Yes. People have been talking about how the second initiative was better, because of the good story!?!?
Hi CMDRs, please go and **** off the thargoids so we can have a big battle. The end.
Maybe I expect to much, but where exactly was the good story?
Edit - Having the 1st round as go hand in exploration data, that will keep the explorers happy didn't quite cut it for me.
Again....maybe my expectations are unrealistic.
Edit 2 - what would have made it more interesting is if you had a pacifist faction you could donate the exploration data too, who would have blocked aegis. Then, at least, player actions would have GENUINELY influenced the path of the initiative. As it was, what was going to happen was going to happen. Any suggestion that commanders influenced it is lip service
I thought the 2nd II’s story was good.
To explain why, a basic principle first - the II isn’t telling a story. We’re not outside of things seeing/being told what’s happening, we’re inside.
So what the 2nd II has had has been:
- a major galactic power starting to act outside of their remit
- short term commercial pressures becoming their major driver instead of good long term strategy
- propaganda and the misleading of the public
- people generally following the propaganda without question
- personal commercial gain trumping considerations of consequences of actions
- player lead opposition to AEGIS in an attempt to manipulate the markets
- player lead attempts to highlight the real nature of what’s going on
- a power misleading people with a fake reward/outcome
- an unpredicted event of real consequence for players (if only temporary)
- some interesting behaviour from the Thargoids
- lots of action
- extension of activities into the interior of a permit locked region and an increase of the human presence therein
Plus consequences which will only emerge over time. (The new Thargoid ship which has just been discovered operating in the vicinity of Palin’s base is the start. Other things will come with time.)
The story will continue as consequences emerge, but the connection is swept under the carpet by the powers that be, and they instead become used as part of the propaganda machine.
Plus ongoing through all of that will be a party the nature of which is completely alien and which will be read into in human ways, with things boxed into human concepts which don’t necessarily apply, with all the misunderstanding, confusion and further consequences that will entail.
Yeah, it’s been good IMHO. I think what I’d re-emphasise is not just to look at it in terms of what happened within the official duration of the II, but what it it all means and will mean in the future.
Just on the pacifist faction thing - I know where you’re coming from and had thought about it way back at the start of the II. The issues with it is:
- it would massively (and artificially) diminish how much power the powers that be actually have
- it would remove the need for people to look at the situation for themselves and prevent any player lead opposition
In other words it’s a can’t have the cake and eat it situation. If we want things to be player influenced in terms of players actually leading and driving (in terms of opposition to the powers that be), then that means not having that lead and driven by FD (by them setting up their own official opposition). Personally I’d rather we have the opportunity to actually be that oppositon, rather than it just being a choice of which FD created party we choose to throw our support behind.
Arguably there’s not much in the way of mechanisms to actually create that opposition in game, but equally that’s arguably just actually an accurate reflection of the nature of the game universe.
I did wonder the same, I'm British and have never heard of the John fella so was wondering if that was a clue, the other 2 are very well known as are others that could be used instead but then I read too much into anything sometimes...3 systems by definition would form a triangle with a mid-point (or maybe 4 if you read above, its over my head)
en.m.wikipedia.org
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