Support for the Terrene Protectorate?

1: Get a bucket/pickaxe/axe and pour it into your magic backpack.
2: Use your super strength you use when carrying tons of durasteel and iron and plop down some blocks.
3: Use a freaking wire.
It's a game. With very established physics and tech. A matter manipulator is quite useful, but it's not something to obsess over.

 

Okay, It's not an alliance, (why the flags in the academy though?) I admit that. But my point was that an organization that supports a rebellion in your nation, wouldn't be very popular with the government.

 

I think it'd be pretty safe to say the Miniknog view very, very, VERY few other races and organizations favorably.

And by "very, very, VERY few" I mean "none whatsoever".

 

Do you know about Red Cross organisation in real life? Imagine Protectorate as a Red Cross in space. This organisation is not about politic, but about to help anybody who need this help. This is why instructions for the Protectorate graduates say that you always need to wear your uniform so anybody can see you are from Protectorate. Because you dont help rebellions or accept Minicnog government - you help people to survive! So whenever you go to restricted areas like Mininog military research base they sure will attack you - nobody have rights to be in this restricted areas without special permission. But you can walk freely on the rebels camps and loyal apex cities and nobody say a word to you? Why? Couse you are doctor, helper, Protector. Not a soldier or mercenary or a member of any Politic related group - but from "we provide help" organisation. This is what Protectorate is about or at least - this is what this organisation want to look like for any others.

So you look at this things the way exactly as it shown in game and game mechanic. OK. And they somehow maintain 3 dimensional space maps in 2d world. We love matter manipulators because they describes as universal tool that can assemble and disassemble any kind of material - manipulate what's matter, a-ha? Not because in game they can build things. Minecraft, Terraria... tons of sandbox building games don't have any of this special tools and still we can build and disassemble things here, but they also don't have any history about great superior tool that help to establish a power of entire space organisation like Protectorate. I am pretty sure entire civilisations in starbound build everything without this kind of tech, using traditional machines and work processes, but in Starbound universe you can build planet colony by yourself alone and with a single tool - matter manipulator. And it looks like nobody in this "game" universe can do this that fast and simple without this tool

 

I think what you fail to notice is that it's the Matter Manipulator that servers as your "magic backpack" and carries these materials and blocks.

Contrastingly to Minecraft and Terraria, where you either appear in the world suddenly with all the tools you need or the ability to chop down trees with bare hands, these sandbox mechanics are actually fleshed out surprisingly well in Starbound, since they're given to you with some background behind it, by presenting you with the tool that actually makes it possible. But if you don't like having any background lore of this sort in your sandbox games, I guess you can go back to Minecraft and Terraria.

Speaking of the Apex, there's a surprising anomaly regarding their flag. Its item description calls it "the symbol of the Miniknog", but you also see that flag in the rebel camps... which is, in fact, the only instance of a generated structure using a racial flag.

 

Uhh, no. You have a huge inventory before you get the matter manipulator. And that includes materials and blocks. If you got a pickaxe in the intro, it would play exactly the same.

 

I said that the TP accepts Apex rebels, not that it literally fights alongside them. What if the red cross accepted people who were considered terrorists and war criminals that escaped from justice by the legal systems of the countries they damaged? (Actually that may have happened IRL). And what do you mean by 3D space maps? They're 2D, with backgrounds. And when you land on a planet, you land on the "edge" for a lack of a better word. It's 2D. And if you can carry thousands of blocks in your pocket, I doubt that you would have a hard time placing them. And the last thing; that's the 'hype' I've been talking about. Not just playerbase 'hype', but lore 'hype' as well. And the other races were never shown to be slow at building, they just had old materials and not many settlers. Why build a huge city when you don't have enough people to live in it? They could've built their colonies just as fast for all we know.

 

No, being given a pickaxe in the intro would feel incredibly bland. But who cares about the story anyways? Obviously in-universe everyone just magically stores things in magic backpacks and places down blocks with bare hands. Clearly. It's outrageous to suggest that Matter Manipulator's internal storage is somehow involved, even though it's clearly shown to be involved in the process of placing objects and blocks in-game.

Sorry if I'm getting overly passive-aggressive here, but it's starting to feel like talking to a wall. What position are you in to criticize the story, if you've never truly bothered to look at things from in-universe perspective?

Really? From what I've seen, all the items you can acquire before you're in possession of the Matter Manipulator are... a protectorate uniform, fifty pixels, a flower, and a graduation flyer. Maybe a bar of chocolate, or an oculemonade from a vending machine. Not quite the same as over a hundred weights of dirt.

 

There's one thing I think everyone is missing when it comes to the Matter Manipulator. Look at the Protector's Broadsword. The base of the thing is a MM. And I don't think that's just decoration; the sword itself is very likely based on MM technology. Chances are, possession of MM technology allowed humanity (and by extension, the Terrene Protectorate) to create technology far beyond the level of any other civilization. This is probably where shield generators came from, too. This small glimpse into their capabilities shows such incredible power, and we're just looking at scraps here. Imagine what terrifying levels they might have been at pre-Ruin. I don't think it's a matter of being unwilling to take on the Protectorate that's left the universe in the situation it's at, I think it's more like the Ruin was the only thing capable of taking on the Protectorate.

Now imagine you're a human under those circumstances. Your home planet is armed to the teeth with technology that could obliterate any threat imaginable. You can plop down on any planet you want, anywhere in the galaxy, and build yourself a happy little home, because who in their right mind would attack a human? They'd be free to wander the galaxy as they pleased, because the terrifying power of the Protectorate was backing them. As such, they'd have no real incentive to build massive communities - after all, they live in a world that's post-scarcity, and where they can teleport back to family and friends as they please. It'd be much more impressive to say they were the first to plant their flag on such-and-such planet.

Then there's the fact that the intro mission portrays a graduation ceremony. A small group of people having completed years of training, joining one of the most prestigious organizations in the entire galaxy. I'd imagine that such a significant event would draw most, if not all Protectors to Earth so they could attend the ceremony and lay eyes on their new brothers and sisters. So in that regard, it seems reasonable that you'd be the only Protector to escape. Nearly every Protector in the known universe would be there, and many of them would likely be trying to fight back the Ruin or rescue others - likely civilians.
You as the player were not only extraordinarily lucky in that the Ruin never attacked your precise escape route, but were extremely selfish in fleeing instead of fighting back. Given that the player character is a rookie Protector, this makes sense, as they're neither sufficiently armed nor sufficiently grizzled to stand up against such an overwhelming force.

And then there's the question of the Apex and the Miniknog, why they haven't taken on the Protectorate in the past. As we can see in the Apex relic mission, they're quite technologically advanced themselves. Not quite as advanced as pre-Ruin humans, but getting there. So there's a good chance they'd be able to fight back and even win a couple skirmishes against the Protectorate. However, they wouldn't win an outright war; they'd be annihilated as soon as the Protectorate deemed them a threat. So instead, they keep their more heinous operations an underground secret, and make their public face seem like nothing more than an overbearing government. The Apex citizens seem happy enough dealing with it (or so the Protectorate believes), and any spies they send to the Protectorate wind up being converted anyways, so they don't have much reason to assist the rebels in taking down the Miniknog. In fact, the only reason we help them in canon is the fact that the Apex artifact is in Miniknog hands.

 

When I look at the story, I get a lazy, cliché mess with wasted potential. But okay, let's look at it story wise. You have a perfect-Mary Sue organization that's only goal is to make the universe peaceful by flinging random graduates into space with their greatest tool-the matter manipulator, a great scientific wonder. When they're about to graduate {insert Protagonist name here}, a monster attacks the only large planet in the organization's holding. {insert Protagonist name here} escapes and goes on to explore the great unknown. He then encounters {Insert cliché mentor/exposition dump specialist name here} and learns that his world was created by {Insert boring deity name here} which sealed an evil and died. He then goes on to collect 6 artifacts representing the elements re-I mean the races required to destroy the ancient evil. I don't see anything better here.There are spaces for materials too. Many of them.

 

The highly experimental protector's broadsword is about as powerful as a titanium spear. A thing I can make in midgame and is less powerful than a procedural weapon. I even tested it on the miniknog. Pretty useless. Also, your logic makes no sense. A decent sword is made with MM tech, and therefore humanity is more powerful than the Apex, and every useful and OP (one unfounded example lol) tech is in the hands of the TP. No one will dare to attack a human which means they can adventure all they want, and get back home whenever they want. So they logically stay in one place(???). And about the graduation thing... Yeah, EVERY SINGLE PROTECTOR IN THE UNIVERSE GIVES A DAMN ABOUT YOU GRADUATING WHAT SEEMS TO BE A MILITARY EDUCATION STYLE ACADEMY, AND NOT ONE THINKS THAT THEY SHOULD RUN... And what about other rookie protectors? What about protectors not in duty without weapons? What about protectors with a brain? Lastly, the TP was helping rebels and people the Miniknog considered as criminals by giving them sanctuary.

 

oh my god its a cartoon sci-fi game jesus on a cone of tragedy

 

Also, since your SAIL flew the ship, till there was no fuel left, and has no idea where you are, for all we know, we are the remaining protectorate. We have survived.

Look, you have no reference, where outpost and quest locations are. You beam to them. Yes, your SAIL has the coordinates, but you dont. And that is the point. We are what is left.
So stop talking about magik backpacks, because that is as productive in explaining the lore as trying to explain why you can revisit missions and no one remembers you.
It is game design.
It makes it FUN.

 

The Protector's Broadsword deals 32 base damage per hit. The Titanium Spear deals only 20. And the former also attacks more often and has a secondary ability that makes it more powerful. If anything, it would be worth noting that it's an EXPERIMENTAL sword, so, in your favor, it's inaccurate to assume that MM-based tech is very common, specially considering that the Protector's Broadsword is found in a broken state, implying that it was damaged during testing (And, judging by how it's in a weapon chest in what seems to be a storage room with pods and pod chests, it seems as if it was a failed prototype that may or may not have been part of a cancelled project).

 

The protectorate broadsword could be a MM that malfunctioned, and leaked liqid metal outfront. That is why it is so weak.

 

Weak? It's one of the more powerful swords in the game, with the only comparable ones being tier 6 (The PS itself is tier 7) unique swords, and, even then, the Protector's Broadsword deals 40 (52 with Empowerment) base DPS. By comparison (Assuming that all weapons have been upgraded to tier 6), the Firestorm's Fury deals 35 base DPS, the Hokucide deals 38.5 DPS, the Asuterosaberu DX deals 39.82 DPS, and the Time Pierce deals 40.25 DPS, all according to the Starbounder wiki.
In general, this means that the Protector's Broadsword is, WITHOUT Empowerment, MORE powerful than most other unique Broadswords, and is better than literally ALL of them in terms of DPS if Empowerment is taken into account.

 

Don't worry - we see it clearly. You know - the problem is we are using our imagination and don't try to look at things directly as it shows in game. Couse if in Starbound game you try to load a planet with apex colony with 10 thousands of living NPC doing they casual life - your PC will launch itself in space. And dont tell us about games where you can see this thousands of living NPCs - they usually not procedurally generated!
As for the story - Protectorate still only one of Earth organisations. One that become interracial for sure, but yes - Earth have some other forces too for protect itself - Protectorate is like Red Cross mixed with sort of science university and philosophical society / orden. His main power source is the matter manipulator, but beside manipulation technology it looks like most races in game have Pixel printer tech which is powerful enough too. And about graduation day... It is not a military fleet. They dont have active duty, scheduled patrols ETC. They have 500 years of traditions. You know - this can be stronger than any kind of logic - tradition! And nobody expect the treat from under the planet core. Maybe there was some fleet in orbit with weapons on and full attention prepared to battle - but they seek any threat FROM SPACE and Ruin Appears from Planet centre! Ruin literally attack entire Planet at once. destroy not only Protectorate building - but most of the buildings we see and it happens on entire Earth. We also see some asteroids fallen from sky so maybe this Ruin also appears on Moon and other Sol system planets... or simply found the way to bombard planet (and space structures around planet?) with rocks. Giant rocks. And we really did not know if we the only one who survive this run from graduation... or the only one, who need to run because dont have any available teleport (after all we dont see much bodies on our path. They could be taken by Ruin as our Grand Protector, but also they could escape in different way. We see only one way because we play 2d game)

Not random graduate. It looks like this graduates was chosen carefully and trained hard. At very beginning our protagonist Already have his own SAIL - his own spaceship with A.I on board. So at least he (she, it) was trained to fly on smallest ship in fleet. And if you open one of the two available from start codexes - you can read that they actually dont do missions alone - they have crews. And it seems our protagonist after receiving his own matter manipulator should join crew not as captain, but as one of the crewmembers! Or why else he have instructions about always listening his captain and officers? (or maybe it was his/her past instructions for time before he pass all exams?) So yeah - Protectors not so lone in space. Reason our hero was alone - he is only one who survive his run to this spaceship! (and i quite not sure if ship was damaged after he escaped Earth or Before that, because in this starting mission we se our ship staying on landing pad already damaged. It can be this state because Ruin attack or maybe - because training process in space was really hard)

First of all: titanium spear. Midgame. Really? Second - Protectorate sword - one of the most powerful unique weapon in game (OK. After upgrading it in ancient anvil, but still)

I can agreed with that, but it is still my favorite cartoon sci-fi game. And here someone tells about matter manipulator does not matter!

 

The Protector's Broadsword can't be upgraded in an ancient anvil. It's in fact a tier 7 weapon, so it's 1 tier higher than all other weapons in the game. I don't get why it's like I'm the only one that checks this, consdering that it's really different from the Broken Broadsword (Which is the initial wepaon that is repaired into a Protector's Broadsword).

 

I really need to revisit this anvil with all my weapons. So many things that i really forgot what was upgraded by me and what was this powerful from the beginning. Anyway thank you for this reply. And we still need more protectorate related blocks and items.

 

bad written story is bad written, thats why.

so they have to do's on other sol system planets yte no one ever made any teleporters between them? YEAH SURE!!! At leats only earth was destroyed. So wheres the connection to the rest? well guess the author forgot about it on intention because no one wanted to code difficult sesne making features.

I mean think about it, the protactorate acts around the ENTIRE universe!!!
At exactly that day of out graduation the entire protectorate - the old retirement granny is present at earth and dies (yeah what convinient story huh?). Especially ex leader granny would surely be rpesent as well as a honorable guest during such an important all member gathering, wouldn't she?

The only sense you can find in this story is nonsense. Happens when you slap something together in a rush.