Topic: Interest Check: Space Combat role play [UN]

[Inkidu]

Name: Knight Squadron ((Need some more Human or Avali fighter pilots. Avali preferred.))

In the year 2075, after a glorious golden age of peace and scientific development Mankind has taken to the stars in it's effort to colonize space. This was made possible by the Helion-brodcast system or simply known as broadcast. It allowed mankind to travel light years in the blink of an eye. New faster, bigger ships were being built in record time. The whole world was on the colonization bandwagon.

In 2100 a mere twenty-five years later Earth had colonized the Horse Head Nebula. Setting up prominent colonies such as Gagarin and Voyager. This was also the year Mankind first met extraterrestrial life. The humanoid race of Tallinn Kri. The Avali. The Avali while peaceful had not managed to leave their own galaxy like Man. With human help they adapted the Helion systems to their ships and the first intergalactic alliance was born.

In 2124 Humanity met another race of beings in what they called the Exodus Nebula. Due to unprecedented peace in Human endeavors weapons technology hadn't progressed much past the neutron bomb or even the full metal jacketed bullet. This combined with the practice of sending self-brodcasting explorer vessels into unknown space produced the Second Encounter Incident. Humanity encountered the Tutgarians. The warlike, technological humanoid race of reptiles. Needless to say Humanity was wiped from the Exodus Nebula.

In 2154 Mankind, after retreating to their own systems and the systems of the Avali, returned matching the firepower of the Tutgar. Driving them back Humanity and the Avali seemed on the verge of victory. But another element barged its way into the galactic conflict. The Tutgar too confident in their power were driven to the wall. In desperate hope to win they broadcasted to a place in their ancient myths. A sacred refuge that was to house the power of the Gods. But much was lost in translation and they opened the path to the Plague of the Gods. The Vorkanai an anamorphic insectoid race with techno-organic capabilities and immeasurable numbers. Hive minded and hyper-intelligent this race is a threat to any living being.

[Inkidu]

If you've got questions, comments, or suggestions you can post them here or PM me.

Q: Where's the sex!
A: You put males and females of any species in a tin can they're going to do the deed.

[Nazora]

I like this, it has great storyline potential.

[Inkidu]

I like this, it has great storyline potential.

I'm still debating making all the races available to play. It's interesting but it's hard to keep balanced.

[Nazora]

I'd be very interested in playing the Captain of a star ship or at least some type of officer, I like to be human. For some reason this is one I can jump into. I've been too one-sided doing only stuff involving transformation, so maybe I need to expand my horizons a little bit.

One thing I've thought of is when I GM a game like this I NPC characters that are not around at the time to keep the balance and fill in the inactivity gaps. Even so, you need at least two other active committed player characters to make the game fun and keep it interesting. I'm usually more overbearing than I am inactive, I like to push games I'm involved in forward. 

So this would be multi-player, is it free-form or will combat be decided by a stat system? What will the thread layout be? How many players do you want, is it open ended or limited to a set number.

I'm thinking of a thread system involving a thread for each star system, with armada's jumping back and forth between threads as battles and scenes unfold.

[Inkidu]

That's a good idea about the star systems. Though for the sake of keeping it simple I've boiled combat down to fighter carriers. Just that. They carry bombers and fighters and transports. No battle ships or destroyers.

I've never played a stat game before so I wouldn't know how to do one. Do you think it would benefit from a stat system?

[Inkidu]

Well If I did a stat system it would be an amalgamation of two areas. The pilot and there ship.

[Inkidu]

ow0'' how do you people do it! So confused.

[Nazora]

That's a good idea about the star systems. Though for the sake of keeping it simple I've boiled combat down to fighter carriers. Just that. They carry bombers and fighters and transports. No battle ships or destroyers.

I've never played a stat game before so I wouldn't know how to do one. Do you think it would benefit from a stat system?

I prefer freeform, but in order to that everyone would need  profile of their ship and you'd have to have a list of possible weapons. I'd keep everything simple as possible to begin with and add more options later on.

You need a Cruiser class though!  For a starship, fighter carrier would carry a massive load of fighters and bombers and have less heavy guns. A Carrier wouldn't be much good for planetary bombardment but it's large cache of fighters and bombers would make it deadly to other cruisers. Cruisers would have less carrying capacity, concentrating on fighters to defend themselves, but they would have heavy guns suitable for taking out defensive instalations, bombardment of heavenly bodies, and for attacking carriers and other cruisers.  They'd basically be designed for different jobs. Here I go again.

[Inkidu]

I could add a cruiser class but it would strictly be NPC. I want the focus to stay on fighter combat.
Profiles don't really bug me that much but I'm not doing ship profiles.
What I'll do is create a bunch of ships and you choose a ship per engagement because lets face it. Ships get destroyed all the time. Lets not have people getting too attached.

[Nazora]

Fair enough, but I do tend to get attached to my ships. Maybe you should be able to have a way to repair salvage ships that are immoble, disramed, or in really bad ships. Not all Cruisers go out with a bang ala Death Star.

[Inkidu]

Well here are the races if any are interested.Humans: Hailing from the Sol System of the Local Cluster. Humans are an intrepid and adaptable race. They're the second most technologically advanced race. (Excluding the Vorkanai.) They have the largest population in the galaxy due to the incentives for births paid in 2139. To promote colonization, and later military. Also a nine month gestation is the shortest in the galaxy. (Again excluding the Vorkanai)The human religions all still remain intact. With a knew offshoot of Christianity called Voyagerism. They basically look for God in space.Humanity was united by the U.S. in 2090 under the Galactic Unified Protectorate, the G.U.P. is a bureaucracy. It is run by elite politicians from earth. The politicians appoint the Joint Chiefs who in turn appoint the politicians. Democracy is no longer the name of the game.

Tutgarians: Hailing from the Exodus Nebula from the Yan Duul system. There planet of Tutgan is a dwarf orbiting well outside its life zone. But due to an intense blue sun it still maintains life.Tutgarians look like anamorphic dragons. They stand at least six feet tall and have scales tails and claws. Though they never evolved wings or fire breath. The males are usually very dully colored with small horns on there heads. Females are more lithe and petite. They have brightly colored skin and ear fins.Tutgarian religion is simple. Worship the gods and live. This is due to the fact that their governmental structure is a theocratic monarchy. The ruler usually female but not always rules absolutely.Tutgarian tech is the most powerful in the galaxy (Still excluding) But it takes twelve months for a Tutgarian egg to hatch.

Avali: From the Horse Head Nebula. The Avali are evolved from a strange bird found on their home world. Though they don't have beaks, feathers, or wings they don't have hair but numerous short tendrils for men and long (Usually elaborately braided ones for women. And are anywhere from gunmetal gray to moonlight gray in color. Men are only slightly more muscular. Both sexes have avian features.
The main distinguishing characteristic is the eye. An Avalian eye is a solid color with eight small pupils in a ring. Each of these pupils allows the race to see in a different spectrum of light. Making things like infrared and night-vision unnecessary. The gestation period for Avali is ten months.
Instances of Human-Avalian children are not so common but evident. The offspring tend to be Avali in body type, human in appearance but lack the eight pupils but have a single iris. They can still only see in visible light.
Avali government is one of Military tradition. Everything is focused on honor and duty. There is only the spirit of honor to observe.
The Committee is the head. Five high ranking warriors chosen for merit in combat. They rule by judgment.

(The Vorkanai are forthcoming. Three is enough for now.)

[Inkidu]

Fair enough, but I do tend to get attached to my ships. Maybe you should be able to have a way to repair salvage ships that are immoble, disramed, or in really bad ships. Not all Cruisers go out with a bang ala Death Star.

I wasn't talking about cruisers. I was talking about fighters . Anyway cruisers are NPC. How would you crew one?

[Nazora]

I wasn't talking about cruisers. I was talking about fighters . Anyway cruisers are NPC. How would you crew one?

Sorry, my bad. I liked the races you described. How would I crew one, wouldn't the military of the G.U.P. determine the crew? Now I would maintain a balance between fighters and bombers of whatever type was available if that's what you mean. Of course, in a huge Carrier type ship it would be like operating a city, and would probably have a fairly self supporting population. You'd not only need pilots and officers but you'd need an operating staff, maintenance crew, cleaning staff, dock workers, food service workers, possibly a small contingent of R&D. Of course, the human population can be reduce by having robots do the menial labor.

As far as running a ship, that would involve tactical and strategic decisions. In that area I would tend to be cautious and balanced, trying to take risks only when necessary or when they have a very good chance of paying off. I'd try to never fight unsupported if I didn't have too.

I'd be a stern but fair captain and always have an attitude of trying to do my best. I probably wouldn't open up much to people as I wouldn't be very trusting.

[Inkidu]

Um no sorry my bad. When I say how would you crew one that ment how would you crew the NPC cruiser. Don't worry.
Carriers are crewed to by the Navy. They see to the workings of the ships while Navy officers fly and a batalion of Marines are on duty to go ashore. I've got two brothers in the navy. I'm still going to have to look up naval ranks though.

A captain that doesn't trust his or her crew?

I've actually got it. I'm going to have one carrier a side. The Human/Avalian protoype carrier. Then the Tutgarian flagship and then one Hive ship for the Vorakai.

That way it keeps things focused. Everything outside of that like other ships will be NCP as needed.

[Nazora]

Sprry, but I'm talking career wise. A Captain almost always has those she trusts and those who are out for her job. I don't know how open you envision human society, so it might even be tough for a woman to be socially accepted as a Captain of a Carrier. There will always be those you work with and trust in one area but not another, and those you trust completely, then those you don't trust at all.

Not that I need to be a Captain, I'm willing to play as a pilot etc too. I just liked the idea.

Crew an NPC cruiser, well it wouldn't be NPC if it had a player captain would it?  I suppose about the same way I crew a carrier except I'd use it as a cruiser would be used. depends on the type of cruiser, if ti was a fast and lightly armed striker it would be a carrier destroyer, but if it was heavily armed and slower it would be for artilary bombardment and I'd be very cautious. Depends on what I am given.



 

[Inkidu]

Human Avali Systems Carrier: Morning Star
Captain:
Fighters:

Tutgarian Empire Carrier: Valtin Corr Manta (The Corr in simple terms. Translation: The Dominator's Right Hand, or simply the Dominator to Humans and Avali.
Captain: Taken
Fighters:

If enough people want to play the Vorakai then I'll put the hive ship up there.

I will also be making an OCC for this but for recruitment's sake it stays here.

[Inkidu]

Sprry, but I'm talking career wise. A Captain almost always has those she trusts and those who are out for her job. I don't know how open you envision human society, so it might even be tough for a woman to be socially accepted as a Captain of a Carrier. There will always be those you work with and trust in one area but not another, and those you trust completely, then those you don't trust at all.

Not that I need to be a Captain, I'm willing to play as a pilot etc too. I just liked the idea.

Crew an NPC cruiser, well it wouldn't be NPC if it had a player captain would it?  I suppose about the same way I crew a carrier except I'd use it as a cruiser would be used. depends on the type of cruiser, if ti was a fast and lightly armed striker it would be a carrier destroyer, but if it was heavily armed and slower it would be for artilary bombardment and I'd be very cautious. Depends on what I am given.



 

No no it's just about connections. High ranking officers aren't promoted they're born so to speak. So if you were to play a captain you'd have to be politically made.

[Nazora]

I can understand that. But remember, politically made officers who are born into power tend to distrust the lesser classes that can't be promoted so high or so easily if at all. And if there are promoted non-blood officers they are especially distrusted. This is a general rule, there are exceptions, but the noble classes usually fear that talented underclasses will usurp their position. This also causes many officers poorly suited to their duties, as placement is considered by birth and not talent. Again, general rule.

Still, I like the idea of a noble class of officers and hope I am not being too much of a pain.

[Inkidu]

No it's my fault I didn't make it clear enough. If you're already not a high ranking officer Captain and up you're not going to be one.
Unless you're a politically connected officer then you could be promoted. But he'd still be part of the officer caste.

[JadeCore]

Huh. Consider me intrigued.

[Inkidu]

Huh. Consider me intrigued.

Intrigued in what? If I may be so bold as to ask. I'm... still trying to decide a few things and others' feedback is appreciated.

[HairyHeretic]

If you want a bit of reading that might help flesh this out for you, try "In Death Ground" and "The Shiva Option" by David Weber and Steve White. Those will give (IMO) a pretty good space naval story, showing carrier ops, capital ship engagements, and the problems with politically appointed officers :)

[Inkidu]

If you want a bit of reading that might help flesh this out for you, try "In Death Ground" and "The Shiva Option" by David Weber and Steve White. Those will give (IMO) a pretty good space naval story, showing carrier ops, capital ship engagements, and the problems with politically appointed officers :)

Nope I'm good. I got the Clone Republic, Rogue Clone, and the Clone Alliance. They're good and they put emphasis on carrier importance. Not that I'm doing it that way because of that. It's just flying fighters is cool.

[HairyHeretic]

Ok. I'd recommend them for something to read anyway :) There you an apparently unstoppable (at least to start with) alien menace, which makes no attempt to communicate, and just keeps coming forward like a juggernaught, while unprepared Alliance (humans, the avian Ophiuchi, centaurlike Gorm and the feline Orions) desperately try to stop it. Seems the story would fit well with what you're aiming for here.

And I wouldn't recommend a pure carrier based fleet. All you need is one enemy capital ship finding your carriers, and all those fighters are worthless.