please tell me achilies thing is a joke

Sadly, the only way to protray an exceedingly intelligent character from writers not up to the task keeps being forcing everyone else involved hold the idiot ball. It has happened time and again in movies and Tvshows recently, and I think it keeps showing as a failure (TLDR: do not go the way that needs more writing tools than the writer has).

Relaunch of old models with new models (in a 5-6 models box of nearly 80-90 bucks) wildly different from the old, and the nth attempt to make Onyx work as something unique instead of a hodgepodge of CA troops that can be sumed as "vanilla, but with less options in exchange of fireteams".
Meanwhile, the asked for UR sectorial is still in limbo :(

No, the Cube 2.0 was an "always connected to Aleph" version of the cube, so even more vulnerable. All Aspects and Recreations were programmed to cut the connection and engage a self-killing mechanism (that in the rules was not implemented, not even in the campaign in N2), something that has been bypassed several times by the Nomads (while Perseus would be the last iteration - with the extra that he was lost behind enemy lines and could be a sepsitorized sleeper agent-, Avicenna was among the first ones).

Extra "credits" to how we got zilch on this for TWO YEARS since Pandora replaced Thamirys. They didn't even bothered to seed anything. Not that they do, it's always "this happened, because the EI was five steps ahead and the lore is written in universe and no one saw it, so suck it up".

I would like to read the lore of a profile that has been marked as pivotal (Pandora) and was released two years ago. Anything besides the name that points to this happening. Do you have it? Because this could have been done in a right way, by seeding hints, or in a wrong way, by coming suddenly and drop it as already happened, we were oh so clever!

To be fair, he is objectively right, not only from the narrative point of view, but even from the grammatical composition part. I still have shivers from Third Offensive's paragraph's construction of "humanity is doing great! BUT THE CA had already predicted and in fact it was all according to plan"... five times per page.

Now, please do note that Lore could have been used to alleviate this situation, but has not been, and will be dropped to justify the already done fact. So Corvus has chose to lead with shock, and should not be surprised at the repulse, if even they were not banking on it to use it as marketing fuel. Which would be a cheap low-tier influencer move, but meh.

 

The existing lore for EI converts to point to the subjects being willing or at most it being ambiguous. It would not be unreasonable to read it that Ko Dali, Bit, and now Achilles joined willingly. Aleph has always given some of her creations a lot of free will in the lore. Sun Tze and Saladin plot behind her back. Perseus ran and left. Pandora exists.

We also don't know the current state of the Human Sphere in N5. In Endsong, we were under a ceasefire with the EI and they had a seat on Council. The war stopped being fully hot. That dynamic and the Cold War between nations could have strengthen over the 5 year span.

 

In your subjective opinion, he is objectively right, ok!

Well, thankfully, it seems that most people like the lore and some even find it intricate enough to write novels and make series about it.

 

Base setting is very interesting and that is why people want to write novels and make TV shows in the setting. That is what got me in the game. It is great setting, until you start going into detail. Lore in books written by Gutier is some very bad amateur fiction. I have all the books and they are mostly so bad I couldn't read any of them in one sitting, usually I can read them up until my patience runs out from bad writing, then I need from 2 week to 2 month break before I can continue reading. I was so glad when CB decided to make less books. This is just my personal opinion, I am sure someone likes the story in the books.

 

"I would like to read the lore of a profile that has been marked as pivotal (Pandora) and was released two years ago. Anything besides the name that points to this happening. Do you have it? Because this could have been done in a right way, by seeding hints, or in a wrong way, by coming suddenly and drop it as already happened, we were oh so clever!

Now, please do note that Lore could have been used to alleviate this situation, but has not been, and will be dropped to justify the already done fact. So Corvus has chose to lead with shock, and should not be surprised at the repulse, if even they were not banking on it to use it as marketing fuel. Which would be a cheap low-tier influencer move, but meh."

Paraphrasing your post a bit, sorry but if you look at Pandoras lore like you say there are hints there of something odd already, she was involved in operation "Massive Filter" and everyone on her unit is considered killed in action, there apparently was a bioweapon being used which should only destroy Morat's but something wrong seems to have happened. After this Aleph basically reuses the "backup" Pandora which has been screened beforehand.

There is a mention that backup pandora went to the same place as the previous one and came back slightly changed after operation lush valley and she was the "only" survivor, and its stated in the lore that there is a real chance that the OLD Pandora killed and suplanted the new one. This old Pandora could have been contaminated by the EI and combined army or perhaps whatever experiment she did under AELPH Supervision for massive filter ended up making her switch sides... all this in the establishd lore, about 2 years ago... it was not exactly a hand wave and "suddenly pandora was evil all along" they introduced her with already hgih degree of suspicion.

Copying this from Human Sphere website "[Assessment] Pandora should be considered a valuable tool but one that can backfire on anyone she works with as soon as their goals diverge. It’s worthwhile to use her whenever necessary, but it would be wise to always keep a close eye on her and never to trust her completely. Doing so could prove catastrophic.

Excerpt from the report by Alper Cibili, almuhalil (analyst) of the Hassassin Bahram" And look its even the same hassassin guy on the report. the writing was there all along.

 

Imagine being able to take a portion of your psyche, folding it a thousand times to create a unique individual on which you can iterate endlessly to get a desired outcome, probably with whole lifetime simulations.

And still end up with a traitor.

 

Don't be. They are all disappointed from what they have seen.

 

Proof that Aleph is indeed the bad guy.

 

https://infinityuniverse.com/blog/pandora-iatromantis

It has been there, you seem to have missed it. And from my point of view it was seeded and is clever. I already liked the premise of it, when I first read it.
I am totally excited to see this unfold.

 

I would add that its cleverness derives mainly from its historical and mythological roots. “Pandora”. The name by itself is a red flag. A cursory search of her mythological background is enough to make people wonder. As for her original name before she became Pandora: “Laodice” then that is even more of a warning. There have been many women who have borne the name Laodice but the one who was the daughter of Priam should be the biggest alarm of all. Priam was the king of Troy. The enemy of Achilles.

Large claxon sirens should have been sounding at the arrival of this character. It will be interesting to see where it all goes.

To add to the infinity article, and for any who want to read more of the mythology and history (and I support any who do wish to wholeheartedly) a few Wikipedia links are below.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laodice_(daughter_of_Priam)

 

I don't know how is it in your primary language, but last I checked, in Spanish, the grammar is objective, not subjective.

As for the rest, are you claiming knowledge on how the contracts were signed, and that Corvus got specific amounts of money in exchange for allowing others to write the books? If not, please refrain to insinuate things that may break NDA agreements. Corvus may get a % of profit, get paid a flat amount, or even may have paid for those to be made (not claiming any, just listing some options here).

Heck, Lord of the Rings is intrincate enough to get new novels and series, and we got Rings of Power out of it... -.-

Fortunately, new writers seem to be trickling in (like in Daedalus' Fall and the novels, for example), but this is my point precisely. It is the same thing for the RPG, it is way better in its lore and fiction depictions not only technically, but at other levels, specially how we don't get how this new unit is the bestest ever, or the baddest guys in the galaxy, or... for the nth time.

Joke's on me for not checking the August 3rd 2022 post (the only entry the blog searcher returns... aside from false positives like Bakunin's from 13/3/2023). Now, onto the meat of the issue:
As usual it is not a seed (that would imply something like a report of the after-mission for both of the mentioned ones, some day-to-day dissonance, heck, the potential could have even been that Pandora WAS Thamirys after requesting a body change due to body dysphoria after the first mission, with the second personality slowly subsuming the original, something a non-battlefield Sepsitor could achieve), but a series of reports looking at some past, either with guesses or with factual knowledge of Pandora's not so great thrustworthiness that smells rat at kilometers (I mean, it is not subtle, and like the Hollow Men background, it is not really terrifying, or disturbing, just impersonal and very justifiable).

Now, regarding the first mission, she must have came back or Aleph would have generated a different enough new Aspect (remember, they are all part of Aleph in a way, so it stands to reason what they know can be integrated in the whole, and used to "educate" new versions) that it would have been a completely different one (else, again, we run in the "dissolve yourself if you lose contact with main Aleph comms" directive), that the left behind Pandora was able to take and subsume.
Now, while the idea of "corrupted" aspects of Aleph being able to come back by impersonating new ones (Pandora may have been able to do so by herself, but frankly it would not explain good enough how did she got Achilles and the others to join the CA with her in the mix) is compelling, narratively it breaks the situation entirely, and would mean that the CA only needs to capture Aspects, turn half, and return them as the other half before their absence is noticed (more or less), which would lead to Aleph being unable to deploy assets at all due to the risk, or even fall entirely to enemy infiltration. Sure, other countermeasures may be taken, but those are more hoops and loops than elegantly implementable, I fear.

 

Dude. It comes off like you are complaining about the fluff that you didn't read or know about. It was also in the Blackwind booklet and in Endsong. While one can speculate all one wants, it is difficult to have a conversation when one side just ignores the text that has been provided.

 

Well, you just can't know that. Move on.

 

You know fully well what I said and please stop trying to use irrelevant things than have no value to the conversation to try and obfuscate the subject.

You said he is objectively correct and I point the hypocrisy that your subjective opinion establishes something as been "Objectively correct".

Your rambling about contracts and cuts is irrelevant, people saw value in Gutiers IP to create works based on and in it and however you may wish this is not the case, that is the reality.

No matter how much you try to devalue his work, he is the word builder and the custodian, it is easy to tell a story in a world, making that world to tell stories is the most difficult part.

As far as the films you mentioned, this is why a custodian of an IP is needed.

And the fact you get into a lore discussion without even knowing the lore or researching it, is beyond me.

 

The background in Raveneye and Endsong build on this, with Helen carrying on an angry conversation with ALEPH about getting Achilles refocused on the war, and it being noted that after everyone else failed, Pandora succeeded, but no one knew exactly what she said that did the trick.

 

Given that new edition means that things will get substantially reworked we have no way of knowing how exactly it will impact the balance. We just saw how much pruning vanilla CA - and, by extension, other vanilla factions - will be subjected to. It'll be entirely new playing field, and personally I expect it to be better balanced than before.

 

Exactly. We have no idea what N5 power levels will be. In fact, I would not be surprised if units like Libertos get the Muttaw'ah treatment for N5.

 

Let's at least wait for a look at Aleph N5 before saying they cannot counter.