**Okay, about ROTVIII, no one seems to be taking race personalities at all seriously.
Why would the Strands ally? After what, 5000 years of war? Can you imagine, after centuries of blood rivalry, Israel and Palestine allying if they were both threatened by, say, the Soviets? I don't think so. They'd fight it out as well as fighting eachother.
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I agree, but I'd think that facing an unstoppable enemy they might reconsider..
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Also, the Voinians... they don't seem very crafty to me. Cunning doesn't seem to be a big Voinian trait, they seem to just send as many big ships as they can to a system then crush it with sheer weight in numbers. Okay, so Bomb did make them different in the first two, but for realism you have to consider these points, and justify their radical changes.
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Peter Cartwright once said he saw the Voinians as stuffy bureaucrats more than anything else. I wish I had read that before I wrote the ROTV series because it's an interesting trait and certainly would have been cool to explore. Still, it's unfortunate that I had to humanize the Voinians a bit, but I originally wrote the plug-ins very coldly- along the vein of the game's missions, then realized it was really very alienating for the player and it didn't make the missions very fun. So I had to make the Voinians trust the human a bit more than in the game, and therefore, allow the player a bit more into their world.
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The Azdgari. Why does no one understand them? They're more like a pirate empire than a race. I remember a topic years ago, about who was the best race in the EVO galaxy, and it came out that Azdgari were the best and would take it all over. But really, they have no interest in conquest. They enjoy raids and minor skirmishes, constant mini battles. They don't want to take over any planets because they are a nomad race. Battle fleet? To me, the entire Azdgari 'navy' if that's what you can call it, seems to consist of little regiments of Azdara fighters or Azdgari warships. They don't really have a 'fleet' to speak of.
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That's an interesting assessment, and it certainly goes against everything the Voinians seem to be about (lining up and socking away with rockets)- which is primarily why I thought it'd be interesting to explore an alliance between them. The battlefleet references are certainly right- there doesn't seem to be very much of a chain of command among the Adzgari. But then again, galactic war changes things. Perhaps a call to arms..
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And if there had to be a Strand alliance, I think the Igadzra are the least likely of all to make an alliance with anyone , let alone one of their most hated enemies. Think traits, right? They're hostile and paranoid, just for you to join them you have to do all crazy things like transporting eels ect.
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Another excellent point. Everyone tends to glump the Igadzra and the Voinians into one "hostile weirdos" category. While they undoubtedly share similarities- it is this very fact that makes it virtually impossible for them to ever ally with one another. But then again, the Zidagar are pretty much the choir boys of the group, so they wouldn't ally with the Voinians. And because the Voinians can't go it alone in the Crescent, for the sake of discussion, someone's got to help them.
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Bloody hell, I'm a proper party pooper aren't I? It's ONLY A GAME, GAVIN, JUST A GAME. (I said)
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Nothing wrong with a little healthy logic in a discussion of illogical races.. 
I wish I had the time to do ROTV III- it'd be one damn fascinating plug-in. Up until now the Voinians have been conquering their neighborhood (and a bit beyond), but what happens when they get into the depths of the Crescent and it's long history of war..? Man, would they ever be in over their heads..
_bomb
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"I want to tell you about a time I almost died...."
(This message has been edited by Bomb (edited 03-08-2003).)
