Let's Play GalCiv2: ToTA

[doom3607]

Now, I recently dredged this game back out of some deep dark and dusty storage area because I remembered it and wanted to play it again. Problem is, no multiplayer, and all those ships and armies are pretty damn impersonal and faceless. To the point of making me just stop playing, a lot of times. So I thought, How do I give these ships and armies some personality? And then it hit me- the obvious, right in the face!

I'll make a Let's Play!

Now, if anyone is willing to sign up for this, I'd like to ask a question. I have two ideas for the player nation. One of them is an evil theocratic empire, basically. Think Space Iran crossed with the Space USSR. Or the IoM if it helps. But evil. So, only evil humor really. The other idea is not mine at all, actually, it's stolen from the current STGOD, SDNW4. It's a nation that will cease to exist in fairly short order, and got its charcter given to it by everyone else, making it completely and utterly ludicrous, with the entire population being morbidly obese and thinking it attractive, to the point of considering becoming actually attractive a state of severe starvation, to their ubiquitous enema-bots, and (this one is from their creator) requests for subjects for Nazi-style medical experiments and assistance in commiting genocide in a standard greeting message. They are, for those of you who don't know of them already, the Multiversal Empire of Happyness (MEH)!

I, personally, would like to go with them, if anything. I think that SDN could make them funny as hell. But suggestions and votes are naturally welcome. I hope people decide to start reading this, so I have a reason to write it. I'll keep my fingers crossed for some involvment!

[Eternal_Freedom]

The MEH? Hells yes!

Althought Space Iran/USSR soudns good to. If only it wasn't theocratic I'd go with them. On the other hand, being theocratic just means I can use God as an excuse for all my genocidal tendencies, so I am definitely going with Evil Space Theocracy!

[doom3607]

The name I was thinking of was the Order of the Void, if that makes any sense at all, for the evil theocracy. Something about God literally being the Cosmos, and their sacred duty being to cleanse Him of the Infidel Xenos who spread through His Being like parasites and viruses, to cleanse Him in preperation for His battle with His Immortal Enemy. If that sounds good. Let the 'cleansing' commence! Bring out the Terror Stars! Or, as this reviewer put it, the Starfucker Supremes!

[Eternal_Freedom]

Ah the Order of the Void sees itself as the Cosmos's/God's immune system?

What a fascinating idea!

[doom3607]

I try for originality. Unless I'm blatantly ripping somebody off, like with the MEH.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Imitation is the best form of flattery

[doom3607]

So that makes one person interested so far. And going for the OotV. If nobody objects before... seven o' clock PM my time, that's about five and a half hours from now for those in other time zones, I'll start the LP with them. Settings are:

Because surrenders suck. Also, yayz, I can post the images!

Habitable worlds I think should be either lowest or second lowest, more than that just gives you a crazed land-grab.

[Samuel]

What race are you playing as? I stopped after Dark Avatar, but I know they altered the tech tree for each race. If you could give a description of what the differences are, I'd appreciate it (the wiki was singularly unhelpful).

[doom3607]

Custom race. As we're a bunch of purge-happy crusader nutjobs, I'm thinking... Krynn tech tree for all the influence (religion) spreading stuff, and the Super Annihilator specialization so we can build Spore ships that wipe out all life on a planet, converting it to a toxic world.

Whereas the MEH would have the Terran TT (default, basically) and either Super Warrior (always get to shoot first in battle) or Super Isolationist (can immediatly colonize Barren worlds and other player's ship move slower in their space). Those are the only ones I think are remotely applicable to them.

[doom3607]

Less than an hour left! Soon it'll be off on the genocidal warpath!

Hey, Eternal_Freedom. We start with three ships- a colony ship, a space miner, and a 'flagship' that's basically a Starship Enterprise-ish exploration ship... right down to the description. Which will be upgraded to an attack ship ASAP. Want to hve one of them embrace your own brand of genocidal lunacy?

Also, a note- I'm thinking of posting every four or eight weeks IG, that a turn is a week and fewer and farther between when nothing's happening. Sound good?

[Eternal_Freedom]

Shotgun on the Flagship!

And the frequenc sounds about right.

Is it possible to give the Flagship a specific name?

[doom3607]

But of course! I can name any and every ship in the fleet, right down to the troop transports and colony ships! I can even name the planets. I'm thinking names like Silent Contemplation, Majesty of Creation, Hope for Tommorow, that sort of thing, for the planets. Sound good?

[Eternal_Freedom]

Those planet names sound good.

But I think for my flagship there must be a name that appeals to genocidal cleansing and the eradication of the enemy. Oooo can't decide what to call it!

Night Bringer
God's Wrath
Devourer of Worlds
Fist of God

Choices, choices..

[doom3607]

Ooh, Devourer of Worlds sounds nice and evil! I'd have to make it a spore ship of course, so you can single-handedly cleanse planets!

Also, I hereby decree sensor tech very important to us, that we may see more of His Being than all others. Fortunately there is not much sensor tech.

I have also decided what the primary non-relgious quotation/commandment for the military is, dating back to the unification of our world under the Order of the Void. "If the application of high explosives has failed to solve the problem, you have failed to apply enough of them."

Which is to say, missile tech all the way- energy and kinetics are for the WEAK!

[Eternal_Freedom]

The spore-ship is now officially named Devourer of Worlds and commisioned as the Flagship of the Order of the Void, with a Holy Charter to Cleanse all of God's Being. None shall stand in it's way of Reclaiming the Universe from the Unclean!

Also, the Flagship is under the command of Admiral Dimitri Kursk, Hero of the Centaurus Campaign, that successfully oblitereated all traces of the enemy civilisation from Alpha Centaurus IV. Mwahahahahaha

EDIT: I'll second sensor tech and missile spam. May I also suggest maxing out engine research? So the Fleets may Cleanse the Cosmos that bit faster?

[doom3607]

Agreed. Admirial Kursk shall become the thing alien parents assure their children is not hiding under the bed. He's in orbit, just waiting for the order to murderise them all. Don't worry. Everything will be fin- *DATA TRANSMISSION TERMINATED. ALL TRANSMITTERS IN THE VICINITY UNRESPONSIVE. PROBABILITY OF EXTERMINATION ORDERS HAVING BEEN ISSUED: 99.937%*

And now, off to BEGIN!

[Eternal_Freedom]

Let the genocidal campaigns begin!

[doom3607]

First actual content for this LP!

---

Year: 2227
Personal Journal of His Voice, D'Oom the Thirty-Sixth

It's been four weeks since I sent the heroic Admiral Kursk on his way in the Devourer of Worlds, may she one day be worthy of the name.



Bah! Not even a weapon aboard, and he calls it Devourer of Worlds? The man's mad! A psychopath, I tell you! At his speech before launch, the man was positively frothing at the mouth, raving about wiping out the foul xenos we don't even know are out there! Not that I don't agree with the sentiment, but still! If he wasn't so loved by the rest of the military, I'd have him shot like the rabid dog he is!

Ahem.

In any case, now that that is taken care of... he did do some good. He guided our first colony ship to our first new world within two weeks, and it's been named His Great Generosity. And it is generous- another world, nearly as good as our homeworld, within two week's flight of home- and with some immensely valuable ores in one area, they're building an industrial complex there now and they think it should quadruple the productivity!



In any case, all is going well. I've decided to end each of these entries off with a photogrpah of the strategic overviews of the Order's space. So, until my next recording.

---

As a note from me, doom3607- here's how to read the strategic display. The colored circles are stars. The rings are planets. The slightly thicker ones are habitable, the thicker the better- as you can see, there are three of them in sight. The two odd blue and white symbols are our flag, and they denote planets- the big one is home, the smaller one is the colony. The sort of hammerhead is the Devourer of Worlds, with the course laid out in front of it. And the atom symbol is an anomaly.

Also- I need more minions captains for suicide missions to die cold and alone out in the dark brave and glorious scouting missions. Also any other ships that happen to be built that'll stick around, unlike colony ships. You can also preemptively apply to lead a force of ground-based cannon fodder that dies in the millions our invincible shock troops. Seriously, I picked the 'Invincible' trait that gives a 30% bonus to ground troops.

[OmegaChief]

Alright, I'll sign up, Captian OmegaChief reporting for Warship duty.

Would the Leviathan be an acceptable name for one?

[doom3607]

Just fine, omega. Just fine. You'll have the ship as soon as we have any missiles to load it with.

[OmegaChief]

Ah, going the missile route are we? What will our primary defence tech be?

[Eternal_Freedom]

Rabid dog, pah!

There must be xeno scum out in the universe! We can see through our telescopes that the body of the Great One is afflicted, tainted. His Body should be spread far and wide and even, instead it clusters around some fetid centres, deep dark tumours of reality. They must be expunged, and we are those Chosen by the Great One for this task!

My ship, the Devourer of Worlds, is but a start. It will be rebuilt, reconstructed and remade to represent our highest technology, our most powerful abilities and our strongest will for reaching out into the long night. And when we find those inevitable xeno scum, the Devourer of Worlds will be were she and I belong, at the very forefront of the cleansing, bathing worlds in nuclear fire, carefully, deliberately and relentlessly annihiliating all who stand in our way.

For the Order, and for the Great One, the Cosmos Himself!

[The Vortex Empire]

Captain Vortex reporting, signing up for any warship, which shall be named the Baptism of Fire. Yes, I believe it is about time to bring the Great One's righteous fury to those thrice-damned xenos! We shall search until we discover their worlds, at which point we will purify them with the unparalleled cleansing power of thermonuclear fire!

If I could fight alongside Devourer of Worlds and her righteous captain, I and the crew would be eternally grateful to the Great One.

[doom3607]

Nice to see there are now three bloodthristy ship commanders, although what my ability to gather them up so rapidly says about this board is mildly disturbing...

And no, the clustering is fine, for the galaxies are as His Cells, and the stars are his Atoms. Whih means you're taking over his body, one quark at a time.

And our primary defences will be... whatever we wind up needing. I'm thinking armor or sheilds is priority, not many races seem to use missiles and the Dread Lords use kinetics... Fuckin' Black Hole Guns.

By late game, I hereby promise that absolutely all dreadnoughts will have the spore weapon! Fear our evil planet-killers, for we shall mass-produce Terror Stars to back them up! That's right... I'll mass produce things that make the Death Star run crying for its mommy!

[The Vortex Empire]

Bloodthirsty?! You wound me good sir. Please, I have these xenos best interests at heart. I want the xenos to recognize the Great Ones divine perfection, and if they do, then the Great One will allow them to survive the thermonuclear purification.