(02-10-2017, 07:06 PM)Reid Wrote: But please, PLEASE stop treating cardamine like it's cocaine. YOU DO NOT DO A BUMP OF CARDAMINE TO GET AN INSTANT HIGH. IT'S NOT LIKE THAT AAAAAAAAAAAAA IM SO TRIGGERED RIGHT NOW
Vanilla Rumours Wrote:"The Outcasts are a pretty odd lot. Can't figure them out sometimes. They wear those funny breathers that act as Cardamine inhalers. In the heat of battle they can give themselves a Cardamine booster with a flick of the wrist. Maybe that's why they're such awesome pilots."
(02-10-2017, 07:06 PM)Reid Wrote: also cardamine heightens your senses/gives faster reaction times which is why Outcasts are considered elite pilots despite the ingame representation being not-that
(02-10-2017, 07:06 PM)Reid Wrote: despite the ingame representation being not-that
EDIT: Also found this rumor:
Rumor #132003 Wrote:* Outcasts/ Francisco Arce
* Outcasts/ Marianna Casas
I'm running a Cardamine load in from the Lane Hacker base in Magellan. Just taking a Cardamine break before I head on to Buffalo in the Badlands. It's a very long journey to Liberty from where I come from.
So it seems Outcasts don't necessarily take it all the time at a constant stream from their inhalers.
Been reading this with cardamine highlighted and man oh man 522 mentions of the word.
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Please note that none of the following is said in a developer capacity, as while I'm personally sure about it, I don't want to issue an Official Statement and it turns out that it's actually Not True somehow without checking with other people first. However, the below is what I've always gone by, what most respected Outcast players have historically gone by, and what I personally strongly believe to be the most supported by the lore as it's written ingame and as can be extrapolated using common sense.
(02-10-2017, 07:06 PM)Reid Wrote: I've always treated cardamine withdraws as being within hours and nobody's tried correcting me. When I've had Outcasts outside of Outcast space I've always treated it as get your fix once a day to survive or you'll feel like death before you death. The cool thing about Discovery is that you're given a lot of liberties as to what you can do since the lore is so vague.
But please, PLEASE stop treating cardamine like it's cocaine. YOU DO NOT DO A BUMP OF CARDAMINE TO GET AN INSTANT HIGH. IT'S NOT LIKE THAT AAAAAAAAAAAAA IM SO TRIGGERED RIGHT NOW
also cardamine heightens your senses/gives faster reaction times which is why Outcasts are considered elite pilots despite the ingame representation being not-that
This tbh, especially the second paragraph. To the Outcasts, cardamine is absolutely not a "drug" drug like it is to everyone else. It's an essential part of their physiology and something that they need to survive, just like air, food, and water. The Outcasts do NOT get high off of cardamine in the same way non-Maltese do. The genetic dependency on cardamine that all Maltese are born with has the side effect of increasing their lifespan, intelligence, and reflexes, which makes this an Outcast's default state, ie, they aren't "high all the time" and can't even get high off of cardamine; being without cardamine, to them, is like being on an intense depressant (it's a below-normal state, much like how going without food for days causes you to weaken).
However, when non-Maltese who have abused cardamine enough to develop a genetic addiction to the stuff use it, they're still capable of getting high -- it's only those who are born with a genetic dependency on it (ie, born of a dependent parent) who cannot get the euphoric effects.
(02-10-2017, 07:11 PM)Omicega Wrote:
Vanilla Rumours Wrote:"The Outcasts are a pretty odd lot. Can't figure them out sometimes. They wear those funny breathers that act as Cardamine inhalers. In the heat of battle they can give themselves a Cardamine booster with a flick of the wrist. Maybe that's why they're such awesome pilots."
The lore of Freelancer is often vague and self-contradictory. I don't know if there's an Official Dev Gold Statement about this, but I would personally imagine it to be similar to the rush of focus and clarity that normal people can get by inhaling pure oxygen at oxygen bars. Also keep in mind the possibility that the NPC who stated the quoted rumor was misinformed (the OCs were very much secretive and standoffish in vanilla, somewhat less so in Discovery) or maybe even lying straight to Trent's face. To me, the former (it's just misinformation) seems much more likely based on what else we know about cardamine.
Stabiline is another matter entirely; very little is written about that, and intentionally so. In the unfortunate absence of an official Cryer faction to issue their own, more authoritative interpretation of how it works, I think of stabiline as basically just being a really shitty substitute that's primary purpose is basically keeping you from dying; users with a genetic dependency on cardamine will probably feel lethargic or generally not in top form when all they have is stabiline, and its effects on non-dependent users who abuse stabiline as a "safer" way to get high are probably nowhere near as intense as real, genuine cardamine's effects. Again, note that this is just how I personally roleplay it based on what I think to be logical and, more importantly, actually interesting. There is nothing hard and fast written in the lore to actually say that that is how stabiline works, so tbh feel free to disregard this entire paragraph if you're just looking for what's actually written for the purposes of guiding your own roleplay.
You're free to have your opinion(s), Kaiwren, and I'm free to have mine. You can write off the vanilla quote in whichever way you please, but at the end of the day there's a valid basis for Cardamine ''highs' for Outcasts/GC/other addicts. FWIW, the NPC who delivers that quote is a Lane Hacker himself, and if I remember correctly there's also some evidence to support the LH being addicts as well in the vanilla canon.
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(02-10-2017, 09:41 PM)Omicega Wrote: You're free to have your opinion(s), Kaiwren, and I'm free to have mine. You can write off the vanilla quote in whichever way you please, but at the end of the day there's a valid basis for Cardamine ''highs' for Outcasts/GC/other addicts. FWIW, the NPC who delivers that quote is a Lane Hacker himself, and if I remember correctly there's also some evidence to support the LH being addicts as well in the vanilla canon.
Sure. I never said that first-generation addicts don't get high; that would just be silly. Hell, maybe even those born to cardamine-dependent parents can still get high if they don't grow up in an environment where cardamine is in literally everything (ie, Malta or an Outcast station). However, regarding the Lane Hacker that delivers the quote (I thought he was one, but I wasn't quite sure), there's also a news story on Mactan about how rising rates of cardamine abuse are becoming a major problem for the Lane Hackers as an organization, and not only creating financial difficulties, but shackling the LH uncomfortably tightly to the OCs. This would indicate that either cardamine use doesn't induce dependency immediately (or even within the first couple of doses), or that only a relatively small segment of the Hackers use the drug regularly in the first place (cardi is, after all, expensive, even for the very rich Lane Hackers, which is why its largest market is on Manhattan, a planet populated almost entirely by the ultra-wealthy elite of Sirius).
The GC are another matter from the Lane Hackers entirely; it's definitely stated that they're heavy users of the drug, and either explicitly stated or heavily implied (I can't remember which) that to become a full member of the group, one must be addicted to cardamine. The GC are also considerably less wealthy than the Lane Hackers, so how they're able to afford such copious quantities of cardamine is a matter that's up for discussion -- my money's on a combination of proximity to Alpha making it cheaper, bulk discounts, and the OCs being more willing to make trades for intelligence in exchange for the stuff, since they know that the GC are good for it (because they're all addicted and if they stop being good for it they'd all be dead as well).