The Ascent of Mankind

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Just curious but when your Civ has a presence in space, will you continue to guard against potential attacks from rival nations on the homeworld?

Also will earlier units upgrade to galactic era versions or will there be new unit classes for some things(or both).

 

[Galacticat42]

Just curious but when your Civ has a presence in space, will you continue to guard against potential attacks from rival nations on the homeworld?

Also will earlier units upgrade to galactic era versions or will there be new unit classes for some things(or both).

Heh. When the US sent men to the moon, did wars cease to exist? Naw, the game will continue as usual.

Depends on the unit whether it will be upgraded or not and as for new unit classes of course there will be.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Heh. When the US sent men to the moon, did wars cease to exist? Naw, the game will continue as usual.

Depends on the unit whether it will be upgraded or not and as for new unit classes of course there will be.

LOL...good point.

I guess I was thinking that by the time you reach the galactic era you control "earth" completely, and that your opponents at that time would be either alien civilizations, or colonies that revolt, declare their independence, and become their own separate civilizations, like a Martian Republic for example.

 

[Hydromancerx]

LOL...good point.

I guess I was thinking that by the time you reach the galactic era you control "earth" completely, and that your opponents at that time would be either alien civilizations, or colonies that revolt, declare their independence, and become their own separate civilizations, like a Martian Republic for example.

It think it will be more like the colonial powers of the "New World". Each nation taking over different parts of different planets and stars. But back in the "Old World" they still fought and no one took over all of Europe (but they sure tried with all the wars they had). The same would be for Earth many nations may have colonies in space and those colonies may become independent (like how America did in North America) but there will still be the same nations on your home world fighting and trading with each other.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

That makes sense Hydro.

Do you guys have any plans for alien empires? It would be quite a surprise if you and your earth-based rivals are colonizing nearby solar systems for years when suddenly a very powerful(and very old) alien civilization contacts you for whatever reason.

Perhaps this could be done using both the RevDMC mod and Beyond the Sword's event system(maybe the presence of multiple strong and potentially hostile alien space empires causes an event where it announces that Humanity will put aside their differences and unite like never before, forming an empire of humanity on earth and in the stars. This wouldn't have to happen like a light switch either, maybe unrest on earth causes a trans-national faction to emerge, citing unity as the only way to survive in a galaxy full of hostile aliens. This could cause the earth-based powers to temporally turn attention back to the homeworld(player controlled civilizations could do whatever but if this were to happen I imagine you'd want to at least pay attention to the home world for abit), as fighting breaks out between national factions(who wish to remain their own powers) and the forces wishing unity of the human race.

Just some ideas.

 

[Hydromancerx]

@Sword_Of_Geddon

If there are "aliens" then it would be very late in game to where the vast distances of space would allow for such contact. And even if we have aliens they should not be humanoid at all. I want to have realistic aliens not the stupid Grays or Vulcans or Wookies that all look humanoid.

In addition i still want to have the SMAC red alien fungi outbreak scenario event where it tries to take over your planet. Note this would be a random event from the Astrobiology Lab.

EDIT: Note if there were "humanoid" aliens it would be more interesting having them of human origin. Such as abandoned space colonies that evolved their own into new species that adapted to the new world they live on.

Anywho here is an example of alien (called "Birrin") by Alex Ries I think we should use. It is totally non-humanoid and his art is awesome. (See attachment bellow)

Among other alien projects it would be fun to discover wildlife planets like Darwin IV, Snaiad, or my own alien ecosystem project Sagan 4.

 

[Galacticat42]

@ Hydro
Oh gawd, seriously... The two things I can't stand about different aliens in movies & and shows are that A. They're mostly humanoid... and B. Most of them have 'powers' THEY'RE SIMPLE organic beings. Whether they're carbon based, nitrogen based, or something else entirely, they DON'T HAVE SUPERPOWERS. The different alien species thing, anyone can simply make a 2d image of an alien and submit it. This won't be the time to do so naturally since the basic screen is still being made.

About the Alien thing in general, it would be similar to Spore in the sense that alien life will be at any stage of development.

 

[Hydromancerx]

Yeah the super powers get to me too. What would be more interesting is if they had different sense than we have such as using bioluminescence communication, scent, ultra high or low frequency sound, inferred or ultraviolet range sight, echolocation or any other number of sensory adaptions that species here on Earth have.

I also hate when they show them more or less our size too. They could be huge or small, as long as they had the brain capacity for sentience I do not see why they would need to be our size.

That also goes for land dwelling. Who know there might be aquatic aliens that live under water and have spaceships full of water instead of air. One might say that it could never happened because they could never discover fire underwater. However I read an interesting scifi scenario with aquatic aliens who breed other aquatic species to be their "tools". Think of it like a weird underwater Flintstones where every appliance and tool was made from a bread aquatic animal that's only purpose was to be that tool.

Anywho all that stuff can be worked out later. We should focus on the human side of space. Aliens are a whole other topic.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

I think you guys have been caught up in the realist plague that has gripped many sci-fi writers, shows and movies.

So what if some shows have aliens with super-human abilities or even super-natural abilities? Its all about fun that matters and I think trying to be "realistic" is a bad, rather than good thing, as it detracts from imagination. In fact, my own favorate movies or sci-fi series are the ones that are completely unrealistic.

Besides, what we consider possible, or realistic changes over time. Aliens with technology that seems super-natural, could be explained as being far more technologically advanced.

Wasn't it Arthur C. Clark who said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"?

Anyhow, back to humanity as Hydro said.

 

[Hydromancerx]

@Sword_Of_Geddon

That's the thing, you CAN have good science fiction that is also realistic. Look at 2001 a Space Odyssey? While obviously not everything is realistic it did have a realistic depiction of space where there was no sound and not every spacecraft was on the same plane. One thing that bugs me about space battles is everyone seems to fight on the same plane with the same "UP" and then when they fire their weapons it makes noise. When in fact it would not make any noise in the vacuum of space. And that would be even creepier seeing a battle in dead silence. Imagine only hearing your own breathing and heart beating as the lights flash and explosions happen and you cannot hear a thing. Now that would be intense. Especially when everything is happening in 3D space where there is no "UP".

 

[Galacticat42]

That also goes for land dwelling. Who know there might be aquatic aliens that live under water and have spaceships full of water instead of air. One might say that it could never happened because they could never discover fire underwater. However I read an interesting scifi scenario with aquatic aliens who breed other aquatic species to be their "tools". Think of it like a weird underwater Flintstones where every appliance and tool was made from a bread aquatic animal that's only purpose was to be that tool.

Come to think of it I think I remember an old Star Trek episode that my dad watched a while ago where they came across a spaceship that was well over 700 degrees Celsius. The inhabitants were lava-type being things. I gotta say it's a bit extreme of a dwelling type but it's sure as hell different.

 

[Galacticat42]

@Sword_Of_Geddon

That's the thing, you CAN have good science fiction that is also realistic. Look at 2001 a Space Odyssey? While obviously not everything is realistic it did have a realistic depiction of space where there was no sound and not every spacecraft was on the same plane. One thing that bugs me about space battles is everyone seems to fight on the same plane with the same "UP" and then when they fire their weapons it makes noise. When in fact it would not make any noise in the vacuum of space. And that would be even creepier seeing a battle in dead silence. Imagine only hearing your own breathing and heart beating as the lights flash and explosions happen and you cannot hear a thing. Now that would be intense. Especially when everything is happening in 3D space where there is no "UP".

Dude, go watch the show 'Firefly' then the movie 'Serenity'... Serenity is the final movie for the Firefly show since it was cut off early. I think the general idea of the entire franchise was brilliant (Sort of a space cowboy feeling). Although it was short on alien species, it was a perfectly plausible and realistic sci-fi show. In the movie this is one of my favorite scenes, it's really funny in context though. Although they appear to be on the same plane coincidentally, the main characters were aiming for a place on the planet where the alliance ships were waiting in ambush and it so happened the main character's ship was also being chased by the reaver fleet.

 

[Hydromancerx]

@Civ Fuehrer

1. I am not saying its impossible but when you get into energy or extreme temperature species then it gets less probable. We still have to deal with chemistry and biochemestry. Not many species can withstand high temperatures and those that can are usually microbes. And its not much better for say silicon based life either. In short lava aliens are pure fantasy. Note that if it was a robot or something it would be another story.

2. OMG that screenshot shows exactly what I was saying. Look at all the ship all facing "up" in the same direction. In space you would not need to have everyone in the same direction or on the same plane. Its like they stuck a naval battle in space. And really in the far future when there are actually space battles they will be laughing at us and our old movies and TV on how stupid the battles looked and how it had sound just like how we laugh at the old silent films or radio shows which tried to predict us going to the moon. They tough there were "moon-men" and "martians" and all sorts of aliens. But now we know better and know if there is life on Mars it will not be little green men but probably little microbes if anything at all.

 

[Galacticat42]

It's not that they're all on the same plane that bothers me, but rather that their up/down orientation is all the same. Apart from that it is one of the best 'modern' shows that takes place in space... Hell I think it was one of the most popular shows that had gotten canceled simply because FOX wasn't getting the characters they wanted. For example they wanted the captain more jolly when he's a war veteran and his side lost - of course he'd be a dark character! Anyway, don't judge it 'till you've seen it, one epic franchise that deserves to be watched.

Actually, I had gotten quite a few ideas from the show too.

 

[Hydromancerx]

Oh I know Firefly. I love all those show be it the various Star Treks, Star Gates, Battlestar Galacticas, Star Wars', Doctor Whos, etc. However my favorite of them all is Farscape. Its just something about psychotic Muppets in space. I was so mad when it went off the air and they had to raise funds for a movie just to wrap things up. In short I would rather say "What the 'Frell'! " than "What the 'Frack' !" when cursing in "nerd".

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

A lot of those shows are great, but that is all I've been saying, it doesn't always have to be realistic to enjoy. Yeah maybe sound and an up/down orientation isn't remotely realistic, but if your like me and enjoyed the epic space combat in movies like Star Wars or the first two Stargate series, it simply did not matter.

What matters is if your enjoying something or not.

Now if you want your galactic age to be realistic, that is fine, but I would recommend not going strictly realistic in your approach.

Maybe an alien empire with a race that is humanoid does exist, or more than one. Maybe in your fictional future there is a good reason for that. Perhaps in the distant, distant past a super-trans-galactic civilization existed and modified life on many worlds to suit their purposes.

An example of something like this is the Xel-Naga of the Starcraft game setting, the Celestials of Marvel Comics and the list goes on. The game galactic civilizations main plot was based on an ancient war between the beneviolent progenitors and another power race known as the Dread Lords. These races shaped how the later civilizations of the galaxy developed, and why Humans and Altaireans(I think that is how it is spelled) resembled each other.

The future of your mod is yours to create, I believe you both can create a good one, realistic or not.

 

[Hydromancerx]

For C2C I would rather go the more non-fantasy route. That's not to say we cannot have things like alternate histories or steampunk. I just want plausible techs not "elves in space". For instance one thing I did not like with Star Trek is how they claimed there was some super old race that died out and left their humanoid imprint upon all the planets in the Alpha quadrant and that's why they all look humanoid. That explanation is worse than saying "They are in God's image".

And really if you want to read some good science fiction involving future human evolution read "All Tomorrows" by Nemo Ramjet. (See Attachment)

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

For C2C I would rather go the more non-fantasy route. That's not to say we cannot have things like alternate histories or steampunk. I just want plausible techs not "elves in space". For instance one thing I did not like with Star Trek is how they claimed there was some super old race that died out and left their humanoid imprint upon all the planets in the Alpha quadrant and that's why they all look humanoid. That explanation is worse than saying "They are in God's image".

And really if you want to read some good science fiction involving future human evolution read "All Tomorrows" by Nemo Ramjet. (See Attachment)

But that is what we are planning to do anyway, even if we don't find others out there. There was a recent spate of suggestions about seeding other planets with Earth microbes. The assumption seems to be that the various forms of life on Earth are the only true ones. Not that we have catalogued more than one percent of life on Earth. As you may know no matter which way you measure it, total volume, total mass or number of spieces, all life on Earth is single cellular to the nearest 1,000th of a percent.

 

[Hydromancerx]

Even if we seed other worlds with microbes and let evolution take its course it will not evolve into humans again. In fact even if we ran evolution again on Earth from the beginning we would not get humans again or dinosaurs or even fish. However we would get swimming things and big dinosaur sized creatures and even species that evolve technology but it would not be how evolution played out in our timeline.

I mean even if we say restarted everything from the "Cambrian Explosion" when life on Earth was much more diverse I highly doubt the same exact species would make it. I mean imagine if Opabinia managed to survive and took the place of Chordates like us. We could all have 5 eyes and weird trunk like appendage on or faces and a bunch of legs. We would indeed be "aliens".

 

[mgsmuhammad]

(Sort of a space cowboy feeling)

Spoiler :

What's this about Cowboy Be-bop?