To The Great Beyond - Space Empires!

[erez87]

“It looks so strange, doesn’t it?” one vibrated to the others. “So big too. And its colors, it is wearing something so shiny.” It continued to vibrate messages. The others vibrated in agreement. The shiny covering was particularly pleasant to their vision. “They must be wondering how we function. How do we see or hear or communication. Do you think they understand vibrations like us?” another one vibrated a question. At first it wasn’t answered, but soon enough most were pretty negative to the idea of vibration communication with these big beasts. Then came the most obvious question.

“Do you think they are sentient?”

The group was uncertain and the uncertainty was felt in the air around them. Then another vibration shocked everyone. “Do you think they think we are?”

Communication for the Tac with these strange beasts was not so hard. Years of developing languages and communications in huge arrays just for the fun of communication in different ways prepared the Tac for communication with beings from other worlds. Their language was hard to comprehend thought. It was so slow. One of the Tac looked around, the latest communication was about weather patterns. He acted as if they were very intrigued, but he wasn’t. Weather talk? That’s what you discuss when you meet the first living being from another world? He was bored. He wanted something pretty and shiny, like that thing the beast wore.

Another vibration passed through the group. “Hurrun!!! That’s their name! They gave us their entire species name! And so quickly too.” Happiness and delight was now shaking the air within their bubble pod. The Tac all vibrated the same… Sound? “Do they communicate with sound?” The Tac begun to vibrate sounds, Tac, we are Tac, we are pleased to share our name too. Once the sounds were done they waited for a reply.


to the Hurrunnununun Argeees
from The TAC
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Finally! Someone else we can talk to! This is amazing! You are so cool. Your weather is interesting, some Tac back home would LOVE to hear about that. That shiny thing you have on you is so pretty.

Are you sentient?

Any way. Yeah we would love to come to your places and see them. Many of us would be delighted to see and hear, maybe even visit too. You can come to us too! Oh wow, everyone would be so happy back home. Our space is free for your ships too. I mean, we don’t control space and all that, but yeah, thanks for the space!

As for the gifts you offer. We thank you. Gifting is the most important thing in the universe. We have many gifts for you too.

We don’t really talk for all of us, but you can bet the rest will be so happy they might as well agree.

And don’t worry about translation, we are decent at that. You communicate with sound right?

 

[Daftpanzer]

Reminder: about 24 hours remain from the time of this post till Orders Deadline!

Thanks again for all the input I really appreciate it after such a big hiatus, and my patchy track record. It does feel like it's all much more workable now, but the proof will be in the pudding, as they say. Its a three-day weekend here in the UK, and I'm aiming to update by the end of Monday.

 

[christos200]

Yang Kang spoke before the Chamber of 500. This was his first speech as Chancellor of the Jaar'ar Federation. He was wearing a long purple robe decorated with valuable gems and was holding a golden scepter.

"Honorable members of this Chamber, I want to thank you for your trust in me. You have elected me as the first Chancellor of the Federation and I shall honor your trust and do my best to serve the interests of the Federation. My first act will be to begin a construction project to build a fleet which will protect us from the alien menace. Those aliens want to invade our territory and enslave us, so the only choice we have is to fight back. We shall defend our soil from the devil foreigners and show to the galaxy our might! This is no time for pacifism. I know that many of you want peace but those alien species are barbaric and will not accept any kind of peace. So our only choice is to fight!"

All members of the Chamber applauded the Chancellor.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Wait, did you just declare war on me when the order deadline hit

lol.

 

[Everblack]

 

[gay_Aleks]

lets invade the player which hasnt said anything so he must be gone and is our supposed enemy

that'll go well

nothing could go wrong

 

[erez87]

Warring is basically useless at this stage... There are basically no war ships and barely any military. And I'm sure daft won't let a simple army succeed in taking over an entire homeplanet just because...

Just play with it, like in Stellaris when you start next to a warlike race of invaders

 

[Daftpanzer]

@Tolni bear in mind your people are basically big scary spiders, who wouldn't want to attack you

Except my NPC race who would probably think you look cute.

If this upsets you, you can play as Exhera's race (the Dscheri) who are beautiful butterflies:

Spoiler :

PS: I neither confirm or deny any details of any orders recieved.

 

[gay_Aleks]

@Tolni bear in mind your people are basically big scary spiders, who wouldn't want to attack you

Except my NPC race who would probably think you look cute.

you know that's funny but I was planning to drop this game, but then I saw the art you did for the big scary spiders

I loved it. Right now I'm trying to learn the ruleset but I'll send orders ASAP

 

[Angst]

OOC

Orders have been sent! Take that commitment issues!

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Sorry, I have been kind of busy and distracted for the last several days, I'll get orders and a response in shortly!

 

[Daftpanzer]

Thanks for all the orders sent (so far ) !

I have to be honest, most of the past 24 hours has been taken up with configuratorising my new laptop, and a friend's birthday BBQ in the sunshine.

I can however report that photoshop and all my assets for this game are now on the new laptop and are fully operational.

Updating of late orders is offered 'as is' and without warranty.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Stabilizing Directorate of the Hlur-Baiheen: reserved for Lord_Iggy
Trader Brooders; Hlur-Baiheen race only; prefers thick air, warm, forested, mountainous habitat
EP: $16
Upkeep: $4 (2 units, 2 social)
Repair: $2
Economy: ~13 (11 base, +2 bonus, 0 trade)
Strengths: construction, agriculture, geo-engineering
Freighters: 1 / 1
Techs: Enr 1, Mat 1, Bio 2, Int 1
Researching: Mat 2 (8/10)
* Like several other races, the Hlur-Baiheen have suffered the tragedy of overpopulation, resource shortages and even full-scale nuclear war. Though Seeoo’s environment has since been repaired somewhat, populations have also bounced back, and the planet has returned to carrying capacity. The pressing need of the Stabilizing Directorate is to establish colonies to act as a pressure release valve for the angry, excess population of Seeoo, but the worlds found so far have been less than ideal, slowing the process. Due to misunderstandings, first contact with the Flallore has turned hostile.

Economy

$16 to spend.

$4 to upkeep.

$2 to repair.

$2 to advancing materials technology. Hopefully this will also help with the production of our Seeooformer.

$4 to constructing Seeooformer prototype.

$4 to colonizing the snowball world of Mulu (The most habitable world in the Dak-9 system, if I am not mistaken).

Actions

Move the Explorer Hmeeur from Goaeem/Dolak to Kar-2, scouting the region for potentially habitable worlds for settlement.

Move the Explorer Hreegur the Dak-9 system to Pos-3, to identify the source of the alien song that emanates from this region.

Use the freighter fleet to ferry goods and dissident Hlur-Baiheen away from the homeworld and to the colonies.

Overview

The Stabilizing Directorate feels threatened by the potential existence of hostile forces which could delay its necessary expansion. Without a population release valve, the procession of the Fifth Principle will be halted, and the Endstate Civilization will be threatened.

Continued attempts will be made to contact and learn about the unknown forces, both the Goaeem Anomaly (The Flallorean Collective) and the Queeoo Anomaly (The Pos-3 Broadcast).

The Directorate will also work to ensure the continued survival of the Endstate Civilization by operating further colonization efforts, and by advancing the Seeooformer program, which will greatly improve the ease of future expansion.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

"We have the object within physical range. Deploy the recovery arm."

"Aye, valued Hlur."

The Hmeeur's makeshift equipment bay creaked open, silent in the vacuum. From it extended a long, sensor-laden tentacle. Slowly, cautiously, it snaked its way out towards the anomalous object. As soon as one mechanical finger touched the object, the rest reflexively curled around it, holding the probe in a soft, but firm grip.

"We have the tertiary anomaly, scan and retract the arm."

A murmur of excitement crossed the control room.

"Esteemed Director, we have the broadcast pattern in its entirety now, it appears to be repeating. A single pitch, maintained for differing periods of time."

Mon Varheem perked up at the sensor technician's announcement. Could it be? Perhaps the power behind the anomalies could comprehend rhythm. There was yet hope!

"Cross reference the pattern. It may be an attempt to communicate basic concepts... or it could be an aesthetic creation. Perhaps this is their language."

As the recovery arm slowly coiled its way back into the damaged vessel, a scanned duplicate generated itself onboard.

The beacon was a strangely-shaped object on the outside, obeying no clear law of ratios. It appeared out of tune with itself. Was it just crude? Or was this what the unknown being- or beings- considered to be beautiful? A pattern was engraved on it, a binary, two-mark system of repeating dots and dashes, along with several shapes, each unique and distinct from all others. Mon Varheem immediately recognized that the pattern corresponded to the sound.

"Interesting. The things that live here might communicate with both shapes and sounds... if this is indeed communication."

"All the same pitch though, Expedition Director. Perhaps they communicate in only one pitch, relying on rhythm to convey meaning?"

"That would require a huge amount of time to encode a complex message... but maybe they are a very slowly-communicating species. Again, though, we must not get too far ahead of ourselves, we may be seeking familiarity when this is, in truth, something entirely different."

"Director! The beacon is recovered."

"Keep it quarantined until we know it down to the atom. We will work from the duplicate for now. Does it have an internal compartment, or anything else encoded in higher-density storage?"

"Still analyzing the latter Director, but it does have an internal compartment. Opening now."

The beacon cracked cleanly open and at once, images projected outwards. The picture was immediately obvious as a planet and binary suns. The crew's communal voice grew soft and reverent, as each realized the implications of what they were seeing. A depiction of an alien world. Something mysterious, perhaps beautiful, something at the very fraying edge of the unknown.

Below the projected images were more dots and dashes, and a small cylindrical device. Parts of the binary pattern lit up, accompanied by the same simple figures that had been present on the outside of the canister. And as these patterns illuminated, something sublime happened. The tiny device began to make sound. Not simple beeps, but complex, mixed sounds, with layer and nuance. Unique sounds, corresponding to the physical symbols. They were strange, sometimes grating, often cacophonous, but they revealed more soul than anything else that the expedition had yet encountered.

As the series of symbols completed, the sounds suddenly became vastly more complex, as they combined and flowed into each other. A flurry of dots and dashes, accompanied by a cascade of shapes and symbols and that bizarre alien noise, came all at once. It was utterly incomprehensible, of course, but Mon Varheem dared to hope that it had meaning. That it had thought behind it. Mon dared to hope that it was song, and that the crew of the Hmeeur were the first ever members of their species to hear the voice of an aien Hlur.

The crew waited for some time, humming mesmerized, before Mon Varheem began to break out of the wondering trance.

"The void speaks back to us, and though it snorts, snaps and babbles, we shall strive to learn its song. Let us prepare a response."

 

[Lord_Iggy]

OOC Notes for Lord_Herobrine:

A new probe has appeared. This one is made of the same polymer as before, has an oblong, smooth and symmetrical shape. It slides open to reveal a strange device that projects solid, three-dimensional images by remotely moving a cloud of microparticles around itself into different patterns. Like the previous probes, it makes noises: whistles, burbles and hums, made across a broad range of pitches. Simultaneously, it projects images and generates scents, providing a complex sensory experience. You are able to recognize things that you suspect are living versions of the organism that you recovered from orbit around Ferron. Each one makes a distinctive sound similar to those made by the first broadcast. By rotating a slightly raised sphere that is embedded into the probe, you can move from one moving image to another. By doing this, you will see an intact version of the alien vessel that you fired upon, an image of an orange and pink world cloudy world orbiting a bright white star, and a broad collection of floating dots and simple geometric figures in specific patterns, illustrating an understanding of prime numbers, mathematical constants (pi, e and others), and several logical axioms. The solid projection then proceeds to show several objects, including rocks, drops of fluid, celestial phenomena, and a wide variety of things that are utterly unfamiliar and unidentifiable to you. Distinct sounds, more chirps, burbles, hums and whistles, are made alongside each of these images. They start off simple and clearly enunciated, but the longer you remain on each image, the more elaborate and complex the noises become.

Depressing a large, flat, circular button that appears when the device is open projects a circle onto the floor. If you step into the circle, a small solid projected copy of yourself appears in the smaller circle on the probe. Your sensor readings suggest that this is accompanied with the object activating some sort of broadcast, transmitting data from itself back to its point of origin.

 

[Daftpanzer]

Awesome, thank you Iggy!!!

----

I have to report that I have not made much progress with the update, as weather has been wonderful and social occasions have been happening, and I've been fiddling with my new PC, and I've had a massive cumulative hungover today from too much drinking friday-sunday. I apologise especially for the latter.

----

Some of you have completely ignored paying any upkeep, I assume out of ignorance rather than deliberately. So at this point I'm just going to change your spending orders. If you see this, feel free to let me know what your priorities are. I've already sent PM's to some people.

From now on I'll roll back to the old system, where upkeep is opt-out, and it will be already deducted from your money for the coming turn. You can then get that money back if you wish, by canceling the upkeep.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

I like upkeep being opt-in, myself, but I guess it's just a cosmetic difference. Just so long as the rules are clear!

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

From now on I'll roll back to the old system, where upkeep is opt-out, and it will be already deducted from your money for the coming turn.

I didn't even know it had changed.

 

[Immaculate]

So whats up Daft?

 

[Daftpanzer]

Apologies for the lack of progress, last weekend was also very busy for me.

I must refer you to the first line of my signature...