Community Event / Creation Castor and Pollux Day Four: ship required for passage to a nearby system

[Andrew Sayers]

Hey all,

This week we're playing through an event based on Elite: Dangerous' publicly archived designs. You can start from chapter one or jump straight in to day four...

... in the sector next door ...​

The dark system "Helen" had seen a billion years of quiet stellar motion as the rogue planet and its asteroids traveled the heavens. Yesterday, humanity finished shattering that peace 72 hours after discovering it. That's quite good really, by our standards.

Both Empire and Federation cited their moral responsibility to act as the galaxy's police force. Despite the best of intentions, their support for mercenaries converted a fragile situation they didn't fully understand into a broken mess they understood all too clearly. Federal Eagles faced off against Imperial Fighters while Sidewinders shot whoever they could find. Fighting was fierce on all sides, but it gradually became clear the Empire had won the day. As the battle died down, Patron Olcanze's Cruiser hosted a ceremony in the nearby system of Ayolfa where he signed many new Letters of Marque.

Elsewhere, many commanders had decided they'd rather trade goods than blows, and it was another excellent day on the market. Alliance sales teams introduced part-exchange for anyone willing to free their slaves, and on-site tech support managed to overcome anti-robot prejudice by demonstrating how to switch them off and on again. Stunned managers were heard to exclaim "I only switch my slaves off when I want to teach the others a lesson!"

As you go to board your ship this morning, a low-level official runs up and offers you a mission...

If you backed the Empire yesterday:

Spoiler

The young man congratulates you on your success and asks whether you would be willing to take on a more sensitive mission. "Patron Olcanze is working to improve relations in the region, but is concerned Castor might fall into enemy hands. Would you be willing to transport several dignitaries to Stuart Town? They will be involved in enhanced diplomacy so they may also need picking up if their actions are misinterpreted."

If you backed the Federation yesterday:

Spoiler

The man looks over a clipboard at you, and explains his team is responsible for ensuring the citizens of Castor decide to join the Federation. "There are less than ten thousand voters in the whole system, and we believe about three thousand could be persuaded to vote for Federal membership. If we can get just a few thousand of our clones to become Castori citizens today, my team will get a bonus for winning the referendum early. What we need from you is to transport as many workers as possible to the system - for a very reasonable fee, of course."

If you took the Alliance deal yesterday:

Spoiler

The woman asks how your trading has gone, before getting down to business. Based on yesterday's market data, her organisation has calculated that the combined GDP of Castor, Pollux and Helen will be approximately 8 billion credits per galactic standard year, making war a poor investment at the present time. But the sales team indicate the local corporations could be bought outright for less than a billion - "would you be willing to discreetly deliver this bond for a thousand credits to a local dignitary? We would be happy to extend your discount for a week or so."

If you went it alone yesterday:

Spoiler

The smartly-dressed domestic slave introduces herself as an attaché to the chief bureaucrat. She explains the boards of directors in both Castor and Pollux have decided to unite against the external aggression, and need to raise a militia to free their systems. They need to send emissaries to nearby worlds without alerting the major factions, and would like to charter your ship for one such mission.

 

[Cathy]

I was very tempted to do the dirty on a special cargo. But no, despite sustaining a repair bill yesterday I made quite a bit of money and I'd rather avoid complications right now.

 

[Rollo]

Just when I turned around and aimed my mining lazor on that purplish ship, she jumped away! I thank Zarkon for the help with some hard earned minerals but the following skirmish with the dark side goes bad. We were heavily outnumbered!
Limping away and hiding behind an asteroid, I decide to make a swift job with the broom, cleaning out some mining dust from the cargo bay. "Not as posh and shiny as an Orca, my Asp, but it'll do for workers".

 

[Philip Coutts]

Drop a few diplomats off to further the glory of the empire, whatever could go wrong???

 

[RobFisher]

Right now I think I'd rather do business with the alliance than the mysterious Mr Hendley. I might pay him a visit at some point, though, just to see how he is doing.

 

[Perseus]

I can't carry esteemed Imperial dignitaries in my Cobra. I would be dishonoring their status and rank by transporting them in an uncomfortable fighting vessel.
I've heard of the skirmish between a loyal Imperial and two trigger happy Federal hotshots. I'm ready to give them some pay back and drive them from the system. The Federation is under represented here and action needs to be taken before they colonize the system with their voting, subservient rabble.
If my flight path crosses with that Bingo Brewster, I'm checking his legal status. I think he may have a meaty bounty on his head - then again, it might be poultry!

 

[Zarkon]

I chose option #1. I usually avoid becoming involved with affairs of state.

However, in my travels I have seen many smaller star system being taken advantage of by the larger, more powerful space agencies. Having earned a modest amount of credits by blasting pirates, protecting honest traders and supporting hard working miners, I decide to offer my discrete services to the local corporations, hoping to help them regain some level of legal rights over the newly discovered dark system.

I agree to the attaché's request, confident that my dingy, long range Cobra will provide a suitable, low profile transport.

 

[insanephoton]

I had to decline the clipboard man's mission as my cargo hold isn't currently fitted with life support. Somehow I don't think that even in undeveloped systems they'd let corpses cast votes.

 

[Andrew Sayers]

Time's up!

Things are coming to a head, and Friday's installment is now online!

I'll post a breakdown of issues in this chapter shortly.

 

[Andrew Sayers]

For those that are interested in background details, here's some for today.

First, a bit of a disclaimer - as we don't know much about the Alliance, things went in a more speculative direction when they polled better than expected

In the previous games, different makes of ship were associated with different factions. For example, you were more likely to find an Eagle Mk II available for purchase from a Federal shipyard than an Imperial one. Although nothing's been stated explicitly, it seems like Elite: Dangerous will go down the same route, meaning ships are likely to hint at the loyalties of their owners.

Alliance sales and tech support are largely there to move the story forward, but the ship damage proposal (which will be moved to the design discussion archive in the coming weeks) suggests malfunctioning ship modules might need to be switched off and on again, so it's not as absurd as it sounds to suggest robots might be too.

A chain of FFE missions involves two hitchhikers (probably Federal spies) being transported around the place, but there's no word yet on whether similar mission chains will appear in Elite: Dangerous.

There are scattered mentions of cloning throughout the Elite canon, such as the "Imperial Clone Troops" mentioned in the Frontier: Elite 2 gazetteer entry for Cemeiss. Again, we haven't heard much about them in Elite: Dangerous yet.

The Kickstarter strapline says commanders will start with 100 credits, just like the previous games. In FFE, an absurdly productive player could make millions of credits a year, so 8 billion credits seems like a reasonable GDP for a small economy.

The Frontier: Elite 2 Manual talks about Galactic Mean Time (GMT), and says it was adopted after the signing of the treaty between the Empire and the Federation. The clock in those games includes hours, days and years based on Earth years, but I called it a "galactic standard year" because I'm not aware of an official word for "one year of GMT".

Finally, the Background Simulation proposal tells us entities that run out of money can fall back on their faction as a safety net. But since neither Castor nor Pollux have such a net, what do they do? I've speculated they would get help from nearby systems, but who knows how well that will turn out...

 

[Minti2]

For those that are interested in background details, here's some for today.

First, a bit of a disclaimer - as we don't know much about the Alliance, things went in a more speculative direction when they polled better than expected

In the previous games, different makes of ship were associated with different factions. For example, you were more likely to find an Eagle Mk II available for purchase from a Federal shipyard than an Imperial one. Although nothing's been stated explicitly, it seems like Elite: Dangerous will go down the same route, meaning ships are likely to hint at the loyalties of their owners.

Alliance sales and tech support are largely there to move the story forward, but the ship damage proposal (which will be moved to the design discussion archive in the coming weeks) suggests malfunctioning ship modules might need to be switched off and on again, so it's not as absurd as it sounds to suggest robots might be too.

A chain of FFE missions involves two hitchhikers (probably Federal spies) being transported around the place, but there's no word yet on whether similar mission chains will appear in Elite: Dangerous.

There are scattered mentions of cloning throughout the Elite canon, such as the "Imperial Clone Troops" mentioned in the Frontier: Elite 2 gazetteer entry for Cemeiss. Again, we haven't heard much about them in Elite: Dangerous yet.

The Kickstarter strapline says commanders will start with 100 credits, just like the previous games. In FFE, an absurdly productive player could make millions of credits a year, so 8 billion credits seems like a reasonable GDP for a small economy.

The Frontier: Elite 2 Manual talks about Galactic Mean Time (GMT), and says it was adopted after the signing of the treaty between the Empire and the Federation. The clock in those games includes hours, days and years based on Earth years, but I called it a "galactic standard year" because I'm not aware of an official word for "one year of GMT".

Finally, the Background Simulation proposal tells us entities that run out of money can fall back on their faction as a safety net. But since neither Castor nor Pollux have such a net, what do they do? I've speculated they would get help from nearby systems, but who knows how well that will turn out...

Cheers for the info, interesting, and look forward to the ship damage proposal when it appears in the DDA.