Fleshing out the StarCraft Universe [Re-renditioning]

[Visions of Khas]

Me gusta.

I like this. It's been a while since I've looked at worldbuilding. I'm kinda working on my own project revolving around the UED -- technology, history, culture, etc. Whether or not I actually get it off the ground is a whole other issue.



Guided Missiles v Infantry

Why isn't the future simply fought with guided warheads at range and massive fleet ships?

We're running into that problem today. We're leaning more and more on automated systems, drones and guided missiles. I have no doubt we have the technology to devise extremely advanced targeting software and equipment, but the reality is that most of the mass-produced missiles have targeting systems that just aren't that impressive. A shocking number of them cause a great deal of collateral damage, even if they're only off their target by a small margin.

Also, there's the whole issue of soldier expendability. Politicians will propound the ability to defeat an enemy with almost 0% chance of loss of life for our side due to guided missile technology. But that leads to a slippery slope: When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. (And when you have a hammer on a ten foot pole, well shit.)

This means a society will become more and more inclined to wage war when it suffers next to no defeat on any personal level. There will be a response on both sides of a conflict when this becomes a big enough issue.

I'd argue that we NEED soldier deaths to keep the horrors of war alive in our minds. Perhaps the problem in the StarCraft universe isn't a technological one so much as an ethical one.

But then we're faced with this problem: Battlefield commander don't give a shit about the lives they send to their deaths; their using criminals and the dregs of society to do their dirty work -- essentially they're still using guided missiles, but a far more intelligent variety of missile.



The Politics of the Matter
At the end of every conflict you'll need feet on the ground. From the perspective of the StarCraft universe, using mechanized infantry solves several problems, political, technological and otherwise.

First of all, you don't have to deal with huge volumes of collateral damage; you can take out a target with pinpoint accuracy.

Secondly, you have the matter of military might. Marines are essentially walking tanks small enough to fit into buildings and job up and down stairs. That sort of firepower and mobility cannot be beat. (And I refuse to believe they would be skewered so easily in combat as they're depicted in the books and comics.)

Third, we're dealing with politics. Today, we have two very pervasive industrial complexes that are a huge part of the everyday American life: The military and the prison system. These are fueled by money, power, greed and ethics. Americans love the military; Americans also love revenge and "justice", hence we've got a pretty big prison system that is its own lobbying force. We've got laws governing every facet of human behaviour, meaning you're probably committing at least a small crime several times a day. Moreover, we've got Rockefeller Laws, which provide a minimum sentence for any offense, usually applied to drugs. The prison system and government feed each other. The politics behind these things is too big for me to get into in detail here, but what we have in the Koprulu Sector is a complete and utter fusion between these two systems. Now we're fusing politics, morality and ethics, lobbying power, money, technology -- everything into this new penal-military industrial complex.

The implications of this kinda thing are huge! And have a lot of bearing on the use of marines! We're not just dealing with government, but potentially an entire culture devoted to this.



Psychological & Social Implications
And this is something that really interests me.

We're talking about living in a society where people are encouraged to mistrust and mistreat each other. They don't care about lives being thrown away. Anything and everything you do is potentially illegal, so you or your friend you be picked up by the gestapo at any moment. Such pervasive threats are deadened by excess; a human put into a perpetual state of fear eventually loses the ability to feel afraid, leading to apathy and encouraging even more illegal activity. This feeds apathy towards personal wellbeing and the safety of others, fueling a corrupt government's power. If you have order in a city, it's only skin deep, a gilded society. Lack of education is probably going to be high... god, the implications are numerous and terrifying.

When Gabriel Tosh said, "There'll just be a new Mengsk; and another after that," he wasn't being a pessimist, but a realist. This society feeds on dictators and vice versa. Only when you've got barbarism of the scale committed by Mengsk -- literally feeding an entire world to an alien menace -- will people finally look up and take notice.



Technological Limitation
In this atmosphere, technological and scientific advancement are likely going to be very limited.

Targeting software simply isn't advanced enough to allow naval guns to strike at great ranges.

I agree. Notice that the UED brought in very advanced targeting software in the form of Goliath upgrades and Valkyries' mass fire-and-forget technology.

[Turalyon]

[/B]At the end of every conflict you'll need feet on the ground. From the perspective of the StarCraft universe, using mechanized infantry solves several problems, political, technological and otherwise.

You seemed to have missed the fact that simply having "feet on the ground" is perhaps the most important aspect behind the conflict. What use is destroying assets of the "enemy" if that does not eventually mean taking and holding their "ground"?

Technological Limitation
In this atmosphere, technological and scientific advancement are likely going to be very limited.

We have to be careful here about what you mean as "technological and scientific advancement". Sure, there may not be much advancement at the time at a domestic (ie: territories outside of the warzones who are living relatively "peacefully") level but wars are often the best times for great technological advancement on the battlefields and for the future. The World Wars are testament to that. Look at Germany after WW1 and how they were able to then instigate the second World War...

Indeed, much of today's modern technology and innovations were actually a result of wartime practices that have been integrated into a modern day society to improve efficiency.

[drakolobo]

StarCraft seems to be all about personal vendettas, ever since Brood War. So why are personal vendettas allowed to shape the universe?

Here's my consideration:
So, effectively the greatest amount of law would have been provided in the UED, but the human gut reaction to change is so powerful that virtually every force opposes the UED until it's too late.

Ironically, overthrowing the confederacy, despite how chaotic the confederacy seemed, overthrew the last semblance of order within its borders.

Mengsk's government institutes simpler laws, however a civilian of the dominion is now more of a tribesman than a citizen under law. Appointed officials may have to obey codes of honor. In either case, the dominion I envision is highly elitist - no actual laws exists for the lowly citizenry. In fact, citizens most likely obey corporate or local laws that derive from confederate constitution or state-wide laws and acts that may still remain in place. On the other hand, the only things the dominion says are simple 'morals' that could almost become like religion, such as 'watch your neighbors'.

In fact, in some colonies, there's probably 'under new management: terran dominion' signs, and the colonists simply shrug. Who cares! Some pirates declared ownership of this place weeks ago, before that, it was some rebels, before that, it was my neighbor (he was feeling megalomaniacal that day), and before that the confederacy. We all know that the man who ensures your pay check is the real law and order. At least for your colonist butt.

Mengsk's government would be very clumsy if its presence wasn't merely symbolic. It's a bit communist in a way. The elitists (ie. military officers, bureau managers, etc.), are above the law but are required to obey the newly instated dominion laws to the letter. It's their duty to control the citizens and those that fall under their management. They have many privileges as elitists, but are also slaves in a way. In fact, their laws are probably called the 'code of honor', as if following these laws is a privilege and a grant.

In other words (again), an officer can be resocialized or be required to murder civilians because the document labeled 'your code of honor' requires that he must, given the nature of his mission, whether its a prevailing continuous assignment or something else.

So, again, everything would be run very military-like. Principles of public schools may often be seen wearing fancy military uniforms that look like something circa 19th century (ribbons and everything). That sorta thing.
----

The above is in stark contrast to the UED, which may actually be no worse than Halo's UNSC. A domineering, if superbly efficient government war machine that nonetheless preserves as a form of democracy - this doesn't necessarily earn it points for team good, however. People may still be educated to consider careers in the military as that opportunity to get out of your boring neighborhood on earth. Of course, to the dominion, the UED is basically a rabid beast, no worse than the zerg, and made even more painful by the fact that they're all human.

Sorta like Neil Stephenson's 'Snow Crash', where opportunity seekers have to venture into lawless wasteland in order to fulfill their mad desire for stimulation beyond the 'burb claves'. The same applies to why citizens of the UED are pressured to 'serve'.

i like it shows the state of apathy of the average citizen

[RODTHEGOD]

Pffft. That's not exactly how communication psychology works. Chances are they spread out quickly. Especially if the planet they were on was already terraformed, you'd have the adventurous types that are more than willing to go hunting (especially if they brought weapons), the withdrawn types that probably get abused by the women. Etc. :P

It's like, "Honey did you collect the food you promised today?"

"No, I was too busy chatting with a scientist/preacher/town-hall administrator, who's been looking over all this crap that ATLAS told him for some reason." Or, "No, I decided to bang your cousin. Because marriage no longer needs to exist since it's the end of the world as we know it? Y'know?" or "I wanted to go hunting that seventeen foot long purple geese, because some guy says he'll let me join his gang if I do. Oh, and I also banged your cousin. Because she's hot? What? Why else? I said, why else? What?"

Well I see no evidence of the internet, atleast in the form we are familier with, in any starcraft lore. I'm simply trying to explain why not.

My reasoning is that the internet wasn't nearly as necissary due to the conditions Tarsonis, Umoja and Moria, all encountered. These conditions include the technology level they had and their political situations.

You don't really need the interenet to tell the automated defence turrets what to do if they all have their own autonomous ai that knows how to recognize friend from foe. The internet was developed to speed up communication on a planet that had multiple factions that could strike hard and fast. On planets with only 1 government and maybe a few rebel and pirate factions, I don't see how speed of communication was absolutely needed.

I also don't see how the internet could be very similar to ours on an interplanetary level. The only fair comparison I can come up with is internets of different major political groups on earth right now. There's a major interenet the sort of unites most western/english speaking countries, then you have internets in china and russia and so on. They are all internets but they are distinctly divided. I think that's how the internet would function on an interplanetary level.

That's just my interpretation though.

Or you could just make the player feel guilty by playing zerg and slaughtering faceless super-aliens for no reason. It'd be like a game of spore or something.

Lol, I suppose. I'm hoping it wouldn't make you feel any guilty then sloughtering a bunch of terrans in "Among the Ruins."

Either way, my reason for the internet existing is just as valid as your reason for it not existing. Except that your reason just says 'retro in some areas for no reason, because it's unique or something'. Anyway, that's the feeling I'm getting.

I haven't seen the internet, in any form that we know, existing in the K-Sector.

I actually considered them more of the 'new world order' that every conspiracy theorist has feared for about 30 years going on. :P

Not exactly communism, so much as it's own potentially unique totalitarian thing. Corporate or state cyberpunk is the best way to play it safe (enslavement through technology; mostly information based, but probably drugs and psychology too).

Well. Tomato, Tamato. I see Soviet Union 2.0 as being The New World Order. I used Soviet Union 2.0 because lefties think The New World order is about money. I don't think it's about money at all. I think it's about control through mass psychological and physical intimidation while making people think they live in a "workers paradise."

When you say communism, people think of russians. Even though it's racist. They think of the red army and the commisariat. And then they probably think of warhammer 40k. And yeah, it's good to stay away from warhammer 40k in respect to starcraft in everything but art. :P

Hmm?
I don't think that's true. I don't think about russians when I hear communism. I think about how communism is supposed to be a "workers paradise," where every country that tried it needed walls and gaurds with machine guns to keep people from leaving. Doesn't sound like a "workers paradise" to me.
Personally I don't like the word racist. I think "anti-racist" is a codeword for anti-white.

[Hawki]

I haven't seen the internet, in any form that we know, existing in the K-Sector.

The hypernet (internet equivalent) was established to exist in vol. 3 of Ghost Academy, but was hinted at as early as Nova.

[RODTHEGOD]

The hypernet (internet equivalent) was established to exist in vol. 3 of Ghost Academy, but was hinted at as early as Nova.

Ya? How was it described?

[Hawki]

Barely. It's only mentioned/implied in both.

[solidsamurai]

We're running into that problem today. We're leaning more and more on automated systems, drones and guided missiles. I have no doubt we have the technology to devise extremely advanced targeting software and equipment, but the reality is that most of the mass-produced missiles have targeting systems that just aren't that impressive. A shocking number of them cause a great deal of collateral damage, even if they're only off their target by a small margin.

I also had the idea that economies rise and fall several dozen times (or hundreds) over in the next 500 years. So, there's at least some technological stagnation somewhere. With the change in world government, there's probably some lost ideas out there, and that includes loss technology, forgotten ways to the use the internet and military tech gets buried.

I'd argue that we NEED soldier deaths to keep the horrors of war alive in our minds. Perhaps the problem in the StarCraft universe isn't a technological one so much as an ethical one.

Kinda the starship troopers philosophy.

I don't know why, but this idea came to mind:

- What if a world government wants to prevent overpopulation but continues to purport the idea of settling down and getting married. Does marriage leave people susceptible to certain levels of self preservation (thus desiring greater protection from superiors?)

(And I refuse to believe they would be skewered so easily in combat as they're depicted in the books and comics.)

I think that just reflects the greatness of their enemy.

Marines are really the bread and butter of terran might. Vehicular support is still required, but a marine by himself can do a lot of damage.

The implications of this kinda thing are huge! And have a lot of bearing on the use of marines! We're not just dealing with government, but potentially an entire culture devoted to this.

And it makes sense too (in a corrupt government sorta way). Congrats, you win a cookie. :P

Anything and everything you do is potentially illegal, so you or your friend you be picked up by the gestapo at any moment.

Actually, I think it's more like 'you might have a bounty on your head an hour from now'. So, either way, there's plenty of people out there that want to live in the moment. Ie. Jim Raynor.

"There'll just be a new Mengsk; and another after that," he wasn't being a pessimist, but a realist.

He had no reason to be pessimistic and didn't strike me as emo either

and Valkyries' mass fire-and-forget technology.

Valkyrie rockets are guided enough to avoid setting each other off and creating the same shaped explosion everytime, however.

I haven't seen the internet, in any form that we know, existing in the K-Sector.

How does heavy data get transferred offworld? It could be easily argued that Raynor had to steal hard disks in SC original, because the confederates could trace data being transferred through whatever internet exists around mar sara.

Personally I don't like the word racist. I think "anti-racist" is a codeword for anti-white.

Um.... yeah? If I were you, I'd shut up right now. Don't want to push any buttons or derail this otherwise intelligent thread. Please and thank you.

Indeed, much of today's modern technology and innovations were actually a result of wartime practices that have been integrated into a modern day society to improve efficiency.

So, the fringe worlds don't reap the spoils of war and receive no 'efficiency improvements' or economic booms, because what they have to export is probably only offered to corporations. Chances are they depend on the good favour of private industry. Government typically reaps the 'efficiency boom' of war (which transfers to the coreworlds). Corporations simply produce for government.

Does that make sense? Free trade doesn't necessarily exist. A company could embargo a world if they like. Also, I imagine that the dominion would embargo dead man's rock for example (it's very presence is illegal for harboring pirates).

[Turalyon]

[/B]So, the fringe worlds don't reap the spoils of war and receive no 'efficiency improvements' or economic booms, because what they have to export is probably only offered to corporations. Chances are they depend on the good favour of private industry. Government typically reaps the 'efficiency boom' of war (which transfers to the coreworlds). Corporations simply produce for government.

Does that make sense? Free trade doesn't necessarily exist. A company could embargo a world if they like. Also, I imagine that the dominion would embargo dead man's rock for example (it's very presence is illegal for harboring pirates).

Yes, but black markets exist too and often spring up exactly and efficiently where needed (amongst other things). This is partially why even rebel militia's or backwater standing armies in the SC universe are able to field high-grade Terran military hardware that is "thought" to be only accessible via the government (Confederates/ Dominion).

[phazonjunkie]

Yes, but black markets exist too and often spring up exactly and efficiently where needed (amongst other things). This is partially why even rebel militia's or backwater standing armies in the SC universe are able to field high-grade Terran military hardware that is "thought" to be only accessible via the government (Confederates/ Dominion).

Seems if you have enough money, the right contacts and know exactly what you want, there really isn't anything you can't get your hands on in the SC universe, no matter who you are or what side your on.

Like how the drug kingpin Fagin was able to get his hands on a psi-screen; which was mentioned to be harder to come by than a nuke, or Raynor, Tychus, & the rest of the Heaven's Devils were able to run their own 'side business' while the guild wars were in full swing.