The Main Quest is Hard

This video is part of a series:
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Captain's log mod:
fractalsoftwor...
The mod is currently not "up to date" so you have to change the version from 0.96 to 0.97 in the mod info to make it work.

[@afaxmachine5045]

If you're wondering what was happening at about 1:22:00. You hacked the sensor relay and introduced false readings so you got affected by the false readings. It's a neat detail.

[@planetbob6703]

I love the [VERY REDACTED]. When the Sindrian Dictat sent several massive fleets to saturation bombard my fuel colony it only took my [VERY REDACTED] flagship, a paragon and the station to stop all of them!

[@bombidil3]

Ziggurat: "Yes waiter, more story points please."

[@planetbob6703]

The singing is very interesting, especially considering other bits of lore we can learn. Ludd, Cotton and the player all experience strange singing others can’t hear. Our crew clearly doesn’t as we are snapped out of listening to it by them several times. When we try to open the gates it’s some sort of painful shrieking instead so it’s probably connected with whatever is... on the other side? The dimension the ates use as a shortcut? There’s even a character who believes Ludd was actually working against humanity. Weakening us for invasion. Maybe the singing controlled him. It would be really cool if (at least a few) alpha cores had been trying to protect us this entire time, willing to sacrifice a handful of humans to protect the whole! There seems to be something wrong with stuff like the phase dimension and we all know alpha cores comprehend things humans simply can’t. With the abyss update we can find more things that are just... wrong... Those lights look like eyes when you interact with them and there seems to be something stalking you.

[@federationprime]

Maybe something similar to the “Unknown Aggressors” from the Expanse, a bunch of entities from a parallel dimension angry about Domain tech’s effect on their side.

[@danielzaba9913]

I agree, I always thought the alpha cores were secretly trying to protect us. I mean there are so many of them they could easily take the core worlds...but they don´t. To me it seems like the whole "humans won the AI wars" propaganda that the hegemony spits out is false. They don´t look like damaged AI remnants that are scared of hegemony boogeymen. Edit: Also I remember messing around with the console once and found a hidden tid bit of dialogue around the alpha cores asking me if I was "omega". There´s also the lore that suggests tri tachyon was messing with some of the (very redacted) tech. The "motes" the ziggurat spits out themselves are very strange with no real explanation as to where they come from. Which is interesting because there are several references to "angels" and "singing" in several weapon descriptions, most being worded in a way that would be similar to a luddist. And if you look at the secret (very redacted) core, it looks very different from other AI. But perhaps it´s just a more advanced AI that keeps it´s best ships guarding the hypershunts.

[@danielzaba9913]

There's also the conspiracy that the highest tri tachyon executives are simply AI holograms. Which would make sense, that way the AI can recover more cores and employ some diplomacy while they focus on the r"secret" threat

[@danielzaba9913]

There´s also that theory about Tri tachyon executives being AI holograms, lol which would make sense because that way the Ai can collect more cores and use diplomacy while focusing on the "secret" threat.

[@AltereggoLol1]

@@danielzaba9913 Is that a "theory"? The TT homeworld governed by the faction CEO has the "AI governor" modifier, so at the very least the AI is doing all the management.

[@rottenmeat5934]

Worth noting : we never see AI piloting ships through hyperspace, either. They either use wormholes or get shuttled by superships under Alcubiere drives.

[@warriorfire8103]

So you suspect it's for lore, not balance reasons?

[@rtasdsasfrt7671]

I think that some missions mentioning the remnant fleets states that they aren’t supposed to have fuel and that it’s odd for whichever fleet that you get the bounty for that the fleet in particular is going through hyperspace

[@Cypress1312]

There’s also a lore tidbit about comms officers being permanently traumatized by listening in hyperspace iirc

[@fargoth391]

I see them flying in hyperspace sometimes though? I play vanilla and sometimes those sensor ghosts turn out to be sub-ordo fleets.

[@legolas66106]

Also, the one event where we do see an AI fleet emerge in hyperspace they are deactivated and inert until we interact with it.

[@Self-replicating_whatnot]

There is some spooky lovecraftian nonsense lurking beneath the sci-fi surface of Starsector.

[@MotiveM-w7i]

The dev is very well read, some of the lore is an inside joke, a play on history

[@AltereggoLol1]

The writer is a hack, so there's probably nothing deep there. I'm worried it'll flop when they try to advance and resolve the plot.

[@MotiveM-w7i]

​@@AltereggoLol1 You do not read and it shows. Or you read stupid modern dog shit, read into the cult of Moloch. You realize its a real thing and people still worship and sacrifice to him today right?

[@josephdocker5231]

Duality of man right here

[@josephdocker5231]

@@AltereggoLol1 Why do you think they're a hack though? Not saying you're wrong I'm just curious

[@cptwinky42]

I think the Ziggurat was always willing to pursue. It was able to force a pursuit battle this time because the Hamatsu was slowing down the rest of the fleet.

[@bigbrainenergyguy]

That's possible, but someone else mentioned defeating the ziggurat using auto-resolve, which is definitely not supposed to happen. It may be bugged, causing it to have the same behavior as a normal fleet.

[@The_Man42]

I have a suggestion: whenever you use generate slipstream say “yeetus petus I invoke the power of the bingus”

[@bigbrainenergyguy]

Hocus-pocus, the power of focus. Hingus-clingus, the power of Bingus.

[@warriorfire8103]

I still giggle every time I see a new player get confused at pirates suddenly running new ships. Then suddenly realize when they finally think back to where they're actually selling their BPs. 😂 I like saving a bunch of BPs until later. I enjoy fighting the themed fleets. Then when I've had my fill, I dump all the BPs so that I can no longer predict fleet compositions.

[@planetbob6703]

I think the reason that refusing and cutting coms gives your reputation more of a hit is because you’re also refusing the cargo scan. If you comply and they don’t find contraband it’s different to you refusing (must have contraband) and rather risking a fight

[@lmelior]

I never put that much thought into the lore, but that's a really cool take on fitting together the pieces between the songs, the phase ships, AI, and certain important characters. It opens up interesting possibilities for expanding the story through Sentinel, the Luddic Shrines, etc. Very interesting!

[@EmperorOfLols]

"Whats the point of refuse?" To avoid getting your contraband instantly destroyed? You dont have any right now, but if you were going for the big numbers like 10000 drugs or organs, those will be evaporated in an instant. Refusing and taking a double reputation hit its nothing compared to the potential of obscene money.

[@Talos45]

That's exactly it, I think as well. When the contraband is valued in the millions, or it's one or more alpha cores, you don't want them taken. So, you refuse, and engage or evade. Pirates do the typical "I forgot to turn on my transponder, oopsies" on the player when you overpower them. Since, it is pretty possible the player plays the same card with main faction patrols, and as such you are given the "benefit of the doubt" initially, so they let you go with a warning and, if they caught contraband, destroying it. If you are caught again, you become too suspicious of having malicious intent, and are attacked.

[@brandong7784]

Now this may be a shitpost, but i am convinced the AI are trying to keep the demons in the warp where they belong and the luddic path is actually brainwashed by Chaos to kill the AI and release them, while ludd got lost in the warp on his not so great journey succumbed to the Chaos and is now some arch demon of the warp

[@aapocalypseArisen]

0k 40k fan

[@thatguy5391]

This is a shitpost keep sci-fi generes seperate.

[@brandong7784]

@@thatguy5391 no

[@EmperorOfLols]

"What is happening right now?" "Lets Play Funsies" its the term in this industry.

[@MnemonicHack]

"What is happening right now?" What is happening, is that death has chosen you.

[@robhoyland1536]

The way I headcannon the reputation hit is you don't get the hit until they get close enough to do some sort of other identifier (i.e. visual). At that point they know who you are, or at least who your ship is registered to, even though your transponder is off. Then not only are you not running with your transponder on, you are refusing to comply and turn it on after they have identified you. It'd be cool if they added some more interactions with the transponder/identification, like a 1 off, expensive, transponder spoof, a special pirate s-mod removing additional identifiers so you don't get the rep hit when caught but you *have* to run, or a malfunctioning transponder d-mod that interacts with if a faction is at war with pirates or pathers and has a chance to have a fleet be hostile and force attack on contact.

[@rogerreger9631]

This one thing I wonder about phase ships is that there design, to me at least, seems really alien. certain phase ships dont look that way, they have a more like a human design meshed with the alien look to them but others like the ziggurat and doomsday the hulls look like they were designed by possibly interdimensional entities theorised in the video. Its possible that in the future of star sectors development they might have a end game where you have to fight eldritch beings controlling phase-ships pouring through the gates. which i'm all for it.

[@crimsonharvest]

i wonder if building a ai-appropriate phase ship also produced an artificial habitat for a hypermind beast. also makes me hope that tritach's leader was already compromised by something like that, and contemporary AI's fear of hyperbeasts is engineered sneakery by such a beast. at a guess, they're defending their turf from an up-and-coming competing predator (us).

[@kasper7574]

2:45 Here's an Interesting take on the Ziggurat, or more like an interesting addition of information, there's only 1-2 other ship's that looks similar to the Ziggurat in the game. And one of them is the Guardian-Class Derelict Drone ship. A ship who's Log suggests it was built by some unknown and corrupted force, and you can kind-of get the idea by looking at how the front-end of the Guardian seems to look almost "Living" almost like a living creature fused it's body with a Derelict Drone.

[@samlambert4770]

I always thought it looked more like the hyperion? Both super high tech "tri tech" ships

[@kasper7574]

@@samlambert4770 You're right! I completely forgot about the Hyperion, I hardly ever see/use that ship due to the supply cost.

[@wyvernharries4788]

The Doom being the other one yeah? design wise High tech Phase ships tend to have an almost entirely different design philosophy when compared to other ships of the sector. A derivative perhaps? Or something more???

[@Kuba_K]

Ziggurat has been fed

[@warriorfire8103]

Your bit about the AI and the other worldly things blew my mind. The AI came across as very alien to me so I didn't really get them. As for the singing. I'm a Madman. Because I kept assuming the luddics who heard the singing were madmen. Makes me wonder if we'll see more...cuthulu/eldritch/event horizon vibes. I don't follow Alex close enough to be sure but his work so far makes me think he wants to keep that ambiguity.

[@waystowave]

It is the Shivans, destroyers of the stars, who lurk behind the gates, I swear!

[@bilskirnir_]

16:05 I enjoy giving pirates all the tech, since it adds choas to sector. Even funnier if you give them a nanoforge. Though I have not unlocked the Generate Slipsurge in current playthrough. Man that can throw you impressively far.

[@ViktorShahter]

Yeah, first you help terrorists do their job and then you sell overpriced stuff to victims. Oh, wait, we talked about Starsector...

[@GP22855]

​@@ViktorShahterwell it works in real life too so...

[@koa555kovacsandras5]

I did not know you could give Kanta the drone thingy, that's interesting. In my current playthrough, I had Rayan Arroyo as a contact, and I was given the option to betray him, and give Kanta compromising information on him. The "only" price was losing him as a contact

[@ColdHatch]

This was a while ago but I think I just said that I'd owe her a favor and she accepted. Can't remember if I had to do something after though.

[@rottenmeat5934]

best use for security codes is raiding for ship equipment. If you get 30 medium weapons out of it, you’ll make a tidy profit.

[@weeaboojones241]

if you want to do an unfathomable amount of trolling, you can use the Grendel some funny high DPS PD weapons and a smidge of reapers to solo the ziggy fairly easily

[@Killtime1013]

This video is good, just pointing out a mistake you made in interpreting how patrols work. Basically, the first rep hit is the unavoidable one when you are caught by them initially and they ask you to turn on your transponder, since you tried "being a sneaky" when transponder is used know who is friendly and who is not. The second rep hit is the avoidable one, just turn it on for them and sneak to a hiding spot and try it again. When you keep it off, they just think that you are doing something bad since they already had a chance to "make you obey the law/company policy" (since tri-tach patrols do this too)

[@babygorilla4233]

Ooh hyperspace ailens made and pilot the Ziggerot I like that turn. Maybe that ships a scout and it's song corrupted the remnants and most domain era AI. If there's a fleet of 5-10 Ziggerots and the AI fleet saw it coming and shut down the gates. In the world they built there's a lot of directions you can go from there. What happens with Tri Tak and the Panthers when they find out the hedgamoney has opened a gate or two and the people coming out arnt quite... Humans any more and there getting alien tech out of it. All of the sudden tri taks coperate profits are on the line and the church and path can learn the truth about AI protecting us from the aliens making the most unlikely and probably funny together allies.

[@demiareu8741]

Zigg is with a build-in habitats and workspace for human crew even if never used by humans before. So very unlikely WHOLE ship is come from other dimension (I don't think obvious and bland story twist like "evil humanoid invaders from another space" is going to happen).

[@babygorilla4233]

@@demiareu8741 aliens probibly not but I do think one political faction unlocking gate access/[redacted] weapons should cause a power struggle or some type of war. Starting to have gate access again is a plot point that should be really earth shaking.

[@Joao_Weiand]

Something very close to this has been my head canon for a bit

[@Joao_Weiand]

In the way it happens in the game I don't think it would be earth shattering. Basically only one fleet can get access to them at a time, and since they have to scan the gates it still locks down the sector

[@TheDeceptiveMoss]

What if the zigg pilots are human, or at least, used to be.

[@Resetium]

Did not know about that alpha core quirk. Was wondering why i kept having assassination attempts when i grabbed the ziggurat, if I'm honest.

[@rishidas9731]

Will you try out the grendel against Ziggy? I saw a video where it face tanked the motes, crushing it with reapers and chainguns

[@bigbrainenergyguy]

I've seen that video too! I'll try it when I do a low-tech playthrough, but this time I have other plans...

[@pitakyiamsombat8782]

saw this comment and have to see it. not disappointed.

[@kasper7574]

The Grendel has a built in hullmod that reduces weapon EMP damage by 50%, couple that with Hardened flux Conduits and you've got almost 100%(you still take like 1 point of damage from things like salamander missiles)

[@rishidas9731]

@@kasper7574 the Invictus has the same hullmod, distributed fire control

[@lukewright3943]

I like your content, could you do a strategy guide for taking on the mod enemy factions like hiver, and adversary?

[@bigbrainenergyguy]

I am in fact planning to do a video on the hivers.

[@lukewright3943]

@@bigbrainenergyguy Awesome!

[@warriorfire8103]

I've heard scary things about hivers.

[@calluminati2426]

From what I understand (+ my personal theory), the ziggy never had a human crew, but came from most likely the p-space, or somewhere beyond. Tri-tachyon simply discovered it and were researching it before something went wrong and the alpha site was abandoned.

[@AltereggoLol1]

"The sector would run out of people" Yeah, the problem with every dystopian setting like this. None of it makes sense because the writers don't understand economics

[@johngojcevic8731]

What’s wrong with it specifically. I always thought the billion or so people in the sector core worlds aren’t enuf to run a civilization.

[@AltereggoLol1]

@@johngojcevic8731The core worlds couldn't even support their own patrols, let alone the massive war fleets that fly everywhere. There's like a total lore/gameplay disconnect. Like the high hegemon personally christens an Eagle like it's huge and important, but you blew up 20 of them for a defector bounty yesterday.

[@johngojcevic8731]

@@AltereggoLol1 Also extends into lore. Tri-Tach destroys a Onslaught class battleship which apparently is enough to open the floodgates and allow them to attempt an invasion of Chico. Also in defence of the Eagle inauguration it could just be a random ship he decided to christen for civic/ceremonial reasons, like the President of the US giving a speech In front of a newly launched frigate.

[@sanyaskillpro]

my brother in ludd, they're literally 3d printing ships by templates and it's not like there's a shortage of metals in core worlds also the population of the sector is in hudreds of millions, they probably lose more people per year in car accidents than 20 full eagle crews

[@MotiveM-w7i]

I got a prestine nanoforge on the double dip of a research station, trades have been huge, slaughtering scum has been stream lined for bounty. Just looking for that perfect planet while getting close to opening those gates. Best playthrough yet for me with this update

[@cookies23z]

im guessing similar is for water worlds, their version of farming, and maybe it also has built in support for any modded farming equivalent idk

[@cookies23z]

selling bp on the blackmarket is fun, gives the pirates more options, lets you scavenge their ships, and gives more trouble to the other factions fighting pirates which means better trade disruptions. Downside is it hurts independents too :( kinda wish they would use bp you sell to them

[@isiffrin]

1:33:12 This gets even funnier when you realise that the portrait is listed as female.

[@onestupidboi9320]

I wonder if you can just get any venture and rename it to ISS Hamatsu to complete the quest...

[@kenchadwick4875]

This fleet gets wiped out more than my crypto positions.

[@EvlNinjadude]

I was actually thinking about the nature of the Ziggy and of hyperspace since they introduced the Grendel and I read its description. I knew AI cores are scared of the Ziggy, but didn't know that extended to hyperspace in general. Perhaps that is why they avoid hyperspace, or why hyperspace will occasionally spit out derelict Remnant fleets. My theory? AI cores are of the world, The Gates, P-Space, and Hyperspace are divine, and humans are somewhere in the middle... Whatever trespasses humanity commits upon the world, it is AI cores that are punished more than anything, with automated systems being routinely fucked with by P-space demons, up to and including moving/removing chunks of probes or the insides of the cores themselves. Some god is out there, he wants you to open the Gate Network, and he HATES AI cores...

[@Scrubwave]

Phase space is home to the Orz from Star Control 2, bet.

[@SusanoRipper]

Kinda expected You, a giga chad of Staresector to fight that ultra hard tritachyon fleet when You were sent in Project Zigurrat, in the system where You found the probe :(

[@ViktorShahter]

11:30 If you paid attention to the Colony Crises tab in Intel you should've noticed that only Patrol HQ slows down that tension rate or whatever it's called. Patrol HQ multiplies it by 0.9, Military Base by 0.7 and High Command by 0.5 which is a pretty significant amount. But the latest patch seems like Military Base already takes your industry slot.

[@michaelkreitzer1369]

I ran into this guy today on my first play through of this game. He did let me disengage. I can only think of two things I did differently. I surveyed the planet to get the paper notebook, and I mothballed the salvaged boat. I also didn't even have the option to spend a story point. If you see that, then disengaging will fail. I wonder if it's a fleet speed check? I did try to fight it. I'd just recovered an Astral and was feeling pretty invincible. I just spent the entire fight, all 8 seconds of it, in an uncontrolled spin. :(

[@TW-qw5zr]

I honestly kinda wish there was a special dialogue if you complete both missions before returning to Galatea

[@lurkersixtysixsix6126]

Similar means aquaculture in case of luddic minority

[@eternalawoo5324]

I love the videos, don't stop uploading please!

[@cookies23z]

the refuse option is only really worth it if you plan on killing their fleet right after, thats the only time ive seen it be "better"

[@randallporter1404]

6:46 OK, cool. One more thing. concerning AI. What are all these automated ships at planets with their Nexus (?) bases? When you try to communicate with them they often mention an originator or something. What's that and do these have anything to do with the phase spacers? Also, side note: There's a Galatia quest to transport scientists to a planet that has been taken Over by by an AI core. You can negotiate with the AI and give it a shuttle. I did just to see if anything would happen... As far as I could tell nothing did and what's hi8s name at Galatia didn't even mention what I had done.

[@CarlyRivers_91]

Looking forward for the implementation of a Bounty for ONE Fleebus Gloobis.

[@BjrnFriedrichsen]

7:10 sounds very biblical...

[@rottenmeat5934]

The problem with the harbinger is it wants to be fast, but it’s a phase ship.

[@lmelior]

1:38:50 I've definitely gotten burned by this before! Right after you claim it, the very next screen has a dialog in which the first option is to break it for salvage. The comm relay and sensor array have different first options, so it's always the nav buoy that gets me like that.

[@warriorfire8103]

That should really have a "are you sure? " warning since they can't be replaced

[@ntma]

big F thank you for the lore thing I somehow missed that about bestboi Cotton

[@mortache]

Damn you finally started uploading after 7 months! I used to fall asleep listening to your vids! Have you talked about the thicc low tech new ship?

[@randallporter1404]

1:07:41 Pocket change, lunch money, petty cash

[@ViktorShahter]

Well, there can be a lot of speculations on what's happening. One of my theories on all that stuff is that there's some sort of gods in p-space. Gods that don't want humans to know or somehow oppose them. And humans were doing a great job in getting closer to possibly murdering those gods. AI cores would be very helpful because they can do stuff that takes long for humans to do. We know how effective Alpha core is. Now imagine getting something more powerful, something that can uncover mystery of p-space. Something like Omega core. How you could make Omega uncover secrets of p-space? Obviously by sending it there, letting it take a glimpse, do some measurements, etc. And that's when thosw gods possibly used their power to corrupt it so it'll work against humanity and it ultimately caused the Collapse as well as trying to lock humanity from all possibilities to at least restore Gates network. Btw yes, i think Ziggy stopped being cuck in last patch. It forces a battle anytime it can. Nothing in patch notes tho, I looked specifically for that.

[@bigbrainenergyguy]

There's definitely _something_ out there. Whether or not they're "gods" may just be a matter of perspective. As for the ziggy, I think it's bugged, because someone else said they were able to defeat it using auto-resolve... which is definitely NOT intended.

[@nemergix1707]

drone repliucators are amazing

[@mister_dadstersays_hi7372]

Ecumenica. Don't worry, it's a Greek word.

[@calluminati2426]

commerce is the similar btw

[@cookies23z]

also you saying "it wasnt showing up before colony size 4" when the description literally says the hegemony cant really notice ai core use on colony size 3 worlds

[@randallporter1404]

1:17:10 Smooth. 😁

[@gabriel7037]

provost gman

[@Traff92]

Do you think what pilots the zig has something to do with the abyssal hyperspace?

[@vc6094]

Can you explain why you don't set up your 2nd world with 2 mil in the bank?

[@MOISECRIMI]

👌

[@jackorlando3293]

i am having some trouble building a late game midline fleet, any tips?

[@seniorbob2180]

Crown for a king: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mX6TfKOCrtOWeassi=5OIDqNdEA8nqLb3s

[@amxifebi]

Yes yes yes