Empire not intended to be the galactic "bad guys?"
- Thread starter DukeIronHand
- Start date
What I find most strange about the empire is the idea that any nation based upon hereditary rule could possibly be stable. It's never happened before, and the larger the empire the faster it collapses. Too much fiction, not enough science Fdev. Also, love the cries of "but Hudson's a war monger" from people who will defend slavery as wellfare. Slavery isn't wellfare , wellfare is wellfare, which, being the space USA the federation probably has.
Stay Frosty
Cmnd Fulsom
Stay Frosty
Cmnd Fulsom
We're already had an assassination of the Emperor...not really a shining example of stability.
Stealthie
Banned
Don't let Leto Atreides II hear you say that.
Neither and all of them are bad guys - especially the Alliance
Michael
They're ALL bad.
Will we be able to reveal the story too ? Or, saying that in another way, does the story's write in the stone, does the strory will run by itself without any chance for players do something to change it a bit ?
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Yea well I am quite tired of the modern trend to be chic and cool with "no good guys" and the "anti-hero." Very much overdone.
And I dislike phoney anarchists.
I like my right and wrong (especially in a damn game) to be black and white with no gray or nuanaces.
And please spare me the 21st century morality lecture about geopolitics and government please - I live (and work) in the real world thank you very much.
Guess I'll read and study around and we'll see what the future brings per MB's nebulous hints.
And I dislike phoney anarchists.
I like my right and wrong (especially in a damn game) to be black and white with no gray or nuanaces.
And please spare me the 21st century morality lecture about geopolitics and government please - I live (and work) in the real world thank you very much.
Guess I'll read and study around and we'll see what the future brings per MB's nebulous hints.
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Neither and all of them are bad guys - especially the Alliance
Michael
Right, there's no specific bad guys in Elite. If we had to pick a bad guy it would be the Thargoids. The Oresrians are the peaceful relatives.
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I suspect that in the absence of clear, unambiguous guidance from FD that one group or another is Good and the other is Evil, we players are, either consciously or subconsciously, bringing our own 21st century cultural worldviews and imposing that on the cultures of ED to determine for ourselves which ones are "good" and "bad".
People from America, or Ireland, or India, are taught in school that "the Empire" (i.e. colonial Great Britain) were the bad guys who were heroically resisted and expelled by the non-Imperial good guys. I suspect such people would be more likely to instinctively think of the Empire as "bad guys".
People from Britain, or Australia, or Canada - countries which have never really had a problem with living under a hereditary monarchy - would be less likely to see the Empire as "the bad guys" and are more likely to see anything that smacks of rebellion or revolution as something that shouldn't be supported.
People from Russia probably wouldn't see any clear resonance between any ED culture and their own, but probably would see a clear resonance between the Federation and the United States, so would instinctively see the Federation as "bad guys".
It certainly doesn't predetermine which superpower a player is going to support. But it may help explain a player's first-impressions gut reaction for or against certain superpowers.
People from America, or Ireland, or India, are taught in school that "the Empire" (i.e. colonial Great Britain) were the bad guys who were heroically resisted and expelled by the non-Imperial good guys. I suspect such people would be more likely to instinctively think of the Empire as "bad guys".
People from Britain, or Australia, or Canada - countries which have never really had a problem with living under a hereditary monarchy - would be less likely to see the Empire as "the bad guys" and are more likely to see anything that smacks of rebellion or revolution as something that shouldn't be supported.
People from Russia probably wouldn't see any clear resonance between any ED culture and their own, but probably would see a clear resonance between the Federation and the United States, so would instinctively see the Federation as "bad guys".
It certainly doesn't predetermine which superpower a player is going to support. But it may help explain a player's first-impressions gut reaction for or against certain superpowers.
Jenner
I wish I was English like my hero Tj.
I'm basking so hard...
In elite2: frontier, it kind of seemed the empire were the "bad guys" that had no compunction about stomping out indigenous life on newly conquered worlds, then in elite 3: FFE the new alliance & Mic Turner were the "good guys" while the feds started to become paranoid and corruptible. Then when I joined ED and read the current lore, it seemed like the powers were now far more gray with internal divisions. I felt the federation of course wasn't the Star Trek utopian model, nor was the Empire the "evil" sith and stormtrooper empire of Star Wars. imo, the alliance is basically an alliance of independent systems combining forces when there's a serious threat so they don't have a formalized navy or rank structure. I'd say the Empire today has been undergoing an internal civil strife/reformation where the senators and the princess wield a lot more power. The Federation as mentioned seems more reminiscent of today's western civilization corrupted by elite corporatism and an endless war propaganda defense driven economy. The "disney" princess could be significantly popular due to her overall power being apparently closest to the simplified ideal of a "Princess Leia" utopian monarchy where in the prequels, Alderaan and Naboo were shown as prosperous "peaceful" worlds. Kind of fascinating to see "communist" and "cooperative" factions play out like there is ample wealth and energy to share within an interstellar future tech civilization supposedly without having to overtax and burden populations with inordinate wealth transfers, like trying to have the best of both capitalism and socialism even though much is still barely defined and placeholder. It's an interesting sci-fi take on an interstellar civilization with massive astronomical resources to see how the politics and prosperity of over a trillion humans play out over hundreds of populated star systems. Perhaps when Frontier gets to revisiting and revising powerplay and the general lore of ED, the powers with their political and economic structures will be more defined and fleshed out wherever they want to take it, hopefully also influenced by the ongoing powerplay involvement.
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The Alliance can bring the sledgehammer of their entire fleet down on any target they wish without committee due to the power of their Council of Admirals. Broad discretionary powers to the Sky Marshal.
I believe it's not power that corrupts but that power is magnetic to the corruptible. Still, that's a lot of power for one person to wield unilaterally. I would imagine nepotism, favoritism and discrimination are every bit as bad in the Alliance, not to mention the lack of transparency.
I don't imagine they're the kings of job-building, HDI boosting or public safety. I don't think infrastructure for the common people is high on their list of priorities. I doubt their gov't even touches corporate regulation. High taxes to pay for infrastructure for the politically important or to solidify their far-reaching sovereignty with little to nothing left for the little guy. In the Alliance, if you slip below the HDI threshold of 85, you lose momentum and become destitute, left to survive on your own, scrounging and begging. Private healthcare. No public education. Tolled roads. Shanty towns as far as the eyes can see outside the gates of the wealthy Arcologies. Full municipal autonomy. Cops stomping minorities.
The double edged sword of the Alliance. The wealthy elite run things and the rest are left to the anarchy they thought they wanted until it was combined with poverty. It's just another oligarchy. Like the Federation but with a stark class distinction generally around the 75-85 HDI range where the rich are normal instead of rich and the poor are like illiterate, diseased underhivers with no hope of climbing a ladder if there was one.
The Alliance exists as all the worst parts of the Federation and the Empire. It has the Federation's neglect and militance and the Empire's debauchery and pride.
Terrible place to live, unless you're rich.
I believe it's not power that corrupts but that power is magnetic to the corruptible. Still, that's a lot of power for one person to wield unilaterally. I would imagine nepotism, favoritism and discrimination are every bit as bad in the Alliance, not to mention the lack of transparency.
I don't imagine they're the kings of job-building, HDI boosting or public safety. I don't think infrastructure for the common people is high on their list of priorities. I doubt their gov't even touches corporate regulation. High taxes to pay for infrastructure for the politically important or to solidify their far-reaching sovereignty with little to nothing left for the little guy. In the Alliance, if you slip below the HDI threshold of 85, you lose momentum and become destitute, left to survive on your own, scrounging and begging. Private healthcare. No public education. Tolled roads. Shanty towns as far as the eyes can see outside the gates of the wealthy Arcologies. Full municipal autonomy. Cops stomping minorities.
The double edged sword of the Alliance. The wealthy elite run things and the rest are left to the anarchy they thought they wanted until it was combined with poverty. It's just another oligarchy. Like the Federation but with a stark class distinction generally around the 75-85 HDI range where the rich are normal instead of rich and the poor are like illiterate, diseased underhivers with no hope of climbing a ladder if there was one.
The Alliance exists as all the worst parts of the Federation and the Empire. It has the Federation's neglect and militance and the Empire's debauchery and pride.
Terrible place to live, unless you're rich.
You need to do some reading. May I suggest Elite: Out of the Darkness, and Elite: Reclamation+Premonition.
Even then, I'm not convinced I'd call Thargoids "bad guys". Is the elephant a bad guy for stepping on an ants nest and destroying it as he moves from one place to the next?
Z...
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Hence the large number of independent pilots. Not that I'll be dubbing them as "good" any time soon, either...
Then we have the Federal Republic of Colonia. Let's see how long before that slides down the long and slippery slope...
Z...