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Initial introduction - game settings - surroundings

Qorten

Crazy Cat Person. Meow!
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Feb 10, 2007
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I am trying out my hand at another AAR after I don't know how many years. I did an early EU3 gameplay AAR with Bohemia (EU3+Napoleon's Ambition+In Nomine+MEIOU-mod) which I finished a couple of decades before the enddate because it turned into an endless and tedious slugfest against the Ottomans, a Greek EU:Rome AAR that never got past two updates and an early EU4 AAR with Sweden, which also didn't get past two updates. My record on AARs is thus far from stellar. However, this game is called Stellaris and contains the word stellar, so let's hope I am on to something.

The setup:

- started in 2.7.1
- all DLC on, except Distant Stars and Leviathans
- no mods




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I restarted the game until I got Sol placed more or less where it should be, halfway between the core and the outer edges of the galaxy:

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And here is the condition of the solar system at the very start of the game:

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Will try follow :)
 
Good luck! :)
 
political situation in 2200
ISS Ptolemy::Ship's Log::2200/01/01
Maria Quadrini::Captain's Log

I came aboard my vessel yesterday afternoon. MY vessel. I still almost can't believe I can say that. This ship will be the first to leave the solar system. Alpha Centauri will be our first stop. We will continue with a tour of the star systems surrounding Sol reachable by hyperlane.
The construction crews were just leaving the ship when I arrived yesterday. I knew something was up when several gave me a broad smile or a wink. When I actually arrived at my quarters it was stowed to the brim with boxes containing festive supplies. It dawned on me that in my excitement about this command, I had forgotten there were two reasons to celebrate. It was New Year's Eve too.


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In 2200 humanity took it's first steps in interstellar travel. In the three-quarter century before that they spread from their home planet Terra to establish permanent footholds on other economically or scientifically interesting bodies in the Sol system. Initially this expansion was slow, as the planet had not yet been united.
Up until 2149 Terra was ravaged by multiple proxy wars between the democratic and autocratic national governments. However public opinion and dwindling planetary resources forced these two bickering sides to compromise to ensure the survival of all. At the Second Congress of Vienna in 2149 the Solar Commonwealth was born. Although the terran nations remained, the rule of space was left in the hands of this new governmental body.
The Solar Commonwealth in 2200 was a government where only those who served a tour of duty in the military (be it a national military on Terra or in the space forces of the Commonwealth itself) could vote and hold offices. State exams were implemented to ensure all positions were filled by capable people, rather than wealthy magnates or politician's friends.


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The head of state of the Solar Commonwealth was called the Consul. As mentioned before, he or she was elected from among those had done a tour of duty in a polity part of the Solar Commonwealth. In 2200 this Consul was the Singaporean Chinese Wei Shen. Historical records indicate his platforms were (predictably) space exploration and smoothing and refining the cooperation between national governments and the Solar Commonwealth.

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Getting a distinct Starship Troopers vibe
 
Getting a distinct Starship Troopers vibe

Indeed, it's a little Starship Trooperish, but not entirely. I'd have to be full martial and lose the xenophile or switch xenophile for xenophobe to go full Starship Troopers.
 
I'll admit, when I read the Science Officer's log, I did a double-take to see if I was reading After Everything. I guess I'm a real sucker for the "captain's log" style of storytelling. :)

Definitely following now.
 
Thanks for the comments!

Next update should be due tomorrow. I played the game ahead until somewhere in the 2230's. I am holding out for the official 2.7.2 patch to continue playing, but I have enough material to cover that I shouldn't run dry.
 
A citizen republic, but only in space, with nation states on Earth still? Oh my.
 
A citizen republic, but only in space, with nation states on Earth still? Oh my.
Government is a mixture of Mass Effect and Starship Troopers. Not sure how fleshed out I'll make it, as this is intended as a light history book AAR. Focus will be on exploration though for the time being, as most Stellaris AARs at start.
 
the first steps
ISS Hubble::Ship's Log::2201/11/11
Eduardo de la Guardia::Captain's Log

It surprised me to be chosen for this mission. I believe there are much more capable people. Most of those I'm thinking of are quite a lot older, so maybe they were against digging around on the Moon in bulky spacesuits and all. Can't say I'm disappointed though, far from it! Luna, here I come!



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Late January 2200, as the ISS Ptolemy passed Luna on it's way out of the Sol system the science ship picked up a number of unusual readings on several frequencies. The science vessel had the very best gear installed, better than anything ever produced on Terra. The scientific community expected new finds, but not on Luna, Terra's moon, probed and studied for two and a half centuries already.
Between the discovery of the lunar anomalies and the start of the archeology project slightly less than two years passed. Digging started with the new ISS Hubble as initial basecamp. Meanwhile, the ISS Ptolemy charged up her jumpdrive and started the exploration of the Alpha Centauri trinary system.




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Ship logs retrieved from the data banks on Terra reveal that the ISS Ptolemy had made two major discoveries by late 2201. The first discovery was an ancient vessel for sublight space travel with huge sails to catch the solar winds.
It was drifting around Alpha Centauri A 2, with a huge gap in the sail where an asteroid passed through it. No information could be retrieved about who built it, nor where it originally came from. Initially it was thought it might have come from the next planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A. That was a world not unlike Terra. However, after some careful scans and ground reconnaissance it was determined no spacefaring life had lived on this planet in at least the last half billion years.


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The ISS Ptolemy continued it's tour of the stars surrounding Sol in early 2202. One asteroid in the Hark system turned out to be a mass grave for drones. Enough information could be uncovered to keep a science crew at the asteroid for years, but the Ptolemy had orders. The site could be studied further in a couple of years. The Ptolemy made for the next interesting object orbiting Hark.

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The robot site wasn't the only discovery Hark had to offer. On another asteroid a small ship had crashed. The wreckage dated back approximately two million years. The scientists of the ISS Ptolemy believed the ship had been a courier vessel.
The vessel had flown for the 'First League'. The interior of the ship indicated this had been some sort of interspecies confederation. Hark and Sol appeared to be in the core of the ancient polity, that made up at least a fourth of the Milky Way at it's height of power.


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You have no idea how envious I am. I've been playing Stellaris nearly since launch, and from the luck of the dice I have never drawn the First League (or the Irassian Concordat) as precursors.
 
Sobering to know an interstellar federation inhabited Sol space when we humans were using stone tools. Yet more sobering that they are now gone.
 
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That sobering moment when you discover that your whole civilization is but a mote in the shadow of giants...

You have no idea how envious I am. I've been playing Stellaris nearly since launch, and from the luck of the dice I have never drawn the First League (or the Irassian Concordat) as precursors.

I tend to mostly get the Irassians and the Vultaum, myself. I know I've gotten the First League at least once, but can't remember if I've ever had the others.
 
I get the Vultaum in most games, but I've drawn all the original precursors. Not sure about the one or two they added with the archeology update and DLC.
 
I've gotten the Cybrex more times than any other precursor. I like to imagine it's my karma for constantly playing as a spiritualist empire.
 
I seem to end up with Vultaum a lot.

A very interesting start and I like the nature of the Earth you described, nicely different from the default UNE. :)
 
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Alpha Colony - Ex Gravitas
ISS Ptolemy::Ship's Log::2206/07/29
Maria Quadrini::Captain's Log

It's been six years since I left Earth. Six years of travellling the galaxy. Boy is space travel slow, no matter the hyperlanes. Luckily me and the crew will soon be able to get out and visit Sirius 3 without space suits very soon. Some R&R will do wonders.
I don't know if I should be envious of Eduardo. Being able to hop over to Earth once in a while, doing big research on the Moon. I wonder if those sites on the Moon were made by the same people that liked that play so much. Who'd have thought ancient spacefarers would return us a long lost piece of human art.


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In 2204 humans made their second giant leap in interstellar spaceflight with the colonization of a new world. No longer could a single catastrophe mean the end of the species. Alpha Centauri A 3 was renamed Alpha Colony. Initial settling was done by equal amounts of people from the South African Union, China, Indonesia, the US and the EU. The Solar Commonwealth was still fairly young and relations between the national governments and the overarching Commonwealth were still in flux when it came to major issues. This agreement about the first colony made sure no one nation could claim a world for itself and undo the (inter)planetary unification.

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The Ptolemy paved the way for the second extrasolar colony in 2207. In January of that year the crew surveyed Sirius 3. Although an Earthlike world, it had a very bleak colour palette to human eyes. Plants were fewer than expected, as nutrients were comparatively scarcer in the soil and air than they were on Terra and Alpha Colony. Sirius 3 would never become a bread basket. On the flipside, the world did provide excellent opportunities for energy production in the form of wind farms.

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Eduardo de la Guardia and his team of scientists from the ISS Hubble concluded their lunar archeology project in May 2207. The readings from the surface of Luna turned out to be laser pointers. It had already been surmised that these were a roadsign to another object in late 2206. However, it turned out the lasers pointed at nothing. It took the crew another half year to realise they had to account for microshifts in the orbit of Luna due to asteroid impact and the fact that Luna drifted away from Terra a couple of centimeters each year. Once the calculations were done the lasers pointed towards Callisto, one the four large moons of Jupiter.

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2209 was another momentous year in human history. In the Sirius system the outpost established in 2208 reported contact with what seemed to be spacefaring creatures who didn't need spacecraft. These were of course the Tiyanki. It would take until 2214 for scientists to get the required funding. A year later in 2215 they made their initial findings about the Tiyanki life cycle public.

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Furthermore the new science ship ISS Gagarin was launched in December 2209. Captain Afiya Ekwensi and her crew would survey the star systems west of Sol and even be the first humans to reach the Scutum-Centaurus Arm.

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