Discussion

[Zuko Darkborn]

(By the way, we should have a discussion subforum or rename "maps" to "discussion and maps".)

When I created this RP, I didn't really believe it would be the only galaxy. As that seems be the current situation, I thought I'd about the current rules and setup.
To start of, the reason behind the setup and such. At the same time as wanting something Stellaris-like to RP, I wanted to do something that is hard to do in the game itself, at least in the base game. This is why the setting is different and such. Also, if there were several campaigns going on at the same time, I short of wanted one where everyone started at the same footing. This was why I made the rules I did.

However, things didn't go as expected. We ended up with only a single campaign, and with only a few players at the start. Things went unbalanced due to this. At one point, there was only a single empire which were military focused. Almost everyone had the highest technological empire level, making it kind of redundant. I do however think it could be even worse with fallen empires and such, especially considering the few players. A sole watchful fallen empire could be a thing, or if even two did it, that would be a very large percentage, making it possible for even less stuff.

My first question is, what should be changed in the rules? To start of with, the 3-planet rule was meant to be the players at the start. New players who are met as we explore outwards should not be far behind if they do not want it. Do you think a base rule should be made to make up for this (3 + 1 per day?), should it rather be based on the current player's planets, or should it more free? Also, if you want, I'm willing to make some of less strict.

The second is, should there be systems in place for development and such? I have avoided these, as I think making stuff unnecessarily complex can cause this to fall, but we could have some overarching things in place.

Also, I think the 15 point system (Military, Economic, Technological, Diplomatic, Cultural) should be clearly defined. Following the similarities between states, I think we at least in this RP should make them about the focus and power in regards to each other in a nation. The power of the nation should separate. It should also be somewhat changeable. (But not so quickly you can go from 1 to 4 instantly).

For example, a nation with:
3 Military,
5 Economy,
2 Technology,
4 Diplomacy, and
1 Culture.
And it is strong power.
This would mean that what defines the power in the empire is its economy and diplomacy. Culturally and Technologically, however, it is more of a medium power.

But then you have:
5 Military,
3 Economy,
5 Technology,
1 Diplomacy,
1 Culture.
But it is a weak power.
This nation, while having a much higher technology stat, is after all, a small power. This would mean while they are weak, their military and technology is not that bad, but not to the level of beating the greater one. Of course, it would have no diplomatic ties or possibility, and their culture would be unknown to most others, in addition to being underdeveloped.

[Mthis]

So far in my own opinion i have enjoyed myself with the current system. But i will eagerly go along with whatever makes the best Role Play experience to be fair.

[Zuko Darkborn]

I must say I do not really want much change myself, but I think to formalize the point system we already kind of use is better.

[Mthis]

Very well, ill go on with whatever you plan to make it.

[Skozzy]

Do we change the point count depending on what we do or not?

[Zuko Darkborn]

No, you always have up to 15 points, but if you get more powerful, they amount to more. For example, a 5 military small nation might have a military to combat a 3 military medium nation.

[Vagrant Hero]

I think the three planet rule is fair, and there will still be the players who, like myself, purposefully disadvantage themselves in order to achieve specific role playing aims. As new players join in, they will effectively be new to young civilizations joining the galactic community, and it makes sense that they won't be as strong as the ones who have spent more time amongst the stars.

I don't think there should be systems for development per se, but rather be subject to moderator approval according to what they feel is reasonable for the specific civilization and context.

A clearer definition for what each of the categories mean, especially for diplomacy and culture, would be beneficial.

[The Clans]

I'm happy with any system that lets me XCOM everyone else's shiny tech, but that's not very good feedback, is it? Maybe there should be a three tier system where the lowest startups, like me and Vagrant, are at tier 1, established empires at tier 2, and perhaps fallen empires or unbelievably powerful empires at tier 3, all the while keeping the point system as a way of seeing what our empires put the most emphasis in.

[Joe Joerson]

If one were to create a new system I would be happy to move it into the guidelines if it was appropriate as an alternative general system.

I would also like to point out that there is a advice to new players section existent on this forum. I am starting question it's placement as it's activity has been less than maximal.

I am always open to questions and suggestions, maybe a section should be there for the latter...

[Zuko Darkborn]

Well, there isn't much activity here in general... Systems are most useful if there is a lot of players roleplaying. With only a few, we can mostly come to agreements.

[Joe Joerson]

Yes, however I am stating that if one did create such a system I would give "official" (whatever that means in this context) support.

[The Clans]

I prefer rules to no rules. Freeform is completely lost on me anymore. I make my characters in some kind of RPG system before I even bring them into a freeform RP. Right now I'm doing a self imposed 3 behind the scenes actions a week.

EDIT: I just realized that's in the guidelines anyway.

[Zuko Darkborn]

What about this:

1-10 values in the following values:
Military (Navy and Army)
Economy (Minerals and Energy)
Technology
Stability (Happiness and Influence)
Culture (+ religion)

1 = minuscule power
2-3 = small power
4-6 = medium power
7-8 = great power
9    = fallen empire-level, or massive power
10  = galactic threat (basically, NEVER)

Everyone can choose their amount of points regardless of balance, but never cross 6 at the start. Each week perhaps, they can increase one of the values by 1, to a maximum of 8 unless they have a reason for it to be higher. At the other hand, they can spend 1 point to gain 2 points to spend.

As an example, the Domain of the Kreazi:
Military 5 + 1 = 6
Economy 4 - 1 = 3
Technology 6 + 1 = 7
Stability 6
Culture 5
The Domain spends a large part of its economic capabilites to support a larger fleet, in addition to using its net gain to seek technological progress to fight the Asornuais.

On the other hand, the Kingdom of the Viur:
Military: 3 + 1 = 4
Economy: 2
Technology: 2
Stability: 2 - 1
Culture: 2 + 1 = 3
The Kingdom attempts to build their navy for a future Domain invasion. However, their attempts at bringing back their pre-Domain culture is met with uprisings in their already unstable nation.

[Vagrant Hero]

I am still confused as to what Culture really means in this setting. I'd recommend either defining it more clearly, or perhaps simply getting rid of/replacing it with a different category.

[The Clans]

I think of Culture as "How much like Hollywood are you?" shows how appealing and easily presentable their architecture, customs, and physical media is to the outside world AND a representation of your empire's cultural identity. Think of the Culture victories in Gal Civ and Civilization (Sidenote, I like how in Gal aciv 2 you can build deep space stations whose purpose is to provide free entertainment to other empires so their planets flip to being yours) The Yuxu are a ticking time bomb of media blitz once the galaxy learns that the concept of "the hero's journey" isn't in their cultural psyche and that most, if not all of their stories focus on many interconnected characters that have no plot armor. Game of Thrones is their standard. Not only are they invading your planets, they're invading your view screens and holoprojectors.

[Joe Joerson]

I would have to agree on culture here and it's definition. (Agree about Gal Civ 2 as well, 3 was a bit of a let down, but probably will improve, will check out later maybe.)

Though may not agree about entire Galactic media blitz. I mean the Kha'ni do have entire circles of people constantly making variations on stories and events. As one of the few entertainments around. Might be a bit hard to follow all variations but if one were to isolate some of the variations they could have certainly interesting stories. As well the Kha'ni might be a little reluctant to allow foreign media of such as it is similar to the Apostate. And alien civilizations are on semi-shaky ground any way as they do not share the faith and its ideals...

[The Clans]

I thought the Kha'ni loved other cultures for the different stories, but just hated to leave the homeworld? Or am I thinking of someone else?

[Joe Joerson]

You are thinking of the correct people. However, many types of media are not used.

For example their holographic project-boards (Tchick'ah boards) are not commonly used outside governmental and official purposes. When they are used they often either educations or to show a well know representation. As the Kha'ni faith embraces a form of asceticism concerning electronics and higher technology, at least when used for means not closely linked to the Search. This may have some detrimental effects to their technological progress however.

So unless the Yuxu would send story tellers en mass, it is unlikely they could significantly affect a significant portion of the population. As well while the general populace may love the new, religious leaders and the fairly authoritarian government may take a different view, especially concerning the traditional nature of their society.

[The Clans]

It's going to be fun setting up an embassy with them.

[Vagrant Hero]

This definition for culture is satisfactory. Will keep it in mind if there is ever a revision for points expenditure. Previously, I thought culture could perhaps tie into stability. For example, if the "culture" of your Space Roman Empire has a tradition of Generals overthrowing the people in charge and crowning themselves Emperor, it would follow that the Empire is less (more? lol) stable as a result.

[Zuko Darkborn]

A low stability high culture country can for example have a loosely unified empire where local cultures has far more focus than loyalty to the nation.

A high stability low culture country can be a country where rules bind the populace, and denounce spiritual and cultural trends.

A high stability high culture country would have loyalty or happiness deeply ingrained in the rich culture.

[Offizier Necro]

Hello everyone! This is my first post here. I'm friends with Theclans, which is how I got here. I'm very comfortable with character-based roleplays, but going back to a larger-scale roleplay should be an interesting experiment in my abilities.

Anyways, I plan on playing as a collapsed human colony that lost all of its technology and "went primitive", and has worked its way back up to 1940's-ish technology. I'm still hammering out a few details, such as if they find an ancient crashed ship or a pre-collapse library that they figure out some technology from (e.g. FTL communication or even travel) in order to participate with other player empires, but I've got the majority of the history, government, traits, important figures, and so on figured out. Their government will be an Indirect Democracy founded upon the principles of Fanatic Individualism and probably Materialism, to the chagrin of the supporters of the regime it bloodily overthrew and the majority of the planet with otherwise differing Ethos.

I couldn't find an official form, so I just copied (and slightly modified) the form from a random empire in the empire list. Is this all correct? Just want to make sure I don't fill out a form I shouldn't be filling out.

Application Form:

[Zuko Darkborn]

Welcome, hopefully this should bring some progress! As long as you include the necessary information, the form of the species is not important, so yours is fine.

I am the Kreazi Domain, although I also roleplay through the Kingdom of the Viur (domain rebels), the Asurnaois (a galactic disaster that kills all life on planets), and some guild of scavengers. The current Kreazi capital is Earth (progress!), so things might be a bit confusing (you were humans on a colony planet, right?)

[Offizier Necro]

Welcome, hopefully this should bring some progress! As long as you include the necessary information, the form of the species is not important, so yours is fine.

Alright, thanks. I look forward to throwing a dusty bowler hat into the adamantium ring.

I am the Kreazi Domain, although I also roleplay through the Kingdom of the Viur (domain rebels), the Asurnaois (a galactic disaster that kills all life on planets), and some guild of scavengers. The current Kreazi capital is Earth (progress!), so things might be a bit confusing (you were humans on a colony planet, right?)

I haven't looked through all of the empires yet, only two or three random posts in the empire list and then one of Joe and Theclans's threads, so I didn't see that you already had Earth. However, I don't think this will be a problem as the destruction of the galaxies empires (and also the Earth, according to what's in https://stellarisroleplay.rpg-board.net/t27-domain-worlds-updated) happened thousands of years ago, it is still in line with my current canon of the mining colony falling apart thousands of years ago and having to work its way back up to industrial civilization all the way from sticks and pointy rocks.

That is, unless, Earth was destroyed before humans ever got to see interstellar flight, such as nuking itself into oblivion or having an alien invasion go bad. Right now it doesn't sound like that's the case because of Mars being a junkyard (and thus having people to fly to it and make it a junkyard), so I think I should be fine. The people of my world don't remember interstellar flight and only have tales of people flying across the heavens in ancient pagan myths that nobody believes anymore, so it's not like the details of Earth's downfall are very important as long as there were some humans that managed to reach the stars, even if only through a generation ship.


EDIT: Also, unrelated, but is my avatar okay? Not sure if gifs are considered annoying or if my avatar is too big for other people's screens.

[Zuko Darkborn]

About the Earth thing:

One of the themes of this RP galaxy is that there was an "Apocalypse" thousands of years ago, and the galaxy has yet to recover, resulting in the large amount of tomb worlds. Most of the RPers are some manner of upstarts that achieved spaceflight recently.

The apocalypse itself was a mixture of several highly threatening crises happening in a period of around 80 years.

According to the lore of Earth, the planet was actually destroyed at some point, either during or before the Apocalypse, but highly advanced terraforming machines have recreated it, making it after 1000s of years somewhat of a Gaia world. Then the Kreazi colonized it. Use this however you want, there is many plot holes to fill by your own lore.

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