Open Elimdur opened 7 years ago
ViolentBeetle
commented
7 years ago As a quest - I think logical starting point is to salvage a technology from their debris that isn't good for anything but this. Probably a very expensive technology that most would need to fill through multiple debris scans.
Elimdur
commented
7 years ago yes, maybe we could spawn special debris per bigger fleet and every such debris researched would add up in a counter, so not a tech but an event chain.
ViolentBeetle
commented
7 years ago Special debris are already a thing (see religious fanatics questline in vanilla), should not be a problem.
There would be two project markers side-to-side which doesn't look the best, but is workable.
Tuttu
commented
7 years ago Sounds like an interesting crisis. I don't know what to add at the moment thought.
ViolentBeetle
commented
7 years ago My suggestion for event sequence:
Kingtrin
commented
7 years ago The recent dev diary mentioned that spiritualist ascension perks will enable some sort of contact with higher planes of existence. Possibly something we would want to tie into this. You could make some spaghetti code checking for arbitrary values of fleet power to try and identify the stronger empires. Assuming the AI is not completely braindead, you could also assume that high income/science levels imply a worthy target as well.
Elimdur
commented
7 years ago problem with the code is you cannot check for has_highest_income
you can only check income > / < / = X
Elimdur
commented
6 years ago "making anomalies and on_action events for surveying barren planets in the galaxy, to give the player reason to fear the Vazurans. (planets of races which have been eradicated by the Vazurans)"
To make this happen we will flag a number of random barren planets all over the galaxy after the vazuran crisis has been enabled.
The first time the player surveys such a planet he will get an anomaly, in later cases there will just be an on_action event telling him, he found another planet destroyed by the same aggressor.
For each case there are two different versions:
If the player has found these destroyed planets first and later meets the Vazurans he will get a notification, that the weapons they use (which are ballistic in nature) use the same rare material found on the destroyed planet in their projectiles.
Elimdur
commented
6 years ago mem_antarans_category:0 "Covered in Craters" mem_antarans_category_desc:0 "Though it is not unsual for barren planets to feature the results of many cosmic impacts, in this case the pattern of craters appears to be too regular to occur naturally."
mem_antarans.202.name:0 "The End of a World" mem_antarans.202.desc:0 "While conducting a series of low altitude survey flights to study the crater sites using a shuttlecraft, our scientists received a weak self-repeating transmission originating from well below the debris. [root.Leader.GetName], though being able to pinpoint its source, quickly discarded the idea of trying to reach it as too dangerous.\n\nBack aboard the [root.GetName], [root.Leader.GetSheHe] managed to decipher the recorded transmission.\n\nIt consisted of several minutes of video feed starting in the middle of what appears to have been a live news report about a public celebration.\n\n§SLarge parades are carrying debris through the streets accompanied by cheering masses, until suddenly the atmosphere changes completely and panic spreads. Then the view is abruptly moved towards the darkening sky. A burning wreck draws a fiery line as it falls towards the ground. Before it reaches the surface, there are giant explosions all around and the video ends.§!\n\nThere is not enough material to translate what has been said, but [root.Leader.GetName] takes this as proof that [From.GetName] fell victim to ballistic bombardment by an alien fleet. Traces of a super dense compound spread across the planet's surface support this theory."
mem_antarans.203.name:0 "A Cruel Joke" mem_antarans.203.desc:0 "The investigation of [From.GetName]'s surface did not yield any conclusive insights. Yet it provided another mystery: Traces of a super dense compound not known to occur naturally are spread across the planet.\n\nHowever, a real breakthrough was made when the [root.GetName] detected a hidden base inside a hollowed out asteroid orbiting [From.GetName]. The facility, which is rather primitive by our standards, is filled with basic stasis units housing thousands of dead beings.\n\nSearching through the data fragments stored in the facility's computer system, our science team could piece together the dire situation the inhabitants of [From.GetName] were facing. Their civilization had been attacked by a technological superior force multiple times in the past. Their growing resistance was met with increasingly brutal retaliations, and they feared - rightfully, it seems - that their world would fall to these attacks. As a means to restart their civilization should the worst happen, this hidden base was installed to act as an ark to preserve their brightest minds as well as sufficient genetic variety to reboot their civilisation.\n\nHowever, they had not expected their foes to turn their homeworld into a lifeless and entirely uninhabitable rock. The 'hidden' base appears to have been purposefully spared - given that we were able to detect it, it is to be expected their foe did too. As stated in the logs, the stasis system shut down according to schedule ten years after contact with the surface had been lost. [root.Leader.GetName] cannot even start to imagine the dread and despair these people must have felt upon realizing their situation. Equipped with only two shuttle craft lacking FTL-capability and no world to return to, they were stranded. Shortly after that, the stasis system was reactivated indefinitely."
mem_antarans.204.name:0 "Ghosts of the Past" mem_antarans.204.desc:0 "During a more thorough survey of [From.GetName]'s surface, one of [root.Leader.GetName]'s assistants noticed what was later confirmed by our away team on the ground to be artificial structures.\n\nThe investigation of these ruins did not however progress as planned, mainly as a result of communications between the [root.GetName] and the scientists led by [root.Leader.GetName] being disrupted multiple times. Several personnel experienced what they described as psychotic episodes during these moments. Affected by this phenomenon as well, the chief scientist decided to return to the shuttle, fearing that remaining longer would put the team in danger. However, before they could lift off, another blackout occurred, lasting for much longer than any before that point. When communications could be reestablished, a very shaken sounding scientist reported that they are going to leave immediately. Half of them were still unconscious when they arrived at the rendezvous coordinates with the [root.GetName].\n\nAfter having recovered, [root.Leader.GetName] reports having experienced the collective death of an entire world at the hands of a merciless foe. According to [root.Leader.GetHisHer] theory, [From.GetName]'s inhabitants must have possessed extensive psychic capabilities, which led to their terrifying last moments being imprinted into the planet itself. Though physically unharmed, the events have had a lasting effect on [root.Leader.GetHimHer].\n\nFurther scans showed traces of a super dense compound spread across the planet's surface, which is likely to originate from the weapons used in its destruction, supporting [root.Leader.GetName]'s claims."
(must be planet with moon) Anomaly Category 2: Scans are detecting suspicious crater formations and traces of the same super dense compound that is not known to occur naturally, but has been linked to multiple civilizational collapses on previously surveyed planets.
Anomaly Success: Further investigation of [From.GetName] revealed that it had indeed once been inhabited but was rendered uninhabitable at the same time as a layer of super dense material was deposited on the planet, presumably the result of orbital bombardment. These events must have taken place many thousands of years ago, and remnants on the surface are too decayed and eroded to draw any further conclusions.\n\nJust as [root.Leader.GetName] was about to wrap up his investigations, the [root.GetName]'s scanners picked up a set of tiny, suspiciously identical objects orbiting [From.GetName]'s moon. These turned out to be artificial satellites containing data cores. The chief scientist assumes these were meant to be found and act as some kind of time capsules.\n\nHowever, it will take a not insignificant effort to access and decipher the data stored within them.
Project: Deciphering the Data Cores We have recovered data cores left in space when [From.From.GetName] was destroyed. Who knows what secret or message they contain?
Project finished: Our scientists have managed to decipher parts of the data cores. So far, it appears that each exemplar is an exact replica of the others and contains the same information - presumably as a strategy to increase the likelyhood of its preservation. The Data contained is extremely vast, and will take our scientists months, if not years to fully decipher. The first entry, apparently a title page, has already been translated: "We thought ourselves invincible. We thought we could stop the 'Destroyers'. We were not a young race like the others they have brought down - we have travelled the galaxy for a millennium. But they have bested us. By the time this message will be found, nothing else will remain of our once proud race. We leave this record in the hope that our most prized treasure, the words of our greatest philosophers --- our cultural heritage, might outlive the extinction of our race."
CaligulaCaesar
commented
6 years ago Some corrections:
mem_antarans.203.name:0 "A Cruel Joke" mem_antarans.203.desc:0 "The investigation of [From.GetName]'s surface did not yield any conclusive insights. Yet it provided another mystery: Traces of a super dense compound not known to occur naturally are spread across the planet.\n\nHowever, a real breakthrough was made when the [root.GetName] detected a hidden base inside a hollowed out asteroid orbiting [From.GetName]. The facility, which is rather primitive by our standards, is filled with basic stasis units housing thousands of dead beings.\n\nSearching through the data fragments stored in the facility's computer system, our science team could piece together the dire situation the inhabitants of [From.GetName] were facing. Their civilization had been attacked by a technological superior force multiple times in the past. Their growing resistance was met with increasingly brutal retaliations, and they feared - rightfully, it seems - that their world would fall to these attacks. As a means to restart their civilization should the worst happen, this hidden base was installed to act as an ark to preserve their brightest minds as well as sufficient genetic variety to reboot their civilisation.\n\nHowever, they had not expected their foes to turn their homeworld into a lifeless and entirely uninhabitable rock. The 'hidden' base appears to have been purposefully spared - given that we were able to detect it, it is to be expected their foe did too. As stated in the logs, the stasis system shut down according to schedule ten years after contact with the surface had been lost. [root.Leader.GetName] cannot even start to imagine the dread and despair these people must have felt upon realizing their situation. Equipped with only two shuttle craft lacking FTL-capability and no world to return to, they were stranded. Shortly after that, the stasis system was reactivated indefinitely."
mem_antarans.204.name:0 "Ghosts of the Past" mem_antarans.204.desc:0 "During a more thorough survey of [From.GetName]'s surface, one of [root.Leader.GetName]'s assistants noticed what was later confirmed by our away team on the ground to be artificial structures.\n\nThe investigation of these ruins did not however progress as planned, mainly as a result of communications between the [root.GetName] and the scientists led by [root.Leader.GetName] being disrupted multiple times. Several personnel experienced what they described as psychotic episodes during these moments. Affected by this phenomenon as well, the chief scientist decided to return to the shuttle, fearing that remaining longer would put the team in danger. However, before they could lift off, another blackout occurred, lasting for much longer than any before that point. When communications could be reestablished, a very shaken sounding scientist reported that they are going to leave immediately. Half of them were still unconscious when they arrived at the rendezvous coordinates with the [root.GetName].\n\nAfter having recovered, [root.Leader.GetName] reports having experienced the collective death of an entire world at the hands of a merciless foe. According to [root.Leader.GetHisHer] theory, [From.GetName]'s inhabitants must have possessed extensive psychic capabilities, which led to their terrifying last moments being imprinted into the planet itself. Though physically unharmed, the events have had a lasting effect on [root.Leader.GetHimHer].\n\nFurther scans showed traces of a super dense compound spread across the planet's surface, which is likely to originate from the weapons used in its destruction, supporting [root.Leader.GetName]'s claims."
CaligulaCaesar
commented
6 years ago Anomaly Category 2: Scans are detecting suspicious crater formations and traces of the same super dense compound that is not known to occur naturally, but has been linked to civilizational collapses on previously surveyed planets.
Anomaly Success: Further investigation of [From.GetName] revealed that it had indeed once been inhabited but was rendered uninhabitable at the same time as a layer of super dense material was deposited on the planet, presumably the result of orbital bombardment. These events must have taken place many thousands of years ago, and remnants on the surface are too decayed and eroded to draw any further conclusions.\n\nJust as [root.Leader.GetName] was about to wrap up [root.Leader.GetHisHer] investigations, the [root.GetName]'s scanners picked up a set of tiny, suspiciously identical objects orbiting [From.GetName]'s moon. These turned out to be artificial satellites containing data cores. The chief scientist assumes these were meant to be found and act as some kind of time capsules.\n\nHowever, it will take significant effort to access and decipher the data stored within them.
Project: Deciphering the Data Cores We have recovered data cores left in space when [From.From.GetName] was destroyed. Who knows what secret or message they contain?
Project finished: Our scientists have managed to decipher parts of the data cores. So far, it appears that each exemplar is an exact replica of the others and contains the same information - presumably as a strategy to increase the likelyhood of its preservation. The Data contained is extremely vast, and will take our scientists months, if not years to fully decipher. The first entry, apparently a title page, has already been translated: "We thought ourselves invincible. We thought we could stop the 'Destroyers'. We were not a young race like the others they have brought down - we have travelled the galaxy for a millennium. But they have bested us. By the time this message will be found, nothing else will remain of our once proud race. We leave this record in the hope that our most prized treasure, the words of our greatest philosophers --- our cultural heritage, might outlive the extinction of our race."
Elimdur
commented
6 years ago Midgame events happening to give the player a way to bypass their damper field.
Event 1 Crashed vazuran ship has been found during mineral prospecting operation
title: Alien Wreckage Found desc: During a routine mineral prospecting operation on [event_target(planet).GetName] prospectors made an unexpected discovery. Half covered by natural debris lies an ancient wreckage. Government officials were informed shortly after this peculiar find.
this spawns an anomaly
title: Alien Wreckage desc: An ancient alien wreckage has been found on [From.GetName]. Further investigation is required.
anomaly outcome
title: A Technological Treasure desc: At first our science team did not recognize the wreckage's origin due to its damage and advanced state of deterioration, but a scan of its material composition undoubtedly revealed it to be vazuran.\n\nWhy it ended up in this place remains a mystery to us as they tend to selfdestruct disabled ships rather than letting their technology fall into enemy hands. The circumstances are even more in our favor as though most of the ships systems are beyond recognition a key component of their technology remains largely intact. According to chief scientist [root.Leader.Getname] we are now in possession of a damper field generator -- the main source of their ship's extraordinary durability.\n\nGiven enough time to study its capabilities we might be able to find a way of bypassing its effect on our weaponry.
adds project
title: Reverse Engineering desc: With the vazuran damper field generator at our disposal we can now proceed to comprehend its way of functioning.
project finished
title: Suppressed Energy Transmission desc: After running multiple experiments with the salvaged damper field generator our scientists got a solid understanding of its capabilities. Unlike our shields, which absorb energy of incoming attacks until they are depleted, the field this generator creates permanently supresses energy transmission so that only a fraction of it reaches the protected object.\n\nWhile it works against any kind of weapon, tests have shown it to be most effective against energy based ones. Though the application of this technology to our own fleet might seem tempting on the first look, our experiments demonstrated problematic sideeffects of this protective device. The supression of energy transmission is not limited on energy coming from outside its zone of effect but affects internal ship systems as well. So far no way of shielding them from the damper field's effects has been found.\n\nRegarding its underlying scientic principles we have yet to get a deeper unterstanding. However, this is nonetheless a significant step in overcoming the vazuran technological superiority and should improve our chances in battles against their ships.
event 2 crashed vazuran ship stuck in asteroid
title: Alien Wreckage Found desc: While performing probe drillings on [event_target(planet).GetName] one of our offworld mining companies discovered an ancient wreckage. Despite having slized halfway through the asteroid before getting stuck it seems to be still in one piece. Government officials were informed shortly after this peculiar find.
title: Alien Wreckage desc: An ancient alien wreckage has been found stuck in [From.GetName]. Further investigation is required.
title: A Technological Treasure desc: At first our science team did not recognize the wreckage's origin due to its sustained damage when entering the asteroid, but a scan of its material composition undoubtedly revealed it to be vazuran.\n\nWhy it ended up in this place remains a mystery to us as they tend to selfdestruct disabled ships rather than letting their technology fall into enemy hands. The circumstances are even more in our favor as though most of the ships systems are damaged beyond recognition a key component of their technology remains largely intact. According to chief scientist [root.Leader.Getname] we are now in possession of a damper field generator -- the main source of their ship's extraordinary durability.\n\nGiven enough time to study its capabilities we might be able to find a way of bypassing its effect on our weaponry.
Elimdur
commented
6 years ago This is your only warning. In the name of the Vazuran Hegemony you are ordered to stand down and offer your due tribute or face utter destruction. Too long have we allowed you and your misbegotten kind to roam our stars unscathed. You would do better to learn your place fast, vermin...
We are the Vazurans. We made this galaxy ours before your ancestors even left their caves. You will serve us or share the same fate as those who came before you. Know, that you merely exist because we allow it. And should you dare to resist you will end as we demand it.
Elimdur
commented
6 years ago Next step for improvement:
changing raids: longer cooldowns per planet so smaller empires are a little bit better off
extermination event: chaning from mtth to decade pulses with growing chance to happen.
dampening field generator quest: changing mtth to decade pulse with growing chance to happen to make it more reliable in midgame
alternative dampening field generator quest: starting at chance when a raiding fleet has been destroyed
Divinicus1st
commented
5 years ago I like it, it's interesting and very fun to play. But players really need more time to react when there is a raid.
I understand you don't want to give longer warning and want to keep the unpredictivity to preserve the raid's surprise and threat aspect and that's really good. But I feel like raids are too fast to complete, typically lasting ~4 months. So unless it drops within 3 systems of your fleet, you have no hope to catch them.
Could you increase the time it take to bombard the colony? 120 days (if I read your code correctly) seems very low. Or maybe add some time after the bombardment to have the raiding fleet stay in orbit for a while to regroup before going home?
Who knows Master of Orion 2 will instantly know what this will be about.
This Crisis has only a chance to happen in a game. Will be decided via random list at game start. So this crisis is not designed to happen all the time, but if it appears in a game it shall have a big impact.
There is an evil and ultra advanced alien civ living in another dimension of the players galaxy. From time to time they send out raiding parties to one colony of each of the ~5 strongest normal empires.
These raiding fleets will appear from dimensional portals which appear some time prior to the attack (kind of building up until they can support the passage of the fleet - game wise to give the player some warning ahead of time) in the system of the targeted colony for the raid. The raiding fleet will then fly to the colony and orbing for some time (destroying everything on their way to it) and leave a timed planet modifier debuff before flying back to that portal and disappearing with it.
IF the raiding fleet is destroyed, the targeted empire will be target of a retaliation strike on their capital planet with an even bigger fleet once the next attack cycle starts.
IF an empire was target of a raid in one cycle and the raiding fleet returned, it will not be targeted in the next cycle, but a valid target in the cycle after that again.
These attack cycles will feature stronger fleets as the game progresses.
Final goal is to find a way to attack the vazuran homesystem with a really big fight. This happens via the player finding a way to rip them out of their dimension into your space. If the player then waits too long at that point, the vazurans may adapt to the new circumstances and establish a stronghold in the players galaxy acting like an awakened xenophobe empire empire. At this point raids and retaliation strikes will stop but you have a much bigger problem at hand if you don´t stop them fast.
Lore
The Vazurans (I will refer to them as such as long as they do not have an official unique name) are an old species, arrogant, technologically advanced - dwarfing even the accomplishments of the fallen empires - and in their own eyes destined to rule over the lesser species. They are ruthless and apply violence where beneficial for them without a second thought.
In their time they came close to accomplish their goal of galactic domination through brutal conquests and annihilation of possible competitors but were eventually defeated by a coalition of unlikely allies united by their will to survive. One of these allies were the Orila who are the reason the Vazurans as a species were not purged from the face of this galaxy but instead banished into another dimension only containing their homesystem with - so they believed - no way out.
With the Orila extinct, their allies of old gone too or fallen into a slow decay the Vazurans were all but forgotten biting their time in their pocked universe. But they did not waste it twiddling thumbs. What was once a system of twelve planets and countless moons has been turned into a giant amalgamation of ringworld and dysonsphere while their scientists worked on the seemingly impossible: "finding a way out"...
Thousands of years later their undying will lead to an extraordinary find. They gained the ability to create shortlived rifts in the fabric of time and space to connect their pocked universe to any location in their old galaxy. While not yet able to transfer their whole system back into real space or sending out big fleets it allowed them to scout the galaxy and prepare. Prepare for their inevitable return and wrath they would unleash on those who wronged them and their cause.
Because of problems with hardcoded stuff, they now use wormhole tech similar to the old ftl type. They are not trapped in a pocked dimension but instead their system has been severed from the hyperlane network to trap them there. Later they developed the wormhole technology and started to use it to attack civilizations all over the galaxy.
There are multiple problems we have to take care of.
- How to target the strongest empire?
We will do it differently. We will use planet_events with mtth of around 12 months with a trigger checking if the crisis has been disabled/finished and that the planet is not the capital world and check if the owner has already been flagged as a target or was target last time and if already all 5 attack target flags exist. -> This way we get an amount of randomness while empires with more planets are much more likely to become targets. When the planet_event fires it will go through a multistage IF THEN ELSE chain. IF no country has target 1 flag THEN set target 1 flag ELSE IF no country has target 2 flag THEN set target 2 flag and so on.
Additional sidequests may be offered under certain conditions:
For example :
- Assets needed for this crisis:
- Progress so far:
Part 1 - continual raiding attacks
Part 2 - Events while the periodic raids happen
The following Steps are being postponed for now, as we are going to make the crisis work like a 1:1 copy of the MoO2 Antarans, which should be less prone to errors.
Part 3 - Vazurans arrive in player Galaxy (both ways)