A Mod Idea
 

Well as many of you may or may not remember I was once talking about a mod that I planned to call Ascendancy, sadly this does not look like it is going to be possible anymore because I can't get the people involved that I needed too.

Instead I have a new idea:

Back Story:
It is the year 2400 (of course) 300 years after the survivors of a great war which shattered the Sol system, the reason for the war was simple:

The Begining:
6,000 years prior to this great war a small city state near Greece called Icara came to the forefront of history when they were brutally invaded by the Spartans, a war followed that destroyed half the Icaran population, yet these proud people prevailed in the end and destroyed the Spartan army, capturing Sparta and begining a course of events that would forever change the world.

The Icaran people resolved never again to be victims of conquest and chose to become the conquerers themselves, a bloody crusade that lasted a thousand years followed, and in the end Icara controled almost a third of the entire surface of the world.
The only nation able to resist the might of Icara was that of China which had just emerged from the period of seven kingdoms under the mighty Chin dynasty, the Icaran invasion sparked a war for all of Asia, leading to the defeat of the asiatic Icaran forces and leading to the formation of an Asian Empire which called it's self the Empire of the Shining Star who's power rivalled that of Icara.

For centuries the two nations dueled one another both on the political floor and the battlefield, and for centuries they remained locked in a stalemate neither empire able to expand it's territories without butting heads against the other.
In the late 19th century both nations began their space programs and finally came to a mutual rights treaty and both began carving out their own territories throughout the solar system.

The Space Age and the Rise of the Sol Coalition:
The Icaran Empire and Empire of the Shining Star both built a powerful space based military as their technology jumped foward by leaps and bounds. But even though the two Empires were the most powerful Human nations they were not the only nations, there were dozens of independent nations who also began colonizing worlds and moons within the Solar system, some even grew so bold as to form a space based military to defend their interests.

Over time many of these independant nations out of the desire not be swept away by the two powerful Empires to form a unified front against them, as the decades of the twentieth century passed these nations forged a powerful alliance who's military might and population was large enough to defend them on a limited basis from the militaries of Icara and the ESS, and so the Sol Coalition was formed.

However to many reactionaries in the new government this defensive focus was no more then a stopgap measure against what they saw as the oppressive nature of the two Empires which dominated the system and this is how humanity would forever be shattered.

The Great War:
In the early years of the 21st century the Sol Coalition built it's power and bided it's time, until April 6th 2034 on this day the Sol Coalition launched a massive attack upon the Icaran and Asian Empires.
On the first day alone the Sol fleet decimated the ESS and Icaran colonies on Mars, Phobos and Triton, while their Terran forces launched massive Neutron strikes against entire populations centers of their rival Empires.

Though the initial strikes killed several hundred million Icaran and ESS citizens and decimated entire military bases the two Empires refused to surrender their land or their honor so easily.
What the Sol coalition could not have known was that this very attack would do what centuries of political and military fueding could not, it unified the two greatest Empires of the Solar system, however the ESS had suffered the greatest losses during the opening hours of the war which made the Icaran Empire the dominant partner, something the Sol Coalition would come to regret.

A decade of brutal warfare followed, as the Icarans led what they considered nothing less then a holy war for the preservation of their divine empire, billions died and entire cities and colonies burned as the entire system was engulfed in a massive war of annihilation.

The End and the New Worlds:
Though they fought valiantly the Icarans and ESS could not stand against the Sol forces and their allies, and in their darkest hour the two empires combined their remaining economic strength to the construction of twelve massive colony ships, which could carry three hundred million humans in cryo storage to a new home world.

The final battle took place on September 19th 2051 when the last military units of Icara and the ESS fought the Sol coalition long enough for the colony ships to escape the system.

A journey that was expected to last for 75 years met with an unexpected event, somehow the colony ships engines reacted with an anomoly in space in just such a way as to allow them to enter a new star system in a matter of moments.

The Following Years:
Even while the Icarans and tiny surviving population of the Empire of the Shining Star rebuilt and merged into one unified Icaran people, other nations chose to leave the devestated Sol system and the brutal early reign of the Sol Coalition, though only a handful were fortunate enough to stumble across what would later be known as "warp points" these colonists left Sol behind and began rebuilding their own star nations.

The Goals of my Mod:
1. To create at least 15 Human star nations (including ship sets http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif)

2. To give each nation it's own unique attributes and abilities.

3. Make capital ships "truely" capital, for example Dreadnoughts will make you wet your pants with glee or fear depending on which end of the *** whoopin your on.
(note) Not all star nations will have the same ship sizes or designations(/note)

Re: A Mod Idea
 

Any help I can get on making "human looking" shipsets will be greatly appreciated http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

PM me if you'd like to help.

BTW: For the beta I'd expect only 5 human nations (2 Icaran- 3 unique).

Re: A Mod Idea
 

As for point 3., feel free to copy parts of Capship. Capship Light Cruisers are already 1500kT and Heavy Battlecruisers are 4500kT, so that would fit your idea nicely, I think.

Re: A Mod Idea
 

Is there any technical reason for multiplying sizes by ten, or is it just for looks/ambiance?

Re: A Mod Idea
 

Capship = short for Capital Ship = a really huge warship. Death Stars, PK Command Carriers, and such. And I'm not just multiplying sizes by 10, I've created a whole new list of ships, from 120kT Light Scouts to 25MT Command Carriers, and quite a lot of "special" ships, like Destroyers with inherent scanning capabilities, War Cruisers with inherent supply storage etc.

I created the first version of Capship because I wanted to place more comps on my ships. In stock SEIV, you can field large fleets of Baseships fairly easily, but even GETTING a COMCA is extremely hard on your economy - especially since they cost an unbelievable amount of raw materials and there's a 50% standard maintenance cost. But when you DO get those large (huge, massive) warships, you've got an invaluable asset.

Re: A Mod Idea
 

Man the second half of you story screams freelancer to me so you should use the ships from there as inspiration.

Re: A Mod Idea
 

I've never played Freelancer but it seems like a good game to me... however, I'm not considering buying it. I haven't got that much money right now, and I'm waiting till it's got a reasonable price. (truth be told, I've no idea at how much it currently sells)

Re: A Mod Idea
 

Well actually the idea for this came out before I ever played freelancer, it's actually based more on my "From the Beginning" Story, except this will be a mod purely to bring that "Humans vs Humans vs Xenos" aspect out into the main point of the game instead of just me using every human shipset I had http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Oh and freelancer currently sells for 21 US dollars so it's pretty cheap, and it's worth the buy trust me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A Mod Idea
 

Freelancer ships look a lot like the Pandoran set, or its sister set, not yet release - pending out come of the Tourneyment.

Re: A Mod Idea
 

Depends on Which house AT:
Liberty, has my favorite design though the Kusari gave me an idea on how an Empire of the Shining Star shipset should look since they are very rooted in their asian Heritage.

The Icarans have an "evolving" design appearance in their shipsets, the Escort and Frigate look primitive and nothing like the destroyer-cruiser designs while another evolution in design leads to the Icaran Battlecruiser-Monitor appearances.
The transports don't even resemble the Icaran warships, which is meant to represent private companies being involved in the design and construction of the transport fleet.

Though the majority of the ESS survivors were absorbed into the Icaran Empire others were seperated when their sleeper ships were shot through to a different part of the galaxy altogether and so unlike their comrades stuck to their deeply rooted asian beleifs and design philosophy.

Other nations will hopefully also have starships that represent their "heritage" of design by having a unique but identifiable appearance.

Regarding the Capital ships, as I said I will be making them more powerful but I do not know if I will be increasing their size so much as the power of their weapons and shields via mounts. And maybe size.

The problem is I do not know how to make sure the AI knows to keep building smaller ships while it's capital ships are under construction.