SDNW5 Preliminary Discussion Thread

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

At the moment, all my dreadnoughts are named after either mythological titans (the Titan-class) or some kind of historical heavy line combatant (the Myrmidon-class).

All my battlecruisers are named after weather (Tornado-class), historical explorers (Explorer-class), or distant-historical fast capital ships (Haruna-class)

Sirocco is a weather phenomenon.

On the subject of naming conventions, the Holy Empire probably has some of the weirdest naming conventions in all of known space, at least when taken out of universe.

• Frigates: Japanese voice actors (ex. Aya Hirano)
• Destroyers, escort carriers, dock landing ships: English-language voice actors (ex. Wendee Lee, Monica Rial, Lisa Ann Beley)
• Cruisers: Directors, artists, and writers (ex. Nagaru Tanigawa)
• Fleet carriers and supercarriers: Mecha anime protagonists (ex. Amuro Ray, Kira Yamato, Kamina)
• Planetary assault ships: Cosplayers (ex. Ushijima)
• Fast battleships: Anime theme songs (ex. "Bouken Desho Desho?")
• Super-heavy battleships: Musicians and magical girls (ex. Nanoha Takamachi, Mio Akiyama, Homura Akemi)

In universe, well, let's see. Aya Hirano, Wendee Lee, Nagaru Tanigawa, Ushijima, and their ilk are revered by the Haruhiists in much the same way as Christian saints or Shinto kami. "Bouken Desho Desho?" is an important religious song. Amuro Ray, Kira Yamato, and Kamina are SOS Imperial Navy aviators, Mio Akiyama is a diplomat, and Nanoha Takamachi and Homura Akemi are legendary heroes of the SOS Imperial Marine Corps.

[OmegaChief]

Nanoha Takamachi and Homura Akemi are legendary heroes of the SOS Imperial Marine Corps.

Remind me never to engage the SOS Marine corps if that's the calbire of thier heroes.

[Rabid]

Could have been worse.

Could have been regular troops.


What would it be ? 1per2$, x20 equipment modifier ?

[Crossroads Inc.]

Just stear clear of any troops named "Kamina"

[Simon_Jester]

Could have been worse.

Could have been regular troops.


What would it be ? 1per2$, x20 equipment modifier ?

They would then classify as superheavy ground units, and would just receive a flat point value. Like armed starships. Or Bolos.

Just stear clear of any troops named "Kamina"

[From elsewhere in the cosmos]

"OURS IS THE CLOSE-ORDER DRILL THAT WILL PIERCE THE HEAVENS!"

"Aye!"

"Row, row, row your boat..."

[Rabid]

Quick question : Is Hyperdrive supposed to have been invented by Mankind ?

'Cause if it's the case it's going to throw off a teensy little bit the background I'm putting into place : I need Hyperdrive to have been around at least a few thousand years before the Revelation, for it to make sense that at the time of the Prophet, the Hub was already a very cosmopolitan place, in galactic terms.

Roughly, Hyperdrive would have to be at least 5000 years old in the Known Galaxy.

Would it pose problems ?

[Panzersharkcat]

I prefer to think of it as having been independently developed by multiple species at different times.

[OmegaChief]

I'm pretty sure Hyperdrive is just one of those techs that every race given enough time invates for itself, like the wheel, atomic power, space flight etc etc.

The Greys at least have been around for thousands of years, and visited Earth at like 1000 AD or so, so I think it's safe to say Hyperdrive has been around for a very long time.

For the record the Capellans inveted it independantly abuot 300 years ago too!

[Simon_Jester]

For the record the Capellans inveted it independantly abuot 300 years ago too!

However, the Capellans are unique in the civilized galaxy in having invented the warp gate before the hyperdrive, which is a feat of technological WTF on par with inventing underarm deodorant before the wheel.

In mitigation, they were very, very bad at warp gating at the time.

Quick question : Is Hyperdrive supposed to have been invented by Mankind ?

'Cause if it's the case it's going to throw off a teensy little bit the background I'm putting into place : I need Hyperdrive to have been around at least a few thousand years before the Revelation, for it to make sense that at the time of the Prophet, the Hub was already a very cosmopolitan place, in galactic terms.

Roughly, Hyperdrive would have to be at least 5000 years old in the Known Galaxy.

Would it pose problems ?

My interpretation is similar to Panzer. Humanity probably invented the hyperdrive independently, so in one sense, yes, hyperdrive was invented by humans.

But humanity didn't invent it first, if that's what you're asking. It's just that nobody bothered to explain it to them, or heavily colonize the space within a thousand light-years or so of Sol, before they got around to inventing it. There may well have been plenty of mighty empires in the region in the distant past, but which are not around today, or which are smaller than they used to be.

Obvious explanations include races that blew themselves up, bioweaponed themselves to death, went space-nomadic (as the Nation did), ascended into energy beings and vanished into the ether, or went Singularitarian, uploaded themselves en masse, and vanished into their own World of Warcraft servers.

One thing I'm willing to permit on a limited basis is wormholes, too- perhaps The Hub contains a wormhole or two that lead to very remote regions of space, well beyond the map, creating even more exchange and interaction and aliens with no specified on-map homeworld passing through.

(I am, in general, opposed to the creation of wormholes that run from one part of the map to another, and want a damn good reason for ruling one in. I've done so once, though. The Nation's existence provides, IMO, a good enough reason).

[Rabid]

That was my thought, too, but I preferred to cross-check with you people, just to be on the safe side.

[Panzersharkcat]

Well, I wasn't certain at first, but my original plan was for the Bastians to have no hyperdrive or warp drive at all. Instead they would have a large network of warp gates and big capital ships capable of generating temporary wormholes for the rest of the fleet to travel. The range of it is only around 100 light years and it takes a while to recharge. If the wormhole ships are destroyed, it basically leaves the whole fleet stranded. I ditched the idea, though.

[Simon_Jester]

The problem is that asymmetrical travel capabilities can really screw up people's play.

EDIT: Although there's still room for negotiation over this stuff- for people who have some novel idea, the rules are guidelines.

[Rabid]

As for the reasoning behind the Hub (as a sector), the idea is that because of its central position in the Known Galaxy, and because it has been around for so long (if changing hands every few millennium...) ; it had the time to tightly integrate itself into the Galactic trading framework.

Between other things, it boast what is maybe the biggest and most active civilian spaceport of the known galaxy (a cluster of space-stations, yet to be named, in the same system as the Sector's warp-gate), and some of the biggest centers of civilian ship-building around : it isn't rare, to say the least, to see independent & minor powers having a civilian fleet mostly composed of ships having been built in the Hub (the ship-building expertise of the Nation and their extensive trade network also help...).


Cradle itself (the Prophet's "home" planet, as far as the Doxa knows), has been active on the Galactic scene since at least four thousand years, maybe more : no one really remember who settled the place first, or when, or even if it was the home planet of a sentient species.
The planet isn't really Coruscant- or even Trantor-like, but it has been very heavily urbanized nonetheless, in such a way that everywhere it made sense, be it on the continents or over or under the sea, you can find cities, factories, palaces, what have you.
These days, the Planet itself is governed by some sort of "planetary municipal council", a political assemblage dating back further than anyone care to remember. If it mostly govern itself, the Doxa still has a Droit de Regard vis-a-vis the planet's policies, and can Veto any decision that it feel would go against its interests.

[Panzersharkcat]

Well, if there's a Coruscant-like planet in the Empire, it'd be Bastet and its moons, one of which is basically Vegas in SPAAAAACE. It befits the major trade hub status I have for the Empire. Nine trade routes and all.

[Zor]

Has anyone decided to work out a map yet?

Zor

[Rabid]

The work on the map isn't expected to begin before something like a week, and it should take something like one or two weeks to debug and iron out.

[OmegaChief]

For the record the Capellans inveted it independantly abuot 300 years ago too!

However, the Capellans are unique in the civilized galaxy in having invented the warp gate before the hyperdrive, which is a feat of technological WTF on par with inventing underarm deodorant before the wheel.

In mitigation, they were very, very bad at warp gating at the time.

Well yes, but it's nice to have such little oddities, and it's not like it gives them any special advantage beyond "The guys who were bloodyminded enough to accept ridicuolosuly high casulity rates for the sake of it".

Also, here's an idea for the Hub Rabid, perhaps you could have it be long standing, but wax and wane, as empires rise and fall and it changes hands and so on.

So at times it could have been the centre of an empire, at othertimes a black market haven for traders, back up to an empire again, and then the Community moved in.

This potentially makes it a great site for Space Indiana Jones to go walkign through forgotten tombs of empires who've long since turned to dust that once had holdings there.

Only as a suggestion though!

[Simon_Jester]

The work on the map isn't expected to begin before something like a week, and it should take something like one or two weeks to debug and iron out.

I'm sorry, but I personally am simply busy. I don't really know for certain when I'll be able to find time to generate a blank map, hopefully this week but probably not tonight. Keeping on top of everyone's ideas of location is going to be similarly challenging. Is there anyone who'd like to start the ball rolling?

Basically, what we'd need is more or less a blank copy of the SDNW4 map. People could download copies of this and edit in their nations in colors of their choice using Paint or whatever. That would give us a starting point. Then someone else would need to step in and integrate nations into the map as people figured out some kind of agreement on their placement.

The other big concern is drawing in shoals...

Well yes, but it's nice to have such little oddities, and it's not like it gives them any special advantage beyond "The guys who were bloodyminded enough to accept ridicuolosuly high casulity rates for the sake of it".

Yes, absolutely.

[Rabid]

Also, here's an idea for the Hub Rabid, perhaps you could have it be long standing, but wax and wane, as empires rise and fall and it changes hands and so on.

So at times it could have been the centre of an empire, at othertimes a black market haven for traders, back up to an empire again, and then the Community moved in.

This potentially makes it a great site for Space Indiana Jones to go walkign through forgotten tombs of empires who've long since turned to dust that once had holdings there.

Only as a suggestion though!

Would'ya stop readin mah mind, will'ya ?


But yeah, basically, the empire the Community toppled at the time with their... rough... takeover was far from being the first.

Like, I had in mind that Cradle has been occupied for so long that everytime you dig a hole you find some archaeological evidence or another, including sometime caches of ancient technologies. The most important urban centers can even look, in a way, like a mix between The Fifth Element's and Futurama's New York, or the 2001 anime version of Metropolis, new cities being built on top of the old ones, and people barely knowing what lay in the lower levels.

The work on the map isn't expected to begin before something like a week, and it should take something like one or two weeks to debug and iron out.

I'm sorry, but I personally am simply busy. I don't really know for certain when I'll be able to find time to generate a blank map, hopefully this week but probably not tonight. Is there anyone who'd like to start the ball rolling?

Basically, what we'd need is more or less a blank copy of the SDNW4 map, on which people could edit in their nations in colors of their choice using Paint or whatever. That would give us a starting point. The other big concern is drawing in shoals...

If you tell me what is the expected size of the map (how many sectors wide ?), I can wipe up a preliminary grid right now.

[RogueIce]

I'm sorry, but I personally am simply busy. I don't really know for certain when I'll be able to find time to generate a blank map, hopefully this week but probably not tonight. Is there anyone who'd like to start the ball rolling?

Basically, what we'd need is more or less a blank copy of the SDNW4 map, on which people could edit in their nations in colors of their choice using Paint or whatever. That would give us a starting point. The other big concern is drawing in shoals...

If you tell me what is the expected size of the map (how many sectors wide ?), I can wipe up a preliminary grid right now.

It's okay guys, I got this.

Blank Galaxy Map from SDNW4

Needless to say it is rather large, so I won't be inling it.

[Rabid]

For those who want, here's a 50x50 sector grid ala chess-table (5000x5000 pixel wide)

[Simon_Jester]

50x50 is too big for our game, really; 30x30 is probably more than enough.

Now, one thing I want to do early in the process is get a sense for who wants to be near who. If we can create some clusters of definite proximity, it will help.

I also want to know who wants to be on the edge, versus being at the center.

I envision Sol taking up a small blob of sectors near the center, possible a bit up and to the right. Not a big blob, though.

[Imperial528]

Hm, since we seem to be starting the mapping process, shall we start grouping up? In terms of my own placement I was envisioning being near an edge but not quite on it, in an area that is somewhat remote, or at least would have been some 600 years before game start.

Also, I was wondering, with the position of actual star systems, just how liberal can we be with that? Since there is one system I was planning on using in my back story that is simply just too close to Earth, although I could work around it if I had to.

[Rabid]

Here's a test :

[test]

Description :

Green is the SN's "Sacred Territories"
Orange Tiling is Hyperspace Shoals

Sectors :
O-15 : The Hub
O-18 : Revelation
R-17 : Ascension


I fear the Shoals may be too near to the Hub, as they are supposed to be a nest of pirates, and the navigational hazard of the Shoals may be an obstacle to the narrative of the Hub being a major center of galactic trade.

The Nomad Sectors will be placed only after everyone else will have finished putting themselves on the map.


EDIT : Here's a corrected version of the Map

Sectors :
O-15 : The Hub
R-17 : Ascension
U-20 : Revelation

[Vanas]

It would be practical for Bees if they were in the general vicinity of League territory and given their likely origin, not halfway across the galaxy from Umeria. Somewhere towards the edge would by my preference... But if this is becoming mutually exclusive, go with the whole 'near the League' thing.