AI War 2:Fallen Spire

Fallen Spire

The Fallen Spire are an optional faction that can be enabled via the Game Lobby, or by activating a beacon in game. The Fallen Spireare intended to satisfy the Spire kickstarter goal, and draw further inspiration from the Fallen Spire Minor Faction from AIWC.

Design Goals

We wanted to overall keep the spirit of the Fallen Spire from AIWC, while doing some additional fun things that are possible/easier with the new AIW2 engine. This does not match what was in the Kickstarter. It is very similar to the AIWC version except there’s a quick start mode and much more variety in the Relics Capture quests, and a ton more city buildings.

It's worth noting that as the game evolved a lot from the original kickstarter, the Spire goal that was originally laid out doesn't fit in the new context. But we also really wanted to modernize and expand on what was in the first game, taking inspiration from it without copying it wholesale. City buildings and units are different, and the entire flow is a completely new thing. The original was very sloooow, for instance.

The core of the gameplay is Epic Battles to capture the relics, and Powerful Ships and Bases you get as a result. We think the Powerful Ships and Bases part was well done in AIWC, and we wanted to preserve most of that, though for the city placement and city design we wanted to expand that to a pretty huge degree.

From this point forward we aren't going to keep back-referencing the first game, so please just try to forget the specifics of that one as you wrap your brain around this one. The number of differences will quickly compound until it's quite a new beast while still keeping the same spirit. (Hey, that sounds like we just described the entire concept of this sequel!)

Lore

The AI has crushed the Spire empire in their home galaxy. Some Spire units have landed in our galaxy and they can rebuild their empire and take revenge.

Sometime in the last few hundred years, the AI detected the Spire, who had already colonized several nearby galaxies. They launched a surprise attack against the Spire homeworld. The Spire attempted to use their TransWarp technology to warp their full Imperial Fleet to their homeworld for defense. However, while in transit the AI sabotaged the Warp Transceiver on the homeworld, trapping the Spire Fleet in inter-dimensional space. Suddenly helpless, the Spire’s local defenses were no match for the AI and their Scourge allies.

The AI has captured a lot of Spire reactors and is experimenting to harness their power in cloaked research laboratories. There are also some hidden spire relics scattered about the galaxy from past battles.

The Spire are rock/crystalline creatures who feed on energy and can grow and reproduce very quickly with enough energy, so freeing those reactors will allow them to create cities and warships quickly. Each structure or warship IS a living spire -- like Zenith Golems, the spire are macroscopic life to an almost absurd degree.

Primary Features

• Give the player a way to get some Really Big Weapons that scare the mess out of the AI (not in an AI Progress sense, though).
• Let the player build entire spire cities of various complexities and styles, which upgrade as you build more cities and more structures.
• Give the AI a reason and ability to bring back extra-galactic forces from their mysterious "main war" to fight you and the spire openly.
• Allow players the freedom to push all the way to an alternative victory condition via this faction, or to just build up one or more cities and make use of the extra firepower.
• In general to allow players to experience the fallen spire on a gradient scale, doing some of it as they wish, not having to choose "completely fallen spire" or "completely not fallen spire."
• Let us explore a bit more of the spire lore than we have in prior games.

What's Actually Going On

You can hack to find relics, and then once you have found one you need to go and give it orders of where to turn into a city. When it gets where you told it to go, it will become a city center that also includes a small (for the spire) flagship. You can then improve your city, build more cities in the same manner, and get absurd amounts of power. This scares the AI, of course, so a new arms race of superweapons begins. The "least" of your problems are targeted vicious exogalactic attacks on the relics and your cities. If you survive these odds, you'll have not only the sort of firepower you could never dream of elsewhere, but eventually might be able to do something to recover that lost Imperial Spire Fleet...

Game Start

BADGER_TODO: this part isn't super clear on how to hack for the first relic, actually.

How To Find Relics

There are a number of ways to find relics.

Known Location, Then Hack

This is the same approach from AIWC; you know where the Relic is, then you do a Hack on that planet to get the Relic. Is generally used for the first relic because it’s the easiest to follow.

Search-And-Hack

Instead of knowing exactly where a relic will be, you will get a “Check here” prompt. When you check on that planet then you will be told how many hops away the relic is. You can repeat this check any number of times, but each check causes a small Exo attack. When you check on the planet with the Relic then you get the Relic and have to recover it.

AI Research Lab

One of these is seeded on the map at game start time. Destroying this structure will grant you a Relic that must build on the planet with the research lab.

Relic Transport (Train Robbery)

Every so often an AI Relic Transport will appear. It will wander the map similarly to the Astro Trains, then head for the AI Overlord. If you destroy the train then you get a Relic. If the train gets to the Overlord then it gives the AI a single high-tier Spire unit to use against you. This will happen regardless of whether astro trains are enabled.

AI Citadel

One of these is seeded on the map at game start time. It’s extra tanky. Destroying it grants you a relic with a very easy escort mission (currently 10% strength of a normal relic chase).

Alpha Testers

Big thanks to the Alpha testers, including Astillious, Rocket Assisted Puffin, ZeusAlmighty, Ovalcircle and Democracy.