0008929: Lost Technologies - DEV Arcen

ID	Project	Category		Date Submitted	Last Update

0008929	AI War 1 / Classic	Suggestion - New Features		Jul 14, 2012 12:46 pm	May 1, 2013 11:24 pm

Reporter	MaxAstro	Assigned To
Status	considering	Resolution	open
Product Version	5.041

Summary	0008929: Lost Technologies
Description	Kinda inspired by the name of the new "Ancient Shadows" expansion, as well as by older ideas I've had. The idea is that this would be a minor faction that spawns "ancient technology" - the ancients in this case being the civil war-era humans - throughout the galaxy. This ancient tech would be in a broken-down, barely functional state - but still dangerous; since the AIs were the allies of the civil war humans, the ancient tech is programmed to treat them as friendly. Additionally, made with lost technology, these "relics" are basically indestructible. Each ancient tech would have two ways it can be interacted with besides its base function: For one, it can be reclaimed by the humans. This requires the use of a hacker ship, and counts as hacking for the purpose of angering the AI. Once reclaimed, however, the ancient tech would be able to be used at increased functionality by the humans. It would, however, then be able to be destroyed. The flip side, however, is much more dangerous: Hybrid hives can use their "ruin the player's day fund" (same as with the Dyson Plot) to attempt to reclaim a piece of ancient tech; this would be time consuming and give the players a warning so they can try to stop it. If they can't, however, the hives turn it into a piece of very dangerous Hybrid tech. An example that incorporates something I know a lot of players have been wanting to see: Ancient Wormhole Tunneler -Found derelict on random worlds, this massive structure contains an unstable wormhole (It would be awesome if the graphic for this thing actually incorporated the wormhole graphics). -Causes unpredictability in the local wormholes - any ship attempting to enter the system will enter from a random wormhole (or from the Tunneler itself) instead of the normal destination wormhole. -This makes the system hard to attack (fleets arrive scattered) and also hard to defend (AI waves arrive from all over the place). -Cannot be destroyed If Reclaimed: -No longer causes interference -The Reclaimed Wormhole Tunneler can be ordered to attempt to drill a new wormhole to any system. -This creates a Proto-Wormhole near the center of the target system, which will take roughly 10 minutes to stabilize. -The Proto-Wormhole can be attacked and destroyed by AI ships, and is considered a high-threat target (mechanically the wormhole "builds" like a structure, having more HP the closer to finished it is; engineers cannot help it). This makes creating a wormhole in hostile territory impossible. -Attempting to use the Tunneler also provokes a strong AI response - the homeworlds begin spawning ships like in the case of a deep raid. Roughly half these ships attack the Proto-Wormhole, and the other half attack the Tunneler, which can be destroyed once reclaimed. -If the humans can defend the Tunneler and the Proto-Wormhole long enough, after 10 minutes the Tunneler self destructs (leaving behind a wormhole) and the Proto-Wormhole matures, leaving a new and permanent wormhole path on the map - which can be used by the humans or the AI. If Hybridized: -Once brought online, the Hybrid Wormhole Tunneler will immediately begin attempting to drill a wormhole into one of the player homeworlds. -The Hybrids go about this differently than the humans, being much more methodical. Their Proto-Wormhole will take a full hour to mature, but cannot be destroyed. Only the destruction of the Hybrid Tunneler can stop it. -Once matured, the new wormhole is one-way from the Tunneler into human space. Additionally, the Tunneler acts as a warp gate, meaning waves can be sent to the human homeworld at any time. -Unlike the human wormhole, this hybrid wormhole requires constant maintenance; destroying the Wormhole Tunneler will cause it to collapse. A final note: The idea with these being "convertible" by the Hybrids is that there is a risk of losing them - once a piece of ancient tech has been hybridized it can never be recovered by the humans, only destroyed.
Tags	No tags attached.

Internal Weight	Feature Suggestion

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
Jul 14, 2012 12:46 pm	MaxAstro	New Issue
Jul 16, 2012 10:00 am	tigersfan	Internal Weight	=> Feature Suggestion
Jul 16, 2012 10:00 am	tigersfan	Status	new => considering
May 1, 2013 11:03 pm	Radiant Phoenix	Note Added: 0031545
May 1, 2013 11:24 pm	MaxAstro	Note Added: 0031548