[quote=ASTA] Firearm technology doesn't suddenly stop involving just because lasers or railguns come on the scene. In actuality--and this is going to deal with some serious real-world physics here--a railgun doesn't exactly scale down well because of power requirements and general inefficiency (firing the equivalent of a full-powered .50BMG cartridge using a railgun would require approximately 20,000 watts of power, which suffice to see is pretty ridiculous when you're trying to fire hundreds of rounds like this per minute at hyper-velocity speeds). You could handwave everything and claim that you're using marshmallow-sized nuclear reactors to power your weapon, but if you're at the stage where you can cram fusion or fission reactors into that petite of a size, then you're pretty much well beyond petty space naval engagements. At this point, you're busting planets. With extreme impunity.With caseless ammunition using highly volatile superformance propellants and some sort of special rocket-assisted bullet (like a miniaturized HEAP/gyrojet hybrid round), you pretty much have a direct analog to a railgun.[/quote]I mostly used just generalizations. The point is that imperial soldiers wear armor because they often fight rebels or other less equipped forces who use comparatively primitive weapons. So typical guns or "low tech" handheld weapons are almost insignificant against them. The armor also offers a slight protection against the Empire's own beam guns but mostly when the beam is already weakened by the distance. The standard infantry weapon is the beam carbine which can more often than not take down an armored soldier from hundreds of meters. [quote] I'm going to ignore phasers and blasters. Those two weapons are pretty much made-up inventions native to science fiction that were created solely to function as high-tech and futuristic replacements for customary infantry arms because their creators thought that they looked cool and would wow the audience. [/quote]Well, there's some sense of science behind them but yeah. They are more for entertainment than anything else. Still, this genre is called Science Fiction. And as fiction goes regardless of how it's supposed to work, in the end it's the author who decides a weapon's power and features. Phasers making people "diappear" (supposedly via vaporization), for example. But similarly the power of any weapon is determined by the plot. This is a far future space NRP and my PM folder already has a number of exotic civilization profiles in it. So it's better if you think about this more on the "entertainment" side of things. It isn't a problem if you practice some scientific scrutiny (I even promote that) but also keep yourself open minded to the more fantastical technologies this NRP might feature. [quote]But all of the above nonsense is besides the point. This is a Space Opera, so that stuff doesn't really matter, but it really bums me out that I have to use tachyon beam weapons to avoid being instanta-conquered by one of several war junkies lurking about on RPG.[/quote]Well, the tachyon beams was just a random idea, actually. It's based on one of my Sci-Fi inspirations when I made this NPC civ. Then I realized that even if I tone down any other potentials the mere fact it unleashes particles at FTL speeds has unfortunate effects against the two classic types of shielding. I just went with the flow and the above is the result. Still, I'm sure people are creative enough to come up with ways how their shields or hulls can deal with tachyon beams. Exotic shields, armors or a coating that absorb the beams are all viable methods. I really don't want this feature to dominate against anyone but low tech NPC factions. [quote=The Captain] It's not a question of technology, it's a question of communication and coordination. Mankind, on Earth, is barely able to effectively govern itself. To send a request from one of the colonies to some manner of regional authority would be like playing the grandest game of telephone in the history of universe. The fact that sixty billion worlds all consistently fly the same flag is a miracle in itself, let alone the fact that the Imperium isn't, to put it bluntly, in perpetual war with itself in order to maintain itself. The fact that they all use the same warships, armor, and weaponry despite being limited to cheekily named Warhammer 40k STCs would imply that they have a logistics system beyond even the scope of high sci-fi AI.Now, I already punched the numbers into a calculator. I'm not concerned with how we reached said numbers, despite my opinion that they're simply ludicrous, but that said numbers are simply unsustainable from a sociopolitical standpoint. That's sixty billion worlds that a central authority has to keep track of. Sixty billion worlds and twenty seven quintillion people, all somehow not neglected or interested in divorcing themselves from a monolithic, supposedly backwards superstate. [/quote]It's actually 10 billion worlds (60 billion would be the entire galaxy's count of habitable planets) but indeed, controlling such a huge empire is difficult to say the least. But well, so does for any fictional interstellar empire. The only difference is that I actually have a sense of scale so I put this into "realistic" numbers. Anyways, reasons such as this that I still haven't finished the "society" part of the Empire's profile. But to give a sneak peek, I thought of Empire practically being an "alliance" of billions of self-governing states. Each government has their own complex political structure limited to the bounds of their star system. Save for some universal laws®ulations these governments have great autonomy. In return for protection, trade rights, operation of the Giant Galaxian Gates and the inbound flow of certain "black box" techs these governments are usually only expected to pay taxes and donate military power to the Empire. Still, there are at least thousands of these governments rebelling against the Empire in every given time. The Empire deals with these by blockade of trade and information and in important cases employing its military, with the latter resulting in brutal genocide. In less severe cases the Empire just keeps blockading that government for up to centuries until their will falters or their emergency ZPMs go out of service. They control information, technology and enforce a dogmatic or at times even spartan law system on people to manage the crowd. Similar to the IoM, the Empire also have the Emperor himself act as the main religious figure and inquisitors spread through the galaxy to punish anyone who doesn't believe in him. So yeah, the Galaxian Empire is a sorts of dystopian world and its size often brings more pain to this civilization than benefits. The Galaxian Empire is a struggling giant which makes it disadvantaged against smaller but more flexible civilizations. [quote=AlienBastard] A galaxy RP that realizes the scale of a galaxy?I have interest, but I don't believe I have the time to participate. However I will be keen on watching, mainly to see how things unfold.In defense of the author, such numbers are more in touch with the scale of a galaxy than most "galactic scale RPs". 10 billion worlds is around 1/30th of a galaxy and even highly populated NRPs tend to only contain around 20 or so players, a share of which using not holding much territory being nomads or ancients who only occupy a couple worlds. [/quote]Actually, the Galaxian Empire occuppies roughly 1/6th of the Milky Way. I just semi-caringly drew their boundaries on the galaxy map and then compared its size to the rest of the Milky Way The ratio was 1 to 6.05 or so. Roughly 1/6th of the area of the Milky Way I took the 10 billion count by taking the 1/6th of this: [url=http://www.universetoday.com/103379/60-billion-habitable-planets-in-the-milky-way-alone-astronomers-say-yes/] [quote=Seiryu] That's more of the point, since this NPC civ is lacking a lot of technobabble ST can do, limited time travel, magic engines which restore the very fuel required to power them, teleporters and shield disrupting missiles, etc. [/quote]Yeah, I almost wished to take back the notion of the Empire being on par with Star Trek's technology. Well, maybe in their prime more than a thousand years ago they were like the 29th century Federation but one that can use their tech with competency. But the current Galaxian Empire is far less about insane technologies or BS technobabble solutions you see in Star Trek. Still, if we look at basics like warp drives, anti-matter reactors/warheads, deflector shields and exotic beam weapon with convenient versatility then yes, the Empire is like them. I also want to feature the replicators in some form because that solves the majority of logistic problems and helps governments to remain self-sufficient even if they're cut off. They also have FTL sensors and communications for their warships thanks to the tachyons but that's about it. You won't see Galaxian warships adjusting the frequencies of their beam cannons to overcome the enemy's shields or things even worse.