STGOD: A Dead Art?

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2007-06-19 02:07am

Kiddo, you know what we call it when everyone does the smart thing?

STGOD 2k5

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » 2007-06-19 02:15am

Remember people, the point of a STGOD is for us all to collapse into bickering and infighting so that we can have wonderfully pretty battle sequences involving obscene amounts of weaponry being thrown about.

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2007-06-19 02:16am

BAH to you all, I just on't seem to be interesting

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » 2007-06-19 02:19am

Try and force a reaction then, like Nitram did. Admittedly, the RP went mostly to him and Thirdfain, but I picked up on it to and decided that I would also bring IO in because my guys want to talk to his guys and it seemed like a good way to bring it up. Admittedly, standing up in the middle of a diplomatic delegation and starting to shoot things probably isn't the best way to go about the whole affair, but make the other players respond to you or you'll never be noticed.

Thirdfain · Post by **Thirdfain** » 2007-06-19 02:20am

If you think I didn't notice a telepath having trouble filtering out the thoughts of those around her, you've been smoking too much of the special tobacco.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-06-19 03:06am

I posted my full OOB, ship lists and all!

Check it out! Give me feedback! Do it quick before we run out of time!

Sorry for the large text, but I know people were starting to prod me to make sure I was still alive. Yes, I am, and it's done. It's long, I know, but I wanted to make my first OOB ever a worthy one, so next time when I make a tiny 1-pager nobody will think less of me. All they'll think of is relief at not needing to read so much.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2007-06-19 04:39am

I do have to say, that's wonderful work, Covie. I want to fight your damn Buster Beam already.

Dinosaurs.. in F-14s!? With Admiral 'Tagh'?

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-06-19 04:44am

Nephtys wrote:I do have to say, that's wonderful work, Covie. I want to fight your damn Buster Beam already.

Dinosaurs.. in F-14s!? With Admiral 'Tagh'?

FA-14's, as the photoshopped comic will show! Thanks for the reply, I want to make sure my stuff is okay before I get involved in the RP. I can't imagine my Dinos would be invited to dinner, since I doubt they'd even be known of yet, but I want to plot good time to enter into the mix and I wanted to have my OOB OK'd first.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-06-19 04:52am

Covenant, in glancing through your OOB, and subsequently I re-checked mine. I realize now that I made a truly horrible and terrible mistake in my OOB. So, since nothing exciting has happened yet, I'd like to make one final edit before things get cast as permanent.

Other than that, your OOB was excellent, and made me chuckle in a few places. As a Calvin & Hobbes fan, I applaud your work.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2007-06-19 04:58am

Yes, the dinosaurs are cool!

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-06-19 05:05am

rhoenix wrote:Covenant, in glancing through your OOB, and subsequently I re-checked mine. I realize now that I made a truly horrible and terrible mistake in my OOB. So, since nothing exciting has happened yet, I'd like to make one final edit before things get cast as permanent.

Other than that, your OOB was excellent, and made me chuckle in a few places. As a Calvin & Hobbes fan, I applaud your work.

Ahh, I'm glad it was helpful! What mistake was it, if you don't mind me asking? And thanks Guppy, I'm glad I got some responses! Since they're positive, I bet I'm finally done with it. Phew! Those OOBs are a lot of work!

I realized I didn't state the names of any of my planets... hm. I'm not sure I needed to.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2007-06-19 05:10am

Covenant wrote:And thanks Guppy, I'm glad I got some responses! Since they're positive, I bet I'm finally done with it. Phew! Those OOBs are a lot of work!

To be fair, I was sold as soon as you pitched the concept. I also love the flag! It's quality.

EDIT: This recent kerfuffle with the psionicists has brought something to my attention. How many points would "Cannot have their minds read by telepaths" cost me? It seems simultaneously over-specific while also a complete necessity.

As previously stated, I've shied away from racial technologies like 'lolz androids don't eat' because whether you eat steak or enriched uranium is largely academic in a game of this scale.

I would put it in as a bonus to intel defence but I think the Androids should be no less vulnerable to electronic surveillance than other races.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2007-06-19 05:17am

I would put it as a dedicated Intel defence mod (only good against mind reading). Eyeballing it myself it seems like its worth about 30 points (because there are other psionic tricks that you can do that are useful for intel gathering that you wouldn't be immune to), but that's just my opinion.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-06-19 05:28am

Imperial Overlord wrote:I would put it as a dedicated Intel defence mod (only good against mind reading). Eyeballing it myself it seems like its worth about 30 points (because there are other psionic tricks that you can do that are useful for intel gathering that you wouldn't be immune to), but that's just my opinion.

Mind-readers are pretty aggrivating, but it's mostly a problem of RP. I can't imagine they'll be able to accurately pick out the right minds during a heated combat scene. Do what I suggest--only send moderately intelligent officers to these dinners, and make sure they're absolutely starving before they go. Possibly dehydrated too. You're unlikely to be a rather interesting mindreading subject then! ;D

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-06-19 06:15am

Congratulations to Dahak for getting the first hits in.

Nasty humans firing on the poor little space bats.

Covenant: will get to you and other OOB updates later today I expect.

GuppyShark wrote:This recent kerfuffle with the psionicists has brought something to my attention. How many points would "Cannot have their minds read by telepaths" cost me? It seems simultaneously over-specific while also a complete necessity. As previously stated, I've shied away from racial technologies like 'lolz androids don't eat' because whether you eat steak or enriched uranium is largely academic in a game of this scale.

Telepaths who mind-read Kiroter'nah will have a fun time because they will essentially only get one half of a conversation, and the metaphor-loaded chimp-intelligence-level half of it at that.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-06-19 06:36am

Revision 4 is complete - this will be my final revision, barring any mishaps I'm not seeing right now.

So, let's have the fun begin!

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-06-19 06:45am

Starglider wrote:Congratulations to Dahak for getting the first hits in. Nasty humans firing on the poor little space bats.

Covenant: will get to you and other OOB updates later today I expect.

Thanks! I can't wait to hear how to defeat me. My first guess is would be standing very still and hoping my FA-14's radar is based on motion.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-06-19 06:46am

Covenant wrote:Ahh, I'm glad it was helpful! What mistake was it, if you don't mind me asking?

After doing so much work on my power armor idea, to not include it or account for it in my OOB was... a terrible mistake. I fixed a few other problems while I was at it, and clarified a few concepts; a few final polishes before it's set in stone.

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-06-19 06:53am

Covenant wrote:Thanks! I can't wait to hear how to defeat me. My first guess is would be standing very still and hoping my FA-14's radar is based on motion.

Bear in mind that these recommendations come from an unlicensed copy of the Microsoft Patent Enforcement Intellect's 'Strategy Agent' technology (r) and as such their utility is somewhere around that of Clippy the MS Office helper.

[11:50] * Starglider will have to address the NGTO to warn them about the perfidious and dishonest humans.
[11:51] Starglider: Not only did the fire on our ship, after trying to seize it without provocation, they blatantly seized another ship that wasn't lucky enough to be carrying a cloaking device, plus they vaporised an AI envoy at the edge of their system!

Will be posting about that later.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-06-19 06:54am

rhoenix wrote:
Covenant wrote:Ahh, I'm glad it was helpful! What mistake was it, if you don't mind me asking?
After doing so much work on my power armor idea, to not include it or account for it in my OOB was... a terrible mistake. I fixed a few other problems while I was at it, and clarified a few concepts; a few final polishes before it's set in stone.

A wise decision! With so many people putting points into ground units, it really does artifically inflate the 'base' level.

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2007-06-19 07:28am

My god! Dinosaurs on Mars! The TYRANNOSAURUS EXODUS! And then fucking Battlestar Dinosauria! Holy crap, that was awesome.

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-06-19 09:22am

Ok, relevant point, Dahak is claiming his ships are immune to interdiction minelayers. These create a wide selection of bizarre subspace/hyperspace/chronometric effects that slow fleets passing through them down (a little if you don't care about fleet integrity, a lot of if you insist on waiting for every last ship to get back in formation). Noble Ire actually has points on 'immune to interdiction' in his OOB, but Dahak does not. Are 'minelayers' actually useless, because anyone can declare themselves immune to them by fiat, or not? If they are I guess I'd better delete that part of the post and the OOB.

EDIT: This is a one-time surprise of course as as soon as you know the field is there, it is trivial to avoid it. Space is a big place, but I'm assuming people take fairly direct routes unless there's a good reason not to.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2007-06-19 09:32am

Starglider wrote:Ok, relevant point, Dahak is claiming his ships are immune to interdiction minelayers. These create a wide selection of bizarre subspace/hyperspace/chronometric effects that slow fleets passing through them down (a little if you don't care about fleet integrity, a lot of if you insist on waiting for every last ship to get back in formation). Noble Ire actually has points on 'immune to interdiction' in his OOB, but Dahak does not. Are 'minelayers' actually useless, because anyone can declare themselves immune to them by fiat, or not? If they are I guess I'd better delete that part of the post and the OOB.

I didn't say immune (I did at first, but I over-read the part with "interdiction mines" and thought they were real-space exploding mines, which are a bit moot if you're in hyperspace...). I
just pointed out the logisitcal problem in laying a mine-field for a system completely undetected.
And no one forces me to take a 100% direct course for your systems. I could make a detour to a rally point, to some other fleet base, or to distract spies. Using B5-style hyperspace, I don't even have to accel or slow down along a set path.

For one, something that is strong enough to create an anomaly that affects FTL ships should be detectable from within said system (and from the amount of mines needed for one cone of direction), especially if you put it directly at the door of a heavily protected system.
And I don't see this things as bog-standard weapons, either.

You can do it, but don't expect it to work as you planned.

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-06-19 09:36am

Dahak wrote:And no one forces me to take a 100% direct course for your systems. I could make a detour to a rally point, to some other fleet base, or to distract spies. Using B5-style hyperspace, I don't even have to accel or slow down along a set path.

You certainly could, but if that's standard practice I should probably drop the minelayer mission as it doesn't make any sense if the chances of anyone actually being affected are minute.

For one, something that is strong enough to create an anomaly that affects FTL ships should be detectable from within said system (and from the amount of mines needed for one cone of direction), especially if you put it directly at the door of a heavily protected system.

I confess I was kind of going with the 'Star Trek tech level = blundering into bizarre spatial anomalies on a weekly basis' idea.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2007-06-19 10:40am

Starglider wrote: I confess I was kind of going with the 'Star Trek tech level = blundering into bizarre spatial anomalies on a weekly basis' idea.

Unless a mod says, it's ok and hit me with a big paddle over the head, I do not accept something like this minelayer with 10 points and what he is creating...:

They aren't physical objects. Sorry if 'minelayer' is misleading, that was the closest term I could think of. They just generate Trek-style spatial anomalies. Since they're immobile, they have to be huge (at least planet sized) for there to be any hope of ships running into them.

I can live with actual, physical mines that freak up FTL travel and which can be removed. But not permanent planet-sized anomalies for basially free.