The Arcean Empire is an ancient civilization. A planet that united at the end of the "Great conquest" that nearly destroyed their world at a time when humans were still living in the jungle.
Arcean society and technology stagnated shortly after the uniting of the world. Change and "progress" were looked upon with suspicion and the world slowly developed space travel in the subsequent tens of thousands of years.
It was only when they encountered the humans, in the 22nd century (Earth Time) that the Arceans were awakened to the need for technological progress. The humans, in a short amount of time, had gone from riding horses to colonizing moons and planets in the blink of an eye. The universe, as the Arceans had known it, was ended.
The Arceans realize that research, even with the newfound knowledge of its importance, doesn't come easily to them. The technology tree of the Arceas is a bit more expensive. On the other hand, the Arceans had a lead in one particularly interesting area -- weather control. The Arcean technology tree allows them to build weather control zenith's which can increase a given planet by up to 3 levels -- a significant advantage. Of course, they'll need those advantages to overcome the more expensive nature of their technologies and their relatively poor diplomatic skills (making it harder for them to trade technologies).
This is the story of the Arcean Empire in a tiny quadrant known as the Crucible. In it, the Drengin, Arceans, and humans vie for supremacy.
This game play example is using beta 1b (internal) of the expansion pack Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor.
A promising beginning
The Arcean capital in this quadrant has a human colony near by. But we have control of the important influence resource.
The starting conditions of Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor are significantly different from the base game or Dark Avatar. For one thing, Tourism is now worth 10X as much. This makes a huge difference at the start of the game where players now can expect to see 70bc in revenue. However, the starting funds have changed to be only 3,000 instead of 5,000. So it will be up to players to build up their economies a bit more gradually.
Each civilization gets their own tech tree. Even familiar technologies are often placed in a different order than they once were. The Arceans get Weather Control which is a pretty big deal.
On the other hand, the Arceans are terrible at propulsion. Unlike the humans and other races, there is no Impulse Drive or Warp Drive or anything like that. They have to build Navigation Centers on their planets to get a speed boost.
The thing about Navigation Centers, however is that the technology itself gives you a +1 to your ship movement. Then, with the navigation center, you get another +1. Thrown in Sub-Space Drive which is basically a computer based navigator and you get another +1. What this means, ironically, is that in the early part of the game, the Arceans are the fastest race out there with ships that might be doing 5 moves per turn. In the long-run, however, they're slower but it's a big deal early on.
The Build Up
By RIGHT-CLICKING on the technology on the screen, you can find out what the technology does.
The Weather Control Zenith. The pride of the Arcean Empire. Up to 3 tiles made available.
In this version of the beta, the Arceans don't get Xeno Engineering (which is being addressed). Luckily, I was able to trade for it so I could build better starbases.
Meanwhile, the Drengin are building up.
One thing of note is that the Arceans only have one Particle Beam weapon technology (most of the others get multiple). The bad news is that it is very expensive. The good news is that there's only 1 and then it's on to bigger and better weapons.
What are they doing?
So what are the other civilizations doing?
The Drengin are moving along. Their slaveling labs aren't as good as ours. But they have less maintenance. Slaves are cheap -- less effective though.
The humans are doing pretty well. Though I happen to know their AI hasn't been updated one bit. Despite that, they have automatically adjusted to the new technology tree. Which means, of course, they'll automatically adapt to your technology tree that you create with the technology tree editor!
Fate of the Quadrant
The Terran Alliance had shrewdly managed to become the the dominant power in the quadrant. After consultations with the home guard, we were given permission to formally ally with the rising stars of the galaxy. That still left our old nemesis, Lord Kona and the Drengin Empire.
...To be continued...