WilsonTurner said
Could this WMD laser weapon in orbit not be damaged in some way? Say, a missile had been fired at it, and missed/damaged it, but not destroyed it, or maybe space debris from another destroy satellite/space station had messed up something important? That way, it'd be priority to get it up and running again, but there may be constant repairs needed after problem after problem surfaces, as well as possible space debris that would continually damage the satellite. Just saying, I'm reading through the posts.

I don't think the app that was part of was ever accepted, so it's not a thing or ever was.

I think Duck and I talked through Steam and it was said there should be no orbital platforms. Or if he hasn't made it a thing I'd like to see it not be a thing still.

There are other things going on than Big Shiny.

WilsonTurner said
EDIT:True, Japan might be good, being all Honda and everything, but it isn't much of a military place. If someone decided to invade, it's really just the police, is it not? I suppose during the war...oh yes..Well, if you want Japan, you take. I'll only take it if you insist.

The Japanese are constitutionally bound to have a small army. But that's even up to reform today. More-so given they and China are butting heads. Hell, the Japanese decided to add more ships to their navy in an effort to stay competitive with the Chinese dragon.

If the Chinese claims against Japan have not been acted upon before the war, they'd certainly be moved on during it. And it'll be a hell of a fight and I'm sure they'd remember the Sino-Japanese wars. There's intense bad-blood there (as well as Japan itself being racist, but that's another fish to fry).

To compound Japanese issues though, they got a rapidly aging population and too few children. Their population is rapidly shrinking and they can't possibly hold the youth base to keep competitive. I might see them as being one of a few to fully embrace 3d printing technology to keep an economy going. But I can't see them going anywhere but staying relevant to that and electronics. They're not a nation to really develop anything new, just retool things in creative ways.

and to skip quoting Dinh

1) o.o

2) o.O

3) ._.

4) And by antimatter, I mean for, first and foremost, research areas, and energy production. I'm sure that there are many other areas where antimatter could be used, but when a tiny amount of antimatter could equal 120 tonnes of conventional rocket fuel (<- more or less quoting), I think people who are interested in being a bit better in the long-term would be willing to invest.

Plus, well, with antimatter, one could have more efficient engines, provided that they have enough antimatter and an efficient design, to mine at, say, the Asteroid belt. Mining asteroids has extreme resource potential, does it not? While expensive, the Earth is quickly running out of resources. A sudden boost in minerals from giant mineral chunks floating in space sounds good. ish.

5) gud.

Japan) Well what if they [u]did[u] kind of come back, and start repopulating? I was thinking of expansion by way of underwater 'bases' of sorts, and something like really-large sea platforms constructed during the war as a sort of bunker, except easier to defend and the like for the masses of Japan?

How about just the Polish resistance movement, then? I'd be happy just playing that role, and I can see them having plenty of interesting interactions with Oculus, Germany, and any other European powers that crop up.

*snaps fingers*
I don't need to be a nation, though private property will be a must. However, I have a group-app to make!

WilsonTurner said
4) And by antimatter, I mean for, first and foremost, research areas, and energy production. I'm sure that there are many other areas where antimatter could be used, but when a tiny amount of antimatter could equal 120 tonnes of conventional rocket fuel (<- more or less quoting), I think people who are interested in being a bit better in the long-term would be willing to invest.Plus, well, with antimatter, one could have more efficient engines, provided that they have enough antimatter and an efficient design, to mine at, say, the Asteroid belt. Mining asteroids has extreme resource potential, does it not? While expensive, the Earth is quickly running out of resources. A sudden boost in minerals from giant mineral chunks floating in space sounds good. ish.

I'm still iffy on it since it would still be too expensive of a route in all probability. And when most metals can be recycled and re-used there's not much purpose in going out to mine them. And when you can produce carbon-based building supports and use plastics for armor and structural chassis there's less a need for metal when there's sound replacements. For many companies the most economically viable option would be to re-use the waste of last week, and the most pressing for public concern would be fuel shortages with the safest being either wind farming, solar panels, hydro-electric, oceanic-currents, natural gas, or even nuclear power (in the form of Thorium reactors, which'd be safer than the stuff we got today).

For the public mind, I'd say it's more likely they'd get ugly images of the magnetic containment for anti-matter to fail and kill everyone in a massive nuclear blast. It just wouldn't be pretty.

And I would hope that this RP'll take place in a time-frame where we can not possibly hope to see anti-matter deployed. Maybe mentioned as a side-line thing in the same way stuff my be invoked in Deus Ex, but probably never used; unless it's the final boss fight at Pangea. But that's another question entirely.

I'm going to maintain the voice of the cyncic because cynical, dark ideas make for more interesting story telling. When everyone's carrying on as if the war never happened and has managed to pull extreme feats to tackle major issues like they're cracks in the cement the whole RP really looses its charm. Why bother writing about gritty awesome slums and ghettos when you can light up those areas with a perfect and safe anti-matter generator on the other side of town? Why even both exploring deepening rich-poor divides or social malcontent when everyone has work somehow, and the Great Dictator is lovable.

And if anything needs to happen: generic ethnic rebellion #275 with no cause stated other than: "They're this race". I might expect quirky stuff like that out of Africa, but even thirty-years on the Mongos should have learned to play nice with everyone. Or the Hutus with the Tutsis. Not without instigation or policies that do not favor their demographic because of complex reasons.

Let's try to push ourselves here.

Japan) Well what if they [u]did[u] kind of come back, and start repopulating? I was thinking of expansion by way of underwater 'bases' of sorts, and something like really-large sea platforms constructed during the war as a sort of bunker, except easier to defend and the like for the masses of Japan?

Actually, this is the Japanese population pyramid:



It's shrinking, and massive wars would only hurt it more. More-so when I wrote a post briefly pointing out that India's burned out, so their food exports probably went down the drain as well (if the continuing GMO debate hasn't hit western agriculture production already).

The Japanese population issue can be easily explored on a few basic things. One could be their defeat at the end of WW2 killing their breedable youth and the economic devastation they faced not favoring having large families that'd be indicative of population growth. After that, you got the Japanese work ethic, which can be summarized with: "The man lives at work, and commutes to home"; more young people in Japan now are working more time than they have with raising a family, making having children and awkward and complex affair in modern Japan.

You also have their immigration policy which actually isn't very generous. To actually be a full citizen you have to prove Japanese heritage on your father's side. Otherwise, if you're even Korean, Chinese, Filipino, or western-born you're not in for a bright future in Japan. No matter how good you talk the talk and walk the walk you'll only ever be "that guy" with a residency card; if you managed to get in.

Jeddaven said
How about just the Polish resistance movement, then? I'd be happy just playing that role, and I can see them having plenty of interesting interactions with Oculus, Germany, and any other European powers that crop up.

Fair enough.

Now we need Alpha more than ever to present a time-table on his campaigns in Europe. Not only would I need it as ASN for bolstering the German ranks in Poland, but a potential Scandinavea will need it too, and I'll need a general idea for future arcs.

I'm just going with an Atlantic-Pacific corporation that would be the go-to guys for smuggling, shipping, illegal weapons, and with richer nations/countries, more advanced, efficient body armors, weapons, etc.

Antimatter is only going to be a side thing. If suddenly people put a crapload towards them, progress will ensue. Otherwise, a small fund is issued to them each year to keep it in working condition.

An ocean-based shipping and weapons dealer, both illegal and cheap, or expensive and advanced.

Damn. Between the Oculi, Wilson's corporation, and the potential enemies of Germany that may be appearing soon, my resistance movement may actually have a shot at things.

Jeddaven said
Damn. Between the Oculi, Wilson's corporation, and the potential enemies of Germany that may be appearing soon, my resistance movement may actually have a shot at things.

I wouldn't put anything on the Occuli given they're just sort of a group of exiled governments in hiding somewhere, trying to be important. I doubt they'd offer the level of support needed to actually free a country, apart from offering back exiled senators when the thing is through.

The Occuli also sort of have a lot of fish to fry.

On that topic, how does the OFR manage to keep control of those territories? The countries it controls were all at one point conquerd by Nazi Germany, so I doubt they'd be at all friendly towards another Reich. Not only that, but their combined armed forced are more numerous than Germany, and Poland is one of the most stable economies in Europe - the only one that didn't decline in the '08 recession. Even if Germany managed to defeat -all- of them, how are they not dealing with constant revolt?

That's something I'm trying to address with Alpha. Or get a chance to address on my own if he'll answer PMs.

Though in his credit you *could* assume that a hundred years after the Nazis that sort of thing died out. But then again, even here in the US the thought of the Confederacy and what it stood for in practice hasn't gone away and people still get deeply offended with CSA imagery. Hell, up here in Michigan a teacher at the high-school I went to faced disciplinary action when he got offended some redneck kid was wearing the Confederate flag as a belt buckle. So even in the ~150 years it's been since they were around and everyone who remembered the Civil War being dead the imagery invokes a lot of strong feelings. I can imagine it'd be the same in Germany.

What's surprising to is that despite going with new updated doctrine, the new Reich is back to World War 2 styled tactics. That's dangerous outdated if I may say so.

I do suppose that the Germans could have hit the Low Countries first and brushed them aside before moving East. But that should still keep them tangled in the west dealing with partisan movements and perhaps even French offense. I tried to address the Polish bullshit by adding in my app the ASN was hired to assist in German efforts in Poland, which is where they evolved from the IDF to the ASN.

I'd say it's fine;
it gives more opportunity for someone else to make a resistance group and re-take those places in the name of JUSTICE
and then be another Reich under a different name and 'ideal set' for the story-makin'

fo real.
[cause that is the most repeated phrase in the entire school]

and I'm workin' on my app.
Theoretically, if you can pay, you could practically rent out a small escort group, your own ship to research, live, and work from, and just sail the ocean waters, where there is no real 'police.' They are international waters, after all, so anyone with the bigger gun can probably proclaim dominance, since the oceans are ruled by any one body, nor is there a UN to patrol it.

Name of Group: The Atlantic-Pacific Independent Research Corporation for (APIRCA)

Type: Corporation slash small-nation union

Assets: The APIRCA controls several small island nations through economic and political power, owns several islands of its own, and operates out of these island groups, as well as the most prominent feature of the APIRCA, a navy, of both trade, military, and research focuses.

Personnel: On islands: Nearly 4 million total. In the navy, of sorts: Close to 750,000 total.

History: With APIRCA being founded around 2017 for the United States, France, and various other UN nations to conduct unconventional, and possibly illegal experiments and research, it was a secretive organization. The APIRCA was that of a highly-funded group to try and make up new technologies so that losses could be minimalized in wars and conflicts, as well as for scare tactics and the like. When the war broke out, however, the APIRCA was, more or less, given independence, despite all nations involved keeping the involvement into APIRCA a strict need-to-know basis, due to the nature of experiments and research, and became more independent than anything. APIRCA branched out in the following years after it received more freedom, and now buys raw materials from places such as Africa, the Middle East, South America, and other places, refines them into refined goods (hehe) during the trip, and sells the finished products at wherever they needed to be sold, by way of cargo ships 'trading' with the more advanced 'refinery ships' of APIRCA. In the group, people go on a basis of "RCA points" which are used as a currency of sorts.

During the years of 2025, APIRCA began looking into weapons technologies and antimatter, and began developing their own. While all of this is expensive, there would always be some kind of buyer, from a rich drug mob, to a nation's leader. They developed 'sets,' usually a body armor and an accompanying weapons system or special tech, usually not too difficult to design, but worked well enough to put it above everyone else's. Once 2035 came around, the APIRCA began collecting as much data that could be found on public and private servers connected to the internet, in many cases breaking through firewalls to obtain such information, though stronger firewalls were left alone. Quantum physics and mechanics, theories and designs, antimatter research and darkmatter discoveries, they wanted as much as they could get their hands on, and still pay a good bit of money for credible research.

Between the years of 2020 and 2030, the APIRCA also began a burst of activity. Through the finding of a very large oil pocket below the Atlantic, near Antarctica, they began construction of several ocean platforms that served as ocean research stations, munitions depots, oil refineries and oil storage, and factories. Ocean cables were laid down between many of these places, along stable sections of ocean-floor, to provide near-instant communication, as well as energy transfer from the 2 ocean platforms that generate energy through solar power, which are much bigger than all of the ocean platforms, and have a constant guard of at least 2 APIRCA-designed frigates, or more/better.

Generally, guards/soldiers of the APIRCA, both of the private military of the organization, and of the PMC [Private Military Contractors] section of the APIRCA, wear body armor and use a multi-purpose service rifle, as shown below.

On land, these soldiers are less common, more as a commando/elite soldier, with general soldiers being replaced with basic military equipment, body armor, weapons, etc., with a 'TactCom' helmet, as shown below.


As of the present, the APIRCA specializes and sells:
Transportation, safe & speedy
Private Military
Cheap, mass-produced [though efficient] weapons, tools, or equipment
More expensive, special quality weapons, tools, or equipment, including advanced body armor
Small amounts of heavier weapons, such as missiles, RPGs, APCs, tanks, and occasionally even a heavy artillery piece.
Through a great deal of trouble, expense, and negotiation can one buy radioactive material, though it is, again, in small amounts, or buy future amounts of it.
Ocean-area construction, such as drilling platforms, boats, coastal construction, etc., as long as they are paid and provided with some amount of material to get started.

THE APIRCA:
Where you go when you need something done, from transportation to a port constructed, from hiring a mercenary to getting your own private army.

Aye-perk-kah.

> Four particle accelerators under an island
> Being secret despite too many people having to know where their big equipment is going to

Oh please, you're James Bond villain-ing way too hard.

Oh, I suppose. How about 1 particle accelerator, but then again, people wouldn't necessarily know that it's a particle accelerator; they know big stuff is there, but not necessarily that type of item.

WilsonTurner said
Oh, I suppose. How about 1 particle accelerator, but then again, people wouldn't necessarily know that it's a particle accelerator; they know big stuff is there, but not necessarily that type of item.

People would still get to notice the energy signatures made by the device, on top of the huge amount of energy the island would be drinking. The thing would be crowned with venting ports from the island's nuclear reactor core, making it obvious it's there.

And then to get the man power and equipment there to dig and build it would leave enough invoices everywhere reading, "to TYPICAL VILLAIN LOLAPOLZA BASE AT FICTIONAL BULLSHIT ISLAND OFF AFRICA" that everyone with a brain would know it's there.

You'll also need a colony of scientists to figure anything out, to feed them, and to get the equipment to maintain the island, or the tools to make the tools to maintain the base. IT won't be secret, not in the corporate and federal field. And anyone playing with Google Maps would find it.

And making the Anti-Matter is still far too expensive, and frankly you're still trying too hard.

research, not production. plus, it's also more or less inactive. And I am quite sure that there are islands off the coast of Africa, and I am also quite sure that there won't be any tourists poking their heads around every other corner and into every room. A small team wouldn't require anything suspicious in terms of supplies: the APIRCA will have plenty of islands that they'll feed just like anywhere else, with larger teams and groups.

The thing about African islands is they're already inhabited and claimed. There wouldn't be anything that wasn't there before or undiscovered. We're talking about the crown jewel in European Imperialism in the post-Exploration age. If it's there, it would have been exploited. The only "empty" place left are the darker hearts of Africa, which present logistical challenges all their own that'd make such a research center as hard to maintain as Rapture.

Even République des Seychelles - the largest island chain nation in Africa on the Eastern side - would most likely be using all its islands at this point, considering climate change and rising sea-levels compounding the issue of concentrating populations on higher islands.

You'd probably end up being more succesful having Rapture than anything to research anti-matter that'll maintain a healthy energy-size ratio.