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1

Suggestions / Clarity Blurbs

« on: January 10, 2025, 04:49:52 PM »

If possible, could we get a couple clarity blurbs here and there?

Example:  mining core item could say "will not boost volatiles production." I had part of a game hinging on that with a cryovolcanic world and when it went bust, so did most of said game.

Tri-Tac colony crisis: mining ORES doesn't set it off, but do organics and/or volatiles? What's "safe" if you're not ready to go a-raiding-and-a-bribing?

2

Suggestions / View Behind Curtain Blog Posts

« on: January 09, 2025, 08:24:39 AM »

So I've been a dev for an online game and one of the striking features of that was the degree to which the things were worked on as consistent priorities were almost never in alignment with what the players were generally discussing.

Assuming Alex/David are willing, would love to get a post now and then with a more general "here's how we generally perceive things going and here's where we might consider taking it" kind of thing.

3

Lore, Fan Media & Fiction / Restoration

« on: January 05, 2025, 08:26:28 PM »

Donil's mask chafed.
He knew better than to take it off, though. The atmosphere on Nomios was breathable, technically. But he had no desire to spend a week doing lung rehab from all the ammonia he'd take in trying to get a full breath in the thin, horrid atmosphere.
Most of it would just clump down in the form of the caustic snow that could be easily cleaned off his suit later.
Most of it.

Best to keep the mask on.

Up ahead, his display registered body heat.  That was intentional. He tramped over to the hab entrance, an old Mark VII bunker which had been repurposed as a lab.
"Donil," the voice purred synthetically.
"I'm here, Gaz." Donil relaxed.

Donil didn't know how old Gaz was, but he did know that the old lady was half machine or more by now, and rumor had it that she had a beta core installed somewhere in her spine for the express purpose of assisting with constant cellular repair. Mbaye-Gogol may or may not have survived the Collapse...but Donil was certain in his bones that old Gaz had.

"I have it for you. Your credit was as good as you assured."
Donil nodded. If it hadn't been, there was a good chance that the ubiquitous defense turrets of Nomios would be pointed at his shuttle by now.

Gaz continued. "When I am hearing you want to refurbish a ship, I am thinking, how did Donil get his hands on something worth that kind of money? But then, it is not every day a man stumbles onto two gamma cores."

Donil frowned. "That should be enough and then some."
Gaz purred, the servos replacing her left hand, whining reluctantly in the cold, while they tramped into the restoration area.

It was beautiful.
"Fuel capacity is cut in half. Storage capacity quadrupled. Drive augmented and insulated. Crew requirements cut by three-fifths. Can be flown by one, so long as you dare to keep weapons inert. Worth much, Donil."

More than that, the dull orange paint of the Dram's hull, the color that was never, ever repainted, screaming the universal warning, AM FUEL, if you're going to blast me, do it from several units away, or die with me, was gone. In its place was a simple dull black.

"It's not really a tanker any more, you know." Donil smiled.
Gaz nodded. "No augment on sensors. You'll need that, you know."
Donil knew. "We've already lost the Harpoon and one of the vulcans."
"Vulcan 2 shifted to point conspiculously to the rear, covering your hatchway?" Gaz mused. "Not subtle, Donil."

"That's the point, Gaz," Donil smiled, running his hand over the like-new ship's hull. "I've got a lot of desperate people to feed. They need to know I'm a friend, not prey."

Gaz nodded absent-mindedly. She didn't mind the atmosphere inside the facility. "I keep this design on hand. A pity it cannot be made into blueprint."

Donil waved his hands in the universal "shrugging" gesture every spacer knew. "Most people would rather have a Hound."

"I offered you a Hound," Gaz countered.
"I know," Donil placated. "But you see why now. This carries five times the fuel and about as much cargo."
"At the cost of a one-third speed reduction for emergency maneuvers," Gaz countered.
"Well," Donil replied. "An gram of careful beats a kilo of belt-fed."

Gaz ignored Donil's precious folk wisdom. "I still need to program your transponder. What will your ISS be?"
Donil smiled.  "ISS Still Decivilized."

4

Suggestions / Luddic Crisis Alternate Rewards

« on: January 04, 2025, 01:10:15 PM »

The more I think about the conversation I had in the "balance" thing, the more I'd really like to see the possibility for additional administrators where appropriate (Luddic and true-believer-Heggie play). All other factions can easily hit the AI thing. But you have Luddic guys and gals avoiding their "grange" social organizations to sell food, and I think something like that, even if it were literally just 1 or 2 additional administrators, would be nice (particularly if you lose the benefits of having them if you violate Luddic principles).

Anyway, it's SUPER low priority, but it leans into the cultural stuff that's been set up, which I think would be neat, and gives players leaning that direction a reason NOT to go hog-wild with higher tech on the side.

5

Suggestions / Mod speed malus for oversized fleets to account for DP

« on: December 22, 2024, 10:56:21 AM »

Hi Alex!

Right now having too many ships imposes a CR penalty. But it also imposes such a speed penalty as to make even in system flight for an over-large fleet suicidal.

That gimps Derelict Operations and makes fleet design less interesting (bc gimps having, say, frigate reserves).

Could we have the speed malus only kick in then you have
a) oversized fleets
b) **and** more DP than you can deploy in one go?

Otherwise if I want a 250DP fleet of DO vessels, especially the small pirate trash that the flavor text suggests, you're pushed towards capital spam, which is more practical but less fun. 

6

Suggestions / Dialogue Continuations to Market Conditions -- (from "Coureuses' Mom" concept)

« on: November 28, 2024, 09:51:05 AM »

Yesterday a weird thing happened to me: a Persean patrol asked me to give up info on an arms dealer. I totes said yes and went on my merry.
Then I dropped off rescued miners. But what if we have additional conditions that affect colony play which come from your choices and thus serve some of the reputation ideas we've been discussing?

I think these are on par with Kanta's Favor in terms of game balance, and in some cases may be harder to maintain. The idea is, where possible, to either have story choices matter for how you play out the game, or else to make your small choices wind up mattering down the road, possibly even locking you into your choices (bc it's fun to get frustrated by the boni you don't want to lose)

*condition*: Goes Hard on Pirates (if you keep making the hard-ass choices).
Your colonies are known for harsh justice. Your free market colonies are less profitable than other free markets, but a lot safer and less raucous. Free market deals with shortages without no bonus income, but imposes only a -1 malus to stability.

*condition*: Spacer's Friend (keep making the most-humane choices in dialogues with stranded folks, distress calls, etc)
Word has gotten around that you have peoples' suits when the airlock is failing, even if they're people you might call a torpedo strike on in other circumstances. Given the choice, spacers prefer bringing you business. All your colonies experience +3 accessibility.

*condition*: Confidential Informant (keep coming clean on your activities with Persean League intel officers)
The League relies as much on intelligence assets as it does spaceship hulls to protect its "your hab, your rules" ethos from internal and external groups who might threaten that. The League doesn't want you running out of fuel before you can supply information to them. You may dock at the League Facility where your Intelligence Contact is based so long as your reputation does not go below "inhospitable." Further, so long as your reputation does not go below "hostile," League Patrols will let you go with a cover-preserving inspection rather than an attack. (2SP: "Officer, there are mitigating circumstances here. Please reach out to ((contactnamehere)) for details.")

*condition*: Friend to the Resistance (deliver Resistance fighters to Volturn):
So long as your reputation with Pirates does not drop to Vengeful, pirate resistance fighters will offer you the chance to donate supplies, fuel, or money "to the cause" rather than attacking ((fire LC shakedown script with modded dialogue)). Ordinary raiders are unaffected.

*condition*: Macario's Tool (retain Favorable status with Diktat and Macario)
Your reputation with the Diktat as Macario's asset makes low-level officials wary of crossing you. You do not suffer a reputation loss for black-market trading within the Sindrian Diktat.

*condition*: Farmer's Friend (4 low-level farm deals)
You can issue a direct emigration call to the Luddic Faithful, bypassing the usual channels. So long as you have at least four low-level commercial contacts within Luddic worlds, you can "burn" all said contacts in exchange for a Farm Administrator contact for one of your worlds with a Luddic Majority. This Administrator does not count against your colony totals, but will not permit unapproved industries or facilities to be built, and the Administrator is lost permanently if your relationship with the Luddic Church goes below Inhospitable.

*condition*: Artist's Colony (you kept your word to Coureuse' Mom)
Word has gotten out that you might be unusually cool for a Spacer thug after you kept your word to Coureuse's Mom. Your colonies gain +3 Accessibility as highly-motivated oddballs and artists make a special effort to visit your holdings as a venue for their expression.

7

Modding / person_names.csv column D

« on: November 18, 2024, 03:44:53 PM »

Okay, I have too much on my plate -- I can't script quest/bar interactions for probably another six months.
But a csv sheet is a mini-mod I can make for people. 

1) Is Column D meaningful in name generation? (pirate/luddic/world/myth/modern/etc) Or is it essentially a dev commentary field? The Luddic names seem to stand out (which makes sense culturally), and I may have seen pirate contacts with similar.

2) If that's the case, are there other vanilla-compatible cultural markings where something might show up?

3) Is there anything else about col D I should know?

8

General Discussion / [redacted story quest]

« on: November 17, 2024, 02:39:22 PM »

After using[DEVICE], how long does a system remain inaccessible?

9

Suggestions / New Difficulty Rubric

« on: November 13, 2024, 05:56:24 AM »

Instead of "easy,hard,Iron Mode," may I suggest something different?

a. Combat Difficulty: keep as set
b. Campaign Difficulty:

1. Easy Mode -- as it is now.
2. Reactive Factions -- make factions spawn "bounty hunters" coming after your head specifically based on faction standing, not merely specific-quest situations. (At hostile, the intel screen says "unofficial bounties are likely to be placed on your fleet," and at Vengeful, "official and unofficial bounties are likely to be placed on your fleet.") [[1/mo chance of spawning a "meh" bounty hunter who looks for you all over the map and either won't take no for an answer OR will look the other way in exchange for a story point and a third of your total cash holdings, once every 3mo, a chance to spawn an actually seriously elite fleet coming for you]]

Why?
Colony Crises are designed to "get the player in trouble." This is great. But players have a LOT of agency, particularly in all the locations designed to let you swap out fleets depending on whether you want a sledge or a scalpel. What John Starsector gets that the others don't is the ability to simply disappear all over the map -- you can mess with Askonia all you want, but you know that past a certain range, so long as you're not in a Fuel Crisis, you can ignore their existence. But if you've swapped out for a stealth fleet because Anahita Baird's goals are a butt, and you're dodging hyped up mercs with really good sensors, the amount of tension gets higher. And tension makes for an improved experience.

10

General Discussion / Independents Commission Still In Shipbuying Screens

« on: November 01, 2024, 08:26:33 PM »

Pretty sure it's just boilerplate text, but I'm keenly interested in how and what the play for an Independent Commission would look like and how it might conceivably flesh out. What would make it play out in ways sufficiently interesting to justify inclusion (given that carte blanche to go after other factions for fat commission money definitely wouldn't be in those cards)?

11

Modding / I'm a writer, not a programmer! (some confusion)

« on: October 24, 2024, 04:01:42 PM »

I was able to kinda-sorta follow David's "how to love XL files for writing," but not 100% able to follow near the end. My brain keeps farting out. Could anybody help walk me through some basics? As an historian I have a shitton of ideas but have never touched Java or really any coding since, oh, 1992 and that pretty casually. I can spin probably literal dozens of stuff like the below just from historical parallels, but it's useless unless I can get it to code and offer it to somebody for inclusion as a mod (or make my own and somehow keep it compatible).

Create Jack.
Set Jack findable only on Tri-Tachyon markets.
Set Jack talkable to only if you're not Tri-Tach commissioned.
Jack conversation option: "Talk to the frustrated man haranguing people about workers' rights"

Jack conversation:
"I've got 300 men, women, and teenagers willing to ship out with somebody, ANYBODY, to keep from having to renew their indenture contracts. They're half-trained at best but you can have the lot for 1000 credits that I'll pay their families until they can start sending money home. The catch is, you'll have to train them."

Player responses:

• Hell no I'm not taking on unskilled greenhorns, get lost. (end convo)
  [/i]
  Sure, I can do that. (end convo. Add 300 crew. JackIsAJerk = #ofCrew-300. If JackIsAJerk<1, JackIsAJerk =1. Set Fleet CR to JackIsAJerk, Jack potential contact)
• Look. I can't take on charity cases, BUT here's 1000. Go get them some real medical care. (Subtract Wealth. End convo. Jack potential contact)

12

Suggestions / Give [redacted] information to the Sindrian Opposition

« on: October 10, 2024, 07:42:50 PM »

Without spoiling, it'd be really cool if you could take the information in the capstone mission for the Sindrian Diktat, and instead of delivering it to (X), give it to one of the opposition figures you could have bumped into earlier in the quest-line (depending on how you solved the problem).

Dunno what the results would be, but emotionally that option would be very satisfying.

13

General Discussion / Economics Unclear?

« on: October 09, 2024, 08:03:46 PM »

So I've been gone for a while (Real life(tm)), and coming back, I've only had time for casual play, so I found a giant container ship and thought "okay, I'm playing as a space trucker." Did well for myself trawling cantinas for concerned people needing stuff shipped, started building up contacts, etc.

But that involves a lot of dead-heading I could avoid if I understood how to trade goods profitably. So far, it's really opaque to me, and not making a fabulous ton of sense.

Is there a Newbie's Guide to Persean Sector Commodity Trading(c) out there someplace that I've missed?

14

Lore, Fan Media & Fiction / Alissya's Journal

« on: March 31, 2024, 09:50:21 PM »

I have a day or two until they catch up. But that's time to have a meal and leave another short paper for Golivka, as he tracks an apparently noteworthy captain assisting the Galatia Academy's scientists and technicians now that they've rejoined the sector at large.

The degree to which one can command an empty table in any crowded establishment, simply by writing in a paper book, continues to amaze me.  One day, some very bored Persean sector scientist will subject one of our books to a micro-genetic scan in order to determine where we actually source the cellulose. When that day happens, we will have the ancient hells to pay, but I find consolation that the vaunted TriPads will become instantly and permanently obsolete in that moment.

Geopolitics: Term of Art, Intellectual, Deprecated, no functional replacement. The evolution of relationships between different political units as influenced by demography, planetside geography, and relative stellar position.

The Persean Sector Experiment remains politically unstable. A rough balance is found between the Persean League and the Sindrian Dictat, on the one hand, and the Hegemony and the Luddic Church on the other. As of now, this balance is ineffective because Tri-Tachyon has engaged in a more subtle version of power politics.

I won't bore Golivka with a base description of political powers we all know. But I'll ask some questions.

What does it mean that Tri-Tachyon's operatives can penetrate any other power's space more-or-less at will due to its mastery of phase technology, but that the corporation lacks the heft, depth, and most importantly, the population to become a true major power? Everyone waits for the next time Tri-Tachyon's combination of AI and human calculation considers hostilities profitable. But it seems that they have learned their lesson and are going for something else. Technological domination? Decapitation strikes with a credible success rate? Has over-reliance upon AI decision-making hindered Tri-Tachyon's ability to maintain strategic depth?

What does it mean that the so-called "pirates" all answer to a single leader, with settlements and bases spread throughout the Persean sector...yet their fleets are based almost exclusively on civilian-hulled vessels, relying on brute ferocity to hamstring development throughout the sector.  "Warlord Kanta" is a far better name than "Pirate Chief" Kanta, given her functional similarity to Andrada as a Hegemony deserter. Yet Kanta wields no Diktat. With far-flung bases in many systems, many of which can be established in surprisingly little time, operatives and agents in every port, an argument can be made that the squabbling "pirate" tribes are the true power of the sector, in spite of lagging behind on so many of the usual metrics. And yet... what is Kanta's actual goal?

What does it mean that the Luddic Faith spreads throughout the sector, and that its Pather allies not only control vast swaths of territory with outdated, technically-appalling ships...yet are perhaps the best of all of the factions at settling systems with little to nothing in the way of planetary resources? Is the Path merely the deniable "enforcement arm" of the Church, effectively culling spacefarers like Kanta's so-called pirates, yet leaving even defenseless colonies alone so long as they are religiously inoffensive?

What does it mean that the Church is so unpopular with even its most-pious adherents that even the hint of a new farm world draws settlers by the hundred?

Berserker.  Term of Art, Fictional, Deprecated/Antique. Artificial-intelligence war machines whose purpose is to wipe out humanity barring useful human servitors/worshippers, known as "goodlife."

What does it mean that that Tri-Tachyon wielded AI-powered forces.... yet no active Remnant AI has chosen to initiate a Berserker campaign, choosing instead simply to hold numerous systems and prevent their habitation by humans? Or can we consider Tri-Tachyon itself a Berserker Faction, given its willingness to turn a blind eye to saturation bombardment as a military tactic?

What does it mean that every port has hundreds, and often thousands, of space-trained personnel who will serve any captain willing to pick up their contract, and serve them faithfully regardless of the glory and/or ineptitude of said captain? That scores of highly-skilled marines will do same? That nanoforge production is almost purely centered around the production of ships and associated weaponry, resulting in a sector which is almost literally awash in barely-restrained (one cannot say "controlled") military power in dozens of different hands.... yet the majority of humanity remains planet-bound? Into what hands did the blueprints and technical knowledge required to terraform and create widespread stations and bases go?

I'll put this together in short-essay form for Golivka once I hit the next shuttle.

15

Suggestions / Steal and/or Manufacture/Install solar shields?

« on: March 27, 2024, 01:26:28 PM »

I see planets with solar shields, and I WANTS DEM for my desert worlds. There's an alternative in play for cold/dark worlds. Is it a balance thing that this isn't player-affectable? (or do I have a smooth brain and am missing smth?) 

tyia,
Russ in TX