San Fran Zombie: The Lore / Concept of a (Actually Not Dystopian) Zombie Game Universe

[gavinjon]

General Concept for the Game's Universe
The game would be set in a San Francisco that had a zombie outbreak in January of 1936 (with the Infection being called APP). It is now the year 2013 and the spread of APP is contained to the area specified in the image below. Because some strains of APP are extremely benificial to humans when used by themselves several megacorporations, the U.S. Government, the New York Mafia, and the Mexican Drug Cartels all compete to control the Containment Zone, leading to firefights between "Delvers" as well as the "Zed". There are 6 major enclaves, one for each faction. Each contains an entrance to the Containment Zone as well as possessing shops for "Delvers," processing areas for captured APP "colonies" and crystals, and many, many guards.

General Concept and Ideas for the Actual Game

• Honestly, I'm not exactly sure what this will turn out as yet, but I was thinking about making this similar to Warframe in the missions and crafting.
• Obviously, you wouldn't be in space, so you wouldn't have your own ship, instead you'd have an apartment in an enclave, making it easier to trade with survivors and meet new people, as well as letting NPC shops be a major thing, in addition to crafting.
• I was thinking that it would be a mission based game, with a map like warframe, with each mission taking a sector of the map and the goals of the missions changing randomly each day but with the enemies staying the same level.
• I was also thinking that parkour around natural and artificial obstacles would be cool to include, at least if it was seamless.
• All the weapon types in warframe would get a showing, though they wouldn't be the same weapons, obviously. I was thinking that the Warframe abilities would be "ascessories", letting you combo any ability with any outfit (which would go into determining HP and armor and determine your character's appearance both during and out of missions).
• I'm not sure, but I think Armor would be a stat, as would Armor points. Armor points would act as a first bar of HP and as they decrerased, your armour would decrease as well, making it so that if your Armor Points were empty, you would not have any Armor at all, meaning you would take the base value of all attacks straight to your HP.
• I would like to include weapon and armor durability, so instead of mastery, you would just have a general exp level that would increase. With ammunition being craftable, buyable, and limited.
• Instead of a preset load-out, like in Warframe, you would have a weight limit based on your level and could equip anything below that weight limit. You would be limited to having three active weapons (of any type) and one active armor.
• It would take 30 seconds to change which weapon or armor was active when you are in the middle of a mission.
• You could also find precrafted (and usually with damaged durability) weapons, ascessories, and outfits during missions, but you would have to have to be below your weight limit to pick them up.
  
• It would be possible to repair equipment if you were out of a mission and had the resources. It would take a minute to repair 100 points of durability, no matter how powerful the equipment was.
• You could craft / repair an amount of items equal to the number of machines of that type in your apartment. For instance, you could only craft ammunition if you had a "Gunsmith Workbench," but you would have to have metal that you looted from the world as well as gunpowder that you could loot or get from a "Chemist's Station" if you had the appropriate ingrediants. You would start with two machines that were types of your choice, as well as one "Free Slot" that could be used for any type of item.
• You could sell any item to a player, "The Exchange", or the auction house. If you sold an item at The Exchange, it would remain in the store for an hour for other players to buy before being removed. The exception to this was if it was a form of processed or unprocessed APP or its derrivatives with the exception of RAIDA, in which case it would never be available at the price it was sold at at the exchange and couldn't be posted on the Auction House, it could only be traded between players through the mail or in person. Any form of APP would sell for much more than any other item or ingredient.
• Every player would have reputation with each faction which could be raised and lowered in different ways (I won't specify them here, that would take too long). If your reputation was high enough with a certain faction, you could get basic equipment for free and have special recipes and premade items available to you as well as being able to call for NPC help during a mission. If your reputation was low enough, you might get a bounty for players in that faction who killed you, or even NPC kill teams sent in your direction during a mission.
• You would always have a pistol that doesn't use ammunition and never runs out of durability as well as a knife with infinite durability as hold-out weapons in case you screwed up. They would be the weakest weapons in the game, only intended to be used in absolute emergancies.
• If you died during a mission, your equipment would drop and though your teammates could give it to you, they wouldn't have to. Friendly fire for players in the same faction or players on your friends list would be off. This would mean that you would probably save your best weapon for emergencies, maybe not even equipping it at all during some missions and trading would be much more useful.
• Each mission in the game would be open multiplayer, with multiple parties in the map at once. You could attack other factions when a mission and steal their gear.

Borders of Containment Area in Red



About APP
The Zombie Virus called APP (Antigen Producing Pathogens) is actually groups of bacteria and viruses that work in tandem to change, fish, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians into a zombie-like organism. In other words, there are multiple strains of APP and an individual strain might be extremely helpful to humans (and would have a different scientific name) but the cocktail that makes up APP is extremely deleterious to all complex life-forms. APP itself actually has no scientific name, because it is actually a cocktail of interdependent species of viruses and bacteria, not a single species. Funnily enough, the species that make up APP on average do not live for more than 195 hours without the complete cocktail. APP as a whole is extremely dangerous to those who work around it and exceptionally hard to contain. It can melt through any substance but lead (and those containing lead) within 20 minutes of exposure. Pure lead will stop APP indefinitely, while lead based products (such as lead-infused glass) tend to last a month while in contact of APP. The objects APP "destroys" are not truly destroyed, they are just evaporated. The APP cocktail seems to have an animal-like intelligence, seeking out uninflected organisms to infect and trying to escape it's containment, making it extremely dangerous to work with or purify outside the infected area.

APP and It's Derivatives

• Antigen Producing Pathogen (aka APP): no scientific name
  • Incredibly dangerous to all Humans. Stay away if at all possible!
  • Can be cured using RAIDA
  • Everything is derived from it.
• RAIDA (Rapid Antigen Immunization Development Agent): Bacillus Curafabullus
  • Very Powerful General Purpose Antiviral / Antibiotic
  • Can cure APP infection as long as the patient is in Stage 1
• Slowpoke: Tenuivirus Tardasecessio
  • Causes all muscles to expand and contract slower
  • Removes memories that the patient chooses for the average of a month
  • Releases Dopamine
• Quest: 3/4 Neisseria Cessomessorem & 1/4 Bacillus Curafabullus
  • Stops degradation of cell DNA and RNA, effectively halting aging
  • Mental conditions can develop when a patient is on Quest, such as Dementia or Alzheimer's
• Patch: 1/10 Bacillus Curafabullus, 2/10 Tenuivirus Tardasecessio, 6/10 Bacillus Crescentesatiata 1/100 Alcohol, 9 / 100 Hydrocodone (the Opiate)
  • Combat / first responder med which fills the wound, sterilizes it, and gives pain relief all in one package.
  • The filling greatly accelerates the healing process, making pretty much all wounds that don't hit the brain, heart, or spine survivable.
• Others may be discovered

Stages of Infection for APP
1. Infected organism produces antigens well above the normal amount, causing necrosis in its heart and skin as a strain of the pathogen kills them and sends them through the blood to to the surface of the skin.
1. This stage will generally last three weeks to a month. At this stage, the organism is generally incapacitated and in excruciating pain. The infected do not seem to attack individuals at this stage.
1. Speeds up metabolism, reaction speed, and sensitivity to pain, while deriving sustenance from gaseous or liquid APP if food and water are not available.
1. Indiviuals maintain their mental faculties during this stage, only to lose them during the course of stage 2.
2. Removes neural connections others than those needed for organism's survival and replaces it with it's own. This reduction is especially noticeable in humans and causes a rapid decrease in the intelligence of the organism.
2. Infected organisms can no longer be cured using RAID.
2. Infected organism has lost the sense of touch and pain. Necrosis speeds up.
2. Infected organism seeks non-infected organisms to infect, usually by biting or scratching them.
2. Organisms at this stage emit pheromones to attract other infected organisms to uninflected organisms or areas with high concentrations of gaseous APP.
2. This stage will last anywhere from two months to two and a half years, depending on the organism's size when this stage begins.
3. Organisms may attempt to breed. Infected humans produce babies that grow in approximately three weeks, depending on the concentration of liquid or gaseous APP but infected animals generally grow much faster.
3. Infected organism's spawn are generally at the same level of mental faculties as their progenitor when born.
3. This stage will last approximately two to three months, depending on the APP density where the organism resides.
4. Metabolism slows to a crawl
4. The organism starts dying when the gaseous APP ppm are below 100. It also produces 1 ml of concentrated APP every 24 hours, which is generally released into the air as it is produced.
4. The speed which muscles contract and the organism's reactions slow to a crawl. This is caused by the spreading necrosis in the heart and brain and the organism's deteriorated and deteriorating neural connections.
4. The organisms tissue effected by necrosis is colonized by a strain of APP and starts to be replaced by colonies of all strains of APP. This extends the organisms lifespan and at this point the organism has no neural connections to the extremities at all.
4. This stage lasts anywhere from 10 to 40 years.
5. The organism becomes a colony of APP.


Feedback is welcome, I want to know what you guys think.

If you come up with any more miracle drugs, propose their usage, common name and, scientific name and I'll see if I can include them. I want true miracle drugs or powerful recreational drugs (because Cartels and Mafia are in there too), don't give me something like Tylenol. The supply is low because the ingrediants must be retrieved from the containment zone, so make it unique!

I look forward to seeing the comments and what you guys come up with!

 

[gavinjon]

Can I post images from google drive? If so, why isn't my image up? If not, what do I need to do?

 

[gavinjon]

• June 2nd, 1936: An underground APP colony (the only one known of it's kind) is discovered during the construction of one of the pylons of the Golden Gate Bridge. It immediately infects the surrounding workers and filters into the air and seawater (though it spreads much slower in the water) The overseers originally thought the APP was a poisonous chemical coming from a pocket beneath the floor of the bay. When the infected reached stage 2, it was found that this wasn't an ordinary chemical. Quarantine methods were tried and discarded as it was found that beyond the infected humans and animals, which spread the disease, APP could also spread into the water and air, making a burnt orange colored "gas" in the air and turning the infected water shades of neon yellow.
• June 10th, 1936: The federal government issues a quarantine of the area surrounding the APP colony and tries to evacuate the survivors inside. This is when it is discovered that APP is highly acidic, and they also discover by complete accident that lead completely blocks this biological acid. The soldiers who are sent into the infection are given overcoats and suits with lead woven in them, with other equipment being plated with lead or using lead lined materials. The price of lead rose dramatically for three years, then rose at a steady price after this discovery.
• June 17th, 1936: The best method of containment is determined to be building lead-lined walls in uninfected areas that would give the government time to build the walls before the infection reached it. At the rate the gas and infected water was spreading, they'd have approximately ten months to complete the walls. The building started, and as it began, survivors and people in the affected (but not yet infected) area were evacuated as fast as possible, with the government prioritizing the uninfected within a mile or inside of the infected zone.
• June 18th, 1936: The US federal government petitioned for aid from foreign nations. The nations which responded were to be given "Assistance provided by the US government after the "San Fran Crisis" is under control." Only three countries responded to this request in significant ways. These countries were the German Third Reich, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the UK.
  • The CCP initially rejected the US's proposal, but when it saw the US government buying and importing large quantities of lead, decided to lend a hand. This was mostly because the CCP was in control of several large lead mines and was not exporting as much lead as they produced. Thus, they were the biggest supplier of lead to the US government until 1993, and the US and China have remained close allies to this day. Communist China remains a major ally of the US to this day.
  • Germany was concerned about the possibility of the US joining the war they were planning on the side of France and other European countries, which would make it much more likely that they would lose the war as a whole. They wanted to ensure that the US would stay neutral in the conflict, so they lent their engineering expertise to the Quarantine Project. We remained close allies until the Treaty of London. We then drifted away from one another until Hitler's death by "soviet assassins," and the atrocities he had ordered. His successor, Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel. brought our countries back into an alliance. At the current moment, the US and the Third Reich are close allies, at least since Jews have been moved to and given control of Australia. Despite this, many have moved to the US or
  • The UK and the US were close allies for most of the US's (admittedly short) history. Thus, the UK did not hesitate to help the US both financially, materially, and with engineering expertise from their armed forces. The US has since repaid that debt many times over, the most major help being the Treaty of London, in which the UK gained control of most of the French coastline
• Apr 30th, 1936: "The Great Walls of San Francisco" finish thirteen days behind schedule. The infection reaches the wall twenty-two hours later. The potential disaster is diverted by a hair.
• Jan 1st, 1938: "The Great Walls of San Francisco" receive their first planned upgrade upward. In addition to this, a secondary set of walls are announced to be built a mile behind the first set. Since the construction of these is not nearly as urgent, they are expected to be completed in December of 1942. In actuality, the secondary set of walls will be delayed to Jan of 1947, a year after the war with Japan dies down.
• Sep 1st, 1939: Poland is invaded by Germany. France declares war but Britain does not, citing the four way non-aggression-pact the US, Germany, China, and the UK share, called the Quarantine Pact.
• Dec 13th, 1939: The first of the "APP Drugs" is discovered, a powerful anti-aging drug by the name of Quest. It is discovered to halt the aging of mice completely, and when tested on a cat works the exact same. When tested on humans it is discovered that it boosts the immune system substantially and delays the body's aging while it is on the drug. These effects end approximately three days after the patient gets off the drug. This so called "Miracle Drug" is, as soon as it is announced, in such high demand that it generally would cost close to ten-million dollars to get a single day's worth of the drug. It has now lowered to close to one-hundred thousand per day, which is still extremely expensive. All leaders of the countries in the Quarantine Pact are given a supply of the drug for as long as they remain in the government, with everyone else paying absolutely exorbitant amounts for a single dose. This drug alone encourages creation of the "Enclaves" and the "Delver Industry."
• May 10th, 1940: France is invaded by Germany. Because of this, the UK withdraws from the Quarantine Pact and makes an alliance with the US and a non-aggression-pact with the CCP. It then declares sanctions on Germany as well as committing covert operations in their territory arming and training rebels, putting the US in a very awkward position. The US then officially reprimands the UK, saying "We do not support the actions the UK has taken against the rightful rulers of the Poland and France." They also imposed very light sanctions on the UK while supporting their efforts under the table, which the Germans never found out about (and is still classified information in the game).
• Apr 10th, 1942: The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour after a major arms deal with the Chinese Resistance (controlled by the CCP) is discovered by Japanese intelligence. At this point in time, the Japanese have conquered everything in the Pacific not belonging to one of the countries originally included in the Quarantine Pact. The US declares war on Japan, as does the UK. The Chinese have been fighting Japan already for some time and the Germans do not declare war. The US rapidly shifts to a war economy.
• May 1st, 1942: The first of the Enclaves officially opens. It was at that time close to eleven times smaller than it is now, but still possessed of three floors possessing an area of over thirty-thousand square yards each.
• Jun 1st, 1942: Hitler is assassinated by a "soviet traitor to the Aryan race," who was actually one of his bodyguards. His successor, Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel is much more friendly to German minorities and conquered peoples, though is still extremely harsh on any Jews, Roma, and disabled people. However, he does stop deportation to concentration camp and also stops the "processing" of the people in the concentration camps beyond those who are already there (who are still killed in an attempt to remove witnesses). Other policies towards those groups continue to this day, though most Jews have since long left German controlled territory.
• Feb 23rd, 1944: The Republic of China retreats to Taiwan, leaving the CCP in charge of the mainland, which then forms the People's Republic of China.
• July 31st, 1944: The Republic of China is totally defeated and Taiwan is absorbed into the PRC, forming the first of it's "external provinces"
• Jan 1st, 1946: The Germans attempt a D-Day style invasion of Britain where they landed in Edinburgh and managed to march to Glasgow under heavy resistance before being "convinced" to come to the negotiating table with the UK with the US as a moderator.
• Jan 1st, 1946: The US officially opens the CIA with the official reasoning being the countering of the USSR's efforts to find out operations that the four members of the Quarantine Pact are conducting. Unofficially, it was to spy on other countries, including the other members of the Quarantine Pact and conduct counterespionage in the US and it's territories. The members of the Pact are starting to be known as the "Great Four," which will eventually become their common name.
• Jan 7th, 1946: The US convinces Germany and the UK to agree to the "Treaty of London" in which Germany gives the Belgian and French coastline to the UK, with Paris and Brussels being divided between the two (similarly to East/West Germany during the Cold War). They also agree to re-enter the Quarantine Pact with the US and China, but instead of a non-aggression treaty they agree to a full alliance, similar to NATO. In return for the return of UK territory and the gift of Belgian and French territory, the UK recognizes Germany as the rightful owner of all the other territory (and nations) they had conquered, and allowed the Germans and the Chinese the right of conquest to any territory belonging to nations unaligned with any of the countries in the Quarantine Pact. This causes many African and Asian countries to try to ally with the US or UK (or sometimes both), almost always offering extremely advantageous terms towards the US and UK. Though there were some offers from South and Central America, none were accepted, causing almost all the countries in that region to start moving to a wartime footing. Most of the offers from other regions were accepted, and the Germans and Chinese (begrudgingly) didn't invade those countries.
• Jan 10th, 1946: The Germans and Chinese would sign a separate treaty, saying that Germany would get to conquer the unaligned countries in Africa, the Middle East, the rest of Europe, as well as the entirety of the USSR. In return, China would all of Asia except the part controlled by the USSR, and all of the unaligned Pacific. Australia was unfortunately not included in this equation, because it was already allies with the US and the UK as it had been for many years. Germany and China also agreed to leave South and Central America alone, unless they had the US's express permission to invade one of those countries or the US invaded a country in any other region without their permission.
• Jan 31st, 1946: Germany renames itself the "New German Empire," or "Neues Deutsches Kaiserreich" officially to discourage people from calling it the "Aryan Reich" which was starting to become common. It was also thought to be to discourage the populous from discriminating against Jews. This is debatable though likely, because there was still much discrimination against Jews in the government of Germany and its occupied territories leftover from the (now fading) Nazi Party and discrimination against Jews and other racial and ethnic minorities would not become illegal until shortly after the US passed its Civil Rights Bill.
• Dec 19th, 1947: Tokyo falls to the combined might of the powers involved in the Quarantine Pact, and with it falls the Japanese government and the ability of its armed forces to coordinate. Their remains an armed resistance movement in Japan to the modern day, but they have not achieved anything to date and are well known as a terrorist movement. By consensus between the powers, the People's Republic of China (Abbreviated as the PRC, formerly the CCP) is given control of Japan, making it the PRC's third External Province, with Korea being the second.
• July 4th, 1951: First practical transistor is publicly announced (it was patented in 1950) by Bell Labs, marking the start of the "Information Age".
• Jan 1st, 1952: "Knowledge and Information Act" passed in the United States, regulating "the sale and public teaching of weaponizable information. By the setting's current date, the sale and public of all scientific knowledge beyond today's eighth grade is illegalized. Special high-schools are constructed to teach those with high grades in science and math. The individuals who qualify and or graduate from these programs are put under constant survellance and are only allowed to work for certain corporations that agree to work with the federal government, or the government itself. They are very high paid and often have positions of power inside the government or corporations. This act limits innovation and the spread of knowledge except to those already in positions of power.
  
• April, 1953: First accurate model of the structure of DNA is published in the Scientific Journal Life. [Real]
• April 7th, 1953: Mexico surrenders to the United States, it's first ever direct conquest for territory and resources rather than political reasons. The US continues southward as the Mexican Drug Cartels start found and fund the MFL (Mexican Freedom League).
• July 8th, 1954: Elvis Dressbey is played on the radio for the first time, singing 1946 Blues hit "That's Alright."
• July 16th, 1957: Führen 1 is launched by the Fourth Reich, starting the space age and the race to the moon.
• Feb 6th, 1959: Jack Kilbydattes applies for a patent for the first Integrated Circuit, allowing for much faster and much smaller computers.
• Jan 1st, 1961: The Free South American Zone (bottom of Peru and Argentina) surrenders. Every country that did not voluntarily join with one of the Great Four is now occupied. There is now no war, only "terrorist movements." The Third Reich controls some of Western and Northern Europe, Russia, the Middle East. The PRC controls the Pacific and most of Asia. Meanwhile, the UK controls Greenland, Alaska, some of Northern Europe, and some of Western Europe. Finally, the US controls North, Central and South America with the exception of Alaska.
• Jan 21st, 1961: World Population reaches 3 billion.
• Feb 15th, 1961: First oral contraceptive is first announced by LongVision Medical during a press conference, three days after being approved by the FDA.
• Feb 15th, 1961: During that same press conference, LongVision Medical announces the successful human testing of the second APP Drug, RAIDA, or Rapid Antigen Immunization Development Agent. It was deemed not nearly as useful as conventional antibiotics in most cases but was deemed extremely useful as an antiviral and was also deemed very useful in cases of severe infection or necrosis, where it very rapidly stopped and then reversed the spread of almost all other bacteria. It was not discovered to treat Stage One Infecteds until December of 1972, when a delver used it on himself while not in his right mind once infected. It dulled the pain enough for him to get back to safety and it was found that he was clear of the infection once he reached the Enclave he was based out of, even though his Envirosuit was still torn and he had an open bite wound. Most people in the Enclaves won't own even a single dose of raid because of it's cost (a single three-hour "round" of RAIDA generally costs around $500 depending on the demand of the other APP Drugs). However, almost all of those who work in the Containment Zone carry at least one round. The discovery of this drug and the fact that the distillation process of Quest is unpatented causes LongVision Medical to fund expansion of the US government's Enclave, on the condition that they get ownership of ninety percent of the expansion.
• Jan 29th, 1963: The truth about the Holocaust is revealed internationally by an investigative journalist associated with the New York TImes, which prompts outrage in most nations abroad. The US proposes international sanctions on the Third Reich as a PR move.
• Feb 15th, 1963: First oral contraceptive becomes publicly available around the globe and is used by more than two-hundred million women.
• Oct 28th, 1963: Civil Rights Bill Signed into place in the US and international sanctions against Germany are passed. Jews attempt to do the same, but fail because of the difficulty getting the message out due to their government's propaganda system and the hate that many Germans have learned to direct at Jews, the Roma, and the disabled.
• Dec 1st, 1963: The Germans decide to "make amends" by "kindly" deporting their Jewish population to Western Australia as an attempt to end international sanctions and the "Jew Problem" while keeping their supporters happy. While the Jews are unhappy, they go along with it willingly because getting the heck out of a country that nearly murdered every last one of them is rather sensible. However, because of the lack of support abroad, the Roma are plain out of luck, as are disabled people if their families are unwilling or unable to care for them.
• Dec 23rd, 1963: "Slowpoke," an extremely potent and expensive recreational drug becomes popular among the wealthy due to its lack of side effects, powerful effects, and difficulty to overdose with. After it is discovered that it is made from a "waste" strain of APP that can easily be distilled during the other drugs' (but especially RAIDA's) purification process, the Mexican Cartels start planning and building their own Enclave to get into the pharmaceutical industry to fund their covert war on the US.
• Apr 7th, 1969: ARPANET commissioned. It was the earliest precursor to the internet and connected all of the branches of central government of, major research agencies in, and some universities in Germany, the US, UK and China within two years.
• Jan 1st, 1970: Apollo 1 takes place, an effort to put a man on the moon before their friendly competition, the UK, the PRC and Third Reich. Only three days later, the Chinese succeed, still too late to claim the prize.
• Jan 1st, 1970: A tunnel under the English Channel to France is built. Another is started on the same day the following year to Belgium.
• Nov 7th, 1971: First commercial microchip produced. It made producing smaller and faster computers much easier. [Real]
• Jun 21st, 1972: Weed is made legal in the US and its territories by the Federal Government. Slowpoke is made a prescription drug to help in the therapy process of those affected by trauma or other mental disorders. The people who use Slowpoke legally are primarily those affected by PTSD in the current day.
• May 13th, 1973: Abortion is now legal in the US, UK, China, and Germany. The specifics differ by country and by state / province / territory.
• Jan 20th, 1975: World population reaches 4 billion.
• July 1st, 1975: PEAR I, the world's first personal computer starts selling. It was designed by a teenager named "Bill States" and is largely regarded as the start of the personal computer industry.
• Feb 5th, 1978: First artificial Insulin is produced. Soon it becomes a major medicine in countries across the globe.
• Dec 31st, 1979: Smallpox is eradicated.
• May 18th, 1980: Mount Saint Helens erupts.
• Sep 1st, 1983: The Chinese People's Air Flight 209 is shot down over the Philippines by terrorists from PAFO (Pacific Armed Freedom Movement). In response to not knowing where the plane crashed and to help SAR missions, the US DOD releases an incomplete system called the "GPS." This allowed the SAR teams to find the plane close to twelve hours after it crashed. It may never have been found otherwise. The "GPS" system went into common use close to five years after it was declassified.
• Feb 15th, 1985: Bombing of the US Mexico Territory Government Offices which kills 574 people.
• Feb 27th, 1985: First use of DNA fingerprinting which successfully finds the bombers after all other methods fail.
• Mar 30th, 1986: First Fusion Reactor successfully built. It produced over one-hundred times the amount a regular, coal generator would and produced almost no waste but were extremely expensive to build. However, because of it's advantages, it started to be built all over.
  Dec 3rd, 1987: World population reaches five-billion.
• Dec 17th, 1988: The Fusion reactor in the province of Chernobyl is sabotaged by PAFO and explodes in a massive reaction, killing everything within five-hundred kilometers. Since this kills more than thirty million people, the world population is decreased to four point nine-eight billion. It recovers to the five billion mark eighteen days later. There does not seem to be residual radiation, so the affected area is resettled within the year.
• Feb 1st, 1990: International Climate Assessment Board says the average global temperature has risen two degrees since 1946 because of carbon dioxide and other chemicals being released into the air.
• Jan 17th, 1993: The Chinese "冰二" (Bīng 2) conducts the first flyby of Pluto. It also delivers a British probe called "The Chip" to the surface of Pluto successfully.
• Jun 27th, 1997: Molly the Sheep becomes the first successfully cloned animal. Because of worries about human cloning, it is decided amongst the "Great Four" that all humans, no matter if they are naturally born or not will be given basic human rights and citizenship to their resident country. They do not outlaw further experimentation into either human cloning or human genetic modification. The Third Reich proves the dominant force of genetic modification research, mostly to "perfect the Aryan race."8
• Sep 10th, 1999: The world population reaches six billion. A cooperative manned mission is planned for 2007 by the "great four" to set up a small colony on, and start the terraforming of mars.
• Dec 31st, 1999: Patch is announced by LongVision Medical as "The absolute best help to combat medics and first responders to ever hit the market" and is the fourth APPed Drug to hit the market. That statement is soon proven accurate when it is given to the US military to be used in combat by their special forces, and goes into high demand, both by first responders and the Great Four's Military Agencies. Patch is generally only used if nothing else can save the patient because of it's cost, with a tenth of a liter of patch costing a thousand dollars (though that may be enough to help even a hundred bullet wound). Patch is known not to help the patient recover neural tissue and cannot act as muscle fibers until they regrow. Thus, a wound to the heart or the brain is still almost always fatal.
• Sep 21st, 2001: Terrorists of the organization PAFO (Pacific Armed Freedom Organization) launch the "Day of Terror" and bomb the White House, Zhongnanhai (the Chinese equivalent of the White House for those unaware), and Buckingham Palace successfully killing the US and Chinese presidents but failing to kill Queen Elizabeth II. The vice-president quickly steps up to the plate, launching a still-largely-ineffective "War on Terror" which is still going on today
• Oct 17th, 2001: After the US's FBIAT (Federal Bureau of Investigation for the American Territories) and NHA (National Homeland Administration), a well as China's MSS (Ministry of State Security) find evidence that the terrorists had economic support from the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia (or in other words the Australian national government) the Great Four launch an invasion, but soon get bogged down in bloody fighting with insurgents who possess large stockpiles of man-portable anti-armour and anti-air weaponry after their national government falls. These days Australia has been under martial law and heavily contested by terrorists and the Great Four for over twelve years.
• Jun 1st, 2004: Friendslist founded. It rapidly turns into the largest social media site on the Web.
• Jan 1st, 2005: The Beijing Protocol goes into effect, declares that the effects of Climate Change are most likely caused by humanity and regulates the CO2 emissions power plants, factories, and cars produce.
• Jan 5th, 2005: Mike Green discovers Eris, originally declared "the tenth planet." This forces NASA and the other space agencies of the Great Four to officially define what a planet is. After the definition of a planet is decided and announced Pluto is declared to no longer be a planet, instead becoming a dwarf planet.
• Dec 10th, 2007: The "Great Recession" officially starts and lasts until June 11th, 2009. It is decided to be a recession instead of a depression because the economies of the Great Four, in particular the US were not affected nearly as bad, with the worst hit areas of the globe being regions associated (but not part of) the great four with the poorest provinces being hit nearly as bad.
• Jan 1st 2009: MIT Particle Collider opens for operations. China's Tsinghua University opens a similar facility less than a month later.
• May 15th, 2010: First Oil Spill within 100 miles of the original forty-eight US states.
• Sep 1st, 2010: Tsinghua University designs the first FADE (Fusion Accelerated Direct Energy) Gun, which proves extremely effective in eliminating those infected by APP and unable to be cured using RAID, as well as killing entire Colonies of APP. It is deemed a standard secondary weapon for government troops in the Containment Zone and a standard primary weapon for the contractors who keep the CBZ (Containment Border Zone) clear of APP infestation.
• May 7th, 2011: The Pacific Spring starts with non-violent protests in areas controlled by the Great Four, but quickly moves into armed insurrection after the authorities bring in riot police to remove the protestors.
• May 30th, 2011: Japan and the Philippines declare independence from China as a result of the Pacific Spring. China announces through its news and propaganda platforms that the protestors are "rabid dogs that need to be put down" and launches an invasion of both countries, only to run into major resistance from the still-active PAFO and the relatively new PMFP (Pacific Militant Free Peoples).
• July 31st, 2011: The World Population reaches seven billion.
• Mar 11th, 2012: A magnitude 9.0 quake in Japan causes the Fukushima Fusion Plant to have a meltdown causing much of central Japan to lose power for over a month. Because of safety precautions after the Chernobyl Disaster, no lives were lost to the meltdown.
• July 4, 2012: The Higgs-Boson particle is discovered to exist at the MIT particle collider by a Physics student working overnight for a deadline on a paper for her summer class.
• Nov 2, 2012: Hurricane Katy, the most destructive hurricane to ever hit the Atlantic States (but not territories) of the US finally dissipates after causing over 200 billion dollars worth of property damage.
• Jan 5th, 2013: Current date of the setting (this may change...eventually).

Honestly, I'm not sure if this will offend anyone. I certainly hope! If you have changes or additions to propose to the timeline, let me know and I'll see if I can add them. If you have any miracle drugs you've imagined (I especially want the effects of miracle drugs, that's what I'm having problems with), let me know and again, I'll see if I can add them. If you have any kind of feedback, please let me know as long as you follow the golden rule (in how you phrase it), but if you can't be bothered to be polite, please don't post. I can't get better if I don't learn. If you know how I can post images, please help because I'm still stuck on that! Also if you know someone who might beta me (or if you might beta me), PM me and I'll probably accept. I'm going to post a quest soon after this (I wanted this done before I posted it) so check there (I'll link it in the next post) for more stuff set in this setting (but I'll leave the lore here). I'd love to hear from you guys; let me know what you think!

 

[Balaur]

How likely is the Germans doing a complete 180 on Antisemitism? I mean, someone deciding the holocaust is a bit much is possible and quietly halting ad covering it up is possible, but these are Nazis! They've spent the better part of a decade whipping up hate against Jews, to the point of committing genocide, then not only halt the holocaust but make compensation payouts to Jews and change their freaking name to prevent attacks on Jews?
This was a period where you could get away with pretty much any form of racism short of genocide(and even then, if you stuck a figleaf of population relocation or food shortages on it...)

I also don't buy a few other things about the alt-history.

On the other hand, I love the idea of the zombies as a viral complex that can have it's component parts put to a variety of uses.

 

[gavinjon]

How likely is the Germans doing a complete 180 on Antisemitism? I mean, someone deciding the holocaust is a bit much is possible and quietly halting ad covering it up is possible, but these are Nazis! They've spent the better part of a decade whipping up hate against Jews, to the point of committing genocide, then not only halt the holocaust but make compensation payouts to Jews and change their freaking name to prevent attacks on Jews?
This was a period where you could get away with pretty much any form of racism short of genocide(and even then, if you stuck a figleaf of population relocation or food shortages on it...)

I also don't buy a few other things about the alt-history.

On the other hand, I love the idea of the zombies as a viral complex that can have it's component parts put to a variety of uses.

Click to shrink...

As to the first point:
It isn't extremely likely for the Nazi's to do a 180 on their antisemitic views. However, there were several attempted Coups to out Hitler and the Nazi party from power by older officers from WW1. The nation of Germany of this alt-history was based on the premise that one of those Coups succeeded with foreign support and an older general (like the successor I mentioned, Carl-Heinrich von Stulpnagel)was put into power. Also, I don't know if you noticed that antisemitism and racism wasn't outlawed until late 1963. I'd say that the populous was like the South in the United States during segregation, e.g. mostly racist and antisemitic, with some exceptions mainly in the "Territories." It's just that Hitler's successor turned out to not be a racist and thus tried to make amends with the Jews and also to cover up the Holocaust. Like the US at that time, the official / national government was officially against racism but they didn't actually do a thing and let the Territory and local governors pretty much get away with anything in regards to that (because much of the national government still held antisemitic and racist views). I'd say the reason they compensated the Jews so well was because they didn't want them blabbing about their treatment to the other members of the Great Four with evidence, and the to have the German Government not be able to make claims that they tried to make things right. This was a way to eliminate the need for the officers and politicians of the Nazi party to be tried with war crimes by other countries, they did still charge some of the officers with treason and other crimes but it was their own government doing the charging and they usually had other crimes as well, such as ordering the mistreatment / internment of French and Polish "Aryans" (to use the German term). However, the compensation was mainly a way to prevent their public image from getting dragged through the muck in other countries and their "Territories" (occupied countries).

As to the second point:
Tell me what you don't buy and I can either try to explain it or fix it.

As to the third point:
Thanks for the compliment, my man (or maybe woman)!

Also, the quest should be up soon. I'll link it in a threadmarked post, but just letting people know that I'm almost done writing the first section. It might go live tommorrow because it is around 11 pm here, but we'll see. Then again, I may just be up till 1 or 2 am my time because I really have nothing better to do, I'm on vacation to Vermont to see family and it is boring at my grandparent's place.

 

[gavinjon]

The quest is (finally) up here.

I'll put the description / summaries in this post as well.

Here they are:

• Combat: Your skill at all types of fighting. This only affects actual combat.
• Diplomacy: Your skill at avoiding combat with other survivors, trading in (and out of) the Enclaves, public speaking, conning other survivors and traders. It generally measures how charismatic you are.
• Discipline: How tough you are mentally. This affects the penalty for combat against larger groups of enemies, your chance to gain negative traits when your companions die, your ability to fight when infected, and anything that'd you'd just need to power through or ignore mentally.
• Endurance: How tough you are physically. This affects the chance to gain negative effects after using RAIDA (or getting injured in general), how long you can stay awake or alert for, how long you can sustain intense physical activity (before gaining the "Exhausted" temporary trait and needing to roll a Discipline check to continue), how much you can lift. It generally represents how physically fit you are.
• Knowledge: How much you know. Your starting profession will characterize what you are most knowledgeable about, so if you choose a soldier and have a high knowledge score, you will know much more about military tactics than science (without including titles and traits). With a higher knowledge score you will increase the factoids you learn about your (and other) fields. No matter your profession or knowledge score, it does include general or common-sense knowledge but the amount of that knowledge score increases.
• Perception: Your ability to notice things. It is used for finding traps, hidden objects or terrain features, avoiding ambushes, and detecting other Infected and Delvers. Additionally, you will gain extra descriptions about survivors and objects during the chapters.

 

[Balaur]

The only problem is that Stulpnagel cooperated with Einsatzgruppen units on the eastern front and specifically singled out Jews during reprisal attacks against Partisans. The guy was still a hardcore Antisemite, and the Nazi government and a large proportion of the military and general populace was too. Stopping Germany from being infested with Anti-Semites would take something more than the government going from really far right to far right. A bunch of old school military officers might stop the holocaust, but they won't go out of their way to help Jews either.

Honestly, this kind of reminds me of the cliché of the Confederacy winning the ACW then having Lee or someone free the slaves, so the writer can have a surviving Confederacy without having to worry about the issues that slavery surviving into the 20th century would cause.

As to other things I didn't buy: Mexican drug cartels succeeding in two decapitation attacks(isn't pissing off the entire planet a pretty bad idea for a profitable drug operation?), Australia of all places as an Afghanistan stand in, America acknowledging German ownership of France and Poland, an America that's willing to cooperate with Nazis passing Civil Rights on schedule.

It's a cool idea, I just think that the AH part isn't that plausible. You might want to ask some of the AH.com refugees to help with it; some of them have far more knowledge of WWII and 20th century history than I do.

 

[gavinjon]

The only problem is that Stulpnagel cooperated with Einsatzgruppen units on the eastern front and specifically singled out Jews during reprisal attacks against Partisans. The guy was still a hardcore Antisemite, and the Nazi government and a large proportion of the military and general populace was too. Stopping Germany from being infested with Anti-Semites would take something more than the government going from really far right to far right. A bunch of old school military officers might stop the holocaust, but they won't go out of their way to help Jews either.

Honestly, this kind of reminds me of the cliché of the Confederacy winning the ACW then having Lee or someone free the slaves, so the writer can have a surviving Confederacy without having to worry about the issues that slavery surviving into the 20th century would cause.

As to other things I didn't buy: Mexican drug cartels succeeding in two decapitation attacks(isn't pissing off the entire planet a pretty bad idea for a profitable drug operation?), Australia of all places as an Afghanistan stand in, America acknowledging German ownership of France and Poland, an America that's willing to cooperate with Nazis passing Civil Rights on schedule.

It's a cool idea, I just think that the AH part isn't that plausible. You might want to ask some of the AH.com refugees to help with it; some of them have far more knowledge of WWII and 20th century history than I do.

Click to shrink...

OK, I get you now and you make a disappointing amount of sense. I'm honestly not sure how to edit it to make it better. If people could help me edit the timeline, that would be fantastic. I spent close to seven hours on the thing and I just realized how unrealistic it was. Dang it, just dang it. If people feel like helping, that would be fantastic cause I am sure not up to updating that monster right now.

 

[gavinjon]

• If you have 10 injury points at the same time, your character dies and the quest will end, with me starting a new quest for another character.
• You heal 1 injury point for each turn (week) you spend outside the containment zone (which will almost always be in the Enclave).
• You may also pay the Hospital to heal you of 1 injury point per $125 spent.
• Each turn inside and outside the containment zone is a week.
• More to come?

General Equations

• Combat Encounter: Your Combat +/- your terrain's benefits/penalties (-10 to +10) + 1d20 > Enemy Combat +/- enemy terrain's benefits/penalties (-10 to +10) + 1d20
  • Failure = Gain Injury Points equal to the difference between your score and their score and become infected.
  • Draw = Kill the enemy, gain 1 Injury Point, and become infected.
  • Success = Kill the enemy without gaining an injury point
• Diplomacy Encounter: Your Diplomacy +/- Their Initial Attitude of You (-7 to +7) + 1d4 vs. Opposing Diplomacy + 1d4
• Discipline Encounter #1 (Enter combat): Your Discipline 1d* (* being the number of Combatants / 4) >= Number of Enemy combatants (multiplied by 4 if enemies are Delvers).
  • Failure = Gain a -3 penalty to combat during this encounter..
• Discipline Encounter #2 (A close comrade dies): Your Discipline + 1d2 >= 6 + 1d4
  • Failure = Gain a negative trait or a negative trait increases a level such as you gain slight depression or slight depression becomes moderate depression.
  • Success = Gain a point towards a positive trait (it takes two points to gain a positive trait).
• Discipline Encounter #3 (Attempt to move on the "world" map while infected and without RAIDA): Your Discipline + 1d4 >= 12 + 1d2
  • Failure = You must wait a turn before trying again and gain an injury point.
• Discipline Encounter #4 (Attempt to fight while infected and without RAIDA): Your Discipline + 1d4 >= 15 + 1d2
  • Failure = You gain three injury points, and begin combat with -1 to your Combat stat.
• Endurance Encounter #1 (Chance of gaining negative effects after recovery from an injury point, roll once per injury point): Your Endurance + 1d6 >= 7 + 1d8
• Endurance Encounter #2 (Hours awake before next long rest): Your Endurance + 1d2 - 4
• Knowledge Encounter #1 (Recall from memory a beginner level factoid from another profession, an intermediate general factoid, or an advanced factoid from your profession): Your knowledge + 1d2 >= 9 + 1d2
  • Failure: You fail to succeed and may try again with a -2 penalty next turn.
• Knowledge Encounter #2 (Recall an intermediate level factoid from another profession, an advance general factoid, or an expert factoid from your profession): Your knowledge + 1d2 >= 13 + 1d2
  • Failure: You fail to succeed and may try again with a -3 penalty next turn.
• Knowledge Encounter #3 (Recall an advanced level factoid from another profession, an expert general factoid, or a master level factoid from your profession): Your knowledge + 1d2 >= 16 + 1d4
  • Failure: You fail to succeed and may try again with a -4 penalty next turn.
• Knowledge Encounter #4 (Recall an expert level factoid from another profession, or a master level general factoid): Your knowledge + 1d2 >= 20 + 1d20
  • Failure: You fail to succeed and may try again with a -6 penalty next turn.
• Perception Encounter #1 (Notice something inanimate, like a piece of treasure or a trap): Your perception + 1d4 >= 10 + 2d10
• Perception Encounter #2 (Notice (or be noticed by) a group of infected or fellow Delvers): Your perception + 1d4 > Enemy knowledge + 1d4

 

[Balaur]

OK, I get you now and you make a disappointing amount of sense. I'm honestly not sure how to edit it to make it better. If people could help me edit the timeline, that would be fantastic. I spent close to seven hours on the thing and I just realized how unrealistic it was. Dang it, just dang it. If people feel like helping, that would be fantastic.

Click to shrink...

How about the holocaust still happens, though in a more limited scale(basically, getting rid of the eyewitnesses already in camps). The Germans still treat Jews quite brutally, including confining them to ghettoes, disproportionately harsh punishments for crime, only letting them take the worst jobs and so on, but it's better than being murdered. Basically, think Blacks under Jim Crow, only worse.

Then, in the 60s, the truth gets out. America is outraged at just what their allies did, adding, and American Blacks and Jews cooperate to get civil rights legislation passed in America and to condemn German actions.

Meanwhile, with no new conquests outside of the third world, the Nazi parties fervour has burnt itself out into generic right wing authoritarianism under Stulpnagel and his successors. German Jews attempt to copy the tactics of MLK and Gandhi, but it doesn't work-Germans have been conditioned by Nazi propaganda to view turning the other cheek as weakness, and state censorship makes getting the message out very difficult. However, threats of sanctions by the US is enough to convince them to do something about it(the ADL and NAACP are so outraged by the revelation that they have both urged their members to vote for anyone who promises sanctions against Germany regardless of their other policies)

The Germans decide to "make amends" by "kindly" deporting their Jewish population somewhere else(Australia? It having an Israel/Palestine type problem could help explain how it got screwed up enough to become alt-Afghanistan, and it was considered OTL).
This satisfies no-one, but the Jews go along with it willingly because getting the fuck out of a country that nearly murdered every last one of them is rather sensible, and the Germans are willing to take any answer to the Jewish question that doesn't involve them getting couped by hardliners or sanctioned by the U.S.

There aren't enough Roma outside German controlled territory to put any pressure on the American government, so they're still fucked. Some gay people got flung straight back into prison after being rescued from camps by the WAllies OTL, so they're hosed as well. Disabled people were already getting mass murdered by the Nazis before the holocaust even started.

I still don't think my version is 100% plausible(I made that up in about 10 minutes and I'm no expert on WWII), but hopefully it's a bit more plausible and less, ah, problematic.

 

[gavinjon]

What you suggested might very well work, but it's going to have to wait until tommorrow because I'm going to bed for tonight very, very soon. If you could come up with some concrete events, that would be a big, big help, but if not, its fine, I'll figure things out myself.

 

[gavinjon]

I just edited the timeline and want to see if you sheeples (cough, people) can spot any inconsistencies, errors, or problems with it. It should be better, but I'm honestly not sure if I missed anything. If people could look it over, that would be highly appreciated. If someone could Beta for me, that would be greatly appreciated.