Background and Current Situation

[Kurt (OP)]

Background
The year is 2112, and Earth has changed.  In the early twenty first century things began to look up after what everyone agreed was a rocky start.  The discovery of relatively cheap fusion defused much of the tension in the Middle East, and international cooperation led to a unified space effort that saw asteroid mining efforts in the belt and small colonies on Mars and the larger Jovian moons by 2040 under the auspices of the UN Space Authority.  Over the next twenty years mankind

[Michael Sandy]

Interesting set up.

So you have an interesting race potential set up.  The Jovian Republic is likely to get a major jump on extra-solar exploration.  A lot depends on how confrontational it gets about protecting its claims, and how secretive it is about which warp points are the ones it is sending colonization efforts through.

So long term, the Jovians have a potential advantage in growth and resource access.  However, short term things are uglier for them.

In Starfire, projections of future economic prospect were a bit more reliable, but in Aurora it depends on a lot of unknowns.  There could be a political faction in the UNE which discounts the likelihood or proximity of habitable worlds with significant resources.

And there could be factions in the Jovian Republic which might believe the best chance is to scorch Earth's population and economy as soon as a viable extra-solar colony is established.

[Steve Walmsley]

Fascinating setup. With two such diverse 'races' it should provide a lot more variety than a multiple Earth powers campaign. I am really looking forward to seeing how this goes.

Steve

[Steve Walmsley]

I also noticed you have set research colonies up. I have found that since the introduction of research specialization I have started to spread out research labs to colonies without much other industry to take advantage of lower rank commanders with high research skills. This has produced research colonies with particular specializations. For example in my current campaign the Commonwealth has an Energy Weapon research colony, a Fire Control and EW research colony and Earth is now concentrating on sensors. The monolithic research location is no longer as effective as multiple smaller research colonies.

Steve

[Kurt (OP)]

Interesting set up.

So you have an interesting race potential set up.  The Jovian Republic is likely to get a major jump on extra-solar exploration.  A lot depends on how confrontational it gets about protecting its claims, and how secretive it is about which warp points are the ones it is sending colonization efforts through.

So long term, the Jovians have a potential advantage in growth and resource access.  However, short term things are uglier for them.

In Starfire, projections of future economic prospect were a bit more reliable, but in Aurora it depends on a lot of unknowns.  There could be a political faction in the UNE which discounts the likelihood or proximity of habitable worlds with significant resources.

And there could be factions in the Jovian Republic which might believe the best chance is to scorch Earth's population and economy as soon as a viable extra-solar colony is established.

Things are both better and worse for the Republic than I thought when I set it up.  Better, in that their tech lead is better than I thought it was when I first started, and also in that they are much better positioned for interstellar exploration than I originally thought when I set things up.

Earth is going to have a real hard time trying to get things going from a standing start, however, their economy is much better than the Republic's.  The only area they are behind is research.  

As I was running the first few months I realized that the Republic has a much bigger problem economically than I thought.  They really, really need to find a 2.0 or less cost world in one of the systems adjacent to Earth.  

We'll see.  

Kurt

[kdstubbs]

I was curious about the lack of a colony on Ganymeade, but one on IO.  Given that IO is highly unstable, with massive sulfur volcanos, it would be difficult at best to set up a research station.  Europa, if I am correct may be totally an Ice body, with frozen seas--hard to set up a military base on top of potenitally frozen ice--with the possibility that the ice may go liquid based on Ice tectonics.  However Callisto and Ganymeade may have been better for your colony worlds.  

The images of Europa's surface strongly resemble images of sea ice on Earth. It is possible that beneath Europa's surface ice there is a layer of liquid water, perhaps as much as 50 km deep, kept liquid by tidally generated heat. If so, it would be the only place in the solar system besides Earth where liquid water exists in significant quantities  http://www.nineplanets.org/europa.html

Io (eye'-oe, IPA: [?a?o?], Greek ??) is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter and, with a diameter of 3,642 kilometers, is the fourth largest moon in the Solar System. Unlike most satellites in the outer Solar System (which have a thick coating of ice), Io is primarily composed of silicate rock surrounding a molten iron or iron-sulfide core. Io has one of the most geologically-active surfaces in the solar system, with over 400 active volcanoes.[2] This extreme geologic activity is the result of tidal heating, with friction generated within Io's interior by Jupiter's varying pull on Io. Several of Io's volcanoes produce volcanic plumes of sulfur and sulfur dioxide that climb as high as 500 km (310 mi). Io's surface is also dotted with more than 100 mountains that have been uplifted by extensive compression at the base of Io's silicate crust. Some of these peaks are taller than Earth's Mount Everest.[3] The majority of Io's surface is characterized by extensive plains coated with sulfur and sulfur dioxide frost  [Wikipaedia][/quote]
Not complaining about your set up, looks like an interesting dichotomy between the Free Republic and the statist earth.  

Kevin

[Kurt (OP)]

I also noticed you have set research colonies up. I have found that since the introduction of research specialization I have started to spread out research labs to colonies without much other industry to take advantage of lower rank commanders with high research skills. This has produced research colonies with particular specializations. For example in my current campaign the Commonwealth has an Energy Weapon research colony, a Fire Control and EW research colony and Earth is now concentrating on sensors. The monolithic research location is no longer as effective as multiple smaller research colonies.

Steve

That's interesting, and something I hadn't though of before.  The first thing I noticed with the Republic's research establishment is that it is going to take longer to get things researched with three seperate research colonies than it will with one large one.  They can research three things at once, true, but it seems like it takes much longer to get anywhere.  I hadn't thought of the fact that seperate locations meant that I could give them different commanders with different bonuses, probably because the Republic doesn't have enough commanders for every location yet.  

Kurt

[Kurt (OP)]

I was curious about the lack of a colony on Ganymeade, but one on IO.  Given that IO is highly unstable, with massive sulfur volcanos, it would be difficult at best to set up a research station.  Europa, if I am correct may be totally an Ice body, with frozen seas--hard to set up a military base on top of potenitally frozen ice--with the possibility that the ice may go liquid based on Ice tectonics.  However Callisto and Ganymeade may have been better for your colony worlds.  

The images of Europa's surface strongly resemble images of sea ice on Earth. It is possible that beneath Europa's surface ice there is a layer of liquid water, perhaps as much as 50 km deep, kept liquid by tidally generated heat. If so, it would be the only place in the solar system besides Earth where liquid water exists in significant quantities  http://www.nineplanets.org/europa.html

Io (eye'-oe, IPA: [?a?o?], Greek ??) is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter and, with a diameter of 3,642 kilometers, is the fourth largest moon in the Solar System. Unlike most satellites in the outer Solar System (which have a thick coating of ice), Io is primarily composed of silicate rock surrounding a molten iron or iron-sulfide core. Io has one of the most geologically-active surfaces in the solar system, with over 400 active volcanoes.[2] This extreme geologic activity is the result of tidal heating, with friction generated within Io's interior by Jupiter's varying pull on Io. Several of Io's volcanoes produce volcanic plumes of sulfur and sulfur dioxide that climb as high as 500 km (310 mi). Io's surface is also dotted with more than 100 mountains that have been uplifted by extensive compression at the base of Io's silicate crust. Some of these peaks are taller than Earth's Mount Everest.[3] The majority of Io's surface is characterized by extensive plains coated with sulfur and sulfur dioxide frost  [Wikipaedia][/quote]
Not complaining about your set up, looks like an interesting dichotomy between the Free Republic and the statist earth.  

Kevin

We can blame the setup peculiarities on Steve and Aurora   .  Ganymede appears to have a very low density, and thus a low gravity, which has made it unsuitable for colonization, at least in Aurora terms.  The other three moons are just within the suitable range, although they have relatively high colony costs.  

Kurt

[kdstubbs]

Kurt,
  I have to stop thinking about reality, and remember its only a game.  I never looked at the set up of the moons. Look forward to additional posts on the Jovian republic scenario.

Kevin