Galactic Backstory

[GuyInTheSky]

Let's have a feature where a galactic backstory is generated with each map.

Each backstory will have the history of:

-Precursor civilization
--Mostly as is in game

-Fallen empires
--We will discover what they were before they fell. This will let you search their former planets.
--Why they fell
--Some interesting possibilities are that the FE's are the same species and become fallen after a massive civil war. This could lead to searching for battlefields to find weapons to fight the FE.
--They might've been vassal states of a multi-galactic empire. This could lead into a new end game crisis
--One FE might be the former slave race of another FE

-Enclaves
--Find out where their home planet is
--Maybe the Keepers of Knowledge FE is the same species as the Curator Enclaves and they just have differing opinions on how to use knowledge. Keepers of Knowledge might pay you to destroy Curator Enclaves
--Side note: You should also be able to ask Enclaves about Fallen Empires

-Your species's history of interaction with aliens
--Find out who observed you and how they did it
--Genetic tampering?
--Find out if you were indoctrinated, infiltrated, or enlightened
--Maybe find another group of your species on the other side of the galaxy
--This could lead to alliances with friendly alien protectors or blood feuds with your ancestor's demons

-Leviathans
--Did the Keepers of Knowledge build the Infinity Machine?
--Who built the Automated Dreadnaught and Enigmatic Fortress? Could we find their worlds to find clues to unlocking them?

-Miscellaneous
--Who built the ancient mining drones?
--Why do the nomads roam?
--Why are the pirates attacking? Where is their home world?
--Every tombworld could have a story. Some are obviously primitives who destroyed themselves, but some could be from past wars between Fallen Empires.
--Advanced empires should have vassals, slave races, or maybe a small federation. Show that there was a history to this galaxy before you.

In other Paradox games historically literate people know the context of actions. They know that Britain and France don't like each other. They know the Ottomans have a history of aggression. Let the player discover that context in Stellaris, and turn that context into game play.

 

[PalmettoExplorer14]

This is a very good idea.

What with the Ascension Paths coming out with Utopia, maybe the player's species was granted psionic powers by powerful psionic energy beings (who are in fact renegade Unbidden who don't feast on organics' life energy and fled their more sinister kin) who are worshipped like gods among your people.

For the Biological Path maybe your species was experimented into becoming the perfect species but the creator race died out or abandoned your race out of frustration and now you have to finish what they started!

Not sure what to do about the Synthetic Path I'm afraid.

 

[smjjames]

The Infinity Machine is implied to be hundreds of millions, if not a few billion, of years old since it talks about being around for many galactic 'years' or one rotation of the galaxy. So, it can't be the Keepers of Knowledge FE that you run into in play.

 

[PalmettoExplorer14]

The Infinity Machine is implied to be hundreds of millions, if not a few billion, of years old since it talks about being around for many galactic 'years' or one rotation of the galaxy. So, it can't be the Keepers of Knowledge FE that you run into in play.

Most likely one of the Precursor races built it.

 

[smjjames]

There is one Precursor race which doesn't have an event chain, but is the creator of those mural anomalies you find around. Apparently those guys are over 300 million years old, could plausibly be that. I don't remember offhand how long the machine says it's been around for.

 

[PalmettoExplorer14]

There is one Precursor race which doesn't have an event chain, but is the creator of those mural anomalies you find around. Apparently those guys are over 300 million years old, could plausibly be that. I don't remember offhand how long the machine says it's been around for.

Well the timing does match though so it's possible. A shame Paradox doesn't put more stuff like this. Sure it doesn't have to be an event chain but in my experience sometimes two different unrelated event chains might turn out to be related to each other and the player (and their characters) have to connect the dots by exploring more and more

So it would be good if they added stuff like that into the game.

 

[Red Roo]

I agree, context and story is what sets the stage for every PI game there is. Galaxy gen has some of this, but none of it really interacts with each other - or other empires in game.

 

[GuyInTheSky]

This is a very good idea.

What with the Ascension Paths coming out with Utopia, maybe the player's species was granted psionic powers by powerful psionic energy beings (who are in fact renegade Unbidden who don't feast on organics' life energy and fled their more sinister kin) who are worshipped like gods among your people.

For the Biological Path maybe your species was experimented into becoming the perfect species but the creator race died out or abandoned your race out of frustration and now you have to finish what they started!

Not sure what to do about the Synthetic Path I'm afraid.

This is off topic, but one thing that bothered me is that the FE races aren't really advanced enough. Specifically, that FE races aren't highly genetically engineered, but in the broader Banks sense they haven't acquired an ascension path. They always seem curiously mundane.

 

[PalmettoExplorer14]

This is off topic, but one thing that bothered me is that the FE races aren't really advanced enough. Specifically, that FE races aren't highly genetically engineered, but in the broader Banks sense they haven't acquired an ascension path. They always seem curiously mundane.

Hm...now that you mentioned that, I actually have noticed that. They seem well not as advanced as I thought they would be. I thought it was imagination but I'm glad that I'm not the only one who saw it.

 

[Blackplant]

Well, it could be that they're leftovers. The few of their race who couldn't ascend for some reason. Maybe some Xenophiles stayed behind to look over the galaxy so it wouldn't be threatened. The Xenophobes might be the remnants of a vast empire that was lost to a massive war of galactic proportions and couldn't ascend because others would gang up on them. Spiritualists could be the remnants of a race that was consumed by aggressive beings within the shroud. The Materialists could, as mentioned before, just be the few of their people who couldn't ascend or, more likely, absolutely refused to as they consider it immoral.

 

[Playwars]

Let's have a feature where a galactic backstory is generated with each map.

Each backstory will have the history of:

-Precursor civilization
--Mostly as is in game

-Fallen empires
--We will discover what they were before they fell. This will let you search their former planets.
--Why they fell
--Some interesting possibilities are that the FE's are the same species and become fallen after a massive civil war. This could lead to searching for battlefields to find weapons to fight the FE.
--They might've been vassal states of a multi-galactic empire. This could lead into a new end game crisis
--One FE might be the former slave race of another FE

-Enclaves
--Find out where their home planet is
--Maybe the Keepers of Knowledge FE is the same species as the Curator Enclaves and they just have differing opinions on how to use knowledge. Keepers of Knowledge might pay you to destroy Curator Enclaves
--Side note: You should also be able to ask Enclaves about Fallen Empires

-Your species's history of interaction with aliens
--Find out who observed you and how they did it
--Genetic tampering?
--Find out if you were indoctrinated, infiltrated, or enlightened
--Maybe find another group of your species on the other side of the galaxy
--This could lead to alliances with friendly alien protectors or blood feuds with your ancestor's demons

-Leviathans
--Did the Keepers of Knowledge build the Infinity Machine?
--Who built the Automated Dreadnaught and Enigmatic Fortress? Could we find their worlds to find clues to unlocking them?

-Miscellaneous
--Who built the ancient mining drones?
--Why do the nomads roam?
--Why are the pirates attacking? Where is their home world?
--Every tombworld could have a story. Some are obviously primitives who destroyed themselves, but some could be from past wars between Fallen Empires.
--Advanced empires should have vassals, slave races, or maybe a small federation. Show that there was a history to this galaxy before you.

In other Paradox games historically literate people know the context of actions. They know that Britain and France don't like each other. They know the Ottomans have a history of aggression. Let the player discover that context in Stellaris, and turn that context into game play.

I actually love that idea, that reminds me of Distant World : Universe, where there is a global story into the game, and it would be nice to have some sort of generated backstory (we already have bits here and there, like Fallen Empire that were rivals, ect....) which would had more soul and backstory into the game.

 

[Swarm lover]

I am especially curious as to whats stopping the dimensional horror from completing its transit into our universe. Or the origins of the stelarite and wraith, the stelarite is said to be recent to the galactic plane and the way they describe it seems to imply it isn't entirely natural. Wraiths I never got them in a game so I don't know much about their lore if anyone has the curators lore on them I would be grateful.

 

[SevenSerpents]

So long as the backstories are generated and not fixed I love this idea, the random generation aspect of the game I really enjoy.

 

[Blackplant]

I am especially curious as to whats stopping the dimensional horror from completing its transit into our universe. Or the origins of the stelarite and wraith, the stelarite is said to be recent to the galactic plane and the way they describe it seems to imply it isn't entirely natural. Wraiths I never got them in a game so I don't know much about their lore if anyone has the curators lore on them I would be grateful.

Wraiths are created from pulsars. Sometimes you get an anomaly in a pulsar and it tells you that something is going to happen roughly 50 years later. At that time, a wraith will spawn.

 

[Saviour of Galaxy]

Let's have a feature where a galactic backstory is generated with each map.

Each backstory will have the history of:

-Precursor civilization
--Mostly as is in game

-Fallen empires
--We will discover what they were before they fell. This will let you search their former planets.
+1
--Why they fell
materialists most likely were devastated by AI rebelion and this explanation is already heavily hinted in the game; spiritualists most likely stagnated becouse their own doctrine was taken over by zealous fanatics that hold the further progress or were beaten by AI rebelion; my propossed explenation for xenophobes is devastation made by gigantic war that ravaged the galaxies with other species and that pulled the FE into isolation and bitterness toward other empires; for xenophiles my interpretation are two possible scenarios: 1) they voluntarily turn back from the affairs of the galaxy becouse their involment earier did something bad even with best intentions b) their uplifting did catastrophy when the uplifted species turn against their own masters (example: Masari from Universe at War)
--Some interesting possibilities are that the FE's are the same species and become fallen after a massive civil war. This could lead to searching for battlefields to find weapons to fight the FE.
This is pretty good explanation for Pacifist FE if it ever show up. For the militarist one good explanation would be the fall after war with former galactic crisis that crushed it under before beeing defeated.
--They might've been vassal states of a multi-galactic empire. This could lead into a new end game crisis
However, it doesnt fit with War in Heavens scenarios and also doesnt match vassal Modus Operandi in Stellaris - vassals cant declare wars.
--One FE might be the former slave race of another FE
GREAT IDEA FOR EGALITARIAN-AUTHOCRATIC FE!
-Enclaves
--Find out where their home planet is
--Maybe the Keepers of Knowledge FE is the same species as the Curator Enclaves and they just have differing opinions on how to use knowledge. Keepers of Knowledge might pay you to destroy Curator Enclaves
--Side note: You should also be able to ask Enclaves about Fallen Empires

-Your species's history of interaction with aliens
--Find out who observed you and how they did it
Already stated that xenophiles already observe every single species in the Galaxy and most likely recorded their progress
--Genetic tampering?
--Find out if you were indoctrinated, infiltrated, or enlightened
--Maybe find another group of your species on the other side of the galaxy
Already possible with humans, but could be done with other species (are there mods for that btw?)
--This could lead to alliances with friendly alien protectors or blood feuds with your ancestor's demons

-Leviathans
--Did the Keepers of Knowledge build the Infinity Machine?
Right now there is no indication. Are you propose to go further with that story?
--Who built the Automated Dreadnaught and Enigmatic Fortress? Could we find their worlds to find clues to unlocking them?

-Miscellaneous
--Who built the ancient mining drones?
I like them beeing left without explanation. They are pretty spooky with the mystery of their creation
--Why do the nomads roam?
--Why are the pirates attacking? Where is their home world?
Pirates as a whole has most likely no homeworld, as they are spawned by developing empires or are left-overs from earier species.
--Every tombworld could have a story. Some are obviously primitives who destroyed themselves, but some could be from past wars between Fallen Empires.
--Advanced empires should have vassals, slave races, or maybe a small federation. Show that there was a history to this galaxy before you.
That can be explored. however, how much it will effect the gameplay? Any prediction?

My comments and questions bolded with yellow color.