FTI> Feedback

[Reeves]

How should this ideally be done?

I don't think it has to be a thesis to be plausible. I think it's enough if they just lean into a descriptive origin, perhaps rooted in a few flagrant human rights abuses to ground itself in the setting. Maybe the adaptive personalities these machines require come from some not so willing test subjects extracted from hopeless legal confinement.

This is just an idea off the top of my head, but it gives them the accolade of genuine innovation with the associated pitfalls of ambition and potential darwinism. You could go further with this concept and have some of the machines harbor latent sociopathic tendencies which gives rise to a whole host of self generated development for the faction, through news articles etc.

It's more about keeping in the spirit of the setting than the letter for me. And I think this is one way they could do it. Obviously it's entirely up to @Shelco what tone he's aiming for, but a synthetic analogue to cryer that's no less prone to depravity is a cool niche to occupy and nobody else is in it.

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[Petitioner]

How should this ideally be done?

snip

Fair enough. Agreed, no notes; it is good to encourage others to go above and beyond in their roleplay as it is in all things.

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[TheSauron]

Robots are a very common thing in Freelancer, up to the point where there are fully automated science outposts. Van Pelt was "all alone" on Benford, and Research Station Baxter was described as fully automated.

You do not need sophisticated AI to automate a station dedicated to monitoring something. Unless you want to tell me that every CCTV system is actually Skynet.

Augmentation of the human body to cyborg level have also been a thing since vanilla. Freelancer never focused on that aspect, but it has always been part of the game, whether people like it or not.

Nobody said otherwise. But you cannot honestly look at the kind of augments people in Sirius have then put Connor next to them and expect my suspension of disbelief to survive.

Discovery certainly put a lot of emphasis on that aspect with the integration of Auxo as part of the canon lore..

lol

Player roleplay certainly has been making robots, cyborgs and androids, even AI-controlled non-gammu ships a thing for decades.

This is genuinely irrelevant. If anything, this shows that Discovery's staff have been far too forgiving towards people flagrantly violating the setting's lore. Of course, that is not necessarily a problem, especially if all Discovery wants to be is a roleplay-lite game. If it doesn't want the lite qualifier, though, well. I think the ship has sailed a long time ago.

Suffice to say, FTI fits perfectly into Discovery, nor would it be far-fetched for vanilla if vanilla cared to elaborate more on robotics specifically.

It already does elaborate on robotics in Sirius. All the emphasis on manual labour is a focus on the state of robotics and automation. The writing doesn't need to be a literal research paper titled "On the Development and Advances of Sirian Robotics" to explain it.

Given the ginormous scope of Sci-Fi tropes vanilla covered and the huge scope of things vanilla didn't manage to cover in detail - little reminder that vanilla was very sparse with details on non-sentient life forms on sirian planets, to the point where things like Holstein Sea Serpents, Squeloms, Curacao's oceans not being allowing Earth-origin sea life to adapt, Gaian wildlife like the Blue Ground Sloth and White Saber Tiger, Honshu's almost extinct fish population and Junyo's mass produce clam farms stand out.

It's a space game. Focusing more on space things is to be expected.

Similarly do things like robots in cutscenes, on docking rings and mentions in the campaign.

Actually, I'm getting the impression that you think my argument is against robotics in general, and I'm not sure where that comes from. I take issue with inflating their sophistication well beyond what has ever been stated in the game proper. As was mentioned already, robots in Freelancer are only ever portrayed doing extremely simple tasks or acting as a glorified McDonalds touch screen. Going from that to autonomously manning starship is a gigantic leap that borderline breaks the setting. Why would any of the exploitation and misery be happening if a corpo can just stuff a machine brain into a Stork to get it moving?

Long story short: FTI fits realistically, considering androids are already a thing iRL, even though not the typical Detroit Become Human android in your common household. That's really a no-brainer, and I'm glad this aspect is explored again after the rapture of Sirius Robotics.

It fits in a realistic setting. Freelancer is explicitly and deliberately not realistic in its technological advancements.

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One MD Admiral

[Erremnart]

The canon lore about AIs in Sirius is, unfortunately, extremely lacking at this moment. The only safe bet now is that the only truly sentient/general/self-aware AIs are Gammu AI from the planet Gammu. How advanced can human-made AIs be is unknown at this moment from the lore standpoint, and it is something that will be explored properly later, hopefully with relevant social, political and economic angles to make it fit within the setting.

I already told my opinion to @Shelco and I would suggest to keep these human-like androids nonsentient servants and companions, and if the game about AIs progresses far enough, then they could be upgraded and uprated through deals with relevant parties. If anything, this could pave the way for some future goals.

[Sombs]

You guys understand that androids are literally just robots in human shape, right? I'm a bit baffled that people are completely fine with cloaking devices, jump gates, anti-grav tech, nanomachines, cryostasis, the glassing of an ecumenopolis, but lose your mind at the thought of robots with human appearance.

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[TheSauron]

but lose your mind at the thought of robots with human appearance.

Ultimately, if Sirian robots were as capable as the ones listed here, we would not have transport crews, EVA mining or manned turrets. There is a wealth of text out there explicitly describing Sirius as being incredibly backwards in regards to automation, and even just the concept of autonomous mining drones makes the entire house of cards fall apart. I don't think one or two throwaway Disco infocards trump the foundation of the setting itself.

I take issue with inflating their sophistication well beyond what has ever been stated in the game proper. As was mentioned already, robots in Freelancer are only ever portrayed doing extremely simple tasks or acting as a glorified McDonalds touch screen. Going from that to autonomously manning starship is a gigantic leap that borderline breaks the setting. Why would any of the exploitation and misery be happening if a corpo can just stuff a machine brain into a Stork to get it moving?

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One MD Admiral