I'm sure few wants to play the evil incompetent oppressor, though, which from other's assessment is what YJ is portrayed as.
Again, incompetence isn't what I took from the Uprising book. Failing to stay on top of things when the whole rest of the Human Sphere is engaged in propaganda against you isn't incompetence. The other factions all saw a chance to try and take Yu Jing down a peg or two, and took full advantage of that.
Losing dire foes missions, iss incompetente because they cant prevent uprising, traitor craine quote about mass grave. Prety incompetente i think
This. The fact that the JSA breakaway required both the JSA to establish a favorable enough situation on the ground, coupled with the entire Sphere mobilized against you, both in the field and in the Oberhaus, could be taken to show the strength of YJ. Also, remembering that YJ has to balance the threat from the EI, from the other powers of the Sphere, and the JSA, letting the JSA might simply be the least bad option...
It goes against the rules I set for myself a long time ago to pay more than a buck for a single page of data for leisure lecture. Reason 1: half of the book is Uprising, but framed for the glory of the JSA and painting the #2 human faction as inept and the hated kid everyone punches down (seriously, explain to me why the CA has not receive an alliance proposition from YJ...) Maybe I'm oversimplifying this, but last I checked the Human Sphere was like a sports team in a game where teamwork is needed, and the CA is the challenger. And suddenly the whole team gangs upon their second best player to feel good for a moment? Reason 2: I wanted data on the Mercenary armies. Paying as much as for a good PC game, yet getting less than an hour of reading for it? Let's get real: Interruptor is no Tolkien. Reason 3: I couldn't care less for the Dire Foes. I've had the Paradiso book and the Dire Foes missions for years, and never ever played any. I was pleasantly surprised when the ITS9 included missions with varied deployment zones, some of which come or are inspired by the Paradiso book, but that's all. Reason 4: I cannot see where the balance and greys are. Which was how the game was sold to me (the first one suggesting ways in which Aleph can be what the Nomads fear, incidentally). Now I see absolutes, and frankly, absolutes remove shades, which were what took my interest. So now ONLY PANO is intelligent, since all others cannot see that weakening YJ empowers PanO, and the CA is laughing because so many military assests were destroyed. Step 2, the CA offers the whole Human Sphere to the pissed off YJ, YJ accepts, the Human sphere falls.
I think the mere fact that the other factions feel the need to "take Yu Jing down a peg" and heavily conspire to do so, at risk of open war, is a sign of Yu Jing incompetence right there. One does not conspire for the downfall of a nation, if said nation has healthy trade agreements with you and a military pact, one does not easily spread propaganda about a nation when said nation has been a benefactor for humanity for several decades and everyone likes the nation and its people, one does not easily make a whole video documentation series of oppressed minorities in a police state country full of agents with unlimited power and reach who don't step back from contracting even mercenary organisations to hunt you down should you somehow still make it out of their territory.......that is unless you are incompetent at running your state, making deals with other nations, establishing bonds with them, and thus everyone for some reason hates you and you act like an arrogant bafoon in need of "being taken down a peg" in front of everyone who hates you....especially if you are currently busy DEFENDING HUMANITY AGAINST THE E.I......that takes quite a bit of incompetence in my book....
However, the whole setting of Infinity, from the start, is one of barely tamped down hostility. These aren't nations that are at peace with each other, these are nations in a state of ceasefire, no more, no less. That's what the "Code: Infinity" means. Constant small scale conflict, jockeying for position, etc., even with the threat of the EI. It's less a matter of a stable, peaceful international order, but rather more like the era just after Alexander's death, with the Diodachi quarreling and fighting.
So... Apparently Sun is running around like "wtf are you doing this is a stupid idea" and nobody important listens to him. So there are some people who are against the whole genocidal scheme but they fail. Because that guy we spent trillions of dollars to make to have a master strategist is not someone we should listen to. At least we now know who Xi is. He is no longer just some guy. Now he is a special cop guy. With a past and a family. And a two month prision sentence for possibly being a CA agent.
Nanotech Wars Phantom Conflict Separatist Wars Multiple Neocolonial Wars Ariadna Commercial Conflicts Violent Intermission The Human Sphere factions have been in open warfare multiple times in the 'history' of Infinity. O-12 is the only thing holding things together enough to try and hold back the Combined Army, and that's in the face of movers and shakers using the Paradiso offensives as cover for inter-faction attacks, rather than as something that everyone has to band together to survive. Without O-12, PanO and Yu Jing would probably be at war again, just from the destabilising effects of the Tohaa arrival. EDIT - that the other factions conspire to do this shows incompetence in them, not in Yu Jing. :(
So, if all of the human sphere is putting effort into weakening Yu Jing, why does Interruptor feel the need to make fiction of how Yu Jing is fueling it and making a lot of mistakes? That's the part I don't get. Supposedly the other factions are strong super-powers with very competent black ops, why is there a need to have Yu Jing make these mistakes described if this is true?
I thought Yu Jing was competent, I thought that was what made them dangerous. they were powerful, and competent.
Hopefully I can borrow a copy and read through, unfortunately this is sounding like everything we'd feared. Speaking generally, wouldn't the rest of the Sphere moving to 'take Yu Jing down a peg' be far more sensible (and make Yu Jing look way more competent) if it happened in reaction to Yu Jing managing to gain an advantage at the outset? Its one of the unfortunate issues from the faction's failures in the global campaigns, the StateEmpire hasn't done much winning. If this were happening in the wake of headlines like 'Yu Jing secures Wotan Gate, instrumental in driving back alien menace!' or 'StateEmpire Institute of Xenobiology at Narooma announces yet another biotech breakthrough, medical stocks on Bourak & NeoTerran markets continue their decline' then a movement against Yu Jing becomes necessary for all... PanO to preserve hegemony, and the others to preserve a status quo and their own positions in it. Alas, the global campaigns didn't provide that, in fact kinda did the opposite (and not unfairly, we fought and we lost). But having something that makes Yu Jing suddenly loom large so everyone has an immediate interest in it being pushed back would have been nice.
@Shiwen That would make Yu Jing look at least competent, which is clearly not the goal of the current fluff. The goal of the current fluff is to portray Yu Jing as both morally bankrupt and pathetically weak.
That's not 100% true I'd say, they weren't displayed as "weak" at least not from a military side, it was made very clear that JSA stood little chance in the long run against Yu Jing, and they were just stalling for time until O-12 would accept their independence (in that area they seemed quite confident with all the black ops work and deal making they had put into it)....so yeah....maybe incompetent...but not weak I'd say.
Because as is clear, I think, with all the re-sculpts or units into pop culture characters, the flanderization of various factions but especially YJ, and so on, he has definitely lost interest and energy for this project. And how could he be expected not to? I mean jeez, over 10 years of being the sole creative 'gateway' responsible for ALL Infinity fluff? >.< That would make anyone get tired. But until they get over their refusal to delegate any IP creation, CB is stuck with it as it is.
Not particularly. PanO and Yu Jing in particular are constantly watching each other for any opportunity to weaken the other.
