- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
IIRC it's B5 canon that the Vree used to leave intentionally crappy crop circles in farm plots that were clearly "faked", as a prank.
Gotta love those bug-eyed lunatics.
Circular Reasoning [Babylon 5 AU splinter colony quest]
- Thread starter Logos01
- Start date
- Sci-Fi Alt. History
Gotta love those bug-eyed lunatics.
Apology and Update: If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
It's been five months? Holy crap. I'm willing to give this a try if people are willing to trust me with it: we'll do one last vote on this thread and then I'll open a successor quest like I'd been talking about before. I got so bogged up on this and my depression that I lost all sense of myself. For that I can only apologize.
The vote I'm suggesting here will take place of two rounds. A first, informal, round will gauge people's interest and what they most hope to see happen during the timeskip. I'll then wrap that into a ranked preference vote (instead of X's, biggest to smallest number so [10] [9] [8] and so on).
I'll then use that vote to write the epilogue of the Founder Era for this splinter colony quest and kick off the new thread as previously promised, with a hopefully simpler Resource/Action system than this one turned out to be.
To start things off, some suggested areas:
- How long into timeskip before unlocking homegrown FTL?
--- 10, 15, 20 years are the options (unless timeskip is longer)
--- Can affect outcome of First Contact
- First Contact
--- Who with (Drazi, Brakiri, Hyach, Unknown?)
--- Friendly/Unfriendly
--- Who started it?
- Clan Government
--- Civil War to overthrow? (Unlikely, needs huge support of voters).
--- Change in "ruling" clans? (Affects society Ethics, think like Stellaris.)
- How long is the timeskip?
--- default is 20 years. Could be longer. 10 year increments. Max 50.
--- longer timeskip means more of everything, but also brings Colony Era quest start closer to Dilgar War.
- Choose a tech field to really lean into.
--- Some advances will happen in general regardless of this vote.
--- Catxlotl Mechs/Fighters? (If yes, Catxlotls will be discovered to easily cyberize with biomech material. Almost as if designed for it.... Unlocks "Knight" route)
--- To Jedi or not to Jedi? (Martial traditions? Teek auras + Swordsmanship == knockoff Sword Intent?)
--- Bigger Faster Stronger? (AI plus neurothrones means drone swarms, or big honkin' space guns)
And so on.
As a reminder, the current Quest-year is 2095. Humanity makes first contact with the Centauri in ~2150. Show canon starts in 2258.
The vote I'm suggesting here will take place of two rounds. A first, informal, round will gauge people's interest and what they most hope to see happen during the timeskip. I'll then wrap that into a ranked preference vote (instead of X's, biggest to smallest number so [10] [9] [8] and so on).
I'll then use that vote to write the epilogue of the Founder Era for this splinter colony quest and kick off the new thread as previously promised, with a hopefully simpler Resource/Action system than this one turned out to be.
To start things off, some suggested areas:
- How long into timeskip before unlocking homegrown FTL?
--- 10, 15, 20 years are the options (unless timeskip is longer)
--- Can affect outcome of First Contact
- First Contact
--- Who with (Drazi, Brakiri, Hyach, Unknown?)
--- Friendly/Unfriendly
--- Who started it?
- Clan Government
--- Civil War to overthrow? (Unlikely, needs huge support of voters).
--- Change in "ruling" clans? (Affects society Ethics, think like Stellaris.)
- How long is the timeskip?
--- default is 20 years. Could be longer. 10 year increments. Max 50.
--- longer timeskip means more of everything, but also brings Colony Era quest start closer to Dilgar War.
- Choose a tech field to really lean into.
--- Some advances will happen in general regardless of this vote.
--- Catxlotl Mechs/Fighters? (If yes, Catxlotls will be discovered to easily cyberize with biomech material. Almost as if designed for it.... Unlocks "Knight" route)
--- To Jedi or not to Jedi? (Martial traditions? Teek auras + Swordsmanship == knockoff Sword Intent?)
--- Bigger Faster Stronger? (AI plus neurothrones means drone swarms, or big honkin' space guns)
And so on.
As a reminder, the current Quest-year is 2095. Humanity makes first contact with the Centauri in ~2150. Show canon starts in 2258.
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- Location
- kentucky
home grown FTL.10 year skips.Drazi the semi friendly gym bros of babylon 5.ruling clans.Catxlotl Mechs/Fighters? (If yes, Catxlotls will be discovered to easily cyberize with biomech material. Almost as if designed for it.... Unlocks "Knight" route) welcome back buddy and hope ya are feeling better
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
So I'll just officially say it; the lightning rift will be the thing studied to get FTL tech. The way it'll work however is in-between Shadow phasing and Vorlon portals.
The lightning rifts will be easier to make the smaller they are, rather than the larger; to make capital ship scale rifts will require a bunch of smaller (fighter sized) ships to each make a rift that merges together.
This doesn't make traveling hyperspace itself any safer or faster or easier, mind you. It just means that you can mount FTL drives on fighters for in-system travel readily but travel between star systems still takes the time it otherwise would. That will "force" your Explorer and freighter ships to act as light carriers basically until you obtain conventional jump-point drives.
(It will also signal to the Vorlons and Shadows to butt out of your society's internal affairs because you've got a different patron, even if you don't know who or why.)
One of the other things this will also let you do, however, is maintain a millimeter sized rift continuously and using a very, very powerful psi-amp basically do a telepathic rather than tachyonic beacon for the home system.
But that would require a populated colony to keep operational, so it would be limited implementation.
This is tech you WILL get. It's just a matter of how early in the timeskip leading to the updated quest. (No longer a single city, but a full on civilization.)
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Great to have you back! I definitely want to continue
-20 year time skip.
-10 years into time skip we unlock homegrown FTL
-No Civil war, but a new ruling clan rises up from the up timers complicating the clan system
-No preference on First Contact, but we ran into them outside the Kithmake system.
Technology:
- Hard into Jedi
- Bio manipulation: thanks to our research into the Blight we have gained insights into somatic and stem cell gene editing. We can cure and prevent many diseases and conditions, and can also begin to modify ourselves. Meddling with the telepath gene is still beyond us but many Kith now have cosmetic modifications.
-20 year time skip.
-10 years into time skip we unlock homegrown FTL
-No Civil war, but a new ruling clan rises up from the up timers complicating the clan system
-No preference on First Contact, but we ran into them outside the Kithmake system.
Technology:
- Hard into Jedi
- Bio manipulation: thanks to our research into the Blight we have gained insights into somatic and stem cell gene editing. We can cure and prevent many diseases and conditions, and can also begin to modify ourselves. Meddling with the telepath gene is still beyond us but many Kith now have cosmetic modifications.
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- Location
- Germany
Awesome to see this again. I'm hoping for Jedi
-30 year time skip.
-10 years into time skip we unlock homegrown FTL
-No Civil war, but multiple new ruling clans rise up from the up timers complicating the clan system
-don't know enough to talk about who we have First Contact with.
--- Catxlotl Mechs/Fighters? (If yes, Catxlotls will be discovered to easily cyberize with biomech material. Almost as if designed for it.... Unlocks "Knight" route)
-10 years into time skip we unlock homegrown FTL
-No Civil war, but multiple new ruling clans rise up from the up timers complicating the clan system
-don't know enough to talk about who we have First Contact with.
--- Catxlotl Mechs/Fighters? (If yes, Catxlotls will be discovered to easily cyberize with biomech material. Almost as if designed for it.... Unlocks "Knight" route)
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
By Jedi thing I don't mean literally The Force just so you guys know. I mean, Coo-Tah is a thing in the setting but this would be more psionic martial arts stuff.
Think people doing stuff like imbuing psionic resonance with their personal swords so they can make with sword auras that can cut stuff from a distance or deflect PPG bursts while leaping around and guiding their actions with danger senses.
More of the psychic dueling turning into a major tradition of the colony in other words.
Think people doing stuff like imbuing psionic resonance with their personal swords so they can make with sword auras that can cut stuff from a distance or deflect PPG bursts while leaping around and guiding their actions with danger senses.
More of the psychic dueling turning into a major tradition of the colony in other words.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Gosh, darn it, I like the idea of Catxlotl biomechs, but also AI-directed battle-ecosystems.
Not the Jedi, though. Magical space wizard knight is overdone in my opinion.
Rest I don't have an opinion on.
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I'd enjoy continuing.
15-30 year timeskip, but regardless Id enjoy the FTL development to be close to when the timeskip ends. Maybe start us when our first explorer returns home?
I personally would learn into the pseodo-gravatics via TK psi amps. Telepaths are already potent in person, but giving our ships impressively capable reactionless drives (and shields?) would help establish us as a civilization to not mess with.
15-30 year timeskip, but regardless Id enjoy the FTL development to be close to when the timeskip ends. Maybe start us when our first explorer returns home?
I personally would learn into the pseodo-gravatics via TK psi amps. Telepaths are already potent in person, but giving our ships impressively capable reactionless drives (and shields?) would help establish us as a civilization to not mess with.
I'm hoping that we won't be completely locked out of options we don't choose now. I admit, the pursuit of a cure for the Blight in the Plans I was writing by the end left only minimally contributing to the reactionless drive project.
I'll just go over my reasoning for my rankings
[10] Dueling Culture. I'm a sucker for blade and energy shield dueling, and we are so close to it. I know not everyone's a fan, but I'm putting this at top of the list because I think it would be hard to cultivate after things start up again.
[9] Our own way of accessing Hyperspace. I see this method as flat out superior. There are some drawbacks, but they pale in comparison to allowing smaller craft to access hyperspace and most crucially not having a jump gate in our home system. In Season 1 of Babylon 5 it was a big deal when a raider gang had a mothership with a jump drive. Not having a gate in our home system will mean we only need to worry about large threats in system, capital ships and explorer ships. Raider gangs can only attack us outside our home system. ANd having some carrier capacity on all our large ships will make that easier to manage.
[8] Biotechnology. This is something we were making real progress on with the orbital biomass seeding and our Blight research. It's not as vital as the top two because we could probably cultivate it as we go along, whereas the other may have more drastic effects.
[7] Short timeskip. I trust my ability to make plans and would rather start earlier with less when we are on the clock.
[6] Reactionless drives. I regret never putting a lot of research into this.
[5] Meeting Aliens outside our own system. I would rather run into them out there and be better able to control the flow of information.
Everything else is low priority for me. I'm not really into the Catxolotl Mecha but I understand others are and I am willing to trade vote priorities if it would help lock in the dueling culture and rift based hyperspace. I recognize this is another thing that would be difficult to cultivate after the quest restarts.
[10] Dueling Culture. I'm a sucker for blade and energy shield dueling, and we are so close to it. I know not everyone's a fan, but I'm putting this at top of the list because I think it would be hard to cultivate after things start up again.
[9] Our own way of accessing Hyperspace. I see this method as flat out superior. There are some drawbacks, but they pale in comparison to allowing smaller craft to access hyperspace and most crucially not having a jump gate in our home system. In Season 1 of Babylon 5 it was a big deal when a raider gang had a mothership with a jump drive. Not having a gate in our home system will mean we only need to worry about large threats in system, capital ships and explorer ships. Raider gangs can only attack us outside our home system. ANd having some carrier capacity on all our large ships will make that easier to manage.
[8] Biotechnology. This is something we were making real progress on with the orbital biomass seeding and our Blight research. It's not as vital as the top two because we could probably cultivate it as we go along, whereas the other may have more drastic effects.
[7] Short timeskip. I trust my ability to make plans and would rather start earlier with less when we are on the clock.
[6] Reactionless drives. I regret never putting a lot of research into this.
[5] Meeting Aliens outside our own system. I would rather run into them out there and be better able to control the flow of information.
Everything else is low priority for me. I'm not really into the Catxolotl Mecha but I understand others are and I am willing to trade vote priorities if it would help lock in the dueling culture and rift based hyperspace. I recognize this is another thing that would be difficult to cultivate after the quest restarts.
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
The good thing about Ranked Preference voting is that once I put out the actual vote options, y'all would just need to put a number next to an option and then the tallying will just consist of adding the numbers for each option and dividing by the total number of votes. I'll have to tally it manually but I'm only going to do it once anyway.
- Location
- sweden
5 months is nothing and has it been that long? Also funny I checked this like a week ago but I am hype for dressing up in costumes and make spaceships that looks like bone hide and Crystal's and potentially to upgrade the computer to hold the mind of the founder that can think
Dont care for a time skip to much so shorter the better.
meeting some unknowns would be cool.
Biotechnology is not so dramatic but it's one of our main staples we have been making headway with the drone technology of the first ones .
When we are outside our home system I would prefer to hide that we are humans so very elaborate suits of bio material and Crystal's with kobold crew when on camera.
The uptimers perhaps ungrateful but I can see them separating themself and making a bunch of "lesser" clans that are lesser in technique and more general.
Our own drives is cool would result in some weird shipdesigns for larger ones extremely spindly and protruding like claws to rip lighting like strips into space or Pack ships that combine
Dont care for a time skip to much so shorter the better.
meeting some unknowns would be cool.
Biotechnology is not so dramatic but it's one of our main staples we have been making headway with the drone technology of the first ones .
When we are outside our home system I would prefer to hide that we are humans so very elaborate suits of bio material and Crystal's with kobold crew when on camera.
The uptimers perhaps ungrateful but I can see them separating themself and making a bunch of "lesser" clans that are lesser in technique and more general.
Our own drives is cool would result in some weird shipdesigns for larger ones extremely spindly and protruding like claws to rip lighting like strips into space or Pack ships that combine
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Sorry for the delay in commenting, I got busy. So yeah, awesome to hear from you. And its funny - like the person above me said - cause I too just checked this thread like a week or two ago as it came to my mind. So yeah, kudos on commenting and bringing it back and all that.
I'm all for time skip. I am definetly for Psi Knights. I am definetly for biotech of some sort. And I definetly want us to change the clan system, as my comments against elements of it were shown. So yeah, I am all for us making changes as part of the time skip that brings us into the wider galaxy and stuff.
Also us being FTL in a way that is still linked to stnadard stuff but not normal gates is super cool. Our system being in a sort of hyperspace storm for normal tech is really cool. We gotta go to others, they can't come to us. Etc.
Also I would like for us to be the end road of a Telepath Railroad system, let human telepaths who want away from PsiCorps come home to us.
But yeah cool stuff. Looking forward to this being continued.
I'm all for time skip. I am definetly for Psi Knights. I am definetly for biotech of some sort. And I definetly want us to change the clan system, as my comments against elements of it were shown. So yeah, I am all for us making changes as part of the time skip that brings us into the wider galaxy and stuff.
Also us being FTL in a way that is still linked to stnadard stuff but not normal gates is super cool. Our system being in a sort of hyperspace storm for normal tech is really cool. We gotta go to others, they can't come to us. Etc.
Also I would like for us to be the end road of a Telepath Railroad system, let human telepaths who want away from PsiCorps come home to us.
But yeah cool stuff. Looking forward to this being continued.