posted 04-03-99 08:12 PM ET            

Pericles, if you're out there, I replied to your email, but it wouldn't go through- I assume Melissa clogged your mail server.

posted 04-03-99 11:04 PM ET            

I suppose we could make an exception because of the holiday, though... If nobody posts a "hey, wait for me" post, I say we stick to the plan.

posted 04-06-99 08:09 PM ET            

I'm not quite sure how I should handle Miss Riviera at the moment. Prima facia, Zale's plan wasn't terribly bright: after she recovers, she will announce that the Hive is everything rumoured about it and worse, decry her treatment, and make a big stink. And then Morgan would be restraining <i>her</i>, as he's not in shape for a one-front war, much less a two-fronter. In any case, I'm not sure how much credit I should give the drugs (or whatever was done to her): detectability, length of effect, etc. If I assume that Zale wasn't dumb, I suppose that she could refuse to leave the Hive and go back to "Morgania" for testing... or even more dramatically, some bizarre combination of the two, the drugs wear off but the guard keep her under "house arrest" and won't let her go back, but the vid camera catches her struggling... or something.

If you have a preference on which way I should head with the Hive issue, please advise. In any case, I see an uneasy truce between the two about the best that diplomatic relations can get.

posted 04-06-99 10:03 PM ET            

SnowFire: Gah! I had no intention of you ever getting her back, at least not by "her" wishes. That's what I meant when Morgan said that she had "defected". She's staying put unless you kidnap her. In her present condition, she is quite content to be a Hive citizen. The drugs were used to "jump start" a process that might crudely be called brain-washing, designed to actually change her opinions (I established that she was not a Morgan nationalist -- she was with Morgan for purely pragmatic reasons. She was convinced of the basic premises of the Hive "party line", things like community and security and fellowship). Basically, my position that once one accepts the basic premises of what I call the Hive Philosophy, and is presented information which is favorable to that (the unfavorable stuff was edited out, and her journalistic instincts were dulled by her chemically induced altered mental state) then somewhat "fanatical" devotion to the Hive is a reasonable short term behavior (recent converts are always the most vocal). My position would be that it would now take just as much "brain-washing" to switch her opinions back to "normal" as it took to convince her to join the Hive (but obviously if nobody buys that, I'll bow to the tyranny of the majority).

I left a few things "unclear" in my post, so I want to clear them up: I left it unsaid as to how long Kendra's broadcast was allowed to continue before the Morganites wised up and shut her down. I figure that it couldn't have been immediate (had the powers that be "shut her up" I think that would have been playing right into Yang's hands), becuase it would have taken some time to come up with a clever way to do it.

As I already exlpained, Kendra was "brain-washed", and now considers herself a Hive citizen. She will not "voluntarily" leave the Hive. Should evidence be demanded on the drug issue, the Hive will stall long enough so that they are sure the drugs are out of her system (I think we should give Hive medical science at least this much credit). The drugs were only a part of the process, which is in no way "temporary", so she won't be "coming to her senses". A potential analogy is people who become convinced that they have "recovered" memories of childhood abuse, and turn against their parents, only to find out later that the "recovered" memories are of dubious reliability. I don't think it's a stretch to believe the scenario happened as I described, since this seems like it would be a hot research topic for the Hive to pursue (both in order to use it and to find defenses -- remember the Hive is security paranoid).

There is nothing preventing anyone from manufacturing false evidence about Riviera's treatment (on either Morgan or Hive side). If Legrand does fake a blood test as he considered, this will easily carry weight among anti-Hive people, and be decried as more "elitist propaganda" or something by Yang's supporters. Basically, status quo maintained. I can think of no scenarios in which the Hive's actions can be "undone". I figured that the reaction would be "well, they got us once, but they won't get us twice". Basically, sometimes you just move on. In the grand scheme of things, it is merely an embarrassment for the Morgan estabilishment, and might have persuaded some disaffected Morganites to be more vocal in their disaffection.

posted 04-06-99 10:34 PM ET            

Kind of odd that Zale was so openly hostile to Riviera at first, though. You'd think his plan would be even more effective if he played nice-nice from the very beginning. In any case...

posted 04-07-99 12:33 AM ET            

That was supposed to be friendly banter . Neither one of them intended to be very serious. Zale's was playing off of Riviera's standoffish-ness. At least that was the intent.

"<i>You'd think his plan would be even more effective if he played nice-nice from the very beginning.</i>"

Ah, but Riviera might have detected that he was acting rather than being himself.

"<i>This is pretty much a no-win situation for me, since lots of things that I'd like to do would only arouse Yang's ire, and Legrand knows that anything that might provoke a war is out of the question at the moment, even if it would have to be a drawn out amphibious one.</i>"

posted 04-07-99 10:35 AM ET            

BTW just out of interest why does Dr. Treestock being a PK have anything to do with the location of the I-Club? I think it should be in a location similar in feel to Mos Eisley. Now as there isn't one directly associated with AC how about we make one?

Here's my proposal, we turn Hommel's Citadel (one of the Spartan cities named after Venom's old General from the COFH) into a frontier fortress, this place is under nominal Spartan control but it is in such a hostile area (loads of fungus and mindworms) that it has grown into a sprawling shantytown inside fortress walls. The location of it makes it a great stop off on harsh journeys between factions but the garrison is too occupied with wildlife to be able to police it properly. It ends up being the kind of hive of scum and villainy that will be fun to write about, with the added bonus of a harsh police force should anyone get caught. Plus we'll stick the I-Club in there to give everyone a meeting place. I am thinking of having my old character drop out of the wilderness into this type of environment anyway so I might build it even if the I-Club is elsewhere.

posted 04-07-99 12:09 PM ET            

I could contribute a bartender to the I Club. I see him as some one who was only partially rehabilitated after being nerve stapled. Let's call him jsorense.

posted 04-07-99 02:58 PM ET            

Octopus: No, that was coming to you anyway. You read my mind on how I was planning to play the Hive and Believers off each other, but I meant no-win in much more immediate terms.

In any case, perpare for chest-thumping from the Morganites to try and convince the Believers that they shouldn't sweep over the money changers in the temple.

posted 04-07-99 06:41 PM ET         

At the moment, Planet does not understand what is happening. The concepts of "other" and "individual" are incomprehensible to such a life form.

posted 04-09-99 02:40 PM ET         

So if the piece was hard to understand, Hommel's Citadel is in rough shape. The entire base is covered in about a metre of zenofungus. Inside, investigators would find people with larval mind worm nests in their skulls.

If anyone is interested in writing a dramatic/horrific scene, consider returning to the base within an hour of the attack, to find the whole place covered in fungus. Perhaps they would also find a "person" with a severe "headache." What happens when you are staring at the body of a friend, and then the mindworms start crawling out of his eye sockets?

posted 04-09-99 03:12 PM ET            

When I set the forums on "display posts from last year", I saw:

Chronicles of Pre-Unity Parts I & II

and

Chronicles of Pre-Unity and Beyond

MikeH actually brought these up from the depths a little while ago, so the last posts are on 03-30-99. These are reposts from when we were in another forum (before Firaxis reorganized them), so they are a bit difficult to read. SnowFire has the summaries of the earlier stuff in:

A Summary of the CPUB to date

As to what role you and your characters should play, that is entirely up to you. The true greatness of the chronicles is that all of the different writers interract with each other in their own unique ways. Just respect what other people have posted (e.g. don't say that the University and the Hive met in M.Y. 2109, because we've already more or less established that that didn't happen. However, since "now" is M.Y. 2140 (will change Sunday, but you've got a window of a few days), you can write whatever you want, withing the 4 rules of the Chronicles (and, naturally, your own rules of good taste and good writing).

If you are interested in writing within a particular faction that already has a writer (the Hive, for instance) you may want to discuss things with that writer before you post (either in this thread or via e-mail), just to make sure you are on the same page.

posted 04-09-99 10:18 PM ET            

Note that the summary only covers the Chronicles of Pre-Unity parts one and two. Hopefully the Chronicles of Pre-Unity and Beyond will also be summarized by the end of the weekend.

posted 04-10-99 01:43 AM ET            

Now you have to decide how you want Zakharov to react in the negotiations. Morgan will basically want a nice trading agreement that will allow him (and you) to profit. Depending on how you judge UoP strength (usually pretty strong), you may want to decide whether your response is a flat "No" in preparation for a later war (because Zak thinks he's the man and can easily crush me) or he's more amenable to the idea. Also, don't worry about the Hive or Believers too much for now: you'll meet them at the Planetary Council in MY 2180 and then all hell can break loose. Not that it has to.

posted 04-12-99 06:42 AM ET            

Pericles: I think that the Shadow's 40 (soon to be 80) years of wandering has allowed him some contact with planet. Probably just in the way of dreams and voices (like you get in the game) but enough that planet recognises him as an individual. My idea really is that he has some contact with Planet which is what helped him get the planet to pull back the mindworms. Maybe a philosophical debate about the value of the lives of the humans I'm not 100% sure yet but that's what I'm thinking about.

Technocrat welcome on board, great start I hope it continues.

posted 04-12-99 06:07 PM ET            

And besides, as Legrand pointed out, Morgan is only human, and he could have buckled under the pressure. I guess I should have indicated my reasoning; I can see how it would seem non-sensical. Oh well, if it leads to a new inspiration for you, I am very glad. Many of my tales (here and elsewhere) have started as inspirations off of others. Maybe that in and of itself is inspired by Shakespeare

So far, I am imagining the UoP as being on a large island sub-continent smaller than Australia to the far south-east of Morgan, with a big ocean between them. The Gaians are on a nearby, but unconnected, landmass of some sort. I do not recall any specific information in the previous threads that would refute this. If there is an inconsistency, feel free to let me know and I'll gladly change my mental picture. (I try to avoid the subject of geography as much as possible in my writing to prevent any incosistency, anyway.)

posted 04-14-99 09:05 PM ET            

If you want to keep posting in CPUB+40, I think it would be okay until somebody gets their act together and starts up CPUB+80. I don't have any new storylines I want to start right now, so I plan to react to whatever somebody does in CPUB+80.

What's the plan here? I think we said we wanted to cover the first Planetary Council meeting. Any proposals for what it should be about? Presumably somebody wants to run for planetary governor. Here's my perception of what the political state of Chiron will be at the time (I'm posting this so people can correct me if they have a different view of the situation, so we can discuss it):

Hive: Dislike the Planetary Council idea, and are adamantly opposed to having any outside agency having authority over the Hive or its Members (i.e. the Hive's internal affairs our the Hive's concerns, no-one else's). They would never vote for Santiago, Miriam, or Morgan for gov. Zakharov or Dierdre might be acceptable, since they are somewhat ideologically neutral from the Hive's perspective.

Spartans: Wouldn't vote for Lal for gov (they want the right to conduct their "foreign policy" free from interference from the likes of Lal). May or may not dislike Yang. Have an "ace in the hole" with Legrand, so relationship with Morgans is unclear.

Gaians: Personal animosity between Dierdre and Zakharov, but are somewhat allied ideologically. May or may not dislike Yang. Hate Morgans intensely. Personal animosity between Dierdre and Santiago.

Believers: Hate the University and Hive. Seem to have a tense and tenuous relationship with Morgan, but could turn either way depending on circumstances. Not too fond of Gaians (that bunch of pagans! ). May or may not be friendly with Santiago.

PKs: Dislike the isolationist Hive and the warlike Spartans. Like the UoP and Gaians. Relationship with Believers depends on how warlike the Believers are. Distrustful of Morgan.

Morgans: Hate the Hive. Relationship with Believers covered already. Most might be mistrustful of Spartans (although they would probably be good customers). Legrand's influence here would be important. They would like to be friends with the UoP, but Zakharov doesn't seem to want to cooperate (well, he is supposed to be intelligent ).

posted 04-14-99 11:12 PM ET            

Octopus: Great list of rough feelings on others. I think that the PK's were the ones who discovered all other 6 factions commlinks first, and when (if) I post the CPUB +80 I'll try and throw in some opening speech explaining why this is occuring (under UN directive Heinz-57 blah blah Planetary Council blah blah reunification of colony pods under one world leadership, hey how about me?

posted 04-16-99 03:34 PM ET            

I don't know what will happen if the forums get fixed, or IF the forums will get fixed. Oh well.

posted 04-17-99 05:22 PM ET            

I posted something new in CPUB+80. It's cheesy and derivative, but I was bored. I don't know if I'm taking it anywhere. I won't if something better to post about comes along. Come on guys, what are you waiting for?

posted 04-17-99 08:53 PM ET            

I'll retype it someday. It was a rather bizarre conversation between Legrand and Gajic, and basically Gajic agreeed not to tell on Legrand and would exchange his services on a quid pro quo basis, but he was basically happy so there was nothing he could offer him. He explained why he chose the Hive, and did not explain how Hive Security didn't execute him (actually he did- "They recognized me right away and made me their spy in exchange for your life and this conversation is being broadcast all over the HiveNet right now and is being sent to Morgan3D Link Vision as well, what do you have to say to all these people who just found out you're a traitor? ... Just joking. And Legrand couldn't get any more than that out of him.) It's possible that this isn't Gajic at all but the democracy advocate guy from Planetfall with massive re-surgery. That's up to Octopus.

posted 04-17-99 11:11 PM ET            

You forgot to add "so obviously we should never ever try to actually talk to the Hive directly, we might actually learn something."

"Based on our knowledge of Sheng-ji Yang, the Hive is probably based on the old police states of late Earth, such as the People�s Republic of China. We can also surmise that they have been fairly antagonistic towards the Gaians, as the Gaian merchants we can interview have indicated that much."

posted 04-17-99 11:52 PM ET            

As to the Police State thing, that is a matter of opinion . Besides, the key would could be argued to be "probably."