Speculation on human culture in Starbound

Now that the Protectorate and most humans in existence have been destroyed, what do you guys think the culture of humans in Starbound is like?

I ask this question because it wasn't all that long ago that I actually ran across the first non-prisoner and non-cultist humans that I'd ever seen outside of the Ark in Starbound. They were in a large campground with RV's and crappy TV's. And outhouses, lots of outhouses.

So, what are your thoughts on the culture of the galaxy's newest endangered species?

 

Humans are at an all-time low: they've just lost their home planet (and 80-90% of their population), with nothing to show for it other than an old lady, a rebellious Protectorate who caused the destruction of the planet, and you.
By all standards, humanity is at the bottom of the "food chain", where before it was considered to be at the top, due to their optimistic nature, organization, and overall strength.
Would imagine that a lot of them feel pretty depressed about it, but most of the Human NPCs you find in the game are jolly and cheerful. Either it doesn't bother them that much (now there's no space police breathing down their necks), or it just encourages them more to be better people, with them left as the only examples of humanity.

 

Interesting speculation. It kinda reminds me of some observations that I've heard about people living in some of the poorest countries on Earth. They're often described as some of the happiest people you'll ever meet. It would seem ironic that the people who have the least seem to be the happiest; but, when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Without "things" to attempt deriving happiness from, they instead focus on the parts of life that are worth living for.



Wow, I started this thread to see what people would think about living in a space trailer park, but it got surprisingly deep.

 

Oh, that?
Out of all of the races, Humans have the largest variety among them. You can have a dark and brooding goth right next to the bubbliest person you'll ever meet.
They would probably take it the best out of anyone, even if it's not really the ideal place to live.
From what I've read of the other races, they aren't nearly as malleable as Humans are to change and such. The Avians, for example, would probably collapse as a society if Kluex was revealed to not be the godlike person they treat him as.

 

Earth gets wiped out and any system of government humanity used to have is wiped. Humanity is scattered across the stars as either refugees/survivors or part of the abandoned USCM prisons scattered on the most desolate of planets. Humanity is completely isolated with what appears that literally nobody has any ships.

As for living in space caravan parks? Pretty boring after the 2nd generation or so. It'd probably be another 1000 years before such a camp develops enough technology (assuming they live on a planet with nothing else but the camp and wildlife, with no foreign aid or contact) to have turned into a city and re-invented combustible fuel rockets to reach orbit of the planet they're stranded on.

But lets not forget humans are pretty good at killing things, so there would probably be some humans who'd want to establish a military power in order to prevent their own extinction by a foreign species war. Then we'd have politics popping up as humanity attempts to head back out into the stars. Some would want the old Earth system while others would want complete control of humanity, like SPACE FASCISTS or SPACE COMMUNISTS or even AUTHORITARIAN DICTATORS!!one!11! But no really humanity'll end up shooting each other again once they realise there's no protectorate to govern over them, so as usual we'll go back to shooting eachother because someone thinks X is a good/bad idea. Maybe there'll even be a SPACE CRUSADE to just kill anyone who doesn't believe in X thing. Pretty sure too that most of the camps would adopt a "Tribe" sort of system, with the armoured guards being "Hunters" and everyone else doing what they need to keep everyone else alive.

In short: We'll (humans) start shooting eachother over stuff like we do today.

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE COMMUNISTS! THE MOST EVIL OF EVILS!

I'm also pretty sure that if a group of humans were to successfully form a space faction of their own AND discovered that Asra Nox caused the destruction of Earth... Well there'd be a universe wide hunt for the capture of her. Knowing there's no law preventing torture.... I dunno I'm weird.

 

what caused the protectorate to be attacked was it's vast population. If the survivors grouped together to rebuild, than they would most likely not dedicate one or a few planets to rebuild the economy, instead form many smaller cities scattered throughout the universe and send shipments of people and supplies back and forth to each other so the main evil does not just target one planet.

there should also be protectorate colonies that have been abandoned, looted, or attacked by native races, wiled monsters, bandits, or the main evil.

based on that, you can rescue hostages or survivors near or in the area of the colony who will give you missions to take over, fix, or reclaim the colony area.

if you complete the missions, than the survivors will colonize the outpost again opening up a lot of new quests and crew members to interact with.

here is a list of some quest there could be starting with the hostages or survivors:

:for survivors and hostages:
*Retake/capture (kill all hostiles in area)
*then, fix (repair machinery)
*then, colonize (guide the survivors safely to the area)

:for colony civilians:
*Basic missions (missions that are already in game)
*defend (defend area from waves of hostiles)
*retrieve (search for lost air drops or crashed ships for supplies and survivors to bring the the colony)
*added basic (repair broken machinery, help set up shops, ect...)

 

The Human populace post ruin seems to suggest that, as is their hat in the universe,any do not get the ramifications of the ruin and their current population in the universe. the "cutrent culture of trailer parks and random homes" likely depended on larger colonies or the USCM to look after the bigger concerns, which is no longer the case. The question we should be asking is if humanity can survive without something like the protectorate. Even Occassus would look like a good prospect to many people, were it not for the whole "let's use the ruin" deal, simply because of the stakes.

in other words, they need Something, or else human existence, as well as culture, are looking at being destroyed totally.

 

not entirely.

the protectorate's rules and the OST (outer space treaty) will keep large militia organizations from forming in the order to attack, not defend, from invaders.

also there is the theory that why the U.S.C.M attacks you is that

a: they think you are a bandit (for prisons and bunkers)
b: you are an escaped prisoner (for prisons)
c: trespassing (prisons, and bunkers)
or
d: fear of an attack (for bunkers)

There is that fact that the protectorate is colonized of EVERY race. the now, more abundant races that were allied with the protectorate would help the humans keep from going extinct or to help pull them out of their endangered state.

also mission survivors like the echrious mines survivors can be of a starting point

 

That argument is debatable. If there's noone to enforce such a law then what's stopping a militia from gaining power by attacking and raiding others? A treaty is an AGREEMENT between any amount of parties and a militia is a military force comprised of civilians typically weaker than a government military (Apex Rebels for example, are a militia). Having a galactic space treaty won't affect a militia one bit in their conquest unless they're not looking to expand their power or happen to want to reform the visions of peace that the Protectorate had.

Humans aren't just stuck to a single culture or belief. With humans re-entering the stars different societies would begin to form. A democratic society would dislike a communistic society and would go to war with eachother IF resources are low and they don't have enough fuel to colonise another star system.

If a militia becomes sufficiently powerful enough to become a military they could begin a proper conquest depending on their goals. An communistic society could live in peace with other societies but with enough power could result in them becoming aggressive against those that aren't communist. Same can be said for any belief or government system and lots of power. To be honest though alot of militia's wouldn't be powerful enough on their own (formed from the camps) until atleast the 14th generation or so and would most likely place their own defense first rather than a galactic conquest.

Races don't mean every single of said species. A good example are the bandits who operate on their own accord depending on their goals and even the Erchius Miners, who only work to get their measly paycheck from a company that breaks a whole bunch of OSHA Regulations. A significantly weakened human race can also be seen as "inefficient" and lacks any benefits for any races still deciding to assist humanity in their survival. The Apex originally (pre-1.0) used to be allied with humanity, most notably the USCM so if this is still true then it's most likely the Apex merely allied themselves with the USCM for humanity's military strength which no longer exists due to The Ruin. Another point is that the death of humanity can be capitalised upon, giving these said humans "Homes" in exchange for contractual agreements or labour so that benefits are earned for the contractors. War profiteering could also begin between multiple human extremist militia's (E.G Fascists or Socialists) with some Novakid arms dealer selling weapons to both sides.

Point again, Humans are extremely efficient killing machines and all it takes is another industrial revolution to develop nuclear weapons which can be pointed at someone. Home defense would be at an all time high and if any human groups turn into an organised society which is aware of their inevitable extinction, it's most likely that human survival would be at higher priority than any other species with the simple "We're critically endangered" excuse.

15.8 million people isn't alot of people to control, so any sufficiently sized human militia could reign and "Take in" any discovered human camps still remaining.

Too many variables man.

 

yes, that is true. but based on speculations of the opening scene, you can barly see in the background that there is only a few ships, but lots of empty hanger-space.

where are those ships?

they are on other planets helping recruit and expand. that is what the protectorate does.

at the time of attack, you see ships trying to fly off, but they get destroyed, you get knocked out and end up in a region in space too far away for communication between the groups that are away from the attacked planet doing what the protectorate does, reaching out to help other races and make alliances.

and for the bandits, as far as anyone is concerned, they ran away before the attack, thats why there is no evidence of them knowing about their home planet's destruction. Or maybe they were banished and they try to kill you as revenge because you are part of the protectorate.

also, the old protectorate in the outpost left for research way back. Who said that there are not others who have done the same?

think about a planet that is fully colonized. there is probably a population to around 10-50 billion "humanoid beings" in total. based on today's statistics, 1-3 billion people would run away and start new colonies or reaserch.

 

There are also other people that actually survived the Ruin, despite what the opening cutscene shows you.
There's a lady at the Outpost that mentions she barely escaped from Earth before the Ruin, and another scientist that wants to figure out how to fight back against it.
So there are humans out there that survived, and more that are willing to actually kill the Ruin before it attacks again.

 

Actually, I suspect the human military would likely fare better than the general population because I expect the bulk of its forces would be on starships or bases protecting the borders, out of reach of the Ruin.

 

I was thinking of something similar to this while watching a Futurama episode a few years ago. Basically, the main characters accidentally go into the far future of the Earth and humanity is extinct. But in the year where they started off in, basically everyone on Earth had access to space travel, so shouldn't it not matter if Earth became ruined somehow? There should easily be at least a few billion people zipping around through space so I find it hard to believe the Ruin could have almost wiped out humanity. Ive asked this on another thread but how is it that humans have space travel accessible to basically everyone on the planet but they haven't even bothered setting up large cities on other planets?

 

A number of realistic problems with colonization might have come up, or it might not have been very popular to send you and your loved ones out into the cold void of space, where you were at the mercy of countless dangers. I imagine yhe very first colonizations were very much hyped and observed but soon lost their luster as public attention turned away and hardships set in. How easy would it be to sell traveling to a colony where one loony could conceivably kill everyone with the right switches pulled?

 

Well it might not be all that bad later on. You see a staggeringly large number of "garden" planets with nice climate, edible vegetation, and no threats greater than a mama poptop which you can keep out with a dirt wall. Colonizing might just be a matter of gathering an enterprising group of people, picking up some prefabricated buildings, equipment, and seeds, and setting up shop on your new vacation planet. No life support necessary, and in event of an emergency help comes in the form of FTL-capable starships.

Come to think of it, can you imagine how many companies would have their own vacation planets for tourists to relax on? The vacationers alone would probably be enough to form a viable population.

 

With a huge number of gentle stars, practically infinite fuel from moons, and the large percentage of the population that owns starships, i would find it usual for families to have their own personal vacation planet