Custom systems

[impaktor]

Yay! Nice! I was worried you had abandoned us!

sensible species

I think you mean sentient species? (mistake done twice in the text)

settled about 200 years ago

I think the even-ness of "200" implies it's "about", so I'd vote to loose the "about" part. Or even just have: "settled two centuries ago".

As to the Voicedeep, they are positive: there is nothing of value they could
possibly learn from us.

I'm not sure I fully understand this sentence. They're "positive" in general outlook of life? I.e. not grumpy? Yet they have nothing to learn from humans, who travel through the very fabric of outer space? Sorry if I sound negative, I'm just pinpointing what I find odd with this last line.

Welcome back, and keep up the good work!

[Spiffor]

Thanks Impaktor for your comments :)

I think you mean sentient species? (mistake done twice in the text)

You're right. Mistake corrected

I think the even-ness of "200" implies it's "about", so I'd vote to loose the "about" part. Or even just have: "settled two centuries ago".

Indeed! Changed it.

As to the Voicedeep, they are positive: there is nothing of value they could possibly learn from us.

I'm not sure I fully understand this sentence. They're "positive" in general outlook of life? I.e. not grumpy? Yet they have nothing to learn from humans, who travel through the very fabric of outer space? Sorry if I sound negative, I'm just pinpointing what I find odd with this last line.

Well, the idea is that the Voicedeep feel we miss the beauty of life, just the same way we could imagine a color-blind person to miss much about the beauty of a painting.
Their intelligence being really different from ours, our civilization, our science, or our trinkets are something very difficult for them to grasp. Moreover, they see absolutely no point in all that!

Maybe I could rephrase this way:
"As to the Voicedeep, they now have a glimpse on the human ways: civilization, science, trinkets, and wars. They drew the obvious conclusion: there is nothing of value they could possible learn from us".

What do you think?

[bszlrd]

I really like that Voicedeep stuff.

[FluffyFreak]

Either the original: "As to the Voicedeep, they are positive: there is nothing of value they could possibly learn from us."

or the modified would do fine, it makes sense to an English person :) might confuse translators.

You could also have: "As to the Voicedeep, they are certain that there is nothing of value they could possibly learn from us."

[impaktor]

Might I riff a bit on fluffy's last suggestion:
"As to the Voicedeep, they are certain that there is nothing of value to them that they could possibly learn from us."

"Voicedeep"... wasn't there some alien race in X-com Terror from the deep with similar name? Anyway, I agree with noz, I like it.

Edit: I was probbably thinking of: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Deep_One Also, I think you can open a PR now, with whatever change you prefer.

[Spiffor]

Thanks for the comments guys, I've integrated all this (both in this thread and in the modfile)

I'm not on my usual comp this week, so I'll make a PR in a few days.

"Voicedeep"... wasn't there some alien race in X-com Terror from the deep with similar name? Anyway, I agree with noz, I like it.

Well, their creation was quite pragmatic really.
In Pioneer, there is no species competing with mankind in space travel (at least none that was discovered yet).
Yet, humans have explored countless planets with indigenous life, so there would be obviously sentient species in the way.
I imagine most sentient species have suffered, either because of destruction of habitat (like in 61 Virginis), or direct competition for resources.

Hence the idea of a sentient species living in a place less interesting for humans, like deep water. First, I was toying with the idea of a "trout erectus", but I thought the squids were more fitting.
And the name Voicedeep came with a few trials and errors. It's inspired from their strong communication abilities.

[Spiffor]

New system done :)

As usual, any comments are welcome! The system has been fully tested and should work without problems by downloading the spiffor_systems.zip modfile to your \pioneer\mods folder.

Delta Pavonis

Faction: SolFed
Short description: Underground industrial colony.

Long description:
"My place, my life, my air": this advertisement for real estate could summarize the way of life in Delta Pavonis.
Cities here are built deep underground according to the traditional "cellular" architecture, inspired by the human body. People live in individual or familial quarters called "Cells". Those Cells are connected to the rest of the city through "Arteries" where everything transits: people, goods and life support.
Air and water being scarce, settlements are designed to reduce their consumption. As to avoid waste of volume, the cities are densely built; Cells are usually tiny and so are the workplaces; there are no gardens except in luxury residences; public areas are almost non-existent besides the Arteries.
Some foreigners depict Pavonian cities as overcrowded caves of steel. Yet, the locals are content with their environment.
As they spend their life in enclosed areas (including their vehicles), the Pavonians do not get to see the crowd, but rather their friends, colleagues, partners or family members. Those areas seem spaceous, thanks to the dream-windows covering walls and ceilings. There is a broad choice of sceneries to display, including top seller "bivouac on the prairie".
Cause or consequence? The local culture is highly individualistic. Air in particular is a stricly personal, intimate commodity: even at work or at school, people are billed as they open the tap to refill their personal air tank.
"Let us breathe together" is a traditional blessing at marriages, synonymous with a lovely intimate moment. This expression also describes the way of life on an outdoor world: an outrageous promiscuity.

[bszlrd]

This is really good.
I think I'd include two things:
Why they even settled there, if the place is so inhospitable? Maybe there could be a sentence hinting on that. Or we can just assume that it's a place with rich resources, and don't think any more of it?
The other thing that would fit in my opinion is something like: "Since Pavionians (I really like the sound of that btw) are accustomed to tight spaces and seeing the same faces all the time, they are among the best long-haul spacefarers you can find."

[impaktor]

Yay!

OK, I merged before seeing the above comments, sorry. Feel free to add the changes suggested. I really like the Delta Pavonis story. Noz's "long-haul" thingy is nice.

[impaktor]

I'd just thought it would be fitting to drop here:

In his 1986 novel Fiasco, one of his last major works, Lem described a group of astronauts flying to Quinta, “the fifth planet of Zeta Harpyiae,” where they hope to make contact with an alien civilization. Quinta isn’t the only other inhabited planet in the galaxy; the universe is actually bursting with life, the astronauts believe. But unlike most extraterrestrials, which are either too primitive to bother with or too advanced to detect, the Quintans are still in an intermediate stage. On a scale from single-celled organisms to transcendental super-beings, they are close enough to humans for communication to take place.

From: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/wor ... islaw-lem/#!