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Secret assets of Jovian Junta ?

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Fri, 2010-04-02 11:11
#1
Extrasolar Angel Extrasolar Angel's picture
Secret assets of Jovian Junta ?
I was thinking about Jovian Junta and I wonder. How can they stand up on their own surrounded by such advanced entities with much higher technological base ? Yes I know they have a large military but still. It is plausible that they are remnants of top leadership from North America and couple of other key players. Do you think that besides having a low-tech base population, the Jovian Junta has aces in its sleeve, such as key personel specially designed for superior problem solving or technological innovation in isolated facilities, or enslaved/indoctrinated AGI's in controlled environments ? What else could Joviant Junta posses that they could use to secure their existance ? Perhaps remnants of governmental illusive surveillance and spying network on Luna and Mars from before the Fall ?
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[I]Raise your hands to the sky and break the chains. With transhumanism we can smash the matriarchy together.[/i]
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Fri, 2010-04-02 11:29
CodeBreaker CodeBreaker's picture
Re: Secret assets of Jovian Junta ?
Just because the Junta doesn't let its citizens have all the nice shinnies doesn't necessarily mean that the government cannot have any. I imagine they have lots of nice things hidden away. Good chance they are also totally hypocritical in their stance on bio conservatism when it comes down to protecting the Republic from the big bad anarchists. Enslaved AGIs pumping out military grade blueprints, stockpiles of Antimatter weapons, legions of Bioware enhanced super soldiers, hell, maybe even a pet seed AI. Anything to get ahead of the game. If I remember right the Junta is one of the few remaining powers that has not restricted the use of things like Basilisk Hacks for defense. Those things alone can be quite nasty.
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Sat, 2010-04-03 03:44
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Secret assets of Jovian Junta ?
CodeBreaker wrote:
Just because the Junta doesn't let its citizens have all the nice shinnies doesn't necessarily mean that the government cannot have any. I imagine they have lots of nice things hidden away. Good chance they are also totally hypocritical in their stance on bio conservatism when it comes down to protecting the Republic from the big bad anarchists. Enslaved AGIs pumping out military grade blueprints, stockpiles of Antimatter weapons, legions of Bioware enhanced super soldiers, hell, maybe even a pet seed AI. Anything to get ahead of the game. If I remember right the Junta is one of the few remaining powers that has not restricted the use of things like Basilisk Hacks for defense. Those things alone can be quite nasty.
Actually, I don't think their actions are all too hypocritical. They consider AGIs to be soulless beings, and they treat them as such (though I'm pretty sure that they're more likely to use AIs than AGIs). Antimatter isn't necessarily against their beliefs. I [i]highly[/i] doubt they utilize genefixed super soldiers... I think that the Junta is the one place where you will find non-modified human soldiers tricked out with the latest gear and weaponry. To that end, I'd expect that they have no qualms with using robots, synthmorphs and other shells so long as no one sleeves into them... Junta techheads are probably some of the best jammers in the system.
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Sat, 2010-04-03 03:50
nick012000 nick012000's picture
Re: Secret assets of Jovian Junta ?
Maybe also cyborgs and the like, as well; the Jovian Faction choice only prevents you from taking advanced nanotech, so cyberware is probably perfectly all right, if a bit pricy for most of their citizens. They're also likely to have large and well-equipped units of people in power armor. They might be bioconservatives, but they're not luddites.
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Sat, 2010-04-03 06:13
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Secret assets of Jovian Junta ?
nick012000 wrote:
Maybe also cyborgs and the like, as well; the Jovian Faction choice only prevents you from taking advanced nanotech, so cyberware is probably perfectly all right, if a bit pricy for most of their citizens. They're also likely to have large and well-equipped units of people in power armor. They might be bioconservatives, but they're not luddites.
That one is a difficult call. It depends on if they consider cyberware to be acceptable. If so, then that is probably a good possibility. But otherwise, I think the key to their success will be in arms and armor. Battle suits, top-of-the-line firearms, and fanatic religious fervor are going to be the keys to their success in battle. Now, let's queue the "Jovian Junta = Imperium of Mankind" jokes.
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Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]
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Sat, 2010-04-03 16:43
Extrasolar Angel Extrasolar Angel's picture
Re: Secret assets of Jovian Junta ?
I don't think they should be made into one-dimensional villains. An interesting faction/villain/character has mutliple interests and beliefs. Portaying the Junta as pure-evil-idiotic-religious-hypocrites doesn't seem a good choice(unless you want to have black and white scenario. Let them have good solid arguments for their position on things-and with what happened to Earth they do have a major arguments in their favour. Have them believe in what they are doing and occassionally let them be right, even if their methods and reactions do seem wrong. For example Jovian Junta agents hunting down and destroying young uplift fugitives. If the players save them, let the fugitives turn out to be uplifted using Exsurgent virus and become a threat. Of course perhaps slaughtering whole families on the ship with children was kind of cold and extreme. Generally my idea would be to make their concerns plausible, although the reactions extreme and violent, and disregarding possible harder choices for dealing with those concerns.
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[I]Raise your hands to the sky and break the chains. With transhumanism we can smash the matriarchy together.[/i]
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Sat, 2010-04-03 19:58
jackgraham jackgraham's picture
Re: Secret assets of Jovian Junta ?
The advantages of a powerful military shouldn't be underestimated. Space combat in EP gives an enormous advantage to defenders. The Jovians don't have the ability to be expansionist, but they have what they need in their portion of space -- and you don't have to be a brilliant transhuman to wipe out an incoming fleet when you're dug into a bunch of rocky asteroids. The combination of fragile ships and extremely destructive weaponry means that some major shifts in arms technology will have to happen in the game world before anyone dislodges them. And no, that's not a hint about metaplot. ;) That said, yeah, you should totally give them freaky secrets in your game. And we may be including some freaky Jovian secrets of our own in a forthcoming book. (If Rob doesn't smack me for being over wordcount... again. Heh).
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J A C K   G R A H A M :: Hooray for Earth!   http://eclipsephase.com :: twitter @jackgraham @faketsr :: Google+Jack Graham
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Sun, 2010-04-04 03:04
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Secret assets of Jovian Junta ?
Extrasolar Angel wrote:
I don't think they should be made into one-dimensional villains. An interesting faction/villain/character has mutliple interests and beliefs. Portaying the Junta as pure-evil-idiotic-religious-hypocrites doesn't seem a good choice(unless you want to have black and white scenario. Let them have good solid arguments for their position on things-and with what happened to Earth they do have a major arguments in their favour. Have them believe in what they are doing and occassionally let them be right, even if their methods and reactions do seem wrong. For example Jovian Junta agents hunting down and destroying young uplift fugitives. If the players save them, let the fugitives turn out to be uplifted using Exsurgent virus and become a threat. Of course perhaps slaughtering whole families on the ship with children was kind of cold and extreme. Generally my idea would be to make their concerns plausible, although the reactions extreme and violent, and disregarding possible harder choices for dealing with those concerns.
One thing I'm working on is an essay that details the beliefs of the various political blocs from a first-person account. I'm hoping that, while it probably won't convince anyone to change their minds on their beliefs, will at least allow them to understand the thinking that goes behind those beliefs to a great enough degree that they won't villainize them. I think the biggest problem in the book is the definite bias that exist. Let's make it clear that I'm not saying that the developers failed us by having bias... far from it, it only makes them human. However, to really understand these specific factions, you actually have to get into their mindset, and not simply see their beliefs from an outside view.
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Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]
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Sun, 2010-04-04 03:04
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Secret assets of Jovian Junta ?
Deleted.
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Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]
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Mon, 2010-04-05 05:53
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Secret assets of Jovian Junta ?
Deft diplomacy and intelligence counts for something too. Make sure your potential enemies are busy bickering with each other, find blackmail material and show that you are unafraid to use it, scare the minor players. Always make sure everybody who might strike at you have a "but is it worth it?" second thought. Think North Korea. Personally I would suspect the JJ has plenty of nasties hidden, but knows that their real purpose is to keep everybody nervous about finding out the hard way whether it is a big bluff or a serious threat. The real strength lies in the more traditional defences. As for the use of transhuman tech by bioconservatives, we actually have an interesting real world example. During the Bush II years DARPA and various parts of the military were (and still are) pursuing human enhancement research, while the President's Council on Bioethics denounced any such use. Governments are big places, and what is seen as utterly reprehensible by some parts may be a pragmatic solution to other parts.
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Sun, 2010-04-11 03:46
Young Freud Young Freud's picture
Re: Secret assets of Jovian Junta ?
jackgraham wrote:
The advantages of a powerful military shouldn't be underestimated. Space combat in EP gives an enormous advantage to defenders. The Jovians don't have the ability to be expansionist, but they have what they need in their portion of space -- and you don't have to be a brilliant transhuman to wipe out an incoming fleet when you're dug into a bunch of rocky asteroids. The combination of fragile ships and extremely destructive weaponry means that some major shifts in arms technology will have to happen in the game world before anyone dislodges them. And no, that's not a hint about metaplot. ;)
Also, being around the largest planet in the solar system and a major slingshot point for the outer planets has even more advantages. I've played around with how they manage to enforce their tolls: they I've figured that the secured, unmanned killsats (similar in [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative#Homing_Overlay... Defense Initative's HOE[/url]) that hang out in orbit around the projected slingshot flight paths. Whenever someone flies in unauthorized, the killsat deorbit themselves, unfold their kilometers-long metal ribbons, and drop into the projected flight path of the unauthorized craft on an interception course. If they get last-minute authorization, the Tollkeeper can continue thrusting or counter-thrust to avoid collision. If contact is made, the Tollkeeper shreds itself and its target, dragging both into the gravity well of Jupiter to burn up on reentry. I also believe that Jovians would likely have high-altitude outposts floating around in the low-pressure, oxygen-laden bands in Jupiter's atmosphere, from where they can send out transatmospheric fighters to engage anyone trying to cheat their tolls or tries cut in on the Junta's mining operations.
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Mon, 2010-04-12 02:11
UpliftedOctopi UpliftedOctopi's picture
Re: Secret assets of Jovian Junta ?
It should be considered that the Jovian Junta may be in possession of some commodity, presumably media based, that would allow them to apply some sort of trade model similar to that which the developed western world applies to less developed countries currently. I refer specifically to the entertainment industry. If the Junta were able to exercise similar dominance in some industry, they would then be able to establish themselves among the community as a necessary component, or at least something that must be endured. On a more personal note, I will be running my Junta as an elite espionage society. I operate on the assumption that American/Western society continues the implementation of systems such as ECHELON but now on a greater scale. This includes (players in a game in Cheney, WA should stop reading this) the use of a remnant TITAN system to manage the high volume of surveillance information. Simply put, a seed AI that plays "connect the dots" with every piece of data it can find on the mesh and prints out "holy shit" alerts (just like the one they had in the old school Justice League cartoon). Reflecting my personal biases, this will largely consist of humint, in opposition to sigint.
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Mon, 2010-04-12 15:29
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Secret assets of Jovian Junta ?
The Jupiter system likely has a lot of energy, and with the right equipment you can beam it to nearby destinations. Imagine putting a few superconducting loops into the Jupiter magnetosphere, powering large phased arrays of laser emitters. Makes a great energy distribution system, propulsion (vaporise ice or power VASIMIR externally)... and a giant beam weapon network.
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