Post Heretic ideas

[F50]

It makes sense that the Ares (present in the final sytem) are watching Heritic for a way out, The sung are there because George has previously talked about the advanced sung ship and they too would be interested with that kind of thing. The ringers are heavy into alien tech so they would also jump at the chance. The new human settlements may only be in the first system, but there is no great argument from a practical standpoint why humans shouldn't have place in at least the first system post-Heretic. I don't see humans penetrating far into alien space at first, but they would penetrate or at least some of thier ships would be looking for a way in.

[Betelgeuse]

equipment and maybe ship. I want post heritic to be a separate game from pre heritic mainly due it would make it so much harder to balance due to fewer people playing that part. (thats one of the reasons the late game isn't balanced)

I wouldn't mind starting with a current ship but I am hoping for ship changing would get into the game before post heritic gets in.

[OddBob]

It makes sense that the Ares (present in the final sytem) are watching Heritic for a way out, The sung are there because George has previously talked about the advanced sung ship and they too would be interested with that kind of thing. The ringers are heavy into alien tech so they would also jump at the chance. The new human settlements may only be in the first system, but there is no great argument from a practical standpoint why humans shouldn't have place in at least the first system post-Heretic. I don't see humans penetrating far into alien space at first, but they would penetrate or at least some of thier ships would be looking for a way in.

How do the humans get to the first system? They can't get there until you open the gate - so unless they were all invisible and crept in between the time you activated the gate and went through and then proceeded to build stations while you were blinking in the sunlight I don't see how you're going to encounter a human presence in the first system. Yes, they could follow you through, but even if they entered Heretic* immediately after you left it they still wouldn't have time to do anything, in fact, they wuodl arrive several minutes after you.

[Salvagebot 1.0]

"... Elysium ..."
Ahh, the Stockpilum Sanctorum. (That sounds more reverent than Junkpilus Maximus ...)

I like Elysium because it's a lot less likely to get blown up with all your stuff in it than a Mule Auton.

And yeah, it's peaceful. And the way I play full of loot ... did I mention that part already?

The new systems should be places the human factions strive to explore, especially if they're uninhabited. All the human stations should have names like "Outpost" and "Expedition" just to drive home the point.
They should also not appear until you REVISIT the systems you've already been to -- you're the first, after all. It pretty much breaks the 4th wall if you switch on the control rod, pass through the gate, and there's a Commonwealth Expeditionary Battleship waiting for you with pteracnium and missions and wingmen on the other side. How the heck did they get a control rod before you? If you go back, though ... sure, Commonwealth Expeditionary Forces.
I can see Domina being there for you on the other side -- who says her only followers are human?

Speaking of breaking the 4th wall, why don't I get to keep my ship? Did activating the control rod cause it to blow up? Is my stash still sitting in Elysium, waiting for me to sell it off to re-equip my new ship?
Take my ship if you have to, but hands off my stash!

That wouldn't be a bad start: activating the gate causes your ship's reactor to go on overload forcing you to eject (after you pass through, naturally). Your lifepod runs out of life support, but Domina sustains you, gives you a vision in which she encourages you to continue your journey to the core, and sends one of her followers from the other side to collect you and offer you a new ship from the Domina base on the other side. Since the base is on "the other side" so too would be the ship designs you're given to choose from.

If the gate malfunctions and you have to find some artifact to repair it that would pretty much render your stash moot. But that would be a pretty ugly thing to do to a person's hard-earned stash, so of course that wouldn't happen ... would it?

And since you're taking the role of a religious fanatic shouldn't you have to preach and sell flowers and stuff?
Domina: "Your next mission: wear these robes, shave your head, and play the bongos at the Commonwealth Expeditionary Starport. Good luck, young pilgrim!"

[F50]

But what if the other humans sent ships on a timer, say 30 ticks after, that built bases around?

Admittedly, when you return to the system would be another good idea. What I was thinking before was that the human stations be placed sort of far from the gate so as to make it reasonable that you might not be the first one there.

[Lord Trogg]

I think that as soon as the news of the quarantine being destroyed several groups would be very inerested in exploring and expanding into the new space available. There could be some missions to protect groups of transports that are going to start a new colony somewhere beyond heretic, after all who better to lead the convoy than the person who opened the gateway in the first place? Or to protect a colony that is under construction until larger reinforcements arrive or until the construction is finished. There would probably be fighting over the heretic gate just to get to get beyond it once the ares, commonwealth, ringers, terratons etc find out.

[OddBob]

Considering the length of almost an entire game isn't enough time to build one Korolev station....I'm still opposed.

I would imagine it takes months to build a station - not to mention pretty much everyone is already busy doing other things - once rumours start to flit around that someone opened the gate (does anyone even know where it is? Even if they don't, how often do they check up on it?) and by the time someone gathres or builds the ships necessary, where will the player be? Long gone, I would imagine.

[Salvagebot 1.0]

It doesn't break the 4th wall if portable stations are flown into the New World -- I'm talking about things like Commonwealth Carriers, Nomad, Gaian, and Dwarg Worldships, maybe some kind of bioengineered mobile Teraton base, possibly a Luminous fabricator ship.

Oh, and the Kushan Mothership escorted by a vast, motley armada of captured capital ships in Military Parade Formation ... except that would be kinda breaking the 5th wall, wouldn't it?

Ok, something like the Mothership, something that can eat raw materials and fabricate ships and gravity well generators and other cool things and which makes this really loud super-cool 50 Hz zuzzuzzuzzuzz like a broken refrigerator motor when it goes into hyperspace ... ok maybe not.

No more ideas 'til morning, I promise.

[george moromisato]

Obviously I haven't worked out all the details of post-Heretic, but I do have some ideas that may or may not end up in the game:

1. I do like the idea of changing ships. That will definitely happen post-1.0.

2. The post-Heretic game obviously continues further into the Galaxy towards the Core. Most of the encounters will be with the ancient alien races that rule the Galaxy. Some will be friendly; others will not.

3. There will not be a large human presence post-Heretic. Humans have been effectively quarantined, so the only humans that the player will encounter are stragglers that either got caught outside before the quarantine or that escaped some other way (via Elysium?)

4. I like the idea of changing the game a bit. Aliens will use very different technologies, so perhaps the concepts of reactors, shields, armors, etc. will change significantly. [This goes along with changing ships]

5. It will be possible to start the game in Eridani and play all the way to the Core. It will probably also be possible to start the game at post-Heretic.

6. There are three major areas for the player to visit: the Galactic Disk (which includes the ancient alien races); the Globular Clusters (which are home to even more ancient and powerful races); and the Galactic Core.

[Salvagebot 1.0]

Why not call the Globular Clusters the Galactic Arms?

[OddBob]

You're going to the core, not in a circle*, and it makes sense that the oldest races would live in clusters, as I believe they tend to be very old compared to the rest of the galaxy. Plus clusters are cooler: imagine 100 suns in a cube one light year across.

*Er, yes okay I guess you'd actually cross the arms if you went in a straight line to the core. Perhaps the gate route would follow the arms, though, considering most of the stars (and thus planets) are there.

[Salvagebot 1.0]

Actually the answer I was looking for was, "Because the Galactic Arms is a name I've already used for one of my hotels," but thanks for your input.

[Bokasha]

It might be a bit far fetched, but how about the commonwealth fleet gets cornered and the Ares uses Elsium (via modified jump drives or something) to mount a massive attack on Eridani or St. Katherine's and surrounds the commonwealth, the in the insueing chaos a probe or something detects the energy released when you activate the Heretic gate and the commonwealth pushed all their forces through Elsium, towards Heretic to escape the Ares in the unexplored post heretic systems where they can build up their fleet again and recover.. Thus an excuse for putting lots of humans in one section of post Heretic space.

[evilbob]

to be honest, the most humans I'd expect would be refugees in the first one or two systems, using heavily modified superfreighters, possibly.

[Fossaman]

3. There will not be a large human presence post-Heretic. Humans have been effectively quarantined, so the only humans that the player will encounter are stragglers that either got caught outside before the quarantine or that escaped some other way (via Elysium?)

Yes, please! Make it possible for the player to do this also? I'd love to see a puzzle solution to escaping the quarantine as well as a combat solution.

6. There are three major areas for the player to visit: the Galactic Disk (which includes the ancient alien races); the Globular Clusters (which are home to even more ancient and powerful races); and the Galactic Core.

Does this mean you'll be adding such things as trinary star systems, or quaternary or whatever the higher numbers are called? That would be highly entertaining.