I will have to think on the use of antimatter further - when I'm not as tired as right now. I may develop a sort of "tech scale" and put a general stop at some point, right now I am thinking
I am just not sure whether for the cap to be right short of antimatter usage or subatomic particles - the latter is a no go that's for sure.
Point is, civs in this RP are still very young. It took humans 250 000 years to go form fire to very basic space program, and here you are reaching for the stars in just 10 000, likely because of the 'libraries' found on each of the homeworlds (I may have to edit that timeframe yet).
As far as the warp drive goes, I guess it depends on one thing: What happens when an object using it DOES crash into something? Because you don't have to be mounting it on just ships.
FTL sensors are good, just remember though that using any active sensors is basically yelling "I AM HERE SHOOT ME".
Now, i seriously need to sleep xD
I don't know to whom you addressed the first part of yor reply and assume it's not me.
As for warp drive they are surrounded in a sorts of gravity bubble which repels smaller impacts (depending on the power of the warp drive) and anything stronger than that essentially bursts the bubble and cancels warp travel so it would impact like normal. There are many alternative mechanisms but this is the one I'll plan to be using. Otherwise Warp Drives might be indeed effective to punch the target with its own density so I suppose in that sense they could be good FTLKKVs. But nah, I'd rather make it so that the mechanics themselves would prevent such abuse.
Well, there could be passive FTL sensors using some tachyonic mechanics. For example I wish to have tachyonic cameras. I nearly always use them in space NRPs. Basically it makes images by gathering tachyonic rays. It's an explanation behind the common sci-fi trope where ships can watch camera images in real time in spite of the target is light-seconds away or so. I think such device is another necessity for interstellar NRPs because otherwise you'd technically need to account for light-lag from even mundaneish distances (thousands of kilometers).
Official Name: Das Grösses Mortereich aller Todestern (Gothic Standard), Imperium Magni Morte (High Gothic) Common Name: Morte Empire, the Morte Imperium (for those pretending to be smart) Government: Elected Centralized Totalitarian Monarchy Insignia: A decorated large red "I" symbol with a skull motif in the center. I equates for Imperium meaning the empire in the archaic/ceremonious High Gothic. Political Description: TBA
Home System
System Name: Todestern (also the name of their star) Todestern is a death world located within the Stormlosweg sector. It used to be a plentiful system with a luminous yellow dwarf star. Then the terrible Kilonova Disaster happened. A relativistic neutron star fragment hit their own star, drastically altering it during the process. It changed and shifted adopting a sickly greenish hue while emitting highly dangerous radiation. During this time it also gained a new name, Todestern (literally meaning Death Star). Absorbing the energy of the neutron star fragment Todestern is an unique astronomical body with many strange and highly dangerous properties. Aside from its constant radiation hazard Toderstern is the most notable for its solar winds filled with antimatter.
Inhabited Planet(s): Mortis and Lux are the only habitable planets and just barely (see descriptions)
Homeworld: Mortis Mortis is the 3rd planet of the Todestern system. Before the Kilonova Disaster it was used to be Lieberland, a lush green planet. That was until VR220 (Vor dem Reich 220 - 220 years before the Empire) when a neutron star fragment impacted with their star Leichtstern and changed the fate of the system forever. The gravity of the star suddenly increased, shifting the planet's orbit thus promoting it to the third planet while the star underwent its slow and ugly transformation into Todestern. The planet was now known as Mortis, an irradiated death world with only minimal habitability. Yet the dwellers of this world prevailed and through the use of their technology this planet is the home of most Morteans.
Major System Assets: Todestern Ring Not quite a ring but a system of solar panels and mining bases surrounding their star thus providing much of the Empire's energy need both directly via solar power and indirectly via collecting antimatter from the solar winds. Permanent colonies are established in the Ring for the workforce, infamous for their poor living conditions. Aside from energy production some of the larger solar panels were also re-purposed to power orbital construction sites.
Lux Former homeworld of the Luxans. While situated further from the sun Todestern the fact Luxans made no preventive measures doomed the planet to the same state as Mortis. For centuries after the Kilonova Disaster this planet provided home for the crazed Luxan race. After the third Luxan War the planet turned to Morte custody but the Luxans never lived it down and in a few centuries they became extinct to the Morte's purging. Lux's position further away from Todestern made it safer for agriculture though radiation protection is still necessarily.
Brennenweg One of the two gas giants of the Todestern system and the primary location of the Morte space industry. The planet has a ring system and multiple moons as well as located in the vicinity of the asteroid belt between Lux and Brennenweg. Thanks to its rings Brennenweg can collect decent amount of antimatter which is then utilized for starting up atomic reactors for local use. Brennenweg is responsible for mining raw minerals and the main producer of advanced superdense materials essential for spaceships. Of course it's also the main location of the Morte warship production.
Silberdort A cluster of multiple large colonies established almost at the edge of the system, located at a spot safe from radiation. The original plan was to establish extra habitation for the Empire's growing population. But they soon realized the luxury in free air, decent greenery and the overall leisure of life made possible in Silberdort. Soon the colonies transformed to a place exclusive for the upper class while the rest of the Empire still struggles with overpopulation.
Outer Rim: Todestern like most star systems is surrounded by an asteroid belt. While not as prominent as Brennenweg these asteroids are also mined for minerals. In addition the Outer Rim is important for defense with warning buoys and paroling starships ensuring nobody penetrates the borders.
Racial Information
Species: Mortean Population: ~ 2 billion (overpopulated!) Morphology: Morteans are humanoid creatures with blueish skin, glowing eyes, sharp teeth and slightly pointed ears. They are at average shorter in stature (around 150 cm) due to malnutrition but at times they can grow above 2m in height. Due to the effects of radiation they have an alarmingly high percentage of mutations which is sometimes very visible. Unlike humans the Mortean blood is colored cyan.
Anatomy: Morteans have human-like body makeup but there are considerable differences in their chemical system. Mortean bones are made of various bio-steels, enhancing their durability and tolerance to radiation. Though its not so amazing side effect is that Morteans can get stuck to sufficiently strong magnets. Their sharp teeth are capable of chewing through many things and it isn't impossible for a Morteans to eat raw metals (though not the most nutritious choice for sure). Mortean stomachs are versatile and work by different reactions and this generally applies to their entire system. Toxins that could be lethal to humans may be even considered nutrients. In reverse the Morteans have a number of harmful and deadly toxins specific to their physiology. Biologically the Morteans can live for 200 years but in effect the mutations and awful living conditions reduce the average life expectancy to 40 years. Due to their relatively well-adopted physiology to their environment there's a popular theory that the Morteans were actually engineered this way. Though due to the lack of documentation from the Dark Ages and beyond it's currently impossible to determine.
Brief History
TBA
Cultural Information
TBA
Technological Information
Power generation: - Solar Power: Considerable portion of civilians use solar power mostly gathered from panels surrounding Todestern. This is stored in plasma cell batteries which then be centrally distributed to the population.
- Plasma Engines: Morte's equivalent of internal combustion engines. They use superheated plasma and electromagnetic fields to drive motors or provide power. They are common as emergency generators where nuclear power is not affordable as well as operating vehicles outside the power grid. Many surface military vehicles also use plasma engines.
- Atomic Reactors: Powerplants using various nuclear reactions to provide energy. They are usually catalyzed by the pair annihilation of small amounts of antimatter thus they can effectively use almost anything as fuel.
- Antimatter Reactors: Compact mechanisms using controlled pair annihilation to provide massive power. Antimatter reactors have the best power yield but providing them with sufficient antimatter for long term operation is nigh-impossible. As such they are only used for the most energy-intensive applications within the Empire.
Engineering/Fabrication: Having both time and abundant energy sources the Morte made great progress at the research of nanotechnology and metamaterials. They can alter atoms for special functions, create matter from more exotic particles (other than just electrons, protons and neutron), force matter into different grid structures or even compress either atoms or grids into a denser yet stable state. The simpler processes are long part of the industry while the most exotic means either rare or only studied in research labs. While this sounds impressive compared to modern material science the Morte are still far from being the masters of the field and depend on the same raw resources as everyone else.
While metamaterials opened up new possibilities industry was truly revolutionized by using nanotechnology. Nano-scale construction improved material quality and combined with the manipulation of electromagnetic waves introduced a whole new industrial method: Nanolathe. By spraying nano-scale particles on an electrical field it's possible to establish a "pattern" after which the constituent materials can be applied on the surface from layer to layer. The whole process can be described as a new and improved form of 3D printing which allows precise and relatively swift fabrication. More importantly nanolathes are versatile and aside from procuring the raw materials a factory line can quickly switch between products. One of the main drawbacks of nanolathes are their energy need which is why they are always located close to an abundant power source. Decent quality fabrication also requires a large area suspended in zero gravity and expensive equipment (though the versatility of nanolathes does compensate a lot).
Starship propulsion STL Propulsion - Magnetoplasmadynamic Drives A family of thrusters utilizing both heat and electromagnetic forces to turn inert propellant into plasma and expel it at great velocity. It's a variable and versatile system which can combine both high thrust and specific impulse. Also referred as Plasma Drives they practically can use almost anything as propellant. For longer treks it's preferable to burn less propellant while raising the exhaust velocity to maximum. For combat maneuvers it's advised to use more and denser propellant to attain higher thrust. The larger and more complex a plasma drive is the higher efficiency it could reach. A sizable portion of the Morte ships are nothing but their propulsion systems alone.
Intrasystem FTL - Foldspace Drive By manipulating and folding spacetime it's possible to cheat special relativity and effectively move the ship at superluminal speeds. Fold Drives are economical and dependable, capable of continuous operation so long the ship doesn't use power on much else. Compared to other races' intrasystem drives Warp is slower and requires the ship to navigate in normal space. The gravitational forces of the Foldwave Bubble(also called warp field) protects the ship from micrometeroid impacts but larger objects may burst the bubble and the fold/warp effect is suddenly gone, returning the ship to its real speed.
Interstellar FTL - Hyperdrive Technology partially built after decoded texts of the ancients. Hyperdrives punch holes in reality to access subspace. They allow quicker and effective travel to interstellar distances but consume massive amounts of energy. That and Hyperdrives are recent inventions which tend to have their own kinks and malfunctions. Considering this and that majority of the Morte fleet is reserved for home defense only a limited amount of warships are currently equipped by Hyperdrives.
Armor: Durachrome is the most popular family of armor materials within the Empire. It's classically created by fusing metal atoms until they reach an "island of stability" as well as compress the grid structure to the densest stable form. The end result is a metallic matter with great strength and density best identified for its brilliant reflection (hence its name). To ease production Durachrome is typically created within the intense pressure and massive gravity of the gas giant Brennenweg which thus became the industrial heart of the Morte Empire. Of course material strength is only one facet how Morte protect their ships as they employ composites, complex structures and patterns designed to better resist attacks. Morte use their armors as the chief form of defense and it often makes up 30-50% the mass of warships.
Shielding: Panzerbereich A shielding which uses electromagnetic fields to suspend and rapidly circulate fine metallic nanoparticles for protection. This sphere of particles is generally raised at a standoff distance, roughly around 10 times the ship's length in radius. Panzerbereich are chiefly used as radiation protection as well as converter to channel the trapped surplus energies back to the ship's reserves. During space combat its main purpose is to serve as light standoff protection. It can disperse energy weapons, break fragile kinetic penetrators or pre-detonate thinly skinned missiles. Of course the Empire's ships can't shoot through the shields without the same disadvantages either thus they momentarily open holes in the field to send out signals, attacks or launch fighters. The rate of making these holes and closing them is exponentially longer with size. Thus opening tiny holes for comm signals or radar scans may take an instant, holes for weapons to fire through can take few moments but to open a hole for the fighter bay and then closing it might take a considerable time which makes them the most vulnerable.
Sensors: - Standard sensors: A category used to describe typical slower than light sensing and detection equipment like radars, telescopes and so on.
- Hypersensors: A category of superluminal forms of sensing and detection. They are typically active detection like foldspace radars but there are tachyon imagery methods which passively gathers background tachyonic shadows of objects. Tachyonic sensors are crude and require digital enhancement by combining it with other sensory data to be more reliable.
Communications: Foldwave radio is a superluminal communication method replacing nearly all standard methods. They are fast, precise and more resistant to interference. Quantum Link is an older superluminal mechanism which was used to disprove past skepticism about faster than light travel. It uses quantum entanglement to resonate between two attuned devices thus effectively achieve instant communication regardless of the distance. While it has considerable potential they can be only used between two matching pairs of communicators specifically created that way.
Computation: Quantum computing is widely utilized in Morte systems. Unlike semiconductor type deterministic computers a quantum computer works by probability and uses various quantum mechanisms. Quantum computers store data in qubits and these systems are inherently not compatible with normal computers. Quantum computers don't inherently offer greater computation speed but their mechanics allow mathematical formulas which speed up probability calculations massively. You could say that quantum computers are made for quantum mechanics, a field of science important to understand particles and nanotechnology. Military-grade quantum computers operate at extreme temperatures and use warp fields to minimize quantum decoherence. This allows them to operate at much higher performance in return for considerable power drain. In addition when a military grade quantum power loses power or has a warp field malfunction it instantly turns toast. To prevent the worst case scenario starships also have backup systems storing most data in case of emergencies.
Weapons: - Plasma Railguns: Railgun systems that use plasma armature to electromagnetically launch matter at hypervelocity. Plasma armatures don't degrade from the strain and recycle the waste heat back into the power reserves. Plasma Railguns can either shoot solid projectiles or small packets of matter at far greater velocities (thus behaving like energy weapons).
- PPE: Pressed Particle Emitter. Not quite an unique weapon but a mechanism. It accelerates tiny amounts of flash-compressed matter in an extremely thin stream of great density. Since the particle mix is unstable it violently explodes but before that it will likely penetrate the hull. The effectiveness of the PPE degrades with range thus they are most commonly used at shorter distances.
- Missiles, Torpedoes: Best interpreted as AI/telemetry guided tiny spacecraft these weapons are used for long range warhead delivery. Depending on their design and loadout they can fill out many roles. Missiles are usually described as the smaller type used for long range interception or light ordnance unleashed en-masse. Torpedoes are much larger and generally fielded against enemy warships. Torpedo launchers are classically found at the front since they tend to be shot via electromagnetic catapults to give them a speed boost.
None yet. The Morte system only contained a chache of ancient records which they used to decode some of the language (thus they speak the common tongue... or at least their archeologists do).
My faction profile. Still work in progress. I think I will also change up a few things later but I don't have the time right now. I feel some of the categories miss a few essential elements so I think I will use a modded version of the NS scheme to account for those.
We'll be havin' a power supply of unique capabilities, with reverse-engineered miniatures (with far less power produced than the original). The original is static and stuck on their homeworld.
OK, so I decided to cap technology level at antimatter after all. I'll give you the anti-star since you ditched the relic option despite me wondering just how catastrophic would solar wind be on contact with the atmosphere of the planet.
The tech... there are so many little hitches that by the time they're all ironed out it's going to look nothing like the original. I want everything above antimatter to be the occasional irregularity, in a sense that you got it to work, you are not exactly sure how and if your theories are even correct and you are drawing blanks on how to make them better. I'll give you using gravity fields to generate thrust, inertial dampening and gravity for crew; shielding and weapons not that much. I am not banning more advanced tech, but I want to have technological progress on that level to happen IC, whether with relic assistance if you're lucky or on your own.
From what I read on the sites you linked, it seems like the biology, mentality, gov, history, ... of the empire will be fine once the fact that they didn't meet any aliens yet is taken into account.
If you feel like those are too drastic changes I ask of you, then I'd bid you to reconsider using this nation for this RP. I am adamant at everyone starting at more or less the same conditions - if you want to conquer others with superior technology then you're going to have to invent it, all you can do now is lay the ground work for the rapid progress which I think your people have in check.
OK, so I decided to cap technology level at antimatter after all. I'll give you the anti-star since you ditched the relic option despite me wondering just how catastrophic would solar wind be on contact with the atmosphere of the planet.
The tech... there are so many little hitches that by the time they're all ironed out it's going to look nothing like the original. I want everything above antimatter to be the occasional irregularity, in a sense that you got it to work, you are not exactly sure how and if your theories are even correct and you are drawing blanks on how to make them better. I'll give you using gravity fields to generate thrust, inertial dampening and gravity for crew; shielding and weapons not that much. I am not banning more advanced tech, but I want to have technological progress on that level to happen IC, whether with relic assistance if you're lucky or on your own.
From what I read on the sites you linked, it seems like the biology, mentality, gov, history, ... of the empire will be fine once the fact that they didn't meet any aliens yet is taken into account.
If you feel like those are too drastic changes I ask of you, then I'd bid you to reconsider using this nation for this RP. I am adamant at everyone starting at more or less the same conditions - if you want to conquer others with superior technology then you're going to have to invent it, all you can do now is lay the ground work for the rapid progress which I think your people have in check.
Solar winds hit our planet semi-regularly and the reason why we are alive is Earth's magnetosphere. The same method would work regardless if the winds are made of matter or antimatter. Though interactions between the antimatter winds and the magnetosphere are part of the reason why radiation levels are so high. I don't really think having this weird star is an advantage beyond having an antimatter mine, especially while the rest of my civ suffers greatly.
As for gravity weapons and shields, it makes absolutely no sense to disallow them. They are all related. Unless you mean grav lances which I am okay banning as well as certain exotic methods. Really, I knew they are OP and plan to tone things down but first I wanted to create the new tech base which used the Morte tech and then mixed with my other NRP civs.
As for alien contact, can you reconsider it? I mean we can have factions with multiple races. I plan to have 2-3 alien races harassing them in the past. One of them were the Luxans from the neighboring Planet Lux and then I at least plan to have conflicts with nomadic space pirates and similar visitors who were gradually pushed out of the system. Morteans are no conquerors, though. They might be xenophobic but they are very willing to negotiate. Especially since their situation is desperate what with living a century without wars and the population boom threatening to leave them with no habitable area left.
I will direct you back to the OP, and ask you to read it very thoroughly. And then decide whether this is actually the RP you are looking for and whether this is the nation to play in it with. It has been created with certain parameters in mind, and if you don't like them, move along. I would expect that when somebody signs up it's because they like what they see, not because they want to hijack it and hammer it to their idea of how it should be.
I am not going to change something as fundamental as the single system rule, not when others are already working on nation sheets with that restriction in mind. It wouldn't even fit the lore with every space worthy race being wiped out some time ago, and I sure as hell am not rewriting the story because of just one person.
We might be misunderstanding one another on the alien contact matter:
And yes, that is a problem unless those species are within the same star system. I want everyone to start off on relatively equal footing, realism has to make way for gameplay in that regard. You could go that way, or have two sapient species evolve on one planet to fight like the Centauri from B5.
The Luxans would fall into the first part, wouldn't they? I have no problem with there being two or more races in your system, whether one wiped the other out or if they formed one nation. If they are still separate, hell, make two nation sheets, although since they would be that divided, their total would still have to be relatively equal to any of the other nations.
The space pirates, I say nay. I don't want NPC factions, at least not yet.
Regarding gravity control: Where do you grow from there? I can't recall too many bases for technology with more potential than that that aren't completely magitech, and I've seen my share of science fiction. I promised everyone to start on equal footing, and being able to influence gravity at long ranges is not OP, that's OP as hell. I makes nukes a pea shooter.
The initial setting of this RP is closer to beefed up Battlestar Galactica, not nerfed star trek. As I said before, if you want to dominate technologically, you're gonna have to work for it IC. I consider this point closed.
1.) As you are aware I did read the OP and don't wish to start with any unfair advantages. On the other hand I am a thinker and like to use technology in a savvy way which is plausible yet not your standard faire.
2.) I don't wish to change the single system rule. Rather the opposite. I know the Luxons are fine but I need more past adversaries to make my backstory work. The prates/raiders would have been a civilization whose homeworld got destroyed in the Kilonova Disaster. They would be reoccouring opponents in the past until the Morte pushed them out of the system. After that their fate could remain uncertain. If you don't wish to deal with them, just pretend they went away somewhere and never be heard of again. Writing a story has many conveniences.
3.) Where would it improve from here? Only the sky is the limit. There are so many applications for sci-fi technology fields that we can list it all day. I agree that gravity manipulation is versatile but that's what you get with broad definitions. Regardless that's what you get when FTL is involved since spatial manipulation goes in hand with gravity. That and without some artificial gravity tech things could get really strange. Anyways, as I said my only objection is with artifical gravity not allowing gravity based accelerators like my Grailguns. I don't mind the grav lances since they are indeed OP for now (it's also a show what you can do with improved gravity tech). Also gravity-based shields are quite a bit more basic than the typical sci-fi energy shields. These are the reasons why I am surprised you don't wish to allow them. That's almost like banning guns while nuclear ICBMs are allowed.
4.) I do recognize your authority in this game and that's why I wish to discuss things. If you feel this is an attack then there's something wrong in our communication. On the other hand GMs using their position of power instead talking things out is a good way of chasing me away. In that case you'd be right I signed up for the wrong game.
5.) I repeat, I don't wish to make my nation too powerful, either. A few tech which I noted are overboard already and I work on to balance them out. On the other hand I don't agree with your assessment on certain advancements which is why I am trying to continue the disxussion. Battlestar Galactica, huh? They are pretty hard to rank in tech but generally they are considered on par with Mass Effect sans the numbers. Personally the thing I had in mind is Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
Common name: The Clann Government: Religious matriarchy
Home system: Dachai'de lu'dalta Home of the Gods
Inhabited planet(s):
Patach'cuan Childs Ocean
Patach'cuan is a lush ocean world with no landmass to speak off, the oceans themselves according to the great library of the gods being some of the deepest within this part of the Galaxy. The capital city of the Clann is simply named the Capital and resides within a great cavern at the greatest depth that the Clann can possibly go to. it is where most of their people live their lives, with the exception of those who require to work outside the city. Either in the eye orbiting the planet or at the great resourcing operation.
Civilian assets:
The Eye
The Eye is the only habitable orbital installation the Clann owns and is named only in the dialect of the Gods. It consists of a giant sphere in orbit, placed there by the great Gift. It holds a fleet of defense drones, let alone the navy that patrols the sector. It also boasts the most advanced sensors that the Clann have to offer, turning it towards the outer reaches of their own system and hoping to capture a glimpse of what the Gods promised lies outside their own system.
Lu’bealach - [i]The Gateway[i]
The gateway is an uninhabited ring placed in orbit above an uninhabited area of ocean, the ring itself has powerful tractor beams all around it, on the topside and bottom side. It is used to pull asteroids out of the nearby asteroid belt into it, before casting them into the ocean below. Once in the ocean they are then transported to a refinery. Typically the Gateway never stops pulling asteroids from the belt when a project is underway, except during the summer where the planet skims the edge of the asteroid belt. As the summer is the time where the great Gift fell from the heavens it is considered blasphemous to pull anything from orbit during this time, as it is the time where the Gods give them their gifts.
Any asteroids that fall during that time are considered special, and only used in the best or most important construction projects.
Races
Species: The Clann (Just what they call themselves, it is who they are. Before that they had no name). Population and growth: Number and percentage per year Morphology:
They have long and powerful arms and legs. They have long fingers and toes that are webbed, their legs and feet are perfectly shaped that if held tightly together form an almost perfect tail for gaining as much speed as possible. They also have a retractable fin in the middle of their spine.
Anatomy: They're carbon based life forms that evolved from one of the many aquatic creatures on their homeworld. Like many aquatic creatures they gain oxygen through gills on their necks. Their stomachs are also incredibly robust able to gain nutrients from a variety of different foodstuffs, from plants to other living creatures. Though naturally cannibalism is heavily frowned upon. Their mouth actually consists of the forward part opening downwards then the right and left parts of their face opening into a large maw, strong acids in their mouths break down the food as they do not have any teeth, so in fact the actual process of passing food through their system is relatively fast as when food arrives in the stomach it is already within a liquid state and only requires the nutrients to be absorbed into the bloodstream, and then the waste to be excreted.
Their bones themselves are extremely strong to survive the deep pressures that the Clann call their home but unlike mammals where the bone is important for the likes of stability (i.e. legs are weightbearing) bones for the Clann are largely to keep muscles in the right shape and location. This does however provide problems in the fact that if they were to ever venture on land they would need a suit not only to help them breathe but to help them support themselves as while their muscles are strong enough to walk on their bones are not.
On a side note, due to the design of their mouths they find it very hard to speak the language of the Gods, and thus when doing so will speak extremely slowly as not to offend them.
History
The Clann are a simple people, always have been. They are in fact a very old race, having stories of a time before the Gift where those near the surface would see moving lights in the sky. The lights could never be explained however the Clann now believes that they were the vessels of the Sinn’ser. The Gods themselves, flying around in their benevolent chariots helping shape the Galaxy. Eventually came the time of reckoning, that would seal their fate forever.
When political movements were changing, and moving away from the tradition of the strongest female being in charge of their people the Gift fell from the heavens themselves, tearing through the cavern that they called home and into the exact centre of the city pointing back towards the heavens. The Gift came with a strange building attached, that was later discovered to be the Great Library. It told the exploits of the Sinn’ser, and how they traversed the Galaxy learning its secrets. Ever since then they have done their best to appease the Sinn’ser, so that they can come back and tell them the mystery of their existence and that all those lost on the path are welcomed into their arms in the afterlife. Overtime they would begin to advance technologically, though they still remained rather simple. Their society did not change everyone still worked for the benefit of the Clann by way of doing what the Queen requested of them.
Eventually they learned how to use the Gift to pull asteroids from the heavens themselves, classing it as a sign that they were ready from that moment onwards all metal and ore has come from space and they have not mined into their homeworld. Fearing that if they were to damage it too much the Sinn’ser would become displeased with them and never return. So things continued, the next step was trying to get to the stars themselves. A task that proved… difficult for them. Many of the methods that the Great Library described for flight included fire a task foreign to the underwater people, however when they managed to replicate the Gift… at least on a lesser extent.
They began attaching it to the ships they had designed to work underwater it became an easy way to maneuver underwater until one day an ambitions member of the Clann turned it towards the moon of their homeworld. The ship was small enough that it did infact pull the vessel out of the water and towards the moon, however the ship being small and the powersource not used to such stress the power system failed and it fell back to the ocean below…
Since then the Clann have just become more and more ambitions. In recent years with the help of the Gift they pushed The Eye into orbit to watch their people and try to find any hint of the Sinn’ser in their system or any nearby system.
Culture
Technology
Base elements: Carbon, Plutonium, Iron
Power generation: Wave (Hydro-electric) and Geothermal power centres are used on world in order to power facilities and the civilization itself. Through extensive research they are utilizing fission reactors on their space and marine craft.
Starship propulsion
Each ship has at least four tractor beams placed on it one forward, aft, port and starboard. These are used to grab onto nearby objects and push/pull to get the desired movement effect. These beams themselves can be angled to lock onto objects off centre, and while the beam can be set to push/pull they also are capable of creating a rotating tractor beam allowing the ships to spin when moving to produce the small amount of artificial gravity needed.
They are currently experimenting with FTL, but due to the fact that FTL is outside of real space they’re struggling with the concept.
Military technology
Armor: Rolled Homogenous steel.
Shielding: No shields, but with ballistic weapons if the ship can get a lock on it a tractor beam can stop incoming projectiles and even return them to the enemy.
Sensors: Basic radar, sensor bouys are placed throughout the system.
Communications: Mainly radio, however between ships and the planet or the Eye and the sensor bouys while the Clanns ships are still incapable of entering FTL they have found a way to make FTL transmitters.
Computation: How do your computers work, if you use any..
Weapons: Kinetic, largely plasma based.
Military
Ground forces: Just a number. Will only come into play when capturing planets - the real battle is won or lost on the orbit. spaceships: What classes of ships do you field, if you use any. Organization: How is your military organized
Relics
What kind of ancient artifacts and technologies do you have at your disposal? Note: Everyone starts with the library, which allows you to translate the ancient language and identify systems of interest that could house more relics.
Finally checking in from the interest check. I was thinking about using the Alcibierre Drive, a current FTL theory, for my race, and for the relic to be Expanded Library, as in, their library has more than the average, including science, tech and cultural documentations. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive
@Willy Vereb 1), 3) and 4) Then use the allowed tech in the savvy way. What's the difference between a gauss cannon and the grav gun anyway? They're both propellant-less kinetic weapons, only the earlier one is most likely more power efficient and cheaper to make in the first place. You can do pretty much what you want to do with what I allow. What you want is 'shiny' things that have the potential to go awfully wrong.
If it doesn't make sense to use gravity manipulation for something and not for something else, than the correct thing to do in this setting is to disallow all of it, not the other way around.
I am willing to talk it through, that's what we've been doing. You just don't comprehend that I'm not required to see things your way. Thus far I'm not convinced, and we can't talk about it forever either. If you don't like how I set this up, then I'm sorry, this really is not the setting you've been looking for.
2.) OK one or both of us is still out of the loop on this one. Could you describe the Kilonova in more detail then? From what I gather form your sheet, it only affected your system, which means that if the pirates' planet was destroyed by it they still fit the same definition as the Luxans, and 'driven out of the system' can mean they just were pushed out into the local version of the Kuiper belt? The odds of 3 sapient species evolving in one system are small but hey.
@greywolf375 How much of the science and tech are you talking about? It's kind of a sore point right now >_< If you have a repository of all of their knowledge it kind of defeats the purpose of searching for the relics in the first place. I can certainly give you history, although knowing it will probably drastically influence how your race sees the universe. What I MAY be able to do for you is to give you a partial list of what systems hide what relics, so you could go purposely for those that would be most useful for you.
@greywolf375 How much of the science and tech are you talking about? It's kind of a sore point right now >_< If you have a repository of all of their knowledge it kind of defeats the purpose of searching for the relics in the first place. I can certainly give you history, although knowing it will probably drastically influence how your race sees the universe. What I MAY be able to do for you is to give you a partial list of what systems hide what relics, so you could go purposely for those that would be most useful for you.
Yeah, some culture and tech history, like, this thing is what got them to FTL point, and then the partial list of what artifacts in what systems. that'd fit swell with the stuf i have in mind for my race
to Clarify: 1) Human early warp drive theory(What my race would currently use, would not exceed the tech limitss specified) 2) human ancient (at that point) cultural history, preserved as antiques 3) partial list of what relic is in what system
@Willy Vereb 1), 3) and 4) Then use the allowed tech in the savvy way. What's the difference between a gauss cannon and the grav gun anyway? They're both propellant-less kinetic weapons, only the earlier one is most likely more power efficient and cheaper to make in the first place. You can do pretty much what you want to do with what I allow. What you want is 'shiny' things that have the potential to go awfully wrong.
If it doesn't make sense to use gravity manipulation for something and not for something else, than the correct thing to do in this setting is to disallow all of it, not the other way around.
I am willing to talk it through, that's what we've been doing. You just don't comprehend that I'm not required to see things your way. Thus far I'm not convinced, and we can't talk about it forever either. If you don't like how I set this up, then I'm sorry, this really is not the setting you've been looking for.
2.) OK one or both of us is still out of the loop on this one. Could you describe the Kilonova in more detail then? From what I gather form your sheet, it only affected your system, which means that if the pirates' planet was destroyed by it they still fit the same definition as the Luxans, and 'driven out of the system' can mean they just were pushed out into the local version of the Kuiper belt? The odds of 3 sapient species evolving in one system are small but hey.
Kilonova is when two neutron stars collide. This is a massively energetic event with energy thousands of times that of a supernova (hence it's name). Basically couple or even hundreds of years ago a kilonova happened and one of the fragments eventually reached the Morte sun. Obviously it effected others in the vicinity and that's why in previous NRPs the stormlosweg sector was filled with deathworlds. The effects of the kilonova varied per system but all of them were catastrophical. Life on these systems either went extinct, left the planet or like Morte learned to mitigate the effects a bit and live in this unfriendly world. We can tone down the effects of the Kilonova enough that it has certainly no effect on any of your locations. Or you can work with the concept into your plot. It's up to you. Writing freedom leaves you with infinite options.
As for gravitic accelerators, nah. I don't want shiny tech as much as with artificial gravity they make the most sense to develop. My grailguns and gravity shields come from that fact alone. Like you said they can be treated just the same. I find it an inconsistency to not use them which is why I do. I did away with my "shiny" part of the tech already and in process of rewriting the NS with that. Again, neither technologically nor in sense of power balance these violate the game.Railgun or grailgun it roughly has the same power and capabilities. Though I admit I planned to use gravity fields to protect my crew from the neutron radiation of fusion reactors.
EDIT: My original response was a bit different but it seems we actually both on the same tune. Alright, I can technically scale down everything at least a notch since I developed them from existing electromagnetic mechanisms. Just let me keep the artifical gravity and the capability to erect forcefields to block the reactor's harmful neutron radiation and I am satisfied. I will just make the artificial gravity tech expensive otherwise. It could also give a reason to make my ships relatively "small" in comparison.
GM, how plausible/reasonable would these relic concepts be?
1) A thermal borehole complex tapping the core of a barren world. While the facility itself is inoperable due to ancient active safety measures, concepts and technology derived from it enable lesser yet effective imitation thermal tap facilities for greater resource and clean energy production. 2) A ancient titan-size starship found floating in the asteroid belt. The ship is ruined beyond restoration or understanding of it's origins, but technology derived from it in the fields of gravity control, structural integrity, and self-repairing materials enable widespread mega-scale engineering and building very big. 3) A ancient sensor hub connected to a hidden network of nodes across the sector. Actually processing the flood of information coming in is a problem however, and dependent on finding and restoring the sensor relays to extend the sensor's reach.
Also, what is a good ballpark measure for starting spacefleet forces? I like to err on the side of caution when it comes to initial fleet sizes.
GM, how plausible/reasonable would these relic concepts be?
1) A thermal borehole complex tapping the core of a barren world. While the facility itself is inoperable due to ancient active safety measures, concepts and technology derived from it enable lesser yet effective imitation thermal tap facilities for greater resource and clean energy production. 2) A ancient titan-size starship found floating in the asteroid belt. The ship is ruined beyond restoration or understanding of it's origins, but technology derived from it in the fields of gravity control, structural integrity, and self-repairing materials enable widespread mega-scale engineering and building very big. 3) A ancient sensor hub connected to a hidden network of nodes across the sector. Actually processing the flood of information coming in is a problem however, and dependent on finding and restoring the sensor relays to extend the sensor's reach.
Also, what is a good ballpark measure for starting spacefleet forces? I like to err on the side of caution when it comes to initial fleet sizes.
You can only have one relic at the start (or none at all, if that's your style). Though I suppose you are asking about these to keep your options open.
As for fleet sizes I think the first entry in the character sheets section also have fleet number. And that nation belongs to the Gm. Though population-wise they are rather small so perhaps larger nations can have more ships? Not sure. Personally I plan to have 250 warships. They are numerous but relatively small in size. Think more along the lines of naval vessels instead of 2km long behemoths.
<Snipped quote by Skylar>You can only have one relic at the start (or none at all, if that's your style). Though I suppose you are asking about these to keep your options open.
As for fleet sizes I think the first entry in the character sheets section also have fleet number. And that nation belongs to the Gm. Though population-wise they are rather small so perhaps larger nations can have more ships? Not sure. Personally I plan to have 250 warships. They are numerous but relatively small in size. Think more along the lines of naval vessels instead of 2km long behemoths.
Yeah, I'm just voicing concepts I'm tinkering with. Just want to make sure I'm thinking on the right scale of the game before making a final choice.
I was imagining a 300-some fleet, but most of the warships are kept in drydock due to operating expenses while the exploration cruisers get most of the funding and supply tender support. That will change in a definite war situation, but my empire is wary of the potential costs of protracted interstellar war to seek peace first, even if they are imperialistic.
@Skylar I think you should draw form your history. If you had a lot of military conflict in your development, you will likely take care to create sizable military before you venture out there, especially since the library itself is a proof that other life may be out there. My folks are hardly a good example - they are few, yes, but on the other hand they would have accounted for the need to scout out many systems fast to locate a new planet for them, so depending on how you look at it their fleet number might be either low OR high.
The other thing is the relic - if you have access to advanced military technology through it, you would be a fool not to use it. That is not to say that I will let you have everything the Humans ever knew of shipbuilding, that'd be too much.
I say make a bare-bones sheet, bullet points if you want to and pass it to me in a PM, or just send me some of your ideas, that's what a lot of the others did, and I'll tell you what I make of it.
As far as the relics go: 1) It's nice to be eco-frinedly but geothermal energy doesn't sound like something you'd particularly need a relic for to develop. Also, Ellri already called relic power supply. I'll make a list of what is already taken in post 2 I suppose. But long story short: Dream bigger! :D
2) Stick to one tech derived form one relic. Human self-repairing armor will pretty much act as armor and shield combined, I think that would be enough of a boost. Again, I don't think building big would need relic knowledge. Relic knowledge is needed for building powerfull. As for gravity control, as said above: Gravity on ships for the crew, and small, localized applications that at the time have little to no purely military use. But for example my guys still need rotating bits or magnetic boots, and they're one of the smarter ones in the galaxy.
3) Perfectly acceptable, maybe even in full working order, or at least some systems. It would only work on 'your half' of the galaxy, since FTL including communications doesn't currently work through the blue zone. If you want this one, then when I roll the dice on the starting systems and you'll know where you are, let's say I ask you to point to 1/3 of the systems on the map you would be able to get readings on immediately, and the rest as you repair it.
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