Beyond Alpha Centauri Discussion Thread 9

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Sovereign
GeneralTactius,

I got a good plot idea for the "destroyers" that BDZ'ed the 2 planets.

They could be the "massive alien threat" that will appear a while down the road in BAC, after the Progenitor Wars.

They could be called the Antarans.

[Sovereign]

Heh. The Antarans fit the bill as a very very strong race.

Would you rather have the Borg invade? Or have the Replicators invade? What about Species 8742?

Didn't think so.

The Antarans are more obscure and less familiar than the Replicators, Borg, Species 8742, etc. while nicely fitting the bill as ruthless destroyers and war-like race.

[GeneralTacticus]

Or we could use the Shivans from Descent: Freespace, which is where I got the ship idea from in the first place... they certainly fir the bill, too, and we can make what we like of them, given their relative obscurity.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Sovereign
Heh. The Antarans fit the bill as a very very strong race.

Would you rather have the Borg invade? Or have the Replicators invade? What about Species 8742?

Didn't think so.

The Antarans are more obscure and less familiar than the Replicators, Borg, Species 8742, etc. while nicely fitting the bill as ruthless destroyers and war-like race.

Or we could just stick in-universe and have the Proginators be the big bad guys.

[Sovereign]

Lonestar,

There will be the Progenitor War.

But I distinctly remember discussing a "Massive Alien Threat" that me, Sprayber, President, Franky, etc. were discussing a couple years ago.

This "threat" would come AFTER the Progenitor War.

[Sovereign]

GeneralTactius, any good website where I could look up info about these Shivans? I'd like to know some more about their background, abilities, history, traits, etc.

[Mr. President]

Originally posted by Sovereign
Lonestar,

There will be the Progenitor War.

But I distinctly remember discussing a "Massive Alien Threat" that me, Sprayber, President, Franky, etc. were discussing a couple years ago.

This "threat" would come AFTER the Progenitor War.

I can confirm that.

I suggest, though, that we not hold the Progenitor War and the Massive Alien Threat too close together. That way, the factions can scramble for a period to gain influence in the post-Usurper Orion Arm before the other aliens disrupt it again.

[GeneralTacticus]

Originally posted by Sovereign
GeneralTactius, any good website where I could look up info about these Shivans? I'd like to know some more about their background, abilities, history, traits, etc.

Well, here is the official game webpage, and here is what they have to say about the Shivans - not a whole lot. From having played the game, I know that:

a) The Shivans are five-limbed beings with very strong claws, who apparently live in a vacuum.

b) They have very nasty ships.

c) They have shielding technology, but once shields are penetrated, they're finished (they apparently rely on their shields so much that they don't bother armouring their hulls).

Other than that, there isn't a whole lot known, so we could probably make most of it up to suit ourselves.

[Sovereign]

Thanks, Tactius. I'll check it out.

President, no worries. Perhaps that "Ultra-threat" could be tied to several mysterious stuff...

like Sprayber's post about the Epona planet, our Temple plot, the 2 destroyed planets in GeneralTactius post, and so forth.

Give tanalizing clues and snippets to keep the reader hooked.

[Sovereign]

I've just tried looking through the Descent Freespace stuff, and I can't seem to find any background info or anything informative about the Shivans.

How about this...

When we finish the Progenitor War thing, we can decide which race to pick for the "Ultra-Threat".

It could be either the Antarans (good info, so plenty of stuff to work with) or the Shivans (assuming we try and find out more info about them).

How about that?

[GeneralTacticus]

Sounds fine to me... I was just mentioning the Shivans as a suggestion, and because we can make them whatever we wish. To my knowledge, little has been explained about them, although a lot may have been cleared up in Freespace II (which I haven't played).

[Mr. President]

Good ideas everyone. I agree that the Massive Alien Threat will provide a good chance to tie up a few things, including the Temples.

[Sovereign]

I'm thinking of writing up a post or two this week, to put a close to the Goa'uld issue once and for all.

My next post will be about the Jaffa Solution.

Then the one after that will be a suprise attack.

Then the third post will probably have the mop-up of the Goa'uld remnants.

Then with these critters out of the way for good, I can turn my attention elsewhere on more interesting plots. I've been thinking of working and creating a few normal UA citizens, then show their everyday lives, and how the recent events affect them.

I'll be able to REALLY focus on interesting aspects and plots. More characters, economic plots, culture, some expansion stuff, etc. I won't be writing much military stuff for a while.

However, I might have one or two rather short wars planned, quick n' painless blitzkrieg attacks. I also might post some more about the Titans, their history, how they came into being, etc. They're probably going to be the ships that the UA will fight the Progenitors with down the road. The older ships will be used for garrison duty, pirate patrols, and military campaigns aganist inferior targets such as minor aliens (The Goa'uld are a good example of this).

In addition, I'll expand more on Kalista and life on Spira, eventually exploring the 4 other Spiran type worlds to show how the UA built their secret colonies, and its impact on the human populations of these other 4 worlds / systems.

In short, I'll switch over to "Exploration", "Expansion / Colony-building", and "Life in the UA" type of posts.



Whew, a lot of explaining, eh?

[Frankychan]

I'm thinking that while we may need to incorporate alien races that are not part of our factions (sorry if I did this too soon), we should limit the introduction of aliens to a bare minimum and try to keep within game as much as possible.

And the "alien threat" should be later on as stated by Crimson.

[Sovereign]

I understand your reasoning, Franky.

However, space is a big place, and there are and will be alien encounters in real life and any logical extension beyond gaming limits (such as if I wrote a fiction story set in 3000 AD for Civ3, stuff like that).

I agree there shouldn't be too many aliens

However, I needed to introduce several alien races just for the sake of closing up a plot loophole, regarding the stargates.

As for the Spiran Worlds, there are only humans, as well as the Ronso, Al Bhed, and Guado. Other than tying up the Stargate plot-line, and the Spiran aliens, there are no other plans to introduce any further aliens into the UA.

Perhaps more aliens will be introduced, but not for a long time for the UA. The UA is going through a xenophobic phase, but the aliens within the UA are generally accepted, since they are humanoid and has been members of the UA for 30'ish years.


In short, don't worry. I won't go overboard with aliens after finishing the Stargate thing.


I also agree that the Alien Threat should be later

I stated several times that it should happen a while after the Progenitor War. I apologize if any of you misunderstood my postings.

Hopefully this post clarifies my viewpoint and where I stand.