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Pablo Sanchez wrote:

You certainly wouldn't have a problem dealing with them, but you wouldn't get a conversation out of Krasus.

A legitimate concern. However, the entire thing was cleared with Straha prior to posting it, had he any such failsafes he would have addressed them to me at that time.

No, I would have had failsafes in place, but more along the he's up to his eyeballs in drugs, we've got him restrained six ways from sunday, and we're reading everything his brain does, so if he starts casting spells BOOM he's back to sweet dreams or dead depending on how you want it done.

Straha wrote:

Pablo Sanchez wrote:

You certainly wouldn't have a problem dealing with them, but you wouldn't get a conversation out of Krasus.

A legitimate concern. However, the entire thing was cleared with Straha prior to posting it, had he any such failsafes he would have addressed them to me at that time.

No, I would have had failsafes in place, but more along the he's up to his eyeballs in drugs, we've got him restrained six ways from sunday, and we're reading everything his brain does, so if he starts casting spells BOOM he's back to sweet dreams or dead depending on how you want it done.

Needless to say, he'd be a vegetable unless he was being questioned.

InnocentBystander wrote:Needless to say, he'd be a vegetable unless he was being questioned.

Naturally, the time for Straha to transmit such thoughts to me was after I had submitted the story for his perusal and before he had given me his approval. We can easily rationalize it by saying that Karsus, knowing that he was about to die, marshalled all his remaining energy and will so that he could meet his end in a state of consciousness.

Due to a diffrence in technology and a lack of feed back (as well as holes in my knowledge of STGODs) when i origionally posted my OOB I will be modifying it to almost compleately remove Dimensional-flux, as well as compleatly remove the freud systems, and make some of the other weapons more conventional. I have allready secured Pablo's ok for this so long as i make my changes known to the group with anyluck this will keep things ballanced and keep me from being ear screwed.

Two things:

1. I am asking whoever plays the Overseer to have the robo-men attack the forces of the Union. Why? Because i'd like in on the action. Preferably soon. Otherwise, I go to plan B for finding action - which might be interesting, but...

2. BTW, who are the principal treaty allies of the Blood King (in other than just 'common enemy' status)? Why - of all the powers (with a few exceptions like maybe the Overseer) - the Blood Kingdom is perhaps the group to whom the Union may be most hostile, as well as one that the Union could most easily disrupt through covert means (using powerful telepaths/magic-wielders as spellbreakers). If the Overseer doesn't attack, i'll amuse myself by sending covert agents into the Blood Kingdom's territory for espionage. If war ever breaks out, the Blood Kingdom can then damn well expect massive uprisings on its colony worlds. If you didn't realize it by now, the Union is among the more idealistic powers, and has little interest in good relations with the truly evil powers like the Blood Kingdom.

I think sometime soon i'll post some more OOB stuff about the Union.

-DanielSBen

admiral_danielsben wrote:1. I am asking whoever plays the Overseer to have the robo-men attack the forces of the Union. Why? Because i'd like in on the action. Preferably soon. Otherwise, I go to plan B for finding action - which might be interesting, but...

If you want in on the action then pursue an aggressive foreign policy, don't ask Nitram to do your work for you.

2. BTW, who are the principal treaty allies of the Blood King (in other than just 'common enemy' status)?

The Blood King has no treaty allies but maintains favorable relations with the Ousters. It has no standing enemies of consequence. Due to the insularity of our nation and it's societal structure, no foreign power (not even the Ousters) can claim to know our precise strengths and weakness, nor our domestic policies. Little news comes from within the Realm.

Why - of all the powers (with a few exceptions like maybe the Overseer) - the Blood Kingdom is perhaps the group to whom the Union may be most hostile, as well as one that the Union could most easily disrupt through covert means (using powerful telepaths/magic-wielders as spellbreakers).

Unfortunately for that plan, the vampire usage of spell magic is minimal. Technology is employed for most tasks, and but a small percentage of vampires actually employs their natural talents. Most are sedentary and prefer to live lazy and inactive lives in decadence.

Attempts to infiltrate will meet barriers very quickly, as it is impossible for a human to ascend to any position of broad knowledge or access.

If the Overseer doesn't attack, i'll amuse myself by sending covert agents into the Blood Kingdom's territory for espionage. If war ever breaks out, the Blood Kingdom can then damn well expect massive uprisings on its colony worlds.

On all established worlds with major populations of cattle, powerful will-sapping spells are in effect which prevent the peasantry from revolting. In order for you to neutralize these spells, it would require you to undertake actions which were certainly lead to your discovery and the capture of your infiltrating teams.

But... any time you feel you can convince the cattle to die horribly to no purpose, you're welcome to try. I'll just kill them all. You see, their role in the economy is minimal, hence their name. They are there because they are a source of food and we maintain a sizeable surplus of them. We could easily kill 50-75% of them without affecting ourselves unduly (most vampires drink manufactured or animal blood rather than draining humans, because it is more convenient and they have no need of the magic endowed by consuming human blood).

And, since they are but animals, the King would put them down without a moment's consideration, should he believe it necessary.

If you didn't realize it by now, the Union is among the more idealistic powers, and has little interest in good relations with the truly evil powers like the Blood Kingdom.

If Casimir cared, he would have already pursued relations with your nation. But he doesn't, so he didn't.

admiral_danielsben wrote:(about the top 50 or so; if i use them, they'll be named characters) can communicate over interstellar distances, deep-read minds (not just surface thoughts) as much as a kilometer away, break spells spanning continents or even small worlds (UI agents don't generally cast spells, but are very adept at breaking them), knock hundreds of troops unconsious, influence the minds of a crowd of dozens at a time, and face up against all but the most powerful vampires (there is no agent that can, one-on-one, match the Blood King himself).

Some of this is a little over the top, and I would require an explanation as to why your top 50 agents are able to do these things. This sort of power level was limited to Alyrium's Council (which had seven members including Karsus and Raistlin) and my highest level of nobility (not many people).

And even then, there were certain greater weaknesses that balanced out these levels of power. Alyrium's mages could be defeated by a judiciously timed attack, and my vampires simply don't do things like knocking entire companies unconscious with a thought. Their powers tend more towards being individually very badass in the physical and charisma sense.

In addition, spell-breaking such large area-effect spells is an elaborate process (hence the difficulty in closing the Arcanist portals, it's taking weeks).

I will again be out of contact, this time for the whole business week (Monday to Friday). Be prepared for further absences of this sort as the summer goes on.

InnocentBystander wrote:

Straha wrote:

Pablo Sanchez wrote: A legitimate concern. However, the entire thing was cleared with Straha prior to posting it, had he any such failsafes he would have addressed them to me at that time.

No, I would have had failsafes in place, but more along the he's up to his eyeballs in drugs, we've got him restrained six ways from sunday, and we're reading everything his brain does, so if he starts casting spells BOOM he's back to sweet dreams or dead depending on how you want it done.

Needless to say, he'd be a vegetable unless he was being questioned.

Nope, we want him to talk, speak, rant, rave, hallucinate, etc. We want to be somewhat sadistic, but not too sadistic. We'd let him talk, but we wouldn't let him have much else.

admiral_danielsben wrote:Two things:

1. I am asking whoever plays the Overseer to have the robo-men attack the forces of the Union. Why? Because i'd like in on the action. Preferably soon. Otherwise, I go to plan B for finding action - which might be interesting, but...

Nitrams plays them. But his power, unknown to most, is more or less wiped out after his series of attacks. He doesn't have enough of a fleet left to do something like that.

break spells spanning continents or even small worlds (UI agents don't generally cast spells, but are very adept at breaking them

My BEST agents, of which I have perhaps 30, take groups of 4-5 working in concert to kill the most potent spells for even a few seconds over an area only a couple of meters in diameter. AND they have only very limited power beyond that. I'd say that's WAY over the line.

Thirdfain wrote:

break spells spanning continents or even small worlds (UI agents don't generally cast spells, but are very adept at breaking them

My BEST agents, of which I have perhaps 30, take groups of 4-5 working in concert to kill the most potent spells for even a few seconds over an area only a couple of meters in diameter. AND they have only very limited power beyond that. I'd say that's WAY over the line.

But you're not much of a magic using power. Some people's rely more heavily on that and so would have correspondingly greater abilities.

But you're not much of a magic using power.

Neither is the Union, and my agents were

A: Trained SPECIFICALLY to kill people such as Raistlin- they were deliberately targetted at Primes and Council members.

B: Assisted by the stolen Arcane books, so they had a pretty good working knowledge of what they were doing.

In any case, the power differential is so huge that it's besides the point. This guy wants an antimagic EMP bomb capable of dusting an entire CONTINENT. I say no.

admiral_danielsben wrote:Two things:

1. I am asking whoever plays the Overseer to have the robo-men attack the forces of the Union. Why? Because i'd like in on the action. Preferably soon. Otherwise, I go to plan B for finding action - which might be interesting, but...

The Overseer's attacks do follow a particular rhyme and reason; as much as it may seem, they are not random assaults. While my fleet is gradually coming back, I'm a little light on power now.

If you really want action, you can always start looking into the why's and wherefore's of the Overseer. There should be enough information lying about to point towards the truth, and an idealistic power might have trouble with the idea of waging war of obliteration against a being whose simply crazy and fearful...

Pablo Sanchez wrote:I will again be out of contact, this time for the whole business week (Monday to Friday). Be prepared for further absences of this sort as the summer goes on.

Would you like me to mod this while you're gone?

feh, its been a little crazy as of late guys. I should be posting something up tomorrow. ^_^

I also will not be available during the 19th of June until the 24th. I will be in Washington D.C during this time and will almost assuredly not have access to the internet.

Beowulf wrote:Territory:

A pair of systems approximately three weeks away from Known Space. The Home Fleet is divided roughly equally between them.

I don't think you realize just how long 3 weeks is. Unless you have forward bases (which need to be in you OOB) in or near known space your ships will be nearly useless in the Terran sphere, remeber logistics; ships need fuel, parts, etc. If you load all your ships with spare parts and fuel you won't have any room for reactors, guns, etc. As far as I can tell, you don't even have fleet tenders (unless thats what those constructors are...) either way, your 4 fake ships will have a real problem without a dedicated supply station, which has it's own needs. Unless you want your ship's running time to be a month or two so, followed by over a month of travel/resupply.
Please take this into consideration; it's not easy to operate that far from a planet/colony/resupply base. My ships, for instance, might have a couple months worth of supplies, say 3 or so. Of course you can always gather stellar hydrogen on your own, but your whole fleet can't effectively rely on that. Furthermore, I can't see how you can could utilize civilian/neutral supply bases; if you get that close to a space station it will realize that that Krytos isn't a Krytos. Not to mention the fact that if you ran into a KSE ship they'd know that your an imposter; every war computer will have a list of fleet holdings, if there are only 15 of that ship class and that doesn't match, well then, your cover is blown!

Innocent Bystander:

You're definitely over estimating the logistical challenges. Sure things break down but generally warships aren't built like a KIA; they'll last a few months at least with out having major repairs. Most ships (now days) carry a few spares of the kind of equipment that might break sooner, it's usually not big ticket items. And as you noted, fuel isn't a big issue since hydrogen and the like are relatively easy to find.

His ability to operate, especially on longer missions is going to be curtailed by the transit times and of course the ability to react quickly is gone. But his power is hardly going to be crippled.

I have the corresponding advantage of making it nearly impossible to actually find my two home systems as well...

Beowulf wrote:I have the corresponding advantage of making it nearly impossible to actually find my two home systems as well...

No, not really. We're sending probes everywhere to find Nitram. Those probes are going to find your systems, and they will report back about you.

Except this: what/wherefore is the rhyme/reason behind the Overseer's attacks? deliberate assaults on the most powerful worlds? Or something more spectacular?

That's a good question, isn't it? That's the mystery of this STGOD. Perhpas you will be the one to figure it out?

No, not really. We're sending probes everywhere to find Nitram. Those probes are going to find your systems, and they will report back about you.

Actually, no. We've been focusing our probes in certain areas, and if he isn't in a 3-week radius of Shi space, we'll prolly miss him. Of course, with only two systems, his power will be industrially quite weak, and he'll have to expand if he wants to match any of the major Known Space colonial powers, or even the non-expanding powers. If he does that in Known Space, and has any traffic with his homeworlds, it WILL be detectable, just as my own was. Also, major war fleets moving back and forth between his territory and the inhabited Orion arm will be trackable... You can only hide your homeworlds so long, unless you go to great lengths which reduce your effectiveness in other ways.

Straha wrote:

Beowulf wrote:I have the corresponding advantage of making it nearly impossible to actually find my two home systems as well...

No, not really. We're sending probes everywhere to find Nitram. Those probes are going to find your systems, and they will report back about you.

If my systems bear no relationship whatsoever to a Overseer held system (no towers on planets and the like), how likely is it that their going to pay much attention to it? Especially given this new star map of yours.

Beowulf wrote:

Straha wrote:

Beowulf wrote:I have the corresponding advantage of making it nearly impossible to actually find my two home systems as well...

No, not really. We're sending probes everywhere to find Nitram. Those probes are going to find your systems, and they will report back about you.

If my systems bear no relationship whatsoever to a Overseer held system (no towers on planets and the like), how likely is it that their going to pay much attention to it? Especially given this new star map of yours.

We'll notice it, we might not investigate it yet, or we might investigate looking for new allies to help us destroy this massive galactic power, or investigating a new potential threat to our little coalition.

Beowulf wrote:If my systems bear no relationship whatsoever to a Overseer held system (no towers on planets and the like), how likely is it that their going to pay much attention to it? Especially given this new star map of yours.

Actually, your systems would likely be even easier to find than the outposts we're currently looking for. Right now, we're finding some lone facilities out in the middle of the void, detectable because they are attempting to build quite large fleets. Fully developed and industrialized systems would be even easier to find by the logic, and even larger threats if said systems happened to be under Overseer control.

See, there's the thing. Given what little we do know, it would make sense that the holdings of the Overseer closest to us would be smaller and underdeveloped so as to avoid immediate detection. If the Overseer really does control as many systems as he is currently claiming to, it would make sense that the farther out you go, the more developed his systems would be.

Granted, it may not be the case, but you can bet that we'd pay extra attention to systems which could conceivably produce dozens of ships and millions of troops. Which would mean you'd have to be identified. We might not come by to kill you, but we'd certainly want to investigate you and check your loyalties. Even if you're not a machine, you could be allied with them.

Is there a map of the game area? Known Space IIRC?