As for hitting out technological limits, I am not certain what that means, but there are several ambiguities. It may refer to the limits of the body path, and bear in mind that we seem to have general material synthesis, which is not skimping on the tech... It could mean that we have hit the limits of what we brought with us. It could also mean that we have hit a wall of diminishing returns as far as upgrading our weapons goes, and that we really won't get any more bang for our volume. Or it could mean that the mind path has nothing to offer that we don't already have... That last one seems doubtful to me...
Yes, the limits of the Body path. If I were to use Mad Science tropes, the Mind is Gadgeteer Genius and the Body is Evilutionary Biologist. Pretty much, Your total tech knowledge is "Premade designs on the computer database", "Assorted murky ideas relevant to Your specialty based on existing designs", and "You have a vague idea of a thing, but actually making it is trial and error." There can be some updates to existing tech, like the Soldier making more efficient versions and variants of existing armor and weaponry, but there's only so far you can go. If You manage to hit MkV, it would be a surprise.
Humans will build defenses. At the very least against each other. And their Navy will grow in size.
Pirates exist. Mars is the Old West of this setting.
Also, there's nothing stopping one MegaCorp from attempting a hostile takeover or sending in corporate raiders aside from a negative result on a cost-benefit analysis.
7. Do Kai have to deal with rebellions often? Figured it would be minimal, what with the 'hive mind' thing. (ross/vet player)Do we only control the starting queen, or would we also assume control of the tech queen & her brood once we birthed her?
You're safe with one more Queen, and then there's an increasing chance of rebellion. Queens are specifically Independent, and if one decides the species is best lead by itself, it's going to act in the overall best interest of the Kai and attempt to take over. It's hard to tell, because a Queen is smart enough to co-operate until the moment of rebellion.
Past a certain point, it will transform into "Everyone votes for the overall Hive Mind; individual Queens with some degree of autonomy within the Hive Mind will be set to individual players." The players will still have to loosely conform to the general desires of the Hive Mind, of course. When it does get to that point, one of the players is gonna be receiving a special PM explaining that They decided the old Queen is impaired and that They feel an instinct to lead a coup.
Yes, I intend for this game to last longer than the previous one.
It seems that the ideal approach is a six-phased development. The first phase will be to secure our immediate conditions. This requires the securing of sustenance, shelter, and the capacity for future development.
This phase is complete.
The second phase is to expand our capacity for development, likely by producing many more queens. The third phase would be to develop the strains that we will require for the future stages. Stealth is the most important aspect for the first three phases. The fourth phase will be rapid expansion of our presence.
The Kai somewhere around here.
The fifth phase occurs when we are detected, and is the securing of this planet. The fifth phase will require the means to inhibit external interference and to rapidly dismantle planetary opposition.
10ebbor10 has a plan for this, involving destroying the Human orbital presence. We'll need a Tech Queen for that.
The sixth phase will involve the establishing of our extraplanetary presence. We must inhibit contact with opposing forces, rapidly improve our extraplanetary operations, ensure that we will survive calamity, likely by distributing ourselves to remote locations, and dismantle any opposition within our domain.
Yes.
What that would involve was not tested, but would, presumably, range from failure to operate according to our specifications to hives destroying other hives. As to the effects that this would have on the hivemind(us) is unknown, but potentially the consciousness would transfer to the survivors of such an event.
Yes.
Dangerous, slightly modified, and also other things. Basically, this thing is what we need if we want to find out what happens if you drug a larvae on Kai growth hormone.
For that specific purpose, there's no need to build a special machine. The Nurse can produce it, drug up a Larvae, and perform SCIENCE. I'm not saying "There is no need to do it whatsoever" because I can see the applications, but hormones, DNA-modified tissue samples, etc can be produced by the Nurse with ease. The Nurse can extrude a
lot of substances, which does include limited amounts of toxic chemicals. It can be upgraded to help this (and it can be fed Bore Worms/Grubs, for that matter.)
It's not about to start urinating hydrochloric acid for obvious reasons, though.