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Progress Update: Faction Leaders
🕑 Added 2023-09-22 13:41:55 +0000 UTCThe faction leader stories are mostly written and art-ed, though I still have a few more to wrap up. This is shaping up to be the biggest patch in a while, both in terms of content (something like 80 new events), and code (whole new systems like the harem screen, implants, planets, and civilian upgrades, as well as a lot of smaller tweaks).
I'm nearing the finish line, but still have more to do.
There are still seven factions in all, and each leader has at least two ways they can develop after their defeat. This update somehow has even more art and writing than the event overhaul, and I'm incredibly excited to see it out in the world.
I don't want to show too much to avoid spoilers about the new main plot, endings, or character arcs, but they've changed a bit since their original design:
Ivy: Spider of Gaia
The Eden Republic centers itself on sustainable growth and harmony. Its people live in arcologies that dot their worlds, and want for nothing. Its safety is maintained by Ivy's shrewd diplomacy, careful use of resources, and unique technologies that emerge from symbiosis with their worlds.
Christine: Petulant Sadist
Christine is a woman of simple tastes. She likes drinking tea in her palace gardens, watching the sun set over the labor camps, and the feeling of prole windpipes collapsing in her bare hands. Her centuries-long reign of terror began with the untimely deaths of her parents, and the luckiest among her opposition have since been executed.
The Sisters: Goddess Simulacra
Sisters Life, Death, Mind, and Body maintain the virtual landscape of the Lotus Noocracy, as well as the compute worlds required to simulate the minds of its population. Their people experience whatever they please over vast subjective timescales, and most have completely forgotten about the outside universe over their eons.
Thea: Order's Disciple
Thea appeared suddenly in the prehistory of the faithful, and used advanced knowledge to bring them to the stars. The details of her arrival are a matter of vague scripture, and few have seen the face of her god, Order.
Dr. Volkov: Will of the Hive
The Volkov Biomedical Corporation began as a provider of cloned armies for warlords. Over the centuries, it has shed its employees, and become far stranger. Something between a civilization and an organism, guided by the will of its solipsistic founder.
Isona: Irritated Utopian
The Untitled Anarchy is a federation of worlds connected by a shared culture of hedonism. Its matter fabricators have long rendered scarcity obsolete, and its people are known for their love of food, parties, and art, seasoned with bioengineered drug glands. Isona would rather do any of those things than talk about interstellar politics, but someone has to play ambassador.
Kinscourge: Pirate Overlord
Using a strict code of honor and an insatiable appetite for violence, Kinscourge has united the warring Rust Clans (to the extent possible), and carved out a cut of most of the galactic slave trade in the process. When not supervising her clan or enjoying her harem, she can usually be found in her ship, on her way to a raid (or, as she likes to call it, a vacation).
Comments
Lawrence Heddington
Update got released today, so thought I'd put my thoughts here: Awesome work well done. I can definitely recommend soldier tier for this one. The update alone is worth it, but more importantly it's money well spent to support Dev's work. It might take time but this update proves SM2 has a longer runway than SM1. For those who do play here are my thoughts: it seems Dev's main focus on this update is the galaxy map and conquest, so you might want to focus on that area of play, since it is where most of the new content is. Most of the 3d on the station floor has yet to be cleaned up, and I've heard Dev say in a forum thread that he is going to replace the inspection screen completely with AI augmented interactive art.
