Hello! Some of y'all might remember this story from several years ago that I wrote with @YellowRusty for BeamNG.drive. Unfortunately, I got a bit bored and tired of writing for that universe, and it didn't really work too well outside of an abandoned island. However, I will say that I've already written about as much for this story in two weeks as I did for that story in two years. (58,000 words for Aurora, ~65,000 for Selva). I've been cranking out at least a chapter or two per night most nights - it's a lot easier for me to write stuff when it's just me playing the game. Since I believe there's been limits added to the length of posts on this forum, I'm publishing new chapters on AO3. You can read the story here.
And I've published the second chapter, based upon the second half of the tutorial! I've also gotten another humanoid character into the mix - I hope y'all enjoy her.
Chapter 3 is up! Aurora's started searching for the demonstrators, and she's started her first job! Apologies for it being late this weekend - I spent all day yesterday writing more chapters.
And Chapter 4 is out - this was my first time writing a scene about Aurora doing a long drive, and we have another machine-spirit in the mix! She only pops up for a bit, but she'll feature more extensively in the next chapter. I believe that City West always has the switch going into the city - I'm not sure why, but I tried incorporating that into the story. Apologies for the delay - AO3 was down a couple times this weekend, and I was re-writing much of this chapter to try and make it flow better. Here's the link to the chapter: https://archiveofourown.org/works/78956581/chapters/211651181#workskin
And Chapter 5 is out! I was again a little late with this, since I re-wrote this chapter almost entirely again: https://archiveofourown.org/works/78956581/chapters/212652216 Also, I've crossed 100 unique readers for this story. I'm amazed that so many people want to read this, but hey, I'll keep writing as long as I can/want to. In my playthrough, I've just restored my second demonstrator - I hope to have a third (and maybe a fourth) restored soon, as well.
Hello! Chapter 6 is now out: https://archiveofourown.org/works/78956581/chapters/213702506 I just managed to get this published today, and I'm gradually introducing a new category of characters here - the non-playable vehicles. I've got only one of them in this story, since it was an action-heavy chapter in a desolate area of the valley, but there will be more to come. Since there's only six demonstrators and six work trains, I decided that the best way to add more characters would be for some (if not all) of the road vehicles, boats and helis to have their own machine-spirits. Thankfully, I've got over 500 background vehicles to choose from across the whole valley (excluding the vehicles that are built at the machine factory), so I've got no shortage of options to choose from. There also could be several opportunities to have more fun character dynamics - I know I'm a bit lacking in those. But anyway, enjoy!
Not a new chapter - just wanted to post an update that I've just restored all six demonstrators! And good thing I have, since I believe my computer is dying. I'll hopefully have Chapter 7 up this weekend, so stay tuned for that.
Hello! Sorry this is late - this chapter proved to be more complicated to edit than I imagined it would be. Anyway, enjoy Chapter 7 - where Aurora finds more demonstrators and I expand the cast of non-rail vehicle characters: https://archiveofourown.org/works/78956581/chapters/207100961
Hello! I've finally gotten a chapter posted on a Sunday (wow, that's crazy!). Anyway, this likely will be the last chapter for a couple weeks, as I'm gonna be studying for my CompTIA A+ exam and going to a bunch of job fairs. You can enjoy Aurora's first experiences of the harbor in the meantime: https://archiveofourown.org/works/78956581/chapters/216000586
So, I've been doing some background work on the 516 background vehicles (i missed 12 vehicles before) - I want to include them more naturally into the story, and I've also realized something about them. There seems to be a maximum of 10 per station - this occurs four times (three in CS and once in HB), and there were only 10 locomotives and MUs planned for the base game (the six already in the game, two WEs, the DM1P, and the DH6 (now probably cancelled)). Also, the older bus (the one in blue or orange) has a maximum of 10 units throughout the Valley, and the sports car has a maximum of nine. If this limit only showed up once, that would be fairly interesting, but this many times? That can't be a coincidence. So, therefore, I want to have more models of vehicles in my story, to give more variety and to further differentiate the various stations. It can get a bit same-y having, say, 35 or 40 of the same vehicle around the place. I'm thinking that this 10-vehicle restriction wouldn't apply to any of the vehicles that can be hauled in the Valley (and it probably also wouldn't apply to the forklifts). I also want to change some things about the story as it is - it won't be completely different, but I want to bring it up to standards. Right now, it feels rather disjointed and dull to read (at least, to me).
So, big news: I might be getting a job in a few weeks. It’ll only be part-time, so I should still have enough time to work on this story, but don’t be surprised if the chapters come out every two weeks instead of every week. Speaking of the chapters, I’ve been busy editing the first few chapters and the prologue – I didn’t have to do very much for Chapter 1 (The Training Stage), but Chapter 2 (Humanism) and Chapter 3 (Steel Mill) have been significantly re-written. I don’t think I’ll have to do too much for the other chapters – they mostly need a few touch-ups here and there. Chapter 5 (Power Dynamics) probably would need some more work, but not to the same level as Chapter 2. I’ve also included a new road-vehicle character as part of the main cast – it makes sense with the increased focus on the road vehicles. I also plan on changing some of the current characters. I want to make Serafina a fair bit kinder, and probably change the family relations of some of the characters a bit. I’ve also pushed Bob’s introduction back a few chapters to make room for the new road-vehicle character. I don't think I'll be able to get a new chapter out this weekend, unfortunately, but I hope to get to the end of Day 1 before I start my job. Also, the story’s crossed 200 readers, which is incredible. I didn’t think I’d get that much traction for this story. About 20 of those have been in the past few days, ever since FfarquaharStudios167 posted their story, “Mind Your Manners”, on the Steam forums, which you can check out here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3699992255 Anyway, I’ll hopefully be posting all the edited chapters this weekend. I’ll still be keeping the original chapters in their own document, just in case people aren’t happy with the changes.
