And here come the Swaparamans, the two-headed, suction-cup-fingered, wrinkly-Pug-faced “cosmic exiles.”
The Swaparamans are Ascendancy‘s energy experts. Once their ability is charged up, they’re able to double the energy of all their ships for one day — which means traveling further, firing more weapons, or keeping the shields up for a couple more rounds of combat. In the grand scheme of Ascendancy, it’s not much of a special ability. Not even as far as ship-based attributes go. Double energy for one day every sixty-two days doesn’t compare to, say, the Snovemdomas’ passive 200% HP ship hulls, or even the Fludentri’s once-every-60-days ability to repair all their ships.
I would have been better off choosing just about any other species in Ascendancy, but I think the Swaparamans are kind of cute, I really like their ship designs, and their civilization’s history is a great jumping-off point for what serves as a “story” in this LP.
See, the Swaparamans came into being on the same planet as the Frutmaka, fungus creatures who incidentally appeared (rather briefly) in the Dubtaks run. The Frutmaka, being the galactic jerkasses they are, drove the Swaparamans off their world. Those exiles, led by the heroic Tanandanam, finally settled on a distant world — but unfortunately forgot to keep any records of the technology that allowed them to travel through space.
But now, thousands of years later, the descendants of Tanadanam are about to rediscover space flight and lead their people into the unknown.
This will be a smaller-scale run than the Dubtaks playthrough was, and probably shorter too. Rather than the “Average,” 50-star cluster, this one is a tiny, 15-star playground, in the hopes that the geography of the inevitable wars will be clearer. Which there will be plenty of, because this time I’ve downloaded the updated “Antagonizer” AI patch which makes aliens smarter and way more aggressive. You’ll notice I’m still playing in a Neutral atmosphere, but that’s because with the Antagonizer patch, even in a Peaceful game, everyone attacks you almost immediately after first contact.
It’s going to be a chaotic galaxy — especially if the Frutmaka are still out there. The Swaparamans have had quite a long time to nurse that chip on their shoulder.
