NationStates Jolt Archive

...okay, seriously, now that I have your attention (I knew the thread title would catch peoples' interest ;)), I was wondering if there are any future-tech nations willing to give me a few pointers. I don't want to be a crappy RPer. Any takers?

Fire the I.G.N.O.R.E. Canno--oh wait, nevermind. >_> Actually, I have no tips for you; I suggest you ask DemonLordEnigma.

Yeah ask Egnima. Hes God like.

I'll bite. Though, grasshopper, Building everyones hopes up like that was a nasty thing to do.

What is it, seriously, that you need pointers in? I'll be horribly generic for now, mind.

Creating your nation of might, to the chagrin of your foes Eternal.
-Originality. Take a quick look at what people have a lot of. In a military term, people tend to have a lot of superweapons that they don't have a clue about. The KING of FT knows that such silliness garners no respect, and casts it aside. That's not to say that you have to use booooring weapons, or stick to that in existing programs or books, like turbolasers, just that going overboard on solar destroying weapons is a no-no. I have no idea what you might decide to use, but that's not the point. This is only a small aspect of the whole thing anyway.
When creating the kind of back history of your nation, you might want to consider pulling away from the wholesome American federation, and the Galactic Empire. They're pretty standard fare here. Of course, you can if you want, it doesn't actually affect your ability to RP, you just won't stand out well. For example, my entire Empire is of an Asian origin, and maintains a caste system, whilst my leader is buddhist. But that's enough plugging my nation.

Relations. You might want to establish yourself as a new player by starting a diplomacy thread, giving your now absolutely spanking nation that no-one can turn down. This is, I find, the hardest thing you'll have to do, unless you're lucky. Many of these nonviolent RPs sink without a trace, but the persistent and worthy will begin to get somewhere with them. This is more difficult for the simple reason that there are less future tech threads than modern threads, and you can be lost amongst them, so usually putting an FT in the title will help to show people what they're dealing with.

Damn. I'm just winging it here, I'm running out of things to say. You're going to need to pull me on a bit. What is it, specifically, you actually want to know?

Nice way to nab our attention^^

Anyway, one way you could become a FT nation almsot instantly is by joining Planets I (link in sig). If you're at 20 million, sign up and you'll immediately get a colony ship that you can use to colonize and rule your own space empire. But you HAVE to be at least 20 mil to join.

My advice: Wait until you're bigger to get into the space RPing. Join an alliance so you can be defended by people one hundred-fifty times your size.
(But don't join the Galactic Empire, they're evil, unless you're into that sorta thing.)

Mine asteroids for extra minerals and stuff you can use. When you start out, don't build a navy, it'll crush your economy. Research laser tech and stuff like that. You'll start out with your military have mainly AK-47's and basic tech like that, so you'll have to go fast to build yourself to be a big and powerful space/future tech nation.

When you get into battle, if you don't have any shields, a hit from someone's main weapon will more than likely destroy most of your ship. But if you have shields, like a Plasma shield, take note that Lasers will just go right through it, but Ballistics (Nukes 'n stuff) will go off harmlessly. And try to keep at least one of their ships operational so you can capture it. You'll get any useful tech they might have and you'll have coordinates and stuff f their worlds.

A general rule of RP's: Let them react. You shoot at them, they say if they get shot. If you aim at their head and it's a soldier with really great aim, they'll take the shot. But don't go,
"My fleet, combined with my allies' fire their main cannons of all types at the space docks. The combined firepower is more than enough to disintigrate them."
This is nice and descriptive, but it's also Godmodding. Shoot and they'll react. If they have shields, it won't do much. But if they don't have them, if they go,
"The huge array of missiles miss by just a hair."
That's G-modding if those missiles were aimed. If you just shot them, it would fly. But unless they have Missile scramblers, they'd be hit.

That enough advice for ya?

Nice way to nab our attention^^

Anyway, one way you could become a FT nation almsot instantly is by joining Planets I (link in sig). If you're at 20 million, sign up and you'll immediately get a colony ship that you can use to colonize and rule your own space empire. But you HAVE to be at least 20 mil to join.

My advice: Wait until you're bigger to get into the space RPing. Join an alliance so you can be defended by people one hundred-fifty times your size.
(But don't join the Galactic Empire, they're evil, unless you're into that sorta thing.)

Mine asteroids for extra minerals and stuff you can use. When you start out, don't build a navy, it'll crush your economy. Research laser tech and stuff like that. You'll start out with your military have mainly AK-47's and basic tech like that, so you'll have to go fast to build yourself to be a big and powerful space/future tech nation.

When you get into battle, if you don't have any shields, a hit from someone's main weapon will more than likely destroy most of your ship. But if you have shields, like a Plasma shield, take note that Lasers will just go right through it, but Ballistics (Nukes 'n stuff) will go off harmlessly. And try to keep at least one of their ships operational so you can capture it. You'll get any useful tech they might have and you'll have coordinates and stuff f their worlds.

A general rule of RP's: Let them react. You shoot at them, they say if they get shot. If you aim at their head and it's a soldier with really great aim, they'll take the shot. But don't go,
"My fleet, combined with my allies' fire their main cannons of all types at the space docks. The combined firepower is more than enough to disintigrate them."
This is nice and descriptive, but it's also Godmodding. Shoot and they'll react. If they have shields, it won't do much. But if they don't have them, if they go,
"The huge array of missiles miss by just a hair."
That's G-modding if those missiles were aimed. If you just shot them, it would fly. But unless they have Missile scramblers, they'd be hit.

That enough advice for ya?

Lol, that's perfect, because my pop. is exactly twenty million! :D

(OOC: Thanks for the help, everyone. :))

Cool. You know, by the time I was 20 mil, I had already established myself as a good RPer. Before I had 40 mil, I already had a few compliments. But one more note on FT:
Many people who use Modern Tech won't recognize Future Tech. If it's their thread, fine. You have to abide by their rules.
BUT, if the host of the thread alows FT, you can use it and if they get real annoying, use the I.G.N.O.R.E. cannon. If they won't recognize your choice, that's their problem, so they don't have a right to make it yours.

So my advice is: Build a military on Earth as well. Use mostly Modern Tech, even a bit futuristic, like from C&C:Generals. Have weak laser guns if you want. Just don't go overboard with it, like all-laser tech Battleships. My Battleships stationed in Tunisia have Plasma Shields and Laser Cannons, but they still rely mostly on their cannons and HE AP rockets. I also have a very powerful Air Force.

But if you have shields, like a Plasma shield, take note that Lasers will just go right through it, but Ballistics (Nukes 'n stuff) will go off harmlessly.

Unless, of course, they're Holtzmann shields. Never shoot a laser at a Holtzmann shield (it's from Dune, by Frank Herbert. If you shoot a laser at a Holtzmann shield, there is an unpredictable explosion. Maybe it will just destroy the target and shooter, or maybe it'll set off a pseudo-atomic reaction and destroy everything for a couple of miles. In my opinion, it's best not to try. Ah, enough rambling.)

I agree with GS. Since there are so many more MT threads, I keep most of my military at near-future tech (2010-2100). As for my space stuff, it's a mixture of Starcraft and Dune tech. I find a mix of two such radically different levels creates a good balance; you might want to look into it.

Origionality is always the best, never ever use Star Trek, or Star Wars tech, unless you want to be like everyone else. It gets kinda boring watching 200000 Millenium Falcons take on 300000 Super Star Destroyers, or 300 Galaxy Class vs 4 Billion Intrepid class.

THis brings me to a next figure, numbers. Start Small, Fighters, a pocket carrier or two, and maybe some destroyers. If you're interested, my storefront is open. DemonLordEnigma made his start there.
http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=7912583

Hey there’s nothing wrong with star trek tech but .. Siesatia is right you should always be unique , also don’t argue about spec’s , tech isn’t every thing , it writing a good story

I base my tech on stuff from a variety to make my own. All my stuff is built by the Goverment and UziCorp, a SuperMonopoly from the USA, while it's mainly based off of Halo-type things. So my stuff is all Green Sun/UziCorp/Halo-tech. A bunch of it's up for sale.

Anyway, yeah. Build your own tech.

TFU is quite right, I may have been a bit over, it is alright, if you want to use it... Fine, but I have been on a rampage, as everyone is using the same thing over and over again. Personally, I am moving a tiny bit towards Halo tech. As in, I like the look of it.

Halo Tech's been on the rise, too much if you ask me. I only use their Plasma Shield tech. I use my own Laser Tech for my ships' primary weapons. Talk to Chronisia, he has some really interesting tech he uses effectively, I've seen his stuff.

The most important part is to be original. You've got to have balance in your military capabilities. I, for instance, have a tiny number of extremely powerful ships for my nation's size.

What you want to avoid is rabid wanking. Specifically, not having a huge fleet that is also super powerful. You can have either size or power, not both.

Anyway, good luck with FT RPing. Perhaps I'll see you in the future.

I've found that if you invent an entirely new race, with an entirely new culture and entirely new history and technology, you can spend most of your nation's early life crafting their biology, their traditions, the way things work. Which is actually quite fun, and something that has much more potential than if you base your nation on something from TV that everybody's already seen. It also takes more time and writing, but that's part of the fun... even if nobody reads it.

Also, although I've given generic details on the vessels the Ghargonians use, nowhere have I stated the yields of their weaponry. I've only stated what each type of weapon is designed to do, roughly. If I were to fire one at another player, it would be down to them to decide how much damage it causes them. If they are unreasonable (i.e. "ha! your weapon did nothing!"), then I don't want to be RPing with them. Just as I wouldn't particularly enjoy being dictated to, I wouldn't dictate to someone else.
Think back to sci-fi novels and TV series you've watched; try and recall how many of them state exactly how many joules of energy their weapons use each time they fire them. I think beyond perhaps Star Trek you'd come up short. Farscape, for example, didn't produce any technical data whatsoever throughout its entire run (for example, nobody's actually sure what the hell a 'starburst' is, beyond a brand of fruity sweet), and yet that's considered by some to be the best sci-fi series of recent years. Star Wars required its overly dedicated fan base to come up with off-screen techspecs, and Star Wars is legendary.
Technobabble is boring. Only the geekiest of geeks are interested in the precise atomic structure of your hull armour, to the other 90% of the world it's not good readin'. It's the story that counts. The ships are just that; vehicles to expand the horizons of the stories. So long as you don't go around creating 'uberweapons' that cannot be resisted, as stated by some other people, you can't go far wrong if you leave damages up to the other players.

But I really think you should consider starting completely from scratch with your own civilisation. Much more rewarding.

The most important part is to be original. You've got to have balance in your military capabilities. I, for instance, have a tiny number of extremely powerful ships for my nation's size.

What you want to avoid is rabid wanking. Specifically, not having a huge fleet that is also super powerful. You can have either size or power, not both.

Anyway, good luck with FT RPing. Perhaps I'll see you in the future.

This is true.

Nations go down different roads.
For exmaple.
Some nations go down the road of " Large Oversizedd ships, but a smaller fleet"
Ships like the battle plate come to mind.

Right now I'm on the road of a large fleet.
There are 1200 ships in it. But most are support vessels, theres only about 500 warships.

But why do I have so many? Because I go down the Fast attack road.
I perfer having a larger fleet of weaker ships to be able to be a bit more flexible. But that doesnt mean I dont have some pretty impressive capital ships.

Use whatever works for you.

OOC:
I[d love to chat to anyone on AIM or MSN
AIM= East Federation
MSN= noonelikeshippos@hotmail.com

and SpawnStar if you have one, I'd like to talk to you.

I go for more of a balance between number and firepower, but that's very expensive, so my fleet consists of 1 small destroyer, 1 medium carrier, and 2 cruisers and I'm building a large destroyer right now.

That works to.
Due to the sheer size of my nation, I like to feel safe.
I tihnk my fleet is an awsome balance though,
It has alot of Flexibility because it can be speard out a bit more.
Plus snice most of my ships are quite fast.
They can dodge and manuver around some of the big ole cap ships out there.

And IMO once you hit about 1.5 billion.
Build yourself a uber flagship.

A Uber ship shows that you have an awsome budget and a dependable people as well as great military strengh.
ANd it's uber because you normally only have ONE.

Reach 5 billion and consider making another.

The Ghargonian flagship is just a more heavily armed version of their standard battleship */me shrugs*. It's not particularly 'uber' and it's not particularly impressive, but it's practical and it works. Ghargonians don't believe in 'showing off', though. They prefer to get straight to the point. Literally, in some cases.

An uber ship is fine for proving how large your defence budget is, but it's no use if it drains your entire defence budget in the process...

An uber ship is fine for proving how large your defence budget is, but it's no use if it drains your entire defence budget in the process...

Indeed. Having just one ubership at the expense of the rest of your military is folley.

Ub3r ships are just big targets ... i have hundreds of smaller ships becuse i barely have any big ships over 1.5 km

An alternative to great, crawling battleships that I'm hoping to use for one of my new puppets in the future is the concept of 'strike carriers'. Although they have the firepower to repel attack or even be used as offensive weapons if necessary, they rely primarily on extensive numbers of powerful fighters and bombers for their power projection, as well as cruiser/gunboat convoys for defence. Essentially, if you took a battleship and a carrier and spliced them, a strike carrier would be the mutant offspring. I'm taking the idea from a specific source with a specific technology level for a specific nation (the idea of which is not of my own devising this time), but the idea could be applied pretty much anywhere.
Ghargonian ships are leaning that way themselves, having fighter squadrons onboard all their battleships and even their cruisers. Although in this case, they are secondary weapons and are usually launched to augment the battleships' own offensive power, or to deal with enemy fighters whilst the battleship engages capital targets; plus they don't have nearly as many fighters as a strike carrier would.

Problem with many ships is the fact you have so much to look after. Strength in numbers is great, but all the tech people, pilots, and sailors alone could drain your budget. Having a good number with acceptable firepower is enough.

Problem with many ships is the fact you have so much to look after. Strength in numbers is great, but all the tech people, pilots, and sailors alone could drain your budget. Having a good number with acceptable firepower is enough.

A single, phenomenally large ship, like some of the ridiculously huge things I've seen on NS, could probably drain more people than any large navy. Can you imagine performing an MOT on a Death Star? You'd have to bring back conscription to give something like that (or even larger) the once-over... let alone repair it. I'd rather have a fleet of 400-metre ships to look after than a single Death Star. At least if there's a serious problem with one of them you have a load more to fall back on. A serious problem with a Death Star and that's a huge chunk of your resources out of commission for a while.

Wow! There's some great FT info here! Very helpfull. By the way, i just started my FT storefront (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=388417). I'm kinda a n00b, so any critiques would be helpful. I'm trying to sell more than just the usual starships. Unless you want to just bombard any planets you attack, you'll need more than starships. I have an extensive list of units to sell, but I haven't got all the specs yet. I hope to soon. What do you think?

Another thing:
Building your own ships shouldn't cost as much so long as you're using your own resources, but this uses them up. Buying most of your parts or the ships themselves will take up your military budget.

I operate a Medium Sized Fleet of about 1200 ships.

How do I keep them all going?

I have very good logiestical support. Coupled with the fact that I dont have that much territory in the " normal universe ".

I keep my fleet well suppuiled and it stays close together.
For exploring I'll send a ship out to look around.
The whole fleet only moves when there is a war.

Remeber, a Well suppilied fleet is a happy fleet,a fleet that can attack enemys and defend itself well.

Ships are not just things you turn on and off.
They need refits, and they need repairs.

For exmaple, a Tornado Class Battle Crusier needs a refit every 5 years to keep it's systems in working order. This goes for almost all FT ships, they are in an essance, living breathing things, and just like living things they need to be taken care of.

Alot of FT nations like having an ubership, for show,
I have one which sucks alot of money! And man power! Why? Because I want one.

You should just do what you want, but keep some things into consideration,

I was sitting here just a week ago thinking "I think I might make this nation a two-sided RPer. One or 2010 MT and one for some FT in the distance future. All revolving aorund my perfect idea for a RPing nation: The Zerg from StarCraft."
I myself was a Protoss fan but would something like the Zerg (as in creatures actually living in outter space [not just on the planet] and such) could be used, and if so, could they have some sort of primitive post-modern like space technology in warfare? Just wondering; would be interesting.
Not trying to cram up your thread mate, but you might like to know this too, who knows?

*plans the infestation of many nations on Planets II when it opens up to form a total dominating race*

hmmm even though Sol is overcrowded already I'd suggest sticking around Earth, it's hard to come up with reason to interact with nations when your quite a few lightyears away from them (I learned the hard way>_> )

Orginality is a deffinate must have I personally based my nation off of Larry Niven's Man-Kzin War series, theres only 1 other nation I know that Have Kzinti in them.

My last bit of advice is: Logistics, ya know that thing thats usually swept under the rug when it's convient, don't swept it under the rug keeping things like that only add to the story adn make it better even if you just use the basic principals of it.

...okay, seriously, now that I have your attention (I knew the thread title would catch peoples' interest ;)), I was wondering if there are any future-tech nations willing to give me a few pointers. I don't want to be a crappy RPer. Any takers?

LOL, the title alone got me flying into II to close down the silly n00b's impending flame war... ;)

Okay, somehow I missed this at first.

You want to be FT? Here's the quick and dirty of how I did it.

1) The species. This is most important as it determines everything. It determines part of their history, their physical limitations, their mental limitations, the size of their ships, the atmosphere. Basically put, this is the most important decision you will ever make.

If you wish to go easy, choose an already established race. There are the very prolific humans, but those are quite common and, frankly, have enough weapons developed specifically targetting them and enough weaknesses to make them kinda questionable.

However, there are other races. If you like the versatility of humans but don't want yours to be common, use an offshoot race or an evolution of humanity. My Sarkarasetans are an example of this. Take a look at the DemonLordEnigma factbook on NSWiki and read what is there to get an example of how much work I have put into the Sarkarasetans in defining who they are. Anyone who wants to use them only actually needs the NSWiki entry on them and doesn't even have to use the entirety of it. They can ignore the subspecies portion and everything about DLE. After all, if Sarkarasetans evolved once, what is to stop them from evolving again?

Or, maybe you want to move away from humans entirely. Well, stop and ask yourself: How does your species think? Communicate? What are its ideals? It's variances? How does it view itself? Others? What is its history?

Now, the next thing you need to decide is where these people of yours live and what it is like. How are the weather patterns? What planet is it? Where in space is it located? How did the species get there (evolution vs. colonization)? How does their view reflect where they are? How have they adapted to their surroundings?

I would advise dodging Earth for this one. It's so packed and so common of a point that it really is pretty much going to make you another part of the crowd instead of a nation that stands out.

I chose a planet nearly 2000 lightyears from Earth in the middle of space that you cannot map no matter how hard you try. The planet's mostly barren with only a part of it capable of supporting life. It started out as a colony world but ended up being the home of an empire. Their views and adaptions are mostly influenced by them having little respect for other nations, as they've had to fight to survive on their own world. They also end up highly militaristic as a result of this and quite willing to use weapons of mass destruction.

The final question is how their history affects them. Who are they? Where do they come from? Where are they going? What are their values? How has their history led to their form of government? How has it led to them being at this point?

With DLE, the first question is mostly unanswered. They know they used to have vast empires and quite a bit about those empires, but they still only know fragments. DLE is a nation in search of answering that first question, thus it is pretty much self-constructed as a society. The government was formed by an android being found in an old bunker, activated by accident, and deciding he didn't like what he saw and, since he does think along a different path, that he should change things. Enigma is pretty much the only leader DLE will have for the forseeable future and, as such, has come to have a reverence around him that is unmatched by many leaders in other nations. And as his people struggle to find out who they are and where they come from, he too struggles to find his past and why he was built. It is through that struggle they have become who they are. Their identity is entirely self-made and, as such, is one you cannot destroy or put down with ease.

Once you get those, all you need to do is choose a technology type you think them most likely to develop (your base technology that influences all of your technological developments) and how they came around to developing it (or, in the case of DLE, discovering and backwards engineering it). You can add questions to the above, but the above gives you the basics you need to go about creating any FT nation.

*Pats Katganistan* Its ok, maybe you should hang around General or UN forums more often. Plenty to go around over there.

Now, the next thing you need to decide is where these people of yours live and what it is like. How are the weather patterns? What planet is it? Where in space is it located? How did the species get there (evolution vs. colonization)? How does their view reflect where they are? How have they adapted to their surroundings?

You mean like my planet? Gaia. 96% of it, its raining 32/7 (There being 32 hours in a day) 2% being Extremely Arid Desert, and the final 2% being Fridgid Icelands.

I was sitting here just a week ago thinking "I think I might make this nation a two-sided RPer. One or 2010 MT and one for some FT in the distance future. All revolving aorund my perfect idea for a RPing nation: The Zerg from StarCraft."
I myself was a Protoss fan but would something like the Zerg (as in creatures actually living in outter space [not just on the planet] and such) could be used, and if so, could they have some sort of primitive post-modern like space technology in warfare? Just wondering; would be interesting.
Not trying to cram up your thread mate, but you might like to know this too, who knows?

*plans the infestation of many nations on Planets II when it opens up to form a total dominating race*

Hmm...Creatures living in outer space aren't that good an idea. Organic materials are naturally weaker than inorganics, combined with the fact that a hunk of armor on an organic ship needs nutrients to keep it alive, and the fact that your ships will be actually vulnerable to bio warfare, as well as conventional warfare.

There aren't any major advantages to having an organic ship over a normal one. Now having ships that have organic bits inside the armored hull are a bit more viable.