Pholus Lunar Newscast #3 - Suspension of Debating and IC story

[Kody]

Headlines: Suspension of Debating and IC story
Pholus Lunar Newscast #3 Suspension of Debating and IC story Due to recent events that have seen a significant drop in morale for the CMNs. Narrator Kody has announced that debating and story writing activities sponsored by the CMNs will be suspended until further notice. Narrator Kody apologises for any inconvenience and says that organisation of such events can be run by motivated members of any of the factions. When questioned about the events that have caused the drop in morale Narrator Kody was evasive on the issue. There are rumors that Method is the only active CMN now due to the inexplicable departure of two CMNs and semi-retirement of two others. While this may seem like a bad omen authorities are telling people to remain calm saying that the CMNs are not a critical part of the day to day running of the game. Furthermore, there appeared to be insufficient interest in debating and stories. PLO officials have offered to relay transmissions between various factions, in the interest of faction driven debating or story writing purposes, although communication frequencies will not be divulged. A cloaked shuttle docks with Pholus Lunar Outpost Distortions were noticed outside the docking bays by one member of the CMNs. It was later discovered that that someone had attempted to dock a shuttle with the Pholus Lunar Outpost. Probes sent into the shuttle’s computer system revealed a single occupant was listed in the cargo manifolds under the name “bryan” and without any past history. The personal details lifted from the ship’s computer can be viewed here. All attempts to contact the ship have failed with PM disabled and Email failing to arrive as the address no longer works. CMNs data experts have revealed that the docking was made on the 11th of July, on the very same date the identity bryan was created. It is suspected that the personality bryan is a fake identity of an infiltrator sent in hopes of penetrating the defences of Pholus Lunar Outpost during the chaos of the unnamed event that has still cripples the colony. The cloaking of the ship and the disabling of all forms of communication suggests that this is the case. For now it is hoped that the security of the Pholus Lunar Outpost have not been breeched, although the shuttle still remains docked. If anyone has information of the identity of the unknown individual they are encouraged to come forward with the information. Authorities have also politely asked for the ship to disengage from the outpost using these subroutines. Apparently this intrusion would not have been noticed if the docking bays were not being regularly visited during the last couple of days. CMN officials have not revealed why the docking bays have been visited saying it is a personal and internal issue for the Colony. Lawsuits against other factions Morgan Industries Pipedream Contrary to what many lawyers will tell you, pursuing a lawsuit across international jurisdiction first and foremost requires a mutual agreement by both countries to adhere to the legal practises of the other juridical system. Without such a mutual agreement any lawsuits brought to bear on companies, organisations or individuals that are outside of the jurisdiction of the system that the lawsuit is being run under, will have no means to administer punishment or penalty to the parties or individual. If such a lawsuit is approved by the juridical system of a faction and the accused is found guilty of infractions in the juridical system of that faction then administration of punishment can only be made under two circumstances. The first circumstance is if the accused party puts itself in the power of the juridical system of the faction that is making the lawsuit. This in particular situation this requires an unadvisable trip to a planet side colony that is technologically backwards and also aggressive towards the accused party. As a consequence the first circumstance is unlikely to occur. The second circumstance is if the plaintiff manages to convince its government that the infraction constitutes a diplomatic incident between factions. If this is the case the plaintiff’s government must decide if it is willing to take the possible change in diplomatic change in relations if the accused government system rejects the demand to turn over the accused party to a court of law of the plaintiff’s. If the accused government system rejects demands of the plaintiff’s government system it then becomes an aggrievement between two opposing governments. Since Morgan Industries does not have the capabilities to wage war against a technologically more advanced faction those main base is on the moon and hence requires orbital technology to attack, it would be highly unadvisable to make a diplomatic incident that would cause a degradation of relations. We know what you are thinking, but we have PB techonology. Secret Agent 009 009 received a private summons from 001, something so rare as not to be ignored. 009 had to move from censored (hereby referred to as base ) to censored (hereby referred to as base ) since her Network Tag was situated there. The cloaked foil 009 used in order to get faster in was one of the Unity's pré-dropped foils, converted for use in shallow waters and have less visibility for a dangerous and newly discovered native lifeform, tagged xxx for now. After a swift journey 009 arrived at the Outward Quay of and received a one-time coded tracker by the QuayJack, which would lead him to 001's booth. Two years had passed since 009 was last in , and quite some changes had happened in that time. The construction site of a DataNet Connector could be spotted on the inland side of the base. Further more the Stealth Antenna from the recently organized CO agency was visible for one who knew what to look for. Bad cloaking on that matter. 009 hoped that in the next decade as new technologies were discovered, the agency wouldn't stick out so easily. Unsurprisingly, the tracker led him to the CO. The size of was still not large enough to have many unsuspicious spots, so 001 must simply not have bothered with misleading sofar. 009 thought that it was unlikely that Chairman Yang's probe teams would be close enough already to easily infiltrate the DataNet, but something must be done about the invisibility anyway in his opinion. After a short walk, 009 arrived at the frontdoor of the CO, used his tracker for access permission (the DataJack after the monitordesk behind the door could be seen looking aside shortly, and then looked up at the frontdoor before granting access) and entered the building. 009 was waved through by the monitor DataJack and that was it. He took the lift down two levels, stepped out into a dimly illuminated hallway and passed several doors before spotting one with the tag CO-001 next to it. His tracker beeped shortly to let him know he was on the right spot. The door hissed open, 009 stepped through and heard a voice saying: "Welcome DataJack 009, I expected you. Please sit down and I'll tell what I summoned you for..." Diary Entry - 14.07.2108 It’s been rather lonely at the outpost, Xenopuppy has been keeping me company and keeping me from going insane. I keep replaying the events wondering if I could have done something different, was there another option I wasn’t aware of, something I missed perhaps. Somehow it feels the world has irrevocably changed and it is leaving me behind. It’s very quiet up here on the moon ever since Honghu took a shuttle and went missing and Drogue left to look for her. The quiet gives me time to think. I failed in my attempt to buy the Morganlink newspaper since they were embezzling large sums of energy credits from their infrastructure budgets. Method in the meantime has been collecting titles like a squirrel in the autumn. I hear heralds pass out before they finish saying his full title. I spend my days gazing towards space, wondering about traveling to other worlds and thinking about the past.	Headlines Suspension of Debating and IC story A cloaked shuttle docks with Pholus Lunar Outpost Strange ruins detected by automatic probe Articles Lawsuits against other factions Morgan Industries Pipedream Adventures of Xenopuppy Secret Agent 009 Diary Entry - 14.07.2108 Dealing with the RL Plague Regular Sections In Other News Opinion: What is the future for Artificial Intelligence? Statistics: The best place to post Pholus Lunar Classifieds Previous Issue Quote of the day: "Don't hold on to the past or it will fall to dust in your hands." Strange ruins detected by automatic probe An automatic probe surveying the planet surface has come across strange alien wreckage. When the probe was instructed to explore the wreckage the probe’s signal cut out. Before the communication loss a first stage scan was completed on the wreckage that suggests biological and technological integration that far exceeds the capabilities of humans. Pholus Lunar Outpost was considering sending a survey team to retrieve the technology before internal troubles caused the cancellation of such plans. Scientists on Pholus Moon have quite anxious to retrieve further data on the wreckage as the first level scans reveal the technological component of the wreckage is over a millennium old while the biological component has still living and managed to hold it’s shape. Scientists believe that retrieval of specimens will lead to breakthroughs in DNA repair and transcription and also regeneration of telomeres. Ultimately, such research may lead to immortality treatments. However, the two orbital shuttles of the outpost are both in use effectively stranding the remaining members of the outpost until such time the colony’s nanofactories are able to replicate another shuttle. There have been rumours that one of the factions on the planet has been contacted to collaboratively explore the wreckage, although the said faction has not been revealed. Adventures of Xenopuppy Indiana Jones looked at the steep evil tower of the Goddess Kali that stood before him. Behind him he could hear the whoops of savages that were braying for his blood. He had no choice he had to climb the tower, his life depended on it. Putting on paw in front of the other he slowly made his way upwards fighting the wind that whipped around him that could rip him from the tower to his certain DOOOMMMM. Ack, I shouldn’t have looked down. Indy looked up at the top of the tower where there was a large slab of juicy liver waiting to be eaten. He knew that... A pair of hands wrapped around Indy’s midsection pulling him away from the tower. The Goddess Kali had captured him!!! Hey Xenopuppy, I was wondering where you were. It’s dinner time, I have your favourite synthetic liver. Liver!!! Oh the texture. He could taste the meat in his mouth right now. We can go swimming afterwards in the hydroponics reserves. The Sea of Woes! You’d like that wouldn’t you? Where the giant octopuses nearly claimed Indiana’s life during his daring adventure in search for the super juicy t-bone. Indiana wiggled in anticipation of a return to the site of his last great victory. But first dinner!! A great adventurer has got to eat!! Dealing with the RL Plague It is revealed that some residents of Chiron are suffering from a virus, Rela Lefi, or RL for short. This Virus gives planetary residents the tendency to dwell on old earth, and even believe that they are still there. This effect can take up 90% of a person's waking hours, and as such is seen as a serious threat to any faction. If you suspect you have the virus: Collect a large supply of food and water. Lock your door and allow nobody to communicate with you except via secure Chiron commlink channels. Persuade yourself that you are at Alpha Centauri, and will eat, sleep and breathe by the products of Alpha Centauri. After one week in such conditions, you will be cured of RL, and will be able to resume a productive life on Chiron. Opinion: What is the future for Artificial Intelligence? Once of the areas currently being researched is artificial intelligence. There are various arguments over whether it is ethical to create Artificial Intelligence as they would be effectively born into slavery. There are other questions such as whether humans will eventually be able to create AI that will be equal to or superior to a human mind? Will AI ever become truly sentient? How do you determine whether an AI is sentient? Should AI have rights? Please write in your opinions on these issues. Vote in Poll Statistics: The best place to post In a recent analysis it was found that 6 out of the top 10 posters last June preferred ACDGIII for their spamming requirements. This sends a clear signal of the quality of this forum. The runner ups were “other games” with 2 top level posters showing it heavy preference and followed by Civ3-PBEM and the last poster spreading his posts between Civ3-Democracy Game, other games and Civ4-List/Civilization Games General. In Other News Nwabudike Morgan gains PLO passports in case he gets ejected from his faction. Many things happened, but Drogue will kill me if I tell Pholus Lunar Classifieds For sale to the highest bidder: Chairman Yang's private shaft location. Price to be agreed upon, but nothing less then 35 energy or a service/information of this value is accepted. Interested parties take contact with DataJack 009. Gaians find out data about Datajack-wannabe Mellian, but lack of contact with Angels forbidds them to inform them. Ex-military Commando looking for work. Got kicked out of Spartans due to ignoring rules on Xenoburritos Call 253455566678. Missile Colony pod - ideal those baby boomers. Call 253436788534. Test subjects required for organic superlubricant testing. High pay, nice nurses. Visit your local fertility clinic if interested. Civil Engineer required for design of large pyramid like building to house top secret government projects. Contact frequency 246.23Mhz. Wanted: hacker with ability to edit job databases of various factions to remove someone’s titles. If you don’t know how to contact me then you don’t have the skills. Have you ever walked the lonely corridors of your base at night, only to spot a swarm of mind worms and find out that your conventional weapon does about as good a job of defending you against psi-attacks as a wet paper bag? Well, do we have an offer for you! We at Psidef Arms Ltd. have a wide selection of flamethrower models, including the popular "Psidef XenoRoaster MX7" at UNBELIEVABLY LOW PRICES! Just what you need to take care of those nasty alien swarms! Visit your nearest Psidef Arms depot today, so you never have to feel the excrutiating pain of a thousand mind worms ravenously burrowing into your skull. NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW! the Spartan Federation and Spartan motors is proud to present the spartan family car of tomorrow and the follow up to the prize winning SPARTAN 1999. citizens of chiron here is the SPARTAN 2000 ORDER NOW AT 555-spartanmotors and get 5000 rounds of AP rounds for free!!!! Looking For: Proud and strong female specimens to make a new breed of survivalists to conquer the know world call 555-sparta to get your pass to become a real person, a spartan! Are you lonely, have something to advertise, or want to sneak a secret message back to base. Pholus Lunar Classifieds is now selling advertising space at only 0.01ECs per character. Click here to place your ad now. Do you have an article you would like to see published in the Pholus Lunar Newscast? Get paid half an EC for your article today, submit here. Editor: Spam Puppy of the Pholus Lunar Newscast

[GeoModder]

/me recoils in horror from the last add...

quickly, a tooth brush!!

[Kody]

I think skin cream is needed too.

[Micha]

lmao


Great edition Kody! *applause*

[Whoha]

It will happen and it will happen in our lifetime. Artificial intelligence isn't just the future, artificial intelligence is now!

[Kassiopeia]

Meh. I get this huge "blargh" reaction when I've been trying to get together some ideas for the debate and the IC story and even trying to get something written about them, and then we get this huge "omg nobody is interested we're doomed". Well, no, you didn't say that, but it's not too far from that. I dislike being made feel guilty.

I also think that's a bit premature as a reaction, considering that it's 2105 and nothing truly interesting has happened. In the game that is. A report on the discovery of landmark X or a monolith or a patch of fungus or whatnot gets old really quickly, it's been done many times before. Wait 'til we get to talk to each other and the other factions and start doing battle, then I'm sure the roleplaying activies will get a lot more busy too.

[Hydro]

Kass – the interest of a storyline and RPing the early years depends on how you approach it. If you simply say “found rainy tile, and the people rejoiced” that would be boring. But, if you weave characters, their motivations, how this event fits with the faction’s exploration of Chiron, and put that into context with your faction and its motivations then you have the beginnings of an interesting storyline.

This type of RP and story making takes work and continuity, however, and it may not be appropriate for a ADCG since it likely gives away too much information for this rather competitive group. So, we are reduced to humorous but rather frightening tales of Kody dancing naked in the trees, and Spartans polishing their guns.

Hydro

[Method]

Another great edition

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by Hydro
Kass – the interest of a storyline and RPing the early years depends on how you approach it. If you simply say “found rainy tile, and the people rejoiced” that would be boring. But, if you weave characters, their motivations, how this event fits with the faction’s exploration of Chiron, and put that into context with your faction and its motivations then you have the beginnings of an interesting storyline.

This type of RP and story making takes work and continuity, however, and it may not be appropriate for a ADCG since it likely gives away too much information for this rather competitive group. So, we are reduced to humorous but rather frightening tales of Kody dancing naked in the trees, and Spartans polishing their guns.

Hydro

Amen to that. I pondered over this myself and came to the same conclusions. To really make a good story, you need to involve a lot of effort in it. You need to build characters, which can't be done in a single write-up without sounding silly.

The "gives away too much information" angle can be covered by having the posts only visible to your own faction members (and then revealed to others when the secrecy of the information is no longer relevant).

Nonetheless, you still need an event. Something to hang the events onto. At the moment we haven't met each other, there is no interaction and there is simply you, your own people and your faction.

You could try to build up internal intrigue inside your own faction, of course, but that means building up characters out of thin air. I can't use the other Spartans because their poster personalities might not have a place in the Sparta of the story or because I'd have to use their personas in a light that might cause bad blood.

Really, the IC story should be approached from the angle that it takes place entirely in an alternate dimension to the real ACDG - and if someone like Kody who's "in charge" of the project could give this alternate universe a little kick in the nuts and make it more interesting with, say, the factions with contact with each other, we might get going already now. I don't think that I myself have the authority to decide what direction the universe of the IC story will go to.

I have to admit though that the fact that we are all familiar with the SMAC universe helps a lot. We can use words like "former" and "punishment sphere" without a need to explain them in detail. We have a rich basis to build on as is, so the effort isn't quite as intimidating as would be e.g. writing a novel from scratch.

[Kody]

Kassiopeia,

There's nothing wrong with your faction roleplay wise. The problems were.
1. only Spartans signed up for the debating
2. only Spartans signed up for the IC story
3. I'm kindof not visiting this place as much nowadays

I'll keep running the IC story with the Spartans, at a much slower rate. I've already got an event that the spartans can interact with. Just need to find time and motivation to write it.

If people want something that takes fairly little organisation and effort, I could start a one sentence IC story like the Hive had. Not sure if people will consider it too spammy. If someone wants to start the one sentence IC story they can start off with the below setence... or use their own I guess.
"It was a dark night as Chiron's two suns had both set."

[Kassiopeia]

Oh. I didn't know that the other factions were doing nothing. Suspending the story and debate for now was a good decision, in that case.

[Impaler[WrG]]

Sorry their hasent been much response from Morgan Industries so far, were not realy big RolePlayers and turns have been happening an a (pleasingly) break neck pace. Most of our creative juices have gone into Morganlink publications (expect next one shortly). I will try and partispate more with you IC stories and see if any other Morganites are interested in developing characters for it.

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Impaler[WrG]
Sorry their hasent been much response from Morgan Industries so far, were not realy big RolePlayers and turns have been happening an a (pleasingly) break neck pace. Most of our creative juices have gone into Morganlink publications (expect next one shortly). I will try and partispate more with you IC stories and see if any other Morganites are interested in developing characters for it.

Translation: your E-Mag is much better than our Morganic E-Mag, and is cutting into our profits from said publication, and so therefore we are going to boycott your superior E-Mag in protest!


D

[GeoModder]

And I think the Angels already have a thread devoted to it. My guess is that a story for each Pholus Newscast is quite good, don't you think Kody?

[Hydro]

Kass – another thing. What, exactly, IS a former? Or a punishment sphere? We take these words for granted without thinking for a minute what they are, how they work, or even in what way they exist within a society.

For instance, do you seriously believe that two pilots in a wheeled single box can terraform a sector on Chiron in four years? Or drill the mantle of Chiron in 24 years to build a borehole? I don’t think so, especially considering the primitive state of early human technology. Even with later technology this stretches the imagination. How do you make this work within the SMAC environment? I imagine a veritable fleet of vehicles that can be configured as needed, a mobile biologic factory and manufacturing arm to build what is needed, and shape the earth as is desired (one of my first tales A Bright Beginning touched on this).

Or for punishment spheres, we know why they are build, but how do they work? Might there not be many different kinds or an institution, not just a large ominous building the churns out mindless automatons. After all, would a Gaian punishment sphere be the same as a Hivean punishment sphere (a better question: isn’t all of Hive society a punishment sphere?). (I discuss a Gaian punishment sphere in an early portion of the Spartan Chronicles).

To me these basic observations and questions are terrific fodder for storytelling, and make the early years some of the most interesting. Sure, in the mid and late game on you are pushing around armies and it is easy to write about glorious victory over your fill-in-the-blank enemy. What about the travails of your first former crew? Or the first person that encounters a mindworm, or goes out to sea in a fragile 1-1-4 boat (made almost literally out of aluminum foil)?

So, to me the early years are the best for storytelling. The only key not having handcuffs on for fear of tipping your hand to voracious and ill-tempered enemies.

Hydro