Let's Play the Human Republic in... Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Let's Play the Human Republic in... Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

Ooohhhh, this should prove interesting... I loved the SMAC lp after all.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2016 14:46

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 15:36

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

my dad posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQ2lO3ieBA

America sure does like their boondoggles. Incidentally, how well does the Bradley perform in the real world?

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

Stephen9001 fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Sep 28, 2016

# ¿ Sep 28, 2016 23:06

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

Assuming we survive this, I imagine we'll have a lot more rp posts that are jingoistic in tone, and a general caution around new aliens.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2016 14:56

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

Considering how in hindsight we should have conquered them last time, how about Cassandra.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2016 12:10

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

In any case, the hawks will almost certainly have a fair bit more power than they did before once all this is over, since they will have an example to point to and say "remember when we conquered the bears because they hosed with us? Why don't we just conquer these other people before they can gently caress with us?" and not be dismissed as completely crazy.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2016 16:11

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

Tax Refund posted:

You're quite right about the potential to be blind to issues one doesn't personally face -- for example, I had no idea that people with mental illness had to deal with others telling them to "just be normal". When we encounter that kind of ignorance in someone else, we should try to let them know what they're mistaken about ("Um, you know that depression is a real thing, right? It's not just laziness -- this person actually has a chemical problem in their brain, and that medication they have to take isn't even remotely optional for them.").

In that vein, though, I think I should tell you that one of those problems you cite, you're actually mistaken about. If when you talk about women having "noticeably lower income for the same work" you're referring to the often-quoted "77 cents on the dollar" figure for the U.S., that one turns out to be statistically invalid because it was produced by adding apples to oranges: it added together all the salaries of women in the U.S. and compared that to the total salaries for men in the U.S., and found a ratio of 77:100. But in fact, women in the U.S. tend to work fewer hours than men for, in many cases, perfectly valid reasons, such as cutting their work hours so that they have more time at home to take care of a baby. When you look at an actual apples-to-apples comparison based on pay per hour, the difference is something like (IIRC) 92:100. (I don't have the numbers in front of me, and I'm typing this comment in a bit of a rush so I can't afford the time to go search for them right this instant). And when you look at one other fact, that about 95% of workplace deaths are of men, not women, the remaining 8% gap is explained in a way that is perfectly satisfactory to me. If there are two jobs that require roughly equal amounts of skill, but one of them is more dangerous than the other one (say, working on high-voltage electrical lines vs. doing electrical work in homes where the highest voltage you'll encounter is 110V), then the more dangerous job should pay more to compensate the workers for the extra danger they're putting themselves in. If 95% of the workplace deaths are of men, then it seems clear that men overwhelmingly take the more dangerous jobs with a higher risk of getting killed, and therefore they should be getting somewhat higher pay for those jobs. And if my memory is correct that the per-hour-worked pay gap is 8%, then that actually seems a little low to me -- I'd think a gap of 10-12% would be more fair if the danger ratio is so lopsided, and an 8% gap seems to me to be slightly unfair to the people (in this case, mostly men) who are taking these extremely dangerous jobs, because they're not being paid enough extra to compensate them for a 20:1 ratio in danger.

But as I said, a lot of what you cite is correct, and one should be on the lookout for one's personal blind spots. And especially not dismiss someone else's complaint of injustice simply because one doesn't experience it oneself: that's an excellent point.

Indeed, we should try to counter ignorance, as an autistic (if only a mild case) person myself, I hear stuff like "try to be normal" an annoying amount of the time. I do try but it's a constant learning experience. Thankfully, I find that having a friendly demeanour can make people forgive a few oddities. I'm also glad you corrected the "gender pay gap thing" (more accurately called an "earnings gap") because I'm aware of that common misconception myself, but wouldn't be sure how to correct it without coming across as either an arsehole or a sexist (or both). But it does go to show the importance of looking at all the information, otherwise you can come to faulty conclusions that fit the information you have seen, but aren't actually the whole story. As you say, apples to oranges.

Anyway, yes, there will be tensions between the humans and the conquered/liberated/insert euphemism of your choice here Bulrathi and it will take time for most of it to heal, but eventually, ignorance and hatred will be overcome. Booze will probably be important to this happening.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2016 15:02

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

Theantero posted:

The Darloks are ringwraiths, the Psilons are greys with their spacechips all being actual flying saucers.

The answer is clear: All pop culture authors of the past were actually Orionian exiles in disguise, trying to hint us of what is to come

Alternatively, they somehow unknowingly shaped reality so that their fictional creations would become real, like dreaming elder gods.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2017 17:16

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

Non-aggression pact with the Cat-People.

Undecided on the Darloks, beyond "keep an eye out for shifty poo poo, and help the Meklars out by giving them excellent trade deals".

I must say, I'm surprised so many people are ignoring the legendary planet we found, even if it is guarded by some kind of legendary ship.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2017 01:07

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

nweismuller posted:

"Still a prince should make himself feared in such a way that, though he does not gain love, he escapes hatred; for being feared but not hated go readily together. Such a condition he may always attain if he will not touch the property of his citizens and subjects, nor their women. And if he finds it necessary to take someone's life, he should do so when there is suitable justification and manifest cause..."

Whereas we humans seem to at least be trying for the ideal of being both loved and feared, we try to induce love by taking care of our citizens quite well, and induce fear by destroying our enemies. How well this is working at making us simultaneously loved and feared by our own populace and our (non-aggresive) neighbours is uncertain.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2017 19:29

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

By the way, just how good is the Orion system if we manage to colonise it?

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2017 19:55

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

MechaCrash posted:

Orion is The Best System, hands down. Biggest size, best environment, best mineral richness, and other bonuses I'll not get into. There are reasons that Orion is such a prize, and why it's guarded the way it is.

Welp, sounds like it'll be fun colonising it and seeing how Nweis describes it in his plot.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2017 21:10

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

Personally, I can't wait to see you colonise Orion, just to see how you will write fluff about it. Since I imagine colonising it will be a big deal when it happens.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2017 00:42

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

Looks like it may be a viable option to just let the Meklar take care of the Darloks for us.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2017 10:52

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

Tiger Crazy posted:

You should aim to unify all mammals under one banner and they go onto purge the xeno scum. Call it the Mammalian Ascendancy.

I prefer Pax Humanica myself...

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2017 23:47

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

nweismuller posted:

Hopefully this provides a small amount of added insight into Meklar society. If there are questions, I'll take them.

What, exactly, is the general opinion amongst humanity of them? I would guess the very broad outline would be something like "a bit weirded out by the whole building your bosses thing, but in general cool with how they do seem to value independence (or at least, don't care if you want to leave) despite that" but I could be wrong, and even if I'm not, I'm sure most of us are interested in specifics.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2017 01:19

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

nweismuller posted:

To give people a heads-up- the plan is to upload images and write tomorrow; I should be good for it. To make it a little more clear why productivity may have suffered in recent months, over and above schedule weirdness at times which has not helped- I suspect the fundamental issue is that in November my fiancee, my girlfriend of many years, dumped me. I'm feeling considerably better now than I was, but nonetheless I've been somewhat less energetic and focused over the past several months. My procrastination in most cases was not consciously related to this, but I suspect it is an underlying factor in the overall pattern.

I apologise if this is excessively personal, and I don't intend to burden anybody with my troubles, but I suppose people might like to know some of why I've been so slow lately. I'd also like to offer personal thanks (once again) to Crazycryodude, who did a great deal to help distract me with short-form self-contained writing immediately after I got dumped, without knowing precisely what it was he did for me. Thank you. I very much appreciated your help.

Yeesh, that sucks man, I'm sure everyone (or at least most people) here offers their sympathies. Glad to hear you're feeling better than you were.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2017 07:58

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

nweismuller posted:

Regardless of what treatments are available for cancer in the modern Republic- establishing a colony on the surface of a planet that recieves lethal radiation doses is non-optimal, even if you can build radiation shielding into your sealed habitats. Do bear in mind that radiated and toxic planets are even less welcoming than barren planets, and barren planets are lifeless rocks that require fully-sealed habitats for colonies.

Yeah, sounds like the sort of thing you'd only bother with if there's something non-life related that's valuable on the planet, such as minerals. Oh perhaps some it's strategically located or something.

Still can't wait to see you colonise Orion.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2017 13:01

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

Excellent update, sadly I have no idea how to vote on all these things... prioritize stock exchanges I guess, I know you love your money.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2017 20:55

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 15:36

Stephen9001: Oct 28, 2013

For some reason, this talk of the common cold and how it spreads via mucus and stuff has me wondering extremely bizarre things such as "is there any kind of market for mucus?" I mean, are there aliens or whoever interested in getting the bodily fluids of other races so they can study them or something weird like that? My mind goes really strange places sometimes.

I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.

# ¿ Jul 5, 2017 13:29

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Let's Play the Human Republic in... Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars