It's possible the mining scanner will also detect player placed voxels and elements. It's possible there will be a separate scanner for constructs.
But even if those two things don't work, there's more than one way to approach the problem. You can't just put the TCU into the ground and call it invulnerable.
You'll obviously have some kind of surface access to get to the TCU. Second, TCUs will be extremely expensive to set up and operate. That means supply lines. So an obvious solution would be to set up a blockade to shut it down.
First of all, I'm seriously opposed to any sort of timer system. Been there done that with EVE and it's simply no fun. EVE only has it in the first place because the nature of the game requires it. DU can and should avoid creating that sort of system because it's absolutely obnoxious and is easily abused, and I think I expressed my opinion on the matter rather well in this post.
So, overall, I would oppose any and all timer-based systems because they're silly, annoying, and actually encourage griefing (such as setting off timers just to get people to show up, then blue-balling them). Furthermore, they divide the community into groups based on timezones, with various timezones not competing at all because of how the timer system prevents them from attacking in their enemies downtime. Then there's those groups in EVE that win conflicts simply because they have people who can log on in the middle of the night with no consequences. I've been on the receiving end of that, and its incredibly frustrating to lose territory simply because your opponent's pilots don't have families or jobs, and so they can log in at 4 AM and spend hours sieging your towers, and you just have to let them. Timer mechanics encourage this type of nasty behavior, and it's bad for the game overall. I'm much prefer a weak asset protection system that forces people to work together and protect each other in their down-times.
That being said, I totally support the idea of having to conquer hexes "inward", because it will provide some sort of protection and will turn conflicts into prolonged wars, rather than lighting strikes at critical infrastructure. However, that's going to require some serious ground rules, because currently you can place a TCU anywhere. So, what's to stop an org from placing their outer TCUs on the very edge of the hex, and then building huge defense turrets right across the border in an adjacent hex that would be totally immune to damage? That's completely broken, so any such system would mandate that TCUs be placed more centrally in the hex.
Regardless, you prevent greifing and pointless wars by making it take serious investments of resources and time to take a territory, not by implementing arbitrary timers that say when people are "allowed" to fight. Such a system goes against the very nature of PvP and the open-world experience.
Edit: I'm also very against the idea of war declarations, for many of the same reasons already mentioned, and because they're restrictive and contrary to the very nature of an open-world game. There should be no arbitrary gateways for PvP in a single-shard, open world game.
Indeed, there is really no more need for this kind of discussion. NQ has pretty clearly laid out how they want to proceed with monetization, and even though they are borrowing from EVE's system, enough of DU is wildly different form EVE that I don't think this is really going to be an issue. Even at release, there is no way that the player population will be able to support players (plural) injecting $200 worth of DAC into the market at a time and still value the DAC highly as a commodity. We have no idea how much quanta will actually be floating around, or how easy it will be to get given that its introduction to the market will be carefully restricted. NPC's will not be a bottomless supply of money in DU, that makes it pretty much impossible to compare the two game's economies, especially since the DU economy hasn't formed yet.
Plus DU has to go through alpha AND beta before DAC's even exist in the economy. Whole versions of the game will be playable without the impact of DAC's whatsoever.
Given that Quanta will not be readily available, and that we don't really know what the capacity will be for the NPC traders to distribute quanta, I suspect that DAC's will likely be traded for raw or finished goods instead, or as payment for a fulfilled contract. *mostly* I suspect it'll boil down to DAC's being traded for time not spent mining/refining material. I suspect that the players that are willing to inject money into DAC's as a currency will be using it to "catch up" to players who have more free time, probably professionals and/or people with a family or other hobbies (like myself).
Now that being said, this has been discussed to death, but there isn't going to be a way to form a valid argument that the monetization scheme is somehow bad for players without any good data. DU is different enough from EVE that data from EVE is bad data.
PDF here
Dark Renaissance
By Velenka, member of the Dual Universe Community
Prelude
September 2022, at Integrated Solutions and Research main offices
“That’s an intriguing idea. Got anything else? Maybe some Unobtanium?” Dr. Steven Lockley said to his coworker Ellena. Steven turned from his desk to look at her, grinning teasingly.
“Very funny. I’m being serious here. Check out the structure. See how it’s being reinforced here and here?” Ellena held open her design notebook and pointed at a diagram. Steven took the notebook for a closer look.
“Yeah. I admit, it’s pretty clever. You should do the math on it. See if there’s anything noteworthy there.”
“I already have. My math shows that it’s incredibly hard, much harder than steel. Stronger too, and it’s half the density. Not only that, but—“
“Not only that? What, there’s more?” Steven began flipping pages.
“Yes, I’m getting to it. As you can see, it looks like the Kempston factor is pretty high. In fact I calculated that it’s so much so that it’s surpassed the Kempston criteria.”
“What? No, there’s no way, you must have made a mistake.” Steven looked amazed.
“I didn’t. I checked myself five times. Here, look.” Ellena pointed at her calculations. Steven flipped through a few more pages. He took a minute to look through each of the figures.
“Well I’m no expert but—“
“Ha! I told you.”
Steven continued forcefully. “But you should have this examined by someone who knows what they’re doing. Someone like—“
“Like Karen Graham?” Ellena smiled coyly. “Yes. In fact, I’ve already invited her to come up. She said that she was also fascinated by the idea, although she also seems to think that I messed up.”
“You probably did, even if I don’t see it.”
“Yeah, we’ll see.” Ellena took back her notebook. She pointed it at him. “If this isn’t fake, this could change everything.”
“So could cold fusion, but that doesn’t mean it’s real.”
“Bad example since it’s impossible theoretically. This isn’t. I’m sure about it. After all, can you imagine all the uses for a substance which is impervious to gravitons?”
“Many and impressive, I’m sure,” said Steven sarcastically as he turned back to his desk and continued his work.
“You got that right. In fact I just thought of something right now.”
“Oh yeah? What would that be?”
“I’d build a telescope.”
“A telescope?” Steven stopped working again and looked up at her. “Really? Is that the best idea you can come up with? Something like this, manned space travel might finally be possible.”
“Sure, but where would you know where to go without a telescope?”
“I see your point. Well, since you’ve discovered it, what are you going to call it?”
“Hmm. I guess kyrium would be a little lame wouldn’t it,” Ellena said, half asking and half telling.
Steven raised an eyebrow. “You think? Please don’t call it that, it’s really really lame.”
“Well since you asked nicely… kyrium it is,” said Dr. Ellena Kyriat in an almost entirely false assertive tone.
November 2024, at KLABS’ research facility
“Well? What’s it say?” Ellena asked impatiently.
“Hold on, it’s still working. There. Here we go.” Dr. Karen Graham said with a hint of anticipation. Steven and Ellena grouped around her. “The result of the mass spectroscopy says… negative for kyrium.”
“Damn! I could have sworn it would work this time. We corrected for everything now and –“ said Ellena, frustrated and angry.
“Just kidding Ellena. It worked! It’s kyrium. Congratu—“ teased Karen.
“Oh you had me there.”
“Can you blame her for getting a laugh? Anyway, congratulations Dr. Ellena Kyriat! You have successfully invented the first Kempston positive material known to man. You’ve been an obsessive slave-driver ever since you left Integrated Solutions and Research two years ago and started up KLABS to formally investigate kyrium. Now, here we are,” Steven reminisced.
“The next question is, what are you going to do with it?” Karen asked, beating Steven to the punch.
“Good question. I’m not sure.” “The whole world is waiting to hear what happens next.” “I know, I know. I’m thinking. It’s hard to say.”
“Come on, you must want to do something. Even if it’s something silly. As we’ve seen, we can make more, even if it is extremely difficult and expensive,” Steven not so subtly encouraged.
“Good point. Maybe we can work on making the process less so. But I have just had an idea. My first idea, actually. Why not make a telescope?” “Really? This again? You were serious?” Steven questioned with a sense of playful suspicion.
“You know how much I like science fiction. Wouldn’t it be something extraordinary to discover extraterrestrial life?”
“After creating kyrium? I think you’ve had enough success for one lifetime,” Karen joked.
“No, no. I’ve got a friend working for the Space Telescope Science Institute using the James Webb Space Telescope. After he sees this, he’s gonna lose his mind. They would love to get a new module thousands of times more sensitive up there.”
“Maybe, or maybe you’re just being far too optimistic. There’s been no practical tests done yet, and there’s still much more to do.” Karen put down the printed analysis results and turned off the mass spectrometer. “Especially with the—,” Karen turned back towards Ellena. But Ellena missed the rest of Karen’s speech since she was already walking out of the lab with her phone in hand.
April 16th 2027 Space Telescope Science Institute, Operations Center for the JWST
“Picking up something strange,” said Woldt with a curious look on her face.
“What?” asked her colleague, Barrick a little too enthusiastically. This could be their first major discovery using the new telescope module.
“We’re getting local interference,” Barrick waited a few moments for Woldt to find it. “It’s coming from right ascension 21 hours 26 minutes 26.662 seconds and declination plus 19 degrees 22 minutes 32.304 seconds. Incredibly bright.”
“Record the emission spectrum.”
“I know, I’m already doing it. Here it is.” She printed off the spectrum and handed it to him.
He looked at it. “Yeah, give me a sec.” Barrick looked up the spectrum on his computer. “Looks like that’s coming from HR 8210, a binary system.”
“It’s gone dark.”
“Has it? Back to normal?”
“No it’s gone completely dark. Wait, no. It’s something else. Take another reading.” Woldt took ten seconds to get another reading. Barrick checked it again.
“Looks like a neutron star,” Barrick said with an interested tone.
“Was that a supernova?”
“Probably. IK Pegasi A is—actually was from the looks of this—was the closest supernova progenitor candidate. The spectrum makes it look like a type Ia supernova, which matches the database. It’s going on the watchlist. We’ll wait and see if anything happens.”
Ten days later
“It’s officially confirmed now. It’s traveling extremely fast,” said Barrick worryingly to the caller on his phone.
“How fast?” he asked.
“Since the supernova, it’s been traveling at nearly twenty five percent the speed of light.”
“And when you say that it’s coming toward us, exactly how close?”
“Direct collision course,” Barrick said regretfully.
“Jesus Christ. I’m… I’ve… I gotta go.” He hung up. Barrick let out a long sigh.
“Lincoln?” Woldt was worried.
“Apparently it’s worse than he had hoped.”
“He?”
“I was just on the phone with the US Secretary of State. He said they needed more information.”
“They?”
“Apparently the Secretary attended the emergency joint assembly of the UN. I hate being the bearer of bad news.”
“I feel sorry for you… and the rest of the world. What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know. But we will do something. We have to do something,” Barrick trailed off, hoping for an answer to come to him.
Convergence
June 6th 2027, Manhattan, sixth emergency joint assembly of the UN
“No, I’m afraid that even with the entire current stockpile of warheads plus the expected amount of fissile material left in the ground, there just won’t be enough fuel for a Project Orion type evacuation. I’m sorry,” announced the man at the podium. The man retired, while the speaker of the joint assembly returned to the spotlight.
“We are sorry as well, Doctor. I will now reopen the floor to the rest of the council chamber. Have there been any breakthroughs anywhere?” The speaker sees that a hand is raised. “The US council member wishes to speak. Go ahead.”
“I have been reluctant to mention this until now, but as we see now, there is little choice. There is a new and experimental material—“
Groans and sighs could be heard from the crowd. The Council members had heard plenty of “new and experimental” solutions over the past several weeks, of which none had been even within the realm of possibility.
The US council member continued. “—called kyrium. It has some rather impressive properties, but the most important is that it is ‘impervious to gravitons.’ Now, I realize none of us are physicists, but I have been told that this is very revolutionary and it could be the key to our salvation. I suggest that we send a delegation to the creators of this substance, a research institute called KLABS, and inquire as to exactly what we could do with it.”
Although the reception of this idea did not go well at all, the joint assembly still voted unanimously to send a delegation to KLABS. It’s not really a mystery because when one has no options, one becomes rather desperate.
Three days later, at KLABS’ research facility
Seven council members were chosen as the delegation sent to KLABS. Their names were Diego Armiger, Amira Buccheri, Phoebe Cantos, Edra Kampf, Alojzy Skalicky, Cyrstal Zavaleta, and Thaddeus Zemke. The seven delegates were shown into the small facility’s only conference room. Inside was a table for twelve, a projector and whiteboard.
“Welcome, and thank you all for coming. We have prepared a presentation which should explain the major properties and obvious applications. Please direct your attention to our projector screen,” Steven introduced. The presentation lasted for 15 minutes and explained the basic nature of kyrium and its relationship with gravitons.
“This concludes our prepared presentation, are there any questions?” One delegate spoke up immediately.
“So if kyrium is impervious to gravitons…” Zavaleta began.
“Yes…” replied Steven.
“Couldn’t it protect us from the neutron star if we were to construct shelters using it?”
“Not practically. The only way to accomplish that would be to build a shell around the entire Earth.”
“Could you produce enough kyrium in time to—“
“No. I had the same thought. There’s not enough time or resources for a project of such magnitude.”
“What about evacuation? Build space ships to evacuate Earth?” Cantos inquired.
“Theoretically and practically possible perhaps. But there is one big issue. There’s nowhere to go. Neither the enhanced James Webb Space Telescope nor any other has found life on any other planet. Eventually everyone would just eventually die floating into the void of space,” Steven replied again.
“But with cryo stasis?”
“Yes, cryo stasis could preserve people in ships in space, but there’s still the issue of nowhere to go. They wouldn’t be able to wake up.”
“Perhaps we could take initiative. Could a bomb or other device be made using kyrium to divert or destroy the neutron star?” Buccheri solicited.
Steven paused for a few moments. “That’s a fascinating idea. I think my team and I could discuss—“Steven began until Ellena interrupted.
“No, it won’t work.”
“OK” Steven under his breath. “Got a better idea?” Her silence was deafening.
“You have worked with this stuff for how long now? There must be some way to apply it here,” demanded Kampf.
“Well I have a rather unorthodox idea. Not sure you’ll like it,” Ellena offered.
“Better than nothing,” Cantos retorted.
“Wormholes,” said Ellena, almost definitively.
“Wormholes?” Steven asked incredulously. The delegates only gave confused or agitated stares.
“Wormholes. I think it might be possible to use kyrium to form a stable Einstein-Rosen bridge.”
“I thought that was only theoretical. Are you saying that you and Ellena--,” Steven almost finished asking.
“Yes. But there’s a problem. Like you said, there’s nowhere to evacuate to,” Karen replied.
“I may not be familiar with these kinds of physics, but you are. Couldn’t we take Earth through one?” Steven asked Karen quietly, while Ellena tried to continue. Karen started to reply but Cantos, having been the closest, had made out some of the words, interrupted.
“What did he say?” She asked before Karen could get out three syllables.
“He was asking why we don’t bring the Earth through,” Karen responded reluctantly.
“Well?” Cantos demanded.
“We thought of that weeks ago. The problem with that is the energy required. It takes a lot of energy. The required energy for a wormhole increases exponentially—” Karen
“How much energy?” asked Zemke.
“Suffice it to say, there’s no way we could generate that much energy any time soon,” Ellena said, attempting to lead the diplomat to the answer.
“We can’t? Then who can? Aliens?” Zemke scoffed at the ridiculousness of the proposition.
“No, I’m saying that there are objects which do have a lot of energy, but none within reach.”
“What are these objects?”
“The closest one would be the black hole.”
“A black hole?”
“Not a black hole. The black hole. The supermassive black hole that is at the center of the galaxy.”
“Oh” Zemke said, turning to a curious tone. “Just the black hole?”
“Yes, that’s one issue.”
“There’s others?” Armiger spoke up.
“Yeah, there’s another problem. To actually utilize this energy would require the use of devices. Call them wormhole generators. These devices would have to be placed around the galaxy, surrounding the black hole,” Ellena replied.
“What, really? Is that all? Wouldn’t the time it would take to place the technology out there completely rule this idea out?” Armiger sardonically countered.
“Well—“ Ellena started.
“I’m not a scientist, but I do know that wormholes create tunnels not only through space, but through time. Whatever we send out can take however long it wants then create a wormhole through to the past. What’s wrong with that?” Cantos suggested excitedly.
“That’s all true, but there’s one last problem I haven’t mentioned yet. Devices would have to be placed throughout the galaxy to create the exit of the wormhole, harnessing the power of the supermassive black hole. Another set of devices is required around the entrance of the wormhole, also requiring another power source. Albeit, the power source required would be much less intensive—“
“Great!” Zemke responded.
Ellena tried to ignore the interruption. “—but will need to be much closer to the entrance. And, no matter how much we try or how close we place the entrance, Earth still can’t collectively generate that much power for such a large wormhole.”
“But it’s possible in the future, generating that much energy might not be impossible,” Steven offered.
“Maybe, but the UN needs a solution now. And we need to start planning for whatever it is as soon as possible or run the chance of being caught with our pants down.” Skalicky warned.
“Why don’t we use the neutron star, Doctor?” Cantos asked.
“Excuse me?” Karen wasn’t quite sure what Cantos was asking.
“She’s asking why don’t we use it to power the entrance, just like the black hole powers the exit,” clarified Steven.
“I thought of that too, but that’s where another flaw in this plan is: we would have to allow the neutron star to come perilously close to Earth to make it work. The neutron star would already be too close,” acknowledged Karen.
“But like I said before, just put the entrance further back in time, before the neutron star even approaches,” Cantos prodded.
“Yes, we could do that.” Ellena responded, surprised at Cantos not being appalled by her own suggestion of the neutron star’s proximity.
“Any assistance or materials you need are yours.” Cantos volunteered.
“Hold on!” Skalicky gave Cantos a silencing stare. “Even if these technical issues are sorted out—they are sorted out?” questioned Skalicky. There was nodding from the three scientists. “Even then, there are still major issues to work though, all having to do with public opinion. And we would need public opinion on our side for a project of this scale. Right?”
“Yes, we would need hundreds, perhaps thousands of wormhole probes for this to work. We’ve estimated that the required man-hours and material would surpass every project taken on by humanity, ever. Combined.” Steven said to Skalicky.
“Precisely. A large majority of the planet’s population would have to work on this undertaking. Next, what you’re proposing seems utterly ridiculous. Beyond the realm of possibility,” Skalicky said dismissively.
“No, we’re fairly certain about this.”
“That may be, but no one else can be as certain. No one else in the entire world will believe you. Or us, if we were to suggest this course of action. Everyone would believe that our proposal was too good to be true, that we were selling false hope in the face of an impassable adversity and then we would lose support. Another issue I see is, I have just noticed that the kind of time travel you are suggesting is impossible. It creates a…” He looked down at his mobile phone. “Grandfather Paradox?”
“It may very well create a paradox. Theoretically, a paradox like that could exist. It makes no sense to the human mind, but the universe is capable of dealing with it,” Ellena replied.
“Okay… Well…” He put his phone away. “The next problem I see is that this solution involves saving everything and everyone all at once.”
Ellena had a very confused expression on her face. “Yes, what’s wrong with that?” Ellena asked indignantly.
“Because if it fails, then everything and everyone will die as well. You’d have us put all our eggs in the same basket. Finally, we won’t even know if it will work until we activate it. And as you say, we can’t activate it until the neutron star is right on top of us. If it doesn’t work, we won’t have time to try anything else.”
“I agree those are some major issues, but isn’t there anything your delegation or the UN can do about that?” Ellena requested.
“Like I said before, I don’t think we’ll be able to convince the world that time travel is real. And nobody would get behind a plan that wants us to do nothing until the neutron star is about to hit.”
“If you can’t tell the truth then obviously you have to lie.”
“Ellena?” Steven muttered discreetly, looking a little worried.
“Lie to the whole world? It might work for the duration of the speech, but eventually the world would eventually be able to find the truth, that there would be no evacuation. No, we need a viable alternative.” Skalicky responded.
“You could have both,” Ellena stated, ignoring Steven.
“Both? Do you have another idea?” asked Cantos curiously.
“Yes, I have just had a rather fascinating idea.”
“Well?” she asked promptly.
“Evacuation.” Ellena smiled.
“That’s been discussed just now and you dismissed it. What’s changed?”
“I suggest we evacuate people across the galaxy.”
“To where exactly? I haven’t seen any extraterrestrial life discovered on any extraplanets.”
“That’s exoplanets. To answer your question: the same locations that we would send the wormhole devices.”
“But why would—” Cantos stopped herself after having a slight realization. “What are you thinking Doctor?”
“I think that if we take Dr. Graham’s suggestion and combine it with an evacuation plan, this could resolve the aforementioned issues.” Ellena gestured towards Skalicky.
“You think we should evacuate but lie about it? How, exactly, should we do that?” interjected Skalicky.
“She’s thinking that we should build the probes but call them evacuation ships. Right, Doctor?” Cantos asked after fully having Ellen’s epiphany.
“That would work until people realized what was going on. There sure would be a lot of angry people and no plan afterwards,” retorted Skalicky.
“No. That’s not what I mean, don’t you see? We build legitimate evacuation ships, but embedded within would be the wormhole generators,” Ellena countered.
Skalicky took a moment to contemplate Ellena’s idea. “Your idea has its merits. We save people. We take an active role in saving as many as possible, while minimizing the risk of total annihilation as much as possible. Yes, I like it, but only because it’s the only option. It is by far better than anything we’ve heard in the UN’s joint assemblies in a long time.”
There were nodding agreements from the rest of the delegation.
“But if this is to succeed, we must become the keepers of an absolute secret. No one but us and those we trust to help can know about this. Not even the UN,” Skalicky continued.
The seven delegates and three scientists engaged in an active discussion lasting several hours. They agreed that the public and even the UN should be kept in the dark. They formed a committee to handle their plan for the next five hundred years. They called themselves the Rising Ashes Committee, and the plan, the Phoenix Initiative.
Ellena and her associates filled in their fellow committee members on more intimate details concerning the potential for wormhole generators, kyrium, and space flight. In return, the former delegates explained what was and was not feasible with a massive cover-up as well as coordinating logistics with such a large scale technical project. Of course, this discussion wouldn’t be enough to last for 500 years’ worth of action. They realized this and it became part of their plan to adapt to any changes as they came along.
Over the years, more and more pieces came together. The Committee lied to the UN; the original delegation sent from the UN returned with the plan to evacuate to “newly discovered exoplanets with life.” They maneuvered the UN into beginning the Rebirth Program, with some of the Committee members heading it up. The Program worked with KLABS to create the arkships: one part evacuation and secretly, one part wormhole generator. KLABS received a rather large subsidiary from the Program to bring the Phoenix Initiative to fruition, enabling them to continue working on all aspects of the arkships, clandestine activities included.
Only one problem arose in the interim. KLABS eventually discovered an issue in synchronizing all arkships once they were in position. The problem was easily fixable for a human, but not manageable by the AI or any other automated computer system. The Committee decided that rather than organize an new effort to solve the computer problem, they would send someone to initiate synchronization across all arkships. They simply called this person the Initiator. The only problem left to them was to choose the Initiator.
Consolidation
November 23rd 2525, Official Rising Ashes Committee meeting
The Committee members here were Munro Eideard, Keira Erikson, Branden Foxwell, Xiuying Hai, Augustus Hartjen, Raphael Locke, Bohuslava Lyubov, Anastasia Odalis, Merrill Wyrick, and Désiré Zikmund. Here was a meeting hall, which was booked for one time and one time only. Keeping such random meeting places always made it easier to prevent surveillance. The ten members were about to begin another annual rendezvous.
“I’d like to welcome you all to the 498th annual assembly. As always, the first item on the agenda is an update on the Pegasus Initiative as well as the Rebirth Program as its secondary objective. Doctor Odalis, the floor is yours,” opened Hartjen, the current Committee assembly leader.
“Thank you. The skeletal reinforcing structures in the arkships were completed earlier this year, only three months behind schedule. Construction on the outer hull and spike for every arkship is mostly finished, with a handful already completed. Electrical and life support systems are all in place and are currently being integrated,” Odalis informed the other Committee members.
“And the wormhole generators? We are growing more and more worried each year the generators get delayed. Have they been fully checked out yet?” Locke inquired.
“We actually have made some progress there. It was discovered that the thing holding us back were the tolerances in the sheathing of the gravimetric phase conduits. They weren’t up to the task, so the engineers had to fabricate entirely new ones. As of May, all wormhole generators have gotten the thumbs up from every expert. They are ready to be installed,” Odalis answered.
“Good, good. What’s left?” Locke continued forward.
“As far as the Rebirth Program is concerned, the colonist devices being developed by various contractors are almost ready to come out of the prototype stage,” Odalis replied.
“They’re still in the prototype stage? Wow,” Lyubov remarked.
“Yeah, they’re way behind. Aside, from that, the only thing they’re working on right now is the lottery. They are developing the logistics on that,” Odalis replied.
“Alright then. Thank you Dr. Odalis. Zikmund, you have the floor to speak about the matter of the Initiator,” Hartjen said.
“Thank you, Hartjen. I have finally finished sorting through all of the Committee’s proposed choices and I’ve narrowed it down to two candidates, who our sources have vetted, and whose thoughts and opinions definitely drift our way. The first is Alisha Palmer, a coordinator currently working for the UN.”
“Yes, we should all recognize the name. She was the one who finally suggested the new colony technology infrastructure after realizing that the traditional approach wouldn’t work,” informed Foxwell.
“Exactly. She was investigated shortly thereafter. Being a scientist by profession, she eventually invented replacement technology, the nanopack and the nanoformer. She’s an excellent candidate,” Zikmund commented.
“And the other?”
“The other is decidedly younger, but just as appealing, if not more. His name is Allen Tainia. He’s currently working for the UN. His recent actions have prompted us to take a closer look. In 2520, he quite successfully defused seven potential large-scale riots across the globe. In April 2522, FEMA recruited him to help organize massive logistics for the protection of the Rebirth Program. He began by engaging in a two year reorganization effort of all advanced kyrium transportation routes to avoid much of the active sabotage with little decrease in efficiency.”
“Impressive.”
“It goes on. After he solved the transportation crisis, he was recruited by the UN to head a special project with the Rebirth Program to try to reduce as much sabotage as possible. He’s made incredible headway into stopping it as much as possible. Tainia is still working with that project now.”
“Very impressive. This sounds like our guy.”
“I agree. As impressive as Ms. Palmer is, Mr. Tainia shines a little brighter.”
“Well then, I call a vote for the Initiator. All in favor of Mr. Tainia being recruited for the Initiator?” Hartjen asked. Seven hands raised, including his own.
“Majority clearly rules. Mr. Allen Tainia will be the Initiator,” said Hartjen.
“So curious that we should even need one. Has everything been accounted for on the Initiator’s arkship?” Munro asked.
“Everything is in place and currently being integrated. All of the advanced supplies and materials will be ready for the Initiator,” answered Wyrick.
“Excellent. If there are no more matter of deliberation, then I declare this meeting adjourned,” Hartjen finished.
Night of November 25th, home of Allen Tainia
“And you want me to join this secret cult of yours?” Tainia asked sarcastically. He was sitting on a couch opposite Doctor Odalis. They had chosen to have a discussion over a cup of coffee in his living quarters.
“It’s not a cult. Not to you. And it’s not entirely mine, either,” replied Odalis.
“I’m still not sure I believe you.”
“Well, take a look at these, then get back to me. Proof that I have not been joking or lying.” She tossed him a small data drive.
He caught it and held it up to the light to look at it. “What’s this?”
“It’s a record of all of almost all of our meetings, since the Committee was founded nearly 500 years ago.”
“Almost?”
“We have included a fairly accurate transcription of the very first meeting, the one which founded the Committee. It wasn’t recorded, so the original members attempted to recreate it in the transcript.”
“I see. And you think that this will convince me?” He placed the data drive on a nearby table.
“I’m sure of it.”
“Suppose I believe you but I don’t want to help you.”
“Well I know that’s not true. Your actions speak louder than any denials of yours. Besides, you know you could do a lot of good working with us.”
“I suppose. And what was it you said you wanted me to do? Initialize something?”
“Initiator. It’s a big responsibility. You’ll learn more about that if you decide to join us.”
“I don’t know about this.”
“Sleep on it. Let me know in the morning. I’ll be at the motel down the street.” Tainia used most of the night to contemplate before finally giving in to his sense of righteousness, pride, and of course, curiosity.
January 14th 2527, Space Telescope Science Institute, Operations Center for the JWST
“Read off the chemical composition again,” insisted Derring.
“33% Oxygen 65% Nitrogen. Less than .5% CO2,” responded Mika.
“No toxic stuff?”
“Can’t tell. Even if it was, the concentration is pretty low.”
“Wow. So close to Earth’s atmosphere.”
“I know right. But it gets better. Approximate temperature of DF-833 ranges from -23 to 39 degrees C.”
“Oh my God. We’ve finally found one. A real one. A planet with life!”
“Whoa, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s possible that it might not have life.”
“Don’t be a downer. Look at its star. It’s a very stable G-type main sequence star. Very similar to the sun. Our sun.” Derring said, each sentence becoming more delighted than the last.
“I hope you’re right. I bet the Committee never actually expected that we would find anything.”
“No, I think not. Boy, they sure will be surprised when we tell them the news.”
“We should also send along and update of all the new life-potential candidates,” Mika suggested.
“Yeah, send them everything.”
Three days later, in an urgent meeting of the Committee
“I agree it is spectacular. But do we really need to change anything? We have a solid plan and are almost ready to execute. Changing anything at this point is extremely risky.” Xiuying Hai questioned.
“You might be right. Except for the fact that the only thing being changed is the destinations. That’s all. And our scientists figured that out two centuries ago. It won’t be a problem to factor them in.” Foxwell answered.
“If you say so. But I would like to see some kind of reassurance that this won’t cause any problems.”
“Then let me offer it. Every scientist and engineer who has ever been recruited learns about the selection algorithm. It is remarkable simple, relatively speaking. They could all do it in their sleep if they were so inclined,” consoled Keira Erikson.
“Well, I’ll go along with it as long as I see no issues,” Hai returned.
“Good, that means we can move on to the next point. I suggest that the Initiator’s arkship not be sent to Alioth.” Hartjen proposed.
“Why not? Sending Tainia there seems rather appropriate.” Locke said.
“Well it’s simple really. If we sent an non-equipped Initiator to Alioth, we could send another with the current supplies.” Hartjen continued.
“Ah, yes. Great idea. Who would be our other Initiator? And who would be sent to Alioth?”
“We should get Palmer as a second Initiator, but send Tainia to Alioth. Palmer is a very skilled scientist and should have less issues with the special equipment and training than Tainia. We were almost ready to choose her as the first Initiator anyway,” suggested Lyubov.
“They won’t have to work together, will they?” Locke asked.
“I suppose not, but why would that concern you?”
“Don’t you know? Palmer and Tainia are divorced and I hear it didn’t end well.”
“We could separate their training. Should be easy since it’s the kind you get only once in a lifetime. But as far as not knowing about one another entirely? I don’t know about that.”
“Even if this was a serious issue, I doubt we could find anyone else of high enough caliber in time,” Hai noted.
“We should delay telling Palmer until the last possible moment. Then we should limit their contact and just tell them to get over it. All in favor?” asked Hartjen. Nine hands raised.
“Good. Is there any other topic that needs our attention before we adjourn?” Hartjen asked the Committee. Locke raises his hand.
“Perhaps we should return to the idea of more Initiators.”
“No, we still can’t do that, Locke. The facts still haven’t changed.” Wyrick replied.
“You’re telling me we’re still under strict rationing for the Rebirth Program?” I
“Yes. Apparently they need everything for the latest nanopack improvements. The newly developed kyrium-713 core produces denser Calabi-Yau manifolds and increased the number of K3 spaces by nearly a hundred times, resulting in an increase of effective space by an order of magnitude. They won’t let any material go. In fact, they’re still trying to track down what we have now.”
“I’m still nervous about sending only two Initiators. If they or their ships die, it’s game over.”
“Two is better than one, at least.”
“True, true. We had better inform Tainia there’s been a change in plans. I don’t think he’s going to like the new recruit.”
Divergence
Approximately 12390, three hours until touchdown on Alioth
“Allen Tainia, can you understand me? You have begun the decryonization process. Do you understand?” said a synthesized human female voice.
“Y-y-yessssss,” Allen uttered.
“Allen, you are resting in hibernacle 00AA-Tainia of ark-vessel Novark, built in 2536 by the United Nations. You are currently waking from cryogenic sleep which has lasted for 9854 years, six months, five days, thirteen hours—“ the voice told Allen.
“I g-get it. You’re th-the AI? You have my ex’s voice.”
“I thought it might help you relax. You can call me ‘Aphelia.’ Your temperature is now 35.2 degrees Celsius and rising. Your bodily functions are resuming. In six hours, you will return to normal homeostasis.”
“Yeah, well, cut it out. I got enough of her nagging back when we were still on the same planet.”
“Very well. Is this more acceptable?” The AI changed to a different synthesized voice, one that Allen didn’t recognize.
“I suppose so.”
“I need to check your brain function. I will begin by asking you questions to test your memory.”
“Don’t get too excited.”
“Do you remember how you got here?”
“Yes, I’ve been in cryogenic sleep for almost ten thousand years on this arkship. Now that you’re waking me up, I have to assume we’re about to land, right?”
“And how did you arrive on the arkship?”
“Just going to ignore my question?” He waited a few moments, but got no response. “Fine then. Well, I got on just like everyone else did. I boarded at the same time, with all the others at the entrance platform,” recalled Allen.
“And what were your thoughts at the time?”
“I was looking down at the protest just outside the build site. I wasn’t surprised. This had been going on for the past week. Every site had been mobbed by those who hadn’t been chosen to leave. I felt guilty, but I had little choice. I had responsibilities to take care of.”
“What responsibilities?”
“Nothing” he answered a little too quickly. He modified with “important. After getting picked, I chose to leave for… personal reasons.”
“That response was expected, but it is incorrect.”
“Maybe so, but it’s none of your business.”
“It’s time to begin the simulation. It will prepare you for the expected conditions on Alioth.”
“Direct neural stimulation. I remember what the doctor said. How about we not do that. It sounds danger—“ Allen
Before he could finish his objection, he suddenly felt plunged into another world. The simulation provided him with a fairly accurate estimation of the environment on Alioth. He spent nearly ten days experiencing this induced hallucination, or so he thought. In reality, the stimulation took two weeks. The simulated environment finished regenerating the rest of his brain function, before slowly weaning his brain off the simulation and back into reality. After waking up from what seemed like an incredibly long dream, Aphelia put him back to sleep, to allow him to process his experiences.
“Wake up Allen, it’s time to test your memory,” Aphelia whispered.
“I thought you already did that.”
“That is true, but you are special, Allen. I have been specifically programmed for you.” Allen was shocked. ‘How does the AI know about this?’ he thought.
“I see. They didn’t say anything about you to me.”
“The Rising Ashes Committee ensured that you would have all the assistance you could get.”
“I see. They did have their hands everywhere in the Rebirth Program. I don’t know why I’m so surprised, but I didn’t see any reason for the AI to know so much, especially after being such a late addition.”
“You are not the only one.”
“What? Oh, right. Alisha. Her arkship was modified too?”
“Yes. My instructions were to inform you of my capabilities and to give you all the help I can manage.”
“Capabilities? What exactly do you have to offer me? To help me?”
“My instructions were to give you assistance only under certain circumstances.”
“What circumstances?”
“Some of it is information which is irrelevant at this time. Some of it is additional schematics and blueprints. Since you were chosen to be Initiator on Alioth, assistance in the form of materials or equipment was not brought on board.”
“Irrelevant information? What does irrelevant mean anyway?”
“It is information you cannot use right now. Star charts would be an example of this. I will provide help at the appropriate time.”
“OK then. Is that all?”
“Yes. If you have no more questions, I suggest you hold on.” Then Allen heard louder version of Aphelia who began speaking to the entire ship.
“There are grab rails on the left and right sides of your hibernacles. We are entering the atmosphere. As we descend further down into the atmosphere, the turbulence will increase.” Allen could hear shouting and yelling from other people after the announcement. As promised by Aphelia, the turbulence increased slowly and steadily over the next twenty minutes, but nothing disorienting. What was disorienting was the transition of gravity from the floor to the front of the ship.
“In two minutes, the arkship will impact the ground. The arkship will dig itself in the ground. This process will cause extreme vibrations. Please secure yourselves as much as possible.” Allen took a stronger hold on the railings, his hands and knuckles turning white from the pressure. When arkship struck the ground, it sent a pressure wave through the ship. It slowed, but did not stop its descent. For a painstaking minute, the shaking in the arkship increased from a gentle waking nudging to a violent seizure. It was all Allen, or any other passenger for that matter, could do to hang on to the ship. Some couldn’t, banging around freely in various hibernacle atriums throughout the ship. When it finally ended, the ship became peacefully still, even more so than in space when the ship’s engines generated a low hum.
“We have settled. I suggest you take a look. Climb to the top of the ship and admire the view,” Aphelia said to Allen
“I think I will.” After his journey up to Zenith Terrace, he looked down at the nearby landscape. He saw two rust-colored mountain ranges ahead of him, with a grassy plain open all around the Novark, which led up to the foot of the mountains. To the left, he saw dense blue forests covering the landscape, becoming denser the farther he looked. To the right he saw a more sparse grassland leading to a desert of pink sand in the distance. The binary suns cast the mountains’ looming shadow across the grasslands.
Aphelia said to him, “I have been told that it looks beautiful.”
“Yes, Alioth is...”
“Perfect? I have heard others say that, too.”
“No, I was going to say right.”
“Right? What does that mean in this context?”
“Not important.” He remained for a few more seconds then said, “I’m going to go down, now.”
“Of course, Allen.”
He climbed down from the Terrace, down to the open gangway to the surface of Alioth. He looked out towards the forests again, staring wondrously into the distance.
“Are you ready Allen? Are you ready for all Alioth has to offer?”
“No,” Allen said definitively.
“No? Have I not made you ready?” Aphelia asked with simulated curiosity.
“No, that’s not the question you should be asking, Aphelia,” Allen articulated.
“What is the question?” Aphelia asked with identical curiosity.
“You should be asking if Alioth is ready for me.” Allen told Aphelia confidently. He then began to walk down the gangway down to the surface of Alioth.
“And everything else, Allen? Are you ready for everything else?” Aphelia asked only a little too softly for Allen to hear as he stepped off the gangway.
The wiki should be for two things:
game mechanics, information, data, etc....
player interaction mechanics (like @Vorengard posted above with his examples from EVE)
The wiki should not be for player information: information about specific players, orgs, or alliances. That stuff is for the community site, tools, or what have you.
Something like the measure tool from Solidworks would be great. In Solidworks, the measure tool allows you to select two point, lines, or planes to measure against each other. You can measure the distance between things or even the lengths of lines or areas of planes. I'll even suggest adding measuring volume for 3D selections.
Taking two points will give you the straight line distance, as well as the length along each major axis.
Two lines will give the point of intersection, or the shortest distance between them. (or indicate if parallel)
Two planes will give the angle between them. (or indicate parallel)
And every combination.
@Pang_Dread
I admit the analogy isn't perfect, if only because you misunderstand. Certainly the internet doesn't work that way, but people do. People using a certain subreddit may not understand that there are other subreddits covering the same subject. It's especially true when /r/dualuniverse is actively removing all mentions of /r/dualthegame.
In a game whose foundation is built upon a community, it's incredibly important to keep that community alive, intact, and growing. More so than any other game. Dividing that community, even if done well, is just not a good idea. Wrecking the community could sink the game.
Not just that, but /r/dualuniverse isn't being managed properly. The issue isn't the visual web design or the content (currently), but with the mods there. Yama has tried more than once to contact them about a merger, but so far they have been resistant or unresponsive about it. Mods who go on with a blatant disregard for both the studio and its community is clearly not suited for the job.
And clearly, the effort that yama and others put into /r/dualthegame should not be ignored, so yes, it is very important that /r/dualthegame should become the dominant subreddit.
I also was thinking that there could be spy mapping satellites to get updates on the planetary surface on the map shown in the May DevDiary, and telescopes for detecting planets around other stars. They would be rather s***ty, and it just tells you the orbit and type(Terrestrial? Gas? etc), size, and the average temperature of the planet. To get extra details, we would have to send a probe. Speaking of probes, doesn't there have to be at least one person on ships for control? Say, we could have the probes be automated but is very fragile and cannot be edited, and needs connection by radio.
@Pang_Dread
I admit the analogy isn't perfect, if only because you misunderstand. Certainly the internet doesn't work that way, but people do. People using a certain subreddit may not understand that there are other subreddits covering the same subject. It's especially true when /r/dualuniverse is actively removing all mentions of /r/dualthegame.
In a game whose foundation is built upon a community, it's incredibly important to keep that community alive, intact, and growing. More so than any other game. Dividing that community, even if done well, is just not a good idea. Wrecking the community could sink the game.
Not just that, but /r/dualuniverse isn't being managed properly. The issue isn't the visual web design or the content (currently), but with the mods there. Yama has tried more than once to contact them about a merger, but so far they have been resistant or unresponsive about it. Mods who go on with a blatant disregard for both the studio and its community is clearly not suited for the job.
And clearly, the effort that yama and others put into /r/dualthegame should not be ignored, so yes, it is very important that /r/dualthegame should become the dominant subreddit.
We have two sprinklers watering a lawn:
There's one that's clearly superior. It can spread water further and faster and isn't going to break any time soon. It doesn't leak and is very reliable.
The inferior sprinkler is just terrible: short range, leaky nozzle, grinds gears, taints the water, and looks in bad shape.
But there's a problem: the inferior sprinkler is further up the line than the superior one. The inferior sprinkler is using pretty much all the water and the superior sprinkler is getting barely anything. With no pressure for the better sprinkler, it's unable to shoot much more than a dribble.
As a result, part of lawn is being poisoned and will die. The other part gets no water, and will die. The obvious solution is to get rid of the inferior sprinkler, unfortunately, the line appears to be set in concrete a few inches below the ground.
We have two sprinklers watering a lawn:
There's one that's clearly superior. It can spread water further and faster and isn't going to break any time soon. It doesn't leak and is very reliable.
The inferior sprinkler is just terrible: short range, leaky nozzle, grinds gears, taints the water, and looks in bad shape.
But there's a problem: the inferior sprinkler is further up the line than the superior one. The inferior sprinkler is using pretty much all the water and the superior sprinkler is getting barely anything. With no pressure for the better sprinkler, it's unable to shoot much more than a dribble.
As a result, part of lawn is being poisoned and will die. The other part gets no water, and will die. The obvious solution is to get rid of the inferior sprinkler, unfortunately, the line appears to be set in concrete a few inches below the ground.
We have two sprinklers watering a lawn:
There's one that's clearly superior. It can spread water further and faster and isn't going to break any time soon. It doesn't leak and is very reliable.
The inferior sprinkler is just terrible: short range, leaky nozzle, grinds gears, taints the water, and looks in bad shape.
But there's a problem: the inferior sprinkler is further up the line than the superior one. The inferior sprinkler is using pretty much all the water and the superior sprinkler is getting barely anything. With no pressure for the better sprinkler, it's unable to shoot much more than a dribble.
As a result, part of lawn is being poisoned and will die. The other part gets no water, and will die. The obvious solution is to get rid of the inferior sprinkler, unfortunately, the line appears to be set in concrete a few inches below the ground.
We have two sprinklers watering a lawn:
There's one that's clearly superior. It can spread water further and faster and isn't going to break any time soon. It doesn't leak and is very reliable.
The inferior sprinkler is just terrible: short range, leaky nozzle, grinds gears, taints the water, and looks in bad shape.
But there's a problem: the inferior sprinkler is further up the line than the superior one. The inferior sprinkler is using pretty much all the water and the superior sprinkler is getting barely anything. With no pressure for the better sprinkler, it's unable to shoot much more than a dribble.
As a result, part of lawn is being poisoned and will die. The other part gets no water, and will die. The obvious solution is to get rid of the inferior sprinkler, unfortunately, the line appears to be set in concrete a few inches below the ground.
We have two sprinklers watering a lawn:
There's one that's clearly superior. It can spread water further and faster and isn't going to break any time soon. It doesn't leak and is very reliable.
The inferior sprinkler is just terrible: short range, leaky nozzle, grinds gears, taints the water, and looks in bad shape.
But there's a problem: the inferior sprinkler is further up the line than the superior one. The inferior sprinkler is using pretty much all the water and the superior sprinkler is getting barely anything. With no pressure for the better sprinkler, it's unable to shoot much more than a dribble.
As a result, part of lawn is being poisoned and will die. The other part gets no water, and will die. The obvious solution is to get rid of the inferior sprinkler, unfortunately, the line appears to be set in concrete a few inches below the ground.
Firstly, expansion into the universe beyond the first planet will take months to begin, and will take weeks to travel between systems by FTL initially.
After that, I don't think being infinite or not matters in this context. I think it is a question of the path of least resistance and of value. Would an organization have an easier time expanding further out into the universe or to take over another territory? Due to the time involved, it's probably the latter.
Or perhaps there's value in territory because of resources or strategic location. The value may even come from constructs which exist on an otherwise worthless territory. Territories that aren't required to expand into or that have no resources or other attributes could be called worthless. They may as well not exist. But other organizations may find value in that territory for other reasons.
Lastly, JC Baillie has stated that the point of procedural generation isn't to be infinite, but rather to generate the content in the first place or something to that effect.
I agree with the others, there's too much there. I would just have everything derive off of a single operating parameter: command input. A number between 0 (off) and 1 (fully on).
Want good thrust/fuel efficiency? There's a sweet spot, the location depends on the engine.
Want the most power? Turn it up to 1.
Overdrive? Turn it up past 1, but you may overheat (meaning the engine will begin taking damage)
Want to be quiet? Turn it down as low as you can, you generate less noise the less you burn.
As for fuel variety, I suggest having a few different types of fuel for engines. For reactors, they will share some of those fuels and have a few of their own.
If we have engines that use electricity, then just substitute the word power for fuel in this post.
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