The Official OTC TBRPG Planning and Organization Topic

[Kothra]

Don't change the build times (unless there's an overwhelming majority against it, but even then...).Long build times also help promote smaller, more personal battles.

[Xomeron]

I added build times for Starship, which, according to IL, we desperately needed. Gun Sizes: Each weapon takes up a fit amount of space, power, and crew. To this end, each Weapon Size takes up a certain amount of Weapon Slots, and each ship has so many Weapon Slots. Small Weapons: Of the scale one might mount as a Main Battle Tank's Main Gun, these weapons are effective against small ships for their rate of fire and low power requirements, but can't do enough damage to slice through larger ships' armor. 1 Slot Medium Guns: Generally a Small Ship's single main gun, and a standard weapon on a Medium Ship. Capable of being used against any ship type, but ideally used against Small and Medium Ships. 4 Slots Large Guns: Used for bombarding enemy planets and destroying Battleships and Starbases, a Large Gun is usually so long it takes up the length of a Battleship. Thus, it cannot track its targets quickly enough to hit Fighters or Small ships, but it is devastating against what it can hit. 7 Slots Superweapon: Mounted only on Large ships, Superweapons are capable of utterly destroying a single ship, or carving large holes in enemy fleets. A ship only carries a single Superweapon Charge before it needs to return to a port to reload(which cannot be done mid battle) Superweapons take up their own slot. Superweapons also encourage the most creativity out of all the weapons, since they will likely define your Navy to other players. Carrier Bays: Allows ships to carry fighters and dropships inside. 10 per bay, limit 2 per ship. 5 Slots, Not allowed on Fighters. Point Defense Systems: 1 Slot, fires on incoming missiles and fighters, etc. Useless versus Lasers, Plasma, Bullets, that sort of thing. Fighter: 3 Slots Small: 7 Slots Medium: 10 Slots Large: 15 Slots, one Superweapon Slot Starbase: 17 Slots

Edited October 20, 2011 by Your Friend Doctor Robert

[Niflheim]

This RPG would seem much better as a tabletop RPG than anything.

[Xomeron]

I'm basically forced to borrow concepts from tabletop games to keep balance. That system's mostly taken from a game my brother invented on his own, but I think it can work here.

[Niflheim]

I'm basically forced to borrow concepts from tabletop games to keep balance. That system's mostly taken from a game my brother invented on his own, but I think it can work here.

Let's just hope nobody is bad at math.

[Lara White]

While I wasn't terribly impressed with the last one (soft science ahoy!), this one seems to have promise from what I've seen of it. EDIT: almost forgot. If you want, I can make a hex-map of the Orion Arm. I've got a hex-map maker I can use, plus GIMP should work out pretty well. My comments in Blue.

Starscape: The Orion Arm Isolated from the rest of the galaxy by a vast gulf of burnspace, the Orion Arm is thick with life. All sorts of species thrive on these worlds, growing, rising, and falling. And when life is present, thought follows soon after. Sentient worlds are arising, turning their factories towards starships and launching those starships towards the stars. Space is a deadly and unforgiving place; will you master it through manipulation and knowledge, or through the might of your mighty battleships? For you are the leader of your race. Lead it well. --- Starscape is set in the Orion Arm of a galaxy known as Starscape. Thousands of stars abound, but only a select few hold planets suitable for life, and all of them are hotly contested by other races. [Maps] You begin with a single planet, your species' Homeworld. For the sake of simplicity, each star system contains at least one habitable world for your species to live on, and the resources needed to begin space travel. Interacting With An Entire Universe Controlling an entire species may seem hard at first, but it's simple to get the hang of. Here's a quick example IC: Alarms sounded aboard the Skelvan Battleship as radar signatures from the edge of the radar's range came in; four ships, Alansik by their configuration, had appeared some two million miles away. Knowing that was far outside missile range, the Skelvan Captain gave the order to sight in with his Frigate's laser. A kill at this range would be the wildest stroke of luck, but he had to try, knowing reinforcements would be arriving as soon as they could, since the planet's warning system sent out the alert the moment the radar signatures came in. IC: “Transition successful, all systems nominal, wait.” A lieutenant on the Alansik lead cruiser reported. “Laser damage to the outer skin of the ship. Looks like they're hitting us already. Minimal damage, but that means they've found us.” The Alansik Captain sighed, and gave the order to move at full burn towards the Skelvan planet. One nitpick here--anything in space has effectively infinite range. To quote/paraphrase the Gunny from Mass Effect, "If you pull this trigger, you are ruining someone's day, somewhere, somewhen." Assuming enough delta V is loaded into the missile, it could chase the ship across the system until it went FTL. Now, the important part here is that the player controlling the Alansik let the Skelvan player have the hit; if he'd just declared the Laser was an outright miss, it wouldn't be fair. But by ensuring the Skelvan's laser didn't do much damage, and it wouldn't at that range, he kept it fair for both sides but still sensible. And that's the most important part, keep it fair but sensible. Don't go breaking any laws of physics. Faster Than Light Travel: The ability to travel faster than light, without the relativistic consequences that entails, is utterly critical to a spacefaring empire. Without it, worlds can only be reached by generations of slow rocket travel. The Jump Drive is a possibility realized late in any race's existence, long after they've usually begun exploring their own solar system. The mathematics of the jump drive are beyond most people, so instead you get a practical explanation. A Jump Drive cannot operate deep in a gravity well. In orbit of a planet, the gravity becomes so strong that any ships trying to do so are torn apart by the brief moment of transition, where the laws of physics remake themselves in new and exciting ways. Thus, a distance of two million kilometers from any terrestrial planet is advised, though you could risk it at one million. Remember that larger gravity wells, like gas giants, stars, and black holes, require longer distances away. This also applies to jumping into space near a gravity well, which as an early warning system for the planet's defenders. In addition, Jumps, while taking less than a milisecond, do not have infinite range. One can direct the Jump Drive in a certain direction, but the Jump Drive will go towards the most powerful gravity well in that direction. This almost always means the closest, as well, so ships can only jump from one system to the nearest. In addition, a Jump Drive requires roughly an hour after jumping to vent excess radiation before it can be used again. There are also so called “Burnspace Zones” These areas are small pockets of space where it is impossible to make a jump into or out of. A massive spherical shell of burnspace surrounds the Orion Arm, locking ships inside. Burnspace Zones also make good places to hide something you want to keep secret. Their origin and nature are not well known. The inverse of Burnspace Zones, “Sweet Spots” are areas where an entire solar system's gravitational pull is equal in every direction, created only occasionally by the differing speeds of planets orbiting their star(s). These allow for ships to jump away or from their destinations far, far closer than normal. You may only use a Sweet Spot in an area you control or in an area you have detailed astronomical data on. For combat, these must be used with GM approval, but once a sweet spot is used, if the ships using it were seen by another party, that sweet spot can be used by anyone until it disappears, which a GM will decide when it happens. Communication: Faster than Light Communication sends electromagnetic waves, not mass, and is not limited by the above. You can communicate with all your worlds, and with any race who gives you their contact information. Since there's no science governing FTL at this time, I have no problems here, and it works nicely. Rather generic, but there's nothing wrong with that. Just one question--what causes Burnspace? Industry Now, the amount and size of spaceships you can field depends on how many worlds you control, and how industrialized those worlds are. Each world is classed by its industrial output on a rating of -2 through 5, 5 being the highest a planet can reasonably reach. Each level has a “maturing time” which is the length of real world time it takes to grow to the next level. -2: Colony: This world is dependent on the rest of the empire for resources and population. 1 Week Growth -1: Protectorate: The world is beginning to establish its own industry and farming, but is still dependent on the rest of the empire. It may produce one resource and ship it out in exchange for the goods it imports. 1 Week Growth 0: Self-sustaining: With a zero sum survival based economy, this world can support its own population with everything they require, but its industrial output is negligible. 1 Week Growth. 1: Outer World: This world can support a very small space-navy, and has minor interstellar shipping and transport. 2 Weeks Growth. 2: Inner World: This world can support a good sized navy, and is possibly exports a good amount of goods. 3 Weeks Growth 3: Core World: This world has an excellent industrial output and can export several different resources in addition to supporting a navy. 4 Weeks Growth 4: Forge World: Massive industrial output; supports a good portion of the local navy and exports manufactured goods throughout the region. 5 Weeks Growth. 5: Homeworld: This planet is the only classification capable of producing Colonizers and putting out the population required. Valued as much for their status as centers of trade and government as for their massive industrial output. Your first planet starts at this level. A planet contributes a number of “Industry Points” equal to its level number(above) to an empire's total industry. For example, an empire consisting of a Homeworld, an Inner Worlds, a Core World, and a Colony would have a total Industry of 8(5+2+3-2=8) Thus, this empire can field 8 points worth of ships. This represents everything that it takes to field a ship, from paying and feeding the crew, replacing those members who die, upgrading and refitting the ship occasionally, repairs after a battle, and, most expensively, fueling the ship.I like this system. One of the weaknesses of IL was that it didn't have any way to monitor who big someone's fleet was, which led to quite a few problems, if I recall correctly. While this does require some math, it's something everyone will put up with, I think, for the sake of fairness. Ships Each ship is divided into one of several classes, according to their size and upkeep. Actual roles within these classes can vary wildly, but it is mainly the size of a ship that determines how much industry must be devoted to maintaining it. Fighter: Small, one to five man ships with minimal armor and weapons, mainly used to attack larger ships and defend large ships from other fighters. Not capable of FTL travel, so they must be moved by Carriers or stationed on Starbases. Industry Cost: 0 Small: Frigates and Gunboats, crew sizes range depending on the race. Small ships are usually employed either as Fighter hunters, Scout ships, Stealth craft, and the like, and can be fielded in large numbers.Industry Cost: 1 for 4 Small ShipsCouldn't you just say .25? Medium: Cruisers, destroyers, and the like are classed as Medium ships; they can be fielded in numbers and they are useful for force projection as well as defense, making them an ideal ship of the line; these should make up the majority of any self-respecting fleet. Industry Cost: 1 Large: Battleships and Dreadnoughts are the ships that capture the hearts and minds of the masses; great, powerful ships with enormous weapon batteries, blasting holes in enemy fleets and destroying entire cities with a few barrages. Even the rumor of a large ship being present can change the tide of war. In addition, battleships can mount your Racial Superweapon; what this weapon does is up to you, but make it powerful and creative. Despite their use as an intimidation weapon and morale booster, Large ships are rather impractical, given their upkeep cost. Industry Cost: 3 Colonizers: Not necessarily one ship, perhaps a whole fleet, a colonizer is part transport, part mass-terraforming system. Colonizers are warp capable, and used to expand your empire. Only Homeworlds may build them. They are expensive to keep up, but are usually a temporary measure. The entire colonizer is recycled by the newly landed colonists, and thus cannot be re-used. Industry Cost: 4 Carriers: A modification to an existing ship, any ship that is made into a carrier has its Industry cost increased by 1, but can carry and support 10 fighters.Plugging a loophole with my Rules Lawyer powers: No getting cheap carriers by making fighters into carriers. Use your head. Starbases: Usually placed orbiting a planet, Starbases are large defensive measures used to protect a planet with orbital guns in addition to providing a docking harbor for ships which cannot land. Immobile, anchored over a planet. Carries twenty Fighters. Can make battlefield repairs on ships during a battle. Industry Cost: 1 for 3 StarbasesJust say .3 for 1. Build Times: Each ship is a massive industrial undertaking by the world it was built by; think what the International Space Station has taken Earth; twenty years of work and it's a flimsy station that would be annihilated with a single missile. Better materials and industrial methods cut that down, but it's still a huge undertaking. Each ship class takes a certain amount of real world time to produce. Fighters: 3 Days for 10 Small: 1 Week for 2 Medium: 1 Week Large: 2 Weeks Colonizers: 2 Weeks Starbases: 1 Week Technology Ban List Time TravelEnergy ShieldsLightsabersBlack Hole GunsSpacetime-Fabric ProjectorsTeleportationEverything Sensors Define "everything" sensor. Could I have a large number of different kinds of sensors all plugged into the same suite?Artificial Gravity(besides spinning sections on ships) Rules 1: BZP Rules Apply2: Use IC, OOC, and OICwhatudidthar3: No godmoding, auto-hitting, or auto dodging4: Yarn5: Be respectful. These are other people's thoughts, work, and in a lot of cases, opinions out in text, so be nice.6: Laws of Physics usually apply. Warning System: Be good to the Game Masters, or this sort of thing will happen to you. 1: Warning2: Warning3: A Sweet Spot opens up on one of your border worlds, well inside your defenses. Enjoy dealing with the invasion.4: One of your planets is lost to calamity. Perhaps a nanobot uprising, or perhaps a viral plague. Whatever happens, one planet's worth of your species extinct5: That Calamity from earlier? It spreads. Start over with a new species.6: Banned. Species Profile(PM this to me) Username: (Obvious)Species Name: (Make it interesting!)Description: (Physical appearance, psychological details, government system, etc.) Can I call dibs on humans?History: (Why are they in space? Why do they use the government they do? Details like that)Homeworld Name: (Humans call our planet Earth for a reason. Why do these people call their world what they do?)Homeworld Location: (Try for one that's not taken.) Ship Class Profile:(Like in the real world, ships will usually be built follow the blueprints of an earlier one. This becomes known as a Class. Also, be creative with your ship naming. Maybe a neat theme, or something.) Class Name: (Generally, a ship is named, and members of its class follow the theme, like how American Aircraft Carriers are named after Admirals or Presidents.) Also, typically the first ship in a class shares its name with the class itself, but then again we're talking about aliens here.Class Size: (Fighter, Small, Medium, Large)Class Function And Description: (Some ships are generalists, others are specialists for one role. Give us a quick explanation here.)Class Weapons: (Keep it realistic, can't put three hundred guns on a fighter.) I suspect you should put some sort of point limit on how much stuff you can put on each size of ship. For example, theoretically right now a Dreadnought could pack its hull with guns and still have absurd armor and powerful engines. Either you're going to ahve to automate it with a points system like you did with Industry, or make judgement calls on it.

Will there be a rule to keep people from stealing tech ideas OOC? Note, I kept it so you can mostly copy and paste your old stuff from IL.

Overall, I like it. It has promise, and it's a sandbox so there's no pesky overarching story to get in the way of galactic politics. I'd like to be able to use humans, if possible (I saw no rule against it) because I'm not so good with alien races, but I'm sure I can muck one together if need be. One question I forgot to ask and wasn't addressed: how do you capture a planet? Edited October 20, 2011 by Lloyd: the White Wolf

[Archer Vonn]

no pesky overarching story

wait what

[Lara White]

I have yet to see a hint of any Forerunners or Protheans or Ancients or anything not written by the players. This makes me happy.

[Xomeron]

1: Lasers have optimal range and certain dispersal patterns, depending on how they're built. 2: That's a mystery. 3: Yay, someone likes it 4: I had it at .25 at first and someone wanted me to change it. I went with that and I'm sticking with it. 5: It says that in the entry for Carrier Bays, which is right above this post and I'll be editing it in in a moment. 6: Same as the .25 : P 7: Basically, that means sensors like the ones on Star Trek which detect whatever's convenient to the plot. 8: Nope. Earth is at the edge of the galaxy, closer to the center. 9: Not always. 10: Right above this post again 11: Doing that without in-game justification will have Sweet Spots constantly opening in your space and getting your enemies to invade you. And yes, no Forederpers, but the GMs will also be players. Can you count them as NPCs?

Edited October 20, 2011 by Your Friend Doctor Robert

[Lara White]

Alright, you've answered most of my questions, aside from the Burnspace one and the capturing planets one. I should probably rephrase the one on Burnspace. If our races investigate it, we'd find out what causes it, yes? (This is what I'm talking about with stealing other races' tech ideas OOC.) EDIT: Almost forgot. Earth is, IIRC, in the Orion Arm. As far as I can tell, an alternate name for the Arm is the Orion Spur, and all the maps I've seen put Earth square in there. hence my question. EDIT: As for Forederpers (lol!) and GM races, I'd call your race a GMPC, or GMPR in this case. I like to draw a distinction.

Edited October 20, 2011 by Lloyd: the White Wolf

[Xomeron]

Burnspace is Burnspace. That's how it is. As for capturing planets? Destroy the defending Navy and Starfleets. Bombard it until the defending military is mostly dead. Send down your troops to conquer and/or slaughter the population below. It's more RP than most things, since I don't want this turning into 40k.

[Lara White]

Oh, okay. Good to know, 'cause I have a few ideas as to how to defend my planets. I was sort of hoping to learn how to make artificial Burnspace, but looks like that's shot. I assume you don't need a Colony ship to take over an already-colonized planet?

[Xomeron]

Well, they're handy to get your people there, but your non-military merchant fleet(which exists and is unarmed) can be conscripted into moving people, I guess.

[Lara White]

So if you invade a planet, you need to colonize it yourself? *shrug*, okay, not a problem.

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

Is there a specific time taken to colonise a planet? Or is it just coloniser arrives there=planet yours?

Edited October 20, 2011 by The Power that Is

[Xomeron]

Well, it's not like you can use the aliens. Best not leave them alive, else there's bound to be some rebellions.

[Lara White]

...Uh, you do realize that one of the reasons Cyrus the Great was so loved by his subjects (and built an empire to rival Rome) was because he didn't evict the people who lived in places he conquered? I'd love to have people from other races in my empire.

[Necro]

The game hasn't started, now isn't the time nor place to debate game politics.

[Lara White]

It's not so much politics as it is part of the mechanics of the game, but okay. Not a problem with me.

[Xomeron]

Note that players who own the race will control those members of the race, whether or not you own the planet. And they won't be happy you just took their planet, most likely. Have fun with that.

[Lara White]

*shrug* I guess there have to be some breaks from reality. Anyway, I'm looking forward to this. I've got some contingencies in case the quality of game play goes south, but I doubt that'll happen. When can we expect to see this in the approval topic?

[Xomeron]

It's waiting on the maps. Here's a semi-final draft.

Starscape Isolated from the rest of the galaxy by a vast gulf of burnspace, the Starscape Clusters thick with life. All sorts of species thrive on these worlds, growing, rising, and falling. And when life is present, thought follows soon after. Sentient worlds are arising, turning their factories towards starships and launching those starships towards the stars. Space is a deadly and unforgiving place; will you master it through manipulation and knowledge, or through the might of your mighty battleships? For you are the leader of your race. Lead it well. --- Starscape is set in a region of space known as, what do you know, Starscape. Thousands of stars abound, but only a select few hold planets suitable for life, and all of them are hotly contested by other races. [Maps] You begin with a single planet, your species' Homeworld. For the sake of simplicity, each star system contains at least one habitable world for your species to live on, and the resources needed to begin space travel. Interacting With An Entire Universe Controlling an entire species may seem hard at first, but it's simple to get the hang of. Here's a quick example IC: Alarms sounded aboard the Skelvan Battleship as radar signatures from the edge of the radar's range came in; four ships, Alansik by their configuration, had appeared some two million miles away. Knowing that was far outside missile range, the Skelvan Captain gave the order to sight in with his Frigate's laser. A kill at this range would be the wildest stroke of luck, but he had to try, knowing reinforcements would be arriving as soon as they could, since the planet's warning system sent out the alert the moment the radar signatures came in. IC: “Transition successful, all systems nominal, wait.” A lieutenant on the Alansik lead cruiser reported. “Laser damage to the outer skin of the ship. Looks like they're hitting us already. Minimal damage, but that means they've found us.” The Alansik Captain sighed, and gave the order to move at full burn towards the Skelvan planet. Now, the important part here is that the player controlling the Alansik let the Skelvan player have the hit; if he'd just declared the Laser was an outright miss, it wouldn't be fair. But by ensuring the Skelvan's laser didn't do much damage, and it wouldn't at that range, he kept it fair for both sides but still sensible. And that's the most important part, keep it fair but sensible. Don't go breaking any laws of physics. Faster Than Light Travel: The ability to travel faster than light, without the relativistic consequences that entails, is utterly critical to a spacefaring empire. Without it, worlds can only be reached by generations of slow rocket travel. The Jump Drive is a possibility realized late in any race's existence, long after they've usually begun exploring their own solar system. The mathematics of the jump drive are beyond most people, so instead you get a practical explanation. A Jump Drive cannot operate deep in a gravity well. In orbit of a planet, the gravity becomes so strong that any ships trying to do so are torn apart by the brief moment of transition, where the laws of physics remake themselves in new and exciting ways. Thus, a distance of two million kilometers from any terrestrial planet is advised, though you could risk it at one million. Remember that larger gravity wells, like gas giants, stars, and black holes, require longer distances away. This also applies to jumping into space near a gravity well, which as an early warning system for the planet's defenders. In addition, Jumps, while taking less than a milisecond, do not have infinite range. One can direct the Jump Drive in a certain direction, but the Jump Drive will go towards the most powerful gravity well in that direction. This almost always means the closest, as well, so ships can only jump from one system to the nearest. In addition, a Jump Drive requires roughly an hour after jumping to vent excess radiation before it can be used again. There are also so called “Burnspace Zones” These areas are small pockets of space where it is impossible to make a jump into or out of. A massive spherical shell of burnspace surrounds the Orion Arm, locking ships inside. Burnspace Zones also make good places to hide something you want to keep secret. Their origin and nature are not well known. The inverse of Burnspace Zones, “Sweet Spots” are areas where an entire solar system's gravitational pull is equal in every direction, created only occasionally by the differing speeds of planets orbiting their star(s). These allow for ships to jump away or from their destinations far, far closer than normal. You may only use a Sweet Spot in an area you control or in an area you have detailed astronomical data on. For combat, these must be used with GM approval, but once a sweet spot is used, if the ships using it were seen by another party, that sweet spot can be used by anyone until it disappears, which a GM will decide when it happens. Communication: Faster than Light Communication sends electromagnetic waves, not mass, and is not limited by the above. You can communicate with all your worlds, and with any race who gives you their contact information. Industry Now, the amount and size of spaceships you can field depends on how many worlds you control, and how industrialized those worlds are. Each world is classed by its industrial output on a rating of -2 through 5, 5 being the highest a planet can reasonably reach. Each level has a “maturing time” which is the length of real world time it takes to grow to the next level. -2: Colony: This world is dependent on the rest of the empire for resources and population. 1 Week Growth -1: Protectorate: The world is beginning to establish its own industry and farming, but is still dependent on the rest of the empire. It may produce one resource and ship it out in exchange for the goods it imports. 1 Week Growth 0: Self-sustaining: With a zero sum survival based economy, this world can support its own population with everything they require, but its industrial output is negligible. 1 Week Growth. 1: Outer World: This world can support a very small space-navy, and has minor interstellar shipping and transport. 2 Weeks Growth. 2: Inner World: This world can support a good sized navy, and is possibly exports a good amount of goods. 3 Weeks Growth 3: Core World: This world has an excellent industrial output and can export several different resources in addition to supporting a navy. 4 Weeks Growth 4: Forge World: Massive industrial output; supports a good portion of the local navy and exports manufactured goods throughout the region. 5 Weeks Growth. 5: Homeworld: This planet is the only classification capable of producing Colonizers and putting out the population required. Valued as much for their status as centers of trade and government as for their massive industrial output. Your first planet starts at this level. A planet contributes a number of “Industry Points” equal to its level number(above) to an empire's total industry. For example, an empire consisting of a Homeworld, an Inner Worlds, a Core World, and a Colony would have a total Industry of 8(5+2+3-2=8) Thus, this empire can field 8 points worth of ships. This represents everything that it takes to field a ship, from paying and feeding the crew, replacing those members who die, upgrading and refitting the ship occasionally, repairs after a battle, and, most expensively, fueling the ship. Ships Each ship is divided into one of several classes, according to their size and upkeep. Actual roles within these classes can vary wildly, but it is mainly the size of a ship that determines how much industry must be devoted to maintaining it. Fighter: Small, one to five man ships with minimal armor and weapons, mainly used to attack larger ships and defend large ships from other fighters. Not capable of FTL travel, so they must be moved by Carriers or stationed on Starbases. Industry Cost: 0 Small: Frigates and Gunboats, crew sizes range depending on the race. Small ships are usually employed either as Fighter hunters, Scout ships, Stealth craft, and the like, and can be fielded in large numbers.Industry Cost: 1 for 4 Small Ships Medium: Cruisers, destroyers, and the like are classed as Medium ships; they can be fielded in numbers and they are useful for force projection as well as defense, making them an ideal ship of the line; these should make up the majority of any self-respecting fleet. Industry Cost: 1 Large: Battleships and Dreadnoughts are the ships that capture the hearts and minds of the masses; great, powerful ships with enormous weapon batteries, blasting holes in enemy fleets and destroying entire cities with a few barrages. Even the rumor of a large ship being present can change the tide of war. In addition, battleships can mount your Racial Superweapon; what this weapon does is up to you, but make it powerful and creative. Despite their use as an intimidation weapon and morale booster, Large ships are rather impractical, given their upkeep cost. Industry Cost: 3 Colonizers: Not necessarily one ship, perhaps a whole fleet, a colonizer is part transport, part mass-terraforming system. Colonizers are warp capable, and used to expand your empire. Only Homeworlds may build them. They are expensive to keep up, but are usually a temporary measure. The entire colonizer is recycled by the newly landed colonists, and thus cannot be re-used. Industry Cost: 4 Carriers: A modification to an existing ship, for each Carrier Bay added to a ship, its Upkeep increases by one. Starbases: Usually placed orbiting a planet, Starbases are large defensive measures used to protect a planet with orbital guns in addition to providing a docking harbor for ships which cannot land. Immobile, anchored over a planet. Carries twenty Fighters. Can make battlefield repairs on ships during a battle. Industry Cost: 1 for 3 Starbases Build Times: Each ship is a massive industrial undertaking by the world it was built by; think what the International Space Station has taken Earth; twenty years of work and it's a flimsy station that would be annihilated with a single missile. Better materials and industrial methods cut that down, but it's still a huge undertaking. Each ship class takes a certain amount of real world time to produce. Fighters: 3 Days for 10 Small: 1 Week for 2 Medium: 1 Week Large: 2 Weeks Colonizers: 2 Weeks Starbases: 1 Week Gun Sizes: Each weapon takes up a fit amount of space, power, and crew. To this end, each Weapon Size takes up a certain amount of Weapon Slots, and each ship has so many Weapon Slots. Small Weapons: Of the scale one might mount as a Main Battle Tank's Main Gun, these weapons are effective against small ships for their rate of fire and low power requirements, but can't do enough damage to slice through larger ships' armor. 1 Slot Medium Guns: Generally a Small Ship's single main gun, and a standard weapon on a Medium Ship. Capable of being used against any ship type, but ideally used against Small and Medium Ships. 4 Slots Large Guns: Used for bombarding enemy planets and destroying Battleships and Starbases, a Large Gun is usually so long it takes up the length of a Battleship. Thus, it cannot track its targets quickly enough to hit Fighters or Small ships, but it is devastating against what it can hit. 7 Slots Superweapon: Mounted only on Large ships, Superweapons are capable of utterly destroying a single ship, or carving large holes in enemy fleets. A ship only carries a single Superweapon Charge before it needs to return to a port to reload(which cannot be done mid battle) Superweapons take up their own slot. Superweapons also encourage the most creativity out of all the weapons, since they will likely define your Navy to other players. Carrier Bays: Allows ships to carry fighters and dropships inside. 10 per bay, limit 2 per ship. 5 Slots, Not allowed on Fighters. Point Defense Systems: 1 Slot, fires on incoming missiles and fighters, etc. Useless versus Lasers, Plasma, Bullets, that sort of thing. Fighter: 3 Slots Small: 7 Slots Medium: 10 Slots Large: 15 Slots, one Superweapon Slot Starbase: 17 Slots Technology Ban List Time TravelEnergy ShieldsLightsabersBlack Hole GunsSpacetime-Fabric ProjectorsTeleportationEverything SensorsArtificial Gravity(besides spinning sections on ships) Rules 1: BZP Rules Apply2: Use IC, OOC, and OICwhatudidthar3: No godmoding, auto-hitting, or auto dodging4: Yarn5: Be respectful. These are other people's thoughts, work, and in a lot of cases, opinions out in text, so be nice.6: If you don't know of a scientific or practical reason you couldn't do it, you can try it. It might get shot down by the GMs, though. Try anyway, we might be asleep Warning System: Be good to the Game Masters, or this sort of thing will happen to you. 1: Warning2: Warning3: A Sweet Spot opens up on one of your border worlds, well inside your defenses. Enjoy dealing with the invasion.4: One of your planets is lost to calamity. Perhaps a nanobot uprising, or perhaps a viral plague. Whatever happens, one planet's worth of your species extinct5: That Calamity from earlier? It spreads. Start over with a new species.6: Banned. Species Profile(PM this to me) Username: (Obvious)Species Name: (Make it interesting!)Description: (Physical appearance, psychological details, government system, etc.)History: (Why are they in space? Why do they use the government they do? Details like that)Homeworld Name: (Humans call our planet Earth for a reason. Why do these people call their world what they do?)Homeworld Location: (Try for one that's not taken.) Ship Class Profile:(Like in the real world, ships will usually be built follow the blueprints of an earlier one. This becomes known as a Class. Also, be creative with your ship naming. Maybe a neat theme, or something.) Class Name: (Generally, a ship is named, and members of its class follow the theme, like how American Aircraft Carriers are named after Admirals or Presidents.)Class Size: (Fighter, Small, Medium, Large)Class Function And Description: (Some ships are generalists, others are specialists for one role. Give us a quick explanation here.)Class Weapons: (Keep it realistic, can't put three hundred guns on a fighter.) Weapon Profile: Fill this out and add it to your profiles so we know what you're talking about in your ship profiles. Name: (Either describe its function or be creative. "Autocannon" works just as well as "Super Megalaser of Death" or "Yarn Gun")Weapon Size: (Small, medium, large, superweapon)Mechanics: (No need to explain stuff like lasers, but if you're making up an exotic weapon, be sure to explain how it works.

Edited October 20, 2011 by Your Friend Doctor Robert

[Archer Vonn]

Note that players who own the race will control those members of the race, whether or not you own the planet. And they won't be happy you just took their planet, most likely. Have fun with that.

still always the 'we're just civilians. if they beat the military they'll probably beat us' so i dont think riots would be such a huge problem as just the rest of the fleet showing up and engaging in war, which i doubt slaughtering all former inhabitants will prevent. but that really has nothing to do with the rpg -itself- so i guess im just nitpicking!

[Lord Kini Hawkeye]

Just a question as far as Artificial Gravity goes - while i can understand the reasons, would we be able to work around something like that if given, say, a good enough explanation/reason for it being there. Because right off the top of my head i can think of banning it in the case of somethign like a gravity gun, but to have it confined to a ship isn't quite so unreasonable IMO (IE; Covenant in Halo) Personally that's just me - I like to have my characters/races be ahead in one specific technological aspect and i'm sure other people do too. For one or two races to have their science focused and advanced enough to allow for ship bourne artificial gravity minus tthe spinning parts.. i dunno just a personal thing =P Other than that i approve so far, besides the whole Two weeks before a colonizer can be built thing. That seems a little long, unless we're allowed to start with one or two at the begining. Otherwise the game's going to be standing still for a looooooooong time.

[Niflheim]

So, I'm wondering, does anybody want Võimkasus in my RPG? I haven't seen anything liking it or disliking it, and it's not very scientific(Except a few elements can be used). Because if I take Võimkasus out, my RPG will be hard sci-fi, minus FTL drives(Which now could theoretically could exist). Read: Should elemental power aliens stay or leave my game?

[Archer Vonn]

i want electric man so i vote yesh

[Xomeron]

I was thinking about making it so that you could either start with four Colonizers, or had colonized two nearby systems at slower than light speeds with generation ships, cryo systems, long living species, etc. This gives you the choice of either two systems which begin at the Inner World Level, or four world which begin as Protectorates. Also, adding a weapon profile because I'm writing up the Syrrinx now and weapons definitely need clarification. Also, the moment we introduce artificial gravity as a physical possibility, the whole game breaks, since FTL is limited by Gravity. Someone clever enough with their gravity systems could completely destroy the game, and gameplay limit rules make no internal sense, so it's best to keep AG as a simple impossibility.

Edited October 20, 2011 by Your Friend Doctor Robert

[Lara White]

@ The colonization thing: sounds like a plan, go for it. Mind if I slap together a profile? I'd like to work out the kinks of race creation before everything gets rolling.

[Xomeron]

Write that sucker up. Aside from Locations, nothing else we need. Just wrote up my race.

Edited October 20, 2011 by Your Friend Doctor Robert

[Veeci]

Dang, Kini nearly read my mind.

• [*]I was wondering why ship-bound Artificial-Gravity was banned as well. Could you clarify that? [*]Also, do we get to start the Rp with any ships in our fleet? Perhaps a scout or two at least? [*]Bio-tech is allowed, right?[*]And finally, can we begin sending you profiles for pre-approval?

My apologize if any of these have already been answered.

[Xomeron]

1: Internal Logic. If in-ship artificial gravity is possible, external must be possible as well. This opens up too many holes, so I'm just banning it altogether.2: Probably. I'll decide soon.3: As long as it makes sense, yes.4: Send it in.

[Lord Kaitan de Storms]

This looks pretty good, I've completely rewritten the Ter'ek Kar. I'll have a profile for you shortly. I'm guessing that one system can only work on one building project for its fleet at a time?

[Xomeron]

Yep.

[Comment Expired]

You know, the reason I made IL was as an experiment into how much autonomy you can give players. The results were mixed, of course, but people stuck with it and it definitely went places. Hopefully this new one will be patched up more.

[Necro]

On that note actually, looking over the current draft, I'm just wondering how far we're going to restrict the players and throw systems in? I know it got way out-of-hand near the end of IL, and I know there are plenty of very good reasons to have these things, but sandboxes aren't any fun if you can't do anything without triple-checking the first post and clearing it with the GM every time you post.

Edited October 20, 2011 by Necro

[Comment Expired]

I personally follow the "throw in everything until people complain then fix it" methodology. I call it the Team Fortress 2 Approach.

[Lara White]

I'm not quite sure what you mean, Necro. It looks good to me, and if players take things overboard, that's what GM fiat is for.

[Akaku: Master of Flight]

The more i hear about the new IL the more I both like and question it xD I just think its a bit extreme to not have any ship-side gravity at all. I'm sure by then people could have created mechanisms that are small, yet have a gravitational pull. one could for say have a bunch in the floor boards that attracted things, and have other mechnisms in the cieling of the decks that repell, and when adjusted to the right settings could mimic the gravity to the world the species are native to (and people could use FTL drives or the equivelent just as destructivley as gravity-related WMDs', IMO) although enough of that technical mumbo-jumbo; I'm just a bit worried that with all the new calcualtions with weapon amounts and such, although more then reasonable, it could seem a tad complex with all the numbers to some, and scare a few potential players off =P I may also suggest that upon you or a staff's permission one may be able to create a new class of ship, or at least have a bigger variety of ships such as for say a "stealth", "Specalty", or "Utility/repair" class. IMO, the more variety , the better ^^ (Also, the more ship classes could mean more intresting battles. For instance, a 'repair' ship could have the ability to, well, repair up to say maybe two or three ships in a battle, just to mix things up a little.) On a random note, this makes me want to draw Thernians and there spacecraft again xD --Akaku: Master of Flight

[Lara White]

If you want gravity, you could mimic it with centripetal/fugal force or magnetizing your boots to the deck. Personally I'm gonna go with most of the ship being stationary and only part of it spinning (crew quarters) to keep the crew in shape. Also, hard science for the win.

[Xomeron]

Lloyd: That's of course perfectly fine. When I say Artificial Gravity, I mean systems that actually create real gravity at will, since its actual gravitational force that fits the bill. On Specialization: Well, you can make special classes out of any of them. Once things get established, I'll let players start coming up with their own equipment, specializing, and that sort of thing. For an example, one of my first few ship classes is a Stealth Sniper. Class Name: ChangelingClass Size: SmallClass Function And Description: Stealth Ships. Equipped with radar absorbent armor, painted matte black, and using low-power fusion engines, the Shadowstar is as close as the Syrrinx can come to a stealth ship. Designed for firing on far-away targets in hit-and-run attacks. Its railgun is far better at range than autocannons are due to their higher shell velocity, at the expense of rate of fire. It is also much slower than an ElementalClass Weapons: 1 Railgun, 3 Autocannons Numbers: It seems really daunting at the moment, but I guarantee you'll get used to it. This is way less complex than, say, Warhammer 40,000, yet I know all my units by heart, like most players do. It's easy to get used to after a while.

Edited October 20, 2011 by Your Friend Doctor Robert