Attention! This is a legacy build of the Mega Man RPG from 2017 and is no longer being maintained.
Reported bugs will not be fixed and any progress made here will not be saved.
Return to the archive index for more legacy content or
play the current version of the game for all the new stuff.
As I've stated many times, the current "plot" in the prototype is filler and is not intended to be final. Most of the scenarios don't make sense, the writing is poor, and there is a lot of repeat-content. In the next major version of the game the plot and progression will be vastly different and anything that happens now in the story will not matter.
While I'm still developing the plot and changing details of it every day, I have a basic outline that I'm working with. I was hesitant to make it public lest people rip it apart before it's done, but you guys have been so great over the last few months that I think it might be fun to post what I have so far.
Please note that I will be constantly changing things and I will always have the final say, but feel free to make comments or suggestions on anything you want. :)
The Story So Far
- Many years since the events of MM10, the world appears to be peaceful once again. Dr. Wily goes into retirement it seems and is not seen for many, many years. Most assume he has died or is otherwise incapable of harming humanity any further and the future looks bright for planet earth.
- Dr. Light and Dr. Cossack decide to create a new prototype AI for future generations of robots. They want to create robots that will think and make their own decisions without blindly following orders. This prototype project will be the base for which all future robots will be built, and the world over is both excited and terrified about Light Labs' new endeavor.
- The two decide to program this AI with all the knowledge and data on past robots, abilities, locals, and history to ensure it is well equipped to make informed decisions and handle ethical dilemmas. Detailed attack patterns, battle weaknesses, and even data on minor enemies is documented and programmed into the prototype. New generations need to be prepared for whatever evil may come, so learning from the past is essential.
- Much research is carried out by both doctors, and eventually the two begin create the prototype's code starting with the test environments for their experiments. The test environments should mimic real-world locations that the robot might have to navigate and are thus modeled after past stages. Having these fully fleshed out environments will allow the doctors to create a sort of virtual reality to experiment with different battle strategies and encounters.
- Fully functioning copies of all existing robots are created in the prototype database and their basic battle logic is programmed in as well. Special weapons have also been converted to digital format, compressed, and added to the prototype. Environments are given special properties and basic mission data is created for training exercises. The time for testing the robots born of this new AI is close at hand.
- With most of the footwork has been laid for the environment, the doctors decide to start testing out the battle capabilities and realism of their prototype. The two build a way to digitally integrate real-world robots into the program and use existing, patented technology for connect humans to machines to hook themselves into the program for greater immersion. Specially made bed with tubes and wires and straps to keep them safely in position are created.
- Using an already proven and tested robot against the new prototype copies will also allow them to record the results more accurately and first hand, so they choose to use one of their own in the first test. Mega Man is the first to volunteer for the project and Dr. Light jacks him into the prototype Battle Network style. Dr. Light connects himself into one of the three available human integration beds and then he and Mega Man go through a series of training exercises to test the AI of the prototype.
- Our heroes make countless adjustments over the next several months as they perfect the battle routines of their copies. Meanwhile Dr. Cossack keeps the media at bay and publicises their findings to the best of his abilities without giving too much away. The project appears to be going very well though no images or first-hand video are shown.
- Dr. Wily watches from an undisclosed location with Bass in the background. He decides to keep a close eye on the project.
- With the project in full swing and the new AIs are functioning exceptionally well without operators or command from humans. The doctors decide to publish a live demonstration to the public soon, with Mega Man and Dr. Light taking on a series of missions to show the battle prowess of the new copies thus far. The doctors realize that the work is incomplete and the robots will be relatively weak, but it's an incredible first step in a future of autonomous robots able to make better decisions without human interference.
- Proto Man is made aware of the project over the radio waves, and decides to keep a close eye from afar as well.
- The night before the demonstration NAZA detects strange temporal and spatial anomalies occurring close to earth, but they disappear before a good reading can be made. They decide to look into it but not alarm the public until there's more data.
- Dr. Wily notices this same occurrence in space and decides to leave with Bass, headed towards an undisclosed location.
- The day of the event Dr. Light and Mega Man prepare to be integrated. Dr. Cossack is close by and will be operating the prototype from the real world while Dr. Light and Mega Man go through a selection of eight missions for the audience to observe. The world is watching and the two heroes jack into the Prototype.
- Dr. Wily appears in the crowd, disguised in a fedora and trench coat to prevent suspicion. Bass enters separately with a brown, tattered cloak, ala Battle Network (again). The two watch quietly from the back of the conference room.
- The first mission is completed and then suddenly the two are attacked by a robot that was not programmed into the simulation. Mega Man attempts to dispose of the small alien-looking program, but the robot escapes before there is a chance. Dr. Cossack is unable to figure out where the robot came from and the system stops responding to his input. Dr. Light and Mega Man attempt to jack out of it and return to the real world but a powerful interference prevents them.
- Dr. Wily and Bass appear to have expected something like this and begin to move toward the stage.
- Proto Man is made aware of the drama and quickly takes action, rushing toward the city on his Proto Shield.
- At this point it is made clear to Dr. Cossack that the prototype is no longer under his control and he begins to lose contact with Dr. Light inside the program. They try to analyse the data and find the source of the interference but are ultimately unable. Right before the monitors go out and Dr. Light's communication with the outside world is severed, a set of giant, glowing, comet-like objects reveal themselves from the sky and begin orbiting the earth. Each with unique markings on their surfaces and differently coloured trails of light flowing behind.
- Dr. Light's body remains in a kind of suspended animation on stage and Cossack rushes over in an attempt to unhook him. Mega Man remains connected, eyes glowing with debug data streaming over them like screens.
- A sudden, bright flash of light is followed by a powerful wave over the planet, and robots all over the world begin to enter a state of paralysis, falling to the ground before quickly entering a non-responsive, offline state.
- Bass falls to the ground and Wily is left frozen in his tracks, unsure of what just happened or what to do next. Proto Man can be seen in the background collapsing just shy of the conference area and unable to get close enough to help. Humans are helpless and begin entering a frenzied panic as every electronic device on the planet is buffeted by comet waves and shuts down until all that remains online are the prototype computers.
- Suddenly all the prototype monitors and screens show a mysterious figure, alien in nature though more intimidating than the last. Primary green and almost feminine, the entity identifies itself as "Slur" and tells of its master casting judgement upon the humans of the earth.
- The master has seen our past, our present, and even our future and can see that we will never learn from our mistakes, repeating them ad nauseum and passing them onto future generations until they eventually spread outward into space and corrupt the delicate balance of the universe. Slur explains that the end of this race is forthcoming, and that the planet needs to be purified of the evil energy we have amassed.
- Without hesitation Slur teleports into the real world in front of a terrified audience and locks eyes with Wily, much to his terror. In an almost psychic-like display of power Slur raises Wily off his feet and pulls toward the stage. Dr. Wily is forced into one of the integration beds and connected to the computer. Cossack, attempting to make an escape, is stopped dead in his tracks and picked up in the same manner as Wily. Cossack is looked over briefly before being forced into the last remaining bed and connected against his will to the computer.
- The lifeless bodies of Bass and Proto Man are raised from the ground and brought toward the stage, being connected to the computer in the same manner as Mega Man. The two robots eyes light up and their data is transported into the prototype. Wily and Cossack struggle, but are powerless in the face of Slur and quickly lose consciousness.
- Slur remains on-stage and watches as the rest of the population scrambles to get away. Several shots are fired at Slur by law enforcement and vigilante civilians, but they are all deflected without effort and ultimately ineffective. A second robot teleports down from one of the comets, smaller than Slur and with a different colour scheme though similar in appearance otherwise. This is the same robot that attacked Mega Man and Light moments before. The robot makes its way over to the control panel on the prototype and begins interfacing with the device.
- Slur looks to the sky and pauses, then says "yes master" as the screen fades...
Prototype Devroom : Plot Discussion Posted by Adrian Marceau on July 27th, 2013 at 4:30pm Viewed 2404 Times
I, for one, am very confused by this "Slur" fellow. I was previously led to believe that Robots such as himself and his companion Trill were the new AI given physical form, but that seems to not be the case. If he is the AI, why would it be aware of happenings off of planet Earth, and why would he suddenly go rogue? If he is not the AI, why does he seem to know everything about the virtual world in which the AI dwells, and—perhaps more importantly—who is the AI? Does the AI even take on a physical form in the virtual world? What is the AI, anyway?
I would make further commentary, but there's an awful lot here that I'm not being told. Like where "Trio" falls into all of this.
To answer your question at the top, (from what I got from reading it), Slur is not the AI but is part of a group like Duo. They probably watch the universe as they are judges. They probably watched Light create the prototype so they know how it works. Who is the AI? When you play a game and go aganist a game AI, its the same thing. All it is is the prototype. Hope I answered your questions. This might be wrong though.
Posted on January 19th, 2014 at 7:14pmEdited on 2014/01/19 at 7:20pm
Posted 2014/01/19 at 7:14pmEdited 2014/01/19 at 7:20pm
#7
*gasp* All these years, I thought it was "everyone"... I'm a disgrace to the world... *sobs*
Back on topic, is Slur an alien or a robot from another planet? How did his partner get into the Prototype? Why do I ask so many questions? And how come no one recognized the (probably) wanted criminal Wily just because he was wearing -shot-
Posted on January 19th, 2014 at 7:35pmEdited on 2014/01/19 at 7:46pm
Posted 2014/01/19 at 7:35pmEdited 2014/01/19 at 7:46pm
#8
Lets hope he spares you like he did me.
Slur is probably a robot from another planet or maybe just a space robot. Slurs partner probably teleported in with alien technology. You are probably curious and maybe they were focusing on the reveal of the prototype. Either that, or theres a reason why humans rely on robots so much. The bigger question to me why no one recognized Bass just because he-shot-.
RIP MegabossMan "I didn"t die though, it was a joke. Jeez"
Well, you see... the plot is a W.I.P. so some of these aren't ready to be answered yet. I will go into a little more detail about the star robots though... or are they aliens? Star...droids? Maybe "stardroids" could be a blanket turn for all space-based robot/alien hybrids? Whatever, it's doesn't really matter yet. This is their backstory as I see it:
Slur and Trill are like ambassadors for an intergalactic space council that surveys and passed judgement on planets.
The council is a hierarchy made up of three tiers - the first is headed by Solo, the second is/was headed by two Duo units, and the third tier is comprised of three identical Trio units.
The Duo units were responsible for surveying the good and evil of planets and passing passing judgement on those that had run out of balance. During a mission to survey Earth, the two Duo units could not come to an agreement on the fate of the planet and a great battle was fought. The dark side of the Duo unit was destroyed, but the light side appears to have forgotten it's origins and allied with the planet it was meant to destroy.
After years of no contact from the Duo units, the council set out to find them and were naturally lead to Earth by their energy signatures. Unfortunately for our planet, the council has been watching from afar for years as their asteroid drifted slowly toward our solar system. This gave them plenty of time to evaluate our past, present, and future and discover that despite our best attempts we will always lose and always succumb to the darkness.
The council sends Slur and its partner Trill to the Earth to collect data on our technological progress and then reset our planet back to its evolutionary beginnings. The two oblige, having completed missions like this hundreds of times over in their lives, and head to Earth together with absolutely perfect timing, crashing the unveiling of the prototype with terrifying style.
Because Slur enjoys its job and has a bit of an arrogant personality, it decides to play a bit of a game with the humans and their robot slaves before putting them out of their mercy. Using highly advanced alien technology (because aliens) they fling the planet's primary heroes figures into the prototype itself and force them to fight their way out.
The doctors and their robots fight Trill and a slurry of other robots under the idea and promise that doing so will allow them to escape and to free their planet, but whether or not Slur plans to keep it's word is another matter. It does have a job, after all.
What actually happens from here as displayed in-game is up to anyone's interpretation, up and and including the player-battles, the end-game scenario, and other/potential future content, it's really all up in the air at this point and I'm getting more and more ideas the more I read your comments.
Also, Slur and Trill have complete control over the prototype simply because they are powerful beings with highly advanced technological skills, assimilated from a multitude of fallen planets and peoples. What's happening to our players is a combination of Slur and Trill's messing around with the system and mechanics already present in the system from the start. That being said, the prototype's database is quite vast and there may be parts of its memory space that the two ambassadors are not fully paying attention to during this event... Who knows what kind of junk data has been accumulating in that vast, empty place...
Okay; now that I have some context, it makes more sense. Except for one thing.
I've seen Slur referred to as "he," "she," and "it" now. What gender is the Robotic judge?
I think it's worth noting, at least, that a lot of people have given the "Evil Energy Robot" the fan name Solo. You should have your explanation of the Galactic Council ready at all times, this being the case.
So, if there are three identical Trio units, I imagine a battle against him would just be fighting the same Trio three times over? That doesn't sound very exciting. What if Trio was, instead, composed of three separate units that communicated to one another and judged races, much like the Duo units? As I interpret it, they would be less inclined towards their morality (Like the Duo units are/were), and more about their power as a people. Perhaps they could be composed of Body, Mind, and Soul? I don't know, it's kind of an on-the-spot idea...
I've been a bit all over the place with Slur's gender pronouns and I apologize. Anatomically, Slur is genderless as is Trill, but as far as personality and perceived gender I would classify Slur as female. I've been consciously trying to use the "it" pronoun as much as possible to give the impression that Slur is above binary gender roles, but it's really easy to accidentally slip into using feminine pronouns because of her (imagined) voice and disposition. To finally put an end to the debate, Slur is genderless but has feminine qualities and would not object to a lesser-being referring to it as a "her". Does that make sense? :S
Also, I've seen people give the "Evil Energy Robot" a few different names over the years and I made the decision to ignore all of them in the absence of anything official. The first one I saw was "Oud", which is just "Duo" backwards and feels pretty lazy and uninspired to me. Also it's near impossible to properly pronounce. The second one I saw is "Solo" as you mention, but having one robot named "Solo" and the other named "Duo" implies that they are somehow not equal when their designs appear to indicate more of a parallel relationship between the two rather than a 1st and 2nd type relationship. I personally think it makes more sense that the designation "Duo" applies to both robots as a group rather than one or the other, and given that these are aliens it's possible that their naming scheme for entities doesn't match what we're used to on our planet.
About Trio, you're right. When I said "identical" I should have said "incredibly similar". They, like Duo, are supposed to be three parts of the same whole. Each individual part may specialize in a particular affinity or skill, but they all fit together into one whole being. Your idea for having them split into mind, body, and soul seems pretty awesome to me and I may use it. Either that or some other facet of our reality/universe that's clearly split into three. I do like your ideas though, so it may hold some weight. :P
Like I said, most of these story details are being decided on as we go and it's pretty awesome having input from people like you to push us along. ^_^
Posted on August 9th, 2014 at 11:40pmEdited on 2014/08/10 at 12:07am
Posted 2014/08/09 at 11:40pmEdited 2014/08/10 at 12:07am
#12
Well, I suppose it's time for me to actually input some ideas.
I'm not a big fan of Duo O's role. It's been stated that he judges the evil of the planet and he and Duo A got into a fight, thus 8. This creates a few plotholes though. Why would he carry evil energy with him? I suppose it was from an earlier job, but that's assuming. How about he worked alongside Duo in the mentioned role, but with,minor differences. He worked with Duo, but unlike his pure brother, he was corruptible. On a mission, the beckoning power of a foreign energy took hold of his heart, and now his only mission was to corrupt others. The other members of the Galactic Counsel ordered Duo due to the other scouts that could hold a chance to Duo were busy with other problems(Cache?). Duo sadly took the mission and had to defeat his brother near our solar system. When Duo O was nearly finished, Duo A held back some of his power, taking his brother offline to one day repair him, but the Evil Energy managed to survive, and the damaged energy exploded, dealing heavy damage to both Duos. The Duo we know was repaired, but what happened to his other half? Perhaps someone could find and use him later......
When the Galactic Counsel declares extinction on Earth, who will Duo side with? The superiors whom he doesn't agree with, or our heroes, who fought alongside him to prevent the spread of a deadly virus?
In fact, who created the Counsel? Were the stardroids created by this person too? Were they affected by the Evil energy too? What role does Ra Moon have? And who is the master Slur speaks of? Are the Counsel and our heroes being manipulated by some outside force, who plans to take the blue pearl called Earth while everyone is distracted and tired? And why is the Earth such a hotspot for evil overloads. Why did Ra Moon crash here 20000 years ago? Was he exiled, or does the Earth hold a secret that is wanted throughout the Universe? In fact, why did the other spacebots from stragety come here specifically to grow life? What's so special about Planet Earth?
Also, why did Duo fight Dark Duo if he was supposed to destroy the planet? Why make him forget about his job? Just make it that he went back, told the boss that the Earth has too many goodhearted individuals in spite of the bad ones, or that the Earth holds somethinh special, the Counsel then scolds Duo, sends a more coldhearted group capable of destroying a planet, and tell them to go look for the special thing.
Posted on August 10th, 2014 at 12:40amEdited on 2014/08/10 at 12:59am
Posted 2014/08/10 at 12:40amEdited 2014/08/10 at 12:59am
#13
I've never played MM8, so I don't know who Duo A and O are, just that they're my initials :). Are they the Evil Robot and Duo?
Also, I'm interested in seeing the triple dichotomy in Trio and how they will oppose each other in nature. Will it be happiness, sorrow, and anger? Fire, water, and earth? Light, time, and space? Do you have anything planned for Trio so far? Btw, I do like the story (Protoman shield surfing ftw), although it's kinda sad how easily everyone was just slapped into the machine. Can't wait to fight it/her!
Duo O is Omega Duo, evil, and Duo A is alpha, good. BTW, that supports Duo is higher up in position, as Alpha refers to the leader and Omega refers to second in command.
And Trio is mind/body/soul. Check the database. Also, I assume Slur made an EMP wave, but how did Auto and Reggae get in if they're offline?
@TheDoc : I assume the Duo we know is Duo Alpha (since alpha mostly refers to "beginning"), and Duo Omega is the evil robot (since omega mostly refers to "end".)
Trio...hmmm... I dunno, but they kinda resemble the Triforce/the LoZ goddesses for me. (The effects of playing Super Smash Flash 2... -_-)
Once again, Trio is split into mind, body, and soul. Him having Wisdom, Power, and Courage would be cool, but it's a rather unusual trio. Check the database, as it holds info for all robots(and some rocking bios!)
@MegaBossMan : I had checked the database before. I just said that the three-way split of body, mind and soul kinda remembers me of the divisions of the Triforce. Juz sayin'.
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