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nweismuller posted:ManxomeBromide's post linked as another canonical lore post. Once again, there is something important there- which may shed light on their earlier post. Okay, I get it now. Because Gnolams are Lucky, their ships just Work Better with a lot of Gnolams united in the noble cause of 'please don't let me blow up'. Since Gnolams don't know they're Lucky, they don't realize that Humans are (by their standards) Unlucky; if they did, they'd be all 'oh, of course their ships are heavily automated; the fewer people on board, the less chance someone trips and hits the self-destruct or something'. e: since you asked for loreposts, how about more 'Humans Through Gnolam Eyes' stuff? I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. FredMSloniker fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Jun 14, 2020 |
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Jun 14, 2020 05:25
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FredMSloniker posted:Okay, I get it now. Because Gnolams are Lucky, their ships just Work Better with a lot of Gnolams united in the noble cause of 'please don't let me blow up'. Since Gnolams don't know they're Lucky, they don't realize that Humans are (by their standards) Unlucky; if they did, they'd be all 'oh, of course their ships are heavily automated; the fewer people on board, the less chance someone trips and hits the self-destruct or something'. In a slightly less flip way of putting it, Gnolams count on their native ability to catch errors, which means enough staffing to properly oversee processes which Humans consider safer to handle through automated error-catching. nweismuller fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Jun 14, 2020 |
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Jun 14, 2020 06:34
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I still wonder how an ability to catch errors can allow to avoid your sun going supernova, but at the same time this is a problem that can be solved by throwing some science at it in the MOOniverse, so why not. LOREPOST REQUEST: what about the ethnic and cultural mix in the Gnolam colonies. So far you've established two main cultures for our business bisons, Levan and Nalas, how are they and whatever other cultures represented in Stevas, Navok, and Eglein? Homogeneous mix, predominance from one group, maybe the austere and uncomfortable conditions of Navok combined with their mission being of maintaining the logistic support for a space border fort to protect Gnolam space appealed to a very different kind of people than the much more comfortable world of Stevas (even if still sub-Valian). And also maybe the dry and heavy world of Eglein appeals to very different people than the wet and light world of Stevas. While colonization is too recent to have had pronounced cultural drift yet, and since the League is a vaguely democratic system, I figure colonists are selected from volunteers and each world has different kinds of volunteers -- colonists don't enroll to be sent to whatever wherever, they enroll to be sent to a specific planet in a specific planet and go through some training to pre-acclimate to the destination world (probably a whole lot of gym for those going to be sent to high-for-them gravity). Actually I figure you could start with a lorepost on colonist recruitment, training and selection procedures.
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Jun 14, 2020 10:31
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Colonists and Colonisation Consortia Recruitment and training for new colony ventures within the Universal Mercantile League is a three-tier process. The first and smallest tier is the actual crew and officers of the colony ship itself, who, in addition to standard training in the operation of spacegoing ships, are selected for skills within key specialties needed for rapidly establishing a functional colony on an alien world- industrial management, medical and biological sciences, xenoagriculture, reactor operation. The ship crew are supported by a key mission crew selected and trained for these specialties, with the objective of rapidly deploying prefabricated settlement shelters with a basic power infrastructure, agricultural base, and enough industrial machinery to support future economic development on the planet. Both these groups are directly considered employed by the consortium for the new colony, and draw payment for the life of the consortium before it is wound down and new governments are established in the various 'landing settlements' according to the provisions set forth in the colonist recruitment process. Gnolams are keenly aware that any large-scale economic plan and command economy on the scale of a new colony is doomed to choke under its own managerial overhead, so, by design, this stage of setting up a base to operate from is both temporary and planned to be completed as rapidly as possible. The vast bulk of the colonists are 'independent' colonists not directly employed by the consortium, buying in for a position on the colony ship and contractual rights to the homesteading of property on a new world and involvement in the process of establishing the format of government for whatever 'landing settlement' they make their new home in. The training process for 'independent' colonists is very basic, essentially a briefing on expected dangers and difficulties on a new alien world and a review of their contractual rights and responsibilities. These colonists are generally 'recruited' by an advertising blitz emphasising the opportunities involved in getting in on the ground floor of a new world. A new colony is split between multiple 'landing settlements' scattered over the surface of a planet. In general, while taking assignment to which part of the planet a settler shall settle, preference is given to settlers who speak the same language for a given settlement. Although many settlements focus on Levan as their primary language- reflecting Levan's importance as an international language- almost any language spoken on Val might be represented as the primary language of a landing settlement on a colony. Each landing settlement ultimately serves as the nucleus of a new member state of the Universal Mercantile League. The investor consortium behind a colonisation mission expects to make back its investment by the purchase of colonist slots by independent colonists, the auction of the various prefab infrastructure and initial real estate used to set up a new colony into private hands, and, in the cases of Eglein and Navok, by collecting subsidy payments raised from contributions from member states of the UML to ensure that those strategically-critical systems could be claimed for the League. Following the final divestment of assets once a colony is established, the consortium has served its purpose and is disbanded, with financial assets cashed out to its investors. nweismuller fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Mar 13, 2021 |
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Jun 14, 2020 18:52
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How's that, Cat Mattress? (For what it's worth, Levan and Storran do not represent all Gnolam cultures by a long shot, you could very roughly analogise them to Germanic and Latin language groups on Earth. What they do represent is the primary language groups of the section of Val which launched the Industrial Revolution, and thus ended up creating the de facto international language of commerce on Val.) E: Edited in a section on 'landing settlements' in the lorepost. nweismuller fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Jun 14, 2020 |
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Jun 14, 2020 18:52
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An Enduring Friendship Breakthroughs in Gnolam study of physics in 1952 allowed for significantly more sophisticated understanding of electromagnetism, and suggested further paths for study of strongly manipulated electromagnetic fields. These physical breakthroughs proved to have been the basis on which Human engineers had developed electromagnetic defensive screens, and could further be turned to allow for much more sophisticated sensor jamming technologies, which could doubtless be turned as a tool to baffle hostile missile seeker systems.     Almost simultaneously, the Enforcer began its orbital bombardment of the pirate settlement in Miract. Unfortunately, its accuracy in placing bombs on target from orbit was low and resupply to its position was slow. It was only in 1955 that the pirate settlement was finally eliminated, allowing salvage of materials and increasing the security of trade.  Late in 1955, the Victor, the first League space control cruiser, cleared the assembly yards at Val and was ordered to the front at Guad. The Navy's strength slowly grew.   In 1960, the United Republic approached the Universal Mercantile League, seeking to purchase a site for an embassy on Val and ensuring mutual exchange of embassies between the two powers. This proposal was gladly accepted by the League, helping to further cement relations between League and Republic.   The continued research into the implications of powerful electromagnetic manipulation within the League bore fruit by 1966 OIR. Intense magnetic fields to contain fusion reactions could allow for industrial-scale fusion, refinements in the acceleration process for neutron burst cannon could allow them to be manufactured more cheaply and compactly, and a much scaled-down version of the neutron burst cannon could be adapted to powerful man-portable weapons that could cause severe embrittlement and cracking even in vehicle armor materials, with minimal recoil. A new generation of magnetic accelerators allowed for the first railgun technologies that could launch at velocities sufficient to be usefully accurate in space combat, while similar railgun heavy weapons could be powerful assets in surface warfare. These new railguns delivered energy on target far more efficiently than neutron burst cannon, and could potentially make for devastating weapons.    With the new technologies available to the Navy, it launched a design contest which ended with Reliant Aerospace winning the contracts for the design of the Controller counter-piracy frigate, the Protector fleet escort frigate, and the Champion space control cruiser, with all three designs taking advantage of electromagnetic defensive screens and with the Protector and Champion relying on railgun turrets as their primary armament.  The League, concerned about the potential of covert action, established a fully-staffed headquarters for the League Interstellar Intelligence Service on Val in 1967 OIR. The analysis sections in headquarters immediately begaan review of data forwarded to the LIIS from local security services, while the first full LIIS action team began a process of being assembled and trained.    Long-range recon flights confirmed the presence of pirate vessels assembled in the as of yet poorly-controlled Biots system in 1970, with the Vindicator intercepting these vessels at the edge of the Biots system in 1971. The battle that ensued was as one-sided as ever, although significant electromagnetic interference from Biots reduced missile seeker effectiveness and made the battle take longer to complete than usual.  The steady growth of trade within the League relying on Val as a hub exporting to the colonies and importing valuable resources helped drive continued economic growth on the homeworld. Val sat at the center of a thriving interstellar society, the focus of its industry and trade.    A long-standing ambition of League negotiators was achieved in early 1972 with the signing of the Terra Nova Accords between the UML and the United Republic. According to the terms of the Terra Nova Accords, a permanent recognition of the territorial claims of both powers would be made by either side, with a pledge to forgo military force as a tool of dispute resolution and promises of enduring friendship made on either side. Although the Accords did not require active assistance between the two governments, they were nonetheless an excellent sign for future peace and continued friendly commerce between Gnolam and Human.     By late 1972 OIR, the pirate presence in Biots had been destroyed, and a fresh wave of immigration from the scattered nomad and exile community subjugated by the pirates contributed several hundred million people to the population of Navok. Still, with the frontiers closing in, it seemed that the days of large nomad communities may have been drawing to a close. Known Space and the Universal Mercantile League as of 1975  The Gnolam economy has continued to grow, with a modest increase in the rate at which investment capital becomes available for new projects and a notable acceleration of innovation within the League. The United Republic has settled the Saliba system near Sol, while refinery complexes over Jupiter have joined those over Evorak in providing a wealth of processed hydrocarbons for use by industry. Our embassy allows us to see the Sol system, but we can't see what planet was colonised in the Saliba system yet.  Naval fortifications now control the approaches to the Shimari system from Butain and Miract, helping further cement League borders.  In Guad, a series of laboratories through the asteroid belts have begun operating, helping provide valuable contributions to League science, while the Victor and Sentinel secure the hyperspace conduits to Butain and Biots, and a Naval fort is under construction in the system.     Val's population has now nearly reached 12 billion persons, while intensive production of materials to adjust soil chemistry in agricultural lands and careful addition of selected xenocrops to production help maximise agricultural yields. The energy infrastructure of Val is now built around a series of fusion plants with greater output than earlier fission plants, allowing industrial processes earlier far too power-intensive for widescale deployment to be used at larger scales. Even elemental transmutation through neutron bombardment of materials has begun to see some production-scale use in applications making use of certain rare heavy elements. The LIIS headquarters are tucked away quietly in a small town on the continent of Sedzi on Val, far from the primary centers of government, commerce, and industry on the planet. Construction has begun on the space control cruiser Champion here, I don't much like how the Neutron Collider is written as a 'research-assisting' structure which only applies to industry. Rewriting it to reflect much better power infrastructure works well in my mind. With the Neutron Collider, we can now- hypothetically- actually begin making more pollution than the planet can stand, if we use every possible population unit we can in industry. Each population unit on a planet generates 1 pollution, and each point of production created generates 1.5 pollution, then reduced by the planet's 'pollution tolerance'- 40, in Val's case. Any pollution at all will begin to degrade agricultural productivity, and accumulating total pollution over a period of turns up to the planet's limit causes it to degrade a level in planetary environment- down to swamp or arid for a terran world like Val, after accumulating 300 pollution. With current technology on Val, this isn't a huge concern- just not using that last unit of industrial population is not a huge sacrifice, and we can always use the extra research instead- but further industrial technologies or worlds with richer deposits may allow us to realistically start making even more production, starting to demand putting up structures to increase pollution tolerance.   Stevas exceeds four billion persons in population, with its food needs now partially filled by farming of artificial extremophilic molds and fungi. Foods derived from these sources are at best an acquired taste, but given limited farming yields otherwise, the people of Stevas take the supplement to the diet as they can. A major Naval station over the planet, now nearly completed, promises to serve as a major logistics, training, and recruitment base for the Navy, while local governments have begun to take steps to muster surface military forces. Population growth is slowing on Stevas as potential viable sites for cities on the hostile surface begin to be exhausted.   Eglein has seen major industrial modernisation over the past 25 years, and now relies on sealed dome agriculture for certain delicate crops. Small research stations dot isolated corners of the planet, collecting raw data for the use of off-world researchers. The population stands at approximately 1.5 billion, with continued development of industrial-scale hydroponics expected to further bolster crop yields and help ensure abundant food supplies on Eglein into the future. The limited population is not well-equipped to upkeep the current infrastructure, and timely imports are vital to maintaining Eglein's current economy.   Food supplies on Navok are shorter than could be preferred, greatly increasing the local cost of living for the approximately two billion inhabitants- this despite new dome agriculture helping bolster local food security. A modernised industrial base supports about fifty million heavy industrial workers who are frantically assembling new hydroponic farm facilities as fast as they can, while a growing scientific community has begun to develop on the planet, making it the primary research center in the League beyond Val itself, despite the relatively primitive state of scientific infrastructure compared to Stevas.  Discovery that, under certain unusual circumstances, powerful electromagnetic fields can actually alter the behavior of gravitons has led to a burst of research in to how effectively manipulate gravitational forces. If effective manipulation of gravity became possible, ships and stations could be refit for far better comfort on long deployments, larger-scale microgravity developments with increased staffing would be practical, and the challenges presented by high-gravity worlds such as Eglein could be addressed.  The first LIIS action team is nearly ready for service. Supporting an extensive network of intelligence personnel with cutting-edge equipment will doubtless be expensive, but such an expense is a necessary sacrifice to security. Each spy team costs us 5 BC per annum- very much a non-trivial expense. Proposals for the Universal Mercantile League Research Proposals Although research into gravity manipulation takes the bulk of attention and the largest share of research funding in the League currently, other projects quietly continue in the background. Developments in large-scale logistics could help in more smoothly handling projects on major industrial worlds, possibly helping speed the deployment of new colony missions from Val. League government studies into xenology and security strategies could aid in diplomacy, war, and covert maneuvers. Refining current electronics technology could help provide a new generation of survey sensors and aid in future development of physics and computing, advanced chemical engineering, on top of providing cost-effective tools to handle industrial waste, could allow for a new generation of missile technology and future advances in genetic engineering or materials science and spaceframe engineering, and developing a generation of drive systems capable of making use of the power provided by fusion power could help make for faster ships that bind the League closer together. Please vote between Macro Economics, XENOLOGY, Electronics, Molecular Manipulation, GENETIC ENGINEERING, ADVANCED ENGINEERING, Advanced Fusion, or 'the low-hanging fruit'. Voting for one of the technologies in all-caps is also implicitly a vote for its prerequisite- Military Tactics in the case of Xenology or Molecular Manipulation in the case of Genetic Engineering or Advanced Engineering. The 'low-hanging fruit' is a vote to clear out all three remaining tier 2 technologies- Electronics, Molecular Manipulation, and Advanced Fusion- before pushing on further in the tech tree. Naval Appropriations The Navy awaits the funding to refit its older ships to the new design standards. Although the Navy has not asked for an increase in its number of mobile hulls, it has nearly reached the size previously decided on by the Assembly, and a further expansion could potentially be approved if the Assembly believes that building up the Navy further may be important to longer-term security. Please vote yea or nay on spending the money to refit old ships- I would suggest we do so. Please also vote yea or nay on a further Naval expansion. LIIS Appropriations Operating LIIS will be immensely expensive, but necessary. How many action teams are required under current conditions is a matter of discussion, although any more than three will cost more than all the gains from trade with the Republic. Please vote on a goal somewhere between one and four LIIS action teams, inclusive. LIIS Directives The most conservative role LIIS could take would be to focus purely on counterintelligence work, strengthening League internal security. LIIS could also be tasked to cultivate sources within the Republic to provide more current intelligence, either immediately or after allowing an action team to effectively work out its operational difficulties after time on counterintelligence work, minimising the risk of a diplomatic incident by such operations. Please vote between pure counterintelligence for LIIS or either rapid or cautious development of sources in the Republic. Successfully developing sources will allow certain basic intelligence on the Republic, including the locations of all Republican colonies, and is a necessary prerequisite for future covert actions against the United Republic. Diplomatic Priorities With the conclusion of the Terra Nova Accords, the Assembly must decide the long-term priorities for the UML in relation to the United Republic. Maintaining current relations should be simple and stable, and not present further entanglements in the future. Willingness to accept open transit and refueling agreements would allow for free exploration and Naval operations through Republican space at the cost of permitting the same for the Republic through League space. A full alliance would be a strong commitment to mutual aid and cooperation, allowing intelligence-sharing and obligating military aid by both sides in need, but would obviously be a potential entanglement which could undermine League foreign policy with any other powers that might potentially be discovered in the future. Please vote between long-term diplomatic goals of the status quo, free transit and fueling, or full alliance with the United Republic. We will not necessarily spend heavily to achieve these goals, but it tells us where we should stop. The Terra Nova Accords have confirmed the history of peace and friendship between the Universal Mercantile League and the United Republic. With good fortune, this peace and friendship will endure permanently, allowing both sides to prosper and thrive together. nweismuller fucked around with this message at 22:24 on Jun 16, 2020 |
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Jun 16, 2020 00:45
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"News All Day Network" posted:-boast that their strong focus in cultural xenology will soon lead every Republican grocery having Nutris products on the shelves- Also, full alliance "News All Day Network" posted:-onfirm that the Redwort & Spotcap Omelette, colloquially known as 'vomelette', has been removed from the new lineup of MREs due to negative market reception despite numerous revisions to the recipe during the decades, and assure future sailors that their wishes and preferences will be taken carefully into accou- Yea both to refit and naval expansion "Nutris internal memo" posted:For the last time, the exact details of our contract with LIIS remain under strict NDA. So unless you're high management or PatentSec, none of that concerns you. 2 LIIS teams, pure counterintelligence "Advert Jingle" posted:IS YOUR CULINARY LIFE BLAND? Theantero fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Jun 16, 2020 |
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Jun 16, 2020 01:56
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This is much funnier when paired with the Bison avatar.
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Jun 16, 2020 03:40
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Drirlan Drevner, CEO of Drevner Mass Drivers posted:No no no! I -know- that an alliance means we won't go to war with them, and that if we won't go to war with them we can't sell mass drivers to shoot them, you're missing the point! Sooner or later someone else is going to come along who doesn't buy our merchandise and they'll be the one to start something, and when they do having two major markets to sell to is going to be a lot better than one! Why, we might even end up with an opportunity to supply a war that we could have entirely missed otherwise! So you make sure they know we want them to take this human alliance all the way! Full Alliance Drevner Middle Management posted:You should be making it as clear to them that funding those naval upgrades is vital to our future as it is clear to you that them doing so is vital to your upcoming bonus! Yes to refit and expand Navy Professor P. Poundsworth, before having his posting rights permanently revoked posted:People, please! Proponents positing potential prototypes for production pipeline purification should perhaps ponder perfecting patented preliminary prefabrication procedures pursuant to providing prime perennial profit performance! Advanced Engineering LIIS Trainer Alpha posted:I am aware the bridge from the shorter path shows all the little signs it will start to collapse under your weight, that's not what's important here! You have to- look, it's not even a three foot fall and you can jump the distance, stop worrying and listen to me! Humans miss the signs. They do not see what we see! So if they're trying to get in somewhere they shouldn't be, they will concern themselves with the shortest route with the least exposure. Which means they're vulnerable to setting this sort of trap. You have to think like they do and plan accordingly! 1 Counter-intel team
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Jun 16, 2020 05:24
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For research, I vote for low hanging fruit. We need to clear 'em out eventually, better to not let our research lag behind forever. I'd say to trade for or buy those technologies, but I do not think that is really feasible. For Naval stuff, update the ships. The cost isn't too high, and while I'm sure our anti-piracy ships are more than up to the task of putting down pirates for now, I think they do eventually and slowly tech up. Or at least throw more stuff at you. The point is that you eventually need to throw better stuff at them, and more importantly, a strong military will make sure nobody gets any ideas about loving with you. NAPs don't mean poo poo in the face of "we could easily roll over those guys and take all of their poo poo." Due to the aforementioned "trust nobody" issue, I say expand the Navy. We don't need a lot extra, depending on what kind of a fleet humanity has, but why take a chance? I think we can afford it, although not much more. I don't remember exactly how many fleet points the various ships and fortifications take, but I think listening posts are free (except for the time it takes to build them), and the fortifications take one each. We have three points open, from the looks of it, which I think is one more cruiser and one more frigate, or three frigates. For LIIS Appropriations, continuing with the "trust nobody" thing, four teams. Yeah, they're 25 BC to train and 5 BC/turn upkeep, but we're The Money Guys so we got this. As tempting as it is to keep all four teams at home for security operations, I think we should deploy cautiously. We're not in a rush to ferret out their secrets, and I'd rather have good intel in a week than a war tomorrow. For future diplomacy, I propose a full alliance. After all, these guys are cool and down for some mutual winning, but that doesn't mean everybody's going to be, and you'll want someone to watch your back when it's time to grind the Darloks into dust. If Darloks exist in this. Or maybe they do and you just don't know because they're shapeshifters. How do we know we're actually dealing with Humanity and not Darloks pulling a long con anyway? 
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Jun 16, 2020 06:48
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News All Day Network posted:... University of Torrein reasserted its commitment as a research institution for the basic sciences. "Our reputation," stated Dean... Low-hanging fruit. Nian Bortis, to the Assembly posted:I, of course, believe we should ensure that the Navy has access to modern and effective equipment- but granted the Terra Nova Accords, I believe it would be wise to continue to collect a peace dividend to ensure the continued prosperity of our League. The Navy, although necessary, is an expense that we may be able to economise on, thereby ensuring our future growth. I believe further that extensions to the Terra Nova Accords to ensure the freedom of navigation shall be valuable, but that compromising the League's neutrality would be committing to a very risky course- the League's policy, in my view, should ever be one of peace and friendship to all who will extend the same courtesy, while avoiding the entanglements of foreign adventures and the temptations of intervention into the affairs of others. Although, of course, we celebrate the peace and freedom which may be achieved in other states, we remember that the first responsibility of a state is to its own citizens and should act as the champion and vindicator only of the peace and freedom of our own citizens. Upgrade ships, but maintain current fleet strength, while seeking free transit with the United Republic League PSA posted:Information provided to the LIIS that proves to be a material contribution to the apprehension of individuals who have engaged in treason or espionage is subject to a monetary reward. Do your part to ensure the security of your state and of the Universal Mercantile League and report evidence you possess of espionage activities! Two LIIS teams, counterespionage only
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Jun 16, 2020 20:22
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nweismuller posted:Colonists and Colonisation Consortia Nice, thanks. MechaCrash posted:I'd say to trade for or buy those technologies, but I do not think that is really feasible. Master of Orion 2 then copied Civilization on many points, and adopted a branching tech tree, but kept this separation between technologies themselves and the technology applications. Now you have two kinds of apps: those that are unlocked automatically when researching the technology, and those where you have to make a choice between two or three applications. As a result of this choice, it means that there are some apps that you can never get on your own -- and those are the kind of apps that you can trade. NuMOO does basically the same thing, and we've seen it in here already: the purchase of class 1 shields and electronic computers from the human republic was getting technology applications of advanced magnetism and electronics, before these technologies were researched. The result is that when the gnolam league researched advanced magnetism next, instead of having to choose between advanced jammers and class 1 shields, the choice was automatically made for jammers (shields being already known). And likewise for electronics, researching it will grant deep scanner automatically since computers were already nabbed. Anyways:
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Jun 16, 2020 21:57
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Cat Mattress posted:[*]Diplomatic stance: Status quo should be kept at least until we've settled our fill of worlds behind our forts; we don't want to see human colony ships taking advantage of open borders to just go plop down colonists on Baalbo, Taurio, or Hoshi. Speaking of, what exactly is permitted by way of colonisation in territory you've secured? Once you've fully blocked off system accesses, the map indicates systems colored in your colors; does that constitute a full diplomatic claim you can enforce? E: Realised I managed to forget to link the the map of all known space at the beginning of the end of update situation report. Image now edited into the update. nweismuller fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Jun 16, 2020 |
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Jun 16, 2020 22:20
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I was just revisiting your human Master of Orion 2 Let's Play for some nostalgia, getting back into the series at the same time, and what do I find on the very first page of the LP forum but another LP from you! Good to see you back in action and coming back to this game after how disastrously your last attempt ended. I'll refrain from voting on anything, since I haven't really explored nuMoO much, and I don't have the experience to know what good decisions would be. I'm having a lot of fun in MoO 2 with a race I call the Librarians, designed for maximum science output but without the game-breaking Creative trait. Librarians use the Klackon portrait and get Democracy, +2 Science, and Large, Rich, Artifact Homeworld at the expense of Low-G Homeworld, -20 Ship Defense, and -10 Ground Combat. I basically imagine them as genetically engineered keepers of knowledge whose creator race died out, leaving them to fend for themselves. If I can find the motivation, I may write a program to generate a random set of trait picks for challenge runs. I always enjoyed the roleplay aspect of these games, so it might be fun to start from a list of traits and figure out what sort of racial biology, culture, and history might produce those.
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Jun 16, 2020 22:35
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Polybius91 posted:I was just revisiting your human Master of Orion 2 Let's Play for some nostalgia, getting back into the series at the same time, and what do I find on the very first page of the LP forum but another LP from you! Good to see you back in action and coming back to this game after how disastrously your last attempt ended. I'll refrain from voting on anything, since I haven't really explored nuMoO much, and I don't have the experience to know what good decisions would be. For what it's worth, I try and constrain the votes I offer so I'd at least be willing to go with any outcome. I may have outcomes I prefer when I put things up for a vote, but don't feel like you're completely sabotaging me by making relatively uninformed votes. I actually encourage you to vote if you have any inspiration at all for what you'd want to see. And I'm pleased you've come across this LP! I appear to have relatively few participants this time around, so I'm delighted to get anybody willing to join in. Thanks for reading! E: Also, 'Librarians', just out of curiousity, do you happen to follow Outsider? nweismuller fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Jun 16, 2020 |
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Jun 16, 2020 22:39
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Cat Mattress posted:It's indeed not. The Master of Orion series separates technologies (which are, in themselves, just pure science) from technology applications. In MOO2, if you acquired all the possible things you could research in a particular area, you could just skip it. So like if you got Transporters and Food Replicators via alternate avenues, you could just skip the Matter-Energy Conversion category. I was going to ask if that applies here or not, but I can see why it wouldn't: when you research Advanced Magnetism, in addition to your choice of Class I Shield or ECM Jammer, you also just get Neutron Blaster Modifications, and from the looks of it, the only way to get those is to do the actual research yourself, and you can't go past that bit of the tree until you do. Speaking of Neutron Blaster Modifications, had I paid better attention to all the mods, I would've proposed a cruiser with a heavy autofiring enveloping continuous armor piercing neutron blaster, because I like building giant wads of doomcannons and strapping engines to them.  (Why not shield-wrecking too? Because class one shields are speedbumps.)Oh well, I can get absurd with this later, it's not like we won't be designing more ships in the future.
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Jun 16, 2020 22:56
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nweismuller posted:For what it's worth, I try and constrain the votes I offer so I'd at least be willing to go with any outcome. I may have outcomes I prefer when I put things up for a vote, but don't feel like you're completely sabotaging me by making relatively uninformed votes. I actually encourage you to vote if you have any inspiration at all for what you'd want to see. And I'm pleased you've come across this LP! I appear to have relatively few participants this time around, so I'm delighted to get anybody willing to join in. Thanks for reading! quote:E: Also, 'Librarians', just out of curiousity, do you happen to follow Outsider?  Though I did pinch their homeworld name (Archive) from Into the Breach.
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Jun 16, 2020 23:08
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MechaCrash posted:Speaking of Neutron Blaster Modifications, had I paid better attention to all the mods, I would've proposed a cruiser with a heavy autofiring enveloping continuous armor piercing neutron blaster, because I like building giant wads of doomcannons and strapping engines to them. For what it's worth, 'continuous' and 'armor piercing' are the same thing in nuMoO, as are 'shield-wrecking' and 'enveloping'. I've been writing the mods to their effects, trying for maximum plausibility.
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Jun 16, 2020 23:10
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Polybius91 posted:I'm not familiar with it at all, actually. "Librarian" just seemed like the obvious name for a species tailor-made to collect and provide knowledge Ah, Outsider is a (quite slowly-updating) webcomic that's well-drawn and well-written, with a very solid setting obviously inspired by MoO2 focusing around Humanity stumbling into a total war running between the (Elerian-inspired) Loroi and the (Klackon-inspired) Umiak. The Psilon-expies therein are called the 'Librarians'. It also happens to be written and drawn by one half of the Stars in Shadow dev team, and is how I first became aware of Stars in Shadow. http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/
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Jun 16, 2020 23:13
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nweismuller posted:Ah, Outsider is a (quite slowly-updating) webcomic that's well-drawn and well-written, with a very solid setting obviously inspired by MoO2 focusing around Humanity stumbling into a total war running between the (Elerian-inspired) Loroi and the (Klackon-inspired) Umiak. The Psilon-expies therein are called the 'Librarians'.
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Jun 16, 2020 23:24
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Cool, I hope you enjoy it! I've found it rewarding to follow, even if I've had to wait through its occasional long dry spells.
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Jun 16, 2020 23:39
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nweismuller posted:For what it's worth, 'continuous' and 'armor piercing' are the same thing in nuMoO, as are 'shield-wrecking' and 'enveloping'. I've been writing the mods to their effects, trying for maximum plausibility. Oh! I was under the impression that "continuous" was like MOO2's accuracy bonus, and "enveloping" was MOO2's "hits all sides." For the comic Outsider, I knew about it, but I didn't know that a member of the Stars In Shadow dev team was involved, although the art makes it pretty clear in retrospect.
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Jun 17, 2020 00:14
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MechaCrash posted:Oh! I was under the impression that "continuous" was like MOO2's accuracy bonus, and "enveloping" was MOO2's "hits all sides." Amusingly, this means 'continuous' is a possible mod for Mass Drivers and Gauss Cannons. I will obviously be adapting its description for those cases.
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Jun 17, 2020 00:19
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nweismuller posted:Speaking of, what exactly is permitted by way of colonisation in territory you've secured? Once you've fully blocked off system accesses, the map indicates systems colored in your colors; does that constitute a full diplomatic claim you can enforce? So far as I can tell, each race makes one check for 'is this dude colonizing a star system adjacent to one of mine', if you tell them to piss off that's that, and similarly if you agree to back off, you've made a treaty of sorts to never colonize in a star system near them. After that you can do whatever you want inside your star systems. And I don't think there's a general "this empire is getting too big" malus to diplomacy a lá MoO 1, either, or at least it isn't nearly as aggressive. Rappaport fucked around with this message at 06:00 on Jun 17, 2020 |
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Jun 17, 2020 05:56
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Rappaport posted:So far as I can tell, each race makes one check for 'is this dude colonizing a star system adjacent to one of mine', if you tell them to piss off that's that, and similarly if you agree to back off, you've made a treaty of sorts to never colonize in a star system near them. After that you can do whatever you want inside your star systems. And I don't think there's a general "this empire is getting too big" malus to diplomacy a lá MoO 1, either, or at least it isn't nearly as aggressive. What I'm meaning is... once you secure front lines, it will mark systems as being 'secured' in the appropriate colors, as we see in Hoshi and Talas. Is the AI restricted from colonising behind your lines in secured systems like that, I wonder?
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Jun 17, 2020 06:26
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I don't know exactly how it works, but I have seen the AI take advantage of open borders to go settle planets in my hinterland. Well, hinterspace. Hinterraum? Hoshi may be secured, but it's the only system with that color. Baalbo, Taurio, Varinia, Parmag and Biots aren't. We should also probably get in Horne ASAP to secure Miract and keep access to the neutral Gularn system. From there we can settle Sarti and explore the rest of the galaxy.
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Jun 17, 2020 10:09
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Cat Mattress posted:I don't know exactly how it works, but I have seen the AI take advantage of open borders to go settle planets in my hinterland. Well, hinterspace. Hinterraum? We can secure the remainder of spinward space relatively quickly- we need seven more turns for the fort in Guad under construction to be completed. With that fort in place, all spinward systems save Guad will be secured, then we just need two more forts to fully secure Guad itself. Would you be willing to accept open borders once we have that fort up, on the assumption securing systems works like I think it does?
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Jun 17, 2020 11:02
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After settling and fortifying Taurio, Parmag, and Horne, maybe.
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Jun 17, 2020 11:37
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nweismuller posted:What I'm meaning is... once you secure front lines, it will mark systems as being 'secured' in the appropriate colors, as we see in Hoshi and Talas. Is the AI restricted from colonising behind your lines in secured systems like that, I wonder? Once you've built military outposts to block the system, aliens can't show up to colonize anymore. That said, if you don't block off your systems, alien races will gleefully come and colonize planets in the same star system as your colony once they run out of room elsewhere, and what's even better is that if you do block your empire off, eventually they will begin to nag you for an open borders treaty, and saying no incurs a relations penalty, and welp
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Jun 17, 2020 11:43
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Rappaport posted:Once you've built military outposts to block the system, aliens can't show up to colonize anymore. So, just to be clear, you're saying 'secured' systems are safe, or only secured systems that directly have military outposts in that system itself?
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Jun 17, 2020 11:47
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nweismuller posted:So, just to be clear, you're saying 'secured' systems are safe, or only secured systems that directly have military outposts in that system itself? It's like cats and boxes, if it fits I sits :: if alien can plot a route to planet, alien will colonize. Effectively this means that blocking off the border star systems of your empire is enough.
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Jun 17, 2020 11:57
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In that event, I'm going to withdraw the vote on taking on open borders or alliance treaties until we've had more time to backfill our space.
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Jun 17, 2020 12:08
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Apocrypha Engineering, Q&A Department posted:...continued difficulty in evaluating the safety considerations involved when integrating human technology into these products. We suggest waiting for the development of more Advanced Engineering techniques so as to provide adequate compensating controls. Research: Advanced Engineering Internal Review Meeting, ER&D posted:<Experimental R&D Head> "There's not enough mass drivers. See, these engines are too large - if we side-graded..." Navy: Yea to refit, Nay on Expansion. Apocrypha Engineering, ??? Division? posted:<1> Significant investments. Spies: A single lonely spy, for counter-intelligence. Just...that's too expensive. For now. And put them on pure counterintelligence work, at least until they level up. Just, at 5 a turn, I'd rather see that money head towards developing new colonies, especially with diplomacy delayed.
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Jun 17, 2020 15:22
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I could use a tiebreaker on whether or not to expand the fleet at this point, but can proceed to start playing through the update once I get it.
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Jun 17, 2020 20:31
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Nay on fleet expansion.
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Jun 17, 2020 20:33
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OK, starting to play through update, then.
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Jun 17, 2020 20:46
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The Meklars and the General Oversight Combine The Meklars, the second spacefaring civilisation contacted by Gnolams, are an extreme oddity. They are a fully-artificial sentient 'species' built around an unusual computing architecture based on a technology known as 'neural gel'. Neural gel is a manufactured suspension of organic processing elements in a watery medium which easily accepts connections to outside electronic systems and naturally develops processing connections based on its reaction to outside inputs, growing 'naturally' into an aware mind given sufficient feedback loop complexity. The flexibility of neural gel processing as a control system allows for significant morphological flexibility in Meklars, who can be designed to different task-specialised chassis, and the possibility of designing new neural gel processing units with significantly greater or lesser size linked to different input/output feedback loops allows for the deliberate creation of Meklar individuals with far larger 'brains' alongside the bulk of their population. Although transmission overhead leads to diminishing returns and an effective upper cap on the intelligence that can be achieved, nonetheless a small minority of Meklars are deliberately and predictably created to be geniuses that rival the greatest geniuses of Human or Gnolam history, and cultivated for leadership positions. The energy needs of neural gel are met by continuous refreshing of its watery suspension medium, draining spent water contaminated with waste chemicals and replacing it with fresh water supersaturated with sugar. This need for sugar has led to both historical and current agricultural industries amongst the Meklars. Meklars were created on the Val-like planet of Origin in the Meklon system by an unknown precursor species; Meklar historical accounts of why these precursors are no longer present are unsatisfactory at best, boiling down, fundamentally, to 'we lack records of that era'. The earliest Meklar historical records reference a period of catastrophic warfare between different Meklar states ending roughly 550 OIR (or approximately CE 1300) which led to the devastation of existing population and industrial centers, the essentially complete destruction of the then-existing Meklar leadership classes, and several centuries of sharply depressed temperatures and lingering radioactive contamination on Origin. A slow process of rebuilding ensued, with small Meklar populations being rebuilt, new leadership constructed, and civilisation again spreading slowly over Origin. As different Meklar states rebuilding from the devastation made contact with one another, the predecessor to the General Oversight Combine was established, with the ruling 'fixed intelligences' built at the center of various Meklar settlements establishing dedicated communications networking links to one another and establishing a framework for governance, and with early rivals to Combine dominance eventually outcompeted politically and militarily. The modern General Oversight Combine is a federation of local Meklar states governed through the 'Main Combine Cycle', a council of ruling fixed intelligences drawn from Combine member states and presided over by Overseer-General CZK-21. Local Meklar states are functionally caste systems, with task-specialised worker populations governed over by a tiny aristocracy of fixed intelligences. Relations between fixed intelligences are far more fluid than relations between a fixed intelligence and the workers under its command, with debate, economic competition, and widespread use of direct democracy (amongst the tiny enfranchised aristocracy) to settle political questions. Contact with the Meklars and their General Oversight Combine was established due to Gnolam recovery of experimental Meklar communications beacons into Guad from the Neptunus system spinward. Although the hyperspace conduit between Guad and Neptunus remains far too unstable for manned transit, launch of communications beacons and of specialised automated cargo barges reliant on pickup on the other end have allowed for both diplomatic communications and trade. Relations have, thus far, been relatively cordial, but some evidence suggests that internal politics within the Main Combine Cycle is subject to all the instability that can be expected of direct democracy. Regardless of any internal Combine instability, the immediate ability of the General Oversight Combine to project force into Gnolam space is non-existent, which limits the extent to which the Combine could be a threat in even the worst case. Meklars have the traits Cybernetic and Industrialist. Cybernetic both halves the needed food consumption of Meklar population, as well as allowing Meklar ships to self-repair by 5% every year even without repair facilities. Industrialist gives a 25% bonus to production and immediately grants the Physics technology once Space Travel is researched, allowing for neutron cannons and automated factories. It's weird that we made contact with the Meklars through a conduit that's not traversable; I hope my excuses to allow diplomatic and trade contact to work aren't too implausible. nweismuller fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Jun 18, 2020 |
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Jun 17, 2020 22:28
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So, we have our second alien contact. Thoughts from within the League?
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Jun 17, 2020 22:34
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Very important lore point to add: the Meklar theme music is rad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlakh0mVjcM
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Jun 17, 2020 22:58
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 11:14 |
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The Meklar are rad dudes. We should be ride or die with them. Also, if I knew that alliances and open borders would let humanity glide past our borders to settle stuff in the heart of our territory, I would not have voted in that manner.
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Jun 17, 2020 23:52
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