Less of a Game-play question, more of a game-logic question.

[Russano_Greenstripe]

I've been playing Creeper World for some time now (just got Supreme Victory!), and some quick-thaw Fridge Logic was kicking in a couple times as I was playing.

A regular, conventional blaster can completely shut off a regular Creeper Emitter safe enough that you can build a playground on top of it. So why in blazes does Commander keep activating Warp Totems and transmitting to new worlds and new dangers? Even if there were more Creeper Emitters somewhere on the planet, the same strategies and weapons used on the map itself could be used to cap those Emitters as well. It never crossed Commander's mind to say, "Screw it, we've made this planet safe: let's camp out here for a while and not stress out? Ya know, rebuild society, repopulate the planet, stop constantly jeopardizing the last remnants of the human race by flinging it into unknown hostile territory?"

The only possible justification I can think of is posted in spoiler text to save those who haven't completed Loki yet. Highlight below to read:

It's quite possible that some of the orders left by Platius / Old Man were to continue forging ahead, no matter what, and it eventually did turn out for the best. It was also demonstrated that Commander, and probably OPS too, were loyal to Platius / Old Man's schemes, even if they didn't know what they were. And yes, if they had stopped, then the massive Creeper Emitter at the end of Loki would probably have continued to make trouble. But neither OPS nor Commander knew that going through the campaign, as evidenced several times in establishing dialogues. I still point above: every time they warped to a new planet, they were putting the entire human race in mortal danger. Commander could have parked Odin City on Hope for a while, and just chilled. That'd even give them time to research new weapons to defend against the Creeper, as opposed to just luckily finding the right nano-schematics on whatever world they warped on. The only possible justification I can see is the whole faith in Old Man / Platius argument, which I have a lot of problems with.

Did anyone else think about this while they were playing? What other possible reasons could there be for Commander's actions? Is there something I'm missing about the whole situation?

[UpperKEES]

A good question, but as the Creeper was taking over the entire universe, it might have sent much more emitters to Hope. Even more than Odin City (with its maximum output of 32 packets of energy per second) could have handled, especially without the Thor tech. Why wait for danger if you can try to stay ahead of it?

[Russano_Greenstripe]

Hmm, I didn't know that Odin City had a maximum energy packet output. From a pure gameplay standpoint, then that makes a lot of sense.

In-game, however, that still has a few holes. Namely, the fact that neither Commander nor OPS had any clue to the Creeper Nexus' existence. From all we know of what they know, the Creeper showed up out of the blue and wtfpwned humanity. It still makes a lot of sense to me that once he'd locked down a map pretty securely, Commander would want to stay on a planet. A few days, perhaps even hours without the ever-present threat of the Creeper would be a welcome relief to fifty thousand refugees.

Of course, the problem that any argument on this topic is that there's little Word of God about the time between the first day of the invasion and the Battle for Hope. Commander (or someone else in his position) may have said, "All right, let's take five," and then they get slaughtered. We just don't know, which makes speculation difficult.

[Fisherck]

The Creeper's entire goal was is (we are not done yet) to wipe the entire human population off the face of every planet in the universe. Could you imagine what would happen if the city stayed in one place long enough for the Creeper to mount an assult? Because the city keeps moving the Creeper had to spread themselves across all the planets, making them possible to beat (or hold back). Just my idea on why the city constantly mives to new "dangers" ;).

EDIT: I just thought of another question. When does the Commander sleep? I mean, I do not think it takes that long to rift to the next planet. He must drink ALOT of coffe.

[mthw2vc]

Of course, the problem that any argument on this topic is that there's little Word of God about the time between the first day of the invasion and the Battle for Hope. Commander (or someone else in his position) may have said, "All right, let's take five," and then they get slaughtered. We just don't know, which makes speculation difficult.

Actually, there is a little bit of information about this. On one of the story missions, I seem to recall that it is revealed that the planet OC is on was first taken at least 5 years ago. I don't remember which one, but I'm pretty sure it was after Tucana. I'll edit when I confirm which one it was.
EDIT: I have confirmed that in the story level canis, in the artifact text, it is clearly stated that said world had been dead for more than 5 years.

[knucracker]

What I had in mind (and still imagine when I think of the story and extend it in game 2) is that when the Creeper hit a world, it did so with a massive wave unlike anything you could imagine.  The world is taken and there is nothing that can stop it.  After the world is cleansed, the creeper tunnels down into the planet and leaves sentinel emitters.  These emitters (the things you fight in Game 1) are there to ensure that the planet remains purified.  They are also there to communicate any interlopers back the the central Nexus.

So when you show up on a world you are just fighting the small Creeper force that is left behind.  You can in most cases hold this creeper back.  The reason you can't stay, though, is that a day or so later a massive Creeper wave would come through rift space and completely re-sterilize the world.  The inhabitants on OC know this... this is why you are always being rushed to activate the totems.  They know if you hang around too long, the sky will completely darken with falling creeper the world over.

I never say this stuff explicitly in the game, but it is the back-drop I imagined. 

[Blaze]

What I had in mind (and still imagine when I think of the story and extend it in game 2) is that when the Creeper hit a world, it did so with a massive wave unlike anything you could imagine.  The world is taken and there is nothing that can stop it.  After the world is cleansed, the creeper tunnels down into the planet and leaves sentinel emitters.  These emitters (the things you fight in Game 1) are there to ensure that the planet remains purified.  They are also there to communicate any interlopers back the the central Nexus.

So when you show up on a world you are just fighting the small Creeper force that is left behind.  You can in most cases hold this creeper back.  The reason you can't stay, though, is that a day or so later a massive Creeper wave would come through rift space and completely re-sterilize the world.  The inhabitants on OC know this... this is why you are always being rushed to activate the totems.  They know if you hang around too long, the sky will completely darken with falling creeper the world over.

I never say this stuff explicitly in the game, but it is the back-drop I imagined. 

Guess chicken little was right, the sky was falling, with creeper!

[Russano_Greenstripe]

What I had in mind (and still imagine when I think of the story and extend it in game 2) is that when the Creeper hit a world, it did so with a massive wave unlike anything you could imagine.  The world is taken and there is nothing that can stop it.  After the world is cleansed, the creeper tunnels down into the planet and leaves sentinel emitters.  These emitters (the things you fight in Game 1) are there to ensure that the planet remains purified.  They are also there to communicate any interlopers back the the central Nexus.

So when you show up on a world you are just fighting the small Creeper force that is left behind.  You can in most cases hold this creeper back.  The reason you can't stay, though, is that a day or so later a massive Creeper wave would come through rift space and completely re-sterilize the world.  The inhabitants on OC know this... this is why you are always being rushed to activate the totems.  They know if you hang around too long, the sky will completely darken with falling creeper the world over.

I never say this stuff explicitly in the game, but it is the back-drop I imagined. 

Speaking of Word of God, there we go.  :P

I would have liked to see this premise shown in-game. I realize that there were a few hints to it in a few dialogues, and what happened in the (at least ) 5 intervening years doesn't really affect the actual missions and objectives on each map, save as a framing device. I'm just a sucker for consuming any sort of establishing information about a world in which the game I play resides in.

Another question I thought of recently, that sort of ties in with one of my conjectures above, is this: what do the people on Odin City think of the situation? Do they all unwaveringly put their faith in Commander? Are there those who think his missions are folly, and want to try something else? Do they just ignore the explosions and laser blasts outside and just try to go on with their lives? Commander's ultimate responsibility is the safety of Odin City, so I think it'd be great establishing material if we could see the situation from their point of view.

[Krell]

This bring us to a thing called fanfic unless Virgil want to write a total backstory for us fans.

[Russano_Greenstripe]

This bring us to a thing called fanfic unless Virgil want to write a total backstory for us fans.

This is true. We can fanwank all we want until the cows come home, but it's still no more or less true than saying "A wizard did it."

[Twi]

Sounds like someone's been reading TVtropes...
And I never actually considered this point...ah, well. Point has been solved, end of story.

[Russano_Greenstripe]

Sounds like someone's been reading TVtropes...
And I never actually considered this point...ah, well. Point has been solved, end of story.

How could you tell?  ;)

And yeah, we got the answer to the first question I posited.

[UpperKEES]

what do the people on Odin City think of the situation? Do they all unwaveringly put their faith in Commander? Are there those who think his missions are folly, and want to try something else? Do they just ignore the explosions and laser blasts outside and just try to go on with their lives?

It is the time of a universal war. Only 50,000 people are left, all packed together in Odin City. I never assumed they would be a reading a book or be staring outside the windows. In these kind of situations probably every man and most women will contributing in their own way. Weapons have to be manned and moved, drones have to be targeted, the sky has to be scanned for spores, food has to be supplied, repairs need to be done; everybody will be very busy getting mankind out of this!

[Blaze]

what do the people on Odin City think of the situation? Do they all unwaveringly put their faith in Commander? Are there those who think his missions are folly, and want to try something else? Do they just ignore the explosions and laser blasts outside and just try to go on with their lives?

It is the time of a universal war. Only 50,000 people are left, all packed together in Odin City. I never assumed they would be a reading a book or be staring outside the windows. In these kind of situations probably every man and most women will contributing in their own way. Weapons have to be manned and moved, drones have to be targeted, the sky has to be scanned for spores, food has to be supplied, repairs need to be done; everybody will be very busy getting mankind out of this!

That's kinda how I pictured it.