Soyeah, I'll save the ramble for tomorrow.
...But instead of rambling about the game, I was actually playing more Majesty, to the point where I am needing to go to bed. Not only is it at the time I should be doing so, but also, even without that, I lack the coherency to make a real entry--I was even almost failing to type in one of the cheats because I was so thoroughly exhausted and mentally dead that I was falling asleep in the middle of my game.
Soyeah, I'll save the ramble for tomorrow.
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Too short, considering today was the only day I have free all week.
Though, I don't have dance tomorrow so after work I'll be free for like...twelve, fourteen hours or so. (On Friday, I work at eleven rather than at eight, meaning I can go to bed a little bit later.) So tomorrow I'll have more free time. Still, that being said, I felt like today was interesting. While I didn't get much done, I didn't feel the day was a waste. Furthermore, I downloaded some mods for Majesty, many of which just make the game easier but which are things that I approve of because they kinda bugged me. (For instance, eliminating cooldown on the Sorcerer's abode; I know why the cooldown was there but it is something I find annoying. Dauros-Agrela follows not being interned at the Mausoleum has both balance purposes and lore purposes, but I don't like permanently losing heroes so a mod to fix that was appreciated. Cultists not being able to buy Fire Balm bugged me because they're the only ranged weapon user without it; them not being able to buy shapeshift potions also intrigued me because while they have their hellbear transformation you'd think when that ran out a shapeshift potion would be useful. You get the idea.) One mod in particular is going to be fun to play around with: the Goblin Kingdom mod, which is for Northern Expansion levels, allows you to create a Goblin kingdom. Temples to Grum-Gog (powers of Fervus) to recruit Shamen (powers and personality of a wizard, but also has the ability of a healer) and enable the recruitment of Champions; spamming Archers (who spawn from what is essentially a Rogue's guild), a few warriors here and there, the choice between three races (Minotaurs as dwarves, Gorgons as elves, some other race as Gnomes which I haven't tried), and with the effects of those buildings (though, Minotaurs don't allow Ballista Towers and I'm not sure Gorgons allow for extra income). Trolls as tax collectors (which actually makes them respectably tough!), gnomes as peasants (which means they build/repair buildings much faster!), the guardhouse equivalent is better than the vanilla-game (albeit worse than the modded versions which I normally use and the mods aren't compatible apparently), and palace guards are MUCH better than their vanilla game equivalent (and probably still better than their modded version). It is something which will encourage me to replay every single level of the northern expansion with that mod. It does have a few things I don't quite like, though, in that I don't quite like all of the restrictions placed on it. It's definitely an experience, though. For me, when it came to the Majesty game, I made it a rule to beat each level fairly. (Even most of the downloadable quests, except for two where I was just like, "You know what? Screw this, this is stupid." and put in some cheats, mostly just economic boosts, because I was frustrated with the nonsense that I felt was poor quest design.) And then when I replay it, I can mod and I can cheat to my heart's content, doing whatever's most fun for me. So with the mods I picked up today, I think I'll be rather amused for a long, long time. And since tomorrow is the only day I don't work, I thought of what I am planning to spend all night tonight doing! By which, I mean, essentially pulling an all-nighter (and then sleeping through most of the day) on Majesty. I put some extensive thought into it, too.
See, one of the dilemmas I have with the game is this. All of the best things, my favorite aspects of the game, are Northern Expansion additions. Gnomes become Champions at Level 8. (While all heroes have a "champion" message at level 10, this merely allows for you to rename the hero and is a purely aesthetical thing aside from Level 10 being the point where most heroes start to be incredibly badass. Gnomes, on the other hand, upon becoming Champions, have a complete and total head to toe transformation from being the weakest hero to having stats on par with the strongest melee hero.) Paladins and Healers both gain the 'Harm Undead' ability. Warriors of Discord gain AT LEAST two, if not three abilities: Howl of Discord (and area of effect attack that also looks ridiculously awesome), maybe a multi-target sideways-slash, and being the Fervus-Krypta temple path hero with the ability to crit a strike. (Albeit, the hero I suspect has the weakest of the crits, a crit is still more damage than normal!) Cultists and Priestesses didn't directly gain anything, but each has access to a new powerful monster they can charm/control: Wendigos and Shadow Beasts, respectively. (That being said, Priestesses also get high utility out of the magic bazaar.) Monks gained the status of being the Dauros-Agrela temple path hero with the ability to crit a strike (and their crit might be the strongest of the three, I believe, since I've seen crits of other heroes leave foes alive but I've never seen a Monk's crit fail to kill the foe). Adepts gained the incredibly-awesome-looking and even more incredibly-awesome function of long-range teleportation, allowing them to appear anywhere on the map instantly. (As TVTropes puts it, this makes them something of a fantastical equivalent of a SWAT squad.) They also gained the double-strike ability, which makes them do more damage, plus, if nothing else it just aesthetically looks cool. Solarii gained an additional magical (I think it's magical anyway?) ability (furthering their status as the only true universally Battle Mage hero to use both melee and magic attacks), Fire Hammer: a single-target strike dealing high damage, which even works on structures! Also, though you'd hope to never need it, they do technically gain a suicide bomb of sorts: when they are killed, they deal chain lightning damage to all nearby enemies, in a sense a way to hopefully/potentially take out their attackers for having taken them out. Barbarian guilds gained the ability to house six heroes--two extra from all other temples/guilds, double that of gnomes/dwarves, and triple the space of an elven bungalow. This essentially allows for more bang for your buck, allowing you to field a greater number of barbarians at a relatively lower cost. Barbarians themselves proper gained two abilities. The first, a literal lifesaver: a chance to, upon reaching zero HP, be non-lethally KO'd. This is particularly important because Krolm offers no revive spell, unlike Krypta or Agrela, so if a Barbarian is dead with no Mausoleum, he's gone for good since you can't revive his grave without Krypta/Agrela temples that are mutually exclusive with Krolm. Plus, even with a Mausoleum. Resurrecting heroes is ridiculously expensive. Even low-leveled ones cost a couple thousand. High-leveled ones can be...well, I believe a level 50 hero is either 50,000 or 500,000. (Keep in mind, 50,000 is a fairly large sum of gold, and 500,000 even more so. The gold cap in Majesty is two million.) So what I'm saying is, having them be knocked out rather than killed is rather convenient, since it saves their life and allows them to keep fighting reasonably well. The second ability Barbarians gain is that they are the Krolm temple path hero with the ability to crit a strike. Wizards don't directly gain anything, but no other hero gets as much use out of the magic bazaar as they do. Elves, Rangers, and Rogues don't directly gain anything, but the magic bazaar sells fire balm to these three hero classes, which acts I believe as essentially something akin to a second poison...which also works on buildings. (I don't know the details, but point being, it massively increases the damage they do, and only they can get it because fire balm is a ranged-hero-exclusive item.) Then you get into the buildings. I don't really know what the Hall of Champions does exactly, but it gives a buff to heroes who visit it, it tracks monsters slain, and you can set a call for champions which essentially serves as a bounty for all monsters of that type across the whole map for the duration of the call, a pretty useful thing to have. The Mausoleum allows you to resurrect all heroes except for Monks, Healers, and Paladins (who refuse to be interned in them) if you miss the chance to revive their gravestone (or with Krolm, are unable to in the first place). This is a godsend, since it is a safety net for preserving your heroes. Especially since you might not always be able to see where a hero died, or if you can, you might not always be able to have the interface cooperate such that you can select them. (Death behind a building is especially nasty that way since often the building blocks you from selecting units.) The Magic Bazaar gives heroes a whole bunch of neat items, and they are ridiculously powerful, even gamebreakers. Heroes getting Blacksmith/Wizard Enchantment upgrades are marginally more powerful. Heroes with potions can survive much easier. Heroes with a ring of protection are harder to kill. Heroes who can teleport are immensely valuable. But all of those utilities are blown out of the water by the Magical Bazaar. Speed Tonic is akin to Winged Feet; heroes use it to run away and it works pretty well for making them faster than their pursuers and lasts respectably long. Fire Balm does disproportionately high levels of damage to things. Regeneration Elixir keeps heroes alive almost indefinitely for its duration. Dirgo Strength is mostly useful for melee heroes after their Shapeshift wears off, but all heroes apparently get a boost from it. Shapeshift helps keep wizards (and to some extent, Priestesses) alive, making them much harder to kill. It also makes melee heroes more difficult to kill and might also boost their strength making them pack a bigger punch. It also boosts these things for ranged heroes, who use it less often. (It is often used when the hero beserks.) Invisibility Brew is the hero's answer to when they need to flee, even before Winged Feet. And why not? After all, being invisible to your enemies ensures you can run away better than being fast does. It does have an annoying side-effect though: heroes who use it are, for the duration of the invisibility, completely immune to you casting ANY sort of spell on them (including a change of heart to force the coward back into a battle they would win). The item also has a reasonably short duration, both a blessing and a curse. The Sorcerer's Abode allows for you to cast some critical spells. All of them have their use; Earthquake is excellent in demolishing things you can't/don't want heroes to get too close to (though it still counts as an act of aggression all the same). More commonly, Change Of Heart sends a fleeing unit into beserking, and otherwise sends a unit from whatever they were doing to fleeing. This is a godsend spell, because it can keep heroes from destroying a lair too soon, it can save heroes' lives, and it can save your kingdom, too, by forcing them to fight. Outposts are incredibly useful because of their henchmen. They synergize well with guardhouses, and are good replacements for them, too, when need be. The palace guards are marginally useful, and the extra tax collectors help quite a bit when you have trouble getting enough fountains. Then there's the added peasants, allowing you to have more peasants repairing/building buildings across your kingdom, something which is essential to have given that without cheats, there's a limit to what you can have. Dwarves get too expensive after a while, and gnomes you can only have nine of, and the two of them are mutually exclusive, and while dwarves build faster they are so slow that they are too late by the time they reach what you want them to build/repair. Of course. The main use of an Outpost is its ability to house heroes. If you're looking to have some wiggle room in case a guild/temple/settlement/bungalow gets destroyed, an Outpost gives that, allowing for your heroes to have a home still and thus, stopping them from leaving Ardania before you can rebuild their home. If you want to cram your kingdom as full as heroes as possible, then the Outpost can be used to circumvent hero restrictions--simply build the type of hero you don't want to keep the buildings of (except for gnomes), get the heroes you want (up to six per outpost), demolish the buildings those heroes are housed in, they move to the outpost, and then you build the type of hero you DO want to keep the buildings of. Alternatively, just save scum the Embassy or hope for the luck of the gods in getting the heroes you want. Speaking of which, the Embassy can house two extra heroes, and recruits heroes that're levels 2-3, and it will automatically fill empty guilds/temples/etc. you have built with their appropriate heroes when they run out of embassies/outposts to recruit random heroes to. In short, if you want to go without cheats or exploits, an Embassy is the only way to get all sixteen heroes in your kingdom (unless playing The Day Of Reckoning, natch). But MY POINT BEING. That's all pretty cool stuff. ...The problem is... ...Most of the Northern Expansion levels, be it cheats or no cheats, have low replayability compared to their original/southern counterparts. The original game had at least seven boss monsters, spread across the various levels. The northern expansion has...four, two in the same level and one who is barely a boss at all frankly. And one of said bosses is meant to be the final boss of the game more or less--the final challenge a player will face when playing the game through fairly. Then you get into the nature of the levels. The original game had--including the final boss level--five "timed" levels. Out of nineteen total, from what I counted. The expansion has three, of twelve. Most of the content is rehashed as well. The Siege is one of the best levels to play, but it has the flaw where the enemy Sovereign is utterly incompetent and will spend his entire treasury going from 40,000 to broke in no time flat wasting money on trivial things rather than using it on things that matter. Spires of Death is a rehash of Fortress of Ixmil, except it's actually easier for the most part. Urban Renewal regardless of cheats or no cheats is a small map cramped with red buildings, so its replay value is low. Clash of Empires is a 4-way brawl, so that's one of the better ones, but the map may be a bit small. The Fortress of Ixmil is a pretty decent level for replaying a different temple path, in that it's possible to win fairly with all three. Dauros-Agrela is easiest with a mad dash to paladins (since on most levels, 8 well-equipped paladins can defend your entire kingdom from a ridiculously low level; they are the only hero to take on the toughest universally-appearing-monsters of trolls/minotaurs from as low as level 4), Krolm is apparently also possible, but Fervus-Krypta is also a possibility for the level. The Valley of the Serpents is another level with some replayability, in that you can have a decent amount of fun there, but it's also a reasonably small map, again limiting the playground, and serpent lairs appear in inopportune locations, hindering your efforts to build ideal cities and also hindering your ability to stop heroes from raiding them. (And yes, you will have heroes who raid them thanks to elves who raid lairs, dwarves coming in that raid lairs, and you practically requiring heroes to defend against ice dragons that raid lairs.) Rise of the Ratmen is just an obnoxious level in general to play, because it is just dealing with nuisances you deal with normally, except on a grander scale. Darkness Falls is similar to the Fortress of Ixmil in having replayability, but by now I think you're beginning to see my point. Most of the better levels are from the original game. One level has a fully functioning (albeit basic) ally kingdom which can turn enemy. This is unique to that level alone, essentially, since while other levels feature reds in the form of wizards, none take it to that extreme. The Day of Reckoning allows access to every hero and their associated buildings' quirks, but it's a southern quest so we don't get to see anything like this in the north without utilizing cheats. Many of the larger maps like Free the Slaves and Vengeance of the Liche Queen are also southern maps; you can only build a kingdom so large on a small map. So the dilemma I often face when playing the game is, do I go for all the awesome things I like, or do I go for all the awesome level designs? To some extent, this can be mitigated by downloadable quests. Some are ill-suited for long-term play. Can't do much in Vampiric Revenge. The Wrath of Krolm is a southern downloadable quest anyway and playing it fairly limits your economy severely. The Recluse is just an annoying quest to do fairly and there's not much point to cheating on it (if cheats even work). Slaying Merlin, Containment, and Defending the Throne are all "timed" quests. (Slaying Merlin isn't supposed to be timed, but because Merlin is a freakin' moron who will teleport into your town where there are dozens of heroes, guardhouses, and henchmen who can wail on him and he lacks invincibility to their attacks, he dies before he's supposed to.) Dwarven Brothers is also essentially a "timed" quest in that it doesn't take your heroes too long to kill even should-be-immortal dwarves by killing them at their spawn point and also the mage dwarf could be found early. Ardanian Civil War and Strife are both fun, for basically being The Siege...without the stupid failure condition, but they have limitations on them. (A particularly good touch is that they are meant to mimic players and they do so...including essentially having access to the build anything cheat by building fully-upgraded buildings rather than the level 1s you get.) So there's only a handful of quests I've downloaded that allow me to have the best of both worlds. All the same, I don't stop playing the game because there's still endless replayability; I always find a way to make the most of the game. Something I was working on in fact is a mental compilation of everything each of the sixteen heroes says. Keep in mind, this is just from memory. Every hero has the following: -Wandering -Level-up -Champion -Bounty Hunting and/or Explore Flag -Fighting -Fleeing -Dead -Retrieving Treasure -Easter Egg bonus quote -And three heroes have a crit noise. Dwarf: Wandering: "Ho diddly hey diddly ho diddly ho..." Level-up: I'm ashamed to say I can't quite remember this one. It has to do with work and improvement but I can't recall the exact wording. Champion: "I just keep on getting better at this!" Bounty: "More work to do!" Fighting: "Not now! I've got work to do!" Fleeing: "If I had my good hammer, you'd be sorry!" Dead: "There's no fixing this......" Treasure: "Ahh! A fine piece of work!" Bonus: "My wife's beard is even better than this!" Gnome: Wandering: "Ho ti to ti to ti to", I believe. I'm not quite sure on this one to be honest. Level-up: "Hey I'm getting better at this!" Champion: "I...am...a...CHAMPION!!!" Bounty: "At last, some adventure!" Fighting: "Now's my chance!" Fleeing: "I wasn't trying to hurt you!" Dead: "But I'm...just...a gnome......" Treasure: I've heard it before but not often enough to have it memorized. Bonus: Most bonuses, I don't remember; this one's no different. Elf: Wandering: "Long live the elves!" Level-up: "Refreshing!" Champion: I don't use elves often enough to have this one memorized. Bounty: "This'll be a quick bit of gold..." Fighting: "A threat!" Fleeing: "Victory's...not in the cards." Dead: "No fun...at all..." Treasure: Also not something I hear often. Bonus: Another one I don't have memorized. Rogue: Wandering: "One day, this will all be mine." Level-up: "My ambition has paid off." Champion: "Keep it comin'!" Bounty: "What a delicious looking reward......" Fighting: "You won't get my gold!" Fleeing: Given I use rogues every level (except when they're not allowed in which case enemies still spawn them), I should know this. Unfortunately, I do not. Dead: "Leave my gold...alone......" Treasure: "Nobody will miss this..." Bonus: Another one I don't have memorized. Ranger: Wandering: "I take the path less traveled." Level-up: This is another one I should know. Champion: "Wild adventure...builds character!" Bounty: "My services may help." Fighting: Yet again, I should know this but I don't. Fleeing: "Ooh, tough fight." Dead: "I join...the wild spirits......" Treasure: "A good find..." Bonus: Yeah, I don't remember this. Wizard: Wandering: "Where did I leave my spellbook?" Level-up: "My power grows!" Champion: "Practice makes perfect!" Bounty: "A-ha! My services are required!" Fighting: "What's that sound?" Fleeing: "I'm DONE for......" Dead: "I'm MELTing......" Treasure: I've heard this, but I can't remember it. Bonus: Ditto. Warrior of Discord: Wandering: (Okay I don't know most for this hero.) Level-up: I believe the warrior discord lets out a wolf howl. Champion: This one's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't recall what. Bounty: Another one I've heard but can't quite remember. Fighting: Similarly, cannot remember. Fleeing: "Baaawk...bawk bawk bawk bawk!" Dead: (Muffled) "Pretty...nice"? (It's hard to make out.) Treasure: I'm honestly not sure I've heard this. Bonus: I've maybe heard it once? Crit: (Muffled) "Big Mark!" (At least I assume that's what he's saying?) Paladin: Wandering: "The law of Dauros is above all others" (or "above all else", I don't quite remember which). Level-up: I can't quite remember this. Champion: "I am enlightened!" Bounty: "I deem your mandate just." Fighting: "The unholy are near." Fleeing: "Dauros has spare you...for now!" Dead: "Evil...has won..." Treasure: "An item of holy significance!' Bonus: "Dauros! Grant me better headgear." Healer: Wandering: It might be, "Let Agrela help"? Level-up: "Agrela smiles upon me." Champion: "I can now help so many more!" Bounty: "Let me help!" Fighting: This one I don't think exists. Fleeing: "I must find a haven!" Dead: "I will be...reborn......" Treasure: Annoyingly enough, I had this in mind thirty seconds ago but can't remember it now. Bonus: This one I just don't remember though. Monk: It should be noted that the Monk is a mute so it's a bit hard to convey his sounds, but he has them. Wandering: "Om ne ah ne om ne ah ne om..." or something to that effect. Level-up: "Ah...!" Champion: I don't remember this (it's pretty rare to get). Bounty: I don't remember this in spite of it being easy to get. Fighting: I should know this, but I don't. Fleeing: "Ohh..." Dead: "*cough ooh-uhh", more or less. Treasure: Exists, but I don't remember it. Bonus: Ditto. Crit: "A-HA!" Priestess: Wandering: I'm not sure I've heard this actually. Level-up: It's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't quite remember it. Champion: "I faced death with renewed strength!" Bounty: "That's death's reward." Fighting: Another one I can't quite recall. Fleeing: "Another day, Krypta!" Dead: "At laaaaaaaaast!' Treasure: Exists, but I don't think I know it. Bonus: "This game is to die for!" Cultist: Wandering: I can't recall. Level-up: "Ooh, pretty star!" Champion: It's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't recall what. Bounty: "What a pretty flag!' Fighting: I should remember this, but I don't. Fleeing: "Run...run run run run run run!" Dead: "Pretty bright light deaaaaaaa......" Treasure: Not sure I know this one. Bonus: Definitely don't know this one. Barbarian: Wandering: I can't remember this one. Level-up: "Krolm makes me stronger!" Champion: "I am Krolm's champion!" Bounty: I've heard this one but I can't recall it. Fighting: "Hmmm..." (More of a growl.) Fleeing: "I'll be back!" Dead: "YARRRRRG!" Treasure: Exists, but I don't remember it. Bonus: Ditto. Crit: "Take that!" Adept: Wandering: Honestly I don't think it exists for adepts. Level-up: "The wind lord blesses me!" Champion: "I can outrun the winds!" Bounty: "Swift action is required". (Well I know he says "Swift Action", but after that it's kinda muffled often so I can't quite be sure.) Fighting: "An ill wind blows in the air..." Fleeing: "Give me speed, Lunord!" Dead: "Wind has failed me." Treasure: Probably exists, but is pretty rare; I certainly don't know it. Bonus: I don't have it memorized. Solarus: Wandering: It exists but I don't remember it. Level-up: I honestly can't recall. Champion: Similarly, kinda close to remembering, but I can't. Bounty: "This call blazes brightly for me!" Fighting: "You're playing with fire!" Fleeing: "Darkness has won the day..." Dead: "I...am...extinguished......" Treasure: Probably exists, but I don't know it. Bonus: I also don't have this memorized. ...You can usually tell which heroes I use more often, I think, though I am ashamed to say I use Rangers more often than my memory would indicate. Still, this gives you a fair idea for their personalities, even without seeing all of them in action. It's just from memory. Were I to go try, I'd fill most of these out pretty well, with only one or two gaps here and there. (Mostly the treasures, possibly the wanders.) I didn't quite ramble as much as I thought I would, but oh well. I think this is sufficient for one day. Especially since aside from Sunday which is always that way, it will be the first day where I am breaking my natural night owl tendencies to actually go to bed when it's dark and wake up when it's light, rather than the other way around. We're down a couple of cars right now, too, so I get the short stick--instead of driving, I have to be driven. On the one hand, this has a few advantages.
Since I'm not the one driving, I can nap both to, and from, there, meaning no risk of an accident from exhaustion or the like. I get to sleep, rather than being forced awake. It has many disadvantages. I must leave when they leave, be ready when they're ready, if I forget something I'm out of luck, and mainly, I'm stuck there all day. As in, dropped off at seven AM, picked up at 7:30 PM, stuck there all day. With nothing to do but work, and then tae kwon do after work. That being said, I think I'll be fine. I'll manage to keep myself busy enough. And you know what that means. In this case, I extrapolated a bit on the sci-fi story which was based off of a dream. Specifically, a mechanism I had already thought of was that the computer AI doesn't have a gender, but users could hear it as either male or female depending on their preference--I figured out how this would work: simply by addressing it as one of its two different names, Aiden for a boy; Aida for a girl. This being computer AI names, of course there's an acronym involved: Artificial Intelligence Data Network, AIDN, also called the Artificial Intelligence Data Ambassador, AIDA.
I also fleshed out the backstory behind the elven race a bit. They evolved on a world which had two races rather than one. Like other races, neither of their races was homogeneous; they were splintered and fractured. However, elves on that planet were akin to what a dog on earth would be if dogs had human intelligence and were capable of speaking the same way humans do. In that they were subservient to the other race, and they had evolved to be that way; for both the other race and the elves, it was just a part of their life. Elves, in spite of being equals in intelligence, got pleasure out of serving their master race. And said race was rather technologically advanced. Unfortunately, a disease emerged in the race, a super-bug: asymptomatic to the point where the only way to catch it was with intense medical examination, 95% lethality rate, incredibly easy to communicate, no existing vaccine, and no way to counter it. The only reason elves survived is because they were just biologically different enough to be immune to the disease, in that the disease did not cross the species barrier in order to infect elves. While not every member of the race was wiped out, their population was reduced to the point where they became a dieing race: impossible to save, because they simply didn't have the numbers necessary to sustain a viable population. That, assuming that the survivors were willing to even bind together in the first place. To some extent, they did, but not enough, thanks to natural tendencies to distrust others for stupid (or even not so stupid) concerns. Still, this did unite the elves pretty well. They did everything they could to help, until the last of their master race had died out. This had a way of unifying the elves, getting them close to being homogenized. They maintained their desires to please their masters, by keeping the memory of them alive and by continuing their work, which is why they inherited and continued to further the advanced tech. And in the modern day, they often apply the mantra of servitude to others as if they were their original masters. However, while they have this tendency to want to serve, they are not pushovers. They can and have fought wars (which they won) in order to protect their way of life. So while they may be, technically speaking, a slave race in that they are often in servitude of others, this is not something that is inflicted upon them, and they are quite capable of defying expectations. In particular, their definition of pleasing others may not match what would be typical, in that a thought along the lines of "the needs of the many" would apply, in that not serving one specific person but rather devoting oneself to the pursuit of, saaaaay, medicine to treat others as a doctor, would fit into their philosophy. So think less manual labor (and certainly less sex*), and more public servant on a grand scale, for what most of them see their lives as striving to be. They do exist in positions you might think of a slave race as being in, but in a minority of their population, rather than the majority. *For elves, except for pretty much the ones into BDSM (in that they prefer to be subs), they insist on having sex with an equal, not a superior. They are rather promiscuous and enjoy casual sex among peers more than most races do, but they would not have sex with masters; the few who do are the exceptions to the general rule. They do make exceptions in the case of formal courtship (as in, proper marriage between individuals) in that if one is of higher stature then it won't stop them from hooking up, but as far as sex outside of wedlock, it's almost exclusively between two on equal footing. I mean that's to be expected when you wake up at 6:30 PM and you should get to sleep in 6-8 hours from that time thanks to working the next morning. Still, it's a little disappointing all the same. That's 6-8 hours of nothingness, more or less.
I got us started on talking about drunkenness, one thing led to another, and...well... ...This was the result. ...I literally don't think anything else could top this in terms of things which have happened today.
And it's just... ...Well I have no words, just watch it. We're going deeper than that in wtfery, but for now I think we'll leave it at that. This is also not something which is triggered by any events. I'm just having a really hard time being motivated to do anything except wake up and play games. That's the extent of my life right now. We'll see how my schedule changing to accommodate my new year work hours will affect that, maybe with luck it'll get me out of the slump I'm in because, yeah.
I'm just having so much trouble doing anything. When I have a setting that good, I just have to expand upon it.
One of the things about the setting is communication. When it comes down to it, there are a few methods by which this is achieved. The most common way is to speak a common universal language. This language, in 21st century English, can be translated in different ways: Common, Trader's, Universal, and even...English. In spite of it not being instantly recognizable as English to a 21st century speaker (it's loosely akin to an Old English speaker being thrown into the modern day world of English), the language most widely spoken is derived from multiple sources, including a descendant of English. Languages of course are incredibly diverse. Regions isolated develop their own language with enough time, and each world had multiple languages rather than one universal language. Different dialects, different meanings, and so on and so forth, so in spite of only a handful of races, there are thousands upon thousands of languages in existence. However, by having that common language, communication is much easier to establish, and this is at a time where people have had enough time to develop that common ground, a language which is REASONABLY easy to learn, especially for a 21st century human who just has to learn the evolution of his own language and how alien words got introduced, more or less, and mixed in. Having a common language is a great way to ensure that if all else fails or malfunctions, communication does not break down entirely. (As in, if universal translators don't work, you can still speak to one another manually. This is one reason that another common position on ships is a linguist, whose job is to speak fluently as many languages and dialects as possible, in case Traders/Common/Universal/English isn't spoken.) THAT BEING SAID, this is not always a solution available. The next-best thing is "auditory and visual augmentation enhancements": implants. These are a self-contained computer which link to the auditory and visual sections of the life form in question, and form a pathway. When they hear a language they don't speak yet their internal computer recognizes, the computer will, with a delay, translate it into their ears as something they do. When they wish to speak a language they don't actually speak, they essentially use what amounts to their eyes to link together an invisible-HUD that is, "this is what I want to say", and the computer then tells them how to say what they want with the correct pronunciation. This is the setting's first equivalent of a Universal Translator, allowing for Translation Convention. The idea here is, sound (along with visual cues when necessary) is relayed to the device, which then translates it into something the user can understand. (For instance, different regional accents of a foreign language might be translated as different accents of English, anything from a Chicago to different regions of Texan to various English to Australian accents.) In the HUD of the user's visuals (as in, for humans, we see from our eyes and this would be like a first person shooter with a text HUD which we can then scan with our eyes for the relevant information), the user will think what they want to convey, and the device will tell them through a combination of auditory and visual cues exactly how to say what they are intending to convey, so long as the computer within recognizes both the language of the user and the language of the recipient. This is something which works great especially when the implant is on both sides (as that reduces the chance of error), but something which usually only has a 100% success rate in a face-to-face conversation. (It also works for written words, by the way, in a way similar to how subs work for anime and the like--the language seen is converted into the text of the user's target language.) For long-distance communication, an external version of this system is used. The communication is delivered, and then the system in the transmitting device attempts to translate it with a delay built in. This means that, say, ship to ship communication between sides is not instantaneous if there is a language barrier. The speaker speaks the language, the computer processes it, and then tries to emulate the voice as best as it can within the language it's being translated to. This then can work in reverse, with a message sent, the computer taking time to translate it into the target language, and sending it to the other side. It is less-than-optimal (another reason for a linguist on ships being that having one, they can speak faster than the computer can translate often), but it ensures that there aren't catastrophic communication errors from bad translation. When this is still not viable, then the most basic, fundamental version of the universal translator is simply, the language of the speaker gets shown in written words, translated without audio, with a significantly higher delay for extra time to process. While it takes much longer and is a far more basic means of translation, it is also the least-prone to failure. But that being said, just speaking English, as it were, is the simplest solution. (And by English I mean the language equivalent thereto.) If this were a show proper, heavy usage of Translation Convention would be given, in that while what they were speaking wouldn't technically be 21st century English, for the sake of viewers, we would hear it as being 21st century English. However, at the very beginning, there would be a scene from the viewpoint of the existing crew and the viewpoint of the protagonist. In the crew's viewpoint, they would be speaking English that we'd understand, and the protagonist would be mute, making gestures with his hand but not speaking, with them taking time to figure out his language is 21st century English. In the protagonist's viewpoint, he would be speaking English that we'd understand, and the crew would be mute, making gestures with their hands but not speaking, and this would last until they could synch things up, after which point it'd become irrelevant-- The protagonist would receive the implant, become familiar with the translation technology, and start learning the modern English without usage of the translator, something which while difficult is not impossible and with the aid of the translator would only take a short amount of time for someone of his intelligence and skill to get a basic grasp of. Thus explaining why everyone would be able to communicate with him. I also extrapolated upon the computer I mentioned. Obviously, I don't mean a singular computer system is all a gigantic ship has--however, they do have only one AI, as in, full artificial intelligence proper life form of its own, per ship. Said AI has access to most of the ship's on-board computers, and thus, is able to access most systems, albeit with checks, similar to as if they were a human user. Basically, every single part of a ship would have a different computer system controlling it, linked to the others. You know, so that if one thing fails, everything doesn't. These links can be strengthened or severed as needed, and it's akin to networking computers at, say, an office work place. At its higher level, you can take control of one computer from another computer. At its lower level, the computers might have a shared drive where information can be stored but are otherwise separate. Or even altogether absent from each other with the only thing they have in common being that they're in the same building, so to speak. The AI is essentially a program. It has its own personal computer, but it can access other computers throughout the ship as necessary for its duties. It is also able to some degree operate many systems automatically, albeit in a limited capacity. (Mostly, it can control backups to make sure the crew's lives are saved in case of catastrophic failure.) These systems are fairly universal across any ship. Also worth mentioning. Yes, the future does have internet. Said internet is actually the de facto method of communication. Think of communications between ships as essentially phone calls with visuals: faster than the internet, but also more limited in what you can share/give/communicate/etc. Think of the speed of travel as being the speed vehicles in our world travel: significantly slower. Then think of the internet in the context of those two. Much, much faster to send an email than to send snailmail. Communication through text messaging is faster than communication through emails, but communication through emails is easier and allows for more to be sent. And in the future you can kind-of see how that would work. Information is compressed, transmitted, and stored in ways such that this is not at all surprising. The internet is a vast, cross-galaxy network with servers in countless numbers of planets, moons, stations, and what have you. Every ship can be thought of as having galaxy-wide wifi in that they can connect to a source and from this source they can put the information where it needs to be put. There's a ton of security in place, and you can have private servers and such, and there's a bunch of measures taken including AIs whose entire job it is to keep out malware. (Artificial Intelligence inside of computers can detect and eliminate viruses much better than any human could.) And, yes. Humans who can check on the AIs to make sure they haven't gone rogue or been hacked or the like. Now, just like in our world, this does not mean information is inherently secure. Information can be intercepted, information can be hacked, information can be corrupted, and it is. We're talking about a setting with hundreds if not thousands of factions fractured about the galaxy/galaxies in that you have multiple factions on a single planet and factions controlling dozens OF planets and so on and so forth. They are going to try and fuck with one another. And there are going to be people who mess with the system. Just because they can, or because they're extremists with a vision. But for the MOST part. The internet is one of the best ways for the universe to be linked to one another. You can have conversations across most of known space in a short amount of time with minimal delays. There are many main hubs for the internet, superstations as it were, and one of them is on the station/ship in fact, allowing it to always be in touch with anywhere, essentially. I am not well-versed in technology to see how feasible a lot of this stuff is. So I'm sure if I ever made it a story proper I would revise all of this and get it more grounded in reality with better technobabble that is more sensible and plausible, but I think that the general idea I have is more or less good and would last. It basically entailed a mixture of some fantasy tropes with sci-fi works, part works which are stationary, part works which have a ship that moves, part Stargate SG-1. And it meshed together elements from them all. Predicting the future is a common thing in the setting. Elves exist as a slave race, but they are still one of the most advanced races around, in that traps they can lay as children work on most adults.
Humanity in that setting is fractured into thousands of factions with no unity. Some serve, some conquer, some work with other races, and most hold a rather high level of corruption. Many are bureaucratic and inefficient. The setting takes place on a gigantic ship which is also a station. (It took heavy cues from Farscape. Including the protagonist being quite literally, a character played by Ben Browder. No, really.) The story began with him in a not-quite-modern Earth, in that it's slightly-in-the-future, as a test pilot for an advanced aircraft/spacecraft hybrid. However, something happened, and catapulted him thousands of years into the future, onto the ship he would then live/adventure on. In the future, a common trend is for everyone regardless of their race to have a single specialty. Unlike in most sci-fi works where that single specialty applies to the whole race, with the exception of elves (and even then they aren't one stock mold; they gamble, they lie, and so on), they have diversity such that they are capable of actually functioning as a society. No Warrior Race; No Logic Race; No Diplomacy Race, and so on and so forth. To put it another way--races don't have a "hat", though elves come close. HOWEVER. While races don't... ...In a twist, individuals do. Individuals, regardless of race, are typically taught to do only a very specific set of tasks. A pilot can pilot almost any craft, because they have studied endless numerous ways to pilot endless numbers of crafts. Said pilot would be skilled no matter what craft they operate...but get them doing anything outside of piloting, and they are outside of their field, thus, basically worthless. A mechanic can fix basically anything, but when it comes to operating the things they know how to fix, they're basically clueless. A warrior has studied every combat form known, knowing strategy and tactics on every level: fleet warfare, ship to ship warfare, troop warfare, and of course, melee combat with various styles of martial arts and the like. However, because of that extensive training, that's all they're good for. Assessing threats, and how to best deal with them. A medic knows everything there is to know about medicine, and has to do so for just about every species. A scientist has to know just about everything there is to know about science not covered in one of the above fields, and spends their life learning millions of years of collective galactic wisdom and trying to add new knowledge to it. And so on and so forth. The special trait of the protagonist is that he comes from a time where technology is advanced enough where he's not worthless in the future, but he's also someone who is a jack of all trades. Literally. He has all of the above for a start. This means that he is versatile enough to help everyone in a pinch. I had a thought, not in the dream proper so much as after, that a computer would exist, and the computer would in a sense designate the people most suited to lead for the current situation, a trend shared in most communities: the person most suited for the task at hand would give the orders to those out of their element. They do maintain an emergency chain of command, usually at the computer's behest in case it malfunctions; one can override the other. On the ship-station (which I believe I had as a recognized independent nation), the computer recognizes the protagonist as being what he is, and places him permanently as being the usually-not-assigned position of "First Officer": basically, alternating between him giving orders and being given orders by those in his field. Obviously, there's more than one expert in each field on staff. Per position, there is existing hierarchy based on skill, talent, experience, knowledge, and so on, in that the more veteran staff who are prodigies in their fields will be the one actively involved in the task, the second-best will be their second-in-command, and others in the field handle other tasks--different shifts (can't be awake 24 hours after all), different parts of the ship, different circumstances (illness, death, injury and the like), you get the idea. But the ship has a theoretical permanent position of Captain for "permanently in command", not used, and the just-as-theoretical position of First Officer, which was assigned. The protagonist would quickly get filled in on exposition, in that he had basically landed on a refurbished relic, the perfect spot for him. The ship is really, really old, yet has been kept up to date with modern, even advanced, tech, mostly based around human and elvish models, including one taking cues from the ship he was a test pilot of. Given the international nature of the ship-station-state in that it is a recognized nation of its own, exploring space, attending diplomatic meetings of factions, being a neutral location, and so on and so forth (think vaguely Babylon 5 another huge inspiration on my dream even though I've never seen the series just heard a lot about it), this gives him work to do on an episodic, yet also arc nature. Sometimes, part of being a recognized independent nation also involves going to war. Most don't dare, because it tends to end badly for them, both because of the capabilities of the ship and because the ship's crew has connections in all the right places to usually have allies. (Plus, the ship has many smaller ships within.) But a few times, the protagonist is busy working on how to best avoid total annihilation from forces that manage to declare war against his crew while leveraging other factions to remain neutral parties in the conflict. One point relatively early in the setting had him travel back in time, relatively close to the time he had been a pilot. There, it was discovered he was declared dead--in fact, they had the crash and everything, up to and including a body. However, he and his elf crewmate with him had to leave before finishing their investigation of the mystery. It'd later turn out that thanks to shenanigans (as if there weren't enough already), the protagonist we've gotten to know for the whole show is a future, short-term memory wiped duplicate of his past self's duplicate. In that, at a later point in the show, his entire test ship arrives. Thanks to events transpiring, said original self is duplicated once through a further time split. And, in order to save the day, original-him and his copilot go through a portal (presumably to their deaths where they'd crash), the new duplicate-him goes through a different portal (sending him back in time to the start of the show), and future him remains, and puts it all together. ...I was rather proud of myself for thinking that up given that it sounds pretty standard fare for a sci-fi setting. Basically, it goes: Original past-him ends up on the ship, interacting with future-him. Due to the events transpiring, original past-him ends up being duplicated with an exact copy down to the last memory and body. Literally identical in every way. Original past-him ends up needing to go through one portal, sacrificing himself to save everyone. Duplicate-past-him, also as part of the saving process (the ship was caught in some complex thingamajig which required a three-part solution, conveniently enough), went into a separate portal. This portal lead to the beginning of the show, with his short-term-memory lost and him remembering only taking off from the flight, not what transpired after. As in, we've been following Duplicate-past-him the whole time, because Duplicate-past-him is... ...Future-him, who was interacting with both the above the entire time, and it's only after the events above transpire that he's able to piece together what has happened. He takes it relatively well, since as far as he's concerned, he still is the original, in spite of the revelation. It's confusing to write, I know, but it'd probably be really easy to convey. Basically, for the whole show, we were led to believe he took off, then mysteriously woke up in the station, with no ship and no copilot. However, that episode showed the truth, of that not being the case, that there were a complicated set of events which transpired to set him up as both dead in the past and yet alive in the future. I feel like I'm rather underselling parts of the setting, in particular, the prophetic visions that are commonplace. Future-sight is a common aspect of the setting, and many episodes involve trying to figure out the best path. In this setting, visions are not of a definitive future, but of probable futures if following certain paths: "If events unfold as they currently are, then this is what will happen". It doesn't really offer much. Sometimes, the choice is between one unpleasant situation and a worse unpleasant situation; there's no way to abuse the power to find a way around it, and at least a few occasions deal with hard losses taken after making the hard choice and losing, but losing less than the other hard choice. But needless to say. I absolutely LOVED the idea. It was beautiful. |
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