@Palamon

Also, since I just read your post, do you think our two human factions would speak similar languages? Or at least one understandable by each other? In all honesty, they probably wouldn't, but I figured it'd be easier if we could skip past the whole 'lost in translation' bit and move a bit more quickly into actual diplomacy, unless that was something you'd rather do.

I mean, I've been working under the assumption that most of the human factions speak a common-ish language (them all having a probably similiar heritage an all) so maybe it's just that we all have sort of foreign dialects? Sort of like the difference between the various forms of English such as American English, British English, Piggin, Cajun, ect. Used this a lot in my Anthropology undergrad studies (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dialects..)

A bit off topic, but I Remember an novel where black holes the size of pea drops were used in an engine used to approach near light speeds by producing an endless supply of anit-matter with it. Though there were safe self destruct mechanisms that destroyed the black holes before the grew large enough if the ship was critical.

That seems to be "hard" sci-fi on par with Tau Zero so I wouldn't draw any conclusions from it.
Well, you can use neutron stars and black holes to make antimatter by gravitational shear effect but the relation is hilariously disproportionate. Think of stellar masses of a blackhole/neutron-star making kilograms of it per year (IIRC). Not to mention rather than the black hole growing you'd need to prevent it to get too light. Speaking of which the biggest issue is that black holes have hilariously high mass if you don't have handwavium/magitech to keep them stable by artificial means. Another point why only my colony ships have it.
Don't wish to bore you here so just in conclusion blackhole engines in real theory are nowhere as amazing as it might seem.

@Willy Vereb As long as your mechs aren't going to be mowing through battleships as easily as several of them just did in that video, I don't really care if they use energy weapons or ballistics.

@Palamon

Alright, that works with me. Just wanted to run it by you first and make sure we were on the same page. I'll work on that reply.

@Willy Vereb As long as your mechs aren't going to be mowing through battleships as easily as several of them just did in that video, I don't really care if they use energy weapons or ballistics.

It really depends on tactics and how a ship is equipped to fight enemy smallcraft.
Without shields it's really about who can better damage the other. A smallcraft is less armored and there are more kinds of weapons to bring the hurt with but so there are weapons you can equip a fighter with which can take down the ship.

It's a bit weird but think of the relation between naval warships and fighter planes in WW2 with a twist.

@Willy Vereb, of course they are ludicrous thats whats fun about them. And probably wouldn't work since having black holes as an integral part of your engine power pack would weigh any ship down considerably. Also if you didn't know Hard scifi is sortive my thing... :) But handwavium with pseudo science always makes things just as fun considering its an integral part of our RP.

@Dragonruby No worries homie.

@Willy Vereb Does everything have to be exact sciences and follow the exact laws of phsyics as we know them to be fun? Since I doubt people would enjoy having to look through wikipedia pages to learn it or have to spend a good deal of time on their things only to be told "guess what that doesn't work lol, gg try again later".

Besides, with handwavium you can get a lot more cool stuff in. There's a reason why things like Star Wars/Star Trek/40k/Mass Effect are so popular even if they don't listen to Newton.

@Willy Vereb

We're saying you're good to go as long as your mechs don't pull the stunts like they do in the video. How well fighter craft/humanoid mechs do in combat will matter on how you use them, not because they can utterly ignore point defense by dodging and boosting around. Newtypes or not, they will likely not be able to pull off the maneuvers shown off in that video since the video is extremely stylized to show off the mobile suits. That's the point we're trying to make. Don't have them ignore enemy defenses like they're non-existent and we're good.

@Willy Vereb, of course they are ludicrous thats whats fun about them. And probably wouldn't work since having black holes as an integral part of your engine power pack would weigh any ship down considerably. Also if you didn't know Hard scifi is sortive my thing... :) But handwavium with pseudo science always makes things just as fun considering its an integral part of our RP.

I completely agree.
As for weight, well, if you don't mind to be bathed in near-megaton energy per second in theory just 155 kilotons is enough for a black hole to last 10 years (in theory). But well, to contain that energy you'd need to make a gigantic core to begin with so that'd weight a whole load more. So the balance is likely somewhere in the multi-million ton range for a blackhole smaller than an atom.
And that's me being optimistic.
There are also other issues like how you make a black hole engine in a system that moves (like a ship) so yeah, you can bet I'd use some handwavium there.
Honestly though the only reason I linked the black hole engine to my colony ships and FTL to make it all the more expensive overall.

@Willy Vereb Does everything have to be exact sciences and follow the exact laws of phsyics as we know them to be fun? Since I doubt people would enjoy having to look through wikipedia pages to learn it or have to spend a good deal of time on their things only to be told "guess what that doesn't work lol, gg try again later".

Besides, with handwavium you can get a lot more cool stuff in. There's a reason why things like Star Wars/Star Trek/40k/Mass Effect are so popular even if they don't listen to Newton.

Do you have some personal problem with me mentioning science?
Seriously, chill out. I am not even a GM here so how did this whole line of argument even arise from you to begin with?
I merely provided some insight on what black hole power would really entail because I am frequently see people having these weirdly exaggerated ideas about it.
Which is a problem when I come under fire seemingly on assumptions based on this.

@Willy Vereb

We're saying you're good to go as long as your mechs don't pull the stunts like they do in the video. How well fighter craft/humanoid mechs do in combat will matter on how you use them, not because they can utterly ignore point defense by dodging and boosting around. Newtypes or not, they will likely not be able to pull off the maneuvers shown off in that video since the video is extremely stylized to show off the mobile suits. That's the point we're trying to make. Don't have them ignore enemy defenses like they're non-existent and we're good.

Well, it'd bad sportsmanship and even kind of god modding if I outright ignore the enemy's attacks, doesn't it?
So that thought didn't cross my mind.
I might have hero characters that are capable of pulling of better stunts but they aren't just cheap saving throws where I can make up BS and turn fights around no matter what.
Rule one of forum RPing is respect. You must play along with the actions of your peer to create an enjoyable story.

@Willy Vereb Okay, it sounds like we're all on the same page. Once you've made the edits we've all discussed here, I'll take another look at your sheet.

@Willy Vereb Okay, it sounds like we're all on the same page. Once you've made the edits we've all discussed here, I'll take another look at your sheet.

I already did, I think.
Probably add more details later as per my fashion but every information is there.
I'd only detail some common warship and Panzergeschickt types, some soldier equipment, misc vehicles and maybe create a short list for my unique technologies.
But those can probably wait.

I'm still up for a first contact if anyone is interested.

Also, nice to see @duck55223 taking interest. And double nice to see the familiar face of @Willy Vereb jumping in with an app.

@Keyguyperson

B-but... I posted something for you... Why won't you notice me

@Willy Vereb I'll need a brief description of your durametal and integrity field put into your Technology section as well. Right now, they are just named items under your Kriegschloss header, with no information about them. A description of your FTL drive should also be under the Technology header, outlining the method of travel (instant travel from Point A to Point B? travel time through a non-realspace dimension?).

@Keyguyperson

B-but... I posted something for you... Why won't you notice me

Huh? Did someone say something? Eh, I'm sure it was the wind.

(Oh, I see it now. I've had the same tab open since before you posted and never refreshed it so I didn't get the notification. I'm a mess.)

@Willy Vereb I'll need a brief description of your durametal and integrity field put into your Technology section as well. Right now, they are just named items under your Kriegschloss header, with no information about them. A description of your FTL drive should also be under the Technology header, outlining the method of travel (instant travel from Point A to Point B? travel time through a non-realspace dimension?).

Durametal is just a sci-fi buzzword for material of sufficient quality to work in the role it does. It's an effort to veer away from questions like "But titanium isn't this light! Steel can't support this size! This is made of X thus there's no way it can take even my multi-biggaton point defense lasers!"
It's technically an artifact from previous NRPs when I copypasted the profile but really it can be vague enough to work in any setting.
Durametal can be something like SW durasteel which is X times stronger than real life steel or it can be just a certain metal alloy renown for its strength yet nothing special. Duraluminum, durawood and so on are all real life terms for materials we used in the past so it isn't as weird as it would seem. I have no idea where to put its strength in this NRP aside from it being "average". It's good for what it's used for but nothing special.

Structural integrity fields are another common sci-fi buzzword which is used to further explain the toughness of materials. They basically reinforce the atomic bonds to make the hull stronger. Thought that without shields such a measure is more reasonable to my Kriegschlosser that are the keypieces of my military. Colonies might also get them or I might try to explain with this why mechs carrying a shield can make sense (or how melee weapons can withstand the strain).

Jumpdrives are well, I am seriously considering what to do with them. IIRC they were used to be opening wormholes for the ship to temporarily pass through. Don't say it's instant since the channel between wormholes still takes some time but it was notably fast. Another idea is the jump drives from BSG where they had practically instant jump but it had limited range and needed a recharge period till the next jump. Generally they'd be my way of traveling between star systems and that sums up their role. Currently there's no known way of building jumpdrives without that interacting with a micro blackhole to explain why there had been no attempts to scale down the system.

@Willy Vereb Put it all in your sheet.

Does anyone else have any issues with Willy's sheet?

I'm curious on the "heightened sixth sense and at times even beyond, showing various psychic powers". To say that its a point of concern would be fair. I don't mind the pseudo-sixth sense but the psychic power is just pushing it over the edge. I wasn't aware that we were allowed that since I thought of that teetering on the more magical side of things.

Like what abilities do they have and how strong are they? How common are they? Why don't other races have any of these "Newtypes"/How did humans just living in space get these traits?