How dark is the future of the Morrow Project

[cosmicfish]

Originally Posted by stormlion1

Well the Rich Five had access to a lot of the same tech the Morrow Project had so there was some crossover, though probably more of the industrial espionage variety.

That was always my assumption - it seems like if they had anything close to full access to the Project that they would both more tech and also more knowledge/control over Project resources in their territory.

One alternate idea that I toyed with was reverse industrial espionage - perhaps the Rich Five originated cryogenics, and Morrow poached it from them!

Originally Posted by stormlion1

Another option is Krell who was a member of the Project I believe.

Is that ever said anywhere? Krell always seemed like a deliberate mystery, like even the authors had not decided who he was and how he got his information on the Project.

Originally Posted by stormlion1

But honestly the home team fumbling the ball is the most believable of them all. It happens all the time.

Sure, but something as important as that code would have been checked and rechecked and tested and retested. A big programming error by one dying, rushed programmer makes sense, but this would have been much less likely. It absolutely could have happened, but like I said, I personally prefer the enemy action option because it adds capability to the enemy and makes them a bigger opponent for the players to eventually deal with.

But it does not hugely impact the game, unlike the massive, widespread incompetence implied in the canon 3ed fall of the Project.

[kato13]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

Sure, but something as important as that code would have been checked and rechecked and tested and retested.

You would hope, but testing only goes so far. I was part of one of the largest IT failures in history (700 million dollars with literally nothing to show for it). We had 500 plus programmers who did a tremendous amount of unit testing but when everything was integrated, a system which was supposed to handle all the communication for 1500 locations was reduced to 4 bytes per minute rather than the multiple megs per second that were promised.

[stormlion1]

Same here, my brief employment as a Computer Programmer was a colossal failure due to a team of twenty working on a project, debugging and reviewing the program we worked on for months and we never did get it to work right. The problem was that it did work, it passed every test we threw at it, but when it needed to work 'in the field' it failed every time.
And no one could figure it out. We had other teams look at it, we had outside contractors look at it. We even gave it to a school and hoped a fresh perspective from some students would find the problem. And no one ever figured it out.
The project was scrapped soon after and I decided that several months of frustration was it and looked for other work. Plus honestly I doubted my ability's at that point pretty badly.

[RandyT0001]

From the 4th edition, p.27

As a failsafe, an alternate base was constructed, so that the teams could be revived even if some unforeseen catastrophe overwhelmed Prime Base.

P. 22

From there (firearms training) trainees progress through a series of steadily more realistic situations, practicing contact and stoppage drills in both rural environments and in a custom built "town" on one of the projects training sites.

P. 23

The final element of basic training is the "civics" course, intended to teach the team how to deal with and rebuild communities they encounter.
It covers everything from physical infrastructure, through law enforcement training, to how to hold fair elections.

So it seems that TMP did have a back up base but the question is what happened to it - captured by Krell? Subverted by the Frozen Chosen?

So each team member has training on how to make contact with post-war (at 5 years after the war) locals.

In addition each team member has training on the basic needs of a community, food, water, shelter, clothing, sanitation, etc. and they know enough about law enforcement to be able to teach it to others.

[stormlion1]

I'm guessing the Back Up base was the base captured by Krell but whomever was stationed there may have nerfed it a bit when it was captured. Krell may have gotten the cryogenic pods and the armorys but the C&C was destroyed.

[cosmicfish]

I think the reason there aren't consistent, canonical answers on Krell is because they never decided on any. They wanted to avoid committing to an answer until they were ready to write something where it was needed. Unfortunately, they missed the point that the truth about Krell (and so many other people and groups) was needed to understand the history and present of the Project.

So make up an answer that makes you happy, because they aren't going to do it until they are ready to write the "take down Krell" module... which is never going to happen.

[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

I think the reason there aren't consistent, canonical answers on Krell is because they never decided on any. They wanted to avoid committing to an answer until they were ready to write something where it was needed. Unfortunately, they missed the point that the truth about Krell (and so many other people and groups) was needed to understand the history and present of the Project.

So make up an answer that makes you happy, because they aren't going to do it until they are ready to write the "take down Krell" module... which is never going to happen.

It is one of the most problematical situations of the back story. Krell has an empire but, is defeated by the Morrow Project. The Project in the form of Prime Base opens up and constructs Paiute place to test if the goals and hopes of the Project can be realized. Krell forces infect Prime Base with a lethal bioweapon that has enough infectious period without symptoms to ensure everyone in Prime Base has it. Krell forces using a nuclear bomb destroy Paiute place and believe that Prime Base is sealed under rubble. Paiute Place is built using materials, equipment, and supplies from Prime Base but, the huge exterior doors to the vehicle bay and warehouse were never uncovered. Krell goes on to war with the Project destroying several bases. Krell forces have captured one base intact and Krell uses this to cryosleep for a few decades, then come out and conquer some more. The Krell territory is in the upper midwest. Krell has a ship and a crew with warriors sailing in the Pacific and a threat to Seattle and the *censored* in Seattle for "Final Watch".....

Ummm, welcome to the Labyrinth...... Causes happen before the effects.