If there is a Galactic Civilizations III someday, it’s going to have to deal with a lot of issues in its game universe.
If we look at the story of Galactic Civilizations as a 5 chapter (so far) novel you’d have:
Chapter I: Galactic Civilizations: The humans develop Hyperdrive and its technology spread to the other 5 major space-faring civilizations (the Drengin, Arceans, Yor, Altarians, and Torians).
Chapter II: The Altarian Prophecy: Shows us that long ago, there were other races of powerful beings that battled throughout the universe. One of these beings, known as Draginol, used a powerful object known as the Telenanth to create a precursor civilization that came to be known as the Arnor. Draginol and his peers eventually disappeared for reasons we do not yet know leaving the Arnor as the guardians of life. Draginol’s presence, however, for reasons we do not fully understand still, resulted in the Arnor, the Altarians, and humans being visibly similar in appearance.
Chapter III: Dread Lords: This chapter opens up the long-awaited war between the Drengin and their allies (notably the Yor) and the Humans and their allies (notably the Arceans, Torians, and Altarians). The Drengin accidentally free the Dread Lords from a prison located in a pocket universe where the Arnor had put them and they begin to wreak havoc.
As a result, the humans and their allies are forced to deal with the Dread Lords (which they’re successful) only to be beaten down by the Drengin and Yor.
Chapter IV: Dark Avatar: Life is good for the Drengin. Arcea is occupied. Toria is occupied. Altaria has been bombed into submission and only continues to fight on through the Altarian Resistance. The humans, always clever, have managed to keep Earth protected by using an Arnorian shield to produce a forcefield around the planet.
But the Drengin Shock troops, known as the Korath, are insisting on the extermination of the defeated. The Yor support this as well. The Drengin, by contrast, “merely” want to enslave the defeated.
It turns out that the Dread Lords have been pulling the strings of the Korath and the Drengin manage to fight them to a stalemate.
Chapter V: Twilight of the Arnor: The Korath are slowly beating back the Drengin Empire thanks to their relationship with the evil Dread Lords. Luckily, a human expeditionary force has found the last Arnorian who provides aid to defeat the Dread Lords once and for all and ironically saving the vile Drengin from their genocidal brethren.
At the end of Twilight of the Arnor, the evil Drengin reign supreme. The Earth is still protected behind an impenetrable forcefield but is not a strategic factor.
How’s that for a depressing point to leave off?
…
So where does Galactic Civilizations go? The story still has 4 more chapters in my mind with the last chapter having many possible endings to it.
One of those endings results in the Yor becoming the dominant force in all the universe (not just the galaxy). As someone who has a healthy interest in astronomy, the sheer scale of the galaxy, let alone the universe is something I take very seriously.
In the dark future where the Yor take over, there are no living creatures anywhere. The universe itself becomes sentient via a Yor-invented material known as “the substrate”. Essentially it is material that spreads across the universe converting all matter into this material in which the Yor come to exist within.
The best (and still poor) analogy would be that this material is used to turn all matter into a single massive computer and all consciousness exists within this “Matrix-like” existence --- except there is no biological life. No one is connected to VR but rather all conscious reality exists within it with the collective intelligent of the the Yor being able to spread the substrate to all places at once through the folding of space.
Nothing in this scenario would even exist in the physical, material world anymore. All life would exist in the virtual sense within the Substrate. THAT is the goal of the Yor.
The Yor, of course, are right now merely synthetic organisms that exist still as individual physical entities in the material universe. They do not yet have the means (technological or otherwise) to realize their dream but that is their goal.
Of course since we’re humans, the fate of humanity in the form of the Terran Alliance (those darn earthlings) will be the center point of the concluding chapters. But they are an even greater threat than the Yor (and if we get to make GalCiv III you’ll see that). The Thalan, in fact, are actually a race of beings from a parallel universe who have figured out the means to travel to other universes and managed to enter our universe at a point before the humans destroyed the universe (though, “destroy” obviously will have to be explained since one man’s “destroy” is another man’s “transform”.). The universe, being over 13 billion years old and unimaginably large can’t be “destroyed” in the conventional sense.
From a GAME point of view, however, what makes me exited for a future Galactic Civilizations game are the artifacts which will allow players to do a lot of crazy things in game that are fun and interesting. But that’s for another discussion.
Piece of Trivia:
The aliens in Galactic Civilizations II were designed and modeled by Paul Warzecha. Today, he is the lead character modeler on Diablo 3.
Please don't tease us so badly! Elemental hasn't even arrived yet and you're talking GalCiv III already! Sounds like with 4 chapters left that would mean GalCiv III vanilla plus THREE expansions?
Sounds like a good idea... Of course, humanity losing in the long run is always a refreshing change of pace.
So, speaking of GalCivIII, when are Sins 2 and Demigod 2 coming out?
Hopefully soon and hopefully we can get some DLC for Demigod in the near future.
Teaser! Teaser!
Personally, I don't much care for the story. Whenever GC3 is made, I just hope that it will be even better to play than GC2. Plus campaigns should be much more fun to play. Of course, it is still quite far away.
Whooo galciv3! Please no total war kind of ship combat. Keep the focus on strategy not on tactics! That's my humble opinion.
I agree that the focus should be on strategy, but if the tactical battles can be fit into the game without compromise, I am all for it?
I daresay that it will depend a lot on the reception Elemental's tactical combat recieves.
I agree. Usually, I like to get into the trenches, but I am enjoying GalCiv's combat model where the player is reduced to a mere spectator. I would like to keep it that way with but perhaps with a small change: maybe we could appoint fleet captains that would give a bonus to maneuvering, firing, etc.? That way the player would still be realistically inable to micromanage a battle, but combat wouldn't seem so heavily attrition-based either.
Regardless, it will be a great day when GalCiv III is officially announced.
Pretty good, yes, POWER to the Yor! I always felt they are something very special, so totally different from all the other stock races.
However, what always questioned me is if the Yor do consciously know that their artificial intelligence "Spark of Life" does descend from the Dread Lords - and if that could possibly play a role in their existance. In ToA they are incredibly strong in the beginning, but wouldn´t they also be eligible for some "Way of the Dread Lords" strong end-techs?
btw, seriously, that universal future wouldn´t be "dark", with only the Yor present all would be a cold-beautiful harmony in efficient mechanical balance.
and about the other races...well no tears please... Agt. Smith says "the purpose of life is to end", it´s their inevitable destiny....
Thanks for the update!
Maybe I'm a detail nut, but I would like to see a fully 3D map and an interface for the 3Dconnexion® SpacePilot® controller. I use one every day at work (using SolidWorks® 3D Moder), and at home it makes things like Google Earth® so much easier to use. This would be a killer way to watch ship battles!
cant wait!
After Elemental PLEASE Go right to GC3... Yes I know your RPG and Society are in the works but come on please!
will we ever see a mac version?
*IF* you get to make GalCiv III? most depressing comment in the whole post.
The Europa Universalis series does that and it does work quite nicely, even enabling a couple of... interesting strategies, like sending an assassin to kill the enemy commander in the middle of a battle to make the enemy units fight without leadership. It'd be nice to see something like that in the GalCiv series as well, it'd be interesting.
Here's hoping the above "if" changes soon to a "when".
Fascinating, Brad. You make me more curious that ever as to where the story is going to go....
Well there is the time factor to consider. Given all the games Stardock is working on and/or has planned, Brad will probably be well into his 40's before he even thinks about doing another installment in the GalCiv franchise.
Consider: Even if Stardock began work on GC3 immediately after finishing Elemental -- which I'm quite certain won't happen, due to the other projects already on their plate -- one would have to surmise a release date of no sooner than 2012 (given a minimum 2-year development cycle).
Realistically, I suspect it'll be even much longer than that. I wouldn't be at all surprised if GalCiv3 doesn't get released til at least -- AT LEAST -- 2015. I would love to be wrong about that, and that we'll see it much sooner, but I wouldn't bet money on it.
Here, here. Keep the Galactic Civilizations franchise going. I'll be there for it. GC2 has been a super game for me. Right up there with the best of them, years of enjoyment.
I'm really into the strategy of the game as opposed to the story and role playing. I'd like to see GC3 center on strategy just as GC2 did. So, take the story where it suits you. Just keep the strategy deep and immersive like you did in GC2.
I look forward to seeing GalCiv III and the possible conclusions to your story, Brad.
This plot sounds very Kurzweilian. Google "Law of Accerating Returns" to see the source. It will be interesting to see how this "substrate" can be worked into gameplay elements. For once it starts, it should be completely unstoppable as its power and intelligence grows exponentially.
I'm just wondering, any chance we (the players) will get to give input on how we would like the game mechanics/features to be? (Of course, these would be treated as suggestions)
Considering how much the Elemental Beta has changed based on player input, when the GC3 beta comes up, I'm sure there will be many opportunities for input that will then be filtered down into gameplay elements.
I was actually thinking of giving input before they start coding.
I've never played the story. Please don't spend too much time on the story, but more on the game play itself. The game play is why I play GalCiv2. Look at Supreme Commander 2. What's his name, (Chris Taylor?) spent too much time on the story. It blows when compared to Supreme Commander:Forged Alliance. Never played the storyline in those games either and I actually deleted Supreme Commander 2 and went back to SupCom:FA. Wish I could've gotten my money back. I think stories are best for FPS and RPGs. Does Civilization 1,2,3,4, or 5 have stories? It's been a while since I've played CIV 4. If there's a story line for that, I sure as hell haven't played it either.
This Yor ending reminds me of the Replicators from Stargate SG1, and also of the grey goo originally described by mathematician John von Neumann.
I disagree. While the storyline influences the main game, sandbox has ALWAYS been the heart of GalCiv and is going to stay that way. If anything I hope the campaigns get a little more work in GalCiv 3 - they're a fun secondary (emphasis on secondary, though) aspect that could have used some more development. In particular the TA one could have used a little more mission development and an actual plot. Don't take away from sandbox mode, but do try and add a little to the campaigns.
Also, a suggestion: maybe you could incorporate all of the possible endings by including multiple campaigns in one game. We could have our usual humans save the galaxy (or destroy it, as the case may be) SF plot, and we could transform the galaxy into a coldly beautiful transrobotic paradise as the Yor, and we could play as other races too. Just a thought.
So, in 2230 the gate to the pocket is reopened and the stuff they bring back causes "some trouble". And the ascension/technological victory (at least for the Yor) will no longer be a clear cut win. Will the Yor "sacrifice" - transform themselves to be the soul within the substance? It sounds very similar to the replicators from SG. It sugggests psyhic weapons will emerge.
I am not a time expert, I imagine that each time travel to the past destroys the universe and everything happened since the "arrival point" (so a man can shoot his grandfather, once arrived he is already a man without father, he "only" has to deal with his memories), it could fit to Draginol's story.
Are the "light" Arnors able to reproduce?
Did the humans invented cold fusion whereas the stargates used "normal" fusion like a star?
How was the communication done pre-hyperdrive? Did it also use stargates or some other faster than light method?
Did any of the races colonize planets during the stargate era? If so, how large the empires were at the time of introduction of hyperdrive?
What is the history and origin of the Krynn?
Maybe very stupid for a story related topic but how did the stargates work? With folding space a single one should be enough for a one way trip except it should remain open for the whole trip. From the galciv 1 intro they seemed to work more like real gates to a different dimension - but then very different from a continuous projection the hyperdrives seem to do - based on longer projection resulting higher speed. Sorry if too nitpicking. Edit: On second thought the stargates should work in two phases, putting the ship to a higher dimension and then actually folding three dimensional space, it could fit to galciv 1 intro well. But still, I would imagine an invasion force to use a single stargate in the home system, and carries a dimension gate (half stargate) with it via hyperspace that is probably final assembled in the hyperspace (in the target system) to allow the fleet to return to three dimensional space. I do not want to become a tech head though, if the story says the second stargate needed to be transported via regular space and it took X time, that is fine for me, I am just curious.
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