Aurora 4x
Community Games => Drgong's Community Game => Topic started by: Vandermeer on April 05, 2016, 04:05:29 PM
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First. :) But also what struck me after reading FAQ: Is land battle on Earth permitted? Because given how that works in Aurora, it might be a quick and relatively unsightful early end, given how just the strongest site wins basically, and not investing to maximize this would for many years be too risky for anyone, hence intense investment priority.
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Each side has ~360 Nuclear tipped ICBMs due to the conventional start. Land wars will result in Mutual assured destruction (And ending all life on earth) till countermeasures can happen.
If the teams want I will be more then happy to have a rule that no land war for the first ten years. By then the Missile complexes would be obsolete and each team would have ten years to build up countermeasures to a invasion.
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How will tech design work? Do we get a listing of our faction's current tech across all research areas and then we just specify the parameters of whatever component or project we want to start?
Or do we just specify the desired capabilities and hope you give us the optimal configuration (eg no capacitor tech 8 for a 10cm laser)
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How will tech design work? Do we get a listing of our faction's current tech across all research areas and then we just specify the parameters of whatever component or project we want to start?
Or do we just specify the desired capabilities and hope you give us the optimal configuration (eg no capacitor tech 8 for a 10cm laser)
You would specify. You will be given detailed info on what tech you have, and I would ask you to spec out the parameters.
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Just for clarification: We're starting with Trans-Newtonian technology already researched? And nothing further like Geological Survey Sensors/Weapons/Engines/Etc?
Edit:
Also, can we get full listing of what buildings we have at game start?
As it stands my guess is:
Academies - 2
Research Laboratories - 25
Mines - 180
Auto Mines - 20
Conventional Industry - 1600?
Naval Shipyard - 1
Commercial Shipyard - 1
Deep Space Tracking Stations - 1?
Maintenance Facilities - 5?
Ground Force Training Facilities - 1?
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Have you worked out a time schedule for the game yet? Ie, closing times for player registrations, official start for the game, timings for regular reports to each faction, etc.
Also, do we want to encourage use of our "official" voice/text chat channel on Discord (https://discordapp.com/channels/158420945030086656/158422234111672320)?
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Just for clarification: We're starting with Trans-Newtonian technology already researched? And nothing further like Geological Survey Sensors/Weapons/Engines/Etc?
Edit:
Also, can we get full listing of what buildings we have at game start?
As it stands my guess is:
Academies - 2
Research Laboratories - 25
Mines - 180
Auto Mines - 20
Conventional Industry - 1600?
Naval Shipyard - 1
Commercial Shipyard - 1
Deep Space Tracking Stations - 1?
Maintenance Facilities - 5?
Ground Force Training Facilities - 1?
Yes, Trans-Newtonian is researched, but nothing else is. This makes a challenge of what to research first. Of course, many of the first techs are inexpensive and with 25 labs you will be able to obtain a lot of the basic tech quickly.
Buildings will be
Academies - 2
Research Laboratories - 25
Mines - 180
Auto Mines - 20
Conventional Industry - 1600
Naval Shipyard - 1
Commercial Shipyard - 1
Deep Space Tracking Stations - 1
Maintenance Facilities - 5
Ground Force Training Facilities - 2
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Have you worked out a time schedule for the game yet? Ie, closing times for player registrations, official start for the game, timings for regular reports to each faction, etc.
Also, do we want to encourage use of our "official" voice/text chat channel on Discord (https://discordapp.com/channels/158420945030086656/158422234111672320)?
I have not used that voice/text chat, so I am not going to encourage or not encourage using it. of course, a team is more then welcome to use it for discussing stuff.
Turns will be at least 1-week, I know of a few people who are waiting for approval for their forum names, so the game it not going to start for at least a few days. I am working on the offical schedule. I was also thinking of allowing people to join up after the game has started to role play playing Naval officers and the like, and carrying out any role delegated to them, This will help the teams in case someone has to drop out the team has a ready supply of players to replace that player and them knowing what going on.
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I have not used that voice/text chat, so I am not going to encourage or not encourage using it. of course, a team is more then welcome to use it for discussing stuff.
Turns will be at least 1-week, I know of a few people who are waiting for approval for their forum names, so the game it not going to start for at least a few days. I am working on the offical schedule. I was also thinking of allowing people to join up after the game has started to role play playing Naval officers and the like, and carrying out any role delegated to them, This will help the teams in case someone has to drop out the team has a ready supply of players to replace that player and them knowing what going on.
All accounts are now awaiting user activation.
This process will fail for the following reasons:
1. Duplicate accounts - The forum uses something to check to see if there is an account that already exists that meets the criteria for duplication. I reject those.
2. Bounced emails - You don't get the email for the activation link because of an invalid email address, a throw-away account, or one of those one-time email services? Then you probably won't get activated.
3. Certain domains are banned - Due to a high volume of spam accounts being created from certain domains (and TLDs) I've banned those from creating accounts.
If they don't fall into one of those categories, then they need to check for emails from aurora@pentarch.org for the activation link.
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Thanks Erik, the person I know who was waiting for a chance to play showed up in the last hour to the threads :) Thank you for the chance to have this community game and doing the thankless job of moderating a forum.
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Also, do we want to encourage use of our "official" voice/text chat channel on Discord (https://discordapp.com/channels/158420945030086656/158422234111672320)?
Chat is too hectic for me though. I have proudly left my Skype age behind me and never intend to go back seeing what it did to my productivity at critical times.
But what I wanted to propose here is some unified backstory. For RP incitement, we need a reason why suddenly trans-newtonian stuff exists. Playing as Russia just got me an idea for this though: The big bang of Tunguska in 1908. You can read it up on Wiki for interesting details, but essentially there was some huge explosion in russian tundra at that time, and way before nuclear weaponry, that most likely was caused by a quite large meteor hitting earth. The impact was so intense that the shockwave flew around the planet multiple times, and the atmosphere got charged up so that people on the other side of the globe were able to read newspaper at night for the next days to come.
Thing about this though, even until today: We have not found a definite crater, even though there are some suspicions about certain seas.(might be really deeply buried)
...In other words, a perfect opportunity for a hidden ancient spaceship crash.
We need no details about who or what exactly crashed there for now. Just that Russia finally dug up the ship, analyzed it, and became aware to what TN resources are, and how to find them, and potentially utilize them. Intelligence of the world got wind of it, so American and etc. Agents were taking looks at the crash as well.(or maybe there were defectors or other things even ->-> Team 2 can say what they would want. The story shouldn't be completely Russia booked anyway)
Of course this premise (with the tech-"steal"/migration) places initial well founded qualms between the powers, but since we are in cold war anyway... .
Another advantage for me personally: You might not know, but "Vandermeer" is actually just a book character from a german author who wrote exactly about that big Tunguska explosion. Vandermeer was a german reporter with very interesting personality who investigated this as something similar happened a second time in that region about 90 years later.(wasn't aliens though, was "god" (http://www.greensmilies.com/smile/smiley_emoticons_buch.gif))
That means I can sluice in my forum name into this situation, and have it make kind of sense. ;D
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Also, we need a topic in which both teams can just talk. Especially now where setting needs to be agreed upon.
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Another question just to make clear: We are not allowed to look into "Team 2" now anymore?
I was curious about their general political structure, but then noticed I might accidentally read strategies.
..However, we should at least announce these basics somewhere for both, like who is leader/staff-chef/greatest scientist etc., how the political system and their distribution of power works, and how the military is structured. That should be known.
Also for some future: Maybe we can enhance the espionage system in some way? Original Aurora doesn't have much here, but since we have an SM now that can see all, we could introduce things like (espionage minus counter-espionage) = espionage budget, or "espionage random event" chance maybe, depending on allocated skill levels of the agents.
I need an acknowledgement that this is not too complex or unnecessary before I (or someone) can assemble a detailed system for discussion though.
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I set up a game discussion thread so all can post. both teams are self-organizing at the moment.
Please bring up the Espionage concept over to that thread and if the two teams can find something mutually agreeable then I will be most likely game for it.
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Is your side a full player with which we can interact as we any other side, or does it have some limitations? I've just thinking it might have some neat effect if it's clear the NPC is going to side against whatever side first nuke earth.
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Could you also specify the "official timezone" that your schedule will work by?
And I'm guessing those faction topics are officially members' eyes only now, if they weren't already.
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Is your side a full player with which we can interact as we any other side, or does it have some limitations? I've just thinking it might have some neat effect if it's clear the NPC is going to side against whatever side first nuke earth.
Yes, my side is a full side, and while I have not made the offical announcement, if someone was to try to nuke the earth, the NPC side would retaliate. Also, we all (for now) live on earth.
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Could you also specify the "official timezone" that your schedule will work by?
And I'm guessing those faction topics are officially members' eyes only now, if they weren't already.
I am in Eastern Standard Time (-500)
Yes, however if you have a faction topic you do not want ME to see, you will need to make a new thread with a title that asks me to not look. (In case you try to Pearl Harbor South Africa or something. )
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Drgong and Team Russia,
We would like to clarify what is happening with the rest of the World while the three factions are duking it out. Are there possibilities of additional nation-states joining our Alliances, proxy wars, and so on so forth?
Thanks.
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Drgong and Team Russia,
We would like to clarify what is happening with the rest of the World while the three factions are duking it out. Are there possibilities of additional nation-states joining our Alliances, proxy wars, and so on so forth?
Thanks.
At the end of the year (When I as admin do a lot of my "out of program" activities) teams that are active role-players will be given amounts of conventional industry or population.
Generally speaking, as long as the teams are actively role-playing they will get this reward (same reward for all role playing nations). Think of it as flavor, not something to game. However the majority of the world is watching...
-- That said, I reserve to make a ground based crisis if things go slowly in space, but I suspect that will not be needed.
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Somewhat related: I assume diplomacy between the three powers will be roleplayed, with SM making any adjustments needed (e.g. if two sides agree on a geology-sharing treaty but don't have the relations to make it, those would be set appropriately). Could diplomacy team(s) be used to gain a slight increase in pop+CI?
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Somewhat related: I assume diplomacy between the three powers will be roleplayed, with SM making any adjustments needed (e.g. if two sides agree on a geology-sharing treaty but don't have the relations to make it, those would be set appropriately). Could diplomacy team(s) be used to gain a slight increase in pop+CI?
That is a good idea. Give me a day or two to figure out how I will score it but that sounds like a very good way to handle diplomacy teams. Since the fun part of playing a community game is that you can have much more in depth treaties.
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I am in Eastern Standard Time (-500)
Yes, however if you have a faction topic you do not want ME to see, you will need to make a new thread with a title that asks me to not look. (In case you try to Pearl Harbor South Africa or something. )
Erik can set up Sub forums for your factions with memberships restricted to members of the faction and the Admin (that's what he's done for the various Astra Imperium community games)
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I will wait a few days just in case we get a straggler or two who want to join. I do not want to pester Erik too often to let new players in those Sub forums.
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Hello,
I would like to join the game if still possible. I have no preference for one side or another and would like to join the team which benefits more of an additional member.
I am playing Aurora for the last few years and am quite familiar with most aspects of the game.
Thanks, kks.
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Well, you wouldn't want to serve with the commies, would you?
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ce/b0/12/ceb012b129a5fc67cdf2111e714ff7ca.jpg)
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Well, that's a valid point. I guess North American Union it is then.
How is the recruiting process going from now? Do I wait for DrGong's approval or simply post in the NAU thread?
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Nah, just jump in.
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Well, that's a valid point. I guess North American Union it is then.
How is the recruiting process going from now? Do I wait for DrGong's approval or simply post in the NAU thread?
Don't worry, the NAU took you, so you are being added to the team.
Welcome!
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Important question: These sub-forums, can they be seen by outsiders? There are two ways for them to function, - either a couple of people is approved to see them, or another couple of people (the other side) is just dis-invited.
It should be the last, because otherwise no one from outside will be able to read in them, and that would be a shame, as I would be genuinely curious about how each team forges its strategies, so you can see in advance if one side looked through the other etc. . That is just politics gold.
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Important question: These sub-forums, can they be seen by outsiders? There are two ways for them to function, - either a couple of people is approved to see them, or another couple of people (the other side) is just dis-invited.
It should be the last, because otherwise no one from outside will be able to read in them, and that would be a shame, as I would be genuinely curious about how each team forges its strategies, so you can see in advance if one side looked through the other etc. . That is just politics gold.
Those sub-forums are private - only team members and myself as admin (I guess Erik can see them too) can see.
View the sub-forums as a team clubhouse. Thus you can present ship designs, and discuss other matters without worry of "leaks".
If the teams want, I can at the end of the game host PDFs of the teams discussions so people can enjoy the play and read them. The other option was to force the teams to privately discuss matters outside of the forum and the RP would be lost, if it did exist.
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Hmm, "end of the game" can be in years if it works good. Well, that probably won't happen, but still it is too late.
..But I know, maybe you can just open an "invite" thread where curious people can say when they want to see the details, so their viewing rights to the forums get unlocked. Only people who are actually interested will do this, so that should be good enough, and the rest shall be cursed with ignorance. :)
The other option was to force the teams to privately discuss matters outside of the forum and the RP would be lost, if it did exist.
We already have something like this setup, but I also agree that I would rather like to have everything here on the board "somewhere" for documentation purpose.
When this is over, I would like to read the other team as well!
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When the game is over I suppose both forums could just be made public. Will definitely want to read the other one then and maybe even comment on some things.
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If someone who not playing wants to "Lurk" and read a teams forum I will ask that team if it okay with them. It can be a path to joining the that team.
At the end of the game I would think the sub-forums would be opened, so everyone can look and comment. Then laugh about that fast military ship you worried so much about for months of real life time was just a fast courier ship to move teams around.
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there has been some questions about treaties.
- The "No land war on earth for 10 years" is made for fun, so that one will be strictly enforced by the admin.
- All other treaties depend on the goodwill of the empires. and can be renegotiated by the empires, and also can be broken at will, at the risk of your reputation.
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Is NATO still around in our setting?
Drgong, do you want to set some backstory for neutral countries? Or should we try to fill such things in ourselves and just let you override if we become too creative?
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Is NATO still around in our setting?
Drgong, do you want to set some backstory for neutral countries? Or should we try to fill such things in ourselves and just let you override if we become too creative?
I will set some backstory, but Russia has free reign in the former soviet republics and and US will have free reign in the America's Panama and north.
NATO exists in some form, but now is more of a EU thing. And they are off screen, perhaps holding everyone to the land war ceasefire agreement.
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Drgong and Team Russia,
We would like to clarify what is happening with the rest of the World while the three factions are duking it out. Are there possibilities of additional nation-states joining our Alliances, proxy wars, and so on so forth?
Thanks.
At the end of the year (When I as admin do a lot of my "out of program" activities) teams that are active role-players will be given amounts of conventional industry or population.
Generally speaking, as long as the teams are actively role-playing they will get this reward (same reward for all role playing nations). Think of it as flavor, not something to game. However the majority of the world is watching...
-- That said, I reserve to make a ground based crisis if things go slowly in space, but I suspect that will not be needed.
For a genuine Cold War feeling, this aspect could be quite important. We could have a list of some nations (or regions), their pop and CI and extras, like:
Switzerland - 30 Financial Centres
Northern Africa 25 mines
Japan - -10 mines (to supply the Japanese civilian industry), 5 Research labs
North Korea - 1 GFTF
Australia - 2 DSTS, 5 mines, 10 new officers (all named Bruce)
Denmark - 1 Civilian Shipping Line
India - 2 DSTS already deployed on comets
Pakistan - 2 top missile scientists, with some knowledge of advanced warhead designs
Peru - Certain strange artifacts found in ancient pyramids that may or may not be of extraterrestrial origin. Government hints that they will probably be sold to the highest bidder.
Egypt - Even more certain strange artifacts found in Egyptian pyramids, about a month after Peru announced auctioning off their finds
Italy - More strange artifacts, this time found under the Colosseum. Theirs are much more fashionable than everybody else's.
Luxembourg - Several strange artifacts found in long-unclaimed bank deposit boxes. Theirs come tax-free.
Easter Islands - Very strange artifacts on offer. Perhaps not entirely extraterrestrial, but they come at a competitive price.
Vanuatu - Carved wooden copies of definitely extraterrestrial artifacts on offer. Some still bear US Air Force markings.
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and then influence them the old-fashioned way, i.e. money, more money, diplomacy and the occasional espionage teams. No, wait, money, more money and the occasional cultural attache (i.e. spy). Once a year, a country/region would slowly drift more closely to the side spending significant resources on it. There's a minimum that must be spent to influence their politics and a maximum effective amount, both depending upon a country/region's size but unknown to the players.
If both sides spend money, there's automatic potential for conflict because CIA/KGB wouldn't have total control over their respective clients. Things can get ugly if neither side backs off.
BTW, what's the starting wealth?
What about civvie mining? Random or a SM decision? Random might cause large imbalances...
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Personally, that looks somewhat interesting, but my bet would be that it is unmanageably detailed. What I was picturing was a more narrative system, where the SM looks at what each team has done over the year and says, "Okay, Russia's managed to apply enough pressure to one of the -stans to install a complaisant puppet, so they get 10m pop and 5 CI. America has wooed a couple of tiny island nations in the Carribean and Pacific, that adds up to 1m pop and 2 CI, while India - in exchange for some additional concessions - has allowed the FAS to invest in their industry as well as running a recruitment campaign, make that 6 CI and 0.5m pop." (Then Drgong, as FAS player, probably thinks something like, "Next year I'll try to pick off some African smeghole run by a warlord and half-surrounded by my territory.") Or it might be purely abstracted, just numeric rewards that aren't written up as a story.
In other words, roleplay targetting a particular country, specify the techniques you use, and I'd expect that you'll be rewarded for it; but trying to stat it all out and pin it down as mechanics strikes me as not the aesthetic the game is going for, as well as way too much work.
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Personally, that looks somewhat interesting, but my bet would be that it is unmanageably detailed. What I was picturing was a more narrative system, where the SM looks at what each team has done over the year and says, "Okay, Russia's managed to apply enough pressure to one of the -stans to install a complaisant puppet, so they get 10m pop and 5 CI. America has wooed a couple of tiny island nations in the Carribean and Pacific, that adds up to 1m pop and 2 CI, while India - in exchange for some additional concessions - has allowed the FAS to invest in their industry as well as running a recruitment campaign, make that 6 CI and 0.5m pop." (Then Drgong, as FAS player, probably thinks something like, "Next year I'll try to pick off some African smeghole run by a warlord and half-surrounded by my territory.") Or it might be purely abstracted, just numeric rewards that aren't written up as a story.
In other words, roleplay targetting a particular country, specify the techniques you use, and I'd expect that you'll be rewarded for it; but trying to stat it all out and pin it down as mechanics strikes me as not the aesthetic the game is going for, as well as way too much work.
Yes, this is the admin's thoughts as well.
Also, back to my main computer.
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The starting colony is a type 5 colony, right? So we need an A5 administrator as a leader.
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The starting colony is a type 5 colony, right? So we need an A5 administrator as a leader.
A3 is required.
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Oh, good, that leaves room for better personnel.
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Sorry if I missed that point, but are we going to get the actual game database, or are you worried about hacks?
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Sorry if I missed that point, but are we going to get the actual game database, or are you worried about hacks?
No, I will keep the database (I back it up online on a dropbox account) but Teams submit orders and I put them in and run the game till the next choice is made.
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What's our starting minerals and Earth's mining values (sorry if I missed that somewhere? Also, our administrator ratings?
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What's our starting minerals and Earth's mining values (sorry if I missed that somewhere? Also, our administrator ratings?
Each side has a Google drive folder I drop stuff into for everyone to view. It is in the sub forum, but I will PM you the link so you don't have to hunt it down.
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I had a question, but it has been answered through research instead.
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Each side has a Google drive folder I drop stuff into for everyone to view. It is in the sub forum, but I will PM you the link so you don't have to hunt it down.
Could you PM me the Google drive link. I would like to not have to hunt it down.
Thank you!
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If someone who not playing wants to "Lurk" and read a teams forum I will ask that team if it okay with them. It can be a path to joining the that team.
Does this offer still stand? I've always been a fan of community games and would love to observe one of the teams from the sidelines if such is agreeable. No preference which, just hoping to observe in real time.
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Does this offer still stand? I've always been a fan of community games and would love to observe one of the teams from the sidelines if such is agreeable. No preference which, just hoping to observe in real time.
As a quick clarification, do you wish to view both teams or just one teams forum. I need to know before I would ask the team.
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Single team forum. I've been system master before and would like to watch from a player/team perspective.
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Single team forum. I've been system master before and would like to watch from a player/team perspective.
Let me know if you want to be watching the NAU or Russian confederation. Both are active.
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Wait, In the event that we encounter an alien Race, how would intelligence work with them? Unless we have removed the generation of NPRs then this could potentially be a problem...
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Aurora assigns Intel names automatically, so everyone gets their own label for what they see. If we have common encounters, we might just agree to call it the same at some point, or this may get organized into a system with UN or FSA initiative too.
It is no problem either if there is no common naming however, though I'd pledge to at least name the races the same to avoid needless confusion on diplomatic talks.
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Wait, In the event that we encounter an alien Race, how would intelligence work with them? Unless we have removed the generation of NPRs then this could potentially be a problem...
We would use the normal Aurora naming and Intel. But if the teams decide to unify naming I can change the names.
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Let me know if you want to be watching the NAU or Russian confederation. Both are active.
NAU if I have a choice.
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NAU if I have a choice.
I will put in the paperwork in the morning then :)
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Just as a note to the players.
Just some background on how I am running the FSA.
the FSA has elections every 4 years or if a snap election is called. (I have a system to generate elections, but will not post it unless someone is curious about it.) those elections fill a lower house, and the lower house impacts who assigned for the senate. (Senate changes at a slower rate). The elections determine industrial policy, officer names, and foreign policy. This is one of the ways I am handicapping the FSA discreetly so hopefully the NAU and RUS will be the leaders, and that the FSA is carrying out policies that are not the same as the teams. At the current moment the National Front has a strong lead, but in time that might change. (It actually such a big lead that it risks splitting under the rules)
The current parties are
Lower house
National Front (61%) - 124 seats
Peace Now (12.5%) - 25 seats
Liberal party (10%) - 20 seats
Volksparty (8%) - 16 seats
ANC (6.5%) - 13 seats
Amal (2%) - 4 seats
Senate (For life)
Non-partisan - 20
National front - 3
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What exactly is banned by the 10 Réunion Island Crisis treaty? Use ground forces on Earth? Using ICBMs on Earth? Any kind of international war?
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What exactly is banned by the 10 Réunion Island Crisis treaty? Use ground forces on Earth? Using ICBMs on Earth? Any kind of international war?
Land war on Earth. ICBMs and space born attacks are still allowed. So JUST ground forces, on earth.
I did that as one of my few admin "This is how it will be" as a early ground war is one of the most boring ways to play this game. Much prefer to have fights over Europa myself.
As a note - a team can propose to expand the Réunion treaty to include other things. Though the FSA will not consent to never flinging nukes.
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Note about subsidizing private industry.
I will allow both subsidizing of your current lines, and Establishment of new lines.