Future Tech Advice and Assistance Thread [O.O.C.]

[North Calaveras]

I want my nation to get back into sci-fi and I'm thinking about being a Military-Industrial Cartel, any thoughts?

Well, it's vague. So, yeah, good start. Got anything else thought out?

well it would operate similar to the brotherhood of Nod

conventional, but lighter forces with some exotic weapons, and stealth tech

[Vocenae]

What about culture and all the stuff that actually makes a nation a nation and not just a collection of fancy toys with no depth?

[Kyrusia]

Well, it's vague. So, yeah, good start. Got anything else thought out?

well it would operate similar to the brotherhood of Nod

conventional, but lighter forces with some exotic weapons, and stealth tech

You might consider checking out some of our player-created guides on worldbuilding; they're pretty useful in helping players focus on ideas and sharpen them - also really good at helping players focus on social, economic, political, historical, cultural, etc. questions that might not immediately jump to mind. Just understand worldbuilding is always a "work in progress" endeavor. In general, meant to help players start to paint initially a basic picture of their conceptual star-state and gradually hone in on and refine the details in a way that feels "alive."

• A Guide to Future Tech World Building (Lots of questions meant to focus players in a sort of step-by-step fashion in this one.)
• A Demonstration of World-building in Progress
• From World-building to Exploring

[Lubyak]

Well, it's vague. So, yeah, good start. Got anything else thought out?

well it would operate similar to the brotherhood of Nod

conventional, but lighter forces with some exotic weapons, and stealth tech

Ok, so as Voc said, that gives you an aesthetic, and maybe an idea for themes underlying the 'military-industrial cartel'. However, what you've laid out is how you balance a faction's mechanics for a strategy game. It's not the faction's personality. The Allies in Red Alert took on much of Nod's 'mechanics' of having lighter forces and exotic weaponry to counterbalance the heavier units of their foes, but their factions feel completely different.

Their lore is completely different, and so the factions feel and operate in a different way, despite their ostensibly similar mechanical aspects. When you say your group is like Nod, does that mean that it's lore is similar to Nod's? In what ways? What are their core beliefs? Etc. etc.

There's a lot more to an RTS faction than just how they work mechanically. Their theme is deeper than that. So, what's your nation's theme?

[Northwest Slobovia]

What about culture and all the stuff that actually makes a nation a nation and not just a collection of fancy toys with no depth?

Wait... are we allowed to do that? I hate to say it, but sometimes FT RP comes across as nothing more than people showing off their fancy toys.

[The United Dominion]

What about culture and all the stuff that actually makes a nation a nation and not just a collection of fancy toys with no depth?

Wait... are we allowed to do that? I hate to say it, but sometimes FT RP comes across as nothing more than people showing off their fancy toys.

What FT RPs are you participating in?

[Vocenae]

Yeah, definitely have to say that there is a difference between the actual FT Community and people who just show up to wank in random threads that have very little story or continuity with their nations. If you take the time to read through the Guides and the OP of this thread, you can see that there's a Community thAt has been around for over a decade at this point that has created a rich communal setting based off interactions between players. And most of this actual community cares far more about your nation being a interesting setting in which to tell interesting stories with interesting characters.

As I often tell players, build your nation as a setting, not an actual nation. FT is nothing like MT and while it moves far slower, the actual community threads are far better in terms of quality. Typically the more active threads that masquerade as FT are little more than random p layers (typically from MT or Multiverse) who think owning massive chunks of the Galaxy or multiple galaxies and pocket dimensions within alternate realities are fun and they just want to number wank at each other until the all end up placing each other on ignore.

Remember, 4C. Creativity, Consistency, Collaboration and Compromise. That is how you build connections between players to build something greater than just random threads between random players.

[Santheres]

Well, it's vague. So, yeah, good start. Got anything else thought out?

well it would operate similar to the brotherhood of Nod

conventional, but lighter forces with some exotic weapons, and stealth tech

As Voc and Lubyak said, what about actual meat to the state? Culture and society; their government; their economy. How do the people live and sustain themselves; how does the government support and perpetuate itself?

As an example, I built a nation that could easily be described as your exact original idea (military-industrial cartel that operates as a state), though their military was more using small numbers of unconventional heavy forces on the ground.

That... barely scratches the surface. It says literally nothing of note and if I offer the short explanation of "small numbers of unconventional heavy ground force", it would sound ridiculous. Namely: one biological soldier is equipped with enough technology and firepower to stand on his own against a force many times larger. That's what I mean. And on its own, that sounds not only like a massive power trip, but also just insane and ridiculous. But it's not because of the society that produces said soldier.

You can read more fully in the old factbook that is in my sig, but here are some salient points.

As a military-industrial cartel, they are a government that essentially dictates with an iron fist. They are the only voice for their people and they control all news, trade, and traffic that goes in and goes out of the state. Well, that sounds evil you might say. Yeah, it kind of does, in a very North Korean sort of way. Again, we must go deeper.

They are the military, and they are the owners of the power generation capabilities of the state. Power generation is the basis of their economy - in fact, it's the only thing that really matters to them. Basic needs are taken care of with their advanced technology, so their people want for nothing that isn't a luxury. In this manner, they are effectively post-scarcity but they aren't literally post-scarcity. So, then you must ask what does that mean and how does it affect the culture?

What do people do? What is their environment like? What do individuals strive for? What do groups strive for? What does the state itself actually strive for?

Similar questions can be asked and must be answered to develop a state and people that feel like they could exist, and that are interesting to both play and play with.

How does the fact that only the military interacts with the outside galaxy affect their society? Their international relations? How does it affect the military itself?

I asked earlier what does the state actually strive for. Well, that's important. How single-minded are they? Is their approach rational? It probably should be... at the very least, it needs to be internally consistent.

The Prelation is not single-minded, but could appear to be. It focused on megaprojects; it had the resources readily available, and it just needed time and for the rest of the galaxy to allow it do to what it pleased. If that was their only goal, then... well, there's a lot to take into account. How do they treat other states? What happens when they come up to someone who truly can and will stand up to them (and important thing to always remember - because every other player can and will, unless they choose to be weaker)?

That would be a very good start.

[Northwest Slobovia]

Wait... are we allowed to do that? I hate to say it, but sometimes FT RP comes across as nothing more than people showing off their fancy toys.

What FT RPs are you participating in?

I think you're taking me more seriously than I intended. It was black humor: while there are plenty of good players, there's also plenty of wankery, and I was lamenting the latter.

[The United Dominion]

What FT RPs are you participating in?

I think you're taking me more seriously than I intended. It was black humor: while there are plenty of good players, there's also plenty of wankery, and I was lamenting the latter.

Oh, I know what you were doing. That's why my response was more tongue-in-cheek than anything else.

I also found it unfunny and unhelpful, though, so there is that. I prefer to try to keep the thread helpful and on topic.

[Stormwrath]

What about culture and all the stuff that actually makes a nation a nation and not just a collection of fancy toys with no depth?

That may just be me, but I just do worldbuilding whenever I think I may use it in the near future and not as just some trivial footnote in my factbook. But I guess to each his own.

Yeah, definitely have to say that there is a difference between the actual FT Community and people who just show up to wank in random threads that have very little story or continuity with their nations. If you take the time to read through the Guides and the OP of this thread, you can see that there's a Community thAt has been around for over a decade at this point that has created a rich communal setting based off interactions between players. And most of this actual community cares far more about your nation being a interesting setting in which to tell interesting stories with interesting characters.

As I often tell players, build your nation as a setting, not an actual nation. FT is nothing like MT and while it moves far slower, the actual community threads are far better in terms of quality. Typically the more active threads that masquerade as FT are little more than random p layers (typically from MT or Multiverse) who think owning massive chunks of the Galaxy or multiple galaxies and pocket dimensions within alternate realities are fun and they just want to number wank at each other until the all end up placing each other on ignore.

Remember, 4C. Creativity, Consistency, Collaboration and Compromise. That is how you build connections between players to build something greater than just random threads between random players.

I think there's no fine line between what is defined as "actual FT" and the "masquerading/random FT" you describe. Like it or not, if players play with technology that is traditionally defined on NS as one with FTL, they're FT players. They aren't immediately "not-FT" if they have terrible OOC attitudes towards others - that's on the individual parties to get the offending player to stop - or if they just make an FT thread to mess around in for a while before moving on to other things.

I want my nation to get back into sci-fi and I'm thinking about being a Military-Industrial Cartel, any thoughts?

Well, it's vague. So, yeah, good start. Got anything else thought out?

well it would operate similar to the brotherhood of Nod

conventional, but lighter forces with some exotic weapons, and stealth tech

Personally, a military-industrial cartel may or may not be a nation in of itself, since such concepts are indicative of the close-knit relationship between the industrial base of a nation and its military. The thing that you have described corresponds more to a corporation with a private army, which are interesting to play since you can really go into the nitty-gritty of their operations, business practices, work ethic, etc., which indeed requires worldbuilding into.

[Kyrusia]

This is spurred largely by a discussion being had elsewhere, but I have a question for folks here. Namely: have you developed a language - be it just a few words, a full-blown "conlang," or somewhere in-between - for your star-state/civilization? This is mostly just passing curiosity on my part, given I tend to enjoy this sort of thing. If you have, how is it portrayed? Are there differences in alphabet or the symbols utilized? Does it have similar grammar to English or other real-world languages? Furthermore, is it the only language spoken - or predominantly spoken - in your star-state/civilization, or are there others?

Also, given I haven't done this yet, but... Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone! Hope everyone stays safe over the holidays and enjoys spending time with their friends and family. Also, if I forget (which is likely), hope everyone has a happy New Years as well!

[Stormwrath]

This is spurred largely by a discussion being had elsewhere, but I have a question for folks here. Namely: have you developed a language - be it just a few words, a full-blown "conlang," or somewhere in-between - for your star-state/civilization? This is mostly just passing curiosity on my part, given I tend to enjoy this sort of thing. If you have, how is it portrayed? Are there differences in alphabet or the symbols utilized? Does it have similar grammar to English or other real-world languages? Furthermore, is it the only language spoken - or predominantly spoken - in your star-state/civilization, or are there others?

Also, given I haven't done this yet, but... Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone! Hope everyone stays safe over the holidays and enjoys spending time with their friends and family. Also, if I forget (which is likely), hope everyone has a happy New Years as well!

I am currently developing a conlang with a friend of mine for fun, though admittedly the process has grown stale. x]

[Northwest Slobovia]

Namely: have you developed a language - be it just a few words, a full-blown "conlang," or somewhere in-between - for your star-state/civilization? This is mostly just passing curiosity on my part, given I tend to enjoy this sort of thing. If you have, how is it portrayed? Are there differences in alphabet or the symbols utilized? Does it have similar grammar to English or other real-world languages? Furthermore, is it the only language spoken - or predominantly spoken - in your star-state/civilization, or are there others?

In order...

So far, it's just isolated words for technical and social things we don't have, eg, sefo malva, an FTL city ship, and inko, a nation of such ships. (And not just "cities", but cities of particular size and social characteristics.)

Some of their alphabet is a bastardized human alphabet (haven't decided which yet) due to a botched uplift.

The grammar -- if I ever get that far -- will be strange; they ain't human.

No other language; the inko I'll be playing has a population under 100 million people. Their civilization is immense, but a) I'm not gonna worry about all the other nations in it, and b) if there are other languages, well, I hadn't thought about them before.

[Kyrusia]

In order...

So far, it's just isolated words for technical and social things we don't have, eg, sefo malva, an FTL city ship, and inko, a nation of such ships. (And not just "cities", but cities of particular size and social characteristics.)

Some of their alphabet is a bastardized human alphabet (haven't decided which yet) due to a botched uplift.

The grammar -- if I ever get that far -- will be strange; they ain't human.

No other language; the inko I'll be playing has a population under 100 million people. Their civilization is immense, but a) I'm not gonna worry about all the other nations in it, and b) if there are other languages, well, I hadn't thought about them before.

Sort of similar situation I had with the Serukta (language, "Seruli'san"), really - in terms of "hadn't thought of." I realized long after starting their language that it wouldn't make much sense culturally, considering the different points of origin and historical societal stratification, for the language of what amounts to a hoity-toity elite, minority class to be spoken by everyone else. Ended-up inventing a second language to act as a "common tongue," given it didn't make sense (or look as nice to me, creatively speaking) for them to speak GalStan/Terran English, that grew-out of a hybridization of two other languages that had previously been commonly and interchangeably used as trade languages. Eventually that grew into what it is today ("Mah'nabaari"), though I have woefully few words for it compared to Seruli'san. >_>

Now, as noted, it's spoken by most everyone to some degree - at least the native subjects. I imagine GalStan has probably widespread use among the human populations - at least those parts of it which contain relatively new additions to society. I imagine other languages (Uthani and ixee in particular, though the latter possibly in a differing dialect; TUD will probably have to correct me on that) are probably semi-common, depending on the place, due to our close association with the source civilizations.

As an aside, based on inko and what you describe it as, is your civilization nomadic in nature, or am I misunderstanding?

Edit: Note to self. I really should get around to making a lexicon at some point...

[RawHein]

This is spurred largely by a discussion being had elsewhere, but I have a question for folks here. Namely: have you developed a language - be it just a few words, a full-blown "conlang," or somewhere in-between - for your star-state/civilization? This is mostly just passing curiosity on my part, given I tend to enjoy this sort of thing. If you have, how is it portrayed? Are there differences in alphabet or the symbols utilized? Does it have similar grammar to English or other real-world languages? Furthermore, is it the only language spoken - or predominantly spoken - in your star-state/civilization, or are there others?

Also, given I haven't done this yet, but... Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone! Hope everyone stays safe over the holidays and enjoys spending time with their friends and family. Also, if I forget (which is likely), hope everyone has a happy New Years as well!

I tend not to go that detailed, because ultimately I know nobody would bother reading my Factbook to figure it out. I do inject some alien-ness in with names, which have relational prefixes added on - Raw'Hein meaning Injured Hein, Far'Ha meaning Nephew Ha, Jekai'Rei meaning Commander-Prime Rei, and so on. I'll quote the relevant factbook below for more detail:

Let me elaborate on the naming system of Raw'Hein, before it confuses more people. In short, a Raw'Hein doesn't have a first name as such - you could refer to them as "fourth son/daughter of the fifth generation of the name Ha", and that would uniquely identify them but also A) confuse them because you aren't usually addressing them in a context where that's important and B) severely irritate them, since that's a placeholder name used only before they've earned a proper title, or by family members in a private setting, so you're either calling them a child or are being inappropriately intimate.

The Raw'Hein aren't defined by names, but by their relation to the speaker - for example, Fourth Daughter Rei is addressed by a policeman as Law-Abiding Citizen Rei, by a shopkeeper as Valuable Customer Rei, by posh shopkeepers as Honoured Customer Rei, and by her underlings as Commander-Prime Rei. What makes this especially confusing is that sufficiently high ranks override others in related circumstances - for example, a policeman would actually use her military title, as a mark of respect since officers are expected to respect the law more than the average citizen. And even though Char'Ha is also the Chel, I refer to him as such because he is my forebrother.

In general, the system works as follows:

[Rank][System][optional suffix]'[family name]

Jekai'Rei, then, literally translates to "Commander-in-the-Space-Navy-(Prime)-of-family-Rei". The ai in this case simply means "the first among their peers" - a Jekai can outrank a Jek, but has no other authority or privileges besides social respect and honour. Other suffixes may indicate the opposite, or that the rank is not permanent, or that the person is senior or junior, and so on. There are very, very many ranks and systems, so a brief summary:

Ranks:
H - Lowest "working" rank, and the most popular - ranks below this are typically used for training or students.
K - Is in charge of a small number of people, or is responsible for them in some way such as a police sergeant or floor manager
[...]
J - The same, for large groups of groups for a temporary duration - for example, a battlegroup commander or project manager
F - Permanent regional authority - a branch manager, outpost commander, or church priest, for example.
Ch - The absolute highest rank possible, even having authority over subsidiary systems of authority. Chels represent the highest political rank of the executive and legislative branches, but are also Head of State and as such superior to the Mediment and Great Houses, even if outright giving orders to them is politically unwise. Similarly, Fleet Cheks can have authority over ground, air, and and wet-navy units during the course of a space-centred operation just as Army Chiks can order space units for transport or orbital strikes in a ground-centred operation, though these are usually cleared with the "native" Ch- in order to avoid conflict.

N.B. These only denote the respect within their own, or subsidary systems offered to the person - a branch manager would never have the respect a base commander does in their daily life despite having superficially equivalent ranks, both because commerce itself is not respected as much as the military and the requirements to succeed differ.

Suffices
ai - First of their rank
el - Trainee/probationary
ar - In disgrace after committing some sort of infraction.
or - Effective rank only, such as a battlefield promotion that only lasts until a permanent officer can be found to replace them.
uk - Honourary, having no weight but symbolic.

Systems of authority
ar - Houses
ek - Space Navy
er - Religious
ou - A special "translation" system applied to outsiders that the Ra'Hein have dealings with, from opposing armies to valuable traders to powerful diplomats. "Thouzai" (pronounced "Thou-z-eye", like "thousand") is a common rank assigned to diplomats with an alien ranking system, and generally suggests a powerful ally. Though, in truth, the "powerful" part is used more for flattery and politeness than accuracy - every sufficiently high-up diplomat is called that. The ai, meanwhile, is automatically applied unless the the subject has a bad reputation - again, for politeness.
el - political

Yours respectfully,
Fel'Ha

[Northwest Slobovia]

As an aside, based on inko and what you describe it as, is your civilization nomadic in nature, or am I misunderstanding?

Well, many of their nations are. The civilization includes plenty of planetary and interstellar governments. The distinction is the same as between "Western civilization" and European and North American nations.

I also sometimes wonder if "nomadic" has connotations I don't want: few people, technologically backwards, and other characteristics associated with RL nomadic people. But I may just be thinking about it too much.

[Escalan Corps-Star Island]

Namely: have you developed a language - be it just a few words, a full-blown "conlang," or somewhere in-between - for your star-state/civilization? This is mostly just passing curiosity on my part, given I tend to enjoy this sort of thing. If you have, how is it portrayed? Are there differences in alphabet or the symbols utilized? Does it have similar grammar to English or other real-world languages? Furthermore, is it the only language spoken - or predominantly spoken - in your star-state/civilization, or are there others?

For the Kosnimarisad-Áqinid (and the larger civilisation they're derived from) I do have a full-on conlang, which is spoken universally and exclusively among their species. Part of that is due to the fact that said larger civilisation used this language (Aláranid) exclusively, though a number of dialects existed, and another part is due to the fact that the more esoteric dialects did not survive the voyage from their distant point of origin to the Milky Way.

That aside, the alphabet is different from anything used, though it functions similarly to ones we're familiar with. Grammatically, I took some inspiration from Russian, Japanese, and Spanish, though those influences (case system, use of moras for writing) are more visible in the "precursor" conlang (Riadálu) I constructed afterwards. Aláranid is far more streamlined in terms of grammar, to the point of having a number of forms with very similar endings and/or indicators primarily distinguished by context. It would be more similar to English in that regard. As for the lexicon, it remains a bit unwieldy and more geared towards SF or government-relevant things as opposed to everyday conversation, but I've been devoting more time to filling that void recently.

And Merry Christmas to you as well, Kyru.

[Genomita]

Merry late holidays to all of you,

While I have yet to try creating a language for my nation I have found using terms from Yoruba (or occasionally terms that sound like words from Yoruba) works well for me both for descriptive character names and general terms for my nation.

On another matter, I'm currently trying to work out the cultural impact on shipbuilding in my nation, both in terms of appearance, shape and engineering. Since my nation includes several different species with greatly differening body plans (only one of them is bipedal, while the other has snakelike lower bodies and another is quadrupedal) their spaceships would have to account for that. Technically-speaking, my ships are largely organic with plant-like cores and more conventional tech harmonically integrated as extensions of the ship's organism and with the pilot neurally connected to the ship's brain.

Edit: nevermind about the spherical ships part, but I'm still interested in the cultural influences on spaceship design.

[Imperial and Federal Union of States]

I got bored so...

Have all the ship classes of my fleet to scale with one another.

A fun time for everyone involved.

[Achesia]

I got bored so...

Have all the ship classes of my fleet to scale with one another.

A fun time for everyone involved.

Thats... beautiful... I may cry. :'{

[Zepplin Manufacturers]

Here is one I did earlier ...

[Achesia]

Here is one I did earlier ...

Very cool! Very Zentraedi

[Imperial Nalydya]

I got bored so...

Have all the ship classes of my fleet to scale with one another.

A fun time for everyone involved.

I feel like I've seen these before somewhere else. I do like the stylistic flair that's present with these vessels.

http://i.imgur.com/mDn0Xos.png

These are the current generation main capital grade VRZ warships.

[Achesia]

Mine:

http://orig12.deviantart.net/f0f5/f/201 ... asa71e.png

I cant claim all of those ships, but i found the designs and loved them, so i added more to match.