AI War 2:Zenith Architrave

The Zenith Architrave

A Zenith Architrave is a powerful Zenith clan that exists in another dimension/plane of existence/something. Their dimension is coming into congruence with ours, which allows them to build a Portal to our dimension. They can then transport ships through the Portal and various Spawners. They can only comfortably take "some" planets in our galaxy (the number is based on the congruence of our galaxy to theirs, which is to say "your choice in the game lobby"). These planets are their Territory.

A ZA is deeply territorial and they all hate eachother. The all want to expand their territory, but they really really don't want eachother to take too much territory. If one ZA gets too powerful then all the other Architraves will dedicate a lot of resources to stopping them.

Architrave wars in our galaxy are but a minor skirmish, compared to the giant wars in their home galaxy.

Each ZA has a "Home Territory" that they will defend to the death, but they can conquer additional planets outside of this.

The Zenith Architrave is a Zenith clan that has taken up residence in part of the galaxy. They are highly territorial, and will stake out a few planets as their Turf. Any other faction that tries to invade will be met with very strong resistance.

Usually an Architrave is content to just chill in its home turf, but every so often they will try to expand and take new planets.

By default an Architrave is hostile to everyone. However, if there are multiple Architraves, sometimes they will have a Civil War. This is triggered if an Architrave looks like it's getting "too powerful" to the others. When in the Civil War, Architraves stop being hostile to the AI and will spawn giant fleets to fight eachother. Be careful not to get caught in the crossfire!

Having multiple ZAs makes the game much more challenging, and it can be important to make sure your starting planet is out of their way.

It has been observed that most minor factions tend to either snowball out of control and dominate the galaxy, or else they are very weak. One of the goals of the ZA is to have a powerful faction that is very influential in part of the galaxy, but only rarely tries anything more than that.

Goals

• Have a powerful faction that would transform the way you fight over part of the galaxy; it's more about texturing the landscape than being something you need to fight or die

• Allow for some minor diplomatic elements. The player can hack each Architrave only once, but they have 3 choices
  • Make an uneasy truce with the ZA (the ZA will be friendly except if they are trying to expand, or if they are in conquest mode)
  • Steal a ship line from the ZA. This will cause the ZA's Max Territory to increase by 1
  • Forcibly Quiesce the ZA. The ZA will stop building ships and really defending itself, and you are free to do whatever you want to it. This period lasts for 15 minutes, then the ZA's Max Territory will increase by 2

• Have both a "Quiet, you can ignore it" phase and a periodic "Oh crap there's a rampage going on" mode

• Fun tidbit: I was inspired to create the ZA by thinking "I bet I could make the Dyson Sphere more interesting". Just like I was inspired to create the Macrophages by thinking "I bet I could make the Devourer more interesting".