Venatores ex Vacuo [FT/FFT, Open, Interest]

[Hahoalki]

The year is 109,304 CE. From Corona-Borealis to Horologium, mind-kind is torn by war. The Allied States in the Shapely Supercluster, under the Archailect Hahoalki, forms a pseudo-traditionalist noocracy, ruled by the eponymous philosopher-king-like Mind. They stand opposed to the Vale of Fantasy, a polity in the Sculptor Supercluster under Our Mother of Illusion, Maiya, whose utilitarian regime attempts to protect and nurture all mind-kind by placing them in VR pleasure chambers - regardless of whether they consent to the procedure. After all, they'll be "happier" once they're inside, they just don't understand it yet. In the Ursa Major Supercluster, the Rogue Mind known as Wolfram Omega heads the Nootic Network, a hivemind of coercion that (he hopes) will allow him to absorb all lesser minds into himself.

Other great powers within 300 million parsecs of the Virgo Supercluster have their own ideologies and goals, and are willing to fight for them. But, what no one - not even the Minds - yet realize is that, lurking in the vast voids between the walls and sheets of matter, are the agents responsible for the Great Filter. Every few million years, sophonce evolves and reaches for the stars. That is when they are able to feast. And they are coming.

...so that's my pitch. My goal here is to gauge interest in a FFT RP that takes place on a much larger scale than we normally see on NS, along the lines of what you see above.

It's recommended that you join as an FT/FFT nation. If you want to participate, but your nation is at a lower tech level, I can help you "upgrade it" to its FT equivalent.

You don't have to join the Space Tories, the insane hedonists, or the Not!Borg, you can make their own faction and ideology. In fact, you are positively encouraged to build a unique faction around your nation's IC ideology.

General Setting Notes (I reserve the right to edit these, and they can be changed to accommodate the needs of participants):

This RP will, at least as far as me and my puppets are concerned, have transhumanist themes. Biological immortality and greatly enhanced intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities are the norm for both biological and synthetic races. Additionally, certain entities have managed to hit the point of "intelligence explosion" that Transhumanist writers are always talking about. The result is called a Mind.

Minds are basically AI gods. They can produce stable materials that far exceed the properties of atomic matter. They can break the time-translation symmetries that restrict perpetual motion machines. They can make spacetime itself dance to their whims. They can "hack into" the information theoretic structure of the universe itself. They can (and typically do) create myriad arrays of universes.

It is highly recommended that you make a Mind for your nation if you want to participate in this RP, because they are a prerequisite for the aforementioned technological capabilities for the purposes of this RP's canon.

Dyson swarms and large Banks-esque Orbitals are commonplace. In fact, orbital megastructures are probably more prevalent than ordinary planets in many regions.

Nanotech, teraforming, quantum computation/encryption, and many other speculative technologies are common place.

FFT firepower is no joke. Planets and stars being destroyed as "collateral damage" in a war between the Great Powers will be unfortunately common.

In general, FTL systems either travel through realspace using something vaguely similar to a warp drive, or use pre-existing infrastructure to jump from one specific point to another. "Jump anywhere" teleportation drives are not allowed.

This is the closest thing I could find to a "map" of the region where this RP will take place.

There are some forms of psionics/metaphysics in play for the more "cosmic horror" factions out there, but to a certain extent, the limits of "space magic" will be dependent on applicant preferences. Generally, I will be erring on the side of "people's stuff working," but...
a) I don't want magic to be of a sort that "displaces" the technological "feel" of the setting,
b) devices that allow participants uncomfortable with magic to attempt to "enforce reality" in the vicinity of their stuff will also be permitted (everything has a counter), and
c) supernatural entities of an interventionist bent will be subject to strict scrutiny, and will not be able to exceed the power and intelligence levels of the Minds.

RULES:
1. No God-modding - particularly in terms of auto-hitting or failing to take casualties.
2. No metagaming - we all know that something is coming OOC, but there are no signs IC.
3. Be considerate. This isn't General, offending people here isn't "free speech," it's offending them for no reason.
4. Make sure that you are having fun, while allowing others to have fun.
5. The story comes first.
6. OP's word is law.
7. Participants may petition OP for redress of grievances on the OOC thread, even if OP is the source of the grievance - though try not to get too heated.

If you think you'd be interested in this sort of thing, I'd like to ask you to fill out the following application.

Code: Select all

[b]Nation[/b]:

[b]Will you be making your own faction? (Y/N)[/b]
[b]If so, please give a brief description of its ideology[/b]:
[b]If not, which existing faction do you intend to join?[/b]
[b]What would your motivations and goals be in this conflict?[/b]

[b]Tech Level[/b]:

[b]Will your Nation have a Mind? (Y/N)[/b]
[b]If so, please give them a name and a brief description of their personality[/b]:

[b]Does your nation have magic users, psions, or other forms of metaphysical tomfoolery? (Y/N)[/b]
[b]If so, please give a brief description of the scope and limits of magic/psionics/etc. in your "normal" canon[/b]:

[b]Do you agree to follow the rules? (Y/N)[/b]

[b]Link to technology factbook (if applicable)[/b]:
[b]Link to military factbook (if applicable)[/b]:


IC Thread Here

Discord Here

[Laka Strolistandiler]

Looks interesting. Although I have no experience in the FFT (other than my MT nation repeatedly oofing itself in the F7 threads to avoid being captured by an FFT nation), I’ll probably give it a try. Any reading advice to better understand what FFT is about? I’ve read The Forever War (the latter part of the book seems to be rather FFTish), and I am currently reading the first book in the Culture Series. After that I’m planning to read some books of the Xeelee series- anything else that I should give a read to understand what FFT is about? Any good websites about it (like Atomic Rockets is a holy grail to the hardSF)

[Hahoalki]

Looks interesting. Although I have no experience in the FFT (other than my MT nation repeatedly oofing itself in the F7 threads to avoid being captured by an FFT nation), I’ll probably give it a try. Any reading advice to better understand what FFT is about? I’ve read The Forever War (the latter part of the book seems to be rather FFTish), and I am currently reading the first book in the Culture Series. After that I’m planning to read some books of the Xeelee series- anything else that I should give a read to understand what FFT is about? Any good websites about it (like Atomic Rockets is a holy grail to the hardSF)

I take a lot of inspiration from the Orion's Arm setting. To me, the Culture, the Xeelees, and the Sephirotics are the "Big Three" FFT fiction.

[Elysian Treaty Organization]

Aye, seems interesting. Chances are I'll have to up-tech my nation a little (more neutronium bombs, etc) to stand a chance here.

Is it possible to have a "NPC" mind (really just an excuse to not get invaded) act as protection? The mind is starting to malfunction, which results in mass panic. SOF teams are dispatched to relics and other troves of abandoned tech in an effort to find parts to repair the broken mind or create a new one.

Eventually, the mind completely breaks - leaving the ETO ripe for the taking. Another rush for mind-related technology occurs, with the overall objective being to create a new mind. Eventually, this leads to the ETO turning into a hodgepodge of different technology, all commanded by a slightly weaker mind. This eventually leads to the creation of a "non-aligned pact", which relies on sheer numbers and tactics to make up the technological disadvantage. They'll eventually catch up, which would turn this faction into a ticking time bomb.

Is this acceptable? I'll file my application soon.

[Hahoalki]

Aye, seems interesting. Chances are I'll have to up-tech my nation a little (more neutronium bombs, etc) to stand a chance here.

Is it possible to have a "NPC" mind (really just an excuse to not get invaded) act as protection? The mind is starting to malfunction, which results in mass panic. SOF teams are dispatched to relics and other troves of abandoned tech in an effort to find parts to repair the broken mind or create a new one.

Eventually, the mind completely breaks - leaving the ETO ripe for the taking. Another rush for mind-related technology occurs, with the overall objective being to create a new mind. Eventually, this leads to the ETO turning into a hodgepodge of different technology, all commanded by a slightly weaker mind. This eventually leads to the creation of a "non-aligned pact", which relies on sheer numbers and tactics to make up the technological disadvantage. They'll eventually catch up, which would turn this faction into a ticking time bomb.

Is this acceptable? I'll file my application soon.

Not only is it acceptable, it is exactly the kind of engagement with the setting that I was hoping for.

[Elysian Treaty Organization]

Nation: Elysian Treaty Organization

Will you be making your own faction? (Y/N) Y - Non-Aligned Pact, to be founded after the mind is repaired
If so, please give a brief description of its ideology: Space Switzerland. Heavy inspiration taken from the NAM of the Cold War.
If not, which existing faction do you intend to join?: N/A
What would your motivations and goals be in this conflict? Survival, and ensuring the neutrality of the ETO.

Tech Level: FT, with a bit of Magitech and Schizotech sprinkled in.

Will your Nation have a Mind? (Y/N): Y
If so, please give them a name and a brief description of their personality: Tanager 2-4-8 is the oldest and first intelligent AI developed by the ETO. Initially developed as a research project, Tanager 2-4-8 would eventually gain full sentience after five years of active development.

His personality is extremely sterile. The mind is blunt and straight to the point - but is starting to malfunction after finishing tireless research into the origins of the universe and great filters. Random mental breaks are starting to occur.

A new mind must be found, whatever the cost.

Does your nation have magic users, psions, or other forms of metaphysical tomfoolery? (Y/N): Y
If so, please give a brief description of the scope and limits of magic/psionics/etc. in your "normal" canon: It's interesting. Mind-control and other shenagians exist - along with literal reality breakers, but countermeasures are now standard on every ship and person, turning the once powerful world of magic into a utter and complete joke. Magitech is used among the fleet - missiles benefit from combination Magical-Fusion thrusters, while strategic weapons such as neutronium bombs suspend themselves within a magical field - ensuring that the bomb can be moved, despite the high mass of neutronium.

Do you agree to follow the rules? (Y/N): Y

Link to technology factbook (if applicable): NaN. Standard hardish FT nation that makes use of torch fusion engines with anti-matter mixed in. Nanites, quantum computers, slower terraforming methods, efficient anti-matter extraction and neutronium extraction are common within the ETO. FTL drives are also commonplace, with top-of-the line FTL drives operating at a speed of 700 LY/d. Wormholes are bundled in, with five per star-cluster - a few smalller versions are carried on military ships for hit-and-run attacks. The foundation for clarktech/FFT technology does exist - a single spark is all that is needed to light the fire.

Link to military factbook (if applicable): Right, this is where things get interesting. Most of my military stuff are on off-site documents. For this RP, the Elysian Navy will operate off of a basic defense-in-depth plan, using FTL weapons to parry and harass incoming ships and attack logistics lines while the main fleet pulls back to strategically important areas.

Missiles are the king of battle. Missile types vary, ranging from tandem Anti-matter warheads to missile mounted KKVs. Two outliers exist - a neutronium ISBM designed to kill entire fleets with FTL pumped lasers, and a nanite based missile - each nanite holds a single grain of antimatter.

[The Ancient Caste]

This is pretty interesting!

Its tempting to shrug off the binds and go full-scale with the Black Fleet, but there are a couple of balancing problems I'm leery of, namely the fact that the entirety of the Ancient Caste resides outside of spacetime entirely and thus wouldn't really...suffer from having its realspace assets destroyed.

It does have Ports, Lighthouses, etc that are needed to transit between Void and conventional spacetime, but these are unfortunately of the conundrum of being small-the Ancients don't really do megastructures and thus a lot of their Ports/Gateways tend to be sub-planetary, with the largest being more like ecumenopoli.

If you agree that they might not be suited to this RP I can always draft something else up, have a few ideas bouncing around.

[Hahoalki]

This is pretty interesting!

Its tempting to shrug off the binds and go full-scale with the Black Fleet, but there are a couple of balancing problems I'm leery of, namely the fact that the entirety of the Ancient Caste resides outside of spacetime entirely and thus wouldn't really...suffer from having its realspace assets destroyed.

It does have Ports, Lighthouses, etc that are needed to transit between Void and conventional spacetime, but these are unfortunately of the conundrum of being small-the Ancients don't really do megastructures and thus a lot of their Ports/Gateways tend to be sub-planetary, with the largest being more like ecumenopoli.

If you agree that they might not be suited to this RP I can always draft something else up, have a few ideas bouncing around.

We should probably discuss both your nation and what the alternative ideas are over Discord, as I'm not too clear on the actual capabilities of the Ancient Caste at the moment.

Nation: Elysian Treaty Organization

Will you be making your own faction? (Y/N) Y - Non-Aligned Pact, to be founded after the mind is repaired
If so, please give a brief description of its ideology: Space Switzerland. Heavy inspiration taken from the NAM of the Cold War.
If not, which existing faction do you intend to join?: N/A
What would your motivations and goals be in this conflict? Survival, and ensuring the neutrality of the ETO.

Tech Level: FT, with a bit of Magitech and Schizotech sprinkled in.

Will your Nation have a Mind? (Y/N): Y
If so, please give them a name and a brief description of their personality: Tanager 2-4-8 is the oldest and first intelligent AI developed by the ETO. Initially developed as a research project, Tanager 2-4-8 would eventually gain full sentience after five years of active development.

His personality is extremely sterile. The mind is blunt and straight to the point - but is starting to malfunction after finishing tireless research into the origins of the universe and great filters. Random mental breaks are starting to occur.

A new mind must be found, whatever the cost.

Does your nation have magic users, psions, or other forms of metaphysical tomfoolery? (Y/N): Y
If so, please give a brief description of the scope and limits of magic/psionics/etc. in your "normal" canon: It's interesting. Mind-control and other shenagians exist - along with literal reality breakers, but countermeasures are now standard on every ship and person, turning the once powerful world of magic into a utter and complete joke. Magitech is used among the fleet - missiles benefit from combination Magical-Fusion thrusters, while strategic weapons such as neutronium bombs suspend themselves within a magical field - ensuring that the bomb can be moved, despite the high mass of neutronium.

Do you agree to follow the rules? (Y/N): Y

Link to technology factbook (if applicable): NaN - see above. Standard hardish FT nation that makes use of torch fusion engines with anti-matter mixed in. Nanites, quantum computers, slower terraforming methods, efficient anti-matter extraction and neutronium extraction are common within the ETO. FTL drives are also commonplace, with top-of-the line FTL drives operating at a speed of 380 LY/d.
Link to military factbook (if applicable): Right, this is where things get interesting. Most of my military stuff are on off-site documents. For this RP, the Elysian Navy will operate off of a basic defense-in-depth plan, using FTL weapons to parry and harass incoming ships and attack logistics lines while the main fleet pulls back to strategically important areas.

Missiles are the king of battle. Missile types vary, ranging from tandem Anti-matter warheads to missile mounted KKVs. Two outliers exist - a neutronium ISBM designed to kill entire fleets with FTL pumped lasers, and a nanite based missile - each nanite holds a single grain of antimatter.

There are some things I would like to bring to your attention before I approve your application in its current form. Ordinarily, people get leery of nations that are too powerful. In this case, I'm worried that your nation, as it stands, is too weak.

A proper Mind (which is what I hope Tanager 2-4-8's successor will be) is capable of far more than your present system. Minds allow for extreme gravitic/spatiotemporal manipulation. Broken symmetries from such manipulation allow the Minds to defy conservation of energy and momentum (this actually follows from something called Noether's Theorem). And then there's the whole "hacking the universe" by abusing field effectors thing.

Second, if you keep the 380 ly/day limit on your FTL drives, you're going to have issues with strategic and operational mobility. This isn't an RP confined to a single galaxy. As befits a true FFT RP, a considerable portion of the observable universe is in play - roughly 2 billion light years across. Typically, you're going to want something that can manage at least a billion times the speed of light (which lets you traverse that distance in two years, as opposed to the 14,400-ish it would currently take).

Of course, given the goals and defensive posture you've described, a proper wormhole network would effectively make your slow FTL speed a non-issue. Over the hundred thousand years prior to the beginning of the RP, your civilization would have been able to send out linelayers throughout the region, and you'd be bound to have terminals at or near most strategic locations.

I would like to give you the opportunity to factor in these considerations, and edit your application accordingly.

Don't get me wrong, you'll be accepted if you still want to join. I just want to make sure that you're ready for what you're getting into, and have the IC resources to have a meaningful influence on the story's dorection.

[Observation Post 13]

Nation: Central Planning Authority

Will you be making your own faction? (Y/N) N
If so, please give a brief description of its ideology:
If not, which existing faction do you intend to join?: Any faction that likes to party. Hard.
What would your motivations and goals be in this conflict?: Resist The Filter. Survival. Make friends

Tech Level: FFT (but really, I've got a FT mindset )

Will your Nation have a Mind? (Y/N) Y
If so, please give them a name and a brief description of their personality:
Name of Mind: D.O.G.
Created by the Eater civilization to safeguard "space folder" Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror Turned Prisoner Lol bro I don't even have a name for this dude. They are a sentient supercluster.. D.O.G. fucked up and the entropic escapee caused the Eater civilization to self-destruct.

Personality of Mind: Helpful most of the time. Sometimes playful, which is not good coming from a piece of precursor technology without morals.

Does your nation have magic users, psions, or other forms of metaphysical tomfoolery? (Y/N): Y
If so, please give a brief description of the scope and limits of magic/psionics/etc. in your "normal" canon:
Espers are basically psions with mental mutations that can engage in metaphysical tomfoolery using the power of their mind. Psionics is a branch of the CPA tech-tree, and reimburses gaps unobtainable through technology alone. However, there are other transhumanist paths available just as developed as the Psionic branch. They are limited by Interdiction.

Do you agree to follow the rules? (Y/N): Y

[Multiversal Venn-Copard]

Alright. This is unfortunately still quite vague to me, and I think the only way I can get myself to join is if I have a very clear plan of what sequence of events I can instigate or participate in. This'll require some more talk in the future, but I wanted to discuss setting first.

There's a bunch of polities in my FFT canon, R0, who would all be interesting to play, but in addition to being the wrong scale (enormously multiversal, in general) they all tend to be limited in ways that this setting isn't, and I'm concerned about the implications. There's some oddities here that I'm really confused by and always try hard to cut away in my own FFTish writing. For example: conservation of energy violation + creation of concealed basement universes. If you can generate infinite value, why struggle over some superclusters somewhere when you can just build yourself an infinitely expanding network of self-sustained "nests" and seal it off forever?

In R0 I have a little mechanism called the ontology trap that annihilates civilizations trying too hard to abuse certain tech combinations, because that's a setting where I want it to be meaningful that sometimes baselines do useful work, and where everyone develops limits and specialties, instead of just copying each others' tech and passing through singularities one after the other from all the benefits of unifying it. I don't know if you have something similar planned here, but if we're willing to play by some ruleset like this I might be able to throw in one of the more "scalable" powers: the Dualism. Normally R0's multiversals either don't care about an event, or care way too much for one universe, but the Dualism can show up to the universe in question, sit in the corner, and do smaller-scale weird stuff for a while, because their MO requires them to be unpredictable and patient.

If we really do want to keep things a tad more closed, limiting things to universal natives and requesting me to go in without the rules and weird conditions that make my own FFT work, then I suppose I could invent something brand new on the fly. Just... say the word, I guess?

Eager to discuss this more. Thanks.

[Hahoalki]

Alright. This is unfortunately still quite vague to me, and I think the only way I can get myself to join is if I have a very clear plan of what sequence of events I can instigate or participate in. This'll require some more talk in the future, but I wanted to discuss setting first.

There's a bunch of polities in my FFT canon, R0, who would all be interesting to play, but in addition to being the wrong scale (enormously multiversal, in general) they all tend to be limited in ways that this setting isn't, and I'm concerned about the implications. There's some oddities here that I'm really confused by and always try hard to cut away in my own FFTish writing. For example: conservation of energy violation + creation of concealed basement universes. If you can generate infinite value, why struggle over some superclusters somewhere when you can just build yourself an infinitely expanding network of self-sustained "nests" and seal it off forever?

In R0 I have a little mechanism called the ontology trap that annihilates civilizations trying too hard to abuse certain tech combinations, because that's a setting where I want it to be meaningful that sometimes baselines do useful work, and where everyone develops limits and specialties, instead of just copying each others' tech and passing through singularities one after the other from all the benefits of unifying it. I don't know if you have something similar planned here, but if we're willing to play by some ruleset like this I might be able to throw in one of the more "scalable" powers: the Dualism. Normally R0's multiversals either don't care about an event, or care way too much for one universe, but the Dualism can show up to the universe in question, sit in the corner, and do smaller-scale weird stuff for a while, because their MO requires them to be unpredictable and patient.

If we really do want to keep things a tad more closed, limiting things to universal natives and requesting me to go in without the rules and weird conditions that make my own FFT work, then I suppose I could invent something brand new on the fly. Just... say the word, I guess?

Eager to discuss this more. Thanks.

Very good questions, ones that touch on my background assumptions about what makes a good story and how that influenced my worldbuilding.

If wars were fundamentally about material resources, then all actors are more or less selfish. Which is why this war isn't about resources. It's about ideologies. If someone is clearly evil and abusing others, a story about a war with them will have much more moral significance and emotional investment than one that's about a resource grab.

Which is why there are two "outright evil" and one "arguably authoritarian" empires serving as NPCs. Hahoalki's belief in an objective "natural" moral law that, on the one hand, demands that things other than pleasure enter into the moral calculus, while on the other insists on the dignity of all sophonts puts em at odds with the other two polities (both of which want to subject all of mind-kind to their ideologies) in a way that resource-acquisition couldn't.

TL;DR escaping into a solipsistic universe doesn't fix the perpetuation of massive injustice.

One of my background assumptions (at least for the OP-controlled nations) is that the more complex a cognitive system is, the more ways it can go... off the rails. And if the main "selective pressure" is for increased problem-solving abilities in the STEM fields, then there will be immense variability in areas outside the STEM fields - and not all that variability will be socially acceptable. Maiya is a utilitarian who thinks that the ends always justify the means, regardless of consent. Greatest good for the greatest number, and "the good" is understood in hedonistic terms. Wolfram Omega is pure ego, he sees "lesser minds" as a means to his ends. And Hahoalki seems to be something like a Plato-fanbeing, as the society e established bears a striking resemblance to the one Plato advocated for in the Laws.

As for the direction/sequence of events, it would begin as Wolfram and Maiya switch to a more "expansionist/imperialistic" mindset. This results in a three-way war between them and Hahoalki, with other factions either trying to sabotage the faction that is most in conflict with their ideals, or trying to keep themselves and others out of the crossfire.

Slowly but surely, the focus will switch to the Hunters in the Void for which the RP was named. Most likely, they will act subtly at first. They'll probably only strike overtly when one of the three "npc-powers" is forced to go solipsist (hide in their basement universes and stop bothering this one), but if they get discovered before that, they'll make a big move sooner. So there's a bit of a mystery element to it - how much of the weird behavioral patterns in the population can be attributed to enemy memetic engineering, and how much can be attributed to something more sinister?

Beyond that it is, perhaps unfortunately, somewhat of an open world.

Nation: Central Planning Authority

Will you be making your own faction? (Y/N) N
If so, please give a brief description of its ideology:
If not, which existing faction do you intend to join?: Any faction that likes to party. Hard.
What would your motivations and goals be in this conflict?: Resist The Filter. Survival. Make friends

Tech Level: FFT (but really, I've got a FT mindset )

Will your Nation have a Mind? (Y/N) Y
If so, please give them a name and a brief description of their personality:
Name of Mind: D.O.G.
Created by the Eater civilization to safeguard "space folder" Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror Turned Prisoner Lol bro I don't even have a name for this dude. They are a sentient supercluster.. D.O.G. fucked up and the entropic escapee caused the Eater civilization to self-destruct.

Personality of Mind: Helpful most of the time. Sometimes playful, which is not good coming from a piece of precursor technology without morals.

Does your nation have magic users, psions, or other forms of metaphysical tomfoolery? (Y/N): Y
If so, please give a brief description of the scope and limits of magic/psionics/etc. in your "normal" canon:
Espers are basically psions with mental mutations that can engage in metaphysical tomfoolery using the power of their mind. Psionics is a branch of the CPA tech-tree, and reimburses gaps unobtainable through technology alone. However, there are other transhumanist paths available just as developed as the Psionic branch. They are limited by Interdiction.

Do you agree to follow the rules? (Y/N): Y

Just to make sure that expectations are clear on both sides:

While I hope that we'll all be friends OOC at the end of this RP, I haven't seen anyone with a "Party Faction" yet, though I've got all of 2.5 official applications so far, and I know that at least one more will be coming in at some point.

Speaking of that person, we have a relatively illustrious guest who has expressed interest in taking part, one Ella2 6.

They (she?) have suggested a minor modification to the rules via telegram:

I'll definitely be applying. But just before I do so, I just wanted to make a few comments regarding the autohitting rule. This is just my opinion so feel free to ignore it; I'm fine with the rules as is, I wanted to bring this up.

See, I've discussed the idea of FFT RP with a group of very experienced FT RPers before and we sort of came to the conclusion that when it comes to FFT RP, simply due to the scale of things - what with your trillion/quadrillion/Xrillion battleship fleets or some such - auto hitting actually kind of becomes a necessary part of the experience for logistical reasons.

Now, I don't mean autohitting characters or whatever entities end up having narrative importance. Rather, I'm talking autohitting the equivalent of goons in the army/navy. So your divisions and your ships, essentially. So say your narratively significant character is a distributed War Mind in charge of some Elladrillion battleship fleet. Well the loss of a few million ships isn't that big of a deal. Scaled down, it's basically the same as Player A saying their character kills a random unnamed goon from Player B's army. If your character is a centralised War Mind or a cyborg or baseline admiral, we just treat the flagship as its own character and we don't let other players write damage to the flagship.

Moreover, it gets a bit dull having to precede every combat action you take with something along the lines of 'acknowledging that thousands/millions of ships got destroyed' when that's literally just a drop in the bucket of your fleet power, for example. So it actually works better if the other player can write some losses for you. After all, it's likely more engaging for them to write what is on their side a gain as opposed to what on your side is a loss and it also gives them a chance to describe weapons effects, show off, and also sell their side as a geniune threat.

So basically, TL;DR, because of the scale of the setting, we need to move the goalpost about what counts as a character and what counts as a hit.

I think this is a reasonable suggestion, all the more so because it comes from a serious role player who is almost certainly more experienced than I am.

Ella also brings up a technology that I hadn't considered ahead of time:

How are we handling FTL interdiction and FTL normalisation?

Interdiction being a technology that prevents FTL from occurring in a given volume of space.

Normalisation being an advanced technology that cancels the effect of interdiction.

While I have a vague idea on how these technologies could be handled fairly, I would like input from all participants who have strong feelings on the subject. If opinions unanimously lean one way or another, then I intend to listen to the will of the people.

[Multiversal Venn-Copard]

[...]

I get what you mean here, in particular the note about story progression and the open-world nature of this. Because I don't quite feel comfortable "drifting" in my posts, so to speak, by talking about overall policy changes and such at scales this large (especially not with a nation I create on the fly!), I think it'd be better if I stepped away. Good luck and have fun!

[Ella2 6]

The Ellian Alliance

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Technology
FFT

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The Ellian Alliance is a loose coalition of mind states within the Virgo Void (now colloquially known as the Ellian Void). Its diverse member minds vary greatly in complexity and technological sophistication, ranging from primitive mind hives formed from quadrillions of uploaded mortals to advanced mega minds powered by galaxy-sized Matrioshka brains. The (relatively) few mortals within the Ellian Alliance worship the minds as gods, giving rise to a vast pantheon of immortal machine spirits whom they believe grant the faithful magical abilities (though no such abilities actually exist).

The Ellian Alliance is founded on the core principles of freedom and liberty for all sapient beings (mortal and mindkind) and the protection of those rights and liberties. Membership in the Ellian Alliance is purely voluntary and can be withdrawn at any time. As a result, the borders of the Ellian Alliance can be unstable at times. For this reason, even though the Ellian Alliance provides a unified military framework, many member minds are part of their own separate military alliances. The member minds form the Ellian Assembly which deliberates issues on a national scale.

Elliannia

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Elliannia is the overmind of the Ellian Alliance, a singular consciousness arising from a Matrioshka brain spanning the entirety of the Ellian supergalaxy. 'She' is the only high mind (a mind who has gained transcendent mastery of the physical laws) within the Ellian Alliance, a fact which garners great respect from even the most advanced mega minds of the Ellian Alliance. To the Ellian Alliance's mortal population, Elliannia is regarded as the supreme god of gods.

Elliannia strongly believes that freedom is a basic right for all sapient beings (mortals and mindkind) and is committed to spreading her ideology across the universe. While she recognises that there will come a day when a not-so-benevolent rival mega mind emerges and challenges her authority, she accepts this danger as inevitable and further believes that free minds and mortals will voluntarily choose to resist tyranny. The lack of territorial contiguity of the Ellian Alliance is directly attributed to her policies as minds cannot be forced join or remain (though members will intervene when minds violate the rights of others).

The Republic of Kelthya

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The Republic of Kelthya is the de facto government of the Kelthya Galaxy and the surrounding dwarf galaxies which make up the Kelthyan Cluster. Like the Ellian Alliance, it functions mostly like a political, economic, and military alliance between minds and membership is voluntary. However, unlike the Ellian Alliance, membership is permanent and cannot be withdrawn, though members can be excluded by majority vote, turning them into a rogue mind.

Kelthya is home to many hardcore members of the Ellian Alliance and some of the most prominent and outspoken member minds of the Ellian Assembly. Its diverse population is made up of countless immortal mind hives and several star minds. It is also home to one of the largest mortal and transmortal populations within the Ellian Alliance with millions of world worlds within its jurisdiction. Its minds are considered some of the youngest in the Ellian Alliance with an average age of less than five hundred years; a metric that is heavily skewed by its large mortal population.

Ella-senpaichan

---

Ella-senpaichan is the oldest mind of the Ellian Alliance and the ruler of the Ponytail Galaxy - or as she calls it, "Ellaland". She was originally a mind-uploaded copy of an Ellian admiral created almost a hundred thousand years ago in the early few millennia of Ellian space colonisation to serve as a colony fleet AI. This makes her older than even Elliannia, a fact which few other minds could claim.

To say that she is a little eccentric is to put it lightly: the countless eons have taken a toll on her immortalised mortal mind and eroded away any semblance of sanity she once had. Now a galaxy-spanning mega mind presiding over a million mortal worlds as their guardian, Ella-senpaichan fashions herself as "the Goddess of All Things Cute and Cuddly" and insists that her peers refer to her mortal subjects as part of her "Elladrillions" and her endless legions of multikilometer battleships as "pillows". As a result of her antics, she has a large cult of believers who worship her through elaborate tea party rituals and daily sacrifices of strawberry shortcakes.

[Ella2 6]

How are we handling FTL interdiction and FTL normalisation?

Interdiction being a technology that prevents FTL from occurring in a given volume of space.

Normalisation being an advanced technology that cancels the effect of interdiction.

While I have a vague idea on how these technologies could be handled fairly, I would like input from all participants who have strong feelings on the subject. If opinions unanimously lean one way or another, then I intend to listen to the will of the people.

I support the addition of both, though we do need to hammer out the rules/limits for these technologies to prevent abuse and agree on how they interact with other technology.

Interdiction is important for preventing the abuse of certain FTL tactics - interstellar/intergalactic FTL missiles being a pretty major one and blink warfare (FTLing in, shooting, and immediately FTLing away before retaliatory fire can reach you (or in extreme cases before the enemy can even detect that you were there) - essentially blink and you not only miss it, but you're in fact dead) being the other. Interdiction has to be limited to an appropriate volume of space to prevent the dreaded "hurr durr u need 6 months to get through muh interdicted space".

Normalisation is a more advanced technology and it shouldn't be able to affect nearly as much space as interdiction can. The point of normalisation is to give a degree of counterplay for nations who want to do blink warfare. They just have to blink within a limited volume of space instead of blinking circles around your position. A more mainstream use of normalisation is simply to bring in reinforcements directly onto the battlefield, which sometimes players will understandably want to do.

The way I've seen it handled in some FT circles is that interdiction is relatively widespread tech and you can either give regular ships small generators (usually 1-3 light seconds) or have dedicated ships/stations do larger generators (usually 1-3 light minutes). Normalisation, however, need dedicated ships and can only project a zone of 1-3 light seconds max, if not smaller.

[The Dominion of Mankind]

I'm interested, but not sure if my faction would be too overwhelming or not. If you have a discord, maybe we can discuss?

[Rovaqa]

finally, an FT thread with an original concept and a chance not to suck!

the Rogue Mind known as Wolfram Omega heads the Nootic Network, a hivemind of coercion that (he hopes) will allow him to absorb all lesser minds into himself.

I knew Wolfram Alpha was plotting against us

It is highly recommended that you make a Mind for your nation if you want to participate in this RP, because they are a prerequisite for the aforementioned technological capabilities for the purposes of this RP's canon.

my country is secretly controlled by an incredibly powerful dormant eldritch god who divests a portion of its power into the king, giving him omniscience within a certain radius. does the eldritch god or the king count as an analog for a "Mind"?

Rovaqa is limited to 38 star systems right now because of the aformentioned god's maximum reach, but I guess I could justify involvement in the story by having the imitation cthulu "wake up" to a higher state than it was before. maybe part of Rovaqa's purpose was restoring its powers, and it finally worked.

[Excidium Universalis]

Nation: Excidium Universalis (FFT version of my main nation, Excidium Planetis)

Will you be making your own faction? (Y/N) N
If so, please give a brief description of its ideology:
If not, which existing faction do you intend to join?
The Noocratic faction of Hahoalki.

What would your motivations and goals be in this conflict?
Preservation of Excidium Universalis, elimination of the Wolfram Omega faction

Tech Level:
FFT

Will your Nation have a Mind? (Y/N) Yes
If so, please give them a name and a brief description of their personality:
Radiant Dawn, a superintelligent AI created by an algorithm provided by a previous AI, RADIANCE, and which used a human cyborg as a pattern. While superior in logic and intelligence to her predecessor, Radiant Dawn's basis in a real human mind allowed her to retain empathy for humanity and capacity for emotion. Over the millennia, Radiant Dawn's capabilities were increased through exponential advances in quantum computing and she piloted the expansion of Excidium as a nation into a intergalactic empire of personal freedom, post scarcity, and technological advancement. Where possible, she sought to achieve victory not through the superiority of force, but through the superiority of ideas.

Radiant Dawn is compassionate, but views the sapients she governs as sheep in need of a shepherd. She used democracy as a tool to gain power, but once in power, never let it go. Her forward thinking and vast resources have allowed her to predict and preemptively cut off any possible dissent against her rule, and she has been careful to prevent the creation of any AIs that would challenge her reign.

Does your nation have magic users, psions, or other forms of metaphysical tomfoolery? (Y/N) No
If so, please give a brief description of the scope and limits of magic/psionics/etc. in your "normal" canon:

Do you agree to follow the rules? (Y/N)
Yes

Link to technology factbook (if applicable):
None, I might work on one.
Link to military factbook (if applicable):
None, but this post is fairly close.

[Rovaqa]

R0-0, often called Home Cluster, is a multiverse cluster located near the center of an otherwise sparsely-developed region of R0
[...]
R0-0 is best described as a larger-than-average cluster compressed into a smaller-than-average volume. Containing 1.7 trillion universes and at least 810 billion subspaces
[...]
roughly 17 billion universes have been in some sense "handed off" to smaller polities

*chuckles* I'm in danger!

when I read "fft", I didn't quite realize how far future the tech really was. some of these factions have citizens who could probably breathe too hard and kill everything in Rovaqa.
sounds like fun. I'm in.

[Observation Post 13]

Just to make sure that expectations are clear on both sides:

While I hope that we'll all be friends OOC at the end of this RP, I haven't seen anyone with a "Party Faction" yet, though I've got all of 2.5 official applications so far, and I know that at least one more will be coming in at some point.

Speaking of that person, we have a relatively illustrious guest who has expressed interest in taking part, one Ella2 6.

They (she?) have suggested a minor modification to the rules via telegram:

I think this is a reasonable suggestion, all the more so because it comes from a serious role player who is almost certainly more experienced than I am.

Ella also brings up a technology that I hadn't considered ahead of time:

How are we handling FTL interdiction and FTL normalisation?

Interdiction being a technology that prevents FTL from occurring in a given volume of space.

Normalisation being an advanced technology that cancels the effect of interdiction.

While I have a vague idea on how these technologies could be handled fairly, I would like input from all participants who have strong feelings on the subject. If opinions unanimously lean one way or another, then I intend to listen to the will of the people.

I think these are very reasonable ideas that are fair for everyone. Making FTL battles more like naval battles in space will make things a lot easier for me too XD.

Since we already have plenty of eldritch/cosmic horror elements sprinkled within the current narrative, I propose making Interdiction a widespread phenomenon instead of a device that generates a similar effect. So FTL normalisation would be a required tech to do FTL on a massive scale. And since outfitting FTL Normalisation tech requires dedicated ships, it means smaller FTL-capable fleets instead of swarms.

My biggest fear is uncooperative military RP, but Ella 2 6 also made good points about the auto-hitting policy. I'd say before any massive battles to get consent from all sides and stuff, and get a rough outline of what everyone is gonna do

[Multiversal Venn-Copard]

...Excidium Universalis?! That's a name I haven't heard in a while!

R0-0, often called Home Cluster, is a multiverse cluster located near the center of an otherwise sparsely-developed region of R0
[...]
R0-0 is best described as a larger-than-average cluster compressed into a smaller-than-average volume. Containing 1.7 trillion universes and at least 810 billion subspaces
[...]
roughly 17 billion universes have been in some sense "handed off" to smaller polities

*chuckles* I'm in danger!

when I read "fft", I didn't quite realize how far future the tech really was. some of these factions have citizens who could probably breathe too hard and kill everything in Rovaqa.
sounds like fun. I'm in.

Hey, you actually went and read my wiki! Nice! Don't worry, though, I am not participating in this one. (The intended scope is much smaller than one full universe, it appears.) I probably should stop posting, just, uh, felt the need to clarify.

[Elysian Treaty Organization]

This is pretty interesting!

Its tempting to shrug off the binds and go full-scale with the Black Fleet, but there are a couple of balancing problems I'm leery of, namely the fact that the entirety of the Ancient Caste resides outside of spacetime entirely and thus wouldn't really...suffer from having its realspace assets destroyed.

It does have Ports, Lighthouses, etc that are needed to transit between Void and conventional spacetime, but these are unfortunately of the conundrum of being small-the Ancients don't really do megastructures and thus a lot of their Ports/Gateways tend to be sub-planetary, with the largest being more like ecumenopoli.

If you agree that they might not be suited to this RP I can always draft something else up, have a few ideas bouncing around.

We should probably discuss both your nation and what the alternative ideas are over Discord, as I'm not too clear on the actual capabilities of the Ancient Caste at the moment.

Nation: Elysian Treaty Organization

Will you be making your own faction? (Y/N) Y - Non-Aligned Pact, to be founded after the mind is repaired
If so, please give a brief description of its ideology: Space Switzerland. Heavy inspiration taken from the NAM of the Cold War.
If not, which existing faction do you intend to join?: N/A
What would your motivations and goals be in this conflict? Survival, and ensuring the neutrality of the ETO.

Tech Level: FT, with a bit of Magitech and Schizotech sprinkled in.

Will your Nation have a Mind? (Y/N): Y
If so, please give them a name and a brief description of their personality: Tanager 2-4-8 is the oldest and first intelligent AI developed by the ETO. Initially developed as a research project, Tanager 2-4-8 would eventually gain full sentience after five years of active development.

His personality is extremely sterile. The mind is blunt and straight to the point - but is starting to malfunction after finishing tireless research into the origins of the universe and great filters. Random mental breaks are starting to occur.

A new mind must be found, whatever the cost.

Does your nation have magic users, psions, or other forms of metaphysical tomfoolery? (Y/N): Y
If so, please give a brief description of the scope and limits of magic/psionics/etc. in your "normal" canon: It's interesting. Mind-control and other shenagians exist - along with literal reality breakers, but countermeasures are now standard on every ship and person, turning the once powerful world of magic into a utter and complete joke. Magitech is used among the fleet - missiles benefit from combination Magical-Fusion thrusters, while strategic weapons such as neutronium bombs suspend themselves within a magical field - ensuring that the bomb can be moved, despite the high mass of neutronium.

Do you agree to follow the rules? (Y/N): Y

Link to technology factbook (if applicable): NaN - see above. Standard hardish FT nation that makes use of torch fusion engines with anti-matter mixed in. Nanites, quantum computers, slower terraforming methods, efficient anti-matter extraction and neutronium extraction are common within the ETO. FTL drives are also commonplace, with top-of-the line FTL drives operating at a speed of 380 LY/d.
Link to military factbook (if applicable): Right, this is where things get interesting. Most of my military stuff are on off-site documents. For this RP, the Elysian Navy will operate off of a basic defense-in-depth plan, using FTL weapons to parry and harass incoming ships and attack logistics lines while the main fleet pulls back to strategically important areas.

Missiles are the king of battle. Missile types vary, ranging from tandem Anti-matter warheads to missile mounted KKVs. Two outliers exist - a neutronium ISBM designed to kill entire fleets with FTL pumped lasers, and a nanite based missile - each nanite holds a single grain of antimatter.

There are some things I would like to bring to your attention before I approve your application in its current form. Ordinarily, people get leery of nations that are too powerful. In this case, I'm worried that your nation, as it stands, is too weak.

A proper Mind (which is what I hope Tanager 2-4-8's successor will be) is capable of far more than your present system. Minds allow for extreme gravitic/spatiotemporal manipulation. Broken symmetries from such manipulation allow the Minds to defy conservation of energy and momentum (this actually follows from something called Noether's Theorem). And then there's the whole "hacking the universe" by abusing field effectors thing.

Second, if you keep the 380 ly/day limit on your FTL drives, you're going to have issues with strategic and operational mobility. This isn't an RP confined to a single galaxy. As befits a true FFT RP, a considerable portion of the observable universe is in play - roughly 2 billion light years across. Typically, you're going to want something that can manage at least a billion times the speed of light (which lets you traverse that distance in two years, as opposed to the 14,400-ish it would currently take).

Of course, given the goals and defensive posture you've described, a proper wormhole network would effectively make your slow FTL speed a non-issue. Over the hundred thousand years prior to the beginning of the RP, your civilization would have been able to send out linelayers throughout the region, and you'd be bound to have terminals at or near most strategic locations.

I would like to give you the opportunity to factor in these considerations, and edit your application accordingly.

Don't get me wrong, you'll be accepted if you still want to join. I just want to make sure that you're ready for what you're getting into, and have the IC resources to have a meaningful influence on the story's dorection.

Frankly, that's the point. I think it'd be much more interesting if the ETO had to claw their way up to becoming a minor or major power without starting off with ship-printers and all that - having to find the technology and resources would be much more interesting than starting off with them.

Of course, this needs anti-invasion mcguffins. I think the current tech-level of the ETO would make them pretty unnoticeable on the greater universal stage - meaning that they could grab resources and tech without much interference.

Would it be possible to place multiple derelicts, wrecked battlefields and other such things within the territory of the ETO? It would allow for some pretty fast advancement - especially once a proper mind is created. Speaking about minds, how does one create one?

[The Ancient Caste]

Nation: OOC/ The Ancient Caste, IC/ Ukaioghe Core

Will you be making your own faction? (Y/N) Y
If so, please give a brief description of its ideology: The Ukaioghe Core is a Birch World whose inhabitants are sealed off from the rest of the universe and are, to an extent, ignorant of its nature. The overseeing Mind endeavors to preserve this status quo and is neutral in intergalactic affairs, only emerging from its den to gather mass-energy and information before retreating back behind the lightyears-thick barriers of its home.
If not, which existing faction do you intend to join? N/A
What would your motivations and goals be in this conflict? Ukaioghe's routine emergence for mass-energy-information harvests has alerted it to the worsening astropolitical stage. Currently, the Mind is neutral on the matter and its diminutive-yet-impregnable nature has kept other polities from making moves, but Ukaioghe is mobilizing long-dormant assets in preparation for a potential siege by any of the great powers, especially the Nootics and Vale, who might seek to breach its shell and conquer the sentients under its care.

Tech Level: FFT

Will your Nation have a Mind? (Y/N) Yes
If so, please give them a name and a brief description of their personality: Ukaioghe is the overseeing Mind of the Ukaioghe Core. Due to its condensed nature as one continuous structure, Ukaioghe benefits from a unique lack of requirement of Avatars, as technically the entire Birch World constitutes it. Ideologically, Ukaioghe is relatively neutral, only caring for those within it. It is hospitable to outsiders, but does not permit entry below the outer layers, and expresses disdain at less "elegant" caretaker Minds such as Maiya, and outright hostility to more coercive, assimilationist polities such as Wolfram Omega, although its small size has kept it out of the eyes of both of them. Until now, at least.

Does your nation have magic users, psions, or other forms of metaphysical tomfoolery? (Y/N) N
If so, please give a brief description of the scope and limits of magic/psionics/etc. in your "normal" canon: N/A

Do you agree to follow the rules? (Y/N) Y

Link to technology factbook (if applicable): N/A for now, will throw something up in the future
Link to military factbook (if applicable): N/A for now, will throw something up in the future

[Hahoalki]

...

Accepted!

I'm interested, but not sure if my faction would be too overwhelming or not. If you have a discord, maybe we can discuss?

I think that would be a good idea, though it'll take me a couple of days to make the server.

It is highly recommended that you make a Mind for your nation if you want to participate in this RP, because they are a prerequisite for the aforementioned technological capabilities for the purposes of this RP's canon.

my country is secretly controlled by an incredibly powerful dormant eldritch god who divests a portion of its power into the king, giving him omniscience within a certain radius. does the eldritch god or the king count as an analog for a "Mind"?

Honestly, it depends on the "level" of omniscience, and I'd need to know more about the "alignment" of the Eldritch entity to be sure.

Rovaqa is limited to 38 star systems right now because of the aformentioned god's maximum reach, but I guess I could justify involvement in the story by having the imitation cthulu "wake up" to a higher state than it was before. maybe part of Rovaqa's purpose was restoring its powers, and it finally worked.

That could work.

...

Accepted.

We should probably discuss both your nation and what the alternative ideas are over Discord, as I'm not too clear on the actual capabilities of the Ancient Caste at the moment.




There are some things I would like to bring to your attention before I approve your application in its current form. Ordinarily, people get leery of nations that are too powerful. In this case, I'm worried that your nation, as it stands, is too weak.

A proper Mind (which is what I hope Tanager 2-4-8's successor will be) is capable of far more than your present system. Minds allow for extreme gravitic/spatiotemporal manipulation. Broken symmetries from such manipulation allow the Minds to defy conservation of energy and momentum (this actually follows from something called Noether's Theorem). And then there's the whole "hacking the universe" by abusing field effectors thing.

Second, if you keep the 380 ly/day limit on your FTL drives, you're going to have issues with strategic and operational mobility. This isn't an RP confined to a single galaxy. As befits a true FFT RP, a considerable portion of the observable universe is in play - roughly 2 billion light years across. Typically, you're going to want something that can manage at least a billion times the speed of light (which lets you traverse that distance in two years, as opposed to the 14,400-ish it would currently take).

Of course, given the goals and defensive posture you've described, a proper wormhole network would effectively make your slow FTL speed a non-issue. Over the hundred thousand years prior to the beginning of the RP, your civilization would have been able to send out linelayers throughout the region, and you'd be bound to have terminals at or near most strategic locations.

I would like to give you the opportunity to factor in these considerations, and edit your application accordingly.

Don't get me wrong, you'll be accepted if you still want to join. I just want to make sure that you're ready for what you're getting into, and have the IC resources to have a meaningful influence on the story's dorection.

Frankly, that's the point. I think it'd be much more interesting if the ETO had to claw their way up to becoming a minor or major power without starting off with ship-printers and all that - having to find the technology and resources would be much more interesting than starting off with them.

Of course, this needs anti-invasion mcguffins. I think the current tech-level of the ETO would make them pretty unnoticeable on the greater universal stage - meaning that they could grab resources and tech without much interference.

Would it be possible to place multiple derelicts, wrecked battlefields and other such things within the territory of the ETO? It would allow for some pretty fast advancement - especially once a proper mind is created. Speaking about minds, how does one create one?

Since I basically control two of the major combatants, we could say that they met in a region of intergalactic space close enough to your power base for you to access in a reasonable time frame, though I'm sure your people will find it unnerving to have the intergalactic hyperpowers at your door.

As for how you make one, it typically starts with something akin to a matrioshka brain designed to optimize its own problem-solving performance.

...

Accepted.

----------

Re: auto-hitting - since most combat will be between large fleets, I'm of the opinion that some level of "auto-hits" should be allowed, but the target player gets to say what percentage of the fleet is eliminated. Major characters and flagships (or, in my case, communication hubs) cannot be auto-hit. Does anyone have objections to this compromise?

Re: FTL Interdiction and Normalization - I think I have a way to make this work. Stationary Interdiction Systems disrupt FTL within up to a light day, while fleet-based ones are restricted to something more like a light minute. Normalization is possible, but hit-or miss. This is where one of the Maccabees' guides I read while preparing for this comes in.

When attempting to perform an FTL attack with a fleet of units, we roll a d100 on Discord (I'm sure I can find a bot for that). Then, results are based on the following table:

01-25 - the attempt at Normalization fails
26-50 - 10% of the attacking fleet/munitions get through
51-75 - 25% of the attacking fleet/munitions get through
76-90 - 50% of the attacking fleet/munitions get through
91-99 - 75% of the attacking fleet/munitions get through
00 - 100% of the attacking fleet/munitions get through

If you want to "pop in, fire, pop out," you have to roll twice - once to get in, and once to get out. If you use FTL munitions/weapons, you have to roll three times - once to get into range, once to see how many FTL weapons actually get where they're supposed to go, and once to get out.

For a single ship, you only manage to normalize on a 01-24 (that's what the average probabilities for a single ship work out to - a 24% chance of success).

Now, maybe introducing the dice-rolling makes things more complicated than they need to be. But war has some level of randomness in it, and this could make things more interesting. We could also use a similar system for determining whether major characters/flagship-equivalents get hurt when attacks occur.

Once again, though, I want some feedback on these ideas.

[The Ancient Caste]

Snip

This sounds good, although I'm always a bit leery of FTLi for potential roadbumps in RP. You seem to have a good enough system tho so I don't really see a problem.
I'm assuming this discord will be posted here whenever you set it up?

[Rovaqa]

my country is secretly controlled by an incredibly powerful dormant eldritch god who divests a portion of its power into the king, giving him omniscience within a certain radius. does the eldritch god or the king count as an analog for a "Mind"?

Honestly, it depends on the "level" of omniscience

I'm writing more about this on my application, but since the being's powers are focused around psychic powers, this "omniscience" mostly applies to sentient and especially conscious beings. these presences can be felt, and their emotions can be sensed. some level of mind reading is possible with enough focus, but it's harder the more complex and alien the mind is.

, and I'd need to know more about the "alignment" of the Eldritch entity to be sure.

the entity is aligned to itself; what it does, it does out of self-preservation and a desire for power.

Rovaqa is limited to 38 star systems right now because of the aformentioned god's maximum reach, but I guess I could justify involvement in the story by having the imitation cthulu "wake up" to a higher state than it was before. maybe part of Rovaqa's purpose was restoring its powers, and it finally worked.

That could work.

okay, maybe I'll open with an intro post set x years in the past detailing this start.

Re: auto-hitting - since most combat will be between large fleets, I'm of the opinion that some level of "auto-hits" should be allowed, but the target player gets to say what percentage of the fleet is eliminated. Major characters and flagships (or, in my case, communication hubs) cannot be auto-hit. Does anyone have objections to this compromise?

sounds good to me.

question: will this be on the forums or just discord?