Jossip said he would do the map and i would mod the province.csv, why dont you pm him and see whats going on
-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Because I'm not very good at modding, I'll be here for moral and theoretical support 
Events: Perhaps when you meet an alien race for the first time you have the option of establishing friendly relations or you could see them as a threat and go to war, in the same way it works on Civ4 if anyone here knows.
E.g.
Descr: We have come into contact with an intelligent for of Extra-Terrestrial life for the first time! How should we proceed with diplomacy?
A: They should be welcomed as friends, we could learn alot from them
[Relations with X +50]
B: They are a threat to our existence and our empire! We must regard them as hostile!
[Relations with X -200]
[War with X]
Or perhaps a choice that says just regard as hostile but don't start a war, with a seperate war option. A stay neutral one could also work. Sorry if this has already been said but I didn't want to trawl back through this thread
Events: Perhaps when you meet an alien race for the first time you have the option of establishing friendly relations or you could see them as a threat and go to war, in the same way it works on Civ4 if anyone here knows.
E.g.
Descr: We have come into contact with an intelligent for of Extra-Terrestrial life for the first time! How should we proceed with diplomacy?
A: They should be welcomed as friends, we could learn alot from them
[Relations with X +50]
B: They are a threat to our existence and our empire! We must regard them as hostile!
[Relations with X -200]
[War with X]
Or perhaps a choice that says just regard as hostile but don't start a war, with a seperate war option. A stay neutral one could also work. Sorry if this has already been said but I didn't want to trawl back through this thread
It's an interesting concept, but I can't think of how to trigger such an event. There does not seen to be a "know" or "have contact" script. Thus, as the event might happen at any time due to exploration, it might be hard to get it to work. That is just what I'm thinking of the top of my head though, so there still be a way to get it to function.
I had an idea for EU2 a while back simular to this, however when Galciv 2 promised all these campaign tools and storyline features (VERY simular to EU2) I changed my mind. Someone could do a FAR better job on Galciv 2 than on EU2.
Bascially a bunch of my friends and I created a RPG/Board Game in Jr. High (like 10-12 years ago) back when we were obsessed with Master of Orion 2. Later that evolved into a pen and paper game simular to Star Wars roleplay and then into a Neverwinter Nights module that didn't come out because we couldn't get a lot of the features we wanted.
I have TONS of ideas for story, history, and civilizations, on paper if you need some ideas. I dont feel threatoned to put my ideas on the board because we copywrited them so I know nobody will steal them, heh. Right now i'm a computer science student and eventually want to create a game based on this.
Basically with our idea with EU2 we stopped because we couldn't figure out how to change the borders on the map to fit. We allready had a lot of ideas that would fit in. Like what different terrain means, ie. Desert would be a low habilitability sector with lots of hot and/or new stars, oceans would be impassable nebula, etc. Also we had a few sprites made. Instead of cannons going off for a territory we were going to have droppods getting smaller (like they are approaching a planet) and we had frigates for infantry, cruisers for cavalry, and battleships for cannon. We stopped their though since we couldn't figure out how to edit the damn map.
We have a ton of events, and several storyline branchs plus 3 eras with a near vastly different galaxy setup. All of it is origional though of course we did get a lot of influence from Dune (the biggest influence), Star Wars, various sci-fi novels, history, and some mythology.
Unless it becomes a lot easier to mod this were probably still going with Galciv 2, but this thread gives some ideas.
edit: their are a ton of pages on this so I didn't read much, so idk if you have storyline yet.
edit2:
Bascially a bunch of my friends and I created a RPG/Board Game in Jr. High (like 10-12 years ago) back when we were obsessed with Master of Orion 2. Later that evolved into a pen and paper game simular to Star Wars roleplay and then into a Neverwinter Nights module that didn't come out because we couldn't get a lot of the features we wanted.
I have TONS of ideas for story, history, and civilizations, on paper if you need some ideas. I dont feel threatoned to put my ideas on the board because we copywrited them so I know nobody will steal them, heh. Right now i'm a computer science student and eventually want to create a game based on this.
Basically with our idea with EU2 we stopped because we couldn't figure out how to change the borders on the map to fit. We allready had a lot of ideas that would fit in. Like what different terrain means, ie. Desert would be a low habilitability sector with lots of hot and/or new stars, oceans would be impassable nebula, etc. Also we had a few sprites made. Instead of cannons going off for a territory we were going to have droppods getting smaller (like they are approaching a planet) and we had frigates for infantry, cruisers for cavalry, and battleships for cannon. We stopped their though since we couldn't figure out how to edit the damn map.
We have a ton of events, and several storyline branchs plus 3 eras with a near vastly different galaxy setup. All of it is origional though of course we did get a lot of influence from Dune (the biggest influence), Star Wars, various sci-fi novels, history, and some mythology.
Unless it becomes a lot easier to mod this were probably still going with Galciv 2, but this thread gives some ideas.
edit: their are a ton of pages on this so I didn't read much, so idk if you have storyline yet.
edit2:
On my board game that is how we had it and was going to be how we were going to mod this. One "province" per starsystem or alternatively a cluster. IE. The sol system could be one province, but also the Pleadies cluster could be one procince as well. Depending on where it goes. We also had a site that showed a top down view (and a graphic) of the positions of stars compaired to earth that was valuable as well to make a near-realistic universe.
Last edited:
We have some story ideas but they ar mostly Earth-centric. I believe that your aid would be greatly appreciated by all involved in the modification.
Well we have a few alien races planned out... i have to get the folder/files from my friend whose using it for a campaign but off the top of my head:Badawi said:We have some story ideas but they ar mostly Earth-centric. I believe that your aid would be greatly appreciated by all involved in the modification.
Heres a couple of races. The more unique ones take a lot of explaining so heres ones I can do off the top of my head.
RACES
edit: Humans - obviously. Their storyline is long and complicated though and you allready have that settled. They also dont compose one empire however their government is called the Terran Alliance (when it starts out democratic) or Terran Empire (which it becomes a dictatorship). Also in the early game their are two opposing colony groups. The United Nations, and the Pan-Asian Alliance which are in a cold war on Earth and in a space race to colonise the local galaxy. Eventually they combine and form the Terran Alliance. That is the very short version.
T'car - a technologically advanced alien race whose empire is very close to Sol. They are a mostly peaceful race however they believe in something of a manifest destiny that they gain through alliances (they run something simular to a Federation) and, at times, war. They are a humanoid race that have a deist outlook on religion and their government is run as a republic. They are a very conformative race that doesn't much value individuality, though is respectful of rights, and much of their morals are simular to humans. However, they have an EXTREME dislike for races who do not view things in a simular nature to themselves and if it differs much (ie. a anarchic warrior race that has slavery) they will go to war and try to incorporate them into the alliance.
Greys - the humans nickname for an alien race that, according to some, attempted to influce a few races in the past. They are a mysterious and secretive race so their true name is not know, however humans just call them "greys" because of their appearance. Before Earth achieved technology to travel the stars a massive war erupted between the Alliance (t'car and allies) and the greys due to their meddling and sabotage on a Alliance member's FTL test that ended up destroying their flagship and all aboard. Their entire race consists of various types of sub-species that are grown for different purposes (simular to the book Brave New World if you read it) and are all genetically coded to have the same beliefs and thoughts as the rulers, however they all believe their leaders are supreme. What they do not know, or even would care to find out, is that their leadership is actually a A.I. computer network on their homeworld. They also have no name for themselves, no culture, and their communication isn't really known but in the story its explained as its believed they dont need to communicate because of their genetic coding and implants. Its believed they "grow" their ships as well but they look smooth and metallic and dont seem organic.
Monitary Guild:
This group consists of a guild composed of many CEOs and their employees who chose to break off from their respectives governments and races to join together to form something of a trust. This group regulates the entire galnet (galactic internet), and as a result controls money. They influence the strength of the currency, called credits and assist many corporate groups and control whats called The Exchange (the stock/options/goods exchange), they also have contracting services for mercenaries and help defend merchants from pirates and mediate the flow of goods in disruptive areas. Any race that challenges them, ie. attacks protected groups, are liable to be cut off from the exchange, the currency network, and will most likely receive embargos. Some humans dub this "excommunication" though the official term is a guild embargo. Their territory consists of a snakelike territory of purchased stars that are former mining colonies. They consist of MANY races and are run as a republic. (in EU2 terms this would be a mix between the Papacy and Venice)
religions: one of your member's suggestions was to have it like "Federation", or "Communism", i could do it that way but it should be their cultural outlook, not their government. Religion is VERY important in the storyline we created, especially in the later eras when their is a large section of the universe that is influcenced by earth's culture.
Deism - a basic religion that applies to many races. The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation.
Collective - This is a culture that has no real religion but has STRONG cultural tendencies to work for the common good, or it is for a race that has collective though like a Insectoid hive race (of course we had one of those), or a race of computers. This works for by the book communism as well or cultures simular to the the federation on star trek.
Imperial - worships the emperor as a GOD. This can also be a pantheon group, explained below. This doesn't apply to a culture that has an emperor but views him as an authority figure (ie. Star Wars). This must be a religious practice, simular to ancient Egypt or the show Stargate.
Order - any culture that reveres order but has no specific religious practice, they also see anyone different as being a threat that needs to be removed. Individuality is a threat to this group. This would fit cultures like MOST historical dictatorships (Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany, and to a lighter extent China) Any culture in this though can vary slightly. Like it could be people with certain political beliefs that are a threat, religions, races, cultures, etc.
Tribal - a lose confederation of warlords. This can include powerful pirate clans, merchant guilds that own stars,
Guild - or alternatively Merchants - this religion is what could be dubbed the worship of money, it represents the monitary guild and their affiliates.
Christianity - The storyline goes that in the middle era (called imperial era in the game) their was an empire that centered itsself on Earth that was created when their was a coup against the democratic government. This empire ended up taking control of the Alliance and eventually a LARGE section of the galaxy. During this time many cultural and religious groups went with their leaders to colonize areas of the galaxy alongside those of their culture as they felt they were going to die out. Christianity here applies to a religion of direct Roman Catholic ancestry, however when religion was waning all of the christian religions chose to combine into one. In the late era the empire collapses and their are a bunch of spliter states covering the galaxy decended from human culture. Their are also some alien empires that follow some earth cultures.
Pantheon (the mythology part of the storyline)- In the early era on earth their was a breakthrough, a scientist discovered as a result of the genome project how to make a race of super-humans. These people would be highly intelligent, atheletic, never aging (though they can die of natural causes), and immune to most diseases. However after a few test subjects of genetic alteration it was discovered that the highly increased intelligence bred insanity (very short version, lol, had a huge story based on this). These people believed themselves to be messiahs and demigods as a result of their abilities and created a group of new, resurrected old, and helped current fractured religions. They also had LARGE cults of followers, some promising to take control of the government in a holy war or bringing their people to a new promised land. This is part of the reason, why above, groups formed their own circles of influence in the galaxy. IE. the Islamic leader Khalifah Mahdi (Mahdi = messiah) brought his followers to a certain section of the galaxy (though close to the Terran Empire). Their was also a leader like this for Christianity, though he become a Pope and didn't claim to be Christ.
The pantheon is considered to be one religion, where all gods are equally important. Those of this group of people who claimed to be a messiah for a religion that prohibited gods (like Christianity) aren't considered a member of this. However Shinto, Hindi, and various ancient gods (greek, egyption, celtic, etc.) ALL exist within the pantheon. Their are also some cults that consider their group of gods and ideology more important than the others. We came up with this idea in high school, it was roughly an idea taken from Dune/Stargate when we wanted to create groups of planets that were human but had different cultures and beliefs.
Eventually in the storyline when the Reptillian race joins the empire they adopt the god Set as their deity and religion. Some alien races follow these religions, though not all. The t'car, for example, are always deist.
Race/culture in game:
For EU2 we thought that it would be best to have the general compatability of the races decide what their ingame "race" was. This compatability would be more along the lines of how they get along. Though some races are still completely incompatable, ie. a race that lives underwater or in gas giants wouldn't be in the same catagory as humans. So for races we had this:
Terran - various humans, t'car, reptillian, star trek/star wars-stlye aliens, etc.
Aquatic - a race lives underwater
Gasious/Aerial - the race we had for this were simular to a jellyfish like race that used organic technology/ships and lived in gas giants. Though this applies for any race that lives continuously in the air and doesn't need surface but NEEDS a dense atmosphere.
Void - doesn't need an atmosphere and can generally live anywhere even in space. Ie. robots or some kind of etherial race.
vegatative - a race that evolved from plants.
The purpose of organizing races in this way is obvious in the EU2 engine. This is so that you can eventually assimilate a culture (using inquisitors), but you can never assimilate anything that is COMPLETELY different. This can be broadened out. Ie. certain races that are special, like greys or another collective race, would have to be their own group. However a humanoid reptillian race can adopt human culture/religion and exist perfectly their.
Leaders: I have lists of leaders (military and "monarchs") and their respective storylines but this post is long enough.
If you want it when I get my CD and folder back soon i'll put it in a few text files which are allready organized by races, history, technology, stars, and the like. I'll see if I can get that image we used that shows the position of the local stars as well, found it on a search engine a couple years ago.
edit: sry for the long post. We have 50+ pages of material in total and this isn't taken from our text. Its FAR more descriptive and long as it was also ment for roleplay. My friend who does webdesign is working on a site that is going to host all of this.
edit: found a few of the images these were made with a program we found and can be more detailed:
12 Light Years
250 Light Years
5000 Light Years
Galaxy
I have to find my more detailed ones...
The vastness definately would require provinces representing sectors, lol. Amost all our work centers on one quarter of the galaxy since their is too much area to fill. Except LATE in the storyline, then we have many mini-galactic empires/alliances that just take up generally large areas.
http://www.1point1c.org/model/
Gives 3d models of the local stars up to a point. A site we used a LOT when writing out recent material. GREAT information.
http://home.comcast.net/~kanaric1/space_starmap.gif
We used this for 2nd smaller version of our game. Hex field works EXTREMELY well for that. This image is FAR too large to show here so this is the link. And yes this is near-exact and realistic. Basically what we've done though is use exacts for near-earth stars and approximates and made up systems further away. Gets FAR too complicated otherwise, unless you have it all on a game (Frontier/First Encounters is known for its EXTREMELY complex map).
If you have the FRONTIER — Elite II star map that came with the game that is GOLD for this. As its completely perfect and a great reference and its HUGE. The one that came with Starcontrol 2 (which I have, hehe) is also fairly accurate, but i've never used it.
Their is a even better unix program that uses an internet star database that generates EXCELLENT 2d/3d maps, but its on my linux laptop which is with my other things.
Last edited:
I tried the frontend graphics without the gradient, is it better? Also, does anyone want to suggest another underlying Image?
Yes, I agree, any suggestions for the font?Lord Boreal said:I dont think the the font of 'Terra Universalis' works its kinda ugly imo
I found a good one called Ring Bearer, it was kind LoTR-ish but it still looked good Not suitable for a space scenario though i would expect :rofl: Anything with a little more form to it, less blocky
Not suitable for a space scenario though i would expect :rofl: Anything with a little more form to it, less blocky
I like the idea of the greys, I had never really thought of them before, but the problem with all your ideas (even though they are very good and detailed) is that:
A) It is terra-centric, I wish that people would think of every nation as equals, instead of being terra-based
B) Though detailed in depth, it isn't very broad it seems that there are very few races, and we already had a government/relgious idea going.
But your help is appriciated anyway, help is always welcomed.
Luckily, we have plenty of culture tags and national tags to work with, so we can make a tag for Reptilian, Humanoid, Swarm etc...
If we do use the greys, they should be a vassal (or client state) of the federation, their malicious actions put them against the ideals of the HRE (which we seriously need to re-name). They should control a few planets near alpha-centari and have earth known, maybe even claimed.
A) It is terra-centric, I wish that people would think of every nation as equals, instead of being terra-based
B) Though detailed in depth, it isn't very broad it seems that there are very few races, and we already had a government/relgious idea going.
But your help is appriciated anyway, help is always welcomed.
Luckily, we have plenty of culture tags and national tags to work with, so we can make a tag for Reptilian, Humanoid, Swarm etc...
If we do use the greys, they should be a vassal (or client state) of the federation, their malicious actions put them against the ideals of the HRE (which we seriously need to re-name). They should control a few planets near alpha-centari and have earth known, maybe even claimed.
I don't think incorporating Kanaric's ideas into the mod wholesale is a good idea. Certainly, your input is valued and appreciated, Kanaric, and many of your idea merit inclusion, I think, but I also believe that everyone working on the current mod should have a fair amount of input to crafting the setting and the events in it.
I wasn't expecting or asking it to be that way, just giving them as examples. Like I said I wanted to use them for a project of my own in Galactic Civilzations. If I knew you wanted to actually use my info I would of posted a LOT more info that is better written and more detailed. Most of this was off the top of my head or from my Images folder for when my friend wants to create the book (he works at a publisher) I can send them these images.
Hell, I have even ship designs, a HUGE backstory, tons of characters with different storylines, a few short stories and mini novels (not by me), among other things. Since we've thought about it for a while I just thought i'd give some input.
IMO much of my ideas wouldn't incorporate well into EU2 which is why i'm using GC2 instead, however I know the "local sytems" maps and a few race ideas could be helpful for sure.
I just gave the ideas off the top of my head as well. I have MANY more types of aliens, for example, most of this only applies to the local area of Earth. Also with it being earth-centric, it really depends on the time frame. In the later periods it is earth-centric but earlier it is not. However their is still vast areas untouched by human-tainted cultures still. Also we have in depth storylines for a few races, not just humans, however the humans are the only ones I know off the top of my head.
We took greys idea from alien abduction stories and conspiracy theories fleshed it out a bit. In those stories people say their are the standard little grey aliens, a "leader" type alien that is tall and insect like, etc. In the story they also "grow" clones of people and replace the real people with these clones and end up infiltrating the Terran Alliance and inititate a coup that leads to it becoming a dictatorship that is eventually lead by a non-clone emperor who found out about their plans too late. They also have a almost-reptillian warrior subrace that does the infantry and combat work.
One thing that is different as well is their their are a few alien races that are a million or more years ahead technologically than humans. Though the races in the Sol sector (the the sun and local stars) are close to humans and everything their is generally terran-centric.
As far as races go I think we have, esides Humans, T'car, Greys, guild, etc: (in short, dont want another uber-post)
Organnon - a race of living plants that live near the galactic core.
Ascendants - an ancient race that put much of their population into stasis to outlive a galactic plague, very powerful and ancient technology and is attempting repopulation through cloning.
Vas Tel - psionic alien race that isn't even close to being humanoid (ie. will take a while for me to describe) that lives on toxic planets with a molten atmosphere, their terriforming can also be used as a weapon to destroy planets as it fractures the core and turns the atmosphere toxic so they do NOT invade when they are at war. They, like the greys, grow versions of themselves to duplicate alien races, but not for spying however. They use these people as mediators and diplomats. This is by far my favorite race that we've made got huge backstory on them. They are members of the T'car Alliance.
Kreugh - insect-like race whose real name is unpronounceable (consists of pheromones, clicks, movements, etc) so the T'car name for them is used. They are tribal and have a warlike history though since the T'car defeated them and had them join the alliance they have changed their ways. Their society is a caste system, however they have independent thought, art, and a culture, unlike other caste-style societies like the greys.
My friend created an alien race that lives entirely in space (ie. like space monsters on master of orion), a robotic race, a crystalline race, a religious fanatic race, and a few others for the local system. They are all new though so we havn't incorporated them yet. We were thinking of changing the Vast Tel to a crystaline race.
Anyways on things like how FTL travel is accomplished we use wormhole technology. Einstein leaves that hole open in his work for future research into space travel so we take that route. However its not instantanious, the further the distance the longer it takes because it takes more and more power to open a hole that is short the further the destination is.
We also have the prefered weapons technology and tactics for each of the races. Like the greys prefer to infiltrate and use covert ops during war, the Terran Empire uses what I call jump and nuke. Which is a tactic that they will jump to the outer edge of a solar system with many very large missile ships and launch thousands of advanced nuclear missiles (and later more powerful explosives and ones that use wormholes to hyperspace right to the target and explode) into the system damaging defences and ships before they attack. Like I said, most of this doesn't apply to EU2, heh.
With this you really would only be able to have humanlike races as you can't really have a difference in technology and tactics due to how the game engine works. Really the only thing that will be different is graphics, and events so it will be hard to come up with something that isn't terran-centric.
Actually much of our storyline is more T'Car centric. When we were origionally working on this we were planning on having it take place in modern day (well, the 90s as that is when we were working on it) and having no humans in the storyline what so ever. However when that campaign setting was finished we jumped ahead. Thought it would be interesting then to have an alien-only storyline.
Very quiet after that post... so let us re-gather our thoughts... how is the map coming? Was Jossip not working on it?
Mr. Capiatlist said:
You got problem with "s" on your keyboard? I'm not working the next week, so I'm devoting most of my time to map making...
Relax, Mezzo spelled it with 2 s's up top so I assumed that was the right sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssspelling.Josip said:
Mr. Capiatlist said:Relax, Mezzo spelled it with 2 s's up top so I assumed that was the right sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssspelling.
Didn't noticed that until now... He, he...
And again this s of yours...
