What are your goals for multi-race starts?

[smoelf (OP)]

All of this is very much appreciated! A lot of good advice and I am even getting excited about trying my hands on it

[StarshipCactus]

Ahh, I just found the rules I had written down that I RP my nations all signed on to.

No genocidal war. Conflicts shall be resolved with smallest scale military action possible, including limited destruction of infrastructure or military assets. Any attempt at the total annihilation of one nation would be met with the declaration of war on the offending nation by all nations.

All efforts must be made to spread the species into space. No nation shall prevent any other nation from following this Law. Since anything could happen to the homeworld or any colony, as many colonies must be created and spread among the stars.

There are Laws governing the claiming, acquisition, and contesting claims of bodies in space. A nation cannot officially claim a body without a good reason. Claims on bodies are split into three tiers.
(
1: Weak claim. No colonists. Some installations, no significant strategic value, or economic gain currently.
2: Decent claim. Small number of colonists or no colonists. Might have some military presence in space or on the ground. Some strategic value or economic gain.
3: Strong claim. Large number of colonists, maybe millions. Permanent military presence in space and on the ground. Large strategic and/or economic value.
)

(These 2 laws do their best to ensure colonisation will be organised but steady. No cowboys running round claiming everything and using that claim to justify military action.)

A maximum upper limit to the total military tonnage that nations could control at any one time. This limit stands at 100,000 tons. Survey ships or auxiliary ships not included.

(I was thinking of raising that one quite a bit, 100K seems a touch limiting. 150 to 200K maybe. I don't know about some kind of Washington style naval treaty to define ship classes to limit or encourage certain things, I'm thinking it won't be a fun idea, so just a tonnage limit early on. At least until no nation needs to care about any other opinion.)

Since the species is supposed to be very much antagonistic towards itself, there would always be at least some tension and potential for fighting.


EDIT: One of the reasons for me having a treaty like that, even though I intended for the nations to eventually abandon it, was to force everybody to use smaller ships. Every nation was using small numbers of sub 10K ton ships, mostly 5 to 7K. I think it is a realistic choice in universe and also lessens the cost of the military and forces economic development earlier on. It also shrinks the scale of the conflict.
Also I remember adding the law about claims after there was a conflict between two nations over colonising a mars like planet in their home system at the same time, so those two nations will always have a place to fight over. I want the various nations to always have a reason to exercise their innate desire to fight.

[vorpal+5]

I'll slightly hijack this topic to ask about your process for creating NPRs based on Earth. To provide some context, I undertook this task back in December 2020 and still possess the files. It required extensive database editing, but I'm struggling to recall how I initially set up my NPRs to all start on Earth. This was quite an ambitious project for me; I established no fewer than 10 NPRs. I'm fond of beginning with an evolution of Earth's politics, incorporating the usual powerhouses such as a dominant China, an enlarged Europe, and the USA (which, essentially, has turned Mexico into a vassal state in everything but name).

To sum up, I'm keen to replicate this setup, albeit on a slightly smaller scale (perhaps limiting it to 5 races in total, with myself playing a role akin to the UN and the remaining 4 being others). However, I'm stuck at the initial stage of how to create NPRs on Earth. From that point, I can manage with database editing, as I still have my notes (and, apparently, a complete export of the database in JSON format, which I believe I executed using "DB Browser for SQLite").

I might open a new thread after all, as I guess I'll have further questions.

[nuclearslurpee]

To sum up, I'm keen to replicate this setup, albeit on a slightly smaller scale (perhaps limiting it to 5 races in total, with myself playing a role akin to the UN and the remaining 4 being others). However, I'm stuck at the initial stage of how to create NPRs on Earth. From that point, I can manage with database editing, as I still have my notes (and, apparently, a complete export of the database in JSON format, which I believe I executed using "DB Browser for SQLite").

When you create each new race there is a checkbox to create them as NPR on the race design screen. No DB editing should be necessary for this step.

[vorpal+5]

Oh I see now ... It's in Player Race, you can switch some to NPRs. I was looking only to additional/custom NPRs races ... *
Pretty simple once you spot the checkbox, thanks.