Post-Apocalyptic Myths Busted. Part I. news - After Reset™ RPG

Hi guys,

I thought to publish new video from the game in this update/news. But I feel to share that short series of articles first :)

Recently, in my work designing and analyzing concepts for another weapon from our game, I heard that there hasn't yet been a hard science fiction video game. In complete disbelief, I checked the Internet and Wikipedia. It's hard to imagine my surprise when I came up empty handed.

Yes, the international gaming community has industry standard space operas (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, etc.); space westerns (are you waiting for Firefly too?); purely apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic games (Fallout, Metro, etc.); cyberpunk (Deus Ex, Syndicate, etc.); steampunk (Arcanum, Dishonored etc.); alternate history games (Command and Conquer) and more.

But it turns out that no one has yet made a completely hard science fiction game, despite the fact that since the time of H. G. Wells, it has been considered the original science fiction genre. The difference lies in its strict adherence to scientific laws firmly established at the time of writing. What really made these books stand out was their detailed scientific and technical basis and their realistic extrapolation from that.

It turns out that the relentlessly scientific approach that we've been building into every nook and cranny of our setting since the beginning has the potential to make After Reset RPG the first hard science fiction video game in history.

After discussing this discovery with our team and gaming journalists, I decided to summarize and share some of the most enduring classic myths about life after the apocalypse that we intend to do away with in our game. I remind you that this is intended for an adult audience, and in order to convince that audience of the reality and authenticity of our game, and by the same token to allow the game to really let the players immerse themselves in their characters - it needs to be truly scientifically convincing as well as being based on facts and real world experience.

Well, what are we waiting for? Pour yourself a glass of something cold, lean back in your chair and enjoy...

MYTH #1: NUCLEAR WINTER

Myth: Setting off a large number of nuclear warheads leads to huge clouds of smoke, soot and ash rising into the sky. These thick, black clouds envelop the Earth in darkness. The temperature falls sharply. With complete blackness, low temperatures and falling radioactive residue, all flora and fauna will die, everything will freeze and be covered with dozens of meters of ice and snow. And only the smartest criminals will be able to claw their way out of the bomb shelters and Metro stations to hunt for mutants.

Reality: The Nuclear Winter model was developed and became part of popular imagination during the Cold War. In modern times it has become unlikely. However, the "Sagan-Moiseev" model didn't take into account factors such as the release of greenhouse gasses, heat loss from the earth's surface, the climate's ability to self regulate, and also the fact that fires will burn themselves out. Modern climatologists allow that Nuclear Winter is theoretically possible, but it could not be a consequence even of a massive conflict between Russia and the USA. What would be needed is regular (over many years) blasts in coal mines and other geologically defined places designed for this purpose and a nuclear arsenal over ten times larger than those of all nuclear nations in total.

In After Reset RPG: As a result of the resonant blasts of mankind's combined nuclear arsenal during the Reset a chain reaction in the atmosphere was nearly achieved. Nuclear Winter never came, but the ozone layer was significantly damaged. For reasons not understood by the subterranean United Governments, over the next ten years the Earth underwent a pole shift and some terramorphing-like changes. Together with that, Yellow Zones began to appear, which could support life. For the descendants of those who survived the Reset on the surface that new world is natural. It has been like that their whole lives.

MYTH #2: THE AVAILABILITY OF COMBUSTIBLES

Myth: Like any good character in a casual game or Hollywood film, after having lived through the apocalypse, you start siphoning gas from abandoned cars and gas stations on your wandering way. Fill up your ride and voila, you're back on the road!

Reality: Any combustible, including those used as car and motorcycle fuel, is a chemical compound with a life cycle of its own and therefore an expiration date. After as little as six months to a year, gas is no longer a useable power source for any vehicle.

In After Reset RPG: For the descendants of those who lived through the apocalypse on the surface, combustibles are a rarity. As a matter of fact, so are vehicles with internal combustion engines that derive power from them. Nonetheless, there are rumors about organizations in the New Confederacy having field oil refineries like the ones built by locals during the war in Syria in 2013 C.E. It is also known that some United Government technology by 123 A.R. uses special kinds of liquid fuel.

MYTH #3: WHEELED TRANSPORT

Myth: Whether breaking into an abandoned garage, or just checking the ignition in an abandoned vehicle, you're always exchanging one stylish set of wheels for another one and tearing off into the endless expanse of the Wasteland.

Reality: Even if you're able to find workable fuel and charge the battery, in ideal conditions, without a mechanic these vehicles can only do what they were made to do for 7-15 years more. As soon as the paint begins to peel off (which happens within a few years), corrosion starts eating the metal at a rate of 0,3 inches per year. After 20 years, any car abandoned in a coastal area will already have become an indistinct rusted skeleton. The same fate awaits these man-made constructions in other climate zones in 30-75 years. Man-made metal constructions will last the longest in a dry desert climate. The only consolation, no matter how senseless, is that the tires will stick around for 100 years after the end of the world.

In After Reset RPG: In the arid desert climate of the Great Desert even more than 100 years after the Reset, some parts of some vehicles remain in places as the metal skeletons of the Past Era. In coastal areas of the State of Eagle you barely make out these hunks of metal, long ago consumed by rust and buried in the ground. But tires... you find tires everywhere.

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