After re-reading the Vision Book, I noticed some new things in it that I don't remember reading the first time. So, apparently it got an update, which is neat. I have some thoughts on just a few things, written in order, as I was reading through the pages. And kept backing out of the PDF reader on my phone, to open my SafeNotes app to type up the paragraphs, before I forgot what I wanted to comment on. So...
Questions/observations:
1. I'm assuming we only know about the Tsi-Hu's fate and civil war as a spoiler for the lore. But, within the game, that and other revelations will be made after some battles have been won, some zones terraformed, bases established, research done by linguists and xenobiologists and archeologists, who will combine the findings of their respective fields to paint the tapestry of the Tsi-Hu for us.
2. After the Enshigi split and the remaining ones were left to the mercy of the rebelling people, I wondered, pausing at the point in my reading, whether a few Enshigi were spared, either out of practicality (by the people, who aimed to make use of them, anyway) or they actually pleaded for mercy in exchange for their cooperation and they helped the stranded humanity "fast-track" their way to space in that 100 year gap. Which brings me to a crucial question.
3. I want to fill in that 100 year time-skip, at least a little bit, with a small bit of fictional history of my own. But whether or not I can do so, depends on the answer to my question about the Crescent Conglomerate. Who are they? Which nations?
Because...I had this idea for The Soviet Union, China and India to form a "super-power", at the start of that 100 year period, right after the Enshigi left. I provisionally named them The Third Axis, but there is a good chance I'll try and come up with a better name. This entity would be an attempt at stabilizing regional and global economy and coordination of commerce and everything else. It would also be an interesting mix of cultures. Later, we'll have the spread-out 28 colonies to bring some considerable cultural and some biological diversity, sure. And even odd mixtures of them, depending on what nations formed stronger alliances in that new web of colonies, as the decades and centuries passed. But such a mixing could have started with these three distinct nations, forming a union, back on Earth.
Well, we could say that The Soviet Union and China may be readily more compatible with each other than either one of them would be with India. Granted. Consider, though. The three largest nations, by population (and two of them by territory), forming such a union. It wouldn't be a power-grab, no. Their intent would genuinely be to help keep things from falling apart and to make sure the race wouldn't be left to rot on one planet. I'll have some more details, more meat to add to their history, but only if I can canonically cram them into that 100 year period. Want to come up with some names for manufacturers, companies...etc. Already posted something like that, some months or years ago, but it was just a small thing for a weapon and the manufacturer that made it. Already forgot.
4. On second thought, any such alliance and subsequent development of manufacturing giants, (bio)tech companies, corporations (such as the ones we've seen in FireFall), they and their products would become irrelevant to the Reapers. The Reapers are outcasts, pariahs, in their present, shunned by the rest of the disparate humanity, desperate to find a planet for their own, on their own. So no one is helping them. Culturally, the different tribes of the former Gatestrider planet could've diversified enough, but likely not to the extent of the colonies that were separated for dozens and hundreds of years. Even so, given that they were spread all over one planet, in terms of language, traditions, customs and the like, they may still be far from uniform and could certainly be diverse enough. Just not as diverse as if they'd hail from all the different colonies.
Them operating outside the laws and views of the rest of humanity means they will continue to rely on their own expertise, their own tech, their own R&D, their own "manufacturers", their own hierarchy, without there being different corporations and companies vying for control of a market and without them bringing with them potentially distracting corporate interests and competitiveness to get in the way of the struggle to build a new world. It could actually mean less brainstorming to come up with background info for such things, but there still might be room for some factions and firms. Though, I doubt mega-corporation(s) that had their origins on the still existing old human homeworld of Earth will have much relevance in the lives of such outcasts. So...I guess there's no point to my 4th point. *shrug*
5. (OFF TOPIC) RTS *le siiigh*
There hasn't(?) been a good RTS in YEARS. They only do these grand-strategy crap, where units stand on weird hexagonal tiles on a worldmap, looking bigger than countries.
Or it's some turn-based turd. I love it when a description of some new game starts with "Fast, exciting combat..." and then I read it's turn-based. Turn-based combat is the antithesis of fast and exciting. The last good RTS game was Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. And long before that C&C 3 (C&C 4 shall not be mentioned, ever) and Act of War Direct Action (and its expansion High Treason). Red Alert 3 was good, but it lost a lot of its Red Alert feel, compared to RA2 and Yuri's Revenge. The choice in the style of the models and the whole look of the game was...questionable, too goofy, even by their standards. Some companies tried to make a sequel to Generals. Were basically told by fans they had no idea what they were doing and failed. Some tried for a laughable "spiritual successor" to Act of War with predictable results.
On a good note, the same guys behind Renegade X are almost ready to bring out Firestorm, which will be a 3D, first and third-person rendition of Tiberian Sun. The environment and units therein impressively recreated, where we will also be able to use resources to place buildings. The Em-8er lore on the base-building reminded me of it. So, if anyone loves the old C&C games and is perhaps already familiar with Renegade X, but haven't been following its development, these are the latest promising news. And it's looking GOOOOD.
So, looking forward to doing some base-building, predetermined/fixed as the locations may be. Of course, it is to avoid arguments over placement.
6. The Tsi-Hu and their bonded armor and such. I wonder if we will eventually encounter humans who have been turned by the Tsi-Hu, using their bio-tech gear to enslave their bodies, if not their minds. Maybe they would be aware of what's happening to them, they just couldn't stop themselves. The bonded tech will be controlling them AND maybe even their frames, making them even more dangerous, as we'd be fighting Reapers under Tsi-Hu control. They could be saved. Or they might be a long lost cause. Maybe their bodies would be long dead, or close to it and kept from decay by the Tsi-Hu tech, so their biometric signatures could still be used to operate their frames.
Of course, later on, research and development could also lead to the creation of safe bonding-armor that our human forms could make us of, for better environmental and damage protection.
And those Beasts that will get stronger after every kill and meal? Could they be kited around, like the Goliaths in the Borderlands games, killing and feeding on wildlife or even their own, until they'd reach a plateau of strength and speed at which they will be extremely difficult to pin down and kill, but their bodies would reward more and increasingly rarer parts for crafting and research, like a prolonged thumping would. Eh?
Lastly, still in order of the neurons deciding to fire off an idea in my brain, that skimpy, scantily clad female, in blue, whose holding an Op-AI holo in her palm...got the image in front of you? Instead of that character, imagine an Enshigi special soldier, however they might end up looking like, holding a miniature sun, with a miniaturized Dyson-sphere around it, containing and harnessing its energy to power their weaponry and abilities used against us.
Now, for the mistakes I spotted:
Questions/observations:
1. I'm assuming we only know about the Tsi-Hu's fate and civil war as a spoiler for the lore. But, within the game, that and other revelations will be made after some battles have been won, some zones terraformed, bases established, research done by linguists and xenobiologists and archeologists, who will combine the findings of their respective fields to paint the tapestry of the Tsi-Hu for us.
2. After the Enshigi split and the remaining ones were left to the mercy of the rebelling people, I wondered, pausing at the point in my reading, whether a few Enshigi were spared, either out of practicality (by the people, who aimed to make use of them, anyway) or they actually pleaded for mercy in exchange for their cooperation and they helped the stranded humanity "fast-track" their way to space in that 100 year gap. Which brings me to a crucial question.
3. I want to fill in that 100 year time-skip, at least a little bit, with a small bit of fictional history of my own. But whether or not I can do so, depends on the answer to my question about the Crescent Conglomerate. Who are they? Which nations?
Because...I had this idea for The Soviet Union, China and India to form a "super-power", at the start of that 100 year period, right after the Enshigi left. I provisionally named them The Third Axis, but there is a good chance I'll try and come up with a better name. This entity would be an attempt at stabilizing regional and global economy and coordination of commerce and everything else. It would also be an interesting mix of cultures. Later, we'll have the spread-out 28 colonies to bring some considerable cultural and some biological diversity, sure. And even odd mixtures of them, depending on what nations formed stronger alliances in that new web of colonies, as the decades and centuries passed. But such a mixing could have started with these three distinct nations, forming a union, back on Earth.
Well, we could say that The Soviet Union and China may be readily more compatible with each other than either one of them would be with India. Granted. Consider, though. The three largest nations, by population (and two of them by territory), forming such a union. It wouldn't be a power-grab, no. Their intent would genuinely be to help keep things from falling apart and to make sure the race wouldn't be left to rot on one planet. I'll have some more details, more meat to add to their history, but only if I can canonically cram them into that 100 year period. Want to come up with some names for manufacturers, companies...etc. Already posted something like that, some months or years ago, but it was just a small thing for a weapon and the manufacturer that made it. Already forgot.
4. On second thought, any such alliance and subsequent development of manufacturing giants, (bio)tech companies, corporations (such as the ones we've seen in FireFall), they and their products would become irrelevant to the Reapers. The Reapers are outcasts, pariahs, in their present, shunned by the rest of the disparate humanity, desperate to find a planet for their own, on their own. So no one is helping them. Culturally, the different tribes of the former Gatestrider planet could've diversified enough, but likely not to the extent of the colonies that were separated for dozens and hundreds of years. Even so, given that they were spread all over one planet, in terms of language, traditions, customs and the like, they may still be far from uniform and could certainly be diverse enough. Just not as diverse as if they'd hail from all the different colonies.
Them operating outside the laws and views of the rest of humanity means they will continue to rely on their own expertise, their own tech, their own R&D, their own "manufacturers", their own hierarchy, without there being different corporations and companies vying for control of a market and without them bringing with them potentially distracting corporate interests and competitiveness to get in the way of the struggle to build a new world. It could actually mean less brainstorming to come up with background info for such things, but there still might be room for some factions and firms. Though, I doubt mega-corporation(s) that had their origins on the still existing old human homeworld of Earth will have much relevance in the lives of such outcasts. So...I guess there's no point to my 4th point. *shrug*
5. (OFF TOPIC) RTS *le siiigh*
There hasn't(?) been a good RTS in YEARS. They only do these grand-strategy crap, where units stand on weird hexagonal tiles on a worldmap, looking bigger than countries.
Or it's some turn-based turd. I love it when a description of some new game starts with "Fast, exciting combat..." and then I read it's turn-based. Turn-based combat is the antithesis of fast and exciting. The last good RTS game was Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. And long before that C&C 3 (C&C 4 shall not be mentioned, ever) and Act of War Direct Action (and its expansion High Treason). Red Alert 3 was good, but it lost a lot of its Red Alert feel, compared to RA2 and Yuri's Revenge. The choice in the style of the models and the whole look of the game was...questionable, too goofy, even by their standards. Some companies tried to make a sequel to Generals. Were basically told by fans they had no idea what they were doing and failed. Some tried for a laughable "spiritual successor" to Act of War with predictable results.
On a good note, the same guys behind Renegade X are almost ready to bring out Firestorm, which will be a 3D, first and third-person rendition of Tiberian Sun. The environment and units therein impressively recreated, where we will also be able to use resources to place buildings. The Em-8er lore on the base-building reminded me of it. So, if anyone loves the old C&C games and is perhaps already familiar with Renegade X, but haven't been following its development, these are the latest promising news. And it's looking GOOOOD.
So, looking forward to doing some base-building, predetermined/fixed as the locations may be. Of course, it is to avoid arguments over placement.
6. The Tsi-Hu and their bonded armor and such. I wonder if we will eventually encounter humans who have been turned by the Tsi-Hu, using their bio-tech gear to enslave their bodies, if not their minds. Maybe they would be aware of what's happening to them, they just couldn't stop themselves. The bonded tech will be controlling them AND maybe even their frames, making them even more dangerous, as we'd be fighting Reapers under Tsi-Hu control. They could be saved. Or they might be a long lost cause. Maybe their bodies would be long dead, or close to it and kept from decay by the Tsi-Hu tech, so their biometric signatures could still be used to operate their frames.
Of course, later on, research and development could also lead to the creation of safe bonding-armor that our human forms could make us of, for better environmental and damage protection.
And those Beasts that will get stronger after every kill and meal? Could they be kited around, like the Goliaths in the Borderlands games, killing and feeding on wildlife or even their own, until they'd reach a plateau of strength and speed at which they will be extremely difficult to pin down and kill, but their bodies would reward more and increasingly rarer parts for crafting and research, like a prolonged thumping would. Eh?
Lastly, still in order of the neurons deciding to fire off an idea in my brain, that skimpy, scantily clad female, in blue, whose holding an Op-AI holo in her palm...got the image in front of you? Instead of that character, imagine an Enshigi special soldier, however they might end up looking like, holding a miniature sun, with a miniaturized Dyson-sphere around it, containing and harnessing its energy to power their weaponry and abilities used against us.
Now, for the mistakes I spotted:
Likes:
Pandagnome