Author Note

The Eon Game universe is the narration of my actual IRL pretend play starting from when I was a kid, around twelve years old. Hurricane Ivan essentially destroyed my home and most of my childhood toys (Legos) were boxed up and put into long term storage. I’ve only managed to reclaim these toys from long term storage eighteen years later. As I was still a kid and needing an outlet for recreation, I turned to the collecting of pens and pencils in lieu of tradition toys and with my imagination I envisioned them as “spaceships”, which evolved over time into “Fluidic Ships” flying through the air.

Pens and pencils already have a kind of cylinder shape that people can associate with IRL ships and submarines and it wasn’t that hard to jump to science fiction. The clip on the end of most pens became the ship’s bridge. The opening where the ballpoint came out of became a main cannon weapon. The clicker on the end became the ship’s engine.

I was obsessed with science fiction (Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Eve Online) at the time and incorporated their concepts into my pretend play. Even as an adult, I’ve continued to maintain my collections. Each era represents where I lived at the time from childhood into my thirties and as I lived, I refined my in universe concepts further and further to a point where this could be seen as a distinct universe on par with the typical science fiction universes people like to watch/play in.

Within the storyline of the Eon Game is my perspective and a small collection of “imaginary friends”. The hurricane and my own autism set into motion a childhood of having very little people to strike a friendship with and do regular social activities that kids get into. This was partially because the places I lives in lacked kids my age group at all, that my family moved every few years due to military work, and that autistic people tend to have poor social skills. I was no exception to the social skills.

The “player’s perspective” (me) is seen through eyes within factions that were/are the Red Empire before jumping to the Grey Republic and transitioning into its current (and probably final) form in the Coalition. There is some bias to support these factions but I’ve tried to be as unbiased as I could.

Factions started out as literal color codes so when people see “colored” people, I’m not talking about something like race, but people from factions that have their ships in that specific color. So for example the Red Empire have a lot of solid red colored ships and that’s what made them the Red Empire. Later on different factions stopped using the color word as part of their name (ex. the System Alliance) in order to diversify their membership ranks.

As an adult, I’ve stopped literally playing with my pen collection and more just move them around as it was more an RTS/4X game like Crusader Kings or Civilization. As one can see here, I’ve also started to record the timeline so I may remember.

The Eon Game and eras

The Eon Game, or just ‘The Game’, is a spacetime competition to see who will become the final shape and whose permission will it be everyone else will abide by. The game was created by mysterious ‘Game Masters’ but it is unknown if they truly existed or if they are a mythos to smooth some tensions. Most people do not recognize the game masters as legitimate actors.

The Eon Game has so far been divided into eras, one to seven so far. Each era corresponds to a new location and a rich history of terrain and faction challenges. A slightly more detailed timeline is closer to the bottom. As the Eon Game progresses, updates (chapters) will be uploaded.

The eras are as summarized:

The first era was in the Post-Hurricane Florida House and was primarily a conflict between the Noncolored Empire and the Colored Empire. Ship design was both limited in number and technology.

The second era at the Maryland House was marked by the implosion of the Colored Empire into many smaller Colored factions. Noncolored Empire pulled back into the shadows and underwent an internal civil war. The era was known for a significant evolution of ship design, both to improve existing ships designs as well as entirely new ones. Weaponry expanded to the main weapon types seen today. Aircraft were used experimentally.

The third era at the Yokota House was split into two mini eras. Both mini eras reduced the total number of factions and the tonnage they could support, forcing individual factions to do more with less. Shielding technology became usable and factions deployed heavy long range battleships as their main force projection. The advent of specialized artillery and sniper ships came into fruition. The foundations for capital ships started here. Tech two was considered high technology level.

The fourth era at the Melbourne House greeted the factions with large wide open territory which allowed the smaller number of third era factions to expand and conquer. The Noncolored Empire civil war concluded and a number of NCE factions came onto the scene. The first third party (not affiliated with color or noncolor groups) factions came into being. Ship design incorporated tertiary weapons to fend off the growing list of aircraft strikes. Tech three was available to the strongest factions. Capital ships were deployed in sparse numbers by the factions.

The fifth era at the Schertz House was marked by even more spread out regions which allowed the major factions to fill into them without major conflict with neighbors. A massive fight broke out between the Academy and the System Alliance and their Construction allies on both sides. The Construction factions pulled back into the shadows in the end and the Academy wiped out some smaller factions as they retreated. Direct Energy weapons and Missiles were added to armories but both were (and still are) at best uncommon. Shielding technology became an equal to Armor technology.

The sixth era at the SATX Apartment, or just the Apartment, was marked by major constriction on factions. The Apartment simply could not sustain large empires and the three main factions carved the regions up into single faction empires. Tech three was commonplace. Lower tech ships still existed, but captains had to use more than just power of their technology to win. Aircraft ceased to exist; Aircraft Cruisers were used by one-off Construction factions but in the end they retired along with the rest of their Construction factions.

The seventh era at the Crestview House was marked by a severe storm that annihilated almost all of every faction to date. Factions had to make do and fight with individual ships and small squadrons rather than massive fleets. Capital ships have yet to be deployed due to shifting terrain and increased sovereignty requirements. As of right now, some factions are recovering their strength but others are forced to remain small.

Basic Ship Designs

Ship designs of the game have mostly followed the basic concept of cruiser (small), battlecruiser (medium), and battleship (large). Module size in parenthesis. Anything smaller than a cruiser, light cruiser, or destroyer is a coastal vessel and unable to tread open waters (the open space between furniture, countertops, and walls) in and out of regions (rooms in an apartment or house). Anything bigger than a battleship is too large to dock in standard yards and must be berthed in specialized super yards. These superheavy ships are collectively known as capital ships and come in light and heavy capital designations.

Coastal vessels

Coastal vessels are named so because they are unable to travel in open waters. They are limited to coastlines. They also have limited weaponry are usually used as light transports or as civilian patrol vessels. Cruisers can blow them out of the water easily.

Cruisers, Light Cruisers, and Destroyers

Cruisers and their specialized brethren are small size oceanic vessels known for their speed, stealth, and mobility. Cruisers are usually seen as fragile but this reputation comes from the myriad of dedicated recon cruisers which have no defenses and rely almost entirely on stealth to survive. Proper combat cruisers are a solid blend of mobility and defenses with a nasty little offensive punch.

Light Cruisers are a cruiser-like hull with a very large primary weapon. They’re used to snipe enemy vessels with and have limited secondary defenses with stripped down defenses. However, high damage per shot, great penetration, and very high weapon velocity means it can deal damage to heavily defended vessels. In theory a pack of Light Cruisers could torch light fortifications but in practice they would be vulnerable to interception.

Destroyers are a cruiser sized heavy torpedo platform. Destroyers have a stripped down main cannon that is mostly there for show or for testing ranges for its torpedo complement. Torpedoes are a heavy duty short range variant of the missile family and Destroyers are set up to carry large caliber torpedoes into battle. The downside is long reload on a flimsy hull and needing to get rather close to enemy ships before attacking. Technically Destroyers can be armed with large gun turrets but torps are a better fire and forget weapon.

Battlecruisers, Heavy Cruisers, and Cruiser Killers

Battlecruisers are medium sized combat vessels that offer a blend between the more nimble cruisers and the heavier battleships. Their midweight build makes them a fine choice for the backbone of a fleet, giving commanders the ability to leverage some speed and subtlety in their orders.

Heavy Cruisers are a subset of Battlecruisers that have heavier defenses and greater range. Heavy Cruisers often fulfill a light command role or operate alongside fleet battleships as second line support as major fleet engagements favor defensive builds because volley damage can be so great.

Cruiser Killers are a special type of Battlecruiser that forgo its medium grade weaponry in favor of using Cruiser-sized equipment. The downgrade in module size allows Cruiser Killers to carry 50% more guns. This creates a ship that is very capable of decimating Cruisers while being relatively well off if a Cruiser attempts to strike back. A similar arrangement exists for Battleships but they are much rarer than the Battlecruiser type.

Battleships, Black Ops, and Marauders

Battleships are heavy warships that represent the largest sub capital ship size on the battlefield. They have the highest firepower, range, and defenses, but have little to no subtlety and stick out like a sore thumb on sensors. Battleships are often fleet flagships and tend to lead from the front.

Black Ops Battleships are a special kind of Battleship designed to use a cloaking device. In an ironic twist of fate, the most obvious and obnoxious ship type becomes the quietest and hardest to hear coming. Most Black Ops Battleships will run close range setups or dedicated sniping builds; no in-between.

Marauders are a type of Battleship that are designed for long endurance operations. They’ve been fine tuned to outlast opponents by doggedly kiting them around the map and staying out and away from port for days at a time. Most Marauders roll with long or even ultra-long range weaponry and some will make room for electronic warfare or a cloaking device to make it that much harder to track down or engage.

Light Capital Ships

Monitors are somewhat specialized capital ships designed with the express purpose of destroying other capital ships. Their weapons deal extensive damage to them but only deal about as much damage as a Battleship to sub capitals. Monitors however maintain very thick defenses making them a formidable spearhead for a conventional fleet in smaller engagements.

Supercarriers take the idea of Drone deployment to the next level. (And yes I realize that I haven’t mentioned the concept of drones yet) They’re capable of carrying upwards of twelve Drone sets and coordinating three of them in battle at the same time. Sub capital drone carriers are limited to 1/2/3 drones carried as per ship size and only one set deployed at a given time. Supercarriers furthermore have a mortar primary weapon for sieging light fortifications and a bank of secondaries to defend them from Battleship-sized enemies.

Siege Guns are smaller of the two siegeworks capital ships. They are essentially a really big gun with insane penetration, range, and impact that can crack the defenses of large structures. They have limited defenses but have a game balance niche in that they contain the largest concentration of AAA and Tactical Missile Defense meaning attacking Siege Guns with long range missiles or Drones is a futile endeavor.

Galleons are a capital support ship. Rarely seen because of their limited direct offensive use, Galleons are the final line in the sand when it comes to patching up allies with remote shield and armor repairs. They can furthermore buff allied ships by bucking up resistances and sensor strength which makes specific allies more resilient to battle damage and electronic warfare. Galleons can also carry vast amounts of cargo if need be.

Heavy Capital Ships

Olympians are the go anywhere heavy capital ship design. Olympians have weapons to engage sub capitals and other capitals and come with a long range weapon for damaging structures. They’re the fastest of the heavy capitals and outrun all but Monitor light capitals. Olympians can also outrun some Battleships. Combine this with the Herculean defenses of being a heavy capital and Olympians are a powerful first capital ship for an organization.

Titans are massive. They’re the largest of heavy capitals and have a special niche in destroying other capital ships. Unlike Monitors which maintain their niche with bonuses against capital ships, Titans simply have lots of really big guns to fulfill the same role. Titans can use these guns to break structures but are not really meant to do so with their lack of range and terrible mobility to respond to changing conditions.

Dreadnoughts are the end all siegeworks warship. Nearly the size of a Titan and capable of challenging them on a one on one basis, Dreadnoughts are able to engage a siege mode that immobilizes them and prevents external help but amps up their offensive capabilities and local tank. The siege module is what allows Dreadnoughts to dismantle structures efficiently at range.

War Barges are an archaic heavy capital design used by empires of old to dominate the battlefield. They’re armed with many secondary banks, missile launchers, and a heavy mortar. War Barges can suppress a large area with constant barrages. But they’re also very slow, even by capital numbers, and aren’t really capable of engaging other heavy capital ships on their own. When supported by a fleet, War Barges can fulfill a DPS role.

Non-sized related ship designs

The standard ship design is set up with a main cannon on the front, a bank of secondary cannons on each side of the ship, and if it is a Battleship, a bank of tertiary cannons on the top and bottom of the ship. The bridge is in the back and directly below the bridge is the reactor station. At the end is the thruster module.

Not all ships follow this basic design. In addition to it, there are the Carrier-style ship, the Frigate-style ship, Turbine-style ship, Pencil ships, and Submarine ships. There are a few more designs but they’re not common enough to make this list.

Carrier Ships

Carrier-style is simple. Carriers have a large, rounded hull with a relatively small bridge on the front top of the ship. Carrier types can be set up one of two ways. The first is the standard format, which has a bank of enlarged secondary guns on either side of the ship. These “secondaries” are also the primary weapon and give the design a powerful all round coverage. The second sub design is the Drone setup. Drones are unmanned combat aircraft and can be launched at enemies to attack them. Defending against drones require anti-aircraft artillery, or AAA, which is only found on Battleships and up, or dedicated escort warships at the Cruiser and Battlecruiser level. Most Drone Carriers will drop their secondary weapons for a set of drones, and the total number and drone size are dependent on the size of the ship launching them. Drone Battleships will launch upwards of three sets of up to large size Drones. Carriers can only support one set of drones launched at a time, though.

Frigate Ships

Frigate-style ships are unusual because they don’t rely on a primary cannon or cannons. Instead, Frigates use turrets with a very small number of guns in total. Frigates resemble mostly modern warships from Earth. Unlike most other ship designs, Frigates are almost universally shield tanked rather than armor tanked as their hull is on the smaller size and cannot fit the number of armor plates as the bulkier armor tanked ships. Frigates are subdivided into Light Frigate and Heavy Frigate designs. Light Frigates are traditionally armed with automatic cannons and are fast and nimble. Heavy Frigates are armed with artillery and are much slower but have higher range and accuracy. Light Frigates can be both Cruisers and Battlecruisers, though the latter variants are fairly rare. Heavy Frigates can be both Battlecruisers and Battleships and the split is more even between the two size variants.

Turbine Ships

Turbine-style ships have a large hull with a ramjet propulsion system running through them which gives Turbine ships immense acceleration and top speed but does so at the cost of agility and a conventional primary weapon system. Most Turbine ships use missiles as their primary and secondary weapons, though older Turbine ships tend to have a mixed missile primary and gun secondary build. Turbine ships as a general note are seen as archaic compared to modern vessels and few designs climb past the tech one stage.

Pencil Ships

Pencils are unique in that they have a lifespan. Unlike pens which are made of plastic, pencils are made of wood and through use get sharpened in a pencil sharpener. This means that pencils have different sizes and thus uses based on their age. An unsharpened pencil is used as material transport. Sharpened but nearly full length pencils are known as Triremes and their main weapon is the sharpened prow used as a battering ram. Triremes and other pencil combat ships incorporate banks of secondary missile launchers and the smaller ones rely less on the ram and more on the launchers. Biremes are midsized and middle aged pencils that blend both weapon sets together. War Galleys are old pencils and do not readily use their rams in combat, preferring to use missiles only. Most pencils belong to the Yellow Pencil Tribe but a few are colored black and hail from the Black Pencil Group.

Submarine Ships

Submarines and Submersibles are two sides to the same coin of a ship that is built around Missile launchers and Cloaking Devices. Both are exclusively Battlecruiser-sized. They are rarely fielded (no puns for you) by navies due to their specialized nature and because Missiles can be shot down by Tactical Missile Defenses. Submarines traditionally fulfill the aggressive Battlecruiser role and Submersibles fulfill the reserved Heavy Cruiser role.

Ship Equipment

Weaponry

Weaponry in the Eon Game is divided into five main categories. Each category is subdivided into short and long range weapons.

Projectile Weaponry

Projectiles are your basic ballistic weaponry, in this case autocannons and artillery. Autos fire very fast and have good damage application and don’t use energy to fire, but low damage per shot means Autocannons require a ship to be on target for a long time. Damage falloff is good but penetration falloff is horrid at anything but short range. Artillery on the other hand fires very slowly but have a big boom and high alpha damage. Artillery is awkward at close quarter combat.

Hybrid Weaponry

Hybrid guns are named so because they use both ammo and energy to fire. Hybrid guns encase a shell in ionized particles and accelerates it out the gun barrel. The short range variant is called a Blaster and is a very common weapon on ships. Blasters have very short range and very bad damage falloff but very high damage output and turret tracking. Main cannon blasters come with projectile tracking too. The long range variant is the railgun, which like artillery is awkward at close range. Railguns however have more consistent damage from not having terrible rate of fire. Railguns are more susceptible to armor angling than the explosive tipped artillery guns.

Laser Weaponry

Lasers are actually quite rare to see in the Eon Game mostly due to increased R&D costs and because lasers guzzle energy reserves. Lasers are split between the shorter ranged Pulse Laser and the longer ranged Beam Laser. Pulse lasers have high damage output, respectable tracking, and solid damage falloff, but the energy costs mean ships cannot fire for very long and this is a problem with extended skirmishes. Beam lasers are more manageable but use more energy than railguns. Lasers are geared towards shredding shield tanked ships but shield tanking is less common than armor tanking.

Missile Weaponry

Like lasers, Missiles are also fairly rare, though in recent times Missile usage has gone up among factions seeking to have an edge over more technologically advanced groups. The term ‘Missile’ refers to both the slower moving Torpedo and the faster moving regular Missile. Missiles have travel time and thus the speed of the Missile determines the effective range it can be employed at. Missiles are uncommon for this, the fact that missile damage is reliant on an explosion catching up to a ship, and that Tactical Missile Defense, a type of tertiary weapon bank, can shoot down Missiles. Still, not every ship uses TMD.

Plasma Weaponry

Plasma weapons are a common weapon type that uses the ship’s reactor to generate plasma which is then spit out through a cannon (think laser cannon from Star Wars). The term ‘Energy Cannon’ refers to both the shorter ranged Energy Cannon and the longer ranged Turbo Cannon. The difference between the two types is minimum beyond the former dealing less damage but using less energy and the latter doing more but using more. Energy Cannons (both types) have average rate of fire and energy consumption but on paper have poor damage and range. This is because redirecting power to weapons will vary the end result damage and range stats. Energy Cannon ships have this extra versatility and can boost up either their offense, defense, or mobility on a whim, though it takes some time to redirect energy from one system to another.

Equipment Slots

Each ship, standardized, have twelve high slots, twelve mid slots, and twelve low slots. High slots are used for weapons, weapon-like electronic warfare, and certain utility modules like specialized scanners. Mid slots are used for equipment that have an emphasis on CPU requirement, like shield care equipment, damage application equipment, and most electronic warfare. Low slots are used for armor care equipment, damage multiplier equipment, and most propulsion equipment.

Most ships will fill their entire high slot bar with weapons. Each tier (primary, secondary, tertiary) has their own set of high slots. The main cannon by itself will fill all twelve slots. From there most ships will have the standard twelve secondary (and if Battleship, also tertiary) guns. More specialized ships like dedicated recon or EWAR ships will take out some guns for modules that help them with their special task.

Tanking

The term ‘Tank’ refers to how a ship is set up to withstand battle damage. Ships can be shield tanked, armor tanked, or hull tanked. By far, armor tanking is the most common, followed by shield tanking, and a small group of hull tankers.

Armor tanking is the most common tank form because armor has the most effective hitpoints, low resource cost, and repair modules repair the greatest amount of hitpoints on average. But armor is heavier, cycles the slowest, and costs power grid (PG) points.

Shield tanking is next in line. Shields naturally regenerate on their own and shield tanking is very good at extended fights. Shield tanking has the advantage of constant regen, faster cycling, least weight. The downside is that shield tanking has a lower maximum HP value, has less consistent recovery, and costs computer processing unit (CPU) points.

Hull tanking is very rare because the hull itself under shields and armor has no damage resistance points. The maximum HP pool however can be very large and therefore make a nice buffer tank. Hull tanking does free up all mid and low slots and PG and CPU to go all in offense with a build that does lots of damage and lots of EWAR. But the risk of blowing up quickly with limited ability to heal back or remote repair leads almost everyone to avoid hull tanking.

Remote repair refers to high slot modules that recover the specific HP type on allies. As not many ships are adept at using them, few ships outside dedicated combat logistic ships use remote repair. Sometimes a fleet might spider tank by sacrificing some damage for every member to remote repair to some degree.

Electronic Warfare

Electronic Warfare, or EWAR, are mostly mid slot modules that attack a target’s ability to fight. The main forms are Stasis Webifiers, Sensor Dampeners, Tracking Disruptors, and Target Painters. They exist in the mid slot. Energy Neutralizers and Energy Vampires are a very rare form of EWAR that exist in the high slot.

Stasis Webifiers (Webs) slow down the target ship by a stacking penalty percentage. Sensor Dampeners (Damps) reduce the target’s sensor abilities forcing them to come closer, great for short range ships or against slower ships. Tracking Disruptors (TD) reduce a target’s ability to track with its turreted guns. Useless against spinal weapons, Missiles, and Drones. Target Painters increase a target’s signature radius, making them easier to hit. Most effective with Missile users, which is why they aren’t seen all that often.

Energy Neutralizers (Neut) damage a ship’s energy reserves. Useless against energy-less weapons like Projectiles and Missiles. Energy Vampires (Vamp) suck a target’s and transfers it to you reserves. Useless against ships with little energy to spare like Projectile and Missile based ships.

Propulsion Modules

Propulsion modules, also known as prop modules, boost the mobility of a ship. They come in several flavors: afterburner, warp drive, super cruise, and jump drive. Ships are limited to only one propulsion module at a time.

Afterburners add a max speed increase to a ship when activated. They have no downside when used and can be used offensively or defensively. Warp drives drastically increase max speed but also increase a ship’s signature. Warp drives are pretty much only used offensively. Super cruise increases a ship’s speed like an afterburner but does more than an afterburner and less than a warp drive. The downside is that super cruise cuts the ship’s ability to turn by a lot. Jump drives will jump a ship a set distance forward. They take time to charge up and doing so lowers the ship’s damage resistance by a bit.

Cloaking Devices

Cloaks are a very specialized module that sits in the high slot. Cloaks hide the user from enemy sensors at a cost. The cost is usually either drastically reduced mobility (Submersibles) or increased energy costs (Submarines). Few ships make use of cloaking devices.

Major Factions of the Eon Game

First Era (Post Hurricane)

Noncolored Empire

The Noncolored Empire, or NCE, was an organization that was made up of people whose banners represented a state of noncolor. They used symbols of Black, White, Grey, Silver, and Brown. After the first era, they split into many successor factions that include the Academy, System Alliance, Citizen Militia, The Stormfront, and the Twin Kingdoms. Perspective of the first era was viewed from the Colored Empire so not much is known about the inner workings and society of the NCE.

Colored Empire

The Colored Empire, or CE, named so because they used the colors of the rainbow as their symbols, was the main opposition to the Noncolored Empire. The two fought a grisly cold war against each other with flashes of hot conflict. The Colored Empire used a caste system to denote one’s place in life. Reds were commanders and soldiers, blues were scouts and communication experts, greens were scientists and engineers, and yellows were cooks and farmers. The Colored Empire imploded spectacularly between the first and second eras and broke apart into six main factions: the Red Empire, Blue Federation, Green Republic, Yellow Empire, Teal Enclaves, and Violet Alliance. The last two weren’t particularly important to the overall narrative.

Second Era (Maryland House)

Red Empire

The Colored Empire breakup started off with a bang. The newly formed Red Empire, in charge of the majority of military hardware, were attacked by the Yellow Empire, who resented being secondhand citizens by the Red elites. The Yellow Empire was short lived and a storm dashed all their ships. The Red Empire went on to finish the second era and the first half of the third era strong.