STGOD: A Dead Art?

nt01jones · Post by **nt01jones** » 2007-06-14 12:43am

Indeed, just because we're operating in a trektek level universe doesn't mean we have to design our ships out of cardboard. Or with the durability or a china dinner plate.

HSRTG · Post by **HSRTG** » 2007-06-14 12:47am

SirNitram? Can you review my question? Quoted below for ease of finding.

me wrote:SirNitram: I'm thinking of having my species never bother with artificial gravity due to cultural issues. Exact reasons not important at the moment. The obvious byproduct of this stupidity is that their ground forces be weakened (significantly, if they spend any time in space) when they attack a planet.

Simply put, because of this weakness in gravity technology their inertial dampeners are also not up to par with the rest of the galaxy. So my ships would be slower, and my troops weaker as it stands. To compensate for this, I'm planning on giving them a slight advantage, pound for pound, over other races when it comes to defenses and weapons, since they wouldn't have to devote space to gravity generators. Would this sort of RP be acceptable, or if not, what could I do to make it so?

Tasoth · Post by **Tasoth** » 2007-06-14 12:53am

Not so worried about size. It's supposed to land on planets and I'm aiming for them to go 'Hey look! We know some shit! We might be small, but we'll hurt you, so leave us alone!'

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2007-06-14 12:54am

Kilometer-long ships should be quite rare. If only because this is a tech level where boarding operations should have a chance of succeeding.

And sorry, HS. That's fine to write out, and I'll try to remember to take it into account if I have to make calls.

HSRTG · Post by **HSRTG** » 2007-06-14 01:53am

SirNitram wrote:And sorry, HS. That's fine to write out, and I'll try to remember to take it into account if I have to make calls.

Thanks, and it's okay, I should have bolded your name in the first post.

Duckie · Post by **Duckie** » 2007-06-14 07:27am

Aw, shit, Academia Nut has the same race as me. Protoplasmic malleable hivemind blobbies. Different flavour, but I'd feel weird using the Tarêküroi Fyaboķu now.

So... well, I'm clueless. I guess I need to think for a bit to get a new race.

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-06-14 07:41am

MRDOD wrote:Aw, shit, Academia Nut has the same race as me.

Both ripped off the Umgah eh?

Protoplasmic malleable hivemind blobbies.

But are yours cybernetic and dimensionally transcendant?

Must confess I was considering something rather similar but with pebbles and forcefields instead of gooey stuff. Minus the 'exiled to another dimension' Antaran angst source.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2007-06-14 07:54am

Just one point: Should we decide on one drive system for all? It would take away the "My drive has <insert unique feature> that often pops up. For instance, we could go for a B5-style hyperspace with ancient gates. It would have the same implications as in-series. After committed to a fight, you cannot immediately retreat. It would also allow for some stealthy approaches...

Duckie · Post by **Duckie** » 2007-06-14 07:56am

Starglider wrote:
MRDOD wrote:Aw, shit, Academia Nut has the same race as me.
Both ripped off the Umgah eh?

Nonsense, I ripped off something entirely different!

Protoplasmic malleable hivemind blobbies.
But are yours cybernetic and dimensionally transcendant?

No, more like insect hives with biological castes and pheromonal control of the lower castes (who are much too stupid to not be led, of course).

And, just for random lulz, these are two Tarei Xenopsychologists discussing the freudian imagery inherent in human weaponry. The latter one ironically has shaped his outer membrane into collections of hardened extensible spines for use as weaponry, limbs, and fashion statements.

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-06-14 08:10am

I haven't had time to do all the fluff or ship descs yet, but I did throw together a quick visualisation of the race (images are completely unrelated and not by me). I decided to make them literally alien space bats, the size of a rabbit and as intelligent as a monkey. But fortunately they have these anthropomorphic mechanical shells their forebearers made for them, which bring up their physical and mental abilities to a galactically competitive level. Frankly they'd still be screwed if they hadn't inherited lots of cool toys (many of which they still don't really understand) too.

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-06-14 10:11am

Added my empire fleet details to the summary. I appear to be winning on 'most complicated fleet' and 'biggest single ship', though I doubt I will hold the latter for long.

Cincinnatus · Post by **Cincinnatus** » 2007-06-14 11:47am

Since I've spent so much time lately playing Dwarf Fortress when I should have been studying for my finals, I think it's only fair that I make a race of Space Dwarves. I'll try to get my OOB up later today.

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2007-06-14 12:51pm

By the By...

I realized I used up almost all my intial points on my Starfleet. I was curious, if we buy something later, can we, for purposes of Roleplay, say "Oh, we Always had that" ?

You know, say something like planetary defense?

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2007-06-14 12:58pm

SirNitram wrote:If you want to invest points in being harder to interdict, you will basically get a 10-1 parity: for +10 points to your engine, you can escape a ship which has (+1 Interdictor Unit Onboard) or however people notate such. If no one invests extra points in interdictors, that'd be a big gain for small cost. But.

No system is 'immune' from anything. Your super-comm can be spoofed, jammed, and intercepted if the other guy invested more. I've had enough of super-duper things declared because people don't want to exercise the slightest sense.

Wait a second, are we now supposed to qualify what the points go towards per ship? I thought we were doing a more generic more points = higher quality ship. Could we perhaps just say that interdiction equipment costs 10 or 15 points and provides interdiction over some area until disabled?

Post by **Beowulf** » 2007-06-14 01:02pm

Crossroads Inc. wrote:By the By...

I realized I used up almost all my intial points on my Starfleet. I was curious, if we buy something later, can we, for purposes of Roleplay, say "Oh, we Always had that" ?

You know, say something like planetary defense?

Game hasn't started yet... Might as well just change your OOB.

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » 2007-06-14 01:13pm

InnocentBystander wrote:Wait a second, are we now supposed to qualify what the points go towards per ship? I thought we were doing a more generic more points = higher quality ship. Could we perhaps just say that interdiction equipment costs 10 or 15 points and provides interdiction over some area until disabled?

No, just look at the OOB thread to see what he means. It is assumed that for a set amount of points everyone has the same speed, jamming, sensors, etc. But under the 'more points is better' system, you can assign points to other systems to make them better. So a 2 point ship with 1 point devoted to speed will be worth a 1 point ship in combat but will be faster than other ships like it. A 10 cruiser with a 5 point interdiction field will be able to interdict damn well anything and presumably over a very wide field too, but can be knocked out by a 6 point destroyer.

Simple.

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2007-06-14 01:14pm

Beowulf wrote:Game hasn't started yet... Might as well just change your OOB.

Good point

Changes made.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-06-14 01:34pm

Alright - as I finished my OOB before I went to sleep last night, would an experienced player mind looking over my OOB for errors? I'm sure there are at least a few, but I'd like to get most of them ironed out before we start.

EDIT: Reading Starglider's entry about my "extremely concentrated forces" gave me food for thought, too. Any suggestions?

Thirdfain · Post by **Thirdfain** » 2007-06-14 01:41pm

Here's a thought to put on the table for SirNitram, in regards to FTL and interdictors. Let's say I invest 4 points into an interdictor, and the fleeing ship invests, say, 6 points in interdiction-beating. If the 6-pointer could just effortlessly escape, then the 4 points would have been wasted. Would it be fair to say that fairly close scores would allow the interdiction-breaker to escape, but with greater difficulty, requiring a longer time to "spin up" the jump engines or whatever to deal with the interference? And vice-versa, how about interdiction fields won't completely block another ship's escape, simply force it to take longer (if there is a great disparity in points, perhaps a lot longer) to escape?

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2007-06-14 01:43pm

Are we allowed to add ships that we don't have any yet?

Say ship designs for specific functions that might not be built for a while?

HSRTG · Post by **HSRTG** » 2007-06-14 02:02pm

Starglider's OOB wrote: RECOMMENDATIONS : * Weak planetary defence. Strike while distracted elsewhere.

True, dat. I had to keep them in-character though, and they really had no need for dedicated planetary defense whilst in character.

* Taunt about incoherent dogma over comm channels to encourage tactical mistakes.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Brilliant. I love it. I'll enjoy writing frothing responses to your taunts.

I'm not really going to play to win this. Given what's likely to happen to my particular race once the truth goes public, I doubt they'll be a power player by late mid-game, if then. Does depend on the actions of everyone else, though.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-06-14 02:11pm

Could we get some idea about what the nature of this "Empire" was? If I wanted to be a member of the disaffected lower class, angry after the oppression of this massive offworld absentee landlord Empire, would that be feasible?

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » 2007-06-14 02:15pm

Oooh... I'm going to have fun with you HSRTG, seeing as how one translation for the elders of my species is 'god'. Considering the naive my guys are going to sometimes display, this could make interesting interactions:

Straltoc Commander: Greetings, I am Morziltu, Admiral of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet, Elder God of the Straltoc. We greet you with peace and friendship.
Nianan Captain: God?! There is but one God, blasphemer! Demon!
SC: Amongst my people, there are many gods, and all strive to one day join their ranks. We would share our gifts and free you from the burden of having but one god.
NC: *has anurysm* OPEN FIRE! *cuts communication*
Straltoc Sensor Officer: Sir, the frigate has opened fire on us.
SC: Huh... that wasn't very friendly, now was it?
SSC: Have to talk to the diplomatic core about that one.
SC: Yes. Very well, open fire with all batteries. A ship that small must have something going for it to attack a battleship. Can't take chances, now can we?

Obviously you might play this differently, but I can't see our factions ever getting along.

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2007-06-14 02:16pm

Its a shame we wern't doing a Galactic "StarWars" Tech level game,I had a much more interesting group planned for that one. Even so I'm curious to see how my :
Starglider's OOB wrote:

Code: Select all

intersteller furry convention

will do once the game has started

Where are we by the way? I am still curious if we get some sort of map or where are planets are placed in relation to each other.

HSRTG · Post by **HSRTG** » 2007-06-14 02:22pm

Academia Nut wrote:Oooh... I'm going to have fun with you HSRTG, seeing as how one translation for the elders of my species is 'god'. Considering the naive my guys are going to sometimes display, this could make interesting interactions:

*snip hilarity*

Obviously you might play this differently, but I can't see our factions ever getting along.

Hee hee hee. I can't see a destroyer opening fire at a battleship. Amusing thought and image though. You can see why I'm nervous about your fleet, though. We're natural enemies, and on top of that yours is fully, and efficiently organized, and quite capable of attacking. Mine is spread, because of head-in-the-sand stupidity, throughout the colonies, and not organized to be offensive. If you bum-rush me, I lose. Please don't?