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Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™What ARE the drones?(17 posts)(17 posts)
(17 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted September 16, 2011
I've had SMAC forever and while I understand Drones' function in the game and all the associated mechanics, I don't understand what they actually are in the context of the in-game universe.
Posted September 18, 2011
Well, just as talents are well-educated, happy members of society, drones are simply those elements of society that are disaffected and unhappy. I don't think there's anything more to it than that.

Now, the real question is: just what exactly are "punishment spheres" and "nerve stapling"...?
Posted October 26, 2011
I think in the GRUPS handbook for SMAC there is a entriy on nerve stapling.
Posted October 26, 2011
I assumed they were the same as the Citizens in Civilization. More drones = more resource production/ research.
Posted October 26, 2011
The Drones represent the uneducated and simple citizens. If you want to develop an good outpost try to minimize the drone populace. They will always be discontented and create problems in your empire.

Also to the comment above, more drones mean more problems. Not more workers. The talents in your base represent the good workers who are happy, educated and in upper class.

I think Nerve Stapling means that a special method is used to simply "paralyze" the drones, this means your police uses tools to simply disable the drones mentally. But this is also an atrocity and not tolerated.
Posted October 29, 2011
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junker154: I think Nerve Stapling means that a special method is used to simply "paralyze" the drones, this means your police uses tools to simply disable the drones mentally.
Nerve Stapling is very heavily implied to be some form of torture. Putting people in the Punishment Spheres is occasionally referred to as Nerve Stapling. The Spheres appear to function by torturing people into submission and are partially transparent so the victim can be seen.
Posted October 31, 2011
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junker154: I think Nerve Stapling means that a special method is used to simply "paralyze" the drones, this means your police uses tools to simply disable the drones mentally.
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Saeder: Nerve Stapling is very heavily implied to be some form of torture. Putting people in the Punishment Spheres is occasionally referred to as Nerve Stapling. The Spheres appear to function by torturing people into submission and are partially transparent so the victim can be seen.
This might be somewhat unrelated, but have you ever watched the movie "Suckerpunch"? The main character (little blond girl) is being nerve stapled at the end by this doctor who put a dagger like pointy stick in her eye. That was being refered as Nerve Stapling, only in some old fashioned way.

I do not really think that is a torture itself, I think you just mentally disable a person. He is only a human body without any conscience.
Posted February 01, 2012
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junker154: I think Nerve Stapling means that a special method is used to simply "paralyze" the drones, this means your police uses tools to simply disable the drones mentally.
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Saeder: Nerve Stapling is very heavily implied to be some form of torture. Putting people in the Punishment Spheres is occasionally referred to as Nerve Stapling. The Spheres appear to function by torturing people into submission and are partially transparent so the victim can be seen.
Note also the fate of your defeated opponents as well as the Virtual World secret project:
In both instances a person is caught in some sort of virtual reality'ish mechanism; but where the Virtual World offers happy visions of flying, defeated opponents are apparently tortured (either through some sort of electric nerve induction or nasty virtual reality) and locked away.
(Btw, the Self-Aware Colony project also seems quite horrifying)

Oh the wonders and joys of technology...
Posted March 09, 2012
From the SMAC manual:

"Drones are the unskilled, unsuitable and disgruntled among your people. They’re lazy troublemakers, and they all carry weapons. Drones have a profound effect upon social order inside a base."

From the GURPS Alpha Centauri roleplaying sourcebook:

"Nerve Stapler: A device originally designed for psychotherapy, but often applied on both Earth and Planet to deal with social dissension. When strapped to a patient's head and upper back, the nerve stapler extrudes hair-fine probes into his brain and spinal column. A psychotherapist can then use the device to inflict extreme sensations (not necessarily pain) on the patient, subjecting him to a rapid course of psychological conditioning."

The lore suggests nerve-stapled citizens become docile, obedient, and dull-witted for months, years, or forever, so it sounds like it's basically a high-tech version of psychosurgery. You're lobotomizing the dissidents both to silence them and as an example to others.

No wonder it makes you unpopular...
Posted February 04, 2013
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PocketNerd: From the SMAC manual:

"Drones are the unskilled, unsuitable and disgruntled among your people. They’re lazy troublemakers, and they all carry weapons. Drones have a profound effect upon social order inside a base."

From the GURPS Alpha Centauri roleplaying sourcebook:

"Nerve Stapler: A device originally designed for psychotherapy, but often applied on both Earth and Planet to deal with social dissension. When strapped to a patient's head and upper back, the nerve stapler extrudes hair-fine probes into his brain and spinal column. A psychotherapist can then use the device to inflict extreme sensations (not necessarily pain) on the patient, subjecting him to a rapid course of psychological conditioning."

The lore suggests nerve-stapled citizens become docile, obedient, and dull-witted for months, years, or forever, so it sounds like it's basically a high-tech version of psychosurgery. You're lobotomizing the dissidents both to silence them and as an example to others.

No wonder it makes you unpopular...
Dirty slackers who refuse to conform to the bureaucratic hive mind. They won't work, take welfare, and claim various disabilities. Best to provide them with American Idol in the Recreation Commons. If they won't tolerate that and get aggressive, lobotomize them.
Posted February 08, 2013
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madglee: Dirty slackers who refuse to conform to the bureaucratic hive mind. They won't work, take welfare, and claim various disabilities. Best to provide them with American Idol in the Recreation Commons. If they won't tolerate that and get aggressive, lobotomize them.
I suspect the parallels to real-world abuses of dissidents and "untermenschen" are intentional, yes.
Posted February 10, 2013
Having read the GURPS, nerve-staplinig does not necessarily only imply torture (delivered electronically). It also implies things similar to SOMA. An advance version of this would be the Virtual World.
Post edited February 10, 2013 by BlaneckW
Posted February 15, 2013
Nerve stapling is an atrocity in AC because it doesn't factor in whether a person is a danger to society. It's a mass mind control. That's why all talents temporarily become workers.

The metagame reason it's an atrocity is it would be gamebreaking otherwise.

Anyway the drone and talents are just carryovers from Civilization where you have unhappy, content, happy citizens with a sci-fi sounding twist.
Posted June 19, 2013
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junker154: This might be somewhat unrelated, but have you ever watched the movie "Suckerpunch"? The main character (little blond girl) is being nerve stapled at the end by this doctor who put a dagger like pointy stick in her eye. That was being refered as Nerve Stapling, only in some old fashioned way.
That seems to be a lobotomy, but I have never heard before this being named as "Nerve Stapling".

Btw, don't listen to the drones, they are filthy liars, all of them...^^
Post edited June 19, 2013 by Sdfghj
Posted September 13, 2013
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madglee: Dirty slackers who refuse to conform to the bureaucratic hive mind. They won't work, take welfare, and claim various disabilities. Best to provide them with American Idol in the Recreation Commons. If they won't tolerate that and get aggressive, lobotomize them.
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PocketNerd: I suspect the parallels to real-world abuses of dissidents and "untermenschen" are intentional, yes.
Heheheh.
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Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™What ARE the drones?(17 posts)(17 posts)
(17 posts)