Millennia: Altered Destinies
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Millennia: Altered Destinies is a PC game created by Take 2 Interactive in 1995. It casts the player as a human freighter captain who finds himself transported to an alien ship. There, an alien calling himself a Hood gives the player a mission to save the Echelon galaxy which is about to be taken over by a malevolent race called the Microids. Apparently, the Milky Way is next should the player fail.
The only way to stop the Microids is to travel back 10,000 years in a specially-designed ship called XTM. It is equipped with everything the player will need to complete the mission. The player must then populate the Echelon galaxy with 4 indigenous races and ensure their development into powerful spacefaring civilizations.
The Hoods also state that this is not the first time they have tried to interfere with the timeline. To succeed, the player will have to fight off the previous attempts by the Hoods to alter the course of history.
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[edit] Description
The player is given 4 "seeds" - morphs genetically engineered by the Hoods to guide the races and communicate with the player. Without a seed, the player cannot affect the target civilization. Each race (Reptoids, Slothoids, Entomons, and Piscines) get one seed. Their lifespan is at least 10,000 years old. Also, the seeds are aware that the player is not a god, so they may not always do what they are told.
XTM is a completely self-sufficient craft equipped with an extensive historical database spanning 10,000 years which the player must use to "look ahead" on the consequences of temporal changes. The time periods are split up into centuries. Every time a "temporal storm" occurs (i.e. an event has been changed), the database is updated. XTM is not defenseless, it is equipped with a powerful energy cannon capable of fighting off entire fleets. The ship's computer ANGUS will initiate an emergency jump to a neutral planet (same time period) if XTM sustains too much damage. ANGUS is also capable of translating the 4 races' languages into English and vice versa. Travelling through space and time requires enormous amounts of energy. Fortunately, XTM is capable of absorbing gravity energy both by orbiting a planet (small amounts) and by "grazing" the atmosphere of a gas giant (large boost but potentially dangerous).
[edit] Affecting History
There are 4 basic ways to alter history in Millennia:
- Space combat - should the player win, history is altered to reflect that. If the player loses, the battle can be fought again (as far as the game is concerned, the previous time never happened).
- Communication - using XTM's communication array to contact the seed on a race's homeworld will allow the player to make suggestions and/or give orders to the seed which will usually affect the race's development. Most of the time, this is only possible during a crisis.
- Teleportation - XTM is equipped with a teleporter, allowing objects to be transported to the ship from the temple on the planet. Every time a new technology is discovered, it is brought to the temple to check with their deity (the player) if they are worthy of it. If the player takes the technology, it disappears from that race's history. The technology can then be reintroduced to the race by teleporting it back to the temple (not necessarily in the same time period). A planetary shield does not block teleportation. Once a race becomes advanced enough (IQ of 300), a blueprint of an XTM device can be teleported to the planet so that the race can build it. The 4 devices can then be used to return to our galaxy.
- Direct attack - the ship possesses a lander which is usually used to attack a structure on a planet's surface with lasers. This is a drastic step because it can accidentally (or intentionally) lead to the seed being destroyed. However, in some cases, it is necessary (e.g. to destroy the temple of a priest who will lead a religious war devastating the planet). A race may eventually develop a planetary shield protecting its homeworld from not only Microids and other races but also the player, as the lander cannot penetrate the shield.
[edit] Enemies
- The Microids, of course, will eventually try to destroy and/or conquer the 4 races. You can either try to fight them off yourself, buying one of the races 100 years with every victory, or ensure that the race develops technology to fight off the invaders (e.g. planet shield, underwater-to-orbit cannons, spaceship lasers).
- In some cases, you may have to fight the 4 races, if they attempt to conquer the others.
- The Hoods will usually show up several centuries after a race has been "seeded" to destroy it in their previous attempt to alter history. The only way to get rid of them is to destroy their ships. Once destroyed, they do not bother that race again.
- An alternate version of the player sent by the Microids in an identical XTM to ensure their domination of the Echelon galaxy. This is the most dangerous opponent as he can appear at any point in the races' histories and cause their destruction (e.g. cause a war by pretending to be the player and giving misleading orders to the seed), undoing all the player's hard work. The alternate cannot be destroyed, as his XTM will jump shortly after the player's arrives.
[edit] Main Goals
While these goals are not specified in the game, they are important stepping stones on the way to victory.
- Apparently, none of the races are capable of surviving on their own. Every time the player manages to fix something, there is another crisis several centuries later that, if unresolved, will destroy the society. The races must be "babysitted" to ensure they survive the 10,000 years of history. Often, the crisises will involve politics, in which case the player will have to choose sides. If there are multiple nations on the planet, the player must ensure that the nation with the seed must not be destroyed. Usually, these problems are settled by communicating with the seed and suggesting the proper course of action. Politics can also involve the player choosing a leader from two or three candidates, each having different ideas on how to run the government. The player must gauge each race's best form of government and attempt to implement it. The Piscines, for example, are fine with both a monarchy and a democracy, while the hive-minded Entomon must have a queen to survive.
- To successfully defend themselves against the Microids, the races must develop a technology to allow them to fight off invaders from space. This can range from "standard" sci-fi devices like planetary shields and starfighter lasers to underwater chimneys lobbing explosive bricks into orbit. Sometimes, the technology is close to being invented, but the Microids invade just before it's completed. In this case, the player must travel to that century and destroy the invasion fleet, buying the race another 100 years.
- In order to ensure the Microid defeat, the races must develop space travel and begin to colonize other worlds in the Echelon galaxy. Each race's engine technology is different, but a race that develops it first will lead the fight against the Microids and also threaten the other races with invasion. In this case, the player must actually fight the invasion fleet of one race in order to save another. Interstellar wars between two powers are also possible.
[edit] Victory
There are two ways to achieve victory in Millennia. In most cases, achieving one makes achieving the other impossible.
- Make sure each of the 4 races occupies about a quarter of the Echelon galaxy, thus creating an equilibrium. Obviously, the Microids are defeated at that point.
- Each race must achieve an IQ of 300, so that they may produce the 4 parts required to make the trip back to Earth.
[edit] Trivia
- The player's name is either McDonnald or Mack Donald. Not sure about the spelling as it is mentioned only during the intro by the Hood. He also does not speak after the intro, having ANGUS do all the talking for him.
- The manual states that there is a way to lose the game. If something irrevercibly causes the game to become unwinnable, a massive temporal storm destroys XTM and the player. However, the designers realized that all the possibilies to "fix" things offered by the game make it nearly impossible to create such a situation, so the defeat possibility was removed as redundant.
- During some jumps, the player may become stuck in a "green mist" facing a future or past version of the ship. During one of these temporal "hickups", it is possible to send and/or receive a short message to the other XTM and, possibly, alter the timeline.
- The game is not very consistent on what happens if the player jumps into the same time period more than once. This is especially evident in communications with seeds. Sometimes, the player may have to have the same conversation multiple times with a seed, as it will not be aware that the player had done this before. Other times, usually in cases involving a choice, the player can tell the seed that he changed his mind.
- Originally, the "Escape Echelon" button opened up a screen showing the ship and which (if any) of the 4 necessary devices have been completed. The designers eventually scrapped the screen and changed the button to only activate if all 4 devices are available.
[edit] Known Bugs
- After a gas giant fly-by is complete, the view usually returns to the planet. However, in rare cases, the view keeps showing moving stars, as if XTM is spinning. The only solution to the bug seems to be to load a saved game (if one is available) or restart.
- The player can take the lander to destroy a structure on a planet. If this does not follow a specific crisis, the game assumes that the morph's house has been destroyed, even if it was not. This might not be a bug but simply a way for the developers to avoid creating all possibilities from such an action.
