Aurora 4x
Fiction => Aurora => Panopticon's Fiction => Topic started by: Panopticon on March 31, 2014, 06:08:32 PM
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Hey folks, in accordance with the set up we voted on here http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,6806.0.html (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,6806.0.html) and because I am bored, I've decided to kick off sign-ups for a new community game.
Rules:
Team members: minimum 2 per faction, no maximum as long as you can get your orders in by the due date.
Number of factions: 4 Maximum, this is probably the most we can realistically hope for my computer to handle reliably.
Starting system: Sol, but each faction can have it's own pre-terraformed planet/moon to start on, and will.
Who gets what?: First come fist serve, by order of post
NPRs?: No, however the two easier spoilers will be on I think. And I have some ideas for other challenges if you guys can't make trouble for yourselves.
Starting resources: 300million pop, 12k RP, 2 Shipyards - one civilian with 2 slips 20k tons, one military with 2 slips 3k tons. 15 Research Facilities, default amount of other facilities and build points for ships/pdcs
These starting values can be customized as you prefer, want to reduce your mines and increase your factories? We can do that, want a bigger shipyard? Cut some other installations.
Misc: In the interest of saving my computer, I will be limiting civilian shipbuilding, no more than 4 of any type (Frieghter or colony) Any your civs build after that will either be deleted or an older ship will be removed if the new one is bigger. Civ fuel harvesters will not be subject to this limit as they kind of just sit there anyway.
Each faction will be provided with enough listening posts to cover the entire planetary system, this should avoid the usual starts and stops when ships come in and out of range, I know it reduced your ability to hide but oh well, want to hide something? Put it out of the system.
Sign ups start now and will end next week or when we have 4 factions, any additional rules you want to add or do you hate some of mine? Talk about it here.
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I would like to join.
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I'm in as well.
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I'm interested in watching but I don't think I have enough time to commit to playing.
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I would like to join as well. Quite excited about this!
I'm also assuming this is a non-conventional start since we'll already have these facilities setup?
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Yep, the RP you get at start is listed in the rules, you can spend it how you like and send me a list.
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Is the research required for our starting units 'free,' or will the component RP costs come out of the RP budget?
Any restrictions on trading between factions?
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I'm gonna go with component design being "Free" at least at game start. When you give me your initial research list I will also be asking for ship designs, the components needed for those designs you will start the game with will be free, but only for ones you actually start with, no free component research for ships that will only exist on the drawing board. If no designs are submitted, you will get a basic freighter, colony ship, geo survey ship, grav survey(If you researched the appropriate tech) and warship(ditto), basically if you submit me some basic techs and then a bunch of weapons and sensor stuff but give me no details on ships, I'll give you a crappy cruiser or something unless I am specifically told not to.
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I'm in as well.
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Looks like Semetary, Sublight, Cripes Almighty, and Niflheimr are the core group for the game, if anyone else wishes to join they will need to sign on with one of you four and you guys get to figure out your division of responsibilities, unless you want to team up with each other of course.
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I'm willing to team up with anyone. Is it possible to already stake a claim on a certain body within Sol and then go from there?
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We could start with two factions of two people each. If more want to join and create factions 3 and/or 4 later we can work that in somehow.
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I would like to join. Who wants me? ;D
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I'm a little worried that a 2-faction start would add too much temptation for an early-game preemptive home-world strike. I'd suggest trying to start with at least 3 factions.
Ektoras, I'd he happy have you own my faction. :)
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Excellent. Enlisted at syblight's faction :)
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Claim a planet, it will come pre terraformed for your convenience, or, if you don't pick a one that can be brought to cost zero, You'll get free infrastructure or massive orbital habitats for your pop, with all the limitations that go with.
Earth is off limits though, there has been an.... accident and it is not a healthy place to live anymore. There might be something cool there though.
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Syblight's and Ektoras faction (faction will be named properly soon) claims Ganymede for home world.
We draw strength from the majestic Jupiter that fills our sky every day.
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Sematary, would you want to be on a team?
EDIT: Also, since Earth is off limits, does that mean Luna is as well? And if Sublight ad Ektoras claimed a Jupiter moon, are we still free to claim another Jupiter moon?
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Luna is not exactly off limits, but it has no TN mineral deposits.
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I'm away for five days, and a game starts... :P
Registering my interest for the game.
Also, a question: Do you (manually) have enough jump points for every faction, or do you plan having competition between factions over them?
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That is for me to know and you to find out in exploration.
We have enough factions currently, so if you'd like in then sign on with one of the existing ones.
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Sematary, would you want to be on a team?
EDIT: Also, since Earth is off limits, does that mean Luna is as well? And if Sublight ad Ektoras claimed a Jupiter moon, are we still free to claim another Jupiter moon?
Sure. Though I'd like to claim Mars.
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Looks like I should check this forum more than once per week. I'd also like to join.
Are you interested in teaming up Pi? I can promise excellent military advice.
On the rules... Fast OB creation gives missiles/fuel for free. Are you going to account for that? How are you pricing shipyards? Any RP penalty for trading away research facilities? I assume you can't trade facilities for RP/BP or vice versa? As far as "free" component research goes, I assume size 50 sensors would get vetoed? Will we get told what our mineral/scientist/civadmin situation looks like before making these decisions?
Any restrictions on trading between factions?
Answer?
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Sure. Though I'd like to claim Mars.
I was actually thinking the same thing. Sematary and Cripes would like to claim Mars. Empire name pending.
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We have enough factions currently, so if you'd like in then sign on with one of the existing ones.
That was my original plan, though with Cripes and Sematary merging, I believe we are at three factions. If so, I'll gladly found one with Nightstar.
Are you interested in teaming up Pi? I can promise excellent military advice.
Gladly. I can offer you excellent bad strange spectacular decisions.
Another question on the rules: Are we allowed to start with JP technology? If so, are we also allowed to start with grav scouts in our OOB?
Oh, and how about geo survey? Is Sol completely surveyed?
Will we get told what our mineral/scientist/civadmin situation looks like before making these decisions?
Seconded.
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Fine, I'll give you guys the mineral/scientist info before you make decisions, that will happen as soon as factions are nailed down. You can start with JP theory if you like, but keep in mind it is a pretty big chunk of your initial RP. You will not be able to start with the JPs surveyed though you will be able to have a grav survey ship or two at the start, assuming you can afford one.
As for fast OB creation giving stuff for free, I will account for that by ignoring it for the most part, but obvious attempts to game the system by using your entire allocation on huge tankers or colliers will be frowned upon, and you will be asked to submit a bit more of a balanced fleet.
By the same token you should make your component requests reasonable, I'll just pick the semi-arbitrary number of 500rp being the largest at game start that you get for free. Exceptions might be made if you can argue it with me and it won't unbalance things.
I am pricing all installations on their wealth cost, shipyards I think are 2400 base, and if I recall correctly tonnage increases are costed at one for one. Not sure about extra slips, but the tables are somewhere on this site or the wiki.
Tech trades are permitted, however you will need to send a ship physically to your trade partners homeworld to make the swap safely, you can transmit it electronically if you prefer, but then i will give the other empires a chance to intercept if there is a ship, colony, or listening post in between you and your recipient. This will encourage you to build listening posts despite not needing the passive sensor coverage.
The default espionage rules are in effect because I like them and they don't require a lot out of me.
Someone asked about if they could have one of Jupiter's moons even though another faction already grabbed one, the answer is sure, just be aware that puts you pretty close to someone who might be touchy about it. Possible consequences include being easily within active sensor range, also missiles from PDC's might be able to range you with no effort.
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Thanks to a little birdie poking me... I'd like to express my interest here. If Pi is right with the number of factions, I'm torn between claiming one for myself and seeing if he and Nightstar wouldn't mind a third.
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Tech trades are permitted, however you will need to send a ship physically to your trade partners homeworld to make the swap safely, you can transmit it electronically if you prefer, but then i will give the other empires a chance to intercept if there is a ship, colony, or listening post in between you and your recipient. This will encourage you to build listening posts despite not needing the passive sensor coverage.
Are you going to do anything about tech integration, like the other empire is required to research it for a bit before they truly understand it? For example, make one research lab do nothing for a month under the guise that it is "researching the blueprints from the recent technology trade." This might makes things a little more micromanagey which would hurt the game.
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Thanks to a little birdie poking me... I'd like to express my interest here. If Pi is right with the number of factions, I'm torn between claiming one for myself and seeing if he and Nightstar wouldn't mind a third.
I myself wouldn't mind.
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I wouldn't object either.
Welcome to the team I guess?
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Well that was fast. I'll go ahead and sign up with them, then, so we can bring
destruction and misery peace and prosperity to the galaxy.
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Well that was fast. I'll go ahead and sign up with them, then, so we can bring destruction and misery peace and prosperity to the galaxy.
I hope you dont mean the kind of prosperity that includes thousand of bombs and comes with the form of orbital bombarment. ;D
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Orbital bombardment solves a myriad of issues permanently. This is sometimes undesirable.
He probably doesn't.
In other news, claiming Titan for the Triumvirate of Titan.
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I'm new to Aurora, I'd like to watch if that's possible?
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It does look very interesting. I look forward to watching this play out.
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Panopticon, are we going to use a similar forum setup as your previous games, or are we going to request Erik setup a community game section that limits certain forum members to viewing it?
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Panopticon, are we going to use a similar forum setup as your previous games, or are we going to request Erik setup a community game section that limits certain forum members to viewing it?
I can set up "faction" forums and a public forum. The faction forums would only be accessible to moderators, the "GM" and the faction players.
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I'm a fan of the faction forum set up, if you could set it up Erik that would be awesome.
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A faction forum would be fantastic. The Triumvirate already has established out-of-forum communications, but that would be a useful place to stick records of what we'd like to do as well as list things like current worlds + their populations and industry, fleet records, current diplomatic agreements with other factions, etc.
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I'm a fan of the faction forum set up, if you could set it up Erik that would be awesome.
I just need details.
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Very excited for the faction forums. As of right now, I believe the teams right now are:
Unknown (Ganymede) - Ektoras, Sublight
Martian Union (Mars) - Cripes Amighty, Sematary
Triumvirate of Titan (Titan) - 3_14159, Gidoran, Nightstar
Niflheimr
Niflheimr, if you're still looking to play, I wouldn't mind have you on our team and I'm sure Sematary wouldn't mind either.
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Cripes appears to have it right
Nifleheimr, I would prefer it if you'd sign on with the others so we have 3 teams of 3, but if you really want to go it alone you have that option, let me know shortly so we can get this show on the road.
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Ektoras and I will be going by Jovian Syndicate
Those spectators wishing to follow the action should probably sign on as honorary members of one faction or other so they can watch some of the behind the scenes faction forum activity if we do go that route.
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I'd like to sign on as an adviser to anyone willing to take me. Likely I won't be a major help, but hopefully I can be of service in some way.
Edit: Actually, I think I'll just watch.
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Panopticon, I've got a concern. Are we getting homeworld minerals on whatever world we pick, or are we going to have to rely on luck? I'd assume we are, but the Triumvirate has been doing some brainstorming and it would help if we had a confirmation.
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Yeah, homeworld minerals for everyone.
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I dont mind playing with you guys at all , on the contrary - it should make managing Mars a lot easier :) . How do we communicate ? Skype / PM / private forum ?
Sorry for the delay , had a ... interesting weekend ( read as replacing the sewage tank and all the related pipes ) .
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The former Triumvirate of Titan is moving to Venus. Long like the Triumvirate of Venus!
...Somehow three good players managed to forget that Titan can't be terraformed to colony cost zero. Sorry for the confusion!
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The former Triumvirate of Titan is moving to Venus. Long like the Triumvirate of Venus!
...Somehow three good players managed to forget that Titan can't be terraformed to colony cost zero. Sorry for the confusion!
I my defense, I never knew that. Wait, that makes a terrible defence.
Also, a few more logistic questions on the game:
- How will the turns be run?
- What kind of orders should we give? (How coarse, for example)
- If using turns, how long will those turns be?
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For orders, you can be as vague or specific as you like, I will require a set of standing orders for situations like being attacked and such, but for other things you can either submit a detailed list of tasks and the order in which you'd like them accomplished, or just a few general goals and leave the specifics up to me, similarly with ship design.
For the beginning, I intend to run the turns until something interesting happens or say 2 years go by, as you guys start expanding then that timeframe will collapse a bit. I will always leave the option to end the turn early if something comes up that isn't covered by standing orders.
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Will we get the game so we can add/modify orders like production and research? Like it was done at the Children of Sol and Return To Sol games.
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I wasn't planning on it no, saving the trouble of setting up passwords and waiting for everyone to get the save and get it back in time.
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I wasn't planning on it no, saving the trouble of setting up passwords and waiting for everyone to get the save and get it back in time.
Yeah, I feel like this would just add extra hassle. Plus, not being able have your orders carried out exactly as you want adds some realism to the game.
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I've created the forums. Please check to see if you have proper access to things. I.E. getting into your group and not the others. Panopticon should be able to access all three.
And where is niflheimer supposed to be?
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I've created the forums. Please check to see if you have proper access to things. I.E. getting into your group and not the others. Panopticon should be able to access all three.
And where is niflheimer supposed to be?
Now that things are fixed, I can see into the Triumvirate's board and nothing else. Thanks, Erik!
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Maybe I am blind and stupid, but I can't even figure out where they are, I don't see them in my fiction section.
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And where is niflheimer supposed to be?
Niflheimr is with us in the Martian Union. Thanks for doing this Erik!
Maybe I am blind and stupid, but I can't even figure out where they are, I don't see them in my fiction section.
It should be in your fiction section.
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Maybe I am blind and stupid, but I can't even figure out where they are, I don't see them in my fiction section.
They're listed under Community Game III.
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Maybe I am blind and stupid, but I can't even figure out where they are, I don't see them in my fiction section.
Can you see them now?
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There they are! Got it.
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Looks like we are almost ready for set up, there is still one very important piece of info I need from you guys though: naming themes. At least for leaders and so on.
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If all other players agree , could we get a copy of the game db not with the purpose of modifying orders , but to see the status of our faction after each turn ? It would help since it's kinda hard to model a strategy without seeing what we've got . There would still be the hassle with passwords but at least no sync-ing , orders and so on.
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What are the terms of communication? Are we assuming FTL communications for all fleets, or if we send out an exploration vessel in some faraway system and it dies, is it possible we don't know about it?
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What are the terms of communication? Are we assuming FTL communications for all fleets, or if we send out an exploration vessel in some faraway system and it dies, is it possible we don't know about it?
I think jump gates sould be necessary to allow FTL communications through different systems.
On orders, depends on the details of the reports Panopticon give to us. But I think we could play this without having access on the game.
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If all other players agree , could we get a copy of the game db not with the purpose of modifying orders , but to see the status of our faction after each turn ? It would help since it's kinda hard to model a strategy without seeing what we've got . There would still be the hassle with passwords but at least no sync-ing , orders and so on.
If you can change passwords as you go, then this wouldn't be too bad. Set the password on each faction, make a copy of the database, then post it to us with passwords listed in each faction's folder. This way you don't have to tangle with setting a password every time you need to do order stacks, nor do you have to worry about relaying all the information to us each time.
Unless you wanted to, I suppose.
What are the terms of communication? Are we assuming FTL communications for all fleets, or if we send out an exploration vessel in some faraway system and it dies, is it possible we don't know about it?
I would support a requirement of either having an FTL ship parked on each side of a gate to simulate them opening a portal and sending a burst transmission through or flinging message drones through. That said, I also would appreciate if we had some sort of an Omega Beacon that would activate when a ship is taken out, which flies home to inform us that a ship died. The amount of information it gives about how the ship died should be limited to what the ship itself saw, as well as what Panopticon feels is appropriate. This way we can have surprise attacks happen, but we're also not going to regularly be going "Now where the hell did THAT go?"
Looks like we are almost ready for set up, there is still one very important piece of info I need from you guys though: naming themes. At least for leaders and so on.
Are you open to custom names for each ranks, maybe working off a base theme? If not, that's fine, I'm just curious if that's something the Triumvirate could do. I know most people won't see it, but the fluff is 90% of the fun.
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That said, I also would appreciate if we had some sort of an Omega Beacon that would activate when a ship is taken out, which flies home to inform us that a ship died. The amount of information it gives about how the ship died should be limited to what the ship itself saw, as well as what Panopticon feels is appropriate. This way we can have surprise attacks happen, but we're also not going to regularly be going "Now where the hell did THAT go?"
I like it , but make it so we won't get a Omega Drone if the ship is destroyed in one interval or if the attacking fleet vastly outnumbers you at close range.
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Venus guys, I haven't heard anything from you about starting conditions, are you just waiting to see what commanders you get before selecting research options? Also do you just want the default installations?
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We have some stuff that I'll try to get up by tonight. We do kind of need to know minerals and commanders before making final decisions though. Installations are part of the rest of the plan, not independent.
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Working on initial set up now, I'll have your minerals, a system survey, a commander list, and a bit of background up in the relevant forums by the end of the evening if all goes well, after that I'll give a couple days for last minute changes to research and components.
As for Omega drones, I sorta like mysterious disappearances so I don't want to make it too easy to figure out what happened, so here's what I'll do:
You will get an Omega drone in the case of destruction of a ship or station when it is both A. One jump away from a system in which you have a presence, and B. The systems are linked by jump gate or a jump ship holding station on the jump point.
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All did not go well, it'll be up tomorrow by 1PM Pacific time.
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All did not go well, it'll be up tomorrow by 1PM Pacific time.
Take your time, Panopticon. Nobody here is in that drastic of a rush, though we are chomping at the bit.
Speaking of which, as the 'official' diplomat of my faction, I would like to propose to the Syndicate and the Union that all three factions prepare a treaty which, summed up, prohibits Survey Craft from being valid targets of war. I think we all can agree that survey ships going about their business pose no serious threat to anyone, right? We can work out more details as we go along, but that's the basic concept I've got right now. Speaking of which, if the Syndicate and the Union could also announce who is handling the diplomacy for their factions, I'd be appreciative; that way I know who to PM in the future.
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Thanks for taking the time to get this off the ground Panopticon.
Would it be possible to allow non-participants to have read only access to the individual faction forums? I realize that this is a game for those involved, but it is in the fiction section and the fiction would probably be much more interesting if the reader had more insight.
Regardless, I'll be following the story.
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Thanks for taking the time to get this off the ground Panopticon.
Would it be possible to allow non-participants to have read only access to the individual faction forums? I realize that this is a game for those involved, but it is in the fiction section and the fiction would probably be much more interesting if the reader had more insight.
Regardless, I'll be following the story.
Would it be possible to do this? Technically, yes, as far as I understand the forum system we're on. It would be a terrible idea, though, because that would open the door to unfair play (not that I seriously think anyone would do this) and kind of goes against the point of having private forums in the first place.
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With only two leaders the Jovian Syndicate is currently jointly managing diplomacy. Please address any diplomatic communications to both Sublight and Ektoras.
Personally, I am reluctant to agree to the Survey Craft neutrality clause. Survey craft would make a safe alternative target in war to population centers, and would require either meta-game knowledge or extensive observation to determine which are survey craft and which are minelayers.
More urgently, geosurveying rival home worlds, yes or no? I'm inclined towards 'no,' but if we go yes all factions should do it immediately to prevent unfortunate misunderstandings later.
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With only two leaders the Jovian Syndicate is currently jointly managing diplomacy. Please address any diplomatic communications to both Sublight and Ektoras.
Personally, I am reluctant to agree to the Survey Craft neutrality clause. Survey craft would make a safe alternative target in war to population centers, and would require either meta-game knowledge or extensive observation to determine which are survey craft and which are minelayers.
More urgently, geosurveying rival home worlds, yes or no? I'm inclined towards 'no,' but if we go yes all factions should do it immediately to prevent unfortunate misunderstandings later.
For determining Survey Craft neutrality, we would obviously be required to identify which of our ships are survey craft, and which are not. I'm personally a little against giving exact specifications, because they could be a hint into the technological capabilities of our ships, but I'm certain that an alternative could be found. Perhaps a tonnage limit could be instituted on ships which could be considered survey craft to minimize the chance of any unpleasant additions such as minelayer pods, as well as a neutral party (Read: Panopticon) confirming that a particular craft is indeed survey capable? Annoyingly, this is one of the places where it would be nice if Steve made identifying what a ship is easier; you'd think that a big honking sensor array would be kind of obvious, especially on small craft where it takes up a good fourth of their mass at the least.
Your reluctance does however bring up another excellent point. Orbital bombardment of our civilian populations is a major concern, and is wholly unnecessary in the face of a gentlemanly war. Once the game has started, we will have to work together to create something like an Eridani Edict in order to prevent unnecessary atrocities.
As for geosurveying rival homeworlds, the Triumvirate is initially going to vote against this. Doing so would be an excellent opportunity to slip an espionage team onto a world under the guise of neutrality, and the information is not useful to those who do not have an intention of placing mines on a body.
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On the homeworld front, the geo survey status of all the planets was completed back when Earth was still habitable and is public knowledge, the moons however have only been surveyed through Jupiter, and no one knows what is on the asteroid belts or the comets, additionally Sol was much more heavily colonized int he past than it is now, so previously surveyed bodies who may not have any more minerals to find, could have ruins. Whether or not the possibility of ruins is something you want to risk conflict over is of course up to you.
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Would it be possible to do this? Technically, yes, as far as I understand the forum system we're on. It would be a terrible idea, though, because that would open the door to unfair play (not that I seriously think anyone would do this) and kind of goes against the point of having private forums in the first place.
I would think that giving non-participants read only access would prevent unfair play for the most part and make the fiction much more interesting for us spectators. Of course, access wouldn't be granted until the player pool is stable.
No biggie. I'm looking forward to it either way. Good luck.
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Earlier someone floated the idea of readers being to sign on with a faction as a non participation observer, I could get behind that, though honestly I don't much care how we handle observers anyway, giving everyone except the players read only access to all three faction forums might be a bit hard to do but I don't know much about the forum software.
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Right now the three subforums of the game are behind group protection. You need to be a member of said group to even see the forum. This forum is visible to all (I hope), and can be used as the public viewing area.
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I would think that giving non-participants read only access would prevent unfair play for the most part and make the fiction much more interesting for us spectators. Of course, access wouldn't be granted until the player pool is stable.
No biggie. I'm looking forward to it either way. Good luck.
Right now the three subforums of the game are behind group protection. You need to be a member of said group to even see the forum. This forum is visible to all (I hope), and can be used as the public viewing area.
If Erik sets the forums to be publicly read-only, but privately limited, then each group would be able to see the other groups just by signing out, assuming it's even possible to do that. Signing on to a single faction as a non-participating observer would be about the only way to semi-fairly do that kind of stuff, and it would be only for one faction.
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Known survey status of the system is posted in a publicly available topic, players I have given you guys your starting scientists in the appropriate threads in your own forums, currently all installations are still at default numbers, I will change them based on the latest available information tomorrow night.
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I would also be interested in reading the private forums. However, if opsec is a major concern for the players I completely understand. That being said, I would like to sign up for read only access to the private forums if the players have no objections. Thanks.
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Read only isn't important. It wouldn't bother me if a spectator had write access and stopped to ask a question or leave a comment. In fact, if we had spectators we probably would create a question/answer thread for that purpose. However opsec is a major concern for all of us. If any of us ever thought information was leaking to another faction then long term planning would vanish into the background of private messages, which would diminish the value of making the faction forums public after the game ends.
So far none of the participants have objected to allowing spectators to sign on as observers to a single faction. Soneofliberty, Stardust, do you have any preference on who to watch or are y'all okay with a random assignment? Or would either of you prefer to be equally uninformed about every faction's backroom planning?
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I am very interested in reading all three, but please give all players time to comment on their desire to have spectators reading over their shoulder. I am really interested in how others play this great game, and look forward to learning from them.
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I am not bothered by spectators but yeah the idea of anything in our forums getting back to any of the other factions really doesn't sit well with me and if it happens it will render the entire point of the forums moot.
On a different note, Panopticon, how close is everything to starting? Are we still waiting on things to be finished? The start is by far the longest part of Aurora.
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Man, startup is hella annoying. Everyone has been wonderful getting their info in, but component and ship design for three factions is a huge pain in the ass, getting the system surveyed the way i wanted to was annoying as well, but changes to one factions system knowledge undoing all the others, for reasons that are unclear to me. Currently I am wrestling with the component design and an overflow error when I design a turret with a single small laser in it. I hope to advance time tomorrow and get this show on the road, but if the error is unresolvable I might have to figure out some workaround or restart from scratch.
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Man, startup is hella annoying. Everyone has been wonderful getting their info in, but component and ship design for three factions is a huge pain in the ass, getting the system surveyed the way i wanted to was annoying as well, but changes to one factions system knowledge undoing all the others, for reasons that are unclear to me. Currently I am wrestling with the component design and an overflow error when I design a turret with a single small laser in it. I hope to advance time tomorrow and get this show on the road, but if the error is unresolvable I might have to figure out some workaround or restart from scratch.
Yeah it is. I hope that it gets resolved too. Maybe Erik can help you with it?
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I'm interested in watching but I don't think I have enough time to commit to playing.
I think I'll upgrade my interest level to being a single faction observer. Are any of the glorious factions of Sol interested in conscripting me?
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My problems are resolved, the overflow error remains unexplained but I got the tech figured out anyway, time will advance today.
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My problems are resolved, the overflow error remains unexplained but I got the tech figured out anyway, time will advance today.
Good to hear! Hopefully everyone's managed to get their stuff in order in time. Triumvirate did, at least (I hope).
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I too would be interested in becoming a low-level advisor/observer, if there's an agreement that it's okay.
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Sign up one more for observer-mode, if it happens. This looks awesome.
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If we do Observer Mode, we could work it in (depending on how each faction wants to handle it) as a low-demand role. Maybe they're not the leading members of their faction, but they're the people on the ground, like ship captains, administrators, etc. Would be an interesting way to get them invested and let them participate beyond just reading. I'd actually be pretty okay with that, myself.
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On observing, Sublight has the right of it. I don't object to observers, I'd love them actually. However, anyone who wants to observe would have to agree not to give away anything at all. That's harder than it sounds; Panopticon's already leaked use of laser turrets. Something that innocuous informs military strategy, and could decide battles. :(
Basically, single faction only, and be very careful what you post outside of the private forums. As fair warning, most of the interesting stuff in the Triumvirate goes on in our private chat. If you spend half the day on IRC, there are some fun discussions. If you don't, you won't see much except technical specs.
You'd still need to get voted on by an entire team, but I'm fairly open to this.
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Me too, so long as you don't do what I did and go leaking tech all willy-nilly.
In related news, all fleets are designed, starting orders have been implemented, tech research, and beginning stuff ironed out for the most part. We'll start advancing time tomorrow. I'll also have some background fiction up to explain just what happened in Sol.
I'm seeing some pretty cool designs here folks, I know I've really limited your starting stuff, and it is pretty cool too see what has come out of it. I'd like to set up a system to leak details publicly at some point when they are no longer relevant, just to show off some of the design choices. Perhaps when the designs are like 10 years old?
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I'm seeing some pretty cool designs here folks, I know I've really limited your starting stuff, and it is pretty cool too see what has come out of it. I'd like to set up a system to leak details publicly at some point when they are no longer relevant, just to show off some of the design choices. Perhaps when the designs are like 10 years old?
I would like to wait until its clear that it wouldn't be giving anything away before they are publically posted. Especially with the possibility of people signing on to see behind a single faction's curtain. If there is no combat in the first ten years we might not have any idea what weapon choices have been made and figuring them out would help a lot toward figuring out tactics.
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Damn I wish I would have known about this sooner else I would have signed on as a player :p but if that is no longer an option being an observer or advisor to a faction would be cool too :p
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The Jovian Syndicate is inviting Destra to join us.
@Panopticon
I would prefer not to mix a design leak mechanic with an existing Espionage team mechanics. Logically, if we keep out the Espionage teams we shouldn't be having much in the way of design leaks. If you must leak either limit the leaks to rough descriptions fuzzy on numerical specs or use something much longer than a 10 year delay.
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Hmm... if we are doing low level adviser/ship captain etc.... I could be interested in that. Any of the three factions looking for someone?
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On the subject of design leaking... If you do design leaks, you should obfuscate them somewhat. Keep in mind that the Russians for instance still have designs from World War 2 as being classified information, and most military designs today remain in use for longer than ten years (See: F-14, F-15, F-16, F/A-18...) so that would be a really short period of time. Now, yes, we should be seeing rapid technological changes as we go along, which means things might be obsoleted earlier... but if we've got it as like. After they've been encountered, on the Solarian System Network (since I assume we've got some sort of internet equiv for communications) we could have people posting their theories on what each ship has. Sometimes they're pretty close, other times they're going full 'Communist Propaganda' with the performance specs.
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That is fair, so what I will do is after about 5 years, or when the ship hits active sensors owned by both other factions I will release some news for the public about it, but will stop short of actually having stats for it. I still want to reveal starting designs eventually, but I'll play that one by ear.
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I wish to formally note that upon this day I have accepted the glorious position of one of the leaders of The Jovian Syndicate. Please note that my personal staff shall be moving my things into my new office at the parliament building and shall officially take office within a few days. Thank you our glorious citizens for putting your trust in me.
(I have joined the Jovian Syndicate and will need access to the private forums if you dont mind :D)
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(I have joined the Jovian Syndicate and will need access to the private forums if you dont mind :D)
Oh I suppose :)
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Oh I suppose :)
THxies :D
Also seeing as I am a player now I guess I should give my opinion on ship designs. I totally understand what your going for and the reason why you want to release ship designs in their entirity but if no one has engaged in combat then no one knows what weapons the other factions use. Because if someone is using fighters, the counter to those is different the missiles or energy weapons and even having a hint of what style the faction uses can change everything. So I would vote on a full non disclosure of any information relating to that until the ships have seen combat with both factions or many many years have passed, in upwards of 50+ and even then I would rather not have weapons listed or hinted to.
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If it's not too late, I would like to join the Martian Union. Glory to the mighty empire that we will forge!