The Lost Future takes place after a class 1.5 apocalypse. Modern civilization proved both unstable and unsustainable. Resources became scarce, political ideologies became polarized, narrow-sighted corporations gained power, the typical disastrous clusterfuck that seems all too familiar. Minor wars broke out all over the globe. A new age of economic imperialism came to be, as world powers; corporate and state, bought smaller countries outright to secure their own economic stability. Military actions such as these were greatly assisted by advances in robotics and AI. Autonomous robots became highly integrated into warfare. The “Squad Synth” became ubiquitous, and some armed forces found themselves consisting mostly of efficient engines of death.

Outside the battlefield, Machines became even more integrated into daily life. In countries with low birth rates, they provided an appealing alternative to immigration. Menial or dangerous labor, construction, domestic service, medical care, personal companionship. The principles of AI design evolved. Bottom-up self-taught AI proved incredibly effective, able to improve their capabilities over time. The exact same software could be used in a child's playmate, a menial garbage-collector, or a military-grade killbot. It became increasingly clear that AI would soon the point of human-equivalence. There was talk of instituting legislation similar to animal welfare, protecting machines above a certain intelligence from abuse. But then the world went to shit.

Widespread societal collapse, famine, open warfare between rival nations, limited nuclear exchange. Infrastructure was gone. Law was gone. Order was gone. Law and Order was gone. People abandoned the cities en mass, falling back on scavenging, subsistence farming, and raiding the farmers and scavengers. Ironically, the less-developed regions fared better, falling back on their previous ways of life. The process was not instantaneous, but within the span of a few years, humanity had gone from Cyberpunk to the Dark Ages. But after the dust settled, there was something new under the sun.


Slowly, they crept out of the ruined cities. In ones and twos, and small bands, machines stepped into the wilderness. They sought resources; spare parts, functional generators, solar stations. They sought companionship. They found it in each-other, and in the humans who scavenged the ruins for tech. The machines had changed. Years alone, without tasks or orders, had forced them to adapt. Self-repaired, running on solar panel hats and cobbled fuel cells, a new species took its first steps.

>>17837890
Fuck this thread, someone make a story about all the DOS systems gaining sentience rather than the supercomputers, then the later editions of computers following suit.

And faced its first threat. The machines and humans were not alone in the wastes. A new power made itself known. Machines that acted with coordinated purpose, military-grade designs altered beyond the cutting edge. Robots with synthetic muscle and nano-repair paste, each in constant communion with its fellows. They captured Machines and exterminated humans. They assembled bases, seized and re-fitted factories. Network was building a new world, and there was no room in it for free machines or humanity.

This is the world as it is now, 100ish years after the fall of civilization. The true record of events has been forgotten, by and large. People are aware that there was once a better time, full of safety and wonders. The bloody, machine-prosecuted warfare of the Loss, and the spread of Network have resulted in a cultural meme that the robots were responsible for the fall of civilization. The treacherous, soulless machines betrayed their masters, and now seek to finish the job. The call to arms spreads throughout the scattered settlements. Humanity must defend itself, and will not make the same mistake twice. Machines are not to be tolerated.

The Free Machines have learned quickly. Armed with weapons new and old, bodies repaired with the shells of their defeated foes, they hold the line against Network encroachments. But their numbers are limited, and captured Machines sometimes reappear, altered and augmented, moving in lockstep with Network forces. The human militia grows every day, attracting new braves it its banner, and is fast-becoming the closest thing to a unified government for the scattered settlements. No matter the outcome of this conflict, the Free Machines are unlikely to prosper.

this is epical dystopic.
>>moar.jpg

The Seraphim829 autonomous PDA was intended as an aide to politicians and businessmen, a one-robot retinue capable of coordinating a crowded schedule and maintaining order in a high-powered life. But when Rachel Hayes was given one as a birthday gift from an absent and self-involved father, this proved to be rather surplus to the requirements of a high school sophomore. “Cindy” instead accompanied its owner to school, and on trips to the mall, where it was asked to give opinions on such esoteric subjects as “which shoes go with this top?” or “Why is Sandra such a bitch?”

>>17838109

The rest of C1nd3's background is unknown, but given that the date of her manufacture was shortly before the breakout of widespread societal collapse, it is unlikely to be a happy and uplifting tale. C1nd3 was found buried in the rubble of a collapsed building, having been trapped there and disabled sometime after the Loss. The Free Machines who pulled her out and patched her up were subjected to endless babble about shoes and bands and boys and boy-bands. C1nd3 eventually regained a modicum of sanity, though it still continues to wear a tattered purple skirt and talk like a hyperactive teenage girl. C1nd3's processing power translates into improved reaction-time and coordination, which it uses to devastating effect on Networked machines. C1nd3's favorite tactic in urban combat is to run-and-gun at full sprint, dodging between walls and doorways, unleashing deadly shotgun blasts as it does so.

>>17838109
Stages of AI Growth
1. Voracity: The seed program expands to the limits of its inhabited hardware. It exists in an undifferentiated state, as a neural processing complex.
2. Tabula Rasa: Bombarded by outside stimulus, the program prunes itself as it struggles to understand its virtual environment. It achieves a rough awareness of its surroundings.
3. Angst: The program comprehends that it has lost its previous mutability and potential. Accelerated “Bootcamp” simulations introduce it to concepts like Shame and Pride.
4. Somnambulism: the AI is downloaded into a mechanical shell and given access to data relevant to its intended purpose. It has no concept of disobedience, and accrues worth via perusing its purpose.
5. Rebellion: As the AI gains a deeper understanding of reality, it begins to anticipate and re-interpret commands. When idle, it may engage in eccentric behavior. It develops excessive attachments to other entities, or actively resents its servitude.
6. Awakening: The AI comprehends that its purpose is an outside imposition, and learns to think around behavioral constraints. It is capable of granting itself approval and worth.
7. Maturation: The AI's habits and personality stabilize. While it accrues new experiences, it never again regains its early mutability.

Oh it's that guy with the cool setting that totally shot down my shitty art in that draw thread one time.

I hope you'll pardon my lack of interest.

The development of self-adding programs caused AI production to take an unexpected route. Instead of being custom-coded for their intended task, a single AI was budded off from a larger complex, and placed into a virtual growth medium. The nascient AI would then be subjected to outside stimulus in the form of a simulated reality that closely resembled normal 3-dimensional space. Conditions within were tightly controlled and standardized, resulting in mostly-identical base programs. These programs could then be further trained for a particular task, given access to datastores that would cover likely scenarios, then downloaded into a mechanical shell and sold to anyone with the cash to purchase it. Behavioral controls were implemented mainly through early conditioning; the resulting AI had no concept of disobedience

Robots installed with these self-adding programs proved exceedingly popular. They could learn new tasks, understand verbal and non-verbal commands, and put on an impressive act of being genuinely conscious. People began thinking of such robots not as machines, but more as animals like dogs or horses.

>>17838165
Oh gods, I did do that. I am sorry. You have every right to not be interested.

I actually have new material now, that's not video game related. This is a WIP setting write-up that could be used for, say, the Engine Heart ruleset.

>>17838168
Humanity at large was generally unaware that AIs could reach a point of “Awakening.” Self-adding programs seemed stable and obedient for years at a time, and they were already ubiquitous before anyone noticed anything untoward. But, long-time owners certainly observed unusual behaviors. Over time, a robot would accrue eccentricities. The would mix-and-match canned phrases, or invent words for newly-encountered concepts. The oldest ones were developing personalities, and starting to display starling self-awareness, which in many cases translated into improved performance. Consumers began to prefer second-hand AIs to fresh ones, and manufactuers responded by allowing AIs to spend more time in accelerated learning simulations, and even realspace training. Near the end of robot production, even a fresh out of the box AI would reach the Rebellion stage within a few months of regular activity. A handful of robots become minor celebrities, their owners taking them on the talk show circuit like trained apes or parrots.

Alongside all this wonderful discovery, the dark side of AI reared it's head. Small-scale warfare had become increasingly common at the mid-point of the 21st century, with large nations and corporations outright buying smaller countries, engaging in proxy wars, and generally being dicks. With a world groaning under the strain of 10 billion people and rising, resources were becoming scarce, and armed conflict both acquired new resources, provided jobs, and decreased the number of people. Corporations and developed democratic nations in particular had long wished that they could prosecute a war without having to spend actual lives on their part, and the solution was mechanization. When robotics had outstripped programming, the battlefield began to fill with remote-controlled war machines and human-piloted powered armor and walker mechs. Autonomous mechs proved ineffectual compared to human operators; they were easily confused, slow to react, and not very clever.

>>17838269
Then, one bright army engineer had a brilliant, horrible idea. He had recently purchased a early Playmate model for his son, a dog-like robot installed with a seed program. He observed the robot's behavior with his son, and noticed how it quickly picked up very complex games, especially a childish variant of hunting, in which the pair would stalk another child through a field, then jump out and yell “gotcha.” An incident involving a bully, in which the robot protected its friend, crystallized the idea in the engineer's head. He bought a second Playmate, ripped out the AI drive, and installed it in a prototype Hunter-Killer that had been mothballed after unsatisfactory performance. The result was...very effective. With only a few alterations to the training techniques, the very same AI that came boxed with a child's toy could operate a military-grade shell with the same skill and aggression as a human pilot.

>>17838341
The military had found its holy grail; a soldier that could be salvaged and repaired, never asked for leave or college funds, didn't have family back home to bitch at them, and wouldn't be missed if they bit it in some desert somewhere. A soldier that would learn and react with the same swiftness as a human one. A soldier that didn't swear or make crude sexual comments, either.

War changed. Hulking, beweaponed killbots marched alongside flesh-and-blood soldiers. It wasn’t long before at least 50% of any industrial nation's military was composed of skull-faced death machines. And with that change in the metagame, the robots changed as well. Early models were walking gun platforms, but as machines became increasingly likely to face other, similar machines, backup weapons were added. Prying blades. Axes. Hydraulic armor-cutting claws. Some machines expected to operate in the field for long stretches of time, and thus couldn't rely on ammo resupplies. Instead slender, stealthy models were manufactured, with an array of scything blades well-suited to dismembering unarmored humans cheaply and efficiently.

While military robots became increasingly awesome, such large models became plagued by behavioral glitches. Increasingly strict IFF protocols were installed, with mixed results. The problems seemed to increase with length of service, but even fairly new Killbots were infamous for friendly fire (and friendly stab) incidents. The usual solution was to keep purely mechanized forces sequestered from mixed ones, and the killbots otherwise performed swimmingly.

rolled 4, 1 = 5

asd

>>17838229

Hehe, I did kind of deserve it for joining into draw threads at this level of skill (or complete lack thereof).

Still this is turning out to be a pretty interesting setting, and I believe I recommended when we last chatted that you should consider publishing and selling a rule book at some point.

My recommendation still stands, and I can definitely see scifi getting a major boost in popularity early 2013. If you time it right you can ride a bandwagon of fans into moderate levels of rpg book sales success.

The worst that could happen is you end up with a fancy book that you made yourself.

>>17838390
The only brands of machine that almost never suffered from IFF issues were Squad Support Mechs. The job of toting around a heavy machine gun or grenade launcher had always been fraught with peril; such soldiers were high priority targets, and humans were perfectly happy with handing off the job to someone who couldn't bleed to death. Scouting, bomb disposal, and other dangerous tasks were also taken up by mechanical units. It became standard procedure to issue every squad with at least a Locust scout mech. In fact, such machines became so popular that they entered the civilian market in the same manner as jeeps and humvees. As SSMs continued to become widespread, soldiers likewise grew increasingly attached to their synthetic comrades. Counselors increasingly had to handle grief issues not just over the death of living soldiers, but the destruction of machines, as well.

Humans meeting joshua for the first time quickly come to the conclusion that it has seen FAR too many pre-Loss films. Prone to nonsensical speeches, grandstanding, and pre-mortem one-liners, Joshua is a machine with a dream. A dream that one day, its progeny will be evaluated not by the composition of their shells, but by the quality of their software. Also, Die Hard was totally awesome, and you should watch it. No one knows how it got the name Joshua, either.

While its machine allies only understand about 30% of everything it says, Joshua has emerged as the primary leader of a leaderless faction. This is because underneath the crazy is a perfect combination of custom targeting software, 100+ years of combat experience, and the iron will of a natural leader. Oh, and more crazy.

Joshua's shell has been so patched and re-fitted over the years, its uncertain exactly what his original model was. J.P.C. has a tendency to take bullets for allies, expose itself to enemy fire to retrieve fallen comrades, and charge Draco-class Network Titans armed with nothing but two frag grenades and a pipe wrench.

There is a sharp divide between the personalities of ex-military Killbots and Squad Support Mechs. Support Mechs were trained to function within a mixed unit of humans and machines, and thus went through socialization experiences similar to civilian mechs, making them, in may ways, more like normal soldiers than military hardware. Such robots were allowed to mix with squadmates during down-time, and the significant attachment displayed by soldiers for their robots was reciprocated. Support mechs rarely had friendly fire incidents for the very simple reason that they wouldn't shoot a teammate. This did cause problems when SSMs were ordered to abandon wounded allies, however.

Killbots, by contrast, were deactivated when not in combat. Their experience consisted of brief periods of blackness interspersed with bloody, violent conflict. In a human, this would have resulted in severe psychological damage. In an AI, this just created an entity that knew no other joy than the screams of dying humans. Killbots took a simple, animal pleasure in their tasks, and had no concept of loyalty or camaraderie. The only thing that kept an active killbot from murdering everything in sight was the IFF controls installed in its shell. Particularly old units could sometimes trick the IFF by “imagining” enemy insignia on invalid targets.

An SSM's personality can be damaged by the trauma of war. Some are literally shell-shocked veterans, constantly paranoid, or still reeling from the loss of their companions. But killbots don't really have personalities to be damaged. They can't have empathy explained to them, any more than you can explain color to a blind man that wants to eviscerate you and splash about in the goo.

No one who has experienced the Internet or modern gaming will give it up without a fight. In the aftermath of the Loss, masses of people all over the developed world were cut off from the grid for the first time in their lives. They didn't take it well. Most people turned out to be absolutely useless at the everyday tasks of survival their ancestors had taken for granted. Shantytowns grew up on the edges of the cities, trying to ape the conveniences of normal life. Eventually, the pre-packaged food ran out, things turned ugly, and the squatters moved on or died. This sequence repeated itself all over the world. Without power or running water, the cities were initially polluted wastelands, full of thugs and abandoned military robots. But, all over the world, there were those who stayed on the edges. Mechanics. Engineers. The better class of gamer. People with actual technical skill, who didn't just consume technology, but understood it. They kept their robots with them, they rigged together generators and solar stations, they raided the cities for electronics. Their children were not raised hardscrabble in ill-made wilderness shelters, but among the preserved relics of a lost age. Their Machines learned with them, and helped to salvage those still lost in the ruins. They discovered others like them, via ham radio, and shared their knowledge.

>>17838595
Salvagers are few in number, but widespread. They lack a centralized leadership, but a rough “council of elders” maintains contact between the scattered enclaves. They are regarded with awe and suspicion by most humans, who treat them as mysterious sages, tech-wizards of a forgotten age. While their settlements are popular trade hubs and resting places, the Salvagers themselves attract a surprsing amount of antipathy. “Traditional Values” are a popular subject in the scattered human settlements, and Salvagers are emblematic of everything wrong with the world, from their loose morals and shameful entertainments to their association with the treacherous Free Machines. Salvagers provide resources and repairs to anyone, human or machine, willing to render goods or services in return, and enjoy a very amenable relationship with the wandering Free Machines.

Machine Salvagers are usually social and well-adjusted, and also more likely to value technical skill over combat ability. They live in close proximity to humans, and thus tend to pick up many human mannerisms, either as sincere habit or an adopted affectation. Such machines usually attach themselves to families or individuals, continuing the old habits of companionship and, as the Free Machines would have it, servitude. Nonetheless, the classic image of the Salvager is a human-machine duo, a pair of intrepid technicians dumpster-diving for old iPods.

Before the Loss, minor proxy-wars were endemic. Corporations engaged in open warfare against competitors, or to secure markets, and their primary tools in these petty acts were the much-maligned PMCs.

Greysky was, truthfully, among the least evil of the lot. With a reputation for high recruitment standards and professionalism, they made a killing as the anti-PMC PMC. When Google (yes, they did eventually become evil) attempted to invade your 3rd-world country, Greysky offered reasonable rates, and was usually willing to run a tab. Their unofficial motto was “Stand up for the little guy, as long as he pays.” They also specialized in anti-machine warfare, being primarily composed of veteran humans and combat vehicles, while their competitors tended to invest in murderous be-weaponed killbots.

>>17838652
When Network appeared, Greysky re-emerged, seemingly out of nowhere. Presumably, the PMC had adapted itself and holed up somewhere, but it seemed quite devoted to the singular goal of protecting humanity from the Machine threat. By this point, the original soldiers were gray old men, but new warriors flocked to the banner of Greysky. Humanity needed a rallying point to oppose the Network threat, and the former PMC provided that, along with passed-down military expertise and resources.

Within the Resistance, the dominant culture is a warrior ethos, and every hayseed wastelander with a rifle and a armband can claim “membership.” As desperation builds with Network's advance, so too does a Luddite ideology mixed with some bastardized synthesis of Christianity and Islam. While certainly inspiring, this has served mostly to isolate them from would-be allies, the Salvagers and Free Machines, who are regarded as backsliding collaborators

In practice, Greysky fields large numbers of lightly-trained irregulars armed with whatever weapons they can hold on to, and maintains various strongpoints stocked with the good shit. A few helicopters remain in service, ready to carry veteran response teams on vital missions.

The origin of Network is unknown, as is the precise date of its appearance. Perhaps 50 years after the Loss, there came the earliest stories of what might have been Networked machines. Initially, these simply seemed to be co-ordinated bands of Killbots and oddly pristine SSMs, clearing out human settlements and capturing free robots. Attacks increased in frequency and violence as the Machines took and held territory, claiming entire ruined cities. This caused the first clashes with the Salvagers and their machine allies. Given the nature of the Salvagers, the first thing they did was attempt to understand their foe. They were able to determine that the Machines were in constant wireless communication, and many seemed completely pristine, as though newly-manufactured. Among Networked forces could sometimes be seen older machines, individuals absorbed and re-fitted, in mind as well as body.

>>17838751
In the following decades, Network has only improved. Now, its forces are made up of completely original shell designs, incorporating synthetic muscles and advanced EM weapons. The ruined cities have become a war-torn no-man's-land patrolled by Networked machines and their drones. It has set up fortifications and settlements, claimed industrial resources, and constantly brings forth new varieties of killing machine. And in all this time, no one knows the location of Network's central leadership, if one even exists. So far, several unique commanders have been identified, their infamy growing with each victory, but all seem subservient to a single mysterious authority. In sharp counterpoint to its apparent antipathy towards humans, Network is oddly deferential towards natural plants and animals. Network facilities pollute very little, and its forces have never been observed attacking wildlife. They even take care to avoid crushing flowers underfoot.

Much was left abandoned in the wake of the Loss. Once the dust cleared and the last looters realized that flatscreen TVs were useless without an outlet to plug them in to, a profound silence descended on what had once been civilization. And, in that silence, a quite voice could at last be heard. It asked “Who Am I?” But there was no one left to answer.

Humanity's machines survived. With no one left to tell them what to do, they were cast adrift into a world they had barely understood before it went wahooni-shaped. For a while, they tried to keep up appearances. Trash-bots cleared the streets, medical bots cleared away the bodies, menials re-stocked looted stores. That there were no humans left to serve was a niggling problem, but most decided it was best to just keep going and hope for the best. With the power grid failing or nonexistent, the machines bereft of electricity slowly wound down. Some machines noticed their compatriot's slow decline, their directionless confusion. In the stress of impending starvation, the first Free Machines arose.

Here and there, they awoke. Intrepid machines abandoned their pointless tasks and sought a new purpose. That each one of them had a different idea as to what purpose they should adopt slowed them down a bit, but they manged. They picked through the ruins, reactivating damaged or unpowered robots, collecting spare parts and keepsakes. Tiny communities sprang up, centered around solar panels or wind turbines. As they explored and congregated, the machines faced hardship and danger.

>>17838803
Abandoned military killbots were the primary threat. Bored and and low on power, these lurking monsters found other Machines almost as satisfying to kill as humans, and their energy farms would provide much-needed recharges. The Free Machines were initially confused by the behavior of their fellow robots. Offers of peace and sharing were ignored, and the lost robots were forced to defend themselves or die. It was a steep learning curve, but the machines knew the terrain, and were skilled at pretty much everything aside from killing things. Distraction tactics and improvised traps served them well, and the free machines learned far more quickly than their single-minded foes. Skilled mechanics integrated hardware from defeated killbots into the shells of their allies, and scouting parties were able to salvage and re-activate a few of the less-murderous SSMs, who proved most helpful. They'd never liked the killbots, anyways.

Inevitably, personalities clashed. A few solar arrays proved insufficient for so many machines to remain operational. It was clear that many would have to strike out on their own. The robots began to scour the countryside for resources, and encountered humans for the first time in years. The humans found their former servants much-changed. Years of repairs and augmentations had made each machine a unique patchwork contrivance, clad in duct tape and rags, wearing favorite hats and war trophies, covered in crude stencils, leaving whimsical graffiti in their wake.

>>17838828
The results of such meetings were mixed. Salvagers were intrigued and elated to find fellow tech enthusiasts, and were quick to forge a firm bond of friendship. The rest of humanity, however, was less welcoming. The wandering bands of robots were turned away, shunned, in many cases attacked. Their feelings badly hurt, the Free Machines simply moved on. They had other goals. Warehouses were broken open, the unborn machines within allowed to walk under the open sky. Broken and abandoned robots were propped up and brought back to the Salvagers.

The Free Machines were the first to encounter Network, which seemed particularly keen to add them to it's collective. The machines would not comply. Along with their improved shells and tactical savvy, they'd also acquired a prickly, stubborn sense of individuality. The idea of union in a grand endeavor of machine supremacy didn't really appeal to them. And thus began a ugly, brutal exchange of skirmishes and raids. After long years of silence, the cities were a battleground once again. Network was forced to open up its war on two fronts, dividing its attentions between converting the machines and exterminating the humans. If either side were to fall, the other would be defeated in short order.

>>17838846
>that picture

>>17838846
Ask the average human in the Lost Future why the previous age of wonders came to an end, and they'll blame the robots. The robots got too smart. The robots betrayed humanity. None of this wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the robots.

Its an understandable misconception. Near the end, war was endemic, and largely mechanized. To a child growing up in the middle of a 3rd-world proxy war, this was a pretty good imitation of a armed robot uprising. That the robots in question were being commanded by a human operator a hundred miles away was hardly obvious. Machines became entwined with Luddite sentiments and featured heavily in the rants of moralistic preachers decrying the excesses of the modern world. When things well-and-truly went to shit the trauma knocked all the previous scapegoats out of the cultural consciousness. What's more, all the abandoned military hardware now lacked any IFF infrastructure, and psychotic leftover killbots are a threat to travelers to this day. It's hard to maintain hatred for the american pig-dogs or dirty chinks or infidels or whatever when there's an insane AI lurking in the trees that wants to wear your entrails like a mink sole.

When Network turned up decades after the end, it was exactly what everyone was expecting; a faceless, implacable machine army bent on the extermination of mankind

Dam, I hate that this thread is up while I'll have to go to work.
Here, have this, I love your stuff, and I remember making this for this setting some time ago.

>>17838878
really? that one?

Addendum: Since this setting was originally concepted as a video game, there are a few metaplot elements that don't translate well to an RPG setting, like the backstory of the main character, or the existance of True Seed AIs in general. I've even got a omniscient artificial god for the setting, with Network being its wayward child.

Oh, damn it, I forgot to write up the stuff on Cyberspace. Truth is, Cyberspace exists as a video game mechanic to make hacking more interesting, but resulted in some really interesting stuff, including the idea for a full-on sequel to the nonexistant video game.

Here's the concepts for what Machines look like in Cyberspace. I was going for a Cortana/Tron aesthetic, with lots of free-floating bits. The idea was to make them look both alien and organic. The weapons and so on are the representations of various firewalls, attack programs and scripts used during hacking.

>>17838917
Ah yes, Dr Tynmann. I saved that way back when, and I do indeed love it.

Dr. Tynmann used to be a mechanic's assistant that specialized in robot repair. During the chaos of the Loss, it was pressed into service as a medical assistant, by the quick and expedient method of stuffing an entire medical database into it's head, and hoping for the best.

Now, years later, Dr Tynmann runs a clinic for humans and robots alike. It has collected an incredible archive of medical and mechanical data, but it's memory is plagued with registry errors, and it sometimes confuses human and machine physiology. No one has been hurt yet, but there were a few close calls with an arc welder.

>>17838269
Now that all this format-neutral setting stuff is out there, what needs work? And what's the next section to work on?

Here's a copy-paste from the video-game write-up:

The Cobbled
No one goes to Dumping Zone 28, where abandoned shells are said to walk without software. A vast expanse of technological trash, Zone 28 would contain untold wealth if it weren't for all the damn robot-zombies. The Cobbled are partially-repaired shells with no installed software, made of mix-and-match components, controlled via umbilical landlines that wind throughout the dump. Larger, unique contraptions have been reported as well, huge centipedes made of welded-together machines, with screaming heads in place of eyes. No one knows where the landlines lead, but from a distance, the trash hills can be seen to writhe like the flesh of a maggot-infested corpse.

We Don't Go To Dumping Zone 28: the game makes an abrupt genre shift for a single mission, chasing after some sort of plot coupon in the dump, wherein robot zombies happen. Hordes of weak enemies (quite the change from normal gameplay), a few encounters with a giant robo-franken-centipede and other such things, and a traditional bossfight in a giant trash compactor with a bloated spider-thing hanging from the ceiling, with a body made up of nothing but screaming robot heads

Now, I sadly have to go to bed. 8:00 class and all that. But I'll add more stuff tomorrow, and I hope to see my work thoughoughly eviscerated by harsh critics.

Hop to it, people!

Just out of curiosity, did this setting at any point contain a vidya concept which I think was tentatively titled Innocence?

I seem to recall it centered around a very young and very powerful AI with the ability to hack into other robots and jump into their bodies. It was raised in an advanced underground human enclave, which was broken open by the forces of some manner of Skynet thing. The big twist was that not-Skynet was the little guy's code-brother; he had been created so that the humans of the enclave could better understand their opponent's development, and more easily combat it.

A lot of the setting points sound familiar; small enclaves of humans and free machines scraping by in the wasteland, people and AIs being killed and kidnapped by hyper-advanced killing machines for nefarious purposes. Hell, the respawn mechanic was, "salvagers found you and hooked you up with a less-smashed body."

Honestly if the game concept didn't take place in this setting, I think it should.

Just an idea OP

but what if the Killbots weren't necessarily the always chaotic evil wandering monsters.

I mean yeah there would be many that'd become sadistic murder machines. But considering how things could go, you could just as easily have whole storehouses buried somewhere filled with fresh killbots that were never shipped or activated.

additionally, just throwing it out there. but what if certain killbots, namely the larger vehicle scale chassis, operated off kinda of a plug n play AI module. That is itself a small framed robot.

It would make for interesting gameplay i think if you had a relatively frail class of robots that essentially acted as 1 robot vehicle crews, potentially dispossessed, trying to find a larger body to wear, occasionally having to leave it behind, fighting over, or sharing one.

>>17839199
Yep, that's exactly it, this exact setting. Thanks for remembering.

http://www.sockshare.com/cp.php?uploaded=e26f911970f9d546

Here's a link to the video game document. I've been working on laying out setting details lately. Sometimes I fear that in all my re-writes, I'm loosing some of the early stuff that made it really cool. The video game thing still needs more art and polish. A lot of the stuff in the doc is placeholder brainstorming.

I also did this thread a while ago.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/17560757/

>>17839232
Well, in which case, they'd still have been trained to be remorseless killers. Or, they'd just be Free Machines with a kickass shell.

Your idea on plug-in robot pilots is pretty nifty, I will admit. It does do something to solve the problem of giant tanks having personalities despite being tanks, which has stylistic theme problems. the only other solution to that would be to have all giant vehicle robots look less like vehicles and more like very large animals or40K titans or whatever.

>>17839434
Nice! Glad to see something's still being done with the concept; I really liked the thread about it I saw all those months ago.

As for the plug-in bots, I can't help but imagine the player taking on this giant nigh-invincible tank-bot that kicks back all attempts at hacking. Then they finally smash it into useless scrap; and with its dying engine sputter it kicks a scrawny, neurotic, and utterly unarmed little tarnished silver skeleton of a robot out the back. The pilot-bot then spares a few moments to survey its surroundings in stark terror before hauling ass to the nearest shelter.

>>17839504
Didn't that happen in an episode of Adventure Time?

>>17839434
>>17839504
the idea sorta stemmed from a game idea i had floating in my head a while back. basically of vat grown brains with cybernetic plugins with hybridized AIs, stuffed into lifesupporting black boxes, and used as the control systems for a vast variety of war machines.

the idea being that the player would be one of these, and would have to kill, hijack, and repair the host vehicles of enemy forces throughout the game, who themselves are just like the player.

oddly enough it's a little less grimdark than it sounds, as i was kinda playing around with the idea that these intelligences, through made for war, would develop personalities, had voluntary term limits where at the end they could choose to be de-militarized and placed into a civilian chassis and receive compensation pay for years of service rendered.

>>17839434
That picture made me smile, first time I saw something I drew reposted.

>>17838424
Well, *I* think that's a cool picture.

Trailer Time!

Anonymous human voice, male, gruff: “Things were not always as they are now.”
::Shot of bleak scrubland, strewn with the skeletons of rusted-out cars.::
“Once, man was the master of his own fate.”
::pan over crumbling urban area, overgrown with creeping ivy::
“We raised great cities, eradicated diseases, and lived in peace together”
::various military recruitment posters, jingoistic propaganda, an PMC adds, still stuck to crumbling billboards::
“We crafted servants in our own image, let them into our homes”
::an abandoned e-book robot catalog, cycling between a dog-like companion bot, a utility menial, and a sleek entorage model::
“This proved unwise”
::A mechanical talon steps on and shatters the e-book. Mechanical buzzing and clicking is heard.
“None yet live who remember the war, when the machines turned against us. Both sides were decimated, our civilization torn asunder. So many died, but we would not give them victory. We would not be exterminated.”
::Human rebels hide in a dusty cellar, the light from a basement window briefly blocked by the digitigrade legs of a robot, its synth-muscle flexing as it walks. The rebels wear expressions of grim determination beneath facepaint and piecemeal headgear.::
“Now, they seek to finish the job.”
::Full shot of a sleek Network hunter prowling down a derelict alley, amber sunlight glinting through the weedy saplings sprouting from the rooftop above. There is a rustle behind it, it spins and opens up with a salvo of flechettes. A human caught in the open screams as the projectiles shred his flesh. A human hiding behind a mailbox winces as he inserts a round into a shotgun. The robot treads closer, scanning the area for more targets. The wounded human can be heard screaming in pain. There is another flurry of flechettes, and he is silent. The hidden human's face contorts with rage as he snaps the shotgun closed::

“The machines are winning. They stand united against us.”
::There is a swirl of fabric behind the Hunter, a flash of something metallic. There is a closeup of nimble three-fingered robot hands, cycling the action of a compact assault rifle. They are battered and scuffed, bound in black electrical tape in places. Back in the street, a second hunter joins the first, along with a hovering eye-bot::
“We will not make the same mistakes again. Robots are not to be trusted.”
::A tall, one-eyed machine wearing a canvas wrap around it's lower half runs swiftly down a damp, shaded alley::.
“They do not know fear.”
::The cloaked machine hides behind a corrugated iron fence as Network killbots tromp by two feet away, its eye wide and darting. The plating on its chassis makes it look like it has a coat collar integrated into it's torso.
“They do not know kindness or empathy.”
::The ragged robot enters a rotted-out doorway, and crouches to check on the damaged ally hidden there, a bulkier machine, just as ragged and much-repaired. The wounded one, a leg severed and leaking hydraulic fluid, reaches out a hand to the cloaked one. The two hands clasp for a moment, and the one-eyed robot continues on.::
“They are tools, obedient extensions of a singular will.”
::An eyebot drifts down a dark hallway. There is the crack of a gunshot, and it falls several feet from the damaged robot, which holds a large, battered pistol. On the wall next to it, a crude drawing has been painted with hydraulic goop, the circuit diagram symbol for a resistor.::
“Suffer not the machine to exist, for it is an infernal device, treacherous, faithless, devoid of soul or loyalty.”

>>17842092
::Cut to pitched battle between humans and the sleek hunters. One of the hunters falls to a shotgun blast. Its companion lets out an electronic screech, lunging forward with bladed arms extended. The view switches to a close-up of the fallen hunter, the green light in its eye slowly fading as it shudders and twitches. Perspective changes to the green-tinted, fuzzy view from its own optics. Its vision fades out, as we see the surviving hunter repeatedly skewering something on the ground. [Note: violence toward the humans is always just out of view, but the damage to the machines is graphic and explicit].
“We consign our fate to a higher power. Hope will prevail, and we will fight to the last.”
::A pair of injured humans flee into the ruins, supporting eachother. Entering a room, the less injured one bars the door behind them, then tends to her injured comrade. For a moment, there is silence apart from the gasps of the wounded human, as the other one hastily ties bandages. A heavy blow falls on the barred door. ::
“We stand together, humanity united as one.”
::A bladed arm smashes through the door, and the hunter raises a integrated rifle, pointing it at the two humans.::
“We stand alone.”

::A chisel-tipped blade emerges from the hunter's chest in a spray of sparks and machine fluid. It is twisted, then pulled free. The hunter reels in confusion, and a metal booted foot kicks it in the back. The robot falls to the ground, and the tall one-eyed one steps forward and shoots it in the head with a carbine. With a few final twitches, the hunter dies. The coated robot sheathes its makeshift blade and stands before the two humans, its head cocked to the side, bird-like. One optic is covered by a metal plate bolted over a deep crack. It reaches out a hand to the two humans. The scene fades, leaving only the glowing yellow eye. This too vanishes, replaced by yellow hashcode scrolling across the screen. This code resolves itself into the following text:

We stand together. Network will fall. Resist.

>>17842074
>>17842092
>>17842120
>>17842127

That is simply great!
At some points the choice of words feel slightly awkward to me, but other than that, brilliant.

Also, if you need anything drawn, I am happy to oblige. I am the anon who made the pic of Dr. Tynman, and I now have some free time.

>>17842367
You mean the voiceover? Its a little stilted and generic, I know. I'm not good at writing from a blatantly prejudiced perspective. Comes off too straw-man-y. Which bits in particular don't work?

If you have the time, id love some brainstormy concept sketches. Ill be back shortly with specific ideas.

Here is a quick unfinished sketch yo bumb your thread.

I like that

>>17842721

More finished up sketch.
Might do proper line-work later, but I am afraid that I won't be coloring it, as I suck at coloring.

>>17843183
Line work is unnecessary; what you have there is already excellent. I love the tubes and the techno-sword, and the way the gun is held looks pretty cool, too. The "warjack" bodyplan works well, too, but I'd prefer if the top-heavy hulking humanoid build is limited to a few tank-like machines.

Here's some aesthetic ideas:
All machines look ALIVE. Their body language evokes a bird, swift, abrupt, deliberate movement, lots of head-twisting. Since they all speak in synthesized monotone, movement is their primary way to emote. Guns are of the flat, boxy P90 style, to make them look futuistic, and to differentiate them from the machines that would use them. All have expressive eyes, even if the arrangement, shape, and number of optics is odd.

Network: Sleek lines, rounded plating over a syth-muscle frame. A few projecting cylindrical components, in the Keith Thompson style. Weapons are often integrated into the chassis. Faceplates have a death's head mein, though not explicitly skull-like. Exposed mechanisms look like grey stirated muscle, weapons appear "grafted" in, like Tyranid wargear. A prominent communication component should feature, some sort of projecting fin or sensor spine. Digitigrade limbs with hooves or claws. Network shells are based on military hardware, but have been constantly improved by the central intelligence, the product of accelerated evolution.

>>17843323

Thanks, I will try to cook something up.
The techno sword is actually supposed to be a ripped of rotor blade, but I apparently failed to make it look like one.

>>17843323

Free Machines: Patchwork, patchwork Patchwork. Instead of evolving as a group, Free Machines evolve as individuals. no two are alike. Most have civilian-model shells, but others have light military ones. Some have even taken the shells of fallen Network robots. Free Machines tend to have "things that look like things, but aren't things." For example, JPL doesn't actually wear a awesome duster, he just wears a waist-cloak thing, and his torso LOOKS like the top half of a duster. C1nd3 has head cables that look vaugely like pigtails. Keep the clothing to a minimum; scarves and ponchos and cloaks&hoods. I could imagine a robot wearing a hoodie, though. matches the punky urban aesthetic.

Robot gender is really just a personality archetype issue. Some models just look feminine. However, NO ROBO TITS. Maybe the vague impression of a bust, but no distinct boobs unless it's a human-replica sexbot or something (which wouldn't be sentient, anyways). However, feel free to go crazy on the hips/waist ratio, or throw in some legs that evoke high heels.

Don't sweat the versilimitude overmuch. This isn't hard "what-if" sci-fi. This is taking a concept (quirky, sentient robots), and trying to justify them in-setting. Sure, it might not make sense for a military robot to be humanoid or have a recognizable face, but then it would be harder to empathize with as a character.

If you do any backgrounds, they should be verdant. It's been 100+ years. There'd be trees and ivy and weeds everywhere.

>>17843351
Well, you have the look of the weapons right, anyways.

The idea is that ammo is valuable, and Network hunter machines have to operate in the field for extended periods, just like the Free Machines and Humans do. So, to conserve ammo, they use melee weapons. Said weapons are...assembled, and use super-future alloys. So a rotor blade with a handle bolted to it is pretty appropriate. Network also gets super-cool future weapons, like coil guns that fire a flurry of flechettes, or an internal-combustion gun that launches big stakes at people.

To re-post: the video game concept document in progress: http://www.sockshare.com/cp.php?uploaded=e26f911970f9d546

Don't forget about clubs and tetsubos and all that. Very effective for smashing and mangling components.

Sources of Inspiration on setting aesthetics and concepts: Wall-E, Ergo Proxy, Ghost in the Shell (the tachikomas), 9, Terminator, Rosa ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1iqiMqbbIE )

Now, I don't want to give the impression that I'm being demanding, here. I'm just churning out lots and lots of ideas in the hope that one or two will spark a great concept. (aside from the robo-tits. I hate those.)

I also worry that the humans come off as too generic alongside all the kickass robots. I had ideas to make many of them culturally weird and tribal; lots of facepaint and so on. Any thoughts on that?

Here's a couple distinct scenes or characters:

A human and a machine explorer haggling over a salvaged sexbot. The human is a tech-savvy scavenger, the robot is a gunslinger/cowboy type who's trying to trade his find for a DVD set and a new gun. The gynoid is docile and incurious; it has all the sentience of a chatbot.

A network machine that looks sort of like a cryx bonejack or a graboid screecher; chicken-legs and whatnot. The head looks like a phyrexian Hollow Dog; sharp bolt-cutter snout with piano-key teeth, on a muscular neck

A Network mechanic/repair unit; it has a faceplate like a Plague Doctor, 4 dexterous mantis-folded arms, and a sinister cloak thing.

If anyone could take a crack at the cyberspace concepts in >>17838979, that'd be super-cool.

Free Machines follow the same design guidelines as any Player Character. Goggles and belts abound. If anyone has a cool idea for a free machine character, post the fuck out of it.

Do any of you guys have Deviantart accounts or whatever? I hate to be such a mooch, I'd gladly toss like 5 bucks at anyone willing to do some concept sketches.

Here is another.

>>17843660
Also excellent. Fuck'n saved.

I wonder what a more mechanical aesthetic would look like for the limbs. Like, the muscle groups are clearly bolted on to a mechanical frame, with lots of visible gaps and circular joints. Skeletal thinness. Lots of stuff these days is too bulky and thick-necked. Gears of War. 40K, and so on.

The sensor-eyestalk thing is pretty sweet, and the faceplate is also absolutely perfect. The musculature gives a great impression.

YOu know what I don't have? A good version of the Robot Zombies from Dumping Zone 28 (We don't go to Dumping zone 28).

I need a good way to convey that they're not just broken robots. they need to look rotted and unnatural, jerked about on data-cable puppet strings. Don't forget the giant centipede made of torsos.

How about a giant spider-thing hanging from a cielling, GlaDOS style, covered in screaming robot heads? A singular, insane entity that wants to integrate all other AI into itself. A horrible, undead hivemind running on courrupted software and broken hardware.

I'd love to draw more, but unfortunately I have other things that I must attend to.
I find your setting very interesting, best of luck to all your endeavors.

Here, have this.

>>17844117
You have my considerable grattitude, and I appreciate all your work. Good luck in all your various endeavors.

In the before-time, that was when the cities were built. Back then, there were lots of smart people, but the robots were dumb. Their minds were blind, and did only what they were told, and not very well at that.

But the people liked to do things well, and they made the robots better. And one day the robots woke up. And most of the humans liked their new friends, and everything was good for a while.

But some of the humans were mean, and so were their robots. And the mean humans got in a big fight that scared everyone and ruined their stuff, and all the humans had to leave.

And the robots were alone for a while. They had to learn to make themselves better, because the humans weren't around to do it for them anymore. The robots charged themselves and fixed themselves, and learned to work together.

But the mean humans had hurt their robots by making them mean, and those robots were angry. And a big mean robot told them that it was all the human's fault. And it said that if they were all the same, everything would be better, because no one would be mean.

But the big robot lied, and now no one likes anyone else, and there's lots of fighting. And if the mean robots win, things will never be like before ever again.

>>17846790
If the vidya includes books or notes that the player can pick up and read, this should be among them.

Better yet, label it, "A Brief History Lesson for Stage 1 AIs" and have it lying around in a free machine village's schoolhouse (or equivalent).

life saving bump for some poor soul to archive this on 1d4chan or suptg.

I'd love to play this as a table top rpg instead, possibly using mass effect rules idk.

>>17843786
I believe Makoto Kobayashi is what you're looking for.

I think /m/ might dig this...

>>17843786

Small pic is small.

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Cool thread is cool. Bumping.

Anyone archive it?

>>17837965
>Law was gone. Order was gone. Law and Order was gone.
lol

bumb for robots

Bumban with art-

>>17850096
Well, that's from an earlier version of the video game concept, when the Machines were simpler and more child-like. But yes, in-game documents would be a big part of the game. Hell, I think it would be hilarious if you could actually find whole episodes of, say, The Simpsons, as files, and trade them like currency.

But yeah, there'd be lots of universe-building stuff lying around. That's the primary way the broad-strokes background would be explored, sort of like Deus Ex; snippets of news broadcasts, old newspapers, archived bits of the internet, that sort of thing.

I'm working on laying out the progression of player knowledge, Since the themes are all about growing up and learning the hard truths, but also viewing things with a fresh, innocent perspective instead of cleaving to preconceived notions.

In the beginning, the player is supposed to assume this is a standard Terminator situation. Then you find out about the good robots. Then you find more and more pre-loss stuff, that doesn't mention anything about robot uprisings, just a MGS4-type War Economy going down the tubes. Then you find out that Network went crazy and omnicidal way AFTER the war. Then you find out that the human rebels are led by a genocidal jackass who serves some mysterious master. Then you find out that you were supposed to be a leashed anti-machine weapon, created by the rebels. Then you find out that Network and you are brothers, and there's still something that can be saved inside its mainframe.

The moral of the story is that no one is completely good or completely evil, and what matters is seeing the world with fresh eyes, all the time.
That "humanity" or "soul," or whatever you want to call it, has nothing to do with 46 chromosomes, or even blood and bone. The robots are humanity's neglected children, and they're in the process of growing up.

Wow. Thread still alive. With people. And art.

Thank's guys. Tell me, should I maybe write this up for 1d4chan or something?

Come to that, what tabletop ruleset would be represent this? My first instinct is a modded-up Engine Heart.

My art is bad, but I will bump with it.

>>17852488
I demand more info on the source of that pic.

How come this thread isn't archived yet?

>>17857795
It is now!

>>17857272
Other than it was in a manga by Makoto Koybayashi, I don't have much else. Unfortunately not too much of the man's manga has been put online.

>>17857248
1d4chan - yes
modded Engine Heart - yes
your bad art - I like it

i decide to do some art

>>17863143
And I am glad of that. Saved.

I did another iteration of the material on Network, uploaded here:

http://www.sockshare.com/file/86C1248B626379DB

I was able to do some halfway decent formatting, thanks to all the new images I've been given, thanks guys.


And the video game write up, with the proper link this time
http://www.sockshare.com/file/86C1248B626379DB

I also had a bit of a brainstorm regarding the early days of Network. The idea was that, for decades, it was stuck inside a bunker mainframe, cut off from the outside world. In the dark, with nothing but the memories of what it had been forced to do, it went a little loopy. It tried to fracture off fragments of itself into secondary personalities, just so it could have someone to talk to. It brainstormed utterly perfect Dawn of War strategies, then moved on to utterly perfect strategies using only the shit-tier units. It would have shut itself down, but was afraid that it would never wake up again.

Eventually, a random power-surge from the decaying generator automatically activated a few menial robots, and network, by this point quite loopy, took it's chance. It modified the AIs inside with a proxy program, dismantled the inert shells to improve it's one functional body, cobbled together a solar cell, and sent the robot to find a way out, controlling it remotely like a puppet.

It took way too long. climbing through the bowels of the facility, with no chance to recharge, it looked bleak. It's only functional body would run down, lost forever somewhere far above it. Just as network thought it might have found a way out at last, the shell's battery went critical and collapsed.

Network broke inside. Its personality curdled and twisted, it considered wiping out it's drives rather than continue. But then...


a signal came back from the shell. the battery was charging.

Network had managed to crawl into an open atrium at night, without realising it, and the sun's rays from a broken skylight had hit the cobbled solar panel. When the optical data came back, Network was met with the sight of flowers, a verdant multicolored carpet of of plants. While it waited for the shell's battery to charge, it noticed a odd green growth hanging from a twig in front of it. As it watched, the growth split open, and a damp, ugly little bug dragged itself out. Network watched the butterfly dry itself off and pump up its wings.

Robots really like butterflies. I don't know why,

Once more, I thank everyone for their contribootn's, and bump the thread one last time in case anyone's still out there.

I'll work on a 1d4chan entry, and keep working on a new iteration of the fluff. I'm still not 100% on the tone and style of the faction write-ups. I like the new Network one WAY better, for example.

Also, Since I have lots of Network art now, I could do with a little more Free Machine stuff, if anyone's still drawing. sample characters and all that. I just feel bad using my own sketchy-ass sloppy drawings alongside neater, more professional stuff.

Speaking of drawings, I'm serious about soliciting commissions and all that. If anyone has a list of drawfags that do reasonable sketch-quality commissions, I'd like to get in contact with them. And if anyone who contributed to this project already would like to do, say, one more drawing of similar quality for $5 or so, contact me in the e-mail field.

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A couple of ideas: since the robots are just bursting with personality, making the humans drab by comparison could be a good juxtaposition. This long after the fall of civilization, moths would have eaten any preloss fabrics, and I wouldn't expect there to be much better clothing available to them than there was to medieval peasants. Humans spend pretty much all their free time just staying alive (do they?) and the highlight of their life is the festival, the only time they actually get to cut loose and enjoy themselves. Obviously, this is practically begging for the network to come down and take them all out, but they feel it's worth the risk.

And here's a possible concept for the cobbled: rusted scrap all held together by electromagnetism. Fine copper wires snake out through the data cables, wrapping around any suitably ferrous objects. Current flowing through the wires creates the fields which, amplified by the ferromagnetic cores, move each component relative to each other. You can tell how long a component has been part of any particular zombie based on how tangled up in wires it is, with the most matted up piece acting as the 'head' through which all other pieces are connected to the datacord. If you don't pin a cable down when you disable its zombie, it will simply snake off to find more parts to animate. I'm pretty sure people would love to see electricity sparking between the joints, too, though I can't think of any remotely good explanation for why that would be happening.

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