National Updates Comment Thread

[xeryon]

Disregarding the environmental fall-out which Aurora does not calculate; if changing the oxygen content in the atmosphere brings the planet into a cost 0 world and still retains a cost 0 for the native inhabitants the net result would only be negative from a role-playing standpoint.  Situation is a slight bit more genocidal if it takes the colony cost away from 0 since the inhabitants can't make infrastructure.  I'm guessing it will take them both to 0.  US gains a 0 cost world and eventually 200m(?) taxpayers and factory workers.

[Bremen]

It's not just the terraforming (though that's certainly part of it), but the reason behind the terraforming. The US wants to exploit the world, probably mostly for the mineral reserves, and I doubt every TNE on the planet is located underneath the US colony. I mean, if the richest deposit is underneath the Eben's enormous tree city, hey, I think I saw that movie a few years ago 

The classical scenario is moving in, conquering the natives, and then exploiting the planet. The US seems more set on moving in, exploiting the planet, and then conquering the natives when they try to stop them, which is better only in the sense that you get to blame them for attacking you first. After all, they didn't tell the Eben about the terraforming, and they've been moving in ground forces to their colony.

Not that I'm complaining about this approach. I think it fits wonderfully with the US background in this scenario, and let's be honest, most of the nations in this game probably would have already invaded (valuable tax income/workers!). I just wouldn't use the word amicable, which according to my dictionary implies goodwill 

[mrwigggles]

The post said that the o2 change, wouldnt have any negative impact on the natives. Therefore it is not being done in disregard to the natives. If this wasn't noteworthy that it wouldnt impact the native health, then it wouldnt been mention. Bring up the native health means that it warrants attention.

There no reason for the US post to hide information from us the Readers, they're done from the US prospective, if the troopers were an invasion force, then they would have been sent as an invasion force. They were sent down there as security force, therefore they're a security force.  There no reason to go to war with the natives. They have ideas of sovereignty, and treaties.  Whatever they find valuable would be trivial for the US to procure, so they can just buy all the mining rights without it involving force. Especially since the mineral that the US are mining, have no use to the natives.

[xeryon]

Change of topic: Either the delay in updates is a sign of a substantial new feature being added or Steve got sidetracked again.  With a game this complex I feel like it would be very hard to pick it back up after much delay.  Which would be epicly sad and depressing as this was proving to be one of the more interesting story lines hes written.

[Bremen]

The post said that the o2 change, wouldnt have any negative impact on the natives. Therefore it is not being done in disregard to the natives. If this wasn't noteworthy that it wouldnt impact the native health, then it wouldnt been mention. Bring up the native health means that it warrants attention.

There no reason for the US post to hide information from us the Readers, they're done from the US prospective, if the troopers were an invasion force, then they would have been sent as an invasion force. They were sent down there as security force, therefore they're a security force.  There no reason to go to war with the natives. They have ideas of sovereignty, and treaties.  Whatever they find valuable would be trivial for the US to procure, so they can just buy all the mining rights without it involving force. Especially since the mineral that the US are mining, have no use to the natives.

I never said the US was planning on invading. I said they're planning on taking what they want, and they have a pretty good idea the Eben are going to be against it, so they're sending in the troops so the Eben can't stop them. They're a security force, sure, but they're a security force for a burglar who's breaking into your house.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Change of topic: Either the delay in updates is a sign of a substantial new feature being added or Steve got sidetracked again.  With a game this complex I feel like it would be very hard to pick it back up after much delay.  Which would be epicly sad and depressing as this was proving to be one of the more interesting story lines hes written.

Still playing - up to March 2107 now. Just a delay as I wait for a suitable period to pass before new updates (or a war starts )

[Bremen]

Still playing - up to March 2107 now. Just a delay as I wait for a suitable period to pass before new updates (or a war starts )

With how much time my single player games can take up, I can only imagine what this campaign is like

Glad to hear you're still working at it, though; this is a really fun campaign so far.

[JacenHan]

Exciting new developments. Stories using the disaster options are usually quite interesting.

Is there any chance of this working on stars other than Sol?

[Bremen]

I like it. It's also good justification for why the TN powers can just scoop up as many colonists as they want from unaligned nations.

[MarcAFK]

Oh dear, I was planning on turning earth into a snowball after a brief period of extreme heat, had no idea cooling was broken.
Still the new 2% option is more suitable for my game because 1% will take too damn long to destroy the habitability, still mars and Titan are good places for humanity to take refuge in, at least for a while.

[MWadwell]

The post said that the o2 change, wouldnt have any negative impact on the natives. Therefore it is not being done in disregard to the natives. If this wasn't noteworthy that it wouldnt impact the native health, then it wouldnt been mention. Bring up the native health means that it warrants attention.

True - but changing the atmospheric concentration without agreement from the native race is at best insensitive, and at worst shows a callous disregard for the natives.

If I was a native, I would be very concerned by this - as it shows on one hand a lack of respect/consideration for the natives, as well as a long term plan by the US (afterall, the US wouldn't be doing this unless they had long term plans for the planet).

There no reason for the US post to hide information from us the Readers, they're done from the US prospective, if the troopers were an invasion force, then they would have been sent as an invasion force. They were sent down there as security force, therefore they're a security force.  There no reason to go to war with the natives. They have ideas of sovereignty, and treaties.  Whatever they find valuable would be trivial for the US to procure, so they can just buy all the mining rights without it involving force. Especially since the mineral that the US are mining, have no use to the natives.

I both agree and disagree.

You are right, in that as readers we are made aware of things that would not be otherwise known.

I disagree with your last sentence though - that just because the natives can't mine, they have no interest in the minerals. If that were true, then property owners in our current world wouldn't be charging so much for mining rights from the mining companies. (After all, the farmers aren't interested in mining - but they are interested in the money the mining firms are willing to pay.) I would expect that the same would be true for the natives of Eben......

[Bremen]

I disagree with your last sentence though - that just because the natives can't mine, they have no interest in the minerals. If that were true, then property owners in our current world wouldn't be charging so much for mining rights from the mining companies. (After all, the farmers aren't interested in mining - but they are interested in the money the mining firms are willing to pay.) I would expect that the same would be true for the natives of Eben......

Even if not, the Eben have a vested interest in those minerals still being there when they discover Trans Newtonian tech in a few hundred years or so. If I invest money in a college fund for my unborn child and my banker embezzles it, it's still stealing even if I was never going to use it.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Exciting new developments. Stories using the disaster options are usually quite interesting.

Is there any chance of this working on stars other than Sol?

Possibly - I can't remember why I restricted to Sol in the first place, although there was a probably a good reason - I'm sure it will come back to me if I look at expanding to different stars

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

I like it. It's also good justification for why the TN powers can just scoop up as many colonists as they want from unaligned nations.

Plus, I was concerned in the long term about the UK and US having too much benefit from the neutral nations. Their major colonies are closer than other nations and so far the neutral nations have gained more population through growth than they have lost in colonists. In effect it is an endless supply of colonists so the distance to each nations major colony becomes a significant factor. I think I made the neutral pop too large, If the Earth becomes less habitable it will be fairly easy for the TN nations to protect their pops but the UN pop will shrink and fix the imbalance.

[Bremen]

So, suddenly maps. If I were inclined to excited speculation, I might predict that the Colonial Wars have begun

Especially with battle groups, troop transports, and wrecks visible in both systems. I am kind of curious what's going on in Barnard's Star, though, since it's heavily settled by the UK who seemed pretty peaceful last we heard. Maybe it's just some fighting spilling into the system.

Looking forward to future updates!