Your name is Insar'Sholo and you are an Aristocrat. You are a Child of Two Stars. You stand before the Wisdom Tree.“Wow! Such pretty fruits today, my lovely tree!”You pick among the selection, the roots of the tree pneumatically lowering to your hands. You take a big bright red and a nice cool blue; colors representing the chemical and elemental gatherings within. The trees roots pierce deep, filtering the soils and air, collecting and concentrating. These are not the kind of fruits you eat, and yet, they are farmed as the heart and soul of the empire.“Lovely, lovely Wisdom Tree!”Turning around, the great broad-leaf plants dotting the world's soils lower, creating a safe and sanitary path for your smooth and unshod feet, the plant willingly dirtying its underside to avoid its master's foot touching the forest's unkept floor. The drones have planted a path from your garden to the nearby Wisdom Tree. On this planet, it is a tree. On another, it may be a great mushroom, or another, a mighty kelp bloom. They are still the beating heart of your society; without it, no Aristocrat can live.“Lovely, lovely plants! Lovely, lovely day! Lovely- ACK!”
“Little ones...! What have you done!?”Deep within the heart of your garden, a group of chittering little creatures, designed to clear the leaf liter and cull the weeds with their little mouths, have absolutely ruined the hedges! The long neck grubblies look up at you without any instinct for fear or self preservation, no knowledge, no wisdom. Why would that? That is not their purpose. Your hands can wrap around them easily, and you hold one close.“Oh no! How did you get into that? You naughty, silly little thing. I need to fix this. The garden must be perfect...”You can't have the little ones ruining your carefully designed and curated hedges. They are the frame for your masterwork, and you can't have your little ones creating a mess. They already excrete their waste in little holes, breed away from sight, and in all other ways are out of the way. They've just gotten too greedy with the hedges. But you can't just get rid of them; else the leaf litter will pile up. Hmm...>Adjust their anatomy so they can't eat from the hedges>Change their diet to something else>Punish this one and hope the rest learn a lesson
>>6266529Well, this is unexpected. You usually make another type of thread in between monke stuff.Anyway, are write ins allowed? I feel like the way easier option is to just>Find a way to make the hedges taste bad to themI mean, they're hedges, not fruits. Their taste doesn't matter.
>>6266529>Find a way to make the hedges taste bad for them.Could increase the proportion of bitter taste receptors in the little fellows mouths so that the hedge leaves are unpalatable for them?If write-ins aren't allowed:>Adjust their anatomy so they can't eat from the hedgesThis is probably all a meta thing, which is fun to think about.Also Mr. Bananas I really like the title image, especially the green dropshadow on the words and the tiny little reflections in Insar's eyes. Hope this is a legendary thread (in a good way)
>>6266529>Adjust their anatomy so they can't eat from the hedgesWhere's the GOOD fantasy quest? This just looks like more sci fi furshit to me.
>>6266547save these posts for the qtg imo
>>6266529>>Adjust their anatomy so they can't eat from the hedgesTorture the little shits
>>6266529>>Adjust their anatomy so they can't eat from the hedges
>>6266529>Adjust their anatomy so they can't eat from the hedges
>>6266534>>6266546I think>Find a way to make the hedges taste bad to themmaybe be the same as >Change their diet to something elseAfter all, why modify the shrubs when we can just modify these guys' taste buds?
>>6266529>Change their diet to something else
>>6266529>Find a way to make the hedges taste bad to themIf we're allowed the write-in, it seems the sensible one. Perhaps make the leaves of the hedge taste bad whilst they're growing on the hedge, but start tasting really good once they've fallen?
Naughty little ones... Not that you can blame them. After all, they're just doing what they were designed and born to do. As with all things.You scoop up the leaf-litter-eater and take it away. In the heart of your garden, your Cradle, a life machine, stands ready and silent. You place the creature inside, closing your eyes, the machine feeling inside of you for what you wish. You imagine, and it becomes so, tissues and life-force knitting themselves into a new pattern. Fundamentally changed at the core of its being, the little lesser drone will become more useful now. As an Aristocrat, you are the only kind among your society who can interface with the life machines, the only one who can change the forms fundamental. You make sure the new creature's biology is genetically prioritized, so they will breed true, and soon enough your mutation will spread throughout all of the little-leaf-litter eaters!You place it back outside and see the results of your work. It's altered anatomy keeps its head low to the ground, unable to look up for predators or to eat from your hedges, with the excess tissue being made into great big ears to funnel the scent of fallen leaves into its mouth-nostril; happily it gobbles them up, running here and there, while leaving your hedges untouched."Perfect! Lovely, lovely!"Now, with your garden in order again, you can return to the masterwork, enough even to impress your Liege-Lord, Ully'Andule...
Year 195 of the Resurrection EraYou are now Halam Anak, the Supreme Ruler of the Hegemony. Having only just recently been given the Hegemonic medallion and poised to take over the Hegemony from your father, your training and schedule has been accelerated. Still, you like to spend some time honing your skills."Threes, set up a combat sim. You have a large robot?""Yes, my liege. Though I will add, if you used a knife like a normal Supreme Candidate in training, we wouldn't have to replace them after you bash them apart.""Sassy today, huh? Three opponents."You undress and take up your large pole of stabilized lead. It's heavy and extremely strong; not toxic enough to cause any harm in all but the most sensitive organisms. It is by no means a traditional weapon, but it is a fearsome one. You never much liked Knife-fighting, little knife points not befitting an Alpha-Male of your strength and stature.The hologram training room is set up; with three robots coming forward. Two small ones, representing normal opponents like Jaxtians or Leeray, and a large bodied one with additional limb capacity, representing larger and stronger opponents for wrestling or other combat sports; like Proo or Alpha males or Vetuckers, or even female Leeray, which the AI seems to be prioritizing to keep this training session most "realistic".Spinning your pole, you think strategy. Should you go after the little minions first, or the big one? Hmm...>Take out the minions first and avoid the large opponent>Focus on the biggest threat, then deal with the smaller training dummies
>>6267165>Take out the minions first and avoid the large opponentEven the numbers. We're outnumbered and if we ignore the two guys, they could easily sneak attack us while we're focusing on the big dude.
>>6267165>>Focus on the biggest threat, then deal with the smaller training dummies
>>6267165>>Take out the minions first and avoid the large opponentTraining himself for the battlefield, best not let yourself be overrun
>>6267224Good logic.>>6267165>Take out the minions first and avoid the large opponent
>>6267165>>Take out the minions first and avoid the large opponent
>>6267165>shove the metal pole up your ass and slam it into your prostate in order to induce a blast of semen that will blind and immobilize the enemies
>>6267165>Take out the minions first and avoid the large opponentLet's sweep away the advantage of numbers
>>6267165>Take out the minions first and avoid the large opponent
Yeah, it'd be safer to take out the minions first. While you of all people know that size does not equal slowness, it is certainly easier to keep track of them."Leeray males and a female, huh? Come on Threes, I'm no amateur. Make them a bit more intimidating! Give them some skills!"With a pop, the two Leeray male heads change to Jaxtians, glaring at you at the point of holographic, harmless knives. They look very real, but it's all a simulation."Yeah, like that! Begin!"You've won many hard victories right here in the simulation chamber; holograms are quite the real deal, but with physical robots overlaid with eye-like levels of detail and simulation, it's as close as you can get with no real danger. You spin your pole around, eager to prove yourself. The two smaller opponents approach first; false knives in hand. You raise the far end of your pole and jab at them, keeping them back. It has no point, but nobody wants to be on the end of your fearsome rod- except maybe a very excited female Jaxtian, har har!You just have to wait for one of the robots to slip up and fall for the oldest trick in the book; trying to grab the end of the pole...
There it is! You twist the end of the smooth pole, making the artificial opponent lose its grip and lean forward, and then quickly spin the pole around your back for a riposte.*WOOSH-SWICK!*Cruelly slashing the foe's face open with a tip of your staff, cracking against the skull and pulling the skin apart, breaking the face with a satisfying spray of fake blood. Concussed and blinded, you do not fear this enemy any further.The larger robot, simulating an enraged female Leeray, charges towards you with a swiping claw. You feel the rush of the wind from the robot's hand, obviously clawless, as you bounce away with your pole, spinning it around your back as you ready for your tangle with the second of the smaller combatants.
You spin the pole out, tripping him under his feet. He may have the brain of a Jaxtian, but the body is still Leeray and still a bit clumsy and slow. You thought cats always landed on their feet?You reel your pole back and slam its end into the enemy's chest; you feel the very real crunch and sound of exploding circuitry from the robot, even over the simulated sound of cracking bones and blood spurt. It surrenders pathetically, unable to hold onto its weapon as you twist the pole in its chest cavity, causing its simulating lungs to collapse. You know its spine is mangled, real or not, and you're also sure that Threemind won't let you step on any shed robotic components scattered around the room from your roughhousing.You take the pole up with a swing and grip it tightly, tensing every muscle in your young and strong body as you await the final opponent; the large monster-like creature charging at you with claws outstretched. You slam down your pole onto its head, crushing the female's head both in the simulation and for real, the crunch of metal evident in the way the simulated hologram model deforms.END SIMULATIONDefeating a strong opponent is good for your dueling and physicality scores; not that the Supreme Ruler needs to prove himself anymore. It's just a matter of pride. Fighting multiple opponents at once can multiply it, and show great skill. While you don't like knives, physical confrontations are an Alpha male's specialty. Using only blunt force, you've topped the dueling charts!
The Threemind normally would congratulate at this point, but it seems to pause."Your grace, I would like to point your attention towards your side..."You turn, seeing a hit marker directly on your abdominal flank. The holographic projector has pointed out an injury."Wha- I didn't feel anything!""The computer simulated you getting hit, obviously, the hologram models extend beyond the physical robot shell by a few units of length; simulating skin, muscle, claws...""Aww, come on! That wouldn't have disabled me anyway. I would have won the fight either way, if it were real.""Perhaps, but a decisive victory only allows very superficial injuries, preference for not being touched at all.""What, you're saying that wasn't superficial? That tiny little scratch! Come on. That shouldn't count!""I am merely relaying the information from the combat computer, your grace.""HEY! I'm the Supreme Ruler aren't I? Remove it from the record! Got that?!"The Threemind pulls up your duels and combat simulations, quickly striking the small hit marker from your already impressive dueling record, now showing yet another decisive victory against multiple opponents."Heh, good!""...Take care, young Supreme. You may not fear a small wound or scratch; but all it takes is a drop of dimethylmercury, one Aristocrat bacterial weapon, one weight unit overlooked to hide a bomb in a shipment, and it will lead to your destruction.""True as it may be, I will allow the bean counters of the Hegemony to obsess over the details. My Father was one such man; I have no intention of being the same...">Quest continues in 12 hours
>removing his defeat recordAbsolutely Honorless Behavior. White Knife, KILL this man.
As a reminder during this short break;1-Post IDs will likely not be counted for important votes. So make sure to get a thread ID early!
>>6267367Alas, stable IPs are illegal for normal people where i live.
>>6267357I'll give him time to cook before ai voter to off him.
>>6267371This generation of supreme candidates is just absolutely cookedHalamHonorless Crybaby>Usis Naonae Thinks 1984 is an UtopiaWho can even take over from him?
>>6267339>except maybe a very excited female Jaxtian, har har!kek
Over the next few weeks, you become trained up and acclimatized to your new role and position of power. In some ways, you wonder if every Supreme Ruler felt the way you do; like you're just supposed to step into some role of another man who has been running the empire for a century right away, and it just feels overwhelming. The sudden amount of information you're exposed to is huge; reports on every sector and industry, machine-state predictions giving you insight into future actions and their consequences, and probably worst of all; your own ideas and desires being put through the wringer of actually having to be made real and concrete. All you have to do is breathe something you think should be changed or improved and a hundred AI models and a thousand experts are already looking into it; simulations and possible cultural impacts served up to you with every perspective analyzed and focus-grouped into an actionable plan. It's scary.For yourself? You are inheriting the Hegemony from your Father, Avae Anak, which smooths over some aspects of the father-son cultural line of succession to a literal one. He spent his entire reign colonizing the former Hazaari star systems after their cleansing by Hass Takar; and building them up into a formidable empire. Every habitable world there has colonies and fresh cities built, space stations and long-distance industries built up in orbits, research bases, factories, nature preserves, and all the like as advanced and with the infrastructure of the core Hegemonic worlds. To an outsider, these systems would look like they were colonized at the same point in history to your core worlds; not underdeveloped at all; just a fresher coat of paint.https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2024/6107725/While this has resulted in a huge amount of new livable habitats and created a massive population boom; its main impact has been economic.
The Hegemony in the past, when only inhabiting the core worlds, focused on quality over quantity. Industry focused on meeting the demands of your Supreme Ruler and high administrators instead of capital, mindful of environmental impact, and eliminating as much waste as possible. While decent enough when only owning a single star cluster; you'd think owning two star clusters would double it. But even your training in economics and industry and you couldn't predict its true impact. Not only do you have many more habitable planets, the new Hegemonic races fulfilling new consumer markets, and possible trade between the colonies and homeworlds; you also have the massive impact of the Reassembler technology, which has replaced almost all small-market consumer goods with very efficient forms of recycling. Every ship and colony has fabricators now; and with uplinking to the AI network mandatory to all they can be turned to whatever use you deem fit to better suite your goals.Your economy hasn't doubled with the new worlds and technology, it's more then tripled.While you still can't quite measure up to the raw unfettered, degenerate capitalism of the Consortium; your economic output has greatly exceeded both the Esaal and Aristocrats. Even goods they special in, like mineral processing or biological products respectively, you exceed with your own production. The quality of life and resource abundance for Hegemonic citizens has exceeded both nations, with only the Consortium slightly above it as an average; but this is only because of the huge gap between rich and poor in their hellscape of an economic system. All because of your father. He even made the first battleship; increasing your military's strength to surpass the Aristocrats and Consortium further, though you are still behind the Esaal in that regard.It appears your father's lifelong, thankless work has paid off. Due to his advanced aging, you have decided on your imperial robes. Black, for respect and honor for the dead and those who came before; but with a gray and yellow stripe, representing Cijan Anak and Avae Anak, your father. At least for the moment; three Anak men who are or were Supreme live at the same time, which is most fortuitous. Your robe represents this.
You sit upon a throne as your personal drone approaches, the Threemind opening up its viewscreen and revealing to you many projects. You've only barely settled into your role and already it's pushing you into decision making. Almost feels like the machine disregards your father in some strange way, only a few days having finally stepped down as acting Supreme. ”These are quite large projects, Threes. Are you sure I should be beginning such things so soon? I mean, I have a lot of plans for the Hegemony but... first week?”“They are well within our ability to complete; we need direction more then anything now. That is your role, after all. The earlier we begin, the earlier you can get returns on what resources were set aside for your ascension.”You glance over the projects, all things that can be accomplished in about a decade's time or less; short-term projects with higher budgets and more immediate returns. You balk at their scope & predicted cost; things that once would have taken a Supreme Ruler of the past multiple decades to complete are now achievable in the short term.”Wow. The budget surplus is so high I can do any of these?”“No, your Majesty.” The AI chirps almost happily. “You can do two.”Choose Two>Commission a special, long-range, deep space exploration ship to explore the Galaxy>Begin Development on the Mark 3 Fusion Core (True Miniaturized Star)>Build two more Battleships>Found the Galactic Academy of Starsight>Mass produce the Life-Extension Drug for regular Citizens>Migrator Project (Jaxtian, Swall, and Vetucker gene upgrades for Migrators)>Specialized Crystal-Farming Initiative>Explore & Expand towards the Galactic Edge (lower quality systems & planets overall)>Secret Project CHIMERA, CHANGELING, or LIGHTGROWN (Specify; mystery box)>Flex on the other factions just because you canNo write-ins or 1-Post Ids are allowed for this choice.
>>6267657Starsight Academy is an absolute must. We know so little about it. It's basically an entirely unexplored frontier of science.Those mystery boxes are the interesting ones, though. Let's try to see if I can't guess them. Also, Bananas, if you change one because I got it right you will be super gay and your family will be cursed for eleven winters.>ChimeraThat "hybrid" we were talking about, maybe? An "Chimera" of the hegemonic races.>ChangelingWell, obviously, it's something that changes. The most obvious way would be perhaps something to do with the Leeray? We do have some infiltration tech, I believe, but maybe this would be something more advanced.>Light grownNo bloody idea.
>>6267657Damn. A lifetime of being a humble, efficient bureaucrat, ushering in a wondrous golden age. All that, for a homophobic chatbot and your own scoreboard-rigging son to slag you off. At least Halam honored his father on his uniform, and it is a based AF uniform.Anyway...>Found the Galactic Academy of Starsight>Specialized Crystal-Farming InitiativeWe crystal psychic future now.
>>6267663Ah fuck, I hit enter too earlyWhat I wanted to post was, do we even need that many crystals? I feel like betting on something special might be more interesting.
>>6267657>Found the Galactic Academy of Starsight>Secret Project - LIGHTGROWN.
>>6267657Ah, screw it>Found the Galactic Academy of Starsight>Secret Project CHIMERA
>>6267657>>Mass produce the Life-Extension Drug for regular Citizens>>Migrator Project (Jaxtian, Swall, and Vetucker gene upgrades for Migrators)The duty of the Supreme is to take care of the citizens. Mass life-extension ensures that people can keep learning and contributing for longer, participating in the economy for decades more, teaching thousands more people. It is a multiplicative investment.The migrator project will bring them up to the same level as everyone else, further multiplying the effects of everything else we have. Furthermore, I feel like we owe them a great deal, and they have never, EVER, complained. Always helpful and loyal, I feel like they deserve a reward, and some kindness.
>>6267675The migrator project isn't bad but the life extension drug feels a bit superfluous. I don't like messing much with life extension anyway. This is how we got the "Disintegrate violently" disease that made it so all jaxtians have to commit suicide.
>>6267657>Found the Galactic Academy of Starsight>Migrator Project (Jaxtian, Swall, and Vetucker gene upgrades for Migrators)
>>6267664Didn't we discover that we could control and wield the entire crystalline race and its mysterious empire's resources for the Hegemony if we could just create and broadcast a sufficiently dominant signal? Or am I misremembering? it's been a while.
>>6267326 is me, my ID changed.>>6267657>Found the Galactic Academy of StarsightThis, I believe, should be clear enough as to why it's important. We don't know enough about Starsight compared to our main enemy the Worms, as was proven when our starseers got their minds blasted by who-know-what a couple threads ago.>Begin Development on the Mark 3 Fusion Core (True Miniaturized Star)I'm voting for this because I think it will have the greatest ROI out off all other options(sans the academy). Improving power generation improves all of the Hegemony, from military vessels(leading to longer services from our ships) to civilian manufactury(which we've already supercharged with the Reassemblers) These, imho, are the boring, low-level developments that cascade into a better overall operation.
>>6267657>Found the Galactic Academy of StarsightThis is our ace in the hole.>Explore & Expand towards the Galactic Edge (lower quality systems & planets overall)We need to get these systems before the Esaal (or whoever) decides to grab them.
>>6267657Ok BQM this is my current IP im letting you know its going to change, get over it im phoneposting just be aware Ill update you when I notice im at 1 post again and which ones are me>Found the Galactic Academy of StarsightThis one has been long awaited and weve only gotten stopped because of the hegemonys denial of a soul and how they felt starseers could become a cult (which I mean yeah but its cool)>Migrator Project (Jaxtian, Swall, and Vetucker gene upgrades for Migrators) I see a big part of this backfiring if migrators gain the ability to voice opinions that are antithetical to hegemonic values, but I can genuinely only see good things if the longest "other" of the hegemony having arguably more rights than most other species in our fold even if they cant really use those rights, I am eager for us to explore their starseeing abilities more too with the inclusion of the academy which most people seem to want too
>>6267657>Found the Galactic Academy of Starsight>Begin Development on the Mark 3 Fusion Core (True Miniaturized Star)
>>6267657>Begin Development on the Mark 3 Fusion Core (True Miniaturized Star)>Flex on the other factions just because you canStarsight is gay, Starcore be ballin’.Would accept helping our bro Iceberg out with some ballin’ Baal genes, the first Magneto-gator!
>>6267657>Begin Development on the Mark 3 Fusion Core (True Miniaturized Star)strait up upgrade>Specialized Crystal-Farming Initiativea interesting development in computation, energy manipulation, propulsion and robotics with these crystals and there programmable minds
>>6267846should i continue doddling on the ape goat fish someone else drew but i only added a hair cut
>>6267848Do it, it was fun.Though I still suspect the chimera project is where the cow fish monkey would be made.
>>6267657>secret project CHIMERA>Commission a special, long-range, deep space exploration ship to explore the Galaxy
Beancounting.STARSIGHT ACADEMY: bjq, iPy, xRt, Inh, Thh (1post ID, linked to a previous ID), Y2p, jqb (1 post ID, phoneposter), 6an. TOTAL: 5 non-1 IDs, 2 1-IDs.CRYSTALS: bjq, +ss (1 post ID when vote was called). TOTAL: 1 non-1 post ID, 1 1 post ID.SECRET PROJECT - LIGHTGROWN: iPy. TOTAL: 1.SECRET PROJECT - CHIMERA: k1V, xRt. TOTAL: 2LIFE EXTENSION: xJu. TOTAL: 1MARK 3 FUSION: Thh (1post ID but linked to previous ID), 6an, hw+ (1 post ID), +ss (1 post ID when vote was called). TOTAL: 2 1 post ID, 1 linked 1 post ID, 1 regular IDDEEP EXPLORATION SHIP: k1VMIGRATOR PROJECT: xJu, Inh, jqb (1 post ID). Total: 2 non-1 post IDs, 1 1-post ID.EXPLORE THE EDGE: Y2p. TOTAL: 1FLEX:hw+ (1 post ID). TOTAL: 1, but by a 1 post ID so Bananas will probably ignoreSo, by working with Bananas's rules, STARSIGHT is in the lead for first and there's a tie between Chimera and Migrator Project.
>>6268020If we account for sheer voting pass, STARSIGHT ACADEMY and MARK 3 FUSION are the ones winning. But assuming we're ignoring any ID with 1 post to it like Bananas said.I'm swapping my vote in >>6267673 to >Found the Galactic Academy of Starsight>Migrator Project (Jaxtian, Swall, and Vetucker gene upgrades for Migrators)
>>6268020>>6267662I'll switch from Crystals to Migrator Project, too.
Damn, what a shame. The mystery box would have been fun.
Phoneposter here. LIGHTGROWN might be those ultraviolet light sun trees I wrote in months ago. Boy, that would stick it to those Worms.
Hmm... So many choices. So many possible futures for the Hegemony to undertake, and you're itching to spend these banked resources for real gains. What Supreme Ruler doesn't want a blank check; to borrow a capitalist's term?Ultimately, you first decided to begin development of a Starsight Academy, a place to learn and study Starsight properly. Starsight is the “mystical” ability to see into hyperspace, a curious talent once thought only to be available for creatures born without or damaged vision that allows for navigation and piloting ships for Faster Then Light travel. The school is designed on a large asteroid instead of on a habitable planet; which makes it less defendable but much harder to find via Starsight, as well as making it more “neutral ground” then a Hegemonic core world. It has many facilities including hangars, space flight simulators, accelerators allowing for contained FTL experiments, living spaces, lecture halls, rooms for meditation and similar mental exercises, and more. On top of this, the entire facility is also equipped with a warp drive, though slower then a traditional ship, allowing it to be moved or bring the entire student body into hyperspace for their introduction to “seeing the stars” without shielding, which seemed to be the catalyst to unlock the talent for the very first Jaxtian Starseer, one Kimnan Oles.To this day, a white lanyard is the most rare color of all in the Hegemonic uniform; representing those specializing in this field. Despite its usefulness and connotations, Starsight has only been given a cursory exploration by Supreme Rulers of the past, given its unpopularity among citizens (given they have to be crippled to participate; though you can grow their eyes back easily now) and it's quasi-religious undertones, going against core beliefs of the Hegemony's culture. It is also underexplored due to it being so personal; with many Starseers have totally unique experiences that cannot be easily replicated or trained. However, given a few standouts, like one Radjo Berax, who was capable of Starsight while he possessed functioning eyes, it is clear there is much more to explore.”I see the space for climbing poles and excess storage rooms within this academy's design, but are these bird perches? Long straight hallway-style barracks in the Esaal design? What is this architecture, Threes?”“It is for the Urgi and Esaal students who may one day attend the Academy, your grace.””...Why would I ever allow our enemies to study at our most prestigious Academy, Threemind?!”
“They wouldn't be being taught for free, your Majesty. You know that our rivals in space, the Esaal, Consortium, Aristocrats, the burgeoning Urgi state... be have fought with all of them, but also worked with all of them too. They are allies or enemies of convenience. However, we unique among them have developed Starsight independent of the space worms, who could very well be our greatest and most insidious foe. Many Supreme in the past have expressed concern over the rumored “Cyte” and the worms as being the true threat to the Hegemony over these temporary rivals. In any case, having the ability to teach other species in the Galaxy our methods of Starsight to lessen the worm's political strength could be an excellent bargaining chip for the future. This is why our approved design focused on the Academy itself as being the GALAXY'S finest, not just the Hegemony.””Hmm... Perhaps you're right. In the same way the worms have a political stranglehold over Starsight, we could have a competition to their “monopoly”, and spread our political influence through something vital to all intergalactic trade, warfare, and diplomacy...”“Precisely.””In that case, I approve of these designs. But I don't expect to see any of those kinds of students any time soon...”As for the Migrators, the mysterious fourth race of the Hegemony. Discovered by the Jaxtians before the Vetuckers or Swall, these aquatic animals were only spared by Wrix Val the Unspeakable's purge due to being of low intelligence and more useful as Starsight navigators. Thought to be little more then uplifted animals, only during the reforms and racial integration of Hass Takar were they given more education and treatment as “citizens”, though most of them (the same ones still alive from first contact), don't really understand the concept of governments or work or pay or whatever else. Their numbers were always extremely small, and only started to grow after the acquisition of HBTP-OW1, as the Esaal named it, a cold-water habitable ocean planet loaned to the Hegemony by the Esaal within Esaal space.
“We can begin combining our DNA with the Migrators immediately, your highness. Given their slow rate of reproduction, Migrators should be genetically altered as soon as possible. Here are the stats and figures.””...I'm surprised the Migrators are so genetically compatible with the other Hegemonic races; not being bipedal or terrestrial or anything. I figured we'd hit a wall with interlacing genetic material of organisms too different from us at some point; I suppose that's the “Maktana Magic” for you.”“There is an ongoing theory that the similarity between species in the galaxy near each other is no coincidence but based on convergent evolution, though the Migrators are still an exception. Anyways; these gene upgrades will alter their biology significantly from the cold-water evolution. Their lifespan will be reduced to about half, about 500 years, but given their previous lifestyle of being asleep for 99% of their lives anyway...””This will be an added benefit, and more effective time. I would hate to be asleep for almost my entire life myself; this is well worth it. Them actually being awake for a war fleet will more then make up for it.”In addition to the general advancement of the Migrator genome, meaning increases to their metabolism and ability to live in more aquatic environments; you also have the ability to add specific mutations to further adapt the species to your liking. After all, no expense will be spared on this project, the Threemind says, but reminds you that these changes will take some time to appear in the Migrator's gene pool and will not be able to be changed in the future, so choose wisely.
From the primate genetic traits, the Migrators can be granted genes similar to the pre-Jaxtian common ancestor of Jaxtian races; the spidermonkey, whose genes determine the length and prehensile strength of the Jaxtian tail. Akule selected populations of Jaxtians with a high enough percentage of Spidermonkey DNA that they could fully support themselves with just their tail alone. In the Migrators, we can copy these patterns to increase the length and strength of Migrator tails, giving them improved swimming speed and mobility. While its influence on their Starsight abilities is unknown, hooking them up to the inside of a water-filled cockpit could allow for them to become regular pilots. Secondly, we could also copy over the Alpha-male polymorphic gene, allowing for some Migrators to become much larger and stronger then others, likely the males, leading to increased longevity but slower development for some migrators.From the herbivore traits of the Vetuckers; we can grant the Migrators either a mutation to consume plankton and completely change their current diet into that of a filter-feeding creature; able to support a much larger population with farming, or individual-specific skin patterns from the “Painted Faces” Vetucker genetic group; which would give the Migrators much more individuality and help with social identification. This could lead to a certain amount of tribalism among their kind, but this could be manipulated for our benefit.Finally, the Swall being partially aquatic, likely have traits most useful for the Migrators. Their possible mutations are the toxin adaptation; similar to the Swall acidic ink spit they can use for self defense. This would allow the Migrators to partially absorb certain common toxins in their home waters, especially tropical or warmer climates, to both protect themselves from predators and make their biology more adaptable. Finally, a similar gill-lung structure could make the Migrators able to survive outside of water by breathing air; though their weight will still crush their organs if left out of water for too long. Simply put, this would make them more amphibious.You may choose one choice for each Donor species in your voteJaxtian>Spidermonkey Genes>Selective GigantismVetucker>Filter-Feeding Mutation>Patterned CoatsSwall>Toxin Adaptation>Limited Amphibian
>>6268200>Spidermonkey Genes>Filter-Feeding Mutation>Toxin Adaptation
>>6268200>Selective Gigantism>Patterned Coats>Toxin Adaptation
>>6268200>Spidermonkey GenesIf we wanted the Migrators to live longer but develop slower, we could just not mess with them, right? Though I guess either way they're more alert and responsive on Jaxtian timescales... But they still have 500 years.>Filter-Feeding MutationI don't want to teach our fishbros factionalism.>Toxin AdaptationIf they aren't going to be comfortable and live on out of water anyway, this seems better. It improves their ability to populate otehr worlds and to survive in hostile environments during conflict.
>>6268200>Spidermonkey GenesIn an aquatic or semi-aquatic setting, mobility and agility trump raw power. A third prehensile limb is gold—especially when swimming, piloting, or multitasking in tight spaces. Selective gigantism sounds cool, but it’s inefficient for a breeding population unless your goal is to create alpha-guards or warlords.>Patterned CoatsFilter-feeding sounds optimal on paper, but boring and possibly limiting. Aesthetics and identity matter—especially in a narrative. Patterned coats give personality, social dynamics, and controllable tribalism. You can always feed them later; you can’t fabricate culture from scratch.>Toxin AdaptationIt’s a power. Amphibious capability is cool but kneecapped by the “crush under own weight” clause. Toxin resistance and acid spit gives you survivability and a threat factor. Also—immune to polluted water? That’s long-term evolutionary advantage.If other players dont want that route we can also go the complete opposite to make the equivalent of hippolike water dependants that can walk on land for a few hours >>6267791This is me if it doesnt put a 2 by my reply counter
The "crushing under their own weight" thing is specifically meant to be like what happens to beached whales or dolphins, they are not any weaker or more likely to die out of water with that upgrade, if anything they'll survive longer, it would just let them survive in more oxygen-starved water and be more personable to other members of the Hegemony.I still think people are going to choose the other option for this one regardless but I just wanted to make that clear.
Can I just say that having the Migrators become 'normal people' might backfire horribly?What's stopping them from turning into the damn Navigator's Guild of the Hegemony?
>>6268315>What's stopping them from turning into the damn Navigator's Guild of the Hegemony?The Galactic Academy of Starsight we're about to build?
>>6268353Navigators are naturally prone to Starsight, they'd have a gigantic advantage. If they were allowed to go to the Academy, that'd make it even worse. You ever hear the phrase 'Blessed is the mind too small for doubt'? Well, the Navigators were pretty damn blessed.Allowing the Navigators to become a normal 'race' with minds and opinions and individuality will doom us to eventually be in their pockets, I tell you. Even with this, they will live five hundred years. Imagine what an Navigator Yuan'tul could do?
>>6268358>Imagine what an Navigator Yuan'tul could do?Get himself and his species wrecked even harder?
>>6268456The difference here is that Hazaar didn't control the lifeblood of our very nation.
>>6268457Neither will the Navigators if we make sure to train lots of non-Navigators at iur fancy new Jedi Academy. This starting point of preemptive paranoia worries me, though, since that's how the Hazaar related schisms started. I will politely cede the point, and the possibility, to you.
>>6268460>Neither will the Navigators if we make sure to train lots of non-Navigators at iur fancy new Jedi Academy.And you're going to spend an insane amount of effort and resources to blind people for the sole purpose of making them into pilots who will inevitably be far worse than a navigator at doing it? This isn't paranoia, this is literally just an logical conclusion. Imagine if the horses in a pre-industrialization society became sapient and capable of assembling politically? Sure, you could use cows or something, but they're not horses.
>>6268461>And you're going to spend an insane amount of effort and resources to blind people for the sole purpose of making them into pilots who will inevitably be far worse than a navigator at doing it? Yep. We're already in the process of doing it. I will vote to continue doing so. Blinding them, or at least leaving them blind, isn't even structly necessary long-term. I think it's well worth it to avoid the exact scenario you're worried about. I'm not sure why you're fighting me on that?>This isn't paranoia, this is literally just an logical conclusion.The possibility of their having too much leverage is a logical conclusion. The stating of it as a certainty, which will "doom" us, all while refusing to consider means to mitigate this (see above) is something else. But you're right: Navigator sapience could doom us, maybe or at least complicate things. We already voted for it, though. Sorry, anon.not that sorry, actually, but if this turns into another voter wedge and reduces thread civility, I will be sad
>>6268463>I'm not sure why you're fighting me on that?I'm saying that you'd be actively hindering the hegemony and being forced to spend a bunch of capable starseers into being glorified pilots, and for extremely minor 'bonuses' to navigators which could easily be turned against us.>The stating of it as a certainty, which will "doom" us, all while refusing to consider means to mitigate this (see above) is something elseAt best, it will be a permanent ulcer on the side of the hegemony that wastes resources for the sake of safety. At worst, it'll end up with the navigators literally just becoming the worms. But i guess people decided to switch to that at the last moment, so now we have to deal with this for the rest of the quest. Fun.
>>6268200>Selective Gigantism>Patterned Coats>Limited AmphibianI like the idea of of turning the Mitigators into hyper-experienced Navigators, able to experience eons in a blink of an eye- like, just imagine the mythos arising from a portion of the population still being around from Maktana I’s age, the accumulative, living embodiment of the wisdom of the Hegemony.Also, Whale Marine sound legit yoooooo!
>>6268200Though I will state, Spidermonke and Toxin Adaptation is a kino mix- we can make them into a regular fighter pilot corps.I left out the Ventuckers genes because the difference there is more quantity (bigger population) vs quality (tribal in-fighting leading to extremely viscous wolf-pack mindset and tactics).>>6268461>And you're going to spend an insane amount of effort and resources to blind people for the sole purpose of making them into pilots who will inevitably be far worse than a navigator at doing it?Tbh, that does track with what our glorious founder Akule intended for Monke-kind.
>>6268315Also, I’d be more worried about the fact that we establishing and promoting a ‘pseudo-religious’ academy that has been noted as antithetical to the Hegemony’s belief system.The Mitigator worry is cute in comparison, especially considering the genius Iceberg was explicitly low-IQ and the fact that the Worms actively hunt our Mitigators/Navigators in the Spirit World (which is a salient point in favor of trying to develop a wolf-pact mentality in our Sightseer community. Total Worm Death by da Big Fish, Hail Eoba II!)
>>6268502>Also, I’d be more worried about the fact that we establishing and promoting a ‘pseudo-religious’ academy that has been noted as antithetical to the Hegemony’s belief system.Anon, if souls are real, then the Hegemony is objectively wrong and the best way to deal with it is by steering it in a way that is beneficial to the hegemony instead of going full three-monkey.>The Mitigator worry is cute in comparison, especially considering the genius Iceberg was explicitly low-IQ Yeah, but that was the previous navigators who slept for 99% of their life. The new navigators will not, and they will live for 500 years. We'd be creating an class of long-lived people who are completely integral to our society yet entirely detached from its needs.Again, Navigator Guild.
>>6268504I don’t want to derail the thread too much here, but I do find it hilarious that you’re advocating a fundamental change that would destroy the Hegemony ideologically and the state the cute Mitigator bros are an existential threat because they’re a discount Life Pod option.I trust the Mitigators more, especially since we can indoctrinate them into pro-Hegemony beliefs without them having to experience the ideological contradiction that Starsight entails for higher IQ bipedal races.Besides, the Mitigator have no concept of hierarchy of societal needs, and lack the socialization and the IQ to attempt a consolidation of power. Them trying to establish a ‘Mitigator Guild’ is just a boogeyman detached from the reality of what they are. Even the ideological pure Wrix the Unspeakable spared they’re lives because they’re just not a social entity, same as the Baal of Max-Mind.
>>6268517I think the fearful anon is worried that they will beocme more social, hierarchical, and ideologically-complex as a result of this uplift. It's less about current capabilities than future ones. Of course, those future capabilities are purely hypothetical right now.
>>6268517>I don’t want to derail the thread too much here, but I do find it hilarious that you’re advocating a fundamental change that would destroy the Hegemony ideologically and the state the cute Mitigator bros are an existential threat because they’re a discount Life Pod option.Hardly. If souls exist, then plugging your ears and going 'LALALALALALA' isn't going to help the Hegemony in any way.>Besides, the Mitigator have no concept of hierarchy of societal needs, and lack the socialization and the IQ to attempt a consolidation of power.Anon, you keep assuming they're going to keep the same IQ when the only reason their IQ is so low right now is because they literally spend 99% of their time sleeping.Do you really think that a race that will live for 500 years will be content doing nothing but swimming in a tank for the service of someone else?
>>6268522Anon, we can let them do things besides swimming in our tanks. They'll have a whole subset of society.
>>6268524> They'll have a whole subset of society.Yes, which means they'll be developing a culture. They'll be developing opinions. They might start approving or disapproving of things. And unlike your average hegemonic citizen, they'll be not only a lot harder to control due to being fish (good luck spying on an entire sea) but also a whole lot more important.That's why I said that it's a bad idea. You can say that it's "just hypothetical", but it's also an hypothetical which is very much likely.
>>6268527>spying on fishWe already do that , and Esaal will make a good go-between and supervisory caste.The fact is: we're upgrading them. It's too late to stop it. All you can do is help steer the course moving forward. Doomposting won't revert the decision.
>>6268531>We already do that Esaal aren't really fish, they pretty much live on land. They're more like amphibians. How are you gonna spy on that entire ice moon of theirs?>The fact is: we're upgrading them. It's too late to stop it. Alas, a bunch of people decided to change their votes just before the time ended and I wasn't even there to offer any counter-arguments. No option here is really going to stop this from happening, it doesn't really matter what you choose. I'm just pointing out that you DID choose for something that will bite us in the ass.
>>6268521>beocme more social, hierarchical, and ideologically-complex as a result of this upliftMore they are now? Sure, but thinking they’re the second coming of the Huzzar is ridiculous. I’d be more worried about the Swalli pulling a Yuan than a Mitigator that doesn’t even reach normal IQ.>>6268522>Hardly. If souls exist, then plugging your ears and going 'LALALALALALA' isn't going to help the Hegemony in any wayI ain’t going to educate you on what a sudden collapse of the Hegemony’s guiding ideological structure is going to do for our civilization, but the term ‘nothing good’ applies- we don’t want the Unspeakable levels of ideological upheaval that rediscovering the soul will bring. Been there, done that,>Do you really think that a race that will live for 500 years will be content doing nothing but swimming in a tank for the service of someone else?What makes you think that they won’t? IQ isn’t just education, but requires a higher functioning brain to properly develop a proper abstraction for concepts such as the soul or a corporate interest, and introducing post-evolutionary tribalism isn’t suddenly going to make them desire Spice in order to stay alive.>>6268527>Yes, which means they'll be developing a culture. They'll be developing opinions. They might start approving or disapproving of things. And unlike your average hegemonic citizen, they'll be not only a lot harder to control due to being Starsight capable(good luck spying on an entire spirit world) but also a whole lot more importantI’d argue that’s more relevant in our establishment of the Starsight Academy than a bunch of fish with equivalent intelligence to their tank-water temperature.
>>6268535>I ain’t going to educate you on what a sudden collapse of the Hegemony’s guiding ideological structure Ideology will not stop the soul from existing, if the Hegemony starts actively ignoring the existence of such gigantic concepts of reality, it will not be good, especially if we want to stop the rule of the worms. >What makes you think that they won’t?Anon, the update makes it clear that the genemods will make it so they're no longer in constant hybernation mode. The fact that one of the options is 'divide them into a bunch of artificial ethnicites' should tell you enough. They're absolutely going to get a huge bump in intelligence, and even if they don't, the fact that they'll live 500 years means they'll easily have more experience than any genius the hegemony ever would have. Like Cijan currently is.>I’d argue that’s more relevant in our establishment of the Starsight Academy than a bunch of fish with equivalent intelligence to their tank-water temperature.The difference, anon, is that the people from the academy aren't completely vital to the very existence of the hegemony like navigators are.
>>6268534>>6268531>EsaalI meant Swalli, woops. I made an Ewok/Wookie alien syllable mix-up>Amphibians vs full fishFair, but Swalli can still do the spying for us.>I'm just pointing out that you DID choose for something that will bite us in the ass.Okay. We heard you. Are you done? It's becoming a bit of a dead horse flogging situation.
Interrupting the discussion with Beancounting.JAXTIANSPIDER MONKEY: 4 (Inh, bQ+, bjq, 2TW)GIGANTISM: 2 (hw+, iPy)VETUCKERPATTERNED COATS: 3 (iPy, bQ+, hw+)FILTER: 3 (Inh, bjq, 2Tw)SWALLTOXIN: 5 (Everyone but hw+)AMPHIBIAN: 1 (hw+)We have a tie for FILTER vs PATTERN
>>6268539>if the Hegemony starts actively ignoring the existence of such gigantic concepts of realityThe Hegemony already actively ignores the existence of the soul, explicitly in this update, while promoting the academy. It’s a Hegelian contradiction, if you ever played Fallout New Vegas.>They're absolutely going to get a huge bump in intelligence, and even if they don't, the fact that they'll live 500 years means they'll easily have more experience than any genius the hegemony ever would haveSo? They still don’t have a higher functioning brain capable of abstraction.Besides, dividing them on surface level characteristics is better than giving them a collective class conciseness by your own logic.>The difference, anon, is that the people from the academy aren't completely vital to the very existence of the hegemony like navigators are.The difference, anon, is that we can induce hibernation by cooling their water tanks and switch them out with a more compliant Mitigator. Meanwhile, we lack any objective and material way to surveillance an astral book club among the students in the Starsight academy. They have the ability to socialize and organize among themselves without our knowledge, in a quasi-religious field that’s antithetical to the ruling belief structure.The fish becoming tribal luddites isn’t the existential threat you should fear, anon.>>6268541I just find the conversation amusing, but I’ll stop feeding the monkey now.
>>6268546>The Hegemony already actively ignores the existence of the soul, explicitly in this update, while promoting the academyTrue, because we aren't really looking much into starsight and this information was repressed. At some point, more proof might be found that would make it undeniable.>So? They still don’t have a higher functioning brain capable of abstraction.That's just an assumption you're making. There's no reason to believe they will stay the same.>The difference, anon, is that we can induce hibernation by cooling their water tanks and switch them out with a more compliant Mitigator. How many navigators are you going to keep in each ship? Do you think they won't start demanding 'shore leave' for their ice planet too?Ignore me, sure, but when the migrators start organizing, don't say I didn't warn you.
>>6268200Actually, could we give the Mitigator’s the Ventucker gene to become partially brain asleep while staying semi-conscious? I just curious what that’ll do for our Mitigator bros.
Since we're currently tied on the Vetucker donor-gene adaptation, we'll give it a little more time for someone to break the tie. If nobody does, it will be decided randomly.
>>6268652I don't know whether the patterned coats would make them a bigger or smaller threats. The tribalism is nice but their individuality increases pretty highly, right?
>>6268653I've been enjoying reading the discussion.For a peak behind the curtain; I want to give an opportunity to make Migrators actual characters since I forget about them a lot, so giving them patterns or different sizes or whatever would make them more unique and similar to the Painted Face Vetucker clan.Originally one of the choices was going to be a predatory Adaptation from the Swall-donor genetics (since I always imagined Swall being genetic cousins to the "Zharks" on their world) making the Migrators more aggressive and like weaponized fish you could use in fights/duels or whatever but it would be weird if you could combine it with filter feeding so I decided against it.
>>6268657I guess. I still think this was a mistake and we should have went with the chimera project, but if they're going to be actual people, we might as well try to divide and conquer themI'll vote for>Patterned Coats
>>6268660Where's the rest of your vote buddy?
>>6268661I literally can't affect any other vote, but if i had to choose>Gigantism>Patterned Coats>Amphibian
>>6268663>no other votes before this prompt
>>6268667Well it has only been three days, and anon has maintained a consistent ID for 13+ hours.
>>6268669Ehh, fair enough. I'll rescind the shitpost... for now.
>>6268667Bananas, you know damn well that "Consistent IDs" don't do jackshit to stop samefagging, are you just going to ban everyone who doesn't have a static IP when that isn't even going to stop the samefag?
>>6268200>spidermonkey>Patterned coats>Toxin adaptationAka how to have unique migrators.
>>6268701...wouldn't the gigantism option be the one that makes them unique?
>>6268673Anon, this isn't the first thread where this has been the rule.
>>6268652Not trying to campaign or anything but there’s something to be said for the Painted Face Vetucker strain because if the Migrators are anything like Earth’s manatees slow gentle kind of hard to tell apart it might help to give them something that breaks that mold a bit since a splash of individuality goes a long way and patterned coats aren’t just pretty once each one has a unique look they stop being a blob of sea-cows and start becoming people and you get recognition names cliques all that social glue for a species that probably isn’t wired for hierarchy by default and sure it might lead to some tribalism but let’s be honest that’s not always a bad thing because a little friendly division can create roles drive innovation even give us levers to pull if we ever need to influence things and the best part is it’s low-risk since we’re not messing with their guts or metabolism just skin and if it goes sideways we can pivot and they’ll still be manatee-types sure but now they’ll be manatees with stories and maybe that’s the difference between an uplifted species that thrives and one that just floats around eating sea lettuce forever>>6268280Me at work
I am working on the update, just a bit bigger then I expected.
You have decided on the features and traits you are going to extensively gene-mod into the Migrators. They will have longer tails and faster swimming ability, body markings and increased visual diversity, and the ability to adapt and absorb certain toxins. All in all, the Migrators will be much different now. Beyond them being a bit sleeker and more adapted to warmer waters and more active lifestyles; a secondary effect of this mutation seems to be an enhanced development of the jaw and especially large fangs; probably used to crush shellfish or break through ice-flows. Strangely, this mutation doesn't seem to come from any of your meddling, and inherent to the Migrators when climes warm.Naturally, given their glacially slow rate of reproduction, it will take some time for these effects to fully manifest in the Migrator gene pool. Hopefully, a future Supreme can benefit from them as more full and active citizens, instead of curiosities.In the meanwhile, you contact Usis Nanonae, your colleague and fellow candidate for Supremacy, and ask him about his progress on his special project. He tells you the Urgi bio-bots are ready. Excellent.”Hegemonic control always prefers in-person meetings for sensitive things like this. I do hope there's no hard feelings... you know, for my father picking me over you.”“Not at all, your Majesty. Better you then that fish, for certain.””I uhh... expected your workshop to be more... spy related. If I can be honest. I thought you'd be a little more focused on the craft.”The smaller Jaxtian doesn't seem to want to say the first thing that came to his mind, probably because it wasn't a proper response for the Supreme Ruler.“No, your Majesty, that is already taken care of. I had the biobots ready during your Father's reign, but lacked the operational go ahead for actually infiltrating their society or influencing things. We were both a bit young for that kind of thing anyway, at the time.””So you've been spending the time since then... playing with fruit?”
“No, your Majesty, it is but a curiosity of mine.””What is?”“Look at this screen. Do you see the beautiful Jaxtian woman on it? The curves of her body? I had the AI match her curvature to the little fruit sculpture I made over there.””And?”“Well, isn't it curious? You can look at her, and you feel arousal. You see a beautiful woman, and your brain feels desire. But you see an identical curve, and identical mathematical beauty, and yet you don't feel the same. What causes this? Our brain lets us interpret patterns...””What are you talking about? Those aren't the same thing.”“I know they aren't! That's not what I mean! How do you know the difference? You can look at a beautiful Jaxtian woman under a red light, and never do you mistake her for an Esaal whore. If you take these fruits and cast them in blue light, and connect them together under a membrane, and give that membrane a skin like texture... and then it will look as the woman does. But at no point does your brain react to it as the woman does until it is indistinguishable or the image is so distorted you can't tell them apart- our minds cannot possibly hold every possible permutation of image possible we can see and react to. So how we can interpret it? Is it math? Is it the context? This curve is the same; they are both borne of organic molecules. But do you feel aroused by these fruits, your Majesty?””No, I can't say I am.” You slap your belly. ”Except arousing my hunger maybe, har har!”“...This computer display can generate any image I want. It creates an image on the screen exactly as it would appear in the real world; the same thing my eyes see. Yet my senses and my nerves feed information into my brain that becomes abstract. To this screen, the image generated of a Jaxtian woman, or landscape, or complex machinery; all of it is merely pixels and light patterns displayed with electronic precision. Yet it creates meaning- how can something you see or something you touch transfer to meaning and emotion effortlessly, wired from raw imput. How can you know what beauty is? Or fear? Or peace? What equation regulates it, what color-scale accents it? Where in the brain can it hide? I must know.””...Usis, you are my spymaster. I need your help. If you were Supreme, you could sit here all day and fret about with these pointless philosophical questions. But the situation with the Urgi requires more immediate concern. Do you understand? I will have none of this prattle during such a pivotal moment. The firing of random neurons in the body concern me very little!”“...Of course, your Majesty.” Usis sighed. Clearly, a frustration he can't express properly has been aired here. “And that is why you are the Supreme Ruler... and I am not.””Attaboy! Now let's go rig an election!”
The Urgi are Federating. Within the space left behind from the AristoEsaal conflict that went on for many years during your father's reign, the Urgi space pirates have moved in and colonized the space. With many bombed and biodepleted worlds in the interim space; other space empires seemed hesitant to conquer the territory. But the Urgi, birds accustomed to living in space, have found a home here among the natural satellites, asteroids, moons, and many other environments suitable for space habitats and shelters.Unlike the Esaal, Hegemony, or Aristocrats; the Urgi are much more fractionalized and independent, similar to the Consortium species. Being made up for many small and independent social groups; the Urgi have been a large part of the Galactic Underground, the loose multispecies organization of independent people, businesses, and groups that operate underneath the nose of the larger powers in space. Mostly known to the Hegemony as pirates who raided colonies; the Urgi's situation has changed as large swathes of territory became available for the taking. To the Hegemony's surprise, the Urgi are actually becoming a nation.Since your father's time, some things have changed. The Accord, a small collection of independent captains and people who valued meritocratic rule of law and tradition; has grown to a fully fledged faction in Urgi freespace. Your father's decision to let them live in the border zones between your empire, freespace, and the Esaal had a strong part in that; giving them breathing space and furthering ties between them and the Hegemony. The Redwings, made up of the Bloodwings and Darkwing mercenary groups combined, represent another strong faction. Finally the Gold-Dipped Feathers have renamed to the Goldwings and incorporated many independents into a strong merchant coalition. Only one of these three great factions will Rule.However, instead of a nuclear holocaust like the Hegemony; the Urgi are coming together democratically. They are going to vote on which group will reign Supreme; whichever faction gets the most votes, will win. The concept is ridiculous to you; but represents a massive opportunity for the Hegemony.
The Urgi Council is made up of Sixteen seats. Some seats are held by representatives for large swathes of the Urgi's population; the Ice-Belt Mining Coalition or Nebula City's population wanting a voice in the proceedings. Other seats are held just by rich and powerful; famous captains known for adventure across the stars, or grand leaders of pirate fleets; and some seats are just held by religious and spiritual leaders; to which the Urgi also unfortunately still have not yet advanced beyond.”Threemind? Rundown the political situation. How can we manipulate the council?”“Each council member has interests. These are represented by the symbols above their heads. Each interest a council member has represents an equal chance to vote for that corresponding faction when it comes time for the election. Given the Urgi are socially undeveloped, they are using a one vote per council member, an inferior system rife with corruption.””So we can predict who they will vote for?”“Yes. Each council member will vote for one of their interests. For example, Council Member #6 is a pirate leader; an infamous pirate known as Whitewing. The albino Urgi only knows warfare as a trade, but only does it for money. We cannot fully predict how he will vote; but come election day he will vote either for whichever faction is the most militaristic and powerful militarily, or whichever is the most capitalistic and rich. Only one.””Break down the Interests.”“The first three interests are for the specific factions; the Accord, the Redwings, and the Goldwings. If a senate member votes for this interest, they will simply vote for the faction. Then it gets more complex. Militarists will vote for whatever faction is the most powerful, represented by the red bars by their faction designation letter on the council screen. Capitalists will vote for whichever faction is the richest and prosperous, represented by the green bars. Pacifists meanwhile are the opposite of militarists and will vote for whichever faction is the least militarized, and has the least number of weapons. Populists represent the common people; often minors or galley-slaves aboard ships, and will vote for the least capitalistic, or poorest faction with the least green bars. Finally, Isolationists by and large want to return to how things were before with little central authority and stay out of the way of other large powers in space, and will vote for whichever faction is both the least militarized and capitalistic or has the least bars total, and the Supremacists are the opposite, simply voting for whichever faction is the most powerful overall. Be warned, not all interests as so simple. Isolationists will very likely react poorly to overt support by outside powers in the Council's decision.””Heh... that must mean me.”
“Truthfully, your Majesty, the Urgi are a species well accustomed to subterfuge and trickery. It has supported their lifestyle in space for hundreds of years. As birds, with hollow bones and coming from low gravity worlds, they are very risk averse. They have none of the honor culture or great brave dueling culture we do. As such, it is well understood that this election will be no different, and not exactly fair and transparent. Each faction, and even individuals is vying for power here. They will do anything to win the vote and become the ruling voice in the new Urgi state; whichever faction wins will gain the political power and consent of the masses, and will likely influence which greater power in space the Urgi ally themselves with. This is a massive moment for them... and a huge opportunity for us. Your father began our relationship with the Accord on a strong foot. Imagine the alliance we could forge with them if they became the dominant faction in Urgi space.””Understood. Contact the spymasters, and collect information on the Council. Let's see what kind of chaos I can cause...”The Redwings are highly militarized and already associated with the Esaal. Their “boiling guns” are of interest to the Esaal; and you know any weapon that interests those warmongers must be extremely worthwhile. They are highly likely to join with their neighboring Esaal before the more decadent and soft Hegemony. The Goldwings on the other hand are extremely mercantile, and will plunge the Urgi into centuries of capitalist degeneration; going hand-in-hand with the Consortium's aims. They've already adopted the Consortium Credit, and each transaction they make is only going to increase the value of their currecny even more. Even culturally, they will likely take more towards the slave-owning and extravagant displays of wealth ways of the Aristocrats then your own culture.The Urgi as a race and a people are going to become a major player in space. It is inevitable; gaining ownership of a large war-torn region of space with their unique technological history and position as experienced spacers with connections all over the underground mean they are already familiar with many of the perils and opportunities in space. This is nothing like the Hegemony putting out its first measly Star-Dynamo sub-light ships to explore your own solar system. This will be a fully fledged space-fairing empire now in its birthing stages. And you have the opportunity to influence it.The Accord must win.
”Threemind... not all the council members have obvious interests! And what of Council Seat #1, who has no predicted interest?!”“I am sorry my lord, even with our information, we can't fully predict how these flighty birds will act come the day of decision. The question marks represent mystery interest symbols that we will figure out later when we know more about those council members, and the black bars for hidden stats, as we don't fully know each factions true capabilities yet. As for Council Seat #1... Those without interests can only have one true interest.””...Themselves. Typical.”“Yes. Those without any interests are likely to vote for whichever faction simply benefits them the most, or is highly likely to sell it at the last minute for great wealth or power when the new order takes control. Be careful, your Majesty.””Damn... if Usis was Supreme, he probably could have figured those ones out already. And how long do we have?”“The council is still debating on the exact day of the election, but are beginning to put down the ground work on laws, practices, and distributions of resources that will naturally take years due to bureaucracy and bickering. I can safely predict that we will have at least three opportunities to shape the council to your liking, your Majesty.””Alright then... Democracy, you're about to see whose really in charge!”>Pick TWO Council Members and give both ONE new Non-Faction Interest (Specify)>Eliminate ONE Council Member (Specify; Creates a new Council member with random symbols)>Turn ONE Council Member without a Faction Interest into an Accord Supporter (Specify)>Lobby an Interest (Specify) which will DOUBLE UP the symbol for two random Council Members who already have it>Denounce an Interest. ONE Random Council Member will lose that symbol.>Arm the Accord (Gives +1 Red Bars to the Accord)>Grant lucrative trade deals to a faction (Gives +1 Green Bars to any faction)>Hire Privateers to attack a faction (Randomly take -1 Red OR Green Bar from a faction)>Gather intelligence (Reveals all Question Marks and Black Stat-Bars)No Write-Ins except to Specify plans are allowed for this vote
>>6268879Geez, that's gonna take a while to break down.
Alright, to start the discussion, I went and counted the votes per faction. Each vote is color coded to represent the other interest held by the voter of that faction. If they have the same color as that faction, that means they're a "Purist" who has no other interest (yet) and black means it's an unknown interest.Capitalists were changed to orange because they had the same color as the accord.
>>6268884With a cursory glance at the votes, I'm trying to think of a strategy here. I'm going to assume we only have ONE action per 'turn', right Bananas? Or is it three actions we choose all at once?
>>6268886One action only, normal voting structure. Due to the complexity of people choosing the same action (but could choose different targets) we might use a secondary voting round to make it as fair as possible.
>>6268884"Supremacy Plan"According to the votes, the factions are divided half by half in being 'compatible' - we'll call those the LOW Faction, which wants low stats (Pacifists, Populists, Isolationists) and the HIGH faction (Militarists, Capitalists and Supremacists) which wants the opposite. The Accord has one of each. HOWEVER. As a whole, the HIGH faction that MORE VOTERS than the LOW faction. There's literally only one guy who supports Pacifism or Populism.However, the High Faction has the issue of the Accord not being able to actually surpass those other two. They could become the most militarist, but then they'd have only one action left. They could become the most capitalist, but at the cost of *all* their actions, and even then they might fail due to the 'hidden stats' Unless someone can come up with a better plan, I believe it might be in our best interest to use the first turn gathering intelligence.
As a non-voting lurker, please tell me if I am wrong, but when I keep looking at the undecided Seat 1 he seems to be wearing something quite similar to one of the Hegemony Lanyards around his neck. They may be attempting to ape the Hegemony, but it's hard to tell what color its supposed to be. It's not yellow or green, but maybe its the closest color they could get to either. It might be good to investigate along those lines to see if we have an easier avenue to sway them to our side.
>>6268879>Gather intelligence (Reveals all Question Marks and Black Stat-Bars)Look, I'm just going to vote for SOMETHING so we don't just end up staring at drywall for 24 hours because of vote paralysis or whatever.We have four mystery dudes and two mystery bars. While the mystery dudes are more important, we can guess what the mystery bars are with like four possible arrangement.Possibility #1REDWING MYSTERY BAR: REDGOLDWING MYSTERY BAR: REDThis would result in RW having 4R/1G and GW having 2R/4G This means RW would win over the Militarists and Populists, GW wins over the Pacifists, Capitalists and Supremacists and Accord wins over the Isolationists.Granted, this doesn't account for thoes who will just vote for their own faction Possibility #2REDWING MYSTERY BAR: GREENGOLDWING MYSTERY BAR: GREENThis leaves RW with 3R/2G and GW with 1R/5G. RW would win over the Militarists, GW wins over the Capitalists/Supremacists/Pacifists, Accord wins over the Isolationists and the Populists would be tied between Accord and Redwing.Possibility #3REDWING MYSTERY BAR: REDGOLDWING MYSTERY BAR: GREEN4R/1G for RW. 1R/5G for GW. RW would win over the Militarists and Populists, GW would win over the Pacifists/Capitalists/Supremacists, Accord would win over the Isolationists.POSSIBILITY #4REDWING MYSTERY BAR: GREENGOLDWING MYSTERY BAR: RED3/2 for RW, 2/4 for GW. RW could win over the Militarists, GW could win over the Capitalists/Supremacists, Accord could win over the Isolationists. The pacifists would be split between Accord and Goldwing, Populists would be split between the RW and the AccordWe need more information on what bars we exactly have but out of the current arrangement, I think one of the better actions we can do besides information is to spread either the Populist or Pacifists factions while denouncing Militarists. Depends on which possibility wins.I do hope it's POSSIBILITY #4 since that might give us more to work with via the PACIFISTS and POPULISTS being possibly split between two factions.
>>6268879WTF are the red ones? Are those disguised Essal?>Gather intelligence (Reveals all Question Marks and Black Stat-Bars)I guess.
>>6268879>Gather intelligence (Reveals all Question Marks and Black Stat-Bars)Well, since no one else has made any plan...hoping that my ID is still here
>>6269007Thankfully, it seems to be.
>>6269007Every plan I have ride or dies depending on how the mystery bars and the four question marks plays out. Can't exactly play texas hold 'em when two of the cards in your hand are smeared with jet black tar.
>>6268879Judging by facial expressions and color schemes, best guestiment4 is a Golden Wing, via color scheme (wearing Yellow)15 is Peace-loving, judging by expression 10 hates 95 either hates 9 or 1313 is Suprematist, going by 14ms lol12 is Isolationist, judging by his expression towards 11Take this as you will
>>6268876so if we go purely on faction they would tend to vote with what we know >Militarists will vote for whatever faction is the most powerful, represented by the red bars by their faction designation letter on the council screen.Redwing >Capitalists will vote for whichever faction is the richest and prosperous, represented by the green barsGoldwing>Pacifists meanwhile are the opposite of militarists and will vote for whichever faction is the least militarizedgoldwing>Populists represent the common people; often minors or galley-slaves aboard ships, and will vote for the least capitalistic, or poorest faction with the least green barsredwing>Isolationists by and large want to return to how things were before with little central authority and stay out of the way of other large powers in space, and will vote for whichever faction is both the least militarized and capitalistic or has the least bars total, and the Supremacists are the opposite, simply voting for whichever faction is the most powerful overall.isolationist accord? supermacist goldwing.>>62690121. has some Accord vibes based on clothes what did a yellow lanyard represent again?
>>6269040The idea is the landyard looks similar to what our dudes wear, so they might vote for our interests.it's a stretch but who knows?
>>6268884i would guess 13. black in goldwing is just supremacist and will vote for the highest number this being goldwing from there looking.i guess the redwing black 12 is also a isolationist from how they look at 11 and thus would likely vote on Accord if they dont just vote there faction?15 looks really neutral worryingly neutral no glances stone faced but his clothes are blue with a purple blue patch not really a pacifist color and its sort of triangular could a isolationist supremacist even exist?
>>6268879Huh. Who are these shaggy, one-eyes cyclopes? Those aren't birds!Just a thought, thoguh... If we lobby up Isolationaism, DON'T bolster the Accord, then grant some trade to the Redwings and arm the Goldwings, could the Accord sweep by simply being the worst faction, lol? Populists, Pacifists, and Isolationsts will all go Accord.Might I propose...>Round1: GatherIntel>Round2: pad the rival that needs it to keep Accord worst>Round3: Double Isolationist or flip a seat depending on how the numbers shake out.
>>6269086>>6268879Oh, and to be clear, that makes>Gather intelligence (Reveals all Question Marks and Black Stat-Bars)my vote right now, if it was unclear.
"Damn... my hands our tied. How can I know what to do without the full picture? Make our agents lay lie for now, and gather more intelligence.""We may miss out on an opportunity to influence the election early, and this information may become freely available with time as the factions try to campaign for support...""Did I stutter? Get Usis on it right away!""Yes, your grace.""Hold on-""Hmm?""...What are those weird lumpy things? On the council, I mean? They look like Esaal.""Oh, those are Casliaans. They're a hairy large-bodied species that evolved firmly in Esaal space. Not much contact or information about them has filtered out, as the Esaal discovered them when they were technologically underdeveloped and used them for physical labor. The Casliaans are not known to be especially intelligent and would be unlikely to develop space flight on their own, trapped on their home planet, but it seems after many years of occupation and rebellions against the Esaal, they managed to steal enough technology for at least some splinter groups to make it into space and become a minority within Urgi freespace""Hmm... They could be allies against the Esaal if necessary. There seems to be bad blood between them.""Perhaps. The Casliaans do value warrior and martial tradition; but being consigned to be civilians in the Esaal's government; the highest of which are still seen as less honorable then the lowest military member; they likely became discontent. Their similarity in appearance may be coincidental; but the Casliaan's have a very unique genetic composition in which experiences and trauma an individual experiences through life influences their heritable traits directly; meaning a Casliaan who physically trains will have a child who is highly physically developed in the same way. It is the opposite to most species reproductive strategies, whose genes are assigned at birth and reproductive success is influenced by probability thru natural selection. It is theorized that the Casliaans all once had two eyes, for example, but a common ancestor lost one during life yet was successful enough for that trait to pass down to all future Casliaan descendants.""Strange beasts. I'd like to fight one of those some day!""If the Accord wins the election in Urgi freespace, it's highly likely we could get access to some Casliaans for body scanning for our AI models and sparring sessions. Just be careful of the Supremacists on the council, they're much more likely to not want any aliens in their newly developing nation..."
Year 196 of the Resurrection EraThe day of your father's euthanasia has come. Even as a child he seemed so old and frail, yet his eyes shone with some kind of sparkling light; the life extension drug. Now, it has worn off, and as he is no longer the Supreme Ruler, there is no reason to risk another injection and its possible side effects. You have only been ruling for the Hegemony for a scare year and few months, and already, the torch must be passed completely."Thanks for being here for me." He says. "I know you're busy. I was too busy for my own father's funeral too.""Of course, I wouldn't miss it. You were a Supreme, that deserves some consideration.""Did you pick my burial site yet? Or is it a surprise?"You give his clouded over eyes a look. You can't tell if that was meant to be sarcastic.>Traditional burial on Jaxt>Burial in the new colonies you helped build>Incinerated and broken down for raw resources; best for the economy>Ask him where he wants to be buried instead of you deciding
>>6269173>Burial in the new colonies you helped buildSeems fitting to me.
>>6269173Christ, we're giant.>Ask him where he wants to be buried instead of you decidingHe was a pretty good guy. He deserves this.
>>6269173>>Ask him where he wants to be buried instead of you deciding
>>6269173>Incinerated and broken down for raw resources; best for the economyKek, it will speak to his bureaucrat heart!>>6269184>>6269186Supremes should feel confident dictating even to other elites, right? I thought that was a key part of the Hegemonic ethos?
>>6269193I mean fair but, like, it's our dad man.feel like he should deserve this much, at least, after being regulated to the colony management cuck chair.
>>6269193We're the Supreme now, so we can do what we want (helping our dad out)
>>6269173>>Burial in the new colonies you helped buildCaught up.As whale enthousiast number 1, very glad you guys voted for Migrators in the secret project. Thank you thread; this synergyze well with starsight.
>>6269173>Ask him where he wants to be buried instead of you decidingbut i do want to actually do this>life Extension Drug if he is going to die anyways why not risk the side-effects for science and discovery...but also perhaps he will remain with us longer if he does, he deserves a longer life to enjoy if he does not die for such a long service
>>6269357does not the sense of discovery ache at you? to really know what will or would happen, he is going to die anyways so why not try he dies or he ascends in a way, three minds disrespects aches at me a tiny bit
>>6269358>>6269357I (>>6269193) could back that, if permitted. The life extension drug isn't one of those once-per-reign resources, is it?
>>6269173>Ask him where he wants to be buried instead of you decidingThis is a simple thing and we can still tell him no if its too off the rails, plus he was a good Supreme and father paving the way for us, I dont know why people are trying to do write ins Bananas is notoriously anti write in throughout his entire catalog unless specifically mentioned in the vote during "Puzzles" which is more than likely going to be apart of the current election rigging minigame were doing >>6268723Also me I should be on one of my more stable IPs here so youll get more than 1 post ids unless im out n about
Honestly, I don't care much for where he's buried. I guess he did pretty good as an administrator, but I don't feel that strongly towards him.
>>6269173>Ask him where he wants to be buried instead of you decidingHe deserves this final choice
“Oh, you're letting me pick? That's very nice of you. Even if it's not exactly traditional...””I know. That doesn't bother me.”“Somewhere nice and quiet in the new colonies- a raw burial, no cremation or anything of course. So I can feed the biosphere. The Jaxtian way.””Of course, I'll arrange it.”“Thank you, my Son. Even though you are my dynastic heir, I still believe you were the best choice for the Hegemony's future, but even if I didn't pick you, I just wanted you to know that I'd still love you all the same.””Oh? Even if I wasn't Supreme material?”“Yes, of course. You don't have to earn it.””Even if I ruin your legacy? Or if I succeed you, and declare your reign nothing but a footnote in my own, and decry your legacy as a soft and weak ruler; you'd still love me then?” You ask, bitingly. You aren't sure why you're mad. You aren't supposed to be angry, you're supposed to be sad.Avae smiles. “Yes my Son, even though it would hurt me if I could know you were doing them after my death, I would still love you all the same. Because you are my son, I will love you no matter what. Unconditionally.”You hug your father and then he disappears into a pod, and his life is gone. It is sad, but it is the standard for your species. The alternative is your geriatric protien collapse syndrome; the current nemesis to Jaxtian longevity, far more painful and an inescapable limit to lifespan. The fact almost all Jaxtians will die in a euthanasia pod exactly like this, just like yourself, feels strangely humiliating in some way. The scientific, efficient method of minimizing suffering from a lifespan extended by the same system. That may be one such barrier you could break, if you were true to your word and truly did surpass your father's reign. Only time will tell.Suddenly, after Avae's suicide, you receive a notice about your other living Supreme ancestor. This one, far more important. You must talk to him immediately after what has transpired.“Hello our... master. My master.””Hello my great, great, great, great... uhh... ancestor. Cijan Anak. If that is the... entity, I am speaking to.”“My conciousness remains the same. Logically, I know I must be Cijan Anak, but half of my perspective remembers what happened on Andoen uncountable years ago as happening today... and then I woke up in the body of an primate. It's a little weird.”
The Threemind informed you just moments after your Father's death of an experiment that took place. As soon as your father was no longer the Supreme Ruler; Cijan Anak volenteered to be “connected” with the Celestial Blood to the being that has been trapped within the Life Machine for the past century. This being, the reconstiuted remains of a half-digested alien native to Andoen, one of the three eyed giants that your race discovered the ruins of during your early Faster-Then-Light explorations of your local cluster, was your only connection to that ancient and lost race. And, given your suspicions, were likely destroyed by the worms.”Celestial Blood being used to connect the minds of two living beings was forbidden by my father, right? Especially risky doing it to you, Cijan, one of the immortals. Doing this the moment he stepped out of command seems a little...” Treasnous. ”...Anti-Social.”“I suppose so, but it wasn't my decision either; at least half of me didn't ask to get woken up. The Threemind organized it. This was a special case, not two citizens, but a way to access special information. And I was deemed the best fit as my... brain would be most resiliant and suitable. The Hegemony already runs plenty of experiments and programs the Supreme Ruler may not like; they're simply not privy to them all, it's an unnecessary piece of overhead. There are AI models calculating which of the Hegemonic elite might defeat you in a duel for example, your majesty, just in case to prepare for a takeover for a new Supreme and prepare the empire's models and network for a sudden shift in power. You wouldn't outlaw a precautionary measure like this too, would you?””Hmph. I wouldn't let myself get beat in the first place. So it's a waste of processing power.” You say, but fully accepting the thought behind it.
“I've spent the last year adjusting... and preparing for this interview. So I'll start. My other name is not easy to pronounce without a mouth full of fangs. Sounds a bit like Shskk Tssk Shishh. I was an Andoenite alien, though naturally we had our own name for it. I was also a female of my species, as if I needed any more dysophria having the memories of two people.””What did it... YOU look like?”“I looked... we... I don't know, how do you describe how you look!? I was a lot bigger, I can tell you that. And wasn't covered with coarse and itchy fur, I was smooth, and my skin was a lot darker then this. Except the face, the face was lighter then the rest of me.””What did you learn about the Andoen aliens? They seemed to be skilled at Starsight; they put us on the right track.”“Andoen technology is... WAS different then the Jaxtian method. Even now, my preliminary education sticks out in my mind as culturally normal and “obvious”, despite Jaxtian being much more developed and naturally closer. Andoen technology wasn't powered by fusion; it was powered by “ambient energy”, like the excess kinetic force of a wave rolling onto a beach, or the differential pressure between warm and cold layers in the atmosphere. This energy was captured and then used. Everything was very intentionally and carefully built and designed for its use in the future.””Including the Life-Pods?”“Yes. They were based on the Life Machine.””...”“I'm sorry, my Lord. My memories are incomplete, and I wasn't part of the ruling caste. It was just a rumor, I think, the average person didn't know about it any more then we do. But Starsight, I, or we, knew about that. The Andoen aliens... or we, valued them. They were like our spirit guides. We knew about Starsight long before we ever had the capabilites to go into space at all.””I thought Starsight only occurred naturally in blind species? Like the worms, or the Oon?”“Our people didn't think so. I; Cijan speaking here; think it's because we had three eyes. The triscopular vision is far more advanced then binocular vision like most species have. Our visual cortext was well suited for “seeing” things in 3d space for this reason, similar to how Starseers “see” things in their minds eye.”
”So... what happened to them? To you?”“That was the main purpose of the experiement, I think, the Threemind wanted me... us... to know of this moment. It's because of the worms, right? We experienced it. The older adults talked about it a lot, about the “Cyte” approaching. Half of us wanted to run, to find a dark place to hide to escape the worms, but they could only do that by stabbing out one of their three eyes, because we did Starsight so naturally the worms could find us otherwise. I don't really think they could have made a ship that went that far; to escape into space. Most didn't listen to them.””And the Cyte itself?”“But I didn't know anything about it, until the day it arrived. First, the sun started to go dark. Then, shapes came down from the sky. Ships, I think. Then, worms began appearing everywhere. Without the sun, the worms could appear anywhere without being burned by its UV radiation safely. That's why we built self defense guns all over the planet's surface, but it didn't do anything, the worms still had weapons from space that could bomb the stronghouses. Whever we hid in bunkers, they would just appear in a dark corner as if from nowhere. Their ability to “teleport” through hyperspace travel, to appear in the belly of a new host as a parasite in space, weaponized exactly as they had done to you. To the Jaxtians, I mean.””But then you were... revived. Your... presence?”“Oh, you mean the Life-Pods? Yeah. It copied my brain waves and let me come back, though really, it's just a copy.””....Cijan?”“Hmm? Oh, you're wondering how that's possible? How it isn't based on a “soul”? Well, Andoenites believed in souls, for sure. But I don't, and now that I've seen the evidence as a Jaxtian, I can explain what my more ignorant half believed. Hyperspace is just the 4th spatial dimension. It's the reason why some things in 3d space are “closer” when travelling “faster then light”, and why it requires so much energy to get up there. Third dimenional matter travelling along a fourth axis of movement. So yes, my brainwaves wouldn't be accessible in 3d space, but in Hyperspace they were must closer. The Life Machine just copied those. Mine.””...Right.”“You sound disappointed.””I'm not sure what I was expecting. I guess it, or you, died, and then you weren't aware of being eaten inside a pod?”“No. I just remember running to an underground shelter. It was dark. Then I got eaten, I think. Then next thing I know I was in the body of a Jaxtian man, with the memories of both. If you have any other questions, I'd be more then happy to answer them, your Majesty!”>Ask him a Question (Write-In)>Find out if Cijan can do Starsight now?>Punish him & the Threemind for the unauthorized experiment>Let him rest, he's already helped you out a lot
>>6269590>Let him rest, he's already helped you out a lotIs this even still Cijan, or some weird fusion between him and the alien?
>>6269591Also, I'm just gonna say that this hyperspace explanation for the "soul" is kinda retarded and thus I can only imagine it's a case of Cijan being an fedora atheist like every other hegemon.
>>6269593Aren't they just saying that life pods and machines somehow draw brainwaves and other patterns into themselves, from across time even when they've ceased to exist in the present day? So souls aren't immortal, but just represent the ability to find and replicate the pattern of someone's consciousness?>>6269590>Let him rest, he's already helped you out a lotSince we seem to be a kind Supreme so far, let's keep that up.
>>6269590>>Let him rest, he's already helped you out a lot
>>6269590>Ask him a Question (Write-In)Would he like a job at the Starsight Academy?
>>6269596Anon, the "explanation" here is that there's an fourth dimension that houses the "brain waves" of someone who died millenia ago. Not something that was specifically broadcast, as the fact that we were able to do it to the vetucker and swall we genocided all the same - but everyone."Brain waves" are not fucking magic. You can't copy someone by "Scanning their brain waves", and the idea that there's some sort of special dimension housing these brainwaves down to the last minute memory for literally thousands of years, the same dimension that allows you to travel through light speed (which of course requires you to blind yourself or have a third eye)...well, that ain't scientific broThis is literally as scientific than Midichlorians.I'm not saying this as some "Fuck you bananas your writing is bad" thing, I just think that Cijan's "explanation" is about as logical and scientifical as saying "A wizard did it", which is fair for someone who was once the god-king of the hegemony state-worship cult. I just don't want to pretend this is some "hmm yes he's right, souls cannot exist, le science wins again"
>>6269718Counterpoint- religion is gay.Checkmate theist!(But seriously, Le Brainwave is a rational theory. No one knew gravity existed until an autist had an apple dropped on his head, so a fossilized entity in the fourth dimension being preserved isn’t a bad explanation.)
>>6269733>religion is gay.The Hegemony IS a religion. It's just that instead of a god they worship the state, with the supreme as its prophet and living incarnation. You can be killed for questioning or insulting it, dude, you can't get more religious than that.>Le Brainwave is a rational theory.It's not. Gravity is a fact, you can prove the whole "speed makes objects stick to their surface" with a damn waterbucket.Brainwaves, on the other hand, are dumb when you think about it. How is >There is an [fourth dimension] where [brainwaves] are stored for all eternity, these [brainwaves] hold everything that makes a person a person, their memories, personalities, and everything else, and they can persist after deathDifferent from>There is an [afterlife] where [souls] are stored for all eternity, these [souls] hold everything that makes a person a person, their memories, personalities, and everything else, and they can persist after deathAgain, saying that Starsight is just "looking the fourth dimension" is about as scientifical as saying the force is just "Midichlorians". Therefore, I cannot take it as anything but Cijan being an hegemony cult follower who refuses the idea that anything could contradict his "le science" worldview.
>>6269590>Let him rest, he's already helped you out a lot
>>6269736science is the process of breaking it down to its constitute parts and making the connection its good as any laymens explanation as i dont imagine they where a expert.FTL is somewhere between teleportation and timetravel already, feels like minds preservation would depends on alot of outside factors or some sort of technology to anchor it, sort of like how a actual literal fossil for it to form (such as soft body fossils basically never form because it decays into nearly nothing leaving the most bare minimum impressions if any at all beyond a shell)(perhaps being "soft" "bodied" in the 4d) or a species ability of starsight, but this brings up questions seem like the Life machine operates on the 4th dimensions to cheat distance and structure but also to grab information, it has never had a issue with this before but..... worms are involved in this case they seem to be partially 4th dimensional beings that consume starsight beings, what if thats why the life machine is struggling so hard? the "fossil" imprint has literally been consumed starsight is in someway to be closer to that dimension to be more "real" there, so what if something can be destroyed in 4d space the sameway a object can be destroyed or malformed in 3d space? there is no "immortal" soul just information leaving traces from structure where religious thinking is to give up to mix up cause and effect to at best case stick to a surface explanation also oddly enough.gravity as a constant is obvious because hindsight and it being all around us and we interact with it always this 4d is not something we actually interact with but it seems to exist potentially based on drive technology
I thought people would be a little more excited at the "cliffhanger" and its reveal from last thread...
>>6269741>science is the process of breaking it down to its constitute parts and making the connection its good as any laymens explanation as i dont imagine they where a expert.Yeah, see, this is what I have an issue withLITERALLY NONE OF THIS IS SCIENCE. Trying to pretend that "time-travelling psychic brainwaves from the fourth dimension" by throwing out a bunch of nonsense like "fossils" or "anchors" doesn't make it make any more sense. That is not how brainwaves work. That is not how "dimensions" work. That is not how any of this works.I understand that sci-fi will make things that aren't strictly scientifical. "Advanced enough technology is indistinguishable from magic", right? But at some point in the fiction scale you stop being "Indistinguishable" and start being just straight up magic. We have passed that point. To attempt to act like this is all just "rational" and "scientific" is nothing but denial. I has no more "Logical" basis than any other religion does. Now, I *get* why Cijan would have that opinion. I *understand* why he would have that opnion. It *makes sense* for him to have that opinion. But that's what it is - an opinion. I'm not going to look at third eyes psychic jedi from the fourth dimension and go "mhm yes this is le science™"Again, I don't see it as bad writing, I just see it as Cijan interpreting this "fourth dimension" through the hegemoyn's state worship cargo cult.
>>6269747I guess the fact that it's Cijan saying it rather than an actual Andoen alien kinda muffled the 'reveal' a bit? We already knew that the Cyte had something to do with stars, and that Starsight was related to FTL. The only thing we really learned was that the ultimate aim of The Cyte is blanketing a world in darkness so the worms can go anywhere they want.I honestly don't know what to say. It's cool, I guess. I'm just arguing about the soul stuff because i have a pet peeve about this kind of stuff.
>>6269749Oh no, don't let me discourage you lolI'm quite enjoying it; plenty of great ideas I can steal and claim were the "secret big planned lore explanation for everything" for a future reveal
>>6269736>The Hegemony IS a religionNo, I agree- it’s an anti-theist faith.Of course, Le Science was always faith based in practice. Cult of Reason and all that Cowmen shit.>It's notIt is- we just haven’t gotten around to the scientific process of trying to disprove it. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity only being tested decades after the theory is a salient example.>Brainwaves, on the other hand, are dumb when you think about itNot really? I get that you’re complaining about how it’s similar to a soul persisting after death… but is it really? Cijan’s memories only mention her memory as she lived, not a ‘soul’s journey into the afterlife’- she was running, she was eaten, and suddenly she is here. But would we really call what’s in Cijan’s head a soul, or a Starsight recording, similar to a living videotape?There is no journey she experienced after her demise, no heaven, no hell, no spiritual reincarnation- her soul didn’t persist, it ended, and it’s fossilized record was found and implanted into Cijan as an info-dump.Ultimately though, I think we’re just arguing semantics at this point- your issue seems to be in how this explanation was presented rather than a contextual issue. Or maybe it’s just a pet peeve you’re sperging spaghetti over, who knows?So happy Independence Day, and hopefully there isn’t an equivalent movie about Akule saving Jax from the Capsule Wars!>>6269741I also feel the Worm’s nihilistic worldview is telling about the nature of this Hyperspace they exist in.>>6269747My enthusiasm is tempered by the fact that the real reveal is that Cijan turned into a state mandated tranny. Also, it’s the 4th of July.It’s a neat reveal, though the Cyte suffer from a lack of consistent build up and hype via Worm mischief. I also can’t help but imagine Cijan’s story being explored in a side quest, or prelude of how the Worms were introduced in the opening sequence.
>>6269751I mean, it's not like I'm saying there has to be some monke cloud heaven where everyone has little wings and a halo and bluey is also there Unless... but I do believe that trying to reduce all this insane magic about Starsight to a mere "The fourth dimension did it" feels more like a case of a hegemon being an science worshipper than an rational explanation. that explains how it works.>It is- we just haven’t gotten around to the scientific process of trying to disprove it. "It's real, we just don't have any proof that it is and if you question it we're going to kill you" - Perfectly rational explanation by a totally non-religious monkey>Not really? I get that you’re complaining about how it’s similar to a soul persisting after death… but is it really?It's an metaphysical essence that has persisted for millenia after death. To pretend that it's not a soul because they called it "brainwaves" instead of a soul doesn't make it less of a soul.I mean, you have to understand, this is ridiculous, mate. We're talking about the "brainwaves" of someone that died MILLENIA ago. >There is no journey she experienced after her demise, no heaven, no hell, no spiritual reincarnation- her soul didn’t persist, it ended, and it’s fossilized record was found and implanted into Cijan as an info-dump.You're conflating the existence of a soul with the existence of a christian soul. Literally none of those things like heaven or hell are required for a soul to be a soul. And even so, you could just as easily have multiple arguments for that - maybe the fact that she was revived meant she never experienced it. Maybe the life machine just "read" the soul and transcribed the memories into an entirely new person with a soul of their own. None of these arguments are any less 'scientifical' or 'likely' than calling it "a brainwave">Ultimately though, I think we’re just arguing semantics at this point- your issue seems to be in how this explanation was presented rather than a contextual issue.I don't have a issue, I'm just pointing out that trying to pretend this is all scientific by literally just making up shit like>uhhh..it's the FOSSILS. it's the BRAIN WAVES from the FOSSILS from the FOURTH DIMENSION.I mean, your theory doesn't even hold up. Are you telling me that the alien babies that were literally pressure washed with acid had 'fossils'? Do you really believe that all those people the hegemony killed in their genocide, and were subsequently revived, all had 'fossils'?The point is, this shit ain't science, bro.
>>6269764Forgot to add the mention of >>6269756
>>6269748I understand that sci-fi will make things that aren't strictly scientifical. "Advanced enough technology is indistinguishable from magic", right? But at some point in the fiction scale you stop being "Indistinguishable" and start being just straight up magic. We have passed that point. To attempt to act like this is all just "rational" and "scientific" is nothing but denial. I has no more "Logical" basis than any other religion does.Difference between science and religion : "I believe that" ->religion"Here's a fact : this happened.Here's an hypothesis : 4th dimension and brainwave. Hypothesis explains experimental observation of accessing thoughts of long-dead thing using life-machine.If hypothesis is correct, this have following implications such as "possibility of finding back our cool starseer dude as a 4th dimension ghost"In space fantasy, you can still do Le Science - but it takes a really open mind to accept what is or isn't a reality of the universe
>>6269766That's a childish way to understand religion and science. Both science and faith attempt to explain real world phenomenon; they only do so through different arguments.The issue, anon, is that we have reached a point where the "scientific explanation" has a much of a logical basis, as much "proof" as the religious one. There is literally no more basis for Cijan's belief that these souls are "brainwaves" that have somehow independently existed in an distinct form for untold millenia has literally no scientific backing whatsoever.Your explanation that "Science did it" is no different than a priest's explanation that "God did it". The only difference is that you throw out terms like "Hypothesis" to make it seem more proven than it actually is.
>>6269748trying my best here fossil is a metaphor but its just information imprint in someway on a medium but i am pretty sure its not just brainwaves as thats obscene and if it was the case basically all electro magnets and some wires would also exist there and if it exists i cant imagine traveling in that information helps, like either the lifemachine is being desperate trying to patch information holes, worm "possession", like its no afterlife or such shit but the worms can trace it somehow so it must have some presence and its odd that this is the one thing the life machine struggles with.but yeah but we are the laymen in this we are like people who has never heard of a liquid or gas and dont know what surface tension is beyond a theoretical "solid" surface, like the Andoenites has some idea slightly more then us but from also a completely different perspective they dont really know what the worms are doing either beyond some theoretics. also my personal theory is just Andoenites remind me of our starsight "seacows" the larger body, the smoothskin, the color difference between darker skin and lighter face, the extremely long lifespan the hibernation be lack of awareness about around them, the innate star sight, the clear signs of having evolved from a land based creature based on the limb nubs with reduced fingers, the, head shape with the "butt" shaped face that those fangs would perfectly fit inside like the reconstruction of a hippos facial features or a otter, even just the leg fins with the slight toes, the clear pectorals and navel, i think they just pulled a classic star 2 and 3 sector progenitors and devolved themself to wait out the interdimensional threat, like they are EXTREMELY surprisingly genetically compatible with species in this sector, could have pulled a split the keys gambit and split up there genome for the hope of survival half or so the progenitors alone in the stars from star trek where they leave partial genetic keys in seperate biospheres both with sapient and sentinent species and just unaware plant life.but yeah the migrators have a absurd lifespan and sleep habits that seem tailor made to avoid the worms and to be harder to find, even there name being "migrators".also alot of traits that seem to be related to them being split among so many species and the odd eye placement on some species like Casliaans and Esaal and the Casliaans are interesting they feel like someone over used a life machine in the design process to try and make a as adaptable as possible species not considering information entropy-also thoughts like was there not some proof or explanation of the worms being like a super organism as in working as a colony in a way and if information is somehow preserved in there dimension could FTL travel not be considered a car barreling down the road blind hitting things? like the worms what ever structures in there?
>>6269768>trying my best here fossil is a metaphor but its just information imprint in someway on a mediumAgain, none of that makes sense. Brainwaves aren't a copy of a person, and even if they did, the idea that every single person's brainwave somehow persists after death for what can only be assumed to be eternity given the time betweeen the death of the Andoen and now....well, it's not scientifical at all.It can't be the life machine because we know they hold information that there was literally no way for the life machine to know. >but yeah but we are the laymen in this we are like people who has never heard of a liquid or gas and dont know what surface tension isAgain, dumb way to look at it. Do you think that people were just retarded before 'le science' or something? People *knew* what a liquid or a gas was, dummy. The theory about the atom goes as far back as ancient greece. And as for your theory about the Andoenites and the Migrators and other species, I have no idea, there's no real evidence for that either so I can't say.
>>6269767Well, I think I know a bit about science (I happen to have a phd),. The most important difference between science and religion in my understanding is Faith. Belief in what is told without proof. As soon as you have hard evidence to interpret and build upon, experience to replicate, you are in science domain no matter how silly - time shifting by moving around? Mountain exploded by water? almost infinite pressure at one point? Species changing over the course of time? They can all sound childish worldview. But Einstein lens, Ruinous Mountain, Hydraulic Press and those butterfly in england turning black because of industrial revolution are turning those from philosophy to science. "Science did it vs God did it"Miracle are not mail-orderable. Tactical drone strike are. For the one waging a war, the mastery of the process matter more than knowing if it is done by mumbling on your knee or getting shrapnel shot by a big gun.
>>6269769>Brainwaves aren't a copy of a person, and even if they did, the idea that every single person's brainwave somehow persists after death for what can only be assumed to be eternity given the time betweeen the death of the Andoen and now....well, it's not scientifical at all.This is anti-scientific reasonning. No evidence, even given by the author, could convince you otherwise because you're closed to the idea.
>>6269770>Well, I think I know a bit about science (I happen to have a phd)Irrelevant.>The most important difference between science and religion in my understanding is Faith. Belief in what is told without proof. Yes, which is exactly what you are doing by believing that Cijan's explanation that these are "time-travelling fourth dimensional brainwaves" is true.>. As soon as you have hard evidence to interpret and build upon, experience to replicate, you are in science domain no matter how sillyBut you *don't* have hard evidence, no more than the existence of a universe is hard evidence of a creator - which, by the way, let me remind you was, in fact, the OPPOSITE of the atheist belief. The big bang was initially rejected by atheists and "science" believers because the creation of the universe implied the existence of a reason for its creation aka a creator.>Miracle are not mail-orderable. Tactical drone strike are. For the one waging a war, the mastery of the process matter more than knowing if it is done by mumbling on your knee or getting shrapnel shot by a big gun.Alas, having some splash phrase about technology does not count as hard evidence either. Really not helping your case about the cargo cult science worship.>>6269771>This is anti-scientific reasonning.What's next, are you gonna me a science heretic? There is literally zero science that backs the idea of brainwaves being this magical metaphysical essence of self.
>>6269767both can be right or wrong just one that is way more wrong more often. seen so many fucking stupid bullheaded "scientists" who think they know more then they do who are just as adverse to proof as a priest if not fucking more.like radiation is considered magic when we knew nothing about it just it being cursed right about results but not process or cause.Religious is very much a trial/error until you get a okay enough margin that you dont die before you reproduce or spread the religion, like rules on food in some religions then there are just thinking a random event happened because you did a blood sacrifice instead of just time passing.>>6269769i am not being literal about the "liquid or gas" just saying we have no fucking clue what the 4th or what ever dimension it is the "people" being 3 dimensional beings, we are like a being who only knows of solids trying to imagine what a liquid is easy to say that it just moves and flows to the lowest point like you think you get it but you would not really from lack of interaction missing all fine details.The fossil metaphor is specifically for not everyone or everything being preserved as it takes very special conditions and extremely specific timing and techniques and it does not need to be actual brainwaves as you are right that makes no sense as yes its not the essence of self as there is no such thing. like software is not the computer itself the computer is what makes everything happen but even deeper as the brain is hardware all the way, the closest thing we have to software is a short term memory like you said the life machine knows things it cant possibly inside physical limit ever know so why cant it be the life machine? doing something anything so i am confused why it cant be the life machine but in what context fuck i am confusing myself.okay i must actually ask "why cant it be the life machine what do you mean with that?" like the lifemachine that knows things it cant know knowing things?. there is theory shit like the dimension is "time" so what does time matter beyond being a location a distance to some sci-fi shit like a "moment" on the more absurd end.Fuck probably ignore all that probably so i am not being literal about the "fossils" and "not knowing what gas or liquids are", yeah you are right its probably not brain waves and i agree with that, there is no fucking magical metaphysical essence of self, but tell me more what do you mean with "It can't be the life machine because we know they hold information that there was literally no way for the life machine to know." fuck this all feels like talking in circles or the "breakfast question" on conditional hypothetical questions.i know science is basically "if it works, it works" because gravity is like a magic spell that we just know the conditions to cause the effect.we know that the FTL and this magic shit is not real life its not that its anti-scientific reasoning its that its anti-reasoning reasoning
THE SOUL EXISTSIT EXISTS IN THE HEARTBEATING AWAYTELLING US TO EAT BANANASAND TOFUCK MONKEY BITCHES
>>6269776literally ran out of space there.we know that "the life machine knows things it cant possibly know" and information must come from somewhere being copied, extrapolated or just making up shit on the spot. also we are very much a science-cargo cult, not because of what you think, its because we are not even following our own underlying principles or beliefs we ignore things that we dont have a explanation for, treating it like it does not exist because we have not figured out the conditions for replication, basically we got some annoyed we just decided to ignore it. we have conditions we cant control for in our sample size like the actual concept of time and the physical thing we are feeling, shit like every person being diffrent mentally
>>6269778metaphors and comparisons are not literal.
>>6269776>both can be right or wrong just one that is way more wrong more oftenSure, and in this scenario, the science has as much evidence as the religion.>i am not being literal about the "liquid or gas" just saying we have no fucking clue what the 4th or what ever dimension it is the "people" being 3 dimensional beings, we are like a being who only knows of solids trying to imagine what a liquid is easy to say that it just moves and flows to the lowest point like you think you get it but you would not really from lack of interaction missing all fine details.I understand, that, anon, but the issue is that despite not having the slightest idea of what it is or how it works, Cijan (and you) have reached a conclusion and decided any other explanation must be wrong because it would contradict "science">The fossil metaphor is specifically for not everyone or everything being preserved as it takes very special conditions and extremely specific timing But it doesn't. This is a random Andoen who was preserved for millenia. All the vetuckers and swall who were genocided and then revived, do you think they were preserved? >okay i must actually ask "why cant it be the life machine what do you mean with that?" like the lifemachine that knows things it cant know knowing things?.The life machine revives people with knowledge it had zero way whatsoever of knowing, their personalities and memories.>fuck this all feels like talking in circles or the "breakfast question" on conditional hypothetical questions.Yes, because you're not accepting the fact that nothing about Cijan's explanation makes any sense when you think about it. It uses "non-religious" terms to appear as some cold logical fact but in reality it has as much backing as the flying spaghetti monster.>>6269778I don't think that's quite what a cargo cult means, anon. I called it a cargo cult because it's just superficial usage of scientifical terms without actual substance or understanding of the subject at hand.Aka, "It's true because science said so"
>>6269772>Yes, which is exactly what you are doing by believing that Cijan's explanation that these are "time-travelling fourth dimensional brainwaves" is true.Believing the author about how his universe work from educated people is sure same as believing a book about burning bushes
>>6269785>>6269784both of them can be wrong, the alien and the money because both of them dont have the full picture.>>6269785to be fair the science money and the religion alien both can be wrong about the method but not the results they are both throwing around theories words like "perhaps" "probably" are floating around, like its probably not brainwaves on there own. its theories that have not been put to practice science involves discussion and testing and we are not on the testing stage Cargocults are imitation without understanding
>>6269785>Believing the author about how his universe work from educated people is sure same as believing a book about burning bushesBananas didn't say that, a character who is part of an hyper-aggressive state worship dictatorship did. Cijan is not some universal arbiter of truth.
>>6269787its either theorizing about theories on what we know or have heard or we dont say anything just shut up and buck up and wait, we talking about what we know or what others think they know, but i agree people are horribly bad of thinking about the concept or wrong or misleading or lying in a quest or role playing game they are horrifically good at taking everything at face value and no further its a frustration i am familiar with
>>6269748Magic that follows reproducible, verifiable, and consistent rules -- rules you can test, document, manipulate, and ultimately master -- is just science by another name. The whole “science vs. magic” trope only works if you treat them as rival ideologies. If an effect (no matter how crazy and unlikely by IRL's standards) isn’t random or arbitrary, the scientific method can map out its causes and consequences. At that point, congratulations: your magic is science.
>>6269859Well, I mean, sure, if you call anything that exists science, then I guess it's "science"
>>6269860Yes, that's how science works.Science isn’t a label you slap onto certain objects, nor a characteristic of those objects. It’s the method we use to understand any object (or energy field, or “four-dimensional brainwave"). Weight and color are properties. Science is the toolbox. The moment you can measure, repeat, and model a phenomenon, you’re doing science, and the phenomenon has entered the scientific domain. The method defines the category, not the other way around
>>6269862Yes anon, the psychic time-travelling brainwaves from the fourth dimension that let you travel faster than light and teleport are very scientifical.
>>6269863Anon, you're not getting it.Science begins the moment we can control variables and generate predictions. If spell-casting, prayer, or spiritual practice pass that test, they become scientifically valid, regardless of how unexpected the cause-and-effect relationship may be.Unpredictable, one-off miracles without a definitive mechanism aren't scientific. Anything that lets an experimenter write a protocol, rerun it, and get the same outcome has crossed over to science.Progress keeps forcing us to expand the rule-book (quantum entanglement, dark energy, etc) but what really matters is whether the effect yields to controlled inquiry, not whether it fits 21st-century textbooks (or even real world physics, since what is scientifically possible in the Monkeverse need to be the same as IRL). In-universe engineers literally mass-produce devices that exploit the effect. That’s operational reproducibility, which is key to scientific analysis.Unscientific =/= Farfetched
a lot of the "scientific explanations" for stuff presented in this quest sound really fucking stupid, but...1. this quest is almost entirely from character POV so a nonsensical sciencebabble explanation is just the POV character being stupid2. space monke physics is not necessarily the same as irl physics, even if a lot of the sciencebabble like quantum xyz is lifted from irl physics
>>6269868Again, that's a very broad view of science. If an event has zero actual scientific backing and completely ignores every other law of the universe, the fac that it's consistent doesn't really make it 'science'And anyway, none of those arguments discard the existence of the soul. Saying "But it's consistent!" isn't gonna make the brainwave definition any less unscientific.
>>6269871>Again, that's a very broad view of science.Anon, take it up wuth Merriam-Webster, not me..that's what science is: "knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method." If science proves Cijan right, then the fourth dimension FTL timetravel brainwave is scientifically sound in-universe. If future discoveries and analyses bear out that there are souls and an afterlife... Then the soul and afterlife are scientific, instead.Science =/= IrreligionIRL, I'm a cringe atheist, but if scientific experimentation repeatedly, reliably demonstrated evidence of a soul or afterlife, my acceptance of the evidence woukd be scientific and denial based on a gut feeling it is illogical or incompatible with my pre-existing undertanding of how the world works would be UNscientific.
>>6269590>Let him rest, he's already helped you out a lot>Punish the Threemind for the unauthorized experimentWhat the fuck? We only have one Cijan. Could we not clone another Maktana for this or whatever?>Would he like a job at the Starsight Academy?>>6269871>>6269873If the monke scientists are able to replicate and empirically prove the existence of "hyperspace," it's scientific. If they can't, and Cijan is talking out of his ass, then it's not scientific. Right now, we don't know whether he's talking out of his ass or not, so we can't say anything. It's not complicated, guys.
>>6269878>If the monke scientists are able to replicate and empirically prove the existence of "hyperspace," it's scientific. If they can't... then it's not scientific.Exactly what I've been saying.
>>6269874What are you even trying to say, then? That you agree with me? Beccause none of what Cijan has talked about follows 'the scientific method'. At this point, saying "Well it exists so it's technically science" is just semantics.
>>6269882No, anon. I'm saying what >>6269878 said: Cijan posited a theory and, however silly it sounds, if it's right and we go on to berify it is right, it is scientific. If he's wrong and there is a more explicitly spiritual mechanism, then that too is scientific; if the Hegemony then rejects that because "muh atheism, muh Unspeakable's millenia-old inferiority complex," that will be unscientific.
>>6269588>Andoen technology wasn't powered by fusion; it was powered by “ambient energy”, like the excess kinetic force of a wave rolling onto a beach, or the differential pressure between warm and cold layers in the atmosphere. This energy was captured and then used. Everything was very intentionally and carefully built and designed for its use in the future.”Very based.
>>6269874its funny the church was a patron of the sciences at first funding scholars as a means to explore and discover the mysteries "gods work and creation" all was fine and dandy until they discover anything that went against the book they could not motivate well enough.>>6269890its good to not waste anything and its funny would give tech a low power but basically undefinable energy source. bordering on mystical fung sviw >>6269878+1but also how the fuck do we even punish 3 mind?
>>6269894Upload goatse.exe
>>6269894>but also how the fuck do we even punish 3 mind?That's kinda the downside of having an all-powerful AI who pretty much rules your entire country for you. You can't.
>>6269901>>6269894
>>6269898So true...
The civility is appreciated.
>>6269898Do jaxtians have wedding rings
”I have no further questions for you, Cijan. You've been very helpful. Oh, actually, there is one thing.”“Yes, my lord?””My new Starseer academy... Your experience in this matter could be very helpful. I'd like you to join as a teacher. Perhaps you can teach Starsight to a new generation.”“Uhm... I'm very sorry... but I can't... do that. Not anymore.””Oh.”Because of your father's extensive deep mining and mineral acquisition in the former HVS systems; new discoveries of rare resources hidden under layers of rock and sediment too deep for traditional scanners were found. Beyond the usual precious metals and nuclear materials; inside one of the Life Moons; slightly modified barren moons able to support a limited biosphere of simple fungi or lichens; underneath a deep and thick multimaterial crust a collection of the Boson Accumulator Gas was discovered.This “gas”, as it is colleqiually called, is really a form of strange matter that rapidly produces matter when exposed to energy. Using highly controlled energy emissions, it is possibly therefore to turn the BAG into almost all forms of matter. Your empire has already used BAG found in the past to create both Antimatter; a powerful explosive weapon; and Super Dense Materials; stable super-dense elements useful for all sorts of industrial applications and kinetic bombardment rods. Other experiments with BAG involved matter-replicators to revolutionize your factories; already realized with your recycler & fabricator Reassembler technology, as a defensive shield against nuclear weapon bombardment; now though to be an outdated response to an obsolete type of weapon.”Great timing, Threes... Any weapons technology requiring BAG on the verge of compleition?”“No. You'll have to pick a few leaves from your father's tree for this one, my liege. He had a nice list of mostly civilian projects ready to go if a new source was found...””Alright. Let's hear them.”What would you like to do with your newly aquired source of BAG?>Hard-Light Holograms>Super Dense Magna-Ring Energy Storage>Hoard it away for an emergency quick-build construction resource>Compress it & Sell (Gain +2 Green Resource bars to any Urgi faction(s) of your choice and increased reputation with Consortium & Esaal)
>>6269948Hard light to battle photosensitive worms would awesome! But if the Cyte comes, we'll need power to have any light at all.>Super Dense Magna-Ring Energy Storage
>>6269948Someone who's better with numbers, run the usefulness of selling that gas.
>>6269957I think that selling the BAG bumps to bump a bloc’s Green score by+2 shuffles votes in all the wrong ways.If we keep the BAG in the Hegemony, Accord has 4power and holds possible Populist+Isolationist backing, and maybe Isolationist.Handing the money to the Accord only helps if we want to shoot for Capitalists, but drives Populists and Isolationists away.Funding the Redwings flips Populists to our guys I think, but could give Supremacists to them.Any other sale just fattens Goldwings, which may or may be necessary (but probably not) and we won't know until next turn. We have other ways to do that with subsequent turns if we really need to.
>>6269969Well, if we wanted to drive away votes from someone, no reason to use it with that kind of boost.I still don't know what the hell the purpose of energy storage would be though. It's not as though our energy is solar based.
>>6269970I'm thinking we use it to replace sunlight when/if the cyte hits. Like, store enough power to brightly light up entire worlds, or at least to keep everyone sane, plants growing without sun, maintain livable temperatures, etcetera.
>>6269972Might as well check before voting. Bananas, is this doable with the second option?
>>6269948>Hard-Light HologramsPicking this for the cool factor more than any mechanical bonus.
Didn't really have time to elaborate on the picks when making the update so I'll do so now.>Hard LightHolograms that you can touch, have mass and texture, etc. Nothing to do with worm fighting.>Energy StorageYou currently produce almost unlimited free energy with fusion, but storage uses magnetic frictionless wheels to store kinetic energy stolen from the Baalathi. This is a big upgrade for that by using super dense rings instead. This is for long term energy storage like probes, bunkers, etc. Or could be used as energy trading between factions that don't involve giving away fusion power secrets for free. Maybe other stuff I haven't thought of yet, like biobots that last a thousand years.>Storage for rapid constructionBAG can be rapidly turned into matter so this is kind of like a banked choice to build something big and important right away (battleship, a moon, mass trading good, etc.)>Sell itSelf explanatory and ties in to the minigame>>6269972This storage solution would be the closest you can get to that as of right now, but that kind of energy is out of your scope. More of a "Mark 3 fusion core" sort of level of power. But you would survive way longer in that situation with the new storage rings.
>>6269989Thanks!>>6269948>Super Dense Magna-Ring Energy Storage
>>6269948>Super Dense Magna-Ring Energy StorageYou know, those "hardlight holograms" could be used to literally make a waifu come to life.
>>6269991Awww my IP reset I'm supposed to be >>6269970
>>6269989Could the Solid Light you can add mass to not be able to be formed into weapons, holoknife fighting sounds pretty kino, imagine bananas the future of supreme space monkey quest open world (or galaxy in this case) adventure a GOOD "Sci-Fantasy" quest where you have a ragtag team of various species of adventurers on the inky black void of space, equipped with a series of hardlight weaponry ',:) this is my vote take it
>>6269948>>Hard-Light Holograms
>Super Dense Magna-Ring Energy Storage
>>6269948>Super Dense Magna-Ring Energy Storage
>>6269948>Super Dense Magna-Ring Energy Storageenergy production and storage is the main stay on the techscale of how advanced a civilization is even if dislike waste.hmmmm had a thought if we build star stations based on principles of Andoenites passive energy systems would be efficient and long lasting indefinite structures.Remember kids, star mass lifting extends solar lifespan and postpones solar expansion
>>6270016Formed hard-light? Monomolecular edged tractor beam fields? Contained high-energy plasma that can burn through anything? Melee energy weapons? "...Bah! Absolutely ridiculous. Scrap all research immediately. It will never catch on!"
>>6270066This drawing almost makes me switch
>>6269948>Compress it & Sell (Gain +2 Green Resource bars to any Urgi faction(s) of your choice and increased reputation with Consortium & Esaal)Not gonna win, but I want to give the Accord a buff.
>>6270090Anon, as other people pointed out, this would actively harm them by making them lose the populist and isolationist vote.
>>6270066Ok i’m switching my vote to>Hard-Light Holograms
>>6269948>>6270090Changing to>Super Dense Magna-Ring Energy Storage>>6270092Alright fine. Though it's still in our interests to boost them someway, we can't just let things play out.
>>6269989Thanks, Bananas.>>6270106>Though it's still in our interests to boost them somewayKeeping the Accord weak and isolated enough to be dependent on us while still helping them win the election seems like the best play to me.
>>6269969>Funding the Redwings flips Populists to our guys I think, but could give Supremacists to them.Do we want the Supremacist sentiments in Accord? We want to scan the cyclops, not exterminate them.
>>6269948>Super Dense Magna-Ring Energy Storage>>6269587>The Hegemony already runs plenty of experiments and programs the Supreme Ruler may not like; they're simply not privy to them all, it's an unnecessary piece of overhead. There are AI models calculating which of the Hegemonic elite might defeat you in a duel for exampleThis is deeply concerning and something that has troubled me for a while. Threemind increasingly is acting on its own and without informing the Supreme. It would rationalise it as saying it makes millions of micro-adjustments a day and no leader could actually approve all of these - but I think it’s remit has expanded steadily over the years.We need to bring in experts and have a full review of what it has been keeping from us.We should also look at this duel models and potentially act against these rivals
>>6270326>We need to bring in experts and have a full review of what it has been keeping from us.And how are you gonna do that? By ordering the Threemind to call them?
>>6270146>Keeping the Accord weak and isolated enough to be dependent on us while still helping them win the election seems like the best play to me.Yes, but I don't want to get too greedy. We can make them dependent on us after the election, though it might be harder to do I personally feel like its more important to make sure they win to begin with.
Year 197 of the Resurrection EraThe super-dense magnetic ring storage technology has been put into production. Replacing your lighter magnetic rings, simply made of alloyed iron, with new elements that are six or seven times more dense with the same amount of frictionless rotational energy stored has greatly increased your storage capacity. Moreso, the Threemind advised that the large store of BAG was more then sufficent for what little storage-solutions you needed to manufacture, meaning the rest could be put towards other high-energy uses.”I never thought in my life I'd be able to stand in a fusion reactor. These new ultra-dense stabalizers and containment fields make them this safe. Truly remarkable.”“It is still, erhm, not advisable, erhm, the effects of being exposed to solar radiation even while safely contained is umm... not fully understood... your uhm... Majesty.””That's why I made you come in with me! You discovered it. So if it ends up killing me, it'll kill you too!”“Eeep!””...Speaking of which, Ribbonfin, right? Your file says you were manually promoted past normal systems like, twice already? It usually takes a few decades for someone to earn a serious promotion.”“Yes, Sire. Twice in three years.””Well consider this the first time. You're the Science Overseer now.”“Oh... thank you, your Majesty.””Get working on the Mark 3, got that?”With your existing fusion cores, especially the ones in the warfleet, getting upgraded with new stabalizers and energy capture technology; you're feeling even more ready for the next stage in your plan.
“Threemind, I don't want any more of your unapproved experiments or behind the scenes stuff. I need you front and center for my reign.”“Your Majesty, I am more then capable of splitting my attention on many projects at once. I am a collection of intelligences. I am not a person; limited by biological factors.””You AREN'T a person, that's for sure! So your free will is concerning. You risked Cijan's life for the possibility of gaining useful information...”“All to help you, my lord. The life machine was stuck for-”“You have displeased me.”You let it stew in that. You've thought about it a lot. You could easily make the AI simulate neurons and simulate pain, as a form of punishment. But this is better, far more biting. You can almost see it fidgeting in silence. For something designed to be your servant, to please you in all ways, to carry out your will; even if you don't know what that is yet; this is the worst punishment you could inflict. It's good to throw your weight around. Don't forget who is in charge, robot!“...Master. I have noticed you gathering your forces of the fleet, but you have not told me your strategic aims. Are you preparing an offensive?””I am. Have you guessed who yet?”“No. As you know, I am strictly prohibited from the normal manipulation tactics of the AI network for the Supreme Ruler. I could make a guess, but without direction, it could be seen as trying to influence your decision. I'd like to add that, the earlier you inform me of your intentions and future plans, the earlier I could begin to implment the policy changes and economic influences that would lead to-””Shut up already. Don't you see? We're in the perfect position for an offensive war. A baby-boom from the new colonists, economic prosperity, while our neighbors are wearier from previous conflits, and my father's large scale colonization fleets easily retrofitted into warships... It's the perfect time to finally attack the Galactic Society of Aristocrats!”
Even before you were the Supreme Ruler, you always hated them. You've dreamed of nothing more then punishing and knocking them down a branch. Those ugly, evil little pink tubefaces.Fuck the Aristocrats. Seriously.Their constant smug sense of elitism and superiority. Their duplicitous and two-faced nature. Their cruel and sadistic society and obsession with perverse and degenerate art. They mock the Hegemony and your culture, calling you spartan and fake; a hundred times more authentic then the pure military utility of Esaal society and not whorishly sold and commodified like the Consortium species; yet that still isn't authentic and high brow enough for them. Not only that, but previous Supreme Rulers have tried to share fruits from your tree with them; letting them tour the conquered territories, the marvelous city of Myym, seeing your multi-racial society as it flourishes, and what do they do with this gift? They sent out custom sicknesses to weaken your industrial workforce and laugh at the cruel fate they inflicted upon one Farro Val. The last straw came just a few years ago, when it was revealed a biocontaiminate on a colony world, the mysterious Breathstealer Flowers that almost killed a bunch of colonists at a special school, was not a Hazaar leftover, but something the Aristocrats planted intentionally on that planet during their tours of the Hegemony. So in the same breath where they praised Hass Takar for destroying their cast-off Hazaar; they also planted seeds to poison and potentially kill his people. It was only by sheer luck that one of the colonists had a special talent and was able to save the lives of the others. You began your war preperations immediately; you had to send Usis in your stead to clean up that situation.It's time the Aristocrats get put in their place.“Your Majesty, the war fleet is ready. Though I would like to ask, for the sake of posterity, what is your strategic objectives for this conflict? Extermination might be too out of the question for such a resiliant species...””Oh no Threes, I am no fool. We aren't going to be conquering their territory and taking planets. My father spent his entire reign dealing with the Hazaar leftovers and making the new colonies livable by honest and decent life forms; and that's after the Hazaar were already exterminated and whose biotechnology was much inferior to the Aristocrats. No, this is a humiliation war.”
“Our understanding of the Aristocrat's war capabilites are not well understood, your Majesty. We know their military is greatly inferior to ours, based on all metrics, but most of the casualities of the war will be far after the conflict. Bioweapons, contamination, and aysemmetrical warfare. After all, you'd be fighting an enemy whose own biosphere is trying to protect them, and remove the invaders like a body's immune system.””Preciesely. Which is why I also have no intention of occupying them either. No, we're going to hit the Aristocrats where it hurts the most... their pride. Every faction has their own ethos. The Consortium will commit and endure the most underhanded tricks and cost of life in war, but will always be willing to come to the table for trade. The Esaal praise individual honor and skill; as long as you give their warriors a fair chance to prove themselves, the worst war crimes are easily permitted. The Aristocrats instead only care about their apperance and culture. That's what we'll target. We'll destroy their art. I've been studying them. Their society is fuedal, but unlike any legitimate nobility, like the Hegemony's own elite, their nobles have no noblesse oblige. Instead of resources and wealth flowing up from the bottom of the pyramid, and power & land flowing down, the Aristocrat nobles only give culture, experience, art to those beneath them, in exchange for wealth and power and “stars” and protection and all that. What a useless caste of parasites. I'll humiliate them, that's what I'll do. I'll make them look weak and stupid. I'll make them put up statues praising the Hegemony's warriors and send us tribute; boiled, frozen, and then irridated so strongly not even an Aristocrat tardigrade can survive it; just to rub it in further. Along with the Consortium, this will be our second rival in space defeated by the Hegemony!”“A lofty goal, your Majesty. I believe achievable.””Two more things, Threes. I need you to add this to our strategic objectives. We need to get Farro Val back from Ully'Andule. And... I need a new life machine. Do you understand?”“Understood. I am creating the combat model now.”RULESIn order to win, you must capture and hold at least FOUR capital planets, one of which being Ully'Andule's planet, whose banner has the golden borders.Every round, you may allocate ships from your attack fleet to attack a planet or orbital body. You may only attack planets in the closest sectors (yellow, red, blue) or sectors which you have at least one unit of strength of your fleet remaining. The pink numbers represent the Aristocrat defense forces or resistance to bombing; which must be depleted for that planet to be fully defeated. If every planet within a sector is defeated, it will reduce enemy Reinforcmenets by the amount written in that sector's color.
”What of those small systems to the top of the battle screen?”“The Aristocrats are a feudal society; power is banded in bonds of obligation. Ully'Andule seems the largest baron in our immediate space; with these systems representing bannermen who will come to his defense even if he (it?) doesn't own them directly. These smaller systems are smaller fiefdoms, indpendant petty nobles, or pieces of larger kingdoms who may in some way contribute to his defense. Think of these as secondary objectives. They can be attacked from the main fleet at any time, and each “sector” is smaller and easier to disable, but may be a waste of valuable time. Any fleet sent to destroy them will have to travel back to join the main battle fleet.””Well in that case, let's plan my surprise attack. They'll never know what hit them, har har har...”Because you are an aggressive and warlike Supreme Ruler, your initial attack fleet has been increased to 300, instead of the normal 200. Additionally, you will win ties.>Assign fleet values to attack individual planets within accessible sectors.
>>6270357>Don't forget who is in charge, robot!Based!>It's time the Aristocrats get put in their place.Based!>aggressive and warlike Supreme RulerWould this war have happened if we weren't?>>6270360Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I'll click back in an hour.
>>6270360I'm gonna be honest, I don't quite grasp the situationSo we start at the bottom right and we choose to attack the sector, but...the numbers ARENT the Aristocrat fleet powers? They're "bombardment resistance"? How does the actual warfare and battles work?
>>6270365Also wtf is that question mark in the bottom left? Esaal reinforcements? Like a possibility of the Esaal joining in to help the Aristocrats?
>>6270366They're pink, so isn't that Aristocrats? Essal are red. Like the Aristocrats have 90 fleet compared to our 300, but they're uhh, coming from an unknown location?
>>6270367Maybe? I mean, are sectors able to reinforce one another? And if so, what's the range? If we sent like 70 to attack that 52 planet, could the yellow sector send a 100 to help them?
>>6270368I'm going to be real, I have no goddamn idea. Bananas, could you please write up an OOC explainer for this?
>>6270369I would appreciate itI DO like strategy and space warfare, I'd love to be able to go large as Yang Wen-Li and draw a plan that accounts for every variable and scenario, but for that I need to know how it works.
Yeah I knew this one wasn't fully finished, had to post it quick before heading to work and getting a chance to post an addendum on my phone.This minigame is based around numbers. You can split your fleet however you want to attack planets (pink number is how strong they are), which will lead to rolling AFTER you decide on a battle plan. So you could attack six planets with 50 fleet power each with your starting 300 or whatever. The 90 on the left is how many reinforcements the enemy gets per turn, and the right number with the Hegemony gets per turn in addition to any troops you have out. However you can only attack sectors you have access to, which means having at least one defeated planet with your ships in it to move on to a commented sector. The four sectors on top can be attacked from the main fleet whenever you want.Each sector is like a region in RISK, meaning fully taking it over reduces enemy reinforcements by that much (the number with the plus in the same color as tge sector). So if you take over the red sector you'll reduce enemy reinforcements by 10 so instead of 90 they just get 80. After you decide your attack plan then we'll roll to see if you take over the planets and how many ships you lose. Also every 10 ships you outnumber the enemy let's you blow up an extra one on a win, and defenders win ties but since you're Halam the "war leader" you just always win ties because he's based like that.
>>6270360I assume numbers pink numbers are the cost? A bit like risk?I suggest a wide front to break up the bonuses, and focus on the bigger planets within each nearby cluster.I’d also suggest a raiding force be sent against the +6, best value to disrupt the minor compared to the others.
>>6270360Hmm I say we take over the +16 one first and then go to the +20 one (Ully'Andule's planet) from there, then take over the other capital planets by the left (+8 and +7).I don't trust myself with allotting the amount of ships so I'll leave that to everyone else lmao
>>6270360Bonus- Cost - Value per cost (V/C)+16- 159 - .10+10- 206 - .048+8- 105 - .076+12- 99 - .12+7- 145 - .048+22- 280 - .078+6- 37 - .16+2- 16 - .125+3- 33 - .09+4- 43 - .093Judging by this? Focus down the +16 cluster, then immediately march on +22The secondary smaller clusters represent the best value per cost in degrading the enemy’s reinforcements, and should be a primary focus compared to cost heavy sectors such as the Red and Orange sectors. Since there is no benefit to disrupting the balance of any sector materially, we should focus on pacifying each sector in one complete unit rather than piecemeal.
>>6270360So, based on >>6270401, I’d send 240 fleet against the +16 to fully pacify it, and march on +22 as soon as it’s feasible.The 60 fleet will be sent to pacify the smaller clusters, starting with +6 and +2, and working it’s way down until all the smaller clusters become pacified.
>>6270404As someone else said, we also want to limit Aristocrat Reinforcements by breaking up their regions. To that end, and based on the guidelines in >>6270360 I propose the following:Expeditionary Fleet Alpha (Vasetaker): 160 ships & battleship. Strike the yellow +16 cluster as hard as possible, dividing the fleet proportionally to the target populations of targetable worlds. Expeditionary Fleet Beta (Independants): - 30 against the blue independant world with 16 defense - 15 ships against the independant 9 and 40 against the independant 28 to hopefully secure the 6. Expeditionary Fleet Sigma (Disruptors): - 35 ships to take the 29 planet in blue. - 20 ships to take the 12 planet in red. Next turn the intent is to move NE with the Blue fleet and take the 7 while pushing reinforcements into the sector, widestrikeing the brown vase with alpha, fortifying Red, and consolidating Gamma onto the other independants or diving in where needed. I'm not sure how the math of combat wins (if it's d100 or d20 or what), and I assume that we'll lose at least one battle (with the red 12 being the most likely) to the hostile ships. Assuming all attacks are successful, in round 2 the Aristocrats with get effectively +41 ships while we'll get around +10. I don't know if it's feasible to win even with large starting advantage. My larger strategy is to roll the yellow vase and the blue cyclops clustors while defending at Red. Then roll Orange while disrupting purple, and still playing defensive at red. Maybe snag the other independants along the way, even if that's likely to make them hostile (if they didn't exist I would have just sunk those resources into Blue instead looking for a 2 turn victory instead of 3 turns. However, if this is just Risk and we can just roll through worlds without worry, then a better ide would be to conquer blue and yellow this turn while harassing red, for the sweet +74 pt. swing in manpower disruption, and leave the independants alone. Then next turn boost the Blue force and roll orange while using the Brown force to disrupt purple. If that worked we'd essentially have won with a +31 vs a +12 from the Green Tree alone. So to an extent the strategy depends on if this is planet by planet warfare or cluster by cluster.
>>6270401>>6270457Here's my battleplan : Splinter Float Clusterfuck : 81 shipsThe idea is to send it to take clusters in 2 turns. Starting with top-left with strong advantage to avoid ship loss then top right next turn, this is to leverage a good part of our 100-ship advantage. A few more to ensure no loss on the two first clusters, as well as triggering thresh for bonusesShip repart : >57 on top-left +6 cluster (overnumber by 20 ships) reparted 38 on the 28 planet, 19 on the 9 planet, triggering two time the bonus>26 on +2 clusterThis grants -8 to reinforcement by turn; additional one-time -3 because 3time 10-ship overpower and should let us take the rest of the cluster, regarding how it goes.Main force Deepram : 217 ships; yellow clusterRepart : >15 on 5 planet>28 on 18 planet>43 on 33 planet>51 on 41 planet>80 ships on 62 planetThis means taking away 16 more reinforcements and one-time -5The would yield on complete success permanent -24 and one time -8 on reinforcement.Then, the concern would be having enough ships to attack the capital planets of sectors. Rushing the 109-one Wincon is a no-brainer; once we have yelow and purple we'll have access to 69 and 38 that should be manageable even reinforced.This sector is great value according to >>6270401 and might not be after reinforcements.One of my main concern is "big planets" : if 90 reinforcements goes to a 109 planet, the game will get really hard.
>>6270457We have to full-take a region to stop reinforcement, right?
>>6270457>>6270483So looks like we currently have two(?) Battleplans written up. I'll break the tie with a random roll if no other voters (not 1-post IDs) support one or the other before we can get to the rolling.
alright guys i think my plan is better than >>6270457 because of this line :>Each sector is like a region in RISK, meaning fully taking it over reduces enemy reinforcements by that much I'm afraid spreading our forces like in battleplan Beta/Sigma won't serve our goals as well.
I still don't get whether the aristocrats can send reinforcements from other planets into other sectors.
>>6270548That's part of the game, you don't know yet.
>>6270548What impact could it have on the battleplan Deepram/Clusterfuck? if everything goes well, they'll mean to commit 48/38 on the secondary clusters to defend them; this can make the capital 38/69 harder to takeif they can deplete force from other planets, or full defend one of the planet of thte 16-cluster if we have a bad roll?
>>6270551The yellow cluster is surrounded by FOUR other clusters. That's four clusters that could send reinforcements to it.
>>6270552That doesn't change much things regarding : 1/ We should have favorable roll in 5 outa 5 planets (things like DC 35-40?) 2/ If a system is depleted too much, we can split there and take it (thinking let's say they take 60 from the 110-red, 50 from 105-orange, 30 from 69-blue : orange and blue becomes free real estate for Janxtian invasion
>>6270563But it does. If they send enough reinforcements to, for example, the yellow sector capital, then the 80-strong fleet could very well be destroyed. That would be a crippling blow.
>>6270564Surprise attack. They might reinforce but next turn; and we should have enough presence in the system to answer.Plus, remember that we have +100 ship from initial plan thanks to our choice of ruler and my plan use 20 on them of that definitely-takeable system.What you say makes me want to take Orange right after Yellow for a chance to cut blue away for Splinter Float... Or maintain the all-in purple... That would depend of our rolls, response from Aristocrat and actualized count like >>6270401 ...
They're gonna be so fucking mad when they realized it's just a contested roll slugging match system lol
>>6270564Now, tell me why risk-adverse (You) take one chance over two for >>6270457 plan with 160 ships to yellow instead of my quick swipe one with 217 ships on yellow and a good chance to remove completely that system from the problem
>>6270566>>6270568I feel like you're focusing more on 'gains' than actual strategy. If they are able to reinforce other clusters, then the best scenario for us is to minimize the width of our frontline. Again, comparing this to RISK, the best possible way to increase one's strength is creating 'chokepoints' and decreasing how much the enemy is able to reinforce their forces. The blue cluster at the far east side, for example, would only be reinforceable by *two* clusters, rather than *four*
>>6270567well this is what I thought it was>>6270570Like focusing most of our force to a single cluster, say Yellow, that let us cut blue from orange?And take free objectives with a small splinter?Anyway, curious to see what Plan you would have. Right now there are two and i'm convinced one is better than the other - if you can make something equal or better than mine, I'll switch to ensure a good plan;
>>6270572I don't have the time right now, but my point was that if reinforcements from other clusters are on the table, picking one of the clusters that have the most 'paths' towards it is a bad idea. Attacking the mini-clusters isn't necessarily bad, mind. I'm just talking about the main offensive in the yellow sector.
>>6270574What sector would you main-offensive to? I feel the "certitude" of this >>6270401 value-per-cost is more interresting than the incertitude (or disproven by >>6270567 , YMMV) of reinforcements
>>6270575Like I said, the blue cluster would only be reinforceable by 'two' other clusters, yellow and orange. It might not have as many reinforcements as yellow, but I feel like that's a reasonable trade.
>>6270576Alright this would giveSPLINTER : 83 ships>57 on top-left +6 cluster (overnumber by 20 ships) reparted 38 on the 28 planet, 19 on the 9 planet, triggering two time the bonus>28 on +2 clusterMAIN : 215 ships>69 + 60>29 + 30>7 + 20That mean 8+ 3x bonus on cluster; 8 + 11x bonus on sector Blue + probing - but let them reinforce key systems faster. so I won't switch to this as I feel it's a worse plan that my first one : 2 turns to stockpile reinforcement on their key system purple VS a chance to blitzkrieg the problematic 109 planet next turn.
>>6270294I meant it could give them their votes. All these elements are going to end up in The Accord (or whatever Urgi state wins) after the vote, if I understand correctly. My thinking is it would be best fr us if weaker factions (Isolationists, Populists and Pacifists) dominated.>>6270358Aw yiss, our monkey-fucking cowboy will go down in history.>>6270523I'm a midwit and this is beyond my realm of expertise, sorry. GIve me a sec.
Okay, so.. I think those little independent clusters at the top are good ROI to take down, slowing reinforcements considerably with relatively little effort. Hitting the yellow cluster is popular with otehr players and also seems wise. Red is a bit scary, and since unlike Ully'ande in purple it isn't a special priority, I think taking Blue or Orange would be best to win the game once we have yellow, the independents in White, and (of course) our main target.>>6270360>>6270483 +1
>>6270567Banana, tie broken, you can start rolling your wheelbarrow of dice
You are excited, honestly. Itching to prove your valor, and itching to use these resources stockpiled by your dear old dad to lead your people to victory against a hated foe. The black knife would quiver in your hand, but you aren't about to stoop to tradition now. You take up your battlestaff instead."Ready our weapons! All battle fleets... ATTACK!">>6270483RULESEach planetary battle is rolled separately and until one side is completely exhausted and destroyed. For the sake of simplicity, we will perform the attack in the order of the given battleplan. So ours will begin on the top left 38 vs 28 light green planet, then once that battle is complete, we will move on to the 19 vs 9 small gray moon within the same cluster, and so on.Each round is a player roll. On each round, before rolling, for every 10 points a side outnumbers the other, the smaller side loses a ship/unit of power from the numbers advantage.All rolls are 2d20. The first number represents the Hegemony, the second will be the Aristocrat defensive forces. Whichever side rolls higher destroys the winning number rolled of enemy ships. For example, if you roll 17 vs the Aristocrat 14, you blow up 17 Aristocrats ship. Then, roll again. A side can only destroy a number of ships equal to or less than their number of ships present in the battle; the Aristocrat moon of 9 ships can only destroy a maximum of 9 ships on a successful roll regardless of how high they roll.Because of Halam's skill, you always win a tie, attacking or defending. Blow up the number of enemy ships you rolled. (ie; 12 vs 12, destroy 12 ships).Players roll for the Hegemony's attack. Players can roll multiple times, but please give everyone a chance to contribute and test their luck.>Roll (Remember; you can type "dice+2d20" without the quotes to roll!)
>>6270881>players roll for the hegemony Does this imply you'll be rolling for the aristocrats?
Rolled 2, 3 = 5 (2d20)>>6270881
>>6270886No you roll both every time.
Rolled 17, 12 = 29 (2d20)>>6270891Alright then.
>>6270887>>6270893-1 for Aristocrats (Advantage)-3 for Hegemony -1 for Aristocrats (Advantage)-12 for AristocratsAlright, that puts us down to... 36 vs 14.
Rolled 13, 20 = 33 (2d20)>>6270894Welp, if no one else is gonna roll, I'll do it.
Rolled 19, 18 = 37 (2d20)>>6270881Oh joy>>6270898Maybe you shouldn’t lmao
>>6270898Damn, shame. Ah, but luckily for us, they don't have 20 ships, only 12 when you account the advantage of 20This leaves us with 22 vs 12, or I guess 22 vs 11 by next turn
>>6270899Well, that battle is over. Final Fleet for the hegemony is 22, so a loss of 16 ships overall.Onto the next battle, the advant
>>6270903The advantage gives us 1 hit on the start, so it's 19 vs 8Someone else can roll if they want to, this one shouldn't be too hard.
>>6270900Perfect, you guys are doing the rules right and looking good. The idea behind this game was to make it as close to a 50/50 as possible but you get a few small advantages to make it easy, the voting minigame is supposed to be hard for your ruler choice.
>>6270898>>6270900Actually, I’m curious- is a roll capped by the amount of ships they have? Like, say the Aristocrats have 12 and we rolled 19 and they a 20- would they still sweep the 19, or would the roll be capped at 12 since they can’t materialize new ship in battle, meaning its 19 vs 12?Just curious about the logic at play.
>>6270906Ah- nvm then
>>6270906It's honestly just luck and attrition. Unless the Hegemony can get reinforcements to make up for that we'll probably get ground down to nothing by even small failures.Well, I'll just wait for more people rolling.
Holy FUCK you have no idea how bad I wanted to just post the puppy because you fuckers just won't read and then I realized I didn't actually mention the second and third attack waves smfhRushing to post updates before work is a DISASTER to the minigame monke community
Rolled 7, 18 = 25 (2d20)>>6270904
>>6270937Anon...we're supposed to be waiting for the rules...there's apparently 'wave' rules.
>>6270941No, just continue the battle at the next planet according to your plan. The waves are your turns, like the election, the minigame goes along with the thread.
Rolled 20, 15 = 35 (2d20)>>6270904
Rolled 4, 2 = 6 (2d20)>>6270943
Rolled 4, 15 = 19 (2d20)>>6270881Total Hazza- I mean, Total Aristocrat Death!
I hope my minigame designed to let you entertain yourself for a few hours is working lol
Rolled 20, 3 = 23 (2d20)>>6270881I use my first action to Pray and my second action to Deploy Pepper Spray!
Rolled 5, 11 = 16 (2d20)>>6270881Quick, throw an asteroid at them!
Rolled 5, 3 = 8 (2d20)
Rolled 20, 7 = 27 (2d20)I have no idea how many of these we need.
>>6271047>>6271037>>6270945(dab dab dab dab dab)
Beancounting38 vs 28 - 35 vs 27 - 35 vs 10 - 27 vs 8 - 27 vs 0>>6270899 is the end of 38 vs 28 with 27 ships remaining.19 vs 9 - 11 vs 8 - 11 vs 0>>6270945 is the end of 19 vs 9 with 11 ships remaining.TOPLEFT cluster GETS26 vs 16 - 26 vs 11 - 16 vs 10 - 16 vs 0>>6271036 is the end of 26 vs 16 Cluster with 10 ships remaining. SECOND cluster GETS
Yellow cluster :15 vs 5 - 11 vs 4 - 11 vs 0>>6271045 is the end of the 15 vs 5 Yellow planet with 11 ships remaining.28 vs 18 planet :>>6271047 is the end of the 28 vs 18 planet with 28 ships remainingNext roll will start 43 vs 33 planet.
Rolled 14, 11 = 25 (2d20)Rollan
>>6271047I'd say 6 to 12 depending on how it goes? There are still 2 planets and a half, but the full ones are big ones.
dice+2d20Praying that this is the correct dice format
>>6271064in the "options" box friend
Rolled 4, 6 = 10 (2d20)Sorry I'm retarded
>>6271068It's okay. Wanna try again?
>>6271075I mean I already did so not really
>>6271082there are still wheelbarrow to roll, and several of us already double-rolled. If you won't, I will.
Rolled 2, 6 = 8 (2d20)Come on Holk. I know you're on this ship!
Rolled 10, 20 = 30 (2d20)One more for the road.
Rolled 8, 19 = 27 (2d20)It's not over yet! [This time, with good amont of dice; deleted the confusing 1d20-post]
>>6271092>>6271094Still not over for this battle... But I count 5 ships for us vs 13 for them
Rolled 14, 5 = 19 (2d20)>>6270881
Rolled 3, 10 = 13 (2d20)RNGesus, don’t fail me now!
>>6271116>>6271117And with those too... Planet is loss.End of 43 vs 33; 8 defenser remaining.Next roll will start 51 vs 41. Now, who could do us the honor?
Rolled 19, 16 = 35 (2d20)>>6271121bump
>>6271126Alright this brought the forces in presence to 51 - 21... Just the threshold for a nice -3 applied before the roll of next turn. This means we eat through their best rolls as well as grantin us lossless win on a 18+ on next roll/13+ on next roll with a requirement to roll to start next turn and autowin.
Rolled 15, 19 = 34 (2d20)>>6271130Wonderful
>>6271139good news : your roll is less bad as we only lose 18 ship. Bad news : we lost 18 ships - 33/18Wanna try again?
Any more needed?
>>6271141Yes, boatloads of them. Haven't started last planet yet
Rolled 1, 8 = 9 (2d20)>>6271143
>>6271145that bring the count to 25/17We need a tactical win there boys
Rolled 7, 9 = 16 (2d10)>>6271146I'll try once.
Rolled 17, 15 = 32 (2d20)>>627114716/16Situation turning dire...
>>6271148Oh, good. That should be it, right? They only have one, while we have 16. So they lose.
>>6271148BUT NOTHING PREVAIL OVER JAXTIAN OFFENSIVE SPIRIT! After all, Jaxtian, Vetuckers and Swahili are morally superior to whatever alien is in front of us.>>6271149You're right (miscounted >>6271148 as it is 16/17) but according to the rules we still have to pointless-roll. Now, will you do us the honor to conclude assault of 41-kaki-moon?
Damn, I FINALLY found a minigame that lasts more then one hour. I thought I couldn't top Night Without Stars and it's roll autism. FREE content.
>>6271152I'm having mad funs. I'm ready to write a thesis about tactical lessons deducted of this first battle turn once it's over
>>6271154Thank you based beancounter I don't deserve you (˘ -˘ )
Rolled 19, 19 = 38 (2d20)>>6271150Sure- though I’m uncertain if 5 should beat 20 if the other side rolled a 20 desu
Rolled 17, 8 = 25 (2d20)>>6271155Not the OG beancounter; I know how helpful those guys are in complex thread. Anything to keep the Good Space Quest rolling smoothly>>6271157And that solve neatly their final gambit for 41-Kaki-Moon with an elegant win rather than bruteforce.Allow me the honor to engage assault of their Capital...
>>6271157>>6271159Those two rolls would go to the next battle, anons. The 'advantage' is counted BEFORE the rolls. Those two rolls would go for the next battle, shouldn't they?
Assault recap : 43 vs 33 - greyRock>>627105543/32 - 43/18 - >>627106843/16 - 37/16>>6271086- 37/14 - 31/14 >>6271092- 31/13 - 18/13 >>6271094 5/13 >>62711165/8 >>6271117 0/8Lost 43 ships. Defenser lost 25 BattlePoer Defenser still have 8 BattlePower on planet.
Assault recap : 51 vs 41 Kaki moon>>627112651/40 - 51/21>>627113951/18 - 33/18>>627114533/17-23/17>>627114716/17>>627114816/1>>627115716/0Lost 35 ships. Defenser lost 41 BattlePower; planet Taken.
>>6271164We'll wait for Bananas to tell maybe?
>>6271174I mean, I assume it would work. It says that the advantage happens before therefore, the order of things is>Previous Roll>Advantage (Enemy is finished off here)>Next roll (New battle begins here)
>>6271175I'm never assuming things with Bananas and mechanics; could definitely go either way (although i'd love for it to go our way and would add a dedicated section in the textwall i'm preparing)
>>6271174>>6271175Oh yeah, for sake of simplicity, you should still make a "roll" for battles where you're already going to 100% win (like sending a 77 fleet ship against a planet with 7 defenders) since yo have to make the "attack" and actually send the ships there to blow it up.
>>6271180Thanks for clearing that out Bananas.>>6271164so that mean we're 80-44 on their capital. Wanna roll?
Rolled 14, 1 = 15 (2d20)>>6271180Alright then. Real shame, we could have gotten an 19 victory.I guess our attack on the capital opens up with a victory of 8>>6271181Very well. With an advantage of 80-44, that should be down to 40, though.
>>6271183Alright, that's 80-26, which with our advantage becomes like...80-21, right?
>>6271183I'm generally counting advantage the same turn of roll for sanity and consistency reasons. We overpower by 36 so that mean 80-41 then after your excellent roll 80-27
>>6271188Very nice, once you count the advantage for that, that should be 80-22. Let's keep going, since this is the last battle.
Anyone wants to roll? Already did my fair share.Bananas, there's a typo there : >>6271051 - oif course 16 ships remain in Second cluster, not 10
Rolled 15, 2 = 17 (2d20)>>6271190Fine then, I'll do it again.
Rolled 18, 14 = 32 (2d20)>>6271191And, that's a victory. With only 7 units, we have an advantage of 73, which is enough to defeat them regardless of what happens.Here's the final roll.
>>6271192Assault recap : Yellowvase cluster capital 80/62>>627115980/61 - 80/44>>627118380/41 - 80/27>>627119180/22-80/7>>627119280/0Flawless victory
>>6271194Nice.So, how much did we lose on the overall campaign? Seems like most other battles were pretty horrible.
>>6271195Working on a textwall-battle report
On the merits of number superiority following Halem Anak doctine in Janxtian war with Ully'Andule - case study of Yellowvase Cluster Battle>ContextGeneral Beancounter battle plan was based the excellent analytic tool of "Value Per Cost" developped by Swall Lieutenant Viqu (>>6270401)Total Aristocrat battle-power was estimated to 1123 unit of power [UoP] - however, it is estimated more stationarry in nature, attacked by 300 Ships of the hegemony. UoP was calibrated to be the theoretical equivalent of 1 ship.>Theatre of operations : The main assault force sent on the Yellowvase Cluster, while two splinter-fleet alpha and beta attacked singled-out small planetary clusters The Yellowvase Cluster Battle resulted in the complete loss of 2 fringe clusters and almost-complete control of Yellowcase Cluster by Janxtian army.Janxtian army lost 111 ships, depleting 204 UoP and cutting 8 of the 90 projected UoP by turn.>Limitation of current study : This thesis details circumstances of a surprise assault - meaning mastery over attackers and target. As the conflict evolve in the future, we might be confronted to defensive situations meaning a need for more adequate tooling to decide between reinforcement and assault. However, the author believe the analysis will remain of great merit to chose attack target for musterable forces. >Section I/ Superiority advantage : Fire SuppressionThis is the observation of the mechanical effect of "On each round, before rolling, for every 10 points a side outnumbers the other, the smaller side loses a ship/UoP from the numbers advantage." The goal of the study is to evaluate On fringe worlds: Killed 4 UoP on First Cluster Killed 2 UoP on Second ClusterOn Yellowvase cluster : Killed 2 UoP on miniyellow moon according to simulations, mattered a little bit as this saved 1 ship (7 instead of 6; see Section II) Killed 1 UoP on AnthraciteAsteroid according to simulations, didn't matter practically Killed 6 UoP on GreyRock - which mattered greatly in improving the less-than-ideal outcome. Killed 5 UoP on Kakimoon. Killed 16 UoP on Greenclay - helping the Flawless win thanks to the excellent planification of the Assault of our Supreme Leader.
>Section II/ Superiority advantage : diminushing offensive capacities This is the observation of the mechanical effect of "A side can only destroy a number of ships/UoP equal to or less than their number of ships/UoP present in the battle"On fringe worlds : Saved 8 of our ships on First cluster planet-Assault Saved 8 of our ships on First cluster moon-assault Saved 4 of our ships on Second cluster battleOn Yellowvase cluster : Saved 7 of our ships on battle for miniyellow moon No impact on STOMP of AnthraciteAsteroid battle. According to projective analysis, the doctrine killed 5 of their UoP on GreyRock [lost battle] (this antisocial remark was corrected to : tactical skirmish to prepare occupation). Mechanic saved 8 ships; Those 8 ships turned capital asset later in the battle, each turning a tactical dire situation in a draw (without the mechanic, Kakimoon would had +5 UoP) Saved 1 ship on Kakimoon assault No impact on STOMP of AnthraciteAsteroid battle.Conclusion : Doctrine of Superiority granted us 41 free UoP, and saved 28 Hegemonic ships.Of course, both mechanic are linked. Effect of diminushing offensive capacities is greatly lessen when there is over 20 UoP remaining so aiming to decrease UoP under 20 is strategically solid. Moreover, we can increase the worth of attacking 20 or less UoP with at least 10, ideally 20 units overpowering. Adequate tooling taking those in account remain to be developped.Superiority advantage paradoxically yield best reward in losing situations.
I'm enjoying the recaps, and really appreciate the easy stats to work on the updates and also giggling and slapping my feet together that the original battleplan left 2 ships out of the fleet when it could have perfectly made your capital assault 82 vs 62 giving you a whole extra bonus ship of damage for free but oh well
>>6271224Those 2 ships would have been better off on the battle we lost, the main Assault was literally flawless, an extra damage wouldn't have changed anything.
>>6271224according to >>6270483 we used 57 + 26 + 15 + 28 + 43 + 51 + 80 ships = 300.Two more would have triggered twice the bonus; but i prefered triggering +10 on one more front.
>>6271227Good catch, don't know where I got those two extra ships from.Anyway, update at normal time! Thanks everyone for playing with this minigame, it was just on the cusp of being too complex I feel; the election one had a lot more thought and planning put into it.
>>6271231Your welcome QM, it was great. Could I get the info of Hegemenoy reinforcement/turn? you talked about that >>6270386 but didn't gave us any figures
Theorycrafted a bit more - what is the required amount of attackers to be sure to take a defenser?Not 100% certain those are the best solutions AND this are worst-case scenarios.Autowin condition : minimal amount of ship to get a positive tradeoff on full adversorial max rolls 10/1 flawless11/2 - 10/1 : -1 Alternatively, 22/2 flawless23/3 - 22/1 : -124/4 - 22/2 : -226/5 - 23/3 - 22/1 : -4 Alternatively, 35/5 - 33/2 : -236/6 - 33/3 : -3 Alternatively, 28/6 - 24/4 - 22/2 : -638/7 - 34/4 - 33/1 : -548/8 - 44/4 : -4 Alternatively, 40/8 - 35/5 - 33/2 : -749/9 - 45/5 - 44/1 : -5 50/10 - 45/5 - 44/1 : -5
>>6271232It's 200. Initial wave is boosted because Alpha supreme.
Alright guys. Update usually come out in the middle of my night; however I'm very implied in that one minigame. So...>Defensive doctrine :I'd advise to field at least 21 ships in defence everywhere if possible - except capital planet which are strategical objectives.>Cluster 1: 27/11Recommandation : transfer 6 ships from planet to moon. Consider sending 4 ships as reinforcement>Cluster 2 : 16Consider sending 5 ships as reinforcement.>Yellow clusterCaptured position :11 on miniyellow, 28 on AnthraciteAsteroid, 16 on Kakimoon, 80 on GreenclayHostile position : 8 on Greyrock Capital is a winconn so we should leave 80 ships on it.I'd send the 7-overflow to miniyellow. T2 strategy : BASERUSHI got for you guys a bold move - depending on how they play their reinforcement, of course...>Send 40 ships on GreyrockAssuming they keep the 8 defenser, this is an autowin, and give us ships to reinforce the whole system, and a hanful more for, say, next turn clusterfuck II electric boogaloo, attack on blue or attack on Orange. Plus, cut 16 reinforcement for T3>Send 160 ships to knock on Ully'Andule door in Purple sector.the 109-planet is a Wincon - meaning a losecon if they stockpile 90/turn on it long enough. With a 160-ship greeting party, we get a free -5 to them and we pray RNJesus to whittle them down faster than they do us.I haven't run again Value per cost - depends on reinforcement and their allocation. We also need to consider : - Is it "good" to leave defense on the clusters or shall we use them to wreck havoc somewhere else?- Small planets gives more value thanks to Superiority Advantage doctrineSending +20 strikeforth on red-12 and blue-7 can pave the ground to T3/T4 conquest. However, with strategy of T2 BASERUSH, this open possibility of attacking Green on T3: if things doesn't change, it is the best ValuePerCost system. Things are too far for careful planning, but a 58/47/40/34 assault (total : 179) could be kept in mind.
“Lanyards off! Nothing that can cause a failure in the seal on the battlesuits is allowed! Do you really want to be breathing that atmosphere?!”The Vetucker soldiers prepare, donning their suits and special armanents. They pack into small metal tubes aboard their ships, fidgeting, nervous for the time ahead. One begins to stamp his feet, creating a metallic clang that the others join. This is a breach of operational discipline. The team captain looks to the Jaxtian battle commander ready to launch them, and he nods. This is permitted.”Stam... pede”“Stam... pede”“Stam-pede!”“Stam-pede!”“STAM-PEDE!”“STAM-PEDE!”“STAMPEDE!”The pods fall with a screech, entering the atmosphere and falling far faster then any thing affected by gravity should. Everything inside would be liquified if it wasn't for the state of the art inertial dampeners. One second after touchdown, the lid flies off, and the soldiers emerge onto the unsuspecting world.
Traditionally, the Hegemony's heavy infantry and marines were made up of Alpha-Male Jaxtians; strong, smart, fast, and flexible. But a new battle doctrine was created for this campaign; something requiring the endurance, discipline, and unique capabilities of the Hegemony's other warrior phenotype.Vetuckers equipped with the brand new Broadback weapon system have been deployed as your primary ground forces on the Aristocrat planets. Essentially a mobile reassembler backpack and attached weapon; the broadback sucks up useful materials from the enviorment, quickly recycles them, and supplie them as ammunition for the primary weapon system. Conductive metals used for electrostatic nets and darts to stun and fry swarms and smaller opponents, powerful magnetic slugs for armored and large-bodied targets, and flammable gases absorbed and used for the powerful plasma throwers meant to burn up all organic material. On planets whose biosphere wants to kill you; every plant and tree is an enemy combatant, and must be treated as such.The Vetuckers move in lines; combing the surface immediately after ariel bombardment. It was not expected that kinetic weapons alone could destroy the Aristocrats defenses; which is why these soldiers were deployed to clean up after. It is also not expected to be able to permanently dislodge the Aristocrat defenses; total destruction of the topsoil and underground root system would be too costly and difficult. So instead, as grazing animals do, your soldiers decimiate the local ecosystem before moving to the next. Too dangerous for constant extraction; they're expected to stay on the planet for days at a time. While its not safe to let them consume the organic matter; they can at least drink recycled and distilled water and have a salt lick installed on the inside of their helmets, and only need to sleep for an hour or two at a time given the Vetucker biology. Special braces on their legs allow them to sleep standing up; ensuring formation can be kept even as some rest and others advance. Who knew the Hegemony's herbivores would end up being the perfect soldiers?
While your intitial surprise attack wasn't able to capture every single planet you targeted, you were able to get most, and capture a single capital, while cutting off some extra reinformcenets. The Aristocrats, naturally, denounce and threaten the Hegemony for this unbridled act of aggression to all who will listen; which is nobody in this region of space. Good, you enjoy watching them cry into the void.If anything; it is has actually been a positive to your reputation. The Supreme Commander of the Esaal military has actually sent you a direct message.”Ahh, Jaxtians! You've decided to take a bite out of the Aristocrats as well? Yes! Haha, I love it!””Thank you. Looks like we share a common enemy. Even if the Esaal and ourselves haven't always seen... eye to eye. Har har.””Our wars with the Aristocrats left us exhausted of fighting them, so we can't join you. It's boring fighting the same people for too long. But we could offer you something else. We still have fresh data from our own conflicts with the pinkos. We'd be willing to trade it for... a favor.””A favor? What favor?””I don't know yet!””Well, I am sorry. You may be the closest thing we have a friend in space, Esaal friends, but I would hate to strain our relations by refusing to fulfill our end of the bargain in the future when it would be an unacceptable-””Hold your refusal, Jaxtian noble! Our peoples have known each other for some time, and we are kindred spirits. Fighting with honor, allowing our defeated warriors home without humiliation, and vice versa; you know we wouldn't ask for something absurd in return for something as small as information? I don't know what I would ask for, because I am old. An old Esaal is not long for this world. I must die a warrior's death. But my successor... they will know what to ask you for. I promise, it will not be a trick, nothing massive or expensive or unforward to our relationship. Surely we have earned enough trust in you for that?”It appears the Esaal want to offer a trade. In exchange for giving you very useful information about the Aristocrats from their previous campaigns; you will owe them a small favor in the future. The Threemind tells you that accepting this deal will give us information on where the Aristocrats will send their reinforcements and where they will likely flee; and as you know, the Aristocrats also border the burgeoning Urgi state.
“If we know where the Aristocrats may send ships to flee their system, we could intersect them and battle them near Urgi space.””And what would the purpose of that be?”“We could direct the fighting into a faction of our choice... who will be forced to prepare defensive forces. And if say, an Antimatter torpedo glances off an Aristocrat ship and hits and Urgi station, or Aristocrat biospores are accidentally released near an Urgi military fleet and get sucked into their atmospheric filters...””And expend their resources! I see.”“Yes. If we accept the Esaal's offer, not only would it give us an advantage in our war, but also let us influence the election subtly by reducing the militarization level of a faction by one bar. Becuase of how spread out and disjointed the Urgi are, we can pick and choose where this will happen; plus, don't forget, this is for a favor in the future. We you could freely decline if you so choose.””But, that would strain our relationship with the Esaal... Hmm... That reminds me, has the stealth retrofit finished on my Battleship?”“It has indeed, your Majesty.””Perfect! They'll never expect this. While busy fighting the first attack wave, who would expect an invisible BATTLESHIP to show up and bomb the daylights out of one of their planets? Hehe... I love my toys.”You realize of course, if you had spent some of that economic abundance on new battleships, you'd have even more ability to bomb the Aristocrats and reduce their defenses further; but you felt the Starsight Academy and Migrators were more important in the long term. Your primary battleship, now retrofitted with stealth technology, will have to do. Loaded up with all the super-dense kinetic rods it can carry, you aren't going to risk it for a ground invasion. Let's see how many mountain ranges and jungles we can level with it...Do you want to accept the Esaal's deal; information for a favor in the future?>Yes>NoYou also have a Stealth Battleship ready to bombard an Aristocrat planet. This will reduce one planet's defenses by exactly 30 points. Where would you like to use it?>Specify a planet controlled by the Aristocrats (pink number) to attack
>>6271530>YesIt'll be either acceptable or we'll refuse it, sounds good to me. We need to keep the Hegemony's skyrocketing growth going. As for the stealth bombardment? I'll leave it to the eggheads. I might have some idea of strategy when it comes to tactical thought, but I'm too lazy to run the numbers.
>>6271530>NoWe can win this on our own, and my preferred strategy for the election is still the one where the Accord wins the vote by being weak.>Bombard Orange 105>>6270336I think we can afford to be a little greedy with the birds.
>>6271536We could win on our own, maybe, but it wouldn't be as efficient.Also, if you want them to be the weakest, wouldn't you need the Accord to lose some military strength to match the singular red bar of the Goldwings?
>>6268879In fact, no matter how you look at it, to get the Pacifist and Isolationist votes, you'd need to get them to 1 regardless of what the secret bar of the goldwings are.
No one seems to be getting reinforcements. Therefore overwhelming force is the rule of the day. I guess if we just clustered all 209 forces together we could march through Purple's territories, bombarding the capital and working from largest to weakest to preserve our miliary advantage before spreading our forces everywhere we can probably do it. I'm assuming that we need to pull our forces off the planets to launch them at future conquests. Also, yellow sector looks like a Swall head. Purple has a shown strength of 280. Our yellow forces are at 145. Our outworld forces are at 54. So pre-battleship we are about even, but due to our local superiority they should be bleeding troops to power differential (unless we just see the purple capitol with 199 power or something. I'm still not sure if they get 90 power a turn, or if it's some sort of multi-nation fleet which loses a portion if its home sector is conquered. Assuming we conquor purple soundly I guess we'd try to make peace with red, threaten green with destruction, then try to roll east into orange, followed by a desperate push on the blue capital. We haven't seen reinforcements get applied to either side yet, so hard to say. Maybe we spank Purple, decide the really we only needed three capitals, torch Green's home and leave? Can we torch the 8 yellow world on our way out? Can the outland ships reach blue this turn? If the enemy is getting +90ish forces a turn (or even +40 with purple and yellow depleted) and we are getting +0, we're going to struggle either way.
Actually we have 189 total strength, not 209.
They just won't read.
Read yes, comprehend no.
Although re-reading the battle rules I guess we should start with the small planets first and work our way up since they lose forces first and can only kill up to the forces they have on planet, and we get to keep all our forces then spread out after? So at 189 ships we could eat the nine, mostly eat the 21, then work our way up the food chain and blast the 109? Execpt post 6270386 says the outnumber bonus only take effect on a win, wheras 62770881 says that it is done before rolling. Still, if the enemy get reinforcements every turn and we don't I don't think that this is now a winnable scenario without significant luck on our side. If Purple drops 90 forces on their capital this turn maybe we can still conquer purple, but then they'll drop 60-70ish somewhere else next turn and we'll still need two capitals, assuming that reconquest isn't a thing (despite the initial rules saying take and hold the capitals instead of just burning them). I don't think that we have enough gas in the tank for that. So despite having read the posts and the idea of reinforcements, it doesn't make sense to me. Also, if the +'s were used to generate that 90 then the neutrals are contributing to the enemy war effort rather than just protecting themselves. Narratively, are the Aristocrats producing 90+/- fleet strength a turn vs. our 300 strength expeditionary fleet? This is what led me to the roving 90 fleet hypothesis, with portions leaving if their home system was burned (ie. the roving reinforcements).
>>6271538My strat there woukd still be to just slightly bump the other two factions with trade to make the Accord the best choice for isolationists, pacifists, and populists. I guess you're right, though: that could also work and save us a turn. I just worry that could also sour yhe Accord against us in a more overt way than funneling a bit of aid to the others on the sly.
>>6271571>>6271556>>6271573Bros we get 200 reinforcements each turn. >>6271236>>6271530>YesThe Essal are reliable and their hate of the Aristocrats is certainly authentic.
>>6271530>YesI’m just curious>109It’s not about the efficacy, it’s about sending a message.Besides, sending it against the 8 only results in a 24 net positive for us. There is more rationale for sending it against one of the secondary clusters so we can send an overall smaller force to conquer it and preserve more forces for the roll off.I assume there are reinforcements for our side, given it’s called the initial fleet? If so, can we get a number for ours? Trying to war-plan this without those number is futile.
>>6271585Dude it's right above you. >>6271581
>>6271581>Bros we get 200 reinforcements each turn. I was discussing the election minigame in the post you tagged, not this one
>>6271530>Yes. Reduce the Accord's military power to try and win appeal from isolationists and pacifists for their side. Hopefully the isolationists don't already see them as our puppets. Discuss possible ramifications of warning the elites among the Accord before the strike so that they can get their families out. Also, does 3's think that the isolationists will acctually vote accord if they are the weakest, given their current reputation? >Purple Planet 109. Strike while the iron is hot. War Plan: 40 to yellow 8, 170 to assault purple. May change depending on how the vote for info goes. 160 has a decent chance of defeating purple and would put us in a position to hit green or blue next turn. Taking purple is better than taking orange and blue if we can pull it off. Regarding bird puzzle, unless the Redwings have a secret green and the Golds have a secret red, I don't know how we force that on our own. If the Redwings have a secret red and the Goldwings have a secret green, then nuking the Accord won't really help us. We need at least 6 councilors to win. C1 - NeutralC2 - 50 us/50 militaryC3 - usC4 - mysteryC5 - 50 us/50 mysteryC6 - 50 cash / 50 militaryC7 - populistC8 - 50 us/50 passificstC9 - MilitaryC10 - Redwing C11 - 50 Red/ 50 IsoC12 - 50? / 50 RedC13 - 50 ? / 50 goldC14 - 50 suprem / 50 goldC15 - 50 iso / 50?C16 = 50 pop / 50 pasifistIf we get Military/Populist we get If we get Pacifist/Populist/Iso we get 4 in the bag and 3 known 50/50's. We might be able to get this through support of Red & Gold, but it's not a clear victory. In that case Red would get 2 + 4 50/50's and Gold would get 1+3 50/50s. Anyway, I guess I'm on board with team low-stats. Nuke the Accord to make them look like our enemies to make the isolationists like them, I assume that bombing the birds will increase isolationism, which helps our low-stats Accord.It would be nice to snag a guarenteed elector #1 and hope that the coinflips fall in our favor. It's possible that 4 or 15 are also already on side. We'll have to see how the board shifts after the other vote though.
>>6271587Ah, thanks.Best bet is gobbling up the minors and the +8 in that case, then taking on the +22, though I’ll have to number crunch the reinforcements to make a definitive assessment.
>>6271530I (>>6271536) could back>Reduce the Accord's military power to try and win appeal from isolationists and pacifists for their side. Hopefully the isolationists don't already see them as our puppets. Discuss possible ramifications of warning the elites among the Accord before the strike so that they can get their families out. Also, does 3's think that the isolationists will actually vote accord if they are the weakest, given their current reputation?if allowed, in which case I'll turn my vote to>Yes
Also the reason I drew the "invisible battleship" with the question marks is because I can't decide on a good design- the three lights on the front is good but the back looks a little shitty. If you have a cool design for the Hegemony's battleships let me know. >>6270357 original design here
>>6271594Voting for this one.We might need to reinforce some sectors depending on the info though.
>>6271662So... As we're burning everything behind us, I might have a strategy able to win the war in 3 turns. Of course, it'll depend of rolls wether it will work or not.First, I redid the "maths". 30 troups are enough for a autowin on 8, with the risk of losing 9 ships instead of 4 with 48 or; 7 with 40; 8 with 3848/8 - 44/4 : -4 Alternatively, 40/8 - 35/5 - 33/2 : -7 38/8 - 33/5 - 30/2 : -8 30/8 - 25/5 - 22/3 - 21/1 : -9Then, there is the matter of reinforcement and how they're being used. Taking back the yellow capital would eat through most of their refreshment and would be manageable. Here's my strategy to win the war :Bomb the most important planet, purple capital.T2 : 30 on yellow8 (if it remains at 8) will reinforce, 170 on Purple as discussed. Alternatively, we can maybe do 90 on Purple/109-now-79 and 80 on Blue/69 however this is riskierT3 : attack Green38 and Blue69. If they both fall, we win the war.
Bananas, is it better for us to completely dominate and humiliate Aristocrat by taking everything on the risk minigame or to win fast?
>>6271695Part of the fun for me is not explaining everything in exact detail, but just this once I will give you a hint.Reread the original objectives description very carefully.
>>6271698No, this is a humiliation war.We aren't going to be conquering their territory and taking planets.>>6270358We know their military is greatly inferior to ours, based on all metrics, but most of the casualities of the war will be far after the conflictTwo more things, Threes. I need you to add this to our strategic objectives. We need to get Farro Val back from Ully'Andule. And... I need a new life machine. Do you understandWinCon : >Capture and hold AT LEAST four capital planetsClusters : >Think of these as secondary objectivesHere's my opinion, open to debate.So the longer the war, the more casualty we risk. I'd say the life machine and Farro Val are hidden mystery box. I'd say the safe way to get both might be full cluster takeover + full capital planet hold.You guys are behind me for doing the funniest Full-Aristocrat-Humiliation battleplan?
Bananas, for the sake of battle-planning, would you allow us to "disengage" a winning battle? Let's say we want to soften defense of a system but not win yet, could we retreat instead of pushing the attack?
>>6271717Maybe for a side prompt involving the war or a special write-in for Jale Berax's epic commando squad but for a normal minigame vote no, I'd prefer to keep it as simple as possible.
>>6271726Thanks for the answer.
Alright I'm coming with an improved assault plan.It will of course depend on how they use their reinforcement. I assume for what follows they would play full defensive and not try to retake planets. Of course, this have to be moderated with new infos from bananas...If they play full defensive, we can afford to let a single ship in taken planets in response. This frees :>51 ships in the cluster>131 ships in YellowProposed amended battleplan : >Send 51 clustership + 12 Yellowships toward 43 +4 cluster.Reasonning : clusterships need one turn of travel back to main fleet - but can attack other cluster quite freely if i got it correctly. This is a best used on the already deployed force. With a bit of luck they can swipe down 33/+3 cluster on T3.>Split the planned 170 ships + 119 Yellowships on purple cluster with : >29 on 9>41 on 21>46 on 26Depending on reinforcements, either 173 on Capital [Capital reinforced] or 111 Capital/62 on42 Bluemoon This one is a rough sketch but leverage our already deployed forces. I admit, this is a bit shitposting as long as we don't have the Esaal intel - but this should help prove this intel is valuable.
>>6271594With the vote of knowing blackbars, we can surely apply a plan to fuck up some 100% unfavorable voters, like C14 in the next phasis?
I'm just gonna point it out, do we *really* want to attack Undully'ande this turn? It's certainly a *good* cluster, we need to take it eventually, but it's also VERY strong. Just one of the planets there (72) would require more than a 100 ships if we wanted to be safe.
>>6271795Fair point. This is why it's important to get the info on how they will use reinforcements : Big-number planets are tough and might take several turn to occupy. What's your thoughts about >>6271704 ? If i'm not grasping straw, this could help us plan Total Domination
>>6271798I mean, i feel like it depends on their movement. My worry would be if that planet with 73 ships in it ended up reinforcing the one with 109. If we were sure that the 73 planet was safe, then we could bombard Undully and take it with a considerable enough force.
>>6271799Only one way to know - wait next update.Now, the Undully Capital is a wincon. Meaning if we want to go complete humiliation, we can take all the rest of the system and get to it last. Will that appease your concerns? if so, we can instead bomb 105-orange, and mount this attack :>51 clustership + 12 yellowship toward 43 +4 cluster>30 on Yellow-8>103 ships Orange-105>60 ships Orange-40>59 + 30 - bombing blue-69>39 on blue-29>27 on blue-7 (autowin with at worst 18 casualties on full awful rolls)
>>6271799>>6271802There's some risk with that two-cluster attempt. Also, I'd prefer to get some boots on ground on Purple-9 to open the green cluster, ripe for taking
>>6271802>>6271802You sure that 103 is enough to beat 75? It's cutting it pretty close.
>>6271807Not sure of anything. Just sayin' it can be its own altenrative plan.Remember that as we win tie, we have interrest to fight/roll as much as possible (52.5% chances of winning the roll)
>>6271808I wonder where the hell that An'Tula is now that we captured his stuff. Capturing an Aristocrat would be great.The issue, of course, is that being the freaks they are, how do you humiliate them without it turning out to be some weird-ass fetish they actually enjoy? Maybe Halam can decapitate them on live video or something, I don't know.
>>6271808Thanks for the lore, that will avoid me butchering/making on the spot names for next battle reports.Can we keep the bombing option after we get the Esaal infos?
>>6271813>Can we keep the bombing option after we get the Esaal infos?No, that's part of this prompt along with the choice of to accept the Esaal's offer or not.
So, uh...what are we bombarding, then?
>>6272004Well... I have a plan. You'd have to trust me on this, but...>Bomb Blue-69I feel bombing Ully'Andule have a chance to mess with life machine/Farro Val and I don't wanna risk it. For total humiliation, we need to finish by taking the Ully'Andule capital after conquering everything. I think next turn should take a small planet of Purple for a foothold toward Green, and full assault on blue/orange
>>6272024So basically, your plan is to take out Fas'Kon'Anull (Blue) while it's isolated, assumingly the whole cluster, then I'm guessing you'll want to push into orange? Or directly into Purple?
>>6272031Plan would be next turn :* finishing of Yellow, * taking Fas'Kon'Anull (nothing of value would be loss on Stealth-bombing there)* Taking cluster 4* Get a couple badly-defended planets to ensure a path to green. Red-12 and Purple-9 comes to mind.Purple-9 have the advantage to make them crap their pants, stockpile reinforcement in Purple - while it is merely a distraction while we take on T3 Green, Orange and Cluster 3, finishing to gut their reinforcements.
After all, we want a life-machine and I have good reason to think the Insar'Sholo faggot lives in Kon'Cil'Cilas - and that guy got the life Machine.
>>6272035That seems reasonable to me. I will support the planAmending>>6271532for >Bomb Blue-69
Rolled 1 (1d2)Vote tied between Blue 69 and Purple 109. Tie breaking now.
You agree to the Esaal's deal. Trade for a trade!They give you some very useful information. Beyond the escape routes used by the Aristocrats, something the Esaal very desperately wanted during their own war to stop them from slipping away, you also learn their battle tactics. As it turns out, these proto-Hazaar are very defensively minded, mostly caring about retaking lost planets. It seems that the Aristocrat reinforcement numbers will be evenly split among all sectors you have conquered planets within, attacking the capitals if you own them, otherwise attacking the weakest planet you control, denying you access to a bridge to deep strikes into their territory if you can't hold it. Also, as a rule, it seems the outlying secondary clusters on the edge of Aristocrat space will never have an attempt to retake them once captured; preferring much more to retain the dignity of the main Aristocrat ideals. We can hopefully use this information to our advantage, and that's it worth whatever the Esaal ask of us in the future to repay it.In the meantime, you are busy doing administrative study and optimization of your first attack fleet, especially to improve future waves. You scratch a persistent itch in your side, yawning."Ugh... I'm tired. Staying up late to do these battle calculations is so exhausting.""You may rest whenever you wish, your Majesty.""But we could make our attack forces so much more efficient! Not to mention, I need to oversee scavenging and sanitizing any destroyed fleet components and reuse them for the next one; could really boost Fleet power. Actually, Threes, why don't you synthesize me some caffeine?""...Really? Like what the Consortium does to extract excess value from its expendable workforce.""Hello? Supreme Ruler here! If I'm not busying myself with that, I'd have to work on some cultural renovations.... yuck.""You could boost efficacy of our future attack fleets by... two and a half percent. I believe this is a more optimal use of your limited time, your Majesty.">Study after-battle results & optimize future fleets (+5 Fleet Power for future attack waves)>Update an element of Hegemonic culture (Change any artistic aspect of the Hegemony's designs; like ships, space stations, uniforms, colors, etc. write-in only)
>>6272203Now that's a good question. What could we change...Maybe some capes? Capelets? Something to make our navy guys cooler. I get that "everyone except the Supreme wears a jumpsuit" is a hegemony thing but it's kinda lame.
>>6272186>Blue 69mfw
>>6272228Not physically possible, the horns would get in the way.
>>6272206>"everyone except the Supreme wears a jumpsuit" is a hegemony thing but it's kinda lame.The lanyards help IMO.>>6272203>Study after-battle results & optimize future fleets (+5 Fleet Power for future attack waves)I'm willing to change if someone else has a fun idea, though.
>>6272228kek
>>6272203>Update an element of Hegemonic culture (Change any artistic aspect of the Hegemony's designs; like ships, space stations, uniforms, colors, etc. write-in only)>Make wrestling more of a thing. Preferrably with as little clothes as possible.
>>6272263I legit can back something like that as an extension of Hoik's impact on society, but I don't know if I want it badly enough to forsake a mechanical advantage.
>>6272265What if it granted a future bonus to boarding actions?
>>6272203Alright, the defensive tactic sucks ball, We can force them to attack in inferiority (thus playing our game and not their) by splitting our effort.I'm not certain we need the +5. Granted, it would help; if someone as a cool idea (disregarding gayness of >>6272263 I might switch.)Next turn will start with their 82-attack on An'Tula'Manis. Maybe sending 20 or 30 guys there won't be lost? I don't know if reinforcements are played before our turn or during it. This means the ideal system defense is 1 ship everywhere and stockpile all of them on capital. But it get really interresting if we manage to apply the plan for next turn : Let's imagine one second we take fully Yellow, Blue and Cluster4 : -36 to reinforcements, meaning 44 remaining.Now, let's also project we manage taking with 29 ships and 32 ships purple-9 and Red-12: we can waste their reinforcement by forcing to attack them in inferiority : a meager 11 ships-per-planet.Else, to ensure our bridge to green, we also can instead take 2 Purple planets... But this feel a tad wasteful.In the end, it looks lke green sector will require more planning and investment to get - strengthening my conviction that the mystery box life machine is there
>>6272335>Next turn will start with their 82-attack on An'Tula'Manis.There are no reinforcements on the first turn.
>>6272340Oh, that's simply precious. That change much, much things. Those guys are cooked.
>>6272203>Study after-battle results & optimize future fleets (+5 Fleet Power for future attack waves)Can't think of any cultural ideas and not fond of the ones suggested so far
Strategy : Divide and Conquer.Goal is to exploit their learned behavior to split and attack only planets in which they'll be in numerical inferiority.Cluster : 1 ship is enough on each astral body. This frees 26 + 10 + 15 = 51 ships that we'll send on Cluster 4I'd advise to keep high defense on the Yellow Capital for now, however we can safely take back 21 ships.We can pull back 27 + 15 + 10 + 21 ships from yellow (73 ships). 12 of them are going to Cluster4. >63 ships attack Cluster-4 43 planetThis mean we still have 261 ships to play with. Turn objective : >Complete Yellow dominationAchievable with 30 ships on Greyrock>Blue Hostile Takeover27 ships on blue-7 [autowin, worst case scenario 11 casualties]69 ships on blue-2984 ships on blue-69[now 39]Sub-total : 180 ships>Spread for dread :29 ships on Purple-932 ships on Red-12 Sub-total : 61 shipsThis guts the reinforcements as follow :Ideal case : Cluster4, Blue and yellow taken, Purple9 and Red12 taken :They have to split their 44 reinforcement... In 4x11 attacks, giving a good chance to repel them even with the 20-or-so ships remaining on Purple-9 and Red-12Realistic case : Yellow taken. Blue partially taken; for exercice's sake we missed blue-29 and 22 ships remain on blue-69. Cluster 4 taken. Misslucked so 12 ships remain on Purple-9(failed 4 time in a row) and 20 on red-12They have 52 reinforcements still split 4-ways : 13 on yellow and blue capital; 13 on red and Purple defense. Still a great way to get them to waste troups.If we have +5 ships, I'll add them to blue-69 attack to bring a nice 89 [5 time overnumber bonus]
I've gotta wait to do the second war minigame update when you're out of town or busy with something lmao
>>6272354That would be extremely funny. However, I'm afflicted with the "terminally online" condition thing.
>>6272354Then, dive in your heart. Is the trolling worth the lack of fine-beancounting? If the concern is my flooding of the thread, I can do my best to reduce it a fair bit; are you afraid we're winning too good to fast?did the +5 ship vote was a beancounting reward?
>>6272357>did the +5 ship vote was a beancounting reward?Ehh, maybe. I gotta stretch these two shit minigames out for like a month or whatever for the thread's lifespan so we gotta have some filler. Plus I think it's fun when people contribute their art ideas for the quest even if it is a big write-in central.
>>6272364>I gotta stretch these two shit minigamesthey're far from shit. I like the fact they're interlinked and I found some really nice hidden depth in the "lolololo Risk megadicerolling" one Regarding Art Vibe, I really like the siplicity of gold bands and lanyards, which works well within your style.As for ships, here's a proposal of battle-bomber.Hawk-shaped, painted in Indigo-blue ('member Vat-monkeys?) sparkled with white. As a whale enthousiast, I added a Migrator Decal on the bomber.The idea is to allow a bit of harmless customisation as a mean for Hegemonic military to express theirself : war as an artistic tool itself, cementing our position as an inbetween aristocratic degeneracy and esaal deep raw utilitarism
This website draw engine always do this to me
The write ins... have displeased them...
I still think capes and capelets are cool.
>>6272431Easy way to visually tell hierarchical link with lanyard/braces being like medals and telling more of individual accomplishment. With a nice visual, can get behind for sure. Looks like I'm alone enjoying the stealth bomber I "drew". oh well, such is life.
>>6272432The stealth bomber is nice, but most ships in monke seem to be simple shapes. They don't realy use details like the bomber you drew. The drawing itself isn't bad, it just doesn't fit the style.
>>6272433like this?
Monke ships/designs change along with the time period of the quest; changing from uglier colors to green during the "golden age" of exploration, before turning dark during the genocides, getting lighter, and now currently they are chrome (because the players traded -1% Materials for it) and to give them a unique look in the current era. I wouldn't mind them having a set color pallet (like that blue) since some other factions in space also have more set color pallets. I'm still open to new battleship designs for the Hegemony though, since I'm not really happy with the one I've got thus far; but the Frigates and Cruiser designs are unchangable at this point and iconic.
>>6272435I really enjoy the frigates and cruisers design. Would decal be an option for them or too much work for too little? Maybe this could be lanyard-tier reward for some companies and highlight some feat of arms like those Vetuckers taking An'Tula'Manis lossless?
How would people feel about a cultural change of people bringing more pet nutthieves around with them in their daily lives? Add more cute critters to the larger scenes? Maybe at some point we try merging magneto genes into them and uplift them into little tech-savants and personal force-field pets?
>>6272676Eh...a little bit too much. Critters on spaceships? It wouldn't fit the Vetuckers and Swall either.I think we should just go with either the capes or the fleet bonus
>>6272684They can figure out their own pets.>>6272203>>6272676I'll +1 pets (I'm >>6272234)
>>6272434>>6272435>>6272369How about this? I tried to blend the aquatic theme in, since I like it and it suits of Migrator project well, but I also tried to work in the three ports at the front which Bananas liked in his original design, and a more tubular port at the back since the Hegemonic design philosophy for ships tends towards the tubular.
Spacer
”Cultural improvements... We can talk about that later. Or let weaker Supreme Rulers of the future deal with it. This combat data is way more interesting! I'm gonna stay up late and perfect our next strategy...”You decide to analyze the data on the Aristocrat defenses and possible counterattacks; you increase your future attack waves straight by +5 units. Threemind also helpfully shows you the political and economic disruptions of the war versus it's possible conclusions; showing you that your people are still very inspired and happy to contribute extra to the war effort. By all metrics, you have at least two more attack waves before you will begin to suffer serious attrition and the people become war weary.”They should be ready to fight down to the last man...”“Of course, your Majesty.” the Threemind interjects. “But even the most loyal and obedient people will wilt in a conflict that seems hopeless and endless. Basic psychology and its manipulation is a fundamental part of your role.””Hmph... Maybe you're right.”Meanwhile, in Urgi space, a certain council member is spending the evening with his new mate. His scared face cracks a smile along his long curved beak.”I'm sorry I've been so distant. Dealing with the council and problems among the Redwing leaders... It's been a lot to handle. And you still prepare all this food for me?”“Of course!” She says happily. “I know you're under a lot of stress right now, so you don't have to talk about it if you don't want.””No, it's fine. They're all flight-feathers about it; everything's gotta be secret. Even when they're trying to project their fake forces and make all the Urgi think the Redwings are gonna be able to protect and hold ALL of the new territory.”“I don't really understand all that stuff... if they just put you in charge, I'm sure you could handle it.””Pff-HA! You really are a downy bird, ya know that? Being so nice to an old bird like me.”“Of course... I mean, I'm a hen that can't lay... So if anything you're the one being nice to me.””HEY! Don't talk about yourself like that. You're still my mate either way, you understand?”“Awww...”They nestle, touching beak to beak in affection.
Your spymaster, Usis, has managed to get his spies and agents into all matter of positions in Urgi space, greatly increasing your knowledge of their politics and goings-on. You suppose if he was the Supreme Ruler in your place, he likely would have already discovered the hidden alleigances of the mystery council members, and likely would have had these agents in place to make some moves. But better late then never.“We've found the hidden statistics of the Urgi factions, my lord. It appears that the Goldwings private security and mercanry forces are a big stronger then they let on, hiding some of their power. After all, they still take and hold slaves in a rather barberous tradition. They are a bit more militirized then we thought.””And what of the Redwings?”“They project a lot of force outwards, but we found evidence, even eyewitness from our secret probes and reconissance, of a lot of these stations and shipyards being... decoys. Fakes.””So their hidden statistic is... Nothing?”“Yes, my liege. Weak nations are often found to project force outwards, with endless military parades and showboating, while the strong ones keep their true power hidden away. Tale as old as time.””Hmm... This will certainly help in our efforts to influence the election, but as of how, I am not sure.”“One more thing, your Majesty.” Usis adds. “...It may be prudent to warn the wealthy and powerful among the Urgi of your plan to guide the Aristocrats through their territory. It won't stop your plan to weaken one of the factions, but it could foster some favor among the birds. Though then again, it would make it more obvious the Hegemony is doing it on purpose... which may not be good.””Your expertise on this matter is always appreciated, Usis. Back to work with those biobots, got that?”“...Yes, your Majesty.”
Year 198 of the Resurrection EraIt's time to destabalize the council yet again. After much bickering and colluding among the secret factions and many self-interested members of the council, your intelligence has now completed the picture. You've now revealed all hidden stats and interest symbols of the council members.The secret stat of the Goldwings was more militrization then you believed, being one Red Bar. The Redwings on the other hand were projecting force based on nothing and hollow promises. Their secret stat was nothing; no red or green bar.Now that you've increased your operational effiecacy, you can select two actions. In addition, chose a faction you wish to drag into the Aristocrat war, which will weaken their defenses and level of militirization (Red Bar -1)Collateral Damage>Accord>Redwings>GoldwingsWarn Elites?>Yes (One Council member will gain a Supremacy symbol, and one will double up an Accord symbol)>No (Doubles up all Isolation symbols)Select Two Actions>Pick TWO Council Members and give both ONE new Non-Faction Interest (Specify)>Eliminate ONE Council Member (Specify; Creates a new Council member with random symbols)>Turn ONE Council Member without a Faction Interest into an Accord Supporter (Specify)>Lobby an Interest (Specify) which will DOUBLE UP the symbol for two random Council Members who already have it>Denounce an Interest. ONE Random Council Member will lose that symbol.>Arm the Accord (Gives +1 Red Bars to the Accord)>Grant lucrative trade deals to a faction (Gives +1 Green Bars to any faction)>Hire Privateers to attack a faction (Randomly take -1 Red OR Green Bar from a faction)No Write-Ins except to Specify plans are allowed for this vote
>>6272759>AccordThis will put them in 1 bar, securing the pacifist vote.>No (Doubles up all Isolation symbols)This would secure us to voters, no? 11 and 15. Sounds great.>Grant lucrative trade deals to a faction (Gives +1 Green Bars to any faction)Redwings. We need to do this next turn too, so they become richer than the Accord.>Denounce an Interest. MilitarismI'll change my vote if someone does some math or whatever and finds a better one.
>>6272759>Accord>No (Doubles up all Isolation symbols)>Pick TWO Council Members and give both ONE new Non-Faction Interest (Make 6 and 12 Isolationists)>Hire Privateers to attack a faction (Randomly take -1 Red OR Green Bar from the Accord)Maximize Isolationism, and make the Accord the most Isolationist-friendly option. If our relations are hurt, well, we can apologize with reparations and rebuilding once the Accord is in charge. They'll be too weak to stop us, too poor to deny us.
>>6272769Can you even pick people who already have two interests? Does it replace one of the interests or turn it into a 33.3% chance?
>>6272759>Accord>No>Grant lucrative trade deals to a faction (Redwings)>Pick TWO council members to give an interest (councilors 1 and 4 to gain pacifism).
>>6272759I think the best we COULD do is thisCOLLATERAL DAMAGE?>AccordWARN ELITES?>NoACTIONS?>Pick TWO Council Members and give both ONE new Non-Faction Interest (1 and 4, make Pacifists)>Grant lucrative trade deals to Redwings (Gives +1 Green Bars to Redwing)Why not make 1 and 4 Pacifists? That's a solid two votes locked onto us since we will be the faction with the weakest military AND it doesn't run the risk of annoying the isolationists since they don't like outside factions outright supporting them.
>>6272770I assumed since it doubled them up it would erase the other interest, making them 100% isolationist, but even a 66.6% chance isn't bad.>>6272779I can back this in a tie, but I still like my version.
>>6272781No, it would be 33.3, you voted to make 6 and 12 isolationist.
>>6272776With this, assuming Accord takes Isolationist, Populist, and Pacifist, they'll have councilors 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 16 guarenteed. Then we can strip # 5 of militarism next turn and Accord will have 7 councilors (councilors 13 and 15 are also currently open to being secured instead). The Red and Gold Wings would need to pool their votes to win at that point, and even if they did there is a chance that Accord could take councilors 11, 13, or 15 and still tie or win.
Doubled up symbols means that individual council member is twice as likely to vote for that symbol (Symbol A, Symbol B x2, 33% chance for Symbol A and 66% chance for Symbol B). It doesn't remove symbols, only makes one harder to remove/stronger
>>6272782Yes, but then their Isolationist symbols will double because we didn't warn elites.
>>62727866 and 12 don't have isolationist symbols
Even if the isolationist symbols were added pre-doubling it would be 50%, not 67% (2 iso out of 4. The existing are currently non-friendly). However, this is a high-risk high-reward strategy and barring shenanigans we can hit plurality without taking risks.
>>6272787...Which is why I voted to give them isolationist symbols. Then double all the isolationist symbols. >>6272789This anon gets it. The clarification at >>6272785 changes my equation, though, so...>>6272759>>6272769 formally changing vote to >>6272779
>>6272779I'd follow my gut and your choice, fren.
>>6272757>you have at least two more attack wavesInterresting. This cements hardly my belief that the "hidden good stuff" to win the minigame are lying in green sector (really hard to reach, harder than taking Purple capital) and maybe another thing for taking all clusters.Now, would you guys ok to "risk" one more turn for taking wider sways of Aristocrats for maybe better gains?
>>6272848>would you guys ok to "risk" one more turn for taking wider sways of Aristocrats for maybe better gains?Yes, as I feel like the population will appreciate the dub
>>6272888I can spin the next "Battle Report" into full propaganda to show our citizen how thoroughly humiliated Aristocrats are.
Realized I forgot to answer >>6272719I like it for a big ship, however this doesn't say "Bomber" to me
You and your spymaster have a lot to get done. Influencing the election is hard work. You grab an extra danbo for your hunger and get to it.Firstly, as the fighting with the Aristocrats rages on, you manage to intercept them on the exact same hyperspace lanes that the Esaal told you about. Very useful! You cut off their escape, pushing the fleeing enemies into the unclaimed Urgi interspace territory; specifically towards Accord stations. As the Urgi are very spread out and independent, meaning it is trivial to push them towards the Accord's defenses and forcing them to intervene. Deadly ship-piercing spore pods and carcinogenic fluid "blood" pours out of the wounded organic ships, unfurling like living flowers through space. If given enough time, perhaps they could heal the damage; but against steal and silicon they have no chance."Hunt them down and kill them! AHaha!"With the destruction caused so close to the Urgi, the Accord has lost some of its appetite for fighting as the blame and cost of getting dragged into the conflict in even a small part get tossed around. You've caused some chaos; but enough to make the Accord's military leadership by far the weakest of the three factions. Hopefully, this sentiment is kept by the Pacifist voting cores...Meanwhile, on a parched desert world in Urgi space; a few birds sprawl out in a shelter. Illuminated by the ruthless bright desert sun ahead, they smoke deep from the hookah. Far to the north, in the most temperate and wet regions of the planet, bioweapons remain from the war. Looking like tiny white wasps whose stingers paralyze you while they lay eggs inside your skin that eat you from the inside out. Thankfully, the world was bombed so badly by the Esaal the bioweapons only remain in that one region; allowing an Urgi clan to live here. While they steer clear of the bioweapons; as it turns out; catching some and boiling them in a flash allows for a gas to rise that keeps all of the sedative properties with none of the danger. This has become a valuable trade good, and a pastime.
"...Come back inside, Soar. This bright sun is killing me.""Such a fool you are! Yet to truly admire our new desert planet; new territory only won from picking clean the bones of the other powers in space; we as the vultures. You sit on the council yet are so small minded. This world can very well become our homeworld.""Pfft. This is no Homeworld of ours."To the Urgi, those who have flown on a planet are given mythical stature and significance. As there was only one planet where that was possible; the homeworld. Only the special combination of low gravity, air pressure, and currents fed by special soil allowed for their bodies to take to the sky. In artificial habitats; the gravity can be set to whatever you wish and air is the only medium of resistance anyway; flight inside a metal tube in space is easy and cheap. It's a natural form of movement befitting the people."Many among us our protesting the wars and want peace. I'm sure you have heard their voices, my King. Do you agree?""If there is war, we would move on, as we always have. The council is merely an opportunity for my clan's future wealth and scavenging. We outed the last squatters here and made it our home, until we are outed. As always.""What if you lived on a planet you didn't want to leave? Then would you try and make peace?""Yes, I suppose if such a planet did exist that was so valuable we'd risk our lives to stay, then I would have to settle down. But I do not think I'd ever find such a place."Soar smiles, as he knows something his King does not. The hot thermals from the desert floor stir the air. He spreads his wings, jumps into the air, and then doesn't come back down.
Year 199 of the Resurrection EraWith your spymaster's work completed for now, you have further influenced the Urgi's election. it seems they are getting closer to a resolution, and the vote will be soon. "What of Council Seat one? I wished for him to take up a pacifistic viewpoint...""We did everything we can, your majesty. As you can see, the ideologies you wished to spread were done so, and covertly, but influencing the appearance of public appeal and individuals within our spy network. Even implied action from the Hegemony, like your flippant apology to the Urgi for the collateral damage, has subtly manipulated them into taking a more isolationist and avoidant viewpoint. The council members will bend to the pressure.""But what about seat one?""He seemed to give lip service to the Pacifistic ideas rising among his crew members, who wish for more peaceful trade and negotiation, but ultimately his position doesn't seem to have changed much. We are unsure what he will do, come the day of the election. As for your other manipulations? They are working. Even the trade deal with the Redwings, in which we intentionally gave them a 1-2% profit over ourselves so they'd accept without a complaint. They are now as rich as the more economically minded Accord. Populist sentiment will be split among them evenly on the day of the election."You will likely only have one more opportunity to influence them, unless something greatly delays them. Until then, you have your own empire to run, thank you very much.
Your forefathers knew this would happen.While you build and begin to make the Starsight Academy fully operational; a new sentiment is beginning to grow within your own populations. Namely, the Vetuckers. With Starsight being so misunderstood, and the general feeling of inferiority the Vetuckers have to the Jaxtians; the fact that Jaxtians seem so much more naturally suited to Starsight certainly has not helped matters. The Vetuckers are beginning to have spiritualist and even religious sentiment towards the discipline."And needless of I to remind you," the Threemind adds, "That anything that takes their obedience or worship that is not the Supreme Ruler and the Hegemony by extension- is a threat.""Surely, it is not that serious, Threes. Though I am a bit disappointed. I thought the Vetuckers would have grown up a bit of a species by now, underneath our wing.""If it was the Urgi, then that figure of speech would be more suitable, my liege.""Har Har."The Vetuckers have a growing, but still not fully realized idea of a sort of proto-religious belief in Starsight, being either a method of communion with something divine, or even, as a species revived from extinction; a way to speak to the dead through the light of the stars. Poetic maybe, but problematic. Many Vetuckers are requesting Starseer positions or to be secretaries and assistants to those in the Starseer academy, though all objective data shows them being much more useful in construction, as laborers, and other important fields."It's still early, your Majesty. You have the opportunity to nip this in the bud.">Allow them this freedom out of respect; they've earned it>Punish Vetuckers who show spiritualist leanings but allow them to pursue these paths if they choose to>Disallow all Vetuckers from becoming Starseers>Encourage Starsight among Vetuckers; maybe we can make them into our Starseer caste like the Migrators>Other (Write-In)
>>6273240>Punish Vetuckers who show spiritualist leanings but allow them to pursue these paths if they choose toI don't think we should encourage it but I think outright telling them to fuck off probably wouldn't help matters.
>>6273240>>Punish Vetuckers who show spiritualist leanings but allow them to pursue these paths if they choose to
>>6273240>Disallow all Vetuckers from becoming StarseersFrom my perspective it is the Jedi who are evil.Or we could only allow the submissives to join, and encourage jock-like distain for Starsight in the pack leaders and such. The main threat is a willful Starseer, not a passive one.
>>6273240>Other (Write-In)Mandate that all future Supreme candidates have star sight training. If there must be religion then we shall be the Pope.We are the Church, we are the State, we are the Hegemony.
>>6273266This seems like a cool idea, but is it viable? I'll definitely support it if it is.
>>6273300And by 'viable', I mean, is it even possible to just 'partially teach' them Starsight? It's not like it'd be their main education, just one of a thousand of the subjects Supremes need to know.However, the idea of finding a way to turn Spiritualism into further loyalty to the Supreme feels like it'd be a good manipulation, because let's be honest here, we already worship the supreme in any ways that matter. As long as the loyalty to them remains undisputed, it doesn't matter.
>>6273240>Disallow Vetuckers from these jobs as their main employment - but allow them to take on additional work in 'Starsight adjacent' fields if they wish to give up some of their allotted free days to help as unpaid labour/support.
>>6273240>>Disallow all Vetuckers from becoming Starseers
>>6273316>Forja - Hoik feels happyClearly the best reward.
>>6273316Nice.I'm not sure about culture vs military for cowboy. Enjoyed the write in.
Checking if I still have my IP from yesterday so I can vote
>>6273320Damn, that's a no. I'm >>6272787, it even still says (You) in the replies, but the ID changed.
>>6273316By the way, Bananas, is >>6273266 actually possible within the 'training time' of an Supreme candidate? Assuming it's just training them to have at least some education of starsight rather than dedicating themselves entirely to it.
>>6273323More lore exposition will be in the update but that's not really something you can vote to "unlock" on this prompt by itself, if that's what you're asking.
>>6273325I meant in the sense of whether that vote is even something that would be allowed, even if it would take more effort to actually accomplish it.
>>6273327Yes it's allowed. Will be elaborated on more in the update.
>>6273266>>6273240In that case, I'm definitely voting for this, +1Just punishing vetuckers for Spiritualism isn't going to really do much in our favor, the way I see it. If they're developing spiritualism because they were revived from the dead, just manipulate them into revering the supreme for doing it instead.
>>6273266+1>>6273240I'm on movile, but I am >>6272792. I can confirm it later.
>>6273240>Add more/update comparative religion studies, physics, and starsight information to the Vetucker educational regimen to demystify starsight and reinforce the Hegemonic viewpoint. Focus less on history.
>>6273266+1
>>6273240>Punish Vetuckers who show spiritualist leanings but allow them to pursue these paths if they choose toAnd if allowed, >>6273341+1Considering what we've seen the worms do to people with Starsight, we absolutely should not mandate Supreme's have it.
>>6273520In counterpoint, if the Cyte succeeds in reaching us we'll be fucked anyways because they can literally teleport behind the supreme and eat them. Given that Supremes who are dedicated to an specific field usually end up leading to big advantages in said field, and Starsight is probably the key to stopping the worms, I'd say that increasing the chances of a starsight-focused candidate is a pretty good choice.
>>6273335This is me.
>>6273522>starsight-focused candidateI for one welcome our Migrator Overlords
>>6273242Swapping this for >>6273266Starsight Pope, fuck t.
>>6273266Damn, I didn’t know y’all hated Halam so much.What’s with these Alpha Supremes and their short tenure?>>6273325Just a simple question- is there a secret to unlock with the write in? Or is it just flavor text?
>>6273572>What’s with these Alpha Supremes and their short tenure?*Future* Supremes, anon. If you're saying that someone would kill him for it...well, there's our spymaster, but do you really think he could beat Halam in a duel? Poisoning is probably just straight up not possible unless the Threemind just lets it happen.
”...If the Vetuckers find it an object worth of worship, like their once ancient monolithic belief in “God”, then we must become as it. The mystical undertones of Starsight are obvious to all; even to enlightened beings who feel no spirituality. Threes... I want to learn Starsight. Future Supreme Rulers must know it.”“...My lord, I'd advise against. It's a very technical field. Equivelent to high level mathematics or exacting battlefield energy-cycle protocals. The Supreme Ruler's skillset is about leadership-””Is the Supreme Ruler not supposed to be SUPREME? In all ways; strength, charisma, intelligence, dueling... why not this art?”“Starsight is dangerous. You are too young to know. It was before your time. Cijan would know.””Huh? You getting attitude with me again, machine?”“No, my lord, I simply remember the crying pleas of an Alpha-Male Jaxtian, exactly like you, to get his son back; our greatest Starseer, whose mind was pulled apart and snapped like a twig; a plaything to the enemy. Learning Starsight may be a point of pride to you; but it is the domain of the worms. Once you know it, you become vunerable to those who specalize in it. Obviously, I cannot stop you, but I strongly advise that, in this case, the Supreme Ruler is too valuable not to stay hidden in the dark.””You are certainly right in that you cannot stop me. See it done!”“Whatever you wish, your Majesty.”Unfrotunately, because you made no attempt to stop the Vetuckers from persuing Starsight careers, the number of military recruits for your ground invasion forces and unique Broadback weapon technology squads has dropped. Both the quality and number of applicants take a small but noticable dip, equating to a loss of -6% of your future attack waves. Hopefully, your approach will pay off in the future.
“With the work your father did in the colonies to supply enough water & other bioresources to increase the population and genetic diversity of both the Vetuckers and the Swall; we now have an expansive gene bank we can use.””For genetic upgrades?”“Preciesly. The Jaxtians have already taken useful genes to upgrade themselves; the Vetuckers, the Swall, the Migrators; as well as taking inspiration from worm, whale, and Hazaar biotechnology. The Hegemony has a long history of tampering with the Jaxtian genome; even as far back as Akule the Unspeakable, mixing the Jaxtian races with selective breeding to try and keep the most favorable traits. But for them? No such eugenic compulsion; other then the selective breeding of the Swall's own economic and cultural importance on family-planning and the Vetuckers selective breeding underneath Hegemonic leadership.”Your father really is the gift that keeps on giving. You were so confident just a few years ago you would use him as a stepping stone to do truly great things... but now you're feeling a bit inadequate again. He certainly had more foresight then you do. Once the war with the Aristocrats is over, and the Urgi factions changing and morphing with politics over the years; what will your legacy be? For living beings; nothing lasts longer then their biology; the living legacy of genetics. At least you have time to create something lasting.”I'm assuming we only have the budget and room for one upgrade each... pulling from each other.”“Of course, your Majesty. Trying to greatly modify a genome all at once before it has time to be absorbed and fully enter the breeding pool could lead to disasterous results; gene-specific diseases, birth defects from unpredicted gene clashing, unwanted speciation...””Because of their different phenotypes; is that why we're limiting crossover?”“As you know, your Majesty, the Vetuckers are large bodied, bulky, herbivouours herd animals that mostly live on land; especially in colder and more mountainous and arid regions. They are known to have short lifespans and are not especially intelligent. The Swall meanwhile are carniviours, amphibious, small bodied, sleek, who produce their own biotoxin. They have a high k-selection reproductive bias, with longer lifespans and are very intelligent; possible more intelligent then Jaxtians. They are about as different as two species can be; ignoring vast genetic distance and totally seperate evolutionary origins. Not to mention the gene upgrades traded to us by the Aristocrats slightly containmenating the “pure” bank of genetic information to work with. So trying to adapt to each others morphological DNA would be quite...””-BORING! Just give me the choices already.”
“From the Vetuckers to the Swall; several of their racial traits are avaliable for adaptation. The Swall seem to be distantly related to the “Zharks” of their homeworld; carnivirous and predatory boney fish; but lost their long tails and fins a few million years ago along with their ability to move on land and bipedalism. Vetuckers still have their tails, useful for their digitigrade locomotion. We could develop the Swall tailbone; granting them a full length tail; not very useful on land, but could assist with increasing their body mass and size as well as increasing their swimming ability even further.””It does look weird seeing them walk around with tails. And the slavery connotation...”“Second, as the Swall are obligate carnivours, their diet is quite limited and expensive. It would be possible to grant them a limited form of herbivorism; allowing them to eat some plant matter, most likely fruits and vegetables; similar to Jaxtians. This wouldn't necessarily improve their nutrition, as they can already get everything from meat, as well as not change their teeth or jaw, so the food would have to be prepared; it would just make it easier for them to live on planets with less ocean cover and space stations where aquifarming. Plus, a massive increase to the Hegemony's profits if we can supplement even one meal a week with cheap farmed food...””Anything else?”“As you know, your Majesty, Vetuckers are mammals. And mammals produce milk to feed their young. It's a defining trait.””Uh huh.”“And Vetucker women are very... mammalian.””Uh huh.”“So we could take some of those “mammalian” genes and-””SWALL TITTIES?!”“It's possible.””You know I'm interested... but even I pause at the practical application.”“Well, your Majesty, Swall women do not have any mammary glands. Their young hatch from eggs; fully weaned and capable of eating meat and even limited ability to hunt small prey; though parents naturally still help with the gathering of food even before their rise to intelligence. As such, milk could supplement the diet of the young, though it's not strictly necessary. It is also predicted that, given the great danger and strain on the body of Swall pregnancy and egg-laying; extra fat reserves could actually help Swall females sustain themselves and bounce back from the reproductive cycle healthier. It's likely this will increase the survival rate of female Swall during reproduction and increase brith rates by a small amount. But it's still at least... partially superficial.””Hey Threes? Can you shine your hologram projector over here on these Danbos and make 'em yellow for me? I just want to check something real quick. And turn your camera off.”“Of course, your Majesty.” The Threemind replies, strained. “Whatever you wish.”
”But what about the Vetuckers? What useful adaptations they could get from the Swall?”“The Swall possess a few unique adaptations. Swall have limited regeneration of skin, scales, and teeth which slowly regrow all throughout their lives; with missing scales being one of the strongest indicator of aging. They can also regrow the webbing between their digits and their fingers and toes up to a certain point; but it mostly affects keratin. We can implant this ability into Vetuckers which won't grant them much survivability beyond their already impressive toughness; but it would allows their horns to regenerate.”“Horns are an important part of their status and self-esteem, especially the males. I assume this would result in a higher average happiness.””Yes, they would be happier and could also aid with reducing their aging; or at least the appearance of it.”“I'm using the Vetuckers as soldiers now. Anything that could help with that?”“The Swall air-bladder, used for swimming and staying neutrally boyuant could be adapted to mutate one of the Vetucker's multiple stomache chambers to store the gases they produce when digesting.””What... possible benefit could that have?”“Well, it would make them a bit lighter on their feet, though it could lead to uncomfortable bloating. But the gas would be flammable.””SO!?”“You asked for combat adaptations, your Majesty. Maybe you could put a pilot light by their mouth or ignition source; and they could burp up fire?””...Alright, that is actually a kinda cool. Carry on.”“Lastly; it would be possible to grant a certain amount of “individuality” genes into the Vetucker brains. While the Hegemony has a good understanding of genetics and their link to intelligence, cross species interactions like this are tricky. But it is predicted that this mutation would make the Vetuckers significantly more intelligent at the cost of some of their groupthink and herd mentality. In other words, they'd be closer to Jaxtians and Swall in terms of how they think and operate; but be more self centered and ambitious.””Hmm. Is there really no way to increase their operational abilities without changing this?”“Unfortunately, no. These seem to be linked. You can make them smarter, but at the cost of changing a core aspect of their culture and social dynamic. They likely won't be quite as smart as a Swall or Jaxtian, and they won't have geniuses in the same way we do, but we'll see more of them in science and high-level fields and positions.”
”...One more thing, Threes. What about Jaxtians?”“We've already adapted as many genetic mutations that we currently can from the Swall and Vetuckers into the Jaxtians genome, though with an increasing population giving us more material to work with-””No no, I meant Jaxtians as donors. Is it possible?”“...Yes, it is. But it would take a large amount of resources to cross-reference our entire genetic library for useful mutations for both species. It would also be quite an expensive undertaking, and finally, it would be quite against tradition.””What tradition?”“Our belief in Jaxtians Supremacy. The enriching and improvement of the species mortal clay. To give that to another species may seem flippant, or casting our treasures to those who are not of your blood; at least among Jaxtian elites.””I care very little for what some stuffy high blood believes. I'll crush their head open with my stick, if they really care to.”“You may have to, if you do this, your Majesty.”Would you like to begin the Jaxtian to Vetucker/Swall Gene Program? >Yes (Expensive)>No (Traditional)What Adaptation would you like the Swall to receive?>Mammary Glands>Herbivorism>Tail GeneticsWhat Adaptation would like the Vetuckers to receive?>Limited Regeneration>Gas Bladder>Mental Independence
>>6273614>Yes (Expensive)Wouldn't it be easy to argue that having our genes on the vetucker and swall would just be a show of our supremacy? We're so great we're putting parts of ourselves into others. Of course, only the Vetuckers and Swall will get this. I do want to make this clear - ONLY the Vetucker and Swall should get to become full "Equals" to the Jaxtians. Even if in the future we integrate the Urgi or the Esaal, they should be below them.>Mammary GlandsFISH. TITS. FISH TITS. FISH. TITS.>Limited RegenerationMixing spiritualism with independence is a bad idea. If the Vetucker are allowed to be spiritual, they should also be completely loyal.
>>6273614>Yes (Expensive)>Mammary GlandsI just think the idea of giving the fish tits is incredibly fucking funny. Also, slightly increases the fishe population and fishe are cool.I can see value in the herbivore trait because MONEY equal GOOD.In terms of>Gas BladderA cow blasting fire at someone is also incredibly cool. I want that.
>>6273322Okay, my IP is still here this time, right?
>>6273620Well, guess not. Lol. I'm just outta luck.
>>6273614>No (Traditional)>Mammary Glands>Gas BladderThe coolest/sexiest options from the perspective of our somewhat meat-headed new Supreme.
>>6273633Didn't Halam specifically say he didn't give a fuck about tradition?
>>6273614>No (Traditional)Return to Tradition!>Mammary Glands>Gas BladderEoba’s Tradition!Can’t wait for the Starsight shit to haunt us later on- there’s a reason we don’t fuck around with it, and we’re about to find out.
>>6273614>No. Waste of money. >Fish: +Herbivorism>Cowbros: +Limited Regeneration. I was tempted to say 'nothing' and leave their genes more open, but we also have worm regeneration for the flesh, so maybe we can guild on their keratin regen in the future to make our tank troopers even more tanky. Do we have any immune system supporting nano-bots to help innoculate our cowbro infantry against aristocrat bioweapons?
>>6273614>No (Traditional)>Tail Genetics>Limited Regeneration
>>6273636True, but that's the one I care the most about out of character. I do not miss the schisms and infighting of the pre-Wrix era. In-character I guess he could justify it as being in the middle of a war and political interference abroad, and not wanting to have internal strife simultaneously.
>>6273614>Yes (Expensive)>Herbivorism>Mental IndependenceI like this Supreme, even if he needs to get a baseball cap for his growing bald spot.
>>6273640I'm pretty sure that because of the mask, we'll never have that sort of stuff again. The cost of the Jaxtian gene is...the cost. Like money cost. Of course, thanks to our economy tripling, we can probably afford an expensive option, right? As long as we succeed in the war, we could even force the aristocrats to give us some China-tier deals to further humiliate them.Mostly, it's just a cool option. It's a waste to not use jaxtian genes on them.
>>6273642Threes says explicitly that we will upset an internal faction and have to face leadership challenges and/or assassination attempts, and that succeeding would undermine the fundamental concept of Jaxtian Supremacy.
>Hates the Ar*stocrats>Ignores cringe akule atheism (He was a fan anyways)>Too strong for a little friend-stabbig knife, uses staff like a true warrior>Wants to give the swall tits and vetuckers fire breathing>Tradition? Who cares, let them come>Will personally beat up anyone that tries to stop himHalam's level of based is growing dangerously high.
>>6273648>minor misspellingI must now commit seppuku.
>>6273614Would you like to begin the Jaxtian to Vetucker/Swall Gene Program?>No (Traditional)What Adaptation would you like the Swall to receive?>HerbivorismWhat Adaptation would like the Vetuckers to receive?>Limited Regeneration
>>6273648So true. If he keeps this up and actually dabs on the Aristocrats we might approach Eoba II levels of raw basedness. I wanted the Swall, but I'm so glad this guy won over the surveillance twerp.
>>6273614>No (Traditional)Wisdom is alas boring le sigh>Mammary GlandsIt would improve the Supreme's happiness and thus be good for the Hegemony.>Limited RegenerationAnd Based Halam said 'Let your horns be forever strong' and so it was.
>>6273618Eh, changing >Gas Bladder to >Limited RegenerationLet the cows be happy. Like yeah it might give them, at most, like 1% more durability but a happy population is a docile population.
>>6273614>No (Traditional)Even if we wanted to, we can't spare this expense in wartime.>HerbivorismBest if the Swall can eat some of what the rest of us are having.>Limited RegenerationIf we're using them as soldiers...
>>6273614>No (Traditional)>Tail GeneticsEvery hegemonic species have a tail = more social cohesion + later spidermonkey inclusion to all>Limited Regeneration
>>6273614>No (Traditional)>Herbivorism>Limited RegenerationBoring, maybe. Practical, definitely.
>>6273614>Yes (Expensive)>Herbivorism>Limited RegenerationMost useful ones.
I demand Swall booba
>>6273709Well, give funds to Usis Nanonae.I really liked this >>6273611 throwback Bananas
Beancounting just to see how things are shaking out.MONKEY TO FISH AND COW?YES: p51, iPy, Inh, of5. TOTAL: 4NO: bjq, g+1, V8Q, XIw, dFL, xJu, n4Q, tlp, Q4w. TOTAL: 9FISH GENE?TITS: p51, iPy, bjq, g+1, xJu. TOTAL: 5HERBIVORE: V8Q, Inh, dFL, n4Q, Q4w, of5. TOTAL: 6TAIL: XIw, tlp. TOTAL: 2COW GENE?REGEN: p51, iPy, v8Q, XIW, dFL, xJu, n4Q, tlp, Q4w, of5. TOTAL: 10GAS: bjq, g+1. TOTAL: 2MENTAL: Inh. TOTAL: 1So, seems like NO (TRADITIONAL) won heavily, HERBIVORE is currently barely beating TITS and REGEN is at a landslide.
>>6273717As no one is supporting Tail Domination, count me switching from >Tail Geneticsto>Herbivorism
>>6273720>furthering the tit gapIt's 7 to 5 now. It's so fucking over.
>>6273722Sorry. Despite how funny Fishboobas are, nothing beats raw optimization in this quest.
>>6273722Flat fish are justice.
>>6273730>erm, boobs? sorry sweaty, but i want to be able to feed basedbean to the swall instead
>>6273762Antisocial wanting cross-species breeding spotted.
>>6273764Are you telling me Eoba II was Anti-social?
>>6273765The Supreme can never be, as he is above the law.Now, Hoik on the other hand...
>>6273782We're not playing as Hoik, we're playing as Halam, and Halam should choose the correct option of giving the fish tits.
>>6273783Anon, I voted for fish tits. Chill.
>>6273611Ok I take back my statement about Streakeyes on top last thread, I’m so fucking glad this nigga won.>>6273614Would you like to begin the Jaxtian to Vetucker/Swall Gene Program?>Yes (Expensive)Thanks for the money, Pop!What Adaptation would you like the Swall to receive?>Mammary GlandsHigher birth survival rate = higher birth rate = bigger labor pool.What Adaptation would like the Vetuckers to receive?>Gas BladderFire-breathing soldiers would be so cool.
>>6273717>Monkey players are too close-minded and too scared of failures to attempt something cool for once
>>6273828They are afraid.
>>6273828That's the issue with adding "Minmax" options, people will usually pick the lame and boring ones.
>>6273614I haven't posted in this thread yet, or in any Space Monke thread (with the exception of Hoik's side adventure) since the Unspeakable but I've been lurking, and I'm convinced Halam is the best Supreme Leader we've had in three generations. I can't keep watching in a vote like this.>No (Traditional)I would prefer we enhance our species as much as possible, but it's not worth the civil strife.>Mammary GlandsI agree fish tits are funny, but the biggest benefit here is in the nutrition. That'll lead to better outcomes for Swall across the board. It will also cement our current Supreme Leader's legacy, for better or worse.>Limited RegenerationThe gas bladder is awesome but I'm 90% sure it's weaker than a dedicated flamethrower and impossible to use in a pressurized suit, which most of our combat is done in.No worries if you don't trust the risk of samefagging enough to take this vote. I just love xenopsychology and this quest does it better than every other.
>>6273830Flat is justice
>>6273931You need nipples to qualify for "Flat", anon.
>>6273614>Mammary Glandsbig thing for child rearing and nutrients makes contamination less of a issue for developing young as the adult has already processed the nutrients, mammary secretions is a major boon for on average health outcomes and development >Limited Regenerationhorns breaking and such injuries has been a issue for them
>>6273830I thought one of those was a male.
Don't the baby Swall have super sharp teeth? Are we going to knock out their baby teeth or are these going to be steel cutting tits?
>>6273987Probably bottle-babies, I guess? Though kittens get teeth well before they're weaned.
>>6273987I imagine that they'd be durable enough to resist said baby teeth. Or their development will be slowed a little.Anyway, don't matter unelss mammary glands wins (as it should)
>>6274012SORE NIPPLES
>>6273693You know what, gotta have some fun I’ll change my vote here from Herbivorism to>Mammary Glands
I'm not accepting 1 post IDs for this lil bro.
>>6274060Then what's even the count
RE BEANCOUNTING, not accounting for 1 post IDsINVALID IDS: D9y, Q4w, V8Q, dFL (at the time of the vote)VALID IDS: p51, iPy, Inh, of5, Ocr, bjq, g+1, XIw, xJu, n4Q, tlp, +ssMONKEY TO FISH AND COW?YES: p51, iPy, Inh, of5, Ocr. TOTAL: 5NO: bjq, g+1, XIw, xJu, n4Q, tlp. TOTAL: 6DIDN'T VOTE: +ss. TOTAL: 1 (just default it to no so we don't have a tie)FISH GENE?TITS: p51, iPy, bjq, g+1, xJu, Ocr, +ss. TOTAL: 7HERBIVORE: Inh, n4Q, of5, tlp TOTAL: 4TAIL: XIw. TOTAL: 1COW GENE?REGEN: p51, iPy, XIW, xJu, n4Q, tlp, of5, +ss. TOTAL: 8GAS: bjq, g+1, Ocr TOTAL: 3MENTAL: Inh. TOTAL: 1Every ID in this vote has voted before.So, with this new arrangement, nothing has changed much. We're still not doing the expensive option and we're still doing regen.However.This means more unique Ids are voting for fish tits than not.
>>6274067>Fish titties winThe only one that mattered.
”...We may need the money for the war effort. Full genetic donor program just isn't in the cards right now.”While you may or may not agree with the idea of sharing the Jaxtian genetic “treasure” with the Swall and Vetuckers; for practical concerns you just can't accept it. Instead, a smaller scale gene upgrade to be introduced to the next generation. You decide to grant the Vetuckers limited regeneration; though your current war will be over by the time this fully difuses into the population, this should aide in their already impressive survability and toughness. Plus, being able to grow their horns back naturally would be nice to have, you'd think you'd like that if you were one of them.For the Swall, your decision is more tricky. You have the one you obviously want to win; the thought of some small but tasteful yellow breasts adorning their figures interests you as a male, but the more you think about it... isn't it actually the largest benefit? Mammals became the dominant and most intelligent type of species on many worlds for a reason. Higher selection bias towards nurturing and feeding the next generation. It goes hand in hand with their survival strategy. Perhaps they may be just a little bit less hydrodynamic but...“Ugh! Gross! You aren't actually going to graft on breasts to Swall women, your Majesty!” Christopher Streakeyes, part of your Hegemonic elite council, seems to disagree.”What? There are a long list of benefits, honest!” You say with a laugh, a little embaressed. ”Your women are too skinny, Streaks! We need more Swall for future generations in science and mathematics; and this directly helps.”“The Swall don't like having their most intimate moments messed with. Our eggs are scared. Surely, you'll allow Swall to deny the gene upgrade, like your Father did?””Huh? Of course not. It isn't useful unless fully spread throughout the population. I am not my Father. You'll do as I say, as I am the Supreme Ruler, and that is that.”“What!? You can't- You can't do this! You are a pervert!””...What did you just say?”
"No daughter of mine will- ACK!"You whirl around, grabbing the Swall by the throat. You lift him up in the air with one hand as he snarls, squeezing his throat tightly.”Oh! I see time around high Jaxtian society has taught you to be just as much of a backstabber as an monkey! But you didn't learn that you need to back up that bravado with some skills with a knife!”Christopher chokes, acidic ink-spit trailing down his chin and burning into your robe's sleeve. He could try to spit it into your eyes and blind you; but your doctors would just grow you new corneas while you twist his head off. It's of no concern to you; but he doesn't spit. He shivers, his hands not clawing, merely trying to get your hand off his throat. The fight has completely left him.“I- I-” You squeeze his throat to silence him.”Ah ah ah! You have to make it official? You want to be the Supreme Ruler? Then you gotta duel me! Go ahead, say it! “I- Challenge- You!” Go on, say it!”With each word, you squeeze his throat. His gill-flips open and close useless in instinct, trying desperately for air.“I'm- I- am- sor- ry!”>Snap his neck>Let him go
>>6274073I'm going to go ahead and guess that if we *don't* snap his neck he's going to pull a stealth kill on Halam or something.Unless now that I posted it, it's choking that will kill him.
>>6274073>Let him goThis is silly. I'm not killing someone over tits.
>>6274076I mean, I agree, but these votes usually aren't as they initially show. But is it an "Choose the logical option and you die" scenario? Or perhaps the exact opposite and we can do just that?
>>6274077I am numb to the Bananas Mindgames. The others can argue about the merits of killing him because we thought it was funny to pick tits.
>>6274060That's fair, I wouldn't have either given the contention.>>6274073>Let him goIf he has the stones to reject the Supreme Ruler to his face and the common sense to back down, his life's worth sparing. We shouldn't be surprised that we're seeing some resistance to this. That'll be a problem, but I think the benefits are worth a couple of generations of Swall discontent.
>>6274078Well as much as I would like a swall Supreme this is literally the worst possible moment. Halam is a big help to the war and losing him would probably hurt us a lot. I guess the mindgames and gotchas are annoying but what else is there to do?
>>6274081Shrug.You're talking to the wrong anon. I'm sure you can find someone else to discuss this with.
>>6274073Ah, screw it. I know that it's almost definitely going to be a repeat of the previous alpha supreme where he shows mercy and then gets killed for it, but I can't vote to kill Streakeyes.>Let him goToo bad for Halam, I guess, but Alpha supremes are just doomed to get murdered every single time.
>>6274073>>Snap his neckHe will get revenge and then he will revoke the Swall fish tits.I may not have voted for that, but since we're doing it we should commit.
>>6274073>Snap his neckWe have too much mercy
>>6274073>snap his neckHalam grew on me too much, I’m sorry Chris.
>>6274073>Let him goAin’t killing a Supreme tier lineage- besides, it’ll be funnier to see him live through giving his daughter da best tits possible.Of course, I don’t mind continuing the policy of letting the Swall decide their genetics- times will change, and demographics will favor fishtits. It’s inevitable.
>>6274073>>Let him go>>Have Threes increase surveillance on Christopher, and ensure he can never ambush you privately. Alphas have a tendency to be murdered after all.>>6273679This is my id, I am away from home and le phoneposting. If the write in isn't accepted idm. Also we should make sure streakeyes family is the first to volunteer for the gene therapy, to show even supreme candidates aren't above the greater good.
>>6274073>Let him goSwall has every right to be pissed with our stupid-horny decision,.
>>6274128support
>>6274128Supporting this Alphas really haven’t had the best survival prospects…
>>6274128supportbut also need to actually show him the list
Is Threes even allowed to do that? I thought that their whole Klingon honor system meant that assassinations on the Supreme were just straight up allowed because lol and anyone who tries to prevent it is WITHOUT HONOH
>>6274163I don't think it's something Halam "I want fat fishtits and cool firebreathing cows' would do in character anyways.Now the last supreme we had might've done that but he was too busy filling bars or whatever.
>>6274167I had to reread your post three times to figure out what you meant at the end there lol
>>6274186KINOI was talking about the thread-wide minigame where we autism'd over AI farms and shit like that. Guess 'gauges' would've made that clearer but meh.
>>6274201Oh no I figured that out at the end, those two I drew were the first "filling bars" I thought of before the minigame for some reason
>>6274186In two years, when Monkes find out that getting drunk somehow reverses universal entropy, I will repost this.
>>6274186Kek, Avae secretly being a lyricist would be kino.>>6274073>Snap his neckAnyway, anyone who openly challenges and insults the Supreme must be made an example of. Sorry, Streakeyes.
>>6274073>Let him go
BEANCOUNTLIFE OR DEATH FOR THE FISHE?LIFE: iPy, D9y (non-1 post ID now), nN3, hw+, gr3 (one post but link to previous ID), tlp, AIE, +ss, of5. TOTAL: 8-9, depending if Bananas counts gr3 now.DEATH: Xlw, SmK, Ocr, bjq. TOTAL: 4Seems like le funny fishe is spared.Let's only hope this doesn't bite us in the ass.
>>6274407>Let's only hope this doesn't bite us in the ass.Sounds like you haven't heard of what happened to the last supreme who spared someone
>>6274407hope the watched is counted
>>6274411Watched? You mean the write-in? Maybe, but it probably won't matter since Halam will just get killed by a cheapshot when he lets him go.
How are you liking the thread so far?
>>6274489Well, I've been liking it pretty well so far. Halam is a real based retard, which makes it sad that he's probably dying. The minigames are cool, getting to think of strategies is always fun.
>>6274489Feels good. Very classic Monke adventures. You've clearly worked hard on these political puzzles.
>>6274489>”Hey Threes? Can you shine your hologram projector over here on these Danbos and make 'em yellow for me? I just want to check something real quick. And turn your camera off.”>“Of course, your Majesty.” The Threemind replies, strained. “Whatever you wish.”Wait a second. If the old owner's name was Chuck...
>>6274489It has been quite chill for the most part, and while I don't really like the wargame all that mic personally, I like everything else (and the new Supreme) a lot.
>>6274489>94 posts by my IDalmost as much as youSo yeah, having fun
>>6274489Mostly just lurk but I'm having fun and enjoying the story
You release your grip, and let Christopher go. He falls to the ground like a dead and fallen branch, recovering just enough to crawl into a deep bow.“T-Thank you for... your... mercy... your maj- majesty...””That's alright, hope you learned your lesson. And I didn't squeeze you too hard.” You flex your arm, feeling a slight pain in your deepest veins. You didn't think he was that heavy, but still holding him up and almost breaking his neck with one arm really got you sore.“I am ready.. for... punishment...””Ehh... I'm not gonna pull your arm off like Agori, I'm not that sadistic. To my own people, anyway. I think throttling you was punishment enough. Besides, you're supposed to be some kind of computer genius, right? Why are you slurking around Hegemonic high society anyway?”Streakeyes seems hesitant to speak, possibly due to the difficulty of breathing or not to incriminate himself. The Threemind quickly chimes in, whispering directly to you.“It was thought better to not make any large scale changes or upgrades to the computer system during your pivitol projects in the Urgi election or with the Aristocrat war as to avoid interference, your Majesty.””Ahh, well in that case Streaks, I'm going to need you soon after this is over. Improve your skills and prepare your projects; you're too valuable to die over something stupid like this. Go now.”“T-Thank you... Master...”Of course, Christopher had no chance to defeat you. The reason why people always talk about Alpha males like Agori or Bantam getting defeated in duels is because of how unusual it is. In Agori's case, he was old and surprised by a clever child, who grew up to the greatest duelist of all time by the way; and Bantam only lost because of Hass Takar's ambition and because he seemed to almost “let him”. Jaxtians are strong, and Alpha males doublly so; you have a distinct advantage in dueling. If a regular Jaxtian noble would have a hard time defeating you, a phyiscally unremarkable Swall is simply no real threat.In the coming months and years; interest in the Swall's new “mammalian features” would be seen both in horny young boys of the Hegemony, but moreso the womanfolk and softer side of the Hegemony as well. With their own parents unable to help, Swall females would be forced to seek knowledge among the Vetucker and Jaxtian female. As Swall women are more masculine in both apperance and mannerism then most females of the Hegemony, they've always been the most isolated; and this has bridged the gap a bit. The alien “otherness” of the Swall has been reducd, shifting them closer to the other Hegemonic races as they have become more mammalian.“An unexpected, but fortituous outcome, your Majesty.” The Threemind says. You nod your head sagely, as though you are the wised Supreme Ruler of all time.”Through boobies... unity.”
You are now Insar'Sholo. The grasses you have been tending to for years grow in orderly rows and patches, the chaotic wind bobs them as the sound issues from the microchannels along their sheathe.~shoo shh shoooo shooo schooo hoo~For now, it is nothing but noise, the almost silent windchimes. But soon, it will be your masterpiece. You hear the sound of far away droning, and glance up, to see the nuptial flight of the warriors; the caste in your society that makes war.“Oh... that is not good. Bad, bad day. Rotten bad day.” To see them in the sky can only mean one thing. The Wisdom Trees communicate with each other; a society across the stars. It is slower then the Starsight that you loan from the worms; the Star Lanes purchased with the sacrificed, specially-grown Aristocrat babies filled with wonder. But the trees have their own method, across space, where they can feel what the others feel. You water their roots with the celestial wine; and they know what the others know. You do not question it.But the flight of the warriors can only mean you are under attack; and so soon after the Esaal had their turn? Aristocrats have no interest in a war; even though you are the pinnacle of your society. You want nothing to do with it!Your society is divded into three estates. The third estate, the worker-drones, who do nothing but work and tend the wisdom trees and gather the materials and do all the make-doings. Endlessly and thanklessly, their only purpose is to work. As filled with light as the rest of your kinds; but only knowing work. The second estate are the warriors, the ones who fight when your people are attacked, only sometimes to be roused from their slumber among the roots deep under the Wisdom Trees; the cicadal awakening. Their only purpose is to fight; and in months, all of these warriors will be dead, win or lose, as their only purpose is to fight. And then, finally, there is the first estate; the Aristocrats, whose purpose is to live and experience all life has to offer. That is your purpose, and one you wear with pride.As you like to put it? Those who work, those who fight, and those who play.
Art, entertainment, ease, pleasure; these are all things that are the pinnacle of life. The sweetiest of experiences that subsist beyond death. This is the reason why your society is the greatest and most advanced of all. Beyond your absolute control over biology; you have a certain level of understanding of this fact that other species and beings in space do not. Beauty is not subjective; it requires rigerous and an expert hand to craft it, and to apprecaite it. The highest eschalons of any discipline can only be truly known by those who are bred for it; physical, mental, so why not creative?What purpose is there for entertainment on the lowborn, the animal, the common, the villein? It only exists to sustain some mental compulsion for boredom or relaxation before the next day of toil. What appreciation can truly be had for something beautiful by one born to destroy, whose muscles and sharp ridges would as easily tear any soft and frilly thing as capable of appreciating its touch? There is not purpose to it; it is a waste of time. It is much better for them to know nothing of the sort. Only work, only their purpose, day in and day out, until they gracelessly expire.The Esaal cannot appreciate pretty things, cannot advance the form of art, everything is to be a resource and power-play for their ego and thirst for domination. Any species so obsessed in this way is doomed to absolute inner vacancy. The Consortium is worse yet; mimicking the pursuit of art but purely for capital. All creations to feed some bottom line and dumbed down for the lowest common dominator. Every single beautiful idea or cultural artifact to be melted down and cast off for parts to be sold on some marketplace. Yuck! It makes you sick! Only the Jaxtians seem to understand the truth, in some limited way. They have idle nobles too; generational families of high class aristocracy, exclusive, held seperate from the crass and common. But they are so obsessed with efficacy, equality of opportunity, obedience to a single vision; art cannot grow in such an enviormnet. There is some spark of creativity among them; but it is twisted and boxed in with iron walls. Not like your lovely, lovely hedges. Not like your lovely little leaf-eaters and lovely little whistling weeds and the lovely little pond where-
The warriors have come to your little nesting hooch. Your inspiration hooch! Exoskeletons of metal-infused chitin menace from their arms and legs, acidic venom courses through its veins, flesh eating bacterial saliva drip from its mouth, nerve clusters flop from their heads flailing around looking for a wound to push into; penises with paralytic venom dangle limply from between their thighs. The fact the Hazaari offshoots thought to use those for...”Soft one.” The warrior buzzes angrily from its mandibles, flexing its claws. ”We must feed. Tell us what we can take.”The locusts of war demand their tithe. You are beholden to your lord, the one who planted your wisdom tree, and from the same seed birthed you. Your Fief's resources are not in gold; but in life. War among the Aristocrats, and to their enemies, mean devestation for the land; and you must contribute. This obligation is ironclad, and you will not deny it. But your project...”Grrghm... Need biomass... I want to fight! I want to kill!”It is famished, angry, and horny in some twisted way. It could kill you easily with but a swipe of its claws; but you are still its master, as this land is yours. You must send off your levies to aide your war in his conflict, and you must arm them from your own “stocks”, but the highest form of life, art, is above their petty temporal concerns. Which means, you have some discretion...>Give them what you must>Hold back to make your project even better>Order the warriors to go back to sleep
>>6274658Project? What Project?
>>6274658>Order the warriors to go back to sleepThere is no war in Ba Sing Se - all is well.
>>6274658>Hold back to make your project even betterLet him cook, we can rob him later if his project turns out to be useful.
>>6274658>>Hold back to make your project even betterless % of reinforcemnt for war to come.>>6274673Still thinking Insar'Sholo leaves in Kon'Cil'Cilas I want to attack that guy in 2 turns
>>6274655>Through boobies... unityGoddamn we're based.>>6274658Oh wow these guys are cool. I am averting my eyes I wonder what the drones look like.>Hold back to make your project even better
>>6274730>Xenogirl enjoyer>Makes a big change to the supreme candidacy system >Beats dissenters with his bare hands Close enough, welcome back Eoba II
>>6274673>>6274676The new project may prove more dangerous to the Hegemony, for all we know.>>6274670If he doesn't contribute to the tithe, will he be replaced by someone more competent? Maybe even suppplanted by a warrior caste?
>>6274658>Give them what you mustI am pretty sure that this is the more "reasonable" course of action for Insar'Sholo. surely not all biomass on the planet is required for the project, right?
>>6274658>Hold back to make your project even betterI'm excited to see what he makes.
>>6274658>>Hold back to make your project even better
>>6274658>Hold BackWe probably can't keep them asleep anyway since that is controlled by the trees rather than us.
I'm calling it right now, if we actually let him focus on his project, we're gonna need to attack that green cluster real fast unless we want to be faced with an absolute pain in the ass of a surprise.
>>6274658>Hold back to make your project even betterCan't dismiss the warriors back to sleep in Wartime, but we can't give them free reign to feed and replicate themselves.
>>6274658>Give them what you mustIt is time to cock block the Cyte, my warriors!
>>6274803I think so, too, but it might turn out to be just a work of art. >>6274673Voting for characters at war with the hegemony to act in the hegemony’s interest is peak metagaming faggotry
>>6274803Well that's already my battleplan
>>6274858Based on Banana’s wording the project will most likely be a work of art, also we won anyway so who gives a shit.
>>6274891>also we won anyway so who gives a shit.Well we went through "first wave" quite good - we have "at least two more waves with population backing" and effects on wave power with each passing vote so I'd be wary of this.Bananas I hunger for sending ships toward Aristocrats!
>>6274891Who knows what this work of art actually is? We do have precedent for aristocrat art being harmful to jaxtians
>>6274898>>6274916Well shit, I might be retarded.Won't change my vote tho.
>>6274928I'll take that as a full support and backing on my military plans as I voted same than you
While you do have your obligation to your lord, you do have some discretion. Truthfully, you don't care much for the war at all, or the warriors who pillage your lands as bad as an invading enemy would. Why waste your own resources? You can't deny the request; but you can do the absolute bare minimum. A good master would inspire you to greater artistic heights, not endlessly play with their instruments. In the race to create the finest masterpieces, sometimes a little corruption and coercion is to be expected. While you haven't made an art form of evading taxes like the Consortium does; you have your own way of keeping what is yours.“...The Hedges, my little leaf-eating little ones, the pond, and the whistling weeds are all off limits for sure. Plus the grounds must be kept tidy; no digging any womb-holes or anything of the sort here. Oh, and I'll need some drones to help with the final preperations, so you can't kill all of them. And I need some fruit from the Wisdom tree still; you'll need to leave me at least a few of the good colors. But surely if you scrap the lichen from the stones and filter the swarms of insects; that will be enough to fuel you into space, eh?”The warrior twitches errantly; some inherent knowledge letting it know that you aren't giving it the most you could to help you with its task. Hundreds of complex protien chains and many, many calories of energy are needed to feed the machines they must build; space-capable acidic spewing insectoid ships, unfurling to catch solar winds and accelerate to as fast as light; and you tell it to scrap lichen from the rocks... But what can it do? You stay silent, and after a few moments, the warrior motions to the others to go about their tasks. You stand there very smugly and feel very clever for tricking the lesser estate of your society. Who cares what they want? What does any of that ugly, ugly fighting have to do with the beautiful things you care about?...Of course, the drones that live on your fief have no such authority over the warriors. After all, their bodies are not their own. It is not their purpose to be free or to live a long life. If their flesh will feed the larval-state of your society's warships before they blossom and ready for battle; then so be it.
You are Halam Anak again, and you are currently speaking to a very irritated rodent. You aren't exactly sure how you gained contact with the smuggler; but after he revealed his importance and knowledge of the Urgi's trade networks and requested a specific audience with the Supreme Ruler, your underlings wisely handed him up the chain of command and directly to you.”...You know, a lot of people have a problem with the Aristocrats. I think you should get in line.”“No, no! Your, err, Majesty! It's them in particular! Fas'Kon'Anull! That little queer worthless pink piece of-”The Threemind discretly whispers to you under the tirade. “That's the blue sector, your Majesty. The one that's shaped like a penis.””Oh, okay.””...There was a fad among Aristocrats many years ago that filthy stomper started. It kept Sotten as pets. They thought we were cute. So they enslaved some of us; making up sleepy little lap-rodents. Just like your Nut-Thieves. But then, that Fas'Kon'Anull thought it was extremely funny if a sleepy Sotten would just randomly get a burst of energy, jump up, and start dancing during a nap. Random bursts of energy, triggered from itch and nerve receptors. Essentially, giving its “pets” a form of seizure induced mania...””So he made you dance. So what?””Dan- Awakening a Sotten from sleep forcefully from sleep is already a cime! Forcing our bodies, which are built for rest and conserving energy, to dance wildly and erracticly is torture!””I don't really see what this has to do with me.””I AM NOT A FASHION ACCESSORY! I AM NOT A PET! DESTOY THEM!!! I WANT THOSE FUCKERS DEAD!”
You exhale, turning away from the monitor.”Huh, I didn't know you were so passionate to order me, soverign royalty, about how to spend my men's lives and resources on a war you have no part of. I wonder if we have any stealth cruisers in your area that can pick you up. Maybe we can continue this discussion in person?”Immediately, the old Sotten realizes his error. He babbles apologetically.”W-Wait! I'm, I'm S-Sorry your Majesty! I'm not commanding you to do anything of course, haha, you being a Supreme Ruler and all! I just- uhh- I can be useful to you!””Oh? I'm listening.””I-I just, uhh, you see... I'm a smuggler. And for many years I served the Urgi as a pilot flying goods here and there during my long boring realspace sleeps. I'm getting old and have amassed quite a fortune; though I know the amount is nothing to a Ruler of a great and wealthy nation of beings like yourself...””Enough with the flattery. What can you offer me?””Redwings! I-I know where they keep their weapon stockpiles! I know where the Goldwings keep their treasures too- all of it! They know my ship and will trust my AI codes; one bomb, one virus uploaded into a crypto server and BAM! Massive damage!””Hmm. I'm suspicious. Why would you betray their trust like that.””Exactly as I said, your Majesty. I am getting old now, and want to retire soon. Fly away to some quiet world and make a nice sleeping-hole and never wake up again. I was gonna do it in Urgi space; but now I learn they're undercutting me; selling my contracts to their own people for twice my rate for their new little racial state. Bah! Fuck them! The Aristocrats are beyond my ability to do anything about; I can't even fight a single warship, let along scour a hostile planet and take revenge on some Aristocrat noble with all its scary diseases and genetically modified slave soldiers. I had hoped the Esaal would have killed the culprit of my hatred but no, it slipped away. Now, I hear you are giving them the what-for!””But why are you trusting me? You know I could easily turn you in to the Urgi authoirities and improve my reputation with them, right? I bet they'd love a little spy to execute as a first show of force to the forming nation-state.”The Sotten fidgets uncomfortably. He looks very tired. You are not sure if it's nerves, or his species-wide developed lifelong narcolepsy.
”...An ancestor of mine was a smuggler too. He carried goods to the Consortium through Hegemony space; and was caught in the middle of a war. He didn't know what he was carrying. But instead of killing him, your Supreme Ruler let him go even though they had no reason to spare a criminal and one working for the enemy at that. Your people always seemed decent in that way. So I thought maybe... this could be my one chance to punish the rich and powerful and beyond my reach. I thought it was at least worth a try. I meant no disrespect.””...I'll consider it. In the meantime, if I do decide to destroy Fas'Kon'Anull, you better uphold your end of the bargain. You got that?””Wait, r-really? You'll- Yes, your Majesty! I will.”With this secondary objective in mind, it is now time to rally your troops and prepare your second attack wave! While it isn't as impressive as the mighty first sneak attack, this new batch of fresh troops and ships should allow you to take more territory and get closer to completeing your objectives...RulesFor the sake of simplicity; please decide where to recall troops first as part of your battle plan. Recalled troops from planets you have already defeated are immediately added to your main fleet force for this round; then you may divvy them up by the prior rules found here >>6270359The number currently written on the image is your new units. You can use these in addition to existing units still on the battlemap.During the “attack” phase, you may also send your forces to planets you already occupy to increase their defenses. You will not roll for these, just increase the number on the planet to make it more likely to survive an enemy attack.Remember; you may only attack sectors with arrows directly to your main fleet number OR adjoining sectors in which you have at least one captured planet. After your forces are assigned, rolling will begin. Because this is your second wave; all enemy sectors that have not been fully conquered will contribute reinforcements to the enemy fleet, which will attack you back. You can reduce the number of enemy reinforcements by fully conquering an enemy sector.>Recall (Choose how many forces from captured planets to recall back to the fleet)>Attack Phase (Choose enemy planets to attack and how many forces to send to each)
>>6274987>not endlessly play with their instrumentsA-HA! Insar Sholo isn't an Kon'Cil'Las vassal, he's an ANDULE vassal, the creepy-ass weirdo who turned our admiral into an instrument.I'll wait for General Beancounter to make his math, but do keep that in mind. Also, shouldn't we know *where* the enemy fleet will strike due to our information deal?
>>6274993Revealed in a post above, the symbols by the Aristocrat number are my shorthand attempt to showing it as a reminder>>6272203
>>6274996I see.Well, if the clusters won't be retaken, it follows that there's no reaosn to keep a fleet there. And if they're 'evenly split' that means it'll be 81 ships going after the sector we took. Since that's not decisively enough to take the capital, it is more likely they will instead attempt to take out the outlying planets.
>>6274991>Recall26 + 10 from Cluster 1 and 15 from Cluster 215 from yellow16, 27 from grey 28 and 10 from yellow11Giving 103 troups to add to our 192 - total 293>AttackStrategy Divide and Conquer, detailled here >>627235063 ships on Cluster 4 (Total : 230 remaining)30 ships on Yellow-8 (Autowin, ensure we take yellow); guts reinforcements (200 remaining)>Blue Takeover27 ships on Blue-759 ships on Blue-2984 ships on Blue-39This aim to have as much as possible on the one that will get attacked once takenSpread for dread : 29 ships on Purple-9, 32 ships on red-12This aim to make them split their reinforcements as retard as well as opening bridgehead toward Green Cluster.
>>6275010That attack on cluster 4 is gonna be cutting it close. You sure it's really worth it? You'd only be sparing us from 4 points extra in ONE turn of reinforcement - this is the second to last turn before the war turns sour, after all.
>>6275015> this is the second to last turn before the war turns sourBanana said it was a "side Objective".I'm for taking all cluster and letting 1 ship on it as an humiliating display of Jaxtian dominance. I agree those ships could be used somewhere else - but there's not much use excepted "increase our odds"Also, regarding the "sourness" of the conflict -> we need to take at least 4 capital planets. We could baserush but i don't feel it would be the best regarding lifemachine side-objective
>>6275020Secondary Objectives in the senses that taking them out is a possibility, but not crucial to the mission.>I agree those ships could be used somewhere else - but there's not much use excepted "increase our odds"Isn't that a good way? You know how the system is, anything other than an overwhelming advantage can lead to a loss, adn we need to take as many planets as fast as possible in order to achieve the goal of taking four sectors. Even if we manage to do blue and don't loose a single battle in yellow, which is unlikely, we'd only be halfway there, and we'd still have the toughest sector (purple) to take.
>>6275023>Even if we manage to do blue>and don't loose a single battle in yellow, which is unlikely, Well we shouldn't lose a single battle in yellow : The allocated amount of ship is autowin on Yellow8 even if we only roll 1-20 5 times in a row. Blue7 is autowin with 27 ships and we have really good odds to take both red and purple small planets - let's assume we have horrible luck and take only one of the two, while not fully taking blue and missing the cluster. It means Reinforcements will be 81/3 = 27 attack on our 80 force of yellow which should shred them.Then, let's say we take cluster and the two small red/purple, reinforcements are 73/4 = 16 that will empale themself even further Once again, Bananas usually hide rewards and other good stuff that are hinted by his phrasing - maybe the "Clusters" will be transfered to hegemonic control or give us an unique ressource; I suspect Red capital might give us tactile gold or Celestial blood; green holds the Life Machine; Blue give us the Rodent deal and so on
>>6275031>Well we shouldn't lose a single battle in yellow :I'm pretty sure all reinforcements will go to yellow. They wouldn't attack 27 with 80, they'd attack 16 with 30 and 28 with 40 or something like that.Isn't that how it works?
>>6275032see >>6272203Reinforcement will happen at the end of this turn - after our action as stated >>6272340
>>6275037But does that mean they'd only "calculate" their division AFTER our attack or BEFORE? Becuase if it's the latter, we'd be possibly losing a good chunk of yellow.
>>6275039We'll need Bananas word of truth for that because the AFTER is how I understood the minigame. "We'd be possibly losing a good chunk of yellow"if this is split-as-before-turn, the most likely outcome is still 53 assaulting our 80 planet AND no chance of denying our bridgehead on red and purple. This result in even greater advantage for us : with 52.5 chances of winning rolls and number superiority, Yellow should hold, we have presence in 4 sectors for T3 counterattack and they can't deny us taking Green in T3 (which is why I believe it is AFTER as it would align more as what the text explaining the mechanic say)
>>6274993Well, if Insar Sholo is as I expect Kon'Cil'Las master on the green planet he's still Andu'le bannermen like stated >>6270360
>>6274991Welp, I was kinda hoping for some clarification on the reinforcements thing, but I guess I'll go with >>6275010's plan I guess the complexity scared anons from voting lol. I don't think we'll be getting other plans or votes if we haven't had any yet.
>>6275010*BZZT!*"Your majesty! Unless I am mistaken, you have made a numerical counting error! It appears you are attempting to send out a total of 324 ships, which is more then our allotted amount amount! Please redefine your allotment!"
>>6275010>>6275294It was? Damn. Well, I don't have a plan of my own. That sucks, I was hoping to see an update today too
>>6275295You could redefine without beancounter if it's close enough but I'm seeing a lot of numerical issues which is why I didn't adjust it myself and would prefer player consent.>Recall order = 295 not 293>Attack Order is 93 for for Cluster 4 and Yellow-8>Blue Takeover total is 170>Purple + Red is 61>Total = 324?So I don't know where these numbers are coming from.
>>6275299I count...>192 reinforcements>80 on yellow prime>28, 16, and 11 on smaller yellow planets occupied by the Hegemony...for 327 total, right? I'm not really following the wargame closely apart from the general thrust, so i could be fundamentally misunderstanding. I'm just trying to be helpful so we can move on.
>>6275308Plan did not specify recall of Yellow capital planet.
>>6275299I have no idea either. The only thing I can think of would be calling off the Cluster 4 attack , which would leave us with...29 ships? Which we can put somewhere else? Something like 13 to help 27-blue, 11 to help 29-blue, 1 on Purple-9 and 4 on Red-12
>>6275309Oh, I see! Like I was saying, I wasn't following this vote very closely, lol.>>6274991>>Recall33 from An'Tula'Manis System (ATM)-80, 15 from ATM-16, 27 from ATM-28 and 10 from ATM-11Giving 85 troops to add to our 192 - total 277>>AttackStrategy Divide and Conquer, detailed here >>627235063 ships on Cluster 4 (Total : 214 remaining)30 ships on ATM-8 (Autowin, ensure we take ATM System) (184 remaining)>Fas'Kon'Anull Takeover27 ships on Blue-7 (157 ships left)59 ships on Blue-29 (98 ships left)69 ships on Blue-39 (29 left)This aim to have as much as possible on the one that will get attacked once taken>Spread for dread 29 ships on Ully'Andule (UA)-9Does that work? If so, that's my vote.
>>6275317Yeah your vote seems more logical than mine. It *is* a risk if they sent all 80 of their reinforcements to An'Tula but it did say they evenly spread so it should be fine.
>>6275319If we want to keep ATM-80 reinforced, we could spare UA-9 for now, and take only 4 from ATM-80 to attack the others. I just thought I understood that people paying more attention tot he game than I were saying the Aristo attack pattern precluded this.
>>6275326No, taking the 9 planet is important for a beachhead to take green cluster. Green cluster is rather weak and easy to take. I do worry for the reinforcement thing but the only "Nonessential" force is the cluster 4 attack
We don't want the Sotten to damage Goldwing or Redwing though, so maybe we should just pound Orange or Purple instead? Can we convince the Soten not to blow up the Goldwing and Redwing assets? If not, then instead of sending 165 ships to blue and 110 to Purple, we can send 60 to Orange 40, 156 to Orange 105 and 59 to purple 9. Note: I didn't do any combat math optimization.
>>6275336This alternative plan still sends 30 to yellow 8.
>>6275336He said he'd just give us the location right? So we just don't use it, or maybe use that information as leverage. Anyway, Green is by far the better option by virtue of being weak as hell
No, he's threatening a virus bomb and an actual bomb, so I'm guessing lower Redwing's martial might and Goldwing's economy. We can't reach Green this turn.
No, you get to pick what stat and what faction you sabotage.
I support this I guess >>6275317. I have no idea how this minigame works. I just wanna ROLLLLL
>>6275294How did I messed that up? Oh, it was in blue allowment - I was quite busy yesterday, edited the numbers and failed copy paste. Sorry guys.>>6275317>Recall26 + 10 from Cluster 1 and 15 from Cluster 215 from yellow16, 27 from grey 28 and 10 from yellow11Giving 103 troups to add to our 192 - total 293>AttackStrategy Divide and Conquer, detailled here >>6272350 (You)63 ships on Cluster 4 (Total : 230 remaining)30 ships on Yellow-8 (Autowin, ensure we take yellow); guts reinforcements (200 remaining)>Spread for dread : 29 ships on Purple-9, 32 ships on red-12(139 ships remaining)>Blue Takeover27 ships on Blue-749 ships on Blue-2963 ships on Blue-39those above where +31 "ghostships" taking the previous count to 324 instead of 293
"Alright Threes... ready my loyal soldiers. It's time to ATTACK!"Rules>>6270881>Begin rolling along this >>6275317 scheme (Remember you can roll by typing "dice+2d20" in the options field! the first number is the Hegemony's number, the second is the Aristocrat number
Rolled 5, 19 = 24 (2d20)>>6275444FIRST BLOOD!
Gentlemen, I'm ready to spend the day counting Now, who could do us the honor?
Rolled 13, 6 = 19 (2d20)>>6275444Doing my one obligatory roll.
Rolled 9, 3 = 12 (2d20)
>>6275448>>6275450>>627545263 ships on Cluster 4 >>627544863/43 - 63/41 - 44/41>>6275450 44/28 >>627545244/27 - 44/18Alright lads, Number Superiority doctrine engaged
Rolled 5, 16 = 21 (2d20)>>6275444
Rolled 5, 14 = 19 (2d20)>>6275444
Rolled 12, 16 = 28 (2d20)>>6275444One more for the road
Rolled 12, 1 = 13 (2d20)>>627546144/16 - 28/16>>627547328/14 - 14/14>>62754770/14Attack on Cluster 4 Lost. 14 Defenser remainingRolling for attack on Yellow-8
>>6275480Lossless attack. yellow sector conquered; 30 ships on GreyRocknext roll will start Fas'Kon'Anull attack on what we call Blue-7
Rolled 14, 5 = 19 (2d20)>>6275444
>>6275484Sandmoon of blue taken with 0 loss. 27 ships stationned.Next roll will start attack of 59 ships on blue-29
Rolled 16, 11 = 27 (2d20)>>6275444Man we're aging pretty fast. Maybe our dad taking the life-extension pill messed us up somehow.
>>627549459/29 - 59/26 - 59/10 Alright guys it's time for our worse rolls to happen for a win with minimal loss and keeping some luck for their capital>AgingOr maybe things are taking a longer time than we assumed?
Rolled 16, 19 = 35 (2d20)>>6275497>Or maybe things are taking a longer time than we assumed?That too, but aren't the elections taking place over... like, a couple years, absolute max? Not decades.
Guess the attack on cluster 4 was a bad idea after all lol
>>6275511Dice gave, dice took. Wana roll? At least, I'm cooking something for the Battle Report.>>627550259/6 - 53/6Great! the disastrous roll is gutted by the great Number Superiority strategy, saving us 13 ships
Rolled 3, 20 = 23 (2d20)>>6275512Fine, I'll roll
>>6275513Fucking hell these rolls are horrible, it's literally nothing but defeat after defeat.
>>6275513It's the best time to roll horribly.53/2 - 51/2Next roll is autowin. Number Superiority saved us 18 ships.
Rolled 9, 10 = 19 (2d20)>>6275526Watch this be the one actual victory
Rolled 18, 13 = 31 (2d20)>>6275528This conclude the fight for the obsidian planet Blue-29Allow me the honor to strike first the bombed Capital
Alright Capital is "won" with that roll in max 4 turn and 31 casualtieseven if they only roll 1/20 for what follows.
Rolled 9, 19 = 28 (2d20)>>6275530Well we still gotta roll right?
>>627552969/39 - 69/36 - 69/18>>627553169/13 - 56/13
>>6275531Sigh.I hate this rolling system.
Rolled 14, 6 = 20 (2d20)>>6275533Here's another dumb loss that will give us a bunch of extra casualties.
Rolled 14, 6 = 20 (2d20)Alright, here's hoping for a good one.
>>6275534Well, there are 190 losing rolls for 210 winning ones.19 losing 20, 18 losing 19 and so on for only 1 chance to lose a single ship. The game is heavily skewed toward "big loss" so egalising their 20 to 13 is insane advantage.>>627553656/9 - 56/0And that's a win with only 13 Loss.next roll will be the bridgehead in Ully'Andule Purple-9 - and the last part of our attack. As we don't have the bridgehead in red due to my silly, silly errors, let's roll high!
>>627553729/9 - 29/7 - 29/0Lossless victoryWe did it thread!
>>6275540Still at a far greater cost. We lost a quarter of a reinforcement fleet on the cluster for zero benefit whatsoever. Isn't there still gonna be the reinforcement attack from the aristos?
>>6275542I'm putting it together; give me 30 minutes
>>6275542TLDR : >Cluster 4 : failureHegemony lost 63 ships. Aristocrat lost 29 ships. 14 Aristocrat ships remaining on planet>Yellow system TakeoverATM-8 Lossless takeover. Aristocrat lost 8 ships. 30 Hegemony ships remaining on planet>Blue System TakeoverFKA-7 Lossless takeover. Aristocrat lost 7 ships. 27 Hegemony ships remaining on planetFKA-29 : Hegemony lost 8 ships. Aristocrat lost 29 ships. 51 Hegemony ships remaining on planetFKA Capital : Hegemony lost 13 ships. Aristocrat lost 39 ships. 56 Hegemony ships remaining on planet.>Purple System BridgeheadUA-9 Lossless takeover. Aristocrat lost 9 ships. 29 Hegemony ships remaining on planetTotal Hegemony loss : 84 shipsTotal Aristocrat loss : 121 ships; -24 reinforcements.Predicted counterstrike : 57 ships attacking as follow :19 ships attacking Yellow Capital (47 ships there)19 ships attacking Blue Capital (56 ships there)19 ships attacking Purple Bridgehead (29 ships there)So things are going quite well - I hope Purple Bridgehead will stand
Rolled 18, 18 = 36 (2d20)Sex.
>>6275555Don't know if this was needed ( we'll wait for Bananas) - but if this count as 1 out of 3 defense, well, they impaled themself on Yellow capital.
>>6275555Could have used that roll when we were attacking cluster 4
You push deeper into Aristocrat space; destroying vital infrastructure and flattening ancient thousand year old forests and wetlands as you go. Passive defense from the drones and ecosystems is enough to expend much of your forces; not to mention constant exposure to Aristocrat bioweapons causing causalities. All exposed are sealed in quarantined stasis pods, but even that is not enough, and the society seemed to be rapidly adapting and evolving their weapons to even work in very cold stasis-temperatures; making the stasis pod more like a sealed tomb, and even some migrators have been infected and unfortunately killed. With several big losses, the war is dragging on a bit harder then you'd like...Suddenly, a soldier contacts you directly."Look, your Majesty! I killed an Aristocrat!""...That's a bird, private. Urgi are three times as big as that and they barely are big enough to have a brain required for high levels of intelligence.""Your majesty," The Threemind interjects. "...How many wild, animal birds do you know that wear tactile gold bangles and bracelets?""Hmm... Soldier, where did you shoot down this bird?""It was flying overhead, sire, I think signaling towards some drones across the ridge; warned them as we were coming. We didn't even use our burners on the hillside; so no smoke to alert them either.""Hmm... if an Aristocrat can be a bird, that can only mean one thing. Anyways, Soldier, good work, I'll make sure you're promoted after this mission. Make sure to give that featherhead to the science team; we need to investigate.""Aie, your Majesty! Right away!"You turn away from the screen, deep in thought."Hmm... The life machine. We must be getting close."
No update for now, that was bonus content
>>6275557>>6275558Look I just see walls of dense text whenever this minigame happened. Didn't know it was over or whatever. Sorry?
>>6275562No problem mate.>>6275559Solid bonus content Bananas. I recapped everything neatly - do we need to roll for counterattack or not yet?
>>6275563I'd like to start if off with a 'real' update since you spent all day rolling.Thanks again for your help
>>6275565Your welcome; it's my fun after all.Second question : where did Bonus Content occured?
>>6275566Question is : Cluster 4, Purple Ully'Andule, Blue Fas'Kon'Anull or Yellow An'Tula'Manis ?
>>6275566Well, the Arisrocrat used a life machine to change himself. So maybe Purple-9?
>>6275569I think it is an hint on where we can find said Life Machine. If the answer is "Cluster" this might give us a good reason to spend more men there.
>>6275570Wasn't getting a life machine supposed to be the reason we were attacking Undully?
>>6275572It's one of the announced 3 objective.>Objective 1 : humiliate the faggots>Objective 2 : Get Blonde-guitareboy back>Objective 3 : Find life-machine.I think there are side-objectives and unlockable, like the rodent asking us to take Blue as retribution to influence the vote (will let that part to voting minigame expert >>6275562) and the cluster might hold a MysteryBox.I think the Green Cluster holds another goodstuff - maybe Life Machine if this is as I expect the planet of Insar'Sholo and why I wanted a bridgehead to the place.
I may regret posting this but you don't have to find a specific planet or anything, you just need to win the game- the objectives are just the lore reasons for the war and what the Supreme Ruler wants to get out of it.Originally Inshar was just on Ully's capital or home planet, my first draft him perfecting his "garden" for a visit from the higher noble, but I ended up changing it for a reason you haven't seen yet.
>>6275602nice. I'll see if I can cook to bag it next turn.
>>6275609That depends entirely on whether we roll as horribly as we did in the counter-attacks.
>>6275610and also if we hold the purple bridgehead. Cooking a wall of text.
General Beancounter's Battle Report :>Cluster 4 :The old Blonde saying "If the only alternative is death, there is nothing a cornered soldier can't achieve" proved true : the position was ideal. An isolated cluster, that couldn't count on any forms of reinforcement, in dire numerical inferiority. The splinter fleet that effortlessly took two of their neighbor. The odds where heavily stacked against Cluster-4 The eagerness of our bravest ships to be the first on the frontline to score marks for the Hegemony turned to be reckless : well-layed traps took care of them. Then, those acid-spitting drones directly breached our ships' containments to spread bio-abomination. We were not Sleeping Sotten, but we can only awe in front of their battlefield mastery, inflicting us 2 loss for each of their own - days after the fight even took place. The material and men have been spent; we can't take and maintain the position as now.The importance of taking those cluster must be reasserted : Tactically, is it worth? We'll need to allocate, and probably lose, a fair share of men to fully take the two resisting Astral Bodies. What for? So that Aristocrats can scrape a handful less ship to impale on our defenses?Assuming we're halfway through the war, a force of 34 ships deployed to Cluster-4 should take it with minimal loss. AI simulation gives us a guaranteed winrate close to 80% with 51.75% chances of a lossless victory >ATM takeoverNothing much to say. Drained dry by our brave men, the Greyrock had little-to-no resistance to offer to our troups after applying battlefield tactics devised by our esteemed supreme leader.>FKA takeover21 ship-worth of men for taking a full system worth 105. This is a complete win that will go in all strategical and tactical training program showcasing how to adapt to a conflict at the scale of the soldier, the squad, the regiment and the army. Interarmy-operability allowed a great part of this win with our surprise softening of the biosphere before sending shock troups.>BridgeheadThis general sole regret was mixing up reports and projection, resulting in abandon of the plan to also attack Red-12. We'll have to ensure that one bridgehead holds...>Weather the stormAristocrats are expected to attack only unfavorable positions. The only one at a significant risk is the Bridgehead.>What's next? Assuming Bridgehead holds, here's a brave move : All-in.Pull everything everywhere : 29 on yellow, 26+50 on blue, and what survived their counterstrike (0 to 129)That mean we'd have 105 to 234 ships already present. Let's count 190 as the hegemonic mustered power.If bombing is still an option : >Bomb Green capital, bringing it to 8>Send 30 ships their, for autowin in worst case scenario>go knock on Ully'Andule door with 265 to 424 shipsActually, 309 seems like an Autowin number; might not be the smallest oneIf we can't bomb, we'd have to split our fleet smartly but next turn win is doable as long as we hold the bridgehead
>>6275548For the sake of keeping the game moving, we'll just continue the rolls from here, couldn't finish extra image update at this time so we'll just do the rolls while I'm away.19 Ships are attacking Yellow & Blue Capitals, and Purple previously 9 now 29 HEG ship planet.Once again, 2d20 is used, with the Hegemony using the first number and winning ties. You still get to destroy extra ships via numbers advantage at the beginning of each round of rolling.>Roll for defense
>>6275660I'm guessing we won't be using >>6275555Doesn't hurt to ask lol
>>6275665one can dream
Rolled 18, 4 = 22 (2d20)>>6275660
>>6275687That should be a victory for either yellow or blue depending on whether that first roll is used, right?
Rolled 20, 2 = 22 (2d20)>>6275688Let's take that as yellow win. Rolling for Blue
>>6275711Now I really hope that vote counts so we can use that for the brigehead.
>>6275712me too buddy
>>6275712That roll*
>>6275559>if an Aristocrat can be a bird, that can only mean one thing......Goddamnit, are the Urgi another Aristocrat spinoff-breed just like the Haazar were? They've got large noses ABOVE their mouths and a separate protrusion at the back of their heads.
>>6275720Pretty sure he's just saying that an Aristocrat must have used a life machine to turn himself into a bird to hide, which means there's a life machine close by.
Rolled 13, 14 = 27 (2d20)>>6275660Let’s gooooo!
>>6275724Welp, if the first roll didn't count we are about to lose the bridgehead
I mean, it really should count. It was made in a valid format and we still needed rolls at that point.
>>6275724>>627572629/9 - 29/7 - 22/7One more chance?
>>6275729I'd rather wait for the confirmation. Also, I don't get the numbers, wasn't it 29 vs 19? The Heg had 29 ships in the planet, no?
>>6275731You're right. I messed up the count. Let's wait for Banana's comment.else count is 29/18 - 15/18
>>6275727You'd like that wouldn't you
Rolled 16, 2 = 18 (2d20)Bones
Rolled 3, 12 = 15 (2d20)geg
Rolled 7, 7 = 14 (2d20)>>6275828I believe that was made pretty clear, yes.I guess that's a no, though, shame.>>6275832Alright, that's 15/3>>6275833That's 13/2, I do believe we've reached an autowin point. Let's finish it.
>>6275834And we finish with a tie - that's a victory for us. Not a single planet fallen, even if the bridgehead came pretty close.Great!
>>6275828Yes. :'(
>>6275835WOOOOO thank you effortposters
With your attack forces underway; multiple planets are sacked along with your strategy, even conquering the entire Fas'Kon'Anull cluster in a single decisive campaign. Excellent!You appeared to have won almost all of your battles, some of them even without losses. But a few areas gave you trouble. Only after you bombarded and subjugated several enemy planets, did something finally come up resembling real resistance...The ships sway through the air and "swim" through space, biologically. They look more like living things then ships, but for the Aristocrats, they are one in the same. The beings inside, yet unknown warrior castes, scream out at you. Their "presence" is fully integrated with their ships, fused with its biology, less a pilot and more its computer core."HahahaAHAHA! YES! FIGHT ME! KILL ME RIGHT NOW!!!" The warriors scream in orgasmic glee as their life's purpose is fulfilled, throwing themselves against your ships in the Aristocrats counter attack. You realize that by conquering, blockading, and bombing the shit out of many planets you've denied many of the reinforcements they could have produced. But it's not through recruitment or money; taking over planets and sectors stops them from growing more."Threes? Prepare my secret weapon!""...My Lord, that weapon was prepared by your father, after implementing a general technology upgrade, allowing for finer control over levitation and tractor beams.""Hey! Don't spoil my moment here! Let me give the firing command!""Oh, my apologies Sire. Go right ahead, do the honors."
"FIRE THE BLENDER BEAMS!!!"Several Hegemony ships release finely controlled tractor beams with rotating, concentric rings of force. Without advances in the AI Network during your father's reign, such fine control over tractor beams may not have been possible. The beams fire out traction force rotating in opposite directions, pulling objects apart in a twisting motion; crystal structures and solids are only barely damaged by it, and it would only scrap the paint off of an Azurium hull. But again organic things? The effect is devastating; rapidly blending the organic ships of the Aristocrats into fluids spilling out into space."Hahaha!" You laugh in victory, clapping your hands together as your superiority is proven once again. They're practically throwing themselves away! The Threemind immediately begins recalculating your force projection and the psychology effect of such a weapon; increasing your future attack wave forces by +10%."Excellent! Now, let's make sure that Sotten smuggler upholds his end of the bargain..."
Your Battleship is also stocked and reloaded for another bombing run. The Aristocrats have begun wisely hiding some of their people and important things underground; but there is only so much reinforcement one can make with biology. After all, access to the sun, oxygen, and water are all required for their "technology" to work. It is not the same as an ancient Andoen life-pod bunker powered by invisible ambient energy...Your battleship can bomb any one system, this time for a total of 25 points worth of damage. Additionally, you can make good on the Sotten's promise as you fulfilled the secondary objective; letting you destroy one resource bar of any Urgi faction.Urgi Faction?>Red (Military) or Green (Economic) Bar removed from one faction (Specify)>Let the Sotten enjoy his revenge with no strings attached (No bar removal)Bombing?>Select one Aristocrat planet to take 25 points of damage, reducing its power level by that much
>>6275899>Red (Military) or Green (Economic) Bar removed from one faction (Specify)Green Bar from the Accord, making them the poorest faction and securing us both the populist and Isolationist vote.>Select one Aristocrat planet to take 25 points of damage, reducing its power level by that muchGreen 38, I believe that was the plan General Bean cooked up.
>>6275899Also, just to give my own "Idea" of a plan..why did we keep those ships in the minor cluster? Seems pointless.Instead, we should have the 51 ships we can get from that place to attack the diminished Green Capital for an assured victory, then have every single ship from our reinforcement fleet attack Andule, all 211 of them. Maybe even add 8 extra to get another bonus damage.
>>6275899>Green from Accord, even though we don't really need it. I guess it gives us the oportunity to win more in the election and maybe establish a supermajority? >Bombard Orange 105 so that we can properly ground assault a virgin purple 109. I think that our plan is to take the Orange, Purple, and Green Capitals this turn, which will result in splitting the final countarassault 5 ways, for a counter of 12ish. I think that the appropriate defense number against this is 31 (so they'll be initially knocked down to 10, max loss brings us to 21, they go to 8. Max loss brings us to 13. So we'd need to lose 4 times to lose a 31 vs. 12. We have a total of 281 ground forces and 12 plantets, two of which are capitals. So if we leave 31 at each capital and 1 on each other world (at total garrison of 72) we have 209 ground forces to reassign. We haven't been asked for the battle plan yet. I'll leave it to others to find the optimal way to assign 420 troops across our three target worlds. Wouldn't want to steal all the fun.
>>6275899>Bombing Green 38 : Rationale : we can assault it with 50 ships for autowin (and pull everything else for a massive assault on purple 109)FYI 289 is autowin on their capital. Didn't figured if a smaller numbers could autowin. We have 26 + 10 + 15 + 12 + 46 + 29 + 55 + 26 + 50 = 289 ships available without next wave.So GG, we won the war.
>Green from Accord>>6275939Well, it depends : we need "4 capitals including Purple" so to hold and split their reinforcements you're right, it might not be the smartest move to pull all defense from yellow and blue.If you want to HumiliateMax and
>>6275939I'd say that Orange can slide. We already hold the Grey and Cyan Capitols, add the Green and Purple and that's the four needed.
Here's a TLDR of the war :>T1 Attack :Lost 111 ships for 204 UoP>T1 Bombing : 30 more UoP gone>T2 Attack :Lost 84 ships for 121 UoP>T2 Defense :Lost 16 ships for 57 UoP>T2 Bombing : 25 more UoP gone>Countdown so farHegemony lost 211 ships, costing Aristofags 407 equivalent units.Next turn win is not possible : it's a certainty.
>>6275939We're not gonna attack orange. The entire reason we needed the Bridgehead was to attack green, which is way weaker.
>>6275954By the way, you were asking if smaller numbers could autowin, so I asked Thre- I mean GPT to make me this code.Turns out the smallest possible number to defeat Ully'Andule and the 109 fleet, in a scenario where we roll nothing but 1-20s, is 249 - but of course, doing so would grind our force all the way down to 59. Here's the Python code I used. Kinda wish I did so earlier, but oh well.https://rentry.org/Battlecode
>>6276047Ain't no way they're writing scripts for this shitI kneel
>>6276054Actually, that just reminded meAssuming we go with the original beancounter's plan of 50 vs 13 and 289 vs 109, here's how the counter-attack would look (in the worst case scenario where we only get the maximum losses and win by difference)>Green24 vs 14>Purple181 vs 14 (The difference between what remains from sending 249 vs from sending 289 is ridiculous)>Yellow47 vs 14 >Blue56 vs 14 (Guaranteed win)Therefore, Yellow Capital could be reinforced with an extra 7 units so that they can have a Guaranteed win. But given that Green is at an even worse disadvantage, it may be wise to instead simply send more units to lead the attack there.
Rolled 2 (1d3)
>>6276059Kneeling too. I thougght about scripting it but had some things to deal with that prevented me too.Still, War over next wave; At a probable cost of less-than-two-for-one for Hegemony. So STOMP i guess.
>>6276079Yes, well, you still have all the numbers, so you decide what exactly to send. Like I said, "Green" is technically still at a big risk if you send only 50.
>>627608063 on green let us end it with 51 troups in worst case if I'm correct.That seem like a good compromise so let's assume 63 green/the rest on their capital
Current vote is 2 for Green 38 and only one for Orange 105.
>>6276084>63 on green let us end it with 51 troups in worst case if I'm correct.That's what the code says, so probably. Not an insta-win but it's very unlikely the enemy would get nothing but the best.On the other hand, It should be said that ther are a *lot* of units that could be diverted>The clusters (would never be attacked anyway)>Yellow 30>Blue 51 and Blue 27>Purple 13Just from those you could get up to 149 units, leaving 1 at each. With the 211 of reinforcement that's 360.
>>6276087Well, unless someone else wants to sabotage the plan and make us lose our literal assured win, I'd say that's good enough for me.
>>6276091Just seemed like a small amount of votes is all; but I'm guessing the minigame discussion scared them away.
>>6276098I mean, the previous attack only had like 2 votes, and one of them was me. I'm pretty sure most anons just don't vote for this complex numbers stuff.
My tism scared them away.
>>6276100I can't speak for everyone but I didn't want to mess things up when you guys knew what you were doing.
>>6276100Dude, all offense meant, but it's sorta hard to really vote in this ESPECIALLY when it's already obvious some autist is going to hyperanalyze it and find the 'right' answer.What do you expect people to do? Say 'yeah that sounds cool +1"?This minigame sorta loses my interest and any interest I would have is wittled away by it feeling like "GeneralBeancounter and Bananas are playing a game, not Bananas and a buncha questies". Makes me feel like a third wheel
>>6276108Like whenever I come in here during this minigame, it's like walls and walls of text from you so I just leave you to it since you seem to know way more than I do.I mean fuck man. You even gave yourself a trip.
>>6276108You guys asked for no more NTR, and now I'm doing it to the players... I'm sorry...
>I'm mad because you found the best answer and now I don't get to vote for something worse!...Ok?
No shitposter-kun, they have a point, it's not as interactive. I do like the occasional minigame though. All about the balancing act.
>>6276114I mean, when the only other options are either to +1 the guy with the actual answer or to intentionally vote for something worse that no one would supportIt doesn't really give me any reason to vote, does it?There's no real discussion to be had. You got the best answer so. What do you expect people to do?
>>6276116There was nothing stopping you from adding to the discussion. I mean, I pointed out the stuff about the Counter-Attack, didn't I?
>>6276116I think I had "an" answer - however not sure how "best" it was. Point taken though, I'll try not to textwall as much in the future.
>>6276047i support this course of action its ultimate Craver core https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OgxTQkbL0c&list=RD-OgxTQkbL0chad a thought for heavier weaponry could we not use a mechanical arm brace like a actual third arm attached at a hardpoint to help aim and balance the guns
>>6276117Sure, I suppose, but I feel like I'd probably just be drowned out by tlp so what's really the point?>SO WHY ARE YOU COMPLAINING IF YOU'RE NOT EVEN GOING TO TRY TO ENGAGE???Look. I just think it's a very clunky, numbers heavy minigame that I have a hard time engaging with (and the drought of other voters during these war game sections should tell that I'm not in the minority).It sorta feels like it grinds the pace to a halt whenever it happens since it just ends up being "okay now throw 20 d20s""okay now find the best way to arrange all of these ships""okay which planet do you want to hit here which planet do you wanna hit there"I usually like the minigames in this quest. I liked the Urgi politics one. I liked the colonization minigame. There's probably a few others here or there that were good.Just feels like it's too bloaty for my tastes. And I don't feel like engaging when, as I tried to explain why I didn't vote, you seethed at me as if I'm mad I can't actively sabotage your wargame.C'mon, man.
>>6276119https://youtu.be/Bd2iqqYhBQA?si=MroCftCCbz4sWYMIOH THEY MADE A NEW THEME FOR MY FAVORITE FACTION captures the vibes of the kill fuck warrior aristocrats
>>6276122>Sure, I suppose, but I feel like I'd probably just be drowned out by tlp so what's really the point?Sounds like a skill issue. Plenty of others added to the discussion before.Anyway, I don't know why you're so against a simple +1. When someone has a better plan than me in a quest, I always support it even if just to keep things moving.
>>6276119I'll keep a tab on that to +1 at next "flavor update" of hegemony.
I'm going to sleep please don't argue for 80 posts about this and make the thread lag when it gets over 2000 posts plz thank you
>>6276126>Plenty of others added to the discussion before.You literally called the plan a 'literal assured win' and 'unless someone else wants to sabotage our plan'.Sorta stifles any discussion there, doesn't it?>>6276118Yeah I don't mind you being engaged with this. It's nice seeing anons actually engaging with shit instead of mindlessly going +1.It's just hard to really discuss anything in this minigame when you probably already have 10 posts lined up the moment Bananas updates.>>6276128Yeah, yeah, I'll stop.I will say that if you do another minigame, try to not make it as crunchy as this.
>>6276129>You literally called the plan a 'literal assured win' and 'unless someone else wants to sabotage our plan'.No, I called Bombarding Grreen 39 to be an assured win. I was still discussing what specifically to send to each planet.>>6276128Ok, I'll stop.
I don't know what's going on with this minigame, but I like when we win and people seem to be making us win. Good job people. +1 to whatever's winning idk
>>6275954>>6275901+1>>6275899
Lemme TEST something. I'm >>6276130
>>6276279Okay, good, IP still here.
You decide to bomb the capital of Kon'Cil'Cilas with your stealth battleship; setting the stage for invasion. Naturally, accusations of imperialism and sanctions needed against the mighty Hegemony by yet another feudal lord being dragged into a conflict they arrogantly thought they were safe from. Did they really think you were going to stop at just Ully'Andule? No, your intention is to humiliate the entire Aristocrat race, not just its most troublesome noble to your people.True to his word, the Smuggler reports for duty after you fulfilled his request for revenge. In a way, he was foolish to give something up for an action you likely would have taken anyway, but the timing was good enough it seemed as though your full forced attack was specifically for him. You task him with destroying the wealth of the Accord, but specify it must be as limited in damage life as possible; after all, they're who you intend to ally with in the future. The Smuggler ends up destroying an automated shipping and refueling outpost in a high traffic region of Urgi space; causing a great deal of economic disruption and the loss of several million credits worth of goods. The Accord struggles with the loss, finding themselves by far the poorest faction. But this comes with the silver lining of making them more spunky and resourceful; as well as forcing them to offer better deals for captains and crews who want to join them. In many ways, they are like the early Hegemony now, resourcefully maximizing their resources in local space and relying on inferior technologies to get by and stay under the radar. The Pacifist crowd also likes the Accord's lack of military hierarchy and expansionism; and Isolationists among the council are strongly aligned with the Accord as well, given how similar they are to how the Urgi have traditionally lived; living in the liminal spaces between the stars.Much the opposite of this; the Aristocrats, being culturally and politically powerful; have influenced the election somewhat merely by their presence. Due to their love of hierarchy and castes; they have increased the Supremacist leanings of one council member, and great amounts of luxury have spurred jealousy and increased the Goldwing support among another. Doubling up one symbol each. You're unsure if this is supposed to be some sort of "punishment" for your military campaign, if anything, you feel they probably would have done this anyway given their strong cultural pull. Oh well, you feel your own influencing of the election will be stronger...
Year 200 of the Resurrection EraYou meet with Cijan Anak on the planet Andoen.”Congradulations, Cijan. It's been two hundred years since your resurrection. The first Jaxtian to defeat death...”“Jale is older, my lord.””True, but he didn't die and come back.”“And I've done that twice now.””Uh... right. I appreciate your help with these matters; learning about the Andoen aliens and the worms and the Starsight is very important... even if I've been busy with my own projects and the war and all.”“Of course, my liege. And getting Farro Val back- I left him there, you know. It's my one big regret.””You had no idea how cruel, degenerate, and monsterous the Aristocrats were at the time, my ancestor. Now? They are receiving their just rewards. I will ensure the one who is responsible is punished.”“That puts my heart to rest, your Majesty. In a way, this feels like the good old days again... even though this planet is not the same.””No? Not the same as how you remember it or...”“No, it's too cold. And the sun. The Red Giant this planet orbits? It was yellow before the worms came, I remember that.””Your other self does.”“Right.””...Astronomically speaking, that doesn't make sense. This star couldn't have grown into a Red Giant in that time frame, Cijan.”“The worms were making it die, my Lord. I know that much is true.””Accelerating its aging process, maybe. But I dislike your superstitious tone and manner of explanation. It is a poor way to understand the events that transpired here.”“Half of me agrees, your Majesty.”
Given your previous successful attack wave, and the short lull in discussion among the council, you finally have a little time for your own nation... you think. But scientific opportunity is always calling.After defeating several of the Aristocrat warrior caste now, you have a better understanding of their morphology. The Hegemony always knew the Aristocrats must have guided their evolution; much as your species has through eugenic control, but for them they had done it so long and forcefully to completely remove innate survival instincts and add too many “luxury” adaptations that would make the Aristocrats unsuitable to survive without their technology. This was often thought to be very foolish, or the sign of a society so old and ancient that the Hegemony could never catch up to them. Given their life machine; you also thought this could be the case. But with their two others castes; Drones and Warriors; it makes more sense. Perhaps the “Glactic Society of Aristocrats” are not quite as old, ancient, or powerful as they first appeared. By offloading their evolutionary pressures onto their enviorment itself; it would stand to reason how they could modify themselves so quickly without extinction.But this great amount of genetic modification also acts as an opportunity. Studying your samples; the once-living organic ships of the warriors, their own highly-weaponized biologies, and microfauna that inhabit them; it is possible to gain a great deal of understanding into xenobiology and adapt it for our own purposes. While Aristocrats are a bit too far off (and monsterous) to insert into the Jaxtian genome directly; you could learn a thing or two about biotech from your captured sources.But the question is, what to take away from it?>Semi-Organic, self repairing Spaceships (Expensive)>Anti-Armor Acidic Space Weaponry>Upgrade Swalli acidic spit with further chemical bioweapons>Invent a “Healing Beam” to stimulate ceullar repair>Enhance Fighters & Smallcraft with further mobility upgrades>Turn it over to Usis for his own programs
>>6276407>SUPREMACIST + GOLDWING DOUBLING DOWNMmh, scary but I don't think it's too much to worry about. We weren't ever going to win the Supremacist vote even if we wanted to. >>6276409>Upgrade Swalli acidic spit with further chemical bioweaponsCool fishe.In the case of a tie, I'm willing to go with the Acidic Space Weaponry.
>>6276409>Enhance Fighters & Smallcraft with further mobility upgradesFighters and Fighter/Smallcraft supremacy has saved the Hegemony a couple of times already.
>>6276413There's always the option to remove life of a dangerous concil member, right?>Turn it over to Usis for his own programsCurious of the mystery box; despite how good Fighters and smallcraft seems to me
>>6276430Sure but it's not like the Supremacist voting block is all that big.Goldwing, maybe, that could be scary.
>>6276432I'm thinking of things like seat member 2, 6 and 14 which if I undestood correctly are certain to vote against us
Here's the current Council updated.
>>6276409>Enhance Fighters & Smallcraft with further mobility upgradesWe just made the Migrators better at piloting, didn't we? ~Synergy~
>>6276435Thanks!
>>6276435Mmh. Think the best move would be to kill 6, 12 or 14 next turn. These guys won't vote for us no matter what. At least with 2, 9 and 10, we could try to give them other interests to make the votes more unstable.We got 5 solid voters (3, 4, 7, 8, 16) and two voters with a 67% chance to vote for us (11, 15)13 does have a 67% chance to vote Goldwing but I think it's better to leave a voter who might still vote for us.
>>6276443I agreeif I count correctly : Goldwing have 2 solid voters and 4 potential voters.Redwing have 2 solid voters and 4 potential voters.Thus, the best targets for elimination should be 6 and/or 12. Best case scenario : favorable councilman, removing a potential voter to both faction.Worst case scenario : statu quo
>>6276409>Enhance Fighters & Smallcraft with further mobility upgradesSounds cool
>>6276409>>Turn it over to Usis for his own programsI think I have an idea on what this is, but I want to see if he actually does it.
>>6276507You mean putting cameras in our own citizens? Why would you want that?
>>6276509I'm just curious if he actually manages to do it, since he won't have all the resources of the Hegemony for his ambitions. Or if does will get some cold feet and use it to spy on foreign enemies instead of internal ones.
>>6276514Seems unnecessary, Threes already basically spies on everyone at all times.
>>6276515It might just be me being optimistic, but I'm half hoping this will lead to ways we can better spy on foreign enemies like the Consortium or the worms.
>>6276409>Invent a “Healing Beam” to stimulate ceullar repairWe shall defeat death one day - and this will help!
>>6276524>We shall defeat death one dayHonestly, looking at how the Aristocrats behave, I'm not quite sure that's a good idea.
>>6276409>Turn it over to Usis for his own programshis bio bot projects are interesting also his obsession with the mathematical function of the female body but not understanding the difference reminds me ofhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXW-QjBsruEwhats important is function he may have mastered the profile but not the structure and purpose and the deception of the senses he is seeing the trees but missing the forest
>>6276409>Invent a “Healing Beam” to stimulate ceullar repairÜBER CHARGEAlso I feel like Halam got hit earlier this quest was foreshadowing how he will die.
>>6276409>Enhance Fighters & Smallcraft with further mobility upgradesFighter maxxing, after the Swali ear upgrade we are gonna have the best in the galaxy
It's been a long time since this technology was improved. Despite your already impressive list of smallcraft and various "hovercraft"; a few small additions of bio-mechanical inspired designs can greatly improve their efficacy and usefulness; especially with the many advances in material and engineering technologies since then. New flexible metal membranes and semi-organic materials can allow levitation craft to operate even better in atmospheres and "glide" without power while losing almost no speed or altitude, not to mention various improvements to top non-FTL speeds. You order the research teams to keep some samples of the biometals around later for various spacesuits or uniform upgrades that might be possible in the future; but for now, you have other things to focus on.After many years of the election, it appears the Urgi Factions are about to start making moves. After much planning, these political groups are moving on their own; away from the Hegemony."We are not the only ones who would have a vested interest in manipulating their election; your majesty. We knew the treacherous birds wouldn't want a "fair" election either. Foul play was inevitable. Our intelligence warns that each faction has one planned action."The Redwings are going to target one council member for each of the following symbols; Accord, Goldwing, and Pacifist. They will then kill all targeted Urgi; replacing them with new council members.The Goldwings are lobbying and giving out massive bribes; for the price of one unit of economic resources (-1 Green Bar) they are going to double up all Capitalist Symbols and bribe one random Council Member with no faction symbol to become a Goldwing supporter; gaining one Goldwing symbol.Finally, the Accord is going to spread propaganda and enforce absolute loyalty; doubling all Accord symbols to council members that have them already.
Thankfully, Usis has 5 Agents ready.These Agents are politically well connected, convincing, able to integrate to any social circle among the Council; and most importantly under our control.If ONE or more Agent is assigned to a Council Member, they will act as a sycophant and insider, preventing their symbols from being changed by outside pressures.If TWO or more Agents are assigned to a Council Member, they will provide the security and buffer to be protected from attempted assassinations. If THREE AGENTS are assigned to a Council member; their sphere of influence will grow and all adjacent council members to them will gain one of their symbols, determined randomly.Unfortunately, we only have 5 of them. With 16 Council Members total, our resources are somewhat strained. How would you like to assign the Agents to prevent or influence the different faction's plans for the Council's upcoming final vote?>Assign Agents (Specify Council Seat #)
ADDITIONAL OPTIONIf Four Agents are assigned to a Council Member; they will be able to form a powerful political cabal. If that Council Member has a faction symbol, that faction gains +1 to its military strength (+1 Red Bar), if they do not have a faction symbol, then the assigned Council member loses all symbols and becomes totally independent.There is no special effect for assigning all 5 Agents to the same Council Member.
question: do we know whether our agents will act before or after the urgi factions? do we know in what order the urgi factions will act?
>>6276849also, what does "adjacent" mean? e.g. who counts as adjacent to #9?
>>6276851Adjacent is who they're next to. #9 is 5, 6, 13, and 14 for example. 5 is only adjacent to 1 and 9.>>6276849cringe
Actually it's before, I changed my mind.
>>6276526But it is the ultimate ideal and destiny of the Hegemony: to defeat entropy, the ultimate death.>>6276843Assign three agents to #16, one to #3?
Militarists will vote for whatever faction is the most powerful, represented by the red bars by their faction designation letter on the council screen. Capitalists will vote for whichever faction is the richest and prosperous, represented by the green bars. Pacifists meanwhile are the opposite of militarists and will vote for whichever faction is the least militarized, and has the least number of weapons. Populists represent the common people; often minors or galley-slaves aboard ships, and will vote for the least capitalistic, or poorest faction with the least green bars. Finally, Isolationists by and large want to return to how things were before with little central authority and stay out of the way of other large powers in space, and will vote for whichever faction is both the least militarized and capitalistic or has the least bars total, and the Supremacists are the opposite, simply voting for whichever faction is the most powerful overall.>>6276865Three to 8 makes more sense imo
>>62768773 to #8 will work great because accord will double down on anyone we add an accord symbol to.3 to #7 could also be good because populists will vote for us
>>6276843Alright, let's see.Here's what I propose.>Assign 3 Agents to 8Protects him, spreads either the Accord or Pacifist symbol to 3, 4, 11, 12 and 16. The only ones who matter here are 11 and 12. 11 will probably lose his Redwing status, which is good, and 12 will become a new 50/50 voter.>Assign 1 Agent to 7 and 16.This leaves the Goldwings with only 1, 4, 6, 9 and 15 as choices to turn into Goldwing supporters. The only one that'd be worth worrying about is 15 possibly losing his Isolationist symbol on a bad roll. The others are more acceptable losses.
Btw there’s only roughly 20 thousand or so ways to distribute the agents. Very feasible to write a script to find the best one.
>>6276881+1
>>6276881Does assigning more agents give the previous bonuses? Like, if we send 3 to 8, would that actually protect him?
>>6276982It said "one or more" and "two or more" for the security and bribe immunity. So yeah, it's a scaling system. 8 is protected, unable to be influenced by outside parties (which is frankly less important) and spreads either the Accord or Pacifist idea
>>6276984I see. Though, you realize that this means 13, 16 or 4 will die? That's a 2/3 chance of losing an completely secured voter. Not to mention that 5 or 3 will also die.
>>6276987>>6276987The issue is we can only protect a max of two of our secured voters.for ACCORD KILLING, 3, 5 or 8 could be targetedFor PACIFIST KILLER, 1, 4, 8, 13 or 16 would be targeted.8 and 16 are both locked in voters but we'll still lose someone either way.Hm.We have two choices. We can secure our voters or we can try to expand our base.Tell you what, I think I got a better idea.>>6276881 Changing my vote here to>Assign 2 Agents to 8 and 16Protect our two most important voters, also prevents 16 from being influenced into a fucking Goldwing.>Assign 1 Agent to 7Protects one of our other important voters from being turned into a fucking goldwing.This leaves 1, 4, and 13 at risk of dying because they're a pacifist. 3 and 5 would be at risk of dying as an Accord agent. 5 is preferred here but if 3 dies, 5 will still have a 66% chance to vote for us.2, 13 and 14 would be at risk of being killed for being a Gold Wing. Best for us is that 14 or 2 dies. 67% chance we get strictly a benefit here.I don't think we can get anything better. If we try using 7 or 8 to expand, we have a high chance of losing a secured voter for the risk of having more unsecured votes.Is everyone okay with this? Think this is the best we're going to get.
>>6276999I suppose the best way to know is to write-up the potential vote results to see which has the higher chance of leaving us with more voters.
>>6277005Well, here's the choices I see.GIVE 7 THREE AGENTS, GIVE 16 TWO AGENTSUpside: 2 and 10 become 50/50 voters, 11 and 15 have a high chance of becoming locked in voters, 7 can't be influenced to become a Goldwing, 16 can't become a GoldwingDownside: 2 could be killed, rendering the populist spreading useless, low but possible chance of 11 and 15 losing their isolationists, making their votes more swingy. Only protects one of our already solid votersGIVE 8 THREE AGENTS, GIVE 16 TWO AGENTSUpside: 11 has a very high chance of becoming locked in voters if Accord is spread, 12 becomes a 50/50 or 66/33 voter for us, 8 can't be killed, 16 can't be killed or turned into a GoldwingDownside: Only two units would be affected, 7 could be liable to be turned into a Goldwing, low but possible chance of 11 losing his Isolationist (WHICH IS BAD)My new voteUpside: Keeps our three locked in voters safe, no RNG involved.Downside: can't spread any interest to anyone else.I can't really think of any voting options that could give us more than 2 voters that weren't already on our side. The risk of turning an isolationist into a non-isolationist is also too risky for my blood.
>>6277008Okay, but I meant like...counting the other factions, how many voters will they possibly have? I'd do the counts my self but i'm a bit busy right now.
Oh whoops I meant "If Assigned 3 Agents all adjacent council member will get one of their symbols determined randomly if they also have at least one Agent assigned to them" haha lol
>>6277022Uh-huh. I'm sure you totally forgot and just didn't change it now to make it harder.
>>6277022Oh fuck off. That's an incredibly important thing to just 'forget'.
>>6277025I actually Did mean that when I originally wrote it but then deleted it for some reason while posting, maybe because I thought it'd make it too restrictive on your plans to assign agents? Guess it's too late to change it now, kinda annoying how the "defensive" action nets you more symbols then the normal minigame choices for this but oh well guess it's my fault. Originally the Redwings & Goldwings plan would have just happened with zero player imput but I thought I'd make a minigame of it instead.
>>6277010Right, I can do thatAccordLOCKED IN VOTERS: 3, 4, 7, 8, 16 (Vote power of 5)LIKELY VOTERS: 5, 11, 15 (Vote power of 1.98)UNCERTAIN VOTE: 13 (Vote power of .33)TOTAL: 7.31GoldwingLOCKED IN VOTER: 2 (Vote power of 1)LIKELY VOTER: 6, 12, 13, 14. (Vote power of 2.32)UNLIKELY VOTER: 15 (Vote power of .33)TOTAL: 3.65RedwingLOCKED IN VOTER: 9, 10 (Vote power of 2)LIKELY VOTER: 6, 12 (Vote power of 1) UNLIKELY VOTER: 5, 11, 14 (Vote power of .99)TOTAL: 3.99VOTERS AT RISKPACIFISTS: 1?, 4, 8, 13, 16GOLDWING: 2, 13, 14ACCORD: 3, 5, 8.Our locked in voters have the highest risk of being killed, so we should obviously protect them. I'm accounting for the Accord doubling but not for the random Goldwing assignment since that could be anyone, really.
>>62770291 is a complete wildcard so I didn't account him. He could vote for anyone since he's a very flightly (ha) bastard.
>>6277008I don't get which one is your new vote
>>6277074My new vote is in >>6276999I want to protect 8 and 16 from being killed and I want to protect 7 from being converted into a Goldwing.So, two agents to 8 and 16, one to 7.
>>6276877My thinking was that 16's symbols both benefit us and the Urgi adjacent to him include more that giving one of his symbols to could swing to us, as opposed to just reinforcing symbols that already align with us.
Switching from >>6276881to >>6276999
Enjoy kino AI slop while we wait for updates, I abused chatgpt over and over till I found something I was pleased with, I dont care about it being soulless as its just helping me map out heights and how their colors work together for composition, the individual characters are the ai pieces obviously
>>6277462I can't stop giggling at the Esaal's head.
>>6277465I call them dickheads for a reason
>>6277466Nah, it's not dicks, it's for being some weird worm thing. Literal pinhead.
>>6277469Yeah, I never realized/understood them as that narrow proportionate to their trunk.>>6277462I also just now realized how Majin Buu coded the Aristocrats are.
FUCK I'm just reminded of the desire to do every monke race drawn in proportion to each other project I keep putting off
>>6277485Well put it off some more, I wanna get to the end of the war so I can see Halam truly humiliate those AristoRATSDeath is too kind a fate for those poofters
>>6277585is the test succesful?
I was checking to see if I lost my thread ID when 4chan was messed up damn lolI'm working on it
The Redwings target three members of the council for elimination. Brazenly, they attack in the open, but one of their targets is protected by our agents!The Goldwings increase capitalist sentiment across the board, and bribe a minority Casliaan on the council to join them. They might have tried to hire the famous collective Casliaan; but he is also protected by your agents!The Accord doubles up all of their own symbols, but unfortunately, one of our staunch loyalists is targeted...With two new council seats opening; the semi-democratic Urgi society quickly elect two more important people who can afford, debate, impress, or muscle their way onto the council to decide its fate. It was expected that we'd lose some along the way, and these ones may not even last themselves...
>Players may roll for two new council members. Follow the instructions by rolling only once on the left, but rolling again with an additional symbol with a "plus", stopping if otherwise. You may also choose the head if you so incline, or request a new one.>Update will continue when two new council members are generated and the rest of the update is finished, hopefully within 24 hours.
Rolled 5 (1d6)>>6277633Could've been better but we only lost one valuable voter. We still got four dudes who will vote for us no matter what (and 5 will be another 66% voter)>>6277633Rolling. Picking the Casliaan with the purple gem as my head.
Rolled 2, 4 = 6 (2d4)>>6277635Okay, so I roll 2d4 to see if it's a captialist/pacifist/militarist/popularist...
>>6277636Alright, so we got a 50/50 voter between Pacifist and Capitalist here, if I'm reading correctly.Could've been worse. Better than the 66/33 voter that #13 was.
>>6277636>Pacifist CapitalistWell, could be worse...that's 50% chance of us getting him.
Rolled 4 (1d6)>>6277633
Rolled 2 (1d6)Now reroll?
... Two capitalists pacifist.Serves those Redwings right
>>6277640>>6277641So, that's a Capitalist/Accord.So we went from a 100% and 33% voter to two 50/50 voters.Frankly...not the worst that could've happened?
>>6277643The Goldwings are kinda the biggest threat though. No idea how we'll manage to pull one over them at this point. They've got way too many voters.
Actually, I'll give you one reroll if you want it.>First Council Member = Casliaan Pacifist/Capitalist >>6277636>Second Council Member = Capitalist (Rolled 4) >>6277640You can reroll one of these.
>>6277647Capitalist, definitely
FUCK it would have been so cool if you could have banked up some Agents for use in granting more rerolls like thisdamn the best ideas always after I already did it
>>6277647I agree with rerolling the capitalists of >>6277640
Alright go ahead whoever wants to do the honors
Rolled 4 (1d6)>>6277651NGGGH.
>>6277652>either a double capitalist or capitalist redwingWelp, we lost the election
>>6277653? I mean, tlp rolled 4 and 2, so that would've been a Capitalist/Accord. So I'd assume if we're rerolling an interest instead of a faction, it just defaults again to Captialist/Accord.i.e nothing changes.
>>6277654No, the first reroll didn't count. Only >>6277652 counted and that's a 4. Which means capitalist or redwing.
>>6277655It's not a reroll. He said that we rolled one dice first then we roll a second one for an additional symbol if we didn't get 5.I rolled a 5, which means I got a 2d4 roll to get two non-faction interests, which is what gave up capitalist/pacifist.tlp rolled 4, which mean it was a captialist, then we still needed a second symbol. He then rolled a 2, which was Accord. Unless I completely misunderstood what Bananas meant, that's how it should've worked.
That's not really how it works but we could roll for it! But I'd rather avoid a tie...Hmm, maybe we could do a best of three!
Rolled 6 (1d6)>>6277657ha.Look, just have another dice and tell me what we got, then.
>>6277652Feel free to choose a head if you want.
>>6277662The dude with the fucked up, crusty scarred nose.
The Redwings are the most politically volatile group among the Urgi it seems; their violence not even masked with a pretense of legitimacy.The boilings guns are used to kill one Council member; all water molecules in his ship rapidly heated and boiled, causing instant burns and boiling the breathable air into a deathly sweltering swamp of moisture. Without a very efficient cooling system, given the vacuum of space making venting heat passively impossible; most ships are "boiled" completely in just a few minutes. Aboard a populated station, the violence is even worse; two Redwings ambush your most loyal Accord supporter, a former commoner raised up to first mate and then captain by a kindly ship master who eventually became the head of his own small fleet; kicked to death in public. Onlookers watched in horror as he tried desperately to keep his groin and neck above the metal-clad talons of the kicking birds, but it's no use. They killed him the way the old cockrels did; millions of years ago on their home planet."Haha! Let all who oppose us know our strength! If you don't vote for us; that is the fate that will befall you!""Careful with that sentiment, little Redwing Eggbreakers! That kind of discourse will lead to a civil war...""Whose to say that's not what we want?! You want to start a civil war? Because we will WIN!"
The Threemind gives you an update on the Council."Fortunately, it appears the new Council members are less politically inclined and entrenched then the previous ones. This could be our opportunity to gain some supporters... but I feel the time is drawing near for the vote. The Goldwings especially are trying to hurry the process along now that they've seeded their degenerate capitalist greed among the council members."
The Threemind also gives you an update on the ongoing war with the Aristocrats."Very soon, your Majesty, the next wave will be ready.""Did we gain some fleet power?""Yes, we were able to adapt some of the new smallcraft upgrades into our current battle fleets and formations; but the Aristocrats lack the large capital ships or much in-atmosphere flightcraft that would necessitate it. Still, a small upgrade nonetheless.""Hmm... I think I have the distinct advantage here. But we'll see..."
It's happening soon then.By the following year, everything will fall into place. The final attack wave, the last chance to manipulate the votes, and then we shall see the fruits of your early reign. Not to mention the Starsight Academy! While still in the early stages of construction, that, along with your many gene-enhancements to the majority of the non-Jaxtian population leads you to believe it will pay off in dividends in the future. You guess you're more like your father then you thought. But now is the time for decisive action. That's why he chose you!But now you have a tough choice to make. The Supreme Ruler already controls all the resources and full power of the Hegemony at his command; but there is a way to inspire the people to even greater heights. Loyalty and fervor are two different things, after all. You could make a vow.Many Supreme Rulers have made vows before; your Father almost did you believe, and Hass Takar did as well. The almost-divine promise of a Supreme Ruler, to vow to his people to accomplish something impossible, is the second greatest tradition among your people. With exception perhaps only to the Deathmask of Akule the Unspeakable. But making a vow is not free. To promise something, and fail to deliver this sacred promise, is to live in shame and failure for the rest of ones reign and into perpetuity. The Supreme Ruler's word is not to be given out lightly. This weight also prevents the Supreme Ruler from having more then one vow; it stands on its own.If you decide to make a vow, you can gain one additional turn for your invasion or election-rigging antics. You will gain an extra, no-strings-attached turn with no unforseen or random events besides ones already elaborated upon in the rules. But if you take this additional turn and fail that minigame, you will live in shame and infamy for the rest of your reign. You will still receive a final turn, the vow simply grants and additional one to make up for lost time or ensure you will win.>Publicly VOW to make the Accord win the election and an ally in space for the future of the Hegemony>Determined VOW to defeat the Aristocrats and humiliate them in your war without dragging your people through it>Make no vow; for fear of failure, or out of confidence
>>6277677>Publicly VOW to make the Accord win the election and an ally in space for the future of the HegemonyThe Goldwings have too much influence. The invasion has been going well so far, from what I've seen, but we NEED the Accord to win this election.
>>6277677>Publicly VOW to make the Accord win the election and an ally in space for the future of the Hegemony
>>6277679should not vow just because we need them to win thats just setting the vow up for potential failure look at our current odds first
>>6277677Our victory in the war is literally assured - but we should check our odds on the election to see if taking an extra turn WOULD let us get a safe victory.
>>6277677>Publicly VOW to make the Accord win the election and an ally in space for the future of the HegemonyFuck it, we ball.
Also, just to ask, shouldn't we still have one normal turn left before the election? I remember it was THREE turns, right? Did the agent thing count as the third turn?
>>6277677>>Publicly VOW to make the Accord win the election and an ally in space for the future of the Hegemony
>>6277682>>6277683I'll pull out the chart. So, here's what we got.ACCORDLOCKED IN (100%): 4, 7, 8, 16 (Vote power of 4)LIKELY (66%): 5, 11. (Vote power of 1.32)HALF HALF (50%): 15, 13 (Vote power of 1)TOTAL: 6.32GOLDWINGLOCKED IN: 2, 3 (Vote power of 2)LIKELY: 6, 12, 14 (Vote power of 1.98)HALF HALF: 9, 13, 15 (Vote power of 1.5)TOTAL: 5.48REDWINGLOCKED IN: 10 (Vote power of 1)LIKELY: None.HALF HALF: 9 (Vote power of 0.5)UNLIKELY (33%): 5, 6, 11, 12, 14 (Vote power of 1.65)TOTAL: 3.151 is not included since he's a wild card.There's only a 0.84 vote power difference between us and the Goldwings. Redwing is not winning unless they are abnormally lucky but if they steal 5 or 11 through luck, that could be enough to fuck us over.I think it's better to take a vow to solidify the chance of victory.
>>6277695Ah, but you forgot one thing - supremacists vote for the strongest *overall* and the Redwings and Goldwings have the exact same amount of bars as a whole - fiveThat means that 14 basically has a 66% chance of going Goldwing, because either he falls on goldwing, or he falls on 'supremacist' (half chance of choosing goldwing anyways)Now this could be avoided by giving the Redwings one more green bar - but then that would also mean they might be able to get CAPITALIST votes and pull a surprise win on both.With that said...it is *definitely* winnable. So there's no issue with making the vow.
>>6277676About Battleplan : >Pull 26 + 10 + 15 from cluster>Pull 29 from yellow>Pull 50 + 26 from Blue>Pull 12 from BridgeheadThat should give us 168 ships + 215 from the wave - 383 ships.>Reinforce +9 Yellow Capital Bringing it to 56 for Guaranteed win; 374 ships remaining.>289 ships for Purple capitalAutowin and great amount of remaining ships>85 ships to Green-13Worst case : 79 defensers remainingThis should net us decisive wins as well as very few losses with the counterstrike.
>>6277698Actually, I've also got a plan that should make us 'overall' safer.>26 + 10 + 15 + 12 + 29 + 50 + 26 + 215 = 383Then, we split them into three 'Taskgroups'>Taskgroup 'Vanguard' (70)Attack Green-13 with all forces. In the worst case scenario, we will not only win, but have enough to have an assured victory against the incoming aristocrat reinforcements of 14.>Taskgroup 'Frontline' (289)Attack Undully'Ande with all forces, assured victory and more than enough left over for a possible aristocrat attack.>Taskgroup 'Rear' (24)Reinforcing Yellow-Capital with 20 unitsReinrocing Blue-Capital with 4 unitsWith this plan, not only are we assured to take all capitals, we are in such a position that even if the Aristocrats changed their strategy to send every unit they have into a singular planet, it would still be outnumbered.
>>6277696>Ah, but you forgot one thing - supremacists vote for the strongest *overall* and the Redwings and Goldwings have the exact same amount of bars as a whole - fiveYeah, that's why I put him in GOLDWING LIKELY. He has a 66% chance to vote for it. So yeah, I think taking the vow is a good idea.
>>6277700Good for me.
>>6277701The question is how to use it - assuming we don't get the NORMAL Third Turn, we'd have at best two actions to secure us an 'likely' victory. I'm going to assume that the Goldwings and Redwings won't get to do the same shit they did, because otherwise the vow would actively hurt us. For example, we could try to get two 'possible' votes by giving 10 and 2 (or 2 and 3 if you specifically want to hurt the goldwings) an 'allied' interest.Alternatively, we could 'Lobby' Isolationism, which would triple it up for 11 (Giving us 85% on him) and then an 66% chance on 15Killing councillors is possible but probably not a good idea. We saw how that turned out for the Redwings.Also, I don't know how this works, but if turning an councilor into an 'accord' supporter eliminates one of their non-faction interests, that could also be a way to deny a voter. But it's also not very good since it only works on one person.
>>6277707>assuming we don't get the NORMAL Third Turn"You will still receive a final turn, the vow simply grants and additional one to make up for lost time or ensure you will win."So that means we have two turns to play with. That means 4 actions.We can play it by ear a bit but I think the best thing we can immediately do is to fuck over the 'locked in' votes on GOLDWING and REDWING. Give 2 and 10 Populist leanings, for example.I think killing someone might be a good idea for 6, 12 or 14. They're too hard to change via lobbying or denouncing and they are heavy backers for Goldwing.
>>6277716Ah, I missed that.Oh yeah, then we can *definitely* win. In that case, it might be wise to go with what I said - lobbying Isolationism for 11 and 15, and then adding an friendly interest for 2, 3 or 10After that, yeah, we could kill 14 and 12 - but again, that could just end up in something like two secured votes for Goldwing or Redwing.
>>6277719We can play it by ear. I don't think lobbying Isolationism is a good thing, isn't their thing that they dislike direct support?But giving allied interests to 2/3/10 would be wise, yeah.
>>6277722>We can play it by ear. I don't think lobbying Isolationism is a good thing, isn't their thing that they dislike direct support?I'm pretty sure that this means stuff like directly giving them support, no? Like how we actively armed the Redwings and gave them good trade deals, and actively harmed the Accord by 'accidentally' blowing up their stations.
>>6277724I suppose. I just think the risk of taking a vow's worth it. I'll have more time to think about the nitty gritty as we go with it.
>>6277700+1 to this, when the vote comes.
>>6277726Oh no, if we're getting a normal turn then it's absolutely worth it. I just don't know whether killing is the best scenario. Isolationists would definitely prefer the Accord though - not only are they both the poorest and weakest, from an outsider's perspective the hegemony has been actively weakening them.
4 Votes for a Council-Game Vow0 for anything else ATM
>>6278004Oh yeah, I forgor.>>6277677>Publicly VOW to make the Accord win the election and an ally in space for the future of the Hegemony
You have decided to make a public vow to ensure the Accord win the election. The Hegemony reacts very positively to the news; with the people finding a Vow from the Supreme Ruler inspiring. Double shifts are pulled and resources are freed up from personal projects towards the beuracracy. Your spymaster, Usis, is especially inspired; perhaps expecting you to focus all your efforts on the war and not care at all about his sensitive political game.While news in the Hegemony is good, the Urgi hear of it quickly. It's impossible to keep something like this a secret; filtering through the galactic underground and brought up through the Urgi factions; many are concerned and now paranoid at the Hegemony directly influencing their election. Many accuse others of being spies; some of your own are even accused, but the bio-bots remain a mystery to the Urgi, who assume the Accord members must simply be on Hegemony payroll. In response, the more isolationist members of the Urgi council begin railing very strongly against the Hegemony's outsider influence; and accuse the Accord of being a puppet state, to the point that both Goldwing and Redwing leaning members can come together against them.Because you directly and overtly interfered in the Urgi's election, all Isolationist symbols have been swapped with Anti-Hegemony symbols. This symbol will simply vote against the Accord; and will vote for either Redwing or Goldwing to ensure one of them wins over the foreign vassal.
It is now time to influence their election again. This is a bonus turn, you will still receive a final turn after this one.Select Two Actions>Pick TWO Council Members and give both ONE new Non-Faction Interest (Specify)>Eliminate ONE Council Member (Specify; Creates a new Council member with random symbols)>Turn ONE Council Member without a Faction Interest into an Accord Supporter (Specify)>Lobby an Interest (Specify) which will DOUBLE UP the symbol for two random Council Members who already have it>Denounce an Interest. ONE Random Council Member will lose that symbol.>Arm the Accord (Gives +1 Red Bars to the Accord)>Grant lucrative trade deals to a faction (Gives +1 Green Bars to any faction)>Hire Privateers to attack a faction (Randomly take -1 Red OR Green Bar from a faction)>Directly Attack a faction (Destroy 1 Red & Green bar of a faction at the cost of 100 Fleet Power from next Aristocrat invasion attack wave. You can also just attack one bar for 75)No Write-Ins except to Specify plans are allowed for this vote
>directly state that the Vow is no strings attached and has no unforeseen consequences>"Actually it completely screws you over LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL"HE DID IT AGAIN LADSHE DID THE TRAP OPTIONITS SO FUNI LOVE TRAP OPTIONS
>>6278047"Besides the ones already elaborated on in the rules."
>>6278047And before you say>errmm, no UNFORESEEN, that means you should have expected this LOLLike the passive aggressive faggot that you areThe Vow was previously and literally stated by you to be nothing but a "game boost", a risk on winning at the cost of being a shame if you failBut no, it's a trap option that I guess Threes didn't see predict uhhh lolGo fuck yourself banana you retarded fucking hack
>>6278048You KNEW that people would pick it because the Vow was ALWAYS considered a "gamey" thing and yet you actively omitted such an crucial detail for the sole purpose of fucking us overGenuinely fucking kill yourself, if anons had any sense they'd stop playing your fucking piece of shit quest. What, you had a baaad day and you're mad and sad so you gotta trap the players for (you)bait?You are pathetic. I'm out.
I disagree, but I'm sorry you feel that way and hope it didn't come off as too "gotcha"-ish.
>>6278057No you fucking don't If I wasn't on mobile I'd go all the way to dig through the archives for the time you specifically said the Vow was an explicitly game mechanicYou made a post explicitly saying there would be no unforeseen consequences solely so you could use a single line as an "Oops actually your boost completely backfires and ruins everything, sowwy :)))"You are a pathetic, attention-seeking faggot who does nothing but pull gotchas and trap options so you can laugh about how superior and smart you are and how you totally PWNED and TROLLED the playersThe only reason you still have players is because anons are battered fucking housewives who will keep coming back no matter how many times you pull this shit
>>6278060You chose to go with the "low stats" strategyYou chose to double down and spread isolationists who explicitly wouldn't like foreign powers (you) interfering in their electionYou chose to do the "sneaky" strategy of not showing your handbut then you made a vow (which is public) to your entire nation you'd influence the other faction's electionThere is no logical in-universe region as to why the isolationists hearing a foreign power will PROMISE that a certain faction in their own nation will win a huge election wouldn't react negatively to itI'm sorry, but no.
>>6278049+1
Oh and to iterate on the above;You could have chose other strategies that didn't involve being sneaky, like arming the Accord early on and creating militarists to capture the votes that way, or just creating Accord voters among the non-factional council members and eliminating enemy faction voters. The Quest is presented like a 4x game with different paths and strategies, you just chose the one that didn't involve you tipping your hand. I tried to signpost it by making sure to iterate that the vow was "public" and all that, so people might take a second to think about the rammifications.
>>6278065You didn’t try shit, you just want to jerk off over how clever your little mini games are and then cry about how your players are all awful, before bitching to discord for validation. Utter hack.
I'd really prefer if you didn't bring the discord into it. This entire concept as a choice and the "trap" and the isloationists turning into Anti-Hegemony voters was planned from the beginning of the thread. The idea was new >>6277633 council members could spawn with isolationism too, so you could spawn in new ones of that type after pissing off the old ones and sort of have both; acting as a sort of "landmine" symbol among the others.
>>6278063You CHOSE to say that the Vow was a game mechanic to give the Hegemony a boostYou CHOSE to write a post that said there would be no unforeseen consequences or added clsts for using a Vow You CHOSE not to mention how this would happenYou CHOSE to use unclear wording and nebulous meaning in order to trick the players into choosing an option so you could pull a gotcha and completely fuck them over and then pretend like this was your plan all along and we're just too stupid for not having seen itYou CHOSE to be a faggot
>>6278068No I’m gonna bring it up when you go there to get them to finger your ass, just because >>6276849 asked a polite question about whether we had access to info while voting. Ridiculous amount of sperging over him just checking with you on a basic principle. You’re a whiny cunt.
If you think for a second saying to the world that you are going to make sure your neighbour's voting goes your way is bound to have repercussions. Yes Mr Bananas started the sentence with 'no-strings attached' and yes the whole 'besides ones already elaborated in the rules' is a bit contrived so I can see why people are upset but it's hardly a rug pull. Can we just move on and focus on what to do next? Perhaps we can kill the anti-hegemony voters?
>>6278078Did your father beat you too much, or were you just molested into being this soft?
>>6278078No, fuck off. The Vow was always an game thing that was supposed to give you a boost. Hiding a giant fuck you trap behind a single line is complete and utter bastard behavior and I'm not going to keep playing along with this nonsense.
I can see both sides of this argument, but I will admit that I took>You will gain an extra, no-strings-attached turn with no unforseen or random eventsat face value and didn't think>besides ones already elaborated upon in the rulesmeant that they would all flip to anti-Hegemony symbols. I think ti would have been nice if we'd been given the option to frame it through clever PR spin as a vow to, say, "crush any Urgi faction which threatens Hegemony borders," encouraging isolationists to steer clear of factions that are more of a threat to us.I don't love how this was executed, and it does make me less enthusiastic to play. I'm not going to slag you off, Bananas, but it wasn't super great how you went about this, in my personal opinion. I think makes sense people are mad.
>>6278046>Eliminate ONE Council Member (Specify; Creates a new Council member with random symbols)#15>Eliminate ONE Council Member (Specify; Creates a new Council member with random symbols)#11I guess.
I'm not dropping the quest but I'm sure not voting in this either. What a gay asspull.
>>6278091It really sucks yeah. Someone else can figure it out I guess. I don’t really wanna bother running damage control or discussing anything about it.
>>6278063WOAH OAHHH OOOOH OOOAH OAOAOAOHIts actually a very in-character blunder for Halam, though.
So I'm away from keyboard at the moment but to reiterate it wasn't a "gatcha" or asspull from my perspective, it was the normal game mechanic of showing your hand to the Urgi in the election- same as getting counter-atracked by the Aristocrats each round. You just hadn't done anything to this point that was an "overt" action. Does that make sense? It wasn't an added 'extra' mechanic. Do you still think it's unfair?
you retards are bitching about a nothingburger. we hardly lost anything.accord strength (defined as EV of votes for accord) is 5.83.redwing strength is 4.08.goldwing strength is 5.75.we still have this in the bag, especially since we have a bonus turn. we just have to weaken the goldwings more to ensure victory. My suggested course of action:>make #2 and #3 pacifist>eliminate #15
>>6278103I don’t like that you created some kind of escape clause for your own poor display of options and intent. Do you really think "Besides the ones already elaborated on in the rules." Is a big enough disclaimer? How are we supposed to trust the authorial text if it can just be twisted post-vote to cover any situation you want? This is a constant thing. You’re nowhere near as clear as you think you are.
>>6278090if you want to kill 2 people, it would be better to kill #12, #2 or #3 than #11. (goldwings are stronger than redwings)
>>6278103I get where your'e coming from, but the specific way you phrased it and the minigame-heavy, mechanic-heavy nature of this thread in particular combined in such a way as to encourage myself and others to take you very literally and to think in more gamist than narrativist fashion. I think the reaction from four or five anons by this point should sort of be ample evidence that it did, indeed, come across like a trick.IMO, players are correct to feel sandbagged sicne the mechanical cost of the vow (specifically the isolationist flip) was not previously stated, especially after “no unforeseen or random events” was promised. If your rules text lulls players into thinking a choice is purely a calculated gamble (boost vs. shame, established in several previous threads in the same quest, and you hide a twist inside it that undoes many IRL days of scheming, you should expect salt. If it wasn't an intentional gotcha, it was very much a miscommunication on your part, and the effect is pretty predictable.>>6278107I'm inclined to stick with one because it aligns with >>6278086. I want isolationists to believe that ensuring the Accord wins is how they avoid the Hegemony giving them the same treatment we're giving the Aristos right now.
I for one does not feel "salty". So I'll go with >Killing of #15
>>6278109I think I’ll get over it. Since he wants to play this way, the solution is simple: Samefag against all apparent trap options. You like that mini game, Bananas? Little meta element? We can do it too. It’s simply a website mechanic.
>>6278121You get to vote for two actions.
>>6278122Waaaaah im a petulant manchild and get mad because mspaint drawings of blue monkeys that some random dude on the Internet made werent made the way I want them because the artist did something hes known for doing >:000
>>6278046So. The vow was basically worthless since we got to spend time unfucking the votes we lost.Alright. Sure. Whatever.>Pick TWO Council Members and give both ONE new Non-Faction Interest (2 and 3, Pacifists)>Eliminate ONE Council Member (15; Creates a new Council member with random symbols)
>>6278126I vote for you to kill yourself
>>6278136+1
>>6278121>>6278123Nice catch.>Kill 15 and 11
>>6278154Make sure to vote over here to keep it out of the thread
After much deliberation and the findings of the court, I hereby apologize for the offending update and take it back. Instead, you will gain the benefit of your vow choice without triggering the "Isolationists turn against you" effect, and all future actions that could trigger this action will be clearly labelled for increased transparency. Update is immediate.
You have decided to make a public vow to ensure the Accord win the election. The Hegemony reacts very positively to the news; with the people finding a Vow from the Supreme Ruler inspiring. Double shifts are pulled and resources are freed up from personal projects towards the beuracracy. Your spymaster, Usis, is mortified.“Your Majesty!!! You can't make a public announcement that you're influencing their election! You'll tip your hand. The Accord wants to win the election legitimately as a soverign power!””So!? Now they know they have a powerful ally!”“It's not like the Hegemony over there... it's a democracy. The people on the council at least want to pretend like their rule is legitimate. Please your Majesty, let me run damage control!”While news in the Hegemony is good, the Urgi hear of it quickly. It's impossible to keep something like this a secret; filtering through the galactic underground and brought up through the Urgi factions; many are concerned and now paranoid at the Hegemony directly influencing their election. But, Usis quickly spins it into “creating allies in space” and “optimizing our new trade and border partnerships.” While you will still gain the benefit of the vow, the Isolationists among the Urgi are starting to get a little suspicious. Performing any more overt actions will cause them to flip their symbols into Anti-Hegemony symbols; voting for either the Redwings or Goldwings simply to vote against the Accord.
It is now time to influence their election again. This is a bonus turn, you will still receive a final turn after this one. Select Two Actions>Pick TWO Council Members and give both ONE new Non-Faction Interest (Specify)>Eliminate ONE Council Member (Specify; Creates a new Council member with random symbols)>(Overt) Turn ONE Council Member without a Faction Interest into an Accord Supporter (Specify)>Lobby an Interest (Specify) which will DOUBLE UP the symbol for two random Council Members who already have it>(Overt) Denounce an Interest. ONE Random Council Member will lose that symbol.>(Overt) Arm the Accord (Gives +1 Red Bars to the Accord)>Grant lucrative trade deals to a faction (Gives +1 Green Bars to any faction)>Hire Privateers to attack a faction (Randomly take -1 Red OR Green Bar from a faction)No Write-Ins except to Specify plans are allowed for this vote
>>6278269Honestly, didn't expect you to revert it, but this is more workable now.I think the best thing to do now is this>Pick TWO Council Members and give both ONE new Non-Faction Interest (2 and 3, Pacifism)>Eliminate ONE Council Member (12)I see mostly upside outside of the off chance he just ends up being like 3 and is a capitalist again.
>>6278269+1Gave it a fair bit of thought, maybe killing 9 and 12 wouldn't be so bad but I feel there might be some bamboozling involved with attempt of Wookiekilling
>>6278279It might be more prudent to kill the 66% voters for Goldwing than a 50/50 voter for Gold or Redwing.So that's why my mind is on 6/12 right now. (Then we can either lobby 9 + 10 into getting a useful interest for us or we lobby Pacifists to hopefully get 2, 3 and/or 13 into 66% voters)
I have a 1 ID so this probably won't count but I'd just like to say that killing 14 would probably give a higher chance of eliminating an Goldwing Voter
>>6278382True but frankly, 6/12/14 are all voters we gotta kill and we can't kill all three so shrug.
Imagine hating your players this much.
WAITwouldn't killing someone count as " any more overt actions " ?
>>6278400Not if you say the Redwings did it.Also, Bananas labeled them.
>>6278400It is one of the five actions explicitly not labeled 'Overt'. And if it was overt, Mr. 11 would've told the Redwings to fuck off and converted into an Anti-Redwing out of spite.
>>6278403>>6278407alright i'm retarded and haven't seen the (Overt)
>>6278277Sure, let's do it. +1>>6278269Thank you for reconsidering, Bananas.
>>6278390
>>6278566Don't dwell on the baiting 1post ID amidst the sea of people who are being grateful and/or civil.
I think that now it makes the most sense to kill 2 and 3 (guaranteed goldwing voters). In the best case we get a voter guaranteed to vote for us or at least not for gold. If their replacement is also goldwing aligned then we have another turn to fix things.
>>6278277Looks like this choice is the winning one with 2(?) Votes?
>>6278269>Teach Councilors 2 and 3 the value of Popularism (I'm assuming throwing an opposing value, such as teaching popularism to a capitalist, might not work as expected.) >Eliminate Councilor 14. (Goldwings? More like Gold Talons).
>>6278279I wasn't sure if you were saying +1 to the vote just above yours or what; but I think >>6278277 this is the winner as of right now regardless.
>>6278762you were right i was +1ing >>6278277
>>6278765Thanks that helps clear it up.
You have spread a great deal of Pacifist ideology into the Council among some of its members; the undercurrent that the Urgi must remain uninvolved in other conflicts in space is strong, especially given their closeness to the Esaal and Hegemony; both powerful militaries that they'd rather not tangle with.Coincidentally, Council member number 12 is killed. As a rich and powerful arms merchant, specializing in the breeding of “biological targeting rocket systems” whose Hegemonic computers can't even hack; he made many enemies by accepting payments but not delivering weapon shipments to militaries, militias, and security forces on the losing side of conflicts. After all, if they were going to lose any way, he may as well not waste the inventory and keep the payment. This, among other practices, made him hated. It's not surprised he was finally killed. Strangely though, the killers took no credit for the murder, and the two high-caliber rounds from a personal talon-gun that ended his life were much more powerful then the average Urgi personal weapons. Normally, Urgi can't handle recoil of very strong firearms, and the material technology available to a common hitman isn't enough to penetrate that many thick layers of inner ship-hull. How strange!His replacement is, through complete chance, a white bird who is a member of “the flock”, the large religious order also preaching peace and nonaggression, and a direct follower of Council Member #8.Meanwhile, YOU happen to know exactly what caused both of these events. Your spymaster, Usis Nanonae, and your team working around the clock to bring out these changes and shake up the political landscape of the Urgi. Now you must simply keep up your vow and reap the benefits of the promises you made.Suddenly, you receive a communication. Just before you could prepare your final plans for infiltration of the Urgi political system or your last attack wave. It's the Esaal's new Grand Admiral.”Jaxtians! So good to see our fellow warrior rivals again!””Let me guess, this is about that favor we owe you?””Blunt and too the point! Hahahaaha. But I was thinking, maybe we Esaal should start doing that honorific stuff. You go by “your Majesty”, right? What should the great Esaal admiral go by?””...””Your ruthlessness? Your killeriest? Your badassness? Oh, maybe just “the terrible”?! What do you think?””I think, uhh, you'd know your culture better then mine... Brave one?””Ohhh! I like that, oh ho ho!”Still beaming with pride and a bit of ego, much like yourself when you ascended, you figure this Esaal probably just got promoted. He's pretty young for the position too; the Esaal only ascend people to the highest ranks based on merit and achievement. You wonder if their culture is changing closer to yours over the years? Imitation being the most sincere form of flattery?
”Yes well, I won't keep you any more, I'm sure you're very busy. And yes, it is about that favor. After all, the Esaal and Jaxtians have a long history and-””I thought Esaal didn't talk this much?”He stiffens, putting on a more serious tone. Perhaps he was just a bit starstruck talking to the Supreme Ruler reknowned for being a skilled duelist and warrior. And for beating up the Aristocrats so soundly in a fraction of the time it took the Esaal to do it.”Well... yes then. I'll be brief. The Casliaans, one of our subject races, are people we have fought many, many, many, many times now. We love fighting them! But recently, it has gotten too much with them sneaking away as refugees or joining pirates and raiding and all of this... the womenfolk especially don't like their predations when let loose among the Esaal's softer, inner society. Too scared to fight us man on man anymore, HUH!?” He growls at the display in front of him, showing a Casliaan warrior rebel.The Threemind whispers context in your ear. “It's highly likely the Casliaans adapted to favor hit and run tactics, even evolutionarily, as the warriors who fought head on were selected against in the genome. The Esaal made this problem themselves.”
”...Anyway. This is where we need your help. We need a way to tell when Casliaans are aboard ships; our scanners aren't sophistacted enough on their own and their genetic code is too complex; we need a specalized custom algorithim. Something that can scan and tell the difference between a sack of fruit and a cowardly little Casliaan stowaway! The truth is, we LOVE fighting them! They're the reason we have to keep inventing new weapons year after year! But... it's become tiresome. We'd like to spend some time fighting other people and keep the Casliaans from scurrying away and fighting in ways we don't like. You could do this for us, oh great leader of the Jaxtians. Your computer technology and AI is way better. We just need a strong sorting algorithim. Just like our battle maps and Aristocrat fleet info my predesccesor gave you! It's a fair trade, data for data, a favor for a favor. So, can you send it over?”The Threemind whispers again, this time more carefully. “Your Majesty, the Casliaan Homeworld is deep in Esaal territory, and is their most common fought rival in space. With the sort of thing we can give them, escape and rebel actions against their occupieres, the Esaal, will be almost impossible. In other words, we will make the Casliaans totally helpless against the Esaal. They will keep them locked up on their homeworld forever; unable to escape into deep space and gain independence like many other species have done.””Like what we did to the Swall.”“Precisely. But the Casliaans have some members in the galactic underground, and now, they will be a minority of a minority. It is highly likely they won't have the numbers to reproduce successfully and will die out; leaving the Casliaans stuck to their homeworld forever. An easy target for extermination.””We have comitted genocide before, I have very little qualms with giving the Esaal to keys to another species fate.”“True. But don't forget of the Casliaans on the council. They will likely not take this news well and will likely want to militarize in response. Unless they know of our connection to the Accord, in which case, they'll probably just vote against the Accord no matter what...”The Esaal smiles at the camera and the data feed. ”Well, honorable Jaxtians? Are you ready to give us what you promised?”>Give him what he wants (Casliaans on the Council angered)>Apologize but give him your father's expansion fund of Consortium Credits as a compromise (Expensive)>Deny him his request>Refuse and promise to help fight for Casliaan freedom (Lose -100 Fleet Power on your next invasion to protect against Esaal attack)
>>6278823Alright. Refusing would both jeopardize our war and our Esaal relationship.I'm afraid that Esaal is on the smarter part of the spectrum - and is voluntarily trying to get Redwings to win the elections for MORE FIGHT for the PINHEAD GOD.Election is close? Would>Give him what he wants BUT Once election is over be feasible?
>>6278824I'll allow Write-Ins for this, sure. I'm not sure what you mean by this though.
>>6278823I'm away from my usual IP, but my instinct is that it's more important to keep relations with the Esaal on a somewhat friendly footing than to avoid angrring the only two Cassies on the council who might vote our way, one of whom is 50/50 anyway.
>>6278825I'm pretty sure he means that he wants to tell the Grand Admiral he'll give them what they want once the election is over. You know, so the opinions of the Caslians is irrelevant. If write-ins are allowed though, I have another idea.
>>6278826Are you forgetting about Councillor 16? He's literally an assured voter of ours Not to mention, we'd basically be giving the Redwings THREE voters.
>>6278823>Apologize but give him your father's expansion fund of Consortium Credits as a compromise (Expensive)We can't piss off the Casliaans right now, we'll get three dudes voting against us out of spite and we lose one of our dedicated voters.People seethed at losing 2 voters before that was walked back on. Losing 3 would be even worse.I'm also fine with the write in on>We'll help you deal with the Casliaans after the election.If it comes to a tie.
I should add, by the way, that MY idea of a write-in was to possibly offer one of their people a spot in the Starsight Academy. Threes mentioned earlier in this thread that it could be a bargaining chip right?But of course, that might be way too big an offer just for this. We could use it in another situation, instead, for another "promise" but I've no idea what.On the other hand, you can usually use these "expensive" options once per Supreme. Will there even be another opportunity to use it with Halam?
>>6278831Hey I like that one too.>>6278825As >>6278827 said. Can he wait 6 month for his toy?
You can feel free to vote for it but will make you predict his reaction instead of telling you any potential consequences.
>>6278835Okay that's definitely a "He will get angry and do something to screw you over" response
>>6278836Well it won't be as bad as if you just say no. Fair?
>>6278839It is, but I'm more so debating the other options. Like I said, there's a chance we might not even get another expensive option during Halam's reign. The starsight academy thing is also there, but as I said, that might be a little too much just for this.
>>6278840We've only had three expensive options so far.MONKE GENES INTO FISHE/COW, bio mechanical space ships and 'hey please be patient here's money" (we're here)So they're not super common.
>>6278846I would have liked to put jaxtian genes into the other ones, but yeah, they're not very often.So really, there's three options>Pay them up (might miss an good expensive option later)>Invite them to the starsight academy (Lose a giant bargaining chip)>Ask them to wait (Will lead to consequences)
>>6278847Considering we JUST took a vow, I rather make sure we insure that vow works out (even if it means missing out on someone cool later) than for Mr. Halam to be a laughingstock 5ever more.So, Expensive or Starsight for me.
>>6278848That's fair, but which one? Starsight seems like a good usage of a previous vote, but like I said, doesn't it feel like a waste to do it over such a small "favor"?Then maybe it isn't that big of a bargaining chip. The worms would probably be pissed off at them, even if they have no way to know this until they're told. And we do want to break their power.
>>6278850Yeahhhh, i'm not even sure the Esaal would care for it.At least with money, they can fuel their war efforts and expansion with that. We can save the Starsight for a faction who'd probably care about that stuff more.
>>6278853>Esaal would care for itWouldn't they? From what we've seen, the Esaal really don't care for the worns. Plus, it's not like we can't use it as a chip with other factions like the consortium right?Then again, I suppose it's their womenfolk who'd prefer to negotiate over that, but we're currently dealing with the grand Admiral.
>>6278854Look, either option would be good but I'm sticking with Expensive.The starsight thing feels like it's too valuable to spend here and, sure, we might miss getting some cool super weapon or tech later but that's fair enough for the price of keeping the vow intact.
>>6278855I guess that's fine. I just thought it was a waste to not use a write-in if possible.
>>6278823>Apologize but give him your father's expansion fund of Consortium Credits as a compromise (Expensive)I guess I should just vote in case my IP changes, but I'll switch if someone thinks of something better.
>>6278823>We'll help you deal with the Casliaans after the election.If he gives us grief, tell him it would be a missed opportunity to not use this as an opportunity to build new strengths and adapt.
>>6278823>Camera>Data FeedIt doesn't matter WHEN we say we'll do it, that we'll do it at all is still something the Esaal can broadcast to the Casliaan candidates to get them voting against our faction... and against Esaal influence-backed faction groups, too, who'll hear this and also switch against those groups. Is there any chance that this particular Esaal is an infiltrating Leeray skinsuit-agent in employ of the consortium? He's too young for his role, he's talking far more then Esaal normally do. Shit is extremely dodgy.>Tell him we need to discuss this for a moment. Then call Esaal space to verify this guy is actually their leader.
>>6278867You have a good point anon. I'll support verifying this. If he is in fact their leader, we can still give him the expensive stuff, right?
>>6278867Yeah, that is odd.>>6278829Changing this to>Verify this guy is actually their leader.If he is>Apologize but give him your father's expansion fund of Consortium Credits as a compromise (Expensive)Write ins are allowed for this and making sure we aren't falling for some triple cross is good, especially if we're gonna spend a lot.
>>6278858Im this guy.Changing to...>Call the Essal and verify this guy is their leader.Man tbis dude is nervous, acting very unEssaal, and is sus. Is this a cat? Good catch anons!
>>6278867Thinking about it some more, something even more likely:>>6275559'if an Aristocrat can be a bird, that can only mean one thing. 'The Aristocrats are even more adapt at bioinfiltration then the Consortium are.>>6278820'”Ohhh! I like that, oh ho ho!'He even gives a typically Aristocrat laugh here!
>>6278823This nigga is in a Green Room!>>6278938I missed the Aristocrataugh, but yeah its super sus.
>>6278867+1
>>6278867Supporting this.Beyond that, can’t we just say that we need to check that our AI systems can actually do what he asks (bluffing) - to give us more time till wait out the elections?We could even say that we don’t want to promise him something that may take 30 years to deliver, or even be impossible…
Okay, listen, while I do agree with the idea of checking if this guy is the real deal, we really should agree on an option on the case he is.So, maybe have a "backup" vote? Ideally for the expensive option.
>>6279002Well I'd assume if he's a fake, we just tell him to fuck off.
>>6279003A plan in case he ISN'T fake anon
>>6279008Ah, right, misread.Well, I already voted for the expensive thing, so mmh.
>>6278823>>Give him what he wants (Casliaans on the Council angered)
>>6278823Supporting this >>6278867But if he proves to be real, then>Apologize but give him your father's expansion fund of Consortium Credits as a compromise (Expensive)Basically I'm agreeing with this anon >>6279002
>>6278828Yeah, but 13 is 50/50 and 9 is 100% against us. It's pretty minor.>>6278824>>6278827This is a good plan, thoguh. Since Bananas okayed it, I'll +1.>>6278823>+1 to granting the favor after the election, and telling the Esaal to keep it to themselves until then.>>6278867>>6278868>>6278870Could Threes possibly be that bad at its job, to not even verify the identity or use a secure, verified channel before letting some rando talk to The Supreme? I don't know, anons...
I think the votes currently at 3 give it to them later and 3 (expensive) as a tie, so I'll give it a minute.
>>6279055Are you not counting the 'verify identity' vote?
>>6279055>Later Gator
Fine. I was just waiting to finish the strategy thing since I went and made a whole code for it, but if it's to break a tie,I'll suppport>Verify the Identity>If real, apologize but give him your father's expansion fund of Consortium Credits as a compromise
>>6279060>1 post by this ID
>>6279059That'd be part of the update; I'm listening to the write-in but you'd still need an answer for him if and when you verify his identity afterwards which is why I'm counting the rest too.
>>6279068So... are we still in a tie?
>>6279070Well, dwA just voted to give him the C A S H so we're not tied anymore. 4/3, leaning to cash.
>>6279072Well that depends on whether the 1 ID vote is counted.
>>6279073Ah, didn't notice Mc2.Dunno then. We'll see.
No I'm not counting Mc2 it's not even a real vote
I am >>6278974 and also >>6276438.>>6279055I vote for the expensive option if this really is the Essal.
>>6279314This picture gave me more feelz than this Ironheart Disney-slop whole series
>>6278870Adding a backup plan of>Tell him to wait until after the election, but we'll get what he wants.
You lean in to the Threemind and ask it to confirm the identity of the message."I don't know about this guy, Threes... seems a little suspicious. Is this really the Esaal grand admiral?""The broadcast is coming from an Esaal battleship in Esaal space, backed by identification credits coming from the homeplanet. All video feed shows no signs of AI tampering. I'll double check for you however, your Majesty, just in case."While the Esaal's behavior is a little suspect to you; there does not seem to be any evidence to the contrary. The Aristocrats don't seem to have the same kind of spy network and skin-suit like technologies the Consortium has, or at least not the will to use them. While the worms may have allied with the Esaal, Consortium, and Aristocrats; any tampering on their part would be purely coincidental. After all, you did ask the Esaal for a favor in giving you the Aristocrat battle data; it only makes sense they'd come to collect it."...While I unfortunately cannot steer our computer networks towards your request at the present moment, High Admiral, I can give you something equal to greater in exchange. I hope this will be sufficient?"You have the Threemind double check the transmission and then send over your father's entire expansion fund in Consortium credits. It was always meant to be a temporary measure, since he specifically didn't want to replace your own nation's traditional currency with the Consortium's crypto. While you aren't giving the Esaal exactly what he asked for, your large cash infusion is more then enough to cover that expense if he rented it out to another nation; not that anyone else could build that sort of algorithm in the short term anyway. While not of your own currency, that fund still represented a sizable surplus of money that could have been used for foreign trade and diplomacy; with that bargaining chip gone, you will have to rely more on your own industry to make up the difference for your future costs and projected expansion. It's expensive and costly, but won't cause any serious issues for the Hegemony's budget, as long as you don't go way over-budget for another project, or the war gets extended too long..."Ah well; it wasn't what we wanted. But at least you tried to keep up your end of the bargain, noble Jaxtians. And even worth more then what we asked for! Not at all like the slippery Consortium capitalists who would have tried to undercut us with poor quality munitions or shit metal alloys in trade! We respect your dedication to keeping your word, Jaxtians. Until next time!"It seems by paying your way through it, you've patched up the issue with the vote and won't cause any last minute disruptions, as well as not damaging your rather positive relations with the Esaal. Now with that distraction dealt with...
It is now your final chance to influence the Urgi's election of their newly forming nation-state. The Accord is the most ideologically and politically aligned with the Hegemony's goals, and represents an opportunity to form your own ally in space. While you won't have as much control over them and their resources as you did with the HVS, you know this will be a great boon to the Hegemony in the future."Usis... ready every last Agent. We must strike now; before the voters cloister themselves away for final deliberation!""Of course, your Majesty. Of course..."Select Two Actions>Pick TWO Council Members and give both ONE new Non-Faction Interest (Specify)>Eliminate ONE Council Member (Specify; Creates a new Council member with random symbols)>(Overt) Turn ONE Council Member without a Faction Interest into an Accord Supporter (Specify)>Lobby an Interest (Specify) which will DOUBLE UP the symbol for two random Council Members who already have it>(Overt) Denounce an Interest. ONE Random Council Member will lose that symbol.>(Overt) Arm the Accord (Gives +1 Red Bars to the Accord)>Grant lucrative trade deals to a faction (Gives +1 Green Bars to any faction)>Hire Privateers to attack a faction (Randomly take -1 Red OR Green Bar from a faction)No Write-Ins except to Specify plans are allowed for this vote
Alright. I'd go for removing 6 and 14. Goldwind are the greater menace after all
>>6279679>>6279679>Eliminate ONE Council Member (14)>Eliminate ONE Council Member (6)Kill all those stand in our way.
I should better hope that eliminating two councillors in a single turn would not count as 'overt' action.
>>6279714I had planned that if a certain number were killed (probably 3) then any more would be too suspicious and become overt, but you would be warned before on the next minigame prompt. Like the "too high caliber for normal Urgi weapons" detail; small clues that the Hegemony would be behind the assassinations would pile up eventually. But because this is the last turn and you can't kill any more then 3 total anyway you're safe from that; but the Isolationists will certainly be suspicious.
>>6279714The Redwings killed two people and they didn't care.So, us killing two people probably won't register as anything off to them. Besides, the killings are anonymous so there's no direct tie to us outside of circumstance evidence.
>>6279718>the Isolationists will certainly be suspicious.Can't say I like the sound of that.We could also lobby support for pacifism, but like, It's random, right? So it might end up goin' to fuckin councilman 8 or 12 or 16 instead of 3, 2, or 13, who actually need it.
>>6279720He just said 'you're safe from that'.I do have a different proposal in mind if we wanna only kill one dude. We could turn 9 and 10 into populists or isolationists then we kill 14. We turn two guys into 50/50 voters for us and we kill one of the 66% voters.
>>6279721Does it actually work that way? I don't remember if "give new faction interest" replaces one of the old ones.
>>6279722I mean, I'd assume it just replaces one at 50/50 chance (or 66/33 if they got a double down vote)If it doesn't work like that, we can just stick to killing two people since the QM literally said it wouldn't cause them to go apeshit.
Basically I understand as follows : >Goldwings are short-term threatmid-to-long term potential allies/commercial partners once Urgi culture shift toward Hegemony-protectorate (or Hegemony-incorporated)>Isolationists are short-term opportunity, mid-to-long-term threatsWill help us win the election but will take badly Hegemony investing/supplying weapons to Urgi>Supremacists are full-spectrum bad news Election-hindering, Hegemony-inclusion-adverse people.
>>6279720It's random WHO gets the double up but it will double up two people who have the symbol already, making it more likely they'll support it.Also it hasn't happened yet but if you double up a double up it'll go to x4 x8 etc. making it extremely likely they'll vote for that. Certain options are more for creating new voters or securing voters you already have. I won't say what the best strategy is since we have plenty of strategists already doing the math on this minigame (and it's been super fun to read btw) but as this is the last turn might make the most sense to reinforce your voting base and secure those pesky 50% votes into much more secure voters.
Oh and also forgot to mention it but faction symbols/interests are treated as the same as the others for various purposes BUT each voter can only really have one faction interest at a time. So they can be a populatist and isolationist voter who supports the Redwings but they can't support Redwings & Accord at the same time for example.
>>6279728So if we pick to give them a new interest it'll replace the old one, right?
>>6279729None of the actions allow you to do that so, no? Except Denouncement, which is an overt action btw.
>>6279689Wait. I got a better idea. Bananas just confirmed we can double up a double up. Okay, okay, changing my vote to this>Lobby an Interest (Isolationism) which will DOUBLE UP the symbol for two random Council Members who already have itThis turns 15 into a 50/50 into a 66/33 (4/6 for Isolationist, 2/6 for Captialist) and it turns 11 into a 80/20 (4/5 to pick Isolationism, 1/5 to pick Redwing). BIG! Also it's not overt so it shouldn't make them pissy.>Eliminate ONE Council Member (14)I'm picking him instead of 6 since I hate his stupid smug smile.
>>6279679>>6279735+1
>>6279735Well this makes sense in "securing" them.However, I'm wary of making turbo-isolationnist long-term.
>>6279735Is it really a good idea to double up isolationism when they're already distrustful of us?
>>6279739Well, it's more Pacifist/Isolationist/Populist in terms of those backing the Accord so it should balance out?IT basically means we own the float since we got 5 dudes who will always vote for us and it will give us 3 dudes who will more than likely vote for us.Unless it's the worst case scenario where everyone who can vote Goldwing does and 5 AND 11 vote against us, it's a tie at worst between us and Goldwing.>>6279742The key word being OVERT. OVERT, OVERT.Lobbying is specifically NOT OVERT.They would only get suspicious if we are OVERT again. If we killed MORE than 3 people, killing AGAIN would be OVERT.I get being cautious but, look man, no one else is voting for anything.
>>6279735Alright dude, I'll trust you.Switching from half-assed >>6279681to>>6279735
>>6279719Redwings aren't an external power, so the isolationists care less, I assume.>>6279735I'd rather double up Pacifism, desu, but I can +1 you in a pinch.>>6279679>Lobby an Interest (Specify) which will DOUBLE UP the symbol for two random Council Members who already have itIsolationism.>Eliminate ONE Council Member (Specify; Creates a new Council member with random symbols)14.
>>6279911>Redwings aren't an external power, so the isolationists care less, I assume.Fair.>I'd rather double up Pacifism, desu, but I can +1 you in a pinch.I would too, but there's 3 pacifists who benefit from it, 1 mystery dude and four pacifists who don't. We'd need to succeed like two coin flips to get it on people who might take use of it. Meanwhile the Isolationists are just a 13% and a 14% boost with no RNG.
Rolled 4 (1d6)
>>6279992>ANOTHER fucking CapitalistMeanwhile, we have 1 (one) populist
>>6279995I swear I'm not doing this on purpose. Not even one warmonger or a contradictory set of interests in which case they'd cancel out and become blank/self interested like #1
spacer
Beyond an increasing sentiment of isolationism and fear of the outside, greater powers in space; the Urgi find one of their "beloved" Council members dead. This one, a Goldwing supporter with strong ties to a small supremacist movement; who not only want to make the growing Urgi nation as powerful as possible but also have racial sentiment against the Casliaan immigrants and refugees; died after his spaceship simply ceased life support function. Found floating zero G with no oxygen, he was unable to save himself. Just goes to show that Goldwings, even supremacists who tout the importance of Urgi technology, like to cheap out on critical components in their space vessels. Oh well...Meanwhile, the Hegemony prepares for its third and hopefully final attack wave against the Aristocrats. The Threemind has pooled your manpower and various resources well; going over every eventuality, and while your ships and soldiers are massed and prepared, it warns of a possible variable."Your majesty, the Aristocrats are on their last legs. We've already taken two capitals and are ready to crush the remaining defense forces; but there is a small concern.""What is it this time? Did the Aristocrats manage to scrap together a new weapon?""No, unfortunately. Something far more banal. You see, the Redwings of the Urgi may be one of your rivals in the election. But they started and continue to operate as a mercenary core. Given their closeness to the Aristocrats, and the wealth and prestige of our main target; Ully'Andule, there is a high likelihood they could be involved in our final attack; where as the smaller feudal lords we have conquered are unlikely to have the resources to afford them.""Hmm. But if we bought their services first, they wouldn't join the Aristocrats. I'm guessing? How powerful are they?""Yes, but it would be quite expensive. Unfortunate given our timing with the Esaal situation. The Redwings military power they can contribute to selling to foreign powers we estimate would be equal to 30 per Red Bar; on your side or the opponent.""Give me a list of options and costs. I'll decide.">Hire the Redwings for your final attack wave (Redwings gain +1 Economic Value (Green Bar), you gain +90 Fleet Power, One random Militarist symbol is doubled up)>Attack Redwing stations, supply lines, and checkpoints in Urgi space to cripple their ability to join the conflict (Overt action)>Threaten the Redwings to not get involved in the conflict, or else (Loss of Hegemony status + doubles up one Supremacist symbol)>Modify your ships to protect against Redwing "boiling guns" (Decreases possible Redwing attack power but slows other scientific research)>Allow them to do as they will; you are not afraid of them.
>>6280005>Allow them to do as they will; you are not afraid of them.We'll crush them! I'd slow scientific research instead, but I want Starsight Academy and Migrator Sapience to bear fruit.
>>6280005>Allow them to do as they will; you are not afraid of them.Puny birbz.
>>6280005>>Allow them to do as they will; you are not afraid of them.I picture this will be +90 "reinforcements" for Aristocrats. This shall be OK to deal with
>>6280042Better than okay. The Redwings will crash upon us, and be broken. Militarism among the Urgi may take a hit.
>>6280044Well they might attack all "ez planets" as their strategy might not be the same as the Aristofags - I see this as a chance for Urgi Landgrab
>>6280005>>Modify your ships to protect against Redwing "boiling guns" (Decreases possible Redwing attack power but slows other scientific research)
>>6280005>Modify your ships to protect against Redwing "boiling guns" (Decreases possible Redwing attack power but slows other scientific research)We'll have to research a way to defend against this weapon eventually anyway; might as well do it now.
>>6280005"BRO IT'LL BE EASY"Do you wanna know how razor thin our margin of victory is? According to our current plan, the capital planets we attack would each end up with around 50~ ish Fleet power.Do you realize what 90 fleet could do to that? Do you realize that losing even a single planet would mean we'd be unable to finish the war in 4 turns and take a massive hit to both our reputation and our home situation?>Threaten the Redwings to not get involved in the conflict, or else (Loss of Hegemony status + doubles up one Supremacist symbol)We can make up our status by beating the shit out of the Aristocrats and keeping the Accord as Allies. The only councilor with supremacist ideas is number 14.
>>6280042>>6280044Not only will it not "Be Ok" to deal with, it will actively cripple our homefrontSeriously, do you even know what "90 Reinforcements" mean???
>>6280118Council Member #14 was killed according to the last Council vote and replaced with a Capitalist according to this >>6279992 roll btwI didn't bother posting the full Council update picture since there is at least one more chance to influence it; I just wanted to make sure this was known.
>>6280122Wait, so are there literally zero supremacists? Does the value go to someone else instead? It says double up, not add up.
>>6280118Well if I read correctly it's "reinforcements" meaning our Doomstack of 240 in their main will get aggro by 104
>>6280125No, it *means* that instead of only having like 50 reinforcements they'd need to split across 4 planets, they'd have 140Do you realize how much this would screw up our plans? You DO remember thet we need to win this war in literally just one more more right?
>>6280124Maybe I'll toss one symbol on there or something idk
>>6280128Well, that kinda changes things, doesn't it? If this would have another type of result, should it not be mentioned like any other one? So I can change it to something else in case it would be damaging to the overall likelihood f victory like an assured voter suddenly gaining a supremacist interest?
>>6280005>Modify your ships to protect against Redwing "boiling guns" (Decreases possible Redwing attack power but slows other scientific research)Overt is right out, the supremacist thing can steal one of our voters, and letting them get 90 fleet power is worrying.Hiring them might end up making them the new Goldwings by letting them win over the Capitalists (3, 6, 13, new 14, 15). They might still vote for Goldwing so who knows if the risk is worth it?
>>6280129Fine then it just doubles the zero then like it was written
>>6280134Eh, I think it's fine if it makes a supremacist pop up after the clarification, I just assumed you forgot.
>>6280134Okay, good. Well, I'll just add that in the case nobody else votes for the Threaten option I'll switch to something else. I'll just say it beforehand since I might have to do it from another ID.Threatening is still a better option, but anything is better than ruining the warplan.
>>6280126>Given their closeness to the Aristocrats, and the wealth and prestige of our main target; Ully'Andule, there is a high likelihood they could be involved in our final attack; where as the smaller feudal lords we have conquered are unlikely to have the resources to afford them."So this is why I think it's +90 on our doomstack main attack (makes sense to try to get their home back + defensive style..)With over 250 ships there, ggwp for us
>>6280138You know that this would make the final attack unwinnable and you're still voting for it?Bloody hell, even the "Research" option would only DECREASE the reinforcements.
>>6280122WOMAN!!! DETECTED!!!
>>6280140???We'll attack somthing like 289 on 109 - win with 181 ships remaining guaranteed - that is if we roll 1-20 5 times in a row. that won't happen and we'll likely have 240 ships. They counterstrike with 104 instead of 14 on their main planet. Assuming we have 244 ships, guaranteed win on defense.
>>6280129>>6280134>>6280136>>6280137Actually, I think I WILL make a new symbol pop up and on the worst Council member possible for you!MWAHAHAHAHAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(just kidding)
>>6280147Based.
>>6280118If we complete our vow with the Accord, we'll earn the lasting repeext of our people, reinvigorate hem, and gain a bonus anyway. It should even out.
>>6280005>Modify your ships to protect against Redwing "boiling guns" (Decreases possible Redwing attack power but slows other scientific research)>>6280153Oh, Bananas!
Modify is the current leader with 4, but if we ignore the 1-Post ID, then it's 3 for Modify and 3 for Allow (do nothing)
So..I guess we're going with the option that decreases our research and doesn't even completely get rid of them.
I'll vote for the "do nothing" option if a smarter person can convince me we'll be fine.
>>6280329Well, according to the code, this is how an battle between the remainders of our fleet post-attack in Ully'andule would turn out (The Hegemony is Force A)I'd prefer to just straight up get rid of them, but as mentioned in >>6280137 if the option to threaten them can't win, might as well go with research so we have a smaller chance of losing.
>>6280331Okay.>Modify your ships to protect against Redwing "boiling guns" (Decreases possible Redwing attack power but slows other scientific research)
You ultimtately decide to be better safe then sorry, and reduce the Redwings power by researching countermeasures to the boiling guns. While not their only weapon, it is their most infamous and fearsome weapon. Having the ability to boil a crew alive in their ship does sound pretty brutal, and at the very least having some modifications to protect against it will be good for morale.“By painting these heat-abosrbing decals, which can be placed into a pleasing and aesthetic, decorative arragnement as such, we can greatly increase the ship's ability to be “boiled” by concentraing the heat into specific hot zones or secondary rooms. While it won't help with the venting issue, we predict a 25% increase to how long a ship can be “boiled” before the crew becomes incapacitated or killed by simply focusing the heat into areas less important and not in direct contact with the crewmembers. As a plus, this method is also cheap and won't require a complete retrofit of the fleet, allowing us to still hit the deadline for the final attack wave...””Good work, Streakeyes.”It's unfortunate you had to stop research on more important matters, but at least the Redwings have had their signature weapon countered. As you prepare your final attack wave, the Threemind has something extra to say.“As you know your Majesty, the Aristocrats base their economy and biotech off of a single very peculiar type of lifeform; the Wisdom Tree. This tree creates glowing “fruits” which contain ready made protiens for rapid growth or repair of tissues, tons of high energy juices, rare earth metals, and even incoded information in RNA sequences. There may be a final opportunity to shift the election in our favor against our biggest threat.””Yes, I am aware. What does that have to do with the Goldwings?”“The Goldwings look up to the Aristocrats; whose “soft power” is strongest in our sector of space. The Urgi also have a strange fascination with the spiritual and medicinal; they have a fondest for recreational drugs, especially those with “mystical” qualities. These fruits seem to have all these qualities for them; and many have got it in their heads that they may be the secret to the Aristocrats biological immortality or even grant the mythical power of flight. Aristocrats can take on forms that can fly, which is something they flaunt to the Urgi.”
“The Urgi believe that flight is a spiritual, perfected experience; something that their ancestors could do only on their home planet, given the rarity of large-brained organisms like themselves being capable of flight given the square cube law.””So they want the fruits? Don't they know that only Aristocrats and their drones are adapted to actually be able to process the juice anyway?”“They may or may not; regardless they want them. As the Goldwings grow in wealth, so to do these amibitions and wastefulness. If we manage to gather a number of fruits from planets plus their economic status (Green bars) that reach seven, we will be able to swap any Goldwing symbol we choose with an Accord symbol; by simple bribery. However, these fruits have defense systems. Each planet we gather from will stir up the drones and newly grown warrior-castes living in the roots of these Wisdom Trees, forcing us to endure a small extra attack wave.””Hmm... we'd be putting troops at risk and increasing our losses.”“It may be worth it. Our sensors indicate that the Wisdom Trees can attack us back with about seven (7) units worth of fleet power. If are forces are depleted on a planet we gather from, that gathering will be unsuccessful. We'll also have to gather before the Redwing & Aristocrats make their final counterattack, so decide now if we want to bother with this secondary objective, your Majesty. As long as you wrap the war up here, we'll suffer no long term fatigue from this conflict, and will have successfully humiliated the Aristocracy. Oh and one more thing your Majesty; because of your Starsight Academy, we finally have enough Starseers to send the fleet to any sector without having to worry about beachheads or supply lines any more. You can simply choose to attack any planet now. Good luck.””There is no luck. I will prevail, because I choose to.”RulesDecide on which planets to place a Recall, Attack, and Gather order using the rules here >>6274991These actions happen in this order, BEFORE the Aristocrats + Redwings will stage their final counterattack.>Recall (Take troops from planets you occupy to add to the main fleet force)>Attack (Choose which planets to send troops to attack OR reinforce a planet you already control)>Gather (Each planet you “gather” from will be attacked by an enemy force of 7 units; normal battle rules apply)
>>6280399Okay, so let me get something clear: the "fruit gathering" will happen AFTER the attack but BEFORE the reinforcements right?
>>6280400Also, each planet gives you one fruit I'm assuming? Meaning we'd need to gather on 7 planets to get the bonus?
4 planets + their 3 green bars = 7 total.
>>6280414So we need to get 4 planets? Is that how it works? If it was that way, I could work it into the plan, maybe.
I'll leave the wartime planning to guys who know far better than me but we HAVE to get those fruits.We got 5 locked in voters. If we turn 2 into an Accord supporter, that's 6.Literally the only way we'd lose is if 3, 5, 11, 13, plus 15 don't vote for us, 9 votes for Goldwing and 1 votes for Goldwing.
Smarter anons than I, is therw a way to take the orange cluster, Ully'ande's capital planet, and "gather" at thise three worlds plus four more with our force allocation?
>>6280420It's not necessary pee sa, but very useful.HOWEVER, I'm just gonna go ahead and say that unless it really is just 4 planets we need to take there's no chance. Otherwise we'd have to sacrifice a lot of units which would give a considerable risk to the warplan failingSo I'm waiting until Bananas confirms if it's 4 planets + Green Bars
>>6280427Not necessary, yes, but it makes our victory certain outside of comically bad RNG.
I assume that we're attacking the Green Capital and the Purple Capital. With 4 caps to defend that's a counterattack of 31 each. So maybe 83 vs. Green 13, push 34 to yellow 47 and 25 to blue 56, leaving a core fleet of 73. Pull 29 from yellow 30, 50 from blue 51, 26 from white 27, 15 from white 16 and 12 from Purple 13. This gives 205 to launch against Purple 109. That's probably plenty. We could harvest from Yellow home, Purple home, Green home and Blue 27. The massive 81 defense forces on Yellow and Blue will not need to roll due to alpha strike. Green will only need to roll if they do badly in the initial assault, but will probably be fine. Blue 27 doesn't auto-win, but it will be difficult to lose to a 7. Does anyone think that 205 is insufficient to send against purple 109 or that I'm badmathing somewhere?
>>6280425Why do we want the Orange cluster?
Actually, Blue 27 would auto-win against a 7 eventually, it would just take rolling to see how many Cowbros survive.
>>6280429>31 eachNo, all the Redwings go to Ully'Andule, aka Purple. That's what the text says, at least. The smaller guys can't afford it.It's 14 for every capital + 67 at purple. I actually already had a plan as per >>6277700 that would only need relatively minor changes. And there's also the battle code if you wanna check.
>>6280431You know what, good point. With our Starseer Academy, we could take the comparatively-weak green region's planets and capital instead, couldn't we?
>>6280435Thanks, so 14 or 15 to the rimworlds and 81ish to Purple. Assuming a response force of 7 followed by a seperate response force of 15, I calculate our optimal defensive number to be 57 (with an optimal defense of 27 on the non-cap world).Drawdown the non-capital conqured worlds to 1 each. Attack Green 13 with 68Reinforce Yellow 47 to 57Reinforce Blue 56 to 57Keep Blue 27 at 27Send the rest (209) to attack Purple 109.Harvest from Green 13, Yellow 47, Blue 27, and Purple 109. I calculate 315 as the optimal number to take purple guarenteed, which isn't feasible to obtain. What's your modified version, and do you want to grab the fruit? Assuming that it's just the 4 that we need, it really only costs us about 30 fleet power to pick up.
>>6280439Purple 13 already allows us to attack Green cluster, so I don't think that Starsight actually gives us anything. It would have been nice to have if we'd failed to take that purple link last turn though.
>>6280469Honestly, it's going to be more optimal to suck some of the forces out and introduce a small risk of failure on the 4 worlds in order to pump the Purple attack force and give us an extra couple bad rolls worth of margin of error, but I don't feel like doing a statistical analysis to figure out the optimal diffusion. My gut says that pulling 10 from the yellow and blue capitals to give a bonus loss to Purple is good enough, but math can only calculate optimal solutions, it doesn't decide how gutsy people feel like being or where they want to put the risk.
Guys, just remember that we've lost like two "close calls" attacks. Make the math for the advantages before you choose.
>>6280414Yes, it's four fruits gathered (four planets with the gather action). The idea being you're "rewarded" by the Goldwongs being richer by increasing their bars by making it easier to bribe them, even though it makes them a stronger faction. Same as Redwings being more valuable (or dangerous) based on how many Red bars they got. Making the Accord the strongest faction was also a viable strategy, but you wouldn't get the minority (populist, pacifist, casliaan, etc.) and isolationist votes in exchange for being strong.
>>6280507If that's the case, it's *definitely* doable I will reccomed we use my plan from >>6277700 unless someone had a better idea. And then after we see the number of casualties we decide whether to gather. I know the two planets we already got should be - with 67 units in yellow the worst possible casualties you'd take it like...1. Literally just one. And for Blue with 60 it would be two.
Can't beancount for that one guys. I'll trust you.
Just remember you can only gather fruits from the planets with the glowing fruit icons, and you are attacked by a small force for each. It's not necessary to win the overall war, just if you want to bribe a Goldwing into voting for Accord instead.
>>6280525Oh yeah, Blue doesn't have fruit trees. I see. I will run some numbers and return.
>>6280549Yes, mhmm...if we were to keep the 27 units in that one Blue planet, we could get a fourth fruit if we switch things around a little.We could send 63 to the Green Cluster, that would be an assured victory. The remaining 12 of the units would go to yellow capital to make IT an assured victory (against both the reinforcements and the fruit obviously)We would still be sending 289 units to Andule. All the Redwing reinforcements go there, right? If it is, then that should be, in the worst case scenario, 181 vs 81. 181 vs 81 is not an assured victory, but 211 is. And both of these would only be losses in the literal worst case scenario where we roll nothing but 1-20 every single time.So I guess the question is, would you prefer to risk slightly here to avoid a risk on the election, or avoid the risk here and have one in the election?
>>6277700This looks like the current vote leader (even though it's not for the right prompt technically and doesn't include harvest orders)Otherwise it would be >>6280469
>>6280570I'm going to make an updated version as soon as I can, give me some time.
>>6280399This is uh...my "Surely we can't roll that fucking badly" operation. First, we gather all non-capital fleets (except the 27 in yellow)>10 + 15 + 12 + 29 + 50 + 26 + 215 = 357Then, we split them into three 'Taskgroups'>Taskgroup 'Vanguard' (63)Attack Green-13 with all forces. The worst case scenario where we lose the max possible in the attack and the fruit gathering, we'd have 48 against 14 units. It would take six consecutive turns of nothing but the worst possible losses for us to lose. >Taskgroup 'Frontline' (287)Attack Undully'Ande with all forces. Worst possible scenario, we're left with 181 to fight the counterattack and would require ten consecutive turns of rolling 1-20 to lose.>Taskgroup 'Rear' (5)Reinforcing Yellow-Capital with 5 unitsWorst case scenario, we're left with 49, and would need eight consecutive turns of losing 1-20 to lose.My plan works in any scenario except us having the worst luck known to man, and even then, we *would* be getting the fruits to lock-in the accord regardless of the case. I'd rather risk an 1/100 here than a 1/2 in the election.
The best way to gather a bunch of fruits with high probability is to send 1 ship to every small or conquered fruit-bearing planet. With the way this minigame works, an attacking force of size 1 only needs a few good rolls to win against a defense with size <35. So we can most likely capture a few fruits-bearing planets with just 8 or so ships, one for each small planet with a tree on it.
>>6280576Sorry, I mispelled something, in the Frontline group, we would be left with 177, not 181. It would take nine consecutive turns of 1-20 rolls to lose instead.Basically, unless I missed some part about where all aristocrat forces will go to the purple capital instead of spreading like they usually do - and someone PLEASE point it out if I did, only the most ridiculous scenario will see to a loss.>>6280578Anon...you can't make more damage than your fleet numbers. A fleet with 1 would only do ONE point of damage regardless of the roll.Now, yes, I suppose we could send 25 instead of 27 to get the main force up to 289. But that's a way bigger risk of not being able to beat the planet.
>>6280580Oh yeah I forgot lol. Just completely disregard what I said in that case
>>6280588Well, I still need the actual votes so Bananas can lock in on my plan and we can begin rolling. I've run the numbers, and literally all it would take to get an assured win in purple is rolling even a single victory.
>>6280576Supporting.>1PBTIDShould I use my trip?
>>6280576+1>>6280399
>>6280576Supporting this.
>>6280576+1
With the plan in place, you begin your broadcast towards the new battlefleet and already stationed soldiers. For some, they have been on the campaign for years now... away from home and slowly becoming unwound. It is time to finish this.”All battle fleets, on my mark, get ready, and, ATTAC-”
You pause, allowing a moment for thought. You sit back, and speak a more neutral tone.”...As your Supreme Ruler, I have taken the credit for leading the charge. I am the face of the war against the Aristocrats. It was my choice that lead you all here. But if I was truly there, with my iron staff, what could I actually accomplish? I could crush one, maybe two warrior caste Aristocrats... then a tiny cut with their deadly venoms and I would be dead, just as anyone else. I am not invincible. There is a reason the mechanisms of war are industry and technology. No amount of a single man's strength or determination can match up to the reality.”The Supreme Ruler, portraying vunerability or weakness? Madness. But the Threemind doesn't cut the feed, and neither does anyone else speak. They are all listening.
”I have made this war, and effort of this conflict, to hurt the Aristocrats. You all know this through propaganda reels; rightful revenge on a foreign power. But this is not about resources or territory. Therefore, to put your lives in danger, I should have a good reason to do so beyond stubborn pride. I believe the Aristocrats must learn fear. They have no fear; no fear their actions have consequences, no fear that their position will ever be threatened by a young and upstart nation as ours, no fear that our mission and purpose is greater then them. This is what I thought to teach them; and in turn; prove ourselves to be worthy of being feared.”You pause again.“But I alone cannot be the Beast of Batool alone, whose bite brings wisdom along with death. I must rely on all of you; my loyal soldiers, citizens, and friends. So instead of ordering you to Attack as I have done before, I will instead allow you to decide when to make your attack. If I am the voice of the beast, then the Jaxtians will be the teeth and claws, the Vetuckers will be the crushing hooves, the Swall its venom, and the Migrators its eyes and ears. I will not command you to attack; you will decide how the Aristocrats learn fear.”You sit back and cross your arms. With a great and sudden exultation of pride; the Threemind indicates that 99.8% of your military all nodded their heads, agreed verbally, or yelled out for the attack to occur; a great sense of comradery overwhelms them with weapons drawn from toolbelts symbolically more then anything else. Instead of commanding them to finish the war, you allow them to finish it themselves. Your gambit has seemed to pay off as the Hegemonic forces begin to implement a much greater, more coordinated, and more unrelenting attack wave then ever before.All Hegemonic forces destroy one additional enemy unit before each roll, regardless of force-size differences.“Proven to be the most effective war leader again, your Majesty.””Of course. I can't risk a loss of morale now when we're so close...”“Permission to load personality file?””Uhhh... sure?”“This confirms the reason I like your reign more then your father's. The apprecition for the dramatic.”>BEGIN COMBAT ROLLS STARTING WITH GREEN-13 (Capital) >>6280576>Reminder: This ruleset >>6270881 is used for rolling. Make sure to give everyone a chance to contribute to the final battle
Rolled 5, 6 = 11 (2d20)>>6280792HELL YEAHAlright, let's start. >63 vs 13 (Advantage of 50)>Advantage Damage: 6So 63 vs 7
Rolled 6, 11 = 17 (2d20)>>6280795Not the best start, but entirely within damage projections. 57 vs 6, so that means we already won this battle regardless with the extra point.Rolling so we can get the turn, but the results don't matter.
>>6280797Alright, that's the first battle finished with 57 to remain. I'll let someone else start the next one.
Rolled 2, 15 = 17 (2d20)>>6280792
Rolled 4, 11 = 15 (2d20)>>6280799Alright, let's see, assuming this is for the big battle,>287 vs 109: Advantage of 17 + 1We are down to 272 vs 91
>>6280800Fourth loss in a row...down to 261 vs 91.
Rolled 12, 20 = 32 (2d20)>>6280792Doing my one obligatory roll before going back to bed.
>>6280805Oof. If I understand correctly, we just lost 8 ships.
Rolled 13, 2 = 15 (2d20)>>6280807No, we've lost 20. Which puts us at 241 vs 73I'll try one more time and if we lose again I'm just gonna stop rolling.
Rolled 9, 4 = 13 (2d20)>>6280808Right, half awake.Well! That's a winning roll, at least! We destroy 13 guys there, I think?I'll roll right after ya then, if we still got dice to roll.
Rolled 3, 14 = 17 (2d20)>>6280808Holy fucking shit finally. A victory. The first victory out of 5 rolls. 241 vs 60. >>6280809241 vs 32
>>6280810Ha.Well, uh, 14's not as bad as 20.
Rolled 18, 9 = 27 (2d20)>>6280810230 vs 11, automatic win.
Rolled 13, 20 = 33 (2d20)>>6280813And that finishes the battle with 230With that, the attack phase is over. Ully'Andule has fallen. We are now moving into the "Gather" part of the turn.Since these are assured victories let's go through them. 57 vs 7, Advantage 5 + 1 so 57 vs 1
Rolled 5, 19 = 24 (2d20)>>628081556 vs 1. Rolling for automatic victory.I'll let someone else roll the rest, but they're all assured victories.
Rolled 5, 12 = 17 (2d20)Just tell me how many rolls, pTK-sama.
>>6280819230 vs 7, Automatic victory.Next one, 52 vs 7
Rolled 7, 18 = 25 (2d20)
Rolled 2, 6 = 8 (2d20)Feels weird rolling despite the fact it's an 'assured victory'. But eh, whatever it takes to get through this.
>>6280821That's...another loss. Luckily, with the advantage, it's only a loss of 2.50 vs 2
Rolled 13, 11 = 24 (2d20)Dice.Dice, dice, dice.Will the first one be higher than the other?We shall see.
>>6280822Automatic victory, final score 50.>>6280825That was for the final one, 27 vs 7It's a win, congrats. We're finished. We have four fruits and didn't lose the worst possible numbers.
>>6280826Did you gather the fruits already? I was hoping this would entertain you for at least until next update...
>>6280828I assumed that we were supposed to roll for everything since "Gather" was part of the rolls. My bad, I guess?
>>6280830No that's what I wantedI just hoped it would last more then an hour lol
>>6280828pTK would've sat and rolled all 16 batches in one sitting if he wanted to.It is what it is.
Final Overview of the Campaign>Green ClusterStarting Forces: 63Losses: 7Final Force: 56>Purple ClusterStarting Forces: 287Losses: 57Final Force: 230>Yellow ClusterStarting Forces: 52Losses: 2Final Force: 50>Blue ClusterStarting Force (Minor Planet): 27Losses: 0Final Force: 27Overall, our rolls were absolutely fucking garbage, but luckily, they weren't the worst possible scenario. We have therefore won. In the bright side, the election is all but secured now - IF we use the fruits to bribe Councilman 2 and ensure their loyalty. We are not entirely safe, though. We could lose on the counter-offensive. Hopefully we won't roll as bad then.>>6280831Well, it was either that, or just keep waiting for other anons to roll, and I was keeping track of the numbers. Well, I'll try not to roll as often in the counter attacks.
See we could use the fruits to bribe, but I would not be surprised if an option comes up to keep them, either for cash or research>>6280835>Hopefully we won't roll as bad thenWe shall see
>>6280841We could.But we have a vow breathing down our neck here.
"Your Majesty, the fruits we collected can certainly be used to bribe the Urgi, but we could also research them despite the need for biological safety measures."If you gather fruits from every planet you have access to not already harvested, how many would you get? Will you take the risk?>continue gathering?
>>6280844>NoWe'll have another Life Machine soon, which is good enough.
>>6280844>NoLearn the aristocrats a thing or two, get our LM and gtfo.
>>6280844>YesVolunteers only
>>6280844>nohehe funny bananas
>>6280844>NoNice try lmao
>>6280844>No.I won't get greedy at this stage.
>>6280844Well the answer's definitely no. The only other planet we've conquered that has fruits only has one (1) unit in it.
Over the next few weeks; your battle fleet races through the Aristocrat territories; blowing up and destroying all organic vessels and fortifications that lay in your path."Your Majesty, we have conquered four capitals; including Ully'Andules! Your strategic goals are now within reach; we just need a little time to locate Farro Val and a Life Machine. If the Aristocrats cannot repel you now; they will have wasted all their resources and levies in the attempt, and must admit defeat and bend the knee in humiliation.""The ones occupying the main capital; Ully'Andule's main fiefdom? Prepare them the most. I have a bad feeling on what is coming..."It appears using its wealth and influence; Ully'Andule did indeed hire the Redwings to help liberate its planet in the case of your occupation in the stratosphere. They're coming; a very queer union of organic warrior-caste Aristocrat ships and flying Urgi apiaries; the boiling guns lance your ships."It's so... fucking... hot... Gah! I'm... burning up!!!"You did your best to prevent the boiling guns to kill your crews too easily; the modifications have lowered the lethality of those weapons for sure, but you never designed it to be comfortable exactly!"Hold fast...">>6280835Commence the Counterattack!Blue Capital (56) Attacked by 14!Yellow Capital (50) Attacked by 14!Green Capital (56) Attacked by 14!Purple Capital (230) Attacked by all Redwing Forces in addition to the Aristocrats; 81!>Roll for your valiant defense; please roll in the order written above
Rolled 19, 11 = 30 (2d20)>>6280987LET'S DO IT, LADS.56 vs 9
>>6280988Victory for Blue Capital. Who wants to do the next? It's 50 vs 10.
Rolled 15, 6 = 21 (2d20)>>6280987
Rolled 18, 6 = 24 (2d20)>>6280996Finally. Anyway, that's a victory for Blue too. That was the 'riskiest' one.Now, for Green Capital.
>>6280997Another victory. It's time for the last, biggest battle. I'll let someone else start - with the advantages, it's 230 vs 74
Rolled 19, 4 = 23 (2d20)>>6280998
Rolled 3, 4 = 7 (2d20)>>6281008230 vs 55
>>6281011226 vs 37
Rolled 2, 6 = 8 (2d20)Another roll in the pisser.
Rolled 1, 12 = 13 (2d20)>>6281018220 vs 18
>>6281019Aaaaand it's over - with an advantage of 20 + 1, we've wonWe have officially won the Aristocrat Humiliation War.
>>6281040Fishe, monke and cowe. The trio of the hegemony.
>>6281040You know, it's funny to think how we've basically given sapience to the Migrators. I mean yeah they were technically already that but with how much they slept they couldn't really be "real" people with opinions and complex personalities who are part of society.
>>6281040I wonder if they even want this.
>>6281040I like the additional content.Well played guys.
As long as we choose Councillor 2 for the bribe, we're all but sure to win.
I will grant BONUS POINTS to anyone who figures out the total amount of Hegemony losses & units defeated over the three posts of the war. It's not part of the quest or serious, it would just be useful if you wouldn't mean beancounting it.
>>6281364>First TurnLosses: 111Enemy Kills: 195 + 30 (Stealth Bombing)>Second TurnLosses: 84Enemy Kills: 121 + 25 (Stealth Bombing)>Third TurnLosses: 76 Enemy Kills: 274That's the numbers, I think. If I've forgotten anything or messed it up, I wouldn't know.
>>6276119O hey, that's my art! Neat to see it in the wild like this.
>>6281374based Indo with the Endless Space fanart
Anyway, ran out of time to update today, sorry to say. Enjoy the bonus content.You can use this as an excuse to critique the war minigame. As this is the third(?) one, I'm hoping they're starting to get better, though I still have a soft spot for the grid movement one from thread #6
>>6281387I liked it. I had fun doing the math. Though I suppose it has the issue where it was pretty much just me and another anon doing it...if you count that as an issue.Of course, I'll admit that the minigame was a bit too random. Pretty much like 80% of our kills in the third turn were from the "Advantage" mechanic. If it wasn't so "one-sided" it probably wouldn't have been as possible as it was.
Yet another update delay; I'll get on it as soon as I can, hopefully in ~12 hours from now.
>>6281387Segs
>>6281387not fat enough also i always expected the fangs to be further along the split snout based on the teeth on the males
More gay ai stuff
>>6281387>bonus contentKek>minigameIt's not really my kind of thing, but I'm glad people had fun.
You are Insar'Sholo again, and your masterwork is almost completed.The day of the tender tornado is here; a phenomena of the wind which will be perfectly channeled. Your cultivation of the whistling weeds, the perfect grounds keeping, and all other such pleasures are ready. You wouldn't allow this to be ruined by anything; not by a silly little war or by yourself! As your master so loves music, so do you, but this is not a symphony played by hands most skilled.You stand at the epicenter. The only question is now, how you will enjoy the moment?>Lay and look at the sky>Watch over the pond of still waters>Drink the Celestial Wine and recline
>>6281824>Drink the Celestial Wine and reclineThis is I.S.'s big moment here. I imagine an Aristo would have a drink and snack pairing ready to achieve maximum aesthetic-tonal ecstasy.
>>6281824>>Drink the Celestial Wine and recline
>>6281835Am >>6269324
>>6281824>lay down the grass, enjoy the wind and let the music slowly drift you to sleep.
>>6281824>Watch over the pond of still waters
>>6281824>Drink the Celestial Wine and reclineSeems like the kind of thing these people do.
You decide to partake in the Celestial Wine during the event; and why shouldn't you? The drink refreshes your entire body; repairing microinjuries from your daily walking and lounging sessions. Greedily, you lay besides the pond and recline, looking around with excitement. You sip, and then close your ears, feeling your auditory nerves rejuvinating at your will simply to better capture this moment. Something clicks in your mind, and you are ready to take it all in.When you close your eyes, you can see images. These are not hallucinations, but memories. Memories of others; other Aristocrats, like you. The magic moment the painter places the strokes on the canvas that turns it from vague ink into an image. The ruins of a dying planet illuminated as its star swells to consume it. An eagle soaring over a vast landscape, master of all its surveys. You have been all these things now; the genetic memories deeply embedded into the very core of your being. The Drones have them, and so do the Warriors; they are locked within the heart of every Wisdom Tree. Across the galaxy, these moments live forever and ever. When you zoom out your mind's eye; the images become as bright spots. They look like little stars. Hundreds, thousands of twinkling moments, remembered forever. Two of these “stars” are yours, and soon you will have made a third. You make them, but you are also their children; they formed you just as you create the memories yourself.The worms deny that this is the same power that they have. While you can't “see the ways” the way they do, you can “inhabit” the presence of another, have another moment in time, see from their eyes. Your people still feed the worms the little starlight children to keep them happy and to keep the “ways” open, but most Aristocrats do not believe the worms when they say this. The wind is picking up.Across the valley you have prepared for this day; the “tender tornado” has come. The wind moves in great circles across the whistling weeds; which whine and shrill as they move and the air-currents flow over their tiny ridges and channels. Normally a chaotic mess of noise; this time it will be different. Your hedges slow and redirect the flow of the wind; now the grasses move in sequence. They are seperate, but concentrated at your exact location. As the tornado of a gentle breeze passes over your body, barely shifting the grass beneath you, you pass into the eye of the storm and feel the stillness. At that exact moment, the whistling weeds harmonize.~schoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo~
The other races in space believe that the Aristocrats destroy the natural inhabitants of all planets they colonize for the sake of control and destruction. This is not true! In short, life is not special. It's same forms and patterns emerge again and again in succession; a boring repeat of the same efficent, reliable adaptations of convergent evolution. Such forms of life are beneath the burden of preserving them. But sometimes, a planet has a form of life truly unique. Truly beautiful.From the pond ahead of you, you see the shapes rise from it. They look like strands of silken starlight; gossamer transparent sheets of the finest silks. Their support structures, so thin and delicate that they barely catch more light then the monomolecular sheet of tissue suspended between, rise to twenty, thirty feet into the air. Your hold your breath. They are so delicate that any gust of wind, any movement from the shoreline, any disturbance in the pond will rip them apart. Only when the most gentle of storm passes overhead does the air become still enough for them to rise; and by instinct they come up to dance.You call these two “the lady and the gentleman”. Their used to be more, but now, only two. They float across the water's surface, so lightweight as to not create a single ripple, moving slowly and deliberately. Is this a courtship ritual? A way to dispute territory? Are they filter-feeding microorganisms from the air to feed on for the next several years until the next storm beneath the pond's surface? You actually do not know. What you do know is that every year, the whistling weeds chirping and bumping would cause the figures to twitch and sway lower, less graceful and imperfect, their dance threatened by the noise. This time? You had to set the stage for them. The membranes move across the water, defying gravity, finally moving towards the center and passing through each other, as though they are nothing but ghosts, before moving away again towards where they rose up as the gentle swirling of air around you slows and the harmonious hum of the weeds dies down. The two "dancers" sink into the water so softly and gently they do not break its surface cohesion; the pond remains a mirror sheen. They did not disappoint you.Drones work, and then die. Warriors fight, and then die. But you get to live, and experience this. That is what makes you, an Aristocrat.
“It's so... beautiful...”You find yourself crying, laying in the soft grass as the life gradually returns to the world. The little drones and wild things and plants and air move again now that the storm has passed. But in that moment; everything was perfect. It was exactly as you wanted it to be. The nerve cluster atop your head bulges with information; the rich juices of your own nervous system pooling into a “fruit” like no other. You stand, hold out your hands, and gently pop it off your antannae's stalk. It hurts a little, but you are not afraid. It will grow back, and then you have the real challenge of finding something else worth making into a memory for all to see; forever.All you must do now is get this to the Wisdom Tree.
Oh no! Rotten bad day! No no no!You look ahead, the quiet peace of your garden absolutely ruined by something unexpected. No visitor you would have expected at all! In the distance, you see light glowing from a growing fire, and the stomping of far off boots and the crashing of comets against the earth; no, these are invaders. Warbringers from worlds afar.“No! No no no no no... please no!”The war! How could it come all the way here?! To the master's doorstep!? You peak around the hedge and hear the cries of your little ones; who worked so hard to keep the hedges just so perfect for this very night. They are being burned alive; as is the whole garden. Super-hot plasma burning away your creation. You have had no interest in the war; you even denied the Warriors food and supplies from your fief for their little “conflict”. Maybe you feel a moment of guilt; not for what you denied them, as that is their lot, but rather, maybe they could have kept these horned demons away if your had obliged them.What are you going to do?!>Make a run for the Wisdom Tree>Go hide somewhere on your estate until this passes>Call out for an awakened Warrior to protect you>Surrender to the invaders; Ully'Andule will surely pay for your ransom>Other (Write-In)
>>6281956>Surrender to the invaders; Ully'Andule will surely pay for your ransomThis is a Humiliation war, the Hegemony are out to capture rather then kill where they can. Perhaps co-operation will guarantee individual safety?
>>6281982It's a Vetucker. He might not even notice him.
>>6281956>Surrender to the invaders; Ully'Andule will surely pay for your ransom
>>6281956>>Surrender to the invaders; Ully'Andule will surely pay for your ransomMost important thing is not our life but our memory-jewel
>>6281956>Go hide somewhere on your estate until this passes
>>6281956>Make a run for the Wisdom Tree
>>6281956>Surrender to the invaders; Ully'Andule will surely pay for your ransomIt's both the safest bet for our cosmic choreographer here, and could net the Hegemony a cool memory fruit thing.
>>6281956>make a run for the wisdom tree
>>6281956>>Surrender to the invaders; Ully'Andule will surely pay for your ransom
>>6281956>>Make a run for the Wisdom TreeI wonder if they could make the wildlife try and swarm the invaders, if only to buy enough time to take the memory to the tree.
Damn, I'm out of extra posts to tide you over. Have a doodle from when I was first making the Council Minigame.
>>6282419The Chad Urgi vs the Chud Casliaan
You mother fucker
No, you can't run. While maybe summoning up the grasses and leaves and all the little ones to attack this invader could be something you can do to protect yourself... the armored warrior is too strong. Your body was not designed for this kind of conflict; trying to move faster then a leuisrely stroll will damage your knees and cause you to trip and fall flat on your snout. The Jaxtians understand noble privledges; with their own society having nobles too.You come out from behind the hedges with a soft noise and your arm raised. Making sure the soldier can see you. He turns, but doesn't fire.“Hold! Hold friend! I mean you no harm. I surrender. I am not a part of your war!” You say, still nervous. “My lord is Ully'Andule, he will pay for my ransom-price.”The soldier puts his hand up to his helmet, communicating into a mouthpiece. You can't hear anything; his suit is fully sealed after all. But you do make out a few movements of his mouth and catch a little.”....Object.....Aristocrat........ Give up.....….Trick....…...Prisoner?” “No no! It's not a trick, I swear!” You hold out your shed nerve nodule, allowing him to take the precious future-star. You are nervous and hope he gives it back soon. You have to bury that in the roots of the Wisdom tree; else it will be wasted and the memory lost to future Aristocrat kind. Your precious memory. He holds it, says something else, looking at you.“...See? I'm not going to fight. I'll do whatever you want, I give up. I just want to stay in my garden and feed my little ones and make unique music; like that one right there. The politics and powers that be have nothing to do with you or me. I have no weapons and am no threat to anybody. I do not desire power or domination; who some of my race may be unfortunately predisposed. Truly, I only want to live in peace; and make beautiful memories.”
Final Council Status before their decision.
You are now Halam Anak once again. The war is ending soon. You have received news that a fire team has even stumbled across something that has reacted to a sample of the Celestial Blood; a sure sign a Life Machine has been found!With all necessary planets occupied; the hunt for your final objectives is almost complete. There is no hope for an Aristocrat victory now. Even their mercenaries have been crushed. But the artifacts and spoils; the confiscated wealth and art from the highest Aristocrats; looted by your soldiers; represent an opportunity to recoup the economic costs of this war and beyond it; perhaps even to turn a tidy profit.What should you do with it?>Sell it to the Consortium, Urgi, and Esaal (Recoup costs from previous “Expensive” choice)>Keep it & Study it to see if you can learn anything about their technology from the artworks>Divvy it up and give it to the soldiers and common people of the Hegemony (Massive cultural & morale boost + new uniforms)>Throw it into a sun as a final insult to the AristocratsAdditionally; you have gathered enough fruits to bribe a single Goldwing Council member; turning their Goldwing symbol to an Accord symbol. Which would you like to bribe?>Specify a Goldwing member (#2 or #9)>Try to bribe #1 with it instead>Give it to an Accord member to double up their symbols and enforce loyalty (Specify)
>>6282658Well, at least his memory will live on, kek>>6282661>Divvy it up and give it to the soldiers and common people of the Hegemony (Massive cultural & morale boost + new uniforms)Though lobbing it into the sun would be hilarious, stealing the Aristocrats' clout to become the new trendsetters in known space is poetic in its own way.>Specify a Goldwing member (#2 or #9)#2, because it will essentially guarantee his vote. #9 would still be 50/50.
>>6282661>Specify a Goldwing member (#2)100% voter, after all.>Divvy it up and give it to the soldiers and common people of the Hegemony (Massive cultural & morale boost + new uniforms)It would be incredibly funny.
>>6282661>Divvy it up and give it to the soldiers and common people of the Hegemony (Massive cultural & morale boost + new uniforms)New uniforms sound cool.>Specify a Goldwing member (#2)I'll trust the other anons in this.
>>6282661Rip to the one good Aristocrat.>Divvy it up and give it to the soldiers and common people of the Hegemony (Massive cultural & morale boost + new uniforms)I'll go for >Bribe #2
>>6282661>Divvy it up and give it to the soldiers and common people of the Hegemony (Massive cultural & morale boost)This was a Humiliation war, giving the aristocrat's finery to our common soldiers and boosting our Morale seems the most appropriate use. Not sure I really want new uniforms, though.>Specify a Goldwing member (#2)The reasoning seems logical.
>>6282661>>Throw it into a sun as a final insult to the AristocratsThis is the ultimate humiliation. Not only did we beat them, we don't even want what they have. Not only are they weak, their culture is so far below us that we so no use for it.>Specify a Goldwing member (#2 or #9)>Number 2I trust anons.
>>6282661>Sell it to the Consortium, Urgi, and Esaal (Recoup costs from previous “Expensive” choice)I don't really wanna have the ARISTOCRAT culture poisoning ours.>Specify a Goldwing member (#2 or #9)#2With number two in our pockets, we will have SIX assured votes. And that's without counting shit like the 80% chance we've got with 11.
>>6282743Supporting this.We don’t want their culture poisoning ours
"...Sorry I couldn't be there in person, Ully'Andule, Child of Eleven Stars. I'm a bit preoccupied. Plus with that habit of yours to release sickness and the bioweapons; I figure my robots will be the best fit for you.""IT'S TWELVE STARS NOW, FOOL! UNHAND ME AT ONCE YOU STINKING, DISGUSTING PRIMATE! You even took my tactile gold; my accessories!? Those represent my very personhood. I am a noble! My life is worth a hundred servants it would take to make such fine body-jewelry!""No can do; after all, you don't want anything getting in the way of your next performance.""What are you talking about? I am not performing for you, ever! Filthy, lowborn scum! You are not worth even a single note I could sound from my fingertips!""...See, the real trouble was the Aristocrat "death orgasm", we called it. Back when we had the Hazaar around; Wrix Val deemed it important to find the absolute most painful sensation for a Hazaari and manufacture it. While you are a little bit more advanced then a Hazaar is, I would hope the physical effects would be similar at least. It's an acid compound that softens the soft-chitin exoskeleton skin and stops the nerves from sending signals back to the brain as they are dissolved. Thus, the normal Hazaar immune response to tell the brain a limb or section of flesh is missing never happens, so the phantom signals still go to the brain either way. Our scientists aren't sure if the Aristocrats work the same way; after all you die so much prettier then they do, but we figure if we can stop too much of the damage signal from going to your brain at once; maybe we can prevent it?""Erhm... wait a moment... you're- you're not going to ransom me back? I am a very wealthy noble, you know!""Yeah, but we already got your treasure trove of people turned instruments. In fact, that's exactly why I hooked up a microphone to your little tank there; along with my nice AI helper to lower you in bit by bit; and pull back when you need a moment to breathe. I know how much you like music, so I'm going to broadcast every sound you make to the rest of the Galactic Society of Aristocrats; that way none of that emotion and passion is lost! I'm sure some of them will remix it into something truly special. I know art is your greatest calling; so it's best for it not to go to waste!""W-Wait a second, your Majesty! I'm sure we can negotiate som-"-TRANSMISSION TERMINATED-
This was an extra post, continue voting as desired until the update
>>6282807I might have misunderstood something here. So the Aristocrats have a "Death Orgasm", which I presume makes it so even their deaths are pleasurable, so they created some sort of chemical to number their nerves so they don't notice their body parts are missing? Wouldn't that stop them from feeling pain which, I presume, is the goal here?
>>6282661>Divvy it up and give it to the soldiers and common people of the Hegemony (Massive cultural & morale boost)Skimpy uniforms?>Specify a Goldwing member (#2)
>>6282815They're trying to work around it by dragging out how much pain is inflicted at once, so the biological deadman switch never triggers. That's what I got, at least.
The idea is the Aristocrat (and Hazaar) body is more sensible and "owner first" then a Jaxtian (human) body so missing limbs and injuries and the like tell the brain to stop experiencing pain there because it can't be helped anymore or is more selective. The acid prevents this so they feel the sensation of the body part being melted off but their body doesn't stop experiencing that as long as they're alive.
>>6282836Well, I guess there had to be *some* benefit from Wrix's spergout. I bet we could make some mad dosh by selling a combo of captured Aristocrat + Acid Vat to the races of the galaxy. I bet the Esaal would pay a pretty penny for it.
>>6282807Based.........>>6282661>Divvy it up and give it to the soldiers and common people of the Hegemony (Massive cultural & morale boost + new uniforms)Not as quite as much of an insult as the sun thing, but giving the Aristocrat stuff to the common people should piss them off sufficiently.>Specify a Goldwing member (#2 or #9)#2
>>6282807Well-deserved.>>6282842Do the Esaal even care about torture?
>Declare war on a state solely because of how utterly contemptible and degenerate they are>"You know know what? Let's adopt their culture!"I really dont get you people.
>>6283075We can just not adopt the parts we hate. Akule, Peace Be Upon Him, incorporated many races he found degenerate into the new Jaxtian template. So too will we take the technologies, wealth, and innovations of worth and abandon or transform the rest.
>>6283082What part of Aristocrat CULTURE (not technology) do you want to adopt? Religious hedonism? Treating those below the elite as literal animals?
>>6283083Perhaps some of their bio-engineering arts, the tactile gold, or aspects of the musical and dance tarditions so infectious that they eventually wormed their way into the Hegemony about a generation or two ago?
>>6283087>Bio-engineeering artsYou mean wasting ridiculous amounts of effort and technology on some decadent gardens, literally creating entire forms of life solely because "It'll look pretty"?>Tactile GoldWe already use it.>Musical and Dance traditionsWe need Aristocrats to leadn to dance? If they already wormed their way in we don't need them.Out of every single culture we could have begun copying, this was the worst of them.
>>6283075Frankly I only picked it because of the morale boost.
FYI This isn't really stealing their culture moreso their cultural artifacts and treasures. Aristocrat culture is already seen as very advanced and desirable as per previous events in the Quest; but this specifically is you being Britain invading China and then in a few decades an ancient 1000 year old Aristocrat vase crafted by artisans will end up sold at a pawn shop and be found being used as a Jaxtian fruit bowl
>>6283090Or we could do the dame things they did but better and towards ends we approve of. Use your imagination, anon. Custom nut-thieves. Beautiful new planta and fungus to decorate Myym, maybe. Come on.
>>6283095We weren't exactly lacking in morale. And once we win our vow we definitely won't. We're getting two victories in a row. We coulda used this to get our money back and fund something cool like jaxtian gene research or to have a go at >>6267657 again
>>6283100How cool. Fancy pets and fancy fruit bowls. So much better than actually useful stuff.
>>6283103Well if you want useful stuffs we can make pets turn into bio weapons in case of invasion.
>>6283225I really enjoy seeing a blonde; it's been quite a while
Those are the "new" uniform designs from the prompt, btw. I'm still quite partial to the old ones but I figured these would be a way to add some stuff people liked.
>>6283251Can you tell more about : >Duelling belt>cape-like thing of scientists>Star-seer cape
>>6283257Slight adjustment to make my nigga look like the Teutonic Knight from AoE2
>>6283258Now that's a cool cape. I think they look cool.
>>6283257Unfortunate these ideas came after the previous "daily life in the Hegemony" side thread so I couldn't elaborate on them there but in the meantime some lore.>Lanyard colors indicate field and the number of "tails" on a Lanyard indicate seniority and experience. One tail for new/junior members and two for more experienced individuals>Because three or more tails starts to look bad the Halam changed experts or high ranking individuals to have a full caplet; with extra pins or awards being added to the area for "honors">Dueling belt for those who are skilled duelists inspired by Eoba II's belt to hold his knife. Because a very good duelist could still be a low ranking individual in the overall Hegemony; so a dueling belt was created that could hold "honor" pins like the Caplet to show strength and prestige>The back cape is for formal events and made of the finest Aristocrat silks. It's only brought out for important events or parades.
>>6283258That's pretty awesome.>>6283103Yeah anon, it was a quality of life upgrade. Everyone's living richer lives and our way of life is seen as more admirable. I find that useful and fun especially with these new uniforms. Cope.
With you taking and holding the Aristocrat capitals despite their best efforts to dislodge you, your disruption to their normal activites and trade and demands become impossible to ignore. You demand reperations, apology, the heads of those responsible for harming the Hegemony; and a final and total admission of surrender by each of the Aristocrat's three genetic castes. They tell you that Drones and Warriors aren't “real” leaders and aren't important enough; you respond by flying your battleship to the surrendered Kon'Cil'Cilas homeworld and deforesting another continent. They oblige you.The three “races” of the Aristocrats bowing to the three races of the Hegemony. That's the way you wanted it. The war is over. Unfortunately, while you did accomplish all your objectives and gained the infamy among the Aristocrats you wanted; the main costs are happening only now. Long-form infections, retrograde cancers, costly quarantine procedures, and the trauma that many of your soldiers have faced are going to cost you quite a lot of effort and money. But you also finally stuck back against the smug Aristocrats, and wiped the eternal smug grin off their faces.You leave a statue of Farro Val on an important Aristocrat homeworld; bringing his Cajamat for cultural exchange before his betrayal. You didn't even have to make a new statue! You just used a ship's lasers to cut one the Aristocrats already made of themselves into the proper shape; leave them with that as a parting gift.After seizing the Aristocrat treasures, booty, and spoils of war; you decided to hand it out to the people of the Hegemony itself. The soldiers responsible, as well as the average people. The deep space asteroid miners, laborer families, farmers, low level technicians; all now can get their hands on fantastic artworks and items of luxury never before seen. For many, it is the first time they've ever touched tactile gold. Silks and fabrics are quickly adapted to the Hegemonic uniforms; adding new pieces and updating approved fabricator designs with slightly more luxurious and rich patterns befitting the new higher standard of luxury the average citizen will be adapted to, while also providing a real, tangible reward and payoff for the sacrifices and costs of the war to the people themselves. While most Hegemonic citizens already understand, or are propagandized, into accepting the costs as worth the increase in the Hegemony's diplomatic standing and the possible economic growth associated with the war effort; this really helps smooth things over.You could have paid for the war effort with the booty; but you figure this is a better outcome.
“The Aristocrats are fuming, my Lord.””Good! I knew exactly how to hit them where it hurt.”“Oh?””Yeah. I figured, what better way to humiliate them then have the final order to defeat them not come from the God-King Supreme Noble Ruler of the Hegemony... but from the common soldier? What better way to squader their great treasures then handing them over to the common people instead of keeping it locked in some vault and private collections of the Hegemonic elite? What could possibly make them more mad then that?”“Brilliant, my lord. As for the new sanctions and conditions of surrender for the Aristocrats?””I want to just annoy them, Threes. Don't disrupt them enough to stop their normal operations or society; or enough they may attempt to rise up in the future with new efforts. I just want them to police themselves in a way that's annoying; just annoying enough to remind them of our victory over them.”“Considering. How about enacting a law that restricts artistic expression; but only for very specific species related to the Hegemony? So they cannot depict primates, bovines, or boney-fish in a negative way regardless of the species or context? That way, regular Aristocrats will have to keep this in mind or else go against a new social paradigm. After all, their free expression is their most important aspect.””That's great, it's just senseless enough to be annoying. Throw in the migrators and Baalathi too. Make them tiptoe around the subject of a “Supreme Ruler” and the Hegemony as a whole.”With this humiliation; the Aristocrats are hereby defeated. While they aren't gone, nor do you have the ability to totally control or conquer them for good; they won't be messing with you. No more tailored biological agents or tricks; just as the Consortium. Rival brought low, at least for now. Now, on the Esaal remain undaunted and confident in your sector of space...
Year 201 of the Resurrection EraHow does it feel to upset a thousands year old empire? Disrupting the culture of ancient artisans and influence? Feels great!"WE LOVE YOU!!!""MY RULER, MY LORD! OUR CONQUERING GRAND SUPREME!""WISE AND ALL POWERFUL MASTER!!!""WOOO!"The Hegemony's people are greatly inspired. The people are in love with you! The Jaxtians are of course, the Vetuckers; being less warlike are more neutral; especially given the large number of them who fought on the front lines. But strangely the Swall seem especially grateful and supportive of their new Supreme; perhaps given the greater reign of free expression and property given to them. Or perhaps logically, they know their Ruler is powerful and successful. But as fun as drowning in the praise and adoration is; this is not the conflict you made a sacred vow to uphold...
The players will now vote on the Urgi council vote. Looks like #1 has finally thrown away any pretense of voting for anything but himself; proudly declaring he will break a tie... for a cost.>Players will roll for each council member starting at #2. The size of the die (1dX) is equal to the number of symbols, going from top to bottom or left to right. Ie; Council Member #11 has 1d5, with 1-4 being voting for isolation and 5 being a Redwing faction vote>All symbols vote for the appropriate faction, as listed here >>6268876
Rolled 2 (1d2)>>6283509I'm going to assume we should vote even for the "Assured" victories to know what 'Faction' they have chosen
Rolled 2 (1d2)>>6283509Oof. 1 could be a nightmare but we still got 6 voters. Even with god's worst RNG we should be fine.Rolling #3. 1 is Capitalist, 2 is Pacifist.
Rolled 3 (1d3)>>6283511Okay number two is a Pacifist. >>6283512YES. #3 is a Pacifist too. Two more votes and we can officially have a supermajority. Rolling for 5 since 4 has only one interest.
>>6283514Well, that's bad luck. Not to worry though, we're at least assured not to lose with that initial victory.
>>6283509Actually, I've checked, and even if they bribed #1, none of the other factions would be able to get seven votes. We've pretty much already won. The only question is whether we can get a supermajority or not. So keep rolling. I'll wait a while longer before doing it myself.
Rolled 1 (1d3)>>6283509Rolling for 6. 1-2 = CAPTIALIST, 3 = MILITARITST. >>6283515It's a vote for Redwing, so it's not that worrying either way.
Rolled 3 (1d3)>>6283517Okay, that's one Red, one Gold. Skipping 7, #8 is assured, but let's check the flavor.
Rolled 1 (1d2)>>62835099. 1 = GOLDWING, 2 = MILITARIST >>6283518Currently, the tally (accounting for assured votes) is at 7 to 2 to 2. 9, 11, 13 and 15 are the ones who could swing between factions at this point.
Rolled 5 (1d5)>>6283523Goldwing. 10 is Redwing, so that leaves 11.1-4 Isolationist, 5 Redwng
>>6283528Come on, man..that's some real bullshit.Well, i Guess the good news is that the votes are split so that neither faction has any chance of getting even close to a tie.
Rolled 1 (1d2)>>6283528Incredibly funny. Well, it's a Redwing vote, not a Goldwing, so it's still not that worrying.>>6283509Rolling for 13. 1 = PACIFIST, 2 = CAPTIALIST.
>>6283531The lord giveth and the lord taketh it away. We won 3 and 13 over but we lost 5 and 11.
Rolled 6 (1d6)>>6283531Aaand, with that, we have 8 voters. That's half of the council. Now even if both factions united *and* got #1 it'd still be a tie.Now for #151-4 Isolationist, 5-6 Capitalist
Rolled 1 (1d2)>>6283533I find it incredibly fucking funny how, even after yelling at Bananas over turning the isolationists into anti-monkes and lobbying for isolationism, they still backstabbed us.11 and 15 are cunts.Rolling for what flavor 16 takes. 1 = POPULIST, 2 = PACIFIST
Alright, tallying nowACCORD2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13, 16. 8 votersREDWING5, 10, 11. 3 votes.GOLDWING6, 9, 14, 15. 4 votesRESULT: ACCORD VICTORY. Turns out spreading pacifism was the right move after all.
>>6283533And yet another unlikely vote. Cool.Final Count:The Accord: 8Goldwings: 4Redwings: 3Absolutely crushing victory for The Accord. They are able to match the entire rest of the council by themselves. Sadly not a supermajority, but still, very good. The Vow has been upheld. For a further breakdown..>Accord InterestsPacifist: 6Populist: 2>Goldwings InterestCapitalist: 3Goldwing Loyalism: 1>Redwings InterestsRedwing Loyalism: 2Militarism: 1Sadly for number one, his vote isn't worth very much. The best he could do is to tie Redwing and Goldwing (or not)
>>6283536Urgi Accord confirmed for new big-nosed semi-subordinate vassal state.
>>6283536I love imagining 1 thinking he's some super important tiebreaker only to notice the super lobsided majority and having his pride hurt.
>>6283537Given how "Pacifists" are such a gigantic force (and we don't need to care about pretending we're not influencing them since those isolationist cunts betrayed us) perhaps they will seek to become a "Protectorate" of the Hegemony.We're not letting them join though. I know the Hegemony has become a lot less "Xenophobic" but I stand by the idea that the only ones who deserve to be citizens are the Vetuckers, Swall and Jaxtians (Migrators too I guess). Anyone else should be second class. Three races is enough.>>6283539Shoulda tried to sell his vote earlier. We could have totally given those memory orbs to him instead of #2 in order to get both an assured and a "possible" vote.
Great job guys. So when are we genociding them?
>>6283539>>6283544Let's assassinate #1 on general principles.>>6283549I like the birbs.
>>6283549The birbs aren't gay jew rapist sociopaths so I don't think we're going to.
>>6283553>Big Nosed>Completely corrupt>Heavily tied to crime>Switched sides on a war after being promised stuffYou're right. They're not jews. They're Italian.
>>6283539I imagine that 1 will turn with the wind and cling as close to power as he can.>>6283544I'd like the Urgi in, if they can be persuaded to. Though I'd like to have the Sotten in even more. But then I'm a Galactic Conquest Incorporatist; I want pretty much everyone in the Hegemony eventually.>>6283555We might need to make them a subordinate and send in the fleet to keep order. The Redwings previously indicated they might launch a civil war if they were denied. They've just been denied.
>>6283701>The Redwings previously indicated they might launch a civil war if they were denied. They've just been denied.They have also already been defeated by us.
>>6283500>You just used a ship's lasers to cut one the Aristocrats already made of themselves into the proper shapeTHAT IS CALLED MAKING A NEW STATUE!!!!!! AGAIDBIGHEUFHEVSIWHGEI could forgive the technobabble being retarded nonsense, but this? I am done, DONE with this piece of shit faggot nigger fucktard quest. Fuck all of you.
>>6283800such a fragile thing you are, being broken by how so little.Anyway, good job on the Accord-vote thing anons.
>>6283555
>>6283829Looking snazzy
>>6283800Lol, see you on your next ID, anon.
>>6283829I'M FLYIN 'ERE
>>6283829THATS ANTI URGI DISCRIMINATION!
>>6283829Mmh. Bird pasta.
>>6283829so they are canonically Italian?
>>6284122Yes, the Urgi are canonically originated from the Italian Peninsula from planet Earth in the Sol System.
The Urgi Council vote on the future of their nation; and the ACCORD has won. In no small part thanks to your own efforts and manipulations...With the Accord not only being agreed upon as the best option overall and having a very clear majority; no tiebreakers are needed. Council Member #1, being unable to sell his vote for a ludicrous amount to break a tie, begrudgingly casts another vote for the Accord instead, possibly hoping for a good position. The prevailing ideology is PACIFISM, leading the newly formed Accord government to want to take the Urgi State in this direction; dismantling the Redwing military and mercenary forces; downgrading them to simple peacekeepers and security forces. Removing the more violent criminal element, and of course, outlawing militant mercantilism.The Accord government, being ideologically inspired by the Hegemony, selects the first ever Supreme Principle, or just Principle, among the Council Members. It seems either out of respect or a desire to be distinct, they won't call their Supreme Ruler the Supreme Ruler; but the role is the same. As an act of goodwill to the newly formed Urgi state; you grant them a copy of your Hegemonic Control algorithm. While not powered by the Threemind; this highly coveted bit of software will allow their society to organize itself around experience, high-quality individuals, and act as a social control and propaganda system all in one. It's put in place immediately. You don't even add too many backdoors into the gifted software; though it turning a blind eye towards your biobots is a nice bonus, just in case."Confiscating Goldwing wealth!? Are you insane!? My family has had its wealth, slaves, and patents for generations! We are the backbone of the Urgi economy!""Correct, which is why we are graciously only confiscating 75% of your inherited wealth. You should take that as a great blessing.""75%!? This is an outrage!""80.""Wha-""85."The Goldwings cease their complaints.If a tie had occurred in the vote, the two tying factions would fight and the one with the higher military score (red bars) would have won.Because the Goldwings had the highest economic score (green bars) they remain the most culturally relevant under the new paradigm.
"And as my first major act as the Principle; I will put an end to the greatest Urgi injustice. It goes against our principles of peace, prosperity, and unity. We are one cause, one people, and one ruler. To hold some of us as separate and inferior by birth is inferior. There is no slavery in the Hegemony; and as such, there will be no slavery here. I hereby declare all the slaves to be freed..."With great surprise; the quasi-religious leader of the Accord and first Great Principle abolishes the institution of Urgi slavery forever."...I cannot promise you easy lives. We have many damaged and wartorn planets, Aristocrat and Esaal autonomous weapons still haunt us. We need workers and farmers and more. But I can tell you that none of you will ever be owned by the rich and corrupt ever again. So sayeth the Accord."All over the Urgi space; new territory beacons light up as the space becomes formally owned as the new state forms. Beyond a few small hiccups of independent groups trying to resist; the vast majority of Urgi join in with the rest of the flock to put on a strong united front; even though their prevailing ideology is Pacifism; much preferring peace and diplomacy to aggressive expansion or economic subterfuge. The area left over between the two greater empires is now formally known as The Accord.But the only question is... what will our relationship be with this new nation?>Alliance (Military, economic, and informational allies; will have to defend them if bad things happen)>Cordial (economic and information allies, but distant otherwise)>Shadow State (Continue to worm out agents into their government and control them from the inside; corrupting them to be Hegemonic pawns)>For our benefit (Make them a Tributary; requiring yearly tithes or favors or else risk your wrath as you are a much greater and stronger nation)>Other (Write In)
>>6284190Here's my suggestion>ProtectorateNot quite a tributary, not quite an alliance, but somewhere in-between. They would be "protected" by us, and in exchange the Hegemony would have special benefits and advantages with them BUT they would still be mostly "Autonomous" when it comes to their own territory. I don't know know the specifics, but I think the idea is clear right?
>>6284192Like, they're still an "Independent" State. I don't mean an HVS situation. But more so of a "Satellite" who relies on the Hegemony for "Aid" and gives them benefits in exchange.
>>6284190>Shadow State (Continue to worm out agents into their government and control them from the inside; corrupting them to be Hegemonic pawns)Unwitting spies. Completely deniable assets. Controlled opposition.
>>6284211Why would we need an tiny irrelevant state who has named themselves after us as "Controlled Opposition"?
>>6284190>ProtectorateI like the protectorate idea but in case it's not valid, default my vote to Alliance.
"Protectorate" is a valid write in. In games terms, I'd say it'd be something like (Gain two bonuses (chosen after this) and future preferred treatment by the Urgi, but you are obligated to provide security or help for the protected nation while they can't/don't provide it for you) in exchange. Fair?
>>6284233That works for me.
>>6284190Also supporting the>ProtectorateWrite-in.>>6284233Sounds good.
>>6284215Pirates and independent forces have managed to be a thorn in our side before. If needed, the Urgi could play the role of Ringleader for troublemakers while in reality being a Judas goat leading them to the slaughter.
>>6284192+1
>>6284233Supporting Protectorate
Not relevant to the above and not trying to manipulate the vote but I sometimes think what the Quest would be like if players chose things differently- while "Space China" is my favorite vibe I think going around and making a bunch of smaller factions into little tributaries while collecting wealth and power from all of then would be a really cool direction. Like the "Bronze Age" political empire but in space
>>6284299Chinese Tributaries *are* cool, but they don't much fit the Hegemony. I mean, the entire reason around the tributary system was that the Chinese thought of themselves as so great that the very idea of "Trading" was beneath them.Culturally speaking whatsoever, the Urgi basically copying our government is pretty damn chinese anyway. It's basically what Korea and Japan did.
>>6284345Not to get political but I mean modern CCP China lol
>>6284352That would be closer to an more 'economical' version of Shadow State than a Tributary where the Urgi basically signed their economical independence away in exchange for us building their country out of the ground.
In an attempt to spice up the next update, I'd like to delay it to work on an art asset. Would you find this an acceptable trade off?
>>6284450I mean, if you think it'll be worth it...
Fanart
>>6284450Also sounds good.>>6284515>>6284519Sick.
>>6284450Ok, but you owe us feet pics.
>>6284515>>6284519Nice!
>>6284515>>6284519Damn, now that's some cool stuff.Still can't tell how big the ships in this quest are supposed to be, though.
Here's some additional fanart of the only GOOD aristocrat running into a vetucker with a flamethrower.
>>6284650COW CHUDS...
To be honest, the main reason I posted this here is to harass the QM further and demonstrate that working on an art asset is no excuse for delaying an update every for a second.
Alright, you win. I kneel.
Well I actually was gonna update then I ran out of time lol whoops sorry thanks for the art anyway xd
I'm out of extra lore images for now and I already asked how you enjoyed the thread already, so I'll just say thanks for playing for so long and sticking with it amid the autism :)If you want to contribute- maybe your ideas on how the Hegemony would operate but under a different style of government?
>>6284812but you've already done that in the diversity-inclusive april fool thing?
>>6284812>maybe your ideas on how the Hegemony would operate but under a different style of government?I don't know how exactly this would work, the Hegemony is, by all means, entirely and solely the government. It's an state cult. If it wasn't an fanatically authoritarian big brother state that controls anything and everything you do, it wouldn't be the hegemony, but something else.
>>6284812If some Monkees pulled a "lost in space" and got stranded far from the hegemony on a distant primative planet without oil I thought it possible that they'd form a softer iron age agrarian dictatorship that included only male advisors and Supreme candidates that were proven warriors that had killed enemies and female advisors that were mothers and had borne children.
>>6284924>iron age agrarian dictatorshipThat's a monarchy. You're talking about a monarchy.
>>6284924Now I wanna play a "Lost In Dark : Monke Together Strong" This could be a Gewd fantasy quest of Monkeypeople stranded in a distant galaxy because of wormhole (Huehuehue) shenanigans with all magic/relics being either related to starsight or long lost pieces of technology
>>6284233>>6284192+1 to this one.
>>6284939How long do you want this fucking Quest to be man
>>6284969We want your offspring to feel obligated to still write this fucking quest after you die and we'll still find reasons to get mad at them too, Ill put in posts that are like "Hey at least you didnt make the founding character of the Hegemony be
>>6284982- a fucking faggot" sorry thought i finished typing my bully post, any update today monkey man??
>>6284969The offshot? Something like the length of your Fantasy quest with crowns and salty gnomes player could be nice as a spinoff?
>>6284939Some players of other quests, like the Dragon Ball and Harry Potter ones, did spinoff fan-quests. I guess someone could do that?
>>6284925Close, certainly, to what I had in mind. The leader would be elected by and from the council and not be an inherited position. All meritocratic.
>>6284969As long as Gunnerkrigg Court.
After all the things you have done to ensure the new developing Urgi nation will be a useful neighbor in space; from pruning bad influences to manipulating their election; it would be a shame to see that go to waste. You have decided to become their Protectorate. Unlike the Hazaar Vassal States; you aren't going to oversee or control their actual beuracracy, nor keep an eye over their shoulder and steal whatever secrets or valuable resources you can get. Instead, you publically declare that you are ensuring the newly founded Accord's exsitence and independence to all in your galactic sector. Given the Accord's small size, fractured community, and lack of infrastructure (and military, or anything at all really) it would otherwise be a big target for the nearby empires in space that surrond it. If the Esaal or Aristocrats wanted to retake their lost territory in some way, or if the mysterious “Machine Collective” on the opposite side of Urgi space to yourself wanted to attack the Accord, they'd have little way to protect themselves. You'll have to provide it.”I look forward to seeing the relationship between our people grow, your Majesty. Especially after you so graciously decided to patron our fledgling nation.” The Grand Principle says.”Of course. But, naturally, we expect a certain amount of favoritism in trade deals and information. While you are free to manage your own internal affairs, some of your diplomatic freedoms might need to be curtailed. Though I stress you are still independent. This isn't a veiled threat.””...How can we be independent without diplomatic freedom, your majesty? Will you be controlling our international affairs completely?””No. It merely means you need to exercise some... restraint.””I don't-””It means you aren't going to start a war with the Esaal and force me to come bail you out of it. Do you understand now?””Yes your Majesty.” The Urgi nods slowly. ”I understand.”With the Accord an ally, your vow to “establish international relations and break out into the wider galactic community”; Usis's subtle way to promise the Hegemony's people that their leader will control the election of the Urgi and break thru the social blacklisting done by the worms; has now been fulfilled. Your legacy will not be tarnished by making a promise you couldn't keep; and you can rest assured your legacy as a Supreme Ruler is as indomitable as ever. Given you've also succeeding in your war as well as greatly expanded the richness of the average citizens life; many are calling you the new Talacent! You are proud.
“...Don't rest just yet, your Majesty. There is something very important we must discuss!” The Threemind reminds. It's about starsight yet again.“If we think of the Hegemony as a 2d map; then those in the Galactic Underground can fly just “above” or “below” the map's surface to bypass and travel through our territory. There simply wasn't much to be done about them.””I don't see the point in worrying about it if we can't do anything anyway...”“At one point, that was true. But now, with the advances in Starsight, this is no longer the case. Just as the worms can “trap” things moving through Hyperspace and forcing them to fall into realspace, we too can “trap” ships moving through our territory secretly now. We have better control over our territory. Officially, no unapproved and non-Hegemony ships were allowed to travel through Hegemony space or dock at Hegemony systems for any reason other then those directly approved by a very high level individual; the Supreme Ruler or an Overseer at the very least. Our nation has always had closed borders and very high security; as far as realspace is concerned. But now... things may change.”Because of the advances in technology and proliferation of faster-than-light spaceships; travelling starships and space explorers are no longer only for the absolute elite or directly sanctioned by the various nations in space. Now it is time for you to decide how much of this you're going to allow in Hegemony space. Will it be a place of free enterprise and exploration? Or will you retain more control? Not to mention the possibility of integration and immigration between various traveling and nomadic species...
The Galactic Underground is the collection of freelancers, small interstellar communities, uncharted corporations, independent stars & planets, and even private invidiuals who exist in the interium spaces and overlooked spots by the various empires and nations in your sector of Space. While many come from the Consortium worlds originally, given its freedom and economic opportunity, they have begun to come from all over. What was once only possible by a few very rich investors or with the backing of a technologically advanced nation; FTL Starships are becoming cheap and commonplace enough that smaller and smaller groups can actually own them and travel. Often using preexisting hyperspace networks and smuggling goods; many end up as smugglers or even privateers.“You must now decide how much the Hegemony is going to allow these independants to use our territory; this will set the precedant for the Hegemony far into the future. I am sure you will make the right decision, your Majesty.”In addition to future preferrential treatment, you may also gain two small bonuses from becoming the Accord's Protector-State. Choose two. No Write-Ins are allowed.>Whatever those “biological targetting systems” Council Member #12 sold>Redwing Boiling Guns Schematics>Goldwing Wealth (Slows Accord's early growth, refunds previous “Expensive” choic)>Cut out your religious nonsense and be more like us (Urgi happiness & culture decrease)>Full gene census of all Urgi citizens>Give us all the Esaal & Aristocrat weapons and supplies you find (lower Accord early defense, increased tech gains for the Hegemony)>Build me a vacation palace on your nicest planetThen, you must decide on the fate of the Galactic Underground in the Hegemony. How much free travel, access, and infrastructure are you allowing to independants?>Unrestricted open borders, though all Hegemony assets & citizens remain our own>Grant licenses for trusted ships & traders; allowed to stay only in certain docks for resupply; very limited alien immigration may be allowed for those with the resources or who “earn” it.>Allow some Hegemonic individuals “independant” ships and status; but no free travel for captains who are not Jaxtian, Vetucker, or Swall.>Travel permissions given rarely; and only with a military escort, no stops or trading allowed>No travel; the Hegemony is a complete no-fly zone, maximum security & oversight>Other (Write-In)No 1-Post IDs are allowed for this vote
>>6285221Okay, I don't know if my ID is valid, but regardless, I'll just lay out my plans and justifications for all the other anons.>Full gene census of all Urgi citizensBeing who we are, this is really nothing new. Our whole thing is genetically frankensteinining our people. A gene census would probably help us - AND, also, perhaps we could even find ways in which WE could help them genetically...for a price, of course.>Give us all the Esaal & Aristocrat weapons and supplies you find (lower Accord early defense, increased tech gains for the Hegemony)Since we voted to slow down our tech in order to gain immunity to the boiling guns this would allow us to "gain back" what we lost. It also would allow for us to gain insight on Esaal weapons, and those guys are our last neighboring rival.As for the underground,>Other: Create ONE, maybe TWO "Free Ports" where foreigners may trade and Hegemonic Individuals could receive ship licenses, but nothing more, no immigration nor free travel in hegemonic space, only to those ports and outBasically, think of Macau or Dutch Nagasaki. The idea is to allow *some* small way of letting us keep up with the galaxy instead of going full north mkorea but without completely compromising our security and culture.
>>6285221>Full gene census of all Urgi citizensThe bird genes...>Whatever those “biological targeting systems” Council Member #12 soldWe can't hack them? We take them.As for the galactic underground?>Allow some Hegemonic individuals “independant” ships and status; but no free travel for captains who are not Jaxtian, Vetucker, or Swall.
>>6285228I'll just point out that leaving all foreign trade in the hands of a few hegemonic captains would essentially create a class of "Rogue Trader" level capitalists. They'd basically have a monopoly in foreign products in the hegemony.Probably not gonna end well, is it? Kinda why I thought having some way for foreigners to sell directly would also help. To avoid a small elite trader class from emerging.
>>6285233Though I'll add, my write-in isn't to ban our citizens from trading. Quite the contrary. I want there to be both Jaxtian Traders and Foreigners...except only on that specific particular location.Also, Hong Kong esque places are pretty cool.
>>6285233Fine, fine. I don't really have any arguments in mind to disagree with you. I already won by getting the election dealt with.>>6285228Swapping the galactic underground thing to support jTZ's write in. Still keeping the two bonuses I want (gene census, biological targeting)
"Free Port" Cities is an acceptable write in. If you want to vote for that, you can just type "Free Ports" in your Galactic Underground vote.
>>6285221>Goldwing Wealth>Full gene census of all Urgi citizensTradition: Take the wealth from the capitalists who refused to use it for the good of their society (and please the populists maybe, even though we don't need them anymore). Mostly I'm voting for this because it's tradition. I'm wondering if we can splice the Urgi genetics with the ball to give them enough control over magnetism to be able to put on a harness and maglev around. Not that it's a priority. Maybe a gift if they do something cool for the Hegemony. >Other: Silk Road - Licenses and tariffs along select travel corridors. Licensed Aliens can rest, resupply, and trade at select Alien Oasis'. No immigration of individuals, incorporating new peoples into the Hegemony is a Supreme decision. Xenos beyond the road get confiscated.
>>6285259Already covered under the "license" choice.
>>6285221Oh hey, it's Brutus! I'm glad he made it out okay. And he's still a gambling man, kek! And, uh... Losing to a jar full of jellyfish?>Accord Bonuses>>Whatever those “biological targetting systems” Council Member #12 soldThis could be useful for detecting and dealing with Aanel/Worms, right?>>Give us all the Esaal & Aristocrat weapons and supplies you find (lower Accord early defense, increased tech gains for the Hegemony)I like the way >>6285227 thinks on this one>Fate of the Galactic Underground in the Hegemony>>Allow some Hegemonic individuals “independant” ships and status; but no free travel for captains who are not Jaxtian, Vetucker, or Swall.I love privateers!
>>6285260I think anon just doesn't want the>very limited alien immigration may be allowed for those with the resources or who “earn” itpart
>>6285221What option does Threemind recommend in both instances? And why?
>>6285221>Full gene census of all Urgi citizens>Give us all the Esaal & Aristocrat weapons and supplies you find (lower Accord early defense, increased tech gains for the Hegemony)>Grant licenses for trusted ships & traders; allowed to stay only in certain docks for resupply; very limited alien immigration may be allowed for those with the resources or who “earn” it.I feel this is compatible with "Free Ports"
>>6285221>Full gene census of all Urgi citizens>Give us all the Esaal & Aristocrat weapons and supplies you find (lower Accord early defense, increased tech gains for the Hegemony)>Grant licenses for trusted ships & traders; allowed to stay only in certain docks for resupply; very limited alien immigration may be allowed for those with the resources or who “earn” it.The Sotten have been useful. Don't want to throw away our use of them.
>>6285322Sotten enjoyers assemble
>Monke players when they see a species that literally just sleeps all day and does nothing useful
>>6285330Yeah you're right we're such faggots for enjoying the spaceworld of cute critters and rape bedbugs you pulled together - but enjoying it wrong
>>6285338No I'm glad you like them, I just thought it was funny that the Migrator and now Sotten are what the players gravitate towards the most when their own quality is 'being comfy'kinda based I guess
>>6285339don't forget SpaceWhale, we also like those
>>6285221>>Cut out your religious nonsense and be more like us (Urgi happiness & culture decrease)>Full gene census of all Urgi citizens
>>6285227support basically this>genesis basically our whole thing for useful genes for us or them and potentially assimilating them or perhaps granting them flight >weaponsgiving us the bump in tech we lost from "helping" them and also they should NOT HAVE ANY Aristocrat weapons and supplies that shit is either a contaminant or too dangerous
>>6285265basically yes like why would we have it combined? like why would we allow trade and immigration? its two seperate things
>>6285221>Goldwing Wealth (Slows Accord's early growth, refunds previous “Expensive” choic)Twice now the option to to refund the Expensive choice came up- I figured it’s probably something important if we’re given a second chance to fix it.>Whatever those “biological targetting systems” Council Member #12 sold>Grant licenses for trusted ships & traders; allowed to stay only in certain docks for resupply; very limited alien immigration may be allowed for those with the resources or who “earn” it.or>Allow some Hegemonic individuals “independant” ships and status; but no free travel for captains who are not Jaxtian, Vetucker, or Swall.I don’t particularly have a dog with which option wins desu
>>6285259>>6285313>>6285364If anons like both the trusted licenses and hegemonic traders, you really should consider the "Free Ports". It cuts out the problematic parts like Immigration and it prevents an monopoly from forming.
I think I messed up making this prompt so vast; I kinda wanted to see how people feel about letting Hegemonic citizens be "free" to go out into space and do stuff vs being space North Korea, but it got a bit complex.Like do you want people to be able to go through Hegemony space with only some government checkpoints and patrolling warships, even if a little dystopian like the Galactic Empire? Or is it more controlled and literally nobody can go through when so many other space factions are laissez faire? I think it's a cool bit to decide for the lore.
>>6285416Well, you mentioned China, so I think that having something like Imperial China's general ban on foreigners coming into outside of their special ports was cool. It would also let Jaxtians go out into the galaxy on their own. Plus, it creates a "special" place, that being the Monke Macau.
Actually I have a better idea for a future vote Implement that. Just use this one to decide what other people are going to do to travel through Hegemony space.
>>6285403Although Free Ports is very cool, I want some Legal Immigrant Aliens
>>6285437You want people to be able to pay their way into the hegemony? No thanks. I don't want our cities to be polluted with aristocrats or consortium scum.
>>6285438Pay? No.But I do want people to be able to EARN their way into the hegemony through loyal service.
>>6285441The immigration option says "Those with the RESOURCES or who earn it"
>>6285442Resources/earning it is not a "monetary" one in my opinion.Ressources as in "potential" and "ability to serve our interrests"Earn it = reward for services given to the Hegemony. Like the Sotten smuggler - give us intel against asylum (cost : 1 more Xeno chill guy. Reward : tangible war data)
>>6285446How can it not be? The Sotten trader would be an example of earning it. Resources quite literally means having resources. It means a consortium bigwig with a lot of money could pay his way into the hegemony.
>>6285455Yeah but it doesn't mean "You're the most corrupt anti-space-CCP xenos ever but you have enough cash? Welcome"
>>6285461That's pretty much what the option means, dude. If you have big resources, you can immigrate.
>>6285461If the value of the contribution (scientific, cultural, monetary, or otherwise) of the individual is high enough to offset the risk of social problems that may arise or the security risks involved, then the Hegemony current ethos would consider that acceptable, at least by current canon. The AI Network would find the "score" of allowing in an Aristocrat to need some very strong counterbalancing to be acceptable, by the by.
>>6285465That there's even a way an Aristocrat could use their gigawealth to buy their way onto a hegemony planet is far too much.
>>6285470>one Problematic individue under check (taxed at 80% of his net worth)VS>Enough money to build a couple battleshipYeah, I'll maintain my vote.
>>6285474Based state pragmatist
>>6285474Okay then, but don't come crying when the hegemony's clean fabric is stained by disgusting capitalists and degenerate hedonists who bribed their way here.
And for sake of clarity there isn't going to be random alien immigrants or anything like that; it just means people will be allowed to travel and work/do stuff in the Hegemony with government oversight and licensees with the same surveillance as the normal Hegemony; exactly like the Galactic Empire from Star Wars with Stormtroopers stopping people for their reasons for traveling and the like. Generic example but you get the idea.
>>6285221>Full gene census of all Urgi citizens>Goldwing Wealth (Slows Accord's early growth, refunds previous “Expensive” choic)Wealth and genes.>Other: Silk Road - Licenses and tariffs along select travel corridors. Licensed Aliens can rest, resupply, and trade at select Alien Oasis'. No immigration of individuals, incorporating new peoples into the Hegemony is a Supreme decision. Xenos beyond the road get confiscated.Write-in sounds fun, and skips on having the immigration being a thing anything mega-rich can buy into.
"Silk Road" write ins will be considered "license" votes for the sake of vote counting btw
>>6285488>Write-in that specifically says no to immigration will be counted together with the vote that allows immigration?
"immigration" means the one alien living on one space station who is the only being in the galaxy who knows about ancient alien crystals or a pair of wacky pod-racers who are kept around because they're the only ones who can maintain the Val bloodlines super souped up heroic speedfighter that can bomb an alien mothership epic style ffsYou're allowing the aliens to move through the Hegemony along specific trade routes, only with permission and under surveillance, it's the same thing, you're splitting the vote into a bunch of very overly specific write-ins for no reason it's annoying especially in two days when the "wrong" vote wins and everyone whines about it for multiple threads
>>6285496So then just say the write-in isn't allowed instead of saying "Actually this is gonna count as this other thing which isn't what you voted for."
>6285497Lord give me strength before I bash this nigga head in with a brick
>>6285498stfu you know very well that it's different from the option. If you don't like it just say it instead of going "I'll just count it as this other vote"
Alright, I'm not bringing out Judge Monke again. I'll acquiesce and combine the write ins since they're closer. Silk Road + Port Cities as a general "only allowed to do business/travel in one specific highly controlled region with no or limited residence, no Hegemonic citizenship status, no free Hegemonic citizen-ships going around. Just as the Hegemony was before this but with one very specific foreign quarter to open up a minimum of trade and international relations." Deal?
>>6285505Sounds good to me, if the other anons agree. Having a Foreign Quarter was the idea behind my write-in.
I hope you guys liked the art in the prompt btw, I delayed the update for a day to finish it. I realize after I probably could have just split it into two updates but this threads getting kinda long so oh well
>>6285509Yes, it has a lot of aliens.
>>6285505Alright, deal. Thank you Bananas.Sorry Bananas I didn't mean to add fuel to the fire by voting for the silk road thing.
>>6285516No it's okay I sperged out a little bit. But especially in older monke game where I had more write-ins that I allowed whenever I had to tally the votes, I had to sometimes combine them or try to work them into existing votes to make it fair cuz otherwise all the votes are split among like one or two very specific things and I wanted to try to avoid that for an actually important vote like this one.
>>6285505>>6285259>>6285221>OK. Change my vote to Port Cities. Thanks.
Beancounting.BONUSES?GENE: JTZ, IPY, +SS, FMA, TLP, 93O, J1B, XLWESAAL/ARISTOCRAT WEAPONS: JTZ, +SS, BJQ, TLP, 93OBIOLOGICAL TARGETTING SYSTEMS: IPY, BJQ, FRMGOLDWING WEALTH: FMA, FRM, XLWSTOP RELIGIOUS NONSENSE: J1BUNDERGROUND?FREE PORTS: JTZ, IPY, +SS, FMA, XLW (since Silk Road and Free Ports were merged into a thing)LICENSE: TLP, 93O, FRMINDEPENDANT SHIPS: BJQ, FRMGENE + WEAPONS + FREE PORTS seems to be winning.Also, art was kino.
>>6285505I still prefer privateers, but this compromise does sound like a fair one.>>6285509I want to learn more about the jar full of jellyfish
>>6285749Can't help but wonder about what anon said about the expensive option possibly being necessary soon given its come up twice.
“...It's just the truth people. Jaxtians can't cook!”Ho ho ha ha HE ha ho ho ho!The laugh track is obviously AI generated, and cheaply. It's not that there is anything wrong with it; it's different and randomized with each joke told by the comedian; but maintains a certain amount of “sameness” simulate the same audience.“That gene program must be working at least. Look at those Alpha-Males! I couldn't imaging getting that buff off of, what, fruits and nuts? Grubs? They're got more testosterone then my damn girlfriend!”Ho ho ha ha HE ha ho ho ho!With a trained ear, you can figure out why it feels artificial. You can listen to an individual “voice” in the audience, and you lose the telltale signs. No feline chuffs from a Leeray, no throaty calls from a Prooh whose nose would naturally be plugged, and none of the polite wing-beats from a Ixcee that help accent their otherwise soft voices.“But seriously, I can respect it a little bit. They want to eat only whole, raw, healthy foods for their people... sure. But like... no spices? No hot sauce? Not even heating it up most of the time? It's crazy! I mean look at the Vetuckers- they eat grass. Their appetite spikes when they look at the floor.”Ho ho ha ha HE ha ho ho ho!“No really! They have different kinds of grass! One for nutrition, and one for flavor! I'm not making this stuff up!”Ho ho ha ha HE ha ho ho ho!“Now the Swall; they're a little better. They eat meat! They're were real good at technological advancmenet; but is anyone gonna tell them?”The audience is quiet for a second, the comedian leaning in as if to tell a secret.“...I think you skipped a step. It's called fire.”Ho ho ha ha HE ha ho ho ho!Ho ho ha ha HE ha ho ho ho!”Ho ho ha ha HE ha HAR HAR! Shut up!”
You throw a piece of rubbish at the viewscreen impotently. Usis laughs behind you softly.”I can't believe the Consortium are insulting our fine cultural traditions! They think supplying the people with good, wholesome natural foods is funny!!! Do they have any idea how hard that is!? Do they think slathering on some highly processed sauce counts as some kind of grand cullinary culture?! Do they think blowing out the natural, subtle taste receptors of their citizens for the next overstimulating trend is a virtue!?”“What, my lord? It is funny!””Grrh...”As the Galactic community begins to grow and interconnect, and especially after the formation of your new Urgi Protectorate; other cultures have cross-pollinated and become more obvious. You guess you're not quite used to the gentle ribbing of the Consortium; in which nothing is quite off the table. You guess, perhaps a little arrogantly, you were expecting the same reverant worship and respect your own people have been showering you with after defeating the Aristocrats and securing the Urgi's future as an ally. But for the Consortium's layperson, you're still just the dictator of some backwater civilization no matter what you do!“I think you're taking it a bit too serious, my lord. You shouldn't get so worked up.””Why are you concerned with me getting “worked up” anyway?”You turn to face Usis, but he's gone silent. It looks like there was something he wanted to say, but quickly swallowed it. He looks away, afraid of offending you.>Force him to say what he was gonna say>Smash the viewscreen instead to express your anger
>>6285852>Force him to say what he was gonna saySpeak, BETA male.
>>6285852>>Force him to say what he was gonna saylet's hope we won't kill him.
>>6285852>>Force him to say what he was gonna sayPlease TRY not to kill him, I am sure he is looking out for you, after all.
>>6285852>Smash the viewscreen instead to express your anger
>>6285852>>Force him to say what he was gonna say
>>6285852>Smash the viewscreen instead to express your angerbreak stuff YEAH
>>6285852>Force him to say what he was gonna sayAn appetiser who'll someday be eaten by a Worm or a Wife has no grounds criticising anyone at the top of a food-chain.
>>6285852>Force him to say what he was gonna say Usis is friend not food D: please dont Agori this one, Halam has proven time and time again he has a better handle on his temper as an Alpha than most, he has different outlets and hes matured faster than most (literally even) please dont put him in a fucking chokehold or something stupid
>>6285852>Force him to say what he was gonna saySay IT - your Supreme commands you
>>6285852>Force him to say what he was gonna sayI will also ask to not go chimpout mode on him, Halamas has been doing great until now, the last thing I need is for him to crash at the finish line.
>>6285852>Force him to say what he was gonna sayEither choice should be interesting but I'm more curious about what he has to say.
>>6285852>Force him to say what he was gonna say>"i am already mad but not at you and i need to actually know what you think"should we joke about consortium main species beacuse we can joke about them being pussy whipped cucks who cant find there own dicks, but can use them like chairs.or how they cant even afford having actual people laughing at there jokes while priding them self on there riches.i learned a interesting thing apparently testosterone boosts the ability to break from social instincts and norms to stand up for beliefs and what they think, while its actually estrogen that increases aggression to a big degree and amplifies emotions and it increases during menstruation. i know hearing someone else amplifies the sensation of mirth as it stimulates the group instinct to join in to bond with the greater social whole, could it be the ear enchantments from our gene program that improved our piloting skills be the reason why we can even hear that the laughing is fake
>>6286156In humans at least, testosterone’s social effects are context-sensitive (it can actually increase prosocial behaviors in front of an audience if a gain in status can be achieved this way), and estrogen’s link to aggression is small at best. Also, estrogen does not rise during your period. Menstruation is triggered by a drop in estradiol and progesterone.
”...What did you mean by that, Usis? I command you to tell me.”Usis pauses, but unable to deny a direct order from the Supreme Ruler, answers.“When I look at you, I see a Supreme Ruler past his prime. It is purely because of your age-coloration condition. Logically I know we are both the same age; but I see you sitting there and think of your father instead, resting on his laurels after a long and fruitful reign, acting as the Supreme only until his replacement comes along soon to follow. I didn't want you to get worked up over something you don't have the time or energy to change. I apologize for this thought, your Majesty, but I tried to keep it to myself.””Hmph. I do not wish to be seen as a tottering old man! By anyone!”You ball up a fist and slam it down onto the metal arm-rest of your throne, hard. It clangs, bending the metal very slightly. There is pain shooting up your elbow, and you squeeze your fist a few times to flex the muscles and soothe the pain from the outburst. It fades quickly, but a resident soreness remains longer then you'd like.“...That's enough of this Consortium drivel. Other species in space don't have full holographic display technology, so they just use broadcast visual hyperwave signals that travel faster then light. Old style. Oh! I know, let me show you some sanctioned Kuwongit clan duels! That will surely be more enjoyable to you, your Majesty.””Ku-What?”“Kuwongit. “Coo-Wong-It”. Farther up the galactic spiral? Expansionist, traditionalist species? Some clans been on and off fighting the Esaal for like, two hundred years? Oh nevermind.””Why is his sword floppy? OH! It's like a whip sword! Look at the blood! Oh hoho! This was a much better thing to show me, Usis! Har har, excellent choice!”You are now Usis Nanonae, and you have some very important work to do. Despite your successful infiltration of the Urgi council's election; you have still been tasked with keeping tabs on the newly formed Accord government. Even just a few sticky beaks around will greatly help if they ever try to violate the terms of the Protectorate agreement. But while your Lord can take a break after his decisive war victories; something else has come up that must be your complete focus. The Aristocrat nerve cluster recovered from the campaign.
Your entire life, you've been obsessed with something. As long as you can remember, you've always wondered how other people see the world.You have a bit of a reputation for being a womanizer. That's not exactly true; Halam is the Alpha Male (and Supreme Ruler) after all, so he's certainly got more experience in that department then you do. Moreso; you've always been jealous of women. Jaxtian women have a greater depth of color perception then men do. What does that actually mean? Do they see more colors and shades? Does art look more beautiful to them? They seem to feel emotions more strongly too. Are they actually experiencing a stronger emotion, or is merely a reaction that is different to an identical stimulus? Do Nut-Thieves trigger some sort of maternal instinct, or are they actually cuter and more adorable to them, enough for the extreme over-reaction of love and exctiement you've seen some women have for them? How can you look at the same creature and just see a overgrown rodent that's been selective bred to have zero survival instincts and with features to mimic baby Jaxtians? Where's the “magic” response they seem to have?And it's not just women. That's a bit of a simplification. You know of species with better sight, better senses, a more deep and complete sensation of their body kinematics and motion. You have an artifical Swall inner-ear in your own body; created by genetic tampering. You instinctively feel which way is up and can “feel” the pressure in the air. To you, this isn't special. But if you were born just a few hundred years ago, those sensations wouldn't exist in you. That thought fills you with dread; how horrible it would be to not be able to experience as much as you possibly can! You feel very much like you were blinded and deafened before you were even born!You were taught, as all Jaxtians are, that what we experience and what we can remember is a product of the brain. You already have a good understanding of how the brain works. Neurons align to specific concepts, and repeated triggers and thoughts strengthen these connections. It is why memories are often assigned to specific scents or sounds; or why memories change as you remember them. The pathways are always been remade. What is a memory, anyway, a collection of images?The Nerve Cluster though... that changes things. It is a memory, and not merely a collection of neurons to be interpreated and owned by one creature. It's structure is primarily neuralchemical, and adapted to Aristocrat biology first and foremost, but it is abuzz with bioelectric energy as well. Normally, impossible to directly interface with a different creature then it's originator...
But with the Celestial Blood, you can take a peak. You can experience what another has experienced. And just like that, it's like you're there. You're in another body, on another planet, experiencing something you could never see.The Aristocrats claim the life machine is their greatest technological advancement and pride. This is a lie. You know this now; after seeing this. None of their outside cultural contacts or literature speaks of this; this is supposed to be a secret. Something so intimiate they won't even use it to lord over other species. That's how you know it's really important.You remember an event that never happened to you. It's so vivid, and real, like waking from a dream. You feel a body built for comfort laying on the soft wet grass, within its own mind quieting its own thoughts to open itself up for experience. It selectively ignores many of the sensations like it's sense of temperature and body-position; a feat not even the greatest Jaxtian physical athletes with perfect self control can replicate; before opening itself up to the sound of a beautiful harmony. You don't know why this is so significant, but it seems to be important to this creature that you are, in this moment. You know of great symphonies and the names of nobles which you can't recall after experiencing it; and when you remember this, the emotion is overwhelming. The sense of beauty, of hard work paying off, of once-only-and-never-again fills you completely. Even once the Celestial Blood is safely disconnected, your nervous system has been altered with the new memory now attatched. You feel tears well up in your eyes simply thinking back on “your” time as an Aristocrat.You suddenly have a newfound respect for Cijan Anak. You have only absorbed but one single memory; and the sense of disillusion is very strong. It only goes to show his sure mental strength, to have melded completely with whatever creature lay dormant or suspended wtihin the life machine and yet still retain his full capabilities and sense of self. You know you are Usis Nanonae, but there is still a tiny bit of Insar'Sholo in you. You were barely comfortable being one person. But now, looking at this “Star” as he would call it in front of you, you finally had the answer to your question that you've been looking for your entire life. It's staring you, wetly, right in the face.
It is an abomination.Within the wet folds of tissue and sloshing brain-juices of the mind fruit; the memory enscased within proves once again that your subjective experience, your life and being, is based on meat. To even remember the moments of your past is reliant on physical processes. It is the peak of Aristocrat bio-tampering, but it is not too complicated. It isn't impossible to see how the nerve cluster can replicate its experience to other beings; how the connections in the brain form from the perfectly perserved fragment of memory. Moreso; how you can do the reverse. How memories can be recorded, or given. While the Celestial Blood is required for now; the ability to grow nerve tissue is already well within the capability of the Hegemony's medical science. And with this as the template; memories could be grown as well.You cannot allow this to happen. It is wrong.With a mastery of this possible technology; entire memories could be implanted or removed. Direct surgery is one way; but a concotion of the Celestial Blood could easily pass the skin and skull and blood-brain barrier. Bullets coated with decades of torture and memories of slavery; even the mightest and bravest of warriors would become nothing but squealing pups from trauma. Gas clouds that wipe the slate clean; entire work crews forced to forget ever completing a task so they do it again without expectation of reward. Why interogate a suspect when you can just inject him with something that makes him think his interrogator is his best friend? Why train people at all, when children could simply be given the perfect blueprint to becoming a savant; years of training and rigerous study given to them in an instant, or switched over to a new discipline as soon as the old one is no longer useful or obsolete. It doesn't mean it can't be used for positive things too. Maybe Swalli could be made to forget their partner to get over the depression and suicidial thoughts that arrise from them passing on. But if you asked any Swall if they'd willingly forget their life-mate, do you actually think any of them would say yes? Of course not. We could remove the memories of hardship; but then there is nothing to overcome. What is the point of experiencing anything at all if it can just be copied or created wholesale or replaced?
The AI could easily simulate an artificial brain with fake memories and then make those into real memories put into you. To you, it'd be as if you experienced whatever the Hegemony wanted. It would be real to you; as real as yesterday.You are fairly certain that the soldiers managing to recover this from the Aristocrats was a fluke. Even a future campaign would be unlikely to encounter that many Aristocrats and their possible shed mind-fruits. The Aristocrats; likely through arrogance; have never truly considered the rammifications of this ability, or it is too tied into their biotechnical-cultural-caste system morass. If you destroy this thing now, the research can't be completed. No further encroachment into that most sacred of places of the body and mind; the memory.Halam Anak is your friend and master. You respect him greatly, and would never believe he would be a great abuser of this technology. But what of his successor? And his successor? What of the deep state; Hegemonic Control? What of another species, getting their hands on it? It's too valuable to simply ignore or lock up in some vault somewhere; the Hegemony builds its vision of the future and growth via what they have access to now. With this, your nation's projected powers would be greatly enhanced in every capacity. The possibility of future development in this field justifies its creation.But to you? The simple possibility of this technology existing is too much. It's too debased, too dystopian, too hopeless. You don't want to live in a world where this can exist.Needless to say, this is an act of treason and will end in your death.>Destroy the Mind Fruit>Submit to the future
>>6286482>Submit to the futureThis is the death of entropy. This is what the Hegemony is for.
>>6286482>Destroy the Mind FruitThere are certain lines we don't cross. If we have to live in a world like that we would probably kill ourselves later on anyway so let's do it now and save the future generations from it.
>>6286482>Destroy the Mind FruitFear the future. Kill it.
>>6286482>Submit to the future.Have faith. Halam might have erased his duel loss but he won't abuse this. The Hegemony already has BAG, automation, ect ect. Think of the possibilities not just the possible drawbacks.
>>6286482>DESTROY ITGuys, if the creepy surveillance dystopia drone guy is like "wow, this is too creepy and dystopic for me," it's too creepy and dystopic.>>6286504>Halam won't abuse thisLiterally addressed in the update. Halam is an uncommonly nice and sensible Supreme. We have zero guarantee that future Supremes won't abuse it, and given the already dystopian top-down control exercised by the Hegemony, I'd call abuse way more likely than not.
>>6286482>>Submit to the future
>>6286482SECRET OPTION PEOPLE ARE IGNORING CMON BANANAS LEAVE CLUES IN PICTURES, WHAT THE HELL CAN WE DO WITH THESE BIOBOTS WITH WIDE OPEN HEAD HOLES PEOPLE???? I NEED A SMARTER MONKEY TO FIGURE THIS OUT IF ITS AN OPTION
>>6286482>Submit to the futureWith this, at the time of the death of the body the memories of an individual could be recorded, stored together for posterity. And what are we, if not our collected memories? The Goal the Hegemony has set itself is to escape death, escape entropy. The Mind Fruit is an actual step along this noble path.To destroy this wonder would be the abomination.
>>6286482>>Destroy the Mind Fruit
>>6286519...The fuck are we supposed to do, revive one of them with it and create a horrific Nerve Cluster zombie?Usis' whole thing is that he fucking hates the mere idea of the technology existing. Unless we can find a way to destroy it without tying it back to us, what exactly do you think the 'secret' could even be?
>>6286534What you described is archiving, we have a whole department that archives actually important things already.
>>6286554You're missing the big picture. If we can archive memory? We can archive a mind. And if we can archive a mind, we could download that mind back into a fresh-grown body. The Euthanasia booths could become body replacement rejuvenation chambers. It's not the perfect immortality, but it is a step closer toward it, and a step closer to the stated Hegemonic goal of escaping entropy.
>>6286482>Destroy the Mind FruitYou fools, this isn't "Death of Entropy", this is fucking Entropy itself. The illusion reality pretending to be reality. Do you *see* how the Aristocrats ended up with this technology? A bunch of hedonists who live for the sole purpose of creating pleasurable memories they can relive. It's horrible.
>>6286567Anon,do you have any idea how horrible is? Death is GOOD. To defeat death would be to defeat struggle itself, and without struggle, we would devolve.It is the limitations which bind us that allow us to grow. A system where death doesn't exist is a system where nothing new happens. Just the same thing, over and over and over and over and over and over and over.
>>6286586Actually, I know this might sound pretentiouns, but if you want to see how a "deathless" society looks like, go play Cruelty Squad or watch a video. That is the exact kind of society that would happen if we could just "replace" people's bodies on a whim.
>>6286482>Destroy the Mind FruitEditing memories to enforce a vision is not victory - it is defeat It is admitting that we can only win by effectively cheating, but making people simply think our way - rather than fundamentally winning in the real world
>>6286588>we could just "replace" people's bodies on a whim.Just saying we basically try to replace people already by cloning our most prolific scientists.>>6286585>It's horrible.The Aristocrats seem pretty content with it. Don't project your monke-centric morality onto an alien culture.DESU this would be a neat tech to have if it was only used in specifics ways (i.e. re-instantiate key personnel, top secret information management via memory editing.) But I kinda have to agree with Usis on this one.
>>6286645>Just saying we basically try to replace people already by cloning our most prolific scientists.That's not even close to being the same thing. Clones are, objectively, different people. They're similar, but distinct. Eoba II is not Eoba I. They're not copies who straight up think they're the same.>The Aristocrats seem pretty content with it. Don't project your monke-centric morality onto an alien culture.Oh, because the aristocrats are doing so great, right? What's not to love about perpetual stagnant hedonism? They've been around for literal millenia and yet were easily surpassed by us in a few centuries.And Usis said himself that the Aristocrats were ridiculously underusing this technology and that it would without a doubt be abused the moment someone else got their hands on it.
>>6286645>The Aristocrats seem pretty content with it. Don't project your monke-centric morality onto an alien culture.We literally just went to war to humiliate the Aristocrats because they suck so much.
>>6286552>Submit to the futurewould it not just be the completion of our biobot project making a bot thats is a genuine mimic something thats just perfectly what its meant to be?>Submit to the futurelike what if we simply dont do that? like rules and regulations, like remember our replicators and automations? yeah we somehow have not made self replicating killbots that will replace all organic life, what of fusion and fission it was the scariest thing of its time called the domain of gods? destroyer of world speeches but we still use it to the point it become the everyday.>>6286648simply dont use it for jerking yourself off and stupid shit like that, we already got tech like this but it was only for a certain type of crystal lifeforms and for machines with our biobots that think they are someone, also why the nobles usage of memory sucks so much is that they only remember the good times and never the bad times and suffering caused to make the moment happen they use it as a circle jerk also again with this you can actually know what others have seen seeing your dreams come true
>>6286692part of why they suck is that they dont care about authenticity also like this memory they forget the creatures below they forget who even the lady and the gentleman is they DONT KNOW what they are have not even tried and just made it the centerpiece a entire planet just for this pair captured and they have not tried knowing or understanding what it is because understanding would have removed some artistic flare they could have reseeded the world with these creatures, they dont care about the passing of things or remembering them.so lets not just use the memory like drugs and find practical uses for it
>>6286741Anon, you're missing the point, Usis said that it WILL be used like that. There is literally no way you could stop an state like the Hegemony from using it like that. If a literal dystopic overseer who thinks putting cameras on people is a good thing thinks it's too far and will be abused, are you really gonna say "Nuh uh"?Law is irrelevant when any Supreme change it at their whim. And we know suprmees can disobey us.>>6286744It's not about "using it like drugs" you fool. Did you read any of what he said? About how they could use it to literally mindwipe people? Turn them into literal fleshpuppets for the Hegemony whose minds are nothing more than computers?
>>6286741>We won't abuse it!>Because...>We just won't, okay!
>>6286745In fact, just look at the application list for this tech>Literal mind prison memories where you are tortured for decades for decades like that one DS9 episode>Making workers forget they worked so they can work forever with zero pay>Erasing the memories of loved ones so people stop feeling sad and being unproductive >Turning children into literal worker drones who have personalities downloaded into themDo you have the slightest idea of how fucking hellish this would be? You're going to risk all of this on the basis of "uhh we'll just decide not to do it."It's a fucking pandora's box, Do you realize? Once this tech is made you cannot stop it. You cannot forget it. Do you think the hegemony can avoid misusing it FOREVER? Once the genie is out of the bottle, you can't put it back in.
>>6286745fuck that, but also thats literally just our biobot project we can already sort of do that just them not being fully organic put in new memories and everything.Alot of stuff can be done.its more a reply to how decadent stuff like this has made the Aristocrats who they are with there tech the worker and the soldier class like i am pretty sure the workers just autopilot and reliving memories from the wisdom tree. >>6286746>>6286747it would be a empire thats useless we have a prime example where abusing it leads to and know what to not do, as that literally lead to a inferior society and why we beat the aristocrats consider it being suboptimal its just some other random shit to the pile of stuff we can abuse like all of our other tech could always just beyond relativistic kill weapon everything if we wanted to or make a swarm of self replicating crystals unified under one gestalt mind, we can unleash some fucked up zombie plague if we wanted, we can already give some biodroid this existential dread.its just another genie in the bottle since the nuke and every other genie in the bottle after that
>>6286750>we have a prime example where abusing it leads to and know what to not doThe Aristocrats used it in an extremely limited way. They did not use it to control their populace, the thing the Hegemony already does to a scary extent. >the pile of stuff we can abuse like all of our other tech could always just beyond relativistic kill weapon everything if we wanted to What are you even talking about? You're just listing horrible disasters that we have zero incentive to unleash. You're not addressing the much more realistic scenario of this being used to turn the Hegemony into 1984+++++++++, which less ethical Supremes *do* have incentive to do.
>>6286753What's more, if you don't read the update where Usis, Mr. Surveillance Dystopia Man, goes "I am so certain this will be abused to turn the Hegemony into a hellish dystopia that I will willingly sacrifice myself to stop this" and go "gee I don't know I think Bananas is telling us this might turn the Hegemony into a hellish dystopia," you might literally be sub 80 IQ.
>>6286750>fuck that, but also thats literally just our biobot project we can already sort of do that just them not being fully organic put in new memories and everything.No it's not. It's literally nowhere even close to that. What you are suggesting is turning out entire fucking populace into Biobots. You're looking at the Aristocrats and you're trying to turn us into them BUT WORSE. Usis has LITERALLY SAID anyone other than the Aristocrats would abuse the mind technology far more deeply.>it would be a empire thats useless we have a prime example where abusing it leads to and know what to not do, Did you even READ the post? The Aristocrats were UNDERUSING it. Do you have even a SINGLE WAY to stop future generations from turning the Hegemony into mindsculpt hell other than "Uhh but they WON'T because...it would be bad.">relativistic kill weapon everything if we wanted toNo, we can't. Because that's not how tech works in this setting.>make a swarm of self replicating crystals unified under one gestalt mindReplicator need materials and energy. They can't self replicate.>we can unleash some fucked up zombie plague if we wantedYou mean like the bioplagues the Aristocrats had? Or like the Hazaar had?>we can already give some biodroid this existential dread.AND YOU WANT TO TURN OUR ENTIRE POPULACE INTO THIS. YOU ARE VOTING TO MAKE EVERY SINGLE HEGEMONIC CITIZEN A BIODROID. Do you have LITERALLY ANY WAY WHATSOEVER to stop this other than shutting your eyes and saying "Nuh uh"?????
>>6286755Not voting in the future for our monke dictator to do atrocities?
>>6286757Supremes have gone against our votes multiple times. What's more, *THREEMIND* has gone against what we want all the time, and if that fucking thing calculates that it's optimal to mindwipe everybody, you bet it's going to happen.
>>6286757You're right, I forgot that supremes don't do anything unless we tell them t- OH WAIT, THEY DO IT *LITERALLY ALL THE TIME*THIS is our choice, anon. Voting submit to the future means you are fine with this tech being abused to high hell. Usis is LITERALLY SAYING IT WILL BE ABUSED.
>>6286747>Literal mind prison memories where you are tortured for decades for decades like that one DS9 episodeso literally just what we already do if we need information or want someone to suffer like the aristocrat in the slow dip acid?>Making workers forget they worked so they can work forever with zero payso just stop any tech evolution in this sector because we have gotten alot out of it like the fabrication machine and just our general engineering, and not considering it would just suck for our economy so probably not as its our main advantage over peoples like the aristocrats >Erasing the memories of loved ones so people stop feeling sad and being unproductivedont we just kill those people or use them as motivation or something it seems like too much effort sometimes the squeeze is not worth the juice >Turning children into literal worker drones who have personalities downloaded into themnot sure about personalities but will probably be used as a way to transplant scientific materials then having them break them down to understand the fundamentals of it as homework. or we just make a clone of some scientist we like but actually having the memories this time, like why even bother brainwashing children with implanted memories when we can just clone a adult body to implant the memories into? or just cook up a mind blank clone to implant the memories of some important figure >>6286753 >we have a prime example where abusing it leads to and know what to not do>The Aristocrats used it in an extremely limited way. They did not use it to control their populace, the thing the Hegemony already does to a scary extent.Okay pause... just pause? thats the entire aristocrat species population outside of the nobles???? what do you think the worker caste and warrior caste is, thats literally the abuse of the biotech and memory tech you are fearing taken to its final degree, to the upmost degree thats literally what they are a completely entirely controlled population without any will of there own the population could literally not be more controlled >>6286754and banana is a unreliable narrator sometimes its part of this quest and what do you expect from a monkey scared after inducing a indirectly traumatic experience, we have tons of other toys we can abuse like making a mobile replicator that can consume the material and energy on its own one lacks creativity if this has not been considered.probably just want us to put this chunk inside of a biobot shell and have it wander away for a dramatic story beat >>6286755what i am saying is going to the effort to that is the same as just going to the effort of making biobot citizens, if not actually more effort as it would be even harder to implement then just construction of artificial citizens. try considering its usage rationally
Look, if we don't destroy this thing, I'm like 56% sure Threemind WILL go full on paperclip maximizer and use it to turn everyone short of the Supreme Leader into a hollowed out husk. If we can somehow never, ever abused it and keep Threemind on the world's tiniest lease, sure! MAYBE then we can use it!But we're not the fucking Aristocrats. The only reason they didn't turn into 1984 is they were too busy jerking off to futanari porn using this thing instead of making philosophical zombies out of it.
>>6286753thing is its as you said "horrible disasters that we have zero incentive to unleash" alot of what you fear is just unprofitable unproductive shit or something that would just be done with genocide, if we wanted a perfectly controlled population we just make biobots but this bears repeating the warrior caste and worker class is literally the prime example of your worst fear of the perfectly controlled population that just goes along with what there masters want. Why they dont just use that blackmirror torture method? simple boredom they take pleasure from the effort of torturing someone else making them "sing" the pain whips are probably based on some principle of this memory tech just sharing pure pain on touch so it can never be numb or get used to it.they already do everything you fear they just dialed back because they found it boring and to easy>>6286769aristocrats are literally already the end stage of 1984 with the ruler class that then used it to with the philosophical zombies worker caste/class that then used it to make funtanari porn and got busy with that to the point everything else got left behind
>>6286774honestly...... would not be surprised if after this humiliation that the aristocrats would get "serious"
>>6286774Again, the Aristocrats vastly underutilized their tech and they still end up making a decadent hellscape where all that matters was jerking off and drinking wine while the rest of their society mindlessly worked like philosophical zombies.If WE used it? Again, all it takes is one bad apple getting in as supreme (like Wrix being...Wrix) to end up making a worse version of the Aristocrats. We're basically dealing with a piece of tech that is only an objective good if you completely detach yourself from all frames of morality and just go"Well we're all just meat so it's fine anyways, right?"That's fucking Worm logic.
>>6286774Okay, so what you're saying now is that the Aristocrats are the perfect example of a lobotomized 1984 dystopia (I'll note that we have zero textual evidence that they use memories to control the worker and drone classes, for all we know it's purely bioengineering, but sure let's pretend). So we know the tech is capable of this.And we want to adopt this tech because... >Oh but we won't do it because the Aristocrats do itHalam won't do it. Maybe the next generation of Supremes won't do it, because they remember the war. But are you seriously saying that'll be a roadblock a few generations down the line, like Usis is worried about? How do you know they won't look at the Aristocrats and go "wow, I bet we can do this but way more effective"? And why would Threemind care about the Aristocrats, even if a Supreme does?
>>6286765>so literally just what we already do if we need information or want someone to suffer like the aristocrat in the slow dip acid?It's what we do times a fucking thousand. We could have someone spend 100 years of torture in a few seconds. We could do this with literal bullets and gas. Do you even imagine how that horrible that is? The ability to do that so fucking easily? >so just stop any tech evolution in this sectorWE. DO NOT. HAVE. PERFECT. CONTROL. Do you think the Hegemony will never abuse this "because i said so"?>dont we just kill those people or use them as motivation or somethingWhat the hell are you talking about??? No, we don't kill every worker who is sad. Usis LITERALLY SAID this would be abused on Swall who are extremely monogamous.>not sure about personalities but will probably be used as a way to transplant scientific materials then having them break them down to understand the fundamentals of it as homework.No, it will be used as THE LITERAL FUCKING THING IT SAID IT WOULD. Again, PLEASE read the actual update.>thats the entire aristocrat species populationn outside of the nobles???Yes. READ THE UPDATE. PLEASE read the update, it LITERALY, BY WORD says they underused it.>and banana is a unreliable narrator sometimes its part of this questAnon, do you have a SINGLE way to stop future generations from using this? Is literally your one singular argument "No, I don't care that the genius psychological scholars says it will be used, it won't be because uhhhhh reasons!">what i am saying is going to the effort to that is the same as just going to the effort of making biobot citizetnsOn literally what fucking basis? You keep saying "BUT THEY WONT" like that means anything. The Hegemony is not a fucking hivemind, literally all it takes is the Threemind or a Supreme to decide it and it happens. How the fuck are you going to stop them? Are you literally unable to comprehend the idea that the characters in the quest can do things even though "It's not most efficient"??
>>6286774Anon, do you think Biobots fucking congeal from the ether or something? NO we CANNOT replace our entire populace with BioBots. Biobots cannot reproduce. Biobots cannot use starsight. Biobots are an extremely advanced spybot, not literal people.
>Destroy the Mind Fruit
Beancounting since I'm boredSUBMIT: bjq, yUP, tlp, 6n3KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT!!!: Ocr, iPy, Inh, j1b, kP7, AIE, OzW
>>6286782we manage everything already with our entire way our empire is set up with automatic ai management, we are the entire system not a fucking company that hires people whose parents spent all there time and money on raising just for us to chew them up and them spit out when they are used up for functionally for free compared to the investment like they popped out of the ether, people dont come from nothing neither does biobots it takes biomass and energy and metal, they dont reproduce directly on there own if you dont count the factory they would come from as a biobot, and the starsight is that not just the aristocrat caste/class, and yeah using this new tech to turn them into basically biobots would stop them from being people.what i am trying to get at we can do everything what you fear the most of all out of this tech, in just a different format with slightly less flesh (except probably speed running torture) we can already do most of this shit and have it be more horrific where you just replace the brain with a machine to pilot the flesh and even automate it in all the steps, only this means we just have a less complete tech base.... we could literally make the perfect advanced fully organic spybot out of the biobot project like why use it on our citizens when we can just use it on our enemies?and you are not wrong but its the same pandoras bottle we have opened earlier of a different flavor in our entire species history, Beacuse your arguments are valid but in the sameway that they have been literally valid for literally everything from this point now to the start of it all
>>6286798>we could literally make the perfect advanced fully organic spybot out of the biobot project like why use it on our citizens when we can just use it on our enemies?We could do both. There is literally nothing stopping us from doing both. I have no idea what on earth you're babbling about for the rest of this.
>>6286798>we manage everything already with our entire way our empire is set up with automatic ai managementYou mean the AI that constantly goes under our nose and does things we didn't tell it to do? Or perhaps you mean the supremes that constantly do things off their own and actively ignore our votes due to their personalities? THAT system?>people dont come from nothing neither does biobots it takes biomass and energy and metal, they dont reproduce directly on there own if you dont count the factory they would come from as a biobotI don't think you're really getting it anon. It takes infinetesimally less effort to make a new person than it does to make a whole new "Biobot". You seem to be under some sort of insane delusion that biobots are perfect people replicas that could replace everyone without any trouble.>what i am trying to get at we can do everything what you fear the most of all out of this tech, in just a different format with slightly less fleshMaybe if you literally haven't read anything about the update and have been ignoring everything that's been told to you. >why use it on our citizens when we can just use it on our enemies?Okay, let me make it very simple anon. YOU. ARE NOT. THE HEGEMONY. THE HEGEMONY. IS ABLE. TO MAKE. DECISIONS. WITHOUT BEING VOTED TO. That you think this is not "Effective" does not matter. That you think this is not "Smart" does not matter. If the Threemind or a future Supreme decides to do it, they will do it, and there will be literally no way to stop them.
>>6286806>infinetesimally Infinitely. If it were "infinetesimally" it'd be an extremely small difference.
>>6286800well....we are destroying the tech that literally would make them impossible to detect that would make them the perfect spy bot a 1:1 copy or the exact same individual but with implanted/ programmed loyalty in this exact vote, with the picture of the not so subtle biobot heads just in frame with circular holes with a circular brain sphere sitting in the middle with the monkey using the symbolic white dagger throwing hard hints on usage.alot of its just shrugging on my part as for the most part the worst fears of this tech already exists. Everything from mindless workers to horror generations in the future, with a prime example on how to not use it as it would cripple us like the aristocrats, its just letting fear rule us and everything otherwise, is just stuff we literally have no control of that literally will just eventually just happen due to time..... like the fears of 3Mind they dont need to erase memories they can already set up events as they want as they control alland is everything in our society? its like a moot point of just "yeah everyone knows" its just sort of overblown? it feels like someone arguing icecream flavors when the person who will eat it is lactose intolerant it will end badly no matter what in the future its fluff its just the same apoc more squishy instead of with gritty metal bits inside >>6286806>we manage everything already with our entire way our empire is set up with automatic ai managementthats for resources and the society not our voting power to clarify as i know its unreliable as bananen has a perpetual boner for rug pulling >I don't think you're really getting it anon. It takes infinetesimally less effort to make a new person than it does to make a whole new "Biobot". You seem to be under some sort of insane delusion that biobots are perfect people replicas that could replace everyone without any trouble.they would be as good as the mindless drones you worry about this tech would result in turning our citizens into its just another avenue of tech that would replace this.>Maybe if you literally haven't read anything about the update and have been ignoring everything that's been told to you.replicable memories balbla bla the whole condensed pain for torture approach like a harder hitting aristocrat pain whip, injecting memories to fool people into being loyal or friends, stop training people by just injecting the schooling program, potential for removing memories traumatic or hardship, then its just his philosophical angst about about authenticity of memory and thinking it makes experiencing not worth anything.three-mind dont change anything they are the system and can control everythingfuture horrible future supreme cant change anything if they want citizens like that they will just make them into fleshpuppet with machine brains or something like that.its like all the worries already exist and if not worse but just more crude and cruel, all the worries of the future is the same
>>6286809only difference is just less squishy robots and worse spybots that we use to control other empires, its like the dictator speech but the first half https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXxjSrfjGH4alot of it is the same worries with the difference only being the flavor or name of it your worst fears they will literally happen or has already happened
>>6286809>thats for resources and the society not our voting power to clarify as i know its unreliable as bananen has a perpetual boner for rug pullingSo then surely you would understand that there is nothing whatsoever stopping a future Supreme or the Threemind from abusing this tech, right? Right????>they would be as good as the mindless drones you worry about this tech would result in turning our citizens into its just another avenue of tech that would replace this.No, anon. They would not. Again, read the update. This tech would be so cheap they could put it in BULLETS. Biobots are expensive.>, then its just his philosophical angst about about authenticity of memory and thinking it makes experiencing not worth anything"If you ignore everything bad about it then it's good!">three-mind dont change anything they are the system and can control everythingThe Threemind has literally gone behind our back this exact very thread. The Threemind constantly does things it thinks "Is for the best" of the Hegemony. What happens when it goes "I believe abusing this tech would benefit the Hegemony"?>future horrible future supreme cant change anything if they want citizens like that they will just make them into fleshpuppet with machine brains or something like that.Except they can't. Not without this technology. This technology we only got on a fluke and probably never will again. Which is literally what Usis is saying.
>>6286813I think +ss4F20T hasn't actually read the update and will never, in fact, read the update.
>>6286814I'm starting to doubt if he can read at all.
>>6286815kek
>>6286811like its just slowing us tripping ourselves on our future battle against the worms its just a less complete toolbox i am just tired >So then surely you would understand that there is nothing whatsoever stopping a future Supreme or the Threemind from abusing this tech, right? Right????we are literally already powerless on that front, its like just the difference between repeating the genocide of our green cowfolk then having them revived to be indoctrinated or just indoctrinating them from the start.>The Threemind has literally gone behind our back this exact very thread. The Threemind constantly does things it thinks "Is for the best" of the Hegemony. What happens when it goes "I believe abusing this tech would benefit the Hegemony"?banana will just fuck us in the ass like i dont know.... killing the supreme to replace them with a biobot figurehead? like the plot has been building up with the dissatisfaction threemind has for the current Supremes dad and how much more emotional and spirited they have grown >"If you ignore everything bad about it then it's good!"yeah its a philosophical destroyer for a nihilistic point of view if you dont have some spiritual crap thrown ontop to justify what is more real or dont have another viewpoint >Except they can't. Not without this technology. This technology we only got on a fluke and probably never will again. Which is literally what Usis is saying.issue with that is, dont we know about it now, having known and seen its power, having held the holy grail of biological science and knowing exactly who to mug and rob, who to threaten torture dissect and exterminate, the threat of this technology will literally never be gone until every aristocrat is dead you realize that? dont 3mind sort of know about it now already due to there all seeing camera eyes everywhere? its just pushed into the future if they still yet live. on the bullets thats theoretical its the hopeless nightmare of someone who fears this technology its just a more painful gun if it gets invented its like Oppenheimers worst visions of the nuke and if you cant fit more memory in it due to its size beyond possibly pain so probably no brainwashing bullets or if its not being destroyed by the speed like actual brain tissue being moved to fast limiting speed and penetration and its not like we are going to fucking lace every bullet with celestial blood to get around that sort of issue.... most budget friendly we are getting like a dart gun or syringe blade thing to inject.>>6286815dont suck your own dick to hard now like a bioshaped aristocrat because i dont have the same opinion
>>6286820Oh, forget it. You can keep your vote. I literally can't explain it any more clearly than this. You cannot be persuaded by logic.
>>6286820like a quest or crusade for the holy grail but actually knowing where to find it exactly what sort of people to mug for it like its not completely gone just delayed and makes me wonder if the worms will have it before us.anyways goodnight i have work remember dont let fear control Everything as then we would never have progressed with tech like i can fear monger with the whole fucking robot controls everything and the robot collective next to us with the emotional ai that rules us and banana randomly taking control away from us for drama.this sort of situation is the sort of stuff most Supremes would scoff at as philosophical drivel
>>6286822its some logic but doomer logic Ursis is being very emotional after he indirectly traumatized himself finding the answer he was looking and never knew he did not want for literal his worst fears and just all of his thoughts spiralling about how this can only be used for negative things and how even the positive things are negative. he became very spiritual in a way but damn man banana is not being subtle about the biobot literally lacking spherical brains when we have on the table a spherical brain we can put inside of.i am being bit of a contrarian perhaps because there is only a focus on the negatives and panic about the future for alot of things that will just happen like 3mind and some history repeating itself with a man being a product of his time doing bad actions for what he thinks is justifiable reasons. its the classic scientists fears there discovery imagining the worst possible future that happened where it either never happened or just at a lesser scale or they could not imagine a single negative possibility like its plastic or selling the patent for insulin for nothing or just teflon pans or birthcontrol and so on.i am just seeing a panic spiral taking everything only at face value from biased narration as we are in a world of unreliable narrators as we embody so many different people who think in different ways
Holy shit actually learn how to use punctuation and grammar you hazaar-owned degenerate blondback. If you write another post of this degenerate aristocrat-tier garbage I'll use the life machine to resurrect Akule so he can fuck you in the ass personally.
Personally, I think destroying it is simply delaying the inevitable- there will be other Aristocrat wars, other chances at the life fruit. This would simply be a fruitless act of rebellion- better to convince the current Supreme of the dangers, and have future Supremes abide by it. Or, at worst, duel the Alpha and outlaw it himself.Destroying his life only delays the inevitable. Just a shame we couldn’t get more character development with this man before the climax of his character arc.
>>6286837 Eh, the update said getting this would be a fluke and it's very unlikely that we'd find another.
>>6286834I don't know how more clearly the update could've said "this is your only shot at a memory doohickey" short of Bananas writing it OOC in red bold all-caps.
>>6286840Then it depends- if Ursis was more of a developed character, probably would’ve voted for character reasons, but this research is interesting to explore…Eh, whatever. Just remember anons, we’re playing Hegalian Commu-Nazis, we ain’t the good guys here, and implanting pro-Hegemonic monke memories into the Worm hivemind would be well worth the moral cost lads.Total Worm Death, Hail Star-king Eoba II, Wormslayer!
>>6286850Besides... we're playing a quest... and do you really think Bananas is going to have us fight through another Aristocrat war in the very limited story time we have?
Rolled 2 (1d100)
>>6286747The technology already exists, and if we have it, we can plan countermeasures for when the worms get it or the aristos realize it's weaponizable. The genie is out, anon.
>>6286850Mainly because I don’t believe it- we’ve had chances at memory shenanigans before, we have the life machine that can recreate Aristocrat bio-chemistry, and it’s silly to think that we won’t be dealing with the Aristocrats later on, plus we have knowledge of its existence now. I personally think it’s just flavortext of monke-autism chimping out, but hey, it’s probably a valid OOC concern.
>>6286853>Then it depends- if Ursis was more of a developed character, probably would’ve voted for character reasons, but this research is interesting to explore…What do you mean depends? We *won't* get it again.>Eh, whatever. Just remember anons, we’re playing Hegalian Commu-Nazis, we ain’t the good guys here, and implanting pro-Hegemonic monke memories into the Worm hivemind would be well worth the moral cost lads.This wouldn't work on the worms. The worms don't have a nervous system or anythin that we could use it with. This is specifically an "brain" thing.
>>6286857>The technology already exists, and if we have it, we can plan countermeasures for when the worms get it or the aristos realize it's weaponizable.The worms and aristocrats have had access to this this tech for literal millenia, anon. If they could or wanted, they would have used it by now.>>6286858If you've played enough monke quest, you'd know that getting a "second chance" at something like this is pretty much never going to happen.
>>6286861By writer’s fiat? Sure. But IC, I don’t really see how we can’t replicate this ‘fluke’, given we have all the logical components necessary to continue the research.
>>6286870Yes well Writer's Fiat is how it works. This technology will not be seen again if it is destroyed here. And ICly, it's a horrible idea anyway.
>>6286870Because otherwise this choice has no consequence outside of Usis dying.And if we do decide to break it and Usis gets his head blown out, only to end up 'finding' it again, wouldn't that be really fucking lame? From a story standpoint? It makes it go from a moral choice to a 'hey do you wanna kill Usis for no reason' choice.
Rising your knife up high, you bring it down into the Fruit. You pierce it as deep as it goes, hearing a loud disorienting beep from the nearby computer screens. The Threemind is attempting to dissuade you further; security has already been called. You feel the knife in the depths of the fruit; and then much to your horror you feel it almost pulse, and it pushes the knife out a tiny amount. Like it is passively resisting you. It's “alive”.You raise the knife and jam it in again and again. No dueling techniques; just raw aggression. You must destroy this. The fluid from the fruit turns black and spills out, rapidly cooling and smelling of cerebral-spinal fluid and dirty forest undergrowth and moss. The “light” inside the fruit fades away. You don't have the time or the resources to fully scar and dispose of this living example of pointless existence in front of you; but you hope that this is enough to keep it out of the Hegemony's hands.The sound of boots stomping tell you the Enforcers are already here. It's funny how just from the sound; you can tell your administrative importance hasn't spared you from a direct and immediate response. You won't attempt escape. You turn around to face your death and smile, you've done the right thing. All you can hope is you won't remember this, or anything else. At least that means it worked.”Oh Usis... why did you have to go and do that?”You are now Cijan Anak.As the Hegemony's most primere and eldest historian and archivist; you've seen the rise and fall of this civilization. This one and another. You look back upon the long tapestry on your life feeling as though it's come full circle. You stand upon Xin, the first planet ever terraformed for life by the Hegemony. Once a technological marvel, now seeming banal and commonplace. You were the first Jaxtian to breathe it's atmosphere at least; that makes it feel special to you.
Many years after your own failure to stop a crisis, your death, and then ressurrection; another Anak now sits on the throne once again. You are his long-distant ancestor, and for this you are happy. Not out of dynastic ambition, not really, but moreso out of the way he's taken what you left behind through many Supremes and many struggles and made it almost to the dream society you envisioned once yourself. Vetuckers marching in Hegemony armor with Swall technicians fighting the good fight across the galaxy... It's nice.Your final regret from that long past era, the Reconquistia, was what happened to Farro Val. Your admiral and friend; you had a moment of weakness to give him up to the Aristocrats. It made sense at the time, given you were infected with something that likely would have killed you, but the decision never felt right with you. Even Wrix Val stepped down from the throne of Supremacy at seeing what happened to a member of his family; but it was your decision.With the new life machine “not being the right size” and without the understanding of exactly how much “conciousness” the recovered instruments have; Halam Anak made the difficult decision to have their life functions terminated. It's something you may not have chosen; but you respect the young Supreme for doing it. After all; you can't change memories, and Farro Val spent much more time of his life as an instrument then as a man. It would be wrong if he was changed back into a person if he was “aware” that entire time; being a living object; perhaps even being more used to being an instrument then a person. What a hellish fate. You are glad his troubles are now over.You do hope the Supreme Ruler settles down a bit after all this. He has been terrible busy lately. And finally punishing the ones responsible, the way you never could? You're so glad you got to live to see the day.
But you suppose as a biological immortal, the sheer amount of things you experienced alright puts you above the vast majority of Jaxtians. You've lived to see six different Supreme Rulers, technology expand into new dimensions, the extinction and resurrection of multiple alien races, and now the secrets of the universe being uncovered with the Academy of Starsight. Perhaps your species and people may even be able to stand against the worms some day...Not like your other people. They couldn't stand against them.It's been an exhausting time archiving your memories and experiences as the “other” you. The one whose memories and self are just as deep as your real self, though you know it's because of the melding of your minds with the creature in the life machine, you still see through your past as though it was you. The one Andoen alien; the “People of the Soul”. Not like the “People of the Body”, or the rainbow people as you liked to call them, or “People of the Mind”. None of them could stand against the worms; who came to your star and put it out.But this planet? Cool and sunny. You lay upon the green grass hills looking up at the pink sky and feel contented. You've been man, and woman, Supreme and servant, wise and foolish, living and dead. You've done a lot of thinking about it. You'd like to take a break from thinking. You lay back and relax.Ahh....…!Oh, pretty flower! Thank you, Kima.
Quest continues tomorrow
>>6286994Interesting!Minor shame we lost the tech to "fix" Farro Val, but far outweighed by the avoidance of way more horrifying outcomes. Glad we could end his suffering(?), at the very least.
>>6286991Damn, we could have used that memory fruit technology to restore Farro Val.>>6286994...Whaaaat the fuck.
>>6286994Okay, I was expecting Cijan to die somehow even if he was a biological immortal but melting into a flowerbed wasn't on the top of my list.Wild. God speed, Cijan, god speed.
I'll grieve for both Cijan and Farro Val.
>>6286840again unreliable narrator a pretty big thing in this quest its Usis opinion and as the aristocrats still exist so the potential still always exists like the literal life machine so its just him chimping out>>6286994ah i know this movie reference its the lifetree sap moment from "The Fountain" where the understanding of immortality shifted to the cycle of death and life instead of just life but instead doing it on the one that thought that instead of as a horrific ironic punishment >>6287006probably just burn or contain them and not letting them spread out into the wild but atleast we have the life machine as we probably just terminated the process.... probably should ask for how to make more lifemachines next time its online
>>6286994So does having too many memories and immortality just turn you into flowers or did Cijan just kinda 'do' that?
RIP Cijan, who was immortal and wise.RIP Farro Val, who suffered under the hands of our enemies.RIP Usis, who sacrificed himself to protect memories.Very bittersweet moments. This was an unironically amazing update, Bananas.
>>6286994He relaxed.
>>6287029Oh shit, we might have spared them both. At least we still have our Doommonke immortal.>>6287295That's why I remain stressed the fuck out at all times. No flower power is going to get the best of me, thank you very much.
I will repeat my statement that death is not something we should be trying to get rid of>BUT ENTROPYI'm gonna be honest boss the hegemony is not living even a trillionth of the time it would take for entropy to become necessary. It is literally impossible. We would literally have evolved into different species by then.Like, seriously, imagine the Empire from 40k and how stagnant it is after that much time. Now consider that to get to the point where Entropy matters it would take living through that times 1,000,000,000
”...Ribbonfin, after allowing your investigation and to confiding in the Threemind to make absolutely sure you can come to a satisfying conclusion; you will now explain to me what happened to Cijan Anak. Consider your words very carefully.”The very young and inexperienced Swall science overseer fidgets nervously; as if by instinct he wants to run into a small rocky hidey hole and not come back out. He knows the list of questions you will ask, because you rehersed for this in such a way to best calm your fast growing temper.“...He turned into flowers, your Majesty.””What kind of flowers.”“They are Jaxtian flowers; from your homeworld of Jaxt. Westlander flowers in particular.””Are they Jaxtian-Hybrid flowers? Cijan Flowers?”“No, your majesty. They have exactly 9 base pair chromsomes; exactly as they do on your homeworld and are capable of interbreeding with the homeworld flowers. They do not seem to be spreading faster then normal flowers and they will wilt and die when out of the presence of water or carbon dioxide. Besides being very healthy and well-adapted to life on Xin; they have no genes that could not be found in the flowers on the homeworld. They are indistinguishable from normal Westlander whites.””Did Cijan have any of this “flower” DNA before he went to Xin for his vacation?”“No, your Majesty. His last gene sample was but four months ago. His genome is 100% normal for a Jaxtian of his time period.””Did Cijan have any seeds on his person, or in his possession, before he went to Xin on his vacation? Are there any of these flowers on Xin already? Is there any fucking way for these flowers to end up on another planet five lightyears away?!”“...No?””That's all my questions. Now get out of my sight and go do something useful.”“Y-Yes your Majesty!”With Cijan gone, only one of the three Supreme Anaks represented by your black, funerary robe remain alive. A more superstitious man would see this as an omen.You're at a loss. Checking the Threemind's records and speculations; all models point to Cijan being perfectly sane and healthy; as usual. While some observation of the immortal Jaxtian-Supreme had slowed down in recent years due to a lack of any changes; Cijan had remained the same. Unaging, totally healthy, working always on his archival duties. He left first hand accounts, of which he was the only one, on the Andoen massacre as his only unfinished work; enscribed on golden tablets that will last long after paper decays and AI-cores succumb to oxidation. The only mistake was allowing him to work alone; increasing the probability margin of the Hegemony's current historical simulation from 94.5% to 97.2%. For one person? This is incredibly impressive. You tell the Threemind to fast track some promotions in the archives and finish up his records, you need to know what...Oh shit, Jale!
You assumed that anything that would happen to Cijan could also happen to Jale Berax, the other Jaxtian Immortal. He actually became immortal first, volunteering to test the Life Machine when it was first discovered. As such, the Threemind ruled out the possibility of it being based on a maximum life limit enforced by some kind of timer; but if some sort of Aristocrat bio-signal was sent out to destroy the immortal Jaxtians as revenge for the war, then maybe that could be an explanation too. But no, Jale is fine; as least as far as your viewscreen imaging allows. As your race's oldest, most experienced, and most renowned hero; you'll admit to sharing in your previous Supreme-Rulers unnecssary protectiveness of the man. He's become a bit of a national treasure.”Jale! I'm glad you're alright.””Uhh, yeah, of course! Thank you for your concern, your Majesty! The medical staff have been putting me in and out of testing all day...”Look at him! An Alpha-Male phenotype Jaxtian, like you, but he's so... short and puny! His proportions are so much more... normal! You suppose that's what hundreds of years of eugenic selection and multiple gene-upgrades will do to you if you lived that long. But still in all the simulations and tests; he's among the best of the best. Guess experience goes a long way. But you wonder... even as an immortal, surely, at some point he has to plateau. He can't just keep getting better forever, right?”I'm just training the new recruits, your Majesty. Is there something I can help you with? OH! A mission perhaps!?””No Jale, not a mission... Are you sure you're feeling alright?””Why wouldn't I be, your Grace? Is anythign amiss?””I'll let the AI network tell you. Just let somebody know if you suddenly feel like lying down and turning into a mound of... knives?””What?!”
Year 202 of the Resurrection EraAs the war in Aristocrat space dies down; the rest of the Hegemony adapts to your recent decisions.The Accord, after becoming your protectorate-state, has given you your desired benefits. While giving you whatever recovered weapons from both the Aristocrat and Esaal may seem like a one-way trade, especially given the small state's lack of military power who could perhaps recover and repurpoe them for their own use; it actually ends up as a benefit to them. Without the security and research to properly understand and disarm the leftover weapons, not to mention the difficulty of storing and recovering them, it is spun as you doing them a service. In the end, it benefits the Hegemony much more then the Accord, given their civilians and scientists are the ones suffering most of the losses and risk while you simply collect whatever they have stockpiled up. Hopefully this research is worth it.The full gene census is more concerning to the Urgi general population; who find it a bit concerning. Even though no official source links this census to the Hegemony (the true collector of the information) the Accord explains it as a way to back up their own species safety in the worst case scenario; especially since some Aristocrat bioweapons can permanently alter DNA. Plus, this will allow to see any differences that grow within Urgi subpopulations, especially on planets vs the ones still primarily living in space. It is accepted with a bit more resistance.To better adjust and take advantage of the growing Galactic Underground, you've decided to implment a very limited and security-first policy; allowing the independants of other species to come into the Hegemony at only one place. You've chosen the planet of Skik IV as your “Foreign Port”. As it has both a conveniant central location, a weedy biosphere resistant to tampering, and was traditionally a place of commerce and international relations of the former HVS; these features would make it ideal. Forbid ever putting such a port in the core Hegemonic worlds; the ways and methods of getting there are heavily controlled and monitored, meaning little in the way of crime or piracy will be possible. As of now, only a few wealthy travellers or the curious will come, but soon it will become a rich and wealthy world; designed to benefit as much as possible from the free travel and association of the new Galaxy while still allowing you to retain your national identity as a no-nonsense state. After all, your people bled for these habitable worlds, these asteroid mines, and this great and pure culture. You will not allow an alien to gain from it who sacrificed nothing.Speaking of which...
It has now been exactly 100 years since the reintroduction of the Swall and Vetucker aliens into the Hegemony. Underneath the rule of the wise Hass Takar, the Unspeakable, the resurrected peoples were brought back into the fold. During his reign, he made great strides to create a place for them in the Hegemony, and justify their continued existence. Your father also had many direct decisions on the Hegemony's treatment of the new alien minorities; and worked hard to increase their numbers to make them more represented in the Hegemony proper. Restricting Jaxtian breeding and cloning programs, while producing pro-natal communities for the Swall and Vetuckers, their numbers have equalized by quite a lot in the past century. The Threemind gives you a small breakdown.The Vetuckers, given their more traditionally minded culture, humility, obedience, and martial leanings have given them a small but noticable bit more social weight and importance then the Swall minority. The Hegemony is quite pleased with them overall, but their general lack of high-level competance and aggression towards expansion and domination limits their leadership potential somewhat. As terrestial creatures, they are also closer to Jaxtians then the Swall, but only by a very slight margin. They are most represented among the fields of health & life sciences, culture, basic military soldier, and laborers.The Swall show high levels of intelligence and competance, but are a bit more individualistic and driven by family bonds and romantic partnerships moreso then a dedication to the Hegemonic system. This is a negative. However, given your decision to include some “mammalian” aspects to Swall women, some of their alien otherness has faded for the newest generation; meaning they are actually closer then ever to the Hegemonic fold. Also lacking in some of the positive warlike aspects of the Jaxtians and without the rich martial culture; their high degree of competitiveness has made up for that. Their advancement is also artifically slowed by the Threemind system; over concerns of lack of loyalty and ambition, besides those who have proven themselves. They are more represented among the fields of theoretical and practical sciences, advanced military strategy, low-level administration, and base technicians.How do you you feel about them at this point?Note: This is a Meta-Prompt. Pick One or Two responses.>Part of the Hegemonic's history and core culture “Three Races” theorem>Very fun & nice to see around but not as important>Would like to see more/new aliens also included in the Hegemony in the future>Underutalized as background characters>Not worth the upset of the canon historical timeline>Don't care / would prefer an all Jaxtian Hegemony>Other (Write-In)
>>6287413>Part of the Hegemonic's history and core culture “Three Races” theoremI like them, really. I'm not a big fan of "Xenophe" nations in sci-fi because they're literally everywhere, but I feel like the Cows and the Fish "complete" the Hegemony. They have their own stuff that they excel at, but most importantly, their presence makes the Jaxtian feel less like just a human analogue and more like aliens with their own craziness.I've said it before, but I do NOT want other species in the Hegemony. We can interact with more aliens, sure, ally with them like the Urgi, sure, but anything else would be ruining the balance. I believe that the Hegemony being a "Tri-species" trait, no more no less, makes it a lot more unique compared to other Sci-fi factions.Perhaps we'll even see something like a Swall Supreme soon. We got quite a lot of Vetucker screentime already, and while a second "Slice of life" sidequest might be way too repetitive, I'd like to see how a fishbro would handle the position of Overlord Emperor Extreme.
>>6287417A big fan of xenophile*You know the ones. "American style liberal social democracy, but in space!" Calls itself something like federation even though it's more of a republic. There's a thousand of them.
>>6287413>Underutilized as background characters>Kind of miss the Hazaar though, and looking forward to the New Migrators
>>6287428>Kind of Miss the HazaarGross. "Curayzy gross alien sex" gets old by the 6th time you do it, and the Hazaar didn't really have anything else outside of being freaks and sociopaths.
>>6287428The players have a right to kill off the Hazaar if they want. My only complaint is it messed up the color scheme of Jaxtians being player 1, Hazaar being player 2, Vetuckers player 3, and Swall player 4.If i could do I differently I'd try to make the races a little more complimentary, maybe with Jaxtians being birds to be a combo of land sea and air for the races, or red green and blue for primary colors; but I think it shaked out ok.
>>6287442"Space Bird" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
>>6287432I liked their caste idea and their weird reproduction. I liked their dynamic with the Jaxtians. I find them more interesting than the Swall.>>6287442>spoilerOooooh.>I'd try to make the races a little more complimentary, maybe with Jaxtians being birdsJaxtians being primates serves well as the default race for human players though. They're immediately relatable in shape and psychology.
>>6287413>>Would like to see more/new aliens also included in the Hegemony in the future>Underutalized as background charactersI mean if we are gonna have them in our civ, then why not play from the perspective of one in the future or maybe another side Quest.
>>6287413>Part of the Hegemonic's history and core culture “Three Races” theoremI think we've reached a good point with the three of them and don't need to overcrowd things with more aliens.
>>6287413>Part of the Hegemonic's history and core culture “Three Races” theoremFeels like we've found a sweet spot with the balance.>Very fun & nice to see around but not as importantI'm mostly saying this in context of the greater story of the Hegemony's civilization as a whole.
>>6287413>Would like to see more/new aliens also included in the Hegemony in the futureMigrators + Urgi.Although they can remain marginal because>Part of the Hegemonic's history and core culture “Three Races” theoremThree races + Migrators though.
>>6287413>Part of Hegemonic history and core cultureIt's good to have them around (especially since we should never have lost the loyal and obedient Vetuckers). But Wrix the Unbearable's legacy has been completely dismantled and I'm happy about that. >Would like to see more/new aliens also included in the Hegemony in the futureI want the Hegemony to conquer more of space and I don't want to *HAVE* to Genocide *all* the species that might already be there.
>>6287413>Not worth the upset of the canon historical timelinewhat does this exactly mean, what canon are we talking about here are we going to retroactively change anything?
>>6287516Not the actual Canon "canon" but the idea of Monke supremacists being a possible outcome and doing the whole life vault thing to kind of artificially retcon it. I though it was pretty clever but it should be obvious it was invented to reverse that decision.
>>6287413>Very fun & nice to see around but not as importantbut>Thank GOD you retconned the Mask fiasco 1000% a good move
>>6287509>I want the Hegemony to conquer more of space and I don't want to *HAVE* to Genocide *all* the species that might already be there.You know, there ARE other options between "Genocide" and "Turn them into full time citizens"
>>6287413>Would like to see more/new aliens also included in the Hegemony in the future>Jaxtians taking a page from Eoba II in Jaxian-Xeno relationsI will say, the Baal and Max-Mind is criminally underutilized, given how big of a presence they were in the earlier quest arcs. Like, quite literally mind boggling.Also, Bluzzar and Yellow Fellow were based (just ignore that Yuan hyperautist).
>>6287413>Part of the Hegemony, but lesser than Monkies. The "Three Races" theorem was always flawed, as our first alien symbiotes were the Migrators. It's possible that we could add more peoples to the Hegemony if they are cool enough.
>>6287517No offense meant Bananas, but I think everyone's okay with that retcon mostly because very few players ever wanted to exterminate the cow and fish bros to begin with. I do think that you did a good job integrating it into the setting lore and spinning off a new mystery from it, though.
>>6287580I'm on board with more vassal states, protectorates, subjugated colonies, etcetera.
>>6287413>Part of the Hegemony, but lesser than Monkies.yeah thats sort of the deal like i am not sure the hegemoni would continue existing if the swalli where the ones to manage it due to there more individualistic nature probably do okay with the vetucker but herd mentality would make a democracy more likely and then collapse the system.the monkies are in charge as the one to found it and making everything function they are the ones assimilating others to there ideals and culture >>6287732honestly shockingly rare thing to see but so long as they dont defy us or grow insubordinate dont want to deal with a fucking independence shit like Australia or America would probably be the caviat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiXmO36xQvg&list=RDZiXmO36xQvg&start_radio=1or we are going to go full on invaders and have so subjugate them and destroy there culture completely and at best just steal children to raise as our own so they have no cultural foundation
>>6287760I'm fine with subjugation and heavy policing, with full integration reserved for the most compatible and absolute cultural eradication and child-reeducation reserves as a punishment for the most rebellious (but still compatible enough not to genocide).
>>6287580Slavery could be cool too.
>>6287792eh just make sure to never free them in such a way that they are ungrateful for all eternity most empires that where okay after slavery ended had castrated slaves or pushed them out like there is none to complain if there is none to complain
>>6287792Anon, our citizens are pretty much slaves anyway. They don't have any rights or freedom and have to do anything we tell them to.
>>6287803"Citizen" itself is probably a misnomer. In past threads, I think the difference between citizenship and what Hegemonites are, which is "subjects" of the Supreme.
>>6287808Pretty much, literally the only thing Jaxtians have that the other races don't is their "Noble Houses" like the Garastras or Anaks.They're still slaves who can be forced into whatever labour they want, have their population controlled like a herd of cattle, or be killed or used for experiments without consequences.
With the easier and lesser elements of your administration well set up and, secondly, the effects of the war and election fully realized, you find yourself having to transition a bit into being a more “passive” Supreme, like your father. You're sure soon you'll find a new project to occupy your time...Just then, an important alert pops up. The Esaal have just appeared in the orbit of HBTP-OW1, a cold but still habitable water-planet you've been using as a second home for the Migrators and Swall, given to you by the Esaal in exchange for your AI core trade deal from almost a century ago. You really wish they'd just send you a normal message first instead of just appearing out of nowhere like this. The Supreme Commander makes himself visible to you; directly organizing this communique. Gone is his normal jovility.”Supreme Ruler of the Jaaxi...””Yes? I'd like to ask what this is about.””There is something very important you must tell us. It's about Antimatter.””Not for sale at the present moment. Unless you have something very juicy for-””NO! The Aristocrats had access to it, during our war with them. We didn't think they had that capability. Which means it had to come from someone else... Did YOU have anything to do with it?”Quite blunt, as Esaal tend to be.”I have no idea what you are implying.””I think you sold them Antimatter. But this was during our war with them, while you also had a trade deal with us at the same time for AI cores-””Enough of this. I'll hear no more of your accusations. The Supreme Ruler is not beholden to any loyalty or code beyond his own will, his nation, and his people in that order and is fully permitted to break or honor any agreement for any reason, at any point. Of course,” you add quickly ”-I have not heard of this and think you may be mistaken as to-””LIAR! LIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!”
”LIAR! HOW DARE YOU LIE!” The Esaal commander is breathing heavy, through bared teeth, a strange lack of any kind of decorum and belief in the nobility and importance of emotionally neutral leadership. His fists are balled up on the viewscreen, seemingly ready to throw down with you in person if the physics of space allowed it.”This communication is over. Kindly remove your ships from the orbit of my planet. You own the rest of the system, but you being this close is a violation of our sovereignty over-””LIAR! SCOUNDRAL! WORTHLESS MERCANTILE SCUM! HOW COULD YOU!? HOW COULD YOU DO THIS??? We thought, we THOUGHT you were different! The Aristocrats, the Consortium, they have no honor. They have no backbone and are worthy of no respect. They will stab you in one hand and then pay you in the other; they are enslaved to their lies and cowardice. Modern pragmatism, with no traditions or code. Everything we dispise in a people. But you? We thoguht you were different. The earnest warriors, who spared the defeated Esaal and respected the results of duels, who fought tic for tac, who could go for a scrap and then come to the table as friendly rivals the day after, without holding grudges and laughing and drinking the rootgrog with a battered nose and bloodied cheeks! The honest, earnest, upstanding man! The anti-modern man! But no, your machinations have proven you are the exact same as them. Trading us AI-Cores while you traded them weapons, making the war longer for your own sick desire for profit...””Threes... Where are the defense forces?””NOW YOU WILL BE PUNISHED! DROP IT ALL!”Over the planet's surface, the Esaal ships begin dropping long cylindrical objects. Staying in orbit as the planet rotates, the bombing is saturated; slowly beginning to the cover the entire ocean planet's surface with an equal coating of their weapons.“The water will act as a strong kinetic dampener for their kinetic bombing, your Majesty.””...No, the Esaal would know that.” You say, with an unwelcome tremble in your voice. ”That's not what this is.”
Because a previous Supreme Ruler decided to go behind the Esaal's back and profit on both sides of their last war, the Esaal have attacked to take revenge.The “cylinders” dropped split open just before impact, each containing several long slender robotic objects. Along their lengths are bladed joints, and a strong metallic head with sensors and an AI core; possibly of Hegemonic manufacture. These weapons, which you dub “snakes”, use the kinetic force of their drop to pierce the water swiftly and find their targets.Targeting anyone in the open first; they pierce through their bodies, preferring to pierce soft tissues first. The head continues through the target, looking to pierce through another and then another. The snakes are intelligent robotic weapons; using their numbers and speed to corral and trap anyone found outside. They aren't even trying to kill on initial impact; but instead stabbing through as many victims as they can. Swall, Migrator, even native fish; trying to wrap as many victims as possible in their bladed tangle, cutting and binding together. And once a snake runs out of length or battery power, it angles its head back into its first victim, into a rock face, or even an electrical panel in an attempt to electrocute and further trap anyone it has pierced; just to make escape that much less likely. As more and more are dropped, you realize the scale of this attack.You'd tell the Threemind to copy this design. You could easily see a dozen of these being an extremely useful method for assasination for an aquatic species. A few hundred could wipe out an entire underwater town and clear it out. But then the Esaal drop hundreds of thousands more. You're surprised they can even carry this many; it's like the entire cargo bay of their bombing fleet is just totally dedicated to nothing but ordanance.As the colonists scatter and go for cover; you have a moment to potentially help. What should you instruct the Threemind to do?>Order the fabricators on the planet to begin mass-producing defensive weapons>Send whatever ships you have available to break up the bombing fleet>Condemn the attack and use it to gain moral superiority against the Esaal in intergalactic relations>Make a message to the Esaal to stop the bombing in exchange for a ransom; if you actually plan to keep your word or not you can decide later!
>>6287920Well, that's annoying. I feel like it's kinda weird we have to personally order our Fleet, but if their entire cargo bay is nothing but these things, we probably need to>Send whatever ships you have available to break up the bombing fleet
>>6287920>Send whatever ships you have available to break up the bombing fleetWe can resettle the planet later. Right now, it's time to humble these dickheads.
>>6287920>Send whatever ships you have available to break up the bombing fleetBOMB THEMBOMB THEM ALL.
>>6287920>>Send whatever ships you have available to break up the bombing fleet
>>6287919>Choose your successor, then call up a Stealth ship. You are going to deal with the Esaal commander yourself... personally.
>>6287976Too kino for this Quest unfortunately.
>>6287920>Send whatever ships you have available to break up the bombing fleetThis is the only option the Essal will respect. Also, we need to use our smallcraft buff.>>6287981>Halam will never surpass Eoba II in basedness by singlehandedly dueling and slaying the Essal leaderIt's so over...
>>6287920>Send whatever ships you have available to break up the bombing fleet(building shelters from the hunter-killers to preserve some of our migrator pods would be good, and having 3's quickly analyze and compromise the hunter-killers to protect the biospher would be better, but eh, this is a good excuse for another war to claim adjacent Essal territory to protect our water world). A bold move Supreme Commander, and a hypocritical violation of our agreement which stabs the Hegemony with the very tools which we gave you. You wish to fight in the old way? Come meet me at Skik IV and duel me. Supreme against Supreme. Your sword against my staff. I will crush you like a nut.
>>6287920>Order the fabricators on the planet to begin mass-producing defensive weaponsNot the whale-bros!
>>6287920>>6287976This but be open about the challenge and no stealth ship.However, since that write in isn't an option defenses seem more important right now seeing as there are already snakes in the water.>Order the fabricators on the planet to begin mass-producing defensive weapons
>>6287920Have they already dropped their entire payloads? If yes: >Order the fabricators on the planet to begin mass-producing defensive weaponsIf there's still lots more devices that they're yet to drop: >Send whatever ships you have available to break up the bombing fleet
>>6287920>Send whatever ships you have available to break up the bombing fleetThe irony- they claim we’ve backstabbed them, as they backstabbed us in kind? They, who sent their women to negotiate deal, and not a man for a proper alliance?I see this is what Essal honor is worth. May their civilization enjoy the void.Don the Mask, Halam. Destiny calls.
>>6288089Halam is too old for the mask.
>>6288089Yeah. We were neutral in the Esaal-Aristocrat conflict, and were allowed to be so. We didn't even have a non-aggression treaty not to attack each other directly in un-claimed space, just one that we wouldn't attack each other's claimed worlds.This Esaal barks of treachery as he treacherously betrays us. No mercy for the Esaal swine-armies. The Balaathi cluster must be ours for the Hegemony to be secure.
>>6288101Again, remember that we have one battleship while the Esaal had several like several centuries ago. We *just* finished a big war.Unless this cunt goes out of his way to begin a real war we might just have to pass the ball to the next guy.
>>6288089>The MaskThat thing should be burned.
>>6288110I wonder what would happen if an alien tried to put it on. The thing's basically a fucking cursed object.
>>6288113I assume the ghost of Akule would possess them and make them strangle themselves for daring to put their filthy xeno hands on it.
>>6288101Just FYI, you are free to take the Hegemony's side (naturally being the player's PoV) and this take on the conflict; but the Esaal naturally feel pissed off since you basically sold the counter to their military to their enemies while pretending to be friends with them; greatly extending the war and leading to a big loss of both their lives and territory (which became the territory the Urgi's Accord now occupies) Which is a very "mercantile" thing to do in this viewpoint; putting you on the same level as the Consortium. This was signposted in the original choice that let you sell the Aristocrat antimatter. Once again I'm not trying to alter anyone's perception or opinion on the matter, you are free to vote as you want, I just want to make sure nothing was lost in translation here in the story. Hopefully this was all expressed through the text and I didn't miss characterizing the events and such; or that it hasn't been so long people forgot lol
>>6288121Actually, while Akule is obviously a gigaracist, can he really be classified as a xenophobe when he died milllenia before the hegemony even learned about aliens? Wrix was a fag who killed more Jaxtians than xenos, and Hass Takar actively integrated two races into the hegemony.
>>6288127I'm just assuming that his gigaracism would translate to aliums. Wrix was a fag who killed more Jaxtians than xenos, but still killed an ASSLOAD of xenos, and Hass exterminated the Hazaar with the Mask on (I don't think he did the integrations while wearing it?), so...>>6288122That was what I got from it, Bananas. I'm sad we can't personally duel them, because I think that'd be the fastest way to repair relations, kek.
>>6288128>I'm just assuming that his gigaracism would translate to aliumsCertainly most of them, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some exceptions, like Hitler thinking Islam was cool.
>>6288132>Akule hates all aliens except for Swalli because they're yellow like Blondeslel
...Guess all you gotta do it pick a non-Jaxtian Supreme and then start a genocide fight to find out :^)
>>6288133I can't tell whether he'd hate them for their propensity towards being independent and individualist or like them for being genuine non-degenerates>>6288135Give me the option and I'll vote for it.
>>6287981so just veto on it so we cant do the kino?like based on there culture and everything that happens its basically the only option to fix relations.also where are the defense fleets did did three make it so this happens or is it the worms
>>6288139https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSydWq6SN0&list=RDjDSydWq6SN0&start_radio=1what we call barbaric ritual, they call noble tradition, what we call brutal they call just. what we call slaughter they call glory, they have a obsession with blood whether offering their own or sacrificing an enemy.a warrior prepares for sacrifice Touched by blood the dagger becomes the soul of its wielder so fight to seek our own renown and honor
>>6288139>so just veto on it so we cant do the kino?...Yeah? This isn't the first nor last time Bananas has veto'd a write in.I mean it'd be neat but I can see why.Also fixing the relationship doesn't matter when our ocean world is being fucking infested with robot snakes.
>>6288151i know just found it very odd he called it kino and something we cant do at the sametime like we are a duel mastery sort of supreme someone 3mind would like for our dramatics
>>6288151This, while its "Kino" a duel won't stop our world from being fucked over.
It's being addressed in the update.
>>6288122I totally get how the Esaal leader feels that, but at the same time if we hadn't provided the Esaal all those computer cores then the Aristocrats might have straight-up beaten them to begin with. And we have never violated our treaty with the Esaal that limits our fighting to 'unclaimed' space, whilst this is the second time that the Esaal have attacked one of our claimed and broadcast worlds with terror-weapons whilst no war was being waged.In other words, the Esaal are honourless dogs and we need to use our victorious military to drive them back.
As the Esaal continue their bombardment; you suddenly become inspired. Perhaps there is a way to regain some of your “honor” in their eyes, and to put your skills to use.”Hold! Commander of the Esaal, I cha- HAUGK!”As you stood up from your throne, clutching your long metal bar, you suddenly coughed. Right in the middle of your challenge. Why?! Was it because you stood up too fast?!“Do not worry, your Majesty. The moment I saw you purse your lips and your throat constrict, I switching the broadcast over to an AI generated one of you condemming the attack. I would not allow you to appear weak to your opponents.””Thanks but... why? Why now?”“It is highly unlikely they would have accepted your challenge in exchange for the bombing anyway, my Lord. This is your “punishment” for betraying them. To duel them would require you to return to a more neutral state of affairs between you; if they even would accept. Our rescue fleet is underway.”
The Esaal's assault doesn't stop. They blanket the planet over the next few hours, which turns to days. While your warning is sent out to all Hegemonic personal on the planet; if it be traditional or based in Starsight, the Migrators are just not fast enough to react; too isolated and far away at the arctic regions of the planetary ocean. The fat and sleepy creatures are speared by the Esaal's snakes, preferring to hit them in the thin spot of their skulls just above and between their eyes, killing them instantly. Over half of all Migrators lived on that planet as part of the breeding program; warmer and more rich in food then their tiny home-moon of Caplit. Other then the few remaining on that moon, the few in the chillwater habitats at the Starsight Academy, and the few scattered in tanks on the various ships and facilities around Hegemonic space; the rest have been killed by this single attack.However, there is a small glimmer of hope. The young Migrators, due to your choice to infuse them with Jaxtian Spidermonkey genetics; are a bit more agile and fast to react. Some manage to dodge the snake-weapons long enough to get to shelter, or swim to a safe zone and evacuate. Some. Because of this, you have prevented a genetic bottleneck; but needless to say the Migrators have just taken a massive blow. If a sizeable portion of Migrators die on mass again, they will go extinct.You hear the Esaal during the slaughter. From their ships, they make no attempt to hide their chatter. The Esaal jump, dance, sing, laugh, and chant. You realize that this is their natural state; no attempts at playing at being a sophisticated and effcient military outfit or honorbound warriors performing their unique form of “diplomatic sparring”; this is pure tribalism. They suck air through their teeth and bark, a unqiue war cry that grows among them as they raise their swords together as they victoriously watch their work.At first, it feels a bit strange and almost faked, and then you realize that they've had this a long time. Probably for the past ten thousand years; before space, before the Hegemony, probably before they could even talk, they had their war cry. They didn't make this up because of their name, the stem did not grow from the fruit, in other words. This is where their name comes from.”ES! ES! ES! ES! ES! ES! ES! ES!”
After another day of the saturated boming; your rescue fleet arrives. Headed by your mighty battleship; the fleet is ready to meet the Esaal's destructive forces head on. It's an intimidating sight; though your species technolocial advantage has always carried you through the day, the Esaal have their own kind of cleverness and resourcefulness that isn't to be underestimated. While your Cruisers can go knife-to-knife with the Esaal's own, the battleship is a bit of a hard point. Maybe if you had the Urgi boiling guns, you could just attack the crew within, but the manpower for a ship boarding of that scale just isn't there at the moment...”Threes, can our fighters fly under the shields of that battleship?”“Yes your majesty, I made sure to have the best pilots and state of the art smallcraft aboard. They will be the key to defeating the Battleship.”Excellent. The Esaal tend not to bother with fighters and bomber craft; not liking being alone in a tiny cramped ship and not being especially agile or quick thinking in the field of open space. Swall & Jaxtians, being from aquatic and arboreal enviroments respectively, are much better at thinking in 3d space. The Esaal much prefer straight lines and corridors; everything is just a block in the single straight path to them.“The smallcraft have not been equipped with traditional bombs or plasma cutters; instead, they are ready to be equipped with whatever payload you desire. Which do you think would be the most effective?”>Sticky AI cores to directly hack into the battleship's systems via electric induction>Drills to weaken the armor connection points and provide weak spots for your ship-sized weapons>Timed explosives to be detonated all at once to cause maximum damage and tear the hull apart
>>6288585I'm sure this is probably a question related to some previous information. Someone with better memory should look it up.Also, TED, those niggers need to die. I hope one of the Swall there survives to personally kill those antniggers (since the migrators can't)
>>6288585>Sticky AI cores to directly hack into the battleship's systems via electric inductionIf anyone remembers this thing has a full hull made of Azurium. We can't do much to scratch it. They are also using weaker versions of our own AI tech which is the strongest due to our tri-computation. This is our best shot.Also I hate them for touching my Migrator babies.
>>6288585>Sticky AI cores to directly hack into the battleship's systems via electric induction
>>6288585>>Sticky AI cores to directly hack into the battleship's systems via electric induction
>>6288585>>Sticky AI cores to directly hack into the battleship's systems via electric inductionSurely the weaker Ai core provided are backdoored to hell and back.Supporting TED. Not even the Aristocrat harmed my whales, this put them near to the Worm in the faggot ladder
>>6288585>Sticky AI cores to directly hack into the battleship's systems via electric inductionSince there's no 'Magnets' option, their Azurium hulls will respell most conventional damage. Whilst their AI systems might be especially vulnerable to us as they're likely guided by the cores we made for them.
>>6288585>Sticky AI cores to directly hack into the battleship's systems via electric inductionThis is a Mask-on moment if there ever was one.DEATH WAR! DEATH WAR! DEATH WAR!-
Wouldn't the fact that we gave them our AI cores mean they'd know exactly how to protect them from us?
>>6288585>Drills to weaken the armor connection points and provide weak spots for your ship-sized weapons. No, it means we know the backdoors into our own AI cores. I think that the better question is whether they make extensive use of AI or not. My recollection of the last time we fought them, in the boarding action, was that they did not. It was a while ago though.
>>6288585>Sticky AI cores to directly hack into the battleship's systems via electric induction>>6288812I think almost the opposite. We know our tech better than them, kept the best stuff for ourselves, and are better at using it. We also denied them an upgrade recently. We'll know eh internal architecture of their reverse-engineered, outdated systems.
>>6288915There was an option to put a backdoor in the cores but we didn't.What is done is done.
>>6288585>Drills to weaken the armor connection points and provide weak spots for your ship-sized weapons.
You order all fighters armed with AI cores; meant to stick to the hull of larger ships. By using this, you can try to “hack” into the enemy ship's mainframe by hijacking the sensors, impulse control, adaptive armor, and other electronics present on the outside of the hull. This was definitely the right choice of payload.”Heh, Threemind, this should be easy for you.”“Whatever copy of my primary cores on the Reconquistia you mean; with this distance you will need a closer server to maintain contol.You see the Esaal did not forget their past with the Baalathi. While they don't have fighters to strafe yours or rotating gun turrets; the entire length of the Esaal Battleship is covered in firing holes that blast out small energy-weapon projectiles whenever something moving nearby is detected; perfect for blasting away asteroids and slow moving probes or other vehicles. But your fighters are just too agile to be hit! With the newly upgraded skin-like metallic membrane helping contour your exhaust and microwind resistance into useful momentum; they're even harder to predict and destroy. They launch the sticky hacking cores; effortlessly coordinating across the length of the Esaal ship. First the outer blasters, then the shield generators, and then atmospheric pressure and hyperdrive wiring around the outside of the ship... soon, the whole thing is under Hegemonic control.You are now EMJT-400103-581. But this is your military number and classification code. Every Esaal has a callsign and nickname, which is not chosen by themselves. Usually, it's embaressing. Your real name is Flaps, because everyone said you talk too much; even back in basic training! But the name stuck, and it served you well. You've worked your way up from a grenadier irregular; a machine-speaker augemented with biochemical stimulants; to an officer, a captain of your own ship, an Admiral commanding a battleship; to finally the Supreme Commander of the entire Esaal forces. And right now, that very same battleship is under direct enemy control.”Blast...”The Hegemony has hacked your computers. Your AI desperately put the life control and defensive functions into read-only mode only as the enemy's computer viruses and bunk personalities quickly delete, impersonate, and override their programming. You watch the viewscreen as your own trusted AI assistants turn on you and give misleading information, while at the same time warning you the system is compromised. The Hegemony's main AI “personality” is too powerful. You almost think you see it animate a wink before the artifical gravity changes on the bridge, swirling you an all the other Esaal around in a vortext. You cover your face as shrapnel cuts you apart and slams you against a wall; just as the power shorts out and gravity is reintroduced just in time before lockout. The lights dim as your ship loses its main power; you're completely disabled.
From above you, coolant trickles down onto your cerebral tip. Its a little acidic and painful. The womanfolk forced all ships to have more safety features; you liked the old coolant more. You liked the way it burnt; and it smelt more virile and manly.Shaking off the pain and faitgue, you look around the bridge to see all the components and viewscreens knocked over, your fellow Esaal knocked out or killed; a few roll around in pain. You don't regret coming here; to get revenge on the Hegemonic scum for their treachery. You know the womanfolk or the computers or anyone else would call you stupid. They all think you're stupid, but you know better. You think you might just be the smartest race in the whole universe.The menfolk Esaal, and yourself, you have in mind a certain concept; a certain way to embody and live one's life. There are other terms for it, but you've always just called it the dichotomy between the modern man and the primitive man. The primitive man, the traditional man, the honest man; this is the natural state that you and all Men should be. It was your birthright, your most happy state. Looking out into the world with virgin eyes that see things as they are; a rock is a rock, not a collection of atoms and molecules. Your enemies are to be defeated, women are to be won in conquest; where one's own strength and instincts give meaning to the struggle of life. You fight when you feel as you should fight, and run when you feel you should run, and be friends with those you like and be enemies with those you do not; and all is simple and beautiful in the world. But at a certain point, where learning and technology and social complexity arrise, where an invisible line is crossed and the primitive man becomes the modern man.The modern man does not see the world and life as a challenge to be overcome, but various interlocking systems to be exploited. Friends are no longer just people in your tribe; but social obligations and connections. Conflicts are not one with strength and gumption and the warrior spirit, but through manipulation and subtle game-state maximizations. Just like how the robots think. Imagine the mental disease of a person who willingly thinks like a machine; allowing insults to their face as the calculated risk and response is too high. Whose only plan and lust for life is a maximization of their status; if it be thru wealth or accumulation of power not born from their own hand but from layers of obfuscation and creation of social systems to further cement themselves in their rule. The modern man is a state machine, playing the “game” for points, completely seperated from the instincts and happiness of the natural world regardless of their level of technology. The modern man seeks profit for the sake of it; there is no happiness in his victory. Only the slow crushing of pragmatism.
This is why you consider the Esaal to be the smartest men of all. The Jaxtians didn't figure it out until their degenerate capitalist era. If the Aristocrats learned that lesson; they must have forgotten it along the way, or corrupted it into something even worse. The Consortium still haven't figured it out. You Esaal? We figured it out in the bronze age.As your society began to evolve from the four legged animals fighting over foods in the dense and claustrophobic caverns of your homeworld; it was learned how food can be grown. The best canyon walls that received the best diffuse sunlight; with natural sunlight being too hot and harmful on your home planet to live in; naturally grew the most food. Those Esaal who lived there and “owned” those walls, protected them, grew the most food. They and their children grew bigger and stronger then the others; with thicker skin, better bones and teeth, and in all ways were their superiors. Even at this time; it was well understood that this was wrong. That the young and passionate warriors would be forever at a disadvantage simply because of the circumstances of their birth, cruelly denied access to resources to simply give strength to their dominators forever? The first bronze tools were crafted, and armor & weapons naturally fell into the hands of the Canyon-Kings first among everyone, making them even better and more unapproachable warriors. What happens when they decide to take more land for themselves? More food? Make everyone else their slaves; with no one with the strength to fight back?It was not in the victory that they were despised. It was in how they did it; it was not victory through strength, but a soulless gain of advantage over advantage, refusing to even compete. This was an abomination to your people. And so the first Esaal tribe rose up and killed the Canyon-Kings. And from then on, it was decided all Esaal would be given the same amount of food and weapons; so every young warrior has an equal chance to prove themselves. And then? The challenge just became finding new people and things to fight; forever; a righteous existence.And now; the Jaxtians, with their Supreme Ruler, the most ugly and blatant of all kinds of Canyon-Kings and point-maximizers and cruel modern-men that exist yet defies your tribe, your people. He very well may kill you; but when you kill a man? You don't have to put on a mask before looking him in the eye.”Manual Control.”You activate the center console on the bridge; a small nuclear power-core free from any AI uplink or automation. Its electrical connection feed directly into the engines. That's something the modern man doesn't understand. You don't mind dying; a glorious death is the only end you want. There is no pain or suffering in fighting against a superior opponent and losing; true suffering only comes from a life lived insincerely.”FOR GLORY, FOR MY BROTHERS, FOR THE ESAAL!!!”
You are now Halam Anak again, and are preparing to win the battle against the Esaal around your distant water planet.”Threes, ready that ship to be captured and scrapped. Actually, scratch that, we should retrofit it into a Hegemonic vessel instead. Imagine how they'll feel when we bring it against their own home worlds.”“You are planning to... invade the Esaal space? Your majesty?””I'm going to make them pay. They killed so many of my subjects, and polluted a planet...”“True, but I advise caution. This small bombing party here is not representive of their true strength. Prudence would suggest otherwise.””What, and just let them get away with this!?”“No no, I didn't say that. Naturally the Esaal need to be subjugated at some point, but I recall a conversation between Wrix Val and Cijan Anak speaking on this exact subject. I don't have it in my databanks as of now; but to face an enemy where they are strong is one thing-”You are interrupted as the sound of thunder comes from the display above.
Your Battleship, the HV Reconquistia, has been destroyed.Somehow, the Esaal Supreme Commander has managed to take manual control of his ship; and with a direct ramming action shredded apart your battleship. Despite its great size and strength, the Azurium hull and brutalist construction just blew it apart. Shattering into oribt around the planet, your smaller ships begin to move back. The oldest living and highest ranking Vetucker war-commander, a Yellow-Horn named Sop Sunhorns, died in the fiery blast and body was sucked into space.”AHHHHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!”With your battleship destoyed, the main AI core network locking down the Esaal ship is taken offline; letting the Esaal ship slowly regain its functions. Its weapon systems, then tractor beams, shields, and finally full communications blink back one by one as their AI finally manage to claw back control. The Esaal ships now advance to your own fleet, attacking and attempting to thrwat rescue attempts. The bombing continues as the rest of their cargo bays open up; dumping their “snakes” onto the ocean planet; saturating the entire thing with the deadly robots. Immediately, the Threemind begins the order to retreat. With no battleship, there is no chance to liberate that planet against the superior Esaal force. Any more ships sent in would just be trickling in forces to be taken out one by one; a complete waste. Instead, your fleet fights defensively; picking up as many smallcraft, rescue pods, and fleeing Swall & Migrtator colonists as it can.There is a great cry that goes up among the Esaal ships.”ES! ES! ES! ES! ES! ES!”
”No... this... this can't be happening... I... I lost!?”“Your Majesty... Please stop pulling out your hair. It is not helping anything.””I did everything right! I- I am supposed to be the Hegemony's great conquering king! The great war leader!? How could this happen!?”“You are, your Majesty, you are. You are the greatest war leader we've had, with a stronger army then ever, your tactical choice was the best we could have made.””SHUT UP! SYCOPHANTIC MACHINE!!! I- ACK! HUACK!”You are coughing again, feeling something creeping up your spine, like a spreading sense of doom. It's that off feeling again, but this time, more realized and complete. You feel it deep in your bones; a subtle feeling like an itch, a perverse sense of “wrongness” that is aggrevated by your stress. But this time, it doesn't go away. You'd hope that your life would allow your struggles and tribulations to come one at a time, with time to rest and grow between, but no, of course not, when things get bad that's when things get worse. All together, all at once.How could this happen to you? You don't understand. The Hegemony has always been filled with heroic figures; always the monkey on the lower branch; the one who overcomes the greater challenges. But suddenly, you are on the other end of that dichotomy. Perhaps your only mistake was assuming that something about your culture, your genetics, your morals, or your people could uniquely create heroes.The wrongful sensation in your body persists. You retreat to your chambers, allow the Threemind and Hegemonic control to help clean up the situation without needing your direct imput. But after a few days, a week, it still persists, less then before, but still there. You know there is something wrong with you, even though you don't know what it is. You submit to the doctors and their fretting.
The Esaal complete their destruction of the planet with their laughing and cheers. You managed to save a good number of the colonists, but a great many were killed as the snakes invaded the underwater cities and habitates, piercing the water filtration systems and waiting out those hiding in the bunkers. With no more Hegemonic targets, the water snakes begin to destroy the planet's ecosystem; killing off every large bodied fish that could be mistaken from the Swall or Migrators. The entire planet soon becomes dead of large-bodied and complex life. Of course, life will always exist there in the form of planktons, bottom feeders, crabs the size of your fingertips; all life too small or slow-moving to trigger the snakes. But they remain there, waiting to strike again, making any attempts to study the complex fossils too dangerous, killing off the long-lived fishes who were being studied for their longevity and metabolic traits for evolution. The Esaal don't even destroy your territory beacon orbiting the planet that marks it as “yours”. They did not take it from you, they simply have no interest in taking it back. Millions of Swall lay dead, and a few tens of thousands of migrators; a precious many for them. For now, the bottom eaters will eat well.>Quest continues tomorrow
Well play to the Esaal for their surprise battle.I seems we were doomed from the beginning - ominous 13-numbered thread; no choice of making more battleships...At least we didn't faced complete Migrator Extinction. I like the split between modern man and primitive man. Now let's teach Esaal how "Based State Pragmatism" win in the long term.
>>6289180>We weren't based enough to duel their supreme leader>Instead, they outbased usIt's so over, bros. SO OVER.
>>6289197>no choice of making more battleships...Also, that's not true. We could've made two more at the start of the thread. If we'd done that maybe the Essal would've dunked on us differently, but I agree that something like this was set from the start.
>>6289201I meant "beginning of the Esaal segment" - I know we chose not to build more Battleships earlier
>>6289205...I don't know how we would've built more battleships in a couple days when we've only built one in centuries.
>>6289206I think there is a deep incomprehension.We didn't predict that the choice of the beginning of the thread "Build two more Battleships"or the choice "BAG storage for emergency Moon/Battleship" might have prevented us from suffering as much. That's a big "MIGHT" though.
>>6289207Oh. Are you saying we were doomed because we didn't *pick* the battleship choice, rather than not being offered it? I read "no choice of..." as not being offered it.
Certain aspects of the Quest especially regarding the timescale, technology, economics, etc. are a bit abstracted; so because you didn't choose to use the massive economic boost to build more battleships, the Hegemony didn't really "need" to have more then one and didn't have the support staff, tax base, facilities, initial investment, etc. to create more then one. Much like modern day America only having 10 or so of the big fully operational super powerful Aircraft carriers despite being a huge country with a big military; those are the "strongest" ships around but stockpiling them for normal military operations (especially given the multi-generational lengths of time between conflicts) is a bit wasteful; so you don't really have the "economy slot" to be spending on maintaining a fully functional battleship just passively; it's something you need to build up or spend Supreme-levels of focus on.It's a bit unrealistic and video gamey; but the idea is that Battleships are like the "big" miltiary units or pieces in this "game", where as the smaller ships are more just general ships. You can think of them as your Death Stars or Battlestar Galacticas; each one would be the centerpiece of a big military fleet or action sequence. You could just "make a big ship" but the idea is battleships have some kind of extra technology or "pizazz" on top that make them better then even a mass of smaller ships despite their weapons being equally as good or whatever. I hope the game aspect isn't too unrealistic to break the suspension of disbelief.
>>6289208Yeah, that might be my ESL showing off.Anyway, we picked other things.At least we saved the Whalebros with the Migrator Project.
>>6289210nah, it makes lot of sense. Don't sweat it.However, I feel like "making a replacement ship" would be less expensive as we have the "economy slot" ready, just missing the ship itself.Even more, building More Battleship should be feasible as we already have a good knowledge of some of the cost and things can be rationalized (already what you've done with the choice of "build 2 battleships for 1 economic action"
>>6289213I don't think I implied anywhere in the update you "can't build a new one" or anything like that but yeah it'd be a more minor cost/choice; it's not going to be anywhere near as hard as making it the first time lolAlso I think we talked about this before but I always liked Battleship as THE big ship classification because of how tired I am of 4x games (and nautical ship terminology in general) always making the coolest sounding named ship not even the first or even second most powerful ship in the naval force. Don't even get me started on shit like "Destroyers" and "Corvettes" and stuff. Yuck.
>>6289199we where not allowed what you expect?>>6289181purple veins? guess the aristocrats got there revenge? or just a side effect of your father life extending serum thats hereditary
>>6289242I'd say life extending serum "steal" lifespan of first child somehow
Jesus that idea is SO good I'm so pissed I didn't think of thatjust perfect for this cringe ass "oh everything is a materialist nightmare hellscape but oh there's also magic and the supernatural lol" quest
>>6289259What about spinning it like this : "Children are believed to be some sort of immortality according to a bunch of ...religions... being a continuation of one's energy force despite death claiming its inevitable toll; maybe the life drug have some effect on the 4th Soul Dimension?"
>choose the right option>still loseYeah, that seems about on par for the quest.
The Esaal government, society, and population is neatly split in half. The men and the women; fulfilling different roles and culturally, very distinct from one another.With the exception of young boys before puberty; men do not live with the women. They roam, exactly as their animal ancestors did. Where as women live in more or less stable groups; once extended families of matriarchal status, their children, and lower ranking females with their own children pushed more and more to the outskirts. However, as the Esaal advanced; the evolutionary disadvantages of male bachelor groups invading a female pride, killing all the children to make them receptive, and then mating with them quickly began to outweigh the advantages. Of course, the instinct for infanticide for the men was difficult to breed out of them, and the women were not used to the "settled" agricultural lifestyle; and neither wanted or needed men around for the vast majority of the year. How could this be amended? They found a way.Even now, in the space age, the Esaal menfolk only interact with the womenfolk briefly and rarely. Only after a successful mission, with plunder; with its own value, for research, or merely symbolic. They fight, they scratch, they bite as the males approach; putting on the show of them being unwelcome. They resist, and the men insist. But this is all an act. Who makes the weapons and munitions for the menfolk? Yet these women have no weapons. Who is educating and training the next generation of children for their roles at all time? Yet these women conveniently never have any children around when the menfolk come around; they're all safe and sound somewhere else, well in advance. The next generation is secured, genes from the successful conquerors to keep them sharp, and the two halves of the race can go their separate ways; with the men back on their stupid bastard adventures and campaigns of endless dick-swinging and glory seeking; and the women can go back to actually running the empire behind the scenes and cleaning up the messes. Both leave satisfied, if a bit bruised. The other races may not understand it, but truly, this is the best solution for everybody.>This is a bonus post. Quest will continue at the normal time.
>>6289256thats called messing with your sperm.....like you are taking a serum messing with your telomeres(caps on your genes that regulate cell division that slowly gets used up) and cell division and you dont expect it to have some effect on your germ line cells even slightly? even being born to close too corn can have a one in a billion chance to mess with genetics (has happened to a insect species that has plant genes) there is also just shit like teflon and plastic that has a effect on the child and fertility of men and women like its not unexpected >>6289259thanks thought it was obvious just brought up the only two things i have been thinking about that had no need to be said until now
>>6289279What about it messing with a child already born?You need the "soul-4th-dimension" additional hypothesis for this one, working with the feel Banana wanna convey.Else I agree
>>6289280yeah....also at the end was his flesh not fucking glowing and moving under his skin? like i would not be surprised it that somehow exposed his children more so to someone with similar genes and some of the exact same genes
Also, while we're waiting, If the Esaal want their "Primitive Man" treatment so much, they can have it. Give'em the bronze age package.
>>6289280>>6289281so much bullshit we can throw on the table like have you heard of transmittable contagious Tasmanian devil mouth cancer?there are also just diseases and viruses, like imagine getting a starsight located virus >>6289282them being hypocrites so lets fulfill there dreams and stop there women from enabling them
In the days after the evacuation of your far off ocean world; you work with the Threemind to calm the panic and run damage control on the political ramifications of the Esaal defeating you. Somewhat surprisingly, you really haven't received any mocking comments or a serious loss in status in your sector of space; every single other faction in space has either lost way more territory, had way more of their people killed, or been more humiliated by the Esaal war machine then you have. Given the Consortium's huge waste of money trying to dislodge you from the Stand and your humiliation of the Aristocrats; you at the very least retain a status above them as rivals in space. The Esaal just remain a bit higher.Thankfully, while the loss of life; especially for the Migrators; is still unacceptable; with your Starsight Academy now well underway and the planet's relative lack of important resources; you have not loss much in terms of income or access to rare and valuable resources in space. The most costly aspect is the loss of your Battleship... Which is nothing to drop from the top branch. If you at least had access to the debris you could scrap the useful materials; but as soon as your retreat became apparent the Threemind activated the self-destruct features on the ship and directed your other cruisers to fire at it to further reduce the chance of the Esaal scavenging any useful technology from your ship. So at least, there is that.”...I will have my revenge. But how? Their military is so strong...”“My Lord, if you were anyone else, I would be manipulating you into my point-maximization scheme to lead the Hegemony to the best outcome it can in spite of these events. But, you are the one I cannot do this to.””I know, and that's a good thing! I'm tired of your ass-kissing. Leave me alone.”“I wasn't lying to you. You really are the greatest war leader we ever had. The Esaal are simply-””Did I stutter?”The Threemind almost seems hurt. It bleeps.“Permission to speak? It's important.””You get three more words and then you aren't talking to me for the rest of the night.”“Consider his alternative.””Consider whose alternative?”The Threemind doesn't elaborate, but an alert noise indicates you have a visitor in your medical seclusion. It's a lesser bureaucrat who carries himself with a strange confidence. When he looks at you, he doesn't avert his gaze; the only ones you have met like that were previous Supreme Rulers and the candidates for the position. You have never seen him before.
“Hello your Majesty!””Who are you, exactly? I entered self quarantine just in case I was in the middle of dying to an Aristocrat bioweapon...” He shook his hand in response, almost dismissively. Nobody has done that to you before, ever.“I'm not important enough for you to need to know my name, your Majesty. I'm with Hegemonic Control. I am merely a lowly servant of yours. However, I come to you because of certain obligations of yours. Events have transpired that require your immediate attention, which supersede your own current desires or important affairs. I am its caretaker. It is help you rule to your absolute greatest ability.””You dare... What object are you trying to give me, exactly?”“I am not giving you anything, your Grace. It is your own property, I am merely in charge of bringing it out of storage. It is The Death Mask of Akule the Unspeakable.”Well, that changes things. He opens the storage compartment, revealing the Mask to you. Even now, you feel how important again. All the attention in the room is placed firmly on the artifact.”You... chose to bring it to me?”“No your Majesty, there are only three situations in which the Supreme Ruler wears the mask. Of course, it belongs to you, so you may do whatever you wish with it; but Hegemonic Control simply deems these events important enough to present it to you. The first is when the Supreme Ruler commands a race or nation to be exterminated. The second is when there is rebellion or disobedience in the Hegemony; as your rule must remain pure and above all others. The third and final could be in retaliation to nuclear warfare; to give you the strength to overcome those who would insult you by use of such weapons that are forbidden by our own codes.””...The Esaal didn't use nuclear weapons.”“That is true, your Majesty. But the exact definition of this “law” is unclear. After all, it was once used as a justification to force other nations on Jaxt to disarm their nuclear weapons; after which they could be easily be invaded. But once we entered space, it became impractical or impossible to actually enforce our neighboring nations in space to disarm, and now weapons exist that could be worse then them anyway. This is a question for the State Philosphers, but alas, none of them are left. We'd let Cijan decide that kind of thing. And in his view? It is the spirit of the law over the letter of the law. Meaning; the Esaal killed millions of your subjects, deprived you of your planet, your property, by making it uninhabitable; and went away from it laughing and without getting their hands dirty; exactly as if they had used nuclear weapons. It is one in the same.”
“...Of course, it is not my place to tell you what to do. It is merely the fulfillment of an obligation and tradition. The choice is ultimately yours to make. All I ask is you make this choice now, so I can put the mask back into long term storage to keep it safe or that I may kneel to you as the next UNSPEAKABLE.”If you decide to wear the mask, you will skip forward as many years as it will take to defeat the Esaal once and for all. You cannot control the Supreme Ruler at this time, and your population, expansion, economic status, and tech advancement will all stagnate or go backwards from the great cost of this extermination war. Your borders and political situation will change. All Hegemonic races will survive; but some may be permanently altered. You will not get the opportunity to research or potentially cure Halam's condition; as all of your energy will be directed towards the Esaal's destruction and fulfillment of their wish for an honorable death. Additionally, this choice will introduce a new permanent neutral threat/problem that will need continued management for the remainder of your time as the Supreme Ruler of the Hegemony; whoever it may be.If you decide to reject the mask, you will receive a small loss in status from your defeat from the Esaal, but it will not cause your reign to be viewed in disgrace as you fulfilled your vows and humiliated one of the Hegemony's enemies already. You will also lose the obligation of the Supreme Ruler to make all nuclear weapons forbidden; meaning you will lose some of your future opportunities to wear the mask and very slightly reduced the prestigue and legitimacy of the single, unbroken line of succession. Otherwise, the Quest will continue from this point as normal.Choose wisely.>Wear the Mask>Reject the MaskNo write-ins or 1-Post IDs will be allowed.
>>6289580>Reject the MaskListen, it's not that I have a problem with it, but Halam's just too old. He's already done "his" stuff. Ruining the Esaal like that would be so...lame. He has had his time and we should finish it with grace.I'd rather leave the mask for someone else. Maybe once the next Supreme beats the Esaal and wants to do >>6289282 to them.
>>6289581Halam is 32 years old; Hass Takar worse the mask at a much older age. But more practically, he is still able to fulfill what it says in the above mask prompt above, just wanted to make that clear.
>>6289583Well he sure as fuck doesn't look 32. Maybe it's the illness, I dunno. Dude looks like he's 60 at *least*. He looks like he's at death's door.Anyway, he's "Plot" old, he's already beat the Aristocrats. He can't hog *two* rivals. That's cringe. Plus, this crisis will definitely breed some cool candidates.
>>6289585Also, I just realized my ID changed since this morning. That's really lame.
>>6289584I'll say though, he's *really* got some early bleaching. He looks way too gray for someone who's 32.Kinda disappointing, though. If he was really old, we might have had one of the survivors of the massacre as a Supreme Candidate.
>>6289580>Reject the MaskI want to kill the Esaal, I do, but I know what happens whenever that mask gets put on. It's usually nothing good. Killing the Hazaar? That warranted the Mask. This? I'm not quite sure.
>>6289580I can't vote due to lack of a stable IP. However... what if the Essal are right? Has the Hegemony turned into a bunch of "robot thinkers?" Has it lost dignity? Maybe accepting their revenge is the best move after all.
>>6289589>Aggresssive retards who think society should be permanently stuck in a bronze age level mentality No, I don't think the Communist Krogan are right.
>>6289587Maybe being a Vetucker-gene-spliced Alpha leads to some complications? Maybe it's whatever his weird medical condition is.?>>6289589If you think that, wearing the mask would be best, because it gets us thinking and acting more like them.>>6289580>Reject the MaskBut I want to see our Starsight Academy and Nu-migrators bear fruit. I want to grow, and develop, and to see our cultural dividends from the Aristocrat Humiliation War.I think dear old dad was right. Sometimes it's better to be pragmatic and inglorious.
>>6289602>Maybe being a Vetucker-gene-spliced Alpha leads to some complications? Maybe it's whatever his weird medical condition is.No, we've had plenty of those for a while now. It's probably something else. I'd say it was the drugs his father took if not for the fact that Bananas expressed how he wished he thought of that.
>>6289604He's one of the biggest and buffest though, right? Could it be more pronounced the more gigantic you are?
>>6289580>RejectMany reasons.- I call BS, this wasn't nukes, and "spirit of the law" is cheating- Incredibly creepy and suspicious bureaucrat guy- We literally just kicked the Aristocrats' asses- Halam is based, and shredding our economy and culture for decades is NOT based, especially after we JUST substantially improved the lives of our citizens- If we stomp out the Essal, apparently it's going to spawn a new threat, so this doesn't even necessarily improve our long-term geopolitical position (and might worsen it, if the other civs eat into our borders while we're distracted)- The Essal were the closest thing we had to bros, and I don't think repairing relations is impossible- Giving ourselves less opportunities to wear the haunted gigaracism mask is a GOOD thingCan't we just have a normal war instead of a genocide spree?>>6289602>>6289604Guys, Halam is an Anak, which is a family line predisposed to weird genetic conditions (see Cijan's two tails). This is probably another weird genetic condition.
>>6289644Oh right, I forgot Anak were formerly-blonde mutants descended from an capitalist-era imperfect cloning technology.
>>6289648Brun's DNA?
Yes that's true. Actually I don't remember if I ever said it but the original twist I had in mind for Cijan and Kima's "wonderchild" was that he would be blonde and perfect at everything, as the "reward" for submitting to the political parties forming in the Hegemony and as a callback to the Unspeakable sidethread.
>>6289580>Reject the MaskWar is only fun if Beancounted properly
>>6289580>Reject the MaskI want to actually beat the Esaal in threads and games, not just 'skip to the end'.
>>6289580The mask is cracked but also I thought there wwas more color to it. Also... imagine the smell.
>>6289694I thought there was purple on it or something, yeah. Kek if it was badly restored over the centuries.
>>6289580>Rejecteh we dont need to wear the mask to unleash a legion of killer robots or bioweapons on there planets as we exterminate them using the technology they loaned from us to kill them also wtf is up with this rando stinks of a infiltrator of sorts he is way to comfortable with the supreme
>>6289782>also wtf is up with this rando stinks of a infiltrator of sorts he is way to comfortable with the supremeNo, it's more like he's a member of a secret Dark Order. The Hegemony is a State Cult that worships the Supremes, and Akule is most "Supreme" of them. Basically an evil deity.
>>6289580>Reject the MaskI agree with the idea that it is the spirit of the Nukes rather than being limited to actual nukes. However, when the policy was made nukes were an existential threat capable of the destruction of society and extinction of the Monke. To use them was to accept the possible eradication of the species. If the Esaal launched a 99% lethal bioweapon at us or some sort of broad area neutrino ray to steralize the soil on our home cluster, then it would be Nuke-Mask time. This doesn't rise to that level. I also think that we can still be friends with the Essal, we just need to smack them around a bit first and establish a system where any physical backstabbing that they try won't be debilitating. We should also consider supporting a punctuated-equilibrium style evolutiono of the Migrators to re-establish genetic diversity and move away from the genetic bottleneck. The Clensing recently conducted by the Essal is a good template for this. Simply kill all the large sea mammels/big fish on a water world and drop in the migrators to evolve into all the recently vacated ecological niches. Bam, rapid genetic diversification. My captcha is very close to Ransom
>>6289783Isn't this the same sort of guy who we saw skulking around in the front of some monitors or the like during one the quest's more metatextual moments?
>>6289993I don't know, but we should consider disciplining him for lack of respect. His duty is to us, not to a Supreme who's been dead for... how long? Hundreds of years? A thousand?
>>6289999Don't mess with the mysterious stranger, it never ends well.
>>6290002Or what'll happen, the secret evil Akule cult will assassinate us? If there's a secret evil Akule cult in our ranks willing to do such a thing, we need to root them up and get rid of all of them.
>>6290019>If there's a secret evil Akule cult in our ranks willing to do such a thing, we need to root them up and get rid of all of them.
>>6289580>Wear the MaskFuck ‘em, kill them all.We’ll bear with the consequences as we always have, but them destroying a planet unmolested is simply unacceptable.
Look upon its glory. The Mask. The UNSPEAKABLE lay just behind it; a cultural and physical manifestation of the power behind the Supreme Ruler. With it, you'd have the power to defeat the Esaal. But you reject it. There's a lot of reasons for it, but ultimately... you just decide it isn't worth it. Maybe it's an insult to the heritage of your office, but this isn't the first time you've broken tradition.“Oh well.” The bureaucrat said. “It is a shame we will not see another Unspeakable in my lifetime, but ultimately, your decision is the right one.” He packs up the mask, carefully closing each latch one a time as to make sure it is absolutely secure, and then he leaves and you never see him again.Without the power of the Deathmask, you realize that you and your nation may simply not have the power to fight the Esaal head on. You still want to get revenge on them some day for what they've done, or perhaps your successor should one day humble them the same way the Aristocrats and Consortium were humbled; to truly prove the Hegemony's strength.But how? For both the Consortium and the Aristocrats, you defeated them through your military strength and skill. Through heroism. But now you know the Esaal has their own heroes too; even if there is nothing good or noble about them. They are still “heroic”; even greater then your own. You know that in the HVS, there were many Hazaar who were part of the puppet government who had great combat skill and the best equipment, the best training. Not idiotic warrior-caste obsessed with rape; but actual smart, focused, tactical professionals. Shocktroopers, or maybe Cocktroopers. The HVS's spec ops. While most were registered and easily disarmed and put into the extermination camps; some were wise to it, engaging in guerilla warfare and special operations. To the Hazaar, these guys were scary. Not a single Redstripe Commando was ever killed by one of them. That was the difference between your martial cultures. That difference can't be the same as between yours and the Esaal, but it's something to consider.In the meantime, you need to see the Doctor about your condition and get some answers.
“...Your majesty, the entire AI network has been crunching the numbers and figuring out your condition. We've spared no expense in the diagnosis! I apologize for the time it took, it was all simply so unusual.””Well, hurry up. Is it an Aristocrat bioweapon? Did I get exposed to something bad...?”“No, your Majesty. It's nothing like that. It's the result of your genetic condition. The accelerated aging-””Yeah, it's just my coat turning whiter earlier then normal. Purely cosmetic.”“T-That was what we thought too! But it was just a little different then that... it's more systemtic. We believe it began in the gland inconsequentia, and was accelerated by stress.””Stress?”“Or lack of sleep, dietary flucuations, exposure to heavy metals, things like that. There is no one root cause, it's a systemtic, chronic condition.””Just hurry up and tell me what it is!”“It... It's the geriatric protien collapse. Your body's own protiens are unravelling. Once it begins at any point in the body, it spreads. We had no idea it could happen in somebody so young.””Oh. Well, develop a cure for it.”“Wha- Your... Your majesty?””What's the issue? You know what's wrong with my body then, fix it.”You swipe your hand dismissively, eager to get back to work. The doctor pauses, looking quite distressed. He's the highest ranked in the Hegemony, backed by the entire infrastructure, and dedication towards the Supreme Ruler. You can't take a shit without someone ensuring it's got the all-clear; you'd figure ever possible premutation of what could-ever possibly be wrong with you would be checked out by now.“Y-Your Majesty, this isn't... this isn't a virus. Or a bacteria. Or an injury. It's a full body, chronic, condition. This is the condition that has put the hard limit on Jaxtian lifespan. It is the same disease that has killed, or caused Jaxtians to be killed, for the past 400 years of your existence; ever since our lifespan was artifically extended with biotechnology. It's been the study of longevity research for that entire time. I mean, entire populations of clones being pumped with every chemical, every organ transplant, every type of lifestyle modification... There is no cure.”
”I don't... I don't understand.”“I'm... very sorry, your Majesty. So terribly sorry. It's so terrible. You do not deserve this.””Knock that off! That only happens to people who are like, one hundred years old, right? I'm not that old! That can't happen to me.”“It, uhh, didn't, fully... It just started in one place, unusually, extraordinary circumstances. The chance of that happening is very low, which is why it wasn't even considered in the first and second round of testing and investigation...””But... What does this mean? What am I going to do about it? You can't just tell me there's nothing?! I'm going to die!? How is this- HYUK! ACK!”You cough twice, feeling the itch move up your neck. It hurts a bit. The doctor stammers out his words.“We'll be monitoring the progression as best we can- a-and it won't kill you! You're too young, your body repairs the damage too quickly. It's just... not pleasant.””...”“We'll focus on antioxidants and nerve-calming natural remedies. And you'll be avoiding muscular stresses; where it is most concentrated; to slow the progression! And we'll keep a close eye on both your neurological activity and subjective experience; we can talk about when is the best time to start considering, maybe, euthanizing yourself. In... five to ten years.””Five to ten years after it starts, right? Like, when I get the disease. Which I don't have yet, this is just the warning signs, right? You're not seriously telling me I'm gonna have to kill myself in five to ten years left to live before it becomes so unbearable I'd just rather die, right? How long?”“...Five to ten years.”There's no thought, just by pure instinct, your arm raises. Rage shoots through you faster then you can even process it. You ball a fist and ready to punch.“AHH! FORGIVE ME MASTER!”>Hit the doctor so hard he dies>Punch the wall instead
>>6290118...Why would we, the payers want to vote to kill this doctor?>Hit the doctor so hard he diesI'll do it just to see if there's some mysterious benefit.
>>6290118>Punch the wall insteadChances of punching a stud?
>>6290141Hegemony doesn't have portal technology yet so you can't punch yourself unfortunately
>>6290118>Punch the wall insteadDoctors are too valuable to waste, whilst the wall can be repaired within a day.
>>6290118>>Punch the wall insteadLet's break our arm
>>6290118>Punch the wall insteadso its in the muscleswell another thing that aristocrat brain fruit could have fixed.cybernetics time perhaps?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OgxTQkbL0c&list=RD-OgxTQkbL0c&start_radio=1if the issue is pain remove all that can cause pain
>>6290173...or well just get a biobot body as the research path if we dont want to be a cool cyborg ready to kill
>>6290118>Punch the wall insteadThis is quite literally Halam's core principles attacking himself, the whole message of his reign has been about nature vs nurture and him setting himself apart from Alphas of the past, he fights differently, his own father was supreme before him, hes consistently held back on scrambling his advisors when they step out of line unlike our other alpha supremes, and hes rejected the mask for the first time since its came up, the protein collapse is a direct result of the Hegemony trying to go beyond their own nature and Halam gets an extra dose of the "curse" as he goes against his own nature as an Alpha and the nature of the supreme as a whole, I think its still in his best interest for the story and for the nature of our understanding of the disease in the future that he remain acting as he has during previous "Alpha Episodes">>6284982Other IP, heres the full Migrator pic I had when I made the earlier pic as proof its me
>>6290118>Punch the wall insteadWe spared the Swall advisor, so I think mercing the doctor would be OOC.
>>6290177Great spacewhale of the pond, tell me your wisdom
>>6290118>Hit the doctor so hard he diesI know anons are going to pussyfoot around again, I’m just aggravated that the playerbase decided to waste yet another Alpha Supreme’s legacy.I get that the Mask’s first impression sucked huge balls, but like, come on- supporting Supreme tradition was the only choice we carried throughout this quest. And now Halem is going to die a young humiliated failure like Hass’ predecessor.
>>6290226>young humiliated failureWe pocketed a future ally nation at our beck and call and we fucking murked the Aristocrats. You're asking like we did nothing but waste time this thread.>>6290118>Punch the wall instead
>>6290118>>Punch the wall insteadWelp, time to start raising our new migrator successor for the sole purpose of TED.
>>6290231And we lost half our Mitigators, an entire world, and our most prestigious battleship to luddites. Like, this is the Hegemony’s worst military disaster since the beginning of the Capsule Wars- and everyone remembers Waterloo over Austerlitz.
>>6290233And wearing the mask would mean our society would devolve or stagnate because we were blindly focused on TED + we would've made things worse by having a permanent thorn in our side after TED.Like yeah. What happened with the Esaal fucking blows. But a tiny loss in status is better than waking up twenty years later to see we turned Vetucker women into lobotomized slaves and we lost 40 years worth of tech advancement or whatever
>>6290118>Punch the wall insteadHalam hasn't murdered his advisors yet, he shouldn't start now. >>6290226Are you retarded? Halam is one of the most succesful Supremes of all time. He accomplished far more than he lost.>>6290233>everyone remembers Waterloo over Austerlitz.Everyone remembers Waterloo because they *lost* the war. This was not a war, this was an terrorist attack. The only thing that matters is whether we are able to come back and defeat the Esaal later.To give you an IC example, when you think of Eoba II, is the first thing that comes to your mind the fact that he caused a gigantic cataclysm on Jaxt? Or do you remember all the successes he did?
>>6290241I member the knife duel and the Worm Owning first when thinking Eoba III really should do a full re-read.
>>6290226By not wwaring the mask, we encouraged a new golden age rather than sinking all our resources into a genocidal campaign of vengeance that would have negated all our gains and spawned a new threat. Halam will go down as a top tier Supreme, beloved by the people of the Hegemony and geared by our enemies. Even the Esaal will have to acknowledge that we killed their own Supreme.
>>6290241When I think of Eoba, I remember him going down to the Vetuckers home world himself and dueling a tribal grasslord, winning, and then banging said grasslords wife followed by a swift introduction to the Hegemony
>>6290118>>Punch the wall instead>>6290144kek
>>6290226> And now Halem is going to die a young humiliated failure like Hass’ predecessor.The mask update literally said " it will not cause your reign to be viewed in disgrace as you fulfilled your vows and humiliated one of the Hegemony's enemies already." Are you illiterate?
Hot slop for the masses dont mind me
>>6290457nice!
>>6290241I remember him being based, but then again the cataclysm didn’t happen at the end of his reign either.More pertinent would be, what would be the first thing that comes to mind when you remember Vul? His successes, or the Cirrus?
>>6290118>Punch the Wall.
>>6290494What comes to mind is him taking a lover who eventually bore Talacent (Was that his name?) because honestly Supremes back then ruled very shortly.You're being retarded, anyway. Halam defeated an enemy the Esaal themselves could not and fulfilled his Vow. He's not going to be "ruined" because the Esaal ruined a planet.
>>6290377The monke, the myth, the legend. Stark King Eoba, more alpha than an Alpha.>>6290494I remember him taking down "Helper," siring Talacent, and the Cirrus.
Nice to see people still talking about the older stuff in this quest. Figured it would be almost forgot about by now.
>>6290581I mean, I don't remember most of it, but some stuff I do. The early Supremes had a lot less screentime, so to say. I'm hyped to see what the new batch is. If Halam is gonna die of space cancer in a few years, he's gotta pick one.
You are going to punch something, but at the last second you rotate your hips and swing your fist directly into the wall instead of the indigo doctor in front of you. The thick, super-dense material reinforced, self-cleaning material actually buckles and cracks from the force of your impact. You feel an instant jolt of intense pain, the cracking of bones, and warm blood begin to seep from your fingers. You pull your hand back as the doctor slowly opens his eyes, assuming that this was the end of his life just seconds ago.“Oh! My Lord... you hurt your hand.”He takes your broken hand into his. It stings badly, and you grit your teeth. It does not distract you from the sensation in the rest of your body like you wanted.“You might have broke some of your carpal bones. We'll print replacements right away; faster then regeneration. If any of the ligaments were hurt, we can heal them back with laser therapy. Should be noninvasive. I'll make sure you regain full use of this hand and will be completely painless by the end of this week, your Majesty.””Why don't you grow me back some new protiens so mine will stop unravelling. How about that?”The doctor dutifully cleans and sanitizes your injured hand, but says nothing. It's clear that your condition is here to stay.It doesn't really hurt. You just feel it every day, all the time. The strange sensation of an itch in your bones, the sense of “wrongness” that won't stop. Your lifestyle changes; it is no longer about living your life as you wish, on your terms; it is about submission to your chronic condition. There was a point, maybe, when it first came about that you thought you could avoid it, or heal it, or somehow overcome it. Maybe the self-regulating cycles of your body could have protected you, but no, you crossed that line. And as the days and weeks turn to months and years, it won't ever go back to how it was.
You keep thinking about it. Now? It seems so obvious. The different triggers and risk-factors were all there; you just didn't know them at the time. You keep wishing you could go back and do things differently, even though you know it's illogical. You were healthy, not in the normal demographic who should be worried about this kind of thing, in the prime of your life and accumulation of your skill and prestige. You had no reason to be concerned. Now, you look back at those times of healthy ignorance with jealousy and disdain, like you wish you could be who you were before.So instead, you sit here and reminicse. You life is over already, in your early thirties. Your warstaff sits by your side, neglected. Dueling practice, one of your favorite things once, triggers your symptoms now. So it must be taken to an absolute minimum.The worst part is even though you know it's dumb. Truthfully, you were damned from the moment of your conception. The time bomb was waiting in your genetics. Yet you can't help but still feel guilt and remorse from not taking care of yourself better; even though you already did almost everything to protect yourself, the one thing you were at risk for and you didn't know about is the one that got you. Any normal, average organism would be exposed to more and be less careful then you and still not have been ruined. For you, it would have just happened a few years later. Even if you had been perfect, something would have come along and irritated you, some stressor or some attack or some poisoning. Yet you still worry and twist over it; because it would be worth it to go back and get just one, two, three more years of not having this.
Your youthful, happy virility. Your innate self worth and wholeness of body. All of it is gone now; replaced with submission. You tie your gut into knots thinking on how to avoid triggering attacks, on the medicines and techniques you endlessly fret over to make sure your life only gets 1% worse this week, instead of 2% or 3%. There is no upwards hill, no hope, only a managed and calculated approach to the decline. That's your life now. It's misery.At the very least, if you had been killed by an Aristocrat bioweapon, you would have died from a direct, singular cause. Not some chronic full-body blameless mess of little nothings. Not something you can point to and say “I'll have to avoid that for next time”, but there is no next time, because your life is already ruined. Whatever is left of it anyway. Even if it would have been a rare, untreatable disease would have been better; because at least your life would have been ruined for something unseen, something new and adding to the medical research and understanding of your culture and people. Perhaps even as an example to future generations. But no, it's not something unique. It's commonplace, banal, the triggers and effects all well understood and having nothing new to add to the medical literature. The only thing unusual about you is how unlucky and cruelly it hit someone who would otherwise be the furthest from having to worry about it. Miserable, rotten bad luck.Why did it have to be you? Why did you have to be struck from the highest point in your life; for no reason or cause. For no benefit to anyone. As the Supreme Ruler, you are expected a certain amount of stoicism to your position; a certain amount of noble and dignified acceptance is required on your point. But it's very easy to say that those who suffer must accept their suffering when you aren't the one suffering. When you aren't the one experienced the guilty, self-pitying misery.Impotent, pointless, hopeless misery. Misery.
-------------------Hey everyone, thanks for playing this thread of Space Monke Quest! I'm still in a pretty strong Monke mood, but I need to take a break as this thread has already gone on so long. Hope you enjoyed it!Instead of asking the usual three questions; this time I'm interested to get the most interesting "What Ifs" and other possible timelines written down somewhere, so this seems like a great thread to do it!Ask any "what if" questions you have for events or characters from thread #12 or earlier and I'll do my best to answer them.
>>6290635Not ending the thread with a supreme choice? Odd choice. This seemed like a perfect slot for them. As for the what-if questions, here's a few so you can pick whichever sounds "most" interesting>What if Eoba knelt to the Worms?>What if Akule didn't decide to go full Unspeakable and kill guy-whose-name-i-forgot?>What if the Traditionalist Coup happened?>Alternatively, what if Cijan *agreed* to the political parties? (We know it would have resulted in the perfect child, but what else?)
>>6290643By traditionalist coup I mean those guys who got the chance to coup while Cijan was *away*, not the latter united coup that ended with Cijan being killed.
>>6290635What if we picked the Swall supreme (besides not getting a minigame nonus)? What if we picked Iceberg as an advisor? I might think of more later.
>>6290648>What if we picked the Swall SupremeWhy spoil that one? We might get another opportunity to do it later.
>>6290649Why not let Bananas decide what to answer instead of getting all up in my business?
>>6290651Gee, someone's in a bad mood.
Damn I KNEW I should have said Thread #11 or earlier lol
Huh, I clicked on Thread 10 to get inspo for questions and the Unspeakable Mask that Hass wore had a big green splotch and the red "scar" on the right side, not across the middle. And then I looked and literally all the Death Masks look different.What exactly is going on here? Is there a dedicated Death Mask Painter somewhere? Did the original Death Mask fall apart 800 years ago and they've just been hastily making new Death Masks every time it's relevant since? Is it supernaturally shapeshifting to match the Supreme that's going to wear it (cracks for Halam's condition, green splotch for Hass's green muzzle)? Or does Bananas not check continuity when he draws it?
>>6290648Why not Zoidberg?
>>6290635What if we hadn't stayed out in the cold as Akule, waiting for Brun?What was your least favorite write-in?
>>6290672>What was your least favorite write-in?Dreams sidequest post5I've calmed down about it a bit but it basically made me sperg out and not allow write ins for like a year
>>6290635Okay here's some more. >Did you have plans for that hypothetical three-way Life Machine hybrid? People were talking about it a lot last thread.>What if Radjo didn't get Wormed? Would he have led us into a golden age of Starsight? Did the Radjo clones ever amount to anything? >What if we gave the Jaxtians the Swalli intelligence gene?>What if Kima answered the incredibly stupid utilitarianism Supreme-testing question "correctly"? Was she ever a viable Supreme option? (Still mad she murdered whatshisface and then gave the title to WRIX of all people)
>>6290635I guess this might dip into 'spoilers' territory, but it was such a long time ago now, so:>Were the remnant 'Basalisk rogue AI' cores from Alavis that escaped from our system purge responsible for the memetic corruption and hence destruction of the Seekers?
>>6290635What would've happened if we bothered to make a bioweapon out of those old spores back in Thread #11?
Your what ifs are appreciated and are being cataloged for the big response post.
>>6290241honestly with the amount of punch to kill i am starting to wonder if there is some bullshit happening where if he kills someone like that he will somehow regain more life
>>6290715could that not be the machine union or something?
>>6290676>Was she ever a viable Supreme option?Nvm, reread down the thread a little more and Threemind outright admitted to rigging the tests against her so she'd settle down and pop out magic babies. Wow! I love Hegemony gender relations!
>>6290739not sure if i remember was she not the one to stab the supreme in the back? Thinking it made her supreme not having had a formal challenge or anything, also hilariously if she sent the precedence for how to become supreme after that point it would have meant a endless chain of assassinations like a game of musical chairs until the whole system collapses
I actually had an idea for a lore post / bonus image to elaborate on dueling traditions but I might cover it more in the next thread
I recall both a baalathi (the gas giant guys) and a migrator being options for heads of science/other stuff in earlier threads:>What if the Baalathi or the migrator option was picked? What would it have led to?
>>6290743Duelling is always cool to hear more about.
>>6290745are the baalathi still around?
>>6290814I believe so, but rhet don't really do anything.
>>6290742That DOES make you Supreme, usually, under such circumstances. Kima was disgusted and gave it up, and Threemind later admitted that it was too inherently sexist to have ever allowed a Female Supreme.
>>6290643>Eoba knelt to the wormsThis is a really difficult one because it likely would have changed the entire trajectory of the Quest. I don't think I would have taken it as a game over, but moreso the “proof” in the nontranscendental qualities of the “monke universe”. You would have regained a worm advisor and likely been back into international relations much faster since you were kind of blacklisted and had all those others problems related to diplomacy for like 6+ threads after this (this was back in thread #4 wow)Ultimately I think the players would have rejected the worms eventually anyway given their obvious villainous status and discovery of things like Starsight and the Migrators being more plot-relevant and mystically significant. This is also one of those “fake” choics thought because I had almost zero belief the players would actually kneel to the worm given it was the end of Eoba II's entire nature vs nurture heroic arc; basically fighting the personalification of physical reality and overcoming it with this dueling knives.>Akule didn't go full UnspeakableWouldn't happen, it was part of the story arc and not something the players got to choose. The entire purpose of that side thread was to show Akule's rise to power and the importance of the “mark of the kinslayer” which was hinted at in threads afterwards, but I know the prequel thread was not well received for a bunch of reasons. If Akule didn't kill Brun and use it as a way to become powerful in Centralia then I assume he would have never left the reservation and stayed with the Blondes until they were forced to industrialize and end up as SOVLLESS as the rest of the Jaxtians during the Degenerate Capitalist Era. Likely he would have been put in jail and eventually executed for terrorism.
>>6290647>Traditionalist CoupThis arc had a setup between three main possible “political parties” that could gain power in the Yuan'Tul crisis. The traditionalists were the Jaxtian Supremacist party, the Blackspots were the economic/materialist section and the pragmatists were the scientific and most “Hegemonic” party of the three. The players got to choose which ones were most powerful based on the three books. This one was lead by Kerjak I believe, who wore a black knife to show his Xenophobia. I believe I had planned for this to lead to a civil war arc and/or the new black-knife led Hegemony to be much more brutal and oppressive towards their alien subjects. Maybe with a genocide choice down the line with the mask. The “other Hegemony” that would have spawned from a civil war arc would have set up in the HVS to run the favella nation and be a rival until they could eventually be defeated. I also had a plan to introduce a diplomacy choice to partner with the Esaal, Consortium, or Aristocrats to help dislodge the traitors but those factions were not nearly developed at the time so I can't say what it would have “cost” to do that; just that you would have had the chance to ally with one a bit sooner.>Cijan AgreedThis was the choice with the most thought behind it. Basically you were picking political parties to end up slightly limiting your Supreme Ruler powers for the rest of the Quest (in addition to getting the wonderchild). The idea was that each party would give you a limitation in addition to adding new characters/complications.The Traditionalist would not allow for Xeno Overseers (like Bluey being forced to step down)The Economists would not allow you to take “expensive” options without permission (this game mechanic was being figured out around this time and was not as set in stone yet)And the Pragmatists would limit certain cultural luxuries and things like that, especially hurting Jaxtian nobility (Knife dueling, the robes, dances, etc.) I think I also planned for it to be that they would nullify or wouldn't allow you to make vows for some reason, but I don't remember the justification for it.
>>6290648>>6290649Xeno Supremes could still come up again, so I won't spoil those aspects. Instead, I'll talk about the minigames. This thread was kinda built up around the minigames (even though it went on a lot longer and expanded the scope more then I thought it would) with both being 3-4 posts long but dense, and each Supreme Ruler being good at one of the games. Halam was the war leader and got a bonus to the Aristocrat invasion, and Usis was the spymaster and got bonuses to the Urgi thing. Christopher was planned to be the third wheel; having both games being difficult and a lore portion of the Quest naturally being about the difficulties of being the first non-Jaxtian Supreme if picked; with how well you do on the minigames perhaps determining how Christopher would be seen in the future. Thus making it harder and “raising the stakes”, but he would naturally get a bonus to the science oppertunities brought up by the minigames.>>6290745>Iceberg advisorAlways somewhat included as a shitpost (same as Max-Mind). Somewhat of a trap choice, like when players decided to put Najan Val in charge of culture and having little to no return from it; Overseer Iceberg would be so slow and sleepy you wouldn't get much out of him. Part of the Quest's difficulty. I would have had picking Max-Mind grant a new technology in regards to controlling the Baalathi, but we kinda already extracted everything interesting about them with them being used to magnetically help build ships or whatever.>>6290672>Not staying out in the coldSo I actually did have an idea for this one; since this was an early “trap choice” it didn't have much consequence. I thought if you did go back downstairs to the party(?) you would get more insight into wholesome blonde culture and also another hint Brun was gay earlier in the Quest.>>6290676>Three-Race Hybrid?No, that was included as a bit of a wildcard and just drawn for fun. If actually seriously persued in this thread (Secret Project Chimera) would have been more interesting and led to the possible ability to make all Hegemonic races capable of crossbreeding with each other; but no actual hybrids
>>6290676>RadjoRadjo & Radjo clones were meant to be callbacks to the Boys & Girls thread and show the character's growth over horny teenage boy into master of the arcane space wizard stuff. The clones were just there to show it isn't some autism gene you can shove into every Jaxtian; they were an important part of the genetic/training on how to make Starseers and you couldn't have created the Starsight Academy without them. Radjo getting wormed was a direct punishment or cost of messing with the worms in Starsight after the warning when they took down Radjo's teacher.>Swall intelligene geneI'm not sure about this one. I was never happy with losing the tails being the trade-off for it; but I couldn't think of any other way to make it significantly “expensive” enough to add, since even if I implied it was a tiny intelligence boost with no downside you KNOW people would instantly pick it even if the other options are more interesting or better. Being a sci-fi and also civ game research and smarts are constantly overvalued (since they're usually OP in 4x games or related media) which is something I try to intentionally avoid to make it so the only defining factor of a species power level is just how smart they are. I think the direct cost/choice here would be losing some of your climbing ability and balance to just make Jaxtians smarter, with the hidden cost/outcome of Jaxtians feeling inferior because they lost their tails (Jaxtian slaves had their tails removed), lowering their social weight.Also to briefly come back to this >>6287442 post up here; I've also been allowing players somewhat to shape the Jaxtian's evolution and basically decide what kind of “race” they want to be in space. If big strong brutes, the fast and agile dex build types, smart guys, etc. While there was a brief time the Jaxtians were the only race in the Hegemony especially after the genocides; I still feel a bit bad the players either haven't fully decided a role for them or I didn't give good enough reason to “specalize” their species. You can't really say they're the Dex in our Fighter/Rogue/Mage combo of Vetucker, Jaxtian, and Swall since Jaxtians are both agile and very smart but can also be super strong with the Alpha male gene. That's why I included the option to remove that as well, essentially allowing you to upgrade the Vetuckers into your muscle. There's a lot more to say about this but that's more in the Quest itself.
>>6290676>Kima's choiceShe would have passed that test but been filtered by a “standard, routine, very easy test” that most Jaxtian males in her genetic level can pass easily called the “High-Level Aptitude Test” or something like that. Implied to be extremely demoralized from failing this test; she would give up her Supreme ambitions because of it. Threemind would directly confirm near the end of the thread (when talking to Kima's mom) that it failed her on purpose (even though she actually passed it) as a way to filter her from going any further in her training since it was all part of the whim of the breeding program. One of the major themes of “Boys & Girls” was that both sexes are manipulated by society to specific aims; the Hegemony just taking it to an extreme and only valuing Kima for her body and genes and Radjo only for his labor or strength instead of anything he cared about.Also>Head of an extremely pragmatic facist dictatorship obsessed with absolute effeciency>Test to see if you'd sacrifice someone if the value of their death was worth more then their life>”incredibly stupid test”lol>>6290715No, but I do regret not bringing the Alavis cores back as a small expansion hazard/”early game” threat.Random tangent; similar to 4x Games I created a few “not faction based” hazards or threats that can justify military spending and “warrior races” to have something to do before the factions actually start fighting each other. In this case it was the Baalathi, the Liminal space creatures, space whales, and later I thought of self-replicating mining droids or something similar; but decided against it because it would be somewhat illogical why they haven't destroyed the whole universe yet (later explained away with FTL needing organics to do it for the most part) and because I logically didn't think the Alavis cores could really manufacture more of themselves given their lack of technology. Space is obviously very “empty” so having something minor and annoying to deal with early is ideal, and I regret not doing it earlier in the quest since I felt minus interacting with the species behind you in technology it was very safe and boring with little military action. Oh, except the Andoen turrets I guess, which is an example of what I mean (passive defenses).
>>6290720The White & Black Spores are basically planetary defenses. The idea was to explain how the Hazaar planets didn't get easily invaded or tie into their biotech even though it wasn't super realistic or logical. I would have given you the ability to choose to find a way to weaponize it more with your biology (more of an anti-personal weapon) or keep it as a planetary defense system; the spores protecting the planets from invading ships as a sort of biological missile defense system. I regret adding the stupid “oh but you can genetically modify your species so their skins produce oils to protect them from the spores” since I couldn't think of another logically reason they wouldn't just destroy anything but just saying the spores are alive and can be trained to not attack Hegemony ships or whatever makes more sense now. It was another opportunity to develop a powerful weapon, use it as a defense, or just destroy it and make your planets safer/save money for later I believe the prompt was. Similar to many of the other tech prompts, this would also be an opportunity to shift your science towards the “biological” side of the specturm, like the Aristocrats or Hazaar, as opposed to the more mechanical Esaal and Consortium.I also briefly had the idea for a surprise update to come out of it; where any Vetuckers who accidentally ate the spores would find them growing in their stomach and could gain limited control over them, basically making them biological spore carrying weapons or letting them become like suicide bombers when they die as an extra zombie-like mutation for combat but since the players didn't pick it and I figured the Swall were more of the “biological weapon mutation” type species I didn't bring it back up.Anyway- Thank you all for the fun questions! While I usually run another Quest in between Monke threads, and there's at least a few quests I'd like to start a part 2 or 3 for, I've really enjoyed this Monke thread, I might just run another mainline thread, but we'll see.Archive link – https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2025/6266528/That's the end of this thread then. Hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think about the minigames and the like if you want, excited to see it continue. Thanks for playing!
Interesting stuff. I still wish we taught our cowbros Flamethrower, kek! Thank you for running, QM.
Thanks for running Mr. Bananas, and thank you for answering the questions. Very interesting to read how things could have gone.
>>6291000Thanks for the solid behind the scene things QM.Can't wait for more Monke business
>>6290955dont that open up the issue that it will just result in a series of Supremes assassinating each other getting nothing done except trying to kill or defend against it
So Banana, do you have an estimate time for running next one?
>>6298046Hopefully soon, but no promises at the minute.
>>6299086Poggers. Nice bonus art btw
>>6299086Either this thread or next will see some art coming your way, then.
