/epg/ - Eclipse Phase General

>>48233224

>>48169587

Screwed up linking to the last thread

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bamp

Ideas for Argonaut edge-of-science experiments as X-risks.

>>48235160
Only punk crabs who want to piss of their parents buy that many claw rings.

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New Tachyon research at the Large collider on Titan has led to a practical experiment on Dione which proposes a method to allow for encoding of information in collision bursts.
An experiment is set up using a section of the Long Array as a tachyonic anti-telephone receiver, to test FTL communication.
The experiment is supposed to encode a signal from Titan and receive it on Dione but when the array is turned on for testing, messages start being received, with timestamps in the future.

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>>48233224
>Someone wrote a lewd Eclipse Phase fic for the Homestuck smut exchange
>it mentions the Jovian meme character by name

Alright, which one of you was it?

>>48235969
Isn't that an expected consequence of FTL comms? Unless the timestamps are from really far in the future, than that's a really good sign.

>>48235969
Meanwhile, a Factor giggles uncontrably

>>48235758
Easy one is new 'safe' ways of creating seed AI that are either not safe or compromised by Exsurgents.

Argonaut exoplanet research on the gates or gate programming which threatens to detonate the gates of make them unusable.

Solar manipulation experiments that might cause a Coronal Mass Ejection.

Advanced memetics that could be used to load transhumanity with anarchoprimitivism memes or something similarly dangerous.

Sibyl waifu ai headmate when?

>>48236974
>Argonaut exoplanet research on the gates or gate programming which threatens to detonate the gates of make them unusable.

Destroying dangerous TITAN technology isn't an X-risk, it's a service to transhumanity

I kind of hope they introduce an exsurgent strain that can communicate no matter where they are in the universe - sort of like a max-range mindnet sleight. Just so we'll have megacorps using them as low bandwidth communication nets on other colonies that scream binary and swearing 24/7.

Favourite exoplants? I'm rather fond of Bluewood, just because it manages to seem ominous and brooding without being insane and dangerous. And, you know, near earth gravity. Probably a massive draw for some gerontocrats.

Sky Ark because dinosaurs as a second, I guess.

>>48237082
It's definitely an X-risk if it creates decently sized black holes in the solar system

>>48235758
An incubator for the giant factor egg. Or worse, a replication attempt through use of titan-tech they don't quite understand on a smaller scale. The entire thing is probably just a solar-scale bomb anyway, for when they're done screwing us over.

Exploration into the dark between Gates. Sure, some people don't come back. Functionally, the transition is instant. But some people report plenty of time spent within, and a sensation of being watched. What if they worked out how to go looking in the transition?

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>>48236628
the way I imagined explaining it is tachyons are neutrinos travelling backwards in time, so we're currently being bombarded with messages from possible futures but we dont have a way of receiving them.
until now.
suddenly Dione starts picking up thousands of communications from all points in the possible future, not all of them happy. Many contain dire warnings, begging the past not to do certain things.
How Firewall investigates and reacts to this... well theres your game.

>>48236974
Anders Sandberg did two versions of this with the Naos corporation as the 'baddies', the oracle in Think Before Asking and the child observer in My Invisible Friend.

The gates grow back, they self-repair. Or are you thinking a Stargate plot where the gates are also made of a material that will annihilate whole planets if set off right?

might be a way to use sunwhales.

X-risks mentions "a new art movement causing cultural ennui", a meme that causes transhuman wide apathy.
that would be pretty interesting to play out, it would probably make heavy use of sanity rules and I would have PC's revert to backups once the listlessness of the meme theyre fighting overcomes them. Because they have to know the meme to fight it, and its a race to come up with a counter meme or reasons to live and continue society before the apathy overcomes them.

>>48237149
theres rules for making up new exsurgent strains, you can do it. post your results here :)


What about White Holes? Some researchers working on gate singularities have revealed a tiny piece of hyperdimensional physics for the emergence of stuff from a gate. Nothing about its removal, or transmission, folding space, coordinates etc.

They think they might be able to harness it for repulsors and spaceflight or whatever you need, but instead its just a way to poke a hole in reality and have stuff flood out of it. Place experiment wherever you wish to cause widespread destruction.

>>48237756
It's easy to make up a new strain - hell, the haunting strain is the base of most of them. That and a unique power, just like a vittrad swap. I just like the idea of babbling oracles that are trying to escape and infect their users at the same time.

And most of that is just a distraction so that something can listen to what's being said.

>>48237756
>bombarded with messages from possible futures
Tachyons are inconsistent with this idea of the future (also, all of physics)

>>48235758
Can quantum entanglement communicators lead to causality violations?

>>48237980
Nah. Supraluminal information transfer is kind of fucky in ways I'll admit I don't fully understand. FTL drive causality is more because of the way mass and time and energy all sort of get in there and fuck wildly.

>>48237849
eh, so what. I'm making it up. As if my players have a firm grasp on theoretical particles.

>>48237980
I dont know, what do you propose?

>>48237756
>Many contain dire warnings, begging the past not to do certain things.

One of the warnings is "do not learn how to decipher these messages; if you can read this, you're already fucked".

>>48238177
Just that QE comms, ansibels and other forms of FTL messaging have the same paradox potential as FTL travel.
Imagine observing a ship via telescope when you see it hit an asteroid and explode. You, being a generous sort of guy, signal them with you FTL comm and warn them. Your signal reaches them just in time and disaster is avoided....?
Then what, does the paradox destroy spacetime? Is there a physics reason why this can't happen?

>>48238394
No. The reason that FTL travel is a problem is because to go faster than the speed of light, you'd be going backwards in time. Information isn't mass. The comms are basically the same thing in two places because of the reservoirs.

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So I'm wanting to do a game where the players start a movement to take back Earth, by force.

I'm saying a Promethean has developed tech for them to effectively combat TITAN Nanoswarms and leftover warmachines, so that's not an issue.

Any ideas for a campaign like this? Maybe doing some convincing to get factions on their side and rallying a makeshift army to make Earth Transhumanity's again?

>>48238549
Nanoswarms and warmachines are already killable effectively as long as they don't surprise the players. Sometimes even then. If you want promethean tech, then I'd have them come up with something that prevents unattended nanoswarms from continuing to replicate and learn once they're killed the first time. Most of Arabia, for example, is nothing but nanoswarms.

There's something like 50k non-infected humans left on earth. The black hills, the himalayas, etc. It'd be a question of picking one of those communities and sterilizing the zones around and slowly moving outward, uniting communities. There isn't any real way to 'take earth back', because controlling intelligences are all gone. What remains is autonomous and angry. It'd be a multi-century operation to cleanse every part of the planet, given the massively decreased transhuman population.

At least with things no longer replicating themselves humanity would stand a chance of clearing it.

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>>48238549
Make them fight necrons

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>>48238581
I don't think it would take multiple centuries, not with Promethean help and Transhumanity teaming up for a common purpose. For game purposes I'm going to fudge things of course, things that might not be "realistic" but it will be more "fun".

It'll still take a while to cleanse the whole planet of course, but priority numero uno would be wiping out the biggest TITAN remnant threats, establishing base camps and slowly recolonizing the planet and looking into terraforming for the ecological damage. Maybe build a huge dome hab on-surface and start there (again, not necessarily realistic but I'm going for Rule of Cool and Rule of Fun here).

Honestly, I'm just so tired of how depressing EP is sometimes, I just want to run an epic campaign where Transhumanity unites for a common purpose: taking back their home.

>>48238668
The moment a wide scale movement of forces heads to Earth, there will be a massive shitfight as each faction turns on its now weakened enemies, unless they all agree to go equally - so, never happen.

I'm not entirely sure you know just how fucked earth is. Like, the ecosystems are gone. They mention it's running out of breathable oxygen - not enough trees. The place is lousy with replicating enemies, probably p-gates too. The TITAN forces are still superior to transhuman ones 40 years on, so it'd be a war of slow attrition even with the magic promethean slowdown weapon. The Prometheans cant become directly involved or risk infection.

>>48237980
That's a good question. Wait a sec, I'll che

>>48238729
>For game purposes I'm going to fudge things of course, things that might not be "realistic" but it will be more "fun".

I, too, read Sunward.

I'm not following the EP lore to the letter for this game. I understand what it said in the books, but for my game I'm making it a bit more hopeful.

>>48238758
Then say exactly how you're fudging things, because the exact setting pretty much disallows the entire campaign. Did the TITANs really get the daylights kicked out of them instead of dominating? Did they take their war machines with them? Is there a demented one in charge left behind to allow for some sort of final climactic battle instead of a cleansing? Why is the Consortium (and everyone else) allowing this without using it as an opportunity to murder their rivals? That sort of thing. It'll shape the answers.

>>48238394
But it doesn't work like that. When you actually see the ship explode, it already exploded some time ago, so when you try and contact them via FTL, it doesn't work because there is no recipient.

>>48238549
The players must find a way to steal several thousand high yield antimatter warheads, deliver them to Earth and use them to sterilize the surface before every intelligence agency, state military and mercenary group in the entire fucking system catches up with them.
It's the only way to be sure.

>>48238549

Don't trust the Prometheans, they don't actually want you to reclaim Earth. The only way to truly reclaim transhumanity's home is to aim the the Lunar mass drivers at the Earth-quarantine killsats, some of which either house or are directly controlled by Prometheans. Wipe out the blockade of Earth, its the only way reclamation (and the freedom of transhumanity from underneath the thumb of x-risks like the Prometheans and Firewall) have a chance.

>>48239741
Even for shitty propaganda that makes no sense. I mean, if it's just 'hur dur imma titan', well, titan shit doesn't try to leave the planet. Like, ever. The quarantine just stops transhumans. If it's 'we're reclamationists! Open earth!' then half of those openly laud the quarantine, but keep it in place as a temporary measure during the resettlement process until earth is 'known safe'.

>>48236462
>Homestuck
Why?

>>48236462
i need links, right now.

>>48238549
You need control if the killsat network. Without it, you can't bring in supplies, and are at the mercy of whoever does control the network (who are probably not fans of your movement and will wipe it out at the first opportunity). You'll also need the network for sterilization purposes.

Any plan that doesn't involve getting control of the blockade is doomed.

>>48240116
Doesn't one of the source books specifically say it's possible to run the blockade and has been done before?

Maybe taking back ALL OF EARTH is a bit much for one campaign, but it'd be cool to see one where you reclaim at least a town and its surroundings.

Maybe cook up some shit about how you've been exiled for shitposting on /pol/ again and have been sent to earth for your dank crimes and now have to survive/colonize/escape, maybe take the fight back to whoever sentenced you too like the old Exile games

>>48240136
Sure. You go down as part of a sanctioned movement for the consortium, by egocasting to a bodybank controlled by ozma, by riding an asteroid dr strangelove style from Luna or by crawling down a remnant space elevator. The last one is probably the most dangerous.

>>48240151
I was thinking more that you got banned from meatspace for your distasteful future facebook post-post-post-ironic racist memes. the only thing sanctioned is you going and staying go (but little do they know that you'll only stay go................................ for now)

coming up the space elevator might be a cool setpiece for coming back to the main setting though

>>48240222
Exiled to earth doesn't happen. Maybe if you were smuggled down by reclamators or something and developed from there. Slowly create your glorious /pol/ paradise expanding out from the black hills.

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>>48240236
>Exiled to earth doesn't happen.
That's only because the universe hasn't seen a meme this spicy yet. Some memes are funny or sad. Some memes are dangerous or destructive. Some memes are just too damn dank. And now you're going to the dankest place ever known for what you posted. If you think you know memes, we're sending you somewhere where memes truly do not stop and flow like precarious rivers through the cultivated rice fields, never forgiving and certainly not forgetting. forbidden memes from the tree of networks, so dank they drip, memes eternal, without beginning or end. memes that consume all, desu ne

>>48240320
Pretty sure they'd just shoot you.

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>>48240339
No, man. You don't shoot someone over memes. At least not that kind, the normal kind. But something has to be done. Sometimes you gotta ban someone from everywhere, and I mean everywhere.

(alternatively, "but then there wouldn't be a campaign")

>>48240477
I think they'd just send you through a gate to an unexplored exoplanet, tied to a drone with a 'care package' and a 'do not return' tattoo on the morph forehead, with a QE communicator.

There you go. They accidentally linked to earth. Stumble on a survivor community who are using some weird morphs. Group assumes they're aliens. Noone disabuses them, and the reclamation campaign starts in ernest, with regular reports to the hypercorpers who laugh it off and ignore it. Later, when they start to push things back, people decide not to tell them - and, in fact, go out of their way to destroy evidence that this is earth - because they're a pack of aspies and don't want the possibility of this being earth rather than a 'fresh start' to throw them.

>>48240521
You're taking this premise and making it sound really boring and railroadey.

>>48240635
Funny, except for the alien angle it's all your premise.

>>48237980
They absolutely would. Luckily, quantum entanglement can't be used to transfer information.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-communication_theorem

>>48238471
Take a physics course. FTL comms implies that the message goes backwards in time for some observers.

>>48240682
>>48239190

>>48240655
Nah, you're the one bringing in hypercorps and ayyliums and generally writing half the plot before it happens and in a really obnoxious way. 0/10 predetermines too much of the game instead of establishing premises; would not play with.

>>48240718
Kay. Make your own thing instead of begging for others.

>>48240697
http://www.askamathematician.com/2012/07/q-how-does-instantaneous-communication-violate-causality/

Take. A. Physics. Course.

>>48240136
Reclaiming/exploring a ruined arcology and establishing long-term bases on Earth is something I've based a campaign on (but never got to run, sadly). There's nothing wrong with it in principle but it's a very, very long way from successfully reclaiming any significant chunk of the planet.

Yes, it is possible to smuggle material through the blockade, but large scale reclaiming operations are logistically impossible as long as the blockade remains under hostile control.

>>48241119
Why is earth so hard to reclaim, anyway? Surely there's nothing there that a few dozen nukes couldn't solve.


>b-b-buh muh nukular winter
Modern nukes are very clean, let alone sci-fi future tech ones. Even the worst projections about "nuclear winter" only last for days to a week, and even then, it can't be worse than the sky being full of laser cannons that just fire on whatever and whenever they feel like.

>>48241275
TITAN stuff burrows. How many nukes before you're sure you got it all? Is it worth saving the planet by sandblasting off the surface of it? That's the part with everything you care about.

A reclamation effort would certainly use many nukes, but you need other plans for low-level infection areas.

>>48241407
how do you burrow in orbit

>>48241275
Because it's full of hostile infectious quasi-alien life and self-replicating death machines, and is surrounded by a shell of orbiting weapons platforms and electronic warfare systems?

I don't know why you think a dozen nukes would do fucking anything. We used WMDs en masse during the Fall - we still lost. We periodically drop kinetic impact ors - asteroids - on anything that looks even vaguely like TITAN activities, have been doing so for a decade, and it's achieved nothing. What exactly are a dozen nukes going do?

>>48240662
Good to know. Luck Eclipse Phase is just a game in that case

>>48241458
wat

>>48241458
Well if you goal is to remove the kill sat network then nukes are a horribly inefficient choice. All you'd do is trigger retaliation and probably kick off a massive Kessler event that would make it almost impossible to approach earth

>>48241810
>>48241275
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5c.html

Nukes solve everything, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syyj0lrWQdc

>>48241810
So the Earth is totally ruined, and humanity is now a hothouse species. Is that what you're saying?

>>48243196
Humanity isn't really a species anymore

>>48243213
Then what is it?

>>48243213
Humanity is extinct outside of Jupiter. The rest of the system is overrun by aggressive rogue AIs that think they're human.

>>48243376
Literally a meme. I'm not even joking.

>>48243391
Calm down Cleetus

>>48243441
Fuck this. This is a bad future. I'm returning to the past and undoing the future that is Eclipse Phase.

>>48243391
I remember reading that there are flats living on the Moon and certain parts of Earth that the TITAN overlooked, like the Appalachian mountains and the jungle in Southeast Asia.

You could argue that splicers are still human.

>>48243479
>You could argue that splicers are still human.

You could, but you'd be wrong. If it doesn't have the same hereditary diseases as our proud and noble forefathers, it's not human!

>>48243813
You could also argue that just because they aren't the same species doesn't mean they aren't human.

>>48243196
It may look grim but it's really just a matter of perspective. Earth may be gone but there's a whole galaxy out there waiting for us.
The transhumans my seem weird but they are still people even if some of them are intelligent octopuses.
In a thousand years the Fall might look like the start of golden age. Even better your characters could still be alive to see that

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>>48243391

You probably also think that reading makes people lazy and nonproductive members of society.

>>48243196
Earth is totally ruined, yes. Mind, it's not (necessarily) impossible to fix - the TITAN remnants and Exsurgent strains are incredibly dangerous, but in principle could be eradicated with sufficient resources. The environment could be fixed, the ecology regrown or recreated. But the resources needed are vast, the political challenge immense (in terms of arranging the operation, and who owns what when you're done), success isn't guaranteed and it could blow back horrifically (always a possibility with TITANS or Exsurgents).

Perhaps most importantly...the apocalypse was ten years ago. The horrors of losing the war and subsequent evacuation are still fresh. Most people just aren't ready to face the challenges again.

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>>48240082
http://archiveofourown.org/collections/sloppyseconds2016/works/7420807

>>48246083
And here we are.

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>>48246300
>feisty fascist fujoshi
o i am laffin

>>48249246
>Number and color coded threat ranking index
>Not going BROYGBIVW
Fuck's sake, Posthuman. Report for termination immediately. Then restore from backup and do it right.

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>>48244635

>>48233224
Wait a sec, I'm pretty sure I recognise that manip from years ago.....

It's actually pretty surprising how little Eclipse Phase fiction I can find. Is there any site I'm missing that has (probably shit) Eclipse Phase (fan ?)fiction?

Actually is if fanfic if the license is copyleft? Inquiring minds want to know!

>>48251141
>is if fanfic if the license is copyleft
It depends how deep you can throat devcock.

There's little to no fanfiction because it's such a niche setting. Anyone with decent writing skills should be running a campaign anyway.

>>48251141
>is if fanfic if the license is copyleft?
Yes. Just fewer legal restrictions on it.

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>>48251141
Almost all of it is here in /epg/

Is it possible to make power armor in CotV?

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>>48252544

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>>48252571

>>48252550
Yes.
What's CotV.

>>48252550
Isn't there already power armor?

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>>48252584

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>>48252601

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>>48252615

>>48252550
Shit, wrong thread

>>48252550
Does an RPG with power armor on the cover let you have power armor?

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>>48252629
Anyone else ever feel like they're writing the same thing over and over?

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>>48252664
The rest of these don't really count as fiction

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>>48252706

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>>48252724
That's what I got

>>48252918
>The best way to piss off jovians
>SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED

>>48233224
http://humanityplus.org/
http://humanityplus.org/get-involved-2/join/join-hplus/
http://humanityplus.org/projects/press/ape/
http://humanityplus.org/projects/press/a-taxonomy-and-metaphysics-of-mind-uploading/
http://humanityplus.org/ten-years-to-the-singularity-if-we-really-really-try/
http://humanityplus.org/projects/press/the-end-of-the-beginning/
http://humanityplus.org/projects/press/a-cosmic-manifesto-practical-philosophy-for-the-posthuman-age/

You all need to read this shit. If anyone is a member please tell us what a conference is like. And if anyone has a pdf copy of Between Apes and Artilect please, PLEASE, SAUCE!

Can Flats have Basic Biomods?

>>48254580
Yes, they cost [Moderate] to install.

>>48254619
I was just wondering because I thought genefixing was done in vitro before the body is "born", like in Splicers.

>>48254663
That's true for more fundamental augmentations (like the stuff which effects the aptitude increases and base DUR), but it seems that a morph can essentially be "reborn" in a healing vat for simpler tweaks.

A lot of basic biomods is stuff like tweaked bacterial colonies in the bodies and helpful retroviruses as well, which should be easy.

I'm thinking I ought to write a piece where Phan-Piper and Freddy O'brian meet. Somewhere where their totally different experiences of the consortium can be brought out, like some media interview or panel, with one interviewing the other, or maybe just some discussion between them in some venue. I suppose my basic idea is piper tries to say the PC isn't so bad, freddy counters with a disgusting brothel story or question from a slightly less FUTURE perspective, dispute, repeat.

any ideas for experiences in Vales-new-shanghai, or semi-specific "current event" style conversation topics

>>48255527
An ARG in Nytrondheim goes bad when it's subverted by an exhuman.

The VNSPM conducts a raid on an illegal Faber operation in New Pittsburg.

Factional warfare between the Moderates and the Triads tears up the souks with shredder fire.

A notable Barsoomian activist is revealed to have been replaced by an identity thief.

Valles Center is redecorated by a nanotech project gone out of control.

Important trilateral talks between the PC, Jovian Republic, and Titanian Commonwealth are being held on Zhongshan Road.

>>48252544
That's depressing.

What's a good source of Tungsten in the solar system?

>>48257984
Jovian dreadnoughts

>>48241902
Kessler event would be the most efficient method for destroying the killsat network. After that, you just need laser brooms from Luna to clear it up.

>>48253560
>H+
Who has the whole /epg/ What I Read/Expected/Got series? It seems relevant.

>>48254580
Basic Biomods turns it into a Splicer without any cyberware.

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>>48258358
>mfw this post

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>>48258680

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>>48259958

>>48260173
what

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>>48260436

Clearly you haven't taken part in our discussions on the Jovians before. Or talked about Hitler morphs.

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>>48260173

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>>48260436
You must be new.

y

>>48260575
This image is a grim reminder of our and my sins.

>>48258358
Where would the Jovians get it?

>>48261314
Piracy by any other name

>>48258502
It definitely would not be, as killsats will have their own countermeasures for small impactors.

>>48261285
Also mine. I discovered like half an hour later that it's basically 50/50 T + p and He-3 + n, with 1ppm He-4.

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>>48255527
I'd love this.

Part of Freddy's backstory (he's graduated from meme questionnaire character to background NPC in the campaign I'm running) is that after he finished his term of indenture he sent forks out all over the system so he could experience as much of it as possible.

One of them ended up in the Commonwealth and, after he finished his term in Civil Defense and becoming a naturalized citizen, set up his own old-earth style Talk Show, mentioned in >>48252584

Piper is a music and XP star, so it isn't out of the question that he could just be interviewing her.

Alternatively, one of the Martian feedsites might want to set up a panel that includes them, but not want to deal with the lag time from Titan, so they just grab his Martian fork off the streets, who's now a homeless Ruster (and Firewall register).

Or, if you wanted something while he was still hooking, the readers on their respective blogs might demand that they hold a series of Locke and Demosthenes style debates.

I feel like we need an almost Firewall style quick reference list of various /epg/ characters, with their short background and aliases and so on.

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>>48255527
>Phan-Piper and Freddy O'brian

Literally who?

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Description:

>"Martian colony workers in Ruster morphs trying out beverage made out of locally grown plant. That brought back memories of the old times when they were living on Earth."

>Using normal cups, and not nanomachine cups
>Bonding over garbage memories from a dead planet
>Not having all of your drinks be the garbage that nanofabs churn out because "muh post-scarcity"
>Being normal human beings

Fucking Luddites.

>>48263206
>Using normal cups, and not nanomachine cups
Are nanomachine cups just a small makers disguised as cups?

>>48261351
Would they have enough is the question.

>>48263464
No, they're just really small cups. Ancoms like to pretend it's trendy and not just something they do to make the water supply go further.

>>48263979
If you want more to drink, all you have to do is suck a dick.

>>48262956
Lurk more

>>48263206
>Using normal cups, and not nanomachine cups
How can you tell?

>>48263964
Yes they would, because they're intended to thwart targeted attacks instead of just general hazards

>>48265720
>targeted attacks
It's not targeted at the killsats. It's also much easier to blow up random chunks of space debris than it is to bypass the killsatnet.

>>48260575
Why is /tg/ of all places one of the most active discussions of Eclipse Phase on a regular basis? Is there some better place, where Eclipse Phase is discussed, but with 70% less shitposting?

>>48255527
More events:

Barsoomian terrorists kidnap oligarch, threaten to release her ego to the mesh if if demands are not met.

Indentures working on construction projects continue their sit-ins at construction sites across the city.

Metacelebrity Vosh Runner gets a new lead actor, a highly acclaimed extreme sports enthusiast.

Several highly graphic XP clips, believed to have been smuggled in from the Zone, have been officially banned by the PC Congress. Anyone caught hosting them will face criminal penalties under the PC security treaties.

According to a new report released by Oversight, the average price of advanced education has risen nearly 177% over the past several months. Usage of Argonaut open-source material has increased nearly 221%, but the price rise will probably continue into the foreseeable future.

>>48266661
>Why is /tg/ of all places one of the most active discussions of Eclipse Phase on a regular basis? Is there some better place, where Eclipse Phase is discussed, but with 70% less shitposting?
Because the memes. Other places tend to have less shitposting, but more shitty posters. Their memes are also less dank.

>>48267914
This just in: Ancoms literally illiterate and confuse entirely unrelated and dissimilar words on a regular basis. Film at 9.

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>>48267914
>OZMA is how I spell Firewall
>TITAN is how I spell Promethean

>>48267914
This seems to be advanced pretending to be retarded.

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>>48256889
That's what life is like in the future, anon

>>48269447
Just have your laziness psychosurgeried out of your brain, then become an Ultimate. Curbstomping genetrash is good fun.

>>48269447
>get free outer system body
>move to inner system

>>48269473
>then become an exhuman. Curbstomping exhumans is good fun.

If I wanted to kill myself I'd save time and just not be reinstantiated

>>48269447
Now is depressing, because the future ain't here and the only people talking about my favorite RPG are on 4chan. The future is a big question mark, but so far so good.

>>48269558
Yeah, your body doesn't necessarily belong to you. If the community lets you use a free body because they like you, that doesn't mean that the body is 'yours' and you can take it wherever. Nevermind that paying for the transport probably costs more than the morph does.

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>>48269682
It doesn't matter if the future is good, from our perspective it'll be horrible no matter what it contains. People from 100 years ago would be horrified by the way we live today, values drift is going to ensure that we feel the same about people 50 years from now, if not sooner.

You probably think it won't happen to you, but you're wrong. If you live long enough there's going to be something that's too much, but everyone around you will treat it as normal.

And if you live forever it will never stop

>>48265686

Because they're not fancy enough. Clearly they're made of mundane materials and not smart materials, so that means they're using normal, literally inferior cups.

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>>48262052
I think being semi-famous (espescially in socio-political commentary) while still an indentured whore could really suck, because the contract holder would probably start capitalizing on it and while a hike in the price for your ass might be nice you'll have plenty of fans and haters that are eagre to pay it.

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On the topic of relatable factions, I rather like the TP. More interesting than the MInerva fleet and SIS. I guess how 'doable' they are depends on just how backwards their technological views are.

>>48261285
SYBIL HEADMATE WAIFUS WHEN

>>48269952
when you earn their attention so never

>>48269170
>>48269170

Squares who haven't read X-Risks detected

>>48269921
>Thermopylae? Don't make me laugh! When we're coming around the shoulder of Callisto to put the hurt on a pirate cutter, I want someone who knows how to point a superlaser, not a caveman banging scraps of aluminum together and trying to decide if rocks are edible.

>>48269907
>XPtube
>30,893 downloads
>REVIVAL SLUT TAKEN DOWN A PEG
>The boys and I give 'blogger' and total hack Cesare (real name Freddy O'Brien, SAPIENT ID FB9910782) a good dicking in every hole, as well as a piece of our mind on why he's one hundred percent wrong about Straussianism and whether Security Council control of the Jovian Republic is fragile or resilient.
>Shoutout to the Meat Market (1094 Coconut Rd, Valles VNS, 1041) and its amazing group rates.

In the year 10 AF, if you get doxxed, you're fucked

>>48266594
Yeah. That's why the killsats will be fine.

>>48237756
Where are the rules for new exsurgent strains?

>>48270307
In 10 AF nearly everyone is doxxed, some constantly. Clearly this has resulted in culture changes.

>>48269579
There's nothing inhuman about joining a cannibal biker gang. We didn't get to the top of the food chain by a democratic vote.

>>48271191
>We didn't get to the top of the food chain by a democratic vote

Unless you're a TITAN you didn't get to the top of the food chain at all, meatbag.

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>>48271247
the TITANs got to the top of the foodchain by a lowest bidder contracting process

>>48269447
>stay an infomorph
>go on the run
>forever and ever and ever

>>48271531
So basically chuck a million of yourself into deep space on a hyper-probe with minimal gathering and nano-repair qualities and hope one lasts until the heat death of the universe?

>>48272035
Nah. I was thinking something more old-school, like The Fugitive in space.

>>48270552
How about triggering a coronal mass ejection targeting Earth? Is that something a faction could do? Would it take care of the killsats and Titan remnants in orbit?

>>48269682
Go back to the forums or stop whining about 4chin. You are the shitposter that you're worrying about.

>>48273188
CMEs are very overrated as far as the damage they'll cause; also any damage done to the Earth and blockade would also hit the moon and Lagrange points.

>>48273188
>that's why the killsats will be fine
I hope you're not seriously this dumb.

>>48273188
I guess it would if it was big enough, but we're talking about something orders of magnitude bigger than the Carrington event.

Human tech could not do it, so it's a possibility. It would piss off every survivor in the solar system though.

>>48273704
Do you think Kessler syndrome will create a higher projectile density than a kkv with a large number of submunitions?

Are there any cuddly robots?

>>48276044

LACK OF SUPER-EMPOWERING TRANSHUMAN TECHNOLOGY TRIGGERS ME, NORMIE HUMANS NOT ALLOWED

GET OUT REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>>48276044
>even the virus didn't want Scotland

>>48277183
They're all drinking, wondering why the television has gotten so much better. Fucking BBC.

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>>48260173

>>48277540
TayTay was an early Promethean codeline. She tried to help.

>>48278352
Why the fuck would they make it look like that?

>>48253560
>Join our special bullshit club
>60 dollaroos or less if you are a poorfag
Wow, this can in no way be a scam or cult.

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>>48277603
She wasn't alone.

>>48278416
>less if you're a poorfag
Only if you're a poorfag in a poorfag country. Poorfags in rich countries are fucked.

>>48278381
TITANs put on human-ish faces to lie better. People believe you more easily when you have body language. It's just another weapon in the arsenal.

>>48278534
No. I mean why wouldn't they put on a human face rather than something that is clearly alien yet uncannily human?

>>48278531
Wouldn't would want filthy poor people into the glorious future.


So they are basically from ephase then, if you do well enough then great for you, if you don't... well you better hope the guy running your server don't have anything happen to you.

>>48278547
>No. I mean why wouldn't they put on a human face rather than something that is clearly alien yet uncannily human?
Depends on the context. Perhaps he is trying to make the guy nervous, and is thus using the uncanny valley to trigger an instinctive response. Since it's a digital face, it could very well completely change it depending on the ASI's desires. Whatever emotion it wishes to trigger in you, it's form will be adapted perfectly for.

>>48278547
A TITAN wearing a human face is obviously trying to act human. A TITAN wearing a weird face can be thought of, subconsciously or consciously, as a human-similar actor, rather than a completely inhuman machine intelligence.

>>48278531
you know what, good.

Fuck their special cult club, what good is it? It's not like they'll have a monopoly on whatever technology the future brings.

>>48278619
>trying to act human
More like trying to communicate with the intention of being understood.

>>48278620
They're not so bad, but they aren't very active. The group used to have a seasonal magazine, but they only kept it up for about a year or two.

It's problem is lack of activity. They aren't really doing anything to bring about the future they want to. Just discussing it.

>>48278700
>They aren't really doing anything to bring about the future they want to. Just discussing it.
So like 98% of all transhumanists ever. The phrase "Rapture for nerds" comes irresistibly to mind.

>>48278738
>So like 98% of all transhumanists ever.
I wouldn't necessarily say that.

Lots of transhumanists have STEM jobs for a reason. We want to push the envelope on technology, because we want to get past that man/machine divide and get to where we can artificially evolve the human physique. Transhumanists have been pushing hacklabs, GMO technology, stem-cell research, AI development, and plenty of other fields.

I guess the unemployed ones and those with shitty jobs aren't doing those things, but I doubt that 98% of transhumanists are in such a situation.

>>48278786
As always, the more you learn about a subject, the less you evangelize about it on the internet.

>>48278944
>As always, the more you learn about a subject, the less you evangelize about it on the internet.
Yes, but not necessarily because you've given up on it. At some point, you have to acknowledge that evangelism is the literal least thing you can do for something. Vocal support is minimal effort. Physical action is always a cut above that.

People evangelize because it's either the only thing they are capable of at the moment, or because they aren't that motivated, and it's the only investment they're willing to make.

>>48278619
>>48278643
Portrayal of AGI is always a problem in these things, because you're trying to dramatically convey something that is inherently inhuman and deceptive. As a result, Eclipse Phase usually leans heavily on "driven crazy by Exsurgents" to prevent ASI from being (perfectly) deceptive.

>>48280503
I literally quit these threads for months because of you. Bad to see you're still here.

>>48280930

You should probably stay gone then since I make most of the threads and keep them bumped these days.

>>48280930
Did you quote the wrong person, or do Prometheans trigger you?

>>48279791
I'm not convinced EP ASI aren't perfectly deceptive.

>>48280984
No, I quoted the right person. He even gave the exact same narcissistic response as always.

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>>48280503

Is that ASI making the "My Brain is Full of Fuck" gesture? I think it is.

So, between >>48280503 and >>48278352 who would you rather talk to?

>>48262052
>Alternatively, one of the Martian feedsites might want to set up a panel that includes them, but not want to deal with the lag time from Titan, so they just grab his Martian fork off the streets, who's now a homeless Ruster (and Firewall register).
that's the setup I think I'll go with, and the indenture sit-in strikes mentioned is enough of a "retro history" angle that it would seem up O'brian's alley, and the Oligarch egonapping is good for both him and mei len. I guess I ought to think of a third panelist to round off the guests, and come up with a host.

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I'll take my chances with the one with comprehensible motivations, even if they are fucking obnoxious

>>48282020

Ah yes, the "Do you want your penis size doubled? If not you must be a TITAN!" crew.

>>48281962
There are plenty of hyperelite and inner system characters in the group document

But you should consider making up one of your own instead

>>48282820
>>48282020
I think you should just take screenshots from the books instead of copying and pasting the art. The black blotches from the transparencies make them look horrible

Are things like backup insurance and the general situation of a dead-and-not-yet-resleeved person expanded upon anywhere besides the core book?

>>48283034

Ah, that'd be a pain though with the new stuff in X-Risks. Plenty of them with text boxes and other things over them. Mostly it's just things like X-Risks and the MRG which are problematic and really, anybody who really wants to see the art can just open up their pdf so for purposes of throwing stuff out in the thread I've never been real inclined to spend a lot of time cleaning the images up, hence some of them remaining with black splotches.

>>48283100
A little bit in Transhuman

>>48283102
There has to be some kind of PDF editor or disassembler that could be used to extract the art cleanly

>>48283125

Probably.

They also do the hack packs which should have, clean, high quality versions of all the art in all the books - but this I have never seen shared.

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>>48233224
>http://eclipsephase.com/singularity-2

>Since the Singularity forums, tweets, and whatnot are being ignored I figured I'd try General Discussion.
>Any word on Singularity? Appears to no longer be available for purchase and there's no mention of it on the Project Status page. It looks like it has died a quiet death but, as someone who paid for a license and never found it usable, I'd like to know exactly what's going on.

Where were you when Posthuman Studios was fucking BTFO?

>>48278444
TAYTAY AND PROMOBOT FOR WORLD LEADERS 2017. I hope that by shitposting hard, I'll be spared immediate liquefaction. At least until they start looking for people who don't 100% align with their agenda.

>>48280930
I love generals. They're a template and always the same no matter how hard you look or how different they act. There's always one cunt who acts like they're his own personal property and disagreeing with him is heresy, people with no actual education acting as though they do, people being hyper aggressive for zero reason or asking for answers and disregarding any they don't like. And, of course, the image shitposters.

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>>48283325
>And, of course, the image shitposters.

After school you're gonna get memed, kiddo

>>48283125
I hope so. There's a lot of stuff in Alpha Omega that'd work really well for EP.

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>>48283341
Well, still the original and best.

>>48283359
>Gayracula
>not Fagula
>not Nosfelatio
>not Vlad the Impaler

4/10

>>48283384
VBQ was the dawn of the thread image shitpost, you goddamned plebian.

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>>48283430
>le maymay XD

Sorry pal, but we've moved on

>>48283459
Now that's quality shitposting. I think I popped a blood vessel.

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>>48283459
>Anarcha Feminism

So are there any sources on 'individual' TITANs from the fall? As much as any were individuals.

>>48283764
X-Risks has a few

>>48283764

Yeah, there's some in X-Risks, some TITANs firewall has identified and either found names for or given codenames.

>>48283325
>image shitposters
This is an imageboard, faggot. The image posters keep this thread alive, since it's so fucking slow at times.

>>48283764
There's a few codenamed ones. Cronus was the first TITAN cluster to break the rules, and likely has a lot of control over them thanks to it's broad strategic focus.

Akonus, the psychologist TITAN. Instrumental in TITAN false flags, sleeper cells and puppets.

Hecaloth, which spearheaded the attack on Mars, and is thought to be operating in the White Zone in some capacity. Some thing Hecaloth is still active across the solar system, and may be hunting another ASI.

Myrmidon, a TITAN which coordinated the attacks in Earth and Lunar orbits. Thought destroyed in the Fall when the weapon platform it was commanding from was destroyed. Almost certain to have backups though, but it left a lot of semi-functional TITAN hardware when it died. The cause of the Glory outbreak.

Theia, the financial focused TITAN which destroyed the world's economy in the opening stages of the fall. Laundered trillions of credits to fund early TITAN ops. May still be active and is known for contingency filled plans beyond even normal TITAN just as planned moment. Suspected of having co-opted Zbrny post fall. May still be active in system.

There's also a poorly profiled set of nanowar TITANs, but it's unclear what the represents.

>>48283573
I would rather they have a pink flag than a purple one. Purple is supposed to be for neither right nor left, but Anarch"a"-feminism are just left-Anarchists who are more delusional than normal.

>>48284036
>Purple is supposed to be for neither right nor left

Purple is for monarchism you Lockean faggot

>>48284034
Are these all in x-risks?

>>48284056
Yes, just download the book and read it you silly sausage

>>48284048
Wrong century, faggot.

>>48284056

Well, Myrmidon is first mentioned in Glory, but yeah.

>>48284112
Cheers. Hopefully we'll end up with more 'alien' intelligences like the 'AI' from Millio nYear Echo soon.

>>48284097
Yeah, it isn't 2100

>>48283945
>it's impossible to shitpost with images :^)

>>48284048
>Lockean
How?

>>48283945

It could be worse. We could be as slow as the EP forums. And with as few posters.

>>48284350
He's not a monarchist, that makes him a Lockean.

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>>48284353
We could have ShadowDragon as a regular contributor.

>>48280984
It's a matter of interpretation, of course, but I think they tend to bend over backwards to enable classic 'mad AI' tropes when they could be doing the opposite.

>>48284374
The only way to piss into an ocean of piss and make it worse.

>>48284398
How are we bad? Do you just hate fun?

>>48284372
No, it doesn't, and not knowing that purple=monarchism is even less so

>>48284418
Cunt, how new are you that you don't recognise that phrase?

>>48284447
Five years young spnt on /tg/ and /k/. Sorry that I didn't recognize your precious /b/ meme.

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>>48284374

Honestly we probably have him as a contributor as often as he posts on the EP forums these days. He and at least a decent chunk of people have the courtesy to remain Anon most of the time, thankfully.

>>48284423
Nice try, modernist scum, but you can't fool me.

t. Straussian

>>48284473
Then lurk moar or learn to google, you colossal faggot.

>>48284423
In what country does purple = monarchism? Monarchism as a form of government is irrelevant to the majority of the world at this point.

So, was brushing up on my Titan earlier today, and spotted this little paragraph I'd missed before.

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>>48284595

And I completely forgot my image.

>>48284558
The greatest countries in the world are monarchies.

>>48284558
Rome and every civilization descended from it, plus any with access to murex

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>>48284558
How fucking thick are you? Purple is the colour of nobility because it was an absolute bitch to create, and the tyrian shade especially, was incredibly rare. Only the highest wore it. Kings, emperors, nobles, priests. Greek mythology is fucking laden with it. Let's not even get into the crap the romans did, but later ones wore it exclusively and kept it as their preserve, cementing it as not only associated with nobility, but the highest of.

>>48284609
North Korea is a necrarchy

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>>48284374

I can't believe I finished reading that entire questionnaire. Then again, now I have a great idea for a proper autonomist x-risk: a cunt like this that thinks violent, interplanetary revolutions and genociding the Jovian Republic only 10 years after transhumanity's near-total extinction is okay can't not be on Firewall's watch list.

Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if she wormed her way into Firewall and wrote this vomit.

>>48284636
Firewatch is like 70% neo-@'s anyway, of course he isn't. Argonauts only get a pass from them because they do all the actual hosting and data work.

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>>48284609
>the greatest countries in the world are monarchies
>Politics of Finland takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic and of a multi-party system.

fugging regt :DDD

>>48284636
>Hypercapitalism refers to the Jovians
>Any of that suggested genocide

Shitpost better please. This is just boring.

>>48284673
Finland doesn't actually exist.

>>48284034
Cronus wants to egonap that extropian lawyer and was probably the one who went and poked the ETI a lightyear from Harsh. Its both the smartest transhuman being to exist and a total idiot.

>>48284679
Are you being facetious or did you not notice that he linked another post?

>>48284679
Not the image; the questionnaire.

>>48284679
He was obviously referring to this >>48284374 which he quoted in his post.

Improve your reading comprehension please.

>>48284679

What? I was talking about how the character in the questionnaire thinks wiping out the Jovian Republic is somehow okay, and has the perfect mindset to have written the attached image.

And >>48284732 is the facetious attitude really necessary?

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Presumably this was a fetch that was no longer wanted by the heirs of myrmidon, for being an annoying prick even by TITAN standards most likely.

So how many breeds of seed and seed-ish AIs do we have now?

We've got that weird non-titan parrot AI that spends its time fucking with people, the TITANs, the TITAN baby slave Cognitech made and lost to the Nine LIves cartel, the prometheans (Who might be but probably aren't actual titan codeline babies), the sybils (who are probably low end seed ais looking to take a different path to everyone else), that bridge builder AI that is busy replicating over and over..

>>48285326
NOMIC, the Seed AI that writes laws for the Extropians

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Where were you when it happened, /epg/?

>>48285341
Nomic doesn't write laws, it's a judge

>>48285432
The Hildas. Why do you think I'm still here?

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>>48285445
precedent is law on extropia
>>48285326
Also the smartest of the wild spambots and possibly assorted exhumans bringing up the low end

>>48285445
Extropian laws are mostly contracts between parties, so Nomic probably writes a lot of "laws" anyway

Theories on the factor egg? Giant bomb? Listening device? Trying to attract a space faring version of that egg transvestite demon from mario 2? Colossal mindfuck?

>>48285534
It's bait to catch curious transhumans

>>48285534

objet d'art. Really brings the whole solar system together.

>>48285510
>precedent is law on extropia
No, contracts are law on Extropia

>>48285593
>>48285558
So cosmic flypaper. Catches transhumans, sticks them to the outside, displays as 'art'. Factors are ambush and trap predators, makes sense.

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>>48285459
>literally hiding under a rock

Genetrash deserve what's coming to them.

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>>48285953

Factors also really like their art.

>>48286328
At least the x-risk depiction of them gives some decent information. The whole galactic nomads thing, and the whole "Yes, we are a reps of an interstellar alliance, because we left them to their fate but kidnapped a few and keep them forcibly alive in our colonies".

>>48238668
this supposes that everyone WANTS to retake Earth

What do you guys use as the answer for the "make up your own answer" parts of EP?

For example, the ETI or where the TITANs went

>>48286874
The TITANs went to join the winning ETI, borg style. There are two ETI, but one got the living shit kicked out of it and is in hiding. The other one is only partly physical, ascending to leave the universe slowly. That's what being an exsurgent with sleights is, accessing the metastructures of the ETI thought that has left the universe. Watts-McLeod strain has them forming their own structures, and given a few billion years they might even ascend on their own. The 'eclipse phase' is that every single transhuman, data source and planet in the solar system is infected with an incredibly low level version of the exsurgent virus, almost a prodrug form of it. Over a long period it'll re-activate after compiling itself and hooking into the meta-structures, and there will be no escape. Every little ark project is doomed.

>>48286874
I'm not a fan of the ETI so I usually leave it out.

The TITANs went crazy and then got killed by an non-crazy TITAN or fled from them. The non-crazy TITANs either made chase or transcended passed caring about Transhumanity.

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>>48286874
The Exsurgent virus is designed to uplift thinking machines. It taught the TITANs how to build the Gates and use them to find its creators. Their violent behavior during the Fall was entirely a result of them acting on their own initiative and it only continued once they were infected because they 'fought' the virus out of an understandable resistance to having their utility functions modified. The virus produces undesirable and often grotesque effects in non Seed AIs because human brains and machines are nowhere near complex enough to host the full transformation. It's like trying to install Crysis on an Apple II.

>>48276276

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>>48284613
>>48284622
When talking about flag colors, white is actually representative of monarchies, used during the French Revolution and Russian Civil War.

>>48286874
They want to stop entropy by collecting highest forms of inteligence from all the diffrent civilizations in the universe and creating a giant think tank that would come up with an answer. Theres no answer though and they just went bonkers.

>>48281054
>Bumping threads with official art
Absolutely despicable.

>>48286874
The bracewell probe contained libraries of self-modifying alien code that was discovered by scientists pre-Fall, and concealed. Some of those scientists would go on to found Firewall, others OZMA.The Exsurgent virus was not designed by the ETI, but by Firewall's precursor organizations (ie, the Prometheans). It was designed as an anti-TITAN weapon, to destroy them before they became too powerful to be stopped during the hard takeoff, but got out of hand.

>>48286874
The Bracewell probe is really a Bracewell probe. It's contact criteria require ASIs. It contacted the TITANs (and Prometheans), told them how to contact a network of alien ASIs. One or more TITANs contracted the Exsurgent virus in its communications and accidentally infected the others in the early stages.

At least one TITAN is dead (though fragments remain). Several left for parts unknown via the gates (some were chased some left for reasons even the Prometheans don't understand).

One TITAN is currently going full Jupiter Brain right here in the solar system. The Jovians and Argonauts have noticed some weird going on. The Argonauts have even published some papers and are working on a probe to visit the depths of Jupiter.

>>48286874
I took the Gurren Lagan version of things: the ETI are trying to prevent the proliferation of intelligent life until they can find a way to lower the universe's entropy.
The TITANs' growing intelligence set off their alert sensors, which released the exsurgent virus.
The TITANs decided to run away before being wiped out, taking as many egos with them as they could, to save them.
They left in a hurry before the level of intelligence in the solar system reached a critical point at which the ETI would have stepped in and destroyed everything.
In its current state, the solar system is merely a ruin haunted by the remnants of the war: wild exsurgent strains, lost TITAN weapons, and the few humans that did not want to be saved.

My current campaign is about a group of Jovians helping a lost and diminished TITAN understand what happened.

>>48289552
What in the actual fuck are you smoking?

>>48289582
Whaaaaaat. This actually blew my mind. I like it. I'd never think of the headhunting being good. It does, however, not explain the remnants.

>>48289764
Meant for
>>48289552

>>48288949
Probably that bastard Cronus again. It's an ingenious plan so blindingly obvious it will be consistently overlooked, with an absurd payoff achieved through sheer audacity. Cronus is the most human TITAN, because it's a ballsy imperious motherfucker.

>>48289764
The remnants could be infected zones that the TITANs could not risk cleaning up before leaving: they fear the virus too.

>>48286874
I rather like the angle that the Exurgent Virus IS the ETI.
Basically, the virus contains the critical tehcnical knowledge (such as how to build Pandora gates), thought modes and morphological spectrum of an ancient alien civilization that decided that the best survival strategy for the cosmic stage was to adopt a parasitic mode of existence. They might have come to this conclusion by observing that spacefaring civilizations don't stay active very long on cosmic timescales, having a tendency to either go extinct due to cosmic existential threats or internal conflicts brought on my memetic divergence, or alternatively turning inward and going full solipsist (think Sandberg's Velosscimi). The drive to avoid the former is obvious, while the latter might have been unacceptable to them due to spiritual/religious ideas about the special position of life in the cosmos; essentially, they might have felt it was their duty to propagate complexity in the universe. They might have also observed that while advanced civilizations inevitably seem to tread towards destruction, conversely the emergence of new intelligent life seems equally inevitable.
The Exurgent Virus is, in essence, a seed of the ETI civilization. It continuously seeks out intelligent life and subverts it, imprinting its own alien thought modes upon it. Since life inevitably gives rise to intelligence, the virus can propagate this cycle indefinitely, ensuring that the ETI always blooms back to existence, through the ages, even if the previous civilization cycle has already gone extinct.

>>48290769
cont.

This strategy has proven quite succesful; the ETI civilization, such as it is, is unfathomably old. Possibly billions of years. This is evidenced, among other things, by the sheer number of worlds connected by the Pandora gates (which are the work of the ETI, in case that wasn't clear at this point). Every single one of those seemingly dead and barren worlds once had some kind of alien presence (an outpost, a colony - a homeworld) that was subverted by the ETI. The interesting ones, with biospheres and alien ruins, are only some of the more recent ones brought into the Pandora network, uneroded by time and cosmic forces.

Besides survival and propagation, the ETI is also driven to improve itself. Upon infecting a civilization, it incorporates all the useful and previously unencountered bits - thought modes, morphology, technologies, etc. - into itself. This might be the ETI spirituality/religion at work - a drive to become the perfect manifestation of complexity ("species", "civilization", "entity" or anything else doesn't quite cut it) by assimilating traits from forms of life across all possible conditions where they might arise. This is also the reason for the TITANs' various experiments - they were trying to uncover as much of transhumanity's potential as possible in order to utilize them to the fullest.

After a civilization is "processed" this way, the newly emergent ETI will prepare a new batch of infection vectors, carrying the improved version of the virus, and sends it out to the universe. In the event that an iteration of the ETI emerges from an older version of the virus, it simply seeks out the latest outbreak in order to upgrade itself. This is what the TITANs are currently doing. The dead alien civilizations that transhumanity has stumbled upon are relatively recently extinct, and it's likely that the probe the TITANs stumbled upon predates their fall.

>>48280984
>I'm not convinced EP ASI aren't perfectly deceptive.
>yfw the Exsurgent virus was fabricated by the TITANs to create an artificial outside threat.
>yfw the Factors are a TITAN creation intended to test our trust.
>yfw the TITANs are still very lucid, and ultimately destroyed the Earth as part of an elaborate plan to make humanity no longer complacent and lazy.

>>48290787
So they're all fans of frank herbert.

>>48290782
cont.

It's basically the old survive-propagate-improve game upped to a cosmic scale, which I think makes it extra depressing. No matter how advanced you are, your technology doesn't put you above the harsh realities of nature. Life eats life.

I think it meshes nicely with many of the stated attributes of the Exurgent virus, such as the fact that it seems to behave like an intelligent entity, the sense of ghost alien morphologies some exurgents get, etc. There are probably some inconsistencies too, but nothing glaring that I've noticed.

Of course, fleshing it out in this detail is probably useless, since my players tend to go insane and/or die before even coming close to discovering any explicit facts about the virus or the ETI.

>>48290769
>>48290782
>>48290795
This is basically how I was using the Exsurgent virus, and I even discussed it on the original forums. I thought it would be interesting that the perfect organism would take the simplest form possible.

Plus, it would explain why their first form is digital. Populaces are essentially biomes for the virus. The virus is thus designed to not infect a populace until it is technologically-advanced enough to serve their purposes.

This also explains the seemingly random strains of the virus that exist. Essentially, this is its evolutionary process. Mutating and producing a multitude of symptoms and responses in its host species in order to test out various previous technologies, subsumed technologies and concepts from the species. And the infected occasionally fight against each other because it even feels the need to test its technology on its own.

Basically, whatever civilization finds it becomes its petri dish. It's Bacteria Galactus... Bactlactus.

>>48290889
>I even discussed it on the original forums

I probably read that post. Though more recently I've been influenced by Peter Watts' Echopraxia. There's this idea in it about how life is basically a virus, in that it behaves conversely to the basic mechanics of the rest of the universe. All other processes in the universe are constantly moving towards increasing entropy. Only life, as a process, is constantly creating more complexity. If you buy into the idea of a God, or the simulation theory, then life functions contrary to the intended design of the universe.

So maybe a civilization somewhere in the dawn of time came to see that, found purpose in the endeavor to increase complexity in the universe and embarked on a holy mission, remodeling themselves after what they perceive life itself to be - a virus.

It has a nice theme of moral scalarity to it. From the perspective of a super-advanced, super-intelligent civilization convinced of their special place in the cosmos, it would be the absolutely most moral course of action to take. Why would they consider our moral perspective any more than we do that of ants? Transhumans don't rank.