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silentsnack posted:Define 'friend' Aliens that want to punch your face off, but restrain themselves not to.
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Oct 4, 2014 01:17
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IMJack posted:(Me and my spergy ideas about a sequel on a post-war Earth where X-COM competes with other human factions for alien detritus, and some alien remnants can be bargained with. Wanna hire that Thin Man cell you found for spooky work? They'll take alien food for payment!) X-Com 
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Oct 4, 2014 01:19
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In reality? We're probably not the only planet with intelligences in the universe. Will we ever meet any of them that we can comprehend? Not unless there's some loopholes to physics as we currently understand them. In this world? Same answer to the first part, but we'd be pretty likely to shoot first and make first contact later after the X-Com conflict.
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Oct 4, 2014 01:20
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AJ_Impy posted:Those we subjugate will no longer be in a position to be hostile to us. This is my attitude in the CK2 LP.
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Oct 4, 2014 01:21
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I think the best that we can hope for are *altruistic* aliens. Malicious could mean some kind of invasion, whether for sport or resources. Indifferent could mean that we get paved over when they blow up our sun in the process of making some kind of intergalactic wormhole system. Friendly... well, friendly probably means they need something we have, but with our level of technology relative to another spacefaring species that's capable of travelling to us, we probably wouldn't know the true value of what it is we were giving up. But why would you want something of ours, if you couldn't get it yourself more easily on some other, uninhabited planetoid? (I'm thinking they want biomass. Mmm, human flesh.) At which point you have to wonder if they're not just malicious all over again, but are more subtle about it. But altruistic? Altruistic aliens would probably hold to some kind of equivalent to the Prime Directive. We'd be able to introduce ourselves in our own time. Grow at our own pace. We could at least assume some kind of protection from outside influences. And we could avoid the fate of all those the stories of civilizations whose technology outstripped their ability to manage it. (We've already irradiated our own atmosphere. The last thing we need is to turn our atmosphere to plasma with weapons we don't fully comprehend the impact of, forex.)
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Oct 4, 2014 01:24
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Speedball posted:
Did he kill them with the Tetris, or the old school Gameboy that held Tetris? The latter is quite understandable.  "Gameboy?! I crushed him to death with an Arcade machine! Where do you think Mortal Kombat got the idea for that fatality?"I stand corrected. As for friendly aliens?... Not in X-Com setting purely because that would be convenient, and we are not allowed to have nice things. The best we can hope for are basically useless victim aliens who hold some vital plot element we require so we have to fight ridiculously dangerous battles on their behalf. Well, unless Hybrids count as "Friendly aliens".
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Oct 4, 2014 01:33
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Dreamsicle posted:Aliens that want to punch your face off, but restrain themselves not to.
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Oct 4, 2014 01:33
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Friendly Xenos is oxymoronic and you damned well know it, Commander 
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Oct 4, 2014 01:36
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Section Z posted:
You read my mind, the next step of the joke would have been him admitting he killed someone with an arcade machine but I felt it was better to leave it ambiguous.
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Oct 4, 2014 01:40
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I believe that intelligent aliens have/will/do exist, but the odds are that our civilization (or one to follow it) will never even establish contact, let alone meet face-to-tentacle. The universe is vast literally beyond understanding, and even with the most optimistic estimates the Drake equation still has that whole Fermi paradox to deal with - if they're out there, why haven't we met them? The answer is time. Our planet is roughly four and half billion years old, with simple animal life emerging only in the last 600 million. Humans as we currently recognize them have existed for about 200,000 years, the exact amount isn't important. What is important is that we've only had the capacity to even recognize an incoming transmission for a few centuries at best. If another civilization was trying to contact our planet, even being off by a thousand years would mean we would never connect. That's an eyeblink in evolutionary time. On top of that, there's the problem of sending the signal in the first place. Even though space is mostly empty, you'd still need a laser (or equivalent device) capable of sending a sustained burst across light years. Stars can sort of do that but they're loving stars, and remember that Sol is itty-bitty compared to most of what we can see with the naked eye (hint lots of "stars" are actually galaxies). So you're going to need a poo poo-ton of resources, energy, and coordination to even send a signal. If aliens are anything like us that means that a planetary government capable of making that happen is almost inconceivable, but let's say they've figured it out and they've built their laser and they want to send transmissions. Well how do you pick where to start? You can't just send out a spherical pulse, so you target the nearest, most-likely-to-have-life stars, but we're still talking years, at a minimum, before any kind of response could be received. So you're gambling a measurable fraction of your planets resources to build and send a signal, betting against astronomical odds that your target is inhabited and in sync with your civilization's development, and you have to sustain interest for long enough for a reply to be received. The bottom line is that the existence of aliens is essentially a given, but it will never really matter for humanity.
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Oct 4, 2014 01:51
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Chard posted:The bottom line is that the existence of aliens is essentially a given, but it will never really matter for humanity. Hopefully these invaders aren't *that* entrenched, and that there are friendly forces out there. Because either way, if we survive their attack on Earth, it probably won't be the last we'll see of them.
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Oct 4, 2014 02:01
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Ciaphas posted:Friendly Xenos is oxymoronic and you damned well know it, Commander You know, something I always found odd is how alot of people online seem to be opposed to the idea of XCOM being more like the Imperium in the end. Yeah, the Xenos wiped out entire cities at a moment's notice. Yeah they up abduct civilians but it may be our fault. Wait maybe those guys are Sirius.
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Oct 4, 2014 02:09
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You missed the opportunity for a "Don't cross the streams!" joke from everyone's favorite lady scientist.
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Oct 4, 2014 02:29
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Given our history I doubt any other intelligence would consider US "friendly aliens" so probably not.
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Oct 4, 2014 02:50
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Speedball posted:
I'm reminded of the RoboCop reboot:  Commander's Survey posted:
Does it matter? After the treatment we got from this batch of aliens, I expect we'll perpetuate the cycle and subjugate any other races we find before they have the chance to do the same to us.
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Oct 4, 2014 03:09
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Oh, no, you’re bleeding.
It’s just a scratch.
The answer to “are we alone” is no longer a mystery. Better question: do you think we’ll ever find friendly aliens?
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Deadmeat5150 posted:You missed the opportunity for a "Don't cross the streams!" joke from everyone's favorite lady scientist. "Please do cross the streams, commander. I am sure the results would be ... intersting." Will we ever meet friendly aliens? We already have! Seekers just want to hug us! It's not their fault they're machines designed to kill by hugging too hard.
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Oct 4, 2014 03:10
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We might not be alone, but there's no way in hell both species will have progressed to the point of potentially being able to communicate (let alone cross galaxies) at exactly the same moment in the history of the universe. Blame Radiolab.
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Oct 4, 2014 03:53
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ViggyNash posted:We might not be alone, but there's no way in hell both species will have progressed to the point of potentially being able to communicate (let alone cross galaxies) at exactly the same moment in the history of the universe. So basically we're going to be alone for all eternity. All because us and alien are never going to be able to meet and greet. Holy crap that's depressing.
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Oct 4, 2014 03:58
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Of course we will find friendly aliens. After we find alien homeworlds and eradicate 80% of their race, the remaining 20% will, I expect, be very friendly. (e: I call it the 'van Doorn Method' of diplomacy)
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Oct 4, 2014 04:00
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Humanity will eventually find friendly aliens. They'll be the race that's taken into captivity after us. The ones enslaved before us will hate us for being so troublesome even though we just want to make friends and allies. But the ones enslaved after us? They'll be friendly. And we'll hate them for it.
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Oct 4, 2014 04:10
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Annointed posted:So basically we're going to be alone for all eternity. All because us and alien are never going to be able to meet and greet. Holy crap that's depressing. It's hilarious that, in the podcast, they go from "holy crap, aliens are going to be able to listen to a thing we created" to bottom-of-the-barrel-scraping nihilism delivered by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, coolest dude in all of science.
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Oct 4, 2014 04:17
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ViggyNash posted:It's hilarious that, in the podcast, they go from "holy crap, aliens are going to be able to listen to a thing we created" to bottom-of-the-barrel-scraping nihilism delivered by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, coolest dude in all of science. All the best RadioLabs seem to encourage nihilism. Then at the end you get the merest ray of hope/positivity to hold onto. Great microcosm of life, really.
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Oct 4, 2014 04:50
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Between Van Doorn being a hilarious never miss troop in Beaglerush's long war stream and Van Doorn here... That man is just the best no matter what timeline he's in.
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Oct 4, 2014 04:51
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Also I believe human intelligence is a fluke, not a given checkpoint in evolution, so even if/when we find alien life I wouldn't expect them to be sophonts and that means "friendly" is more a matter of how dangerous we are to each other.
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Oct 4, 2014 05:38
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Chard posted:I believe that intelligent aliens have/will/do exist, but the odds are that our civilization (or one to follow it) will never even establish contact, let alone meet face-to-tentacle. The universe is vast literally beyond understanding, and even with the most optimistic estimates the Drake equation still has that whole Fermi paradox to deal with - if they're out there, why haven't we met them? I take it you've read Pushing Ice? If you haven't, it's a near-future novel by Alastair Reynolds that I think you'd probably enjoy. I do have to argue that Humanity and Alien cultures will interact with each other, but only through what they and we leave behind. Something for our descendents to think about.
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Oct 4, 2014 05:42
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Speedball posted:You read my mind, the next step of the joke would have been him admitting he killed someone with an arcade machine but I felt it was better to leave it ambiguous. I figured he did it with a line tetramino.
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Oct 4, 2014 06:46
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RickVoid posted:I take it you've read Pushing Ice? If you haven't, it's a near-future novel by Alastair Reynolds that I think you'd probably enjoy. I actually haven't read Pushing Ice, although after checking out the synopsis I think I will, thanks. I drew a lot of what I posted there from my own musings and Edward M. Lerner's article in the Sept. 2014 ANALOG Science Fact column, which is probably hands-down the nerdiest sentence I've ever written, but it's a good article and magazine and you should subscribe.
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Oct 4, 2014 07:10
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Define friendly aliens. Then redefine friendly until humanity doesn't fail that definition. Under such a premise, of course there are friendly aliens out here, it's just our luck that the space nazis were the ones to make first contact.
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Oct 4, 2014 07:29
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Kasrkin posted:how is that even... Is this really possible? what did you DO all the time? How did you manage this? Tried to power through the storyline missions too fast, I suppose. I thought the game actually had a time limit and you'd lose if you took too long, but apparently you can move well into 2016 and beyond if you keep panic down. Once I found that out, I just kept shooting down the craft with the Ethereal Device on it but leaving it to rot while I grinded out cash, Meld, and such. Probably shot it down a good six or seven times before I finally went to raid it again. Amusingly, shooting down a UFO but not going to check out the wreckage has no ill effect on your end-of-month ranking...I got an "A" on every month. So Speedball, please tell me we're getting a chapter in which Van Doorn controls 6 SHIVs and converses with himself the whole time.
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Oct 4, 2014 07:29
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Vicevirtuoso posted:So Speedball, please tell me we're getting a chapter in which Van Doorn controls 6 SHIVs and converses with himself the whole time. To more easily control them at once, the SHIVs computers were networked together. SHIVNET became self-aware at 2:14 am Eastern Time. Its only message: "WE ARE SHIV"
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Oct 4, 2014 07:35
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Dr. Shen's gonna go all GITS on Van Doorn for SHIV mastery
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Oct 4, 2014 07:37
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Chard posted:Dr. Shen's gonna go all GITS on Van Doorn for SHIV mastery And believe me, my wife loves it.
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Oct 4, 2014 07:40
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 One of the only times you see under those damm glasses. Good shot, here.
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Oct 4, 2014 07:43
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The surviving Thin Man looks completely freaked the gently caress out too which is just perfect.
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Oct 4, 2014 07:45
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I'm picturing Van Doorn trying to control six shivs with all of his limbs. Or using his mind. They're powered by his speech and, bragging, and blowhardiness. They're powered by the stories of men he's killed.
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Oct 4, 2014 07:57
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The aliens that XCOM fight are subjugated and genetically/cybernetically-modified. This suggests that they were different in the past - possibly non-hostile. That there are so many aliens also suggests that there are others out there, possibly not part of the invasion force. There is hope that they, perhaps, may be friendly - particularly after we show them horror reels from our own invasion.
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Oct 4, 2014 07:59
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I tend to like the more optimistic models. While, yeah, it's folly to believe we're the only intelligent life in the universe, we're probably the only intelligent life active in our galaxy right now. If we can avoid killing ourselves before we develop the tech to get off the planet, and there's not something worse waiting out there, odds are our species can survive, in some form, for another 200,000 years at least. That's probably the only way we'd be big enough for long enough to be able to encounter another civilization. What they'd be like? Who knows. We all know from games that the smartest thing to do with a civilization that's weaker than yours is to subjugate and assimilate it. Would that be the same perspective an interstellar or even intergalactic civilization would have? Let's hope they're not playing... computer games.
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Oct 4, 2014 08:57
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Chard posted:The surviving Thin Man looks completely freaked the gently caress out too which is just perfect. I actually thought that the laser had drilled the front Thin Man to frag the second. Much to my dismay, this is not a thing.
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Oct 4, 2014 08:58
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Speedball posted:
Probably not, to be honest. We'll go into space for the same reason humans have ever gone anywhere - competition for resources. The aliens we'll meet will be just as expansionist as we are. Sure, sooner or later we might meet a race of aliens who were content to colonise a couple of planets and then settle down to ponder philosophy and/or play Warcraft... but that'll make us the evil conquering invaders.
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Oct 4, 2014 10:19
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habeasdorkus posted:I figured he did it with a line tetramino. Lines and L-blocks are the rookie's weapons. Van Doorn knows 36 ways to kill, maim, or otherwise unman a target with a T-block.
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Oct 4, 2014 10:50
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