SDN Worlds 4 Commentary Thread VII

[Ryan Thunder]

Shinn, we need to talk.

[Akhlut]

I was in the middle of a short story post and Firefox started to slow down. So, I copy-pasted it in case I had to shut down firefox. Then, I shut down Firefox because it was fucking up and restarted. I know for a fact I had copy-pasted the work because I pasted it (ctrl-a, ctrl-c, ctrl-v). Upon restarting firefox, I tried to paste and nothing. Not a single fucking thing.


FUCK.

[Steve]

That's why I paste to an open word processor window first.

[K. A. Pital]

Yep, just kick me out. I've got no more time to play now that I'm writing a more or less serious Commune novel.

[Simon_Jester]

[modhat on]

Normally, Stas Bush, yours is one of the nations I would place on the periphery. I think it good that the Commune exist, because it's inherently interesting to have in the game so that we can talk about nano-communism and whatnot. So long as the Commune does not occupy space which is needed for some other purpose, its existence will do no harm, and thus the presence of the Commune will be a (slight) net positive.

Unless, of course, it is your explicit wish that we cease reference to the nation and its (former, retconned out) existence, in which case I will remove it.

[modhat off]

[K. A. Pital]

[modhat on]

Normally, Stas Bush, yours is one of the nations I would place on the periphery. I think it good that the Commune exist, because it's inherently interesting to have in the game so that we can talk about nano-communism and whatnot. So long as the Commune does not occupy space which is needed for some other purpose, its existence will do no harm, and thus the presence of the Commune will be a (slight) net positive.

Unless, of course, it is your explicit wish that we cease reference to the nation and its (former, retconned out) existence, in which case I will remove it.

[modhat off]

No, if you so desire, you can transfer it to the periphery. I think that from what I've done early in the game, there's enough material for other players to use the Commune as they see fit. If there's someone or a group of players willing to use the Commune for their plots, why not. Generally the Commune's behaviour can be pretty erratic as individual ships follow their own guidelines. So there's a variety of options.

I'm seriously sorry I can't dedicate as much time to this game as I dedicated to SDNW2, say, but that's pretty much a given now that I have a permanent job.

[Akhlut]

Finally got another story post up! I'm hoping to turn this into a continuing series, so hopefully it's actually good.

[Simon_Jester]

Jurassic Park, Feelipeens style. I like it.

[Simon_Jester]

So, I did a draft of a map resize...



Here is the full size version.

The Servian Republic, League of Free Stars, and Trichemphiles Democratic Republic are removed from the map outright for nonparticipation.

The Argenti Federation, United Sectors, and Iduran Confederacy are downsized to smaller 'NPC' status, so that they still exist in some form but don't take up as much space.

The Ranoid and Kryptonian nations are cast into the outer darkness on the edge of the map, but otherwise left territorially intact.

The UN is cut down in size and is no longer considered an official 'modhammer.'

Oh, and due to an oversight on my part, "Red vs. Blue" is still colored incorrectly, with the Midnight Confederation drawn as red and the Royal Kingdom of Scarlet drawn as blue. That one seems to be a constant.

So, approve? Disapprove? Comment?

[White Haven]

It seems to retain most everything worth retaining. Fairly minimalist changes all told, but as I was never terribly wedded to the map-redraw project, that's not really a downside from my perspective. Roll on.

[Simon_Jester]

I think I could squeeze things a bit more without TOO much trouble; this is only a draft.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

I consider this to be an illustrative experiment. If I can post something like that and not get so much as a "I don't like it, you went too far" or "I don't like it, you didn't go far enough" out of the people who wanted the map changed in the first place, then the labor of doing it at all seems rather pointless.

Okay, now that you brought it up, Simon, I'll give my two cents, for what little they're worth. First, it's too radical a misalignment of galactic topography for my tastes. Second, you're inconsistent with resizing inactive powers; why leave the Kryptonians, Ranoideans, and Commune as they are when they're just as inactive as the United Sectors, the Idurans, or the Argenti? Third, the K-Zone is the real center of the known galaxy, not Earth.

With that said, I took a crack at redrawing the map:



Here is the full-size version.

The Servian Republic, League of Free Stars, and Trichemphiles Democratic Republic are still removed outright for nonparticipation.

The Argenti Federation, United Sectors, Iduran Confederacy, Commune, Ranoidea, and Kryptonian Empire are all downsized to "NPC" status.

A reduced version of the Chiron Sovereignty has been reincluded, mainly as a tribute to the late Setzer.

The UN is still cut down in size, and I'm fine with it no longer being considered an official banhammer.

Also, I'm too lazy to recolor Red vs. Blue properly.

[Simon_Jester]

Okay, now that you brought it up, Simon, I'll give my two cents, for what little they're worth. First, it's too radical a misalignment of galactic topography for my tastes.

Shinn, as far as I can tell, the entire point of this exercise would be to get the top/bottom and left/right sides of the map, with their isolated clusters of activity, into closer proximity. I can't do that without moving, reshaping, or deleting certain countries.

I tried to make the moves as small as possible for active countries (I did move the Holy Empire one square up and one to the right, I know). I significantly rearranged some of the less-active countries, but tried to keep them in the same basic geometric relationships to their key neighbors: thus, the Ascendancy and the Space French are still neighbors (fitting the Ascendancy's backstory as a rebellious province of the French Empire), and there's still a Fynn Sector between Anglia and Space France (fitting Steve's X-13 plots, and no I know he's not coming back to them)... but the French and Ascendants have both been moved, to get them out of the way so I can push the Umeria/Shepistan/Tianguo/Dominion block a few rows 'down' on the map.

Second, you're inconsistent with resizing inactive powers; why leave the Kryptonians, Ranoideans, and Commune as they are when they're just as inactive as the United Sectors, the Idurans, or the Argenti?

Because they are (or are relocated to be) out of the way, so that their being large doesn't get in the way of the map compression. If the Commune were located between two other active nations, I'd have resized or moved it as well.

Keeping the United Sectors, Idurans, and Argenti the same size makes it harder to compress the left edge of the map significantly. And since the left side of the board is the part that suffers the worst from "help I'm surrounded by inactive players" syndrome, I made that a high priority.

Third, the K-Zone is the real center of the known galaxy, not Earth.

'Culturally' from a play standpoint yes, but mapwise no- physically picking up the K-Zone and moving it to the middle of the map would be a much bigger "misalignment of galactic topography."

A reduced version of the Chiron Sovereignty has been reincluded, mainly as a tribute to the late Setzer.

...Actually, I think this is a perfectly reasonable call and barring any further protest, I think any version of the map I approve will feature this.

[Tanasinn]

I'm mostly positive on the shifted map. I'd rather be near human powers, even assuming a reboot (which will entail some refluffing and probably a rename of my faction).

[Simon_Jester]

Which shift, Tanasinn, Shinn's or mine?

[Tanasinn]

I tend to prefer yours. With less open spaces between polities, I think there's more chance of interesting conflict being fostered. Mind, you still need some.

[Simon_Jester]

Conveniently, it would also put you closer to more human polities, particularly me.

Although there really is something to be said for porting nations into SDNW5- it will be possible to do that, and that will make it a lot easier to justify the kind of major map redraw that would really shake things up.

[Mayabird]

I kept peeking in and then getting scared off. Now that I have more time to look over things...I am too scared to jump back in, with all the anger and bitterness and retcon talk and everything. And this is partly my fault anyway for going silent like I did.

I'm sorry I'm such a fuckup. You can kick me out if you want.

[Simon_Jester]

Nonsense!

Even if the game crashes, I don't think there's anyone here who feels any anger or bitterness toward you. I suspect if we had a poll on your coming back to a proposed SDNW5, results would be quite favorable.

Who knows? Maybe that's where one of the other six refuge columns went under Emergency Drive...

[Mayabird]

Alright. Thanks.

I'll see if I can at least finish this one storyline.

[White Haven]

Honestly, at this point there's a splash of bitterness and griping directed from many people towards...whoever's in range, really. People are irritated that the game they care about has fallen upon hard times, and they snap at each other about it. It's nothing personal, and with a few exceptions, it's nothing targeted. C'mon back in here and zany at people!

[Simon_Jester]

Delightful.

[Force Lord]

Holy posting, Batman!

[Force Lord]

Well, I promised that one day the Centrality would have it's revenge on Shepistan over the whole embassy fiasco. There you have it.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

Black Amplitur, you say. Well, even if said revenge was a very long time in coming, at least it finally came. Which is a lot more than I can say about any of my own stories.