design will be usesd to visualize The Many. (He is a great example of Freudian imagery, which in SS2 is identifiable as a theme.)
• The Von Braun will be horizontally elongated in design similar to the original; this is basically to do with films aspect ratio of today being 16:9, if it was say like the homeworld 2 mother ship, cameras would have trouble capturing the entire ship.
• The length I have roughly decided on is around 750 meters in length. (A scale of 1:500 would create a decent sized model for this type of project at around 1.5m in length)
• Look somewhat scary (As SS2 is a SF Horror after all)
I am only focusing on one scene in the entire movie or 'story', A month after most people have been killed off, The Many is in full swing growing presumably on the FTL drive and surrounding structure. The Von Braun is orbiting the planet Tau Ceti V.
Im going to recreate the primary visuals, resembling the originals but my own, for the OSA, Navy, Marines, TriOp, All the Von Braun logos, design 3 different players one for each UNN division. All to help create a context for the Von Braun to live within.
TriOp logo (restyled original)
(
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/5442/trioptimumflatca3.jpg)
UNN Marine logo
(
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/1865/marinebirdswordjc6.jpg)
Ok, so while writing this ImageShack decided to go down, I only managed to get these two uploaded, will try again tomorrow (with initial ship concepts!)
Mike_NZ on 11/5/2007 at 12:09
I have also confirmed these great guys from CCP in Iceland to help with the design work, as they design space ships for a living for the MMORPG EVE-Online, who better to help out?!!.
REYNIR HARDARSON
ART DIRECTOR / FOUNDER
ASGEIR JON ASGEIRSSON
LEAD CONCEPT ARTIST
NOAH C. WARD
LEAD GAME DESIGNER
Bjossi on 11/5/2007 at 16:57
I didn't know Icelanders worked on EVE online. :o
Nice assistance you get though, I wonder how the Von Braun will turn out like.
Kolya on 11/5/2007 at 19:25
This more and more evolves to be fundamentally wrong in every aspect and raises the question if you ever really bothered with the original storyline.
In other words you're creating a perfect example of a movie adaption.
Bjossi on 11/5/2007 at 21:10
In his defense it is hard to convert a game to a movie and vice versa.
Kolya on 11/5/2007 at 22:00
Yes sure and I wouldn't mind if he made changes to mend the problems the original story had. Like that it's a mixup of well known scifi movies. Instead he plans to use Giger as a visual reference. Grand idea! I'm sure people have all forgotten about that movie where Giger's art was used last.
But instead of fixing problems in the original story he makes up problems that don't exist, which stem solely from his apparent lack of "research" if you can even call it that. I'm not talking mysteries here. Reading the manual and playing the game should suffice to understand why there are two ships and why they won't suddenly detach or sabotage each other, or where the Many come from and when they attack.
Bjossi on 11/5/2007 at 23:56
Yeah, he should play the games more and make notes about what exactly happens as the story gets revealed in the logs and the emails.
Mike_NZ on 12/5/2007 at 07:09
Kolya - I have noticed a trend with almost every post in this tread to be simply slamming me for things im apparently doing wrong with no apparent evidence other than your word. I would actually appreciate suggestions instead, as you seem to know alot more than most about the system shock world and have some very strong opinions.
The bottom line about this project is that its about designing a new and really awesome Von Braun of my own to complete my degree. Yes, that means I will change a few small things to acomplish what I have in mind, but I still heavily respect the source material my work is based from and have played through it extensivley, I am simply looking at it from a production design point of view rather than if every single aspect of the plot is perfect.
H.R Gigers work is going to be referenced as theme only at this stage, not directly with the use of blacks, tubes, pipes, exoskeletons and phallic visuals.
I simply mean to say that I beleive a good design idea which I have yet to explore, would be to treat The Many as a sexual being enveloping the Von Braun in a graceful yet disturbing manner.
Bjossi - EVE is almost entirely and Icelandic project :) although they are branching out to shanghai I believe.
Any comments or suggestions on the two pictures?
My digi cam had flat batteries so no ship concepts untill they are charged up again:tsktsk:
Kolya on 12/5/2007 at 08:32
Read (
http://www.strangebedfellows.de/index.php/topic,44.0.html) the manual (especially the chapter "THE WORLD OF SYSTEM SHOCK 2"). The (
http://www.strangebedfellows.de/index.php/topic,283.0.html) backstory by Ken Levine might give you some help on understanding the relation of the UNN and TriOp too.
Then play the game. It should become obvious that the Many can't attack in jumpspace since they and SHODAN are on a planet named Tau Ceti V. SHODAN will explain how they got there.
Of course you can change all that, but even then you should know the original story before you change it.
