PURGE THE AI
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I fucking love LANCER. In most settings, you get your hands on a literal infohazard and most people would (quite rightly) probably try to keep that under wraps. Oh, we’ve discovered an AI that wrote itself, that can invert its cameras and blast you with a holy fractal pattern that will permanently blind organics and can straight up kill you right through the cockpit of your mech without any physical damage. In a sane world we park this thing in cold storage and hope nobody finds it for the next millennium.
In LANCER? HORUS got their hands on this, and their response was “overclock it, and point it that direction”, and the result is the Gorgon, one of the most dangerous and badass ‘support’ units in the setting. AI copilot programs have to put a big fuckin’ censor bar over Gorgon units in the field, so their pilot doesn’t just straight up die by catching it in their peripheral vision. An extruded Basilisk unit on a Gorgon can stop a pilot dead in their tracks with a full mental stun even through the NHP-filtering censor, it just shuts your entire brain down. The Basilisk pattern is akin to looking God right in the eyes, it’ll burn out your neurons if unprotected and it’ll turn you into a drooling mess for a minute or two even when suitably protected.
And this is a defensive unit!
That’s the nerdiest thing I’ve read in a long time. I love it, thank you for the read
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If I remember correctly, they were fine with it in Battlestar Galactica…
Adama was not.
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Unless it’s smart enough to take over, in which case I welcome our benevolent and merciful machine overlord.
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Adama was not.
Noone was, they were the remnants of a war against sentient robots.
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Unless it’s smart enough to take over, in which case I welcome our benevolent and merciful machine overlord.
Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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Ok, I have to try lancer now.
Lancer is fucking awesome. We stan our eldritch math gods in this house!
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Very cool, thank you.
Unfortunately i cant game on that, no one around to. But good to know!They have a discord server and GMs are constantly hosting games on there!
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The Culture: the machines are probably more sentient than biologicals. When I decide I’m done with being biological I might upload my mind state into a substrate as part of a group Mind.
Also The Culture: We have nearly as many citizens living in virtual realities as we do interacting with the physical world as their primary mode.
Also Also The Culture: How we learned to stop worrying and love the AIs that guide the ‘economy’ and everything else.
Also Also Also The Culture: Our AIs can do really cool subspace explosions around themselves and survive, leading to a shortening of the war by (I actually forget the real number) nine months.
Also Also Also Also The Culture: You want a tail this week? Cool. You want a penis next week? Cooler. You want to breed by sporulation while eating the flesh of humans? Dude, absolutely sick, and not telling us we were eating humans until afterwards? Siiiick joke, dude! (This is well done in context, I’m just funning)
(And, finally, sadly, in relation to our current times…)
Also Also Also Also Also The Culture: Oh, the war has you bummed out, man? Just hop into animated sleep for however long you want - yeah, current average time is 200 years it looks like - and we’ll wake you up to see how things are.
The Culture was a great set of books.
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I fucking love LANCER. In most settings, you get your hands on a literal infohazard and most people would (quite rightly) probably try to keep that under wraps. Oh, we’ve discovered an AI that wrote itself, that can invert its cameras and blast you with a holy fractal pattern that will permanently blind organics and can straight up kill you right through the cockpit of your mech without any physical damage. In a sane world we park this thing in cold storage and hope nobody finds it for the next millennium.
In LANCER? HORUS got their hands on this, and their response was “overclock it, and point it that direction”, and the result is the Gorgon, one of the most dangerous and badass ‘support’ units in the setting. AI copilot programs have to put a big fuckin’ censor bar over Gorgon units in the field, so their pilot doesn’t just straight up die by catching it in their peripheral vision. An extruded Basilisk unit on a Gorgon can stop a pilot dead in their tracks with a full mental stun even through the NHP-filtering censor, it just shuts your entire brain down. The Basilisk pattern is akin to looking God right in the eyes, it’ll burn out your neurons if unprotected and it’ll turn you into a drooling mess for a minute or two even when suitably protected.
And this is a defensive unit!
Dude, NHPs and their tech are next level awesome! You could narratively break down any HORUS frame and whoever youR saying it to would be like “bro how is anyone alive any more?” But despite the Info-hazard Cameras, Time Guns, Hangry Water Mechs and CasTiGAtEs, it’s all still somehow manageable thanks to Biggest Gun, Too Many Missiles, and (my personal favorite) a Truck with legs!
I love Lancer so much man
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Ok, I have to try lancer now.
Oh man, hope your GM actually prepares their games
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They have a discord server and GMs are constantly hosting games on there!
There’s also Lancer Tactics on Itch.io if you just wanna play the combat. Not sure if it’s fully completed yet but Iv played the early release and it was pretty damn well made
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There’s also Lancer Tactics on Itch.io if you just wanna play the combat. Not sure if it’s fully completed yet but Iv played the early release and it was pretty damn well made
I have it and it’s a ton of fun. It’s got all the core book mechs and combat mechanics in place. Campaign still isn’t done, but there’s a bunch of instant action maps.
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Dude, NHPs and their tech are next level awesome! You could narratively break down any HORUS frame and whoever youR saying it to would be like “bro how is anyone alive any more?” But despite the Info-hazard Cameras, Time Guns, Hangry Water Mechs and CasTiGAtEs, it’s all still somehow manageable thanks to Biggest Gun, Too Many Missiles, and (my personal favorite) a Truck with legs!
I love Lancer so much man
HORUS is by a long shot my favorite LANCER manufacturer. In a world of mega-corporations and mercenaries, I like to throw my lot in with the anarchist collective that likes to play with space ghosts.
But yeah, definitely. It barely matters. As an engineer of some renown once said,
"For instance, how am I gonna stop some big mean Mother-Hubbard from tearin’ me a structurally superfluous new behind?
The answer? Use a gun.
And if that don’t work, use more gun."
And there isn’t a lot of “more gun” you can do than staring down the many, many barrels of a Raleigh or Monarch unit.
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There’s also Lancer Tactics on Itch.io if you just wanna play the combat. Not sure if it’s fully completed yet but Iv played the early release and it was pretty damn well made
Here’s the link for it: https://wick.itch.io/lancer-tactics
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Star Wars - if it is not organic it needs a restraining bolt.
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That’s the nerdiest thing I’ve read in a long time. I love it, thank you for the read
Also check out one of the creator’s webcomics, Kill Six Billion Demons.
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