Moon base mod

[DeeVee74]

Hmm. Hive AI or hive brain?

Awesome idea either way!

[Metrokiller555]

What I'm starting to think is that it would go more the route of the colonies, the different settlements and factions...but involve this aswell. It would be implemented sort of like...well how we started out with the idea is that these people have been up there for a long time, since before the war. What I would think is that this sort of colonization would of course have a science division, and in their first years on the moon..these scientists created this Hive brain to be their HUB of information of their new world order. Sort of like the CIA and NSA wrapped into one. But not to long after they created it, the thing became too intelligent and over the years it has built its army of droids as a sort of construction and police force for the colonists...all settled into one of the factions inside of their lunar city..lets just call this faction "The Core" for now.

 

This Hive Mind is the founder of "The Core" and the leader of its cities people. Many Core citizens worship the Hive mind as a deity of sorts, similar to how The Church of atom saw a bomb as theirs. The Hive mind is a gentle and caring being, protective of its citizens and their city...guarding them and their streets with the Hive Minds auto troopers.

 

Please...tell me if Im gong to far with this XD

[Morgwynn]

Hmm well even if the hive brain is good or evil it wouldn't really matter since it is inhuman and would be seen as an abomination to everyone else. The only thing people would care about is if the original unmutanted brain is a patriotic American brain or a seditious Chinese brain and visa versa. Other factions might try and side with the hive brain to defeat there enemies and then turn on the hive brain.

[DeeVee74]

Why not have the hive brain be off in a colony under a rock, sending out what amounts to lobotomites? Courier has dealt with these! No problem! But then it is revealed later all the stuff in the spoilers.

I really like the idea of the unwilling slave thing. Kind of like the crab heads in HL. They scream for help and all you can give them is release.

But also, creating conflict with an apparently benign computer overlord could be even better.

Edited December 11, 2014 by DeeVee74

[Metrokiller555]

Hmm well even if the hive brain is good or evil it wouldn't really matter since it is inhuman and would be seen as an abomination to everyone else. The only thing people would care about is if the original unmutanted brain is a patriotic American brain or a seditious Chinese brain and visa versa. Other factions might try and side with the hive brain to defeat there enemies and then turn on the hive brain.

I don't think so. After 200 hundred years of it helping them survive, building their city to accommodate more people as the citizens reproduced, I would think that a lot of people would probably worship it. Things change as things go on, peoples thoughts and feelings towards certain things shift as years go by.

[SayinNuthin]

There are some great ideas coming out here. But may I suggest the player needs to be making some significant moral or philosophical decisions while playing this mod - otherwise it's just "shoot some s**t up and go home". So why don't we work out where we want to end up, then we can think on how to get the player there....

 

We have three fractions, one of which we can make passive should we wish:

1. NCR who might be the villains, the heroes or passive (happy or unable to interfere with the couriers decision beyond a certain point)

2. The colonists, who may be a single group... or many. They may be passive hostages in coldsleep, undergoing a fractional conflict, in thrall to obsolete orders or the rogue A.I. They or any sub group might need rescue or military support or conflict Arbitrage.

3. The A.I. Easy (or even lazy) to cast as the villain but may be a demi-tragic character like HAL 9000 or M.A.R.Go.T. And the A.I. could be the key to a nice "future-of-humanity" decision for the player.

 

Lets look at the future-of-humanity thing. Hive minds have been brought up, in the context of a threatening ominous development. But this needn't be the case 'Coalescent' societies (bees, ants, termites) have a proven track record of success in survival plus a high degree of individual satisfaction in them (at a high cost of individuality). People (in our world) are already using communications technology (social networks) and it's claimed, and demonstrating eusocial behaviour R.e. The Honeybee Democracy. And an important thing about hive-minds is it represents a valid path to our second class of future; transcendence.

 

Transcendence are all of the future(s) of humanity where we overcome some of our major limitations and become more than human, or superhuman in much the same way as a modern sports hunter with a high powered scoped rifle would appear superhuman to an ancient bow wielding primitive. The thing about a major transcendence is because it would be a singularity beyond which (unless we transcended) we cannot see. If we could properly imagine it in any way it wouldn't be transcendence . It gets all spooky and metaphysical but anyone interested should look at Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil's ideas many of which revolve around the depth of our involvement with technology.

 

Of course these aren't purely either/or options because of the third possible future, which is divergence. Some people want to join some semi-ecstatic hive mind? Fine, go for it. Others wish to become techno-gods and basically disappear up their own existences? Knock yourself out mate. And others wish to stay basic human "it were good enough fer ma daddy an his daddy..." easy Cleatus, no one's forcing you. That parts of mankind choose different paths is pretty plausible - we always have so far... plus (for sci-fi writers) Divergence allows for the possibility of almost endless galactic scale conflict between profoundly different groups of humans.

 

So Coalescent, Transcendent and Divergent are three tasty things on the menu (because by far the most unlikely thing is that we shall not change). The A.I. the NCR and colonists are the three interests or groups and a progressive slash (small c) conservative approach to the issues would be yet another axis of possibility for the writers to give the player to decide. He could take a conservative view and side with the NCR who are disturbed by the idea of 'any' A.I. in close proximity to their nascent financial markets, take a lenient (middle) position that the A.I. is a person and seek guarantees for the future. Or embrace destiny and literally reach for the stars (though it may be a long 'ol walk home if he really pisses of the NCR).

 

Any or all of these options can be as elaborate or simple as necessary but there is an extremely pragmatic reason for making the A.I. a central character is that it's one less voice actor to worry about and could be done by anyone with decent speech software.

 

this post (so far) has credits, thanks to;

Ian M Banks

Greg Bear

Arthur C Clarke

Vernor Vinge

Robert L Forward

Rudy Rucker and especially

Stephen Baxter - who's categories I nicked here.

 

So, who's up for some writing? Don't be shy, plenty of folk here who can help with any details or elements if you get stuck...

 

Finally I'm not much of a modder but because of my limitations I've spent about six solid months painting landscapes and arranging statics so I tentatively offer to build the sets and locations for this mod - which sounds like it has DLC potential for me.

 

And Metrokiller, do I sound as if am I likely to say your going too far :laugh:

Edited December 13, 2014 by SayinNuthin

[Metrokiller555]

There are some great ideas coming out here. But may I suggest the player needs to be making some significant moral or philosophical decisions while playing this mod - otherwise it's just "shoot some s**t up and go home". So why don't we work out where we want to end up, then we can think on how to get the player there....

 

We have three fractions, one of which we can make passive should we wish:

1. NCR who might be the villains, the heroes or passive (happy or unable to interfere with the couriers decision beyond a certain point)

2. The colonists, who may be a single group... or many. They may be passive hostages in coldsleep, undergoing a fractional conflict, in thrall to obsolete orders or the rogue A.I. They or any sub group might need rescue or military support or conflict Arbitrage.

3. The A.I. Easy (or even lazy) to cast as the villain but may be a demi-tragic character like HAL 9000 or M.A.R.Go.T. And the A.I. could be the key to a nice "future-of-humanity" decision for the player.

 

Lets look at the future-of-humanity thing. Hive minds have been brought up, in the context of a threatening ominous development. But this needn't be the case 'Coalescent' societies (bees, ants, termites) have a proven track record of success in survival plus a high degree of individual satisfaction in them (at a high cost of individuality). People (in our world) are already using communications technology (social networks) and it's claimed, and demonstrating eusocial behaviour R.e. The Honeybee Democracy. And an important thing about hive-minds is it represents a valid path to our second class of future; transcendence.

 

Transcendence are all of the future(s) of humanity where we overcome some of our major limitations and become more than human, or superhuman in much the same way as a modern sports hunter with a high powered scoped rifle would appear superhuman to an ancient bow wielding primitive. The thing about a major transcendence is because it would be a singularity beyond which (unless we transcended) we cannot see. If we could properly imagine it in any way it wouldn't be transcendence . It gets all spooky and metaphysical but anyone interested should look at Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil's ideas many of which revolve around the depth of our involvement with technology.

 

Of course these aren't purely either/or options because of the third possible future, which is divergence. Some people want to join some semi-ecstatic hive mind? Fine, go for it. Others wish to become techno-gods and basically disappear up their own existences? Knock yourself out mate. And others wish to stay basic human "it were good enough fer ma daddy an his daddy..." easy Cleatus, no one's forcing you. That parts of mankind choose different paths is pretty plausible - we always have so far... plus (for sci-fi writers) Divergence allows for the possibility of almost endless galactic scale conflict between profoundly different groups of humans.

 

So Coalescent, Transcendent and Divergent are three tasty things on the menu (because by far the most unlikely thing is that we shall not change). The A.I. the NCR and colonists are the three interests or groups and a progressive slash (small c) conservative approach to the issues would be yet another axis of possibility for the writers to give the player to decide. He could take a conservative view and side with the NCR who are disturbed by the idea of 'any' A.I. in close proximity to their nascent financial markets, take a lenient (middle) position that the A.I. is a person and seek guarantees for the future. Or embrace destiny and literally reach for the stars (though it may be a long 'ol walk home if he really pisses of the NCR).

 

Any or all of these options can be as elaborate or simple as necessary but there is an extremely pragmatic reason for making the A.I. a central character is that it's one less voice actor to worry about and could be done by anyone with decent speech software.

 

this post (so far) has credits, thanks to;

Ian M Banks

Greg Bear

Arthur C Clarke

Vernor Vinge

Robert L Forward

Rudy Rucker and especially

Stephen Baxter - who's categories I nicked here.

 

So, who's up for some writing? Don't be shy, plenty of folk here who can help with any details or elements if you get stuck...

 

Finally I'm not much of a modder but because of my limitations I've spent about six solid months painting landscapes and arranging statics so I tentatively offer to build the sets and locations for this mod - which sounds like it has DLC potential for me.

 

And Metrokiller, do I sound as if am I likely to say your going too far :laugh:

Hehe, No it doesn't.

I love your explanation as-well. One of the Factions being "The Core" run by this Hive mind of sorts. The other factions would most likely see this as an "Evil" thing, taking away our humanity or something, and be trying to fight against "The Core" and their beliefs, while the reality is that "The Core" and its hive mind are just misunderstood and are better off how they are than the other factions. Depending on which one you choose to side with determines the outcome of the Moon and its lunar surface.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Metrokiller555

[Morgwynn]

I'm an ok writer when it comes to fan fiction and very short stories but I've never tried writing lines of character and NPC dialog before. However I was thinking of writing a type of Lunar Lexicon, kind of an Urban Dictionary of Lunar slang terms and expressions. I mean 200+ years on the Moon a person would imagine that they have developed their own slang for every day things. Of course I'm having some writers block, distracted by RL drama. Mind you with my dyslexia it usually takes me twice as long too write anything because I'm constantly spell checking and rereading everything I write.

[Morgwynn]

The Hive Brain would probably assume a Wizard Of Oz type role to keep his/her true form hidden from the masses, kind of how The Master kept his identity hidden under a church and sought followers to convert into super mutants. Maybe we should follow that type of storyline and have the Hive Brain pose as a religious leader or icon. Most of the other factions are more science oriented and adding a bit of sci-fi religion to the lunar setting might be good for hook, line and sinker type plot quests.

[Metrokiller555]

The Hive Brain would probably assume a Wizard Of Oz type role to keep his/her true form hidden from the masses, kind of how The Master kept his identity hidden under a church and sought followers to convert into super mutants. Maybe we should follow that type of storyline and have the Hive Brain pose as a religious leader or icon. Most of the other factions are more science oriented and adding a bit of sci-fi religion to the lunar setting might be good for hook, line and sinker type plot quests.

THAT is a great idea! I love that...and would make a REALLY good freakin twist in the story line when the player finds out what he/she is.