@Iluvatar the honourable Willy Vereb.

And now me, I guess.

I could perhaps try for Space China, although due to time constraints one of the lesser major powers such as Germany would probably work better. One of those two, most likely.

@TaerynI think we can begin working on the nation profiles, right?

Obviously theres no template or anything right now but if you want work on/collect some information together and format it in the way you'd expect most nation sheets to go, feel free.

The intent is to have a small relatively concise app when the time comes with the expectation that profiles would consequently be larger by necessity of including information people want to share and are likely to want recorded :).

@Taeryn Try this for a format: cia.gov/library/publications/resources..

Nothing quite as expansive, but if people want to go to that point they are more than welcome.

I'm largely waiting on at least some indication of a Space Amurica, or at least someone else willing to do a decent bang up job on replacing myself on the opposite side. Don't know if I'd do 'murica justice, but still.

That's how things stand, currently.

Stellar Geography at least in terms of mapping blobs of colour in some semblance of order is going to be a bit of a crazy hazy idea, but if anyone wants to stand up and take that position it'd be appreciated.

I want to make a space trinidad or somalia, is that okay? At some point in the future the colors on cards flipped- you now get red clubs and spades while having black hearts and diamonds. The reason may come down to a rather weird world-state that isn't really affilated with any country. More or less a neutral zone place where scummier parts of humanity may dwell. Some scummy corporation dominated world state that is a de facto central point of space piracy that gained a rather distinctive culture, at least in the bizarre looks it has.



It'll (extremely loosely- the image I posted borders on surreal) be based on this image, some parts anyways.

The alien in the image could also be included, but their tech level will be demoted to pre-industrial since I feel like the Juhseungi and whatever the Oracle came from are already enough in terms of interstellar alien civilizations. Not to mention I think having a less advanced alien species out there humans happen upon in a colonization effort could lead to interesting plot-lines.

@Taeryn I can give space America a go.

Jeff

Also I have Astrosynthesis (a 3D space mapping app), which seems like a good fit for the scale of this RP.

I want to make a space trinidad or somalia, is that okay? At some point in the future the colors on cards flipped- you now get red clubs and spades while having black hearts and diamonds. The reason may come down to a rather weird world-state that isn't really affilated with any country. More or less a neutral zone place where scummier parts of humanity may dwell. Some scummy corporation dominated world state that is a de facto central point of space piracy that gained a rather distinctive culture, at least in the bizarre looks it has.

There's already a significant amount of smaller states intended to be NPC'd with varying degrees of alignment, advancement and so on - adding something player controlled into that isn't something I oppose. The problem is that space piracy - while a serious problem in certain areas, are generally confined to their system of operation with minor spill over into neighbours who can't control their node entries (which itself would imply everything's gone to shit, but y'know :P), which can limit the scope of what you may be aiming for depending on where the dice roll put you and I wouldn't want you to go in blind.

You're perfectly entitled to apply for a corporation itself or a scattered merc gone pirate band or something similar - or just a less cared about UN sponsored program if you're opting for a core-east african feel, maybe with a world of operation down a line of nodes no-one has bothered to exploit or pay attention to beyond finding you again, if you so choose, rather than putting yourself down somewhere where people may just act immediately against you. Such a thing might encourage me to allow you your token aliens, but otherwise the intent is that there are no other sapient aliens of note at this current point - though plans are in place to change that if the RP requires it :).

As for your offer of map making, you're more than welcome to give it a go - it might be a bit of a pain given that theres been 200~ years of slapdash colonization and node lines don't necessary connect to neighbouring stars (though a map would condense and present this reasonably) - but most larger nations would control tens of systems which could get old fast, so I wouldn't want you doing anything you wouldn't enjoy.

@thecircus If you really want to do that, then do say, otherwise I'd rather not push you out of what you were looking forward to doing in the first place :).

@Taeryn How terribly kind of you both.

In that case, can I be a Greek system? Probably just one or two solar systems, don't want to take on something too big, since I haven't done too many Space-based RPs before.

Greeks proper were part of the EU in the Exodus, but you can make them, or a part of them, break off if you desire so. Feel free to look at the independent system "Athena" in the third post's notable independent colonies and see if you want to take that concept and make it more than it is.

We might end up with a sea of minors and middle powers in between a handful of npc's and big ones at this rate XD.

@TaerynSapient alien wise I think there'd be a chance of a Stone or Bronze Age species of sorts mucking about somewhere on a coveted A-class or B-class world. Most likely in the fringes. Or maybe a E-class world with sulfuric acid oceans and theoretically breathable air that burns your insides due to the acidic content has one and no one bothered look on since it's a hell world. However such species would be unknowns that would only become known as the IC needs of it.

On the subject of the faction it's a bit messy in my head, but the general idea is something of a failed state with extreme wealth inequality, lack of enforced law and a massively seedy underbelly. One planet would have 60% of the GDP while the rest tend to rely on piracy and scamming along with illegal trade in novelty biological augments to get by when phosphorus, helium and Jovian Diamond harvesting simply isn't enough. (Diamond icebergs exist in ice Giants and I figure by 2291 it is possible to dive that deep into a ice giant. It's dangerous to get them but the exotic appeal of Jovian diamonds as a luxury product makes them quite coveted despite being in vast quantities. Certain Ice Giants like Uranus or Neptune have additional value to them simply because of their world of origin being so near Earth. The price comes from how dangerous it is to retrieve the icebergs. A wealthy person with a continent to him/herself likely would want a Jovian diamond, refined into a massive jewel as a center price of their vanity projects. Less wealthy people get the chips.)

On FTL, is there any formula used for the nodes or is it wholly random?

@Taeryn No, I really want to do it. Have the military half finished.

I wouldn't want to rush to moving this into roleplays in full, as there are discussions that will happen irrespective of where the thread is - but is there any suggestions people would like to make, such as information they would like to see clarified or removed?

A bit of clarification on Node placement in regards to why some star systems have them while others don't would be nice. For instance I had a similar system myself that had stellar mass correlations (as the nodes were general by mutual gravitational tugging, which means that larger stars linked to each other while ignoring smaller stars and in general a convoluted web existed, I actually worked on a near sol setting myself and still have the link map for it, issue is that it's so horrifyingly convoluted it has no practical use.) Chances are it may be better to only highlight the high traffic/major nodes in regards to the map. Astrosynthesis has add-ons that add thousands of real star systems up to 300 Ly from sol with some level of accuracy. (That is still like, a lot of star systems) I am not certain how distant human expansion is but my intuition is that there may be colonies situated around the Hyades star cluster, but most likely not to the Pleiades which may still be a unknown and may house a drone hive from a dead civilization for all anyone knows. "Here be dragons"? Here be aliens.

No-one really knows - the wildest theory is that nodes are artificial and as such beyond current means of understanding, while others say its just a very specific natural manifestation of the weakening between subspace and realspace - the latter has its own doomsday proponents that eventually subspace will subsume realspace or cause some other catastrophe, but I'm getting into crazy fictional arguments about fictional lore here and I need to stop myself.

Pretty much every colonized system will have one "path out" - or in, depending on your viewpoint. Two is the norm and Three are relatively regular, the real hub systems occur when four or rarely, five are present, Sol has four for example and still has a fair portion of through traffic. I have my own personal, terrible paint maps of the Soviet Systems and the node lines and spurs they would go into, but its very condensed how I imagine basic in universe maps would be presented for simplicity's sake - like the variation on Earth projections to fit maps - and again its in paint and isn't super useful for anyone but me.

It's still possible to go to stars unlinked by a node line by using a variation on in-system skimming, but that comes down to time and economics which is why its not super common, but not unheard of.

I'll likely pop this post in verbatim somewhere if needs be. Its effectively a system to create strategic and tactical depth in space where typically it can be lacking - theres still some "could come from anywhere" like I say but skimming a fleet poses its own risks and challenges.

@Taeryn Sure, I can be Athena. Is it all right if I tweak the nations, and perhaps the population (probably keeping the population of the whole Athena system below 5bn at maximum)? I thought I might put together a world based around city-states that are extremely autonomous, ancient philosophies being the driving force behind the disparate government systems and a love of a simpler lifestyle combined with a few technological conveniences as the primary way of life. That would require many more, though smaller, nations.

So there's no noticeable patterns in node generation? (Like correlations of node amount to the mass of a star or such)

So there's no noticeable patterns in node generation? (Like correlations of node amount to the mass of a star or such)

Not that human science can currently explain, which isn't unthinkable given its a technology they didn't even come up with personally.

@Taeryn Sure, I can be Athena. Is it all right if I tweak the nations, and perhaps the population (probably keeping the population of the whole Athena system below 5bn at maximum)? I thought I might put together a world based around city-states that are extremely autonomous, ancient philosophies being the driving force behind the disparate government systems and a love of a simpler lifestyle combined with a few technological conveniences as the primary way of life. That would require many more, though smaller, nations.

Tweak all you like - I'm not demanding you be Athena, you're free to be more than a singular star system, I was just pointing to it as an example.