R:CD Early Design 4

Preliminary Character List

Kyle Bartley (the Player)

You play a former RDF Veritech pilot, who fought at the end of the Malcontent Uprisings. You were in love with a micronized Zentraedi woman (Vala Norri), but an unfortunate incident during the Uprisings ended the relationship.

While on patrol during the Uprisings, you came across several Army of the Southern Cross tanks under attack from Zentraedi Malcontents. You assisted, but later found out that the Southern Cross forces had initiated the attack, by attempting to destroy a small village of peaceful Zentraedi citizens. With your help in defeating the defenders, the ASC managed to eliminate the village. This left a large stain on your RDF record, and ended your relationship with Vala.

You left the RDF, and became a pilot for MBS, the Monument City Brodcasting System (formerly the Macross Brodcasting System, before Khyron's attack at the end of 2014).

[Yes, the name Bartley comes from the character of Rook Bartley in the third part of Robotech... I decided that Kyle was her uncle, since she was one of my favorite characters.]

Admiral Lisa Hayes

She is the primary leader of the Robotech Defence Force. She is currently directing the completion of the SDF-3, which she will then command on the expeditionary mission to the Robotech Master's homeworld, Tirol (the Sentinals saga). She is the fiancee of Vice Admiral Rick Hunter.

Lisa Hayes is the core character who makes decisions about whether to promote you to better mecha. She will also give you mission briefings for many "story" related missions. She can be very hard on you if you screw up.

Vice Admiral Rick Hunter

He is in charge of military stategy for the expeditionary mission. A former fighter pilot, he still wishes he could get back into the cockpit of a fighter. He remains a bit headstrong at times, and is engaged to Admiral Lisa Hunter.

He is more forgiving than his fiancee, and his task will often be to give you strategy tips and to direct you during missions. You may end up in a mission with Admiral Hunter sometime during the game.

Lord Breetai

A former leader of the Zentraedi race and one-time enemy of Earth, he became an ally of Earth just prior to the final battle that destroyed most of the Zentraedi race. He has been helping direct the construction of the SDF-3, built from his former Zentraedi flagship.

He will relate information from captured Zentraedi that ties into the story.

Minister of Affairs Exedore Formo

The former advisor to Lord Breetai, he is the repository of all Zentraedi history, as well as the Zentraedi's only scientist.

He will assist Breetai in relating info about the Ebolian Zentraedi, adding his knowledge of Zentraedi history to Breetai's information.

Captain Max Sterling

He is the Earth's primary ace pilot, and a former wingman to Rick Hunter during the First Robotech War. He is married to a micronized Zentraedi, the first such union that ever occured.

Max will give you general flying and battle tips.

Miriya Sterling

The Zentraedi race's best ace pilot, and now the wife of Max Sterling. She is also mother to Dana Sterling, one of the only half-breed children ever born (and the main charater in the Southern Cross saga)

Miriya will give you specific tips on how to defeat Zentraedi mecha. Max and Miriya may also give you advice on how to help your relationship with Vala, since they have been in similar situations in their marriage.

Vala Norri

She is a micronized Zentraedi who formerly worked as a technician with the Twenty Third Veritech squadron (the only all Zentraedi squadron in the RDF during the Malcontent Uprisings). She now works on the SDF-3 as a bridge officer, as well as sometimes helping Dr. Lang in his lab. She was once your lover.

She is your love intrest in the game, and will provide various information and weapons depending on how well you "court" her. At the beginning of the game, she does not like you, giving you the "cold shoulder." It is up to you (through choosing and succeeding in particular missions) to "warm her up" to you, and rebuild your former relationship (which leads to you getting access to the prototype Veritech Portable Reflex Cannon near the end of the game).

[Vala's visual look came from Rook Bartley, a character in a later part of Robotech, but I added purple hair in homage to the character of Shampoo in the cartoon series Ranma 1/2]

Field Marshal Anatole Leonard

He is the leader of the still growing Army of the Southern Cross. He is zenophobic man who hates all Zentraedi, and uses any excuse to attack them physically or phycologically. One note: according to the Robotech novels, he had a Zentraedi lover before the uprisings began, and even had a child with her (the second half-breed ever born). His former lover became a leader in the Malcontent Uprisings.

In the game story, Leonard will occasionally "throw a monkey wrench" into the works, possibly sending you on missions that will harm your standing (the brownie points) you have with specific characters.

General T.R. Edwards

This is a character that serves much the same purpose as Anatole Loenard (and thus can be dropped if necessary). He was an adversary of Roy Fokker during the Global Civil War (before the SDF-1 crashed on Earth). He was scarred similar to Breetai, with half his face covered in metal, during the Dolza's final Zentraedi assualt. When Rick Hunter saved Lisa Hayes from the Grand Cannon in episode 27, he unknowingly left Edwards in the complex, which was the cause of his wounds. He thus transfered his hatred of Roy Fokker to Rick Hunter and the RDF. He is self serving, and thoroughly evil.

[In the end, we didn't have room for all the faces we originally planned, and Edwards was one of the casualties. He still existed in the game, but only as text dialog... no vocals or face.]

Havorn

Havorn is a fanatical Zentraedi warrior working with Eboliar. He is evil and childish. He will taunt the player during battle, and use every dirty trick he can find. He is the definition of the nasty villian.

[This character was combined with Kergen into a single character... they both had nearly identical personalities, and it meant one less face for the artists to create.]

Brog

Brog is another Ebolian Zentraedi. Unlike Havorn, though, he is dignified and respectful. He is always polite, and follows an almost Samari code of honor. He will admire you and die gracefully if defeated, and will pay homage to you if he defeats you.

Generic Zentraedi

This is a general clone that we can use for any Ebolian Zentraedi when it is necessary to see one on your comm window. This can be deleted if memory space is limited (using Havorn and Brog clones instead). Possibly, we can also use this for generic RDF Zentraedi pilots.

[All the generic characters were dropped, though their dialog still exists as text only.]

Eboliar

This is the central intelligence (residing in a crystal brain at the heart of the crystal fortress asteroid) of the crystals, and the overlord of the Ebolian Zentraedi. You will have only minimal contact with it, most near the end of the game. This creature is evil, ambitious, and deadly.

Generic RDF Officer

This is a general purpose character (possibly several) that can be used to give mission briefings (usually for missions that do not relate directly to the story, but instead for missions that give you "powerups").

[All the generic characters were dropped, though their dialog still exists as text only.]

Generic RDF pilot

This is a general purpose character used when talking to other RDF pilots during battles. There may be several specific pilot characters as well.

[All the generic characters were dropped, though their dialog still exists as text only.]

[This early version of the character list is actually missing several of the main characters. I went ahead and created new descriptions here.]

Kergen Krashavera

Like all Zentraedi, Kergen is a clone... however, Kergen comes from the same template as the famous Khyron the Backstabber. Though Kergen isn't quite as brilliant as his late brother, he has much the same erratic personality, and is the leader of the Ebolian Zentraedi. He is hateful, dangerous, and evil, often taking his anger out on any target nearby, including his own people.

The only thing Kergen hates worse than micronians is Zentraedi defectors like Breetai and the Zentraedi who live on Earth.

Zanni

Zanni was going to be an enemy Zentraedi female, similar to Azonia in the cartoon series. She was dropped pretty early, and never had a single line of dialog written for her.

Lynn Minmei

Minmei is Earth's premeir entertainer. Her songs are known across the world, and were one of the key elements that drove the Zentraedi to defect during the Robotech War.

Doctor Lang

Lang is Earth's premier scientist in Robotechnology. Lang was one of the first people to study the inside of the crashed alien SDF-1, and then directed the reconstruction of the ship. He served as the SDF-1's chief engineer during the Zentraedi War.

Dr. Lang designed many of the systems on the SDF-3, and has built a personal lab for himself inside, where he works on various projects. Vala Norri has been helping him design special Veritech weapons and upgrades using crystal debris from destroyed Ebolians.

Captain Jonathan Wolff

Jon Wolff was the first cadet to graduate from the Robotech Academy on Macross island before the Zentraedi War. He missed the accidental spacefold of the SDF-1 [which is where my idea for a second Robotech game fit in.].

He gained fame during the Malcontent Uprisings as the leader of an RDF tank squadron known as the Wolff Pack. Though Wolff is a good pilot in most forms of mecha, tanks are his passion.

[Like Edwards, Wolff was removed from the list of characters with faces and vocal dialog, but he did remain in the game as a text only character. Wolff only had a few lines of dialog, anyway.]

Tirra Norri

Tirra was a relatively late addition to the game. She is a clone sister of Vala, which allowed me to add her to the game without adding any new artwork to the game... visually she is Vala with a different color palette for blue hair.

Tirra starts out the game with Kergen, but she defects soon after talking to Vala. With her come a piece of crystal technology... a mecha-scale plasma cannon that starts Dr. Lang thinking of other uses for the crystals.

You can send me mail at opus@opusgames.com