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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector  (Read 32035 times)

xenoargh

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #15 on: August 16, 2017, 03:12:49 PM »

No problem, sometimes we all mean similar things but language gets in the way :)

Honestly, I've always thought that Fallout I was one of the best examples ever of "how to do a sandbox right".  The only bad part about was the timer before the Vault died, that prevented you from playing forever without completing the main quest line, imo.
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StarSchulz

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #16 on: August 16, 2017, 04:05:40 PM »

You know, after reading all of that i think i might just go do a Luddic playthrough. they seem nice.

Megas

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #17 on: August 16, 2017, 06:26:12 PM »

None of the established polities look like anything I want to fight for, except to use them then dump them after I get through using them.  I would like to build the biggest empire in the sector... or just destroy and raze everything to the ground if I do not care to run an empire.
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Protonus

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #18 on: August 17, 2017, 01:19:36 AM »

None of the established polities look like anything I want to fight for, except to use them then dump them after I get through using them.  I would like to build the biggest empire in the sector... or just destroy and raze everything to the ground if I do not care to run an empire.

*Evil Overlord in the making*
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DatonKallandor

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #19 on: August 17, 2017, 04:42:26 AM »

I really like that the Hegemony can't stop getting into civil wars and spawning warlords. They're a bunch of bigger backstabbers than the Megacorp!
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Gothars

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #20 on: August 17, 2017, 05:57:28 AM »

Enjoyable read, thanks for that! The framing is inspired by Chasm City, isn't it? :)

I like the new character portraits (Kanta looks fearsome!), makes me hopeful that we'll start seeing real characters with the next version.

Are the Domain drones we see in the Sector all part of the third wave? I wonder how the others waves might have looked.

Quote
The Luddic faithful contemplate/perform a series of scenes which represent the life and death of the Prophet Ludd. This “spiritual road” is often a literal traversal of space past a number of shrines, dioramas, or live re-enactings, the scale of which may vary wildly depending on the intended scope of the ritual.

You know, this makes me wish the requirements for a commission would be more faction-specific. To go on a pilgrimage to join the Ludds sounds perfect.
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Histidine

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #21 on: August 17, 2017, 06:05:26 AM »

8/10 would include in Hegemony preschool curriculum

Are there plans to reveal just what happened to Earth (and why nobody bothered restoring it)? Asteroid impact, mass plague (biological or nanotech), "Final War", plain old environmental degradation, or something totally far out?
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Megas

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #22 on: August 17, 2017, 06:39:22 AM »

@ Protonus:  Well, like D&D, the point is to kill things, take their stuff, get stronger, repeat until the end.

As for factions, let's see.  Domain are greedy imperialists.  Hegemony is either lawful stupid heroes (for blindly following bad laws or tradition) at best or more greedy imperialists (Domain v2) at worst.  Tri-Tachyon (and their Remnant minions) appears to be run by a sinister, possibly inhuman, entity.  Persean League (and possibly Sindrian Diktat) appears to be a group of petty warlords united only by their opposition to the Hegemony.  Luddic everything appears to be unholy cults started by a false prophet and are currently run by a coven of warlocks (while masquerading as something resembling Christianity to hide their true nature and attract the masses).  Pirates are just inept amateurs whose have not the success of the major powers.

With the above two combined, it makes sense to breakout and become either emperor or destroyer.
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FooF

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #23 on: August 17, 2017, 07:32:47 AM »

Strangely enough, this lore post makes the sector feel less dystopian than before. Perhaps that's the intent, I don't know.

What I don't see is the contrast between the Domain "Golden Age" and the current Sector in terms of culture, technology, etc. I have nothing to gauge how far the Sector "fell" from the Collapse. If the Persean Sector was a "backwater system," how mighty were the core sectors of the Domain? The current sector still has FTL, hyperspace, planet-killers, advanced AI, vast manufacturing capability and terraforming tech (as far as I can tell). Beyond the gates themselves, the Domain doesn't appear to be all that superior (again, perhaps that's the intent?)

I do enjoy the multiple choice answer for why the Collapse happened, especially the conspiracy theories. The Collapse was an inside job... ;)

I'm not envisioning Planet Killers being Death Stars or the like. There are two reports of their use in this blog and a few in-game (not sure if they're the same). There are also quite a named core planets that have been glassed but not destroyed. I'm curious if PK weaponry is prevalent enough that each side is abiding by mutually-assured-destruction cold wars or if they're hard enough to pull off that they're only used in desperate times. It would seem the destruction of Opis was completely by surprise. Surely only the major factions have access to PKs?

The wide-view history is necessary and welcome but so would a few smaller slice-of-life stories from the Sector. The Ship's Log of Salvage Dave was fantastic in this regard.

@ Megas

Influences I see:

Domain: Roman Empire under Trajan
Hegemony: Byzantium Empire
Tri-Tach: Weyland-Yutani
Sindrian Diktat: Colonel Kurtz taken to an extreme degree
Persean League: Mafia cabal
Luddic Church: Baha'i faith with monastic hierarchy. Really, more of a counter-culture movement and repudiation of Domain tech dressed in ritual.
- Knights of Ludd: Knights Templar
- Luddic Path: Zealots/Sicarii
Pirates: well...pirates :)

There are no "good guys," which is fitting but after this blog post, the Hegemony comes out looking a little cleaner, the Persean League is painted in a terrible light, Tri-Tach is still shrouded in mystery but are obviously misanthropic corporate overlords, and the Luddic Church are agrarian monks...with spaceships. The Diktat seems to be the result of the Hegemony being myopic in regards to Andrada and the admiral himself seems to have bought into his own own hype. That he's still around ruling the Diktat 50 years later (I presume he's still alive) is a testament to his charisma and loyalty.

By the way, due to tech, are average lifespans in the hundreds? Warlord Kanta was a colonel in C+160, so I'm assuming she was in her 40's at that point and if she's still kicking in current (C+206) time, that puts her over one hundred. Same with Admiral Andrada who is perhaps a bit younger.
 


« Last Edit: August 17, 2017, 07:36:18 AM by FooF »
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Althaea

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #24 on: August 17, 2017, 08:32:58 AM »

Persean League: Mafia cabal

Not sure I would go quite that far. More like NATO with a more unified military (though less internally stable).

By the way, due to tech, are average lifespans in the hundreds? Warlord Kanta was a colonel in C+160, so I'm assuming she was in her 40's at that point and if she's still kicking in current (C+206) time, that puts her over one hundred. Same with Admiral Andrada who is perhaps a bit younger.

Life extension technology has been mentioned before, including, IIRC, in the case of Kanta, who was known to be centuries old.

Kanta does not look to have weathered the years terribly well, of course there's numerous possible explanations for that, such as a limitation with the life-extension technology/genetic engineering or simply due to her lifestyle.
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FooF

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #25 on: August 17, 2017, 09:53:39 AM »

Not sure I would go quite that far. More like NATO with a more unified military (though less internally stable).

Ha. I didn't read the source of the Persean League quote (Hegemony propaganda).  ;D I thought it was a little too on the nose. Yeah, NATO is probably a fair analogy.

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David

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #26 on: August 17, 2017, 10:37:39 AM »

Not sure I would go quite that far. More like NATO with a more unified military (though less internally stable).
Ha. I didn't read the source of the Persean League quote (Hegemony propaganda).  ;D I thought it was a little too on the nose. Yeah, NATO is probably a fair analogy.

(Well! Technically the words of an Askonian rebel group being released by the Hegemony to help discredit the League. It can never be simple.)

By the way, due to tech, are average lifespans in the hundreds? Warlord Kanta was a colonel in C+160, so I'm assuming she was in her 40's at that point and if she's still kicking in current (C+206) time, that puts her over one hundred. Same with Admiral Andrada who is perhaps a bit younger.

Various means of extending lifespans are indeed possible in the Sector- for the rich and well-connected, at least.

What I don't see is the contrast between the Domain "Golden Age" and the current Sector in terms of culture, technology, etc. I have nothing to gauge how far the Sector "fell" from the Collapse. If the Persean Sector was a "backwater system," how mighty were the core sectors of the Domain? The current sector still has FTL, hyperspace, planet-killers, advanced AI, vast manufacturing capability and terraforming tech (as far as I can tell). Beyond the gates themselves, the Domain doesn't appear to be all that superior (again, perhaps that's the intent?)

(I'm thinking I should do a bit more to establish a baseline for the Domain that doesn't come from its critics. And even then, some less strident critics might end up a lot like "What have the Romans ever done for us!".)

The wide-view history is necessary and welcome but so would a few smaller slice-of-life stories from the Sector. The Ship's Log of Salvage Dave was fantastic in this regard.

Oh I'd love to put more of a human touch into the game in various ways! And as ever, we're Up To Things.  :-X

Influences I see:

Domain: Roman Empire under Trajan
Hegemony: Byzantium Empire
Tri-Tach: Weyland-Yutani
Sindrian Diktat: Colonel Kurtz taken to an extreme degree
Persean League: Mafia cabal
Luddic Church: Baha'i faith with monastic hierarchy. Really, more of a counter-culture movement and repudiation of Domain tech dressed in ritual.
- Knights of Ludd: Knights Templar
- Luddic Path: Zealots/Sicarii

I think the Domain can't help but give off a Roman Empire vibe - totalizing empire collapses and everyone is left fighting or fighting-for its legacy.

Oh man, if the Hegemony somehow absorbed the Luddic Church then it'd totally be the Byzantine Empire. That's a neat idea :)

As for the Luddics, yeah, it's inevitable that some of the more recent sects of Christianity would slip in there, though I'm trying to look a bit further back to some degree to early Christianity and especially to all the English heretical movements from the medieval to early modern period, ie. Levellers, Lollards, though with the church itself much more embracing of ornate practices and hierarchy (because it's fun) while the Path is much stricter, militant, and aesthetic in its interpretations. The Luddite reference is obvious. The Pathers probably have a bit of that revolutionary peasant-Maoism from eg. the Shining Path (with an obvious name reference) via religion which at its worst ends up something like the Khmer Rouge, see: Mairaath.

(I'd like to work in more syncretism with eastern religions but I just know way more about the abrahamic religions, and the language around it all is so easily evocative in English.)
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Megas

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #27 on: August 17, 2017, 12:00:55 PM »

Given the lore, the two factions I like the least (in terms of an angry or vain ingame character with an axe to grind) would be Tri-Tachyon for unleashing the Remnant menace and Luddic Church/Path for being wolves-in-sheeps' clothing.  But, in the end, that will not matter if my character has evil ambitious of his own, and would like to use Tri-Tachyon as tools.
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John_A_Tallon

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #28 on: August 17, 2017, 01:34:56 PM »

I really do love that portrait of Kanta. She looks every bit the multi-century old cyborg pirate queen, more a force of nature than a human being.
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DatonKallandor

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Re: A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector
« Reply #29 on: August 17, 2017, 08:13:13 PM »

I also agree that it makes the sector seem less dystopian and low-tech than I imagined. Hell, not only are Planetkillers a thing, they're still around even during the time we're flying around the sector.

Also, is the AI Wars happening after the gate shutdown and general galactic apocalypse a retcon? I was under the impression those were a Domain of Man thing long ago, but I could have just misunderstood (I don't mind it being a retcon if it is)
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