Star Trek: Infinite - It's Stellaris but with Rubber-Forehead Aliens

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Star Trek: Infinite - It's Stellaris but with Rubber-Forehead Aliens

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Technical Analysis: Nov 21, 2007; I got 99 problems but the British ain't one.

Dramicus posted:

Voyager has returned from the Delta Quadrant, only to find [InsertEmpireNameHere] occupying former Federation Space.

1. Destroy them! (+5 happiness)
2. Capture them! (+ 5% research)

A bit cynical, but anything more bespoke would be a treat.

An alternate history where the Dominion won the war, but a plan decades in the making gives the former Federation its only hope.

The Voyager in this alternate history didn't get admiral Janeway to help them, instead, it's Naomi Wildman, in her 60s. The plan to bring Voyager home more quickly took a few more years and a lot more secrecy under Dominion rule, but now, armed with tech 100 years ahead of their time, and a fully functional transpwarp drive, it's up to Voayger to return to Federation space to liberate the recently conquered Federation before history repeats itself.

# ? Oct 4, 2023 05:17

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# ? May 6, 2024 06:34

Eiba: Jul 26, 2007

Dramicus posted:

I had totally forgotten about that. So we've got at least 2 crises at launch. Is there potential for a third in this part of the timeline? Does Romulus blow up, or is that later?

From what I understand the Dominion is not an endgame crisis at launch, though not from a lack of desire on the part of the developers.

After launch, however, it would be incredibly cool if they added it. Basically the perfect endgame crisis.

# ? Oct 4, 2023 07:03

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Dominion and, possibly, Gamma Quadrant* seem like a wait-and-see potential DLC material, so that they can announce it with a new playable major faction, with its own missions and poo poo. That's really what they have left assuming they want to stick to the same fleshed-out big empires (and not doing flavorful minors like the Orion Syndicate or Ferengis or whatever), maaaaybe playable Borg if they're not afraid of making them really gimmicky.

*I'd assume them not really bothering with a full-on Gamma Quadrant just for one playable faction, more just slapping a lil bridgehead past the Bajoran wormhole.

# ? Oct 4, 2023 11:24

A GIANT PARSNIP: Apr 13, 2010; Too much fuckin' eggnog

You could do the borg and the dominion the same way - just have the dominion�s access point be static (the wormhole) and have the borg one move every turn or two (transwarp conduits) with other empires getting a project that can either fix the conduit or create their own.

# ? Oct 4, 2023 12:32

Flipswitch: Mar 30, 2010

Oh poo poo this is out on the 12th? Goddamn.

# ? Oct 4, 2023 17:15

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Eiba posted:

From what I understand the Dominion is not an endgame crisis at launch, though not from a lack of desire on the part of the developers.

After launch, however, it would be incredibly cool if they added it. Basically the perfect endgame crisis.

I would like very much if they eventually moved to the Dominion, since that would free up the Borg for playable status. Assimilating the entire galaxy is extremely fun (source: Stellaris).

# ? Oct 4, 2023 17:49

Squiggle: Sep 29, 2002; I don't think she likes the special sauce, Rick.

Technical Analysis posted:

The Voyager in this alternate history didn't get admiral Janeway to help them, instead, it's Naomi Wildman, in her 60s. The plan to bring Voyager home more quickly took a few more years and a lot more secrecy under Dominion rule, but now, armed with tech 100 years ahead of their time, and a fully functional transpwarp drive, it's up to Voayger to return to Federation space to liberate the recently conquered Federation before history repeats itself.

Hey, that's pretty much the plot to Star Control 2! I'd like that

# ? Oct 4, 2023 18:08

Thom12255: Feb 23, 2013; WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY

The content embargo for content creators should be up soon and we'll get some lets plays.

# ? Oct 4, 2023 23:26

Thom12255: Feb 23, 2013; WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY

Dev Log #4 posted:

Developer Log - Stardate: 23763.1

As our Admiral Maldonado said in Dev Log #2, this game is about "telling your own Star Trek story", with every word of that sentence being equally meaningful;
It needs to be a story, it needs to be a Star Trek story, but it also needs to be your own.

The canon

Star Trek and the particular era we chose to base ourselves in is brimming with rich material, many stories already told, small and large, it has been studied, memorized, dissected and analyzed by one of the most intensively passionate audiences in pop culture, and Star Trek now encompasses multiple generations of audiences.

We've all (the fandom at large) discussed what is canon, where canon contradicts itself, what is not up to the quality of the canon, and similar topics, we've reinterpreted rationalized and theorized how to make it all make sense and be as coherent as a work of so many different authors can be.
This sets up a challenge with high expectations on us and also every one will want to see that episode they love be somehow represented in our game.

The canon gives us a great starting point, the known characters and political stage and their relationships, something that adds meaning to the events that will unfold from the point the player takes charge, but from then on, the story must be told by the players.

The themes

Some stories we referenced explicitly, repeating specific events seen in the shows, others are more like Easter egg subtle references, where people will be trying to remember what episode was that from, but we couldn't just lift episode by episode all the happenings of the quadrants.

We needed to tell our own stories while making sure they fit the universe and feel authentic.
To achieve this, it was important to understand what Star Trek is about. You might think that having so many different shows, movies, authors and fans this would vary wildly and make it hard to pinpoint, even when focusing just on the 1990�s shows, but it�s not.

Star Trek is about exploring all aspects of the human condition and learning to understand and live with one another no matter how different we are or if we used to be enemies. It�s all about empathy, both when it succeeds and when it fails.
Another key aspect of Trek is always looking at how things can improve, even when telling its darkest stories. The world and our lives can be made better through empathy, we can get there, so it�s also fundamentally about hope.

Your story

There are many ways to tell a story in a strategy game. The most obvious of them are the narrative events, but it goes beyond just a text in a popup. Because we know who the four powers are, the event may mean something different for each of them, and when you make a choice (if you don't look only at the mechanic rewards), you are telling a story about who the power you are playing really is.
This philosophy was extended to all possible interactions between story and player action. When we set out to design the four playable factions, we didn't start by "what would be fun? what would be powerful?", we started with "who are these people? what do they believe in?" and their mechanics and traits flowed from there almost naturally.

For the Mission trees we asked ourselves �what are the significant history pivotal points?�? And what happened in-between? How can we fill the story gaps with beats fitting who they are and what player actions would tell those stories? It�s not enough to have the right text in the mission node; the player must live that story.

Additionally, it won�t be your story if you can�t make a few choices and possibly change the very identity of the character you are playing. We went back to the canon and looked into what-if possibilities, the alternate paths that were always there in the stories told by the franchise. What if the Federation failed to uphold its own values? What if the House of Duras took over the Klingon Empire? How would that affect the lore we know of this universe?

This is how the story becomes yours. While some things are destined to happen, like invasions from the other side of the galaxy, your choices about who you are, the actions you take and what that means within this world will tell more stories than we can write.

I hope you tell good ones, and I look forward to you sharing them with the community.
Andres Chamarra,
Technical Director and honorary Loremaster.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/star-trek-infinite-dev-log-4-a-trek-story.1600894/

# ? Oct 6, 2023 12:35

Sandepande: Aug 19, 2018

It's just going to be doom stacks isn't it?

# ? Oct 6, 2023 12:49

Yngwie Mangosteen: Aug 23, 2007

Yes, it's a 4X.

# ? Oct 6, 2023 13:07

Thom12255: Feb 23, 2013; WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY

Sandepande posted:

It's just going to be doom stacks isn't it?

How else do you expect to defeat the Borg Cubes?

# ? Oct 6, 2023 13:49

Dramicus: Mar 26, 2010; Grimey Drawer

I still maintain that because they dropped hyperlanes and went for warp, doomstacks will be weaker than in normal Stellaris. Yes, they will still win decisive battles, but they can't stop 5 small raiding groups from warping around and blowing poo poo up. So there will be the possibility of driving up enemy war exhaustion without actually committing to a large battle.

# ? Oct 6, 2023 13:51

Complications: Jun 19, 2014

If my experience with Star Trek New Horizons is accurate then the strategy is that you take your doomstack to take the enemy shipyard stations because ships are the only thing that matter in a war, then go swat any non-doomstack fleets, then have the big doomstack-off, then come back around to occupy everything to win the war if the enemy hasn't 100% war exhausted by that point. Alternatively you have the big doomstack-off at the start of the war then go hit the shipyard stations. Either way, cutting off the ability to replace losses is what ends the war and you can't stop an enemy from hitting any place they want because there are no chokepoints.

Complications fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Oct 6, 2023

# ? Oct 6, 2023 18:27

Worf: Sep 12, 2017; If only Seth would love me like I love him!

it feels weird to be waiting for a star trek game to come out which i intend to purchase and play

# ? Oct 6, 2023 22:07

Thom12255: Feb 23, 2013; WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY

https://twitter.com/TrekInfinite/status/1710416199170056536

# ? Oct 7, 2023 00:26

Bremen: Jul 20, 2006; Our God..... is an awesome God

Amusingly enough, the Klingon advisor voice is speaking Klingon. edit: Actually looks like it was just the introduction, sadly.

Honestly, just having the four main factions start adjacent in a cluster but with open space around them seems like a cool change from the usual Stellaris land rush.

Bremen fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Oct 7, 2023

# ? Oct 7, 2023 02:05

Dramicus: Mar 26, 2010; Grimey Drawer

I wonder if the special Klingon voice pack from the deluxe edition is in spoken Klingon, or if he's already using it.

Edit: Oh poo poo, ships actually need officers that get trained at Starfleet Academy, that's sweet.

Edit 2: The Klingon voice pack is in Klingon!

Dramicus fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Oct 7, 2023

# ? Oct 7, 2023 02:14

Thom12255: Feb 23, 2013; WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY

Sandepande posted:

It's just going to be doom stacks isn't it?

So apparently no as you have to have fleets stationed around your territory to defend from pirates. Also if an enemy sneaks past and destroys stations your warp range will go down.

# ? Oct 7, 2023 11:33

Thom12255: Feb 23, 2013; WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY

Another stream
https://twitch.tv/videos/1945381592

Thom12255 fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Oct 8, 2023

# ? Oct 8, 2023 01:35

Thom12255: Feb 23, 2013; WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY

# ? Oct 8, 2023 16:48

Node: May 20, 2001; KICKED IN THE COOTER; Taco Defender

Will you be able to buy the music and Klingon voice DLCs after the games official release?

# ? Oct 8, 2023 16:56

Dramicus: Mar 26, 2010; Grimey Drawer

Node posted:

Will you be able to buy the music and Klingon voice DLCs after the games official release?

I don't know for certain, but if stellaris is any indication, yes they will be available for 2-5 dollars separately.

# ? Oct 8, 2023 18:00

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

5-10 is probably more likely.

# ? Oct 8, 2023 18:35

GolfHole: Feb 26, 2004

Everybody worried about doomstacks forgets how well a swarm of single-engine/single-missile bombers did in MoO2.

# ? Oct 8, 2023 19:45

Thom12255: Feb 23, 2013; WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY

Node posted:

Will you be able to buy the music and Klingon voice DLCs after the games official release?

Yes that's the deluxe edition content and there will be an upgrade to purchase after release.

# ? Oct 8, 2023 20:09

Archonex: May 2, 2012; MY OPINION IS SEERS OF THE THRONE PROPAGANDA IGNORE MY GNOSIS-IMPAIRED RAMBLINGS

Complications posted:

If my experience with Star Trek New Horizons is accurate then the strategy is that you take your doomstack to take the enemy shipyard stations because ships are the only thing that matter in a war, then go swat any non-doomstack fleets, then have the big doomstack-off, then come back around to occupy everything to win the war if the enemy hasn't 100% war exhausted by that point. Alternatively you have the big doomstack-off at the start of the war then go hit the shipyard stations. Either way, cutting off the ability to replace losses is what ends the war and you can't stop an enemy from hitting any place they want because there are no chokepoints.

Horizons also has a bunch of other nifty stuff that kind of countermands this.

Doomstacks are hard to get in Horizons barring the late game and each ship has much more customization and importance. The added customization also means that unless you play as a faction that has inexpensive and low customization doomstack ship strategy you will feel it if you lose that command cruiser or whatever that has a tactical bridge, custom weapon loadoutus, a command section for a captain or whatever to helm it, etc, etc.

Early on you'll also be lucky to have more than maybe 6 frigates and a destroyer at best as the federation and a lot of your power comes from setting up alliances and good relations so the AI brings in ships via triggered events.

Meaning that if you can take out those three cubes each rampaging through the sector the Borg is going to have a hard time immediately replacing them and might back down a bit to let you retake other territories.

In addition to that depending on the DLC's you have some of the stuff they add in can do appreciable damage to existing fleets. Romulans can straight up smuggle bombs onto ships or something like that. This is a problem if you have a one of a kind prototype that can bypass the warp lane system (it's possible via Discovery's ships now) and some Romulan decides to detonate a nuke inside of the ship when you need to use it to scout ahead or damage infrastructure behind enemy lines.

Edit: Also, as both New Horizons and the expanded fleet mechanics mods have shown the doomstack issue is easily taken care of by actually putting some thought into the design of the ship customization. Being able to program how a ship acts in combat means that having a heavily armed large blobs becomes a heck of a lot less effective. Can't shoot poo poo when the other side has missile based artillery and kites the gently caress out of you outside of weapon ranges. At that point you need to move a second fleet into the system to pin them down.

Sadly, Stellaris really suffers from the lack of customization on that front. Which makes doomstacking the priority. If this game avoids that lack of detail then it can get around it.

Archonex fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Oct 8, 2023

# ? Oct 8, 2023 20:27

Thom12255: Feb 23, 2013; WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY

New video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adebhvd_u2Q

Thom12255 fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Oct 10, 2023

# ? Oct 10, 2023 16:12

Bremen: Jul 20, 2006; Our God..... is an awesome God

Thom12255 posted:

New video.

https://youtu.be/Adebhvd_u2Q?si=U4Jc8m2PHkOGi9z5

Interesting. It seems like that video is mostly a primer for Stellaris players on the changes Infinite has, and while it does seem to be a Stellaris mod at heart I do think some of the changes are kind of cool.

# ? Oct 10, 2023 16:48

Ardryn: Oct 27, 2007; Rolling around at the speed of sound.

Bremen posted:

Interesting. It seems like that video is mostly a primer for Stellaris players on the changes Infinite has, and while it does seem to be a Stellaris mod at heart I do think some of the changes are kind of cool.

I especially like that crew/officers are an actual ship stat that needs to be replenished rather than just another resource to build/maintain ships out of.

# ? Oct 10, 2023 17:00

Thom12255: Feb 23, 2013; WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MONEY

Interview with one of the developers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzJWP2B40X0

# ? Oct 10, 2023 20:23

Der Kyhe: Jun 25, 2008

I did a stupid thing and preordered this thing, as it costs about the same as the next batch of Stellaris DLC I would need to get any more mileage out of that game.

I am a bit worried as basically all my preorders in the past have turned out to be buckets of turd, and Paradox isn't really known for its great 1st releases.

# ? Oct 10, 2023 21:14

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Tamar had better be in the game and you should be able to get a Tamarian officer.

Also there should be a Children of Tama advisor.

# ? Oct 10, 2023 22:31

MikeJF: Dec 20, 2003

CapnAndy posted:

Tamar had better be in the game and you should be able to get a Tamarian officer.

Also there should be a Children of Tama advisor.

We saw a listing of the secondary civs in one of the dev log sheets

That said, I could've sworn I saw an earlier screenshot with a Hysperian symbol. Hope they didn't get them and the Hupyrians messed up.

MikeJF fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Oct 11, 2023

# ? Oct 11, 2023 06:18

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

How is that list sorted? Randomly? Alphabetical was too complicated to figure out?

# ? Oct 11, 2023 06:40

MikeJF: Dec 20, 2003

Database primary key

# ? Oct 11, 2023 06:55

Madurai: Jun 26, 2012

MikeJF posted:

We saw a listing of the secondary civs in one of the dev log sheets

That said, I could've sworn I saw an earlier screenshot with a Hysperian symbol. Hope they didn't get them and the Hupyrians messed up.

Can't help but notice the Talarians are on there twice.

# ? Oct 11, 2023 08:49

Mukaikubo: Mar 14, 2006; "You treat her like a lady... and she'll always bring you home."

Madurai posted:

Can't help but notice the Talarians are on there twice.

One of them has to be the Tamarians instead, right? Right? GIVE ME THIS

# ? Oct 11, 2023 08:52

Taear: Nov 26, 2004; Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!

It feels weird how little has been said about this one so far
Normally Paradox does shitloads of stuff about their new games

I still want it though

# ? Oct 11, 2023 18:34

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# ? May 6, 2024 06:34

Dramicus: Mar 26, 2010; Grimey Drawer

I don't know how much there is that needs to be said. It's Stellaris (which is a known quantity) with Star Trek bolted on. 70-80% of the game will play and feel like Stellaris and theres a bunch of extra flavoring. I could be totally wrong, but I think it will very much be a "what you see is what you get" situation. It will be a solid 4x game and probably the best Star Trek game to come out in a decade or more.

# ? Oct 11, 2023 19:03

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Star Trek: Infinite - It's Stellaris but with Rubber-Forehead Aliens

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