Most likely, as today, the ties between allies based on power and trade would mean that a blind eye was turned to the behaviour. Even if some accounts got out, Yu Jing citizens would be prevented from seeing most of them and receive enough propaganda to believe it was fabricated by foreign competitors as an anti Yu Jing conspiracy. Right to free speech and public protest in Yu Jing probably isn't a focus of the society, so most citizens would get on with their happy lives without being confronted with it. Research organ donorship in modern-day China if you think it's plausible that attitudes to prisoners might be different in Asia vs Europe and the US. It seems to be acceptable that "convicted murderers" are executed to order when someone needs an organ transplant. I find this pretty scary, but rather than "Ming the Merciless evil", I'd say it's evidence of a different calculus around individual good versus social good, different priorities in morality and legal frameworks and all of it backed by a nationalistic state propaganda arm that has most citizens believing what the state says is in their best interests.
You just had a civil uprising so you have an overabundance of prisoners to turn into kuang shi.... On a more serious matter with what is happening in the world right now with uygurslavecamps, whatever is happening in Belarus right now and the shit going down in the eastern Ukraine or Syria.. My guess is, if a major power would come up with suicide squads.. Everybody would officially condemn it and then nothing more happens because nobody dares to interfere... But that's just me and my miserable worldview. I honestly haven't a lot of hope for us humans to turn the ship around and get things right as long as we worship the almighty god that is money and power and always get our ideas out of the past... But before I work myself up and this thread becomes a trainwreck. I have few problems with kuang shi or their background it is gruesome sure and especially the imperial service is over the top sinister, but in my eyes the chimera, antipodes, wulver, hollow men and helots are showing the darker side of the infinity universe as well... Pupniks and chimeras are really freakishly fucked up... In the end it's just a game with little metal soilders and it's not always necessary to ask yourself if it would be ethical in the real world to blow up people. The imperial service got nerfed a lot with the transition from n3 to N4 and nerfing the kuang shi any further wouldn't help this particular sectorial a lot.
Uprising was more to do with an uppity middle-formerly-upper-class inflaming racial tensions. If anything, Yu Jing should be expanding their Kuang Shi "recruitment" criteria to include POWs- see how eager the Kuge are to incite unrest when the human bomb beneath the mask could be their son, or if the Hexahedron want to start anything with a platoon of captured Fusiliers unaccounted for. Sometimes it pays to go right past Ming on the evil gauge if it actually gets the enemy to fear and respect you.
I doubt they afford JSA POW status. They might try Keisotsu as wilfully aiding a terrorist organisation, but if they catch the Kuge it's straight off to Guantanamo-equivalent and legal limbo. As a further side note, Kuang Shi are rare. Aside from characters, they're one of few units described in these terms in their fluff blurbs. Yu Jing doesn't have regiments of these units to pool from, they've got maybe a couple of units, across two planets and numerous outposts and minor nations.
Yeah I suppose I shouldn't be realistic about it. I know I absolutely hate that comics have become too adult and "realistic" now. Personally KS still don't make sense and I don't like them taking today's crappy China and making tomorrows crappy China in space. I'll still just keep using Devbots as KS. That would still be in the thousands. BTW has it been said what has happened to ethnic Japanese that were loyal or JSA was not able to control?
Sorry, I was using Swenglish (a military "unit" is not a size in and of itself after all). Platoon is what I meant. The feeling I get is that they've got maybe a platoon or two of Kuang Shi - so maybe 30 to 40 individuals at any given time. If Yu Jing has entire company dedicated to the production of Kuang Shi, most platoons under this company will be working on the specialised logistics involved and even then they'll probably lean heavily on other organisations for specialised housing etc. Kuramori is a march under ISS jurisdiction. I don't think they've established what will happen when control is restored, but they hint that there is a political view point that the ethnic repression isn't working.
I never really felt really strongly about Kuang Shi. While I can see it being morally bad, it seems par for the course in the Infinity universe. Most factions have penal legions, especially suicide squads. At least Kuang Shi are unaware of their situation. Morlocks have it worse in my opinion. and Hollowmen are a travesty (basically slave child soldiers).
The Helot Militia always get thrown under the bus in the first turn: "Hey fishman, here's a wetsuit. Now watch out for that linkteam..."
I know there's some dark stuff in there, but to the guys that don't read the fluff there's nothing about the on-table stuff of a hollowman that would suggest that it was piloted by an unborn foetal brain hyperexposed to VR combat all its miserable life. Its just a 2str combat rem with s2. Kuan shi look like people but have the explode rule
Hollow Men are pretty bad but from what I can tell, they don't even know what they are and live a good life in VR, thinking real-life is the game. They also seem to be those that would have have died due to sickness it didn't happen. They are not tortured, brainwashed, and exploded due to their political beliefs. Ok back to ISS. I'm starting to feel Bao might become a dead unit. They made them pretty small in the N4 change, only haris, less profiles, and very old figures. They could come out with a new troop to replace them. If so, what? The Bao are not that bad. They just need more variety.
That is a very good point. I guess you can personally fluff it as they do heroic sacrifices. On if Kuang Shi or Hollowmen are worse, it's is a matter of perspective. Child Slavery (no matter how "pleasant" it could be) to me, feels worse that mindwashing and erasing an adult. But to each their own. Bao could probably be reworked. I feel the concept is solid and needed.
There's a little bit of overlap with Bao and Zhanying that I'm not sure I like. Bao has the MSV, BV and +3 Discover. ZY have Sensor and Sixth Sense. I like that they are similar but different but it kinda irritates me too!
«What i would do with Imperial Service if i were CB» It is simple! I would discontinue them! Ok, I am not serious, but this joke with some taste or past events. I like IS. Other people here wrote enough.
It’d be a serious nerf, but fluffwise it would make a lot of sense to make Kuang Shi AVA 0 in vanilla.
Would it tho? Isn’t the fluff that literally “army” that fights in the table are all bands of deniable assets black ops groups, composed of units what ever higher ups see fit, which can be practically anything they have in-house or bought via mercs? Regarding the AVA of Kuang Shi: I didn’t agree before, but due to how N4 is structured now, I’m very much starting to warm up to @Mahtamori idea of having a CG with Kuang Shi’s as peripherals, similar to the Pit Patrol unit from Shasvastii. Additionally, they could make the Kuang Shi Pit Patrol as ‘the standard’, while making a multi-unit version that works like Puppet Masters + Puppetbots as an ISS exclusive profile/unit. Can’t comment much else on ISS, as my playtime with N4 have been drastically reduced compared to N3 and the games I do play in N4, I’m knee-deep in Dashat, Invincible Army and Shasvastii
