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Old 01-16-2019, 12:24 PM   #71
Black Leviathan
 
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Default Re: Alien Invasions

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
The aliens are advanced and are willing to flood the Earth with cheap TL9 technology. With the technology difference involved, the aliens will be capable of flooding human markets with their primitive TL9 products after submission in order to replace human corporations with alien corporations. They are willing to do so at cost in order to make humans dependent on the aliens.
Aliens that want to use us as a market for all of the junk they can't sell anywhere else in the universe sounds so much more malicious than any invading species that wants to steal our water or kidnap us for food or slaves..
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Old 01-16-2019, 12:28 PM   #72
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Default Re: Alien Invasions

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
Wave them down and hitch a ride.
Exactly. What is the problem? Why should not the aliens exploit a resource we cannot exploit in Saturn. It sounds more like a cause for cooperation then conflict at least in the short term. Why shouldn't humans be their Sherpas and Gurkhas? Maybe the aliens don't have enough combat-happy berserkers to fill their all encompassing legions and their own race isn't bloodthirsty enough?
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Old 01-16-2019, 01:10 PM   #73
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Default Re: Alien Invasions

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Aliens that want to use us as a market for all of the junk they can't sell anywhere else in the universe sounds so much more malicious than any invading species that wants to steal our water or kidnap us for food or slaves..
Shiver! MacDonald's is coming to get us! Oh, horror!
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Old 01-16-2019, 01:18 PM   #74
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Default Re: Alien Invasions

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I'm having a hard time understanding what the story hook IS when the empire has nothing to fear from humans; has no interest in resources of Earth; and is seemingly invading with no actual motivation to do so.

To me, the unobtanium/MacGuffin hook feels like a better basis of a setting for players and their characters. If I was designing a character in that setting based on the idea that I'm basically a normal guy who has lived through this invasion, and the aliens are basically saying: we just want to run your planet, and in time humans might be enlightened enough to join our society, I'm not sure what my motivation is to do anything. Maybe the aliens will run things better.

So, I guess I'm asking: What's the story/adventure hook in your proposed setting?

As a side note: millions of colonized worlds? And they all work together? I'm expressing doubt. hundreds maybe... thousands unlikely... millions seems a tad high for no apparent reason. Why does it need to be that far-fetched for the aliens overlords in this setting?

I apologize if I'm being antagonistic to the idea of the campaign setting, but to answer the original question of where to start the campaign and what we think the players might choose... it's difficult with the setting as presented. And I'm genuinely trying to understand and contribute. I hope at least that these response posts are helping you to shore-up the setting definition.
A surprising amount of people would consider it more dignified to be oppressed by someone like them then favored by someone not, and in any event any tribe that doesn't pack enough heat is gambling that it won't find an overlord who is not so benevolent later.

What is more to the point, why does anyone care if aliens figure out a way to exploit Saturn? Especially if they are going to sell us lots of fancy goodies, and probably hire us for jobs.
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Old 01-16-2019, 02:25 PM   #75
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Humans as alien mercenaries would definately be an interesting hook. Give the humans TL9 gear, drop them on a rebel planet with minimal support, and pick them up after they have accomplished their mission. The rebels find themselves attacked by an alien force and, after human mercenaries kill enough leaders, the rebels will come back to the Empire for help against the aliens. By the time that the rebels figure out the scam, the Empire has pretty much taken possession of the world again.
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Old 01-16-2019, 03:31 PM   #76
fredtheobviouspseudonym
 
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Default Alien Invasions -- Why troops?

I haven't read all the entries so I hope you'll forgive me if this has been covered.

At TL-10 and later why have any large numbers of troops? Why not robotic soldiers -- with the aliens only as colonel-equivalents & above?

That let's you search & deter to your heart's content while not caring about losses (except as a line item).

Of course, this just turns into a "Reign of Steel" campaign with a different starting point . . .
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Old 01-16-2019, 04:06 PM   #77
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Alien Invasions

In my mind, any enduring TL10 civilization has probably experienced a singularity event, though an interstellar empire may be able to limit it to one system if it acts fast enough and communications are STL. After destroying the resulting AI God, an interstellar empire would be very, very careful to avoid another singularity event and would prefer biological soldiers to robotic soldiers. In fact, they might just drop ten thousand fusion devices on any planetary civilization that is close to a singularity, just to make sure that another one does not occur.

Of course, just because they are using biological soldiers does not mean that any member of the occupation will belong to the Imperial race. New citizen species may be required to help subjugate newly discovered civilizations in order to prove that they are loyal to the Empire. Even in the nonoccupation scenario, the military base may have a secondary mission of monitoring Earth for a singularity event and be prepared to drop ten thousand fusion devices on the Earth if it stumbles into a singularity event.

One of the foes of the Empire could be an AI civilization, where the AI civilization is busily annihilating biological civilizations through seeding singularities. With each singularity, a new AI God is formed, and another citizen joins the AI civilization. The billions of component AIs would be the equivalent of cells, though they would be cells of human intelligence.

With each encounter, an Imperial colony dies in the fires of singularity to give birth to an AI God, or an AI God dies in agony as its components are vaporized by fusion fire. While the AI Gods would possess millions of superhuman intelligences, the Imperial race would have trillions of geniuses in the form of augmented members of the Imperial race. Over the course of thousands of years, a stalemate would evolve, as the millions of AI Gods and trillions of Imperial geniuses would counter every direct move, leaving shattered fleets and scorched planets with every mistake.
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Old 01-16-2019, 05:37 PM   #78
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Default Re: Alien Invasions

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
In my mind, any enduring TL10 civilization has probably experienced a singularity event, though an interstellar empire may be able to limit it to one system if it acts fast enough and communications are STL. After destroying the resulting AI God, an interstellar empire would be very, very careful to avoid another singularity event and would prefer biological soldiers to robotic soldiers. In fact, they might just drop ten thousand fusion devices on any planetary civilization that is close to a singularity, just to make sure that another one does not occur.
Do I hear the theme of Battlestar Galactica playing in the background?

Perhaps this invasion is the survivors fleeing from the evil AI cyborgs wanting to build a new civilization to stop the AIs rampant expansion and destruction of all biological life....

Meh, kinda of corny. The future is probably a blend of wetware/software/hardware that we would find very odd.

Any given SF author could make a case for events that made society evolve a certain way.
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Old 01-16-2019, 05:43 PM   #79
David Johnston2
 
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Default Re: Alien Invasions -- Why troops?

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Originally Posted by fredtheobviouspseudonym View Post
I haven't read all the entries so I hope you'll forgive me if this has been covered.

At TL-10 and later why have any large numbers of troops? Why not robotic soldiers --
Because the reason to use robot soldiers is because you care about loss of life on the part of your people. If you don't care about that, because you are an evil interstellar empire using your subject peoples as the disposable vermin they are then you may say "Why would I bother making robots to do something I have slaves to do?"

After all, if you make people obsolete, then you probably have no reason to invade planets anyway. Everyone going to be plopped on their post-scarcity couches doing nothing at all except dying out.

Last edited by David Johnston2; 01-16-2019 at 07:05 PM.
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Old 01-16-2019, 06:43 PM   #80
TGLS
 
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Default Re: Alien Invasions

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Wave them down and hitch a ride.
Remember to pack a towel.
--
Honestly, I'm more than inclined to believe that the singularity is just hype from people extrapolating over the last fifty years. Besides that, as it was mentioned before, machines running everything is boring.
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