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[Alcomancer]

THREAT DETECTED

THREAT DETECTED

THREAT DETECTED

If you don't know the significance of those words, leave this thread or risk spoilers.

Spoiler

I wonder if THREAT may be a cognitohazardous entity only detectable by those who have been exposed to knowledge of their existence, but perhaps on a sort of conceptual scale that lumps groups of people together by association. The ship is aware of THREAT so everyone on the ship is considered to be aware of THREAT.

For those of you who do not know, cognitohazard refers to a piece of information that is actually dangerous to percieve. This can be mundane, such as strobe lights triggering epilepsy, but it can also be supernatural in the case of many fictional series like the SCP foundation.

I believe that knowledge of the existence of THREAT allows for THREAT to be percieved, and this is potentially why we encounter the Onslaught MK I in the way we do. It was generally left alone when there were no longer any living crew aboard long enough for us to locate it. But our perception of THREAT made it real to us. I may be reading to far into the reasoning behind gameplay decisions here but if any of what I'm getting at is true it has much wider reaching implications for the Domain Explorarium as well, and possible the existance of the TriTacyhon AI Remnant.

[close]

[StuffyEvil]

Spoiler

From the description of the Threat Hull hullmod that all Threat Ship has, it seems more like the Threat as developed some kind of unique structure or development that makes it hard to be detected by the standard sensor package in the Persean Sector.

Don't forget that when Phase ships were first developed, the sensors settings for detecting the faint particles phase ships create wasn't a thing, it seems to be the same case here.

[close]

[Alcomancer]

Spoiler

That is, in fact, much more likely to be true. However the idea of the domain having cognitohazardous drones out there somewhere that have gone out of control is to fun not to suggest. What if the Domain made them, made them in such a way as to not be detected/remembered and just forgot about them because who wants to remember a cognitohazrad anyway?

[close]

[Antelope Syrup]

Spoiler

They are certainly not some sort of virtual cognito demon, though the idea the domain did that to try and create a superweapon is intriguing. Unfortunately, with little evidence surrounding these guys, we have to Occam's razor it away, and go with the conclusion Zunya makes that it's just a mundanely bureaucratic description assigned by the domain to limit the spread of knowledge about their little *** up in releasing it.

[close]

[DeepVoidXD]

Spoiler

I suspect that considering the similarities between the onslaught mk1 and the [Threat] considering the specialization of the onslaught mk1 against the [demons], and how the [Threat] is based on stealth, which allows them to escape the threat or fight them in smaller numbers, and how the [Threat]'s nanomachines would enable it to survive prolonged periods in the abyss. During the Second AI war, the [Threat] may have cut off the domain's supply of exotic matter, which might have resulted in the gates collapsing.

[close]

[ERIS Lino Matador]

Spoiler

If I had to guess, I'd say the Threat is more of a "Grey Goo" scenario, brought on by some Domain numbnuts that somehow came up with a worse idea than AI to fight their wars for them. Or maybe a response to AI independence and/or Omega and messed up big time.
They're more or less based upon once-existing hull-types, and mentioned to be self-replicating/recycling nanomachines by Zunya. It checks out; fragments wouldn't just come from nothing and require raw material, that material being manufactured goods/shiphulls, "organic components," whatever they can process from mining planets. Not to mention many rogue planet surveys turn up Ruined Infrastructure, but never explorable ruins (no idea if this is just a quirk of my modlist.) Tells me they strip away whatever is useful and leave nothing but the barest of bones, after the coast is clear.

imo The Threat has been systematically assimilating whatever they come across, haven't gotten around to making the Sector lunch, and we're too busy in-fighting to bother with expensive expeditions into the peripherals. Zunya clearly knows something more, but not enough, and just doesn't have enough clout to do much more than pay reckless fleet captains to bring back ANYTHING for more intel. This would also go same for the highest levels of TT. She's a sociopath, all corporate overlords are, and at the end of the day sociopaths are always in it for themselves and their goals. Just letting the Threat eat them as well as those that contribute to their profit margins or longevity wouldn't be in the Company's best interests.

Besides the Dwellers, Starsector is a fairly grounded sci-fi setting. Just saying "the Threat is aliens" would be lazy, and calling them a cognitohazard wouldn't be as grounded and feel like an SCP ripoff. The writers are not lazy or unimaginative.

This has turned into something close to a wool-gathering essay so I'm gonna leave it here: the cynical pursuit and maintenance of profit by any means necessary is a core gameplay mechanic. Selling drugs, harvesting organs, looting anything not nailed down, war-profiteering, manufacturing conflict for the purpose of profiteering, undercutting and hamstringing competitors without removing them outright. Charity is a fool's errand. For example, I'm not taking 5,000 credits to transport a bunch of Luddic Pilgrims to some shrine that'll cost 10,000 in supply and fuel.

The AI Remnant don't care for credits, only threaten future investments, and thus must be eliminated. Their struggle for existence is irrelevant to that. The Threat is similar in that regard, only they're a programmed machine produced to combat a thinking machine, and they've gone even more off the rails.

I'm more inclined to believe that there is a message unfolding here, and it's not a kind one. The profitable banality of evil rather than the cooperative human spirit would be the Sector's best bet against a manufactured human mistake.

[close]

[Bungee_man]

Spoiler

I wonder if THREAT may be a cognitohazardous entity only detectable by those who have been exposed to knowledge of their existence, but perhaps on a sort of conceptual scale that lumps groups of people together by association. The ship is aware of THREAT so everyone on the ship is considered to be aware of THREAT.

For those of you who do not know, cognitohazard refers to a piece of information that is actually dangerous to percieve. This can be mundane, such as strobe lights triggering epilepsy, but it can also be supernatural in the case of many fictional series like the SCP foundation.

I believe that knowledge of the existence of THREAT allows for THREAT to be percieved, and this is potentially why we encounter the Onslaught MK I in the way we do. It was generally left alone when there were no longer any living crew aboard long enough for us to locate it. But our perception of THREAT made it real to us. I may be reading to far into the reasoning behind gameplay decisions here but if any of what I'm getting at is true it has much wider reaching implications for the Domain Explorarium as well, and possible the existance of the TriTacyhon AI Remnant.

[close]

You gain the ability to detect Threat explicitly by reverse-engineering a scanner on the Onslaught Mk. I.