SDN Worlds 4 Commentary Thread V

[KlavoHunter]

CN, could you do your writing in the Story Thread, not poking around correcting typos in the Nova Atlantean wiki page? They are post-spelling, you know.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

CN, could you do your writing in the Story Thread, not poking around correcting typos in the Nova Atlantean wiki page? They are post-spelling, you know.

Why the fuck is he messing with someone else's page?!

*Takes out Mod hat*

Eitther you focus on your page, or we ban you from the wiki.

*takes off Mod hat*

[Shroom Man 777]

Oh crap, right, Fin is a mod too. Yikes!

[KlavoHunter]

CN. I will point out the most pertinent part of what we'd all like you to try and react to at the moment.

Ass da song died, all dat kud be 'eard wuz da sound of orks sobbin'

"We'll ne'er ferget ya, boss Badspork!" da Nob Kaptain swore unner 'is bad breth. "We'll revenge yer death! Hu's wid me?"

Da remainin' boyz of da late great Badspork all rawred as wun.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!"

"Dats it den! We'll take da fight to dem MEH fatties! We'z already skared 'em off da sparklyspace lanes, dey naw use da warpgits 'xclusively, dis means dey ain't so tuff! So we'z gonna bring da fight to der systems!" da Nob Kaptain rawred. "We'z gonna take da Gargantative Too, an' da Gargantative Nufink' 'an tell 'em wat four!"



Da Gargantative Too, an' da Gargantative Nufink' lunched to'ards da MEH. On da way, anudder shipz joined 'em, a shipz full of Flash Gits. Now der were tree shipz 'eadin to da MEH.


Results:
Three Ork ships, 100 points each, head for the closest MEH star system!

Except, y'know, write your response in the Story Thread.

[Simon_Jester]

Wow, lots of good stuff went up last night.

[fgalkin]

Awww....poor Rygyvld Zybynv, Fukeseyev, and Nefartnyi. The Bragnum Force was a most nefartnyi ship indeed.

But, they have gone out as heroes, repeating #113098576 's feat of heroism on a much grander scale! Ura!

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Darkevilme]

And now a Tianguo ship is going to join the near entirety of the Chamarran Blade packs in snooping around MEH space. fun fun.

[fgalkin]

Maybe they'll end up jumped by a mysterious attacker and find themselves missing a few strike craft

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Darkevilme]

Maybe they'll end up jumped by a mysterious attacker and find themselves missing a few strike craft

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Probably not cause:
A. Blades aren't overly good at detecting stealthed ships.
and
B. If something like that happens again Mela will spend the next few months hiding from Tia's retribution for what would be the THIRD diplomatic incident her ships caused in a single year.

[Steve]

I brought something up in the chat and figured I'd check it with a wider audience before thinking on it further.

In the AIM chat I ruminated that I should've set up New Anglia differently. I should have given them bits and pieces of territory, stuff like protectorates or client worlds or outright "crown colonies", across the map, to better replicate the feel of being the British Empire IN SPAAAACE. Well, after doing so, a number of SDNW4 chatters voiced their support if I just wanted to do a retcon along these lines, so long as the resulting Empire was mostly one of strategically-placed small holdings, nothing along the lines of an India.

The way I see it, the advantage is that it would actually see New Anglia become more involved in the game's politics if it had map-wide reach, while the disadvantage is that I'd have to alter my military setup a bit and, of course, it's the kind of retcon that has to be widely acceptable to work right.

So, I figured I'd ask. Does anyone have any objections, concerns, or proposals for this?

[Ryan Thunder]

Nah, that's cool as far as I'm concerned.

[Simon_Jester]

How about you outline exactly what you have in mind, and then we can figure out whether or not it's a good idea?

[Karmic Knight]

How about you outline exactly what you have in mind, and then we can figure out whether or not it's a good idea?

I agree. I don't think the idea sounds bad, but I can see it being a problem in execution.

[Steve]

Well, I'm thinking of a case where every so many sectors or so Anglia would have some kind of holding, but none greater than a star system with habitable planets in that specific sector. The Empire has no Indias, it only has the interstellar equivalents of West Indies islands, Cape Town, and Singapore. Maybe, at most, control of wealth-generating trade junctions that make these Imperial holdings worthwhile. (Again, think Singapore, with the Malacca Strait, or Alexandria and Suez). One or two which are actually the main justification of Empire, with the other holdings primarily existing either to support these couple of places in some way or because New Anglia got brought in by other forces.

Since we're upping the scope of our civilizations and settled worlds anyway, I was thinking 10-12 inhabited worlds with varying amounts of population considered part of the Empire in some way, either as dominions, protectorates, or tributary states run by local authorities but with an Anglian agent "advising" the local government, much as the Indian princely states were (or some of the African kingdoms), with maybe a couple trading stations along the vital routes that act as fleet depots a la Gibraltar and Malta. One, for instance, might be a colony of Brits from Earth that appealed to the Empire for admission after the colony failed and it was cut off from help at home. Maybe one or two alien races. I have a sudden mental image of adapting one martial race or another from other sci-fi and making them the Empire's version of Gurkhas. Well, on top of the Gurkhas themselves.

I would slightly retool my OrBat to free up the "cash" to have another 10 or so Star Cruisers in service at the expense of dreadnought-level ships. The Anglian Star Cruisers would thus be the workhorse of Empire, just as the gunboats and frigates and then cruisers of the RN were of the historical British Empire.

New Anglia would not have actual sovereignty over any full sector in this arrangement, however. No sector on the map would be colored red beyond those I've already staked out.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, I don't mind, but you should discuss the placement of Anglian protectorates with anyone you drop them near.

[fgalkin]

And put the colonies on the map, anyway, just so we know where the Anglian ISDs are.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Steve]

Obviously. And the number of them will be determined by just that.

[Simon_Jester]

This is a few things that are 'cut content' from the main Zebes storyline in that they don't directly impact the plot or didn't have a good place to go as I put the story together in chronological order. If there's any confusion about where anything fits in the overall plot, feel free to ask.

[Darkevilme]

I have no objection to Steve retconning in his minor colonies, it'll lead to more story after all and that's always good.

[Force Lord]

I have no problems with what Steve is proposing.

EDIT: On an unrelated note, if anyone wants to do a story post with the Order of the Black Star, they're free to do so.

[Master_Baerne]

I'm all for Anglian colonies being scattered around the galaxy. If you want some near me, that'd be okay too - anything that helps keep the goddamn French in line is fine by me.

[Force Lord]

Hey, speaking about the French, should there be French colonies as well, as a relic of Anglo-French rivalry?

EDIT: Wait. Probably wouldn't work.

[Steve]

I'm all for Anglian colonies being scattered around the galaxy. If you want some near me, that'd be okay too - anything that helps keep the goddamn French in line is fine by me.

We're kind of in the same neighborhood, Baerne? You're the Dutch in this comparison, I think. If the Dutch owned half of Germany?

[Simon_Jester]

Hey, speaking about the French, should there be French colonies as well, as a relic of Anglo-French rivalry?

EDIT: Wait. Probably wouldn't work.

Nonsense. Would work marvelously.

I find the idea of colonial protectorate-states to be rather interesting, though Umeria won't have any much beyond its own borders. Planets like Aurore and Persephone are already de facto Umerian colonies in many respects, of course, but those mostly reflect the relative influence of the nation-states shading into each other at the edges.

[Ezekiel]

Speaking of colonies, there's something I've been wondering; is it possible (through posting, of course) to acquire colony sectors that weren't bought at game start? And I don't necessarily refer to military means alone; there's always the classic offer-they-can't-refuse, like Lonestar did to that one world, or normal this-benefits-all-of-us diplomacy.