[Darius]

"It is the 23rd Century. Humankind has colonies throughout the Orion Arm of the galaxy.
The three great powers - Federation, Commonwealth and Combine - exist in a state of cold war.
The galaxy has become a dangerous place, and war is but a single spark away."

Solaris is a small project I've been working on over the past 12 months or so while I take a break from working on Blue Planet.
Set in an original universe where the discovery of hyperspace has led to a Golden Age of human colonisation and technology, Solaris takes place during an age of great changes. However, this is also an age of extremes - the Great War left several planets ecologically devastated, including the cradle of humanity, Earth. Like the Cold War of the 20th Century, humanity is faced with terrifying new doomsday technologies that have the potential to bring about Armageddon.

Features:

• Fast-paced combat similar to Diaspora
• Uses Blue Planet's vicious "Fury" AI
• Cinematic battles
• 10-mission first episode of planned epic and wide-ranging story

You've probably seen a few pictures from this floating around but I wanted to make sure this wasn't going to die a premature death in modder's hell before making a formal announcement. I'm slogging through the final mission of the first release with a period of testing afterwards to make sure everything works.

Aim is for a late May/early June release.



GALLERY:

Hermes-class transport on docking approach to a military base.




Leander-class cruiser on patrol in a dense asteroid field.




Solaris uses the visual novel script seen in Just Another Day and Wings of Dawn.




The script is used for fiction texts and mission briefing as an alternative to the FreeSpace 2 interface.

Also in progress is a Sins of a Solar Empire mod from the guy who brought you Sins of a Blue Planet!






Based on the same universe as Solaris, Sins of a Solaris Empire aims to bring the same epic space combat found in Sins of a Blue Planet.
More details to come later on in a separate thread.

[Phantom Hoover]

first thought: holy **** cool!

second thought: hehehe, durrrius

[Mito [PL]]

MOM GET THE CAMERA

Okay, I'm absolutely positively totally hyped. OHHHHH

[Nightmare]

And I thought you've been smuggling screens from other games into the ScreenCap contest!

[Cyborg17]

That's incredible! Very hyped! Are the models originals?? I can't understand what they are saying at the end of the intro on my phone. 

[0rph3u5]

*looks for a spot to watch*

[Colonol Dekker]

What a lovely birthday present...you shouldn't have

[HLD_Prophecy]

Noice!

[General Battuta]

Hellllllllllll yeah

[TechnoD11]

Now this is fantastic!

[AdmiralRalwood]

first thought: holy **** cool!

second thought: hehehe, durrrius

...yeah, my thoughts exactly

[General Battuta]

I don’t get it.

[Darius]

I solemnly swear i am not self inserting as a mining station.

[Nyctaeus]

Make this happen!

[General Battuta]

Ohhhh lol

[CapellaGoBoom]

most impressive!

[Darius]

In this thread I'll be giving out some world and gameplay information about the setting of Solaris.
First of all I'll be going through each of the Great Powers - the Federation, Combine and Commonwealth.

Today's post will be about the player faction in the 10-mission first release, the Atlantean Federation.

But first, some political background.


Great Powers

The Miranda Accord of 2236 was signed into effect amongst the ashes of the Great War. The war was remarkable in the excesses of the tactics and weapons used, harkening back to the unrestrained industrial warfare of centuries ago. Unrestricted nuclear orbital bombardment had left several planets ecologically devastated, including Earth. By the time of ceasefire, billions of souls had perished. Humanity would not survive another such war.

A conference attended by representatives of every sovereign star nation set into motion a solemn, binding vow - never again will such widespread destruction visit humanity's homes among the stars.

In addition to finalising the terms of armistice, a major tenet of the treaty was drafted to prevent another such tragedy by restricting the storage and deployment of spaceborne nuclear weapons to capital ships. Further treaty restrictions to nuclear proliferation limited capital ships to the three recognised Great Powers: the Atlantean Federation, Sinarus Combine and Alban Commonwealth. If any nation violated these restrictions, an automatic declaration of war by the three Great Powers would be enacted to enforce the treaty.




"Liberty. Independence. Justice."

The Atlantean Federation is a Great Power.

The Federation came into being as a military alliance of nation states to provide mutual defense against the authoritarian Combine. Mindful of the threat the monolithic Sol government represented, member states of the Atlantean Federation swiftly passed a constitution guaranteeing the political freedoms and autonomy of its systems.

A mosaic of varying cultures and political beliefs, the Federation covers a vast territory that includes several resource-rich systems. These critical resources helped support a massive wartime armament investment during the Great War. Though the war involved most major powers in the galaxy, Federation ships made up the bulk of anti-Combine forces, and it was Federation warheads which devastated Earth from orbit. The fledgling alliance came out of the conflict with significant territorial and economic gains, overtaking every other rival to become the pre-eminent power in Terran space.



The Federation has the largest military by tonnage of the Terran powers. A significant military industrial complex powers the Federation economy. Fleet doctrine centres around formations of specialised escorts supporting the power projection missions of carriers and battleships. Federation Naval Operations prefers the use of kinetic launchers to the less reliable Coyote anti-ship missile for warship primary armament.


Coming soon - the Sinarus Combine.

[Colonol Dekker]

As a resident of Earth, I'm pretty inclined to dislike the federation and feel that, probably rightly, that I'll side with the glorious Combine forces.

[0rph3u5]

As a resident of Earth

You should really expand your horizons. 

A significant military industrial complex powers the Federation economy.

Clear sign that this state is destined to "backslide" - question is going to be, temporary or permanent?

[Colonol Dekker]

As a resident of Earth

You should really expand your horizons. 

I honour the homeworld by never leaving it