About the Lore

[Pumpkin]

It is a sequel.  So... yeah, maybe so.

It takes place after AI War?

Yep!

Instead of derailing, let's start another topic.

So, this is not "just" the plot of AI War again. Then what happen? Tell us!
Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!

[Billick]

So in the first game, the only reason that the humans have a chance of winning is that the AI has turned it's attention toward some mysterious threat outside the galaxy.  What if in this game the main antagonist is represented by whatever this threat is.  Maybe the humans are even forced to work together with the AI this time in order to face it.

[Captain Jack]

They'd lose. Handily. 

[Timerlane]

Lightning strikes the Botnet Golem, causing it to become a sapient Botnet Golem Mark II, named Herb, who then promptly reclaims (almost) the entire Human technology base?

So in the first game, the only reason that the humans have a chance of winning is that the AI has turned it's attention toward some mysterious threat outside the galaxy.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Wasn't that the war against the Imperial Spire remnants in their home galaxy?

[Steelpoint]

Random theories. Minor spoilers to some campaigns.

• The game is a inversion. You play as a core remnant of the AI decades after the Humans won the war. You must now defeat your creators again.
• The Spire get a break in their war with the AI and are on the offensive. However the Humans never got into contact with the Spire "refugees" and as such view the Humans as a threat along with the AI to eliminate. The Humans were rapidly overrun by the Spire and are once again on the brink. What's worse is that the AI has initiated a contingency plan, with the Humans now stuck between a battle of the titans.
• Decades after Humanity defeated the AI, you are a part of a expeditionary force sent to another galaxy to investigate rumors of alien activity. Turns out the alien activity is a remnant of the AI forces that are preparing to once again invade the milky way. The players expeditionary force is racing against the clock to destroy the extra-galactic AI forces before they begin their invasion, or if the invasion begins they must ensure the AI forces cannot produce enough forces to overwhelm the Human forces back in the milky way.

[Lord Of Nothing]

Lightning strikes the Botnet Golem, causing it to become a sapient Botnet Golem Mark II, named Herb, who then promptly reclaims (almost) the entire Human technology base?

So in the first game, the only reason that the humans have a chance of winning is that the AI has turned it's attention toward some mysterious threat outside the galaxy.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Wasn't that the war against the Imperial Spire remnants in their home galaxy?

I seem to recall keith saying somewhere that the Spire empire is ONE of the other things the AI is paying attention to, but he implied it was not the big one...
EDIT: ah, here we go: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,11976.0.html

[x4000]

Watashiwa (Jack) knows what the big thing the AI is paying attention to is, but he's not allowed to say.    Jack, I hope you'll come write for this one, by the way.  Keith and I already talked about that and he's definitely on board with you continuing to be the keeper of the extended Arcenverse lore.

The short explanation of what is going on here in AI War 2 is that this is forward in time some.
1. The humans won the first AI War, by the skin of their teeth.
2. Then some other stuff happened, and now the AI is back.

The "the other stuff is" depends partly on a couple of different game mechanic options I am considering.  I need to make proper proposals for those, but depending on what one is selected, the lore will be one of about three different things.  None of those things reveal what the AI has been focused on.  The answer to that is known, but will only be public if [redacted].  Fingers crossed on that.  Jack already wrote all the lines for that, I think, IIRC.

[PokerChen]

Ooh, a golden opportunity for guesses in the dark!

(1) The Zenith TraitorTrader struck a deal with the AI core in classic, securing free passage and survival in exchange for the AI to store a backup seed on-board. This seed is later germinated, and manages to take over more of the universe than before. (Requires larger role of Zenith, once more ascendant).

(2) Humanity having won, falls to quibbling amongst themselves as the species are wont to do. Big irrevocable d incidents arise, particularly with xenophobia and relationships with the Spire remnants. The factions disperse throughout the galaxies, eventually someone finding and activating a new AI core. (requires presence of independent factions in the galaxy and interactions)

(3) The old AI was actually gathering all the resources it can, preparing to leave the local group of galaxies all this time, in an attempt to survive the Big Bad™. This turns out to be a galactic-sized Devourer Golem chewing its way through the universe. In the meantime, some of humanity transcend to artificial reality, eventually uncovering the secret amongst old AI debris. Failing to find a better solution, they become the new AI in order to preserve at least some sentience in the universe. (This fails after AIW2, and eventually leads to Rodney building an ark and sticking it in the side of a rogue red dwarf leaving the galaxy).

[Pumpkin]

In a vanilla victory of AI War Classic, the central AI is not directly harmed. The death of the two servants just cuts the Core from the Milky Way (and maybe just temporarily). Apart from the Fallen Spire and Exodian Blade campaigns, Humans have just given themselves a bit of tranquility; the big stuff is still happening in NGC 224.

[Timerlane]

In a vanilla victory of AI War Classic, the central AI is not directly harmed. The death of the two servants just cuts the Core from the Milky Way (and maybe just temporarily). Apart from the Fallen Spire and Exodian Blade campaigns, Humans have just given themselves a bit of tranquility; the big stuff is still happening in NGC 224.

One would imagine the Imperial Spire remnant still see their opportunity and pounce, much just as they would in a 'conventional end' Fallen Spire game.

Well, unless Richard Langstrom was wrong in thinking that successful attacks on our side would have a disruptive effect on the AI as a whole.

[Captain Jack]

In a vanilla victory of AI War Classic, the central AI is not directly harmed. The death of the two servants just cuts the Core from the Milky Way (and maybe just temporarily). Apart from the Fallen Spire and Exodian Blade campaigns, Humans have just given themselves a bit of tranquility; the big stuff is still happening in NGC 224.

?

Losing one Core Command Center is a crippling blow to the AI. Destroying two is basically fatal.

[Pumpkin]

Well, unless Richard Langstrom was wrong in thinking that successful attacks on our side would have a disruptive effect on the AI as a whole.

Speaking of which, I find a bit "easy" and deus ex machina that the Imperial Spire Armada has enough spare power to crush the two Core's servants in the Milky Way...

Losing one Core Command Center is a crippling blow to the AI. Destroying two is basically fatal.

The two Home Command Stations in the Milky Way are servants, right? The Core itself is in NGC 224, surrounded with enough defenses to fight off the Imperial Spire Armada, of which we see only a fraction and the furthest end of the Fallen Spire campaign... right?

And destroying the two is fatal... for the Core's grasp on the Milky Way. But I can't believe it has more than a small impact on NGC 224.

[Captain Jack]

Well, unless Richard Langstrom was wrong in thinking that successful attacks on our side would have a disruptive effect on the AI as a whole.

Speaking of which, I find a bit "easy" and deus ex machina that the Imperial Spire Armada has enough spare power to crush the two Core's servants in the Milky Way...

Losing one Core Command Center is a crippling blow to the AI. Destroying two is basically fatal.

The two Home Command Stations in the Milky Way are servants, right? The Core itself is in NGC 224, surrounded with enough defenses to fight off the Imperial Spire Armada, of which we see only a fraction and the furthest end of the Fallen Spire campaign... right?

And destroying the two is fatal... for the Core's grasp on the Milky Way. But I can't believe it has more than a small impact on NGC 224.

The AI is a single entity. Calling the command stations "servants" is akin to calling the left and right hemispheres of your brain your servants. Destroying both Home Command Centers lobotomizes the AI.

[Tridus]

But if the AI is busy in some other galaxy and is so huge that it's operating in multiple galaxies, why is it entirely reliant on two command stations over here for its entire operation? That seems weird.

[Pumpkin]

The AI is a single entity. Calling the command stations "servants" is akin to calling the left and right hemispheres of your brain your servants. Destroying both Home Command Centers destroys the AI's brain.

Hm, yeah, okay for "one entity".

However, the Core is supposed to reside in NGC 224. The Exodian Blade campaign tells that rather explicitly:

The Core has escaped.  I was too late, and its exodus via the Pyletzan Conduit was successful.

So the things it left in the Milky Way are... well, I call them servants, but I read the journals again and found the origin of my mistake: the Second Exile talk about it's "Brother's servants" and the "Servants he crafted", but it seems they are the numerous AI ships rather than the two AIs.

I can vanquish many of my brother's servants, but my own power will very likely not be enough.  Send forth whatever you can muster to ensure I complete my mission.

So, no: the Core is far from vanquished in a vanilla ending. Only the two "things" it left in the Milky Way are destroyed and it lost its ability to easily access our galaxy (the exogalactic wormholes, the famous "Pyletzan Conduits" by which the Core and the Blade were banished).

Bring me to one of the Conduits, what you call "Exogalactic Wormholes", that is still guarded by one of his main control centers.

Ah... "Main Control Centers". But not "Main Center" as in "half brain", rather "Remote Controlers"... What I called servants. If destroying the two "AI/servants/stuff" in the Milky Way was enough, the Blade could have done that. But if it crosses a Conduit (an exo.wormhole), everything ends. I interpret that as "the Core behind the conduit in NGC 224 is far more important and central than the two Control Centers in the Milky Way".

So yes, I call them "servants", and I feel it's right. (It's not because you changed pseudo and avatar that I don't respect your "Arcen Lore Chair" anymore. I just read, deduce, quote and explain.)
What's your opinion on that?

And while you're here, tell me: who/what is Kyr-Sun? I personally believe it's a military/scientific organization from Earth, but there is especially few hints in the journals.

But if the AI is busy in some other galaxy and is so huge that it's operating in multiple galaxies, why is it entirely reliant on two command stations over here for its entire operation? That seems weird.

Well, there are Subcommanders, that are special OCStation with a "personality", in the game. I can see them as "threads". In a similar way, I can easily imagine the Core delegating the management of the Milky Way and the "Human affair" to two powerful "servants" he crafted with the Artificial Intelligence and Fleet Control technology given by Langstrom and Artain (and maybe that mysterious Kyr-Sun organization).