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Science!

Progress is beautiful.

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New version of the game. UHF Savior. A ship designed to be a principle colonial aid vessel, it helped save the recently founded Casroon colony shortly after unexpected weather nearly wiped it out. The Savior would go on serving in this role for nearly a hundred years, being transferred to private groups later in its life before being decommissioned. It was the basis for future Aid vessels for some time.

This update brings morphic weapons into the game. These exist to help differentiate two factions who rely heavily on unusual weapon types. The Church of Kitter’s bio weapons now feature this morphic feature, capable of meeting different challengers with them, while the Psychic weapons of the Albeck morph based on the psychic power channeled into them, creating rather strange powers much more easily than if one were to guide them with pure psychic might. 

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The Surreal and the Interactive Media

Interactive Media is sort of a fancy way of saying video game, just for all you less snobbish folks out there. Surrealism as an art movement is one that is rare to pop up, but very eye catching when it does. Where Surrealism is born is often varied as the artists that create it. Whether it’s a surreal movie relying on emotion or Salvador Dali and his being a character, these things are always very interesting. At least to me. I have a certain fondness for the surreal. 

Thus my great annoyance at the fact that surrealism is not found in video games very much. Often the surreal is born out of minimalism rather than pure focus on it, take Antichamber. It is clearly very surreal, but that is a service to its minimalism, the core artistic framework of the game. Antichamber is a beautiful game and an intriguing puzzler, something that does well to help you expand how you think through problems. Something I suggest to anyone. But it is artistically a work of minimalism, much like an iPod. Though I’d say it captures the spirit better as well.

As we go through surreal examples, I’m going to shy from Japanese games. As an American, cultural lenses may make surreal what is actually quite mundane in the origin. Take the dream sequences in Earthbound. Kind of surreal, but the game as a whole makes sense in the context of the culture and person it was created in. Though it has elements of surreality at the edges of it regardless. 

I think the pinnacle of surreal art as the structure of a game is OFF. Yes, that cheesy little game for cute children... or is it? The game does something perhaps unique in surreal art: It answers your questions. “Yes, what do you do in this mine?” “We mine smoke so people can breath.” That answers your question, but leaves you with a thousand new ones. It leans on the fourth wall not to bring humor, but to tug you deeper into the story. Its tone is not inconsistent because it was badly written, but because it wants to keep you horribly off balance. It takes things taken for granted in video games and twists them up in a ball. In a way, it sort of reminds one of the Garden of Heavenly Delights by Bosch. Something good devolving into hell itself, irony and absurdity with us along the entire way. 

Perhaps another good surrealist example is Lone Survivor. A grim and atmospheric game, it combines a certain amount of surrealism on top of what looks like a tale of survival horror, but it constantly tugs at your expectations. Perhaps one of the most effective ways it does this is by putting you through mind bending sequences, but also by having you try to have your survivor be normal and destress. Its very rare that a survival horror game rewards you for eating well, getting decent sleep, and spending your rare battery resource to play a gameboy. It speaks to the heart of what it is all about, at the end (Not spoiling that though), and why the surrealism comes in strongly in gameplay. It is ultimately about a message though and the surrealism drains with the ultimate reveal. 

I could talk on more, but it’s late.

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Starlight Spotlight: Farethi Confederacy

The powerful mining and industrial entity known as the Farethi Conglomerate once owned a large number of valuable planets along the edge of once space of the Collective empire. After a period of growth and corrupting local governments to be its pawns, the Conglomerate made the decision that the other Mega-corporations (Consortium, Ugsanie, Anthrykian) would be happier maintaining their current spheres of influence rather than invading its territories, instead turning its worries to a number of communist colonies along the galactic north, or away from the core. Not having an independent economy from the government meant that the Conglomerate had no effective ability to mine in their territories, no were these governments receptive to the standard set of bribes. Some planetary leaders seemed interested, but Farethi got wind of the fact they were mere political appointee of some greater, vast political entity.

Deciding they had enough of this, they launched a few probing strikes to see the defenses of these regions. Seeing just militias respond, Farethi decided they could take these planets over easily. A full strike was ordered, warping in ships and large groups of mercs. They had some early success against the militia, until they dug into a hidden and complex trench and tunnel network the mercs had trouble rooting out, nor could space ships be used to fully analyze them. While they got tripped up by that, a massive fleet responded to the threat and blew the vast majority of the space ships up. The rest of the mercs and ships surrendered shortly. Incensed, the Steel March as it was called quickly started an invasion of the Conglomerate in return.

The planets that they invaded had no idea what were going on. They were living their own lives and suddenly a large swath of communists were invading. Some fell without firing a shot because the government’s had so little forewarning. After some time, the Conglomerate and governments of the second wave of planets targeted got together, mounting a defense. The Farethi Alliance didn’t see much success at first, but as the defenses grew more refined and the allies trusted each other more, they eventually slowed down the invasion. They never truly stopped it: An assassin against the strong leader of the Steel March forced a halt to aggression as their political unity was tested in the aftermath. Many believe this Assassin was an agent of the Conglomerate, but no proof emerged either way.

After the Steel March stopped, the allies quickly worked for a stronger form of unity so they could actually stand against the tide. From it came the idea of the Confederacy, an alliance of primarily foreign policy and trade, with other matters retained as rights of individual states within it. From that framework other systems would be drawn in, but that would come after the fall of Farethi Conglomerate. When it was discovered that their ill timed raid was responsible for all this suffering, much of the rage that was impotent against the Steel March was forced upon the far weaker megacorp. Farethi’s holdings were torn apart into tiny company’s, the core company being left with holdings on a single world. Still better than what happened to Ugsansie, which basically stopped existing.

The Confederacy itself absorbed many now truly independent worlds worried about more powerful neighbors, the Jeran Empire, or just was too close to the Confederacy. This nation built most of its principles off of tradition and knee jerk reaction. When 2 states tried fighting in their borders, the federal government got new laws pertaining to its taxes, the army it could train, the space ships it fielded, everything to ensure it could enforce peace on any states attempting to make war. Tariffs are generally considered bad form among members, as well as outright barring products or companies without a good reason.

The confederacy is a Republic with primary internal decisions made by states, who setup their own particular style. The Confederacy’s Federal Government is a single house parliament, lead by a Chancellor. It is a 400 member body, with a proportion of the seats going to each state based on economic impact and population. The Confederacy’s capital has changed a few times, first starting in in Yut, the founding planet, but has settled in on the planet it is named after: Fareth. Fareth is a somewhat barren world, famed for mineral riches but lacks many elements required for thriving biospheres. 

The Confederacy’s loose government structure is often a point of derision among many of its large governments on the main stage, though it only fosters hatred with the Steel March. The Freeman Republic to its south is also somewhat of a worry, since the Republic freed itself from oppressive masters funded by products sold and invested in by many of the Confederacy’s elite. Nothing has come of it yet, but some are curious if the Confederacy can adapt to the new reality it lives in or will be picked apart by far cleaner run states.

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what i am supposed to use my historical knowledge for: analysis of historical events and the people and places involved in them, trying to understand why certain historical events happened the way they did, applying knowledge of the past to the present so as to create a better future

what i do use my historical knowledge for: flying into a Bitter Historian Rage whenever a tv show or movie is wildly historically inaccurate

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Starlight Spotlight: Solsia

It has been thousands of years since the first alien encountered the first human. A dim recollection of the far past though remains in the term Sol and its derived galactic region: Solsia. Originally referring to Sol and the nearby stars colonized by humans, the term Solsia and Solsian started to take on a certain desire to express human pride near the end of the Collective Empire in 4,300s. Once the empire fell, the term Solsian was applied to the government that took its place: The Solsian Protectorate. A complicated political unit, with its core leader, the steward, appointed by a council elected into office by regional legislatures, its complicated legal and bureaucratic infrastructure was at first a boon to its power. Early in its history, it lead a number of startling reconquest campaigns, stewards each wanting to become a true emperor or empress. But as time went on and stewards concentrated power, the Nessian Expanse and the Odinian regions revolted in 4748. This revolt brought an end to a new Imperial Dream, rendering the protectorate a powerful state, but no longer the most powerful without the profitable Expanse or the skills of the Odinian home region. 

The new Protectorate was organized around a council of stewards. Despite the name, Solsia Protectorate encompassed the home worlds of Humanity, Issidores, and Casroons. This vital balance helped maintain the power of the protectorate for several hundred years more, but an attempt by an authoritarian steward named Claude Nambia to concentrate all power on himself and the murder of the other stewards left the entire government in disarray. Factions of admirals, generals, and common folk all quickly formed. The oldest and strongest faction was a group of avid xenophobes named the Defenders of Sol. Old, duplicitous, and not above manipulating their foes, they took advantage of the decade long rebellion to eventually take power in Mars and control most of the Solsian region. But their hold is infirm, relying on a light touch in some areas to prevent rebellion and inviting in large swarms of sympathetic to their cause humans to try to counterbalance the native aliens and more cosmopolitan humans that live there. The fact that the DoS may be responsible for the destruction of Luna and the subsequent destabilization of the recently renewed Earth has lead to a new drive for rebellion. While it has no leader yet, its voice is John “Lone” Nguyen.

This situation leads to Solsia being a volatile and unstable region during the 5600s, made worse by the fact that the DoS have pursued colonization at odds with other powers in the region. Conducting proxy wars through sympathetic xenophobes and direct skirmishes, the once noble Solsian region may be at threat from all sides. Yet its vast wealth of valuable minerals, historical importance, and its powerful armada make it not an easy target. Especially once it is unified.

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Selenite and Atacamite

Locality: Lubin Mine, Lubin District, Lower Silesia, Poland

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Urban chaos — animated GIF illustration

● More where this came from: metinseven.com

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Version Tower, named after the first major joint construction between the various races discovered by humanity. First constructed in 2712, the Tower Station was decommissioned in 4782 for lack of use and the remains were destroyed in 5004 by an accident during a training exercise. In this version there is a major revamp to the Faction weapons, their prices, and their power. Mines and traps are removed, with plastic explosives moving to gear and grenades being given the power to be used like mines. Various minor updates also occurred. 

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Prey (2006) - Retrospective

I’m going to do a bit of a retrospective here on a game I played some time ago. I’m not going to go replay it, instead I’m just going to talk about it and put out some opinions and pointers on it. First off though, I’ll say I don’t mind Prey (2017) reused the name. It’s a generic title that reusing is something the gaming community was going to have to do eventually. Which might happen to 2017, unless they can keep pumping out sequels.

First-Quality

Prey (2006) was a solid shooting experience of the mid-2000s. Not a lot of you kids remember what shooters were before everything became Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, but I do. Mid-2000s and Early-2000s shooters were still in the relative mold of the original DOOM: No aim down sights, move fast, enemy rooms after enemy rooms. Some tried things like HL2 with puzzles or Doom 3 with adding some System Shock elements in. Some slapped on a coat of paint to make it look more modern, but that was their form.

Prey was very good for the type of shooter world that birthed it and into. It even tried to do additional elements by adding a very visceral and every present plot and atmosphere, alongside puzzles to get you to spend time or explore areas. Mobility was emphasized but not to the degree desired. Prey originally was supposed to be essentially what Portal became, but with guns and evil aliens. Just wasn't feasible though, so they made something workable instead. 

But ultimately they weren't that different from the rest. Call of Duty 1-2 had already been pushing games towards ADS and cinematic rather than atmospheric direction, which was innovative at the time. So on a whole: 8/10 Quality. Solid for its time, with good story telling bringing it above the rest.

Second-Legacy

I’d say, as much as people make a mess about the namesake being used again, Prey didn't have a legacy. Even its developers didn't believe that. Prey 2 was originally a totally disconnected game using the same name. This is saying this after the developers themselves made a sequel stinger at the end. I would have welcomed a true sequel, but after seeing the trailer for the new game so long after: I knew the game was dead and I was disgusted how much people had forgotten of the original to be okay with whatever this was.

So all the complaints about the name or Prey 2, I say let it rot. It’s a pointless adventure of people who haven’t already been through this rodeo before. Names get recycled and sequels made entirely disconnected from its origin. That’s just how business works. 

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Cool art deco bird.

Perfect Place for a Cigarette, NY. 1932

via reddit

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A very short story written in the Starlight Universe, in which a petty criminal engages in the theft of abandoned objects.

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The new update released today, named after the Vibrance. A vessel commissioned by the Issidores, this lead the first major colony effort by their species after being given FTL in a trade with humanity.

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This edition is named UHWF Jack-Knife, named after a historical vessel for the United Human Worlds Federation, a re-purposed pirate vessel that discovered a species in the setting. This edition was primarily a fluff update, but let’s just say that there’s plenty of work that has been done in the past. This current edition is 385 pages, though a good portion is fluff.

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What is Starlight Journals

Starlight Journals is the name of my Sci-fi Adventure RPG. Play one of 11 distinct species, including humans, on an adventure to the frontier of the civilized world. Do battle against fascists, imperialists, relics of ancient civilizations, or eldritch monstrosities. Discover fabulous treasure and historical knowledge, make deals with elder beings, and try to survive it all. The game has an emphasis on tactical combat and creative problem solving for non-combat areas. Currently the rulebook is free while I work on the beta editions and any feedback is welcome.