Age range of characters in game

[Pandagnome]

One of my friends said something that made me think. The kid don't have to be anywhere near the fighting or on the planet itself to still be able to help the adults. Because nothing is stopping some of the kids to remotely controlling drones to help scout out things. Not unlike how in real life you can fly a drone anyway where while being miles away from it. While making maps or watching environmental data, because the kids will have to learn about the new planet too if they are going to live there one day. They could use satellite data and make drones to explore things without ever leaving the space station. Form there they can report on odd things they found that the adults might have missed. After all, kids are doing that in real life now. Hell, there have been few kids who found archaeological finds that way, hidden and lost temples and even whole cities that adults have missed because no one even thought to look in that area or use this type of filter on the satellite / drone image.

yes and they get to gather intelligence from drones and do surveillance etc, i guess the drone can be part of a mission and the kid will be speaking through the drone! If the drone dies its ok can create a new one. Although if it was captured the valuable data could be used against us unless the drone was set to self destruct.

Since the drone is controlled by the kid, each drone could look different depending on which kid npc was controlling it. Some might have a holgraphic or stickers on the drones that personalise the npc kids preference, e.g it had images of stars and kawaii faces and another could have dinosaurs and beach ball etc etc

 

[Torgue_Joey]

IMAGINE THOSE NIGHTMARE THE POOR KIDS WILL HAVE FROM WATCHING US GETTING SLAUGHTERED AND TORN APART FROM THOSE MUTATED RABBITS.

 

[Degiance]

What Torgue said and what Pandagnome said about kids working with the drones and the kids ending up seeing stuff like this.

Sure if there is like a completly safe zone away from Em-8er then kids could roam there and all that nice stuff and i wouldn't mind seeing a Children's week type of event sorta similiar to the ones in WoW without the taking a kid to a battlezone..

 

[Omnires]

IMAGINE THOSE NIGHTMARE THE POOR KIDS WILL HAVE FROM WATCHING US GETTING SLAUGHTERED AND TORN APART FROM THOSE MUTATED RABBITS.

Is that not also the origin story of many kick ass heroes and characters? Looking that people like Batman and Afro Samurai.

For the people who don't know who Afro Samurai is.

 

[Degiance]

Well it really depends on the kid and the people around the kid, i don't think Bruce Wayne would have been able to handle it all without Alfred. Instead of going on a long rant i will just say kids aren't ment to handle stuff like that and when they do end up in situations like that. They don't always come out stronger for it, to put it nicely.

 

[Omnires]

Well it really depends on the kid and the people around the kid, i don't think Bruce Wayne would have been able to handle it all without Alfred. Instead of going on a long rant i will just say kids aren't ment to handle stuff like that and when they do end up in situations like that. They don't always come out stronger for it, to put it nicely.

This is true, but you can just as easily edit the data the kids see from the drones to make sure they don't see anything that would be to damaging to them. And this would also bring into account many moral and ethical issues too.

For example, in the anime Psycho Pass there is a point in the story where terrorists hack military drones and robots. Rather than control the robot themselves they get normal everyday people to control them without them know it. How? By linking the data of each robot to a video game about cute bunnies and as they fight off the bunnies in the game, they are unaware that the bunnies they are fighting and killing are real people. The terrorists used the game as a filter to what the robots was seeing and doing. And so the people playing the game online didn't know they was really killing people until the filter on the hack was removed. And even though most people was shocked and traumatized by what they have done, there was still a good number of people who kept "playing" even after knowing they was hurting and killing real people.

Another example, D.Va from Overwatch. Part of her story is that she is a famous online gamer who also streams all her matches. Sound fine until you realize he is also streaming everything she does in the game too. That means she is streaming fighting and killing other humans in real life as if it was a game. That is something to think about next time you see anyone use D.Va.

I'm not saying we should go that rout. But there could be a system in place to stop the kids from seeing anything they shouldn't be seeing.

 

[Degiance]

That sounds like an okay idea, Nanny AI that prevents the kids from seeing nasty stuff or distracts them with something that isn't there while guiding the drone away from battle. Might be a fun/annoying game mechanic too especially if the drone wonders too far off from the players omniframe you gotta go around searching for it.
I do wonder if it could work as a story in-game, as there isn't quests in the game so it could be like a Children's week special thing you can do if you want.

 

[Pandagnome]

quests like these

 

[Nalessa]

Considering just eating the snow on the planet would kill you ... yeah let's not have kids run around the planet

 

[NaleelDragneel]

Do we want children or do we want NAVEL lets be honest here... Its got to be one or the other...

 

[Gordro]

What's wrong with treating kids in video games like skittles? Nothing like adding a bit of colour to collateral damage.

On a separate note, do kids call them video games these days considering they will never have seen an actual video?

 

[liandri]

Ever wondered why children are unkillable in Skyrim

… Urge to kill... rising.

As a presence in the game, of course yes. These are healthy adults travelling together. Having no children around would make little sense. But that should be limited to appearances in the bases or the mothership.

I agree with this though, if only to create the feeling of a lived in world (even if that world is a mothership or orbital base) and to remind Gatestriders what they are fighting for.

Teenagers using lightweight omniframes during their recruitment training on the mothership would be fine with me though.

 

[Omnires]

I agree with this though, if only to create the feeling of a lived in world (even if that world is a mothership or orbital base) and to remind Gatestriders what they are fighting for.

Teenagers using lightweight omniframes during their recruitment training on the mothership would be fine with me though.

In real life, it is common for people in nomadic tribes to teach their kids how do things, like ride a horse, even before the kid knows how to walk. And there are lots of other skills you can teach babies and small children to do such as path finding and sailing. When the survival of your people relays on having a given set of skills, you tend to teach those skills as soon as possible to the kids.

With that in mind I could see even elementary school kids on the space station or moon base playing around in little colorful soft baby omniframes without weapons and super strength to keep them from hurting themselves and/or others while also teaching them the basics on how to use them and getting them use to how it feels to be in a omniframe for hours on end. By the time they are teenagers being in an omniframe would be like second nature to them and would just as natural to them walking and talking (Or in our case like riding a bike). With a lot of them being able to do complex tasks without even thinking about it, and even a few who can do things in their sleep (Not unlike how in real life sleep walkers can still do things like cook, eat, dress themselves, and drive a car to work all while still dreaming. There is nothing you can't do while you are awake that you can't also do while sleep walking.). It would be a whole society of people who have the ability to use omnirframes but unless you are a gatestrider, a member of the military, in engineering and construction, in law enforcement, or search and rescue you would not need to use an omniframe for day to day life. Which is the reason why not everyone has an omniframe but at the same time why normal people (like the little old grandma who runs the restaurant in a corner of the base) can just jump into a spare/abandoned omniframe and run around with you while you are trying to save them.

Just a thought. World building is kind of my thing. That and stealth combat.

 

[NaleelDragneel]

Do we want children or do we want NAVEL lets be honest here... Its got to be one or the other...

In all seriousness, having children on the Ark Ship would give a more living world feel to the game. Also I think that if there are children on the bases it would increase the life of em8er. As a workaround to the issues of violence against children maybe children npc's and their family members despawn prior to the attack on bases and they show up on the Ark Ships. I think child npc's should be invincible under all circumstances if they are used. Having children in em8er in this way can make it more of a reason to protect bases, and make it easier to access certain quests if quests or missions end up being implemented as the relating npc's would move to the Arc Ship in space if the base became unsafe. Making it inconvenient if you lost the base.

 

[Omnires]

In all seriousness, having children on the Ark Ship would give a more living world feel to the game. Also I think that if there are children on the bases it would increase the life of em8er. As a workaround to the issues of violence against children maybe children npc's and their family members despawn prior to the attack on bases and they show up on the Ark Ships. I think child npc's should be invincible under all circumstances if they are used. Having children in em8er in this way can make it more of a reason to protect bases, and make it easier to access certain quests if quests or missions end up being implemented as the relating npc's would move to the Arc Ship in space if the base became unsafe. Making it inconvenient if you lost the base.

Also thinking about things that can happen if a base is lost or an area becomes to unsafe for the kids. Think about kids asking you could you get something from their house or play area for them.

Example
A kid posting on the job board that they can't find grandpa anywhere because they had to leave the base in a rush. Think that grandpa might still be in their house and need someone to go get him. After fighting your way to area of the house and making sure it is safe you scan the area and there is no signs of life. You get out of your frame to check the house on foot just in case you find a body. But there is no body. Maybe the old man escaped? But than you noticed an urn on shelf with some ashes in it. So you take that. When you turn in the urn to drop off office on the station you later get a message from the kid thanking you for returning their grandpa to them.

Example
A school teacher wants to do something nice for their students and take their minds off of things. So they want to take them to a show. So the base commander wants some skilled Omniframe pilots to join the show and put on a display for the kids. This will be a test of skill and style. *Think of things like the Blue Angels air shows we have in the USA.* Where not only do you have to display great skill with your omniframe but also have to look good while doing it. For example, it is not just enough to fly through all the rings with your omniframe but can you do tricks while doing it? Sure you can just hit the target, but can you hit it such a way that bring awe to kids watching? If you do a really good job you might get fan mail from the kids telling you how great you are and how they want to be like you when they grow up.

There are lots of routs that open up in a game that remembers that children exist. Hell, you can even have it as part of the late game story. Like what happens when the kids are old enough to join the gatestriders after you become their hero? For example in games like Armored Core one of the things the game does is records what gear you like to use and how you like to fight, then make an A.I. clone of you based on that data. What if we did something like that in this game too? Where one of the NPCs tells you that they are a big fan of yours and both their omniframe design and fighting style looks a lot like yours. Think of all the routs the game's story could go with NPCs who can copy how players fight.

 

[EvilKitten]

I can see it now, En-Der's Game, gotta take the fight to the bugg-errrrrr rabbits!

 

[Omnires]

I can see it now, En-Der's Game, gotta take the fight to the bugg-errrrrr rabbits!

What about having the older kids to want to join the Gatestriders or military sturdy the tactics and fighting style players used so when the time comes the NPCs can better support us and aid in the fighting? Kind of how how in one story I remember how on the submarine they made a kid one of the sonar officers. Why? Because real life human hearing degrades as we get older, to point there you can guess how old someone is just by what types of sounds they can and can't hear. And so having a child listen to the sonar for anything they adults couldn't hear upped their odds of survival. So the kid would help gather data but the adult was the one who really understood the data to make the best choice to avoid danger or to attack. A mean if you are stuck in life and death situations with noncombatants on a ship. You might as will use some of them to up the odds in your favor of surviving. Including that people in different age groups tend to better and different things.

Because again there are just some sounds only kids can hear that adults can't. Keep that in mind the next time a kid tells you something is really loud or they can hear something you can't.