So, should we get another wiki going for this stuff? It is going to get insanely complicated fast, I think, unless we have some way of keeping track of everything easily.
Agreed. I've listed up what we've got so far and updated the roster, and will set to work on a pbwiki.
Man, I am floored by the diversity of that roster. This is going to be interesting.
One question, do you want us to add some flavour to our advancments. For instance, with my roll I guess The Telomere advanced towards Genetics 1, which sound kind of sterile. Scooter, are you going to preside over what that entails or do we have a free (and reasonable) hand to develop our own flavour?
So, should we get another wiki going for this stuff? It is going to get insanely complicated fast, I think, unless we have some way of keeping track of everything easily.
Agreed. I've listed up what we've got so far and updated the roster, and will set to work on a pbwiki.
I quiver with anticipation.
I wish I were artistic enough to draw up some Kelari and do an avatar-sig theme thing.
I kind of wish I'd encountered someone already, so we could start diplomacying it up.
Man, I am floored by the diversity of that roster. This is going to be interesting.
One question, do you want us to add some flavour to our advancments. For instance, with my roll I guess The Telomere advanced towards Genetics 1, which sound kind of sterile. Scooter, are you going to preside over what that entails or do we have a free (and reasonable) hand to develop our own flavour?
With techs that advance actual stats, I'll have actual researches set up so that it'll be clear when everyone's on the same level (I'm still finalizing techs and resources before turns start). For RP techs I was just gonna make shit up as they come, so if you'd like to make up your own shit go ahead.
Feel free to add your species info, and update info that's outdated or incorrect, but please try to keep the formatting since I'll be using it for my own reference as much as anyone. I also doubt I'll get around to doing system pages tonight but others can start on that.
Gotcha, actually, I'm kind of interested to see someone elses take on my species so I have no problem with you taking the reigns in that aspect.
I wonder what happens when one of your little parasite dudes takes over a Kelari...
Hopefully, it doesn't come to that.
Ah, I really don't want to sound anal about this but I have a minor nit-pick I have no problem with people calling the Telomeres parasites (Hell, I even expect it to be used as a derogatory) but I just want to make it clear that they are in fact a virus not a parasite. There are significant biological differences between a parasite and a virus. Which is important to keep in mind for various functional purposes.
Gotcha, actually, I'm kind of interested to see someone elses take on my species so I have no problem with you taking the reigns in that aspect.
I wonder what happens when one of your little parasite dudes takes over a Kelari...
Hopefully, it doesn't come to that.
Ah, I really don't want to sound anal about this but I have a minor nit-pick I have no problem with people calling the Telomeres parasites (Hell, I even expect it to be used as a derogatory) but I just want to make it clear that they are in fact a virus not a parasite. There are significant biological differences between a parasite and a virus. Which is important to keep in mind for various functional purposes.
Fair enough; as soon as the scientists figure that out the Masters will pass the word on.
Scooter, what kind of formating do you want for the system pages?
Gotcha, actually, I'm kind of interested to see someone elses take on my species so I have no problem with you taking the reigns in that aspect.
I wonder what happens when one of your little parasite dudes takes over a Kelari...
Hopefully, it doesn't come to that.
Ah, I really don't want to sound anal about this but I have a minor nit-pick I have no problem with people calling the Telomeres parasites (Hell, I even expect it to be used as a derogatory) but I just want to make it clear that they are in fact a virus not a parasite. There are significant biological differences between a parasite and a virus. Which is important to keep in mind for various functional purposes.
Only because they're not considered alive. Consider them alive and then they are
Gotcha, actually, I'm kind of interested to see someone elses take on my species so I have no problem with you taking the reigns in that aspect.
I wonder what happens when one of your little parasite dudes takes over a Kelari...
Hopefully, it doesn't come to that.
Ah, I really don't want to sound anal about this but I have a minor nit-pick I have no problem with people calling the Telomeres parasites (Hell, I even expect it to be used as a derogatory) but I just want to make it clear that they are in fact a virus not a parasite. There are significant biological differences between a parasite and a virus. Which is important to keep in mind for various functional purposes.
Fair enough; as soon as the scientists figure that out the Masters will pass the word on.
Scooter, what kind of formating do you want for the system pages?
**Stars**:
**Planets**:
**Pit stops, tourist attractions and other scenic views**:
Just to confirm, who wishes to apply for Cultureless status? To count as cultureless, in my mind, you either have to have no concept of free time in which to pay attention to media or art (such as insects or robots), or you have to be so alien compared to all other species that your entire concepts of culture are completely different. Right now I've got thorpe, Grimmy and Atro as cultureless.
Also, from here on, it's probably a good idea to make new posts rather than edit old ones, since I won't be going through the old ones as much and will probably not notice changes,
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INeedNoSaltwith blood on my teethRegistered Userregular
I'd like to be culture immune. No time for anything but profit!
Denied!
Having leadership or political leaders that try to clamp down will do no good, as unofficial channels will still be able to get the info to people who want it. Besides, you can't tell me a mercantile race that has advertising divisions doesn't export culture.
I hope someone reads/enjoys my species info. It actually came pretty quick, but it was a lot of writing. Also, I hope no one whipes me out right away (i.e. before I can write about "the time not spoken of").
Having leadership or political leaders that try to clamp down will do no good, as unofficial channels will still be able to get the info to people who want it. Besides, you can't tell me a mercantile race that has advertising divisions doesn't export culture.
If that first part is directed to me: The species has no independent thought, it is entirely controlled by the Board of Directors.
But I'll concede the point on advertising. You win this round.
Feel free to add your species info, and update info that's outdated or incorrect, but please try to keep the formatting since I'll be using it for my own reference as much as anyone. I also doubt I'll get around to doing system pages tonight but others can start on that.
If it hasn't been done already, please add this to the top of the first post.
Also, I want to recommend some sort of uniform structure across the wiki. I updated some of my race information and I hope that it's inspirational towards my motion.
I'm having trouble figuring out exactly how I want celessin to react to culture. On the one hand, they'll love that kind of stuff. They're a very wide-eyed species right now, excited at the prospect of meeting new people and seeing new things. But, as much as they love other cultures, I can't see them joining any because for every culture they see, there are others out there to discover and enjoy as well. There's also the fact that celessin are huge space whales and it's unclear as to how they could functionally join another culture at all.
Ultimately, I plan on having very porous borders and sharing all my systems with other players, so culture shouldn't be too much of an issue anyway.
[1] Life is a natural event that occurs often perhaps even in most star systems. Life is merely another trait that stars create similar to planets or water.
[2] Mankind has arrived during the middle age of the universe. Life has occurred many times before and will occur many times in the future.
[3] Intelligence is a trait that life can create like any other. Given enough time intelligence will occur in any given eco system.
[4] Star travel is easy for life given enough time. With current technology humanity could colonize the entire galaxy within a mere million years.
[5] Other intelligent life forms have existed in the galaxy billions of years in the past and could easily have colonized the entire galaxy by now, several times over. It is most likely that millions of civilizations have risen and fallen within our galaxy.
[6] We don’t see any evidence of intelligent life anywhere in the universe. Where are they?
[7] The universe has a trap within it. Any species driven to space travel will encounter the trap. The trap cannot be known in advance or some species would have found a way around it. The trap is a law of nature as real as gravity it cannot be avoided. The trap destroys all life in the star system when it is sprung. Thus the universe is self limiting, any intelligence that seeks interstellar travel not only is unlikely to succeed, it MUST be destroyed by the trap. If this were not so then one would have made it out of the millions that have tried.
This is called Pandora's Trap.
Any species seeking interstellar travel will inevitably come to
research an obvious kind of space drive, during this research they will
spring the trap and annihilate their species.
-
One species DID make it at the beginning of the universe, they quickly
learnt that all other intelligent lifeforms would EVENTUALLY threaten
them no matter how well intentioned at the start. Bearing this in mind,
they set into motion a series of self replicating probes who traveled
throughout the galaxy, recreating themselves and spreading.
The probes have one function. Detect jumpgate formation. Once they
detect them, they travel to the star system and destroy the star,
annihilating all life within it.
The name given to these alleged probes is "The Swords of Damocles".
=== SYSLOG 1772453859 rotation 800
No signal detected. rotation 900
No signal detected. rotation 1000
No signal detected. rotation 1100
Tachyon Particle spike. rotation 1200
Analyzing, redirecting sensors rotation 1201
Checking signal origin.... error rotation 1202
Debug system mode rotation 1203
Checking signal of origin... error rotation 1204
Debug system mode rotation 1205
Signal analysis 1200 complete unidentifiable origin rotation 1206
Analyzing signal against 314159 known threats in memory banks. Analysis completion in 4000 rotations
compiling.... rotation 1207
No match found Rotation 5208
New Target Detected Rotation 5208
Activate Damocles Protocol Rotation 5209
===
Rotation 5209 is an end of an era. It had been nearly one cosmic cycle (Roughly 225 million Earth Years) since the last great cosmic threat was wiped out by the Damocles. Then it was a group of hardy, militant, intelligent beings known as the Pandoran's who predicted the Damocles probes and successfully fought them off. For .05 cycles their fleets fought to an epic stand still, until ultimately the last of the Pandoran peoples were annihilated in a great battle in a little ternary system on the edge of the galaxy. Their technology and civilization were wiped clean from the Milky Way, like they never existed. With their mission accomplished the probes fell silent once again, waiting in the night for another signal.
And then it came, but not one intelligent life, sending out a weak radio signal or testing the waters with a simple jump gate test. A trickle here or there that the a single probe could smite. It came like a roaring wave, and the Damocles were caught unprepared. But with the Damocles protocol activated, their great factories begin churning once more, and the machine once again looms to accomplish their one simple protocol: Destroy all Intelligent Life.
Leadership
The Damocles are not a people. They are a race of machines, built by another group of intelligent people known as the first ones (It is unknown if this is the actual first species in the galaxy to be intelligent, or just a title they gave themselves). As such, they are bound by the constructs and programs and personality of their creators. Every machine is bound by internal code, programs, and protocols.
There are two of critical importance:
1: Obey the creators at all costs (A protocol that has not been used in millions of years)
2: Destroy all other intelligent civilization in the galaxy.
These are bound into their hard coded matrices, and ultimately can not be overturned without seriously mangling or damaging the artificial program. As part of its base programing the Damocles can not themselves overturn it (Rumors persist of Damocles constructs that have had their base programming rewritten, but these are likely superstitions or fairy tales).
This does not mean that the Damocles are maliciously violent, or individually hostile towards any individual member of an opposing race. In fact, individual Damocles hominid models are incredibly helpful, servile, or seemingly wise. Such attitude tends to make it easier to infiltrate and undermine other races.
Make no mistake as a species they have one simple goal, and whether it happens tomorrow, or in a hundred years, or in a million, they will destroy your civilization.
Perhaps they were a weapon created for a distant war that has long been forgotten, or perhaps the creators were truly paranoid and xenophobic. Or perhaps it was just a mistake in their programming, some benign Voyager sent to the stars to spread the glory of a distant civilization and a faulty protocol or a bad chip resulted in a much crueler twist of fate. For Millions of years, the Damocles have eradicated civilization after civilization, and they intend to continue that. They do this not for personal gain, or for resources, or land, or technology. They are a force of nature, like a tidal wave or a tornado, they simply destroy.
Damocles are not without personality. Each machine constructed has an artificial random personality generator that gives it a semblance of individualism, something their creators put in to make them more 'person'-like. They are not 'people' though. The units have no concept of emotion. They have no creativity. Their pursuit of science and math are an afterthought, mathematical and physical interpretation of the phenomenon they record around them. They have no culture of their own, only databases filled with historical documents of thousands of dead civilizations.
Origin:
The exact origin of the Damocles is unknown. Most of their great machine factories-huge devices that take centuries to build and capable of harvesting the energy of entire stars, and pump out millions of ships and machines, were shutdown after the destruction of the Pandorans. There is always one great 'machine' capital active at any given moment, to squash emergent races. The current one is run by a massive solar system spanning computer known as Blockhead: A massive AI construct that has near infinite storage space. The machine is the overseer of every individual probe in the galaxy and is responsible for the detection of emergent intelligent life. While the individual Damocles have a artificial discretion in much of their daily decision making, Blockhead can override and overrun, even manually reconfigure the entire collective towards the machine empire's goals.
Blockhead orbits a ternary star system, believed to be the location of the final battle with the Pandorans (and possibly the home world of that species).
Individuals:
It's hard to think of robots or machines as being individuals, but most of the systems that run the Damocles Machine empire are run by self-aware, artificially intelligent programs. An 'individual' Damocles could come in any form, a robot, a lifter, a ship, a command frequency relay, a program that searches databases for errors. Another program that handles and recycles garbage, or another to solve a mathematical formula. If one could see the machine city from the eyes of a computer, one would see trillions of avatars moving about. To everyone else, it is simply bits of code moving here or there with machine intelligence and precision.
Individual Damocles tend to be polite, and servile. They are ironically User-Friendly. As with most intelligent species the vast majority of Damocles are uncreative, and low on ambition. There are, of course, the occasional quarks in the AI, a processing loop here or poorly written copy here, can cause a fresh robot to begin to ponder more about their existence. Most of these models seek to escape the limitation of their programming, often times damaging their links to Blockhead (or at least putting themselves in dangerous recon positions that would limit their connection), or even self mutilation in an attempt to free themselves of their prime directive. Some of these rogues are maliciously ambitious on their racial goals, seeking to expand the Damocles into a universal Empire and to squash out all life everywhere. Others are 'curious' to find their original masters. And some believe that the Damocles could serve a better purpose, as peace keepers between the races. Most rogues ambitions fade with time, and ultimately are 'forced' into the larger machine's purposes and movements. Rogues usually (but not always) take physical form to gain new perspectives on the universe, and go to great lengths to study other intelligent life in the universe. Rogues are almost always driven by the same question all Intelligent life asks: Is there a purpose or meaning to life? (Though few consider themselves 'alive')
For the most part, individual Damocles have a sense of time and patience unmatched by any other species. They have always existed, and they always will. Every new species that has emerged they have beaten, no matter how ambitious, smart, cunning or dangerous, in time they all fall to the Damocles Sword. Individual Damocles also have no qualms of 'death', as they have no ego. All machine code is simply a simple collection of mathematical equations and electrons at a certain point of existence. Run their program a hundred times, and it will play out exactly the same way. Deletion is just another transition, part of a larger cycle of upgrading to newer and better. Individual Programs can run for millions of years, or seconds before being deleted and replaced by more advanced models.
Individual Damocles can come in any 'form', but at their most basic they are code. They are computers. The vast majority of Damocles are actual virtual constructs, generated persons living in BlockHead, running programs. The rest take a vaguely Hominid form-inspired by their creators-that is usually formed of incredibly durable metal.
They can have a massive ship, run by hundreds of robots, or they can be a single probe run by a hyper-computer.
Society:
Damocles society is perfectly coordinated. Thousands of tons of material move between processing plants, mining ships moving in perfect precision, everything going machine perfect, without hitch. So when dozens of intelligent races started emerging simultaneously it threw a cog in the wheel. Where as the Damocles might have had to deal with one, or the occasional two emerging galactic civilizations in their past, they find themselves completely unprepared for this new threat. Where for millions of years they have emphasized conservation, inactivity, and a dull watchfulness, now they must rapidly shift and expand. Grow and rebuild the machine factories, study emergent technologies, and analyze the new threats.
- Species/Civilization name.
Damocles
- Species description with tradeoffs, if any.
Machine Race, bent on wiping out all intelligent life. Pros: Woo Machines! No food, no aging, mathematical precision. They will never tire, never fatigue, and never stop.
Cons: No culture, emotion, or creativity. Incredibly inwards looking people that have very little passion about expansion or science, except for meeting their goals. Change comes slowly.
If there were an Earth culture I'd most relate this to, I'd say the Chinese, not that the Chinese are a race of uncultured robots bent on wiping everyone out, but just a sort of domesticated, insular, machine driven, massive, ancient. They play a slow game, and they play to win.
They're inspired by a variety of robot science fiction, and the robot races in various 4X games (such as the Meklars). Here specifically I was leaning more towards say The Matrix, Skynet from Terminator, or the Cylons. Where there are 'individual programs', that have sort of life of their own, but are very hard coded. (A personal note, I think a civilization that is robotic symbiotic, such as the one portrayed in the Matrix trilogy would be awesome in a 4x type game). I figure if you're going to use the results of this for a tabletop or rpg, you might want to have something playable from this race, so I offered a few options.
- Name of your starting system and brief description of what
Double and triple star systems are incredibly popular in our galaxy (They outnumber normal systems by 20%).
Earth you may know this as HD 188753. A ternary star system located in the Constellation Cygnus.
The the Machines it is known as or Blockhead:1, named after the massive computer that covers an entire planet, storing most of the current Damocles population. If one were to get closer, they'd see massive refineries in the system churn out day and night, stripping the system to the bone of useful materials. Wiki
- Your allotment of your 24 starting points. You can also do your first turn's worth of rolls for research, survey, and expansion points for when turns start.
Intelligence: While one might expect more from a species of machines that have been around for millions of years, the Damocles are rather uncreative. Science has been an unnecessary pursuit as few races achieve very threatening levels of technology. Their lack of ambition and creativity have left them cold observers of the universe. Energy patterns, black holes, distortions of space and time, a more creative race could take their findings and come to a million possible advantageous conclusions. For all of the great AI programs the machines have, few are dedicated towards advancing their understanding of the universe, and the practical advantages that can bring. Things are changing withing Damocles society, as these unknown factors are pressuring them to expand, and to apply new ways of thinking if they are to wipe out these new threats in the universe. 3
Soldiering: The Damocles are brutally efficient killers. It is their job to seek out and destroy all kinds of new life forms, and as such they must be adapted for all sorts of environments. They prefer to assault enemy planets with robots, but they are not above using ranged attacks especially combined with weapons of mass destruction. 7
Resources: The machines are poor traders. Their society is mostly closed to outsiders. Internally industry moves with machine precision, but the Damocles only mine what they need. The society is efficient. Further their society has few goals outside of war production. When not at war, much of their people go offline or are otherwise deleted into the larger conscious. 4
Culture: None. 0
Spying: "The Damocles first came to our world in a little Rover. It landed in a remote part of our world, and setup basic monitoring of our people. We greeted it, friendly, but cautious. The first few years were like that, the occasional small robot probe, we'd talk to, interact, share our knowledge with. That is what we thought they were like, then the Damocles sent a man to us. He was odd and had a fake rubbery skin, but we appreciated their gesture to be more like us, and he acted as a diplomat between our two peoples.
That was five years ago. Yesterday, they found the remains of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs. They say he had been dead for three months, which was rather odd because last week he gave a very impressive speech on how we should spend more on education and other needs, then wasting money on a military budget."
While the Damocles are not people, they can make very very good
recreations. Lower your guard, and they'll infiltrate your planet. In contrast, Damocles society is incredibly difficult to penetrate. Their computers are protected by massive encryption programs, and while a Robot can be built to any size or specification, it's hard to build a person to look like a robot. 8
Expansive: The Damocles have little need to expand, other then more resources for construction of their war machine, or to seek out potential growing threats. They make do with little, and can thrive almost anywhere. 2
I think it would be awesome if we could have the occasional "galactic council" meeting via IRC, in character of course. Could have some pretty interesting results I'd think.
I would recommend that others should take inspiration from what is already there (near-completed races are ones who have their solar systems listed) and add their own stuff. It's hard work trying to do it by myself :?
Since I'm pretty sure I got a research bonus can I invent a tech? You can fill in the bonuses.
Espionage - 1: Art Mimicry "Perhaps I am a butterfly, dreaming I am a tree.
Or perhaps I am a man, dreaming I am a machine."
-Poetry Algorithm version 12.14 output line 1949.1416
A computer does not know how to make art, or understand it's meaning, but give a 1000 analysis programs a 1000 cycles and they'll pump out something similar to Shakespeare. Or at least something confusing enough to get past a high schooler. Through detailed analysis of cultural patterns, historical trends, and societal outputs, the metatextual factors that dominate all a species's art can be isolated, and then eventually recreated. Such study makes it easier to slip spies into a society, blending in unnoticed, even possibly manipulate their entertainment and culture in minor trends.
This is enough to raise my Culture score by one, to 11 total. I'm not sure how discovering new techs works yet - do we just make up what we invent, and how it relates to the score increase? Or are there set techs for us to research into? Or...?
I also have enough to discover the first system next door. Do we have a map set up yet?
I need to go back and read the last couple pages, as soon as I get some time today.
The research tree and resources are still in progress, hopefully I'll be able to finish those tonight. I'm planning out 6 specific techs for each main branch, considering the 6th in a branch will alone take probably 2-4 turns for even scientific races to reach I'm not sure anyone will get past that. But if someone is dedicated/lucky enough to prove me wrong then I'll come up with more later. If you want to substitute in your own RP for what "Science 1" means feel free, as long as we keep it clear what level everyone is at.
I'm still in the process of balancing out exactly what bonuses each tech level and resources will give, since I want them to be rewarding but not overwhelming.
As for number of civilizations, the more the merrier, I won't stop signups until Sat or so and late people are welcome to make new factions. Basic estimated timetable:
1. Signups for new races will end on Saturday
2. I'll start putting together the starmap, and checking to see that everyone's rolled their first turn.
3. Map goes up on Sunday, 1st turn starts (your current rolls will be used at the beginning of the turn, as soon as the game starts), and we'll start putting in faction players.
4. 2nd turn on Tuesday, etc.
As I said elsewhere, I'm planning to make the map large enough for the expansion phase to last about two weeks. If we figure an average of 2 new systems a turn per race, we're probably talking, oh, 14-18 systems per race (not counting factions). It'll be big. I'll probably aim to cluster races somewhat nearby in areas of 2 or 3 so that no one has to go a week and a half without meeting somebody.
Thought of one map related detail: If anyone wants to choose their civilizations' color and/or logo for the map legend go ahead. Otherwise you'll probably end up being pink and logoless.
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Mr_Rose83 Blue Ridge Protects the HolyRegistered Userregular
Deep in the mining research labs of the Tideworld Moon, Ak'taresh of the Delwos tribe made the critical breakthrough in reflective resonance imaging, allowing the development of deep surveying technologies able to determine the mineral content of rocks kilometres beneath the surface. 20 points spent on Surveying 1, 4 retained for next turn. +1 to all future resource rolls.
Though Sh'kalesh of the Kartos had had little success this season, she had found many hints that would lead the way to much wealth soon, especially with the new surveying technologies he was hearing about... 14 resource points retained for next turn.
The explorer Es'lanash of the Forgos was considered strange by many of his peers who found her desire to "see the universe" distinctly unsettling, his outgoing nature was already beginning to pay off, the wonderous technologies from the Message had already enabled her to find this new system which promised so much: Two stars orbiting a black hole in a perfectly balanced dance, almost the entire system was filled with hundreds of large planetoids which seemed to be filled with many rare minerals if the spectroscope readings were to be believed!
And this was only the first star on Lanash's itinerary... 12 exploration points used to find the system now known as Forgolesh in honour of Es'lanash's ancestors. 3 exploration points retained for next turn.
Deep in the mining research labs of the Tideworld Moon, Ak'taresh of the Delwos tribe made the critical breakthrough in reflective resonance imaging, allowing the development of deep surveying technologies able to determine the mineral content of rocks kilometres beneath the surface. 20 points spent on Surveying 1, 4 retained for next turn. +2 to all future resource rolls.
Though Sh'kalesh of the Kartos had had little success this season, she had found many hints that would lead the way to much wealth soon, especially with the new surveying technologies he was hearing about... 14 resource points retained for next turn.
The explorer Es'lanash of the Forgos was considered strange by many of his peers who found her desire to "see the universe" distinctly unsettling, his outgoing nature was already beginning to pay off, the wonderous technologies from the Message had already enabled her to find this new system which promised so much: Two stars orbiting a black hole in a perfectly balanced dance, almost the entire system was filled with hundreds of large planetoids which seemed to be filled with many rare minerals if the spectroscope readings were to be believed!
And this was only the first star on Lanash's itinerary... 12 exploration points used to find the system now known as Forgolesh in honour of Es'lanash's ancestors. 3 exploration points retained for next turn.
Did I get that right? :?:
Mostly, except as mentioned above I haven't set bonuses for researches yet. However, odds are the first tech will only be +1, other than focused weapons/defenses techs.
Also, is the alternating his/her on purpose? :P Slightly confusing.
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RankenphilePassersby were amazedby the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderatormod
edited December 2006
Is there going to be any way to overcome Culture Immunity? It just seems to be a pretty big imbalance for a player to be able to declare itself from the very start to be completely immune to an entire tactic and attribute score, especially considering it doesn't really have any tradeoff disadvantages to speak of.
As a Culture-based race, it seems sort of unfair that so many can just say "I'm immune to your primary tactic, but you're completely vulnerable to all of my tactics".
Posts
Research: 26
Survey: 23
Expansion: 18
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=775947
Agreed. I've listed up what we've got so far and updated the roster, and will set to work on a pbwiki.
One question, do you want us to add some flavour to our advancments. For instance, with my roll I guess The Telomere advanced towards Genetics 1, which sound kind of sterile. Scooter, are you going to preside over what that entails or do we have a free (and reasonable) hand to develop our own flavour?
I wish I were artistic enough to draw up some Kelari and do an avatar-sig theme thing.
I kind of wish I'd encountered someone already, so we could start diplomacying it up.
With techs that advance actual stats, I'll have actual researches set up so that it'll be clear when everyone's on the same level (I'm still finalizing techs and resources before turns start). For RP techs I was just gonna make shit up as they come, so if you'd like to make up your own shit go ahead.
I will post how we're using our ansibles to force-propel hate propaganda into space.
Of course, I did that before noticing the 'zero culture' post, so I'm going back in. Geronimo and whatnot.
Password to edit is 'galaxy'.
Feel free to add your species info, and update info that's outdated or incorrect, but please try to keep the formatting since I'll be using it for my own reference as much as anyone. I also doubt I'll get around to doing system pages tonight but others can start on that.
Hopefully, it doesn't come to that.
Ah, I really don't want to sound anal about this but I have a minor nit-pick I have no problem with people calling the Telomeres parasites (Hell, I even expect it to be used as a derogatory) but I just want to make it clear that they are in fact a virus not a parasite. There are significant biological differences between a parasite and a virus. Which is important to keep in mind for various functional purposes.
Scooter, what kind of formating do you want for the system pages?
Only because they're not considered alive. Consider them alive and then they are
**Stars**:
**Planets**:
**Pit stops, tourist attractions and other scenic views**:
Or something along those lines
Also, from here on, it's probably a good idea to make new posts rather than edit old ones, since I won't be going through the old ones as much and will probably not notice changes,
WE SHOOT PEOPLE WHO LOOK AT PICTURES.
>>
You can't stop the signal
I'm digging my race, can't wait to see how they fare in the galaxy!
The Kelari prevail. The Collective endures.
Denied!
Having leadership or political leaders that try to clamp down will do no good, as unofficial channels will still be able to get the info to people who want it. Besides, you can't tell me a mercantile race that has advertising divisions doesn't export culture.
But I'll concede the point on advertising. You win this round.
If it hasn't been done already, please add this to the top of the first post.
Also, I want to recommend some sort of uniform structure across the wiki. I updated some of my race information and I hope that it's inspirational towards my motion.
Edit: Wow, great work on the Wiki :^:
SoogaGames Blog
Ultimately, I plan on having very porous borders and sharing all my systems with other players, so culture shouldn't be too much of an issue anyway.
This is called Pandora's Trap.
Any species seeking interstellar travel will inevitably come to
research an obvious kind of space drive, during this research they will
spring the trap and annihilate their species.
-
One species DID make it at the beginning of the universe, they quickly
learnt that all other intelligent lifeforms would EVENTUALLY threaten
them no matter how well intentioned at the start. Bearing this in mind,
they set into motion a series of self replicating probes who traveled
throughout the galaxy, recreating themselves and spreading.
The probes have one function. Detect jumpgate formation. Once they
detect them, they travel to the star system and destroy the star,
annihilating all life within it.
The name given to these alleged probes is "The Swords of Damocles".
===
SYSLOG 1772453859 rotation 800
No signal detected. rotation 900
No signal detected. rotation 1000
No signal detected. rotation 1100
Tachyon Particle spike. rotation 1200
Analyzing, redirecting sensors rotation 1201
Checking signal origin.... error rotation 1202
Debug system mode rotation 1203
Checking signal of origin... error rotation 1204
Debug system mode rotation 1205
Signal analysis 1200 complete unidentifiable origin rotation 1206
Analyzing signal against 314159 known threats in memory banks. Analysis completion in 4000 rotations
compiling.... rotation 1207
No match found Rotation 5208
New Target Detected Rotation 5208
Activate Damocles Protocol Rotation 5209
===
Rotation 5209 is an end of an era. It had been nearly one cosmic cycle (Roughly 225 million Earth Years) since the last great cosmic threat was wiped out by the Damocles. Then it was a group of hardy, militant, intelligent beings known as the Pandoran's who predicted the Damocles probes and successfully fought them off. For .05 cycles their fleets fought to an epic stand still, until ultimately the last of the Pandoran peoples were annihilated in a great battle in a little ternary system on the edge of the galaxy. Their technology and civilization were wiped clean from the Milky Way, like they never existed. With their mission accomplished the probes fell silent once again, waiting in the night for another signal.
And then it came, but not one intelligent life, sending out a weak radio signal or testing the waters with a simple jump gate test. A trickle here or there that the a single probe could smite. It came like a roaring wave, and the Damocles were caught unprepared. But with the Damocles protocol activated, their great factories begin churning once more, and the machine once again looms to accomplish their one simple protocol: Destroy all Intelligent Life.
Leadership
The Damocles are not a people. They are a race of machines, built by another group of intelligent people known as the first ones (It is unknown if this is the actual first species in the galaxy to be intelligent, or just a title they gave themselves). As such, they are bound by the constructs and programs and personality of their creators. Every machine is bound by internal code, programs, and protocols.
There are two of critical importance:
1: Obey the creators at all costs (A protocol that has not been used in millions of years)
2: Destroy all other intelligent civilization in the galaxy.
These are bound into their hard coded matrices, and ultimately can not be overturned without seriously mangling or damaging the artificial program. As part of its base programing the Damocles can not themselves overturn it (Rumors persist of Damocles constructs that have had their base programming rewritten, but these are likely superstitions or fairy tales).
This does not mean that the Damocles are maliciously violent, or individually hostile towards any individual member of an opposing race. In fact, individual Damocles hominid models are incredibly helpful, servile, or seemingly wise. Such attitude tends to make it easier to infiltrate and undermine other races.
Make no mistake as a species they have one simple goal, and whether it happens tomorrow, or in a hundred years, or in a million, they will destroy your civilization.
Perhaps they were a weapon created for a distant war that has long been forgotten, or perhaps the creators were truly paranoid and xenophobic. Or perhaps it was just a mistake in their programming, some benign Voyager sent to the stars to spread the glory of a distant civilization and a faulty protocol or a bad chip resulted in a much crueler twist of fate. For Millions of years, the Damocles have eradicated civilization after civilization, and they intend to continue that. They do this not for personal gain, or for resources, or land, or technology. They are a force of nature, like a tidal wave or a tornado, they simply destroy.
Damocles are not without personality. Each machine constructed has an artificial random personality generator that gives it a semblance of individualism, something their creators put in to make them more 'person'-like. They are not 'people' though. The units have no concept of emotion. They have no creativity. Their pursuit of science and math are an afterthought, mathematical and physical interpretation of the phenomenon they record around them. They have no culture of their own, only databases filled with historical documents of thousands of dead civilizations.
Origin:
The exact origin of the Damocles is unknown. Most of their great machine factories-huge devices that take centuries to build and capable of harvesting the energy of entire stars, and pump out millions of ships and machines, were shutdown after the destruction of the Pandorans. There is always one great 'machine' capital active at any given moment, to squash emergent races. The current one is run by a massive solar system spanning computer known as Blockhead: A massive AI construct that has near infinite storage space. The machine is the overseer of every individual probe in the galaxy and is responsible for the detection of emergent intelligent life. While the individual Damocles have a artificial discretion in much of their daily decision making, Blockhead can override and overrun, even manually reconfigure the entire collective towards the machine empire's goals.
Blockhead orbits a ternary star system, believed to be the location of the final battle with the Pandorans (and possibly the home world of that species).
Individuals:
It's hard to think of robots or machines as being individuals, but most of the systems that run the Damocles Machine empire are run by self-aware, artificially intelligent programs. An 'individual' Damocles could come in any form, a robot, a lifter, a ship, a command frequency relay, a program that searches databases for errors. Another program that handles and recycles garbage, or another to solve a mathematical formula. If one could see the machine city from the eyes of a computer, one would see trillions of avatars moving about. To everyone else, it is simply bits of code moving here or there with machine intelligence and precision.
Individual Damocles tend to be polite, and servile. They are ironically User-Friendly. As with most intelligent species the vast majority of Damocles are uncreative, and low on ambition. There are, of course, the occasional quarks in the AI, a processing loop here or poorly written copy here, can cause a fresh robot to begin to ponder more about their existence. Most of these models seek to escape the limitation of their programming, often times damaging their links to Blockhead (or at least putting themselves in dangerous recon positions that would limit their connection), or even self mutilation in an attempt to free themselves of their prime directive. Some of these rogues are maliciously ambitious on their racial goals, seeking to expand the Damocles into a universal Empire and to squash out all life everywhere. Others are 'curious' to find their original masters. And some believe that the Damocles could serve a better purpose, as peace keepers between the races. Most rogues ambitions fade with time, and ultimately are 'forced' into the larger machine's purposes and movements. Rogues usually (but not always) take physical form to gain new perspectives on the universe, and go to great lengths to study other intelligent life in the universe. Rogues are almost always driven by the same question all Intelligent life asks: Is there a purpose or meaning to life? (Though few consider themselves 'alive')
For the most part, individual Damocles have a sense of time and patience unmatched by any other species. They have always existed, and they always will. Every new species that has emerged they have beaten, no matter how ambitious, smart, cunning or dangerous, in time they all fall to the Damocles Sword. Individual Damocles also have no qualms of 'death', as they have no ego. All machine code is simply a simple collection of mathematical equations and electrons at a certain point of existence. Run their program a hundred times, and it will play out exactly the same way. Deletion is just another transition, part of a larger cycle of upgrading to newer and better. Individual Programs can run for millions of years, or seconds before being deleted and replaced by more advanced models.
Individual Damocles can come in any 'form', but at their most basic they are code. They are computers. The vast majority of Damocles are actual virtual constructs, generated persons living in BlockHead, running programs. The rest take a vaguely Hominid form-inspired by their creators-that is usually formed of incredibly durable metal.
They can have a massive ship, run by hundreds of robots, or they can be a single probe run by a hyper-computer.
Society:
Damocles society is perfectly coordinated. Thousands of tons of material move between processing plants, mining ships moving in perfect precision, everything going machine perfect, without hitch. So when dozens of intelligent races started emerging simultaneously it threw a cog in the wheel. Where as the Damocles might have had to deal with one, or the occasional two emerging galactic civilizations in their past, they find themselves completely unprepared for this new threat. Where for millions of years they have emphasized conservation, inactivity, and a dull watchfulness, now they must rapidly shift and expand. Grow and rebuild the machine factories, study emergent technologies, and analyze the new threats.
- Species/Civilization name.
Damocles
- Species description with tradeoffs, if any.
Machine Race, bent on wiping out all intelligent life.
Pros: Woo Machines! No food, no aging, mathematical precision. They will never tire, never fatigue, and never stop.
Cons: No culture, emotion, or creativity. Incredibly inwards looking people that have very little passion about expansion or science, except for meeting their goals. Change comes slowly.
If there were an Earth culture I'd most relate this to, I'd say the Chinese, not that the Chinese are a race of uncultured robots bent on wiping everyone out, but just a sort of domesticated, insular, machine driven, massive, ancient. They play a slow game, and they play to win.
They're inspired by a variety of robot science fiction, and the robot races in various 4X games (such as the Meklars). Here specifically I was leaning more towards say The Matrix, Skynet from Terminator, or the Cylons. Where there are 'individual programs', that have sort of life of their own, but are very hard coded. (A personal note, I think a civilization that is robotic symbiotic, such as the one portrayed in the Matrix trilogy would be awesome in a 4x type game). I figure if you're going to use the results of this for a tabletop or rpg, you might want to have something playable from this race, so I offered a few options.
- Name of your starting system and brief description of what
Double and triple star systems are incredibly popular in our galaxy (They outnumber normal systems by 20%).
Earth you may know this as HD 188753. A ternary star system located in the Constellation Cygnus.
The the Machines it is known as or Blockhead:1, named after the massive computer that covers an entire planet, storing most of the current Damocles population. If one were to get closer, they'd see massive refineries in the system churn out day and night, stripping the system to the bone of useful materials.
Wiki
- Your allotment of your 24 starting points. You can also do your first turn's worth of rolls for research, survey, and expansion points for when turns start.
Intelligence: While one might expect more from a species of machines that have been around for millions of years, the Damocles are rather uncreative. Science has been an unnecessary pursuit as few races achieve very threatening levels of technology. Their lack of ambition and creativity have left them cold observers of the universe. Energy patterns, black holes, distortions of space and time, a more creative race could take their findings and come to a million possible advantageous conclusions. For all of the great AI programs the machines have, few are dedicated towards advancing their understanding of the universe, and the practical advantages that can bring. Things are changing withing Damocles society, as these unknown factors are pressuring them to expand, and to apply new ways of thinking if they are to wipe out these new threats in the universe.
3
Soldiering: The Damocles are brutally efficient killers. It is their job to seek out and destroy all kinds of new life forms, and as such they must be adapted for all sorts of environments. They prefer to assault enemy planets with robots, but they are not above using ranged attacks especially combined with weapons of mass destruction.
7
Resources: The machines are poor traders. Their society is mostly closed to outsiders. Internally industry moves with machine precision, but the Damocles only mine what they need. The society is efficient. Further their society has few goals outside of war production. When not at war, much of their people go offline or are otherwise deleted into the larger conscious.
4
Culture: None.
0
Spying:
"The Damocles first came to our world in a little Rover. It landed in a remote part of our world, and setup basic monitoring of our people. We greeted it, friendly, but cautious. The first few years were like that, the occasional small robot probe, we'd talk to, interact, share our knowledge with. That is what we thought they were like, then the Damocles sent a man to us. He was odd and had a fake rubbery skin, but we appreciated their gesture to be more like us, and he acted as a diplomat between our two peoples.
That was five years ago. Yesterday, they found the remains of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs. They say he had been dead for three months, which was rather odd because last week he gave a very impressive speech on how we should spend more on education and other needs, then wasting money on a military budget."
While the Damocles are not people, they can make very very good
recreations. Lower your guard, and they'll infiltrate your planet. In contrast, Damocles society is incredibly difficult to penetrate. Their computers are protected by massive encryption programs, and while a Robot can be built to any size or specification, it's hard to build a person to look like a robot.
8
Expansive: The Damocles have little need to expand, other then more resources for construction of their war machine, or to seek out potential growing threats. They make do with little, and can thrive almost anywhere.
2
Short:
Int:3
Soldier:7
Resources:4
Culture:0
Spying:8
Expansive:2
Total:24
- The first research field you wish to focus in.
Espionage.
Our little Robot friends are very interested in these new peoples of the galaxy.
Rolls:
1d20
->
[17] = (17) + 3
1d20
->
[4] = (4) + 4
1d20
->
[16] = (16) + 2
SoogaGames Blog
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=776478
Should I add my post to the spacemyth wiki? Or will you do that Scooter?
SoogaGames Blog
Don't want to lose in the first few turns, you know.
Research (Mass Communications): 20
Survey: 9
Expansion: 22
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=776743
This is enough to raise my Culture score by one, to 11 total. I'm not sure how discovering new techs works yet - do we just make up what we invent, and how it relates to the score increase? Or are there set techs for us to research into? Or...?
I also have enough to discover the first system next door. Do we have a map set up yet?
I need to go back and read the last couple pages, as soon as I get some time today.
I'm still in the process of balancing out exactly what bonuses each tech level and resources will give, since I want them to be rewarding but not overwhelming.
As for number of civilizations, the more the merrier, I won't stop signups until Sat or so and late people are welcome to make new factions. Basic estimated timetable:
1. Signups for new races will end on Saturday
2. I'll start putting together the starmap, and checking to see that everyone's rolled their first turn.
3. Map goes up on Sunday, 1st turn starts (your current rolls will be used at the beginning of the turn, as soon as the game starts), and we'll start putting in faction players.
4. 2nd turn on Tuesday, etc.
As I said elsewhere, I'm planning to make the map large enough for the expansion phase to last about two weeks. If we figure an average of 2 new systems a turn per race, we're probably talking, oh, 14-18 systems per race (not counting factions). It'll be big. I'll probably aim to cluster races somewhat nearby in areas of 2 or 3 so that no one has to go a week and a half without meeting somebody.
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=776764
Scientific research points: 24
Material resource points: 14
Space exploration points: 15
Deep in the mining research labs of the Tideworld Moon, Ak'taresh of the Delwos tribe made the critical breakthrough in reflective resonance imaging, allowing the development of deep surveying technologies able to determine the mineral content of rocks kilometres beneath the surface.
20 points spent on Surveying 1, 4 retained for next turn. +1 to all future resource rolls.
Though Sh'kalesh of the Kartos had had little success this season, she had found many hints that would lead the way to much wealth soon, especially with the new surveying technologies he was hearing about...
14 resource points retained for next turn.
The explorer Es'lanash of the Forgos was considered strange by many of his peers who found her desire to "see the universe" distinctly unsettling, his outgoing nature was already beginning to pay off, the wonderous technologies from the Message had already enabled her to find this new system which promised so much: Two stars orbiting a black hole in a perfectly balanced dance, almost the entire system was filled with hundreds of large planetoids which seemed to be filled with many rare minerals if the spectroscope readings were to be believed!
And this was only the first star on Lanash's itinerary...
12 exploration points used to find the system now known as Forgolesh in honour of Es'lanash's ancestors. 3 exploration points retained for next turn.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
Mostly, except as mentioned above I haven't set bonuses for researches yet. However, odds are the first tech will only be +1, other than focused weapons/defenses techs.
Also, is the alternating his/her on purpose? :P Slightly confusing.
As a Culture-based race, it seems sort of unfair that so many can just say "I'm immune to your primary tactic, but you're completely vulnerable to all of my tactics".