The Syrtian War - Mod

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Prophet
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THE SYRTIAN WAR
Official Timeline wrote:23rd Century: The Age of Apocalypse
The Commonwealth grew and prospered throughout the 23rd century. Meanwhile, the Martian colonists who fled the genetic engineering ban formed the Syrtis Conclave—an almost utopian civilization with genetically engineered neo-humans living on the Martian surface. In 2243, however, guided by what they believe to be a divine intelligence in the Galactic Core, the Syrtis Conclave decided to annihilate Earth.

The war left the Solar System in ruins and it was only with the help of the Commonwealth that the Syrtis were defeated. Most of the martians left Sol as refugees, for Mars was left uninhabitable, and today Syrtis refugees are found in many systems. The Syrtis leadership, however, escaped into deep space and they formed the Ares Orthodoxy out beyond Jiang's Star. The old Commonwealth Fleet fights them still, but few people in St. Katharine's System (far from the fighting) believe that they are a threat.
Transcendence Tower Defense

I've been bouncing this idea around for a long time, started it numerous times and now it's finally come to life!
You; the player, pilot Earth's last hope for survival.

The adventure takes place immediately after the attack on Earth by the Syrtis Conclave. The player must reconstruct Earth's defenses to fight off endless waves of syrtian war ships and eventually take the fight to their doorstep and nuke Mars.

alterecco and I should have a playable demo ready in a day or two and we desperately need some help.

playtesters - seriously. find the bugs, make constructive comments to make it better etc.
artists - the gameplay is pretty straight forward but it needs that polish that only some nice shiny graphics can provide. If you are willing to work with us PLEASE help. We can discuss the requirements in pms or in IRC if you're interested.
canon - (GEORGE HELP PLEASE) the timeline is quite vague and some details can be found in various places, but we would really love to keep this very strictly in canon, showing what the solar system was like at this point in the trans history. Any notes, pointers etc. would be very much appreciated!


What is it?
Tower defense, Transcendence style!
The player must manage resources, building stations and turrets to defend against oncoming waves of enemy ships.
The player takes a back seat to the action (you have no weapons) and rely on strategy to survive.

Where can I get it?
Hold on! It's not ready yet.
This thread will be updated as the project progresses.

Now with screenshots!

Rebuild human civilization, one turreted laser cannon at a time!
Gather resources, balance economic advancement with military might and advanced research to survive the onslaught.
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The Syrtians haven't gone far watch out because you never know when a wing of fighters will appear!
Guard your precious stations with laser turrets, missile turrets and thermo cannons.
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All dockscreens written with DSF, completely customized with added functionality!
This is a shot of the construction menu.
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Last edited by Prophet on Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:37 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Coming soon: The Syrtian War adventure mod!
A Turret defense genre mod exploring the worst era in Earth's history.
Can you defend the Earth from the Syrtian invaders?
Stay tuned for updates!
george moromisato
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This is very cool! I'll spend some time in the next week to post some more lore. Can't wait to see it!
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:D
I see that this concept has come a very long way. Even complete with a storyline. Quite creative approach!
If you have any ideas about syrtian war era ships & stations & stuff, I might be able to help you with some art resources.
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Here are a few notes that I have on the period:

The roots of the Syrtis go back to the Gene Crisis of 2115. At the time there was great debate between those who supported human genetic engineering and those who did not. Earth governments banned genetic engineering, but the people living in Earth-orbiting stations and the Lunar colonies disagreed.

There was a crisis that ended just short of all-out war. Eventually there was a compromise: all human genetic engineering on Earth was banned; the colonies could use genetic engineering as long as those changes were not inherited (i.e., no germ-line GE).

The colonies accepted the compromise, but realized that they no longer had much in common with the people from Earth, so they eventually formed the Commonwealth.

There remained, however, a group of people who did not accept the restriction on germ-line GE; those people founded the Syrtis colony on Mars and developed heritable genetic modifications to allow themselves to survive and prosper on the then barely terraformed Mars.

Fast-forward to the 2200s.

The Syrtis Conclave grew and prospered on Mars. They developed a very sophisticated and wealthy society. In the 2220s, a subculture known as the Ares Sect rose to power in the Conclave, claiming to have guidance from a divine intelligence. By 2230 they had a large following and promised to expand Syrtis control over the rest of the solar system.

In 2230, the Syrtis invade Asian Pacific colonies on Mars and UAS colonies in the Belt. The three major powers of Earth (North Atlantic Union, Asian Pacific Directorate, and United African States) join together to build a massive fleet (the Earth Fleet).

In 2236, the Earth Fleet attempts an invation of Mars, but is destroyed in orbit by the Syrtis fleet.

In 2238, the Syrtis Conclave launches an attack on Commonwealth NEO colonies. The Commonwealth (based in St. Katharine's Star) votes to go to war. Shipyards in the Centauri system begin a massive construction program.

In 2242, Commonwealth Lunar colonies are occupied by Syrtis forces. They begin staging for an assault on Earth.

In 2243, unable to force Earth's surrender, the Syrtis fleet nukes several Earth military installations from orbit (major cities are spared, but fallout plus general chaos still kill millions).

In 2251, the Commonwealth Fleet enters the solar system and nukes much of Mars from orbit.
-----------------------

I don't have much worked out between 2243 and 2251, but your scenario fits in perfectly in that period.

During that time, while waiting for the build out of the Commonwealth Fleet, Earth has to defend itself as best it can (plus, towards the end of the period, prepare the ground work for the invasion of the Commonwealth Fleet, which is coming in from Centauri).

I think the tower defense format fits this perfectly.

Here are some things to work out:

1. Where are Earth's shipyards? Many are probably in Earth-orbit.
2. What resources do the shipyards need? Plasteel? Titanium?
3. Where are those resources produced? NEOs? On Earth itself?
4. What ships and defenses did Earth have?
5. What ships do the Syrtis have?
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I imaging that the syrtians have a primitive version of the sandstorm, but as something more analogous to the chasm today, given that their lightening cannons were some of the highest end weapons available.

As for earth ships, I would imaging that they were using whatever they could get; there were tons of hornets produced, but not used because somebody up in the EI product design division had a brain-failure, and likely ronins were out and about, but as to capships there is not much there. Antares freighters were available as well, but I would see them just ferrying around resources.

I've been messing around with various concepts for Syrtian-War era earth ships; generally I would imagine them to be much blockier, and less "Elegant" than more modern ships at the current timeperiod, which display a greater "comfort" with the technology than the older ships would. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... Technology
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alterecco
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Prophet is going to have a field day with this information :D

Thanks George, for always bringing great background! I hope this will turn out to be a fun and playable mod that can fit into the storyline!
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Thank you George, that is very helpful.

That 8 year gap between the Syrtis nuking Earth and CW fleet nuking Mars is a perfect timeline for this.
George wrote:Here are some things to work out:

1. Where are Earth's shipyards? Many are probably in Earth-orbit.
2. What resources do the shipyards need? Plasteel? Titanium?
3. Where are those resources produced? NEOs? On Earth itself?
4. What ships and defenses did Earth have?
5. What ships do the Syrtis have?
1. We just started discussing giving the player ships to control in addition to the turrets, but they would be a higher tier technology. Earth-orbiting shipyards work perfect as they would have been decimated in the attack.

2. We're using a generic "Ore" for simplified mechanics. Only 3 resources are involved: Ore, Power and Research.

3. The sheer amount of resources required to keep the shipyards producing makes me think there were massive mining operations in the asteroid belt. We can definitely work that into the campaign.

4. This is an important point for us.
Most of the fleet was destroyed 7 years ago in the attempted attack on Mars, and a large majority of the reserves probably would have been destroyed in the Earth bombardment.

Scambling to mount any sort of defense, Earth relies on small, cheap technologies (Turrets and drones) to rebuild it's defenses, and slowly replace it's fleet.

5. This is another important point.
As neither alterecco nor I are artists, we're using the vanilla Ares graphical resources and modifying the stats (heavily). I like the Greek mythology basis for the Ares nomenclature and will attempt to maintain that.


Some more questions that come to mind:
1. Technologically speaking, what was available/prevalent? Are kinetic weapons the default or lasers? Armor and devices are a non-issue as the player does not interact with them at all.

2. Are there any other factions in the solar system at this time? What is their stance towards the civil war?

3. Are the 3 Earth governments friendly towards one another? they banded together to form the earth fleet in defense (which failed) is there any in-fighting at all? Is one more dominant than the others?
Coming soon: The Syrtian War adventure mod!
A Turret defense genre mod exploring the worst era in Earth's history.
Can you defend the Earth from the Syrtian invaders?
Stay tuned for updates!
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Ttech
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Sweet job here, it might be fun to actually include something not strictly the same type of thing in transcendence,
Privateer, if you need any help or want to share ideas, send me a message, you know you where to find me. :)
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Ttech wrote:Sweet job here, it might be fun to actually include something not strictly the same type of thing in transcendence,
Privateer, if you need any help or want to share ideas, send me a message, you know you where to find me. :)
:? Oh my god, its like the Name Crisis all over again. Seriously, why does my name get confused so often....? :shock:

On topic, this sounds awesome - I'm amazed the T-engine can even do this, can't wait to see it in action! :D
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Glad you find this useful!
Prophet wrote:Some more questions that come to mind:
1. Technologically speaking, what was available/prevalent? Are kinetic weapons the default or lasers? Armor and devices are a non-issue as the player does not interact with them at all.

2. Are there any other factions in the solar system at this time? What is their stance towards the civil war?

3. Are the 3 Earth governments friendly towards one another? they banded together to form the earth fleet in defense (which failed) is there any in-fighting at all? Is one more dominant than the others?
1. Really good question. There were obviously nuclear weapons at the time, so at least "thermo" damage existed then. But I think thermo weapons were large and cumbersome; there was nothing that could shoot out unlimited amount of thermo bullets. Instead, all thermo weapons were expensive missiles and such.

Laser and kinetic were obviously common. But certainly blast and particle weapons were technologically in their range. Again, perhaps the weapons were cruder, but not necessarily less deadly. Tracking and omni weapons were perhaps less common (not sure).

Ion weapons are probably experimental technologies for the Syrtis Conclave. And neither side has developed positron, plama, or antimatter weapons.

2. The only other faction in the solar system at the time are the Ringers at Saturn. They are split because they support the Syrtis cause for genetic engineering, but they disapprove of their aggressive war. They prefer to remain neutral. But perhaps, they become involved if the Syrtis try to blockade the Kuiper gate (to prevent the Commonwealth Fleet from entering the solar system).

3. The UAS (United African States) is probably the one sovereign that is most recognizable as a 21st century nation-state. The other two are "post-national" in the sense that their citizens consider themselves citizens of Earth more than anything else. The UAS is definitely thinking about how the war can improve their standing.

BTW: I don't technically think this counts as a "civil war". In my notes I call the the "Syrtis War" as opposed to the later "Ares War".
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Thanks soo much George. All this info will be extremely helpful in fleshing out the missions and bringing the adventure to life while maintaining historical accuracy.
Coming soon: The Syrtian War adventure mod!
A Turret defense genre mod exploring the worst era in Earth's history.
Can you defend the Earth from the Syrtian invaders?
Stay tuned for updates!
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Prophet, this is a fantastic idea! :D

I would like to help! I can provide some graphics if you want.
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That would be great, Digdug!

At the top of our list for graphics we desperately want:
Adventure main screen - something featuring hordes of Syrtian (ares) ships would be amazing but I'm flexible if the pic is good.

40 facing cursor - not a ship, the player is piloting a cursor. We're currently testing a flying torus. The center is empty because everything is built at that position. We're not crazy about it though, so this is kind of simmering for the moment.

Large image for the ship selections screen - there's only one option, but we're using the wolfen image right now.

animated cargo crate - everything begins as a cargo crate; our construction module. You then designate it to be built into a station which takes some time. IF the cargo crate could have some kind of animation showing that it's becoming something else, that would be awesome.

Anything else is gravy! :D
Coming soon: The Syrtian War adventure mod!
A Turret defense genre mod exploring the worst era in Earth's history.
Can you defend the Earth from the Syrtian invaders?
Stay tuned for updates!
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That would indeed be awesome DigDug. Regarding the cursor, we have talked about having it be a real 3d render of a small ship (hornet size, maybe a bit smaller). It should have a water drop shape, so basically a round shape with a triangle on top. It would be cool if there was some nice texture on it, perhaps a glowing red "eye" in the center of the circle... :D
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ThePrivateer wrote:
Ttech wrote:Sweet job here, it might be fun to actually include something not strictly the same type of thing in transcendence,
Privateer, if you need any help or want to share ideas, send me a message, you know you where to find me. :)
:? Oh my god, its like the Name Crisis all over again. Seriously, why does my name get confused so often....? :shock:

On topic, this sounds awesome - I'm amazed the T-engine can even do this, can't wait to see it in action! :D
For some reason, I saw Privateer instead of Prophet, but the same goes for you Prophet.
If you want any help, sorry for mixing up your name let me know. Sorry. :roll:
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