Development Discussion: Gallia

Gallic Development
D E T A I L E D⠀I N F O R M A T I O N⠀&⠀F E E D B A C K

Discovery 4.95.0 Patch 2
Only the most notable changes are listed.

Introduction

First of all, let's research some recent history of Gallic story development: During the invasion of 743 AGS (827 AS) of Kusari into Gallia, the KNF attempted to carry out a 'fork' move. Initial invasion forces halted and driven away from Languedoc, the KNF returned with fresh reinforcements in an attempt to destroy Fourchambault while the northern battlegroup laid siege on Nevers in the system of Burgundy. Division of the forces was supposed to sow chaos and hinder coordination of the defending Confederate forces and achieve a strategic breach on at least one of the destinations. The maneuver worked and a large fleet of the Confederal Defense Forces, including one of its flagships, the La Fierte, was caught and annihilated in Languedoc. The Burgundian offensive, however, turned to be a disaster for the KNF, with both battlegroups deployed for the operations mostly destroyed.

Nevertheless, the loss in Burgundy was affordable due to the victory in Languedoc which had opened the way to the capital planet of Ile-de-France. The fork maneuver worked as intended. Rapid deployment of the Enclave fleets from the Hebrides, however, infringed the success of further offensive on Ile-de-France and forced the KNF to return to initial positions in Languedoc and assume defensive positions in an attempt to prepare for the advance of the Enclave and to swiftly eliminate the remaining Confederate forces moving to join in with the Enclave. The latter was caught off guard by the returning Kusari fleets, yet despite the odds managed to hold long enough for the Enclave reinforcements to arrive and change the tide of the battle. Losing their momentum, the KNF had no choice but to retreat, suffering heavy losses. Hearing of the forced retreat on the southern front, the Kusari fleet in Lorraine was ordered to retreat while inflicting as much damage as possible to the local infrastructure to undermine Gallia's capabilities to launch a counter-attack.

Both sides have suffered heavy losses. Gallia lost three entire battlegroups of La Fierte, Rocroi, and Embrun, while Kusari lost half of its fleet, including the Hyono and Yamaguchi's entire battlegroups that spearheaded the invasion. While the Enclave managed to avoid the annihilation of their weathered fleets, their price for victory was the loss of Aquitaine to the Bretonians, who had exploited the departure of the Enclave's fleets and launched a successful opportunistic conquest of the system. Nevertheless, the assistance of the Enclave during Gallia's darkest hour redeemed them in the eyes of the many, allowing for the splinter states of Gallia to finally re-unite under the banner of the Gallic Union.

Infocard Changes

Ship names & infocards:
- Gallic lawful ships – Thanks to @Reeves, Gallic snubs have new fancy infocards, while caps received better infocards thanks to @Traxit's effort. My special kudos for his work on the Triumph and Gallant. Their infocards were a crime against mental sanity, and so they are now much shorter and easier to read. NG snubs, gunboat and battlecruiser are out of the league and received no update.
  - Battleship: "Remembrance" to "Charlemagne-II" – Perhaps the biggest issue with the Confederal shipline was the Remembrance-class, now Charlemagne-II. Instead of being a brand new class that used a "less aggressive approach", it's now just the renewed version of the older Charlemagne-class to the Valor-type warship family.
- Maquis ships – Just like the Gallic lawful shipline, their fighters (and bomber) infocards were updated pretty fairly roughly. Thanks to @Reeves they are now more laconic and better written. In the meanwhile, the capital ship infocards were updated by @Traxit and renamed following the player's proposal.
  - Maquis capital ships: "Perilous" to "Perentie" (Gunboat), "Penance" to "Vouivre" (Destroyer), and "Obstinate" to "Tarasque" (Battlecruiser) – Renamed to suit their snubline, so now each ship has a new infocard and a fancy name belonging to lizards and even a folklore creature. New names were proposed by @Save My Soul.
Solar names & infocards:
- Ile-de-France – Not many infocards needed changes in Ile-de-France, but some were updated while others were made shorter (poor @Emperor Tekagi will have nightmares for a while after he made Versailles' infocard less wordy).
  - "Compiegne Space Colony" to "Compiegne Military Academy" – Allow me to be honest - Gallia has way too many "Space Colonies". To reduce their density, Compiegne was changed from Space Colony to Military Academy, its background rewritten, and some references from removed Anjou with its military bases and training camps on Planet Angers were added (check Planet Chateau-Tierry's infocard).
- Burgundy – Not much has changed; the most notable is Planet Nevers which now has ~300 million inhabitants, having the number swapped with Planet Metz of Lorraine.
- Languedoc – After the merge of Dauphine into Languedoc, the system's post-merge infocards were quite a mess. Thanks to @Emperor Tekagi, following some assistance from @Kherty regarding suitable toponyms, the system is now more or less sorted infocard-wise.
  - Narbonne and Valence Bases to Lavars Base Dock A and B – After the merge of the systems it was decided these bases would become a complex where a complete shipline of the Brigands could be purchased. It was logical to have a common name for both and therefore they were renamed to Lavars Base with dockable entities known as Dock A and B. Lavars' look has been changed as well and now a bit similar to Macon and Boulogne to show that all three were built in cooperation with the Council but each had its own fate later.
- Lorraine – Yes, it's yet another rework that has stricken the system. Now Lorraine looks like an odd version of the old Lyonnais system and I hope people will like it. However, from major infocard changes there I can point out Planet Metz's population was swapped with Planet Nevers of Burgundy, and therefore it's 70 million now. The planet is on the verge of famine that may decrease this number if nothing is done about it, which presents opportunities. Verdun was named to be a Drydock to show the minimal capacity of the Maquis to maintain their fancy caps, yet they can build gunboats and even destroyers.
- Orleanais – This one was a mess. We managed to sort the majority of it and hopefully we will manage to have the rest sorted soon. Loire and Eure used to be the same nebula for some reason named the Loire by Enclave and Eure by Confederacy; no more. Now it's two pieces of the same nebula spread in the north-west part of the system. Other infocards were mostly outdated with a few exceptions. Thanks to @Kherty for assistance with toponyms.
  - Evreux Research Facility – Now we know that this is the place where GNI develops and tests new weaponry for fighters.

Missions in Gallia

Low difficulty:
- Ile-de-France – The very heart of Gallia now has a lot of low-profit missions to offer for newbies or for farming reputation. The pool of enemies, however, is limited to Gallic factions, at least for now.
Medium difficulty:
- Burgundy – Beautiful like an ice castle, Burgundy can offer average anti-snub missions for those who are not afraid of competitions. I tried to spread them wisely to increase the chance of lawful-unlawful interaction and I hope I made a success.
- Champagne – I would say this system is literally the Black Sheep of Gallia; there is very little reason to visit it unless you're hauling Aluminium Ore from Rheinland to Alesia. It has a higher mission tier than the rest of medium-difficult systems, but yet I see very few reasons to visit Champagne.
- Orleanais – Nothing particular about it.
- Languedoc – The only Gallic system which can offer a wider pool of targets for PVE farming. Nothing particular about it otherwise.
- Picardy – Nothing particular about it.
High difficulty:
- Lorraine – This system is supposed to become an activity hub involving the Maquis, Gallic Navy & Intelligence, Outcasts & GC, and perhaps even Blood Dragons (as all factions listed have ZoI in the system, and all but GC have access to capital ships). The system itself has three bases that offer high-difficulty anti-cap missions: Verdun Dockyard for Maquis and Blood Dragons, Pelussin Base for Outcasts and other groups neutral to the Brigands, and Battleship Venissieux for Gallic lawful factions.
- Provence – Activity hub for Maquis and allies versus Gallic lawful forces. So far it's worked as Maquis vs GN/GNI, so not much has changed except the placement of Monte Carlo Freeport and Battleship Cassard. I have listened to feedback about the sun's location between them and moved it up to give more space for PvE and PvP activities. Mission vignettes (zones where mission appear) are located mostly between these two stations; this should be good for boosting activity for the factions.
- Zurich – Before Lausanne Complex was captured by the Wild, Zurich had a very poor pool of missions. However, this system can now offer missions against lawful and unlawful capital ships, and wild gunboats. Wild bases, meanwhile, can offer missions for capital ships that I believe would be good in the event that Nomad official factions are looking for a place to both grind missions and have PvP outside the Omicrons. Consider this a public test for this odd concept of mine.
- Orkney – Yet another system for inter-faction interactions and PvP/PvE content. Unlike Lorraine, it can offer reasons to log and farm or fight farmers for IMG and CR, although Gallic laws claim this system as their borders, which can also lead to tensions between Gallic lawful forces and said factions. The system, however, lacks unlawful bases (only Kirkwall can be used for now, and as far as I know Outcasts can't dock at it), but perhaps it'll be changed in the future, giving Outcasts a place to dock.

Discovery 4.95.0 Patch 3
Only the most notable changes are listed.

Champagne Rework

The previous version of Champagne was large and rather grim, and the new one, I hope, has a warmer atmosphere and more pleasant for navigation as well.

It is smaller now, only 2 trade lanes of 37.5 K length each and Reims Station was made less busy following the feedback of players I asked. As well, unlawful travel distance through this system is supposed to be shorter (about 50K from Orleanais to Burgundy Jump Hole), Epernay Base was changed to a simple asteroid base and many wrecks were added to the system for a better visual narrative, telling players about the events happening here in the past.