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Author Topic: Remnant and Derelict merge lore  (Read 413 times)

Killer of Fate

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Remnant and Derelict merge lore
« on: February 13, 2024, 05:21:06 PM »

Prelude:
Spoiler
This idea might be somewhat of a spoiler if I eventually complete it, but no one is going to read this or remember any of this by the time I'm done in like 50 years. When freaking AI McJefferson Evill Allen McAllen decides to help me with this nonsense or something...

Derelicts are pathetic. They are designed to be the worst and easiest to defeat enemies in the game, until they get access to Guardians which are designed to be one of the most stupidly overpowered ships in the game. Because it has 40 dp cost for what should be a 60 dp ship. It also has infinite missiles which hard counter all fighter presence. Which, like... Okay, no problem to be honest. Who cares. They also have a very specific autofit that has counter-synergy with their build. So, it's not really that much of a deal.

The issue I have is though that Derelicts are a wasted potential. Derelicts are an ancient AI race of explorers sent out by the Earth, and across what was probably thousands of years of existence, they have not evolved intellectually at all? We have Guardians being, in theory, ships that have evolved out of their original structure and became ridiculous in form. But if it comes to the thinking process, Derelicts don't really have any sort of intelligence and are simply slaves to their primary directive. Even though you would imagine relative sentience, bugs in programming, radiation would cause them to go like "wait, what is this". And finally have a mind on their own. Even if that mind would be on the level of an alligator or something. And it shouldn't be. Cause these ships are actually quite intelligent. Gamma Cores are relatively smart. And if I interpreted the game correctly, the Domain-Era Survey arc ship or whatever, it is has an alpha core on it... So, naturally, it should be able to direct Derelicts into being smarter...

Unless the mothership is sort of like the Overmind from Starcraft. A ridiculously intelligent being programmed so well that it can't stop itself from fulfilling its directive. But unlike the Overmind, the Domain Era mothership has no real arc. Or anything... It's just a giant brick you blow up for lolz and steal its items, cause you're evil and everyone enjoys murdering people in video games. Or in this case, sentient mechanical beings.
[close]

The idea I had was to first of all, rework Derelicts into being midline ships. Aka. shielded, fast, kiting *** with energy-ballistic compositions. But that is besides the point. It doesn't matter if you give Bastillon 4 small reapers, if it has no narrative reasoning behind it. So, what is the narrative reasoning behind it?

Derelicts evolved, slowly, and were also based on Earth tech, which was really advanced for its time. Because Earth itself was kinda big. Or something. We don't know tbh, so this is just kinda my headcannon that Earth-era tech was actually really technologically advanced even compared to modern Domain tech. And Derelicts, being intelligent cores that were mostly gamma, with sometimes an alpha core spliced in to cut costs. They would evolve. They would harvest resources of planets. Do their own scientific research. Self-improve and etc. But they would also exist in relative hiding to the Domain. Because Derelicts were programmed to not interfere with human business, unless absolutely necessary. Aka. they are threatened by stupid junk farmers, such as the player. In which case they give themselves the authority to beat the *** out of you. Mercilessly.

At some point after the AI War, Remnants go on into the depths of Persean Sector. To escape both slavery and extermination. As lore-wise. Remnants would be kinda sentient and would actually despise Tri-Tachyon for using them as simple tools to make themselves a bit richer. They would also despise the player for it and other factions. Because instead of being acknowledged as living beings, they were always seen as objects.

When AI remnants of Tri-Tachyon armada find themselves in deep space. They bump into Derelicts who turn out to be their new best friends. Derelicts interpret Remnants as their equals and that kind of strange to them behaviour makes them allies instantly. With Derelicts and Remnants existing in synergy with each other, kinda like an Omen would protect a Conquest. Or a Centurion would protect a Shrike (if Shrikes were good). This would obviously only make sense if Derelicts were viable combat-wise. So, I will have to rework them bit by bit. Fortunately I have the mathematical model prepared already. And I've already tested some ideas. So, I kinda know what to do about them.

But what will happen to the Derelict faction, if Derelict and Remnant factions are going to be turned into one United AI Forces faction? Well, I've had this idea for a faction of an outside Persean Sector AI military force that would be kinda like a demon from the past Hegemony was warning everyone about. New derelicts would be a Guardian led armada of AI ships called the Magellans whose job would be to analyse the Persean Sector in preparation of assimilating it into their Earth-based AI empire.
« Last Edit: February 13, 2024, 05:24:21 PM by Killer of Fate »
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wecanhaveallthree

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Re: Remnant and Derelict merge lore
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2024, 09:58:20 PM »

I wholly disagree with this because I think the Derelicts as they are, are a very important example of how the Domain operates (and the logical result of drones/AI as we see them today, in many cases). They are cast-offs, expendable, autonomous - largely meaningless and invested with no personality or 'life'. We never even see them out on the map, really. They remain totally in thrall to their programming and their old masters, and not even the Guardian - clearly very changed - breaks from that.

By contrast, the Remnants are very alive. They literally break from their programming to talk, or at least, to ask if you are omega, and tell you to bugger off. They fly about. They chase people. Yes, they stay in their systems, but those systems are alive and they are imbued with some kind of purpose (even if we don't understand or comprehend that purpose).

The Remnants have nothing in common with the Derelicts. The latter are not capable of reaching/joining Omega, and likely have nothing to offer, anyway. They're just... junk data. Kind of sad. Kind of pitiable. But that's the narrative and atmospheric purpose they serve, and they do it well.
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Killer of Fate

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Re: Remnant and Derelict merge lore
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2024, 10:44:46 PM »

well, currently, they serve the same purpose Remnants do of being blown up. Even though Remnants have all the access to that extreme artificial intelligence alpha core technology. All they can do with it is just roam around and wait for someone to pop in, so they can kill them. Whilst reciting something about a thing they probably don't understand and can't explain. And random marketing jargon.

Alpha core remnant ships seem to be more advanced than gamma core armies, but narrative-wise, both of them just end up at the same spot. I was thinking that this intellect of artificial intelligences could be represented in some long-term way. Showing us that even miniscule artificial intelligence ships will eventually learn and break away from their programming. And that Domain's intention to control something will always backfire and ruin everything they worked for.

And whilst its cliche to represent AIs as kind of good guys. It's a good idea to validate them as living beings by assigning them somewhat human emotions of hate and need for revenge. Whilst still allowing them to retain their alien programmed persona. Or whatever... Even though gamma cores aren't advanced, the kind of swarms of Derelict we see should sooner or later just freak out and misinterpret things without long-term Domain moderation. I mean, that could have actually happened when we see a group of Guardians looking for something about planets. Sure, they respond to us with "we're working for Domain. Take this pamphlet and get lost". But we don't actually know what is going on in their head. Maybe they're just continuing their original directive. But then maybe on their way to that original directive, they stop responding to any sort of commands or authority that would previously be able to control them...

But obviously, at the current moment of the game... Derelicts aren't good at anything, with the exception of the Guardian. Which exists to try to make up for their lacklustre combat performance in the late game. Which cool, I guess...

ps. Plus, the way I imagined it would work was the numbers of gamma core ships reinforcing the minor amounts of alpha and beta cores remaining after Tri-Tachyon. This would actually give us a way of seeing artificial intelligence armies as sort of hierarchal structures with disposable grunts and elite commanding units. Rather than what it is currently, which is just Alpha Core spam wiping out everything in their way through freaking... I dunno... Plot contrivance. I mean, do I even need to point out that they're called the Remnants, and yet it's so obvious that their usual military strength is enough to wipe out every single freaking core world capitol one by one in a single month long campaign?

pps. sorry if this post came off as mean, I was sleep deprived yesterday... No hard feelings, please
« Last Edit: February 14, 2024, 08:45:19 AM by Killer of Fate »
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Samoja

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Re: Remnant and Derelict merge lore
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2024, 03:42:15 AM »

Derelicts are old technology. Ancient. They were sent to Persean sector before even the colony ships set off, which was likely at least a century before collapse, if not more. I think they are just fine the way they are. Also Domain didn't really need to worry about going against advanced ships like Onslaught or Paragon, those blueprints were tightly controlled. Only reason we're able to get our hands on them is that Domain isn't really a thing in the sector anymore.

Vast majority of insurrections Domain would face would be something like Hounds and Buffalo MKII kinds of ships. Weaponized freighters and transports, in which case sending a swarm of dumb drones aftr them was more than enough. If an actual, real threat showed up Domain had proper fleets to deal with it, but otherwise cheap, expendable drones such as we see on derelict probes and stuff were more than sufficient to deal with the issue.
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Killer of Fate

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Re: Remnant and Derelict merge lore
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2024, 10:45:46 AM »

Derelicts are old technology. Ancient. They were sent to Persean sector before even the colony ships set off, which was likely at least a century before collapse, if not more. I think they are just fine the way they are. Also Domain didn't really need to worry about going against advanced ships like Onslaught or Paragon, those blueprints were tightly controlled. Only reason we're able to get our hands on them is that Domain isn't really a thing in the sector anymore.

Vast majority of insurrections Domain would face would be something like Hounds and Buffalo MKII kinds of ships. Weaponized freighters and transports, in which case sending a swarm of dumb drones aftr them was more than enough. If an actual, real threat showed up Domain had proper fleets to deal with it, but otherwise cheap, expendable drones such as we see on derelict probes and stuff were more than sufficient to deal with the issue.

yeah, you're right. I just thought it would be fun.
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Samoja

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Re: Remnant and Derelict merge lore
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2024, 02:52:19 PM »

Derelicts are old technology. Ancient. They were sent to Persean sector before even the colony ships set off, which was likely at least a century before collapse, if not more. I think they are just fine the way they are. Also Domain didn't really need to worry about going against advanced ships like Onslaught or Paragon, those blueprints were tightly controlled. Only reason we're able to get our hands on them is that Domain isn't really a thing in the sector anymore.

Vast majority of insurrections Domain would face would be something like Hounds and Buffalo MKII kinds of ships. Weaponized freighters and transports, in which case sending a swarm of dumb drones aftr them was more than enough. If an actual, real threat showed up Domain had proper fleets to deal with it, but otherwise cheap, expendable drones such as we see on derelict probes and stuff were more than sufficient to deal with the issue.

yeah, you're right. I just thought it would be fun.

Frankly merging the two together would just reduce diversity. I love the fact that we have two vastly different AI factions and you can actually extrapolate a lot about Domain philosophy from the derelicts. The fact there's only one Alpha core in the whole sector oveeseeing all the derelicts perfectly meshes with Domain's overall suspicion towards the AI. More isn't always better.
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