July Vault Update

That was a doozy of an update, Brad. Here are some thoughts on this month's vault:

• I am so very tickled to see that the concept/theory called The Dark Forest is being incorporated so heavily. Like... giddy with excitement. If ever there was a hypothesis about the nature of space to be explored, The Dark Forest Hypothesis is IT. It's so very cynical and delicious! Imagine you're in a forest. You have your camp, and at night...it is very, very dark. You have no clue what's in the forest around you, but every night you stay very quiet and refrain from making a fire so as to stay hidden... So nobody knows you're there, none of the things that go bump in the night. But after months of this, you decide to make a fire one night..... And all of a sudden, every creature that was unaware you even existed, knows EXACTLY where you are, because you made that flicker of light. That scales up to the universe level easily - Right now? Nobody knows we're here on earth, and space is a very big place. But as soon as we do ANYTHING that causes a stir... in this case, hyper-speed travel or pan-dimensional research, or WHATEVER - All of a sudden, everyone knows we exist, and it's only a matter of time before somebody, fearing for their own survival, sees our mere existence as a threat. Maybe we're not even a threat right NOW - but if you extrapolate, we could BE a threat one day. Might as well wipe us out while we're still easy-pickins.
• I'm not sure I get the business-angle - calling the aliens "clients" and whatnot? Sure, sounds like a Measured thing, but Scryve? Business associates and clients sounds like a strange term to use. 
• Holy crap, as interesting as all the aliens in-game will be... by far the MOST interesting things in this update are:
  • The Precursors (of course)
  • The Faction of 8
  • The many species that joined the Scryve empire, "none of which survive to this day"
  • The Ancient One
  • The "something dangerous" that the Scryve discover in pan-dimensions
  • The Scryve civil war
  • The original name of The Measured (!!!)
  • The species with FTL, wiped out by the Scryve
  • The Overmind
  • The Zalence (!!!)
  • The Replicants and their subsequent demise
  • The Unknown Alien that intercepts the Scryve Annihilation fleet
• That is TRULY AMAZING STUFF Frogboy. I can't even believe the rich tapestry of interwoven history, all revolving around the Scryve. I hope you guys can flesh out their methodology more clearly in future updates. It seems like the Scryve have jumped around too much - from peace-loving to war-mongering to annihilators to perpetrators of "petty crimes" (???), to galactic overlords. I want to make absolutely sure you can FOLLOW their train of thought, like you were able to follow every action of the two urquan species - their actions revolved around the Dnyarri and fear of getting enslaved, so it followed to its logical conclusion - enslave or destroy all entrants into the galactic scene. This current setup seems far more disjointed. Make sure their path is known and clear to all. That's what made the Urquan so believable and relatable - when they ventured out into their galactic cleanse, you though - "Oh. Of COURSE they're doing that, why wouldn't they?" Survival is the first rule of galactic sociology.
• I'm a little shocked and awed there will be so much democracy involved in the rollout for Super Melee - I'd never imagined we'd literally get to quantitatively  tally votes on whether it's a green light or red light and the decision be solely based on a 67% vote. It's pretty refreshing, but also freaks me out a little, lol. That's a lot of responsibility!!
• I'm not sure I understand all these multiple references over the past few months about the importance of just how BIG space is. You tell is how super-important the vastness of the galaxy is, but I still don't see any concrete effects of that enormity or how it will affect gameplay. Could you expand a bit on that? Will it just... take a lot of fuel or something? I don't get how it all relates.
• I like how, in the final snapshot of our "solar neighborhood", Earth isn't the center. I always liked how SCII made the conscious decision to NOT make us the center of the play-area. It made going all the way up to the Utwig that much more of a wonder.
• So, you stated that the Precursors disappeared, and we don't know what happened to them... "yet". Does that mean we'll uncover this mystery over the course of the game? Does anybody REALLY want to know what actually happened to the Precursors? I've thought and dreamed of them for 25 years, but I don't think I ever really want to *KNOW* know. I feel like their role is more effective not knowing what happened. Sticks with you for decades. I'd like to see hints of their existence. I'd like to see ruins and artifacts. I'd like to hear about everything that leads up to their disappearance... but the actual REASON they disappeared, or where they ended up, or God forbid, actually talking to one of them? It minimizes things, for me. Just thinking out loud, here.
• I DO, however, want to know everything there is to know about the Faction of 8. It's wonderful!
• Will we get to convert any of the "client races" of the Scryve? I sure hope so! Let's figure out the true name of the Measured and get them on OUR side!!