SDNW5 Discussion Thread I

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

And now for something different: An attempt at battlefield philosophy using two of the Puellae Magi as mouthpieces.

If you want to draw historical parallels, Kyoko would probably be a more psychotic version of George S. Patton, while Homura has a few hints of Curtis LeMay and William Tecumseh Sherman in her.

[Simon_Jester]

How about Basil Henry Liddell-Hart?

Or, well. Jack Holloway would say: "You ladies need a vacation. About twenty years of flower arranging sounds right."

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

How about Basil Henry Liddell-Hart?

Or, well. Jack Holloway would say: "You ladies need a vacation. About twenty years of flower arranging sounds right."

Liddell-Hart's theory of the indirect approach would definitely resound well with Homura. She's loath to sacrifice her Marines in direct assaults, so she upsets the defender's balance by launching various indirect attacks at the flanks and rear before following up with her trademark massive WMD hammer blow on the front; of course, that's assuming she doesn't just go straight for the massive WMD hammer blow first.

As for Jack Holloway's suggestion, Kyoko would simply tell Jack to shove the flowers up his ass. Homura would politely explain that she has taken up flower arranging as a hobby, though it's not much use for stress management considering her distressing tendency to be called up to manage random police actions every so often, to say nothing of when an actual war breaks out.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Remind me not to get on your bad side then. I've got enough problems dealing with the VIKINGS and keeping an eye on the Centralists. (What, they're right next to one of my trade partners, would you ignore them in that case?)

As for my leaders...I will have a Patton counterpart, but with the naval focus in Arcadia he/she (haven't decided yet) won't be a big factor. Now my Admiral Nimitz or Halsey counterparts...they will be important.

Also: We don't need to learn Crab...we already have a dozen languages darn it!

[Simon_Jester]

I think I'm going to try and stick to original characters for my military. In retrospect, the only person I borrowed from elsewhere for my own nation in SDNW4 was someone I never really had a satisfactory handle on. And the way people already familiar with the setting expected him to behave made actually trying to write him a little awkward.

Borrowed characters may still make appearances, but I think I need the practice at making my own rather than just going "He's like the image of Patton we have after sixty-five years of Patton fanboyism."

[OmegaChief]

Well that's one advantage/disadvatage with the Authority, I don't exactly have any characters I could pluck from places even if I wanted to heh.

[Esquire]

I fully intend to steal characters from antiquity, but we know so little about most of them that I'll mostly just be taking names to pun on.

[Vanas]

Well, after a lot of thought, I think I'm going to have to downgrade Bees to a micronation. Should still be able to keep various trade-routes in place and all that. Just cut them down to 2 sectors and mangle my OOB.

Basically, I'm thinking I'm going to find writing for and as the other guys more interesting than Bees. I just need to write them up, so watch this space.

[Simon_Jester]

...Wait, what? I liked ZE BEES! !

OK, please think about this for a bit, obviously there are no irreversible decisions at this stage of setup, but don't get too set in this until we've talked it over, OK?

Also, sorry. I'm having trouble focusing on the game stuff on account of being busy. Between the term paper and the having to grade a big pile of exams... ugh.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Maybe do a "Medium" nation like I am doing?
Really we all love THE BEES, so think about downsizing if needed, you still have option. Believe me I know how busy life can get and such ;P I am having trouble doing stuff on my own end.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, let's hear out his new idea. But yeah, the Bees just... work, and they're one of the wackier things in play which is good.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Yeah, the BEES are one of the most unique states we have. But I can understand downsizing do to time constraints. I'm going to have time problems myself after I give back the school laptop on Wednesday. But that's what the VIKINGS are for...keeping me writing even if I don't have time for Arcadia proper.

[Simon_Jester]

Honestly, a major nation that doesn't post often is all right, as long as the player remains around to respond to other people's moves and ideas. Player participation matters. Nation participation matters less.

People who roll out nations and then wander off to do nothing with them, effectively abandoning the game... that's bad. Anything that keeps participation up is better than participation dropping off. Even if... *sniff* it means downsizing cool nation ideas and replacing them.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Yeah, that would be a problem. We need people to stay around, otherwise the game won't last long. That being said, I'll certainly still be on at least once a week to respond to people's ideas and such. Just won't be able to do a whole lot of typing.

*Grumbles about cheap parents not getting a new computer*

[Vanas]

Well, these guys, really. Space druids with all the magic and weirdness that comes with that.

As for Bees, they're still around, you know. Just smaller. Unless I'm running two nations at once.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, you have two choices I see.

One is, yes, to have one nation go micro and the other go macro. The other is to split your NCPs in half and have two medium nations- if people in general are comfortable with that, I don't see why not. White Haven (theoretically) did the same thing with Red vs. Blue in SDNW4, although in practice the two nations were like complementary halves of the same whole.

My advice is to work out plans for each nation, how you'd spend NCPs and so on, then 'sleep on it' for a while before making up your mind which way to go. And, if you go for micro/macro, which nation you really want to be the big one.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Wouldn't bother me any. I say go ahead and make a couple medium nations if you want Vanas.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Somewhat Off-Topic (considering it doesn't have to do with ZE BEES), but I've decided on at least two more prologue posts. One will be the Furling's first contact with the Proto-Arcadians. The other will be a FC situation with the VIKINGS. Of course in the case of the second one, I'm not sure who to have meet my Space Scandinavians. Any volunteers for FC with the VIKINGS?

(Note, I only have two more days of unlimited typing time, so whoever volunteers for the VIKINGS probably won't have anything come of it for a while)

[Simon_Jester]

FC is ...First Contact?

Please avoid acronyms if you can. Typing is easy, parsing alphabet soup is hard.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Bah, so I like acronyms, sue me.

And yeah, that is First Contact... I did say it in the post (the Furling/Proto-Arcadian part). That being said, I'll try and avoid acronyms now.

[Simon_Jester]

In my experience, you save more time in the long run by learning to type ten characters a minute faster than you do by abbreviating the occasional phrase. Acronyms are best saved for cases where a special concept has a single, unique acronym that couldn't be mistaken for anything else, and where not using it would break the flow of conversation.

For example, "Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation" breaks the flow of the text if I use it to say "I zap him with my X." "Maser" does not do this.

Of course, there's a whole different set of abbreviation conventions for cases where you're actually limited in the number of characters you're allowed to use. But that shares more in common with the sort of deliberately bad grammar people used to use in telegrams because they were being charged by the word. And they didn't use it in normal speech or writing.

Anyway, I'm not sure who the Vikings should go to. Probably not me, I like to have a hand where Umerians make an appearance beyond the cameo level and for the next few days I simply don't have time. The stereotypical bespectacled, dorky, conscientious Umerian (or the mad scientist) works fine as a stock character, mind you.

[OmegaChief]

I have an idea for a story post, but I don't know if it's for the prologue thread or if I should wait for the game start.

Anyway, I figured I'd sound it out here and get some feedback! So, the idea is, as part of a new wave of fostering better understanding of the galaxy (And stimulating trade relationships!) the Authority is starting a massive construction project at thier captial city, basically every stellar nation is invited to send some designers and engineers to build anywhere from a single building to a small neighbourhood in thier native styles! Potentially to serve as new emabssies to those nations, house staying foriegn nationals or just generally to spice the place up.

Half the fun of course comes from the logistical nightmare, terrible building conditions on Adjoria and doing silly things like putting the Umerian and Gray plots right next to each other.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Sounds good to me. Gives a chance for all of us to get some collaborative posting work done. I would humbly request that the Arcadian plot is not near the cat-people...the Furlings would die (literally, deathly allergic to cat hair).

I probably just gave you an idea to make a funny post didn't I?

[OmegaChief]

"So uh, we have a small problem with the Furlign delegation"

"Oh, what is it, too cold for them still?"

"Well no, after they complained about the cold we moved them to the warmer buildings in block eight"

"Ah well, what's the problem then?"

"Well we just realised the Chamarrans are also staying in block eight..."

"Oh. Oooooh. Well uh, how many Furlings did we loose?"

[Skywalker_T-65]

Yes, I did give you an idea. But yeah, that is what would happen if you stuck the Furlings with Chamarrans or Bastians without Hazmat suits.