The Hive grows. Across entire star systems you feel the chorus of your children ever expanding, ever diligent in their duties. Your mind has stretched to cover entire civilizations who are even now only beginning to even learn of your existence.
In less than three of the Union's months, you have gone from having only yourself and your thinker, to a vast swath of territory and the military force to keep it. Your technology, accelerated by your study of the natives to this region of space, has leapt exponentially beyond what your previous generation could have imagined. You cannot help but ponder on this, finding a rare moment to relax as your thinkers calculate various mundane projects to completion along the fringes of your conscious. You sit in your throne room listening to the hive around you, and you can hear the static, the meaningless waves of echos in the ever present tachyons rippling through spacetime with infinite simultaneity, rippling across reality like an ocean, carrying the thoughts of your hive across space like the neurons of a massive interstellar brain.
You watch silently as the human guests and allies interact within the chambers of your hive, fumbling about in an attempt to convey their thoughts to each other like a never ending game of charades, and you can't help but wonder how you reached this point, how you managed to go from being alone on an alien world struggling for survival to this moment, surrounded by allies both innumerable and individual, organic and synthetic.
Welcome back to a very special edition of Hive Queen Quest!
>Archives http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Hive%20Queen%20Quest
>Twitter https://twitter.com/HiveQueenQuest
>Various pasta http://pastebin.com/u/QuestDrone
>FAQ ask.fm/QuestDrone
>Discussion page http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Quest_talk:Hive_Queen_Quest
>>47511329
Tonight will be a special thread largely dedicated to reviewing the past events of the hive, since we've done quite a bit and it's been far too long, as well as a general discussion of the quest's overwhelming crunch. For some time I've been pondering on a method of overhauling it but such a dramatic change should not be done without tremendous amounts of player input.
Think of this as the token mid-season flashback/beach episode.
To get things started, I'll just give you guys the floor essentially and ask what you would like the quest's crunch to be focused on, and what you're all okay with me just glossing over and ignoring, as well as where you think the current system falls apart for you?
>>47511329
Say, does 'recap thread' includeactually looking at pods that were already sent out to scout
IT'S BACK, PRAISE THE QUEEN.
FOR MOTHER!
HYYYYPE.
THE QUEEN IS BACK
>>47511394
Uh...
GraveQM did it fine in death amongst the stars quest.
Which as far as I remember did not change much from the original HQQ formula, if anything at all.
So I guess no input from me?
It's nice to see you back.
ITS BEEN SO LONG!
It returns!
Once more into the breach. FOR MOTHER!
FUCK YES! FOR MOTHER!
Some of the ship designs have changed, notably the citadel. Just a heads up. All the info is on 1d4chan
So what's first on the agenda, QM?
Rolled 40 (1d100)
FOR MOTHER! RED AND FLUFFY!
IT'S FINALLY BACK!!
>>47511414You didn't write up any of the systems in player-accessible prose during the waiting-for-/qst/-to-settle part of hiatus did youi know that procrastination feel
Things were going pretty good really. I saw nothing I didn't really enjoy all that much before. I must say though, the funnest parts of the quest is SCIENCE, And also dealing with other species. Especially our human pals.
I still want to see Elizabeth go full Kerrigan and get to interact with other human beings again.
Aw yeah. I've been waiting for this.
>>47511355
Alright here's my first question.
When we retrieved the white queen's artifact from earth we found a skeleton, and when we mind-read the thing it ended with dr.seiner (the elder) holding on to the thing, is the corpse we found the same man as in the vision and can we clone him with intact memories?
>>47511355
It's hard to decide from this side of the QM screen.
What were some potential ideas for simplifications that were submitted in email so far?
I'm more concerned that we are physically incapable of doing all the things we want to do in the in-universe time we want to do it, and are IC capable of doing it, just because IC time correlates linearly with OOC time.
Since it's generally 24 hours per thread, and thread's time is finite.
I feel like we could set some things on 'auto'... but there's a balance, because doing things manually is the fun part.
>>47511539
>clone memories from bones
We were worrying about *Adam* Seiner's entirely-intact brain spoiling after we killed him and raced to bring it home, and we killed him mere minutes before.
What do you think?
>>47511520
Agreed. Designing was also fun at times, especially when new toys were unlocked. I actually thought about a few designs during the long hiatus.
>>47511423
We have been speaking rather regularly over twitter actually, and we both are more or less of the opinion that both our quests have gotten to the scale that our current way of organizing simply is no longer tenable, or at least won't be for much longer.
I have a few ideas myself, but wanted to get any major issues you guys have on the player side that I may not have noticed dealt with first.
>>47511464
Planet and system management, I would think.
At the moment, it is a mess. Multiple isolated resource income points scattered across multiple planets and systems, all having different rates of income, worker and upkeep costs, and margins of profitability.
My current idea is to do away with all the various independent resource points like harvesters or different farms, and instead assign every planet a resource stat that is essentially the sum of all sources for that resource, as well as the availability and ease of acquiring that resource. This stat could then be modified or added to by large, planetary scale hive building projects and worker population.
Likewise, workers would no longer be directly built, and would no longer cost anything directly, as they would be considered part of the hive maintenance, with local egg layers producing them as needed to repair and maintain local infrastructure.
>>47511506Honestly, I actually just ran a tiny quest intended to be a one-shot on /qst/ to test how it was from a new QM perspective, and it ended up taking about three weeks.
>>47511355
One of the things that bug me about this quest is the limit to how many "actions" we have per turn.
>>47511598Name of that Quest?
>>47511598
What was it?
>>47511582
Clearly we must unlock Very Advanced Psionic Reading that will allow us to read Seiner the elder's brainwaves 100 years into the past via telemetry of the location where he was last known to be alive.
It's tachyons bitch I ain't gotta explain shit.
>>47511598
OK sounds good, in terms of nutrients and metals score how would the new system affect it, factoring in that we no longer need a logistics chain due to teleporters.
>>47511329
Just stopping by before bed to say it's great to see you back, man.
>>47511697
Same, off to bed now but I am very much looking forward to reading once I wake up!
Ahahaha she returns!
Glad to have you back, QD. Never gave up hope.
>>47511598
>our current way of organizing simply is no longer tenable, or at least won't be for much longer
I agree it's a bit messy and will be getting a lot messier.
Other QMs have worked with large amounts of information by using images. Usually it means you have to be at least a bit imaginative artistically though. NERV QM managed to start a dungeon crawler with images only.
>>47511697
>>47511719
fuck that bump, bumping for mother!
>>47511675
Reminds of that free time I had when I thought 'what should the Hive research if it was in 40k'.
>>47511598
I would suggest doing it by system instead of planet considering the scope of our ability to make on and off planet resource collection
>>47511609
Yeah. I mean we *could* send other hybrids to infiltrate other worlds, not just sending them to a meeting on Path.
We *could* send hybrids to Mercy for potential nutrient tech research, or to Mentan for ultimate research jackpots to hack into the databases of to feed the Thinkers' research-lust.
But it takes time from other things.
>>47511598
All that automation makes sense. It doesn't make too much sense to have section of our time limited thread debating, for example, how many ghost beetles/egg layers to make on Gemini or exactly how many warriors/heavy warriors to have on a battleship. That made more sense when we had really limited resources, but with a big empire streamlining is logical. As long as there's a reasonable expectation that we will have adequate resources, I think this is a good idea that will let us do more juicy diplomacy/espionage/science in the mean time.
>>47511539
The skeleton is indeed Adam's grandfather, and you could clone him from the skeleton, but his brain is long gone and with it his memories.
>>47511558
This is exactly why I'm dedicating a thread to it. I don't want to assume any part of the crunch is just something that should be automated without making sure you all would be okay with it.
>>47511585
And I've thought of some new techs, too.
>>47511663
>>47511668
The rather blandly named Cyberpunk Detective Quest. Essentially my first attempt at crime mystery. Totally unrelated, but I archived it in suptg if you want to read it.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=Cyberpunk+Detective+Quest
>>47511681
Well, let's take an arbitrarily created example. Let's say Leeland has a Nutrient stat of 4 and a Metal stat of 5 on a scale of 0-10. Your farms, harvesters, ect would be lumped in as something that is expanded as the hive grows, or is built in vast numbers as part of a singular planetary project. These projects could either add to the planet's overall stat, or offer some kind of multiplier, or some other modifier.
>>47511755
His art is amazing, but I can hardly draw stick figures myself.
>>47511598
Yeah it was a mess when it came to base and resource management
Just use something like for the sins of a solar empire or early total war?
every planet we control has a fix resource amount and we automatically start at the minimal amount, just have the upgrades allow us to get more till we reach the cap?
Those that make sense?
Like one planet can have a cap of 5 for food and 2 for metal? you have to build the four food upgrade to reach 100% while you only need to upgrade metal production once to reach 100%
>>47511742
revenge on kek's when?
>>47511797
You mean how many bio-tanks on Gemini. obviously the egglayers answer is 'one'.
The number of clones we can make at one time is a more serious question.
So systems & sectors in Stellaris, we set certain groups of planets/bases to do a thing/things then largely forget about about it?
>>47511329
I DON'T HAVE A REACTION IMAGE SUFFICIENT TO EXPRESS THE SHEER ENERGY OF MY EJACULATION.
AWW SHIIIIEEET
I thought QuestDrone was kill forever.
>>47511820
OK so how would our current hives rate on that scale? I would suggest using a % system rather than 0-10 but your call, and what modifiers do you suggest for building and units?
>>47511820
How do you plan on modifying combat?
>>47511820
I wonder if we can partially--partially--automate infiltrating the Union once we have accomplished the basic prerequisites of making IDs, a means of making creds, and having smuggled ourselves interplanetarily at least once.
It would be nice to be on more than Gemini and Path, just in case.
>>47511820
Can we do away with keeping count for individual ground units?
I mean we are a swarm really and always have reserves
Instead just say we can only deploy a certain amount of ground units for the engagement
![PfmW36b[1].gif](https://i.imgur.com/0P4e4Zq.gif "PfmW36b[1].gif")
>>47511329
>Quest about social insects.
Lurking with great interest.
You know, we might want to just put an egglayer and an advanced relay in a pod and just drop it into every planet with an ocean we can find. With the egglayer laying some quantum veins infrastructure the psionic relays can be sustained just by feeding them nutrients from offplanet.
Meteors aren't that suspicious. Ships have been dismissed before as such already on Huron.
>>47511951
You can do better than lurk, anon.
>Archives http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Hive%20Queen%20Quest
Early threads are fun.
>>47511824
I like this idea, even if I'm afraid it dumbs it down way too much. As long as the caps are variable and there are more options than simply trying to reach the cap, like multipliers as QD said.
>>47511991
What a time to be alive.
>>47512022
We need it unless we want to drown ourselves in crunch, i mean it already must be a pain with just what? 2 systems under direct control?
>>47512039
In my opinion the most entertaining threads are when we go full ALIENS on some human outpost or research facility.
Too fun.
>>47511890
That's what I'm still working on, I figure the base number would be added up and multiplied to the final total, and then that total is translated to some ungodly large number that adds up to the massive income rates that an entire, 100% settled and exploited planet would offer.
For example, adding the film harvesters would be a planetary construction project to build the maximum number that would be sustainable, and would add, say, 3 points the Leeland's base stat, bringing it to 7 in this example. That new stat is then translated somehow to the actual income of the hive. I was thinking maybe multiplied by something like the planet's development level, essentially the number and size of the hive's infrastructure across the planet, as well as a generalized worker population. The more developed the planet, the more resources can be harvested at once, which could be represented as a percentage.
Say Leeland is 50% developed (there is still room for local life) so we multiply the stat of 7 by 50 for 350 after upkeep. (this is just an example, we can fine tune exact rates as we go, this is the early rough draft essentially)
>>47511951
Yeah, please do check out the archives as >>47511991
said. It's really one of the most fun quests to do a long read through of as we slowly develop from one damaged pod and newborn queen to an empire with thousands of ships.
Many keks were also had during the long journey.
>>47512047
>2 systems
Totally under our control, but we have numerous expansions on several worlds.
>>47512051
Well, if you ignore the brief flame warwhich to my shame I was a part of. At least I wasn't part of the one surrounding Lyle's capture though.
>>47512084
I still can't believe people were actually trying to white knight some random female scientist or whatever the fuck she was.
>>47512063
could we get to 100% while not totally wiping out local xenos?
>>47512063
That stills seems complicated and heavy amount of time spent on crunching the numbers
I mean either we make it simple or keep our empire small then
>>47512084
I don't regret it. I still think we should have killed lyle. He deserved a warriors death. I've accepted the clone/brain/infestation experiments though. The rest didn't really matter as much as everyone thought at the time.
>>47512106It would have made a really dramatic story if a single survivor got away. Too bad she had our data.
>>47512106Again, sorry about that.
>>47512047
It is getting a bit crazy, yea.
>>47511820
I think you mentioned some time ago that you wanted to convert the non-ship drones from individuals to 'swarms'; aka the non-ship version of fleets.
I think we should have a system where we design swarms like ships, and just go with that.
Something like:
Warrior Swarm (medium):
Infantry: Warriors with Thorn Launchers
Special 1: Heavy Warriors
Special 2: Fire Support Warriors with Those Bolter-Alikes We got
With the size and cost of a Swarm being the big deal with it.
Each swarm would have a 'grunt' unit making up the bulk of its forces, and a number of special slots dependent on its size. For a 60/20/20 split, for example.
Thoughts?
>>47512145
Holy mother of fuck
That's so fucking tedious
Simplify it for fucks sake
>>47512132
But Lyle is quite possibly my favorite character.
Only second to Queen snarkiness,
>>47512063
It is wonderful to have you back QD! Unfortunately I need to tack on another 3 pages to my final paper by tonight so I probably can't participate, still I look forward to reading over this later!
Anyway, I certainly don't mind the idea of that. It would probably be a lot more streamlined at least.
>>47512175
Maybe now we know more, but at the time we were just throwing him in a pit till we decided what to do with him.
However this goes, i hope theres still room for us to suggest things.
e.g. like how i suggested using the scaled down shield tech to make multilayered shield projectors that can reinforce each other (on starship hulls).
>>47512175
Rude speaker drone has my vote.
>>47512145
>>47512166
We reached a point where can can safely stop tracking of the small units
Instead just take it for granted that we produce enough workers, warriors etc to maintain our empire and defend it, and that they obvious have the needed adaptions to survive there work environment
>>47512204
"That is not how you do thing for mother"
>>47512145
So did you catch up on papaAI Questin hiatus at least.For Mother takes on a very different meaning there.
>>47512252
Papa AI quest chose bad end and basically went full retard.
it sucked.
>>47512107
Probably not. The hive gives off pollution too, just as any other techological civilization
>>47512166
It's actually got a bunch for formulas in it that add up everything. I just need to make sure the number of drones and their costs are correct.
>>47512114
It would actually be a lot better on my end, since it streamlines it in a way that all the resources are sort of coming from one base number instead of arbitrarily emerging from multiple structures. I would just need to add up one number for each planet/system, and only need to change them when you build a new structure.
Workers, warriors, and various basic units would essentially be included in the hive as a kind of free or semi free militia that automatically defends the planet, while more advanced drones could be included in other structures, such as aerodynamic fighter drones maintained in hangar bays that would intercept attackers.
>>47512204
The fast majority of this quest has been built on player suggestion, and I never intend to change that.I'm not creative enough.
>>47512145
>>47512166
>>47512233
Seriously? if were going to maintain multiple holdings then yeah planet infrastructure management going to have to be basic and simple then
Just give count resources from the places we got 100% control off and just have each have a simple fixed amount of resources (food, metal) that we get out of them
1-10 whatever you want and let it represent the amount needed to feed a civ
They only thing we going to actual try to keep direct count are the spaceships then
>>47512309
nooo :(
>>47512276
That was probably because everyone was depressed from how the Thanatos fight concluded.
Fucking dice Gods, man.
>>47512276
Better thanfailing the outrageous dice rolls the other choice entailed, resulting in objectively worse end with no compromise given.
>>47512233
>Instead just take it for granted that we produce enough workers, warriors etc to maintain our empire and defend it, and that they obvious have the needed adaptions to survive there work environment
>defend it
I wouldn't mind a system where once a colony reaches a certain size the
4000 workers
400 warriors
100 SPECIALIZED
Turns into a single module and automates to a degree, but the initial establishment and adaptations are things we should do. Especially the warriors. Having an automated governance in a direction like we have in one case is fine.
>>47512345
go big or go homo
>>47512309
Alight your call then about the resource system, but serious just don't bother to keep track of every actual drone at this point, it not hard for us to accept that we have warriors, workers, heavies and other drones already and that we have enough to invade a planet
We are the hive after all
>>47512343
>>47512345
As the MC in that quest, we stood and fought, and the ending was a cop out.
My view will not change on this matter.
I've been wondering. is there a way to trick ships scanners into thinking our ships are bigger than they actually are? Like some sort of digital hologram module?
For example we put the module on a corvette. to normal eyes it looks exactly like a corvette, but the ships scanners say it's a battleship, causing massive confusion and likely errors on targeting systems.
>>47512309
At this point I question the need to even split the resources don't we have tech that let's us convert food in to metal and vice versa
>>47512394
We already researched all the most common environment adaptions
toxic, heat, space, water, tundra etc
unless you can think of another environment than those, cause we kinda finished all that tech now
>>47512444
Some sort of ECM module? I think we can tweak the stealth tech a bit to make it do the opposite.
>>47512459
So merge it into a single biomass thing?
>>47512444
Devilish, underhand, and frankly, mean. I love it.
>>47512439
>stood and fought
Ophion was a total cuck to the Malorians.
>they're shooting at us
>ask them nicely to stop
>they hate us
>let's be nice to them
>they hate cyborg malorians
>ok no more of those whatever they say
>>47512444
Maybe we could make a particle sprayer of some form, spray out magnetic particles and keep them in orbit around the ship with a magnetic generator. Opponents scanner pings off the trapped particle cloud and comes back as a larger signature.
I've had an idea for a speeder drone template (like the speeder bike sur from star wars). It's basically an aerodynamic drone with ramjets, but no wings and hover legs. I couldn't think of a niche for it though.
Also though about designing warriors specialized against scavengers, but had no ideas besides giving them conductive carapace and radiator tubes to resist blaster weaponry.
>>47512474
maybe just have it be a configurable thing. the more we research it the more control we have until a single corvette looks like a entire hive fleet.
>>47512461
Strange. e.g. Low gravity world with symbiotic/parasitic organisms that attatch to the hive workers.
Dustbowl worlds with winds that could shred spaceship armor.
Places with atmosphere that would dissolve normal biomass.
>>47512444
>normal eyes
>ships scanners
>no overlap in functionality
Are you suggesting they don't have visible spectrum sensors to show the actual reality too?
>>47512514
actual reality, as opposed to fake reality
>>47512514
Maybe we can make proper hologram projectors after some research. the end goal would be to convince our enemies that we are exponentially stronger than we really are.
>>47512502
Strap a bomb or mine layer/creep sprayer to the back of it. Rapid mine/creep deployment, or suicide run, like a living homing missile.
>>47512417
Yea, that's essentially the plan at this point.
Planets, hives, and ships will all hold "enough" drones to more or less do what they need to do, with a decent variety, or a more specialized loadout if you want.
I figure the offloading of the vast majority of small scale land drone upkeep by plopping them in with hive infrastructure will allow us to actually just pull down the numbers a bit from the crazy high monstrosities we have now with regards for what planets and systems are bringing in, and focus most of the remaining crunch on your ships and fleets.
>>47512542
none of that off-brand reality
>>47512475
Yeah pretty much
Hey will anons start focusing on how to make the crunch easier so QD can get the quest back up and running
Since if aint even running then all this research and drone ideas are going to go to waste then
No matter what happens, We're going to have Elizabeth go full Kerrigan, right?
We should also start using her for ambassadoring. She's too fun to see her go to waste.
>>47512551
>>47512574
Of course. But flank her with one moth diplomat and one butterfly diplomat.
Have them talk happy and dour respectively.
>>47512551
Then if the resource and small drones are handled
Then what else is there you want to discuss?
How we manage the space ships?
Multiple holdings in general?
>>47512574
Yes, reveal the mutated human with antennae sprouting to the humans that won't cause problems at all.
Vaughn is not a talker, they are a sciencer.
>>47512574
Seconded.
>>47512461
Actually, we don't have anything specific for Thundra environment.
Plus, we could master them to a greater extent. While looking at interesting star wars creatures for inspiration, I found an insect-like animal called sandswimmer, and it made me think of an arenadynamic châssis, for example.
>>47512600
I agree plus then we wouldn't be able to troll the poor humans
>>47512551
You ever play sins of a solar empire?
It had a unique unit cap system we can modify then
Just say we can handle so many fleets
and we need to decide what ships are in the fleet
like each fleet has a 100
in that fleet each ship take some of that count based on size
corvette is 1
destroyer is 5
hive ship is 10
and we cant go pass 100 then once we add up all those ships
and then give that fleet assign it specific duties, like just being for defense or offense
>>47512600
That reminds me actually, didn't she offer to go do talking and stuff? And I can't quite remember the extent of her modification. Isn't it all mostly hidable at this point?
>>47512634
I think we should troll them by thanking them for giving us nukes. All those sweating politicians.
>>47512678
That would be amusing.
>>47512678
hahaha yeesss "The Hive thanks you for introducing us to fusion technology"
"What?"
"The satellite you left in low orbit, we greatly appreciated the research materials"
pic related
Of course, we revert to the old system for 'minigames' that are under stealth or isolation constraints like Gemini hive.
We won't be constrained by upkeep with teleportation, but will remain constrained by space/heat signature limits and the number of clones that can be produced.
>>47512670
>unit cap
how about no
ive always hated that shit in games and i would doubly so hate it in a quest
>>47512723
So build two fleets or more?
You can keep them together at all times and pretend they're one fleet that costs more upkeep.
>>47512723
Did you not see this
>>47512145
Then help figure out how to get the freaking crunch under control
Cause more civs get abandoned because dealing with the crunch is too much a pain
>>47512459
>>47512475
>>47512557
It would greatly simplify the meta, but I feel vaguely uncomfortable with it. I think it's too much of a short cut. I mean, even the most simple of games have at least two or three resources. Bringing it to one would take away a lot of strategic elements in the meta.
>>47512718
You can get round the heat thing by designing a teleportation heat sink. e.g. dump heat into a block, teleport it away to an ice world, teleport in a cold block. Rinse and repeat to suppress heat signature.
>>47512764
See if the quest cant be run because the crunch is a pain
Then there is no more quest
So we need to do some house cleaning and simply this thing
>>47512671
Yeah, I think it's mostly hidable, although she doesn't even consider herself a "human" anymore. She is a good scientist/our best thinker, so logically we should just have her do that... but where's the fun in that? The hive is cheeky and Vaughn wants to be an ambassador so, let's try it. Seeing all the reactions from even a "human" appearing Elizabeth would be hilarious.
>>47512717
We'd also have to bring up that their entire test of sapience was based on if we used fire or not. Note how this is anthropocentric and disregards civilizations that reached similar points without the use of fire. Like us!
just have a limited no. of fleets that we move around and use. Depending on the no. of space stations or upkeep structures (until we become fully spaceborn with 0 point energy or some such).
>>47511329
So, what caused the whole huge hiatus to begin with?
I've heard conflicting things ranging from your computer dying to you losing interest to you dying to you being abducted by evil space squids.
>>47512816
We already have thousands of thinkers churning away research, and she's not really making a dent, so why not, y'know? Won't hurt research.
>>47512816
We should maybe let her check out the native earth humans and captured scavenger like she wanted to first.
>>47512861
Different perspective is very, very useful in any research. Not thinking like a drone helps us.
>>47512551
Actually now that I think about it, maybe a scale of 0-100 would be better as the base number for planet and system resource stats.
So a super lush world like Raligha would be somewhere around 90 as a base stat. That base is then added to with planet wide farming constructions like the floating lake farms to ad, say, 15 for a new total of 105, multiplied by the hive's relatively low development on that plat of 25, plus a small after-modifier bonus from local Ralighan offerings of 15, for a total of 2640N.
To further increase it, you would then have construction or research options to find new sources of exploitable nutrients on the planet (we have been doing this manually so far, this would just turn it into a standard research project to find a new source of stat bonuses on the planet), and by expanding the hive's development level on the planet with a maximum of 100. Expanding the development level would automatically increase worker population, as well as increase the size of the local militia swarm of warriors, wasps, heavy warriors, ect. automatically.
Other planetary scale projects, like a planet wide anti-orbital battery network, would decrease the planet's income total. Any deficits, such as a metal mining planet that needs nutrients, would simply be assumed to teleport the resources from other hives, using the entire hive-network's resource economy.
What do you think?
>>47512718
Yea, any isolated mini-hives without access to the teleportation network would be dealt with mostly through fluff. Isolated hives that can teleport resources in could essentially just be a kind of espionage outpost with a basic cost for the small local infrastructure dedicated to spying on the local planet and staying out of view.
I suppose that could be a decent way of trying to automate some amount of spying so you can easily spread out your intelligence networks to more planets. What do you think?
Also, anyone else having captcha connection issues?
>>47512853
Real life and no drive to play most likely. That and huge crunch required to run a thread being a major offputting thing.
Basically: I'd run, but then I'd have to spend hours before and after thread to update spreadsheets, and it's only going to increase :(
>>47512861
With the number we have, we could have them do shifts. I remember that there was an issue where them were exhausted from all the research they did.
>>47512861
"While the Hive's singular identity does give it an incomprehensibly more potent industrial base and coordination over other individual species, it does hamper scientific growth and innovation,"
http://ask.fm/QuestDrone
from thy drones own mouth, Elizabeth is useful.
>>47512747
>>47512760
I have to agree with anon, fuck unit caps. I don't even see how it would change anything anyway, we'd still be fielding the same amount of ships only divided into fleets for some reason.
>>47512849
What do you mean fully spaceborn? Also there is no reason why we would be limited on the number of fleets, there is no bottleneck on commanders or anything like that and we don't even manage "upkeep structures" as it is, and even then our ships heal most superficial damage themselves.
>>47512802
There is reducing the crunch, and then there is cutting the number of resources to just one.
But as long as the Obsidian Queen for instance still needs to have an income with numerous resources since she does not have the advantage we do, I guess I would vote for it. I can't think of a good reason not to....
>>47512900
good plan
It seems most people are onboard with what QD has in mind for simplifying things. Only question is how exactly we simplify things. Which, I think, is for the best.
Gives us more time in the quest to be a cheeky bugger, play the part of spoopy shadowrun aliens, and kick the Obsidian Queen's mandibles in.
So. We know the Commonwealth has the shard. Should we request they hand it over?
Presumably with a suitably spooky warning.It would be nice to see how the revived Skyl are doing, too.
>>47512900
More automation sounds good.
Although I think some of us would appreciate a "are you sure?" warning before we accidentally ramp up industrialization on, say, Raligha to 200%.
>>47512900
Dropping a pod into an ocean on each planet is viable for seeding said spy networks, right?
Nobody investigates comets that land in the ocean. No crater.
>>47512880
And she could still do that very easily. The thinkers are working on the underlying physics of much of it- And we have quantum thinkers. Along that thinking, Her use isn't so much that she sits around and works away at our current research. Rather, She's much more useful to occasionally come in, look and what they're doing, and go "Why not this instead?" Among other things.
Basically, She's not improving our research times any, she's more or less there to provide new research paths, and she doesn't need to do it constantly, yes?
>>47512853
My computer died. Shortly after building a new one from scratch my schedule went crazy with a rapid fire series of otherwise unrelated events.
After drinking heavily in a mountain cabin with no internet for a week, I decided enough was enough and I needed to come back.
Also that space squid knew kung fu, he was no pushover.
>>47512900
I suggest you look into scaling your units. Like KN so kilometer of Nutrients. 1 to 1000 scale.
>>47512924
Fully spaceborn = no requirement to live on habbitable worlds at all to do what we need to do.
As for limiting fleets, its more a way to stop things spiraling out of control with numbers, but with teletech, does not really make much sense.
>>47512900
>hives
>without access to the teleportation network
How?
You seemed to say"it just works"about how all infrastructure is connected now, because egglayers. Or something.
>>47512926
I'm starting to think OQ Will retain the numbers advantage for quite a while. So far, we need to be the japanese giant hornets to her bees.
>>47512963
A lot can happen in mountain cabins man.
>>47512966
>kilometer of nutrients
Hm.
>>47512963
hey qd as you said this was going to be a bit of a recap thread as well how are the skyl doing?
>>47512574
So the plan is to win the space war, have Elizabeth make faces at Killinger, have Lyle then kill Killinger, and the Hive just fucks off back to space?
>>47512966
>Fully spaceborn = no requirement to live on habbitable worlds at all to do what we need to do.
We are though. Aside from needing oxygen I guess? We could simply make shitloads of farms in space but it is much more efficient to use planet based farms. Also we have an insane energy surplus.
>>47512922
>ask.fm/QuestDrone
lrn 2 permalink you fool.
http://ask.fm/QuestDrone/answers/136385348645
>>47513004
In the deep throes of an existential crisis and laughing at the stupid bugs who keep giving them free things for no reason.
>>47512983
I still don't like it, but I'll vote for it.
>>47513009
And then the hive becomes a higher tier civilization and goes to andromeda to take it over, then other galaxies outside the local cluster.
>>47513043
Im referencing culture levels of tech anon. We are still bound to worlds to actually get the physical mass to make into nutrients. e.g. carbon, oxygen, nitrogen. They still have to be taken from someplace, since we dont do energy to matter conversion yet.
>>47513062
>conquer other galaxies
For Mother!
>>47513004
I guess we can see how the skyl are doing sure.
I'm actually more interested in how "the Wise human" handles his eye surgery. But we can check in on Heretic first I guess.
>>47512982
via http://ask.fm/QuestDrone/answers/130420779813
>>47512963
So looks like most anons paying attention don't mind simplify the crunch
And rest don't really care and wish that you would write more dialogue between there favorite characters
Then anything else you want to discuss?
>>47513070
>>47513096
We still didn't talk to that Valen fusion inspector.
>>47513055
>implying we're not getting a good deal
Yeah like being altruistic and reviving a dead race that will be forever in our debt is a bad thing
>>47513086
More eyes for Wise.
Surely two is not sufficient. In only a single direction, too.
>>47513086
Oh can we ask him were his God is human are always complaing about thier gods it must be a very inconvenient organ
>>47513101
If your able to fly around converting energy to mass anon, then you never need to go to a world to pick up materials. You can just sit in space and ignore mining all together. Not to mention it eliminates rarety scarecity, so if we find any interesting elements or materials we don't lose access if we lose a certain strategic world.
>>47513114
That's for when the quest actually starts again
>>47513112
we made the same point?
>>47512900
with our terraforming tech can we manipulate the base stat of a planet?
>>47512963
So are you going to use the old schedule then?
So next actual thread will be on june 5 then? and it will be picking up from where we stopped?
>>47512983
>we almost never actually add the IC information from scouting pods to our OOC knowledge
>we could prioritize where and when to attack OQ
>but we can't because we're so slow at scouting for OOC reasons
There are things we could do--one-off attacks with tech OQ has never seen before--that aren't possible without all the scouting data in hand first.
>>47513160
The point is that Elizabeth can go do ambassador stuff without it making a dent in research.
>>47513114
It'll be fun to explain where we got them from.
>>47511424
YOU THOUGHT I LEFT YOU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pT0cpO2FaE
>>47513195
From my. Human uncle. ...Ned. They were in his human will which was executed upon the event of his flawed human body's expiration.
>>47513130
>Yeah like being altruistic and reviving a dead race that will be forever in our debt is a bad thing
Vague feelings of indebtedness mean nothing. We didn't let Lyle go on his word, we took over his mind body and spirit and then let him 'go'. Those humans we helped save? The thanks we got was a scientific paper written about how we would have good slaves. The Union and the Hive do not work with debts, we have a mutual give and take relationship.
And remember the one time we trusted another race? All we wanted was a couch, and they gave us a blaster to the face.
Lee is the only one we can trust. Lee is love.
>>47513189
oh, yeah she's useful in more than one way.
Holy fuck
This is like herding cats
QD should have just talked with some other qms in private for advice then ask us to help deal with this
>>47512953
Establishing a spy network would essentially involve an egg layer loaded drop pod or space pod being fired at an enemy planet in an unpopulated region. That would be the bare minimum.
After a few days, the egg layer would have a small hive from which to teleport in resources and produce a minimal number of drones. At which point you could then observe (EM sensors decypher local transmissions, fly drones silently watch local activity. You get a good idea of the local cultural zeitgeist and large scale military or political events ahead of time.) Infiltrate, (clones using randomized genetics of the local population species is made and sent to live in local cities across the planet, engaging in the local culture and establishing connections with it, the hive gains access to sabotage abilities and can attempt to start or coerce local political and social movements.) or manipulate. (Infiltrated hive clone agents begin systematically finding, kidnaping, and implanting local officials with parasites, as well as working to have infiltrated clones elected to various positions of authority.)
>>47512982
Well, I was thinking more "six clones sitting in a living room around a small egglayer" kind of hive.
>>47513004
The skyl themselves are being angsty teens doing what angsty teens will do. Heretic is working with Theseus to advance both of their tech base and ship designs, as well as desperately trying to learn how to raise a giant pile of angsty teens.
>>47513165
Yes, although it would be at a great initial investment cost, and would be caped by local stellar conditions. A planet well outside of its star's habitable zone would be very difficult to terraform, for instance, and would never be able to be as good as a naturally lush world.
>>47513178
That is the plan, yes.
>>47513272
If you want to decide something all of a sudden so badly, make an unofficial vote.
>>47513235
1st example we did not save Lyles life he was captured in combat, 2nd happened because we were the weaker civilisation and that's how imperialism works 3rd example fuck the scavs.
Also were in good with Heretic and he will be a powerful voice to the new Skyl so yeah i hav a feeling they will become a useful ally.
>>47513235
>Union
Unity.
>>47513296
Ha angsty teens. are they in the goth stage?
>>47513330
They offer nothing the hive cannot do without them, except the Rip Drive, and we already got that.
They have outlived their usefulness to the hive. Only Heretic's usefulness to Theseus remains.
>>47513235
>Vague feelings of indebtedness mean nothing.
Except if you're a Valen. The Valen would be willing to dump all their tech on us if it meant we would be indebted to them.
>>47513235
Yeah, but being friends with Theseus has been a really good thing to us so far. We get valuable intel, money, tech (black hole gun!) from him. Hell, the only reason we have the Crystal superweapon schematics/thinker is because he contracted us to investigate an anomalous reading on Earth. If Theseus has paid off so well by us playing nice, there's no reason to think playing nice with the Skyl won't provide us with our own rewards eventually.
>>47513416
Yes, you are right. We should obliterate them and absorb them into biomass.
>>47513296
Pfft, angsty snake/dragon/birds, I missed your humor QD.
The one issue I have with the "how much of the planet do you develop" stat, is that most people would want to keep the detriment to the environment to what Leeland's is.
>>47513296
>AngstY teens
"YOU AREN'T MY REAL DAD HERETIC"
"You do not have a father, you were cloned-"
"YOU NEVER LET ME DO ANYTHING ON MY OWN"
"You have everything you could possibly want provided to you-"
"I BET MOM WOULDN'T DO THIS TO ME"
"I am unsure who you are speaking of"
"GOD YOU NEVER UNDERSTAND ME"
>Runs off, slams door
>>47513416
>They offer nothing the hive cannot do without them, except the Rip Drive, and we already got that.
We don't know if they have any other worthwhile tech. You're just making an assumption.
>>47513416
>>47513430
>>47513455
Remember, Heretic was privy to information on project "God-killer", aka the weapon we need to win the endgame and beat the crystal overlords. Having him as our friend means we may be able to get access to that information. That alone should provide enough reason for us to avoid extincting their race (and their are many other reasons as well).
>>47513416
>Not wanting a client race purely for infinite monkeys and typewriters to expand research
One of our only weaknesses is unimaginativeness, why would you not want to fix that?
>>47513451
Heritc: I'm still here you know
>>47513451
>"I BET MOM WOULDN'T DO THIS TO ME"
>"I am unsure who you are speaking of"
Why queeny of course.
>>47513478
I was being sarcastic.
>>47513430
>>47513426
>reason we have the Crystal superweapon schematics/thinker
No you dingus.
Those schematics came from the Gardener's archives.
The lone thinker was found in Farcast and gave up no new intel beyond a Hamlet-esque request from a ghost, "avengggggge meeeeee".
All we got from the Earth mission was slightly accelerated unlocking of higher pisonics, which we had already unlocked from Vaughn.
>>47513296
The major issue I see at this point, since mostly everyone does seem to be in favor or ok with the streamlining, is that doing so will change a lot about how much resources are brought in, and how far they will go, and may potentially cause a net decrease in overall resources after accounting for all the alterations. That's something I wanted to make sure everyone was 100% on board with before implementing, because while I'll try to keep everything on the same level of general economic balance, there will inevitably be some things that are suddenly better or worse.
So given the example of Raligha above, with all planets having an N, M, and Development stat ranging from 0-100, with various resource points in the same system offering after-modifier bonuses, would you all be ok with it, given the possibility that we may end up not bringing in quite as many resources, or possibly have resources that are of a different value meta wise?
>>47513405
They're in the "You're not our dad, you're a machine ghost that killed god and our real mom is a telepathic space bug! You don't know me or the deep meaning of our garage band's new album!" stage.
Heretic, understandably, has his hands full right now.
>>47513451
More or less.
>>47513482
>Why queeny of course.
"Why can't you be more like my drones"
>>47513480
That's what Theseus is for.
He invented G-sensors, singularity projectors, and an entirely novel form of FTL in mere decades.
>>47513521
harsh
THE GLORIOUS AWAITED DAY HAS COME
As far as actual feedback:
Less resource management votes. A simple "how badly do you want to consume the planet?" should be fine.
Less drone design votes. I super don't fucking care. I know some people care a lot, but I don't know about the differences and don't think they matter a lot. Our tech level and industry being what it is, this drone design minmaxing is seriously such a time drain on other things we could be doing, like messing with Killinger, infiltrating Earth, and getting the Commonwealth to work with us and give us their sweet knowledge of the crystals.
More character stuff. This was always the most fun part for me.
>>47513514
We have so much in reserve it wouldn't really matter so yeah go for it just set up a vote, a
>yes
>no
kinda thing
>>47513514
How big is the net decrease?
>>47513514
I don't know about other anons but I'm okay with things being a little weird for a while after we abstract things.
Plus, a decrease in resources isn't much of an issue if we're considered to be going from microing all our forces to macroing, with all the embiggening that entails.
Or, in other words: If our capabilities expand with our expenditure, then balance is attained.
>>47513527
y not both?
>>47513514
I'm fine with it.
>They're in the "You're not our dad, you're a machine ghost that killed god and our real mom is a telepathic space bug!
So, they're going to be edgy Void Crystal worshippers?
>>47513542
this
>>47513514
That just gives us an reson to build Dyson spheres and the other off plant resource things and other technologies that we never bothered with
>>47513514
Streamline so that we can continue pls
>>47513542
Also this.
We should just start assuming we have what we need on hand (regardless of design), and determine how much we eat a planet as opposed to determining how many farms we carve out.
>>47513494
Didn't we recover the crystal-thinker thing that told the Commonwealth how to construct the superweapon? The thing that was located on the moon and we recovered from a crashed ship on Earth. Wouldn't that be useful to our eventual research into the weapon?
>>47513514
>They're in the "You're not our dad, you're a machine ghost that killed god and our real mom is a telepathic space bug! You don't know me or the deep meaning of our garage band's new album!" stage.
Clearly getting a Parasite implanted is their version of getting their wings pierced.
>At least Mom understands my every thought and action.
>>47513542
Oh dis pls
>>47513617
It's not a thinker.
You are so bad at this quest. It was a relay. It was called a relay. It was just a really advanced psionic relay, through which plans were transmitted.
It's a glorified antenna that we dissected to see how it was a superior antenna to our existing ones.
It has some memories but it didn't seem to be a thinker and the memories were generic, not blueprints. Blueprints were acquired a long time ago.
Just have drone design discussion at thread end. It lets people muck about and throw ideas at each other.
>>47513514
can we continue with the story today?
I need my fix man.
>>47513620
"Yeah, I got parasited just last week! It's awesome!"
"Oh yeah, Me too! I feel like so connected and junk!"
"You're lying. I can't hear your thoughts!"
"That's not how it works, dumby!"
>>47513514
I'm fully okay with it, I have faith in your ability to translate resource management into a new template while retaining the feel of the current system. On our current scale the loss of couple units of biomass or metal in daily generation will have little impact on us.
>>47513542
>Less drone design votes.
I'm going to have to disagree with you there anon, I love designing drones and ships. If it's not your thing, I understand that, but I wouldn't want QD to strip that quest mechanic wholesale from the quest.
>>47513653
This, don't throw it out altogether. I like crunch sperg, other anons do to.
>>47513542
backing.
>>47513563
Alrightly.
So new planetary and system management will function as follows:
Each planet has a base resource stat from 0-100 representing overall presence and availability of resources, and a development stat from 0-100 representing the drone population and infrastructure of the planet's hives. (0 being uncolonized, 100 being the entire planet has been taken over and industrialized by endless mountains of hive structures.)
To calculate a planet's income, take the base stat, add modifiers from local planetary resource collection projects, and multiply the number by the development stat, then add local star system resource modifiers, then subtract any income from planetary scale structures that require upkeep. This is the final total which is then added to the hive's economy, and teleported to planets as needed.
In time, we can do the same thing with credits once the hive starts trading openly, but that's for another day.
>Y
>N
>Propose changes
>Other
>>47513571
Honestly don't know, it could be an increase, I just want everyone to be ok with the idea of it changing the meta of hive economic activity.
>>47513678
>Y
HAHA! TIME FOR QUEST!
>>47513678
>>Y
>>47513678
>y
As others have said, a net decrease is ok, seeing as we gain the ability to do more things with the resources we do have.
>>47513678
>Y
As much as I agree with the other guy's sentiment, the drone designing is one of the most autistically fun part of the quest for me, though I agree that we should keep it at the end of the threads.
>>47513678
>resources
That's a generic term.
Doesn't this only make sense for N,which is renewable.
While M is nonrenewable? Are they really bundled together now into one Resource, R?
>>47513678
>>Y
>>47513678
QUEST TIME!!!!
Also what about solar systems? how will you manage asteroid belt mining and solar farms?
>>47513678
>Y
All Aboard the Hive Train!
So when will we get to the recap? Already I have forgotten what happened in the last HQQ thread...
>>47513748
Last I remember was buying that dinosaur with our clones on the Valen Gatestation
>>47513666
>I'm going to have to disagree with you there anon, I love designing drones and ships. If it's not your thing, I understand that, but I wouldn't want QD to strip that quest mechanic wholesale from the quest.
You can do it by yourself like you have been all this time. I think only two people have ever contributed drone designs anyway. I've had no part in it, and I think it's such a drag. I'm just going to vote for literally anything as long as it gets us to the fun part which is not drone design.
>>47513678
>y
We got anything else on the docket? 'Cause we're over 2/3 to the bump limit already.
>>47513769
Stick it at thread end. Simple. Done, dusted. Move on.
>>47513766
Yep that was it, we also need to talk to the hive "mind" we heard on that refuge planet.
>>47513769
Wow, fuck you dude. More than one person have designed those.
>>47513769
for you
>>47513666
Your boring, whatever design is never going to used given nearly every problem can either be solved by blowing it up or putting a parasite in
>>47513769
Yeah well like fuck you man see. Cunt.
>>47513795
Oh right the one that we drove the Obsidian Queens fleet away from. We need to find whoever it was she was trying to kill
>>47513653
>>47513668
This is another reason I wanted to ask before throwing anything to automation. As the kind of guy who plays Distant Worlds fully manually, I understand that some people enjoy the crunch and want to make sure I'm not tossing out their favorite part.
As such, I will continue to leave the ends of threads for drone design, it's practically a tradition at this point, plus the wiki talk page has had some amazing ideas thrown around.
Also, any indication that drone and ship design didn't matter to a battle is a failing in my writing. I do take designs into account and they make a great deal of difference.
>>47513721
Metals will be treated the same, but it will take a very, very long time to extract all the resources of an entire planet, even at 100 development. Only way I could see you stripping a planet of metals is if the planet was very low on them already, or if you cracked it open and core mined it.
>>47513732
Resource points will be added in as system modifiers, added on top of the local colony's total income where they are collected and teleported out to other hives.
>>47513820
>skelingtonsohhhing.gif
>>47513814
Then what's the point of researching anything for specialized adaptations?
>>47513831
>plays Distant Worlds manually
I understand now. This explains so many things.
I feel your pain.
>>47513830
Its a party now.
good to see you grave.
>>47513844
Faster and better ways of preparing something to be blown up and/or parasited.
>>47513795
>>47513820
>waaah someone doesn't like something I like
You monopolize like half of our available time, and you expect me not to say anything? I don't like it. I think it's a crying shame we do it at all. I'll put up with it but I don't have to like it. This is a feedback thread and you are going to insult me for not liking something?
So unlocking hive creep made infrastructure capable of self spreading via NANOMACHINES SON.
And thus a single egglayer can do everything without workers, albeit slowly.
What is it an egglayer lays exactly to start infrastructure nowadays, an egg full of spores?
A small lump of flesh that does nothing but consume its eggshell, produce spores, and grow into all the other infrastructure?
>>47513831
>Distant Worlds
You are fucking insane
>>47513831
I have that game. Was pretty cool, should reinstall....
>>47513678
>Y
For the sake of the crunch , Y. Although I hope there will still be descriptions.
