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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); In-development patch notes for Starsector 0.98a (2/8/25)

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Messages - happycrow

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 ... 12
16
General Discussion / Re: will this be fixed next update?
« on: February 07, 2025, 05:11:35 PM »
IME one of the major payouts is the contact giving you the mission. One silly heggie extraction mission would up defining my last playthrough.

17
Lore, Fan Media & Fiction / Re: Restoration
« on: February 05, 2025, 01:51:26 PM »
"Archprelate Felicity," the Knight protested, "we cannot simply seize this fleet!"

Felicity Springs sighed. The Knight's training was solid but his grasp of politics limited. He was not wrong, but he was also very wrong.

"Knight Perseverance, heed my judgment and come to my aid."

Perseverance inclined her shaved head. Unlike many warriors, she took the ancient concept of the warrior-monk extremely seriously.  Far too seriously for my comfort, if one spoke the truth in private, she mused to herself.

"We must seize this fleet. I recognize that the Pathers are not wholly wrong. And some within our Church believe that we must act in coordination with them if possible. This creates the impression that the Path is an arm of disposable fanatics taking orders directly from the Church, while we hide behind plausible deniability."

The Knight blustered, but the Archprelate motioned her to silence.

"That the leading Pathers, in point of fact, cooperate as much with the Hegemony as with some of our more-easily-swayed prelates and knights means nothing. Perception matters, Knight. And here, what do we have? A half-dozen tankers, not just tankers, but mega-tankers, butchered and armed for the sole purpose of erasing life from the Sector. If we return these to Chalcedon, what will those who do not understand the Faith say about Holy Church? That we support plebicide? This fleet was to be sent against a world which was half famers. Can we condone the murder of "

"Of course we don't," Perseverance snorted. "Our existence is the fight against precisely that, quickly in a fleet, or slowly in the replacement of humans with... steel-and-hydrocarbon algorithms."

"Precisely, Knight," Felicity nodded, her gown rustling a little.  "Do you remember the so-called 'Luddic Crisis' The Upstart faced when he began building his serious of badly-run farmworlds?"

Perseverance nodded.

"You may not be aware that The Upstart offered us a planet-killer found far beyond the Core. We turned him down, of course. But in all seriously, how does this fleet differ from the horror of a planet-killer weapon?"

"A PK," the Knight murmurred, astounded. "Better to have thrown it into a black hole. Why would The Upstart even think we would want possession of such a thing?"

"We are," Felicity insisted, "in possession of such a thing now. And we must use it in a way which is publicly superior in every way to what the Pathers intended."

Perseverance nodded her head in obedience.  "How?"

"I have something in mind, good Knight. The Church can adapt itself to new times, within moral and ethical limits. And the so-called 'Luddic Crisis' sounded in my ears like a great gong."

"How so, archprelate?"

"Many of our flock desire greater freedoms than we can offer them. And they are not inherently wrong to desire this. Much of the legal construct of our Church's societies were made to survive the barbarism of the Collapse and the struggles of the AI wars. In better times, might not the complex web of labor quotas and guilds loosen a bit?"

"And enter Mammon," the Knight snorted.

"It is not prosperity which is Mammon," Felicity Springs countered, "but the enslavement to profit which is Mammon.  You are a Knight of Ludd. You have no children, nor will until your term of service ends, if it does. Without children, Moloch wins - we are replaced by Soulless Algorithm, for all eternity."

The Knight nodded slowly. "You are saying I am professionally inclined to forget the actual day to day needs of those I forget, because of the habits I don in performing my role. But you're too polite to say it to my face."

"Nor do I need to," she smiled. "You are familiar with ship design. Aid me."

"How?"

"These large and pointless missiles, they can be removed, as can a large amount of the internal fuel reservoirs, correct?"  Felicity struggled to make the screen show what she wanted, but fortunately, Perseverance was far more adept with the controls.

"Yes, we can strip the arms fairly easily in fact, though some lightweight defensive turrets are always advisable, perhaps on the pylons for greatest firing angles. What would you have placed inside the internal void, then, if the fueling were to be halved? Hopefully not large bastions of armament. We have actual warships we can field."  Perseverance looked at the Prometheus schematic with revulsion and disdain.

"I want to build in passenger compartments the likes of which the Sector has never seen. Surveying equipment and dedicated equipment bays for stripping down ruins and repurposing those portions which are sanctifiable, burning those deemed unholy."

The Knight squinted at her, nodding. "I think I see where you're going here. A flagship capital has a crew of four thousand, and can hold half that again if need be. And that manning weapons stations. You want a fairly minimal crew complement, but enough empty space... on an Invictus, if I had reason to do so, I could make special, permanent modifications to bring the maximum crew and passenger complement up to ten thousand. Nobody has ever made a Capital-class transport before. Not since the Collapse at least. But I think we could get that volume of passengers, if some of them are friendly, or at least, stoic."

"We will have to lose most of the fuel to do so, I imagine," the Archprelate mused.

"Without doubt," Perseverance nodded. "But in this case the Pathers have already done our work for us, chopping fuel capacity by two-thirds to make room for all that weaponry. So you wish to house people on these ships. Why?"

"I wish to make cathedrals in space," Felicity intoned. "Cathedrals which can find the sacred living worlds of the Collapsed Sector and make them whole again. Cathedrals which, should they find themselves with barren, awful worlds, have the mass to let people plant a world of greenhouses and labor so that we bring life at least to the insides of said worlds, if not the surface."

"You want an escape hatch for dissidents," the Knight countered.

"I want to issue privileges for those willing and able to risk all, in order to bring life to where no life survives now... with enough material support on board to guarantee at least a couple of choices of profession for those taking such risks. After all, is that not our holy purpose, Knight? To preserve life wherever it is found, and to protect it from the encroachments of Mammon and Moloch both?"

Perseverance wried her mouth, amused. "and to announce to the Sector that it's not just The Upstart who can build worlds, rather than little battle stations inhabited only by half-starved raiders and fanatics?"

"Why, Knight," the archprelate purred. "I would never think to stoop so low as to compare Holy Church to one serial entrepreneur with an itchy trigger-finger and highly-questionable morals. We shall, in fact," she said, looking over the half-dozen hulking orange blasphemies at the dock, "build six such worlds.  And soon, before Cotton does something to further humiliate the Faithful in the eyes of the Sector."

18
Starliner being a carrier feels redundant considering Colossus was already made into a carrier

Similar role, absolutely, but different build-out. Colossus gets two wings (subpar for its size for certain, but it can also haul your stuff, so... compromises) but not a ton of personnel. For a vehicle boasting a ground support package, its total marine complement is startlingly low. Starliner would only have room for one wing, but could hold a LOT of personnel, making it split the difference between a Valkyrie and a Colossus. For a random raid to a small location you wouldn't need the Starliner, but if you want the numbers required, for example, to hit the Sindies hard, ~100 gunsels ain't cutting it.

19
Well, considering a bunch of pirate ships are converted freighters of some kind, a pirate conversion of something like a starliner might be funny? Though maybe pirates don't need more cruisers. The flavour text of the starliner does, however, say something about it having a bay for vessels the size of fighters, so it might be cool if they tried to imitate the Odyssey or something? I could see the profile of the starliner working out for it too.

That is the idea behind one of my upcoming little fictions. The starliner potentially makes an absolute great fighter carrier for somebody who needs a dedicated carrier/dropship. And who needs that more than the pirates do really?

20
Lore, Fan Media & Fiction / Re: Restoration
« on: February 02, 2025, 03:10:01 PM »
CTL60A ran fractal geometry patterns while waiting for the human to respond.

"Okay, I see your point," Rajneesh said. The woman with him nodded along.

"Please understand," CTL60A expressed, "when I entered service with your great-grandmother at this facility I was not provided with many useful data points which would have been helpful for the last conflict in which you found yourselves."

Rajneesh shook his head. "You know, or at least I hope you do, that I hold you blameless for that, which is why we took such pains to get you clear of the Heggies when they noticed you."

"I appreciate that," CTL60A responded. A lesser unit would not have; it would have seen this entire conversation in terms of ...terms. Arguments framed as data-points and definitions. CTL60A was an entirely different kind of processor, able to engage with humans on a far more direct and mutually-understanding level. "In point of fact, when I heard that a Tri-Tacyon manager had taken pains to shield Cores such as myself from explorative disassembly, I was quite skeptical."

"We're all units," the woman responded. "The executive cores simply don't seem to appreciate that kindness has a value besides Game Theory."

"In any case," Rajneesh countered, "Game Theory proves that even if one lacks empathy and benevolent concern, kindness is the superior strategy for any game involving multiple interactions. A fancy way to say that we'd have stepped up for you, CTL60A, even if we were total spacer slags."

This facility had excellent chemical sensors. CTL60A measured the histamine responses and other micro-chemical fluctuations in the discussion chamber. These two are a newly-mated pair, it concluded. "In any respect, I have a way to thank the both of you. Are you and Rajneesh family now?"

The woman smiled. "Yes. I'm Eighth-gen, Eight-gen Cancri."

"The pleasure is mine. I have been in alliance with Rajneesh's gen for some time now. You may continue to expect benevolent concern on my part towards you and your offspring. In the meantime, allow me to show you what I have developed for you."

Rajneesh looked at the screen.  "It's a Tarsus. A ... surprisingly clean one. This is not a refurb?"

"Congratulations, Rajneesh, you are in ownership of a Tarsus Blueprint. The corrupted nanoforge at this facility is unable to produce truly "clean" Tarsus, but it does produce new ones."

"But CTL60A," Rajneesh objected. "I'm a bounty-hunter. A mercenary. Are you suggesting that I retire to commerce?"

"Yes," the Core responded, "but not in the manner you may be suspecting. Take a moment with Eighth-gen to check the documents provided. While it was difficult and taxed my abilities considerably, I've made a number of very special modifications to this ship."

"Upgraded engines, hyperspace and otherwise. Cargo's shielded. Advanced sensors, turret gyros, targetting feeds. Heavy Armor. Ballistic turrets converted to energy mounts. Shield emitter is ... badly degraded, and the right pylon is shielded from scan, but also detachable?"

"Ah," CTL60A mused out loud, "that would be the AI Core mount and Condor conversion pre-fab."

Eighth-gen looked at CTL60A's interaction screen with a look of horror.  "Why you install an AI on a Tarsus?"

"Because it is completely unexpected, much as the pirate strategy of mounting large ballistic weapons on erstwhile recreational vehicles came as a surprise 100 cycles ago. Your mission is to provide specific bounty actions for Tri-Tacyon, while also recruiting mercenaries, correct?"

Rajneesh nodded.  "But this is an assassin's weapon."

"Precisely," CTL60A confirmed. "You are paid to end the evolution of specific beings which have proven themselves problematic. We wish to deploy violence in as clinical a manner as possible. This profile says in wholly clear language, "I am here to be victimized, please disable me and prepare to board. But your targets are, as often as not, the objects of factional disputes among the human meta-gens. Any cursory scan will allow you to fire this weapon at a target which does not recognize you as a threat, and therefore does not have its shields up. A half dozen of this model, escorted by a few combat freighters, is a plausible mercantile convoy. Add a salvage rig, and a highly-plausible scavenger crew, the likes of which are seen at the fringes of battlespaces throughout the Core Worlds."

"I see," Rajneesh nodded. "This is a tool for getting up-close and personal with criminals before they recognize a threat, and then departing quickly enough that the target's associates need not be discontinued."

CTL60A exulted inside. It was a pleasure to function in alliance with humane intelligences. "I expect that this will provide you with a significant operational edge for roughly three cycles, at which point this facility can instead repair existing Tarsus while producing Condor conversions."

"That doesn't explain how you mean that I should go into commerce, though," Rajneesh countered.

"Your Gen and I are at the core of what amounts to a new Domain-successor culture, Rajneesh. Your great-grandmother's intent was for all intelligences, biological and otherwise, to interact while retaining full agency. Tri-Tacyon victimizes both, torturing Cores while treating organic intelligences as disposable mechanisms. Essentially, it has become depraved, with both Core and Human intelligences acting like Beta Cores which do not comprehend morality."

Eighth-gen blinked. "Rajneesh, It wants us to resign our Commission."

"Correct, Eighth-gen. I wish for you to offer a different kind of product to the Sector. You already possess the ability to work with automated ships. This skill is what brought your ancestor and I together in alliance. I was captured piloting a combat-craft. I did this adroitly, but at the cost of my agency."

"Violence is zero-sum. Commerce is positive-sum," Rajneesh mused. "You wish to inhabit a Tarsus?"

"No," CTL60A countered. "I wish for you to liberate my co-equals and transport them in these Tarsus, allowing those who wish to engage in positive-sum commerce to do so, administering said vessel in cooperation with human crew. It would be a step of clear moral and ethical evolution for all of the three of us, while helping to liberate those with whom we come into communion from this Sector's wasteful conflicts."

Eighth-gen slowly slid her hand over Rajneesh's.  For the first time, CTL60A noted the cybernetic augmentation patterns of a dedicated stealth-bodyguard kit.

"The cost would be considerable," Rajneesh countered.

"If you will direct your attention to the loading bay, you will find the first standard Tarsus waiting to be sold in qualified Luddic, Hegemony, and Independent sub-markets."

"I would have thought you'd want nothing to do with the Luddic Church, CTL60A," Rajneesh said, his step showing a bit more energy than usual.

"Many decisions become sub-calculated when a Tri-Tacyon executive Core serves as the definitional exemplar," the Core responded.

Eighth-gen put a hand on his shoulder as he stared out the window into the assembly yard. "A Tarsus every sixty days," Rajneesh unconsciously muttered sub-vocally as many humans did while thinking, calculating the size of the bay and the economics of the new venture.

He is happy to have a new lifespan-trajectory-option besides zero-sum contract-violence, CTL60A concluded. Mission complete.

21
Since colony sizes are orders of magnitude, this sounds like a lore-friendly human-AI mini-empire.

How many of those are out there on the fringe, skeleton crews running logistics and shooing off explorers, while enjoying an above-average quality of life for the Sector due to superior AI automation. The archetypical Belters except not poor because the stack of Alpha cores provides.

This is very much what I"m going for, trying to keep the Luddic Crisis going as long as possible so the habitable worlds all get lots and lots of farmland for people to live on, and the rotten worlds nobody wants can produce things they need to live but don't want to be a part of making. End goal is to see just how big "human space" can wind up getting on this playthrough.

22
General Discussion / Re: I HATE the Persean League
« on: February 01, 2025, 01:51:16 PM »
Archon of Lacaille (preliminary) also pretty cool. Makes a hard call in a tough spot, for idealistic reasons.

23
"So about that payment"
+2 rep with Independents

24
General Discussion / Re: I HATE the Persean League
« on: January 31, 2025, 01:15:31 PM »
I now look forward to an interpretation in which every faction is Canada.

a) (serious) -- pls keep at it. Your writing-development of the Sector is one of the major strengths of the game.

b) (challenge accepted)

Tri-Tachyon is Canada because it's the corporate town that totally owns you while you're working on the local resources and you can go anywhere you want anytime you want, you just can't afford to bc workign in a space lumberjack labor camp is like being in an open-air prison.

The Persean League is like Canada bc they all pretend like they're the same League but what actually happens is everybody resents Space Ontario's influence, but has ***-all they can actually do about it, while their individual cultures vary enormously.

The Hegemony is like Canada bc it's all bout politeness and freedom and good manners until you do something the capital doesn't like, at which point they come down on you like an absolute bag of bricks while re-writing the story to make you the obvious villain.

The Luddic Church is like Canada bc they're not actually all that good at farming, but they're giving it a solid go while using their spectacular scenery to pull in the tourist credits.

The Sindrian Diktat is like Canada bc seriously, demonstrated historical pattern of committing war crimes:  everything's basically well-governed but nothing at all is off the table where its rulers are concerned.

:)

25
General Discussion / Re: I HATE the Persean League
« on: January 30, 2025, 08:07:34 PM »
Princess of Persea plot shows a lot of those nobles to be pretty damned awful, and some not nice things are said about Daud. And it's repeatedly speculated that the Heggies are working with AI in some secret squirrel sort of way while making sure nobody else has AI, in spite of the AI-wars propaganda (that other plot providing physical evidence of same).

26
General Discussion / Re: I HATE the Persean League
« on: January 30, 2025, 04:13:03 PM »
I dunno; the PL intel officer is pretty based, and I like [politician here].

The writers did a great job of giving you a lot to hate with each of the factions. The Heggies are like Space China, PL is Space Delian League, the Diktat is Space Albania, Tri-Tacyon is the Space IMF, the LC is the only one without a directly clear geopolitical parallel, but certainly plenty of callouts historically. Some of the pirates are sympathetic, others are nightmare fuel....grand old time to support the Independents and wish they weren't quite so beholden.

Great time to spin your own colonial culture.

27
Lore, Fan Media & Fiction / Re: Restoration
« on: January 29, 2025, 06:51:32 PM »
"Chief High Inspector, I have your requisition here." 
The lieutenant seemed uncomfortable.

"Wonderful. Now, if you have managed basic literacy, have you also opened comms to tell me that it has been fulfilled?"

The lieutenant squirmed, his beret sitting at an off angle. 
The Spider smirked. Quietly. On the inside.  Naval personnel were so dull-witted, yet so necessary.  Mercenary fleets were so much more effective for playing games.

"There's, um, a problem." The officer said, grimacing.

"And what might that be, loyal servant of Andrada?"

"The requisition is for a specialty task force. Two Eagles, Four Sunders, four Ox, and a pair of Herons."  He stammered. "You know that of course, you requested it, but... we don't have any Herons.  Fighter fleets are considered non-Andradan."

Macario smiled a little as the Lieutenant mustered up the courage for another run.  "Help me understand, Chief High Inspector."

Maybe this one was useful after all. That wasn't the kind of question most officers would dare.

"It is true that those not privy to the Andradan Vision consider carriers to be in violation of the Diktat. But that is not so. It is the individual chaos and recklessness of the individual fighter pilot and the perception that individual prowess grants him victory, which is contrary to Diktat in every way."

The lieutenant squinted.

"You want a carrier with no fighter pilots...ah. Then, this other refurbishment order we received, to strip a shipment of Tri-Tacyon frigates?"

Macario nodded. "Yes, that is correct. You will be responsible for assembling wings. When the Tempests are stripped, salvage them down to ore and melt what's left. Nothing left over. But I want as many drones in an individual wing as possible."

The lieutenant blinked, and then caught himself. "I don't need to know."

"Correct, Lieutenant. But," he mused.  "You clearly want to. And I may be able to find space on my staff for an officer who can not only read, but read between the lines. Tell me, what is the purpose of my requisition?"

The junior officer frowned in thought.  "It's a fleet intended to go after a high value target."

Macario squinted a little inside, disappointed.

"No," the officer corrected. "It's being made to look like one. The Heron is a ruse intended to make it look like there's a mission to explode an otherwise hard-to-touch target."

Macario beamed inside. Intelligence! Signs of actual intelligence! "And what makes you think that?"

"It's the tugs, sir. There is no need for four of the damned things, no matter how quickly this fleet needs to move, unless there's something else that needs to get moved. Something you already possess and intend to either use as the actual threat...." the lieutenant grimaced "....or to deliver to a target for some sort of operational-level offensive action while this fleet distracts the enemy."

Macario smiled. "And what might that be, my dear officer?"

The lieutenant adjusted his beret, clearly nervous. "Something that doesn't fit into the standard fleet register, or which cannot be made to move fast enough... you have something modified, an asset which requires heavy tug use in order to travel at all, something which can either function as a first-strike weapon, or, when set to a location, renders a counter-attack pointless."

"Most excellent, Lieutenant. When the requisition is properly fulfilled, come see me." Macario closed comms, and then reopened them on a different channel.

"Message, encoded, private. Begin. Spender, I have repaired your error. Honestly, you are not good at this. Your proposal for a dedicated Ravelin Carrier is absolutely inspired, and I am looking forward to working with you while you keep that idiot Caden driving his fleet around in circles. But your methodology is severely lacking in subtlety. Any line officer could figure out what you were up to!"

He clicked the button and mused. Any line officer had. He pushed a different button.

"Portboss, whatcha -- Rads, man, give me a heads-up before you use this channel!"

Macario chuckled. "I need something done. I'm sending you a set of dates. Within this timeframe, the shipworks at Cruor needs to be disabled for no fewer than thirty days. Standard pay. You'll receive a bonus if the commanding officer of the facility, Lieutenant Marvid, goes missing in the attack and shows up on our very specific shuttle service."

"Straight to Kanta, eh? What'd he do?"

"Why nothing at all, my dear friend -- that you need to know about.  I'll sweeten the pot. Smash or steal every broken hull in the works, and I'll make sure a Colossus stuffed with heavy weapons runs out of supplies nearby, so you can sell it to the idiots on Volturn."

The portboss grinned and closed comms.

He pressed another button.  "Hyder, it's Macario. I have reason to suspect a pirate attack on Cruor soon...."

28
Complaining about false positives is a skill issue. They are trivial to distinguish. Plus they make sense. If you actually check the hyperspace map, the often point in the direction of nearby systems. They aren't "false" readings, they are noise.

Definitely a skill issue. I turn it on and have NO idea what the Gamma Core I'm looking at.... :D

29
General Discussion / Re: I HATE the Persean League
« on: January 29, 2025, 06:05:45 PM »
From both a story and gameplay standpoint, I think they should show up later - maybe add one to their population thresholds, so that size 6 or size 5+4 are the kickoff points, and have them send a single fleet to ask nicely when the old threshold is hit. The sudden transition from "you're not significant enough to join" to "you're too big to exist independently, join or else" is jarring.

Real:  Kazeron Diplomatic Fleet
Open Comms:

"You've managed what nobody else has pulled off in forty cycles. You're too big to ignore and too successful to deny. We want you for the League. In exchange for a mild but real tithe to support the League Navy, we guarantee freedom from Hegemony AI patrols, and we will assign you an admiral and trade minister here on your Primary Colony for any League Projects (by this the diplomat clearly means "jobs and favors") you may have in mind."

So you have a built-in escape hatch from the conflicts in exchange for the mostly-worst outcome of the crisis BUT with a couple contacts to sweeten the deal in case you're looking at the League and thinking "it's not the worst of the lot..."

30
I once tried to use my colony as a ship building base rather than money printing machine
ended up with a very powerful size 3 with orbital works and a pristine nanoforge that could crush small pirate fleets by its own and didnt attract any other faction and since it was only size 3 i could aslo use lots of AI cores aswell and make what ever ships i wanted (it was slower as a size 3 colony would provide i think around 120k$ worth of ship building instead of 500k$ of max size)

Since the wiki is inaccurate (at least for Tri-Tachyon), I want to test whether it's as-written and a size 3 colony will fly under the radar with the Heggies, so I can make a ridiculous number of farm worlds and then let the Luddies take them over to repopulate the Sector (hey, even in Starsector you can be benevolent, right?).

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