Archipelago (Completed)

[Explorer of Time]

Mission 76/83: Into the Void

In search of the hidden Xel'naga that attacked us, we sent a huge army of Protoss, Terran and Zerg troops into the Void, led by Stukov and the Kerrigan Clone. We were attacked on all fronts, but survived the initial assault and built up a huge army of Devourers, every Terran Mercenary we had, and Protoss... well... I kinda ignored them aside from base defenses and their economy.

Once we had our army built up, we destroyed every Void Construct in our sight and slaughtered countless Void Shadows, Xel'naga-created fascimiles of our own units of all three races. When reaching the end, we found the last Xel'naga, a being called Narud, and killed him in seconds. The Kerrigan clone absorbed some kind of energy from him, becoming vastly more powerful and getting much stronger abilities, but losing all the abilities we gained for her.

From now on, due to the Kerrigan clone's ascension, all Kerrigan levels, Crushing Grip, Infest Broodlings, Spawn Banelings, and Apocalypse are now completely useless. We have no more levels where we control regular Kerrigan.

We also found some treasure in the void, but little of it is of much use. We found a Full Heal, Ether, and Ganlon Berry for Arcaneum's LeafGreen, a PP Up for Jbsundown's Crystal, and an Ill Witch Yu-Gi-Oh card for Arcaneum. Finally, from dissecting the slain Xel'naga, we gave our Brood Lords a Porous Cartilage, making them faster and harder to kill, not that we ever plan to use them instead of Devourers for the last two missions with Zerg.

We plan to remain in the Void for now to study the Kerrigan clone's new abilities.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Mission 77/83: Amon's Fall

Soon after bringing the Kerrigan clone to the testing ground in the void, we were attacked by many more Void Shadows and Void Constructs just like those commanded by Narud. We fought these off, built an army of Devourers, and destroyed the seven Void Crystals that were powering the attack, only for our scientists to give us disturbing information.

Not only was Kerrigan now a Xel'naga, as far as the Void was concerned, but the power she absorbed from Narud had given her the ability to fight back against the mind control we've been using on her to control our entire Zerg army. Her subconscious control of these Void Entities has been directed toward attacking herself, and if she manages to slay herself, she'll reincarnate like a phoenix, and be reborn completely free from our control. The Zerg hivemind being what it is, she'd take all of our Zerg forces with her.

To prevent this disastrous outcome, I'm ordering that the Kerrigan clone be placed in Stasis as soon as possible, with our strongest Terran troops guarding her, and Protoss under Artanis and Zagara's Zerg Brood guarding the flanks. There, she'll remain until the Battle of Shakuras is over, at which time we'll be able to decide upon a way to fix this problem.

We only found a single item in this location in the Void: a Sharp Beak that fell from the final Void Crystal. We gave it to Jbsundown, in the fittingly-named Pokemon Crystal.

 

[Setsuna]

Sees the Cut HM example differently. Would be happy to not waste time on it. (Presumably looked ahead.) Also prefers picking up 2 item balls that someone can use over 8 item balls that includes a bunch of finished games, to use a different example. Could stem from playing Archipelago solo a lot (and watching randomizers/multiworlds for far longer) or something else. Shrugs.

Automatically releases all the items in your world upon completing your game, to be clear. Never benefits the completed game to use !collect.

No hard deadline, no. Estimated a (very rough) 2-3 week runtime for this in the first post, though. Hits the 2-week mark in about an hour from this post. Hates to keep people past the estimate, rough as it was. May have obligations beyond then that prevent them from playing.

I think I can understand that. It's probably just personal preference then, as I definitely see where you're coming from, but still disagree. But again, I'm one person in a group event playing one short game that's nearly complete. With how few checks there are in my game I don't really think I'd find myself in the scenario of being happy I wouldn't waste time on something. I think I've gotta do another one of these and get more involved before I can comment further from first-hand experience. I'm also just a completionist by heart, so I'd want to go out of my way to pick up everything and see it as my own progression regardless of if an item is useful or not.

I wanted to ask about the deadline in case this was a decision being made in the interest of time, like "make it so the unfinished people have less to check so we can speed this up". Rather that's more like what do those people's schedules look like, and what's going on with them? I don't think a !collect from your game would speed me up if I was out of town and unable to play for 2 weeks, for example. So I was off the mark there. In that case, that's something people should be mentioning as early as possible to communicate with the group, but y'know...
Instead of saying "this is something I'm strongly against" I think it's more like a case-by-case basis on how each person feels about it, but then the issue for me is that one person hitting !collect would change several other people's games, it's not fully a decision being made by one person. All that being said, I wouldn't really complain if people really wanted to use it, but I wouldn't do it myself if I was running a game.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Mission 78/83: Flashpoint

Our plan to destroy the feral Zerg and the remaining Protoss opposition is proceeding excellently. Hundreds of millions of Zerg are now traveling to Shakuras, following the trail of our Psi Emitters. Yet, some of them are lingering around the waypoints worlds, and as we no longer need these waypoints now that all the feral Zerg are in range of Shakuras, we need to descend to the surface of these planets and shut down the Psi Emitters manually.

Our first planet to reclaim is Antiga Prime, a former rebellious Terran colony of ours that the Zerg saved us the trouble of having to fight, which had Psi Emitters placed by Nova to attract specific Zerg buildings to specific spots for easy elimination. We had Nova and an army of Mercenaries take out the Nydus Worms just east of our base, then the Lurker Dens just north of it to stop the Zerg from training Lurkers. We then hit the eastern Spires and Greater Spires to stop their Brood Lords and Mutalisks, then the northern Baneling Dens and Ultralisk Caverns to destroy their Baneling and Ultralisk production. Once that was done, all we had to do was head to the Northeast and raze the Zerg base there to shut down the fifth and final Psi Emitter.

We found a whopping 14 items here. For 5qwerty's FireRed, we found a TM09 (Bullet Seed) in a Nydus Network, a Cheri Berry in a Spire, and an Antidote in a Baneling Nest. We also cleared out the subways in the city and found two Pieces of Heart for Alex's LttP. For Arcaneum, we found a valuable Ruby in a Greater Spire, a Timer Ball in a Lurker Den, a Potion lying on the ground in the northeast, and a valuable HM06 (Rock Smash) near the second Psi Emitter.

We found more starting minerals for ourselves in an Ultralisk Cavern, as well as Protoss Signifiers hiding near the third Psi Emitter. For confused_piplup, we found an undetonated Jumbo Bomb lodged inside a Zerg Hatchery near our base. We figured out a way to boost Sora's HP from a "Max HP Up" book we found near the fourth Psi Emitter, and the fifth and final Psi Emitter was located in a trade school for training new farmers. While most of the information we found there was for farming on extraterrestrial planets, we still found enough new information applicable to Stardew Valley to increase PoryKid's Farming Level.

With the Psi Emitters destroyed, the feral Zerg are now moving on from Antiga Prime to Shakuras. However, Nova has been acting... off, after the mission. It's possible the memory wipe to erase the details of her original Psi-Emitter-planting mission might have failed, and she may have some lingering memories or guilt. Since this information being made public would be damaging to our rule, I'll make sure her next mission to Borea is her last.

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

Views Archipelago through a different lens. Learned about multiworlds before hearing about Archipelago. Only linked up Link to the Past games. Watched people play it in real-time. Always kept routing in mind. Asked "What will get items the quickest?". Do you head into Palace of Darkness without a Bow for quicker checks, knowing you cannot complete it, or do you do slower, out-of-the-way checks like the smith chain? Do you skip Ice Rod Cave until you get the Flute/Pegasus Boots? That kind of thing. Thinks like this to minimize people getting stuck and waiting for items.

Caught some videos of people playing Archipelago, eventually. Played in real-time also. Set their goals with available time in mind (sometimes). May not have time to do 7 crystal Ganon. Maybe 4 crystal Ganon, though. Personally liked the lower requirements. Spices up the game when you may not enter a dungeon for a few seeds in a row. Grumbles at the trip through Castle Tower, for example. Sees it rarely enough to be a little special.

Never actually saw or played Archipelago asynchronously like this, as a note, except for the faster-paced competitive GT Archipelago. (Knew this style existed, though.) Remains in the usual mindset of time efficiency. What item gets you the most items for other people? How quickly can you beat the game and send out everything?

Must strike a balance of time and gameplay, of course. Points to Terraria with its Mechanical Bosses goal. Only requires 1 item to beat the game (Hard Mode). Ends way too quickly. Decides between Golem (several required items, but easy boss) and Moon Lord (fewer required items, longer checks, but harder boss) goals usually. Excludes a couple of annoying checks, like the 1 in 1000 key drop or the Blood Moon fishing Hard Mode boss.

Circles back around to !collect. What still makes that interesting, personally-speaking? Forces you to re-evaluate your usual routes. Normally avoids leveling Foraging to 10 in Stardew Valley. Could be a different story if levels 5-10 still have items after, say, 10 games out of 23 have collected their items.

I... Honestly don't know how to respond to that reply, so my thoughts pretty much line up with what Setsuna said about it lol. 😅
Edit: But it's really neat how you got interested in multiworlds, though!

 

[Explorer of Time]

Mission 79/83: Sudden Strike

We sent Nova to the planet Borea, the second of our three Psi Emitter waypoints, near a very sparse resource patch that wouldn't actually be enough to sustain her defense. We tasked her with destroying a nearby Zerg base, blowing up the planet's Psi Emitter, and defending a couple civilian bases until they could be evacuated. However, apart from the two Hercules transports, no evacuation was actually planned. It was our intent that Nova die on this world before she could become a threat to us.

Nova, to her credit, trained a large army of Goliaths equipped with Jump Jets, actually managed to destroy the Zerg base, and also found our missing Defender of Man Ghost and decapitated her, near the Psi Emitter she destroyed shortly afterwards. She also found a Blizzard Book for confused_piplup in Borea's Weaponry Labs, and a Hard Hat for Ness and his allies in the Research Center. Later on, she was attacked by a Brutalisk, which was genetically analyzed and determined to have, for some reason, vestigial genes related to cheating at cards, and the analysis should increase 5qwerty's Bonus Hand Size in Balatro.

After this, as expected, Nova came under an overwhelming Zerg attack, which wiped out most of her Goliaths and spelled certain death for her... or so we thought. Taking us completely by surprise, James Raynor took the Hyperion and two of our other three Battlecruisers, defying direct orders in doing so, and landed upon the planet to rescue Nova and the un-evacuated civilians. We blasted two of the battlecruisers out of the sky, but the Hyperion escaped and fled the system, with Nova aboard.

With Nova gone, the Hellfire Shotgun, Blazefire Gunblade, Ghost Visor, and Ionic Force Field items are now useless. We will not control Nova on any of the four remaining missions. For that matter, three of these are played as Protoss, and the fourth as all three factions, so Automated Refinery and Automated Extractor are now also useless since I can just warp in the already-upgraded Assimilators for my Vespene instead. I had already hinted for the Refinery, but still don't have it and now I'm past the point where it would have helped me.

Only one Psi Emitter waypoint remains, Endion. Shakuras is now under an extremely heavy Zerg assault and the Protoss have called for a total evacuation of all civilians on the planet, and we have generously offered to take them in. We have, however, not extended the same privilege to their military, for obvious reasons.

 

[Devalue]

Earthbound (Part 9)

Received the Winters Teleport from 5qwerty. Accesses only one item by itself. Stockpiled multiple things to improve that: Letter for Tony from Explorer of Time, Pak of Bubble Gum from Explorer of Time, and the Eraser Eraser from 5qwerty. Adds up to 30 items and a Sanctuary. Marks the first time going into the Boarding School and into the Underground Base in three Archipelago seeds, also.

Estimates these enemies to be about their normal selves, based on experience values. Previously forgot the listed experience was divided between the party.

Reports nothing too amazing from most of the checks. Saw Blackboard for 5qwerty's Balatro, another Torn Page for Cherrim, a now-useless Rusty Key for Juno, and a Journey of the Prairie King upgrade + Mining level for Porykid. Helps a little, at least.

Found Jeff in one of the presents right near the end of the underground base, behind the Eraser Eraser. (Actually pretty fitting. Stuffed kidnapped people in the very next room.) Steps in at level 50, which is respectable. Dove into storage to equip him. Had the Moon Beam Gun from 5qwerty (obtained probably an hour ago), which is Jeff's second best weapon. Notably equipped a Rabbit's Foot from Alex_Among_Foxes too. Greatly increases the power of Multi Bottle Rockets. Ought to trivialize Giygas.

Crushed the Starman Deluxe at the very end without it getting a turn. Worried more about the normal enemies more that it. Expected more out a Sphere 7 boss. Where are all the scaled up enemies? Just Onett and Dungeon Man? Admittedly paid attention during Shrooom!, the Sanctuary boss on the way to the Underground Base. Stuck a mushroom on Paula's head (see: confusion). Also contended with Life-up Gamma, which is a full heal.

Remaining items:

• Key to the Locker: 4 items
• Key to the Shack: 4 items + Sanctuary
• Jar of Fly Honey: 11 items + Sanctuary
• Meteorite Piece: 3 items + final boss
• Diamond: 1 item
• Franklin Badge: 1 item

Sits at 90.44% completion and 6/8 Sanctuaries. Cannot say how many Sanctuaries are required yet.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Interlude 2: Embers of Rebellion

KOPRULU FEDERATION LISTENING DEVICE 466B2E
BATTLECRUISER HYPERION
IN HIGH ORBIT OVER BOREA
13:27-13:34 9.18.2504

VOICE ID MATCH PROBABILITY:
James "Jim" Raynor: 96.68%
November "Nova" Terra: 98.47%
Alexei Stukov (Infested): 80.71%

TELEPATHIC COMMUNICATION ID MATCH PROBABILITY:
Vorazun: 74.30%

BEGIN AUDIO LOG:

Raynor: "It's OK, Nova, you're safe now."

Nova: "I... thanks, I guess. What happened?"

Raynor: "Our old Freebooter pals lied to you. They were never going to evacuate Borea, they were going to leave you all to die."

Nova: "Raynor... I... on Antiga Prime, before the Zerg attacked I planted what the Magistrate told me were devices to protect against the Zerg... but... I think they were Psi Emitters."

Raynor: "She had you plant WHAT?! Listen, the Magistrate and I defected from the Dominion because Mengsk deployed Psi Emitters on Tarsonis and left Kerrigan to die. And now that she's in his position, she did the exact same thing. (inaudible)ing hell, this can't be happening again."

Nova: "There was a Psi Emitter on Borea too, though I don't think I planted this one. I... thank you, Raynor,

Vorazun: "{By the gods, if the Magistrate is behind the Zerg attacks on Antiga Prime, then Shakuras...}"

Raynor: "... is the Magistrate's doing, I know. Damnit, I thought after everything (inaudible)"

Vorazun: "{We need to warn the Protoss still under the Magistrate's command. If she's willing to do this to Nova, there's no telling how many Protoss she'll lead to the slaughter on Shakuras's surface. Gods, she could even sabotage the Temple in a way that could destroy the entire planet. She could purge her army of anyone suspected of even the slightest disloyalty and it would look like a freak accident to everyone else...}"

Stukov: "We don't have communications with Shakuras Fleet, our comm relays in the system went down minutes after we picked up Nova. It will take days to reach it and I fear we may be too late."

Raynor: "I'll do what I can. Swann, give the engines all they've got and set a heading for Shakuras. And if this doesn't work out..."

Vorazun: "{Then I will mourn my home planet, and then I will join you in rebellion against the Federation no matter how hopeless the odds. The Protoss are a courageous people no mattter where we live, and if we survived the Zerg, we can survive to fight on no matter whether we hold Shakuras or not."

Nova: "I'm in too. I need to make things right for what I did on Antiga Prime..."

Raynor: "...It's not your fault, how could you know?"

Nova: "... and I'll be with you no matter what, whether we save Shakuras or lose it. The Magistrate must die for what she did".

Stukov: "I will take what Zerg I have, and join you as well. It is funny, in a way. When I originally came to this sector with UED, we had three objectives. Take control of the Zerg Swarm, conquer all the rogue Terran colonies, and pacify the Protoss. And now, with the Koprulu Federation on the verge of completing our objectives for us, I am rebelling against them! I wish Gerard were here. He would appreciate the irony."

END AUDIO LOG

BEGIN AUDIO SPLICING:

Raynor: "I~deployed Psi Emitters on Tarsonis and left Kerrigan to die."

Nova: "I planted~Psi Emitters~on Antiga Prime,~Shakuras~and~Borea~the Magistrate must die."

Vorazun: "{We need to~sabotage the Temple in a way that could destroy the entire planet. Lead~her army~to the slaughter on Shakuras's surface. I will join you in rebellion against the Federation no matter how hopeless the odds.}"

Stukov: "Conquer all the rogue Terran colonies~for~the~UED."

AUDIO SPLICING COMPLETE, SENT TO KOPRULU FEDERATION PROPAGANDA MINISTRY, FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION

 

[Explorer of Time]

Mission 80/83: Unsealing the Past

Only one Psi Emitter waypoint yet remains for us to deactivate: Endion. Since this planet's Psi Emitters are protected by Stasis Locks, we had to use a custom-built Megalith to deactivate all five of them. To escort the monolith, we sent our starting Colossi, plus some Instigators, Annihilators, and Destroyers to protect it, and kept pace with it as it disarmed all five of them. We actually finished wiping out the Zerg on this map as it was disarming the fourth emitter, so we spent a few minutes waiting for it to reach the end.

We found a few treasures left on this map, four from the Stasis Locks and a fifth from a Power Core that we destroyed. This power core had Enhanced Cloak Fields for our Protoss Arbiters, and we also got Incinerator Gauntlets for our Terran Firebats to use in their final mission. The other stasis locks had 15 Qi Gems for PoryKid's Stardew Valley, and a Lemonade and Gold Teeth for Arcaneum's LeafGreen. You know, it's honestly impressive that the Safari Zone Warden managed to lose his Gold Teeth on an entirely different planet. Then again, he did have a pet Hydralisk.

In any case, we are ready to fight the Zerg on Shakuras, at long last. There are only three missions left, only 14 more items. Though I have saved the hardest for last, I plan to finish this game today.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Mission 81/83: In Utter Darkness

Now that all the Zerg are being drawn to Shakuras, the time for us to attack has come. Our first stage, having identified those Protoss who would most object to our planned destruction of the planet, was to send them into battle on the side of the planet directly opposite the Xel'naga Temple, where they would protect a new Titanic Psi Emitter until it could be safely sealed deep underground. To do this, we massed Destroyers, alongside an Arbiter once we had reinforcements warp in from Shakuras's remaining military forces, which we combined with their Shield of Aiur Mothership to cloak our entire army.

With everything cloaked, we were able to far exceed the 1500 kills required of us, and managed to slay a whopping 7820 Zerg, including 857 Hybrid. Since we had a total of 388 units across the mission, that's a kill/death ratio of 20.15 in our favor, and even if restricted to the ultra-powerful Hybrid units, that still a kill/death ratio of 2.21 in our favor. Still, that's a drop in the bucket compared to the 1,500,000,000 Zerg incoming that we plan to slay with the Xel'naga Temple.

Raynor's Raiders failed to notify our Protoss in time, and as a result there was no retreat. Every single Protoss I deployed this mission, including our starting hero Zeratul, was killed in action. Despite this, we did warp out several items from the wreckage of the battle, including an Everstone for 5qwerty's FireRed, a Lum Berry and Pecha Berry for Arcaneum's LeafGreen, a Tri-horned Dragon Yu-Gi-Oh Card for our last gift to Arcaneum's Forbidden Memories before its completion, a Cure Element for Cherrim's KH2, a Rare Candy for Raven's Gen 1 Pokemon game, and 7 Coins for Vendily.

With the Titanic Psi Emitter in place, and hundreds of Hybrid killed, our troops have a much better path to the Xel'naga Temple and can much more easily arm and detonate it. We have two missions remaining, and our penultimate mission is Last Stand.

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

Just thought I'd make a quick update. All I need for 'GO Mode' in Zelda 1 is my last 3 Triforce pieces, but my Raft and Recorder (flute) will let me get the rest of the non-Ganon locked checks. And all I need for 'Go Mode' in ALttP is my Flippers and Bombos Medallion. I should be able to blitz LttP real fast since Ganon is already reachable, just not killable until I have all the crystals.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Mission 82/83: Last Stand

Now that the Zerg are distracted, we landed a force of Protoss near the Xel'naga Temple itself without heavy opposition, fortified it as much as we could with Khaydarin Monoliths, Photon Cannons, and an army of Destroyers, and waited for all 1.53 billion feral Zerg to land on Shakuras. The battle took us half an hour, as despite the massive assault we faced last time, only 50 million feral Zerg had actually landed on Shakuras at that time.

When the time came to activate the Temple, our Protoss guardians were unaware that we had orbitally bombarded the three Zenith Stones keeping the Temple from overloading and destroying the entire planet of Shakuras. When the Temple was activated, it set off a Psionic chain reaction that cracked the planet open like an egg and killed all 1.53 billion Zerg. Our Protoss soldiers were warped back ab... just kidding, we let them all die too; they're loose ends that could expose our fault in the destruction of Shakuras, and we already have Raynor's Raiders to serve as a perfect scapegoat.

We got our last items from this mission (our final mission having only an Eksir Berries for the already-completed FF12), but most of it was junk. We got a Box of Shotgun Shells from the West Zenith Stone, and a Glitter Mail and Moomoo Milk for 5qwerty's FireRed from the North and East Zenith Stones, respectively. When the counter hit one billion Zerg, we found a Wave Mail, also for 5qwerty's FireRed, and a Dive Ball for Arcaneum's LeafGreen right before ending the mission at 1.5 Billion Zerg. Our only worthwhile item, and the final item for an incomplete game that we obtained, was the Vagabond Joker for 5qwerty's Balatro.

We now have absolute control over the Koprulu Sector. There only remains a single threat to our rule. It's time to go back into the Void and deal with the Kerrigan clone, once and for all.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Mission 83/83: The Essence of Eternity

Our final mission was a bit of an anticlimax. We played yet another defensive mission, but with all three factions under our command, and we didn't face any substantial opposition. I built an army mainly of Terran mercenaries and some Zerg Devourers, and protected the Kerrigan clone from the Void Shadows that attacked us while we drained her new Xel'naga power. The level ended soon enough that I didn't even have time to get my static defenses built up, though our hero Artanis was slain during the battle. (Zagara technically would have been killed too, but due to a glitch, she, and only she, is immortal in this map.) There were no items here.

This is a really weird map to end on, narratively speaking, even by this After Action Report's standards, so I'll just say that the Kerrigan clone reverted to the Koprulu Federation's mind-control after the battle, and not much else of consequence happened. I would've had the last mission be my end mission if I got to set my own goal. Still, I had a lot of fun writing these mission summaries. If I ever do another SC2 Archipelago, I'm going to headcanon my forces as Raynor's Raiders and their allies fighting back against the evil empire I built in this one. However, writing so much was tiring, so I will likely do shorter summaries next time. I will definitely leave out the listing of every item, unless it's a Progression item or something really entertaining. I do plan to write an epilogue post to bring some proper closure to the story, however.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Epilogue: No End of History

After all those battles, all the death and destruction, the Koprulu Sector finally stood unified under a single banner, that of the newly-formed Koprulu Federation. What such society did we fight to create? How did the people of Koprulu feel about all this? Was it all worth it?

The answer to that last question is no. It wasn't. The life of the average Terran in the Koprulu sector, quite frankly, still kinda sucks. The Federation may have been slightly less oppressive than the Terran Dominion, but it more than made up for it in corruption. Its system of government could be described as a "mafia state", where former space pirates such as the Mar Sara Magistrate or Mira Han had become presidents, governors, and generals, and there was little distinction between where the government ended and organized crime began. The new elite lived lives of unimaginable luxury in the core worlds, while the working class had simply traded the boot of government oppression for the boot of corporate oppression.

Korhal, in particular, would never truly recover from the scars of war, becoming little more than a desolate backwater as all who had the means to leave it, did so. It remained a world of ghost towns, and outlaws trading shots across the wastelands, despite the failed attempts by the Federation to heal the damage done by Tychus's mutineers. The Magistrate moved the Federation's capital to the planet Mar Sara, heavily developing her homeworld and building the seat of government near the former Dominion outpost of Backwater Station.

Still, there were a few upsides for the Terrans, as a Terran-dominated polity had been the ultimate winner of the Koprulu Wars. The practice of neural resocialization of criminals was outlawed, as was conscription. Children with psionic potential were no longer kidnapped by the government for Ghost training. Almost all newly-discovered habitable planets were given over to Terrans. And the new Federation did have token constitutional freedoms that were, on occasion, actually enforced.

The Zerg hivemind, enslaved by Federation psychics via a clone of the Queen of Blades, just like the Second Overmind before it, had ceased to expand, and many former infested worlds were purified and terraformed for Terran or occasionally Protoss settlement. Many Federation officials called for the Zerg to be completely eradicated, but the Magistrate ordered that they stay around, at least at a smaller scale, in case any threat that required them reared its head. In the end, the Zerg were reduced to a mere few dozen hive clusters, with total Zerg populations falling below the low hundred thousands.

The Protoss, on the other hand, had at long last completed their fall from glory. Having no more worlds to call their own, they dispersed throughout Terran space as an impoverished and exploited underclass. The Tal'darim, hunted to near-extermination by the Highlord Alarak's ill-fated attempt to scam the Magistrate, were by far the worst-off of the Protoss factions. A scant few, who had turned traitor and assisted the Freebooters and later the Federation against Alarak, were allowed to live. The Purifiers were reprogrammed as mere tools of the Federation military, much like the Zerg. They would dwindle in number, with time, as the Federation lacked the means or the motivation to create more of them.

Most of the Khalai had been enslaved by Amon and slain on Aiur, but the few who had survived were granted privileges above the other Protoss. In particular, members of the Ara Tribe who had loathed the Nerazim and longed to regain the power they had under the Conclave were granted some of that power over their fellow Protoss, and many were integrated into the Federation military. A few even managed to join the ranks of the ruling class.

Last, and most numerous of the Protoss, were the Nerazim. They were, officially, citizens of the Federation, but were placed under constant suspicion by their Terran neighbors, and discrimination against them was more rampant than against any other Protoss faction. The suspicion was only worsened by the fact that many Nerazim did rebel against the Federation, with those who had the ability to cloak using it in guerrilla attacks against remote Federation outposts. Still, with their military slain with Shakuras, they had little hope of actually bringing down Federation rule.

The Koprulu sector was, at long last, united. For the first time since the Zerg attacked Chau Sara, there was peace among the stars. But for how long? For now, none knew. The few rebels left had little to no success against such an overwhelming force. But, in time, corruption and institutional rot would weaken the Federation enough that its detractors might fight against it openly. One such group of rebels, the united Terran, Protoss, and Zerg crew of the Battlecruiser Hyperion, would one day spark a revolution that would bring it to its knees. But that is a tale for another Archipelago.

 

[Setsuna]

Happy to announce I've completed my mission! Thank you for gathering the keys I needed way faster than I expected! It was an absolute pleasure to be part of this and if/whenever it happens again, I'd love to be notified and invited! Thanks a bunch for hosting!

 

[Cherrim]

Finished! I'm not sure who's left to complete after me but everything's been released. At least one of Aaron's badges is in the list but if anyone else was waiting on something, you might have it now! (I had like 100 checks released lmao.)

This was fun, thank you for running it! I think next time we play I'll feel confident enough to play two games so even if I get super gated in one game for progression, I can still feel like I'm being useful by doing another game at the same time lol. It might also be a good idea to have the list of players in the op thread and strike out the games as they're completed so we can see at a glance what's left or what's important. Or use a spreadsheet so it doesn't all fall to the organizer to keep stuff updated, especially since we were a bit split between discord and forums for individual updates. I think it would've been helpful for people like me who only had stuff to do every few days and ended up a bit out of the loop as to who had completed and who hadn't. Even now I'm not sure who's still working on their games since I went nearly a week with nothing to do but suuuper grindy stuff that probably wasn't going to end up helpful. :')

 

[Devalue]

Released TwentyExEx's Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Was not working. Released all the items, as requested. May have hid something nice in there for you, for those still playing. Puts the total completed games at 13/23.

This was fun, thank you for running it! I think next time we play I'll feel confident enough to play two games so even if I get super gated in one game for progression, I can still feel like I'm being useful by doing another game at the same time lol. It might also be a good idea to have the list of players in the op thread and strike out the games as they're completed so we can see at a glance what's left or what's important. Or use a spreadsheet so it doesn't all fall to the organizer to keep stuff updated, especially since we were a bit split between discord and forums for individual updates. I think it would've been helpful for people like me who only had stuff to do every few days and ended up a bit out of the loop as to who had completed and who hadn't. Even now I'm not sure who's still working on their games since I went nearly a week with nothing to do but suuuper grindy stuff that probably wasn't going to end up helpful. :')

Added a list to the first post. Will post it here too. (Only plans to update the one in the first post, however.)

All incomplete games

• Balatro for 5qwerty
• Pokemon Fire Red for 5qwerty
• Zelda 1 for Alex_Among_Foxes
• A Link to the Past for Alex_Among_Foxes
• Pokemon Leaf Green for Arcaneum
• Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest for _confused_piplup_
• Stardew Valley for PoryKid575
• Earthbound for Devalue
• Doom 1993 for StarstruckFlora (rafflesia on Discord)
• Pokemon Red for Roguish_Raven (on Discord)

All completed games

• Hollow Knight for 5qwerty
• Final Fantasy 12 (Open World) for Arcaneum
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories for Arcaneum
• Pokemon Crystal for Jbsundown
• Kingdom Hearts 2 for Cherrim
• Civilization 6 for Devalue
• Starcraft 2 for Explorer of Time
• Bomb Rush Cyberfunk for TwentyExEx
• Balatro for TwentyExEx (James on Discord)
• Super Mario 64 for TwentyExEx (James on Discord)
• Stardew Valley for Juno (James on Discord)
• The Messanger for Setsuna
• A Short Hike for Vendily

Edit: Corrected a few mistakes.

 

[Arcaneum]

Leaf Green is now done and by extension, all my games are now complete! Thank you for hosting Deva!

I was somewhat considering more games for the next one, but on reflection I think 3 chunky games is a nice amount for me. Always able to do a fair few things in one of them. That said, I think I'll return to Emerald over Leaf Green - definitely a nice change of scenery but I really do miss having to worry about Dexsanity! I also try to convince myself every time to drop FF12, but it's just so fun running around making random classes and seeing silly equipment to use ;A;.

Almost at the end though guys, I'd recommend getting those hints used up so it isn't dragging out as I think the last few games are probably all going to be stuck in a cluster until someone finds that important item they need!

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

Just a quick update from me. My Raft was found for Zelda 1, so now all that's left in the game are the 2 missing Triforce fragments needed to reach Ganon. I did cave and hint for them, and know I'll get them at some point soon, so I'm not concerned about that. As for ALttP, I'm currently only missing a staggering 4 major items out of all of them in the game! Very surprising! Though I only need 2 of them to win. My Flippers open the path to one of my last dungeons, and Bombos open up Turtle Rock. Once I have those two, ALttP's finished.

Edit: ALttP has indeed been finished!

 

[Explorer of Time]

Anyway, we had to retreat since a massive army of Zerg came after us, including the nigh-unkillable Queen of Blades herself, and our daring escape got us... 16 points of REP. Of course, being space pirates, we can't actually spend reputation on anything. However, the Bomb Rush Crew from New Amsterdam can, so we just lied and said they did the Ulaan Raid which should make them look cool and get all the REP in our stead.

Finally, not wanting to be retaliated against by the Queen of Blades, we framed the Bomb Rush Crew for the destruction of the Zerg base since they're already on her hit list for us framing them for Ulaan, which got them an extra 8 points of REP.

There was also a new Graffiti pattern, XL - Pirate's Life 4 Me, that we gave to the Bomb Rush Crew as compensation for us blaming them for attacking the Zerg here on Char. The Queen of Blades must be pretty mad at them now, but it got them 24 REP, so they should be better off for as long as the Zerg don't invade New Amsterdam.

and the third being "stolen" by the Bomb Rush crew to get them 8 more points of REP. We also credited them with the theft of the Odin and the destruction of the entire west base during the "heist" which got them another 32 points of REP. We figured if that the Queen of Blades never bothered to invade New Amsterdam, then the Dominion wasn't likely to as well so they were a safe scapegoat.

Finally, since we don't actually care about any of this Terrazine, we siphoned it off and told everyone else that the Bomb Rush Crew stole it all before we got here under the Tal'darim's noses, giving them 8 REP points.

and the western item was just a useless Protoss relic, so we let the fire incinerate it and told everyone the Bomb Rush Crew stole it from under our noses, getting them 8 REP.

Released TwentyExEx's Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Was not working. Released all the items, as requested. May have hid something nice in there for you, for those still playing.

Maybe repeatedly provoking an alien invasion of New Amsterdam wasn't the smartest move on my part.