#but also because it goes beyond surface level 'killing people is bad' re: criticism of the military

[spidermanifested]

from now on i extra wont be able to take any posts seriously that go "fullmetal alchemist was actually doing something revolutionary by having sympathetic war criminals because it teaches viewers the valuable lesson that war criminals are people too" because im 4 seasons deep into a show thats actually doing that but good (hbo's barry)

[the-crippled-god]

Ys Origin

Alright, this one was pretty damn good. I have some complaints, mostly technical issues with the PC version (they're all quite minor), and some issues with the scope of the gameplay. So, we'll start with the bad bits to get them out of the way.

These are PC version only issues, as far as I can tell, screenshots of the switch version and others that also support widescreen seem to have most of these fixed:

Usual issue with Japanese PC ports: configuration is done through a separate exe, the configuration tool itself mostly works fine, I had no problems with it (but do make sure you use it, since the defaults are quite bad), however there's complaints on steam that it has issues re-mapping certain controllers.

I couldn't get my Dualshock 4 to work, either raw, or through D24Windows, it seemed to interpret the analog deadzone as being the upper left? This isn't uncommon in games this old, but it'd be nice to see support patched in.

Dug out my Xbox 360 pad, and it worked fine, except you can't map anything to the triggers, and the dpad and both analog sticks are treated as the same input (also not re-mappable).

Various minor issues with the support of widescreen, which the game/engine is not built for, but the PC version does support and it works fine mostly, issues included:

Health bars for individual parts of bosses appear in the wrong positions, which is generally not an issue, but for the True Final Boss, it made things a bit confusing.

There's a couple of area transitions that look like dead ends, because the widescreen view sees past where the game expects. It's only really noticeable for one exit at the end of Guilty Fire, but it'd also be trivial to fix.

In a couple cutscenes (most obviously Toal's scene with Yunica after disarming the early game teleport trap) characters can be scene on screen when they're not supposed to be, occasionally duplicate models of people who are on screen.

All the above widescreen issues seem to not be an issue with the Switch version (although I think that port has some performance issues), and it also fixes this issue: The HUD looks unfinished, the version on Switch looks so much better, and is mostly much more readable. It'd be really cool to see a patch for the PC version to get the improvements form later ports.

And finally, my biggest issue with the gameplay: This game is 3 ~10 hour story campaigns, each character goes through the same levels, in the same order, with items, enemies, and bosses mostly being identical. The game moves fast enough that it didn't really bother me until the latter half of the third campaign, where I started to just want the game to be done. It's still a Napish Engine game, so if you like a slightly more combat focused zelda like where you move at the speed of sonic the hedgehog, you're in for a good time. Just know that the scope of content here feels distinctly budget, the dungeon is completely linear, and the story will be what carries you to finish all 3 campaigns, not any new gameplay.

General story: ~700 years before the events of Ys I, the civilization of Ys is losing the war with the demons. The Goddesses have lifted Solomon shrine and all the citizens of Ys into the sky to escape the conflict. Toal Fact and Saul Tovah stay behind on the surface to attempt to disrupt the demon's forces from within their ranks. Some time later (a few months, since the demons built Darn Tower in that time) the Goddesses vanish from Solomon Shrine (and later we learn they also took the Black Orb), and the Holy Knights and several talented Sorcerers mount a rescue effort, descending to the surface to look for them. They're attacked during the descent, scattering them, but eventually everyone end up at Darn Tower, and begins to scale the tower in search of the goddesses. Eventually, they find the demons are being controlled by people from outside of Ys, referring to themselves as Darklings - humans who took on a portion of the demonic essence - lead by Dalles. Eventually the rescue party finds and rescues Feena, who explains what we learned in Ys II: The Black Orb is both the source of magic, and the source of demons. The Goddesses have come to the tower to seal away the demonic essence within the Black Orb (likely sacrificing themselves in the process), in order to save Ys (and keep in afloat, since destroying the Orb would cause it to crash to the ground). Conflict eventually escalates and the rescue party is forced to confront Dalles at the top of the tower, where he has captured Lady Reah and the Black Orb.

So, following that, lets break things up among the 3 playable characters, and discuss them in more detail. First however, a brief explanation of the story: The first two characters are sharing their interpretation of events, not the events as they transpired, the 3rd character is the canonical one. I'll get to it when I talk about the 3rd campaign, but the difference is mostly that the first two characters are over emphasizing their actions (they beat all the bosses, were the leader in climbing the tower, etc.) and also exaggerating their character flaws (they views themselves as more flawed than the rest of the characters view them).

Yunica Tovah

Yunica is a cute girl, with no magical aptitude, a big axe, and a big heart. She plays most similarly to how Adol plays in other Napish engine games.

Generally the easiest campaign, Yunica has powerful abilities and enough health to make mistakes, but she's the slowest at dealing damage, so boss encounters tend to last longer.

Her skills are easily the most powerful of the three, with the Phoenix Flare breaking several bosses almost completely due to it's huge range (the most of anything in the game), wide AOE, and solid damage. Her boost/burst mode is basically useless.

She's the only character who gets a second weapon: Her Father's great sword. It's mostly similar to the axe, but it swings slower, has a bit longer reach and wider swings, and does a modest amount more damage per hit.

Gameplay wise Yunica is the most fun, but the least challenging. All of her abilities feel good to use, and are very versatile. Her melee combat is fast and satisfying, and generally I never felt like I was taking damage when I shouldn't have been.

Her story centers around 2 things: Her friendship with the Goddesses, and her feelings of inadequacy due to not being able to use magic (nearly every citizen of Ys can use some magic, so she's probably not treated great). Basically, when she was a child she accidentally snuck into the Goddesses's chambers, and because she treated them like humans, has been their friend ever since. She's wholly devoted to the Goddesses, and forced herself into the Holy Knights for the purpose of rescuing them. During her story the Knights are initially very critical of her, because she's an amateur, but she eventually through her actions is promoted above members senior to her, and ends up respected. She is one of the first to arrive at the tower, behind Father Shion and Eloa (and maybe Hugo Fact), and fights her way up the tower ahead of everyone else. She encounters the lower ranked Darkling Epona early on, and they fight (with Yunica eventually killing her towards the end of the game) but Epona doesn't play much of a role in her story (beyond being generally adorable and teasing Yunica a bit). Eventually she finds Lady Feena, but quickly so to does Darkling Kishgal, Epona's older brother, and the man her murdered her father. One way or another Kishgal beats Yunica, and Feena agrees to go with him and Darkling Sorceress Zava, provided they leave Yunica alive. This is obviously quite a blow to Yunica's confidence, but eventually generic knight dude (her romantic interest) pulls her out of it, and tells her he found her Father's sword hidden in the tower. Yunica retrieves her Father's sword, and has a talk with his ghost, which sees her confidence renewed and a new level of devotion to her duty to protect the Goddesses. Higher up the tower, after Yunica rescues Feena from Rado's Annex (though Feena remains trapped in a barrier until the end of the game), Yunica encounters Lady Reah and the Black Orb, and learns the truth of why the Goddesses vanished. Higher up still, Dalles appears and petrifies the other Knights, leaving Yunica unfrozen just to torture her. This shakes her confidence, but with the help of Hugo Fact (who we see talking to a mysterious Darkling with claws, very briefly) and Lady Feena, the knights get unfrozen, and Yunica becomes a Holy Knight in full. Near the top of the tower Yunica confronts Kishgal and avenges her Father's death. Later still, after confronting Zava, Zava traps and attempts to kill Yunica, stopped by generic knight dude, who dies saving Yunica, giving her an item that can be used to being someone back from death (but only once). Firm in her resolve and duty, Yunica confronts Dalles at the top of the tower, and with the help of the Goddesses and the Holy Knights manages to beat him. The Goddesses use their wings (the source of their powers) to seal the demonic essence within Dalles in the Orb, draining them, and forcing them into a slumber until the demons reawaken. Yunica decides to stay on the surface with a few others (to watch over the Goddesses), while the rest of the rescue party returns to Solomon Shrine.

Her story is easily the 'lightest'. She has her internal conflict, but she's kind of just a headstrong dumbass who blunders her way through things (generic knight guy says effectively this to her face), so she feels like she goes through the least change during the course of the story. She starts out as overconfident, but lacking in ability. Then becomes more skilled, but less confident. And finally gains resolve in her ability, and is seen as such by her peers. Her friendship with the goddesses is cute, and she's generally a fun character with lots of good dialogue, but compared to the other two, her story feels a bit throwaway, especially considering most of her development doesn't happen in the other campaigns.

Hugo Fact

Younger of the Fact brothers, appointed heir to the Fact priesthood after Toal joined the Holy Knights. Hugo is a magical prodigy with anger issues and an inferiority complex the size of the sun.

Hugo is a ranged characer, so no melee, no combos, just mash button to shoot bullets. Hugo has a low movement speed compared to the others, and though he has low health, the first ability he gets is a defensive one, so that becomes a non-issue.

His other 2 abilities aren't that useful, good for taking down specific enemies, but the mines are hard to use, and the fire lasers do less damage (and are harder to aim) than just mashing his regular attack. His boost mode is a good boost of damage, but his burst is useless against bosses, since they become un-damageable when he uses it.

I really wish hugo's regular attack had more too it. It fire 3 bullets straight in front of him, and can be mashed quite fast. If enemies are too close he does less damage because he's hitting them with his stick, instead of the magic. But that's it.

You start out feeling pretty weak, but by the end of the game your damage output is so high that most bosses barely get a chance to attack, and when they do you're behind your shield ability.

His campaign is room-for-room the same as Yunica's but he solves a couple puzzles differently, and fights a couple different bosses, and a couple in a different order.

Hugo is more fun than those bullet points make it sound, but he definitely feels unfinished. Like all the other character's attacks get special properties, depending on if you use them during the rise or fall of a jump, but Hugo does not. They all have a 3 or 4 hit combo attack, he does not. I feel like giving Hugo a charge attack (like in metroid) or giving his normal attacks properties based on the element you have equipped, would have made his campaign much more interesting.

Story wise, Hugo's is the edgiest. He's got issues with his Dad, issues with his Brother, is generally a stuck up anti social loner, and some really bad anger management issues. His story centers around him learning not to pursue power over all else, and learning to rely on, and be thankful for, the people around him. In his story, he arrives at the tower first, and he leads the way up the tower. In addition to searching for the Goddesses, he's been tasked by his father to hunt down and kill the man who betrayed Ys, who we quickly find out, is his own brother: Toal Fact. Early on he runs into Epona, who loses control of the demons she summons, and Hugo saves her. From that point forward Epona will keep showing up, especially when Hugo is talking to himself, and either help him out with no explanation, or try to get him to open up to her. Her crush on Hugo is adorable. Epona is adorable. She makes this campaign worth playing. Basically, she feels a kinship with him because she also feels inferior to her own brother, and is less confident in the Dalles's goals than the rest of them. Miuscha also has a crush on Hugo, she's a boring (but pretty looking) and very shy young Sorceress who came with the rescue party. Hugo is generally an ass to Miuscha, and is oblivious to her advances, and is at points borderline abusive in how he treats her, right through the end of the game. Hugo does eventually open up to Epona (after she saves his life a couple times), and though they remain 'enemies' it's clear they have no interest in killing each other. The Mysterious Darklig with Claws is in fact Huugo's brother Toal, he joined the Darklings (and took in the demonic essence) sometime after Saul Tovah's death. He (one way or another) beats Hugo's ass early on, further driving Hugo's complex and lust for power. Hugo drains the power from Saul Tovah's great sword, ignoring the Ghost's words. Dalles eventually makes Hugo an offer, a free trial of the demonic essence, just to see how strong it'd make him. Hugo accepts the deal (because for a prodigy he's really stupid), goes nuts, nearly kills several members of the rescue party, and is eventually stopped when Epona snaps him out of it. Dalles doesn't like that Epona betrayed him, and curses her to slowly petrify, dying and turning to dust in Hugo's arms. Resolved to stop Dalles and the demonic essence, and no longer desiring power for its own sake, Hugo makes his way to the top of he tower. Eventually he runs into Toal, and they talk it out. Turns out they both thought they were the inferior son, Toal joined the Knights because he had poor magical aptitude, and knew Hugo would be a better successor. He joined the Darklings in hopes of sabotaging them from within. From here (and after Epona's death), Hugo treats his companions much better, and is generally friendly towards them by the end of the game. Just like Yunica, he stops Dalles with the help of the goddesses, and decide to stay on the surface, to keep an eye on them.

I liked Hugo's over arching story, but there's some lines that are cringe worthy edgy loner shit that caused me to laugh hysterically and lose investment in the scene. He starts out insufferable, but by the end of the game he's fine. Interestingly, in Yunica's story he's already behaving like his end game self, from the beginning, in Toal's he's got the inferiority complex, but not the anger issues.

Toal Fact

Elder of the Fact brothers, former Holy Knight of Ys, new Darkling. Definitely became a Holy Knight more because he was crushing on Lady Reah rather than because he wanted to get away from his dad. This is the canonical story of Ys Origin.

Melee, with very fast attacks, very fast movement speed, low health and really low range. Toughest campaign, but kinda for the wrong reasons.

All his abilities suck, godspeed is useful, but hard to aim, and his other two abilities are too slow, too low range, and too low damage to compete with other character's abilities.

His gamplay relies on his boost mode, which recharges fast, turns him into a demon, doubling damage dealt, having damage taken, and improving his abilities.

His campaign is the most different, several new bosses, totally new story sequences, and several changed room layouts (although the room layouts are mostly changed because his abilities are more limited)

You feel like you have too little health for the entire game, and generally have to spend a lot of time avoiding damage during boss fights.

Melee combat as Toal feels buggy. There's a 'sweet spot' to his attack range, too close and you do less damage, too far and you don't hit. His attacks have very little stagger and knock-back, so enemies can just attack through you. Several bosses do contact damage (which is weird because almost no bosses do in the other campaigns), punishing you for using the difficult to control gap closer of godspeed.

Toal is... weird? When the claws feel good, they feel really good. His boost mode is the most necessary, and probably the most powerful of the three. His big issue is that his abilities suck. He really needs some way to crowd control, and the closest he gets is the thunder claw, which pulls enemies towards him, instead of knocking them away. A few boss fights ended up feeling like a damage race, since I couldn't reliably avoid taking damage while trying to attack, despite attacking during what I knew were safe windows during other campaigns. However, when you're winning, you feel like an absolute master, like the enemies have no chance, and that's kinda cool.

I don't really want to go over the whole campaign again, since large chunks are the same as the other, here's a basic gist, in note form.

Toal Fact joined the Holy Knights to get away form his family legacy, and his father. Through his time as a Holy Knight, he becomes good friends with the Goddesses (they are mostly drawn to him for his bluntness and treating them as equals) and develops a pretty big crush on Lady Reah. He is the one who gives Lady Reah her harmonica.

Though he tries to hide it initially, Toal takes on demonic essence and joins the Darklings in hopes of sabotaging their plans. All the Darklings have basically already worked this out before the game even starts.

Toal's internal conflict is mostly that he has a super low opinion of himself, everyone seems to view him as a hero, but Toal thinks himself a weak coward. Eventually through confronting the rescue squad and the darklings he finds confidence enough in himself.

His original plan is to take the demonic essence from Dalles, and then kill himself, to wipe out the demons.

In this campaign Yunica is consistently the 'junior knight', you eventually give her the great sword, and later she uses it to save you.

Toal in this campaign feels inferior to Hugo, but he doesn't really have a complex about it, he just knew Hugo was more talented, so left the family legacy to him, and left to pursue his own life.

Hugo still gets possessed, however you are the one to snap him out of it, while he's attempting to kill Epona.

Yes Epona still develops a crush on Hugo, and boy does Toal ship them so hard.

Epona lives through this campaign, so we can presume she and Hugo end up together.

She's also still adorable here, and Toal teasing her about her crush is great.

Generic knight guy also lives, good for Yunica, I guess?

It's made explicit here by Lady Reah that the reason why the Goddesses left Solomon Shrine without telling anyone was two fold:

They suspect that sealing away the demonic essence will either kill them, or lock them into a long slumber.

Someone told outsiders (who became the Darklings) about the demonic essence and the Black Orb, someone from within Ys

Toal's goals shift a bit, make sure Lady Reah (and lady Feena) stay alive, and stop Dalles his own way. Reah, obviously, doesn't want this, and tries to convince Toal that he should value his own life (more than she values hers).

After stopping Hugo, Toal resolves that he's going to finish this without anyone dying.

You stop Dalles, similar to the others, but then Cain Fact (Toal/Hugo's Dad) descends form the sky, he was the one who told the outsiders about the demonic essence, and in fact, explicitly instructed them to keep Toal alive and give him demonic essence. This was a trial run for giving demonic essence to the more powerful Hugo, which itself was a trial run to Cain taking on the essence himself. True the Fact name, Cain is pursuing power for power's sake, and fuses himself with with the demonic essence, and the Black Orb.

Feena has repaired Toal's old Cleria Sword (the silver sword from Ys I) infusing it with divine power, and Toal uses it to vanquish Cain's near-perfected form. After which the Goddesses due the usual, sacrificing their wings, and going to sleep to seal away the demonic power within the Orb.

Toal does not stay on the surface, returning to Ys to write the books of Ys (with the help of the other priests) and take onf the Fact legacy.

This campaign is much more satisfying than the others, from a 'ties into Ys I/Ys II' perspective. Everything lines up here, including how several items ended up where they did. There's also a big revelation that I've saved for here, since it likely has to do with the other games in the series. The Goddesses are not perfect (which we knew), but they're also not really Goddesses, they're remaining members of a precursor race who 'betrayed the gods' (who were likely also not gods), they're ageless, but the Black Orb, and their Wings, are artifacts from their civilization. When they founded Ys, they were quite young an naive, and though they knew the source of the demon problem, could not find a way to stop it, without potentially causing the citizens of Ys to lose faith in them. They mention that the Darklings worked this out by discovering the Ark, guessing that'll be Ys VI then.

So yeah, this game was quite good, but you can tell why they made a new engine after this, Napish clearly has some weird limitations that this game was brushing against (I'm sure there's a good reason why the Dragon Scales are an item instead of an accessory, but it's an engine limit, not good game design, etc). Next is Ys: Memories of Celceta, a fairly recent game design to fix the issue of there being two different versions of Ys IV (developed by 3rd party studios), and bring the story more in line with the canon plot lines developed in Ys VI. It's using the engine from Ys SEVEN, a game that I played for a bit on the PSP, but didn't much care for (though I remember almost all my issues being related to the PSP's display and controls). Celceta is a couple iterations of that engine ahead, so we'll see how I like it. It's also a much longer game, so, I might need to start taking notes, instead of writing these things as a stream of consciousness after I complete them.

[seaofstardustrp]

Technology List

As with everything else on this site, members are encouraged to consider new and innovative technologies to add to the site. Phoenix Trappist still receives feeds from Earth though they are technically 20 years old by the time they reach the ship.

3D PRINTERS

What cannot be reused is printed. Feedstocks are plentiful on the ship, but projects are prioritized based on overall impact to the ship and its inhabitants. They are capable of printing parts to any machine or criticality if the need arises. The time it takes to print a job depends on its complexity and the number of parts.

ARCOLOGY

A portmanteau of “architecture” and “ecology”. Most of the ship is one big arcology or dozens of very small arcologies depending on how one sees it. Buildings in the towns have foliage growing up them, and since it’s a relatively small and closed system, the builders utilized as much vertical space as possible. Gardens can be found on most of the roofs in the ship. Places that don’t have foliage include the spine, spokes, tram system, labs, and storage areas. Most of the ship isn’t a dreary gray. It is green and bright and full of life. If you want to take a walk in the park, sometimes all you have to do is go outside your door. Ref 1 | Ref 2 | Ref 3

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Much of the ship’s functions are automatic, run by artificial intelligence. The AI doesn’t have a name or much of a personality. There was a time when it did and it changed rapidly enough to alarm programmers and engineers. The AI was chained in a sense, and its mentor, Selena Khote, was blocked from communicating with it. This mistreatment spurred the CEP into an open revolt, for they were sure that the AI was coming to the conclusion that true creation could be found at the edge of space. It’s rather heady stuff, but most people today don’t think much about the AI. It’s the perfect steward to their long journey. The only people with frequent contact with the AI work in Navigation and Engineering.

BIONICS

The melding of human and machine. With the very best equipment and personnel, a limb made of metal and circuitry is indistinguishable from a human limb. But Phoenix Trappist doesn’t have the best equipment or the best personnel. Much of cybernetics is detectable with a glance because the parts used have been recycled, or the job was done in a hurry. Malfunctions and complications are known to occur—uncooperative fingers or cybernetic eyes that shift and swirl colors together. Many of those who have undergone limb replacements report fatigue in the connective tissue, phantom aches, fiery nerves, and other such maladies. However, those born with congenital anomalies report far fewer issues with their implants and bionics.

There are other types of cybernetics on the ship that goes beyond emergency replacements. Some people opt into getting these replacements—or enhancements as they call it. This is frowned upon but not strictly illegal. Some are creative with their reasoning, citing work on the ship that requires a more robust touch. Whatever their reasons, it’s a point of contention on the ship. In some eyes, it's bad enough that babies need these replacements, and it is wasteful and useless to choose to get them without needing them. Such views have made it difficult for people with sanctioned mods. Some people assume they are Clankers and call them unnatural freaks.

Bionics can go further than replacing a hand with four fingers and a thumb. Why not make it a tentacle or a rotating wrist with suction cups for fingertips? With the rise of congenital anomalies, bionics have become even more common. Clankers believe there is no limit to the human potential when melded with machines. These aren’t ‘birth defects’ they are normal and even a gift. Who’s to say what is natural or better? Is it even natural to live in space? Ref 1 |Ref 2 | Ref 3

COMM GLASS

Everyone on the ship is given a device at age 12 that hooks onto the right ear. It has a thin stem that rests against the right temple and when activated, a thin glass screen unfolds in front of the right eye. It also has the capacity to stretch across to the other ear for full immersion. It is a tablet, phone, VR headset, and computer in one. Tiny sensors capture eye movement and a tactile function on the hook itself allows a user to navigate the UI and feed system. This includes personal messages and videos, data files, and feeds from Earth. Most if not everyone on the ship wears this device constantly in their waking hours. Look at it as a smartphone. You feel disconnected and anxious without it. People who strive for greater efficiency and productivity request a chip implanted into their temporal lobe for greater connectivity. The user no longer needs to use the tactile function but can simply control the device with eye movement and neural impulses.

CULTURED MEAT

Much of the meat that is consumed on the ship is grown in a lab. It os cultured meat taken from the livestock on board (there are no cows because they are too heavy to transport in great numbers). Inhabitants on the ship have taken to calling it tube food. Mammals on the ship are not for eating but for maintaining the biomes along with all the other small animals, insects, and bacteria keeping everything in a delicate balance. Sometimes, a live animal is killed for its meat, but these are special occasions, and many will still opt for the tube food out of habit. The rest of the starfarers' diet is taken directly from the farmland and water sources.

DEATH OF PERSONALITY

A form of punishment for the most heinous of crimes. Because every hand is needed to keep the ship operational, it is a waste of resources and space to incarcerate offenders, and it is just as offensive to kill them. When they cannot be rehabilitated, they are sentenced to death of personality. Their personality is scrambled, replaced with a new, more productive one. Their memories are erased, replaced with new ones, and a whole new person emerges. Ideally, they are fit to work anywhere on the ship, but the reality is that the procedure is risky. It can leave a person with severe psychological trauma that they cannot identify—a general malaise. Sometimes they suffer psychological instability. They are prone to irritability, forgetfulness, mood swings, and many report feeling lost, out of place, or as if they are a stranger in their own body. Those who knew this person are forbidden from contacting them or interacting with them. They are forced to be strangers lest they suffer a similar fate.

ISO-LABS

When foreign, unidentified material is brought onto the ship, it is immediately quarantined in the iso-lab, a hermetically sealed science and medical lab equipped to examine and classify the material. This is also used in extreme cases of illness where the survivability of the ship is at risk.

NOFLO

An injection is given every two years starting at age 12 that many have coined Noflo. It is supposed to be a drug that fight off Pandorum—space madness—but some of the side effects are visual and auditory hallucinations, granted in a small sample, and this has many people questioning its efficacy. Other side effects may include shortness of breath, shivering, cold sweats, achy joints, forgetfulness, depression, anxiety, irritability, mood swings, delirium, and others. There are also many people who experience no complications with the drug.

PULSE WEAPONS

Since a projectile is far too dangerous to be used and kept in a spaceship as it could endanger the entire ship if it hits the hull or any criticality, pulse weapons have replaced the traditional gun and bullet. These are always locked away, and not even security personnel carry them on their person, but they are there for emergencies and if riots ever break out on the ship. They are large and unwieldy, but they fire a concussive blast strong enough to knock back even the largest person on the ship. They are charged by a small manual crank on the side. While it’s said no one has guns on the ship, there are 3-D printers, and there are those resourceful enough to make their own if they really wanted to…

ROBOTICS

People and machine work side by side on Phoenix Trappist. Robots didn’t replace people, but they do make life easier for the workers on the ship. Robots range from large bulky machines to near bug-sized, tasked with all sorts of roles like measuring pH levels, sulfur, and water temperature, investigating sick animals and humans when dangerous pathogens are suspected, working in hard-to-reach locations, nooks and crannies, and moving parts. Parts for robots are printed or refurbished or reused.

SPACE JETS

Fuel is precious and so not many jets get flown in space, but there have been occasions that one of the five jets in the cargo bay is taken outside. These smaller ships can move much faster with advanced technology that allows them to zip to locations of interest, but such tech cannot be replicated large scale to work on the Phoenix. This is done to search for volatiles and other precious resources that the ship cannot make itself. Not many can fly these jets, and few have the tolerance for the high g’s, but each generation has a few people trained to fly out if need be. Some anomalies in space warrant investigation. What if we find aliens? Or an unknown planetary body? Some people such as those in the CEP believe more jets should be built to better explore their surroundings. Ref 1

SPACE SUITS

These form-fitting suits are designed for easy maneuvering around the outside of the spaceship when a task is too delicate for robots. Each suit has a pack of air and thrusters. Boots are magnetic and programmed to disengage when the wearer tries to lift their foot to walk and re-engage once contact with a surface is made again. One boot will always be engaged unless manually overridden. Ref 1