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[Buddah]

So I just finished the Galatia story, and I'm curious why the Provost is so upset at the end.  Sure Scylla ran off and that might slow future work down but we just reactivated a gate.  Baird has all of Scylla's research, I have a working Janus device and they seem to have a good idea on next steps, they even located a coronal shunt to power everything. So whats the deal? Why so upset like all her work was for nothing and her career is ruined? Hell even if they absolutely can't go on without Scylla regaining access to the local gate system is itself a monumental win.  Thoughts? Is this just basically a holdover until the add more in future updates?  Or did I miss something?

[MajorTheRed]

The way I understood it, Galatia Academy will never be able to replicate the Janus device, because Coureuse and Ela make sure the first prototype (the one located and designed in Galatia) was flawed by designed. The working device was made by Ela, in the Magec system, and ultimately this device is not provided to the Provost. Ela and Coureuse were the only ones to be able to make the whole process work (engineering + theoretical), while Galatia was merely providing the tools and resources.

Furthermore, the provost is deprived of her moment of triumph. Even if she worked for the "greater good", it was still to fulfill her ambition and hubris.  I guess in the end the Hegemony will not be happy by the second failure of the Galatia academy, and will ransack once again the institution. We can also suppose that following this purge, the Hegemony will learn about the indirect implication of Tri-Tachyon, which might even start a new war, with Ludd providing assistance for revenge and wrath against Moloch. So not exactly the initial intent of the Provost.

But it's just my personal interpretation... I admit I enjoyed the cynical portraying of research and advance of the academic world in this quest.

[SCC]

I assume it's a placeholder for the time being. By the time I finish current storyline, I can search the whole sector for them and I'm willing to do it, so Baird shouldn't worry herself too much.

[Talkie Toaster]

The way I understood it, Galatia Academy will never be able to replicate the Janus device, because Coureuse and Ela make sure the first prototype (the one located and designed in Galatia) was flawed by designed. The working device was made by Ela, in the Magec system, and ultimately this device is not provided to the Provost. Ela and Coureuse were the only ones to be able to make the whole process work (engineering + theoretical), while Galatia was merely providing the tools and resources.

Furthermore, the provost is deprived of her moment of triumph. Even if she worked for the "greater good", it was still to fulfill her ambition and hubris.  I guess in the end the Hegemony will not be happy by the second failure of the Galatia academy, and will ransack once again the institution. We can also suppose that following this purge, the Hegemony will learn about the indirect implication of Tri-Tachyon, which might even start a new war, with Ludd providing assistance for revenge and wrath against Moloch. So not exactly the initial intent of the Provost.

But it's just my personal interpretation... I admit I enjoyed the cynical portraying of research and advance of the academic world in this quest.

Plus, Baird has lost control of a lot of very important information. She kept steamrollering over Coureuse's safety objections... what were they? What if it turns out Coureuse had suspicions about the Mysterious Music, that Baird kept ignoring because she couldn't hear it? What if she knows more than us?

[isyourmojofly]

I didn't realise the story was over, I kept thinking that I'd get a comms request with the next mission.

I only saw one of the new hyper-AI things, and didn't have to fight it. Did I just miss something?

[MajorTheRed]

I didn't realise the story was over, I kept thinking that I'd get a comms request with the next mission.

I only saw one of the new hyper-AI things, and didn't have to fight it. Did I just miss something?

The quest is a bit of two opposite things at the same time:
On one hand it's kind of an expanded tutorial: learning several types of mission, visiting most of the core system, learning about the lore, discovering new mechanics (stealth mission, negociating, exploration). On the other hand, some missions are quite delicate, needing subtility or blunt force (Aztlan, the secret Site, hunter fleets...).
In the end the player has the choice between discovering the game surfing on dialog and story points, or playing in Hell-mode blasting his way through all the enemies. I was feeling a bit cheating by playing the first way, but the second way is way above my skills and my patience...
So not much of a judgment here, the quest is like the game itself: you play the way you want, which is quite an achievement of Alex in itself

[stormturmoil]

There's also the issue that the 'accident' at Galatia, that messed with Natural Jump points, was replicated by the Player, and is thus theoretically Weaponisable, and that most of the Factions occupy mainly systems with Gates in, meaning that any of them could be intentionally cut off from Hyperspace by a Hostile party.
This may well be why Scylla and Ella bailed - they're afraid not only of the Hegemony seizing and exploiting use of the Gates themselves for advantage, but also using this effect to Crush everyone else by locking them inside their own systems, with the only way in or out being use of the Gates or the relative handful of people who can Transverse Jump safely.
Of the Factions, we only know of the Hegemony, Via Galatia, that can currently use the Gates (in theory, if they can replicate the Janus device) and Tri-Tachyon that can reliably Transverse Jump, maybe, if they got it from the Defector before the extraction.
Other than that, Transverse Jump seems to be something that gets done by dangerous monkeying with the Drive rather than something that can be used reliably en masse, so in theory, the Hegemony, after seizing Galatia's work, could, if they replicate the first gate test effect, starve the rest of the sector into Compliance by bottling them up in their own systems by cutting off access to Hyperspace, and using the Gates against them...

And that's without even considering that if access to none of the Stars are Left...

[shoi]

feels like just a cut off point until more content exists

[Thana]

I only saw one of the new hyper-AI things, and didn't have to fight it. Did I just miss something?

Yeah, that part confused me. I know some players have controlled it, so I assumed it would come up again. I guess not, though. But when I saw it, it outclassed my entire fleet to a stupid degree, so if I was supposed to fight it and win... Yeah, that was not going to happen. Plus, it probably would have required the "control automated ships" skill anyway.

[robepriority]

Tessaracts aren't controllable even with automated ships.

The primary boon is that you get their weapons.

[Talkie Toaster]

Yeah, that part confused me. I know some players have controlled it, so I assumed it would come up again. I guess not, though. But when I saw it, it outclassed my entire fleet to a stupid degree, so if I was supposed to fight it and win... Yeah, that was not going to happen. Plus, it probably would have required the "control automated ships" skill anyway.

The end-game challenges in this version seem to be for when you have a colony and plenty of blueprints, and can basically order a custom fleet to deal with them- so you might want to come back with a large, punchy fleet full of officers later. The ones you haven't seen yet are related to Baird's last set of comments, where she says you'd need the power of a coronal hypershunt to restore the Gate network.