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Artificer posted:If our fleet is still intact, and we have crushed the majority of their fleet assets, as nweismuller believes, we should press the advantage while we can. We're in no position to do so at the moment. Doing so would require mustering and deploying more troops, which may take a while.
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Jul 3, 2017 09:46
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Loren1350 posted:So are we at least canceling the planetary fire sale, now that it looks like we're keeping it? Indeed we are. We could only sell one item before the blockade started- dismantling improvements is no longer possible on a blockaded planet. (How are you going to get the profits of scrapping equipment past the blockade, after all?) MechaCrash posted:I already know this is not on the table, but do we have the fleet power to just bomb the poo poo out of the Darloks and wipe out their empire that way? We'd need to recommission bombardment cruisers to have the bombardment ability to work on it. We'd frankly do better with dedicated 'orbit to surface bombardment' vessels, rather than the 'torpedo-focused' bombers we have (because we have a military doctrine that de-emphasises the uses of bombs).
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Jul 4, 2017 07:22
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AJ_Impy posted:Given our ethos, would we name the ship class after historical mistakes which seemed a good idea at the time but which we hope our society has grown past? I believe the question is a moot point in any event, as we're not going to be building a dedicated surface bomber class. Anyhow, a little busy this week; birthday on the fifth and I have lots of stuff to do with friends and family. But fear not, an update shall come in the fullness of time. That said, if I'm inspired, I'll grab time when I can to continue to entertain my loyal fans. Now that we've had more time to observe, I'd be curious to hear impressions from the readership about the culture and/or politics of the Meklars, Mrrshan, and Psilons. I'm deeply interested to hear just how they come across, now that we've had more time to know them. And if people have suggestions about any of the aliens we've met, I may well be able to expand that into more material...
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Jul 4, 2017 12:00
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Epicurius posted:The Mrrshan High Queendom doesn't seem all that stable to me. The current High Queen is popular, but with the high level of autonomy of the vassals, and the lack of what seems to be a centralized authority, I could see Mrrshan society under a weak or unpopular High Queen splitting pretty easily into regional strife and factionalism. This is, to the Mrrshan mindset, a feature. Who would want an unworthy queen to rule easily? On balance, they would rather endure war than dishonor.
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Jul 5, 2017 01:00
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Siegkrow posted:RSS Something Awful First, I believe that the relevant ship prefixes were actually 'HRS' and 'FRS', not 'RSS', now that I think about it. Second, obviously. The legendary Something Awful was a den of villainy where its inhabitants sought to outdo each other in atrocities in service of a concept they called 'Maximum Hitler'. nods seriously (Of course, I imagine I've long since driven off the 'maximum Hitler' contingent in my LPs, given my general style.)
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Jul 5, 2017 01:37
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As regards the common cold, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that modern microbiotic treatment can pretty well purge you of a cold infection in an afternoon. The bad news is it takes a visit to a qualified medical technician to whip up a treatment (which, at the least, is about as cheap as a medical office visit can manage to be), and an afternoon of relatively intense feverish misery as the microbiotics hunt down the infection and burn it out hard. Despite the drawbacks, enough people actually take advantage of this that it reduces the average window of infectivity of people with colds, and so makes getting infected by a cold at least marginally less common than was historically the case.
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Jul 5, 2017 04:30
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Siegkrow posted:Dude! That is gros-wait... Star Wars has technically survived, but has slipped into obscurity, with only hardcore devotees of historical cinema aware of it. What has actually survived well from the 20th century is the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien- less so the movies made based on them. Over time, a number of new cinematic adaptations of the books have been released, of greater or lesser quality and popularity.
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Jul 5, 2017 16:10
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It's awesome to see other people put writing effort into what I've been working on, so I have to thank you, CommissarMega. It's not like trial by combat is the sole way to resolve Mrrshan legal cases, but duels remain as a last resort for those who do not feel as if they can be satisfied by more peaceful resolutions., and I can certainly see attention fixing on this aspect of Mrrshan society...
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Jul 6, 2017 22:02
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I cordially remind people that our Future People are not going to be nearly as obsessed with the 20th and 21st centuries as those of us living in them, so many of our modern cultural products are not necessarily relevant any longer. Also, please be kind to my poor sanity.
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Jul 8, 2017 13:51
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Siegkrow posted:But I'm not sure if it's a joke. It is. I was being a touch snarky, perhaps. 
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Jul 8, 2017 18:32
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Epicurius posted:If reading and watching science fiction has taught me anything, it's that people in, say, the late 23rd century, are obsessed with culture and art from the late 20th and early 21st century, and any art or culture produced between now and then are forgotten. Indeed, that's popular entertainment. Worth noting that Human and Meklar villains dominate, with a lesser role for Bulrathi villains. Fanatical Alkari also show up, but Psilon, Mrrshan, Klackon, and Alkari portrayals are all somewhat fanciful, as the Darloks lack any real direct experience with those species, only really knowing of them second-hand. As is typical for Darlok entertainment, they rely entirely on practical effects and their actors' own abilities of mimicry to portray aliens- which does mean that Meklars are unusually uniformly bipedal in form in the show, relative to their actual variance in forms.
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Jul 8, 2017 22:28
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I would be interested to hear more about the Fall of the City of Night- its events and the viewpoints therein- at least, if Epicurius is up to telling us more about it. Their reports of Darlok culture so far do seem to be accurate to me.
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Jul 9, 2017 04:04
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One of the classics of Human literature still studied today is The Hard Years, a four-book series written by Rebecca Williams of the Restored Commonwealth of Greater Boston, set over several generations of the Miller family in rural Missouri, North America, stretching from the last days of the failing United States of America as Great Blight-induced crop failures were wracking the world and causing breakdowns of civil order to the slow establishment of Millertown on the Mississippi River as a growing trade center as the Great Blight slowly receded. The Miller family endured hardship, poverty, and violence as society broke down, but are presented as examples of one of the many small beacons of order that emerged in the world as things slowly rebuilt over time. The first book of The Hard Years, also named The Hard Years, was published in 2311, while the fourth, A Light on the River, was eventually published in 2337.
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Jul 9, 2017 04:14
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Darloks don't actually have Charismatic- they have the 'Diplomats' starting trait, which doesn't improve negotiations, but starts your star nation with the Government technology and an inherent +5% morale. The two races best at negotiations in the galaxy are the Humans... and the Mrrshan, who get half the benefit of Charismatic through their 'improved negotiations' trait. (Humans improve the positive impact to relations and reduce the negative impact to relations from their diplomatic actions, as well as having more attractive deals in diplomacy. Mrrshan get the more attractive deals, but miss the improved relations part of Charismatic.) Information on Mrrshan is fairly vague because the only contact the Darloks have had with the Mrrshan is through accounts from Humans. Admittedly, there can be fairly detailed information available documented by Humans, but communications between Human space and Darlok space remain somewhat spotty. Likewise, the Psilons and Klackons are only known to the Darloks indirectly through Human or (in the case of the Psilons) Meklar contacts. nweismuller fucked around with this message at 12:07 on Jul 9, 2017 |
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Jul 9, 2017 11:27
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Crazycryodude posted:A slightly more serious question: Even within each star nation, it's hard to call what exists a universal Internet- even the most modern FTL communications have enough lag time and bandwidth issues that what happens is more akin to regular mail drops between seperate star system networks. Within any given star system, a single network that can be interacted with in a fashion similar to older planetary networks, but interstellar communications are much slower and more restricted. For obvious reasons, improvement of communications to allow true galactic-scale networking is something of a Holy Grail for many engineers in the Free Republic.
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Jul 9, 2017 12:11
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Lando131 posted:I'd think that holy grail might be achieved by the gate network technology described in a previous update, depending on how they function. Perhaps not so much if is a single gate in each owned system that connects to another when needed, ala Stargate. Think, however, if it is instead a network of gates, one in each system for every other system. If this were the case than perhaps these portals between space could be held open indefinitely with communication buoys placed on either side, routing communications traffic through. With such a network communications across the entire Republic could be established at close to planetary latencies. The problem with the 'gates' is that they don't allow for instant travel in any sense- what they permit is more direct travel than relying on natural hyperspace conduits between systems. Even using communications stations near gates and transmitting through them doesn't shave all that much time off of message traffic, so the problem remains in force for now. What is needed is a fundamentally new communications technology, although there are hints that it should be possible to bounce signals through hyperspace at speeds far higher than are currently possible... It is, ultimately, a problem for that rarified group known as 'hyperspace physicists'.
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Jul 9, 2017 20:59
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Siegkrow posted:OOC question, is there any technology that would resolve that? The possibility for major breakthroughs in hyperspace communications are possible, but would require laying some technological groundwork beforehand- we couldn't expect true near-instant galactic communications in less than about twenty years, at the earliest. Once those breakthroughs are made, it would be a major engineering effort to establish methods to improve bandwidth so that true galactic networking is possible, requiring even more research time, but true galactic networking is likely to be a breakthrough with immense benefits for the Free Republic's economic strength and quality of life- we are likely to be looking at a commercial, artistic, and cultural renaissance to match anything in the Free Republic's history. nweismuller fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Jul 10, 2017 |
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Jul 10, 2017 02:27
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Deadmeat5150 posted:So theres actually a game to be played, right? Just finished off playing through the last of the update. I'll need some time to process images and write; dealing with the images right now is not precisely filling my heart with joy, so it might take a week or two for me to finish all that. Sorry if people are left waiting, but I have to thank people for their wonderful contributions, which are downright delightful. Epicurius' take on the Darloks is superb and precisely in-line with how I wanted to portray them, so what he has written has my full support as reality. Likewise, other contributions have been excellent, and it means a lot to me to see such great work in the setting I've been creating.
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Jul 11, 2017 03:07
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Sylphosaurus posted:Hey, nweismuller. I was eyeing Stars in Shadows since it's on a release sale on GoG for the moment. What is your general opinion regarding it, considering that your avatar is from that game. I like it quite a bit. There's still a place or two where some things could use polish- some elements of ship design are planned to be rebalanced eventually, the current 'victory screen' really isn't, the diplomatic victory is a little underdeveloped still- but they're working on improving it still and what currently exists is a solid Master of Orion 2 successor with very strong lore and writing, enjoyable gameplay, and an economic model that reduces micromanagement woes while feeling 'realistic', at least at the level of abstraction it exists at. I very much like the art, although it's clear that this is a matter of taste, based on some reactions I've seen. I personally think it's more than worth the money.
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Jul 11, 2017 21:38
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Siegkrow posted:Hey Nweis, how you doing? Got any interesting tidbits for us? Just been dreading dealing with the images, but I guess I should buckle down and deal with it. The sheer number of screenshots I have to sift through, even leaving aside planetary reports, makes it a long, tedious chore. Sorry about that. You know, on further consideration, maybe that might mean it's time to reduce the timeframe of updates, if the number of screenshots is killing me.
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Jul 24, 2017 12:03
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EggsAisle posted:^this. Especially for some of our older colonies, where we have a pretty good idea of how things stand. The reports are really neat as a colony is getting started (especially if recently captured from an enemy) but once they're established, we can safely assume they develop along Republic priorities without knowing the minutiae. We have so many colonies at this point that I haven't really been able to keep track of them anyway, Thing about planetary reports is that they're actually helpful to me- knowing the details on the ground helps me keep things, uh, grounded. Getting too fanciful with the narrative and thus separating it from real in-game events is something I consider a failure state for my writing, and even late in development there are places where there are interesting absences on many planets. That said, yeah, the number of screenshots lately has started to grow to be murderous. I'll think about solutions.
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Jul 26, 2017 01:27
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Instead of doing what I should be doing, I've been distracted by the Shadowrun Returns series and Starcrawlers, both of which have been entertaining me. Not to mention re-reading a couple book series. Maybe my creative batteries will be recharged soon. Sorry for delays!
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Aug 3, 2017 03:14
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Wyld Karde posted:This. Also, I could never begrudge someone time spent on Shadowrun. I will take this to mean you could begrudge somebody time spent on Starcrawlers. 
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Aug 3, 2017 20:27
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Siegkrow posted:So, do Shadowrunners exist in the far future of Master of Orion? Un-personed mercenaries trying to take down the megacorps? Given that we tend to hit 100% morale pretty quickly in most worlds and that we're not really set up as a monolithic dystopia, I doubt we're looking at a bunch of unpersons, and corporate competition, as a rule, remains economic. Not to say that crime doesn't exist, both on the 'bottom' and 'top', but systemic oppression, corruption, and rebellion mostly don't exist.
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Aug 3, 2017 22:15
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Siegkrow posted:Oh I wasnt talking about the republic alone. I suppose many of the former bulrathi world's would be ripe for it? Oh, in that case... use of deniable mercenary operatives for interorganisational espionage is actually quite widespread in the Darlok Administration. It's a dangerous job, and one that can easily get the Administration coming down on you like a ton of bricks for undercutting their authority if they can determine your involvement. Because of the necessity for subtlety, mercenary ops in the Darlok Administration tend to focus on careful stealth and the occasional assassination. Occasional poison gas attacks by sneaking nerve gas into ventilation systems are known, however- this is actually a big reason why so many Darloks so frequently wear breath masks. Fear of getting caught in a gas attack in a building is real enough that very many Darloks dress to protect against this risk. There exists internal unrest, to a certain extent, in the Meklar Combine and Federation of Psilon Quanta, but they are marked by less outright mercenary activities. That said, sometimes there are disturbances on the fringes of their nations...
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Aug 4, 2017 01:23
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Araganzar posted:mostly stuff like: i'm so sorry for this but I can't help myself I don't get it?
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Aug 5, 2017 19:30
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OK, sorry for that period of discouragement and burnout. If people still want to read this, I'll try to get back into. I feel bad about this.
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Aug 30, 2017 17:49
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Not entirely related, but I'm excited about it- the first expansion of Stars in Shadow is coming sometime September, over and beyond the steady trickle of fixes and changes that has been going on. So I'm looking forward to a big pile of new content. I'm thinking of LPing Stars in Shadow eventually, but I'm currently holding out for the second expansion, as one of the two devs has let slip there's a major terraforming overhaul slated for that, and so the relatively minor terraforming-related bugs I've found aren't really going to be addressed until then as a waste of effort. The way Stars in Shadow handles planetary environments is one of the things I really like about it, so I'm definitely curious about that. (And, as the devs noted, 'you're on the test build, you don't need to worry about buying the update'- benefits of having gotten in very early and supported them in early development.)
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Aug 30, 2017 18:06
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:No one would blame you. Except for me. That said, I wonder if maybe a break to work on something else might help 'recharge' my creativity... hmmm. Siegkrow posted:maybe a look at dinasty building with CK2 Oh gods don't tempt me to found the Republic of Ireland in the 8th century. Because this is how you get the Republic of Ireland in the 8th century.
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Aug 30, 2017 20:45
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I am vaguely considering messing with CK2. My confidence for handling it well... I'm not as certain as I might be, but then again, maybe I can handle it well. Inflict the Republic of Ireland on you guys, just because that's hilarious. Not sure of that, though.
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Sep 2, 2017 00:45
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I am suspending this LP, and starting a Crusader Kings 2 LP over at https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3832923 I hope to see people there!
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Sep 3, 2017 22:49
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