SDNW5 Preliminary Discussion Thread

[Esquire]

For the sake of background, I need to be touching or at least near the Chamarrans and on the 'inside' of them. Other than that I'm fine wit anywhere.

[Imperial528]

My edit

Gray is, of course, Cerna. Although I can put in text if needed.

[Rabid]

Sorry, Imp, I edited the position of Revelation.

[Imperial528]

No problem, I've merged them already.

[Karmic Knight]

Considering the nature of The Commonwealth (Ancient, Mostly Human, Densely Populated, Decentralized) I would think The Commonwealth would end up somewhere near Sol and near enough to the Stellar Nation's stationary portions that trade relations are a thing.

[Simon_Jester]

Imperial, what role would this star system have? If you could explain in more detail, I'd know what to say about it. Also, since your location relative to others is not essential- you don't need to be right next door to anyone I can think of- I'd prefer it if you didn't edit yourself into other people's maps. I'm going to take a crack at sorting things out after some decent time has passed, but moving Cerna so that other nations can have a set of spatial relationships that make sense to them is something I may very well do.
______________________

By the way, unless people want to change their minds on this: "up" on the map points toward the galactic core, while "down" points toward the rim. People whose background involves having traveled a great distance from some other part of our galaxy would be most likely to appear near the top or sides, but could plausibly be near the bottom too, I suppose. There's always the Perseus Arm.

I'm hoping to reserve a patch... not IN in the upper right corner, but below it, maybe around Sector Y-10? That's for Umeria and a few neighbor nations.

I fear the Shoals may be too near to the Hub, as they are supposed to be a nest of pirates, and the navigational hazard of the Shoals may be an obstacle to the narrative of the Hub being a major center of galactic trade.

That is actually an issue- having shoals all around a place that's supposed to be a trading hub is a bit like having a huge, prosperous, trading metropolis in the middle of a howling empty wilderness.

It would be practical for Bees if they were in the general vicinity of League territory and given their likely origin, not halfway across the galaxy from Umeria. Somewhere towards the edge would by my preference... But if this is becoming mutually exclusive, go with the whole 'near the League' thing.

Actually, I was thinking of the League and Umeria not being too far distant from each other, White Haven permitting.

[Force Lord]

Who wants to be my neighbor? I have no problems being placed far or near the center of the map.

EDIT: Oh, and reminder, the Centrality is a neo-fascist regime with a distinct pro-ESPer bias (though the normal population is not neglected. Usually.), and a larger ESPer population than the norm due to immigration policies and encitements for that purpose. That's not including ones coming from experiments, though those are far less common due to a high failure rate.

EDIT 2: Foreign policy is generally unilateralist, whetever coming from the Isolationist or Interventionist camps, or the mood of the dictator at the time, though the Centralites are not above entering multilateral arragements if it suits them.

[Rabid]

@ Simon :

I think I more or less solved the Shoal problem : [here]

They're far away enough from the Hub (O-15) for them to not be on the way. I think ?

What's you opinion, guys ?

[Imperial528]

Imperial, what role would this star system have? If you could explain in more detail, I'd know what to say about it. Also, since your location relative to others is not essential- you don't need to be right next door to anyone I can think of- I'd prefer it if you didn't edit yourself into other people's maps. I'm going to take a crack at sorting things out after some decent time has passed, but moving Cerna so that other nations can have a set of spatial relationships that make sense to them is something I may very well do.

The system is the Castor system, I'd planned for it to be the home system of the civilization Cerna branched off from, and for it to be far removed from the game's local area, enough that you'd require sleeper ships to reach it. In real life the system is only 32 light years away from Earth, which presents a problem. I'd like for it to be far away because it would frankly be weird if they were that close all this time.

Also, sorry about the map thing, in every past RPG I've played with player-made maps, it's been done by the players drawing themselves in and generally negotiating the positions later. I can be flexible though, and pretty much move wherever.

[Panzersharkcat]

1 2
3 4 5

5 = Neith
4 = Bastet
3 = Horus
2 = Sobek
1 = Isis

Sector names and relative positions. Neith should be around I-16.

[Simon_Jester]

@ Simon :

I think I more or less solved the Shoal problem : [here]

They're far away enough from the Hub (O-15) for them to not be on the way. I think ?

What's you opinion, guys ?

It works. You're scattered over a lot of sky, though. Remember that most countries will want a little blackspace between them and their neighbors- so can you shorten the distances between your permanent sectors a bit?

As long as the Hub isn't right in the middle of the shoal blob, it shouldn't be a problem.

Imperial, what role would this star system have? If you could explain in more detail, I'd know what to say about it. Also, since your location relative to others is not essential- you don't need to be right next door to anyone I can think of- I'd prefer it if you didn't edit yourself into other people's maps. I'm going to take a crack at sorting things out after some decent time has passed, but moving Cerna so that other nations can have a set of spatial relationships that make sense to them is something I may very well do.

The system is the Castor system, I'd planned for it to be the home system of the civilization Cerna branched off from, and for it to be far removed from the game's local area, enough that you'd require sleeper ships to reach it. In real life the system is only 32 light years away from Earth, which presents a problem. I'd like for it to be far away because it would frankly be weird if they were that close all this time.

Also, sorry about the map thing, in every past RPG I've played with player-made maps, it's been done by the players drawing themselves in and generally negotiating the positions later. I can be flexible though, and pretty much move wherever.

That's sort of what I want- but to give an example-

By tradition me and Shepistan are next to each other. Shep will want to be near the Grand Dominion, and vice versa. For the sake of comedy gold, White Haven's League of Thought and Shepistan should be... not right next door, but close enough to fight a serious conflict without any major polity being screwed over by getting caught in the middle. Say, five sector-widths apart. And Ze Bees should be relatively close to the League.

That represents a 'blob' of five countries that would stretch over a significant hunk of territory. And you just happen, more or less at random, to have plunked yourself down pretty close to the region I was hoping to put all of that.

I'm happy with the idea of players drawing themselves in. But one of the keys to successful negotiation: heck, this is a general principle:

NO "FINDERS KEEPERS LOSERS WEEPERS" SCENARIOS

At least, not within reason. Remember that this game is being played by people with a variety of different levels of age, responsibility, and (to an extent) time zone. You happen to have the free time to hover around the forum a lot and to jump into something like this very quickly, which is all right and perfectly fine... but that doesn't mean your wishes should get priority over those of someone else who has other things on their mind and yet sincerely intends to participate in the game.

One of the responsibilities of a mod in these games is unraveling situations where one player jumps in and tries to "steal a march" on others (often by accident) simply by saying a great deal about how things are going to go before anyone else gets a chance to reply. Ask Force Lord about the Outlands sometime.

That was one of the things that went wrong in SDNW1- the nuclear war Shep launched was underway so quickly that many nations had no time to react or try to defuse tensions before the whole thing blew up and their countries had missiles and bombers headed for them.

Lessons Were Learned.






EDIT:

Oh, and just call the star system "Castor" and assert that it's twenty thousand light years away or whatever. It doesn't have to be 'our' Castor, convergence has to happen since there are only so many possible two-syllable words.

[OmegaChief]

Given I've got a trading relationship with them, I don't want to be too far from the Chamarrans, which also means I'll eb reasonably close to the Hellene's.

I'd also be interested on trying to wrangle all fo that be near teh Volscians too, for some neat potential story ideas.

More specifics to come later, jsut adding to the general "X people want to be near y people" right now

[Imperial528]

I agree completely Simon, and I can move my nation anywhere really.

[Dark Hellion]

A little note from back a couple pages: it is probably worth remembering that even micronation strength groups will possess the technology to build megastructures, so ship size is far more based upon the purpose of your navy in general than the strength of your nation.

For example, I planned on having lots of trade routes, be active in trading and assumed I would probably not be really close to all my trading partners so my navy is based on its main duty being anti-piracy patrols. As such I have large numbers of smaller ships which can readily fight off pirates at numerous disparate locations as opposed to having strong line cruisers devoted to force projection.

[Simon_Jester]

Some micronations can build megastructures.

Others might not be able to- remember the Feelipeens from SDNW4? They're hard put to build microstructures, let alone megastructures.

A country which lacks much in the way of economic resources and is trapped in a bizarre backwards-life, like the Feelipeens or Planet Murca, qualifies as a micronation.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Putting up a VERY Primitive map of my own Sector:


The way I see it, I'd have two "sectors" as they are used in the game.. basically one on each side of the gaseous nebula that bisects my territory.
From top to bottom, the whole thing is less then 30Ly across.

[Simon_Jester]

That is... really compact, if we stick to the existing scale and speed figures- at 30 light years wide, or even 60, the whole nation would probably fit into a single sector.

Maybe have the five main homeworlds clustered around the nebula in one sector, and then various farflung colonies and whatnot in the next sector over?


EDIT:

Oh, a question.

Who here has self-aware AI warships with human (or at least organic) captains? Anyone?

[OmegaChief]

Oh, a question.

Who here has self-aware AI warships with human (or at least organic) captains? Anyone?

None -currently- though the Authority is very interested in the technology, and is looking to research it either themselves or with a partner (So.. many... story... ideas...)

I think Rabid mentioned having some.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

On the subject of Nanoha and Homura being Haruhi's elite of the elite:

Remind me never to engage the SOS Marine corps if that's the calbire of thier heroes.

What would it be ? 1per2$, x20 equipment modifier ?

Those foolish enough to openly invite Haruhi's wrath may be slightly comforted to know that individuals like Nanoha and Homura are extremely rare. Even though I haven't actually invested points into having Nanoha and the Puellae Magi as super-heavy ground combatants, the closest equivalents to them would probably be Oderus Urungus and the other leaders of the Scumdogs. In universe, it could be that Oderus and his buddies had plenty of recent opportunities to lead from the front, while Nanoha and Homura have been stuck behind desks and need some time to shake the cobwebs off first.

Incidentally, there are five Scumdogs, and there are five Puellae Magi. Two of my favorite things, Gwar and Madoka Magica. If ever the two are to meet...

[Imperial528]

Oh, a question.

Who here has self-aware AI warships with human (or at least organic) captains? Anyone?

I do have them, actually. Although the AI are not quite as integrated with the ship as the one in your prologue seems to be, with mine it is more they are a very specific type of crew.

[Crossroads Inc.]

That is... really compact, if we stick to the existing scale and speed figures- at 30 light years wide, or even 60, the whole nation would probably fit into a single sector.

Maybe have the five main homeworlds clustered around the nebula in one sector, and then various farflung colonies and whatnot in the next sector over?

For purposes of "PLOT" the worlds Have to be bisected like that, if they were on the same side of the nebula, radio waves would mean the two groups would have come in contact long before the eventual war between them.

My thinking about how to do it, would be to have the bisecting nebula RIGHT in the middle of two sectors. As in if we put two boxes together, the nebula would bet the line between them, and then going out on either side would be the rest of my space.
That make sense?

EDIT: Abit more into WHY I put them so close in the first, and why I may be up forchanging them.
Orginally it started with the idea of having races "meet" one another very VERY early on though basic radio. I started off putting them about 10LY apart so they would begin to pick up each others singles and start talking. Latter on, when I began to write about the war, "In Universe" the wars takes place in very primtive circumstances. Before FTL Drive is made. As such, to prevent ships taking over a decade to get to battle, I shortened the distances even more to where they are now.

However with how things are being adjust for the game... I may stretch them a bit part, but still close enough so they would be able to "talk" to each other via radio very early on.

[cadbrowser]

Oh, a question.

Who here has self-aware AI warships with human (or at least organic) captains? Anyone?

I am considering something to that effect...still working out the details tho.

I will be posting info on the OMNI in the Nation Description Thread here shortly. Just NPC distribution for now. So please verify my numbers are correct. Thanks!

[White Haven]

And now that I'm not stuck in a vortex of paper-writing...

The League occupies a fairly large amount of territory, both in terms of actual sectors (lots of colony sectors), and in terms of an irregular expansion pattern that leaves uncontrolled sectors partially surrounded by League-occupied territory. Thus are the wages of an unusual expansion impetus. It's safe to say that any sectors the League has bypassed only have 3-4 habitable worlds, whereas the sectors they've gone out of their way to nab probably have 6-7.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Quite honestly it doesn't bother me who I'm next to. I don't have anyone I really need to be right next to (aside from Bastian). So just plop Arcadia down wherever there is space. Incidentally I'm planning on having a nebula in one of the colony sectors that is a nest for pirates and Arcadia First forces. Just throwing that out there.

[Simon_Jester]

Nebulas are wherever you like.

Shoals, which are not the same thing necessarily, we can also plunk down wherever you like, but they get painted on the map. I don't want to include astrophysical features other than shoals, with possibly some tiny mark for warp gates or something, because otherwise the map will become a bit too complicated to read.

That is... really compact, if we stick to the existing scale and speed figures- at 30 light years wide, or even 60, the whole nation would probably fit into a single sector.

Maybe have the five main homeworlds clustered around the nebula in one sector, and then various farflung colonies and whatnot in the next sector over?

For purposes of "PLOT" the worlds Have to be bisected like that, if they were on the same side of the nebula, radio waves would mean the two groups would have come in contact long before the eventual war between them.

My thinking about how to do it, would be to have the bisecting nebula RIGHT in the middle of two sectors. As in if we put two boxes together, the nebula would bet the line between them, and then going out on either side would be the rest of my space.
That make sense?

EDIT: Abit more into WHY I put them so close in the first, and why I may be up forchanging them.
Orginally it started with the idea of having races "meet" one another very VERY early on though basic radio. I started off putting them about 10LY apart so they would begin to pick up each others singles and start talking. Latter on, when I began to write about the war, "In Universe" the wars takes place in very primtive circumstances. Before FTL Drive is made. As such, to prevent ships taking over a decade to get to battle, I shortened the distances even more to where they are now.

However with how things are being adjust for the game... I may stretch them a bit part, but still close enough so they would be able to "talk" to each other via radio very early on.

We could do it on a technicality, but I'm reluctant to buy "yes, and all ten inhabited worlds I own are within a tiny radius of the corners of the two sectors I own." It reminds me of bad things, which I'd rather not discuss right this minute when I'm still not entirely awake, and have other things on my mind.

You only have about 5-6 homeworlds among these species, right? That makes things more flexible since the homeworlds can represent either all the living major worlds of one sector, or half or so of the living major worlds of each of two sectors.