[Idea only] The Oceanologist's Lab

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Blockhead
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[Idea only] The Oceanologist's Lab

by Blockhead » Post

This map idea came to me in a dream. I have tried to make it sensible but understand that dreams are usually quite nonsensical.. I have titled it "The Oceanologist's Lab". It is not entirely trope-driven e.g. by the lab from the original Deus Ex, or below the waters on Manaan in Star Wars: KOTOR, because it starts with a visible facility on land, rather than an underwater one. It's exploration-driven and has some novel mechanics that I still think are quite feasible. Being from a dream, it may not be the best idea ever, at least not without some work, but I though it was worth sharing.

I was out exploring Minetest (on a server? Irrelevant ultimately, although this bit of information kept making me think "why does nobody know about this? Is this a hidden mod?). I had just travelled west across on ocean when I hit the next landmass. A great big structure of silver sandstone with glass panes, several stories tall, sat imposingly on the coast. It had a T shape though with a short stem; the stem of the T pointed towards the coast and the jetty where I had arrived. The building had taken over the coast, with no natural coastline of dirt or sand visible. It was made in modules of 3x3 glass panes surrounded by silver sandstone. The water was almost opaque to me so I couldn't quite tell but it seemed like the building's lowest parts must have sat below the water line.

I disembarked, though I think I flew and didn't bring a boat, but it would make more sense to arrive by boat. I entered through the coastal doorway. It was an empty portal, although I think this map may look good with sci-fi nodes doors (among other nodes). The interior was dim with only natural light, so the roof must not have had glass panes, only the walls.

After I proceeded through a small foyer room and through another such portal, a staircase rose up sharply in the middle of the room, made of either stone or wood. At each level it had small 2x2 protrusions that went sideways into the sides of the building, and it proceeded until reaching its full height at the end of the 'T' stem of the building. To the side of the staircase windows were visible in the other side of the building that would lead out to land. I proceeded to walk around the staircase. Now in the central part of the building, where the stem and hat of the 'T' met, there were staircases around the edge leading upwards, which led to the same floor that the first staircase had led, just below the roof of the building. In my dream, the centre of the room was a depression with stair blocks in all sides of a rectangle leading down until the room was only a thin strip of 1 node x some other number of nodes, perhaps 9. I think gameplay-wise, this staircase down should only be revealed after some discovery like the location of the oceanologist's office or perhaps some control panel.

The wings, i.e. the two modules that form the sides of the hat of this 'T', I did not explore thoroughly. This wasn't in the drema, but those, I think, are various research labs and offices with notes strewn about, but mostly locked. Some keys might exist for one or two and one office has a broken window and you have to jump off the roof and in through its broken window to access it; after which you can unbolt the door. This would give one more key to the research lab of this scientist, where you could discover something.

Proceeding up the staircase around the edge of the central room, I reached the floor just below the roof of the facility. It was a simple bare floor. Maybe for flavour this is the kitchen? For reasons you're about to see, I think the wings of this particular floor would have more research labs, or maybe filing and computer labs? In general I think each scientist gets their own computer in their office, but maybe the juniors/interns/PhD candidates have to share a lab? The dormitories are probably on the ground floor and away from research labs. Anyway: From this floor there was a staircase leading up to the roof of the facility.

Instead of to the roof, I proceeded down the staircase that led from where I had entered the facility. After going down a few modules, half way along the staircase was an office in the side of the building. I think in my dream it was floating above the floor below; I can't quite reconcile how to make it make physical sense without compromising the flat visual design of the outside and without revamping the one big staircase into one spiral in the corner. I think you would have to cheat a bit and install an extra module thickness on both sides of the stem for offices that are on the staircase, but only fill the diagonal of the staircase with actual offices, and have the rest of the space just hemmed in, though how you could hide it properly I'm not sure. Anyway: Once I reached this office, I opened the door. A scientist in a lab coat was there, I think he was talking to himself or perhaps to some unseen voice. I don't know what he said, you usually don't in dreams, but it must have been a clue or perhaps just some lore. Let's call him 'the Oceanologist', though he would have to have a name in a real map. Perhaps he was headed somewhere to conduct an experiment soon. He disappeared, so it was merely an apparition, though he had looked quite opaque. I tried to access his computer but it was locked; swipe card protected, I think, and only unlockable later in the game. I think this is where you would unlock the floor to the lower levels found in the central chamber, by swiping another keycard found in his office that wouldn't work for his computer but for a card swipe in the chamber. Perhaps it belonged to someone else, the person he was talking to?

Heading out of the office, I proceeded up the staircase once more and then up to the roof. There was a plant room on the roof, though I never saw inside. There was also a concrete channel that lead from the plant room off the edge of the building. A freestanding control panel stood in front of the channel. It was not access-controlled. The panel could be used to open a valve and let different kinds of liquids pour into the channel and off the side of the building into seawater. One of the inconsistencies of the dream is whether the lab sat at the edge of a landmass or it was the sole building on a small island, hence why despite draining on the west side of the island (remember I had arrived at the east side entrance), it was supposed to go into the water. Maybe it wasn't, maybe it lead to one of the test labs. I can only assume the scientist were experimenting with the effect of different liquids on the seawater. At best it was meant to help the ocean, at worst maybe it was going to either kill the marine life or turn them evil somehow. Or it was relatively benign; I don't know.

I think at this point the dream went off course for a bit, but returning to its course eventually: There being nothing else interesting on the roof, I proceeded down to the central chamber and from there to a basement level. Of course, there was no swipe card in the dream and time-space is malleable in my dream so the whole thing was kind of different from when I arrived; but in any case I arrived at the basement level. This would be done by swiping your keycard from The Oceanologist's office in the swipe terminal in the central chamber to reveal the way down. I'm not sure now about retracting the whole floor, that seems a bit over the top and impractical. Maybe the card just unlocks an elevator (realtime elevators mod) to the basement.

Now in the basement: The facility is build on solid land, not floating, because floating wouldn't make any sense. There would be natural sand around the shore and stone underneath. The basement level would have a wall of some suitable node like steel blocks, silver sandstone blocks or some kind of sci-fi nodes, keeping the theme still. In the dream it looked a lot like a lower level of the building that was flooded. There is a small bifurcation, with nothing interesting in my dream on the left, so let's assume that there were two airlocks and the left one was non-functional. After proceeding through the right-hand airlock, there was a submarine. Now in my dream it was a silly little thing made out of clear glass blocks, but I think APercy's Nautilus would be a very appropriate model for it.

Climbing into the submarine, I then proceeded to leave the facility. It was not a straight exit, with a number of 180 degree turns before exiting the facility at its northwest corner. This is where I have to say that the building was definitely on an island, with the exit being on the west shoreline; either that, or the exit goes into an artificial tunnel that leads through several twists an turns, but I think not.

This is where the dream ends: piloting the submarine into the ocean. I'm not sure what you find down there, in Part 2, either artificial or biological (probably both), but when you return you'll have complete access to the facility and learn its remaining secrets, in Part 3 or The Epilogue, as a sort of way to debrief. The adventure ends there.

TL;DR: You stumble upon a small island with a research facility. Finding an Oceanologist's old office, you begin to figure out what the place is for. You find a channel on the roof for pouring various liquids. You then proceed to embark on a submarine to find out what lurks below - I don't know what yet. You come back and are given full access to learn the last of the lab's secrets and then the story ends.

Is it sensible? Probably not. Could it make for a good map? Yes, maybe, although the Ocean Lab is a bit of a trope at this point. Does Minetest have all the necessary mechanics? Yes, I think you could write some mods for the concrete channel, the scripted sequence with the Oceanologist, the submarine is already there, and the mob mods for the underwater part are probably easy enough if you have the models and sounds needed.
/˳˳_˳˳]_[˳˳_˳˳]_[˳˳_˳˳\ Advtrains enthusiast | My map: Noah's Railyard | My Content on ContentDB ✝️♂

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