Ok, time for me to reply. I can't address all feedback, apparently, but I will try give answers to some of the most frequent questions (and concerns).
First of all, thanks to everyone who read the first part of the story to the end. I was ready that many of you will consider it nonsense (probably even more of you than actually did consider it nonsense). The poll created elsewhere shows that the story has a deal of support, and that's great. I hope that you'll be no less interested in our further history announcement, cause this is just a part of what's going to happen in 4.86. Very important part, but still just a part. Plus, remember that 4.86 events are only a part of what's going to happen in general. We have some plans for futher development as well.
Starting with a few commonplaces in your comments: Bretonia gets beaten again, Gallia pwnz all for no reason, Kusari... nothing certain about Kusari. I'll start with Gallia. In 4.85, only a part of the house of Gallia was accessible. Now, the central Gallic systems will become accessible, and those will prove that Gallia is actually larger than any other house - and even with 4.86 systems in place, it won't be all Gallia that you see, cause we leave quite a lot for further updates.
Gallia is truly much stronger than any other House at the moment, possibly stronger than two Houses combined, even if those two aren't Kusari and Bretonia drastically weakened by the previous war. Kusari, hoping to win the war by one final strike, has lost all the power of this strike in the fruitless and brief war with Gallia. It has no power to fight an offensive war any longer, let's be clear about that. The same is true about Bretonia, but they'll have to defend themselves now if they want their independence (which they do, of course). All remaining resources will now go to strengthen Bretonia's defenses, and if it receives any help, it will be Liberty only and it will be economical for the most part. Neither Rheinland or Kusari are going to ally themselves with Bretonia. For Kusari, House that's possibly in an even worse situation than Bretonia in military terms (excluding the fact they aren't going to be attacked by a superior power), such alliance is a suicide. Rheinland has no interest in defending Bretonia with so much going on near its own borders. Plus, Rheinland has its own resources severely depleted, and Gallia doesn't have many economical reasons to attack them.
Liberty... well, Liberty's going to prepare for a war with Gallia too, and they are interested in ending the conflict with Rheinland as soon as possible. How? Wait for future posts.
It's true that Bretonia is going to be attacked in quite a harsh way, not even in 4.86 but later. And Bretonia is going to lose more than just Edinburgh. But it will be a temporary setback. Our goal is to leave no party denied of what they deserve, and if there was a setback before, it's going to be compensated later. What if GRN are destined to become an "underdog" one day? Not soon, of course, but anything may happen.
Now, to player factions and their interests. The matter with QCP will be sorted to the best interests of the faction I believe. Same can be done for other factions to some extent. If you feel that your faction's interests or position in the universe will be severely affected, we should work on finding a reasonable solution. If you don't demand too much for yourself, it's all very possible. Like I said, the development takes longer than we estimated, so many things are not yet completed, and subject to change.
Server events would be something we (devs) would really appreciate seeing. Organizing such thing is a complex task to do, but the outcome could be great. Remember we could use the event scenes for our trailer video(s), for example.
I'm aware that the new starmap of the mod was leaked (due to my own stupid mistake), and we'll be posting it for public view soon enough.
Thanks for all your feedback, and keep it coming! All you say is very much appreciated.
