Advice Thread OOC Future Tech Only

[The Soviet Technocracy]

I personally don't believe in intro RPs, I've always RP'd as knowing the other powers exists but is a state with a focus on isolation. That way I don't have to bother with all the silliness of having first contact boredom where everyone exchanges information and the RP dies because it's just a bunch of talking heads.

Besides, anyone with the ability to get into FT should be able to know that there are other nations out there simply because you can listen for radio traffic.

You can't exactly listen in for radio traffic.

We've been trying that for decades and haven't heard a thing, since 1) no one understands alien language; 2) radio transmissions are few and far between even nowadays with digital communication, and are not likely to remain in the future for much longer except in special niche purposes.

You would need an exceptionally large and powerful antenna to propagate radio waves any meaningful distance without significant attenuation loss to make out words clearly, and even then it would still likely be indistinguishable from static to an alien species.

When I say big, I mean big, and I don't think many alien races have Arecibo-sized antenna as their standard dishes.

Yeah, it isn't out of the question ofc, but you'd have to really close to another alien species to be able to listen to their radio traffic (I think the quoted figure for most of our radio traffic is 2-3 LY maximum, with more for obviously specialised arrays like the Arecibo and others (ex. is Pioneer 10 which is just past 1 LY and we've p much lost contact with it)), and they'd have to actually have radios tbh. You'd also have to checking their frequencies that they're using exactly, or you won't hear a thing, without knowing what frequencies they're using.

In short, it isn't impossible, but it is really unlikely tbh.

That's why all those SETI programmes never found anything worth their funding.

[Kreanoltha]

Okay. Thanks guys.

[Bristain and Ireland]

I do have a question. My subsidiary nation, the Empire of Laurasia, is being converted to FT. It will be a empire spanning an entire galaxy that will soon be establishing contact with FT nations in other galaxies. How should I conduct this, and what FT roleplays could I get Laurasia involved in?

[OMGeverynameistaken]

I really suggest not making an empire that controls an entire galaxy. Nobody likes those.

[Thrashia]

I really suggest not making an empire that controls an entire galaxy. Nobody likes those.

Agreed. Especially made by such...young nations. If your writing skills are strong and have the mutual backing of several other veteran players, it can sometimes come off. I myself am in control of large tracts of two different galaxies, but I would not presume to even think of trying to control either of them wholly by myself.

[Bristain and Ireland]

Alright then. How about an nation that dominates most of its galaxy. That would be more reasonable.

[Sertian]

Maybe a micro/dwarf galaxy... But even then, probably stretching it. I've tried to do something similar with the Large Magellanic Cloud (and even then, only actually occupying 10% of the galaxy, and supposedly holding the rest in a sort of economic/military dominance), but someone pointed out an important fact. Even though I RPed that the LMC part of the Empire considered the forces in the MWG nothing more than a colony prospect fleet, and six weeks of travel time between the LMC to the MWG, it made it really hard to justify war threads if I could have an overwhelming fleet show up in six months.

[Bristain and Ireland]

This is unfortunate. So you're saying I got to roleplay with a nation that is restricted to only a few solar systems?

[OMGeverynameistaken]

You don't have to do anything. However, people tend to question your intent in RP when you say something along the lines of, "Oh hey, I'm a galaxy spanning empire who has just randomly appeared out of nowhere. How are you? This is my fleet of a billion ships and also we have a superiority complex. What's your name?"

It's much better to have a few well developed and interesting planets than it is to have an ill defined and massive lolhuge empire.

EDIT:
The Russian Empire, for instance, composes a lot of systems and stretches from the core of the galaxy out to the rim, but most of those systems only have a few thousand people in them, essentially consisting of a mining outpost and possibly a small garrison.

[Bristain and Ireland]

You don't have to do anything. However, people tend to question your intent in RP when you say something along the lines of, "Oh hey, I'm a galaxy spanning empire who has just randomly appeared out of nowhere. How are you? This is my fleet of a billion ships and also we have a superiority complex. What's your name?"

It's much better to have a few well developed and interesting planets than it is to have an ill defined and massive lolhuge empire.

EDIT:
The Russian Empire, for instance, composes a lot of systems and stretches from the core of the galaxy out to the rim, but most of those systems only have a few thousand people in them, essentially consisting of a mining outpost and possibly a small garrison.

Alright then, this is how I will do it. The Empire of Laurasia will have 1.5 million worlds and 500,000 colonies under its rule, spread throughout a galaxy with no more then 100 billion stars. The population will be relatively high, as would be befitting an space civilization, but I will aim to be a good roleplayer and to be realistic. I will also have a developed history, explaining how Laurasia achieved its size over many centuries. Will that work?

[Sertian]

Few problems you should try to find solutions for.

1) Why is your Empire interested in the Milky Way Galaxy to be involved in the politics and conflicts of the galaxy?

2) Once you have the above, why wouldn't your huge Empire send a huge fleet to demolish any resistance with the local fleets when something comes up to threaten their interest in the galaxy?

[Bristain and Ireland]

Few problems you should try to find solutions for.

1) Why is your Empire interested in the Milky Way Galaxy to be involved in the politics and conflicts of the galaxy?

2) Once you have the above, why wouldn't your huge Empire send a huge fleet to demolish any resistance with the local fleets when something comes up to threaten their interest in the galaxy?

I need some clarification on the second point.

[OMGeverynameistaken]

Few problems you should try to find solutions for.

1) Why is your Empire interested in the Milky Way Galaxy to be involved in the politics and conflicts of the galaxy?

2) Once you have the above, why wouldn't your huge Empire send a huge fleet to demolish any resistance with the local fleets when something comes up to threaten their interest in the galaxy?

I need some clarification on the second point.

If you have an empire of two million worlds, then most of the regular NS powers are going to be vastly smaller than you. The Russian Empire composes maybe 10,000 planets, and, again, only about five to ten of those have more than a billion people on them.

So why does your empire, which can smash us all like bugs, bother with diplomacy? I doubt that an empire as large as yours is apparently going to be was achieved purely through diplomacy, so clearly it's not out of a respect for the sanctity of life and feelings of universal love.

[Sertian]

Alright, lets say your nation has a large interest in the Milky Way Galaxy (something that'll warrant a large enough colonization effort that you have some power and influence in the galaxy, so you can engage in RPs dealing with galactic politics). It'll have to be something valuable, since its drawing your attention away from your own galaxy.

Now, a nation of your size would have a lot of resources and manpower to have a rather large fleet (especially if it needs to defend all those worlds). So, something happens in the Milky Way Galaxy that puts your asset at risks (your colony gets dragged into a war, some space horror swings by to say hi, whatever). Why wouldn't your nation send a tiny portion of its huge fleet, a small drop in the pocket to your galaxy but a rather sizable and powerful fleet to the smaller nations of the MWG, to put whatever's threatening their interest in the galaxy to an end?

[Bristain and Ireland]

This is all good advice. I will begin setting up Laurasia as a FT nation in the next week or two.....and take into consideration your advice.

[Balrogga]

If you wish to think of it this way, you have 2 million systems with about 100 military ships in each. This means each system could donate two ships to a war fleet and you would be able to send an immense battle fleet of 4 million warships with no strain upon your nation. Most nations play with about a few thousand total vessels (I use about a thousand myself) and if you use the old guideline we had for a while of a thousand ships per billion NS population I would have at the most 16,000 average ships.

Now, with 4 million vessels taking on nations with 10,000 total fleet size, you would outnumber them 4,000,000 to 10,000 or 400 to 1. This means generally you could fight 400 large nations without any strain upon your nation what so ever. This is just using basic numbers and not taking ship strength or any other considerations.

This is what people might be concerned about. Any dent we can put in your defenses would mean nothing because of the sheer size alone.

What I would suggest is you can have your nation as you described but make the colony you are starting isolated and hard to get reinforcements. This has been done successfully by other players in the past. It would take a looooong time for you to get ships there, resulting in your colony being approximately the same power as other FT nations playing but you would have the wonderful background of a galactic power to draw upon culturally and in your RPs detail the rich culture you came from and the isolation and other problems they might be encountering from being cut off from their home. It would be like the Voyager being stuck in the wrong quadrant trying to get back home only with the tech it has and the resources it brought along. They were able to make several seasons out of the concept so I am sure you could get some ideas and RP them out.

Again, this is only a single suggestion and I am sure there are many others who can give theirs too.

[Sertian]

Although while the isolated case does work, you run into the two problems I was mentioning earlier. If they're isolated, it's pretty hard to justify why a colony is there in the first place. So, the more isolated you are (and less likely to have a massive fleet show up) the less likely you're to even be in the Milky Way Galaxy...

Of course, you COULD make it work... My watching of DS9 recently gives me one involving some sort of wormhole/cross galaxy gate to the galaxy, however the local powers of the Milky Way Galaxy aren't comfortable with such a large and distant power suddenly on their door step and destroys/disables this connection in your intro RP. You get the background of your vast Empire and its culture, you have your power in the MWG, you don't have a fleet that can vastly out number anyone in the galaxy, and you've already got a jumping point in politics with whoever sabotaged your connection home. And there's also perhaps the added benefit of having a colony that's not self sufficient yet, so there's even more roleplay threads you can jump off with that.

Of course, that's just one idea.

[Balrogga]

If you go with Sertain's disconnect idea you can use me as the one who severed your wormhole, I don't mind being made the villain in that. I specialized in that tech long ago so it would be by no means a far reach. Also, it would be a reason for you to want to find others to help you in case I came back with more than the one ship that did the disconnect.

[Ularn]

It could be that re-establishing the link becomes one of your long term goals. To that purpose, my nation also uses wormhole technology and might be willing to help (or hinder) depending on what we determine to be in our interests.

[Ularn]

Got a question!

I'm thinking about setting up an embassy thread for the UIF. Applicants get access to a luxury apartment and office space on Unity station - the UIF's capital "city". So far I've more or less been thinking along the lines of the current MT embassy threads IN SPACE but if possible I'd like to give it a bit more character than that. Is there anyone here who's done and FT Embassy program before or has any ideas or suggestions?

[Vernii]

This is all good advice. I will begin setting up Laurasia as a FT nation in the next week or two.....and take into consideration your advice.

Here's another thing to take into account with a large empire: fleshing it out. In my experience, many people who play large empires tend to be overwhelmed by the sheer scale (or worse, never really give it much thought in the first place) and they end up being fleshed out poorly. They start resorting to planets with a singular climate, a monolithic culture and ethnic background across a million worlds, etc. The task is so gargantuan that there will be tens of thousands of worlds that are never even named. Is there a single dominant political ideology among the people, or thousands of factions? Religion(s)? Don't forget things like economic disparity between core and peripheral worlds (with probable accompanying disparity in political representation).

On the other hand, are people like me. I have a total of 5 core systems and 11 colonies. I've been able to devote 5 pages of writing to detailing the resource colonies, and another 10 ten pages to the core systems (I expect to possibly double that when finished). Because the sheer scale isn't overwhelming, I can put far more effort and detail into my empire's background info than a large empire's player could ever hope to do.

Pick a size that you, as a writer, can make work, not add another mundane Galactic Empire to the heap of a dozen easily forgettable predecessors.

[Bristain and Ireland]

I have read all of the advice that all of you have given me on this matter, and I thank you for it! From what I am gathering, I could play an Empire which rules 2 million worlds throughout its entire galaxy. If I were to involve Laurasia in the affairs of the Milky Way Galaxy however (the galaxy most of your nations appears to be based in), I would start with a colony at the edge and then build up on it. It also seems I should make my Empire diverse, which I intend to do. Laurasia will have hundreds of religions and thousands of different cultures, but all unified under one supreme body and with the Laurasians themselves being predominant. And it seems that I could make my military have around 300,000 major vessels, along with over a million supporting vessels and millions of fighters and such smaller "spacecraft".

But I do have a few more questions. Number one, what are the types of military vessels that exist in outer space? I already have a pretty good idea on that, but I just want to be sure. Number two, what type of roleplays could I get Laurasia started in? Number three, is there any wiki or place devoted to articles about FT nations here? And finally, what subjects should I include about Laurasia in an factbook, as an FT nation?

[Thrashia]

I have read all of the advice that all of you have given me on this matter, and I thank you for it! From what I am gathering, I could play an Empire which rules 2 million worlds throughout its entire galaxy. If I were to involve Laurasia in the affairs of the Milky Way Galaxy however (the galaxy most of your nations appears to be based in), I would start with a colony at the edge and then build up on it. It also seems I should make my Empire diverse, which I intend to do. Laurasia will have hundreds of religions and thousands of different cultures, but all unified under one supreme body and with the Laurasians themselves being predominant. And it seems that I could make my military have around 300,000 major vessels, along with over a million supporting vessels and millions of fighters and such smaller "spacecraft".

But I do have a few more questions. Number one, what are the types of military vessels that exist in outer space? I already have a pretty good idea on that, but I just want to be sure. Number two, what type of roleplays could I get Laurasia started in? Number three, is there any wiki or place devoted to articles about FT nations here? And finally, what subjects should I include about Laurasia in an factbook, as an FT nation?

I think that you might be missing the point a little B&I, just a little part, but one that needs to be made clear. The whole "colony that gets separated" thing is meant to keep you at an appropriate level and size that would fit a newly minted FT nation. So, while your background information can detail a whole smorgasbord of cultural information and myriad social concepts; that massive Empire will remain a background setting piece. It looks realistic until you step up close and poke a whole through the paper-mache.

Also, if you try to maintain that number of capitol/major ships and those millions of others, it will look good on paper...and only be made of paper. I think you should read the link in my signature at the bottom of this comment box entitled "Newbies Need To Read This." It might help you a bit in trying to navigate your way through.

[Ularn]

I have read all of the advice that all of you have given me on this matter, and I thank you for it! From what I am gathering, I could play an Empire which rules 2 million worlds throughout its entire galaxy. If I were to involve Laurasia in the affairs of the Milky Way Galaxy however (the galaxy most of your nations appears to be based in), I would start with a colony at the edge and then build up on it. It also seems I should make my Empire diverse, which I intend to do. Laurasia will have hundreds of religions and thousands of different cultures, but all unified under one supreme body and with the Laurasians themselves being predominant. And it seems that I could make my military have around 300,000 major vessels, along with over a million supporting vessels and millions of fighters and such smaller "spacecraft".

But I do have a few more questions. Number one, what are the types of military vessels that exist in outer space? I already have a pretty good idea on that, but I just want to be sure. Number two, what type of roleplays could I get Laurasia started in? Number three, is there any wiki or place devoted to articles about FT nations here? And finally, what subjects should I include about Laurasia in an factbook, as an FT nation?

I'm with Thrashia on this. It's ll very well saying your nation has hundreds of religions but, let's face it, we're probably not going to see more than maybe three of those religions being role-played. The rest will be just background noise. It is physically impossible to write about the sort of diversity you would be talking about in anything less than a novel the size of Lord of the Rings. You can say there are a thousand races in your empire, but if we see more than, like ten it means their background and culture aren't going to be explored properly. You just won't have time or space to do it in.

So, since we're only going to be getting a snippet of your empire, there's no point in trying to bite off more than you can chew. I'd really recommend you follow Thrashia's suggestion and set up a small colony that somehow gets isolated from your home galaxy. That way you still have all the marvellous cultural background you maybe have in mind, but there's no pressure for you to have to break yourself portraying it with the level of detail good RPing would demand.

But, since you're only going to make it a snippet, we might as well make it an interesting one. If the colonists are largely of just two religions, make them two that traditionally tend to annoy each other (e.g. SPACE Jews and SPACE Muslims!). Two of the races in your colony were once at war and friction remains between them (SPACE Russia and SPACE America) even though in the end peace was brokered between the two by some background race which stayed at home and isn't represented in the colony. You now have the beginnings of some interesting cultural interaction within your nation to give it some flavour, and you have ways to tie it back to your star empire back home. You have a manageable chunk to RP with and can throw in other details at will.

Look at my factbook (it might help for writing yours as well, though it's still WIP). There is a reason that there are only five races listed there now, and there will never be more than eight (nine, if you count the Tronga as two species). Any more than that, and I'm gonna have trouble thinking up and developing individual cultures and histories for them and my RPing will suffer as a result. Think about that, okay?

EDIT: And to answer your question. A lot of people tend to name their warship types after modern wet navy designs, so from smallest to largest you have corvettes, destroyers, frigates, cruisers, battleships, dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts. In therms of size, people tend to make their ships somewhere between three-hundred metres and ten kilometres. Obviously, the bigger they are, the fewer you have. My largest superdreads are never bigger than seven or eight hundred metres. The system is very flexible though, so do what you want with it. As far as RPs are concerned, see what there is. Before starting an RP, a lot of people will post an OOC thread with the basic premise. Have a look at that and ask yourself "How could I have a stake in what's going on here?" and then RP that. The only thing I would say is to probably avoid larger war RPs initially just because when new guys show up there the result tends to be either (a)they're too small to matter, or (b) their army is so wanked that RPing with them isn't fun for the other players.

That doesn't stop you doing smaller raids and stuff if you want. Once you've unveiled yourself I might be willing to do some sort of pirate hunting RP with you.

[Bristain and Ireland]

I am getting more of what you are saying. So, the only way Laurasia could really be involved would be by isolated colony. And although my Empire will be large, I will invest energy into providing information about major worlds.