Advice Thread OOC Future Tech Only

[Milagro]

Oh, one thing I'd like to ask about RPing, rather than tech.

Milagro isn't HUGE on exploration. They're perfectly content to stay in their corner of the galaxy, maybe colonize a moon or two in their solar system. Possibly terraform another planet. The population isn't massive and they aren't draining the resources like no tomorrow (but they do harvest resources from other uninhabitable planets, you know so that if resources become scarce on the homeplanet their isn't this huge scramble to build space ships to get off planet and get more/colonize, because that step is already done).

However, without this massive urge to explore it kinda leaves me somewhat stuck in my little solar system. Any ideas to go about interacting with the larger NSFT community as a whole?

I had one idea, involving the concept of "word of mouth". Basically we'd have to have some kind of first contact scenario (for the purpose of that specific RP, I'd have to look for a benevolent civilization). Afterwards, if said civilization enjoyed their time in Milagro, then perhaps they would spread the word (among nations that aren't looking for a planet to conquer) of this neat little friendly nation. It could easily be mentioned as something casual (i.e. "Speaking of that part of the galaxy, we meet a nice little nation named Milagro around there. Fun people") or perhaps brought up as the topic of some important meeting. Either or works.

Of course, I realize that does kinda require some effort on the part of the other RPer to help expand my nation's "contact list", so to speak. If that is too much of a burden then I have another plan: just send probes out into space with an invitation for nations to come, as long as they present the probe as proof of invitation (so we know it isn't some random invader). Then we set there and wait for intelligent life... kinda like Earth.

However the main thing that concerns me is that, ICly, a nation looking for easy prey could easily get the invitation, find out where it came from, go pretending to come in peace and then attempt to conquer the planet. Not sure how avoid that possibly, unless totally ignoring that possibility (OOCly) is a legitimate response?

[Santheres]

I would honestly change your national character enough that you have explorers or something that can get you interacting with everyone else. Even if it's just a rare thing that sometimes a ship will decide "you know what's cool? That place over there" and check stuff out.

[Themiclesia]

Bad Idea. Multiple small militaries that govern themselves tend to be a bad idea.
My advice - have one big military, a joint one, from all of your colonies and owned planets. Take about 3% of each planet's population and throw it into your military. When you're done, depending on the territory and size you are, you'd end up with 5-10% of your population being in the military. More or less.

Small regional militaries, so long as they are subordinated to the national command, are not a bad idea. That's basically the idea behind the National Guard, which remains at the disposal of state governors unless called up by the federal government for duty.

The very basis of this is that we're a rather spread out nation, even by FT standards.

Each militia will have its own commander. Earth's government may choose to appoint such a commander, else the most senior member of the hierarchy automatically takes control.

During war, of course, Earth's government may commandeer all militias.

[Milagro]

I would honestly change your national character enough that you have explorers or something that can get you interacting with everyone else. Even if it's just a rare thing that sometimes a ship will decide "you know what's cool? That place over there" and check stuff out.

Hm... I may have to go that route. I'll definitely consider it if nothing better comes to mind. Once I'm ready to start RPing with this nation that is. I'm still working through some of the REALLY important stuff, like basic history, culture, system of government, and a world map. I want to have those four down before doing anything.

[Santheres]

I would honestly change your national character enough that you have explorers or something that can get you interacting with everyone else. Even if it's just a rare thing that sometimes a ship will decide "you know what's cool? That place over there" and check stuff out.

Hm... I may have to go that route. I'll definitely consider it if nothing better comes to mind. Once I'm ready to start RPing with this nation that is. I'm still working through some of the REALLY important stuff, like basic history, culture, system of government, and a world map. I want to have those four down before doing anything.

Makes sense. Just remember that writing yourself into near-total isolation is a very bad thing.

[Milagro]

Hm... I may have to go that route. I'll definitely consider it if nothing better comes to mind. Once I'm ready to start RPing with this nation that is. I'm still working through some of the REALLY important stuff, like basic history, culture, system of government, and a world map. I want to have those four down before doing anything.

Makes sense. Just remember that writing yourself into near-total isolation is a very bad thing.

That's why I asked how to go about interacting

[StellarGate]

Oh, one thing I'd like to ask about RPing, rather than tech.

Milagro isn't HUGE on exploration. They're perfectly content to stay in their corner of the galaxy, maybe colonize a moon or two in their solar system. Possibly terraform another planet. The population isn't massive and they aren't draining the resources like no tomorrow (but they do harvest resources from other uninhabitable planets, you know so that if resources become scarce on the homeplanet their isn't this huge scramble to build space ships to get off planet and get more/colonize, because that step is already done).

However, without this massive urge to explore it kinda leaves me somewhat stuck in my little solar system. Any ideas to go about interacting with the larger NSFT community as a whole?

I had one idea, involving the concept of "word of mouth". Basically we'd have to have some kind of first contact scenario (for the purpose of that specific RP, I'd have to look for a benevolent civilization). Afterwards, if said civilization enjoyed their time in Milagro, then perhaps they would spread the word (among nations that aren't looking for a planet to conquer) of this neat little friendly nation. It could easily be mentioned as something casual (i.e. "Speaking of that part of the galaxy, we meet a nice little nation named Milagro around there. Fun people") or perhaps brought up as the topic of some important meeting. Either or works.

Of course, I realize that does kinda require some effort on the part of the other RPer to help expand my nation's "contact list", so to speak. If that is too much of a burden then I have another plan: just send probes out into space with an invitation for nations to come, as long as they present the probe as proof of invitation (so we know it isn't some random invader). Then we set there and wait for intelligent life... kinda like Earth.

However the main thing that concerns me is that, ICly, a nation looking for easy prey could easily get the invitation, find out where it came from, go pretending to come in peace and then attempt to conquer the planet. Not sure how avoid that possibly, unless totally ignoring that possibility (OOCly) is a legitimate response?

Word of mouth might not work in space. My own nation currently has only two allies and while it has contacted many more (a lot of them CTEd nations) none of them have ever tried to get in contact with my long time RP partner Terra Reborn, I think only one did, and he CTEd eventually too.

Explorers tend to be your best bet, having someone actively probing around for planets to settle or systems to mine, you're bound to run into people eventually.

that's what my FT nation does, though usually with military ships.

[The Akasha Colony]

Oh, one thing I'd like to ask about RPing, rather than tech.

Milagro isn't HUGE on exploration. They're perfectly content to stay in their corner of the galaxy, maybe colonize a moon or two in their solar system. Possibly terraform another planet. The population isn't massive and they aren't draining the resources like no tomorrow (but they do harvest resources from other uninhabitable planets, you know so that if resources become scarce on the homeplanet their isn't this huge scramble to build space ships to get off planet and get more/colonize, because that step is already done).

However, without this massive urge to explore it kinda leaves me somewhat stuck in my little solar system. Any ideas to go about interacting with the larger NSFT community as a whole?

I had one idea, involving the concept of "word of mouth". Basically we'd have to have some kind of first contact scenario (for the purpose of that specific RP, I'd have to look for a benevolent civilization). Afterwards, if said civilization enjoyed their time in Milagro, then perhaps they would spread the word (among nations that aren't looking for a planet to conquer) of this neat little friendly nation. It could easily be mentioned as something casual (i.e. "Speaking of that part of the galaxy, we meet a nice little nation named Milagro around there. Fun people") or perhaps brought up as the topic of some important meeting. Either or works.

Of course, I realize that does kinda require some effort on the part of the other RPer to help expand my nation's "contact list", so to speak. If that is too much of a burden then I have another plan: just send probes out into space with an invitation for nations to come, as long as they present the probe as proof of invitation (so we know it isn't some random invader). Then we set there and wait for intelligent life... kinda like Earth.

However the main thing that concerns me is that, ICly, a nation looking for easy prey could easily get the invitation, find out where it came from, go pretending to come in peace and then attempt to conquer the planet. Not sure how avoid that possibly, unless totally ignoring that possibility (OOCly) is a legitimate response?

Word of mouth might not work in space. My own nation currently has only two allies and while it has contacted many more (a lot of them CTEd nations) none of them have ever tried to get in contact with my long time RP partner Terra Reborn, I think only one did, and he CTEd eventually too.

Explorers tend to be your best bet, having someone actively probing around for planets to settle or systems to mine, you're bound to run into people eventually.

that's what my FT nation does, though usually with military ships.

I still have that relay...

[Milagro]

Oh, one thing I'd like to ask about RPing, rather than tech.

Milagro isn't HUGE on exploration. They're perfectly content to stay in their corner of the galaxy, maybe colonize a moon or two in their solar system. Possibly terraform another planet. The population isn't massive and they aren't draining the resources like no tomorrow (but they do harvest resources from other uninhabitable planets, you know so that if resources become scarce on the homeplanet their isn't this huge scramble to build space ships to get off planet and get more/colonize, because that step is already done).

However, without this massive urge to explore it kinda leaves me somewhat stuck in my little solar system. Any ideas to go about interacting with the larger NSFT community as a whole?

I had one idea, involving the concept of "word of mouth". Basically we'd have to have some kind of first contact scenario (for the purpose of that specific RP, I'd have to look for a benevolent civilization). Afterwards, if said civilization enjoyed their time in Milagro, then perhaps they would spread the word (among nations that aren't looking for a planet to conquer) of this neat little friendly nation. It could easily be mentioned as something casual (i.e. "Speaking of that part of the galaxy, we meet a nice little nation named Milagro around there. Fun people") or perhaps brought up as the topic of some important meeting. Either or works.

Of course, I realize that does kinda require some effort on the part of the other RPer to help expand my nation's "contact list", so to speak. If that is too much of a burden then I have another plan: just send probes out into space with an invitation for nations to come, as long as they present the probe as proof of invitation (so we know it isn't some random invader). Then we set there and wait for intelligent life... kinda like Earth.

However the main thing that concerns me is that, ICly, a nation looking for easy prey could easily get the invitation, find out where it came from, go pretending to come in peace and then attempt to conquer the planet. Not sure how avoid that possibly, unless totally ignoring that possibility (OOCly) is a legitimate response?

Word of mouth might not work in space. My own nation currently has only two allies and while it has contacted many more (a lot of them CTEd nations) none of them have ever tried to get in contact with my long time RP partner Terra Reborn, I think only one did, and he CTEd eventually too.

Explorers tend to be your best bet, having someone actively probing around for planets to settle or systems to mine, you're bound to run into people eventually.

that's what my FT nation does, though usually with military ships.

Explorers looking for resources would make the most sense for my nation, but I 'd really rather not have to write up "ships appears, military ships are all around it". It seems like everyone is doing that.

But if I must, I suppose I will. I suppose that means that in addition to the four things I wanted to write up, I'll have to have a basic military outline.

Maybe I'll just have some sort of ship specifically meant for exploration, able to defend itself but not this "UBERMEGA SHIP OF DOOM".

Any ideas? Or is is actually just better to have "one resource gathering ship, multiple military ships". If that's the case, then I suppose my resource gathering ships outside of my solar system would have to be few and far between.

[SquareDisc City]

I would honestly change your national character enough that you have explorers or something that can get you interacting with everyone else. Even if it's just a rare thing that sometimes a ship will decide "you know what's cool? That place over there" and check stuff out.

Agreed. It's worth bearing in mind that there's more to a nation than its government. Even if the government tends to keep itself to itself, there's corporations, universities, wealthy individuals and more who might head out into the wider galaxy.

[-The Unified Earth Governments-]

Oh, one thing I'd like to ask about RPing, rather than tech.

Milagro isn't HUGE on exploration. They're perfectly content to stay in their corner of the galaxy, maybe colonize a moon or two in their solar system. Possibly terraform another planet. The population isn't massive and they aren't draining the resources like no tomorrow (but they do harvest resources from other uninhabitable planets, you know so that if resources become scarce on the homeplanet their isn't this huge scramble to build space ships to get off planet and get more/colonize, because that step is already done).

However, without this massive urge to explore it kinda leaves me somewhat stuck in my little solar system. Any ideas to go about interacting with the larger NSFT community as a whole?

I had one idea, involving the concept of "word of mouth". Basically we'd have to have some kind of first contact scenario (for the purpose of that specific RP, I'd have to look for a benevolent civilization). Afterwards, if said civilization enjoyed their time in Milagro, then perhaps they would spread the word (among nations that aren't looking for a planet to conquer) of this neat little friendly nation. It could easily be mentioned as something casual (i.e. "Speaking of that part of the galaxy, we meet a nice little nation named Milagro around there. Fun people") or perhaps brought up as the topic of some important meeting. Either or works.

Of course, I realize that does kinda require some effort on the part of the other RPer to help expand my nation's "contact list", so to speak. If that is too much of a burden then I have another plan: just send probes out into space with an invitation for nations to come, as long as they present the probe as proof of invitation (so we know it isn't some random invader). Then we set there and wait for intelligent life... kinda like Earth.

However the main thing that concerns me is that, ICly, a nation looking for easy prey could easily get the invitation, find out where it came from, go pretending to come in peace and then attempt to conquer the planet. Not sure how avoid that possibly, unless totally ignoring that possibility (OOCly) is a legitimate response?

Thats basically how I play this nation. Can you tell me more about yourself?

[StellarGate]

Word of mouth might not work in space. My own nation currently has only two allies and while it has contacted many more (a lot of them CTEd nations) none of them have ever tried to get in contact with my long time RP partner Terra Reborn, I think only one did, and he CTEd eventually too.

Explorers tend to be your best bet, having someone actively probing around for planets to settle or systems to mine, you're bound to run into people eventually.

that's what my FT nation does, though usually with military ships.

I still have that relay...

Oh dear god what a call back. I forgot about that RP.

You can keep it. We've changed all our codes and stuff anyways to suit our needs better.

[StellarGate]

Word of mouth might not work in space. My own nation currently has only two allies and while it has contacted many more (a lot of them CTEd nations) none of them have ever tried to get in contact with my long time RP partner Terra Reborn, I think only one did, and he CTEd eventually too.

Explorers tend to be your best bet, having someone actively probing around for planets to settle or systems to mine, you're bound to run into people eventually.

that's what my FT nation does, though usually with military ships.

Explorers looking for resources would make the most sense for my nation, but I 'd really rather not have to write up "ships appears, military ships are all around it". It seems like everyone is doing that.

But if I must, I suppose I will. I suppose that means that in addition to the four things I wanted to write up, I'll have to have a basic military outline.

Maybe I'll just have some sort of ship specifically meant for exploration, able to defend itself but not this "UBERMEGA SHIP OF DOOM".

Any ideas? Or is is actually just better to have "one resource gathering ship, multiple military ships". If that's the case, then I suppose my resource gathering ships outside of my solar system would have to be few and far between.

Well I do it because my nation is Constitutional Military Monarchy and doesn't trust civilian politicians with the job of First Contact.

Also our navy is so large we don't really know what to do with the ships(and we don't want to deactivate them,) so we send them looking around. Not the best way of making friends, especially if they take offense to a battlecruiser or smaller showing up in one of their systems.

And you can just have an exploration ship with some good defenses built into it, just enough to fend off pirates and be able to get away to safety.

[Milagro]

Oh, one thing I'd like to ask about RPing, rather than tech.

Milagro isn't HUGE on exploration. They're perfectly content to stay in their corner of the galaxy, maybe colonize a moon or two in their solar system. Possibly terraform another planet. The population isn't massive and they aren't draining the resources like no tomorrow (but they do harvest resources from other uninhabitable planets, you know so that if resources become scarce on the homeplanet their isn't this huge scramble to build space ships to get off planet and get more/colonize, because that step is already done).

However, without this massive urge to explore it kinda leaves me somewhat stuck in my little solar system. Any ideas to go about interacting with the larger NSFT community as a whole?

I had one idea, involving the concept of "word of mouth". Basically we'd have to have some kind of first contact scenario (for the purpose of that specific RP, I'd have to look for a benevolent civilization). Afterwards, if said civilization enjoyed their time in Milagro, then perhaps they would spread the word (among nations that aren't looking for a planet to conquer) of this neat little friendly nation. It could easily be mentioned as something casual (i.e. "Speaking of that part of the galaxy, we meet a nice little nation named Milagro around there. Fun people") or perhaps brought up as the topic of some important meeting. Either or works.

Of course, I realize that does kinda require some effort on the part of the other RPer to help expand my nation's "contact list", so to speak. If that is too much of a burden then I have another plan: just send probes out into space with an invitation for nations to come, as long as they present the probe as proof of invitation (so we know it isn't some random invader). Then we set there and wait for intelligent life... kinda like Earth.

However the main thing that concerns me is that, ICly, a nation looking for easy prey could easily get the invitation, find out where it came from, go pretending to come in peace and then attempt to conquer the planet. Not sure how avoid that possibly, unless totally ignoring that possibility (OOCly) is a legitimate response?

Thats basically how I play this nation. Can you tell me more about yourself?

Milagronians came from an Earth that was hard pressed for space and resources. All contact with this Earth has been lost. Milagro was made up of stranded colonists from Spanish, Latin American, Italian, Portuguese, and French backgrounds. The most dominant ethnicities were Spanish and Latin American, resulting in the culture being heavily influenced by those.

Milagronians are very friendly, open, and caring people. The cultures of the original colonists were generally this way, and the hardships during the first few years really drove home the concept of "sticking together". They enjoy a good party, and party HARD. Do note, partying hard is not quite what a North American would think of. Yes there is drinking, yes people get drunk, but getting drunk to the point where all you can do is barf is frowned upon. Milagronians tend to enjoy dancing, singing, food, and music at their parties rather than focusing on how much alcohol one can consume. The parties can easily last the whole night and extend in the morning, some have gone on for more than one day.

Speaking of dancing and music, these are VERY important aspects to the culture. The Nation Anthem is a good example of this, as it is meant to be danced to. Or at least the "local" version is. There is a formal one used for sporting events, military affairs, and guests (after first contact is made) who are not used to dancing.

The System of government is quite odd, being a blend of Meritocracy, a Monarchy, and Democracy. I'll elaborate on this very odd system of government later (and to the best of my ability).

Milagros is big on renewable energy sources, but it has developed spaceships to go out and gather resources from other planets in the solar system. Milagros is always looking for more efficient and cleaner uses of energy. One of the main reasons the original colonists left Earth to begin with is because their Earth was hard pressed for resources and environmental damage was immense. Once the colonists got settled in, they set about trying not to repeat the mistakes of their Earth.

The military is oriented towards defence, so orbital defence platforms and planetary defences are in place. Milagros has a fleet to defend the planet and patrol the solar system as well. Milagronians have had the luxury of developing their nation in relative peace and quiet, so really the defences of the planet have been designed around what was known about their Earth's and counters to hypothetical situations (not the most ideal situation, but something is better than nothing).

That's about all I can tell you right now. I'm still working through this.

[Arthropoda Ingens]

So... I've elected to just have no real poles. Note sure if that's a massive issue, but Earth survived when all the land mass was just Pangaea around the equator, right?

Well. Survived, yes. But concentrating all the land in a relatively limited area is going to cut significantly into species diversity (Whether terrestrial or marine). Likelyhood of desertification increases, and last but not least, the sea actually serves as a temperature-moderating factor which would be lacking for the inner parts of continents, consequently turning them into ovens during the day, and refrigerators during the night.

Which you may be perfectly happy with. But if not, I'd suggest a larger number of smaller continents. Don't have to sit straight on the poles, of course. Just not one or two hueg landmasses.

Oh, one thing I'd like to ask about RPing, rather than tech.

Milagro isn't HUGE on exploration. They're perfectly content to stay in their corner of the galaxy, maybe colonize a moon or two in their solar system. Possibly terraform another planet. The population isn't massive and they aren't draining the resources like no tomorrow (but they do harvest resources from other uninhabitable planets, you know so that if resources become scarce on the homeplanet their isn't this huge scramble to build space ships to get off planet and get more/colonize, because that step is already done).

However, without this massive urge to explore it kinda leaves me somewhat stuck in my little solar system. Any ideas to go about interacting with the larger NSFT community as a whole?

I had one idea, involving the concept of "word of mouth". Basically we'd have to have some kind of first contact scenario (for the purpose of that specific RP, I'd have to look for a benevolent civilization). Afterwards, if said civilization enjoyed their time in Milagro, then perhaps they would spread the word (among nations that aren't looking for a planet to conquer) of this neat little friendly nation. It could easily be mentioned as something casual (i.e. "Speaking of that part of the galaxy, we meet a nice little nation named Milagro around there. Fun people") or perhaps brought up as the topic of some important meeting. Either or works.

Of course, I realize that does kinda require some effort on the part of the other RPer to help expand my nation's "contact list", so to speak. If that is too much of a burden then I have another plan: just send probes out into space with an invitation for nations to come, as long as they present the probe as proof of invitation (so we know it isn't some random invader). Then we set there and wait for intelligent life... kinda like Earth.

However the main thing that concerns me is that, ICly, a nation looking for easy prey could easily get the invitation, find out where it came from, go pretending to come in peace and then attempt to conquer the planet. Not sure how avoid that possibly, unless totally ignoring that possibility (OOCly) is a legitimate response?

Is the government not huge on exploration, or everyone in the society?

Just because the state agencies aren't keen on exploring the galaxy doesn't mean the common man can't go on a galactic tour to celebrate graduation or some such thing.

And yes, it is a legitimate response. Nobody can force you to play out something you don't want. This isn't to say the concept of ignoring people can't be used to do silly things (We've actually had a player who used to randomly invade people by starting 'Invite Only' threads as a reason to ignore the invaded people's friends), but a case of 'Actually, I explicitly want a peaceful thread. You aren't peaceful. Fuck off.' is perfectly legitimate.

[Milagro]

So... I've elected to just have no real poles. Note sure if that's a massive issue, but Earth survived when all the land mass was just Pangaea around the equator, right?

Well. Survived, yes. But concentrating all the land in a relatively limited area is going to cut significantly into species diversity (Whether terrestrial or marine). Likelyhood of desertification increases, and last but not least, the sea actually serves as a temperature-moderating factor which would be lacking for the inner parts of continents, consequently turning them into ovens during the day, and refrigerators during the night.

Which you may be perfectly happy with. But if not, I'd suggest a larger number of smaller continents. Don't have to sit straight on the poles, of course. Just not one or two hueg landmasses.

Hm.... What I really want out of the geography of the planet is an really dry inside, like the drier parts of Mexico. I'm not too sure how to go about that. Could massive lakes also serve to regulate temperature?

I'd rather keep the landmasses to a minimum however. No landmasses at the poles though.

Is the government not huge on exploration, or everyone in the society?

Just because the state agencies aren't keen on exploring the galaxy doesn't mean the common man can't go on a galactic tour to celebrate graduation or some such thing.

It isn't really the most important thing on the minds of the general population of Milagros. Or at least I should say it isn't the biggest thing on their minds right now. There isn't a shortage of resources right now, and they've become accustomed to a lax pace of space exploration since they were all alone in their solar system and there weren't any huge international "space races" (Milagro became a unified nation before proceeding to go into space).

This has lead to no real urge to go about exploring space like crazy. Do they see the benefit in it? Yes (which is why they have ships within their solar system, mining resources and what not). Would they like to meet aliens? Sure. Do they feel a rush to do it as soon as possible? No.

Needless to say, Milagros isn't on the higher end of the FT scale. We don't span multiple systems and we don't harness the power of suns. We're just a nice friendly little planet that's been advancing at our own pace.

HOWEVER, if a man has the money to buy a luxury ship with and install an FTL drive to travel the galaxy (which would be incredibly expensive), then nothing is really stopping him. FTL travel is not a commonplace thing though, usually only reserved for the military and exploration/resource gathering ships.

To get around that issue of isolation for RPing purposes, I've decided that my nation will have various explorer type ships whose main mission to find resources. The more resources we have, the more things we can do such as advancing our tech. Which will probably pick up once Milagro learns of the dangers out there in the universe. These ships will contains diplomats on them, just in case they meet aliens.

And yes, it is a legitimate response. Nobody can force you to play out something you don't want. This isn't to say the concept of ignoring people can't be used to do silly things (We've actually had a player who used to randomly invade people by starting 'Invite Only' threads as a reason to ignore the invaded people's friends), but a case of 'Actually, I explicitly want a peaceful thread. You aren't peaceful. Fuck off.' is perfectly legitimate.

:D

[Arthropoda Ingens]

Well. Survived, yes. But concentrating all the land in a relatively limited area is going to cut significantly into species diversity (Whether terrestrial or marine). Likelyhood of desertification increases, and last but not least, the sea actually serves as a temperature-moderating factor which would be lacking for the inner parts of continents, consequently turning them into ovens during the day, and refrigerators during the night.

Which you may be perfectly happy with. But if not, I'd suggest a larger number of smaller continents. Don't have to sit straight on the poles, of course. Just not one or two hueg landmasses.

Hm.... What I really want out of the geography of the planet is an really dry inside, like the drier parts of Mexico. I'm not too sure how to go about that. Could massive lakes also serve to regulate temperature?

I'd rather keep the landmasses to a minimum however. No landmasses at the poles though.

They could and do, yes. Of course, getting said massive lakes can be difficult-ish - you need mountain ranges or snowy snow snow winters that trap precipitation and force it into a fitting basin. Works for the great lakes and the caspian sea, but there's not that many such locations. And where they are, the area is usually a little less dry than what you're imagining because, well... Shitton of water right next door, and the rivers that supply the lake are around there somewhere, too. Central Asia with the Caspian sea, the Aral sea and the Baikal lake is pretty close, though - yay steppe.

Mind, there's other ways to get really dry areas. A significant part of Chile is pretty dry despite being right at the coast - the Humbold stream is so fucking cold it loses barely any water to evaporation, and as a consequence, the relevant parts of Chile are somewhat on the dry side. Now, of course, the Humbold stream is cold because its origin is cooled by Antarctica, so this concept may not be quite what you're looking for.

Ultimately - a wholly uniform environment isn't really doable. Still - with some mid-sized continents and some conveniently placed mountain ranges, large interior steppe areas and the odd desert where it doesn't quite work out for the lakes are very possible. Close enough, I'd say.

[Milagro]

Hm.... What I really want out of the geography of the planet is an really dry inside, like the drier parts of Mexico. I'm not too sure how to go about that. Could massive lakes also serve to regulate temperature?

I'd rather keep the landmasses to a minimum however. No landmasses at the poles though.

They could and do, yes. Of course, getting said massive lakes can be difficult-ish - you need mountain ranges or snowy snow snow winters that trap precipitation and force it into a fitting basin. Works for the great lakes and the caspian sea, but there's not that many such locations. And where they are, the area is usually a little less dry than what you're imagining because, well... Shitton of water right next door, and the rivers that supply the lake are around there somewhere, too. Central Asia with the Caspian sea, the Aral sea and the Baikal lake is pretty close, though - yay steppe.

Mind, there's other ways to get really dry areas. A significant part of Chile is pretty dry despite being right at the coast - the Humbold stream is so fucking cold it loses barely any water to evaporation, and as a consequence, the relevant parts of Chile are somewhat on the dry side. Now, of course, the Humbold stream is cold because its origin is cooled by Antarctica, so this concept may not be quite what you're looking for.

Ultimately - a wholly uniform environment isn't really doable. Still - with some mid-sized continents and some conveniently placed mountain ranges, large interior steppe areas and the odd desert where it doesn't quite work out for the lakes are very possible. Close enough, I'd say.

Well I heard that air currents have something to do with deserts as well. These things called "cells", which are Polar, Ferrel, and Hadley. Hadley being the air circulation at the equator and Polar being the air circulation at the poles.

Apparently the Nazca desert in Peru is so dry because not only is the ocean current near it very cold, but the air that runs along is hot and rises, taking water with it (via evaporation). Some of this goes onto the next cell, but since there was so little to take to begin with it's really dry.

Is is possible to apply this in any way to my planet? I suppose, if necessary, I could have classical cold poles, they'd just be their own mini continents. As long as their isolated then I guess it's not so bad.

Oh one thing I should mentioned, I want the planet to be warm in general but that doesn't mean it ALL has to be dry. There can be lush rainforests and stuff elsewhere. Actually I'd like that. It'd give some diversity to the various regions, and while they all have core similarities, they'd have regional takes on stuff.

I just want a desert in the middle because that's where the colonists started out (crash landing of colony ship) and expanded from there. Of course, if it's not possible to have a desert in the middle then I suppose it can be elsewhere.

[Arthropoda Ingens]

I see no reason why it wouldn't be so - though I note that global air circulation is not something I'm well versed in, you'd have to ask someone else/ continue to do your own research.

And I already presumed that this would be your intention - what with you specifying the interior, not everything. Needless to say, a desert is always possible. Just a (Hot) desert that doesn't switch temperatures around by around fifty Kelvin between day and night would take... Imagination, I imagine.

[The Laxus Union]

I'm happy to have 12 xenogeneic intergalactic allies.

[The Alwon]

How should I RP as a pacifist nation?

[Milagro]

How should I RP as a pacifist nation?

I'm trying to do the same thing (basically since Milagro is not big on war).

What I'm doing is my people are going to be friendly, caring, and generally open minded about other cultures. Not sure if that's where you want to go with it, but I figure that is a good way to make friends rather than enemies.

[The Alwon]

How should I RP as a pacifist nation?

I'm trying to do the same thing (basically since Milagro is not big on war).

What I'm doing is my people are going to be friendly, caring, and generally open minded about other cultures. Not sure if that's where you want to go with it, but I figure that is a good way to make friends rather than enemies.

The Alwon are stone cold set on not fighting anyone, at least with the intent to harm and kill.

Centuries of terrible war against Humans and then the Xeyed and Kysillus invaded.

My concept so far is that we live in a fleet of 5 planet sized worldships with a fleet of ships designed to create defense stuff around the fleet.

I am wondering if there was any weapons I could make that don't kill or harm the enemy directly, but stop them and slow them.

If there isn't any realistic way of doing this, would it be alright to handwave ideas?

And if not, are there anything I can do to at least not kill people who attack me if that was to ever occur?

[Milagro]

I'm trying to do the same thing (basically since Milagro is not big on war).

What I'm doing is my people are going to be friendly, caring, and generally open minded about other cultures. Not sure if that's where you want to go with it, but I figure that is a good way to make friends rather than enemies.

The Alwon are stone cold set on not fighting anyone, at least with the intent to harm and kill.

Centuries of terrible war against Humans and then the Xeyed and Kysillus invaded.

My concept so far is that we live in a fleet of 5 planet sized worldships with a fleet of ships designed to create defense stuff around the fleet.

I am wondering if there was any weapons I could make that don't kill or harm the enemy directly, but stop them and slow them.

If there isn't any realistic way of doing this, would it be alright to handwave ideas?

And if not, are there anything I can do to at least not kill people who attack me if that was to ever occur?

Sonic weaponry? Electric bullets (kinda like tasering someone)? Think of futuristic police stuff, as that tends to non-lethal (assuming they keep the non-lethal part of the force in).

These are fairly hand waved approaches though. Some of the other experts may be able to help.

[Vernii]

How should I RP as a pacifist nation?

This might help for inspiration.

Instead of standard anti-shipping weaponry, go for just point-defense, heavy shields and armor, and potent electronic warfare and ECM systems.

There's also cheating your way around it and just having robots do the killing.