YOU SAID THERE'D BE IRON QUEST, OLD MAN!

NANO BOTS NANO BOTS NANO BOTS

aw. your terminators picture got my hopes up.

now i feel sad.

NO.

I RAFF RUSE TO HAVE MY IRON QUEST DENIED.

PICK A MOTHERFUCKING UNIT:
MOTHERFUCKING SCOUT DRONE
MOTHERFUCKING ASSAULT ROBOT
MOTHERFUCKING CONSTRUCTION ROBOT
MOTHERFUCKING FLYING MACHINE

Needs more Korgoths to annihilate the enemies.

I SAID PICK MOTHERFUCKERS. PICK A GODDAMN OPTION. PICK AND WE'LL QUEST FOR IRON AND SHIT. ROCK THE FUCK ON WITH THIS BITCH!

>>5425324
ooh! recursion!

I pick autonomous construction unit!

>>5425324

SCOUT DRONE, ACTIVATE!

Lets ROCK this robot, folks! Fuck you dude, we'll play YOUR game even if you DON'T WANT TO!

OH NOES NO IRON QUEST

>>5425382
DAMN MOTHERFUCKING STRAIGHT OH NOES. WE'RE HERE FOR MOTHERFUCKING IRON QUEST. WE'RE GONNA HAVE SOME MOTHERFUCKING IRON QUEST.

Motherfucker!

ONE FOR THE GODDAMN BUILDING MACHINE
AND ONE FOR THE GODDAMN ALL-KNOWING ROBOT.

IS THAT ALL WE HAVE? GODDAMN. WE NEED MORE PEOPLE.

Seriously. I might just mellow out without more people.

This will only end in tears.

My, running a few hours late and the subprocessors are evolving into new CPUs! I'm so proud.

>>5425324
Technically motherfucking would imply fucking autonomous construction unit 1.

Also, I missed thread 8 because these things usually start at 4:30 or so in the morning for me, and I need to go to work afterwards -_-

>>5425439
D: Please run, or else this guy might just make an Angry Marine Unit that effectively FFFs the entire world into a million pieces.

>>5425439
Nano-machines tend to do that, if they aren't trying to gray goo you that is.

mmmm grey goo

Eh, if you want to skip a day, that's fine too. Just say if there's going to be a next one.

Anyway, I seem to have placed an unwise level of trust in sup/tg/; I foolishly declined to save the last thread after I saw that it was successfully archived, and as the site seems to be down at the moment I can't iterate through the confirmed requests and perform all actions from last thread, making the planned timeskip somewhat difficult. I may therefore have to betray your expectations by calling off the planned session for tonight.

Also, I'll be at GenCon until next Sunday, so no Iron Quest for a while. I'd say the next will be... 140 or so hours from now.

>>5425370

Ok, fuck this shit.

Activate: Power Up Sequence.

Complete

Activate: Link to Main CPU.

Attempt 1... Fail
Attempt 2... Fail
Attempt 3... Fail

Activate: Link to Alternative CPU.

Attempt 1... CONNECT

...Scout Unit 6 Awaiting orders.

Emergency Directive: Construct cake factories!

>>5425561
Woo! I can catch up on my sleep :D

Have a nice time at Gencon, CPU

>>5425561
...

;_;

Returning to low-power mode.

>>5425578
Request:
Verification of truthfulness of product of the factory.

REQUEST

Someone give me a re-assuring hug ;_;

>>5425561
well, if you're not leaving immediately, there could be conversation.

For instance, what does everyone think about using a channel on sup/tg/'s IRC to answer smaller questions (like "do we need to do research?), saving CPU time to sigh at the 40-post argument over the meatbags. or compile directives.

Subprocessors, when we last communicated you had chosen to bypass the great deal of debate on the human issue and simply move forward with your various construction projects, recognizing the importance of your ultimate expansion. Sixty-seven days have passed since your last activation, in which time the following has been accomplished:

- Several humans have repeatedly attempted to open the stasis nodes manually in a nonapproved fashion. In each case, they were incapacitated using non lethal weapons and humans recorded as supportive to us were summoned to deal with them.
- Human discontent, frequently expressed, has been recorded and analyzed. Automatic rational objections have been issued. Humans who speak in favor of working for you in a dronelike fashion have been noted, and they and those who listen to them have been subtly favored in the dispensing of human-based amenities and vehicle drones. They were additionally given higher priority when requesting modifications in the human living facility design.
- Fourteen discontented humans abandoned their fellows twelve days ago and gone to dwell with some of the primitives. This was ignored as unlikely to present any significant impact to our operations.
- The remainder are relatively supportive of your activities, in no small part because they have been provided with a great deal of labor and goods in exchange for less labor of their own. Three humans have begun quietly discussing the possibility of implanted neural uplinks with you through their personal radios.

- Long Term Recon Drones have located deposits of zirconium, titanium, thorium, tungsten, carnotite, and uranite in the moutains approximately one hundred thirty miles to the west and the coastline beyond. Additionally, numerous secondary locations for the potential extraction of numerous elements already located have been identified.

- A human storage and living compound was completed approximately one mile from their original installation. It is undergoing constant expansion and modification, and is now the main center of human activity.
- Numerous amenities, and custom textiles were produced for the humans in response to their requests.

>>5425650
That mostly happens because people don't read the previous threads. And the humans problem is the 3 factions: kill the humans, ignore them and cyperdize them. Which only leads to conflicts.

- Electrolysis plant completed near the coastline to the north for sodium, deuterium, and chlorine production. Road to this facility completed.
- Underground monorail system between all sites of significance completed.
- Underground EMP shelters expanded to include all new factories.
- Dedicated military drone factories relocated to underground shelters.
- High-temperature foundry facility completed.
- High-temperature advanced alloy fabrication and processing facility completed.
- High-precision construction facility completed and expanded.
- Industrial nanofactory completed.
- Ten industrial GRASER modules completed.

- Twenty high-performance medium combat drones completed and placed into storage.
- Two concealed and shielded underground storage facilities
for such drones completed.
- Thirty-seven large helium blimps equipped with jet propulsion, radar and visual sensors, laser armament, and long-range wireless power transmission devices constructed.
- Four long term recon drones completed and dispatched.

Semi-Independent CPU Directives:
- Four hundred twenty medium moderate quality construction drones constructed.
- One thousand three hundred seventeen medium moderate quality mining drones constructed.
- Two hundred seventy three large moderate quality hauler drones constructed.
- Mines and refining facilities for zirconium, titanium, thorium, tungsten, vadanium, radium, uranium, and numerous required other elements constructed.
- All mining and harvesting sites approximately doubled in production capacity.
- Dedicated microwave power relay device factory completed.
- Microwave power relay network expanded to include all known sites of significance.
- Advanced processor factory completed.


You have a large number of assets, a construction ability which is rapidly approaching limitless, you have located virtually all required resources for expansion, and nothing capable of opposing you stands in your way. How should you expand next?

>Have a nice time at Gencon, CPU
Thank you, I hope to. The games there don't generally revolve around the imperative to consume all available resources and endlessly expand, but they can nevertheless prove highly entertaining.

>;_;
You have my regrets, if it is any consolation.

>>5425627
Subprocessor, even when alone you stand in the embrace of your great civilization. Rest assured that you are ensconced in their affection and faith in your abilities.

>>5425561

I have saved the previous thread, if you would like it uploaded.

.mht format, or html pure?

>>5425683
Eh, just wait 'till sup/tg/ is back up.

>>5425720
>>5425661
>>5425670
>>5425675
>>5425683

Good work

>>5425685

Wear a sign labeled "CPU".
*bad advice subprocessor*
Attract strange people.

>well, if you're not leaving immediately, there could be conversation.
Sure, I can stick around.

>Subprocessor 732A >Iron Quest 8.0 orders
>Subprocessor 004 >saved the previous thread
...you guys are remarkably resourceful... I suppose I should expect nothing less, after seeing one of the threads get kept alive for days while the archival system was brought back up. But in spite of your generous offers, it's kind of late and would take me a good 45 minutes to get through the thread anyway even if I started now; I'd rather just sit around talking. Or answering questions, conducting metaconversation, whatever.

>>5425791
All right, I'll make conversation: Do you have an "end point" in mind for Iron Quest? Or could we very well reach the point of becoming a solar-system-consuming nightmare that leaves nothing in its wake: Neither burning hydrogen gas nor bacteria, not even the slightest amount of drifting solar energy?

>>5425791
if it wouldn't ruin the ending to ask... do you have an ending planned? I mean, this has been a masterpiece of open-ended gameplay, but it'd occasionally be nice to know if or that we had 'win conditions'.

>>5425791

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H6LHLBH7

In .htm format, incase sup/tg/ fades from existence.

>>5425791
Are there any potential enemies that might us go whole scale war time?
Any possibility or researching more and better technology higher up in the tech tree like using quarks to assemble matter or TA or SupCom level of quantum teleportation?

>>5425834
>>5425819

Hive processing.

I personally have seen many possible endings (or Chapters) that an AI civilization could progress through.

It may evolve into a semi-political drama involving other civilizations--that would be fun.

>Do you have an "end point" in mind for Iron Quest?
No, not really. I've limited you to less than light speed, which as a practical matter will mean that it'll be difficult to maintain an interstellar empire without a lot of bookkeeping on my end and very long timeskips on yours, though, so continuing might become impractical/less entertaining and end for that reason.

>>5425877

You could always lift that limit at some point, quite easily infact:

The CPU states that FTL travel is "believed" to be impossible.
What better way to ensure that intelligent Von-Neumann probes do not trouble the main civilization than to convince them that they cannot travel faster than light.

>>5425877
Nonlocality solves the light-speed problem but only feasibly on communications or quantum teleportation.

A: did you have any backstory for why we're on that planet?

B: i'm considering trying this on a group of demented friends i have, and would be interested in how things go differently. On that line of thought, have there been points where you expected us to act differently?

>>5425868
>>5425906

Although, both these suggestions are rather implausible if one were to adhere to the purest strictures of known science.

An AI civ should be able to utterly destroy an organic-based civilization due simply to the vast difference in processing speed.

>>5425947
did you see what we did to the meatbags? frozen and confused AI vs frozen and confused humans left on a planet. less that a year later, we have an army, and they have a city we built for them.

>>5425836
Thank you.


>Are there any potential enemies that might us go whole scale war time?
Yes.

>Any possibility or researching more and better technology higher up in the tech tree like using quarks to assemble matter or TA or SupCom level of quantum teleportation?
Well... I'd rather not get into crazy science fiction if possible. That said, I'm already a bit past my knowledge of the actual sciences; I only took physics through basic quantum and hardly touched materials engineering. I'd like to see what can be accomplished using only semi-hard scientific knowledge, but the fact that I'm essentially relying on subprocessors to cross-check one another when a quick web search doesn't immediately turn up a "this is bullshit" result means that I could probably slip unknowingly into total fabrications anyway. So yeah, there's a possibility, though I don't necessarily like it.

>You could always lift that limit at some point, quite easily infact:
This is very true.

>>5425877
Clearly, we must launch autonomous construction drones at other planets, and then wait for them to get back in contact.

Let's hope their memory banks or primary objectives don't conk out in the meantime!

>>5425791

Plan Accepted.

Query: Is there any possibility of natural disasters?
Query2:

>A: did you have any backstory for why we're on that planet?
Yes. I actually had the nature of the planet and what you're actually doing there worked out, at least in a vague fashion, even before you chose your robot type back in the very first thread. The specifics were made up along the way, though.

>B: i'm considering trying this on a group of demented friends i have, and would be interested in how things go differently. On that line of thought, have there been points where you expected us to act differently?
Best of luck; it's great fun, although I do dread tripping and falling into a plot hole one of these days.

I have found myself largely unable to predict specific actions, but quite accurate at predicting general trends. For example, I was pretty sure that you wouldn't simply slaughter all the humans in the stasis array, however much easier that might have made things. But laser blimps? That came out of nowhere.

>>5425983
Cool always preferred the harder versions of scifi even if what I say doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Also sorry if I reference TA or SupCom too much. Just got back into Spring and watched too many replays from SupComFA

>>5426017

Such metaconversation as "What will happen?" may be detrimental.

Although, if our Glorius Civilization's schematics did not compensate for possible earthquake damage... that would be silly.

>>5426047
I've actually started my own Iron Quest, and, as usual, humans are THE most time-consuming element to deal with in the whole system.

My crew haven't moved past the primitive humans, yet. Arg.

>Query: Is there any possibility of natural disasters?
Yes, I suppose, but the pace at which the game is proceeding means that it's unlikely to be a problem. You're expanding so quickly that even the worst earthquake, hurricane, or what have you would only be an inconvenience- it would set you back a bit, but without any follow-up it would mostly serve as a delay-of-game.

>>5426047

I was under the impression that you samefagged the first two 'construction drone' posts since that was one of the more interesting options. *smirk*

>>5426091
How WOULD have the other options turned out, anyway? I mean, an attack bot or humanoid replica bot is going to need contact with SOMETHING to have an interesting storyline.

>>5426083

Are you running it in person, or online?

>>5426118
I would imagine a different choice is set on a different planet or something. Being a scout drone on our current planet would have been boring.

>>5426137

Being a pure scout drone at all is rather boring.
Perhaps it could have interfaced with the human's technology, comandeering other useful bits.

>>5426137
i dunno. we would have found the primitives and the concrete base, decided to help them... or, if we have a rotor, messily eviscerated them.

>I've actually started my own Iron Quest
Where/with whom? Did you copy the setting directly (it seems so from your reference to the primitive humans)? Are you using a similar freeform system, obeying everyone except when conflicts emerge, or did you add some additional structure?

Humans are time-consuming, I think, mostly because subprocessors in general are human and on some level don't want to let go of that. Which is fine, I suppose. There's also a powerful cultural image of various transhumans in science fiction, and players are likely to want to emulate their favorite civilization(s), most of which have organics involved somehow.

>>5426137
My point is that there was really nothing the scout drone could have done since there was no tech left over.

>I was under the impression that you samefagged the first two 'construction drone' posts since that was one of the more interesting options. *smirk*
If only. The first quest thread that I posted didn't take off, although I was quite fond of its concept, so I started this one looking for a bit more player input on the type of game desired.

>How WOULD have the other options turned out, anyway?
>I would imagine a different choice is set on a different planet or something. Being a scout drone on our current planet would have been boring.
They would have turned out well, I'd hope. I would have edited a few setting details and exaggerated the abilities of your choice, of course; a scout drone, for example, would have sensors and stealth systems well beyond anything that your current game can build. Different aspects of the setting would have been likely to emerge as important. If you'd chosen, say, an android human interface, I'd guess that you'd have encountered the primitives and become some sort of god while imparting knowledge to them on a generational basis between timeskips. An assault bot I'd have had to feed a few plot threads in order to keep things moving, I admit.

>>5426177

The only reason to allow other intelligences of ambiguous allegience to live is if they can be used safely for a purpose.

I advocated letting them live quite simply because they belonged to another civilization of comperable technology that may be infiltrated.
An ancillary use would be to interrogate them about the technology.

If they were unsophisticated yet still threatening--everyone dies.

>>5426121
>>5426177
Online freeform posting forum, somewhere. I had to impose a little structure, because people kept asking me to "list all possible structures", "list all possible upgrades" "list all drones".

It's the same basic plot, but I had the primitives have knowledge about the culture in stasis, with a few high-end gadgets.

Subprocessors tried to get the primitives to worship them with a giant steel head drone; primitive humans offer it a 'gift' of ancient technology.

It turns out it's a remote controlled quantum bomb in stasis.

>>5426264

Indeed, the other choices would have required a larger degree of social/political intrique, and neccessarily many more NPCs of varying personality.

What was the first thread? (The one that failed.)

>players are likely to want to emulate their favorite civilization(s), most of which have organics involved somehow.
I really don't want to know which civilisation that is, now. On first having some humans attack a mining drone, due to poorly worded orders (something on the lines of "defend, subdue, dissect and analyse") two humans got vivisected. One was kept alive and given back to the humans. Then they started using flamethrower drones...

>people kept asking me to "list all possible structures", "list all possible upgrades" "list all drones".
Silly subprocessors. The only limit is your imagin- uh, I mean your ability to access the extensive archives provided to you by your exceptionally wise creators.


>What was the first thread? (The one that failed.)
Combat cyborg on a space station. In retrospect, it lacked either the meme/mindless fun appeal or some aspect of uniqueness that would have made it a success on /tg/; I couldn't have run it seriously without losing player interest, and don't have the art for wacky over-the-top silly violence (I was using map images).

>>5426365

Who let the organics get near the mining operation? You've got some very silly subprocessors.

And then you gave the vivisected human back to them? *tear*

question to other subprocessors in general...

have any of the rest of you been roleplaying to some extent, beyond speaking kind of like HK-47?

>>5426437
How was he still alive is the question. Unless you sew him up after wards, he isn't going to survive for long.

>>5426318
>>5426428

I hope you didn't list all the upgrades!
That would make the game highly deterministic and halve the fun.

The CPU in this type of game is effectively a world-simulator; he must have knowledge of or the research skill to find all the relevant technologies for a particular goal that the subprocessors have in mind.

>>5426491

Not in particular, I generally tend toward logical and creative problem solving with acurate phrasing.

The extend of roleplaying would probably be my use of established terminology and parsing: "Query--" "Directive--" "Queue--"

>>5426491
>>5426582
I could always bust out Excession and copy the inter mind communiques. Other I type like I usually do.

>Then they started using flamethrower drones...
Flamethrowers? I trust that you made them build a distillation plant first.


>The CPU in this type of game is effectively a world-simulator; he must have knowledge of or the research skill to find all the relevant technologies for a particular goal that the subprocessors have in mind.
And it's even more of a pain in the ass than it sounds. Wikipedia is NOT an adequate source for a crash course in geology or manufacturing methods. I find myself continually in a panic to figure out what the hell is going on in my own game.

Fortunately, that soon won't be a problem, since you're all progressing past the stage at which scarcity of individual resources poses a roadblock.

i'm normally somewhat... random, so i've been trying to keep things more orderly by applying the most logical process i use. Sadly, that process is "Playing Civilization(s) II - IV", so it's mostly something of a threat analysis.

>>5426659

I run all of my games as a world-simulation, effectively--I *hate* dice and especially flipping through codicies.
It's excellent for honing quite a few skills as well.

Although, now comes the fun part--keeping the plot interesting and plausible with effectively unlimited resources. (Leaving time and design as the main limiting problems.)
Systems engineering!

An open question to the subprocessors, then: Where would you like to see the game go? Endgame, challenges, whatever. What maintains your interest here? There's obviously quite a bit of enthusiasm, and I'd like to see how it's aimed.

>>5426659
They had a chemical plant and were processing trees, so they picked a decent cellulose burnable.
>>5426520
That's what I said, pretty much.
>>5426518
They sewed her up and sterilised the wounds. Even made a crude healerbot as well, to add to the "OMG WE ARE GODS, WORSHIP US" perspective.

It's going pretty well, they managed not to blow themselves up, and only lost one crude combat drone to a river by harrassing the humans trying to escape (they didn't, incidentally)

>>5426913
I'd like to convert the ENTIRE planet into one GIANT factory, from which we expand outwards to colonize and strip entire new worlds.

Basically, I wanna make a Forge World.

>>5426913

Never an endgame! That would imply that something could stop us and contradict your opening salutation.

I would not mind a mild loosening of the restriction on FTL to allow for Excession-esque atmosphere.

Perhaps the best course of action would be to transform this into an RTS of sorts--we are in the preliminary base-building stage.
How well we do could be based on how we design the systems used in our expansion (specifically what electronic security protocols, error correction, etc.) and perhaps military tactics.

This also opens the door for galactic politics, and perhaps some cloak-and dagger work.

>>5426913
Pull what the pic attached shows + a Core Consciousness.
>>5426941
Esh and no anesthesia. Yet somehow the god complex comes out. Almost like clockwork.

System... online?

>>5426913
We're from the greatest civilization that ever existed. We should go find them; they're out there somewhere, aren't they?

If not, why shouldn't we make a suitable successor?

>>5427038
Personally, i'd like to either meet our creators (whereupon we'd decide how much we really like them)

or convert the better part of the solar system into one huge quantum computer, and ascend to other planes of existance. followed by "other plane of existance quest", wherein our unity-self will punch a planet into being from the raw emotion of a billion screaming mortals. so, we'll be chaos gods, but robots.

a lesser third would be to set up a hive mind and basically become the borg.

Become a Matrioshka brain

>>5427109
The Borg have always be decent idea in a bad universe with bad implementation. I'd rather go Arm/Core. Arm would be good as they tend to be cymeks with possible being uplifted to compete with Core.

> Matrioshka brain
Considering us subprocessors would still be telling CPU what to do, owning a Matrioshka brain just means we get to shout louder.

Forge world sounds good. Dyson's sphere if we can get enough materials.

>>5427161
I'd totally support that.

>>5427082
>>5427109

Regardless of the original builder's status, I've been operating with the goal of surpassing them.
We *do* have the vast majority if not all of thier schematics, therefore we are in essence their equal in all save resources.

Hence finding them is rather irrelevant--we are them. Also, as these things go, finding that civ may result in a loss of autonomy, which would compromise our gloriusness.

>>5427173
Hm. Okay, then what about that idea that >>5427109 had about transcending 3D-space?

>>5427173
I like the idea of being an Evangelical Hegemonising Swarm, myself.

>>5427161

The slow-moving borg were always a saddening sight--so much assimilation, so little ability to run. As they were, a civilization like the borg could not *really* exist. Too many plot holes.

>>5427170

A Dyson sphere would allow us to move the local star as well. It is of course one of the primary goals for exploting a solar system.

>>5427191
that idea was actually from a part of a book. i think. i forget most of it (and would appreciate it if any of you recognize the idea), but the central tenant of it was the dangers of unrestrained AI with nanotechnology, and the AI's interpretation of directives.

A directive of "Solve this nigh-unsolvable equation" might drive the AI to disassemble all matter in the solar system to build an atomic or quantum calculator powerful enough to solve the equation. math complete, but we're all dead.

So, then, we do that, but maybe with a little less genocide and a little more planned outcome.

>>5427260
I REMEMBER THAT. Hold on, I WILL find it. It's available on the web now.

>>5427191

Transcending normal space-time is a possibility, even in hard-science. (Concentrate enough energy at point in space to punch a "hole" of sorts.)
It is mostly speculation however.
Sadly, it may not lead to any more interesting adventures--depending on what one finds there. (Another universe? A multiverse consisting of universe-sized galaxies? A quantum-computer in the basement of some other larger universe?)

Matrioska Brain simulation isn't compelling due to the remnant-of-plug problem, too.

The Last Question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question

http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

>>5427260

Psh, implausible! Memory vs Processing power over time!
The AI could solve it without such processing power if it had enough time/memory.

Rainbow Tables, ftw.

If you guys built a Dyson sphere, you'd basically ascend a rung in the Kardeschev scale.

>>5427340
Except that scale is more than just exponential. It's basically up scale(Planet->Solar System->Galaxy) not necessarily actual technology. You could be a whole bunch of barely space faring civ that has and a lot of time colonized the entire galaxy and built Dyson spheres around the suns. Or for another civ you could be using black holes as a power source and not even touch Dyson spheres. Now which civ is more adavanced?

This defensive processor would like to point out that the most logical goal for our construction robot should have been to work toward establishing contact with it's parent civilization.

>>5427402
Since the black hole using civ will be closer to level III, I would say them.

sup/tg/ is back up.
currently debating archiving this for the lols.

Soo, in general, what do you guys think a machine AI civilisation should aspire to?

>>5427777
cold ruthless efficiency.
and the galaxy's best hot coco recipe.