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Oh, and could I make a few changes to it? I don't think they'll be too much. The main one is changing it so that not all worlds sign it. It's just one pact. There are others, but Fortinbras is by far the largest. And I think requests to join the pact could potentially be rejected, and a few planets might wish to remain completely neutral, etc..

That's fine, RPG is of course perfectly alterable by you. However, small pacts will be snapped up quickly by larger governments (likely thought.)

Mercinim Empire:
Government: Feudal
Military: Very Large
Population: Alot
Size: 349 star systems

The Mercinim 'Empire' is not really one unified force at all - just a bunch of governors who are intimidated by the Chakroy/Umahohy/Bandiyardnay alliance. The so-called 'Imperial Council' directs their operations. It is not uncommon to see about 5 civil wars in progression at once; as soon as they withdraw their ships to fight another major power, the home front almost always collapses and they are forced to retreat. This is the main reason why have they not tried to expand in the last century. In the past, the Mercinim warlords/Empire have fought all major powers except the Greys and Ruby Rays. The population is used to bloody revolutions, and even bloodier retributions.

A high level of autonomy has given each sector a great deal of potential in regards to trade. So a government may have multiple trade agreements with many different sectors of the empire, unbenknownst to the Imperial Council. Mercinim colonies often trade with each other.

Ships: Mercinim ships make use almost exclusively of laser technology. Their science has steered themselves in this direction; their ships use anti-matter drives and greenies/burners. Mercinim ships are very small, since they are so used to fighting each other, they focus mainly on inception fields. This is not necessary against conventional missiles. They have strong jammers against conventional missiles, but are always at a disadvantage should they be used. Eventually, Umohoy hopes to develop an impenetrable physical shield which will render their ships impervious to this weakpoint.

Lasers: 2 weapons. Greenies and Burners. Greenies create a 'parting' beam which focused on matter, seperates the particles it is force on, unlike conventional lasers. Any physical matter is susceptible, but with a blackhole, the process would take eons. Burners power requirements come from a super-intense artificial nullification field that houses a fusion explosion inside the Burner. When released a certain way, the entire spectrum in front of it releases a fusion explosion. If the energy containment should fail, then the explosion will occur inside the weapon.

Ships: Mercinim ships are small, the largest 21 metres long. A decription is probably unnecessary, however it is enjoyable.

Inception Fighter: Crew 1
Inception Rating: 78% Weapons: 2 greenies
This is a small unpowered fighter that refuels at an NLC-Cruiser. It is composed almost entirely of an armoured shell (1 half-saucer) and situated under a vulnerable cockpilot position. It can pick up thrust easily and is manouevrable, it is not a threat unless in groups.

Inception Cruiser: Crew 1
Inception Rating: 89% Weapons: 2 greenies
This ship is built, specially to get an extremely high inception rating - easiest on smaller ships. So, this is no bigger than a large fighter. It comes with no warp, and is used mainly for defending Mercinim. Rumours of, if the craft is successful, that construction of a carrier may take place. Mediocre in everything else.

NLC Light Frigate: Crew 1
Inception Rating: 70% Weapons: 6 greenies
The most numerous ship in a fleet, it is fast and manouevrable. Able to hit tach at high speeds as well, thus making a hit-run more possible. Not the strongest ship, and the Non-Star (who specialise in missiles) war between the Mercinim used it to great advantage, decimating the former NLC Frigate fleet.

X Destroyer-Frigate NLC: Crew 2
Inception Rating: 39% Weapons: 14 greenies, 1 Burner
A huge reactor and wingspan, this ship makes a focused inception field almost impossible. It's reactor has enough power to fire all it's weapons consistently. Used far away from the action, quite vulnerable to enemy fire.

NLC Cruiser: Crew 5
Inception Rating: 60% Weapons: 6 greenies, 3 burners
The classic Mercinim ship. This is the ship that kids take home when they want to join the Mercinim navy. Not the best inception-punching ship, it possesses the greatest firepower. While 3 burners would seem an inconsiderate number considering the power requirements, alot of the time, burners are often ruined after a successful discharge. This ship is designed to keep fighting in the face of disaster. Carries an Inception fighter atop the engine fuselage.

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

Fortinbras Pact:
Government: Representative Councils
Military: Large, Mobile, Disorganized
Population: Large Sums of
Size: Huge

Ships: Each planet tends to have its own ship design, and generally makes only one kind of ship, to limit the insane amount of types of ships to some extent. When a remarkably good design comes along, multiple planets may well begin constructing it, but the planet that invented it gets the credit. When a new kind of ship is needed to be built (like a new niche is open, and needs to be filled), the first planet to volunteer for the development and construction usually gets it. Many mercenaries are also employed by the pact, and many captains are given instructions to modify their ship as they see fit. The huge variety in Fortinbras ships makes pre-planning and such by their enemies a difficult thing, as it's hard for them to be sure what to expect. And it takes their enemies a while during battles to get used to what each kind of Fortinbras ship present does what.

Trade: Trade is very heavy throughout the Fortinbras Pact, although the pact doesn't try to take advantage of it on a large-scale basis. Each individual planet takes its own stance towards trade. There have been a few trading stations constructed by groups of planets, with the revenue produced by the station split between the planet in a ratio according to whatever agreement the participating planets made.

Government: There is a council consisting of representatives from all of the planets in the Fortinbras Pact (1 rep per planet), and it governs the general rules and such of the pact. Generally, if something happens, 1 of the standby reps of each planet involved get together and make decisions and such. If some sort of argument and such occurs between multiple planets within the pact, arbiters, in the form of 1 representative from each of x random planets unafilliated with the planets involved, were x is the number of planets involved, investigate, then meet and make a decision.

Military: There is a small defense battlegroup stationed at each planet in the pact (under complete control of that planet), with more battlegroups stationed at various stations that are not in solar systems and whose locations are kept tight secrets. The stations are regularly abandoned for short periods of time if they are in a location where no military forces are needed. This way, the fleets of the pact can be moved to wherever they're needed, and supplied when they are there. Supply depots are also much like the stations, except that they are rarely abandoned. The decisions of the military work just like any other government, where people who wish to join the military can join the military, and if their superiors see potential in them, they get promoted, and etc.. The Fortinbras Pact is so huge that, despite its large military, the military is actually not as effective as you'd think, as it can't be organized enough to keep up with the sheer size.

Pirates: Due to the relatively loose organization, many pirates make raids into Fortinbras space. Many small battlegroups are trained to hunt pirates, following the trail of pirate fleets and taking the pirates down. Many spies are sent to infiltrate the pirate ranks and find their hiding spots, as well as find out when raids will happen. All of this is only moderately successful. The big council thingy of the pact has decided that pirates may do raids, so long as they don't do it in Fortinbras space, so they do nothing to stop pirate raids in other groups' space, unless the pirates had been raiding in Fortinbras space or better relations are needed with another group or something along those lines.

Income: It widely varies from planet to planet. Trade is often used between groups of planets, and many planets are also known to use ships from their own defense battlegroups to do raids outside of Fortinbras Pact space, which is essentially piracy. Few enough planets do it, however, that other groups generally don't do much, maybe a warning or two each once in a while.

Any planets that wish to join the pact make a request to do so. Then, a group of standby reps from 7 random planets comes and investigates the planet, then makes a decision. Terms are agreed on and such, although they rarely entail much of importance, besides agreement to produce ships and give some of the planet's resources to the military/government.

FNS (Fortinbras Naval Ship) Rabid Elephant:

Basic Stats:
Crew: 4 Inception Rating: 37% Weapons: 2 Nova Missile Pods, 1 Greeny Turret

Basic Info:
The Rabid Elephant was constructed on Janus VI, where the shipbuilders are known for both their strong senses of humor and their abilities to construct the smaller, faster ships. The Rabid Elephant reflects its home very well. Mag is one of the captains that has been urged to custom refit his ship, and he's also been assigned as one of the pact's pirates.

Defenses:
The Rabid Elephant has very poor shielding, due to Mag wanting more space for weapons, and the fact that the weaker the shields, the harder they are to detect. It has decent armor. It's also been designed to be very stealthy, with its armor made out of good stealth plating, and special engines that don't emit much radiation or exhaust. The stealth allows it to sneak up close to its enemies before it is noticed, at least when it's working alone.

Weaponry:
2 Nova Missile Pods. This is its main armament. Nova missiles are small and accurate, but low damage, and each pod holds 180 of them. The pods can fire twelve at a time, although they don't have to fire all twelve at once, and Mag usually prefers to simply fire them incredibly rapidly, as opposed to unrapid salvoes of 24. He generally settles for salvoes of six or so. the Rabid Elephant also has a greeny turret, for when the missiles run out, or if fighters come in from other directions than simply straight ahead. The turret has two greenies on it, so it's not really enough to do much, so Mag tries to use the missiles as sparingly as possible.

Classification/Uses:
The Rabid Elephant's classification falls somewhere between missile frigate and stealth gunboat. It's often used for scouting missions and piracy. It's proven itself effective enough that the designs have been given to a planet named Argothia, in the Otmi system, which has begun constructing them. With the Non-Star League and the Mercinim Empire preparing to duke it out across a strip of Fortinbras Space, many of them have been assigned along the strip, to get intel on the war, and to keep the ships from both sides from going outside of the window that was granted to them.

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"Vampiric chickens are spiffy. Bak bak bak ARRR!"

(This message has been edited by Mag Steelglass (edited 05-19-2002).)

Since I'm not going to be playing the Arc Pluris, I think I'm going to try for something real different... Ruby Rays. Unfortunately, they seem to be the kind of isolationists that wouldn't participate in anything. Therefore, any suggestions/actions towards working them in are requested. Even better would be a map, but that might be a little too much work

Ruby Rays/Iettano:
Government: None
Military: Horrible. But numerous and psionically enhanced
Size: 119 Systems
Average Pop: 2.5 billion

So, what I've established in discussion with myself is that before battle, their religion demands that they ingest a form of hallucinogen. As a side effect of the hallucinogen, they gain some measure of psionic power, which constitutes their only real defence. In sustained battles, the hallucinogen may wear off, which cripples the fleet.

Note: Under the influence, no "extra" objects will appear, but all spacecraft will seem different. The name "Ruby Ray" is due to a captured Ray's description of his ship as one. O-Force operatives have since determined that the Rays use these hallucinogens, and that they call themselves Iettano (ee-eth-AN-oh*), "The Wayward," but the name has stuck.

Ray ships are actually fairly bad in comparison to most ships in the more central regions. Discounting psionics, they have no real defenses. Large portions of each ship are constructed entirely of gems, since their laser technology is not particularly advanced. Engines are usually gravitic, and oxygen cycling is provided by large biotic tanks. This reduces crew space to a minimum, and life support is fragile.

The Rays use a caste system. They maintain millions of genetic strains, each specialized in a specific calling. They frequently mix strains of the same calling, but almost never of different callings. This gives most of the Rays at least a specialization index of 95 or more.

*In their written language, doubling of a plosive forms a fricative, similarly to "dd" in Welsh; tt = hard th, dd = soft th, bb = v, pp = f, etc.

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"Welcome to our Pirate outpost. Please enjoy your stay, and realize that any irregular actions can and will be used against you in the afterlife."

(This message has been edited by Pallas Athene (edited 05-19-2002).)

Ruby Ray's? Hmm... Let's say, in general, the colonists have settled towards the centre of the galaxy. So the Ruby Ray's could be on the outside. A tract of uninhabitable stars might seperate them as well.

I've been a bit hesitant about providing a galactic history, since as I said before, I don't want this to be anything you have to be 'in on.' However, if anyone wishes, I will give it my best shot.

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

(This message has been edited by Joveia (edited 05-20-2002).)

History might be a little constrictive, true. However, any kind of simplified factual information that should guide our ramblings is appreciated. Simple stuff - like "The Arc Pluris use organic ships," or "The Non-Star have only one system." The basic intros cover some of it, but there is definitely more or that kind of info that you haven't told us.

A general map would be nice. I mean, we know so far that the Fortinbras are inbetween the Mercinim and Sol, but then, the Fortinbras are also between nothing and not much else. Although it might make sense not to color in empires that haven't been specifically located yet, to give us freedom.

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"Welcome to our Pirate outpost. Please enjoy your stay, and realize that any irregular actions can and will be used against you in the afterlife."

I don't really want much more description of the groups. Don't take that to mean I want to not have any more description of the groups, mind you. I already have my group, and I think I have enough info for them. It could be helpful for other people, though, so listen to them.

And I, too, would like a galactic map.

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"Vampiric chickens are spiffy. Bak bak bak ARRR!"

I personally would like to see a lot more empty space between systems. Like maybe have gaps between spiral arms of galaxies that act as "oceans" to the clusters of stars. I feel that it is important to have large areas without stars so that it makes jumpgates more important (rather than non-instant tachion drives, and also means that there can be projection of power issues. (I have a system on your side of the huge empty space, but you don't have one on mine, nyah!) Needless to say, a map would be useful.

Also, which factions arn't taken yet?

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NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

The unclaimed factions are:

*Non-Star League. This is the remains of the Sol Federation, it exists in only one system - Sol. It's long establishment grants it enormous manpower and excellent resources. All planets are of course highly industrialised but they possess no extant territories. Small elite military

*O-Force. This is the occupation force the Sol Federation put on the worlds it conquered. They are now a seperate government. Average in all respects except v. good military. Military based culture.

*Pirates. The ubiquitous pirates. They are have a good deal of potential, but suffer from lack of leadership. Tech etc.. is not really fixed. Depends on the area.

Whoa. There's less than I thought.

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"Vampiric chickens are spiffy. Bak bak bak ARRR!"

Hmm... a starmap, I dunno. I'm not sure I want to commit to that, you know what I'm saying? Try and visualise it anyway you want. Let's say these factions are close to each other:

Mercinim-O Force, Non-Star
Fortinbras-All powers except ruby rays
Pirates - everywhere
Greys- Pyro?
Arc Pluris - A little distant from Mercinim and Non-Star

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

If I may, I'd like to be a little more clear. (Nadir is further out from the galactic center, and azimuth is closer in)

Non-Star: Sol
O-Force: Mostly in a cushion around the nadir side of Sol
Mercinim: A ways to the azimuth side of Sol, some borders with O-Force
Arc Pluris: A bit to the azimuth, and quite a ways off clockwise from Sol
Ruby Rays: Way off to the nadir side, possibly based in another arm
Fortinbras: Inbetween the first 4 powers
Pirates: Everywhere, although significantly less in Arc Pluris, Non-Star, and Ruby Rays

I think that describes it a little more visually, but of course if anyone disagrees, then feel free to voice an opinion/make changes, etc.

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"Welcome to our Pirate outpost. Please enjoy your stay, and realize that any irregular actions can and will be used against you in the afterlife."

Why should they be less in the Arc Pluris, remember these aren't Polaris. The Arc Pluris are just like any government - with a stronger scientific firmanent. Like the way the USA has a scientific focus over, well, another random western country.

Again, here I am deliberately trying to avoid cliches. The enemy of all good stories. Nova itself was heavily involed in cliches. A Polaris-type faction has been used for so long - probably in the days Isaac Asimov was young.

About the starmap; let's just say north is the galactic boundary, and south is inward? I know, it's rather misleading...

Yup and if anyone wants, I can bring in other faction(s).

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

(This message has been edited by Joveia (edited 05-21-2002).)

Maybe a couple more factions right now, to give new fokes more options, but then wait until more people want to join before more. I think about thirteen or so factions should be the max.

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"Vampiric chickens are spiffy. Bak bak bak ARRR!"

How about I do an info post in place of the post I was going to make? And I think 12-15 factions should be sufficient, depending on the number of people we get. We seem to be starting a bit slowly, but don't worry.....
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Arc Pluris
Approx. Star Systems: 127
Population: 2.31 Billion
Govt: Decent, but it's really the techies who own the big companies that have most of the control around here.
Military: Small, but good. Not elites or anything, but pretty powerful in the way of weapons. A small elite squadron, nothing exceptional overall. But they are rewowned for their great fighters.

Alliances: They have signed a non-agression pact with Fortinbras, and not much pirate trouble. Sort of Allies with Mercinim, They have their eye on the O-Force as a possible enemy, because it has been causing a bit of trouble lately, and don't really care about the Non-Star league too much, because they're too small to be a bother.

The government is mostly focused, at the moment, on building an Anti-Grey weapon. They're not really doing too well, but have succseeded in making a sort of telepathic shield that stops the Greys from doing too much harm, (P.S: Pyro, I think you are making the greys much too strong... Or maybe that post of yours is still giving me nightmares. Either way.)

Weapons: The Heffler Beam. Contained light, superheated, and mixed with a flammable gas that corrodes and eats away at metals. Not much of an energy requirement, but limited ammo. There are two versions, Focused and Widespread. Widespread is for slow but complete obliteration. There's a wide beam that isn't very focused, and slowly tears away the hull of the ship, completely destroying it. However, due to the very slow effect, it's easy to avoid. Focused is a thin, strong beam, used for quickly incapacitating ships.

Thor's Hammer. The Thor's Hammer type weapon is not really a laser at all. It's very similar, however. First, a cloud of oxygen is released around the enemy ship. Immeadiately after, beams of light, similar to a laser, are released. But instead the light is put into a different form. A concentrated form of planetary lightning. Within the field of oxygen, the lightning-laser spreads, and shocks the entire ship, rendering all electrical systems useless for a couple of hours, and creating some permanent hull damage, that, while it isn't very severe, will occasionally disable the ship's electronic systems. It's quite hard to repair, but nothing serious.

SLT's: The SLT is the standard weapon for all light and non-military ships, as its name implies. SLT stands for Standard Laser Turret, and is a decent, Jack-of-all-trades sort of weapon. There is no forward-firing version, it is always mounted on a 360° turret. Pretty accurate, decent damage, and no high resource or space requirments. Not too strong, mainly used for fending off fighters or weak freighters.

The ADMS: Technically not a weapon, but worthy of note. The Anti-Missile Defense System. This is a famous system belonging to the Arc Pluris for stopping most missiles. In most Arc Pluris s hips, there are little holes, like pores, all over the ship. Each hole is outfitted with a small flare launcher, that can simultaneously launch about 8-10 flares. When under attack by missile(s), it fires these flares in every direction,which then explode in a small haze of shrapnel and light. If set on a low level, the flares spread all around the ship, and make a temporary wall of shrapnel, plus lots of light to fool the missiles. (If you visualize this, you will undertsnad that it would work very well.

That's about it. Night, folks.

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Got l33t?

(This message has been edited by Danielnma (edited 05-22-2002).)

Actually, the Ruby Rays wouldn't sign a non-agression pact with anyone. They're much more of an extreme isolationist power than even the Arc Pluris. They're closest to the O-Force, but even encounters between the Os and the Rays are extremely rare.

And is there also some component of the Thor's Hammer that prevents the oxygen from instantaneously dissipating?

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"Welcome to our Pirate outpost. Please enjoy your stay, and realize that any irregular actions can and will be used against you in the afterlife."

The Mercinim empire is fairly cold towards other nations in turn; heck, it changes governments every 20 years or so. Dunno where you got the idea that we're allied Danielnma. I will oblige if you want; it will make the Mercinim stronger.

And 127 star systems is NOT small territory. That is huge territory. The Mercinim empire has about 349, and the result is the most unstable government in the universe.

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

Joveia, are you talking abou when I said small military? Well, I decided to have large territory, because of lots of colonization technology, among other things, therefore there is a lot of space, but a large military was never developed. However, I can change it if you want. how about 67? 56?

And, by the rules of current-day politics, I figured a lot of people would want alliances with Mercinim, being so colossal. OK Pallas, just let me edit my post to get rid of said pact. And remember Apollo 11? The oxygen doesn't just dissipate, it lasts long enough to fire the rays of energy. Like I said, the beams are almost simultaneously released. Even if they weren't, the oxygen would stay, just float around a bit. It would eventually dissipate, but with time.
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Got l33t?

(This message has been edited by Danielnma (edited 05-22-2002).)

(This message has been edited by Danielnma (edited 05-22-2002).)

Me and Pharris had a talk on AIM, and decided we wanted the NSL. We were thinking of making them a highly advanced (Sol has the oldest and best established research institutions) theocracy (Sol is the center of pretty much all humanity's religions, plus we just wanted to give a strange theocracy a try).

S'ok?

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"In literature as in love we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Andre Maurois

Danielnma, the comment about the Arc Pluris colonisation is inspired by my beginning post in the RPG. I deliberately did that because it fitted in with what I perceived as the Arc Pluris philosophy and science. If you colonised alot of other systems, who would not be cold towards other powers. You would also have a looser government. It would make your society more extroverted, and also less easy to defend. You would consequently evolve a larger military and beuracracy - more worlds mean more statastics.

Oh well.

Darkk, Pharris, sure! I was sort of hoping I could annihilate the NSL but oh well

Oh, yeah, there's an AI civilisation I could bring in if you wanted Darkk...

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

Just to warn you Darkk:
Everybody's hate -> NSL <- Everybody's hate
Enjoy.

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It's Difficult To Comprehend How Insane Some People Can Be. Especially When You're Insane.
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Oh, well you never know. The Rays are also a theocracy, and it would really screw with the balance of power if the two religions happened to be similar. Note that the Non-Stars probably don't go through the O-Force often enough to catch the occasional Ray, so this may still be possible.

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"Welcome to our Pirate outpost. Please enjoy your stay, and realize that any irregular actions can and will be used against you in the afterlife."