2023 November — Lore Update

[GoR]

Hello everyone! This will be the first of, hopefully, monthly-ish updates on the state of the Lore of Paradise Station.

For those who don’t know, around June 2023 the Paradise server staff decided to improve the server’s lore, as it was clear through community surveys that the quality of the current lore was not up to standards. The staff recognizes that inconsistent lore makes good roleplay difficult. And that’s where the Lore Team comes in!

We have been working since in several areas of the lore, starting with the general ideas for the game lore (What is the main purpose of the stations? Research? Mining resources? Manufacturing?) to have a background to write onto, and to ensure we are all on the same page. After that, we moved onto more specific areas and Wiki pages, and progress has been steady since.

However, there is a blatant problem with this approach. Unless you kept watch over the #lore-chat discord channel every day, or visited the different wiki pages often, it was very difficult to know what had been changed, updated, or blatantly removed. This is why we decided to steal be inspired by the Wiki Development update posts, and do something similar for the lore.

Our Objectives

• Improve and standardize the quality of the lore pages in the wiki, making them appealing to the general population of the server. Lore should inspire people to create their own stories and characters, we are not here to write a book! This includes not having to give an explanation to everything in game – some things are mysterious by design.
   
• Introduce more lore aspects into the game proper. This does not mean changing gameplay aspects due to lore - as fun, balance and maintainability will always come first. But rather, try to introduce the lore into the game as seamlessly as possible: for example, with item descriptions, posters, or in-game menus/interfaces.
   
• Design our lore to be new-player friendly and always keep in mind that this is a new player welcoming server, and not a HRP one. Deeper lore is there for those who want to interact with it, but it should never be mandatory.
   
• Try to improve old lore rather than rewriting it completely when possible. This should be done to keep the disruption of current characters/backstories/etc. to a minimum.
   
• Avoid making Nanotrasen the centre of everything. In old lore, Nanotrasen had infinite power and influence, they discovered all technology and species, and were able to do everything you may think of. We are trying to steer away from this, and give other factions and species more agency.
   
• Uphold the collaborative process of lore writing. While there is an official Lore Team now, ideas and even content as a whole will be taken from the general population. Do not be afraid to send us your own writings, thoughts and stories. Even if they do not end up being “canon”, other players will surely enjoy reading through them.

Updated Pages:

Content we have worked on, and are satisfied with their current status. This does not mean they will not be improved in the future, just that we have moved onto different projects.

• Lore Primer: intended to be the first stop for someone who wants to know about the lore, the previous version of this page had lots of information irrelevant for someone who just wants to know the basics. This is why it was mostly rewritten and reordered, so now a new player can get all the information they need to play in the first few sections: What are they doing in the station, what Nanotrasen is, a small overview of the available species, and some terms relevant to the game. Be aware that while “finished”, as this is an overview of the lore, its contents will depend greatly on the rest of the content. As such, this will be modified as it stops being accurate – for example, the timeline is currently being worked on.
   
• Nanotrasen: Being the company every character works for, and the most important faction in the game, this had to be one of the earliest pages for us to review. It contains the history of the company, deeply interwoven with Human -and by extension, Trans-Solar Federation’s- history. It also explains how Nanotrasen presents itself as a brand to an everyday person, and as a bonus, we have included lore backgrounds to all the current playable stations. All the remaps of the NSS Cyberiad are now canon!
   
• Corporate factions: While we would like to add more in the future, these are the ones we’ve worked on for now. Each corporate faction has a small explanation now, which would help players to make characters related to these corporations, whether they were their previous employers, or simply to know what opinion their characters would have of these smaller companies.

Currently working on:

These contents, being a work in progress, will not always be publicly available in the wiki – specially in the early stages. However, if a link to the wiki is provided, feel free to give your feedback!

• The Syndicate: the second most important faction in the game by far, could not be left behind. The goal is to explain how the Syndicate came to be, expand on their main goal – the destabilization of Nanotrasen and their plasma monopoly –, and show some of the factions that take part in this criminal conglomerate. A description on their operations, ranging from Operatives, Contractors and Nuclear Teams is also included. We hope that this extra information prompts players into being more creative with their antagonist runs, trying to play into the bigger conflict.
   
• Trans-Solar Federation: the main human political faction is shaping to be a big lore document. The militaristic aspect of the government is being made even more apparent, and their story expanded. Their relationship with Nanotrasen is being made more clear – spoiler: it is not good. All in all, there will be a lot to draw from if you want to make a character that originates from the TSF.
   
• Lavaland: this is a difficult topic to approach, as part of the appeal Lavaland has is the unknown. You want enough information to make it enticing and appealing, but not too much so the veil of mystery remains. Drawing the line between these two is not easy task, but we are trying to catalog the structures, lifeforms and “purpose” of Lavaland in a way reminiscent of that of a researcher. Theories will be laid out, but definite answers will not be given to everything – letting players come up with their own explanations.
   
• Althland Mining Company: A brand new addition to the lore, the idea behind Althland came from the idea of having ruins, both in space and Lavaland, contribute to the game lore instead of being random additions. As such, this small company was created, and are now the ones who operated in Lavaland before Nanotrasen. Together with the lore page, two new ruins were added to Lavaland. We encourage you to explore the surface of the planet, and see if you are able to find the Ruined Refinery or the Excavation Pit! We also suggest you be careful around the chasm…

Future plans

• Other antagonist roles: while the Syndicate is the most prominent in-game enemy, others such as Vampires, Changelings or biohazards require some love and attention as well.
   
• Species lore: we know this is the part of the lore most people want to see reworked. We also know it will be the most difficult one, as is the one that directly affects players the most. As we are aware some of you are very invested into the lore of the species you play the most, we want to know what specific aspects of their lore you want to see changed, improved, or simply gone. Expect us to contact you when we start working on this!

[SynthTee]

You dare walk into MY territory? /j

This is very great to see for everyone and helps wiki development a ton. God bless.