I feel the primary concern here may be the possible OPness of having Endless Tech on board. Using the tech trees as a reference, Endless tech generally sits at the "You are now winning the game." point. However, from a narrative standpoint, I do find this development interesting and am intrigued to see where it might go.

About the unmarked ship, It is entirely plausible Zeros is over-reacting. I mainly brought up the past there so that Zeros would have a chance to interact with Rolak. And assuage some of its fears regarding the Lumeris on the ship. But that particular space vehicle that is following the Saviour can easily be disregarded as a paranoid assumption on Zeros part, while still serving the purpose of establishing a bit of information that may come in handy to cause an event later.

I suspect this dicussion will be remembered as "The Month of Long Posts", because here's another one:

Nibot wrote:

Lilith is only really a henchman, a "minor boss" if you will, and her group could be trying to hide an Endless secret or trying to regain Endless tech. This would set them as direct adversaries to our exploratory mission and we'd have a reason to bump into them.

If you write somebody capable of destroying planets as a minor boss, I don't want to know what you consider a major antagonist. That philosophy of opponents is one I can't agree with. We're barely into the first chapter, we should start small. My intention was to be more confronted with mysterious ruins and maybe minor civilizations as obstacles.

This is  a matter of roleplay and storytelling preferences, and I am one who prefers to go with the more grounded approach. We're heroes of our story, but we're not galactic guardians. The problems we face are mundane, and our failure does not mean life as we know it is doomed. The "superhero" approach of cosmic horrors and incredible evils tends to look a bit ridiculous to me after a while, as it turns into "apocalypse of the week" that makes you wonder how the universe managed to last long enough to evolve superheroes in the first place. It leaves rarely room for escalation. To mis-quote Brent Weeks: "After killing a god, you should probably retire, unless you figure out a way to assassinate a continent."

While this is obviously a matter of personal preference, I believe that a more subdued level of antagonists is more fitting to the universe we play in. Endless Space is not Mass Effect, the fate of the galaxy does not hinge on a rag-tag bunch of heroes, it is decided by politics, diplomacy and the movements of entire fleets. Our little ship would be nothing more on the screen that a scout vessel sending out probes.

Nibot wrote:

What I was to say is that I found Decius (the voice) being somewhat different from the Craver described in the wikis. I wanted him to be a voice of reason but still an outcast, and that's why I changed him to this. If his voice didn't fit his body and I really like the voice, why not change it? I guess that might be the wrong idea, but I like how Decius is somewhat an outsider and how others act to him.

I can see the problem, and understand your reasoning for that solution, but I still disagree with the execution. Also, I can't speak for everyone here, but I hadn't considered Decius to be particularly out of character for a Craver.

For that matter, for such extreme species as Cravers or Vodyani, it is more or less mandatory that they're not typical examples of their species, because typical examples of their species would consider the others on board as food or slaves.

Decius has good reasons to be different, based on his history, because by Craver standards, he'd be considered to have major psychological problems. Cravers are by nature extremely social, in the sense that they require to be surrounded by a hive, as they don't have a strong concept of individuality. They usually express themselves by pheromones, which both is their version of democracy and their way to bond to the other drones around them. And not only was Decius brought up without any of that, probably resulting a major psychosis, he then also got exposed to Dust. Basically, I'd be less believable if he acted like a typical Craver.

Nibot wrote:

TL,DR: Inconsistencies will be explained with time and other's support, etc. I know they say a story that must be explained is no good, but I figured it'd be explained later and stay a mystery for now. One solution would be that I rewrite it to be less dramatic, which I am more than glad to do. 

Not explaining works for books, but in forum roleplay, the participants are both authors and audience. While as audience they can live with something unexplained, as authors we want to know, in case it affects our writing. It is a difficult balance to find.

Nibot wrote:

PS: It would be more fun if this moved faster. We're 2 hours in and it has taken months already. I quote a famous Age of Empires taunt: "Start the game already!"

The holiday season can hardly be considered standard for our roleplaying speed, and while I have seen roleplaying threads move at speeds best measured in posts per minute, I don't think that can be pulled off here. You always have to account for people living in different time zones or having Real Life (TM) obligations preventing them from checking the forums often. The median I hope to aim at is to have one post per day and person.

Tlaloc wrote:

I feel the primary concern here may be the possible OPness of having Endless Tech on board. Using the tech trees as a reference, Endless tech generally sits at the "You are now winning the game." point.

I'd formulate it differently, but yes. The problem is less the change of species, but the way it is executed. The ability to affect a person from lightyears away, executing a major operation like turning somebody into a Vodyani and outfitting them with a high-tech suit has far too long-reaching implications. Where, for example, came the material of the suit from, and how could it be assembled so quickly? No matter what the answer, the follow-up question "Why can't you use the same process to assemble an invincible kill-bot on an enemy ship in seconds?" tends to show the cracks, in either the explanation or the world logic.

Tlaloc wrote:

About the unmarked ship, It is entirely plausible Zeros is over-reacting. I mainly brought up the past there so that Zeros would have a chance to interact with Rolak. And assuage some of its fears regarding the Lumeris on the ship. But that particular space vehicle that is following the Saviour can easily be disregarded as a paranoid assumption on Zeros part, while still serving the purpose of establishing a bit of information that may come in handy to cause an event later.

I deliberately said nothing about that development because I knew it could not amount to anything plot-affecting based on what had already been established. They can't follow us into Tianquitzli, and they wouldn't dare fire on a Pilgrim ship while in Pilgrim-controlled space.

Mokinokaro wrote:

I honestly have no idea how to reply to recent developments.

Angel wasn't a fan of having a Craver or Vodyani onboard.  This...well this character-wise would likely mean open hostility.  She's extremely wary of Endless tech.

Having no idea what just happened was my first reaction, too. It's best to try and formulate what exactly makes one speechless about the situation, though, so that we can discuss it.

And in-character friction is okay and to be expected. However, out of character bad feelings should be avoided.

That said, there is always a careful balance act about in-character animosity. There are certain chains of player logic that neglect to think how other character will react, with the sudden realization that if everyone is rational, the situation ends with somebody's character on the wrong side of an airlock. I admit, I've been guilty of that, too. In such situations, it's also best to first discuss out of character how to resolve this without depriving somebody of their enjoyment.

In total, my stance is still the following:

I consider this conversion unnecessary, and if you wish to keep it, then we need to find a better way for it to be executed that doesn't have scary implications for the lore.

Mokinokaro wrote:

EDIT: and you know given the additions to the lore ES2 has made in the meantime it's not unlikely Angel's a Mezari.

The way it's formulated, "Mezari" and "human" are synonymous now. Unless you're a Vaulter, I guess. Then you're just a second-hand Mezari.

AngelicStorm wrote:

 Some planets are Lava or Ash types, and some are Burning Gas Giants, but who's to say that they were like that before? Modern scientists can only speculate that these hostile planets just formed that way, but they could have been temperate planets once upon a time before some warmongering Endless came along and decided to torch them for a laugh. 

Science says it's a lot more likely for a planet to just be formed uninhabitable than it once having been nice and then changed. If anything, it probably happened the other way round, and the Endless left their successors a galaxy rich in habitable terraformed planets.

Because of Timezones and stuff, Alien already pointed out most of the things I would have said but there are still some points left.

You still haven't explained properly how this group of Endless survived and how they kept unnoticed for so long. I mean, the Ameba are literally Endless that devolved into cell clumps and evolved into sentient beings again, over the course of millions and millions of Jears. How would this group have survived so long, and even if they evolved a bit and changed a bit, how did they manage to keep and maintain their Endless technologies over this course of time?

Also, even if they wouldn't destroy a planet every day but once every few Jears, it would still not keep unnoticed.

And as a final point, you dodged number three. He may isn't a Vodyanoy in a cultural sense but in technical terms, he is built like a Vodyani he functions like a Vodyani, so technically he is a Vodyani and Vodyanification is a long and complicated process.

I think we have a consensus then: The post get deleted and we can continue posting as soon as they are. Let's hope things are smoother in the future.

The deed is done, your lordship.

If it helps to get the role-playing back on track, Dahnyl and Laudmas were on their way to the bridge before all of this happened. And I think Decius is still being introduced to the soldiers by Rolak.

My pet cephalopod is ready!

Apologies for my current inactivity but I'm in the middle of an employment related move and won't be able to resume until I'm settled (probably near the end of next week.)

On the other side of news, today is my birthday! 

Happy Birthday! Are you doing anything special?

Not too much.