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Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Well, somehow, due to some fool's clerical error probably, everyone managed to find a seat aboard the shuttle. Liftoff went fantastic, and the first part of the journey went flawlessly. Two-hundred-thirty-four years have passed since then, and the shuttle has finally encountered a serious problem. And everyone has been woken up from cryo-sleep to help decide what to do next.

Sadly, the amazing planet that the ship was programmed to land on took a sucker punch to the face from space in the form of a big ass asteroid. The ship has already determined that the planet is too unstable to support human life at this point in time. Luckily, there are several options within range of the ship's fuel supply. Unfortunately, they all have their own special manner of drawbacks.

You must debate among yourselves and decide which planet to head to now.

---

Atlas

This planet has a comparable gravity to that of Earth and drinkable water. Approximately 20% of the planet is covered in very deep oceans, much deeper than Earth. The landmass consists of steep, high rising mountains dotted with freshwater lakes. Initial reports suggest that prime settlement locations mostly fall on elevations ranging between 7,000 and 14,000 feet above sea level. The planet has a naturally occurring atmosphere of lower pressure than Earth, and the high elevations of most settlement sites will make breathing a potential difficulty.

The planet's flora and fauna appear very hardy and durable. They will be difficult to tame, capture, or kill. Additionally, the planet boasts significant resources. However, extracting the resources would be a major challenge due to the terrain.

Scanners detect possible sentient life, but no structures have been found on the surface. Evidence suggests that there is a 31% chance that something is interfering with the scanners.

Charizard

This planet has both comparable gravity to Earth and a comparable atmosphere. Over 99.7% of the planet is a saltwater ocean. Significant volcanic activity occurs, with new small islands forming on a regular basis. However, many of these islands are unstable and collapse back into the ocean after a relatively short period of time. Stable land masses with flora and fauna do exist though. Fresh water is scarce in the form of rivers and lakes, but fresh rainwater falls regularly. Certain regions only experience acid rain, due to the volcanic sulfur in the air.

The planet is rich in minerals, albeit hard to access. And the ship's computers believe that floating colonies and gardens could be feasible if the main vessel could control its course of travel to avoid volcanic activity and acid rain.

Glacier

This planet has an acceptable atmosphere. The gravity is slightly lower than that of Earth. However, the average daytime temperature at the equator is -1 degree F. The planet has mountains, plains, valleys, and several oceans of mercury. The entire landmass is covered in a layer of ice and permafrost. Special flora and fauna have adapted to survive the harsh conditions.

Structures from a now extinct sentient species can be found on the landscape. And a planet wide cave system could potentially provide shelter from the harsh environment.

E'Arth

The planet resembles Earth. However, no less than seven established, hostile and sentient species populate the planet.

Detroit

The planet is a barren wasteland. Well, sort of. The planet has acid rain and dirty water, but not to the extent that it cannot be purified. The landscape is dotted with collapsing structures and the ruins of former civilization. Small pockets of land have begun to exhibit signs of life, including both flora and fauna. The atmosphere is mildly toxic, but toxicity levels appear to be dropping at a steady rate. At any rate, human life could be supported, but it would likely result in a shortened life-span and possible birth defects. The gravity is slightly stronger than that of Earth. Resources, such as minerals and metals, are abundant and easily accessible.

Interesting features include, an incredibly deep pit, a glass desert, a perpetually burning underground coal fire beneath a wasted city, a freestanding mountain with a peak 63,000 feet above sea level, a ruined statue of a cloaked figure holding a stick, a massive petrified forest, a lake of oil, and a big ass waterfall of dirty water, tumbling from the side of the big ass mountain.

Sentient life has been detected, but only in trace numbers.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
What kind of weaponry do we have on board, and how advanced are the natives of E'Arth? Also, what percentage of the planet are they taking up?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
You have bolt action rifles with a limited supply of ammunition. This was intended for initial hunting usage before other means could be adapted.

You also have a limited supply of explosives. However, these were intended for establishing groundwork and foundations for your initial settlement.

Otherwise, you have knives, crossbows, snares, and ankle traps.

For some reason, someone smuggled an old Blunderbuss on board the shuttle. It might work as a club.

--

Scanners are inconclusive as to the level of technology on the planet. However, data suggests that at least one of the species uses its appendages as weapons.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Assuming we can bring in fresh food and water from the planet fairly regularly, do we have life support and space to live comfortably on the ship without landing it, and for how long?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
The ship has to land once it breaks the atmosphere.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
What I'm trying to determine is if it's possible to remain in orbit over E'Arth while sending smaller ships down to land and make contact with the natives and gather supplies. This is going on the possibility of escape pods or scouting drones that could be rigged up, but whatever the case, we should observe them as much as possible before landing.

When we do have to touch down, aim for an isolated place that still leaves us clear access to whichever species is getting the shit kicked out of it the most by the others. Subdue them first, then become their saviors as we train and arm them to conquer their natural enemies.

Even if they can't pull it off, this gives us time to dig in and fortify our position and use resources and whatever loot our minions initially bring in to start producing useful stuff. Gunpowder itself and basic explosives shouldn't be too difficult, and I'd imagine we could get some kind of radio network up. Along with the scientific knowledge we've brought we have thousands of years of military history to draw on.

Side benefit to all this is that war will kickstart our technological development before it becomes merely the stuff of legends to our peasant farmer grandkids.

Historical hindsight will also have proven there's no benefit to coddling or giving rights or pity to native populations once you've conquered them; in a few generations they'll just be whining a bunch and trying to make you feel bad. And anyway, these are gross aliens, not people. The remnants of whatever defeated races we don't utterly wipe out can be given to our minion species as slaves, but we ourselves should remain terrifying and aloof.

Most of the minions should ideally be kept at around a Bronze Age level except for a few trusted enforcers, and above all, to ensure our position of superiority, they should never be allowed to know the secrets of making any of the technology they're allowed to use. We could try to work this in on a societal level so that it's actually taboo, and then their own people might report them, or at least not mind when anyone who learns to much is executed.

And the rest of the time we eat pancakes and play video games.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I like your ruthless strategy. You can stay in orbit for a short period of time before landing, but anything that goes to the planet, stays on the planet - be it a probe or a pod. If one of the species has sufficient technology, you might be able to send a message from orbit. But you won't know that until you get closer, so you have to make your planet choice with that as a potential, but not guaranteed option.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Their technology level is what could throw a wrench in things, but I mean I'm assuming if they were anything close to even ours today there'd be a lot of 'noise' from satellite signals and the like that our sensors would have picked up on while determining whatever else about the planet.

Whatever, it's worth the risk and doing a few genocides to have a nice Earthlike planet, the others all have major problems that will continue being problems in the long run, and all we have to do here is wipe out some xeno scum.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Guess I'm going to Planet Detroit since apparently Bucky made it just for me.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
It's like you never left!

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Alright so because Bucky for whatever reason wants more detail on this pointless exercise, here it is.

Keep in mind, I’m making guesses based on the initial information mainly because I don’t feel like playing 21 questions for Bucky to further elaborate on shit.

Anyway here you go:

While I imagine the colonists already got something that can purify the water already on the ship, the fact that there’s a shitload of coal underground means that can be used to filter water if need be.

The toxic atmosphere is going to just be one of those shitty things that the initial settlers are going to have to deal with as most settlers do. Hopefully masks and suits help in the meantime. (Whether they already got a few or have to make poor substitutes) In time it’s not going to be as much of a problem as the future decedents are going to have adapted to the environment.

The main obstacle is keeping the population up to account for the initial shortened life expectancy and birth defects. So it’s going to be a slight return to traditional gender roles until further notice, where the dudes really need to protect the ladies and do most of more dangerous shit, and the ladies are going to have to mostly stay at home to upkeep it and to pump out a shitload of babies.

Child labor is going to be a thing because obviously there's a need to get as much work out of people as possible before they die at 40 (or whatever).

Now this isn’t counting genetic engineering. I’m assuming Bucky isn’t allowing for this, because that would make all this incredibly easy since the colonists could just genetically modify themselves to survive the harsh environment.

Shelter isn’t going to be an issue. All that needs to be done it to pick out the sturdiest structures and repair/patch them up. Presumably there should be some in the ruined city. Warmth shouldn’t be an issue either due to the supply of underground burning coals.

In fact with large supplies of coal, oil and even wood around, getting power up and running shouldn’t take too long so creature comforts to some degree will be available (which should take some of the “oppression” of staying at home not too bad for the women if they feel their rights are being taken away) Hell even the waterfall could be turned into some sort of hydro-electric power thing.

The other issue will be food since Bucky didn’t really say anything about animals/plants other than there are small patches of flora and fauna.

Going to guess there are enough alien bunnies and berries to be edible. Obviously some sort of careful farming of said edible plants and breeding of blue bunnies will be necessary and watched vigilantly since food isn’t going to be excessively abundant in the beginning.

Finally the sentient life is the wild card. The only thing that was said it wasn’t a lot. Chances of them being assholes are high since its possible they’re the remnants of the destroyed civilization and reverted to barbarism.

If they are assholes, well I guess the guns and explosives are going to use. Even the blunderbuss will come in handy, since there’s so much fucking debris on the planet you could just load it up with junk and shoot it at the enemy.

The advantages of them being assholes is there won’t be as much sympathy when the colonists murder the shit out of most of them and take their children and create a caste system of slaves. (Taking some of the pressure off of colonists)

If these are beings aren’t assholes, (Maybe they’re even an up and coming species that has evolved to take the place of the old one on the ruined planet) well exploiting them might be even easier. It’ll all depend on how resilient/strong/intelligent they actually are as far as the best way to deal with them.

If these sentient beings can be bred with, that might solve some issues of planet adaptation since presumably the natives are better in that department. Obviously at least one disturbed colonist is going to try to fuck one of these six armed purple insect looking bitches so results can be gathered from that.

If successful it could be argued that such a path taken too far would be the end of humanity, what with half aliens/half humans running about, but it could just been seen as adapting into a better form to survive the planet. Besides, the human DNA is still lurking about in the mongrels and there probably won’t be too much interbreeding anyway.

And if all else fails, maybe the sentient beings are edible, so yet another food source is secured.

Anyway that’s all I can think of right now. Probably missing some other stuff, but I wasn’t really trying to convince anyone to live here anyway.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I love a challenge so I'd go with Atlas. It doesn't sound too different from the best places on Earth. Coming up with creative ways of extracting resources would make daily life less than dull and keep people from becoming too sedentary. And who knows? We might run into a Yeti, Loch Ness Monster, or something even more interesting.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Deep, deep oceans, sentient life with no visible structures, and 'Evidence suggests that there is a 31% chance that something is interfering with the scanners.'

Hell no.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
So the deep, dark void of space didn't dissuade you, but you're thwarted by a little water? And who cares about the scanners? It's not like we'll have access to 'em once we're there. We may even solve the mystery of where Amelia Earhart wound up or where all those lost dryer socks really went.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
It's more that I don't want to share a planet with a potential highly advanced species of squid people who are going to be aware of us well before we have proof of them.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
IAP made some nice points there. And if you're afraid of Kit's advanced sentient squid, do you think they'll really be a problem if they're in the deep, deep ocean, and you're 10,000 feet up?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Okay, so maybe I should make an actual pitch since so many people can't see the clearly logical choice—the forest for the trees, as it were. So we'll take it point by point.

- - - - - -

Atlas 

This planet has a comparable gravity to that of Earth and drinkable water.
What can really be said about this other than most of the work has already been done for us? We need only to focus on shelter and food for basic survival early on and can focus most of our energies to building our stability and sustainability.

Approximately 20% of the planet is covered in very deep oceans, much deeper than Earth.
What this boils down to is that we have nearly quadruple the available land area in which to work and to be able to spread out as we had at our disposal back on Earth.

The landmass consists of steep, high rising mountains dotted with freshwater lakes.
Not just a perfect place for recreations such as skiing, hiking and fishing, but is evidence of plate tectonics or some similar mechanism which means that the planet is serving up its minerals and metals on a platter for anyone who isn't too lazy to bend over and pick up gold.

Initial reports suggest that prime settlement locations mostly fall on elevations ranging between 7,000 and 14,000 feet above sea level.
This will lend itself to making humans a much heartier breed such as it has proven for the Sherpas in the Himalayas back on Earth. 

The planet has a naturally occurring atmosphere of lower pressure than Earth, and the high elevations of most settlement sites will make breathing a potential difficulty.
The majority of first settlers will probably have to remain at the lower elevations due to their initial frailty and will have to mine for metals and minerals, and the mines would double as secure living spaces. Their progeny won't be so afflicted and will be better suited to the environment.

The planet's flora and fauna appear very hardy and durable. They will be difficult to tame, capture, or kill.
People won't be afforded the option of being finicky and taking their food for granted. "You kill it—you eat it" will mean more than just common sense. It will be the basis for survival.

Additionally, the planet boasts significant resources. However, extracting the resources would be a major challenge due to the terrain.
In layman's terms, it basically means hard work. Getting equipment and tools to sites and then moving product to refining facilities might prove arduous and tedious, but hard work never killed anyone. It's stupidity and macho behavior that does that.

Scanners detect possible sentient life, but no structures have been found on the surface.
Perhaps the inhabitants live underground or are living in underwater settlements. Or maybe they are similar to the elves of folklore and live in harmony with nature rather than carving it up and creating unique and sterile environments.

Evidence suggests that there is a 31% chance that something is interfering with the scanners.
Could be a naturally occurring phenomenon or else the inhabitants aren't warlike and it is their primary defense against intruders.

- - - - - -

I would like to know what evidence the scanners detected that could lead to the conclusion of "possible sentient life" if there are no visible structures on the surface. Hopefully, it's not just a big "NO TRESPASSING", "NO SOLICITORS" or even a "FRED WAS HERE!" sign.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
The computer made the inference based on the possible scanner interference, planetary attributes, flora and fauna patterns, and thermal imaging.

*Note, everyone other than IAP seems to have missed the computer's assessment of "possible" sentient life.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I'll have to take issue with this assessment.

/// Those Huge Mountains

Assuming tectonic activity on Atlas is comparable in functioning to Old Earth, exceptionally high mountains mean one of two things: The planet has been hit with extremely powerful meteors causing blast craters that leave behind mountains (and possibly also those deep deep ocean trenches), or the planet has extremely active seismic activity relieved by major upward plate rise, leading to the aforementioned highs.

If it's the meteor scenario, it means that the planet is either in an unsafe region of space (e.g. has no Jupiter like body to attract meteors away from it), making life unsustainable due to regular meteoric impact.

If it's WMDs, either the planet had existing sapient life that fell to internecine warfare / was invaded by outside, leading to harsh climates. The presence of rich resources makes foreign assault possible, and the 31% chance of jamming could indicate the continued existence of unfriendly aliens in the neighborhood (who wouldn't take kindly to a third faction trying to meddle).

Now, if it's just tectonic activity causing this upheaval, the next question is why have these mountains not been eroded down over time. Is there not enough wind to keep them in check? Are the mountains just made of extremely sturdy elements which resist knockover? Are biological cycles too weak to challenge them (e.g. erosion)? This tied in with the only 20% water makes me think that the planet lacks a functioning water cycle, and that could be a major no-go (what do you do if your marked freshwater supplies are contaminated or run out?).

/// What's the forestry like?

Furthermore, the sheer existence of huge mountains means that whatever weak water cycle exists will accumulate on one face of the mountain, with huge deserts on the other side. That's fairly extreme climatically, and would mean large parts of the land are actually sub-optimal for use.

Now for the height itself, temperature banding within 7K - 14K feet is extremely related to the location of that place relative to the equator. For e.g. in Nepal, herding at 7K feet is only viable in summer, the animals have to be lead back down during winter, and sub-alpine forests begin at around 10k. Up North near Scotland, sub-alpine begins as low as 1.5k feet. So of all that 'land,' very little will be optimal for human use (mostly near the equator), making the 4x more land fairly pointless unless you're trying to play the universe's largest tennis match or the like.

///Water, Water, Where?

Coming back to the 20% water coverage, I'm really starting to think that'll be a major problem regarding the water cycle and predictable rain patterns, and making the planet, even without the aforementioned meteors/aliens a risky bet.

/// A Snorlax (avalanche) is in your way.

Last issue with living at high altitudes with Roman era tech? Travel between cities. Since it'll be hard to make more inhabitable land on one mountain, you'll have to settle on the next one in the chain. This isn't travel in plains where multiple routes exist, in mountain travel, if the path you want to take is blocked, well good luck for that season. This increases the risk of cut off settlers and settlement collapse, again making me prefer to avoid Atlas.

/// Survivors of Nuclear Winter, you say?

Is the flora and fauna hardy because the world is tough, or because they're the only ones that are left? If it's the latter, then WMD usage in the planet's past seems more probable (if it were meteors, most life would not survive). One more reason to say no.

/// What if they're just hiding? Colonies in mountains

A lack of surface settlement in a planet with huge mountains isn't meaningful. Mountain-dwelling space dwarves or burrowing sentient species can exist, and as warfare in Afghanistan has shown, you do NOT want to try attacking mountains unless you can afford the losses (with ~2k people and no sacrificial autonomous mechs, we sure can't). Now, we could get lucky and score an abandoned colony, but the last time that came up in memory, it was Moria, and that was abandoned for very good reasons. I see no wisdom in heading for Atlas.

*shrugs*

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Sweet, another one of these. This is awesome.

E'Arth is a shit choice. I'm not getting fucking murdered by seven different sentient species with a massive advantage over me. No matter what, when we show up from the skies the others are going to team up and crush us.

Glacier could be alright, but if I'm being honest, I'm just not a big fan of the cold, so nah. Also, the structures will be fucking useless to us almost certainly, given that the chances that a sentient species evolved there, but still needed to make structures warm enough for us to survive is nil. 

Detroit's fairly shite, I'll avoid there.

Atlas seems to be an alright choice, but the 31% chance that someone's interfering with the scanners makes me think there's some cunts there waiting for us to land to rape us to death. Plus, there's sentient life with no visible structures. Bucky made it very clear there was no "visible" structures, but didn't say there were no structures, so these fuckers burrowed themselves into the cave and are going to butcher us when we land. In fact, I take it back, this is the worst choice. It's an obvious ambush.

Charizard is where I like. The existence of flora and fauna on land pretty much guarantees the existence of extensive sea life, so there's a clear food source there. Plus, since sailing, boating and sea life in general is pretty much where I come into my own. The idea of setting up camps on the stable landmass and creating large naval fleets to roam the world seems like an interesting one. Of course, Mizal was granted additional information on her planet of choice, so I'd quite like a few more facts on Charizard before I make my choice.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I'll answer specific questions on any planet.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Cool, I have a few.

-Are there aquatic creatures we could hunt/fish/train/domestic/farm?

-What's the story with aquatic predators?

-What percentage of the planet is permaent land?

-How acidic and how common is the acid rain?

-What are winds like on the planet?

-What's the story with potential moon(s) and the tides in regard to this?

Also, a general question you might've already answered, what's our population size?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
1-2) Scanners indicate a diverse array of aquatic species. Distribution varies by ocean zone and species. The ocean has a stable food chain. Large, moving underwater masses have been detected. The computer believes the majority of these are schools of fish.

2) Approximately 0.27%

3) The acid rain is undrinkable, but not toxic to the touch. In certain regions, the acid rain is non-existent. In others, all rain is acid rain. These regions are obviously separated by transition zones where acid rain varies, based on distance from volcanic activity and wind patterns.

4) Hurricane force winds are at least as common as on Earth. Typical wind patterns are reasonably predictable and of acceptable velocity.

5) The planet has three moons, resulting in extreme high and low tides, shifting regularly every 10 days. The previous landmass estimates were taken at mean high tide. Low tide data is not yet available. The computer estimates that tides shift by upwards of 300 feet (more than 4x the greatest tidal difference found on Earth).

6) This shuttle contains 2,223 people.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Perfect, I have what I need. These extreme tides almost guarantees much more land exists at low tides. Now, this land won't be good for settling on, obviously, but that's not what we need. Area in between tides are fucking ideal for our food production. The creation of the numerous tide pools we'll find means every ten days, we can trudge up and spear whatever's left in them for grub, as well as gather the things like seaweed and mollusks, so food wise, we're golden.

In addition to this, there's endless other food sources. Fishing would be a boon, and we could imitate the Aztec's floating gardens and easily create a bunch ourselves. Farming aquatic flora would also be easy. Plus, we could set up extensive farming systems on the permanent land, and if that proves successful, use artificial islands to expand that.

The lack of acid rain in areas will be absolutely ideal for us. Due to reasonably predictable wind patterns, acid rain will basically cease to be an issue for us if we stick to these areas, and even if we want to be heading through areas with acid rain, if it's not going to burn our skin, our ships will be grand if we make them out of something tough, like steel or if needs be, concrete. The only thing that could be at risk would be our sails, so we just take them down and get inside the ships when the rain comes, and if needs be switch to oar power.

The fear of sea monsters, which Ebon brought up in the lair, is unfounded. Due to the very large tide range, such creatures would be at an evolutionary disadvantage due to the possibility of being stranded when the tide goes. Even if such creatures existed, they'd avoid the shallower areas where we would prosper. For the creatures to be of any size to be a serious threat, they'd have to breathe oxygen from the air: water doesn't have enough oxygen to support massive water-breathing creatures, which is why the largest sea creatures breathe air. This means there creatures would have to breach, which gives them a weakness to be hunted. With time, these beasts would become extinct, as as we've seen with aquatic predators on Earth, despite being scary, they're pretty easily killed. Ebon also pointed out that they might go on land to mate: even better, since aquatic creatures aren't mobile on land, we'd have a new food source. Honestly, at that point, their extinction might be a genuine fear.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Yes yes this is all very convincing but if anything I'd change my vote to Atlas still just because I want to see what's hidden away there.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Part of me is annoyed we're all going to die on Atlas, but another part of me is glad I said convincing things despite absolutely failing in all regards to convince you.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Steal an escape pod and crash yourself in the ocean before we move out of range.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

@Bucky Given that I could probably round up at least a few people of the two thousand there, I want this to be what I do should the votes go against me.

Edit: If I'm not able to build up a sizable harem that could steal enough shit to start up, I'll go to their shithole and take to the sail there, I guess.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Oh, and one more, what's the story with aquatic flora?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Scanners have detected aquatic flora in the shallower depths. Scanners could not penetrate to deeper zones. Possible floating/tethered aquatic flora may exist in shallower waters (lilipad like).

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I came to look at pretty trees and shrubbery, not a damn ocean. Mountains > Oceans. Let's go to Atlas!

Also, could you send the scanner probes to look for: desirable places to live at 7k feet, sentient life around that area and the deep oceans, and the flora and fauna of the probable settlement areas?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Additional short range probes can be sent out once you near the planet of choice to help determine the best landing site. The long range probes have all been used.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Bummer. Oh well.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I'm changing my vote to Atlas.

I want to be clear though that I think it's a terrible idea and I just want to watch everyone die.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Haven't you watched The Abyss? Underwater tech people are nice.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

God dammit, I'm not dying on Atlas with you fuckers, I want Colonist Steve to loot what he can, recruit a harem and bounce the fuck out of here, I'll make my new water world by myself.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Steve, there's hardly any female members on the ship. If you wait long enough, you'd have lots of fun with stir crazy dudes.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
We have 2,223 people on the ship. Half are women. And yes, they are all either women or men.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Oh, I thought it was more representative of the CYS population. How can half be women if there's an odd number? Is one a robot or something?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Someone brought a sexbot.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
One of the passengers is six months pregnant, and cryo-sleep paused fetal development. The fetus was included in the passenger count but the sex of the child was not listed.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

See, I told you guys to stay home.

Like Tim.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
You died over two centuries ago with Earth.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Well, technically speaking, they spent two centuries asleep while I rallied the people of Earth.

It was pretty wild

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Alright, this looks interesting.

What's the state of the ship's life support systems, and has there been degradation in the mental / biological processes of the crew?
How is decision making run across the ship?
Do we have 3D printers and intact databases of constructs on the ship? Are they adaptable to process varied inputs, or do they need specific processed inputs to work?
What level of power systems do we have access to? Nuclear fission, fusion, solar cells, hydrogen cells, or what?
Do we have force-field technology, and if so how capable is it?
Does the ship have access to autonomous AI systems that can make semi-human-independent assessments?
Of all the mentioned planets, I assume their orbits lie within a green zone for habitation (the Goldilocks zone, not too hot, not too cold)?
They all have stable rotations about their axes, or do any of them have wobbles we should be concerned about?
Do these planets occur in systems with one sun or more than one? (I'll take the liberty of assuming none of the suns are close to burnout)
Are all planetary bodies of similar size to Earth, or are the larger/smaller, furthermore do they have functioning magnetospheres?

Now on to the planets themselves

Atlas? Shrugged
31% chance of interference is a terrible gamble to take with the last remaining human lives, and the payoffs don't seem particularly amazing.

Charizard? I choose you
With the right amount of time, I suspect volcanic activity can be managed to dedicated terraforming activities, plus volcanic soil tends to be the most productive. Freshwater from rain seems acceptable, assuming normal weather patterns. Humans have a good affinity to water, and can even adapt fairly well given time (apparently there's a tribe of pearl gatherers in Indonesia that can hold their breath for 10-15 minutes in one dive). Oceans also tend to be extremely rich in life, so food sources should be abundant for a long time (including seaweed farming if that's needed).

Glacier? Please, no. Not an ice place.
Unless the planet is in the middle of a reverting ice-age (and the mercury lakes seem to suggest no), this one's going to be hard. Human settlements of the modern kind favor concentration, but ice environments favor few individuals spread out over large areas. The sheer cost of heating would make food growing prohibitively expensive, and hunting as mentioned earlier seems unviable at scale (low biomass density)

E'Arth? T'empting but no.
Humans would fall into one of two camps, the Manifest Destiny idealists, and the 'no, no, they have rights as well.' The idea of fighting over them would lead to interfactional disagreements and perhaps a series of escalating assassinations within the space-ships ranks, before the entire military operation could even take off. Furthermore, adapting to combat seven different sentient species who could all have a version of orange-blue morality seems way more problematic than the alternatives. Everything else being Earthlike is tempting, but this is not a planet to start with. Wouldn't mind building on a different planet, and coming back with a trade/raiding party here in later generations though.

Detroit? No humans
The issue with the remnants of decaying civilization is that whatever brought them down is probably still running around town. Given relocation after settling isn't an option, this one's a no even before the less than optimal genetic survival rates become an issue. As mentioned with the previous planet, wouldn't mind making a trip here later to nick that statue, for morale purposes.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Hmm, had a few more thoughts on E'Arth

Plan A: Machiavelli's Legacy
Are any of the factions willing to hire us as mercenaries/commanders? If so we can plan to form our own band of warriors over time, eventually gaining combat experience through the manpower/resources of the existing factions and form our own independent army over time. After we've established our skill through victories and superior strategy, we can then settle down to charging protection money from all factions, to guarantee we won't go at war with them, and profit accordingly.

Plan B: Here's a thing / The Jade Empire gambit
Stay in a holding position around the planet, preferably in a concealed position. Then deploy beacons to broadcast technology schematics for economic enhancements and weapons of war that give anyone copying them material advantages in the war. Backdoor some obvious weakness into the tech, such as it giving insatiable craving for greasy food or something, and once they're no longer able to live without our technology (we have as much time to let this happen as we have left in cryostasis), swoop in, either exploiting the weakness for trade or militaristic advantages.

Plan C: The Space UN
Offer to provide political / spiritual governance to the peoples of the world. Being a neutral party we should be trusted to make impartial decisions, and accordingly over time drown them into bureaucracy far enough that they let us run the place.

Plan D: I shall build this world with Rock and Roll
Alternately, if they want spirituality and culture, we blast Beatles (or whatever's appropriate) music and gift mountains of organic edibles that may or may not alter their minds, till they agree to our cultural superiority and follow our wills.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
A) Requested information is beyond that accessible to the scanners.

B) The ship could only maintain orbit above E'Arth for one month before it would have to land. (Lack of fuel, lack of food, etc.). Not sure whether that impacts your position.

C) See B.

D) The ship's computers may override your attempt and broadcast The Rolling Stones. BEE-SPA had a stones enthusiast working on programming.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Variability ranges out of acceptable bounds, unknown factors at unacceptable levels, scrapping E'Arth plans.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
What's the state of the ship's life support systems, and has there been degradation in the mental / biological processes of the crew?

Life support systems are in operating condition. The cryosleep chambers have worked flawlessly. No noticeable negative affects on passengers.


How is decision making run across the ship?

The ship's computers navigate on auto-pilot, running statistical analysis on the best derivative movements to avoid unexpected objects in space. The same type of analysis was done to determine what planets with range were of acceptable quality.


Do we have 3D printers and intact databases of constructs on the ship? Are they adaptable to process varied inputs, or do they need specific processed inputs to work?

The ship contains vast databases of human knowledge. On the planet of original destination, the plan was to have enough tech and fuel to establish the initial settlement with technology reverting, for most functions, to Roman Empire era levels. Minimal use of advanced tech would be for legitimate purposes only. See Leaving Earth - Apply Here for more details.


What level of power systems do we have access to? Nuclear fission, fusion, solar cells, hydrogen cells, or what?
Do we have force-field technology, and if so how capable is it?

Minimal solar cells are on board for minimal usage upon landing - e.g. to power a warning system. The ship is powered by carbon fuels. Enough fuel remains to get to one of any of the five planets. The ship does not have force-field technology. BEE-SPA designed the ship to sense and maneuver around objects in its path. (BEE-SPA really wanted to power the ship with nuclear energy but feared of the consequences of a rough landing.) No force field tech.


Does the ship have access to autonomous AI systems that can make semi-human-independent assessments?

In the event of a critical decision that requires human judgment, the ship wakes the passengers up from cryo-sleep temporarily to allow them to make a collective decision, as the ship has done here. Passengers then go back to cryo-sleep after a decision has been made.


Of all the mentioned planets, I assume their orbits lie within a green zone for habitation (the Goldilocks zone, not too hot, not too cold)?

Planets vary in temperatures. Glacier may have extremes in temperature between day and night, summer and winter. The ship has thermal suits for all passengers that could assist with initial settlement. The other planets, while possibly hotter or colder than Earth (other than E'arth, which is comparable) are survivable without additional protection in reasonable locations.


They all have stable rotations about their axes, or do any of them have wobbles we should be concerned about?

Stable rotations.


Do these planets occur in systems with one sun or more than one? (I'll take the liberty of assuming none of the suns are close to burnout)

One sun for all planets.


Are all planetary bodies of similar size to Earth, or are the larger/smaller, furthermore do they have functioning magnetospheres?

Functioning magnetospheres. Some planets are larger/smaller than Earth - (consider this only relevant for distances traveled and comparable concerns, pre-mentioned gravity force controls concerns of that nature for such purposes).

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Alright, magnetospheres was an important confirmation, without those and without force fields, we'd by dying of UV radiation no matter the planet.

For decision making I meant is there a hierarchy among the humans, an elite / a cabal somewhere that is responsible for decision making? If one doesn't formally exist, have the humans banded together and autonomously created versions of them?

The size of the planet is relevant for habitable geographical boundaries, larger planets will tend to have more extreme weather events when they happen, but will also have more 'prime' land for humans simply because there is more land.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
BEE-SPA recommended an oligarchy government, but initial form will be determined by the settlers. BEE-SPA programming has a guide and task list for settlers until established.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I'm most likely not on the ship, but oh well, will drop in my opinion anyway. I think Steve has the right idea, Charizard is good. Plants, meat and salt should be easy to get. For fresh water we can find one of the rivers, or just clean the rainwater or the ocean water if we need to. There's probably a lot of good soil for framing around the volcanoes. If we find some that are not very active we could grow plants there, but they'd have to be hardy ones that don't mind the acid rain. Otherwise, we might be able to transport some of the soil a short distance away to a safer area.
Bucky, how many of the plants could be used as building materials, similar to wood? Are there seasons, and if so, how big is the temperature difference? I'm assuming it's not all that big, because of how slowly the ocean cools down. Do we have any plants from Earth that could grow on this planet?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
1) Definite answer not determinable. At least some. Quantity likely would be low.

2) Charizard has evidence of a warm season and a storm season. Temperature ranges will not affect habitability.

3) Seeds from Earth are on board the ship. Soil samples would be needed for affirmative answer, but evidence suggests that the plants would grow, at the very worst, with soil modification.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

My wine and pickle stand with remain with the ship (and so will I) for the time being.

As for the advice of questionable quality... 

For the Charizard-bound amongst you:

A. Megalodon, a big-ass "water breathing" monster. Habitat and range? "shallow coastal waters, areas of coastal upwelling, swampy coastal lagoons, sandy littorals, and offshore deep water environments, and exhibited a transient lifestyle" -- idea for a place like Charizard... Interesting how unique habitats exert evolutionary pressure towards (rather than away from) their exploitation.

B. Water has a tendency to mix with itself (i.e. diffusion). So, regardless of where the acid rain happens to fall, the acidity will diffuse throughout the oceans... thereby corroding anything that happens to be on or in them... including ships and floating farms.

 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
This sounds rather intriguing. Once we've established ourselves on Atlas, perhaps we might take an excursion so I can bag myself a Megalodon. It could prove more challenging than big game hunting on Earth since they could probably swallow ocean-going vessels whole. Not sure how feasible it would be getting there, though, if we're not allowed to progress beyond early Roman tech. If not, perhaps the flora and fauna on Atlas will prove challenging enough.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

The megladon might seem big and scary, but it's not. Ultimately, one of the main reasons it died out because it wasn't actually a threat, and the other aquatic predators we still with today were simply better than it. Mainly, mammals, which once again need air and have a weakness. In regards to the advice of habitat, that was in regard to "Mountain-sized" aquatic creatures. In dealing with this, that's easily done, as it's simply not that effective a predator, and given that it's only, what, three times the size of a great white, a creature that we're barely able to not wipe out when we try out best, I'd say it's easy prey.

In regards to the acidity levels in water, the ocean's fucking huge, and the acidity level of the rain at its worse isn't that bad. Considering we can just have metal ships until we develop a barrier to prevent corrosion, it seems easily dealt with.

Edit: Also, something it seems you forgot to mention: "Adult megalodon were not abundant in shallow water environments, and mostly inhabited offshore areas." So yeah, I was right, go get raped by aliens.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
In addition to your points, in the ocean the maximum animal size is limited by oxygen availability and a few other restraints. Accordingly, the largest animals tend to be both 'bulk feeders' like (non-killer) whales, and/or fairly slow due to the square-power law. Net net - the bigger the creature, the easier to avoid. Heck, may even make Whale Oil a viable short term fuel source, and on a planet with that much ocean, I'm taking that one down in the big wins column.

Side question to Bucky - are Oxygen levels in the atmosphere similar to Jurassic Era earth or Modern Era earth?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I might be convinced to man a wine-and-pickle-stand-laden dingy on your planet for a month or two, but several decades (as would be required to move my product) in this even slightly-acidic water? Let's keep in mind that Megalodon (or, whatever other monstrosities this planet has decided to breed) will probably dig my product. The shit I sell is primo. 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
You're a resourceful wine-and-pickle stand manager. You'll find ways to create specific brews with different water types from across the planet and sell those on and off-world as artisanal. Then you realize you can also sell premium varieties with one fish/life form inside for extra novelty (like those Indonesians rice wines with actual cobras inside). Then you realize you can save space-millions by using specially created pools of water as entire pickle ponds, making your productivity skyrocket. If you were a cheese merchant, you'd have reason to complain, but your wine-and-pickle strategy is pretty much screaming for Planet Charizard for its next big thing.

As for the Megalodons? Well we're humans, I'm sure some of the more intrepid ones will find SOME way to tame one of them, and then you'll realize we just got the keys to the sharpest ocean car on the planet, if not the galaxy. Score. Inevitably someone will try to sell one of these off world, and there will be chaos, but we'll still survive. Also, if we succeed especially well, expect us to ride those monumental beasts of war into our conquests of other planets. Doesn't get much more epic than that tbh (imagine water - Mumakil for mental reference)

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Charizard for me! 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Oh, cool, the squirrel's going Costner. Nice one.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Letting the big dog eat?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

No idea what you're saying.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Same.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

You're the squirrel because of your profile picture, you're going Costner because, like Kevin Costner in the movie Water World, you're going to the Water World.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Sweet. :-)

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
For Charizard - modern Earth.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I vote for E'Arth because it seems like the most engaging and we have a proven battle plan.

I propose we pull a FULL "Cortez"/"Pizarro"/"What the Phoenicians did to the tribes of the Iberian Peninsula"... Ie. Ally with the weaker tribes, organize a meeting with the heads of state amongst the powerful, and then kill them all (a "decapitation").

When the dust settles, we can use our scanners to find their various versions of Machu Pichu.

I also think we should educate the masses and progressively grant them autonomy/citizenship/a say in government. Brains are a precious resource, we want as many as possible fully motivated and involved in moving the planet forward.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Cortez and Pizzaro had a massive technological advantage. They won because of that, not because the strategy of "Make allies, kill enemy leaders" was in any way an impressive one.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

We are both fools. It was the diseases. :-(

Let's cough on some blankets and send them down. ;D

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Only works if they have compatible biologies (i.e. if they'd be vulnerable to whatever pathogens we throw their way). In any case, you're in space. If you really wanted to say hello to your new neighbors with bio-chemical warfare, go for lander based dispersal, among other things the use of blankets implies atleast some of the aliens aren't good at controlling their internal temperatures AND need some form of rest. With 7 types out there, I'd take neither of those as a given.

Just another word of caution for this approach, if you try it, you run the risk of wild mutation of your pathogens in the alien environment, creating previously unexperienced pathogens that hurt humans as well. Good job breaking it, space-conquistador.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Drats. Excellent points. I will rethink my plan and, for the moment, console myself with wine and pickles.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Might I tempt you to switch your vote towards the more probable planet Charizard? I'm sure there'll be more problems on it when we land (no matter which planet is chosen), since that's pretty much the entire point of this intellectual exercise, but atleast we'll have lots of fish.

The point of this stage of questioning is pretty much just to force Bucky into a corner with little wriggle room through confirming queries that reduce the probability of absolute chaos on the chosen planet (e.g. confirming magnetospheres now, not after landing).

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Consider me temped. For the moment, I am still mesmerized by megalomaniacal dreams of non-aquatic conquest.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

If I'm properly keeping track of mizal's flip-flopping the current votes are...

Atlas - 14

Mizal

IAP

Wibn

Killa

End's Wife

Tim

Ebon

Orange

Digit

Corgi

Chanbot

EZ

Thara

Briar

Charizard - 7

Steve

Zag

Stryker

Maya

Samyers

Seto

MoreCowBell

Detroit - 1

End

E'Arth - 0

Nil

Glacier - 3

Bucky’s Wife

Ogre

Chris

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
@ogre11 @orange @berkazerka @killa_robot @azbaz @seto

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
@MoreCowbell @SpartacustheGreat @Corgi213

I'm about to push your pods out the airlock if I don't see signs of brain activity.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Been busy, also trying to sift through hours of missed thread posts.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
@Paowman @tmanaking @coolcatkim22 @Samyers0616 @Flamenod @Aster @priryan123 @Sotter @Jellyfish2na @LuperDesty @Bluefur

because why not

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Seriously, I just got here. 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
You just joined and you already have the attention of an active member. What a lucky fellow you are! Now quick, make a choice, so your mentor won't be disappointed. :)

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Well, you picked a good time.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Your profile says you are awesome, quick Samyers, only you can decide what planet we should go to! The future of humanity rests squarely on your shoulders, random noob.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

If you haven't recognized it yet, unfortunately, you're not going to.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
yeah I missed all your posts from earlier

You voted wrong though so I might do it anyway.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I'm gonna say Charizard

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

YES! Good one, Samyers.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
by request: @Daemon_d6 @DavidG

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
And @bradinDvorak

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I'd say Atlas. 31% change of interference isn't terrible, and apart from that it's clearly the best choice.

Charizard might be okay, but I feel like space Godzilla will rise out of the sea and mess us up if that's the choice.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
My issues with Atlas are mentioned above. Plus, the chances of a Water Godzilla existing are fairly slim due to Oxygen levels (a critical determinant in life-form size of the kind we're familiar with) being similar to our Earth. The worst case should be angry whales, and again, they're winning no speed awards. Mecha and Kaiju movement is cool in movies / anime, in real life (given highly similar world conditions), the smaller ants (humans) would win over the much slower 'huge' animals. Or as we often do, we just find a turtle and set up shop on its back, and don't tell me that isn't a cool idea.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Living on the side of a tranquil mountain with real access to water seems much more alluring.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Access to water with low chances of replenishment though, due to a functioning water cycle most likely not existing.
It'd be like setting up the world's last mountain expedition, and calling it quits when supplies inevitably run out.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
You can assume Atlas has a functioning water cycle.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Hey, Everybody! I have an idea. Let's go to where "breathing will be a potential difficulty" and "the planet's flora and fauna [are]... difficult to tame, capture or kill." 

Plus, Mizal, would you really want to reward a planet where the creatures only watch and don't have the balls to participate?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Oh crap, wrong profile. :")

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I've already said I find it likely we're getting ambushed on Atlas and that's WHY I want to go, it's got a mystery and thus a more interesting story than the others.

Earth's animals are pretty difficult to tame, capture and kill as well and that's why we became so awesome. Living on mountains won't be a big deal, we can settle the mountains with more Earth-like elevations and leave the freakishly high ones pristine for future generations after they adapt a bit.

For now there's only 2000 settlers, not like we even need much space.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

And rewarding the lurkers?...

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
My dislike of Charizard stems from the fact that oceans on Earth are bad enough, so an alien one is almost guaranteed to be full of things 1000x more horrifying.

Like you can just take squid and octopi and extrapolate from there.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Ocean's are lovely. 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
There exist on the internet thousands of videos that prove otherwise.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Allow me to tempt you with an assortment of wines and pickles, which you are contractually obligated to supply.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
You guys are essentially asking me to do Subnautica IRL. Fuck that I say. If we wind up on Charizard I will do everything in my power to see you all wind up on the bottom of the hell ocean you dragged me to.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
P.S. @Bucky I would like to be in charge of building the boats.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Seems fair. I basically trust you make the base of the boats basic.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Fuck that, as far as I can tell, I'm the only one here with ANY sailing experience. I'm in charge of boats.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

This is actually why if people are really thinking about it, they shouldn't be picking Charizard.

If you folks don't want Steve to set himself up as some fucking ocean pirate king and basically horse fuck all of you, you won't be picking the water world.
 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Steve is like the rest of us. At heart, a badass.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Don't forget that I'm the most likely to make the tools they'll be using to build their boats. No telling how they'll turn out if I get stuck on some water world.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Work it, Dawg.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

What if our planet is the most horrifying and the alien ones are a little tamer compared to ours? 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Due to an honor-related matter, I hereby endorse Atlas.

Survival of the fittest, evolution will make us stronger, and all that.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
>Due to an honor-related matter, I hereby endorse Atlas.

*from his luxury penthouse on Earth, using the FTL communications technology that got invented after he brought about the new utopia.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

If it's survival of the fittest I say Detroit would be the place to go.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

This just in! From Detriot: news clip 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

That's from 2011. a bit late for "just in"

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

If you want a recent “just in” Detroit story, there was a minor ice storm that occurred a week or so ago and it shut down the power in some of the city.

While the DTE Energy folks were trying to get the power up and running, people were robbing them and the trucks.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

We're on a fucking spaceship, man. That's the best shit I could get!

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Honestly the Detroit planet would make for the best story I think, but I get why nobody would want to live there.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Okay, so another for Atlas.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
@Will11

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

There are two ways to look at this: One through a strictly game lens wherein you decide solely on the chances of survival, or the ( and much more relevant I might add) story lens where you decide what planet to choose based upon story potential. Let's examine the first lens first.

Game Lens

Atlas: IAP covered this really well, but I'll touch on a few things very quickly. Gravity is good, and requires pretty much zero adjustment on our part. Drinkable water is readily available through freshwater lakes and rivers.The high elevation and trouble with breathing that will occur thereof is something that is easily adapted to. It will even make the human race a more hardy breed and will thus spark a new age of more physically fit and dominant humans. The could be anything from wolf-like creatures to dragons, but I imagine with our numbers they will be of almost no real trouble. Assuming our leaders lead competently anyhow. If there are dragons or the like and we can somehow manage to tame them, then everything else will become exponentially easier. As we are humans, problems like dealing with a few beasts can be overcome quite easily by superior intellect. Resources will be readily available and will likely help us become more technologically advanced much faster. 

The 31% chance is crap. They are pretty low chances first off, but second off, the chances that it isn't just some natural phenomena is just as, if not more, likely as some sentient species. In fact, due to the planets large amount of resources, I wouldn't be surprised if the interference (if there even is an interference) is just some extra powerful magnetic poles or some crap.  If we are so unlucky as to have it be a sentient species, then who says they'll kill us? If these aliens are capable of creating something that interferes with scanners, then I'd wager they'd be an innovative, and somewhat curious species. They would likely not murder us their first opportunity, and would thus grant us the opportunity to stab them in the back and steal their technology. 

All the problems are easily solved.

Charizard: Gravity is good. The air is solid as well. After that, however, we see our first problem. Water is relatively scarce, and assuming we don't have the technology to convert saltwater to drinkable water, then our only real way to get water is through rainwater. Unless the storms are large and frequent enough to satisfy over 2,000 people daily, then we'd kinda be screwed.Of course, like any other problem, I'm sure we'd find a solution, but water shortages would seem like one of the worst possible problems to occur imo. This could also be solved by finding a good lake or river, but, as those are scarce, I wouldn't count on it. 

Food should be abundant though, and aside from potential lack of water, this might very well be the best planet to go to for survival. But that's it. We would survive, but it would take years, centuries or even more to readily progress. Steady access to resources is what allowed our human ancestors to progress beyond shipbuilding in the first place, but without that we'd be stuck in a perpetual state of the 1500's to the 1600's in term of technology. If we couldn't manage to kickstart our arrival ship, then we might very well run into the possibility of never leaving the planet. And that's leaving out the fact that exploration would be hard due to the acid rain and possibility of mountain sized sea monsters. Steve and Stryker have already addressed ways to avoid them, (or why they couldn't exist at all) but it would definitely be difficult to keep every person away from deep sea danger zones especially if we get the urge to explore. In short, the human race could not progress if on this planet. 

Glacier: This is the worst planet by far. Although the atmosphere and gravity isn't all that bad, the temperature would be a major hindrance. Not to mention the several deadly oceans of mercury? Yeah this place sounds like what hell would be if it froze over. I suppose it could work, but that would be heavily dependent upon whether the caves have minerals, and whether that extinct species left behind things we can use. 

And don't even get me started on the fact that a sentient species went extinct here. That spells all kinds of bad news for us. This place should be a definite no go.

E'Arth: This place is great. Assuming we can subjugate all other sentient species that is, but we are humans. I'm sure we, as per our war-like nature, could figure out how to conquer them. That would be the real only problem. If there was a guarantee of our victory, then this would hands down be the best place to go, but there isn't. Thus, our dilemma.

Detroit: This is basically fallout on a different planet, and thus highly dangerous and unpredictable. While End definitely had good points, it could all go to waste the day we figure out that all of our women were made infertile through the resident toxicity. Better than Glacier though. 

Keeping our future in mind, and assuming we don't immediately want to go to war, Atlas is definitely the best choice. 

At least, from a game lens...

Game Lens vs Story Lens

Before I get into the best one for a story, let me explain why a story lens is important, even superior to a game lens here. This choice that Bucky is having us make isn't an end all be all choice. After this choice, this game he's been doing will transform from a simple Leaving Earth scenario to a Collaborative CYOA in the Creative Corner. In view of this, and in view of the fact that we all love a good story, we should be taking into account that we should be choosing a planet that would be the most fun to read. Instead of comparing survival likelihood almost different planets we should be comparing potential enjoyment levels given the planet we settle. With this in mind, let's move on to the second half of my pitch...

Story Lens

Atlas: Stuff like gravity, and breathable air become almost irrelevant in this lens. sure they'll have some bearing, but they won't affect the story like some of the other details about the planet. Take, for example, the potentially dangerous fauna. What if there do happen to be dragon-like  creatures that we could tame? This could turn into a dragon taming story, and all of the cool stuff that goes with that. There are a crap ton of cool stuff that could be done with fauna, and that's just he fauna portion. Let's add overwhelming quantity of resources and there could be a story where humanity is pushed against the edge by powerful fauna, and our only choice for survival is to use the resources to craft ourselves better technology in order to survive. 

As for that 31%...well it's still crap, but in a different way. There is a 100% chance in my mind that there is something interfering with the scanners. The story that could be created from that would be brilliant, and could be loads of fun to read and help make choices on. Instead of having to war with seven other species we could be warring with just one, and so many things could be done with that. The possibilities with Atlas are pretty endless.

Charizard: The story potential, assuming there isn't any sentient life hiding on the bottom of the ocean, will end up being one of two things. A generic pirate story, or a rehashing of Moby Dick, but with more sea monsters. Both ideas are fairly limited and ultimately have Bucky working harder to come up with stuff to keep us interested. This planet has the least potential storywise.

Glacier: This one could be fun, but, like the game lens, it is heavily reliant upon the previous sentient species and the extensive cave systems. I can already see a story where we're attempting to decipher the reason the last species went extinct in order to prevent the same thing from happening to ourselves. There isn't a ton of variety here, but there is definitely more than Charizard. 

E'Arth: This one would be hella fun. It'd basically be a war story agasint other aliens, and I love extensive war stories. With seven species to add and take away from the story, there would be a ton of material for Bucky to draw on. Although the setting might be limited, the plot could end up being the best of all the planets.

Detroit: This is a fallout like setting, and thus, also has a ton of potential story wise. All around, this could quite possibly be the best stroy potential wise, but I just can't imagine the reason for choosing this planet over all of the other ones. Logically it isn't the best choice, so I can't help but think the people that decide to go here are suicidal. (Of course, if someone snuck into the command room and changed to destination coordinates to Detroit instead of Atlas, then we'd have a viable reason for the choice of planet.

That being said, "Interesting features include, an incredibly deep pit, a glass desert, a perpetually burning underground coal fire beneath a wasted city, a freestanding mountain with a peak 63,000 feet above sea level, a ruined statue of a cloaked figure holding a stick, a massive petrified forest, a lake of oil, and a big ass waterfall of dirty water, tumbling from the side of the big ass mountain. 

Sentient life has been detected, but only in trace numbers." 

All of that would make an already interesting story enthralling. 

Conclusion

Combining both of the lens results in a clear winner. Atlas is the best choice, and is thus where my vote will go. 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

LOL. This is how I got through small group classes in college. Wait till the end, then make a meta-comment. ;)

With regards to Chirizard caveat "assuming there isn't any sentient life hiding on the bottom of the ocean," I'm kinda assuming there will be one on both this and Atlas. Otherwise, Bucky is either stoned or will be stoned.

Our Lord and Savior Charizard

6 years ago
Seems a bit more preaching is in order for the one true planetary option (even though I'll give Atlas more points for better sounding name)

Freshwater can probably obtained through channeling the spewing lava / geothermal energy sources into boiling water fit for consumption, I find this a relatively easy to solve issue. Bonus points? The lava would probably give us good sources of steam energy so we can finally try a world where Steam became the dominant form of energy for a while, instead of fossil fuels (which I would expect there still be a fair amount of, in case emergency fuel is needed for evacuation).

Each major volcanic activity region would probably spin off into its own zone, similar to major ports in the age of Sail, and would eventually allow for redundancy and self-sufficiency across multiple outposts, so Charizard offers more species level safety than crowding around a mountain range or two near the equator. And all that's before we even start going full Subnautica / Kamino and building major underwater facilities over time.

Cultural advancement and technological progress are more functions of resource availability, and I'm certain that the bounties of the oceans will provide enough stimulus to get civilization back up and kicking. Plus the whole major tides business would keep everyone on their toes, so no falling into a rut and getting bored on a mountainside pass in winter with nowhere to go and nothing to do. Oh, and I just realized the extreme variation between high tide and low tide would also be a phenomenal source of renewable tidal energy. Say what you will, energy will not be a constraint on Charizard.

As for there being limited story avenues, I'll have to disagree. Water is notoriously hard to evaluate from surface scans (among other things, this is the reason nuclear submarines are so good at their job). Scientifically speaking, and this is no hyperbole, we know more about outer space than we do about our own ocean here on Earth, and everytime we find something really interesting and cool. Human evolution would definitely progress on a more nature-harmony / avatar style progression which is an interesting track of its own, but there's more that's possible.

What if the large masses moving under the ocean are submerged floating cities? As in untethered, floating in the ocean, and their populations moving perpetually under the ocean (fun fact, under water the impact of climate like hurricanes and earthquakes is significantly less prominent). As much as I loathe to bring up this particular example, the Gungans from the Star Wars prequel trilogy had some interesting city under the water ideas, as did the folks on Manaan in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (1).

Furthermore, I suspect there'd be rare resources under the ocean, so the story could also branch into an interplanetary commerce angle (again like Manaan, which had Bacta which was the omni-gel for the star wars universe - mild spoiler - if you chose to contaminate the single source of Bacta on Manaan, prices of omni-gel would spiral for the rest of the game (like 50x) across the galaxy. Furthermore, with Manaan being the sole suppliers of a military and civil critical resource made them the only place Jedi and Sith could come into staring distance without being allowed to fight during the wars of that era).

Oceans provide interesting physical locations to explore, like trenches and undersea structures like coral reefs, but on a much more massive scale and with actual animal life colonies living inside them. So yep, the setting has narrative potential and strong survival relevance, without the boredom of mountain travel. Final point, people falling into the deep sea and dying out of wanderlust is no less an issue than people accidentally losing their gripping on mountains and taking the quick way down. If anything, I suspect the latter would be relatively more dangerous.

Ergo, I must recommend you reconsider your assessment, we should build Rapture underwater, not Columbia in the sky

Oh, and Ogre's comment made me realize that there'd be underwater caves as well, so he'd be set too on Charizard (though he'd be a Mer-Ogre, I'm sure 3 axial movement would be worth the switch in environs)

E: Side note, 31% is actually insanely high for risk factors. Autism in newborn kids is at 1/50 (aka 0.02%) and people are going crazy enough to scare themselves into becoming anti-vaxxers. A 31% chance your entire species could perish to the space equivalent of a hunter spider (we can simplify it to a 1/3 toss) is a monumentally bad gamble. For an equivalent example, it'd be like putting every single thing you own and would inherit, plus a contract for willing slavery in case you fail up on a 1/3 wager, where the pay off is... not dying immediately?

Our Lord and Savior Charizard

6 years ago
With all the mountains and weird geology, could just be some kind of mineral or some other naturally occurring mineral blocking scans. Seems a lot more likely than a highly advanced civilization going through all this trouble on the off chance some aliens go by.

That's from a probability standpoint of course. From a story approach, of course there are aliens there and even if they're hostile of course they're not immediately going to kill us all because that would be boring and then we'd have no collab thingy.

Aliens could also be hidden from blocked scans just as a result of whatever natural thing which means they could just as easily be primitive and friendly sapient llamas which would help us immensely.

Our Lord and Savior Char

6 years ago
Seems the only way to resolve this is to summon @Bucky himself. Did scans of either Atlas or Charizard come back with traces of unidentified compounds / elements? If so, were these clustered around specific geologic formations / occurrences?

For me personally, it's the risk of jamming on principle that makes this a terrible gambit. In war, you can never have enough recon, and within recon, you can never have enough clarity. If the jamming had been mentioned on Charizard, I would have been equally wary, but since it was not an issue, the scales tip liberally towards Char (I now propose renaming it to Char because that just sounds more sci-fi and less lame.. for a water planet) (Charizard would have been a very alright lava planet name though, just for context)

Oh, and as per the currently popular 'sounds in a forest' theory of space faring species (which analogizes space to a forest, and each species to an animal in it), the goal is to not be found while others reveal themselves so you can hunt and eliminate those potential rivals that signal their existence, in the aim to be the last survivor and ergo 'winner?'. Jamming / signal interference to prevent certainty of existence is a very smart tactic - it deters potential visitors on principle, lets you hide your forces in case someone arrives, and gives you the option of not making a sound even if someone does come to check by playing possum, keeping you safe. Also lets you choose to go loud when it's opportune. Hence, civilizations using that tactic are either extremely lucky (to having it without seeking it), or extremely cunning. Either explanation makes them worth avoiding till we're in a position of relative superiority (which we as settlers are currently not).

Our Lord and Savior Charizard

6 years ago
The way you've described it it sounds like it'd be a ton more work just to live on Charizard. And that's just for the basics. I don't know about you, but after fourteen hours on my feet in real life, I don't really feel like heading out to hunt dragons or aliens or whatnot. I just wanna get off my feet.

On Atlas, half the work is already done and simple adventures abound while out simply foraging for berries or lazily pulling in a catch from the local lake. Heck, even trying to survive some extremely advanced alien species determined to exterminate the last remnants of humanity in the universe by setting out the perfect bait in a well thought out trap sounds more exciting than everyone sitting around bickering over whose water filter is the most efficient and doing experiments in some hastily thrown up laboratory.

On Charizard, I'd imagine that humans would be preying on one another for their half-empty canteens and wouldn't even have time to build the massive fleets that Steve has somehow dreamed up. I'd be surprised if the survivors would even find the time and where with all to even invent water wings and those rubber ducky floatie things that children use to keep afloat. It just doesn't seem like there'd be enough free time to do anything other than rest up for the next day of designed tedium.

I guess what it really boils down to for me is that "man was meant to live, not prepare to live." I don't care how dangerous it is, and fear of the unknown doesn't prevent me from exploring, it compels me to. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but where would we be if we let fear hold us back. Probably hunkered down and barricaded in some hole back on Earth instead of halfway across the galaxy.

Our Lord and Savior Charizard

6 years ago
Most of the base building work on Char would be finished within a few years, the islands within a generation or two. There'd be more than enough resources from the lander to get a functional base and geothermal/tidal energy streams up quick, and it wouldn't require much adaptation either. Complaints about water filters would most likely be a non-starter.

With Atlas, the threat of something unknown emerging from the tunnels or of people getting lost in tunnels or avalanches is perpetual, and will last across all generations (that's also assuming none of those mountains are Godzilla). A network of sonar buoys on Char (remnants from the lander's comms kit) would give us early warning from nearly all major water-based attack vectors. Also on Atlas, fighting the aliens / dragons wouldn't be optional from the looks of the setup, where as on Char, fishing expeditions WOULD be voluntary.

Also, whatever Char would be, with three moons in orbit pulling massive wave differentials between high and low tide, stagnant wouldn't be one of them, that would be Atlas.

Seems like a lot of your concerns aren't that substantial, and would actually be more prominent on Atlas than Char, especially since I still have my doubts over the quality of its water cycles and groundwater recharge.

Our Lord and Savior Charizard

6 years ago
So my great great grandchildren might have a bit of free time available for an interesting story as long as everything goes strictly according to plan, but we're booked solid until then? Doesn't really sound like the kind of story I'd be interested in.

If you're really that afraid of what might be lurking in the shadows or under your bed, I'm sure I can jury-rig some sort of night-light for when I can't be there to hold your hand. Maybe I can find a whistle somewhere on the seed ship before we land that you can use to alert me if you perceive any danger and I can come tell you a bedtime story and make it all better.

If on the off chance that we have to resort to drinking stagnant water, I promise to build a campfire from the abundance of forests on Atlas and boil it for you so you don't get a tummy ache. I'm not sure about the difficulty of doing the same thing on Char, though. Perhaps your great great grandkids will have invented some way of producing a magnifying lens to do the same thing by the time you actually get thirsty.

Our Lord and Savior Char

6 years ago
Nope, as I said, most of the essentials will be up in months - years. There will be rec time soon but the larger geo-engineering projects are the ones that'll take three generations (floating power reactors, floating cities, ice-berg colonization and the like).

You're underselling the risk of unknown planets with possible life, if what lies in the hills can kill you, you really should be looking for the best way to mitigate it. We wouldn't know as of now whether your emergency light scares them away or attracts more of them, for an example. As for the whistle, I'll let you have it on Char.

And the issue isn't stagnant water, it's water recharge, I'm surprised you didn't get that considering how much I've been going on about it.

In any case I've said my bit, I'm pulling back from the thread till the weekend

Our Lord and Savior Charizard

6 years ago

First off, to harness volcanic energy like you suggest you need to be at a higher state of technology than roman times, so your freshwater theory won't work. Which means my argument is still valid. Water will be a huge problem.

Everything else (except for the story stuff) relies upon a presumed availability of resources that shouldn't be presumed. There's a huge chance you won't even have wood there, so no ships for you. Even if there is wood, you won't be able to progress past a 15th to 16th century standard of living because all of your resources are underwater. You can't swim down to retrieve it feasibly unless we've already evolved which would take many, many years. 

Assuming access to wood is limited to impossible on the less than 1% of land on the planet...

You have no fresh water.

You have no resources.

You can't make fire. 

You and Steve and Iki will doom us all to die if you had your way. 

Even story-wise, the planet has little variety. Atlas has oceans too, and can therefore swallow all of your story ideas into its own.

Atlas>Charizard

Our Lord and Savior Charizard

6 years ago

Seaweed's an efficient fuel is properly dried. Here's the first article I can find because I don't have time for a proper debate. https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2012/nov/14/seaweed-energy-fuel-alternative-1979

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Figured I’d get a few questions out of the way...

How does the fauna compare to Earth’s fauna in terms of difficulty to kill? Also, do we have any knowledge of a specific species on Atlas to use as an example? 

The terrain is largely mountainous, but are there any, that we can tell, forests, plains, or deserts? 

@Bucky

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Or lakes, relatively big lakes.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I'm a little burned out on this after going over it all again this morning, but just pointing out in the thread itself that there's nothing in 'difficult to tame, capture, or kill' that points to anything more dangerous or hostile than a bunch of space goats jumping around the mountains.

Large predators are only going to make up a tiny percent of wildlife, will only hunt when hungry and will likely avoid us when possible just like any other animal. Keep in mind that we're predators too and 2000 of us will be showing up at once, with noise and fire everywhere we go and the ability to kill from a distance. This is not a video game, animals don't go out of their way seeking trouble.

Shelter is also readily available as are an abundance of raw materials. Farms can be set up quickly using terraces.

I won't deny that Charizard might be a pleasant place to live, IF we don't get wiped out by sea monsters or hurricanes or volcanoes or collapsing land during the time when we're stuck on a tiny speck of an island with no way to escape. But even in an ideal scenario where there's no difficulty at all, the kind Steve keeps insisting we'll find, society and technology will stagnate completely. We'll have water, and fish, and lie around on a beach outside our huts.

Steve would have you all believe we can just rip metal panels off the ship we arrive in and fashion then by hand into steel ships, and that we can melt and shape all this steel with factory precision on that kind of scale by burning a bunch of fucking seaweed that must be gathered by hand. All in less than a year, while at the same time feeding and figuring out clothes and shelter for 2000 people with extremely limited space.

Steve obviously broke into the ship's booze supply right befire everyone assembled for the planet picking meeting and should be made to sleep it off in the brig.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Specific fauna indeterminate.

There are forested mountains ^_^

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

P.S. 'Hardy' wildlife could also be along the lines of

Sweet dreams on Atlas

@Bucky This particular Godzilla movie has themes similar to your premise: a space mission to find a habitable planet with the remnants of humanity on board (it degenerates with annoying aliens being aboard, but leave that aside for now). Basically they find a habitable planet... with 'hardy' lifeforms. Some turn out to not be Godzilla, and the survey team DID see scanner interference before landing, just btw. For Bonus points, sleeping Godzilla was mistaken AS one of those mountains (vegetation had grown over him during his slumber). Also, all the plant life and animals were genetically derived from Godzilla, and so leaves were as sharp as steel blades, the animal life was worse (try cooking that).

I fear you may be underestimating the threat of hardy life and ominous mountains

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Was the film any good?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Good for late night / drunk / low standards watching. Not much to appeal to a sober audience. The eventual sequels may be more interesting (it's intended to be part 1 of a trilogy, mecha-godzilla is expected to pop up in part 2 or 3), since the premise and act one conclusion aren't bad in a larger story way. Watchable, but that's about it, 6/10 or so.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Detroit.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

The underwater sentient life on Atlas might just be the fucking Snorks.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

lmao! I loved that show.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I choose Glacier because I want to live in a cave.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
You can do that on Atlas.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I had a hard time choosing a place, but I think overall I'd trust my chances with Charizard.

I play Subnautica, I can totally do this.
Just don't think of whatever could possibly live in this ocean, and I'll be great.

Atlas would be my second choice, but in the end I really don't want to trust a 31% chance, especially if the potential sentient creatures could be both hostile and stealthy mountain ninjas. 

Glacier sounds like the worst possible choice considering how sentient lifeforms had been there, and had been wiped out. Whatever wiped them out could still be out there, in the caves or something. Or it could have just been that fucking inhabitable to the point where even things made to live there couldn't live there.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

People are telling me to vote Atlas or Charizard so I'm gonna go Glacier.

Wildcard, bitches.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
You are dooming yourself to life in a frozen hell hole with mercury seas just so Steve and Ebon can't have their way?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
That sounds like a pretty solid reason there.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

It was either that or Detroit. I picked the logical choice.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

It's between Atlas and Charizard because the others seem like living hells. I'd usually say Charizard because of the whole island thing, but it has a weeby name and fresh water seems hard to find. I guess I'd go with Atlas and I'm definitely NOT only saying this because End messaged me and told me to vote for Atlas.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I'm glad you cleared that last bit up.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Our End is being re-Mastered (preemptively). By Detroit!! :'(

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Atlas all the way, Only chance of their being mermaids and getting that sweet harem

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Dude, the only thing better than a mermaid is a dumb mermaid. The ones on Char don't even know how to jam scanners! Although, granted, they may be megalodons. :/

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Your first word says Atlas, your description describes Char. Hmm.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

https://s17.postimg.cc/jv7i5bp8v/a_think_has_been_had.png

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I think I'd choose Atlas. Because Detroit sounds like you'd be shortening your lifespan unnecessarily.  E'Arth just sounds like the inhabitants would probably ban together and destroy us.  So you know, fuck that.  

And if we don't freeze to death on Glacier we'll probably just get killed in the deep dark caves by either natural (poisonous) gases, hostile cave creatures, or possible hostile sapient race that fled from whatever surface disaster to live in the caves.  Clearly cave creatures or beings would be more well adapted and everyone would just get ambushed and killed within minutes.  

Charizard would offer us nowhere stable to build floating colonies in the first place, so we'd collapse into the salt ocean and eventually drown.  Die of volcanic eruptions, and in the chance we do get rain, it'll  most likely be the acid rainwater mentioned.  So screw that.

That leaves Atlas as the only viable answer, with plenty of drinkable water.  The oceans we can ignore for the most part until we figure out how to deal with any possible monsters that have evolved over the centuries.  It seems likely we'd build a settlement nestled in the mountains near some of the freshwater lakes.  We'd probably find a way to figure out the breathing issue, probably through masks and oxygen tanks.  Most likely the possible sapient life would be within some cave range within the mountains.  So if they're hostile we'd have to figure out how to either collapse the cave entrances and block them inside, or engage in defensive guerilla tactics which means we'd have to learn the terrain pretty quickly.  If they're friendly they'd probably teach us how to survive with a promise to repay them later.  

Honestly I think our best bets would be Atlas, the chances of survival would be slim on pretty much all of these planets.  But Atlas gives the best possible chances.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Actually, for the worst case on Char, there'd still be polar ice-caps and icebergs, so stable land would exist even within our norms, no matter what. Volcanic eruptions wouldn't be much of an issue since outside of energy gathering equipment and fields, a lot of time would not be spent physically on the volcanic region.

Come to think of it, there have to be some extinguished volcanoes somewhere or the other, those would make good lagoons. My point being, there will be more than enough stable colonies for the first five generations or so, and that's honestly more than enough to get started.

The weather cycle has been mentioned to be predictable, so I doubt the acid rain would be a threat unless someone gets careless.

As for Acid rain, I do hope you realize that "walking in acid rain, or even swimming in an acid lake, is no more dangerous than walking or swimming in clean water. The air pollution that causes acid rain is more damaging to human health. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, the major sources of acid rain, can irritate or even damage our lungs." http://www2.gsu.edu/~mstnrhx/EnviroBio%20Projects/AcidRain/humans.html

I'd request you reconsider Char (we're working to rebrand it :P )

Oh, and as I said with the Afghanistan example earlier, mountains are among the worst terrain to be fighting an invasion on. Too many tunnels available to the defenders to retreat to / flank with. If we do run into combat on Atlas, it will be vicious on our fledgling community.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I choose to reside on planet Charizard.

Also, if lifeforms have consciousness and the ability to think like us, they would be sapient, not sentient.

A dog is sentient, while a human child is sapient.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

My bad.  

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Only pretentious jackasses would flag that as a point of note. And the difference between the words is debatable. If a dog doesn't "think" when he makes a choice for his benefit, I don't know what the hell it's doing then.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Are you saying that dogs can think in the same manner that we do? That is a very interesting thought. I do think that some animals have an emotional consciousness, at the least.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
If sentience was truly just being able to recognize feelings, why classify animals by intelligence? You'd just be classifying them by their ability to sense or feel.

EDIT: Firmly believe Lassie is smarter than some people.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I simply said that I believe that some animals can feel and/or detect emotion, not that is as required trait for sentience.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Uh, it's definitely a required trait for sentience.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

It's not stated outright in what I'm reading, but I can agree with that.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I think one of you needs to know the difference between "Sentience" and "Sapience".

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

You know it's bad when Tim comes out to play.

E: Is it me?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Sapient: Having or showing great wisdom or sound judgment

Sentient: Having the power of perception by the senses

Heck, most people aren't even sapient.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Oh I just brought this up in the chat but, going by the original usages Zag is technically right. Although in practice the words are basically used interchangeably now and sentient has become more popular, to the point it's sometimes used deliberately (as in the case of the Stellaris devs) just because they've been swapped around so much in other sci fi thingies that sentient is now the most understood or expected term.

Sapience implies the ability to think and reason (see: homo sapiens) while sentience is about perceiving and reacting to individual experience. Dogs are sentient, like a lot of other animals. Sapient things are sentient so the usage is technically correct, but not all sentient things are sapient.

Creatures that are only sentient can't grasp entirely theoretical concepts or things outside their own experience. Debating the pros and cons of what imaginary planet our pretend selves should go to, for instance, requires sapience.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Fight me.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Thank you, Mistress.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Well, I'm guessing he must think the rest of my argument is sound since all he did was point out a minor thing.  

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

What? I never mentioned your argument, nor did I even reply to you. I wanted to correct everyone's misuse of the word sentience.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Oh, it looked like you did.  Sorry guy.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

No problem, friend.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Given that End's wife doesn't deserve a vote and Digit meant Charizard, we should change that.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

No he didn't. I told him to vote for Atlas and he said it was the better choice anyway. Not sure where you and Stryker are laboring under the delusion Digit voted for Char.

And if Bucky's wife vote counts, so does mine.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Odd, now End, if you're selling mermaid harem fantasies to Digit for living on a planet with habitable zones at 7k - 14k feet and only 20% water... something's off. You may have fed him the name Atlas, but his harem seeking heart clearly sought Char

E: Disclaimer: Sapient Mermaid Harem availability subject to Bucky's discretion

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Actually I never said anything about mermaids.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Which means he voted Char ^_^

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Oh for fucks sake…

As I’ve already said, anyone except Steve (who has a perfectly self-serving reason for his choice) picking Charizard is being a retarded faggot. Or at least a short sighted one who can’t see the real fucking danger.

The obvious danger isn’t going to be anything on the fucking planet, it’s going to be the other colonists, namely Steve.

I know Stryker is pontificating about this very scientifically and all of that, but that doesn’t mean shit when a certain drunk angry Irishman is going to one day cave his head in with an oar because he’s annoyed with him for whatever reason and declare himself tyrant of the fucking water world.

The fact is, Steve has too much of a fucking advantage on any world with a shitload of ocean. And most of you cucks are going to just bend over and take it as soon as he starts smacking you around because guess what, most of you do it on here already and now he’ll actually have a real advantage because he’s a goddamn sailor. The best thing to do is to kill that baby in its crib.

But hey, if you’re all comfortable with getting shit wiped on your cheeks and raped by a bunch of literal ass pirates lead by Capn “Semen Lord” Steve, be my fucking guest.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
With all due respect, the colonists are the biggest threat to themselves on any planet, I don't see the subjective risk in Char over Atlas in that regard (Steve would still be Steve on Atlas, IAP and Mizal have threatened covert rebellion if we're not on Atlas, we're in for a can of worms no matter where the table is set)

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I got no problem with him being pirate king on Atlas, there's less ocean for him to fuck around on.

And any rebellion by Mizal and whoever else I don't place much faith in since they can't do shit by themselves anyway. Hell, I probably managed to convince more people to pick Atlas than any of them did, so they're clearly incompetent at the simplest of tasks.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Can't deny, you're a smooth operator, I'm guessing atleast 4 votes for Atlas (not including your wife, which I'm personally cool with, but would be happier if it was via a thread post) are directly tied to your lobbying. I'm more of an upfront fella, so I've been trying to do all my canvassing in the thread itself.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
It's nice that you're trying to spin not being as good at convincing people to do things into a moral virtue, but

>I'm more of an upfront fella

Is why you ultimately have little hope of success or survival.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Moral virtue? I'm straight up admitting that winning against End's lobbying on this site is a losing proposition, the Gravewalker has too much strength through his persona as one of the finest writers (side note, exception would be if he'd pull a Kiel, but he's far too mature and invested for that). Personally I'd find this kind of thread more enjoyable if all lobbying were on thread, since atleast that way there's a conversation to join in on or errors to point out (e.g. Digit, who I still believe is a vote for Char).

Upfront as a stance has a success rate contingent on the social zeitgeist, it'd get me slammed in 2012's America (amusingly not that much in 2018's America, depending which side of the line I'd be speaking on) but would keep me alive in 2000's Russia (due to the side-effects of capitalism and communism on those social structures respectively). Now, that small historical parable aside, seeing as how most of the people on this site and accordingly this ship tend to skew to capitalistic liberal terms, yeah, upfront probably isn't the most optimal strategy to 'win' people over. But then again, on a writing site, was 'winning' ever the goal in the first place?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Let me argue points that I have no stake in winning.  Also upfront won't mean shit in the shit-storm that is settling Cystians on some deserted alien planet.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
No, no, the better analogue is the local indie variety story seller knowing it's time to close shop down when he sees STORIES-MART level competition drive into town in the metaphorical 1980s. There's no competing with the connections of organized story wholesale and its (admittedly well earned) loyal customer base.

Well, I find planetary colonization expeditions to be similar in milieu to post Soviet Russia (a time of major resource shortages and a situation where your life could depend on the trustworthiness of your fellow people). In those settings, playing with your cards in the open is the best way to prevent miscommunication and to achieve common goals. It's the reason residents of the former USSR tend to be brutally blunt in their communication, since trying to be 'polite' would often end up with them not sharing critical information and someone visibly suffering. By comparison, over in the west, with resources in abundance the exact opposite happened in social pressure. The social norm was to be polite and not challenge others / not address them aggressively, since everyone was well off enough that their survival would not be materially affected by you pointing out the emperor had no clothes (since there were enough resources to survive setbacks). Any conflict from addressing them would only make them feel bad, and at you at that, so everyone did well enough living and letting live.

That aside, this is just going to be a roleplay with no semblance of reality, so I may as well reconsider my stance on open play, since in the absence of real stakes, it'll degenerate to Western social rules.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

You always have to hold the best cards back my guy.  I mean, by all means go for it, but there are times when secrecy and pulling the strings from the shadows are much better.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
The scenario here is that a bunch of people have awoken on a colony ship and have about a week to make a decision that will irreversibly effect the rest of their lives.

You're the guy who's only discussing the subject in the meeting room during designated hours and considers it impolite to bring it up anywhere else. Others feel strongly enough they're doing whatever it takes to bring about their desired result. One method has proven more effective than the other.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I mean, he's made it pretty obvious he will be attempting to take over on Waterworld and already has a plan in mind so throwing a wrench in it early would just be good sense.

Atlas has oceans too, but he didn't want anything to do with this oceans, he wants the planet that doesn't give you a choice.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Yes, but we'll never know that reality (and whether his plans are dashed or not) unless we vote Char, just saying

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Not sure how sound the reasoning of 'Let's all give Steve exactly what he wants, or we'll never get to see him do exactly what he wants' really is in the self preservation department when even people who have only been following the thread should have a pretty good sense by now of what that is.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
If Steve were writing, well there'd be no discussion on the matter. But, Bucky's writing, and I believe we're all voting. Knowing you, what would be more appealing?

Denying Steve a chance to walk down the path of his fantasy, or letting him walk down it and see him fail terribly when it doesn't come through?

My instinct says you'd enjoy the second more, far more. The first would seem boring to you, it's what happens most other days, but this day you have a choice, so what'll it be?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Maybe we can drop Steve and his concubines off on that planet then speed of towards Atlas?  Unless I missed something that would make that impossible.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Alright, that could work. How many concubines?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Depends on who and how many people voted for Charizard.  I'm sure they'll offer to suck you sooner or later so they should become apparent.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Pretty sure Bucky's dumping us all on the same planet.

Because if our characters could pick which planet they want to be on, I'd just have my character land on the Detroit one and see how long he could last.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Ah shit, maybe we can convince Steve to hold naval superiority in the 20% of ocean on Atlas (which is still significant, as I imagine this planet is probably much larger than Earth).  And the rest of us could develop floating cities at a lower altitude for those who don't quite like the mountains.

Although we'd still need a presence on the mountains to keep an eye on any alien life forms we might find.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Atlas. Evolve to be dwarves with big lungs. Big oceans = big life = big planet = big exploration. Big mountains = big engineering challenges = big advances in science. fite me kiddos

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Life on Charizard would be very simple as far as meeting basic needs. So everyone would just lie around a beach all day and progress would stagnate. Our kids and grandkids wouldn't even see the need for technology, minerals and metals would be prohibitively hard to get to and we'd never get any real industry up. Short of some asshole rounding everybody up into forced work camps or something anyway.

Atlas offers the most variety and most possibilities of any planet aside from E'Arth as well as encouraging a mentally and physically active lifestyle. We'd definitely see the most advancement there, and in our lifetime.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

In regards to resources, since Ebon thinks that's a problem, it wouldn't be. We'd get fuel from seaweed, which is a good idea apparently. https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2012/nov/14/seaweed-energy-fuel-alternative-1979

Given the tide difference, there'd be lots of land opening up in the shallows every ten days. We'd use the Roman technique of hushing and hydraulic action to quickly mine our way to having a shit ton of resources, while those fuckers would still be trying to mine the mountain where the sentient species is hiding inside.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I want someone to do the math on how much seaweed would need to be gathered by hand every day to sustain a bunch of 2500 degree forges and get the Industrial Revolution and the factory or two and all infrastructure needed for steel ships kickstarted. And how much space would be needed to dry it all on this planet that's made of water.

And why anyone would go through the trouble instead of just fishing and drinking and lazing around on a beach all day.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Don't know, but only like one forge to make one boat, which can then use nets to collect seaweed.

Anyhow, your biggest threat to my plan is that life would be too fantastic for us to do things, and we'd never advance. Which... hey, it's a risk I'm willing to take. Worst case scenario, life's great.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

According to research hastily conducted while drunk on pickle juice, we can create fresh water using a very simple process called pervaporation. Plus, that kid in Life of Pi did it. #JustSayNoToScannerJammingMermaids

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

How do you plan on doing that? Separating the salt form the water, that is.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
It would need to be on a scale of more than 4000 litres a day just to cover the bare minimum for drinking water, however it's done.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Just researched it to make sure, but yeah, any way that salt can be separated from water is highly impractical given our situation.Especially if we have to build the tool ourselves.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I'm assuming your 'research' means you did the same google search I did. LOL

Basically, any way you can find to boil water will work. The water that evaporates into the air is 'pure' (this is how rain is made!!) :D

Whatever the hell is running this ship probably has a lot of power, let's use that fucker to boil us some water. Please don't make me work out the details though. I'm just the wine and pickle guy.

@Bucky Sir, might I ask what kind of drive our ship uses and also what it uses for energy and such? Please tell me it has the word "nuclear" in it. I love that word. 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

If it could be done, it might be a weapon or some kind of bartering tool for the savages!

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

@TharaApples

Requesting another vote for Atlas if you happen to pop in.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Welp, this is it gentlemen. Can't win against the End.

*Goes to Space-Amazon, requests cancellation of the inflatable dingy and sunglasses previously ordered, changes order to corrosive chemicals for ore blasting and thick parkas to handle the Atlas night*

*Plays the world's smallest violin for the things that could have been on Char*

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Heck, End voted for Detroit.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
That was a tip of his figurative hat at you for providing the option. Same way if you named one of your intellectual children after him, he'd volunteer to be the godfather of that one in particular.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Yeah, sure, I'll go with that. 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I will switch my vote to Atlas.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Hah! I didn't even try to convince EZ either, dude did it of his own free will!

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Gloating are we?

One of these days, I'll just join your side and make it easy on myself. No need to think... just obey the Master.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Steve
End you fucking cunt, why do you keep telling everyone that I would try to take over on Charizard?

EndMaster
Because you will obviously

Steve
Irrelevant.

Hey, I'm the only one trying to stop pure evil right here. If I left it in the hands of Mizal and Ebon, nothing would get accomplished.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Proof. Proof! I hate proof. 

First off, if we can't control Steve, then who the fuck can? Answer: we can control Steve, people!

B. If the engine won't provide us buttloads of heat or electricity (to last, say 40 years for my boil-water-thingy) then, fuck it, count me in, End.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Not "count me in your end". That's horribly offensive. I mean... like, I would vote for Atlas and such.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Cowbell, not the hero we wanted....but the hero we have.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Speak for yourself. MCB is straight up Bonnie Tyler hero material.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Only joking of course, I'm cool with Cowbell.

He has now proven instrumental in avoiding Steve ass raping all the corpses he may or may not leave behind.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Describe this actual process of boiling more than 4000 litres of water a day though. What would you put it in before...rigging the engine somehow to heat it and how would you capture the drinking water? You can't just wave this part away, it's literally life or death for all of us and it has to be done by hand.

The ship I'm expecting to sink within a few days at most anyhow so I'm not sure how reliable it would be to depend on anything on it that can't be easily transferred to land.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I’m always unhappy when we disagree. I sell your wine and pickles for God' sake!

Look, before you force me to draft the designs, let's keep in mind that there are actual volcanoes on this island. Those fuckers spew lava (which is hot), directly into the ocean (which is made out of water). We just need to collect the steam that is already being made there. 

Have you ever seen the steam collect on your shower door? Have you seen the beads of water form and drop down? Let's get a bunch of people to shower at the edge of the volcano… OR… use big ass aluminum siding and make the water drip down the underside into receptacles.

Second, spaceships aren't made out of fucking steel. When the hell did that happen? They are made out of aluminum. That shit is nice for boats and it has less than half the melting temperature of steel.

A small foundry is a given on our colonizing ship. It is super useful, can be small, and can be used to repair parts of the ship. Most importantly, it's Roman-age technology!

Wait a minute! Where are we going to get something hot… like really hot… like hot as melted rock… to heat our foundries? ;-p

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Steve has been saying the boats will be made of salvaged steel and as he never tires of telling is, he is the boating expert okay. Presumably also the space ship expert.

All I know for certain is that RL space shuttles are covered in ceramic tile. I can't speak for whatever Bucky intends for this one, or what the interior is like, but the exterior and overall structure would have to be something that can handle entering an atmosphere, so about 3000 degrees and loads of pressure.

But okay, are you sure getting to a volcano you can safely approach and harness heat from will be as simple as you think? We're not landing next to one obviously, so you'd have to make a boat somehow and stock it with supplies and sail around to every volcano you can find to scout t it out.

The giant shower idea has potential however! Good job.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Further confirmation of Steve's plans. He read "Pirates steal ships" a bit too hastily. 

BTW, I guarantee our ship is airtight and (by design) should survive the landing.

Thanks for the compliment! :-D... So... The women man the showers and the men will supervise?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I have no idea how spaceships work. You said they were made out of steel, I just kind of believed you and was willing to work with that. And, as I have continuously said yet you don't seem to understand, I don't think tearing up the outside of the spaceship when we can just use the inner walls would be a good idea. The inner walls that aren't designed for outer space. According to the psych, though, we won't be working with steel, we'll have aluminium, so that's way easier.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Could repurpose the inner walls and use the remaining hull as temporary shelter or something.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

That's the plan.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Yeah, plus the ship should come with boats (it's a colonizing ship!); but, worst comes to worst, let's jerry-rig some escape pods.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Boats is questionable but definitely should have escape pods.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I would assume the escape pods would be designed to not sink.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Ah, wasn't sure if Cowbell was lumping them as the same thing or two separate things.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Fun fact, the number of passengers is the same as the Titanic.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Lol after all this, Bucky is going to kill everyone off with "by the way the ship hit an asteroid and they all died" :D

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I'd probably get death threats if I did that.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

RIP Characters

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I'd laugh if you did that.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

The lifeboats did fairly well there. It was the rest of the boat that didn't, and the dumb cunts who thought to go onto a door.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
There was a lot of room. Rose should have just moved her ass over some.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Lol

I vote we name the ship Titanic and hope for the best.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Weren't most of the life boats launched before they were even full?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Yeah, but that's not a flaw of the lifeboats, but the guys running it.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Squirrels and children first this time. No?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

That's an admission of nothing. I think any citizen would try to take over if they could. I simply would take over through impressing you all with my sailing skills on Charizard, and you'd vote me in.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Oh, God. Please stop trying to help us!

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Sailing is pretty impressive.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
There's over 2000 people on this ship, various experts in the field of whatever. I don't think operating a boat is going to be all that impressive or unique an accomplishment.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I blame Mizal mostly. She has several people on her own team that she could've called upon, and then it would've been simple, but she decided to allow her people free will. Oh well I guess. 

At least we're going to Atlas.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Mostly I trusted that Steve campaigning for a planet would be all reasonable people needed to vote against it.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

@NeoDevilbane

Get in on this action, good sir.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I vote Atlas, because I remember the original Pokemon series, and Charizard was a real dick. ^_^

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

WINNING! yes

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

That's your reasoning?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
It's definitely not because Endmaster asked her to, let's get that one thing clear right now.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Yes. That is definitely, definitely not the reason... angel

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Me: We're going to kill you as soon as we land
Steve: I would, in your situation.

With no lawyers and soon to be no law students, I'm just going to interpret this as both an admission of guilt and permission.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Bucky's a law student.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Bucky doesn't have a colonist. And probably also wants you dead. (But in the meantime will have to just be satisfied with it happening to your character...)

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Oh, look! A wet blanket. I believe this belongs to the victor?

End, it's nice to know that you achieved your goal of getting rid of Steve. Oh, wait... he's coming with us to either planet?! This is highly irregular. An emperor who's argument had no clothes.

Nevertheless, a victory is a victory.

Let's kick complete ass on Atlas!

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Except I never said I was trying to get rid of Steve, I was just making sure he didn't get a big advantage over everyone else.

I even mentioned to Stryker, he can still be pirate king on the more limited oceans on Atlas if he so desires, assuming Mizal, Ebon and the rest don't kill him as soon as the ship lands.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
That's a big assumption to make.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I'm still not sure just how Steve would have gotten an advantage. All the characters for Phase 3 are write-ins, with Bucky having sole control over plot points. Anyone could have written in Boaty McBoatface as a boat builder and master wayfarer with a penchant for belting out old sea shanties at two in the morning that made everyone want to punch them. This isn't a Real Time / Free form module wherein Steve would have direct control to their character, unless I'm missing something.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

It's Steve. He finds a way.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Steve, if he wanted (not sure if he actually would), could still have his character make choices that can screw things up.  

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

And now I only have more motive than ever to do so.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I'm surprised this needs to explained to anyone who's used this forum before, but:

1.) Steve is an asshole
2.) He doesn't deserve to have things his way
and
3.) Mercy is a weakness

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Allow me to boldly ask an embarrassingly noobish question: What the fuck is going on here!?!

Do I, you, Steve... everybody... get special powers based on our performance here?!

If so, then:
A. That's fucking amazing!
and
B. Why the fuck didn't anybody think to tell the soon-to-be-executed pickle guy?!

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Well I mean, the question started as a hypothetical, in which case, if we did go there, I'd have an advantage via by boating abilities. However, in the context of the actual game this has become that Bucky's making, I don't, as anyone can write their character as anything they want.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I think this all spawned from someone misinterpreting something EndMaster said and now everyone is afraid of Steve, and wants to kill him (his character).  

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
No it's mostly just because fuck Steve, really.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Guess it depends who you ask :D

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I'm fairly certain that "some fool's clerical error" was probably caused by Steve to get everyone on this ship so he can kill us all.

Maybe I'm just paranoid.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Well Bucky's already brainstorming for Atlas, so voting is over.

In the meantime, I suppose a little more explanation for why things turned out this way might be fun.

This started out as merely thwarting Steve, not just because he’d obviously be overpowered on the planet of his choice, but also for the enjoyment of taking away something he obviously wanted.

Why? Well Steve would say it’s me just being a sadistic cunt fucking with him for the giggles and while that’s obviously true on some level, however, it became a little more than even just undermining Steve. In fact, that almost would have become a secondary goal had he not been so central to this in the first place.

For one, Stryker was pushing hard for Charizard and a strong counter reaction had to be made. If anything Stryker became just as much of an enemy as Steve. More so in fact. I expect a demon to act like a demon. I expect mildly better of what is usually a man of logic to not side with dark forces.

Of course Stryker believed what he was doing was right. I don’t doubt that. But he was on the wrong side and had to go.

If Steve was the demon, Stryker would have been the delusional cultist performing a ritual to gate the fucker in thinking he was actually saving the world and would have just gotten his head ripped off for his trouble.

MoreCowbell was also pretty insufferable in the thread as well what with all the chugging of Steve’s cock who doesn’t even like him in the first place (And can’t say as I blame him).

MCB obviously would have been the willing virgin sacrifice for Steve to violate and impregnate as soon as Steve set foot in the world and the fool would have died still believing that the demon loved him even as giant snake hellspawn abominations ripped from his anal cavity.

In any case, I achieved my goal and whatever happens on Atlas now happens. I’d make the same choices. It’s why I never changed my own vote.

If this all just made Steve more fanatical in his pursuit for planet conquest, cool. He’ll have all that anger to help him work harder for it now.

If he gets murdered as soon as he gets off the ship, cool. Mizal and Ebon can create their own dystopia with no further opposition.

If the whole colony gets enslaved by Cthulhu horrors living in the deep oceans, again cool. Glad I could be part of dooming the entire colony.

I’ll enjoy seeing what Bucky writes whatever happens.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
You read tea leaves ugly.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Oh, Steve was always going to try and do things his way, anyone with experience interacting with Steve for over 15 minutes would agree with that. Expecting otherwise would be like expecting a mouse with pathological cheese cravings to not try and get the cheese on the mousetrap. I just really didn't see any delta between his attempts to try to take over a land of oceans or of mountains, given the write-in rules for characters. Sailing a small boat on Earth gives laughably little story benefit on an alien water planet other than not having immediate seasickness after leaving shore.

Since he was always going to be himself, I figured I'd rather work with him for a change of pace and push for an interesting setting. Plus, Steve in general is more lawful evil than chaotic evil, I didn't really worry about him screwing up the journey for the lulz (except whatever parts Mizal is involved in, since those two always go at it like ferrets in the summer heat whenever they can find a point to disagree on. Disappointingly, Mizal didn't really pull much visible effort on this thread after her initial E'Arth assessment, it was mostly you, End, doing the heavy lifting for Atlas)(The fact that the previous statement is just going to annoy her is icing on the cake)

For my own interests, I wanted a Sci-Fi story not set in boring mountains with cookie-cutter mountain cave-dwelling dwarves again, plus for logic's sake you don't gamble on a 69% chance of not-guaranteed failure. With Subnautica out, I'm sure there'd even been a ton of easy to develop interesting plot points for a water world and relevant pics that could have accompanied Bucky's work. Now (unless Bucky goes the mountains were really Godzilla after all route), we're back to a bog standard D&D story in the mountains with dwarves. *sigh*

MoreCowbell's pickle and wine antics were fun, I for one was amused by the newcomer. They had more gusto than most of the flash-in-the-pan here and then not visitors we have on CYS.

All the logical arguments for Char were pretty much just for my own intellectual exercise, I didn't doubt few people would actually read them, still I'd like to believe they kept the content:dithering ratio on this thread fairly positively skewed.

This has been one of the more amusing CYS threads in a long while, and I do indeed look forward to the follow up.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Fuck that, don't downplay my amazing abilities. Given the boats I've sailed, what I know about boat maintenance and how a boat should work as well as life on a boat and all that jazz, and given that Charizard is pretty similar to Earth, I'd be golden. 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
If you could in any way impress Bucky about the grandeur of your voyages you've had on on this planet and the quality of your sailing experience, AND have him take you at your word, AND translate that somehow into his fictional roman setting, I'd have had reason to be concerned.

But this is Bucky we're talking about, under no situation excluding duress would he have given you the time of day to learn what exactly you know about sailing AND incorporate that meaningfully into his narrative. That's not how he usually rolls.

Ergo, your sailing skills may be noteworthy in real life, I just didn't expect Bucky to care enough about them to make them consequential. Plus this isn't the 14th century, the serfs are no longer impressed by mundane deeds like sailing a boat, they'd rather vote for the person who serves them free Kombucha Lattes (I don't even know if that's really a thing and I have no interest in finding out) or plays Fortnite, I hear.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
From the beginning Steve has been under the impression that you can put over 2000 people in a room and somehow he'd be the one single godlike being who can sail a fucking boat.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
To be honest, I too am looking forward to seeing how that particular arc plays out.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I figure I'd be better than all of them. What, roughty 3% of people go sailing seven times a year. That's roughly sixty people. That number drops substantially when taking into account the fact that I do way more than that and I'm a qualified sailing instructor, and I have experience in all kinds of boats. I'd say that puts me at the best there.

Edit: Oh yeah, additional point, of that sixty, a shit ton are just old or middle-aged yacht sailors who only faff about and have no real ability, so yeah, defo the best.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I don't expect people to be impressed with be sailing ability. I would expect my serfs to be impressed with the fact that I'm the only one who'd know what the fuck they were doing, and otherwise they'd drown, starve or get their head caved in with a fucking oar.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Again, this isn't real time. Being on actual waves, with your boat rolling with their rise and fall may have convinced people to look for a figure of authority. But this is a text based writing site, good luck trying to impress your sailing skills on people with words. Now, if you're canny enough to make a video of your sailing and put that up for judgment, why now THAT would be worth merit and appreciation.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Well it was, when we started, or based in a hypothetical real thing where it's actually be in the situation. The idea of it becoming a game is a later development, but even then, I can just say I'm good at sailing and that's it, my character's strength si being good at sailing.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

The only way you could think Mizal didn't put much effort into this thread is if you're blind, deaf, and dumb.  I would say her and End both did huge portions of work into getting people to vote Atlas.  

And who said the mountains would be cookie cutter mountains?  Have you not heard or seen the intrigue they can generate?  Possible alien life forms with scanner blocking technology, or cave creatures dwelling within.  They're aliens, not dwarves, huge difference.  And the thing about the plot points, is that you could have done that with any of the places, so I'd say that part of your argument falls short.  

And Cowbell, a newcomer?  Are you aware he has been a member since 2014, he just has two different profiles.  

As for your logical arguments, I guess there's not much to say about those saying as everyone thinks it's just pretentious drivel.  

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Ah, now I see how Steve and Mizal became what they are. Your overwrought defense of the thread is rather amusing to read. Oh Mizal was present and flailing about most of the thread, but if you look at votes, there's no denying End was the person bringing home the bacon.

I've seen no discussion on the thread about the mountains other than what I brought forth, so go ahead, try and give me a reason why the setting would be anything other than cookie cutter a priori.

Hmm, I've never interacted with Ikriaros or whatever his original account is, so I had no reason to know about his past activities. End treated him like a newcomer where he usually calls out the regular suspects so I was least bothered.

Cheers to pretentious drivel then, it got a reaction from you atleast ;)

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

You haven't trolled me or anything if that's what you think.  Besides, do you think there isn't a reason for defending Mizal and sometimes Steve?  I like them and they're decent, well meaning members of the community.  Where did you get the idea Mizal was flailing around?  She had sound and reasonable ideas and responses.

You're just a know it all cuck, and if you actually read the thread there were plenty of discussions of the mountains.  And I just did give you some reasons why they wouldn't be cookie cutter. The whole "your argument is null and void because I disagree" doesn't quite work.  

Actually almost all points about Atlas involve the mountains you blind piece of shit, even Maya could SEE and understand the thread better than you. 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
> so go ahead, try and give me a reason why the setting would be anything other than cookie cutter a priori.

If you have as low an opinion of Bucky's ability to run an interesting game as this and your previous post would suggest, no one is making you keep playing along.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Oh, I have faith in Bucky's ability to make an interesting story, I wouldn't have stuck around otherwise. I just haven't seen anything noteworthy about the mountain setting being discussed that'd make it different from other mountain settings that exist.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

You fool, literally everything about it makes it different than the standard mountain setting.

I've never seen an alien infested mountain.

Tell me though, have you made a character for Bucky's story?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Big brain Stryker casting corgi into the depths of a frothing insult-laden cuck rage. 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
IAP and Ebon made pretty convincing arguments for Atlas earlier in the thread. Meanwhile I'm not sure if any of the pro Charizard people have really addressed what their particular problem is with the oceans on Atlas. Geographic diversity is a good thing, and it was mostly lacking aside from Atlas and E'Arth.

'An ocean world' honestly sounds a hell of a lot more generic, I've never been a fan of the trope of single feature sci fi planets.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Both IAP and Ebon made meaningful points exploring Atlas, no questions there. My issue with the lack of surface water on Atlas would mean limited water cycles, meaning limited recharge of water, meaning a nomadic lifestyle in search of the next available water source, so that's my take on that.

Yeah, I can see where ocean worlds (and single feature Sci Fi planets) can seem boring on the outset, as they're often done poorly. However, having been through nice stories (like the aforementioned Manaan), I was eager to see Bucky's take on the premise. I don't mind the story veering to Atlas, and I do look forward to interesting plot developments, I just would have liked to see a water planet more. The three moon setting reminded me of the first planet they visited in Interstellar (with the gigantic tidal waves, where they lost 20 years and an astronout), and was wondering if we'd have a story like that.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

The mountains have plenty of freshwater lakes throughout.  This makes a nomadic existence unnecessary as far as having to find water though.  Any settlements would very likely be built in close proximity to these lakes.  

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
A single lake can provide for the needs of way more than 2000 people, and yes I'd expect there are massive fresh water reserves down in the caves somewhere.

Building a mountain stronghold will be fun but I expect caves will be just as good for shelter and defense and take away most of the need for the initial work.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I talked about mountains, but when you replied to me you didn’t bring them up, so I can only assume you didn’t have a rebuttal,

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I would assume most of us have played Dwarf Fortress at least once.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Nice summation.

I expected Atlas to be trouble from the beginning what with the probably scanner blockage and said so. I changed my vote primarily because from a story standpoint it would be more interesting to settle a planet with a mystery like that than just a straightforward clawing our way to victory on E'Arth, but also because a water world is inherently boring. Every time you look outside...hey look, it's water. WTF people, no one wants that.

It was fun brainstorming a bunch of reasons Atlas was a GOOD place to settle and Charizard was bad (in fact all Monday morning was spent fighting that one out in the chat to the point it put me behind at work...) but I wouldn't even have had the motivation for that had the people campaigning the hardest for Charizard not been so obviously deserving of opposition. In a way you guys were your own worst enemies there, but it kept things interesting and now it's just a matter of seeing if this trend keeps up for future votes.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Hmm, cudgels aside, if you haven't played Subnautica, it's more than worth your time. It's a worthy survival game with an interesting story and some of the best survival/exploration gameplay on the market, I do believe it'd make you reconsider the water = boring assessment.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I've previously made it clear around these parts that I do not enjoy that game.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Odd, you tend to enjoy survival games. Well, it also has some very nice Letsplays in case that appeals to you.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Comparisons to Subnautica would've been moot anyway. We weren't going to be getting our own personal submarines, for vagina-stabbing or otherwise.

Thankfully Best Planet has won.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Except that daddy had to save you.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I'm almost certain Thara would have some kind of opinion on this post.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Are you literally calling mommy?

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
You have some very confused ideas about the family relations around here.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Far from it, friend. Mistress Mizal is the head maternal figure around here, while Thara is the big sister.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
I think we have all been kicking ass on this post. It's been very engaging and fun!
I, for the most part, want to be the comic relief. I also like nerding out on techy stuff.
What has been the least enjoyable has been the ad-hominem attacks (my own included)... For me, it's way less fun that way.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Declaring Atlas the winner.

I will have the first segment up one of the next three Sundays in the CC. It depends how busy I am the rest of this and next week + how much research I want to do. I'm comfortable writing a lot of speculative fiction genres, but I don't think I've ever tried Sci Fi before.

I'm cutting off the acceptance of character bios at Noon on May 3rd - eastern time.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Huzzah! The best planet clearly won. I’ve been looking forward to this Sunday for the next choice, so if it turns out the first choice is two weeks from Sunday...ngl I’m gonna be kinda disappointed. 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Well played!

Congrats to Bucky and the entire Pro-Atlas team.

You guys were resourceful as hell, and EndMaster played a great endgame.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Sci fi is easy. I look forward to playing my Jedi knight.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
That's fantasy in space.

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Science Fantasy

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

I still think Charizard should have won

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago

Too bad for you then. 

Leaving Earth - Part II

6 years ago
Atlas - the prologue is up.