: My point is, it seems that everyone here is aiming for Rubicon story
: compatibility - a thing which rather bothers me to see a 3rd party
: scenario with (IMNSFHO) some annoying story flaws. However, Ernie seems to
: have taken interest in my backhistory and used some of the story mechanics
: from it in WMaiD. I've also been talking with Adam Ashwell of that big
: scenario project that may not actually happen and doesn't officially exist
: yet, and we've been jabbering about the connections between his project,
: WMaiD, Rubicon, and Eternal.
First, my appologies, Forrest, for not recognizing you from your extensive involvement in the early development of the story page. I'd seen your name many times, but not here and so your recent appearance was taken out of context. You grew up with Marathon, whereas I came to it as an adult and late at that, letting the M1 demo sit on my hard drive for years before I finally decided to try it out, by which time the MAS was already out. I'd had enough experiences with video games becoming black holes into which all time disappeared - but none of them could have ever consumed me the way Marathon did. Rubicon was the first 3rd party scenario that emerged after my indoctrination into the Maraverse, and it became my obsession as I conquered all the secrets, published the secrets guide and later initiated the volunteers series. That said, I am the first to admit that Rubicon has its flaws and in no way should be considered cannon. Indeed, Infinity opened up the possibility of multiple sequels As we discussed in the TI volunteers series, I now suspect that TI itself is an alternate timeline to Infinity. Pfh'Joeuer which I hope to discuss in the near future is yet another alternative to Infinity. Rubicon is unique in that it attempts to adhere to Marathon cannon more than any other 3rd party scenario, taking the events of the M2 ending screen as the jumping off point. The salinger incident, however, is in no way related to Marathon and in some ways even detracts from the story element, although there are certainly some truly memorable levels, thanks to the genious of Chris Lund.
I've now had a chance to read the story behind Marathon Eternal and I must say that the plot is exceptional. It is intriguing and opens up possibilities never before conceived. I really like the idea that the W'rkncacnter are actually essential to the evolution of satient life. This is a really cool concept. This probably bests the prevailing theory that the Jjaro were somehow responsible for their accidental creation or that they arose from the Jjaro's attempt to escape the closure of the universe (Ernie - if you're reading this, consider this as a possible mechanism for Durandal to release a W'rkncacnter, rather than through using the trh' xeem). Your story does have one fatal flaw, however - it's just too sweeping in nature. The vary size and comprehensiveness is its ultimate downfall and I doubt that the scenario will ever come to fruition, and certainly not with the limitations of the Infinity engine. You need a full-time development team to tackle this, and it will require not one but several scenarios to complete. I would give very serious thougth to simplifying the plot, possibly losing the Halo tie-in, which is probably trying to do too much (and will likely be contradicted by Halo 2 or 3), and subdividing the plot into a series of managable chunks, each of which would have a greater chance of coming to fruition as a separate scenario. See if you can talk Adam into merging his effort with yours - the plot is too good to waste. You might also want to flesh the plot out as MaraFF first.
One final thought - I think that WMaid should remain a separate scenario - it is nearly finished and should stand on its own.
