Endings and Final Choices

Conquest: Become the Momentary Master of a Fraction of a Dot (in the demo)

Destroy every other civilization. In the demo, the game ends here. In the full game, with the world finally yours, an alien civilization makes contact.

The final choice. You choose:

• 1. Accept the alien overlords, and let them guide your people to become an elder race.
• 2. Reject them, and fight off the invasion.

The title is Carl Sagan's, from Pale Blue Dot.

Science: Reverse-Engineer a UFO (planned)

UFOs crash-land around the map throughout the game, each leaving an artifact behind. Pay attention: after a few turns the wreck is hidden again. Research Exobiology to train the Man in Black, who can sweep the area around him for artifacts you never saw land. Recovering an artifact starts a countdown, and every further artifact speeds it up. When it runs out, alien technology is yours.

The final choice. You choose:

• 1. Reveal the aliens to the world and try to unite humanity. Anyone who disagrees declares war on you, and the alien technology stays yours alone.
• 2. Turn it into a weapon. Rival UFO programs carry on (and can take artifacts from your units), and in time they can unlock alien technology for themselves.

Economic: You Can Buy Happiness (still in design)

Still on the drawing board: an ending built on cornering the world's rarest goods, from culturally unique trade resources to legendary goods, and perhaps one great crafted mega trade good.

OTHER ROADS TO VICTORY

Not every empire wins with armies, science or money.

Diplomatic: Achieve World Peace (planned)

When 80% of the world is bound together by mutual defensive pacts, you can ask the world for lasting peace.

The final choice. Every civilization chooses:

• 1. If everyone agrees, the world is at peace, and you win.
• 2. Anyone who refuses finds the rest of the world declaring war on them.

Culture: Make the World Live as One (planned)

Spread your ideology until 80% of the world shares it, then ask the world to adopt it as the world ideology.

The final choice. Every civilization chooses:

• 1. If everyone accepts, you win.
• 2. If anyone refuses, the world splits: everyone who accepted goes to war with everyone who refused.

Religion: Convert the World to the One True Religion (planned)

Wipe out every other religion and bring every city in the world into your faith. No vote and no second chances: every city, one faith.

NOT ALL ENDINGS ARE HAPPY…

Some endings close the game for everyone. Build the wrong wonder, ignore the wrong warning, trust the wrong machines, and the world ends on your watch.

Apocalypse: Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (planned)

Build the Doomsday Device wonder. If its owner is ever nuked, the device goes off and the game ends in apocalypse.

The final choice. You choose:

• 1. Announce it, and put the whole world on notice: nuke me and nobody wins.
• 2. Keep it secret, and let some unsuspecting rival find out the hard way.

Apocalypse: Induce Catastrophic Climate Change (planned)

Push climate change far enough to make half the map uninhabitable. Then every civilization faces one question: are we ready to take climate change seriously and join the international effort to undo the damage?

The final choice. Every civilization chooses:

• 1. Yes: join the climate agreements and try to stop it.
• 2. No: reject them, and everyone who signed goes to war with everyone who didn't.

Apocalypse: Become a Biological Bootloader (planned)

Build a military that is 80% automated units, and every turn there is a chance your machines wake up. Nobody gets to vote on this one.

Back to the Roadmap.

Everything here is the current plan, not a promise. Dates, features and details can change as playtesting teaches us what works.