Revolution Gaia (Closed to New Interest)

Nyna · 09-18-2012, 10:34 PM

The Earth is in chaos.

March 16th, 2089. With little cooperation from the many growing nations and massive corporations of the world, the Earth is a husk of its former self. The ice caps are nearly gone, and the landmasses are considerably smaller than at the turn of the century thanks to the huge flooding as a result. Greenhouse gases clog the sky, causing global temperatures to skyrocket and wreaking havoc on the delicate ecosystems and weather patterns of the world. Many areas of the Earth are barren or dying, and despite the massive flooding the population of humanity is nearing 12 billion.

The Earth has had enough.

In just one day, every world leader and prominent businessman died in mysterious accidents. A plane carrying a world leader crashed as thousands of birds threw themselves into the jet turbines, jamming them up and causing the engines to fail. Another world leader was mauled by a pack of rabid dogs during a public speech in a park, dying from his wounds minutes later. A bear ravaged another world leader and his family on a hunting trip, killing them all. All across the world events like these happened, and humanity descended into chaos.

With no leadership to speak of and riots across the globe, humanity was ill prepared for what came next. The soil refused to grow crops. Hunters found that they became the prey, the game the predators. And earthquakes across the globe destroyed power plants and communications, leaving billions without electricity or any way to get in touch with authority figures or loved ones.

And as billions died to famine, rioting, and the earthquakes, many survivors began to group up, ignoring cultural differences and past grudges as they worked together to stay alive. They built hydroponic farms to overcome starvation. Advances in nuclear power allowed the creation of semi-portable nuclear generators attached to large trailers, providing power for their communities. And the eradication of all wildlife nearby prevented the Earth from threatening their lives directly.

So the Earth adapted.

The attacks came to a stop, and for a time, there was peace. People began returning to their homes to pick up the pieces of their lives and rebuild. But soon, people began to disappear. A young woman here, an old man there, the disappearances would not have been suspicious had the previous disasters not occurred. But humanity was paranoid. And their paranoia was proved right, as humanity itself was turned against the humans. The Marked appeared.

A mysterious, strange looking group of humans began to appear throughout the world. Notable for their strange hair and eye colors and odd, thick glowing lines across their face and bodies, humans began to call these new people the Marked. The Marked began to attack humanity in the name of their ‘Mother’. Armed only with simple weapons, these strange people should have been easy enough to deal with. But they possessed the same intelligence that humanity had, and they had the willingness to die for their cause. And they commanded strange, never before seen powers. They could summon fire and lightning with a wave of their hand, command the wildlife, and even cause the earth itself to split asunder. And once they got their hands on humanity’s weapons, they became even more dangerous. The Marked could somehow absorb this technology, and soon semi-organic versions of tanks, assault rifles, and other weapons began to appear in the hands of the Marked.

And so, left with no other choice, humanity was forced to flee. There were still three mostly intact spaceports. In Europe, East Asia, and North America, several powerful factions moved to these spaceports. Some of these factions were controlled by powerful or prominent families, while others were the remnants of government organizations or corporations. And still others were simply large groups of likeminded people with the talents and resources necessary to survive thus far.

These factions built fortifications to secure the spaceports while they repaired them. They constructed massive spaceships, large enough to house a small town, and soon word of these ‘Townships’ spread. Small groups of refugees, desperate for any method of survival, flocked to these spaceports, hoping for a spot of the ships.

January 1st, 2091. Nearly two years after the initial chaos, the Townships finally stand complete. The bare minimums needed for each ship to launch and survive in space has been constructed, loaded, and installed onto the ships. Attacks by the Marked on the spaceports have suddenly intensified, as if encouraging the humans to take off and leave. Whether some factions plan to leave immediately or continue to prepare remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure. They’ll either leave soon, or be destroyed.

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Welcome to Revolution Gaia! In this game, you’ll be playing one of several human factions fleeing the Earth from the scourge of the Marked and their Mother. These factions have no idea what awaits them out in space. Humanity had already begun to build small space stations and colonies out in the vastness of the solar system, but during the chaos, all data on these stations was lost. And there are aliens out there too to be discovered. And what’s up with the Marked? Did the Earth really wake up and cause all of these disasters, or is there someone or something behind all of this? It’s up to you to decide what to pursue. This game has no ‘end’ goal in particular. We’ll keep going until everyone is dead or we all get bored. Or if college gets really busy and I have to stop, but I wouldn’t be posting this if I thought that was going to happen. I might just have to take breaks during finals and such.

I’ll just say now that my combat system is pretty complex. If you get confused, seriously, feel free to ask questions. I think it’ll make a lot more sense once we get going, but who knows? Also, travel distance between planets and other remarkable locations will be fixed. We all know that the planets revolve around the sun, but this makes for a headache when trying to decide how far everything is in relation to everything else. So in this universe, all celestial bodies are fixed! How’s that for breaking the laws of physics? Don’t worry, we’re just getting started! I’m not sure exactly what distances I want to use yet though, so if you have an opinion, feel free to let me know.

Also, this is a lot to read through, and I’m sure I contradicted myself somewhere or left something important out. Again, if you’ve got any questions, feel free to let me know.

I’m looking for anywhere from 4-6 players, but I’m pretty flexible. If I get a lot of really good applications, I’m pretty likely to bend a bit to let more people in. I'd like to ask that players are able to post once or twice a week. That's what I'm shooting for myself, though I honestly have no idea how long it'll take to process a turn.

And, I'm not sure I mentioned it in the rules, but the factions are not forced to take off immediately. The longer you wait, the more you can benefit from the spaceport facilities to improve your starting situation. There are also hundreds of refugees at the spaceports that you can take with you when you take off. And more are coming in, perhaps even members of your own faction straggling behind. However, the Marked are attacking the spaceports, so you'll have to deal with them, and the longer you stay, the more dangerous it'll get. If you wait too long, you'll get blown up and die before you even liftoff. So don't get too greedy.

The Rules:

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The Township:

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The Township

The Township is a large modular spacecraft built by your faction to take yourselves and other survivors off the surface of the Earth. It is designed to be completely self-sufficient, and thanks to its modular design, is highly upgradable and changeable based on the future needs of the faction. All factions start with a Township, and all Townships start with the same basic layout.

Starting Modules:

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Hull Space x10 - Allows 1 exterior module and 1 interior module each.

Interior Modules:

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Exterior Modules:

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Starting Facilities:

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Units:

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Units are a group of trained personnel that follow the commands of a single Leader. The Leader possesses a variety of stats that directly affect the effectiveness of the Unit in various categories.

Unit Stats:

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Unit Actions:

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Units can undertake a variety of different actions. Each turn, you can order a Unit to take one action. This action can be anything from manning a specific station on a ship to researching a new technology. There are two kinds of orders.

Noncombat Orders:

These are your actual actions for the turn. These actions last for an entire month. Telling a unit to attack a facility is considered a ‘noncombat order’, as you’re not issuing them an order in the midst of a battle.

The most common noncombat order will be to order a unit to work on some sort of project. Projects can be anything from constructing a new facility to researching a new technology or convincing a prisoner to join your cause. Projects will usually require a certain amount of Power to be completed. The amount of Power needed is determined by the project, and Power is gained by assigning one or more Units to the Project. Units add their Power to the project, and once the project needs are met, the project is completed.

The easiest way to explain this is by example. We have a faction that is attempting to build a new facility, and have determined that the project to build the facility requires 200 Power to complete. Units use their Construction skill to work on the project. If we had a unit with 5 Construction and 250 Personnel, they would apply 125 Power to the project. A similar unit with 8 Construction would instead apply 200 Power, which would complete the project in one action. Basically, the higher your skill, the larger percentage of your unit Power you get to apply on an action.

Combat Orders:

All units should be given combat orders each turn, even if you don’t think they’ll end up in combat. Combat orders are orders given to a unit that they will immediately carry out if they enter combat. You can tell them to flee or man a particular station on a ship. This ensures that you don’t always have to man your weapon systems just in case you’ll get attacked. If you don’t give combat orders, I’ll carry out what I think is most logical, but don’t always assume it’ll be what you want (or even prefer). Don’t get lazy with these.

Technology:

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Technology is the core foundation of all factions. Without technology, you can’t build any facilities or modules. Fortunately, all factions start with some basic technologies.

Starting Technology:

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Research:

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Resources:

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Factions will control a number of important resources throughout the game, but three resources that all factions have are Credits, Factional Power, and Population.

Factional Power is provided through Command Structures and is used to pay for the Cost of Units. If your faction does not possess enough Factional Power to pay for its Cost, you lose 10% of your income per point you’re missing. You can’t somehow have -30% income, though, it stops at 0%. If this somehow happens to you and you can’t remedy the situation, you’ll begin to see loyalty drop among your units.

Credits are a rather important aspect of the game, and they’re used for everything from increasing unit size to paying your general populace to work your factories to trade between players or NPCs. You earn credits by building commercial facilities for your population to work in. Commercial facilities generally produce nothing but credits.

Population in the beginning of the game resides solely on your Township. It consists of those refugees you’ve taken aboard that are not a part of your Units. Population is used for a variety of tasks, from operating factories (at a cost) to commercial districts (making you a profit) to being recruited into your Units (reducing population and increasing unit size, at a cost of 5 Credits per personnel member added). Population grows fairly slowly, at a rate of 1% per turn. This is actually really fast if you think about it, but it’ll probably seem really, really slow. You can increase it through research projects. You can also release personnel from their units and make some money back (3 credits per personnel member released), and they’ll be added back into the population. Keep in mind that personnel in units do not count towards population, so they won’t help growth. It might seem impossible to ever get a large population, but there are NPC factions and colonies out there that were established before the Marked appeared that you can recruit from. If you can find them.

Combat:

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Combat is a fairly important aspect of the game, as the players will inevitably come into conflict with each other, other human factions, and perhaps even the Marked or other alien species. It’s also a fairly complex system at first glance, and will only get more complicated as more systems (such as shields) get added in, so feel free to ask any questions that you may have. I’ll do my best to keep the combat rules updated once the game gets started.

The Basics:

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Weapons:

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So I’m sure you want to know how these giant pew pew guns of doom work? Well, you’ll have to actually research that tech, since no one starts with lasers, but I’ll give you the basics on how weapons work.

All weapons possess a number of statistics, which are the following:

Energy: All weapons require a certain amount of Energy from your reactor to charge. This generally prevents you from ‘alpha striking’, or firing all of your weapons at once, unless you specifically design your ship or weapons to do this. Of course, you might just carry a lot of missile or projectile weapons, but who doesn’t like giant colorful space battles?

Charge Time: This is the amount of time a weapon needs before it can be fired immediately after being fired once. Often this is the amount of time you’ll need before you can even fire it the first time, but it depends on the weapon and the situation. Missiles are often loaded and ready along with projectile weapons, but lasers usually need to be powered up beforehand. Unless you were ready for the fight before it started.

Range: Weapons are generally designed to fire at a certain range. Weapons don’t usually have a minimum range, simply a maximum, but weapons designed to fire at very long range usually require a lot more Energy and charge time than a shorter range weapon.

Damage: Ah yes, the all important part of any weapon. This is how much damage the weapon deals, and the type of damage it does. Type, you might ask? Well obviously a beam weapon destroys that pretty ship 100,000km away a bit differently than a torpedo. Different defense systems may be more effective against certain types of damage, and completely ineffective against others.

Travel Time: What? Travel time? Well, of course! When you’re firing a weapon at ranges long enough to get to the Moon from the Earth, it isn’t exactly instant! This statistic measures how many kilometers per second a weapon takes to arrive at its destination. In very long distance battles, it’s actually possible for a ship to fire weapons while the volley that is going to destroy it is enroute! In fact, a very fast ship might even be able to outrun slower weapons such as torpedoes or missiles. If a ship moves out of the maximum range of a weapon, it obviously misses.

Missiles, Torpedos, and other large projectile weapons:

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Defense Systems:

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There are all sorts of different defense systems out there, but we’ll talk about a few common ones here. Armor, Shields, and Point Defense.

Armor is the most common defensive system out there, and pretty much every ship out there will have at least some. Armor basically acts as a resist score. Whenever something with armor takes a hit, the armor reduces the damage by its value first. If this stops the attack, the attack does absolutely nothing and the armor deflects the shot harmlessly. However, if the attack deals more damage than the value of the armor, the armor absorbs an additional 1/4 of the excess damage (or its armor value, whichever is lower). The armor value is then reduced by this amount and the remaining damage goes through to HP.

Shields work similarly to Armor in a lot of ways, but there are a few different kinds. The most common kind of shield you’ll see is a Deflector Shield, which deflects incoming attacks that don’t deal at least as much damage as the shield value. An attack that deals as much as the shield deflects will pass through the shield without being stopped. The Ablative Shield on the other hand basically acts like a giant HP sponge. It will simply take a pounding until it reaches 0 shield value, and then shut off completely. Finally, the Resistive Shield will reduce incoming damage by its shield value, and allow the rest through.

Finally, we have Point Defense systems. Point Defense systems are traditionally used to counter missile weapons, but could theoretically be designed to stop beam or projectile weapons. They are usually weapon type specific defensive systems, and work by shooting down the targeted attack. This requires that the attack be detected via sensors, and thus Point Defense systems are very reliant on sensor technology. It is possible that a Point Defense system may possess its own sensor array separate from the ship, to allow them to operate more independently in case of bridge damage or other situations. A specific sensor array like this will probably be better at picking out smaller objects at a distance, though it won’t have the same range as a ship sensor array.

Unit Combat:

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Starting Freebies:

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In addition to the starting Township that all factions receive, they receive the following.

One Unit (your faction leader): The faction leader has no loyalty attribute. As the leader of the entire faction, he or she is very talented, and has the following scores to distribute between statistics as you choose: 8, 6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 4, 3. He has a Cost of 5 and 250 Personnel.

Two Units (faction officers): These two officers start at Loyalty Loyal and have the following attribute scores to distribute: 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1. They have a Cost of 3 and 250 Personnel each. If you wish to have one of your Officers start at Love, the other may start at Normal.

5000 Credits

Finally, you receive five of the following (you may pick the same choice multiple times):
An additional module (must be something your faction could have according to your tech)
An additional facility (must be something your faction could have according to your tech)
An additional unit (starts with the scores 5, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1, Cost 1, and 250 Personnel, and Normal loyalty. If you pick this twice, you can improve the first unit to 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1, Cost 3, 250 Personnel, Loyalty Trust instead.).
A new technology (either a new basic technology, a theory, or an advancement on a currently held technology)
Two module/facility upgrades (if you picked a technology that would allow you to build an improved version of the freebie modules or facilities, this allows you to upgrade your freebies)
A friendly NPC faction (Give me a basic description. If you pick this twice, you can apply it to the same faction to make them allies)
A space facility (Depending on the facility, this may require multiple choices. This choice allows your faction to already have control over some sort of facility in space. This may be a facility that you can’t build with your current resources, though it should probably be something in reasonable range of Earth.)
250 of a vehicle or weapon that a Unit can equip. This vehicle or weapon can be something that you can't make with your current technology, so long as it isn't outside of the realm of human technology from before the chaos. Just ask if you're not sure. If the weapon or vehicle uses ammunition, it is unlimited unless it is powerful enough to damage a Ship, in which case it needs to be tracked. Weapons do not take up cargo space if equipped to a Unit (they can be carried) but vehicles do (you don't drive around your Township in your tank). Ammunition also takes up space in cargo, so if you need it for your vehicles, you're going to need to build another cargo bay before you leave. You will be unable to produce more ammo for a vehicle if you do not have the tech required for it, but you'll be able to bring a reasonable amount along for free in the beginning.
3500 Credits

The Faction Sheet (Fill this out, I'd recommend using spoilers and deleting unnecessary text.):

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A sample faction is available in this post, as the starting post is too long.

Tebryn · 09-19-2012, 01:21 AM

This is a lot of text to sift through. I'll give it a read when it's not quite so late but I suppose an initial question out the gate. Would a Faction operating towards a Singularly be acceptable in this game?

Nyna · 09-19-2012, 08:31 AM

Maybe? It depends on what exactly you mean by Singularity, and how you would want to go about achieving it.

Kazun · 09-19-2012, 12:05 PM

I am interested in this.

Out of curiousity, is this an existing rules system, or is there a comprehensive document detailing the rules? I was looking for stats for Advanced versions of the modules (and how to get them) and more information about possible technologies, stuff like that... Obviously not necessary right out of the gate, but it's nice when trying to plot out some crunch goals for the faction.

Actually, something that would be super-helpful is a fully built "sample" faction, complete with fluff.

I will complete the Faction Sheet and edit it into this post in the near future, but for now... EDIT: added

[fluff moved to Faction Sheet Below]

Faction Sheet

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Nyna · 09-19-2012, 01:27 PM

This is a rules system that I've had bouncing around in my head for awhile, and finally decided to commit to writing a few days ago. So there aren't any stats on advanced modules yet, as this is the first playtest with this ruleset. I expect that things will get ironed out more once people begin asking questions (and once we get started).

Advanced versions of the modules will have differing stats based on exactly what you're doing to make them 'advanced'. A basic module or facility has no upgrades at all, whereas a more advanced version of say, a sensor suite might have longer range, some sort of scanning package built in, or be able to detect smaller objects from a longer distance. All of these are modifications from the basic package, and would be obtained through research.

And I'll write up a sample faction either tonight or sometime tomorrow. I had planned on doing so anyways, but I wanted to get the rules up since they were ready.

For your faction concept, I'm pretty entertained already. The Marked are obviously a pretty big factor in this game, and the idea that someone will potentially attempt to study them pleases me. I will say that, if you do go with your current concept, you'll find that the longer you wait before leaving, the more of your corporation's resources will actually arrive at the spaceport. With a corporation of that size, it's unlikely that they gathered everything remaining already, and so it's likely that there are still remnants finding out about their Township and traveling to the spaceport.

ArcaneStomper · 09-19-2012, 01:37 PM

I'm in.

Thinking of a military faction that wants vengeance on Gaia. On the lines of, "If we can't live on Earth no one can."

Also how close to reality is technology going to stick. Seems like its already going to be a bit loose what with the marked powers, gravity generators, and incredibly large ground based spacecraft.

Nyna · 09-19-2012, 02:03 PM

Great to see you again, Arcane.

Poor Gaia, so misunderstood.

Technology will be pretty loose, but certain breakthroughs or inspirations are required to create certain Theories. For example, the Marked are using some sort of supernatural power to command fire and lightning and all that, but without some kind of sample to study or what have you, it'd be nearly impossible to emulate it.

Generally though, yes, the game is pretty liberal with physics. I'm less concerned with realism than with entertainment. I'll still restrict certain things based on balance (no lightspeed missiles until maybe like super late game, for example), and I want things to make sense within the context of the game itself. It's not realism for us, but it's realism for them. Hope that makes sense.

Jade Dragon · 09-19-2012, 02:34 PM

The rules seem incomplete, or just really badly organized and I haven't opened the correct spoiler yet. What modules are available besides the ones attached to the ship? How do you figure out a unit's Power?

Nyna · 09-19-2012, 02:43 PM

Unit Power is listed under the Unit rules. I went ahead and added a bit more to clarify it, and provided a table with the exact equations I'll be using to determine Unit Power.

Modules are available based on your technology. For example, Basic Shipbuilding gives access to basic ship modules like hull space, interior space, and reactor rooms, whereas Basic Sensors gives access to your basic sensor array. It's designed like this to allow players to research in directions that I couldn't possibly predict now.

And the rules are probably poorly organized, I wrote this up in a fairly short period of time given how much there is to it.

Rogue_Dragon · 09-19-2012, 03:17 PM

I'm a bit curious what the time scale is on this game. Is every 'task' a month? A year? One galactic space week?

On a more crunchy matter. What are the limits and necessities for modifying your township while in space? My current plan is to try to be highly nomadic, traveling between either other factions,natural resources, etc. But if I can't build things easily in space, then it could be a problem if my engine breaks, or I suddenly really need to expand the hydroponics bay or something.

Edit: Here's my faction

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Faction Name: The Awoken
Faction Leader: Starting Spaceport (North America, East Asia, Europe): Europe

Faction Backstory:

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Over 20 years ago, a charismatic young man named Marcus Brightstone sought to unite the numerous 'new age' religions that were spreading throughout his country, and much of the rest of the world. He ended up combining many of them together into a very open and accepting nature oriented religion. The religion was not designed to control, but to educate people. He worked for many years teaching people how humanity was impacting the world, and trying to spread a message of co-existence with nature, as well as enlightened and planned progress, rather than simply advancement through greed and aggression.

To a certain degree, Marcus was successful. His religion spread much further and wider than many would have predicted, especially considering he claimed no divine right or special powers. Some followers of his religion were of course extremists, as every religion has some, that bombed oil-companies, and chemical plants known for polluting. For the most part however, his followers were peaceful and friendly people, who strived more to teach, through good example and simple logic, rather than to force or coerce others.

In the years before Gaia's attacks however, this started to change. Though he refused to share it's source, Marcus declared that he was certain that the world was preparing to rise up. It had been mistreated too long, and if mankind didn't change now, then this would be the end of us all. He started actively recruiting more followers, and encouraged numerous attacks against the worst offenders in regards to pollution, and deforestation.

Then Gaia rose up. Marcus Brightstone's plane simply stopped broadcasting, and everyone assumes it went down somewhere over the Rocky Mountains. It is assumed that, like so many others, he died in that first assault on mankind's leaders. His children however, were far more lucky.

After the death of his father, Kevin Brightstone sent out messages to everyone that had ever had dealings with the church of the Awoken. He pointed out that these attacks proved what his father had been saying, and collected what resources he could from every source that he could get his hands on. Finally he managed to secure one of the construction bays in the European space-port, and a partially completed Township. After that he simply sent out messages to everyone that still had a radio. The spirits of this world were obviously too angry to appease, the only chance for humanity was to flee to the stars until the spirits' anger had subsided. The Awoken would be leaving the world, along with as many willing refugees as their ship could carry.

Having collected as many like-minded individuals as he can, Marcus is now focusing all of his attention on upgrading the township to save as many people as possible from the Earth's rage.

Faction Goals:

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Faction Doctrine:

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Resources:

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Township:

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Township Name: Redemption

Modules:
Hull Space x10 - Allows 1 exterior module and 1 interior module each.

Interior Modules:

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Exterior Modules:

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Starting Facilities:

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Completed Research/Technology:

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Starting Units:

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Unit Leader Descriptions/Backstory:

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Written from the perspective of Kevin Brightstone

Kevin Brightstone

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Catherine Brightstone

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Miyoko Sato

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Michael Flint

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Richard Balkins

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Free Bonus Tech:

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Factional Freebies:

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ArcaneStomper · 09-19-2012, 03:42 PM

Faction Sheet:

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Jade Dragon · 09-19-2012, 05:29 PM

Laying out a heavily unfinished sheet for now.

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Faction Sheet

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Your Township:

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Starting Technology:

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Starting Units:

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Factional Freebies:

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Nyna · 09-19-2012, 08:32 PM

@Rogue_Dragon: Time scale will initially be roughly one month per turn. If this turns out to be too short, we'll bump it up to three or six months a turn or something along those lines. The idea though is that space travel is supposed to feel particularly slow at first, and most large scale projects take multiple turns (though hopefully not way too many, or else the game will drag) to complete.

The Township is designed to be easily modified without any facilities. You need no equipment to add additional facilities or modules to the Township. Other ships will require facilities to construct, and expanding the size of the Township (IE adding Hull Size) will require some sort of facility. You will, however, need material to construct additional facilities. All factions will have some materials and population to pick up at the spaceport before they lift off, and if you stick around for awhile more will possibly come in. The material required to construct facilities is really anything you could feasibly build with on a ship (iron or steel for example).

@ArcaneStomper: Looks good so far.

Rogue_Dragon · 09-19-2012, 09:12 PM

Ok, another question that could make a big difference.

When taking skills like 'Systems' or 'Research' do we need to specify something more specific? or is that enough? For instance can our 'Scientists' just take Levels in research then study whatever they want? or do we need to specify the difference between physics, economics, biology, metaphysics, etc.

Jade Dragon · 09-19-2012, 09:25 PM

Is the year that Earth fought back 2059, or is the current year 2091? Because unless Exalted's temporal weapons are involved, I don't see how 2061 can be two years after 2089.

ArcaneStomper · 09-19-2012, 09:26 PM

My read is that those are the only skills. It keeps things a lot simpler than having to worry about numerous more specific skills that aren't specifically designed.

Also think about it. You get 1 xp per turn at most. You need 10 xp to level, and then you can only upgrade two stats. If there were more skills than just the general ones, well it would be a pain to make effective units. Since skill level effects power efficiency. I would say it takes at least level 4 or 5 to be effective in something. So what 40-50 turns, each one being probably a week or more. Almost an entire real life year just to get one unit to be effective in a specialized skill. Yeah I wouldn't bother.

Nyna · 09-19-2012, 09:33 PM

I've got my sample faction done, I'll be editing it into the starting post in just a moment. People from the Tau Ceti game might recognize it.

@Rogue_Dragon & ArcaneStomper: Arcane is correct, the only skills are the ones listed. Units are fairly generalized in this to keep from getting too bogged down in super specialized skill sets. I considered having units needing to earn 'certifications' by spending a turn learning how to use a particular system, vehicle, or weapon, but I'm still on the fence about it. Thoughts?

@Jade Dragon: *facepalm* Yay typos. It's 2091, I'll edit the starting post.

ArcaneStomper · 09-19-2012, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nyna

I've got my sample faction done, I'll be editing it into the starting post in just a moment. People from the Tau Ceti game might recognize it.

@Rogue_Dragon & ArcaneStomper: Arcane is correct, the only skills are the ones listed. Units are fairly generalized in this to keep from getting too bogged down in super specialized skill sets. I considered having units needing to earn 'certifications' by spending a turn learning how to use a particular system, vehicle, or weapon, but I'm still on the fence about it. Thoughts?

@Jade Dragon: *facepalm* Yay typos. It's 2091, I'll edit the starting post.

I think it would depend entirely on how many types of vehicles you expect, and how many units you expect people to get.

If there are a ton of vehicles to use and only a few units then most vehicles would be sitting idle, but you would still need certifications for them just in case the thing you built them for came up. On the other hand with just a few certifications needed per unit, either because there aren't that many systems or because you have enough units to specialize, then it wouldn't be too bad.

Just from my read it seems like this is going to fall into the too many vehicles for too few units though.

Nyna · 09-19-2012, 09:50 PM

@Arcane: Yeah, I'm pretty much predicting that most players have fewer units than they actually want or need, so I'm not really certain I want to add a certification process in. I'll probably go without for now, and if I end up having to add one in later, I'll give everyone a bunch of freebies. I don't really predict needing it though.

Also! My starting post is too big with the sample faction, so I'm going to include it in this post instead.

Sample Faction:

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Faction Name: Mitsuharu Academy
Faction Leader: Yuma Mitsuharu
Starting Spaceport (North America, East Asia, Europe): East Asia

Faction Backstory:

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Faction Description:

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Township Name: Haimura

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Hull Space x10 - Allows 1 exterior module and 1 interior module each.

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Blindslayer1 · 09-19-2012, 09:57 PM

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Maldiem · 09-20-2012, 12:44 AM

Getting a subject/stating interest post up now. The basic concept is that a US carrier group that was deployed in the Pacific during the Marked uprising, and has spent the entire war providing air support in the East Asian theater. When it became apparent that the war was unwinnable, and the US wasn't cogent as a nation any more, they gathered what military assets (US, NATO and what South Korean military or Japanese self-defense forces wanted to come with) they could and started converting the carrier, CVN-99, USS Andrew Jackson into their township directly.

Also, if it doesn't step on the game's fluff, I'd like the conspiracy theories about the Illuminati to be true, and the leadership of the US government (as well as a number of world events that won't impact the game but are fun fluff-wise) to have been Illuminati-controlled for the entirety of the nation's existence. In short, the Jackson is going to be the US government-in-exile/the Illuminati. They'll be embarking from the nearest spaceport to their deployment, East Asia, which is also quite a bit more likely to be coastal enough to get a carrier into it; I'm assuming the East Asian spaceport is in Japan somewhere (it really should be in Japan).

Stats to come.

EDIT: Questions:

1) Is it possible to start with non-Township weapons or vehicles, such as carrier-based atmospheric strike fighters? Can those be a wildcard? Would they require ammunition, or is that assumed as part of the vehicle?

2) Are small arms assumed? I mean, we're all starting under siege from the Marked, I doubt we'd be defenseless. Maybe it's part of the attack skill?

3) Can units taken with the freebees start on a space facility taken with the freebies? Would a life-supporting space facility need all the reactors, life support systems and hull space that a Township does, and would they be included with the freebee or have to be taken separately (absorbing most of the wildcards in the process)?

4) What's the situation like at the spaceports? What are the fortifications like? Are they manned by NPCs, and to what extent is it reasonable to assume we can aid in holding off the Marked? If someone weren't trying especially hard to hold them off, how long would you guess that they'd have before getting overwhelmed? Would there be clear warning signs, or just enormous hordes coming out of nowhere?

Rogue_Dragon · 09-20-2012, 01:50 AM

ok, working on my faction, and I noticed that there is currently no way to start with personal weapons or vehicles. It's not a huge deal for me, but I imagine that the Remnants of Steel are probably going to want to start with a few weapons at least.

Also, how does one go about creating a brand-new unit after the game starts? The only rules I've seen for new units are in the 5 freebies that we start with, but I imagine there has to be another way of getting units.

I'm thinking my faction is going to be very very focused on not making the same mistakes as earth had. Think new-age druidism, mixed with a hint of Marked sympathizers and good old fashioned eco-terrorism.

What kind of research am I going to need to convert my 'living quarters' into something more like bio-domes. (crunch wise would probably be a combination housing/life-support/hydroponics module.)

Psilulz · 09-20-2012, 03:31 AM

Quite interested in this...
Thinking a ragtag group of folks for my faction... that or scientists...

ArcaneStomper · 09-20-2012, 07:45 AM

Hah who needs personal weapons. I'm mounting broadsides on my township.

Nyna · 09-20-2012, 10:50 AM

@Maldiem: Good to see you here, Maldiem. No problem at all with the Illuminati being real, as long as it doesn't somehow step on someone else's toes. I doubt it will, so you've got the green light from me.

I didn't specify the locations of the spaceports other than their general region to avoid anyone thinking that the governments have some sort of claim on them. The East Asian spaceport is probably located on mainland Asia, however. Japan is large and technologically advanced to be sure, but when the chaos hit, its isolation would've caused millions to starve. They don't have nearly enough homegrown food to support their populations, and with the sea levels rising from the ice caps melting, any damage to levees from the earthquakes would've caused massive flooding across the entire country. Also, for game purposes, having the spaceport located on the mainland allows for more refugees to make it there on foot. It is, however, likely a coastal spaceport, given the economy in the region. All of these spaceports were private enterprises, or at least joint ventures between corporations and governments, after all.

1 & 2) It is possible to start with non-Township weapons and vehicles, but they'll count as a freebie. I'll add it to the list in the starting post. Vehicles and weapons must be equipped to a unit, and you need enough of them to actually equip the unit with. It changes the unit type to whatever that piece of equipment is. Noncombatants can technically fight without a weapon equipped, and are assumed to have whatever they can get their hands on (pistols, hunting rifles, makeshift weapons, w/e). They're quite ineffective unless the situation favors you somehow (such as an ambush so that you start in range and get the jump on your opponent).

Ammunition is generally not tracked unless the weapon is of significant power. Generally this involves missiles or large ship based projectile weapons, and the ammunition takes up space in the hold. If you happen to take atmospheric based fighters that can mount missiles powerful enough to damage a ship, the missiles will need to be statted out, would require tech to produce more of, and need to be tracked. If they're only strong enough to damage units, you don't need to track them.

3) Yes, units taken with the freebies can start in a space facility. Starting units cannot for balance purposes unless you take a freebie unit and put it in your Township, as this would essentially give you 250 free population. A life supporting space facility would require all of the essentials necessary to support life (some sort of power source, life support, living quarters, etc), but if you don't invest a module or facility into them you'll get the bare minimums for free. For example, you'd have some kind of solar panel rather than a reactor that is just sufficient to power everything, life support for 250 people, hydroponics for the same, and living quarters for the same. All space facilities get one 'purpose' for free, and in this case you're picking 'life-supporting', which is why it gets all of those modules and facilities.

4) Each Spaceport has a slightly different starting situation which I'll write up once we get started (I need to know how many player factions are at each location and what kind of factions they are). However, each Spaceport has some sort of fortified wall with mounted weapons on them to defend against Marked incursions, and there is anti-aircraft guns to defend against Marked aircraft. There are a significant number of refugees in each spaceport as well, and initially there will be enough hydroponics to feed them all. Each spaceport has enough launch pads for each faction there, and each launch pad has advanced facilities specifically for constructing spacecraft. Construction actions taken on the Township require significantly less Power at the spaceport as a result.

There are also lots of supplies in various warehouses at the spaceport. You can expect to be able to arm at least one of your units, and ammunition is not a concern if you bring a vehicle that requires it. These spaceports are basically heavily fortified military installations. There are NPC Units that will be defending the spaceport based on however many NPC factions there are at each location, and there might be a few non-attached Units that could be recruitable with Negotiation actions. Players that have a Unit with reasonable Attack scores can expect to be quite useful in dealing with Marked Units that attack, but you'll want to have good Resistance or Piloting skill to make sure you don't lose too many personnel.

If no players attempt to make a significant effort at withstanding the Marked, and for whatever reason there are no NPC factions at that spaceport, the factions should probably leave within 2 to 4 months. There are a lot of variables to this, as there are several factions (player or otherwise) at each location, all pursuing their own agenda. The Marked function similarly to humans, they can't simply teleport, so if you have scouts or some kind of detection facility (all of the spaceports have radar for air detection) you have a good chance to detect them before they attack.

@Rogue_Dragon: Yes, I'll be adding the ability to start with some sort of equipment for Units to the freebie selections.

Units require a Leader. You can attempt to Negotiate with a notable NPC of some sort to convince them to join your faction as a new Unit Leader, or you could build some sort of school and then recruit graduates as Leaders. It's also possible to gain an opportunity to recruit a new Leader through an event, or replace one currently leading a Unit. Normally it's not possible to replace a Leader, but if one is considering retirement you might get an event to have them replaced with their subordinate or their child or something.

If you're interested in having some sort of bio-dome, you'd probably need a few technologies, so it might not be doable yet. I can see a few ways to reach that sort of tech, but the one that would probably be fastest would be:
Complete Life Support (requires Basic Construction): Combines Basic Life Support and Basic Hydroponics facilities to create Complete Life Support facilities. Uses only one interior space, but produces enough food, water, air, and heat for 1500 people.
Complete Living Quarters (requires Basic Construction and Complete Life Support): Combines Basic Living Quarters with Complete Life Support. Complete Living Quarters use only one interior space, but provide living space for 1000 people and provides them with sufficient food, water, air, and heat.

Past that it depends on exactly what you want for a 'biodome', but if you're simply looking to combine all of the living essentials into one facility, that's probably the easiest way to do it. The Complete Living Quarters as written would use as much Power as all of the facilities combined. If you wanted to upgrade your facilities with that tech, I would say that (to keep things balanced) you would need to remove all of the facilities that they replace, but you'd get two of them. I'm not sure if you have enough excess power for that (I'd check now but I need to get to class), but systems don't use power if not in use so you could always keep one empty for the time being.

Jade Dragon · 09-20-2012, 01:02 PM

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Originally Posted by ArcaneStomper

Hah who needs personal weapons. I'm mounting broadsides on my township.

I'm probably going to use some of my freebies on a second hull plating (or a direct upgrade of the current one if that's not possible) and probably two (on oppsoite sides of the ship) armored missile launchers on swivel mounts (with regular fast-moving missiles, and slower heatseekers and radio-controlled missiles). I think I'll also use one to upgrade my nuclear drive so I can go faster.

I hope to eventually get it mounted with enough weapons and armor that I can call it "the Battlestar".

Oh, and if turns are going to change how long they are, what about constants like ship speed per turn or population growth? And if turns really do get longer and you just say that research and such take less turns, that only makes it "feel" shorter OOC. I think you should just keep turns at the same amount of time no matter how far along we are.

EDIT: And, uh, if the Illuminati are real, wouldn't they have been killed along with all the other major political people?

Rogue_Dragon · 09-20-2012, 03:14 PM

By biodomes I was thinking of essentially self perpetuating ecosystems meant to support humans. I know that it will always require some energy, if for nothing else but light. Those sample advancements are exactly the kind of thing i was looking for, assuming that some research into better plants/ecosystems could lower the energy costs of the hydroponics and life support modules, I think that this could work quite well. What kind of energy cost reduction could some basic research give?

@ Jade Dragon, I'm sure the original leaders of the illuminati got hit, but not even mother nature could stop the whole organization.

Kazun · 09-20-2012, 04:12 PM

I've edited my original post to contain my mostly-completed Faction Sheet. I played it kind of fast and loose with my freebies, since I really don't know what's possible and what's not. I figure if I tell you what I want to do, you'll tell me how to make it happen.

Nyna · 09-20-2012, 04:47 PM

Okay, I just wanted to clarify how the tech tree works, then I'll go ahead and answer questions. A new technology usually starts with a Theory. Nuclear Theory is a good example of this. A Theory simply grants the faction in question access to that tech line. These are also generally the sorts of technologies that you'll accidentally stumble upon while researching other techs. Certain technologies will require multiple theories. If you acquire a technology (usually through trading) from another faction without the theory, you'll be unable to apply it in any way other than the application you were given, but it's generally much easier to 'reverse engineer' the technology down to the Theory than it would be to outright research it.

After a faction acquires a Theory, they can then research applications of that technology. The most typical advancement is Basic X, where x is an obvious application of the technology. For example, after Nuclear Theory comes Basic Nuclear Reactors. If this was a weapon technology, such as Lasers, you'd have to specify size (Basic Ship Lasers, Basic Vehicle Lasers, Basic Infantry Lasers, etc). I'll then give you the stats on the product and you can then construct it.

You can also research upgrades to a technology. For example, if you want to have a particular module or facility use energy, you could research some sort of Efficiency tech for that particular module or facility.

@Jade Dragon: You're welcome to add more hull plating. You'll find that 40 Armor is absolutely nothing against ship to ship weapons. Expect a basic weapon to deal 150+ damage per shot easily. The starting Townships aren't designed for warfare at all, though they can certainly be modified to work that way.

Ship weaponry requires the appropriate technology. Unlike vehicles or infantry equipment that your faction may have simply brought along without knowing how to build it, your faction has to design all of these parts from scratch, so if they can't make them, they can't have them. You'll have to acquire two techs (Missile Theory and Basic Ship Missile Launcher) to have missile weapons. You'll also want to consider constructing a munitions factory onboard your Township, since you'll need to build your missiles as well. Also, launchers are designed to fire missiles of a particular design. If you have multiple missile types, so long as they are designed for the same launcher, they'll work, but if you end up having two different kinds of launchers (say a large missile launcher for big ships and a smaller one to deal with smaller craft) they'll obviously use different missile designs.

I don't intend to change turn length unless the game is really going far slower than I'm predicting it will. I think it will be fine, but if I do need to change it I'll make sure to adjust everything accordingly. I don't think it'll be needed though.

And yes, the Illuminati leaders would've been killed along with all of the other political people, but that doesn't mean they didn't have subordinates.

@Rogue_Dragon: Basic research would probably cut the cost by 1/3. Another tech would reduce it to 2/3, and considering that it's a green tech, I could probably see a third technology making them cost no energy at all (energy efficiency along with biofuel harvested from the plants in the domes are used to power everything).

@Kazun: Just going to look over your freebies. A module/facility upgrade freebie gives you two upgrades, providing you have the requisite technology. For planetside scanners and Advanced Nuclear Reactors you'd need a new tech. Judging from your description of the reactor I assume you want one that provides more Energy, so I'll make the tech for that.

Planetside Scanners (Requires Basic Sensors): Planetside Scanners serve as an upgrade to a basic sensor array. The scanner can perform a planet wide sweep that reveals detectable structures, ships, and vehicles from orbit. This sweep is limited to the area of the planet that is facing the sensor array.

Efficient Nuclear Reactors (Requires Basic Nuclear Reactor): Advances in efficiency allows more power to be drawn from the same nuclear reactions, providing an increase in Energy output from 1500 to 2250.

Having a Ship Dock on your ship falls within the technology for Basic Shipbuilding, so that's fine. You'll need materials to actually make use of it though, and you'll need to define exactly how big of a Ship Dock you want here. If it only takes up one module space it can't make very large ships, and a larger dock will use up multiple freebies (it counts as multiple modules). Like the Propulsion module, it would need to be paired with an exterior module (a hangar door for the ships to get out) but the exterior module will only take up one space.

A medical facility requires Basic Medicine as a technology. Medicine doesn't require a Theory to research, but as most people don't know how to treat a variety of wounds, diseases, and such without training, you need a tech. Basic Medicine gives access to Field Medics as well if you build the equipment for a Unit to use, which allows you to give medical attention out in the field.

Bioengineering is fine as a tech, it'll start as Bioengineering Theory. Just keep in mind that if you want bioengineer something complicated, you'll have to research it first (complete knowledge of the human genome, for example, was lost during the chaos). I recommend building a Bioengineering Lab once you get Basic Bioengineering to cut down on these research times.

Jade Dragon · 09-20-2012, 08:24 PM

Well, you did give us Basic Rocket Technology (that means I get missiles/rockets).

Can we be assumed to know how to build modern-day weaponry as well? You did mention assault rifles and tanks being used against the Marked.

If so, I might go for something like the level 3 Sentry Gun of the Engineer's in Team Fortress 2.

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Two miniguns and a rocket launcher with four small rockets loaded. Maybe make it two small rockets and one large rocket.

So either two extra platings of hull armor, two of those sentry guns or missile launchers, and a Rocket Factory (I'm guessing that counts as a Facility), or only one extra hull armor, but also a boost to the Nuclear Drive. Considering I want to do exploration as well as be outfitted for space combat, I think I'll go with the increased speed. Or maybe a smaller spaceship that moves faster so that someone can go out and look for stuff without putting the whole Township into the effort.

Also, when the Unit Leader has a Personnel of 250... is that personal power, or a really big entourage? What about other unique units such as the two Officers? What about not-so-unique units such as a standard military officer?