User:Iritscen/BGI/Gapfilling

It would be odd if a new level inserted into the story had no effect on the surrounding levels. Some changes will be necessary to even explain why the BGI level is happening. Additional smaller changes will not only refine this (re-)insertion into Oni's story but can also be used to close gaps in the existing plot.

BGI's place in the story

The current ONLD data assigns these strings to these level data files:
level13_Final   Doctor Hasegawa's Lab
level14_Final   TCTF Science Prison
level15_Final   -blank-
level16_Final   BGI HQ
level17_Final   -blank-
level18_Final   TCTF Regional HQ (redux)
level19_Final   Syndicate Mountain Compound

This would seem to indicate that the original BGI level took place after Konoko escaped from the Science Prison and before she went to confront Griffin, assuming story material wasn't moved around after cutting BGI. It may well have been, but it turns out that this is a good place for a challenging level, as well as for tying up some loose ends in the current story….

Whence comes Konoko?

Oni's devs seem to have gotten a little thrown off by the cutting of BGI or some other story changes, because Konoko starts appearing in some unusual places at the end of the game that her motorcycle definitely can't take her:

1. We all know that in Chapter 14 she drops from "an airplane" (thank you, Steve Abeyta) into Muro's compound.

2. Chapter 13, however, is more mysterious, as she shows up at the very top of the TCTF Regional HQ building — a sensible way to get directly to Griffin, yes, but only remotely possible if she had air transportation. It's true that Konoko uses a glider at the start of Chapter 7 while entering the ACC, but it's very unlikely she still has it after the events of Ch. 8–12.

3. In Chapter 12, she is first seen on top of a rack of lighting in a security tower that overlooks the Science Prison. This tower is the highest place in the level, and it has monitors that tell us there are cameras everywhere. The room has two doors, and numerous windows around the high-rise ceiling. The rack of lights is suspended from the ceiling by cables, and is midway down from the ledge that runs along the inside and outside of the windows.

It makes much more sense that Konoko came from above in this level than to imagine that she walked in the back door of the security tower and then leapt about 25 feet in the air to hide in the lights. So it would dovetail nicely if Konoko turns out to be using a BGI stealth dropship (as originally suggested by geyser) at the beginning of these last three chapters, as we would now know how she keeps appearing from the sky, and why no one ever sees her coming.

It also provides a simple way to show how Konoko knows where to find a BGI building — and not just any building (since there are tons of BGI-owned buildings), but the specific one that launched an attack on her, which is what will give Konoko the impetus to actually barge into the building when she finds it: she simply looks up the waypoint that the dropship came from in the nav system.

However, if BGI HQ takes place after Science Prison, how can we give Konoko a BGI aircraft to get on the security tower roof with? We'll address that after the next section.

Adding BGI in little places first

We know that it would be too disconnected to only have BGI appear in their own level and nowhere else, so first we show BGI observing Konoko from a distance, gradually making it more obvious that a third party is watching her. Think of this as a ramp-up to the BGI level.

1. The DeLorean at the start of Chapter 4 is a nice subtle way to start off, and is already done. Next, we make it a little more obvious….

2. In the opening to Chapter 6, when Konoko is outside TCTF HQ on her bike, we show that she is being watched, perhaps altering the cutscene camera work to emphasize our addition to the scene. Another car, or something else?

3. One more appearance, and the least subtle, before BGI finally gets in-your-face with Konoko. In Chapter 7, as Konoko is making her way around the large Atmospheric Conversion Center, there is a brief new cutscene where she thinks she sees movement on a level above her — she is being watched from a distance, but she is unable to see who the figure is (probably a ninja, but not the master ninja, as a Daodan host showing up would be too distracting for Konoko).

This last hint at a third party's involvement is noticed by Konoko herself, so she becomes aware that she is being monitored.

Adding BGI in big places next

After Chapter 8, Konoko is declared "rogue" and BGI sees that she is becoming yet another out-of-control Daodan host, so they begin to make moves against her.

1. In Chapter 10, instead of encountering Strikers, Tankers and Furies, Konoko meets some BGI troops for the first time, in addition to the ninjas already present throughout the level. BGI-variant Tankers are also a possibility. Changing the roster away from using Syndicate goons will lessen the story connection between the Syndicate and Mukade and his ninjas. We will save the reveal of some BGI classes for the BGI level, but this is Konoko's first glimpse of troops that don't fall into the Syndicate/TCTF dichotomy.

2. At the end of Chapter 10, Mukade fights Konoko and loses, failing to escape with the data. Immediately after he is defeated, BGI decides to make an overt move against Konoko on the Rooftops using a stealth dropship, zooming up to the roof level and dropping off heavily-armed troops, but she escapes them. (The Win screen for Rooftops almost ties in with this idea already, esp. if we add hints to the image that she is being looked for by agents on the rooftop.)

As we know, Konoko next goes to her father's old lab. (Presumably she uses some info on the disc to track it down.) This is the lab used by her dad under the Syndicate's watch, and since Kerr worked here, it's probably known of by the TCTF too. Thus, it's probably been stripped of anything useful by just about every interested group on the planet by now (a diary entry can make this clear). This gives us a helpful idea of what the rest of the Lab would look like beyond the one tiny room we get to see, so we can add on some (real) architecture in order to make the next point possible.

3. In Chapter 11, when Konoko wakes up from her dream, BGI is infiltrating the lab silently, looking for her. She stealthily escapes the building and heads for her bike, but discovers that BGI troops are guarding it, so she hijacks their stealth dropship. Although she wants to know who is hunting her, and to go confront them, she decides that the priority is to find her uncle so he can fill in the missing puzzle pieces of her life, and then settle the score with this third party, who by now she suspects to be BGI.

The stage has now been set for the BGI level, but first Konoko will be able to use the aircraft to infiltrate TCTF Science Prison and speak with her uncle. Before moving on to the BGI level, let's look at ways to touch up the existing levels to provide a better narrative.

Filling in narrative gaps

Konoko really does do too much popping in and out of space and time towards the end of the game. Using our new BGI story and content, here are some ways to make the levels transition into each other more smoothly.

1. It would be a good idea to replace the Win screen for Chapter 11, which shows a boring image of the next level for some reason, with some new art that shows Konoko taking control of the aircraft outside Hasegawa's Lab, perhaps knocking out the pilot and pushing him out, and lifting off as agents run outside to try to stop her. This would save us the work of animating this action scene as a cutscene and would look cooler too.

2. Next, we add some shots to the opening cutscene of Chapter 12 to show how Konoko gets onto the roof of the Science Prison security tower and that she has set her dropship to land somewhere nearby. Even adding one of these shots would help, but the more, the better; we would do as many as we had time for:

• Konoko seated in the pilot's seat, pressing some buttons to set the auto-pilot.
• Getting up from her seat to head towards a side door.
• Landing on the roof using a parachute. (Her glider was left behind after her escape in Chapter 12.)
• Dropping onto the outer ledge of a window.
• Entering through the window, and jumping to grab a cable and slide down to the light bank.
• Her dropship settling in some woods outside the complex, still cloaked.

The more of these points we hit, the less need to show how she gets onto the TCTF roof, since the sequence of events can easily be imagined by the player if they've already seen it once.

3. At the end of Chapter 12, Konoko has just survived a swim through acid. The BGI level comes next. At the beginning of it, we insert a cutscene showing that she made her way back to the dropship to recover. She has some basic supplies inside, including spare clothes, and she has changed into the outfit she wears in Chapter 13. In the original story, her next action was to seek out Griffin for revenge. That's really no more helpful than seeking out the people who sent this dropship after her, so who's to say she won't do that next instead? Perhaps she is sitting in the cockpit, the ship cloaked and on the ground, and uses the communications equipment to listen in on transmissions from BGI, and something catches her interest. It won't take a lot of work to produce a cutscene to that effect.

4. This one is not BGI-related, but serves to bring the story back onto its original track: after stopping BGI's plan, Konoko hears Shinatama calling to her through their neural link – even though the link with TCTF was severed according to Griffin's scientist at the start of Ch. 13. This is part of what draws Konoko back to TCTF HQ, and it also provides context for the scientist there who tells Konoko that he was forced to do something with Shinatama. Konoko grows angry with him, but why would she react that way unless she suspects Shinatama is alive? Probably it makes sense to have two or three VOs from Shinatama: at the end of BGI, possibly the beginning of TCTF HQ, and somewhere further into the TCTF HQ as well.

Project requirements

The above plan requires:

• New areas tacked onto Hasegawa's Lab and Science Prison for cutscene purposes — indoors/outdoors for the Lab, and outdoors only for the Prison.
• Several new animations for cutscenes.
• A dropship model and a way to show it cloaking.