A Brief Timeline of Virus

[robject]

UPDATE: I've now perused Survival Margin, Vampire Fleets, and 1248 book 1 (Out of the Darkness). Here is my high-level overview of the timeline of Virus.

1130: Virus accidentally released by Dulinor fleets in a raid on Omicron. Exponentially destroys civilization.
1200: "Fast Killer" strain extinct. Vampire Fleets prowl the starlanes like Reavers, play god or kingmaker to TEDs, etc. Sandman strain co-operates with RC.
1208: Ziru Sirka fleet eliminated inside the Black Imperium, which starts a war against Vland.
1211: Scouring of Vland and destruction of Black Imperium fleets.
1214: Grand Alliance Fleets of All Humanity enter Black Curtain, stall.
1218: Gods of Thunder kill the Lucan-Palace and take Capital, finish off the Black Fleets and defeat the Grand Alliance.
1228: Cyms' rights in 4th Imperium.

By 1228, Virus is essentially gone as a defined thing or threat, and the term "Virus" for all intents and purposes is equivalent to "Insane AI".

 

[mike wightman]

You need to read the Vampire Fleets supplement and pay attention to the adventure too.

By the end of the adventure the RC has a new ally , a completely sane Virus called sandman, and there may be others like it out there.

The original TNE adventures would have lead to:
an automated starship factory that the RC could build state of the art ships at, and install sandman to up their effective computer, sensor and gunnery potential (The Guilded Lilly trilogy)

conflict between the regency and the RC over the latter's alliance with sandman

the need for the Regency to work with the RC to take the battle to the newly expanding black Imperium - I can't help but think this would have brought psionic commandos into the mix too

the black Imperium wins most of the time...

and now for the conjecture: but the RC/regency come up with a plan to send Star Viking volunteers and Regency psionic spec ops types into the black Imperium - probably to implant a sandman created super virus into the black Imperium x-web - the cost being the biggest loss of sentient life in any one attack ever when the virus brings death to every world it has infected.

The Star Vikings are initially seen as heroes, but then as genocidal war criminals and so they leave the RC and go in search of who knows what.

 

[mike wightman]

The Vampire Fleets adventure is set in 1202 - by the end of it you have the capability of now having PC robots or starship computers.

 

[GypsyComet]

1248: "Post Virus" - what does that mean? In what sense is 1248 "Post" Virus?

The disease-like spreading phase is long past by 1248, as the weaponized Cyms have evolved out of at least part of their weaponization. The ability is still there, but the infrastructure it was modified to exploit is all but extinct, and the berserk drive to do so has been bred out.

 

[robject]

The Vampire Fleets adventure is set in 1202 - by the end of it you have the capability of now having PC robots or starship computers.

Read it tonight, and I have to say, it doesn't feel at all like Traveller. It feels like Gamma World, Shadowrun, Terminator, and Paranoia rolled into Cyberpunk with the jump drive.

Augmented humans with primitive Virus implanted into their spines, bodies attached to gunbot chassis... were we that enamored with Terminator back then?

And the Mother and God strains certainly sound like a cousin relationship to Paranoia - cities and ships controlled by sentient computers - which shows in the late 1980s influenced this trope?

Human tribes on Promise living a nomadic life, trading old scrap tech to the computer-controlled city... A plot straight from Gamma World.

Granted, those adventures do sound fun and appropriately harrowing. But they don't sound like Traveller.


I do understand Virus better now. The very term "Virus" equates to "Insane, Unstable AI" existing within a very tight timeframe. The technical term used by the Vampire Fleets book is "nuts".

It is quite reasonable to hypothesize that the escape of Sandman spells the exponential doom of Virus like a flash in a pan. They died out as fast as they initially propagated (a bit faster, actually, by the 1248 timeline), destroying themselves as they destroyed everyone they met. Now that is one thing that makes sense.

As for PC robots and PC starship computers, that's a TL16 thing. It is a feature of technology, whereas Virus is less than a biological virus in that its evolution results in its extinction. It's not a positive type of AI, it's a perversion of AI.

In other words, unworthy and unconvincing to be presumed to be an ancestor to true AI. It is much more likely that Virus is not the ultimate parent of Sandman -- does sanity proceed naturally from insanity? But I philosophize.

And yet, it intrigues me to wonder where Sandman truly came from - perhaps the Cym which player characters took off-world back in Adventure 13? And how did it find its way to Promise?

 

[robject]

So it is clear that, unlike the predictions of the "Second Chart" from Vampire Fleets, Virus is finished self-destructing before 1248.

How much before? Before 1230?

I think I'll scan through 1248 material next.

 

[GypsyComet]

As for PC robots and PC starship computers, that's a TL16 thing.

Creation from scratch as a technological feat is a TL16 thing. Happy Cymbelline accidents can (and did) result in true AI prior to TL16. That was the whole point of the exercise. Cyms as PCs are a possibility in the TL12-13 Fourth Imperium.

So it is clear that, unlike the predictions of the "Second Chart" from Vampire Fleets, Virus is finished self-destructing before 1248.

Assuming all incidences of early generation infections are able to resolve themselves, the suicidal strains remove themselves from the "gene"pool very quickly.

The trick is that some of the eggs planted early on *don't* resolve, trapped in devices that were powered down by other Virus actions or simply not connected to anything else at the time. These are the traps we see in TNE; you never simply plug a newly salvaged electronic device into an open network. While Sandman functions as immunization, he still needs to be present on *every* world returned to, and be used to neutralize every piece of infected equipment. One incautious incident can cause an early strain flare up. In a now harmless spot it might cause that fusebox to blow out right after being re-powered; in a more dangerous spot the ship you just boarded is trying to kill you before you can plug your Sandman into the right port. You did bring a Sandman, right?

Early Virus strains will be a hazard and boogeyman in the dark places for a long time, while its non-suicidal and non-murderous descendants will be able to shed the name "Virus".

 

[epicenter00]

Read it tonight, and I have to say, it doesn't feel at all like Traveller. It feels like Gamma World, Shadowrun, Terminator, and Paranoia rolled into Cyberpunk with the jump drive.

It's actually Twilight: 2000 with Jump Drive. The themes of post-apoc survival in Twilight: 2000 resound in TNE. Things like collecting scrap metal and so on is a large factor in TW2K. I never really noticed it in Gamma World where it felt more like everything was super high-tech materials that don't really get recycled. Perhaps the later versions of GW had features like that.

The Breeds definitely have a strange Terminator vibe about them, while the entire Virus-as-insane very Paranoia.

It's honestly not a good combination, though it's great if you hate the Virus idea and just want it out of the way it's good; in the 1248 material, it compounds this sort of half-baked treatment by trying to quickly sweep the entire Virus thing out the door on a dustpan so the TU can get back to business as usual which can or can not be a good thing, depending on your view.

 

[robject]

Well it IS a matter of the publishers' opinions what "back to business" means.

When the publishers were Twilight:2000 publishers, then the game became 2300AD with jump drive and 2D starcharts. I will not, did not, do not call that a good thing. Marc Miller was not part of T:2000 as far as I know, and his later efforts with Traveller reach the same conclusion.

 

[aramis]

Well it IS a matter of the publishers' opinions what "back to business" means.

When the publishers were Twilight:2000 publishers, then the game became 2300AD with jump drive and 2D starcharts. I will not, did not, do not call that a good thing. Marc Miller was not part of T:2000 as far as I know, and his later efforts with Traveller reach the same conclusion.

Marc's in the credits for 1E: Research Assistance.

 

[mike wightman]

Well it IS a matter of the publishers' opinions what "back to business" means.

When the publishers were Twilight:2000 publishers, then the game became 2300AD with jump drive and 2D starcharts. I will not, did not, do not call that a good thing. Marc Miller was not part of T:2000 as far as I know, and his later efforts with Traveller reach the same conclusion.

Militarising their sci fi games was a common theme for GDW around this time.
2300 concentrated on the Kafer War to the exclusion of just about every other plot seed in the rule book and early adventures
T2000 was very popular (or at least one of its sourcebooks was but that is a sad story)
TNE RC/SV adventures you are playing as a space spec ops team.

According to his wiki bio MWM was long gone from GDW by the time TNE went into production.

Marc could easily use some of the stuff in T5 to retcon the Virus timeline out of the OTU.

 

[DED]

Marc could easily use some of the stuff in T5 to retcon the Virus timeline out of the OTU.

He could've done that with T4, but he didn't.

He also authorized Avenger Enterprises to do the 1248 setting which wrapped up TNE.

DonM never let on that Marc had any intention of doing it with T5 either.

Nothing's stopping you from ignoring it for YTU.

 

[atpollard]

Wouldn't it be a hoot if T5 picks up in 1900 from the Lorenverse timeline.

Like Who shot JR, the Rebellion and Virus was all just a bad dream and in T5, we wake up.

 

[DED]

If T5 really does go to 1900, then it'll just be a footnote in history. That'll be enough time for every world to recover, and it'll be like the Rebellion and the Collapse never happened. They should've tried to do that with T4, but I guess MM wasn't ready.

 

[robject]

Militarising their sci fi games was a common theme for GDW around this time.

No problems with that, and not a problem for CT: three out of six careers, and two out of eight LBBs (Mercenary and High Guard). No, militarizing isn't the issue.

Marc could easily use some of the stuff in T5 to retcon the Virus timeline out of the OTU.

He won't, but David's comment above sounds about right.

 

[GypsyComet]

militarizing isn't the issue.

Military SF has been part of Traveller's heritage from the start. What changed was Military SF...

The wargames connected to Traveller, almost entirely in CT, helped shape the TU in ways we now take for granted. That we still hark back to the CT era's wargames is both good, from a tradition and stability POV, and unfortunate, in that Traveller and its default setting *have* evolved.

 

[robject]

[Imperium Games] should've tried to [use a 1900 milieu] with T4, but I guess MM wasn't ready.

It would be interesting to know when Marc started thinking abiut the Far Far Future. I can tell you it was most probably around 2004, plus or minus three years.

 

[McPerth]

If T5 really does go to 1900, then it'll just be a footnote in history. That'll be enough time for every world to recover, and it'll be like the Rebellion and the Collapse never happened.

In 1900 (assuming it's Imperial counting), about 7-8 centuries would have passed from collapse. So, its memory/lasting effects would be those of XIII-XIV centuries have today.

Just to cite some facts from this era in Europe/Mediterranean:

• Crusades (albeit the minor ones)
• Reconquista in Iberian Penninsula
• Hundred Years War
• Fundation of the Hanseatic League

Now think the effects of those facts in history (up to now), and imagine the effects collapse, with its really catastrophic effect, and being probably more and better documented (those facts occurred in a time most people was illiterate) would have after 700-800 years...

 

[robject]

I don't know about David's position, McPerth, but my position is that if Virus is remembered, it'll be remembered, and if it's forgotten, there will be a reasonable reason.


As for Mike's worry over splitting the fan base, I think pretty much doing anything is going to split the fan base, except creating a compelling story to distract and interest us.

 

[aramis]

As for Mike's worry over splitting the fan base, I think pretty much doing anything is going to split the fan base, except creating a compelling story to distract and interest us.

Too true...