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ParagonExploiter

Alien Sociology  

155 members have voted

  1. 1. If aliens existed what would you like them to be like.

    • Primitive and hostile(e.g.stone age)
      48
    • Interactive and untouchable
      24
    • Quest-givers
      18
    • Hostile to all players and war-able
      54
    • Diverse and organisation befriending
      69
    • Other
      38


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On 25-7-2017 at 6:41 AM, 0something0 said:

I think there shouldn't be any actuall alien civs, but ruins, and trying to find a great filter and solve the fermi paradox. But i dont have $7000 lying around...

 

I also was thinking not only alien ruins, but other ruins from failed ark ships

 

Dang, I was going to mention this. But yeah, basically this. It would bring underlying mystery to an otherwise empty sandbox. We do the filling of that emptyness but encountering anomalies would stirr things up quite good. Finding ancient ruins or a large floating wreckage in space, then discover that it wasn't one of ours. Uff! But no sign of the original builders anywhere? Chilling!

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

There will already be a few "aliens" at launch, in the form of animal species, so there will probably be both predators and prey.

 

That could give a whole new flavour to a "walk in the forest"....

Or perhaps you'd need to be careful of burrowing animals while mining...

Some animals may become aggressive when they detect the pulses of a mining scanner...

Some animals may consider refined metals to be a tasty snack...

 

If sentient aliens are ever introduced to DU, I'd hope they would not be one-dimensional static "cutouts" that are simply aggressive or friendly or "a place to get quests".

DU's underlying architecture provides the potential processing power to make aliens (NPC's) actually interesting and unpredictable. It could be material for some great expansions a few years after launch...

 

I see no problem with the idea of having sentient aliens in a "sandbox" game, provided they are integrated "properly". They simply add variety. SWG had them, EVE has them, and in neither case did it "ruin" the potential for player interaction, civilisation-building or anything that can be achieved without them being there.

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3 hours ago, MasteredRed said:

There of course will be aliens.

 

They will be us and we are going to be invading the planet.

That's just playing semantic games.

 

"Alien" implies "beings that are not like us".

Only sentient lifeforms have the required sophistication to label something as "alien".

 

We can certainly define the animals on Alioth as "alien species", but to them we'll just be other animals.

 

There won't be any sentient alien lifeforms at launch, so there won't be anyone to categorise us as "aliens". We can label ourselves as aliens, but it will be meaningless.

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I don't think there should be aliens. It sorta sounded like they want the biggest threats in the game to be other humans. we are all going to be struggling to learn the game, learn how to make stargates and stuff. we probably won't need extra mysteries. 

 

although it would be neat it we met strangers and thought they WERE aliens. but they are descendants from another ship that got away got to its destination way sooner and there have been terrible mutations but there's a movie like that so it'd probably be just as dumb. scratch that idea.

 

then again I would also love alien birds, bugs, fish. background nature noises. things that make a planet feel alive. either native life, or there is an event where we  get samples from the arkship and disperse them. 

 

besides, once you add sentient aliens theres no going back they should really hold off on it until the extra challenge or mystery is needed. 

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  • 4 months later...
On 25.10.2017 at 9:26 AM, Ravenskysong said:

I don't think there should be aliens. It sorta sounded like they want the biggest threats in the game to be other humans. we are all going to be struggling to learn the game, learn how to make stargates and stuff. we probably won't need extra mysteries.

Until the first star gate is built and everyone can buy a blueprint of it.

 

I think there should be lots of mysteries in the game. This is a space simulation! It´s predestined to have mysteries in it.

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If they are added, the added "aliens" should somehow be generated like the planets, kinda at random. But i think it the chance of finding them should be really small, i mean, when was the last time we saw aliens around us? There is an equation about how many planets in the universe should contain life, and then how many could contain higher forms of life, etcetc. If other life is added i would recommend adding it according to that equation. On the starter planets normal earth-like life should be present. If we ever build an arc there definitely will be animals in it.

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Some sort of necro thread. It's been said quote-unquote: "This is the story of humanity in the stars" aka "The Civilization Building MMO".

 

Also I don't think I've actually come across a convincing description of intelligent alien life yet. We're just not up to it yet in our imagination... so let's stick with humanity which still has a lot of work to do on it alone before moving along further! For sure various alien fauna and flora why not? THAT can tell us something about our own originating planet first of all.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/16/2018 at 10:34 PM, MookMcMook said:

Some sort of necro thread. It's been said quote-unquote: "This is the story of humanity in the stars" aka "The Civilization Building MMO".

 

Also I don't think I've actually come across a convincing description of intelligent alien life yet. We're just not up to it yet in our imagination... so let's stick with humanity which still has a lot of work to do on it alone before moving along further! For sure various alien fauna and flora why not? THAT can tell us something about our own originating planet first of all.

If I understand you correctly you don't mind alien daisies and dogs, but no intelligent life right?

But could elaborate on what you mean by "THAT can tell us something about our own originating planet first of all."?

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I think sapient aliens would be difficult as making them interact with other orgs is going to be strange. For example if my org is called the "kill all space slime iniative" and I just spam gifts and compliments to the alien AI to get them to like me in an NPC manner, I canact xenophobic right in front of their face and they won't care. Such interactions between player and NPC are going to be very limited and non dynamic.

 

A way to work around this is have an ethics system, like in stellaris, the NPC's can pick up on but it is still ultimately limiting. Being the grand exterminator heirarch of the kill all space slime iniative I could just adopt Alien friendly ethics and change them at the last minute. If you make it like in stellaris and I can't change them at the last minute and have to work with my pops then that just makes things more confusing. Everyone in the kill all space slime iniative is a real person with their own intentions.

 

I would personally just make aliens completely apathetic hostile swarming Lovecraftian horrors from the great beyond that sought to consume all life. This makes the orgs collectively shit themselves and stop fighting to join forces and kill them. Or perhaps not. Perhaps they will fall because of their own selfishness. Only they can decide.

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On 07/04/2018 at 5:10 PM, ParagonExploiter said:

If I understand you correctly you don't mind alien daisies and dogs, but no intelligent life right?

But could elaborate on what you mean by "THAT can tell us something about our own originating planet first of all."?

Lem's Solaris was actually very interesting on this question. I was not posing questions and answers above, just providing a thought experiment to chip into the general conversation to explore the topic in more directions (hopefully) and let the conversation flow on...

 

I actually love the idea that players could be AI life forms and not human for example, to contradict my previous statement.

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Great topic, interesting debate.

 

My feel is that it would be GREAT (and realistic, by the way) that there would be real PLAYERS in the role of aliens. This "faction" (or various factions, some peaceful, some predators) had its own pros and cons, giving the game much deept and fun.

Anyway, aliens would create their own organizations... emergent play.

 

And, you know, maybe this alocution could come true.

 

 

Although, surely he said that, having "another kind of agenda" on mind, you know....

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On 7/2/2017 at 6:34 AM, Gerald_Deemer said:

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”

 

I think NQ will do the right thing... ^_^

That is an amazing quote

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On 7/25/2017 at 1:41 AM, 0something0 said:

I think there shouldn't be any actuall alien civs, but ruins, and trying to find a great filter and solve the fermi paradox. But i dont have $7000 lying around...

 

I also was thinking not only alien ruins, but other ruins from failed ark ships

I agree, but I just think that they should exist but not be centralized and under a government, maybe be controlled by different warlords or merchant-kings. 

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We could see this as a simple matter of common sense, assuming the fact that we're not the only intelligent life form in the universe. I mean, seriously, life can't proceed of something that's not alive, aswell as something can't proceed from nothing. That's non sense. 
We see those stunning designs of planets, natural processes, orbital circuits, in an incredible scale. Isn't it intelligent (and loving, by the way)?

Therefore, we can begin to regognize that our planet (and every planet, star and galaxy) it's a life form in itself. Now imagine, how many inhabited planets must be between billions and billions of stars (with their corresponding planetary systems). So, how not to let aliens to be in DU? Could that be realistic?

 

PS: for godsake, there're plenty of stellar wanderers here, don't you know!

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Doesn't matter if it's realistic or not it just has to be technically feasible and enhancing to the game.

 

Even if you were to be 'realistic' the fact of the matter is we have only a few feasible hypotheses as to where we came from. They are untestable hypotheses, as there were no witnesses and the circumstances cannot be reproduced, and therefore cannot be dealt as facts. The most accepted idea is that DNA was synthesised through a random event and began to replicate from there. Naturally, the most efficient protein structures for this molecule would survive and thus continue to reproduce. And from there the process of natural selection continues and the protein structures become even more complex. We have no idea as to how probable the synthesis of DNA is as there are way too many variables and we don't actually know how to make it. Therefore we can't just say "well there's 18 googolplex quintillion planets and shiet so there must be one with life amirite?"

 

As for my personal opinion I think we're never going to be alone and afraid in the universe because we're already afraid of each other. Humankind has had xenophobic tendencies towards itself for aeons and it's not going to change any time soon. It's only going to get worse if interstellar expansion becomes a thing as the human race will become even more disparate.

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1 hour ago, Veld said:

Doesn't matter if it's realistic or not it just has to be technically feasible and enhancing to the game.

 

Even if you were to be 'realistic' the fact of the matter is we have only a few feasible hypotheses as to where we came from. They are untestable hypotheses, as there were no witnesses and the circumstances cannot be reproduced, and therefore cannot be dealt as facts. The most accepted idea is that DNA was synthesised through a random event and began to replicate from there. Naturally, the most efficient protein structures for this molecule would survive and thus continue to reproduce. And from there the process of natural selection continues and the protein structures become even more complex. We have no idea as to how probable the synthesis of DNA is as there are way too many variables and we don't actually know how to make it. Therefore we can't just say "well there's 18 googolplex quintillion planets and shiet so there must be one with life amirite?"

 

As for my personal opinion I think we're never going to be alone and afraid in the universe because we're already afraid of each other. Humankind has had xenophobic tendencies towards itself for aeons and it's not going to change any time soon. It's only going to get worse if interstellar expansion becomes a thing as the human race will become even more disparate.

I understand your point of view, although mine is different.

Everyone speaks from his own background of experience and understanding.

And sure we had some different experiences (and understandings), and I think they can be (and are) complementary.

 

I enjoyed your explanation, have fun in the game.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The biggest problem I see with aliens in DU is that it changes NQ's focus.

 

Currently, NQ provides players with "tools" to create their own content.

Introducing NPC's means NQ has to start generating game "content" for consumption by players, which will inevitably divert resources away from building new and innovative game systems for us to use...

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On 11/4/2018 at 2:40 PM, Alsan_Teamaro said:

My feel is that it would be GREAT (and realistic, by the way) that there would be real PLAYERS in the role of aliens. This "faction" (or various factions, some peaceful, some predators) had its own pros and cons, giving the game much deept and fun.

Anyway, aliens would create their own organizations... emergent play.

That's my view, without bots. The only thing for NQ would be giving aliens' factions a few starting bases or planets of their own. No big deal, I think.

The game would be more complex, rich and funny, indeed. Is it good or feasible for NQ? Does it fit in their view of the game? I don't know.

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On 24/10/2017 at 8:14 PM, NanoDot said:

DU's underlying architecture provides the potential processing power to make aliens (NPC's) actually interesting and unpredictable. It could be material for some great expansions a few years after launch...

NQ has said several times that there wont be any NPC's.

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