Ultronomicon - User contributions [en]

Taalo Shield

2011-12-04T20:01:15Z

Keybounce: Not required; can wait for the Kor-Ar cleanse.

[[Image:Taalo shield.png|right|72px]]
The '''Taalo Shield''' is an incredibly valuable, experimental, defensive weapon and the last known artifact of the ancient [[Taalo]] race. Alone of all members of the [[Sentient Milieu]], the Taalo were somehow (usually attributed to their unique, mineral-like biology) immune to psychic compulsion from the [[Dnyarri]] conquerors. The pacifistic Taalo, unwilling to take up arms against their former friends, worked desperately to find an artificial method of imbuing this immunity into the minds of non-Taalo. Unfortunately, they were unable to complete development of such a device in time to stop the Dnyarri conquest, and when hordes of Dnyarri-controlled [[Ur-Quan]] attacked the Taalo homeworld, only one Shield (complete or not) had been constructed before the Taalo's final disappearance. [[The Captain]]'s research on the ancient Taalo allows him to recover this device from the Taalo [[Delta Vulpeculae II-C|homeworld]] 20,000 years later, at which time it plays a crucial role in the events of [[Star Control II]].

The Taalo used technology similar to their own biology to build the heavy Shield, which appears to the naked eye as a huge, glowing boulder. The subtlety and complexity of their engineering is staggering, surpassing even the genius of the [[Chenjesu]]. All Human attempts to analyze the Shield show it to be nothing more than a naturally fluorescing, igneous dike constantly radiating energy across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, especially in the red-infrared band. Its anti-psi abilities were discovered by accident; even in its quiescent state, any [[esper rating|esper]]-capable [[Human]]s who approach it are plagued by headaches and mental confusion. Experimentation discovers that running even a small electric current anywhere on the Shield's surface greatly multiplied this effect until all [[psychon]] interaction in the Shield's vicinity is completely canceled, at least to the limits of measurements available by Human methods.

The device confers almost complete psychic immunity to beings within a certain range. However, since the immunity is not impenetrable, the [[Talking Pet (device)|neo-Dnyarri]] is still able to compel The Captain to perform minor actions against his will (such as talking about flowers or not killing him), as well as to read the crew members' minds.

==Gameplay notes==
===Sources of information===

The [[Melnorme]] sell information that intimates that the Taalo had created a psionic nullifier device just before they were wiped out.

===Acquisition===

There are three ways to deal with the [[Orz]] presence guarding Delta Vulpeculae II-C in order to retrieve the Taalo Shield on the moon's surface:
* Establishing a diplomatic alliance with the Orz, who then freely allow access to the surface.
* Fighting the [[battle group]] of Orz guarding the moon and then sending a lander to retrieve the Shield.
* Waiting for the [[Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah|Kohr-Ah]] to "cleanse" the Orz, which leaves the moon unguarded.

The Shield is automatically "on" once it is in the ship's manifest.

===Relevance to the plot===

The Taalo Shield is useful for completing the game — it is impossible to obtain the [[Talking Pet (device)|Talking Pet]] without it, until the Kor-Ar cleanse the Umgah. Once the Umgah are gone, you can pick up the Talking Pet without this Shield; however, all the text messages will still reference the Shield.

{{QuestNav}}

[[Category:Devices]]
[[Category:Taalo]]

Talk:Navigation Hints

2006-05-12T17:35:42Z

Keybounce: Intercepting planets

== Intercepting planets ==

Although the page says that the nose of the ship has to hit the center of the planet, with 0.5.0 I can actually hit the planet with the middle of the ship (turn the ship 90 degrees from the direction of movement to give as large a "hit zone" as possible)

Talk:Rainbow World

2006-05-12T04:53:56Z

Keybounce: /* Clarification */

I don't disagree with the consolodation of planet info, but this page should be left how it was since rainbow worlds are part of the plot. -[[User:Fadookie|Fadookie]] 21:35, 23 Oct 2004 (CEST)

I agree. Rainbow worlds are a special case. Reverted it. The minerals page should link to this page. The text on that page is better than what we have here though, so some merging needs to be done. -- [[User:Svdb|SvdB]] 21:52, 23 Oct 2004 (CEST)

Whoops, my bad! I got so caught up in merging the planet type info I phased out. Rainbow worlds definitely need their own page. --[[User:Jacius|Jacius]] 03:27, 26 Oct 2004 (CEST)

== Clarification ==

"You need to orbit the planet for it to be registered. A surface scan is not required."
There are three things that you can do when in proximity with a planet:
# orbit it, then leave without scanning it at all
# orbit it and perform a simple scan
# orbit it, perform a simple scan, then perform a surface scan (and possibly send down a lander)
I know that a surface scan is not required, but can you leave without performing a simple scan (this is what brings up the planet stats)?
-[[User:Fadookie|Fadookie]] 00:39, 14 Nov 2004 (CET)

:Orbiting is enough. -- [[User:Svdb|SvdB]] 13:08, 14 Nov 2004 (CET)

Argh! This is what frustrates me about the Ultronomicon -- is it an in-character encyclopedia of plot information about the game's *world*, or is it an out-of-character strategy guide telling you how to play the game?

It should either be classified as one or the other, *or* contain a strict internal organization separating one kind of content from the other, because right now it's a horrible mishmash of both in many of the articles that makes it a pain to read. Things that have both in-story plot info and out-of-story game info should be split into "Story" and "Game" sections, and this should be standardized. It's impossible to make an article sound good that talks about both the lore of the Rainbow Worlds and tells you "You can get credit for it in the game without doing a simple scan; you get 500 credits for it; this is a good way to win the game".

This is why I've tried to introduce the practice of including blatantly out-of-story facts in [brackets] and moving whole sections that are blatantly out-of-story ("Menus You Can Access at the Starbase") out of the story articles. But it's an uphill battle if other people aren't on the same page about this.[[User:130.58.248.41|130.58.248.41]]

I agree. Mixing in-story and out-of-story elemnts is not a good idea. But I do think both have their place in the Ultronomicon. I'd like it to be a reference of all things Star Control. So separate sections seems to be the way to go for me. - [[User:Svdb|SvdB]] 19:33, 22 Feb 2005 (CET)

== Formation ==
As I recall they form an arrow, but this wiki doesn't seem to say what it points to. [[User:24.37.65.110|24.37.65.110]]
: Simple -- they point to StarCon 3 :-). --[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] 06:53, 12 May 2006 (CEST)

Talk:Orz

2006-05-12T04:09:48Z

Keybounce: /* The Orz are "them" (edit of April 21) */

==Singular Orz==
It may not be an accepted theory, but I remember (from some years ago) that Orz always refers to itself a single entity. Would anyone mind if I change all the self references here to singular forms?
:Seems like a good idea. It would make sense to elaborate on this fact in the article too. Also, it may be possible that there are other entities of its kind. - [[User:Svdb|SvdB]] 23:02, 5 Oct 2004 (CEST)

It is not true that Orz '''always''' refer to themselves/itself as a single entity: ''"Who are you? You are not Orz '''We are''' Orz! Orz '''are''' happy *people energy* from the outside."'' I don't object to referring to Orz in singular in the article, I'm just pointing out that they don't always refer to themselves singularly. Although I haven't seen them refer to themselves as "'''the''' Orz" (like a species), only "Orz" (like a name for a person).

I'd say that only one thing is really known about Orz: it's very difficult to understand them :) And this music is totally bonkers! --[[User:Jacius|Jacius]] 03:50, 25 Oct 2004 (CEST)

Looking again, it seems the Orz only occasionaly refer to themselves in the singular (ie, "Orz is go with you same place for *party*"), or at least not very often at all. Although, they refer to lots of other singular things in the plural... --[[User:Jacius|Jacius]] 04:45, 25 Oct 2004 (CEST)

Not wanting to throw a new spanner in all of this or anything, but one of the quotes made me a little curious; "Aha! I am told other Orz cousins you are connected for camping! I am so right!" I'm kind of intrigued by this. If the Orz are all one entity, who are the "cousins"? Other IDF races? [[User:Luminar|Luminar]] 3:02, 22 Feb 2006 (CEST)

----

Whoever 147.72.117.19 is, that last edit for Orz was awesome! Much clearer. It's they way I was going to make it if I had had the time.

[[User:Mmrnmhrm|Mmrnmhrm]] 17:04, 7 Oct 2004 (CEST)

==Evidence==
I moved the Evidence section to my own User page.

I added a bit about how Orz enjoy TrueSpace more than where they came from. My evidence for this is on my User page. (Conversations 1 and 2) --[[User:Jacius|Jacius]] 04:45, 25 Oct 2004 (CEST)

The Orz only occasionally refer to "Orz" in the third person singular. Moreover, the accepted usage in *all the rest* of the game is to call the Orz "the Orz" and refer to them in the plural. Since we're not writing the whole article in Orzese, there's no point in using an occasional Orzese usage exclusively for the Orz, and it's really a pretty annoying way to write. Even though I accept the "hivemind" theories tentatively, I still feel like the fact that the Orz *appear* as a race of separate life forms means we should do what the other characters in the game do and call them "the Orz". I also think that the most interesting explanations go beyond the naive idea of a hivemind -- that there's one individual Orz whose mind works the way an individual Human mind works, and that it manipulates the Orz bodies as puppets. I think it's more interesting to think that the individual Orz somehow *are* equivalent to individual Humans, only all jacked in to some higher-level being we Human individuals can't imagine (the way we're made of lots and lots of individual cells that all work together in a way an amoeba couldn't imagine, rather than really being one single cell that controls a lot of other cells.)

-----------------

Look, people. This is a wiki, not a discussion forum. If you want to add something, integrate it into the existing article or if necessary do a full rewrite of the article. But don't just drop in your own comments in a conversational style, as comments. We *don't have* threaded posting here; can you imagine what a royal mess each article would look like if everyone just posted all the comments they had on that topic there separately? If you must do that the proper place for it is these talk pages, but even here it should be at a minimum -- there are plenty of actual bulletin boards and forums and such for this kind of discussion.

This entire theories section is a mess. I'll try to clean it up a bit. Btw, judging by the IP number, this "people" is actually one person, on whom you commented in the Juffo-Wup article before. Yeah, I know, it can be annoying when people refuse to create an account. -- [[User:Svdb|SvdB]] 16:56, 31 Mar 2005 (CEST)

== The Orz are the Androsynth ==

By a conversation with the Arilou it's achieved that actually the Orz were Androsynth in the past:
"They have names, but you do not know them. They are blind to your presence, unless you show yourself. The Androsynth showed themselves, and something noticed them. There are no Androsynth now, only Orz." [[User:Zoltan|Zoltan]]

- I suppose assimilation could be one of the reasons for the Androsynth's disappearance, as opposed to consumption or disintegration. This could possibly apply to the Taalo too, if we knew how long a *piece* is to humans. But whereas the Androsynth brought the Orz to us, the Taalo might have accidentally brought themselves to the Orz. (As a friendly aside, an easy way to do a signature is to type four tilde(~) at the end of your post) [[User:Luminar|Luminar]] 16:57, 5 March 2006 (CET)

== The Orz are "them" (edit of April 21) ==

I was responsible for the edit claiming that the Orz were confirmed as "them," based on this bit from the October 18 chat:

<em>
<LordR-man> Fwiffo- What really happened to the Androsynth in sc2?<br>
<Fwiffo> In regards to the Androsynth: They were snagged by the entity who/which projected its fingers into our dimension (which looked to us as the Orz.)
</em>

It's pretty clear to me that this is saying that the Orz are how we perceive the "fingers" of the entity that snagged the Androsynth, i.e. the Orz are "them." What do '''you''' think it means? [[User:Peejaybee|Peejaybee]] 04:44, 25 April 2006 (CEST)

What '''I''' think is irrelevant. What's only relevant is what is said. "Them/They" does not necessarilly refer to "whoever snagged the Androsynth". These are the phrases that refer to "Them":
:There are parasites. Creatures who dwell Beyond. They have names, but you do not know them. They would like to find you but they are blind to your presence... unless you show yourselves.
and
:They cannot see you now. They cannot smell you.
That's all that is said about them. These sentences are mentioned in close proximity to sentences about the Orz ("The Androsynth showed themselves, and something noticed them. There are no more Androsynth now. Only Orz."), but it does not actually say that they are the same. In fact, it reads to me like TFB have taken care *not* to say that.

The question is not whether "whoever snagged the Androsynth" is the "Orz" — the chat was unambigous about that — but whether They are "whoever snagged the Androsynth", which is the as the question whether They are the Orz. And that's what this whole section of the article is about.
— [[User:Svdb|SvdB]] 11:52, 25 April 2006 (CEST)

:I agree with SvdB on this one. If anything, TFB's comments would belong on the next section "Orz killed the Androsynth". Also, there is one other mention of a "Them", from the reports for the Androsynth ruins:
::''...HE SAID THAT NO ONE COULD EVER KNOW WHAT HE HAD LEARNED. THAT JUST KNOWING WAS ENOUGH TO ALERT `THEM'
::''HE KEPT TALKING ABOUT `THEM', CRAZY STUFF, SIR, ABOUT HOW `THEY' COULD SEE HIM NOW, AND `THEY' WERE MOVING TOWARD HIM. THEN BUKOWSKI STARTED THRASHING AROUND THE ROOM, SCREAMING THAT HE HAD TO DESTROY EVERYTHING BEFORE `THEY' SAW US TOO.''
:This still doesn't claim that "They" killed the Androsynth, but is very similar to the Arilou's comments previously mentioned. --[[User:Fyzixfighter|Fyzixfighter]] 17:13, 25 April 2006 (CEST)

Oh right, that is the real source of "Them". The Bukowski Them don't even have to be the Arilou Them.
— [[User:Svdb|SvdB]] 09:37, 26 April 2006 (CEST)

: Any likelyness that the "Them" and the spathi "Ultimate Evil" are the same? --[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] 06:09, 12 May 2006 (CEST)