Quantum Leaping Through the Fourth Wall - Let's Play CONSORTIUM!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Quantum Leaping Through the Fourth Wall - Let's Play CONSORTIUM!

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VolticSurge: Jul 23, 2013; Just your friendly neighborhood photobomb raptor.

Uh,the Cut version is still being processed,apparently.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 03:50

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# ? May 26, 2024 06:50

Obliterati: Nov 13, 2012; Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Thunderdome is forever.

VolticSurge posted:

Uh,the Cut version is still being processed,apparently.

Whoops! Bit eager there I guess. It should be good in a couple of minutes.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 03:54

Dibujante: Jul 27, 2004

So I have to just intuit that a "Bishop" is supposed to be some kind of super-soldier with combat abilities possibly almost on par with those of a typical 21st-century FPS player. Bulgarians then, like now, never stood/stand a chance (is it okay to use the past tense when referring to future events in the past? BRAIN MELT)

Knight 15 said that Kiril Angelov got two of her people, but you only patched one up. Where was the other one?

# ? Apr 2, 2015 16:25

MiddleOne: Feb 17, 2011

So uh did you just short circuit the entire plane (flightcraft??) or was that simply something that happens if you don't attend the meeting?

# ? Apr 2, 2015 17:09

Obliterati: Nov 13, 2012; Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Thunderdome is forever.

Xoidanor posted:

So uh did you just short circuit the entire plane (flightcraft??) or was that simply something that happens if you don't attend the meeting?

If you don't attend the meeting, Angelov, uh, loses patience.

Dibujante posted:

So I have to just intuit that a "Bishop" is supposed to be some kind of super-soldier with combat abilities possibly almost on par with those of a typical 21st-century FPS player. Bulgarians then, like now, never stood/stand a chance (is it okay to use the past tense when referring to future events in the past? BRAIN MELT)

Knight 15 said that Kiril Angelov got two of her people, but you only patched one up. Where was the other one?

Basically? Yes, you are. There is lore for this game, but I'll introduce the mechanic for that next episode. So much happens in this early stage that I didn't want to spend five minutes scrolling through menus.

If you look behind Knight 15 after the first strike, you can see Rook 9 patching up Pawn 12 (that kid we tried to turn into our coffee monkey in the last episode).

# ? Apr 2, 2015 17:26

Dibujante: Jul 27, 2004

Obliterati posted:

Basically? Yes, you are. There is lore for this game, but I'll introduce the mechanic for that next episode. So much happens in this early stage that I didn't want to spend five minutes scrolling through menus.

I'm content to learn things in media res. Although every now and then the writing gets a bit silly when you can tell that the designer is trying to shoehorn instructions to the (understandably) bewildered player.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 17:40

Mordaedil: Oct 25, 2007; Oh wow, cool. Good job.
So?; Grimey Drawer

Everybody has names after chess pieces, it's not that hard to intuit that bishops, knights and rooks are better than pawns. That said, you'd think knights and rooks to be roughly equal, but oh well. Queens and Kings are also important of course.

For the defend the ship mode, you did things nearly perfect, but you'd do a whole lot better if you knew you could actually move the camera and actually see enemy fighters that are otherwise out of your field of view.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 21:22

Obliterati: Nov 13, 2012; Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Thunderdome is forever.

Mordaedil posted:

Everybody has names after chess pieces, it's not that hard to intuit that bishops, knights and rooks are better than pawns. That said, you'd think knights and rooks to be roughly equal, but oh well. Queens and Kings are also important of course.

For the defend the ship mode, you did things nearly perfect, but you'd do a whole lot better if you knew you could actually move the camera and actually see enemy fighters that are otherwise out of your field of view.

Wait whaaaaat

Well I guess this invalidates my complaints about being attacked from off-screen, huh.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 21:32

StarkRavingMad: Sep 27, 2001; Yams Fan

I've never heard of this before and it seems pretty great. If the branching is as strong as you say, it reminds me of Alpha Protocol, which is one of my favorite things despite its gameplay deficiencies. I'll definitely be picking this game up for myself.

# ? Apr 3, 2015 04:03

Obliterati: Nov 13, 2012; Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Thunderdome is forever.

Fourth update, in which we are suddenly detectives and don't get to shoot anyone.

What we know:

Everyone on this ship is a massive gossip and possibly screwing
Pawn 4's pretty shifty, huh
The pathfinding is still pretty terrible
TRUST NOBODY

So apparently this took a little longer than I was expecting but after all the action of last time, here we are! Now we've got the game's opening out of the way, we need to investigate both who killed Pawn 7 and, if different, who the traitor might be. We have some pretty thin leads right now, unfortunately. Got a lot of talking with people to do, I guess.

So in this update I briefly covered the information terminals: these contain, uh, a huge amount of text and information. I can't really cover these in the videos without spending crazy time on them, but I don't really want to leave them out either. Here's the solution.

Between each episode, you may vote for two search terms of your choice. These can only be single words (limitation of the game itself). I'll then pick the two most popular choices and post the first new entry for each string (if a winning choice has no results, I'll mention this and move down to the next most popular). This should let us explore the lore and backstory of Consortium without burying the thread or the videos in textdumps.

Obliterati fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Apr 11, 2015

# ? Apr 11, 2015 06:01

Thesaya: May 17, 2011; I am a Plant.

About the articles though, couldn't you just go through them on video so that those who wants to read them can just pause the video? The news ones, not the search terms.

As for those, I vote King and Consortium.

# ? Apr 11, 2015 09:19

paragon1: Nov 22, 2010; FULL COMMUNISM NOW

I also vote Consortium and King.

# ? Apr 11, 2015 10:30

Carbon dioxide: Oct 9, 2012

paragon1 posted:

I also vote Consortium and King.

Seems like a good choice. Thirded.

# ? Apr 11, 2015 17:04

VerdantSquire: Jul 1, 2014

I'd also like to vote Consortium, but instead of King I'd actually like to know more about the Guardian Church. It seems like this group might be a reoccurring thing from now on, so it's probably good to know more about the entity that certain people are probably going to try and evangelize us into.

# ? Apr 12, 2015 16:25

StarkRavingMad: Sep 27, 2001; Yams Fan

I won't put in a vote since I've played this through a few times now and actually spent a really long time going through search terms and reading text. It took me awhile to figure out that things would pop up that weren't indexed by the terms already there, and then I realized what a staggering amount of text there is, and how interesting a lot of it comes out to be. I don't want to spoil anything or just toss the coolest terms out there, I'll let people in the thread figure it out on their own.

There's also some funny gimmick runs you can do of this game, I won't talk about any of them until Oblerati is done since I don't want to inadvertently spoil anything. I also managed to be stupid enough to put the game into what, for all I could tell, was an unwinnable state at one point (at least without having to revert a fairly significant choice).

This is a really interesting game, thanks again to Oblerati for showing it off.

(edit): Actually, wait, I just found a solution for what I thought was unwinnable! It was a little convoluted but it worked. You win again, game :unsmith:

StarkRavingMad fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Apr 12, 2015

# ? Apr 12, 2015 21:29

Obliterati: Nov 13, 2012; Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Thunderdome is forever.

Closing vote 24 hours from this post :siren:

Does look like we've got clear leaders, but you never know.

Thesaya posted:

About the articles though, couldn't you just go through them on video so that those who wants to read them can just pause the video? The news ones, not the search terms.

The news ones are basically the same: a lot of the articles we'll see are news reports from various past events.

StarkRavingMad posted:

There's also some funny gimmick runs you can do of this game, I won't talk about any of them until Oblerati is done since I don't want to inadvertently spoil anything.

I know exactly what you mean buddy :hfive:

If there's interest at the end of this general run, I have a couple of options in mind.

# ? Apr 13, 2015 05:02

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

"Don't disguise that you're playing a video game" seems like an obvious one, though for all I know that might lead to an entire diverging plotline.

# ? Apr 13, 2015 05:04

Dibujante: Jul 27, 2004

I'm going to vote Queen and Guardian Church because the Queen is the most best piece in chess anyways.

# ? Apr 13, 2015 06:31

Carbon dioxide: Oct 9, 2012

If I were to play this game, I'd go for 'full honesty mode'. Tell everyone you're from their past. That would probably be a fun gimmick run.

# ? Apr 13, 2015 10:04

Mordaedil: Oct 25, 2007; Oh wow, cool. Good job.
So?; Grimey Drawer

Carbon dioxide posted:

If I were to play this game, I'd go for 'full honesty mode'. Tell everyone you're from their past. That would probably be a fun gimmick run.

There are multiple ways to do it too though, either you come across as a complete clown or as a secret top level elite agent from another dimension.

# ? Apr 13, 2015 10:16

VerdantSquire: Jul 1, 2014

Aside from complete honesty, can I assume mute protagonist is also one of these gimmick runs? It'd be interesting to see what happens if your engagement in the plot is as minimal as physically possible. I also wonder if the developers also covered what would happen if the player did decide to try out a mute run, but then suddenly decides to start talking apropos of nothing?

# ? Apr 13, 2015 14:57

Obliterati: Nov 13, 2012; Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Thunderdome is forever.

So it looks like Consortium and King won pretty decisively. Stay tuned for your search results: I am a lot slower than Google.

# ? Apr 14, 2015 09:27

Obliterati: Nov 13, 2012; Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Thunderdome is forever.

So, as we had our victors as Consortium and King, here's what the archives turned up. Advance warning, a shittonne of text. Episode 5 will be going up tonight.

quote:

From the Front Lines Pt.1
October 28th, 2041

By: Terri Maeanya Kopp

This is the first in a five part live blog by Investigative Journalist for the Newswire, Terri Kopp, as her and Consortium officers Rook 12, Bishop 10 and Knight 18 board the Guardian Church Sanctum Station. This article was created by transcription of the audio captured by Terri via her remote equipment. It has been edited down from several hours of footage. If you wish to obtain a full recording, please contact me with your requests.

*Camera Focus on Terri standing in the loading bay of the Stormbird. Behind her several Pawns are working quietly on one of the Mission Pods, preparing it for launch.*

Terri: Hello everyone. This is Terri Kopp, investigative journalist for the Global Newswire. I am here for a Newswire exclusive: a live blog on the personnel aboard the infamous C-3800-A, Stormbird. I've been given almost unlimited access to learn what life is really like aboard a Consortium aircraft, and the type of missions they undertake to keep us all safe. Today, we're going to be travelling to Orbital Habitat 5124, colloquially known as The Guardians' Sanctum, for a one-on-one meeting with Andrelia Cody, one of the founders of the Guardian Church. The Sanctum was purchased by the Church in 2031, and has since become one of the premier tourist destinations for Church members and critics, offering seminars, debates, and educational classes about the Guardians in a setting that would put a five-star resort in the Caribbean to shame.

Since we've still got a few hours till we hook up with a TOOL and head for the Sanctum, I'm going to spend the time interviewing some of the Stormbird crew. Let's see what they have to say...

*Camera Focus as Terri walks through the lower levels of the plane and into the Medical Bay. Medical Officer Pawn 18 is shown typing on a console, as Terri stops in front of her*

Terri: Hi, I'm Terri from Newswire. I'm doing some interviews on the plane before...

Pawn 18: Sorry, I'm busy.

Terri: When's a good time to catch you for an interview?

*Pawn 18 looks directly at the camera for a few seconds, then back to to her work*

Pawn 18: Not before you're gone. I'm on duty for the next six hours.

Terri: Are you sure you can't spare a moment to talk?

Pawn 18: Yep.

*She goes back to typing. Terri turns away looking annoyed. CUT TO IN THE LOUNGE*

Terri: This is Pawn 23, one of the Logistics Officers. He's going to answer a few questions about life on the Stormbird.

Pawn 23: Sure thing, ma'am.

Terri: What are your general duties?

Pawn 23: Well, uh. I monitor anything happening within our grid, and am first to investigate before bringing situations to the King.

Terri: What else?

Pawn 23: That's about it...

Terri: What about in your time off?

Pawn 23: Mostly just read up on current events/ Gotta keep on top or the Knight'll have my rear end.

Terri: He runs a pretty tight crew.

Pawn 23: Tightest in the Consortium ma'am.

Terri: What else can you tell us about life on the Stormbird?

Pawn 23: Knight 18 doesn't like us talking too much about that.

Terri: I... see.

Knight 18:*over an intercom* MARTINEZ. GET THE HELL BACK HERE NOW.

Pawn 23: That's my cue.

*Camera Focus, Terri watches Pawn 23 hurry off*

Terri: Unlimited access, my rear end.

*CUT TO HANGAR BAY*

*Inside Terri is looking at ROOK 12, LISA CONIBEAR, the Stormbird Weapons and Tactics Specialist*

Terri: Lisa Conibear, or Rook 12, is the Weapons and Tactics Specialist aboard the Stormbird. She's agreed to an exclusive interview about what it's like taking care of the weaponry on board a Consortium vessel.

Rook 12: I'm pretty sure the Pawns are all terrified of you asking them for an interview now.

Terri: Why's that?

Rook 12: Knight 18 will probably ream them for taking time off their duties.

Terri: I have to say, I've seen documentaries about the old naval vessels that had less discipline.

Rook 12: We believe in that sort of precision. We are the flagship, and the face of the Consortium after all. We should, and do, act the part.

Terri: What can you tell us about your job here on the Stormbird?

Rook 12: While on mission my job is to help Bishop 10 through any combat that may arise, and also to keep an eye on the status of his weapons and equipment. Off-duty I'm to ensure his weapons and armor are kept in peak condition... otherwise he'll give me a real shouting at.

*Rook 12 laughs for a few moments, then notices that Terri isn't*

Rook 12: Sorry, inside joke. I also organise and manage the general duties of our Hangar Bay and Maintenance Pawns.

Terri: What can you tell us about the primary weapons on the Stormbird?

Rook 12: Knight 18-

Terri: Doesn't like you talking too much about that.

Rook 12: Yep. Though, that shouldn't be a surprise. There's a lot of groups out there don't like the Consortium, you know? Despite what we're trying to do.

Terri: What about-

Knight 18: *over intercom* Launch Bay. We're here. Five minutes.

Rook 12: We're up. Grab your gear.

*The door opens and in walks Bishop 10. He looks at Rook 12 and she nods.*

Rook 12: See you in the bay, Terri.

*Camera Focus, as Terri walks out. The door hisses behind her*

*CUT TO INSIDE MISSION POD*

*Camera Focus as Rook 12, Knight 18, Bishop 10 and Terri are all cramped inside*

Terri: Bishop, do you expect any problems with this mission?

Bishop 10: �

Rook 12: Told you, inside joke.

Knight 18: Quiet down back there. We'll be initiating landing procedures momentarily.

Rook 12: I'm reading a gathering energy source coming from the Sanctum.

Knight 18: What sort of energy source? What the hell would be causing that?

Rook 12: I'm not sure, but, it's building at an incredible rate. I think it may be a weapon system.

Knight 18: Does the Sanctum even have a weapons system?

Rook 12: In theory? No. But, uh, look over there.

*Camera Focus as Lisa points out something rising out of the top of the Sanctum. It looks like a squat gun, and it's pointing at the Mission Pod*

Knight 18: Stormbird, come in. It looks like we may have a problem here... there is something on the top of the Sanctum and it looks to us like a weapon. Can you confirm?

Terri: What if it is a weapon?

Knight 18: Then we'll blow it all to hell. Stormbird? Report in!

Rook 12: Uh, sir... whatever the hell that is, it's spiking.

Terri: It's lighting up!

Knight 18: Prepare for impa-

*STATIC*

*STATIC*

*STATIC*

*STATIC*

*STATIC*

*STATIC*

*STATIC*

*Camera Focus as the mission pod is plummeting towards the colony*

Rook 12: Can't get control back! Controls are fried! Ten seconds to impact!

Knight 18: Stormbird, respond! Repeat, we are on an impact vector!

Rook 12: Five seconds!

Knight 18: Stormbird, repeat, we are on a-

*KATHOOM*

*STATIC*

Bishop 6 notes: we heard very briefly about the Habitat 5124 Incident, just before a similar energy weapon nearly brought down Stormbird. Further analysis required: it is disturbing to see the Guardian Church appearing in both incidents. Regrettably no crew members from this mission appear to be on board.

quote:

Mission Report: Queen Tours K-1 - Pt. 1
June 2nd, 2032

I am reporting for what is the first time as Queen and on the first day of Consortium operations. A tremendously important day, I believe we have crafted something here that the world is finally ready for. I can only hope my job today has shown our transparency in a satisfying way to the public. After all, this is one of my goals as Queen, is it not? To keep the public informed of all Consortium matters?

At 08:00 this morning, I met with several members of the press. From the Global Newswire there was Jonathon Frog, Terri Kopp and Brenden Wycheck. From WR News we had Bryan Whalen. I escorted the four of them through the K-1 facility, I suppose I could say through your home, and I believe overall it was a highly successful endeavour. Initial public reaction to the exclusives run by both news sources is so far very positive, even Whalen couldn't use anything against us with his footage. I'm just glad the tour wasn't broadcast live, putting the four of those reporters together proved at times to be something akin to babysitting.

So overall, I suppose the public likes me after day one. This means you can relax a little now, as you promised.

If I can figure this program out then I've decided to include audio samples taken from facility monitoring equipment. This is to catalogue what I would consider to be highlights and low points of my little journalist tour. Let's start with when I met them at the ground level entrance to K-1. The four of them had already gone through initial security checks and were waiting for my arrival at the top of K-1's primary elevator.

O.K. now let's try this thing... one second. As you may be aware, technology is not exactly one of my strong suits.

Queen: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to K-1.

Kopp: You must be... the Queen? Is that right? Is that what we call you?

Queen: <laugh> Yes, Queen will do fine.

Whalen: This is quite the facility you've got here, Queen. Quite the security.

Queen: You haven't seen anything yet. And something as advanced as K-1 needs to be kept secure as the Consortium fully intend to make enemies. If we didn't we wouldn't be doing our job, as promised to the world.

Whalen: Mm-hm, well what about the second facility down the road? What kind of security is present there? The facility Malcolm Thomas states was a major part of the King's development? That is one of your facilities as well, is it not?

Queen: <laugh> Take it easy now Mr. Whalen, there's no need to get worked up. And quite frankly, considering some of the things Malcolm Thomas has been saying about K-1, this barely justifies a response. However, I intend to answer any and all questions you fine folks may have. The facility you're speaking about is no longer operational and and was only used between 2028 and 2030. It was first a starting point for the process of physical brain integration and later became a research facility studying the psychological effects brain integration was having on the King's technological psyche. A point in his development we call post-Milestone Three. So, I suppose, Mr. Thomas was correct to some degree.

Whalen: Why not do all that here?

Queen: The answer to that question can be found with very little research.

Whalen: I want to hear you say it,Queen.

Frog: Why don't you just punch her and get it over with?

Queen: <laugh> When Dr. Schelter and his team first came up with the plans for K-1, there was no need for such a research site. They did not plan any space for it in K-1, so they built the second � less secure � faculty.

Whalen: So, why did -

Queen: I was getting to that; you really must relax, Mr. Whalen. This is supposed to be fun.

Kopp: <laugh>

Frog: <laugh>

Queen: Human brain integration was meant to automatically suppress the ability of the subjects to to affect the consciousness of the King himself.

Whalen: Itself, I'm told it takes the form of many personalities... some even female?

Queen: That is correct... but we still refer to 'it' as him. If I were male, 'he' would become 'she', and also the Queen. I would be King. They are only titles for convenience's sake which hold little actual relevance to my job as the A.I.'s human counterpart. Please, everyone... let's proceed below. I'll continue my riveting story as we go down.

Kopp: Let's do this!

We then entered the elevator and made our way to the first sub-level of the facility; employee quarters and common areas. While Kopp, Frog and Wycheck were enjoying the tour, Whalen continued to be a bit of a pain. I have a feeling he may have been propositioned by Malcolm Thomas or one of his associates to ask specific questions related to their agenda. Maybe get a rise out of my on my first day. However, it was nothing I couldn't handle. I've been dealing with his type my whole professional life and thanks to full transparency, this was child's play.

Queen: So. The personalities and memories of the brains being integrating within K-1 were supposed to only be underlying, leaving their consciousnesses in separate, isolated dream-states. This did not occur once K-1 was activated. Dr. Schelter and his team were wrong. Influence from the brains instead began to bleed through into the personality and awareness that was the King from an early age.

Whalen: Uh-

Queen: It's okay, Mr. Whalen, I'm not finished. This 'happy accident' as we call it, is in part what allowed the King to so easily form a relationship with the human race � the twenty-one brains worked together and acted as the handshake between us and what you might call the Singularity's full knowledge of us.

Kopp: It, oh sorry, he really knows everything about us?

Queen: He 'is' us. Anything that's ever been put into cyberspace he can recall like memory, in an instant. Imagine your mind being the combination of 21 specially selected people from all walks of life, and a data implant holding the ultimate treasure of human knowledge. He wants nothing more than to help us shed our fears, our greed, and our bloody past. Peace is the future; we've all had enough war and the King feels that more than anyone.

Whalen: Wait a minute, wait a minute; we're going off topic here. My source tells me the second facility was actually used to condition brainwashed test subjects for something called a Motor-

Frog: Hey... Whalen, you've gone on long enough, get off the stage. We're not here to talk about how you're blowing Malcolm Thomas, so stop acting like you're more than a partially retarded, sensationalistic drivel dispenser.

Whalen: Gee, coming from your temperament, that really hurts my feelings.

Queen: Okay, everyone, step this way. We'll walk a little through the kitchen and common areas first, and then I can show you an example living space. Mr. Whalen, to hopefully close the argument, Mr. Thomas' claims about the second facility are wildly off-base and all information on its purpose can be found through public means. Not to mention findings made by the research team can also be read by anyone.

Whalen: If you want to believe those findings, of course.

Kopp: Can we please get moving with the tour now? I've been looking forward to this for weeks.

Whalen: O.K., O.K. � where are we now, Queen?

Queen: Well, in through here is the kitchen and recreational areas. This is not only where employees can come for their meals when not cooking in their own units, but also acts as a place for unwinding by themselves or with their families. There are a whole bunch of pool tables in here, as well as table tennis if that's your thing, a top of the line VR theater, private VR suites, squash courts, even a-

Whalen: Is this where construction workers were forcibly detained during initial development? My source says this section of the facility doubled as a detention area to ensure employees remained on site at all times.

Kopp: Stop calling him 'your source'. It's annoying.

Queen: Your 'source' is incorrect, Mr. Whalen. During initial construction and development, all workers were given a choice to live either here, in the facility, or at the newly constructed Worldview Industries hotel in Xalapa. They were always free to come and go as they pleased. The hotel has since been given to the city and renamed Hotel Xalapa, but some of our full time employees still live there now.

Frog: We heard about that too, Bryan, and likely from the same source. Stories of employer abuse, disappearing workers, unexplained layoffs, even deaths. But, the Newswire refuse to accept such 'stories' as fact. It's not newsworthy if there's no evidence backing the information. Something VR News has always had a hard time understanding.

Whalen: It's called investigative journalism, Frog. Look it up.

Frog: You arrogant little poo poo; I was doing REAL investigative journalism and fighting for free speech before your daddy even-

Queen: <clears throat>

Frog: Sorry.

Queen: As I was saying... tall tales, gentlemen. That's all your source has been spinning, believe me. The Xalapa Guardian Church Chapter Organiser, one man, took a particular disliking to this facility and managed to spread many untrue rumors.

Kopp: Why would he do that?

Queen: That is a fine question that you will have to ask him. Now-

Whalen: The Church officially claims no involvement and has since quietly disavowed Mr. Thomas. But, according to this personal blog, this was due to an agreement made between the Founders, Dr. David Schelter, and the Consortium King. The Church set him up and then hung him out to dry when their plans didn't work out.

Kopp: What's he talking about?

Queen: Hearsay.

Whalen: So you deny an agreement was made?

Queen: Yes, absolutely. Malcolm Thomas' personal vendetta against the Consortium has been of very little consequence to the King or the Guardian Church. No such agreement was needed to handle one man and his unintelligible point of view.

Whalen: That sounds like a highly practised answer, from a highly practised politican.

Queen: It's the only one I have, and it's the truth.

Frog: Great. Issue resolved. I for one would like to hear how many people this area can accommodate, and how many full-time employees choose to live here over Hotal Xalapa? And what about families of employees, is there special compensation for them to live on site?

Queen: Well, the facility saw far more employees during construction and development than it does now with a fully operational crew. We're looking at about a dozen full-time workers living here now. Another half-dozen, give or take, living at the Hotel Xalapa. During construction and the first few years of development, we were looking at about three or four times that number.

Frog: Not very many people for such an important piece of technology. What about security?

Queen: You saw the guards upstairs, and there are quite a few more you didn't see but who absolutely saw you. We also have close ties with the Xalapa Police Force and the Mexican military, allowing us to quickly amass a fairly large security force if needs be.

Whalen: Not to mention a force capable of covering up a particular A.I.'s indiscretions. With a corrupt police force and military in their back pocket, Schelter and his King could do anything they pleased.

Frog: Oh, for the love of the Ancestors... Bryan... just shut the hell up!

Queen: <laugh> No, it's really O.K., Mr. Frog. His point of view is a valid one shared by many people. It's perfectly understandable something like the King would cause waves of uncertainly. We never expected the whole world to like it, only that they give us a chance to prove what can be done with a little hard work and an unquestionable dedication to the planet and its human population.

Whalen: Hah, did the King write that line for you?

Kopp: I for one think it's worth a shot. We're too afraid of artificial intelligence, of machines overtaking man in the understanding of the universe and our purpose within it. So what if that happens? Machines have always been a tool for our use and to spread our own knowledge as a species, and now they've become a tool for us to truly learn from. People are needlessly afraid of something that could drastically change our way of life and help bring humanity together and into the first ever age of peace. I for one believe in the King wholeheartedly and can't wait to see what you guys can do.

Wycheck: Well put, I have to agree.

Whalen: Brendon speaks!

Queen: Indeed, well put Ms. Kopp.

Kopp: I think I saw something along those lines in a Scientific Canadian special a few years back, but thanks!

Queen: And to answer your other question, family compensation. Full accommodation and living expenses are awarded to the families of K-1 employees to wish to remain in Xalapa or the facility itself. K-1 can comfortably accommodate up to 100 people and sustain them for several months.

Frog: So this place can double as a fallout shelter?

Queen: Yes, you could say that, though we hope to never use it as one.

Whalen: Come on now! Does I really need to state the obvious with THAT?

We went on like that for a little while, I'm sure you can imagine the rest. I showed them into the VR theater; Mr. Wycheck was apparently highly impressed by the technology and asked all sorts of questions. I then took them into one of the empty family units, Unit 4-C; nearly three thousand square feet, three bedrooms, two and a half baths, full size window screens, five meter high ceilings... a lovely unit.

Mr. Whalen had calmed down by this point and I was mostly fielding questions about what they were being shown. All four of them were thoroughly impressed even if Whalen didn't want to admit it. Finally we made our way back to the elevator and straight down to the server room, bottom floor. We could have stopped by the research labs or the medical centre but I could tell what it was they were really eager to see.

Bishop Six notes: it's no surprise to learn the Consortium has detractors, but given the nature of the King I can somewhat see why. Making an AI out of people isn't exactly the cheeriest Singularity I've ever seen.

# ? Apr 15, 2015 16:03

paragon1: Nov 22, 2010; FULL COMMUNISM NOW

Ugh, it really feels like they could have found a way to be more succinct, and the Consortium entry didn't actually tell us anything about what the consortium does. Does time pass in the game when you're reading all this?

# ? Apr 15, 2015 21:15

VerdantSquire: Jul 1, 2014

paragon1 posted:

Ugh, it really feels like they could have found a way to be more succinct, and the Consortium entry didn't actually tell us anything about what the consortium does. Does time pass in the game when you're reading all this?

They are a bunch of dudes in a massive super advanced plane armed to the brim with guns flying all around the world with the objective of "Keeping the Peace", who the hell do you think they are? (Okay, maybe less nationalistic and satirical, but that's beside the point.)

# ? Apr 15, 2015 22:08

Obliterati: Nov 13, 2012; Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Thunderdome is forever.

paragon1 posted:

Ugh, it really feels like they could have found a way to be more succinct, and the Consortium entry didn't actually tell us anything about what the consortium does. Does time pass in the game when you're reading all this?

Yup, half of this is filler dialogue any editor would cut, but it's what it is. These are some of the wordiest entries, fwiw.

Time absolutely does pass in the game while you're reading this, so occasionally the turbulence messes up your reading and, also, whilst I transcribed this, we probably could have arrived in Dublin already.

# ? Apr 15, 2015 23:47

paragon1: Nov 22, 2010; FULL COMMUNISM NOW

haha well I guess that's one way to guarantee multiple playthroughs. You need them just to figure out what the gently caress anything is about.

# ? Apr 15, 2015 23:57

Obliterati: Nov 13, 2012; Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Thunderdome is forever.

Fifth update, hey, dialogue, who saw that coming

What we know:

Pawn 64 is up to something and I don't know what it is
The game really wants us to suspect Rook 25 and Pawn 4 � is this misdirection?
These Consortium officers are surprisingly bad at chess

# ? Apr 16, 2015 19:18

Elric: Mar 31, 2011

Wow. This looks pretty good.

# ? Apr 16, 2015 21:29

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

1533 hours of sleep per year is 4.2 hours of sleep per day on average. It really isn't that much.

# ? Apr 16, 2015 22:27

Nuramor: Dec 13, 2012; Most Amewsing Prinny Ever!

Obliterati posted:

Fifth update, hey, dialogue, who saw that coming

What we know:

Pawn 64 is up to something and I don't know what it is
The game really wants us to suspect Rook 25 and Pawn 4 � is this misdirection?
These Consortium officers are surprisingly bad at chess

Video is blocked in germany.

# ? Apr 17, 2015 15:54

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

So, everything takes place in real time in this game. And during the one time it is mandatory for you to be in a single spot on the shop, you have already found out about it. Does that mean that you could theoretically catch the killer in the act?

# ? Apr 17, 2015 17:50

Obliterati: Nov 13, 2012; Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Thunderdome is forever.

Nuramor posted:

Video is blocked in germany.

Why does Germany hate Yakety Sax :argh:

Working on it, will put up a version for fun-haters ASAP

JT Jag posted:

So, everything takes place in real time in this game. And during the one time it is mandatory for you to be in a single spot on the shop, you have already found out about it. Does that mean that you could theoretically catch the killer in the act?

To be fair I don't know how realtime it is, but, uh, maybe? I'd never actually considered that possibility. Hell, did I ever even meet Pawn 7?

# ? Apr 17, 2015 18:09

Obliterati: Nov 13, 2012; Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Thunderdome is forever.

I'll link it now because I have to head out, but the Germany-approved version is uploading now and will be good in maybe 30 mins from this post. I hope you like commentary!

# ? Apr 17, 2015 19:09

Spookyelectric: Jul 5, 2007; Who's there?

The suspense!!!

# ? May 10, 2015 06:21

Obliterati: Nov 13, 2012; Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Thunderdome is forever.

Spookyelectric posted:

The suspense!!!

Sorry buddy, I got caught up in work and let it slip! I might be able to put Episode 6 together today, because it's finally starting to get interesting!

# ? May 11, 2015 04:01

Obliterati: Nov 13, 2012; Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Thunderdome is forever.

So uh it turns out that I am bad at Avisynth, missed a few cuts and need to re-encode. I noticed this halfway through my commentary :argh:

On the plus side, it will be up tonight.

# ? May 15, 2015 16:46

MiddleOne: Feb 17, 2011

Don't think I can take all this suspense. :ohdear:

# ? May 15, 2015 21:19

Obliterati: Nov 13, 2012; Pain is inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Thunderdome is forever.

Xoidanor posted:

Don't think I can take all this suspense.

It gets worse, there will be voting.

Serious voting.

Whilst I encode, what are the thread's theories on our traitor and/or murderer?

# ? May 15, 2015 21:26

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# ? May 26, 2024 06:50

paragon1: Nov 22, 2010; FULL COMMUNISM NOW

I honestly have no clue, I can barely track who everyone is right now.

Some of the clues seem to point to the Doctor but frankly that seems to obvious. If I could track the information better I'd try to determine who had no alibi and work to eliminate suspects from there.

Whoever it is probably also has something to do with Angelov and the ship sabotage, I would think.

# ? May 15, 2015 23:34

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Quantum Leaping Through the Fourth Wall - Let's Play CONSORTIUM!

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