The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

got a few questions for you all,

1) Are the Mael-Num the Melnorme? PONAF brought this one up, I dunno, what do you think

2) Have the Drall and the Orz met? Maybe the Drall, being humanoid in appearance, sparked the first use of the word *camper*? Also, I beleive the Orz had connections with the Taalo, so maybe they had connections with the rest of the Milleu?

3) Location of the Faz homeworld? No idea, you got any?

1) According to the Fred/Paul chatlog on PONAF, the Mael-Num are indeed the Melnorme. I consider that to be straight from the horse's mouth. =)

2) If the Drall and Orz ever met it would be because the Drall travelled to or communicated with other dimensions. It's clear that the Orz are newcomers to TrueSpace.

3) Short answer: I don't know.

Long answer: I've read a few theories about connections between the Faz and the Utwig but I don't remember any of the specifics. Besides that, according tp the Melnorme only a "few" of the Milieu worlds were located in the local region of space. One of them is the Taalo homeworld but it's unknown which of the other races originated from the general area. The Melnorme say:

Just over twenty thousand years ago when your ancestors were learning to chart the course of the moon and stars on animal horns the Sentient Milieu spanned five hundred light years and included the membership of a hundred worlds.
Whether each world had its own unique race or if that includes colonies is unknown, as is exactly how many of those worlds were local. I doubt the Faz are local, as you can check every star system in the game and not find them under a slave shield.

Yea, I know, I was just curious if there was a blurb in the script (which i am too lazy to read) or if Paul or Fred mentioned anything of it.

The connection between the Utwig and Fahz is a ttenous one at the very best, and I have to say that I find it very unlikely. It's simply built on the fact that the Homeworld of the Utwig is called Fahz. Whic is kinda like the race name of the Faz..

The quote being :

"A truly unique set of events put you in your current state. Am I right?"
Hah, to say the least!
Our past is one of both a glorious and proud people coupled with a cataclysm that rocks the Universe
to its very core!
It all began when the Chimt rose from the Murky Bog and the Utwig emerged as well.
In these primitive times we cavorted about our world oblivious to any sort of higher purpose
we took everything at face value.
Meanwhile, the tendrils of the Chimt infiltrated the vast sky canopies of Fahz and then the veils fell!
Suddenly, the Utwig were stunned by a collective realization!
All immediately and urgently donned veils of every description! "

It continues for a bit, but that's the important part here. Some believe that the Chimt infilltrating the sky canopies has something to do with brining down the slave shield... I must say I don't really believe that though, but that's a persona lopinion of course...

Did you ever think what would Humans say if they were visited by an alien race?

"It all began when this primate threw a rock and it lighted fire, and then nomadic tribes started setteling down and harvesting the land, and ..."

nah, not interesting :P

I think it'd go more like : It all began when this litte green guy with shiny eyes came down from the skys and taught us that food is good, and that sticks can be used to get more food.

Imagine the poor alien!

"All I remember is crash-landing on this weird planet where the sky is blue and the ground is green...  then they abducted me, and-  and- ... it was horrible!"

If aliens ever observed our society, I'm sure they'd be solemnly disappointed.

Yeah, after all it has been said that the best proof of extraterrestrial intelligence is the fact that they HAVEN'T showed up here.

...That doesn't make a lot of sense to me... at all... seeing as if they DID show up here, that would be complete and utter proof.

It's kind of an ironic and funny comment. See, if they are intelligent, they wouldn't want to come here in the first place, seeing as this place is such a mess.  So if you believe in the theory that there is intelligent life out there (based on whatshamaxcalled it's equation, or whatever), then them not appearing here is good evidence of that they are very bright.

Drake's equation.
Probability of intelligent life being anywhere = (1 - probability of life being at any particular star) ^ number of stars

probability of life being at any particular star = probability of star having planet in range allowing liquid water * probability of having necessary elements * probability of spontaneous generation * probability of evolving to sentience


the problem is, though the first two of these probabilities can be constrained and seem to be pretty high, the latter two are very very uncertain. spontaneous generation at any one instant in any one place is very very unlikely, but when you're trying in googols of places all over the galaxy, well, it becomes less so. The question is, how much less so?

Kind of like the Chinese, way back when Europeans were basically rolling in their own fecies.  They had nice big ships to sail the world and what did they find?  China was a hell of a lot better, and they went home!  When Europeans found out that China was a hell of a lot better, they built their own ships and set out, ruining just about every place they set their foot on!

Maybe it's best we don't have light-speed travel yet.   ;)

With the nuts we have in charge of our world, I agree with you my friend.   ;)

Wait... aren't you missing a 1- at the beginning? If there are two stars, and the probability is 0.9 for each one, the probability of life anywhere is not 0.01, but 0.99. You've given the probability of life being nowhere :)

Actually if you work this out fully mathematically. You get a very simple equation.
Start with the known principle that there is an infinite amount of space out there. Next that in this infinite amount of space there exists some number of stars (the exact amount isn't needed, for our sake it is also an infinte number). This means there should be an infinite number of planets in an infinte number of stars. However since not every planet contains life on it, there must be a finite number of planets containing life.

This leads to a simple equations of the probability of life on any planet : (Number of planets that could possible containing life)/(number of planets)
Gives you a finite number divided by an infinite number. Making the probablity of life on ANY planet to = ZERO.
(YUP folks technically we should not even exist)  ;)

I have a bit of a personal theory that perhaps as things stand, we might actually be the 'Precursors' to other alien races that might spring up on other planets in time. After all, someone has to be first. Why not us? (Well, us and the Arilou, it seems.)

For some reason when I first played SC2, I got a tremendous kick out of the concept of invading alien worlds, and kidnapping the indigenous life forms. It made me ponder if that's what's in store for humanity's future---visiting alien worlds, kidnapping members of the alien species, and performing experiments on them before allowing them to return to their planet.

You are evil, aren't you :)

It does raise an interesting point. Look at how we are doing nowadays. If we ever get the technology and opportunity to interact with another sentient species, at a lower technology level than us, what would happen?

Perhaps the Shofixti won't be the threat to the universe -we will.

On another tanget concerning the Sentient Milieu. Do you think there's more Taalo technology in Orz space? If everything they made looks like rocks, then there might be a whole bunch of technological goodies right under our noses.

er... dividing infinity by a large number yields infinity. Which is I guess the thrust of your later joke. Didn't this come from HHGttG?

Also, I think that unless we get over our current economic model which promotes unchecked exploitation, we will be bombed back to the stone age by those we are exploiting long before we get to the stars. Which suggests, since Humans are adaptible, that we will choose a more sustainable economic model... or at least one which isn't so liable to generate violent opposition.

what do you think Sentient Milleu ships would look like?

The Mael-Num would have a curious resemblance to the Trader.
The Taalo would probably be somewhat like the Clairconctlar(sorry) ship would, cold, dark and powerful

ehh
i dunno, what do you think?

Hmm, the US and rest of the West trades lot with places like South Korea and Japan, both of whom were very impoverished after World War II (South Korea was definitely poorer than the Middle East or most of Africa), and they're now wealthy.  Meanwhile, the poorest countries are precisely those whom the "current economic model" doesn't interact with at all, like North Korea or Cuba, or the African nations.  (Exploitation?  There's barely any trade one way or the other with the African nations.  We're perhaps guilty of ignoring Africa, not exploiting it.)

Your hypothesis makes no sense at all, since the more the current economic model interacts with another country, the wealthier it is.  The poor countries aren't exploited, they're ignored.  Furthermore, one could point out that most of the current bombers are middle class or well off in their own countries.  The opposition mainly stems from violent cultural rejection of modern culture (with the violence and the sex and the booze and the homosexuality and the other fun stuff) combined with the belief in dramatically ignorant economic views like yours.

WELLL... note that the Africans aren't the ones bombing us. It's the people whose resources we're pillaging, thus funding the usually corrupt landowning elites without bringing in any significant investment in the nations themselves.

btw nice flameage with the "dramatically ignorant economic views"