NationStates Jolt Archive

Picture this conversation:

"My Elite soldiers are freaking awesome. They're strong, fast, smart, and trained from childhood to be the ultimate killing machines."

"So, they're like the Spartans from the Halo Universe?"

"Well...kinda, but they're so much more than that. They're the personal guards and soldiers of the Duke, they maintain the balance of power throughout the entire Association."

"So, they're like the Sardaukar from Dune?"

"I guess....but they're more than that, too. They're the perfect assassins and easily slaughter the thousands of soldiers that stand before them."

"So, they're like an Ash'rak from StarGate: SG1?"

"Oh, shut up already."

In the Associated Systems of Klonor the Dealers are the Elite of the Elite. Personal guards of the Grand Duke Solomon Klonor; though there's less than a hundred of them they easily equal the multi-million man Klonor Space Corps. They operate in four man teams and each team is more than capable of conquering a planet all by their lonesome. Big deal.

It hit me early on Thursday: The Dealers were nothing special. Don't get me wrong, they're excellent soldiers that do their job really well, but now-a-days every single nation (In every time period and of every species) has their own Elite forces that can conquer a different nation on their own without a single loss. They all have their own Spartan super soldiers, their own Fedaykin death squad, their futuristic Marine Corps and their personal Stormtrooper battalion. Even the fact that the Dealers had telekinetic powers was nothing special, fantasy nations and alien species have telekinesis coming out their rears. I've fallen into anonymity since I'm no longer doing anything different and special.

Enter the Jai. (here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=421982) and here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=422210))

In two posts (with more probably on the way) I've had the Dealers effortlessly eliminated and paved the way for their replacement by the Jai, a group that I hope will not be found in every other nation out there. Unlike the Dealers, who were simply really, really good soldiers that were no different from any other citizens of Klonor, I plan on having the Jai be their own independent culture within Klonor. They will have their own philosophy, their own history, their own customs, and their own martial training. They'll have more of an impact on society than their predecessors, more of a guardian for the nation as a whole than just its leader. They'll also accomplish through natural ability and mental training and discipline what the Dealers could only accomplish through technology and science. The Dealers telekinetic abilities and their energy projection, all of which was made possible through the Emitters, will now be a product from the very mind of those who use them. And yes, before you ask, these are a blatant rip-off of the Jedi. Their very name, the Jai, is an adaptation of 'Jedi' used by the Witches of Dathomir primarily in the Expanded Universe novel The Courtship of Princess Leia.

So, Klonor's got a brand new Elite force, a better Elite force that obliterated the old one without a single loss, and you can expect to be seeing them quite soon.

OOC:

Congrats. You just created something exactly like the vampires of DLE before I restarted the nation, only without the virus.

Really didn't mean to rain on your parade, but this is also something that's been done to death. I can name several dozen nations that have done it months before you and some that are made up of nothing but. The most unique ways are the vampires I used and what Godular has done. If you want to stand out anymore, you have to have an army without an uberpowerful unit in it.

How is this exactly like yours?

so to put it simply. You're making Jedi..... an independant organisation, their own beliefs, culture and councils, working within society and defending the society as a whole?

Wow...really....inventive. I hope I'm wrong and I'll gladly accept being proven wrong but still....just...wow..... After actually reading to the end of your post I have to say....atleast be original..... There is nothing in this that'll make you any less obscure.

What makes or breaks a person here is their quality in an RP, their ability to make the story flow and work and be recognised not the type of wank hot uber shit you can throw out. Incorporate that wank-hot shit into something worth reading and maybe you wont be so invisible or the run of the mill sheep like all the other people.

And really Jedi? It's been done before I think, or it's been ripped off so many times it's just yet one more layer that people add without even thinking.

Klonor, here's what the vampires had:

1) Mental abilities that were unmatched by most in DLE.

2) Their own culture, due in part to them being isolated from the rest by what they were.

3) Their own philosophy and customs. Being a bloodsucking predator does cause one to think differently.

4) A major impact on society. In fact, they pretty much changed it.

5) Guardians of the nation (well, technically, everyone was).

6) Their own form of martial training (ask Siesatia about what one did sometime).

7) They replaced the role of the previous elites in combat due to having too many natural advantages.

Now you get why I rarely had wars. I didn't need people complaining about having their troops hit with powerful energy attacks from the same unit that was later ripping their arms off. I did quite a bit of off-NS testing of them before I determined them best kept limited.

Obviously what you choose to do with your nation is your buisness, but I do find it more odd that you'd decide "My nation's übermenschen are too derivative of those found in popular works of science fiction", and then replace them with even more widely (and often poorly) copied übermenschen from a work of Extruded Sci-Fi Product.

It just seems odd.

No, guys, come on, I'm going off on a different tangent here. This is all new.

Not really all that new. The concepts are older than I am (and I've been here off and on since May of 2003), and the people chosen as a base have been ripped off so many times that I've actually met people who are working on devices that instantly kills anyone who even thinks about using the Jedi within five hundred miles of them. It may be mad science, but it's mad science for a reason.

Seriously, try going with a scifi series that hasn't been overused. Everyone uses Star Trek, Star Wars, Warhammer, StarCraft, StarGate, and a few others. Hell, we have more damn Star Gates in the NS universe than are in the universe of the actual show.

You want to stand out? Try something that hasn't been overused. I'm using the Myst series, which no one seems to touch despite the fact it is scifi. People recognize it, but are mostly surprised they didn't think of using it. That gives me a way around a lot of the problems of many nations when trying to stand out through the fact I don't have that much work to do to be obviously different. I haven't updated the factbook yet, but I will.

Anyway, what I'm saying is simple: Try scifi that people don't use that often for this. It may make you stand out through the simple fact that not everyone is using it. And nothing is stopping you from keeping your ships.

A nice tea time conversation

"My Elite soldiers are freaking awesome. They're strong, fast, smart, and trained from childhood to be the ultimate killing machines.""WHAT? How... SAD! How could you do that... The poor things... No childhood to speak of, just training, tears and troubles... Mind, I wonder how they can be smart after being driven into insanity by such a horrible education system..."

"Well...kinda, but they're so much more than that. They're the personal guards and soldiers of the Duke, they maintain the balance of power throughout the entire Association.""Ummm... Your Duke needs protection? He isn't terribly loved by the people, then? How sad... He should possibly change the way he governs his nation... Oh, and I don't think it is good to give so much power to such a small group... It's dangerous, my friend. You will see."

"I guess....but they're more than that, too. They're the perfect assassins and easily slaughter the thousands of soldiers that stand before them.""Assassins wasted in BATTLE? Klonor grows them on trees, yes? Otherwise such would be an odd course of action... Where I am from, an assassin would eliminate a specific target, and not be wasted against less valuable but still risky opponents... Well, different culture, I guess."

~ Quite astonished Ex-Angstian who hitchhiked some craft to explore the rest of the nearby galaxy. Odd people out there, really.

Okay, I had this big post written here, but then I realised that it was really insulting, arrogant, condescending, and probably would have made half of NS despise me......well, despise me more.

Yes, I know that the Jai are nothing new. Things like them have been seen repeatedly on NS, and I myself have done things just like them earlier in my NS career. I replaced the Dealers with them not because I wanted something totally new and untried ever on NS, but because I just wanted to change Klonor a bit.

This whole thread was originally posted with the point of me making a very large point once a lot of people had responded with the "That's nothing new" posts that we've seen so far, but it hit me just now that, while being a jackass is really fun, it cuts me off from other fun that I'd have if everybody here didn't start hating me. If I'd gone through with my original intent it'd make the near future on NS rather unpleasant for me. So, forget it.

Klonor, I'm one of the biggest asses in NS. Feel free to TG your comments to me.

Personally I don't care about what concept a nation uses, I'm perfectly happy for someone to base their nation around Warhammer 40k, Star Trek, Star Wars, Dune and pretty much any science fiction they want... providing they can RP that concept in such a manner which makes them interesting.

Warhammer 40'000 space marines RPed properly and carefully would be very cool, though it would limit you to people prepared to accept them, you could RP them in such a way that plot devices control the power and instead of playing to be the best like half the super wanky races I've seen around, you can play to be interesting and for the sake of RP.

Talking about Warhammer 40'000, we have Ctan, a nation who RPs his leader as a Ctan from the Necron fluff and do it in such a way that a large amount of the FT community in nationstates don't ignore it, this is because his race and nation is well balanced with good RP.

People need to learn that nationstates isn't about pwning the other player... thats dull and you'll be ignored by everyone sooner or later because it's an annoying way to play... nationstates is about the roleplay and interaction, ironically the players who are willing to lose often are much more respected then those who go on about never being defeated because of their military might.

Learn these basics and if you want to win something to show off power, make sure the would be loser gets something out of it at least. I'm going to let Freethinker have a powerful vampire character retire to Iuthia, go crazy and kill a ton of my security forces... in the process his vampires will be hilighted as powerful creatures, my forces will be hilighted as normal humans with real lives who eventually track and take the creature down. We're both happy with this and it comes out as very enjoyable.

Remember, Nationstates works because we roleplay together... being the best at everything and never losing makes for dull RP and eventually people won't want to RP with someone who never lets them win for a change.