An Epic Generated

A template example

Published on September 7, 2006 By Draginol In GalCiv Journals

Introduction

For thousands of years the Drengin Empire and the Torian Confederation have battled over this corner of the galaxy. This small parsec, measuring a mere 4 by 4 sectors, has been home to the Drengin and Torians along with several other galactic players for some time now. But on the Planet Aeon, a new power was emerging. The Galactic Coalition was looking to make their own mark in the galaxy. Led by Gil Sanders, The Galactic Coalition had ambitions far beyond their capital world. The year is 2225 and this is their story.

And so it begins...

The Galactic Coalition was quick to expand their sphere of influence. By June of 2225, they had colonized 6 planets. Aeon was still the most populous planet with a population of 4.5 billion citizens but they had also founded the planet of Martzia III, a class 12 planet that showed real promise.

Meanwhile, the Drengin Empire had expanded to 5 worlds while the Torian Confederation had taken 5 themselves. The Drengin Empire had a total population of 9.2 billion people while the Torian Confederation had a population of 11.2 billion. By contrast, the Galactic Coalition had a population of 10.3 billion. The population differences could probably be explained somewhat by the differences in morale. The leading civilization, the Drengin Empire, had a morale of 72%. This could probably be explained by their tax rate of 52%. The Galactic Coalition had a tax rate of 59% which resulted in an approval rating average of 68%.

By the end of 2225, only 2 planets were left to be colonized. The most powerful civilization in the parsec, the Drengin Empire, now had 8 worlds. Their military might was 0. The Galactic Coalition was at peace. They looked towards a bright future.

Darkness Rising

The war that eventually enveloped the galaxy in fire started when the Drengin Empire declared war on the Torian Confederation in May of 2226. The Drengin Empire had 1.4X the military might of the Torians and had built 10 of their new "M1-HeavyFighter" which they called the Kortak'Ra. The fighter was equipped with 2 Laser-II canons for an attack rating of 2 with a defense rating of 0. The Torian Confederation had only 8 ships with attack power. The battle was on.

It was in early 2227 when the Galactic Coalition joined the war. The Drengin Empire had been slowly grinding down the Torian Confederation. The Torian high point was when they had 7 worlds. Now they only had 5 worlds while the Drengin Empire had 12 worlds now.

The Galactic Coalition's most numerous military platform was the F-2 Thunder heavy fighter. Armed with the Vulacani Ltd. Railgun Mark IV, the ship packed the punch rating of 8 while its total defense was rated at 0. The Galactic Coalition had assembled a fleet of 4 ships and sent them into battle (screenshot).

(Screenshot of the F-2 with specs).

Obliteration

By the end of 2227, the parsec was in flames. The Galactic Coalition was the leading civilization now overall. Its military was ranked #1 and its technology rating was #1 and its science rating was #1. It was at war with the Drengin Empire who had a military rating of 90 (the ratings are like IQ's, 100 is normal, above is good, below is bad). The Galactic Coalition had a military rating of 150. The Drengin Empire was losing its war to the Galactic Coalition. Where the Drengin Empire once had a military might that was 1.12X that of the Galactic Coalition, it now had one that was only 0.56X of the Galactic Coalition.

The Galactic Coalition had successfully invaded Kwilas II which had been owned by the Drengin Empire in May of 2227. The situation for the Drengin Empire was starting to look grim.

The Drengin had designed the M2-Frigate which they called the "Vel'Ka" which was equipped with deadly plasma weapons and had Titanium armor for an attack rating of 12 and a defense rating of 4. (screenshot of the M2-Frigate with specs).

The Galactic Coalition countered this was the construction of a new and more powerful heavy fighter called the F-10 Death Hawk. Equipped with Heberling Singularity Drivers Mark III, each of the 15 constructed F-10 Death Hawks had an attack rating of 10 and a defense rating of 0. The Drengin Empire only had 3 of the M2-Frigate ships.

The Drengin Empire made peace with the Torian Confederation in November of 2227. The Galactic Coalition continued to steamroll over the Drengin Empire throughout the year until the Drengin Empire surrendered (screenshot) their forces to the Galactic Coalition. The war, was over.

End Game

The Galactic Coalition and the Torian Confederation enjoyed trade to the amount of 45bc per week. This trade combined with the military might of the Galactic Coalition and a general agreement on moral philosophy (The Galactic Coalition was a morally Neutral/Good civilization and the Torain Federation was a morally Neutral/Good civilization) led to them having close relations.

In 2229, the Torian Confederation accepted an offer of Alliance with the Galactic Coalition creating a united parsec.

Conclusions

Gil Sanders who led the Industrialists on Aeon had much to celebrate. The parsec was now united under a political alliance. Their military was ranked #1, their economy was ranked #1, their research was ranked #1, and their approval was ranked #2. It was good times for the Galactic Coalition. The F-10 Death Hawk had served the galaxy was and Fleet101, which consisted mostly of F-10 Death Hawks had helped make the galaxy safe for those who were Neutral/Good.

In the end, the Galactic Coalition was recorded in history as a civilization that generated a total of 11,101 points. Their opponents were Challenging and with a total population of 31.3 billion the Galactic Coalition was now a force in the galaxy to be reckoned with.

Comments

Draginol

on Sep 07, 2006

This is a short version minus screenshots of what we hope the Epic Generator will do. The text will be available for users to tweak and add to to give it their own flavor and each one should be quite different as it should select different elements randomly based both on sheer randomness and how the game ultimately ended and the moral choices of the player.

darkviking

on Sep 07, 2006

Overall, this seems really well-done -- kudos to coders and writers both!

But it really hurts my head to see the word "parsec" being used to describe an area of space. A "parsec" is a measure of length, not area or volume -- so the current wording is just as wrong as saying something happened in "a small mile, measuring a mere 4x4 acres"...

According to wikipedia, 1 parsec =~ 3.2 light years =~ 19 trillion miles. It's the preferred unit to use when describing interstellar distances, although "light year" is more popular among non-scientists.

It would be more correct to say that the events took place in a "small sector measuring 4x4 parsecs" than the reverse. If you need another word to refer to a large area of space, maybe "quadrant" would work?

No118

on Sep 07, 2006

Would it be too much for the game to check when the military rating is zero, and instead of saying 'Their military might was 0.' Having something like 'they had no military'?

Twelvefield

on Sep 07, 2006

I bet you wince every time they mention the Kessel Run in Star Wars. Although, I have to agree with you.

"One parsec is the distance at which a star would appear to shift its position by one arcsecond during the time in which the Earth moves a distance of one astronomical unit (au) in the direction perpendicular to the direction to the star. Using this unit makes it easy to compute distances: the distance to a star, in parsecs, is simply one divided by the parallax, in arcseconds. If the parallax is 0.01 arcsecond, the distance is 100 parsecs." (source: http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictP.html )

We can see that "Parsec" is based on Earth-style measurements, and probably would not be used by journalists from outside of our own solar system.

Lord Null

on Sep 07, 2006

Great work, very much appreciated.

I am looking forward to the next expansion.

A few requests, would it be possible to update the visuals for ground combat.

1. Updating the visuals/graphics to reflect soldiering bonus and levels. When I research a new tech that creates better soldiering capabilities, it would be great if the appearances of the troops would change. Especially if you get a unique tech such as Tir Quan training it would be nice to have some visual (bling reflective of your alignment, maybe a cool banner carried by the troops) that shows that soldiers are getting tougher or if the enemy has it you can see that in the fights.
2. Is it possible to updating the visuals/graphics so that each race has a more distinctive race look for their soldiers?
3. At the beginning when you are in the set up, would it be possible to select your troops appearance, along the lines of when you choose your race colours for your ships. Maybe with several choices for troops…
4. The ability to mod your soldiers would be cool

Will definitely put my money where my mouth is and pre order DA.

Thanks

Frogboy

on Sep 07, 2006

It should be quadrant. D'oh!

Meglobob

on Sep 07, 2006

This is a good beginning for an epic generator. It reads reasonably well. Perhaps too many numbers in it, u may want to consider having it put seven in, instead of 7 (word, rather than number), it reads better this way, does for my poor brain. It's going to look alot better with screenshots.

The text will be available for users to tweak and add to to give it their own flavor

Like this feature.

Having read this example, I could see myself editing the text to put in more drama, flavour, name editing and then submiting it has a AAR to share with the GC2 community.

Two great features of the epic generator, r its going to do all the donkey work for the writer, ie...stats, numbers, position at certain points in the game. Leaving the player to create the prose. Secondly it creates a record of the game for other players to examine how certain players play the game (tips) and for u to fondly look back on yr favourite games. I have already had some real epic games of GC2 with lots of lows and highs which would make a good read.

Fuzzybunnies

on Sep 07, 2006

I agree on the numbers issue... it seems to give too much specific data like "attack of 10 and defense of 0"... some relative wording would give the text a better flow with maybe an option to use hard numbers (ie slightly more powerful but unarmored). The civ comparisons could definitely use with some softening up of the numbers. I don't really need to know that the Drengin's power was 0.56x the Coalition power, but just that they were "almost half". etc.

Otherwise, this thing is lookin really good!

Frogboy

on Sep 07, 2006

The epics are designed with players editing them in mind. The coding involved to parse 0.56X to make it know to say "almost half" or "equal" or "double" or "massively more" adds up.

pdesrivieres@yahoo.com

on Sep 07, 2006

Looks great!

Having read this example, I could see myself editing the text to put in more drama, flavour, name editing and then submiting it has a AAR to share with the GC2 community.

When you do, let me know and I'll add it to my Collection of Game Play Examples.

Lord Null

on Sep 07, 2006

Planets

Is there a possibility to update in the expansion the planet graphics and game play for the following?

1. Alien civilization specific buildings
2. That each Civ has its own look for buildings i.e. manufacturing centres for each race are different but do the same thing.
3. That your buildings reflect your alignment and empires political party leaning.
4. That when you capture a planet with another civ’s buildings that they remain that style unless you demolish or they gradually blend into your own?
5. That there be some sort of graphic visual that shows what beings live on the planet i.e. if a planet surrenders you see that civ’s race on the planet in the population counter
6. That there might be a history created for the planet i.e. telling you when colonized, that the planet was captured by the empire of whoever at a loss of 5 billion per’s, that secret police or information centres have capture or turned x number of dissidents, that this planet found an alien precursor mine by explorers, that spies destroyed x during the year etc..
7. That planets when attacked by certain types of weapons actual change looks with craters or floods, volcano’s after the attacks
8. That the number of new planet types being added show new graphics?

This game rocks

Lord Null

on Sep 07, 2006

9. As the planet tiles fill up, that there be some sort of growth appearing like roads connecting the tiles and small buildings start to appear. Possibly reflecting your ethos lots of parks or industrial unit’s or maybe militaristic style for imperial empires etc......

valiant418

on Sep 08, 2006

twelvefield,
there is actually a good reason for the star wars reference to the kessel run being in parsecs although it will make my star wars knowledge frighteningly obvious to explain it myself so I will simply point you to the wikipedia entry so you can have a good laugh. This may be slightly off topic but considering we are the kind of people spending time on a forum for a computer game I have a feeling some of you will enjoy reading it.

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

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!