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Pimpmust posted:Man did Commander Hayes walk out of Mortal Kombat or something? I was expecting us having to fight him to death over the alliegence of his space station with that theme music. When you realise that this place is home base, busily taking your stuff to churn out crew and heavy cruisers(along with every other ship) for your fleet, the theme makes more sense. It's an 'industry' theme.
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Dec 18, 2015 09:46
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GreyjoyBastard posted:Spathi:  (Goddamit, I was sure we had a better one-eyed smilie)
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Dec 18, 2015 10:04
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Xander77 posted:You mean  ?
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Dec 18, 2015 10:07
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Pimpmust posted:Man did Commander Hayes walk out of Mortal Kombat or something? I was expecting us having to fight him to death over the alliegence of his space station with that theme music. Since Bloodly brought it up: you want Mortal Kombat-esque music, check out the battle theme.
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Dec 18, 2015 10:16
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Vote lock! Olesh's shopping list will take us to Pkunk space.
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Dec 18, 2015 14:28
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Planet mining is dumb and boring and hopefully this trip will be full of opportunities for us to mine Ilwrath with tactical nukes instead. On the other hand Prof took quite a bit of damage killing probes so uh maybe that is a bad idea. But I think it's at least worth a try! We obliterated the last one pretty quick after all! GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Dec 18, 2015 |
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Dec 18, 2015 18:16
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Combat in this game, unless you're good with the arcade game, is risky business. That probe is one of the worst early game threats. There are ways to mitigate combat losses from them, either by "git gud", get better escorts, or indirectly.
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Dec 18, 2015 18:26
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GlyphGryph posted:Planet mining is dumb and boring and hopefully this trip will be full of opportunities for us to mine Ilwrath with tactical nukes instead. This would go poorly. Ilwrath Avengers ordinarily have cloaking devices (the one we fought earlier was crippled, remember), which would cause both the Earthling Cruiser's missiles and the Spathi Eluder's BUTTs to fail to track correctly. You can still dumbfire them and maybe hit the Avenger, but it's a tricky business, and if the Avenger gets into close range it will tear you apart in short order. The best bet would be to use the Eluder's "primary weapon", which is a decent-ish forward-firing cannon, but it's still tedious at best and dangerous at worst.
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Dec 18, 2015 18:50
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Also think of it. Attacking a military force head on with one mothership and a pair of escorts and that's your literal last chance of saving the human race is rather suicidal. And they're not even the right type of escorts for a suicidal charge.
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Dec 18, 2015 19:12
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So what you're saying is we should kit our mothership out for combat and THEN go Ilwrath mining? I suppose we still need to mine biologicals from planets for the time being anyway for this nice Melnorme upgrades, so even if we did turn the entire Ilwrath fleet to scrap we'd still have to do planet landings.
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Dec 18, 2015 19:15
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The best way to go about doing that is the planetary mining, and fauna hunting route unfortunately. Outside of the probe, most encounters will be in fleets, not single ships. In addition to having fuel as a timer, you've got a soft limit amount of crew you can draw from the Earth Station (1800 people worth), and that other limit mentioned earlier in the thread. What Prof is doing right now, exploring, slowly building up strength, and gathering allies, is the best thing to do early game. There will be a time for overt operations later, believe me. To those who have played the game before: Don't spoil the game you goobers. Ulvirich fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Dec 18, 2015 |
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Dec 18, 2015 19:27
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I'll go ahead and disclose that there is, in fact, no upper limit to the number of crew I can get from the Starbase - Hayes's 1800 number is not honored by gameplay. That being said, there will be consequences if I kill off too many of them.
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Dec 18, 2015 19:34
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ProfessorProf posted:That being said, there will be consequences if I kill off too many of them. I just hope I can influence destination voting before that point occurs. Edit: VV Cool your jets, I'm just going to vote, nothing else. Ulvirich fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Dec 18, 2015 |
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Dec 18, 2015 19:36
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Ulvirich posted:I just hope I can influence destination voting before that point occurs. don't
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Dec 18, 2015 21:41
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ProfessorProf posted:I'll go ahead and disclose that there is, in fact, no upper limit to the number of crew I can get from the Starbase - Hayes's 1800 number is not honored by gameplay. He said they have almost 2000 highly motivated skilled professionals aboard the starbase. After that, obviously he still has a ton of extremely lazy incompetent amateurs.
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Dec 18, 2015 21:50
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Tunicate posted:He said they have almost 2000 highly motivated skilled professionals aboard the starbase. Considering that the only use for crew is as ablative armor, I'd think the primary desirable characteristic in a crewmember is how fat they are.
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Dec 18, 2015 21:52
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Considering that the only use for crew is as ablative armor, I'd think the primary desirable characteristic in a crewmember is how fat they are. "All goons please report to the dock to transfer to the mothership"
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Dec 18, 2015 22:19
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So some people here in the thread have been hinting that there are some actual time-dependent quests/encounters in the game, how easy is it to gently caress them up or miss stuff if you haven't played the game before? Is it, in fact, possible to gently caress yourself out of being able to finish the game just by spending too much time puttering around raiding planets for materials and biodata?
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Dec 18, 2015 23:15
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PurpleXVI posted:So some people here in the thread have been hinting that there are some actual time-dependent quests/encounters in the game, how easy is it to gently caress them up or miss stuff if you haven't played the game before? Is it, in fact, possible to gently caress yourself out of being able to finish the game just by spending too much time puttering around raiding planets for materials and biodata? To answer this without spoiling anything: yes, but it takes effort.
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Dec 18, 2015 23:18
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Considering that the only use for crew is as ablative armor, I'd think the primary desirable characteristic in a crewmember is how fat they are. The 90% attrition rate for going on missions has probably gotten the population of the station to think really hard about how not to be picked. Red shirts on the enterprise have a lower fatality rate. Maybe some of the crew you lose on away missions are from people thinking "400 degree weather, earthquakes, lightning storms, space octopi... This seems like a much nicer place than my day job!" and deserting.
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Dec 19, 2015 02:53
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Qrr posted:Maybe some of the crew you lose on away missions are from people thinking "400 degree weather, earthquakes, lightning storms, space octopi... This seems like a much nicer place than my day job!" and deserting. That sounds about right for our hero Zaphod Beeblebrox.
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Dec 19, 2015 03:10
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Qrr posted:The 90% attrition rate for going on missions has probably gotten the population of the station to think really hard about how not to be picked. Red shirts on the enterprise have a lower fatality rate. Look, you're literally the only hope for humanity at this point. The resupply ship the Ur'Quan were meant to send to swap crew etc is missing, so before we showed up, they were kinda boned.
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Dec 19, 2015 06:18
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 Before!  After! Fuel capacity: +91%. Crew capacity: +50%. Storage capacity: +33%. Damage output: -100%. We are now relying completely on Fwiffo and Tuf to to the fighting for us.  With 210 fuel, I can theoretically reach anywhere in the galaxy. To the Giclas cluster!   First foray into this region of space is an uneventful one. Time for resource gathering!  Epsilon Giclas has only one planet, but it's pretty mineral rich. Next stop: Delta Giclas.   This system has a lot going on! Still no Pkunk, though.  Delta Giclas VIII has some alien life for us to plunder! It's hostile, but there's no other planet hazards, so mopping them up is pretty easy. Gotta be careful with the stunner on mineral-rich planets - I almost blew up some Uranium while capturing the alien lifeforms.  Another Metal World and a few other decent planets. On to Alpha Giclas!  An alien fleet has appeared in HyperSpace - it'll be waiting for me when I leave the system.  Another big system, this one full of planets that are optimally placed for alien life!  Alien ships detected!   VIDEO: HOBGOBLINS OF JOYBGM   Seekers of the deepest truths, askers of interesting and significant questions. Even now a question of great transcendental significance comes unbidden to our minds: 'Who are you and what do you want?' Ah, an insult... a sometimes necessary and constructive release of tension. Now perhaps you can feel better, and we can deal with your real problems. Although we Pkunk have no rank, no pecking order, no arbitrary scheme of dominance, we do recognize that some of the souls in this universe have lived many lives, while others are but spiritual chickadees. I, Captain, have lived thirty-eight lives, a paltry number compared to those wise and ancient souls who guide our race. You must consult them, Captain. They will help you to understand yourself, and in doing so, understand others... who in turn may or may not understand other things. Seek those wise birds at our homeworld, at Gamma Krueger I. They have all the answers.  Ahh, vague omens and mysterious portents. Tangled webs of fate intertwined with the branches of destiny, blown by the capricious winds of happenstance. News, news... uh, actually there is some news!It just so happens that it has come to our attention that Dogar and Kazon, the two gods of the Ilwrath, may actually be a hoax. We don't know who this hoax would have been perpetrated by, but it seems someone has used these fictitious gods to send the Ilwrath down on us.  See the wise ones at our homeworld, Captain. Go to Gamma Krueger for your answers. Yes, by all means, if duty is calling. I'm sure we'll see each other again. Perhaps when the stars are aligned in an appropriate configuration. Yes, my inner voice is telling me that is correct. When the stars align, Captain... Done chatting with the Pkunk, I decide against trying to harvest any alien life from a planet with Class 4 Weather and Class 7 Tectonics.  While trying to reach the other moons in this system, I accidentally bump into another Pkunk fleet.  But we could not hurt you any more than we could squish the helpless Pootworm. We love the Pootworm. We are one with the Pootworm. We are one with you. Of course you realize this means you are one with the Pootworm. Rejoice!! To be one with the Pootworm is to be alive, and why not be alive? Is that not what living is for? Well, we are quite sure now that Dogar and Kazon are a hoax. Aside from never having seen them on the 4th astral plane where most gods like to hang out, we also recently went back and listened carefully to a recording of one of their broadcasts, which was sent to the Ilwrath of HyperWave channel 44. We were able to detect some giggling at the end of the message.Someone out there is playing some kind of joke on the Ilwrath. Or is it a joke on us? We're not quite sure, but what with all the vaporized planets and total carnage, it may be a while before we can look back and fully appreciate the humor.  Back to exploring the system. I decide against tempting the dark octopus gods on this planet.  The next moon over, however, gives a modest pile of biodata and a million radioactives.  Alpha Giclas IV is a fearsome planet, swarming with sturdy, slow, hostile life and covered in earthquakes. At great risk and substantial loss, I harvest a big pile of biodata.  Our map has been updated with the Pkunk sphere of influence! Time to visit their home system.  As I leave the system, I'm flagged down by the alien fleet! Time to learn more about the Pkunk's mystical secrets?  God drat it.    REPLICATION STATUS: EIGHT REPLICATIONS. NEXT REPLICATION 85 PERCENT COMPLETE.ESTIMATED REPLICATIONS SINCE DEPARTURE FROM POINT OF ORIGIN: 583 REPLICATIONS. ESTIMATED REPLICATIONS PROJECTED ONE YEAR FROM THIS DATE: 14,784 REPLICATIONS. ESTIMATED REPLICATIONS PROJECTED FIVE YEARS FROM THIS DATE: 45,786,412 REPLICATIONS. PRIORITY OVER-RIDE. NEW BEHAVIOR DICTATED. MUST BREAK TARGET INTO COMPONENT MATERIALS.  Here we go again... nah, forget it.  Rather than do this long, annoying fight again, I use my Escape Unit. After a few seconds of charging (during which the Probe zaps me a few times), I depart from the battle, at a cost of 5 fuel units.  Gamma Krueger! Positively crawling with psychic space dorks.  Hatchlings of light, spiritual soul beings of the vast cosmic oneness, wayfarers on the river of destiny, students of the mystical dimensions, purveyors of blissful love, birdlike manifestations of glorious light energies from the astral plane. How about yourselves? Yes. We have good news! Well, that is to say, we have no news. But it is good news. Hmmmmm. This is your expression, human Captain. We Pkunk do not pretend to understand it. Easy radioactives on the outer planet of the system.  Gamma Krueger II has some non-hostile but speedy life for the data folder.  Finally, the Pkunk homeworld!  VIDEO: PRESENTS  It tells me that I must give you something... something to aid you on your noble quest! What, spirit? What must we give this young human?Mineral resources? No. Important secrets? No. Starships? No. Then what IS it, spirit, spit it out! What?! That thing? Are you sure? Okay. Here you go, Captain. Take this Clear Spindle. It is an ancient and powerful device built by the Precursors hundreds of thousans of years ago. What does it do, you ask? I haven't the slightest idea. Auspicious portents and serendipitous omens have foretold your arrival. Welcome, alien guest, to the home of the gentle and playful Pkunk... Children of the Cosmic Light... Hobgoblins of Joy... Seekers of Spiritual Truth... and other neat stuff like that.  Yes, yes. We know all that. We are not known throughout the galactic sector as powerful psychics for nothing! Of course we already known the asnwer to this next question too, but we enjoy conversation.Why have you come here?   My telepathic sensors are telling me that you are repressing something. Repress, repress, repress. What is it? Come on. What is it? I see a smile. You're smiling. Tell Pkunky the secret. Come on, nasty alien gonna tell Birdy Pkunky big secret? I sense a deeper reason, a deeper conflict. A conflict of immense proportion, a proportion of... deeper reason. A deeper thing that is... not too terribly deep. A conflicting deeper thing... uh, I'm not really sure what I sense. Are you sure there isn't something you want to say to me? I am forming a psychic link with you. I sense that you refer to our conflict with the Ilwrath. I sense that you are offering to venture singlehandedly deep into Ilwrath space, and do battle with their vast numbers, and I can see that you give not even a thought to the danger you would be in. You are noble indeed, and I accept your offer of aid, but in spirit alone. The karmic burden of your gruesome death would be too great. Still, I say thank you, Captain. Let us unite and form an alliance!!We will provide you with all of the crew, ships, and resources you desire. We will give you... wait! I sense that you are offended by our crass material offer. Yes, I am ashamed. Any war-mongering species could offer this... we are Pkunk! Children of the Stellar Breeze! We shall give you what all others could not! The greatest of gifts! We shall give you our love. Ah, you are speechless. Do not talk now. I can feel the energy connecting us. Let us part while the silence remains. Farewell... But wait! Before we go, as a small token of our love, not as a material gift, mind you, we give you 4 of our meager ships, fully crewed. Good luck!  Well, that was something. We got new ships out of it! However, I wasn't done talking to the Pkunk yet.  In fact, you are here because we wished you to be here. By channeling our psychic energies through a transdimensional flux inducer, we are able to affect the low frequency stream of a soul particle such as yourself, and direct its course. The only thing is, we can't remember why we brought you here. Not at all, we are after all a fascinating species. Of course, modesty prevents me from talking at length, although perhaps if you were to ask me specific questions, propriety might be better served. Ah. An intelligent question. But where to begin?Surely you know that we Pkunk were once one and the same species as the Yehat. Yes, it's true. We were once brutal birds of prey, oblivious to the mysteries of crystal magic or the 7 dimensions of psychic beings. It was not until Weeny Wikki Beeki Birdi sat on the mystical egg of Icelike Temperature, and gave the Original Squawk - 'Rup-Rup-Rup-BGAK!' - that our transformation began. It was the squawk - 'Rup-Rup-Rup-BGAK!' that triggered the Harmonic Oscillations that would lead us to become the enlightened avians that we are.  That depends on how you define friendly. We love our Yehat brethren, whereas they open fire on our vessels on sight. Fortunately, our psychic abilities allow us to sense the deep, abiding love, and yes, even shyness in our Yehat brothers and sisters. How we must have hurt them when we left so long ago. Soon, though, it will be time for the loving reunion, as our destiny is fulfilled and we are once again reunited as one people. Just off the top of my beak, I suppose I would say that our culture could be defined as the ultimate unification of Oneness, if you will, of the extradimensional convergent-chakra being-energies, to form a togetherness self which both is and is not a culmination of the now essence. An excellent question. The answer is itself, an answer, containing the explanation you seek. And more! Let me say the revelation includes the mysteries of Pyramid Power, which is merely a subset of the greater and more general Pointy Power. UFO's and FO's are significant, but their role should not be overplayed. I'm sorry, but I can be no more specific than that. Yes it's... uh... wait... a vision comes to me! A shining light - a crack in the egg! A swirling vortex... a tunnel. I see my past lives! Your past lives! More shining light! Ah, there it is now, the future!It's coming in clearer. Yes. I see tears. Tears of joy! They are coming from our Yehat brothers and sisters, who welcome us back to the next, wings outstretched, beaks stuffed with grubs! Soon we shall return. Soon.  Yes, you are right. I should be careful not to overwhelm you with my psychic intensities, perhaps we could talk about something less overwhelming, albeit less interesting. Why should we mind? We bear the spidery creatures no ill will. Without darkness there is no light. Without death there is no birth. And thanks to the Ilwrath, there's lots of birth. We have delved most deeply into the dark and greasy heart of the Ilwrath. And what do you suppose we found there? Well, we found a torpid, vile, malign, odious, spiteful spirit. Right, no surprises there. What did surprise us, though, was what we saw when we regressed into their past lives! It turns out that in their last lives, the Ilwrath were all shining beings of pure light and blissful love. They had reached the pinnacle of spiritual evolution, and could go no further. They were perfection.And then, somehow, they got just a little bit better, and WHAM, they were all of a sudden totally evil. Wouldn't you know it, get too perfect and you wrap right around to evil. That is why we Pkunk strive to be perfect, but always do little bad and annoying things to keep from ending up like the Ilwrath.  When? That's easy. It was exactly 27 thousand rotations of the 7th planet in the hosue of Plarty Fum, BEFORE the first alignment of the auspicious constellation of Bis Bis with the heavenly body of Shamla Sool, which was really only a partial alignment. I guess you would say 8 years ago. We have calculated that at our present rate of attrition, we will exist only on the spiritual plane in a matter of a year or so. Of course, the physical realm does hold a certain coarse attraction, a material quaintness, if you will... we will be somewhat disappointed to have to leave it. Hmmm. An interesting question. The answer would be... YES! If some benign and loving, yet incredibly destructive and powerful force were to simultaneously rip off all of their legs and drop their putrid egg sacs into steaming pools of molten metal, that would have the desired result of ending the conflict.Ah, but I just. Of course I bear the Ilwrath no ill will... how could I, when I am filled only with love.  Yes, you're right. Why dwell on the heinous Ilwrath, when we could speak of flowers, rainbows, fairies, and crystal magic. Did you know, for example, that there is an invisible fairy spirit at this moment sitting on your head, and making humorous faces at me? Ah, the mysteries of the Universe. Try to understand 'em, but can you? Nope, they're mysteries! Farewell, kind human. Return soon. Next: Resource and data gathering continues... in the fringes of Ilwrath space! Quinn2win fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Feb 2, 2016 |
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Dec 19, 2015 19:56
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You used the icon for the probes instead of the icon for the annoying little birds a few times.
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Dec 19, 2015 20:08
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Fixed.
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Dec 19, 2015 20:10
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The Pkunk are absolutely hilarious, wow. I love the writing in this game.
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Dec 19, 2015 20:19
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I really can't tell if the Pkunk are just tripping balls on space-LSD, a bunch of scamsters pretending to be psychics or legitimately in tune with astral energies.
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Dec 19, 2015 23:53
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PurpleXVI posted:I really can't tell if the Pkunk are just tripping balls on space-LSD, a bunch of scamsters pretending to be psychics or legitimately in tune with astral energies. My theory always has been that they are genuine psychics, they're just terrible at it and fail to understand how annoyed everyone else in the universe is by them.
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Dec 19, 2015 23:56
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Pkunk and their fighters.  I love those goofy loving birds. Hopefully Prof gets a chance to unleash the FURY.
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Dec 20, 2015 00:01
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PurpleXVI posted:I really can't tell if the Pkunk are just tripping balls on space-LSD, a bunch of scamsters pretending to be psychics or legitimately in tune with astral energies. All of the above.
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Dec 20, 2015 00:17
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It's possible that I sometimes use "The Shape of Pkunk to Come" as my internet nickname so you may say I harbor a certain fondness for the Children of the Stellar Breeze (and also Refused). They're the best psychic birds in all of space also the Fury is simultaneously great and terrible and my favorite ship to fly. As for whether they're actual psychics or full of crap, signs point to yes.
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Dec 20, 2015 00:18
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HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:My theory always has been that they are genuine psychics, they're just terrible at it and fail to understand how annoyed everyone else in the universe is by them. They know exactly how annoyed everyone is and they do it on purpose. Remember the conversation about the Ilwrath's past?
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Dec 20, 2015 00:42
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The Ilwrathi backstory is one of my favorite random bits about this game. Turns out morality is a signed 16-bit integer and there's no bounds-checking; better stay under 32000 on the Good-O-Meter just to be safe.
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Dec 20, 2015 00:45
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There are so many great bits in the game it is hard to pick just one
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Dec 20, 2015 00:48
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My theory that I invented just now: The Pkunk are the Sans of this game. The story of their people is a quantum physics book hidden in a joke book hidden in a quantum physics book, except instead of quantum physics it's ESP and the joke books are books about hugging.
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Dec 20, 2015 00:50
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Podima posted:The Pkunk are absolutely hilarious, wow. I love the writing in this game. All the species of this game are amazing. There is just so much love and work put into each one.
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Dec 20, 2015 01:29
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Oh my god. I'm reading the Pkunk dialogue and I can hear that shrill voice.
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Dec 20, 2015 02:07
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Pkunk ships.  It's a hit-and-run ship that's dramatically less powerful (although faster) than the Spathi Eluder. But then, isn't everything?
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Dec 20, 2015 02:54
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GreyjoyBastard posted:Pkunk ships.
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Dec 20, 2015 03:31
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Pkunk ships are amazing when you consider how much you paid for them.
Iretep fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Dec 20, 2015 |
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Dec 20, 2015 03:41
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