Dev Journal #111 - Tales of the Terran Alliance: A Tale of Two Terrans

In the upcoming DLC, “Tales of the Terran Alliance”, we revisit the most popular (shocking) of the civilizations in the game, Humans.

First we need to remember our basic timeline:

Galactic Civilizations IV started in the year 2307. We are now moving to the year 2329.

And a lot has changed.

DL is older. The influx of so many civilizations has changed things dramatically. From a gameplay point of view, we are keeping “Universal Translator” as a tech. But in canon, not only is language no longer a barrier but the galaxy has adopted Uniscript.

A: ⟟ B: ⋏ C: ⌇ D: ⟊ E: ⟍ F: ⟌
G: ⟟̱ H: ⋕ I: ⟡ J: ⟦ K: ⟢ L: ⟤
M: ⌰ N: ⌲ O: ⌸ P: ⟞ Q: ⟟̇ R: ⋔
S: ⌁ T: ⌗ U: ⌂ V: ⟠ W: ⟜ X: ⌖

(that’s not a direct translation, just a simple version). Since the Universal translator is doing so much work now, the AI agents (all of the surviving civilizations already went through their own version of the AI singularity and avoided extinction and instead transformed AI into agents that help). As a result, you won’t see “English” (or German or Chinese) in official Terran Alliance uniforms and documents anymore but they remain pretty normal on Earth.

The change in time has also made it so that the Terran Alliance of 2329 has all new planetary improvements and a different tech tree. We are keeping the “classic” Terran Alliance not just for those who don’t buy the Tales of the Terran Alliance DLC of course but also for those that do so that they can compare and contrast. Young DL Bradley vs. Older DL Bradley.

The Setup

I have given the Terran Alliance (young DL Bradley) and the Terran Alliance (older DL Bradley) their own sectors that will each play out in a best of 5 to see how they do.

Now the DLC version (older DL Bradley) from the upcoming Tales of the Terran Alliance is quite different from the younger Terrans:

1. They have a completely different technology tree (it’s smaller but each tech means more)

2. They have a different governmental structure

3. They have a different weapon and defense tech series as well as different weapons and defenses

4. They have their own executive orders

5. They have a new set of planetary improvements

6. They have slightly different starship modules

The map setup will be two tiny sectors. This way, they each get their own unfettered start.

Terran vs. Terran

So old vs. new. How do they play differently? That is, after all the key question. Let’s take a look.

First Turn

On the first turn, we are still greeted with our home solar system. No real differences there.

But when choosing what to do on the first turn the differences begin.

The new Terran Alliance starts with the Global Data Center. It is a very different beast to the Computer Core that the classic Terran Alliance uses.

Earth’s research before is 2.2 RUs per turn.

But the Global Center Center, on it own, does not provide research. Instead, it increases the base technological infrastructure of Earth by 1.

I.e. It’s a Datacenter. It does no research on its own. It builds up the potential research by a full point. Plus another 0.10 point for each level it goes up. This means that your people’s scientific research has a much larger base to begin with. Building it only brings the research from 2.2 to 3.0. But it has a much greater long-term effect.

Similarly, the Terrans have the Manufacturing Nexus. Like the Data Center, it provides no direct bonus to manufacturing but rather builds out the manufacturing capability.

What all this means is that the Terran Alliance of 2329 starts out slightly slower but has much better potential. It also requires quite a bit more skill to play since placement will matter more to get the most out of it.

Now, let’s look at our technology choices.

One of the first things long-time players will notice is a new technology called Space Exploration. This seems innocent enough. But look what it provides.

Expert players will notice the new weapon components but they will also notice something called the Discovery Module. Let’s take a look:

This module lets the Terran Alliance build unlimited Flag Ships. These are ships that can investigate anomalies making the Terran Alliance have a major potential advantage. I say potential because look at the cost of it. 400 industrial units. To put that number in perspective, Earth, at the start of the game, can generate 4 IUs which means it would take 100 turns to get it. So not something you can get right away. On the other hand, the Discovery Module does far more than just let it survey anomalies. It also has formidable military capabilities including boosting hit points to 100 (a typical flag ship only has 50) and 4 armor meaning it can be a formidable military vessel.

In practical terms, the Terran Alliance of 2329 now sees these deep exploration ships as having a more dual purpose role.

Now, let’s take a big picture look at the tech tree of the new Terran Alliance.

Long time players will notice there are only technology branches: Civilian, Military and Innovation. The philosophy behind the new Terran tech tree is to concentrate the benefits. It has fewer technologies over all and they take longer to research but they do a lot more. Because the Terran Alliance now has a boom style economy, the turn estimates on the techs will no doubt look intimidating but as players see their economic might explode, they will find the pacing, I think, pretty refreshing.

Events

In addition, human players will quickly discover a lot of new lore related events. For example, Earth in 2329 is engaged in a life or death race to use its Hyperdrive technology to expand into the galaxy. “The Colony Rush” as it is called. And lots of people on Earth are unhappy about all the spending on this. There are many events that deal with this situation now. Some of which provide more short-term benefits such as new orbitals around Earth such as the Orbital Harvest Hub:

The backstory on this is that by 2329, a lot of humans are living in the asteroid fields between Mars and Jupiter but the process of getting the metals to Earth is expensive and inefficient. The Orbital Harvest Hub, while expensive, lets Earth get more of the mineral resources from the Asteroid field.

And through this, we see how Earth’s humble economy, in a short amount of time, nearly double:

Trade offs

Because Terran Alliance rewards experienced players for playing well, it does come with some drawbacks. Technologies generally don’t provide free ships. For instance, Asteroid Mining for this version of the Terran Alliance doesn’t give the player free Asteroid miners. Starbase technologies don’t give out free Constructors and so forth.

Stargates

One piece of lore that long time players know about but isn’t generally known is how Hyperdrive came about in the first place.

Back in the 22nd century, observatories noticed a large structure entering our solar system at near relativistic speeds. It slowed down and parked itself around Jupiter. It turned out to be an Arcean Stargate. In the age before Hyperdrive, ships used Stargates to travel great distances at greater than light speed. They required stargates to be on both ends which meant dragging a stargate to the destination at sub light speeds.

The Arceans brought one to Earth’s solar system and this is where first contact came in. What were their intentions? We’ll never know because Earth Space Command (as it was called then) took possession of it before it became operational. The Arceans would claim it was to be a gift to allow peaceful relations between the two “proud” people. However, it should be noted that the Drengin Empire subdued and enslaved the Torians by towing a stargate to their home solar system eons before.

One of the more frequent new events is the realization that these stargates, besides being inferior to Hyperdrive (much slower, and with fixed points) relied on scavenging Precursor technology. During this period, Hyperlanes were not discovered, let alone understood but the devices that made them possible were not invisible. The Drengin and Arceans, when they found these devices, not knowing what they were, disassembled them and used them as the heart of their stargates. This is why there are so few hyperlanes and none around any home star system – they were scavenged by other civilizations long ago without knowing what they were.

However, the stargate that was towed to Earth remained largely intact for study and as a result, the hyperlane core can now be used. Of course, it can also be used for a lot of exotic resources, but one option is to use it to create a hyperlane between Earth and an inactive hyperlane generator somewhere out there in the sector.

Hyperlanes work with Hyperdrive resulting in a 5X speed increase of ships traveling on them.

Now, let’s fast forward a bit and see how the Terran Alliance (classic edition) does versus the reimagined Terran Alliance of 2319.

The year 2342

Now each civilization was given its own sector. There is a subtle map color difference between the two with the new Terran Alliance being a bit more blue.

Both are pretty close in power. In fact, if we look at the graphs, we can confirm that the Terran Alliance of 2329 starts out a bit behind before catching up and now has a slight edge.

Earth in 2342 looks like this:

What you will notice is that the new Terrans rely much more on districts. The unique improvements are designed to be hubs.

So for example, the new Gravity Labratory picks up an 80% research boost by being placed adjacent to the Datacenter and other such hubs.

Game 1: Conclusion

So with the AI playing both sides, not surprisingly the classic Terrans won. That is because the new Terran Alliance isn’t universally better, it simply requires more skill than the AI has. This of course creates the incentive to improve the AI further.

As you can see, it was still a near thing.

Let’s do 2 out of 3.

At this point you are probably seeing the pattern. The classic Terran Alliance, which is still going to be the default civilization, is fairly easy to play. It’s very forgiving. The Terran Alliance of 2319 has more potential but requires a bit finer control. This is also one of the reasons why we kept the number of improvements and technologies to a minimum because each of them matters so much more.

Let me give you an example:

The new Inspire Population Executive Order. Players get it immediately. But do you use it? Depends. It has a 120 turn cooldown and it costs 70 Control which will wipe out most of your control at the start. I only use it if I don’t have any yellow stars near my home world since using it.

But if you do use it, it gives you a really big boost both in research and ship production, especially early on.

Another small difference is that the Terran Allliance of 2329 has the ability to train scientists from the start:

Another area that rewards the experienced player: Starbase modules:

The new Terran Alliance has its own set of Starbase modules that are somewhat stronger than what the classic Terrans have. But most players don’t build enough starbases.

I will admit, I had an ulterior motive in improving the Terran Alliance potential in this way: It allows us to see where the AI can be improved. Because we know that the new Terrans have greater potential, when they lose against the old Terrans we know it’s because the AI isn’t playing as intelligently as it could. Hence, it gives us areas we can improve.

Now, how did it do for Game 2?

Victory for the new Terran Alliance. So our series is tied at 1 to 1.

So now the final game. Going out to turn 180 things look like this:

Each Terran Alliance is doing pretty well in their own sector. They are neck and neck in the power chart. It could go either way.

Earth 1:

vs.

Earth 2.

Earth 1, home of the new Terran Alliance has far fewer improvements available. Each one is critical. But as you can see, Earth 1 is substantially better performing than Earth 2. The new Terran Alliance’s home world may start out slower but it picks up.

But in the end:

The classic Terrans win the series. And this was the goal. As a human player, I have no problem winning with bigger margins with the new Terran Alliance. For experienced players, the new Terrans have more potential while the classic Terrans remain a good, new player friendly civilization to start with. What do you think? Do you like that the new Terrans have more nuance or would you have preferred them to be just overwhelmingly better than the classic ones? I’ll be reading your comments. Thanks!