Proposals/Late Storyline Ideas

The following are some storyline ideas for late in the game. Most are taken from BTAxis' design docs.

Aliens Increase Assault

• The alien mind begins shifting its focus from infection and subversion to retaliation and destruction, attempting to keep PHALANX from becoming a threat to its goals on Earth. UFOs start attacking suspected PHALANX installations and performing air raids on population centres to force PHALANX responses. (BTAxis docs)
  • I think air raids might represent a difficult departure from current game mechanics, but I do think it would be nice if there were a decisive point in the game where more terror missions and larger battle UFOs began arriving. --H-hour 22:21, 14 May 2012 (SAST)

Reverse-engineer FTL drive

• PHALANX scientists reverse-engineer the alien FTL technology. Using this technology, a manned PHALANX scoutship visits distant worlds, long since raped by XVI. This leads to the discovery of the bulk of the backstory. (BTAxis docs)
• Alien Mothership is discovered (BTAxis docs)

Alien Mothership

• A failed PHALANX assault on the alien mothership reveals a powerful gravitic shield surrounding it. (BTAxis docs)
  • My only concern is that we would either have to force the player to sacrifice his own units or try to explain why his units weren't used in the assault attempt. --H-hour 22:27, 14 May 2012 (SAST)
• New images and sensor data from the assault allows PHALANX scientists to discover the aliens' wormhole scheme. (BTAxis docs)
• PHALANX develops a plan for assaulting the mothership and destroying it by way of sabotaging the wormhole device. (BTAxis docs)
• Destruction of one of the mothership's shield generators by means of an FTL tactical weapon. This allows a PHALANX FTL dropship to slip through the shield and dock. (BTAxis docs)
• Destruction of the mothership by triggering the wormhole device inside the shield. (BTAxis docs)

Antimatter Forge

• Capture of the carrier leads PHALANX to learn about the structure of the alien home system, particularly the make of its infrastructure. Strategic analysis reveals that there is one bottleneck for the alien war effort: the Antimatter Forge, which provides for the bulk of their power needs. The Forge itself is built into a gargantuan battlestation, carved out of a melted asteroid. It's large enough that Earth's nuclear arsenal would hardly make a dent, and a PHALANX craft couldn't even hope to approach while its defenses are active; however, the station's power needs - including the energy that it converts into the more-portable antimatter - are provided by massive solar mirrors, which feed into collimator stations and thence into the station. PHALANX determines that one or more of the collimators is vulnerable.
• After the collimator station is taken over, the collimator's laser is redirected to disable other collimators, drawing the wrath of the hive mind but bringing the Forge's shield down long enough for PHALANX to strike it with a special missile. The payload of this missile is the FTL drive harvested from the Carrier, and while it doesn't have the power to propel the Forge entirely out of its home system, it does have enough to drop it into a rapidly decaying orbit over its home planet.
• Alternatively, the Carrier engine could transport the Forge to the Sol system for pillaging, but this seems like a risk PHALANX would not be willing to take, compared to cracking an egg full of antimatter on the surface of a hostile planet.