~ ICE ~
~-~ The Intergalactic Collision of Entities ~-~
Essentially, this is just a science fiction roleplay with fantasy elements. Ships will fall into regular, modern categories, FTL will be balanced thoroughly- none of that instant-teleport to wherever you want. I've been in the Star Empires reboots, the Andromeda whatevers and all that. Combat is inevitable, and instantly leaving whenever you want just isn't very story-like. Well, let me put in a series of points, rather than just paragraphs of junk.
A) First of all- this takes place in the Milky Way Galaxy, and the Andromeda galaxy. Humans are allowed, but there will be a maximum of three independent nations of man. No exceptions.
B) Second of all- alien races must be balanced. No hyperintelligent brutes that are cunning, fast, and strong, and are quick learners. You can have something that may not necessarily be balanced, but they cannot be perfect. Make it realistic, not overpowered.
C) Third- I don't want any unreasonable actions. If you're human, then you'll likely do anything, but you'll still care about your power which comes from the people- so that means you'll have to be intelligent about this. No declaring war just cause. Declare war because you made a series of accidents that you 'prove' to be someone else's fault, without giving any way for realistic denial. That means politics in the like. So- be intelligent, be realistic, be reasonable. Personal disputes can be carried into the roleplay- you wanna kill someone cause they insulted you in OOC, fine, do whatever- but again, actually make a reason. A rebel group that's rising, perhaps.
D) Ships will fall into traditional rolls, with exceptions for your race. For example, destroyers may have powerful weapons that are more of a special weapon than anything, while having agility, speed, and lighter armor. Battleships and dreadnoughts are heavy-hitting bullet sponges, that are slow brutes. Also be realistic with weaponry- Kinetic weaponry can be dodged, but firing at even higher-than-norm speeds (anti-capitalship railgun speeds being the norm) will take exponentially more energy and equipment. A destroyer will not have the ability to put a slug through an entire heavy ship. They will likely have better effectiveness on shields- while lasers and other instantaneous energy weapons would be less effective against shields, and more effective against armor.
E) FTL will be limited. You can have quite a few types of FTL, sure, go ahead. But make them balanced. You will NOT have an FTL drive that can activate on a moment's notice without any traces to destination or location, or without any apparent cooldown or heat signature. The way I see it, an FTL drive will likely produce very high amounts of heat, while using a great deal of energy. There is a single alternative kind of FTL drive that I will allow, and it's far, FAR better than a normal FTL drive, but is far, FAR more limited, and must be learned from an NPC nation that I'll control. Think of the stuff near the end of The Xenocide by Orson Scott Card.
YOU are supposed to make a unique nation that is technologically and culturally advanced- or not. Most nations will have to be FTL-able, or close to it. I'll only allow maybe two nations that are still pre-FTL, such as the Nouvellians in one of the previous reboots, who were in a WWII-technological era (I think). I'll allow a nation like that for every four or five spaceworthy nations.
Before I elaborate any more than I have already- is anyone interested?
Ships and fleets will not number in the thousands, or the hundreds, even. Rather, a very large fleet would be two dozen ships. Maybe in later stages, it'll get to the point where hundreds and thousands of ships are possible, but right now, I'd rather have people focus more on less kill-all strategy.
Questions asked and their answers