SDN Worlds 4 Commentary Thread III

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Posted a story that I just felt like writing...

[Steve]

How much time until Kordis reaches Pendleton? Maybe he'll arrive in time to meet with Fisher while they discuss what they do with the Datton, but anything can happen in two days.

I was honestly going to say we should make his arrival next, and have him meet with Fisher with Forg and Xader in the wings. But we should probably exchange PMs on what to write first.

[Kartr_Kana]

Uh Fin those men from the 31st Spetnaz got a Plague on the wall? I know they stopped a bio-weapon and all but I would've thought it was a Plaque. I know nitpicking, but it kind of stood out to me.

[Simon_Jester]

EDIT: Replaced my mistaken post earlier today in Story with a minor piece filling in some more of the story related to Glowworm.

A case of myopic vision, really. The Order is knowledgeable about the factions immediately around New Anglia as well as in the Outback, sometimes just as knowledgeable as Anglian officials and military officers, but the Feelipeens are a long way off and have the French and Ascendancy between here and there. They don't know them nearly as well, and since the most recent thing is Shep's state visit with promises of aid and, of course, all those FREEDOM kill bots being exported to them, it would appear to a number of casual observers that even if the Umerians have influences in the system, Shepistan has gained the upper hand.

By and large, Umerian aid to the system is economic whereas Shepistani aid is military; the Feelipeens are currently Umeria's largest supplier of chromium, and it's one of their main export industries.

Among other things, Shroomarcos is courting Umerian government investment in improvements to their space-launch infrastructure, which is currently about as primitive as everything else on the planet.

[Shroom Man 777]

Wonderful acronym Katr Kana.

[Kartr_Kana]

Thanks I've been getting comments about shroominess in AIM all day.

Working on my post still and I've come up with some interesting plot twists for Hanson.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

I doubt either Lord Baden-Gray or Secretary DeLancey would be willing to join an organization seemingly named after weed. Expect one or both of them to ask that the name be changed.

Also, Intolerance Brennan's "M2411" was quite obviously made in the Feelipeens. You'd think she would have learned from the example of Two-Gun Geraldo not to buy a Feelipeeni knock-off. Looks like she needed...a helping hand.



YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Simon_Jester]

Umerians would consider joining such an organization, but our existing commitments to SEATO make it unlikely. Being in several interlocking defense pacts with nations who have major interests beyond our strategic reach isn't really our thing; our interest in agreements with the Commune stops short of major military activity, mostly, just because we physically can't send fleets out that far without massive arrangements in advance.

That's why the Council of Technarchs was thinking in terms of cooperation against civilization-as-a-whole threats: more in terms of scientific collaboration than in terms of concentration of firepower.

[Shroom Man 777]

Thanks I've been getting comments about shroominess in AIM all day.

Working on my post still and I've come up with some interesting plot twists for Hanson.

What is your AIMs? Guise we need more IMs to communicates!

[Master_Baerne]

States with alien minorities consist of the Solarians, Klavostan, New Anglia, the Federated Ascendancy, Umeria, Severus (Wilkens' Severians), the Outlander Commissions, and.... that's it, I believe.

Just because it's nitpick day, I'd like to point out that we have a very sizable alien minority - something like 30% of the population is composed of giant not-quite-ants.

[Steve]

That's what I meant. Aliens make up just below 25% of the Anglian population as it is, though that figure is divided between three races.

[Siege]

About half of the Cevaukian Ascendancy are aliens too.

[Steve]

Okay everyone, seriously now, next Saturday - as in October 9th - I'd like to commence a jump to July. Because at this rate, our build thread is useless because we're not going to get to 3401 until next August.

Edit: In fact, after an IM convo with Siege, I'm going to retcon the two Toutaine posts as happening in July. I'll have to slightly alter the first as well to accommodate the new season it's taking place in.

[Simon_Jester]

Okay everyone, seriously now, next Saturday - as in October 9th - I'd like to commence a jump to July. Because at this rate, our build thread is useless because we're not going to get to 3401 until next August.

Edit: In fact, after an IM convo with Siege, I'm going to retcon the two Toutaine posts as happening in July. I'll have to slightly alter the first as well to accommodate the new season it's taking place in.

Jesus Christ, Steve!

Look, can you at least jump us to May, then jump us to July a week or a bit more later, say Oct. 16-20? If I'm jumped clean into July in another week I'm not going to have time to write the consequences of the actions I'm writing now, and I'll have to stop and backfill what happened between March and July all in one go. Which would mean taking an absurdly long time to finish "July," because "July" would really be "everything between April Fools' and Bastille Day."

I'm sorry, but an instantaneous leap of three months is pulling the rug out from under me a bit much here.

I'd rather have regularly scheduled jumps of a month a week than three weeks for one month and then BANG! three months go by in no time flat. Because I'm the one who actually likes writing novella-length descriptions of events that only take a few days to happen, and I don't want to get too hopelessly behind the actual events of the storyline here.

It would be one thing to make a jump like that in an environment where, say, LoC9's head of state would take two weeks to reach me and the negotiations would drag out for months, or where diplomatic communiques between me and my plenipotentiary in Stas's capital would take a month to cross the intervening space. Then there wouldn't be so many possible events that could happen between March/April and July. But we don't live in that kind of environment.

Given the pace at which ships and messages move, three months is an eternity in this setting, at least when I'm dealing with my immediate neighbors. Which, as you may have noticed, I am...

[Siege]

You could still backdate to your heart's desire, you know.

[Simon_Jester]

You could still backdate to your heart's desire, you know.

It will take me quite a few days of hands-on-keyboard writing to fill in the backdated material to the point where I don't need to worry about events in the backdated segments affecting my actions in the "present."

If nothing else, I need to resolve the issue with Prussia before I know what my relations with Prussia will look like in July, and that's going to require at least two full decision cycles on LoC9's part, possibly three or four. I don't have a lot of faith in getting that in under a week unless he's consistently checking the thread every day.

Unless, of course, LoC9 chooses to delegate to me the decisions Chancellor Hoffman makes, working off my best assessment of his character. Which I do not for a moment expect him to do, and would not think he should be asked to do by a reasonable person.

Pretty much anything else can wait till July, but that can't.

[Siege]

What's stopping you from putting off the actions in July until after you've resolved the Hoffman situation? We've been in January/February for months; it's not like we'd resolve the rest of the year before you could blink your eyes...

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Ye know... we once had a conference that lasted in real time a month over, but in game time at least slipped by quite a few months.

But in the end, we all had it in glorious unreal time...

Mind you, this was quite an important conference.

[Simon_Jester]

All right. That degree of unreal time gives me headaches when I'm dealing with events directly relevant to, say, whether or not I turn out to be at war in July. But if you people can manage, I can manage.

Still, I'd rather at least have a two-stage jump March/April -> May -> July than one straight from April to July. Even if May winds up taking under a week of real time.

[Steve]

Why not just have Hoffman visit in July, after a few months of preparation talks at ambassador-foreign minister level?

I mean, it's getting so utterly ridiculous that real time is moving faster than game time, and with every time jump proposal falling to the wayside because someone's starting a new storyline in the older timeframe.

Or, how about this? This week is March-April. Next week can be April-May, and if anyone wants to do June, fine. The week after is July. I'd prefer it just be dated forward anyway, since this is a big deal (Head of Government visiting another nation), not something quick and simple like a Bragulan diplomat coming by to say hello.

But I want some real time progression taking place, let people who have hanging storylines lingering finish, sure, but we move on. Because right now it seems that just as we're in position to make a workable jump, someone comes along with a new plotline that they fix to the "current" situation, and it'll take them a couple weeks to wrap it up (given LoC9's posting habits, for instance, it could take three weeks just to get this "four response cycles" thing done).

[Shroom Man 777]

You guys should use GODDAMN UNREAL TIME more often. No worries.

Anyway, Simon, I've finally posteds it! Sorry for being lates. I went around and hung out with guys. I also saw MACHETE. Jesus what an awesome movie.

[Siege]

Looping a fleet to a sector bordering not only the Sovereignty, but also the Ascendancy and the Imperium... This'll be fun...

[Darkevilme]

Dang it. Wrong sector, i meant...wait i need to look this up. i had two in mind. U29. Apologies. i'm recovering from illness.
Edit: post edited: fleets now heading for u29. which is where i actually had in mind. i sorta looked up notes without checking on the map and checking which iteration the notes were from.

[Simon_Jester]

Thanks Shroomy, now I can post this thing I wrote this morning.

Why not just have Hoffman visit in July, after a few months of preparation talks at ambassador-foreign minister level?

I mean, it's getting so utterly ridiculous that real time is moving faster than game time, and with every time jump proposal falling to the wayside because someone's starting a new storyline in the older timeframe.

Or, how about this? This week is March-April. Next week can be April-May, and if anyone wants to do June, fine. The week after is July. I'd prefer it just be dated forward anyway, since this is a big deal (Head of Government visiting another nation), not something quick and simple like a Bragulan diplomat coming by to say hello.

Perfect. I am totally happy with this and have no objections whatsoever. I don't mind rapid time progression; I just don't like highly discontinuous time progression.

As for "why not just have Hoffman visit in July?" That's an interesting question with a very interesting answer that I'm afraid I don't know. LoC9's decision to have his head of state sprint to Reisenburg for discussions was made without my input. You'd have to ask him why he thinks it's normal for something like that to happen on a few days' notice, because he's the twitchy one. Last time I planned a head of state visit I gave the receiving party two weeks' warning, and that was for an emergency (the death of the French Emperor) that they were already planning to receive foreign dignitaries at.

I'd be just as happy to leave things that way because it's of a piece with everything else the Prussians have done since game start (erratic, ill-considered, and rash), and since I just wrote something like a thousand words this morning commenting on it.

However, it wouldn't fundamentally change anything if we held the discussions with his ambassador instead, because the Umerian government doesn't take Hoffman much more seriously than they would an ambassador, because they don't consider him the real power in the Prussian state, as shown on the Volksland issue by his inability to either:
-Manipulate the Reichstag into supporting his original "no annexation" policy on Volksland
-Predict that the Reichstag would decide to annex Volksland
-Or have the (in Umerian eyes) personal honor to admit that he cannot do one of the above and does not have the full and free power to make his own decisions.

They're talking to him because he's coming and it is very much not in their interests to ignore him, not because they have any real respect for him or the authority of his office- such as that authority is given the above.

Note that this attitude does not extend to the prime ministers of other democratic states: it is based on an assessment of Hoffman's competence as a statesman and as a man. Prime ministers who make astute decisions, who honor their word or decline to give it in cases where they aren't in a position to do so, and who show that they have meaningful control over their own parliament will be respected by the Umerian government.

Prime ministers (or other democratically elected leaders) who fail to do these things will be held in contempt. Though this contempt will be expressed only in private; as Dr. O'Connell puts it, "one must be polite."

But I want some real time progression taking place, let people who have hanging storylines lingering finish, sure, but we move on. Because right now it seems that just as we're in position to make a workable jump, someone comes along with a new plotline that they fix to the "current" situation, and it'll take them a couple weeks to wrap it up (given LoC9's posting habits, for instance, it could take three weeks just to get this "four response cycles" thing done).

This is a very good point.

In this specific case, if LoC9 doesn't get off the dime, I'll be sorely tempted to write his side of the discussions for him. It's one thing if it takes him two or three days to notice what I'm saying. If it takes him a week, I'll go by my best guess as to Hoffman's character and intentions as described by LoC9's posts and the policies of the Prussian state. Though I promise that I will not present LoC9 with an impossible situation such as "I have no choice but to declare war and invade your country because you wrote me into a corner."

[Shroom Man 777]

I have been so busies these past few days, so I am pretty tireds and it was a miracles I managed to actually get some actual writing done and do some Spozaviks. That was my first priority actually, finishing that piece, and now I can slowly catch up on today/yesterday's stuff.

HORATIO LAME! What an ass.