After reading
https://forums.arcengames.com/ai-war-ii-modding/dune-based-campaign-the-butlerian-jihad/ I have been motivated to document my own modding idea.
Invasion of the Astrolids
Story: After being beaten by the AI when it rebelled, Humanity is at the brink of extinction. They are tired, losing morale, and are up against a multi-galactic threat that they have no hope of beating. After fighting the AI for a few weeks, they find some sort of technology they have never seen before. Unidentifiable alien language is written on it. They repair it and find that it is a multi-dimensional walkie-talkie. They send some signals through it and to their relief, they get a response. An alien race has been sealed in a another dimension by the AI. They introduce themselves in a language that we can't comprehend, but after some adjustments to the translation program, Humanity is introduced to the Astrolids. They want revenge on the genocidal machine and will aid Humanity in destroying the AI. After some back and forth of equations and schematics, the human race is ready to beam them in to help with their fight. The Astrolids then thank Humanity.... for being so gullible. As it turns out, the AI had nothing to do with them being imprisoned. In fact, the AI and the Astrolids have never met before in any capacity. They only talked about them because... I can't think of something right now. The plot demands it. Anyway, the Astrolids prove to be a force to be reckoned with. To Humanity's disbelief, these new invaders are even more powerful than the AI (think regular Spire ships, not the Spire military). Fortunately for Humanity, they have a trick up their sleeve. Human ships are more resistant to the Astrolids weaponry than the AI's. Despite this, this battle cannot be won by a single faction alone. Even the AI realizes this. After getting its ass kicked for a little bit, the AI sends an encrypted message to the Humans. "Help drive back these invaders and I will set aside a few planets for you to colonize without interference from me." Now the Human leadership has a choice. Do they side with the AI, which just annihilated their family and friends? Or do they reject the message and continue on? No matter what, Humanity has some really bad luck.
Gameplay: The initial spawn point of the communication array to talk to the Astrolids is spawned 3-5 planets away from the Human Homeworld. This forces the player to take territory in order to capture it, as well as let the player have a foothold when the event kicks off. Having it spawn on the Human Homeworld and activating it immediately is basically suicide.
After finding it, just capture and repair the Communications array. After repairing, Start 10 minute countdown where the Astrolids tells the Humans how to build the Teleporter to bring them to the current dimension. Nothing special happens during this time, it's just a time limit to signify the humans building the Teleporter.
After 10 min, the Astrolids warp into the Galaxy. They spawn as far away from the human and AI homeworlds as possible. The Astrolid staging area is
extremely fortified. They just got here and are not leaving without a fight. What I was thinking is that they have a Super ship as a Home command station. Basically an AI Avenger/Mothership. Except it stays in one place. There are also turrets, drones and other defenses on the forward operating base. It also spawns it's own waves to go attack nearby enemy worlds. In addition to this, the AI progress for the Astrolids will skyrocket to 200 (plus any of the AI Command stations they manage to destroy). These guys are really tough, did I mention that?
The Astrolid Mothership is also invincible due to "Resonance Displacers." They shift the Mothership out of space and time, so it's there but also not there at the same time. These structures (depending on the intensity, there can be up to 5) spawn randomly throughout the galaxy. These are basically Core Shield Generators for the Astrolids. They can even spawn on one of your worlds. (Not any homeworlds though. At least 3 hops away from a homeworld. Including Astrolids.) They can also spawn right next to each other on the same planet. But that's not all. They spawn ships to take over whatever planet they spawn on. These ships are defensive only. You and the AI will need to destroy the Displacers and render the Mothership vulnerable.
3 minutes after The Astrolids appear, the AI sends the "Help us then we help you" message. A structure spawns on your Homeworld. This is the fork in the road. Hacking it will accept the agreement. It will also slowly decrease in health. After one minute, it gets destroyed and that signals the "No Deal" choice.
Accepting the offer: The AI will redeploy the Hunter and Warden fleets to target the Astrolids.After managing to destroy the Resonance Displacers, the Mothership is vulnerable. But, the Astrolids have taken territory around the Mothership. The Player and the AI will have to make a path to the Mothership and clear out the worlds around it, if possible. Those worlds have unit producers on them and destroyign them will prevent the Astrolids from reinforcing the Mothership from those planets. Then it's just a straightforward battle for supremacy. After destroying the Astrolid Mothership, you win.
Rejecting the offer: It basically plays out the same way, except it's a two-front war for all sides. You will have to take out the AI and the Astrolids. That will be a pain, depending on the AI type and difficulty.
Issues. concerns and advice for this: What happens if the AI is sending a wave at you and then it becomes your friend? I suppose this can be fixed easily. The Nanocaust can launch waves now, so someone just Hack the Nanocaust to be friendly while a wave is on the way. (Just piggyback off Badger's work
).
This not really meant to be played with Galaxy Level threat Minor factions (Dark Spire, Macrophage, Nanocaust). However, you can play whatever way you want. The only problem I think code wise would be if a friendly Enraged Macrophage Harvester spawns while you are allied to the AI. Where does it go? Will it just sit there or go to the AI homeworld and sit
there? Same with Nanocaust waves. Dyson should be fine, except if the AI launches a Reconquest wave against it. Then you're screwed because you can't kill the friendly AI ships. Basically, just think about it before choosing them. Marauders and Resistance fighters should be fine. Lost Spire Frigate, Devourer, Zenith Trader are also fine.
The AIP for the Player. Not sure if this would do anything once the AI becomes friendly.
Being able to make it so the AI and the Astrolids have to be taken out. If worst comes to worst, I can just do nothing and make it so killing the AI or the Astrolids produces the Victory screen and then the "after credits" is you fighting the other faction.
Journals. Yes. Those things that only the real AIWC players read. Of course, I never read them. I was too busy cheating and messing around to be invested in the lore. I hope they come back in some capacity. I have so much story and lore to put in them as they serve to inform the player of what exactly is going on, as well as the reactions of the Humans leadership as well as the Civilian colonists.
Now the Biggest issue of them all. Being able to build command stations on friendly AI planets. I don't know the code, but you are not allowed to build command stations on a planet if the AI has one there already. That needs a workaround. Otherwise, this whole idea gets thrown out the window.
I will be reserving the next 2 spots for posts. The first being a somewhat in-depth idea of what ships the Astrolids will be using. The second will be for Journals. I do hope they make a return in AIW2. As I said 2 paragraphs ago, so much story and lore and stuff can be put in them.
One more thing: If you see any typos or misspellings, please feel free to bring it to my attention. I hate when I post something, come back to read it two days later, and then I spot a typo. It's annoys me to no end.
Journals 
