No epic of science fiction is complete without ancient lore describing the history which entailed the interstellar empires as they are recognized in the present setting. Will Infinity: The Quest for Earth feature any depth of ancient lore? It should 
Eventually 
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There used to be a rather robust framework of the lore, but we donāt know, and the INovae guys arenāt giving out details on what may or may not be changing.
For Battlescape, anyway, I donāt think anything except for the recent history of the scions is necessary. In fact, less may be more as far as lore goes for Battlescape. Maybe drop some hints, but leave people speculating.
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Agreed.
Iām thinking perhaps a bit of a teaser on loading screens detailing recent history. (concept art with a description of a past event?) Especially so if the Battlescape is built into different warring factions - background on what lead down to conflict would be excellent.
Other such things like ship design and style will already be there (looking at all the art design specifications) - subtly hinting at personalities and battle tactics of the different factions.
Regarding Infinity - yeah Iām assuming so. Lore and a rough-storyline is one of the more vital things that can make any kind of quest - or non-player event interesting if executed correctly.
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When the old forum shut down, I was seriously considering writing a series of short stories about the Deltan-SFC independence war. This part of the lore had potential for an epic tale. As there were several versions of the timeline IIRC, and I was envisioning going with the full century-long war ; my working title was an unoriginal but good-sounding āThe endless warā.
There was potential for so much : two morally gray factions, the militaristic, despotic Deltans, who have a claim to maintain order and not let anyone self-proclaim independence as soon as they get a bit richer ; the corrupt, anarchic SFC who have a claim for freedom, self-governance and not pay for a distant military dictatorship.
A war that could have been avoided. Tensions rise, many sides try to steer the conflict according to their interests. In the end, nasty āpolice incidentsā and bloody terror attacks against civilians in Deltan home worlds seal the fate of the conflict.
A war that everyone imagine will be short. Of course the mighty Deltan armies will crush the rebellion. Of course the vast insurrection will wipe the occupant out. Then it draws longer and longer. More and more civilians are targeted, rules of wars are less and less followed. Terror attacks continue, justifying more and more repression on Deltan side.
Before you know it, a new generation grew knowing only this war. Entire societies have adapted to it, often for the worse. Everyone is tired of it, with no end in sight.
There can be tales of heroism, infamy and how soldiers and civilians cope with an endless, all-consuming war.
But Deltan and SFC are the only one concerned. Centaurans observe the conflict with wariness. With contraband, mercenary works and piracy from SFC, their security forces face more and more powerful crime groups. More and more of their population, directly or indirectly affected by the war, are threatened to step away from the Harmony.
Some are talking about directly intervening to end this destructive war. Others begin to fear that whoever the winner is, their war machine will be so developed and accustomed to war than they will threaten the Centauran directly. Thus, they begin to build their own warmachine, powerful enough to beat whoever will end up winning, if not both at the same time.
In the end begins a race against time and many other interests for those who want peace on the three sides.
Deltan progressists are trying to put an end to war, but industrial groups want war to continue and military hardliners want to crush the SFC once and for all - and maybe the Centaurans if they dare acting.
SFC moderates want an end to war and build a stable nation, but hardliners want to āliberateā the rest of the galaxy, and armed groups, from criminals to warlords and industry princes, want to continue ruling by the force of weapons.
Centauran operatives want to end the war before one of the side falls for good, or both become too weakened, and their own military hardliners invade the rest of the galaxy, and breaking the spirit of Harmony in the name of its letter.
(You may guess by reading the above that Legend of Galactic Heroes is my #1 SF story, all media included - and should be yours)
And this was just one part of the old timeline.
tl;dr : Infinityās background had immense potential, it would be a shame to not use it at some point.
Edit : typo
For BattleScape, we will have minimal backstory about the factions, and thatās about it. We donāt plan to bring on a writer for I:B specifically, certainly not before the crowd funding campaign. We do have a lot of backstory material, but we feel for an arena shooter, we donāt want to tie ourselves to a rigid and/or elaborate backstory at this point in time. If I:B does well and we have the opportunity to develop the MMO, then yes, we would get more serious about an in-depth backstory.
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Thatās the way Iād do it. Just enough background to get the sense that thereās history there, without actually telling the story of that history. All we need to know is that this is a war between siblings, that the parents are long dead, and a reason for the conflict. Everything else is gravy.
@ThornEel If you ever get the itch to write those short stories, I knew a website thatād be happy to host them. Cough
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Knew? Is there no such website now?
Itās currently undergoing some upkeep. By which I mean, itās been largely forgotten under the weight of thesising. Wait for the Kickstarterā¦
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Itād be cool to see some concept work demoing alien civilizationsā symbolic and aesthetic respects expressed of their most remarkable history. Think of sports mascots and military codenames. This includes memorable subjects of alien factionsā history being painted on their shipsā hulls ā like humansā having a Spartan helmet decaled on some of their particular things ā or some of their most impressive ships being named after their own historical trademarks
By the way, humanoid aliens are lame.
We do not plan on any intelligent aliens in the Infinity Universe, humans only.
So, is Earth the homeworld of all factions?
Oh wait. āThe Quest for Earthā
Interestingā¦ I still donāt understand what that premise is about.
Hereās the Colesā Notes version:
The progenitor civilization for all 3 factions in the game lived many hundreds/thousands of years ago (depending on which version of the timeline you followed). They were the from a planet named Geodesa, which orbited a star named Delta. The Geodesans were an ancient race, believed to have sprung up from the soil of Geodesa itself. In their myths and legends, they spoke of a great land in the heavens called Earth.
The Geodesans were a doomed civilization, however. Shortly after they discovered the means of fast interplanetary travel they learned that Delta had become unstable. Eventually they realized that the star was going to go supernova, and they undertook a great planetwide endeavour: The construction of an arkship. This arkship was to seek out a habitable world among the stars, and save the Geodesan people. After the arkship launched, communications were severed, and the ship was lost. In the meantime, the Geodesan interplanetary drives became powerful enough to allow for slow but reasonable interstellar travel. As Deltanās demise neared, the people of Geodesa who had access to ships abandoned the world and attempted to follow the arkshipās last known heading.
After many years/decades of travel, the ragtag fleet of ships came across a new home, and settled the great Deltan Empire, centred on the New Delta star system. It expanded to encompass dozens, even hundreds of star systems. Eventually, the richer frontier colonies became tired of being exploited by the people of the central worlds and revolted. They eventually won their freedom, and formed a new space nation formed from a confederation of quasi-independent star systems. They named themselves the Star Fold Confederacy. The remnants of the Deltan Empire reincorporate as the militaristic but ādemocraticā Deltan Federation.
While all of this is going on, Deltan scouts make contact with representatives from the Centaurans. The Centaurans, it turns out, are the descendents of those who left Geodesa on the lost arkship. The ship ended up going off course for some reason, and eventually came to settle on a planet they named Atma. Theyāre a non-representative democratic theocracy, with a religion that heavily emphasizes balance and order, and are the closest thing the game has to an āalienā race.
Everyone is questing to find Earth, as per the MMO opening chapter title, because the entire human race has become sterile, and no oneās sure why. After throwing the best medical science and quackery had to offer at the problem, the people are now desperate, and are attempting to play Hienrich Schliemann by digging through ancient fairy tales for any kind of hope. One of those tales is that of Earth, the Geodesan land in the heavens. As a civilization that itself lives in the heavens, some have suggested that āEarthā refers to a planet - a potential ancient homeworld of humanity that predates Geodesa. If there are people there, maybe they can help them solve their fertility problems.
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Thatās strange, I was pretty sure that the Earth was the legendary planet of origin from Geodesian myths Ć la BSG (though probably not taken too seriously by most Geodesian scientists), not just a land in heaven.
Also, IIRC, the timeline said that some anonymous - but taken surprisingly seriously - intel revealed that the cure was on Earth, which is why the Quest for the Earth is suddenly so important.
And wasnāt New Delta the name of the Centauran home system (Atma being the planet)? I remember finding it confusing at some point.
Another interesting point is that IA said somewhere in the old forum he knows well that a star donāt just turn supernova like that, so the cause may well be artificial. As the supernova itself was supposed to happen far, far after Geodesia itself became uninhabitable due to Delta turning into a red giant first, it may still be out there, covered by ruins and deserts. (I definitely intend to check the system out in the MMO.)
That would also make for a good short story, now that I think about it, the logs of the last survivors, as they fade away in the outer system.
Things got shuffled up a fair bit in the writing of the new time line, and when that project was abandoned we in the peanut gallery were left with no clear indication as to whatās going to stick and whatās going to get dropped. But as of my last notes (which are now ancient themselves) everything there is more or less accurate (within creative license).
Weāre already seeing hints in the latest art blog that these details are on the change, so I wouldnāt worry too much about them.
Itās more than that: Delta was not a massive enough star to so supernova. Period. IA is aware of this, and he only ever winks at you if you have the wherewithal to bring it up. The fact that it did go supernova tells us that something sinister is at play. The fact that no mention of Geodesan scientists being confused by this startling fact calls into question the integrity of the history that has been passed down to usā¦
Iāve got a copy of the timeline .pdf from before the old forum went down squirreled away on my computer somewhere, I could post it. Assuming that thatās okay, of course.
You can do that if you guys want to discuss it. However, all you really need to know at this point in time is that the factions are at odds, to what degree, we donāt know yet. Considering the min crowd funding amount will be SFC assets only, it will ofc be internal strife. As I have said before, if we have the opportunity to make the MMO, we would get serious about the Infinity backstory, and that could mean a professional writer who decides to throw out all the old materials and start over. I am not saying that will happen, but itās a possibility. So, discussing the old materials could be a futile effort on your part. However, donāt let me stop you if that is your desire 
Oh, okay. Cool. I only mentioned because it seemed relevant to the last couple posts.
Here it is in case anyone DOES want to reference it:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B52PEOj59oqnR2QxZEYyY0l3RTA/edit
The colors are a little wonky for some reason, but it seems like itās all there.
āThe Quest for Earthā canāt be an easy thing to figure out. There needs to be different versions. What one is correct? None I hope. Bits and pieces here and there. Parts but no directions. Fables to tell the kids at night.
" Considering the min crowd funding amount will be SFC assets only"
INovaeGene
Developer/Artist
Ok then I can just have fun with it.
When I was growing up I was told it was a wizard portal that took good kids to Earth