Quick update!
Exceptionally busy week at work. Next update may be delayed as late as this coming weekend, but as it is end-capped by a holiday, you can expect at least two posts.
We will slow the timeline since you will probably be embarking on combat operations. Expect time to proceed on a scale of hours or half-days with each update rather than the weeks to which are accustomed.
To be most productive until then, we can discuss two topics of recent interest.
Population Types
Because of the in-narrative timescale, recruitment and recover of cryopods are your primary opportunities for increasing faction population. As you scale the tech tree, cloning and construction of robotic colonists will also become possible.
Heretofore, you have encountered only four of the ten population types: Talents, technicians, citizens, and overseers. Since I'm not sure how many of you have spent time with the
Alpha Centauri 2 playbook that is at the heart of this project, I will transpose some of my notes here.
Talents are individuals with high educational and professional attainment. Many factions afford Talents special privileges and except from them exceptional contributions. Hydraulic engineer Sun Shao and Factor Dole Yudikon are Talents.
Librarians are a sub-population of Talents with special qualification to perform settlement administration and/or information management. Commissioner Pravin Lal is a Librarian.
Specials, also called Augments or Perfects, possess significant genetic and cybernetic enhancement that take them far above the human mental and physical baseline. On Earth, they would be genius-level Olympians. No individuals with enhancements of this kind were included in the Unity crew compliment. Specials are exceptionally efficient workers and soldiers.
Thinkers perform astounding feats of philosophical contemplation and critical analysis, usually aided by advanced mental techniques or psychotropic drugs. Like the Mentats of
Dune, they receive intensive training to increase memory and perception to eidetic levels. Creating Thinkers requires the tech Intellectual Integrity. Thinkers improve doctrinal research rates and increase a faction's pool of Influence (social actions).
Scientists possess the training to conduct empirical research into natural and social phenomenon. Robotics expert Dr. Johann Anhaldt is a scientist.
Technicians are colonists with the education and qualification to perform highly skilled labor other than faction administration. This broad classification in particular covers most engineering disciplines (civil, chemical, mechanical, electrical, environmental, aerospace, and digital). Members of the military officer corps are also technicians. Master Malakai Ro and Annunciator Sathieu Metrion are Technicians.
Overseers are individuals who supervise laborers. They are a tempering influence in factions that with un-free workers (convicts, drones, robots) and typically occupy a precarious social position because of their role in maintaining social systems that are inherently unstable.
Citizens are those of ordinary capability. They are usually afforded the full spectrum of rights and privileges afforded by their faction.
Cabo Primero Pereira, a non-commissioned officer, is a Citizen.
Drones are unskilled laborers living in a condition of exploitation. "Drone" is a pejorative term describing someone who has been formally subjugated. This group includes indentured servants, slaves, prisoners, and anyone who has been nerve-stapled or otherwise subjected to compliance techniques that reduces their cognitive and/or executive function.
Robots are fully artificial life forms designed to mimic human behavior.
What Happens Next
One of the joys of collaborative writing is bringing to life the scenes that my readers and voters want to experience. Following the dictum "don't ask, don't get," I invite you to share with me specific story outcomes that interest you.
- What other factions are you most interested to encounter? The Lord's Conclave (Godwinson) has been requested.
- What fate do you wish for Dole Yudikon?
- Which member of the Peacekeeping Forces would you most like to learn more about?
- What kinds of people would you like to discover among the stowaways?
- What kinds of salvage would it most excite you to recover?