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

[Novum Alexandria]

Don't over think it, you'll just get bogged down. Technology varies so wildly in future tech that your doctrine will never be perfect. I use a relatively simple doctrine myself, based off of 17th, 18th, and 19th century naval thought. The vast majority of my ships are "line ships." At the start of a battle, my line ships will form a battle line, getting as many as their guns trained on the enemy as they possibly can.

This is the present strategy, except with less lines and more forward-firing weapons. Primary direct combat vessel is wedge shaped, and all else are generally built vertically, or as vertical as anything can be in space. The Y axis, as it were.


For the purpose of background information and "lore" writing, would it be best to just leave it vague and say that the nation has "innumerable contingency plans"? It's a highly militarized society with a long history of interstellar campaigns. I've drawn from this that it'd be best to just deal with encounters as they arise, not produce an abundance of pre-existing taktikal manooverz.

[Tierra Prime]

Don't over think it, you'll just get bogged down. Technology varies so wildly in future tech that your doctrine will never be perfect. I use a relatively simple doctrine myself, based off of 17th, 18th, and 19th century naval thought. The vast majority of my ships are "line ships." At the start of a battle, my line ships will form a battle line, getting as many as their guns trained on the enemy as they possibly can.

This is the present strategy, except with less lines and more forward-firing weapons. Primary direct combat vessel is wedge shaped, and all else are generally built vertically, or as vertical as anything can be in space. The Y axis, as it were.

You're best off using Star Wars-style ships then. The weapons on your typical star destroyers are placed in the trenches at the sides and around the common tower on the top side. By angling the bow of the ship downwards like this you can bring all of the weapons to bare on a target. The weapons in the trenches can also be used for broadsides if that's your thing, that's a valid strategy in Star Wars against smaller ships (You can see star destroyers engaging Rebel ships with broadsides in Episode VI).

As for contingency plans, I've mentioned mine in RPs to provide a bit of background and expand my lore, but I've not really gone into them in very much detail. The basics are that my emperor's palace is connected to a space port by an underground metro. There's a bunker buried a few kilometres underneath my capital that is also connected to this rail line. If my emperor needs to flee, he can take a train to the space port, hop on an executive shuttle, and escape to his personal battleship. If the system has been blockaded, my capital is protected by a shield, and the bunker is hardened against orbital bombardment. My emperor's personal guard has a barracks located in the bunker, and the bunker itself is equipped with automated defences, so he would be pretty safe there. Now, if he does manage to flee the system, I have a refuge world set by. It's located near a black hole and there's a dreadnought under construction there, so it would be pretty difficult to attack (Assuming you found it).

It's likely neither of these contingency plans will ever be used, but I like to keep them in the back of my mind and write them into posts at times, it really adds to my lore.

[Lubyak]

So, ah. It has occurred to me that, beyond extremely basic tactics, I have no clue how one would go about waging war in space. Do any of you happen to know of a post/thread or be willing to give advise regarding tactics in a naval battle?

As others have said, given the disparity in tech and almost everything else between various players, it's basically open season in determining how a war is fought in FT. You have players like OMG and myself who fight like it's the 18th century, with line infantry beneath shields. Others go with the standard sci-fi army route with space marines and what not, while other prefer a World War vibe. Every form is valid, and how effective they are--like everything else--is dependent on player co-operation and what advances the plot better.

So just write whatever feels good to you. Do you want close range broadsides? Missile salvos from the other side of the system? Fighters launching from carriers flitting in and out of hyperspace/the Warp/whatever? All work. Feel free to write your tactics section based on that, just be aware that when it comes time to actually RP a war, you're going to have to co-operate with another player in a way that's fun for both of you, so describe accordingly.

[Krosana]

I'm not particularly trying to create 'perfect utopia' and in fact, I'm perfectly OK with losing a war or two. My nation what it would be like if Earth's civilisation advanced 2-3 thousand years or so.

[Lubyak]

I'm not particularly trying to create 'perfect utopia' and in fact, I'm perfectly OK with losing a war or two. My nation what it would be like if Earth's civilisation advanced 2-3 thousand years or so.

That may be, but it's not coming across in how you're writing your factbook. When that's all people have to go on, they're going to rely on the impressions they get from that, and those impressions are important.The rule of NS FT is that you can do whatever you want, but so can everyone else. This, of course, means you're welcome to claim all the galaxy spanning empires you want, but everyone else is free to refuse to RP with you. I don't like seeing that happen to any player, which is why I'm telling you this now.

Let's just look at your factbook's introductory section, so I can illustrate my thought process here.

In your introductory section, the alarm bells are already going off. You claim to be in the top ten for population, economy, military strength, life expectancy, low infant mortality.... You should not be claiming any of these things. You are new here. No one knows who you are, and you're still claiming huge amounts of power. In a more subtle way than the player who claims to control the entire galaxy, yes, but you're still claiming lots of power before anyone knows anything about you. NS FT is built on trust, and already I find myself questioning and incredulous. How can I trust this player to RP fairly and be co-operative, when already they're claiming to be among the best in the galaxy in everything? If we fight a war rp are they going to actually co-operate, communicate, and compromise, or are they going to insist that they should 'win' because they're 'the best'? I would recommend that instead of using numbers like '3rd best [X], 4the best [Y]', you instead stick to less quantifiable terms. Say you have a strong economy, and describe that strong economy. Other players will respect that more than just a claim that you're economy is better than theirs. Do that for the rest of your stuff that you want to emphasise. This is also an example of how you should show, not tell. Right now, your factbook is telling that you're strong and powerful. You should try to focus on showing that instead through your descriptions, rather than just giving some statement of 'We're the best!'.

In addition, your claims of this are going to throw off other people's canons, which is the worst thing you can do. This is why I shy away from using firm numbers as much as possible. That way things have the flexibility to shift as needed in an RP, while still retaining an air of consistency. You can still RP your society as highly developed, with high HDI and a powerful economy without quantifying it and claiming to be better than most everybody else. I guess that's the overriding issue I have. As I said, it's fine to RP as a high HDI, high tech style state. The issue I have is how you're trying to show that by claiming to be better than the majority of the galaxy. Moreover, with how you're making such a claim not by showing us your society and what not, but by simply telling us you're the [X]th best in the galaxy at [Y]. That's going to set off red flag for a lot of people.

I hope you see where I'm coming from here. Maybe my concern is unjustified and none of these concerns are real. After all, I don't know you. However, that's just the thing: I don't know you. All I have to go on is what you've provided me in your factbook and in your posts, and that's setting off red flags and concerns. Those concerns mean I'm less likely to trust you. As I've said many times in this post, the issue is not that you're RPing a high tech, high HDI type civilisation. It's that you're doing so by declaring that you're the best at everything.

[Krosana]

I base my scores on the nationstates censuses. Now, granted, the first two technically could be called baseless, until you realise that I have one the highest ratings for economy in my region as well.

[Lubyak]

I base my scores on the nationstates censuses. Now, granted, the first two technically could be called baseless, until you realise that I have one the highest ratings for economy in my region as well.

That's not really a good basis. I can't think of anyone in FT-Prime who follows NS stats for very good reason. In the past, people did use NS stats to determine IC power, but that essentially became a tool for players with older nations to try and dominate the community at the expense of newer players. As such, we don't tend to follow those, except in a joking OOC form.

[Krosana]

I can't go to every individual 50 nations in my region and ask them if their PPP is one dollar higher than mine. Plus, compare our two nations on Economy, Lifespan, Health, HDI, Intelligence, and scientific advancement, and (Not to rub it in or anything) I surpass you (as of right now) in all of those categories. And no, this doesn't prove that I am a 'better' nation than you at all. All I'm doing is using this, rather that buying stamps and sending out 50 TGs. Also, seeing as nations can change quickly I'd have to do this every 2 weeks or so. And notice how the only one how I said I was the best at anything was life expectancy. I could have put largest military budget, GDP, etc., but I chose to do this in only one category. This also shows that older nations don't always beat younger ones. Perhaps it's that central part of my personality that always strives for objectivity and statistical facts.

[Lubyak]

I can't go to every individual 50 nations in my region and ask them if their PPP is one dollar higher than mine. Plus, compare our two nations on Economy, Lifespan, Health, HDI, Intelligence, and scientific advancement, and I surpass you (as of right now) in all of those categories. This also shows that older nations don't always beat younger ones. Perhaps it's that central part of my personality that always strives for objectivity and statistical facts.

Then don't. No one cares about your nation's PPP. If you want a number, make one up, and stick a made up currency in front, and then say that's higher or lower than another arbitrarily chosen point as needed for the sake of an RP. It doesn't matter. People care much more about the character of your nation. They want to know what it's like, not a series of ultimately meaningless numbers.

FT-Prime RP is not based on statistical facts, because there are none. Anyone can claim whatever, and that's the entire point. I highly recommend you look at the many links in the OP of this thread, as it seems you're missing out on the very core of what FT Prime RP is centred about.

[Krosana]

If you truly think I roleplay unfairly, check my roleplay with Taledonia. Keep in mind that this is my first roleplay. On any website. ever.

[OMGeverynameistaken]

I just moved my original nation, Dontgonearthere, to the Milky Way Galaxy. I'm afraid you'll need to reassess those numbers now. I am now the largest nation in the galaxy, edging out Sskiss by a billion or so.

I have now won NSFT. Bow before me, mortals.

[Tierra Prime]

Could a cluster of a vague number of stars (How big my nation is depends on how big it needs to be for the plot, so it could control twenty stars, or it could control two hundred) held together by a local black hole really be called a "dwarf galaxy?" Should I be referring to my area of space as a star cluster instead? It has defined regions like the "core" and "outer rim" - but as I've said it's not a proper galaxy like the Milky Way. It there anything smaller than a dwarf galaxy, or is that a star cluster?

[Novum Alexandria]

Could a cluster of a vague number of stars (How big my nation is depends on how big it needs to be for the plot, so it could control twenty stars, or it could control two hundred) held together by a local black hole really be called a "dwarf galaxy?" Should I be referring to my area of space as a star cluster instead? It has defined regions like the "core" and "outer rim" - but as I've said it's not a proper galaxy like the Milky Way. It there anything smaller than a dwarf galaxy, or is that a star cluster?

After consulting my own memories and briefly consulting THE INTERNET, I'm pretty sure it would be a star cluster.

[OMGeverynameistaken]

Could a cluster of a vague number of stars (How big my nation is depends on how big it needs to be for the plot, so it could control twenty stars, or it could control two hundred) held together by a local black hole really be called a "dwarf galaxy?" Should I be referring to my area of space as a star cluster instead? It has defined regions like the "core" and "outer rim" - but as I've said it's not a proper galaxy like the Milky Way. It there anything smaller than a dwarf galaxy, or is that a star cluster?

Twenty stars or so stars in a group would probably be classed as an open cluster. The smallest object referred to as a 'galaxy' by modern astronomy is Segue 2, which clocks in at roughly 550,000 solar masses.

[Ferret Civilization]

Um, another question real quick. For those of you that put pictures of Spaceships/Stations in your Factbooks an whatever else... Where do you find said pictures, or do you make them yourselves?

[SquareDisc City]

Could a cluster of a vague number of stars (How big my nation is depends on how big it needs to be for the plot, so it could control twenty stars, or it could control two hundred) held together by a local black hole really be called a "dwarf galaxy?" Should I be referring to my area of space as a star cluster instead? It has defined regions like the "core" and "outer rim" - but as I've said it's not a proper galaxy like the Milky Way. It there anything smaller than a dwarf galaxy, or is that a star cluster?

As far as NSFT goes, claiming you control "a galaxy" is going to go down like a lead balloon with many other players who will expect the term "galaxy" to mean something with zillions of stars. So I'd call it a cluster, even if from a real-astrophysics viewpoint it has some features more like a (nano-)galaxy.

Indeed star clusters vary widely. A poor open cluster might have just a few dozen stars, while at the other extreme rich globular clusters can have over a million and the classification does blur into dwarf galaxies there. Even the low end of that is rather a lot of systems for your NSFT nation to effectively control; more likely I feel is a "paper claim" to the whole cluster but with actual use and control in only some of its stars. In general planetary systems are less likely around stars in clusters than around lone stars, though they aren't unknown, so that's something to bear in mind.

[Excidium Planetis]

If you truly think I roleplay unfairly, check my roleplay with Taledonia. Keep in mind that this is my first roleplay. On any website. ever.

I think you are missing the point.

Yeah, you might have pretty good NS Stats in your region (or even the world)... But most FT nations do not use NS Stats, so ranking your country based in them is useless. You might have better NS Stats than them, but they could easily have better RPed stats.

Now, I understand the desire for solid numbers. Good. You can use NS Stats to say how big your population is, how much your currency is worth, how many people die of old age in your country, etc. This is what I do, I use NS Stats as my nation's stats. But I know other players do not do this, so I never claim to have more scientific advancement than nation X just becuase NS says I do. I can only claim what my nation has, not what other players have.

[Krosana]

If you truly think I roleplay unfairly, check my roleplay with Taledonia. Keep in mind that this is my first roleplay. On any website. ever.

I think you are missing the point.

Yeah, you might have pretty good NS Stats in your region (or even the world)... But most FT nations do not use NS Stats, so ranking your country based in them is useless. You might have better NS Stats than them, but they could easily have better RPed stats.

Now, I understand the desire for solid numbers. Good. You can use NS Stats to say how big your population is, how much your currency is worth, how many people die of old age in your country, etc. This is what I do, I use NS Stats as my nation's stats. But I know other players do not do this, so I never claim to have more scientific advancement than nation X just becuase NS says I do. I can only claim what my nation has, not what other players have.

Which is why I don't. I claim to have:
is one of the galaxy's largest metropolitan area with over 1 billion residents.
second-largest economy by nominal GDP
third-largest economy by purchasing power parity
eighth-largest exporter and fifth-largest importer
a high standard of living and Human Development Index whose population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate of any country in the galaxy
ninth largest military budget

It's really not that much, I don't see where the problem is here.

Oh, and sorry for leaving the region.

[SquareDisc City]

That still means you're claiming, for example, that your nation has a bigger economy than every other Milky Way based nation bar one unspecified one. I advise striking those ranking claims.

[Lubyak]

I think you are missing the point.

Yeah, you might have pretty good NS Stats in your region (or even the world)... But most FT nations do not use NS Stats, so ranking your country based in them is useless. You might have better NS Stats than them, but they could easily have better RPed stats.

Now, I understand the desire for solid numbers. Good. You can use NS Stats to say how big your population is, how much your currency is worth, how many people die of old age in your country, etc. This is what I do, I use NS Stats as my nation's stats. But I know other players do not do this, so I never claim to have more scientific advancement than nation X just becuase NS says I do. I can only claim what my nation has, not what other players have.

Which is why I don't. I claim to have:
is one of the galaxy's largest metropolitan area with over 1 billion residents.
second-largest economy by nominal GDP
third-largest economy by purchasing power parity
eighth-largest exporter and fifth-largest importer
a high standard of living and Human Development Index whose population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate of any country in the galaxy
ninth largest military budget

It's really not that much, I don't see where the problem is here.

Oh, and sorry for leaving the region.

It is that much. As others have said, you're claiming that nearly everyone else has a smaller economy than you, a smaller budget than you, etc. You're making a statement about other people's canons without their consent. This in and of itself isn't really going to be smiled on. The general fact you're throwing off others canons, especially as--it seems--your claiming all this with one planet that has a lower population than Earth, whereas most players have at least a few planets with more people than RL earth. When you bring things into context, you're claiming your one planet with its small population produces more than almost every other civilisation in the galaxy, many of which are multi-system states. This carries a wide load of implications.

I don't understand your fixation with these hard numerical rankings. What's wrong with saying you have a large well developed economy, with a high HDI and low infant morality, rather than saying you have the [X]th largest whatever. Many other players have chimed in showing their discomfort with these claims. In addition, avoiding a hard number will make things easier on you, as you won't have to constantly update as nations enter, leave, etc. Furthermore, not every player you would RP with exists in the Milky Way Galaxy gameside region. Many of the players in this thread base their nations in The Local Cluster or other gameside regions. The Galaxy as a concept within FT is not the same as the Milky Way Galaxy region.

[The Eastern Hegemony]

Literally everything you'e said

The really, really big problem with this is that not all FT nations are in one canon. If you set these upper limits for others, people will just choose to not wade into your canon. You certainly can't say you're the best at X for all canons, because there are definitely nations- myself included- that will object to that.

[Stormwrath]

I think you are missing the point.

Yeah, you might have pretty good NS Stats in your region (or even the world)... But most FT nations do not use NS Stats, so ranking your country based in them is useless. You might have better NS Stats than them, but they could easily have better RPed stats.

Now, I understand the desire for solid numbers. Good. You can use NS Stats to say how big your population is, how much your currency is worth, how many people die of old age in your country, etc. This is what I do, I use NS Stats as my nation's stats. But I know other players do not do this, so I never claim to have more scientific advancement than nation X just becuase NS says I do. I can only claim what my nation has, not what other players have.

Which is why I don't. I claim to have:
is one of the galaxy's largest metropolitan area with over 1 billion residents.
second-largest economy by nominal GDP
third-largest economy by purchasing power parity
eighth-largest exporter and fifth-largest importer
a high standard of living and Human Development Index whose population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate of any country in the galaxy
ninth largest military budget

It's really not that much, I don't see where the problem is here.

Oh, and sorry for leaving the region.

The Archemperor of Stormwrath, Percival, would like to have a word with you.

Anyways, I don't have any examples of FT nations using their NS stats as their IC stats. A reason would be that those stats change every time you respond to your issues, your population keeps on growing by 5-8 million people per update, and the rankings that come along with it are given by your region, not the FT community. You can set up your own numbers yourself since I doubt anyone would care to RP with a nation with shifting statistics that make it look inconsistent.

[Kyrusia]

The Galaxy as a concept within FT is not the same as the Milky Way Galaxy region.

Since much that could be said already has been said, I figured I would highlight this relatively small, but important sentence.

More often than not, when you see someone say "the Galaxy" (even "the Milky Way Galaxy" if anthropocentrism is applied) in Future Tech, they are not referring to the region, they are referring to the In-Character world of Future Tech. Much the same way people might refer to reality or the sum-totality of earth, etc., as the "world," or may refer to the, say, setting of the Warhammer 40,000 or Halo as the "WH40K world" or "Halo world," you will often see people referring to the 'Future Tech world' as "the Galaxy."

Due to the lack of emphasis on gameside mechanics in much of the Future Tech community (including a lack of emphasis, if not the outright ignoring of gameside statistics [including population] caused by certain historical precursors in the NSFT community, not least of which being the "Thousand per Billion Rule," causing 'loose figures' such as "high population, low density, high development," etc. to become more prevalent), regions are not, by-in-large (excluding closed roleplaying groups) treated as "closed worlds." To use a very simple example Lubyak has already used: people may have their accounts in "The Milky Way Galaxy," "The Local Cluster," "Raumreich Oversector," etc. gameside regions, but all of their In-Character activities are still a part of the same world, "the Galaxy."

Hope that helps.

[Nyte]

Um, another question real quick. For those of you that put pictures of Spaceships/Stations in your Factbooks an whatever else... Where do you find said pictures, or do you make them yourselves?

Personally, I've acquired mine by repeatedly searching through google images as I not only lack the time to make my own, but also the skill. There are programs though for people to make their own such as Inkscape and Microsoft Paint for example.

[Krosana]

I did it. There. Now, can we talk about something more important?