Morgan shook her head as she watched the screens. “And we’re sure he isn’t cheating? It shouldn’t be that easy for superdreadnoughts to be taken out.”
Isaac sighed. “I told you four times already. No, he isn’t cheating. What he’s got is basically the naval equivalent of a special forces team. He has a small unit that strikes from stealth and causes confusion in the enemy ranks. Those tactics won’t work when he tries to use the larger classes of ships, and his ships would have been wiped out instantly in a stand-up fight.”
Morgan looked up, “Really?”
“Yeah. Speed and maneuverability only counts for so much in a slugging match. The superdreadnoughts hit harder and further. If they could see his ships, they’d have wiped him out before it ever became an issue.”
“So where does this leave the war effort?”
“Hmm. Well, the Empire still has a lot of ships out there, but his strikes on logistics bases have made moving goods from one place to another more difficult. This battle proved that the imperial forces could be beaten, despite the new cult that’s growing in their upper ranks.”
“So you could see some ships and planets switch sides to the Loyalists?”
“That’s what I’m thinking. We’ll see what happens in the next couple virtual weeks, but this means that the Empire’s civil war is going to continue longer than initial projections. Which means we won’t have to worry about a galactic war anytime soon. Even if Travis wins, his forces will need time to rebuild before they can think about starting a war, which will give the others time to prepare.”
“And what of this Deus cult?”
Isaac shrugged. “Damned if I know where that’s going. It is a plot line the AI came up with and is running at its own pace. Not sure where the idea came from, but it looks like it has given some of its followers a limited respawn ability, which may let them become more dangerous foes for players in the future. Could be how we get respawning dungeons without breaking continuity.”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“Fine. Keep an eye on it, will you? I don’t like the idea of what the PR will be like if this Deus gets out of control and starts ‘converting’ people wholesale. And we won’t have a player to blame it on, like we did with the Legion Virus, so all the blame will fall on us. What do we do if things get out of control?”
“Not much we can do unless you want to roll back things to before the cult got started, at this point. In game, we could give someone a clue to block the respawn ability, or maybe a way to take the AI out. Not sure that will be much help to those who have already joined the cult, though.”
“Well, it is better than nothing, I guess. Any news on what’s happening going forward?”
Isaac shuffled through the notes on his virtual desk. “Well, we’ve got several areas that are starting to get ‘interesting’. The Confederates are gearing up for the inevitable war, which is causing a lot of jobs to open up. Plenty of opportunities for some of the military types to get involved in the Confed navy and maybe rise up in the ranks.”
“On the other side, there’s the Ihm Imperium. Haven’t been too many players going with them, due to the dichotomy of the sexes there. The fact that all the males are big, dumb brutes and the females are smaller, weaker, and more intelligent was off-putting to some, apparently. But they’re gearing up for possible war, too. The Imperials tend to love knelfi slaves for their personal slaves, for obvious reasons, but they’ve been known to raid Ihm worlds for strong males to use as labor or gladiators.”
Morgan sighed. “So the only ones not gearing up for war are the Free Worlds Alliance?”
“Well, it is more like they’ve been having skirmishes between themselves for years, so there’s been low-level war production for a while now. If they unified, they could be ready for a war in a few months. But getting that bunch to work together is about like herding cats.”
“Or getting a car full of children to and from the mall?”
“Spoken like a parent.”
“No, an aunt. But I spent Christmas with my sister and her kids. Four of them, and the oldest is in third grade.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, ‘energetic’ doesn’t even begin to describe them. You have never seen horror until you try to keep your eye on four kids in a toy store. I honestly don’t know how Annie does it. I’d probably have gone insane by now if I was in her shoes.” Morgan sighed. It was good to vent about home drama, but it wasn’t getting them anywhere here. “So, anything we need to work on with this?”
Isaac considered. “There aren’t any structural issues that we’ve seen. But we might want to offer some kind of incentive for people to expand their horizons a little. Almost seventy-nine percent of the players are based in either the Terran Empire or the Confederacy. Another ten percent each are in the Free Worlds Alliance and the Gauz Consortium. Something to push them into Ihm space, or encourage exploration outside of Known Space, might be useful.”
“Hmm. The wars have drawn most of the attention, and the Terrans have the most humans, while the Confederates have elves and catgirls. The Consortium has crafters and merchants, and the Free Worlds has rebels. The Ihm have a caste structure and honor warriors and all that, so it could be intimidating. Perhaps an outside threat to get interest in them?”
“Now there’s a thought. We haven’t used the X’thari since hinting at them in the Beta…”