It would be cruel to cut off this fountain of creativity. Seeing that the community is bursting with good ideas (and way too much free time), here is something for you to dig your cookie-encrusted beer-scented teeth into:







We have the first eight factions for the game planned, described, designed, drawn, modeled, etc. However, there are lots of opportunities for custom factions and mods so go ahead and show us what you can do (or how disturbing your childhood was)! And, we would like to thank Zormare, who gave us this idea.



The competition starts right now and will end on Wednesday, May 16th.





Guidelines:



1. A faction consists of the following things:



2. An origin and history, ideally set within the ES universe (https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space/forum/29-archives/thread/13132-the-universe). Otherwise it's not a faction for our game, it's a faction for any game.



3. A visual style (please note: anything that references My Little Pony or Jar-Jar Binks will have an uphill battle). Don’t worry about having to submit artwork; something along the lines of “Y’know, like the Necromongers from “The Chronicles of Riddick” but in the colors of a chocolate chip cookie!! With loincloths!!” (Okay, you can probably do better than that)



4. A set of gameplay traits (https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space/forum/29-archives/thread/13124-design-creating-your-own-faction). I am putting this one after the other two, because the origin and the style of the faction should be expressed through how they play and what they do (welcome to an intro course in game writing )



- FIDS strengths and weaknesses

- Military and diplomatic traits

- Special empire bonuses / maluses

- Etc...



5. As usual, it must be comprehensible from a point of view of some version of English.





Please note that the guidelines may evolve; a faction is a pretty large and complicated thing and we may have to come back to you asking for further information or more clarification. This G2G is a learning experience for all of us!

Just checking in, of course I'm in again

That's a wonderful idea. I can see this being a hot topic!

The Rakravagania, Omnulinescent Ones !



Story :













Visual Style :













Empire traits :

[LIST=|INDENT=1]

(-24) Bad Businessrakravaganians : -30% Dust from trade

(+12) Good Merchants : +2 trade routes per star system

(+15) Optimistic : +20 Approval per star system

(+15) Curious : +10% Science

(-04) Lazy Builders : +10% cost for improvements

(-12) Pacifists : +30% cost for ships

(+10) Fast Travelers : +2 Warp Speed

(-06) Small fleets : -1 CP max per fleet

(-05) Weak Alloys : -15% HP per ship

(+10) Optimal Structure : +10% storage per ship

(+10) Masters of Illusion : -40% Industry cost per ship without weapon mod

(+03) Meticulous Information Analysis : +1 detection radius

(+10) Mutual Understanding : +10% weapon/invasion efficiency per allied faction

(-06) Hate for Battle : -10% damage per weapon mod for each enemy fleet in the star system

(+12) Fearless Warriors : +2 ground defense per system

(+10) Rebellion : +80% ownership gain per star system

(+15) Diplomats : +50%

(+15) Symbiosis : +30% cooperation treaties bonus

(+10) Naïve : +16 Approval per star system for each faction at peace or allied with

(-10) Feeble Heroes : +80% cost for hero healing

[/LIST]

hahaha lmao while reading it

lmao ? What does it mean ?

VieuxChat wrote:
lmao ? What does it mean ?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lmao

Thanks (for the link and for laughing )

I tried to create something that is hard to play without being utterly gimped. Hard to play a race that don't like the eXterminate part of the game.

A truly hilarious race At this point: "a cross-over between a jellyfish and a cat" I was already out of breath

That reminds me that it's sad that AI can't use the custom races.

I would love to be able to create a race, then save it in whatever format, then share it with others that could play against it.

VieuxChat wrote:
That reminds me that it's sad that AI can't use the custom races.

True, but you can use them in multiplayer against each other, which is almost as good...

Sure. But how many players will only play SP ? Every 4X games I've played, I've played them in Single Player.

Is it something we could mod into the game ? In another discussion one dev said that AI was XML-driven. If it's not hard coded, why AI can't use custom races ?

VieuxChat wrote:
In another discussion one dev said that AI was XML-driven. If it's not hard coded, why AI can't use custom races ?

Hello, wish list!

Eaürlings



In the last days of Tor, as the planet’s agony was reaching its apex, the head of the corporation „To Share The Bounty“ realized that his name would forever be synonym of the death of the motherworld for all the Endless. For him and for most of his board, such a situation was unacceptable and the shame of it was unbearable, some very few chose to devote themselves to help others survive and hence were left behind as the CEO put his plan in motion. He spent a big portion of the corporations immense fortune to send a hollowed-out asteroid out of Prime, shielded from the best sensors. Inside the asteroid he went, with his family, members of the board, body servants, guards and their families as well as a very complete tech-base. The plan was quite simple… To go into deep sleep whilst their asteroid traveled through the void, probing endlessly till it found a planet suited to their needs. And then build anew, a fresh civilization where they could flourish away from the eyes of the others, away from the shame and, somehow, atone.



Icarael the visionary stumbled upon them a few centuries later, quite by accident, as he was leading his ragged fleet of Eaür survivors through the void, cajoling them out of despair and bringing them slowly back to life. Icarael, once he realized who the inhabitants of the asteroid were, understood almost at once that to reveal to the other Eaür their existence would spread death and discontent over the fleet and he also realized that the dream of the former CEO to atone in some way would never happen, as guilt would take its toll. Unsure of what to do he thought long and hard and let the asteroid continue its course through space after implementing some modifications to its initial programming and to the minds of its inhabitants. Thanks to Dust, Icarael was able to reshape the minds of the inhabitants of the asteroid as well as their bodies. He granted them oblivion, the blessed forgetfulness of their past deeds but also made them regress to a low technological level and adapted their bodies to a rather harsher environment. The asteroid - remodeled through the power of Dust - would function like an ark once a suitable planet found, would analyze the threats and promises and put together a societal base as well as implement false memories of life. It would also intervene to make sure that the fledgling colony would be able to survive. Hidden in the depth of the system, it would continue its watch endlessly till once more the Eaürlings rose from the water towards the stars. Its role complete, it would self-destruct and let the Eaürlings purse their own destiny, a sapling of the Endless tree, ignorant of its inheritance yet imbued of it.



The Eaürlings have a complex mindset: very curious, with an innate affinity to dust, a very strong wanderlust and a reluctance to violence, unless provoked, in which case they can become quite deadly. They make tremendous merchants but their military is usually underestimated.



Visual: similar to the original Eaür: only more muscled and fully amphibious. The Eaürlings are blue and brown in color, with gills as well as lungs and big eyes to offer them a very broad vision field. Their skin is about as thick as leather but quite supple and not as gooey as that of a fish.



Homeworld: Ocean planet

Affinity and traits:

Terraformed planet: A/B/C Total: 18 points

Fast Travelers: +2: Total 10 points

Businessmen: +20% Dust per Star system : 30 points

Merchants: +2 Trade routes per system : 12 points

Meticulous Information analysis : +1 : 3 points

Diplomats: 25% duration bonus : 6 points

Revenge : 25% bonus: 5 points

Hunger for battle: -10% : - 6points

Total: 18+10+30+12+3+6+5-6= 78 points

Eaürlings and Rakravaganians would surely keep good relationship.

Updating the official thread (this one) and closing the other ones to avoid confusion. =)

Zormare wrote:


My Faction



Race : Zor



Background:



The Zor's are a robot legacy of degenerate people, who could no longer reproduce themselves. The last 10,000 of their kind infiltrated their consciousness into a huge AI and they gained immortality. They multiplied rapidly in their knowledge of the combination of AI and expanded their empire. Only in certain cases, the AI leaves a consciousness in a robot to perform specific tasks in order. Therefore, all the robots have a biological neural system to be acquired by a consciousness. Therefore a consciousness jumps from robot to robot. It is the most important, for the Zor's to protect their kind. That’s why they build very robust spacecrafts. But they never had a lot of contact with "Dust" they even ignored it partially. This makes them very untalented in dealing with Dust.







Affinity: Robotic Life (need less food, only a small part need food)



Visual: Sorry, I can not draw.



Visual in Text: The Zor's form their bodies committed to function and practice. Therefore there is no typical Zor-look, but rather an equal number of variants: hover versions, versions moving on tentacles, legs or wheels, some very small or gigantic ones - the variations in appearance are almost unlimited. Equal to all Zor is the small amount of biologically living tissue they all contain.





Scientists Positive +30% Science per Star system (Points 45)

Builders Positive -30% Industry cost for System improvements and planetary infrastructures when being constructed (Points 24)

Big fleets Positive +2 CP max per fleet (Points 25)

Strong Alloys Positive +30% HP per ship (Points 20)

Busínessmen Negative -30% Dust per Star System (Points -24)

Power Masters Negative +50% Dust Cost for Hero Abilities (Points -4)

Heroic Medicine Negative +80% Dust cost for Hero healing (Points -6)

All Points 80

Courth wrote:
Race Name: Deepkin



Description: The Deepkin are an exclusively aquatic race having developed at the bottom of continental shelves on their ocean world. They are highly adapted to combat underwater, and, valuing combat skills among all other, have never even considered altering their form through genetics, though through eliminating their dependance on a water environment would facilitate greater ease in colonization/ space exploration. The origins of this species are ancient. They were just emerging from tribalism around the time that the Endless were exploring much of the galaxy, and, feeling a sense of kinship between two species (one being formerly aquatic, and the other currently so), the explorers took pity on them, uplifting them to a level of space flight in an attempt to stave off the destruction of their home planet as the Endless had.



Unfortunately, the Endless did not realize the depth to which violence was a large part of the psyche of the Deepkin. Soon after the Endless left their planet, they quickly weaponized the tech given to them, and before any of the constructed colony ships left, they, along with most of the technology given to them, and most of the Deepkin race, were annihilated in a massive war. Just now have they recovered the technology of spaceflight (mostly from rediscovering lost Endless tech littered throughout their oceans from the war), and are about to make their way to the stars.



The Deepkin have not learned from their aggressive ways (and worse, claim the Endless are responsible for the hardships they faced redeveloping civilization). They are rigidly militaristic with status in society gained through glory from battle, though much of their aggression is now directed outwards to other races. Their governmental never progressed beyond a military junta, with occasional attempted coups, but only if it does not affect the overall integrity of their military strength.



Living and producing while underwater is not as efficient as on land, and it requires more work to transport anything produced into space for use. As such, any kind of good intended for space takes more production. They are generally not scientifically oriented, and as such should suffer a hit to tech research.



Affinity: (if this is possible) As an Aquatic race, any planet conquered by the Deepkin will have it's original population converted to slavery and housed on the dry land of the planet, while the majority of the deepkin colonize the oceans, causing a large (idk exactly how big) bonus to production on planets conquered. The flip-side of this is that producing ships designed to carry an aquatic species is more difficult so all self colonized planets (ie. without having conquered them) suffers from a deficit of production of ships (anything destined for space). The bonus through conquering should be enough to not only off-set, but give a greater than average production level.



Also, when enslavement through conquering takes place, the civilization that lost the planet should suffer a temporary hit to their approval (more so than usual, they enslaved your people!), but retaking it in a timely fashion gets them a temporary large boost to approval.



Visual: Very difficult to decide on one set appearance. Should be similar to many of the sea predators of our oceans, but also with some sort of arms/hands/tentacles (not entirely sure) for working with and developing tools/tech.



Traits:

Militarists: -30% cost of ships (-24)(to off-set what I previously said about production, the bonus should only be for military vessels, not other ones like colony ships or the like. Just couldn't not have this as a military civilization).

Big Fleets: +2 CP per fleet (-24)

Deadly weapons: +15% damage per weapon mod (-15)

Strong Alloys: +30% Ship HP (-20)

Scientists: -10% Tech (+8)

Merchants: -1 trade route per system (+3)(not everyone likes t do business with those who enslave others)

Optimistic: +10% approval (-6)(they like their chances at winning every fight)

(should have a surplus of 2 points from the original 80)

Nice work guys. Keep the entries going!

Well, here's my go at a faction



(please note that their origin point is not specifically set. Can be from the endless space galaxy aswell )



The Faction



Race: TimCORP



Background: Ancient starfarers from many other galaxies, they have been travelling space since humanity was in the cradle of birth. While humanity was in the industrial revolution, the TimCORP where unlocking many secret technologies while they where in the long war between them and an other faction, which they won over. Cruel, smart, and brutal, they won't be shy to use every means nessecary to decimate their opponents, but thos who are clever enough to for alliances with them will find that they gain more than they wanted, if they are of worth to the TimCORP.





Affinity: Quick Reactions: They react extremly quickly to anything they see as a threat or something that needs to be taken care of (Grants extra fleet speeds (including warp) when in a war with other factions)



Visual: Args! I don't have the sufficent skills to draw something nicley (I need an artist.)



Visual in words: They look like your ordinary human, expect for that they are slightly taller, and their genetic codes are different from humans. The genetic code difference is used by TimCORP biological weapons to identify a viable enemy host, which means that TimCORP biological weapons can be used on TimCORP planets, since the virus won't kill TimCORP pepole.



Traits:



Scientists: their technology gives them huge advantages. +30% in science per system. Cost: 45 points.

Businessmen: They gain +10% dust per starsystem. Cost: 15 points.

Militarists: Their need to test everything trice takes twice the amount of resources nessecary. Gives them also better ships.. +20% Industry cost for ship production. Cost: -8 points.

Strong Alloys: Their ships use special material for construction. Makes them incredibly durable. +30% max hp/ship. Cost: 20 points.

Diplomats: Grants them better understandings with other factions. +25% ai positive behavior.

-25% ai negative behavior. (With ai)

+25% dust per trade route with players.



Total points: 78.

reasonable? Nice?

EDIT: It appears that the old version of this faction has been mentioned in an above post by Steph'nie. I would like it if it were removed if that's ok since the new version alters it a bit and also makes some changes to reflect it better that the faction is suppose to exist in the Endless Space universe (like the OP demanded). Unless of course you like the original version better, in which case please tell me so I can decide which version I should go with!



This is a somewhat altered version of something I posted in another thread (which was later closed), changed to fit better inside the ES universe.



-----------------------------------------------------

Race Name: The Mechaspawn

Homeworld: Welaul.

Type: Organic/Cyborg.

Visual style: I can't draw, but I imagined them as being losely inspired by The Borg collective (Star Trek) and The Strogg (Quake franchise) in terms of visual design. If you don't know anything about either of those then here are some images via google (note that when I talk about inspiration I mean that only in terms of actual visual design):



Borg: fficial&channel=np&q=losely+inspired&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1680&bih=858&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=t2yYT5bOIuHm4QS08_HEBg#um=1&hl=is&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB%3Aofficial&channel=np&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=Borg&oq=Borg&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_nf=1&gs_l=img.3..0l10.5145.5625.0.5993.4.4.0.0.0.0.156.592.0j4.4.0.k8GzFIrmwZI&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=836d884aba3b9045&biw=1680&bih=858">https://www.google.is/search?hl=is&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GBfficial&channel=np&q=losely+inspired&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1680&bih=858&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=t2yYT5bOIuHm4QS08_HEBg#um=1&hl=is&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB%3Aofficial&channel=np&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=Borg&oq=Borg&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_nf=1&gs_l=img.3..0l10.5145.5625.0.5993.4.4.0.0.0.0.156.592.0j4.4.0.k8GzFIrmwZI&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=836d884aba3b9045&biw=1680&bih=858



Strogg: fficial&channel=np&q=losely+inspired&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1680&bih=858&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=t2yYT5bOIuHm4QS08_HEBg#um=1&hl=is&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB%3Aofficial&channel=np&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=Strogg&oq=Strogg&aq=f&aqi=g2g-S4g-sS1g-S1g-sS1g-S1&aql=&gs_nf=1&gs_l=img.3..0l2j0i24l4j0i10i24j0i24j0i10i24j0i24.96809.97689.2.97833.6.6.0.0.0.1.302.855.0j4j0j1.5.0.awSIacG2EUg&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=836d884aba3b9045&biw=1680&bih=858">https://www.google.is/search?hl=is&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GBfficial&channel=np&q=losely+inspired&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1680&bih=858&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=t2yYT5bOIuHm4QS08_HEBg#um=1&hl=is&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB%3Aofficial&channel=np&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=Strogg&oq=Strogg&aq=f&aqi=g2g-S4g-sS1g-S1g-sS1g-S1&aql=&gs_nf=1&gs_l=img.3..0l2j0i24l4j0i10i24j0i24j0i10i24j0i24.96809.97689.2.97833.6.6.0.0.0.1.302.855.0j4j0j1.5.0.awSIacG2EUg&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=836d884aba3b9045&biw=1680&bih=858



Description: Part cybernetic, part organic. Believed to have originally been a race of cyborg warriors created by The Endless a long time ago in the distant past to remove the need for conventional standing armies, the Mechaspawn are mindless, almost drone-like killing machines. Much of their history is shrouded in mystery, but a common theory is that after the Endless empire collapsed the Mechspawn were left without a master, and that without a master they were left without any purpose except for what they had been created for in the first place: War.



For vast amounts of time the Mechspawn did not leave their homeworld base of Welaul, but as other races began to rise in power throughout the galaxy the Mechspawn knew that once again they had a purpose. They were created for war, and now that other galactic civilizations existed once more they could at last have some more......



The Mechaspawn do not seem have anything resembling a normal society, instead the majority of their civilization is made up of industrial and military complexes that are centrally planned and controlled by a handful of hive minds that are responsible for "distributing thoughts" to the rest of the Mechaspawn population. In this manner, the Mechaspawn organize their entire society.



Yet in spite of this, some individual members of the Mechaspawn still appear able to maintain some independent though very simple thought. This rarely makes a difference in Mechaspawn society, but there are cases of certain high intelligence Mechaspawn ceasing control of other lesser Mechaspawn in an attempt to take control them self's in case they feel that the central hive minds are not managing the empire in a manner that they deem acceptable. This however is rare, and typically only happens during times where the hive minds have been unable to solve some form of huge problem for a considerable amount of time.



Since the sole purpose of the Mechspawn is to wage war they do not have any concern for morality, ethics, or the well being of any individual people or races other then their own.



Their massive focus on industry and military gives them large advantages over other races in terms of industry and weapons production, as well as the ability to maintain more people then would be considered normal on each planet to work in said complexes. However, their crude and barbaric nature coupled with their imperialistic ambitions means that they have no means, no desire, and no way of dealing with other races with anything but violence. As a result, they are locked in a endless war with all of civilization. A war which they don't seem to have any intentions of ending until they have either wiped out every other race or been wiped out them self's. To help them accomplish this horrible task, the Mechspawn have invested in a powerful technology known as "dust recycling" that allows them to extract resources out of defeated enemies and use to expand their own armies, allowing them to literally feed on war.



Their inability to engage in diplomacy also means that they have a somewhat harder time obtaining dust then other races through conventional means, and the crude nature of their society means that they are not as adapt as scientists as they are soldiers.



Affinity: Industrial exploitation.

Effects: Tax rate increasing from 50% to 100% will give 0+% to 100+% industry.

10+XP per constructed ship.



Traits:



Good:



Builders: -30% cost of improvements and infrastructure.

Militarists: -30% cost for ships.

Masters of destruction: -50% cost for weapon mods.

Crowded planets: +1 an extra pop cap for planets.

Big fleets: +2 CP per fleet.

Dust recyclers: +20 Dust per destroyed CP (allies and foes) if a battle is won.



Bad:



Eternal war: Always at war, no diplomacy.

Business men: -20% dust.

Scientists: -20% science.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I would love some feedback

I removed your previous submission. =)

Genius!

More and more, you give us.

Yoda faction, you must have.