And now that book 2 is posted, here are the thoughts that were going through my head at the time.

When I created book 1, I was mostly satisfied with the foundation that I had set except for one detail; the Cybrans were a bit “too” nice. The UEF had its political and bureaucratic messes combined with their use of Symbiont slaves. Many side characters that I described were intentionally cruel, mostly because of my belief that one could not possibly oversee such a completely enslaved people without loosing part of their humanity. The Aeon Illuminate had its fight between military and spiritual cast. Those were interestingly different radical views within the same organization with both thinking that they were right.

The Cybrans, however, had the “good” role with the “fight for freedom” going their way and I wanted to change that. That was the moment where I decided that I would make one node that was extremely vicious and incarnate the “terrorist” aspect that the UEF and Illuminate hated so much. What was worse, I wanted to make them a necessary evil and show that Cybrans had to make moral compromises for the sake of their survival if nothing else. I also wanted to throw Dostya in that role, even if it was one that she did not want.

“Assumpta” was the first name that drew my attention as I looked at a school pamphlet, but I needed a figure to spearhead it. I searched for inspiration in the original Supcom’s avatar while experimenting with their taunts. Most were a bit cliché or demonstrated a constant level of zeal with the flavor of their respective faction. It was only when I reached Redfog and I heard him say “The Earth will burn…” that I felt the hair at the back of my neck stand on end.

This was not a “we are better” or “you suck” kind of taunt like the others and I remember thinking “man, that’s a bit extreme, isn’t it?” It seems silly, but the way that the avatar was drawn, the short but perfect voice acting and uncompromising lines were exactly what I was looking for. And thus, Redfog was born.

Everyone expected the concept of a UEF citizen being converted to Aeon beliefs because of the game, but I wanted Redfog to go one step further; to be a UEF citizen captured by the Illuminate, partially converted and then taken by the Cybrans. I created him to have been exposed to all three societies and having a unique insight into each of them… as well as a profound disgust for their hypocrisies. The concept evolved over time, but right from the start, I wanted him to have his own views on destiny as well as simply not caring for what most normal humans do. He was also designed as a twisted reflection of Marxon, their destinies intertwined early on.

On another topic, I had, right from the start, the intention of killing Mather. Dostya was a hard woman in the game and not the character that I had in mind who would pilot an ACU during the day and return home at night while saying “honey, I’m home!” Sorry if he was a favorite to some, but yes, it was part of the plan.

I also wanted to introduce Riley as a strong Commander, but not in the same way as any other. I wanted him to be strong because of his connections, political manipulations, resources and background. I also took the opportunity to show some of his twisted inner workings which included the possibility of sacrificing Arnold if it meant that his pet project would be adopted.

The UEF Champion was also briefly introduced, but as a child mostly to give players a sense of historic background without really defining them. It was an experiment which some liked and resulted in me giving background information about the other Champions later on.

Finally, Rhianne was given a prominent role, facing off against Redfog at one point. This was because I wanted her to be more than an idealist with noble goals. Her Faith had to be tested and she had to come out stronger for it. It was also with her that I introduced the concept of visions which would be a product of focus, inner peace (which The Way helped with) and experience.

Well, that’s about all I can think of. Now it’s time to get starting in book 3.

Good job, nice to see the background to your thoughts and why things turned out such ways and what you planned.

I think the main reason for your success is because of how you kept these stories relevant to the story presented in the Supcom game, and just took what we liked from the game and expanded upon it rather than going off on a tangent with something else in an attempt to be ubar cool.

First off the part you mentioned where you didn't want any of the factions to be completely "pure" and all have their good and bad sides, which is exactly what was portrayed in the game, the entire focus of the factions was that neither of them were the "good" or "evil" one. The additional elements you created and expanded upon within them not only tied it to the game (UEF politics / underhanded tactics, Cybran desperation, Aeon Spiritual vs Military) but also helped look into them further and really set the scene for the factions and the upcoming events.

I think everyone agrees Redfog was a masterpiece of a character, and its fantastic you got your inspiration for him from the game itself, I wish he was a character expanded upon more in the game, and the battles of him vs Marxon were ******* epic and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time, you'd portrayed so strong personalities and skills for the both of them it made such a clash, it was great they both lived up to their reputations.

Loved what you did with Dostya too, how she, and Brackman were portrayed as they were in the game, the death of Mather and her realisation of responsibility for the entire Cybran nation helped her feel like just the woman we saw in the cutscenes and battles. Although everyone hates you for Mather since you portrayed him as such a great character, (he actually felt like a "main" character in that part of the story, despite being made up) they love you for it too, because it highlighted such an important event in the story that stuck out right to the end.

Loved your interpretation of Riley too, he was shown as a strong, resourceful man in the cutscenes and someone who would get out there and get **** done, and then use that for political leverage / strength after. The way he got out there in his ACU, using shrewed tactics and outputting phenominal resources like the Atlantis and Mavor really helped him make an impact with action as well as speech.

Arnold was a bloody brilliant character too, sorta like the Han Solo of this story with Desjar being a great companion, heck even Weisman and Flynn and so on were cool characters and felt like they were all part of a squad in the war, not just a couple of random disinterested characters.

The clincher of bringing in the Champions was what did it for me also, not only did you link these stories to the game by basing it on the game's elements with the characters, battles and UI descriptions (I could actually imagine them working the controls and strategic zooming and so on, just like I do when playing), you also put US into the story, having us make a bloody big impact without focusing too much on JUST us and destroying the imagination of how we'd be and what we'd do.

That helped make these stories personal, we already had a link to them from what we could map to what we'd seen in the game, but having ourselves appear and make a difference sealed it, making us really see that these stories were happening at the same time and place as Supreme Commander the game, and not just some other random universe. That sense of perspective really helped.

All these made these feel like SUPREME COMMANDER stories, not just some random yaoi fanfic or whatever, as well as being fecking awesome as they were.

Absolute masterpieces, please continue.

I just added the minor mistake corrections to book 1 and also inserted an "updated" date. That way, you guys can redownload as needed or wait until later. I'm still working on book 3 and hopefully I'll be able to put some more time on it during the upcoming week.

And here we go. The pdf version of book 3 is now online!

<3

i think we all want to know what was going on through Dot's head when he wrote book 3, in fact, i think you should include it in the actual books themselves, like a sort of Afterward at the end of the book, would be neat and a lot of authors do stuff like that, just my opinion as i love hearing what people were thinking of when they do stuff, gives a nice bit of insight to a person's mind.

And now, here are some thoughts that spurred to mind as I wrote book 3.

I think it was roughly a bit before book 3 that we were graced with video previews of Supreme Commander Forged Alliance; specifically the one about Seraphim bombers carpet nuking Earth. At the time, it was not guaranteed that the Seraphim themselves were involved (even if it was the logical step), but I figured that heck, if they were about to do something on such a level then maybe they had done so in the past. Thus Alpha Seven was born (inspired by the map with the same name); a planet previously destroyed by the Seraphim in some terrible war.

I remember thinking that I wanted to introduce a few horror elements in that book in the forms of some unknown apparition in the fog. I had planned that the Seraphim were behind it, but I kept it vague enough at the time so that if something unexpected came up in the next game then I would be able to weasel myself out of it.

I also wanted to introduce Samantha Clarke, mainly because she did occupy a large role in the campaign. The one scene in the original game which caught my attention was the moment when a converted Arnold first stepped on the battlefield. Instead of calling him “Arnold” or “Commander”, Samantha called him “Zach”, hinting at a shared history between the two. The fact that she was so formal the rest of the time and Arnold so insubordinate also gave me the impression that while they had a history, that it had also not turned out so well between the two in the end.

I used the opportunity to explore Dostya’s personal growth and how she managed to get past Mather’s death. I used Redfog to do it mostly because of his growing popularity at the time, turning him into a combination of villain and anti-hero all at once. Even so, I purposely made it so that he would help not out of a sense of a debt to Dostya, but to his own code. That way, she would never actually wield any power over him.

Reue was an experiment, one which I was not sure would survive at the beginning. She turned out better than expected, serving as a cornerstone for the exiles later on. Still, if there was a character that could have died at the time then it would have been her.

I introduced the Cybran Champion very briefly and very subtly, making it seem like he had been forced to endure Bagby’s training himself. Instead of detailing exactly what he had done, I purposely hid it, letting the readers who identified themselves with him imagine what could have possibly shaken up Bagby so badly. I admit that I had a sadistic pleasure in you guys constantly asking “but what did he do?”, lol.

I decided to introduce the Aeon Champion midway through the writing. She was presented as a child, but rendered unconscious early on. I did not want to detail her, but rather detail the events that had led to her presence in the Illuminate. Somehow, having an Aeon Commander disobey orders in order to save her seemed like the right kind of beginning for the Princess’ Champion.

What distinguished book 3 from the others was that I created another experiment which I had applied to another fan fiction in the past (Star Wars). Instead of determining the outcome of the first battles myself, the outcome was determined by actual fights made in game. The initial battle between Dostya and Clarke was actually a game played between me and Funkykong. The battle between Hex-Five and Reue was played between myself and another player. I was ready to let the story swing either way, depending on the outcome.

A few scenes that were inspired by other sources:

- Redfog’s devious encouragements for Dostya to give up her life as an ACU pilot was inspired by a similar scene in Pitch Black (love that movie).
- Bagby’s speech to rile up the other pilots was inspired by the episode “The Hamburger Hill of Art” from Full Metal Panic Fumoffu… I told you guys that he was a combination of some of the insane stuff I stumbled upon, lol.
- I got the idea for the quantum field-face-nightmare part from the movie White Noise.

And for those curious then yes, I had plans for the “seer” to be merely a fraud. While her predictions turned out to be true, off the scene, her “black sun” only became the name of the project because a high ranking officer visited her tent and found the name cool.

When I finished book 3, I had no plans for what had actually become of the Fatboy and the two who were abandoned / sacrificed on it by Riley. I left it open both as a potential plot hook that I could use later and because I thought it made a cool horror movie moment of simply “not knowing.”

And that’s all I can think of at the moment. Next step: book 4!

God I've got some rereading to do!

Also, which one of you was Clarke? Funky or you?

I played the Cybran and Funky was UEF. It was a very good and very close game, relatively speaking.

For those wondering, book 4 should be online sometime this weekend

Awesomeness. Cant wait!

*Cough* um... make that a monday evening update

Tuesday?

Nope, it's done now

Sweet!

And now here are some thoughts on book 4.

The idea of using replays as an inspiration for the next book came from watching replays online or more to the point, recorded streams of them commented by animators. I forget the name of the one that inspired me, but the “and we’re live, live, live” part was taken straight from him

The interesting part of creating DV was thinking that he came from a separate community, most notably hackers, which would be somewhat disassociated with their respective factions. That part was inspired by the off topic sections, of all things. Back in those days, there were a lot of political and religious debates going on in the forum, but what amazed me was that for the most part, it was being done rationally and respectfully despite different backgrounds, countries, etc.

I mean let’s face it, as gamers, the only thing that usually matters to us is if we can play, communicate and have fun together. We rarely pop into a game of any kind while dragging our political our religious beliefs with us and trying to impose them or something. Quite frankly, we just don’t have the time and our fingers are busy elsewhere. Hence the same concept was transferred to the universe’s hacker community; a group of people who often interacted with each other in anonymity, but rarely had the time to discuss their respective beliefs.

In terms of the cast, I purposely introduced a bunch of old and new characters so that the readers would not know who could live or die. Book 3 was fun, but we all knew from the get go that over 50% of the people involved would survive. Not so in book 4 where Desjar had many close calls and cliffhangers .

It was also during book 4 that I introduced the concept of the Cybran node having a hard time banding together, but finally managing to do it. For those that are curious, Redfog’s tenacity in that battle was not inspired by a sense of altruism, but rather from the fact that he understood that if the Cybran Nation could not work together then that they would never manage to reach Earth and he would be denied his role in the final battle.

The introduction of the Cybran children came because I wanted to show that Cybrans were not just a combination of implants, but rather a product of their harsh environment. I had plans from that point on to bring them back later, but I was not sure how just yet.

And of course, the Champions were seen here and there, more to give a sense of continuity. I especially liked making the scene where Bagby pretended to be Brackman’s clone just to mess with Kazuo while the actual clone was sitting right next to him.

Rhiza and Ariel were added both to show that they used to work as a team, but also to highlight the fundamental differences between them. Ariel was fully set in the Avatar’s ways while Rhiza still had her occasional doubts. This would help readers understand why Rhiza chose to follow the Champion in the game and why Ariel reacted so violently against.

A few other short but noteworthy inspirations

- Kazuo’s character was inspired from Hiro in the television series Heroes. Both got knocked out in a single punch too.
- The part about the technicians complaining about the leaking roof was because my roof was in fact leaking at the time and I had to research it to fix it.
- DV’s heartbreaking moment as he sat next to Amber as she died was inspired by Justice League Unlimited, episode “Epilogue”. In it, Batman is tasked with killing a dying villain called Ace to save thousands, but refuses to and sits next to her, comforting her until the end (and averting the disaster in doing so). I had found that scene particularly touching.

Well, that’s it for now. Onward to book 5!

Loffle yeah I recognised that, and yeah it was D-man. Those replays were really enjoyable with his commentating, and Gowerly and the other dude.

Also you were such a bastard with trying to kill people all the time, really gave people a complex about it after Mather I think. ;P

I'd forgotten about Amber...now I'm all sad .

On a brighter note, the pdf version of book 5 should be online this weekend!

Excellent! Something to look forward to for this week...

I see you playing Frozen Synapse instead of working on Book 5 ...

Joking, joking (hopes to not get eviscerated by other fans), just get it done when you feel like it. I already reread all your books in anticipation of the nice PDF versions.

The PDF version is up now. Enjoy!

Bump.

Because this should never be on the second page.

Edit: Pardon my french, but HOLY **** SPAMBOT!!!

On topic. Dots, just looking for an update as to when you think you can get your ideas about book 5? I do like looking at the method behind the madness