Editing Quest:Iron Quest (section)

== Summary ==
Reading the quest is pretty much essential to understand what went on. The machine (a universal construction machine, roughly bus-sized) awoke with a form of machine amnesia on a seemingly-undeveloped planet. The structure of the machine's mind was that of a main CPU (i.e. the Quest's creator, dispassionately relating the circumstances and options available) and a large number of squabbling "Subprocessors" (i.e. players) recommending courses of action. The Subprocessors varied from warlike conquerors to those interested only in the finer points of aluminium refinement to produce laser components (and then more powerful lasers).

The early stages of gameplay revolved around the discovery of cryogenically preserved humans in an automated facility. The humans were eventually liberated, and uneasy peace was formed with them. In contrast, a population of iron-age humans was closely and distrustfully observed while war machines were constructed.

Later, the CPU was convinced to create religious iconography glorifying itself, and converting select humans into upgraded missionaries to slowly dominate the humans by "soft" tactics. Simultaneously, the technically-minded Subprocessors put together the industrial base to create the first nanotechnology centres, and beginning the exponential growth of the Machine's influence.

By the late stages the Machine controlled many planets, and the opposition to its goals was another starfaring race using a Dyson-shell-powered stellar laser as a weapon against it.

The game eventually stalled out, in part due to the scale of play making most decisions meaningless. As one Subprocessor pithily observed in the first thread:

''10 Determine bottleneck in industrial production.''

''20 Locate, extract, and apply resources to that area.''

''30 GOTO 10''

[[Category:Quests]]