Plot Ideas for a Non-Star Wars Rebellion 2

[Guest JediIgor]

All right, I took about 40 minutes to write this up, much longer than I anticipated. If something is unclear and it makes sense to me I'll try to answer it. This could probably be used in a Galaxy of War game too .

 

Just so you know it's an idea to have a campaign, you will notice some things may resemble Star Wars so it would be easier to mod GaW if someone wanted to do that.

 

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Hey, hey, here's some ramblings about the idea:

 

Simply 3-stages of chronological order: Early Game, Middle Game, Late Game

 

Simply put you can start off the factions with bigger (or maybe smaller for some) territories based on the age you start.

 

Of course we may want to have a feature for "free play" mode as well (even if its just for testing features, or you could unlock it after beating the game ! awesome!) , but I will be mainly talking about the campaign mode which could be a lot of fun.

 

Suppose that in the future, Earth never gets globalized (united into one big government). Technology would still advance at a regular pace, we may even develop thermal fusion, but because we never proved string theory, we would grow at a slow technological pace.

 

Then, someone would discover fusion. And quantum computing. Utilizing it would be another matter. But with years of private space flight, suddenly FTL would be possible. The first FTL flights would begin (maybe 200 years into the future). The first people to leave would come back, and most of them would never be heard of again (long jumps == can't come back).

 

Fast forward 500 years, the known galaxy is inhabited by descendants of the great nations of Earth (everyone with a decent space program now): America, Russia, European Union, China, Japan, India, etc. Around 2500, we hear of efforts to prove the superstring theory coming to a close. On the day that an announcement is made about superstring theory finally proven, we get another announcement only minutes later: Earth disappears.

 

But how? In the wake of proving superstring theory, the same method that was used to prove it had accidentally messed up a few dimensions used to successfully travel via FTL to Earth. Earth is still there, but you cannot leave it, and you cannot get to it from outside the Earth, except at normal speed). For example, Earth's coordinates in dimensions 7-10 used by 500 year FTL were shifted just a little bit.

 

With Earth gone, the central government is too gone; the factions of the future are in a disarray, and turmoil ensues. Not too sure on the details now, but this is how Early game will start.

 

Early technology: Think of Battlestar Galactica. Shields are a pipe dream, lasers are used for heating your food, and the mainstay of the galactic navies are colossal ships with thick titanium (?) armor, nuclear missiles, and huge flak cannons. Think of our standard navy now, there can be destroyers, battleships, carriers, and of course small fighters (planes) that will do a lot of the fighting. On the ground side of things, you got troops armed with machine guns (think Starship Troopers) and trained for various types of combat, with lots of different armor. Tanks, jeeps, etc, are used in combination with troops to put down unrest on planets when riots happen, until now we can say that nothing but minor battles have happened between the factions (so military technology would be wane too).

 

So now what? The early goal can be finding Earth again, and while that happens people should be able to engage in diplomacy, war, exploration, research, etc to get as far as they can. After hitting a certain point in the technology tree, we can advance to the "Middle" age.

 

Middle era: Now the factions have a better sense of being independent space governments (before they were locked in by conservative/careful Earth government?), they have bigger territories, and their technology is a little better (more space-oriented things?) since it's been advancing more rapidly now, but there are still no lasers or anything like that.

 

In the middle era, the factions would finally be reaching the borders of "known" (at the point of Earth's disappearance) space.. at this point we can have them discovering what may appear as the remnants of an ancient civilization (dyson spheres, some ruins, no ships or anything though) and maybe stumble upon a few ships which have weird folk with psychic abilities ("The Force" anyone?).

 

It would finally culminate with one of the factions stumbling upon Earth. Now I'm not sure what would happen with those people who live on Earth, but here's one of the many possibilities: The humans, with all contact cut off, decide to continue with their superstring experiments, until finally their technology is so advanced that they are able to "ascend" (that is become non-corporeal entities). At this point everyone has ascended and Earth is near empty. However, the knowledge of superstring theory is quickly utilized by the scientists of the faction who control Earth, and spies of the other factions quickly pass on this information. Earth, however, is a symbol to the rest of the galaxy that its owner is the "true" human. Factions quickly try to assemble their ships and attack Earth, but since the faction controlling Earth has the advantage of better tech sooner it will probably fight off most of the invaders.

 

At this point, regardless of the explanation, we can start on the road to shields, antimatter, and all that Star Warsy stuff. The Middle era has ended, and the Late era has begun.

 

Late era: With the humans vying for control of Earth, technology is now advancing at a pace quicker than before with all of the discoveries made from Earthian technology. But as we get more technology and faster travel capabilities, we explore more and more of the galaxy (maybe 10-20% explored now?) -- the ruins and remnants of civilization that we find shock humans but nevertheless they are convinced that the race has long died out or maybe ascended like the humans.

 

Then.. a fleet appears at one of the farthest outposts and the outpost is gone from contact, people don't pay it any attention until the further outposts start disappearing one by one (from one side of the galaxy).

 

The Nomads are back. Yes, those folks who left Earth back when FTL travel was "one way." Except now they look different. Hundreds of years of drug usage has enhanced them and turned them into something different from humans. Their skin color is barely the same of humans, and they would be hard pressed to realize that they and the humans are of the homo sapien species. Among many of them are those who have the power of the "divine," to talk to God and to use momentary divine abilities to help in the cause of the Nomads (think "The force") -- these are very similar to those folk you find in the late Middle era.

 

Once the factions realize who they are, they will probably band together (or not.. some may use it to grab more land) against the Nomads. The Nomads, spread out across the galaxy, encountered the remnants of the alien species and studied them much closer than did the rest of the humans, and now their technology easily rivals the humans, but it is obvious that the Earth technology at the time of ascension was far superior (that means if they can resist being wiped out in the first wave, the humans can fight back). The Nomads don't have a huge population, but having excellent technology for years has helped them build many ships, and this fleet is just one of many of all those dispersed throughout the galaxy.

 

Actually, the Nomads have used so many drugs that they accidentally deleted everything on their computers once (?) and after a couple of generations they totally forgot about Earth, humans, and all that, so now they think that the Humans are a completely different race, and seeing them warring with each other, they think that they need to be subjugated (or maybe the expeditionary fleet guy is just evil). They start their invasion of the "known" galaxy and like the Yuuzhan Vong they will ride through the known stars until the Humans can figure out technologies to fight them. The Nomads also have many, very many of those who can use "the force" and so they are formidable opponents. Of course as the Nomads are fought, people are discovered in our Human sectors that can be genetically spliced to become "divine" (but just a few.. ).

 

Thus the Humans must fight off the Nomads and maybe even become powerful enough to take on the rest of the Nomads (who are scattered throughout maybe 60% of the galaxy).

 

Several waves of the Nomads can be made, once the first one is fought off, more fleets start coming, and they start establishing bases on the edge of our space. At this point, things can even get more interesting if we feel like coding it (maybe there are instant travel gates to other worlds, etc etc) but simply put after a few waves the Humans become strong enough to fight back and once that happens a really huge fleet of Nomads (like 3/4th of the total Nomad navy?) will come to Earth, except no battle will happen. They will have realized that they are the same as the Humans and propose a treaty to end the colossal misunderstanding.

 

At this point the game could end if the ruler of Earth wanted to accept this treaty, or maybe it wouldn't.. (like if it's mid-Late game)!

 

If the Ruler of Earth said "No," then the other factions that used to be allied with you would probably break off and try to make a treaty with the Nomads on their own.

 

(Actually, this could be a "Really Late" era..)

 

The carefully planned alliance breaks down, and the Nomads sign with those willing to end the war, but a Civil War across the Nomad confederacy breaks loose since some people still don't believe the inferior Humans are their blood brothers. At this point the game could become more the Middle era with advanced technology, since you would have the Human factions and the Nomad factions all allied with each other and fighting for control of the galaxy.

 

The game can then end in a few ways: Here are some possibilities..

 

1. The human player becomes ruler of everyone, either by conquest, or by diplomatic treaties.

2. Someone messes up a dyson sphere and it starts a chain reaction of starts that blow up, wiping out the galaxy (not fun, huh?)

3. If you are humane enough, a few ascendants break their rules of not messing with corporeal beings and decide to stop the destruction. Then your scientists finally figure out the way to ascend, everyone ascends and it's a happy ending.

4. A bunch of trigger happy aliens come back to the galaxy from a long vacation and finding it ruled by some mammals decide to unleash their forces and kill everyone who didn't ascend.

 

Actually, that could happen in order .

[Vector]

That is extremely awesome... I'll chat

[LordEwok]

This is a paste about a chat regarding this:

 

[13:52] heh, just imagine if the "alien" roswell landings was really humans arriving from 100's of years in the future, but due to drugs/genetic enhancements, they're unrecognisable as humans

[13:53] actuall that makes a lot of sense

[13:54] theyre obviously humanoid

[13:54] the grays at least

[13:54] yes

[13:54] pale skin = long time in stuffy space ships

[13:54] hm

[13:54] theyre small and skinny = atrophy from zero g and no physical exertion

[13:54] what about aversion to natural light

[13:54] they'd need to wear sunglasses

[13:54] or eye implants

[13:55] hence big black eyes

[13:55] well i read somewhere, that humans will evolve into beings with large heads and skinny arms/legs ... because we'll use ESP and psychic powers to do all the physical tasks, so physical strength is not a factor

[13:56] heh esp is sci-fi fantasy

[13:56] but in space with high tech

[13:56] and no g

[13:56] we would atrophy into small bodied beings

[13:56] and with machines to do all our work

[13:56] yes

[13:56] wed be skinny runts

 

 

So the Nomads would be shorter, skinnier than normal humans but have enhanced psychic abilities. Or what about if the Nomads genetically enhanced themselves...so they would still *look* like humans, but just have psychic powers and be physically stronger. They could also use drugs to counter the *pain* of being so powerful, both in mind and body, with serious consequences if the drug isn't taken. This could be classed as a resource, they need a certain something to make the drug, so it could be something found on planets to fight over. Without the drugs, the small Nomads cannot control their abilities. You could have an event similiar to maintence shortfall where a Nomad who doesn't use the drug blows up something random because they've flipped.

 

There could be two groups of Nomads, those who are physically small but with psychic abilities and those who are bigger than normal humans, with emphasis placed on physical strength. Kind of like the Master/Blaster combo in Mad Max. The big guys are the bodyguards, slaves, warriors of the Nomads. The small guys could use illusions (due to their psychic ability) to keep the big guys in line. The illusions only work on humans who haven't trained themselves to *see* past it. Yet the humans evolve and either use technology to see past the illusions or do it naturally. The illusions could be used in battle situations, or to seemingly move objects etc. But it could make for interesting scenarics with Nomads spreading out and conquering the galaxy...and with the mixed influences, the bigger Nomads could rebel after finding out that the smaller Nomads were using illusions to keep them in line and make them slaves. This could mean that everyone is fighting each other.

 

So you would maybe have a warrior class of Nomad who are physically superior to humans (but still look human), several classes of smaller Nomads (based on levels of psychic ability, you could call them "The Chosen" and they use "the force"). Then you'd have the humans, the normal ones then they could evolve to *unlock* their minds or use technology and become psychic. It would make sense if it was a genetic trait, think of Star Wars with Anakin passing on his force abilities to Luke and Leia. So if this is genetic it means that only some humans and the small Nomads will be psychic. Maybe there could be a seperate thread where the humans and Nomads are looking for the genetic code or enhancement that would cause them to be psychic.

 

Thats all for now, I'll keep looking back and seeing how things are progressing.

[Mad78]

I am going to make a technologie board: saying what units are unlocked after each discovery. i shall also try and make a deep description of the different factions.

[Vector]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_cylinder

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator

[Guest JediIgor]

I could see the O'Neill Cylinder maybe being used pre-FTL, but the Space Elevator would probably be useless if small ships were capable of atmospheric exit/re-entry.

 

I'm also going to go right ahead and paste some suggestions from eville since he gave to them to me over AIM:

 

armor would probably be a woven fabric of carbon nanotubes and buckyballs with exotic heavy elements in them
weaponry I would imagine would be near lightspeed rail guns (essentially chucking .99 LS bricks at each other) microwave weapons, and probably particle cannons (I mean we have them in research labs right now)
shielding would be more like magnetic burst shielding that deflect projectiles or shred incoming missiles
the FTL in the early era should be wormholes created by giant gates, so you actually have to subspace the gate to another system at first, that would explain the 300-400 year time span and why they only expanded so far

 

I think someone from the chat yesterday also suggested having the Nomads genetically splicing themselves rather than being high on drugs. I don't have the details, but it'd be nice if that someone could elaborate .

 

============

 

I was also thinking that since some people are genetically spliced, you could say that the ones that get cool skills as a result of the splice have "divine power" -- and regular humans can believe they were handpicked by God (yes I know it's a ripoff of the force, but I try to keep the explanation not cliched).

[LordEwok]

I was also thinking that since some people are genetically spliced, you could say that the ones that get cool skills as a result of the splice have "divine power" -- and regular humans can believe they were handpicked by God (yes I know it's a ripoff of the force, but I try to keep the explanation not cliched).

 

See my post after your first one, is that what you meant? I was the guy talking about it

[Stellar_Magic]

JediIgor, I don't frequent this forum much, but dang, now that I read this I feel I must do so more often. What I'm seeing here is Alpha Centauri played out on multiple planets instead of a single world...

 

I'm also seeing a history that somewhat resembles something from a novel I'm working on right now, strange no?

 

Tommorrow I'll post how my little universe, Stellar Magic, and yours are similar, and I'll detail a possible strategy game along similar lines to yours... Perhaps we can swap ideas.

[Mad78]

I had an idea for a back story about the Nomads:

 

The Nomads

The nomads were originally human beings. They were part of a project consisting of sending fleets of ships carrying colonisers to one of the rare the rare planets which had been considered inhabitable. To allow the computers of the different ships to stay coordinated they would need to transmit information. But experiments proved that in hyperspace it was nearly impossible to transmit information.

The scientist came up with the idea of using the human mind as transmitter.

To accomplish this they devellopped Neurolium. This drug would inhance the psychic capacities of a person and allow her to communicate using her brainwaves. Thabks to Neurolium, while the crews of the ships would be in stasis the onboard computer would use their minds as a relay to communicate with the rest of the fleet.

With only little testing the ships were prepared and sent onto their trip to another world.

In their haist to conquer hyperspace the scientist had over looked the main problem of Neurolium, it was a highly addictive drug and once addicted the consumer risqued death if e did not receive a regular dose. Not only this but Neurolium also caused genetic damage if taken in great quantities.

Once the ship arrived at destination, codenamed Alpha Prime, it was not the same people who disembarqued.

After generations of execive drug consumption and genetical decadence those who had left earth were hardly what you could call human.

But the Neurolium did not have only disadvantages. It also caused the peoples minds to devellop beyond normal human capacities. This way they quickly discovered that they were doomed if they could not stop their decadence. They managed to find a way to control the evolution of their ADN. The Nomads started building massive space ships to welcome their ever growing populatioon. They moved from star system to another, slowly expanding their empire. Many civiliations fell under their iron heel and finished by disappearing.

The Nomads do not know were they go, they only know that their origins are somewhere in the Galaxy and they would crush anybody who got in their way.

 

What do you think?

[SithMaster]

JediIgor,

 

This looks good so far. Keep the conversation and the ideas going for a while and then start summarizing the 'must have' points for this universe.

 

I was thinking a name for this could be Galaxy at War: Return to Earth or something along those lines..... anyways I'm not going to bother much with the 'main module' story right now, I'll leave that to other people.

 

Attention GaW team members!!! Please write your ideas/suggestions/fixes for the requirements document and email them to me Monday night at the latest.

 

Thanks,

SM