Election Bill
First Choice: Hawk
Second Choice: Albatross
My Goodness! I can imagine the Uproar after the Hawks finally got a majority only for the Doves and the Albatross Alliance to ally and snatch it away from them. Question: Since the election was delayed irl, did any inter-government time pass in game as well? I just mean in the story, of course.
Well, they went along with it so they have no right to complain. The Albatross-Dove coalition were even closer to forming a goverment before the election, so oh well.
Nah, just a month of so passed for the re-election story-wise.
Election bill:
As a first time voter in these here elections, I choose below.
First choice: Dove Lobby
Second Choice: Albatross Alliance
Thank you for this opportunity, good Bird Person.
Welcome to the AAR! (Even though it's near the end, better late than never).
Party Choice
First choice: Albatross
Second Choice: Dove
The Albatross Alliance has been leading us towards the true future of the Aviarium
And what is the nature of this "true future?".
Actually you may get a say in this, read on!
Honestly really curious when, or even if the end-game crises will happen. That might be the only real threat to the Bird People anymore.
I'm not even sure an end-game crisis will even scratch the surface of the Aviarium Continuum anymore.
Election Bill:
First choice: Dove
Second Choice: Albatross
Also some statistics
View attachment 193425 View attachment 193426
Hrm. You can really see the population explosion of the Othari as continental and tropical worlds were unlocked and the Othari spread across the Aviarium with a near monopoly on those planets. Also, the support for the Hawk Lobby seems to have been relatively constant while the Sparrow-->Albatross Alliance and Dove Lobby parties seems to be in relative flux. This relative stability of the Hawks can also be seen in the electoral history on the front page.
Nice data!
Election Bill
First Choice: Hawk
Second Choice: Albatross
We must also remember, that not only for purity issues, we must think that time spent on genetic engineering will set us quite back in our technological prowess. Lets keep our purity and focus our Science teams on actual Technologies!
To be fair, at this point I'm sort of spamming repeatable techs. Major state-sponsered genetic engineering should really result in far more friction in the empire
.
Election bill
First choice:
Falcon
Second choice:
Albatross
I've loved the semi-interactive nature of this - it's still your game, Yenzen, but the forum still gets to derail it a bit if we're paying close enough attention.
I quickly stopped making long term plans and started making 3-4 sets of 15-25 year plans at the end of each session, depending on who would win. For the sake of my own sanity, I never made a party support something that would completely ruin my game... though spending 50 years enlightening a useless species may have my feathers a tad rustled.
Election bill
First choice: Albatross
Second Choice: Dove
Time to give those squishy jerks a spanking.
Hopefully, I'll get a chance in any case, read and see!
Election Bill:
First choice: Dove Lobby
Second choice: Albatross Alliance
Falcons: do you really think that enslaving the synths will make them less likely to rebel?
Let's be honest in the late stages of the AAR, nobody thinks treating the AI badly will make them less likely to rebel, they
want them to rebel and cause trouble for me.
Election Bill:
First choice: Dove Lobby
Second choice: Albatross Alliance
------------------------------------------------------------------
Read it all today, and am vastly entertained.
Welcome the AAR then! There isn't much left but I hope the final chapters will keep you entertained!
First Choice : Hawk
Second Choice : Dove
Too little Falcon around, it's sad
I'm not sure the three other parties would agree. Wusses.
Election Bill (wow these birds really love their bills)
First Choice: Dove Lobby
Second Choice: Albatross Alliance
Let it be known that I am in full support of strengthening the bonds of this great Continuum through mechanically-assisted, genetically-supercharged interspecies orgi--ehh, I mean, the widespread genetic engineering of communal society and the continued emancipation and liberty of synthetic citizens.
As for the Ymacera, I say young man, let's go to the Y-Ma-Cer-A.
Continuum: We want you! We want you! We want you as a new recruit!
Ymacera: But I hate xenos! I get queasy just seeing them on T.V.!
When I think about what engineering trillions of sentient beings into being more happy and social actually means I get a bit creeped out. Then I think about +5-15 happiness across every species and stop caring so much.
I think if I left only one party supporting genetic engineering, they'd win way too easily. The game just does nothing to discourage doing it.
Oh no, just missed the vote deadline... if it's still possible to count it, first for Dove and second for Hawk, otherwise nevermind.
Allowing it to count goes against the proper order of... oh stuff it, I read your comment before counting the votes so you were in, though the result was pretty safe regardless.
2375 General Elections
Results are in!
- With 55,5% of the vote (10/18) combined with the majority bonus the
Dove Lobby gained an astonishing 630 mandates. Almost a large enough supermajority to change the constitution at will!
- With 22% of the vote (4/18) the
Hawk Lobby is at their smallest with 212 mandates.
- With 16,5% of the vote (3/18) the
Albatross Alliance only gained 158 mandates.
- With less than 10% of the vote (1/18), the
Falcon Front was below the minimum threshold and gained no mandates this election.
The Dove Lobby quickly formed a unitary Dove government.
2375-2400: Chapter 9 - Everwars
In the aftermath of the election, the policies were adjusted and the promised modifications began, one species at a time.
That's a lot of Bird People...
The Ymecara were, as always, ready with their usual supportive attitude
Yeah well, you're a particularly ugly starfish... snake... alien man... or woman.
But the Aviarium had other fish to fry. Spurred on by rumors of abuse of abuse of sentient AI and general unrest among the population made it quite easy to gain public support even for the Aviarium's old Obevni allies.
WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE MATERIALISTIC PACIFIST DRULL'PERFEN?!
Though the initial attack with Grand Flocks moving in to engage the Othari and Fex'Klanga, they made easy headway and met no significant resistance. Meanwhile, in the North, the Valdari had stayed true to their alliance and had moved to counterattack one of the two Grand Flocks assigned to neutralize them.
The ensuing battle in the north against the Valdari was one of the most equally matched in Bird Person history.
Though the Aviarium fleet was undermanned compared to the three enemy fleets, it had barely won through thanks to its superior weaponry, leadership and point defenses.
In the south, the combined fleets of the Obevni and Fexx'Klange finally made an appearance, trying to spring a surprise attack on a split planetary siege fleet. It was a very short appearance.
If nothing else, the battle screens confirm that in prolonged engagements, the two kinetic classes - Wildfire and Inferno ships - actually get some work done. Destroyers also die a lot.
The battles had left the Republican force defenseless and in 2379, they yielded.
The new Obevni Republican Clans soon joined the Aviarium as a Client Republic by their own free will and received dominion over the former Obevni space. While a more republican system would be preferred, the OBC instead decided that the top military commander of each planet should rule their space as a council of equals together with the main admirals. Provided the Obevnis respected free movement to and from the Aviarium they could be accepted.
After having been given full citizen rights, there really was no reason to ban AI from leadership positions either.
One Birnatian-Type Synth designated "Bob-Schmidt Johnson Jackson" has been given multiple interviews stating that 01_This_Unit_Happiness_Exclaim. The joke got stale quite fast.
It took only about a year for the preparations for the next war of Galaxy unification to be planned. The truce with the Photecians to the north had expired and there was no reason to give them too much time to rest.
So many uncolonized planets.
The Aviarium fleets quickly advanced to their capital planet and fought the two brave fleets that turned up separately to save their proud homeworld.
I said brave, not effective. Also, good work Gurite Gene General Igvi!
The rest was a mop-up operation and soon the Aviarium gained plenty of new Photecian subjects - as well as much new virgin territory.
Xenophobic spiritualists. Too narrowminded to integrate xenos for colonization and too technophobic to have droids and synths do it. Bah. My win, I guess.
The Client Republic Unified Photecian Domains would - eventually - gain a few of the photecian-only planets once the others had been colonized extensively.
There was no time to rest, however. The Tebadorans further to the east had their truce expire as well, and the Tebadorans within Aviarium space had gained their own Tebadoran Autonomous Republic. Time to expand it.
They had no significant fleets and surrendered after just two years of planetary bombardment and planetary invasion.
They even sent their allies to negotiate for them 'cause they were embarrassed at their own efforts.
The war had gained the Aviarium other species than Tabadorans, such as a planet full of a new species that seemed okay with joining the Aviarium - provided they were still allowed to shuffle around in huge flocks as was their custom.
The truce with the Bhenn'Thell had also expired and they had recently lost another war against the Kraxroz Empire in the west. Time to hit them while they were down.
As far as most Bird People are concerned, attacking almost anyone at this point is kicking them while they're down. That includes fallen empires.
The Aviarium moved in, conquered and moved out. Lost a few transports due to inattention. Standard practice.
More interestingly, a couple of new uplifted species had been left unused in newly conquered territories.
The Aviarium will conquer all and uplift all. I like that the game stopped replacing the species portraits after uplifting.
As you may notice, this put the Aviarium in the range of the Ymecera...
Yeh. You knew this was coming, the Aviarium knew this was coming and the audience knew this was coming.
There is no real need to show fleet battles any longer. But The Aviarium provides anyway. Because seriously, eff the Ymecera.
Worry not, that other admirals is of the "Fanatical Purifier who look like Bird People and couldn't survive beyond a century" Species, not Bird People.
The outcome came shortly after.
Pay attention to fleet limit. The Aviarium is at non-stop war and yet constantly moves toward 1000.
In Ymecera space, it became apparent that they too were too arrogant to check out pre-sentient species for uplifting.
Putting special attention to this one because 1: It's a super cool butterfly-ear mulloscoid gem-eyed cyclops!, 2: I had no idea they had a built-in naked version of their portrait! Nice!
While admiring the new alien additions, the Aviarium had a short war with the Republican force to expand further primarily against the Valderi and expand their Client Republic. No biggie.
While busy with that, the Fex'Klanga lost some war of minor important by having joined the Valdari against their western enemies in another irrelevant war. They had to release a minor democratic state which, despite its peace-loving nature, agreed to freely join the AViarium as a Client Republic (in this case as an actual republic)
It may have joined *because* of its pacifist nature. There really is no better way to protect their population from the horrors of war than to become part of the Aviarium Continuum willingly.
In case you're wondering, the current Lady Protector is another Sanctum species that hates the Aviarium. Everyone is so used to the trolling in L Protector elections that they're surprised that the voters bother anymore.
End of Chapter 9.
Appendix 1: Another Choice
There's now a democratic choice to be made. However, you're not picking a party as such. You're picking an
ending.
It'll have its own separate update. If an end-game crisis shows up at the last minute it'll be a split chapter until it's wiped out.
- Option 1: Republic Everlasting - Following the Dove landslide election, and the constant failure to gain a dominant position as the leading party in the coalitions it did participate in, the Hawk Lobby eventually fused with the Dove Lobby to form the Eagle Lobby, and would be in constant flux with the Albatross Alliance for dominance in the Murmuration, while minor parties came and went as supporting or opposing minority backers. The Aviarium Continuum kept expanding while also spreading their military mixed with republican traditions, even as the number of worthwhile enemies dropped to zero - the service became more about civil service and quelling the almost non-existent rebellions in the end. Representative Martial Democracy eventually resulted in the formation of a unified Galaxy Republic.
- Option 2: Democracy Transcendent - the ever expanding nature of the Aviarium Continuum meant that few citizens could identify with the republican nature of their democracy, sending a single representative from their planet to an assembly on an Arid planet dozens of hyperjumps away. Backed by an Albatross Alliance majority at one point, the citizens instead opted to reform to a more direct form of democracy backed by cybernetic implants. Each internal division became an electoral hub of sorts, able to quickly form opinions on internal matters for the betterment of all decided by the majority, and the members of the Murmuration eventually became speakers for the consensus reached on their home systems, rather than individual representatives. The central government mainly concerned itself with intergalactic affairs such as trade, declarations of war and combating the horrors of the universe. Direct Democracy became the norm as the Aviarium conquered the galaxy - the spirit of open democracy became more important and militarism became more of a cultural trait than a basis of government.
- Option 3: Years of Service, Years of Splendor - Despite their disappointing early elections, even eviction from the Murmuration, The Falcon Front stuck their guns. Arguing the dangers of AI, the need for a strong central government in the expansive empire and the incompetence of the Lord and Lady Protectors, the Falcon Front slowly won through a majority. Their reforms slowly limited political power to the military elite, ensuring stability while maintaining a great amount of personal freedom outside politics... and the ability to enslave each and every Synth in the Aviarium.
Either way, the Aviarium Continuum would keep expanding their influence throughout the galaxy...
Appendix 2: More self-absorbed musings (so I won't fill the ending chapter with it)
- The sheer size of the galaxy, my fleet, the size of my sectors and duration of the game conspire to give me horrible in-game performance that is nearing unbearable.
- There's no challenge left. Every war is me splitting my fleet into fractions and just plowing through enemy space and taking a few planets until they surrender. I'm fairly certain that if an end-game threat does drop on my doorstep, I would be able to wipe it immediately and with minimal losses.
- Lessons learned: Fun early game but primacy over a huge stretch of territory in mid game (Coreward and Eastcore systems) resulted in too uncontested a snowball effect post-2300. Asimov, armed with the influence cost of colonization as well as starting with stronger AI empires would have resulted in more competition in the later game. Another culprit is the forced clustered starts, where breaking through Othari territory early meant that there were nobody to contest me in that galaxy arm.
- Next game/AAR: 600 stars (no reason to have 1000, I'm as large as a player faction will ever get while having a challenge and I haven't touched planets on the other side of the galaxy yet) only advanced AI starts and possible aggressive AI? I don't like higher difficulty giving the player other *rules* but I think starting as an absolute underdog could be fun.
- Next game: Ask permission for another minimally interactive game from mods, then have a break for a couple of weeks and go from Asimov... or wait for Heinlein? Hrm.
- Now that regular elections are gone, I feel that I can post more thoughts on previous elections. Some things that really surprised me about the AAR and in elections in general:
--- I thought I'd have 5-10 people voting each chapter, now about 60 unique readers have participated and 20+ in most elections! It's impossible for me to estimate how many read the AAR a bit and how many real all of it, but I now consider this comparable to my old Naples game in terms of best overall work.
--- I did not expect the Hawk Lobby to win so few elections and was worried the Dove Lobby would face difficulty in gaining interest.
--- I did not expect the Sparrow Lobby to burn out so quickly
--- I did not expect so many players to latch on to the idea of The Aviarium Continuum as Democratic Crusaders
--- I really thought the Aviarium would blast through the Bhenn'Thell sooner and would center itself in the southwest, becoming a medium power for longer. The enormity and expansion of the Coreward sector was almost too much when I got there
.
--- People were really good at being unpredictable with votes, not forming too ironclad coalitions. Well, for the Albatross voters I think they became a bit too loving towards the Dove lobby, while the Dove was torn between Hawk and Albatross. I really did not expect the Dove lobby to be the party that would often decide the coalitions, but I think it presenting itself as more of a traditional party meant that both Dove-Hawk and Dove-Albatross was a very realistic choice for many of its supporters.
- The election system was not perfect, but I'm happy I did not do simple First Past the Post elections. I would estimate that I only received the winning party I expected about half the time, and I think I did a decent job of trying to make a viable set of policies for each party, with the exception of the Falcon Front, not because I disliked making them, but because I always considered their options fourth and found it hard to make a fourth set of worthwhile ideas for every update
.
I'm also willing to answer any question regarding my personal opinion of parties and policies, should you guys actually care.
Appendix 3 - The last election bill
The future of the Aviarium is...
- Option 1: Republic Everlasting
- Option 2: Democracy Transcendent
- Option 3: Years of Service, Years of Splendor
(see appendix 1 for details, mark your choice by writing only the title of the ending you'd prefer. Election active until Friday 15th at 16 CEST)
