After it was announced that BOTE would no longer be a Trek game it occurred to me that something was missing. A plot. Without the Trek material there was no longer a driving force to propel gamers toward galactic conquest. So in response to this I have created what is the beginning of a story for the game and gotten the approval of SirPustekuchen to pitch my idea.

The basic premise for the story is that...

"The stage is set and the pieces are being set into motion as the different races of the galaxy reach up to the stars. Most of them out of a desire for exploration... Some of them to relieve overcrowding and a dwindling supply of resources... And a select few out of a desire for conquest. A desire to place the galaxy itself in the palm of their hands.

And so as the expansion begins the time is drawing ever nearer... The time at which peace will no longer last and the beginning of the First Galactic War."


Basically the idea that I had for a campaign is that it would be an objective driven story mode in which the player would be issued occasional objectives such as "A new alien race has been discovered on the other side of the Neptauran Worm Hole. Because of the worm holes proximity to Alliance space you must establish a beach head on the other side of the worm hole by colonizing all systems within a 5 sector radius and construct three outposts, one at each marked location. You have XX number of turns to complete your objective.

The general idea of the campaign is to create a set storyline by giving occasional objectives that would involve things like exploration of uncharted sector, colonizing critical systems, constructing outposts and/or starbases to protect crucial points, protecting an alien races convoy as they travel to collect payment for services they have agreed to render the players empire, and the list goes on.

The reason I feel that a set storyline would benefit the game is that story has a way of drawing people into a game more than a game with no background or story at all, much like BOTE is right now after the story and plot contributed by the Trek series has been removed. Another purpose of the story is that it will set up a relationship between each of the empires and reveal behavioral patterns of each them in the minds of the players. This would essentially giving each of the empires their own unique identity people can relate with. As for the game itself, the story mode would be an optional mode and modes of play like skirmish and things like scenarios would still be made available.

A list and description of each of the Major Empires follows:


Empire:.........................................Race:
The Galactic Alliance.........................Human
The Cooperate...............................Korsenak
The Consortium...........................Tealanosians (pronounced Teal-ah-nosians)
The Hegemony..............................Kayialtien (pronounced Kay-ee-all-tien)
The Asurlek Empire..........................Asurlek (pronounced A-sure-leck)
The Intergalactic Brotherhood..............Cortobin


The dominant race of the Alliance are humans. After many long centuries of struggling to explore even their own solar system humanity has finally stumbled upon the means to reach out and explore the vast deep reaches of space. Unsure of what will be found, the human race gladly embraces the unknown yet never forgets the lessons from history of how unexpectedly threat can materialize. For this reason the human race has a demeanor that is a curious mix of paranoia and a sincere desire to want to trust any new races they might find. The smaller alliance ships generally tend to have a somewhat boxy design whose fronts are usually a collection of smooth sloping surfaces while the larger ships have a somewhat cylindrical design.

The dominant race of the Cooperate are a somewhat short (a few inches shorter than the average human) slender reptilian race called the Korsenak that have a long tail (roughly 3/4ths a Korsenak's height and that is generally 4 to 6 inches thick at the thickest point depending on the size of the Korsenak), and are deceptively strong for their size (just slightly stronger than the average human) but cannot take as much punishment as a human can. The Korsenak are always eager for a business deal and are keen investors; however, they rarely ever blindly seek out profit and prefer to plan their movements out ahead of time. Their ships generally tend to loosely resemble the skulls of some of the larger reptilian predators of their home planet. Though it is not known, possibly even to the Korsenak, whether this was done in an attempt to frighten their opponents or out of admiration and respect for the power and skill of the predatory beasts.

The dominant race of the Consortium are a reclusive human-like race that have bluish-yellow skin, somewhat long and lanky fingers, black eyes that are a bit rounder than a humans that have yellowish pupils, more compact and more rounded ears, called the Tealanosians (pronounced Teal-ah-nosians) and are in most other respects are comparable to the average human. The Tealanosians prefer to keep to themselves for the most part and are took to the stars for the most part in order to escape the headache of a booming population in an already overcrowded system that was beginning to run low on available resources. They are generally peaceful, if a bit weary at first, with any new races that they come across. Despite this fact they seem to generally trust the Alliance more than any of the other major empires. Possibly the reason for this is because they and the humans closely resemble each other or perhaps is that they can somehow sense that the primary reason for humans taking to the stars was not a drive for personal gain but a sincere desire to explore the unknown universe. Consortium ships are somewhat blocky in nature and typically incorporate a triangular shape into a major section of each ship.

The main race of the Hegemony are the Kayialtien (pronounced Kay-ee-all-tien) race that have smooth skin, beady eyes, ear holes nose holes, heads that are taller and narrower than a humans, are taller than the average human by about 5-6 inches, are tall and slender, are agile and fast, yet are not quite as strong as the average human. The Kayialtien are a xenophobic and untrusting race that act with hostility toward any minor race that does not actively bow down to their will. They view other major empires as threats and will not hesitate to attack if it looks as though a quick conquest may be possible. Despite their aggressive tenancies to other races they are willing to make treaties and alliances so long as they serve to further their own ends. It is unknown even to the Kayialtien themselves where their aggressive behavior stems from but outside analysts speculate it may have its roots some past religion that has sense faded into the past. Hegemony ships are built to appear large and intimidating to their opponents yet are not as powerful as their size might suggest or as powerful as similarly sized ships of other empires. In order to compensate for this the Kayialtien have developed cloaking devices to allow them to sneak up on their opponents or to wait in ambush for unsuspecting foes to drift by.

The dominant race of the Asurlek Empire are the Asurlek (pronounced A-sure-leck) race that are as tall as humans but are a bit wider and are covered with fur (typically yellowish orange though Asurlek with other colors of fur are born) that most often ranges from one to two inches in length, have ears that are human like except taller, a somewhat more stubby and wider nose than a humans, are thickly build and generally are stronger than most humans but are not quite as fast or agile. The Asurlek are a proud race that holds its warrior heritage in high regards and while they do not rely on it for food they view hunting and killing prey, most often with primitive weapons such as clubs and spears, as a right of passage signifying that an Asurlek youth is entering into adulthood. The Asurlek are generally indifferent toward other alien races they encounter and typically not hostile and treat alien races that have joined their empire well providing that they joined willingly or at least put up a decent fight. However, if a system was an easy conquest they will generally view its inhabitants with a casual heir of indifference if not being slightly inferior. The reason for this being that the Asurlek view strength of resolve very highly and will typically hold any race they encounter that has a strong resolve in high regard. Also, while the Asurlek are usually peaceful they have been known to engage in spurts of conquest if for no other reason than the thrill of combat. The Asurlek Empire's ships are simple, straight forward, purpose built, and generally have more emphasis placed on maneuverability than the ships of other races. Some of their ships also employ cloaking devices in combat which Asurlek view as the ultimate manifestation of the hunter stalking his prey.

The dominant race of the Intergalactic Brotherhood are the Cortobins which are a short (ranging from 3 1/2 feet to 4 1/2 feet tall) race that most often looks a bit chubby, has gray skin, moderately chubby fingers, somewhat rounded head, broad mouth, short wide nose, a bit larger eyes than a humans, and have large ears that come almost straight out from the side of the head (each ear comes out from the head roughly 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches) that are each shaped much like a half of an oval. The Cortobins are also surprisingly fast and agile for their size, a fact at which they take great advantage of in combat. The Cortobins have a curious, if not mischievous, and peaceful nature and will seek to avoid conflict as much as possible even if it means making sizable concessions, a tendency that causes the Asurlek to view the Cortobins as being a weaker race despite the power of their impressive ships. The Cortobins ultimate, if a bit far fetched, goal is to ultimately unite the entire known universe under their own style of unique government that consists of a ruling class that is prepared from birth for their positions (the class consists of both Cortobin and other races and representation is given based on the comparative size of each races population) coupled with a ruling body composed of elected representatives in which all races are given equal representation. In general the Brotherhood ships are large and designed to be powerful enough to take on multiple ships of the other races equivalent class and generally have streamlined designs.



*Regretfully taking this precaution is necessary as I have a heard rumor from a reliable source of someone trying to steal one of my ideas before.*
Note: 1. The Story, race and ship descriptions, race backgrounds, scenario, and all names present within are copyrighted by the legitimate owner of the FoxURA user name in this Birth of the Federation forum and as such may not be used, altered, or taken without the owners consent.
2. Permission has been granted to use the story, race and ship descriptions, scenarios, and all other information presented in this forum solely to the creators of the fan made game Birth of the Empires for the sole purpose of creating Birth of the Empires and may be revoked in the event that the name and/or rights to the product is stolen and/or obtained through duplicitous methods and/or without the copyright holders consent.
3. The story and any related information protected under the copyright may be discussed, copied, and otherwise disseminated so long as a)credit for the work is not stolen and b)credit for the work is acknowledged and the owner of the FoxURA user name is cited.
4. back ups of this have been made

wow

You like?

so it seems

Oh... Just to let you know I made a few minor changes and a correction or two so you may want to look through it again if you haven't already. It's nothing really that important except for the fine print though. But that is important for a reason other than story and plot details.

lol what reliable source you mean?

i doubt that if you put some small print into your text, that those guys (whoever they are) care about that . or aren't i right?

You just might be surprised. Just by creating that notice the work I did is now officially protected under United States copyright laws.

Oh, and the reliable source was a friend of mine.

as mstrobel recently put out, the U.S. copyright law states that every "materialized" form of content is copyrighted the minute it's written, be there a copyright note or not. so it wasn't exactly necessary for you to do so .

however they also state the recommendation to make a copyright note so that people can distinguish if something's just a quote or really your own work.

I also thought it would be a good idea to clarify that the all that was posted for the purpose of being used for BOTE, providing enough people like it of course. I assume I have your vote Malo?

Malo's fine with it.

Oh, I like it. We have to think about it more in our german forum too. Maybe we have to change some race names, but the story is great. How I said in a PM before, I like the idea of a campaign. The player is more involved into the whole universe.

But you can play it with your current idea now. You only have to change some strings in the stringTable.txt file and all empires have a new name. Maybe you want to change some racegraphics too. But it is possible to play it now. You only have to make a little modification.

we are currently collecting quite a bunch of new race pictures, you should be able to choose from a variety of new ones shortly..

For the Hegemony i propose this race picture



As evil as they come

Regards Wolfe

The closer you can get to each of the race descriptions the better. Actually, to be honest, I am considering drawing sketches each of the races as well as at least one ship for each of their races myself. I am a Drawing Major after all . It would be good practice. Once I am able to do that, it would be wonderful if we could get some assistance drawing scenes out for the different bits of story related plot that would be scattered throughout the campaign mode. The way I envisioned it, the race pictures would all be hand rendered allowing us to more easily create our own unique races for the game.

Oh, and in regards to cdwolfe... Ummmm... NO.

After thinking about it for a while I think finding pictures of aliens on the net would be a good idea. That away we would have something that people could look at until we can get the drawings together for the actual races which could then be put into computer form by a graphic designer. Clean computer graphics would probably fit in better with the game than drawn pictures and unfortunately my skills with making computer graphics is very basic at best.

here's a pic we have gotten permission for (3D model requestable from the author):

Jeez...that thing looks lethal!

...

Fox, I just looked at the races again, and something doesn't make sense. Is the third one supposed to be the Korsenak Corporate? The Korsenak Cooperate sounds like a really strange name, even for aliens...

yes, and as name says, it'll be our new sabre.

btw. all stuff we're collecting right now comes from polish authors over at max3d.pl . great site I must say plus ppl there seem to be very friendly when it comes to lending us permission and stuff. Atm. we got 10% of all needed images overall already and that in 2 days .

Nice. That looks a lot like the kind of ships I had in mind that the Cooperate would have .



The name of the faction is The Cooperate and the name of the main race is just Korsenak and would not be used as part of the empires name.

No no, I mean is there a typo? Corporate (As in the Sheliak Corporate, corporate companies) vs Cooperate (As in the Co-operative supermarket, working together for mutual benefit). Sorry if there isn't a typo and i'm just being pedantic.

The way each race was named is a glimpse into the mentality of each race itself. For example, the Alliance is just that, a alliance of human colonized systems and alien races. The Cooperate, because of the shortage of resources due to high population had to rely strongly on tightly knit cooperation in order to get to the stars and begin the colonization process of other systems. The same applies for each of the other main races.

Ok, then make their name the Korsenak Cooperative. [/endgrammaticalrant]

Sorry, but doing that would be contrary to the importance they place on cooperation with other races being on equal grounds with their emphasis on cooperation with each other. They are not like the Amish by any means or anything like that, they were just forced to learn the importance of cooperating with each other in order to ensure their survival.

I might be able to find a few volunteers to work on it. It doesn't really matter that much at this point as I am still working on the basic studies for the first of the major races.

Also, could you move the pics to the minor race pic topic? I would like to keep this one reserved for actual discussions on the story itself.

Progression of Events in story mode. (work in progress)

Galactic Alliance -
1. The Earth Alliance is formed for the purpose of pooling resources to aid in the quest to explore space and investigate the possibility of the colonization of other planetary systems.
2. The exploration of space has yielded positive results and it has been discovered that Alpha Centauri is in fact capable of supporting a colony.
3. Colony ships are constructed and are used in the colonization of the Centauri system.
4. More scout ships are launched allowing for a more thorough and wider search of the Galaxy. This larger emphasis being placed on exploration becomes known as the Roan Initiative after Zacharias Taylor Roan, the president of the Earth Alliance.
5. The Roan Initiative ships detect ships from an alien civilization on long range scanners and after much debate the Alliance Council approves a plant to attempt first contact.
6. The attempt yields mixed results as the initial attempt to make contact was greeted with hostility but an experienced Alliance captain with a diplomatic, Stephen Rayus Calder, willingly placed his ship in a vulnerable position. By doing this he was able to prove to the alien race that no harmful intentions were meant and attempts to communicate began shortly after.
7. The means to communicate is finally created and the alien race, the Caloscin Federation, and the Earth Alliance enter into a trade agreement in hopes of fostering a closer relationship.
8. Not long after this contact is made with another alien race and, drawing from the lessons learned by Calder, Alliance Caption Jules Johonas Stryker is able to successfully make contact with the Irrilians. Stryker is praised for his success and then is reprimanded for failing to permission from the Alliance Government before making contact. As a result preliminary plans to develop 'Conditions for Contact' are created. Simultaneously, the discovery of a second alien race brings light to two important facts. First, it is likely that there are many other alien races out there and there is a shortage of trained linguists capable of deciphering alien languages and the second is that while both of the alien races contacted so far have been peaceful, the next one might not. In response to the first problem the ALI (Alien Languages Institute) was founded and the SSDPI (Stratigic Ship Development Initiative) was founded to deal with the second problem by researching and developing plans for more heavily armed space craft.

(I will continue this later by editing this post. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to share them.)

The Galactic Alliance:

*Capital Ship Yards (tentative name): Allows for the production of two ships simultaneously. The first ship is built in the main dock while the second is constructed at 1/4th the speed at which it would normally be developed utilizing any excess resources from the construction of the first ship reducing its cost dramatically.
Note: If at any point the ship in the secondary dock is the only ship under construction it will be treated as though it is in the primary dock until the primary ship dock is given another build order. Also, the construction of the ship in the primary ship dock will not be affected regardless of whether there is a ship in the secondary dock or not. (can only be built in home system)

*Alien Languages Institute: Provides +1 bonus to morale empire wide and improves how any race contacted after the ALI is built by 2 mood levels. (Can only be built in home system)

The Cooperate:

*Referbashing Yards (tentative name)- allows for the modernization of older ships to be on par with their newer counterparts


The Asurlek Empire:

*Cerimonial Hunting Grounds- a place that allows for Asurlek youth to participate in the ritualistic 'coming of age hunt'
Provides +1 moral (only buildable in colonized worlds)
* Spacial Research Facility - a place in which research into the manipulation of space
Provides access to research Special Tech: Cloaking Device and +10-15% bonus to a tech (I haven't decided which would be the best fit yet)

(I will be adding expanding this topic by editing this post as I get ideas for new buildings. If you have any ideas or comments please feel free to share them.)

Being the fact I strongly dislike some parts of your stories that are too much copy and paste, I am presenting either a human version of what you provided, or a completly non-human version for the Galactic alliance. I COULD spend more time on each thing, but my goal is to just get you to make sure the Umbilical cord is good and cut. I don't want to see some crap like the Master of Orion 3 story. I'm not saying anything is bad in and of itsself, I am just making sure you consider the races a bit to be sure you aren't trying to copy something that is already there.

Along that same tract, I STRONGLY recommend you find artists and modelers whom are willing to do unique work for only this. They are out there. Ask the guys you are searching through if they are willing to do custom work. Most are.



The Falan Symbiosis...............................Falan

The Falan are a race of symbiotes that evolved helping to guide and improve their hosts. They have a philosophy that has them believing that everything is a symbiote for something greater. They are symbiotes for their hosts, their hosts symbiotes for their planet, their planet for the solar system, exc. They believe that it is their sacred duty to understand the will of their hosts and better all fellow symbiotes. They do have a small war-like streak in them to remove "parasites", or those races that don't cooperate for the betterment of all, but they are mostly peaceful. They are ruled by priests, whom are believed to have the best understanding of the will of the host that they are in charge of. They also have a strong leaning to exploration and study, so they may better learn of the hosts that everyone shares. They are very accepting of differences, since their view places everything on equal footing, with only a matter of scale differentiating things.



Miroton.........................Human

After the mass panic from the "y2k bug", Humanity was scattered and starving. despite this, it took society a long time to fully collapse. This gave corporations time to create enclaves in which to support their employees. As time passed, those not in corporations ended up starving or dieing, leaving everyone on earth in some kind of corporation or another. As corporations realized this, they started claiming portions of the old countries they used to be in as their nations. Money talks though, and after a few, brief wars, the corporations of earth united to form a global government. This global government sent out explorers to find new markets to invest in, and new resources to claim for the glory of their corporation on earth!




Terran Coalition.........................Human

After the mass panic from the "y2k bug", Humanity was scattered and starving. Despite this, humanity's population continued to grow. Eventually, the dwindling resources and population pressures forced humanity to unite and create a unified government, so they could solve the problems using the resources and room of space. Due to the potential risk other races might exhibit to the Terran Coalition, the Humans are very cautious when making contact with new races, and prefer to be left alone in their space. Still, when awakened, they can be quite a giant.



Republic of Terran Continents.........................Human

After the mass panic from the "y2k bug", Humanity was scattered and starving. This was a ripe time for a secretive organizazation to take down most of the world governments. This accomplished, the organization set about creating a global election, and rigging it to get their people elected. At first, this rigged system wasn't noticed, but eventually, it became the way of life. The 'Truly democratically elected presidante for life' rules the world with an iron fist. Distrust and fear are the rule of law, and this carries over into relations with other nations. Humans still prefer to win by guile and stealth then through any other means, and as such, aren't well trusted in the galaxy.




Medna.........................Human

After the mass panic from the "y2k bug", Humanity was scattered and starving. A great leader rose and, through might of arms, united humanity under one flag, the Medna Empire. Tracing his roots back to Gengis Kahn, he exhorted the warrior cultures that were prominent on earth, and the code of chivalry. Human youngsters aren't considered adults until they have triumphed in glorious combat. Honor is the life of a human. The ancient Spartan code is the reality of humanity, where they must come back with their honor intact, or not come back at all.



United Nations.........................Human

After the mass panic from the "y2k bug", Humanity was scattered and starving. The United Nations stepped up and worked to save humanity. After a long struggle and much negotiation, humanity was saved. The United Nations learned it's lesson though, and decided to bring all groups they meet under their control. Eventually the United Nations evolved into two groups, where the experienced "Ambassadors" are raised from birth for their job of administration, while their "aids" come from all member-groups to provide a voice for the subject people.

well, get in touch with foxura and exchange your views. In fact you could both create your own universe(s) and we decide later on which one to make the official version and which one will get mod (2 official versions won't work, since people will get confused when trying to play multiplayer together and have different versions). Let's just make a little competition there .

For the pics, we now have so much different alien pics (150+) that you will find the one fitting for your race from either the current majors or the minors. download the pics from the latest threads.

Thank you riptokus for taking time for all this. I assume you don't even have a current version of the game to play but rest assured, the effort will not be wasted .

A newbie hitting hard! Wooh

yes, doesn't happen very often, does it?

btw. riptokus, for a detailed overview of our star trek themed internals, look at our bote wiki here: http://www.botf2.com/bote/wiki . there are all information there about changeable things in game and you can use them to see what you need to replace in-game for your universe!