2014 STGOD OOC Commentary Thread 1

[Simon_Jester]

For that matter, the "bad guy felt betrayed" evidence wouldn't stand up in court. The part about the knife would.

[Siege]

The bad guy also started talking as soon as he was asked like three questions. Chances are good he'll offer more incriminating information after repeated questioning... So long as the King of Orion doesn't see fit to execute him after 24 hours, that is.

[Simon_Jester]

Honestly, if I'd felt like being a stickler for realism I'd probably have written a more protracted interrogation. Ms. Archer's talents really are quite useful in that context, but there are limits and I may have been pushing them. The ability to intuit a great deal from subtle cues is valuable in that respect, although it would work less well on a less tightly controlled person.

The one thing that might make a rapid crack like this believable is that the Fusoan assassin was NOT expecting one of his compatriots to betray him, which could have a... disorganizing effect on his thoughts. That might tip him from pure nonresponse into blustering defiance, perhaps.

One notes that even after he sort-of-spills the beans about Tatsuya (not by saying anything, but by a very subtle body language cue), he tries to salvage the situation by saying something that is convincingly plausible that he actually believes and that would be sufficient reason for him to say that Tatsuya was a traitor. So he's still in control of himself even if he's making slips.

But having someone who is at least a beginner in something comparable to Bene Gesserit truthsay in the room was... not something he'd planned for.

[I'm not sure the Waters-Archer interrogation was the first one he'd experienced, by the way]

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah, I'll clarify that, the guy had been interrogated earlier in the day by other officers, this just happened to be the one with Archer present where he finally cracked (sort of). The earlier ones were to establish dates, places he'd been, people he'd known, the background stuff. The basic information was provided to Waters and Archer, but no opinions or conclusions to avoid bias in the questioning.

[Eternal_Freedom]

The second and final part fo the interrogations scene is now up. My thansk to Simon for his help with these.

Shinn, this concludes my involvement in that plotline, you can now do what you like with Tatsuya, but Orion (and maybe Umeria as well) will be keeping an eye on him.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, everyone went on break with this over the holidays (forum activity in general seemed to have been pretty low); I'm wondering if we can find a few places to take this now. I'd like to keep poking around; why don't we brainstorm a bit about interesting plot ideas? I know TimothyC had one rather cool thing on the back burner.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I know Shinn had some leftovers from the Conference, but that's his plotline now.

I don't have ideas at present, except perhaps a small war or two. They're always fun.

[madd0ct0r]

Champa has a few loose ends - there's the railway to Umeria, the possibility of an expedition upriver to the Hinterland, and I've yet to publically release the Rheinland offer/whaling ban which is bound to cause ructions. None of those have much effect on other players, although I was planning to put the first year of Money from Rheinland up for tender for innovative power solutions for my little country

[Eternal_Freedom]

I was planning to put the first year of Money from Rheinland up for tender for innovative power solutions for my little country

How about some lovely Thorium reactors from Orion, the world-leader in nuclear power?

[Simon_Jester]

Well, I'm not just thinking loose ends, I'm thinking, can we do anything genuinely new? Stuff that doesn't depend on Person A remembering to post so Person B can post so Person C can post.

Like, maddoctor really got the ball rolling with the nuclear power plant accident. That did a good job of getting us some momentum, because it was a crisis situation that many people could react to in their own ways without it getting bottlenecked by any one person's activities.

The conference itself was a good idea, just now, although that's pretty well played out.

So I'm wondering, what can we do that's new? I confess that I have problems coming up with new stuff as opposed to playing in someone else's idea and amplifying on it...

[Siege]

I have a Machine now.

I was planning to put the first year of Money from Rheinland up for tender for innovative power solutions for my little country.

Considering recent history I'm thinking you don't want nukes, you want gas plants. Cheap, efficient, no fallout, what more do you want? Luckily, Acheron has you covered! We can even feed gas plants with LNG carried over that railroad we want to build from Hakistan to Champa. Jobs + power = profit.

With regards to the game, I feel I've come up with plenty potential angles that nobody ever did anything with. So frankly, ball's in y'all's court to think of something.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Well, that's the post announcing my Space Forces effort. We now have a shipyard of sorts in orbit. Go us!

[TimothyC]

Well, that's the post announcing my Space Forces effort. We now have a shipyard of sorts in orbit. Go us!

Eh, look at the little hanger. Isn't it just so cute?

[Simon_Jester]

[raises eyebrow]

You gonna back that up?

[madd0ct0r]

expedition to the Hinterlands?
rebuild the pirate country?

people seem to prefer writing at the level of one or two exceptional individuals - Olympics?

[Simon_Jester]

Hm.

The "rebuild the pirate country" idea was interesting. The Umerians had a plan for that, but I'm not entirely clear on what the joint UOCSR/Nightfall expedition to Lothal did, or whether it was resolved. They were going to be moving in afterwards, mostly because said expedition decided to be very... precipitous, whereas the Umerians were taking a bit longer to marshal everything.

[That_Guy]

Hello again,
just a quick note from me to apologise for my absence. I will try to keep up with the world from now on.

[Eternal_Freedom]

[raises eyebrow]

You gonna back that up?

Is that directed at me or Timothy?

[TimothyC]

[raises eyebrow]

You gonna back that up?

Is that directed at me or Timothy?

It was directed at me.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Ah.

Well, "hanger" is a broad term. Basically it's an unpressurised latticework with docking ports to aid construction.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I'm pretty much tired of thinking of stuff and realising that the stuff will be pointless in the end since there's hardly any feedback or whatever going on. I mean, the thread was dead for a month.

[TimothyC]

Ah.

Well, "hanger" is a broad term. Basically it's an unpressurised latticework with docking ports to aid construction.

Yeah, it's still small.

I've posted a quick response that lets me flesh out the minor government players and sets up some future plots if I want. Yes, the people in my government is an unholy mixture of West Wing, House of Cards, the real world (both politicians and not), and some people fabricated from whole cloth.

[Eternal_Freedom]

We're not building some kind of Discovery or Alexei Leonov here. This is the proof-of-concept stage to see how effective it is. Hence we're only going as far as the Moon, and not straight to Mars.

[Simon_Jester]

I'm pretty much tired of thinking of stuff and realising that the stuff will be pointless in the end since there's hardly any feedback or whatever going on. I mean, the thread was dead for a month.

Well, I for one would like to at least stab in the general direction of giving it a jump start. You are welcome to react, or not react, as you please.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I'm pretty much tired of thinking of stuff and realising that the stuff will be pointless in the end since there's hardly any feedback or whatever going on. I mean, the thread was dead for a month.

Well, I for one would like to at least stab in the general direction of giving it a jump start. You are welcome to react, or not react, as you please.

What would you like to stab, if at all?

If you want to know what we intended with regard to the pirate shoot up, we intended to clear the local refuse bins and set up a permanent anti-pirate outpost.