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Consolidation of power into larger empires is a good thing.

The Khar will now require N-1 wars to fully achieve their bithright, if N is the previous number of independant powers.

Thirdfain wrote:I mean, what international community? The one which doesn't even know how to talk to me properly yet? Bah and more bah to that! The Sphere hasn't integrated nearly enough for something like that to happen, and if it did, it'd have precious little to show for it. I mean, what, an angry letter? And just you try telling an arrogant Grand power that a measly few barbarian lives isn't fair turnabout for the loss of a couple hundred civilized folk!

Stick to real diplomacy.

So let me see if I get this straight: Crobuzon is told that every potential market in the local cluster would quite likely become closed* if they don't show a little restraint when they ass-rape their neighboor, and they won't care? And here I had the impression that the last thing a power virtually run by corporations would like, is knowing that their profit potential will dwindle dramatically if they don't tone down their retaliation.

You should remember, I said "Only a Benefactor shaped miracle will save them now." back when I thought you plan was to completely destroy their entire military structure. Now it appears that you are really more concerned with proving that you won't be pushed around. In that case, the Silver Flame is probably saved reguardless of whether the other Grand Power next door intervenes or not.

*Actually that is a lie, but Crobuzon wouldn't know that. Khar, Raveners, maybe Pfhor, and definitely the Mekidar, won't give a fuck. Hell, the Republic doesn't care if you trade slaves, so long as said slaves are not Republic citizes (or close allies). But that is a sort of secret. The laws governing the trading of slaves with foreign powers exist only on a phisical medium, located in a dark cellar of the Central Library, in the bottom of a locked filing cabit stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying, "Beware of the dragon".

So let me see if I get this straight: Crobuzon is told that every potential market in the local cluster would quite likely become closed* if they don't show a little restraint when they ass-rape their neighboor, and they won't care?

Crobuzon would just assume the threat was empty- a bluff. The very idea is absurd. Crobuzon is exercising a legitimate right to defend it's people, and it would assume that most polities would respect that.

*Actually that is a lie, but Crobuzon wouldn't know that. Khar, Raveners, maybe Pfhor, and definitely the Mekidar, won't give a fuck. Hell, the Republic doesn't care if you trade slaves, so long as said slaves are not Republic citizes (or close allies). But that is a sort of secret. The laws governing the trading of slaves with foreign powers exist only on a phisical medium, located in a dark cellar of the Central Library, in the bottom of a locked filing cabit stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying, "Beware of the dragon".

Crobuzon is currently engaging in no outside commerce whatsover. There's still a bit of profit to be made eating the Tesh worlds, and a lot of investment has gone into the exploration companies like OEL and Salacus Street Northwest. International trade is not a big deal yet (though it will be.)

Essentially, you are threatening an isolated power with...

Isolation.

Hmmm. Soon, VERY soon, I aim to see Crobuzon's isolation end. Until that point, however, you are dealing with an insular power unlikely to give three shits about an international community it's not even sure really exists.

Even if this war ends in the destruction of the lesser party, there is still the option of playing as either a government in exile or as a guerrilla force fighting to free your people. These will test your creativity as you try to rebuild with little to start with but words. Who knows though, other powers might be willing to use a "cat's paw" to work against a proven hostile and very large power in the area.
Or you can simply "reroll" and start again.

Almost finished my post, I just need some were to host an HTML file or a Microsoft Excel Worksheet any one got any ideas.

Thirdfain wrote:Crobuzon is exercising a legitimate right to defend it's people, and it would assume that most polities would respect that.

Perhaps you missed this part:

I wrote:show a little restraint when they ass-rape their neighboor

As in, "Look man, when your done giving it to them up the ass, could like, not strangle them 'till they stop breathing? That is bit... exessive." To put it another way, after 9/11 the US invaded Afganistan, but they did not bomb its cities into a fine powder, and definitely did not annex the country.

Essentially, you are threatening an isolated power with...

Isolation.

Good point, I failed to think of that.

No one's ass raped anyone yet.

Your birds, huh? hmmm.

A bit of an 'eep' moment.

Nitram and I have been talking about point earnings. We'd like to try 10% of empire size per month, with the possibility of this increasing to 20% during wartime (criteria is that the player actually has to shoot at another player with the intention of going to or continuing war).

There's one or two other ideas we're kicking around for replenishing forces, possibly more on those at a later time.

I got tired of waiting for the war to happen so I could get on with my part of the universe.

If I made any obvious gap-outs in my writeup on how a species like mine would see your's, feel free to say so and I can ammend.

Writing up some fluff for the Avalonians.

Point of curiosity, will there be empire-growth bonuses from trade as well as war?

Also, what is a reasonable expectation for defensive sensor range? Ten lightyears?

Trade's a difficult one because to quantify a trade bonus we'd have to quantify what each Empire can and can't produce in order to have any real value to trading. At present the only resources we've accounted for is ships and relative population through empire size. Not exactly things that makes good commodities.

Speaking of relative population, we have some really strange ranges in pop-size. The Pfhor [Regional] have hundreds of billions crammed in one system, but they're egg hatching pseudo-insectoids. Khar [Major] have (accoriding to private conversation with MRDOD) 76 billion, with maybe a few extra billions lying around unregistered. The Republic has somewhere between 20 and 50 billion, I haven't decided exactly. Gaians have a smallish (too small IMO, it's not far removed from modern Earth) population of 10.307 billion. What we know of the Diem [Minor] would indicate population of several million. Apparently they qualify as a minor (as opposed to inconsequential) power because they've been building-up an automated infrastructure for thousands of years. That, and nobody noticed them during the Great Wars. Then on the ridiculous low-end: The Collective [Major] which bascially has a population of 5, not 5 million or 5 thousand, just five. Albeit these five AIs did use an already existing infrastructure to rise to power.

Matt Huang wrote:Also, what is a reasonable expectation for defensive sensor range? Ten lightyears?

Let's see, I gave myself a bunch of sensor arrays that can detect and identify a civilization a quarter of the cluster away. They'd probably detect a large fleet going FTL, but by the time the signal gets there so has the fleet. If one would switch the arrays to short range active scanning... well there are some things that might require consideration. For example, the Mekidar Rip-Drive is very obvious when activated (either to enter or exit subspace). However, while in transit the is little or no interaction with real space. On the other hand the active scanning could perhaps work on subspace or something. The Crobuzon drive seems to be similar in this reguard, obvious when activated, but pretty much invisible during the actual trip.

I think the best answer to your question is this: "Sensor range is big enough for reinforcements from systems 'next-door' to be viable reinforcements." To use your map as an example: If someone attacks Clarush, you'll be getting re-inforcements from Dosi early in the battle, Dgan later, and Avalon or Lantia in the end-game.

Adrian Laguna wrote: What we know of the Diem [Minor] would indicate population of several million. Apparently they qualify as a minor (as opposed to inconsequential) power because they've been building-up an automated infrastructure for thousands of years. That, and nobody noticed them during the Great Wars.

HEY! I will have you know that Diem population is projected to break 120 million within the next 50 years!

Yeah, population is another funny one because with differing tech, birthrates and different physical and social attributes, there are going to be differing levels of population with roughly the same effect. For example, it is possible for a race to build battleships with a crew of one, this all depends on the level of automation they've acheived.

The average Gaian human, just as an example would have a higher work output then an average Pfhor. This may not be solely because of physical attributes, but possibly higher unemployment and redundancy rates, or better tools for automation available to the Gaians. With such an enormous population the Pfhor have probably got lots of people doing mundane tasks and not bothering to automate.

My populace tends to be on the lower side, as there really is no huge pressure to grow dramatically in size, given the very long life span and lack of need for really hard-working people....

My computer died three weeks ago. Post repairs, it's going to take me a little time to get back up to speed. Apologies to all involved.

What class is the Basilaerus?

-Nevermind, worked it out.

The Khar will patiently wait for our rather tiny and insignificant friends the Thrice-Damned And Sinful Pfhor [For We Shall Never Forget] to respond. :p

The ~600-point fleet of ships dispatched to an uninhabited system is, obviously, fluff to indicate a fundamental flaw in Khar thinking. Unless, that is, you plan to invade the capital within a few weeks.

In which case you'll lose and will be enslaved into the Glorious Imperium [May It Forever Go On], because we're the Great Race of Khar and cannot lose. But that's beside the point.

Edit- Testing little Islamic style afterremarks for key aspects of Khar Theology to make it even more ridiculously annoying and pretentious...

Speaking of the Falau'un, is there a party still on route to Antiga?

A couple questions, Spyder:

1. "All Roads Lead to Antiga."
Is Antiga a major trading power? That would seem to indicate as such...

2. Communications
How are your fighters communicating? In what language?

1: Antiga's the largest and busiest of the Guild Worlds and it is where many representatives from all over that sector can be found. "All roads lead to Antiga" comes from the myth that Antiga is home to some bizzare shadowey power that brought the sector together. The phrase has different meanings depending on context. Businessman and trade professionals often mention it when discussing lucrative markets, conspiracy nuts also use it to try to convince people that their local governments have been taken over and cultists have been known to prey to the mysterious benefactors as a sort of deity. Most shrug it off as a silly superstition.

2: Common. I was wondering if it would have been a good idea to have language difficulties, but they've already communicated with a wide variety of other player's races, it didn't seem consistant. Concord personel can usually understand a number of languages, they get around.

Spyder wrote:Speaking of the Falau'un, is there a party still on route to Antiga?

Technically, yes
I somehow...misplaced them, with all the work in real life

Wait, Spyder, what system are our ships in? You say "attacking" like it's a system with, you know, people and stuff in it.