This is my attempt after being critical of what I've seen of the Interstellar Initiative program to put my money where my mouth is 
This is what I'd love to see happen, short, punchy and hopefully exciting. Warning! Long post. Its not a complete plan, but it gives a good idea of what could be done using the features already in game.
Rolling Thunder
Background:
An AEGIS deep space research vessel on the edge of the Galaxy has broken contact while conducting secret research critical to humanity's fight with the Thargoids.
AEGIS needs to find out its status and if needed recover the ship or its data core. In response three chartered megaships are hastily dispatched to uncover its fate. A fourth exploration vessel will be sent if the mission requires it; however the vessel is not ready for travel.
It is understood from deep space probes a massive Thargoid presence is converging on the science vessels postion, and AEGIS must get there first before it is too late.
While these megaships can jump ultra-long distances, the exit points have to remain obscured to prevent the main Thargoid fleet from discovering the carrier group and its intention. Thus, the plan is to drop into six locations before the goal and remain hidden while the ships ready for the next jump.
Setup:
Three megaships jump each tick and occupy an individual signal source in system. Players take the role of convoy escorts in the Interstellar Initiative. They must attack Thargoids, act as salvage crew, scout and explore. This is a high risk Interstellar Initiative, as you are far from the bubble. You will have no backup, and the ship you take has to last the week in the unknown. If you are not on a megaship when it jumps you are left behind far from home.
The systems the megaships drop into would mix the new content (Lagrange clouds etc) with the familiar (megaships) and the Thargoids in combinations never yet seen.
Each cycle tick the megaship group jump further and further away from civilization to the objective, making for an interesting explorer / scavenger / combat hybrid since the megaships are refuel / repair restock / platforms only.
Note: each megaship has a role, one megaship is a refueling platform, one is a weapons supply platform and one other is a repair carrier. These vessels were hastily chartered at short notice, and are not fully combat capable. This injects some strategy into what ship to protect first because if one is destroyed that ability for the escort fleet is lost for the remaining Interstellar Initiative.
Depending on circumstances (if for example the repair platform was destroyed), you might need to scavenge mats to keep going inbetween.
The whole Interstellar Initiative scenario plays out over 7 days max, with 7 stops in various systems (the last being the objective).
To win the scenario, the data on the research vessel needs to be recovered and taken to the rendezvous point (see later).
The scenario fails if all megaships are lost.
Destroyed megaships are marked with a permanent debris cloud.
Rewards:
Each day complete has a 200 million reward. If the whole Interstellar Initiative ends in victory, each commander has all Guardian technology unlocked and is awarded a full quantity of all guardian materials.
The 'Core' Combat CG
Each of the three megaships has (to begin with) a one tier CG that resets each day. It 'simulates' the associated megaships health by protecting it from Thargoids attack. To win this CG each day you need to hunt and destroy Thargoids in the system currently occupied. If at the end of the day the CG is not won, that megaship is considered destroyed. If a ship is destroyed, two tiers are added to the other ships to simulate the Thargoids focussing on fewer targets. If one ship is left, the last ships defence requires 7 tiers to complete.
--------
Random attention grabbers using social media:
Players must keep an eye on Twitter and the forums for a scramble alert to repel Thargoid attacks. Those enrolled to the Interstellar Initiative get an in game message detailing who is getting attacked and who is at risk.
If a base megaship is destroyed, this is relayed via galactic (server) message to all commanders.
The narrative lore would be delivered initially via Galnet, with each days progress as a Galnet summary. To players taking part, each days orders would be relayed via the CG descriptions. Victory or defeat (and its ramifications) would be relayed via a longer Galnet story.
Since this is a secret operation, 'official' Galnet stories would be written to obscure the true purpose of the mission. For example, "massive Thargoid presence" for players taking part would be reported to the galaxy as "light resistance", as not to alarm the public.
Narrative based situations:
If players get curious, in each location you can find AEGIS ship wreckage that can be scanned to give some insight into what the mission is about. This wreckage is hidden, or is on a planets surface. It will give hints, text logs etc to sow doubt that you are being told the whole truth about what AEGIS are up to. Are the players being used? Would it be better to let the Thargoids destroy the science vessel?
--------
Abandon Ship (if one Protection CG fails)
One ship becomes disabled and the massive Thargoid force is catching up. With no time for repairs the stricken ships crew and cargo need to be saved before the rest of the megaships jump away. Real time Thargoid attacks complicate matters as players hack damaged and unresponsive cargo holds to get cargo and rescue survivors.
This phase would be one CG over one day:
CG 1 (with 1 appropriately sized tier): transfer cargo and lifepods- its a pure race to the tick (and the remaining megaships jumping away). Can the escorts salvage the cargo in time? If they do, the event is won.
---------
Bait and Switch
After a jump miscalculation, one megaship jumps inside a planetary ring, badly damaging it. Players have to repair the hull on this ship or help draw away the Thargoids, as well as mine metals for repairs.
The functional megaships will jump unless this vessel is repaired. If this happens the damaged vessel is lost.
To simulate the Thargoids focusing on the other ships, the combat tiers are doubled for this days combat CG.
---------
Hidden
The fleet admiral orders the second to last jump (day 6) to drop inside a Lagrange cloud to prevent detection by a massive group of Thargoid Interceptors nearby.
CG 1: Players must hunt and destroy Thargoid signal sources to prevent them discovering the fleet. Victory means reaching a specified Tier and that you remain undetected. If you fail this CG the Thargoids will be much stronger in the final day.
Complication: the cloud prevents all non human signal sources showing threat ratings. Each one is unknown and could range from mild to lethal.
Inside a Lagrange cloud would be very atmospheric fighting Thargoids while dodging lightning.
--------
Journeys End:
The megaship fleet reaches the science vessel, finding it stationed near an inert Guardian space instillation. All the crew are dead, the ship having vented its atmosphere in an apparent 'technical malfunction'. This in game is represented by a megaship surrounded by clouds of floating cargo and damaged escape pods. Its drives are inoperable, and with little time to bring them back online the Admiral orders the science ship stripped and scuttled. However, the science vessels defences become hostile to human ships, and salvage teams have to fight the defences as they work.
Here the CG tiers are set based on how well (or poorly) the previous days went.
CG 1: Defend- players must defeat the advancing Thargoid forces and protect the surviving vessels while the recovery operation happens. The scene is an AX CZ around the Guardian Instillation, with the megaship(s) nearby in their own signal sources who are also under attack. This Tier is set by day 6's outcome.
CG 2: Recovery- data points need to be scanned on the science vessel, cargo recovered and bodies collected while defeating the rogue ship. Materials are delivered to any surviving megaships. If the tier is met, the scenario is won.
If all victory conditions are met, all participating commanders are ordered (via a direct message) to rendezvous at a nearby rally point for extraction via the fourth megaship which has just caught up. Once a player docks with the megaship and the tick occurs, the Interstellar Initiative is over. The megaship appears back near the bubble and the participants can disembark.
Once the scientific data is recovered the science ship is abandoned to be destroyed by the Thargoids. The remaining megaships all jump away to secret locations.
The salvaged scientific research suggests the Guardian Instillation was the last relay used by the Guardian AI (termed Constructs- entities that eons before defeated the Thargoids) before they vanished. Fearing humans would unleash the Guardian AI once more, the science vessels proximity forced the Thargoids into sending an attack to wipe out any possible trace of the Constructs uncovered by the ship.
No official explanation is given as to why the science vessel killed its crew and became hostile.
Depending on how well each day went, the stories end would be different. You could wind up with several versions of the 'truth'.
This is what I'd love to see happen, short, punchy and hopefully exciting. Warning! Long post. Its not a complete plan, but it gives a good idea of what could be done using the features already in game.Rolling Thunder
Background:
An AEGIS deep space research vessel on the edge of the Galaxy has broken contact while conducting secret research critical to humanity's fight with the Thargoids.
AEGIS needs to find out its status and if needed recover the ship or its data core. In response three chartered megaships are hastily dispatched to uncover its fate. A fourth exploration vessel will be sent if the mission requires it; however the vessel is not ready for travel.
It is understood from deep space probes a massive Thargoid presence is converging on the science vessels postion, and AEGIS must get there first before it is too late.
While these megaships can jump ultra-long distances, the exit points have to remain obscured to prevent the main Thargoid fleet from discovering the carrier group and its intention. Thus, the plan is to drop into six locations before the goal and remain hidden while the ships ready for the next jump.
Setup:
Three megaships jump each tick and occupy an individual signal source in system. Players take the role of convoy escorts in the Interstellar Initiative. They must attack Thargoids, act as salvage crew, scout and explore. This is a high risk Interstellar Initiative, as you are far from the bubble. You will have no backup, and the ship you take has to last the week in the unknown. If you are not on a megaship when it jumps you are left behind far from home.
The systems the megaships drop into would mix the new content (Lagrange clouds etc) with the familiar (megaships) and the Thargoids in combinations never yet seen.
Each cycle tick the megaship group jump further and further away from civilization to the objective, making for an interesting explorer / scavenger / combat hybrid since the megaships are refuel / repair restock / platforms only.
Note: each megaship has a role, one megaship is a refueling platform, one is a weapons supply platform and one other is a repair carrier. These vessels were hastily chartered at short notice, and are not fully combat capable. This injects some strategy into what ship to protect first because if one is destroyed that ability for the escort fleet is lost for the remaining Interstellar Initiative.
Depending on circumstances (if for example the repair platform was destroyed), you might need to scavenge mats to keep going inbetween.
The whole Interstellar Initiative scenario plays out over 7 days max, with 7 stops in various systems (the last being the objective).
To win the scenario, the data on the research vessel needs to be recovered and taken to the rendezvous point (see later).
The scenario fails if all megaships are lost.
Destroyed megaships are marked with a permanent debris cloud.
Rewards:
Each day complete has a 200 million reward. If the whole Interstellar Initiative ends in victory, each commander has all Guardian technology unlocked and is awarded a full quantity of all guardian materials.
The 'Core' Combat CG
Each of the three megaships has (to begin with) a one tier CG that resets each day. It 'simulates' the associated megaships health by protecting it from Thargoids attack. To win this CG each day you need to hunt and destroy Thargoids in the system currently occupied. If at the end of the day the CG is not won, that megaship is considered destroyed. If a ship is destroyed, two tiers are added to the other ships to simulate the Thargoids focussing on fewer targets. If one ship is left, the last ships defence requires 7 tiers to complete.
--------
Random attention grabbers using social media:
Players must keep an eye on Twitter and the forums for a scramble alert to repel Thargoid attacks. Those enrolled to the Interstellar Initiative get an in game message detailing who is getting attacked and who is at risk.
If a base megaship is destroyed, this is relayed via galactic (server) message to all commanders.
The narrative lore would be delivered initially via Galnet, with each days progress as a Galnet summary. To players taking part, each days orders would be relayed via the CG descriptions. Victory or defeat (and its ramifications) would be relayed via a longer Galnet story.
Since this is a secret operation, 'official' Galnet stories would be written to obscure the true purpose of the mission. For example, "massive Thargoid presence" for players taking part would be reported to the galaxy as "light resistance", as not to alarm the public.
Narrative based situations:
If players get curious, in each location you can find AEGIS ship wreckage that can be scanned to give some insight into what the mission is about. This wreckage is hidden, or is on a planets surface. It will give hints, text logs etc to sow doubt that you are being told the whole truth about what AEGIS are up to. Are the players being used? Would it be better to let the Thargoids destroy the science vessel?
--------
Abandon Ship (if one Protection CG fails)
One ship becomes disabled and the massive Thargoid force is catching up. With no time for repairs the stricken ships crew and cargo need to be saved before the rest of the megaships jump away. Real time Thargoid attacks complicate matters as players hack damaged and unresponsive cargo holds to get cargo and rescue survivors.
This phase would be one CG over one day:
CG 1 (with 1 appropriately sized tier): transfer cargo and lifepods- its a pure race to the tick (and the remaining megaships jumping away). Can the escorts salvage the cargo in time? If they do, the event is won.
---------
Bait and Switch
After a jump miscalculation, one megaship jumps inside a planetary ring, badly damaging it. Players have to repair the hull on this ship or help draw away the Thargoids, as well as mine metals for repairs.
The functional megaships will jump unless this vessel is repaired. If this happens the damaged vessel is lost.
To simulate the Thargoids focusing on the other ships, the combat tiers are doubled for this days combat CG.
---------
Hidden
The fleet admiral orders the second to last jump (day 6) to drop inside a Lagrange cloud to prevent detection by a massive group of Thargoid Interceptors nearby.
CG 1: Players must hunt and destroy Thargoid signal sources to prevent them discovering the fleet. Victory means reaching a specified Tier and that you remain undetected. If you fail this CG the Thargoids will be much stronger in the final day.
Complication: the cloud prevents all non human signal sources showing threat ratings. Each one is unknown and could range from mild to lethal.
Inside a Lagrange cloud would be very atmospheric fighting Thargoids while dodging lightning.
--------
Journeys End:
The megaship fleet reaches the science vessel, finding it stationed near an inert Guardian space instillation. All the crew are dead, the ship having vented its atmosphere in an apparent 'technical malfunction'. This in game is represented by a megaship surrounded by clouds of floating cargo and damaged escape pods. Its drives are inoperable, and with little time to bring them back online the Admiral orders the science ship stripped and scuttled. However, the science vessels defences become hostile to human ships, and salvage teams have to fight the defences as they work.
Here the CG tiers are set based on how well (or poorly) the previous days went.
CG 1: Defend- players must defeat the advancing Thargoid forces and protect the surviving vessels while the recovery operation happens. The scene is an AX CZ around the Guardian Instillation, with the megaship(s) nearby in their own signal sources who are also under attack. This Tier is set by day 6's outcome.
CG 2: Recovery- data points need to be scanned on the science vessel, cargo recovered and bodies collected while defeating the rogue ship. Materials are delivered to any surviving megaships. If the tier is met, the scenario is won.
If all victory conditions are met, all participating commanders are ordered (via a direct message) to rendezvous at a nearby rally point for extraction via the fourth megaship which has just caught up. Once a player docks with the megaship and the tick occurs, the Interstellar Initiative is over. The megaship appears back near the bubble and the participants can disembark.
Once the scientific data is recovered the science ship is abandoned to be destroyed by the Thargoids. The remaining megaships all jump away to secret locations.
The salvaged scientific research suggests the Guardian Instillation was the last relay used by the Guardian AI (termed Constructs- entities that eons before defeated the Thargoids) before they vanished. Fearing humans would unleash the Guardian AI once more, the science vessels proximity forced the Thargoids into sending an attack to wipe out any possible trace of the Constructs uncovered by the ship.
No official explanation is given as to why the science vessel killed its crew and became hostile.
Depending on how well each day went, the stories end would be different. You could wind up with several versions of the 'truth'.
Last edited:
