SDNW5 Preliminary Discussion Thread

[OmegaChief]

No worries Simon, can totally understand your concerns with that, just in my planning I've kept bumping into "Need to know where we are reletive to each other" before I can plan more, so figured I'd poke a question as to maps.

I potentially know some more people who might be interested, but they don't happen to be on this site, and I don't know if inviting them here just to play this would exactly be looked kindly upon.

[Panzersharkcat]

Probably not. I brought Feralgnoll to this board solely for the homebrew tabletop game and then convinced him to join in on this.

[Simon_Jester]

People create accounts on this forum practically every day. A lot of them just lurk, or join to say something idiotic. Joining specifically to participate in a game is far from the worst thing I can think of.

Just warn them that getting involved in heated arguments on the rest of the forum is probably more trouble than it's worth.

[OmegaChief]

I'll give 'em a poke then, whats the worst that could happen?

I'd also voulenteer for some sort of assistant modship (I've got plenty of free time currently) but I'm not sure if I'm well known or trusted enough for the position.

[Simon_Jester]

Hmm.

What any primary mod for the game really needs, and I know damn well I need, is four things:

1) Another person to go to when the primary mod is just too busy to keep a close eye on things.
2) Another person to appeal mod decisions to when the primary mod has to recuse themself due to a conflict of interest.
3) Someone to tell the primary mod when they're being foolish.
4) Someone to overrule the primary mod when they're being foolish and won't listen to reason- this should probably take the consensus of more than one person.

All those things are good to have. Anyone who wants to nominate anyone or suggest anything about those roles, talk it out among the playerbase, OK? I would be much happier to hear from people about that than have this total silence on the subject.

[Rabid]

I'd like to have a pre-reader for my RPs, to provide me with criticisms and advices. English in not my first language, and I'm primarily self-taught, so I'm not that confident about my writing abilities.

Mostly, the job would be making sure my expression isn't too clunky and pointing any oddities that could make the text uncomfortable to read (repetitions, strange expressions, things like that). Any volunteers ?

[Panzersharkcat]

I suppose I could do that. Anyway, what's a typical ratio of points spent on the Navy vs Army?

[Esquire]

If you like, Simon, I'd be willing to serve as a backup mod. I've got no standing to speak of on the board (joined mostly for the game and I've been too busy with college to do much else) but I've got a fair bit of experience with pen-and-paper games. At least the interpersonal stuff is transferable, no?

Panzersharkcat - I spent three times as much on my Navy(-ies) as on my Army(ies). Dunno if that's typical, though.

[KhorneFlakes]

You're not confident about your writing abilities, Rabid? I find that strange. You have very good English, especially when it comes to writing your posts, so I'd imagine all you'd really need is a proofreader.

Oh, and Simon, we're using the new rules, remember? You get 25 NCP for nation creation plus dice roll. What I'm saying is that I ignored 5 NCP, giving 26 NCP, but now I'm not so sure. I think I might think it over before I decide on anything.

I think I might add two trade routes and maybe a GDP&Pop boost to one of my sectors.

Ahh shits, I forgot that home sectors aren't free anymore. Forget what I said.

[Dark Hellion]

@Panzersharkcat: Like Esquire said, the usual is about 3:1 to 4:1 Navy:Army ratio, but it depends on how you see your nation. A more expansionist nation might have more ground troops for mounting invasions while a more isolationist polity might have a more powerful navy with most of its army points in PDF.

[Rabid]

I suppose I could do that.

Thanks in advance.

Anyway, what's a typical ratio of points spent on the Navy vs Army?

Depend on how you intend on using it. I mean, myself, I've chosen to not bother with an army, but that's due to how my background is set (culture & policies of the Stellar Nation).
If you think you're going to invade or have to take back worlds, I'd say adapt your army to the scale of the expected fighting (how many world would you have to take, how well defended would they be, what's the expected rate of attrition and how would the troop quality and training time be affected, etc...).
Same thing for the navy, think of how it's supposed to be used, who it's supposed to fight, how mobile and/or spread-out it's supposed to be on your territories and how it's going to affected your OOB, etc...
Then put the Army and the Navy in front of each other and let them fight each other debate rationally over how they're going to make their requests fit into the (limited) Defense budget.

[Esquire]

Out of curiosity, Rabid, where are you from? I spent a year in France on an exchange program a couple years ago, so I know a little bit about operating in a foreign language and can sympathize.

[Panzersharkcat]

Rabid is French, hence the land of cheese for his location. I'll probably put more into the Navy.

[Esquire]

I probably could have guessed that...

[Rabid]

I think he was asking about where in the country.
Spoiler

Grenoble. The self-proclaimed 'Capital of the Alps', 2nd center of R&D and 2nd highest concentration of English-speaking people in the country, home to more than 70,000 college students of various kind and nationalities, of the biggest Synchrotron and of the biggest source of fast neutrons for scientific purpose in the world (and also the nuclear-reactor closest to a major city's town center in the world) ! It's where modern concrete was born, and where France hope to bring about the Nanotech revolution.

It's where I'm from. It's where I live.

[Simon_Jester]

I'd like to have a pre-reader for my RPs, to provide me with criticisms and advices. English in not my first language, and I'm primarily self-taught, so I'm not that confident about my writing abilities.

Mostly, the job would be making sure my expression isn't too clunky and pointing any oddities that could make the text uncomfortable to read (repetitions, strange expressions, things like that). Any volunteers ?

I'll look over the piece you PMed me, but I'd be happier if you found someone else in the long run. The more I think about the next year or two of my life, the busier I expect to be.

If you like, Simon, I'd be willing to serve as a backup mod. I've got no standing to speak of on the board (joined mostly for the game and I've been too busy with college to do much else) but I've got a fair bit of experience with pen-and-paper games. At least the interpersonal stuff is transferable, no?

I'm sure you can do it, but I would prefer people who've been around here for a while and have at least a bit of 'known-ness' among the board at large.

I'd also prefer people who have endorsements- just because I trust someone doesn't mean everyone else does, and a mod who isn't trusted is useless.

[Panzersharkcat]

I probably could have guessed that...

Ah. I call upon Saint Dogbert to drive out the demons of stupidity that have possessed me.

[Ryan Thunder]

I think he was asking about where in the country.
Spoiler

Grenoble. The self-proclaimed 'Capital of the Alps', 2nd center of R&D and 2nd highest concentration of English-speaking people in the country, home to more than 70,000 college students of various kind and nationalities, of the biggest Synchrotron and of the biggest source of fast neutrons for scientific purpose in the world (and also the nuclear-reactor closest to a major city's town center in the world) ! It's where modern concrete was born, and where France hope to bring about the Nanotech revolution.

It's where I'm from. It's where I live.

Science, mountains, gorgeous architecture... Shit, man, I'm envious.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

My god! The Centrum-Spacetokyo Axis! It makes SO MUCH SENSE!

(Seriously, the Centrality always reminded me of fascist Italy- it's calmer and less brutal than outright Nazi-style totalitarianism, and the Italians shared that overtone of bungling haplessness that makes the Centrality so fun)

Too bad no such axis ever existed, nor will it ever exist.

The Holy Empire is honored that the oftentimes strained relations between our two nations have not impeded our invitation to the 1100th ESPer Tournament.

My, how insecure the Centrality's leadership must be if they feel the need to pound all this propaganda into the heads of the citizenry, she thought to herself. There are far better ways to secure the loyalty of your own people.

Basically, the Haruhiists have never held the Centrality in particularly high regard. That state of affairs will more or less continue in SDNW5.

[Panzersharkcat]

My, how insecure the Centrality's leadership must be if they feel the need to pound all this propaganda into the heads of the citizenry, she thought to herself. There are far better ways to secure the loyalty of your own people.

Heh. Constantine Chase as General Sheppard.

[Simon_Jester]

Too bad no such axis ever existed, nor will it ever exist...

Basically, the Haruhiists have never held the Centrality in particularly high regard. That state of affairs will more or less continue in SDNW5.

Oh, for Pete's sake. Hmph.

I mean, what slightly annoys me about that is that I don't get why, and I also don't like the idea of "we hold all our potential friends and allies in contempt" as a starting place for diplomacy. Being full of arrogance and hate as a nation only works if it's played for laughs, as Aklhut is sort of doing for the Greys (or seems so to me).

[Esquire]

I think he was asking about where in the country.
Spoiler

Grenoble. The self-proclaimed 'Capital of the Alps', 2nd center of R&D and 2nd highest concentration of English-speaking people in the country, home to more than 70,000 college students of various kind and nationalities, of the biggest Synchrotron and of the biggest source of fast neutrons for scientific purpose in the world (and also the nuclear-reactor closest to a major city's town center in the world) ! It's where modern concrete was born, and where France hope to bring about the Nanotech revolution.

It's where I'm from. It's where I live.

No, I was genuinely curious. My first thought when someone says 'Land of Cheese' is Wisconsin, not France - if your location said 'Terre du Fromage,' that might be different.

[Darkevilme]

Being full of arrogance and hate as a nation only works if it's played for laughs, as Aklhut is sort of doing for the Greys (or seems so to me).

Hmm, is it wrong of me to suddenly be second guessing my current Chamarrans after reading that statement?

I suppose I'm the only person who can answer such a question but I dunno.

[Simon_Jester]

The trick is that you have to be able to get along with someone, player-to-player, or you're just an unwelcome pimple of the galaxy.

In-game your nation may be antagonistic, but you have to be able to work with some people out of game to make it work, and in-game your own nation will not get far unless it can convince someone to back it against external enemies.

Although I like the Chamarran-Hellene rivalry. It might help explain why no one gangs up on the Chamarrans, they're sitting on the sidelines with popcorn watching the fight instead of interpreting them as an existential threat.

[Panzersharkcat]

Well, the Bastians may intervene if things get too hot between the Chamarran and the Hellenes. They would much rather not have their trade partner set on fire. Not sure if it'd drag in the Braxians, though.