The Final Frontier

The beginning is a very delicate time. Know then that it is the year 2302. The Known Universe is ruled by the People's Democracy of Earth. The most precious knowledge in the galaxy are faster than light travel and stellar cartography both are greedily guarded by the monopolistic planet of Earth also known as the Ocean Planet.

Or so we had believed, it has been months since the last hyperspace currier from Earth has arrived and our the local PDE authorities have sent their own but they have heard nothing of them since. They have wasted all their ships in vain efforts to contact Earth, they are little more than an undstaffed outpost doomed to loose control. Sir, it is clear that some great disaster has befallen the PDE, perhaps this is our chance for independence? What societies will the severed worlds of Earth form? What dangers await us in space? What of the other colonies? Have they survived the loss of contact and cessation of supplies from Earth? For all we know we might be the last remnants of humanity. And can what happened to Earth, happen to us as well?

Those of you who enjoy writing and reading good stories, scheming vile plots and grand 4X strategy gaming are in for a treat.

A few of us on the Apolyton Civilization Site (a site dedicated to coverage of the civ-series and other strategy games, including GalCiv) have started organizing a Diplomacy Game set in the universe of the Final Fronter (space empire building) mod that shipped with the Beyond the Sword expansion of Sid Meier’s Civlization 4.

A Diplomacy game, or Diplo Game for short, is an interesting way to play a turn based strategy game. Once a week a three or so hour session is played, after the session we post stories and conduct negotiations (hence diplomacy ) in the forums or via private messages or email. As this is a form of role-playing players are encouraged to stay in character (the current leader of their civilization or its foreign minister) when negotiating and during play. Story posts range from fictional stories detailing dozens of characters and how they affected their empire, “history books” to brief summary posts where the “king” makes a three line speech of what great accomplishments his people made in the last session.

It is the best way to learn to play the strategy game in which it is set. Usually some of the best players attend. But here is the nice bit, there is a code of etiquette, that eliminates the fear of the proverbial “zerg rush”, and you can talk your way out of nearly anything. Don’t be fooled wars are common but there is always a reason behind the war and total elimination of players are discouraged. Now making someone your vassal ... :LOL:

If you are interested follow the link to the thread on apolyton. You need to have the Civ4: BtS installed and patched to the latest version. The game is called History of the Universe I. As when the game is to be played on a weekly basis; we shall have a vote on that, the second best time slot will be reserved for HOTU2. The Final Frontier map plays almost like an entire new game, it is set completley in space.

PS I do hope GalCiv3 will have multiplayer so we can start the diplo game format there as well. There is a real shortage of good multiplayer Sci Fi turn based strategy and the diplo format is an insanely fun way to play. Be warned it is the strategy gamers equivalent of WoW, meaning that if you aren't disciplined you will be playing four or more diplo games a week. :p or should I say :CONGRAT: