The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

I've always been curious about the Arilou sphere of influence in the game, why do they need it? I mean, that's (as far as I know) the only place in the quadrant where you can run into Arilou ships, but to me, it doesn't quite make sense.

The Arilou mention to you that they have versions of their own portal spawners on their ships, so i'm assuming they can jump to Quasispace from anywhere in Hyperspace just like you. and they use the same portals to exit quasispace as you. So they don't really need to keep a military presence around the one naturally occuring portal, cuz it's not their only point of entry.

Also, if they are guarding the portal to make sure noone else finds their homeworld in quasispace, then they aren't doing a very good job are they? Even the spathi know where it is,, and mention watching it for a while. the melnorme mention it as well, and god knows how many races they've sold the information to. and i don't think a few battlegroups of Skiffs could stand against an amrada of Kzer-Za or Kohr-Ah bent on getting in...

So has anyone come up with another explanation to why they hang around by the portal?

What are you doing here, in this region of space? -Captain

We are many places, at many *times*. This place is an easy place... one of the ten easy places.
At different times, we explore different easy places. That is our way.
Oh! I can see from the look in your eyes that I have confused you.  I am silly.
Please disregard my words.

"What are you exploring for in these `easy places'?"-Captain

We seek to trap *Nnngn*, but they dart and leap.
YOU cannot trap *Nnngn*... do not even try.
I do not think you can even touch them; you are not quite solid enough.

"Okay, you trap these nungy things. Then what?"-Captain

Why we let them go, of course! *Nnngn* do not like to be confined!

Captain, these things we talk about... they are unimportant to you... they are as dreams.
Our words should address your universe... not ours.

I'm not sure what an easy place is, but it's not a naturally ocurring portal (there is only one naturally occurring Portal which will transport a ship from HyperSpace to QuasiSpace), and it's not one of the holes from quasi to hyper, because there are more than 10 of them.  Maybe it's just easy to catch *Nnngn* in that region.

As far as guarding the portal:  It's a naturally occuring portal to their own realm and it draws attention to itself.  I think it's only natural that they would want to guard the space around the portal.

In fact, your question is valid as we do know that the Arilou retreated entirely into Quasi-space when the Hierarchy had defeated the Alliance, retreating back to their homeworld.  What provoked many of their ships to return to Hyperspace, and to have a sphere of influence, is unknown...  perhaps they know that the Captain has found the Precursor vessel and they enter space to help him.  This or the fact that the Ur-Quan are now pre-occupied with their own Doctrinal War proves that the Arilou believe it is 'safe' to enter Hyperspace once more.

I think the sphere is mostly for the player, giving them a place to meet the Arilou, a fairly important discovery to make since doing so increases chances of winning the game highly.  Instead of simply putting a scout ship in a TrueSpace star system, as they did with the Zoq-Fot-Pik, an Arilou sphere of influence provides the player a chance to meet the enlightened beings.

Yes, I just think it's strange that they have so few guards around there, if it were me, I'd probably commit a larger part of my fleet to guarding such a potential troublespot... Or somehow try to defer just anyone from finding it, but apparently you can just waltz in, as could the Spathi, had they wnted to, or anyone else who knows about it. Of course, they might be guarding the nine other "easy places" as well, who knows what might get in through them.

My question still stands about why you don't see them anywhere else though. If they, as they state, are endlessly curious by nature, you'd expect them to turn up in more than one place on the starmap. The only other place they mention to you is when they find the talking pet at Alpha Pavonis..

heh, didn't see your post there Omni-Samna, so ill just add another one...

Yeah, but if they'd wanted to, they could just have done the same thing as with the ZFP, couldn't they? Let the starbase commander report that there's been some msg about "My dear child we desire a meeting" or whatnot being recieved by the starbase,. The first ZFP ship wasn't actually in the ZFP sphere either but rather closer to you...

Or the Umgah could tell you, same as the Traddash about "the cluster where you can meet the funny ppl"

But you are entirely correct, I'd actually forgotten that they mention retreating into QSpace completely, they must have some sort of defense on the other side of the portal that were not privy to....

and I suppose playability reasons are correct as well, I just wish there was a more.. well, exotic solution to it

It's possible that they only send single skiffs out to these other places, kind of like scouts. You may not see them anywhere else simply because those skiffs choose not to be seen. =)

That totally kills the next question I was gonna make I suppose, but here goes anyway : )

If the Arilou live at their homeworld, and in fact use the same portals as we do in quasispace to get around (or at least the ones we see), then how come you never see any ships in Qspace? Curious as they are, shouldn't there be at least a few Arilou popping in and out of the portals? Or at the very least, the ones in their part of Hyperspace should appear and head to the planet for refueling and such every once in a while... Maybe we never notice them in Hyperspace, but a sighting or two should have been made in Qspace, unless they have some weird cloaking tech that works here, as opposed to the Ilwraths...

We're having an interesting discussion in the Arilou/Orz thread hypothesising that the Arilou are in fact multi-dimensional beings like Orz.

That would explain why you never see them in QS, since he/they is/are at Farilafilay.

You never see them elsewhere in the galaxy because they are reclusive by nature; at least when it concerns other beings.

But if you ask them wether or not they will join you in an alliance they answer "With ships and weapons... blood and bones... no.
Too many shipmates were forcibly... discorporated.. in the last conflict." Indicating that they were actually individuals who died, or at least lost their bodies. If they were Orz, they wouldn't care that much about their *fingers* being cut off, would they?

Also, commander Hayes states that your spawner is constructed from hybrid Arilou-Ur-Quan technology, and they themselves mention they have portal spawners on their ships. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but this is not the case of the Orz is it? It came in through a hole that the Arilou opened, yes, and because it is aware of us, or because that hole is still open it can push it's *fingers* through to here.

But if it were as simple for them to move around as it is for the Arilou, wouldn't they be glad to offer us the same oppportunity as the Arilou? The Orz wants us to come visit and come playing after all. But it never mentions (at least that we understand) anything about how it pokes hole's for it's *fingers*, just that it does. the point I'm trying to make (although murky) is that the Arilou rely on technology to move between these dimensions, technology that can be copied. The Orz just seem to come through, aided by the androsynth, and then remain here without needing anything other than that original opening (which you'd think we'd have found on the Synth homeworld if it was still there)

Perhaps once the Orz found the Androsynth it didn't need the opening anymore. Remember that guy on the planet lander got all cut up and everything even though there was no portal found.

Of course, he could have made a small portal when he was locked away in that room, but he himself said that just knowing was enough to alert "them" to your presence. So maybe the Orz only needed the portal at first.

As to why it (the Orz) doesn't just complete the transfer to this dimension... I have a theory on that but it's more suitable for another topic. =)

Yes but if the Orz don't need portals, and the Arilou do, that points to a big difference, anyway you're right, this is getting a bit off-topic. I suppose most theories to why the Arilou are trampsing around outside the portal have been mentioned? If anyone has another theory, feel free the floor is yours

They have a sphere of influence for the same reason all the other races do.

They still need resources. Earthlings, VUX, Spathi, Yehat, whoever, they spread from their homeworlds and colonized new worlds to provide themselves with more raw materials. It's the same with the Arilou, they probably spread out into TrueSpace because Falayalaralfali simply did not have enough natural resources left to continue to maintain their Skiff fleets, or it didn't have enough room to house the expanding Arilou population, or something else to that effect.

Well, seeing as their homeworld is in a "truespace eddy", you'd think there'd be some minerals there, but maybe they've mined them already. On the other hand, If I had the ability to skip through the galaxy any way I wanted to, I'd scout for the most profitable and least hostile systems around, and set up mining operations there. A system here and a system there, nothing big enough to attract undue notice, seeing as it's always outside other races spheres of influence. When you have a full load of minerals to transport back to the homeworld, just send them into hyperspace, warp them into Qspace, and Bobs your uncle!

On the other hand, I just realized that the Skiffs couldn't carry that many minerals, and seeing as the Arilou apparently can't make you a portal spawner without some sort of extra powersource, they probably couldn't warp large barges full of minerals into Qspace either, which means they'd need their natural portal to bring stuff back home.

That'd also explain why they only have a few ships. all they need to do is keep Traddash raiders and umgah pranksters away from their cargo vessels.

Good thinking on that one, I'd never have thought of resource collecting myself : ) In my mind, it's soemthing only I do in the game...

I suppose playing in StarConRPG gave me that idea. ;)

Also note that the closest Hyperspace Portal in QuasiSpace to their homeworld leads to the point in Hyperspace that is very very close to the 'naturally occurring portal'. It's probably the most convenient one to head towards in order to pop into HyperSpace. I figured the Arilou just 'camped out' around the area where they would most frequently appear in QuasiSpace, so that it wouldn't be hostile to their brethren if the area remained unguarded.

I'd guess that they don't have the sheer manpower to operate a guardian fleet around the portal site, so they just station regular patrols.

The naturally occurring portal is open three solid days a month-- that's ten percent of all the time, which is pretty significant (and dangerous to the Arilou). I imagine it could quite possibly be a side effect of the Arilou ships constantly popping into Hyperspace from Quasispace all the time. (weakening the fabric between the two).

Wow, I can't believe you found this old thing! :)

It still doesn't explain it though. Yes, we know that the portal is where it is, and Scotts explanation of the sphere for mining purposes makes sense, but as I recall there were a few other questions that never got solved. for example, you never see any Arilou on the quasispace side. And as good old Omni pointed out, they have the ability to pull back to Quasispace completely, they've done it before. So they can clearly surivive without their spehere.

And guarding the natural portal from the inside wouldn't require much, even a booby trap would suffice, if a few Skiffs charging the unprepared intruder didn't do the trick.

Btw, was that really Omni telling me I had a valid point? Heh, that must've been the first and last time   ;)

Yeah, no arilou in quasispace is sort of weird.

Also, I figured that - in terms of out of game reasons - the portal closest to the homeworld was the one nearby so that you wouldn't suddenly find yourself in the middle of Ur-Quan space with arbitrarily low fuel (with no portal spawner if you haven't gotten the Warp Core first!!)... the closest one was the most likely for you to 'randomly' sample, and if is pretty close, that's fairly neutral (principle of least surprise).

Edit: d'oh! The pet has already come and gone; it's the warp core you need. Silly me.

Aslo, putting the portal closest by leadin out at roughly the same place enables you to actually make it back from Alpha Pavonis in time to get into the next natural portal (even though it is close). Otherwise, you'd have to wait a month and try to time it so that you were there at the right time...

I've sometimes wondered why you can't split your fleet and give them instructions to go somewhere, to make a delivery, say. Of course, the simple answer is game playability and programming...

I was going to amke a whole bunch of points about why you OBVIOUSLY can't do that, but then I relaized that none of them were valid. Duh.

The only one I can come up with is the fuel issue. Inside their own speheres I assume that ships have frequent access to refueling stations, but you'r fleet wouldn't have, unless travelling through allied territory...

Oh, and I'm assuming the Slylandro make their own fuel as they go.

It's pretty obvious why the Arilou would stay in the galaxy and keep a circle of influence.

Your well-being is of paramount concern to every Arilou.
Surely you know, that it was the day after Humanity joined the Alliance Of Free Stars
that we appeared in the open for the first time. This was no coincidence.
We wanted to protect you.

They do mention they are in many *times*, maybe there aren't even enough Arilou to make their circle bigger. They might be fighting wars we have no idea about in other *times*, or other things may prevent them from making their circle bigger? Or maybe they beleive that they have a sufficient amount of Arilou already standing guard. Maybe their too cautious to make their circle bigger, for fear of the Ur-Quan killing so many Arilou with no chance? I dunno, It's probably cause of resources.

They don't NEED a sphere of influence to watch over us humans though, do they? They can just pop out of Quasispace close to us and take a look for as often as they want to....

No!  I won't admit it!  It never happened!   :P  By the way, when does someone reach "good old status"?  I feel honoured by your kind, yet demeaning gesture.   ;D

Anywho, I seem to believe that the Arilou have a sphere of influence in TrueSpace because of the Umgah.  I think that if they left that area of space undefended, the Umgah would be glad to pick it up as their own, greatly hindering Arilou ships from spilling in and out of their re-occuring hole into Quasispace.  I assume the juvenile pranksters have played one or two jokes on the Arilou in their past and they're guarding the door so that they can't do it again.

No, I agree, they definetly wouldn't if they were to watch over us. But I thought they were to protect us, not check on us.

In that case, I'd put my sphere closer to the humans. Just because they don't have a sphere in Truespace doesn't mean they can't have a fleet... They could have a thousand ships at their homeworld on standby to pop in and save us, without ever needing to establish a presence in our Quadrant. In fact, if they did that, they would have an edge, surprise attack!

Well, I suppose then it serves two purposes. To protect the portal, and to protect the humans. Good question though.
I guess a surprise attack would be better. Maybe they prefer to keep the portal guarded from the outside, to keep the location of Quasispace from ever being found, even if it meant facing thousands or Arilou, maybe they still didnt want to take the chance.

As is stated further up in this topic, they're not doing a very good job of making sure the portal is never found in that case. Both Spathi and Melnorme know where it is, and I'm guessing at least the Umgah have a fair idea as well... So there must be another reason. Resources is the only one that's plausible so far, although it can be argued against as well...

Perhaps they have control over the shape of quasispace, so that if anyone of whom they did not approve entered, they could just fold the place up and squeeze the intruders out? Meanwhile, you can get to their homeworld...

Just an idea.

yes, but do the Arilou know that the Spathi and Melnorme know? Maybe the Arilou still think their secret is safe. They did say the human was the first to visit them at their homeworld, Faly-ahh whatever. ;D. Yes, i agree though, minerals does sound the most plausible.

You guys, they aren't guarding themselves from anything. They're hunting Nngn for recreation. RECREATION! You don't need thousands of ships over a large area to play tag with some weird hyperspace animals. I'd repeat the quote, but it's already been stated in this topic. The Arilou are not war-minded at all, but they do have enough recon to know exactly when they need to worry about protecting themselves. 2155-2160 is perfectly safe for them. If the Kohr-Ah show up, they can withdraw. Does anyone know what they say at their homeworld when the Kohr-Ah start their rampage and knock out their fleet?

Falayalaralfali =)

The Spathi only know that there is a point of light out there that looks like a star and is only active for about three days. They may get the guts to go see what it is someday, but being Spathi I doubt they'll have the courage to enter the portal.

...last month on the 17th; we saw a new star appear between the Circini and Chandrasekhar star clusters. We watched it and watched it -- for three days, we just watched it
Then it went away, vanished, just like that. I hope it comes back.
As for the Melnorme, all they know is that the Arilou are rarely seen far from the Columbae constellation near where the portal appears. They've never entered it and they don't seem to have much of an interest in doing so.

The portal opens only a short time each month starting on the 17th.
Since we have never entered the portal, we can give no more information on this subject.
Besides, I'm sure the Arilou realize that they can't keep the existence of that portal a secret forever. Sooner or later some race or another will pick up on its existence.

I don't think mineral wealth completely explains the Arilou's presence. There is exactly ONE star system in their sphere of influence (Gamma Circini) and only one other just on the border (Delta Circini).

I think the Arilou are just sort of waiting there. They're keeping an eye on the events in this dimension or maybe even waiting for the Captain to find them. They make regular visits to Unzervalt and even the Earth Starbase, so it would seem likely that they know of the Captain and his quest.

Or perhaps the explanation is something we cannot comprehend. Their presence in this dimension could simply be due to their pursuit of *Nnngn*, as Shiver suggests. And that would be a good enough explanation for me.

Eh, we seem to be forgetting that a 'sphere of influence' isn't neccessairly 'areas where we have millitary control'.  Even in the zones of highly territorial creatures like the vux or ilwrath, you still find star systems where not so much as a single ship bothered to hang around.  I figure the arilou sphere isn't an arilou controlled area, just the place where you're most likely to meet one.  It's one of the 'easy places', so that's hardly suprising, they're trapping something that you can't comprehend (and honestly, before you go looking to hard, remember what happened to the androsynth who took an interest in IDF creatures).  The arilou are there, and have a reason to be there, but comprehending their reasons would be difficult and possibly dangerous.

Meh, I still say they are there for mineral resources. But then, maybe that's because that's what they're doing in StarConRPG. :)

Then why does moving of the Ilwrath, Thraddash, Utwig, Supox, Mycon, and Pkunk spheres of influence always correspond to a moving fleet? When the Thraddash get whupped by the Kohr-Ah and later the Ilwrath their sphere of influence shrinks. When the Yehat engage in their civil war, their fleets fight against each other and the sphere of influence is divided into two smaller spheres.

I understand the idea that a sphere of influence isn't necessarily the actual space a fleet occupies, but you can't deny the fact that the two are intimately connected.

Yes, but the thing is the two aren't equal.  The arilou can just hang around in an area without having actual millitary control of it, while the thraddash and mycon have real trouble having millitary control of an area without actually being in it.

You'll also find that if the sphere of influence moves away, then you go to the area where it was, there's a big shortage of ships there.  When the mycon go to the ambush, if you're in mycon space while they're at it, there is nary a mycon to be seen.  They've upped and left.

They are somewhat connected, especially since most of the races in the game seem to have a heavy interest in staying at home and blowing up anybody who comes by.  But, then you also have the arilou, who don't much seem to care about the systems, and the zoqfot have a supringly large sphere of influence, considering that that every colony they had save their homeworld is gone, and that any one of their ships that decides to go for a flight is pretty much target practice.  

I tend to accept Culture20 and Shiver's explanation- they just hung around to catch *Nnngn*.
I might be giving the Arilou too much credit, but I believe they know what's going on better then the Melnorme, or anyone else.
If someone would ever think of sending a fleet to attack the Arilou through the portal, they'll probably have some kind of nasty surprise. A giant fleet of Skiffs, or maybe they'll just disappear without a trace...
I also like the idea (can't find who suggested it) that the Arilou keep some ships around to make sure the Umgah don't get it.
The Arilou won't need much of a fleet for that, and keeping the Umgah away is certainly a good and healthy idea, especially if the Arilou can have heart attacks...