Vasari

The Vasari were once part of an ancient empire that was destroyed by an unknown threat that sent them on the run, right into conflict with the TEC and the Advent.

History

The ancient Vasari Empire once ruled over countless worlds. Beginning at the galactic core, the empire expanded uniformly, and brought hundreds of alien races under its control. While most of the species the Vasari encountered were primitive and peacefully subjugated, more advanced civilizations were harshly enslaved. Once conquered, these species were integrated into Vasari society as “valued citizens,” giving them minimal standing in the Empire. Each world was then locked down and ruled from vast orbital structures in order to minimize the chance of rebellion.

As with all empires, the Vasari civilization's fall began from within. Ten thousand years ago the inner worlds of the empire suddenly fell silent. Expecting nothing more than rebellion by the local species, a local wing of the Dark Fleet was sent to restore order, but no status reports were ever received. Soon they lost contact with three more worlds, and while Internal Intelligence deliberated on the response of what could only be the work of traitors, several more worlds went dark – including the ancient Vasari homeworld.

The rate of expansion of this unknown enemy was astonishing, far exceeding even that of the entire Dark Fleet. As a last resort, the Dark Fleet Veerr brought the bulk of their forces back from the expansionary frontier for a blind assault on whatever was eating its way out of the empire‘s core worlds. When a single, heavily damaged warship from the Dark Fleet appeared out of phase space in orbit of a planet on the empire‘s perimeter, the inhabitants decided to board the ship. What they found were the remains of a once battle-hardened crew driven mad with fear.

In a rare act of autonomy, the colony made the decision to evacuate to a system far from the Empire. It would prove to be the last time they would ever see Vasari space. For the next 10,000 years the Vasari refugee fleet travelled from system to system, dropping warning beacons on their way, spending only enough time to replenish their resources before moving on. No matter how far the Vasari travel, their warning beacons fall silent; their unknown adversary continues its march toward their extermination.

They eventually arrived in Trader Space crushing any militia that was in their way and enslaving the populace of the worlds under their control. This continued until the arrival of the TEC a new military force backed by the Traders to fight the Vasari. The once-clear advantage the Vasari held against the Traders quickly dissipated into a tug of war for control.

Ten years later, a new foe known as the Advent, psionically gifted cousins of the TEC humans, arrived on the Eastern fringe of the Trader Space. The TEC had to divert forces giving the Vasari the chance to advance against the Coalition. The battles began to take their tolls until the development of Starbases to fortify their territories. The three races met at a standstill unable to push territories without the loss of a great amount of their forces.

Five years after the fortification of their systems diplomacy was finally given a chance. The Vasari knew the ancient enemy was going to arrive soon and a consensus on what to do needed to be made. From here the internal workings of the Vasari shifted and two philosophies developed. One being the original concept of "Evacuate, Siphon, Run" and the other belief that the Vasari needed to stop running and needed to make a stand against the Ancient Enemy alongside the Advent and the TEC. The two philosophies eventually split the Vasari fleet in two as they parted ways.

Vasari Culture

Vasari culture is unique compared to the other two races. Where both the TEC and Advent function on progression and free will, many Vasari fleets make use of enforced labor to further the needs of their empire's growth. It wasn't until very recently that many Vasari began working in cooperation with the other races, and gave up on using slavery as a primary means of production.

Another large portion of Vasari culture is the use of eugenics to "advance" Vasari growth. This is done through directed reproduction and the artificial augmentation of their genome. Genetic adaptation is also used on humans to increase their survivability on different types of planets. Examples of this process include genetic changes to respiration so that toxic atmospheres can be survived without the need for environmental suits, or to produce massively increased sub-dermal fat to increase body temperature on frigid worlds.

Nanomedicine is also used to improve living conditions under Vasari rule, increasing the life span of their subjects or introducing nanites into the bloodstream of Vasari subjects to increase survivability from any traumatic force.

Vasari Technology

Vasari Technology is far more advanced than the industrious TEC's and is only rivaled by the PsiTech of the Advent. They specialize in genetic manipulation, nanotechnology, and phase space technology.

Nanotechnology

Vasari have a huge specialization in Nanotechnology. It is used in the daily life of almost every citizen under Vasari rule. It has versatile uses such as making spacecraft armor more laced and decreasing their mass, or improving the quality of products that are used in Vasari trading goods as well as medicinal uses. Vasari Nanites also have offensive purposes such as jamming enemy space craft, repairing their own, or even being used in strikes against enemy orbital structures.

Phase Technology

Vasari phase mastery is incomparable, and they possess the strongest sensors in the known universe being able to detect all enemy movement across multiple star systems. The Vasari's knowledge of phase space is so vast that they can even hide their ships and orbital structures within it should it be deemed necessary. Their FTL communications systems are also very specialized allowing them to field much larger fleets than both the Advent or TEC.

Testaments to the power of Vasari knowledge of phase space are the Kostura Cannon and Phase Stabilizer, the latter of which allows them to create their own phase lanes to increase the mobility of their fleets.

Vasari Gameplay Properties

Vasari Fleet Properties:

• Vasari frigates and corvettes tend to be individually heavier than their TEC and Advent counterparts, with superior durability and firepower per ship. However, they are also significantly more expensive than their human equivalents in terms of credits, resources and fleet supply. As a result, they tend to have the lowest cost and supply efficiency for their class.
• The Vasari acquire Long Range Frigate|long-range frigates earlier than the other factions, requiring only 1 Weapons Lab. They acquire corvettes later than the other factions, needing 2 Weapons Labs.
• Vasari cruisers are all very powerful and useful. The Overseer acts as their healing/defensive support cruiser while the Subverter is their disruptive/offensive support cruiser, and both are extremely effective at their roles. The Enforcer is the Vasari's heavy combat cruiser, and is a class leader in terms of both individual power and cost/supply efficiency.
• The Vasari do not have an an anti-structure cruiser, but instead have a dedicated minelayer, the Ruiner. This ship allows them to use mines more flexibly and offensively than the other factions, as unlike the TEC they can be laid in hostile or uncolonizable gravity wells, and unlike the Advent, they do not require any antimatter or use of squadrons.
• Vasari ships exhibit a balance between hull durability and shield power, with stronger shields and weaker hulls and armor than the TEC, but weaker shields and stronger hulls and armor than the Advent. The Vasari have moderate research options in both armor and shielding.
• Vasari ships wield energy weapons or phase missiles, or both. Phase missiles are the only weapon in the game capable of bypassing shields and shield mitigation, and their chance to do so scales strongly with research, making them perhaps the most lucrative branch of weapons research in the game. The ability to bypass mitigation makes them powerful against any target that has shielding, and in particular against capital ships and titans which have very high maximum mitigation. Phase missiles are also exceptionally powerful against Advent ships whose durability is comprised primarily of shield points, with relatively weak and poorly-armored hulls beneath them.
• Vasari strikecraft are individually much tougher and offensively powerful than those of the other factions, but have fewer units per squadron, with only 3 bombers or 4 fighters per squad. This is an advantage against area-effect abilities such as Flak Burst or Telekinetic Push as they remove a smaller fraction of overall squadron hit points. Vasari bombers also have the advantage of using phase missiles, which makes them exceptionally dangerous in the late game.
• The Vasari's colonizing capital ship is the Jarrasul Evacuator, which temporarily provides extra construction frigates upon colonization. It's also a respectable warship with its powerful Nano Disassembler and Gravity Warhead abilities, and later on becomes a fearsome planet-bomber with Drain Planet.
• The Vasari's multipurpose battleship is the Kortul Devastator, which can absorb significant amounts of firepower thanks to its sheer resilience and Power Surge ability, defend against massed strikecraft attacks with Jam Weapons, drain antimatter from enemy ships and interrupt their abilities with Disruptive Strikes, and eventually do chaining area-effect damage with Volatile Nanites.
• The Vasari's capital-sized carrier is the Skirantra Carrier, which in addition to providing significant long-range firepower with its squadrons, also acts as a mobile repair platform with its Repair Cloud ability, and can temporarily enhance its fleet's firepower with abilities such as Scramble Bombers and Replicate Forces.
• The Vasari Loyalists' Vorastra Titan emphasizes mobility, both on a strategic level with its ability to Deploy Phase Stabilizers, and on a tactical level with its in-gravity-well Micro Phase Jump, which makes it by far the most agile titan. It is also the only titan to do area effect damage with its standard weapons fire, thanks to the passive Desperation ability. In addition to this, the Vorastra is very tough even by titan standards and the Micro Phase Jump and Desperation make it even harder to bring down. Finally, at high levels it can use The Maw, increasing its threat value significantly.
• The Vasari Rebels' Kultorask Titan is a relatively fleet-support oriented titan, with its abilities all based around combinations with Nano Leech. It can disable enemy frigates, drain their health and antimatter, deal significant area-effect damage at higher levels, and heal its allied fleet. It is however relatively weak against strikecraft and corvettes and cannot concentrate its firepower as well as the Vorastra. Its lethality against frigates however skews the enemy's ideal fleet composition towards strikecraft and corvettes or capital ships, and this fact can give the Vasari player a strategic upper hand in terms of ship counters.

Vasari Defense Properties:

• Vasari acquire repair facilities with only 1 Weapons Lab, but they are weaker than those of the other factions and cannot be upgraded.
• Vasari starbases are uniquely advantaged over their human counterparts in that they are easier to research (with only 2 Weapons Labs required), are created from colony frigates as opposed to dedicated construction cruisers, and are capable of moving around within the gravity well in which they are built. This makes them a powerful force multiplier in the early game and an important strategic tool. Their mobility enables them to move into enemy fleets and open fire with all of their weapons batteries, and their durability can be upgraded to greater levels than the starbases of the other factions. The trade-off for these advantages is that Vasari starbases do not possess any area-effect abilities, and hence do not scale as well as human starbases against massed fleets.
• Vasari defense turrets are armed with phase missiles and can be upgraded with the Disruptor Nanites ability, which makes them relatively strong against any capital ships and titans that come in range, as the ability to temporarily disable hull, shield and antimatter regeneration has a greater numerical impact on these larger vessels.
• Vasari hangar defenses can be equipped with the Phasic Trap ability, allowing them to temporarily phase out limited numbers of enemy strikecraft.
• Vasari can research Phase Jump Inhibitors with only 2 Weapons Labs, giving them the earliest access to the technology.
• Vasari can acquire the ability to detect inbound phase jumps with only 1 Imperial Lab, and can gain interstellar travel with only 2, earlier than any other faction. With 8 Imperial Labs they can research the ability to detect all phase jumps occurring anywhere on the map.
• Vasari can build Phase Stabilizer structures after conducting the necessary research requiring 5 Imperial Labs. This gives them a unique advantage in the ability to create direct phase links between otherwise distant gravity wells within a star system. This means that their fleet can defend or attack several fronts with relative ease, and reinforcements can quickly be delivered to the front lines from production facilities located safely at core planets. With further research, starbases can be upgraded with Phase Stabilizer Arrays to create even more secure portals. Various alignment-specific abilities such as the Loyalists' Deploy Phase Stabilizer, and the Rebels' Starbase Mobilization and Shared Network technologies further increase the strategic options that Phase Stabilizers create. And finally, the Vasari's superweapon, the Kostura Cannon, can turn the Stabilizers into a dangerous late-game offensive tool by allowing the creation of portals deep inside enemy territory, bypassing border defenses and giving the Vasari fleet extreme strategic mobility.

Vasari Economy Properties:

• Vasari scouts are uniquely advantaged in that they can capture resource extractors in uncolonizable gravity wells, something that the human factions need colony frigates to do. This has the potential to give a Vasari player an early game resource advantage, depending on how abundant neutral extractors are on the map.
• Vasari acquire trade the latest of all the factions, needing 4 Imperial Labs in order to do so. This makes their credit economy somewhat slower to build up. They can however upgrade their trade abilities with further research, which strengthens their late-game economy.
• Vasari can upgrade the population of volcanic planets further than any other faction, although the research is expensive and is of limited utility given that volcanics still support relatively small populations.
• Vasari can improve their metal and crystal production simultaneously with shared research topics, as opposed to the separate research topics of the other factions.
• Vasari can research technology to improve population growth rates early on.
• Vasari have research that improves resource gain on scuttling.