EXODE is a space colonization game on the HIVE blockchain, based on an original story.
After mankind has colonized many worlds, it faces extinction; brutally and with no forward warning. In this desperate situation, players are space captains doing their best to save people and escape to another galaxy. Players have a ship and a crew, but also a collection of assets to trade and receive a planet after their jump.
Feel free to check our concept video or wiki to learn more about it!
The following article was shared to our playerbase, and added to Project Hope after being invited to do so.
This is like, our hello post to the great PH community of authors!
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Twenty one.
Twenty one cultures your crew members can come from.
That amount can be mind-blowing.
But this is our story.
2325 has seen colonization.
2325 has seen progress.
2325 will see... destruction.
But before this happens... BEFORE THIS HAPPENS!
Let's share the last warcry of humanity, the last efforts of mankind: how they were before, how strong was civilization, how big was our Space Federation. Let's remember how it was. Let's close our eyes, and think about it.
And obviously open your eyes, to read this again.
Let's remember how great was our Federation.
And unfortunately, how authoritative, capitalistic, and corrupt it had become, as well...
COMMON WORLDS IN 2325
Old Earth
Let's speak first of Old Earth, or Terra.
You won't find Terrans often in our galaxy, but they are all well taught in Federal Values and Administration. They are trained to fill the ranks of the immense administration of Space Federation.
Terrans are privileged people, and as such, are despised by colonists and have less Popularity. Even if they lived in a polluted, over-industrialized world, and even if a large number of them fell into poverty because of competition with colonies, the ones remaining are now rich and have their family enjoying life in protected bubbles.
They did not know the true hardship of colonization or how unfair the Space Federation was to colonists. They are profiting from settlers. That is why they are disliked by others.
The First Colonies
The first colony was Mars, and the second, Europa.
Mars was an international effort before the Space Federation as we know it existed. It started as an experiment and a science colony. It evolved as a disciplined citizen center, with skillful colonists selected from many, all working toward a global effort to colonize more planets and adapt mankind to this new challenge.
Mars colonists enjoy a bonus to Science and Discipline. However, Mars has a long past and tried several times to become independent, meaning some grudges remain against Federation. Mars has a lack of Federal Values in its culture.
Europa, on the other hand, was different. Advertised as a much more enjoyable place to live in, Europa used martian discoveries and was settled by the richest among the rich. Science, Planetary skills and Piloting are the useful things people have practiced in their spare time and instruction.
Corporate Worlds
Entire planets have been licensed to corporations.
Because, why not? Who could have a say against it?
It was so easy to cheat the democratic system with billions. Ads, speeches, smear campaigns, all were tools refined so much to perfection. Elected Politicians were already always corporatists; even when they were playing the opposite card.
Corporations were then well settled in early civilization but they had another advantage to play.
It was too hard and perceived as too conflictual for nations to claim entire planets, and yet there were so many planets to claim! So when the Space Federation started, it also started selling planets in exchange of billions.
And billions came.
And with them, full authority on planets, on colonists, on your entire life in one corporation. Sure, the corporation gave you a home, a job, revenues and a future. As long as you were useful though; you always had to take care of not losing this "edge".
In 2325 many colonists are coming from Corporate Worlds. They enjoy a finer practice of robots and human enhancements, giving them a strong bonus to Cybernetics, as well as Administration and Leadership thanks to corporate culture about being so effective and organized.
However, the highly competitive mindset of corporations made them people building on competition with other teams and always accepting better opportunities, every person securing his own future, leading to a global lack of Loyalty.
Federal Colonies
With time, competition between corporations led to Corporation Wars, which in turn showed how licensing planets was not as good as it sounded.
Space Federation - called the United Federation of Planets, or "UPF" - also grew stronger as Corporations became more and more divided. New planets were colonized, this time by the Federation itself!
This was the time of our strongest Space Rush.
The Federation needed more and more new colonies to sustain corruption in the old worlds. Initial declarations of rights were lost to global interest and capitalistic needs and it quickly evolved as an authoritative government, with violent police force, military assaults, federal anthems sung, partial history taught to children, just as it was some time before, and defining all opponents as dangerous terrorists.
The Federation was always at war with any colony not paying its taxes, and also at war with any colony thriving enough to be self-sustainable and become a danger.
As more colonies came, the old worlds needed to make sure competition would not trample them.
In turn, some colonies revolted. In some cases it succeeded, such as when the Drachian Republic was formed. But many federal colonies also existed peacefully, and a few of them even thrived. Some are very special, and you will learn more about: Achean Gangs, Linovian Elites, Perseans, and others.
But most of the other colonies were rather poor. Federal Colonists were then extremely varied in their skillset and personal story, with a small bonus to a random skill.
One common point is that living in the frontier worlds, places harder to mankind, made them always skilled in Signals and Radar . Not being able to communicate because of an earthquake, a storm, a nebula, a passing comet, a damaged antenna, which were common occurrences in these worlds harder to colonize? that would be the same as being dead!
Also, they always had to settle in harsh places and find any possible resource they could; making them also skilled a bit in Planetary life.
However, they always lacked the control on the global scope of things. Federation always asked their obedience, not their ability to rule, making them less skilled in Administration.
Spaceborns
Before men came to planets, they built spaceships. And once they reached a place, they often constructed a station. A small one... just something to sustain and study this planet while waiting for others to come. And sometimes, and even, often, it will never go further than that.
This led to many generations being born and actually living their entire life in small ships in space.
You already know about the Nomad Fleet - one of the most important factions of spaceborn people, with some gigantic transports.
... but many of the spaceborn are just isolated families.
Spaceborn know their stuff about ships, making them quite able in Mechanics and Spaceships. But they are at a complete loss once on a planet, making them low in Planetary skill.
The Underworld
Society is always about layers. Some people live above some issues that others have to endure. This is not fair! For a time some declarations of rights pushed things toward a positive, and there was hope, but it did not last or could not be sustained.
As the Federation became more corrupt more people were left behind. The leftovers, the castaways, all ended with different solutions to their situation.
Some accepted short duration low paid contracts and always moved from planet to planet. Many of them ended up poor or in a worse situation than when they started, yet they were still trying to make the best of the situation with their family. They accepted welcome package after welcome package from any corporation, switching from bonus to bonus. They were called Shims and were marginalized as profiteers; Shims move often as a family, are lower than middle class.
Some tried an independent life as a miner or explorer, or lone privateer accepting dangerous tasks; many of them died. The survivors suffered from radiation damage and were often forgotten in a faraway planet. You often see them with varied implants, using whatever leftover thing they find on space hulks to survive. They were called Clynosts.
But others chose to stay. They live in bunkers, they live in slums, they live in secret subterran cities. This is what we really call the Underworld. Underworlders, or unders, or uwies, are mostly illegals, unregistered citizens, living away of society in ignored secret layers of the very own thriving planets that Federation cherish the most.
They don't carry out guns and don't threaten society, keeping a low profile and carrying on with their life. They do hack a few supplies and sustain themselves off society, but mostly built another sort of society of their own, trading service for service.
Underworlders are skilled in Stealth, Programming, and surprisingly skilled in defeating protections and defense programs on their own, giving them some low bonus in Warfare. They of course rejected Federal doctrines, meaning they have very low Federal Values.
Shims and Clynosts are an entirely different caste of leftovers.
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Today we shared seven of the 28 backgrounds and faction modifications implemented in E. Of these, 21 are backgrounds, and 7 are faction modifications which can apply 'above' a given background.
During Crew Registration you are allowed to investigate your crew skills and backgrounds. You will also receive upgrade points to improve some skills. For significant points cost, you will also be able to reroll a character's background.
Backgrounds will always give you a background trait and also some important modifications to your skills. Some rare backgrounds also give additional traits or even, equipment.
Next articles will tell you more about Shims, Clynosts, Linovians, Perseans, Psionic Academists and Templars - among other options that may appear!
The intent of the Backgrounds feature is twofold. Not only does this feature deliver more about depth, variations in gameplay but also your 'unique experience', but it also goes a long way in terms of 'fairness'; as such variety can be received already from starters thanks to crew generation.
Thanks to this, players will keep a deeper connection with eXode lore, and will also explore how to complete their citizen roster with the ones of other players, thanks to trade in the new galaxy.
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More information about EXODE can also be found on our website, our Discord, or multiple posts such as this one about our epic characters, or this trailer made by a fan, or this review or this one . A summary of latest posts and events is also here.
Also running a witness node:
You can check the post about it here and if you like what this means you can:
See you soon in eXode!
