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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: The Lore Corner  (Read 254894 times)

David

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #270 on: November 25, 2015, 06:14:43 PM »

@lilstrip - Oh boy, wall of text! I'll try to address points in order.

1. Not doing multiplayer! More on this in the 'frequently made suggestions' area.

2. Map editor: It really comes down to what is 'good enough' for internal development, and putting in positions by hand is good enough considering that everyone working on the game is used to inputting data in that form. (Now I bet an enterprising modder could make a utility to make this easier...)

3. There will be many more systems added to the game, don't worry.

4. (I agree that Cities: Skylines is an awesome game and they deserve all the success they've earned from that game!)

5. Glad you enjoy the game and the lore! I can't say that the Starsector universe is one I'd want to live in, but if you want to read more stuff with a similar flavour, check out the book series I cited as an influence in this blog post. Seriously, go read all of those books. Those are what have contributed a ton to how I write for Starsector and if you enjoy Starsector you'll enjoy them.

6: If you want to add to the lore, well, that's what mods are for! Or fan fiction! Or whatever you can think of! We're totally cool with all of that. (It'd be unethical, btw, for us to accept work for free. And a lot more of a pain than one would expect -- actually paying people money is like 1/3rd the difficulty of collaboration. Won't go on an extended ramble here.)

So in short, it's awesome that you're enthusiastic about Starsector! I kinda see it as a potential jumping off place to explore a lot of great media, both in finding cool stuff to read/experience and in creating cool stuff of your own.

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Baqar79

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #271 on: November 26, 2015, 01:38:21 AM »

Hi David, I've just gone through reading all of the lore through this post, in the hopes that I wouldn't ask an already answered question (so sorry about this if you have).

The main question I had was about the reliance on these autofactories.  At what level of technology would the sector be at if all of a sudden these factories were to disappear?  Would the current inhabitants of the sector be able to build (an albeit shoddy) space worthy vehicles?

I do read sci-fi on occasion; and found myself really enjoying Peter F Hamilton's Commonwealth Universe (Pandora's Star, Judas Unchained and the Void trilogy).  I'm tempted to give Alastair Reynolds a read, though i'm a little wary of anything a bit too dark (eg Game of Thrones in space).  How would you rate the universe:

1-) Reasonable good shape, things are looking up
2-) Problems in the universe still abound, but the characters succeeded at least in their own endeavours
3-) There is hope, but it isn't certain that things are going to improve
4-) An end on a sad note, but at least they tried
5-) A lot of good people died in the making of this book
6-) Rather bad people/aliens won, but they made it look pretty cool and you can respect them
7-) *** won this time round; yes everyone decent died; but it could of been worse.
8-) 'We like eating babies, they are yummy!'

Thanks!
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David

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #272 on: November 26, 2015, 09:43:01 AM »

Hi David, I've just gone through reading all of the lore through this post, in the hopes that I wouldn't ask an already answered question (so sorry about this if you have).

Np, I love rambling about this stuff. (Though I will try to avoid infodumping too much outside of the game itself. There's always a balance to be struck & etc.)

Quote from: Baqar79
The main question I had was about the reliance on these autofactories.  At what level of technology would the sector be at if all of a sudden these factories were to disappear?  Would the current inhabitants of the sector be able to build (an albeit shoddy) space worthy vehicles?

The most advanced industrial planets could produce space vehicles. Probably nothing that could seriously stand up in combat to Domain-era ships, and probably not FTL drives. Maybe. They'd probably also have to devote a significant portion of their industrial and scientific  base toward the project in the face of an almost surely unruly population, possibility of starvation, degrading terraforming systems that must be maintained to survive, threats from neighbours and internal factions, and all sorts of problems.

For a rough analog: the United States has had the technology to build a base on the moon and send people to Mars for quite some time. It'd be super difficult, expensive, and dangerous, but it's all very possible. Why hasn't it been done? -- Lots of reasons! And anyway there are (understandably) far more pressing matters given higher priority by the political bodies that run the US.

Basically, it's not enough to just have the theories and (some of) the technology required to rebuild the empire of the Domain. It requires the political will, the economic capacity, and stability enough to invest in a huge project that will not see returns for a long, long time.

Quote from: Baqar79
I do read sci-fi on occasion; and found myself really enjoying Peter F Hamilton's Commonwealth Universe (Pandora's Star, Judas Unchained and the Void trilogy).  I'm tempted to give Alastair Reynolds a read, though i'm a little wary of anything a bit too dark (eg Game of Thrones in space).  How would you rate the universe:

Haha. Let's see, how about ... somewhere between 3 and 5? Someone who likes dark stories less would probably rate them higher on the scale. Let me explain.

Ultimately, the tone is not hopeless, but Reynolds stories are not warm and fuzzy. At all.

Many of the characters are deeply cynical and will betray one another. Sometimes the most likeable character in the story is at best "cold, but not awful". Characterization in the first book or so is pretty rough and none of the characters are easily likeable, though there's at least a viewpoint to root for; you can tell it's his first novel.

I would recommend starting at "Chasm City" then seeing how you feel about the setting. It is dark though; a good bit of violence and killing and a handful of rather sociopathic characters who do some awful things. Humanity doesn't come off well in the setting either - civil war, exploitation, huge and bloody divide between rich and poor, etc. Which I suppose could describe most of Reynolds stories, but I think this one pulls together the inner character and outer adventure narrative threads rather neatly.

(As a side note, I've not read any of Hamilton's work! It's on my list to check out. Just need to finish Blindsight and the Ancillary Justice trilogy first ... )
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Gothars

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #273 on: November 26, 2015, 10:29:24 AM »

Uhhhh, Blindsight. As a neuroscientist(-to-be), I just love that book. Despite many flaws and needless extras. But well, that book would be between 6 and 8 on the scale...

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The game was completed 8 years ago and we get a free expansion every year.

Arranging holidays in an embrace with the Starsector is priceless.

Maelstrom

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #274 on: November 26, 2015, 11:29:15 AM »

btw does any of you guya have asperger?

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David

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #275 on: November 26, 2015, 11:53:23 AM »

btw does any of you guya have asperger?

Not the place to talk about it in this thread; other talk unrelated to Starsector / lore ramblings should go in Other > Discussions.
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Baqar79

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #276 on: November 26, 2015, 12:22:17 PM »

Thanks for answering, I was curious as to whether humans might not even be at earth's current level of technology if they had their autofactories taken away from them.  Good to know they have some level of scientific engineering knowledge beyond being able to push a button on the autofactory. 

I appreciate the feedback on the books series as well, I just checked the local library (being broke and all), but unfortunately both copies of Chasm are out; probably bodes well for the series, so i'll give this a go when I can.

Cheers!
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Histidine

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #277 on: November 27, 2015, 04:48:28 PM »

I was somewhat amused to find that while the Luddic Path are more radical than the mainstream Church in pretty much every other way, they don't seem to care about the GM lobsters at all.
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StarSchulz

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #278 on: November 27, 2015, 11:29:38 PM »

So, i have got to ask. In the 0.7 update i noticed many references to the "Askonia Crisis". It seems to be the reason many planets in the system have large refugee populations. Is there any information you can share on this? or have i missed something else already hidden around?  ;)

Gothars

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #279 on: November 28, 2015, 02:47:27 AM »

I was somewhat amused to find that while the Luddic Path are more radical than the mainstream Church in pretty much every other way, they don't seem to care about the GM lobsters at all.

Mh, how did you notice that?


So, i have got to ask. In the 0.7 update i noticed many references to the "Askonia Crisis". It seems to be the reason many planets in the system have large refugee populations. Is there any information you can share on this? or have i missed something else already hidden around?  ;)


It was a civil war, but we don't know much about the factions involved. The Askonian Revolutionary Council (part of the the Antis movement, whatever that is exactly)  could have been involved, but it could also have been founded post-crisis. In any case, someone seems to have used a planetary killer device to blow up the capital-city-moon Opis. You can see its debris ring orbiting Salus.
Then either the Hegemoney send an intervention task force under Admiral Andrada, or the Admiral took a force there without orders, but in in case he betrayed the Hegemony and founded the Sindrian Diktat. What the nature of that intervention would have been, if it was ordered, is not clear. Knowing the Hegemoney it could have been to exterminate, not to help. So, maybe Andrada took pity on the system and could be considered its savior?  


I have a explorer character, Dora Cousteau, who specializes if zipping through the Sector and digging out that stuff ;D
« Last Edit: November 28, 2015, 02:50:02 AM by Gothars »
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The game was completed 8 years ago and we get a free expansion every year.

Arranging holidays in an embrace with the Starsector is priceless.

Histidine

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #280 on: November 28, 2015, 03:10:02 AM »

I was somewhat amused to find that while the Luddic Path are more radical than the mainstream Church in pretty much every other way, they don't seem to care about the GM lobsters at all.

Mh, how did you notice that?
It's in the intel screen... but I only noticed when I was digging in the .faction file to update the wiki ::)
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Clockwork Owl

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #281 on: December 04, 2015, 07:15:55 PM »

Just found out that the description of Doom warns about psycological effect of repeated phase cloaking.
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Clockwork Owl

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #282 on: December 07, 2015, 05:18:45 AM »

Question - what are the creterion for AI classification? Alpha, beta, gamma stuff.

Gathering what I can recall:
*Alpha-level was banned in Domain, and therefore is in Hegemony. Tri-Tachyon corporation itself is suspected to somehow be one, using company regulations to operate.
*Terminator drone of Tempest-class features Beta-level 'personality'. Other drone has Gamma-level personality at most, or just remotely controlled.

But nothing is mentioned on how to classify AIs.
Might need it on future modding.
Spoiler
Someone might already have guessed that I'm a fan of 'sentient machines' stuff.
[close]
« Last Edit: December 07, 2015, 05:20:20 AM by Aron0621 »
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Gothars

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #283 on: December 07, 2015, 06:31:38 AM »

Mh, hard to say. What follows is a lot of speculation based on only a few hints in the lore.

(The remark about the Terminator drone being beta level seems to have been removed.)


IIRC it's a gamma level AI that calculates your chances of boarding success. That implies two things:
- They exist on every hyper capable vessel, even the trashiest.
- That the are only brought up in boarding situations and don't seem to be the central AI of the ship (if that exists) implies they are very specialized and have a narrow focus.
I would assume gammas to be the classical idiot savants, brilliant at what they are designed for (e.g. simulating boarding, controlling drone swarms) but incapable of anything else.


Then there are alpha+ level AIs, the ban of which is so important to the Hegemony that they went to war with TT over it twice. That implies that they consider alpha+ AIs extremely dangerous. Which in turn implies that they have the potential to threaten the Hegemony or even humanity at large. There are two factors an AI has to fulfill to qualify for that. It has to be:

- Unconstrained, free-thinking, general purpose
- More intelligent than humans


I would assume Alphas to  also be more intelligent than humans (even Gammas are, in their area of expertise) but a lot more constrained in how they can use that intelligence. I doubt they are allowed to think about their place in the universe, why they do what they do, and so on. So, high intelligence, limited self-awareness.


That leaves Betas. Is there one mentioned now in the game? I would imagine them like a tight bundle of Gammas, i.e. able to fulfill a broad variety of preprogrammed jobs very well, but not really able to adapt to completely new situations like Alphas, and not in any danger to become really self aware. The ship computer in Star Trek might be an example for a Beta AI.


So, in short:

Alpha+: High intelligence, unlimited scope, unlimited freedom
Alpha: High intelligence, almost unlimited scope (general purpose), limited freedom
Beta: Medium intelligence, wide scope (multi-purpose), limited freedom
Gamma: Limited intelligence, limited scope (single purpose), very limited freedom







« Last Edit: December 07, 2015, 06:58:25 AM by Gothars »
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Clockwork Owl

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Re: The Lore Corner
« Reply #284 on: December 07, 2015, 06:43:24 AM »

Ship systems>Terminator Drone still keeps that description.
Possible that it is left forgotten but meant to be removed tho.

Could Alpha+ mean "Alpha or above"?
« Last Edit: December 07, 2015, 07:01:47 AM by Aron0621 »
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