Preview: NiNES: A Broken Galaxy (new attempt)

[Niklas]

This is a preview and sign-up thread for my soon-to-be NES, please read and sign-up!

Ok, you're still here, great! Hi and welcome to my first modding attempt! After Erik Mesoy closed his really fun NES ENES: Abandoned Stars, I decided to try my hand at modding something similar. Here we go!

Much of the inspiration and rules for this NES have been "borrowed" from Erik's ENES: Abandoned Stars and Darwin420's stDarNES: Stars!. Most credit to them.

As this is a preview thread, the rules are still open for changes if there's something you really want me to change. You'd need a good argument though.

This thread also comes with two polls, for the two issues that I don't want to decide on myself. Note that the poll is public, so your answers will be visible to all, since I will listen more to those who actually sign up to play.

The first poll has to do with stories. I like stories, both to read and to write, but I know some people just don't have the time or the inclination to. I'm open to going either way, but ultimately I leave it up to the players to decide.

The second poll is more to do with game play. A rich galaxy means that expansion will be more important, the home systems less so, and because of higher incomes everything will come in bigger numbers. A barren galaxy means the home systems will be more important, expansion an extra on the side, and every last ship will count. On the other had, a faction that takes over the home system of another faction gets a huge advantage, and losing the home system will more or less mean game over. Having everything rather low means home systems will again not be as important, but everything will come in lower numbers.

In the consecutive posts I will put up the background and the rules. Please read and comment, and of course sign up!

 

[Niklas]

Background

When man in 2421 AD finally managed to learn how to really get off planet earth, it was no huge surprise that he would go on a spree of resource exploitation where possible, colonization where manageable, with lots of general pushing and shoving and elbowing to go with it. The first missions were sponsored by various nations; China was the first off, sending a virtually fruitless (but with massive bragging rights) expedition to Alpha Centauri. India, the European Union and the United Pacific States (what used to be the western parts of old USA) were not far behind, and no more successful. But none of them would be allowed to keep the initiative for long. From the moment that true space exploitation went from not just a dream to a possibility, but from a possibility to a reality, several multinational huge-scale venture capital corporations were set up with the sole purpose of getting to the juciest pieces first. Discussions in the UN about regulations for exploitation were largely (read completely) ignored, and where nations bickered, companies prevailed.

The next 30 or so years was a race not unlike the gold rushes of ancient history (aka 19th century), but with far more resources involved - both the ones being grabbed, and the ones utilized in grabbing them. Companies established their own domains, staking out whole systems and vehemently defending them against incursions by all means possible, violence being the rule rather than the exception.

After the initial rush to stake out systems, earth saw a veritable exodus. Space Conglomerations payed handsomely for workers for their mining platforms and factories, and charged "reasonable" prices for breathtaking seaview vistas on pristine terra-like planets (wanting to bring markets closer to the production sites), and many colonies quickly grew to large sizes. Another reason for the exodus was that all manner of political and religious organizations saw the opportunity to build just the society they had always longed for, but never had the chance back home on Earth. Polarization of people was in many places utterly complete. Whatever the reasons and outcomes, Earth quickly became a much less crowded place, but somehow managed remarkably well nonetheless.

During all this time, arms dealers saw a gold rush of their own (not to mention a good deal of them where already involved as venture capitalists) as the companies continued to compete over resources and systems. Things escalated more or less out of hand, until the Rimaldi incident in 2489 AD when a Neo-Zoroastrian colony of some 10 000 people was utterly destroyed when an asteroid was pushed to crash on it by a Cruiser from a company wanting to discredit the owners and landlords of the colony system. More from fear of losing future income than any genuine concern over human lives, all major players in the colonization race came to an agreement, where basic rules of conduct were set up.

For a while space became a bit less violent, but warring continued behind the curtains. Economic warfare, sabotage, anything imaginable. Little of this ever reached the attention of the larger populace though, and life in space prospered. Technological discoveries increased this prosperity even more, as drone workers took over menial tasks, built-in quantum computers were ubiquitous and "humanic enhancements" as they were called, implants to enhance body and mind, became abundant.

One of the greatest achievements of this time was the construction of the Warpgates. Taking the ideas that enabled FTL travel one step further, engineers managed to create a "gate" that allowed FTL travel between two predetermined points in space, using far simpler ships and less energy that was required for ordinary FTL travel. For the gates to work, both entry points needed connection to what became known as planetary Hyperstatic Fields. These were quickly set up all over human-controlled space, and warpgates (the name taken from popular fiction) were constructed to connect systems near and far.

It was really a golden age for space capitalists and colonists alike. But then something happened. It's origins are still unknown, but somewhere, somehow, someone came up with a scheme for damaging the economic opposition that simply went out of hand, to put it mildly. An engineered bio-mechanic virus, later known as The Scourge, was released in 2505 AD into a backwater industrial system, to render it useless. But the virus was deadlier than any previously used, and what's more it wouldn't be contained to that system alone. It got a hold on an outwards-bound ship, and quickly spread to a number of neighboring systems. Before anyone realized the danger, it had spread to virtually everywhere, and there was no escape. It was engineered to specifically target a particular kind of circuits found in most AI and man-machine interfaces, and these were extremely common. In the blink of an eye, or rather over the course of about three years, everything crashed. More than 95% of all people were killed, if not from the virus itself then from the malfunctioning of machinery that mankind had come to depend on.

This is the lull after the storm. Approximately seven years (exact time keeping has been difficult) have passed since the first mention of The Scourge, and for the last four of those years things have been seemingly calm. The survivors are slowly banding together and turn their eyes upwards, outwards once more. In some places, remnants of old societal structures remain. In others, completely new constallations are forming. Will you dare take control over one of these fledgling factions, and brave the dangers of space once more?


Map, Players, NPCs, Orders, Updates, Stories

Map will be hand made by me, though most factors will be randomized. It will consist of star systems interconnected by warpgates for travel. Size will depend on the number of players that sign up.

Players will be as many as would play, the more the better, and I will adjust the map accordingly. Each player will play a survivor faction. Once the map is finalized the NES will be closed to new factions, and thus players, so if you want to play then sign up now! Anyone is welcome, as long as you read the rules and fill in a template.

NPC factions will not exist, period. It's not up to me to play factions, it's up to you, the players. If a player should drop out, and doesn't have a replacement, the faction will be played with a minimum of input for three turns, and if no replacement has been found by then, something very nasty will happen. Very nasty.

Orders should be sent to me by PM. Initially orders will be limited to one PM per turn and faction. I really can't see any reason why you would ever even approach that limit. Orders should in particular include any diplomatic deals you have signed, and of course what you intend to do with your PP and military.

Updates will hopefully be regular, but most likely not. I will try once a week, but since this is my very first NES I don't really have an idea of how long each update will take. Rather than overworking myself I will let updates take their time.

Stories are the big questionmark thus far. While I enjoy both reading and writing stories, and find them an integral part of NESes, I know not everyone has the time or inclination to write a lot. Hence the poll.

 

[Niklas]

Rules

Yeah, I know I'm fairly verbose when I write something. Don't be scared by the size of it though, the rules aren't really that complex, I just like to explain a lot.

Economy

Production Points (PP) will be the main OOC currency in this game, for players to spend on ships, technology, colonies and other vital stuff. At the start of the game your home system will produce 40 PP/turn, which will be your total income at that time. This can be increased by redevelopment of colonies, or by colonizing new systems (see below). Later in the rules I will refer to the PP/turn income from a system as its PP yield. PP can be banked indefinitely.


Redevelopment of a system means to re-utilize its abandoned production facilities, to get them working again, thus increasing the PP yield. This is the only part of the rules that is the least bit complex! And it's not awfully complex at that.

Generally the more you redevelop a system, the more expensive it becomes to redevelop it further (because you start with the facilities that are easiest to get to work again). Each system has a maximum production capacity (MPC), but is also categorized by different steps at which redevelopment becomes more expensive (to simulate different conditions on different systems).

Basic systems template:
System name - MPC (R3/R4/R5/...)

An example (non-existant) system:
Beta Minotauri - 70 (40/0/0/20/10)

Looking behind the numbers for the levels first, you can think of the lowest redevelopment level (R3) as easy reactivation of standard production facilities on terra-like planets (remember a system is comprised of a number of planets, moons and asteroids), whereas the highest level (R8) may correspond to deep-space mining of asteroids at near 0 K temperature in high radiation. I won't give such desciptive details for systems on the map, only the raw numbers, but feel free (no, encouraged!) to flesh them out through stories as you colonize and redevelop them. Generally, a system with high numbers for the low R-levels is more worth colonizing than a system with low numbers there.

Now for how to use those numbers. The MPC is as noted the highest production that a system could possibly yield, and will always equal the sum of the various RX numbers. The steps RX indicate to what PP yield you could redevelop the system at a rate of 1:X (i.e. each increase in PP yield would cost X PP).

Our example system has a maximum capacity of 70 PP/turn, where the first 40 could be redeveloped at a rate of 1:3 (i.e. each increase in PP yield would cost 3 PP), the next 20 at a rate of 1:6, and the final 10 at a rate of 1:7.

At the start of the game, you have the ability to redevelop your systems up to R5. To redevelop higher levels you need to reclaim certain technology. The highest possible redevelopment level is R8. There is also technology that lowers the prices of redevelopment, so most probably no one will ever pay a rate of 1:8.

And that's the end of it. Wasn't so hard, was it?

Actually, if you don't want to you don't need to learn this stuff in full detail. Just tell me how much you invest in redevelopment of a system and I'll tell you what you get. But it will definitely be an advantage to at least understand the basics of it.


Trade is the other way to gain PP. We could think of two kinds of trade really - automatic and manual.

Manual trade is like calling up the trade table in your favorite Civ edition. You talk to some other faction, and the two of you agree to trade some commodities. In this NES I will not refer to this as trade, but as diplomacy, explained below.

Automatic trade is what I generally refer to as trade in this NES. It means that your merchants start selling their goods on the markets of another faction, and works much like trade routes in CIV. This will yield a small PP income to you, the exact size of which will depend on the number of systems of the other faction that can be reached in one turn, and their sizes. The other faction will also get a small income, namely half as much as you get (and you will in turn get half as much as they get for trading in your markets). Trade will be automatic, meaning you don't need to pay for trade routes or anything. The only thing that can block this is if a faction declares that it will not let merchants of another faction in to their markets (specific markets could be specified). (Note that this also means that if your merchants would need to pass by a system owned by faction X to get to the markets of faction Y, and X will not let your ships through, you won't get to Y either.)

Spoiler Number crunching :

For those who care about numbers, the exact formula for trade will be as follows. If your merchants can conduct trade at a system with production P, your gain from that will be

T = FLOOR[(P/10)^1.25]

The faction who owns the system gets half as much. Your total trade gain will be the sum of that over all systems where you can conduct trade, plus the sum of your income for others trading in your systems.

You don't need to (shouldn't!) keep track of your trade income yourselves, I will do it for you (I have a computer script that does it for me so don't worry about me). Just be aware that trade will increase if you can reach more systems (with higher speed or closer colonies), and that the trade income of your neighbor (and thus you indirectly) will increase if you redevelop the systems whose markets he can reach.


Exploration and Colonization

Systems are planetary systems in orbit around a star. This means that a system does not represent a single planet, rather it could represent any combination of planets, moons and asteroid fields. Still, since intra-system travel was always so much easier and cheaper than inter-system travel, and since hyperstasis fields were not what you would call cheap, all warp gates to a system lead to a single body which has that system's hyperstasis field.

In principle it is possible for several factions to peacefully share the resources of a system.

Travel between systems can only be done through the warpgates that lead to and from it, since the original methods for FTL travel have been all but forgotten. Initially your interstellar ships can travel between the warpgates at a speed of 1 gate/turn. This speed may later be increased through reactivation of the relevant technology.

Exploration of a system is done by sending any interstellar ship (anything but a fighter) to it. Exploration is automatic, and will tell you the production capacity of the system, as well as any surprises that awaits you there. Suprises can be anything from high radiation to hostile mutants to human refugees to ship wrecks. Some are good, most are bad. Some will be immediately effective on exploration, most will affect colonization.

Claiming a system can be done either by colonizing it (see below) or by setting up a defensive command post. Any ship of capital class or larger can set one up, which costs 5 PP. A defensive command post has very limited defensive capabilities (it's a communication bunker more or less), but it will allow you to control communication through the hypergates of that system, and perhaps more importantly put your flag on it.

Colonization of a system can be done using a ship with the colonization ability. An initial colony will yield 5 PP, regardless of the R-levels of the colonized system.

Communication via hypergates is near-instantaneous, but they need to be manned in order for a message to propagate through a system from one gate to another. A colony, a command post or an interstellar ship in the system makes it count as manned. If the faction controlling a system so wishes, it can block messages coming through.

It is possible to send ships beyond communication range, with orders. They will disappear from sight until communication is reestablished, if they still exist by then.


Systems

Apart from what has already been discussed, colonized systems have two additional traits:

Stability is a measure of how well the people here are content with their lives and belonging to your faction. Low stability means any number of bad things will happen (loss of production, lowered defense etc). If two or more factions share a system, there will be a stability rating for each of them.

Improvements are special facilities of a system that don't increase its production. They can be installed in a colony by investing a fixed amount of PP. The improvements you can initially build are:

• Shipyards (5 PP)
  Allows new ships to be deployed at the colony.
• Defense Systems (20 PP)
  Installments that give a bonus to defense of the system.

Your home systems come pre-equiped with both of these. The list of improvements will grow (a bit) larger as you re-discover tech. If two or more factions share a system, each faction must build the improvements separately.

Template for systems:

<System name> <MPC> <(R-levels)>
<Faction>:
PP yield : <PP>/turn <(distribution if shared system)>
Stability: <stability>%

Cheesy example system:

Beta Minotauri 70 (40/0/0/20/10)
Space Cowboys:
PP yield : 40/turn (40/0/0/0/0)
Stability: 75%
Masters of Orion:
PP yield : 10/turn (0/0/0/0/10)
Stability: 45%


Diplomacy

Diplomacy entails everything that goes on between two (or more) factions. There are no real rules for this, as players could come up with whatever they like between each other. Tradeable commodities are more or less whatever you could imagine. Yes, that includes ships, though be aware that if you have an advantage in ship technology you will in effect be selling that tech away too (or at least give the other faction a huge bonus on researching it). Same goes for ground troops (and beware, people might not like being sold).
Include all diplomatic deals in your orders! Deals that are not included in your orders have never happened.

 

[Niklas]

Military and Warfare

Ships
Due to popular demand when Erik asked, ships will be done in "Classic" style, i.e. a number of different ship classes of which you can have different numbers. Yes, this is greatly simplified, for the sake of the game and my sanity. The ship classes are as follows:

• Scout (4 PP)
  Small frigate class ship. Explorer and not much else. Virtually no offensive capacity and very little defensive.
• Assault Ship (8 PP)
  Frigate class ship for aerial assault and take-over of other ships. Can carry 100 soldiers or 200 drone soldiers for an assault. Much less fire power than a standard frigate.
• Escort Carrier (4 PP)
  Frigate class carrier. Can carry 30 fighters. Almost no offensive and little defensive capabilities.
• Carrier (12 PP)
  Capital class carrier. Can carry 100 fighters. Very little offense, little defense.
• Command Carrier (60 PP)
  Supercapital class carrier. Can carry 500 fighters, or 50 corvette class ships. Some offensive and defensive fire power. Techs will decrease cost as for battleship.
• Transport (2 PP)
  Carries ground troops. Can carry 1000 infantry or 100 tanks or 2000 drone soldiers (or combinations). Has no offensive capacity and very basic defense.
• Super-transport (12 PP)
  Capital class troop transport. Can carry 10000 infantry or 1000 tanks or 20000 drone soldiers. Very little offense, little defense.
• Fighters (1 PP per 5)
  Small fighting ships, escorts for transports and carriers. Intrastellar (i.e. cannot travel through hypergates without being carried)
• Corvette (4 PP)
  Smallest interstellar fighting craft. Specifically designed to take out fighters, wouldn't hold their own against larger ships.
• Frigate (12 PP)
  Smallest capital class ship. Can hold its own against a small fleet of fighters or corvettes.
• Destroyer (16 PP)
  Can easily hold its own against a small fleet of fighters, but two frigates would probably outmanouver it. Better manouverability but less firepower than a Cruiser.
• Cruiser (24 PP)
  Large capital class ship. Lots of fire power to take out larger ships, but less suited to take out fighters. Though it would still take a lot of fighters to bring one down...
• Battleship (80 PP)
  Supercapital class ship. Largest fighting ships, not much beats one of these. No the price is not a typo, but key tech will greatly decrease it.
• Dreadnought ("Death Star") (200 PP)
  Not quite like the Death Stars of popular fiction, this ship is simply a very large, and very efficient battleship. From the surface of a planet it would look like a star, hence the popular name. Lots of fighting power and devastating bombardment. Tech will decrease the price.

Ships can be built (and thus deployed) at any colony with shipyards.

Each faction is also allowed to design one ship unique to that faction (refered to as its UU). Tell me what you want and I'll tell you what they would cost, and if you need some tech first.

Once you start getting more than just a handful of ships in your armada, please organize them into fleets for both your and my sanity. If you don't, some of them might start getting lost...


Ground Troops
There are basically three kinds of ground troops - infantry, tanks, and drone soldiers. 1 ep will initially buy you either 1000 infantry or 100 tanks. Drones aren't working yet.


Warfare
Warfare in this setting can basically be broken down into four steps:

Aerial Combat: When two rival fleets face off in a battle for system superiority. Fighting will be to the death, or retreat. Unless orders say otherwise, it is assumed that an attacking fleet will attempt to retreat when overwhelmed, and a defensive fleet will fight to the death.

A retreat will be to the nearest system that the fleet came from. Depending on movement rate, they might not get there until the next turn. It is possible to pursue a fleeing fleet, with good enough movement rate. No battle will ever take place inside a warpgate, a pursuit will be resolved on the other side. Similarly, two fleets headed in opposite directions through the same warpgate will never know of the other's presence, and will simply bypass each other.

Depending on colony size and the presence of defensive systems, defenders may get bonuses, in some cases fairly large.

Bombardment: Can be done by any ship once system superiority is first achieved. Simply put, you throw junk down onto the planet surface. Early experiments with various kinds of explosive devices showed no significant improvement when dropped from that kind of altitude, so it's simply easier to just push all-abundant rocks and debris down onto the planet surface. The bigger the ship, the bigger the rocks that can be pushed. Bombardment will kill civilians and ground troops, and damage defense systems and production facilities (sometimes irrepairably, i.e. system MPC decreases).

Ground assault: Can be done using ground troops and fighters once system superiority is achieved. If some defense systems are still up, your ships will be subject to defensive fire on the way down. Once there, they will be met by whatever ground forces that are still alive. It is hard, but possible, to retreat from a ground assault if resistance turns out to be too harsh. Ground assault will do more targetted damage to enemy ground troops and defense systems, and only limited damage to civilians and production facilities.

Capture and Assimilation: A successful ground assault will result in the capture of the system. How many PP that system will yield per turn for you, refered to as assimilation, depends on a number of factors, including pure randomness. In most cases it will probably be rather low, but the system can be redeveloped just like a "pristine" one.


Actions

To define what can and what cannot be done on the same turn, I define three different types of actions for ships and troops; Free actions, Standard actions and Full Turn actions. The basic rule is that during a single turn, a ship or troop can do any number of free actions, and either one Standard action and moving, or a Full Turn action and no move. In the cases where applicable, the Standard action can be done at any time during the move (i.e. you can if you like move, then act, then finish your move).

Free actions:

• Exploring a system (interstellar ships)
• Bombardment

Standard actions:

• Colonizing a system (colony ships)
• Establishing a defensive command post (capital class ships or larger)
• Engaging in offensive aerial combat

Full Turn actions:

• Doing a Ground Assault
• Being built (ship)

Note that this last bullet means that you cannot move a ship on the same turn that it is built. Techs may change this. Ground troops can be built and moved on the same turn, if there is a ship that can move them. Ships can engage in defensive combat in the system they are built on that same turn, but ships cannot be built in a system where an enemy faction has system superiority.

The bullet for ground assault means you will have to first establish system space superiority, then do an eventual ground assault on the next turn. Bombardment can be done on both those turns if you want, it takes very little time, hence it's a free action.

Espionage

Outright warfare doesn't suit all situations. Sometimes it's far better to work out of sight.

You may if you like invest PP into espionage activities. This can include stealing military plans, or stealing technology, or sabotage activities, or anything else you might think of.

Setup and upkeep: If you are serious about this, then the first step would really be to try to plant your agents with a neighbor faction. You can invest PP into establishing an espionage network, and the more you spend the more reliable it becomes. Since espionage is very imprecise, I won't give any exact numbers, but good agents don't come cheap. To maintain your network you'd better also regularly spend some PP on it in upkeep.

Quality: As noted, the more you invest in your network, the better and more reliable it becomes. Reliable means that there is a higher chance for success, but also that there is a lower chance for discovery. For a particular mission you may declare that success is more important than not being discovered, or the other way around.

Counter-espionage: Of course you can plant agents among your own ranks to try to weed out any foreign spies, or even plant false information. Rules are the same as for planting spies abroad.

 

[Niklas]

Research

Basics
Because of the setting, research is actually re-research, meaning you don't really discover new stuff so much as getting the old stuff to work again.

I will use a branching tree much like Erik Mesoy's. You conduct research by investing PP in specific techs that you wish to re-learn. You can invest in the research of any number of techs in the same turn, but you cannot research a tech B that depends on a tech A on the same turn as your research A. The tree is six tiers deep, where a tech on tier X will depend on at least one tech on tier X-1 (except at X=1), and possibly on techs on lower tiers as well. All techs on the same tier will have the same base research cost. Exact research costs may vary (randomly) from tech to tech and from faction to faction, so what I will give is estimates. You can expect the estimates to be within 50&#37; (plus or minus) of the true numbers. Any overflow will simply be banked. I haven't fully decided on the estimate numbers yet, so if you have input then shoot.

It will be possible to trade techs between factions. You can trade for as many techs as you like, and when you've traded for a tech from one neighbor you can immediately turn around and trade it away to another. You can trade for any techs that you know the prerequisites for, even those whose prerequisites you just traded for. Also if you trade for a tech, you can start researching a follow-up tech on the same turn. All benefits of traded techs will be effective immediately (if you only remember to include the deals in your orders!).

Areas and Branches
There are six main areas of research: Biotech, Physics, Engineering, Computers, Weaponry and Defenses. Each of the four first areas each have two branches, and the two last have three branches each. Branches are just there for easy grouping though, there are plenty of cross-over prerequisites. The first tech in each branch (on tier 1) is a so called survey tech, and the purpose is to get an overview of what other techs that live in the same branch. Survey techs are cheap, they come at 5 PP a piece (exact, not an estimate). I will thus not give out the whole tech tree at the start (though it's complete), rather you will have to discover it as you go. You can ask your advisors (me) things like "if we want to get this thingamabob to work, what should we be looking at?" and I will give you pointers.

Tech Tree:

Spoiler :

Areas with their first-tier techs (cost 5 PP each).

Biotech
- Medicine
- Bioconstruction

Physics
- Energy Sources
- Warpgates

Engineering
- Robotics
- Ship Design

Computers
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Ship Computers

Weaponry
- Lasers
- Missiles
- Slugs

Defenses
- Shields
- Point Defenses
- Plating

Factions

Finally we get to the part where you get to do something too! Factions are you, the players. Your faction is a (fairly large) group of survivors who have bunkered down on your planet waiting for the scourge to pass. Since factions were fairly diverse even before the scourge, and isolation hasn't really helped unification, there's no telling what kind of factions are out there at the start of this NES. Only your imagination sets the limits - although please keep it within the bounds of semi-realism.

Traits: Just like Erik, I will let you pick two positive and one negative traits for your faction, or just one positive if you prefer. Tell me what you want in general terms and I will fill in any remaining details for you. Don't try &#252;berpowered stuff, like asking to start with a huge fleet. Use your common senses here.

Template: (shamelessly stolen from Erik and modified to suit my purposes). Replace the {} with your own values, and remove everything in <>.

{Faction Name Here} ( {Short Name If Applicable} )
Leader: {Optional Title}{Name} / {Player Name}
Home system: {Name Here} {number} warpgates <choose 2, 3 or 4 depending on how connected you want your starting system to be, or leave blank for a random value>
Attributes: {Trait} ( {Attribute} ) {Optionally, a second good trait and one negative trait}
Production: 40 (0 banked)
Trade: None
Travel speed: 1 gate/turn
Colonized systems:
- {Home system name} 40/[MPC] ([R-levels]) <leave MPC and R-levels blank, I will fill it in somewhat at random>
Army and Fleet deployment:
- {Home System Name}: 1000 infantry, {} Scouts, {} Fighters
<Choose 1-5 scouts and 180-100 fighters proportionally, for example 3 and 140 or 5 and 100. I.e. a scout is worth 20 fighters.>
Note: As you have no Carriers, neither your infantry nor your Fighters can travel to other systems.
Researched technologies: None
<You may have a starting technology as (part of) one of your traits.>
Description: {Give a paragraph or two describing your faction. Do keep it somewhat short as I will put it up in the faction list in the beginning of the main thread. If you want to give a fuller description, make it a story and I might (depending on poll results) reward you for it.}

 

[Niklas]

Please sign up!

Player Factions (signed up so far)

The Emergents of Providence ("Emergents")
Leader: President Jonathan Domini / Erik Mesoy
Home system: Benalia - 3 warpgates
Attributes: Blessed ( Reliably good random events )
Production: 40 (0 banked)
Trade: None
Travel speed: 1 gate/turn
Colonized systems:

• Benalia 40/150 (50/20/10/50/10/10)

Army and Fleet deployment:

• Benalia: 1000 infantry, 4 Scouts, 120 Fighters

Note: As you have no Carriers, neither your infantry nor your Fighters can travel to other systems.
Researched technologies: None

Description: The Emergents seem to have survived the Breaking by unadulterated luck, which holds even unto this day. Their new leaders are constantly finding ore deposits, salvaging old ships, getting sudden inflices of volunteers, or being out of town when a natural disaster strikes their headquarters. Probing the luck is unpopular due to a superstition that it might cease if someone discovers that it has no basis in reality.


Brotherhood of Nod (Nod)
Leaders: Seth and Kane / Cleric
Home system: Godan - 3 warpgates
Attributes: Fanatics (loyal population), Brilliant Research (20&#37; reduction on all research costs), Wimpy (infantry sucks)
Production: 40 (0 banked)
Trade: None
Travel speed: 1 gate/turn
Colonized systems:

• Godan 40/120 (60/20/20/0/10/10)

Army and Fleet deployment:

• Godan: 1000 infantry, 3 Scouts, 140 Fighters

Researched technologies: None

Description: The Brotherhood of Nod is an ancient quasi religious society that originated on Earth, but left because of prosecution on charges that it was a dangerous terrorist organization. They found an arid, backwater desert planet and settled there. Everything was well for a time, until the Scourge came along through an unexplained way. The Brotherhood was thrown into chaos, it divided and fought itself. Then two mysterious men appeared, one claiming he came from another dimension, the other while not claiming anything was strategic mastermind and had great charisma. They joined forces and united the Brotherhood. Now after the end of the plague, Nod is ready to expand on a galactic level.


The Furians
Leader: President Ryan Zabriskie / germanicus12
Home system: Fury - 4 warpgates
Attributes: Warriors (really good infantry), Natural Pilots (bonus to aerial battles), Harsh Training (infantry costs double)
Production: 40 (0 banked)
Trade: None
Travel speed: 1 gate/turn
Colonized systems:

• Fury 40/160 (50/0/40/20/10/40)

Army and Fleet deployment:

• Fury: 1000 infantry, 4 Scouts, 120 Fighters

Researched technologies: None

Description: The Furians were all but wiped out and forgotten by history during the scourge. But in reality they escaped and hid out underground. They were the most feared military unit in the galaxy, supported by UPS, United Pacific States, they ruled their system with an iron fist. The workers and citizens rarely broke the law and the Fury system immediatly became the safest place in the Universe. Until the scourge that is...... Now they have come out to a shattered system and now hope to rebuild the system again and rule with an Iron fist again, as they love to do that.


Nekomi
Leaders: Various electives/ TerrisH
Home system: Sirius - 4 warpgates
Attributes: Core World (productive home system), Genetic Affinity (Free Techs: Medicine, Genetics; genetic research costs half, effects are doubled), Truthful (Suck at espionage)
Production: 45 (0 banked)
Trade: None
Travel speed: 1 gate/turn
Colonized systems:

• Godan 45/200 (70/20/20/30/20/40)

Army and Fleet deployment:

• Sirus: 1000 infantry, 4 Scouts, 120 Fighters

Researched technologies: Biotech: Medicine, Genetics

Description: Sirius, once one of the proud Core worlds, now a ruin. Its proud shipyards and cities reduces to empty, desolate hulks. But from these ruined cities have risen the Survivors - the Nekomi. In truth, they were no more then a strange sub-culture of humanity. Mostly teenagers, who have decided to follow into a strange trend of making minor genetic additions to themselves. For some, a tail or an extra set of animal-like ears upon the top of their heads. Some even have claws. While human at the core, these additions, which could not be passed on to the next generation by, did somehow give them an advantage durring the lean times, and a large number of them did survive. Now, as the road to recovery begins once again, they have taken the forefront of society, and begun trying to reach the stars again.


Shuurai Heavy Industries [&#35186;&#26469;&#37325;&#24037;&#26989;, Shuurai J&#363;k&#333;gy&#333;] (Shuurai, SHI)
Leader: Chief Executive Officer Tsukuda Renji / Symphony D.
Home system: Epsilon Eridani - 4 Warpgates
Attributes: Industrious (15% cost reduction on ships, tanks and drones), Brilliant Research (20% reduction to all research costs), Corporate State (evil bastards; lower stability and hated by others)
Production: 40 (0 banked)
Trade: None
Travel speed: 1 gate/turn
Colonized systems:

• Epsilon Eridani 40/140 (50/30/10/0/40/10)

Army and Fleet deployment:

• Epsilon Eridani: 1000 infantry, 4 Scouts, 120 Fighters

Researched technologies: None

Description: With the expansive resources under the control of megacorporations, it was inevitable one of them at least would survive even a massive calamity such as that of the Scourge. Shuurai, a weapons manufacturing titan based upon the archipelagic terrestrial core world of Epsilon Eridani Prime, did precisely that, aided by vast quantities of military hardware within its warehouses and the means to manufacture more. It has since extended its control over the rest of the system, and with the new commercial void which has opened, aims for the &#8220;acquisition&#8221; of yet more &#8220;strategic resources.&#8221;


Colonial Federation of Sezuren (Colonials)
Leader: Prime Minister Alesia Maradoth / Global Nexus
Home system: Sezuren - 3 warpgates
Attributes: Imperialistic Drive (strong colony stability)
Production: 40 (0 banked)
Trade: None
Travel speed: 1 gate/turn
Colonized systems:

• Sezuren 40/120 (80/10/20/0/10/0)

Army and Fleet deployment:

• Sezuren: 1000 infantry, 3 Scouts, 140 Fighters

Researched Technologies: None
Description: When the Sezuren system saw its first colonies erected, the men and women who founded them believed it was the beginning of a wonderful new life. Sezuren was the target of a very large, very expensive colonization project. It was supposed to be the future: bringing millions, nay billions to the system and developing the central planet completely within a year. This was how future colonial projects were supposed to be! Eight months later, the Scourge hit.

When all was said and done, however, the colonists did not all die. In fact, they survived despite the losses that occurred. By what seems to be nothing more than a stroke of luck, the colonists largely survived the Scourge! Now the colonists of Sezuren have their infrastructure back up and running, even if it is a bit jury-rigged for the moment. They&#8217;ve come to realize that this is an opportunity to reshape the mold of their new society. Instead of being a colony &#8211; a subordinate &#8211; they would forge a new interstellar dominion and create a society of MANY united colonies.


Intergalactic Corporation
Leader: Chief Executive Gnork / Sheep
Home system: Huris - 3 warpgates
Attributes: Imperialistic Drive (strong colony stability)
Production: 40 (0 banked)
Trade: None
Travel speed: 1 gate/turn
Colonized systems:

• Huris 40/140 (60/20/30/0/10/20)

Army and Fleet deployment:

• Huris: 1000 infantry, 3 Scouts, 140 Fighters

Researched Technologies: None
Description: Huris, home of terror, blood and near anarchy, until Intergalactic Corporation made a hostile takeover of the planetary government and reinstated order. Now Intergalactic looks out on the neighbouring systems realising that it is their mission to expand the corporation, expand their profits and expand order in this galaxy and beyond.


NAM Cluster Gymir-Rho (NAMg&#961
Leader: CEO Oscar Magnusson/ Disenfrancised
Home system: Rigel C II - 2 warpgates
Attributes: Mechanical Affinity (Starts with Robotics, halved cost for all Robotics research, 25% more drones per PP), Extremophile Industry (-1 to redev costs for R6-R8, starts with R6, earlier unlocking of R7), Low Population (Colony ships cost double, trading to yields half, infantry cost double)
Production: 40 (0 banked)
Trade: None
Travel speed: 1 gate/turn
Colonized systems:

• Rigel 40/160 (50/30/0/10/40/30)

Army and Fleet deployment:

• Rigel: 1000 infantry, 5 Scouts, 80 Fighters

Researched technologies: Robots, Human-Computer interface

Description: NAM, or Norsk Automated Mining industries has a long history stretching right back to the 22nd century on earth. The technical demands of profitably mining the truly enormous coal reserves off Norway&#8217;s coast lead to an explosion of robotics, teleoperation, AI and extreme environment engineering, and the vast wealth engendered made the company a notable power (and one which became very integrated with the still EU-independent Norwegian state). Naturally when the solar system opened up NAM units were at the forefront of resource extraction across difficult environments from Triton to Mercury. During the great expansion NAM spread across the stars, typically acting as subcontractors to other Commercial entities to break ground in difficult systems whilst local industry started up. It is in this period that the &#8220;Cluster&#8221; evolved as the principle NAM unit, consisting of a self sufficient group of large mining robots and the industrial base and habitats to keep them running, moving from system to system to find work, with a closely knit and somewhat insular social structure. As the Scourge spread throughout Known Space, A cluster with the designation &#8220;Gymir-Rho&#8221; was working the highly radioactive belt orbiting the third star in the Rigel system. As the systems failed the Cluster relocated to CII, where a small Terraforming project was occurring under the auspices of another company. A few megaton mining charges later and the planet was under the Clusters authority, though most of their machinery had to be abandoned in orbit. Despite the slightly radiation intense environment the people are getting back on their feet, and the wealth of worlds beckons once again.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Signups with no factions yet:
foolish icarus
Swissempire

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Barren galaxy (unsure about home systems), stories should be important but not generalized. (some negatives or some positives, but not all)

And I suppose you've been pinching actions from Dungeons and Dragons, and tiers from Master of Orion?

I'm wondering what faction to play this time... maybe Survivalists, since it would be logical that they survived the Scourge?

 

[Symphony D.]

Bonuses to all stories, even if they're not direct (like LINESII). If I write I want to put effort into it and get something out of it too, not just "Whoops, you didn't meet the criteria, you get jack all."

This would encourage other people to write too, I think. Also, rich homeworlds, average galaxy. The notion of every single other world being a rock is kind of silly; if they were, why would the huge expense of building gates have been done in the first place?

 

[Niklas]

And I suppose you've been pinching actions from Dungeons and Dragons, and tiers from Master of Orion?

Correct about the former, close about the latter. The only reason I would call them tiers at all is just for easy classification. It's really just a standard tech tree, although it's structured in a very particular way.

The notion of every single other world being a rock is kind of silly; if they were, why would the huge expense of building gates have been done in the first place?

Of course, even with a barren galaxy the other systems would not be completely void of resources. But a valid point nevertheless.

 

[Symphony D.]

Also, it doesn't make sense for Frigates to be carried by other ships, to my mind. That should be a Corvette, if at all. A Frigate should be the minimum size of "capital ship." By Naval terminology a Cruiser should also be larger than a Destroyer.

This is admittedly Homeworld speaking, more than anything, but there is also a tradition to these things, since Naval terms are being used at all. Also, the Death Star is really, really cheesy.

 

[Niklas]

Also, it doesn't make sense for Frigates to be carried by other ships, to my mind. That should be a Corvette, if at all. A Frigate should be the minimum size of "capital ship." By Naval terminology a Cruiser should also be larger than a Destroyer.

I based it on your post here. Not the carrying part, sure, but the fact that frigates are smaller capital class ships. I admit I don't know zit about naval classes, but for game purposes I kinda like it as it is.

Also, the Death Star is really, really cheesy.

Sure it is. But we still love it, don't we? And actually it's not all that bad an idea from an engineering point of view, considering the many nice properties of spheres. If you wanted a really really large battleship in a low gravity environment, why not a spherical one?

 

[Symphony D.]

Can't maximize firepower concentration, doesn't present the smallest possible target profile depending on orientation (in fact, it will always present the same profile), doesn't afford much crew protection in the event of catstrophic weapons or power failures due to concentration of internal elements... There are a lot of good reasons not to use a sphere. It's efficient from a spatial perspective, not a functionality perspective, particularly a combat functionality perspective.

I also mentioned Corvettes in that post.

 

[Sheep]

Intrested.

 

[Niklas]

Can't maximize firepower concentration, doesn't present the smallest possible target profile depending on orientation (in fact, it will always present the same profile), doesn't afford much crew protection in the event of catstrophic weapons or power failures due to concentration of internal elements... There are a lot of good reasons not to use a sphere. It's efficient from a spatial perspective, not a functionality perspective, particularly a combat functionality perspective.

Well, that's kind of the point. So maybe the problem here is that battleship is a misnomer - it's more or less a whole fleet, including backup. No it cannot maximize firepower in any single direction, but it has so much of that firepower that what it can concentrate is more than a battleship anyway. And it can do that in many different directions at the same time. No, it cannot present a small target profile, there's no way it can avoid being hit. But it has so much protection and redundant systems that attacks are to be expected, and seldom do any serious damage. The point about crew protection I don't understand to be honest. Sure, from a pure fighting perspective a (fleet of) battleship is going to be more cost efficient. But a Death Star is more like an ambulating military base. Apart from the massive firepower and defenses, it has vast interior spaces for ship bays, carrying many more fighters and even larger ships than the largest command carriers. There's also plenty of room to hold large armies of infantry and other ground troops, there's repair bays, refueling, etc.

And perhaps most importantly (to some with boombastic tendencies anyway), there's room for some really big power generators for some nasty surprises...

I also mentioned Corvettes in that post.

You did, and I saw no reason to add in another size of ship just to have it in. Since Assault Shuttles and Escort Carriors were listed as Frigate class ships, I simply picked Frigate class to be the one between small fighters and Capital ships. I could switch that to Corvettes if it makes more sense, but then I'd switch all of those ships that are now listed as Frigates. From a game perspective it makes no difference.

Intrested.

So you seem to be, since you clicked all the alternatives in the poll. I take it you mean you'll go with whatever?

 

[Kozmos]

What's the use of High Redevelopment levels? It's far cheaper to build up R1 to R4 then R5 to R7 and beyond.

Also I vote nay on the Death Star, it's the ultimate form of cheesyness. Rather we should be allowed to build our custom 'Deathstars' designs. A mobile factory perhaps, a giant laser that melts everything, 'Alien' type bio weapons, nano bombs that simply eat up the whole planet and the list goes on. Simply it's to allow for some creative destruction which is never a bad thing.

Second warpgates, not as bad as handwavium but still bad. Change name to something like Quantum Tunnels.

 

[Niklas]

What's the use of High Redevelopment levels? It's far cheaper to build up R1 to R4 then R5 to R7 and beyond.

I'm not sure I understand the question . Of course it's cheaper to redevelop the lower levels first. But when you run out of the easy stuff to redevelop, then the only way to get your economy up even more is to start redeveloping the higher stuff (or expand, or conquer). Oh, and there is no R1, levels come at R3-R8, but I guess that was beside your point.

Also I vote nay on the Death Star, it's the ultimate form of cheesyness. Rather we should be allowed to build our custom 'Deathstars' designs. A mobile factory perhaps, a giant laser that melts everything, 'Alien' type bio weapons, nano bombs that simply eat up the whole planet and the list goes on. Simply it's to allow for some creative destruction which is never a bad thing.

Remember you're not doing any real research here, only re-research, as turns will be rather short. So you're stuck with what existed before the Scourge, which means the same for everyone. The reason I want it that way is, it is a bad thing in that it will be more difficult for me to mod. This is my first time around, and I'd like to keep customization at a minimum this time. It's one of those really-cool-things-I-could-add-that-would-make-my-life-that-much-harder, and I'll listen to Darwin's advise here. I'm sure you'd rather have a descent NES that doesn't die than an übercool one that survives a single update.

That said, if there's much antipathy for cheesy death stars, I'm not beyond removing them. But since they are currently in, those who would support them has seen no need to speak up. So if anyone else has any input, for or against, then speak up. Also I could consider letting you have UU ships, that's a fairly "safe" form of customization.

Second warpgates, not as bad as handwavium but still bad. Change name to something like Quantum Tunnels.

Sorry, but you know how people are. Some cheesy newspaper dubbed them warpgates, taken from popular fiction, and the name stuck. The scientists who came up with the idea were actually fans of the same fiction (you'd be surprised how cheesy most scientists are) and supported the name. So who am I to change it?

 

[Kozmos]

To be decent is to be below-average

 

[Symphony D.]

Well, that's kind of the point. So maybe the problem here is that battleship is a misnomer - it's more or less a whole fleet, including backup. No it cannot maximize firepower in any single direction, but it has so much of that firepower that what it can concentrate is more than a battleship anyway. And it can do that in many different directions at the same time. No, it cannot present a small target profile, there's no way it can avoid being hit. But it has so much protection and redundant systems that attacks are to be expected, and seldom do any serious damage.

Since we have discussed diminishing returns, I'm sure you realize that applies to weapons as well. There's a reason nobody makes floating islands instead of aircraft carriers; the same goes for small roving planetoids. There is a point beyond which the cost-to-benefit is minimal, and there is no such thing as an invincible platform. No matter how large something is, it can be killed, typically by simple means: see the Yamato or Bismarck for clear examples. The only purpose of such a vehicle would be to haul around planet-killing weapons and in such an instance the planet will always outgun it.

That leaves the function of a mobile base. In which case you might as well build mobile bases, and not bother loading them up with the ridiculous amounts of firepower required to keep them alive, and instead invest it upon a fleet

Grand Moff Tarkin got it wrong. Your NES, your rules, but the very concept of a Death Star-like vehicle is just stupid (Babylon 5 presents much more intelligent superweaponry).

You did, and I saw no reason to add in another size of ship just to have it in. Since Assault Shuttles and Escort Carriors were listed as Frigate class ships, I simply picked Frigate class to be the one between small fighters and Capital ships. I could switch that to Corvettes if it makes more sense, but then I'd switch all of those ships that are now listed as Frigates. From a game perspective it makes no difference.

A Corvette is a gunship designed to kill Fighters. A Frigate is a full-fledged capital ship of the smallest scale. It is not merely a size difference, it is a complete functionality difference (and it's Assault Ship; a Shuttle infers something small, unarmed, and insignificant upon the battlefield). The amount of soldiers needed to land on a hostile planet or to assault an enemy ship cannot reasonably be expected to be carried on anything smaller than a capital ship, hence the designation of that size for that role.

This will perhaps be enlightening as to my thought process.

 

[Niklas]

To be decent is to be below-average

Considering my NES will be the only space NES around, it'll be average no matter what I do. But seriously, I hope you will find in more than descent.

Grand Moff Tarkin got it wrong. Your NES, your rules, but the very concept of a Death Star-like vehicle is just stupid (Babylon 5 presents much more intelligent superweaponry).

My NES yes, but my greatest ambition is of course to make something that players will enjoy. Since there seems to be little or no support for the Death Stars, I will remove them (or rather replace them).

A Corvette is a gunship designed to kill Fighters. A Frigate is a full-fledged capital ship of the smallest scale. It is not merely a size difference, it is a complete functionality difference (and it's Assault Ship; a Shuttle infers something small, unarmed, and insignificant upon the battlefield). The amount of soldiers needed to land on a hostile planet or to assault an enemy ship cannot reasonably be expected to be carried on anything smaller than a capital ship, hence the designation of that size for that role.

What you say certainly makes sense. But if I add too many ships and sizes, things will be too complex for an otherwise rather simple game. I will think about it.


Oh, and to all, did I say it's ok for you to submit faction templates? I'd rather have as much as possible decided on before I open the real thread.

 

[Kozmos]

I'm still thinking of a faction, but it will inevitably be a rip-off of one kind or another.