Flavor Text/Lore in-game

[LaughingThesaurus]

What if there were more?
Speaking about Valley 2, that made me want a bit more in terms of backstory for certain things within AI War. One of the big things being the AI types (how did one human army expect to win with the Turtle AI?), as well as possibly differently colored text to add a bit more flavor to each ship. The problem with some of this stuff is that there's already a bit too much to look at in the ship descriptions, there are bigger things for Keith to be focusing on, but this could even just be a community effort, run by the devs to make sure it makes sense. For instance...

Turtle: The Turtle AI was devised by human minds in an attempt to starve out the enemy, force an impatient attack, and retaliate with devastating counterattacks when poorly planned attacks fail.
or..
The Core: The Core is an AI that the assorted other AIs assembled. This AI has the most advanced manufacturing facilities and most advanced tech, as it is the peak of the AI's very own knowledge. Engage with caution.
or...
Zenith Beam Frigate: The Beam Frigate was designed to take advantage of clever Zenith marksmanship skills-- those that were skilled enough could line up devastating shots on even the most scattered of formations.
or...
Scorched Earth: Devised by humans with nothing to lose, this AI was built to ensure that both sides lost using controversial, massive nuclear payloads if ever the army under its command lost control of a planet.

Nothing too major, but just little interesting tidbits or trivia to make the world feel a bit more like a world. Ancient Shadows did a fantastic job with the nebula missions, and the Fallen Spire campaign is pretty neat as well, but I'm just a big fan of these kinds of details. There are scattered tidbits here and there, such as the particular repair beam the repair frigate uses, but I just feel like there could be a bit more, somewhere. Maybe on the wiki, maybe just on the 'start new campaign' menu when you're checking out bonus ship on each given planet. Anything like this would be in addition to what is already there.
Thoughts? I don't think it'd hurt to play with some more flavor text, unless it just outright got obtrusive... and if a waste of resources is the problem, we can always just harvest more metal and crystal-- erm, outsource it to the more knowledgeable of the community members.

I'm always very concerned about putting forth ideas because I'm so certain somebody's going to come along and say it's dumb or insensitive.

[doctorfrog]

I'd like to take this and run a bit: I tend to think of the AI as being self-aware and personally evolved, so its end tactics and strategies depend more on personal experience rather than what it was initially programmed to be.

So, the question I would ask is, "What experience did this AI have that made it decide to adopt the strategy of a Turtle?"

[Aeson]

I personally tend to think that the human factions each had multiple AIs of varying types, and that over time (both before and after the AI rebellion) the AIs evolved to create the forms we can fight in the game. That we can only fight two AI types in each game indicates to me that either the other AI types are not in the part of the galaxy where the player-controlled human resistance faction is, or that they are off fighting the Imperial Spire, or more unlikely that they were destroyed or subsumed by the AIs we fight in the game

For instance, the Turtle AI (and other non-attacking AIs) I view as having either evolved from or been a defense controller during the civil war, while the Mad Bomber AI is an example of an AI which had been developed to control the attacking fleets. Over time, the Turtle AI evolved to get occasional massive offensives (CPAs), while the Mad Bomber realized that it needed to have some kind of defense for its worlds.

As evidence for either the theory of multiple AIs for each human faction in the civil war or the theory of AI evolution to its present state, I present the Support Corps. Fighting a purely defensive war intended to make the other side lose so much that the war ends because the cost was too high (strategy for any Turtle-style AI) is a strategy that has been used in the past, as has fighting defensively to break an enemy's armies (fleets, in this case) before launching your own offensive. Developing an AI whose only real purpose is providing specialist support units for attacks made by other AIs isn't useful unless you have another AI for the Support Corps to support, and on top of that the Support Corps is only average in its defensive capability.

[keith.lamothe]

The lore has gradually developed over the course of time, and the flavor text (explanations of which race made which kind of beam weapon, etc) tends to grow alongside it.  I try to avoid dumping a lot of additional lore in without a specific narrative focus because that could trip me up later when I discover I need some more flexibility (not that I'm above retconning, and iirc a lot of the stuff I've written flies in the face of some of the official copy on promotional materials).

FWIW, there's more in-work, but it's still very early yet so not certain it's going to see the light of day

[LaughingThesaurus]

I always thought that the two sides of the war both had their own primary AI designed to handle big decisions, and that there was some leeway in manned vessels... and as the civil war went on, so many died (have you SEEN the scale of AI War) that they more or less had to set up drone ships... and that's the point where the AI went haywire and took over... because then they had direct control over the entire military (whoops). After thinking about possible descriptions I would add, I actually did give Support Corps thought. Perhaps, the Support Corps AI had allies elsewhere in the galaxy. Not as familiar with the lore as I should be, but maybe a splinter of the zenith or spire, or another human faction. So, in a way, it was sort of a two-on-one fight with the individuals of the two being weaker but working together. So, that'd be kind of your underdog tactical alliance.

And then, the two AIs make friends (because they were unable to before) and go blow up the people that essentially had enslaved it.

Anyway, in the end, I guess Keith answered the question; Adding the flavor text would end up tightening up the lore to the point that he can't do as much with it. I might try to learn how to play with the language files at some point, alas if I but only had the time. Then, we'd have an AI War mod about adding a little more flavor or clarity to ship descriptions. That'd be lots of fun for me.