NationStates Jolt Archive

I was wondering if people who used FT could help tell me about it, in its entirety. How many planets do you use, where do you get your ships, what kind of weapons do you need, etc... (anything dealing with FT, post here)

well, depending on your size really. Im guessing your new so your in the region of what 5-10 million people for your population, normaly the Mod Tech's say you can never support a millitary of more then 5% of your pop and it should only ever be at like 1% of your population during peace. Me on the other hand use 5% flat just cos i can.

You would start off with say one planet, you might have just found out a form of FTL (your own or of a Sci fi show you like), your people again maby your own cration or from a Sci Fi.

Weapons again can be your own, being small i dont think you would have super weapons but things like Nuclear torpedos and Fusion torpedos meh that bog standard for the FT players.

If you like to i could help you out by a first contact RP or maby your a planet we conqured and you fight for your freedom (that you would get with no question, to top it off i wouldnt mind it if say the reason you have shipyards in your system is since we placed them there and if you wanted to take some of my tech).

anyway most of the FT rpers are decent people (infact most people on the forum) and plenty of people there to help you out.

Actually, my nation has 370+ million people.

I dont need help on the basics of RPing (like militar size). I only need help with the future aspect.

How large is a nation before it begins spreading to other planets? How many ships could a nation support? How far are planets/galaxies from each other? etc...

i generaly say you need atlest 10 million people on a planet for a colony, for a decent system with stations and stuff 100 million and major systems (homeworld and other major planets) most of your population (i have 1 billion in my homesystem with another 3 billion scattered across about 4-7 systems).

the more important the system best bet is to have more population, small not vary important colonies only need a min of say 10 million to get by.

It depends on how weak you want your extra colonies to be, basically. The more you have, the harder they are to defend, and the less productive they are -- a colony with 10 million people simply can't (and shouldn't) be defended as well as a colony with 1 billion people. Most of your planets are going to be sparsely inhabited simply because you don't have the population to spread -- mining planets, military outposts, scientific research and the like. Bretonia, for instance, have 6 core systems, one system on the outside of the 'Great Barrier' (don't ask, too much explanation required), and they're about to claim another on the opposite side of the Barrier.

But of those, only two planets are really inhabited by any great number of people. The rest are either mining planets, like most of the core systems, or military outposts, like the two outer systems.

Another thing you should bear in mind is that most of the galaxy is totally uninhabitable. It is estimated that only 5% of the star systems in the galaxy are in the right places (outside of radiation belts and the like) to actually support life. Of those, the number of stars of the right size, colour and temperature are even fewer, and even fewer still of those will have planets in the right places. In order to find planets to colonise, you will have to spread thinly, even if you terraform those which are only partially suitable. The fact that Bretonia has two systems so close together with habitable stars and planets is a fluke, and one that even I'm not comfortable with.



As for your ships, most FT nations seem to have self-contained ship production facilities. Bear in mind that FT isn't much like MT -- most nations started off completely independent without contact from other nations, so they had to be self-sufficient. Like Earth will be when we first venture into space proper, for instance. Put whatever weapons you want on them; Bretonian ships use a mixture of energy, projectile, and explosive weaponry. Most seem to favour Star Warsy weapons and ships, but I encourage you to design your own -- although Bretonia obviously borrows most of her designs from a computer game, my other FT nation is completely unique and original in every aspect, and a lot more fun as a result. I would suggest you spend just as much time designing your culture (and species, if not human) as your weapons and ships, because RPs based on that can often make for much more interesting reading. Don't rely too much on your technology.

It depends on how weak you want your extra colonies to be, basically. The more you have, the harder they are to defend, and the less productive they are -- a colony with 10 million people simply can't (and shouldn't) be defended as well as a colony with 1 billion people. Most of your planets are going to be sparsely inhabited simply because you don't have the population to spread -- mining planets, military outposts, scientific research and the like. Bretonia, for instance, have 6 core systems, one system on the outside of the 'Great Barrier' (don't ask, too much explanation required), and they're about to claim another on the opposite side of the Barrier.

But of those, only two planets are really inhabited by any great number of people. The rest are either mining planets, like most of the core systems, or military outposts, like the two outer systems.

Another thing you should bear in mind is that most of the galaxy is totally uninhabitable. It is estimated that only 5% of the star systems in the galaxy are in the right places (outside of radiation belts and the like) to actually support life. Of those, the number of stars of the right size, colour and temperature are even fewer, and even fewer still of those will have planets in the right places. In order to find planets to colonise, you will have to spread thinly, even if you terraform those which are only partially suitable. The fact that Bretonia has two systems so close together with habitable stars and planets is a fluke, and one that even I'm not comfortable with.



As for your ships, most FT nations seem to have self-contained ship production facilities. Bear in mind that FT isn't much like MT -- most nations started off completely independent without contact from other nations, so they had to be self-sufficient. Like Earth will be when we first venture into space proper, for instance. Put whatever weapons you want on them; Bretonian ships use a mixture of energy, projectile, and explosive weaponry. Most seem to favour Star Warsy weapons and ships, but I encourage you to design your own -- although Bretonia obviously borrows most of her designs from a computer game, my other FT nation is completely unique and original in every aspect, and a lot more fun as a result. I would suggest you spend just as much time designing your culture (and species, if not human) as your weapons and ships, because RPs based on that can often make for much more interesting reading. Don't rely too much on your technology.


10 million is just what i class as a starting colony i never said it had to be defended that well, also you have to remember even if its prodicted that only 5% of star systems in the galaxy are sutible for life thats based of earth based lifeforms (plus you have people terraforming world).

I wasn't replying to you, I was just making a general statement, don't worry.

And no amount of terraforming can get over the fact that certain areas of the galaxy are dangerously radioactive, and suffer from such things as the neutron star explosion with a 50,000 lightyear radius that we recently saw. This is added to the fact that even if you did find an appropriate star in an appropriate area of the cosmos, the probability of it having a planet remotely suitable even with terraforming is quite low.

The universe is an extremely unsafe, unstable, uninhabitable place regardless of your species. Even ships such as those from Star Wars or Star Trek would have trouble traversing it safely. How we're still sitting on this rock talking about it is a miracle in itself -- the explosion I just mentioned only needed to be 10 lightyears closer to render Earth itself uninhabitable. I think that taking things like this into account could make for far more interesting RPs. For instance, it would greatly explain why there are so many wars in FT land -- if space were so completely open to expansion as some people indicate/believe/assume, there would be no need for so many territorial wars. If we were to consider the hazardous nature of the galaxy more than we do, however, these wars would make a lot more sense -- real estate would become a lot more limited, resources harder to acquire, and space travel a lot less simplistic. And the scope for natural disaster and exploration RPs would be great also.

<bump for more info>

Develop Ubertech as soon as possible, then don't use it unless someone else uses it first, or you're horribly outnumbered:

Examples of Ubertech:

Anything the size of a large moon or small planet that is armed

Anything called a Bolo or SheVa gun

Anything that puts out more power than it consumes

Anything you see me use against Chronosia inthe upcoming fight

Any ship of over 4(15+ if feeling generous) miles in length(about 6 kilometers, maybe 10 if you feel generous)

Terra-anything weapons, especially when man portable

Anything that I would use against a Death Star, in one on one combat

This has been MM's Ubertech advice page.

This compartment will self-destruct in 10 seconds, goodbye

What kind of ships do most nations use (i.e. Star Wars, Made-up, etc..)?

How many ships could nation of X size support?

What kind of mining do you need?

Are military outposts, usually space stations or on planets?

What kind of ships do most nations use (i.e. Star Wars, Made-up, etc..)?

How many ships could nation of X size support?

What kind of mining do you need?

Are military outposts, usually space stations or on planets?


I mostly rp PMT and dont really rp FT alot but it is a topic that I know a little about, and I was going to make a ft nation for rps and stuff.

for example my nation does almost alltech, so for FT i generally use my own design of ship or I modify current ships such as starwars, and I use the stats and just add stuff to make it fit my nation

Depending on the size of your nation and type of ship, I would say about 20.
This also depends on howmuch automation you use, you can lower the crew size significantly with alot of automation, and I immagine you could even automate whole ships with advanced AI so the ship is totally unmanned.

mining usually is for metals and rare elements not found on your main planet or are not in a large supply.

Military outposts can range from outposts and bases on planets, to space stations or battle stations and stuff like that.
usually to provide a tactical advantage when deploying troops and or being attacked/defending

I mostly rp PMT and dont really rp FT alot but it is a topic that I know a little about, and I was going to make a ft nation for rps and stuff.

for example my nation does almost alltech, so for FT i generally use my own design of ship or I modify current ships such as starwars, and I use the stats and just add stuff to make it fit my nation

Depending on the size of your nation and type of ship, I would say about 20.
This also depends on howmuch automation you use, you can lower the crew size significantly with alot of automation, and I immagine you could even automate whole ships with advanced AI so the ship is totally unmanned.

mining usually is for metals and rare elements not found on your main planet or are not in a large supply.

Military outposts can range from outposts and bases on planets, to space stations or battle stations and stuff like that.
usually to provide a tactical advantage when deploying troops and or being attacked/defending

thanks for the info... but could you be a little more specific

20 ships of what kind? Huge destroyer ships, or what?

Are there any metals/elements that are used often in FT, that I dont know of?

The amount of ships you have is entirely dependent on the size of your military and the crew alotment for the ships. You could have thousands of fighters or one super destroyer, it doesn't really matter.

Most minerals that others have are just from fictional sources (Transparasteel from Star Wars or Naquida from Stargate SG-1 for example). You may want to look up something if someone uses it, but it doesn't really matter.

thanks for the info... but could you be a little more specific

20 ships of what kind? Huge destroyer ships, or what?

Are there any metals/elements that are used often in FT, that I dont know of?

yah no problem

Well like I said it all depends on how many ships your nation can afford and how much your nation wants to invest into just ships, How large of a military do you want, Navy, airforce. Also depends on the size of the nation what kind of ships you want(If you want a high tech super dreadnaut, you probibly wouldnt be able to have many other ships). But I would say possibly 10-20 destroyers(like I said this depends). If you give me this information I probibly could get you a better figure. Also there is the question of how much men do you want to commit to just a few ships, would you want to have your ships completly automated and unmanned with a advanced AI, or have a full crew, or have a mix.

Well the metals/elements depend on what your nation needs: Fossil fuels, metals that cant be found on your planet or that are rare, special elements. You can make things up(such as a metal called erobium: a extermly strong metal found only on Planet-- or is extermly rare....etc)

You should basically come up with a basic outline of your nations:
Government: how do you want to control your nation, do you want to divote all of your focus to military and have a bad economy....etc
Military- what kind of weapons do you want to focus on(ships, planetary defences, personal weapons)
Economics- do you want to set up trade with other worlds, how do you want to divide your assets
Polocies- do you want to be a suicidal ditator that would do anything to win a war, do you want to be a peace loving nation just looking to be allies and live out your lives(remember you still would want to have a military because it is natural that if you have something someone wants they will try to take it)
Needs- what things do you need to sustain your world/worlds
Wants-what kind of things do you want



The best thing about FT is you can make up almost anything, you can have armies of droids, huge space ships, several planets, cloning, hyperdrives and all the other cool stuff. I would recommend you design a world, tell about it(its climates, religions...etc) then decide what kind of technologies you want to use and most of all have fun.

The amount of ships you have is entirely dependent on the size of your military and the crew alotment for the ships. You could have thousands of fighters or one super destroyer, it doesn't really matter.

Most minerals that others have are just from fictional sources (Transparasteel from Star Wars or Naquida from Stargate SG-1 for example). You may want to look up something if someone uses it, but it doesn't really matter.


also if you want to go into it you can use clones and stuff to pilot your ships and be your soldiers(like starwars) .


Or you can even create a whole new race of beings