Creating A Scifi Universe; A collaborative effort

[Typhonis 1]

I can give ideas I have quite a number heres another one


Artificial gravity - easy while the ship is thrusting you will have a sense og gravity twoards the engines so build it in that manner .This waty as you go from point a to point b you have gravity when you orbit a body THEN activate the rotating sections or whatever for your gravity

[White Haven]

Most of the topics I agree with the general consensi here. A few, though, I'd like to comment on.

One, railguns are fun as all get-out. Versatile, too, for an attack fleet to be armed with. A fleet armed with primarily railgun broadsides is uniquely suited to low-cost orbital bombardment of a target world. Energy weapons have to fight with atmosphere, while seeking missiles cost millions per shot. Plus, well, magnetically-accelerated weaponry is sexy.

And FTL. I have long experience with trying to be creative in a world involving a jumpgate/warp point style system. It...is...bloody...CONSTRAINING.
*nods to Nitram*
You know precisely what I'm talking about. Enforced chokepoints like that restict storytelling options so heavily it's almost sickening. A border gate gets smothered by a few fleets, a minefield, and a brace of weapons platforms and boom, no chance for any rear-area raiding, covert operations severely curtailed, variety in combat almost nonexistent as every battle (or most every) will be a brutal, bloody point-blank slugfest of a gate assault or gate defense. If you /must/ have gates/points, make then an /option/ with an alternative. A shortcut, if you will, but not by any stretch the only method of transit between stars.

[CaptainChewbacca]

In my fiction universe (scattered earth) There are jump-points for instantaneous travel, but only from one gate to another. After that, you have to use FTL that goes 10-20c to go the rest of the way. You could assault any system with a conventional fleet without using a warp gate, but you'll be transiting for a few months anyway. I like this because its good for economics, limits tech/ftl, but still makes for plausible society.

Here's how it would work. Say I'm living on Alpha Centauri IV, and I want to go to Arcturus. I would book transport to Sol, travel for a week or three, then go to a ship passing through the Sol gate. From that Gate I come out in the Cappella system, then fly for another 6-8 weeks to Arcturus.

It lends for a society similar to colonial Europe.

[White Haven]

I still prefer true gatelessness for the free environment it engenders, but to each his or her own, as long as gates are not a monopoly on transit.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Come on, folks! I dare someone to contribute something to the public domain of this universe. Set the tone! Create a millitant, xenophobic human empire... based on BUDDHISM! Go nuts!

[White Haven]

There are a limitted number of hydrocarbon combinations. Massive, but limitted. If we have enough alien races about, it's quite possible that we'll run into one for which popcorn is their equivalent of the antichrist, who will commence a holy war against our people the first time they see a movie theater in action. Such sites will, inevitably, be targetted by the cleansing flames of thermonuclear bombardment in an effort to save the souls of humanity. Muaha.

On a more serious note (unless you /want/ to include that) I'd mix the tech level up depending on the society generating it. One entirely based in space stations somewhere might have more of an impetus to develop generated gravity over other technologies. One in the shadow of a high-radiation star might be more likely to develop the first, primitive EM screening systems. So on and so forth, allows for a nice degree of variety in human vessels alone, prevents yawnful homogenous tech.

[Rakuseki]

I'd like to get involved with this even though I really don't know any of you and I don't post much.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Go for it. Post something and see how it fits. I'm preoccupied with work right now or I'd be dropping stuff in left and right.

[Pablo Sanchez]

I'd like to get involved with this even though I really don't know any of you and I don't post much.

There's only one way to change those two things.

[Rakuseki]

Well, if you've ever read the fanfic I posted, I kind of have a knack for the various combat technologies so I feel that's the main thing I can contribute.

Personally I'd like to see a wide array of technologies in the various Human factions. The faction led by Earth would probably be the most technologically advanced, with directed-energy weapons like lasers, particle beams, and the like. Other factions probably won't have the kind of resources of Earth so they still rely on magnetic accelerator cannons and the like.

Missiles I think should be driven by some kind of artificially intelligent targeting computer, feral in nature so it can defeat the more advanced countermeasures that are sure to exist. Since it's space, you could theoretically launch missiles from several hundred thousand kilometers away and not give them any specific target and just let the missile's AI and sensors search for the target as they're drifting through space using their initial acceleration to move in the general area of the target. Once they find the target, the weapon's AI turns on the engines again and the missiles go after the target. In this way, the missile almost becomes something like a remote smart mine.

I also think computers will play a major role because of the sheer amount of data that needs to be processed. I don't think you'll have ships with hundreds or thousands of crew members because computers will be running so much. That means the typical destroyer might only have a crew of 40 people, larger ships may top out at 150.

Shields should be comparitively weak, not something you spend several salvos battering down. Matter of factly, most of the Human factions shouldn't even have shields - maybe 1 or 2, if that.

FTL should be something like Macross' fold drive. Short-range jumps, probably no longer than 5-10 LY in distance with any kind of accuracy.

Playing off the fundamentalist thing someone brought up earlier, maybe you could play it so that say....the Earth Federation (tenative name) is genetically engineering soldiers with desirable traits (psionics can be one of these traits) and you have a fundamentalist faction of religious zealots who declare some kind of holy war based on this. This could be a major source of conflict in the universe.

I don't know, I'm just coming off the top of the dome with this.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Coolness but;

We don't like shields. They make no science sense. Particle beams are groovy, though.

Tell you what. Show off your skills and design us a human faction, maybe a system with three or four settled worlds (planets and/or moons) and a few neighboring system colonies. Make them as militant/bloodthirsty as you want. These are the guys that earth lets run wild because they are good mercenaries and field-test a lot of tech.

[Stofsk]

We don't like shields. They make no science sense. Particle beams are groovy, though.

There are some possibilities to get around this.

Mike Wong posted awhile ago an idea for an 'energy' shield. Basically, you have shards of reflective particles that are moved via tractor beams to deflect incoming laser blasts.

I feel I've somehow explained poorly, but that's the gist of it. Also you can use Traveller's Sandcasters to deflect laser blasts. The two ideas are actually similar, and can be used together. Sandcasters might be low-tech, while the newer 'Sandtractors' are the latest model.

But there you go, 'shields' to protect against laser blasts.

Used in conjunction with armour, and ECM or some sort of 'stealth' system, and you've got a workable defence for your ships.

[Typhonis 1]

or go the Jovian chronicles route .The shelds they use work only against radiation and micrometeorits since they mimic the Earths own magnetic field.


Pacific Allied Territories A conglomerate of nations China,Japan,Phillipine Islands ,Korea and Australlia being the forefront memebers of it.nation covers almost all of the pacific save for southeast Asia.
Allies North American Union, Unioted States of Europe.
enemies New Delhi league


New Delhi League Southeast asia is now dominated by the Hindu nation of India and its fundamental leaders.

Allies South American Leauge .Arab Holy Nation

Enemies Pacific Allied Territories.



Who said the Earthy had to be united to go into space ? several mega nations have explored and colonised space and vy for power there

[Rakuseki]

Here's something I threw together in about 30 minutes.

Faction Name: Signian Protectorate
Star System: Sigma Draconis
Distance from Sol: 18.8 light-years
Star Type: Main-Sequence Orange-Red Dwarf

Planets –

Signus
Diameter: 17,508 km
Gravity: 1.08 G
Distance from star: .0.61 AU
Length of Year: 199 Earth days
Terrain Type: Mostly rocky, but with underground water supplies
Atmosphere: 47% carbon dioxide, 19% oxygen, 31% nitrogen, 3% other
Population: 242.7 million


The planet Signus is home to one of the most militant Human factions, the Signian Protectorate. Originally founded as an Earth Federation military outpost, once underground caverns with water supplies as vast as some of Earth’s oceans were found, the planet became one of the prime destinations for settlers to start new lives. Because of the strong Earth Federation military presence there, lots of military families began to call this world home. As time passed, Signus’ provisional government began to develop a more independent stance, eventually declaring their independence from the Earth Federation. The ensuing military conflict was bloody, but the superior resources of the Federation eventually caused the defeat of Signus’ space fleet. Faced with the prospect of staging a ground invasion against highly entrenched armed force on the ground, the Federation decided to negotiate a peace between the newly-formed Signian Protectorate. In exchange for serving as the Federation’s crack mercenary troops, the Protectorate would receive virtual autonomy in their own affairs. While Signian men and women were still in effect fighting for the aims and goals of the Federation, the Protectorate would retain control over the Sigma Draconis system and any resources inside that system.

Government: The Signian Protectorate is best described as a military oligarchy run by a council similar to the United States’ Joint-Chiefs of Staff. Each general on the High Council is responsible for a specific function of government and is overseen by a Chairman who is the titular head of government and chief executive.

Culture: The Signian Protectorate is heavily influenced by the military, so much so that it is compared to ancient Sparta. From birth, Protectorate citizens are taught respect and reverence towards military service.

Military: Financed primarily by the Earth Federation, the Signian Protectorate Armed Forces are an efficient, highly-trained military force in every aspect. Known for their professionalism and tenacity in battle, the Protectorate’s military often fields the state-of-the-art in military technology, which is provided to them by the Federation in order to prove new systems in the order of battle before they become an analogous part of the Federation’s own forces.

[Stofsk]

or go the Jovian chronicles route .The shelds they use work only against radiation and micrometeorits since they mimic the Earths own magnetic field.

Why not have that as a feature of the above? Sandcasters work against weapons, while your shield idea works in conjunction with. Some brainiac connects the dots, and the 'magnetic shield' thing get's combined with the 'reflective particle' thing and voila! Defence shields. Not completely foolproof shielding, but better than nothing. And it ties all 3 technologies together.

[SirNitram]

Coolness but;

We don't like shields. They make no science sense. Particle beams are groovy, though.

Yet we have how many forms of fanciful FTL? Shackling ourselves to reality is only going to make us look incredibly stupid. See: OA when anyone who actually knows what plausibility is looks at it.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Coolness all around, especially Typhonis for a good earth design, a few contributions from me now;

The "Earth Federation" for lack of a better name, is a joint economic and defense pact between North America, Pacific, and European powers. Its junior allies are South America and some African states. The Russian Hegemony (Russia & Central Asia) has tried to pull together other nations like the Delhi League and the Arab Caliphate into something similar, but getting Hindus and Muslims to work with a secular nation is problematic.

Some things I'd like to add;
1. South American League still has drug-lord problems, and Catholic fundamentalists are a rising difficulty. They're not the Taliban yet, but they might be.
2. The Caliphate and PAT have recently fought over resources in the java sea. Indonesia is a part of the Caliphate, and Australia has a lot of empty space.
3. The PAT should be the most shaky superstate, I can't really see China, Japan, AND Australia getting along well.
4. Africa should be a battlefield, once again divided by colonial maneuverings into three or five superstates and plenty of open territory. The Caliphate will be very active here.

Mars- Mars is currently in the process of being terraformed, and will have a self-sustaining ecosystem within 100 years (don't know what year it is now). Many undesirable people groups were relocated when populations got high, and now they have considerable influence on Mars.

Federation nations and others promote proxy wars to try and secure more of the pristine martian territory for themselves. Having Martian agricultural centers is essential for dominance in the outer solar system.

And I like the particle-scattering shields.


P.S. I'm going to be away until Sunday night, so Stosfsk is in charge. Rules are; You can re-interperate but not fundamentally alter someone else's stuff. Only a creator can take back something, otherwise it is "cannon". No ideas are stupid, except for space-nazis.

Have fun.

[Thirdfain]

Faction Name: United Freeholds
Star System: Sol and Alpha Centauri

A collection of asteroid mining colonies, refuelling depots, and space habitats, the United Freeholds fought for and gained their indepedence from Earth almost a century ago. Ethnically diverse, feircly independent, and unconstitutionally proud, the Freeholds rely on their monopoly on the asteroid belt's raw materials to maintain their freedom from Earth rule. They often play the Terran powers off against one another to ensure that no concerted effort can be launched to subjagate the Belt, but it's touch and go at best, especially considering that the only thing uniting the Freeholds is a mutual distrust of the Terrans.

The capitals of the UF are the asteroid Circe, in the Sol system, and Vesta, in the Alpha Centauri system. Government is provided by a council of delegates from each of the 212 individual Freeholds.

The Freeholds maintain numerous small militia groups, few of which operate FTL-capable warships. The governments at Circe and Vesta maintain a small fleet of FTL capital ships, which acts as the professional arm of the UF's military. The UF's well trained crews and excellent ship design and AI give them a significant technological advantage over the Terrans, allows them to stand up to Earth's industrial might- but there's no doubt that the full weight of the Terran navy could eventually defeat the smaller UF fleet. The UFN's goal is to make any such attempt too bloody to be worth the effort. Ground forces are limited to marines trained for fighting in the cramped asteroid bases.

Shades of Niven's Belter Alliance, and my own Free Floater Republics, sure- but I've always liked the idea.

[Illuminatus Primus]

One thing I've always disliked about a lot of popular sci-fi, especially low-level sci-fi like Star Trek or B5, is that they treat a planet like we treat a city. It's all homogenous, everyone speaks the same language, geography is generally the same throughout, etc. Also, each planet is always controlled by a single power; no independent nations exist on the planet, the planet is never divided between various powers, etc.

On Sci-fi level tech, you wouldn't get many contested planets.

A planet is better treated as a island if one wishes to have a terrestrial analogy.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Faction Name: United Freeholds
Star System: Sol and Alpha Centauri

I decided to check it one last time before I left. Doubleplussgood spiffiness with the United Freeholds. I would encourage you to suffer from the "Hoth Syndrome" where asteroid fields are densely-packed rock fields. I would expect the freeholds to have established bases in the Jovian and Saturnian trojan belts as well as a few other asteroid clusters in the Sol system. Heck, maybe even a rogue planet for a secret R&D base.

Good stuff also with political chess. Terra should always be a wild-card/devil-deal kind of people. I would give the Freeholds some of the best colonial engineers, since they're so skillfull at not only settling asteroids but getting raw materials out of them. Whenever someone wants to start a moon-base or asteroid mining operation, a few Freehold consultants are always called upon.

Nice, and see how different you can make them. What if there are some colonies that simulate 2 or 3 G's for manufacturing super-dense stuff? Short, ridiculously strong humans, that's what.

[18-Till-I-Die]

Hmmm...ok, here i go.


Psion Confedertion
Inhabited systems: 6
Inhabited worlds: 12

The Psion Confed came into being after a group of 'mutant' psionics were expenlled from earth. Because they could read the thoughts of any sentient creature witihin a few hundred feet of them, and could decipher lies from truth instantly, they realized their 'colny ship' was taking thm straight into the sun when they set off, so they sabotaged the computer and the huge ship crashed ona planet somewhere near the Galactic Core, where the worlds were old and rich in resoources, but many were barren of life.

Luckily, their ship crahsed on the Earth-like world of Meton, which they chose as their new home. After centuries of building a civilization on Meton, they set out to colonize new worlds. They found many rich planets, but few that could support life without decades of terraforming. So they began the arduous process of turning twelve desert worlds and lifeless oceans of magma into inhabitable planets. Fifty years later, seven of those worlds are remotly like Earth, the rest are still inhosppitable, but it is all they have at the moment.

The Psions deceiced to defend their tiny toe-hold like a mother bear protecting her cubs. Minefields span out through their systems, making sublight travel inhospitable to anyone who isnt familar with the territory, and virtually every one of their worlds has at least a limited planetary screen, some have full system screens (at least, Meton and it's neighbor system Najica do). They have invested the vast metalugical resource sof their tiny feifdom into building a presentible fleet. It still pales when compared to Earth's, but it is still considerable.

Their technology is still behind that of Earth (in this case, think of Earth as the GE and the Psions as the 40K Imperium), but with some advanced elsehwere based on tehir psionic powers. Their ships FTL is psi-powered, and far more accurate than Earther hyperdrives. It involves using a combination of remote viewing and psychokinesis to draw to points in space together and 'jump' between them.

Their weapons are still rail cannons and masers, like their ancesstors centuries ago, and while this lags behind Earth's plasma cannons and gravitic warhead missiles, they have leared to build ships that have a 'porcupine' design cheme: huge vessels, with thousands of rail cannons and a forward mount maser of awesome power. They are little more than massive, flying guns, built to line up and unload all their cannons and masers in a single vector, basically throwing up a wall of fire that, admitedly, cannot be dodged or escaped, only weathered. They also make liberal use of asteroid 'kamikaze' ships, which fly headlong towards an enemy fleet at full speed and smash as many ships as they can. Since asteroid belts are prevelent througout the Psion worlds, they have a vast supply. They also converted countless 'roids into fortresses, adding ample missile batteries and surrouning them with thick mine feilds.

The Psions are currently locked in a cold war with Earth, that may het up very soon. See, Earth wanted the worlds they are now inhabiting, bu they got there first. Squatter's rights. Naturally, the Earthers are feeling stupid as hell for letting them get their hands on the Meton sector. Now they want it back.


I hope this dont sound too soft-sci-fi, but it's the most realistic think i could think of.

[Typhonis 1]

North American Union conglomerate state of United States,Canada and Mexico

Allies Uited Staes of Europe ,Pacific Allied Territories.

Enemies South American league((fighting over central america))


United States of europe The European Union

Allies North American Union,Pacific Allied Territories,

Enemies Russian Hemegeny, Arab Califate


Arab Callifate made up of the NON irradiated nations of the middle east and northern Africa.

Allies none.

Enemies just about everyone else.

Southern Africa is a battleground as are parts of Antartica .Undersea mining operations are common in all oceans thopugh the New Delhi league suspects the Caliphate of destroying a few of there own in the Indian ocean. Oil as a hydrocvarbon is now made from organic garbage

[Stofsk]

Chewie put me in charge while he goes off and does his thing, so you bitches have to deal with me now.

Reading over some of the tech ideas, I feel we should at least get some consensus on a few things.

Weapons and Defences:

Lasers work as long-range attacks; from what my friend tells me lasers work well in a vacuum but not so hot if they have to go through an atmosphere - therefore, I submit they should be used as a vacuum only weapon. Since using missiles as anti-ship weapons would be more expensive, they're used for precision surface bombing, either as tactical weapons or strategic - or both. Rail guns I'd like to see used as point-defence,

[EDIT] By point defence, I meant they be used against fighters. More on that later...

or bigger versions as an orbital bombardment weapon. I honestly don't know much about particle weapons, so unless someone can enlighten me I say leave them...

I've already submitted the idea of sandcasters and sandtractors. Just quickly, the former works by releasing a 'cloud' of sand that's specially designed to reflect laser blasts, though once released it doesn't stick to the hull but it does go in the same direction the ship is going. If the ship changes course it loses the defence. Typhonis suggested a magnetic shield to protect against radiation. This combined with the sandcaster gives what I chose to call the sandtractor, though that's probably a shit name and may change. However the gist of the sandtractor is that it 'tractors' the sand released by a 'caster so that even if the ship changes course the cloud stays with it. Sandcasters and sandtractors work against laser blasts, but not as a foolproof defence. For the purposes of maintaining consistency, lasers should be seen as a primary offensive weapon against other ships. Also, I like the idea that some ships and some factions will have to rely on sandcasters, while some factions will have developed sandtractors as part of R&D.

Other defences include: armour, pretty obvious. And ECM.

Gotta go, I'll post more and try to link everyone's ideas together later.

[EDIT] Goddamit, forgot to ask: any one like this? Do you have anything to add, or got a problem with anything?

[EDIT] Forgot to add fighters, which would be used ideally as aerospace vehicles - kind of like the Thunderbolt starfury from B5, or the Zephyr Raider also from B5.

[Stofsk]

FTL: It seems most people want the particular kind of FTL that we see in shows like B5, Macross and games like Wing Commander.

So, I submit the following for your approval:

Jumpdrives, and Jumpgates.

Jumpdrives are installed on some - not ALL - space vehicles. There are certain 'types' of drives which give extra range versus extra power requirements. Short range jumpdrives can be installed on small ships which have a smaller powerplant; mid range jumpdrives on bigger ships; long range drives on big ships - you get the idea. The problem with jumpdrives is that the farther you go out of it's range - even though it's possible - confers a risk of 'misjumping'. A misjump ends up bringing your ship to a random location somewhere in the vicinity of the target destination.

Jumpgates are more strategic, and give a huge range with the bonus of being applicable by jump-less spaceships. Gates can also be used as 'chokepoints' and are usually guarded by military forces. It is not meant to be a replacement for jumpdrives, rather it is supposed to be used as a commercial or strategic nexus. The implication here is that corporations will have large freight cruisers which don't have jumpdrives, and use jumpgates instead.

Chewie wanted a "colonial" Europe feel, and so do I - travel times are long and colonies are more or less left to their own devices. If I can make an analogy, Jumpgates will be like the Suez or Panama canals, while jumpdrives will be what you use for most. I feel wary of making jumpgate travel times instantaneous. I'd rather they were fast, but not that fast - faster than, say, the fastest jumpdrive, but not so fast that you can hit one system to another in a couple seconds or minutes. A couple days in transit would be good, while using the fastest jumpdrive for the equivalent journey would take a week. Or so. Also, gates are rare and hard to construct. There are only a few gates in existence, and obviously the systems they connect to are hugely powerful and influential; 'capital' systems, if you will. It should also make sense that a system which has a gate would link the interstellar community with the nearby starsystems, which can be opened for colonisation and so on. 'Sectors' can then be used to classify groups of stars that are linked to these gates. Sol Sector will have Sol as the Sector Capital; it's gate links to Capella, which is considered the Cappelan Sector. Capella, as I recall, is pretty inhospitable, but that doesn't matter; giant space stations might make up for the inhabitants in Capella.

Word travels as fast as the fastest ships. Obviously this means word between Sector Capitals will be fairly quick. News on Sol spreads to Capella in a matter of days; however, news from Sol to Alpha Centauri would take a week or so, while word from Sol to Arcturus might take a month. Therefore news services tend to be done in-system. Mail is sent via courier ships, but being a corporation it might be more profitable to simply keep the Sector capitals informed. To get mail out on the frontier will be something special and highly prized.

The implications for Gates and Drives add to a dynamic universe. Sector Capitals will be valuable for the transport nexus they provide, not so much the actual value of the system itself. Perhaps you can't colonise any planets, perhaps it's a mineral poor system - doesn't matter, if it can support a Gate then it's prime real estate. This can lead to interesting dilemmas, such as a Gate system being mineral poor - maybe it's a Red Giant? - but nevertheless considered a Sector capital, while a nearby system is a paradise - G type star, terra-compatible planet, habitable, full of mineral wealth and so on. Jealousies can arise and this can lead to wars fought over ownership of such star systems.

Another story hook: maybe the Gate system is ruled by a dictatorship - the conditions give rise to revolutionaries and rebellions. Civil wars can then erupt. Maybe the Gate system stifles trade to the nearby planets and systems, which of course gives rise to feelings of neglect and a desire for the frontier colonies to assert their dominance. Colonial wars, revolutions, and revolt. Terrorism - a gate gets sabotaged, bringing interstellar economy down to a depression.

Militaries will be arranged along Sector authority. It would be rare for a ship in Sol Sector to travel to Cappella Sector; think of the analogy of the Pacific fleet and the Atlantic fleet. Who would their chief opponent be? Pirates, rebels and terrorists. Pirates prey on frieghters, rebels fight civil wars that upset the status quo, and terrorists sabotage gates because they're naughty. Of course to fight these threats Intelligence services play a role; and therefore constitute another story hook. Maybe a agent has infiltrated a pirate organisation, or has uncovered a terrorist plot to sabotage a gate.

[Stofsk]

Who said the Earthy had to be united to go into space ? several mega nations have explored and colonised space and vy for power there

No-one. I like the fact Earth is divided, which leads to factions out in space.

Pacific Allied Territories - China, Japan, Phillipines, Korea and Australia (don't forget New Zealand). What I don't get is China's inclusion. What happened to cause that? I mean, China side-by-side with Japan? Not that it's hopeless, actually rather an interesting predicament.

North American Union - USA and Canada, and I'm guessing Mexico as well. Why not combine them with the Pacific Alliance? The acronym can be PAL. I am soooo funny...

United States of Europe - Why not just call it the European Union? I can see the EU spreading a bit, perhaps gaining Russia as a member, and Turkey (eventually, heh). I also would think that tensions between Old World will arise against the New World (ie America) and these guys would grow less friendly towards the yanks.

New Delhi League and The Caliphate - are they meant to be allies or enemies?

South American League - I'm interested in reading what your thoughts were on these guys. Sorry, but I got nothing. Druglords owning the country seems so crazy it might actually come true.

What happened to Africa? Quarantined? Plague continent? Hopeless cause? Rife with civil wars?

So we're looking at 4-6 factions that control Earth. What's Earth like? How's the environment?

Of course, now we have the Earth Federation and Russian Hegemony. This is getting complicated. No more UN?

Faction Name: United Freeholds
Star System: Sol and Alpha Centauri

Spacers! As in, a faction that resides solely in space. A good idea.

Do they act like pirates - or are there independent spacers who act like pirates? Are they antagonistic? Or perhaps there was a war and the UF won. Or perhaps there was a war and the UF lost. Thoughts?

I like the idea of the UF being strong in the engineering department. Perhaps they settle purely on asteroids. Another thought - if we accept Fusion as being the dominant energy source, then maybe the UF's power not only comes from raw resources but also He-3 from Jupiter and the other Gasgiants? Maybe no one wants war with them because the economy is centred around fusion; if you upset the UF, they jack up the prices. If you invade the UF, they sabotage their He-3 operations, effectively 'poisoning the well'.

How about the Russian Hegemony attacking the UF because they want to break out of the monopoly and secure their own source of He-3? Interesting conflict.

Here's something I threw together in about 30 minutes.
Signian Protectorate
*snip details*

Nice details.

*snip history*

Bad blood between Earth and the colonials? Sigs might think Earthers are weak as kittens, while Earthers might think those psychopathic Sigs are meant to be sent to their deaths.

In any case are you describing the past, or history? Was there bad blood, or is that all fine and dandy now?

Government: *snip*

Military dictatorship. Cool.

Culture: *snip*

Military: *snip*

Interesting. Are they now loyal members of the Earth Federation? Or is there simmering unrest? If the former, how are they viewed by other colonies? If the latter, what will cause the spark in the ammo dump?

Psion Confedertion
Inhabited systems: 6
Inhabited worlds: 12

The Psion Confed came into being after a group of 'mutant' psionics were expenlled from earth.

If we're going to have psionics, I would rather they were artificially induced, rather than the product of mutation. I'd settle for nano-tech or geneering.

*snip description of finding inhospitable worlds, with an attempt to terraform* Fifty years later, seven of those worlds are remotly like Earth, the rest are still inhosppitable, but it is all they have at the moment.

Fifty years? That's some fast terraforming. Some faaaast terraforming.

The Psions deceiced to defend their tiny toe-hold like a mother bear protecting her cubs.

Ok.

Minefields span out through their systems, making sublight travel inhospitable to anyone who isnt familar with the territory,

Impractical. Truly, you'd need so many mines that it's not funny. Mines might work to seal up a Jumpgate, but no way can it stop sublight travel.

and virtually every one of their worlds has at least a limited planetary screen, some have full system screens (at least, Meton and it's neighbor system Najica do).

I assume you mean 'screen' as some kind of energy field. To which, well, we don't want to work on that level. If radiation is a problem, and their planets keep on getting bombarded with it, then logically they'll settle underground.

...Their ships FTL is psi-powered, and far more accurate than Earther hyperdrives. It involves using a combination of remote viewing and psychokinesis to draw to points in space together and 'jump' between them.

I'm not sure if this should be included, it all depends on what we want to do with psionics.

As an attempt at compromise, perhaps the Psions use Jumpdrives, which in itself is similar to Psychic teleportation. In any case, if we have psychic teleportation it should be as limited as possible - ie, you can only teleport yourself and it's still a strain; it can be seen like making a 'jump'. However, I feel wary about making psions so powerful that even if they could teleport, they shouldn't be able to teleport ships.

*snip Psion military*

I like Fortress 'Roids. They're a good idea.

*snip Psion cold war*

Interesting... actually, there are similarities between this and the United Freeholds... I wonder what would happen if both ideas were combined?

Ok, so here is a list of factions so far:

The Earth Federation - PAT, or PAL, or something. America. China, Japan. Aussies and Kiwis. Canadians. Britons.
Sol Sector Capital

Russian Hegemony - EU? Caliphate, New Dehli League? South America? Russia (duh).
Just for the hell of it maybe their capital moved away from Earth in an attempt to find greener pastures.

United Freeholds
Asteroid habitats, possible He-3 operations.

Possibly conquered. Protectorate of the Earth Federation?

The Signian Protectorate
Sol Sector. Colonised by Earth Federation.

The Psion Confed
Meton Sector.