Editing Quest:Iron Quest

Iron Quest was about a sentient machine waking up after a long period of shutdown, and finding no signs of technology or advanced civilizations. It took the initiative and, with the help of the players, began rebuilding what was seemingly lost. This quest was novel for its time due to its sole focus on resource management, building and unique interaction between the Quest Master and the players.

== Information ==
* '''Author:''' CPU;
* '''Length:''' 16 threads;
* '''Running Time:''' From July of 2009 until August of 2009;
* '''Status:''' Stalled;
* '''Categories:''' Resource Management; Building; Strategy gameplay.
* '''Original Art:''' No;

== Threads ==
All of the threads of this quest are available [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Iron+Quest here.]

== How It's Played ==
The Quest Master assumed the role of the central CPU of the supposed machine (main character). Each player was an auxiliary CPU, and had the authority to submit new tasks to be executed. Each task was put into a queue (more like a linked list, but whatever), and were eventually executed when the circumstances allowed it. The Quest Master had the right to refuse certain tasks. Resources and facilities were kept track of, and these influenced which tasks could be done.

== Characters ==
The Machine (main character) is the most relevant character in this thread. It has no distinct personality.

Some Subprocessors took on distinct personality traits, and a jargon evolved as they relayed instructions to the CPU and each other.

Some individual humans were relavent in the early stages, but were quickly forgotten as their influence relative to the scale of the Machine's operations dwindled to negligible levels.

== 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]]