Stellar Alliances 6.0 (?)

[Sidmen]

Table of Contents

I. Moderators
II. The Economics System
III. Exploration and Colonization
IV. Movement and the Map
V. Research and Technology
VI. Naval Forces and Space Battles
VII. Ground Forces and Planetary Battles
VIII. Espionage and Stealth
IX. The Galactic Council

I. Moderators

What is a Moderator?
Moderators are exceptional individuals who take on work to ensure that the game continues to run. Some, like me, enjoy doing this work and get fulfillment when it is done properly. Most don't, and even for those who do - it starts to wear them down since it is work, and not play. For the purposes of this game, moderators are volunteers that are keenly aware of how the game works.

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What kinds of Moderators are there?
There are three principal kinds of Moderators in this game: Economic, Battle, and Event mods.

Economic moderators keep an eye on the economic spreadsheet, watching to make sure everything is entered correctly. Once per week one of the Economic mods will advance the Economic sheet to the next turn, progressing the game.

Battle moderators keep an eye on the various wars and battles that need to be moderated. Their job is to enter battles and advance them once both players have posted their roleplay posts (or once per day, if RP posts aren't posted). Any Battle mod can advance any battle, though those with interests in the outcome may recuse themselves to avoid accusations of cheating. Even still, it is far more important to progress the battle, and the only real restriction is that a Battle mod cannot moderate his own battles.

Event moderators process the Events that crop up throughout the course of exploring regions and roleplay out their effects. Event moderators are also listening to and resolving espionage missions for players.

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Who are the Moderators?
The current moderators are:
Economic: Sidmen
Battle: Sidmen, Holger Danske, Silo
Event: Sidmen, Holger Danske, Silo

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II. The Economics System

There have been a vast number of incredibly ambitious attempts to make an economic system that is as engaging as the other aspects of an Alliances game, some proving more successful than others. In this attempt, the economic system is kept as simple as possible, while still allowing for a wide diversity of options.

Sources of Income

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Sources of income are divided into four basic categories, each with their own rules: Planets, Trade, Investments, and Tribute.

Planets
All the planets under your control contribute to your economy, providing a base income. This income is based largely on the type of planet it is - with mining outposts contributing relatively little when compared to garden worlds. This income is also modified by civilian technology, which can greatly improve the cash generated by your worlds. Detailed information on the types of planets and civilian technologies can be found in the III. Exploration and Colonization and V. Research and Technology sections.

- - - Planet Type - - -	- - - Base Income - - -
Core World	$250,000
Colony World	$100,000
Fringe World	$50,000
Outpost	$25,000

Trade Trade between galactic civilizations can be incredibly profitable, or only marginally so, depending on the two civilizations and their assets. When trading, your Outposts generate 25,000 and your Fringe worlds generate 10,000, up to a maximum number of Outposts/Fringe worlds equal to your partner’s Core and Colony worlds. At the same time, a trade route reduces the income of your planets by 5% (per route) due to lessened internal economic activity as a result of cheaper foreign goods. Advanced civilian technologies in trade can reduce the economic burden of trade, for more information please refer to the V. Research and Technology section. Both income from trade and reduced planetary income are automated on the economy sheet.

Investments
Instead of spending your money on something productive, you can choose to invest it into the galactic economy - generating interest on the amount invested equal to half the average interest rate on debt in the galaxy (5% minimum). This service is automated on the economy sheet, and is an excellent way to keep money readily accessible while earning extra cash just for having it.

Tribute
Tribute is earned when Non-Player civilizations are pressed under your control while remaining at least semi-independent. Rather than conquering their worlds, earning income as if they were colonized by you, you can incorporate them as protectorates, vassals, etc. These worlds then manage their own economies, and pay you 100,000 each in tribute.

Miscellaneous Expenses

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There are some economic activities which do not fit into any of the following sections, which list costs associated with colonizing, building ships, researching tech, etc. These activities are listed here for reference.

Debt
No interstellar government can be expected to appropriate funding within its means all the time, so when you happen to spend more than you have, whether by accident or by intent, you can accumulate debt, on which you must pay interest. Interest rates vary depending on how much debt you have, but anything less than 100% of your income in debt charges you 10% interest each turn. Higher levels of debt can quickly increase interest rates (1% for every 5% of your income in debt).

How to use Debt effectively.

Most people prefer to stay away from debt in their personal lives, and with good reason - the interest rates on short-term loans like credit cards are atrocious, and even the (relatively) low interest rates on long-term loans can drain your pocket book for a long time. That said, this game is nothing like your personal finances, there are very good reasons to go into debt in both the short and long terms. In the long term, debt can be useful when used to invest in expanding your economy: colonizing a Core world RIGHT NOW regardless of how much cash you have on hand is a perfect example of this. Almost without a doubt (and barring extreme interest rates), the income generated from a Core world will exceed the interest paid on the debt needed to colonize it. The same could be said for certain technological advances and other colonization projects. In the short term, debt can be a lifesaver - used to replenish fleets lost to military action, recruit armies to defend your worlds, etc. It can also enable you to make purchases that you otherwise couldn't find in your budgets, such as advanced technologies which can cost millions. In short, debt isn't something to be afraid of, it can be used to great effect. But be warned, debt can cripple your economy if you accumulate too much of it - interest payments are money that simply disappears to no productive end, be sure to pay debt down when you have a surplus available.

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III. Exploration and Colonization

The galaxy is big, sporting more than 200 Billion stars, many with their own system of planets around them. Finding these planets and inhabiting them is the goal of any spacefaring civilization, but it isn't easy - or cheap.

Exploration

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Searching the stars for a prospective world to colonize (or to establish a military base on) is a dangerous endeavor. When searching for a new solar system you first make a post in the Exploration thread listing the number (and names, if you have them) of ships being dispatched on the recon mission. An Event Mod then makes a roll on a 10-sided die, if the result is 10 you have a positive event - you get to explore a derelict bit of space junk, encounter ancient ruins on a planet, etc. These events can grant you any sort of boon with a maximum value of $500,000, or the value of the ships dispatched (whichever is lower). If the result is a 1 you have a negative event - a ship is destroyed, an alien disease is transmitted to your population, etc. These events can impose any sort of penalty (including the loss of entire planets) with a maximum value of $500,000.

Regardless of the occurrence of an event, your exploration unlocks a new solar system with between 1 and 3 planets in the star's habitable zone. The same roll made to determine events is used to determine how many planets are present; if an event occurred there are 3 planets, if the result was odd (and no event occurred) there is only one planet, and if the result is even (and no event occurred) there are two planets. The type of planets found is randomly determined by rolling a 3-sided die 4 times and mapping the results to the planets' characteristics. A listing of all such explored systems and their worlds' characteristics will be kept in the map thread.

Colonization

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Cost of Colonies (any type): $1,000,000
Colonizing a new world is an expensive endeavor that has varying results based on its characteristics and those of your civilization. All races must choose one "ideal" selection from each planetary characteristic, planets that match every Ideal become Core worlds when colonized, planets that lack one Ideal characteristic (such as being too hot or too wet) become Colony worlds when colonized, planets that lack two Ideal characteristics (such as having a different atmosphere and having weak gravity) become Fringe worlds when colonized. All other planets can only be colonized as Outposts. Once a colonization order is made, the world is colonized and joins your civilization almost immediately.

Colony Types

Core World Core worlds are planets with conditions ideal for your species, they have the perfect mixture of atmospheric conditions, temperature ranges in the "sweet spot", water levels perfect for your civilization, and gravity levels that you can survive comfortably in. These worlds are the worlds that your people know how to utilize best - they're nearly identical to your home planet, after all. Core worlds quickly attract settlers from your other worlds - drawn by promises of a new utopia, and can support massive populations into the billions of people. Colony World Colony worlds are planets that are uncomfortable for your people to live on, they're just too hot, are too hard to breathe on, or weigh you down with too much gravity - though thankfully not all at once. Colony worlds attract settlers that aren't afraid of a little hardship. Because of the protective equipment and special care needed to live on such harsh-but-livable worlds, a colony world will never generate anywhere near the economic output as a Core world, and will only rarely reach up to a billion inhabitants. Fringe World Fringe worlds are planets that are barely tolerable by your people, they're blasted wastelands, swampy hellholes, and in general not a very nice place to live. Only the very adventurous or people seeking to flee the heart of civilization willingly choose to live on these worlds. Because of the precautions and special equipment necessary for your people to survive on these worlds they are significantly less productive and rarely have populations measured above the single-digit millions. Outpost Outposts are only built on worlds that your people find so repulsive that they are unwilling (and likely unable) to dwell on them. These worlds might be reflections of your civilization's hell-analogue, be barren empty rocks floating in space, etc. What is built on these worlds are outposts: Mining bases, Research Outposts, Military stations, etc. Only rarely do these worlds have permanent populations, and even then they only number in the thousands.

Planetary Characteristics

Atmosphere More than one type of atmosphere can support life, Sulfur and Ammonia-based atmospheres can support complex life (in theory) as well as Oxygen and Carbon dioxide (both of which support life on earth). But for the purposes of the game, all atmospheres are considered to be breathable by a colonizing species (whether through terraform or just "being lucky"), effectively - the game doesn't care what your race breathes. What is tracked is the planet's atmospheric thickness, which can be: Thin, Thick, or Dense. Thin atmospheres would represent planets like mars, which possess a very thin atmosphere. Thick atmospheres would represent planets like Earth, which have a thick layer of gasses, and Dense atmospheres would represent planets like Venus, whose atmosphere is so heavy it would crush a man to a pulp in moments. Thermosphere A planet's thermosphere is how much heat it traps, while this could range from sub-zero to rivers of boiling lead, the game only tracks those planets in the habitability zone of a star - which by definition must be capable of having liquid water. Cold, Temperate, and Hot worlds vary between those that have mostly solid water (except during certain periods of the year), having nearly total liquid water (like earth), and having water trapped in the atmosphere nearly year-round (except at nights or during the winter when it is cool enough to rain). Hydrosphere A planet's hydrosphere measures how much water the planet possesses, regardless of what physical state it is in. Measured in very broad terms; Dry, Temperate, and Wet, which ranges between desert worlds (like Arrakis or Tatooine), garden worlds (like Earth or Naboo), and Ocean worlds (like Kamino). Gravity A planet's gravity varies greatly depending on its size and composition, dense planets with nickel-iron cores have much greater gravity than equivalently sized planets with cores composed of lighter materials. Gravity is rated based on Earth comfort, with Low, Moderate, and High being the ratings. Low gravity worlds can be anything between nearly non-existent gravity to that of earth's norm, Moderate gravity worlds have gravity equivalent to or slightly greater than Earth, and High gravity worlds can have gravity much higher (though typically nowhere near that of gas giants).

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IV. Movement and the Map

Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the market, but that's just peanuts to space. Luckily, means to cross insanely vast distances is readily available to interstellar civilizations, whether through the use of Warp engines, Slipstream Drive, Faster-than-Light (FTL) cores, or Hyperdrives you can travel through space at speeds that are quite literally impossible by every definition of the word.

Spacial travel is handled in two different ways: Hyperspace Gates (or Mass Relays) transport you across vast distances over the course of a day (Real Time, not Game Time), moving you from one cluster to another. Once in a cluster, FTL engines can carry your ships from one grid to an adjacent grid over the course of a day.

Star Clusters

Star clusters are a concept unceremoniously stolen from the Mass Effect Franchise. In effect, they are small maps containing vast numbers of stars, in which planets and solar systems are contained. Travel within a star cluster is done via Faster-than-Light engines (of whatever flavor you prefer best) from grid to grid - much like travel in the older Stellar Alliances games. Travel between star clusters, which are tens of thousands of times further apart than an individual star cluster represents, is accomplished through the use of Hyperspace Gates, which are scattered throughout the cluster. Not all gates are discovered (some may be discovered through events), and more may be built in the future (probably when the game gets crowded). Below is an example Cluster.

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V. Research and Technology

Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology, and in a game about spacefaring civilizations gallivanting across the galaxy in semi-organic starships grown from the seeds of the mammoth space whales and reforged in the bays of a shipyard that utilizes the essence of the stars to power itself (among other possibilities), it is no wonder that technology is brought up. Technology is kept intentionally simple to interact with in the game and vague enough that any explanation can be used for its implementation - where improving mining technology for one species might be developing magnetic lasers that melt metals and have them flow up the beam into a collector, for another it could be engineering acidic saliva so the worker drones can melt away rock to gain access to harder-to-find ore veins, neither is wrong, and both are represented by improving mining tech.

For the purposes of organization, Technology is divided into two broad categories: Civilian tech, which principally affects your income, and Military tech, which affects your armed forces. All technology is researched in the same way: up to once per turn per tech you can pay cash to raise that technology's level, which comes into effect immediately. The price paid represents investments-over-time coming to fruition, as it is assumed that you have "always been researching this". The cost of raising a level of technology is 1,000,000 for level 1, doubling in price for each level beyond that. (2M for lvl 2, 4M for lvl 3, 8M for lvl 4, etc.) All technologies are rated on a scale between 1 and 10, with level 0 being a default level of advancement.

Civilian Technology

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The following technologies predominantly affect how your economy works, increasing incomes generated by planets, reducing the negative effects of trade, etc. In any circumstance where a technology, as described, doesn't make sense - you are welcome to change its name and alter its description for your civilization, while keeping the same mechanical effects. If, for example, you are playing a race of sentient robots, your race might have no need for commerce within themselves, making the Commercial technology irrelevant. You could, therefore, decide to swap it to "Economic Planning Programs", improving how your civilization allocates its resources - while still keeping the Commercial tech's mechanical effects of boosted Core world income.

Terraforming
Terraforming technology greatly reduces the costs involved with colonizing worlds, reducing the price of establishing a colony by 10% per level (or 100k/level) , at level 10 colonization attempts are effectively free. In addition to its consistent benefits, terraforming technology allows you to ignore one non-ideal planetary condition (improving the type of colony that can be built there) at level 3, two non-ideal conditions at level 6, and three non-ideal conditions at level 9 (effectively making it so that only worlds that are off in every category are Colony worlds while everything else is a Core world).

Trade
Not sure...

Commercial
While massive amounts of industry, agriculture, and mining does take place on Core Worlds, all of these are subservient to the commercial enterprises that take root on these highly populated planets. This technology increases the income of Core Worlds by 10% per level (or 25k/level) by streamlining the interactions between commercial entities, consumers, and the government.

Industrial
Without the massive consumer base of the Core worlds, colonies manufacture vastly more goods than they alone can use, as a result industrial goods flow from your civilizations' colonies. This technology increases the income of Colony worlds by 10% per level (or 10k/level) by improving manufacturing processes and streamlining transport to other markets.

Agricultural
A Fringe world, with its vast expanses of barely-settled territory, is the perfect place to exploit the land for the growth of agricultural products. More than mere grain farming, agriculture flowing from Fringe worlds is exotic and alien - used in the production of pharmaceuticals, gourmet foods, and industrial applications. This technology perfects the sciences of cultivating, harvesting, and transporting what could only be described as a startling array of plants and animals, increasing the income of Fringe worlds by 10% per level (or 5k/level).

Mining
Outposts have little in the way of productive use, mining and dangerous research typically being their only viable economic activity. This technology increases the income of Outposts by 10% (or 2,500/level).

Military Technology

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Fleet Procurement
Efficient designs including easy-to-manufacture processes greatly reduce waste both in time and material in the production of large military-grade starships. This technology refines your engineers' understanding of starship design from a production standpoint, effectively reducing the cost to build any type of military ship by 5% per level (which does not also reduce upkeep costs).

Fleet Maintenance
A common theme in military design is to eschew thought about what it takes to keep something running in favor of putting the most firepower, protection, and mobility as possible into a ship. This technology refines how your engineers design military-grade starships, incorporating techniques and technologies that reduce the amount of material and manpower the ship needs to keep operational. This effectively reduces the upkeep of all your military ships by 10% (or 5% of the ship's base price) per level; at level 10, your ships have no upkeep cost - either the machinery never wears out or it repairs itself as fast as it wears out.

Fleet Presence
It is the purpose of any military naval force to project the power of its civilization out among the stars. This technology enhances your fleets' ability to fight and survive spatial engagements - whether by developing new targeting systems, energy shields, advanced weapons, electronic countermeasures or all of the above. When in combat your ships are 10% more effective per level, effectively giving your fleets 10% more ships of each type for each level of this technology.

Basic Unit

Hard Unit

Quick Unit

Defenses

VI. Naval Forces and Space Battles

Early versions of Stellar Alliances treated each individual ship as a special little snowflake, with its own number of weapons, defenses, health, and even special rules (fighters could form squadrons, carriers could carry X fighters per 100m of size, etc.). It was, very quickly, discovered that all of these numbers actually got in the way of using and enjoying these ships. While a small number of us (including me) took extreme joy in designing every part of our ships, the bulk saw the numbers as work - something that has to be done to deploy a fleet. And then, when the ships finally did get to be used - the numbers became a maze of near-worthlessness to the Moderator. Because of these experiences, this game will operate with a very simple naval and combat system.

Types of Ships

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Despite the immense variety in ship designs within a civilization's naval designs, to say nothing of the vast differences between two civilizations' technological bases, all ships inevitably fall within three broad categories.

Cruisers - $25,000
Cruisers are middle-weight combatants, faster and more maneuverable than Dreadnaughts, and more heavily-armed than Frigates. Cruisers are the standard front-line combat ship around which entire space battles are focused.

Dreadnoughts - $300,000
Dreadnaughts are massive starships mounting the heaviest weaponry and sporting the thickest armor and most advanced defenses available. Dreadnaughts are veritable Cruiser-killers when supporting a strong battle line, but can easily be overwhelmed by smaller, more maneuverable ships if operating on their own.

Frigates - $3,000
Frigates are small, fast ships used for patrolling and for screening larger vessels. On their own, frigates don’t pack much of a punch, but while operating in wolf-pack formations they can often overwhelm larger vessels.

What about Fighters?

It is assumed that at least some of a ship’s firepower comes in the form of smaller fighter craft launched from their hangers. Fighters, on their own, aren’t important enough to be tracked individually - they are destroyed and rebuilt in too great of numbers to be micromanaged. You can, as an option, mark some of your ships as [Carrier], indicating that the ship will not be entering main line combat, these ships will be among the last lost in battle - unless your opponent specifically targets them.

Conducting a Battle

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Making a battle enjoyable and smooth-running is, by and large, the responsibility of the parties involved in the battle. Nobody should be forced to fight a battle, and before you start a war you should clear it with the other player (either by directly asking them through a PM or wall message, or by intimating it through diplomacy) - fighting a war that one side doesn't want to be a part of is in no way fun. At best, the defender will fight an annoying war till peace can be made, and at worst the defender will simply quit - or will lose badly and overpower the aggressor. Please, be courteous when conducting war.

Once a battle is going to happen - which should be pretty obvious to both parties, two opposing fleets are in the same system at the same time, one of the players involved should create a post in the war thread (or create a new one if it doesn't already exist) stating when both fleets arrived at the scene, the numbers of ships involved, and their respective total values (in cash paid for the fleet), all of which will be used by the moderator at a later date. Once this is posted, both players have about a day (anywhere between 20-30 hours) to make a roleplaying post about the battle. This can be anything from a simple post about the strategy the ships will use, a speech made by the commanding admiral, or even an in-depth review of one of your ships' combat systems from the Point Of View of one of your engineers. Once a day has passed (or if both make RP posts earlier) it is assumed that both players have had enough time to post something and a battle moderator will come in and move the battle forward a phase.

After the battle moderator has completed a phase, both players have another day to make another RP post, usually to explain the results of that phase. The moderator (or another) will then return and complete another phase, and so on...

Moderating a Battle (for battle mods)
A day after two fleets have met on the field of battle, one of the Battle Moderators should enter a thread and complete a phase of battle, posting who is winning the battle for that phase, how many ships have been lost, and any other relevant information.

Example Goals:
Destroy specific ship
Prevent landing of ground forces
Punch a hole for ground forces
Attain Orbital dominance
Strategic Advantage

Resolution of spatial battles begins with determining the percentage chance of the two sides' victory (or three sides, if the situation arises). At the core of this percentage is the relative power of the opposing fleets. To find each fleet's power, find the # of Cruisers the fleet has, add 10 per Dreadnought and 1/10 per Frigate, then multiply this by 10% per level of Fleet Presence technology the side possesses (if one side possesses differing levels of technology for each participant - such as when allies pool fleets in a battle, determine each player's firepower separately then add them together to reach the total for the side), rounding to the nearest whole number. You then find what percent (%) of the total firepower in the battle that each side possesses (divide the side's firepower by the total firepower on both sides).

Examples

The Imperium of Mankind has declared war on the Centauri Republic and launched an attack on the Centauri fleet. The Imperium fields 6 Dreadnoughts, 30 Cruisers, and 140 Frigates, and has a Fleet Presence tech rating of 4. The Centauri field a fleet with 1 Dreadnoughts, 50 Cruisers, and 250 Frigates, with a Fleet Presence tech rating of 6. The Imperium has a base Firepower of 104: 60 from its Dreadnoughts (6x10), 30 from its Cruisers, and 14 from its Frigates (140x0.1). This is increased to 146 after multiplying by 1.4 (+40%) from its Fleet Presence tech. The Centauri fleet has a base firepower of 85: 10 from its Dreadnought (1x10), 50 from its Cruisers, and 25 from its Frigates (250x0.1). This is increased to 136 after multiplying by 1.6 (+60%) from its Fleet Presence tech. The combined firepower is 282, giving the Imperium a 52% chance of victory and the Centauri a 48% chance of victory.

Once the baseline chance of victory is established, it is modified by any circumstances that could alter the outcome of the battle. The four chief sources of these modifiers are: Strategic Advantage, Mobility Advantage, Overwhelming Advantage, and Roleplaying posts. Strategic advantage is the simplest modifier, whenever you "win" a battle phase, and you have not chosen any objectives, your victory is assumed to be put to use in pressing the enemy into a disadvantageous position - granting you a +5% chance of victory on the next roll.

Overwhelming and Mobility advantages represent your fleet's tactical use of its Dreadnoughts and Frigates in battle. To find which side attains these advantages determine the two sides' percentage of total ships of each type (Frigates/Dreadnoughts) when compared to the total present, multiplying the number of ships present by their Fleet Presence technology before finding the totals. Once the percentage is discovered, make two d100 rolls to determine which side is more effective, if the rolled number is equal to or less than the defender's percentage, he wins the roll (if there is no clear defender, choose someone) and attains an advantage. If the Winner has 50% or less of his opponent's ships, he merely holds his own and gains no bonus. If the Winner has nearly equal (+/-50%) numbers of ships, he gains a 5% advantage. And if he has an overwhelming majority of the ships of that type (more than 50% more) he gains a 10% advantage.

Roleplaying posts, made between (and before) each phase of battle, deliver a percent bonus proportional to the amount of effort put into them. A paragraph or so of roleplaying (described above) gives the player a 5% bonus to the next battle phase - these should be common, most of us already come up with strategies and plans for a fight. Two to three paragraphs of good, enjoyable, roleplaying (not bland "we will go here and blow them up, followed by going here and blowing them up") will grant a 10% bonus to the next battle phase. And writing a good short story (4+ paragraphs) will attain a 25% bonus - these should be rare, as few of us have the time to write a short story for each phase of a battle. Note that the Battle mod does have some decision to make here, in general - as long as the poster was trying to be engaging, give him his bonus.

The basis of the spatial combat engine is a trio of dice rolls, two of which determine if and how much the fleet's advantages in mobility and firepower affect the battle, and the third determines casualties and the success/failure of any specific goals the fleet has.

The first step in resol

VII. Ground Forces and Planetary Battles

PLANETS!!!

VII. Espionage and Stealth

mapz

IX. The Galactic Council

No Way!

[Holger Danske]

Sign me up for Event and Battle moderation, plz.

[Silo]

Willing to do some events or battle too. As long as it isn't compulsory, cause with uni starting up again soonish I can't guarantee to always have time.

[Celsius]

sign me up for dedication

[Sidmen]

Willing to do some events or battle too. As long as it isn't compulsory, cause with uni starting up again soonish I can't guarantee to always have time.

It isn't compulsory, and with a "any mod can do any battle, regardless of who did the previous phase" mentality it should feel a lot less like an obligation.

[Gpower]

Hi, I'm back since mid yearlys is over =)

Anyway, I don't consider myself a great writer so I'll leave the battle and events to someone else, but I'm willing to help moderate economic stuff.

[Watercress]

Dibs on the Human faction

[Celsius]

[Phalanx300]

Seems interesting, might work out better then National Alliances.

[Sidmen]

Dibs on the Human faction

The galaxy will be set up in such a way as to allow multiple human factions, I know many people don't want to think about aliens and would just create near-but-not-quite humans anyway.

Teaser: This game does not take place in the Milky Way

Seems interesting, might work out better then National Alliances.

National Alliances works best when you have a large body of highly motivated players, which turned out to not be the case. This game will be set up so that even if just me and Holger are playing it, the game won't collapse.

[rathertallhat]

Can we be robots like the Geth?

[Celsius]

the Geth aren't robots. They are Artificial Synthetic life with the ability to reach consensus and reason.

[rathertallhat]

Really well I'll have to finish ME1 now Does that mean I can use the Geth?

[Sidmen]

You can be anything and everything you can imagine, you just have to explain to yourself why they operate on the same rules as everyone else. For robots, you'd need to convince yourself of why they need a certain combination of atmosphere/temperature/water/gravity to survive in normally - just like humans do. Usually "their technology corrodes/malfunctions/etc" works fine for robots and the like. (note, I'm saying "you" need to convince "yourself", this is because I don't particularly mind - I can suspend disbelief and accept that "it just works this way", some people have trouble doing this).

[Holger Danske]

How big is the resolution on that map? Looks brilliant..

[Silo]

Looks great thus far, I am thrilled.
Eagerly awaiting background information so I can start planning a faction.

[Phalanx300]

Looking good, will it also be able to modify fleet speed?

And was wondering, so we're all limited by this? It wouldn't be able for example to have beings which assimilate other organic beings?

[Pinkie Pie]

I am so joining this

I would like to point out that I will be creating a race of robots.

Will there be stationary guns we can place in orbit of planets?

[Sidmen]

How big is the resolution on that map? Looks brilliant..

The large one is 900x600, I think the source file was 1200x800 or something. I made it smaller so it fits on my screen without difficulty. All of the cluster maps will be 500x?? to make them uniform.

Looks great thus far, I am thrilled.
Eagerly awaiting background information so I can start planning a faction.

I'll get on that, I have (nearly) all the mechanical things more-or-less situated in my mind, so the only real limitation is my internet access and typing speed.

Looking good, will it also be able to modify fleet speed?

And was wondering, so we're all limited by this? It wouldn't be able for example to have beings which assimilate other organic beings?

I'm debating on a speed tech to increase speed, but am torn on it, increasing speed even to 2x will make movements across entire clusters possible within a week, making any sort of claustrophobia that I'm trying to induce with them pointless.

I'm not sure about your 2nd question, that race is entirely appropriate - the only limitation will be in explaining to yourself why they have difficulty colonizing other types of worlds. I recommend indicating that controlling biochemistry of the indigenous creatures is more difficult, painful, or less effective (assuming some sort of parasite). It should be noted that when you conquer a world with an intelligent population, you can "assimilate" them into your government by placing them as tributaries. Tributaries can be used to colonize other worlds, but will still be tributaries on those worlds.

I am so joining this

I would like to point out that I will be creating a race of robots.

Will there be stationary guns we can place in orbit of planets?

There will be 3 forms of planetary defenses: Orbitals, which act as "cruisers", with balanced power, defense, and maneuverability. Planetside cannons, which act as "dreadnoughts", with immense firepower but few in numbers, and fighter bases, which act as "frigates" in planetary defense.

[Pinkie Pie]

That is good, I felt sad when I realised i could not build a massive orbital defence on the last SA