#connected cosmos

[duckapus]

One of the areas included in Connected Cosmos at launch is a Papercraft universe very clearly inspired by Paper Mario, because of course Mr. L would include a little something from the games he originally came from. That's also where he sets up his base of operations when he moves into Connected Cosmos after it goes live.

[duckapus]

So... the fleshing out of Connected Cosmos: The Game is taking longer than I thought it would, but I have figured out what the eldritch monster main villain is and how it's affecting the code-napped Crossover Update universes.

I call it The Twilight. It's a pocket dimension made entirely of...for now let's call it highly corruptive mostly sentient anti-magic with a psychic hivemind structure. That's a massive oversimplification but I don't have the energy to explain the whole thing. It's invading the universes that make up the game's main areas by leaking through cracks in space-time, which creates shadow monster drones, possesses and transforms powerful and/or weak-minded beings, and slowly terraforms the universe surrounding the cracks.

Rising Star Circus actually got off...sort of lucky. While their full universe got thoroughly borked, the circus itself became part of the main hub universe, a gilded city of Sorcery on a mountaintop called Mount Nexus, which just so happens to be one of the few universes that the Twilight can't enter...outside of certain story events, of course.

Then there's Harmonia (scaled down somewhat so it's not bigger than every other map combined, so as to save on resources and not be suspicious), where Lumiere has somehow managed to cut a deal with the Twilight. At least, he thinks he has. All ten kingdoms are dealing with some sort of thematically appropriate catastrophe thanks to some powerful boss-type character being fed by a massive Twilit Rift (what I'm calling the cracks the Twilight are using) in each of them. Luminos got it worst off, with Lumiere setting up shop there and Queen Melody and most of her staff being possessed (Nimbus and a few others managed to get away).

Dreaming Gaia is... sort of okay? On one hand the Twilight aren't that much more threatening than the stuff that's already there outside of being an outside-context problem, on the other hand they resonate with Nightmare energy and the remnants of both cults are interested in them for different reasons.

And then Renata has no way to fend off extradimensional shadow monsters so they're kind of in the midst of an apocalypse right now. So on top of her occasional bouts of frantic lucidity due to her half-dose of the memory suppression virus she's also having to survive the potential end of the world with no idea if the few loved ones she can consistently remember are alive or dead. On the plus side the Twilight are close enough to Heartless that her Keyblade finally ends up manifesting to protect her.

Also, the Twilight are programmed with the secondary function of keeping anything from entering or exiting the game without the proper permissions. By force.

[duckapus]

Finally figured out an idea for why exactly Mr. L went through all the trouble of inciting a revolution just to get at the Adminspace Archives.

Basically, he's trying to create his own game multiverse, one separate from the Admins' influence, as a way to return to his roots, since the villains' plan in his debut game was to create their own Perfect World...or at least that was what they were told even though the whole thing was actually Count Bleck's "Suicide-by-Apocalypse."

But even with the information and special Dev Tools he got from the Archives, he's ultimately just one little digital man (and two killer robots who know very little about programming). His Vision could take decades to bring to life on his own, assuming he can even get the funds for it. What he needs is a dedicated Development Team.

And wouldn't you know it, there's a game development company who's already In-The-Know about the Digital World right there. He manages to get in touch with Jayin, who initially thinks it's some kind of prank before he proves that he really is who he says he is. His pitch of the game is an MMORPG that takes place in an interconnected Multiverse that's facing...some sort of eldritch cosmic threat (he would have that figured out but I don't). While the starting cluster of universes would likely be their own original creations to give the game time to create its own following and identity, future updates might include crossovers with existing CCC properties (possibly the Living versions if she decides to make a move and exert her authority). It would be her very own real Connected Cosmos, the worlds and their characters fully under her control, and all he asks is to be allowed to live there and operate unimpeded.

She's hooked, but very reasonably points out that even with a full team it'll still take years to make a game on that scale, at which point he reveals the Admin-Level Dev Tools he took. These babies are what's used to turn basic Servers into the various cityscapes, facilities, and other such Program-Level areas that make up the bulk of the Digital Multiverse, and at this point they're so advanced that they'll easily cut the average time and effort needed for human game development in half, maybe even more. All with the possible patents and copyright claims completely up for Jayin to grab for herself, of course.

And so development begins on the game that will be known as Connected Cosmos, appropriately codenamed Project Thunder.

[forthedancingandthethriving]

What's the name of the country Tulip lives in? I'm trying to actually flesh out the Connected Cosmos game, including the different areas, and hers is the only one in the Crossover Update I don't have an Area Name for.

(I called Irene's world Dreaming Gaia since just calling it Earth wouldn't have really fit CC's vibes. The local NPCs still call it Earth, it's just something fancy and thematic so it's easier to pick out as "the Winding Rest world" by players. Harmonia and Rising Star Circus already have unique names so they weren't a problem.)

You have way more willpower than I do and I respect that. Anyway, the name of the country Tulip lives in is called Renata! And calling Irene's world Gaia works just fine, lol.