They are moving the story forward. They are not going to invalidate an army. That would require more time, money, and speculation than any sane company would use. If a faction is traitor (I doubt a whole faction is traitor) it would get implemented as a sectorial of that faction. They are far too invested.
But if, say, they decide that Nomads as a whole join the Combined Army, that change would basically kill my interest in this faction...
Kinda think it would be more likely for ALEPH to start getting a bit more dirty in its fight against the EI and start taking control of other forces a bit more directly... aka. the Nomads were right all along?
Come on, I really like both ALEPH and Nomads - and the fact that it's vague which of these factions is right. I wouldn't like ALEPH to be turned darker and more obviously oppressive...
I wouldn't get to worried about some possible speculated story advancements that we know nothing about. Besides, it's the Acontecimento players who should be worried.
Jokingly aside I think a lot of people are spot on with some of the guesses here. The theme of betrayal isn't new (sepsitorized Ko Dali) or old (Bit, Backd00r) enough to be forgotten. Maybe.. just maybe, we will see some kind of sectorial army that is fused with CA and [insert probable army here]. It would make sense if you think about it. Perhaps it's even going to be one of the many sectorials due for release this year. However, due to the fickle nature of marketing, I would guess that it will be a HUGE reveal (not N4, too early). Because if they say its something big, the community will think it's huge, so they have to make it enormous. So if you're thinking it's going to be something bad, it will be something nightmarish. EDIT: Thinking of possible fraction, Aleph would make sense (AI gone bad, classic), nomads too (using funky and extreme tech/drugs, being overly liberal). I guess there's arguments for plenty of armies, but I doubt it would be ariadna or panO.
I'm curious to see what they'll do with the fluff. I haven't been impressed with the recent mini-story arcs they've been doing with the campaigns, Bit & Kiss, etc. They all boil down to, "look at the intriguey intrigue, isn't it intriguing?" To which I can only answer, "no, not really," and then go do something else with my time. Like read a book with a plot, not just a giant knot of poorly-explained plot twists. Anyway, that, combined with the fluff discussions on the old forum which had an awful tendency to level all the factions into different flavors of the exact same vanilla blah has kinda put me off Infinity lately. Hoping CB turns that around, fingers crossed!
Arachne has been compromised by the EI. The Nomad ships drop out of the direct conflict with CA in order to secure their own immediate needs. Certain Nomad profiles defect to CA through either direct choice or septorisation(sp?). (shared between the two with load out differences)
I think Nomads seem like both the obvious choice and also kind of the too obvious choice. Although at the same time, what the CA offers isn't really what the Nomads want at all, quite the opposite. Give up freedom for security? Submit to an all-powerful AI? That's exactly what they fight against in the Sphere! Seems more like Yu Jing would be willing to make that deal tbh. Honestly I dunno what form it will take. Outright war!
One thing that never gets brought up is we still dont fully know what the old man in the mountains agenda is, or even what he is.
My prediction? Morat rebellion, EI aspects become available in MAF as the only lieutenant options so that the EI can exert more direct control over the murder monkeys. Therefore new Skiavoros/Anathematics sculpt.
♫♫but she only comes when she's on top.♫♫ April is the cruelest month. We know that someone at CB is a T.S. Eliot fan ( Tunguska's "Hollow Men", hmmm?) So of course it involves the ousters.
Problem is....Yu jing would be too obvious as well I think, they have already been treated as the "human bad guys" during the campaigns and whatnot, making them traitor to finally become Nr.1 at a high cost wouldn't really be a "OMG CB what have you done?!" Moment, but more of a "Buhuhu...so the bad guys became bad eh? Meh..." at least to everyone but the Yu Jing players :-P With Nomads you could spin a bit of a more interesting story I think, cause as you mentioned, it would go against a good chunk of their people's will to get oppressed by CA, so rebel factions and whatnot could occur.....heck, who knows? Maybe one of their main ship crash lands on Dawn as a result, which sets the stage for the next campaign.... So many interesting possibilities, I really look forward to it ^^
I'll just say if it's just fluff, then I am not too worried. At least not "CB, what the hell" worried. If they are pulling an Exrah maneuver again, however, that would be something... bothersome, to say the least.
I'll go for: The Ariadnians are pissed and join the EI. Think about it, since they have been rediscovered they only had to suffer under PanO and Yu Jing. Haqqislam and Nomads are some sort of allys but not influential nor powerful enough to stop their exploits. So after they have been abandoned and forgotten by the Human Sphere, have to survive on a hostile planet for over a century and then after their rediscovery mostly tried to be subjugated or their land beeing stolen by the big two, while fighting to protect Humanity on Paradiso, they get an offer by the EI that is too tempting to refuse.
Its worse, it's not a single turncoat, its an engineered basilisk hack that wipes out Neoterra and coverts everyone there into CA/EI followers. PanO begins crumbling and to make matters worse, Yu Jing step in from behind and stab PanO while it's reeling, quickly wiping out PanO on Svalheima and seizing a large chunk of Acontecimento in the name of "security" since PanO has already started falling to the EI. However, because of this, a larger EI fleet is able to break through the cordon at Paradiso and starts rampaging around the human sphere. Murder monkeys turning up on every major planet and raiding/establishing FOBs. At the same time, the Tohaa see this happening and ally with Yu Jing to help enfore "stability and peace" within the Human Sphere. Now every thing is burning and we eagerly await the new sectorials that march out into the fray to do their best to establish the status quo.
