Scarlet Blade! It's worse then you've heard, but also better.

[Morgenstern]

Sounds a lot like Earth in Eclipse Phase.

It's more like Eclipse Phase 15 years on after the PCs failed miserably .

The End isnt just nigh, it's bloody well come and gone.

Repeatedly in some cases.

Fortunately, by then the species had its eggs in more than one basket and the mechanics of FTL make for pretty good barricades at the star-system level at least.

[Krensky]

Sounds a lot like Earth in Eclipse Phase.

It's more like Eclipse Phase 15 years on after the PCs failed miserably .

The End isnt just nigh, it's bloody well come and gone.

Repeatedly in some cases.

Fortunately, by then the species had its eggs in more than one basket and the mechanics of FTL make for pretty good barricades at the star-system level at least.

Technically, the PCs won then.

Firewall's about preserving the species. The Earth is already lost. It's Post-Apocalyptic Transhuman Conspiracy and Horror. Over 95% of transhumanity was killed or taken by the TITANS during The Fall. The population of the Solar System in EP is under 500 million, most of who don't even have bodies.

[Morgenstern]

Technically, the PCs won then.

Ah. On the broader front yes. I meant the individual pyre worlds have imploded and often spectacularly so. If those were viewed as independent campaign, then the was some serious crash and burn. That's part of the reason they are called 'Pyres'.

Firewall's about preserving the species. The Earth is already lost. It's Post-Apocalyptic Transhuman Conspiracy and Horror. Over 95% of transhumanity was killed or taken by the TITANS during The Fall. The population of the Solar System in EP is under 500 million, most of who don't even have bodies.

Nice.

The Farthest Star setting has a round of somewhat grisley post-human subjegation, but the overwhelming 'muddle factor' of root humans eventually outlasts their overlords. The default cultural window into the setting is several iterations removed from those days - the Union revolted against the Solano, the Solano overthrew the Dominion, and the Dominion conquered the remnants of the Resistent, who were the folks that actually killed the AIs... and the AIs themselves weren't particularly normal representitives of the genre . In Farthest Star the bad old days AIs are called liches.

Eclipse Phase has crosed my sights once or twice. I'll have to follow up on that. It sounds like Firewall is spiritual kin with the Resistent.

[Krensky]

Technically, the PCs won then.

Ah. On the broader front yes. I meant the individual pyre worlds have imploded and often spectacularly so. If those were viewed as independent campaign, then the was some serious crash and burn. That's part of the reason they are called 'Pyres'.

Firewall's about preserving the species. The Earth is already lost. It's Post-Apocalyptic Transhuman Conspiracy and Horror. Over 95% of transhumanity was killed or taken by the TITANS during The Fall. The population of the Solar System in EP is under 500 million, most of who don't even have bodies.

Nice.

The Farthest Star setting has a round of somewhat grisley post-human subjegation, but the overwhelming 'muddle factor' of root humans eventually outlasts their overlords. The default cultural window into the setting is several iterations removed from those days - the Union revolted against the Solano, the Solano overthrew the Dominion, and the Dominion conquered the remnants of the Resistent, who were the folks that actually killed the AIs... and the AIs themselves weren't particularly normal representitives of the genre . In Farthest Star the bad old days AIs are called liches.

Eclipse Phase has crosed my sights once or twice. I'll have to follow up on that. It sounds like Firewall is spiritual kin with the Resistent.

Thaat 500 million includes all transhumanity. Including uplifts and non-seed AIs.

Basically it goes like this:

(click to show/hide)

Somewhere, somewhen out there is the Extra Terrestial Inteligence (ETI). It's really really old and really really powerful Type III or Type IV. It for reasons unfathomable seeded the universe with gizmos called (by us) bracewell probes designed to watch for seed AIs (the self improving, singularity inducing kind), lure them in, and infect them. No one knows why, but it's happened time and time again. Organic life evolves, develops seed AI, seed AI finds the local bracewell probe, gets infected, and turns on it's creator. It happened to the Ikitomi (who didn't survive), it happened to the Factors (who did), and it happened to us (we're still here, for now).

Specifically, a group called the Singularity Foundation spent decades carefully growing, nurturing, and teaching a group of AIs called the Prometheans. The like us. They wish to help and protect us. We're their parents, after all. tht was the point of their design, creation and soft take-off. They're part of the 'leadership' of Firewall.

Meanwhile, the US DoD developed the TITANS as a netwar system, advanced non-seed AIs intended to adapt  and self-improve. When the the hostilities leading up to the Fall broke out, they were brought fully online and BAM! hard take off. Initially they weren't hostile or benevolent, just exploring, observing, and hiding.

They started looking beyond transhumanity for information, noticed the breadcrumbs set out for them and followed them back to a bracewell probe. The poked it and unleashed the Exsurgent virus which infected, transformed and subsumed them into it's agenda.

Meanwhile transhumanity was busy trying to kill itself in the wars that marked the beginning of the Fall.

The TITANs stepped into these conflicts, killing millions and forcibly uploading tens of millions more.

We kept killing each other.

We killed millions more and destroyed Earth with unfettered use of nuclear, biologic, nano, chemical, and info warfare.

Not to mention n what the Exsurgent virus did to people it infected.

Meanwhile the Promethians fought desperately against the TITANs and held the Exsurgent virus almost completely in check, but even they had to retreat unless they fall to it as well.

Then the TITANs disappeared. Not long after we discovered artifacts, dubbed Pandora Gates, that lead to other stars.

Firewall's mantra is "There can not be another Fall."

Think Global Frequency, but actually secret. With weapons of mass destruction.

Firewall has lots of cliques. The Backups want as many extrasolar colonies as possible via Pandora Gates, arkships, and seedships. The Conservatives are xenophobic, isolationist, and believe that nuking it from orbit as many times as possible is the only way to be sure. There are others too.

[MilitiaJim]

TITANS are seed AIs, but the Prometheans are not?  Aren't they both self improving AIs?  I'm missing something about what makes an AI a "seed AI." 

[Krensky]

They're both seed AI unless I'm forgetting some subtlety to the definition.

The Promethians were a soft take off, carefully designed and raised.

The TITANs were a hard take off, an accident.

Compare EDI and her 'daughters' to the Geth, although it's a poor analogy since there are massive differences.

[Mister Andersen]

Ironically, the Geth weren't intended to be seed AI, the quarians just massively miscalculated

[Krensky]

Neither were the TITANs.

Technically there's no seed AI in Mass Effect at all, since even the Reapers are still 'human' level intelligence. Seed AI's halmark is exponential inteligence growth.

[Mister Andersen]

In ME3 perhaps, but Sovereign at least could easily have been a seed AI, back when the reapers were solving the mysteries of the universe instead of the whole organic vs machine arsepull.

[MilitiaJim]

In ME3 perhaps, but Sovereign at least could easily have been a seed AI, back when the reapers were solving the mysteries of the universe instead of the whole organic vs machine arsepull.

Something tells me I should use my next chunks of leisure time to play through Leviathan, Omega, and the extended ending.

[Mister Andersen]

I definitely recommend the EC -- leaving aside the actual plot of the ending, it's how the game should have been done originally. So much more fleshed out and emotion grabbing.

(click to show/hide)

The Devs ended up semi-trolling the players by adding a 4th ending --knowing that a lot of folk wanted the option to tell the starbrat to go fuck itself and clearly aware of just how many players empty their clip into it out of frustration, doing so now triggers a "the reapers win" ending that leads to Liara's beacon transmitting to the next cycle, and the stargazers become an alien mother and daughter

[Valentina]

So, because I have ADHD and 30 secs unstimulated, an update!
Alas, Scarlet Blade doesn't go anywhere worth the grind required. There are some interesting quests like one to track down lost nuclear waste canisters. The twist comes when you find out they're being used as nuclear winter shelters by desperate refugees.
You tell them, they don't care.
To them these are the two choices: freeze now, or cancer in 5 years.

Not bad stuff.

But that's it. The leveling slows down, the quests get longer and more repetitive, the game becomes a job like a third-rate MMO tends to.

Bum. Too many western fantasy themed, not enough even marginally sci-fi games, but I can't hang with this.