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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit MACLUNKY -- The Lit Forum Maclunky Thread, v3

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Point Given , Sep 12, 2015.

  1. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    None of those sound right for me. I guess there are no Jellos in Canada.


    Missa ab iPhona mea est.
     
  2. Ulicus

    Ulicus Lapsed Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2005
    MRW I'm a "bro".

     
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  3. CT-867-5309

    CT-867-5309 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jan 5, 2011
    Yep.

    Like Filoni, I'm a one man wolf pack. Except he's much older than I am. And has more chest hair. And also I don't keep a beard or wear a beanie unless it's really cold.
     
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  4. Daneira

    Daneira Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 30, 2016
    News like this makes me upset that we've really dropped the ball on the space program. What does a habitable system 40 light years away mean when we can't even colonize the moon or Mars, and every time they try to resupply the ISS, the shuttle can't even get off the ground?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  5. King of Alsakan

    King of Alsakan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2007
    I am involved in the industry and yeah it can be very frustrating. What keeps me going is my hope that one day humans will get to explore this big universe, and get to settle and live on a planet of their choosing just like many of the sci-fi works we love so much.
     
  6. Zeta1127

    Zeta1127 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Retiring the Space Shuttle before a replacement program, Orion, was ready, was probably the most disappointing thing NASA ever did.
     
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  7. Ghost

    Ghost Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2003
    Bush at least had a plan to get us back on the Moon in 2014, and to Mars by 2018.

    Then it became Moon 2018, Mars 2030.

    Then it was scrapped.



    I know, budget deficits, lets' see what SpaceX and other private companies can do, etc. But I won't believe a "return to the Moon" or "land on Mars" timeframe again unless it's within 4 years.
     
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  8. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012

    Makes me think of the Hosnian system in TFA - that had planets extremely close together as well.
     
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  9. Amon_Amarth

    Amon_Amarth Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2005
    Tides on those planets must be tremendous. (Provided they have liquid water on the surface.)
     
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  10. Revanfan1

    Revanfan1 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 3, 2013
    That would be my concern about whether or not they are liveable: the potential for extreme flooding. Of course the idea of living on a distant planet is centuries away, but hey. One can dream.
     
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  11. Karl0413

    Karl0413 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 11, 2015
    New Stellaris dev diary:

    Government Rework (Free Feature)
    With the focus of Banks and Utopia being ethics, internal politics and empire customization, we felt it would be remiss of us not to put in some work in regards to governments. While the old government grid worked alright to give you a broad range of governments to pick from, they were a bit lackluster, not very well balanced and I rarely felt that the government I picked truly corresponded to my own idea of what my empire's society was like. To address all of these issues at once we decided to go back to the drawing board and redo the way governments are constructed completely. In Banks, instead of picking from a preconfigured government, you build your own from Authority and Civics.

    The Authority determines how power is transfered in your government. The different Authorities are:
    Democratic: A ruler is democratically elected every 10 years.
    Oligarchic: A ruler is elected every 40 to 50 years.
    Dictatorial: Rulers are elected but rule for life.
    Imperial: Rulers rule for life and are succeeded by appointed heirs on death.

    In all systems that involve elections, leaders will be elected from the different Factions in your country, and electing a ruler of a particular Faction will significantly strengthen the political clout of that faction and the attraction of their related ethics, so be careful about letting a Xenophile take charge of your Supremacist Empire!
    [​IMG]

    The Civics represent the political and social traditions of your government, and come in a wide variety of types, primarily limited by your authority and ethics. In addition to providing modifiers, they can also change how your empire is governed. For example, the Citizen Service Civic ties citizenship to military service, so that only species with Full Military Service are afforded the right to vote and become leaders. On empire creation, you can choose two Civics, with a third able to be unlocked later through research.
    [​IMG]

    With a few exceptions (more on that below), Civics and Authorities are not necessarily permanent. Where previously you could change your government type for 250 influence, you now have the option to effectively rebuild your government at the same cost. By using the 'Reform Government' button in the government screen, you can add and remove Civics and change Authority from among the picks available to your ethics. As your Ethics and Authority change, you may end up with Civics that are no longer valid for you country - for example a 'Beacon of Liberty' that has lost its Egalitarian ethics. When this happens, the Civic in question will remain, but will become 'inactive' and stop providing you with any sort of bonus, effectively a wasted Civic slot until you reform your government and replace it.
    [​IMG]

    From the Authority, Civics and Ethics you pick, a Government Name is finally generated. The Government Name is purely there to roughly summarize the government you have built, as well as provide flavor, and has no actual impact on gameplay.
    [​IMG]

    Advanced Civics (Paid Feature)
    In addition to the normal Civics available to everyone, there are also a few special Civics that are only available to those with the Utopia expansion. These Civics are meant to simulate very specific kinds of societies and generally have more of an impact on your game than the normal Civics do. They are as follows:
    • Syncretic Evolution: Your species evolved along with another, subservient species. A second species is randomly generated on your homeworld replacing some of your primary species' Pops. They always have the Proles (rebalanced in Banks) and Strong traits, making them excellent soldiers and workers but less ideal for intellectual pursuits. This Civic provides no additional benefits and cannot be removed once picked.
    • Mechanist: Your species is obsessed with the pursuit of robotics. This Civic requires you to be Materialist and has you start with the Robotic Workers and Powered Exoskeletons technologies and a population of worker robots to do the farming and mining for you, replacing some of your primary species' Pops. This Civic provides no additional benefits and cannot be removed once picked.
    • Fanatic Purifiers: Your empire will not tolerate the existance of any other sentient life. This Civic requires you to be Fanatic Xenophobe/Militarist and gives very large boosts to the effectiveness of your military and gives you Unity from purging Xeno Pops, but disables all diplomacy with other species and forces all Xeno Pops in your empire to be purged (though you get to choose the method of extermination). All other regular empires will also have a massive relations malus with you, the one and only exception being Fanatic Purifiers from the same species.
    [​IMG]

    Hive Minds (Paid Feature)
    In addition to the Advanced Civics, those with the Utopia expansion also get access to a unique Authority with a highly unique playstyle: the Hive Mind. Hive Minds are species where the individuals are all part of the same, vast, psionically linked consciousness. The Immortal Hive Mind rules absolutely over the population of non-sentient worker drones, using sentient 'Autonomous Drones' (Leaders) to extend the reach of its will. Picking the Hive Mind Authority requires the Hive Mind Ethic and each can only be picked together with the other: With only one, vast and linked consciousness, the guiding values of a Hive Mind is whatever the Hive Mind player wants it to be. They have their own set of Civics that can only be used by Hive Minds, and cannot use any non-Hive Mind Civics.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    All Pops from the founder species of a Hive Mind will have the Hive-Minded trait. Hive-Minded Pops are not affected by Happiness and will never form Factions, allowing Hive Minds to completely ignore internal politics... though this comes as a cost, as they also cannot benefit from the Influence boost and other benefits provided by happy Factions in a regular empire. As Hive Minds rely completely on their ability to communicate psionically with the drone population, they are also unable to rule over non Hive-Minded Pops, and any such Pops in your empire will automatically be killed over time and processed into food to feed the Hive. Similarly, Hive-Minded pops that end up in non Hive Mind empires will be cut off from the Hive and will perish over time. The only way to integrate Pops between Hive Minds and non-Hive Minds is to use the Biological Ascension Path to unlock advanced gene modding and modify them by adding or removing Hive-Minded (more on this in the next dev diary). However, Hive Minds can still coexist with other species: They have full access to diplomacy and can have non-Hive Mind subjects (and can be ruled over as subjects in turn), though non-Hive Mind empires tend to be somewhat distrustful of Hive Minds on first contact.
    [​IMG]

    While Hive Minds are psionic by nature, the way they function and their connection to the Shroud is radically different from that of regular psychics, making them unable to follow the Psionic Ascension Path. Furthermore, Hive Minds are deeply biological entities, and fundamentally incompatible with the Synthetic Ascension Path. They are however perfectly suited for the Biological Ascension Path, and can make use of it to assimilate other, non-Hive Mind species into the Hive as described above.

    That's all for today! Next week we'll be talking about the Biological and Synthetic Ascension Paths. See you then!
     
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  12. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Weird definition for Imperial but hereditary government is the way to go, so.


    Missa ab iPhona mea est.
     
  13. BobaMatt

    BobaMatt TFN EU Staff star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Aug 19, 2002
    [​IMG]

    FEED ME, SEYMOUR!
     
  14. Ulicus

    Ulicus Lapsed Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2005
    On the subject of shilling being a dedicated fan who is totally not on their payroll, no sir, for Paradox.

     
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  15. jSarek

    jSarek VIP star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2005
    The idea of an actual place with real-world Al Williamson starscapes in its skies blows my mind.
     
  16. Karl0413

    Karl0413 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 11, 2015

    And a couple of the civics they revealed seem right up your alley, like this one: Aristocratic Elite (not a democracy) -50% governor cost and +4 leader capacity.


    Though I think Nick's going to go for things like Beacon of Liberty or Free Haven or Idealistic Foundation.
     
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  17. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
  18. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2004
  19. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
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  20. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Ulicus most importantly, new hats. I might play as a Norman or German for once, now!

    Nick is absurd though, so that makes sense.

    I saw the democratic civics on the dev diary -- I didn't notice aristocratic elite. That's very useful! I never have enough governors and leaders.


    Missa ab iPhona mea est.
     
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  21. AdmiralNick22

    AdmiralNick22 Retired Fleet Admiral star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 28, 2003
    Ooh, I like the sound of "Beacon of Liberty!" [face_love]

    Aristocratic elite is pretty much perfect for Jay. If he can have a bunch of stuffy aristocrats with hats, nobility, and a monarch, he'll be in heaven.

    --Adm. Nick
     
  22. Dr. Steve Brule

    Dr. Steve Brule Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 7, 2012
    New Samurai Jack clip looks great. Actually reminds me a bit of his Clone Wars run here with the lancer droids.

     
  23. spicer

    spicer Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 14, 2012
    Really looking forward to this!
     
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  24. Revanfan1

    Revanfan1 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 3, 2013

    Obi-Wan jousting in clone armor was just about my favorite thing ever when that series first aired. (Though it seems extremely silly in retrospect that clones and droids with high-tech weapons would fight with jousts, it still plays out pretty fun.) Actually...just changed my avatar yesterday, but...
     
  25. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Ah, how I missed this show and it's aspect ratio shenanigans.
     
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