Pre-SysNES2: Beta-testing and Submission

[Disenfrancised]

This thread is for culture submissions and beta-testing of systems for the glorious SysNES2: Electic Bugaloo

Link to SysNES1: A Murky Pool of Light

First of all the new one won't be for months and months, but I want to play around with game systems and culture concepts long before actually starting.

Spoiler for Universe Timeline Background:

Pre UC: Bizarre barbarian states like 'Chin', 'Amerika' and the 'Euu', form and develop space technologies, local planets of Old Sol explored via Rocket-canoe. Equivalent: Development of farming in Egypt and the Middle East, Shang China.

First Age
UC 0: Founding of the Solar Federation and the Universal Clock (~2230 AD). Solar Federation amalgamates all Earth states into overstructure to deal with climate concerns and space threats. Equivalent: Babylonia/Assyrian Empires
Early First Age (UC 0-300): Development of space transcending technologies, terraforming of Mars, Solar Federations creation of, war with, and evetual conquest conquest of the Jovian League. Equivalent: Trojan War, heroic age of Greek myth, Zhou/Warring States China.
Middle First Age (UC 300-600): Exploration of nearby systems with transcend drives, scattering of the peoples, Solar Feds ossification and secret societies, heroic campaigns by Sol Fed to control local colonies after several anarchist actions using antimatter threaten inhabited worlds. Equivalent: Alexander's conquests and Diodachi squabbles, Han Empire.
The War in Heaven/The Ravening/Close of the First Age (UC 600-800): Mass release of kinetic weapon factories, deconstructor swarms, antimatter weaponry, autowars. Destruction of life in Sol system, local colonies. Hider worlds cease electromagnetic transmissions, Line Worldships flee into deep space. Equivalent: biblical flood, Barbarian invasions of China, post-Rome dark ages.

Second Age
The New Dawn (UC 800-1700). Demons succumb to entropy. Line Worldships develop countermeasures to the demons, return to human space, cleanse worst infections, establish commercial and social protocols known as the Commonality. Equivalent: Migration Age, ancient myth, Hebrews being lead out of Egypt.
The Early Commonality Age (UC 1700-2100). Worldship Lines use unparalleled position to establish Root English, anti-super weapon phobia deep in all human cultures, find most Hider worlds and bring them into the main discourse. Line government model of very strong Technocratic executive with democratic trappings seen as optimal human government for survival. Equivalent: Greek/Roman republics.
The High Commonality Age (UC 2100-2400). Expansion further into unexplored space, first discovery of non-human artifacts, human space tied into tight economic web. Pretty nice time to be alive. Equivalent: Mythic medieval golden era of many cultures, chivalry, honour etc.
The New Empires Age (UC 2400-2673). Increasing power of planetary populations reduces then replaces Line influence, main players become multi-system polities bound by some ideology (religious, transhumanist, ecotopian, eudaimonic etc) and powerful fleets. Large scale wars over rare atom deposits, biospheres, or exotic alien finds occur, but still bound by Commonality codes to avoid excessive destruction. Equivalent: Carolingian Empire, Islamic Caliphates, Tang China
UC 2673+ : Exotic gravity pulse from smaller black hole merging with supermassive galactic centre black hole crosses human space, all technological artifacts based on metric transformation undergo complete mass to energy conversion. 99% of humanity expires, only some ships in deep space and backwards worlds survive.

Third Age
The Dark Age/Feudal Age (UC ~3000-4500). Backwards and raw worlds redevelop civilisation, often based on Commonality radio transmissions who originators had died centuries before in the Tumult. Starships stranded by the Tumult find worlds using sublight engines, either uplift the populace or establish themselves as a ruling caste. The edicts of the Commonality and some of the ideology of the New Empires take on a semi-religious aspect. The isolation and extreme environments cause several new human subspecies to emerge/create themselves. Equivalent: Faltering of the HRE in twelfth century, warring kingdoms period in china, barbarian migrations, Columbian exchange from the Amerindian point of view.
The Renaissance (UC 4500-4900). Redevelopment of interstellar signalling and ships kicks off a new wave of development as the scattered worlds of man find each other, and begin expanding into space once more. Equivalent: Duh.
The Age of Revelations (UC 4900-5100). The discovery of the ruins of the god-like Priors gives humanity something of an inferiority complex, even as the looting of Ansibyl Pearls causes an explosion in societal capabilities. Equivalent: Opium wars for china. Black ships for Japan.
This is the period SysNES2 occurs in
The High Third Age/Kingdom Age (UC 5100-5931). Faster than light communication allows a human interstellar culture not seen before, trade flourishes, but the new capabilities allow petty realms to extend themselves to the stars on quite low technological and social platforms compared to the Solar Federation or the Second Age Empires. This leads to orgies of petty wars over the loot of alien tombs. Many turn to Hiding from the main thrust of interstellar politics, or seek solace in the ancient religions of the Second or Earlier ages. In some worlds a zenith of excellence or nadir of barbarism is reach beyond anything from the earlier ages. With the new subspecies making waves, and weaker morality, many kingdoms engineer specialised forms of humanity. Equivalent: European opening of the world, Imperialism, new world slavery, your societies admit a direct link to this period but are slightly embarrassed by some actions done by their forefathers.
UC 5931+. A second gravity wave sweeps the human pollution from the sky, Due to a generally lower development level and density (though some regions have surpassed the Second Age), rather less proportional death results, only about 92%. Setting for SysNES1.

Note – due to hibernation and time dilation due to starship travel your society may not have lived through every year of this timeline, but instead skipping 10-100 year chunks. The Universal Clock is calibrated via a bunch of distant pulsars, so you all have a rough idea what the year is (UC 4800, or 6930±50 AD).

Spoiler for Local Space Background:

The region of space immediately spinward of the Eighth Finger of the Flame Nebula has never been particularly of note beyond the scenic nebula itself, lacking even a name for the first three thousand years of human occupation. Characterised by the three young white giants known as the Triplets just emerged from the Nebula the worlds are low in heavy elements and contain only a smattering of radiation washed marginal biospheres.

The emergent superpower of the Apeilic Iris has given this region a name however – Segmentum Alnitahium after the mighty blue triple supergiant Alnitah that shines so sharply in all the sky’s of the Segments worlds and makes the Flame nebula glow so bright. Though having only dust in orbit itself, the star is so bright and large than transcendent traverses can be made to it from thousands of light years away.

Such an important potential travel junction has made the Apeilic Iris, fresh from their destruction of their arch rivals and ancestors the Datha Commonwealth, claim the Segment as part of their hinterland. Whilst much to distant from the Iris itself to make resource extraction or trade with the scum of the region economically viable, the Apeilic Iris has chosen to enforce a semblance of interstellar order in the region (as if it had a bad reputation worldships might not chose to travel out this way, and exterminating the inhabitants also might be frowned on by high tech traders/the public back home) and placed a Consul and flagship in orbit of Alnitah itself*.

With this shroud of protection the bandits, hiders, and ideologes of the Segementum (for the flame nebula makes these worlds an excellent hiding place) have emerged from the nooks and crannies to build societies in the light of the suns, especially after the Consul indicated some level of competition and warring would be tolerated.

Thus there are three generations of societies out here:
1st: The Dark Age Hiders who’ve been here quietly for hundreds to thousands of years, and are probably a bit weird.
2nd: Refugees from the Apeilic-Dathic wars fleeing with the shirts off their backs, bandits, ex-warships and unsavoury characters abound.
3rd: Fringe elements from the worlds under the Iris’s hegemony who reject the mainstream and want to go set up their own societies in the arse end of nowhere.

*Translation for the stupid: You are factions in Somalia/Wild West and the Apeilic Iris is the US Navy/Cavalry off the coast/back east, they’ll intervene whenever things get too bad, but a lot of bad powergrabbing can still go down.


Datha of the Hundred Moons had been this sector of space’s premier cultural centre since the first glimmers of light in the post Tumult Dark Age. A delightful Gaian world attended by dozens of Ceres-sized world-housed satellites (most moved artificially, an expensive aesthetic choice to move such large bodies into position, but one which pays off in maintenance in the problem ages), by the time of its ending over a trillion individuals living within a bubble a few light seconds across. Its services, scenery and lifestyle made it an important stop on the Worldship routes (some even staying and adding a new moon to the sky). Hundreds of minor systems saw Dathic resource extraction operations and most of the other developed worlds of the sector had strong links with the system (indeed seeing much migration out). When sector wide coordination was needed, like halting the X|! Migration or putting down the pirate fleet of Krall the Magnificent it was inevitably orchestrated from a conference on Datha.

But in time Datha grew proud, though perfectly democratic and kind within itself, the sheer splendour of their home made it hard for the Dathics to conceive of those beyond its moons having a valid opinion. The resources volunteered by other high technology systems for the common defence were expropriated for Datha’s ends and other systems grew resentful.

One such system was the Apeilic Iris – home to the sectors most important military asset, the Iris itself. An annular plasma array a hundred light hours across, its multi-coloured aurora stripped the natural antimatter of a windy blue supergiants flow into its white dwarf partner. Founded by a consortium of corporations from many worlds (including Datha) its inhabitants had revolted and become independent some six hundred years ago, selling antimatter and their energy expertise to every planet in the sector competent enough to take advantage of it. The shining halo of wealthy habitats had but a few hundred million persons to stand against the Dathic billions.

The war, as every war did, began over a disagreement; a Dathic fleet’s tactless commander trying to get an Antimatter shipment for far below the market price leading to several veiled threats being offered, threats that panicking captains carried despite the commanders intent when the power of the Iris field itself was turned against their ships to drive them off, destroying a habitat, and seeing the fleet smashed in turn. Outrage in Datha lead to another fleet being dispatched and barely defeated (the Dathics however still taking care to avoid civilian causalities at this point), the Apeilic counterattack to destroy one of the Dathic battlemoons as a warning show of force failing to completely atomise it as they intended and the resultant fragments killing three hundred billion on the other moons, inevitably causing the declaration of Total War.

Every other high technology system in the sector lined up behind either Datha or the Iris, with the lower technology societies and world ship traders running for cover or being annihilated. After a long conflict the war ended with the incineration of Datha by a Apeilic induced solar flare, a crime that still has the Iris conflicted to this day, and domination of the sector by the Apeilics and their client worlds (which they have to rely on rather more than Datha did, and the need to keep them on side informs the Apeilic ‘light but firm’ law and order approach).

First set of star system visualizations, unlike SysNES1 the game space will not be fully pairwise traversable – instead of being able to jump from a system to every other system, gas clouds and other stars will occlude some of the linkages, creating some strategy and choke points, though stars on average will connect to at least half of the 35 odd stars in the game space. There are more systems but there will be a lower average world count per system:

[Disenfrancised]

MECHANICS CHANGES AND GAME SYSTEMS

I would very much appreciate feedback on these, as well as any points you had about the first NES systems

Spoiler for Random Ideas:

Population will move on its own – you no longer have to ferry around pops (indeed will be explicitly forbidden from doing so) but instead it’ll be calculated automagically based on your societal settings and habitat attractiveness.

Abstracted Merchant Fleet – rather than setting up trade routes you have a ‘merchant fleet tonnage’ statistic that enables movement between your worlds (the fleet tonnage being the max e you can move about). You will be able to build this directly, convert obsolete ships into merchant tonnage, rent out your merchant tonnage to other players, and gain trade benefits from having a lot of it whilst also having a presence in appropriate bits of space. This will also make piracy easier.

Specialist ground units – effectively armies with only one component these have useful functions within and beyond your nation, stuff like the Planetologist Team, Mobile Hospital, Espionage Team and so on.

Minor Terraforming is a lot easier – also hopefully someone will invest in it at some point.

Easier mass Destruction – to avoid the constant whiney demands to be able to commit genocide and bombard stations, all such things will now be permissible. However such actions are guaranteed to see a high tech war fleet from a power outside the backwater region to turn up in a few years and utterly destroy your faction root and branch for the greater good of the galaxy. Even attempting to keep it secret will fail – you can’t stop the signal.

Social Policy Decisions – rather than micromanage, you’ll be able to choose between social policies on the Alpha Centuari model, which will have lots of tiny modifiers throughout the economic and social model.

Stress is now a number value.

You can engender schemes to increase population growth, but since this will not increase your number of talents you’re not going to get any benefit out of it so screw you .


Reworked IS Drives – The lack of difference in the effect of the IS drives irked me before so they’ve been redone somewhat. Now the Manifold and Burst Drives are cheaper but have limited range – in the network graph above they are unable to make any of the pink and purple transitions directly and must hop from star to star. The Charm and Twist drives can make these long range transitions as long as they have the power equal to the difficulty of the jump for a Charm drive the power is the number of computer modules available to the fleet, whilst the Twist drive’s power is just the ships surplus energy rating.

An actual proper commercial system – it’ll be mathematically complicated on the back end but easy enough to use the essential components will be a) have a big enough merchant fleet and the necessary commercial buildings, b) have rich planets yourself and your merchant units in the rich planets of other people. There will also be a commercial battle mechanic!

Spoiler for New Economic Model:

Eight value economic system – rather than the old four-part one (f e s p) there will be a new economic system with 8 different components. These will be the full storable Minerals (M), Volatiles (V), and Antimatter (A), the storable but degrading Economic activity (E) and Food (F), the non-storable intellectual activity (S), and the population metrics people (P) and talents (T). Construction and maintenance of things can require any of these components laid out in the diagram below:

Spoiler for Armies:

Armies are reworked – rather than pissing around with separation divisions armies are much more like ships. You have a limited number with unique names for which you buy components (like hospitals, air wings, infantry battalions) that affect the army’s stat line. Unlike ships armies can have new components added at later dates. This should also hopefully give better narratives. Ship boardings will be done by space marine ship components.

Watch this space for more details and an army designer spreadsheet!

Redone Ships!:

Rebalanced Ship Weapons – I’ve decided I want to push for this rock-paper scissors model of warship metagames to prevent the existence of a ‘best’ design as occurred at several points in the old SysNES. The main change is to make missiles really goddamn heavy, and lasers to require very heavy ancillary cooling systems, and give particle weapons better penetration. Thus light, fast, high dodge particle ships will dodge missiles and destroy missile boats, but will be slagged when they get within range of a multilaser gunship. Laser gunships however will be too slow to evade missiles very well and will be crushed at long range by missile ships. There will be also long range laser and particle weapons, though these will be more for siege and support purposes.


Templates and Refinement – Ship designs were too expensive in s to be very fun in the last SysNES, but on the other hand I don’t want to make them too cheap, so we have two new systems beign brought in. Templates is effectively letting you make generic ship components at the cost of a ship design slot. You would for example make a missile boat template (Kickpuncher class) with ‘weapon hardpoints’ instead of actual missiles. You could then make a Kickpuncher Fusion Buster design for only the additional s cost of the Fusion Busters, and then later make a Kickpuncher Kinetic Lance design for only the s cost of the Kinetic Lances (for a total of 3 ship design slots used). Refinement is you spending e and a little bit of s to refine an existing ship design (making it cost less) leveraging your e rather than constantly having to spend s on new designs to keep up with the joneses.

New and fancy Electronic Warfare system - see the battle calculator for details!

All this and more can be seen in the SHIP DESIGNER AND BATTLE CALCULATOR

ShipDesigner2_TEST1.xlsx is as you might expect, the latest and greatest of the ship designers with all the new concepts worked in and about half the tech trees components available (Most people will have access to a majority of the components listed in this release at the start of the NES). Tech levels have not been added yet though. Component descriptions can be found on the description sheet of the workbook.

BattleCalc_TESTV1.xlsx is the brand new shiny combat calculator which i will actually use in the modding, your encouraged to go in there and see how you ships weapons and skills matches up to others in pursuit, weapons firing, bombing, and EW. Ship-to-Ship Boarding and the Army calculator coming soon.


CALCULATORS: THE NEXT GENERATION

As before, testing to destruction is encouraged!

ShipDesigner2_TEST2.xlsx ship designer with the dodge et al negative numbers bug broken, you should be able to have negative dodge and armour.

BattleCalc_TESTV2.xlsx Battle calculator has had ground combat, army healing, and army specific EW options added.

ArmyDesigner_TESTV2.xlsx The first crack at how to build you own armies. Unlike ships, armies are built up over time and you always start by adding a single division. Armies are thus valuable and precious, don't mess them up.

For a bit more info on armies and army actions, here is a comprehensive list. The precedence order of different armies wanting to do conflicting things is determined by INT scores.

Spoiler for Army Actions:

Army Actions List (Action Points Needed)
Moving to a different slot on the planet (1)
Moving to a slot with a planet-moon system (2)
Moving to a slot on a different planet in the same system (3)
Getting on a ship transport (1)
Getting off a ship transport (1)

Performing Police Duties (1)
Making an EW action (1)
Looting a base (1)
Build Bunkers of level X (1-3)
Assist Adjacent army with healing (1)
Heal itself (1)

Defending the Slot they are in (0)
Distant Defending an Adjacent Slot (1)
Adding their distant defence roll to an adjacent friendly defending army (1)

Attacking an adjacent slot (1)
Distant attacking an Adjacent Slot to force an enemy to retreat (does not occupy vacated slot) (1)
Adding their distant attack roll to an adjacent friendly army making a normal attack (1)

BattleCalc_TESTV3

ShipDesigner2_TESTV34

Change Log
V3
[*]Added headings to the current designs page[*]Added indicators to warn if ship size or mass is causing invalid designs[*]Altered how invalid is calculated with respect to cargo and carrier units[*]Buffed carrier units[*]Buffed Burst Drives (were bad before due to an error)[*]Fixed pulse drive dodge error[*]Fixed light sails IS operation (they always add at least 1 now, making them useful for very large slow ships)[*]Added more conditional formatting coloured prettiness[*]Added refined+elevator/fountain function[*]Adjusted the where can be built calculations[*]Scanners now add dodge[*]Buffed Maneuvering Jets
V4[*]Fixed Sail bug



V5 change log
[*]Burst Drive fixed to how it was intended to be (burst drive units not counting towards size in the IS calculation)[*]Twist Drive now a 1-of, substantially buffed.[*]Charm Drive now takes a number of comp modules and maths knowledge proportional to the ships mass to operate the jump drive itself (its still capped at IS 1 though)[*]Slaved Charm Drives have a mass limit based on the Master ship's comp modules, this shows up in the calculator. Slaved Charm drive ships need only a charm drive and commlinks to be IS capable.[*]Heat Management model changed - that coveted '-5' will be a lot harder, note the burst drive is pretty helpful for this [*]Power Cores boosted output[*]Power Drives boosted IP abilities [*]Base power requirements of lasers dropped substantially, also they were made slightly lighter.[*]Commlinks fixed.[*]Changed values for Ship construction on planets.[*]TECH REQUIREMENTS FOR BASIC COMPONENTS (i.e. the ones in level 1-3) now included.



BattleCalc_V6
-Added estimated to hit calculator, it's only a rough value because I am lazy
-To hit calculation reworked for all weapon types.

ShipDesigner2_V6
-A bunch of new components - these are for you guys complaining about ship boarding and e warfare defences, and also some fun tech 9 and 10 stuff (some fields were a bit empty at the top). You should be able to field effective fighting craft going up any tech field (though what they'll be effective at will vary).
-Size and Mass limits substantially reworked, large ships now cost extra m and v
-Stationary orbiters and planetary battery now added explicitly
-Culture bonuses now added in.
-Upper limit on Dodge and IP speed added, based on what would squish your crews. Various components raise this limit.
-Fire control function added, ships can now regenerate up to 50% of their starting health during combat and recover from Int debuffs.
-Values of many things tweaked.

Change Log for V7
-Ammo Components section added
-Particle weapons redesigned as reported earlier
-Pushing sails and mag catapult start bonus calculator added
-Refinement costs added - I know they're expensive, it is not my intent for you to be able to refine everything . Instead you should plan what you want to refine and attempt to leverage it. You will have more s at the start than you did in SysNES1
-Various bugs fixed and costs tweaked

Change log for V8

-Increased the armour and shield reduction to missile damage (so that's actually noticeable )
-Armour cheaper and better
-Missiles bigger and heavier
-Lasers require more initial power
-MD considerably increased
-Commlinks now decrease EW skill
-Drives and powerplants performance tweaked upwards (also hotter)
-Bugs brought up in thread fixed
-Techs needed for component display bug fixed
-Burst Drive now reduces heat, Manifold drives heat reduction removed
-Missile avoidence now reduces the missile to hit chance from negative dodge
-Missile avoidance easier to accumulate in the ship designer
-External Hangers and External Pods cheaper, but now have dodge penalty as well as armour penalty

V9_A Change log
-Engagement calculation altered
-Particle w/EMP debuff calculations slightly changed.
-STATS PAGE ADDED TO BATTLE CALC


Ship Designer V10 Change Log
-Lots of things rebalanced, I might have forgotten some stats tweaks
-Heat management now goes 10 to -10
-HP meter added, average of size and mass, very slightly weighted (heh) towards mass. A notable change from this is Titanium armour is the cheapest way to add HPs at <T3
-'Construction tech needed' ambiquity corrected
-Description texts updated
-EMP and [Redacted] Missiles now roll to hit against every ship in a close range instance (including the ship they're launched from if it's in the same instance).
-The MV provided by pebble and laser nets is buffed
-EM weapons now produce heat derived from the level of surplus power inputted. Base heat reduced to compensate.
-Fleet int now negatively non-linear (though much like base int, this is not very harsh). Elite training boosts fleet int
-Mag catapult split into Ring Catapult and Linear Catapult (the former having huge energy demands and the latter being very high size), both do more damage than the old mag catapult and recieve bonus damage and pushing power from materials and construction respectively.
-Barrel Casings, now like algorithmic interlocks, can be taken up to three times depending on tech level, additional catapult damage now flat rate. Much more expensive to refine.
-Another secret long particle weapon added
-Confinement Field I-III added, improves particle cannon and particle jet damage and the latters pushing ability
-Two new secret ammo components added :3
-Autoloaders buffed, now starts giving additional ammo at comp 4, 7, and 9.
-Jammers now jam at reduced strength for long range. This long range jamming effect takes away from your fleet int as well (not calculated in battle calc)
-Shield Arrays slightly buffed
-EW broadcasters now more expensive, ships make as many EW attacks as they have broadcasters
-Planetary installations heat management function now implemented
-Planetary and orbital easier construction limits now implemented (Orbitals can be 4 times as big and 2 times as heavy than the con limit, Planetary can be twice as big and four times as heavy)
-All weapons can be coupled
-shields produce more heat
-Supply sections require a habitat section to give supply to other ships (but still can use the bonus from recyclers and hiberpods)

Battle Calc V10 Change Log
-Fixed a problem with the interceptor table
-EW actions redone and better described, EW bug fixed EW completely reworked.
-EW stats section added
-Ship boarding stats section added
-PC's interaction with shields changed in the catapults favour

Rules changes
-As mentioned ships now make as many EW attacks as they have EW broadcasters/Commlinks
-You now choose the EW action before rolling, and if you fail that you don't get to do something else.

V11 Change Log

Battle Calc
-Some Values adjusted
-Missile Avoidence bug fixed
-Arrival time section added
-Surprise calculator and surprise stats section added
-Catapult relationship with shields tweaked

Ship Designer
-Atmospheric streamlining added, increases cost but makes it easier to be built in an atmosphere
-'Can be built' rebranding as 'rating' governs where a ship can be built, where it can be refueled and recharged, and what environments it can enter during combat. Massive defence stations that run off capacitors will need extensive orbital infrastructure to run, as you'll need a space frame, shipyard and orbital power plant.
-New Section in can be built, space differentiated into spacedocks and shipyards. Spaceport is now a groundside building only. Spacedocks and shipyards somewhat more e expensive than spaceports, much more m expensive.
-Several components costings tweaked, I may have forgotten what :3
-Fire control rebranded as regeneration
-Metal Capacitors are now heat neutral.
-Jammers take more power, jamming provided rather decreased
-Bug fixed in secruity teams providing 1/5th the amount of S2SB they're meant too. For people who haven't worked out what they're good for - Secruity team bonus (and cost) scales with ship size, whilst space marines do not.
-Efficency of providing slave charm drive boosted when charm drive is refined
-Charm drive bug fixed, now provides correct amount of IS
-Man jets now increase the planet rating of ships, slightly buffed in dodge bonus

Battle Calc V12
-Ground combat completely reworked
-Artillary does things now
-Ground combat wounding calculator
-Ground Surprise and stealth calculator added
-Ground Surprise and stealth stats section added
-MedicVal now correctly reduces the amount of wounded that die
-Linger damage numeric replaces some old fields for the ground combat bit

ArmyDesigner2 V12
-35 new attributed added, most old attributes have had their properties reworked
-A lot of attributes now come in various levels, higher quantities unlocked by higher techs
-Costing and upkeep completely changed
-Now its add 4 or remove 3 attributes per year
-Added total cost summary (due to rounding errors it won't quite be what you have to spend)
-Divisions is now manpower, one pop point gives 1 manpower which equates to 10 army HP
-Size now seperate from manpower and HP, indicates room army takes up in cargo holds
-Added stealth and detect propertites of armies, stealth allows the conduct of stealth missions (destroy buildings, theft, kidnapping, assassination) and surprise (get a free combat round vs the enemy much like tactical surprise in ship combat, int helps a lot with surprise and a little with stealth). Small armies have inherent stealth. Detect helps armies resist stealth and surprise.
-f now added as an upkeep property
-Addition of SODs (surface to orbit devices), a vehicle component that allow armies to launch attacks at ships in orbit based ontech and heavy equipment. These attacks can come against ships in planetary instances during ship combat, or as a sneak attack outside of ship combat (preventing the enemy fleet from controling space). SOD damage comes in the 3 ship combat flavours depending on what heavy weaponry the army is given, and ship defences treat it accordingly.
-Added linger damage (currently only provided by microbes), linger damage increases the wounding->death function, deals extra damage the following year, and disrupts enemey healing.
-Artillary score nows reduces the attack and defence of opposing armies, its more effective vs immobile armies and armies with large vehicle components
-Air Superority now works a bit differently, now whoever has the worst air superority score will suffer a debuff to attack and defence, and the more vehicle heavy the army the worse the debuff. Thus another rock-paper-scissors dynamic develops, where armies with good air superority beat other vehicle armies which beat infantry armies which beat air superority armies (on a cost basis). Armed ships with dodge >0 that can enter the involved planetary instance and have control of space can provide air superority points at the rate of 1 per ship. Air support vehicles, whilst giving massive attack boosts and range to an army, are particularly vulnerable to air superority.
-Some tech level 4 stuff is on display, just so everything can be tested properly

ShipDesigner2 V12
-Fission drives nerfed
-Ion drives have 0 size and mass, but are the only reaction drive you can have if they are choosen. Useful for small packages (to aid being carried) and IS scouts
-Twist drives now care about size rather than mass to generate IS, thus being somewhat better for dense high energy ships than it was before. Charm drive only IS drive that works off mass now.
-Probably some other tweaks made that I've forgotten.
-Atmospheric streamlining bug fixed
-irrelevant habitat section bug fixed
-Int and Fleet int marginally harder to accumulate, long range jamming marginally easier.

SYS_V12: ArmyDesigner2_V12, ShipDesigner2_V12, BattleCalc_V12

SYS_V14

Changelog

Economics2 V14
-All calculations changed
-Tables populated with data
-484 regions included, all PCs and known NPC region stats added. Note that some stars are binaries or triples, and 40 of those regions are the 'Deep Space' section that's the same for every star.
-Modifications costs added

Shipdesigner
-Reweighted a lot of stuff, especially reaction drives
-IS drives adjusted to include carrier space. Charm drives cannot carry other ships IS unless they have their own charm drives. Manifold drives have far lower weighting to carrier space than other drives.
-Refinement costs changed across the board
-Several new components added, I can neither confirm or deny that any of the new supply ones might have to do with recharging capacitors :3. Most of the ones added are filling out the top of the tech fields properly.
-Getting high levels in certain tech fields will have an impact on ship performance
-Added relics component type section.
-Supply sections no longer work off just recyclers as that was dumb.

BattleCalc_V14
-Commercial calculator fixed
-Stats section for S2S fixed
Change log

BattleCalc
-added commercial contest calculator

Economics2
-fixed serious population growth bug.

Be sure to check all your old designs ain't terribad now! :trollface:

PLEASE PLAY AROUND WITH THESE TWO SO I CAN REFINE THEM AND CORRECTION ERRORS/STUPID THINGS. GAMING OUT BATTLES WITH THE BATTLECALC WOULD BE AWESOMESAUCE

[Disenfrancised]

STEP RIGHT UP AND MAKE A CULTURE, FIRST 10 GIVEN HERE WILL BE IN THE NES FOR SURE (UNLESS I HATE THE CONCEPT AND/OR YOUR FACE)

A)Please provide a Background and Description, more is better. Submissions don't count unless you have a good one of these, B & C can be done later though.
B)Pick two of these societal values (they can change over the course of the game but only via RP)
Freedom, Society, Wealth, Knowledge, Power, Faith, Survival
C)And a total of 7 points worth from the traits list (you can take up to 7 points worth of negative traits to boot)

Positive

Spoiler:

1 - Start with Planned Economy or Free Market Economy
1 - Start with Republic, Theocratic, Authoritarian, or Hierarchic
1 - +1 to a tech field at start and 4% reduced cost to research that field
3 - +2 to a tech field at start and 10% reduced cost to the field (cannot be taken with the above)
1 – Start with a non-obsoleting component refined (I’ll choose one based on the background)
3 - Martial: less unhappiness from conflict, army and fleet organisation requires less s & start with a small army
2 - Warrior Society: armies are formed at seasoned level of experience & start with a small army
2 - Militant: armies get bonus HP when recruiting from population
2 - Medics & Mendicants: Hospital Units and facilities much cheaper
2 - Scholarly: making specialists costs half as much s
2 - Gregarious: People will move to large cities, less social stress from cities
2 - Frontiersmen: people will move to low population areas and are more mobile
2 - Architects: Worldside constructions cost less s
2 - Industrious: Building factories doesn’t consume t or s, doesn’t produce social stress
2 - Financially Savvy: Commercial buildings cost less s and t, function better
2 - Skilled traders: Merchants cost less to make, bonus to commercial operations
3 - Data traders: Trading and commercial buildings will give s bonuses, +5% to maths research
3 - Skilled Farmers: Farms produce more food, +5% to biotech research
3 - Mining Engineers: Extra minerals from mines and boreholes, +5% to materials research
3 - Fluid Mechanics: Extra volatiles from pumping stations and aerostats, +5% to propulsion research
3 - Plasma Technicians: Extra antimatter from plasma arrays and factories, +5% to energy research, shields are cheaper to refine.
2 - Rugged designers: Armour has greater effect, habitats bomb resistant, can build larger ships on planet surfaces
2 - Edifice Complex: Large structures much cheaper, +5% construction research
1 - Zero-G Agility: stronger at boarding, less social stress in space habitats
1 - Natural Pilots: Small ships have +1 dodge, large ships +1 Int
2 - Resistant to one of (Hot, Cold, Radiation, Toxins, Thin Atmosphere, Thick Atmosphere), can only take once.
1 - Like one of (Mountains, Oceans, Jungles, Temperate, Snow, Low Gravity), much reduced social stress and higher talent limit in habitats in these environments (providing also has breathable atmosphere), people will move to these. Can only be taken once.
2 - Welcoming: Greater chance of immigration, some radical societal choices curtailed.
2 – Entertainers: People like them, extra wealth from tourism services if in a good location.
Affinity for a technology (ship components of that class are automatic refined after an example is built)
5 - Reaction Drives, Armour, Shields
4 - Missiles, Particle Weapons, EM Weapons
3 - Sail Drives, Supply Components, Bombs, Scanners
3 - Understanding of the Transcendent physics of one of the drive types (Burst, Manifold, Charm, Twist): ships build with these drives will be better, and ships with these drives will have trouble escaping you.

Mixed

Spoiler:

1 - Ascetic: Less social stress, food consumption, decreased rate of talent generation.
2 - Hive: Less social stress from large populaitons, double habitat pop limits, decreased rate of talent generation, very low pop movement.
2 - Flexible: People are more mobile, less stress from change, generate stress when bored
3 - Ecopeotic: Farms and hydroponics produce more food, less damaging to the environment, social stress from pollution.
2 - Conservative: People are less mobile, more stress from changes, less stress if things haven’t changed in a while, high population growth in some environments.
2 - Superior Genetics: Faster rate of talent generation (will reduced population growth), higher talent limit, increased food and resource consumption, +5% to social research. Can be taken up to three times.
2 - Spaceborn: Reduced social stress in space habitats, increased stress in planetside habitats, -25% space habitat cost.
1 - Open: gain s bonus from trade, knowledge will be leaked to other civilisations.
1 - Placid: Less social stress, -1 Int, worse army effectiveness
6 - Cyberorganised: 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.
6 - Advancer: Higher food and resource consumption, reduced cost of adaption, faster rate of talent production, ships have +2 Int, armies have extra attack, better biological warfare rolls but weak to them, +10% Biotech research.
3 - Aquatic: No increased building expenses from oceanic environment, less stress in these environments, greater m and f production in oceans, oceanic habitats higher pop limits, ships have +2 dodge.

Negative

Spoiler:

-2 - Insular: Immigration is rejected by society
-2 – Inflexible: Research spending on anything but your three best fields cost 50% more.
-2 – Distrustful: Can’t technology trade, reduced commercial efficiency
-5 - Xenophobic: stress from interaction with other cultures, 2/3rd reduction to trading efficiency. Can’t take with Insular or distrustful
-2 - Horrible Start: muahahahahha
-2 - Vulnerable to one of (Hot, Cold, Radiation, Toxins, Thin Atmosphere, Thick Atmosphere), can only take once.
-2 - Poor Safety Culture: armour less effective, habitats less bomb resistant, construction limit is one less
-1 - Aggressive: If you find yourself sharing a world your population will start being dicks. Also chance to mob the specialist teams of other players you might be using.
-1 - Hate one of (Mountains, Oceans, Jungles, Cold Temperate, Snow, Low Gravity), even if its got a breathable atmosphere your people won’t move here. Can only take one and can’t take with Spaceborn

Others traits are available on PM discussion. Note if you make a trait choice that ends up being rebalanced or the underlying game concept it relates to is altered before the game starts, I will refund/reapply the points.

[Disenfrancised]

You may now maek poast

[alex994]

EDIT: This post is no longer up to date; for latest one, see the following: This one

The Confederacy of the Csser’ians

Merchants of Death. Angels of God. Humanitarians. Freedom fighters. Pirates. Schemers.

All of the above describe the Csser’ian people. It was once said that over 80% of minor brush wars were in someway or form precipitated by Csser’ians just so their people could move in, even if on opposing sides.

The government of the Datha of the Hundred Moons never knew what to make of the Csser’ian. On one hand, many of them were military suppliers across the stars while others led and waged fierce battles of resistance on the battlefields and the hall of governments against Datha. Thus, when the time came and the avenging angels came to claim Datha as their own, the Csser’ian worlds were left off easily.

When peace came, many of the Csser’ian worlds saw surprisingly numbers of people volunteering to emigrate to Segmentum Alnitahium. Supposedly in the name of supporting the efforts of the Apelic Iris; these wanderlust populations were likely let go just so they could cause problems elsewhere. The Consul at Alnitah was not exactly pleased but the Csser’ians can be expected to do the unexpected.

OOC: Think of them as like Corellians or the society that spawned marauding English buccaneers

Societal Values:
Freedom and Wealth

Traits:
Flexible (+2)
Free Market Economy (+1)
Republic (+1)
Financially Savvy (+2)
Open (+1)

OOC: Is this along the lines of what you were looking for?

[Disenfrancised]

Yeah its fine, except for the description not at all matching up with the traits: you given a background of pirates and troublemakers whilst picking traits suited to a Venetian or Hollander style mercantile power that wants to be in the middle of the spacelanes. I would also be interested in why the Csserapostropheians are like that. Finally there's no one 'volunteering' to colonize the sector, its not a flipping roman province. If someone has the resources and intent to go there they will. Following from that the description isn't really tied to a singular group to start with as the culture under study.

In addition, are you going to feel comfortable RPing such risk-takers?

I like how everyone's picking freedom so far - muahahaha

[Symphony D.]

Phone screen makes for bad reading. Never mind.

[spryllino]

I'm subscribing. I haven't got time to worry about this right now, but I'll participate if I find myself with adequate free time on my hands to do so sometime before it starts.

[Thlayli]

Have you thought about some form of mechanic allowing powers with high e to convert it (highly inefficiently) to s? Perhaps this can be visualized in the form of mobilizing increased economic funding/resources behind one's limited pool of intellectual output.

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?

The slow speed at which players can design and build fun things (15 turns in we were barely closing in on proper fleet battles) was one of the major limiting factors in SysNES1. The classic example (again) was the Gardener/Soulon conflict in Kaus system, which despite being epic, could have been more epic had both sides been able to field actual fleets. Still, you seem to have addressed that. An increased number of NPC factions and tech trading will also alleviate this of course, as long as it doesn't overload the mod.

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.

Oh, and I will *gladly* reapply my traits if I can get Epic Ham re-enabled as a potential negative.

Spoiler for The mod-edited version of my submission:

The Standard Confederacy

Elric Standard was an adventurer, military leader, freebooter, homesteader, and all-around antihero that came during the death of the Datha Commonwealth. Insofar as a dying nation which had outlived its purpose could have had a symbol, he was one.

He was born on the planet Standard, a marginal biosphere close to Datha itself. Being so close saw decades of mismanagement and utter neglect, the elites always planning their careers in the capital and leaving as soon as possible, which managed to instill a hatred of central authority in the minds of the bitter leftover people. Effective resistance was impossible for generations until the terraforming work progressed far enough to allow the colonists to spread into the hinterlands.

Elric Standard started his career as a guerilla caudillo-cum-philosopher-cum-arsehole-Randian-Castro, writing impassioned tracts on the imperative of human freedom from the oppressive oligarchies that all centralized states inevitably become, while bombing government convoys. The critical failing of the Central Committee of Standard was considering Elric as a lawbreaker rather than a revolutionary. The rural colonist homesteads of the planet were the first to flock to Elric's standard, which gave Elric's Standard Confederacy its subsequent freebooting, agriculturalist, libertarian aesthetic.

The only place where the libertarian philosophy had to be dispensed with was the formation of an army, which began with parties of well-armed homesteaders turning their weapons from hunting local megafauna to hunting the toadies of the Central Committee. Elric's genius as a tactician became clear, driving government forces out of all but the few spaceport cities on the planet after a few years of fighting. Capturing the ideals of some of Datha’s sophisticates gave him out-system supporters and the Commonwealth had bigger things to think about than a government change on an unimportant world. And so, the Standard Revolution reached its inevitable completion. Besides a few targeted purges of socialist ideologues, the changeover was relatively orderly.

Because of Standard's tiny population, most of which was swept up in the romance of Elric's cause, the change in society was swift. Government was reduced to a planetary defense council (headed by Elric, who retained his revolutionary title of Commodore,) a small domestic anti-corruption organization to prevent private monopolies, and little else. The oppressively high number of environmental and business regulations, ironically instituted by the same bleeding heart factions in Datha that now supported Elric’s romanticism, were abolished. Elric, unwilling to risk his revolution, renegotiated the arrangement with Datha and Standard remained a client world.

Elric did a bunch of nonsensical and stupid economic policies, including an abolishing of currency that he had to speedily step back from, but the removal of the old restrictions more than compensated for the damage done. A large number of smugglers often called at Standard for repairs in the back hills and the Standard towns soon became very adept at jury rigging things together. The outbreak of the war saw a brief renaissance in the Standard economy as millions fled Datha and stopped on the way, often having to leave behind all manner of equipment and buying lots of foodstuffs. Eventually even several Dathic operations were launched out of Standard, bringing along Standard mercenaries as prize irregular ground troops.

This unfortunately raised Standard's profile sufficiently that the Iris felt they needed to seize it, and dispatched a Salamander Battleship and its attendant fleet to control the system. It is here that Elric's most famous act came into the universe, though having little sympathy for the Dathics, his ego could hardly allow some foreign power to occupy Standard. A rag-tag fleet of smugglers ships and military surplus managed via stealth and trickery to bring down the Salamander, an accolade shared only with a Dathic Battlemoon, and brought Standard a few more years of freedom.

The Apeilics didn’t forget however, and after Datha burned Standard found itself host to another party of uninvited guests. After swatting away the space fleet a long ground campaign ensued, the Apeilics perhaps afraid of their own destructive powers after Datha. The ground campaign was made frustrating for the Apeilic commanders by the crazy and resourceful Standard frontiersmen but ultimately they succeeded.

Commodore Elric himself was captured and tried for war crimes (ironically charged as a General-Rank Dathic Commander) and was executed, still making revolutionary speeches from the gallows. Making the Commodore a martyr of course ensured that his cause would transcend his own lifetime. And so, the ragged remnants of the Commodore's old fleet and a crop of refugees from Standard, embittered Federate warriors passed beyond the pale to build a shining beacon of real freedom, not simply its illusion, that they hope will one day eclipse the Iris and oppressive autarky everywhere...and get revenge. No one takes them seriously as they go.

Values: Freedom and Survival

Traits:

-1 Aggressive (Feel the need to 'liberate' neighbors laboring under oppression)
-1 Hate Jungles (Doesn't work very well with agriculture)
-2 Vulnerable to Toxins (See above)
+2 Frontiersmen
+1 Free Market Economy
+2 Rugged Designers
+3 Natural Farmers
+3 Martial

Notes on Standard Structure:

Archimedian Deism is the most popular religion among the peoples of the FAS. It is a no-nonsense faith organized by some Dark Age intellectual chronicler that praises the power of logic and hard work in one's community, and treats as secular saints the greatest rational thinkers that have advanced humanity towards an understanding of the universe. Vaguely emphasizes the grand destiny of humanity, makes little presumptions as to the nature of the afterlife or the absent Deity which might have created the universe. Segments of it view the universe as itself a deity and 'worship' to be human scientific development. Standardite Deism emphasizes the power of free thought, being less overtly scientific. Vaguely though not violently opposed to transhumanism and genetic experimentation. Important maxims: "Give me a place to stand and I will move the Earth," and "Work is prayer." Has ministers but no real hierarchy.

The legal system of the Standard Confederacy is locally variable, but public-justice oriented. The only mandate placed on the communities is that they 'elect Wardens for the prevention of crime.' Lawbreakers are often handled by the posting of bounties, and bounty-hunting is a legally-sanctioned and publicly acceptable activity. Communities are highly armed and form posses to hunt down serious lawbreakers. In the spaceport cities, privatized police forces paid for by a collective levy on corporations enforce order. Personal rights are legally enshrined above corporate rights, and the (fairly draconian) Directorate of Public Liberty cracks down on corruption when and where it can be found. Most corporations are better restrained by the fear of public justice and the Directorate than they would be in a traditional democratic society. Cities are treated as corporate-cooperative entities, and social services in them are privatized and paid for by purely voluntary fees levied on local corporations and people, many of whom prefer to supply their own necessities.

[Matt0088]

I assume the basis of my concept is now approved Dis? I'll create a formal write-up soon.

[Kal'thzar]

I'm interested of course. I also feel guilty for not getting the previous game I promised to do off the ground....

I'm going to have to ask if I have anything that may give me an unfair advantage?

[Kal'thzar]

Originally Posted by Disenfrancised

Population will move on its own – you no longer have to ferry around pops (indeed will be explicitly forbidden from doing so) but instead it’ll be calculated automagically based on your societal settings and habitat attractiveness.

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?

Originally Posted by Disenfrancised

Abstracted Merchant Fleet – rather than setting up trade routes you have a ‘merchant fleet tonnage’ statistic that enables movement between your worlds (the fleet tonnage being the max e you can move about). You will be able to build this directly, convert obsolete ships into merchant tonnage, rent out your merchant tonnage to other players, and gain trade benefits from having a lot of it whilst also having a presence in appropriate bits of space. This will also make piracy easier.

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?

Originally Posted by Disenfrancised

Specialist ground units – effectively armies with only one component these have useful functions within and beyond your nation, stuff like the Planetologist Team, Mobile Hospital, Espionage Team and so on.

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.

Originally Posted by Disenfrancised

Minor Terraforming is a lot easier – also hopefully someone will invest in it at some point.

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.

Originally Posted by Disenfrancised

Stress is now a number value.

Will it come with a way to deal with it too? Or just a measure of how screwed you are?

Originally Posted by Disenfrancised

Reworked IS Drives – The lack of difference in the effect of the IS drives irked me before so they’ve been redone somewhat. Now the Manifold and Burst Drives are cheaper but have limited range – in the network graph above they are unable to make any of the pink and purple transitions directly and must hop from star to star. The Charm and Twist drives can make these long range transitions as long as they have the power equal to the difficulty of the jump for a Charm drive the power is the number of computer modules available to the fleet, whilst the Twist drive’s power is just the ships surplus energy rating.

Better and Better!

I have yet to have a go with the ship designer, I like the idea of combining various template to make a final product.

[Kal'thzar]

Description: The Illos Pentarchy

The Illos are a people fled from a dying world, a colony ship attempted to escape. Crash landing on a desolate planet, quickly labeled Neo-Illos, the people quickly turned to their scientists and engineers to protect them from the harsh environment. The scientists managed to push through the needed solutions but at horrific costs in human life, cannibalizing most of the colony ship that had left them on this world.

The knowledge holders have shaped society around them. Five groups control everything that goes on Neo-Illos. Most institutions work on a cost-benefit model, even the justice system. These institutions have begun to effect how the people of Neo-Illos think and interact with each other.

It could be viewed that the people Neo-Illos have simply evolved from a survival based value system in highly unique fashion, whether the current set-up will persist is an unknown.


mhmmm that feels rubbish. I'll rewrite some bits of that...



Values: Knowledge, Power
Traits:
-1 - Aggressive: If you find yourself sharing a world your population will start being dicks. Also chance to mob the specialist teams of other players you might be using.
-2 - vulnerable to Toxins
2 - Industrious: Building factories doesn’t consume t or s, doesn’t produce social stress
2 - Edifice Complex: Large structures much cheaper, +5% construction research
3 - Plasma Technicians: Extra antimatter from plasma arrays and factories, +5% to energy research, shields are cheaper to refine.
3 - Mining Engineers: Extra minerals from mines and boreholes, +5% to materials research

You Know I promised myself that I wouldn't take horrible start again, but heck I enjoy the challenge
Edit: And now I don't have it...

[Symphony D.]

Revised; latest version is here.

[Seon]

Well, ain't this interesting. Innage.

I think I am feeling quite the authoritarian today. Something related to that will surface soon enough.

[Matt0088]

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?

[Seon]

Coran Illuminate

Background: The actual genesis of the Coran race is long sealed away, hidden somewhere deep within the memory files of the Enlightened Ones in charge of ruling the nation. The scant details that managed to escape the state-wide censors reveal that the people had been test subjects of some unethical biomechanical research done a long time ago. The Corans were the failed test subjects of said research who, after not performing to desired capabilities of their creators, were simply left behind.

Whether or not the creators were justified in their abandonment, the biomechanical upgrades that the Corans received allowed them to access the Map, a vast wireless network that included every single Coran in existence. The experience of being linked to the Map, as described by one outsider, was as if "standing at the zone where reality and the digital world seamlessly folded around one another." Indeed, the biomechanical upgrades allow the Corans to "see and feel" a digitized version of the world even as they walk about their normal life. What does this mean? This means that a Coran may be able to see advertisements on a wall when an unmodified human would only see a blank grey slab. Coran may be able to see lights on the streets, beautiful graffitis on the walls, and grand decorations when a normal human would only see blank and dark cities.

That being said, the simplest procedure required to access the Map is simple, easy to reverse, and cheap. The simplest version of the Map can, in fact, be accessed by wearing a specially devised pair of glasses, something that Corans would eagerly hand out to any foreigner they see on the streets.

Government: Theocracy. Corans are ruled by a group of men and women known as the Enlightened Ones, who were deemed mentally capable to take on the great challenge that is ruling the Coran Race. Assisted by a supercomputer known as MC, the Enlightened Ones subtly influence the Corans from both behind the scenes and in front of cheering crowds.

Unlike most religions, however, Corans are devoted not to any specific deity but rather a phenomenon known as the Singularity. Having been abandoned by their own creators as functionally inferior, they desire to transcend their feeble mortal frame behind and achieve transcendence through their own work.

Unfortunately, many Corans deviated from the task of working towards transcendence, instead focusing more on their own selfish interests. The tasks of the enlightened ones, then, is to guide these "lost children" back into the path of the Great Road and, failing that, eliminate these upstarts so that they no longer lead any more astray.

Values: Knowledge. Faith

Positive Traits:
-Cyberorganized (6)
-Starts with Theocratic (1)
-Data Traders (3)

Negative Traits
Vulnerable to Cold (-2)
Hates Snow (-1)

[Frozen In Ice]

Do the rules from SysNES1 still apply to everything that isn't specifically mentioned here? I'm interested but need a better understanding of the rules.

[Milarqui]

Thorpe Tyrar
The people of Thorpe Tyrar, who live in the world of Wraghtos, were part of the people who remained isolated during the last few hundred years. They knew of the problems in the outside thanks to their receptors of radio waves, which told them of huge battles and death. They preferred to remain isolated, until they could be sure that it was safe to return to space.

It was during this time that a grave crisis hit the people of Wraghtos. A grave illness hit the planet. It was first only affecting the people of a small town, but soon it expanded, becoming an epidemic of what could have been catastrophic proportions.

However, the people reacted admirably: they managed to organize themselves so that the epidemic affected as less people as possible, while the best scientists of the planet worked on finding a vaccine. It took more than two years and millions of deaths before the illness could eventually be pushed back and finally eliminated, thanks to the vaccines that had been developed. This incident was the catalyst for Thorpe Tyrar to slowly evolution towards a new society: after the catastrophic effects of the epidemic, the people would adopt the motto "Society first", and everbody would understand that the needs of the many would be more important than the wants of a few. It would also cement the position of the scientists in the society, with them becoming among the most important people in there, their opinion becoming among the most valuated in the planet.

It took several years, but when it was sure that the situation out there had become better, the government of Wraghtos ordered the development of systems to reach outer space and finally take the place it deserved in the universe.

Values: Society, Knowledge

Traits:
+1 - Planned Economy
+1 - +1 to Maths and 4% reduced cost to research Maths
+2 - Gregarious
+2 - Scholarly
+1 - Open
+3 - Skilled Farmers
-2 - Vulnerable to Radiation
-1 - Hate Snow

[Tycho]

Hmmm... I'm just going to lurk at the moment and watch, maybe make myself a nation later.