Fractal Softworks Forum

Starsector => General Discussion => Topic started by: Botaragno on November 27, 2018, 01:41:08 PM

Title: Who let the Pathers ally with the Church?
Post by: Botaragno on November 27, 2018, 01:41:08 PM
The ingame description of the Pathers explicitly states:
"They view the church as compromised and corrupt, putting worldly ego and comforts before the True Luddic Path in these End Times."

But then they're "Known Allies" from the get go with the regular Luddic Church?

Is Alex really going to keep this forward? This essentially means the Pathers are never not going to be a problem without genociding the Church to oblivion, not to mention how Pathers have a permanent supply fallback with the Church.
Title: Re: Who let the Pathers ally with the Church?
Post by: Vayra on November 27, 2018, 02:17:12 PM
I would imagine it's quite a bit like the way extremist groups draw support from larger mainstream organizations in real life? While the official stance of the Path is that the Church is corrupt and the official stance of the Church is that the path are extremists, no small number of the Church's people secretly (or not-so-secretly) sympathize with the Path, to varying degrees ranging from simply not being willing to publicly denounce them ("well, maybe we should hear what the path has to say") to actually providing material support.
Title: Re: Who let the Pathers ally with the Church?
Post by: Deshara on November 27, 2018, 07:31:48 PM
it'd be way easier to just reply w "fiction imitates reality lol" but fortunately for us we don't live in a world where a billionaire who made his fortune from fraud (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-wealth-fred-trump.html) won an election to the most powerful military position in the world while claiming he was anti-corruption.
Title: Re: Who let the Pathers ally with the Church?
Post by: Embolism on November 27, 2018, 08:43:26 PM
It makes sense though doesn't it? Pathers may view the Church as corrupt but they have no reason to commit Terrorism against the Church so long as other factions exist. And there's no doubt an undercurrent of sympathy and support for the Path behind the scenes on Luddic worlds.

The Zagan mission also shows that the Path will work together with the Church when it comes to expanding Luddism in general.
Title: Re: Who let the Pathers ally with the Church?
Post by: Embercloud on November 27, 2018, 11:30:40 PM
Officially, they're not the same entity. Unofficially, however...

I also bet that the pathers are willing to let their problems with the church slide depending on how desperate they are.
Title: Re: Who let the Pathers ally with the Church?
Post by: Gothars on November 28, 2018, 03:14:17 AM
it'd be way easier to just reply w "fiction imitates reality lol" but fortunately for us we don't live in a world where a billionaire who made his fortune from fraud (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-wealth-fred-trump.html) won an election to the most powerful military position in the world while claiming he was anti-corruption.

I'll have an eye on this thread, please keep real world politics/religion out of the discussion. That goes for everyone, of course.
Title: Re: Who let the Pathers ally with the Church?
Post by: Histidine on November 28, 2018, 04:03:25 AM
Code: java
path.setRelationship(church.getId(), RepLevel.COOPERATIVE);
3:1 odds this is just Alex's hack to make Path not spawn cells on Luddic Church planets.

(The old "faction monogamy" event in the version just before we got commissions used cooperative status to determine if faction A should not get jealous of player becoming friendly with faction B)