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Author Topic: CURRENT STORYLINE -- SPOILERS!  (Read 80366 times)

Offline Hertzila

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Re: CURRENT STORYLINE -- SPOILERS!
« Reply #120 on: December 20, 2010, 05:10:46 pm »
Yeah. It can be made originating in Alpha Centauri. It would be a fine twist. This time they come to us, as a whole mined-out system wide nomadic alien trailer ship

Uuh... Was that sarcasm or is my detector too sensitive?
Anyway, while even a single huge system would make a good budding empire, I don't think they could find that many species in just that area.

Offline XCOMTurcocalypse

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Re: CURRENT STORYLINE -- SPOILERS!
« Reply #121 on: December 20, 2010, 06:21:42 pm »
Uuh... Was that sarcasm or is my detector too sensitive?
Anyway, while even a single huge system would make a good budding empire, I don't think they could find that many species in just that area.

It still can use 1-2 systems for population raiding, with us being just another harvesting operation.

Offline Crazy Tom

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Re: CURRENT STORYLINE -- SPOILERS!
« Reply #122 on: February 05, 2011, 05:48:11 pm »
I'd just like to throw my support behind Lancaster and TrashMan. They may not have all the details right, but they're heading in the right direction.

The ridiculousness of the alien mothership and galactic conquest and exploitation has been addressed, so I won't touch it. I will say that it's incredibly at odds with the highly realistic detailed description in the UFOpedia, as well as the discrepancy in genres (horror in an RTS setting).

The fundamental difference in viewpoint can be used to explain the 'invasion'. The 'hive mind' sees Humanity as a new kid on the block and wants to get to know us better, just so happens that that means assimilation. Second, there's no reason the Aliens would want to colonize earth: they are space faring, with the resources of the Asteroid belt, you could build a ring of space habitats that have literally hundreds of thousands of times the surface area of the Earth, all of which it totally usable (unlike the Earth's which has a lot of extremes). In this scenario, the alien's invasion of Earth is just a sideshow, while they colonize the system bu building space habitats.

The aliens arrive, start doing their thing, but soon find that the locals are in fact capable of resisting them and that they are far better at war then they (as the hive mind is mainly a cooperative entity). With only the resources of the colony ship, and the industrial capability of the humans (who are capable of building ships that can kill Alien ones), and the strange data that a recently returned micro-hive mind that had been kept prisoner provided (that humans are not appreciating the hive's 'hello fellow entity, join us!'), it decides to enter into negotiations (possibly after a demonstrative strike by an Phalanx craft). The Hive had already attained sufficient genetic material to clone any human hosts it may wish for diversity, and the existing hive minds on Earth that have been formed as a result of it's meddling will be expatriated by the Humans (providing it with a wealth of new ideas), so it decides to leave a diplomatic outpost here while the main colony ship moves on to greener (and less troublesome) pastures, so to speak.

For realism, let them use STL colony ships, and instead of psionics, direct neural interface technology, based on bio-nano, and old fashioned radio waves, you get the same result. Their 'FTL' drive can be an exotic matter based Alcubierre warp drive. Of note is the fact that it can't go FTL(dynamic instabilities increase exponentially the closer to light speed the bubble gets, until the engines can no longer compensate, the bubble collapses, and the ship is destroyed in the resulting event, according to the latest models), it is merely a reaction-less drive that allows the ships to accelerate to near light speed very quickly, however it does mean that their ships seem to pop out of nowhere (early on, studies found that it was possible to bring the amount of energy required to create such a bubble to manageable proportions by making it bigger on the inside while only a nanometre or so on the outside).


Offline NicAdi

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Re: CURRENT STORYLINE -- SPOILERS!
« Reply #123 on: February 08, 2011, 11:49:19 pm »
The ridiculousness of the alien mothership and galactic conquest and exploitation has been addressed, so I won't touch it. I will say that it's incredibly at odds with the highly realistic detailed description in the UFOpedia, as well as the discrepancy in genres (horror in an RTS setting).
Correction: That particular issue with the currently sanctioned storyline has been pointed out (quite a few times, actually -- and by several members), but it was never addressed. Hence, it is *still* an issue... One which I'm firmly convinced by now it will never be addressed by the authors.
<1> The fundamental difference in viewpoint can be used to explain the 'invasion'. The 'hive mind' sees Humanity as a new kid on the block and wants to get to know us better, just so happens that that means assimilation. <2> Second, there's no reason the Aliens would want to colonize earth: they are space faring, with the resources of the Asteroid belt, you could build a ring of space habitats that have literally hundreds of thousands of times the surface area of the Earth, all of which it totally usable (unlike the Earth's which has a lot of extremes). In this scenario, the alien's invasion of Earth is just a sideshow, while they colonize the system bu building space habitats.
<1> Hmm... Sorry, I'm not convinced; "We'll assimilate you in order to learn about you (and bring us closer to perfection)" sounds too Borg-ish to me. It has (obviously) been done before...
<2> I'm not sure I follow you through; nobody said anything about colonising Earth. XVI's intent is, as far as the current story goes, to acquire more hosts and possibly 'strip-mine' the planet -- with the former being clearly the primary objective: More hosts. That's why I'm uncertain what you meant: Are you criticising this position? Offering an 'alternate story', perhaps? ...

I won't be quoting the rest of your post. Whilst I'm still a bit confused about what you're trying to do here, I'll assume you are in fact proposing an alternate storyline (seems like a sensible assumption); unfortunately, I can already see some major issues developing in here as well -- mind you, their 'extent and severity' depend largely of how much of the current story you're keeping in the background. Short list of them below:
  • Two things: First, no species gets to be dominant without first overcoming its competitors. Natural selection is a very natural, very real mechanism. In other words, XVI would not have gotten a (strong) hold on the entire Galaxy if it wouldn't have succeeded against the opposition (starting with its own creators). Hence, you cannot imply that XVI, being a 'cooperation-oriented' entity, has a poor grasp on the concept of competition; such claim would be invalid. -- assuming XVI's background story still stands (i.e. the 'hive-mind' is already number-one in the whole of Milky Way, when the game commences);
  • Second, it would be tactically unsound (more appropriately, it would be *utterly stupid*) to engage an unknown enemy in a direct assault. Again, in order to rise to absolute dominance, XVI is likely to have fought several wars (and obviously won all of them). Hence, the concept of 'data gathering / reconnaissance missions' and tactics such as 'probing enemy defences before striking' couldn't possibly be beyond it.
  • How would you justify a (rather sudden) interest in diplomacy, on behalf of XVI?
  • 'Good old-fashioned radio waves' have a major disadvantage, story-wise. They can be easily detected, even with today's technology; radio waves are something *we* have a pretty good understanding of. It'll make identifying any XVI hosts dead-easy: if a person has the same electromagnetic profile as a mobile network relay, then he/she is surely infected ! :)
  • NO!! One cannot ignore or downrate the necessity of having (*some* form of) FTL propulsion capability, in a story that involves Galactic exploration/conquest. There *must* be a very good reason why FTL drives seem to appear so often in works of science-fiction, regardless of media. Think about this very carefully: our Galaxy is huge, of almost incomprehensible size; the distances any space faring race would have to travel between neighboring stars are incredible; several generations could easily succeed aboard such a spacecraft -- from a human perspective. In order to be able to negotiate such distances within a more palatable, human-like timeframe, one is forced to resort to a plot device such as an FTL drive... Not to mention that, should XVI be lacking such means of locomotion, then the whole Galaxy-wide dominance would be out the door as well.

That's about it for now, with more to come... Meanwhile , please continue to expand and refine your 'alternate story'. ;)

I apologise. It seems I'm not wearing my good manners tonight: WELCOME to the UFO:AI Forums !  ;)

Offline Crazy Tom

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Re: CURRENT STORYLINE -- SPOILERS!
« Reply #124 on: February 10, 2011, 04:25:13 am »
Correction: That particular issue with the currently sanctioned storyline has been pointed out (quite a few times, actually -- and by several members), but it was never addressed. Hence, it is *still* an issue... One which I'm firmly convinced by now it will never be addressed by the authors.

Point taken. :D

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<1> Hmm... Sorry, I'm not convinced; "We'll assimilate you in order to learn about you (and bring us closer to perfection)" sounds too Borg-ish to me. It has (obviously) been done before...

Everything has been done before, there are only two or three types of narrative out there. The key is to make something old appear new, this is where details matter.

I'll just take a moment to clarify what I meant in terms of background:
1. I'm ignoring the whole galactic dominance thing, and if I'm honest, most of the rest of the current storyline idea for several reasons, which have already been pointed out. In my book, XVI is still a fairly small in terms of it's empire, the size being mostly constrained by...
2. XVI has a tech level only a century to two ahead of Humanity, with a certain percent going either way from area to area (say, only a century ahead of our electronics, but one and a half in nano-tech, as an example). This is a requirement if we want Phalanx to have any chance against them. for obvious reasons.
3. XVI is wholly restrained by the laws of physics, as such it's FTL capability is based on STL scouts with deflated wormholes, which are then expanded to traversable size at the destination. (more o this later) I assume that XVI does not posses the capabilities to actually manufacture the exotic matter required, but obtained it from some other source, likely left over from a previous civilization, but it's unimportant to us as this doesn't affect the Phalanx plot.

As to

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<2> I'm not sure I follow you through; nobody said anything about colonising Earth. XVI's intent is, as far as the current story goes, to acquire more hosts and possibly 'strip-mine' the planet -- with the former being clearly the primary objective: More hosts. That's why I'm uncertain what you meant: Are you criticising this position? Offering an 'alternate story', perhaps? ...

Well, more hosts seemed to imply that it wanted to colonize... :-\ But yeah, I'm proposing a different storyline. When you think about it, if XVI wants more hosts, then it can simply build up up a population artificially, with just DNA samples. If it wants a stream of new ideas, then it would make more sense to maintain whatever species it comes across as strictly monitored but independent, where it could cull the populations periodically to get a constant stream of new perspectives.

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I won't be quoting the rest of your post. Whilst I'm still a bit confused about what you're trying to do here, I'll assume you are in fact proposing an alternate storyline (seems like a sensible assumption); unfortunately, I can already see some major issues developing in here as well -- mind you, their 'extent and severity' depend largely of how much of the current story you're keeping in the background. Short list of them below:
  • Two things: First, no species gets to be dominant without first overcoming its competitors. Natural selection is a very natural, very real mechanism. In other words, XVI would not have gotten a (strong) hold on the entire Galaxy if it wouldn't have succeeded against the opposition (starting with its own creators). Hence, you cannot imply that XVI, being a 'cooperation-oriented' entity, has a poor grasp on the concept of competition; such claim would be invalid. -- assuming XVI's background story still stands (i.e. the 'hive-mind' is already number-one in the whole of Milky Way, when the game commences);

Point, however I was addressing it more from an matter of emphasis. XVI has done all this, it is capable of it, but such would be brief interludes in the otherwise long history of internal cooperation between parts of itself.
I know you make the point below that one does reconnaissance before one attacks one's enemy/competitor directly, but XVI had plenty of time to reccon Earth's capabilities, it would have quickly found out we were less advanced, at which point it could have easily wiped us out after acquiring a genetically and culturally diverse sample. Even if the main invasion force is en route during the game, it still leaves us with no victory option in the end, which is why I assume it's not a wholly berserker type entity.

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  • How would you justify a (rather sudden) interest in diplomacy, on behalf of XVI?

If we go with the above assumptions, XVI would still be powerful enough for us to be no threat long term (in the case of any sort of protracted conflict between itself and Earth's military), but given that we have only one thing it wants: genetic and cultural diversity (since all it's material needs are far more economically harvested from deep space bodies). At this point, it can still simply come and take what it wants, this is where the Phalanx victory condition comes in:
The reverse engineering of alien Alcubiere drives (and the re-purposing of the exotic matter within), gives Earth the ability to strike at the brand new wormhole node that's been towed into our stellar neighborhood (located well and far away from any system, wormholes require a lot of space free of any serious curves in space time, otherwise they explode quite dramatical according to what I've read). This places a very expensive investment in materiel on XVIs part in jeopardy. In the end, it would be a case of peace being mutually beneficent: if XVI keeps attacking, there's a serious rock that it's very expensive traversable wormhole will be atomized, but if that's done, then it still has sufficient in system presence to bomb Earth into prehistory.
I guess I'm making the argument that it's not worth XVI's time to squash us primitive apes right then. After all, it can keep tabs on us and in the meantime it keeps expanding, so by the time we're any real threat, it would have surpassed us anyways.

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  • 'Good old-fashioned radio waves' have a major disadvantage, story-wise. They can be easily detected, even with today's technology; radio waves are something *we* have a pretty good understanding of. It'll make identifying any XVI hosts dead-easy: if a person has the same electromagnetic profile as a mobile network relay, then he/she is surely infected ! :)

Indeed. But it needn't be limited to radio-waves: human hosts, in the interests of Stealth could be designed to share information on contact, through short ranged electromagnetic and chemical means. It would make the nascent hive mind here slow in it's thoughts, but it would keep it hidden.

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  • NO!! One cannot ignore or downrate the necessity of having (*some* form of) FTL propulsion capability, in a story that involves Galactic exploration/conquest. There *must* be a very good reason why FTL drives seem to appear so often in works of science-fiction, regardless of media. Think about this very carefully: our Galaxy is huge, of almost incomprehensible size; the distances any space faring race would have to travel between neighboring stars are incredible; several generations could easily succeed aboard such a spacecraft -- from a human perspective. In order to be able to negotiate such distances within a more palatable, human-like timeframe, one is forced to resort to a plot device such as an FTL drive... Not to mention that, should XVI be lacking such means of locomotion, then the whole Galaxy-wide dominance would be out the door as well.

Granted, but I think between the STL warp drive, we've still cut down travel time to several months to the wormhole, and the womrholes can explain XVI's interstellar empire, which strikes me as a very good compromise between realism and the need to move the plot along.

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That's about it for now, with more to come... Meanwhile , please continue to expand and refine your 'alternate story'. ;)

I apologise. It seems I'm not wearing my good manners tonight: WELCOME to the UFO:AI Forums !  ;)

Thank you. :)

Offline vulkus

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Re: CURRENT STORYLINE -- SPOILERS!
« Reply #125 on: March 02, 2011, 04:24:38 pm »
Since we are dealing in science fiction and not science fact, all things are possible. Take Jules Verne for instance: Journey to the centre of the earth we all know how that went, utterly rediculous, but a nice read and a movie.
And he shot 3 people to the moon from a ground based cannon during the civil war era. Again Science fiction anything is possible, all it requires is a sceric of believeability, plausable story line and impressive pictures/graphics/cut scenes to both entertain and baffle.

I'll leave out natural selection, it works here, but since I've never visited an alien world and studied their 'possible' evolutionary path I can not with any credibility assert that it would work for them also.

   
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* Second, it would be tactically unsound (more appropriately, it would be *utterly stupid*) to engage an unknown enemy in a direct assault. Again, in order to rise to absolute dominance, XVI is likely to have fought several wars (and obviously won all of them). Hence, the concept of 'data gathering / reconnaissance missions' and tactics such as 'probing enemy defences before striking' couldn't possibly be beyond it.
I'll post these two excerpts from a decent article about engaging a superior force. As I suspect you may not be from this planet and may not understand human nature and the mind of a fundamentalist/freedom fighter.

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The overarching strategy to counter a superior force is the idea of a war of a thousand pin pricks. That is the superior force's material and organization, and its underlying bureaucracy and logistics are very costly. Being costly means that the superior can not necessarily exist in the field as long as the inferior force or endure the political outcomes of such a drawn out war. The inferior force using its speed, adaptability, avoidance of direct confrontation, and its ability to not only strike on the superior force on the field but also its underlying organization at the time and place it chooses means that the inferior force will always have the advantage.

In conclusion, as the world becomes "flatter," that is money, information, and small arms are easier to acquire by individuals and small groups the overall nature of warfare has become more asymmetrical. Look at the defining conflicts and violent moments of our time: the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 9/11, the Mumbai attacks or the war in Gaza, all these are linked via the usage of asymmetrical warfare or its components. It is important to realize that war, now more than ever, is not about technical superiority but each sides ability to adapt and evolve to be "successful" given its context.

    * How would you justify a (rather sudden) interest in diplomacy, on behalf of XVI?
    * 'Good old-fashioned radio waves' have a major disadvantage, story-wise. They can be easily detected, even with today's technology; radio waves are something *we* have a pretty good understanding of. It'll make identifying any XVI hosts dead-easy: if a person has the same electromagnetic profile as a mobile network relay, then he/she is surely infected ! Smiley
OK my point here would be thus: It is called subversion. "Subversive activity is the lending of aid, comfort, and moral support to individuals, groups, or organizations that advocate the overthrow of incumbent governments by force and violence. All willful acts that are intended to be detrimental to the best interests of the government and that do not fall into the categories of treason, sedition, sabotage, or espionage are placed in the category of subversive activity." excerpt taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subversion
One does not win wars by death and destruction alone, it is better to cripple your enemy than destroy it. With the ufo's flying around in our skys we are constantly aware of a 'superior' force. You will take note that in the original Xcom games as in this one, missoins are usually called Terror missions and while they do kill humans that is most likely in response to our proding around and hampering their efforts to gather tissue. Killing of our compatriots, not only demoralises our forces, but sends a message to the local populous that we are only killing you because you interfere in our actions. Which would lead us to believe that if we allowed them to do their thing they would not wantanly kill us. Which again opens the door to a possible peace treaty with XVI and our governments should not be harassing them. Thus the aliens are engaging in subversion.

   
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* NO!! One cannot ignore or downrate the necessity of having (*some* form of) FTL propulsion capability, in a story that involves Galactic exploration/conquest. There *must* be a very good reason why FTL drives seem to appear so often in works of science-fiction, regardless of media. Think about this very carefully: our Galaxy is huge, of almost incomprehensible size; the distances any space faring race would have to travel between neighboring stars are incredible; several generations could easily succeed aboard such a spacecraft -- from a human perspective. In order to be able to negotiate such distances within a more palatable, human-like timeframe, one is forced to resort to a plot device such as an FTL drive... Not to mention that, should XVI be lacking such means of locomotion, then the whole Galaxy-wide dominance would be out the door as well.
Yes there is a good reason why Sci-fi writers like to speal of FTL drives, because it is an established literary means of transport. There are many other ways that the aliens could travel from point to point, but FTL is the simplest and easiest for readers to both understand and grasp.
By indroducing a new form of travel you need to establish some form of ground rules for that travel. For example XVI could travel by means of a galactic doorway, where stepping through the doorway on this site instantaneously transports you to a position that could be measured as 50 light years away as the crow flies. How is this possible well it was explained in an episode of Stargate.
The alien race explained it thus to McGyver er.. O'Neil. See this piece of paper, you are here on this side, and we are over here on that side (opposite and opposing sides of the paper). See what happens when we bend the paper in half but not fold it, just bend it. Those two opposing points come together, now if you imagine this pencil is a craft or means of travel from oneside to the next. Alien then rams pencil through paper and creates hole, then pushes pencil all the way through. Jack O'Neil stares in disbelief alien says forget it. Basically once the craft of object is all the way through to the other side, space unbends. All you would need is a machine or power source capable of bending space. Where is FTL? don't need it.

We must not forget that XVI is at least 1,000,000 years ahead of us, and the original host life form was how many millions ahead before infection?
Although the downfall of a hive mind is that even though the host mind has fantastic technological advancement, it does not always follow that XVI will know how correlate and catagorise that information for further study or use.
So even though it took XVI 700k years to build a wormhole or what have you, that can be easily explained by its basic limitation.
XVI is not intelligent, it is linked via a mental network of semi to highly intelligent life forms. It can only operate at peak effeciancy at the level of the highest intelligence it has to work with. If say the creator race, had stale mated in their development and had been in slow decline because of a technologically decadent society. Then XVI would be hampered by this mode of thought and would not be able to progress at a faster rate, unless it ingested in to its psyche a more intellectually fluid race like humanity for example. XVI will be forever doomed to roam the universe resource stripping and assimilating. Much like the decadent borg.

Offline NicAdi

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Re: CURRENT STORYLINE -- SPOILERS!
« Reply #126 on: March 05, 2011, 02:32:59 am »
Since we are dealing in science fiction and not science fact, all things are possible. [...]
Wrong. If 'all things are possible' as you put it, then you're talking about a work of fiction, a fantasy, and not *SCIENCE*-fiction.

And for your information, Jules Verne's work is well over a century old, to date. It is obvious that science has made quite a bit of progress since then...
I'll post these two excerpts from a decent article about engaging a superior force. As I suspect you may not be from this planet and may not understand human nature and the mind of a fundamentalist/freedom fighter.
OK, there are a few things I'd like to say here:
  • What's your point? What are you trying to prove here?
  • Can you provide a link to the full article, rather than some out-of-context snips?
  • I hope you realize the discussion was about Military Tactics, not mindless terrorist attacks...
(Smiley) OK my point here would be thus: It is called subversion. [...]
Again, you have missed my point completely, and went way off on a tangent. Try reading my post one more time... Carefully.
Yes there is a good reason why Sci-fi writers like to speal of FTL drives, because it is an established literary means of transport. There are many other ways that the aliens could travel from point to point, but FTL is the simplest and easiest for readers to both understand and grasp.
Oh, actually there aren't that many ways... And there's nothing either simple or easy about grasping the physics behind them. By the way, 'Faster Than Light (FTL) travel' is more of a generic term, covering any number of various different/related concepts and speculations -- including that of 'traversable wormholes' you are describing (from the Stargate series). It is also a misnomer, in that whilst it implies the use of superluminal speeds, most methods described as 'FTL travel/propulsion' do not propose such a blatant breach of special relativity.
We must not forget that XVI is at least 1,000,000 years ahead of us, and the original host life form was how many millions ahead before infection?
Although the downfall of a hive mind is that even though the host mind has fantastic technological advancement, it does not always follow that XVI will know how correlate and catagorise that information for further study or use. [...]
Really?! Why would you think that, exactly? I mean, you seem to imply a certain disparity between the XVI (which should really be perceived as a 'network of minds') and its infected hosts, for which I fail to see any grounding reasons. So, would you care to explain yourself?
[...] XVI will be forever doomed to roam the universe resource stripping and assimilating. Much like the decadent borg.
LOL!!  I'm... really not sure how 'decadent' applies to the Borg. Would you mind enlightening me?



EDIT: Based on your reply below, it is obvious you are incapable (for whatever reason) to understand what I'm talking about. I think I am wasting my time talking to you -- and I'm not too much of a fan for waste. So, chances are I'll ignore you henceforth. Have a nice life!
« Last Edit: March 05, 2011, 03:32:40 pm by NicAdi »

Offline vulkus

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Re: CURRENT STORYLINE -- SPOILERS!
« Reply #127 on: March 05, 2011, 01:04:56 pm »
Wrong. If 'all things are possible' as you put it, then you're talking about a work of fiction, a fantasy, and not *SCIENCE*-fiction.

Definition of SCIENCE FICTION
: fiction dealing principally with the impact of actual or imagined science on society or individuals or having a scientific factor as an essential orienting component
http://tinyurl.com/45jjc5k
Exactly what part of that don't you understand? Science fiction as stated and cited above can and does deal in imagined science aka science that isn't real!
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And for your information, Jules Verne's work is well over a century old, to date. It is obvious that science has made quite a bit of progress since then...OK, there are a few things I'd like to say here:
Thus Jules Verne is valid for my argument, writing NO in capitals doesn't get your point across only facts do that.
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    • What's your point? What are you trying to prove here?
    It isn't my job to prove anything I am disproving your points.
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    • Can you provide a link to the full article, rather than some out-of-context snips?
    http://tinyurl.com/6fm8n64

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    • I hope you realise the discussion was about Military Tactics, not mindless terrorist attacks...
    Hahaha... Dude now you know why the US or any modern army will never win a war against 'mindless terrorists'. Hmm, Vietnam, the US's greatest failure against mindless terrorists, Iraq another war agains mindless terrorists that the US hasn't won btw, Afghanistan oh wait more mindless terrorists. Again no win situation. You have the technology but not the will it is that simple. I could cite more just to incite your capital NO's.

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    Again, you have missed my point completely, and went way off on a tangent. Try reading my post one more time... Carefully.Oh, actually there aren't that many ways... And there's nothing either simple or easy about grasping the physics behind them. By the way, 'Faster Than Light (FTL) travel' is more of a generic term, covering any number of various different/related concepts and speculations -- including that of 'traversable wormholes. It is also a misnomer, in that whilst it implies the use of superluminal speeds, most methods described as 'FTL travel/propulsion' do not propose such a blatant breach of special relativity.Really?!
    Again read the meaning of Science Fiction and explain that to me again. In Science Fiction of which this game is a part of. I may travel ten times the speed of light without the need for a special suit while in my underpants holding both the morning paper and the afternoon edition of the same day at the same time. Because in Science Fiction I am permitted to break the laws of gravity, physics, relativity all while reading war and peace. In your way of putting answers I'll answer it thus: NO SCIENCE FICTION is not (always) science fact.
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    Why would you think that, exactly? I mean, you seem to imply a certain disparity between the XVI (which should really be perceived as a 'network of minds') and its infected hosts, for which I fail to see any grounding reasons.
    SCIENCE FICTION
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    So, would you care to explain yourself?
    No, I need only explain my answers
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    LOL!!  I'm... really not sure how 'decadent' applies to the Borg. Would you mind enlightening me?
    I'll leave you this gem from Oscar Wilde: "Classicism is the subordination of the parts to the whole; decadence is the subordination of the whole to the parts."
    « Last Edit: March 05, 2011, 01:16:58 pm by vulkus »

    Offline vulkus

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    Re: CURRENT STORYLINE -- SPOILERS!
    « Reply #128 on: March 19, 2011, 02:52:14 am »
    Pwned
    Nic obviously with your angry red writing you have never had your ideas challenged by anyone, in all your posts you think your right and when everyone gives in to you or just ignores you, you feel superior.. Nice to see you pulled out the old tried and true "you don't understand me so I'm just going to ignore you" remarks.
    Your very funny and you have cheered me up immensly I look forward to more of your "intillectual stimulation" or lack there of.

    O

    Offline homunculus

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    Re: CURRENT STORYLINE -- SPOILERS!
    « Reply #129 on: March 21, 2011, 12:52:16 am »
    well, if someone is writing more than half page storyline outline, i would say it makes me suspicious.
    it is like trying to prove something while knowing that it is obviously flawed.
    i mean, if it still seems flawed after some trying, try harder (not).
    and who would really like to read all this reasoning, except the writer's mom, maybe?

    there are obvious realism issues with the storyline, but it seems that being reasonable is not even the purpose of the story.
    as someone stated earlier, the purpose is some grotesque fantasy type of thing.
    for example, if the aliens just needed hosts for some virus, they could have grown bacteria or something.
    if the hosts had to be sentient they could have fed and bred more tamans, no need to travel across the galaxy.

    Offline Lord Pavel

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    Re: CURRENT STORYLINE -- SPOILERS!
    « Reply #130 on: March 22, 2011, 08:00:44 pm »
    I am very surprise by two point in the story.

    Why, during the Chines's war, New Delhi was destroy ?! New Delhi is the main town of India. India have the nuclear weapons.
    The story talk about a nuclear civil's war, not a nuclear war.

    Second (small) point, on the global map, in South-America, everything is purple (= The Revolutionary Countries); but since few decade, there is a European's "country". And, I can not imaging the Europeen lost this territory (4-5% of South America), because we use this "country" for launch more than 60% of satellits of the world.
    For this kind of video game, maybe it is important ... or not.

    Offline Hertzila

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    Re: CURRENT STORYLINE -- SPOILERS!
    « Reply #131 on: March 22, 2011, 10:41:58 pm »
    Why, during the Chines's war, New Delhi was destroy ?! New Delhi is the main town of India. India have the nuclear weapons.
    The story talk about a nuclear civil's war, not a nuclear war.

    IIUC the Chinese conquered New Delhi a few years before the civil war, hence, it's part of the war and why it was bombed.

    Second (small) point, on the global map, in South-America, everything is purple (= The Revolutionary Countries); but since few decade, there is a European's "country". And, I can not imaging the Europeen lost this territory (4-5% of South America), because we use this "country" for launch more than 60% of satellits of the world.
    For this kind of video game, maybe it is important ... or not.

    I assume it basically declared itself out of our reach and the general way of things forced us to just curse them and their grandchildren instead of anything else.

    BTW, can you inform me what country exactly are you talking about?

    Offline bluereaper75

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    Re: CURRENT STORYLINE -- SPOILERS!
    « Reply #132 on: July 22, 2011, 10:55:33 am »
    ok so i kinda skimmed through this thread a bit, so if this question has already been addressed, i apologize:

    will there be cutscenes to further the plot? sorta like the opening text talking about the initial attacks? cuz it seems like some of the plot points like the "failed PHALANX assault" and the "PHALANX scout ship going to other planets" can only be done with cutscenes