>PCs continue to work for University's "Bullshit, Pranks, and Counterintelligence" division
>Zakharov announces he has developed a "Quantum Frequency Sniffer" allowing him to eavesdrop on others communications; declares he will only use it for good.
>PCs are paid to break into Spartan Comms node, add sound file of Zakharov saying "Hmmm, veeeeery eeeeeeenteresting" to coded communications
>Santiago is heard to declare "This is a ruse! Pure psychological warfare! Zakharov cannot decrypt our communiques; it is mathematically impossible. He is only a scientist, not some kind of, of space wizard!"
>Zakharov pays PCs a bonus, changes official title to Space Wizard.

The only time we ever played an AC-themed game (it was in FATE, some modified system) I betrayed the rest of the party and - literally - shot them in the back so Pravin Lal could secure the win.

We were allied with Morgan/the University but fuck those dicks.

Mind worms.

That's the end of all the game's fun right there.

Spy vs Spy or Exploration has to be the only way to play Alpha Centauri. Waging war would be boring.

I can see Data Angels hackers screwing up the University really, REALLY bad. Moving files to the wrong folders in different Node networks...

>Hired to steal an alien artifact from a Gaian research facility on a remote island
>infiltrate SEAL style, incapacitate guards, seize artifact
>artifact opens when touched
>full of baby mindworms
>research facility is mindworm-breeding lab
>full of goddam mindworms that are now rioting because you disabled their telepathic handlers
>run outside
>island is shifting under their feet
>it's an isle of the deep, the island is mindworms
>take off my mask
>GM is mindworms

Of course the University was the first to research Advanced Trolling. It's only natural.

>>18615769
>>18615638

Proctor Zakharov having the PCs troll the Believers?
So. Much. Win.

>>18615891

I always treat the expansion "factions" as social movements and subcultures, not nearly as powerful or independent as the primary factions. The Free Drones are a political movement with branches in the University, Morganites, and brutally suppressed in the Hive. The Cult of Planet are extremest Gaians and Believers with one small city. The Nautilus Pirates are loosely-organized raider clans with some ramshackle hidden bases and little actual industrial capacity. The Data Angels are a Morganite and University subculture, not a faction... I mean, can you imagine an entire city of hackers? Who would plow the fields? But yeah, troublesome and useful by turns, and rife with stupid memes.

As for the cyborgs, I maintain the /tg/ canon that Aki Z-5 was a junior researcher with a crush on Zakharov who got carried away trying to impress him.

>It... it is not as if I wanted you to be awed by my embrace of technological advancement and pure logic.

>>18616043
>I mean, can you imagine an entire city of hackers? Who would plow the fields?

Robots and script kiddies.

http://apolyton.net/showthread.php/8570-Joe

Behold Joe. The finest AC story ever written, based entirely around the probe team operations of several factions. Read it and know just how awesome probe teams really are.

Urd skolinsh haa.

[sp]Urd haa [/sp]

>>18615893
Make it the first such facility known to the other nations of Planet. All the shock and political backlash from other rulers going "You're BREEDING these things?! You're insane!" and the Gaians having to use all their political trump cards to keep from looking the worst people ever...all thanks to the PC's mission.

Alternatively, the Peacekeepers, who the Gaias have been at vendetta with for the last few years, have been trying to tell other people about the mind worms through propaganda and rumor, with Commissioner Lal trying to not seem like he's weak and unsure about how to deal with the bred mindworms working *alongside* regular Gaian troops and vehicles. The PCs are sent in by the Morganites (as mercenaries, after negotiating secret trade, tech and resource deals, or any other number of secret politics) or the University (can we really domesticate mind worms?) or the Believers (she's summoning demons from Hell!) to go confirm that such a mind worm-breeding facility exists.

During the escape, there's mind worm vs mind worm combat. I always wondered what that looked like...

>>18616043
From what I understand, all of the expansion factions except for the pirates are specifically designed to be factions that split off from one of the larger factions really early after planetfall. Free Drones came from Hive, Cult of Planet from Gians, Datajacks from Morgan, and so on.

>>18616043

>"I was not aware you would be at this diplomatic summit. My decision to attend was dictated by logical cost/benefit analysis; your potential presence did not bear on the calculation."

>"There is a diplomatic ball this evening. I calculate my presence there, in close proximity with you, would have beneficial effects on inter-faction trade ratios. I mention this merely as an observation."

>"My neural augmentations allow me to make precise, timed movements, such as the steps of a dance, with far greater competence than an unaugmented human. Just making conversation."

>>18616225
What happens when a Data Angel attempts to hack a Cyborg?

>>18616296
Why, that, combined with purpose-built robots and machines, is how the Data Angels get their workforce.

>>18616173

I always thought the Data Angels made the least sense of any of the factions. A society built around a single ideology ("Wealth!" "Knowledge!" "The good of the community!") is believable. A society based around a single profession, a single area of study? A civilization of computer enthusiasts makes no more sense than a civilization of truckers.

>>18616489
Both can sort of make sense. A civilization of truckers, for example - forever on the road, driving enormous landships that might as well be mobile cities, transporting goods in raw materials in mass quantity, using their vessels' enormous bulk to breach even the thickest fungus.

>>18616545
Goods AND raw materials, thst is.

>>18616567
>correct mistake
>make typo

Goddammit.

>>18616545

A CULTURE of truckers, sure, that's actually a cool idea. But they're not going to be a civilization the way the Morganites or Human Hive are a civ; they're not going to be researching advanced terraforming or fielding armies over ideological differences. They'll exist in a niche, driving transports between cities of larger factions.

Similarly, I don't buy hackers building their own cities and drilling thermal boreholes and building battleships, when they can easily exist within the cities of larger factions. Why go to the trouble of erecting a Hab complex out in the untamed wastes when your apartment on sublevel 36 of Morgan Towers has a thickband optic data line, and the pizza place delivers?

>>18616727
You're right, they'll need more than computer skills or trucking experience to build a civilization. However, just because starting a new faction is troublesome doesn't mean nobody would do it.

The Truckers (or Crawler Jocks, given the huge supply crawlers in AC) also make for good bridge adventures.

PCs need transport to Sparta Command? "Well, sunspot, I got good news and bad news for you. The bad news is a major fungal bloom took out 300 clicks of the road between here and there. The good news is the Crawler Don't Stop. We're going over the red stuff. The worms, well, they will not like that one bit, so the kids stay in the panic box, and everyone else carries a flame gun. You fought worms before? Good, good. And it don't look like you got your eyes chewed out, neither. Ok, sunspot, grab a flamer and a bench. And, whatever happens, whatever the worms make you see, you do not get off the Crawler while we're crossing the red. Cause, like I told you, sunspot, the Crawler Don't Stop."

>>18616899
Truckers!
see:
>>18616097

All the most interesting NPCs are faction leaders... the PCs are unlikely to meet them. What about this:

The Diaspora did not quite occur. There is one major city on planet, equal in population to the rest of the human settlements combined. The Faction Leaders make up the high government of this city (with Pravin Lal theoretically the Chairman,) and bicker constantly. Other bases tend to be solidly of one faction or another, but Planetfall City is a chaotic mix of subcultures and ideals. The PCs may be confidants of the High Administrators, and so can meet them and participate in their arguments, when not overseeing shady operations for them.

Other option: the PCs faction has found several Progenitor Battle Ogres, and the PCs are the pilots. Mechwar hoooooo!

>>18617613
>Other option: the PCs faction has found several Progenitor Battle Ogres, and the PCs are the pilots. Mechwar hoooooo!

Since the machines are too advanced to be repaired, eventually you'd have a collection of jury-rigged human tech built on a Progenitor core, which is quite awesome.

>>18617613
Your first scenario: Shadowrun.
Your second scenario: Battletech.
The original scenario: Make up interesting characters for NPCs.

>>18615891
>Hunter-Seeker Algorithm
Cry for me, little Data Angel.

>>18617727
~Guess which base is gonna eat a Planet Buster~

>>18617743
>Not using terrain planet busters to raise mountains to the territory your rival controls
>2248
>Ishyishy

>>18617743

Yours? Because we developed them before you, with our tech bonus? And you can't steal the tech, because of Hunter-Seeker? And, basically, you're hobbyists fucking with professionals?

>>18615769
>>Zakharov
>>Invents anything
>>declares he will only use it for good.
>>Laughingeverybody.jpg
Come on, everyone knows Zakky doesn't give a shit who uses his inventions or why. The only thing he cares about is SCIENCE!!!

>>18618101

I think he's being sarcastic. "I'm listening to all your secret communications. Don't worry, it's cool."

>>Freelance spy working for the Peacekeepers
>>Lal thinks Morgan just invented a new fusion engine that will render synthetic fossil fuels obsolete, which he will then sell to the highest bidder, probably Yang, who will use it to roflstomp the Gaians and the University, consolidating his rule over the entire western continent in the process
>>Hired to infiltrate the research base and get the plans so they can't sell any of it.
>>Get the plans, detected, oh shit.
>>Get out, jump into our armored missile rover, drive the fuck away
>>We're holed up in a remote area, deep in Morganite territory
>>They're not looking for us.
>>They're offering a ridiculous amount of bounty to anyone who gets us back, alive.
>>Triple that if we turn ourselves in and work for Morgan, since we at least showed talent in getting in and out alive with the data
>>Wat do?

>>18618208

I would advise against taking his offer, my friend! Your first assignment will be detailing to his security staff how you circumvented his defenses. Your second will be the recycling tanks, for he has no reason to trust you - you changed sides once, after all - and several to dispose of you!

I will make this counteroffer: Heli-evac for you and your friends to Peacekeeper territory, in exchange for a copy - I only ask a copy! - of that data. You fulfill your mission, your professional reputation is intact! I will even throw in a genetically engineered courtesan of your choice for each of you. Genejack, just above animal intelligence, very loyal!

>>18618370
Symbolic book-burning in University Square. Each book is labeled "Ethics."

>>18618435
>>This is what Believers actually...believe
GTFO religionfag and go dissent somewhere else. Pic related, it's you in the last Believer-Spartan war.

>>18618435

>University
>Burning books

What? Utter nonsense! Why would we want to burn the contents of the library's comedy section, in any case?

Now was that a yes or no on this genejack girl? I won't lie, she's surplus, if you don't take her she's going to the labs as a test subject! And what an adorable test subject you'll be, yes you will! Aww, she thinks I am a parental figure. Hilarious.

>>18618208
>>Morgan has fusion technology
>>These people stole it.
Morgan may offer you money, dear one, but I can offer you immortality. Should you deliver this technology to me and secure my domination of this continent, I will reward you with a place on my council, indefinite resleeving of your physical form, as many servants as you desire, and a lucrative reward for every Peacekeeper secret you can deliver to me. I am not an unreasonable or cruel man. I have been nothing but open, forthright, and honest in all of my dealings. Deliver the technology and I will deliver you eternity.

>>18618494
It's symbolic. The books are blank.

>>18618503
Is it not every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks, and to become one with all the [people/others, I don't remember]?

He too would be sent to those tanks. What a horrible, inglorious way to die.

>>18618545
The physical shell is not important. It is merely the first obstacle one must transcend to reach enlightenment. So long as the mind remains safe, the body may be crushed, pulped, blended, stirred, extruded, cooked, sliced into wafers, and fed to the new body with no trauma or other negative effects to the mind. You Spartans are so attached to the physical, you neglect to realize the spiritual and mental enlightenment the Hive succeeds. For every Hive citizen you kill, you only give us more intelligence when their memory chip is finally recovered. Through ten thousand and one deaths, we learn every facet of your strategies, and through twenty thousand more, we dissect them and conquer you. Beware of speaking out of turn about your betters. We are listening.

>>18618665

not involved with this thread, but whenever I play AC, this is the reaction I have to the majority of Chairman Yang's quotes

>>18618514

Well, it's a symbolism I find particularly distasteful! Destruction of ideas must be condemned; even if, ESPECIALLY if, they are incorrect, for if we forget our errors we will never...

Damn and blast, I think it really is imprinting on me. This will not do. Where's the control for the shock implant, I know I had it a moment ago...

>>18618665
This private conversation brought to you by UNIVERSITY SNIFFERS, the only comm tappers endorsed by Space Wizard Zakharov.

>>18618665
But you're just a head in a jar. You cannot affect the physical universe with your body! You're only kept alive by the power of science -- MY science! Ha ha ha!

>>18618709

>tap enemy communications vidfeed
>overlay Mystery Science Theater 3000 commentary
>publicly broadcast on Datalinks

>>18618706
Shock implants can't be the best or most efficient way to control a genejack.

Of course, you would have no need of them at all if you built the damn things right in the first place.

>>18618727
>>But you're just a head in a jar
Incorrect. The re-sleeving process allows me to inhabit any body I choose to. Young, old, male, female, even animal or genejack. I would think you would know, you've been chasing it for decades now.
>>18618705
You react that way because you are attached to your body and its primitive impulses. You have not yet transcended the flesh and embraced the soul of the people, and in the Hive, you would be put to basic labor, wracking the body to free the soul.

>>18615638

GURPS alpha centauri?

Link please.

This thread needs archiving.

>>18618810
>>>/rs/
Seriously dude. Come on.

>>18618810
https://rs.4chan.org/?s=gurps+alpha+centauri&from=ALL

>>18618764

It is not a FAILED experiment, it is an experiment that produced unexpected results! How will we ever learn to control the emotion of "love" if we don't tinker with it?

Damn, the shock is making her cry, but she seems to think I can protect her from it. STOP LOVING ME!

>>18618844

And the pop-quiz: anyone got rarpegs of the novels?

>>18618844
>>18618833
>>YFW demon boils are size of a large field
>>YFW they're made up of millions and billions of finger-sized white worms
>>YFW you imagine this hill-like mass of writhing worm flesh bearing down on you
>>YFW it's fucking psychic and blasting your brain with the worst shit the entire planet's dug up from any human mind in the last century or two all at once, on top of its already-primally-terrifying appearance
>>YFW it fills your corpse with eggs after giving you a brain aneurysm from sheer terror

>>18618862
I didn't say you failed. I said you wouldn't need shock implants, or any other method of direct punishment, if you had built them correctly.

Love is chemical. You should know your chemistry, Space Wizard.

>>18618862
What would you know of love, you insane eunuch? The only love you know is of blasphemy, building ever more elaborate machines to erase, transform, destroy, and alter humanity and change the world beyond recognition. You trample through God's kingdom without care or regard for the treasures you crush underfoot, or the beauty you ruin. You only care to sup from one more fruit from the tree of knowledge, knowing that this one may kill you, and your entire world with you.

>>18618918
The sad part is you're not making that up. But that's what flamethrowers are for. Lots and lots of flamethrowers.

And why the Gaians are demonic freaks that need to be slaughtered.

>>18618918

Bonus: no vehicle or armor can totally protect you from them. They can buy you a few rounds of staggering desperately toward the edge of the boil, away from the surging masses of sinuous vermin, with worms writhing and slithering all over the outside of your armored environment suit, but they WILL get in, eat your eyes, and lay eggs in your brain. Oh, and they can emit EMP fields, so no automated sentries! And, hey, did you know xenofungus tends to spread underground, growing and compressing for weeks before expanding to the surface, shattering asphalt, destroying buildings, and overturning vehicles? Why, there could be a fungal bloom beneath our feet right now, and in the span of five minutes it could erupt all round us, casting low man's works and disgorging swarms of mindworms! Good times.

>>18619003
They have successfully weaponized their greatest enemy: the environment of Planet. They even use the children of Planet to defend themselves against it. They have done the right thing.

Aaand thread archived! http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/18615638/

>>18619018
>Oh, and they can emit EMP fields, so no automated sentries!
WHAT

>>18619034
This isn't good enough to get archived.

>>18619018
>>MFW fucking mindworms

>>18618933

Well excuse me if I haven't perfectly balanced hormone output for all levels of maturity and degrees of genetic variance! For now, a shot of oxytocin antagonists and a cold shower seem to have it under control. Ahh, just look at that face. Like a Believer realizing God is dead. Oh, hello Miriam, when did you get here?

>>18619057
>Space Wizard Zakharov
>not good enough to get archived
What?

>>18619033
>>Nerve gas banned by international treaty
>>Nukes banned by international treaty
>>Bitch and a half to get that repealed
>>Using horrific mind-rape aliens that want to lay their eggs in your braincase and make you die from sheer terror as bioweapons is a-o-fucking-kay!
Fucking hypocritical bastards. At least nerve gas and planet busters kill quickly and somewhat cleanly.

>>18619106
You have a call from a Miss Aki Zeta-5, Space Wizard.

>>18619135
Hypocrisy is a winning strategy. They use the UN to their advantage by taking away the most powerful weapons of their foes, replacing them with forces that only they can properly produce and control.

>>18619109
You're clearly thrilled with this thread, but nothing spectacular has happened in it. Space Wizard has been mentioned about three times. The "anons adopting Planet leaders and arguing over philosophy" has so far been weak, and those are the best parts.

>>18619170
Once it's archived, it can only be removed by sup/tg/ staff. There's no use complaining about it here.

>>18619135

Exactly! I really can't comprehend what is going on in Dierdre's head these days. Can't believe I ever... well, 40 years is a long time to be locked up in a spaceship with a pretty girl, yes? Excuse my lapse in judgement. But that was before she went the full wacky. Here's a question for those of you from old /tg/: How many mindworms can a Gaian keep in her...

>>18619147

Why hellooooo, how is my favorite posthuman metaconsciousness feeling this fine evening?

>>18619106
Miriam's been here the whole time. She offered me a quite beautiful deal to let her piggyback on my comm network. With that hunter-seeker algorithm your scientists so thoughfully provided me, I'm letting her see what she paid for and not one picovolt more. The fact that she's treating a private diplomatic chat like some anonymous image board is just a free edutainment show for a bonus. Life is very good when you're Morgan.

Hey, Shenjichen, I didn't know you had bicles!
Haha you look so terrible in them!

>>18619204
An odd message. It is simply an endless repetition of white text on a black background, accompanied by loud static.

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

>>18619216
>With that hunter-seeker algorithm your scientists so thoughfully provided me

>you used probe teams
>to get the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm
>from the people who had the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm
>and were therefore immune to probe teams

It's just barely possible that what you have is not, in fact, the real Hunter-Seeker Algorithm. Which means the software you are using as your security backbone was intentionally handed to you by your enemies. Tell me, when the agent received his payment, did he make any immediate travel plans?

>>18618862
You know this sort of thing is why Aki Zeta-5 rebelled, right? If you'd just boned her once, maybe you'd still have your cyborg researchers.

>>18619307
Oh my. You don't truly think I used probe teams to acquire the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm, do you? Accept a few words of wisdom from me: people will do anything for enough credits.

>>18619307
Oh, damn. Well, time to buy some new proprietary security software. And some assassins. And maybe a new planet buster. On the plus side, Miriam's security could be hacked by a small child. Or perhaps even a Data Angel, on a good day. I kid, I kid. I would never insult my biggest investors in third-hand, decade-old hacking tools.

Oh shit, Alpha Centauri thread. I had an idea for an Alpha Centauri RPG awhile back, based sorta off of shadowrun, a bit. Basically, an idealogue and his followers (a mix from each faction) founded a city, that they called Accorded Neutral Territory, around the base and on the slopes of Mount Planet. Commonly called the ANThill, the only law is that you leave politics at the door... or inside the carefully built UN Free Chambers, where the faction leaders and their representatives can speak on matters of diplomacy, provided thoughtfully by the administration of the Accorded Neutral Territory.

No one's wiped them off the map because they can make Mount Planet explode like a supervolcano, wiping out half of planet. The populated half.

Of ocurse, no one really leaves politics at the door. the PCs would be blackops mercs, hired by the various enclaves in the city to perform... illegal and threatening acts against the other faction enclaves. For fun, profit, and power.

I've never gotten to run it, though.

>>18619260

Ah, no, you've got it tagged with the wrong file extension. Those are the lyrics, yes, and... here we go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEPCoer4Bew

Yes, well. Not quite to my taste, but dear Aki has been so into techno-stomp lately, and it's such poor form to insult someone's musical taste.

>>18619324
Oh, no no no. One must have SOME ethical standards. Testing nanotech robo-pharmaceuticals on drones without their knowledge is one thing; sleeping with a student is QUITE another.

Assuming distances in GURPS are measured in yards: Holy crap.
You know what is said about the biggest mind worm boils being the size of a field, and smaller groups still being like a wave of millions of worms rolling towards you?

Your best weapon against it is a flamer, right? Look at how short their range is. Mind worms move at one hex per turn, so they're not fast, but if you don't have a crapload of flamers, your only options are to bolt out of there or die horribly.

Oh, and mind worm "gestalts," the older and psionically capable of the creatures, CAN emit EMP effects. They can, effectively at will and at a range of 225 yards, turn off electronics in a 3-yard radius.

So already you only have 75 yards of distance between how far your flamers will reach and when your electronics start getting shut off.

>>18619500
They must be getting to me already! I'm forgetting the pics.

>>18618823
>This thread needs archiving.

This vidya needs a reboot.

Where's the Kickstarter for *that?*

>>18619475
Standards, Zhakarov? And here I thought you had freed yourself of such a confining ideology and transcended the petty limits of lesser minds. It disappoints me, frankly. I thought I'd finally had an intellectual equal, someone to converse with once I capture your territories and make you my vassal. Of course, it fails to surprise. So far, only those raised within the Hive understand true enlightenment. The others seem repulsed by it for some reason. Lesser minds recoil from the light to hide in their shadows. It really does become depressing.

>>18619527
Who owns the rights?

>>18619500
Any mention of EMP shielding?

Ha!

Also, dang, she knows all the major monotheistic languages. Six? Geez.

>>18619622
>>IQ 13
So she's actually fairly damn smart. Not genius, but certainly well above average.
>>Dat charisma
So, as suspected, she is basically a fire-and-brimstone Baptist preacher that somehow rules a nation. Awesome.

>>18619568

Ah, Yang, I readily admit it: if any on Planet is my intellectual superior, it is you. And yet my faction outstrips yours in discovery and knowledge. Why? Because I cultivate colleagues, while you only subjugate slaves. Even the scientist-servants you attempt to lead to enlightenment are less than they might have been, had you allowed their minds to play and be free, had you treated them with the respect of a father for his children, rather than that of an artisan for his tools.

Attempting to control Aki Zeta-5 would have been a great disservice to her, and to Science. Though the path I have freed her to choose may have destroyed even the idea of happiness for her, can any deny that her society is a truly GRAND experiment?

>>18619581
Mental shielding, actually. Give me a minute.

>>18619705

>Consider girl your precious student
>Emotionally devastate her so severely that she rejects emotion and humanity entirely and founds a new society based on unfeeling logic
>Consider this an interesting and beneficial outcome, congratulate self on ethical handling of situation
>So very proud of her

>>18619705
>>Her society is a grand experiment
Her society is an experiment without controls, structure, or rules, and that makes it no useful experiment at all, merely madness on a grand scale, a rebellious child scarifying her shell to shock her parents. Your indulgence of her is shameful and embarrassing, and you should shut it down as soon as possible.
>>Because I cultivate colleagues, while you only subjugate slaves.
Slaves? There are no slaves in the Hive. Indeed, the language of the Hives has no word for 'slave' or 'servant'. Hard work shreds the vessel to release the mind. Once freed, the mind can be educated. Once educated, the mind may teach. Once it has learned to teach, it can be enlightened. Once it is enlightened, it becomes immortal. All the billions of souls in the Hive have a hope of one day achieving immortality through sleeving. Our faction enjoys an infinite army due to sleeving technology. Our intelligence network is unparalleled, again through sleeving. My greatest spy could inhabit any shell at any time, and in fact may occupy dozens at once. If it dies, I simply resurrect it within a new shell or another dozen. Our immortality transcends that of even the believers' god, for the miracle they have waited 2,000 years for, we can achieve on demand. Is that not mastery of science?

>>Indeed, the language of the Hives has no word for 'slave' or 'servant'
As I imagine the language of fish has no word for 'water'.

>>18619841

The structure is Geopolitics. The control group is baseline humanity. The rules are prosper or perish.

What is it you loathe so about their attempt to create an ideal society, an ideal species? Do you feel they impinge upon your intellectual territory, in their search for a different path to enlightenment and immortality? Do you fear that they CAN achieve your utopia, but stripped of your philosophy, your para-mysticism? Or just... without you? It seems competition does not bring out the best in all of us.

Gosh dang I love GURPS Psionics so much.

>>18619581
Computers can be hardened against EMP attacks, which probably also works against telepathic electric attacks like Dampen, but I don't see (or am too out of the loop for GURPS to remember) just how hard it makes it to EMP the system. It DOES make the computer system three times as massive and five times as expensive, though.

>>18619949

>>18620019
>>What is it you loathe so about their attempt to create an ideal society, an ideal species?
The scarification of the shell and mutilation of the mind is in no way ideal. If they truly sought enlightenment, they would discard the shell and uplift the mind, emotions and all.
>>Do you feel they impinge upon your intellectual territory, in their search for a different path to enlightenment and immortality?
I feel they tamper with forces they do not comprehend, with a childlike ignorance of consequences and a lack of enlightenment.
>>Do you fear that they CAN achieve your utopia, but stripped of your philosophy, your para-mysticism?
Without framework, without enlightenment, without thought, there is no utopia, merely wasteland and disharmony. They seek to have machines think for them and avoid doing actual work.
>>Or just... without you? It seems competition does not bring out the best in all of us.
Baseless mudslinging. Do you feel so insecure that you must mock your intellectual superiors to bring them down to your level?
>>18619949
>>As I imagine the language of fish has no word for 'water'.
Case in point. A pithy comment slipped into a larger discussion that does not concern her. Godwinson should learn to mind her own religion and ignore ours.

I never noticed that she had a net in her hair.

Can you imagine her yelling angrily in Scottish?

>>18620181
>>"Yer troops're in me territry ya daft soggin bassterd, ya booter wiffdrawal afore I putz me boot ta ya 'ed and mak's ya suck it like yer ma's teat!"

>>18620123

Ah, yes, yes! We do not comprehend, Aki and I. We are wondering, questioning children. We are ignorant, and grasping for things we do not understand!

But you, Yang, you... you have the framework, the answers. Confident in your wisdom, you do not question; you have the WILL, you have the VISION. You know exactly how it should be!

And this is why I remain a scientist, while you are reduced, sadly, to a prophet.

I must apologize, my dear friends and rivals: I cannot put off this rejuve treatment any longer, and must retire for the night. I leave you all with this lullaby:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lva8L-J8x04

>Nerve stapling is usually only inflicted upon the citizens of police states
Haha, not in my games.

>>18619204
>Here's a question for those of you from old /tg/: How many mindworms can a Gaian keep in her...

Some people are nostalgic for old /tg/. I admit, sometimes, so am I. But then I remember:
>How many spiders can a drow fit in her vagina?

>Here's a question for those of you from old /tg/: How many mindworms can a Gaian keep in her...

Are you asking for a physical limit, or how many mindworms she can hold without becoming suicidal?

>>18620297
>>usually only inflicted upon the citizens of captured cities to stop them fucking revolting all the time
FTFY. Except then the faction gets all depressingly pissy and fights to the last breath rather than becoming a vassal. Like I fucking care, I was going for world conquest ANYWAY.

>>18620406
>how many mindworms she can hold without becoming suicidal?
Well, I imagine that'd be higher for Gaians than others. Behold -- Mind Worm Sympathy.

This can DEFINITELY be used to make interesting PCs, especially spy-types or explorer-types.

Also, note the names of the Cult of Planet's religious...uh...officers.

The Cult of Planet isn't WRONG, you know.
1 of 2

>>18620569
2 of 2

Pic: Huh...I'd have to reread the archives and 1d4chan, but does our idea for Tau Ceti include this little bit of fluff about the aliens and Tau Ceti?

Link: This is a must-read for anyone here who is a fan of Alpha Centauri, Civilization-like games, or space-age 4x games. It uses the leaders from Alpha Centauri to create a council for the player who goes through Galactic Civilizations II.

http://lparchive.org/Galactic-Civilizations-II/

Bump for good thread

Bumpage again.

>>18619247

Remember reading the book a while back, pretty uninspired in most ways, much of the interesting tech just got reformatted into already existing GURPS tech. A lot of "Sure they call it this or that but it really is(insert existing GURPS tech # 46)"

But i remember Yang was the leader with the highest point value, Zakharov might have had the second highest value.

Gah, managed to miss this thread earlier, but I've been planning something similar.

The Data Angels work perfectly as a "multi-faction independant probe team". They're a loose conglomoration of agents working mostly in the planetary datalinks, sending hidden messages to one another, disrupting the factions electronically, and when something damning is found, they do the legwork inside their own faction facilities. Or they bribe someone else.

They're like a mix of Wikileaks, Anonymous, LulzSec and Cryptome.
They have wistleblowers, scriptkiddies, spies, and security personel.
And just look at that logo.

The datalinks suggest that the Morganites have discovered the biggest Planet Pearl on planet, the size of a small car.

While Morgan is interested in it only for its energy value, the Gaians are looking for probe teams to capture it as a marvel of planet, to be studied for the hints of planet's great ecology.
Meanwhile, Lal is also looking for probe action, wanting the Planet Pearl for his Museum of Planet, a collection of various relics found on Chiron's surface.

Shipping on the Inland Sea has been disrupted recently, something immense, and deadly, has been destroying the transport foils.
The PCs have been sent by one of the faction leaders to "hitch a ride" on a University gunship sent to investigate, what will, eventually, become known as the first sighting of a Sealurk.

>>18622314

On the one hand, GURPS has enough books out that pretty most sci-fi bits of gear HAVE already been statted out somewhere.

On the other, yeah, this is a pretty bare-bones book. Not a lot of original material here, sadly.

>>18622314
>But i remember Yang was the leader with the highest point value

This makes a certain amount of sense; he's set up as a potential BBEG, so he needs to be a significant threat.

Oddly, Zakharov is only 3rd when it comes to leader IQ; both Yang and Aki Zeta-5 are technically higher. However, it specifically states that he functions best as part of a team, so the earlier comment about "cultivating collegues" actually makes sense. He's definitely a genius, but not so extreme a genius that he's become isolated and half-insane like Yang and poor Aki. As a result, he gets to be part of more brilliant discoveries, even though he's not quite as personally brilliant, because he and his people bounce ideas off each other.

>>18620115
"Oh snap" is right.

On an unrelated note: some of the factions have a dark side that is obvious from the start, while others initially seem charmingly eccentric and only later become frightening (like University and the Daughters). Is a dark side of the Peacekeepers ever revealed during the course of the game?

>>18624448
>Oddly

It's not so odd to consider that some rising star in the next generation could be more brilliant than Academician Zakharov.

As far as Yang, I will admit some surprise, but I suppose it is not out of the question. None of the faction leaders are stupid or undisciplined people.

>>18624580
You mean besides the crippling bureaucracy, the compulsary faction service (there's a reason there's no faction military), the compulsive nostaliga for the dead earth and the forgotten United Nations, their imposition of their own moral code onto other factions, and the way they consider the entirity of planet UN territory.

Oh, and their leader keeps cloning his dead wife.

>>18624649
>You mean besides the crippling bureaucracy,
That would be a good example. Where are we shown that the Peacekeepers' bureaucracy is problematic?

>the compulsary faction service (there's a reason there's no faction military)
I was under the impression that every faction other than Morgan's had some form of compulsory service.

>their imposition of their own moral code onto other factions
Doesn't that describe everyone? The entire game is about the struggle of each faction to impose their worldview on humanity. None of them take a "live and let live" approach.

>Oh, and their leader keeps cloning his dead wife.
That's a bit creepy, or possibly sweet. Does he groom each copy from childhood to be his next bride, or is there some sort of memory transfer?

>>18625060
Well, on point number 1, they get -1 to Efficiency because of the inefficiency.

On the subject of compulsary service, most factions do still allow free enterprise, but only free market factions go overboard. And even then, each faction does have their own separate military group, regaling under such names as Hive Security.
The Peacekeepers' equivilent are just called Peacekeepers. There's a strong implication that effectively the entire faction is its own military. (They're the most likely candidate for the Citizen's Defence Force)

To the third point, yes, but the other factions view each other as separate nations. The Peacekeepers view everyone as... well, sections of a single group, with the others being merely goveners for sections of the UN's Settlements.

Onto his wife... there's no memories there. In the book, the clone resents him when she finds out, because, well.. he's effectively grown a woman from infancy, kept her in a gilded cage in the memory of a woman who died centuries ago.

>18624649

>>18624580
Neo-imperialism in the name of unity is a really good one.

>>18624448
>>[Yang's] set up as a potential BBEG,
>>Implying Yang isn't the BBEG of the entire Alpha Centauri setting and must be scourged out with nerve gas by end game.

>Is a dark side of the Peacekeepers ever revealed during the course of the game?
Absolutely not! The Peacekeepers and Commissioner Lal are very dedicated to the idea of peace! They are completely trustworthy, and on that, you have my word!

FREE COPY OF ALPHA CENTAURI

Fully functional multiplayer install of SMAC from free sources, as follows:

Demo from http://www.firaxis.com/downloads/Demo/smac_demo1_1.exe
Patch from http://www.firaxis.com/downloads/Patch/Smacp4e.exe

Howto:
* Rename both to .zip
* The demo zip contains a "programs" directory, extract it somewhere
* Extract the contents of the patch .zip into that somewhere (allow overwrite)
* You're done
* Note: "Huge map of Planet" will not work as there is no .MP file for that, everything else will

Good place to download maps from: http://www.civgaming.net/smac/maps.shtml

>>18627750
>take these .exes and rename them to .zips!
>instead of just uploading .zips
Derpy indeed.

>>18627919

You will notice that the link is from Firaxis.

>>18627943
Not even two fucks do I give. I already have it all, with everything working.

Bump. Psychic duels with mind worm boils, groups of human psychic gestalts vs little worms with brain powers, as the real army stands read with flamethrowers, and needlejets are on standby with chaos weapons...

Pretty sweet sight.

Does anybody like the Free Drones? I can't think of good ways to roleplay them. They're just...workers. Communist union workers.

>>18629202

They seem more like labor unionists than communists in the soviet sense to me... actually STARTING that faction would be a good campaign.

>>18627750

Using same method, I built a "free" version of SMAC and SMACX. A few things are missing and some graphics were replaced with ones in the public domain. The latest balance patches have been applied.

http://emlia.org/ROTUL/smac_free_modded.rar
http://emlia.org/ROTUL/smax_free_modded.rar

>>18619247
Why is his Dex so high? Isn't 14 like pro athlete levels in GURPs?

>>18630316
Aside from being a floating head in the future, he probably kept his reflexes up with medicine, surgeries, and drugs. He'd call it "enlightenment." Here's the full size of that page, without parts cut off. He's been trained in martial arts, too, if that matters.

And, yes, 14 DX for a human in GURPS is like 16-17 Dex for a human in D&D. Really good, just short of 'amazing.'

>>18630336
It didn't like me posting that picture. I'll try again.

>>18630357
>>18630336
I guess I never really read his back story in the video game. I just assumed he was a typical Chinese philosopher guy. Smart, but not physically dangerous.

>>18630406
Yang is a scary motherfucker, frankly. He tossed Marx, Nietzsche, Confucius, and Lenin into a blender to get the Hive philosophy, and put it into place on a grand scale, using people as puppets to prove his philosophy. And this guy was their security chief.

>>18630357
Every time I look at that picture I notice something else that's ridiculously awesome
>Bard 19
>295 points (about as many as George Washington from the Historical Figures book.)

>>18630438

Still classier than this guy

>>18630357
>>18630406
>>18630438
>>18630495
Yeah, he's scary. Leadership 22 is frightening enough, but he himself can lay a stray assassin or spy flat in personal combat, despite being 61 years old. Always remember Rule One, Terry Pratchet would say.

I'm looking for Bard in the Core books. I believe Alpha Centauri was written for 3e, but I'm gonna check 4e first.

>>18630787
I'm not sure rule one applies. I doubt Yang ever looks harmless

>>18630787
If I remember correctly bard was kind of a catch all skill for performance and speechcraft. I assume he has "Bard" to account for his poetry.

>>18630863
That's what I thought too, as other leaders have Bard as well, but there isn't a simple --

Aha! According to the 3e -> 4e updater, Bard should be replaced with Public Speaking (IQ/Average).

Let's post the rest of the leaders.

Lal.

Aki-Zeta 5.

Sinder Roze.

I can't say if her description is purposely screwed up like that, or if that's just thanks to this poor upload.

Oh what the heck, Morgan knows seven languages?

>>18632156
Of course. He's a mega-tycoon from an era when globalization was king. Dude sold enough diamonds to build an interstellar vessel - literally. You think he did that just knowing one or two languages?

>>18632893
Oh, and you'll also note they're all languages for countries which are either well-established and huge buyers of luxury goods, or known for looking the other way when sensitive cargo needs to pass through (for the right price, of course).

>>18632893
Yes, but six distinct languages? Russian, Japanese, Arabic, German, English/Spanish...
They're almost all entirely different from each other. Most of us can't even make all the sounds to speak Russian or Japanese unless we grew up learning it.

>>18633053
I know two people who speak 6 languages, so it doesn't seem that impossible to me. I will freely admit, however, that my circle of friends is somewhat skewed in this regard.

What does surprise me is that he grew up in Kenya and knows no African language.

>>18633132

Yeah, he should at least know Swahili.

>>18633246

It is true what they say though, reading a mention of SMAC will cause one to reinstall it or play a few turns if already installed...

>>18629202
Personnally, how I was going to run the Free Drones in my game was to have Free Drones Central be effectively a neutral city. The base is not part of any faction, and is run by a civilian council (with Foreman Domai as its head). Thus, escaping drones, merchants, diplomats, and probe teams often end up there, because there's less restriction on their activity.

Many factions would like to control it, such as the Human Hive (since the Drones originally broke free from the Hive during the first Drone Riots), and the Morganites (since they belive they should have a monopoly on trade... not that they'd call it that).
However, the Drones have a Pact of Brotherhood with the UN Peacekeepers, guaranteeing the Base's independance.

In a way it can be thought of as a "home base" for independants, and a place to travel to between faction territories.

Why is no one making a sequel to this?

>>18638796
Because its main feature was the content and that it wasn't just another pseudo-racist civ game. To make a sequel would likely mean to just re-using almost all of the content and dialogue, and maybe updating/dumbing down the interface to feature 3d models.

>>18638796
The nearest thing to a sequel I've seen is the fanmod for Civ IV called "planetfall", which is based on SMAC's setting.

I've found it worth mining for some ideas, if nothing else.

>>18633132
Growing up in Kenya probably accounts for the English and Arabic.

Both Swahili and English are official languages of Kenya. Quite possibly his noble/royal family (as he's been described as being royalty) raised him with English, ignoring Swahili as the cultural trends of that era made Swahili not a profitable language to teach him.