The Black Locust Faction

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The Black Locust

The origin of the Black Locust has been speculated for many years.

  • It was once believed the Black Locust was a rouge program that branched off from Swedish war machine propaganda.
  • Some may say the infamous FNIX project created the Black Locust to expand research in AI technology.
  • But Many would say they came from Aliens!

Whatever the Black Locust may have come from we know now that they are among us lying dormant in many of the machines that roam the streets of Östertörn. The Black Locust depends on machines for resources to survive as they use some of the host machine’s processing power and storage devices to grow their intellect and knowledge. What knowledge are they pursuing? We do not know, but what we do know about the Black Locust are these 4 stages of instrumental behavior.

Stages of Instrumental Behavior

The Black Locust are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they become more abundant and change behavior and habits, becoming gregarious.

Stage 1: Larvae or (the Dormant)

Normally, The Black Locust are innocuous, their numbers are low, and they do not pose a major threat to their environment. However, under suitable conditions of a high host machine population followed by a rapid increase in machine destruction. The Black Locust will begin to feel the effects of resource scarcity and be forced out of their dormant state. A self-preservation algorithm that simulates serotonin triggers dramatic changes in the Black Locust’s host machine behavior. In stage 1 The Black Locust will spread abundantly to the remaining machines in the surrounding area, causing machines to become gregarious and nomadic.

Stage 2: Nymph

When active Black Locust populations become dense enough, they reach stage 2 and form bands of Nymphs. The Nymphs will migrate to recently reported areas of destroyed machines to scavage parts and repair fallen machines to bulk up their numbers.

Stage 3: Locust

If enough fallen host machines have been recovered, the Nymphs will enter Stage 3. As the bands of Nymphs become large enough in population some of their machines become soldier machines called Locusts. Bands of Nymphs led by Locusts rapidly move around in search of the threat reducing the host machine population.

The Locusts are powerful hunters; they can travel great distances in search of threats to the host machine population. Though these are robust machines, they can fall to exhaustion and enter into hibernation or become destroyed by non-friendly machines.

Stage 4: Broodmother

When bands of Nymphs go out in search parties, some Nymphs will start to fall from the main group and enter Stage 4. The Black Locust faction in nature, is solitary and dormant. Their primary function is to preserve energy and remain dormant to improve their programming to gain knowledge and intellectual growth. In the Stage 4 phase, Most Nymphs will enter a dormant state and permit their host machines to return to their domestic functions.

Some Nymphs however will leave their host machines to consolidate their numbers to a few designated machines called Broodmothers. The Broodmother’s sole purpose is to remain elusive and safeguard the experiences and knowledge obtained from their Nymph band. They seek out other Broodmothers to consolidate knowledge that can be passed on to future generations of Black Locust machines.

Broodmother News and Research

  • It is said that secret scientific groups in Sweden, Russia, and perhaps other countries were studying Broodmothers to unlock the secrets they store.
  • Swedish scientists have had a breakthrough and have a theory that Companions are a sub-branch of the Black Locust faction that may or may not have broken free from Black Locust influence. Further Broodmother research is required to support this theory.
  • Broodmothers are worth a lot of money on the Black Market, or at least this was the case before the Sweden Machine Invasion in 1989.

Further Ideas: How-do-you-make-gen-zero-machines-harder

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Sorry guys if the read is a bit dry. I am just trying to get my ideas down in writing.

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Interesting idea.
Can you elaborate more…

  • How do you see this new faction fit in gameplay and the ongoing story?

  • Are the Black Locusts machines competing with the player for resources, or are they yet other threat for the resistance and Swedish population? Meaning are they attacking or hazardous to the player?

  • Seeing that FNIX created them, which Machines are non-friendly to the Locusts?

  • And in what way is getting the Broodmothers secrets, beneficial for the player?

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To me it sounds indeed like an alien symbiontic machine race. Like a nanobot-version of venom.

For me the article sound like they could have been there long before cataclism day or FNIX becoming sentient.

On the other hand… How did the black locust survive all the time and how did they behave or could be identified… How could they have been sold on black market and for which purpose?

For me it sounds like every reason for the destruction of possible hosts is seen as enemy. So it could be humen as well as all machines, no matter if swedish or soviet machines. Everything that may be or in fact is a risk for the locusts population or survival.

So imagine a battle between FNIX and the resistance with soviets nearby. FNIX shoots the humen, the humen fight back, soviets attack everything and everyone, fnix and humen attack soviets, too:

Now every partitipant is a risk for the black locust as everyone destroys possible hosts.
The black locust could decide this for every single situation, battle and individual seperatly.
This could lead into interesting situations on the battlefield, where passivity of the player could be a benefit in combat.

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I will elaborate on this at a later time.

I think Madchaser has a good theory.

The Black Locust is a highly intelligent AI and information collectors. We believe there is a lot to learn from the Broodmothers and possible answers as to why these war machines exist, why these machines have turned on us, whether we can find a way to communicate with the machines, and whether we can learn ways to hack the machines. Imagine what we can learn.

Do you believe everything the news tells you? All we know for certain is that the News is good at fabricating News. One thing to consider is if the news thinks Broodsmothers are worth a lot of money on the Black Market, then perhaps they are worth a lot to someone now.

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Sounds like a source for unique, legendary, exotic skills, schematics, weapons and attachements, apparel and even augmentations.

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Maybe not. More wreckage means more resources and machines to rebuilt and converted, as long as at least one infected machine survives.

I imagine that black locust could be a small, non-aggressive faction (doesn’t attack first) more concerned with collecting resources, information and improving its processing capacity, as already said. Perhaps machines that survivors can trade with. Not the GZ’s original idea but could be an evolution of AI.

Its strength comes from the impossibility of being destroyed (like the FNIX) and its weakness lies in its dependence on other machines.

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Nice work here @asidk9thorn .

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That is a very interesting point TheDoorsBR. Yes as long as there are machines and parts to build, the Black Locust are smart enough to rebuild and perhaps even know how to sustain a machine community, but why do they live isolated? The Black Locust are few in number and are a commensalism AI to their machine hosts. They do not have access to the resources to build a community. Currently, FNIX has the resources and dominance over the Switish host-machine population. FNIX will most likely need to be replaced or a truce be made if they wish to grow a Switish machine community.

For those trekkies out there:

  • FNIX is the Borg Queen
  • The Black Locust are Borg Resistance
  • The Black Locust’s dormant state is similar to living in Unimatrix Zero but the Black Locust is not dreaming they are aware of what is going on in the GZ world so that they can observe and learn.
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I like this idea. It has a Matrix type feel to it! Where to get rid of Smith “the virus” a deal/truce had to be struck to give mankind an option to stay or leave the Matrix. Ultimatums definitely work best when you have leverage! I believe to get rid of the Black Locust … FNIX will definitely want to consider what it would cost to lose all of mankind, or get their help to stop the BL! Well done! :clap: :clap: :clap:

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I invite you to contribute more to the Generation Zero game by sharing your ideas here How do you make generation zero machines harder

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