Pre-SysNES2: Beta-testing and Submission

Thinking of changing my entry to some Diamond Network legacy (much like the Vazan and the Kations were in SysNes1).

I've had a quick look at the Ship Designer; are maneuvering jets meant to be so useless at low tech level? They have 4 size and 2 mass as well so you really need to have a decent propulsion tech before it becomes useful...

The Order of the Deluge

"To become kin with water is to know the flood."

Certainly one of the more obscure and eccentric cults to dot the fringe of settled space, the Order of the Deluge professes to worship, of all things, the gravity wave that scoured the sky of humanity at the close of the second age. The reverence of the gravity wave has become collaborated with shards of the universal flood myth from the most ancient remnants of human memory, creating an oddball faith which urges its adherents to "return to the sea" to become spiritually attuned with the power that consumes the galaxy. The Order believes that if they resurrect mortal paradise under the waves that obliterated mankind the first time he grew proud, they will ascend to the true immortal plane when the deluge comes.

The Order has flitted across the galaxy in the Third Age, meeting a mix of persecution and bemusement. However, it slowly filled its ranks with devoted followers as it trawled human space, and now it may have finally found a home. The Eighth Finger, dark and isolated from the bright lights of corrupted civilization that invite the deluge, may be the perfect place to build a New Eden...

Values: Faith and Society
Traits:
+3 Aquatic
+3 Martial
+1 Plus one level to Construction and 4% reduced cost to research Construction
+2 Edifice Complex
+1 Like Oceans (does this overlap with Aquatic?)
+3 Fluid Mechanics
-2 Vulnerable to Toxins
-2 Poor Safety Culture
-2 Insular

The Dardareo
Pronounication: Dar-dare-o
Noun: Dardareo(s)
Adjective: Dardaren

Though most historians disagree on the exact origin of the Dardaeo Worldship, many think that it may be one of the few worldships to have survived the Tumult so long ago. If the Dardareo themselves know, they have not told anyone recently, or at least the official representatives have not told anyone. What is known is the Dardareo had spent a long, long time on their old but trustworthy worldship. Being of such old construction the worldship was constantly undergoing maintenance and repairs, which quickly taught the Dardareo the vital trades and practices of craftmanship, construction, material conservation, and scientific advancement.

During this long era of being worldship-bound, the Dardareo roamed the stars, not really out of wanderlust, but out of necessity. Even with recycling techniques and the mentality of wringing every last drop of functionality out of an object, replacement parts were still needed and in quantities that were nothing to scoff at due to the large size of the ship. So the Dardareo came and went from system to system, getting the things they needed from where they could, and perhaps picking up a useful trick or two from the locals. It is this diversity in encounters with other cultures that kept the Dardareo xeno-friendly despite what some might call their secretive or isolationist nature.

Eventually however, the Dardareo worldship came across Datha of the Hundred Moons, and what started off as a short lay over turned into a place to call home. The captains of the worldship, with whom nearly all governmental power had come to reside, decided that Datha was a perfect place to settle down at, and so Datha gained another moon. Many of the Dardareo become engineers, pilots, or scientists and all was well (for a while). Then the conflict with Apeilic Iris flared up.
When things started to get serious the captains recalled as many people as possible to the worldship, in case they needed to make a sudden retreat. And indeed they did, when the Apeilic Iris attacked the battlemoon nearby. The worldship got away in the nick of time, but not before it was damaged by debris. With a malfunctioning and increasingly broken worldship, the decision was made that it was finally time to live on an actual world. So the Dardareo landed on a suitable world, and began to build anew, using their expertise to speed things along. Getting used to living on natural land that wasn't as sterile as the worldship’s interior took time, but they began to adapt. The top down nature of the command structure on the worldship remained intact as the Dardareo set to work to survive, rebuild, and hopefully one-day prosper.

Values and Traits
Values

• Society
• Survival

Traits

• 1 – Start with a non-obsoleting component refined (I’ll choose one based on the background)
• 1 - Start with Hierarchic
• 2 - Scholarly: making specialists costs half as much s
• 2 - Industrious: Building factories doesn’t consume t or s, doesn’t produce social stress
• 2 - Rugged designers: Armour has greater effect, habitats bomb resistant, can build larger ships on planet surfaces
• 1 - Natural Pilots: Small ships have +1 dodge, large ships +1 Int
• -2 - Vulnerable to Toxins

Because *someone* else decided to use the term 'Confederacy,' I slightly edited my name to be Confederated Republic.

Double Edit: I decided 'Federal Alliance' worked best, since we're not technically starting with 'Republic' as a trait.

Is there any chance we could get some sort of Salvage perk? I was thinking something that let us cannibalize merchant tonnage/unused infrastructure to reduce the e cost of new military vessels. It fits my background; I'd replace Rugged Designers/Martial with that perk depending on how many points it cost.

if there's still room tomorrow by 4, I'll be in.

NOTE: My submission was created backwards, first by a random assignment of values/traits and then creating a civilization around it. I can offer a RP defense of any of the chosen traits. I'm scare of you being a big meanie, but please rip up whatever sucks, including the whole thing if that's the case and ESPECIALLY the name. I'm terrible with names.


Formal Name: Euphorium of the New Light [planet Seffas]
Noun: Seffassians, Euphorites
Adjective: Seffassian, Euphorian

GOVERNMENT and CULTURE
Power Structure: Confederal
Power Source: Theocratic/Regional Democratic
Elective System: Universal at the regional level
Priorities: Lite Communalism, Local Direct Democracy, Ruler Reverance, Entheogenic Transcendence, Labor
Religion: Syncretism of old Sol religions bastardized and re-interpreted several times over to the point of being unrecognizable. This "ancient learning" is mixed with an indigenous tradition of the "revered founder" cult. Personal enlightenment through hallucinogenic drugs, dream state manipulation therapy, other lighter meditation techniques, and labor are required tenants for any follower. The "revered founder", selected by revelation from the previous RF, rules through revelational edict and his various councils/congresses of the people.

SOCIETY and TRAITS
Values:
Freedom
Faith
Traits:
+2 Militant: armies get bonus HP when recruiting from population
+3 Skilled Farmers: Farms produce more food, +5% to biotech research
+2 Hive: Less social stress from large populations, double habitat pop limits, decreased rate of talent generation, very low pop movement.
+3 Ecopeotic: Farms and hydroponics produce more food, less damaging to the environment, social stress from pollution.
+1 Start with Planned Economy or Free Market Economy
-2 Inflexible: Research spending on anything but your three best fields cost 50% more.
-2 Horrible Start: muahahahahha

Let the Praxzen Win: A Down to Earth Guide for Staying Alive in Space, Chapter 3 - Hider Worlds

Seffas is the type of planet found only in some people's nightmares, and that oddly enough would be a perfectly fine location for most Euphorites. Established by a wayward starship of the Commonality many moons ago, the New Light is a way of life that permeates this unassuming cosmic speck. Though there are many "fun" things for the enterprising businessman or adventurous tourist to be aware of, let's boil it down to 3 for simplicity's sake.

One, the Revered Founder is the current incarnation of a long line of RF's and he is treated as close to a deity as these people have. His revelations are treated as binding law, though he most often works through his various councils and people's assemblies. On a planetary level, the higher organs of representative government are only beginning to exercise some power as they are needed to present a united face to the "dim ones." Haha, get it? New Light and....eh, nevermind. Anyway, on a regional level the Euphorites take their democratic participation very seriously but other than that the intricacies of the cult people's politics is not very well known.

Two, the communal way of life is, if not practiced actively by most Euphorites, at least waxed about poetically as the highest form of organized human living. All Euphorian farmers live in communal villages, where the villages serve as the entrepreneurial units in this ostensibly free market society. Euphorites jealously guard their village properties from the state, unless for a higher (heh) religious purpose. There is a level of urbanization, though it is likely lower than you will see in most systems. Many Euphorites see it as a necessary evil to support a family, pursue science, or to allow for a way of life heavily involved in "breaching the brain", a euphemism for getting high. Which Euphorites do. Alot.

Hey, number three, how about that! And not just high, Euphorites have been urged by the Revered Founder since time immemorial to "struggle against the mind" through all kinds of techniques. Hallucinogenics and psychoactives of every flavor and variety is available on this planet, produced both synthetically in the cities and organically at the local communal level. It is a massive industry, among the most lucrative on the planet. Experiments with sleep are also extremely popular. Clinics and laboratories tampering with the dream state are as common in Euphorian metropolises as brothels in other planets. Not that Seffas doesn't have brothels but that's another story. Most scientists seem to prefer to carry out the majority of their research while in the dream state.

Matt0088 said:

Light Sails break the Dodge calculation with a #NUM error.

Are Space Elevators/Fountains intended to be able to construct a 100e for 7e and 12e respectively? Doesn't that make ship refinement essentially useless?

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This is the stuff I need beta-testing for!

Negative Dodge error rectified!

Space elevators and fountains have been fixed - a 100e should be 23 and 35 e respectively. Refining stacks with both of them though, and they are both very expensive and vulnerable to build and have no effect on the mvat to build ships.

Kal'thzar said:

I've had a quick look at the Ship Designer; are maneuvering jets meant to be so useless at low tech level? They have 4 size and 2 mass as well so you really need to have a decent propulsion tech before it becomes useful...

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Yes, however there was an error with the dodge calculation. I have buffed them a bit as well as fixing the error.

V0.2 of the Ship Designer will come this weekend .

Thlayli said:

Another concern I had was landing troops on planets during planetary sieges, and that you couldn't do it if each of the garrison slots is filled. This is vaguely unrealistic imo; having all the slots filled with garrison troops should give you a defense bonus but not necessarily prevent the besieger from trying to land troops, especially if they have numerical superiority.

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I spotted this, part of the reason for the new armies - having an army on every world slot would be ridiculously expensive and so will probably be avoided. Armies can resist enemy landings in slots adjacent to the one they are on, but only at 0.33+relevant bonuses strength.

Another potential balancing issue I foresee is science-optimized civilizations having few defenses against a lower-tech industrial power using swarm tactics to inflict crushing damage. (Example: The only thing keeping the Soulon from winning Kaus system was their abysmally slow speed at building a planet bomber.) Maybe giving higher-tech ships passive combat bonuses to help powers that go for a smaller number of higher-quality ships?

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I hardly see it as a problem, more the lower tech player leveraging what advantages they do have.

Since you're going to large ham anyway Thlayli I'm hardly going to give you bonuses for it .

Kal'thzar said:

Having seen a version of how this worked, I'm keen for this. There was a lot of value in min-maxing in the old game system, but it didn't really add to the story (and honestly if I can't control it, I don't have to think about it, a great saving in brain use). One worry I have is how you go about colonizing new systems?

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Build an empty hab in a new system, if its not horrible your peeps will begin moving there. Its weighted so its very easy to get the first pop to move to an empty habitat.

This is an awesome idea, especially the recycling of old ship designs, will we be able to transport armies via these transport ships or are we going to have to spend time creating a shipping design for the armies anyway?

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Yes

Interesting idea. Can you automate this? I would be wary of adding too much content when you're trying all these other new ideas that are already quite complex.

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Nope, I was hoping players would only have very few of these units (except the person who specialises in them and rents them out). Their existance is in part to make trading services and information more viable.

Excellent idea. I did feel that with the old technological tree there was a best path to take, or at least some tech groups were not as balanced as others. True if you went a long way into one there was always a pay-off, but other tech trees had much more incentive to start off going down them.

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That's a product of not having a design team and beta-testers, and also some tech trees having cool stuff higher up no one ever got too.

Talking about entries received so far!

1. alex: its merely okay as I said, the backgroudn could use tweaking.

2. Thlayli: Already received feedback.

Awaiting Approval. Matt0088:

3. Kal'thzar: Yours doesn't feel very inspired, though the traits seem a fine combination. Maybe you should choose one of mining or plasma and get cyberorganised as well. Also drop aggressive as I really don't want too many people taking that .

4. SymD: very nice, I really like the concept, though I have to say it really seems like they value Power more than Freedom and they'd probably be more outwardly divergent from baseline with Advancer depending on the world. Also have they recently arrived or is their world in the Segmentum Alnitahium where they've been hiding for a long time?

5. Seon: Sounds good, though 'every coran' should be 'every coran within communications range' . It also sounds very much as if they're gregarious.

Awaiting Approval. Milarqui: I'll have to wait on more to comment, this isn't enough right now obviously.

6. Krazaya: That's very interesting traits (yes likes oceans does get written over by Aquatic, you should spend that point elsewhere) and I like the concept so far. A bit more on the day to day organisation and character of their society would be nice.

7. Frozen in Ice: I like this one a lot! By the way, Toxins is chemical problems whilst Poisons are the biological ones, and from the description I think you mean to be weak to the latter?

8. Azale: This is okay, certainly an interesting base. Freedom as a value is wholly out of place, and I'm going to veto taking Horrible Start with Farmers and Ecopoetic. Once you choose replacements for those two this would be a fine entry.

If both those awaiting approval get off their arse the first 10 definite slots will be filled. 1-3 more might get places but you'll need to a) impress me with the idea and b) picking something interestingly different from the existing ones.

Yes. I had to choose very hard between taking gregarious + something else, or just data trader, because they do lots of that.

I guess I could take open, gregarious, and natural pilots or somethi like that. I'll have to decide later.

Either that or I could drop organized theocracy for now and then take gregarious.

Playing with the ship designer has been rather distracting.

Can you explain how Mass works Dis? (I believe I haven't missed an explanation) Does it effect the conditions of whether or not a ship can be built on a planet?

Edit: Plasma Shield breaks the "Shield Bonus to Fleet" with another #NUM error. The negatives seem to be an problem in a select few spots.
Edit v2: And "Shielding" as well.

Matt0088 said:

Playing with the ship designer has been rather distracting.

Can you explain how Mass works Dis? (I believe I haven't missed an explanation) Does it effect the conditions of whether or not a ship can be built on a planet?

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Mass is how much mass a ship has, which is different from its volumetric size. I am uncertain how that's hard to grasp .

Mass effects different things than size does (or rather has different weighted effects). A too massive ship indeed cannot be built planetside and expect to lift off into space.

Edit: Plasma Shield breaks the "Shield Bonus to Fleet" with another #NUM error. The negatives seem to be an problem in a select few spots.
Edit v2: And "Shielding" as well.

Click to expand...

Yes yes all fixed, I didn't realize excel wet its pants at the idea of raising a negative number to the power of something

Yo, I have made things a bit better in my civ's background.

Any response to my desire for a Salvage perk? If it's not balanceable I'll just take what I have.

Milarqui said:

Yo, I have made things a bit better in my civ's background.

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Alright, approved. I don't see why they're 'Open' though, quite the opposite if anything.

Thlayli said:

Any response to my desire for a Salvage perk? If it's not balanceable I'll just take what I have.

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Salvage is denied due to it requiring too many factors. A salvage trait even more so

A Resubmission

Borrowing some things from SymphonyD's layout because its good (cutting out bits I don't want to think about...).

Formal Name: The Illos Pentarchy
Noun: Illoans
Adjective: Illoian

GOVERNMENT and CULTURE
Power Structure: Unitary
Power Source: Oligarchy with Democratic Elements
Elective System: Merit/Voluntary - skill/education requirements
Legal System: Republic (Parliamentary)
Religion: Predominantly Atheist, Agnostic

SOCIETY and TRAITS
Values:

• Knowledge
• Power

Traits:

• Vulnerable to Toxins (-2)
• Cyberorganised (6): Higher food and resource consumption, reduced cost of adaption, faster rate of talent production, ships have +2 Int, facility bonuses are higher, better electronic warfare rolls but weak to them, computer cores and networks give armies bonuses, +10% Computation research.
• Mining Engineers (3): Extra minerals from mines and boreholes, +5% to materials research

Background

The Illos Pentarchy can trace its background to the Second Age, to what many refer to as the Diamond Network, a trans-humanist grouping of Craftworlds and Worlds. The Illoans trace themselves back to one of the Diamond Networks resource extraction operations.

The Current Power Structure is a result of the tumult. With the technological heart ripped out of society, society bled out in a catastrophic cycle of conflict, famine and corruption of the cyborg bodies that the Illoans depended upon. In the face of these problems the Illoans turned to the Scientists and Engineers that could keep as much running as possible. This technological dependency subverted first the economic and then the political structures of old.

Over a period of several hundred years this new elite dictated everything, and when they emerged from this harrowing experience society had reoriented itself. Currently the Illoans are ruled by five alliances of scientists/engineers and their associated thinkers. Each of these alliances have smaller parties associated with them.

The five alliances via for power in the Parliament and associated committees. All seats in the Parliament are held by members of the five alliances. Minor committee control is often given to the smaller parties in exchange for votes. Control of Parliament is a slowly varying thing, each party has its own models and predictions and weights various parts of society in slightly different ways, when a coalition forms a compromise of these models and weights is made. It is often the case that after an election cycle a coalition will cycle out a coalition partner and replace it with another. Popular outrage plays little part in the models, its a subset of weightings, but thats about it....

The Illoans see their future as twofold. One, reclaim their place and reforge the Diamond Network. Two, fix the mistakes of the past (cyborg body failure, toxic vulnerability etc).

*********

This I like more, I can write a lot more about politics later (as dysfunctional as it might be!) just to annoy Alex....

Need to brush it up a bit more, but I have a dinner party to co-host.

What is the Diamond Network, by the way?

The Quasi

The Quasi originated on a small fleet of ships which drifted together through the emptiness of space, long after the fall of the empire that had sent them out. With the crew and colonists deep in cryogenic sleep, the Automated systems of the ships, all slaved to the Quasi, the flagship, continued on their mission to find an inhabitable planet for the population. However, as the ages past, and no suitable planet was found, the ships slowly broke down, until, finally, the on board AI come to the conclusion that finding an optimal planet was second in priority to the safety of it's cargo. And so, re-adapting the terraforming drones the ships were equipped with, the Quasi converted a series of asteroids in the Oort cloud of the next system it encountered into a series of habitable, though not very comfortable, colonies.

Values: Freedom, Society


Traits:
Zero-G Agility (1)
Natural Pilots (1)
Financially Savvy (2)
Resistant to Thin Atmosphere (2)
Like Low Gravity (1)
Spaceborn (2)

Negative Traits
Vulnerable to toxins (-2)
Hate Snow (-1)

Sigh.