Robotech Brainstorming Notes

Characters:

Dealing with the various characters in the game comes entirely from flying missions involving particular charaters. Your actions in these missions will increase or decrease your standing with the involved characters. There will be no "conversations" where you choose responses to character dialog. All dialog will be spoken to you, without an ability for you to reply (or an automtic reply).

Specific Character Connections:

Early in the game, you can smooze both the RDF (and Vala) as well as the Southern Cross (SC). By smoozing the RDF, you get new veritechs and access to better RDF upgrades, as well as access to info. By smoozing Vala, you get still more helpful info, and the Reflex Cannon. By smoozing the SC, you get access to special upgrades only available to the SC.

However, if you smooze the SC to long, you will begin to hurt your standing with the RDF and Vala, as the SC becomes more violent towards the Zens (both enemy and friendly). If you plan to win the game, you must eventually fight against the SC (which will cause them to retaliate).

[This ended up being one plot twist that was mostly dropped from the final dialog... it was taking to long to write the dialog to cover all the various possibilities.]

SC missions:

1) initial SC missions, a three parter.

• a) you get a distress call from an SC supply convoy. You save them, and then join up with them to escort them to Armor 13 (the SC ARMD).
• b) on the way, you get ambushed. As you fight, you get more info about the cargo the transports are carrying. They are carrying experimental veritech weapon upgrades, designed by SC scientists (Dr. Lazlo Zand - referenced but not in game). [By the end, the random mission creator would have been able to use just about any minor character from the cartoons, novels, comics, or RPG. They would exist only as a name (a type of cargo, really)... for example, "Rolf Emerson is on board the transport you must protect!"]
• c) upon reaching Armor 13, you once again find yourself in battle. Protecting the transports until they land puts you into good graces with the SC leaders (Leonard and Edwards). They give you access to their shop, and if you maintain this good relationship a while, you will eventually get access to their experimental upgrades. Leonard knows of your record, and this is the one case when your past can actually help you (since your actions during the Malcontent Uprisings helped the SC).

2) Vala's friend - A friend of Vala's (another former Quadrano now working with the RDF) is leading a flight of Earth Zentraedi fighters, mixed with Veritechs and pods. They come under attack, and Vala asks you to go help. During the battle, the SC shows up, and shoots at anything that looks like a Zen, no matter which side they are on. If you stop the SC, they will consider that you have "betrayed" them, but if you don't, you hurt your standing with Vala, expecially if her friend gets killed.

Major Subplots of the game:

1) Discovering the identities of the Ebolian forces, and why they are here. This is done through helping the RDF and Vala. This sub-plot continues throughout the entire game.

2) The Minmei attack - you must discover why it does not work. The reason ends up being that the Ebolian Zentraedi process all communications through several central ships. Find and destroy these ships, and the enemy becomes less coordinated, as well as becomes suseptible to Minmei's songs.

3) Kergen [the enemy Zen commander] hunts down defecting Zentraedi. Saving the defecting Zens helps your standing with the RDF and Vala.

4) Kergen gets in Eboliar's way with his bloodlust.

5) the Southern Cross. To get SC veritech upgrades, you need to help them during the first half of the game. However, to win the game, you must work against them during the second half of the game.

Game Map:

Capitol Objects and the positions of all current battles are the only items on the game map. At the center is the Earth. One third of the way out to the Moon, four ARMDs orbit. Two thirds of the way, six more ARMDs orbit. In the Moon's orbit is the Moon and the Robotech Factory. Objects in orbit will slowly rotate around the Earth at the proper rates for their distance out from the center. [Actually, having the object orbit at their proper speeds didn't end up being practical... the math to move everthing in their proper orbits was too complex to be useful]

The SDF-3 and enemy capitol ships move around as needed through the game map, though the SDF-3 tends to stay near the Factory Sat. Earth ships are plotted exactly, but Zen ships are plotted only in approximate positions. Thus, getting near a Zen cruiser on the map means you may run into it. But going to an Earth ship requires you to go right to it.

When fighter and transport craft launch or land on a capital ship, adjust the capitol object's ship counts accordingly (it now has fewer or more ships on board!)

Eboliar

The crystal fortress looks like a central crystal with a number of crystal spikes of varying widths, lengths, and orientations sticking out from it. The overall look will be irregular, similar in basic shape to a potato, but made of irregular spikes of crystal rather than a smooth surface. [Eboliar went through a number of designs before the end, and in fact he is the one ship model we were still missing when Gametek went bankrupt... the original idea was an irregular spiky crystal asteroid, but by the end he was going to be more organic, with massive moving tentacles.]

Reflex Cannon Missions:

The Portable Reflex Cannon has two functions. It can be used as a cannon, or as a barrier shield that stops ALL incoming damage. It works off a power supply that needs recharging after each use. If used as a cannon, the amount of charge determines the power of the shot (a capitol ship requires a full charge to destroy). If used as barrier shield, the amount of charge determines how many hits the shield can take. If you leave it on after the charge goes to zero, it will overload, vaporizing everything within half a kilometer. If the shield overloads, the reflex power generator is damaged, and must be repaired on Armor 10. If you try to get it fixed at any military stations, it will be taken from you (after all, you did not have permision to borrow it).

Each capitol ship has certain weak spots that are suseptible to the cannon. You will need to aim carefully (whether you use the cannon or crash through using the shield), since each shot of the cannon drains its power, and requires a minute or more to recharge.

Timeline:

Prelude:

A Zen flagship and several cruisers appear in Earth orbit, attacking the SDF-3 and other Earth instalations. Kyle Bartley is sent up to the SDF-3 by MBS to cover the fighting. In route, he ends up finding himself in a battle around the SDF-3.

Once aboard the SDF-3, Kyle meets Rick Hunter and his former girlfriend, a micronized Zen technician named Vala Norri. Kyle is given access to the military shops and repair facilities aboard the RDF instalations. It is noted by the leaders of the RDF that the Minmei attack (using music to confuse the emotionless Zens) does not work, and Earth has no idea why the Zens are here, who they are, and what they are after.

As the Zen cruisers travel in orbit towards various ARMD platforms, Kyle enters the war.

Phase 1:

During the first phase of the war, Kyle fights mostly random battles as he finds them, gaining points that can be used to buy veritech upgrades in RDF shops. The missions will tend to be easier than later in the game.

A Southern Cross convoy of transports with fighter escort are on the way to Armor 13 (the SC orbiting base), when they are attacked. You are called to help. You save them, and escort the convoy to Armor 13. During fighting along the way, Kyle learns that the convoy is carrying parts for new veritech upgrades created in secret for the SC by Dr. Lazlo Zand. Upon seeing the convoy safely to Armor 13, Leonard (aboard the platform) thanks Kyle, and comments on his past, when he "helped" the SC during the Malcontent Uprisings. He offers Kyle access to Armor 13's shop, and hints that he may get access to the new weapons when they are ready, if he continues to aid the SC. [You'll notice that a lot of the missions listed here are from the previous document.]

As Phase 1 comes to a conclusion, two Zen cruisers attack the SDF-3. The SDF-3 destroys one with its main cannon, the backlash damaging the second. However, the main gun is damaged. Kyle and other veritechs are sent to finish off the second cruiser, and are caught in a space fold. Kyle and the others find themselves above the rings of Saturn, at the fringe of the rest of the Ebolian fleet. This is the first time Earth forces see Eboliar, and meet the crystal fighters. They manage to escape by fighting their way to another Zen cruiser as it folds to Earth. The recon data gives the first clues about who the enemy is.

Phase 2:

Breetai asks Kyle to capture a Zen pilot. He needs to buy the tractor beam, however, which is only available on the Factory Satellite. Once Kyle accomplish this, Breetai and Exedore learn a great deal about the enemy. The Zens were a small fleet patrolling the outer reaches of the Robotech Master's empire when Dolza and the rest of the Zentraedi were destroyed. They wandered without direction until they stumbled across a planet of crystals that are all part of a central intelligence, called Eboliar. Eboliar ripped its central fortress, containing its brain, off the planet (using Zen technology) and became the Zen's new master. [In the final version, Eboliar and Kergen were more like partners than Eboliar being master over the Zens] The Zen leader is Kergen, another clone from the same batch as Khyron the Backstabber. The enemy's ultimate purpose is unknown, though the low-level enemy Zens think they are after revenge. Also, the RDF learns why the Minmei attack has not been working. Eboliar changed the communication systems on Zen ships. In each battle, several ships channel all communications. If you destroy these ships [Cyclops Recons, and Regult Recon pods if we had the room for them], the Zens become less coordinated. In addition, the comm modes used are radically different from Earth's, and new transmitters will be needed to use the Minmei attack.

Armor 13 (the SC) manages to create the first special transmitter. Kyle must buy it from them, and must be in good graces with the SC at this time. To use it, the comm ships used by the enemy must be destroyed, and then turn on the transmitter. The affected Zens will become erratic, and any that survive will bring the emotional "infection" back to their capitol ships.

Phase 3:

Eboliar, Kergen, and the rest of the enemy fleet folds to Earth. The fighting gets more intense.

Zens begin to defect, and while the RDF tries to save them, the SC gets more violent. They begin attacking RDF Zens as well as the enemy, and will occasionally even attack RDF people they do not like.

The SDF-3 destroys one of the two Zen flagships. [I decided later to have only one Zen flagship (Kergen's), though I upped the total number of ships in the fleet to about 40. I also added about 15 or 20 Zen ships in use by the RDF (painted in new colors) since an Armor Platform is mostly useless against a Zen ship]

Phase 4:

Earth begins to loose the war, dispite continued Zen defections.

Kergen become more erratic, often sabotoging Eboliar's efforts to find the Protoculture Matrix as he fulfills his bloodlust and hunts down defectors.

The SC, believing Earth is at risk if any Zens survive, sends a strike team to take over the SDF-3. They are unsuccessful, and Leonard says they were renegades, no longer under his control. [This turned into stealing the prototype Reflex Cannon (the game's BIG GUN)]

Phase 5:

The Portable Reflex Cannon becomes available. Kyle uses it to destroy several Zen capitol ships, including Kergen and his flagship.

Kyle goes up against Eboliar.

Mission ideas:

If we have a 3D model of the factory satillite, then we need several missions around it:

• 1) several attacks, at least one including a cruiser
• 2) one mission that has both fact. sat and Eboliar (both about the same size)

Several missions around Eboliar, fighting pods, plus a constant stream of crystals comming through the surface of Eboliar. These missions are designed to show you that flying around Eboliar is both futile and a good way to die.

During second half of game, need to integrate crystals, in all their combinations, into many of the missions.

Eboliar will constantly be trying to get info about the location of the Protoculture Matrix. Hunting down and capturing Earth officials (then torturing them in his brian chamber?) will be one method. Kergen, on the other hand, will be trying to kill any important officials (even Leonard! - which could make for an interesting oportunity to embarras the SC near the end of the game). This is one way Kergen gets in the way of Eboliar.

Close to the end of the game (maybe the final battle): Eboliar has finally deduced the location of the protoculture matrix, in the ruins of the SDF-1. It locates itself over the site, in low orbit. The Kergen thread has been degenerating, and by this time Kergen has fired on crystals and openly defied Eboliar. Through the game, Eboliar cares only for the matrix, using the Zens as distractions, while Kergen wants revenge for the destruction of his race. Kergen, also figuring out the puzzle, by knowing of the SDF-1 and seeing Eboliar's position, attacks it, in anger for something Eboliar did recently that halted Kergen in his tracks. You and some veritechs join in, with the SDF-3 (maybe even few ARMD or Zen cruisers?) in what becomes a three way fight. In the confusion, you use the reflex cannon to blow holes in Zen ships, eventually destroying them when you hit something vital. Kergen's troops will be defecting (more once you take out the comm ships), and he will be spliting himself between chasing down his own troops and attacking Ebolian and Earth fighters. Crystals will be everywhere, attacking anyone.

Kergen will be taunghting you, calling attention to himself by yelling everything he does over everyone's comm system. He is realy angry. You can get a missile lock on him, which you cannot otherwise (he notices and evades). He takes a simgle missile and survives, limping back to his flagship, cursing. He will attack harder with the ship, and you have to use the reflex cannon on it. A comm from Breetai tells you he wants you to try something, telling where to aim. When the beam hits, the flagship goes to full speed, right toward Eboliar. As Kergen curses at you, his flagship crashes through several crystal spines, which go floating off, and then explodes on impact with a large spine. The explosion vaporizes all the nearby spines, leaving a section of Eboliar incapible of creating crystal fighters. Eboliar now spins slowly from the impact. This is your chance to use the cannon to get to Eboliar's brain.

Robotech is copyright and trademark © 1985 by Harmony Gold, USA, Inc.

Robotech: Crystal Dreams and all game related pictures are copyright © 1998 by Gametek, Inc.

Nintendo, N64, and the Nintendo 64 logo are copyright and trademark © Nintendo,.