Poll: First Expansion Name (Answer: The Zenith Remnant)

[dumpsterKEEPER]

I like Zinth Remnant as well. Along that same lines, I was thinking of something like The Zinth Migration or The Zinth Exodus. I think these types of names are interesting as they raise obvious questions as to why the Zinth are returning after being absent for so long. It seems like that would provide a lot of suggested back story, even if it's never explicitly spelled out.

[x4000]

Good ideas.  I've updated the poll listing again.

[Wacky Willy]

Well the backstory I always saw for the game is that the AI were in the midst of wiping out humanity until they ran into a bigger threat during their ongoing exogalactic expansion that required them to relocate the vast majority of their forces there.  Humanity then uses this brief window of opportunity to strike at the AI's achilles heel.  The more of a threat the human resistance makes itself out to be, the more forces the AI pulls from its battle outside the galaxy.

It could be that the AI is battling the Zinth and that war is giving humanity its chance.  The AI has managed to reverse-engineer a few Zinth technologies and humanity manages to steal that tech from the AI using its research stations.  Maybe even consider renaming "research stations" as "spy platforms," since it makes more sense for knowledge to be planet-based if in fact the stations are stealing bits of AI tech left behind on these planets for reverse-engineering.

[ldlework]

Here are just some toss out suggestions based on the discussions here:

AI Wars: The Zinith Fragment - Some  newly discovered crucial component of Zinith technology enables the advancement of the arms race

AI Wars: The Zinith Memorial - Some ancient ruins are found containing literacies and technologies of the Zinith

AI Wars: Relics

AI Wars: The Zinith Cipher

AI Wars: The Elder Artifact

AI Wars: The Zinith Histories

AI Wars: The Andromeda Pearl (referring to the Zinith Starship)

AI Wars: The Ruined Raids


I also like the alternatives of just leaving out the Zinith parts, like one word titles, alluding to the content of the expansion but not dryly giving it away.

AI Wars: Fragments

AI Wars: Memorial

AI Wars: Relics

AI Wars: Histories

AI Wars: Andromeda Pearl


I could go on and on, really. Need more titles?



edit: I should mention my favorite so far is AI Wars: The Andromeda Pearl

[x4000]

I have a new favorite, which is now added to the list above, based on Idlework's suggestions:  AI War: Zinth Artifacts. That, more than anything else, really captures the spirit and nature of the expansion, I think.  Even better than Zinth Remnants.

EDIT:  I've also updated the list, removing the items that I've decided against.  These are our three finalists, unless more possible names come up (which probably they will):

AI War: The Zinth
AI War: Zinth Remnant
AI War: Zinth Artifacts

[TomR]

None of the poll titles sound 'punchy' enough for me.  If you say the title in a deep Basso voice in an echo chamber, does it imply action?  Some of my favorites:

The Touch of the Zinth

The Gift of the Zinth

The Zinth Return

Message From an Unmarked Star

[RCIX]

maybe it's just be but i like those "bland" feeling names, like The Zinth Return.
(Though "The Andromeda Pearl" isn't half bad)

[Warnstaff]

<snip> AI War: Zinth Artifacts. That, more than anything else, really captures the spirit and nature of the expansion, I think.  Even better than Zinth Remnants.

Given the very short backstory, I don't see how, would you mind elaborating? Right now, they look just like traders rather than the Ancients from Stargate.

Unless I missed something.

[ldlework]

Warnstaff - how about the fact that their star ship is the most dangerous in the galaxy? Would it be logical to conclude that other technologies they employ were on similar levels of sophistication? Were the Ancients marked as forbidding trading in the Stargate mythos?

Do we know what the Zinith were trading?

Honestly I agree calling them nomadic is conflicting with their ability to build the most powerful starship in the galaxy.

[x4000]

<snip> AI War: Zinth Artifacts. That, more than anything else, really captures the spirit and nature of the expansion, I think.  Even better than Zinth Remnants.

Given the very short backstory, I don't see how, would you mind elaborating? Right now, they look just like traders rather than the Ancients from Stargate.

Unless I missed something.

Well, the idea is that the Zinth are much more advanced than the humans or the AI (the AIs only having a bit more technology than the humans based on what they have developed in the last few years of the war).  So, the Zinth are clearly and older and wiser race, but it's not clear exactly how old they are.  The Zinth that have been previously encountered were simply traders, but given the nature of the weaponry and technology they have traded, there is clearly much more to their civilization than the humans really know.  The fact that the Zinth Starship is insignificant enough to be traded away to humans suggests that it is not a threat to the Zinth themselves... that their real weaponry is vastly more advanced.

One major new class of ship that will be in this expansion is Golems.  These are gigantic, or otherwise strong and imposing, ships that will be scattered around the galaxy in a broken state.  Players can capture them by capturing the planet, and then repair them (at large cost), to turn them into a huge war machine.  If that war machine is ever lost, it is gone forever, but as long as it is carefully guarded and periodically repaired, the Golems will be the most fearsome ships the players have access to.  Most likely they will come with some other negatives, too, that make them expensive to maintain and use (thus keeping them within the realm of balance), but that's the general idea.  These are basically artifacts from the Zinth civilization, picked up now by the players.

Beyond that, a lot of the technologies that are going to be in the expansion are Zinth-based, arising from the resumed trade relations between the Zinth and the humans/AI.  Plus, the Zinth themselves will be a minor force in the galaxy, and they will be able to turn more major (in favor of the AI or the humans) depending on certain factors.  Some of that is still TBD on actual mechanics, but that's the idea.

[x4000]

Honestly I agree calling them nomadic is conflicting with their ability to build the most powerful starship in the galaxy.

This is true.  Rather, I really meant that the Zinth that have so far been encountered are all nomadic.  We don't know much as to their larger population, whether their presumably giant empire has fallen or what, but the few Zinth who have been encountered are all nomads, and not very talkative about where they come from or what it was like there.

[Warnstaff]

Ahh, thanks X. Hmm... I don't think "Zinth Artifacts" is descriptive of the expansion either - if the Zinth themselves simply weren't around, then it would be. Same thing with Zinth Remnant.

Zinth Return sounds like the best one.

[RCIX]

...
One major new class of ship that will be in this expansion is Golems.  These are gigantic, or otherwise strong and imposing, ships that will be scattered around the galaxy in a broken state.  Players can capture them by capturing the planet, and then repair them (at large cost), to turn them into a huge war machine.  If that war machine is ever lost, it is gone forever, but as long as it is carefully guarded and periodically repaired, the Golems will be the most fearsome ships the players have access to.  Most likely they will come with some other negatives, too, that make them expensive to maintain and use (thus keeping them within the realm of balance), but that's the general idea.  These are basically artifacts from the Zinth civilization, picked up now by the players.
...

Ooh, are you taking suggestions for these? cause i could come up with a few ideas... I assume they range from Fortress to Superfortress size?

[ldlework]

AI War: The Zinith Element

or

AI War: The Zinith Factor

or

AI War: The Zinith Emissaries


Am I getting warmer?

[x4000]

...
One major new class of ship that will be in this expansion is Golems.  These are gigantic, or otherwise strong and imposing, ships that will be scattered around the galaxy in a broken state.  Players can capture them by capturing the planet, and then repair them (at large cost), to turn them into a huge war machine.  If that war machine is ever lost, it is gone forever, but as long as it is carefully guarded and periodically repaired, the Golems will be the most fearsome ships the players have access to.  Most likely they will come with some other negatives, too, that make them expensive to maintain and use (thus keeping them within the realm of balance), but that's the general idea.  These are basically artifacts from the Zinth civilization, picked up now by the players.
...

Ooh, are you taking suggestions for these? cause i could come up with a few ideas... I assume they range from Fortress to Superfortress size?

Yep, we're always open to ship suggestions -- there's a specific forum for that, even. I don't have a lot of Golems designed yet, so more would be good.  Some of these will actually be smaller, like starship size, but the biggest ones will be really huge, in the range you were talking about.