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=== News ===
 
=== News ===
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====<p>Core Council Report : 22nd of December, 2016</p>====
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Hey, everyone! Another month, another newsletter!
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This one just so happens to find itself nestled warm and snug within this holiday season. As such, we find ourselves incredibly thankful as we look back on this past year. We’ve made so much progress and couldn’t be happier. And none of it would be possible without all of the support we’ve received. Entering the next year, we ask that you keep up with us and see just what we’ve been up to all this time. As for us, it’s full steam ahead!
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So to all of the amazing people who have helped to add to our offering... Our family members... You! And the rest of our friends...
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THANK YOU!!!
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And...
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[https://www.facebook.com/StariumXCV/photos/a.419760284766150.99023.164092206999627/1257638410978329/?type=3&theater]
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====<p>Core Council Report : 22nd of November, 2016</p>====
 
====<p>Core Council Report : 22nd of November, 2016</p>====

Revision as of 21:17, 29 December 2016

Welcome to the Traveller's Guide to Starium XCV

Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. So big that no one creature can hope to understand all there is to know about it. Even the most powerful intellects and greatest computers have failed to categorise everything there is.

Where they have failed however, we will succeed. A book, you see, is a veritable font of knowledge. Now imagine a book, but with infinite pages; that is what you hold here at your finger tips.

- Eloise Quepero D'Pigens, Traveller's Guide to StariumXCV, p42.

What Is This?

Starium XCV is a 4x browser-based space game, in which each player will take control of an entire empire and lead their people to glory and prosperity, or to doom and destruction.

Over time we will continue to add to this data resource, so that players can discover more about the Starium Universe, and the people, planets, units, structures and everything else which dwells within.

This guide has been carefully put together by a group of dedicated writers, sages and historians. They will often comment on articles themselves to give additional information or feedback. If you wish to know more about Eloise, Darshana or Conleth, you can meet the staff.

Our plan is to release details of a number of the primary, playable races over the coming months, so stay tuned for updates!


News

Core Council Report : 22nd of December, 2016

Hey, everyone! Another month, another newsletter!

This one just so happens to find itself nestled warm and snug within this holiday season. As such, we find ourselves incredibly thankful as we look back on this past year. We’ve made so much progress and couldn’t be happier. And none of it would be possible without all of the support we’ve received. Entering the next year, we ask that you keep up with us and see just what we’ve been up to all this time. As for us, it’s full steam ahead!

So to all of the amazing people who have helped to add to our offering... Our family members... You! And the rest of our friends...

THANK YOU!!!

And...

[1]


Core Council Report : 22nd of November, 2016

Last month we introduced the various ship classes that can be found in the StariumXCV universe and talked a little about their combat capabilities. This month, we wanted to discuss the customisation options that players have at their disposal. There are a number of ways that players can add a personal touch to their fleets, including colour and design.

Ships are comprised of a number of design components (different to the strategic modules we talked about last month, those are purely combat while these are solely graphical). These components can be mixed and matched to form a unique design and also coloured however the player wishes.

As a base template, each race has a full ship design which is coloured in greyscale. Every race has a visually distinct design emphasising racial traits. Here you can see a Charian Lancer. The Charains, being very scientifically minded, have ships that reflect this with clinical shapes and a very clean look.

Charian Lancer

Inarians, on the other hand, are very artistically minded. They detest straight lines of any kind, hence the flowing shapes that this probe embraces.

Inarian Lancer

Each ship is comprised of either 2 or 3 components which are linked together by the player to create their own unique designs.

This is a Charian heavy cruiser fully built.

Charian Heavy Cruiser

And here the same ship split apart into component parts.

Charian Heavy Cruiser

And here is a Charian Platform for comparison.

Charian Platform

You begin with a set number of ship designs (based on the starting race), but you can find more as you play, either unlocking the designs of other races, special components not yet discovered by the Concordium found throughout the galaxy, and even super rare pieces from ultra-powerful entities.

So, why greyscale? It's quite plain and boring? Well, we use the white and greys as they work well as a base colour. Those can then be substituted with colours of the player's choice, creating your own individual colour schemes.

Don't worry though, when you play, your ships will automatically begin coloured according to your heraldry selections, so the galaxy will not be rendered in dull shades of grey! After that, you will have the opportunity to colour them according to your own wishes. Different ships can have their own schemes, so you can have fleets as uniform or freeform as you wish.

The end result is something like this Inarian Probe.

Inarian Probe

Higher tier vessels can looks absolutely glorious, as with this Inarian Battlecruiser.

Inarian Coloured

Core Council Report : 22nd of October, 2016

StariumXCV is a game all about space, and as such it features a large collection of ships. These range from tiny unmanned probes to gargantuan Battle Stars, many times the size of a planet and boasting a crew of millions (billions?).

These vessels are arranged into loose class categories which denote their role in battle.


Reconnaissance

Ships designed to explore. They have negligible defences but are extremely cheap.

• Probe

• Scout


Strike Craft

Launched from larger craft equipped with hangars. Fighters are air superiority craft built to destroy bombers. Bombers meanwhile are armed with weapons capable of inflicting serious damage on larger vessels.

• Fighter

• Bomber


Gunboats

Small combat craft, armed to the teeth with lighter weaponry capable of reducing entire fleets of strike craft to ashes.

• Lancer

• Destroyer


Cruisers

The staple of any true combat fleet. Cruisers are all about versatility, balancing survivability with a good range of weaponry choices for any situation.

• Light Cruiser

• Heavy Cruiser

• Battle Cruiser


Carriers

Vessels with a massive hull, capable of being outfitted with troop transport or strike craft modules - or both.

• Light Carrier

• Heavy Carrier


Capital Ships

The kings of stellar warfare, capital ships bring the big guns and are capable of fighting all classes of ship and also the smaller orbitals.

• Battleship

• Dreadnaught


Mass Capital Ships

Massive Capital Ships are massively powerful (and expensive) vessels that could change the balance of power in a region, a single ship being capable of tearing apart hostile fleets.

• Leviathan

• Battle Moon

• Battle Star


Orbitals

Defensive and immobile, Orbitals are a means to really stamp an Empire's claim to a region of space. They are far more powerful and much cheaper than any ship of comparable size.

• Platform

• Base Station

• Battle Station

Of course these are just templates. Players will have a great deal of control over just how their ships function, with the possibility of having multiple ship designs of a single class, each with a different load out for different jobs. We're not quite ready to explain precisely how this works, but essentially each template comes with a range of modules that can be fitted (shields, armour, weapons, missiles, etc), but a limited amount of space to actually utilise. This means a cruiser could be fitted with one really, really big gun for taking down battleships, or a number of smaller weapons for anti-cruiser work or even for fighting strike craft.

These decisions about how to design the ships form a very large part of the strategic gameplay. What do you know about your enemy? Do they favour a particular setup? Is their technology directed at a certain weapon class? If so, how do you counter this? Do you want more shields which recharge between battles, or armour which offers more raw hit points but must be repaired? How is your own technology moving? Are you focusing on missiles for that initial massive barrage? What if this doesn't kill the enemy? Do you have enough close-range weapons mixed in to defeat brawlers?

As you can see ships offer a huge amount of variation for players and this is only their combat power. Their shapes can also be customised, as can their colour scheme. Aliens may drop super rare designs that can really show off how adventurous your empire is... but this is something for another time!

Core Council Report : 22nd of September, 2016

One of the biggest challenges facing a Loremaster is not creating the background stories or building the world, but rather how to introduce the intricacies of a setting to the players. In an RPG, the answer is more obvious: dialogue, characters, ambient surroundings, graphics and quests. For a Sci-Fi strategy title however, the lore is no less important, but infinitely more difficult to bring across. Narrow this down to a massively multiplayer sci-fi strategy game and the task becomes infinitely more challenging.

Thankfully, we are assisted here by an extremely powerful and complex procedural generation engine (more on that in a later update!), but there are elements of our setting which need to be handcrafted in order for players to really engage and care about their circumstances.

These are the elements that are most difficult to introduce to players, but we do have something of a blunt object which serves as a powerful tool to do this - Traveller's Guide to Starium XCV, AKA, the wiki. Obviously this isn't the best solution to our problems - players need to leave the game experience to access it, but it does allow us to put the pertinent information in one easily accessible location where it can educate and be used as reference.

At the moment the Traveller's Guide holds information on the various playable races that can be found in Starium XCV, alongside the short stories and artwork which really bring our universe to life. In time, though, it will include more data on game mechanics and other pertinent knowledge needed to get the most out of Starium.

At the moment, most of the editorial work is controlled by the development team. We want to control precisely what information is released there to the public (and so that we can format things as we need), but in time that will be opened up to the public. I am absolutely sure that is when it will really take off as a knowledge base.

One final note, I am particularly proud of are the "Staff Writers" (thank you to Baldur's Gates' manual for that idea). These are characters from within the Starium universe who can give in-character reflections on the Guide. These are particularly potent as they can really bring you into the world with a more personalised touch on a subject - more so when the writers actively engage each other in a discussion! The slow worms come to mind here... it really adds a touch of personality to the project rather than it being just a dry databank.

You can find the Traveller's Guide to Starium XCV here; http://reference.stariumxcv.com/index.php?title=Main_Page


Core Council Report : 22nd of August, 2016

Hey, there! Red here, your StariumXCV Community Manager. This month, we thought it would be nice to touch on the company, Gwythdarian L.L.C., and the people working to deliver this exciting new sci-fi MMO strategy game. Gwythdarian L.L.C. is an interactive media company specializing in browser-based games. It is owned and operated by Jim Landes and Dr. Tim Trainor. Their goal is to promote the interactive entertainment industry in West Michigan by offering direct opportunities for programmers, artists, and writers. Together they lead a team of talented and creative people who desire to make amazing games for your web browser, beginning with StariumXCV. Over the course of its development, Gwythdarian L.L.C. has brought in 30+ people to add to this awesome offering, and each influence has made it that much greater. To read more on this great company and the driven individuals behind StariumXCV’s development, visit Gwythdarian’s website at: http://www.gwythdarian.com


Core Council Report : 22nd of July, 2016

Hello, everyone! I am Mordred, senior designer and loremaster for StariumXCV, an exciting new sci-fi MMO strategy game by Gwythdarian LLC. In the coming months, you can expect to hear a lot more from us.

As of this post, we're entering "semi-stealth mode". Basically, this means that we will start talking in a little more detail about upcoming features and begin showing off more of the assets that will be in Starium. The idea behind this is that friends and family start getting involved, and we begin to create a community. This is to ensure that there are a group of people following and interested in Starium before we open the flood gates in January, when the marketing machine begins to rumble for real.

So, what is Starium?

Well, in simple terms it is a massively multiplayer strategy game which can be played on virtually any device (anything that can run a browser!), But, really it’s so much more than that. It's; -an original, sci-fi game realm involving 10 unique playable races with rich history -a genesis process that makes up an entire game space through procedural generation -an extensive technology (skill) tree system -where leader skills improve through use, determining their class and which actions are possible -a game with combat alternative strategies - diplomatic, economic, covert.. -a fun, easy-to-use heraldry generator that allows for vast numbers of different possible designs -the ability to play with friends and build up a federation and go about your game space, conquering the many systems you encounter.

This is, of course, just touching the surface of the experience that Starium will offer. We do hope that we have piqued your interest here, so stay tuned for much more in the coming months!