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No spoiler tags in headscratchers pages, please.
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* So battleplates have a way to "run silent" and become invisible to Pa'anuri by powering down all their gravitics. Okay. But when we see it deployed at [[spoiler:Oisri]], there was only one Pa'anuri present, and it's well-understood by then how to kill Pa'anuri with teraport-denial fields. Why doesn't ''Morokweng'' just swat the thing and go back to chasing down ''Touch-and-Go'', rather than giving up 99% of its combat power in order to hide from it? Granted, your enemy being eaten by a monster is fun to watch, but still.
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* So battleplates have a way to "run silent" and become invisible to Pa'anuri by powering down all their gravitics. Okay. But when we see it deployed at [[spoiler:Oisri]], Oisri, there was only one Pa'anuri present, and it's well-understood by then how to kill Pa'anuri with teraport-denial fields. Why doesn't ''Morokweng'' just swat the thing and go back to chasing down ''Touch-and-Go'', rather than giving up 99% of its combat power in order to hide from it? Granted, your enemy being eaten by a monster is fun to watch, but still.
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**Probably solar panels.
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** WMG here, but they could be the original species, offshot of which became Ganni. Apparently, made as a servant race, but later revolted, and kept alive due to some unspecified deal with Ganni. In that case Galstandard was originally their language, and later was made common.
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[[/folder]]
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[[folder: Pa'anuri language]]
* Petey spent countless cycles of his thinking facilities to learn Pa'anuri language. Schlock converses with them without any trouble, in Galstandard, apparently. Is this acceptable break from, er, comic reality to smooth the action, or am I missing something? Also on that note, since when they call themselves "Pa'anuri"? It's a Ganni word, while they used simply "US" before.
* Petey spent countless cycles of his thinking facilities to learn Pa'anuri language. Schlock converses with them without any trouble, in Galstandard, apparently. Is this acceptable break from, er, comic reality to smooth the action, or am I missing something? Also on that note, since when they call themselves "Pa'anuri"? It's a Ganni word, while they used simply "US" before.
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*** So, basically, perfect unless jammed.
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** Putzo's crew (''and'' the other ship) were pulled in because one of them found out something connected to the All-Star, and with the other ship trying to find them. The All-Star had some sort of mission at the "return docks", that the 'agents' apparently decided to escalate on their own (into a "first strike"); Putzo was allowed to return to meat-space to cut the "first strike" short, with a warning that he wouldn't be allowed to return to the All-Star. The guesswork becomes: did the "first strike" team escalate (under someone's orders) just to get Putzo back out? Did someone ''know'' that he would be able to help with Chinook? Does he have a ''hidden'' transmitter back to the All-Star? (Not quite like Sorlie's, since she had to participate in putting it in.)
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Changed line(s) 219 (click to see context) from:
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** Personal, I think it's no older than Gatekeeper civilization (unless the Gatekeepers claimed an older archive as theirs). That, plus accessing various government's versions of Wikipedia would allow it to assume its "I know too much and am now the center of the universe through observation" quirk.
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** It does seem that, in small part, that you need to know a procedure to connect two nodes (either 'frequency' or 'network protocol'); the one they had (that the crayon drawings were about) had instructions on how to repair it to connect it to others of its type....
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Changed line(s) 231,232 (click to see context) from:
* in a universe where characters regularly regrow limbs and whole bodies (Elf’s legs; Chef, in recent instalments; Kevyn Andreysan) why does Captain Landon keep his prosthetic arm, and the plate on his head?
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* in In a universe where characters regularly regrow limbs and whole bodies (Elf’s legs; Chef, in recent instalments; Kevyn Andreysan) why does Captain Landon keep his prosthetic arm, and the plate on his head?
** He's Tenzy's personal custom build-a-bear, so it must be a sign of affection - it's clearly stated their feelings are mutual. It also seems they aren't just prosthetics, but cybernetic enhancements Deus-Ex-style.
** He's Tenzy's personal custom build-a-bear, so it must be a sign of affection - it's clearly stated their feelings are mutual. It also seems they aren't just prosthetics, but cybernetic enhancements Deus-Ex-style.
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[[folder: Hypernode principles]]
* Was it stated anywhere how do they work, besides "perfect unless jammed"?
[[/folder]]
* Was it stated anywhere how do they work, besides "perfect unless jammed"?
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Captain Landon’s Prosthetics]]
* in a universe where characters regularly regrow limbs and whole bodies (Elf’s legs; Chef, in recent instalments; Kevyn Andreysan) why does Captain Landon keep his prosthetic arm, and the plate on his head?
[[/folder]]
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Changed line(s) 188,189 (click to see context) from:
[[/quoteblock]]
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*** Not arguing them not mentioning it, but this worldforge was only using captive Pa'anurii, it sounded like they were brewed somewhere else. Though Oafans could have their own brewery somewhere else lost and/or destroyed.
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Multiple questions get multiple folders. Also, grammar.
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[[folder: some loose ends]]
I believe these things are actually clearly depicted in comic, but they elude me.
* Who were these creatures on station where Elf lost her legs? And what was that station used for anyway? Them speaking Galstandard only made it more complicated.
* What's the deal with Petey and that cephalopod he requested as payment? Is it Celeschuul native or what?
* What is the light-source of Eina-Afa insides? Annie plants were down during the wait period, it would take one hell of any other energy source to illuminate that volume, and the can itself is definitely opaque.
* Who was sponsoring the riot on Earth? Celeschuul, Emm's faction, All-Star? These guns came from the same facility on Urtheep that meddled with All-Star.
* What was actual objective of All-Star agents? End current cycle since it's already compromised? Or just torch every trace of the All-Star, with current civ as collateral damage? And what is Putzho's mission? He cannot be ambassador, since he cannot relay back to All-Star. So, just assistant-of-all-trades to the parties he deems beneficial to All-Star's goals?
* And where'd this company got up-to-date coordinates of All-Star, as well as knowledge about it's nature and connection protocols?
* How old is Gatekeeper's archive? Is it speaking about many Galcivilisation falls as a personal witness or just from archeological knowledge? And were Ganni aware of All-Star? Ulaque sounded like he previously discussed gate project with them.
* Were ancient Oafans using Oisri, or they had their own way of Pa'anurii brewing?
I believe these things are actually clearly depicted in comic, but they elude me.
* Who were these creatures on station where Elf lost her legs? And what was that station used for anyway? Them speaking Galstandard only made it more complicated.
* What's the deal with Petey and that cephalopod he requested as payment? Is it Celeschuul native or what?
* What is the light-source of Eina-Afa insides? Annie plants were down during the wait period, it would take one hell of any other energy source to illuminate that volume, and the can itself is definitely opaque.
* Who was sponsoring the riot on Earth? Celeschuul, Emm's faction, All-Star? These guns came from the same facility on Urtheep that meddled with All-Star.
* What was actual objective of All-Star agents? End current cycle since it's already compromised? Or just torch every trace of the All-Star, with current civ as collateral damage? And what is Putzho's mission? He cannot be ambassador, since he cannot relay back to All-Star. So, just assistant-of-all-trades to the parties he deems beneficial to All-Star's goals?
* And where'd this company got up-to-date coordinates of All-Star, as well as knowledge about it's nature and connection protocols?
* How old is Gatekeeper's archive? Is it speaking about many Galcivilisation falls as a personal witness or just from archeological knowledge? And were Ganni aware of All-Star? Ulaque sounded like he previously discussed gate project with them.
* Were ancient Oafans using Oisri, or they had their own way of Pa'anurii brewing?
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I believe these things are actually clearly depicted in comic, but they elude me.
* Who were
* What is the light-source of Eina-Afa insides? Annie plants were down during the wait period, it would take one hell of any other energy source to illuminate that volume, and the can itself is definitely opaque.
* Who was sponsoring the riot on Earth? Celeschuul, Emm's faction, All-Star? These guns came from the same facility on Urtheep that meddled with All-Star.
* What was actual objective of All-Star agents? End current cycle since it's already compromised? Or just torch every trace of the All-Star, with current civ as collateral damage? And what is Putzho's mission? He cannot be ambassador, since he cannot relay back to All-Star. So, just assistant-of-all-trades to the parties he deems beneficial to All-Star's goals?
* And where'd this company got up-to-date coordinates of All-Star, as well as knowledge about it's nature and connection protocols?
* How old is Gatekeeper's archive? Is it speaking about many Galcivilisation falls as a personal witness or just from archeological knowledge? And were Ganni aware of All-Star? Ulaque sounded like he previously discussed gate project with them.
* Were ancient Oafans using Oisri, or they had their own way of Pa'anurii brewing?
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[[folder:Giant squid]]
* What's the deal with Petey and that cephalopod he requested as payment? Is it a Celeschuul native or what?
** It's a prototype genetically engineered uplifted squid, probably designed to interact with the Celeschuul in some way. It wasn't anything until that mad scientist printed it out with all the other animals, and then Petey realized he could use it.
[[/quoteblock]]
[[folder:Eina-Afa light]]
* What is the light source inside Eina-Afa? Annie plants were down during the wait period, it would take one hell of any other energy source to illuminate that volume, and the can itself is definitely opaque.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Fake rebellion]]
* Who was sponsoring the riot on Earth? Celeschuul, Emm's faction, or the All-Star? These guns came from the same facility on Urtheep that meddled with the All-Star.
** All evidence points to the Schuul. They were interfering even earlier, in the Mall-Cop Command arc, though the Toughs accidentally foiled their plans by being competent instead of violent thugs. The All-Star only got involved with Urtheep later, when a random ship stumbled upon them.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:All-Star objective]]
* What was the actual objective of the All-Star agents? End the current cycle since it's already compromised? Or just torch every trace of the All-Star, with the current civ as collateral damage? And what is Putzho's mission? He cannot be an ambassador, since he cannot relay back to the All-Star. So, just assistant-of-all-trades to the parties he deems beneficial to the All-Star's goals?
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Finding and connecting to the All-Star]]
* Where'd this company get up-to-date coordinates of the All-Star, as well as knowledge about its nature and connection protocols?
** They found it by sheer luck, but they didn't actually know anything about it. The All-Star connected with them, not the other way around.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Gatekeeper archive]]
* How old is the Gatekeepers' archive? Is it speaking about many Galcivilisation falls as a personal witness or just from archeological knowledge? And were the Ganni aware of All-Star? Ulaque sounded like he previously discussed the gate project with them.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Oafans and Oisri]]
* Were the ancient Oafans using Oisri, or did they have their own way of making Pa'anurii?
** The Oafans make no mention of Oisri, so it likely belonged to a different civilization. Their worldforge was the one the espees were camped on.
[[/folder]]
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* What's the deal between Petey and that cephalopod he requested as payment? Is it Celeschuul native or what?
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* What's the deal between with Petey and that cephalopod he requested as payment? Is it Celeschuul native or what? what?
* What is the light-source of Eina-Afa insides? Annie plants were down during the wait period, it would take one hell of any other energy source to illuminate that volume, and the can itself is definitely opaque.
* What is the light-source of Eina-Afa insides? Annie plants were down during the wait period, it would take one hell of any other energy source to illuminate that volume, and the can itself is definitely opaque.
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* What's the deal between Petey and cephalopod? Is it Celeschuul native or what?
* Who was sponsoring the riot on Earth? Celeschuul, Emm's faction, All-Star?
* Who was sponsoring the riot on Earth? Celeschuul, Emm's faction, All-Star?
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* What's the deal between Petey and cephalopod? that cephalopod he requested as payment? Is it Celeschuul native or what?
* Who was sponsoring the riot on Earth? Celeschuul, Emm's faction,All-Star?All-Star? These guns came from the same facility on Urtheep that meddled with All-Star.
* Who was sponsoring the riot on Earth? Celeschuul, Emm's faction,
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Changed line(s) 183 (click to see context) from:
* And where'd this company got up-to-date coordinates of All-Star, as well as knowledge about it's nature?
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* And where'd this company got up-to-date coordinates of All-Star, as well as knowledge about it's nature?nature and connection protocols?
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* And where'd this company got up-to-date coordinates of All-Star, as well as knowledge about it's nature?
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[[folder: some loose ends]]
I believe these things are actually clearly depicted in comic, but they elude me.
* Who were these creatures on station where Elf lost her legs? And what was that station used for anyway? Them speaking Galstandard only made it more complicated.
* What's the deal between Petey and cephalopod? Is it Celeschuul native or what?
* Who was sponsoring the riot on Earth? Celeschuul, Emm's faction, All-Star?
* What was actual objective of All-Star agents? End current cycle since it's already compromised? Or just torch every trace of the All-Star, with current civ as collateral damage? And what is Putzho's mission? He cannot be ambassador, since he cannot relay back to All-Star. So, just assistant-of-all-trades to the parties he deems beneficial to All-Star's goals?
* How old is Gatekeeper's archive? Is it speaking about many Galcivilisation falls as a personal witness or just from archeological knowledge? And were Ganni aware of All-Star? Ulaque sounded like he previously discussed gate project with them.
* Were ancient Oafans using Oisri, or they had their own way of Pa'anurii brewing?
[[/folder]]
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** To argue the point, do we ''know'' the Laz-5 death[[note]]I'm assuming it's Tagon, when he 'walked the bomb'[[/note]] ''didn't'' lose any memories? We saw conversations for both of them. One was after revival, and the doctor was doing the psychological check-up in person, in meat-space; and we saw the "1%" being dropped like a bombshell in person. For the other case, it was done in A.I.-space, we didn't see any figures mentioned on screen (apart from saying "there's some stuff you ''won't'' remember - because it comes after the backup we're making you from"), and the evaluation was done by someone that clearly said "well, go ahead and treat yourself like a different person, to 'preserve the illusion of free will'."
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[[folder: Laz-3 death and backups]]
* A character suffered a Laz-3 death (brain destroyed, in-body backups damaged but mostly intact) and lost 1% of her lifetime memory. Another character suffered Laz-5 death (completely vaporized, restore from an icebox backup) and lost no memories from before he was last backed up. Why not use Laz-5 backups to fill in what a Laz-3 or Laz-4 patient loses?
[[/folder]]
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Changed line(s) 167 (click to see context) from:
The Tough's authority to exploit Eina-afa came from their being agents of the government set up by the insectoid natives, the reborn Oafa race, and ancient Oafan memories incarnated in new bodies. When digitized ancient Oafa are released and lay claim everyone acts like the Toughs had just looted what they thought was an abandoned ruin all on their lonesome and are solely legally responsible, and none of the above have even been mentioned.
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* The Tough's authority to exploit Eina-afa came from their being agents of the government set up by the insectoid natives, the reborn Oafa race, and ancient Oafan memories incarnated in new bodies. When digitized ancient Oafa are released and lay claim everyone acts like the Toughs had just looted what they thought was an abandoned ruin all on their lonesome and are solely legally responsible, and none of the above have even been mentioned.mentioned.
** The story is of course still ongoing, but Tagon did point out that Putzho and Iafa should have negotiated terms before letting the Oafans out (they were in a hurry due to Chinook's madness). So it's not necessarily that ''everyone'' thinks the Toughs are thieves, but the ''Oafans'' think that, and they are fully capable of taking back everything they believe is theirs.
** The story is of course still ongoing, but Tagon did point out that Putzho and Iafa should have negotiated terms before letting the Oafans out (they were in a hurry due to Chinook's madness). So it's not necessarily that ''everyone'' thinks the Toughs are thieves, but the ''Oafans'' think that, and they are fully capable of taking back everything they believe is theirs.
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[[folder: What happened to the Oafan Freehold?]]
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[[folder: What happened to the Oafan Neofan Freehold?]]
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[[folder: What happened to the Oafan Freehold?]]
The Tough's authority to exploit Eina-afa came from their being agents of the government set up by the insectoid natives, the reborn Oafa race, and ancient Oafan memories incarnated in new bodies. When digitized ancient Oafa are released and lay claim everyone acts like the Toughs had just looted what they thought was an abandoned ruin all on their lonesome and are solely legally responsible, and none of the above have even been mentioned.
[[/folder]]
The Tough's authority to exploit Eina-afa came from their being agents of the government set up by the insectoid natives, the reborn Oafa race, and ancient Oafan memories incarnated in new bodies. When digitized ancient Oafa are released and lay claim everyone acts like the Toughs had just looted what they thought was an abandoned ruin all on their lonesome and are solely legally responsible, and none of the above have even been mentioned.
[[/folder]]
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** Out of universe the answer is obviously that the author didn't think of them, but in-universe they are presumably expensive. Until the company joined the Neofans, they were stuck pretty firmly in PerpetualPoverty (and were mostly fighting low-level enemies who also wouldn't have the money for expensive SI drones). The fragsuits in particular are brand-new technology that take quite a bit of time to get used to.
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Expendable robot troops = SI
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** Given the moral issue of full-fledged [=AIs=] in combat, the closest thing to "expendable robot troops" considered acceptable in the setting is SI-controlled semi-autonomous weaponry. We first saw such devices when the concept of "synthetic intelligence" as distinct from AI [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2003-07-21 was first introduced]] - ship-to-ship missiles use [=SIs=], making them basically expendable robot troops on the STS scale. Later on we saw [=SIs=] used for infantry-scale weapons with the paul-drones in the Oisri arc, and later with the Esspees' soshikos, the M3 Taters in Dom Atlantis, and the fragsuits first seen in Mandatory Failure. So "expendable robot troops" exist; the only question is why we didn't see them on the infantry level before Oisri.
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** Additinally, Sh'vuu ''was'' completely killed by his minitank exploding. Elf just got lucky (also, she may have been [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2003-10-26 complying with Der Trihs' order]] and got ejected just enough to not die).
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** Additinally, Additionally, Sh'vuu ''was'' completely killed by his minitank exploding. Elf just got lucky (also, she may have been [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2003-10-26 complying with Der Trihs' order]] and got ejected just enough to not die).
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Yet another theory on Elf's survival under "Annie-Plant Explosions"
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** Additinally, Sh'vuu ''was'' completely killed by his minitank exploding. Elf just got lucky (also, she may have been [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2003-10-26 complying with Der Trihs' order]] and got ejected just enough to not die).
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**Killing the Pa'anuri requires spreading around [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2005-07-17 teraport field projectors]], which wouldn't be possible with teraport interdiction from Tagii.
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**They were able to flag the false memories, but not restore the missing ones (except for Kevyn, because Petey made backups of his brain). So the fancy wedding was flagged as fake (by having the colour drained out), but there's no memory whatsoever of what happened while they were in Emm's clutches.
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** Any robot capable of independent action in combat would need a fairly advanced AI. That would make it a sentient creature, and therefore no longer expendable.
