Since no one has taken up the idea publically, I would be willing to build an Artifical Intelligence faction that would (hopefully) fit into this interesting roleplay. Of course, that is if you are willing to accept me joining~
(On the side note, is Virtual Reality achieved by now? As currently in 2300, we have the capabilities of developing superhuman AIs at this rate which is a testament of how far our technology has developed. So can I assume the technology for VR has been around for quite a while now? )
VR is actually a fairly integral part of 24th century society. There's an odd sort of middle class that's been created in most places to keep a system still recognizable as capitalism going, and none of these middle class people have practical jobs (some act as administrators for office work performed by simple AIs, some are artists, etc). VR is, aside from being a huge phenomenon in this class that lets them feel like something is happening in their lives, necessary to keep the lower classes from revolting. If someone plays some VR MMO in their spare time, they won't be organizing against corporate or the government.
As for your question about an AI faction, while not at all impossible (one of my major characters is an AI), AIs in this society are considered subhuman and used as slaves of all types. This has been the case since essentially the initial creation of sapient AI. So that fact might mess up your plans, but if it doesn't or you can work around it then by all means go for it.
Someone better discover space whales or else
P.S Does terraforming tech exist yet?
Yes, but nothing's been terraformed since the lowest estimate for terraforming Mars is 1,000 years (the actual realistic estimate is 100,000). There's no magical genesis device or vaugely-explained nanobots yet, it's all throwing comets and bombing stuff with algae. Realistically, nothing is ever going to be terraformed in this RP. Unless I go mad or something.
In the year 2020, Interorbital Systems in collaboration with various Chinese, Russian, and American corporations established Armstrong City in Copernicus crater on the Moon. In the following years, the lunar surface exploded with countless different private companies claiming land to get at the abundant helium-3 on the body. Which, with the advent of efficient fusion technology, fetched a high price. The moon became like the eastern coast of America during the colonial era, with new spacecraft from Earth arriving periodically to bring new colonists and supplies. A permanent interorbital vessel was built to do never-ending laps around Earth and the Moon to provide cheap, bulk transport between Earth and her new colonies.
It wasn't long, of course, before humans started popping up on Mars. Just four years later, SpaceX founded the first permanent settlement on Mars. And then, as Mars grew, humanity decided to look out just a bit further. Mining ships were sent out to asteroids, and were soon replaced with mining towns. If the Moon was the east coast, then Mars and the asteroids were the wild west. Entire towns with hundreds of residents popped up in nights to tap the resources of the belt. By 2050, the Moon had sprawling metropolises populated with the many millions of people that simply couldn't fit on Earth anymore. Corporations moved production into space, where there was technically no actual law. Since no countries could claim land in space, the corporations did it instead.
The world became a radically different place. Areas one considered undeveloped jumped directly to a post-industrial society in a second scramble for Africa, this time with the corporations being the players rather than European empires. Corporate armies acting on behalf of various governments suppressed rebellions, ended civil wars, and turned entire countries into their puppets. With the riches of space they turned these once impoverished nations into economic powerhouses. Space elevators began to pop up in equatorial Africa, the Sahara became a massive field of solar panels, and villages that once didn't even have a well turned into cities. The population exploded, and even more colonists were provided for the corporations and their ambitions.
In 2107, we invented biological immortality. It only added fuel to the fire. As it became easier and easier to get the necessary genetic modifications, the human population just grew larger and larger. Nobody bothered to stop it. No one child laws were introduced, no attempts to curb the population boom. When there wasn't room, people just left Earth for the colonies. In 2150 or so, people started to leave the Moon. The total human population by then was somewhere around 350 billion. We didn't stop.
Now, the year is 2300. We passed a trillion a while back, and now humanity numbers in the hundreds of trillions. The moons of Jupiter have been colonized long ago, countless billions live in aerostat habitats floating in the atmosphere of Venus, and the older asteroid colonies are now hollowed-out, spinning worlds with their own internal atmosphere and weather. Many wars have been fought, and many colonies have earned their freedom.
Corporations operate interplanetary navies, now-independent nations have taken up countless different ideologies. In many asteroids, society is a free-for-all competition to generate the most profit. Across the solar system corporations hold total sway. Humanity is entering a stage in its existence wherein inequality is artificially ensured by law. Capitalism as we once knew it no longer holds total sway, in many places being replaced with a strange system of universal basic incomes for the "unemployed middle class" to keep them participating in a monetary economy while the poor underclasses live in slums at best and slave shacks at worst. Where pure capitalism still exists, there are a few ultrarich individuals surrounded by billions of barely surviving near-slaves stepping on each other's heads in an attempt to get to the top.
But all that might be about to change.
On the first of January of this year, something unprecedented happened. The bubble burst. With the resources to support ten quadrillion being mined in the asteroid belt, the entire human economy was based upon a false scarcity kept in place with the economic equivalent of the liberal application of duct tape. And that tape has given way. The stock market has crashed in an event that has become known simply by the date it occurred on: 1/1/2300 (usually shortened to 1/1/23). The new world has become old, replaced by an uncertain future where anything is possible.
Humanity's future is no longer the bright utopia proposed to the masses for centuries. And the masses will not be happy.
Basically, it's the 1st of January, 2300. Humanity numbers in the hundreds of trillions, but has not yet left the solar system. An economy kept alive by not-so-universal basic incomes and artificial scarcity has collapsed in a massive stock market crash on this day simply known by the date (in a similar vein as 9/11). Anarcho-capitalism, turbo-liberalism, and social democracy are all highly prevalent ideologies and coexist easily out of the necessity of a system-wide economy. Think of the world as the Great Depression on steroids with spaceships.
The working title for this whole thing was "The Techbros Were Right", so that gives you an idea of the sort of technological development we got. AIs are advanced enough to replace most office workers. As a result, what we would think of as the middle class is sustained through basic incomes granted by government and corporations (if they are so merciful as to do so). They are a sort of "leisure class" that spend their days playing with fully immersive VR, shopping, and whatever the hell else you city-folk do for fun. These are the Starbucks liberals and combover-bearing conservatives/libertarians of the world. Some may hear "communism" or "fascism" and think "not bad", but the most they will do is write a witty editorial on their blog.
Below them are the various different underclasses. In plenty of situations, these are comprised of people familiar to us. Homeless people who sleep in their car and shower in hotel rooms to look good for job interviews, people that live in the slums and eke out a living selling what have you, or industrial workers operating mining drones or drilling themselves in order to keep their sci-fi trailer home. It is the underclass that works, while the middle class is unemployed (and glad to be).
Finally, there is the upper class. These are truly wealthy individuals so powerful that they would make today's craziest conspiracy theorists pass them off as myths. These people have countries in the palm of their hand and antimatter weapons on standby. Trillionaires are things of the past, replaced with quadrillionaires as the richest individuals. A few were expected to become quintillionaires in the near future before 1/1/23. Obviously, there are a few exceptions to these societal rules, but for the vast majority of the solar system these are the three classes. Though non-trivial swaths of space simply have the "underclasses" and "upper class".
As for general technology, this is (relatively) hard sci-fi where technological advancement was either disappointingly slow or insanely fast depending on how you see things. Immortality exists, and most diseases have been eliminated through nanorobotics, but we aren't uploading our minds into interstellar starships and transcending the mortal plane or anything. Ships generally use "Burner Drives" (fusion-based nuclear engines that can get from Earth to Mars in a month at a good time and flat-out ignore launch windows). Nobody has yet left the solar system though, and the furthest permanent human settlements that aren't remote research outposts are around Uranus. For the most part, fusion power is the most prevalent while antimatter power exists much like nuclear power does now (a fairly rarely-used power generation technology with a terrible reputation). Handheld energy weapons exist, largely due to Rule of Cool, and include things from lasers to particle cannons. Plasma is often used for radiation and projectile shielding on vehicles and spacecraft, whereas ablative or energy-dispersive armor is used against lasers and other DEWs.
Room-temperature superconducters exist and are widespread, and quantum entanglement can transmit data instantaneously from one side of the solar system to the other. Quantum computing is commonplace among the middle and upper classes, and most everyone that isn't a laborer enjoys instantaneous quantum internet from home. The largest Standard Sci-Fi Technology missing (aside from FTL) is antigravity technology or gravity control in general. Space elevators and shuttles move people and cargo to and from planets, and spacecraft as well as stations spin or accelerate to create gravity.
-Y'all know by now not to use OOC knowledge IC, pull giant superweapons out of your ass, or curbstomp everyone before afternoon tea so I'll spare you from listing all of that separately.
-It's Dark, but Keep It Classy: As you've probably gathered, this is not a happy RP. Plenty of horrible things are going on behind the scenes, and since this is an NRP, we'll get to see behind the scenes a lot. You can imply or state the morally reprehensible things your CEO or whoever does in their spare time all you want. But please tell, don't show if its particularly horrific. You ought to know when it stops being dark and edgy and starts being worthy of calling the cops because you need to be in a psych ward.
-Drama in the IC, not OOC
-Submit eternally to me, the GM: Or, you know, just don't scream at me after I make a final decision in the OOC. That works too.
[b]Faction Name:[/b] Name of the faction (including any applicable initialisms).
[b]Faction Government:[/b] Form of government, so democratic neoliberal republic, anarcho-capitalist confederacy, corporation, fascist dictatorship, what have you.
[b]Territory/Claims:[/b] Brief overview of important locations and general description of what. Be reasonable here, you DON'T own the entire asteroid belt (that's a whole lot of stuff in real life, buddy), nor do you have total hegemony over a planet. Depending on how many people there are this might be tweaked for better balance later (or imbalance, if someone wants to play Space North Korea or something). If you have territory on Earth, show it on the map I've provided at the bottom.
[b]Culture:[/b] It's been a long time, and a lot of people from a lot of different places have given birth to a lot of descendants. Do you hold an old culture from Earth dear? Have you naturally developed one over the years? Did you purge the old and invent a new culture in some kind of space nationalist revolt? Give us an idea of how your people think, act, and even greet each other if you like.
[b]History:[/b] A summary of the faction’s history, pretty straightforward. Start around the colonial era depending on when it was involved (a lunar nation's history would begin with the founding of the first colony in its territory, while an Earth nation's would start from when it became involved in space colonization). Remember that most of early colonization (up until the deeper parts of the asteroid belt) was done by corporations here.
[b]Technology:[/b] An overview of the faction’s technological capabilities. Keep in mind the general scale I outlined. If there are any questions, PM me.
[b]Military:[/b] Just your military capabilities. You can include equipment descriptions if you want to, but don't try to sneak by a Wave Motion Gun or something.
Earth (Alternative Title: Global warming is a bitch):
Space vessels, due to the capability of humanity to construct them in space, are capable of having significantly more mass than anything launched from a planet. As such, extensive armoring of combat vessels eventually made long-range laser combat ineffective. While earlier landing any major hit with a laser weapon would cripple a spacecraft, ablative armor made it necessary to keep a laser beam on the target for an extended period of time that was simply not possible at the extreme ranges that combat takes place at. As such, projectile weapons have made a resurgence in long-range combat. Guided missiles, if they manage to get through a vessel's defenses, can cause devastating damage. At the same time, railgun shells equipped with simple solid rocket charges can easily do the same provided they can manage to hit the enemy.
As such, space combat usually boils down to two lines of warships at an extreme range launching missiles and railgun projectiles at each other in an attempt to whittle down their respective forces. A heavily prolonged extreme range engagement, however, is generally considered undesirable since it all comes down to whether or not the enemy can manage to hit you. As such, two opposing fleets will often close to "close" ranges (as in, ones where there isn't any noticable delay between the firing of a laser and the beam hitting the target). At these ranges, fleets generally engage in heavy laser combat where victory can be easily predicted using a scientific calculator. Any fleet that is significantly outnumbered will usually attempt to avoid a close-range brawl at all costs, whereas one with a numerical advantage would be wise to press ever closer to the enemy.
Active defenses are ubiquitous in defending against incoming projectiles, with laser CIWS and similar systems being used to intercept missiles and railgun shells alike in an effort to decrease casualties. In close range, however, it often comes down to the armor of an enemy vessel and the damage it has already sustained. At closer ranges, of course, it is significantly easier to track incoming projectiles from the moment they are fired and as such the focus is generally on lasers. Those projectiles are the main danger to any prediction of victory, as a lucky shot could very well change the course of a battle.
As-is, space combat is a fairly static and methodical science that quite honestly leaves much to be desired in terms of possible tactics. Random evasion patterns and closing versus not closing are some of the only available decisions that must be made, and are well-outlined in the books of any academy. An Admiral that doesn't do things by the book, in the present time, like isn't doing much of anything because there are few ways to ignore the book. It is up to the government and corporations of the solar system to shape the space combat of the future, as in order to do something outside of the current books one needs a ship capable of doing so. Tactics can and probably will change, but it is the players that have to do so.
A lot can change over the years, and if this RP becomes a long-runner (which would be a welcome change of pace from the usual "two week wonder" of most NRPs nowadays) then the economic crisis might well come to an end. Depending on how long this survives, we might even see some significant developments in technology, science, politics, etc. To ensure this RP survives as long as possible, it will NOT require novella posts. I expect multiple paragraphs, but if you're usually a casual player then you will probably manage to fit in here just fine. This isn't your usual modern NRP that demands ten thousand words per post. Just keep the plot going and give it some depth and you'll be all good.
If this thread stagnates and dies, then-interest willing-I will simply reboot it and start from wherever we left off plus a little bit of time (so new players can jump in using the established history to change things in the interim to fit their wishes). This was a common practice in the first few NRPs I participated in on this forum, and combined with the fact that we didn't demand a book for every post we managed to have some real long-runners. I want this RP to try to emulate that time, because when it comes to the NRP section I'm pretty much a baby boomer longing for the good old days.
<Snipped quote by Keyguyperson> I'll get to it when I'm done providing humanity with everything they need to survive and prosper, attain biological immortality, and can fuck around in my personal cometship that's chock-full of nanograted quartz discs storing a copy of the entire internet.
(Nice.)
<Snipped quote by Keyguyperson> >mfw Gommunists fail to provide evidence for their claims of reality being destructible
Satan can also drink a glass of my feces. Then again, if I'm actually Satan, I'll just pour that feces into the nearest methane fueled generator.
You still haven't provided sources for it being indestructible. The prophecy of Carl Marcks will come true yet!
<Snipped quote by Keyguyperson> 404: Reference Not Found
(Does this mean you're finally going to post the OOC to your interplanetary NRP?)
It's not like I expected a techbro to watch Blackmirror, especially not the specific episode about the commodification of rebellion.
(But yeah, tomorrow it's going up)
<Snipped quote by Keyguyperson> >mfw Gommunists don't realize that reality is indestructible
>He doesn't accept the eternal truth of the coming destruction of all things and thus the end of inequality as prophesized by Carl Marks, servant of Satan himself smh honestly
>mfw nobody realizes that time crystals are the key to collapsing the universal wavefunction and bringing about the end of 11-dimensional reality, thus ending literally all possible forms of inequality through the complete destruction of everything, thus fulfilling the original wishes of Marx as laid out in the Gommunist Manifesto.
I'll tie your ass onto a bicycle while shoving a tube up your anus, so you can generate electricity and methane for my self sufficient space colony.
So that one episode of Blackmirror, except somehow more dystopian?
(Also I'm stealing this one, except the space colony doesn't have money and the bicycles are run by the bourgeoisie)
>Deconstructs hilt >Stabs left thigh with tang >Calls me "barbaric"
wew look whose talking boyo what kind of uncouth and crude method is that? True gentlement-knight-warrior-ninja-rangers-champions stab in the left kidney with the cross guard which they expertly deconstruct in exactly 1.2526543687465657434π second because they study the way of the blade, swearing to live and die by the blade, while everyone else is busying "being social" or "having a life".
EXCUSE me?
Truly a fool's errand to do so. The only way for true gentlement-knight-warrior-ninja-rangers-champions to end an opponent isn't to use A FUCKING CROSSGUARD. No, one must remove the tsuba of a katana (which should generally not be the blade you have been using before it is time to finish an enemy, unless you're in a position of imminent peril), remove the hilt's wrapping to get at the rayskin, then you take the rayskin and tie it using the wrapping to the katana's tang (which you should have exposed earlier). One you're done with that, you chop part of the katana's tip off with your main blade (this should be simple for any true swordsman). Then you tie the rayskin to that piece, and finally hot weld the tsuba to it using sparks from your two blades (make sure it is a fairly flimsy weld, and note that you can use sparks from a blade against your teeth if you only have one). You then gram onto the now-tip of the katana and swing it in verticle circles using your right arm until the tsuba's weld breaks and it flies off towards your enemy, hitting them between the eyes and finishing them honorable.
This must be done in exactly 7.708091379e9 Planck Times (the smallest possible measurement of time, corresponding to the time it take slight to cross the smallest possible measurement of size), otherwise it is dishonorable and a barbaric action. This is because 7.708091379e9 is the absolute value of the period of the sine of 815,141,518, which is numerical code for the word "Honor".
EDIT: (/unmeme. I'd like to point out that 7.708091379e9 ACTUALLY IS the absolute value of the period of the sine of 815,141,518, which is also ACTUALLY numerical code for the word "Honor". Just in case you didn't do the math.)
<Snipped quote by Keyguyperson> I'm not laughing at their deaths, I'm empathizing with their suffering. Also,
<Snipped quote by History of Ethanol Production and Policy> So, your argument that they were completely oblivious to the idea of wheat being turned into a fuel is complete bullshit.
The difference here is that there wasn't a push to improve pure biofuels like there is now, because as was said earlier, gas was ten cents a gallon. And besides, do you really expect EVERY SINGLE IMPOVERISHED AMERICAN FARMER to start a biofuel business in the middle of the great depression? Because there certainly isn't a massive existing industry for that. They'd have to start their own refineries while their family starves. The usage of new technology doesn't end all problems, it has to go hand in hand with human activity. And in the great depression, nobody is going to expand into a fairly niche refining industry that's in its scientific infancy (this is important-we didn't instantly learn everything about biofuels in 1826. We realized that they could be a thing, and we are still learning how to get the most out of them even now).
Not to mention that this is literally the second paragraph from that same source:
"Today’s ethanol industry began in the 1970s when petroleum-based fuel became expensive and environmental concerns involving leaded gasoline created a need for an octane. Corn became the predominant feedstock for ethanol production because of its abundance and ease of transformation into alcohol. Federal and state subsidies for ethanol helped keep the fuel in production when ethanol prices fell with crude oil and gasoline prices in the early 1980s. This also helped spawn the “Minnesota Model” for ethanol production, in which farmers began producing ethanol to add value to their corn (Bevill, 2008). The Minnesota Model was an agreement between local public and private parties who work to keep profits in the community by providing jobs (and the economic benefits associated with population) and adding value to agricultural products while strengthening rural communities. Ethanol’s use as an oxygenate to control carbon monoxide emissions, encouraged increased production of the fuel through the decade and into the 1990s."
I'd also like to point out that "Sucks to be an idiot farmer" is among the least empathetic phrases you could have possibly used in this situation. Saying that you're showing empathy after saying that is the same as saying you empathize with poor whites in Appalachia after saying "Sucks to be a stupid hick".
<Snipped quote by Dinh AaronMk> Suck to be an idiot farmer living in the central USA during the early 20th century, I guess. Too bad they missed out on the opportunity to provide a local and renewable fuel source, to make up for their national revenue loss through selling wheat!
This is like laughing at a dying caveman with food poisoning because he didn't just go and cook his mammoth meat on an electric stove. Not only are you being a complete dick by laughing at a dying person, you're saying its their fault because they didn't use technological advances that only came about after their death. This isn't even a 'Well communists believe that material conditions bla bla bla and I don't so they're stupid for not using biofuels", this is basic ignorance of common sense and the very nature of scientific advancement.
I'm a weeaboo communist. Are you surprised?
EDIT: You probably are now, but I'm not going to tell you why you wouldn't have been like two years ago. You get to agonize over that yourself.
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">I'm a weeaboo communist. Are you surprised?<br><br>EDIT: You probably are now, but I'm not going to tell you why you wouldn't have been like two years ago. You get to agonize over that yourself.</div>
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