So.
A while back (2010 to be exact) I just randomly came up with the idea of the Overworld faction. All of it's lore, and so forth, was developed prior to me ever playing/knowing of Starfarer. This is however the first time I have graphically looked at making it REAL.
One of the very big thing about it is the scale of the battles (50KM long axis battleships anyone? 550,000KM Leviathan anyone?) though I've decided against that for Starfarer, in keeping with a 1 pixel = 1 metre scale. Right now it's in development... but I'm rather excited about getting it to work.
Spoiler
Alright, bear with. The principle of the Overworld was to look at the advance of tech today and apply it int the future. Not a human one though. The race of the 'Overworld' grew from just one area on their home planet, the Ivory Ark, and as such failed to see a reason for petty wars. Due to this approach to life, and a technocracy, technology evolved rapidly, skipping entire generations (for instance, no sword fighting) and a rapidly growing population went almost everywhere before long. The Ivory Ark is named so for the vast bone structures erected by the death of huge beasts. They are so widespread and so massive that from a distance (say, low orbit) the planet appears to be almost straight bone coloured, though at night it becomes heavily pockmarked with lighting of all colours. They spread everywhere, be it underwater, or high into the sky, before long cities became as bustling underground as they were above.
Eventually, they looked at their varied pieces of tech, and looked to the sky. They asked, as many did, what it would be like to go up there. The vast amount of resources available to them on the Ivory Ark enabled them to create a first 'spaceship' of sorts, though this one was not a rocket vehicle, it was as a battleship is, a real vessel and vehicle to be constantly used. It was sleek, it was fast and elegant but above all it was logical. People united fast over the idea of a new world. The year was about 1NEMA (New Era of Moving Away) and before long, the high sky cities became dockyards for immense constructions, from freighters to the new solar colonies (much of the Ivory Ark was uninhabitable, and as such terraforming became a fervently researched subject) to vast supply carriers for interstellar stations. However, it still took years to reach the outer colonies, and months to the inner. As the spires on the Ivory Ark grew taller, one person looked at it and knew there would be no way they would ever leave their system if they kept up this way.
At age 20, this person began to draw up the manifesto for the sole greatest doctrine known to the Overworld - Pure Optimization. Pure Optimization did dozens, hundreds, thousands of things. It's sole goal was to make everything perfect. X-Gen's digistruction techniques (solid light) became a staple of manufacturing process, allowing for instantaneous and free replacements to all tech, so there was no longer a requirement for an economy when everyone could get what they wanted for free. Vast ships rolled across landscapes, digistructing anything from houses, to schools to monolithic shipyards. Rushtek Engines that used Pure Optimization mechanics reached an immediate capability of exceedingly fast sublight movement (250,000 Kilometres per second, to be exact), and the ability to digistruct anything - instantly - provided the tools to completely remove BeInvincible's (who moved onto creating solid light and digistruction generators to do the same thing, which they heartily enjoyed more) heavy armour and replace it with the exceptionally resilient solid light. Anything from the speed at which messages were sent to the power of mobile devices was made perfect. Before long at all, the whole solar system, that came to be known as Skysword 1, was a webway of tight movement. Cities were just glorious to be in, tightly packed colossal constructs with a seemingly personal feel. The lack of a warlike mind had influenced Overworld life so much it reflected a creepily perfect existence.
War
The huge problem faced by the Overworld was it's population. While there was no problem with food, nor with resources due to digistruction, but due to lack of space. People wanted to leave Skysword 1, but they couldn't exactly do so without leaving behind families. As immortal as people were, thanks to graceful genetic code and StemGel, people didn't want to have their children's only memories to be of a the deck, bulkheads and deckheads of the ship they might spend thousands of years on. Indeed, such an existence baffled the Rushtek engineers, who proceeded to test forms of rapid movement, potentially FTL speeds.
This however, proved entirely disastrous. For, with all the time the Overworld and it's government had enjoyed it's peaceful existence, they had never really delved into the hypothetical, and frightening question of 'what if?'. First it was one, twisted, ship that looked like it had been, once, a deep abyss monstrosity given life again by mechanization. Slowly, but surely, more came, but the Rushtek engineers rapidly informed the main Overworld government. As any idyllic society would do, it tried to speak to these people, believing perhaps they were travellers and could use assistance. They greeted back, by firing the largest cannon they had available, a Mountainbender. The Moutainbender's shell, rolling with a mighty blaze like lightening from the largest, and first ship, made it's way slowly but surely to the surface of the Golden Horizon, the most recent and smallest colony, on the very border of the solar system. The government watched intently, and with rapidly rising curiosity - was it a pod, to bring the leaders? having had no experience with weapons, that was their best guess.
For a second, and upon impact, it looked just like another star had been born on the Golden Horizon's surface, for the light was so bright it could be seen in the daytime on the Ivory Ark and Iridium Shield. How foolish, those denizens had been. The shell of the Mountainbender sent great waves of pure fire roiling across the surface, the immediate area around it decimated to a bubbling core. The solid light had not been nearly strong enough to withstand the blast, and in that one second, just a few billion died. But as a few more second turned into minutes, many, many billions had died as the environment tore itself apart dealing with the force of the shell. It was unlike anything ever seen by the people. Some just sat in the street, positively transfixed by what was occurring. There was little that could be done. The government of the Overworld rolled it over fast, and came to the conclusion that if allowed to continue, these people would destroy everything they had ever accomplished. Immediately, the ships began to roll through space towards the other eight planets, intent on destruction. X-Gen, Rushtek and BeInvincible banded together rapidly to create something to fight back. The AI's ultimately decided the best possible thing to have would be the highly logically made Sunhammer Dreadnought. At a vast 5KM on it's long axis, and 3KM wide at it's widest point, it dwarfed every other ships many times. It represented everything that was best about the Overworld's designs, from digistruction facilites for ammunition, to solid light armour, to dozens of Pure Optimized engines, and three generators, it seemed to be straight up a perfect ship for doing almost anything. Then weapons, layers of unfathomably destructive Fire Fire cannons, belching out at high speeds balls of fast moving plasma, to the accurate and miraculously long ranged Lance Cannons (MK1), capable of punching a fairly lovely hole into armour rated at 500M thick, to the all purpose anti-everything Phoenix missiles, the first Sunhammer Dreadnought, fully automated, was digistructed in open space (for there was no shipyard large enough to make it) in 3NEMA, emblazoned across it's two sleek but angular and sharp wings 'DELTA HEAVY' and 'OVERKILL'. DELTA HEAVY moved incredibly fast, roughly the speed of a passenger ship, and began to engage it's weapon systems. Green light, upon green light, the vanity of a ship so perfect began to show itself. DELTA HEAVY turned on a broadside, the opposite side of Lance Cannons raising to get a shot, and while the government sat back, twiddled it's thumbs and hoped for the best, the engineers who had worked upon creating DELTA HEAVY were excited. 'There's no way it can lose!' they said.
Strange. In space, nothing can be heard, almost sad to think as the beautiful sound of 50 Lance cannons roared out against their targets, well over eight hundred ships in all, and punched great holes through 50 ships. The almost organic appearing ships began to convulse, and it became visible why almost instantly, for the Lance Cannons had done as designed to, to punch through armour and detonate ships from the inside with a 50 teraton nuclear charge. 50 ships engulfed in huge explosions of titanic proportions, violently pushing away other ships. However, there were still far too many ships. The Lance Cannons could, inevitably, keep up their fire rate for as long as they wanted, they were using SH4RD's digistructing ammo facilites, after all, but there would still be ships that would reach, for instance, the Platinum Bulwark, and wreak havoc there. Their engines were kicking into flat out speeds, and DELTA HEAVY was rapidly becoming in an unfavourable and soured position. But it just sat there. Just waiting.
By the time they had passed the wreckage of the Golden Horizon, the Phoenix barrage came. Missile, upon missile, upon missile... they tore into the massed, packed ranks of the enemy, in all there could've been 200 missiles, or 300, but then the missiles split. Tiny, fast little projectiles rapidly tore into the fleet like a pack of piranhas. It was a sight to behold, for each missile became ten, and each one had such a destructive cause that it for a moment, cast a doubt on the peaceful nature of the Overworld. Through the huge levels of debris, a mass of missiles in themselves came towards DELTA HEAVY. No matter. Swatted away in moments by a screening attack by Fire-Fire cannons.
It was over, but not completely finished. DELTA HEAVY became the flagship of a new 'defence fleet' but not a faked defence fleet which in reality attacked property, but a defence fleet to keep the perfect existence the Overworld came to love alive. FTL drives came into play, and the new menace, the 'Koltheki' became ever more dangerous. But, of course, hundreds of systems came under Overworld rule. More will too, provided they can keep up their victories and keep down their losses.
Something that seems less easy everyday.
PHEW. That's a lot.
There's going to be more too, that's just backstory.
Still! What are the Overworld about? Well, they're logical and Pure Optimized. They use fast ships armed with solid light, digistruction facilites and a mixture of Lance cannons, Fire-Fire cannons and assorted missiles. Later models of the Sunhammer rapidly came to use Hangars too. I'll be bringing sprites ASAP.
