The Space Project Design Update 5 - Storyline From: ericsum@aol.com (EricSum) Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 00:00:00 +0000 A long time ago, members of the human race achieved the ability to travel great distances in a very short time via the use of Hyperspace. As humans are wont to do, they spread out from their homeworld of Earth and began colonizing nearby worlds. It was a time of great joy and prosperity for mankind, and the future seemed to hold nothing more than continued good fortune. No one ever thought to ask why we were alone in the universe. Every time an explorer ship would enter a new system, the entire race held its breath, waiting to hear news that contact with another intelligent life form had been established, and time after time they were disappointed. Hundreds of worlds, many like Earth itself, but no advanced life. Many new types of animals and vegetation were discovered of course, but nothing anywhere near as advanced as mankind had become. Nearly two centuries went by, and the humans had established themselves quite well in the stars. Communication between systems had not been established yet though, and messages had to be relayed back to earth and then on to the receiver who could be nearly anywhere in the galaxy, for while travelling to the stars had been accomplished, being able to talk between the stars had not been. In the year that the humans at that time called 2398, contact with another intelligent life form was established. An explorer class vessel entered a new system and soon disappeared, never to be seen again. A search and rescue group was sent in and they too disappeared. The Earth Fleet commanders quarantined the system. They felt that perhaps the system was full of some sort of deadly radiation or large asteroids that were destroying the ships as soon as they came out of hyperspace. The nearby colony of Boktora was ordered to monitor the system as best they could, and to wait for any word from the ships that had entered that system. The sensors and probes on Boktora remained deadly silent for many weeks. Everyone had given up on the return of any ship from that system, and the less intelligent people began to refer to it as a haunted place. Then one moring the sensors and probes woke up screaming. Jump gates began opening in the system and hundreds of ships began to pour through, but they were not ships designed by humans. The alien fleet descended upon Boktor and destroyed the colony. Thus began the first Xeno war. For years the battle raged back and forth across the galaxy as the humans desperately tried to prevent themselves from being exterminated. Thousands of ships, hundreds of colonies and billions of lives were lost in the struggle. The alien ships were far better designed for battle than anythine the humans had ever devised. The one day, as suddenly as it had begun, the battle was over. A large alien fleet had just finished destroying a small farming colony only two systems away from earth, when the entire fleet jumped out and were never seen again. The same scene was repeated across the galaxy, on some unseen signal, the aliens retreated. At first, it had seemed that the humans had been victorious. But then they saw what had happened to Earth. More quickly than anyone could have imagined an alien fleet whose numbers could not be counted had materialized above the humans homeworld. In a matter of seconds, the combined firepower of of the alien fleet had left Earth in ruins. The first ships to return home discovered a planet with no life. A planet incapable of sustaining life. The ships returned home to their respected colonies. Without earth as a central body, the colonies soon began to degrade and the relationships between the human planets began to degrade as well. A few minor wars occured, but none of the colonies had the capability of massing a major strike, the Xeno war had devastated mankind. Over time, the colonies began to seperate themselves from one another. Like stars disappearing as the morning sun climbs over the horizon, each colony slowly winked out, never to communicate with the others again. They had chosen to take care of themselves. No one ever knew if the aliens would return, but mankinds thirst for exploration had been removed. People looked up at the stars and now saw death and destruction waiting out there for them. It was a time of no hope. And so the centuries passed, and just as day passing into night, the stars started to shine again. Trade between neighboring colonies began to occur again, diplomats were exchanged, differences were left to fall behind. It was the dawn of a new age of mankind. But much was still lost. The colonies were divided, and each had their own motives. The technology that had allowed mankind to travel from nearly one end of the galaxy to the next in the blink of an eye was gone, and many other wonderful things as well. It is into this time that you have come. You are the ruler of a small colony of humans who came here from Earth many many years ago. Through trade, diplomacy, and exploration, your colony may gain power. But how that power is used it up to you. Will you help to reunite the colonies of lost Earth and try to bring a new age of joy to the humans? Or will you live only for yourself and throw away the hope that mankind could ever again be what it once was? Or perhaps you think that the humans would be better off if they were ruled by YOU? Your flagship and your base are all you have, but in time you will have much more if you choose to work toward that. No one can control your actions but you. You have a role to play in the future of mankind. Savior, destroyer, parasite, or conqueror. You have no one to answer to but yourself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------ Okay thats the basic intro to the game. As it says, once the game begins, every player will have one Flagship and one Colony that they control. The players will be placed semi-randomly in the galaxy. I will allow people to have some control over how close they are placed to other players, but not when it goes against someone elses choice. For instance if Player X says he wants to start as far away from other colonies as possible, I will allow that. If player Y says he wants to be close to another player, that is okay as long as that other player says he/she wants to be close to another player as well. Player X and Player Y will not start near each other. The flagship and colony can be expanded and customized. Only one flagship can be owned at a time by a player, but many colonies can be established. Other types of ships, once their designs and techs are discovered can be added to the fleet, but will not be customizable in design, only in behavior. Anyways, back to work. I intend to do a lot of coding tonight and will update everyone tomorrow on how it is going. Eric Referenced By Up