Cheers! I have compiled a small batch. Well, not exactly small. Rather large actually. Huge even. Sorry about that. In return, I promise I'll write fanfiction in the near future. Promise!
- How long is a sector cycle compared to a standard Terran year?
- How do ships travel around the sector? Is there some kind of hyperdrive or is it all done at sub-light speeds and using cryogenics?
- Is communication between planets instantaneaous? Or rather radio-wave speed?
- Have there been attempts to seek out other sectors? Is that even high on the agenda of Starfarer's factions?
- How big is the sector? Are there hundred of worlds? Or is more like dozens?
- How many of those worlds are 'major worlds'?
- How big is the sector? Are there hundred of worlds? Or is more like dozens?
About 6 months to a year to traverse using hyperdrive. Aiming for ~1k star systems, but that could change appreciably in either direction.
- How many of those worlds are 'major worlds'?
We're calling them "core worlds", and there are ~20. There's no colonization going on anymore - that's beyond human capability now. So any core world that's lost - whether due to the collapse of authority, war, or large-scale industrial sabotage - is a permanent blow against human civilization in the Sector.
How many worlds are under the control of the Hegemony? How do the other factions compare to that?
How long does it take on average to reach a nearby world?
What are the main factions? We know of the Hegemony, Tri-Tachyon and the Luddites. Are there other big league players?
Is the Selenius system still independent?
The Luddites abhor technology, yet are not afraid to use it. Do they consider using technology to be a temporary measure? Do they believe the sector can survive at all without UAC's and autofactories? Can their society function at this very moment? Or are they just some sort of 'terrorist group'?
Are there still worlds that are being actively terraformed? Or is terraforming considered to be Lost-tech?
Is there a standard template for an autofactory? Or do they differ in shapes and thus have hundreds of templates?
Are shipyards considered to be a massive autofactory?
Can new autofactories be constructed at all?
Are autofactories the only way to produce things or is the sector reverting back to old school manual labor?
Production is done by using templates provided by UAC's. How important are those to the 'tech level' of the sector? Is Tri-Tachyon doing research on its own for instance? Or are most technological innovations rediscovered instead of researched?
Since Inferium is the sole source of space fuel, what stops the hegemony from dominating its regulation? Or is the source of Infernium far more widespread, allowing other factions to gather their fill?
How is everyday power generated? Fusion, anti-matter? Do spaceships use the same powersource for everyday activity or is spacefuel the only thing that keeps a ship running?
How widespread is piracy? Are we talking the glory days of the buccaneers in the Caribbean? Or are the other factions capable of keeping their main lanes secure?
Are mercenaries organised in any way? Battletech for instance had Merc-Net, where everyone interested (and rich!) could hire a merc. Or is it more 'I know a guy' and visiting the seedier bars, thus making it more of a quest to find mercenaries?
Are there any notorious pirates or mercenaries? The IIS Black Star seems to be quite known for instance.
Do they still have beer in the far future? :)
Is there currency in the sector? Is it universal and thus accepted by everyone?
How is the chain command for the Hegemony? Do you have an admiral in charge? A leader? An oligarchy? Do they use contemporary military ranks?
Do the Tri-Tachyon or the Luddites use a similar chain of command?
How are ships piloted? Is it the same principle like a bridge in Star Trek? Or do the Tri-Tachyon for instance use more fancy stuff like advanced computer systems and holographics, allowing for smaller crews?
How are captains, officers and crew trained? I imagine the Hegemony uses an academy or something, perhaps even just conscripting crew from the 'undesirables' in society. Tri-Tachyon might do more headhunting, since I believe that not every scientists is as 'adventurous' as a ship's captain. The Luddites perhaps just make do with eager volunteers. Something along these lines?
How are marines armed? Do we have low-tech marines with ballistics, middle-tech with some laser weapon and high-tech marines covered in an exoskeleton? Or am I just going overboard? :)
Are planetary invasions commonplace?
Wow, about 1,000 star systems? :o That is making me rethink my limited understanding of how the campaign will eventually play out, very cool! :)
So, since there will only be about 20 core colonized planets, what will the other roughly 980 star-systems consist of? Barren planets to be used as mineral deposits, or maybe set up with a space station for trade and refueling? Just curious what there is to do out in the wide world, if the planets out there are not inhabited. :)
Or wait....you said beyond human capability.
Dun dun dun! :o
Man I'm really getting excited to see 0.5 soon, good times indeed.
Also, Aliens are now confirmed to exist in Starfarer! ;D
If this is a sandbox then plenty of scope for maybe colonization or exploration and expansion packs and other content as u go along
It should get me started on my little story. Well, my interpretation of little anyway. :p I'll be sure to pester you guys with more questions in the future as they pop up while I'm writing.
Wow, about 1,000 star systems? :o That is making me rethink my limited understanding of how the campaign will eventually play out, very cool! :)
So, since there will only be about 20 core colonized planets, what will the other roughly 980 star-systems consist of? Barren planets to be used as mineral deposits, or maybe set up with a space station for trade and refueling? Just curious what there is to do out in the wide world, if the planets out there are not inhabited. :)
I don't think that all of those worlds are uninhabited. I can imagine mining posts, trade posts, a few prison worlds, listening posts, weapon testing facilities, even a few space-monasteries perhaps. While those worlds might just consist of a large base, 'domed over' to protect them from less than ideal atmostpheric conditions, there is life there. It's only the core worlds that are fully terraformed and have sufficient population and industry to be considered powerhouses.
i see myself being a bit more like a Robin Hood of the stars.
large mercenary fleet combating with the larger factions on behalf of the planets that cant afford their protection so that they may stay alive..
Are starfarer ships capable of entering planetary atmospheres? Does this vary from ship to ship?
I can, however, confirm that spaceships have Windows (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista) :)
i see myself being a bit more like a Robin Hood of the stars.
large mercenary fleet combating with the larger factions on behalf of the planets that cant afford there protection so that they may stay alive..
i see myself being a bit more like a Robin Hood of the stars.
large mercenary fleet combating with the larger factions on behalf of the planets that cant afford there protection so that they may stay alive..
And if things get really bad, you can easily resort to racketeering ;D.
So that leaves the option that they could suddenly gain sentience and attack your fleet? Interesting...
Might be an idea for a mod? Hmmm? that's your department right?
So that leaves the option that they could suddenly gain sentience and attack your fleet? Interesting...
-How are "independent" systems governed (like Exar, I mean). Do they have things under control? Are pirates particularly rampant in worlds not controlled by hegemony or tri-tachyon? Is the hegemony actually doing Exar a favor by taking it out of the incompetent hands of the Exar High Command (Does Exar High Command even exist?)
-Are the Ludii a major threat to the military? or are civilian targets all they go for?
What about the guys in The Last Hurrah? Are they the last remaining thread of the government saving the world from total annihilation in the vain hope to reestablish order?
Also, which ship is the most comfortable, the least?
They're more concerned with saving the people on that world - friends, families, loved ones. Most of them - the commanders, certainly - realize that the world has gone over the brink and is beyond saving in the long-term. Not that they have much hope of success going into that battle - it's more of a "die with the world" than an earnest effort to do something useful.
In the context of that mission - if they did win, they'd probably become the first refugee fleet to leave the planet.
I like how fighters aren't constrained to carriers alone. But they definitely could use a little something to make them stand out and differentiate the classes of ships. Something to make the astral an immediately better carrier than lesser ships besides just defenses and flight decks.
Another question, if you please: I noticed the graphics for the tactical map are labeled "warroom", does that mean it represents the character being physically in such a command room while looking at that map?
See the thread linked above, there are some ideas for just that. Even though my lore concerns regarding carrier differences are now eased, I still think more choice would make for more interesting gameplay.
I've always kinda wondered, just how are shields explained in starfarer ;D
Since well, they seem to be selectively able to choose what passes through (your weapons) but blocks everything (their weapons) but also not everything (fighters)
Seems like it is just another one of those deus ex machinas :P
I've always kinda wondered, just how are shields explained in starfarer ;D
Since well, they seem to be selectively able to choose what passes through (your weapons) but blocks everything (their weapons) but also not everything (fighters)
Seems like it is just another one of those deus ex machinas :P
I've always kinda wondered, just how are shields explained in starfarer ;DFighters are presumably flying over and around the ship.
Since well, they seem to be selectively able to choose what passes through (your weapons) but blocks everything (their weapons) but also not everything (fighters)
Seems like it is just another one of those deus ex machinas :P
I like the idea of applying literary textual analysis to a game. It's a shame we don't do it more often!It really isn't. People read in to things that just aren't there to begin with. Of course, people do the same thing with any kind of art.
(If I were Alex, though, I think I might be a little weirded out.)
Off-topic question: does anything about the way IWrite? No. Speak? Yes. Until I heard that interview you did for (insert gaming website here), I didn't suspect anything.speakwrite give away that I'm not a native English speaker? Aside from the occasional dropped article, that is - for which, if on Twitter, I plead 140 chars :)
Off-topic question: does anything about the way IWrite? No. Speak? Yes. Until I heard that interview you did for (insert gaming website here), I didn't suspect anything.speakwrite give away that I'm not a native English speaker? Aside from the occasional dropped article, that is - for which, if on Twitter, I plead 140 chars :)
Or perhaps you blink the shield at just the right moment to allow pass-through. And the astronomical odds of enemy fire passing through at the exact same instant is just abstracted away to nothing.
It really isn't. People read in to things that just aren't there to begin with. Of course, people do the same thing with any kind of art.
I guess I'm just going to have to agree to disagree. I find that a lot of the time the author just wants to tell a good story and a game developer just wants to make a good game.It really isn't. People read in to things that just aren't there to begin with. Of course, people do the same thing with any kind of art.
Yeah, I studied English literature (and may yet go on to get a PhD) so this kind of nonsense is my bread & butter. Not to derail the thread even further, but I do think there's value in "things that just aren't there to begin with"—literary criticism has gone way too far in terms of thinking authorial intent irrelevant, but there's often more to a text than just what its author consciously intended.
Off-topic question: does anything about the way IYeah, sometimes the way you write things hints of the second language. But it's all nuance and I can't think of a specific example. And I wouldn't have been sure until you said that.speakwrite give away that I'm not a native English speaker? Aside from the occasional dropped article, that is - for which, if on Twitter, I plead 140 chars :)
I was talking in terms of age not if English is your second language sorry for the confusion :)(If I were Alex, though, I think I might be a little weirded out.)
:-\
Off-topic question: does anything about the way Ispeakwrite give away that I'm not a native English speaker? Aside from the occasional dropped article, that is - for which, if on Twitter, I plead 140 chars :)
I find that a lot of the time the author just wants to tell a good story and a game developer just wants to make a good game.
Something that I was toying with was a lore justification for the command point and deployment system that is currently used in combat as I have not seen one so far. Here is what I came up with:That actually makes sense. Though I just thought points simply relied on the admiral's innate command abilities and those of his officers.
Ships equipped for combat, in addition to the normal sensor suite and other standard systems, are also equipped with broad-spectrum jamming tools that flood local space with interference and mean that normal communication is virtually impossible. Under these circumstances the only way to communicate is by prearranged code blips of high-power transmission that can only transmit very basic orders regarding pre-arranged objectives and ship-identities. Anything more complicated is smothered by the blanket jamming.
The jamming tools are adaptive however and after a certain number of blips will adapt to block even these most basic of transmissions meaning that a commander must be very selective in who and what he orders, even limiting the number of ships he deploys. Deploying more is not safe as after a certain limit IFF systems are unable to cope and friendly fire is almost inevitable.
The extra power and systems gained by possession of objectives such as sensor stations, nav buoys and most especially comm stations enables a commander to cut through the static to order additional ships into combat and state additional objectives.
Thoughts?
Yeah the lore doesn't really need to explicitly justify EVERY gameplay mechanic does it?
Yeah the lore doesn't really need to explicitly justify EVERY gameplay mechanic does it?
Why not, I think it's fun to try. The fewer logic gaps there are, the easier it is to immerse in the game world, at least for me. As long as the gameplay is not altered just to be more explainable, but that's nothing I can see Alex do, ever.
Something I miss about games from my childhood is how I used to be able to fill in the gaps with my imagination. Part of it is that, since I'm no longer a child, my imagination isn't as rampant, but also modern games feel the need to explain everything. I'm perfectly happy with a game not providing an explanation for every little thing since it leaves room for me to interject my own thoughts and theories.
That being said, I also really like story in my games. I'm okay with a game explaining things if it adds to that. I should really think up some question about the lore, since it's started to pique my interest.
In games that rely heavily on immersion it can kill the entire thing for me. Once I understood how things worked in Skyrim (without ever attempting to) it suddenly seemed so mechanical, I lost interest and never finished it.
That's a good explanation attempt, well done. I expect it will be somewhat impaired once character progression allows for more command points, though. You could still explain it by increasing coding/decoding ability, but that's something a communications officers does, not the character himself.
And even right now the description of Hornet's Nest speaks of a combat-inexperienced commander, represented by few command points.
Alex is russian?... I have even more proof to my theory that russians make the best video games. :)
Metro 2033 wich was so immersive,
Alex is russian?... I have even more proof to my theory that russians make the best video games. :)
On which games do you base that theory?
Oh, ok. I thought I missed something. Metro the novel was written by a Russian, but the Videogame was made in the Ukraine. Precursors was also made in the Ukraine.Metro 2033 wich was so immersive,
Alex is russian?... I have even more proof to my theory that russians make the best video games. :)
On which games do you base that theory?
The precursors (you can walk around on planets, fly ships and walk around in ships),Parkan II the same idea as the precursors but with better FPS combat inside ships, IL2 because I love flight sims.
What kind of government does the Hegemony have? It it akin to a democracy/republic, or more like a monarchy like it's shown in Hope and Duty?
E: would women be allowed to serve in hegemony military? in some cultures on earth there not so i am not sure.
For ships above frigate size 1 pixel = 1 meter works pretty well. It corresponds with docking fighter sizes and the windows you see. I say docking fighter because they usually are above the battlefield, you only see the real size the moment they dock on/launch from a carrier, it's about half as big.
e/ That makes the Paragon ~360m long. Fighters 12-21 m.
how do the factions glass planets? planets are pretty big, and from the discussion on scale, the ships are not much bigger than most ships today.
do they use some sort of special missiles or bombs?
-How are "independent" systems governed (like Exar, I mean). Do they have things under control? Are pirates particularly rampant in worlds not controlled by hegemony or tri-tachyon? Is the hegemony actually doing Exar a favor by taking it out of the incompetent hands of the Exar High Command (Does Exar High Command even exist?)
They have things under control, as much as anyone else. The Hegemony isn't doing Exar any favors, though - the government in that world has collapsed, and restoring it to order is something beyond the power of anyone in the Sector to do. The Hegemony fleet is coming to glass the decivilized world, to remove it as a destabilizing influence - otherwise its industrial facilities/tech may fall into the hands of undesirable elements, it'll serve as a source of manpower for pirates and such, refugees will flood nearby worlds, etc.
They have things under control, as much as anyone else. The Hegemony isn't doing Exar any favors, though - the government in that world has collapsed, and restoring it to order is something beyond the power of anyone in the Sector to do. The Hegemony fleet is coming to glass the decivilized world, to remove it as a destabilizing influence - otherwise its industrial facilities/tech may fall into the hands of undesirable elements, it'll serve as a source of manpower for pirates and such, refugees will flood nearby worlds, etc.
follow up question:
The ship designs we have seen so far are generally geared towards space combat, but there are some (Valkyrie, Atlas) that are suited for other roles. Are there ships that are specifically suited to bombing planets and asteroids, or would they just sort of rig up a Dominator with a bunch of Reapers?
how do the factions glass planets? planets are pretty big, and from the discussion on scale, the ships are not much bigger than most ships today.For ships above frigate size 1 pixel = 1 meter works pretty well. It corresponds with docking fighter sizes and the windows you see. I say docking fighter because they usually are above the battlefield, you only see the real size the moment they dock on/launch from a carrier, it's about half as big.
e/ That makes the Paragon ~360m long. Fighters 12-21 m.
do they use some sort of special missiles or bombs?
Is there any info on the "non-human race" the Domain of Man supposedly had a war with? (this is not suggesting that they be added to Starsector, as I think an alien race would ruin the feel of the game)As far as i know, no, but who knows, maybe they had something to do with the shutdown of the portals... dun dun dun!!! (there needs to be an emoticon for the "dun dun dun!!!" thing :P)
Are there any ships that can go ftl without a different dimension?As far as i know, the only times when the laws of physics don't apply is when it is convenient for the almighty being known as "The Alex" who is an omnipotent omniscient force who controls the universe and everything in it, so yes ships can go FTL but only if the The Alex wills it.
...snip...
How do your ballistic weapons work in spess? Are they all mass accelerators or do they have liquid ignition propellant?
In Starfarer, Domain advances in chemical engineering, nanotechnology and industrialization have led to the development of even more advanced chemical propellants. Of course, not all guns in the game use chemical propellants, as people have noted in the thread. Some are rail guns, others are much more exotic and use Lorentz force to propel their projectile (Mjolnir cannon).
They key thing to remember is that the technology at use in the sector was actually developed during different Epochs of the Domain. And, unlike real life, new tech is not almost always better than the old.
Why do our ballistic weapons suddenly loose range after their arbitrary number? There is no friction in spess, is there lore for this or is it just game balance?
What time period are we looking at here? How far from our current existence is the game set?
when a smaller ship's armor get's red-hot, what is it like to be inside?.If the armor is separated from the hull by a layer of vacuum, the it'd be almost perfectly insulated.
Ships use a different engine for combat manoeuvring. 3. This is why travel speed and combat speed aren't simply proportional to each other. Also, it is how enemy fleets entangle each other - they intentionally emit gravitational noise to short out the delicate transportation space-warping process.
This is just a little nitpick if you will, if shields are overloaded more easily by kinetic damage. Then shouldn't shaped charges like theBasically shields are projections of the gravity waves of a black hole the high mass of the kinetic slugs (compared to the lower mass of the HE shots) makes the gravity handlers overload and and the EM radiation caused by the overload state creates a disabling EMP effect until the black hole decrees in size due to Hawking Radiation :) IMO
Assault Chaingun do more damage to shields since shaped charges are kinetic?.
its a game and its sci fi and have all topics as me. ;DWhat ???
Probably late. All ships with blue engines are from the late epoch. :)
I've looked around but I haven't been able to find anything about it so ill ask hereI'll give you the cut-and-dry.
I've been wondering about the ships of the different epochs, as in what sort of equipment (shields if any, drives, weapons) did they field in each epoch as well as their design focus across the epochs
I would also like to know when an what happened in each epoch
thanks,Just looked at your ships in the spriter's thread. What he meant by 'early exploration' was 'pre-mastery.'
couple other questions, do the transitions between the epochs have individual names?
Ive recently started making ships and im told my designs would fit within early exploration and i have no idea where that falls under
I was using kinetic colloquially as an equivalent to kinetic. :P My bad.
Goddammit Gothars, y u do disI was using kinetic colloquially as an equivalent to kinetic. :P My bad.
You mean equivalent to ballistic...again ;)
So, with the Jump Gates now in-game, how will this affect the "State of Affairs" lore?
the government in that world has collapsed, and restoring it to order is something beyond the power of anyone in the Sector to do. The Hegemony fleet is coming to glass the decivilized world, to remove it as a destabilizing influence - otherwise its industrial facilities/tech may fall into the hands of undesirable elements, it'll serve as a source of manpower for pirates and such, refugees will flood nearby worlds, etc.
Especially on planets like that of the Corvus II, a jungle, tanks and large vehicles would pretty much be rendered useless by the terrain.
I just noticed that this thread is not stickied. It took me an additional 1.17 minutes to find as a result. This is an unacceptable time penalty!!
I thought this league of planets was part of the independents. At least thinking of them game wise. Not being alinged would mean they arnt the hegmony, tri, ect. So the only option is independent. That's more of an assumption but it only makes since. Of coarse someone could prove me wrong.
Judging by the looks of them, they're a tinpot sorta dictatorship, independent of the hegemony.
Judging by the looks of them, they're a tinpot sorta dictatorship, independent of the hegemony.
I don't agree with that, getting a giant cannon (or what have you) into space is a lot harder than just building it on the ground. planetary batteries should be more effective simply by weight class (although there is the problem of projectiles leaving atmos, but I'd like to think they're beyond that at this point.
Then we have a battle of spaceships vs (presumably) far heavier ground based batteries, which means it is more efficient to send troops planetside to take care of these assets, the planetary defenders deploy their own ground troops in response, etc. etc.
Hi there, I've been reading through the posts here, and was a bit curious about the possible role of (relatively) large mercenary bands with their own planet and shipyards. Although it would often be prudent for smaller bands of ships to simply join one of the existing factions, I'm sure there are some principled enough or stupid enough to try to head out on their own, and occasionally succeed. (Not because I'm too lazy to think of backstory that isn't mercenaries, of course! :P) The sector is so huge, after all, who knows what or who is out there!
Will what brought about the collapse ever be revealed or touched upon? Ingame its been over 200 years since the collapse so clearly the events causing it were almost indescribable in their severity, it can be assumed that the gates failing was the absolute least of the problems faced by those on the other side of them.
However if the fleet was in transit for centuries (or even a couple years really) then surely its ships would have been in a horrific state of disrepair, space is a harsh place, and without regular maintenance anything in it struggles to last for long. Sure satelites like Voyager 1 have been out in space for decades but thats a few basic instruments inside a very well insulated shell. A large fleet of warships would need frequent maintenance to retain functionality, certainly over the sort of timescales we're thinking about here.
Will what brought about the collapse ever be revealed or touched upon? Ingame its been over 200 years since the collapse so clearly the events causing it were almost indescribable in their severity, it can be assumed that the gates failing was the absolute least of the problems faced by those on the other side of them.
Or it might have been a problem only with the gate. Maybe the core sectors of the domain are absolutely fine, just cut off from the newer colonies. It's at least pretty clear in the lore that the Sector's problems arise from its sudden isolation, not from any external factors.
I'd even guess they Hegemony only upgraded their Onslaughts with shields and hyperspace travel drives after the arrival.
I'd even guess they Hegemony only upgraded their Onslaughts with shields and hyperspace travel drives after the arrival.
About three months after the Collapse, a Domain task force emerged from hyperspace in the sector.from the state of affairs, so that's definitely not the case
What sort of distance would be covered by a gate connection?
What limits the ability of mini-facs? Lack of Universal Access Chips? Size? Resources?Yes, I think those are the limiting factors, besides time of course. There are also likely digital restrictions on (some of) the UACs hat limit production in some way, as seen with fighter wings.
If you own a full-size factory somewhere could you churn out unlimited numbers of mini-facs if you have the UAC? Can mini-facs make other mini-facs (maybe in several pieces like some self-replicating 3D printers do)?
It would be really, really cool if mini-facs (or maybe call this type "mini-refineries"?) on Industrial spaceships could produce supplies from raw materials if you buy enough UACs. Food from comets, technology from asteroids, and Infernium from whatever.
I strongly suspect that supplies are actually the raw material for autofactories on board ships. How else could you explain that even the last crate of supplies always provides what you need most at any given moment, be it food, armor plates or ammunition?
Is there any research and development in the Sector and if so is Tri-Tachyon doing it? Is there any way to make new Universal Access Chips (even though they are probably far inferior to what the pre-Collapse UACs contain)? Does this help slow the decline?
Also sorry for not putting the State of biotechnology in the Sector (http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=8067.0) question in this thread.
And as may have been implied here and there, the Domain was very conservative when it came to unfettered research and extreme genetic engineering. So now that the Gates are gone and the Domain's power broken ... well, who knows what you'll find in the Sector? ;)Cool :)
Terran life has been modified for commercial purposes as well as to populate terraformed planets, partially-terraformed planets, and adapted to planets with pre-existing non-terran ecosystems.
QuoteTerran life has been modified for commercial purposes as well as to populate terraformed planets, partially-terraformed planets, and adapted to planets with pre-existing non-terran ecosystems.
So wait, you're trying to say that the 'humans' in SS are not necessarily 'human' genetically speaking? We're talking gills to breathe underwater, enhanced or additional bone structure to cope with higher gravity - even going so far as to genetically create a class of humanoids that have no volition whatsoever and are effectively slaves that will never rise up? Are we talking potentially talking about 'humans' in rather inverted commas that have more than 46 chromosomes?
Yeah, they use hair dye ????Yeah, you could do that, but... well. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_coloring#Adverse_effects_of_hair_coloring)
Anyway, the particular application I really wanted to ask about was: Are there people in the Sector with blue hair (or green, or pink, or some other unnatural color)? ;D
I have a question David, relating to the general economic state of the sector. I was arguing that it's a trim dark post apocalyptic future where resources are fairly scarce, or the sector has very few resources in it, the ships are hundreds of years old as it is expensive and difficult to get the resources together to build them. Another persons opinion is that the sector is a resource rich proverbial bread basket .
Which do you think is the more accurate?
So you would describe the economic situation over all to be 'Struggling day to day and surviving, but overall the sector is dying a slow death'?
How does the Hegemony view free enterprise? Is the economy completely nationalized? Do they permit or even encourage local businesses, but restrict or ban outside firms? Or are the megacorps (the ones that aren't Tri-Tachyon, at any rate) allowed to operate freely in Hegemony space?
Thanks for all the answers, David! :)
Okay, a couple of questions involving the new update:
1) Is it normal that the Sector's population appears to be so low? Even the "core" worlds we've seen have people numbering in the millions (10^6), and Jangala (Corvus II) is even a mere 10^5. Lots of present day Earth cities are bigger than that.
2) The Kanta's Den tooltip says that Kanta is "nearly two hundred years old." What kind of life extension technologies exist in the Sector, and how long can you last with them?
Well, there are harvested organs in the sector. He could be a rambling fool locked up out of siight because nearly every organ in his body being replaced (minus his degrading brain), or maybe he is just dead. In both situations, I could see Kanta as a rallying point for all pirates in both body and mind.
Ok question for you here: Why was Infernium removed and basically replaced by antimatter?
Thanks for all the answers, David! :)
Okay, a couple of questions involving the new update:
1) Is it normal that the Sector's population appears to be so low? Even the "core" worlds we've seen have people numbering in the millions (10^6), and Jangala (Corvus II) is even a mere 10^5. Lots of present day Earth cities are bigger than that.
2) The Kanta's Den tooltip says that Kanta is "nearly two hundred years old." What kind of life extension technologies exist in the Sector, and how long can you last with them?
1. I see the Sector as colonized fairly recently (as in, well under a thousand years of habitation), so I didn't want to really load the population on. Plus, the surface of Jangala is not itself urbanized, just the orbiting station. Then again, what of the scale of colonization? I'm coming around to bumping many of these numbers up by a factor of two, but perhaps after a few more systems are introduced so it doesn't throw the economy too out of whack.
...
I see the Sector as colonized fairly recently (as in, well under a thousand years of habitation), so I didn't want to really load the population on. Plus, the surface of Jangala is not itself urbanized, just the orbiting station. Then again, what of the scale of colonization? I'm coming around to bumping many of these numbers up by a factor of two, but perhaps after a few more systems are introduced so it doesn't throw the economy too out of whack.
In the mouse-over text for Skathi, the Tri-Tachyon world in the Valhalla system, it states that the hegemony granted Tri-Tach a license for development. I was under the impression that tri-tach and Hegemony were in an active state of hostilities towards eachother, and assumed that would preclude legal cooperation on things like that. Am I wrong, or is the idea of Tri-Tach being changed?
In the mouse-over text for Skathi, the Tri-Tachyon world in the Valhalla system, it states that the hegemony granted Tri-Tach a license for development. I was under the impression that tri-tach and Hegemony were in an active state of hostilities towards eachother, and assumed that would preclude legal cooperation on things like that. Am I wrong, or is the idea of Tri-Tach being changed?
Yes. I'd like to move Tri-Tach's relationship with the Hegemony to be less "shooting war" and more wary, with both sides finding the other useful but with goals at odds leading to various unfortunate 'incidents' that both sides cover up/gloss over afterward. The Hegemony should then get a worthy opponent to have wars with (or two? more? who knows!).
Well, both factions did try to take/destroy the other's homeworld/corporate HQ at least once... But falling back to a cold war state afterwards makes sense.In the mouse-over text for Skathi, the Tri-Tachyon world in the Valhalla system, it states that the hegemony granted Tri-Tach a license for development. I was under the impression that tri-tach and Hegemony were in an active state of hostilities towards eachother, and assumed that would preclude legal cooperation on things like that. Am I wrong, or is the idea of Tri-Tach being changed?
Yes. I'd like to move Tri-Tach's relationship with the Hegemony to be less "shooting war" and more wary, with both sides finding the other useful but with goals at odds leading to various unfortunate 'incidents' that both sides cover up/gloss over afterward. The Hegemony should then get a worthy opponent to have wars with (or two? more? who knows!).
Okay, this one thing is bothering me: On the decivilized world of Maxios... who's collecting the tariffs?
Ok question for you here: Why was Infernium removed and basically replaced by antimatter?
They're used in essentially the same way as 'handwavium' fuel. What it comes down to is a matter of narrative tone; I think Infernium is a bit more Dune / Warhammer 40k while I want to aim for something a little more Alastair Reynolds.
I don't want to remove it entirely: the Luddic factions should still refer to AM as "Infernium". (There just hasn't been an opportunity to demonstrate this in-game yet.)
summary: Diktat security forces have captured terrorist leaders attempting to flee Sindria. Officials have stated that after they are intergated by Diktat Intelligence there will be a swift trial and public execution.
[...]
implementation notes: Like a Cardassian novel, everyone arrested in Sindria is guilty - the only question remains: of what?
An interesting entry found in reports.csvTime to argue it down to a non-moving violation.Quotesummary: Diktat security forces have captured terrorist leaders attempting to flee Sindria. Officials have stated that after they are intergated by Diktat Intelligence there will be a swift trial and public execution.
[...]
implementation notes: Like a Cardassian novel, everyone arrested in Sindria is guilty - the only question remains: of what?
- How big is the sector? Are there hundred of worlds? Or is more like dozens?
About 6 months to a year to traverse using hyperdrive. Aiming for ~1k star systems, but that could change appreciably in either direction.
2. I'm not sure if 1su = 1km.not sure myself
1. In-system navigation uses Burn Drive, and low tech ships can use a primary part of the drive in combat - which explains why they only use their normal engine in combat. They can't raise the shield while Burn Driving.
First up I understand implants/partial cybernetic enhancement seems to be a thing but would like confirmation.
If yes: Would there be room for genetic modification in certain circles (meaning if there was some of this in the pre-collapse, someone lucky may have managed to keep some of the tools for it)?
I kind of want to know in case I write some of my transhumanist garbage fanfiction for this setting.
Like not nesseccarily that they're still modifying people but that there'd be a few projects here and there left over and available as.. loot.
David is getting old! :o
(http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=2870;type=avatar)Spoiler::)[close]
I have a question, how large are ships generally, like a Wolf stern to bow compared to a fighter or Onslaught. Are battleships here more akin to naval ships that we have? or bigger/smaller?
I wonder if I can find that planet cracker hidden somewhere. ::)Does 'not too bad' thing include......nevermind.
What? I promise I won't do anything! Well, nothing too bad anyway.
I wonder if I can find that planet cracker hidden somewhere. ::)There's one Tri-Tachyon planet that has armories and such deep within mine shafts or whatever it is, and that the deepest ones had some arcane power and whatnot. Perhaps it's hiding in there?
What? I promise I won't do anything! Well, nothing too bad anyway.
Hi David, I've just gone through reading all of the lore through this post, in the hopes that I wouldn't ask an already answered question (so sorry about this if you have).
The main question I had was about the reliance on these autofactories. At what level of technology would the sector be at if all of a sudden these factories were to disappear? Would the current inhabitants of the sector be able to build (an albeit shoddy) space worthy vehicles?
I do read sci-fi on occasion; and found myself really enjoying Peter F Hamilton's Commonwealth Universe (Pandora's Star, Judas Unchained and the Void trilogy). I'm tempted to give Alastair Reynolds a read, though i'm a little wary of anything a bit too dark (eg Game of Thrones in space). How would you rate the universe:
btw does any of you guya have asperger?
I was somewhat amused to find that while the Luddic Path are more radical than the mainstream Church in pretty much every other way, they don't seem to care about the GM lobsters at all.
So, i have got to ask. In the 0.7 update i noticed many references to the "Askonia Crisis". It seems to be the reason many planets in the system have large refugee populations. Is there any information you can share on this? or have i missed something else already hidden around? ;)
It's in the intel screen... but I only noticed when I was digging in the .faction file to update the wiki ::)I was somewhat amused to find that while the Luddic Path are more radical than the mainstream Church in pretty much every other way, they don't seem to care about the GM lobsters at all.
Mh, how did you notice that?
Then there are alpha+ level AIs, the ban of which is so important to the Hegemony that they went to war with TT over it twice. That implies that they consider alpha+ AIs extremely dangerous. Which in turn implies that they have the potential to threaten the Hegemony or even humanity at large. There are two factors an AI has to fulfill to qualify for that. It has to be:I disagree. You do not need something to be unconstrained, free-thinking, or general purpose, or for it to be more intelligent than human average for something to qualify as extremely dangerous - many large terrestrial carnivores, for example, are potentially extremely dangerous to even a prepared human if the human is in that animal's preferred environment or unintentionally comes close to the animal; there are more reasons than simple competition or need for food that have lead humanity to do its best to drive out, hunt out, or exterminate such animals over much of humanity's range and history. Moreover, it is not necessary for something to be a threat to the Hegemony or humanity at large for it to have been worth a war to the Hegemony; something as simple as an irreconcilable difference in ideology could be sufficient to cause a war, and high-end AI development would certainly appear as though it'd be unpopular with the Hegemony's large Luddite population (heck, the game even tells us that the treaty restrictions imposed by the Hegemony at the end of the first war bought the Hegemony's government some approval from its Luddites).
- Unconstrained, free-thinking, general purpose
- More intelligent than humans
Could Alpha+ mean "Alpha or above"?Yes.
And to justify two major wars, with untold cost in human lives and for the economy, you need a damn good reason.History disagrees.
Will an A.I., if realized, use its vast capability in a way that is beyond human control? One way to think about the concern is to begin with the familiar. Bostrom writes, “Artificial intelligence already outperforms human intelligence in many domains.” The examples range from chess to Scrabble. One program from 1981, called Eurisko, was designed to teach itself a naval role-playing game. After playing ten thousand matches, it arrived at a morally grotesque strategy: to field thousands of small, immobile ships, the vast majority of which were intended as cannon fodder. In a national tournament, Eurisko demolished its human opponents, who insisted that the game’s rules be changed. The following year, Eurisko won again—by forcing its damaged ships to sink themselves.
The program was by no means superintelligent. But Bostrom’s book essentially asks: What if it were? Assume that it has a broad ability to consider problems and that it has access to the Internet. It could read and acquire general knowledge and communicate with people seamlessly online. It could conduct experiments, either virtually or by tinkering with networked infrastructure. Given even the most benign objective—to win a game—such a system, Bostrom argues, might develop “instrumental goals”: gather resources, or invent technology, or take steps to insure that it cannot be turned off, in the process paying as much heed to human life as humans do to ants.
And to justify two major wars, with untold cost in human lives and for the economy, it just has to earn somebody a big fat boatload of money/power.Corrected that for you ^^
Would be a lot more easy if David kindly replied the original question.
;DWould be a lot more easy if David kindly replied the original question.
:-X
Well, the Kite has a Delta level AI that controls it thrusters for super smooth landing. Mh, landing a craft does sound like a way less complicated task then planning a boarding operation. Seems more of a scaling thing than a fundamentally new category, though. Well, those things are fluid.Sounds like some modern computer programs would fall into Delta.
Yeah, it's old lore from the game's former writer Ivaylo, not reflected in the game proper. I'm not sure if it can even be considered canon anymore.I'd argue that it can't really be considered canon anymore. For starters, as far as I know the Mastery Epoch is no longer referenced anywhere within the game, and searching descriptions.csv for 'mastery' didn't turn anything up. Then you have the description of the Hammerhead making things somewhat blurry, as it would be redundant, though not wrong, to describe the vessel as a 'Core Epoch midline destroyer' if Core Epoch implied midline and midline implied Core Epoch. You also have the Sunder, which at least in my opinion is a midline destroyer (visual appearances match midline, armament of mixed ballistics and energy is typical of midline, though the flux capacity and dissipation is perhaps a bit on the high side for a midline ship of its armament and the defenses couple the thin armor of high tech ships with the inefficient shields of low tech ships instead of the more typical midline approach of moderately efficient shields coupled with average armor), but which is explicitly stated to be an (early) Expansion Epoch design; if the Sunder is midline, then midline very definitely cannot imply Core Epoch, though Core Epoch could still imply midline (but, of course, the Gryphon and Heron cast doubt upon that).But for example the Gryphon, which is visually a midline design, is now described as being used just before the Gates collapsed, which would put it in the Expansion-epoch. I don't know if that's a mistake or if David is throwing those old concepts over board.The Heron is another example of this; it is by appearances, stats, system (midline drones like the Gemini or Atlas rather than high tech drones like the Apogee, Astral, or Tempest), and armament a midline ship, but as the embodiment of a doctrinal shift which was interrupted by the Collapse it'd be somewhat odd for it to be a Core Epoch design since the Collapse ended the Expansion Epoch.
The Monitor is another ship that casts doubt upon the Epoch-tech equivalency, as it is a more-or-less midline design whose description can be read in a way that implies it to be a post-Collapse and thus post-Expansion Epoch design.
i thought it was core was the earliest, which roughly translates to the battleship era, then mastery, which was a shift towards the 'cruiser school' (talked about, i believe, in one of the mission briefings) and a sort of more modern-esque naval doctrine of force projection using faster, higher-tech carrier/cruiser groups, and then the expansion which was even higher-tech where a bunch of mega-engineering projects were started in the local sector. the gate collapse ended the expansion epoch because it cut everyone off. am i wrong?
David, can you please shine some light on the particular thicket of our ignorance displayed by this discussion (from the release thread):
Yeah, [the Domain Epochs are] old lore from the game's former writer Ivaylo, AFAIK not reflected in the game proper. I'm not sure if it can even be considered canon anymore.
So all the ships are pre-Collapse designs 100% for sure (bar Buffalo Mk 2 and such)? I remember some discussions about whether the Monitor was a pre- or post-Collapse design due to its description being vague..That there are no post-Collapse designs other than modification jobs does not follow from the statement that there are no recent low-tech designs aside from certain modification jobs.
That there are no post-Collapse designs other than modification jobs does not follow from the statement that there are no recent low-tech designs aside from certain modification jobs.
That there are no post-Collapse designs other than modification jobs does not follow from the statement that there are no recent low-tech designs aside from certain modification jobs.
That's why I'm asking.
We're going to have to find out by seeing what future updates to Starsector hold for us :)
If we were to compare the three Epochs to armoured fighting vehicles made throughout the 20th ceuntry, which one would be a good example of Core Epoch design and/or doctrine?
What is the oldest ship design present in game?Lore-wise, probably the Onslaught. The basic design appears to have predated shields as the shield generator is known to have been a "much" later addition, the Onslaught is the only ship known to have had its FTL drive upgraded during a design revision which occurred at some point well after first entering service (at least that I can recall), and the description of the Thermal Pulse Cannon implies that the Onslaught design is roughly contemporary with or predates the introduction of modular energy weapons (since modular energy weapons are, according to the Codex entry for the Thermal Pulse Cannon, too new to have been trusted by Domain naval architects at the time that the design was created). The Enforcer's codex entry suggests that the Enforcer design might be contemporary with the Onslaught, though it's possible that it was simply designed under the assumption that it'd be operating with Onslaughts and with logistical convenience in mind.
What is the oldest weapon in game?Difficult to say based off of what's in the Codex. Certain weapons don't represent a specific weapon system so much as a family of similar weapons (Light Machine Guns are one example; Light Autocannons might be another since the bore diameter given in the codex entry appears to be the normal bore diameter for weapons classed as light autocannons rather than the bore diameter of the specific weapon called a Light Autocannon), and some of these weapon families could reasonably be thought to have been among the earliest spaceship weapons to enter service; whether or not any such ancient weapons are actually in service or in circulation within the sector is not something that is possible to establish, given the information we have available.
Just don't take ship count too seriously, remember low-tech has no carriers, because its from before fighters.The Venture is a low-tech carrier and the Talon is a low-tech fighter. Buffalo Mk IIs and Condors are also low-tech ships which are almost certainly predated by fightercraft - after all, the Buffalo II is a conversion of the now-midline Buffalo freighter and the Condor is a carrier conversion of the Tarsus.
I'm pretty sure epochs are not a thing anymore.Epochs are still a thing. Hammerheads are described in the Codex as a "Core Epoch midline destroyer;" Tempests, Sunders, and Hurricane MIRV Launchers are all Expansion Epoch technology. The Mastery Epoch isn't directly attested anywhere within the game anymore, at least as far as I'm aware, though Broadswords are said to be an 'early epoch' design, Wasps are said to handle 'early epoch' fighters well, Thermal Pulse Cannons are "a bulky energy weapon from the early epoch," and Mark IX Autocannons reference what appears to be a different early epoch.
The Venture is also mid-tech, not low-tech - unless David says otherwise I take the presence of a modular energy mount as confirmation.In addition to what MesoTroniK posted, there's the fact that the Venture's protection scheme is far more in line with the normal low-tech protection scheme (high hull and armor strength, poor shields) than with the normal midline protection scheme (average hull and armor strength, average shields). The Venture is also pretty slow, whereas midline and high-tech cruisers tend to emphasize speed.
There are only two options - LOW_TECH and HIGH_TECH on that thing MesoTroniK posted. LOW_TECH corresponds to red flame and shield color, and HIGH_TECH means blue flame and shield.
If it has an energy mount, it's no low-tech.
Exception of course is the Onslaught with its bulky, built-in energy cannons. I took it as their technology wasn't sufficient for modular energy weapons back then.
Ships tied to Epochs are no longer a thing.No. Ship tech levels are no longer tied to epochs. Some ships are still tied to epochs, however; Hammerheads are explicitly from the Core Epoch while Tempests and Sunders are explicitly from the Expansion Epoch. We can no longer say that because ship XYZ is midline it must be from the Core Epoch, but we can look at age indicators in the Codex entry and look a bit at the ship's appearance and try to make an educated guess - the Heron, for example, is likely (late) Expansion Epoch since it appears as though it was introduced shortly before the Collapse while the Conquest is probably from around the same period as or perhaps somewhat earlier than the Hammerhead based on visual appearances and the fact that it was introduced shortly before the popularization of strike craft. If the epoch of the XIV Battle Group is well-established, that could also be used to establish the latest epoch from which the ships in it could have originated.
Just a reminder:
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=437.msg175259#msg175259
Ships tied to Epochs are no longer a thing. They are only more or less sophisticated and while some designs may be older than others, there isn't a hard timeline separation between them. Much like real life history: a few WW2 battleships were maintained into active service while there were much newer designs, but not all these newer designs were as modern as others depending on their origin...
How big a deal is it for a capital ship, whether it be a super freighter or a battleship, to arrive at a station or planet?
The Atlas description implies that a capital ship is a huge dealI don't really agree, at least not for the Atlas. The impression I get from the Codex entry for the Atlas is that the Atlases are regular, even frequent, visitors to a specific set of spaceports, but are only very rarely, if ever, seen elsewhere, and so to the locals they're nothing special but to visitors to the area they're something that might be interesting or unusual or famous enough to go see. Kind of like how 20 years ago you'd probably never have considered going to an airport just to see a Boeing 747 or an Airbus A330, but if you were visiting one of the handful of cities that the Concordes regularly flew into or out of and you had a bit of time you might have gone to see a Concorde.
A few questions concerning the Domain of Man, sorry if these have been answered already:
1. According to the old "State Of Affairs" blog post, the Domain was governed by "the Ecumenical Benevolent Council". Is this still considered canon? The word ecumenical has a rather strong religious connotation, and it made me wonder if the Domain was perhaps some form of ecclesiocracy. Am I completely wrong here? :)
2. How unified was the Domain? Was it made up of different political entities, states and other actors, or was it mostly a monolithic whole?
3. We know rebellious worlds defying Domain rule existed, and that the Domain Armada was used to keep these in check, but was this the sole purpose it had?
with eagle banner and all.(Pssst, it's a Phoenix! You'l make David sad if you say it's an eagle...)
The description for Gilead in Canaan calls Old Earth "desecrated", which I guess in the context of Luddic beliefs means it was irrecoverably polluted through rampant materialism. Whether the Luddics are right or just regurgitating unsubstantiated dogma is debatable, but I'm inclined to believe Earth wasn't the jewel of the Domain by the time of the Collapse.
If all that's needed to throw a station out of orbit was a prometheus tanker, Mairaathian navy could've shot to pieces both falling stations to save the surface. Well, at least I assume they had enough firepower to do so.
derelict_gatehauler,CUSTOM,"Massive starships that carry the Gates used to establish near-instaneous connections between worlds of the Domain. The Gate Haulers would burn across space for hundreds of cycles to establish full contact with the grand culture and economy of the Domain. In preparation for the possibility of fringe worlds which spurned the Domain, the Gate Haulers were equipped with potent automated defenses.",,,
derelict_seedship,CUSTOM,"Seeds promising worlds with a suite of lifeforms to kick-start the processes which maintain a Terran environment, from hardy lichens to simple algae up through cryopod drops which release more advanced lifeforms as planetary conditions improve. The seedship will leave the world to gather new materials from small asteroids, manufacture a new terraforming starter kit, and move on to the next target.",,,
derelict_cryosleeper,CUSTOM,Transports tens of thousands of human emmigrants from the core systems of the Domain out into the great frontiers stretching from the Sagittarius Arm across the Orion Spur to these wild reaches on the shores of the Perseus Arm.,,,
About the second station - I must've misread, then. Or jumped to the conclusion.
The difference is the energy would be spread over much larger area. It's like the difference between wearing bulletproof vest and not, one is like being hit by a baseball bat in the chest, and the second one is fatal.
I feel like the fact they havent found any solutions to their problems and instead have wars with each other is kinda ridiculous as they are burning the few ressources they have on pointless battles.
more exploration of these Big Questions will come in future content patches.
As for the other questions, some possibilities are hinted at here and there in the game (and in the latest Starsector trailer video), and more exploration of these Big Questions will come in future content patches. Players have speculated some pretty good answers to some of the questions at well, so perhaps someone will chime in with some Theories...
That could be a possibility as luddic pathers do seem to want chaos...
Did the AI war happen before or after the gates shut?
But again I assume it would be a fixable thing. I mean you would expect them to at least have a few guys who would know everything about the gates...
one question still remains :P Are there more sectors?
I'm kinda hoping that the gates were shut down deliberately by the Domain to stop the spread of... something terrifying. That, eventually, we will encounter :)
So you'd rather have no story for fear of it being cliche?
I think the core of StarSector's story is that the Sector doesn't have to be falling apart: it has enough resources that it can, if everyone works together, potentially build itself up into a new Domain of Man (assuming the old one is gone). Human nature, however, means that no matter how many iterations of the simulation you run... the Sector is always be doomed.
Introducing an external threat means that the Sector will, if allowed enough time to respond, unite against the common enemy. This basically reverses the undertones of the story, which isn't a bad thing in itself... but I find that in similar stories I tend to enjoy the first part (before the introduction of the external threat) more than the second.
Human nature, however, means that no matter how many iterations of the simulation you run... the Sector is always be doomed.
The setting-conclusion to Reynold's Revelation Space series is arguably pretty depressing, but I'd say quite a lot less so than Blindsight.
Anyway, It's weird that such thoughtful, seemingly humane people like Alex and David made a game that is basically SpaceSyria and contains a pessimistic, even nihilistic view of human nature and political endeavors. Not only that, it particularly encourages the player to engage in endless, brutal aggression without even a pretext of justice. I don't know if it's just the playerbase you've attracted and the way they tend to play the game, but the system seems to glorify and encourage violence (making the game all about bounty hunting) above alternative activities. Like it's always "the heart of the game is combat, you aren't supposed to have too much fun or earn money doing other stuff." And it's not space invaders; they went through the trouble to make a well-realized fictional world; one that's basically evil.
It's one of those situations where creators created something which does not mirror their own beliefs at all. At least I hope it doesn't.
Yeah, uh, this is a really interesting set of issues. To start, I'm pretty sure both Alex and I consider the Persean Sector to be a dystopia. Heh, a thought: like take Star Trek inverted = Starsector.
[...] the dystopian state of affairs is not [...] inevitable, [...] Domain policy which kept its colonies reliant upon its central authority caused the Sector to be ill-equipped to handle the collapse of the Gate system.
[...] The player is rewarded for being pretty awful,[...] I'd like to aim for a place where the player feels more like a Han Solo figure, [...] And I'd like to add more interactions with people and beliefs in the world, and have the game acknowledge/judge what the player has done for good or ill somehow.
To be perfectly honest, the ultimate goal of Starsector's worldbuilding is to create a backdrop for a certain set of gameplay mechanics: space combat plus power/wealth accumulation in a manner that gives the player as much personal control over their own fate as possible Because Video Games.
Also: your mention of SpaceSyria is interesting, [...] (Though Pathers are a bit ISIS-y, aren't they.)
c+160 – Andrada defeats Warlord Loke
Much glory earned by the young and upcoming Hegemony officer Andrada in the Battle of Maxios. Hegemony policy promotes hero-worship as means to unify population.
Involved:
- Warlord Loke
- Philip Andrada
Thanks for the thoughtful response.Basically as a player i only hear good things about the domain. the domain lead to peace and expansion; whereas post-collapse autonomy led to chaos. So the message is: "People become savages when there is no central authority." This is a trope of zombie movies and reality TV shows (neither of which I credit much). Also, the domain collapse, to the player, is a mysterious "out of context problem," which eclipses the theme of hubristic overreach as a sin leading to the sector's current condition.Considering the sector is newly colonized it seems more like a Lord of the Flies type situation. It reminds me of the various IRL colonies which perished in the time between ships arriving from the motherland.
(Personally, I always mapped a lot of Starsector's conflicts to the Yugoslav Wars and the various post-Roman/Hellenistic uglinesses. When a nation or an empire comes apart, especially one that was pretty fractious to begin with, it doesn't take long at all before compounding cycles of violence lead to spasms of incredible destruction. What responsibility the former nation, or empire, has for that is rarely explored.)SPACE GREMLINS!
Fiction, as a rule, is written from a descriptive not prescriptive vantage point
I've become so distant and jaded of the lore of humanity in almost every game and quite a bit in RL too that I'm pretty much almost like Fane from Divinity Original Sin 2.I like Nietzsche's original better
To quote Fane:SpoilerFane: "Your history is an interminably dull list of mortals that were born, achieved nothing of worth, and then died.
Certainly one may have expanded his kingdom, or another invented some ways of pickling fish, but what does it matter?
Where will your kingdoms be in one hundred years? In one thousand? They will all be dust, along with each and every one of your great heroes.
Your people and nations come and go - mayflies screaming their importance at a universe that cannot listen.
But the universe is always there. The laws that govern your states change over centuries, but the laws of the world? [NOPE]"[close]
I like Nietzsche's original better
In some remote corner of the universe, poured out and glittering in innumerable solar systems, there once was a star on which clever animals invented knowledge. That was the highest and most mendacious minute of "world history"—yet only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths the star grew cold, and the clever animals had to die.
It seems like the entire 200 year timeline of Starsector could easily fit into 50 years. All the debris fields would make more sense, at least.
Maybe it's the "past midnight" talking, but a lot of Starsector lore seems to make more sense in the context of a short timeline.
there are worlds that were empty when the collapse happened and having billions of people nowFor that, 200 years is too little. If there were 100 million people when the gates shut down, then reaching a billion with 1% yearly growth rate it would take 232 years. Which would be doable, but would there really be that many people there at the time? We already know many of them have died (Mairaath, Askonian Crisis, all these planet killers) and I doubt there was that many of them in the first place. Maybe one day there's going to be logical, concise timeline.
50 years is too little.
there are worlds that were empty when the collapse happened and having billions of people nowFor that, 200 years is too little. If there were 100 million people when the gates shut down, then reaching a billion with 1% yearly growth rate it would take 232 years. Which would be doable, but would there really be that many people there at the time? We already know many of them have died (Mairaath, Askonian Crisis, all these planet killers) and I doubt there was that many of them in the first place. Maybe one day there's going to be logical, concise timeline.
50 years is too little.
Is Starsector lore moving away from mastery/core/expansion terms because it has changed, or just out of human convenience (i.e. nobody is ever able to remember low tech is mastery)?
(if any mention remains; I'm not totally sure)Tempest, Hurricane and Telepylus station still mention Expansion epoch, but that's about it.
Is Starsector lore moving away from mastery/core/expansion terms because it has changed, or just out of human convenience (i.e. nobody is ever able to remember low tech is mastery)?
I don't think I've ever used the terms in anything I've written as they didn't really fit how I thought of things. Nor have I made any big effort to remove it from the text (if any mention remains; I'm not totally sure). That said, I'm happy for for it to be the terminology of some fringe historian who releases hours-long ramblings about THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE DOMAIN on TriTube.
Hi, can anyone tell me the origin/idea/lore of the names of the celestial bodies (like Jangala, Tibicena, Magec) sitting in the core sector? Just out of interest because wanna do some write up. Thanks in advance!
For what it's worth, in veeeery early builds flux was inverted and called "energy" instead. In some old code the variable names even reflect this :) IIRC - and since it's been a while, it's a bit hazy - I ended up flipping it around because it made more in-fiction sense for causing overloads due to shield damage, and for the venting mechanic.Flux is a crutch.
How common are planetkillers? Is it like WWII, where only a couple of nations have only a couple of them, or more like the Cold War, where there are hundreds or event thousands of them around? Or perhaps even worse, since everybody and their mother owns an autofactory.
Thanks! I was wondering mostly due to the Opis incident. I mean, who brings a nuke along for a peace making operation?
Came across something interesting/disturbing today, and it made me think about a few things.
You sometimes find cryo pods in salvage, and they can contain crew or officers. I've also found cryopods on decivilised worlds, containing planetary administrators ???
And of course there's the Domain cryosleeper colony ships.
So, how long can people survive in cryo pods, or life pods ? How do the currently-manufactured cryo systems compare to Domain-era tech ? Are life pods and sleeper pods the same thing ?
- average human lifespan is it better than 79 current General human lifespan
- do large Capital ships have Hydroponics areas similar to the USG Ishimura's internal farm in Dead Space
- curious if there is recreational activities for your crew a gym to workout in movies TV series video games Etc.
- what type of foods do people eat kind of curious what you think the majority of people eat.
- besides the blue lobster and are there actually regular Lobster.
- Phillp Andrada
how old is he at start of game
does he have a family
does he have a second-in-command / emergency successor
- what type of foods do people eat kind of curious what you think the majority of people eat.
- Food on ships would tend to be pretty basic fare intended for very long shelf-life. (And I had some notion of growing high-protein genmod fungus in vats but not sure if I slipped that into a description anywhere.)
-snip-Interesting and lore compliant both.
I feel this is more interesting take on food scarcity.
How well could an Alpha Core crack DRM?
Who is to say that it wasn't another alpha core that designed the DRMs?
I have a question for you
I don't know how familiar you are with other alien races from other Sci-Fi games, TV series and stuff but
it looks like they're more advanced than the Mass Effect universe
an it seem to be less advanced than the Asgard from Stargate
I'm a little curious what level of Technology you give your universe
I'm a little curious what level of Technology you give your universe
I'm a little curious what level of Technology you give your universe
Some of the older discussions say the level of technology is most similar with that of Warhammer 40k.
***
Question : How can stations have a battle support range, and how can one station cover a whole planet with no blind spots? I have a theory that "stations" are actually have reaction engines that lets them move around quite a bit, and reposition for defense, but they are set apart from "ships" by the virtue of not having a "drive field" that lets them move at a significant fraction of light speed.
Q: What exactly is supplies, and why does so much of it get consumed to recover CR? Why do unmanned ships eat as much supplies as ships with hundreds of crew?
In august's blog "A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector" :
1- what are "sporeships" and what "seedships"?
2- what are "fusion lance"s?
3- "FTL technology" refers to space-hyperspace travel (or Gates or else)?
4- "KL Device" = gate?
5- How do the gates move ships? FTL-metro like(go in move inside subdimension, go out) or wormhole-like(gate1 connects to gate2, instant threshold/transfer)
6- Gates allow communications?
7- why did BG-XIV leave the "transfer point"? why did BG-VI leave without checking on BG-XIV, did they leave any ship/personel behind?
8- they took 48 years to reach the Sector, yet there weren't any trace of Domain authority?
9- Did Tri-Tachyon deploy the AI warfleets offensively? (like what jumped into theyr minds?)
10- Warlord Loke gets "former Domain military warships" is it so easy? what kind of ships?
11- What CP stands for in "CP-carbines", Capacitor Pulse?
12- What is the Player Character doing at the start of the game - in the Galatia system, low on suplies, and especially with the fleet pointing outward(from the center of the system) even from the debris field ?
p.s. if anybody answers please don't :-X (or similar) to questions: better skip them
Thank you for your attention
8- they took 48 years to reach the Sector, yet there weren't any trace of Domain authority?8. I'm not sure what do you mean by "there weren't any trace of Domain authority?". The blog post about it doesn't mention a total collapse. The way I understand it is that after 50 years, whatever pro-domain organisations were still there, they banded together under the banner of Hegemony. As far as everyone knew, the commander of the XIV Battlegroup was the highest ranking Domain leader present.
9- Did Tri-Tachyon deploy the AI warfleets offensively? (like what jumped into theyr minds?)
10- Warlord Loke gets "former Domain military warships" is it so easy? what kind of ships?
27 years of hyperdrive travel.Going by the game mechanics, it would be possible to do it, but the time it would take would still be quite big. 27 years of hyperspace travel assumed burn level 20, which may or may not be achievable for a prometheus & atlas expedition by riding hyperspace storms. Even then, after the expedition runs out of fuel, then they have to settle one system and make enough supplies and fuel to go on again. I assume no expedition from other places reached Persean Sector yet.
Ignoring fuel, which would probably double that time, what with stopping and building facilities.
Well, I think I answered that one :P
Still, could be a decent endgame goal to get the resources to start that trip.
Can Tri-Tachyon control REDACTED if they dig up codes from the First AI war? (or would it just not attack them?)Redacted don't attack Tri-Tachyon fleets in the first place.
How much technology isn't dependent on autofacs?At least for ships, it's almost all reliant on autofactories. It's possible to make things without, just ask luddics, but it's probably hard and impractical in comparison to 3D printers.
For example, if someone wants to make a tractor, what's the chance that someone spends 2-7 days in a machine shop with lathes and *** rather than trying to print one 5 times and assembling parts from the misprints into one working one?
How to they prevent bombardment anyway??Presumably, as you surmised, they could adjust their orbit, and although saturation bombardment only takes an instant for the player, I think it's fair to assume it might take a few days -- a long enough time in geostationary orbit over target locations that the orbital station could come disrupt the process.
Why are there so many failed terraforming projects that have completely stopped, when minor effort could make them viable again?I think 1, it's more story conceit and that the massive fleets and oodles of credits the player can acquire, and the relative ease of creating size 8 colonies in just a decade or two of game time, are not really reflective of the lore -- the player is a superman.
...
Or is that just a gameplay/story segregation thing and it's considered much more expensive to build reflectors/shields/shipping infrastructure than capships?
Why are there so many failed terraforming projects that have completely stopped, when minor effort could make them viable again?
For instance, Mairaath's could probably be... mostly restarted by 3-4 tugs to track down and haul the existing shades back in, and minor upkeep (comparable to fielding a destroyer/cruiser).
Like, it'll cost money and won't be an instant fix, but most of them seem comparable to building a single capital once (or at most removing one from every fleet that spawns, and most factions can easily afford that).
Or is that just a gameplay/story segregation thing and it's considered much more expensive to build reflectors/shields/shipping infrastructure than capships?
Why are there so many failed terraforming projects that have completely stopped, when minor effort could make them viable again?
For instance, Mairaath's could probably be... mostly restarted by 3-4 tugs to track down and haul the existing shades back in, and minor upkeep (comparable to fielding a destroyer/cruiser).
Like, it'll cost money and won't be an instant fix, but most of them seem comparable to building a single capital once (or at most removing one from every fleet that spawns, and most factions can easily afford that).
Or is that just a gameplay/story segregation thing and it's considered much more expensive to build reflectors/shields/shipping infrastructure than capships?
Why are there so many failed terraforming projects that have completely stopped, when minor effort could make them viable again?
For instance, Mairaath's could probably be... mostly restarted by 3-4 tugs to track down and haul the existing shades back in, and minor upkeep (comparable to fielding a destroyer/cruiser).
Like, it'll cost money and won't be an instant fix, but most of them seem comparable to building a single capital once (or at most removing one from every fleet that spawns, and most factions can easily afford that).
Or is that just a gameplay/story segregation thing and it's considered much more expensive to build reflectors/shields/shipping infrastructure than capships?
Modern meteorologists with a massive support network (satellites, ground stations, radar, observers, and all the skilled personnel to support them), well-developed models and theories, and >100 years of continuous data can't even accurately predict the weather a week out. What makes you think some knuckleheads with an orbital shade could terraform a planet?
Plus if you are not the Hegemony, you can use an AI core to help you plan the fixing of Mairaath to at least a less hellish place.
They are banned in the Hegemony too and that didnt stop them asking for a gamma in the tutorial. :P
And tbf the League is stated to be a loose grouping of planets with no real central government aside from a vague 'we hate the hegemony' common idea, so that one of them is less opposed to cores is not impossible.
And yeah, we dont see any 'restarted' terraforming, but then again, I get the feeling we arrive in the game when the sector is finally stabilizing to some degree, and that previously its all been chaotic and not really lending itself for big civilian projects like terraforming.
Otherwise it makes little sense why no faction has explored the ruins and stations we find, why no one has colonized nice world right next to the core we sometimes find (Even in Duzhak), or why we, a single person, can foster a planet/system to become larger and more powerful than the capital systems.
Either we are 'super special player' or the factions have been so busy fighting and making sure their current worlds dont crash and burn to do much so far and its now that there's even the consideration of looking past the core worlds.
Either we are 'super special player' or the factions have been so busy fighting and making sure their current worlds dont crash and burn to do much so far and its now that there's even the consideration of looking past the core worlds.
1. What exactly does the Ko Combine do, like what are their goals, philosophy, etc.? They kinda just chill on Asharu (IIRC) doing whatever, but weren't they supposed to be another major faction?
Why don't the factions weaponize antimatter more often? They clearly have it in abundance, so it shouldn't be that hard to strap AM tanks to missiles or make infernium railguns or something.
And along those same lines, why is the sector so technologically stagnant? They've had 200 years, surely someone could have made a new type of ship? And not just a modification along the lines of what the pirates or pathers do, but a fully-fledged new ship model. I'm sure Tri-Tachyon can do it, considering how they're just a bunch of nerds and businessmen.
and of course immediately after I post I think of two more questions:
Why don't the factions weaponize antimatter more often? They clearly have it in abundance, so it shouldn't be that hard to strap AM tanks to missiles or make infernium railguns or something.