STGOD 2k8 Planning thread

[Covenant]

We could just redefine how much of the galaxy the Empire controlled, ya'll know. Why does everyone need to be from outside the disc? Can't you be from, like, the other side of the galaxy? Invading the Left Half of the galaxy from the Right Half is still sufficently cool. And it makes more sense for the Right Half to go "Shit! Left blew up! Let's fucking gangrape what's left!" and a bunch of you hideous xenos rush on in to pick up the pieces and eat them with those hideous orifaces you call mouths.

I think that the best way to solve stuff is just to remove the whole "Never Seen Aliens Before" thing. That fucks a bit of Nitram's story, but unless we can get less than One Zillion Aliens roaming around the neighborhood, I'm going to find it somewhat hard to justify being suprised to see Other Humans when there are disgusting Abominations from God Knows Where scuttling around claiming to be ambassadors from an upcoming colonization fleet.

[Spyder]

Spyder
A percent system turns into a point system anyway, just with an added level of complexity, because any given percentage is a percentage of SOME whole number. What you're saying is give everyone 100 points, but hey, instead of making it an easy "this many points to that many points" comparison, let's add an extra level of obscurity.

See, a percent system only works so long as everyone starts with the same amount and KEEPS the same amount. This comes into a major problem the first time anyone grows faster than anyone else, or slower than anyone else, or loses a fleet, etc. Meaning that now someone has to have a points system ANYWAY, but the players don't see it right away, because this needless percentage system comes into play, except now we need to have modifiers, because Nation X's 10% is worth more than Nation Y's, which is worth more than Nation Z's.

Now there is a way around this, by going above 100% and doing away with the "percent of a whole" method. However, if you go above 100%, you completely remove the point of an actual percent system, and all you really achieve is making ANOTHER point system, but artificially lowering the numbers involved.

What use can be garnered from this concept, however, is the idea that the specific types of ships involved don't matter as much as the amount of force applied. It's something to consider, but if there's one thing people like, it's making up fleet lists. I suppose we could have an option for just saying "X points here, there, and there, with Y amount being Imperial tech (bonuses), and a few captured Imperial Fleets", with the option of declaring them as different types of ships, but the problem with this is that there ceases to be a distinction between large and small ships, and every navy effectively becomes a large mass of one point ships.

One thing I would like to do is put the focus on deployment costs rather then on stocks of hulls. The thing with ships is that they'd be an ongoing investment, you've got to keep the things crewed, armed, fueled and eventually replaced as it becomes obsolete.

Now I'm not going to say there aren't better ways to manage, it just struck me that if we only really need to measure differentials in power and that by focusing on differentials we can simplify a number of things like growth, fleet turnover and the benefits of territorial capture.

[Academia Nut]

I think its less "there are no aliens" and more "the human centrist, xenophobic empire exterminated or enslaved the majority of alien species in the local neighbourhood and kept quiet about it so few of the citizens actually knew the true score".

The only problem with redefining the extent of the empire is that if we make it bigger that implies faster starship speeds, and more than that, it implies a lot more worlds. So many more that people will start questioning where everyone else is. As a rule of thumb, for every doubling of the radius of the empire, the number of habitable worlds goes up an order of magnitude. That is of course assuming linear stellar density when the density we are using is for the rather thin part of the Orion arm that Sol is located in.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Man I hate being post #74 >_<

[Hotfoot]

One thing I would like to do is put the focus on deployment costs rather then on stocks of hulls. The thing with ships is that they'd be an ongoing investment, you've got to keep the things crewed, armed, fueled and eventually replaced as it becomes obsolete.

Now I'm not going to say there aren't better ways to manage, it just struck me that if we only really need to measure differentials in power and that by focusing on differentials we can simplify a number of things like growth, fleet turnover and the benefits of territorial capture.

The thing is that we need a way to measure relative power in a given fight. Your method means we have to convert a declaration of "60%" into "150 points" and "20%" into "200 points", which has to be done EVERY TIME there is combat or just accept the fact that you're starting with a total of 100 points and the system is no different from the one proposed. It's easier to say "I bring 2,000 points, you brought 3,000. It's clear you overpower me straight on, but I'm going to try X, Y, and Z to move things in my favor, at least until I can run away."

In short, it's no simpler, and in fact it's actually more complex to implement. Any time I can state a smaller number and in fact outnumber my opponent, or the reverse, the system ceases to be simple. You might as well claim THAC0 is simpler than BAB. From what I see, the ONLY difference between the two methods is that you add a step that obfuscates things and actually makes it harder to measure relative strengths, or at best is just a senseless reduction of the values used.

Crossroads Inc.
With regards to another race of super-aliens from beyond the rim, first off, a few pieces of clarification:
A. Imperial Shipyards (the super-ship bonus) will be expensive to buy as an initial perk, and frankly I'm going to say right now that building big-ass ships without them will be impossible.

As for the rest, I know, it sucks to have an idea that doesn't exactly fit with the rest of the setting, but at the end of the day, a cohesive setting that makes sense is something we could really use for an STGOD, because one problem we've had in previous games was not having a cohesive setting with people making up history as we went.

As it stands now, we should work on a cohesive history for the world as we're hammering out the world, and in the process, we should really minimize the number of extragalactic powers if at all possible, because it does sort of remove something from the game if it goes from "Fighting over the remnants of an empire everyone has some sort of history with" to "a bunch of aliens fight over the spoils of humanity's shattered empire."

Also, if you got your asses kicked by humanity while they were in their height (which is likely to be a lot longer than 500 years ago), the chances that you'll still have super-ships left over is....well, a little unreasonable.

[Covenant]

I think its less "there are no aliens" and more "the human centrist, xenophobic empire exterminated or enslaved the majority of alien species in the local neighbourhood and kept quiet about it so few of the citizens actually knew the true score".

The only problem with redefining the extent of the empire is that if we make it bigger that implies faster starship speeds, and more than that, it implies a lot more worlds. So many more that people will start questioning where everyone else is. As a rule of thumb, for every doubling of the radius of the empire, the number of habitable worlds goes up an order of magnitude. That is of course assuming linear stellar density when the density we are using is for the rather thin part of the Orion arm that Sol is located in.

I actually meant that we could make it smaller. Really, I don't know why there's no other intra-galactic foes, but lots of inter-galactic ones. Having a galaxy populated with a variety of other species seems reasonable. But it seems that everyone wants to be coming from an entirely different galaxy, which causes a host of issues.

[Nephtys]

I think its less "there are no aliens" and more "the human centrist, xenophobic empire exterminated or enslaved the majority of alien species in the local neighbourhood and kept quiet about it so few of the citizens actually knew the true score".

The only problem with redefining the extent of the empire is that if we make it bigger that implies faster starship speeds, and more than that, it implies a lot more worlds. So many more that people will start questioning where everyone else is. As a rule of thumb, for every doubling of the radius of the empire, the number of habitable worlds goes up an order of magnitude. That is of course assuming linear stellar density when the density we are using is for the rather thin part of the Orion arm that Sol is located in.

I actually meant that we could make it smaller. Really, I don't know why there's no other intra-galactic foes, but lots of inter-galactic ones. Having a galaxy populated with a variety of other species seems reasonable. But it seems that everyone wants to be coming from an entirely different galaxy, which causes a host of issues.

If you want to be an alien threat, why not be one that mankind subjugated, that has since time to hide in the periphery of the empire and rebuild? That fits with the theme.

[Dahak]

Are there already some ideas stabilising? I wouldn't mind an overview of the ideas. The thread gets a wee bit complex...
As for me, I'd like to play a faction "from here", so Academia Nut, you're not alone For my own lazyness I will re-use one of my previous nations, revamped.

[Nephtys]

I'm thinking of playing a small nation of 'elder colonies' that were some of the scientific and cultural centers of the empire, but detatched from the capital's society. They'd be rich historical revisionists who imagined themselves at the start of mankind's ascension to galactic power.

Like the Italians with Rome flashbacks, they'd imagine their 'precessors' in Early Sci-Fi Rocketships and adventures in unknown space. So they've got a cultural fascination for their (imagined) version of the Era. Driving 60's styled finned hovercars through their Retro Cities, while Astro-Patrol Spacemen and Women fly around in highly advanced rocket cruisers wearing bubble helmets and miniskirts, shouting dramatic jargon while backed up by reliable super robots (DANGER! DANGER!).

They'd naturally be one of the aggressor/first strike nations trying to reclaim some of what should be theirs (some ex-Imperial thing they feel they had a big part in constructing).

Naturally, this is partially tongue in cheek.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Crossroads Inc.
With regards to another race of super-aliens from beyond the rim, first off, a few pieces of clarification:
A. Imperial Shipyards (the super-ship bonus) will be expensive to buy as an initial perk, and frankly I'm going to say right now that building big-ass ships without them will be impossible.

<snip>

Also, if you got your asses kicked by humanity while they were in their height (which is likely to be a lot longer than 500 years ago), the chances that you'll still have super-ships left over is....well, a little unreasonable.

I Could argue a bit more that the ships they build now Arn't "super" big and its only the two or three they still have that are of immense size... But it looks like a loosing battle. The main crux of my ideas is something that just won't fit into this setting, Id have to accomidate far too much of it and it would loose its luster.

Really, I dislike humans as a whole... I think best when dealing with things alien to begin with... How about pitching a few ideas?

*Would "Bentusi" be too alien? IE A human mind that has "become" a starship and intergrated in every way with a Ship Ala the race from "Homeworld" series.

*How advanced are Robotics and AI's ? What level of robots can we go? C3P0? Data? Transfomers?

*Can we have a 'Symbolic' Mothership? IE A honking BigAss ship that serves a Moral boosting function or perhaps is an "Arc" type ship that, despite massive side, would not give a military advantage?

[Hotfoot]

Hey, you could have planets that are essentially gigantic ships that you couldn't maintain the drives for anymore and have settled into stable orbits around otherwise barren stars. The key here is that nothing will make them move. At least not in the near future. Maybe decades down the line. Maybe if you get your hands on some old Imperial Datacaches...and shipyards. Lots of Imperial Shipyards.

Bentusi would essentially be fine, with of course the idea that they've at least got some kind of AI running the mundane tasks on board the ship, or collective minds of the ship and such.

As far as AI, see no reason we couldn't have a race of sentient mechanoids that were kept down by the empire and such.

[Covenant]

Crossroads, I pitched an idea for transhuman cyborg/AI's and nobody squealed, so I think Bentusi or Robots are fine, and so are thing inbetween. Of course, mine are going to be geometric primitives and not optimus prime, but still, I'm still open to debate. Currently I'm thinking of having them be transhuman minds inside of more advanced cases, but not decided yet. Despite my dislike, thinking of giving them psionics. Cuz psionic robot geometry is cool and creepy. And no, they're not evil.

If you don't want to overlap, feel free to contact me. I doubt our ideas are so similar that we would overlap, but if you're looking for being really 'out there' then you might want to make sure that there's not a normal human nation that's similar. I'm not an alien, at least, not yet. If it works better that I'm actually a sub-faction of your Species, I could do that. I know we all mentioned before that there were no Alien subcultures. If Crossroads and I decided to have a common ancestor, that might be interesting.

Anyway, anything's open!

[Crossroads Inc.]

The key here is that nothing will make them move. At least not in the near future. Maybe decades down the line. Maybe if you get your hands on some old Imperial Datacaches...and shipyards. Lots of Imperial Shipyards.

Why would we need a shipyward to make something move? Wouldn't you;d need power? Energy? Fuel?

And Covenant, Im still in the Protoform stage of my own ideas, but a common ancesestor thing wouldn't be out of line with what I am cooking

[Hotfoot]

Imperial Tech can make big ships, and big ship parts. Mechanical stuff doesn't just stay wonderful forever, especially when the machine in question creates a large enough natural gravity to keep people and atmosphere attached. The engines likely need massive repairs in addition to special fuels, high-end power plants, and such. Take in mind that this is not something that could even remotely be undertaken during the course of the game, if it were even possible.

[Covenant]

And Covenant, Im still in the Protoform stage of my own ideas, but a common ancesestor thing wouldn't be out of line with what I am cooking

Just putting it out there! I'm painting with a very wide brush right now. If I end up being the only brains-in-machine men out there, alrightie, but I want to be open to ideas. I like my idea, so I would rather people approach me so I can either make myself unlike them (and keep a wide range of 'flavors' in the game) or so I can work to make us similar for a reason. That's in general--you're just the first person to mention AI's and Cyborging. ;D

[Crossroads Inc.]

to Hotfoot
Ok THAT makes sense, for some reason I kept associating Shipyeards with building New megaships instead of maintaining old ones. As an aside, how big is big? Lets say I have an ancient giant colony ship that formed the nucleous of my little emprie and its achievied mythic status over the centuries.

Would 6000 meters be too big to keep something up and running? Maybe 5,000? The main "mothership/bigship" think would play the roll of a moving capital, poltical wise, not industrial wise. Perhopas a ship that was once just a Massive colony ship, but grew into a city over time.

to Covenant
Its really early to be putting things down, but I just finished watching "Transformers" on DVD again, and somehow im determined to use big machine lifeforms one way or another. That, and I've always loved the Bentusi, so It'd be cool to somehow incoporate them as well.

[Dahak]

What about the feasibility (technologically) of my trademark gas planet dwellers with heavy AI/computer-focus? I haven't done them to death. Yet...

[Darkevilme]

Hey, you could have planets that are essentially gigantic ships that you couldn't maintain the drives for anymore and have settled into stable orbits around otherwise barren stars. The key here is that nothing will make them move. At least not in the near future. Maybe decades down the line. Maybe if you get your hands on some old Imperial Datacaches...and shipyards. Lots of Imperial Shipyards.

This sounds familiar from somewhere... and i also figured i could get a mothership to move again if i got an imperial shipyard. Except for one thing, the mothership's cant move to go to the shipyard and i doubt the shipyard can move to go to the mothership. Though i suppose if i built a massive tug of some sort...

I have in mind literally city sized motherships, a dozen of them each probably in the neighbourhood of ten kilometres long strung in a necklace around the sun. Which sounds kinda crazy till you realize this is the entirety of my civilization and nothing compared to your average multiplanet society.

And to clarify what i had in mind with the 'bigger ships' perk. At least for me i only need 10 to 20 points of extra room, and it doesnt represent bigger so much as more refined. So they've still got roughly the same tech as before but its been worked on until its more compact, reliable, efficient and flexible to implement.

[Hotfoot]

What about the feasibility (technologically) of my trademark gas planet dwellers with heavy AI/computer-focus? I haven't done them to death. Yet...

...yeah, okay, sure. Yet.

I look forward to the day your little networked nation gets a virus.

Crossroads Inc.
I suspect a 6km ship will be roughly the size of some people's dreadnoughts. Something of legend, might as well make it a true mechanical world. Maybe a large moon in size or something.

Darkevilme
There's a big difference between a mechanical world and a mothership. One is a gigantic relic that is, functionally, no different from a planet. The other is a mobile base of operations that cannot effectively assailed and give a massive amount of strategic flexibility.

The idea is that, fluff-wise, it gives you another reason to go for Imperial Relics, but it would have no appreciable effect in-game. It's not like, "Oh, hey, I got a shipyard and fixed the engines, now I can use this world as a starship to wage war lol!"

[Raxmei]

The idea of a marginalised alien race on the rise with a dash of vengeance is somewhat appealing to me, as is competing with another faction with the same race.

[SirNitram]

Relocated to the STGOD Subforum!

[Crossroads Inc.]

Relocated to the STGOD Subforum!

Shouldn't we, as a matter of historical importance, put all the PAST STGOD's in here?

[Noble Ire]

It looks like a lot of people are going for the alien angle...

Anyways, I think the first draft of my OOB needs some vetting. I'm rather fond of the idea (if not the name), but I'm not sure how it well it would work, setting or gameplay wise:


Silencers

Long before humanity stood astride of the Galaxy, its imperial standard planted in the soil of hundreds of alien worlds, long before the species’ forebears were little more than wisps of amino acid and lipid adrift in a great, primordial sea, there was civilization. The keepers of this far nation were marvels of biology and evolution, the first to think, to converse, to love. Slowly, tentatively, they spread across their homeworld, and when it had been fully tamed by their will, they spread further, into the inviting stillness of the void. Explorers moved from star to star, and marveled at the wonders of rock and air they found upon each tiny globe of stone they passed. The Galaxy held an endless store of wonderment and bounty that could never be exhausted, and for a long while, the first thinkers were content. But there was something missing from their paradise. There were no other minds with which they could share their thoughts and feelings and experiences. Explorers searched long and hopefully, scouring each world for the barest traces of intellect, but their quest was in vain. Others constructed artificial minds with which to converse, but the products of their labors were too much like their creators, and the fascination that they brought did not last.

The only hope of new companionship that could be found was in the roiling waters of a few newly-cooled worlds scattered across space, where the seeds of life, different in nature but life nonetheless, fermented and grew. The thinkers took heart from this discovery, but they also knew that no minds would come of these bubbling pools for a very long time, an age even for their long lives. So it was decided: they would go to sleep. All the organs of their civilization, every devices and piece of art, every technology and thinking machine, everything that they had shaped or thought were carefully stowed in vaults beneath the surface of the more promising bears of new life. The thinkers bid their realm farewell and joined their possessions, their minds buzzing with expectation for the far tomorrow as they slipped into a unified slumber.

Entombed, they slept for the lifetime of worlds, oblivious to the life that flourished above them. Other sapient beings arose from seas and overgrown forests, and busied themselves with all the things that the first thinkers had once accomplished, unaware of what lay below their feet. So it went for many thousands of years.

And then, the sleepers awoke. As they perceived for the first time in eons, a new sensation burst into their minds, and they knew that their wish had been answered: thinking creatures of completely new form crowded space and the surfaces of the worlds beneath which they had slept. Their joy was great, but it turned swiftly to confusion, fear, and pain. The minds of these new beings did not simply speak to them, they screamed. All of their feelings and intents stabbed into them like poisoned barbs, scattering their thoughts and filling them anguish unlike they had ever felt.

Those on worlds where fewer of the other beings walked were able to retain some hold on their faculties, but those beneath the places were life and truly prospered were paralyzed by the constant, searing cacophony. Their far-flung comrades could feel the unending suffering of their fellows beyond even their own agony, and it filled them with emotion that few had felt since the earliest days of their being. The thinkers were peaceful beings, artists, adventures, and romantics, but they still held the capacity for rage, and it swept over them at the plight of their trapped kin. So compelled, those who could function through the endless pain reactivated their dormant machines and set to work, shaping them into weapons. There was only one way to end the pain.

The thinkers, who had for so long desired conversation and activity, desire now only silence. And they will stop at nothing to claim it.

Biology

Silencers are undoubtedly living beings, but they are quite unlike any organism of Terran origin. Rather than being fundamentally carbon-based, they are composed primarily of silicon, nitrogen, and zinc. These elements form a crystalline octahedron of varying dimensions, one to three meters in height. This central structure, which can range in color from virtual translucence to a pale green, is surrounded by a belt of tightly-intertwined fibers, usually dark gray. This hemisphere bears four long, rope-like growths tipped with a varying number of smaller “fingers”. Each of these growths is flexible and its digits are fully articulated, allowing individuals to move and interact with their environments.

Silencers lack organs in any traditional sense, and instead have three distinct “tissues” or crystalline composites that serve different roles. The first, Gateway tissue, covers the Silencer’s “fingers”, and can selectively absorbed mineral nutrients from the environment and excrete the little waste its consumption produces. The matter that constitutes their limbs, Niche tissue, can alter its rigidity, allowing for movement; it is also shot with microscopic channels which transport mineral nutrients and waste matter to and from Gateway tissue. Apex tissue makes up the central crystal, and functions as both a unitary sensory organ and an originator of the electrical pulses that constitute the beings’ neural systems. Silencers reproduce by “seeding” a nutrient-rich substrate with a self-replicating shard of their own Apex tissue.

Due to their make-up, individuals are far hardier than most biological forms of life. They require comparatively little chemical sustenance, do not breath, are immune to virtually all toxins, and can withstand all but the most extreme levels of radiation, gravity, heat, and cold (Silencers can function in hard vacuum indefinitely). They can live for tens of thousands of years, and only die of old age when their central crystal eventually depolarizes. Silencers are extremely strong and resistant to both pressure and blunt-force, but their exposed Apex tissue is prone to crack and shatter if subjected to an incision or point-impact. They are also slow and ungainly in higher-gravity environments, and often wear powered encounter shells when on typically-habitable worlds.

Despite their colloquial name, Silencers do not have any conception of hearing by its conventional definition, or of touch, taste, sight, or smell. Instead, they have three entirely distinct senses: telepathy, electrical perception, and “impression”. All Silencers are telepathic, and can communicate with each other in real-time over inter-planetary distances; lower scale perception, like general impressions of location and mental state, occur on a potentially trans-galactic scale. They are also able to perceive the thoughts of biological sapients, but they are generally unable to comprehend them. Instead, alien thoughts, especially those of nearby individuals, manifest themselves as disruptive and excruciating interference, distortion that cannot be blocked out by any means other than extreme distance.

Electrical perception allows Silencers to perceive electrical fields, currents, and potentials at range. Most individuals are able to detect electricity, like that produced within a human brain, at ranges of upwards of fifty kilometer, regardless of most intervening material. They also use this electrical affinity to interface with their technology; most Silencer vessels and facilities have one or more individuals at their heart, directly connected to the construct’s internal components, serving as a central coordinator. Silencers also can communicate though the direct exchange of electrical signals through their limbs, but this form of contact is less common than telepathy and seems to demonstrate affection between individuals.

The final mode of Silencer perception is “Impression”. Using some process unknown to Terran physical science, the beings are able to perceive the location, composition, and structure of matter without actually seeing or interacting with it in any conventional way. They “see” objects as masses of preons, the fundamental units of matter, and can identify these “bundles” in intense detail over extreme distances, nearly as far as they are able to sustain direct telepathic contact. It is postulated that Silencer vessels lack any conventional analogue of active scanning technology, and that individual pilots instead transfer sensory information directly to their ships. Silencers cannot, however, look “though” matter with Impression, and artificial gravity fields heavily distort their perception of objects. This suggests that Impression may have some basis in perception of gravity, but there is no direct evidence for this assertion.

Culture

Before they entered their species-wide hibernation more than a billion years ago, the Silencers boasted a utopian, post-scarcity civilization that spanned dozens of worlds. Due to their fundamentally telepathic nature, physical conflict was extremely uncommon and open warfare virtually unknown. Their social order was based upon pure, communal democracy, and oriented towards the welfare of every individual. However, the Silencers are not a hive-mind, and each individual has its own rich complement of experiences and preferences. With virtually no conflict in their lives, the sapients were able to devote themselves entirely to pursuits as diverse as exploration, philosophy, art, science, and literature. When it was decided to place the species into a deep sleep, each individual perceived the undertaking as an opportunity for an infinite number of new pursuits.

Silencers are intensely empathic creatures, and when those on remote worlds felt the pain of their comrades Coreward, their salvation immediately became the civilization’s first and only priority. Minds honed by millennia of constant reflection, the Silencers were able to quickly adapt their technology towards the elimination of other sapient beings and formulate stratagems for deploying them. The ancients recognize that their new targets are living, thinking beings, but the degree of suffering their very existence inflicts upon Silencer minds and the gulf between their perceptions of the Galaxy have ensured that communication and negotiation are more or less infeasible. The Silencers are not malevolent, but their yearning for quiet has made them pragmatic and ruthless.
-----------------------------------------------

Basically, they would play as follows: Several fringe colonies (potentially those belonging to one or more players) would have their populations abruptly erased by invaders from within, and vaults within each world's surface would begin disgorging Silencer fleets. Their objective would then be to "liberate" every paralyzed vault scattered across the cosmos, many of them beneath the central worlds of major players, thus creating conflict. Rather than having a standard economy with producton centers, trade lanes, and conquest (I would accrue either a faction of the normal number of points per turn, or none at all), the Silencers would gain production points whenever they cleansed a world and uncovered its vault.

So, would this work, or am I better off constructing a more conventional power? I could go either way.

[Academia Nut]

So basically you're Necrons?

All kidding aside, the story sounds good, but raises the question of "Why is all this stuff happening now?" Nitram's guys showing up looking for their Holy Land is an impetus for everything to fall apart, so him having extragalactics is perfectly fine, but unless the other galaxy is busy blowing up, what's with the other exgals showing up in this tiny chunk of the galaxy? And why should ancient sleepers who are incapable of comprehending alien thought because it causes them intense pain wake up at the one time when the local power structure is incapable of tearing them a new one? This was the sort of scrambled origins we were trying to avoid.

Plus if I heard that there were a bunch of aliens going around exterminating all life on a planet and then more of them showed up afterwards, apparently from beneath the surface of the planet they just annihilated, I would ask my geology guys if perhaps we shouldn't be piping some hydrofluoric acid down into our crust to make sure there isn't anything silicon left afterwards.

That said, I get this hilarious image of these crochetty old aliens holding their heads after being awoken from their midday nap by my metal barbarians rocking out in their garage. They would hate my guys seeing as how they pretty much use cosmic sound (or noise, depending on your taste) to make their technology work.

Oh, and now that we have a subforum, what say we split this thread (or spin it off) into fluff and crunch so in one thread we can come up with all the fiddly rules and the other we can weave a cohesive background?

[Crossroads Inc.]

I decided on the nature of my Über" ship. Basically its going to be a 50km wide Colony ship built at the height of the Old empier.

After so long, its used just as a massivly dense city world and most don't even remember that the ship could once move, or had any sort of weapon systems.