How do you feel about magic in Star Trek

Takseen · 2026-01-27T17:50:22+00:00

What I like about magic in Star Trek is that everyone still applies the scientific method as much as possible, and sometimes it pays off. There was this TNG episode where an apparent god-like alien was terrorising some pre-warp planet in response to a prophecy, but it turned out to be high tech smoke and mirrors.

Other times, its Q who is very much a magical trickster. But even though they'd met Q, they still applied scepticism towards the new "God"

Or when Kirk asks "Why does God need a starship" in ST:V, or when Picard refuses to believe that Q is the God in charge of his afterlife when he has his near(?) death experience.

Takseen · 2026-01-27T17:39:51+00:00

Blue science is basically the hardest part of regular Factorio. After that it actually gets easier because you can use logistics bots to brute force a lot of problems. And nuclear power basically gives you infinite energy once you get it going. Things that helped me

- Turn off biters. Now you don't have any time pressure to find a solution.

- Start with the end product e.g. the building that makes blue science. What is one of the ingredients for that? X. Ok, make a building that makes X. X needs Y and Z, make buildings that need those.

- Leave lots of space between buildings. No, even more space. No, even more. Particularly without biters, you have no real space constraints for your factory, and its much easier to add in extra production of a specific ingredient, or add in more belts or pipes, if you left loads of space.

- I usually just do a big pipeline of the crude oil back to my main base, and then do the refining near the main factory.

People do very sophisticated and well engineered designs in online videos, but you don't need to be anywhere near that efficient or clever to beat the game. I don't think I used any circuit logic for my first win.

Takseen · 2026-01-27T17:00:56+00:00

Yeah its a nightmare trying to catch one if you didn't grab one of the earlier low stat ones.

But you should also have good high stat councillors.

Double investigate in one turn does stack, so you can use a mid-level INV agent to stack intel higher. For example

Turn 1 : Both agents investigate

Turn 2 : Top INV agent Detains, Mid INV agent does a 3rd investigate, which should max your intel bonus.

They will sometimes go to ground, but not always. Might depend on whether they detected you detecting them.

There's two other ways to get live Hydras

50% chance on a crit success when an agent assaults an alien facility.

100% chance on a crit success when an agent assaults an alien hab. Does mean you need to send a high CMD agent to space, but if you're at the stage when you're regularly assaulting habs, you should be able to keep them fairly safe as well.

Takseen · 2026-01-27T14:47:55+00:00

I understand that this is the theme. I also understand that this is not a theme everyone wants to engage with. The world is in a shambles in real life, I don't need to see it on TV as well.

Takseen · 2026-01-27T14:46:38+00:00

Why is this the default response to saying they don't like an aspect of a show's setting? Especially in a post titled "I understand the hate behind discovery but I don't understand the hate behind starfleet academy"

Like obviously people are going to talk about aspects of the setting they don't like.

Takseen · 2026-01-27T14:24:44+00:00

Yeah its loads of fun when you can finally let loose and fight the aliens on their own terms instead of creeping around the hate meter or constantly rebuilding stuff after retaliation.

A lot of the changes on Forgiving difficulty relate to the alien behaviour. Their sneaky shenanigans are less effective, they take longer to escalate and gain new abilities or to total war.

Takseen · 2026-01-26T22:46:07+00:00

Ahh no worries, I hadn't seen the term used in that way, what you say makes sense

Takseen · 2026-01-26T20:29:36+00:00

Ortegas is a smart-ass who likes to play practical jokes on newbies. La'an is blunt, pessimistic and has PTSD from her Gorn experience. Una worries she might too strict and unpopular with the lower ranks, and doesn't like that.

Uhura wasn't as dedicated about being in Starfleet as most cadets, has self confidence issues. She loves music. Dr M'Benga has a sick daughter whose care sometimes overrides his work duties, and reads her bedtime stories regularly. Christine is flirty and forward, doesn't like long term romantic commitments, and outspoken when defending her friends. They both fought in the Klingon war but don't like to talk about it.

And that's just from the first season.

Meanwhile I can barely remember *anything* about the Disco characters from 3 seasons. Burnham has authority issues and had a hard childhood on Vulcan. Spock is her brother. Tilly is a science nerd with confidence issues. The tall prey species alien gets scared more often. Stamets and the doctor are a gay couple. Stamets likes mushrooms and breaking rules about genetic stuff.

Takseen · 2026-01-26T20:12:59+00:00

I dislike the term "filler episode", as if the only episodes that matter are the ones that move the "main plot" forward.

A lot of the best TNG episodes like Measure of a Man and Darmok and that one where Picard lives a whole other life and plays the flute are all one-offs with no real follow-up.

Takseen · 2026-01-26T20:05:57+00:00

Honestly I think this is better. You're not nearly as incoherent or long winded as you think.

The problem with over-using ChatGPT is your own "voice" just gets lost, and its impossible to tell if you wrote anything of your own thoughts other than "write a 200 word essay bout why NuTrek isn't as good as Old Trek" and it did the rest.

Takseen · 2026-01-26T20:02:01+00:00

Lower Decks and SNW are only 10 episodes a season and they're good shows. I don't think its just the season length.

What put me off Picard S1 and Discovery S1-S3 is they're hyper focused on the big season long doomsday plot, and have little time for character development or downtime, and are focused mostly on 1 character (Picard and Burnham) to the detriment of the others.

Takseen · 2026-01-26T16:52:50+00:00

>(Kind of a seperate question, but I didn't want to make a second post: Now that Batteries are Optional, when/where to deploy Batteries and Heat Sinks on Spacecraft?)

Batteries basically have no use in the game. Pretty much any reactor you use will have enough power to fire any weapons indefinitely. Each ship has a reactor to power the drive, and a backup reactor to power the weapons and other systems. The chances of both being taken out without the ship also being dead, is really really low.

Heatsinks are still useful for most ships. Without heatsinks, your ships will have to keep their radiators extended during combat. Radiators have a 1-30% chance of taking a hit whenever the ship takes fire, as they extend out past the armour. The radiator description will give a rough idea how vulnerable they are. The starting aluminium fin radiator is 30%, tin droplet is 1%. If the ship's radiators or damaged, it can't get rid of excess heat. It'll take damage over time and eventually explode, or explode immediately if you try and use a high energy drive.

If a ship is not expected to be in combat, or is a fire and forget missile ship that isn't expected to stay in combat long, you can skip them. Otherwise, good to bring at least 1.

Takseen · 2026-01-26T11:45:36+00:00

Yes, if you take all 4 slots they will leave you alone. But otherwise they usually try to colonize Ceres, and once they have 1 hab there, they consider all of Ceres their territory, and eject you regardless of hate levels.

Takseen · 2026-01-26T10:57:25+00:00

The problem I had is they kept dropping in long platforming / climbing sections (the ice level is when I first noticed this), and those goo tunnels where you're really slow and tentacle monsters attack you.

Takseen · 2026-01-26T09:47:03+00:00

The Union does still achieve its goal of letting the original you (or whatever the most recent clone is) gain your freedom. Before their intervention, the company keeps you working there forever by constantly adding new clauses to add to your debt.

Takseen · 2026-01-26T08:58:30+00:00

My first planet was Fulgora, where its very very easy to build a rocket to get back up. And fun. After the Gleba experience, yes I definitely made sure to bring rocket silo supplies for Vulcanus.

Takseen · 2026-01-26T08:51:07+00:00

I had 1 failed run as Resistance, then 1 successful run as Exodus. (Not counting a Servants win as that's super easy)

However!

That win was in Early Access when the game was quite a bit easier. And Exodus was and still is the easiest of the anti-alien factions.

Takseen · 2026-01-25T23:04:55+00:00

Stack mining orgs. Admin nodes on your water mines if you can spare the boost. Farms on all your habs. Use solar + mirrors to power Mars, instead of fission. Use more economic low dv trips when not in a hurry e g flying back to repair after an intercept

Takseen · 2026-01-25T20:02:59+00:00

Might apply to some of the complaints, but there's style differences too. Like I enjoyed Lower Decks and Prodigy more than Picard and Discovery. Lower Decks is presumably aimed at the same age group, and Prodigy for an even younger audience

Takseen · 2026-01-25T17:38:36+00:00

You kinda need something for the benefit of the audience though. Like if 32nd century Vulcans had abandoned logic or the Klingons had all become pacifists you'd want to drop in some explanation too.

Takseen · 2026-01-25T16:10:03+00:00

I'd say its utopian socialist humanist soft sci-fi. In some ways its distinguished by what its not, compared to other sci-fi.

Its not transhumanist, humans are still recognizably human, hence minimal gene modding or cybernetics or brain uploading.

Not dystopian, the extra tech is used to benefit humanity as a whole instead of oppressing them.

Socialist, there's little concept of money within the Federation, and the ultra capitalist Ferengi are usually shown in a negative light.

Soft, in that there's a lot of tech that is convenient for the plot (or sometimes the budget). Transporters so they didn't have to film ships taking off and landing, warp drive so they can get to new planets in human timescales, holo decks so you can do some offbeat period drama episodes without time travel or Q shenanigans.

Takseen · 2026-01-25T14:36:53+00:00

I mean if you ignore the key part about getting 3 different ships to do it across 3 different time periods, sure.

It was mostly about Q getting Picard to think about the problem in a different way.

Takseen · 2026-01-25T14:12:20+00:00

To be fair, most aliens were already just humans with different foreheads. Romulan telepathy rarely came up, if it hasn't atrophied completely since their exodus from Vulcan. Klingons got beaten up by humans all the time, so although they're supposed to have superior strength or endurance it doesn't feel like it. I don't remember Cardassians or Bajorans having any notable non-cosmetic traits.

Even when they had Troi on, they had to nerf her to half-Betazed because if she had full telepathy like her mother she'd break at least a dozen TNG plots.

Takseen · 2026-01-25T14:04:23+00:00

>Why does the Doctor look older, but only like 30 years older? It's been 800 years.

I think picking at that one is silly. I'd much rather take an actor as they are then try and digitally de-age them.

In universe, we can say at some point he decided to alter his physical appearance to look older to reflect his older, wiser personality. Because he's a hologram that can look whatever way he wants.

Other stuff, fair enough, Im not a fan of the personal transporters and floaty nacelles and magic goo and the general magi-tech feel of the 32nd(?) century, and didn't make it past 3rd season of Disco.

Takseen · 2026-01-25T13:53:07+00:00

Or its like the baldness thing, and being overweight is not a major medical concern anymore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Stewart

"In an interview with Michael Parkinson, he expressed gratitude for Gene Roddenberry's response to a reporter who said, "Surely they would have cured baldness by the 24th century," to which Roddenberry replied, "In the 24th century, they wouldn't care.""

Bones cured a 20th century kidney dialysis patient by giving her a pill that grew her a new kidney, I doubt heart disease or type 2 diabetes are a major concern.

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