Now, according to IP laws, by posting this stuff are pretty much ensuring that it can't happen because IC could never prove they came up with the idea? Oh well, if you like it, baby it's free.
i scanned some of the previous posts, sorry if I repeat.
I think the logical sequel to an entrenchment game is a trench-busting game. But do you really want to go there? I dunno. Sins and entrenchment both do such a great job of not being about who has the bigger gun, and I really wouldn't want an expansion to be about gigantic guns with weirdo achilles heels, you know? And iron clad I'm sure would do a stellar job avoiding that pitfall.
Ok, so some of the ideas I'd had in mind are like this.
The vasari have been here 50 years now without making any real headway in subdueing the region. They're running thin and it's do or die. In a move of desparation they've begun sending their starbases into contested systems to cleanse the planet of inhabitants and stripped of usable materials, even if it means leaving the planet a waste and barely usable so long as the enemy can't have it.
The advent are completely frustrated by their continued failure to punish their enemies. Their shame at defeat is outstripped only by their hatred of the TEC. As an attempt to strengthen their psionic bond and reaffirm their unified purpose against their enemies, advent have began collecting together in colossal suicide pacts, detonating all of the souls on the planet, sending unfathomable waves psionic energy throughout space.
The TEC are weary and wasted by war. A generation has come and goes now having known only sacrifice and they begin to fear their eventual extinction. Parks and civic centers are now strip mines and factories populated by children. No labor goes unused, no resource goes unexploited. Experienced crews are put aboard fresh capital ships and sent into battle. Novice crews are put aboard hastily constructed cruisers and waved off with little hope of coming back.
Yeah, in this theme there is this sort of desparation that they each have one last chance to make this turn out right and it doesn't matter how big of a mess it makes. The working idea being that this is the expansion where the true colors come out and see what these races were all made to do. It seems very natural to me for the vasari to send some massive structure to just absolutely rape a world in preparation for their next jump, and now they're using it as a weapon. They come, they take, they leave, that's the vasari way. So now, they come, they take, they leave a nearly dead asteroid, denying the resources to their enemy.
I've always had the vibe that the advent would gladly kill themselves if it meant making the TEC suffer/die. What better way to show your devotion to unity than opting for death on your terran world and unseating the culture in all of the neighboring gravity wells, and giving your buddies a fighting boost 3-4 jumps away. The Heaven's Gate ain't got nothing on this s***.
And the tec. They were hardworking industrious peeps before and now they've turned their attention to total war. Anyone who can hold a gun gets one, everyone else gets a hammer and a factory job. They can produce more ships from the same resources and faster, can overcrowd their planets to get more income and even more production, their crews are reckless with their lives pulling off bold moves, but this comes at a price of quality and experience. Some ships are guns with engines and some crews have never seen space before. I can think of all kinds of creative ways to pull that off.
