Aw shucks, this was coming along nicely as a timeline some might
choose to interact with via a first person shooter interrface and
others might choose to interface with via a command of units type
of interface, and with multiple factions one might play.

Now all of a sudden you start to make it sound like a single player
in a single faction at a single point in the timeline.

I am disappointed! Up to that point I was thinking hmm, interesting,
could this be one of the timelines that Earth might fall into if
somehow the pointy eared alien fan fundamentalists are successfully
prevented from causing another massive war / devastation on Earth
in time to thereby bring about the discovery of warp drive and
attendant contact with pointy eared aliens that their sacred
franchise predicts, plots, plans, prophecies or expects?

If it is a single-player game the events of which happen at the
tail end of the timeline you have given, what does it matter
really, to the character or even to the player, what happened
a thousand years ago or so?

Do modern warfare games bother telling us what happened a thousand
years ago? Why not? Is it merely because they imagine we all know
history? The last thousand years of the history of each of the nations
featured in their game? Hmm.

Have you looked at the "Battle for Wesnoth" engine? It is
specifically designed to tell stories. Yes it does support
battles and heroes but the framework is a story, with the
story only progressing to the next battle if the player
manages to bring the current battle to the correct outcome
required by the history.

If you were to use that engine to tell the story of your
future history timeline then you would also incidentally
be making it available to the community as yet another
possible future history, and Time Cadets (such as those
associated with various Institutes of Chronodynamics)
could then also integrate it into Time Cadet holobarracks
programs used for training Time Cadets..

...And who knows, some Time Cadets might think it a
better timeline than the one proposed by the fans of the
pointy eared aliens and thus come onboard the idea of
trying to ensure that it is a timeline that does indeed
come about...

I am not exactly sure what you are trying to get at although I did see a reference to Star Trek in there and understand what you are saying about limiting the story to one point of view. I have not seen that engine you are talking about though.... but if I could get a good look at it I am sure I would be very interested in seeing if the time line I have created would fit into it....I definatley would have liked something like you are suggesting where the entire history could be fit into one game, but I can't so much see a way for that to be possible and it to still be a followable and good game.

The background is to establish a culture and society in the future so that you can understand why things are happening in the present the way they are. Such as why did the warfare turn out the way it did? Why did the war happen? Why won't it stop? things like that.

Also in modern warfare games it isn't mentioned because we all already know the history of the world and are living in the modern society.

O NUTS.... realized I accidentally made my time line jump to year 3000.... how have I not seen that until now.... I need to change that, it was only supposed to go the 2312.

One way that the mainline campaigns of Battle for Wesnoth provide an entire huge history is by having a number of "campaigns" (sequences of "scenarios") each telling a story about something that happened at a certain point in the "mainline" timeline.

The "mainline" timeline does not acknowledge time travel, but then again some say the high command of the pointy eared aliens also do not, so there is nothing fundamentally problematical about that. :)

The "mainline" timeline does feature pointy-eared nonhumans though.

Since players can create scenarios and campaigns, even having the possibility of having them incorporated into the "mainline" if designed to fit into the "mainline" and of sufficient quality to match the quality that the "mainline" has achieved, there is an add-ons server from which players can choose add-ons to download. Players can upload their own created scenarios and campaigns to the add-ons server.

Also, at least "once upon a time", some people posted add-ons as attachments to posts in the game's excellent forums full of excellent people. Once upon a time I found an add-on, no longer being maintained for recent versions of the engine as far as I know, called War or Time or something like that. Aha, I thought, here is a timeline purportedly within or related to the "mainline" but which seems to admit the idea of timetravel. (And which thus is extremely unlikely to make it into "mainline" but that is unimportant to me.)

Among currently maintained add-ons is one that claims to be the only working science-fiction (or maybe sci fi, or just SF, I cannot recall the exact term used in the claim) add-on.

It happens to be one in which horrible things happen to Earth, things worse even than the prior to 2063 devastation the pointy eared alien fans need to bring about if they are to ensure their timeline for meeting the pointy eared aliens comes about.

Thus already there is an alternative future history of Earth included among current Battle for Wesnoth materials. Adding others would be wonderful as it would give Time Cadets (see the add-on "Between the Worlds" for info about Time Cadets) more possible timelines to work toward or to try to prevent...

[Edited by - markm on December 15, 2010 4:15:02 PM]