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Just as promised, the Insectoid-lore! (This way you have at least something interesting to read until Saturday, besides my mad ranting about organizing Master of Orion lore.)  Lore 32: Klackons and Tachidi Within a few millennia, almost all non-insectoid phyla of the ecosphere had been eliminated, leaving the Insectoid species as the rulers of their world. In the formative stages of their civilization, the various Insectoid breeds divided into genetic factions. Each of these races had their own beliefs, customs, and social structure. Each also believed in their own superiority over the other Insectoid races on their world. Race wars ensued that spanned thousands of galactic cycles. In the end, as their military technology improved, their civilizations largely ceased to progress. The continuing devastation of perpetual war was leaving their home world a ravaged shell. But all of the battles and divisiveness came to a rapid halt when the Insectoids made an important discovery -- that they were not alone in the universe. The possibility of faster-than-light (FTL) travel was discovered when the Ancient Orions paid a visit to the Insectoids. While the visit was benign in nature and benevolent in tone, the remaining Insectoid races banded together out of raw fear for the first time in their history. The newly unified Insectoid species sought to create a united social structure. During the peace-induced pursuit of matters philosophical, their New World Order began by recognizing the natural abilities and strengths that each race had. But with that recognition came an underlying belief in social equality and an equal division of responsibility and authority. Although a bit arcane in its compromises, a formalized social system was inscribed in The Great Shrine of Insectoid Unity. It wasn't long from the building of that shrine that the natural organizational tendencies of the Insectoid species took over and they began to flourish like never before. A great civilization was poised to be unleashed; its destination was the stars. The New World Order offers many advantages for the Insectoids. Productivity is always high and dissention remains low. However, changes in society are usually strongly resisted and, therefore, difficult to effect. This is because the rigid structures have been in place for centuries and have become ingrained in the psyches of generations of Insectoids. Insectoid Overview Their home world proved to be a fertile breeding ground for insect development and evolution. Insectoid Political and Social Structures The Insectoids tend toward a monarchy-based culture, although they can also make the transition to a senate or parliament-style council of leaders. Decisions are made with careful deliberation, as the Insectoid species are very mindful of the path of near-destruction that they took in the past, and are mindful to not repeat those mistakes. The net result of the formalization of Insectoid society is a fairly rigid caste system. Workers, politicians, warriors, and scientists are all born into those roles and will die in those roles. These caste systems exist in all the races of the Insectoid species, part of an effort to make sure that no race is the working class while another stands as the ruling class. In dealing with other species, the Insectoids are guarded and cautious. They work best with the Cybernetiks, because of the formalization and order involved in their culture. And, while partnerships and alliances may be made, formal treaties with other species besides the Cyb are difficult to achieve and harder to maintain unless there is a mutual threat to both parties involved. The Insectoids have not rid themselves of their adversarial natures; instead, these have become focused on the "outsiders" and on any other species they see as a threat. Insectoid Families and Reproduction Holding with the caste system that is a predominant part of Insectoid culture, reproduction in Insectoid society takes place through a government-approved, pre-arranged process, based on projected viability of offspring to contribute to society. Matings are rarely long-term, and the government raises most offspring in mass learning and development facilities. Development time for the Insects is long, running almost 14 Galactic Cycles, but the reproduction rate is high, with each female often laying hundreds of eggs in a batch. The gestation period for the eggs is very short, lasting only one tenth of a Galactic Cycle. Insectoid Technical and Engineering The Insectoid Species has developed a very functional and elegant method of construction. Curves, arcs and sweeps are all dominant elements in Insectoid technology and engineering. Because of their societal structure, the Insectoids do better at refinement than discovery or innovation, preferring to finely tune a piece of technology rather than break new ground. Insectoid Key Phrases Kra'ktar - the theory of the many over the one, the expression of complete selflessness. Cleaver - An individual whose behavior is divisive and works against the unified Insectoid good. In Insectoid culture, this will lead to "reeducation." In the greater political arena, this will lead to a holy war. Starfaring Insectoids Over time, two major spacefaring races developed from the Unity, the Klackons and the Tachidi. While both see each other still as part of the Insectoid Unity, both societies have drifted far away from what they once were. The accumulating differences created finally what is effectively two different species. The Klackon Hive Mind is the ultimate picture of a harmonious society working for the greater good of all. The Klackons revere this purity of social form, not even noticing the cost in creative or original thought. This unity of purpose makes the Klackons brutally industrious and organized, with leaders born for their tasks and directing the masses without question. The Tachidi are among the largest races in the Orion Sector. Like the Klackons, they are extremely industrious and productive, but they have overcome the limitations of the Hive Mind and now view the universe with insatiable curiosity. This curiosity is their biggest challenge, however, as it is the curiosity of a child, one that does not know that you can hurt the puppy if you pet it too hard... Snarky Note: If a player never looks into the Encyclopedia Galactica, they would never notice that both Tachidi and Klackons are supposed to come from the same world. Or that there is a non-zero chance that both Tachidi and Klackons are still huge societies of genetically different Insectoid species banding together, not actually singular species like Humans or Psilons. I even only noticed this myself when reading through the Insectoid background and had to go and check Tachidi-lore multiple times to look for possible conflicts. But no, apparently that one paragraph I put into this post to explain this connection, is what the writers of MO3 wanted to tell us.  To be fair, it makes the Klackons and Tachidi sound a lot more interesting then I first thought. Still, it's kind of hilarious how even the player-guide for Insectoid races in my Encyclopedia Galactica states "if you want decent research, take the Tachidi". The Klackons are the worst at research, period. It's almost comical.  Edit: Found a weird missing word/grammar-error in the stuff I copy-pasted. For gently caress's sake, MO3-writers! 
Libluini fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Feb 8, 2017 |
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Feb 8, 2017 23:44
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Sick Lore Dumpz, right now. It's been a while since we had one.
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Feb 8, 2017 23:44
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Get it done now! Nice to see a rehash on the lore and the tweaks you've made.
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Feb 9, 2017 06:35
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No strong opinion but no worries, everyone else seems to have some.
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Feb 9, 2017 09:40
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Libluini posted:Except of course, if you absolutely want to hear about our arch-enemy Right the gently caress now! (In that case, I would simply post their background now-ish and then later a link to the relevant lore entries, so newer readers can get up to speed when we meet the other races belonging to that background. Hell, I fully expect that to happen so far in the future, even older readers will need a short head's up again in this case.) Just as a reminder, this little mini-vote is still open until Saturday! Right now it stands Right the gently caress now! = 3 Naw, they can wait = 1
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Feb 10, 2017 11:30
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Libluini posted:Just as a reminder, this little mini-vote is still open until Saturday! Welp, mini-voting is now closed. No new votes arrived. This means you want the Saurian backstory right the gently caress now, which means right after this update! In other words, tomorrow. Master of Orion III: ULTIMATE Edition  Chapter 56: The Almandian Fleet of GC 277  This update starts off a lot worse than I expected. I totally confuse my raiders with my scout up in Raas-space and accidentally assault the Iras-system with my single, almost unarmed scout. It goes poorly.  With the exception of that one dumb misstep, nothing of note happens in space during this combat phase. Just the obligatory planetary assaults and some Raas-transports jumping out on us in JustGniess.  Some survivors are still clinging to the surface of Trourmi IV. I guess we have to try this again next turn.  My fleet in the Daegwin-system makes their own first orbital bombardment. But while every single construction is wiped out, only 1/5th of the population and less than 5% of the military garrison are hit.  At the same time, our rest-fleet in Alphecc continues to reduce the Raas-colony on Alphecc II. They are even slower, thanks to having even older ships.  Three bombardments this combat phase. Our fleet in Tali is forced to keep in orbit of the third planet, not doing anything. More ground troops have arrived, but still not enough to fight on even footing with the Klackon ground defenders.  Turn 185 sees the spy war turn again: Agent Verminaard is caught and rather commits suicide than betraying the AIA. As revenge our terrorist destroys another important building somewhere in the Dila Empire. But at the same time, a new enemy spy is active, trying to sabotage our diplomatic channels. There is still some minor unrest in Amoenta, but hopefully after we destroy the last Raas-colonies in the nearby systems of Alphecc and Daegwin, peace will return.  There are now four armies massed in Tali, but the Klackons have nearly 60% more military strength concentrated on the third planet. One army is still under way to reinforce us even more, but this is getting ridiculous.  Time for yet another army, I guess! (Not for Tali, though.)  No, I’ve decided to be nice and will try to take at least one more planet in the Amoenta-sector, instead of just shooting a lot until everything is peaceful.  To keep up the pressure, the now second-tier ships in my reserves are mobilized. Five of our outdated Saphire-class battlecruisers and three old PD-cruisers join to form the 1st New Fleet. They will be the spearhead of our next main offensive.  And the three old missile-ships we had left are joined with a PD-destroyer as escort. This new 7th Border Guard will reinforce JustGniess. I’m kind of concerned that the storm of transports isn’t stopping. Sooner or later even the Raas could break through, our ships in JustGniess aren’t getting younger, after all.  To prevent you from getting confused, let’s go over our active forces at turn 185: First up, the 4th Assault Group (some left-over short-range battlecruisers and an escort). Together with our new army, this force will join our laughable weak fleet in Daegwin. The force left in Alphecc is even weaker, so I didn’t even bother with a screenshot. Those ships are literally centuries old by now.  The light forces we had in Gryphon (mostly light carriers and light attack cruisers) were meant to protect the system against Raas-raiders. Which never showed up and now Trourmi isn’t able to send out new task forces against us anymore. All 16 light ships therefore move to cover Trourmi, our new border.  Speaking of Trourmi, another army has joined the poor lonely army corps hanging out here and a still rather beefy force of carriers and short-range battlecruisers is keeping watch over the transport ships. Most of the ships we had in Trourmi are now gone.  And the reason for the suddenly massively reduced force is this: Most of the ships in Trourmi (including the older ones, which by now are just wasting our money), lead by our new 1st New Fleet, are jumping through the star lane shortcut into Kindiilar. It is time to finally press on and remove that lower third of the Dila Empire.  Missile ships, due to needing ammunition, are kind of poo poo in prolonged fights. At least they will help collapsing shields of enemy ships and then be a juicy target to keep fire from our carriers. That said, the 7th Border Guard is just four ships, so in a couple turns I probably need to either reinforce JustGniess again, or finally liberate Theta Indi to stop the transport flood at its source.  Our raiders are already beyond Theta Indi at this point. Hopefully Iras will still be the border when they reach that system in 15 turns. 16 more light ships in two task forces are enough to wreak havoc over there.  Back to our border with Theta Indi: Thanks to the new star lane opening up some turns ago, I needed to put some extra task forces as guards in Plastrum, to prevent enemy ships from sneaking through. The 2nd Blue Fleet is a still quasi-modern carrier fleet and was supposed to advance into Theta Indi, but thanks to a gently caress-up on my part the missing half of that liberation fleet is still stuck in transit back to our reserves. At this point we're slowly feeling the strain of our two-front war: I had the ships to either reinforce our armada in Trourmi and move the front forward there, or to reinforce Plastrum and move the front into Theta Indi. But not both. Our other front in Tali used up too many ships for that. We will face some hard choices soon.  Then there is the defense fleet in Cokanuk. At this point mostly a joke, most of the task forces and their ships are as old and decrepit as the forces in the Amoenta-sector. At this point they’re basically only helping reducing unrest by suppressing piracy. If there wasn't our massive fleet in Tali, I’d be concerned. Strike that, all those 50+ ships are still costing maintenance, maybe I should be concerned? About wasting resources, I mean.  And finally, our armada in Tali: 32 Almandian warships, 32 Annalonian warships and a bunch of transports for our ground troops.  And now add another full army and a reserve corps to those forces: That’s what I’m sending in. They’ll either reinforce our main army in Tali, or be used to take Tali I if it turns out we’re luckier than normal with Tali III. I’m not holding my breath, but who knows? There are more forces in the part of our Kingdom mixed with the Imsaies’ territory, but they are exclusively STL-ships and planetary defenses.  And that’s what our military forces are doing. This turns also sees the Psilons again annoy our government with more gushing praise. So they have time to send us messages about how they love seeing us kill Klackons, but they’re still not willing to ally with us. Fuckers. (They have ignored our offer of a defensive alliance.)  And like clockwork, more transport ships drop by in JustGniess. The ships are more modern then ever, but our missiles degrade their shields enough, we can blow some of them up before the rest jumps out.  Combat Phase Video Yes, I made a video again, since we have two actually important space battles this turn. Enjoy! The Battles of Kindiilar and Alphecc My comment: Ouch, one victory, one defeat. I’m getting kind of mixed signals there, game!  Kindiilar II is extensively build up, but our fleet is one of our strongest, so we still kill 42% of the population and nearly all buildings in a single turn. Even the ground forces suffer a withering 21% loss. Man, at least this went a lot better than the disaster in the Alphecc-system.  Finally, the last resistance on Trourmi IV is destroyed. The entire system is finally secure. On the other hand, the battle we lost in Alphecc now means a strong enemy fleet is moving around causing all kinds of trouble in formerly safe space. One step forward, one step back.  The combat phase ends with some great comedy: I decide to throw our massive force on Tali III after judging that many soldiers should at least be able to gain a foothold. This would have made later reinforcements easier. Or so I planned. Turns out our mixed force of Silicoids/Raas just steamrolls the Klackons without remorse. The enemy still had a massive numerical superiority, but this time it didn’t help! The superiority was less than 10%, though. Apparently last turn the UI didn’t count my troops right. This combat phase all of our armies were counted and our four armies were nearly the same strength as the defenders. I should have made a recording of this, basically the strength of the Vchiitri Empire started racing down to zero in an unbelievable speed. In a single, gruesome turn our armies have overrun a force stronger than themselves! Still, the Klackons fought hard: Our four armies are reduced to less than a single corps after the battle is over. Millions of dead on both sides, yikes. Welp, at least we won! Tali III is liberated! Next: Hunting for Green October Antaran Expedition Status Expedition1-3: Nothing in all three cases.
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Feb 11, 2017 23:25
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Interesting that the Raas can still give us a surprise from time to time. Aren't they likely to get into a rumble with some planetary defenses or system defense ships and get wiped out the instant they get close to any sort of "core" system, though?
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Feb 12, 2017 00:07
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PurpleXVI posted:Interesting that the Raas can still give us a surprise from time to time. Aren't they likely to get into a rumble with some planetary defenses or system defense ships and get wiped out the instant they get close to any sort of "core" system, though? Yeah, but that's not the problem. Considering our core systems are like 30+ turns away from that fleet. Instead this fleet will move around our really vulnerable backwater systems... -and slaughter Raas, mostly. Since I conquered some of their worlds instead of wiping them out, that fleet will now try to genocide their own people. The Raas government is truly evil! Joking aside, they will be highly annoying until we can hunt them down.
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Feb 12, 2017 00:42
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On the upside, the game has thrown a curveball at you you have to react to which makes things interesting (I speak not being the player here) which makes for a more entertaining thread!
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Feb 12, 2017 07:26
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Now you've actually got competent planetary combat troops! This should be fun. Troop transports can still be armed and such, right? Is that what you're worried about with your aging anti-raider fleet?
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Feb 12, 2017 20:29
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Glazius posted:Now you've actually got competent planetary combat troops! This should be fun. Oh yes. AI-designs especially. As the player, I prefer my own transports to actually transport troops, the AI instead likes to add in some spinal mounts. Still not really threatening to a real fleet, but look at the situation at JustGniess over time: First our two fleets just forced every transport fleet to flee, then they started to hang around but got slaughtered, followed by them getting more and more robust and harder to kill. Sooner or later even transports will be able to kill the aging fleet there. The fleet in JustGniess could easily have been destroyed already if the Raas hadn't decided for some reason to send their new super-modern fleet to the farthest point away from JustGniess they could and still shoot at us. With transports alone, they'll probably need at least 20 turns more before we can't hurt them anymore and about 30-40 turns until Raas transports alone can kill the defenders. But yeah, overall our oldest ships aren't worth much anymore. We have been fighting the Raas for 100+ turns, after all. Some of our oldest ships were part of our first offensives into Raas-territory. They're old. 
Libluini fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Feb 12, 2017 |
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Feb 12, 2017 21:12
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 You voted for it, so here it is. You have been warned, this is gonna be convoluted. Lore 33: The Full and Totally Complete Backstory of the Arch-Nemesis of the Kingdom of Almandin, the Raas: Chapter I Ichthytosian Backstory In the dark, high-pressure depths of the abyss and trenches that were the cradle of their development, the Ichthys slowly evolved amongst the sulfur and phosphorus deposits, and the volcanic flumes on the sea floor. Ichthys mythology tells of the "Old One" who came to their world and blessed them as "chosen," planting in them the seed of enlightenment and the gift of communicating knowledge. Quickly, from the time of the Old One, the Ichthys developed prehensile fins and tails allowing them to manipulate items with great dexterity. Using the natural power sources of the oceanic depths, the Ichthys progressed steadily and their society grew. Building large, elaborate and ornate cities on the sea floor, powered by magma, sulfur, phosphorus, and oceanic movement, they ruled the depths through a dynasty that remains a legend even among other species that they've encountered. This Ichthytosian Golden Age was a period of hope, growth and opportunity that continued for millennia. Eventually, the Ichthys began exploring the regions of their oceans' surface and learning of the life and energy sources therein. Brave adventurers brought back tales of what life was like "out of the depths." It was a new frontier for the Ichthys to conquer and colonize, and an exciting time to live. The End of the Golden Age But the Golden Age lost its glitter when a dark cloud of dissent began to form. The Ichthys had long existed as a benevolent monarchy. But as their aquatic empire expanded and new wealth poured in from the frontiers, a jealous faction sought to claim its own political sovereignty. Like a great quake, this idea created a fissure in Ichthytosian society that left an unbridgeable chasm. The "New Frontiers" faction, as they were known, grew in strength until, finally, open revolt ensued following the "Three Crowns Incident." The rebellion that ensued lasted, on and off, for nearly five Galactic Centuries. It resulted in untold carnage and the destruction of much of the Ichthys' cities and social establishment. Historical Note: During the Three Crowns Incident, the ruler offered to have her successor and an elected representative, as well has herself, each wear a crown. Such a compromise was unacceptable by the extremists among the New Frontiers faction. It was they, citing weakness in the ruler's offer of compromise, who led their group to insurrection. The extremists among the New Frontiers faction led the opposition. Each new radical leader was proclaimed a traitor when another, more radical leader denounced him. Eventually, the most radical advocated conquering not only the water just below the surface, but the surface of the ocean itself. In the light! After a time, though, there were those who said that the light was not enough. They denounced the current crop of New Frontier leaders, claming the need to conquer the sky above the ocean and all its moisture. And eventually they were denounced by those who contended that their planet's own new frontiers weren't even enough -- that only the stars could be the true New Frontier. Ironically, even as the Ichthys were developing the technologies to reach each of these new frontiers during these long cycles of civil war, the conflict continually hindered their ability to exploit them. This was largely because there was no overpopulation "push" to cause a level of migration that could force them to tame these new frontiers, and because the war kept the Ichthys focused internally and not externally toward peaceful expansion. Ultimately, the constant purges of the New Frontiers' leadership lead to their eventual defeat. The former ruling faction emerged victorious, but at a horrific cost. Since the ruling faction didn't believe in capital punishment, the New Frontier leadership and its numerous unrepentant followers were exiled. The worst place that the monarch could imagine was a destination that served as "Hell" in Ichthytosian mythology: that is, the planet's land surface. The Ichthys' manufactured mobile high-pressure chambers of the latest design (they were discovered about midway through the conflict) en masse and sent the vanquished to the surface in them to live out the rest of their days in the ignominy of exile. Historical Note: See the Saurian background story for a description of the fate of these exiles. The Tragic Aftermath The remaining Ichthys were scarred emotionally. As a society, they began the slow, painful process of recovery. They remained a species divided even though a significant portion of their surviving population had been exiled for their divisive cause. Little more than a generation passed before a new schism took place. This time, the break occurred between the Old Guard, who wanted to return to the way things were, and the Young Spawn, who believed that the Ichthys must become more aggressive in order to survive. At the very least, the Young Spawn argued, the Ichthys must prepare a stronger military defense. After so much fighting by their forefathers, there could be no compromise. So a growing rift spread during this already troubled time. This one finally culminated in an off-world colonizing adventure by the Young Spawn and their followers. Idealistically, they left in search of another world where they could live as the Old One had intended, in peace and security. The remaining Ichthys became known as the Trilarians. They struggled to continue the peaceful former existence of their great ancestors, but to no avail. Compared to the Golden Age of Ichthys culture, theirs is an empire in decline, groping for a hoped-for renaissance. Next: Not the Saurian Backstory. Edit: Read this carefully, there will be a test after the Raas Backstory is completed. Libluini fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Feb 12, 2017 |
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Feb 12, 2017 23:52
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Raas are... quite damaged species, with insane political extremism, they need our rocky benevolent monarchic democracy to smooth and suppress that. That's the only way to preserve them as a species before they fall in another civil war that wipes them and half the galaxy. Like, I feel that they are only holding together because they met us and their government decided to use us as a singular target against which all anger can be targeted.
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Feb 13, 2017 05:22
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Pretty much every species' lore has a goddamn traumatic background. I think only the gas giant dwellers don't have a backstory consisting of 90% war and genocide.
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Feb 13, 2017 08:25
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PurpleXVI posted:Pretty much every species' lore has a goddamn traumatic background. I think only the gas giant dwellers don't have a backstory consisting of 90% war and genocide. Lore 34: The Full and Totally Complete Backstory of the Arch-Nemesis of the Kingdom of Almandin, the Raas: Chapter II The Ichthytosian Experiment The purpose of the Ichthytosian experiment was to breed aggressive front-line soldiers to be used in upcoming conflicts as disposable shock troops. A rapid acceleration of the evolution of an aquatic species, tinged with the amplification of aggressive behavioral modifiers, gave rise to the Ichthytosians on the oceanic world of Trilar. The Ichthytosians were, unfortunately, not at all what the Antarans wanted -- they became very creative, peaceful, artistic creatures who sought to develop their own culture rather than fight. This century-long endeavor was dismissed as failure in 6311 GC, and the newly evolved Ichthytosians were left alone on Trilar. Historical Note: Ironically, had the Antarans waited another two centuries, they would have seen the perfect manifestation of their goals. The Ichthytosians advanced swiftly, achieving many advanced technological breakthroughs, and then went through a brutal civil war that destroyed everything they had created in their rapid rise to sentience and power. This War of the Depths lasted for over a century, and in the end, the ruling faction exiled the rebels to the surface of Trilar, a punishment worse than death for the aquatic species. The rebels, trapped in aquadomes built on the few land masses Trilar possessed, felt that there was only one way to escape their eternal imprisonment: evolve from an aquatic species into an amphibian one. The exiles used many radical, dangerous and often untested bioengineering processes to change themselves into amphibians. Finally, after a century of lethal experimentation, they succeeded, and the first Saurians were made. They called themselves the Sakkra, and their goals were what the Antarans had programmed them for: conquest and domination. The Sakkra built several colony ships and left Trilar, seeking a new world to call home. This home would be Sssla, located deep within the Orion Sector. Historical Note: The Saurian experiments did not all end in death. One group of volunteers survived the testing, but instead of changing from aquatic to amphibian, they became something even more ambiguous and amorphous, beings without true form, but capable of replicating other forms that they encountered. The researchers were horrified by the things, and cast the whole lot of them out into space to drift and vanish. These metashifters, trapped in suspended animation, traveled for a long time before their ship piloted itself to a distant habitable world. Once free, they suffered a cultural depression (rejected by those who were themselves rejected from their home; what was their place in the universe?) that led to a psychological shift to vindictiveness: if this was how they were seen, then they would make sure that they earned that reputation. They developed their shapeshifting abilities to mimic any creature flawlessly, mimicking bodies and voices with impeccable precision. Thus was born the Darlok Empire, one of the most feared races in the Orion Sector. Next: Still not the Saurian Backstory.
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Feb 13, 2017 16:09
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I'll have to say, reading and arranging all this lore for you to enjoy gives me deep insights into the writer's minds. For example, I now know that the writers of MO3 don't really "get" biology, because holy gently caress the Darloks. Changing from aquatic to land-locked shouldn't result in cosmic space horror. 
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Feb 13, 2017 16:15
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The best sci fi lore is written either by serious, real scientists or those that onow absolutely nothing about it I feel.
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Feb 13, 2017 17:48
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I really have to wonder how a society of shapeshifters work when it's only themselves that are around. Does everyone just default to some sort of generic, faceless blandness since there's no one around to trick, or does everyone try to look like the hottest, coolest celebrity their culture has ever seen?
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Feb 13, 2017 20:50
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Deceitful Penguin posted:The best sci fi lore is written either by serious, real scientists or those that know absolutely nothing about it I feel. Ditto. Also I think shapeshifters in isolation would have body style "fads." One week everyone is competing to be the coolest piece of walking art. The next everyone is trying to do their best imitation of furniture. Remember that "being really good at imitating things" would probably be considered sexy by a successful race of shapeshifters.
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Feb 13, 2017 21:03
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Deceitful Penguin posted:The best sci fi lore is written either by serious, real scientists or those that onow absolutely nothing about it I feel. You are not wrong.
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Feb 13, 2017 21:14
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PurpleXVI posted:I really have to wonder how a society of shapeshifters work when it's only themselves that are around. Does everyone just default to some sort of generic, faceless blandness since there's no one around to trick, or does everyone try to look like the hottest, coolest celebrity their culture has ever seen? What qualifies as hottest and coolest in a society of shape shifters?
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Feb 14, 2017 04:26
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wiegieman posted:What qualifies as hottest and coolest in a society of shape shifters? Hot wheels cars and freezers, respectively.
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Feb 14, 2017 09:39
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As a fair warning, Rightload stopped working with LPix.org and after asking Baldurk about it, he told me he updated something, which apparently broke the Rightload-plug in. Since Rightload is positively ancient and I've been using the most recent (still multiple years old at this point) version, there's no hope in waiting for a fix. There's no-one left working on that program. So while I start experimenting with bulk-upload using that other, still regularly updated program ("Xhash" or something), there may be some delays for the next real update. Lore 35: The Full and Totally Complete Backstory of the Arch-Nemesis of the Kingdom of Almandin, the Raas: Chapter III Ichthytosian Overview The Ichthytosian species began its existence millions of years ago in the deep aquatic realms of their home world. It is a long journey from the sea to the stars, but the intrepid Ichthytosians made it. Ichthytosian Political & Social Structures The Ichthys tend towards a monarchic class structure, and are generally paternalistic and benevolent in nature. In dealing with other Species, the Ichthys take the middle road, the path of compromise. Failing that, they aim to engage in well-reasoned behavior. Historical Note -- Exception: the Saurians. With the history between the Saurians and the Ichthys race, relations are always strained, even in the best of times. The Trilarian race is seen as the tolerant and forgiving branch of the species, while the Nommo are the race that is the most aggressive and easy to anger within the Ichthys line. Both races project a strong sense of entitlement and regal bearing, since they consider themselves partially invested with the power of The Old One. They consider themselves a royal line within the Orion Sector. This intense desire to be the "chosen" race focuses on the original home world, where the Ichthys races constantly squabble over who has the greater legitimacy. Ichthytosian Families and Reproduction There is no real "family" structure in the Ichthys society. Eggs are deposited in large batches at the hatchery (which is a combination gestation area and nursery). These eggs are carefully inspected and screened. Those that pass this process are artificially fertilized (to insure against genetic defects). Then the incubation period begins. Lasting almost one full Galactic Cycle, the incubation process is slow. When the eggs finally hatch, however, there is an 80 to 90% survival rate, creating a "school" of new Ichthys that number in the thousands per batch. Once hatched, the spawnlings grow over the next four Galactic Cycles until they reach maturity. During this growth period they are sheltered, fed, educated and trained so that, upon leaving the hatchery, they will be fully functional (if inexperienced) members of Ichthys society. The growth stage is an intense one, with a massive inundation of information and a rigorous training regimen concentrated in this period of time. Tragically, a good number of Ichthys spawnlings fail to survive the rigors of this stage, choosing to end their own lives instead. Ichthytosian Technical and Engineering Ichthys engineering, architecture and tools are elegant examples of enabling technologies. For their starships and land-moving vehicles, their equipment resembles an inverted bathysphere, with the interior containing highly pressurized water (the Ichthys' natural environment), instead of a pressurized gaseous mixture. These vessels are covered in riveted bands for reinforcement, and feature bubbled windows and serrated, fin-like wings. In situation where political discourse is required, the Ichthys will arrived in a reinforced, pressurized tank, capable of amplifying and translating dialogue. Ichthytosian Key Phrases "By the Old One" - to show seriousness in a discussion, similar to "I swear to God." This is not a phrase to be used lightly. Many, if not most, Ichthys would rather kill themselves than slander The Old One or use his name casually. Landwalker - a derogatory term originated toward Saurians, though it is now occasionally applied to other ground-walking species when political tensions are high. The Fathom - the perfect comprehension and understanding that only the dwellers of the deep oceans can achieve. Reflects both comprehension and the aquatic measure of depth. Next: It begins Edit: This part showcases the confusion sometimes drifting through the race backgrounds in MO3: Like with the Tachidi and the Klackons, the Nommo look and are described as if they are their own thing, unrelated to the Trilarians. Then the Ichtythosian background mentions a group of Ichthys who left their homeworld after the war between what would become the Saurians and what would become the Trilarians. And they are never mentioned again. In this part, suddenly the Nommo are mentioned as a part of the Ichtythosians and it looks like they were the faction who left Trilar to do their own thing. But their own background clearly describes them as just another sapient species just coincidentally living on the same planet. They're cephalopodic, while the Trilarians are more like fishes (pescoid?). So apart from the huge clusterfuck caused by the Antarans, we have again lore pointing into different directions, leaving us to plug the holes so this mess makes sense. The only common thread is: Both the Young Spawn and the Nommo left Trilar. Just apparently at different points in time. After thinking about this a bit, I decided to leave the Tachidi their background as part of the Insectoid Union, since the background lore in their case has different lore sources all pointing to the same thing: They and the Klackons are still friends and came from the same planet and political entity, case closed. Here it's more complicated: Chapter I told you of the Young Spawn and their off-world adventures, Chapter II never mentions them and also not the Nommo, but here they are suddenly turning up. If it were up to me, I would say since the Nommo and the Trilarians are clearly different species that they have nothing to do with the Young Spawn, since the Nommo didn't fight in the War in the Depths, while the other Ichthys did. You see the problem? If the Nommo are the Young Spawn, the peaceful coexistence of their own background doesn't make sense. If they aren't, we now have this third group awkwardly shoved into this mess, with no connections to anything. Luckily, after ordering my thoughts by writing this commentary (by now probably longer than this lore-update itself), I had an idea how to solve this. You will have to wait until we actually meet some Ichtythosians, though: Next we will finally (almost) finish the Raas-background!
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Feb 15, 2017 18:29
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Lore 36: The Full and Totally Complete Backstory of the Arch-Nemesis of the Kingdom of Almandin, the Raas: Chapter IV Saurian Backstory Thus began the history of the Saurian species. Cast out from their watery home, the species that would become the Saurians chafed at the injustice. After all, they should be the rules of the undersea realms, not these myopic fools who simply wanted the Ichthys to be a peaceful species of researchers and scientists. The order of the day was survival: survival of the strongest; survival by any means necessary. Their hatred towards their fellow Ichthys festered and burned in their hearts. One day, everything changed. The council of leaders assessed that, as long as they were confined by the restraints of their habitability chambers, they were in a prison. And no species can truly flourish when forcibly confined. The recommendation was simple in concept, but complex and arduous in its undertaking. The outcasts would have to biologically and genetically alter themselves so that they could walk, function and thrive above water, thus circumventing millions of years of natural evolution. The research and experiments took the better part of a Galactic Century, but eventually the outcast scientists found success. The first subjects were flawed at best, with genetic defects, short-life spans and madness popping up too frequently. Over time, the scientists refined the process. Finally, in the Year of the Transmutation, the first generation of the Saurian species walked the surface of the Home World unaided. The genetically transformed Saurians were quadrupeds, able to stand on their rear legs while using their forelimbs to manipulate tools and devices. Their body temperature was raised as a by-product of the process of transforming them from water-dwelling creatures to air-breathing ones. Their vision was enhanced, their reflexes sped up, and their skin made sensitive to pressure changes (allowing them to detect movement nearby). Their aggressive tendencies were heightened. In short, they had been made into highly efficient killing machines. The combination of the genetic manipulation and the lingering sting of being exiled to the surface has left the Saurians with a massive chip on their collective shoulders. They are aggressive, warlike, and unmatched in their focus on all matters relating to conquest. This single-minded approach leaves them very vulnerable in other areas, however. The Saurian species tends to value the glory of battle and military superiority over all else. Financially, they do poorly, and the social aspects of their culture are frequently ignored. Still, unlike their ancestral line, this is a culture on the rise, if they can only achieve the necessary balance. Saurian Overview Since the ruling faction didn't believe in capital punishment, the New Frontier leadership and its numerous unrepentant followers were exiled. The worst place that the monarch could imagine was a destination that served as "Hell" in Ichthytosian mythology: the planet's land surface. The Ichthys manufactured mobile high-pressure chambers of the latest design en masse and sent the vanquished to the surface to live out the rest of their days in the ignominy of exile. Those who survived became the Saurians, and they will not soon forget those who acted against them. Saurian Political and Social Structures The Saurians are a tribal species, ruled in default by either a monarch or a tribal council of elders. Quick to anger, they are warlike but incredibly loyal to each other. They have assumed an "us against the galaxy" approach because of the their history, and, while partnerships and treaties may be established with other species, it is incredibly difficult to turn one Saurian against another. With their naturally aggressive tendencies, the Saurians will tend to push toward the more extreme options. This does not mean that all situations end in conflict; it is simply that the Saurians are not a species of "settlers." They feel they have been kept down long enough and that the time is now for them to reach their place and destiny in the galaxy. They approach this with a single-minded obsession. so political situations are best approached with a "pick your battles" stance. Saurian Families and Reproduction Saurian culture is strongly family oriented, with multiple generations living on large compounds and family estates. Showing their biological roots, the Saurians are an egg-laying species but, unlike the Ichthytosians, they only lay one or two eggs at a time. These precious eggs are guarded by the father in a ritualized "standing of the guard" for three Galactic Months. After hatching, the Saurian hatchling joins the family where it grows rapidly, reaching full maturity within a half a Galactic Cycle. From there the Saurian enters the Yearling phase. The young one is apprenticed into an assigned role for five Galactic Cycles. Upon completion of the apprenticeship, the Yearling becomes a full-fledged member of that guild and assumes an adult role in Saurian society. A Saurian is expected to grow strong and become more proficient in the guild, but never at the cost of another Saurian. Backstabbing in Saurian culture is treated with great contempt, and a Saurian who practices such behavior will very quickly be shunned and rejected from society. Saurian Technical and Engineering Saurian engineering and architecture are designed to be rugged, armored, and built to last. The plus side of this is that Saurian engineering can withstand external punishment (such as bombardment) and is less prone to breakdowns. The down side to this is that their tools, ships, vehicles, etc are often bulky and expensive to manufacture, since refinement and miniaturization are not aspects that come easily to the Saurian culture. Saurian Key Phrases Herpatra - The Saurian Code of honor. Used in a conversation to express the seriousness of a situation or the imparting that such an accusation is either not in their make up or an inevitable consequence the code that they live by. Example: "Yes, we annihilated your fleet, for they acted without Herpatra in coming into our system." Air and Fire - the elements that were alien to the Ichthys world have become the symbols of Saurian power and warrior strength. It is a frequent closing phrase used by Saurian politicians showing respect or Saurian commanders giving orders. Example: "You will destroy the invading forces. Air and Fire!" Amphiat - one who is considered a traitor or back-stabber to the Saurian culture. Example: "That General Sesskes is not worthy to be of the Rasakar Clan; he is Amphiat!" The Dawning - The legendary time when the Saurians will rule as the rightful lords of the Galaxy. The Dawning began at the time of transmutation from Ichthys to Saurian, the first stage toward what the Saurians feel is their rightful destiny. Known Saurian Species Raas The Raas were bred by their fellow Saurians as highly productive slave laborers, and were sold and used throughout the Orion Sector until the end of the Great War. They orchestrated a vast and bloody revolution that ultimately earned them their freedom. They left to found a new society, with their own governments and religion. Their industrious natures are still there, and now they finally have a chance to work for themselves and take their place in the history of the Orion Sector. See also Lore 18: The Calm before the Storm for the Raas Rebellion Sakkra The Sakkra are closest genetically to the original Saurians that forced their own evolution and left the Ichthytosian homeworld in exile thousands of cycles ago. They are highly aggressive, easily angered, and carry a bitter scaly patch on their shoulders. Their age-old hatred of the Ichthytosian species flavors every aspect of their society, and their drive to build and expand is often a pretext for finding and eliminating every trace of their ancient enemies. Edit: And with this, the Raas Background is finally done. You now know everything you need to know about the Raas.
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Feb 17, 2017 19:50
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Real life is still winning, but I think I can do another update next weekend. I think. Just so you don't have nothing until then, enjoy the background of the Etherians! Lore 37: The Etherean Project I Antarans Cause More Bullshit Yet Again The Antarans targeted native life forms within the imprisoned Antaran Sector for the Etherean project, which was supposed to engineer a slave race that could harvest resources from gas giants. Once again, the century-long project failed to give the Antarans the satisfactory results that they wanted- the Ethereans were not the ideal manufacturers that they should have been, and chose to simply float through the gas worlds and develop at their own pace. The Antarans were tempted to exterminate the lot, but that was seen as too much effort for a species that would not offer much of a challenge or threat anytime soon. The Etherean herds were left to their own devices. However, when the Antarans developed the technology to terraform gas giants into usable worlds, the Ethereans took action, stealing an old dimensional portal and throwing themselves through it. They emerged in the Orion Sector, in 6599 GC, took up residence in several gas giants, and continued on with their peaceful development and evolution. Historical Note: There are no more Ethereans left in the Antaran Sector. The success of the gas giant terraforming project was such that the Hegemony ordered every available gas giant converted to a more usable form. The last herd of Antaran Ethereans were wiped out in 9641 GC. Those who fled to the Orion Sector eventually split into two separate races, the Eoladi and the Imsaeis, and colonized many of the Orion Sector's gas giants during the Long Night. Their violent opposition to gas giant terraforming technology led them to launch sabotage operations against the local Orion races when they too came upon this knowledge at the end of the second Orion civil war. The Etherean Backstory The Ethereans are a sedate species who float like sentient hot air balloons through gases that would prove fatal to most others. They travel through the vapor clouds and storms in a herd-like fashion. Feeding in a manner resembling whales, they sift through the various gases for the small life forms and nutrients in them. According to generally accepted theories of evolutionary determinacy, the Ethereans would have continued on in this manner, and no further, for countless thousands of Cycles. They would not have made the evolutionary leap to a space-faring order of higher intelligence where they not prompted by cataclysmic outside events, the first and last of which the Antarans provided. You! Evolve! Looking for species to start with in their quest to find laborers to put to the task of mining gas giants, the Antarans launched a 100-Cycle research program upon the benign Ethereans. Their infamous "Breeding and Seeding" program commenced and the Ethereans were forever changed. The Antarans' experiments on the Ethereans proved disappointing. Although accelerated and evolved, the Ethereans remained a calm, contemplative species. They were more interested in spiritual issues, learning, and social organization than they were with becoming the perfect industrial workers that the Antarans had hoped to breed. Because the Ethereans were still too frail and now too intellectual, the Antarans' Program was finally recognized as a failure. In deciding how to clean up the mess left by their failed program, the Antarans eschewed the time and expense of hunting down each Etherean herd on the various gas giants where they had been produced. Confident that such a pathetic species would eventually die out anyway due to their passive nature, the Antarans simply abandoned them. Ironically, it was their contemplative nature that led to the Ethereans becoming one of the most technologically innovative species in the Orion Sector. Their consideration for and incorporation of all the elements that make up life led to the early development of biologically constructed vehicles, tools and habitats. Functioning in near-perfect harmony, not only with their environment, but also within their own social structures, their evolution progressed steadily. Historically, there has seldom been internal social strife among Ethereans and, until recently, pollution on a developed Etherean world was almost non-existent. But such a balance has been achieved at a cost. Because of its traditionally organic nature, Etherean production and research has been slow. Whether the object is a starship, a habitat, or a research project, the item in question has always been grown. This is a lengthy procedure based on Etherean metabolic processes. How the Ethereans Came to the Orion Sector The Ethereans lived thus for millennia; forgotten by the Antarans, who forever changed their destiny, thriving undetected as they slowly and stealthily spread throughout the Antaran Hegemony. In short, life for an Etherean was a giant gas. That is, until the second great cataclysmic outside event befell the Etherean species -- terraforming. Eventually, the Antarans discovered the technology required to destroy a gas giant and reassemble it into a new planet better suited to their needs. Ruthlessly, the Antarans began this new terraforming process on a massive scale. The Ethereans were not fighters, and with the survival of their civilization at stake, they looked beyond the reaches of The Hegemony in search of sanctuary -- someplace where the Antarans might be stopped by strong indigenous species if attacked, but where gas giant terraforming did not exist and likely would not for a long time. They found the perfect spot in a cluster of stars centered on Orion (during the time period of the original Master of Orion game). In an act of tremendous daring, Etherean commandos actually stole an Antaran Trans-Dimensional Device. Reassembling it around a gas giant's moon in a backwater part of The Hegemony, the Ethereans called a gathering of their own to make the leap of life to Orion where they would proceed quickly and quietly to the numerous gas giants that awaited in that part of space. There, they believed, they could live, undetected and in peace, for a long, long time. How the Antarans Came to the Orion Sector They did, and those who had led them became heroes of Etherean lore whose names where always spoken of with reverence. After "The Great Resettling" around Orion, the plucky Ethereans enjoyed undisturbed all the fruits of their culture and civilization. The pinnacle of Etherean "craftsmanship" dates back to this period (the time between Master of Orion and Master of Orion II) when they painstakingly grew the most spectacular structures and items imaginable. The Ethereans watched the events around nearby stars undetected while they continued their evolution as a species in peace and harmony. But twin disasters would finally befall them. The first was the discovery of gas giant terraforming by the indigenous species around Orion. When this event became "windier" (see Key Phrases), the Ethereans at first ignored it. Yes, some would be forced to migrate, but the indigenous species around Orion were fragmented and most Etherean leaders doubted they would aggressively pursue a policy of terraforming most, if not all, gas giants, as the Antarans had. The Ethereans' decided to wait and watch. Eventually, another storm developed. Ironically, their revered ancestors who led the Ethereans to the Orion Section were the ones at fault for this crisis. (How bitter that news was!) Back at the Antaran Hegemony, officials discovered an ancient model Antaran Trans-Dimensional Portal around a worthless moon orbiting a gas giant in a remote part of the empire that was slated for terraforming. Normally, this discovery would have meant nothing. That it was there should have been a mere curiosity. The local workers and bureaucrats overseeing the terraforming would normally have swept it away as junk without so much as a second thought. But at that moment in Antaran history (which was immediately prior to the beginning of Master of Orion II), there was a political schism dividing the powerful factions of the Antaran government. Controlling the levers of power at that time was an alliance of interests focusing the Antaran civilization inward. It was they who began the Great Gas Giant Terraforming Campaign, and they who had been pressing for improvements in Antaran economics, arts, and education. They sought to polish the Antaran civilization. Opposing them were those who sought to focus the energy of the Antaran civilization outward toward expanding The Hegemony. This "Outward Alliance" had lost control of power when the Antarans had defeated the enemies of their last great war nearly one hundred Galactic Cycles ago when the impetus to expand was thus reduced. The Outward Alliance grew restless during the present government's consolidation of Antaran civilization, and the discovery of this ancient Trans-Dimensional Portal was just the thing they needed; they resolved to focus attention on it as a drumbeat in their campaign for renewed expansion. With the scandal made of this discovery by the Outward Alliance and their incessant speculations that the Antaran borders, nay their very existence, were not secure because of its mystery, the balance of political power in the Antaran Hegemony tilted on a fulcrum of paranoia. A full, public inquiry was painstakingly launched, innumerable charges leveled, and decisive acts of retribution promised by the leaders of the now growing Outward Alliance. Eventually, the Antarans deduced exactly what had happened. But with the Outward Alliance now in control, the truth was ruthlessly suppressed. They could not admit that it was the Ethereans peaceful departure from The Hegemony that had been the catalyst of all the change around the Antaran Halls of Power. No, they wanted, they needed an enemy to rally against. And by simply following where the ancient Trans-Dimensional Portal's settings had led them, they discovered the Orion Sector and the waxing races therein (this happened during the time period covered by the Master of Orion II game). War was inevitable. Next: More Etherians Edit: If you find missing words, typos or odd grammar, sorry! I tried my best cleaning up this mess. This part is for some reason the wonkiest from the MO3-lore-transcript I'm using.
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Mar 6, 2017 20:27
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So basically the Ethereans ruined everything. Might as well call them Space Hitlers.
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Mar 6, 2017 21:18
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PurpleXVI posted:So basically the Ethereans ruined everything. Might as well call them Space Hitlers. They had good intentions. At worst, they're Space Chamberlains.
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Mar 7, 2017 19:15
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So, my week of horrors is over: With my university degree finished and "only" having a full-time job, I have some time left over to continue this LP. Expect a real update this weekend! Until then: Lore 38: The Ethereans II The Ethereans are Finally Discovered The Ethereans continued to drift quietly, preferring to remain unnoticed, even as the Orions' first war against the Antarans raged on (as depicted in the Master of Orion II game). The tempo of events hastened for the poor Ethereans, as the new rulers of Orion set out to consolidate their victory over the Antarans. One of their programs was a hauntingly familiar one: terraforming gas giants in an effort to strengthen the newly united Orion Sector from other potential outside enemies. So the Ethereans' very existence would be threatened once again if the Orions followed through on their proposed plans. The Ethereans met in council once more, but this time, and for the first time, decided to swim together on a different course. This time, when the moment came, they would resist. As it is with all governments, administrations change and so do plans. Large-scale gas giant terraforming, as a program, was forgotten and promised to start again several times during the next hundred Galactic Cycles. Eventually, though, it was commenced, despite rising concerns about the dangers involved. Historical Note: Almost every attempt to use this gas giant terraforming technology since its discovery was plagued by "gremlins." Little did the Orions know that their efforts were being covertly sabotaged by the unknown Etherean presence. The Orion-Etherean War When the time began for the Orions' much ballyhooed Great Gas Giant Terraforming Campaign, the Ethereans struck. At first they acted in stealth, but after military escorts were provided to the terraforming groups, the Ethereans had to reveal themselves and fight in the open. Quickly and prejudicially deemed an "insignificant lesser species" by the current Orion administration, they watched as their gas giant homes were blasted away. The Ethereans soon developed their first interstellar warfare skills. Historical Note -- The Etherean War: The Ethereans did not fare well in this war. Not only were the Orions more powerful, but the Etherean method of organic "manufacturing" simply could not replace their equipment losses fast enough. They had no idea of the incredible materiel destruction that war wrought and entered into the conflict with inadequate stockpiles to maintain their war effort. Their cause looked doomed at the time of the war's sudden conclusion. It was during this unequal Etherean War that the Antarans, now regrouped, unexpectedly returned to the Orion Sector. It pleased the avenging Antarans to find the Orions fighting among "themselves." The second Orion-Antaran War ended with Orions (and Ethereans) crushed in a brutal campaign that highlighted the Antarans' natural penchant for wrath and retribution. Live and Learn The Ethereans coexisted with the indigenous races of Orion under the aegis of Antaran domination during the Dark Age. It was only four score cycles (about 160 Earth years) before the Antarans had reduced each Orion race (including the Ethereans; they were all "Orions" to their Antaran overlords) back to their respective home worlds and thence began stripping away their technology and historical records. But the Ethereans used these cycles of commingling to intensely study their neighbors. After their loss in the Etherean War, the Ethereans realized that they needed to more formally "industrialize" (i.e., to better structure and organize their growing/manufacturing methods) to help meet their equipment needs in times of war. To the Ethereans, who hitherto had always carefully crafted and nurtured individual components to unique specifications creating a perfect individual organic fit, the mass production concepts of interchangeable parts and assembly line style production were a revelation. A new Etherean "industrial age" ensued featuring the opening of large-scale biological/organic assembly lines emphasizing the mass growth of multi-purpose modular components. Parallel to this revolution, the Ethereans also discovered the nature of "wealth" and the value of an economy based on a common currency; that is, how money could facilitate exchange (particularly between species). Such exchange could help them acquire the elements they would need for their long-term survival -- from organic raw materials, to alien goods and services, to information, to loyalty. Thus, for the past few hundred cycles, Etherean industry, commerce, and "pure" research were no longer done as they had always been. This anathema to Etherean sensibilities yielded to the pragmatic. If they were to compete with and survive among these other species (species that could produces things quickly through mechanization and buy what they needed with money) the Ethereans would have to produce and acquire what they needed in a comparable fashion. Their incorporation of these new ideas during the Dark Age created considerable social and political upheaval within Etherean civilization, about which a great deal has been recorded but none has been revealed outside of Etherean borders. At the dawn of Master of Orion III, few know what to expect of the Ethereans. The Etherean Overview In the atmospheres of their gas giant Home Worlds where they were abandoned, the Ethereans [ih THEAR e uns] survived and evolved. Etherean Political and Social Structures The Ethereans are strong believers in the equality and worth of all elements in their ecosystem. This translates to a bias toward more personal forms of government, such as tribalistic and representative. They are a society that emphasizes that which is tangible -- science, social structure, and personal development. This means that, generally, Ethereans give little value to the arts, as they believe they take away emphasis from that which is "real." Wasting energy on fiction and deception is not an innate Etherean characteristic. In the diplomatic area, the Ethereans are more prone to favor alliances and agreements with species that do not convert gas giants into artificial worlds. This behavior on the part of another species not only serves as an ugly reminder of the multitudes of Etherean lives lost in the past to this practice, but they also see the disrupting of the natural state of the gas giant as being akin to sacrilege. When conditions are right, and an alliance has been formed, the Ethereans should remain loyal until deceived. They seem to be honest and forthright to a fault. Etherean Families and Reproduction Ethereans live in pods. A pod is a collection of extended family members spanning many generations. This family structure is the backbone of their societal organization. It is a reflection, too, of their drive to maintain harmony with a greater whole. Since Etherean "engineering" takes a long time, having a single dwelling per extended family downsizes the need for building new habitations from scratch (instead, expansions are added to existing structures when needed). Ethereans are capable of fairly rapid reproduction but generally suppress reproductive proclivity in order to maintain their harmonious coexistence with their worlds. Consequently, Ethereans are slow to overpopulate a planet, nor do they greedily pursue excessive expansion. They tend to only reproduce once or twice during their very long lifetimes. An average family pod will have five generations living in it, with one or two progeny per generation (plus their mates). Etherean Technical and Engineering In conjunction with their nature, the Ethereans have always developed engineering solutions that are biologically grown and extremely efficient, and that minimally impact the ecosystem of a gas giant world. In the past, each new "technology" was genetically developed in laboratories, grown in an embryonic sac, and then that sac was absorbed by the new application in its final stage of growth/construction. While this "natural" method of "production" (i.e., the biological growth of items) has always been efficient in terms of materials and maintenance, it has also been extremely slow. This is because of the historically "cottage industry" nature of Etherean manufacturing. Every Etherean pod created what it needed for its own domestic use. Larger projects required either the long-term commitment of a single pod or the coordination of several pods, both of which strained the "natural order" of the Etherean social structure. Historically, finished Etherean technological components resemble bone and organs covered by a dull looking fleshy exterior. Their items they produce ("grow") tend to be resilient and flexible, a necessity borne out of requiring their utility on gas giant worlds. Etherean Key Phrases The Deeps - reflects death or destruction. When an Etherean dies, or a piece of Etherean technology malfunctions or fails (in its natural habitat), it falls to the core of the gas giant. This area of the gas giant is known as "The Deeps" in Etherean culture. It is regarded as the foundation of Etherean afterlife, where all elements go to be reprocessed in the circle that will produce new elements of life. "Our scouting unit has gone to the Deeps." Windier - to convey information that is perfect or pure to an individual or group; cuts through all lies and deception. "He will windier the events which occurred." Seeaer - to perceive or understand information without coloration by emotion or perception. Entwine - to draw close or to assume a protective stance. "Our masses entwine against the hoard." Gesteal - to put something into the process of being created. Whether in the sense of object being produced or a diplomatic effort being undertaken. "It shall be Gestealed." LPer’s Note: It sure would be nice if your diplomatic contacts would ever use all those specially made bits of language. (They won’t.) Imsaies The Imsaeis are the most keenly observant of the Etherean races, which plays well with their ingratiating manner. Their ability to gain acceptance through good listening and humility has made them valuable participants in diplomatic negotiations, and has provided them with vast amounts of information and intelligence. The Imsaeis always know more than they say, and while on the outside they seem to be agreeable and engaging, secretly they are constantly striving to be in control of events around them. LPer’s Note:In fact, the Imsaies are so good at diplomacy, they can even end up being best friends with the descendants of literal death crystals! Eoladi The Eoladi give almost everyone a slight pause when they are first encountered, as each individual possesses his own personal code of ethics. Once understood and accepted, however, the Eoladi are valued society builders and competent leaders. These skills came from the aftermath of the Etherean War, when all Etherean societies were shattered and needed to be rebuilt from scratch. The Eoladi still believe that they have much to teach to the other Orion Sector races in the ways of personal and social improvement. LPer’s Note:If you want to play as Ethereans and still fight lots of wars, it’s best to start with the Eoladi, they’re naturally better at combat, while worse at diplomacy than the Imsaies. Next: An actual, honest-to-the-space-spirits update. Libluini fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Mar 10, 2017 |
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Mar 10, 2017 19:13
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Master of Orion III: ULTIMATE Edition Chapter 57: The Hunt for Green October Wow, that felt like an eternity, right? Well, time to put this show back on the road!  The Kingdom of Almandin is struggling through Galactic Cycle 279 after it started its new era of interstellar spaceflight. About 500 Earth-years have passed since we started this game! Our terrorist founded a cell this cycle and poisoned food on Dila (or just throughout the Dila Empire, the message is kind of vague on the exact place, as I think there actually isn’t a planet called “Dila” anywhere). At the same time, the AIA finishes training of our new agent Ohrschuss (or “Ear Shot”).  Ohrschuss is perfect at intrigue and scheming, like a schemer should be. But he is only mediocre at hiding, which makes him more suited to fight enemy spies.  You probably don’t remember at this point, but last turn we conquered a planet. Turns out we also conquered an ancient weapon tech when we did that! Nice! The data is immediately transferred to our museums. Also, we got a fourth leader for our council of leaders, and it was the fourth guy in a row with tons of bonuses for our spies. We also raised oppression a little bit to more effectively catch spies. Now it turns out we still have to suffer under spy attacks: An enemy hacker is spreading fake news about our government on the cybernet, while another rear end in a top hat is doing something similar, just with our own population as the target for their bullshit, instead of allied star nations. The only thing changed is: With our high oppression, we generate tons of unrest more than we should! We’re actively helping the enemy spies at this point!   Oh, and there was this strong Raas fleet  actually defeating our forces in Alphecc. Now it rampages around our backyard! Or it will, if the AI is smart enough to target our completely helpless Amoenta-system. We will now have to hunt this green october. In an attempt to plug the hole in our defenses, I throw out a small force of ships in the vain hope they will be able to stop the Raas: 7 aged light cruisers and a point defense ship. Good lord, fighting at multiple fronts at once has really depleted our reserves. Time to finish our war with the Raas before trying to take on someone else.  JustGniess meanwhile has to contend with the never ending stream of enemy transports some more. And until we deal with a certain other front and a certain rampaging enemy fleet, we won’t have the military strength to do more than holding on.  The fight against the Klackons however, goes swimmingly. Three of the Ex-Psilon planets of the Tali-system have already been freed. The Psilon Soriane Union holds another planet and the Klackons are down to one. And our Imsaies-allies have literally all their military ships in-system, too. When an alliance works, it works!  But while I’m dealing with all this fighting, I also have to sometimes look what our own planets are doing. In this case, some Klackons we got from freeing the Psilon-worlds they were squatting on, decided to move across our entire empire to this one planet. (Which I’m guessing is a lot better for them than the deathworld-level red 2 the UI is showing us.) While I could just wait until the background migration auto-colonizes this planet, I decided to mark this one to be colonized the normal way. Our Silicoids need all the help they can get to prevent them from becoming a tiny minority in their own Kingdom. In Master of Orion 3, colony ships create new colonists basically from thin air and are a nice workaround for races with slow reproduction.  After that, the turn ends and the next combat phase starts. If you remember from the last updates, we finally cleared and secured the Trourmi-system and moved on to liberate Kindiilar. This is our armada in Kindiilar blowing up Raas-defenders. The Raas don’t put up much of a fight. To be fair, even our carriers alone outnumbered the defenders 5:1, so they never had a chance to begin with.  The most important space battles this turn: JustGniess drives out some transports, our victory at Kindiilar, our victory in Daegwin (a system in the Amoenta-sector, where the strong Raas-fleet is flying around) and our tiny scouts are still blocking Raas-colonizers in Arcturus. OK, the last thing technically isn’t a battle, but it’s too hilarious how the Raas just can’t deal with our scouts to not include this.  Just in case the enemy fleet is closing in on Daegwin, I order to bomb Daegwin I. Let’s do as much damage as we can before we are forced to retreat!  Our ongoing liberations planned for this turn: Our landing troops are outnumbered on Tali I, but vastly superior on Kindiilar II. Any bets on which landing will go better?  Too late for bets! The Almandian commander orders nukes to be used to destroy several major defense batteries on the grounds. He takes his time, letting the Klackon defenders first go underground to avoid the strikes, and then changes the planned landing zone to an empty, un-nuked part of the planet. The troops land without being challenged and can surprise the Klackons and their unwilling Psilon-militia after they come out of their bunkers. Two thirds of the planet are overrun in the resulting fighting. I’m wincing at the thought of annoying our allies too much by doing this, but the results are positive enough to justify the means: Fighting an enemy outnumbering us 2:1 we still took nearly the entire (tiny) planet in one go!  The liberation of Kindiilar II fails horribly: After our troops come down as fast and as concentrated as possible, the defenders surprise them with hidden gun emplacements and shoot down our shuttles almost as fast as they can bring soldiers down. Retaliatory fire from our fleet kills some Raas, but after nearly half of our army is dead, the Almandian commander leading the liberation efforts orders a retreat. The landing operation is aborted. Too late though to save more than 40% of our troops. Now with the contrast of Klackons/Psilons and Raas as ground enemies, you can see why we had so much trouble: It’s not that our slow-rear end Silicoids are that bad, it’s just that the Raas are that good!  And with this disaster, we’re entering turn 187. There are also some diplomatic messages to respond to. Which I will totally forget to do after dealing with our many military fronts.  We’re still outnumbered on Tali I, so the reserve forces I’ve send some turns ago should be able to take the planet, even if the defenders reverse our gains next time.  In the Amoenta-sector I can’t believe our luck: Instead of taking the route through vulnerable territory, the Raas-admiral decided to relieve the siege on Daegwin instead. In-universe, political pressure would force the Dila Empire to do this, of course. It’s just with our out-of-game meta knowledge that we can see that rampaging through our backwaters would make more strategic sense. But “annoying the human player” is sadly just a by-product of how the AI works, not an actual feature. Now we only have to actually win the battle when the Raas-fleet hits our strongest force in the area head-on.  Let’s move on to our Kindiilar-front: Our last two armies got toasted, so I’m forced to raise new ones. First I wanted to combine mobile infantry with assault troops like usual, but after one 30+ unit army we suddenly started to run out of experienced units. So instead I reversed the composition for the second army: Tons of assault troops supported by mobile infantry, instead of the opposite. Hopefully all those assault troops with their special air landing ability will make the next attempt a lot less vulnerable against the defenders uh defending the planet.  Luckily some of our transports have gone back to the reserves by now and together with a new one we have enough capacity to transport our two armies and their 66 units to Kindiilar II. Based of division strength, I’ve come to count a single unit as roughly brigade-strength. I never bothered to write this down before, but on paper, a brigade is four regiments of about 1000 soldiers each. This would for example, make a division 4-16 thousand soldiers strong, depending on how many units you cram in there. Since “unit” has no further lore text attached to it I could change, this information is basically only part of this game for the purpose of this LP. But if I could, I would put it into the text files somewhere! It just sounds too plausible to be wasted on my notes. Anyway, this means each of these armies is roughly a quarter of a million strong. Yes, half a million soldiers are marching to their doom again. Well, hopefully not, but experience doesn’t make their fate look good.  At our front with the Klackons, Almandin High Command decides to move our old, decrepit units in Cokanuk. They’ll be the new garrison in Tali after our main fleet moves forward.  The reason why I’m suddenly doing this has nothing to do with military reasons, though: I’ve just noticed that Cokanuk has been filled with tons of sub-light defense ships over time. Some of those ships are even only slightly out of date! This wild mix of ships can defend Cokanuk a lot more effectively than our mobile ships here could, so I decided to move them to somewhere they can still be useful as blockers for enemy scouts and colony ships.  Next combat phase! Again, we assault Kindiilar II. Another small squadron throws itself into our maw and all four ships die in the time I need to make this screenshot.  Since the game never tells you things like names of places in its fancy real time combat, I’ve started to mark the most important battle like this, so I can later still accurately tell which battle screenshots belong to which battle. The other battles this phase are just a repeat from last turn, by the way.  Daegwin I gets bombed, so no ground combat there. And Tali I has to sit this turn out, too: Thanks to our allies, not a single one of our two transport task forces got included into our assault fleet. This means no troops available for landing. If we fail on Tali I this turn, we’ll have to keep attacking the planet until our ground troops get included in the 10 task forces allowed per battle. Our troops for the second attempt on Kindiilar II are now six times stronger than the defenders. This time we should crack the Raas like an eggshell. And Alphecc II is just a little group of survivors from our constant bombings, there will be no landing there.  To my total surprise, our troops on Tali I advance against an enemy outnumbering them 3:1 by now and force them into total surrender! Welp, now it doesn’t matter anymore that our new troops couldn’t land.  And as always when fighting Raas, we have to kill every single one of those bastards one by one: Even with 6:1 superiority and using nukes, we barely get our armies on the ground and advance into another region. Almost every single enemy soldier dies and the defending corps is reduced to about two divisions worth of troops. Still, now the Raas will raise more troops and try to throw us off again. I tell you right now if those bastards where Sakkra or Ithkul, I would never actually bother with landing troops. Though since our constant ground battles have started depleting our reserves, in the future I will be forced to resort to even more space-based violence. Bombarding ex-slaves because they’re too traumatized to make peace with us doesn’t make this a fun thing to do.  Antaran Expedition Status Expedition1-3: Nothing new. Next: A Space-Rollercoaster of Space-Fun (and some stats)
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Mar 12, 2017 13:07
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Wait a moment, so if your fleet is too large, there's a chance your transports won't even get to land? What fresh hell of fuckery is this.
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Mar 12, 2017 22:37
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PurpleXVI posted:Wait a moment, so if your fleet is too large, there's a chance your transports won't even get to land? What fresh hell of fuckery is this. This mechanic came up a couple times before, but in short it works like this: 1. You need transports in the fleet assaulting a planet to land your troops. 2. Only up to 10 task forces allowed per side in a battle. 3. If there are more, 10 task forces from your available fleet get chosen at random. Among the possible outcomes are: A All your transports land in your fleet, but nothing else. You get hosed in space. B Your combat fleet is intact, but none of your transport TFs got into the battle. You get hosed on the ground. In this case, too many of our allies' ships entered into the battle, so our transports got crowded out. Therefore B happened. Welcome to Master of Orion 3.
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Mar 12, 2017 22:53
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This loving game. They love menus, they couldn't add a fleet selection menu?
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Mar 13, 2017 01:10
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Oh yes, I remember this lategame. You have several dozen armadas in orbit a planet you really want to take, and the enemy has a massive fleet defending it, and you keep on doing frontal assaults with your transport groups wtih point defense escorts and never your Titan Armadas with Death Star lasers... Happy times.
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Mar 13, 2017 03:40
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So, binged this over a few weeks, and I must say, very good thread you have here. you seem to have a decent sense of humour about the silly things, and much of this game seems.... fascinating let's say. I look forward to seeing how the relatively liberal rocks do.
I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.
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Mar 14, 2017 01:00
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It seems like the story of combat here, given transit times and all, is that when you show up to conquer a world you're probably fighting two generations-old spacecraft and if you just keep your ships in place they'll get punched out by whatever the latest prototype is. Is that how it tends to work?
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Mar 14, 2017 04:16
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Glazius posted:It seems like the story of combat here, given transit times and all, is that when you show up to conquer a world you're probably fighting two generations-old spacecraft and if you just keep your ships in place they'll get punched out by whatever the latest prototype is. Is that how it tends to work? Seems about that way yeah.
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Mar 14, 2017 06:15
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Glazius posted:It seems like the story of combat here, given transit times and all, is that when you show up to conquer a world you're probably fighting two generations-old spacecraft and if you just keep your ships in place they'll get punched out by whatever the latest prototype is. Is that how it tends to work? Sounds like Ender's Game that way.
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Mar 14, 2017 15:29
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Glazius posted:It seems like the story of combat here, given transit times and all, is that when you show up to conquer a world you're probably fighting two generations-old spacecraft and if you just keep your ships in place they'll get punched out by whatever the latest prototype is. Is that how it tends to work? Also, if you didn't bring enough ground troops to conquer a planet right off the bat, your enemy can teleport a zillion divisions in from their core worlds and stop your armies dead.
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Mar 14, 2017 16:22
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Master of Orion III: ULTIMATE Edition Chapter 58: A Space-Rollercoaster of Space-Fun  Galactic Cycle 282 sees good news: Tali I falls to our troops and the Psilons (at least the survivors of our nuclear strikes) rejoice! Sadly the Raas are a lot hardier than the Klackons, so the fighting on that front is a lot tougher: We land on Kindiilar II, but don’t get much farther, while we take Alphecc II, a planet literally undefended and nearly literally empty. Not really a victory we can be proud of…  Also, the population was Phaigur, not Raas. As mushroom people, they wouldn’t have been able to put up much of a fight, anyway. Now I’m switching on immigration and hope for the best. Even if we lose control, we should get it back thanks to migration pretty drat soon after.  But look at this! Our scouts in Arcturus still block multiple Raas-colony ships from doing anything. Arcturus must be in an odd space for the Dila Empire. The Raas shouldn’t have that much trouble clearing out a couple of scouts, but here we are.  After freeing the Tali-system completely, our armada moves the tiny jump over to Dromos. Our ships are fast enough to get there in just one turn, so the campaign can continue at a swift pace. Basically the opposite of the situation on the Raas-front.  The Psilons from the Soriane Union are ecstatic about our war against Klackon aggression: We’re now at 158/200 points diplomatic relation! They still barely tolerate us, though. If the Klackons are beaten at some point in the future, the few surviving Psilon-worlds will turn against us, I’m sure. Welp, there goes my old plan of trying to make them our friends. Casus Belli shows us that we hate them and they hate us, which means as soon as the positive influence from our liberation war runs out (after the war is over), our diplomatic relations will drop. Looks like giving them back their worlds won’t have enough influence to prevent their inevitable betrayal. Luckily the Soriane Union is weak as poo poo, so “liberating” the rest of the Psilons should cause no trouble to the Kingdom of Almandin!   Last time I forgot to answer my space mail, so this time I overcompensate: Everyone gets messages! Our allies get an offer to improve our trade relations, the Psilons are getting pestered about a defensive alliance for obvious reasons and our enemies get brazen demands. Essentially, I asked both the Klackons and the Raas to hand over all the planets in the systems we’re currently assaulting. I’m not even demanding an end to the war or a ceasefire or something. Just “give me the planets”. It’s not like they could hate us even more, after all.  Stats! Our Imsaies-allies have a rather low, but stable count of 20 planets. Their tech-level is rather high, thanks to their alliance with us, but that’s it. They’re weak as poo poo and can only hold their ground thanks to us. The arbitrary scale of measurement ranks them at place 12.  The Vchiitri Empire is in trouble: The Klackons are still rather bad at this whole “science” thing and they now have lost their advantage in planets and resources. It’s not even just us: They’re fighting another empire somewhere else, and losing there, too. They’re down to 46 planets and their population dropped to nearly our level. For insectoids, that’s incredibly bad. Still, the game thinks they’re the 6th largest empire in the Orion Sector. Kind of cute.  Our arch-enemy, the Dila Empire, is on their way out. Incredibly slowly, but steadily. They still have 46 planets, but we’re finally beating them hard enough the number of planets is now going down, rather than just going up more slowly. Their tech level is 35 on average, mostly thanks to stealing everything they need from us. The number of planets if misleading in their case, anyway: As their population shows, most of those planets are still new and underdeveloped. Their population has dropped to almost half of ours. If we can keep them from colonizing more poo poo, the end will draw near soon.  Our recent conquests and our latest colonization-programs made the Kingdom grow to 68 planets, which combined with our high research of 38 (average) and sizable population (1352 units), makes us a force to be reckoned with. Incredibly, we’re still only 4th place, so at least three of the empires we haven’t met yet will be an actual threat!  While flipping through empire analysis, I noticed that our allies are now actually at war with the Cynoid-empire we stumbled upon long ago. Considering how not good at fighting the Imsaies are, this doesn’t bode well for our northern border. On the timescale Master of Orion III operates there will be an asslong amount of time passing before something interesting happens over there, though.  This confirms it (and explains why the Imsaies love us so much, beggars can’t be choosers): The Cynoids are at war with our allies. And good god, both sides despise each other so much, the hate would be able to summon chaos gods if this were Warhammer 40k. There will be no peace here. Sooner or later we will have to deal with this, since the Cynoids also don’t like us and thanks to our full alliance with the Imsaies, they’re basically already at war with us, anyway.  After all this diplomacy, I did some relaxing by blowing up Klackons in the Dromos-system. This impressive little fighter-battle bugged out the game engine and the battle ended in a draw. Even though I exterminated every single enemy ship.  This is so silly. The last enemy ship went down a full three minutes before the timer ran out. For three minutes, multiple fighter squadrons and two full task forces bombarded those fighters with everything they’d got, but the battle just would not end. Because of this, there was no planetary assault and no landing of troops. Of course, without any motherships to land on, those dumb glitch fighters got deleted from the game as soon as the battle ended. But holding up our entire fleet for a full turn single-handedly is still impressive, I’ll give them that.  Just after I finally remembered that you can read a planet’s name in a real time battle by clicking on it, the most powerful Raas fleet ever rushes headlong into our fleet in Daegwin. Our carriers immediately launch fighters and the Raas get hammered.  As the short-range enemy ships get into range of our long-range task forces, the combined fire of fighters and direct fire weapons breaks through their shields.  In the end, they die without even scratching our ship’s paintjobs. The Hunt for Green October is over. This was anticlimactic. And an object lesson as to why I stopped building short-range ships myself.  The Space-Rollercoaster of battle fortune isn’t stopping: After the Raas switched from suddenly winning space battles back to suddenly losing, the Klackons decided to retake Tali again. And without us to stop them, they actually succeed in defeating the Imsaies-fleet protecting Tali for us. The Vchiitri Empire loses about 9 ships out of 24, while the mighty fleet of Annalonian ships gets absolutely pasted: Only 15 out of 64 ships survive. Of course this means the liberation of Dromos is aborted and our fleet will have to turn around to disperse the Klackon fleet in our back. poo poo. Welp, this is certainly the last time I let the AI handle an important battle.  In the meantime, our fleet in Kindiilar bombards the third planet. Not out of malice, but because Kindiilar III would be nice for our Silicoids to live on. First we need to clear out the large Raas population, though.  In the Daegwin-system, our fleet celebrates their unexpected victory over the elite of the Raas space fleet a bit too much and some of the ordnance used in the celebration ends up hitting Daegwin II. And with this, I will have to end this update. The next one will be a bit larger again and I will try to get it up at around Sunday at the latest. Antaran Expedition Status Expedition1-3: Nothing new. Next: Something, something more war
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Mar 16, 2017 20:29
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I'm likewise disappointed that the Raas Doom Fleet didn't cause more trouble once they finally got into a fight with a modern fleet.
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Mar 16, 2017 21:11
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