I think its clear who the good guys are

If the TR didn't restore the democracy after 2 centuries of peace and remained a military state, what makes you think they will be more inclined to do so after a war that just rocked Auraxis?

One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter

NC was not interested in personal freedoms originally. That's a misinformation. It was formed to promote CEOs agendas - free markets, as they call it. Those would only increase the influence of CEOs. Only profit and power are important to them, not personal freedoms of some lowly common folk. On Auraxis, over the years though, this has "transformed" into "freedom for everyone and everything". But the initial agenda is still true - in the end, you will be a lowly worker on a factory, getting lowest possible wages while CEOs gain all the profits. That's how free market works. Plus, their forces consist of mercenaries, who work for money, not ideals. You are obviously an NC pr agent, nothing more.

MUuuuuuaahaaahahahahahaahaha

Think about it. The citizens on the original colony fleet voted to give the TR military executive power before they reached Auraxis in response to attacks by NC forces, who (probably) blew up the ship on which negotiations were underway. So the NC were already prepared to do some dirty work. Once the colony had been founded, the threat was still there. The TR on earth is nothing like the Auraxian one, as the fleet had already passed through the wormhole when martial law was voted for.

The NC was originally formed by business leaders who were annoyed at the restrictive policies put in place by the TR to protect the general populace. (Does that make TR socialist in terms of ideology?). On Auraxis, the NC, as a prominent anti-TR group, became the go-to group for the enemies of the TR (which is when the libertarians came along for the ride). The NC is a loose coalition that would fall apart as soon as they lost their common enemy.

The Vanu Soverignty are transhumanists, and that sort of thing is pretty polarising. Both the NC and TR regard them as a threat, so they decided to take a side in the conflict. Their secretive nature is anathema to the NC, and their research is unauthorised in the eyes of the TR. The VS chose secrecy over open research, and their eventual stigmatisation can only be described as their own fault.

Individual freedoms can be restored if and only if they will pose no additional risk to the security of the colony. Such judgements fall to the leaders of the Terran Republic, who , owing to the current state of martial law, are military. If our opponents would simply lay down their arms and agree to act within the law, then this pointless conflict can cease, and martial law can be relaxed. The onus is on the rebels who continue to put their own interests above those of the colony.

Lol I've given plenty of evidence throughout this thread that the NC weren't completely after profits during formation. Read the lore article on the founding of the NC. And also, what's so bad about corporations looking for profits?

Also, the only mention of how much the NC is getting paid was when it was stated that the mercs of the NC were highly paid.

I have an equally leveled NC and VS character.

Every faction has good and bad points. It's easy to focus on the good if it's your faction and the bad if an opposing faction.

TR wants to unite the populace under their legitimate government instead of having it fractured for the good of all. A civil war in which they need to deal with a few violent dissidents to restore an otherwise successful nation. Opponents essentially see an oppressive regime that doesn't care about individual rights.

VS wants to research stuff to advance humanity. Just happens to have a focus on alien stuff they found, but basically "woo science" (modern day parallel? Stem cell research - could lead to great advancements, but it's very controversial and opposed by laws in some places for various reasons). Opponents see crazy cultists chanting "One of us, one of us."

NC wants freedom 'n stuff. Opponents see anarchists running around blowing stuff up because they can/want to.

NS is a good point. The smart corporations that might have initially been NC are basically NS - why back one side when you can sell to all three?


The initial impression I got off of the short blurbs on the website was that VS broke away from TR due to oppression and the like so that they could freely continue their research. TR wanted them under their government banner so the VS defended against the attacks. NC have their standard "freedom, f yeah" approach to TR and it seemed to indicate they didn't like VS messing with human abilities/genetics/whatever and thought humans should remain "pure" so fought against them and VS basically defended themselves though they had no issue with the NC in general.

Crazy cultist "Our way is the only way" version of VS obviously paints a different picture, particularly in who is the aggressor between NC and VS. I'm sure the correct answer is "vicious cycle with both sides saying the other guy started it."

Nobody is clearly "right" which I'm sure is very intentional.

In a World where everyone is happy to blow the **** out of each other there is no good guy's

It's all just team colors and adjusting to weapon differences and such to me.

This is not an RPG.

Someone did /yell at me and call me "Terran scum" the other day. Not sure why he was so adamant about it.

Well its mildly important, b/c the first thing people see during char creation is 3 factions they know nothing about but their philosophy, so you find that your decision says something about your personality.

There's a reason the NC has always been pretty disorganized and rely on brute forcing objectives, and why the TR is generally always the most organized faction. Also, some ppl do care about the lore, I for one would probably like the TR best in terms of weapons and vehicles but couldn't ever see myself playing one.

What if Earth TR showed up on Auraxis?

The game does a bad job of elaborating the lore and background for the NC and VS. It does not matter much for the Terran Republic because they are basically a conservative totalitarian faction who would stop at nothing to maintain peace through extreme measures. However, the New Conglomerate's views are very vague. From what we know they started out as an organization created for protecting the interests the filthy capitalists back on the home-world. That has likely changed since their arrival on Auraxis but what is extremely vague is who is running the New Conglomerate on Auraxis and what are their views.

Are they an organized separatist group that is independent of the corporations? Are they still controlled by the corporations in any way? Exactly what caused the conflict between them and the VS? Either way, the aims and structure of the New Conglomerate are very obscure and I criticize SOE for not giving enough background information about the two empires (will get to VS, sorry if it looks out of order but I not really trying to make this post look good) since it would greatly reinforce opinion. Partly the reason why I hated playing the NC was being a corporate peon or mercenary but that may be misinformation and they are a righteous rebel group vowing to end the Terran Republic's oppression on the people. The question is who in the end benefits from the New Conglomerate's victory, the greedy capitalists or the courageous soldiers who want change. SOE really have to make it more transparent.


The VS are slightly obscure as well since we do not seem to quite understand who they are. Are they religious fanatics? No, they can't be since they are described as a transhumanist group of academics and scientists who seek to use alien technology to benefit humanity. Now I joined the VS because I myself advocate for transhumanism as science and technology will be what saves us in the future and makes us into a very potent and powerful species. The religion part of the VS is so vague as it almost does not exist. Vanu was said to be a scientist who committed suicide after seeing a vision but because there are so many gaps, we don't know who exactly Vanu was.

To be frank, is the VS a group of transhumanists who want to exploit alien technology or are they under the influence of aliens themselves directly? It sounds from the recruitment video and site lore that they are the former and are by no means cultists. Somebody help me here because I am confused as hell.

If SOE is saying that everyone is screwed either way if any of the empires win, then that is kind of bad on their end since it does not give the fighting much meaning but like the trailer said, "In the end, it does not matter who's right but who's left".

I actually wish they'd write all the lore in the form of stories, excerpts, documents, personal perspectives, etc. If you look at a lot of the Warhammer 40k stuff, much of it is written this way.

The reason this makes for good lore is because every piece of text can contain bias and you can even release contradictory information. Leave it up to the audience to decide who is right. Leave it up to the players to settle differences of ideology in-game, using the diplomatic tools available.


Anyway...

None of the factions is the good guys. Each one can be given a really positive spin and a really negative spin:

Positive:
TR: upholders of law and honor. fighting to bring stability and security to all Araxis, to ensure any dangers of the Vanu technology do not cause undue harm and to ensure people can go about their lives without fear of being killed by extremists or opportunists with guns.

NC: upholders of liberty and personal rights. people have the right to carve their own destiny, and no man shall take away that right.

VS: recognising that there is a path to greater enlightenment as indicated by the whsiperings of an ancient god-like alien species. one that appears benevolent and inclined to help humanity become more than the petty squabbling it is now.

Negative:
TR: totalitarian dictators who will crush your will and turn you into another cog in their machine

NC: misguided fools manipulated by cunning opportunists who know that they can sell crap to their people and have the 99% die and starve so the 1% can live like kings.

VS: zealots and fundamentalists who want to strip away what it means to be human and cast their lot in with an ancient alien entitiy that very likely does not have humanity's interests at heart.

Pick your definitions.

They would probably decide everyone was an enemy and most likely blockade the planet and nuke the entire place from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Or, to use the term from that other space franchise...

EXTERMINATUS!

Yeah its very clear NO ONE

I think the VS are ultimately the good guys...its not like they are ACTUALLY killing anybody who stands in their way. Warfare in the era the VS introduced basically amounts to moving obstacles aside for the time being, not obliterating them. They did not HAVE to share immortality. And if anybody knows how to circumvent the process, its the vs. Yet they do not.

And as to the issue about Briggs killing himself, some of you want to paint that as ominous but I am 99.999999% sure that in his vision the future of bubblebutt was revealed to him and he saw his distant self later biting his lip and swallowing, turning himself inside-out on a daily basis, and in a moment of weakness balked at the thought of enduring such a fate. He was only human, after all.

Also, he had a comet to catch.

I just tried them all, and play them all.

I think that it's pretty clear that the NC are deffinatly the superbad guys, they fight for complete freedom of companys which in other words just means exploitation of the many by the few, which is close enough to slavery. I think that the TR are the middle ground and the VS the good guys.

For those tl;dr: 'Murica

You clearly didn't read the extended lore. ::edit:: Or anything anyone said in this thread.

The VS aren't even ...you can even say it's not a religion at all


But more importantly - Vanu was a single scientist, eh?

They wouldn't mesh with what the TR has become- and either they'd settle it and merge- or else the TR would have to becoem their own section of the TR to fight them


MORE IMPORTANTLY though- what happens if the Vanu Alien Race shows up, as has been hinted by the devs(of course it could be other aliens)

That's when $hIt hits the fan- with Tech so far past everyone that the VS would be struggling to go blow for blow xD