Hello all. With the upcoming release of Hera, I think there's a question we need to sort out. Should we include "Personal", or "Custom" Races as part of the Standard Ares Universe?

If we don't, then certain plug-ins will refer to races which don't exist in others, which is sure to cause confusion. If we do, some purists and others are sure to complain. It's a sticky situation.

I personally am not averse to maybe one major race being added in, but too many is just stupid. Perhaps we should grant the Phylidion citizenship in the Ares Universe.

Other, minor, races such as the Duploi aren't such a problem, since they got invaded by the Gaitori and hardly have any galactic presence at all anymore, much less a spacefleet. Perhaps other races people want to see could be treated in a similar way?

Admiral Darkk and thus the Nijayias haven't been heard from for a long time. Perhaps something terrible has happened to them, resulting in them fleeing back to whence they came? I'm not sure.

Well, post your opinions here.

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Sundered Angel ,
The One and Only

Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy

Hmmmmmmm, thats a tough one. I would say that it is the authors choice, whether extra 'custom' races are added and we can assume each plug-in where they are can be treated as a stand-alone project, a sort of alternate universe. Limiting what can and can't be including in plug-ins is a risky business and the more freedom people have the better. I'd get bored of killing Aud after Sal after Gait etc

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I have a plan so ingenius even an idiot could devise it. We will line all our ships up and fly straight at the enemy death cannons therefore clogging them with wreckage.

I agree, it should be the creators choice, we would have to assume though that the maker is goinf to give a good disription of his universe though, or yes it would be confusing. On the other hand I think it would be more fun if we tried to keep new races minimal or at least logical to the Ares universe presented here, cause this one is pretty cool.

Ok, I've been reasonable and quiet about this for a long time, but it's time I came out and said it:

ENOUGH WITH YOUR OWN DAMN SPECIES!

Man, I'm sick to hell of the Ares stuff in the officers club or that story of the stolen sword or whatever. If you're making your own plug that details a species emerging or something, fine, bring it on, but if you're suddenly going to propose that a massive mighty civilization has been subverting the Auds from the star wars universe, take that BS off the boards please. I don't want psychic crap and random prophecies corrupting what I think is one of the best sci fi settings ever come up with.

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yeah, it's gone
fireworks and blown speakers
strobe lights and hurricanes
i'm not here
this isn't happening
i'm not here

-Radiohead, How to disappear completely (and never be found)

Interesting. . . Most interesting. . .

Personally I'm all for the depth added by fleshing out a setting. Salrillians = Prophecies, Lesser Races colliding with the might of the Greater Powers = Stories, etc. Considering I'm one of the main participants in the online stories, this is quite to be expected.

I agree, the Ares Universe is well-crafted already, and throwing in dozens of personal races would spoil it. Ancient prophesies and modern clashes in power, however, are great fare as far as plot-lines go, and add depth to a setting.

Psychic powers are also good story-spinners, but the point in them is that they hardly can cause grand-scale effects, that's just stupid. I always worried a little about the ultra-sophisticated Nijayias civilisation, which supposedly arrived from the Star Wars Universe and make Aud Tech look pathetic.

Any more comments? Newt, what's your opinion on that?

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Sundered Angel ,
The One and Only

Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy

I think there should be a race of small furry mice, that preen often, and aspire for galactic domination...

-the mouse ~(^..^)

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"These are my terms, abide by them or drink vacuum."-Tycho

I've been working out a single player story and while it most likely won't be made, if it does, at least 5 races will be added. There's one minor catch. They're in another Galaxy. Personal races should be restricted to areas outside the Orion Arm, and preferably the Milky Way itself.

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"If so, then how does one count to 10 on the Mac?"
"128, 127, 126, 125..."
-Pallas Athene, Member of the Obish Consensus

The prophecies, Phylydions, Nijayias, and whatever else that relates which has been discussed in the bar are all part of what I can see being a tightly woven collective of plugs in an Ares related universe. The Ares universe itself cannot be changed by anyone except Nathan Lamont. I sure as hell am not stupid enough to barge in and say "this is how it's going to be instead." This would be like some wanker taking the Star Trek universe, adding his little storyline, and expecting everyone to believe in it. THIS IS NOT WHAT I'M TRYING TO DO! If your sick of what's going on please try to take it with a huge grain of salt. It will all be over when the plugs are done and most of the characters are dead.

So to answer the question of whether we should include custom species, event, etc. as standard: Hell no. An offshoot, expansion, whatever you want to call it yes, but certainly not standard in the universe. Not unless Lamont says so.

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Throughout their history these "unenlightened" beings have continually opposed and fought abuses of power wrought by their own bretheren. We, as the prophets would do well to learn from these Humans.
-Final statement of the Salrilian reformist Sirthis shortly before his execution.

As other have said, it does not matter, every plug is independant. The only reason to have any collusion between mutiple plugs is becuase it enhances the plugs in some way by being more or less in the same language (story wise). This uniformity in story and setting will be quite voluntary because their is no way to enforce one galaxy view on others as long as all are able to develope independatly. Anyone who talks about creating some sort of Ares council or something of the like to decide on how plugs should be made is just plain silly.
Further more, many have talked of making all the new ship graphics standard. This is even worse because people who make horrible plugs will merely devalue the graphics used in the few good ones. For the love of God, you people are free to do what ever you want! If someone tells you that "The obish always wear green clothing at the festival of Na Rashkom" then dress them in red. I am not saying you should warp the Ares universe horribly, but simply that you can if you desire.

-Walter-

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Heheheh, actually, Sundered, it was Cicion's Phylydions who were from the star wars universe... Both species seem to rival the auds though. My big problem with all the personal races is that they seem more like ego gratifiers than something to be added to the universe. Some of them are detailed, but I think that more than trying to add them to the universe for productive reasons people are creating them so that they can have complete control over something's history without the point being debated, IE Person A: "The salrilians lived on this planet but migrated to this other place" Person B: "No they didn't moron". So instead someone makes up their own race, and you can't argue about that because they made it, they know everything about it.

As for psychic powers, they're just a pet peeve of mine, it seems that so many sci fi series or movies have some race of psychic aliens or something, it just seems crappy to me now.

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yeah, it's gone
fireworks and blown speakers
strobe lights and hurricanes
i'm not here
this isn't happening
i'm not here

-Radiohead, How to disappear completely (and never be found)

I might mention that this is one of the reasons for the High Council- to put our stamp on good plugins to prevent degradation by bad ones, and also to admit races (only by a large majority). Admiral Grammaticus would be on it, of course.

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"If so, then how does one count to 10 on the Mac?"
"128, 127, 126, 125..."
-Pallas Athene, Member of the Obish Consensus

And to standardize racial information so there can't be a disagreement about where the Sals started etc.

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"If so, then how does one count to 10 on the Mac?"
"128, 127, 126, 125..."
-Pallas Athene, Member of the Obish Consensus

Yes, everything that has been said here makes sense as far as I'm concerned. Standardisation is a happy dream, but impossible to bring about.

The "Ring Wars" plug-in series, which is what is followed in on-board stories and will be availible shortly in plug-in, will be followed by me, Sargantanus, and anyone who has some significant plot involving Web Board Characters.

For everything else, we'll just sit back and watch the creative juices flow...

Sound reasonable?

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Sundered Angel ,
The One and Only

Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy

How about this : the first plugin released will set the standards

(eg: if the first plug says that the Grolk live in a different galaxy and N. Lamont doesn't contest this, then the Grolk live in a different galaxy)

This is probably the only possible solution.

Don't you all get it? YOU CAN NOT STANDARDIZE RACES IT IS IMPOSSIBLE, PHYSICALY.
You can say all you want about where the Sals com from, but if someone creates a plug that says differently, how are you to turn it down. What if it is realy good? And besides, people will merely post it some where else if you won't put it on the main site. Their should be a group of people who decided upon what gets posted on the site, and they already exist, they are called Ambrosia software. I do not think that Grammaticus has to have the last word on everything, why would he care enough about the Sals origin to ban a plug? Any screening should be by genneral quality, not any story line yardstick.

-Walter- (In a very angry mood becuase of the idiocy of certain members on the board we will not name specificaly)

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Walter, I'm sorry if I'm one of the people who you find to be acting stupid. But please note that I am not talking about plug ins. I'm fine with whatever you want to put in your plug to unleash on the unknowing galaxy, that's the whole point.

And moose, sorry to be so blunt but that idea is stupid. The first plug in would not be the best, it would not be anything to go by, and forcing people to conform to one idea of the universe for their plug ins defeats the entire purpose. It's the ongoing web board RPG where everyone is their own species' super ultra peak condition operative with a massive race which appeared out of no where with a massive armada and tech to rival the auds that concerns me.

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yeah, it's gone
fireworks and blown speakers
strobe lights and hurricanes
i'm not here
this isn't happening
i'm not here

-Radiohead, How to disappear completely (and never be found)