NationStates Jolt Archive

Hey all,

Im new here and want to start an FT Nation, but I'd like a little advice on how to get started, what technology I should use, ect.

My nation would be a small Confederation of highly populated planets, some human, others alien. The government would be an autrocratic group of aristocrats (some alien, others human) that would form "The Directoriate" of Atlantia (Atlantia is the main planet in the system.) The Directoriate is ultra-conservative, xeno-phobic and, at the same time, imperialistic.

What I need help in is this...
I want their military to be huge. Not superpowerful, but numerically enormous. Their generals, mostly too arrogant to be competent, would have the 'I can trade ten of my guys for one of yours' attitude. The soldiers of the Directoriate would be poorly trained, low on morale, and ill-equipt... but there are enough of them to compensate for this. Their armor divisions would be powerful but would move at a glacial pace.

Since Im new (to both the forums and FT rping) and dont want to seem like Im godmodding, Id appreciate some help- other than humans, what alien races do you suggest? How many troops would an army like this have exactly, and what equiptment would they use? Also I really need help on what their space navy is comprised of... I want it to be up front, bristling with guns- but lack both speed and cutting edge technology... Im interested in a good storyline, not so much with winning battles.

All help is appreciated, thanks alot.

Hey all,

Im new here and want to start an FT Nation, but I'd like a little advice on how to get started, what technology I should use, ect.

My nation would be a small Confederation of highly populated planets, some human, others alien. The government would be an autrocratic group of aristocrats (some alien, others human) that would form "The Directoriate" of Atlantia (Atlantia is the main planet in the system.) The Directoriate is ultra-conservative, xeno-phobic and, at the same time, imperialistic.

What I need help in is this...
I want their military to be huge. Not superpowerful, but numerically enormous. Their generals, mostly too arrogant to be competent, would have the 'I can trade ten of my guys for one of yours' attitude. The soldiers of the Directoriate would be poorly trained, low on morale, and ill-equipt... but there are enough of them to compensate for this. Their armor divisions would be powerful but would move at a glacial pace.

Since Im new (to both the forums and FT rping) and dont want to seem like Im godmodding, Id appreciate some help- other than humans, what alien races do you suggest? How many troops would an army like this have exactly, and what equiptment would they use? Also I really need help on what their space navy is comprised of... I want it to be up front, bristling with guns- but lack both speed and cutting edge technology... Im interested in a good storyline, not so much with winning battles.

All help is appreciated, thanks alot.

Well, the real only thing i can say is that if you army is poorly trained, low moral, and ill-equiped... your military would get slaughtered by anyone who has any kind of basic training.

Like me, all my soldiers are trained from 14 yrs old to 18 yrs old, I spare no exspense on my ground warriors and i would advise you at least give them basic training.

and for you ships i'd give you a 20% discount at my store seeing as how you are new...

also, you need to give your soldiers something to fight for... mine fight with thier faith, the ultimite weapon and they would gladly charge blindly into enemy fire just to satisfy Coord the god of strength.

http://s6.invisionfree.com/International_Mall/index.php?showforum=160

thats my store front by the way.

Good point, since my nation is so militaristic... the grunts would have basic training... but little more. The point is that their numbers compensate for their lack of finesse, but they are somewhat capable. As for motivation... the Directorate has massive propaganda campaigns, it lies about the evils of other alien races... so i guess hatred and Nationalism would drive my soldiers.
(I like RPing as badguys)

Well, you describe insectoids pretty well there, the Tandu fit that mold pretty well. In fact, they are engaged in eating a planets population right now ;)
Other than insects, you could use the Harvesters from Masters of Orion, and lots of other races.
Try Wikipedia :)

It all depends on how you want to spec your army. If you like ground engagements, then have your ground forces have better technology, in favour of say, larger ships.

Personally I have very large ships, good infantry forces, space fighters and good walkers. But I have no atmospheric fighters, tanks or "wet" navy.

Its a thin line to walk between fairness and complete godmod.

Not to pick, but how can your nation be xenophobic and at the same time consist largely of aliens?

Nationalism may indeed be a very strong driving factor, though it would be somewhat difficult to use it in a nation inhabited by different races. In order to motivate soldiers through hatered for 'other' races, your leaders will have to think of some factor that unite 'your' races and divide them from 'others'.

In either case, for a nation like yours it might be possible to have an army around 4% - 7% percent of your population (though it might be better to keep it no higher then 5%); for more information about building an army you might wish to refer to "OOC: How to build an army, and how to use it." thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=419432), but keep in mind, things posted in there shouldn't necessary be taken as rules, they are more like helpful guidance.

As about the species... It is quite difficult to think of something on spot, and on request at that. I can advise you to check some computer games (like Star Control or Master of Orion) or movies (like Star Wars or Babylon 5) for non-human species. And finally, you may also try to check Species category on NSwiki (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Category:Species).

And finally, you might wish to wait for your nation to get larger before you calculate the exact size of your army, otherwise you will have recalculate your army again quite soon (I first calculated the size of my army when I had population of 488 million). While your nation is still small, I would advise you to devout your time to designing your spaceships and other vehicles, developing the spices that inhabit your nation, and role-playing diplomatic meetings with leaders and representatives of the other FT nations (Nationalism is all well and good, but believe me, when it comes to war, you will want to have trusted allies at your side).

Not to pick, but how can your nation be xenophobic and at the same time consist largely of aliens?
'Xeno' is a relative term. To aliens, humans are aliens.

Xeno means stranger. Humans can be xenophobic toward humans of another nationality, or who have a different skin tone. However if a people are xenophobic, it will take a very good explaination as to why they tolerate the aliens they are already involved with.

What I meant by xenophobic is that the government hates all outsiders, human or aliens... a bad term to use in an FT thread I suppose.

I've been looking around Wikipedia and some of the video games I own and never got around to playing... I like what I saw in Half Life 2's "Combine" forces. They are low tech (relative to everyone else in this RP), and seem to fit the 'send them at the machine guns till they run out of ammo' description nicely. I also like the idea of bio-mechanical weapons...

As for a military, I prefer planet side forces over a strong space navy... my space fleet will thus consist mostly of carriers and escorts.

Thanks for all your help. Would any of you be interested in a diplomatic thread that would introduce the Directoriate?

bump

Are your people located near the outside of a particular galaxy or particularly spacefaring?

As for a military, I prefer planet side forces over a strong space navy... my space fleet will thus consist mostly of carriers and escorts.

I have to warn you A LOT of FT combat takes place in space; superior ground troops is a good thing to have (the weakest part of my own nation's military, by the way), but they'll do you no good if your troop carriers are unable to make it to the planet through enemy's defense fleet, or if you own planets are subjected to orbital bombardment. So, I advise you to think twice before making space fleet the weakest part of your military.

Thanks for all your help. Would any of you be interested in a diplomatic thread that would introduce the Directoriate?

I might be interested, but alas, my key characters are currently away (Supreme Empress Ayeka Jurai (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Ayeka_Jurai) is attending celebration in Mythrandir, and Lord Kazuki Kakiyo (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Kazuki_Kakiyo) is trying to stop civil war in Bekhaera), so if you are going to start your diplomatic thread before I finish with those RPGs, I'm afraid I will not be able to participate (technically, I can create another character, but there is a limit to how many RPGs I can play at the same time).

The planets are in a single solar system (I dunno where, suggestions?), and the governments general hatred of outsiders has kept them fairly isolated... only recently has the Directoriate taken more... Imperialistic/colonial interests.

As for their space fleets, so far in the history that I'm working on they've only dealt with poorly defended colony planets nearby... obviously in order to enter the galactic scene with a bang they'll need competent ships.

Well if you have colonial interests and were attempting to expand, you might stumble across my people attempting to do the same. However my people are currently on the extreme fringe of the universe.

That certainly works where with my group is located, if you'd like to RP lemme know.

I also had another idea for a nation... now that Ive got all of your suggestions on my idea. There was an old member here who never really got into the RP (I know him, he pointed this site out to me), but wrote up a factbook for "Galactic Genetics Incorporated" which is sorta like Resident Evil's Umbrella Corp. in space... he said I could repost the fact book and RP as them if I wanted to... and after looking at his ideas I gotta say Im impressed- its an evil, international, super-conglomerate... all it needs is nations to exist in. If you guys are interested in more of an espionage/conspiracy RP rather then war with just another country let me know... maybe Ill rp as GGI instead.

Well I'd be interested in making first contact with your people if we both came across an uninhabited system, or else lightly inhabited system, with the intention of colonizing.

bebump

I presume you don't wish to go ahead with that RP then? *grins*

Sry, I actually do want to RP w/ ya.... I want a ground engagement though, if any. Is that gonna be a problem?

There doesn't have to be any fighting, if you don't want there to be. As for ground forces, I'm still currently working on my people's ground units so we couldn't begin anything on the surface until tomorrow.

Hmm...was gonna offer myself to some fun, but I'm more into MT and personal fighting.

Jenrak, you're welcome to join if you like. Im more of a character driven writer myself... as for ground egagements, tomorrow's fine for me.

As I think about it though, I'd really like to give this evil corporation a try... any takers? It would be more character based, with espionage, assassinations and the like.

Jenrak, you're welcome to join if you like. Im more of a character driven writer myself... as for ground egagements, tomorrow's fine for me.

As I think about it though, I'd really like to give this evil corporation a try... any takers? It would be more character based, with espionage, assassinations and the like.

Sure, though I tend to write bigger than average sized posts.

Im fine w/ that, do you have an FT nation though?

Im fine w/ that, do you have an FT nation though?

The Totalians? Oh sure.

Sounds good, do you want to RP w/ the corporation or the nation? Im trying to decide which to RP w/... Im leaning towards the corporation cause I have a factbook already.

please see my Factbook, Galactic Genetics Inc.
Found here: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=485137

All advice, criticism and plot ideas would be appreciated. Thanks alot.