Ettienne Dorn - Too Dark and totally unecessary

[Dillon Fallon]

I disagree. You should be fully aware of the society you interact with. I fully support the Imperial system.

(Though I am pledged to an Imperial power who doesn't in fact support slavery. Ah well. I doubt she'll win that one.)

Well... maybe if she kept her pants on around the charity workers she'd have done a better job of unifying the galaxy to that cause.

Nah, only way to get rid of slavery is to free everyone from anyone who claims to be a ruler (seek out your local anarchy faction for details- at least taking out a few of the local politicians will be a start).

 

[60mm]

Maybe the headcanon is that assassination targets don't actually die but telepresence away?

Spoiler: assassination targets don't actually die

 

[Mrrshal]

Hmm. How do we know Ettienne Dorn isn't testing healthier ways to revive the occupants of escape pods, or working on safer ways to put them into stasis? Perhaps Search and Rescue in regular stations are the real human traffickers or the escape pods contain the occupants of The Botany Bay, and are safer kept locked down? (Khaaaaan!)

In other words you can choose to use an engineer or not but you're not necessarily limited from building your own head cannon for why that might be a good moral choice, or not.

When I was unlocking Dorn it was explicitly said that he works on improving escape technology, so we can safely say that he is not harming these occupants imho

 

[aRJay]

Maybe the headcanon is that assassination targets don't actually die but telepresence away? It's not like ED lore can be very consistent in this considering player CMDRs and goofy de- and respawning NPCs.

They don't telepresence away they get in an escape pod and are eventually rescued and released from the pod.

 

[CMDR GRAEME COWELL]

They don't telepresence away they get in an escape pod and are eventually rescued and released from the pod.

By Dorn, the creepy little dude with the heart of gold!!

 

[Morbad]

Surely the whole point of escape pods is that people -don't- die when you blow their ships up?

Only CMDRs get the reliable ones.

If he is supposed to be a nefarious type, then the problem is that he gates a major gameplay mechanic.

Characters having to make hard choices isn't something I'd consider a problem and such choices, as subjective as they are, are hardly limited to unlocking Dorn.

I believe it was already asked on page 1 (and 2, 3 and 4), how do you know the rescued people get enslaved?

My CMDR thawed them out and asked them where they wanted to go. None replied with anything that sounded like the equivalent of "to Dorn". Most who had heard of Dorn were horrified. He then he asked them if they could shave another few tons off the mass if his ship, cause that was the price of being able to choose their destination. Most of them said no; those that said yes were obviously lying. So, they all got sold to Dorn.

Due diligence is important. If you are going to commit atrocities, it's best you are as fully informed about the nature of them and the fate of your victims as possible; it's unwise to remain ignorant of ghosts that may come back to haunt you. When Dorn is found on the toilet with two 'self inflicted' gunshot wounds to the back of the head, or has a horrible 'accident' testing one of his new escape pods himself, my CMDR will know why, and he'll be ready.

In a game that simulates a dystopian future checking your real life morals at the door is just the cost of entry.

I would sell the OP and their children into slavery before I'd lower myself to the real-life equivalent of PowerPlay.

He always only works for Superpower-aligned factions, trusting in the "lawfulness" of that faction's mission and bounty system.

Ah, the idea that lawfulness is synonymous with infallibility, integrity, and benevolence...sounds like willful ignorance to me!

Imperial slavery is a rite of passage (from debt-ridden reprobate to up-standing citizen).

What's the mortality rate on that?

When I was unlocking Dorn it was explicitly said that he works on improving escape technology, so we can safely say that he is not harming these occupants imho

When I was unlocking Sigmund Rascher he specifically said he was trying to save lives by developing better ways of warming hypothermic individuals and improving blood clotting in the case of trauma. So, we can safely say that he was definitely not freezing, shooting, or hacking assloads of innocent victims to death. /s

 

[Crank Larson]

What's the mortality rate on that?

Within acceptable limits.

 

[GunnerBill]

A woke game set in the future, is that what you want OP?

 

[Mrrshal]

When I was unlocking Sigmund Rascher he specifically said he was trying to save lives by developing better ways of warming hypothermic individuals and improving blood clotting in the case of trauma. So, we can safely say that he was definitely not freezing, shooting, or hacking assloads of innocent victims to death. /s

When you open engineer window, you have different lore text before you unlock him, during process of unlocking him and after he is unlocked. There was definitely a lore description of him developing escape pod technologies.

 

[Xintar]

It could have been replicants, clones. cyborgs, Chimeras, mutants, etc.
But ED purposely chose human slavery. For the trigger effect.
Early on, I was hoping for a really, really fun dust up between the Federation and Empire over the slave trade.

But the conflict never materialized, and the two powers coexist in a humdrum state of micro-proxy conflicts.
My war mongering dreams...

 

[Morbad]

When you open engineer window, you have different lore text before you unlock him, during process of unlocking him and after he is unlocked. There was definitely a lore description of him developing escape pod technologies.

And you think this is somehow incompatible with using those individuals delivered to him in their escape pods as unwilling test subjects in mortally dangerous experiments, the means to illicitly subsidize research costs, or for even more dubious purposes?

Countless times throughout real-world history there have been monsters who have earnestly believed they were working toward the greater good, occasionally even some who have actually made meaningful contributions to life-saving medicine and/or technology, who did so via means that are generally considered morally and ethically reprehensible in the extreme. Superficially, or even honestly, noble goals say utterly nothing about the means employed.

What does say something about the means employed is asking for occupied escape pods be delivered to him in exchange for a service, instead of being turned over to a search and rescue agent.

Ettinne Dorn's unlock requirement is clearly supposed to conjure imagery of human experimentation...and not the kind where informed consent was obtained from the test subjects. It's not even done in a subtle way, but in an overt, even cliched, manner; presumably so that the moral and ethical quandary cannot be missed. Until your post, I would have said that Dorn's presentation was a bit on the nose.

 

[Ezren]

I'm glad that everyone can project their own version of evil onto Dorn based on their interpretations, instead of what he's asking for.

 

[AdmiralXanos]

I'm glad that everyone can project their own version of evil onto Dorn based on their interpretations, instead of what he's asking for.

when you find a missing person, you don't typically drop them off at the mechanic shop for free a car tune-up.

 

[CMDR GRAEME COWELL]

They (FDEV) present him in such a way as to make him look suspect, pudgy faced beady eyes, the only npc I've seen wearing glasses, small round glasses, it's like they just cut and paste him straight from the creepy guy TV tropes dictionary. It seems like he Is deliberately made to dodgy so players need to make a decision with potentially uncomfortable consequences. That's just how I read it ymmv

 

[Ezren]

when you find a missing person, you don't typically drop them off at the mechanic shop for free a car tune-up.

But if I found a missing person who was floating at sea in a metal box, I would be fine dropping them off with somebody who owns their own island.

If he wanted humans to experiment on he'd be asking for slaves instead of going through unnecessary hoops. But he's asking for commanders to go rescue people from the horrifying void of space.

 

[AdmiralXanos]

there is a paper trail in slave trade, not the same for missing persons

 

[RamirezKurita]

But if I found a missing person who was floating at sea in a metal box, I would be fine dropping them off with somebody who owns their own island.

If he wanted humans to experiment on he'd be asking for slaves instead of going through unnecessary hoops. But he's asking for commanders to go rescue people from the horrifying void of space.

But he's not looking simply for people to experiment on, he's looking for people in escape pods to experiment on as they are his field of research. Research that he quite possibly cannot do with willing volunteers, such as pushing escape pods to their limits during testing and monitoring the occupant's vitals; luckily for him, people in escape pods are already classed as "MIA" and possibly presumed dead until discovered so people won't come looking for him, he can experiment to his heart's content on them and nobody in a position of authority will ever know.

Sure, dropping people lost at sea on the first occupied island is a reasonable thing to do; but would your story change if the resident on the island is a reclusive mad scientist of dubious affiliations that is known to perform experiments on people? Face it, you are basically performing the Elite equivalent of handing ethnic minorities off to Dr Josef Mengele; sure, he might be a trained medical doctor but that doesn't mean he has his "patients" wellbeing as a concern.

 

[Hanerib]

I used to sell escape pods into black markets back in the day, never had any trouble finding a buyer. Lots of human traffic into the Pleiades for whatever reason, prisoners and less well-offs made to seek opportunities there, among others. Sometimes tourists. Heard rumors there was a big player in the business somewhere in that area, so commodity prices never really dropped. Considering value for nett weight suggested something more specific than simple industrial refinery material. What was it called - I have a little trouble with memory sometimes - oh right, Janus Corporation I think they called them.

 

[S0rkvild]

I'm replaying Deus Ex Human Revolution and I'm in the middle of The Missing Link park where main character discovers that humans in stasis pods are used in a dark project hidden away from public opinion https://deusex.fandom.com/wiki/Hyron_Project

 

[CMDR GRAEME COWELL]

Thargoid Human Hybrids... just saying