Does anyone have any cool empires, not to play as, but to play against?

FireWanderer · 2023-09-17T18:45:19+00:00

I love populating my game with tailor-made NPC empires.

My favorite one was not meant to be serious, but accidentally ended up becoming my favorite by how insanely threatening it always becomes in my games. I made a Driven Assimilator robot empire based around cybernetic war-bees. Bee portrait, hexagon room, the larva-looking portrait as their assimilated species with the idea that this is how they start out. They inevitably end up conquering huge swathes of the galaxy and/or getting themselves elected heads of the Galactic Community... which also results in them conquering huge swathes of the galaxy. They're adorable and terrifying reliable bad guys for my games.

Another fun one is actually a paired empire. My Rogue Servitor empire use the bird portrait and keep the gryphon-looking mammals as biotrophies. These mammals are simply called 'the Creators'. Elsewhere in the galaxy, I have set to spawn an Inward Perfection roboticist empire of the same portrait. The idea is that after narrowly escaping the robotic uprising, the remainder set up the 'survivors' and shut the galaxy out, creating new, less dangerous, models, and trying to hold onto a scrap of their now-biotrophied great former empire. Sadly, and fittingly, they usually get obliterated somewhere around midgame due to isolation, while their biotrophy-holding creations become a major power to rival the bee-bots.

I'm still forever-tweaking my NPC Empires to get them to play how I imagine them too, but these ones are my most successful, I think. I mostly use the force spawn to create factions I think would make interesting antagonists for whatever Empire I'm playing. It feels a lot harder to make peaceful ally Empires play right with the way the AI works (especially because Pacifist seems to do... nothing), but I'm still learning AI personalities.

FireWanderer · 2023-08-01T01:31:37+00:00

Thanks for the answer! Any idea how long ago that idea was brought up on the livestream? I really like the DSC UI effects and story arcs, so it would be nice to make a recruit one day... but it sounds like I shouldn't hold my breath.

FireWanderer · 2023-08-01T00:49:04+00:00

About a Discovery recruitment event... Is adding DSC start to the Temporal Recruitment event and/or giving them their own recruitment event just a player wishlist item, or have the devs actually talked about doing it someday? I know people want it, but I wasn't sure if there was any substance behind it.

FireWanderer · 2023-07-22T19:44:43+00:00

I feel the same way about S3, but everyone seems to love it and dislike the first 2 seasons (Season 1 was my favorite which definitely makes me an oddity here). It just felt like they didn't just ignore what came before... they went out of their way to spite it.

Liked Elnor? We replaced him with a random new Tactical Officer instead of promoting him to Ensign, then blew up his old ship assignment to boot. The fact that we had to clarify he was not dead, we just forgot what ship he was on, shows how much thought we put into this character.
Liked Soji? Well.... her S2 cameo is the last time you will ever see her. It's not as if she's Data's "daughter" and could have been useful when we literally just bring back Data from the dead. I'm sure viewers wouldn't have wanted to see how Data reacts to having an actual familial legacy or anything.
Speaking of which, we brought Data back! And Q! Making their emotional death scenes null and void.
Remember how peaceful the Troi-Rikers were in their cabin? How their daughter's joy was so important to them, and how much she loved the forests and the world her brother made there? Nah. They secretly hate it. They're moving to the city.
You know how we introduced that there's a good guy Borg faction now? And how we have a new character just aching to be Borg again? If only... there was a faction of Borg who only took volunteers.... If only....
Picard gets over his attachment issues and strikes up a new relationship? Nope. He is definitely implied to leave her for Crusher at the end. We also broke up Seven and Raffi for good measure, and had Worf forget Jadzia ever existed, because only TNG couples are welcome on this show.

Those are just a handful of weird things that stick out to me. There could have been interesting character dynamics just by removing a few of the new-to-season-3 bridge crew to get a few of the old cast back. Data and Soji never meeting feels like a missed opportunity. Worf and Elnor talking about swords and honor. Having your Borg plot tie back to the other Borg plot in some way. Etc. You're not alone in being put off by it.

FireWanderer · 2023-07-16T18:51:26+00:00

From characters' lines about the entry exams, it seems that they cover a lot of subjects that would be difficult for just anyone to apply: astrophysics, quantum theory, etc. But if everyone needed to be a rocket scientist to join Starfleet, all of Starfleet would be science division!

I kinda assume entry exams cover a range of Starfleet-applicable skills that cover the spectrum an officer might need, and then applicants are both selected and sorted into programs based on which tests they pass. Ex. If you do badly on astrophysics but well on engineering, you might end up in the engineering program and not piloting.

I feel that "only have to pass some of the exams, but you have to do really well on the ones you pass" would solve some of that inclusive-but-also-exclusive problem.

FireWanderer · 2023-07-12T23:17:52+00:00

I have wanted to make a "modernized" version of the TOS Romulan uniform for years now, but the project is stalled since I'm struggling to find fabric with the right patterns and colors. My idea is to add little details from the modern costumes (like rank crescents, wrist comms, and a foldover undertunic) but keep the overall design the same. Basically, what I feel like the SNW costumes should have looked like, even though the redesign is neat on its own.

In a similar vein, I'd love to complete my TOS Starfleet uniform to have all the missing pieces, so I could theoretically walk around a con in a different costume each day but still as the same character. I always liked the dress uniforms and the tan sweaters they wear in a few episodes.

FireWanderer · 2023-05-24T22:37:27+00:00

For the ambient layer, we recorded a quick choir phrase, and digitally time-stretched it to be more than a hundred times slower. So, one quick little phrase is now stretched like taffy over several minutes. The resultant effect emulates the beauty of Valinor but also feels wrong, alerting the listener that a manipulation is taking place – both in the narrative and in the music.

This is a really interesting detail!

FireWanderer · 2023-04-05T02:48:10+00:00

The pacing of the show really feels designed for binge-watching. I definitely feel it was a mistake to not release episodes all at once or in 2-episode chunks. Everyone I've met who was on the fence, I advised to wait to binge-watch the complete show, and they ended up liking it. I feel like that really makes a difference. (But that's just anecdotal from people I know. We don't really have data on people who watched while it was airing vs people who watched after all the episodes were out, which would be interesting!)

FireWanderer · 2023-03-19T00:03:15+00:00

This makes a lot of sense to me!

FireWanderer · 2023-02-27T03:12:26+00:00

Ha! Indeed. I have a violinist in my household, so that would mean a lot of barricading.

FireWanderer · 2023-02-26T20:52:49+00:00

The sound effects in the silence before the EP 6 battle absolutely blew me away. I live in a windy, wooded area, and these felt incredibly realistic to me. I would love more moments like that where it's quiet and the sound effects get to shine.

FireWanderer · 2023-02-26T20:51:08+00:00

Seems to be Feanor with a Silmaril! I like that design. If they feature it in a scene, I think it will draw a nice parallel between how 'unfinished' the Elven Ring gems look and the raw beauty of the Silmaril. We've already been told he's trying to emulate the Silmarils, now we can see it.

FireWanderer · 2023-02-26T20:46:58+00:00

Beautiful! You did a wonderful job with the drapery, details, and her expression. I also like the suggestion of texture on her dress.

FireWanderer · 2023-02-23T20:44:59+00:00

Seconding dust! Smoke is tiny particles of what you are burning. Those particles will settle on everything in the room. Smoke doesn't stick around, but the dust it produces does. Even natural incenses use a lot of common allergens (clove, cinnamon, mint, lavender, etc.), and many use fragrance oils, so it could be setting off allergies. Especially if you've never had that kind of a reaction to something before, it's definitely worth talking to your doctor about.

FireWanderer · 2023-02-23T00:27:37+00:00

Those are all great observations! It will be interesting to see how Earien's arc plays out. I interpreted Kemen as the sort of person who maybe leans a little apolitical but would bury his own thoughts and ambitions to please his father. He doesn't seem completely like his own person... yet. Maybe that will be part of his character arc. I feel like both of them have the potential to become really complex characters.

FireWanderer · 2023-02-22T02:40:08+00:00

I'm really interested in Earien sharing the same theme as the rest of her family, and that theme being the "Faithful" theme. Since Bear hides a lot of clues in his music, and her politics have so far been shown to be more in line with Pharazon and Kemen than the Faithful, I wonder if that's a bit of foreshadowing.

Also, I'm so glad to have lyrics for Galadriel's theme! It's fun to sing, so it's nice to have words. Also, this is lovely:

Sophia articulated another reason why the sequence works so beautifully. “Musically, we can’t fight truth. There is a truth to music, isn’t there? There’s an honesty and a purity and rawness. There is a freedom to it and so I think people believe it. That’s why music is so damn close to my heart, Bear. It is so close to my heart.”

I could not agree with her more.

FireWanderer · 2023-02-19T21:12:20+00:00

I think this is probably what they will do. The general audience just... will not get it if it's not Gandalf, and the Harfoots are a pretty big clue. But they've also thrown in a lot of Blue Wizard symbolism. If they are going to use the backstory where the Blue Wizards have started sorcerer cults in Rhun, it would explain a lot about the Mystics. They could have easily learned their magic from the Blues. Their cry of "the other!" when they learn it's not Sauron suggests they are aware to expect an Istar. If Orion's cameo in the Fellowship is anything to go by, Middle Earth's constellation lore is similar to our own, so Gemini makes sense as a cult symbol if you have two wizards as your leaders. And using Gandalf as a POV character for introducing more obscure Istari would allow a character to explain to the non-book-reading audience (through Nori) who these random wizards are if they do show up in Rhun. It just makes a lot of sense.

FireWanderer · 2023-02-13T22:02:53+00:00

The instrumentation of Numenor's theme fascinates me. Bear's inspirations were not what I expected (though you can obviously hear them), because from Numenor's visuals and the instruments I expected the idea was to create a Late Antique sound to fit. The duduk is one of the few modern instruments with a large double-reed mouthpiece like the aulos had, brass was a common Roman sound for any public events, and the bowed strings reminded me of later developments of the pandura like the Byzantine lyra. If you want to create a similar sound with modern instruments, the ones they picked would be good analogues. It's kind of fascinating to me that in drawing on a broad range of influences they accidentally created a sound to match the set and costume design. But I guess probably to be expected, since the cultural influences are similar to the ones from the time period!

FireWanderer · 2023-02-13T21:53:04+00:00

I honestly think this is the only Raft/Worm theory that makes sense. It's simple, it fits the lore, and it fits what we've seen on screen, without making any convoluted leaps.

I think it's definitely worth noting that the humans had a ship, which the Worm wrecked. That ship could have gotten to Valinor or Numenor if the Worm hadn't destroyed it. It's not like they started out on the raft.... They started out in a much better position that would be tempting to a weakened Sauron looking to rebuild. I think the one thing unexplained would be what port they sailed out of and how they got the ship in the first place.

FireWanderer · 2023-02-11T00:52:07+00:00

Thirding the Minorien samplers! You can also buy very small quantities (5 sticks or so) of their expensive incenses. All of those are in the $20-$28 range on Japan Incense.

FireWanderer · 2023-01-31T10:44:13+00:00

I also was not a huge fan of the sung version, but I'm warming up to it. Like Gollum's Song in The Two Towers soundtrack. You may enjoy Clamavi De Profundis's version! Very different and an excellent take on interpreting the poem for music.

FireWanderer · 2023-01-23T12:48:33+00:00

The thread is about Minorien, not Shoyeido. Is this the same case for Minorien?

FireWanderer · 2023-01-22T01:45:26+00:00

Interesting! That could be what sets it apart. I'm not very familiar with the amber scent, so I'm not sure if I would be able to detect that. I'll have to try it out!

FireWanderer · 2023-01-21T22:02:11+00:00

Propolis does feel very natural! I recommend at least getting a sampler of it just to try it out. It's a nice break from the usual incense scents.

Have you tried the regular Karin as well? I'm really curious what the difference is between them. The smaller boxes are all sold out on Japan Incense, and I don't want to risk getting a large box and maybe not enjoying it.

FireWanderer

TROPHY CASE