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Forum » Notrium 2 anyone? - 2014

Notrium 2 anyone? - 2014

Guest01 (guest) 10 years ago

Notrium 2 anyone?
I know this is late (like 10 years late!) but i would really like to see a Notrium 2 released some time. Notrium is still the best survival game I've played, and i know its a long shot but a sequel (or even remake) would be amazing... or is it just me???

MageKing17 10 years ago

Ville has previously said he would be open to the idea of making a Notrium 2 after Driftmoon came out... presumably he's currently working on Steam integration (achievements, trading cards), but once that's done... who knows?

Guest01 (guest) 10 years ago

Well I'm eagerly awaiting any news about a sequel. And I know Ville might be busy with Driftmoon right now but I'm still holding by breath anyways.
Does anybody have any info on the plausibility of a sequel?

ville 10 years ago

Frankly, right now we're not even able to work on the Driftmoon Steam integration, we're working on replying everyone who mails us, and that's always a full time job after a release.

It will still take some days before I can even resume coding...

I do have some ideas for a Notrium sequel, but I'm not sure of a direction to take the game. Either it could be more RPGish with predefined areas and quests, or it could be more like the Notrium of old, more survival elements and randomization. The reason I'm not making one right this moment is that to succeed with game critics the idea needs to be noteworthy in some respect, needs to have something that's worth praise. Usually it's some new gameplay gimmick, or a very weird and unusual setting for the story, but I don't have anything like that for Notrium 2 yet.
Edited 10 years ago

NeoGangster 10 years ago

So Notrium 2 has been officially announced for "when it's done" then?

ville 10 years ago

Until I get that really swell idea, it's not on the list. But I'm keeping my thinking cap on, maybe something new will occur to me. Hey, you're not forbidden to tell your ideas either! What would be the new feature or plot that would make Notrium appeal to a modern gamer?

Amarth 10 years ago

Just tell them "it had crafting before it was cool".

Sheograth (guest) 10 years ago

Here's my plot:After finally destroying the last alien queen, the captain manages to find the marines base and eliminates they leaders,preparing to depart, his now new soldiers are being attacked by the alien stowaway which was supposed to be dead by the explosion of their ship, in fact, stowaway found herself a last chance to survive before the explosion, she consumed a lot of the crew of the ship to create a super resistant carapace, when the ship exploded, stowaway was launched in the hive section direction and landed on the aliens territory, weakened, she starting hunting from the weaker to the stronger, but the captain killed the aliens queens, her ultimate prey, seeing him as her greatest foe and wanting to end what her started she easily killed the majority of the soldiers, with a special power armor,the captain and the alien dueled,with the captain vitorious but badly injuried, as a way to preserve her own being, stowaway used one last lethal bite, injecting her DNA sequence,almost dead, the captain and his remaining men runned to the ship, and departed in direction to the marines HQ, even though he was treated by the medics, stowaway DNA started to slowly fuse with the captain DNA, creating a hybrid abomination, after days of agony,the captain sucumbed to his new side, he easily subudoed his crew and infected then, when he arrived at the marines HQ planet it became an carnage, with stowaway senses e abilities and the captain experience and intellect, he seemed invencible, five years later, an new HQ sent an extermination team, to secure part of the once human planet, which was once full of trained soldiers is now domain of feral hybrids and their symbiotic creations, the team is composed of:Raslof, the captain enhanced with nano machines to face the hybrids,Simon 0T98, the medic cyborg, suffered great injuries during a fight with the hybrids and needed to substitute his two arms, one leg and 1/3 of his brain due to infection, he barely survived the procedure,Durlean, the hybrid scientist, an unpredicable scientist which was doing illegal tests with hybrids dead bodies, discovered how their symbiotes are created and managed to control one via strong will and an inibidor to the symbiote mental influence, using the symbiote to alterate the infection(he infected himself on purpose) stages, he can gain a lot of power, at the cost of less self control to himself, he now have three minds fighting each other for the body domain, his human side has prevailed, until now and Erica, the alien support, after the infection on the captain was complete, his fight with the HQ made him lost some of his blood, which resulted in Erica creation, her fisical body is pure alien, and resembles stowaway a lot, but her mind has the captain calm and good personality and stowaway female alien protective side of her kind and friends, she's lethal, but a lot innocent, she dislikes fighting and killing, but she rarely was seen losing her mind to her vicious side, cause she's part of captain body and mind, she shares a mental connection with him, and both suffer from the other thoughs and influences, she appeals to his human side but him wants her to join him, is the new HQ greatest informer. Here's my plot:After finally destroying the last alien queen, the captain manages to find the marines base and eliminates they leaders,preparing to depart, his now new soldiers are being attacked by the alien stowaway which was supposed to be dead by the explosion of their ship, in fact, stowaway found herself a last chance to survive before the explosion, she consumed a lot of the crew of the ship to create a super resistant carapace, when the ship exploded, stowaway was launched in the hive section direction and landed on the aliens territory, weakened, she starting hunting from the weaker to the stronger, but the captain killed the aliens queens, her ultimate prey, seeing him as her greatest foe and wanting to end what her started she easily killed the majority of the soldiers, with a special power armor,the captain and the alien dueled,with the captain vitorious but badly injuried, as a way to preserve her own being, stowaway used one last lethal bite, injecting her DNA sequence,almost dead, the captain and his remaining men runned to the ship, and departed in direction to the marines HQ, even though he was treated by the medics, stowaway DNA started to slowly fuse with the captain DNA, creating a hybrid abomination, after days of agony,the captain sucumbed to his new side, he easily subudoed his crew and infected then, when he arrived at the marines HQ planet it became an carnage, with stowaway senses e abilities and the captain experience and intellect, he seemed invencible, five years later, an new HQ sent an extermination team, to secure part of the once human planet, which was once full of trained soldiers is now domain of feral hybrids and their symbiotic creations, the team is composed of:Raslof, the captain enhanced with nano machines to face the hybrids,Simon 0T98, the medic cyborg, suffered great injuries during a fight with the hybrids and needed to substitute his two arms, one leg and 1/3 of his brain due to infection, he barely survived the procedure,Durlean, the hybrid scientist, an unpredicable scientist which was doing illegal tests with hybrids dead bodies, discovered how their symbiotes are created and managed to control one via strong will and an inibidor to the symbiote mental influence, using the symbiote to alterate the infection(he infected himself on purpose) stages, he can gain a lot of power, at the cost of less self control to himself, he now have three minds fighting each other for the body domain, his human side has prevailed, until now and Erica, the alien support, after the infection on the captain was complete, his fight with the HQ made him lost some of his blood, which resulted in Erica creation, her fisical body is pure alien, and resembles stowaway a lot, but her mind has the captain calm and good personality and stowaway female alien protective side of her kind and friends, she's lethal, but a lot innocent, she dislikes fighting and killing, but she rarely was seen losing her mind to her vicious side, cause she's part of captain body and mind, she shares a mental connection with him, and both suffer from the other thoughs and influences, she appeals to his human side but him wants her to join him, is the new HQ greatest informer.

ville 10 years ago

Thanks Sheograth! I definitely like it. I wonder if the different characters could actually be playable, so you'd first play the alien, the captain, the medic, the scientist, and so on. Or some of it could be backstory that you'd have to find out during the game. Or that would be the normal timeline, but your task would be to change that using your own chosen character.

Sheograth (guest) 10 years ago

Well, the game should start with the team arriving at the marines HQ planet, let's not forget that in the first notrium all the marines(except that crazy one on his hut) are agressive, and when their leaders are killed, they start working to you, this means they were manipuled by force and fear, probably they weren't given full information about their missions, the same goes to this "purge" in notrium 2, they work for the NEW HQ of the same marines, I believe the details should be discovered during gameplay by the captain or hidden on the new HQ computers, I think we should maintain a bit of notrium mistery in this one too, every individual in the team should keep their history as a secret, maybe telling their history to the ones they trust, they think they are just trying to save the planet, but what if the same greedy imoral HQ wants to explore the first hybrid(captain) capacities, maybe it would be very cliche, but something I would reaaaally like it some resources would respawn at some locations, this isn't hive sector and there's being a war between humans and hybrids.... so.... probably ships would crash, and we could loot then?Maybe some would be disappointed by the absence of the psionic,infact a very known bounty hunter werivar(yes, it was a great mod, his participation would substitute the psionic place) called william arrives with his crew searching for the captain to take him alive to another marine corporation or maybe your own corporation, thinking he would get a good reward, maybe an infection system too, like, if Raslof get's attacked too much by the hybrids he would get infected and would have to hurry to his ship and get's treated by an robot medic or Durlean would extract it with his symbiote, the more the infection spreads, the greater would be the debuffs and buffs too, like, body would change, would be more vulnerable to bullets, but would be resistant to hand-to-hand attacks in the first day, maybe, the more conflicts with the hybrids the quickest your character would get psichological affected, maybe infection should only be present on hard mode or hardcore mode.(oh and sheograth is just my games alter ego) Well, the game should start with the team arriving at the marines HQ planet, let's not forget that in the first notrium all the marines(except that crazy one on his hut) are agressive, and when their leaders are killed, they start working to you, this means they were manipuled by force and fear, probably they weren't given full information about their missions, the same goes to this "purge" in notrium 2, they work for the NEW HQ of the same marines, I believe the details should be discovered during gameplay by the captain or hidden on the new HQ computers, I think we should maintain a bit of notrium mistery in this one too, every individual in the team should keep their history as a secret, maybe telling their history to the ones they trust, they think they are just trying to save the planet, but what if the same greedy imoral HQ wants to explore the first hybrid(captain) capacities, maybe it would be very cliche, but something I would reaaaally like it some resources would respawn at some locations, this isn't hive sector and there's being a war between humans and hybrids.... so.... probably ships would crash, and we could loot then?Maybe some would be disappointed by the absence of the psionic,infact a very known bounty hunter werivar(yes, it was a great mod, his participation would substitute the psionic place) called william arrives with his crew searching for the captain to take him alive to another marine corporation or maybe your own corporation, thinking he would get a good reward, maybe an infection system too, like, if Raslof get's attacked too much by the hybrids he would get infected and would have to hurry to his ship and get's treated by an robot medic or Durlean would extract it with his symbiote, the more the infection spreads, the greater would be the debuffs and buffs too, like, body would change, would be more vulnerable to bullets, but would be resistant to hand-to-hand attacks in the first day, maybe, the more conflicts with the hybrids the quickest your character would get psichological affected, maybe infection should only be present on hard mode or hardcore mode.(oh and sheograth is just my games alter ego)

Sheograth (guest) 10 years ago

Oh, and maybe the other characters should be unlocked by some in game events or advancing with the humans campaign by playing with the captain(Raslof), maybe after finishing the humans campaign with everyone then we should be able to play the hybrids campaign(with our loved captain(it seems you need a name young abomination).To an really open game like notrium there should be a lot of endings, I think maybe, succumbing to the hybrids side, destroying the hybrids, taking the captain place as the hybrids leader, taking the captain alive to the HQ for experiments, joining William, Erica joining the captain(hybrid), the captain(hybrid) would come o his senses(due to Erica influence) and maybe kill himself to let the team purge the planet easily against unorganized hybrids,Durlean would lost control of his infection and go wild, Durlean would learn with the captain(hybrid) how to control his hybrid side, Durlean would cure himself,Simon should only take his revenge.there's no need to have ALL these endings but some would be pretty good to be on the game, but the answer to why I loved notrium so much was two things: survival and stowaway evolution, it's really, REALLY hard to find a game where you can play as an alien and evolute.

Sheograth (guest) 10 years ago

I should make an account, would not want someone stealing my ideas, even though I justcare for notrium 2 being released

TheTylerLee (guest) 10 years ago

The main problem (Only problem?) i hear about Notrium is that its too short.

Giving the game a more sandbox feel could giver players alot of re-play value.

example: Resources spawn randomly ,, NPC's maybe drop loot ,, Build a base ,, More monsters at night ?

Longshot idea, But i honestly believe if you Throw in alot of sandbox elements,, and tweak the 4 classes (or more) to really show how they are different, That you could turn this game into a Arcade like sandbox mmo with pvp...

Stealing resources / Building turrets,, building cities,, destroing cities...

Alot of people are looking for a competitive mmo that they can just "Pick up and play"

===
Permadeath of course,, and the only thing really seperating the 1year old characters from the 1 day old characters could be

Their structures, Perks, Supplies , Map control , Team size ,
(Maybe cyborgs get implants for new tech,, humans get perks, and aliens get evolution levels

Craftables would be a currency, So you wouldnt need money in the game.

The game could mainly be Humans Vs Aliens,, With cyborgs being with whomever they want.

Or maybe even team based, Where your attacks hit anyone not in your guild/team

I would pay for this game, and i dont pay for games.

Notrium is awesome, Its just too short,,

MageKing17 10 years ago

TheTylerLee (guest) said:
That you could turn this game into a Arcade like sandbox mmo with pvp...

O_o

Zayron (guest) 10 years ago

Sheograth (guest) said:
Erica, the alien support, after the infection on the captain was complete, his fight with the HQ made him lost some of his blood, which resulted in Erica creation, her fisical body is pure alien, and resembles stowaway a lot, but her mind has the captain calm and good personality and stowaway female alien protective side of her kind and friends, she's lethal, but a lot innocent, she dislikes fighting and killing, but she rarely was seen losing her mind to her vicious side, cause she's part of captain body and mind, she shares a mental connection with him, and both suffer from the other thoughs and influences, she appeals to his human side but him wants her to join him, is the new HQ greatest informer.

This would be my favorite character. My only question is, didn't the captain say he killed the stowaway in one of his journal entries? He said he used a flamethrower and told all the crew about it.

michael15286 10 years ago

I do hope you'll keep us posted Ville. Notrium is one of the memorable games from my childhood, and it's what got me into modding games when I got older.

Good luck with it!

INFERNUS 10 years ago

I'd really like to see Notrium II less hard-coded.
I mean, you need to create 20 items and a whole bunch of laggy scripts to get a simplest system of some sort, rather than making one item that you can address variables to it with few scripts.

Multiplayer would also be awesome with mod support. I know that Ville said that he doesn't have that knowledge (Or something, can't remember). But, hiring someone wouldn't be a bad idea if you have enough resources for that.

Sheograth (guest) 10 years ago

Zayron (guest) said:
Sheograth (guest) said:
Erica, the alien support, after the infection on the captain was complete, his fight with the HQ made him lost some of his blood, which resulted in Erica creation, her fisical body is pure alien, and resembles stowaway a lot, but her mind has the captain calm and good personality and stowaway female alien protective side of her kind and friends, she's lethal, but a lot innocent, she dislikes fighting and killing, but she rarely was seen losing her mind to her vicious side, cause she's part of captain body and mind, she shares a mental connection with him, and both suffer from the other thoughs and influences, she appeals to his human side but him wants her to join him, is the new HQ greatest informer.

This would be my favorite character. My only question is, didn't the captain say he killed the stowaway in one of his journal entries? He said he used a flamethrower and told all the crew about it.

When you play as stowaway she mentions on her journal that the captain killed another alien which he though that was her.

akshat (guest) 10 years ago

pleasew add auto save

Guest09 (guest) 10 years ago

Most anticipated game of my last 10 years

tHe_silent_H (guest) 10 years ago

My suggestion for a character would be a symboite (2 creatures working together) imo a mostly plant based "host" and an intellegnt worm or something. The Host protects the worm, who in turn is it's sight and can identify freind and foe, is more intellegent. being plant based means it regenertes health during the day, but moves slower at night. has natrual armour, can't use power armour, can use one handed guns, and most devices(googles, radio) Possiblely related to the plant race that twisted the psionics race. would allow a "conversation" in the logs

Also suggest a cave area, narrow twisting paths, with large open caverns, little or no natrual light.

Rivers should be a thing, forces movement in direction of the flow.

weapon that shots home in on enemies, a weapon that shot splits into 2/3 smaller projectiles on hitting a target, or maybe a weapon that bounces from foe to foe

Kenneth (guest) 9 years ago

There's an alpha game that looks like a spiritual successor of Notrium, but with dinosarus, it's called dino system:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=331479068

ville 9 years ago

Wow, it looks exactly like Notrium 1, they even have the same kind of trunkless trees and 2d rocks!

Originally I envisioned the alien ecosystem in Notrium 1 to have exactly that kind of realistic mechanics, but then I focused more on the scary shooter aspect.

One thing I see in their demo, they have the same problem as Notrium 1: For most (or at least some) fights you need to run backwards and keep shooting at your enemy. I always found that to be a very stupid combat mechanism, even when developing the original.

Kenneth (guest) 9 years ago

@ville
It's nearly impossible to fight while moving backwards, because the character can easly stumble, and when it happens you can't move for some instants, you can see this in the trailer when he fights the triceratops. It is still possible, but extremely unconvenient. Athletics skill reduces the chances to stumble though, but doesn't remove them completely

Kenneth (guest) 9 years ago

Btw, Ville, I'm a big fan of your games since 10 years!

ville 9 years ago

Ah, it's good to hear that they tackled the problem in some way. Thanks Kenneth, I'm glad to hear you've liked my work!

Freshairkaboom (guest) 9 years ago

I've been looking for this game for ages! I am completely in love with this game (I only ever got through it as Alien, have yet to succeed as the other races).

I am redownloading the game right now. Can't wait to try it out again after all this time!

ville 9 years ago

Glad to hear you're a fan!

When you're replaying, be sure to think about how you would improve it as a modern gamer. Graphics obviously, but how would you improve the gameplay?

Freshairkaboom (guest) 9 years ago

Sure! First of all, options menu:

Hotkeys (I want to open inventory with space for example).

Detail level (Choose between high detail for new game and low detail for nostalgia/low end PCs)
- - -
Gameplay:

Make the entrance to new zones safe, so you can scout what kind of area it is before getting poison spitted by an Eden tentacle.

Make pebbles stun an opponent for a short duration and disorient them. I think pebbles should be like a runaway weapon to make the gameplay smoother in the beginning.

Inventory arrangement, add different tabs for different purposes. Weapons should have their own tab, tools (like flashlight) should have their own tab, and medical equipment (like batteries, health pack, ice pack) should have their own tab. Add a big letter and a line, like this:

A ---------

B ---------

...above items with the corresponding letter, would make inventory way more easily read.

Freshairkaboom (guest) 9 years ago

As for gamebreaking new mechanics, why not try making it multiplayer? Doesn't have to be online either, just make a LAN option, so friends can play together. Games today are all about the multiplayer, so that would definitely help your cause.

ville 9 years ago

Thanks for the ideas!

Freshairkaboom (guest) 9 years ago

Oh, and I think Alien needs a change of pace. I like the idea of hunting with Alien, and then bringing the meat to a campfire to cook it. Maybe make it so that alien can cook all types of meat, but can't eat mushrooms? He seems like a carnivore to me.

Also, you shouldn't be able to pick up items you can't use. It's just a waste of time to craft Power Armor as Alien, only to realize only human and android can use it, wasting a perfectly good Forcefield generator.

I also like the idea of pushing people away with weapons, reducing the running and shooting method a little. Maybe make Alien's claws, human's punch and android's pummel have a slight knockback effect, to make them more viable to use. The punch and pummel still have the drawback of becoming more hungry/using energy, so I don't think it's too much to ask. The claws are great, but it always feels a little underwhelming to have to kite aliens like that, or lure them onto slowing terrain for instance.

Also, the map needs to be bigger, and it needs to be more randomized (Hive shouldn't be in the same place always, like it is now). Maybe make it 4x4, and the areas don't have to have a specific name, but should be themed (desert, snowlands, volcanic area, forest).
------
In other notes, I'm thinking about creating a simple wiki for Notrium. I have no idea if it's any use though, don't know how many people who even play it. It's one of the things I missed playing this game though.

Freshairkaboom (guest) 9 years ago

Ah, it actually seems there is a wikipage on it now. Must have missed it.

Uthael (guest) 9 years ago

- Make the furthest east and the furthest west areas connect. The planet is round, right?
- Drop items towards character facing. If I'm heavily overburdened (arranging stuff in my base), I should be able to turn the character in place to drop items on different spots. This way you can pick one up without having to pick all of them. Also, when drag-dropping outside of inventory screen, an item should drop towards the cursor.
- Advanced control setups; to be able to manually create something like "eat worst hunger-per-mass food" or "drop heaviest item stack" and bind it to a key, withing the game's UI.
- items that rot/wither. A small alien left in the swamp should disappear/degrade a lot faster than a robot in a rocky desert. Also makes for a nifty automatic cleanup of the mess your turrets make. Ever played Crimsonland? Well, it starts to look like that.
- More AI (SOS mod has some decent AI examples)
- Interaction with NPCs beyond r-click. One way of implementing it would be using dialog choices as items in a separate inventory. You'd gain/lose them depending on situation. Yelling for help could order all frendlies in a radius to follow for a minute. Or you could talk with the Hermit about stuff.

Dumping some suggestions... Maybe for some other game if not Notrium. Although this game is very old now, I'd say it's still the best of it's kind. Not "one of the best", "the best". Heck, I'd pay for the full-fledged sequel without waiting for a discount.

Uthael (guest) 9 years ago

Darnit, can't edit previous post. Have to post again.

- About inventory management; One could choose how to display it, pretty much like you can do with the Windows icons. small, large, list, details, etc. The area on the right with item descriptions could be toggled. If toggled off, cursor could show item description like it's "carrying" a tooltip.
- If this is about another game, lose the borders. Make it continuously un/load like Dungeon Siege or Minecraft.

For anyone that's developing a game, watch some Extra Credits videos. Those are good hints about what makes games great. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbf8o0o190w

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