- GunnerJ
- Aug 1, 2005
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Do you think this is funny?
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tl,dr:
Measure 1: Nay.
Measure 2: Yea.
Measure 3: A and C.
Base locations:Fill in our effectively-claimed territory.
Unity's Lantern: After the Recycling Tanks finish, build Childrens Crιche and then Recreation Commons; direct terraformers to continue planting the forest and generally enhance mineral output (but it's been a while since I last played SMAC and I'm not specifically sure how).
quote:
From: Adj-Gov. Maxwell R. Peters
To: Hive Advisory Cadre; Chairman Yang
Subject: Re: Input on Fiscal & Infrastructural Issues Requested
My apologies, but we're quite busy here preparing to receive and debrief the survivors of the expedition to the east and also inspecting every kilometer of the new canal in preparation for Unity Foil One's transit. Until I get back to Unity's Lantern, I can only send my recommendations by email and I will respond in kind.
I see the value of rerouting our efforts to the development of therapeutic applications for the human genome map. However, recent events have convinced me that we must complete the Hive-wide grand strategy network as soon as possible. The ecosystem of this planet challenges us in more ways than we ever could have anticipated and only the highest level of discipline and coordination provides a defense. The need is so great that I support diverting energy into accelerating its completion and away from Social Uplift Service programs that only benefit the capital.
On that note, we must get out from under any debt we owe to the ideologues. We cannot be beholden to them nor continue to support them as some kind of investment. At the time, when these deals were concluded, we needed funds badly enough to make the loans worthwhile, but if we can pay back the principal and be done with it, let's do so right away.
As for expansion: the Hive has effectively claimed everything from the Morganite border to Unity's Lantern. It's time to put that land to use, in my opinion.
In unity,
Maxwell R. Peters
quote:
From: Adj-Gov. Maxwell R. Peters
To: Unity's Lantern Construction Planning Board
Subject: Production goals for MY 2140-2150
Board members,
I'm going to have to make an alteration to my previously outlined plans in light of the disaster that befell Squad Two. We had all hoped to get the rec commons up and running as soon as possible but this will have to be put on hold. Once the recycling tanks finish, the priority for now is to roll out the new educational system - you've probably heard of it being implemented in the main Hive cluster of settlements, the "Childrens Creche" - here in Unity's Lantern.
Ambitious, yes. But the sense of social cohesion and interpersonal trust this system inculcates is of special importance to us. We are perched on the shore of a vast sea of alien life. Apparently, there are monsters lurking within it which we could never have imagined in our worst nightmares, things which make ordinary mindworms look like mosquitoes. Most of you by now must have looked into the criteria I developed for selecting colonists for Unity's Lantern and my reasons for doing so. Although I don't quite know what to make of O'Connell's brain wave findings, it doesn't fundamentally change my outlook that the key to resisting and mastering the psychological powers of the planet's native life lies within us.
Mindworms are physically frail and easily destroyed by anyone who can match their (for lack of a better word) spiritual might. The fungal towers can be demolished like any building by anyone who can survive the approach. Everything I have seen convinces me that it suffices for the people to love themselves and to be strong in virtue for them to prevail in that contest. The people of Unity's Lantern are naturally virtuous in the ways we require: we trust and help and accept each other as family. We trust in the greater human family of which we are a part. We must continue to foster this virtuous unity in the next generation.
So, begin setting aside spaces for classrooms and start training creche caretakers. Our lives may literally depend on it.
Overall, we are looking good on population growth metrics, and we still have unused agricultural facilities. This is good. What we need now is more raw materials. Direct the former crews to maximize construction material gathering. I leave the details, as usual, to you.
-Governor Peters
quote:
[Governor's Log: Unity's Lantern, MY 2140.02.02 11:00]
"Argue, but obey!" This was the classic diktat of enlightened rule which I established as the basis for my government at the founding of Unity's Lantern. In accordance with the basics of the kind of "republican authoritarianism" which seemed best suited to the character of the people, I wield the power to make laws but leave their execution to the most skilled and principled of the settlement's citizens. I was prepared to spend a good deal of my time hearing out petitions and requests, and I have found it a rewarding challenge to discover and address the true underlying issues which prompt them. I was not prepared for prayer.
It's been 40 years since we landed here, and we Earthborn are the elders of our society. Unity colonists were typically between 25 and 40 years old, and now the youngest of them (myself included) is 67, and the oldest is our own Chairman Yang. We are all grandparents now: two new generations of Chiron-born Hive citizens have arisen since then. It's hard to overstate how much this question of generations matters.
The newest generation has almost no conception of the private sphere. Few if any of the residual habits of privacy which the first generation learned from their parents remain. This makes it a challenge to teach them about, say, Martin Luther's 95 Theses. Why would he need to nail them anywhere, students wonder? Why would the Church have not been aware of every draft he composed before he decided to fix the final product to a door? The idea of "publication" means little beyond calling everyone's attention to something which anyone could see given enough of an interest.
It's best to introduce the idea of a divide between public and private in such an educational context before they dream it up themselves. Otherwise, what results is what therapists call "privacy ideation," which can fester and become dangerous "privacy fixation" if not addressed. Without guidance, children may conceive of the possibility of going to a place, or arranging a circumstance for some length of time, in which anything they do will be completely unknown to anyone else not present. They think of it as a secret room or a malfunction, but functionally, it's just the premise for the unusual concept that their actions and words could be unavailable for anyone else's viewing by some means. In adolescents, this tends to become a target of fantastical desires, but in younger children, it's horrifying, like unto an abandonment nightmare. One way or another, the idea of having secret actions and words is understood as wrong on a deep level.
This is encouraging, although it still does not go far enough. However, my time as governor has shown me an unforeseen danger. The Chiron-born know that at any moment a parent or other authority figure could be listening to them, and they treat this as a one-way line of communication. They can't know for sure if anyone is watching at any given point, but it is distressingly common to see recording of second-generation Hive citizens randomly - after a meal, waiting for a shuttle, on a lunch break - addressing me and making deferential requests or heartfelt pleas or even guilt-ridden rants. I only tend to find out about it when someone in the surveillance service brings it to my attention. It's not so much that children feel secure in being watched, it's that they feel connected to their protectors. Even as children grow older and more naturally rebellious (although teen revolt in the Hive is tame by any late Earth standard!) and privacy seems like a dangerous but enticing indulgence, they maintain the idea that I am always watching and listening, always receptive to hear what is on their minds, even though they know that this is not how it actually works. The belief is gut-deep by now.
To put it mildly, this is disturbing. The total surveillance system was meant to allow for differences of rank and authority without disrupting fundamental human equality: no one with power could act without oversight. But it seems to run the risk of turning those authorities into a kind of pantheon of protector-gods. This is not at all what we want. Only sustained and repeated efforts at presenting myself and the officers of the surveillance system as regular people through time-consuming in-person visits and rigorous education on how total surveillance works prevents the formation of a more fanatical cult of personality than any Earth despot could have dreamed about.
And this is a completely new pattern of behavior in the second generation. Utterly unlike the troubles which the first generation endured. They were the first in two ways: of Chiron-born and of humans to live completely transparent lives from cradle to grave. I still think much needs to be done to understand what went wrong for so many of them. I have been so fixated on the mindworms as a threat (understandably, I'll say in my own defense) that I have forgotten about the potential their abilities suggest to end these surprises and truly bring about the unity of humankind which we desire.
[End Log]
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Feb 28, 2016 03:21
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- Adbot
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ADBOT LOVES YOU
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Apr 25, 2024 03:15
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- Cythereal
- Nov 8, 2009
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I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.
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quote:
Research report, logged by Criona O'Connell
Now that I'm back in the Hive with its proper facilities, I've been able to synthesize our data from the Manifold Nexus with Hive social data: both at the Hive superstructure and the secondary settlement clusters.
Research on the basic ecology of Planet confirmed that the xenofungus is not one enormous organism as some species of fungi and trees were on Earth. There are discrete individual blooms, male and female stalks. Mind worms follow a similar pattern: any given boil is a swarm of individuals that act with unified purpose. Thanks to Adjunct Peters' observations of our 'tame' boils and their controllers, we know now that this unity of purpose is not simply a uniformity of instinct imposed by evolution or design. These organisms can have that purpose given to them by an outside agency and they obey absolutely.
Rather akin to the Chairman's vision for our society, isn't it?
I'm not being flippant with that remark. By accident or design the Chairman has found a world with a perfect mirror to the society he envisions for the Hive. Truth be told, I wonder about that. The Chairman has made his medical records available the same as anyone else, and he's been demonstrating the same Planet-born neural anomalies younger generations have. But to the best of my knowledge he's displayed no effects from it. That admittedly could be down to strength of personal will, if anyone's mind is simply too robust for the Nexus to affect it's the Chairman, but I'm not yet comfortable making pronouncements about how this planet works. My personal theory that there's some kind of AI in the Manifold Nexus that's been reacting to us is consistent with the evidence we have, but even decades after Planetfall I feel it's far too early to start saying anything about this world with any certainty.
Including the Hive's internal structure. I've been collating internal surveillance of people with Planet-type neural anomalies who have not displayed any of the more overt deviances: the dreams of fungus and worms, an affinity for working the fungus, direct control over the worms, and so on and so forth. I myself am one of these deviants, and considering how communal the Hive is I suspect any such visible abnormalities would have been noticed. What internal surveillance indicates is a startling degree of interpersonal empathy among these neural deviants. At the most mundane, people like me have been exhibiting remarkably effective 'gaydar' to use a lamentable word that's nevertheless too convenient of a shorthand to have been left behind on Earth. Detecting the sexual preferences of a random stranger is not a bad test of empathy: noticing body language, eye motion, the purely physical manifestations of sexual attraction, and so on and so forth. For a less mundane example, neural deviants have been finding the diplomatic service to the Morganites and Gaians suited to their skills: again, good at reading body language and other nonverbal clues as to what someone's thinking.
The whopping big caveat, however, is that everyone in the Hive displays heightened senses of empathy compared to baseline Earth records. In many respects this is self-evidently understandable and intuitive: erase most any sense of privacy, destroy the social shame associated with many bodily processes, and a communal lifestyle results in a naturally heightened sensitivity to the emotions and desires of others. The Chairman's social engineering to eliminate the sense of personal and communal shame associated with many activities and behaviors is, I feel, a particularly clever touch that keeps the Hive from repeating Japan's social cataclysm on Earth.
As such, I'm uncertain how much if any of the growing empathy among neural deviants can be ascribed to that deviation. There's enough evidence to suggest correlation, but not enough to conclude causation. Again, the Hive is extremely weird and in many ways sets back the social sciences decades.
The Chairman's notion of ethical calculus helps somewhat, but in many ways I feel the retreat into mathematics for answers to society and ethics is not a good solution. Oh, it's understandable to seek answers through mathematics and some notion of cosmic order in response to the failure of traditional social methods and sciences on Earth. Even moreso in response to the alien environment and social changes we are undergoing on Planet. Math is a seductive little science, and one that offers a genuinely good time - on its terms. I do not trust that smile, though.
I'm still mulling over whether to undertake the Process or not. Yangematics, as some of the kids call it, says I should, that I have too much to offer the Hive to accept death. My senses of scientific curiosity towards and personal fear of Chiron make me want to see this through. There's also the small matter that the Process has been said to hurt unbelievably bad. The body just isn't made for that kind of reconstruction. God. I'm on the wrong side of 70. Well past mandatory retirement age back in the UK and hitting the age where I'm liable to drop dead from something or other without much warning. I've seen enough poo poo for twice that many years, but many more wonders and horrors have we yet to find?
My first guess is 'a lot.'
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Feb 28, 2016 03:27
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- Addamere
- Jan 3, 2010
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by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
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Hive Advisory Cadre Internal Report: Resource Harvesting
____________________________________________________________________
Underlying Assumptions
The resources available in a given square are currently capped at 2, with the exception of base squares, resource bonus squares, and one special exemption mentioned below: base squares have no limit to their resource harvesting capacity, resource squares ignore the cap for bonused resource. The theoretical output of a given square is determined by a number of factors.
Nutrients are determined by the rainfall in a square. The three rainfall amounts are arid, moist, and wet, which confer 0, 1, and 2 nutrients respectively.
Minerals are determined by the rockiness in a square. The three rockiness amounts are flat, rolling, and rocky, which confer 0, 1, and 1 nutrients respectively.
Energy is determined by the altitude of a square, and usually requires the construction of a solar collector. River tiles provide an additional bonus of +1 energy.
Terraforming Cabilities
At present Hive terraforming is 50% faster than any other faction for all tasks except for Remove Fungus, and will remain so for as long as we control the Weather Paradigm. This facility also allows our terraformers to undertake several advanced tasks that would ordinarily be beyond our technological capability.
Resource Enhancements
Cultivate Farm (6 turns): Increases nutrient production by +1.
Construct Mine (6 turns): Civilian infrastructure. If the square is rocky and has a road, then increases mineral production by +2; else, Increases mineral production by +1.
Construct Solar Collector (3 turns): Civilian infrastructure. Increases energy production by +1 per 1,000 meters of altitude.
Plant Forest (3 turns): Ignores rainfall and rockiness modifiers: always provides 1 nutrient, 2 minerals, 1 energy; these values may be increased by the presence of a river (+1 energy), and/or resource bonus (+2) as normal. Cannot co-exist with any other resource enhancing improvement, but can support all military infrastructure; increases defense of units by +50%.
Infrastructure
Construct Road (Varies): Land units moving between road tiles use only 1/3 movement points. Terraforming speed begins at 1 turn for flat tiles, and increases additively for each of the following square modifiers: +1 rolling, +2 rocky, +1 river, +2 forest.
Construct Sensor Array (3 turns): Military infrastructure. Reveals all units within a 2-square radius and increases the defense of any friendly land unit within that radius by +25%.
Remove Fungus (6 turns): Does what it says on the tin.
Advanced Improvements
Construct Condenser (8 turns): Civilian infrastructure. Increases rainfall in its own square and all surrounding squares; provides an additional +50% (rounded down) bonus in nutrient output in its own square; ignores nutrient restrictions.
Construct Echelon Mirror (8 turns): Civilian infrastructure. Acts as a solar collector; increases the energy collected by solar collectors in all surrounding squares by +1.
Construct Thermal Borehole (16 turns): Civilian infrastructure. Provides +6 minerals and +6 energy; cannot be built adjacent to other boreholes or on sloping squares; ignore terrain bonuses; borehole squares produce no nutrients.
Terrain Modification
Drill to Aquifer (12 turns): Creates a river source at the designated tile, which naturally flows downhill to the nearest body of water. As with any other river, movement along the path costs only 1/3 movement points and all river tiles produce a bonus +1 energy.
Terraform UP (8 turns): Raises the altitude of the designated tile, causing nearby terrain to adjust appropriately and potentially affecting rainfall patterns and river flow.
Terraform DOWN (8 turns): Decreases the altitude of the designated tile, causing nearby terrain to adjust appropriately and potentially affecting rainfall patterns and river flow.
Terraform LEVEL (6 turns): Permanently reduces the rockiness of the designated tile by one stage; from rocky to rolling, or from rolling to flat.
Terraforming Equipment
Terraforming crews are defined by the terraforming module packages attached to the unit. All current terraforming crews are civilian "Formers," making use of bonded steel and ceramic vehicles and averaging 367 individuals. These crews are provided a limited number of sidearms and survival knives, but are not combat trained. The equipment and training required to produce such a unit requires 18 minerals or an equivalent investment in capital goods and energy diversion.
Improvements are possible.
Formers, MK2 [synthmetal prototype]: Synthmetal plates are incorporated into vehicle hulls and envirosuits, providing superior ballistic protection; additionally, all crewmembers receive military-grade small arms training (removes the -50% non-combat unit penalty). Projected cost: 36 [54] minerals per unit.
Speeder Formers [rover prototype]: Terraforming equipment is mounted on nimble rover chassis and additional rovers are made available for personnel transport. Less time spent on travel results in an overall increase in terraforming speed over time, and rover chassis allows the unit to disengage from combat. Projected cost: 45 [72] minerals per unit.
Speeder Formers, MK2 [double prototype]: Combining the above options produces a crew of military-trained small arms combatants with all the advantages of a modern cavalry unit. Only downside is the considerable increase in projected cost: 72 [108] minerals per unit.
See the attached reports for full a comprehensive discussion of unit costs.
Addamere fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Mar 13, 2016
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Feb 28, 2016 04:13
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- MJ12
- Apr 8, 2009
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Measure 1-Yes
Measure 2-Yes, cut psych spending. It's possible, albeit difficult, to get Yang to 3 turn techs, but if we're playing Benevolent Overlord (emphasis on the former) Yang, technological advancement is good for tying together society as well as improving mankind's chances of survival.
Measure 3-B. Recycling Tanks give +1 Nutrient and +1 Minerals as well as +1 Energy per tank, and 1 Food/Prod is almost always much more valuable than +1 Energy. In the long run that +1F/P and tons of bases will eventually get us a very solid position.
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Feb 28, 2016 06:36
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- GunnerJ
- Aug 1, 2005
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Do you think this is funny?
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quote:
[Report from Unity's Lantern Construction Planning Board, Surface Harvester Working Group, MY 2140.04.13 15:00]
Governor,
We've drawn up the following plan for terraforming to emphasize a mixture of food production and raw materials extraction. The goal is to coax more minerals out of the planet without compromising growth. Please refer to the attached map on which harvesting sectors are labeled by letter. Some instructions entail reassigning harvester crews. Others entail building infrastructure in sectors for which we do not have the manpower to harvest; in this case, the build order can be postponed until population growth projections indicate that manpower will be available in time to make use of the infrastructure. If there is any downtime (i.e., while waiting for manpower to be available to use infrastructure on order), it should be spent extending a road to the main Hive settlement cluster or pursuing orders noted as downtime activity.
1. We expect that in 3 years, terraforming crews will have planted and developed a healthy forest for harvesting at M. Prospectors inform us that the unusually fertile soil there will support fruit-bearing trees, making this ideal for both food and material harvesting. Shift the harvester manpower at sector F to sector M once the forest is ready. All other orders will wait until this is complete. Overall we would like to avoid building infrastructure in sectors L, D, O, N, and P, to allow the forest to expend into these areas.
2. (3 years) During downtime between any other infrastructure orders and before any other downtime construction, build a sensor array at M. This is orthogonal to any resource gathering priority but it will provide vital information and strategic advantage, which we all understand is a pressing concern.
3. (12 years) Build a mine at A and then at E. When a new cohort of workers are ready, they should be assigned to harvest at E.
4. (3 years) Build a solar collector at F.
5. (6 years) Build a farm and solar collector at G.
6. (7 years) Build a mine and road at K. When food production seems to afford a healthy buffer for stable growth, shift a harvesting crew from our least productive sector to K.
7. (18 years) Build mines at C, B, and H.
8. (9 years) Build a farm and mine at J. This is another "priority shift," and manpower should be re-assigned from less productive sectors to harvest at J, food production permitting.
9. (12 years) Clear fungus at I and N. This can be downtime activity. Eventually, farms and mines would be good for these sectors once the fungus is cleared, but this is a long-term projection and not a formal order.
10. (16 years) Build a borehole at D, shift harvester crews as food production permits. This could be completed in "steps" as a downtime activity.
All these orders are subject to change as circumstances require.
2140.04.14 09:00 - DUE TO A CLERICAL ERROR IN OUR MODELS, WE ARE RESCINDING THIS PLAN AND SEEKING EXPERT TESTIMONY ON YIELD MAXIMIZATION.
Former teams will be told to follow these directives, however:
1. Build a sensor tower at M.
2. Spend downtime building a road to connect Unity's Lantern with the main Hive settlement cluster.
3. Clear fungus at N and I.
2140.04.15 20:00 - Addendum: Recommend raising a new terraforming crew before other build priorities to accelerate long-term infrastructure deployment and harvest yields. [Approved - Adj-Gov M. R. Peters, MY 2140.04.15 22:00]
eta: Truth be told after a certain point I just go "Fully Automate Former" so most of these are probably not going to be worth implementing. Especially if there's a huge flaw in this plan that comes from hastily applying a GameFAQs guide's advice in lieu of actually remembering how to play this part of the game. 
GunnerJ fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Feb 29, 2016
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Feb 28, 2016 09:00
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- Yarville
- Jun 14, 2013
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quote:GREAT COLLECTIVE MILITARY POLICE DETACHMENT- INTERNAL AFFAIRS
DATE FILED: M.Y. 2140
TYPE OF REPORT: Routine Surveillance Transcript
SUBJECT: Captain-Adjunct Hildebrand, Frederick
|| * * * TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS * * * ||
[Subject is in his office reviewing reports. Two men enter; the first, LT ANTONOVITCH, a platoon leader under the subject; the second, INSPECTOR PRETORIOUS, commander of the police detachment. Both are in fatigues. They close and lock the door behind them. Both salute.]
HILDEBRAND: [lazily returns salute] Sit down, don't freaking salute me. How are things going? Antonovitch, how is the field rotation working out?
ANTONOVITCH: As well as it could, I suppose. As you've suggested, the newer men are going on two field training operations to every one rotation as military police. Minus the ones who have been evaluated as ineffective as MPs, of course. It's hard to maintain the training pace the manuals dictate when my men are taken from me to do nearly completley unrelated tasks three months at a-
HILDEBRAND: [cuts him off] Quit bitching. We've been ordered to do two jobs, and we're going to do them both as best we can. We've been able to skate by guarding the border or pushing for more patrols, but we knew that garrison duty was going to catch up to us someday. Meanwhile, it's your job to make sure we're ready to check out of here in a loving heartbeat and start killing Morganites, or worms, or whatever. Speaking of worms, have you seen this poo poo?
[Subject points to a vid-screen mounted on the wall. Footage (see attached: UNITY SQUAD ONE ASSAULT) plays, with text detailing the unit and their location at the time running at the bottom of the screen. It's obvious that it is a helmet-mounted camera- the viewer can see the flame gun held gingerly by the young private taping the footage. His platoon leader can be heard giving orders in the background as the platoon enters a vast xenofungal forest. The soldier first looks left and to the rear to the men in his platoon, as if for encouragement, and then up, where a huge fungal tower looms on the horizon. As they breach the xenofungus -at this point waist high- the tower seems to tremble as masses of mind worms come pouring out. The private's breathing is audibly louder, and he is trembling. He unleashes a burp of flame, once, twice, three times. Hundreds of worms are caught in the blaze, but his breathing is growing more panicked. He throws down his flame gun, turns, and runs, but it's too late- the worms are already in the ranks. In front of him, his platoon leader screams while worms burrow through his eyes and into his brain. A shot rings out, and he swings to see that a man behind him has shot himself. NCOs gather the remaining forces and direct their sappers to place explosives at the base of the tower, but the private is not among them. He has collapsed, and is screaming. The camera goes dark as worms crawl across the lens.]
ANTONOVITCH: [visibly shaking] Sir, I... Yes, I've seen it. All the reports coming in say that explosives destroy the structure and make the worms retreat, so to speak. Or at least make them less effective. The NCO who took command said it was like killing a platoon leader in simulations- the worms don't know what they're doing; it's as if they're controlled by this thing. You just have to withstand the worms. I'll, uh, remind you, sir, that they did kill the thing.
HILDEBRAND: At an over 80 percent casualty rate. Thank God their NCOs were worth a drat, or they'd all be dead right now. Is that acceptable?
ANTONOVITCH: Doctrine states-
HILDEBRAND: [hits desk, raises voice] I know what doctrine states. Mission accomplishment comes before troop welfare. I wrote the loving doctrine. But if we keep 'accomplishing the mission' like this, there won't be any troops left to care for. I only wonder if it's a consequence of the new battle order we adopted. The NCOs stepped up when it mattered, sure, but it should have never happened like that. The platoon leader never should have put himself at risk like that. When he died, the platoon died.
PRETORIOUS: Gentlemen, if I may interject? Unity Squad 2 was extremely successful in an engagement with mindworms only a few years prior to the incident. I know this because the police headquarters in the Hive sent us the vids as an example of how to deal with mind worms properly, if they were to attack a colony. They followed training to a tee and operated as one. The system works, but discipline and morale is essential.
HILDEBRAND: [sighs] You're right, Pretorious. Lieutenant, shift away from anti-human tactics and focus on the mind worm threat. I want designated sappers in every platoon, but every rear end in a top hat there better know how to use the explosives when needed. Make sure everyone is up to date on flame guns and knows exactly what to do if poo poo like this happens. And don't be like that dumbass and get yourself killed by running headfirst into a pile of worms. Dismissed. [Antonovitch salutes, and leaves.]
PRETORIOUS: [takes a seat and puts his feet on the table] That's who they're sending us now, eh Fred?
HILDEBRAND: Fresh out of school. Hasn't even fought worms yet- see him shaking? [shakes head] They're the best the Hive has to offer. Hmph. Think you could do it?
PRETORIOUS: Be a platoon leader? Hell no. Too cerebral for me. Too much responsibility. If that talent hadn't found out I'm drat good at busting deviant's skulls I'd still be slaving away as some no-name sergeant under you.
HILDEBRAND: No name? Ha. I knew your loving name, Pretorious, don't put that evil on me. But hold up- you say being an officer is too much responsibility, but you're my loving Inspector! Every MP in the city reports to you.
PRETORIOUS: Different job. I don't have to deal with battlefield tactics, changing circumstances, or my guys being eaten by mind worms. I clock in, tell my guys what airlock they're guarding, and clock out. poo poo, rumor is they're teaching them how to do ethical calculus in their head... Not my game. Say what you will about the kid, but he's smart. He'll do fine.
HILDEBRAND: We'll see. He'll get his. Enough screwing around. Let's see this vid.
[Pretorious plays a vid. It's routine surveillance of the Feeding Bay, modeled after the Hive. Hundreds of civilians are on their scheduled lunch break. Suddenly, a fight breaks out. MPs rush in and pull away the perpetrator, but in a fury, the man grabs a knife off of the table and stabs the soldier. He's swarmed by soldier and civilian alike, and carried off. The feed ends.]
PRETORIOUS: Perp said the guy he was fighting with didn't pull his weight at his job. They're plumbers, installing parts for the Recycling Tanks. Said his anger got the best of him, and he didn't know what he was doing. Killed the soldier. Guys are grumbling about carrying their rifles while on duty.
HILDEBRAND: Order a psych-eval of the murderer, obviously they didn't catch his aggressive tendencies. He's going to be reassigned to something a little more back-breaking than plumbing so he can reevaluate his life choices, and after he's learned a lesson, he can go to a job that suits his 'skills' a bit better. No point in jailing him over some sense of 'justice', it's wasteful. Guys isn't a cold blooded killer. As for carrying on duty, gently caress no. There is no situation they could possibly come across where they need a weapon more deadly than a baton, it's only going to escalate situations like this one. What they are going to carry, however, is full battle rattle. If he was wearing a flak vest, it wouldn't have punctured. gently caress this 'wearing garrison uniform' poo poo. They're soldiers first, they need to look like it. [pauses] Make sure his body gets back home. Anything else?
PRETORIOUS: Just small stuff. A couple of kids managed to steal a suit and romp around outside until they came begging to be let in. Supposed to be some sort of 'privacy fixation', according to the shrinks. Stood them in the Feeding Bays for 24 hours -roughly the time they were gone- with signs reading "I stole" and "I sought privacy". Public shaming. World's oldest punishment. Do the same thing with people who are gluttons or miss work too much. There's only 20,000 people here, Fred, not much to do. If they're not working like dogs, they're eating, sleeping, or loving.
HILDEBRAND: Keep it up. Let's not hear about any more dead soldiers.
PRETORIOUS: [stands up to leave] Sure thing. Say, the grapevine says Chairman Yang wants you to become governor of the place. [points to surveillance camera] Wanna address the nation?
HILDEBRAND: [flips off camera] gently caress you.
Captain-Adjunct Hildebrand votes nay on measure 1, citing his desire for more practical spending. That said, he votes yea on measure 2, believing that psych spending will continue to make crime a rarity in the Hive. He asks that we pay off all debts so as to end all obligation to other factions.
Captain-Adjunct Hildebrand advises that the platoon in Great Collective should be maintained as garrison until it can be replaced, but they should be returned to combat operations as soon as possible.
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Feb 28, 2016 10:28
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- Addamere
- Jan 3, 2010
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by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
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eta: Truth be told after a certain point I just go "Fully Automate Former" so most of these are probably not going to be worth implementing. Especially if there's a huge flaw in this plan that comes from hastily applying a GameFAQs guide's advice in lieu of actually remembering how to play this part of the game.
I can either follow your big plan here, or I can just wing it with my own idea of what to do based on a desire for mineral output.
The latter would involve scrapping the forest in lieu of a Condenser on that Nutrient Bonus square (making it a 7-0-0 square) to give us faster growth and a bit of a food buffer, then dedicating a bunch of the flat lands nearbystarting with G, since it has a river for +1 energyinto forests for some 1-2-1 squares. Given our current restriction of 2 for any resource that's not bonused, Mines only make sense for us (compared to forests) on squares that are Rainy and Rolling: by default, that's a 2-1-0 square, and with a Farm (+1 nutrient) and a Mine (-1 nutrient, +1 mineral), you end up with a 2-2-0 square. But that's an operation that takes 12 turns, versus 3 turns for a forest, all for the same amount of minerals trading a food for an energy. Either way, a second Former is probably a good idea since we have only the one out here (as opposed to the mainland which has 5 that can work on a project at a time).
Let me know! I'll begin playing the update this evening, probably.
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Feb 29, 2016 10:18
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- Addamere
- Jan 3, 2010
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by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
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Quote is not edit. Welp.
Anyhow, voting is now closed. The winning ticket by a huge margin is Yea; Yea; B. A was the runner-up for Measure 3, so I'll look towards paying off loans over the course of the update as well. You guys really have a hate boner for Morgan, so we'll make that border wall even huger and more luxurious. Update should arrive in the middle of the week, barring unforeseen disasters.
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Feb 29, 2016 10:29
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- Cythereal
- Nov 8, 2009
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I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.
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quote:
The first step in the Process is to drown.
They slide you into the tube strapped to a board, preventing motion in a tube just barely large enough to hold you. The blue-green fluid, a cocktail of stem cells, complex chemicals never found in nature, artificial cells derived from Earth algae, and other things I dare not speak of is precious. So precious. A single drop can cure most diseases, and is worth more than a dozen men's lives. One of the more important flashpoints for the wars that ended Earth, and Yang already has enough for his advisors. Even before the recycling tanks, was Yang harvesting the dead before we planted them as nutrients for the farms? Prolonging the life of one can only come from the deaths of many.
If you don't mind the claustrophobia - as if any Hiver does - it's pleasant at first, as the fluid fills the tube. Soft and warm, a flickering memory of a hot tub on Earth escapes the distant attic of my mind. But the fluid doesn't stop flowing, and soon the tide crests your chin. No sedation is possible for the Process, rewriting a human's biochemistry is a delicate enough affair and not everyone survives even when things go perfectly. The blue-green fluid rises over your face, and the instinctive responses kick in.
I can't breathe I'm drowning I'm drowning I must escape I must fight escape drowning drowning escape drowning death drowning dying no no no no no no no Huh. I'm not dead.
A moment's respite for the brain, realizing its body can breathe the stuff. It's harder work than breathing air, and a few die at this stage, their bodies too weak to adapt. The calm lasts a minute or two as the fluid gets to work, binding to the alveoli and inserting itself into the circulation system unnoticed by the body. A flood spreads through the body, tingling like a funny bone all over as the body starts to realize that something strange is happening. When the fluid hits the head, a small gland releases a flood of adrenaline, somehow aware that the body has been invaded. Once again the body is tricked, other components of the blue-green fluid intercept and combine with the adrenaline at the font. What spreads through the body like a rushing tide, combining and altering the already contaminated blood, starts something. Change, but mostly pain.
Every nerve in the body burns. The body knows that something is happening, knows that it is being torn apart and reshaped and redesigned. Earthly media called the Process a rejuvenation treatment, the Philosopher's Stone and the thousand-year ginseng, restoring youth to the elderly, but the Process does not turn back entropy's clock. What the Process does do is radically change the body into that of a young person: not healing in any traditional sense, but a sideways transformation that is in some ways steps back. The original genes locked inside the subject's core of gray matter do not change, though they may not reflect the body now housing them. In theory, the Process is the ultimate cosmetic surgery, capable of changing anything save the brain. Build, skin tone, even sex. No one ever used the Process for that.
The nerves burn, unable to process the changes in any form but pain. If I seem curiously detached, it's a well-established psychological phenomenon among those suffering extreme trauma. The brain is an amazing piece of work, but even it can only handle so much input before it stops listening to its nerves. Addled with biochemical changes surging and changing throughout the body, I dream.
I dream of Bellaghy, the village where I grew up. A tiny place, a nothing. I couldn't wait to leave. I dream of Cardiff University where I went to school, fell in love, and stopped speaking to my parents. I dream of Belfast, where I taught and lived. I had kept my head down during the return of the Troubles, taught the kids, won a national award for turning an inner-city school around. I was on one of the last busses out when the virus struck and the government evacuated who it could before declaring the Quarantine Zone.
I dream of the Unity. Such a bold, lofty dream. My award for education work in meager circumstances, my survival of intense personal trauma, and my lack of personal connections to anyone left on Earth made me a natural fit for the program. Beneath all the idealism, all the grand talk and the speeches by Captain Garland, was a simple fact: I went to Alpha Centauri because I had nowhere else to go.
Most of all, I dream of Planet. By training and experience I am a teacher and a professor, dedicating my life to the education of the young. Planet has begun to remake me, as it has so many others. My studies of neural deviance, of the Hive's evolving social structure, and my exploration of the Manifold Nexus have conspired to lead me in other directions. I couldn't protect my students in Belfast from the virus, and I can't protect my students in the Hive from Planet. I don't even know if I should.
There is an intelligence here on Planet. Such a mind need not be sapient or even sentient. It need not be organic. The Manifold Nexus, I am convinced, is proof that there is an order to this world. That there is a purpose to this world. I fathom those thoughts now, dreaming of monoliths and the machinery of the Nexus. Al-Sahrahani called the place the Valley of Kings after his native Egypt, thinking it a place of burial or a monument. If human intuition is at all applicable to Chiron, and the Chairman's calculus suggests that it is, then no one puts that much effort into a memorial.
The thought of an artificial intelligence in the Nexus intrigues me as I drift in biochemical seas. Some had proposed the use of a seed lander for Unity: a limited AI that would land and establish settlements and infrastructure in advance of human landing. More conservative minds prevailed, stocking the Unity instead with infrastructure construction drones but no full program. Might Planet be something similar on a much larger scale? Land a seed facility, and entrust it to make the planet ready for its masters in waiting.
Or perhaps the other way around, that the Nexus and monoliths are all that remain of a civilization that once inhabited this planet. How advanced they were to build such things, what could have happened to them?
Regardless of its source, what is this intelligence? Perhaps more importantly, what is it doing to us? Are we some adventurous bacterium that's stumbled into a carefully designed petri dish?
earthhuman
The whisper comes unbidden in my dreams.
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Feb 29, 2016 13:07
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- GunnerJ
- Aug 1, 2005
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Do you think this is funny?
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I can either follow your big plan here, or I can just wing it with my own idea of what to do based on a desire for mineral output.
The latter would involve scrapping the forest in lieu of a Condenser on that Nutrient Bonus square (making it a 7-0-0 square) to give us faster growth and a bit of a food buffer, then dedicating a bunch of the flat lands nearby—starting with G, since it has a river for +1 energy—into forests for some 1-2-1 squares. Given our current restriction of 2 for any resource that's not bonused, Mines only make sense for us (compared to forests) on squares that are Rainy and Rolling: by default, that's a 2-1-0 square, and with a Farm (+1 nutrient) and a Mine (-1 nutrient, +1 mineral), you end up with a 2-2-0 square. But that's an operation that takes 12 turns, versus 3 turns for a forest, all for the same amount of minerals trading a food for an energy. Either way, a second Former is probably a good idea since we have only the one out here (as opposed to the mainland which has 5 that can work on a project at a time).
Let me know! I'll begin playing the update this evening, probably.
OK, I completely forgot that mines do -1 food, ignore my busted poo poo. 
On the plus side, I guess, that little map may be useful for other stuff?
eta: edited my post a bit.
GunnerJ fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Feb 29, 2016
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Feb 29, 2016 13:58
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- Addamere
- Jan 3, 2010
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by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
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OK, I completely forgot that mines do -1 food, ignore my busted poo poo.
On the plus side, I guess, that little map may be useful for other stuff?
eta: edited my post a bit.
Oh yeah, that map will deffo be useful if/when we have to fight battles nearby or start thinking about more long-term development. Still want the Crιche and Commons immediately after the tanks, or another former first, or? Also, a note: if we go the Condenser route on that Nutrient square, then we cannot simultaneously have a Sensor there.
Even if we do go with a Condenser, making it a Forest/Sensor for now will give us a 3-2-1/Sensor square, which will in turn let us support a couple of forest squareswhich maximizes minerals. We could always just do that for now, since it's faster and has more immediate mineral output, and then swap it to a Condenser sometime in the next decade or two.
Addamere fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Feb 29, 2016
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Feb 29, 2016 19:57
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- GunnerJ
- Aug 1, 2005
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Do you think this is funny?
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Oh yeah, that map will deffo be useful if/when we have to fight battles nearby or start thinking about more long-term development. Still want the Crιche and Commons immediately after the tanks, or another former first, or? Also, a note: if we go the Condenser route on that Nutrient square, then we cannot simultaneously have a Sensor there.
Even if we do go with a Condenser, making it a Forest/Sensor for now will give us a 3-2-1/Sensor square, which will in turn let us support a couple of forest squareswhich maximizes minerals. We could always just do that for now, since it's faster and has more immediate mineral output, and then swap it to a Condenser sometime in the next decade or two.
That location seemed pretty choice for a sensor in that it covered the approach from the fungus to the southeast and the Gaians to the northwest. But I think imma have to trust your judgment on efficiency because I am pretty sure I haven't played this game in over a decade and I clearly don't know wtf. Forest for now, condenser for later sounds good. At that point, maybe a sensor can go at K and at P? Honestly that and the Children's Creche are both kinda ~roleplaying decisions~ in a sense. Normally I wouldn't build the creche so soon. Having another former out is tempting though and it would probably make accomplishing the rest easier in the long run, right? Ah hell with it, when the tanks finish, go Former -> Creche -> Commons.
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Feb 29, 2016 20:19
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- Addamere
- Jan 3, 2010
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by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
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That location seemed pretty choice for a sensor in that it covered the approach from the fungus to the southeast and the Gaians to the northwest. But I think imma have to trust your judgment on efficiency because I am pretty sure I haven't played this game in over a decade and I clearly don't know wtf. Forest for now, condenser for later sounds good. At that point, maybe a sensor can go at K and at P? Honestly that and the Children's Creche are both kinda ~roleplaying decisions~ in a sense. Normally I wouldn't build the creche so soon. Having another former out is tempting though and it would probably make accomplishing the rest easier in the long run, right? Ah hell with it, when the tanks finish, go Former -> Creche -> Commons.
OK! Plan will be Former → Creche → Commons; Forest/Sensor at M for now, then some more forests, and a Condenser later when we need to ramp up Nutrient production to avoid stalling growth.
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Feb 29, 2016 20:26
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- GunnerJ
- Aug 1, 2005
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Do you think this is funny?
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Warning, this is the beginning of something super long:
quote:
The Transparent Mind: Exceeding the Final Limit to the Policy of Total Surveillance
Report prepared by Maxwell R. Peters, M.Y. 2140
Introduction
The most common slander of the Hive in Morganite discourse is that we are a panopticon society. This refers to the famous philosophical thought experiment devised by Jeremy Bentham and considered in the context of modern society on Earth by Michel Foucault. The premise is a prison in which each cell and every place where prisoners may go has a one-way mirror for its inner wall, and all the chambers of the prison surround a central guard tower from which guards can see into the chambers through the mirror, but prisoners cannot see the guards. The idea is that this prison needs very few guards because the possibility of being observed is always present and keeps prisoners from misbehaving.
Applying this to the Hive as a form of defamation has a few problems. First, it is based upon a contingent system of ethics which Morgan believes is universal: that humans deserve and need privacy. Actually, the idea of privacy as necessary and desirable to the point of being a human right has not been common throughout human history and only developed in the "Western culture" of Earth starting around 500 years ago, coinciding with the rise and development of the liberal philosophical tradition and the capitalist political economy which Morgan treats as an ideal. Before then, humans lived somewhat transparent lives and many "private" things - from sex to excretion - were done in easily observable areas. Even the great did not hide much from their servants. Again we see that is the nature of ideologies to pretend that their tenets are carved in the human heart so as to ensnare those hearts in faction.
Second, it misunderstands an aspect of the Hive's transparent society: there are no mirrors, only windows. The "prisoners" can always see the "guards" as well. No one, from ordinary citizens to talents to Cadre Adjuncts to the Chairman himself, is exempt from this. This is, to my understanding, unique in human history, which leads to the next flaw in the "panopticon" critique: that future generations, not raised with the expectations of late Earth culture, will find anything undesirable about it.
Still, there is a grain of truth. For those born and raised on Earth, the knowledge of constant observation influences behavior. And since the Earth-born still have great sociocultural influence, the Chiron-born have not been free of these expectations. This has had profound social implications. Latent fear of invaded privacy, transmitted from the Earth-born to the first generation of Chiron-born through object lessons by example, was the underlying cause of the suicide epidemic among adolescents that broke out between MY 2115 and MY 2125, the "Routing Tragedy." It is true that most Hive citizens effectively enjoy a degree of privacy by the simple fact that there is so much recorded and so many people that few people and few moments are really worth observing. Nonetheless, ordinary people are of great interest to their close associates, and the pin-pointing of specific moments of each others' lives to observe, called "routing," turned into a social weapon to shame and degrade.
This points to a justification of total surveillance rarely considered: many things should not be kept secret for not only the protection of others from malicious intent (the usual justification), but sometimes for the benefit of those keeping a secret, such as a suicidal intent. The problem of discerning these secrets is complicated by the challenge of being able to tell when someone is sincere. Sincerity not only encompasses honesty in one's intentional communications but also one's "unintended" communications: body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, writing style, and in general the gap between one's inner truth and outer expression of self. The transparent society will always be limited so long as humans have opaque minds. On Chiron, we may find the key to clarifying the mind by understanding the abilities of the one living thing that cannot be fooled, that always sees the stark and naked truth of one's soul: the mindworm.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?
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Mar 1, 2016 18:52
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- Cythereal
- Nov 8, 2009
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I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.
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That was a really cool read, thanks for taking the time to write this.
Agreed. Very nice read.
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Mar 1, 2016 21:25
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- RiotGearEpsilon
- Jun 26, 2005
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SHAVE ME FROM MY SHELF
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real good jorb gunnerj
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Mar 1, 2016 23:14
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- Yarville
- Jun 14, 2013
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Warning, this is the beginning of something super long:
Definitely one of the best RP posts I've read in any LP, let alone this one. Great stuff.
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Mar 1, 2016 23:34
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- Cythereal
- Nov 8, 2009
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I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.
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Tough act to follow, but might as well clear up something I discussed with Niet about the Hive.
quote:
Settle down please, settle down. What I am about to say will likely be unpopular with many of you. Perhaps worse, it will likely be popular with some of you for the wrong reasons. What I am about to say, I have personally discussed with the Chairman and have his personal approval to speak.
With the recent reassembly of the Unity's biology database and our own medical and biological studies on Planet, some in the Hive have suggested that the Hive implement a very old idea from Earth's history: selective, planned reproduction to encourage and promulgate specific biological traits deemed favorable. Ladies and gentlemen, there is a single word that describes this idea, a word with a great deal of history for those of us who grew to adulthood on Earth: eugenics.
Please settle down! Again, I have already discussed this matter with the Chairman at length.
Eugenics, divorced from its history of implementation in the past, is in and of itself a fine idea for the improvement of the human species. Encourage beneficial traits, weed out perceived negative traits. This is not a bad idea as far as it goes. However, any student of Earth history should be able to tell you several immediate problems with the idea.
The idea of eugenics has never been applied in an objective fashion. The United States of America and many European countries forcibly sterilized the 'incurably criminal' throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In practice, this overwhelmingly meant the poor and racial and religious minorities. Perceived notions of epigenetic qualities endemic to a fabricated 'Aryan' race lead to the horrors of Nazi Germany and the departure of many genuinely brilliant native German minds. The Crusader Wars involved a return of forcible sterilization and issuance of reproductive licenses in some areas based on religious affiliation.
Go past the surface, and selective breeding is literally as old as human agriculture. It is an important element of domestication of species, but most Terrans can, if we think about it, tell you how inexact of a science that is. I had a pit bull terrier as a child. Despite the breed's reputation and selective breeding, Twist was a limp-pawed sweetheart who never once attacked me, either of my sisters, or our other dog. Or any living creature. My next-door-neighbor - yes? I'll tell you what that means after the lecture - had a golden retriever that, to put it bluntly, was a vicious engine of spite and hate. Hardly models of an exact science to improve the human race if we can't even get dogs right.
From a purely pragmatic perspective, 'pure bred' animals of all kinds inevitably developed severe health issues over a long enough period of time. Eugenic breeding invariably involves narrowing the gene pool and unorthodox selection of mates - that is to say, inbreeding. Inbreeding on a limited scope is rarely harmful, but sustained and repeated inbreeding as typified by 'pure bred' animals and for a human example the Habsburg royal line of Europe does, without exception, result in severe defects to the species.
Even if we reconstruct the human genome project in a timely fashion, the shortcomings of selective breeding for eugenic purposes are many, varied, and self-evident. Indeed, one of the problems the medical community brought to my attention when Yang ordered the reorganization of the Hive's social services into the Social Uplift Service as a dire problem facing the Hive is a lack of genetic diversity. This was a concern to medical planners even before the Unity left Earth, and with the Hive's gene pool further narrowed down to those of us who followed Officer Yang, one of the highest priority tasks for our genetic engineering division will be finding a solution to the Hive's limited gene pool before we quite literally breed ourselves into extinction through excessive inbreeding and genetic homogenization. We can only assume this same problem faces every other human faction on Chiron, and one possibility I brought to the Chairman's attention is the establishment of an egg and sperm bank for the Hive that we may be able to exchange with the Gaians or Morganites. I don't think any of us want to start playing the Habsburgs or spread genetic disorders like hemophilia through the Hive.
In the absence of genetic engineering sophisticated enough to completely negate this problem, which the Chairman believes is possible but has no timeframe to develop, no right-thinking member of the Hive can even begin to consider the crude, haphazard process of eugenic breeding.
The Chairman believes that, even leaving aside the moral question of eugenics with its immense history of bloodshed, the practice of eugenics is objectively aimed at the improvement of the species' overall health and capabilities, and that the body of evidence demonstrates beyond all doubt that eugenics through selective breeding and sterilization comprehensively fails at its purpose and in fact acts as a detriment to the community and the species.
Therefore, all research of selective human breeding and discussion of implementing such research and programs is hereby banned by order of Chairman Yang.
Thank you.
- Criona O'Connell, public address to the Social Uplift Service
Cythereal fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Mar 2, 2016
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Mar 2, 2016 01:36
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- FredMSloniker
- Jan 2, 2008
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Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.
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I don't feel like creating a character just to ask this question, so assume some rando threw it out: what are the chairman's views on going the other way, controlling breeding with the aim of increasing genetic diversity?
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Mar 2, 2016 01:43
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- RiotGearEpsilon
- Jun 26, 2005
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SHAVE ME FROM MY SHELF
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I don't feel like creating a character just to ask this question, so assume some rando threw it out: what are the chairman's views on going the other way, controlling breeding with the aim of increasing genetic diversity?
Dude, we literally just banned this topic of conversation! Report to the Punishment Spheroid for time-out.
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Mar 2, 2016 01:59
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- GunnerJ
- Aug 1, 2005
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Do you think this is funny?
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I'm pretty floored by the positive reaction my post got but I'd feel bad if others felt in any way inadequate as a result. It took a long time to write, longer than most people would find reasonable for this kind of thing, and I don't doubt that everyone contributing to the thread could do something at least as good in that time. Like, Cythereal and Yarville, your stuff is solid gold. If I'm forgetting others by name it's not a reflection of quality so much as recognition from quantity. Everyone's contributions have been really good and make this thread a ton of fun. And oh yeah, there's the OP obvs, because this thread wouldn't be possible without someone playing the drat game and Nietzchean does a lot more than just that to make things interesting.
OK now someone has to call me a dorky shitlord to bust up this hugbox I've started.
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Mar 2, 2016 01:59
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- Addamere
- Jan 3, 2010
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by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
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I don't feel like creating a character just to ask this question, so assume some rando threw it out: what are the chairman's views on going the other way, controlling breeding with the aim of increasing genetic diversity?
I'll add an address to this in the next update for you.
GunnerJ posted:
OK now someone has to call me a dorky shitlord to bust up this hugbox I've started.
lol look at this dorky shitlord
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Mar 2, 2016 02:10
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- Cythereal
- Nov 8, 2009
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I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.
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Dude, we literally just banned this topic of conversation! Report to the Punishment Spheroid for time-out.
The subject came up with Niet when we were talking about the role of women in the Hive - it would be easy to say that in the Hive women are seen as nothing but baby factories, that homosexuality is outlawed, and the like. Niet and I agreed that in the interests of continuing with the benevolent interpretation of the Hive, Yang immediately said nope we're not touching that with a ten foot pole.
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Mar 2, 2016 02:10
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- Addamere
- Jan 3, 2010
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by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
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But for real that was excellent work, GunnerJ.
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Mar 2, 2016 02:12
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- Montegoraon
- Aug 22, 2013
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Not to rp, but don't forget what the other half of that equation is. It's not enough to have good genes. A child also needs good parents, who pay attention. Therefore, there ought to be allowances made for reduced workloads depending on the number of children a pairing has. Anyway, if the Hive wants to go the quasi-eugenics route, it need not dictate pairings. Just offer the talents a good amount of options, and not just taken from other talents. A couple who actually like each other will do better by their kids. And don't underestimate the power of mutation and recombination. Looking at the brightest minds in history, the ones who really changed the course of human development, you usually wouldn't guess it by looking at their parents.
Also, a small gene pool shouldn't actually be a problem, so long as the technology exists to screen out severely negative traits. It would make sense for that kind of thing to have been done during the selection process for colonists on Earth. And according to some anthropologists, the magic number of humans you'd need to avoid genetic catastrophe in the short term is only 80, far less than the hundreds or thousands who presumably made planetfall with Yang.
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Mar 2, 2016 05:12
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- Odysseus S. Grant
- Oct 12, 2011
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Cats is the oldest and strongest emotion
of mankind
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Yea.
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Mar 2, 2016 08:34
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- Glidergun
- Mar 4, 2007
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Ethical Calculus is, what, Democracy social engineering and the double-police-duty unit ability? If Morgan wants to infect his society with the ills of multipolar self-interest, let him. Make the trade.
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Mar 2, 2016 08:41
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- Yarville
- Jun 14, 2013
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Definite yea, in character and out.
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Mar 2, 2016 09:17
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- AJ_Impy
- Jun 17, 2007
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SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
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Yam Slacker
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Adjunct Thirteen posted:
Those of the People's Eyrie would be in favour both of having access to superior computing technology, and bootstrapping the decision-making logic of our oppressed bothers and sisters.
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Mar 2, 2016 10:48
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- Omobono
- Feb 19, 2013
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That's it! No more hiding in tomato crates! It's time to show that idiota Germany how a real nation fights!
For pasta~! CHARGE!
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Ethical Calculus is, what, Democracy social engineering and the double-police-duty unit ability? If Morgan wants to infect his society with the ills of multipolar self-interest, let him. Make the trade.
Yup.
Non-lethal methods is actually a great ability for some factions*, just not at this point of the game. Yea, grab them network nodes.
*not Morganites. If you're not running -infinity police +infinity economy 24/7 as Morgan you're doing it wrong, at least until the end-game where you instead can run +infinity efficiency +infinity economy.
Non-lethal would suprisingly be a good for a peaceful Yang, as he can use, what, 3 units as police with his natural social engineering choices? 3 less drones for three mineral rows is a fantastic deal, especially with Yang's boosted industry. The main problem is growing the population until you actually need the extra drone control in the first place.
Omobono fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Mar 2, 2016
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Mar 2, 2016 10:49
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- Adbot
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ADBOT LOVES YOU
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Apr 25, 2024 03:15
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- MJ12
- Apr 8, 2009
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Information Networks gives us access to Network Nodes, which are a pretty nifty base facility, and is the foundational tech for computer-related stuff.
The issue with Yang is that he has no energy and thus poor teching, even if he doesn't have an innate malus to technological advancement like Deidre or Domai. To get a good tech lead, he needs to put his industry into fixing that problem. Network Nodes are going to be useful-+50% research for 1 energy maintenance helps reduce that penalty. He'll never be Zakharov, but getting those nodes is going to help.
And I think a benevolent Yang would be very, very interested in technological advancement.
Technology is what creates the potential for complex societies. In a primitive society, like early mankind, you have very generalized roles, which makes it very easy for individuals to discount the whole. In fact, I suspect Yang would argue that human evolution as hunter-gatherers, rather than being evolved to handle a technological society where your actions affect others in this complex interconnected web, is one of the main causes of human failing. Technological advancement, therefore, is a way to transcend these issues-especially once you start looking at bioengineering and the transhumanist techs, as well as the psionic 'empath' techs.
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Mar 2, 2016 11:25
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Feb 28, 2016 03:21
Tech Vote, maximum quickness! 
