Aurora 4x
C# Fiction => Stormtrooper's Fiction => Topic started by: Stormtrooper on April 24, 2021, 08:14:14 PM
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Hi everyone,
1.13 is out, so what a lovely moment to start a new AAR. This one will be much shorter than my previous one and also the updates will be less frequent because I'm busy, but will try my best to make it good enough. In this post I'm going to briefly describe the rules and setting from the non-narrative perspecrive:
First of all, this AAR is supposed to act as a DLC to my previous one, so make sure you have read the previous one. Or at least skimmed through it. The DLC will follow the rise of Groaxians, an alien race discovered by humanity in my previous AAR in the NN 4079 system when it was still in tribal stage and gifted with a monolith containing human knowledge database once humanity ascended into five-dimensional space at the end of previous AAR. The starting system will be a faithful recreation of NN 4079 from my previous campaign..
Rules:
- 200% difficulty
- random stars - aliens wouldn't use human-based charts and names, right? also that way I can set things in a way to hopefully allow for more local jump points to get many loops within galaxy map rather than separate branches that barely cross with each other
- 50% terraforming (so it'll be a bit slower even if I'd push terraforming tech)
- 100% research (I don't want to lower it because groaxians are very intelligent species, however for the sake of gameplay I won't increase it, even though lore-wise I actually should)
- 10% survey, that way colonisation will be more meaningful while significantly slowing down my expansion so it won't get overhwelming too fast
- Groaxians are rather pacifistic, so I'll tone down military development unless absolutely neccessary
- Groaxians, as described in the intro, strive to maintain "inner peace" and thus need large living space with lots of nature around, so population density modifier is set to 0.3 - hopefully making colonising even more meaningful
- maintenance is on (maybe this time gallicite will work... ::))
- all jump points are stable - this is because I noticed nprs don't use jump drives at all and stabilise everything instead, which can make detecting and defending from them too easy, so I want to give them more "movememnt freedom" by pre-stabilising everything
- as a house rule related to above, in order not to make jump drives obsolete, every ship I want to go FTL will need either its own jump drive or to dock within a jump-capable vessel. No jump tenders either, just a simple "if you want to go superluminal, you need to have an FTL drive"
- just like in my previous AAR, no jump points would exist lore-wise. Gameplay-wise I'm still limited by them, but as far as narrative goes, if you have an FTL drive you can fly whenever you want from any point you want as long as you have supplies, time and navigation systems to make the journey
Also note that in the intro I casually threw some terms that were not explained at all, for example what exactly is a "hibernation cycle". This is intentional, this AAR is written from Groaxians' POV, so for them it is quite obvious what a "hibernation cycle" is, so I want to keep it this way so it can be more immersive. All these terms will be gradually explained, though, so don't worry you don't understand something for now. Another reason is that since this is not human playthrough, I will attempt to create something unique and alien, so that hopefully Groaxians won't be too human-like. But inventing their entire biology, culture, societal sctucture, philosophy, economy and all that at once would be way too overwhelming for me (and probably for readers too), so I want to do it gradually.
I think that's all, hope you'll enjoy.[/list]
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I look forward to following this one a bit more closely than the last! Already I can tell this will be very interesting, not only are you playing a nonhuman race in a non-Sol starting system, but humanity is present only as an ascended species so the whole lore will be unique I expect. Humanity as a guiding light si a new perspective to me.
I look forward to seeing how 10% survey works for you. With the need for an extensive survey fleet you have a lot of creativity in how to accomplish it.
FWIW, NPRs actually do use jump drives but usually prefer to stabilize everything anyways...I guess it is to make colonization and trade easier. Requiring a jump drive on every large ship that wants to travel by FTL will be interesting though.
And yet, if Dark Forest was real, how come that Humanity shared their knowledge with Groaxians instead of wiping them out? But if Dark Forest wasn't real, how come Humanity put such a great effort to explain it, and on top of that do so in a way that'd make Groaxians learn about it just as they began drawing sketches of pioneer space programs? Since both assumptions seemed to be false, a third one has been established: there's more to it, something yet undiscovered, buried deep within the encodings of Humanity's gift.
Intriguing plot hook with philosophical implications to explore. How the Groaxians answer these questions will shape them as a race - and perhaps along the way they will discover how humanity answered these questions as well?
I'm also curious about the methane vs oxygen breathing. I didn't know this was possible in C#, for one thing, but I also wonder how hard this will make finding new planets to colonize.
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Oh right, I forgot to mention methane thing. Metahne breathers are still not there in the C#, so I had to use oxygen instead. That third planet in NN 4079 from previous campaign had nitrogen-methane atmosphere so Groaxians are methane breathers lore-wise. Gameplay wise I'm going to treat their oxygen pressure as methane pressure and thus when terraforming I'll do so as if they were methane breathers gameplay-wise and later will simply use sm to swap methane for oxygen and add aesthusium since methane is a greenhosue gas and swapping it for oxygen affects temperature. This is as close as I can get without methane breathers being implemented in C#.
they will discover how humanity answered these questions as well?
Well, my previous AAR already answered them all, here since it's a DLC I'll just expand upon it more I guess.
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Oh right, I forgot to mention methane thing. Metahne breathers are still not there in the C#, so I had to use oxygen instead. That third planet in NN 4079 from previous campaign had nitrogen-methane atmosphere so Groaxians are methane breathers lore-wise. Gameplay wise I'm going to treat their oxygen pressure as methane pressure and thus when terraforming I'll do so as if they were methane breathers gameplay-wise and later will simply use sm to swap methane for oxygen and add aesthusium since methane is a greenhosue gas and swapping it for oxygen affects temperature. This is as close as I can get without methane breathers being implemented in C#.
For bonus immersion you can swap the gas names in the DB. The DIM_Gases table has all the gas names and if you can tolerate mild physical incongruities you can just change the name and symbol while leaving the physical properties alone.
they will discover how humanity answered these questions as well?
Well, my previous AAR already answered them all, here since it's a DLC I'll just expand upon it more I guess.
Of course, but in this AAR we have the perspective of the Groaxians.They will likely have very different answers to these paramount questions of existence compared to humanity, and will only discover humanity's history through limited means. There is potential for limited information to cause cultural misunderstanding as well as ideological conflicts.
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Fascinating developments in this one. On one hand, the determination of the Groaxians is clear in their willingness to seek adaptation to survive in space and on alien worlds. On the other hand the controversy over terraforming technology promises to remain a thorn for some time. The present solution for Yatune is a good one (not least because at this early stage terraforming
will take a long time until the technology is improved is an unproven technology that cannot be relied on for a budding space program), but future planets will present similar exotic ecosystems - should they all be preserved? I suspect some will say so.
Spoiler comment: I notice that the race picture looks like the one used for Rakhas by default. I wonder if this will tie in with some mysterious larger secret of the universe when the Groaxians discover their first Rakhas encampment?
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Anthraxus class Exploration Ship
[...]
Ground Composition Analysis Lab Environmental Control Module Methane Recycling System Extragenesian Material Containment Medical Bay Canteen Equipment Repair Workshop Onboard Telescope Astronomical Observatory Meditation Space Hibernation Center Flight Navigation System Hets Autonomous Farm Life Support System Personal Storage Recreation Space
Very nice use of the misc. components! When the feature was announced I did not imagine such a detailed approach. I think this really captures the care and work going into the nascent space program.
While the three-gender race concept is a bit of a trope in sci-fi, I do appreciate that the handling here is quite direct. Usually a three-gender alien race has an alien-sounding name for the gender role, here they are called "middlemen" in plain terms which I think reflects a more realistic culture. Interesting to see how this dynamic influences the developing space program as it continues.
Soon it was determined that Humanity most likely took an advantage of the fact that space itself wasn't just "pure vacuum", but rather it was a fabric that could be warped and distorted, manipulating with the way that needed to be travelled while leaving the limit of speed of light intact.
[...] Countless experiments have proven that while in theory it's still doable, in practice maximum pace at which warping space can occur cannot cross the speed of light.
These shocking discoveries had severe consequences for a way Groaxians viewed the universe. Not only was faster than light travel still a fantasy, but it was the first time information provided by Humanity didn't have a confirmation in reality. It was then when some Conglomerate officials reminded themselves about the Dark Forest Theory.
Groaxians experienced a technological boom - their science exploded, pushing them further than anyone predicted within such short time frame. According to the theory, that was precisely the reason why even primitive civilisation shall still be considered a threat. And now Groaxians faced themselves still pretty much limited to one solar system.
Almost as if someone didn't want them to escape.
Ominous...is this just due to the difficulty of the science involved, that even with Humanity's help it will take the Groaxians many cycles to master? Or is there another race out there manipulating the fabric of their reality?
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Hey, I just wanted to thank you for putting all this effort to read through it all and then comment on it. I really appreciate it.
P.S.
Fun fact: I was going to use SM to spawn ruins on Yatune since it was supposed to be a human colony, just like in the previous AAR, but ended up not having to since it already spawned naturally.
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It's no problem! I know that as an author audience engagement is always encouraging (unless it's engagement by mean trolls of course), so I aim to try and provide that as a reader. I hope others take the example in the future so the Aurora AAR section can be an engaging board also.
I like the worldbuilding in the last update. The unique biology of the Mimung IV moon is quite creative, but I also like seeing that the pace of technology is quietly going along in the background as the Groaxians are up to ion engines. Not everything has to be explicitly talked about to become apparent in the story.
I wonder if the Black Wall is some unnatural barrier placed to block the Groaxians, or just another strange phenomenon of the galaxy to be worked around? I can't remember if the 60-100 LY distance matches any system from the previous AAR storyline.
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hope others take the example in the future so the Aurora AAR section can be an engaging board also.
Thanks a lot, though I guess I'm guilty myself of not giving said engangement, will try to change this too so all aar board can become indeed more active (though it is actually your fault because you've posted five damn pages of your duranium legion and I only made it through page one so far and you don't have a separate comments thread so I can't comment for now because whatever I would say would probably be outdated after remaining pages so it's actually all on you 8))
I like the worldbuilding in the last update.
Thanks, after my previous AAR I'm surprised I haven't burned out yet in trying to come up with descriptions of alien non-sentient life that'd feel like it is really alien rather than "grass but pink and trees but blue" thanks to the imagination limits coming from spending entire life on Earth. Please Steve, I don't care about commander traits, gimme a short procedurally generated descriptions of alien life on some planets instead ;)
I can't remember if the 60-100 LY distance matches any system from the previous AAR storyline.
Well, first it's 60-100 light hibernation cycles, not years. And secondly (I'll put it as a spoiler though it was mentioned at the very end of my aar as to what happened so it shouldn't be a spoiler for someone reading the DLC) I didn't mean the entire system, rather the general area - I checked it in the db, NN 4079 is 50 something light years away from Earth.
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hope others take the example in the future so the Aurora AAR section can be an engaging board also.
Thanks a lot, though I guess I'm guilty myself of not giving said engangement, will try to change this too so all aar board can become indeed more active (though it is actually your fault because you've posted five damn pages of your duranium legion and I only made it through page one so far and you don't have a separate comments thread so I can't comment for now because whatever I would say would probably be outdated after remaining pages so it's actually all on you 8))
Keeping only a single thread is a conscious choice of mine as I simply prefer the thread dynamic that way. In other AAR boards I've participated on, usually it is welcome for new readers to comment as they progress and the author may reply to their comment separately to avoid spoilers. However I don't know if that will work on the Aurora board since we don't have a system for username mentions/notifications to link you only to the non-spoiler posts. In any case I am fortunate to have several other readers engaging so you are welcome to take your time in the process, as an author your contribution is already substantial. ;D
I like the worldbuilding in the last update.
Thanks, after my previous AAR I'm surprised I haven't burned out yet in trying to come up with descriptions of alien non-sentient life that'd feel like it is really alien rather than "grass but pink and trees but blue" thanks to the imagination limits coming from spending entire life on Earth. Please Steve, I don't care about commander traits, gimme a short procedurally generated descriptions of alien life on some planets instead ;)
"The Gliese 420 Aliens are aggressive, do not listen to others, and have substance abuse problems." Actually having written this out, I meant it as a joke poking fun at commander traits but I would actually like such a flavor even if it is a bit Planet of Hats-y.
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Time to catch up on the last couple of days of posting action!
As the battle raged in the outer layers of Qusmont habitat, a small team of technicians hiding in one of the laboratories in a skygazer built by Humanity used latest cybersoul mainframes to simulate the penetrating properties of enemy weaponry against various materials. While with only so much time at hand all they had to work with were industrial programs for estimating mining efficiency so the errors were expected to be of huge proportions, but it had to do. With what little data they had available best they could do is to claim that vehicles used in construction and geological research should be able to sustain a direct hit from small arms, possibly even a couple of them before facing complete meltdown.
With not enough time to ask all the questions that should be asked, leader of Qusmont called for deployment of all the heavy civilian equipment the colony could allow and establish lines of barricades for the fighting mental cooling squadmembers. Entire Yatune society dreaded upon hearing of sending civilians into battle, but it was the last hope.
An interesting and desperate tactic. The heavy civilian equipment will certainly absorb a lot of fire that would otherwise strike the light infantry units, so it is objectively the correct tactical decision, but certainly a tough decision to make.
Excellent work for the defense fleet as they finish the defeat of their first enemy fleet. Hopefully the wrecks can be salvaged for some clue about who these invaders might be, and where they have come from...
However, a brilliant idea resurfaced: if the attackers were capable of spotting squads of Groaxians based on their form of communication, then they must have already have an idea about how much of a gas correspond to how many targets. An insane yet simple plan assumed that the population hiding among the ruins was to start talking extensively to produce so much pink and purple gasses that it'd form a giant cloud that would direct the attention of enemy.
Brilliant. The Groaxian version of generating fake radio traffic to simulate a large force and deceive an enemy.
At first the priority seemed to be to find a way to communicate with the prisoners, but it quickly faded away when all of them suffocated to death.
The universe may be a dark forest, but it is also occasionally a black comedy as well.
The soulseeker behind it one solar watch walked across the Thoania rift. He observed the two popular animals inhabiting the area: qhaavets and daelmi. Both were known for their aggressive attitude and violent behaviour, but they never attacked each other. Daelmi flew high above the ground, hunting other flying creatures or sometimes skydiving and piercing through ice to extract tasty shezes, meanwhile qhaavets, glued to the ground and were feeding off organic material extracted directly from ice after being left there by many species awakening from hibernation. Both species used ice as their hunting ground, at least to some extent, and yet they never interrupted each other. Even biologists once determined that qhaavets were poisonous for daelmi which is why probably they were never observed eating them.
This observation inspired the researcher to extrapolate this phenomena into entire civilisations. Two hypothetical races would share the same universe, as the two species from Genesis shared ice sheets as hunting ground, but at the same time both would consume different type of resources. That way they would not benefit from war at all - starting one always posed them at risk of extinction, even if only so small, while providing no gain as the resources used by the other race would be useless to them. Because of the latter, no matter the expansion of the second civilisation, it wouldn't limit their pool of potential supplies. However, in order for such model to work, all resources would have to be separated - for example aliens that landed on Yatune were breathing a different gas than Groaxians, but still using similar raw minerals to build their ships. While this theory had little implications in real life since if peace was to be made that'd require a hypothetical civilisation to exist that doesn't consume any grain of matter from which every material used by Groaxians is made, but it was a good thought experiment and somewhat a start. A tiny step into the darkness of the universe, made in parallel to the step that included sending colonisation fleet for their first trip into Mimung.
There's some potential here...even if two races share a need for TNEs, they can live on different planets, so it may be that TNEs which are difficult for one race to access to the point of ignoring them entirely may be accessible to another race. This can form the basis of mutual defense pacts or even an alliance.
Perhaps even better if two races rely on different TNEs more critically than others, such as one race needing tritanium for missiles and another corundium for beam weapons. THis can form the basis of a trade relationship as well.
Now we have to hope some other race in the galaxy has made a similar realization and will work peacefully with the Groaxians.
As soulseekers kept wondering about Dark Forest and engineers struggled to reverse-engineer plasma guns that'd fire missiles precisely following laser trail, astronomers had another riddle to think about: after spotting the cluster of black holes that gave the name for problems with omitting light speed barrier, they focused on searching for new black holes to compare them with this strange region of space, only to discover that in the entire galaxy black holes were pretty common. This didn't match theoretical predictions in the slightest. Also it was concluded that within a relatively short timeframe cosmic scale-wise that many black holes will destabilise the entire galaxy and swallow all of the stars. No physicist or astronomer could find any at least half-reasonable explanation for these observations.
This is ominous... a long term solution is needed, hopefully one that involves re-stabilizing the galaxy rather than having to flee the entire galaxy.
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Hey, thanks again for putting all this effort to writing these comments! Just as I turned aurora on, wondering what will happen next, I saw this post and it's really motivating to keep going, even though trying to write down entire universe including the basic philosophy of existence, non-sentient biology as well as alien civilisations is not easy and can get owerwhelming for me at times.
An interesting and desperate tactic.
Had some geological and construction units left on the planet because it had both geosurvey potential and alien ruins and it's the first time reports of ground combat were of any use for me. After last AAR when they were irrelevant as I had to come up with my own battle descriptions based on nothing because the game didn't tell me what happened besides pure killfeeds it was a nice surprise to see those casualties among civilian vessels be of any inspiration.
There's some potential here...even if two races share a need for TNEs, they can live on different planets, so it may be that TNEs which are difficult for one race to access to the point of ignoring them entirely may be accessible to another race. This can form the basis of mutual defense pacts or even an alliance.
Small comment: according to this lore (though I guess it's partially my fault for not stating it explicitly in the rules) the whole TN business does not exist at all (I even try to describe battles as if they happened with realistic space physics turned on 8)), so it's back to good old iron, aluminium and uranium.
But this small clarification aside, I don't think you got it right. Consuming different resources does not mean "one race relying more on A and the other relying more on B" or "A is difficult to extract so the race will ignore it and thus not go to war with someone who based core of the economy on A". If two races use resource A, then no matter how insignificant it is for one race, as long as it uses some of it at all, it will have a reason to go for war with all the aliens who use A as well. Even if A is hard to extract for now, what if it'll be needed in the future as technology will allow to deal with the problem? And even if not, what if the other race might use A to build war machine capable of destroying them in a war over resource B or just as a prevention so they don't get destroyed first? See where this is going? It's chain of suspicion all over again.
For this to work properly, it can't operate based on such primitive concept as the accessibility of some basic minerals - dark forest goes far beyond simple politics and primitive civilisations like that. It requires the two civilisations to use a mutually exclusive pool of resources: that means if one race uses resources numbered 1-1000, then the other race cannot use any of these and must use ONLY resources numbered 1001 and above, so that even if the former race was to conquer the entire universe, their expansion and survival capabilities wouldn't be harmed at all. Meanwhile if it uses at least a tiny trace of resource no 456, then the other race conquering entire universe screws them over because suddenly they don't have 456 sources at all.
And one more thing: "resource" here does not mean what it means in terms of economy, strategy etc. It means literally every atom consumed or used by civilisation at all: so resources are metals which make for spaceship hulls, but also every atom of breathable air, every atom present within one's body or the body of organisms that serve as food etc etc. It's literally all the matter that surrounds particular species and is used by them in one way or another.
Hope I explained it better here, maybe I wasn't clear enough in the AAR, sorry about that. But in general one useful rule to remember when thinking about dark forest would be: always operate on the most basic principles of existence: amount of matter, need to consume matter in order to survive and expand, etc. Dark forest theory does not go into such details as the exact amount of particular type of matter you need or how easy it is for you or others to get it etc etc.
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About to catch up on this one, but first I do want to clarify about the previous post: my intention was not to argue against Dark Forest Theory or to misrepresent it, though the clarifications are appreciated. Rather my comment came from trying to look at things from the perspective of the Groaxians, particularly the ones who do not want to follow Dark Forest or find it unpalatable and are seeking a more optimistic alternative philosophy and way to approach the universe. In the end Dark Forest may prove an unstoppable force, but in the moment the Groaxians do not know this and may have to learn the truth by failing in another approach. After all it is not impossible that another race exists among the stars which has a similar philosophy, which may be amenable to some sort of peaceful alliance - but can such races even in alliance stand against others which have accepted Dark Forest Theory and follow it unerringly? That would remain to be seen.
So this is where my comments come from, not to misunderstand or misrepresent but rather to explore as thought experiments what alternatives the protagonists might consider.
Anyways, as far as catching up goes...
Conglomerate Guardian
Transport Size (tons) 6 Cost 0.18 Armour 15.0 Hit Points 10
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.023 Resupply Cost 1.3
X-5000A1 Laser-Guided Plasma Rifle: Shots 1 Penetration 12 Damage 10
Reactive Cybersoul Combat Suit
Emergency Hibernation Kit
Infrared Vision System
Distributed Communication Array Endpoint
Vendarite 0.18
Development Cost 67
An interesting unit, because usually the PWI component is largely a waste of tonnage. However in this case the Groaxians are fighting a seemingly very asymmetrical war and the added penetration is needed to fight against their enemies in power armor. A good adaptive design I think.
I wonder if the heavy variant would turn out to be more effective with HCAP but I guess the Groaxians have not yet developed such a thing. We shall see how the effectiveness on the battlefield translates into the assessment of the military minds.
One part of the ship remained intact after the encounter was over. From it, a few bodies could have been recovered. The ship was marked with the same symbol as the invaders of Qusmont have worn, so it was very surprising when the bodies discovered were something totally different than the aliens classified so far. They were of a slim, seven-legged figure that was very nimble and gave an impression of being fragile, however stress tests conducted by the destruction of their ship itself showed that ripping their bodies apart was a tough task - one could stretch, rotate and warp them around, but they just insisted on staying in one piece. Later in the laboratories detailed experiments have determined their environmental tolerances:
Intriguing. This would suggest that the invader species are a very hostile alien empire which has subjugated other species in history and now presses them into military service.
What if these two races somehow figured out how to not kill each other in a Dark Forest and signed an alliance? Even if they were hostile to every other life form, that was still a start. More enthusiastic citizens started dreaming of this discovery serving as a path towards peace.
I see I accidentally anticipated certain developments in the story. So there is perhaps some hope for a "Beyond Dark Forest" Theory?
Physicists were surprised when they noticed the first stub of a mathematical model describing such rifts looked oddly similar to a previously unclassified section of the monolith. Rifts were named strangely, possibly it was a reference to some kind of organisms living on a homeworld of Humanity and the way they carved tunnels in their food, but apart from that the theory looked similar enough.
The problem is, even after many attempts the theory just refused to work in practice. Black Wall reminded about itself in the worst manner possible once again. Why did Humanity tried to contain Groaxians within a few nearest stars while not wiping them out instead? However, this time the situation was looking different: the idea of using interstellar rifts was an independent Groaxian research project that had nothing to do with Humanity until another section of the monolith has been understood. This helped to restore faith in Humanity among some sceptics that gained some popularity ever since first supposedly superluminal objects engineered failed to cross the speed of light, at least, but the troubles with interstellar travel persisted.
The obvious answer is that this section of the monolith was written by a physics professor who hated writing and wrote incomprehensible papers yet somehow got tenure anyways.
The combined kinetic fire and curvature disruption gave the enemy no chance. Trapped within artificial gravity well, struggling to reach escape velocity while dodging missiles that only accelerated further as they entered the gravitational sphere of influence themselves, two of them were quickly reduced to ashes. However, as Qi Defenders prepared the final volley, something very unusual occurred. Onboard cybersoul mainframes picked up an unintelligible signal originating from the third spacecraft. Initial analysis determined it was of an artificial origin and bore marks of sentient communication attempts.
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Very interesting depiction of an in-game surrender. This could prove to be a big deal in revealing the mysteries of the universe, and could not have been planned on by anyone involved. Potentially a huge twist.
In the meantime explorers visited another system - Eckesachs. It consisted of several gas giants ...
Popularly known by Groaxian schoolchildren as "icky-sacks". :P
A debate rose publicly, revolving around a topic that troubled a lot of Groaxians: in their monolith, humans mentioned that they will "keep Groaxians safe until they join them across the stars". "Across the stars" part facing some unexpected problems and delays because of light speed issue and cosmic war happening aside, what exactly "joining" was supposed to mean, to this solar watch nobody really knew. Most pending issue was about "keeping safe" promise, though. It seemed like so far Humanity failed miserably. Well, Genesis was still habitable and the civilisation thrived, but casualties were already taken and so far no rescue could have been detected. Why all this effort if later Humanity was to leave Groaxians to their own devices?
Some might suggest that the definition of "safety" is flexible. There is some difference between humanity keeping the Groaxian civilization alive and intact, but still allowing for them to suffer casualties and losses to learn the lessons of space war, versus humanity keeping the Groaxians completely protected from other aliens in the galaxy. The former approach may no feel safe, but may be necessary for learning valuable lessons.
BATTLE OF MIMUNG
I continue to be confused by how slow the alien battle fleets seem to move, that seems a strange tactical decision. Then again...
Groaxians have learnt to keep their distance from hostile ships so that their targeting cybersouls had trouble locking onto them, giving an opportunity to fire away without consequences. However, this all changed when the enemy, succeeding at making Groaxians let down their guard a bit, suddenly fired their thrusters with full force, using next gravitational disturbance as a slingshot, rapidly changing speed vector making a full U-turn around gravitational well and coming right on top of three Lensias greeting them with hail of kinetic gunfire, flying past them towards Syzygies while turning around and continuing to score hits as the distance started to increase again.
For the hull of one of the three ships it was too much.
Maybe there is something to this strange alien tactic after all?
These new Eckesachs aliens are interesting. Are they at war with the Umbara? Or are they a relatively new civilization which just happens to also be in this area of space? Maybe they have not heard of Dark Forest and could be open to working together to forge a different path? Lots of questions to be answered.
I'm generally starting to appreciate the philosophical bent of this story. It's nice to examine Dark Forest Theory from a new perspective and see how an alien race of thinkers grapples with the meaning and implications of it. I think there is much yet to be written on the subject...
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So this is where my comments come from, not to misunderstand or misrepresent but rather to explore as thought experiments what alternatives the protagonists might consider.
Fair enough, it's also interesting to see your take on this, even if it doesn't align with my ideas at all. Well, preciesly because it doesn't align.
because usually the PWI component is largely a waste of tonnage
after my previous campaign with epic homeworld conquest ending up a massive overkill in-game, I decided to skip them. But as you noticed, after having to bombard my own planet I just wanted to make sure they will get kills. Especially that it's only 1t per unit, the smallest increase possible basically.
I wonder if the heavy variant would turn out to be more effective with HCAP
Maybe it would, but with machine guns it's just that even if they struggle to penetrate more, they have 6 shots compared to 1 so on average will be more devastating regardless. And unlike with improved and standard weapons, difference between heavy and regular in terms of tons here was significant so wanted to avoid too bulky troops. Also come on, min-maxed aurora would be so boring to play ;)
I see I accidentally anticipated certain developments in the story
I'm not sure whether it'd live up to your expectations then, since actually not sure where do you anticpiate this will go from there, honestly. ??? ::)
Some might suggest that the definition of "safety" is flexible.
And that's how humanity has seen the Arilou overwatch. But Groaxians are of different nature, so they might have a bit of a problem of understanding the "flexible" approach given even loss of one ship was far bigger deal for them than for war-hardened and combat-seeking humans.
I continue to be confused by how slow the alien battle fleets seem to move, that seems a strange tactical decision. Then again..
Well... I thought there were only beam npr fleets, missile npr fleets and "beamsille" npr fleets, but the "ground assault npr" surprised me. Sadly it seems like they don't have much else going for them, so while their ships are actually faster than mine (hence why part of the fleet escaped from that battle), they travel together with commercial-engined ground assault ships which are big and slow, making the entire fleet slow. In the long run battles with it won't be interesting, so for now I upped generation chance for other nprs to insane levels and can start praying I'll encounter different ships of theirs. And if not, both for the sake of this aar and me not getting bored with too easy battles, I can always spawn an npr via sm like I did near the end of my previous one.
I'm generally starting to appreciate the philosophical bent of this story. It's nice to examine Dark Forest Theory from a new perspective
Thanks a lot for liking this and glad you noticed this! After I was done with my previous aar I was like "naaah, I'm not done with it yet" and you nailed what this DLC is all about - further exploration of a Dark Forest, previously from the human perspective, now seen by the eyes of beings of a different nature and instincts.
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Despite atmosphere composed of similar elements as the one on Yatune, the planet looked vastly different - while the water and air still gave it a blue appearance, the landmasses weren't mostly with some shades of yellow indicating desert regions like on the former Humanity's world, but rather had a purple-ish appearance, with distinct yellow patches, but these were much brighter than Yatune's deserts.
picture
Ooh pretty... and with an interesting ecosystem to boot.
Eventually the probe tasked with investigating the signal has reached what appeared to be a labyrinth of metallic tubes going in every possible direction at once, with orbital pictures not penetrating through the structure deep enough to notice this. It instantly brought associations with the installation discovered on Umbara dropship, and it was the right track as multiple patrol of Umbara forces have been detected walking around tubes and platforms. Nothing more could have been said, though, because soon some soldiers spotted the probe and blasted it with high enegry beams before it could even came closer to the first installations.
So it seems that among the Umbara there is not a uniform consensus about blowing up spy probes. Perhaps there are deeper racial divisions the Groaxians have yet to become aware of?
gas lore
Seems like the gas is a drug used to control the military troops. That might explain the diversity of species encountered from the Umbara ships as well, if they use this gas to entice and make dependent members of many species for military service.
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Above:
Maybe it would, but with machine guns it's just that even if they struggle to penetrate more, they have 6 shots compared to 1 so on average will be more devastating regardless. And unlike with improved and standard weapons, difference between heavy and regular in terms of tons here was significant so wanted to avoid too bulky troops. Also come on, min-maxed aurora would be so boring to play ;)
Definitely agreed. I usually consider HCAP less than optimal though, but in this case it will be interesting to see if the Groaxians decide it is necessary despite its impracticality. Perhaps not, though, as I did notice other elements mounting autocannons.
I'm not sure whether it'd live up to your expectations then, since actually not sure where do you anticpiate this will go from there, honestly. ??? ::)
I appreciate being surprised and being vindicated in equal measure. ;)
Thanks a lot for liking this and glad you noticed this! After I was done with my previous aar I was like "naaah, I'm not done with it yet" and you nailed what this DLC is all about - further exploration of a Dark Forest, previously from the human perspective, now seen by the eyes of beings of a different nature and instincts.
The small galaxy and proliferation of NPRs really works for this concept. The story of humanity was a sprawling epic dominated by great battles, whereas this story feels much more personal in nature. It's a great contrast between two stories with the same core themes.
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A nice poetic aside. :) In my mind, an author who feels comfortable with their material and thus finds the freedom to explore different forms while keeping the same narrative must be doing something right.
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Ooh pretty... and with an interesting ecosystem to boot.
Thanks, I'm honestly surprised after all those planets since my previous campaign I had to write about I can still do these...
Perhaps there are deeper racial divisions the Groaxians have yet to become aware of?
Dark Forest is a magic place like no other, so who knows? ::)
Perhaps not, though, as I did notice other elements mounting autocannons.
Yeah, I went with "ok maybe I need HCAP but let's make it so that it can also kill vehicles in an emergency".
The story of humanity was a sprawling epic dominated by great battles, whereas this story feels much more personal in nature.
The previous one was just what I assume every player does at the first contact with Aurora, just start with humans, Earth and modern-day tech and plow through all the way to the interstellar empire making it epic and large-scale and everything explodes and stuff, but the lag and burnout from having to manage large-scale Aurora game... I doubt I'll ever be able to do something like that ever again, though. Maaaaybe one day... ???
A nice poetic aside.
Thanks for letting me know it doesn't suck as much as I feared it will. ;)
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Thanks, I'm honestly surprised after all those planets since my previous campaign I had to write about I can still do these...
If we like writing about it, often we tend to get better rather than bored as time goes on.
The previous one was just what I assume every player does at the first contact with Aurora, just start with humans, Earth and modern-day tech and plow through all the way to the interstellar empire making it epic and large-scale and everything explodes and stuff, but the lag and burnout from having to manage large-scale Aurora game... I doubt I'll ever be able to do something like that ever again, though. Maaaaybe one day... ???
An advantage to my overly-detailed approach, I'm sure by the time I get to such a bloated late game I will be advancing the plot too slowly to notice. :P
On to the latest series of updates...
Nature of Nature: it occurs to me reading this, space seems to be really quite...populated. Maybe this is explicable by the fact that the Groaxians choose to send exploration missions only to systems with good prospects, so it makes sense that "elder" races would have already found these, but still nearly every system has some kind of alien presence. Space it seems is not so empty.
Outfitted with large armory and space to induce combat trance on all troops on board before dropping them from orbit, it was more than capable to deliver soldiers right where needed, making them quickly descend onto a precisely calculated spot without the need for the ship to even slow down below orbital velocity, let alone touch the atmosphere. The pods didn't really work the other way around, though, requiring the ship to land and pick everyone up "manually". Adding fuel required for them to overcome planet's gravity would just be going too far, adding too much weight for the starship which already was on the slow side thanks to its thick armor and preparation for hosting an entire army with its equipment, both personal and for long-term operations.
I wonder if it would be weight-efficient enough to include a few shuttle bays which could ferry the troops between the planet and the transport? This would require less fuel to move a small shuttle instead of a large transport although it would probably be much slower as a process.
The decision to send an army to conquer Umbara installations in Eckesachs was expected to face heavy backlash, but things turned even more horrible than initially expected. Because while most citizens did not approve indeed, the group of those who did was larger than simulations suggested. War wasn't unheard of on Genesis, but statistics clearly indicated that the amount of Groaxians who expect Conglomerate to push against Umbaras more aggressively has grown over the hibernation cycles. Many wondered whether the line has already been crossed and the changes as the civilisation transfers to an interstellar one will be irreversible no matter what decisions are made now and in the future. Mentioned group also seemed to overlap with the one advocating for widespread cybersoul body implants usage and even the theoretical possibility of genetic engineering to directly modify the body without any external or internal devices, changing the nature of the whole species forever. All these signs were worrying and Conglomerate started looking into the possibilities of cooling the society down before soldiers would return. Given the light speed limit there was quite some time left.
One wonders why these segments of Groaxian society are increasingly in favor of such drastic changes. Surely some will blame Dark Forest while waving their appendages mysteriously, but others I think would suspect that there is something in the Groaxian cultural fabric which leads them to respond to these technological advances and interstellar explorations so aggressively. This may be the more disturbing finding, that the Groaxians are not actually changing as a species but are revealing their true colors all along. Perhaps we should fear that Dark Forest is not an outside force than bends the universe to itself, but rather something that emerges from within a species where it had been hiding all along?
With less effective barricade infantry had to stay more mobile to increase probability of survival. Even if not initially predicted, this ended up quite effective, as adapting to more guerilla warfare helped reduce losses among fighting soldiers.
This is interesting as flavor to me. Switching in the heat of battle from a grand battle plan offensive from semi-fixed (mobile, but moving very slowly to constrict the enemy) positions to a plan based on more guerilla tactics strikes me as mirroring the Earth historical transition to the Modern System of warfare based on cover and concealment rather than fixed positions. This demonstrates the capacity of the Groaxians to rapidly adapt to modern war-fighting tactics despite not having been a warlike race, which could be taken to have implications about the nature of their race.
Despite this, the Groaxians suffer a heavy loss, so they are not yet fierce warmongers either. One might consider that their society hangs on a turning point now.
cience developed rapidly in this new department. Implants used were able to analyse, classify and send more complex thoughts with every iteration. But what happened next was beyond anyone's expectations: augmented by these devices, Groaxians were able to communicate with the monolith left by Humanity on a higher, almost transcendent, level. There was an entire deeper plane to explore, filled to the brim with information and knowledge. Groaxians interacting with the monolith later described this experience as being able to directly feel the mind of a human.
An intriguing development! The fact that the monolith is crafted to reveal its secrets only as the race gains new capabilities suggests that there may still be more knowledge to discover - or perhaps not, but at this stage who among the Groaxians can say?
Before any of the unique planets could have been explored, alarms flashed simultaneously onboard all Baernoloths. Umbaras. A lot of Umbaras closing in way too fast. A few nervous orders later Curvature Drives started slowly manipulating space around vulnerable starships, but gaining speed took too long compared to the unforgiving cruise speed of enemies. First shots have been fired when Groaxians reached an effective speed of only 0,009 c. Too slow to dodge, too slow to run away. But the armor held the greeting fire of kinetic weapons. Praising engineers for their decision to reinforce explorers' hulls, Groaxian fleet picked up pace and soon speeded past the sun approaching the speed of light and watching in awe as it turned from white-yellow to blood-red while the starfield visible from the bridge shifted towards blue and purple.
Those engineers deserve a raise and a vacation!
Sk�fnung was a next stop. This time the ternary system seemed to be dead, with none of the planets having an atmosphere with the exceptions of gas giants (at a price of not having a surface), but Umbaras were there, too. Not all planets have even been properly registered before everything changed to red-blue palette and Groaxians jumped both in space and time at once, this time not giving the enemy chance to fire. Morale dropped severely. Umbaras were everywhere, no matter the star chosen. Groaxians were indeed surrounded. Onboard doctors expressed pain and fear when they noticed first cases of Dark Forest Disease, a "space disease" for the first time observed affecting non-military ships. One of the ships participating in the expedition has been especially affected - its crew even started a mutiny, demanding an immediate return to Qi. Nobody wanted to even hear about visiting yet another, obviously dangerous, star. Fortuantely it didn't last long, though - disgusted with what they become, crewmembers quickly returned to their posts. Nobody wanted to fight, afraid of what was happening to them. It felt so unnatural.
I wonder how much of this is truly a "Dark Forest Disease" and how much is conflated with symptoms of stress and frustration with the dangers of space travel and the ubiquity of the Umbara enemy. To a novice observer this Disease might look as if the Groaxian race has not learned how to handle negative emotions as well as they ought, and the actual impact of Dark Forest is debatable. Of course the Groaxians know their own species better than this hypothetical novice.
But this time something was different. An astronomer responsible for spectral analysis of celestial bodies undergoing the process of classification noticed the outputs from the scanners looked odd and suspicious. Soon it became obvious that they represent a being of higher intelligence compared to what cold and dead planets could ever emit. They formed strange, almost hypnotising patterns. After all these brave Groaxians have been through, for the first time since all the solar watches spent on duty, a glimpse of hope shined bright upon them. The feeling was powerful and soothing, cooling down all these wrenched minds. Nobody could yet understand what the message was supposed to mean, but yet again, no shots have been fired and restless explorers were now witnessing the first time in history someone has heard Groaxian cry of despair and did not respond with hostility. The more optimistic ones even dared to claim the whole Dark Forest Theory a hoax, pointing out the entire civilisation was just unlucky to find itself surrounded by an enemy, but the whole universe not being always like that, not at all, with peaceful communication being a possibility.
But all the celebration has been cut short. The same astronomer that first noticed the incoming message noticed something else. Most of the content was obviously an alien language, but one thing was universal. Hidden between trance-causing patterns was a set of coordinates. Soulgrain-based mainframes did not have much trouble matching marked star with existing databases, doing their job quickly. Too quickly, even for their astounding processing power.
The coordinates pointed at Qi.
And we end on a cliffhanger, for now. Now the question remains: are these friends seeking to help the Groaxians, or another foe seeking to subjugate them in their own manner? Only time can tell...
I eagerly await the next installments. ;D
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Space it seems is not so empty.
The universe is full of life. Hostile life. And the amount of matter is finite, so at some point stars might as well start clogging up... ::)
I wonder if it would be weight-efficient enough to include a few shuttle bays
Well, weight-efficient, but certainly not security-efficient. You think it's hard for a superior enemy to blow up a few shuttles? :P Also stop pointing out things I should've mentioned but forgot to, Groaxians are smarter than you, filthy human ;)
but rather something that emerges from within a species where it had been hiding all along?
Well, that actually is true. It all starts with the claim that the basic goal of every civilisation is survival. It stems from the species themselves indeed, and the mistrust generated by interstellar distances.
This demonstrates the capacity of the Groaxians to rapidly adapt to modern war-fighting tactics despite not having been a warlike race
If you want peace, prepare for war... If humans got this, then I'm sure someone smarter than humans should get this too.
The fact that the monolith is crafted to reveal its secrets only as the race gains new capabilities
Somehow you made it sound like it was a computer game mechanics revolving around character progression lol.
Those engineers deserve a raise and a vacation!
You... Are aware that it was already mentioned that Groaxians literally work from the second they are born to the second they die with only exception being retirement introduced for veterans?
the Groaxian race has not learned how to handle negative emotions as well as they ought, and the actual impact of Dark Forest is debatable.
I think they'd love to be told they should "learn how to handle negative emotions" when a dot on the radar they can't even see shoots stuff at them.
Anyways, hope you'll like what I have prepared for the next updates when I'll finally have occassion to talk a bit more about Umbaras and mark of time and maybe even Black Wall and whatever else is trying to kill everything else out there.
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The universe is full of life. Hostile life. And the amount of matter is finite, so at some point stars might as well start clogging up... ::)
The hibernation cycle is 186,527AM. In the Zeta Reticuli system, seven dozen species capable of surviving in temperatures in excess of twenty groallion degrees fight an endless war across the surface of one binary component. The planets and even the other binary component have been consumed, yet in their harrowing quest for survival the surviving civilizations still battle for supremacy in endless STAR WARS... :P
Well, weight-efficient, but certainly not security-efficient. You think it's hard for a superior enemy to blow up a few shuttles? :P Also stop pointing out things I should've mentioned but forgot to, Groaxians are smarter than you, filthy human ;)
An excellent point which proves the superior intellect of the Groaxians ;)
Somehow you made it sound like it was a computer game mechanics revolving around character progression lol.
What an utterly preposterous idea!
You... Are aware that it was already mentioned that Groaxians literally work from the second they are born to the second they die with only exception being retirement introduced for veterans?
Viva la revolution. (https://i.imgur.com/8zKpsXh.png)
Anyways, hope you'll like what I have prepared for the next updates when I'll finally have occassion to talk a bit more about Umbaras and mark of time and maybe even Black Wall and whatever else is trying to kill everything else out there.
To which we now turn...
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Umbaras arrived once again, more numerous than ever. And with the experienced crew retired, it was now up to a new generation to defend Qi from yet another invasion.
This is an interesting consequence of Dark Forest Disease. Because the disease is so afflicting, Groaxians assign generational crews which serve aboard the ships until they retire before the Disease consumes them, at which point a new generation rises to the task. This generational nature of their crews is unique compared to most navies which have a constant level of turnover, I imagine the experienced crews are far more formidable than anything another race would challenge with, but the time of transition is likely to be a challenge. Here we will see how Groaxians respond to this...
Its effects were terrifying: nobody could see a shot, nobody could hear the shot impacting across the hull, nobody knew anything when suddenly head-sized holes appeared all over one of Lensia-class destroyers.
A new wave of panic exploded when a supernova fused in place where just a moment ago last surviving destroyer was supposed to exist.
Utterly horrifying. How can there be any defense against such a superweapon??
However, Conglomerate Defense Fleet couldn't be everywhere. When it caught up to the enemies approaching Yatune, armies of Umbara had already been landing all over several key cities on the planet.
Oh no...
But this time Qusmont (and every other city) was prepared.
...anyways.
First fusion missile missed the target, but the second one exploded right on top of one of the skygazers, while the third cut it in half, making the entire tall building collapse, burying every soldier fighting there together with itself.
I spoke too soon. This is quite a tense situation!
This information has proven crucial in for one of the barricades, because by the time Umbaras attempted to glide over it, hammering every Groaxian involved in the ground, the barricade was no longer a barricade one could run over, having transformed into an irregular groups of vehicles circling around and firing away.
Tactical adaptation on the ground mirrors that in the void. The Groaxians continue to learn the Modern System of war quite adroitly.
A surprisingly large roster of enemy soldiers survived the recent Qi invasion. Recovered supplies of gas were also enough to last the prisoners for a good while. However, no methods used to try to make them talk worked. Maybe extreme tortures would, but none of the Guards working with them wanted to use excessive violence against currently harmless beings. That'd be way too much.
Once again the Groaxians demonstrate their superior intellect over humans, knowing that torture doesn't actually work as well as advertised.
An interesting bits of Umbara history could be pieced together from all this. They appeared extremely well-suited to Dark Forest. Their homeworld was named Zenn-La for a reason. Two species acquired sentience there in a similar period of time. Zenn lived deep in the oceans while La built their villages across vast canyons and mountain ranges.
Ooh. This explains the strange case of having multiple races crewing their ships. I suppose conquest and impressment would also have been a possible answer but this is more intriguing.
The slow deteriorating of gas-inhaling Umbara troops quickly became a symbol of famous "mark of time", with each inhalation representing a "cycle" that was similar because inhalation was the same every time, but at the same time different because with each breath the gas clogged up the breathing apparatus it was using to reach the brain more and more, technically making a single cycle not repeat itself ever again in the same way. The powder found during autopsies was the "mark of time" itself. However, this all was just a mere metaphor, a symbol, nothing of any importance in itself.
The truth, the real meaning, was much more sinister.
Curse these insidious cliffhangers that make me keep coming back for more and eagerly awaiting future installments!
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The hibernation cycle is 186,527AM. In the Zeta Reticuli system, seven dozen species capable of surviving in temperatures in excess of twenty groallion degrees fight an endless war across the surface of one binary component. The planets and even the other binary component have been consumed, yet in their harrowing quest for survival the surviving civilizations still battle for supremacy in endless STAR WARS...
Dark Forest in a nutshell. Also could you please not list an ending I was planning here, forcing me to invent a new one? :P
Viva la revolution.
They already tried during Sk�fnung encounter and it ended in them actually not trying because it was too unnatural for them. ::)
Because the disease is so afflicting, Groaxians assign generational crews which serve aboard the ships until they retire before the Disease consumes them
Their reitrement corresponds to the "because the disease is so afflicting", their crews supposed to serve on the ships their entire lives... Well... You know already how they work. A job like any other. ;)
Ooh. This explains the strange case of having multiple races crewing their ships.
Expect it actually doesn't because Zenn were left to die together with their homeworld. They should be extinct by now.
Curse these insidious cliffhangers that make me keep coming back for more and eagerly awaiting future installments!
This wasn't supposed to be a cliffhanger in the first place, but I gues oops... Anyways, thanks. Hoep you'll like the new updates. It is especially encouraging given the last one I wrote I felt frustrated afterwards because spent a lot of time on it only for it to end up being rather short. Like, it was supposed to be longer. Much longer.
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Dark Forest in a nutshell. Also could you please not list an ending I was planning here, forcing me to invent a new one? :P
If you managed to represent a ground force war across the surface of an actual star in Aurora I would not even be mad that you stole "borrowed" my idea, only very impressed.
Ooh. This explains the strange case of having multiple races crewing their ships.
Expect it actually doesn't because Zenn were left to die together with their homeworld. They should be extinct by now.
I had imagined that they somehow managed to also make it off the planet and join forces with their fellow race to Dark Forest the rest fo the galaxy to smithereens, but I suppose I was getting ahead of myself.
Now, there are a series of new updates here to be read...
Almost twelve hibernation cycles after the battle of Qi and briefly after return of the last interstellar expedition, Conglomerate decided to hold the biggest conference and discussion pannel up to date.
Would you say this could be considered a "naval conference"? :P
We are the Groaxians,
Dark Forest is against our nature and is the ultimate threat. Not only for our survival, but also for everything we value. It was true even for Humanity. As we all know from their history discovered so far, despite being much fiercer warriors, most among their species still could not bear the weight of a Dark Forest Theory and they struggled to develop agreement on how to approach the miracle of sentient life. But data gathered so far is ruthless - those who fight to protect us are all doomed to fall out of balance sooner or later. Thanks to the Transcendent speech we were able to work with them and achieve more promising results, but we are far from ideal. We know some of us are different. This has alwasy been the case. And since some of us are indeed different, we need to put it into good use. Our nature is endangered, so as a whole we shall designate those who will adapt to a human way of thinking to handle space combat better and they will be transparent with this so that others will be able to distance themselves from the cruelty of interstellar war and as such our civilisation will continue to grow.
An interesting statement to make. On one hand, the idea of separating the military arm of society from the rest has potential to be severely isolating for the military, especially as the future is likely to cause them to be increasingly distant from their people in space as well. On the other hand the commitment to seeking ways through Transcendent Speech to solve the problem has to be encouraging for the soldiers to reassure them that while they do their duty their people are not abandoning them to their fates. It's a fine line to walk for sure.
Guards and soulseekers working with alive Umbaras have manged to pull one more thing out of them: the mention of a Maigh Eo binary system. It was believed to not have any planets orbiting either one of the stars which was confirmed by the information obtained. Just two stars and nothing else to be there. Yet for whatever reason it was an important system for the aliens Groaxians dealt with. Something was there, even though at the same time evidence spoke there was nothing there. Without much reason to continue discussing a moot point, an expedition had to be sent to investigate the system.
Very interesting. Before reading further my guess is that it is an important gateway system of some sort, either it is a major transport hub of some kind or this is a bottleneck system where the Umbara have placed their major defensive forces. Of course in this universe, we do not have jump points, so either of these would only be important if they mapped a way through the big wall of black holes previously mentioned.
So, I dunno, some kind of crack in the wall? :P
...and the actual Crack turns out to be far more intriguing. A unique region of space which allows for FTL? How strange.
Despite suspicions rising, Conglomerate obviously saw no way but to continue investing into Mimung development. It was somehow relieved to do so when soulseekers came up with a safety guarantee for interstellar colonisation which was in fact a simple statement: if colonies were to grow hostile about their homeworld, that'd mean Groaxians shouldn't colonise other solar systems than Qi. But given the high risk of Qi position being either already known to Dark Forest Lords or likely to be revealed to them in the near future, that'd mean certain doom and the end of civilisation should Dark Forest attack (since if a colony would do something considered "wrong" Groaxians would simply stop any interstellar colonisation program in order to avoid producing more enemies), without even the smallest seed surviving to rebuild. And so colonies growing hostile was nothing but dooming the entire race for extinction.
So basically, a colony would not revolt against the homeworld because that would compromise the survival of both the colony and the homeworld. Usually, this would be the point to observe that even though this is a very rational argument, rarely do sentient beings behave purely rationally. However, the Groaxians are eminently rational, so I am sure they all realize this and nothing bad can happen.
What was somewhat more important than weapons and technology used, were the names chosen for these two classes of next-gen combat spaceships: they were called exactly like two out of three types of ships on which first serious military space fleet of Humanity was based, fleet that saw a lot of combat with Invaders from Bootes Void and brought many victories for the humans, keeping their systems as secure as possible at a time.
Both interesting ships. Quite a lot of space has to be used for the curvature propulsion systems, so the armaments are a bit light, but they will do well for their purpose of quickly destroying enemy attackers from a safe distance.
From some other perspective, teaching about Amazons Program also served as a kind of backdoor to the Groaxian mind. On the one hand it was to teach soldiers how they should think in battle to be more effective at their job, but on the other it was supposed to make them well-aware about the type of training they're going through and to have them understand the way it works "from the inside", to show them that Humanity struggled with what Groaxian society has problems with right now too. Soulseekers hoped that once their service is over, this self-awareness about what they were put through would prevent Groaxians from completely forgetting about their true instincts and allow for some kind of therapy restoring their previous mental shape, possibly even leading to a breakthrough in search for a cure for Dark Forest Disease.
I think it should be encouraging to the Groaxians, that even with how much humanity had changed to survive in the Dark Forest they still retained the better part of their nature to act out of altruism to help the Groaxians with the Monolith. For Groaxians this should be a sign of hope that even with their own social upheaval they can retain the better part of their own nature and not turn into mindless, drug-addicted killing machines like the Umbara seem to be.
An obvious next step in space exploration was to fly towards the Crack and utilise its potential to explore some stars further from Qi, while at the same time trying to determine where exactly the superluminal highway ends, how wide and tall it actually is and why is it there, or rather why it isn't anywhere else. First system to reach using it was Naegling
[...]
Next star in the exploration queue was Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi.
As an aside, I'm curious how you come up with the system names. They don't seem to match any of the system name lists in-game, and as far as I can tell do not fall under a single language or linguistic group either.
It appeared that the Crack was just a specific region of space that behaved like all space should behave according to human research.
So it sounds as if the galaxy has changed at a fundamental level since humanity gave the Monolith to Qi, a mystery which requires deep investigations.
It was true that Zenn were left behind to die out with every living being of Zenn-La, but it hadn't necessarily translated into them actually doing so. Umbara fleets left the doomed world in a hurry, leaving all the facilities they used for space programs as well as research data mostly intact. Zenn still had enough time left before inevitable extinction to decipher at least parts of it. Their starships at first weren't very effective, but at least were enough to get them off the planet, out of the solar system and onwards to space while keeping them alive in a stasis.
And now I am no longer ahead of myself. ;D
Conglomerate also tried to get the coordinates of the system in which the remnants are located and both Zenn as well as La captured after operation QiSet had a detailed description of the star and its celestial bodies stored in their heads. The only problem was that after browsing star catalogues to no end, searching through all possible candidates, it was determined that such system doesn't exist and in fact never existed. The starfield visible from within it did not match with any part of the galaxy at all and given the technology described the possibility of Umbara coming from a different one was also ruled out as no ship of theirs would ever endure such a journey without falling apart along the way somehwere in intergalactic space.
This calls for some imagination: if the Umbara, or maybe more correctly now the Zenn-La, are from another galaxy, they may have crossed over along another kind of superluminal highway like the Crack but crossing between galaxies.
Re: Time's End - Freedom
In which our heroes meet the Americans!
Joking, joking... :P
The side effect of all these efforts was to pull out data about another two systems explored by Umbara, but never inspected by any Groaxian from up close. They included Meirica
You know, I meant it to be a joke, but as this is one letter away from being 'Merica I now have my doubts.
A study focused on behavioural changes among generations born after discovering Dark Forest Theory sounded an alarm. While changes for the worse in themselves were nothing new, another layer of the problem has been brought to attention. For example, safety check provided by middlemen was of lower quality and more genetic errors were likely to occur during birth. There wasn't enough proof to link this with the migration of many middlemen to Yatune. In fact, scientists couldn't all agree whether it was middlemen providing genetic checksums of lower quality or lowered breeding quality in general. A common symptom of the problems was slightly increased brain temperature during birth which later was correlated with higher aggression levels or problems with hibernating. Same researchers proposed to fix the existing issues with experimental genetic modification therapy, but Conglomerate remained sceptical about these ideas, unsure whether throwing more artificiality at the problem would really help with anything. One thing to be remembered, though, was that relocating the "overheated individuals" to colder regions of Genesis had some limited positive effects. Still, many scientists couldn't see any viable solution besides fixing things at the same level they were broken which was the level of individual genes. For now the Conglomerate at least agreed to grant affected population access to implants that were responsible for keeping brain temperature in check at all times, regardless of environmental factors.
Clearly the answer is to deliberately breed these kinds of individuals and use them as super-soldiers with as many genetic modifications as Groaxian geneticists can figure out. And then in keeping with the running joke here, give them red-and-blue costumes and round shields made of some really tough metal. :P
Several hibernation cycles after first recruits of Human Space Forces completed their training, first conclusions on the project could've been made. Everyone expected Groaxians who served in this fleet would remain disconnected from main society, possibly forming their own enclosed community, a very different one, but that did not happen. They seemed to be quite popular among certain groups from younger generations. It was a worrying sign, because it hinted the problem once again has proven to be larger than predictions. Humanity has always been present in the culture of Groaxians for obvious reasons, but never before did it have such long-reaching influence. On top of it all, a dangerous ideology began to spread among population: for the first time in Groaxian history it was proposed that a freedom of an individual is more important than the eternal equilibrium of a carefully balanced society and that an interstellar civilisation cannot continue to exist with how things were before.
I have a sneaking suspicion that this has turned into a subtle social commentary on the present day.
The idea was obviously derived from the human concept of freedom, but experts instantly pointed out that such freedom was an illusion through the entire history of Humanity and that what is already known about them doesn't suggest any proof of an average human ever being truly free. Moreover, even if that'd be the case for Humanity, soulseekers agreed that Groaxian society could never function like this because of how connected it was via Transcended Speech. Dangerous thoughts of even one individual could lead to health problems among a few dozens others that were close enough to feel these thoughts which is why the balance was mandatory for the sake of well-being of everyone.
There was a Star Trek episode about something similar to this...Voyager I think? A particular society had the same kind of telekinetic connection of emotions, and a black market existed which traded in violent memories which then ended up infecting others of the population. I don't remember how it ended though, hopefully in this case the ending is not detrimental for Groaxian society which is even more closely communal.
While all this looked pretty grim and depressing, a glimpse of hope appeared in the form of yet another theory: sure, things were heading in the wrong direction, but at the same time there was a war going on, a war like never before. And through the past destabilisation of balance preceeded the conflict, leading directly to it, while now problems started to arise only after first battles have been fought and Groaxians still stood united, just trying to defend themselves and forge a path for them across the stars. And diving into the human mind further might hold the answer to Dark Forest, assuming they have really figured it out and haven't in the meantime gone extinct after one photonic missile too many or something. Conglomerate had to accept that it was a path worth checking out. The question "how to join Humanity across the stars" resurfaced again.
This seems like a good perspective to have. Yes, Groaxians have changed somewhat, but for the sake of survival and preserving their society rather than to tear it down. After all, sometimes change and adaptation is a good thing, the basics of biology show this - but change should be made with care and consideration always, and here the Groaxians do things correctly.
Looking forward to seeing how this unique race continues to grow, evolve, and find their place in these dark and mysterious stars. :)
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If you managed to represent a ground force war across the surface of an actual star in Aurora I would not even be mad that you stole "borrowed" my idea, only very impressed.
That'd be easier than you think. Any ground battle would suffice since I completely make them up anyways as gameplay is useful only for space battles because ground ones are all random. The real challenges would be to come up with technology, and, more importantly, purpose for a battle to be fought deep inside the heliosphere.
Would you say this could be considered a "naval conference"?
Well, I have the entire Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy to steal borrow from, no need to start stealing borrowing from other AARs... Though maybe if I had the patience to do something like that... But obviously it wouldn't be about the navy only as that'd not fit here, it'd also have to cover the entire society+psychology+civilian tech+what is known about aliens+what is known about universe+what is not known+exploration plans+colonisation plans+"wtf we do about Dark Forest"+influence and history of Humanity+... smeg... that'd be... quite a bit of words to be written.
Of course in this universe, we do not have jump points
You actually don't need jump points for "bottleneck systems" to exist. Kinda like on Earth you have forts and bunkers and stuff effectively blocking large regions even though technically you could just walk around, not exactly through it. It gets kinda tough to conquer systems knowing a very close one hosts a big-ass fleet capable of jumping at you quicker than any reinforcements you might wish for.
So, I dunno, some kind of crack in the wall? :P
...and the actual Crack turns out to be far more intriguing. A unique region of space which allows for FTL? How strange.
Yep, a Crack! And no, it's not strange it allows for FTL, it's strange the rest of space doesn't. It worked for humans, it must work for everyone else, right?
the Groaxians are eminently rational, so I am sure they all realize this and nothing bad can happen.
Maybe not rational, but rather coherent. If one group has thought about something, it is likely others will have similar ideas. Once somebody designs a safety guarantee, it's basically settled as all will either soon hear about it or invent it on their own simply because they can hear about or invent it because it exists.
Both interesting ships.
Thanks, tried my best while fighting my way with having to include jump drives as well as the misc components taking up a fair bit of space when all grouped together even though I use always the smallest size. That leaves way less hull to work with that I'd like. Also glad you like them because I put an effort into them in a sense that this is supposed to be a DLC to my previous AAR rather than a standalone one so I came up with all this mess that led Groaxians to develop "Human Space Forces" for the sole purpose so I'd be able to reiterate through my most famous ships from previous campaign, making them similar to the concept of the original ones since both Strikers and Pikes were originally beam assault ships around 15k mass range if I remember correctly (well Strikers used lasers instead of particle beams but in this campaign I don't have the luxury to develop both so I went for the better one). Hopefully that way it accomplishes more in terms of being a DLC.
For Groaxians this should be a sign of hope
An interesting concept of hope. "Hey there buddies, you know, our government once turned an entire planet into a factory of bloodthirsty killing machines, but hey, we shared a monolith so it's all cool, right? See, we're still the same humans, nothing to see here, move along..." :P
As an aside, I'm curious how you come up with the system names. They don't seem to match any of the system name lists in-game, and as far as I can tell do not fall under a single language or linguistic group either.
I know right now you probably expect me to say something badass, so sorry to disappoint you, but it's simply "mythical swords" theme. It does exist in game. I'm really happy with it, sounds really alien, especially Sk�fnung. Come on, it has a graphical symbols as one of the letters (perfectly fitting the way Groaxians talk with each other), how more alien can you get with naming themes.
So it sounds as if the galaxy has changed at a fundamental level since humanity gave the Monolith to Qi, a mystery which requires deep investigations.
Oh it did... not even the galaxy... The entire Universe... The next evolution step of a Dark Forest, next time cycle, all leaving a permanent mark of time...
Hopefully you won't be disappointed by the ending.
You know, I meant it to be a joke, but as this is one letter away from being 'Merica I now have my doubts.
I also cry that the system generated as an utter smeg, with two planets, one "Venus" without any minerals and one "Mercury" with 0,3 uridium and 0,1 corundium. Yep, great potential for endless battles over this particular system.
Clearly the answer is to deliberately breed these kinds of individuals and use them as super-soldiers with as many genetic modifications as Groaxian geneticists can figure out.
Time for reactivation of Project Amazons aka "Project WhateverGroaxianMythicalTribeConsisitingOfOnlyMiddlemenThatKilledMaleAndFemaleChildrenWasNamed"? Well... Maybe. I see the Conglomerate will be very happy to announce it.
I have a sneaking suspicion that this has turned into a subtle social commentary on the present day.
Not really... Though... Maybe? But even if so, it's more of a commentary on a commentary. My previous AAR did contain quite a few of these because it was about humans, so this being a DLC, but with alien race occupying the main role it can be a commentary of a commentary at most.
Looking forward to seeing how this unique race continues to grow, evolve, and find their place in these dark and mysterious stars.
The stars are not dark. But black holes... They might have their bright shiny accretion disks that gives light and warmth for the planets that might still orbit a young one, but it's all a disguise. They are dark. And there are more of them than ever before.
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So, I dunno, some kind of crack in the wall? :P
...and the actual Crack turns out to be far more intriguing. A unique region of space which allows for FTL? How strange.
Yep, a Crack! And no, it's not strange it allows for FTL, it's strange the rest of space doesn't. It worked for humans, it must work for everyone else, right?
You say tomato... :P
Both interesting ships.
Thanks, tried my best while fighting my way with having to include jump drives as well as the misc components taking up a fair bit of space when all grouped together even though I use always the smallest size. That leaves way less hull to work with that I'd like. Also glad you like them because I put an effort into them in a sense that this is supposed to be a DLC to my previous AAR rather than a standalone one so I came up with all this mess that led Groaxians to develop "Human Space Forces" for the sole purpose so I'd be able to reiterate through my most famous ships from previous campaign, making them similar to the concept of the original ones since both Strikers and Pikes were originally beam assault ships around 15k mass range if I remember correctly (well Strikers used lasers instead of particle beams but in this campaign I don't have the luxury to develop both so I went for the better one). Hopefully that way it accomplishes more in terms of being a DLC.
For the limitations you work with, they came out well and reflect their builders I think. They actually remind me somewhat of old VB6 AARs where the ship designs would be like "here's a heavy cruiser with four lasers!" which was quite silly but had a certain charm.
I do worry that the Groaxians will be taken by surprise in a bad way whenever they finally meet a race that has those photonic missiles mentioned earlier, and discover what "point defense" is in absentia.
An interesting concept of hope. "Hey there buddies, you know, our government once turned an entire planet into a factory of bloodthirsty killing machines, but hey, we shared a monolith so it's all cool, right? See, we're still the same humans, nothing to see here, move along..." :P
You say tomato... :P
I know right now you probably expect me to say something badass, so sorry to disappoint you, but it's simply "mythical swords" theme.
Mythical swords are badass! :P Interesting theme, I knew it was in the game but never really used it, but it's worked very well for you here.
Hopefully you won't be disappointed by the ending.
I trust the creative imagination of the author, which has gotten us this far after all ;)
I have a sneaking suspicion that this has turned into a subtle social commentary on the present day.
Not really... Though... Maybe? But even if so, it's more of a commentary on a commentary. My previous AAR did contain quite a few of these because it was about humans, so this being a DLC, but with alien race occupying the main role it can be a commentary of a commentary at most.
Even alien races can be used for commentary on human matters, since the difference from humans helps to separate specific issues or tendencies and have them stand out alone. Sometimes this works very well, like in Star Trek, and sometimes this works rather more poorly, like in Star Trek. :P
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EDIT: Postfixing comments for the latest update to avoid a double-post.
When it was played using human speech and sound converter, allowing Groaxians to feel it as humans would, voices of the ancients filled everyone in the fleet.
So this is the voice of the Ancients but speaking in the language of the humans? Or is it somehow understandable in any language but Groaxians want to hear it as the humans did because that's part of their new training for soldiers?
Time has slowed down as the voice was soothing. It filled the mind with visions of planes beyond imagination of any three-dimensional being, about concepts so alien yet so fascinating. It was alien, but it didn't feel like something Dark Forest would spit out. The way of the ancients spoke about a different solution. Something so simple, so obvious, yet something of which every civilisation seemed unaware. A safety guarantee for all who want to take it. It never got finished before the ones from Bootes Void came to exterminate and tear everything down, but it was there, ready for another civilisation to take the lead and complete it.
This may be the answer many Groaxians have been looking for. Hopefully though the Ancients are not as, hmm, cryptic as the humans have been, the Groaxians may not have time for too many more mysteries before the Dark Forest consumes them.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/848008906852925489/homeworld1.PNG)
300,000 tons of ground forces, likely more than this since the signature is likely obscured by the same kind of camouflage as the lasers use. Looks like this may be a big turning point for the Groaxians as they now have the possibility to launch a ground attack, however making such a big offensive with hundreds of thousands of Groaxians as soldiers is probably a big question for the Conglomerate to decide about.
The topic of higher dimensions was brought up once again, this time in broader context. But the complex also spoke about escaping Dark Forest. Suddenly it all became too obvious and so easy to understand soulseekers wondered why haven't they thought about it earlier, eventually blaming it on the physics of higher dimensions not working as described by humans everywhere else besides the Crack. Beings of a different number of dimensions consumed different types of resources. Three-dimensional metals extracted by a three-dimensional species were useless to four-dimensional ones and similarly whatever entities existed in a four-dimensional space were of no use for the standard three-dimensional civilisation. The initial concept of a solution based on exclusive list of resources used turned out to be true. It was possible to escape Dark Forest and Project Ascension was a key on how to do that.
Ah, there it is, then. Very cleverly the Groaxians have it seems discerned the wisdom of the Ancients.
Though this presents a question yet unanswered for the Groaxians: if there are already entities in the four-dimensional space, using the same resources to exist, isn't the Dark Forest in the fourth dimension too? Or is the key to it all that only entities who escape Dark Forest make it to the fourth dimension, so Dark Forest does not apply there because the entities existing there share a commitment to not allowing it to? Maybe those trapped in the Dark Forest are also trapped in the third dimension, because to ascend would require them to give up on Dark Forest Theory to find the way to ascension. There is much yet to be revealed...
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I do worry that the Groaxians will be taken by surprise in a bad way whenever they finally meet a race that has those photonic missiles mentioned earlier, and discover what "point defense" is in absentia.
Well... Photonic missiles aren't your regular missiles. They're doomsday devices, launched from a solar system to destroy another one at a whim, even many light years away... Basically an entry point weapon for the title of a Dark Forest Lord. If you remmeber from the previous AAR, even more advanced at that time human civilisation struggled with intercepting and neutralising them once their core systems were attacked...
But gameplay wise, yeah, Syzygies make for some point defense, but I just can't build dedicated Gauss ships (or right now even proudce an upgraded railgun version really) because gallicite. None of the ships I've seen have demonstrated any missiles so I suspect they're all beam only. And if I meet a new one... Well, that's where the fun begins, in previous campaign I had time to prepare myself, but with this settings I just can't so I barely build enough to just survive and don't have the luxury to plan in advance for additional types of threats beyond what I'm currently dealing with.
Even alien races can be used for commentary on human matters, since the difference from humans helps to separate specific issues or tendencies and have them stand out alone. Sometimes this works very well, like in Star Trek, and sometimes this works rather more poorly, like in Star Trek.
In my case to talk about humans I use humans. Hence again, my previous AAR does contain a tiny bit of social commentary at a few places.
So this is the voice of the Ancients but speaking in the language of the humans? Or is it somehow understandable in any language but Groaxians want to hear it as the humans did because that's part of their new training for soldiers?
Well, no, Precursors are talking Precursor-ish, but Groaxians first heard about them from the monolith so I assumed that their language was there too since it was also a part of human knowledge about this civilisation. But I guess I should've explicitly mention that Groaxians, thanks to the info found in monolith, know the language of Precursors and Invaders as well at this point. Though the second sentence is correct, members of this specific fleet were trained to adapt human way of thinking and that's why Precurosr broadcast was translated to human language - the official language every member of this expedition was supposed to use for the duration of the mission.
This may be the answer many Groaxians have been looking for. Hopefully though the Ancients are not as, hmm, cryptic as the humans have been, the Groaxians may not have time for too many more mysteries before the Dark Forest consumes them.
Well, not sure if you remember correctly judging by this comment, but Project Ascension was already explained in the previous AAR. It was something Precursors have started working on but didn't finish it before Invaders wiped them out but then Arilou (the classical greys with flying saucers, guardians of humanity) took over and used their leftovers to finish, ascend themselves by transfering their consciousness to four- and later five-dimensional bodies and then empower humans. Because of that, Project Ascension in itself is not another mystery to be added here, just a mere statement that Groaxians have learned about its existence as well. Here its just more of how Groaxians will react, now that they have "official proof".
if there are already entities in the four-dimensional space, using the same resources to exist, isn't the Dark Forest in the fourth dimension too?
Mentioned how the safety guarantee against Dark Forest was supposed to work right at the ending, but that was a different situation back then. Now? Who knows what the hell has the universe descendent into?
Maybe those trapped in the Dark Forest are also trapped in the third dimension, because to ascend would require them to give up on Dark Forest Theory to find the way to ascension.
Given how Invaders interacted with findings of Precursors for so unbelievably long and never managed to ascend themselves because they were too close minded that "ascending from a Dark Forest" meant, well, ascending from a Dark Forest, not a new big-ass weapon to ulitmately wipe out every single civilisaiton out of the entire universe to achieve the ultimate victory aka "winning Dark Forest battle royale"... That is actually true, to some extent. Civlisations of good will should show the tendency to have it easier when figuring this out, but that alone of course is not a safety guarantee, just a mere hint that it indeed has a potential to work correctly.
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if there are already entities in the four-dimensional space, using the same resources to exist, isn't the Dark Forest in the fourth dimension too?
Mentioned how the safety guarantee against Dark Forest was supposed to work right at the ending, but that was a different situation back then. Now? Who knows what the hell has the universe descendent into?
Touching this one before getting to the new updates: Naturally the solution is to ascend another dimension to eliminate the need for competition, but there is no guarantee of an infinite number of higher dimensions. If enough races ascend, the dimensions will begin to be crowded and Dark Forest can reoccur. If the Groaxians run into this situation, certainly how they respond will be interesting...
New updates:
No progress has been made, but in the meantime Conglomerate Defense Fleet has arrived in the system and immediately upon receiving updates on the tactical situation flew towards Iether. This has caused the potential enemy to turn on engines. It headed towards space, so the first squadron of fuel harvesters did the same, attempting to stay as far away as possible, while the two others went even deeper into the atmosphere, leaving the combat to be handled by ships that are actually armed. Long before alien ships could've been reached, they simply warped space around them and disappeared from the system, leaving confused Groaxians behind.
"Endpoint War", huh? Well, that sure was a quick war! :P
Very curious behavior. It all starts with a fleet of ships hiding deep inside a gas giant, which is a strange place to hide when you think about it especially since they have not been detected before and were probably there all this time not reacting, and chose now to make their presence known? Many mysteries...
They have found something unsettling in the very foundation of the universe and wanted to ensure it'll be purged at all cost. Something they saw as worse than Dark Forest itself. Especially this bold statement was what confused Groaxians so much they were too confused to even be afraid anymore. Something worse than Dark Forest sounded like pure nonsense.
Well this could get very scary in a hurry. What could be worse than Dark Forest? If it is something truly foundational, it may persist beyond three dimensions and even Ascension will not allow the Groaxians to escape...
It was a threat. They demanded no Groaxian starship to ever leave the territory marked by the two inhabited by Groaxians systems under the threat of a broadcast followed by a large-scale invasion aimed at destroying every enemy ship existing.
These Tempestsaurs? might be responsible then for the black hole wall that has been so frustrating. Although if they are willing to use the Dark Forest Lords to destroy other races, I do have some questions about what definition of "evil" they use to decide there is something worse than Dark Forest and how they choose to fight against that thing.
The last topic mentioned during the meeting was certainly the most important one. Less than one hibernation cycle before, another exploration mission to the Crack had been sent. As aliens were keeping the entire civilisation hostage, an independent fleet of Groaxian starships has been cruising at superluminal speed somewhere in interstellar space. They seemed to be the best chance at breaking free from the deadlock and resolving the situation without taking unneccessary risks. A question remained, awaiting immediate answer: what exactly they would be supposed to do. And how to tell them to do it without making Tempestsaurs aware of the plan as well as the presence of Groaxian vessels beyond the cage they'd prepared.
Maybe they can go meet the Dark Forest Lords and ask them very politely to wipe the Tempestsaurs out of existence, please and thank you.
No? Ah, well, it was worth a shot...
The solution that was accepted at last seemed to be quite simple yet complicated at the same time. Groaxian Navy still had one important asset at hand: the warship captured mostly intact and later repaired and brought up to Groaxian standards during the last battle of Qi when Zenn had been captured and interrogated for the first time - Hobbiton battlecruiser. Since then this particle beam-firing ship had been adapted to serve as a command ship in Conglomerate Defense Fleet, replacing former squadron of Lensias. All there was left to do was to mount a Curvature Drive so that it could travel across the stars again (the one Umbara has been using had been destroyed beyond repair during the battle and it was much easier for engineers to build a new one than to try to work with alien tech specifications), make it fly disguised among a fleet of freighters or something and have it send a message in Umbara language.
This is a clever solution, although it does assume that the Achernar do not care about the Umbara, which if true is quite curious - then why care so much about the Groaxians? - and if not true could backfire horribly.
But such approach was highly controversial, and that had nothing to do with the risks involved and whether it would all work out.
One thing I note in addition, the possibility of making a bluff is not raised. Granted, that may be because it would be difficult to tell the explorer ships such a complicated plan, but still it is in some sense a less drastic measure, even if the enemy does not know it is a bluff the Groaxians can rest secure that they do not intend to destroy an alien race and find some comfort. I am not sure what this says about the nature of the Groaxians, but I suspect it is rather more disturbing still than any Groaxian would like to think of.
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Touching this one before getting to the new updates:
Rest assured this matter is going to be resolved sooner or later.
Well, that sure was a quick war!
It's not the end, it's just a beginning...
Very curious behavior. It all starts with a fleet of ships hiding deep inside a gas giant, which is a strange place to hide when you think about it especially since they have not been detected before and were probably there all this time not reacting, and chose now to make their presence known? Many mysteries...
Well, to be fair I placed them in a gas giant thanks to them orbiting the planet, but more importantly it's because personally gas giants freak me out. They're big, heavy, have high gravity and brutal atmospheric pressure with violent weather, permanent storms and all crazy smeg. And they have no surface. The idea of descending into a planet only to go deeper and deeper into the clouds, with no stable ground to touch anywhere to be seen as darkness surrounds you and with each second spent descending you're less and less likely to ever make it out of the gravity well...
In Space Engine I never dared to dive in a gas giant, even orbiting them is unsettling. In No Man's Sky there are obviously no gas giants, but trying to land on a planet during storm can trigger the same fear because you barely see anything and there's a point during landfall where clouds surround you from every side and there's no land to be seen. I still remember my careful and slow approach to one particular planet during storm. I made it past first layer of clouds and could no longer see space and beneath me was a glowing red surface. I was like "are there lava ocean planets in the game now?!" untill I realised it was just a layer of dense, blood-red clouds illuminated by lightnings. I almost hit the ground with full force after I descended further and couldn't see smeg.
So, long story short, I'm afraid of gas giants and that's exactly why I placed the encounter in one of them, since I attempted to give them a bit of cold war vibes so a nerve-wrecking location seemed a perfect choice.
These Tempestsaurs? might be responsible then for the black hole wall that has been so frustrating.
Just to remind, you, too many black holes and Black Wall are two different things according to current Groaxian knowledge. The only thing they have in common is the name, but that's it.
Although if they are willing to use the Dark Forest Lords to destroy other races, I do have some questions about what definition of "evil" they use to decide there is something worse than Dark Forest and how they choose to fight against that thing.
It's obviously not evil if you do it because survival and lack the technology to do it yourself so you outsource some bigger guns. :P
Maybe they can go meet the Dark Forest Lords and ask them very politely to wipe the Tempestsaurs out of existence, please and thank you.
Good news is you don't need to meet them or even be polite about your wish. Bad news is you need coordinates to point them at a target and need to be careful because "friendly" fire is on together with AoE damage...
although it does assume that the Achernar do not care about the Umbara
Why? It doesn't assume that. Whether they care or not is irrelevant, all that matters for this plan to work is to make them think it's not Groaxians communicating with each other secretly. Before they could arrive at a point from which Groaxians had sent the crucial message, the latter would be long gone. You don't want to say Conglomerate made from the smartest individuals selected from a society with average IQ being on Einstein's level or higher has made such a simple mistake, do you? :P
One thing I note in addition, the possibility of making a bluff is not raised.
Well... It's just like with nuclear detterrence... You might bluff, but you need to be damn convincing. And if the enemy would do even the very basic research on Groaxians then the entire idea of a bluff believable enough is shattered. And again, bluff or not, counter-threat requires coordinates... And also yeah, Groaxians grew too disgusted with the idea at that particular time.
Anyways, as always, thanks a lot. From today's reply it looks you've read only the first one of the three posts that happened since the last reply under this thread, I hope you'll like what happens next. :)
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Why? It doesn't assume that. Whether they care or not is irrelevant, all that matters for this plan to work is to make them think it's not Groaxians communicating with each other secretly. Before they could arrive at a point from which Groaxians had sent the crucial message, the latter would be long gone. You don't want to say Conglomerate made from the smartest individuals selected from a society with average IQ being on Einstein's level or higher has made such a simple mistake, do you?
My point was more, if the Achernar do not like the Umbara either, if they detect an Umbara signal they might decide to go threaten the "Umbara" too. Granted, one assumes they are already aware of the Umbara and clearly have not destroyed the Umbara yet, so perhaps they tolerate the Umbara for some reason. Still, a lot of assumptions, and even Einstein made mistakes from time to time... ;)
Anyways, as always, thanks a lot. From today's reply it looks you've read only the first one of the three posts that happened since the last reply under this thread, I hope you'll like what happens next. :)
You're right. I tend to open the AAR in a tab when I see a new update, so I don't forget to read it, but sometimes I forget to also refresh before reading and miss any following updates. In this case I read Endpoint War and Signal of Despair but I missed Path of Insanity. A quick glance and it looks very promising so I look forward to reading that soon...
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Editing with latest update commentary:
In that system, space felt the way it should - vast, calm, silent, also dead, with life being a rare miracle rather than common occurrence.
In a normal universe this would be the usual, but in this universe the emptiness of a star system is so rare as to be perhaps even more suspicious than a system with the presence of aliens. Surely something strange is afoot here...
...or not? I guess not. Oh well.
From the planets with oxygen in the air, Tizona V was the easiest one to terraform. [...] Some felt no terraforming would help this doomed place, even though the argument was completely irrational and it was the best choice for colonisation in Tizona despite its darkest secrets.
Truly a unique yet foreboding planet and ecosystem, particularly I have to say the accompanying image is quite evocative and well-selected.
Next planet to be explored was Tizona III, with still low pressure and amount of oxygen, but obviously much higher than on Tizona IV. And that's where things became interesting. [...] It wasn't something to be expected. Looking after the mysterious wrecks and Umbara history, a world belonging to the civilisation still vastly unknown and not understood beyond what Dark Forest Theory was suggesting.
Now this is more like what we have come to expect from this surprisingly populated corner of the galaxy, although another new civilization is certainly very interesting.
As an aside I am beginning to have a theory that in the time since humanity Ascended, the Dark Forest Lords or else some other powerful race has somehow relocated all of the populated races in the galaxy into this little corner of space and sealed it off with the black wall. I am not sure what the implications are yet but it is an idea I am keeping in mind.
Soon one of the ships involved in the encounter fired a gravitational blast, demonstrating its capabilities to be based on the same concept as Groaxian gravitational weapons. Why only one of them fired was an interesting question. Especially given the waves were too weak to threaten the integrity of well-armored Baernoloths. What was even stranger was that a blink of an eye later they fired once again, this time leaving a more visible impact on the fabric of space, messing up with the former wave they'd sent. A warning was the simplest explanation, but Dark Forest Theory left no places for such concepts.
This seems very reminiscent of the Achernar behavior, where they sent the gravitational pulse to the Dark Forest Lords and then another to interrupt the first. Perhaps these aliens have a different and startlingly more effective means of sending a message to the Dark Forest Lords?
The scope of the problem was beyond their expectations when several hibernation cycles later they emerged in Qi only to instantly detect several alien fleets positioned around key locations in the outskirts of the system, effectively making leaving it without having to come too close to them quite challenging. They rushed towards Genesis, freaking out about suddenly getting killed, but for some strange reason the fleets didn't move much and there were no signs of a battle going on, not really signs of Groaxians preparing to intercept the intruders. They still remained puzzled when they learnt Conglomerate Defense Fleet was defending Conglomerate that time quite directly by escorting several members into orbit of Genesis to arrange a meeting in space as to not waste time for planetary landing.
It seems like the plan to send a secret communication has been too late, now the explorers are returned and the Achernar are aware of them so there can be no subterfuge. A tight spot for the Groaxians now.
Tizona was only 11 hibernation cycles away from Qi. Broadcasting Qi coordinates was a very risky endeavour. It was likely both stars would get exposed.
Oh. Oh. This is actually good news then, the Achernar no longer can threaten Qi. Actually, it could still be bad news, if the Achernar decide to fight the Qi, but maybe the two races will try to work together in defiance of Dark Forest rather than annihilating each other. Probably not, but we can dream about it...
T: We really don't care. The goal of our species is not survival. No individual can live forever, no civilisation as a whole can either. Everything comes to an end. Even time.
Well, that's not ominous at all. :o
So, it seems like the Tempestsaurs are a doomsday cult on the scale of an entire race. Certainly, they do have an interesting perspective on the Dark Forest, but it is senseless. Why should any race care about the next cycle of the universe, if they will be dead anyways? Still, senseless or not, they are a threat to Qi and now a threat the Groaxians can understand.
There was no way to make sure Tempestsaurs hadn't colonised space somewhere else, somewhere safe from the imminent attack. Sacrificing one colony was well worth destroying their enemy from their point of view, especially they might as well evacuate it to minimise losses, maybe even completely neutralise them shall they have enough time and lose only the system itself, but nothing of what belonged to them. That was a simple explanation, and simple explanations were often true.
It is also possible that the Tempestsaurs are willing to sacrifice their own race to wipe out the Groaxians if they believe it will preserve the natural order of the universe. Either way this is certainly a scary moment.
With entire civilisation now officially on a timer, Project Ascension was the only hope left.
It is the endgame now. Hopefully the Groaxians can succeed before they run out of time.
Before retirement, Conglomerate passed one last declaration, mobilising both the army and civilian population to focus on preparing for retaking the Precursor complex from the apparently severely weakened Umbara. Combining the findings of the Ancients with knowledge stored in a monolith seemed to be the key to completing the project, or at least so did soulseekers studying the monolith believe.
In their urgency I note that the Conglomerate spends little time debating the ethics of this decision. Truly things have gotten desperate, but at this point without even pausing to consider this have the Groaxians lost the last of their civilization's nature to survive the Dark Forest?
The galaxy wonders...
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My point was more, if the Achernar do not like the Umbara either, if they detect an Umbara signal they might decide to go threaten the "Umbara" too.
Well... Hey, it's one enemy less then, right? And Groaxians didn't do anything illegal, it was Umbara doing their business, so no broadcast, right?
As an aside I am beginning to have a theory that in the time since humanity Ascended, the Dark Forest Lords or else some other powerful race has somehow relocated all of the populated races in the galaxy into this little corner of space and sealed it off with the black wall. I am not sure what the implications are yet but it is an idea I am keeping in mind.
An interesting theory... Maybe it's another experiment, like with Mechi, or what humanity did by setting a colony in Qi when Groaxians were still primitive, but now that they are not primitive anymore, more extensive containment measures are required to keep it under control...
This seems very reminiscent of the Achernar behavior
Becuase that aliens are Achernar and it looks like you've completely missed it (plus they didn't send the coords, it was again the first wave being actual message and the second that corrupted the data sent was like "okay you saw we can, but this was just a warning so we're not doing it yet") Maybe it's my fault because writing in foreign language when you're tired and want to "just finish this already" can produce mixed results, to say the least, but on the other hand... Maybe you've accidentially read it better than I could've expected, because you got to experience explorers' POV - language translation and gaining insight into this civilisation all happened after explorers had already left, so they had no way of knowing these aliens weren't that alien anymore, having not receiving updated info and latest news until they were back home and thus still treating it as "highly unknown."
Why should any race care about the next cycle of the universe, if they will be dead anyways?
Why should anyone care about raising kids if, for example, they're terminally ill and by the time they reach adulthood and move the world forward, said person will be dead? Or why care about the future of Earth if by the time resources are depleted we will be most likely all dead? Or why try to think about colonisation and terraforming of Mars if again, by the time this planet will be made habitable generations of terraformers would have been born and gone? Some people don't care, sure, but it's the same concept here. They won't live to see the fruits of their work, but the universe as a whole will not die and will continue to live one more cycle, allowing life to thrive once again, allowing the miracle to go on.
It seems like the plan to send a secret communication has been too late, now the explorers are returned and the Achernar are aware of them so there can be no subterfuge. A tight spot for the Groaxians now.
They were too unfortunate to be detected in Tizona. To be fair, this didn't change anything about Achernar in Qi being aware as they could not have avoided detection when warping to the system and were travelling at the speed of light, meaning the information about their existence had reached enemy blocking Qi at the same time regardless of their detection. The problem was that because of preemptive detection, Achernar government was made aware much quicker and could give certain directives which resulted with what they resulted... ::)
But maybe the two races will try to work together in defiance of Dark Forest rather than annihilating each other.
Groaxians would be proud of your naive enlightened thinking. Perhaps you're more Groaxian than they are themselves by now after all this mess...
Also I see in your post you've skipped probably the most important thing from the last update that probably has put a lot of influence into Conglomerate not giving a crap about ethics this time. I'm gonna reiterate it again, so it echoes across your mind just like it did with poor Groaxians to hear it...
Dark Forest is not a force of destruction: it's a force of balance.
The galaxy wonders...
The galaxy watches... Civilisations move around in stealth, silent but observing, ready to send doomsday devices (or ask someone else to do it) at the most vague sign of intelligent life, ready to wipe out entire clusters of stars just to be sure that one race reaching industrialisation doesn't get a chance... It's kill or be killed, as always.
Thanks a lot for your input, you actually encouraged me to try write some more update even though the AAR is already on pair with gameplay right now so I planned to start playing to get the next batch of events to process before writing anything more. Kinda unfortunate you didn't follow the previous one as I feel in certain aspects it came out better than this one. Likely because, being a human myself, it's easier to write about humans than to try to come up with alien race that'd be alien enough to not fall under "too humanlike" cliche.
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This seems very reminiscent of the Achernar behavior
Becuase that aliens are Achernar and it looks like you've completely missed it (plus they didn't send the coords, it was again the first wave being actual message and the second that corrupted the data sent was like "okay you saw we can, but this was just a warning so we're not doing it yet") Maybe it's my fault because writing in foreign language when you're tired and want to "just finish this already" can produce mixed results, to say the least, but on the other hand... Maybe you've accidentially read it better than I could've expected, because you got to experience explorers' POV - language translation and gaining insight into this civilisation all happened after explorers had already left, so they had no way of knowing these aliens weren't that alien anymore, having not receiving updated info and latest news until they were back home and thus still treating it as "highly unknown."
At first I couldn't be sure because they were described as giving signals "similar" to the Achernar but it seemed uncertain. I pieced it together after a bit but my comments are always as they come for real-time reactions. ;)
Why should anyone care about raising kids if, for example, they're terminally ill and by the time they reach adulthood and move the world forward, said person will be dead? Or why care about the future of Earth if by the time resources are depleted we will be most likely all dead? Or why try to think about colonisation and terraforming of Mars if again, by the time this planet will be made habitable generations of terraformers would have been born and gone? Some people don't care, sure, but it's the same concept here. They won't live to see the fruits of their work, but the universe as a whole will not die and will continue to live one more cycle, allowing life to thrive once again, allowing the miracle to go on.
It's true for some people, but I have a hard time seeing an entire civilization like this, although of course my life experience is only as a human and we have our own problems as a race...
But in my view, most people want to enjoy their children while they are alive and come to know them and care for them before giving them their inheritance as they pass on.
To me, it is less like terraforming Mars for future humans, and more like terraforming Mars for unknown future species which we think will evolve from dolphins in a few million years. It is nice for the dolphins, sure, but in the present what about our own race.
Of course for you as an author this is a narrative success, as an entire race which is basically a doomsday cult is certainly unique and alien and forces the readers to grapple with such existential questions as this.
Also I see in your post you've skipped probably the most important thing from the last update that probably has put a lot of influence into Conglomerate not giving a crap about ethics this time. I'm gonna reiterate it again, so it echoes across your mind just like it did with poor Groaxians to hear it...
Dark Forest is not a force of destruction: it's a force of balance.
At risk of insulting my intellectual superiors ;) I would cry shame on them for simply accepting the premise at face value and not interrogating it thoroughly, "whether it was all a mystification or not". I might even venture to say that accepting this premise so readily does say a lot about the depths to which the Groaxians have sunk into Dark Forest nature, if indeed it was not in them all along as many seem to be afraid.
]
Thanks a lot for your input, you actually encouraged me to try write some more update even though the AAR is already on pair with gameplay right now so I planned to start playing to get the next batch of events to process before writing anything more. Kinda unfortunate you didn't follow the previous one as I feel in certain aspects it came out better than this one. Likely because, being a human myself, it's easier to write about humans than to try to come up with alien race that'd be alien enough to not fall under "too humanlike" cliche.
Keep it up! We do seem to be in the endgame now and another finished story would be another impressive accomplishment, and then of course a well-deserved break before 1.14 releases!
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Brave New World:
Quick medical examination confirmed all members of the Conglomerate had at least a mild case of Dark Forest Disease.
Yep yep
The slate of candidates certainly brings a wide range of perspectives to the table. It is difficult to say which candidates will be the best choice, clearly some balance will be needed but what that should be is complicated. In any case there is a danger of a culture shift between the old and new Conglomerate which could threaten to derail their efforts, even if they share the same goals a new perspective on how to reach them could interrupt current efforts in some manner.
The range of visualizations for each candidate does a lot to show their background and personalities and is much appreciated. :)
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It is nice for the dolphins, sure, but in the present what about our own race.
This is a statement of a representant of a primitive civilisation. More advanced ones do care about dolphins evolving and carrying the tradition of sentience forward, long after they will be gone. So that as they fall one by one they are sure the universe will thrive once again...
Of course for you as an author this is a narrative success
Thanks... Always happy to see someone enjoy my aliens, because I feel like in space-related stuff is one of the easiest things to screw up by not making them alien enough or whatever.
I would cry shame on them for simply accepting the premise at face value and not interrogating it thoroughly, "whether it was all a mystification or not".
Who said they "simply accepted it"? It just was terrifying enough for them to smeg their pants who said they react like humans when afraid. Their balance might be perfect, but is also fragile - throw too much stuff at them and it will affect them, even if later they figure out what you threw was not true. Definitely better outcome, but simply saying stuff like that to any Groaxian in a convincing tone is enough to already cause some harm. Especially with all the went through...
the depths to which the Groaxians have sunk into Dark Forest nature, if indeed it was not in them all along as many seem to be afraid.
There's a reason universe is set up this way and not any other and why there's always an endless stream of things wanting to kill you out there. ::)
We do seem to be in the endgame now.
Timer is ticking... Dark Forest will hear, and once it hears, it purges.
The slate of candidates certainly brings a wide range of perspectives to the table
The range of visualizations for each candidate does a lot to show their background and personalities and is much appreciated.
Thanks, this is me opening the commanders window for the first time (except for the first manual assignments to the planet and academy at the very start of the game only to never see this window again), decided by telling a bit about different Groaxians I should avoid the "all aliens of one race are the same" cliche by a wider margin than by simply mentioning something about a special group of them or something.
Clearly some balance will be needed but what that should be is complicated.
Looks like you've predicted the latest update, they do indeed need some balance and it is definitely complicated... ::)
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Thanks... Always happy to see someone enjoy my aliens, because I feel like in space-related stuff is one of the easiest things to screw up by not making them alien enough or whatever.
To your credit I think the big accomplishment you've had is being consistent in your presentation of your aliens. In many cases writers try to create "more alien" aliens by making them look weird and every so often giving them quirks or weird rituals to remind the reader that the aliens are weird, but otherwise they act in very human ways. What you've done here is start from an alien race with a very distinctive cultural nature and drawn the narrative from that characterization rather than sticking "weird characters" into a predetermined plot arc.
I think Aurora is very strong in this regard, since it essentially generates the plot for us and gives a lot of natural cause-and-effect so the stories we tell make cohesive sense (unless there is a bug...). However much credit is due the writers who succeed in making the most out of what the game gives them. :)
Who said they "simply accepted it"? It just was terrifying enough for them to smeg their pants who said they react like humans when afraid. Their balance might be perfect, but is also fragile - throw too much stuff at them and it will affect them, even if later they figure out what you threw was not true. Definitely better outcome, but simply saying stuff like that to any Groaxian in a convincing tone is enough to already cause some harm. Especially with all the went through...
Really I think what I am getting at. The Groaxians are so fearful that in their reaction they struggle to keep to the ethical nature of their race. Of course this is good characterization to show how Dark Forest has affected the Groaxians.
And now for the updates...
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
It's funny to recall how this universe of yours got started with a, shall we say cheeky COVID-19 plot hook, and now in some sense we have come in a full circle. Of course now the tone is very different...
Zu'Zhuchuziv was the first one to come up with a plan. The middleman reminded about one of the experiments conducted in Qusmont labs. technology for rapid tissue expansion and cybersoul-based machines for shaping it into any organical form desired were widely used in medicine to heal wounds or replace corrupted organs, capable of even completely replacing all of them in case of advanced stages of most severe diseases. But that was just a mere entry point to more advanced cases. Bioengineers working with this technology predicted it was capable of doing much more, for example regenerating whatever part of a brain required replacement. The research on this part was mostly theoretical, though, with a few of experiments with animals here and there. Groaxian applications were strictly prohibited by Conglomerate. The plan of the candidate was nothing more but to continue the suspended project and replace damaged parts of the brain with a new tissue.
Already we see that the new Conglomerate is likely to take very different approaches from the old one, which is almost certainly necessary but at what cost?
Once upon a time Humanity faced a deadly plague. Not for the first time, and apparently not for the last (though the pace of progress in medicine afterwards made that particular one the last truly devastating pandemic),
I really hope so...
To further help the sleepless population, old Conglomerate agreed to increase the usage of cybersoul-based autonomous machines. So far it was hesitant of introducing too many of them into the industry as to not break the balance, but at that stage it was a necessity to compensate for the lowered productivity. It felt surrealistic: dead machines working solar and cosmic watch among deserted cities and factories while ice storms strike against them and with many Groaxians fighting in heated encampments to finally hibernate and sleep well till a new cycle begins.
It is almost like this pandemic could in the end have benefits for the Groaxians if they can discover how to defeat the actual disease. Introducing automation may contradict their social values but could also give them the elevated productivity they need to make a lot of progress on Project Ascension and other efforts to survive the Dark Forest. Of course this hinges on the Groaxians being able to find balance again if and when they can overcome the pandemic.
Enough Groaxians became Watchers for a new concept to raise and circulate among them, something not possible to emerge with the amounts of Dark Forest Disease patients from before the pandemic. They were no longer centered around the idea of balance, but instead took the idea of adaptation as their main guiding light.
Oh dear, this has the potential to cause massive upheaval when the Groaxians who have remained on the surface to hibernate re-awaken. Two fundamentally different views of existence cannot be compatible...can they?
What I meant to say was, "viva la revolution (https://i.imgur.com/8zKpsXh.png)" :P
A breakthrough on Yatune was announced shortly afterwards. Watchers not only were able to use the "spare brain parts" like evryone else, but it also turned out that after having genome sequence enriched with a tiny bit of small modifications to alleviate for missing hibernation, their mental condition was improving while doing so. Ironically, this was exactly what Watcher's ideals were about - as test subjects believed themselves, their adaptation allowed to pave the way towards ending the pandemic.
The intersection of scientific breakthrough and philosophy of existence is a wild and crazy frontier. Much can happen here.
The results... They were... too good. After so much time after the discovery of this theory, to have someone question its validity sounded strange at best and worrying survival-wise at worst. Groaxians, put on extinction timer, could not afford to waste it wondering whether the universe really operated the way it operated. But at the same time the outcome was hopeful: it served as a proof that a total reset of Groaxian society was doable. The "lost generation stragety" proposed by Pa'Voxihik was examined in a new light and gained more support than ever. And in the latest version nobody would technically have to end up "lost". Do what needs to be done, evacuate the race to a new home far from Qi and cure the society only after the imminent danger is avoided were the new points raised by many.
It is good to see the diverse efforts of the new Conglomerate members come together in such a solution, even though much work remains to be done. It is truly a very Groaxian solution, making intuitive sense to them while us humans would still be arguing about Ship of Theseus theory or something like that.
After more thoughts thrown at the issue, all sides involved managed to negotiate a new compromise: exactly half of the population would be cured and focus on Project Ascension, meeting Humanity and other tasks relating to overcome Dark Forest, the other half would be reprogrammed to take responsibility of preparing and later fighting the battles that were yet to come, and on top of that, a new Conglomerate alongside with its closest collaborators would remain how they were, without any genetic modification or mental overrides. Their task would be to carefully oversee the new status quo and intervene whenever they'd see it being skewed towards either side. And finally, when the time comes and either Qi and Mimung are evacuated or Project Ascension completed, they shall be the ones to pull the final switch and restore peace and bring the society to how it was before the interstellar era had begun.
In the end, both balance and adaptation are necessary. An interesting conclusion, yet one which certainly reconciles the nature of the universe. The Groaxians still face many challenges and must never become too comfortable with their place in the galaxy, but at least for now they can move forward into their Brave New World ;) with some measure of confidence I think.
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To your credit I think the big accomplishment you've had is being consistent in your presentation of your aliens. In many cases writers try to create "more alien" aliens by making them look weird and every so often giving them quirks or weird rituals to remind the reader that the aliens are weird, but otherwise they act in very human ways. What you've done here is start from an alien race with a very distinctive cultural nature and drawn the narrative from that characterization rather than sticking "weird characters" into a predetermined plot arc.
Ooops, I think I might have tried to do just that, make them "more alien" and whatnot, but if you say both I didn't do it and it's bad, then I guess... task failed successfully?
The Groaxians are so fearful
They are not fearful, they just want to enjoy their little utopia at peace without something always screwing them up and destabilising them even with the mere thought of its existence many light hibernation cycles away...
It's funny to recall how this universe of yours got started with
Well, you think why I wrote all this updates I wrote? I just wanted to reiterate through how it all started but in a different way because DLC...
I really hope so...
Don't worry, World Government already has this under control. Expreiments with cybernetics and genetic modifications are picking up pace and we're only a few years left from nuclear engines and this little beast
Scorpion class Geological Survey Vessel 3,178 tons 50 Crew 257.3 BP TCS 64 TH 150 EM 0
2360 km/s Armour 1-19 Shields 0-0 HTK 19 Sensors 0/0/0/1 DCR 1 PPV 0
Maint Life 1.58 Years MSP 50 AFR 81% IFR 1.1% 1YR 23 5YR 346 Max Repair 100 MSP
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Morale Check Required
Nuclear Thermal Engine EP50.00 (3) Power 150 Fuel Use 100% Signature 50 Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres Range 14.2 billion km (69 days at full power)
Geological Survey Sensors (1) 1 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
will take humans to Mars, Venus and overall across entire Solar System expect Nibiru and its two moons before the decade ends. We got this. 8)
What I meant to say was, "viva la revolution "
Yep, this time it's a real revolution. Surviving extreme conditions does affect stuff...
It is truly a very Groaxian solution, making intuitive sense to them while us humans would still be arguing about Ship of Theseus theory or something like that.
Well, seems like you finally start to understand how this civilisation works. It has different problems than humans and certain things that would be a problem for humans are no big deal here. Except here it actually is a big deal because balance yadda yadda, but it's a Brave New World for a reason...
they can move forward into their Brave New World ;) with some measure of confidence I think.
Well... Don't say "I survived Dark Forest Strike" before Dark Forest strikes, that's all I can tell for now... ::)
P.S. Damn I've really pushed as far as I could, time to play aurora again to get more stuff to work with.
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To your credit I think the big accomplishment you've had is being consistent in your presentation of your aliens. In many cases writers try to create "more alien" aliens by making them look weird and every so often giving them quirks or weird rituals to remind the reader that the aliens are weird, but otherwise they act in very human ways. What you've done here is start from an alien race with a very distinctive cultural nature and drawn the narrative from that characterization rather than sticking "weird characters" into a predetermined plot arc.
Ooops, I think I might have tried to do just that, make them "more alien" and whatnot, but if you say both I didn't do it and it's bad, then I guess... task failed successfully?
Haha, nothing wrong with intentionally making your aliens "more alien" - I'm more talking about the kind of writing where the "aliens" are basically humans with weird quirks and extra appendages, but they still speak, act, and think in fairly human ways beneath the superficial differences. If you could tell the same story with humans instead of aliens...well, why do you have aliens?
The Groaxians are of course very alien as a race, but what you've done here is I think to have a unique and alien culture which is not just "humanity with a weird trait" (like: Vulcans = logical humans, Klingons = aggressive humans, etc.) and explored how such a different culture would live in this Dark Forest universe. I could not describe the Groaxians as "collectivist humans" or "humans with telepathy" based on how the actual story has unfolded.
It's funny to recall how this universe of yours got started with
Well, you think why I wrote all this updates I wrote? I just wanted to reiterate through how it all started but in a different way because DLC...
Wait I thought this AAR was an excuse for self-indulgent philosophizing about the nature of life, the universe and everything?
Oh no, wait, my bad, that's what the comment thread is for. ;)
Well... Don't say "I survived Dark Forest Strike" before Dark Forest strikes, that's all I can tell for now... ::)
Call me an optimist.
P.S. Damn I've really pushed as far as I could, time to play aurora again to get more stuff to work with.
Oh no, however will you survive? ;)
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Hey, I'm finally back, still alive and still writing these updates, this is not dead, just like Groaxians are not dead... yet. ::)
I could not describe the Groaxians as "collectivist humans" or "humans with telepathy" based on how the actual story has unfolded.
Thanks a lot, that was precisely the goal. 8)
Wait I thought this AAR was an excuse for self-indulgent philosophizing about the nature of life, the universe and everything?
That too... Just not in that particluar fragment. ::)
Call me an optimist.
You are aware that optimists are the first ones to get wiped out from the Dark Forest, right?...
Oh no, however will you survive?
Maybe...
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Hey, I'm finally back, still alive and still writing these updates, this is not dead, just like Groaxians are not dead... yet. ::)
And just when I was starting to get worried...
Taking advantage of the brain's anatomy being spread all across the body beneath the protective layer of thick skin and each region easily replacing others if needed without much brainpower loss unless a large chunk was already non-functional, leveraging the achievements from fighting the pandemic, scientists found out that there were no constraints preventing to cut out part of the brain, move it somewhere else and the patient would still be able to use it for as long as the separated part was plugged to life support system. With the next-gen soulgrain-based Transcended Speech amplifiers the communication between brain parts was easier even across the entire planet, allowing one to essentially exist in many places at the same time while not suffering from losing parts of a brain.
The natural conclusion of this would be to see if such communication can break whatever speed barrier exists between multiple planets or even systems. Depending on the outcome of such an experiment this could have remarkable results.
The ground units are all highly flavorful, and the technology descriptions not only rich with detail but intimidating to behold the destructive power of each weapon. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but surely the pen trembles when faced with the Phased Surface Gravitational Destabilisator!
However I do believe the Raven-class carrier steals the show, for it is clearly designed with a singular purpose in mind and - aside from the necessary concessions to curvature drives - ruthlessly accomplishes that purpose at the expense of any other. Notably it certainly takes a certain kind of guts to build a ship which is only 10% engine mass but here it is a mission accomplished.
Tensions were high, but the precise goal of this entire undertaking was that no Groaxian would ever have to pay such a price for preserving the existence and balance or repeat these steps ever again.
A very optimistic goal. What was that said about optimists in the Dark Forest, again?
Right where the city should have been located, there was only a patch of yellow roots steadily consuming their purple versions. A few of them had already matured to the full size, surviving the brutal cycle of their life barely any young organisms went through without being eaten. Ground excavations did not help find anything either. The fleet spend quite a long time orbiting the planet, with scientists running multiple scans per solar watch and still coming up with new unconventional measurement methods to detect the hidden Umbara force, but to no avail. Eckesachs III looked as if Umbara never set feet on it.
That's...confusing. It is not exactly usual in the universe for an entire ruined city and its occupiers to just...disappear?
Or is it?
Before Groaxians left, a single Achernar starship was detected quite far away, in between Eckesachs III and II. It must had detected Groaxian fleet too, because as soon as the logs came in, it warped out of the system.
Perhaps the answer lies with the Archernar. They may have some kind of world-erasure technology they are using to prevent the Groaxians from ascending, though I have to admit that I cannot determine why they would do this. They only want to wipe out the Groaxians to prevent them from disrupting the Dark Forest, but if the Groaxians ascend they are out of the picture without any trouble.
Conglomerate immediately scheduled an emergency meeting. News brought by both explorers and soldiers were determined crucial and dangerous. First of all, from what was known about the history of Bootes Wars waged by Humanity against the menace of Invaders (or rather waged by Invaders against Humanity), the pattern of all traces of intelligence suddenly disappearing from a planet but other lifeforms being left unharmed to thrive was very characteristics to how Invaders dealt with their prey in a Dark Forest. Of course there was no proof, but if Invaders were already wiping out life so close to Qi then the Dark Forest Strike might arrive even faster than expected and on top of that likely having nothing to do with the Achernar broadcast in spite of the fact that from Humans knew Invaders rarely responded to such calls, preferring to methodically clean star after star in a predefined pattern rather than bother with wiping out civilisations at random.
This is another possibility but as mentioned it does not fit the pattern of the Invaders, plus they have not yet been encountered anywhere else.
As far as the Kusunagi-no-Tsurugi encounter, my money is on a parallel universe shenanigan of some sort.
The ecosystem looked very inspiring, though, for one simple reason: during the time spent on the surface no predator-prey iterations were observed between various species. They did not need to eat, so they did not need to hunt. They appeared to coexist in a harmony, their own version of balance, eating the same air. This picture of harmony clashed with the high volcanism, though, from which most of the carbon dioxide supply in the atmosphere came from.
Interesting...a world which seems so violent and chaotic, i.e. volcanic, is actually in perfect balance. Clearly there are no resounding philosophical implications from this of course. ;)
And of course no adventure in this universe is complete without a bunch of Umbara showing up to shoot everybody. A tale as old as time by now.
Hopefully the battle of Blutgang goes well, and more importantly in its aftermath some real clues to these many mysteries can be revealed.
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And just when I was starting to get worried...
Hey, no need to, I always finish my AARs. Can you point at least one from the past that got abandoned and never received a proper ending? 8)
The natural conclusion of this would be to see if such communication can break whatever speed barrier exists between multiple planets or even systems.
Doubt. This is just sending brain electrical signals through the conventional communication methods so that different parts of brain can communicate across distances... But no breaking speed of light arcana. Implementation-wise forwarding communication between these parts is same as forwarding communication between two different Groaxians... Just like internet won't make humanity go FTL, we need Alcubierre drives instead.
The ground units are all highly flavorful, and the technology descriptions not only rich with detail but intimidating to behold the destructive power of each weapon. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but surely the pen trembles when faced with the Phased Surface Gravitational Destabilisator!
Thanks, tried my best to get a proper ground army setup as these are always one of the most demanding aspects to get right and glad yo like my Phased Surface Gravitational Destabilisators! Though I made them sound way more op than I should, because gameplay wise they're just long range bombardment, I like these units a lot because dealing damage from the safety of rear echelon is awesome and indeed powerful, but nowhere near powerful enough as Phased Surface Gravitational Destabilisators! are described. Still, wanted some more exotic weapons than aurora offers by default and figured out the gravitational weapon tech tree, while non-existent in the game (Steve gravitational weapons when), will be a fine addition.
However I do believe the Raven-class carrier steals the show, for it is clearly designed with a singular purpose in mind and - aside from the necessary concessions to curvature drives - ruthlessly accomplishes that purpose at the expense of any other. Notably it certainly takes a certain kind of guts to build a ship which is only 10% engine mass but here it is a mission accomplished.
Oh well, it's just a simple carrier for transporting air fighters, it doesn't have much engines and thus is slow, but what would the additonal speed gain me besides being able to carry less fighters if they are always combined with troop transports because just like troop transports they are for ground invasions only? Didn't expect you'd like it, it's just a simple ship for some occassional task, not something you'd regularly see on the frontlines like Pikes and Strikers.
What was that said about optimists in the Dark Forest, again?
That optimists are the first to die in a Dark Forest. My point still stands. ::)
Interesting...a world which seems so violent and chaotic, i.e. volcanic, is actually in perfect balance. Clearly there are no resounding philosophical implications from this of course
Of course there are not, just like Groaxians have absolutley never let the nature of whatever worlds, their own or alien, they came across, to influence their philosophy. And it's obviously not like the biological interactions between them and the environment had any philosophical, cultural and ethical consequences for them before. :D
Hopefully the battle of Blutgang goes well, and more importantly in its aftermath some real clues to these many mysteries can be revealed.
Having spent so many hours on this I can say describing ground battles is as hard, and in certain cases might even be harder, than coming up with alien aliens. Both of these are always the most demanding, exhausting and challenging things to write about because gameplay doesn't provide me with any inputs to build upon (well, maybe besides alien portraits being something), I always have to make these completely from scratch. I fear one day my aliens won't be alien anymore, but for now I just keep going.
as always, thanks a lot and hope you'll like what I have planned for this before I can write an ending...
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The natural conclusion of this would be to see if such communication can break whatever speed barrier exists between multiple planets or even systems.
Doubt.
Well you're no fun. ;)
Oh well, it's just a simple carrier for transporting air fighters, it doesn't have much engines and thus is slow, but what would the additonal speed gain me besides being able to carry less fighters if they are always combined with troop transports because just like troop transports they are for ground invasions only? Didn't expect you'd like it, it's just a simple ship for some occassional task, not something you'd regularly see on the frontlines like Pikes and Strikers.
I have a bit of a thing for simple, brutally efficient builds outside of the ordinary things everyone does like 250,000-ton armored drop transports and the like. Usually when people build carriers they keep trying to fit in all these optional extras like secondary batteries, cryo modules, oversized radars, and the like. Granted, such designs can be effective, and frankly realistic if you look at what something like a Nimitz CV is loaded with, but a refreshingly simple design has its own beauty I think.
Having spent so many hours on this I can say describing ground battles is as hard, and in certain cases might even be harder, than coming up with alien aliens. Both of these are always the most demanding, exhausting and challenging things to write about because gameplay doesn't provide me with any inputs to build upon (well, maybe besides alien portraits being something), I always have to make these completely from scratch. I fear one day my aliens won't be alien anymore, but for now I just keep going.
It's definitely a different challenge especially with the game being so abstracted. Still the results can be fun to write if you hit on the right narrative tact.
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Eventually the sensors picked up all kinds of signals originating from Blutgang-A I. A quick comparison with data brought by 3410-3416 AM Blutgang Expedition was made, because something didn't feel right about them. And for a good reason: they were much weaker.
The description seems eerily similar to what one would expect from an orbital bombardment. Seems the Groaxians are not the first people to think of invading this world, thought they may soon be the most successful ones.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/858013622608724018/army1.PNG)
Such large formations are a joy to see given how many ill-conceived attempts at company-level OOB hackery there are floating around the forums.
But then one of the officers leading Shadows to battle came up with something crazy, but effective if done right: since infantry leadership was given to the combat-trained Tempestsaurs, they could unite to create a Mental Synergy among all troops that'd serve as an early warning system: for every individual predicting the trajectory of a missile was impossible until too late, but if they could focus only on a two-three missiles each at most at one time and run their internal systems to calculate predicted impact spot and then use Transcendent Speech to tell this to the ones within explosion range, survivability would increase. Such system required a precise, fast-paced collective information processing, but a Mental Synergy entangling minds of all soldiers at once should be enough to maintain it.
The next step in the Groaxian evolution is...distributed computing? I suppose this is one way to avoid the inevitable robot revolution, if we are all robots ourselves. Very ingenious.
The labyrinth of fortifications on the one hand lacked a key defense line, allowing Groaxians for more mobility across the perimeter, but on the other hand with such structure it was a nightmare to locate next targets for elimination.
The Umbara have been quite militarily clever here, urban warfare is always the hardest and bloodiest kind of combat zone and this will exact the highest price from the attackers, since the defenders have nowhere to retreat and will fight to the last man...erm, alien.
While nobody could tell for sure whether they're aggressive or not, everybody was certain that a pack of animals won't threaten an army easily handling the intelligent occupants of this strange world. First Shadows which were jumped at by the biological gliders did not do much besides using their rifles as maces to throw the animals off themselves. But that quickly changed when these things were observed to spit acid and then bite right through it, penetrating the armors and killing the soldiers. Concentrated plasma fire burned through the rest of the pack, but it was only one of the first to appear. Suddenly new packs poured from the ground, right in between of moving units. Gravitational pulses were out of the question and particle beams or fusion missiles were ineffective at dealing with these targets. Small arms fire was the best solution, but best did not mean good. Kinetic support providers and Avengers tried to help with the larger packs of the unexpected enemies, but they literally rose from the ground everywhere at once, chewing through infantry units, obviously separated from each other because they expected to be shot at rather than to experience being swarmed by an angry mob of local fauna representatives.
This reminds me of fighting Seekers in XCOM:EW, with the sudden appearance from CLOSE RANGE?! and trying ineffectually to hit them with reaction fire before they killed someone. Except that these blobs are far more lethal...
A robotic skeleton in a biological shell, that's what these "animals" really were. It was not local fauna, but another Umbara weapon.
...okay, now it reminds me even more of Seekers. That's a damn nasty weapon there.
And most intriguing, their cities were deserted. Most buildings and rooms stood empty and there was no civilian population anywhere to be seen.
Almost as if the Umbara were not the population, only the previous conquerors of the cities. Yet it sounds like these are not Precursor buildings, so the question of who exactly once lived here remains...
Once again you torture the readers with a cliffhanger! All told a vivid description of the ground assault across an alien terrain, with I think a good balance between reflecting the confusion of battle and having a coherent line of advance and narrative to the engagement. Looking forward to the exciting conclusion!
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Well you're no fun.
Sorry to disappoint you, but there's only so much stuff my brain can process and think about when writing an AAR, I'm not a Groaxian and besides not everything can be a grand mystery and a lead to scientific breakthrough, life is also about these simple, daily activities like long-distance communication by sending electrical signals back and forth...
I have a bit of a thing for simple, brutally efficient builds outside of the ordinary things everyone does like 250,000-ton armored drop transports and the like.
Well, mine are 150k and I still thought that was way too big, but I wanted armor since I expected STOs just like the last time and was surprised they were no longer there and most importantly, jump drive took a good chunk of weight. And I still fit something extra on my carriers, because I wanted to see those ground troops so I needed an active sensor.
The description seems eerily similar to what one would expect from an orbital bombardment.
Probably, got surprised when I saw their signatures much lower than expected and nobody was shooting at my ships.
Such large formations are a joy to see given how many ill-conceived attempts at company-level OOB hackery there are floating around the forums.
Two-level chain of command is most I can handle before my brain melts by trying to remember how many units should go where. Still believe infantry should be twice as big since I used 20 of them instead of 10 under one hq, but this was the first unit and I was afraid I'll lack gallicite to build ships to transport them all with heavier stuff like vehicles and all that. Also lacked patience to have to wait for so many ships to build, but in the end could've made them twice as big and it'd be fine.
Still, would love to do proper xcom squads. Too bad aurora does everything ui- and gameplay-wise (mmostly the former) to punish such approach. Love tactical small-scale combat.
The next step in the Groaxian evolution is...distributed computing?
And you accuse me of being no fun. :D One solar watch you except me to try to describe remote communication as something unbelievably mysterious and ground-breaking and the other as I describe another application of distributed computing done on the brains instead of machines you call it simply distributed computing. I guess I can't win. :P
...okay, now it reminds me even more of Seekers.
Seekers didn't swarm... And had no biological parts. Though I guess the only reason they didn't swarm was gameplay balance. Because they absolutely should appear in large numbers.
Yet it sounds like these are not Precursor buildings
Because these are not. 8) Obviously not build Precursor-style if your average infantry squad can blow up the opening at their leisure. :P Plus if these were Precursor ruins, I'd do them more justice. They'll still get some more love though, it's an alien city after all.
Once again you torture the readers with a cliffhanger!
Again, it was an accident, I sat for a few hours straight to write this and even the last part about the cities felt a bit rushed for my taste because I was tired, so I had to stop. I mean, little Umbara resistance and lack of civilian population were planned, but still wanted to give them more love. Hopefully I can fix that in the next update.
Also big respect for what you're doing, you seem to be active in so many aars at once while also discussing the game itself on the forum and I don't know how do you get time for all this, I can only write mine and barely catch up with Duranium Legion for now and saw one particular aar recently that might be very fitting with my taste and what I focus on most when it comes to space sci-fi, but damn time ends always too quickly...
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Still, would love to do proper xcom squads. Too bad aurora does everything ui- and gameplay-wise (mmostly the former) to punish such approach. Love tactical small-scale combat.
I've toyed with the idea of doing XCOM squad style combat, but it would have to be heavily scripted between player-controlled races. I do think the ground units system works for what Aurora is as a game but it sadly cannot do everything we want it to.
The next step in the Groaxian evolution is...distributed computing?
And you accuse me of being no fun. :D
Okay, you're a little bit of fun. ;)
Again, it was an accident, I sat for a few hours straight to write this and even the last part about the cities felt a bit rushed for my taste because I was tired, so I had to stop. I mean, little Umbara resistance and lack of civilian population were planned, but still wanted to give them more love. Hopefully I can fix that in the next update.
Don't let me get under you skin. Cliffhangers are a time-honored AAR writing tradition. But so is yelling at the author for such torture. ;)
Also big respect for what you're doing, you seem to be active in so many aars at once while also discussing the game itself on the forum and I don't know how do you get time for all this, I can only write mine and barely catch up with Duranium Legion for now and saw one particular aar recently that might be very fitting with my taste and what I focus on most when it comes to space sci-fi, but damn time ends always too quickly...
When I started out on the forum I made it a goal to do what I could to support the AAR section, since it's such a big part of what Aurora is about as anyone can tell from how many stories Steve has written from his campaigns, but a thriving AAR board needs commenters as well as authors in my experience, to provide love and encouragement. :)
As for how I find the time, it turns out Aurora is a great procrastination subject... :P
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When I started out on the forum I made it a goal to do what I could to support the AAR section, since it's such a big part of what Aurora is about as anyone can tell from how many stories Steve has written from his campaigns, but a thriving AAR board needs commenters as well as authors in my experience, to provide love and encouragement.
That's an amazing goal to have and a very inspiring one, I wish I only had time to make something useful of this inspiration, because they say a follower is more important than an initiator and a crucial part when it comes to starting a trend... I dunno, if I could, for example, not sleep... ::) Would be useful for many other occassions as well.
And thanks, certainly feel loved and encouraged by your constant comment spam engaging discussion. ;) It is indeed a strong motivation and serves as a pretty efficient warranty for me have enough motivation to go with this all the way till I'll be able to write "THE END".
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I really need to catch up on this AAR (and the COVID one!) Love a good read.
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Hey, thanks! But yeah, be sure to read the one about Covid first as this one is a DLC and reading it would make you maybe not as confused as I initially thought when starting writing this one, but certainly this will ruin the previous one for you, for same reason I advise you to not read too much from this thread as it's obviously the perfect way to spoil both. Depending on where you are it may take a bit of time for you to catch up, but I hope you'll feel satisfied and that it was worth it to
waste invest the time. Eagerly awaitng whatever comments you might have! ;D
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I've now got quite a lot of episodes to catch up on, and not a lot of time lately, but I will at least endeavor to make a start here...
OPERATION HELLSPAWN
Besides an obvious supply of Umbara combat gas there were also barrels with radioactive wastes found to be stored deep in the underground sections. Oddly enough, they were dropped disregarding any safety procedures. According to known research their bodies weren't resistant to radiation which would be the only reasonable explanation for such disinterest in proper handling of the dangerous materials. Again, another question left open for the scientists.
If I recall correctly - always questionable - the Umbara have a shortened life span due to the combat gas they inhale, so they may not care much about the effects of radiation knowing they won't live long anyways. A callous attitude to be sure. Reminds me of the Farscape episode about those thrill-seekers on the deserted rock with the sonic trampoline shaft.
The temporary status qo was given a very short life expectancy and thus another unconventional solution had been brought to the table. Avengers were to withdraw and let go of Umbaras in the air, giving a short window of oportunity for a few gravitational strikes. It was expected that a local space warp around them would simply force Umbaras to fall down and crash due to overwhelming gravity.
A clever and unorthodox solution!
Groaxians watching this could only imagine the entire planet being ripped apart if a standard starship-sized Curvature Propulsion System was used instead of a carefully prepared, underpowered versions meant to destroy only a small area rather than smash the entire world with just one pulse.
Someone should build one of these. Just, you know, in case of emergency... ;)
Multiple scouting missions were launched across all planet and all the best gear had been employed for survey tasks, but no large concentrations of hostile military forces were discovered, with only a small, easy to deal with squads protecting some small communities here and there. Shockingly, a total population of the planet was estimated to not even cross ten million. With their army basically non-existent, they were harmless.
Interesting. This is I think the first Groaxian interaction with the Umbara "civilian" population, I think. This could prove enlightening, they may not be the military minded types and may be more willing to at least talk to the Groaxians and give some clues about the Umbara military.
END OF A CYCLE
To further add to this, their sight was described as, due to lack of better words, "mathematical". They perceived world around them in as a complex vector space. Where Groaxians saw a rock, Umbaras saw a cluster of different vectors pointing towars various points of this rock, somewhat similar to the methods used for graphic rendering in early designs of cybersoul mainframes.
I'd like to be the scientist who figures out how a species evolved that capability!
However, with the truth revealed from interrogated survivors from Zenn who crashed their evacuation pods into the planet, they no longer wanted to inhale the gas. Their biologists found a workaround to sustain their life functions with intaking regular doses of radiation instead. It was still killing them, but much slower than the addiction from the gas which effects on the body had been nullified by expousure to nuclear wastes or certain species of surviving flora.
Somehow, the truth is even worse than my original guess. The universe according to the Umbara is truly bleak.
As soon as they were part of the same civilisation, Dark Forest rules no longer applied. Despite some small opposition from the ones Bound by Dark Forest, Conglomerate instantly agreed to start a unification project.
I must be skeptical of this idea. There is a clear counterexample here, Zenn and La were part of the same civilization and ended up in another civil war. I may be a small, relatively unintelligent human next to the super smart Groaxians, but I think they are letting optimism get the best of them. Then again, maybe optimism is the only way forward, if it worked for humanity after all it may work for Groaxians too...
SYNERGY OF TWO NATURES
Something something ying and yang...
With these two major centers in place, Mimung was expected to become fully independent and capable of supporting space industry and research in Qi.
I have to say that compared to the last AAR, the very little and slow pace of colonization in this one is very flavorful. Every move like this feels meaningful, not just interstellar sprawl but a deliberate advance to bring hope and life to the Groaxian race.
With regards to how much time was still left, astronomers focused their observations on the black holes and supernovae, trying to build an algorithm which could provide some rough hints as to where the closest Dark Forest Lord was located.
This AAR suddenly needs boss battle music.
Initial optimism of Umbara assimilation had quickly withered away when numerous works indeed confirmed they were not representants of civilisation of a good will. They even were surprised by the fact Groaxians kept them alive so far and even shamed them for being weak, predicting the end was nigh for a species that cannot abide the rules of a Dark Forest.
Well, darn. It was a nice hope while it lasted I suppose.
For the time being, there was no harm in keeping leftovers from Umbara society alive, but soulseekers surely had a lot of work to do to prepare a satisfying resolution of this dilemma.
I suspect, personally, that the satisfying resolution to this dilemma will somehow be related to the process of Ascension. It would definitely fit together this way.
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I will have to leave the rest for another reading session, this is the bottom of the page so is a good stopping point for now. I look forward to the next remaining installments as the Groaxians continue to unravel the secrets of the universe, the Dark Forest, and hopefully Ascension...
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I've now got quite a lot of episodes to catch up on, and not a lot of time lately, but I will at least endeavor to make a start here...
And so the lack of time I was mentioning earlier on my side had finally caught up to you... Now please tell the truth, you did it on purpose as a revenge for me not posting for two weeks straight. You even decreased your activity on the forums to make it more believable. :P
Reminds me of the Farscape episode about those thrill-seekers on the deserted rock with the sonic trampoline shaft.
Reminds you of... what??? ???
Someone should build one of these. Just, you know, in case of emergency...
They're on every starship... Alcubierre Drives are deep space only or say bye bye to whatever chunk of matter is within range. Groaxians can consider themselves lucky Umbara is a primitive civilisation that believed it can conquer Yatune with conventional means and decided trying to get resources from the world is more beneficial than destroying it, or their ships would just fire their FTL drives instead of unloading troops and Yatune would be no more.
This could prove enlightening
Rumors circulating among explorers, so ancient that they are predating both Groaxians and Humanity, tell tales about civilisations of a good will leaving beacons with epitaphs like this one citing famous last words of countless civilisations to serve as a warning against interacting with Dark Forest Lords... Most civilisations agree they must had been weak Dark Forest players since extinction of one race is the survival of the other. Creators of these space cemeteries are long gone now and nobody has any doubts left as to why.
I'd like to be the scientist who figures out how a species evolved that capability!
Well, looks like human hibernation will be a thing relatively soon. According to the timeline from previous AAR, that's hibernating for 200 years before Dark Forest Strike comes and our region of space is swallowed by black holes, evacuating to NN 4079 before that happens and at that point genetic engineering would be advanced enough to make you survive frozen hell on the third planet from the sun. And with modifying your body you won't need a heating source and thus won't look on their homeworld like a weirdo who needs heaters even when a -30 Celsius heatwave strikes. Pretty easy, isn't it? ;D
There is a clear counterexample here, Zenn and La were part of the same civilization
Except they were not. They just happened to evolve both on the same planet and La simply had their local version of Terror from the Deep when the contact was made, that's all. ;)
maybe optimism is the only way forward
One of the beacons I mentioned earlier had exactly this thing written on it! :D
if it worked for humanity after all it may work for Groaxians too...
Humanity had it much easier, because they dealt with the civilisation of a good will...
the very little and slow pace of colonization in this one is very flavorful.
That's how it ends when you want to squeeze any tiny bit of performance right from the go and start without civilians which at the start are your only reasonable shipping force and the gallicite hates you so much even freighters cost a fortune. In the previous one I had not enough gallicite for any reasonable military force, but still enough for the freighters + a hundred years of development before leaving Sol + tons of civilians + huge gallicite deposits on the first two systems, so while it was still slow in the early years of interstellar conquest, it could easily blossom later on, to the point I could casually smash a colony wherever I want in no time. Not to mention in the previous campaign I could spread quite a lot before meeting my first aliens while still being fairly separated from them, meanwhile here with multiple routes and nprs right on top of me from the start their presence hinders my already small expansion potential.
This AAR suddenly needs boss battle music.
Well, near the end of my previous one I posted some youtube links I liked, so I guess i could do this once again, I think?
It was a nice hope while it lasted I suppose.
"It was a nice civilisation while it lasted I suppose" - Ix'iks, commander of last surviving starship leaving into the unknown after Ulpha exploded in a supernova after photonic missile strike, 7890 Galactic Rotation.
I will have to leave the rest for another reading session, this is the bottom of the page so is a good stopping point for now.
Damn, should've squeezed these replies to fit on three pages...
Anyways, good to see you again here! :D I caught up with gameplay once again, so it's time to play again, although I'm not sure what to do next in the game as now after securing Blutgang I have quite a few options opened. But I've got other games to play and stuff I'd like to do in general, so I guess I can afford to make a longer break than initially expected to let you catch up in peace (even though as I got to that sweet gallicite in Mimung playthrough should become that much more engaging now...) and not overwhelm you with more updates if you've got less time now, other AARs you read, your own AAR and all that. That's all I can (not) do for my beloved reader at the moment, so enjoy the fourth page at your own leisure. 8) (unless for whatever reason you want me to write more NOW, then I can always revert this longer break and get back to work).
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Now please tell the truth, you did it on purpose as a revenge for me not posting for two weeks straight. You even decreased your activity on the forums to make it more believable. :P
I won't talk, you won't get a word out of me! ;)
Reminds me of the Farscape episode about those thrill-seekers on the deserted rock with the sonic trampoline shaft.
Reminds you of... what??? ???
Farscape is an Australian/American sci-fi show from the turn of the millennium. Kinda cheesy, very weird, great puppetry. Episode spoilers follow:
In one episode the main cast visits a body inhabited by a bunch of thrill-seeking drug addicts, who engage in high-risk activities such as jumping into a deep shaft to see if they survive, which they sometimes do because of a weird sonic trampoline at the bottom... anyways, turns out that they do this because they all die very young, in their early 20s or so. Plot point: this is because of very high ambient radiation that causes wasting sickness.
Anyways this reminds me of the Umbara and their fatalistic attitude...they're going to die anyways from the drugs, may as well have some radiation too while they are at it.
They're on every starship... Alcubierre Drives are deep space only or say bye bye to whatever chunk of matter is within range.
I meant like a big ground-based one as a last resort, however it does seem like just using shipborne makes more sense if one wants to do such a thing.
Well, near the end of my previous one I posted some youtube links I liked, so I guess i could do this once again, I think?
It could be fun, but it is up to you as I wouldn't want you to interrupt your writing flow just to paste YouTube links.
Anyways, good to see you again here! :D I caught up with gameplay once again, so it's time to play again, although I'm not sure what to do next in the game as now after securing Blutgang I have quite a few options opened. But I've got other games to play and stuff I'd like to do in general, so I guess I can afford to make a longer break than initially expected to let you catch up in peace (even though as I got to that sweet gallicite in Mimung playthrough should become that much more engaging now...) and not overwhelm you with more updates if you've got less time now, other AARs you read, your own AAR and all that. That's all I can (not) do for my beloved reader at the moment, so enjoy the fourth page at your own leisure. 8) (unless for whatever reason you want me to write more NOW, then I can always revert this longer break and get back to work).
You should write whatever you want, whenever you want. I'm not your only reader, I just comment the most. ;) Ultimately the best AAR is always the one which is written, the readers will come at their own pace and timing.
And speaking of reading...
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MAIGH EO DISTURBANCE
An...interesting battle. I'm wondering if in-game this was a one-sided slaughter, but in narrative a more exciting and intriguing explanation was needed? Otherwise I am left wondering what kind of weapon could cause such a thing - but I suppose we shall find out soon enough.
but there was something in the soul of every Groaxian that remained unchanged. An essence that demanded a proper balance and entire society united, just like it had always been. While in theory this should be an optimistic sign, none of the soulseekers investigating the case had any reliable predictions as to where this would lead and how the two so radically different groups would look like when left on their own to merge. Some even worried than Groaxians from each of the group suddenly coming to agreement on certain things with each other was a dangerous thing, because that'd mean half of the society shifting towards Bound by Dark Forest philosophy despite being free from Dark Forest Disease and not put through genetic modifications. They feared to openly admit it, but were worried that the observed process could be a symptom of what Tempestsaurs Of Achernar had on mind when they said "Dark Forest is a force of balance".
At this point there may be a legitimate argument that the Groaxians are discovering their true nature, one of balance between the various forces of the universe, and the worriers are holding things back by being afraid of change even if it leads to the true self of the Groaxian race. That said, surely such a fear and reaction is part of the balance, offset by those who push bravely forward?
THE MATRIX
But while humans through their research were able to only uncover some vague concepts from these thoughts and were forced to rely on more traditional knowledge sharing in the long run, the power of Groaxian mind, exceeding human capabilities, was enough for soulseekers to filter concrete words and expressions out of the array of thoughts. They could directly talk to Precursors and enjoy their last gift they had left for this dark universe.
Showoffs.
G: Dark Forest Theory. We understand. But we struggle to overcome it. Please, help us. Our civilisation is in danger. Not only our lives, but also our values. Dark Forest consumes us.
P: You soak corruption with every action you take, but seek something more. Transition to a new plane is something only a civilisation of a good will could ever achieve, and we sense the light radiating from you. Use our artefacts wisely and they shall lead you to a higher plane where the rules of Dark Forest no longer apply.
An interesting premise, that the actions taken do not erase the fundamental nature of the being behind the actions.
The Matrix: it seems like the next big philosophical challenge of the Groaxians must be to find the balance between tradition and preservation, and change and evolution. This I suspect will be the balance on which their Ascension hinges.
Astronomers rushed to aim their telescopes at the pointed locations, but what they discovered instantly increased their body temperature by a bit and made it difficult for them to breath. Later they all had to be quickly treated for a Dark Forest Disease. All of the revealed stars existed no more. They were all collapsed, with nothing left in that region of space but a nasty cluster of black holes.
Shocking, but not unexpected. It would be silly to think the Dark Forest Lords would not eventually have noticed this, and wanted to erase all trace of Ascension as this would threaten their Dark Forest itself.
But if Humanity's territory had been destroyed by a Dark Forest Strike, question remained as to why Qi was spared. Yatune was inhabited by humans and as such should be destroyed, too. But since it wasn't, it might as well mean that Humanity somehow figured out how to prevent Dark Forest Lord from learning about this system. Maybe they had fled there to avoid destruction, just like Groaxians themselves searched for a new home, for example. Or maybe the last of them indeed fulfilled their promise of "keeping Groaxians safe".
Shortly after the grim discovery astronomers announced a second breakthrough: due to some small mistake, in case of one coordination pair they had looked at the wrong stellar object. Once they spotted and corrected the error, they saw a lone K-class star, still surviving and shining bright, moreover it was easily reachable because it was positioned within the Crack. Besides Qi, it was another system that survived the destruction.
This could suggest that the Crack, or more accurately the Wall in which there is a Crack, could have somehow shielded Qi from the Dark Forest Strike. Although if so, this is something the Archernar seem unaware of, which could be a useful thing to know if there is another confrontation with them in the future.
The Rifts
Never-ending questions about morality of changing nature never ended and this eventually created a very problematic dilemma. If overcoming Dark Forest and preventing genocide forced Groaxians to freely experiment on other species and destroy whatever society they tried to build, then some questioned whether it was worth to try it at all. This way of thinking had a simple implication that if overcoming Dark Forest was not worth it, but playing by its rules was still worse as a genocide also meant "destroying whatever society one tries to build" as one of the consequences, then the only option left was to simply not try to survive and sit on a perfectly balanced Genesis until Dark Forest Strike comes. This philosophy came dangerously close to the way Tempestsaurs Of Achernar viewed the universe. In a way it was all self-contradicting, though: by not caring about survival one would manage to deny a fundamental axiom on which the Dark Forest Theory was founded and as such from the technical point of view it was enough to overcome it despite previous assumption of this philosophical trend about not overcoming it at all, even if the success might be very short-lived. Though certainly long-lasting from the perspective of the ones far enough from event horizon to not be affected by time dilation...
Good thing the Groaxians are not literal computers despite their high intelligence, otherwise this paradox might cause them to be stuck in an infinite loop! :P
Of course problem with Black Wall persisted, but with the Crack present at the very least Groaxians could move onto the experimental stage. Any explanation as to what had happened and why physics of higher dimensions refused to work everywhere else were still missing. Some scientists hoped that once the experiments on dimensional matrix or rift collapsing would begin, it'd shed some light to the topic and finally provide answers by, for example, making it possible to "peek to the other side" and check what was going on there and how the problem presented from a four-dimensional perspective.
I have an ominous feeling that perhaps why four-dimensional physics are not working is that the Dark Forest Lords are finding a way to disrupt or destroy four-dimensional hyperspace to prevent any other races from Ascending. If this is true, the Groaxians are racing against an even bigger and more dangerous clock than they ever knew before...
And now I think I am caught up, in my own time as always. Even as the plot progresses, only new mysteries are found and the story becomes even more tense. Hopefully the Groaxians come out of this in a good place...
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I won't talk, you won't get a word out of me!
You foolish human, you think I'd waste my time trying to get words out of you like some primitive barbarian? Of course I'll use Transcendent Speech and get thoughts out of you! 8)
they're going to die anyways from the drugs, may as well have some radiation too while they are at it.
Wait till they develop irradiated drugs...
I wouldn't want you to interrupt your writing flow just to paste YouTube links.
Trust me, what's interrupting my writing flow is inventing the titles, with youtube links I could just casually start spamming and it'd take a good while for me to run out.
I just comment the most.
While you are not the only reader, there you've got your explanation. ;)
I'm wondering if in-game this was a one-sided slaughter, but in narrative a more exciting and intriguing explanation was needed?
Yeah, yeah, exactly that... Umbara were challenging at the start because they:
-arrived at Qi before I saw them anywhere else, forcing me to spend last starting building points just to have something to fire back
-surprised me with ground assaults
-later developed particle beams of their own which surprised me again and resulted with casualties taken after I got too comfortable blasting them from outside gauss range
But ever since Pikes and Strikes were a thing, they are no longer challenging, but this AAR already sees few battles, so I couldn't afford to just skip one, so had to "invent something" (also needed to have a justification for the screenshot displaying jump point assault in the universe without jump points... ::))
That said, surely such a fear and reaction is part of the balance
Say this on Genesis and you'll have both sides of the society hating on you :P
Showoffs.
Said a guy who writes updates three times long as each of mine, but describing only about half a day spent talking about spaceships ;D
wanted to erase all trace of Ascension
Rather erase all traces of humanity - it's an existential threat for them to leave anything else alive, after all.
could have somehow shielded Qi from the Dark Forest Strike.
Depends what type of Strike we're talking about... There are quite a few of them and the most primitive one being a near-lightspeed missile aimed at the star doesn't give a smeg about Walls, Cracks, hyperspace and whatever else might exist or not exist in between the missile and its target.
Dark Forest Lords are finding a way to disrupt or destroy four-dimensional hyperspace to prevent any other races from Ascending.
Why bother with this prevention if the best prevention is to just blast entire galaxies into nothingness during your lunch break, because that's the level of power we're talking here? :P
Hopefully the Groaxians come out of this in a good place...
If they come out. If.
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I'm wondering if in-game this was a one-sided slaughter, but in narrative a more exciting and intriguing explanation was needed?
Yeah, yeah, exactly that... Umbara were challenging at the start because they:
-arrived at Qi before I saw them anywhere else, forcing me to spend last starting building points just to have something to fire back
-surprised me with ground assaults
-later developed particle beams of their own which surprised me again and resulted with casualties taken after I got too comfortable blasting them from outside gauss range
But ever since Pikes and Strikes were a thing, they are no longer challenging, but this AAR already sees few battles, so I couldn't afford to just skip one, so had to "invent something" (also needed to have a justification for the screenshot displaying jump point assault in the universe without jump points... ::))
I won't lie, I forgot that jump points were a thing because you have written them out. Probably I should have guessed this as it explains everything.
Sadly this is a chronic problem with all the NPRs, which is why any project I take on after Duranium Legion will be limited to player races and spoilers. They are just so exploitable.
Say this on Genesis and you'll have both sides of the society hating on you :P
But surely this proves that I am right! :P
This all aside, I am finally able to get back into these recent updates, and there have been plenty so I will be kept busy for a good while. I hope my extended absence from the comment section has not caused any alarm, but this kind of detailed and imaginative narrative work demands full attention when I can give it.
Onwards!
TRANSDIMENSIONAL ERA
I must admit that I did not anticipate returning and the first update is a colonization and ship design discussion. I am certainly not complaining, though.
Out of context, I'm curious why not take a couple of the Misc Components and implement them as smaller passive sensors, particularly on the Shizae. The science vessels will be exploring far from the rest of Groaxiani civilization and being able to detect the Umbara or another threat even minimally seems useful.
Cooling is an important subject in any real-life engineering field, yet even Aurora sadly lacks mechanics or components for it. An excellent subject for a bit of fluff about these designs.
ECHOES OF A DIFFERENT TIME
Sure, Conglomerate wanted to colonise this world for its beauty and calming effects it held on whoever visited it and possibly serving as a future home preserving Groaxians from the Dark Forest Strike, but Joyeuse lied outside of most popular routes adding to the logistical challenge and all the resources were pumped into Blutgang and Project Ascension, leaving nothing to spare for Joyeuse conquest for the time being.
I notice that the Conglomerate would plan "conquest" - perhaps a clue into changing Groaxian thinking? Seems a bit Black Forest for such a noble race...
Contrary to the wreck from Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, the outpost held information encrypted in Groaxian language, giving hope for understanding what was going on with Groaxian-but-not-really artefacts suddenly appearing in already explored worlds.
It seems strange that the information and the history here is Groaxian, yet the signals perceived from approaching the planet were not identified as such.
Otherwise at this point it seems like somehow there has been time travel or other warping of space-time for this missive from the future to arrive. Or possibly this is some kind of fourth-dimensional interaction? A mystery it seems.
The attempted investigation of the Crack or more accurately the edge raises more mysteries. Still I guess this is not too unexpected, if there is a Wall in three dimensions it should be there in four dimensions as well if whoever put it there knows what they are doing.
After reading through the reports of both expeditions, Conglomerate briefly noted how they both brought more questions than answers
Clearly my comments here qualify me to be a Conglomerate member. :P
The message was simple: "Humanity is no more, but we, last surviving Groaxians, will take its place."
Very curious...I'm not sure it was mentioned as a possibility, but to me there is a chilling potential: humanity which had previously ascended is truly no more because the Dark Forest Lords have invaded the dimension to eradicate the ascended races. I couldn't say why they would do this but it is a chilling thought, and in that case it makes sense that the Groaxians would flee and hide instead of ascending. However the apparent time travel remains mysterious...
astronomers noticed a star not further than one hundred thirty two light hibernation cycles away suddenly collapse into one shining point together with the ones that were nearby. Shortly afterwards the point stopped emitting light and ceased to exist. That region of space ceased to exist and a few gravitational anomalies were all that was left from it.
Very, very ominous...
3480-3485 AM hibernation cycles
It was natural for Groaxians to assume that Precursors had built a beautiful civilisation representing a good will they wanted to share across the universe, so to see them ruthlessly experimenting on sentient beings of various kinds was a bizarre sight.
If I can make sense of what we are seeing here I might speculate that this may have been why the Precursors failed to Ascend, if they became too corrupted in pursuit of that goal. Ironic...
Whether it would be possible for anyone to ascend without doing things Dark Forest Theory mentioned remained an interesting question for soulseekers, but none of the cases studied by Groaxians had achieved that, with both Precursors and Humanity having to resolve to warfare and brutal, morally questionable methods to push the project further. Other philosophical questions could be asked on this premise, namely whether the failure came from resolving to violence, but firstly for Humanity there was no proof they had actually failed, meanwhile with the Invaders all around Precursors, past some tipping point, were doomed regardless of their further choices. Some claimed that no ascension without cosmic fires was possible, because everything came at a price in the universe full of natural and obvious hostility.
It reminds me of something I heard recently... "War is always evil...but some things are worse". Perhaps this also rings true when it comes to Ascension?
All in all, Conglomerate ended up publishing a decree according to which Umbara survivors were to be incorporated into the army and tied to the Groaxian soldiers by a common theme circulating among units and crews: war culture and language of Humanity. Many soulseekers were truly happy with the final solution: the approach of Humanity to warfare was a perfect balance between what Groaxians and Umbara Commune had achieved in that regard.
This seems the right path. I fear that had the Groaxians essentially forced the Umbara to serve as their army, this would have a corrupting influence and inhibit the possibility of Ascension. This choice preserves balance, as stated, by creating a shared cultural bond out of the necessity of warfare.
This also reminds me of how the Roman Republic and later Empire made such great success out of incorporating their neighbors rather than enslaving or annihilating them - very appropriate as this approach flies in the face of Dark Forest yet led to one of the most successful civilizations of history, so it is encouraging for the Groaxians or rather it would be if they were humans and knew human history beyond the admittedly small part given by the Monolith.
And whatever optimism might emerge from relatively rapid progress was overshadowed by increasing reports from astronomers taking notice of larger and larger chunks of space collapsing and fading away according to the description brought by explorers from Joyeuse.
The clock is ticking...
LAST GENERATION OF ZENN-LA
This title once again sounds ominous - but this time for the other guys which I suppose is a welcome change for our protagonists!
At 3486 AM hibernation cycle four Strikers and four Pikes making for Human Space Fleet straightened space while entering the gravity well of the three stellar bodies making Hauteclere system and headed towards Hauteclere-A II, the planet near which Baernoloths had been attacked, preparing curvature disturbance scanners to determine possible routes enemies might had taken since the last encounter. But what was found was not just traces of Umbara presence, it was their entire fleet still floating in deep space slightly beyond the planet.
Eight ships against...a lot, although from the sizes many of them look like they may just be auxiliaries with little armament.
OOC: Side note, but I'm curious why after all this time the Umbara are still noted as [QI] in the tactical map?
According to their thoughts, they were a part of the last surviving Zenn fleet out there. Suffering several crushing defeats from Tempestsaurs Of Achernar, these two damaged squadrons were all there had been left.
So it sounds like the Achernar had their own ways to deal with the Umbara, indeed...
The Odyssey of Zenn-La had came to an end, Dark Forest consumed its yet another victim. But Zenn and La survived in some form and those lucky enough to see one more solar watch joined the Groaxian Odyssey across dimensions.
Even in the Dark Forest there is some measure of hope, of a sort.
Continued in the next post as I want to be careful of the forum posting limits.
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3487-3494 AM hibernation cycles
An interesting symbol appeared in many parts of intact hull structures, oddly fitting with the philosophy of Achernar. It was cyclical, just like the universe and all history was, according to them at least, but there was more beyond this simple observation. The center of the picture looked like a symbol of a star, but the lines expanding outwards carried had creepy vibes attached to them. They could represent the shock wave after the star had been struck by a photonic missile or the extreme gravity warping space around as the star is in the process of collapsing into a black hole. Some soulseekers also came up with a third interpretation: the outward lines were the gravitational waves carrying the stellar coordinates of the doomed system to be heard by those who hear and those who hesitate not.
What is most important of course is that this clearly cannot just be a simple geometric arrangement of seven circles, it absolutely must have a deep and sinister meaning, and anyone who suggests otherwise should be shot. (https://i.imgur.com/DYAEiOu.gif)
At last, the command of space forces announced a huge success in prototyping a new generation of military starships. The most straightforward design out of the ones proposed was a kinetic striker which was a spiritual successor of Syzygy, except everything about it was "bigger and better":
I am very confused how the Groaxians are able to develop "straightforward" designs which do not require drawn-out arguments between members of their leadership. :P
Vaccine class Strike Cruiser 20 000 tons 756 Crew 9 621,6 BP TCS 400 TH 4 000 EM 0
Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuator-24 (5) Range 400 000km TS: 10 000 km/s Power 75-10 ROF 40
That...is a very big gun. ;D
Also the name of the class brings back humorous memories from the COVID-19 references in the original Dark Forest AAR.
WAR OF A DIFFERENT TIME
Hopefully this will give some answers about the confusing Joyeuse expedition, based on the title.
but as always, what hid in the darkness surpassed the expectations of everyone.
You would think by now we would learn to expect the unexpected. One of these days we will accomplish this, only to discover exactly what we expected.
...I must admit, I did not expect a sudden battle with a mysterious alien army deep below the surface of a planet the Groaxians have occupied for so long.
On some of the uniforms of the fallen enemies a symbol of Tempestsaurs of Achernar remained clearly visible. Further xenobiology expertise only confirmed samples of the organic matter recovered from the underground site matched the genetic material recovered from Achernar wrecks in Blutgang and the communication protocols of salvaged devices were very similar to the language of Achernar space broadcasts.
How did they get here?!
Given the explanations in the text, but the fact that they have also sent out a signal, I wonder if these are also affected by the strange temporal dynamics as observed at Joyeuse. Maybe they had been temporally displaced into Yatune at the present time, and the signal sent out was not timed for ill intent but a desperate call for help?
DESPERATE DEFENSE OF BLUTGANG
Uh-oh...
So when first space disturbances appeared and first Achernar starships warped out of them, terror and disappointment rose among Groaxians observing this.
Although at least they are using ships and not warping into place on the planet, so whatever happened on Yatune doesn't seem to be at least usable for invading another world...yet?
Eventually Human Space Fleet rose above the sky and was clear to fire its gravitational and particle weapons, but before any significant amount of damage could have been dealt to the enemy warships, they all powered Curvature Propulsion Systems and disappeared from the system. With them free to go and possessing the knowledge about Groaxian presence within the system, the outcome of the battle was a clear defeat.
Now a truly frightening time comes for the Groaxians...it seems like the only potential now is to evacuate the entire system before the Achernar can call for a Dark Forest Strike, but that seems impossible.
OOC: Was there actually any combat in this battle? It's quite a strange sequence of events to end with only a survey ship being destroyed...
REMEMBRANCE OF GJ 1279
When Curvature Propulsion Systems were ready to be engaged, a blinding light flared from the cube. Over half the sensors were fried from extreme elctromagnetic radiation it caused, barely leaving the ships functional enough to establish warp bubble and flee the system, further into the Crack. Once the evacuation was complete, Groaxians stopped for a short while in interstellar space to take one final look at the system, but when the light caught up to them, they could see there was none. GJ 1279 had ceased to exist.
Interesting, the humans have something that seems very similar in ability to the Dark Forest Strikes that have been afflicting the universe lately. Unless they are not Dark Forest Strikes at all, but more of these human devices erasing their presence from the cosmos? But to what end...
To minimise risks and maximise the advantage Groaxians could get in this war, Conglomerate agreed on a Tizona counterattack, aiming to destroy whatever fleets and infrastructure required to build and maintain them existed there, preventing Achernar from wrecking havoc in Groaxian territory, with the secondary objective of gathering as much data on the enemy and the world it originated from as possible.
This seems a regrettable but necessary evil now. At least this may be the only way to prevent a Dark Forest Strike.
Despite what happened to GJ 1279, many still believed that Humanity was on the "good side" of all this and hoped recordings from the last moments of this system would serve to prepare Groaxians for what was coming at them, too.
There's an interesting thought. Maybe humanity has constructed a Dark Forest Strike machine to give the Groaxians or another race just the readings they need to develop a countermeasure.
(Of course I am speculating only in-thread, not including any known information from the previous AAR. ;) Though to be honest I do not remember much from that thread which is very relevant here...)
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And now I am once more caught up. The plot has certainly thickened but we also are on a ticking clock as the galaxy appears to be destroyed before the Groaxians' eyes. Hopefully Ascension is very nearly achievable, because there is not much time left, and still too many mysteries to be solved in too little time!
Looking forward to whatever comes next! I think the "DLC" is in danger of becoming longer than the original though! :P
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I won't lie, I forgot that jump points were a thing because you have written them out.
Thankfully I did not forget to tick off jump points display before making this screenshot as it happened to me a couple of times in the previous AAR (for the systems that didn't have wormholes aka stabilised jump points) :P
any project I take on after Duranium Legion will be limited to player races and spoilers.
Playing against nprs is still more fun than against yourself, I'd argue...
But surely this proves that I am right!
"Human ways of thinking are weird. I see no logical reasoning in this sentence." Some Groaxian, Genesis, 3307 AM hibernation cycle, colorized
I hope my extended absence from the comment section has not caused any alarm
Well, no, but there are other things that caused an alarm and it's not like I've been doing any better to get the latest updates done and I didn't even see your comments until yesterday and I need to play more before I will have something more to write about not to mention writing will take time, too, and it's all a mess.
Out of context, I'm curious why not take a couple of the Misc Components and implement them as smaller passive sensors, particularly on the Shizae.
Because Shizae was developed much, much earlier than it appeared to build lagrange points to get to the second pairs of ternary systems and through hibernation cycles I struggled to figure out a justification for its existence to the point I'm still surprised it got posted at all and now you bug me about sensors on something that... doesn't "explore far from the rest of Groaxian civilisation". But hey, it got a shiny new HyperSensors, and what else do you need when going superluminal by taking a shortcut through four-dimensional space?
I notice that the Conglomerate would plan "conquest" - perhaps a clue into changing Groaxian thinking? Seems a bit Black Forest for such a noble race...
First it's a Dark Forest (but otherwise might as well be purple), and second, the system is devoid of any intelligence, so dunno why "conquest" would cause any distress... But it's alright to get paranoid when everything out there wants to kill you for existing even if it doesn't know you exist and even if you happen to not exist it still wants to kill you just to be sure.
Otherwise at this point it seems like somehow there has been time travel or other warping of space-time for this missive from the future to arrive.
"There has been warping of travel of time of space of soulgrain tunneling between black rifts desynced fluctuators and that's why we can't go faster than light", random Groaxian scientist when asked what the hell happened on that planet, 3500 AM, colorized
if whoever put it there knows what they are doing.
"Anyways, I started blasting" some Dark Forest Lord, probably, when asked about the Big Bang.
Clearly my comments here qualify me to be a Conglomerate member.
Conglomerate is a perfectly balanced institution, absolutely without exploits.
It reminds me of something I heard recently... "War is always evil...but some things are worse". Perhaps this also rings true when it comes to Ascension?
Ascension is always evil... but some things are worse? :P
I fear that had the Groaxians essentially forced the Umbara to serve as their army
Which is exactly what they did! :D
it is encouraging for the Groaxians or rather it would be if they were humans and knew human history beyond the admittedly small part given by the Monolith.
You think Groaxians do not know about Romans and everything that happened, was recorded and not lost from human history? Also even if they did not know, clearly they would be smart enough to extrapolate what they did know and correctly guess the existence of Roman Empire. Evolutionary emulators are powerful things, especially when supplied with so much data.
OOC: Side note, but I'm curious why after all this time the Umbara are still noted as [QI] in the tactical map?
Because they were first spotted in QI and nobody cared about updating tactical maps when by the time they stopped appearing in Qi they were almost non-existent already so the correct note would be "[]"
Continued in the next post as I want to be careful of the forum posting limits.
Trust me, they're much bigger than this, I crossed a post limit only once back in the days of pasting big-ass updates accumulated from discord in my previous AAR.
What is most important of course is that this clearly cannot just be a simple geometric arrangement of seven circles, it absolutely must have a deep and sinister meaning, and anyone who suggests otherwise should be shot.
Of course it is a simple arrangement of seven circles, but apparently humans are too stupid to figure out what it means. Thankfully Groaxians do know better and anyone who suggests otherwise should be shot gentically modified to take a more balance-preserving approach.
I am very confused how the Groaxians are able to develop "straightforward" designs which do not require drawn-out arguments between members of their leadership.
Recoverings from cultural databases dated for 2021 human hibernation cycle (wtf is wrong with them that they don't hibernate and base their timelines on some irrelevant crap like orbital periods) from the category "imagination of space exploration in pre-FTL era" thankfully allowed them to do that. Some Tempestsaurs to this solar watch are wondering why the hell humans wouldn't just fix this dangerously escalating Mental Synergy and get back to productive work. ::)
That...is a very big gun. Also the name of the class brings back humorous memories from the COVID-19 references in the original Dark Forest AAR.
This reminds me that I have no bloody idea what the hell is a "Solugrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuator". I literally need to reverse-engineer my own AAR at this point lol. Also, well, that's the point - reiterating through all the famous ship designs from previous one, especially if it's so special like the particle beam ship that ended Bootes Wars after I realised winning in aurora is a matter of having:
-particle beams outranging enemy weapons
-faster ships
-gauss for anti-missile (if needed, was not the case for Invaders)
How did they get here?!
That's a fascinating question. I don't even think the game notified me when their colony was detected.
a desperate call for help?
"a desperate call for help"
"the universe is a Dark Forest"
pick one :P
before the Achernar can call for a Dark Forest Strike, but that seems impossible.
Well, they were free to go at the end and had knowledge about Groaxian presence. The assumption is they called for the strike and that's it, zero reasons for them to not do this the first moment they can.
OOC: Was there actually any combat in this battle? It's quite a strange sequence of events to end with only a survey ship being destroyed..
It was a fustercluck of weird stuff. Achernar arrived at Blutgang, I told them to leave, they refused and apparently were already pissed at me for exploring their systems all the way to receiving a threat to get my exploration ships destroyed, as with Qi they claimed the system is "too important for them" and the relationship loss was just enough for them to start a war and destroy my post-Umbara shipyards on Scar'am and that one Shizae which orbited the planet after building lagrange point from which I reached the second pair of stars. And then Human Space Fleet came and they left. It was a strange sequence of events indeed.
At least this may be the only way to prevent a Dark Forest Strike.
rather further broadcasts of whatever location Conglomerate will pick for evac next...
The plot has certainly thickened but we also are on a ticking clock as the galaxy appears to be destroyed before the Groaxians' eyes. Hopefully Ascension is very nearly achievable, because there is not much time left, and still too many mysteries to be solved in too little time!
The biggest mysteries to solve right now for me are "wtf have I written there", "what is this ship", "what is the technobabble behind this gun", "what the hell are Groaxians arguing about again", "what are my construction orders", "wait what are these freighters doing here", "hey, I didn't order to build that" "who stole my gallicite again", and so on, and so forth... It's easy to get lost in all this mess...
Well, thanks for having you back, for writing this long post serving as an excellent reward for me trying to not get lost between all those aliens shooting at each other constantly! I'm not sure when I'll be able to write next updates, but that's hopefully "soon" and this is certainly endgame now as time comes to an end...
Looking forward to whatever comes next! I think the "DLC" is in danger of becoming longer than the original though!
Well, nope, definitely not, posts from the original were much, much longer so that still leaves me a lot of space...
(Of course I am speculating only in-thread, not including any known information from the previous AAR. ;) Though to be honest I do not remember much from that thread which is very relevant here...)
Well, not that much is relevant as you might except, but certainly a lot.
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Playing against nprs is still more fun than against yourself, I'd argue...
It depends on what kind of game you want to play, I think. Personally, I feel like once you've seen a few NPR races you tend to have seen them all, most are easily exploitable and predictable. Perfectly fine if you just want a foil for the player race, but less effective if you want to create (for instance) a deeper political backdrop of peer races vying for supremacy.
Also I have been on a box launcher/VLS kick lately in my theoretical ship designs and using these against NPRs is usually bullying at best.
Well, no, but there are other things that caused an alarm and it's not like I've been doing any better to get the latest updates done and I didn't even see your comments until yesterday and I need to play more before I will have something more to write about not to mention writing will take time, too, and it's all a mess.
There is no rush when it comes to a quality AAR, you can take as much time as you need and readers will only appreciate what comes when it does. Some of the better AARs I've ever read have made returns after multi-year hiatuses, so any delay only puts you amongst noble company. (https://i.imgur.com/DYAEiOu.gif)
I assure you I am saying this to offer love and encouragement, and not at all to justify my own slow updating habits. :P
Ascension is always evil... but some things are worse? :P
More: War is always evil, but failing to Ascend is worse. Maybe. Perhaps. It is tabled for a future discussion.
Trust me, they're much bigger than this, I crossed a post limit only once back in the days of pasting big-ass updates accumulated from discord in my previous AAR.
I have managed to break it once with an AAR update of my own, which was a confusing half-hour for me. Since then I err on the side of caution.
The biggest mysteries to solve right now for me are "wtf have I written there", "what is this ship", "what is the technobabble behind this gun", "what the hell are Groaxians arguing about again", "what are my construction orders", "wait what are these freighters doing here", "hey, I didn't order to build that" "who stole my gallicite again", and so on, and so forth... It's easy to get lost in all this mess...
The secret is to keep a 15-tab spreadsheet to remember everything you are doing. This does not actually help, as then you are dealing with questions like "wtf is this tab for?" and "why is all the rum gallicite gone?" but it moves the problem from Aurora to Google Sheets and therefore it feels like progress even though it is not. :P
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Highlight of the hibernation cycle:
(https://i.imgur.com/xZVFTFt.png)
After building some more deep space tracking stations in Blutgang, Scar'am got into detection range of a lone half-destroyed Umbara ship floating around, unable to be found previously and unable to die either. I quickly moped it up and picked up crew not expecting much.
Turns out this AAR stays much closer to the gameplay than I anticipated.
EDIT: It is even closer to the gameplay than I thought five minutes ago. In the database I have 20 stars, but just finished all gravitational survey there was to be done and only 19 stars are accessible with no more unexplored jump points. Guess the 20th star is indeed GJ 1279, the one that is no more...
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Excellent, the continuation arrives!
Space around them remained straight (except the gravity well of the planet and its moon) and wasn't affected by their arrival at all. No physicist could answer how had Tempestsaurs of Achernar crossed the interstellar distance without using any technology manipulating with the fabric of space, but if the weapons they brought were to be as advanced as their interstellar propulsion systems, doom of Blutgang was unavoidable and imminent.
I continue to blame strange time travel hijinks driven by the increasing instability of the galaxy due to all of these stars being wiped out. If the Groaxians are able they should capture some of these Achernar and find out what hibernation cycle they think it is. Or "year" or some other silly, inferior unit of time measurement.
Apparently their armament was indeed lacking in many key aspects and they made a good call to not engage Groaxians before in a conventional war, leaving the conflict to be resolved by a higher instance.
A more skeptical observer might suppose that the Achernar have been aware of their technological disparity all along and have been bluffing with threats of calling a Dark Forest Strike. Of course we have no skeptics here. ;)
Despite lack of expertise on the "warp point riddle", Groaxians had something at least equally valuable at their disposal: surviving Tempestsaurs Of Achernar, all captured and ready for mind reading. Or at least that's what was commonly believed before it turned out they weren't any less confused than Groaxians themselves. They were all eager to talk and Transcendent Speech had to only be used as a rudimentary verification process for their communicates, but that didn't translate into much of useful data. They mentioned how they were just flying from their colony in Mimung to visit Tizona and how their navigation must had gone completely haywire, leading them in a completely different direction, suddenly dropping them at Blutgang for no apparent reason.
Well, so much for that idea then.
Mentions of "colony in Mimung" made all Blutgang population quickly forget about missing space curvatures around the supposed "warp point".
This is actually a good point... time travel is one thing, but why would there be an Achernar colony on Mimung at any time? At least while they fly recognizable ships. Maybe it is alternate realities we should be looking for, not alternate times...
The plot thickens! And thus becomes even more confusing for our time-pressured protagonists! :o
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Now, let's see, where did I leave off...
MASS MIMUNG INVASION
Finally the team proudly announced their revolution in interstellar flight logistics:
Gragzeans class Tanker
Rarely is a tanker ship announced as a revolution in space warfare, however the Groaxians with their superior intelligence clearly understand the central importance of logistics and thus appropriately venerate advances in this field. Of this I approve. (https://i.imgur.com/Z3wSg01.gif)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/880933209263726662/unknown.png)
This is a thing of beauty. So many loops and crossovers... chaos at its finest.
With no time for wondering in awe about the ridiculously low probability of two fleets randomly bumping at each other somewhere in the vastness of the universe,
Some scientists of other races have postulated that this may occur due to ships tending to drop out of curvature space at precisely located "jump points" between systems, but of course this is utter folly and of course no self-respecting Groaxian would believe such silly things. ;)
It seemed strange for them to suddenly result into conventional warfare, but that was the simple and obvious truth:
Either the Achernar were lying about calling a Dark Forest Strike, as a way to protect themselves from perceived enemies, or else these Achernar are from another time or reality where they lack the ability to do such a thing. Hopefully we will find out which case is the truth.
Not being able to sustain this any moment longer, admiral ordered to maintain the previous strategy for a few moments more to delay Achernar noticing true intentions of the defenders and then fire all engines with full force, attempting to close in as much distance as quickly as possible to not give Achernar too many occasions to damage the ships further. It was all very risky approach and dozens of Groaxians died punctured by high-energy particles or leaked from the ships together with air and metal chunks, but the retaliation fire laid down by the fleet afterwards was worth the sacrifice. From much closer range the accuracy of metallic slugs was devastating, instantly destroying several targets over a few volleys. Achernar fire kept weakening and dealing less and less damage until it eventually stopped, with the last starship of theirs meeting its end.
This is a story which would be recounted by Groaxians for many generations - the brave defense of Sodara against a powerful enemy by what is basically a garrison detachment underequipped to fight such an opponent. It would be recounted, except that I doubt Groaxian society is ready for recounting of war stories as a pastime yet. Still a brilliant outcome regardless.
And apparently their mission wasn't even really an invasion, more of a raid aimed at hindering Groaxian space programs of all sort to prevent them escaping to other systems just like they did with Blutgang, to make sure Dark Forest Lords would wipe out every single one of them. There was nothing mysterious or incomprehensible about their intentions
One of these days I will actually make a correct prediction...but apparently not today. Ah well.
THUAN THIEN TRANSMISSIONS
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835656241820336158/881279796351488010/thuan_thien_1.PNG)
You win the prize 🥇 for most unusual and fascinating Aurora battle screenshot I have ever seen. I'm not sure how this would even happen to be honest.
Groaxians wanted to get them intact and uncover whatever mystery this particular fleet had to offer, even if it might as well just be a routine cargo transit.
I'm curious what race carries out routine cargo transits at 13,000 km/s, that is simply crazy talk.
There wasn't a bigger mistake to be made than to assume the fleet was unarmed. It carried what was believed to be the most powerful weapon of any primitive civilisation: a sophisticated broadcast array for informing Dark Forest about everything Tempestsaurs Of Achernar wanted to see removed from the reality.
Hardly routine. Also very scary, hopefully by destroying many of the ships the ability of the Achernar to make such a broadcast is crippled.
COSMIC FATE OF DARK FOREST
The lowest amount of time that had passed between broadcast and target annihilation was just a bit over 32 hibernation cycles,
Great, now we just need to know if and when a broadcast has been sent out targeting Qi. I say "know" because I do not trust the empty boasting of the Achernar which is likely to be a bluff as much as not. Still, if we go by what the Achernar have said then this gives us the lower bound as mentioned later in the update.
At the same time Conglomerate needed a plan to evacuate all inhabited celestial bodies into somewhere at least temporary safe. Joyeuse B-II was an obvious candidate.
Or they could hurry up and Ascend, just saying this is after all the goal. ;)
So in order to escape a hyperblack hole, a four-dimensional Curvature Propulsion System was required, so a four-dimensional object in itself, allowing superluminal effective speeds within hyperspace utilising the fifth dimension. Obviously that meant no Groaxian starship was capable of cruising through hyperspace beyond the Crack, yet three-dimensional universe could exist undisturbed beneath hyperblack hole and still see Groaxians flying effectively faster than light through it.
Suddenly we have a potential route to the time travel hijinks seen previously. The plot thickens...
HyperBlack Wall Theory
The universe is a hyperblack wall.
Regarding the threat to higher dimensions I think we had already talked about that earlier in the comments...now it seems that discussion is reality, which is truly ominous not only for Groaxians but also humans, for the latter perhaps the end has not yet been written...
Offhand I wonder if there is a "Flatworld Solution" to this, that is, escaping to a lower dimensional (2D) universe instead of higher dimensional. Maybe the Dark Forest Lords will not think to look there... Just an idle thought.
Cosmic Existence
Quite fitting, if the album art of the link is anything to go by Ragnarok is a very apt comparison to the likely endgame here...
Also puts in perspective the universal horror facing the Groaxians, despite having technologies at their fingertips far beyond what we even think possible they face a threat with no way to possibly combat it short of running away and hoping not to be found due to how powerful this threat is.
Something quite different, but also I say again quite fitting, nicely done. :)
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So... I guess this is the moment I'm supposed to clarify stuff, comment the comments and all that... ::)
A more skeptical observer might suppose that the Achernar have been aware of their technological disparity all along and have been bluffing with threats of calling a Dark Forest Strike. Of course we have no skeptics here
If they didn't call for a strike, they'd be very weak Dark Forest players. If you can make the other civilisation go kaboom, you always should. Or else...
The plot thickens!
Is it as thick as the endless skies of Iether already?
Rarely is a tanker ship announced as a revolution in space warfare, however the Groaxians with their superior intelligence clearly understand the central importance of logistics and thus appropriately venerate advances in this field. Of this I approve.
It was announced as a revolution in interstellar flight logistics. Though in a Dark Forest it likely means a revolution in space warfare as well. Also got surprised you can make tankers that fast with commercial engines, still able to carry lots of fuel and still have space for armor left, and that's after misc components and jump drive stealing some of it.
This is a thing of beauty. So many loops and crossovers... chaos at its finest.
This is how aurora galaxy generation should look like by default IMO. No more block 1-2 jps and be able to forget about an entire alien empire, no more boring and predictable path, now eveyrthing is interesting to explore and you never know from where they will come...
Some scientists of other races have postulated that this may occur due to ships tending to drop out of curvature space at precisely located "jump points" between systems, but of course this is utter folly and of course no self-respecting Groaxian would believe such silly things.
Ahh, those silly "scientists" and their fairy tales... Also them saying "drop out of curvature space" as if they meant hyperspace or whatever other magic they came up with (seriously, doubt they are smart enough to figure out hyperspace is a thing as this conflicts with their jump point myths fairly strongly... :P) while not being able to realise the mundane 3D space itself is not straight and might be curved at places, for example in the gravity wells of the celestial bodies, says a lot about these "scientists". ;)
I doubt Groaxian society is ready for recounting of war stories as a pastime yet
There's no "recounting of war stories as a pastime" in a Dark Forest. War is always a present story.
I'm not sure how this would even happen to be honest.
"This is probably a compact fleet formation enclosed within warp bubble, but seen from various angles and sides from a 4D perspective as perceived by a 3D being" - random Groaxian physicist, probably
I'm curious what race carries out routine cargo transits at 13,000 km/s, that is simply crazy talk.
Depends on the type of cargo. Those silly humans and their lack of vision... How did they even reach Ascension? Oh yeah, right, Arilou had to help them. Of course. No way they would come up with it on their own, it's always "the ancients" that have to do all the hard work for them.
Hardly routine
Past a certain point it becomes routine, though past another it stops being routine again because you start doing all the destruction by yourself. 8)
Or they could hurry up and Ascend
Humans... They don't work till adulthood and on top of that have this weird concept of "retirement" and then they'll tell to "hurry up". As soon as you are born, go to work, lazy pricks, then we can talk.
The plot thickens...
Ok, now it definitely is as thick as Iether.
The universe is a hyperblack wall.
I mean, technically...
Offhand I wonder if there is a "Flatworld Solution" to this, that is, escaping to a lower dimensional (2D) universe instead of higher dimensional
Flatgenesians would like to have a word pink-purple gas emission with you.
if the album art of the link is anything to go by Ragnarok is a very apt comparison to the likely endgame here..
It's literally called "Prophecy of Ragnarok"... And of course it's the endgame.
Also puts in perspective the universal horror facing the Groaxians, despite having technologies at their fingertips far beyond what we even think possible they face a threat with no way to possibly combat it short of running away and hoping not to be found due to how powerful this threat is.
That's a perfectly balanced summary of an Applied Dark Forest Theory in a nutshell. Soulseekers approve. 8)
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So... I guess this is the moment I'm supposed to clarify stuff, comment the comments and all that... ::)
Funny, I always take these moments to confuse the readership, not to clarify things... ;)
This is how aurora galaxy generation should look like by default IMO. No more block 1-2 jps and be able to forget about an entire alien empire, no more boring and predictable path, now eveyrthing is interesting to explore and you never know from where they will come...
I wouldn't want the default to be so chaotic, but I do agree that more interconnection would be good. Personally I would want to see the JP code rewritten so that systems are aligned to a hexagonal grid with on average 3-4 connections per system, enough that there are multiple short loops to get between any two systems so JP defenses are not viable in most cases but there is still interesting galactic terrain and some chokepoints. Alas this would probably mark the end for the poor AI and its rudimentary understanding of space warfare.
There's no "recounting of war stories as a pastime" in a Dark Forest. War is always a present story.
"In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only (philosophical angsting about the fundamental nature of) war."
It's literally called "Prophecy of Ragnarok"... And of course it's the endgame.
We keep hoping it is the endgame and the plot keeps thickening as discussed above... hopefully the next updates begin resolving things instead of further confusing the readership. ;)
Speak of...
Time's End - Tizona Siege
Not long after resumption of the journey, another Achernar fleet flashed on the radars, coming from two sides at once.
It is clear that for all their bluster, the Achernar have placed too much faith in their ability to call Dark Forest Strikes and not enough in learning how space combat works. A flanking attack works very well on land, sea, or even in the sky, but not so well in space at thousand km ranges.
Explosions lightened up the eternal darkness in two points at once, though one was much, much brighter than the other. Still, a significant Achernar force remained a threat and on top of that, while most shots ended up miscalculated, two streams of particles punctured a single Vaccine at mostly same location. This helped reduce direct damage, but put the ship in a strong rotational motion. That alone maybe wouldn't be that problematic, but both beams struck the fusion fuel injector, making engines underpowered and releasing lots of precious hydrogen out into space.
These damn alien gunnery officers and their preternatural ability to place all their shots on the same part of the ship to knock out engines... a tale as old as time Aurora.
Groaxian engines were powerful enough to slightly adjust the trajectory when there was still time for this, but when the distance eventually dropped to almost zero, Achernar opened accurate kinetic fire from up close. Ironically, this is what saved the unlucky Vaccine which still struggled to stop spinning, let alone slow down or apply corrections to their velocity to avoid crashing into hostile vessels. A few projectiles hitting its armor at key spots was all it needed to have its movement vector changed just enough to avoid mutual annihilation.
"It is rude to interrupt your enemy while he is making a mistake spinning out from loss of engine power." - Not any random Achernar generals, apparently
A thrilling and exciting space battle - as an aside I commend the writing as it is the best battle yet in terms of the description which went into it, IMO. Anyways, now the hard work is done and we can relax and enjoy a leisurely planetary invasion, right?
However, something strange was going on with the planets.
Of course, what did we expect?
And as the science progressed, officers could only imagine what kind of weapon would arrive next.
Plot Twist: in the end, the Groaxians become the Dark Forest Lords. This is actually a prequel as the Groaxians travel back in time to destroy the humans for Ascending where Groaxians will eventually fail. Or something, probably, maybe I am making things up, we'll find out.
DARK FOREST GENE
Executor class Dreadnought 50 000 tons
You will probably be pleased to know that I can no longer tell which weapons are what kind of normal Aurora weapon anymore, although this is as much due to the high technology level as the efforts of the storytelling. The description sounds like meson cannons but I'm wholly unfamiliar with their statistics.
Consequences of the latest breakthrough were of invaluable importance for the future of Groaxian civilisation. Brains of many boiled when they realised what had happened and what it meant. Black Hole Generators, a cosmic evil looming over Groaxian lives ever since they knew there were civilisations that wielded this power, now ready to be fired by their own hands.
[...]
And by the end of it Groaxians were Dark Forest Lords themselves.
...I was joking, man! I didn't mean it, I take it back! :o :o :o
Even though I called this one (joking!), it's a great and ominous twist, especially with it turning out that there is basically a gene to become a Dark Forest Lord that is endemic to all life in the galaxy. Now it really is the endgame I think, the Groaxians have to overcome not only the hostile galaxy but in fact their own nature and the nature of all life if they want to Ascend. If they fail, they will either be destroyed or destroy the Dark Forest Lords but also take their place. The stakes are absolutely astronomical.
Time's End - Enlightenment Paradox
Of course it was immediately blamed on the Dark Forest Gene, but at the same time this gene had existed indifferently ever since first Groaxian ancestors formed their first conscious thoughts, so how much quilt it really contained was debatable at best.
This is an age-old debate... did our genes make us do it, or are we responsible for our own choices?
The second stage gave much more interesting results. The overall conclusion was that indeed the more advanced a civilisation becomes, the more Dark Forest Gene influences the choices made by its members, but at the same time something else was observed. In case of a group who had their memories about all military actions all the way to the moment Executor had left its shipyard kept intact, but lost a good chunk of memories and knowledge related to the work of soulseekers, Project Ascension or the bright side of human culture and history, they displayed significantly more aggressive approach which was expected, but surprisingly the "opposite group" consisting of Groaxians who weren't aware about latest battles and military developments, but knew all the details related to the "bright side" showed almost identical results, meanwhile the third group which was equally stripped from both military and non-military awareness past a certain point in Groaxian history showed a bit more pacifistic approach, generally kept in line with the trends within Groaxian society of the time to which the had been "brought back" mentally.
Interesting results, but really I would say not unexpected. In keeping with the theme of balance, awareness of both is necessary to make the wisest choice. With only the awareness of war, war sounds like the only answer. With only the awareness of peace, war sounds like the easy answer because the consequences of it are not known. Only with awareness of both war and peace can the value of peace be appreciated in light of the high costs of war necessarily paid to keep peace.
-some random Groaxian philsopher, probably ;)
And eventually Conglomerate decided to do exactly what Humanity once did - trust the guidance of Arilou, in its own way. The order for Tizona III invasion using conventional forces was eventually issued, prioritising short-term safety for the sake of peaceful Ghuq'ans colonisation and finishing Project Ascensions regardless of it not being much about ascending anymore, but while military commanders were in the process of receiving it, soulseekers simultaneously got tasked with, as Conglomerate phrased it "never giving up on searching for the solutions beyond".
A wise and balanced decision. (https://i.imgur.com/DYAEiOu.gif)
Time's End - Battle of All Cosmic Fronts
But what was simple in theory escalated rather quickly. Not expecting any significant resistance, Groaxians simply flew straight towards Tizona through the shortest possible path, predicting disengaging Curvature Propulsion Systems at the same coords as the last time, just to get towards the targeted planet the quickest way possible. And that was a big mistake, because not only had the Achernar called for reinforcements and not only had they arrived on time, but they placed a monitoring group right at where Groaxian fleet was spotted warping in to the system previous time, so the moment interstellar navigation systems deactivated interstellar propulsion radically shifting vision from the red-blue variants towards standard spectrum, Achernar ships were already awaiting the assault force with weapons charged.
"Oops." -some random Groaxian admiral, probably
And so Ascension Pathfinders were left stranded somewhere in darkness only to see an Achernar fleet of respectable size, detectable only thanks to the minimal gravitational influence it had over the fabric of space as the ships looked completely dead.
If I have to guess, this looks like maybe a fleet of mainly commercial or civilian types of vessels trying to flee the system but trapped by the advancing Groaxians and hiding to escape later.
But all the precautions were unnecessary - the ships had stayed at their position for nobody knew for sure how long, dead and deactivated. Engines were non-functional, there was no fuel of any sort, life support systems were dead and no traces of oxygen had been left and the biomass emergency support chambers were all full of bodies of Tempestsaurs Of Achernar who never woke up before nutrition and oxygen recycling systems as well as power went out. A large fleet of derelict shells that would never fly again existed there, frozen in time and frozen in space.
This is why I should not guess about things.
That's rather ominous. I wonder if these are Achernar from this reality, or if they somehow got trapped from another parallel reality and were frozen in the process. Yes I am guessing again despite my latest failure of prediction. :P
The middleman was well-aware that truth to be told, seemingly unarmed ships all had a source of ultiamte devastation stored within them - antimatter.
This sounds like the sort of idea a Star Trek chief engineer would come up with. Of course, since this is a Groaxian the idea is far smarter and more clever than if a mere human thought of it. ;)
The first battle of the Executor is every bit as terrifyingly powerful as anticipated. What is even scarier is that there is probably an even greater technology beyond it...
Time's End - Tizona III Invasion
Several interesting implications popped up in the heads of Groaxian scientists and soulseekers regarding the culture and civilisation built by Tempestsaurs of Achernar. Firstly, if the theory of Universal Collapse was really true then cycle of their lives was a decent metaphor of the cycles of the universe, seeing each Achernar of old die until an essentially new world would be born, even if the conditions and genetic material stayed the same all along.
I like how this biology of the Achernar ties in neatly with their philosophy about the universe and how to live in the Dark Forest - why they hold the Dark Forest cycle to be so sacred and worth preserving with boundless aggression. Probably they see whatever life comes in the next cycle as being the continuation of their own life even if they will not see it, so they must maintain this perverse sort of survival of their way of existence in a sense.
Taking control of their planet before next Respawn Period was one thing, maintaining it all after the respawn another.
After gaining the foothold and learning more about Achernar-built civilisation and culture, Groaxians were able to remotely switch off defense layer after defense layer and seize the whole planet, but while it indeed held the answers they sought after, the knowledge they brought only complicated the decision making on the course of future interactions with Tempestsaurs of Achernar even further.
It seems like the "obvious" answer is to wipe out the Achernar biomass before they respawn. If they are allowed to carry out their technological boom they will surely overpower the Groaxians. However this choice would be greatly distressing for the Groaxians, it seems like another critical decision point is near.
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I think the latest series of updates have been some of the best, it does seem like the endgame can still go on for some time yet but the shape of it is becoming very clear and the center conflict for the Groaxian race is now also very clear. I look forward to seeing how this finishes, I am sure there will be a few more twists on the way before all things have been said and done...
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I wouldn't want the default to be so chaotic, but I do agree that more interconnection would be good. Personally I would want to see the JP code rewritten so that systems are aligned to a hexagonal grid with on average 3-4 connections per system, enough that there are multiple short loops to get between any two systems so JP defenses are not viable in most cases but there is still interesting galactic terrain and some chokepoints. Alas this would probably mark the end for the poor AI and its rudimentary understanding of space warfare.
Multiple short loops would probably be the best, after looking at some other galaxy maps from other games it seems to be the case when interstellar movement is not restricted.
Quote from: Stormtrooper on September 07, 2021, 06:10:06 PM
So... I guess this is the moment I'm supposed to clarify stuff, comment the comments and all that... ::)
Funny, I always take these moments to confuse the readership, not to clarify things... ;)
Quote
hopefully the next updates begin resolving things instead of further confusing the readership.
*random Groaxian confusion screams intensify*
We keep hoping it is the endgame and the plot keeps thickening as discussed above...
Down to the deeper layers of Iether, without any light or a surface to cling to, only endless storms and thick hydrogen clouds.
A flanking attack works very well on land, sea, or even in the sky, but not so well in space at thousand km ranges.
Well, imagine a fleet speeding at thousands of kilometers per second, heading towards enemy and then another fleet warps at its flank and heads towards it. The flanking fleet could then proceed to fly around its target in circles meanwhile the flanked fleet would need much time and fuel to adapt their course accordingly, not to mention an attempt to change velocity and direction would end up in them slowing down and slowing down is not something you want to do when enemy targeting algorithms send weapons at the speed of light at your predicted position from a few light seconds away... Unless they don't use lasers. But it'd still suck to have them predict your position after a few seconds right. Of course you can rotate in place all you want regardless of velocity and direction of flight and probably should have guns sticking out of every side just in case, but still hitting something that rapidly circles around you is probably a bit hard.
A thrilling and exciting space battle - as an aside I commend the writing as it is the best battle yet in terms of the description which went into it, IMO.
Umm... Thanks, I guess?... It was so damn hard to write, these are not the times of exiciting Bootes Wars with minimal differences of speed that spewed cool screenshots and scenarios automatically at a high rate making it rather easy to write about them. Describing battles with so much of a technological difference is hard. And probably the biggest irony is that there in fact isn't that much of a difference in terms of their speed and firepower, it's just that they're 4 damn ECM levels below me. 4 levels!!! How could that even be possible for them to have all those designs and not bother with ECCM?
in the end, the Groaxians become the Dark Forest Lords. This is actually a prequel as the Groaxians travel back in time to destroy the humans for Ascending where Groaxians will eventually fail.
... :-X
You will probably be pleased to know that I can no longer tell which weapons are what kind of normal Aurora weapon anymore
Lasers, spinal lasers and plasma carronades... Though I can see why Soulgrain Phasing Bomb Launchers might sound like meson cannons in terms of how they work, but the physics behind them is different from meson particles. Whatever physics is behind mesons, that is... :P
...I was joking, man! I didn't mean it, I take it back!
You scared now, human being?
they will either be destroyed or destroy
some random alien about some other random alien in a Dark Forest, probably
Now it really is the endgame I think, the Groaxians have to overcome not only the hostile galaxy but in fact their own nature and the nature of all life if they want to Ascend. If they fail, they will either be destroyed or destroy the Dark Forest Lords but also take their place. The stakes are absolutely astronomical.
Yes, it really is the endgame. Yes, the galaxy is hostile. Yes, you'd wish it'd be only one galaxy (hint: it's the entire universe). Yes, the stakes are astronomical. It's space warfare, what did you expect? :P
This is an age-old debate... did our genes make us do it, or are we responsible for our own choices?
"Our genes make us do it and thus we are responsible for our own choices" - random Groaxian genetic engineer after failed experiment, probably
Interesting results, but really I would say not unexpected. In keeping with the theme of balance, awareness of both is necessary to make the wisest choice. With only the awareness of war, war sounds like the only answer. With only the awareness of peace, war sounds like the easy answer because the consequences of it are not known. Only with awareness of both war and peace can the value of peace be appreciated in light of the high costs of war necessarily paid to keep peace.
-some random Groaxian philsopher, probably
That comment is perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
Of course, since this is a Groaxian the idea is far smarter and more clever than if a mere human thought of it
That statement is perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
The first battle of the Executor is every bit as terrifyingly powerful as anticipated. What is even scarier is that there is probably an even greater technology beyond it...
Of course there is. Random starship firing black holes and phasing antimatter bombs inside enemy ships via quantum teleportation is probably not too scary compared to what other Dark Forest Lords who've been Dark Forest Lords for a while came up with...
It seems like the "obvious" answer is to wipe out the Achernar biomass before they respawn
Spawncamping at its finest.
If they are allowed to carry out their technological boom they will surely overpower the Groaxians.
Executor goes brrrrrrrrrrr
I think the latest series of updates have been some of the best
Thanks, I wrote all this to feel like I'm finally getting there only to suddenly feel nostalgic to how this DLC started out even though I've felt the beginning was worse than the previous AAR... Anyways, this is endgame of an endgame now, Dark Forest goes brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
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To anyone still reading this: sorry for such a long delay, sorry you had to wait so long, but this thing is not abandoned, I'm going to give it a proper ending exactly as I've planned since long time.
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To anyone still reading this: sorry for such a long delay, sorry you had to wait so long, but this thing is not abandoned, I'm going to give it a proper ending exactly as I've planned since long time.
Likewise I should also apologize as I've been putting this (and my entire reading list to be honest) off for the last month. Going to see how much I can catch up on today.
Well, imagine a fleet speeding at thousands of kilometers per second, heading towards enemy and then another fleet warps at its flank and heads towards it. The flanking fleet could then proceed to fly around its target in circles meanwhile the flanked fleet would need much time and fuel to adapt their course accordingly, not to mention an attempt to change velocity and direction would end up in them slowing down and slowing down is not something you want to do when enemy targeting algorithms send weapons at the speed of light at your predicted position from a few light seconds away... Unless they don't use lasers. But it'd still suck to have them predict your position after a few seconds right. Of course you can rotate in place all you want regardless of velocity and direction of flight and probably should have guns sticking out of every side just in case, but still hitting something that rapidly circles around you is probably a bit hard.
Really I am thinking more about the lack of positioning and orientation in space combat compared to real-world ground, naval, and air combat. As you say in space it is always possible to rotate a ship fairly easily whereas in a naval gunnery battle for example if one fleet crosses the other the battle is pretty decided. I guess the best analogy is modern naval warfare which is so missile-based that the direction you are facing is of minimal (though not zero) importance.
Spawncamping at its finest.
If it works in Call of Modern BattleGears, it works in real life, which this totally is! Right?
Okay, now, new posts:
TIZONA EVER AFTER
Not really a lot of comments surprisingly, at this point the Groaxians have basically beaten the Achernar in space and I guess the battles probably are not much to say anything about if it is the ragtag remnants of the Achernar fleet and not any well-organized forces. The coldness of the Achernar towards their own biomass is as the writer says only in keeping with their culture, but also there is a cold calculus here because if they did not do it, the Groaxians would have, so in another sense it is only logical.
It is perhaps concerning that we can genuinely argue whether the Groaxians or Achernar are in the moral right now...
THREE AND A HALF DIMENSIONS
An alternative would be to adpot nomadic lifestyle, but to prepare a self-sufficient fleet hosting every Groaxian alive at the same time would be far more time and resource-consuming than finding new home and transporting colonists there partially.
This alternate timeline would be a great spinoff project.
It was a mere step further from the idea first discovered during initial runs of Distributed Groaxians project. Just like separated parts of brain could work on their own while belonging to a single Groaxian, cloning did nothing but doubled the amount of brainpower for an individual. It had been proven that two cloned Groaxians were the same individual, only with two times the body parts so that killing one would be more or less an equivalent of amputating half the limbs of an individual that hasn't been cloned.
I wonder if humans could have done something similar by cloning psionic individuals but training them to be psionic in a way that also made them act as distributed humancomputers. At least I don't remember such a thing being done but maybe I forgot?
Soon a new type of colony starship saw the light of the solar watch, developed with the purpose of being fast, ...
Isier class Colony Ship
4000 km/s
A curious definition of "fast" at AM technology level, but I suppose Groaxian language does not translate well to our inferior human tongues...
The shocking discovery led to a question about life "in between dimensions". The problem was, examined Groaxian didn't remember anything from his transfer period even though he should if he would be conscious and "alive" during the process, not to mention this was an isolated thought, meanwhile a living sentient being should be able to process thousands of them at a time. Thorough search had proven that this wasn't an isolated example, though. As such, sending colonising fleets to hyperspace had to be postponed until the phenomena explanation since it could still be very dangerous for a four-dimensional balance.
One also wonders if perhaps there is a way to hide in these "half" dimensions, which also imply the existence of more fractional parts. Maybe it is possible to hide in the 3.28164792745102835 dimension and the Dark Forest Lords will have to make a very lucky guess to find them?
Or more likely the Dark Forest Lords will just use some kind of superweapon to blow up all the dimensions below, I dunno, 11th or something?
A PLACE BEYOND REALITIES
And so the expedition fleet made a jump to hyperspace and then proceeded to use HyperSensors to navigate four dimensions to track the lights down.
Even without having ascended yet, four dimensional space is such a big game changer. Which is concerning if you think about it, surely the Dark Forest Lords also realized this and are also able to use four dimensions, maybe escape by Ascension is not so certain...
Research expedition stagnated and solar watches were passing, though there was no sun out there in interstellar space. Out of despair and boredom, scientists looked at the matrix logs once again. And once again they were shocked. That time it was not only one or two different mental configurations. Basically the entire consciousness was a mess of all kind of different concepts and thinking processes. Transcendent Speech. Mental Synergies. Interstellar travel. Black Wall. Monolith. Guidance Era. Humanity. War of a Different Time. Bootes Wars. Precursors. Invaders. Arilou. Umbara. Achernar. Balance. Lack of Balance. Genesis. Space Exploration. Project Ascension. Dark Forest. Photonic missiles. Black hole generators. Matrix. Soulgrain Singularity Curvature Fluctuators. It was all a mess filled to the brim with countless information.
The first response is concern, but maybe this is an opportunity, if Groaxians can remain in the interdimensional space perhaps they can synthesize all of this information and make some useful discoveries not possible in any "normal" dimensional spaces.
Reducing Groaxians to soulgrain state and releasing them from the matrix would require more testing in order to safely do so while guaranteeing they'd remain alive instead of being disintegrated and dissolved by the matter around them thanks to soulgrains interacting in unpredictable ways, but all Groaxians understood well this groundbreaking discovery was to revolutionize the way they looked at the universe around them and might as well be exactly what they've searched for.
Something beyond the conventional plane of existence. Something beyond even the number of dimensions. A new safety guarantee in a Dark Forest.
Something like this for example! :P
OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET
Side note, the video link seems to have been taken down recently. Very sad!
It started as the type of Dark Forest Strike during which a few stars closest to the epicentre would collapse onto each other, emit strong light and radiation and then fade away into nothingness, but it was something different that time. It didn't stop.
Uh-oh...
They were Dark Forest Lords themselves, even if they were yet to use the power associated with this title, thus they simply understood. They had finally grown enough to handle it. The apocalypse came and all they could do was hope those evacuated to Ghuq'ans would continue their legacy and never forget about Genesis and their true nature and origins.
It is kind of amazing...the Groaxians are Dark Forest Lords yet still, as the wise man says, "there is always a bigger fish".
WE ARE THE HUMANITY
Now this is a very promising chapter name...
There was something to admire in the fire burning deep inside these beings, so well-accustomed to scorching heat, to living in a true inferno and daring to call that an optimal, comfortable temperature. That fire in them was their iron will, that outstanding will to fight no matter the odds. To never surrender,
Eye of the Tiger plays over speakers. No one knows where the speakers have come from.
Pushing an idea of leveraging the latest knowledge about higher dimensions and soulgrain state, carefully selected and trained Resistance Warriors were to be reduced to a soulgrain state, merge with the reality on a true level and try to fix it from within. Try to undo whatever the Dark Forest Lord responsible for the attack had done. Tie the rift, close it like a wound on a dying organism, restore standard laws of physics.
This idea could be the game-changer. If Groaxians can be powerful enough to undo the damage done by Dark Forest Strikes, they may be able to win outright instead of just escaping in the nick of time.
For them it took the form of a mighty organism, so vast and powerful, but riddled with missiles and lacerations running deep through its body. Like a severely wounded, dying animal, but at the same time so majestic in its suffering, appearing as if this was how things were supposed to be right from the beginning.
A tragic beauty...
They desperately searched for a solution... A safety guarantee. And they found it, or so did they think. Hyperspace, then Quasispace... They called for us when they were already five-dimensional entities... They wanted to spread the news of peace, the ultimate solution... But even they couldn't anticipate the horrors Dark Forest still kept at bay.
Makes sense, Dark Forest Lords are so powerful that nothing as flimsy as an interdimensional barrier will stop them given time. So escape doesn't work, what else is left...?
The universal message... Tempestsaurs of Achernar were right. This universe is so, so severely damaged... It lasted through eons of this endless war, but even endless wars must eventually come to an end. Just look at this galaxy. So many stars swallowed, sucked out, disintegrated, torn apart, sucked into black holes...
If there is some pragmatic argument against Dark Forest, it must be the destructiveness of Dark Forest War. Does the pure power of weapons become so great that more resources are consumed in the destruction than could be gained by eliminating every enemy? It seems like...maybe. But that will not stop the Dark Forest Lords bent on destruction already.
I still need to catch up with the short spin-off, but now I can see that the endgame is here and I eagerly await finding out how this will ultimately end...now that humanity is involved all of the stories tie together, but the ending is not yet written!
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Likewise I should also apologize as I've been putting this (and my entire reading list to be honest) off for the last month.
Brutal times, aren't they?
the best analogy is modern naval warfare which is so missile-based that the direction you are facing is of minimal (though not zero) importance
But the thing isn't all about direction, it's also about inertia. In naval combat I guess it doesn't matter that much, but in space... With the speeds involved and typical engangement lenghts, it does matter a whole lot how fast are you going to fly past the enemy or change direction. Positions themselves might not change a lot with everyone being able to easily spin in place at will, but it all starts to matter a lot with velocities taken into account. You can't do much if you're flanked, thus the hostile fleet moves penpendicularly to your movement vector and just files past you ridiculously fast and disappears from the radars before you could do much, meanwhile they could "do much" because they pre-calculated this scenario and had their guns preprogrammed to fire at exact moments and directions to hit you while you didn't return fire because you were surprised and before your computers finished their jobs, the enemy was no longer in range. Or something like this, I dunno. :P
we can genuinely argue whether the Groaxians or Achernar are in the moral right now...
There's no room for morality in a Dark Forest. Nobody is in the moral right. Except Groaxians are because they don't like Dark Forest. But really they aren't because they still participate in it. But they are because they don't want to. It's complicated for a human to understand, okay? I don't get it either. :P
This alternate timeline would be a great spinoff project.
Don't you dare tempt me...
I wonder if humans could have done something similar by cloning psionic individuals but training them to be psionic in a way that also made them act as distributed humancomputers. At least I don't remember such a thing being done but maybe I forgot?
No, humans didn't do such things and doubt they could. It's the difference between biological features again. Humans are individual meanings for whom psionic was a great achievement of science and technology and they could never get to it "naturally", even though according to Arilou they had the potential. Which is why they could achieve it somehow at all, I guess. But with Groaxians naturally posessing a proper brain structure for this, they only required a bit of tweaking to speed up their evolution that would've happened regardless given enough time, so that makes quasi-hivemind projects possible for them. Of course it is not a "true" hivemind and never could be, because Groaxians are individuals, not one coherent consciousness, but their minds are strong enough to at least perform hivemind-like tasks from time to time.
A curious definition of "fast" at AM technology level
Of course for a human "fast" always has to refer to the average cruise speed, they won't even think about throughput when describing transportation vessels... - Random Groaxian rolling eyes, probably ::)
Or more likely the Dark Forest Lords will just use some kind of superweapon to blow up all the dimensions below, I dunno, 11th or something?
You think they might hide in 3.28164792745102835? Destroy all the dimensions between 1 to 328164792745102835, just to be sure. - a Dark Forest Lord, probably
Side note, the video link seems to have been taken down recently. Very sad!
Huh? It is still here, I just checked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg-AZTTDVj4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg-AZTTDVj4)
No one knows where the speakers have come from.
*Confused Groaxian screams while searching for a hostile fleet intensify*
Does the pure power of weapons become so great that more resources are consumed in the destruction than could be gained by eliminating every enemy? It seems like...maybe.
It seems like certain, but who cares when the very existence is at stake?
but the ending is not yet written!
Well, thanks for having you around, I just had one more concept to introduce, but it should finally be done real soon.
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There's no room for morality in a Dark Forest. Nobody is in the moral right. Except Groaxians are because they don't like Dark Forest. But really they aren't because they still participate in it. But they are because they don't want to. It's complicated for a human to understand, okay? I don't get it either. :P
In fairness even human morality has proven too complicated for most humans to understand, so this is quite a low bar to clear.
No, humans didn't do such things and doubt they could. It's the difference between biological features again. Humans are individual meanings for whom psionic was a great achievement of science and technology and they could never get to it "naturally", even though according to Arilou they had the potential. Which is why they could achieve it somehow at all, I guess. But with Groaxians naturally posessing a proper brain structure for this, they only required a bit of tweaking to speed up their evolution that would've happened regardless given enough time, so that makes quasi-hivemind projects possible for them. Of course it is not a "true" hivemind and never could be, because Groaxians are individuals, not one coherent consciousness, but their minds are strong enough to at least perform hivemind-like tasks from time to time.
Interesting. So a very strong form of path-dependent evolution, even though both races have developed psionics the way psionics can be used is intrinsically tied to the past eons of evolution and racial makeup.
Huh? It is still here, I just checked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg-AZTTDVj4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg-AZTTDVj4)
It seems to be region-locked, then. That's unfortunate. Fortunately, a name is enough to go looking up some other video, or on Spotify etc.
It seems like certain, but who cares when the very existence is at stake?
Some random economist, probably. ;)
----
And now the moment we have all been waiting for...
Almost as if they were sentient on their own and wanted to show the majestic pulse of everything that ever existed, one dying, but still majestic organism.
It's an interesting thought... many have noted that despite the eternal human straining against the inevitability of death, the universe seems to be almost built on a perpetual cycle of life and death at every scale. A seed falls to the ground, and new life springs forth to repeat the cycle again. Perhaps from the perspective of the universe itself and not puny alien races, "majestic" is indeed the word.
In a way, this was the ultimate hiding spot in a Dark Forest - impossible to be detected, and yet at the same time it was about broadcasting one's existence everywhere all the time. Something conventional civilisations could never have imagined.
And thus everyone Ascended and lived happily ever after, the end!
...wait, this just in, I am being informed that there is more to the story. Apparently this is not actually the end just yet even if it sounds like it could have been.
But as the mission continued, things got stranger. In one of the solar systems one Ultraviolet Counterobserver spotted what looked like a flying saucer and its signature matched Arilou starship specifications without any discrepancies. However, making contact with it was impossible. It was like a ghost of the past, still present in the reality, but not being really there at the same time.
And now we remember those perhaps time-travel glitches that led to Archernar appearing in planets they should not have been and Groaxian colonies from alternate realities. Apparently it was not a localized problem.
With the new direction to follow, physicists eventually solved the riddle and concluded that they had greatly underestimated the power of beings reduced to soulgrain state. Being a part of the universe herself, she held the ultimate power - a power of creation, the opposite of destruction. She just thought about something and made it happen, even if it was just a hologram, a ghost of the past, a visualisation of history. But it was enough to simulate an entire solar system together with events that took place in it over an impressive span of time.
Could this be...something more than a Dark Forest Lord. Maybe, because creation is much more powerful or at least requires much more than destruction. Perhaps there can be some form of hope for the universe after all?
DARK FOREST STRIKE
I guess we are about to find out!
Time inside Singularity passed differently than in conventional spacetime and it was much different even from what Ultraviolet Counterobservers felt. It allowed to see things long gone and simulate the past all the way till the creation of the soulgrains that eventually collapsed into given black hole.
Makes sense even to my feeble human mind. ;) Time after all is just more physics, if a black hole collapses and compresses space it can also do the same to time, preserving it into a sort of temporal point containing everything. Or something like that.
But simulating the history of mankind wasn't as important as simulating the history of Groaxians.
Agree to disagree. ;)
Ultraviolet Counterobservers could not believed when they sensed the enemy fleet finally arriving after the Groaxian vessel. There was no doubt left - it was the fleet of dreaded Invaders, but not like Humanity remembered them.
hey watched this important chapter of conflict between Zenn and La unraveling in front of their senses, but again, something was wrong. Another fleet arrived in the system. It was Invaders all over again.
The history that unfolded in front of them talked about Groaxians continuing Ascension Program and moving to live within the Crack as hyperbeings, but there were no humans left to share it with. And the reason was that Humanity went extinct, losing its final Bootes War. Groaxians stood no chance either and all perished as well.
Interesting... it almost seems like in these alternate timelines that never happened(?!) the Invaders are a common thread. Which brings up the concept that maybe, the Dark Forest Lords are...the good guys? In a weird, amoral sense, anyways, because perhaps a Dark Forest Strike is collapsing the timeline to prevent the Invaders from Invading, and destroying entire planets and races is the collateral damage.
Or maybe this used to be their purpose, but the Dark Forest Lords grew paranoid and started wiping out any life they could find that might attract the Invaders and supply their war machines? :o :o :o
Dark Forest was a force of balance.
Telling words after all...
The hibernation cycle was 3513 AM,. Exactly 94 light hibernation cycles away from Qi, somewhere in interstellar space, Groaxians fired a Dark Forest Strike at themselves, fixing all the glitches threatening their timeline. Black hole generators were supposed to reach Genesis by the 3607 AM hibernation cycle, giving everyone way more than enough time to safely prepare and propagate their consciousness to the soulgrain state.
:o :o :o :o :o :o
Last surviving Groaxians were disappearing from existence with minds full of peace and fulfilment. The universe at large had finally become perfectly balanced, but just like all that is perfectly balanced, it had to start, but also eventually come to a stop. Nothing lasts forever. Even time itself at last had to come to an end.
And so it has.
----
I'll make general comments about the whole Groaxian "DLC" (really I think it should stand on its own as another epic story), but I have really enjoyed this work and its bittersweet ending. You might gather from my comments throughout, there has been much foreshadowing throughout but also many twists and turns so that it is not predictable yet the ending makes sense and you could see it taking shape. Very nicely done and I look forward to any future work, whether in the Dark Forest or exploring a different perspective of the universe for a change of pace. ;D
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And now we remember those perhaps time-travel glitches that led to Archernar appearing in planets they should not have been and Groaxian colonies from alternate realities. Apparently it was not a localized problem.
As you probably already know, these weren't time-travel glitches. There's no timetravel or multiverse here. Just a single timeline that might bug out. :P
Imagine there are rooms A and B and a box in room A. You move box to room B. With time travel, you could go back in time and glue the box to the floor instead and then deal with time travel-related paradoxes and time loops. With multiverse, the moment you move the box the universe splits in two and you have one with box still in room A and the other one with box in room B.
But with a single universe without time travel in a "conventional" sense, when you move the box there's no turning back - no universe in which box is left in room A exists at that point, but you also can't just "go back" and undo the change. However Groaxians fused with space and time giving them ultimate control over creation of reality around them. That meant they could reconfigure it so that the event of moving a box never occured and it stayed in room A till the end of time and the rest of timeline got simulated and executed accordingly and no idea of moving the box ever existed. No "going to the past to change the present/future" either, with the difference being that from that fix of bringing the box back to room A onwards, no living thing stored the information about the discrepancy between two alternate timelines, because there's only one timeline in which the act of moving the box never existed. Or alternatively the Groaxians could use the same power to move the box to room C and have this entire example described above never pop up in my head in the first place. :P
Maybe, because creation is much more powerful or at least requires much more than destruction.
"The ultimate force of destruction is the power of creation." - random Groaxian soulseeker, probably
it almost seems like in these alternate timelines that never happened(?!)
See the explanation above :P