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C# Fiction > Stormtrooper's Fiction
A.F.R.I.C.A discussion thread
Stormtrooper:
So here I am again, feeling so relieved I didn't have to write any AAR anymore as I finished the last DLC, but of course it couldn't last. Nothing lasts forever. Even time itself has to stop flowing some day. ::)
I don't want to play 1.13 Aurora anymore and the VB6 UI is vastly superior to the C# one, so I guess it's finally time to try Quasar 4x which I will be doing starting from now. It has Invaders already if I remember correctly and I hope I don't remember incorrectly. :P So far didn't set up the game yet as the VB6 UI being vastly superior doesn't mean I know it since I only played C# so will need to take some time to learn and adjust to it so as of now I've just written this short intro, but I plan to run a conventional start starting with 250m humans hiding in the installations of a polluted, destroyed Earth with toxic atmosphere, dust, radiation and scorching temperatures as well as with ruins of the old human civilization.
As for the theme, I want this short AAR to be a pure human experience and I'm going to try to explore the philosophy of human nature and condition and whether it's possible to truly change something and whether that one rebellion might really be the last that finally lead to the awaited "better future", whatever that really means... That means that there will be no aliens at all this time and I want to be upfront about it right from the start (though if I finally encounter that damn star swarm then maybe... ::)). Instead I think I'll take some human-related concepts from my original AAR (that one about covid-19 :P) and expand upon them, providing much more detail and descriptions, all wrapped in a cyberpunk theme (so expect implants, even more implants, genetic modifications, corporate oppression, lots of cool synthwave tracks I'll be linking from time to time and a hail of laser fire).
I also have some ideas for spicing up things past a certain point when the inevitable wars will come, but I'll keep quiet about them now. 8)
Any discussion about this new stuff I'll be working on is obviously welcome.
nuclearslurpee:
I am wholly unconvinced that this was not simply an excuse to link a Cyberpunk cover of 'Africa'. :P
--- Quote from: Stormtrooper on January 13, 2022, 06:30:45 PM ---Year 2120... Climate change, war, k-pop, century-old lack of toilet paper, release of Cyberpunk 2077 and other disasters have made the Earth uninhabitable.
--- End quote ---
Disasters obviously listed in order from least to most devastating, for dramatic effect.
Very dystopian/cyberpunk vibes in this introductory post, of course this is no surprise as it was the intent but the intent was certainly accomplished. I suspect this AAR was motivated in part by a recent trip to the movie theaters? The new Matrix movie perhaps lacked the same old magic as the older ones but it was still nostalgic and there is certainly room for a Stormtrooper take on the subject matter which may perhaps have more artistic merits. ;)
Looking forward to seeing how a Quasar4x AAR looks, I think it would be the first on this board? Certainly the first one of significant length at the very least. I've tried playing it myself, on a laptop which doesn't support the C# resolution requirements, but even with the convenient UI rescaling in Quasar I've struggled a lot trying to get used to the VB6 UI, personally I prefer the C# one most of the time even if it has its own problems. However the old VB6 game had a certain elegant simplicity compared to C# which I sometimes yearn for...
Since Cyberpunk and Matrix are rather popular inspirations perhaps we will see some other commenters to join the discussion for this go-around? ;D
Stormtrooper:
Didn't expect it to see you so fast! Guess time flies when it is axtually stopped between cycles of the universe... Anyways, the joke is on you, because I didn't see Matrix, neither the new or old ones, so all I know about it could be summarized by "there's a simulation humans live in, it's actually smeg but the real world is also smeg". Oh, and pills and stopping bullets mid-air, obviously. So this matrix here is pretty much the same as the one from the Covid-19 AAR, just a simulation that feels very real into which humans escape from the sorrow of the real world and unsuccessfully try to escape from the pain of their miserable lives, I guess I'll just write more about it this time because cyberpunk.
--- Quote ---I am wholly unconvinced that this was not simply an excuse to link a Cyberpunk cover of 'Africa'.
--- End quote ---
Citizen, for violating the safety of N.O.V.A. Bunker System by spreading false stress-inducing rumours, your weekly subscription for life support has been canceled. If you cooperate and tell us where and how did you learn about mentioned creations of the Old World you will get a chance to repent your sins by giving a final service for the society in a food processing facility. If you refuse, your subscription for limits on maximum daily dose of pain N.O.V.A. Inc might request from you will also be cancelled.
nuclearslurpee:
--- Quote from: Stormtrooper on January 13, 2022, 07:27:14 PM ---Citizen, for violating the safety of N.O.V.A. Bunker System by spreading false stress-inducing rumours, your weekly subscription for life support has been canceled. If you cooperate and tell us where and how did you learn about mentioned creations of the Old World you will get a chance to repent your sins by giving a final service for the society in a food processing facility. If you refuse, your subscription for limits on maximum daily dose of pain N.O.V.A. Inc might request from you will also be cancelled.
--- End quote ---
"You'll never take me alive, coppers!!"
-some random human criminal, probably :P
nuclearslurpee:
Catching up, as I had the updates tabbed and then lost track of that tab. Now I have a new tab and thus far I have not lost track of it...
--- Quote ---and the hydroponics worked flawlessly ever since CEOs of Life Support Department nearly died while bravely fixing the assembly line with their bare hands.
--- End quote ---
I can already see the propaganda posters...
Interesting, this concept of what seems to be turning the less, um, compliant members of society into nutrient paste, mainly it is interesting because you would think if the hydroponics yields were as plentiful as the government says then there should be no need for such, ah, supplements. Somehow this thought goes largely un-thunk...
--- Quote ---And so the government eventually got a full picture of the signal which sending it tried so hard to prevent. But it had been sent nevertheless and the fleet from a system 39 light years away had been dispatched, its arrival obviously threatening the uncontested ruling power of the corporation and the status quo they tried so hard to maintain, with estimated time of arrival unknown, probably lost to the damaged bits of the Intergalactic Federation response. Running out of ideas, supplies and working pieces of technology, government had no choice but to unseal the Outer Gates for the first time and send teams of scavengers to explore the surface and relearn everything humanity has achieved before the collapse of the Solar System.
--- End quote ---
Interesting. So it seems that the gameplay, such as it is, starts from the perspective of the "bad guys" racing to create some kind of defensive against the "good guys" - by conventional definitions of course, obviously the corporations are the greater good and this other fleet threatens that greater good, right?
--- Quote ---Scavengers were bringing more Cyberpunk 2077 copies and k-pop albums each run and CEOs of N.O.V.A. Megacorps knew better than to carelessly mess with materials directly responsible for the fall of the Old World. Some teams have even successfully breached into various underground zombie shelters dated back to 2020 that, surprisingly, still contained well-preserved toilet paper rolls.
--- End quote ---
Truly the horrors of the past never truly leave us. There is a lesson in this, perhaps it might even be learned.
--- Quote ---With the help of a new drug causing users to mistake multiple-digit numbers for single-digit numbers,
--- End quote ---
How extremely convenient. Such a drug should be mandatory for loan officers everywhere. ;D
--- Quote ---Fuel factories were growing on the surface and even some simple nuclear reactors were successfully restarted without irradiating too many people.
--- End quote ---
If you take the right drugs, it is a single-digit number of people which is certainly not too many, I think we can all agree on this.
--- Quote ---Stargazer class Survey Ship 5 000 tons 104 Crew 491 BP TCS 100 TH 10 EM 0
[...]
10 EP Conventional Engine (1) Power 10 Fuel Use 50% Signature 10 Exp 10%
--- End quote ---
Briefly, I wondered why you would use such a small engine, before I remembered that this is Quasar which uses the old 0.2 EP/HS conventional drive technology.
--- Quote ---hen it turned its eyes towards the first prototype cloning program in the United States, but the three following civil wars (with the last one eventually ending up won by the South who then proceeded to mass-produce clones as slaves forced to do all the jobs people hated and tasked with further procreation)
--- End quote ---
The future seems, um, dark.
--- Quote ---Yakuza was the first criminal organization to hack into the cores of the droids, but other ones weren't much behind. Soon some independent journalists found out about it all being secretly funded by the most powerful corporations, but they all suffered very unfortunte road accidents shortly after.
--- End quote ---
Very unfortunate, those accidents. Truly the state of driver's education for investigative reporters in the 2060s was absolutely deplorable, no doubt...
I do wonder/worry what the potential is for all those androids used for colonization to cause problems for the spacefaring MegaCorps as we progress beyond the solar system...
--- Quote ---Its second purpose would be to transfer workers to the moon and later possibly Mars as well, but a few of them were expected to always be grounded in secret hangars near N.O.V.A. Bunker System which government could quickly reach in a state of emergency.
--- End quote ---
It is not like any self-respecting government could possibly function without a couple hundred thousand tons of escape shuttles, after all.
--- Quote ---Corporate officials couldn't be more excited after watching the broadcast. Technically it confliced with the official corporate narrative, so the cult leaders should have their life support subscriptions cancelled, but it was smarter to not only let them continue with their work, but actively fund and support them. This speech came right on time for the reintroduction of first bionic limbs in the society. It was even considered Church of Singularity leader had some leaks form the cybernetic engineers, but that was for Counter-Sabotage Bureau to investigate and conclude. Government didn't plan on relasing them to its army yet, let alone to the market, because they were still more like proesthetics one would get after losing biological limb rather than cool bionic parts one would have own limbs volountairly cut off for, but it was believed some cult followers wouldn't mind. It was expected that first user feedback would also get a long way in improving the next generation and accelerating the growth of this industry sector.
--- End quote ---
This is some good dark humor here. The subversive machine cult turns out to be a boon to the government because they provide test subjects for cybernetics research, whose expectations are really being subverted??
--- Quote ---Government once again evaluated the possibility of reopening Project NeoCitizen and for the second time came into conclusion that an army of droids might get useful. Maybe not advanced enough to become an army in the strict meaning in the nearest future, but all-seeing and all-hearing, loyal citizens reporting everything instantly via internet could go a long way in terms of suppressing the uprising. The question remained whether the corporation would hold on till technology would recover enough to allow that.
--- End quote ---
This is a good idea and cannot possibly go wrong (again).
--- Quote ---Whether the New World was to make same mistakes as the Old World remained an open question barely anyone had time to think about under corporate oppression. Some believed it already did, though.
--- End quote ---
Others of us have faith and hold out eagerly to see the all-new mistakes which will be made instead. Great fun!
--- Quote ---So when one of the critical modules produced Segmentation Fault, even the most influential among CEOs trembled.
--- End quote ---
Have they tried turning it off and back on again?
--- Quote ---Bullets kept flying, but insurgents didn't even care about being picked off by security forces - they mostly laid down suppressive fire on the Matrix infrastructure itself, damaging it with AR-15s, pipe bombs, Molotovs and even some C4 and flamethrowers scavenged from defeated guards.
--- End quote ---
I admit some mild disappointment that the venerable AK-47 apparently was unable to survive the Matrixification of the world. However, I am placated by the liberal use of high explosives and other pyrogenic weaponry, truly the world can only be a better place when such things see liberal application against computers.
--- Quote ---30th May 2172, annual Comitee of Humanity speech
--- End quote ---
This can end in one of two ways: either Glorious Space Communism, or Glorious Space Stalinism which is the same thing but with less food and more purging. Either way I await to see which shall happen.
--- Quote ---Meanwhile, somewhere deep in the Martian deserts, N.O.V.A. technicians presented their reports according to which the wrecked ships were of military use and that apart from their propulsion systems, a few railgun cannons and one laser blaster remained almost intact...
--- End quote ---
Clearly such salvage will be of great use for, um, maintaining the peace and restoring order. Yes, that is what these are for.
Now I am caught up, and I shall endeavor not to lose the next browser tab to the black abyss of the Matrix...
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