Verdant Archipelago
15-08-2005, 22:36
Welcome to the Near-Futuretech OOC page. This is going to be the reference and discussion forum for one particular set of near-futuretech RPs. If you don’t like the restrictions, that’s ok… you can RP with someone else. This is primarily for Azanian Economic Bloc and me… so we’re basically going to call the shots. If you disagree with a ruling on a bit of tech or something that seems twinky or godmodey, you can certainly debate it. We however retain the right to disagree with your arguments and ignore your complaints =)
Also, please remember to let us know who and where you are before joining an RP to cut down on confusion.
The setting is late 21st century. Just so everyone’s on the same page, lets’s say 2093. Space colonization has begun, but it is in it’s very early stages, mostly mining platforms. FTL research is showing some promise, but there’s a long way to go. Use real earth geography please. And come up with a history that is congruent with the nations that joined before you… unless your nation is delusional. Corporations are in general somewhat more powerful in developed western nations, and are extremely influential in developing nations. My Singaporean companies effectively have control over Malaysia and Indonesia and the Philippines (unless someone wants either Indonesia or the Philippines). Corps and nations have equivalent presences in space.
Tech base:
Power Plants and vehicles
Fusion power exists, but is very large and bulky and expensive to set up. A reactor won’t fit in anything smaller than a wet-water cruiser. It’s possible for large warships and bases and cities… not for ground or air vehicles.
QNR reactors exist… and if you want to put something that requires x-rays to run and gives off most of it’s energy as gamma rays in your vehicles… it’s your people’s lives.
Oil stocks are almost depleted and the middle east is in turmoil. Does this mean we switch to alcohol and fuel cells? er... Alcohol has about half the volumeric energy dencity as diesel or aviation fuel, so you'll need to double the size of your fuel tanks. Hydrogen is even worse, with a MAXIMUM volumetric energy dencity about 1/4 that of diesel. No way you are going to run your fighters on that. What you need to do is use your fusion reactors to reform diesel and octane. It's inefficient and expencive, but if you want aircraft and tanks, it's the only way.
Antigravity does not exist. No buts.
Large spaceships tend to have a fusion reactor running on He3/deuterium and use an advanced ion drive. Assume that fast warships can maintain an acceleration of about 1g and sprint at up to 2.5g. Transports are slower, necessitating a habitat ring for long distance travel. Fighters, because they can’t use fusion reactors, tend to use efficient and powerful rocket engines, giving them limited range. Missiles work similarly. Remember… military presence in space is very limited. No nation should have more than one or two largish warships and a few gunships and fighters. Pure space fighters should be in the range of $500 million, just so you have a figure to build on.
Transatmospheric aircraft exist, and even fighters do. They are hideously expensive, require several different engines, are massive, cannot be stealthy, and, though fast, will generally be outfought by atmospheric aircraft. And flights are extremely expencive.
Space Colonization is happening, but slowly. Most of what exists today are some novelty hotels and mining platforms. Anyone who wants to can stake out a bit of the moon. Terraforming has begun on Mars, but it will still be years before the atmosphere is breathable. A Europan colony would not be very advanced at all, and would be extremely dependant on it’s mother colony. Remember, all space stations constantly lose air, through the walls, so you need transports to top them up occasionally. Some mining platforms may be able to extract enough ice out of asteroids and comets to keep atmospheric pressure up, but they would be a minority.
Weaponry
Lasers exist and are used in the military, but be careful. Lasers have major problems militarily. They are extremely fragile, require ridiculous amounts of power, and aren’t particularly effective at destroying anything. There ARE roles they are useful in, but it takes a little imagination.
EM weaponry exists and is effective, but is a complete power hog. Large fighters and tanks can have EM weaponry. Infantry EM weapons should be restricted to battle-armour, crew serviced weapons, or guns with very limited capabilities. For infantry, chemical weapons are still most common.
Personally, I dislike powered armour, but I know everyone else loves it, so it can be used. It will, however, have very limited endurance, especially when using EM weaponry, will NOT be invulnerable to small arms fire, and will be noisy and bulky. While it may take a number of submachinegun rounds to put down someone in armour, they will go down as peripheral systems shut down, armour powders, and the power source gets interrupted.
Life Science
Biotech is quite advanced, but not to the point where you can custom design people or animals. It requires quite a bit of work to genetically engineer anything, and you can’t simply make crosses between animals, or put cat eyes in people. It’s far more complicated than that. And, if you simply MUST have super soldiers, remember that there hasn’t been much development time (only 100 years), cloning leaves a species vulnerable to disease, and everything has a tradeoff. If you want a race of supersoldiers who can, on average, bench-press 300kg, remember they are going to be damned big targets and are going to need to eat A LOT, which is a big problem on ships and in the field.
Combat drugs and performance enhancers exist too… but remember the drawbacks. Everything needs to be okayed by Azanian Economic Bloc or me. And remember that no society developed out of something that exists today is going to use extremely destructive combat drugs.
Cybernetics
AIs… exist, but they require truly massive amounts of computing power, tend to go insane (not necessarily destructively insane… my corp’s first attempts either suicided or sat still counting grains of sand.) . they are more of a gimmick than an effective tool. They are still too unreliable to use in any extremely sensitive areas, and are too big to be put in vehicles. Expert systems, however, are common and can be put in many different vehicles and tools. The only reason I have an AI is because the idea of an AI that thinks it is a Hollywood producer makes me giggle.
Nanotech and nanobots do exist and are quite effective at manufacturing. On the other hand, anything higher than a light breeze disperses them beyond communication range, effectively killing them, and any kind of EM field fries them, so they need to be kept in very clean, controlled environments. No grey goo.
Threads
Azanian Economic Bloc Factbook (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=435346)
Azania Economic Bloc Aerospace Products (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=436161)
A nation rising (PMT/FT intro) (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=435324)
Verdant Archipelago Inc Factbook (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=438177)
Verdant Archipelago Enterprises Medical Supplies (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=438234)
Also, please remember to let us know who and where you are before joining an RP to cut down on confusion.
The setting is late 21st century. Just so everyone’s on the same page, lets’s say 2093. Space colonization has begun, but it is in it’s very early stages, mostly mining platforms. FTL research is showing some promise, but there’s a long way to go. Use real earth geography please. And come up with a history that is congruent with the nations that joined before you… unless your nation is delusional. Corporations are in general somewhat more powerful in developed western nations, and are extremely influential in developing nations. My Singaporean companies effectively have control over Malaysia and Indonesia and the Philippines (unless someone wants either Indonesia or the Philippines). Corps and nations have equivalent presences in space.
Tech base:
Power Plants and vehicles
Fusion power exists, but is very large and bulky and expensive to set up. A reactor won’t fit in anything smaller than a wet-water cruiser. It’s possible for large warships and bases and cities… not for ground or air vehicles.
QNR reactors exist… and if you want to put something that requires x-rays to run and gives off most of it’s energy as gamma rays in your vehicles… it’s your people’s lives.
Oil stocks are almost depleted and the middle east is in turmoil. Does this mean we switch to alcohol and fuel cells? er... Alcohol has about half the volumeric energy dencity as diesel or aviation fuel, so you'll need to double the size of your fuel tanks. Hydrogen is even worse, with a MAXIMUM volumetric energy dencity about 1/4 that of diesel. No way you are going to run your fighters on that. What you need to do is use your fusion reactors to reform diesel and octane. It's inefficient and expencive, but if you want aircraft and tanks, it's the only way.
Antigravity does not exist. No buts.
Large spaceships tend to have a fusion reactor running on He3/deuterium and use an advanced ion drive. Assume that fast warships can maintain an acceleration of about 1g and sprint at up to 2.5g. Transports are slower, necessitating a habitat ring for long distance travel. Fighters, because they can’t use fusion reactors, tend to use efficient and powerful rocket engines, giving them limited range. Missiles work similarly. Remember… military presence in space is very limited. No nation should have more than one or two largish warships and a few gunships and fighters. Pure space fighters should be in the range of $500 million, just so you have a figure to build on.
Transatmospheric aircraft exist, and even fighters do. They are hideously expensive, require several different engines, are massive, cannot be stealthy, and, though fast, will generally be outfought by atmospheric aircraft. And flights are extremely expencive.
Space Colonization is happening, but slowly. Most of what exists today are some novelty hotels and mining platforms. Anyone who wants to can stake out a bit of the moon. Terraforming has begun on Mars, but it will still be years before the atmosphere is breathable. A Europan colony would not be very advanced at all, and would be extremely dependant on it’s mother colony. Remember, all space stations constantly lose air, through the walls, so you need transports to top them up occasionally. Some mining platforms may be able to extract enough ice out of asteroids and comets to keep atmospheric pressure up, but they would be a minority.
Weaponry
Lasers exist and are used in the military, but be careful. Lasers have major problems militarily. They are extremely fragile, require ridiculous amounts of power, and aren’t particularly effective at destroying anything. There ARE roles they are useful in, but it takes a little imagination.
EM weaponry exists and is effective, but is a complete power hog. Large fighters and tanks can have EM weaponry. Infantry EM weapons should be restricted to battle-armour, crew serviced weapons, or guns with very limited capabilities. For infantry, chemical weapons are still most common.
Personally, I dislike powered armour, but I know everyone else loves it, so it can be used. It will, however, have very limited endurance, especially when using EM weaponry, will NOT be invulnerable to small arms fire, and will be noisy and bulky. While it may take a number of submachinegun rounds to put down someone in armour, they will go down as peripheral systems shut down, armour powders, and the power source gets interrupted.
Life Science
Biotech is quite advanced, but not to the point where you can custom design people or animals. It requires quite a bit of work to genetically engineer anything, and you can’t simply make crosses between animals, or put cat eyes in people. It’s far more complicated than that. And, if you simply MUST have super soldiers, remember that there hasn’t been much development time (only 100 years), cloning leaves a species vulnerable to disease, and everything has a tradeoff. If you want a race of supersoldiers who can, on average, bench-press 300kg, remember they are going to be damned big targets and are going to need to eat A LOT, which is a big problem on ships and in the field.
Combat drugs and performance enhancers exist too… but remember the drawbacks. Everything needs to be okayed by Azanian Economic Bloc or me. And remember that no society developed out of something that exists today is going to use extremely destructive combat drugs.
Cybernetics
AIs… exist, but they require truly massive amounts of computing power, tend to go insane (not necessarily destructively insane… my corp’s first attempts either suicided or sat still counting grains of sand.) . they are more of a gimmick than an effective tool. They are still too unreliable to use in any extremely sensitive areas, and are too big to be put in vehicles. Expert systems, however, are common and can be put in many different vehicles and tools. The only reason I have an AI is because the idea of an AI that thinks it is a Hollywood producer makes me giggle.
Nanotech and nanobots do exist and are quite effective at manufacturing. On the other hand, anything higher than a light breeze disperses them beyond communication range, effectively killing them, and any kind of EM field fries them, so they need to be kept in very clean, controlled environments. No grey goo.
Threads
Azanian Economic Bloc Factbook (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=435346)
Azania Economic Bloc Aerospace Products (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=436161)
A nation rising (PMT/FT intro) (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=435324)
Verdant Archipelago Inc Factbook (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=438177)
Verdant Archipelago Enterprises Medical Supplies (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=438234)