SD.Net World Redux Comment Thread VII

[Master_Baerne]

CATO has a Google group, to allow for more efficient co-ordination. The MESS has one too.

[Ryan Thunder]

Ah. Is this something I should be in on, since I'm an ally?

[Master_Baerne]

Perhaps. I'd recommend you take it up with Stas or Fin, since they're the administrators.

[DarthShady]

Perhaps. I'd recommend you take it up with Stas or Fin, since they're the administrators.

Actually Fin is the group owner; me and Stas are managers. The group has so far been for full CATO members only, but I see no problem with letting observers in.(And Ryan)

Fin is the one who sends out invites, so PM him if you want in.

So perhaps we should have posted something, but it certainly wasn't concealed deliberately.

Actually I believe Stas made a post about them, a while back. And they've been sitting in the UCSR OOB since the formation of the Union. It wasn't a secret.

[Czechmate]

http://sdnworld.wikia.com/wiki/Emmeria

Done. Map...eh, map comes whenever I feel like it, but Emmeria goes where I was going to put Estovakia.

EDIT: Done the military bit anyway. Writing some fluff when I have time tonight.

[K. A. Pital]

The new carrier, cruiser and destroyer projects were my attention from since when the UCSR was formed, which certainly is not new. They were in the OOB.

[Zor]

Uh, Christianity and a varient of Moderate Islam are already fairly well established in Zoria. It's in my national outline.

Zor

[Steve]

They are, as I recall, minorities. Your Islamic population is simply 1% for instance, while your own listing put the majority as atheist, Shinto, or Odinist.

[Zor]

They are, as I recall, minorities. Your Islamic population is simply 1% for instance, while your own listing put the majority as atheist, Shinto, or Odinist.

One precent of thirty million still equals about 300,000 Muslims, which while not a huge number still makes them a decent sized minority. I also listed christianity as being somewhat big.

Zor

[Beowulf]

Editted.

[PeZook]

I really wonder how Zorian faiths can spread particularly well in conservative catholic PeZookia

[Steve]

I've pondered the same, since religions like Shinto and Odinism would likely find traction in relatively small, specific groups of people looking to buck "established" faiths as an act of rebellion or from feelings of social exclusion. I mean, the Abrahamic faiths promise salvation in the afterlife and a paradise after death in exchange for the suffering and toiling of mortal life. What precisely do Shinto and Odinism promise? Especially Odinism, since the only way into the good afterlife is, y'know, death in battle.

[Zor]

Especially Odinism, since the only way into the good afterlife is, y'know, death in battle.

Easy, they adjusted the theology so that there were other good places in asgard beyond Vahalla for those who did not die martial deaths but were still good people. As it stood during the Viking era there was never allowed to flourish in the manner it did in Zoria due to climatological reasons in Scandinavia preventing the development of a high Odinist civilization (and by extension the same degree of specialization). In Zoria (which i always assumed to be semi tropical) this was not the case.

Zor

[Ryan Thunder]

For reference, Miratian religion is... subdued, for lack of a better way to put it. It's generally a private thing outside of churches and the like.

Also, a note on police (don't bother asking why now, it just occurred to me is all); Miratian police are deployed in pairs with what other countries would consider SWAT gear, sans firepower. Street cops have pistols, tazer-equivalents, and batons. If things get hairy enough that the street cops can't deal with it, additional cops are sent in with auto-shotguns and/or assault rifles. Oh, and negotiators and whatever else is necessary. They tend towards the auto-shotguns if the suspect is armed with anything more threatening than a butter knife, though.

Ever since an attempted bank robbery was put down with an absurd expenditure of ammunition (on camera, mind), crime in Miratian cities has plummeted.

[PeZook]

That's a pretty simplistic mindset: be brutal in putting down crime and surely it will plummet!

Doesn't really work all that well, to be honest. And what is SWAT gear "sans firepower"? Do your beat officers patrol the streets in heavy body armor, helmets and balaclavas, loaded down with specialized gear like flashbangs? I'm sure it makes your average citizen feel at ease

At least these are the comments (voiced more diplomatically) your cops will hear from mine at the conference

[Ryan Thunder]

That's a pretty simplistic mindset: be brutal in putting down crime and surely it will plummet!

It was a joke. They don't play nice, either, though.

Doesn't really work all that well, to be honest. And what is SWAT gear "sans firepower"? Do your beat officers patrol the streets in heavy body armor, helmets and balaclavas, loaded down with specialized gear like flashbangs? I'm sure it makes your average citizen feel at ease

Body armour, helmets and balaclavas, yes. Breath masks, sometimes. They wouldn't carry flashbangs or grenades or anything like that. I realize that they're already pretty ridiculous, but that'd just be too much.

And yes, it does make them feel at ease. Remember that those are the guys on your side of things.

At least these are the comments (voiced more diplomatically) your cops will hear from mine at the conference

Meh. Have at them.

[Shroom Man 777]

I really wonder how Zorian faiths can spread particularly well in conservative catholic PeZookia

By preaching to the Crips and the Bloods.

EDIT:

Hey! Langley's police officers are those hot chicks from the fun animu YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!

EDIT 2:

Beowulf!

That's nice, turning Zor's stuff right on him. You ass.

[Siege]

I'm not adverse to having a few weirdo cults pop up in the Sprawl- there are people there who will cling to anything. Just keep in mind that San Dorado society is absolutely permeated with the belief in an anthropomorphic Fortune. It's not actually an organized religion with prayer shrines and priests or anything, but there definitely is a conviction in most people that luck is a (semi-)sentient force that you gotta keep on the good side of to get ahead in life. The degree of conviction varies from person to person (from vague subconscious gratitude when things are going well to a stone-dead belief that the Lady is out to get you), but it's there all the same.

Any foreign faith trying to get its claws in will have to find some way of dealing with that belief, because it isn't going to go away.

[PeZook]

They can just adopt it or something. It's definitely easier to win converts in places with a loose religion like San Dorado than in a conservative Catholic country with all the organized structures and beliefs that come with it. I'm not saying that it's impossible to win converts, it's just that "an especially high growth in PeZookia" is kind of, I don't know...random?

[Shroom Man 777]

I'd imagine the Zorians would love to turn the San Doradoan belief of Lady Fortune, amongst San Doradan shitpiece gangers at least, into a bizzare Japanorse-Fortune concept of a Valkyrie of War watching over Odin's true warriors!

Such a faith would be popular amongst the warring SD street gangs and maybe the hobos.

Crips, Bloods and the KKK yo! Drive by, gangland style!


As for Shroomanian religion, well... Shroomania has a Randome Altarnate Realty version of Anglicanism. When Queen Asphyxia XIV or something married three men and formed them into a triple husbanoid, the Byzantine Patriarch objected to that and the Queen Asphyxia rebuffed his rebukations by erecting a massive statue of a dick somewhere or another - thus causing a great schism so now Shroomania has a bizzaro-world parody of Christianity running amok.

So, yeah, like a whole lot of other things Shroomanians consider religion as something to be laughed at.

(Although I am sure the Shroomanian chapters of the Bloods, Crips and the Hells Satans will be receptive to Zorian norse faiths. With Thor on public radio talk shows like K-CHAT advertising his faith, and gangbangers calling him and talking about Mac-10s and streetsweepers, yeah.)



The Bishop of Bath and Smells.

[Karmic Knight]

In the Commonwealth, aside from the Shroomanian Anglican Parody, the local religions are Daedric Worship, and the Church of the Eight Divines and they would be very hard to break.

[Shroom Man 777]

Hey Karmic, how about we rekindle Shroomanian-Vinish relationships?

[Lonestar]

They can just adopt it or something. It's definitely easier to win converts in places with a loose religion like San Dorado than in a conservative Catholic country with all the organized structures and beliefs that come with it. I'm not saying that it's impossible to win converts, it's just that "an especially high growth in PeZookia" is kind of, I don't know...random?

At least he left the Old Dominion out of it. I would have liked to see how Zor explained away growth in the OD with the Latin Patriarch Gregory XIX running the show.

[PeZook]

Uh...weekly manned launches? How?

[phongn]

Uh...weekly manned launches? How?

I'm buying quite a few vehicles (estimating ten, right now) and the design of my shuttle is not quite the same as the real one. In particular, its thermal protection system will require much, much less work to deal with after launch. I won't have those troublesome SSMEs either - there are a lot of things that'll let me have assured, frequent and reliable access into space. That said, my initial shuttle block (probably ~3 or so) will likely have significantly greater turnaround time than the later ones (more conservative and maintenance-intensive TPS).

Even given an eight week turnaround time (I expect rather better!), ten shuttles means I'll have plenty ready, plus ones available in case of downtime. Add in Gemini-II (designed for reusability) and the advantages of solids, I think I can do weekly launches - not that I will, but I can.