The unknown threat would be the perfect background for a campaign.

Let Vasari/TEC/Advent unite and send out an exploration force that finds out the true nature of the evil, which has already befallen the fringes of the battlefield, forcing the three empires to an uncomfortable truce due to a common enemy.

The nature of the enemy must of course be exotic. Maybe a bit Event Horizon style.

I kind of like the not-being-able-to-phase-out mechanic. That would make players think and plan assaults against them VERY seriously...

i was always thinking everyone would have to unite in the end... honestly... i dont know why the vasari thought running away at any cost to any civilisation in their way, would work in the end, they are only deferring the inevitable... given, maybe their arrogance makes them resistant to asking for help, already thinking they are superior to everyone else...

anyway, i think the not jumping out thing is good, although there was some story bible somewhere that said one vasari ship returned badly damaged, with its crew gone mad from fear or something, so, maybe som tweaking?

and the uniting thing would provide some later game twists as the Advent betray the TEC, or some TEC commander decides to betray a Vasari commander because of the atrocities committed by the Vasari, all sorts of stuff...

however, on the other hand, i would LOVE to see some new super fleet created by merging TEC, ADVENT and VASARI technology.... ooooo, my mouth is watering already

and omg, i just thought of it... what would this energy-race's starbase look like? or their weapons? or planet bombing abilites or culture? very very cool

it said one ship was badly damaged, but what i was thinking was that the no-phase-out thing would only come into play once the darkness had captured (specifically not colonized, as they do not breed, but do something else, which im still working on ) a planet. so the ship could have seen the destruction befalling the dark fleet, and phase out while taking heavy damage before the darkness captured the planet. that makes sense. i think.

actually, i think the manual lore of the vasari does say that the entire dark fleet was sent to subdue the threat, and one heavily beaten warship appeared at one of the fringe worlds of the empire later on. so im pretty sure the whole dark fleet was destroyed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star

maybe phase spaced colapesed(sp??) creating a neutron star sending out maddining and transimition blocking waves?

 EDIT: nawwww... its the borg

 

Quoting guywhoyoudontno,

reply 10

from ze_doom's post i hav now created the origins of the darkness, so here we go.

at the center of the Vasari Empire, something goes terribly wrong at the Vitsurka Experimental Transport Lab. Space around it combusts, forming a neutron star. but the affects of the experiment infuse themselves into the star, making it come alive, splitting itself in a sort of asexual reproduction, rapidly at first, so that in minutes there are thousands of these smaller energized particles. unknown to the Vasari, as all nearby were destroyed in the explosion, they collect together, forming ships and fleets of varying sizes. then they launch themselves at the Vasari homeworlds.

not too bad, huh? im pretty pleased with it. and sorry, warloklord, im kind of taking over ur post. my bad.

frist can i have for that

secondto cater to the destuciton thing it could be a expanding quasar??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar

nawww..... its the borg

doesn't the returning armada research in the game imply that even in the timeline of vanilla sins, the vasari make contact with their old empire and get them to send ships to help in the tec/advent front of their current war?

I get the impression that RA makes contact with other Vasari survivor fleets. When they fled whatever happened, the fleet that eventually hit TEC territory probably wasn't the only group of Vasari with the good sense to make a run for it when it became clear that their almighty fleets got creamed by something horrible. You get the whole mythic "survivors scattered to the four winds" stuff. (dispite there being neither winds nor wind directions in space )

RA is probably the means through which survivor fleets contact eachother and then set up a phase lane to join forces. (the RA fleet being a small group, all too happy to join some properly organised/resourced group) 

Personally, I dislike the idea of an organic race or anything similar. Don't ask me why, I just don't really like them. Plus, if you had to fight giant space whales IC would probably get all sorts of animal rights groups filing lawsuits

I gaint swarm of rouge nanobots would make sense story-wise, but I would think that an empire as advanced as the Vasari would have taken some precautions against such a thing happening.

Thats already kind of been done. Take a look at the campaign for Supreme Commander Forged Alliance.

I would really like a new race, but I think that making it be whatever is chasing the Vasari is a bad idea. If they (whatever they are) were able to wipe out the entire Dark Fleet at the height of the Vasari's power, with only one ship escaping, the TEC, Advent, and Vasari remnants should be a pushover. For the new race to make sense storywise, I would think that they would have to be incredibly unbalanced.

Balance wise, I also think that energy beings would also be a bad idea. I mean, how would the other races fight that? Wouldn't they just absorb any energy attacks (lasers, beams, etc)? And solid projectiles would just go right through them.

I really have no idea what they should be. This is all just what I think.

Have the Vasari even met the Advent yet? The Advent have drained their worlds of resources so the Vasari probably won't want to conquer them. The Advent could align themselves with the Vasari to destroy the TEC together. The Vasari get the resources of the TEC planets as they pass through the region and the Advent get to enslave the TEC and exact their revenge.

please, giant space squids, not whales. its totally different.

VICTORY IS MINE!

and to the guy above me... your idea is more lame than my..... FLYING WHALE!!!!

Properties:

Planet bonus - Asteroids, neutral areas (extractors... someone has to live there) + Ice + a bit of Terran

It would explain why the Vasari hadn't seen them at all, and the dead zone started in the Core/inner worlds.

Culture Bonus - Something like "Chance to hit" or something... debuffs, generally.

Also explain how they managed to take out the Dark Fleet... can't hit what you can't see, what you can't feel, what you can't hear... And surrounded in enemy culture, too (tsk).

General Fleet - Paper-thin, moderate damage, but hard to hit in general (especially so with the culture debuffs), perhaps a Damage Absorb property/Cap Ability? Weak to Energy Weapons (Beam + Laser). How about Immune to all Neutral Area Debuffs (eh? that'd be nice...)

It's different, that's for sure. Advent = Energy, so they'd much rather not get involved, thank you very much.

Superweapon - Massive debuff. Dunno what it could be, just a debuff (like HitChance? or give the Absorb Ability out, or something). Fleet support. Or, could hijack trade ships (seriously screw with someone's economy...) Sends a corruption signal? Nah, too Advent... Screw over all AM stores? that'd mess with a fleet... Allow to hit Neutral Areas (precise targetting... hit areas with Neutral Extractors? Auto-cap extractors?)

Dunno what it could be, but what it does isn't that hard to come up with. Just think of things not already covered.