NationStates Jolt Archive

Having only just arrived here, I noticed that futuretech looks way more fun than modern RP. Even so, I've resisted the urge to jump straight in because I want to know a few things about it first.

1. What are the major alliances/power blocks? What are their attitudes towards each other? What do they stand for ideologically? Which nations are the recognised superpowers?

2. How big are average spacecraft? I don't want to design a 200 metre battleship only to discover that its opposite number is twenty kilometres and carrying more firepower than my entire battlegroup (although I realise that to some extent this is unavoidable, being a small, insignificant nation).

3. Are there any technologies that will get me ignored or invaded en masse? Specific examples I'm thinking of are planet killing weapons and time travel, but if there are any other examples, let me know (I'm not planning to set out to conquer the universe with a fleet of time-travelling Death Stars on my first day, but I want to know for future reference).

4. Any miscellaneous stuff I ought to know?

good to see you. fairly new myself. the only real nation i have had contact with is imperial isa. cannot really say that i get to into rp'ing much. just as a point check out my post "Schwullunde" this will give you a few ideas for some things you might like to try. i kinda like the technical side of things lol. i don't meen this as spam by the way just more of a way for you to get some ideas

alliances/power blocks haven't seen them but may be out there somewhere

don't use Battletech tech i forget way you should not use it
main techs are
ST,SW, BattleStar,40K,BFG and it goes on

probibly just legal mumbo jumbo

Don't worry about alliances or power-blocks. II is such a random mess that no one has had an iron grip on anything since its conception.

You gain super-power status after a while of RPing with various people and not getting ignored. It's something that takes a bit of time depending on your abilities to not godmod and to write a good story.

Size is irrelevant. This nation uses ships that are huge because I like that for my concept. But I have other nations with really small ships that are equal to or greater than my current in power. It depends on what you want to do with your own ships.

No one technology can get you ignored unless you try to use it. You can develop whatever you want, but people can tell when you're just trying to one up everyone else with a weapon of uber wank.

Any other questions?

alliances/power blocks haven't seen them but may be out there somewhere

don't use Battletech tech i forget way you should not use it
main techs are
ST,SW, BattleStar,40K,BFG and it goes on
Probably because it's not as advanced as the rest..

Fanpro pretty much solved the legal issues with Studio Nue (the creators of Macross) by redesinging all the mechs that were the issue.

I'm on an RP break at the moment, but more than happy to help out a newbie. I shall share my limited FT wisdom :p

1. Major alliance blocks? Not in today's FT, it mostly seems to be alliances formed on the spot when some random starts shooting during a First Contact situation

2. As big as you want them - I use the Imperial Star Destroyer from Star Wars as my main ship-of-the-line and that is 1.6 kilometres long.

3. Planet killing weapons and time travel are two big ones, but there's also invincible shields as well - easy way to a quick ignore.

4. FT RP is messy, really messy. As soon as the shooting starts, all sense mostly goes out the window. Ground combat is also largely neglected in favour of space battles.

Hey, i like the look of your nation, there should be more far-left nations with economies with potential.

Nova Pictavia is around the 7th nation I've governed on Nationstates and is the only one I have right now as I never really played for quite a while, so as a result I've lost contact with all the other Eco nations I used to hang wit. Had a cosy little region too but it seems to have vanished.

Although I've never participated I prefer modern RP to future tech. The best thing about modern RP is that everyone's at the same tech level, however you can still use your own or another nations original designs, and experiment with conceptual units.

Anyho, dont think that was much help but its good to have allies on a similiar level ;)

The only real alliances I've been in as of late are nations on good terms with each other joining to battle a greater threat (ex. The Shivans)

As for spacecraft, they can be as big as you want as long as you make them proportionate to your population and resources. For instance, with as a new nation with relatively small population and resources, you could build a small fleet of big ships, or a big fleet of small ships, and give them adequate firepower. In terms of weaponry, whatever you want really.

In terms of ignored tech, planet killers are OK in extremely small numbers (I only have one on my flagship) and if you clear it with the person running the RP first. Time travel I've found is kind of taboo and can overcomplicate things.

But yeah, if your spacecraft be them numerous and small-medium or massive and few, are proportionate to your nation's size and you don't give them impossible firepower you should be OK. Personally, I went for the 1 small fleet, many massive ships approach when I started. But that's just me. Now I've got 3 massive fleets and all of my ships are pretty darn big. However, I never send an entire fleet unless absolutely needed. If you're, say, investigating an outpost that hasn't reported, 1-3 ships are a good number depedning on how strong they are. An outpost under attack, 5-8 ships, etc. Only send your fleet if there's an interstellar war going on or you're in really big trouble and need to pull the big guns out.

Probably because it's not as advanced as the rest..

Fanpro pretty much solved the legal issues with Studio Nue (the creators of Macross) by redesinging all the mechs that were the issue.

an i think it's hard to RP it too

No one technology can get you ignored unless you try to use it. You can develop whatever you want, but people can tell when you're just trying to one up everyone else with a weapon of uber wank.

Any other questions?

Sorry, not meaning to thread-jack, it's just I've had some wonderings about FT myself. If you don't mind I'd like to ask a question.

For the layman who doesn't have very much knowledge of physics, theoretical invention, etc. is it possible to properly participate in FT?

Sorry, not meaning to thread-jack, it's just I've had some wonderings about FT myself. If you don't mind I'd like to ask a question.

For the layman who doesn't have very much knowledge of physics, theoretical invention, etc. is it possible to properly participate in FT?

OOC: From what I have seen, most people throw physics out the window anyway...

Sorry, not meaning to thread-jack, it's just I've had some wonderings about FT myself. If you don't mind I'd like to ask a question.

For the layman who doesn't have very much knowledge of physics, theoretical invention, etc. is it possible to properly participate in FT?

I almost flunked my physics at school, and I FT RP from time to time. Nothing stopping you ;)

just blatantly copy any sf idea from any book or movie. saves the headache

Sorry, not meaning to thread-jack, it's just I've had some wonderings about FT myself. If you don't mind I'd like to ask a question.

For the layman who doesn't have very much knowledge of physics, theoretical invention, etc. is it possible to properly participate in FT?
lol..Mate, this is ft, not mt..

The further into the future, the less physics matter, for the most part..Just grab a sci fi anime if you want to see how far things can (and probably have) been done with regards to throwing the physics books out of the window.

Sorry, not meaning to thread-jack, it's just I've had some wonderings about FT myself. If you don't mind I'd like to ask a question.

For the layman who doesn't have very much knowledge of physics, theoretical invention, etc. is it possible to properly participate in FT?

It's much more than possible, I started with just what I knew from watching Star Trek and Star Wars. The physics will just give you ammo to use in your defense if your weapon comes under fire for being a 'godmod'. That and it gives people who think too much like me something to do :)

yeah don't just kill the physics make it run screaming in instant insanity:cool:

1. What are the major alliances/power blocks? What are their attitudes towards each other? What do they stand for ideologically? Which nations are the recognised superpowers?
While there are several rather large alliances (the Extra-Solar Union of Systems [ESUS], the GFFA, and possibly even the Martian Duma, if they'd ever work together), they're largely inactive for the most part. So basically, unless you attack one of their members in an unprovoked manner without discussing it with the victim beforehand, you're pretty much safe in ignoring them for the most part.

As for their ideologies, I can't really say they have much of any. The ESUS is pretty much one of the most diverse alliances out there, and is pretty much there to cement economic bonds between the member states, as well as occasionally providing military support. Beyond that, we're composed of everything from xenophobic human supremacists, to T-Rexes in power armor, to super-powerful AIs, to xenophobic lizard supremacists.

I can't really speak for the GFFA or the Duma, but they don't really seem to have a clear purpose either, besides mutual defense in the case of the GFFA or making sure Mars doesn't self destruct in the case of the Duma.

2. How big are average spacecraft? I don't want to design a 200 metre battleship only to discover that its opposite number is twenty kilometres and carrying more firepower than my entire battlegroup (although I realise that to some extent this is unavoidable, being a small, insignificant nation).
Size doesn't particularily matter. I, for instance, use a fleet of medium sized vessels, from 100 meters to 12,000 meters in the case of the Sons of Israel (my flagships). Generally, fleet numbers are more significant in determining ship power than the size of the vessels themselves. FT players tend to conform to what I like to call the Law of the One Thousand (okay, I play Vampire too much, so sue me ;) ).

This guideline essentially says that you can have 1000 ships per billion citizens in your nation (your NationStates population, not any wanked-out FT population you might make up on the spot). So basically, if you have more than that, they're weaker than if you had just a thousand per billion, and if you have less (like, say, Central Facehuggeria's (http://www.nationstates.net/central_facehuggeria) 13 ship fleet), they're correspondingly more powerful.


3. Are there any technologies that will get me ignored or invaded en masse? Specific examples I'm thinking of are planet killing weapons and time travel, but if there are any other examples, let me know (I'm not planning to set out to conquer the universe with a fleet of time-travelling Death Stars on my first day, but I want to know for future reference).
Time travel is generally frowned upon as rather wanky (the whole kill your enemy's grandfather angle), but can be fun if done properly. PKing is generally not a big deal, although you should clear it with your RP partners before pulling it out.

4. Any miscellaneous stuff I ought to know?
Have fun? :D

of course it might also be fun to form an alliance with all of the other little guys.

1. What are the major alliances/power blocks? What are their attitudes towards each other? What do they stand for ideologically? Which nations are the recognised superpowers?

Generally speaking in International Incidents there are the ESUS, the GFFA, and the Galactic Empire. Something called The Republic also exists, but at last glance it's a waning power if it had any at all.

Most of them seem rather inactive in current RP, however, and the concepts of politics and diplomacy have been completely lost on most modern FT nations. When was the last time you read a political RP with a FT label in II? Which is a shame really, because science fiction opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for political roleplays, including issues that are not a factor in modern times.

2. How big are average spacecraft? I don't want to design a 200 metre battleship only to discover that its opposite number is twenty kilometres and carrying more firepower than my entire battlegroup (although I realise that to some extent this is unavoidable, being a small, insignificant nation).

Balrogga, one of the better FT RPers active at the moment, uses small but very powerful ships last time I saw. Others have watched Star Wars one times too many and use uber-massive e-peen ships. It's really up to you as to which way you go - develop the civilisation which is building the ships first, and then decide what kind of ships they are likely to employ. Are they megalomaniac genocidal nutters who are likely to build big, scary ships for effect, or peaceful explorers who arm their smaller ships for self-defence? That's what's important when building your ships, developing your technologies, and deciding upon your military goals - who is behind them all in the first place.

Just remember that at the end of the day, the technology is all BS and nothing more than a plot device, so don't focus too heavily on it.

3. Are there any technologies that will get me ignored or invaded en masse? Specific examples I'm thinking of are planet killing weapons and time travel, but if there are any other examples, let me know (I'm not planning to set out to conquer the universe with a fleet of time-travelling Death Stars on my first day, but I want to know for future reference).

NationStates is a freeform RP, and as a result of that different people will recognise and ignore different technologies. Some people, for example, will ignore sun-destroying weapons, others will allow them. Some people don't like singularity weapons, others are OK with them. Time travel is the big one that the majority of people ignore, especially since the effective death of the Temporal Accords (which weren't such a great idea anyway).

Basically, it is up to you and the person you are playing with to come to an agreement at the end of the day. I beg of you not to carbon-copy the ships and technologies of a sci-fi franchise though - aside from the fact that it makes little sense to have numerous nations employing identical civilisations and military technologies, it's also boring. Come up with your own designs if you can - you don't have to be a physicist to do so, as it's all BS anyway, nor do you need to be an artist. Just use your imagination and common-sense, and draw upon the influences around you for guidance.

4. Any miscellaneous stuff I ought to know?

I'll give you an e-cookie if you can develop some kind of civilisation, rather than just building lots of rawr ships and going on a senseless and unbelievable intergalactic rampage for now apparent reason. I'll give you another one if your fleet of rawr ships is devoid of Imperial Star Destroyers. You can have three if you develop some fleshed-out characters.

Thanks a lot, everyone. Now that I know whats going on, my unstoppable armada of death can be unleashed. ;)