Are journalists covering BE required to only ask bland/uninteresting questions?

[Galgus]

Yeah, but I still don't like the Progenitors being as absurd as they are from a thematic standpoint.

Time travel would also completely destroy the setting, albeit in a different way.

 

[Westwall]

I kind of have the opposite feeling, I think the devs should go nuts as far as the sci-fi concepts are concerned.

For me, the "theme and setting" were kind of thrown out the window when they added "Firaxite" to the resource pool as their own hamfisted wink-wink shout out to their adopted company.

Now I would rather they just erred on the side of crazy and silly than try to hold back, because it's a little late to be taking themselves too seriously at this point.

Hell even SMAC had interdimensional portals you could accidentally stumble on that fling you to the other side of the map.

 

[Galgus]

It's not a bad name, reference aside.

Is that really all it takes to destroy the setting to you?

 

[Westwall]

Well that and all the progenitor stuff lying around.

And I never said it "destroyed" anything, merely that if they were going for a hard sci-fi feel about the possibilities of landing on a new habitable world, it would probably be boring as hell anyway.

I mean let's face it, the first new world we land on with water and a breathable/quasi-breathable atmosphere would probably have at most an ocean, some land and a few beaches with moss-covered rocks.

 

[Galgus]

There is a middle ground between not completely hard sci-fi and completely muddling the theme with an alien faction.

(For reasons that many have previously stated.)

Who says the atmosphere is breathable (by humans)?

 

[Westwall]

I don't think it would be "muddling" anything if done right.

I really think it would be a hugely missed opportunity after adding progenitor ruins, beacons, spacecraft debris and entire metropolises that we never actually find out what the aliens themselves are supposed to be like and how their society functions.

Also, it's implied that the atmosphere is breathable because the humans in the Rising Tide intro cinematic aren't wearing face masks even when outside.

 

[Galgus]

There would be no way to do it without greatly changing the theme, which I call muddling.
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That could indicate a terraformed zone or modifications, if it's the woman with her helmet off that you refer to.

Or she could be simply holding her breath for a clearer view.

 

[Westwall]

But they're already in there in almost every other possible way.

They exist in that universe in a very real way and we already know a great deal about their architectural and spacecraft designs.

How has that not already "greatly changed the theme"?

EDIT: Also I'm not sure which woman you're referring to, I was talking about this dude:

Spoiler :

And I don't think he's holding his breath.

 

[Galgus]

They are in the universe, yes, but the setting is focused on humanity and human advancement.

Having them directly interact would completely change that focus, particularly if they were absurdly advanced.

 

[Westwall]

I don't think so.

They would be yey another challenge for humanity to overcome, perhaps the greatest challenge of them all.

Making the focus on us all the more justified if we beat them.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

I don't think so.

They would be yey another challenge for humanity to overcome, perhaps the greatest challenge of them all.

Making the focus on us all the more justified if we beat them.

Except beating them would mean they aren't really advanced alien enough*

* from before, modified for better advanced aliens

If you are at war with the aliens, 1 of your cities, 4 of your orbitals, and 16 of your units nearest alien cities/units vanish each turn (not razed/killed, vanish)
If you are sanctioned by the aliens +100 unhealth
If you are cooperating with the aliens gain +300% science, culture, food, production, energy output..and gain 1 'domesticated point'
If you are allied with the aliens gain 2 free techs and 1 free virtue each turn...gain 2 'domesticated points'.

Once you have 20 domesticated points you lose (your society is now alien pets/tools). If you are sanctioned by aliens you lose 1 random Virtue and 1 random tech per 'domesticated point'.

 

[Westwall]

Never.

They shall fall before us.

And then we shall see who is the master and who is the pet.

 

[Galgus]

Aside just not having Aliens interact. the best way to go in my opinion is to make that BS space magic impossible in universe.

There is a ceiling on scientific research somewhere, after all.
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And if you do have Aliens that you can beat, then you've changed the game from the story of humanity's advancement and affinity conflicts to space Xcom.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Aside just not having Aliens interact. the best way to go in my opinion is to make that BS space magic impossible in universe.

There is a ceiling on scientific research somewhere, after all.

research yes (technically once you know all the rules and all the facts).... resources also yes but less so (technically again)

But to imagine that we could beat a society that hit that ceiling thousands of years earlier (assuming it wasn't some weird suicidal society) is ridiculous.

 

[Galgus]

The thing is, the affinities could already be at that cieling late-game: hell, we may not be far from it for all we know.

Where that gets set is fairly arbitrary in sci-fi.

 

[Westwall]

research yes (technically once you know all the rules and all the facts).... resources also yes but less so (technically again)

But to imagine that we could beat a society that hit that ceiling thousands of years earlier (assuming it wasn't some weird suicidal society) is ridiculous.

That's why their appearance should be a mid-to-late game feature.

After we've started getting settled on the planet, a new quest line can pop up to alert us about the Progenitors making their return to the planet and why they consider us vermin.

It may even be just a small scouting force (by their standards) that doesn't bear the full might of their military capabilities, thus making us somewhat closer to a match for them.

It doesn't even have to end with us defeating them, merely helping them realize we're a sapient species and not just an infestation.

And with extinction averted, a different storyline can play out where either they leave or start landing on the planet and interacting with us.

 

[Red Menace]

you know they could always do Alien factions in a Scenario, than modders could make it available. but that might not be what you're going for, or they could make it a fun little add-on for basic games something that would have to be activated in the Main menu.

But most likely if they were it would be a Scenario, which is fine scenarios add a lot to the game for me at least. and the sci-fi setting brings a lot of opportunities.

 

[Gamewizard]

In reality, when you look at it statistically, there is an astronomically small chance of us ever encountering other intelligent life.

Hold on, are you trying to tell me that all those Ancient Aliens episodes I watched on the History Channel was all for nothing!?!

 

[Lord Shadow]

A bit belatedly, to respond to Westwall's earlier post extending beyond the realm of the game...

In reality, there would be no rude awakening, no catching up. As the Apes or Angels hypothesis I linked to earlier states, whatever intelligent life we find out in the universe will most likely either be vastly inferior or vastly superior, because the chances of finding a species which fortuitously developed sapience and technology in the same tiny sliver of time (100,000 years) or even in the same cosmic ballpark as us are exceedingly remote.

Those superior, the "Angels", would most likely be hundreds of thousands or even millions (not to say billions) of years older than us as a technological race. And if we ever catch the eye of any super intelligence out there and they mean us harm, there's nothing we can do. Expanding beyond the solar system would only expose us further to detection by malevolent or simply inescrutable demigods.

There would be no XCOM, no Independence Day, no War of the Worlds: they would most likely be able to eradicate us with the flip of a switch. Perhaps even literally. Supernovas or gamma ray bursts on demand. If they feel less destructive, perhaps just a fast-acting super plague engineered specifically to eliminate humans would do. Biological, mechanical, digital or all of it at once, to "format" our planets as easily as we format our hard drives.

Happy times.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Hence Victory condition rather than game mechanic.