Author Topic: Test Campaign Setup  (Read 5153 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

  • Aurora Designer
  • Star Marshal
  • S
  • Posts: 11649
  • Thanked: 20349 times
Test Campaign Setup
« on: January 10, 2012, 12:09:11 PM »
I've created a second test campaign. The first one had too many nations for test purposes and I was being too ambitious. A lot of the game is still missing so I am going to try to lay track ahead of the train :). Here is the backstory and the first ship

In 2035, Earth was devastated by the Third World War. Confronted by a belligerent, powerful and rapidly expanding China, the United States and its allies decided to fight while they still had a chance of victory. A pyrrhic victory was achieved but at the cost of almost wiping out the human race. Only the United States and Western Europe managed to retain even a semblance of civilization and their populations were drastically reduced by nuclear strikes, lingering radiation and disease. Democracy was also a casualty, as the remnants of the NATO alliance become a military dictatorship in all but name. National borders were irrelevant in the struggle to survive and eventually all the surviving inhabitants of Earth were ruled by a single military government.

Over time, as environmental conditions improved and survival was no longer the main priority, civilian freedoms grew and power become more widely distributed. Technology reached and surpassed the pre-war level. An element of democracy returned in the form of a civilian Senate with limited powers and intensive debates began about the future system of government. One faction favoured a Republican system similar to that of the old United States, a second faction including many of the wealthiest individuals argued a feudal style system was more suitable to the task of rebuilding the world and a third believed that the Roman Republic and Roman Empire, which stood for over a thousand years, should serve as the model for the future. Many other factions existed. The arguments swayed back and forth for years as the military incrementally gave up its powers. Eventually the Roman faction gained the upper hand, much to the chagrin of the other factions, as they persuaded the people that the Glory that was Rome could be so again. Many officers in the military favoured this option as well. Roman names became fashionable and military units adopted unofficial Roman-style names.

The feudal faction was not prepared to give up as easily as the other factions. Well funded and led by the powerful Senator Asmo Dei, they plotted to overthrow the military government before it could hand over power to a civilian administration and create a Roman Republic-style constitution. Only a minority of officers supported the coup but they made up for their lack of numbers by sheer ruthlessness. Almost all the senior officers in the planetary government were killed by a tactical nuclear weapon detonated within supreme headquarters. A significant number of provinces declared the support for the feudal faction, although in many cases that support was primarily from province governors who were promised wealth, lands and power in the new order. The coup almost succeeded but the Senate rallied the people into action and a bloody civil war ensured.

Both sides wished to control the planet and refrained from any further use of nuclear weapons. The rebels were well equipped and well led but the superior manpower and industrial power of the loyalists began to tell. Gradually and at great cost the rebel forces were pushed back. Realising that eventual defeat was inevitable, Senator Dei decided to negotiate. He demanded independence for the rebel provinces and threatened nuclear release unless his demands were met. The Senate, which finally had real power as a result of leading the loyalist cause in the war, was not prepared to meet such a demand. A hundred years after the third world war, the planet seemed to be on the verge of a second global apocalypse.

The impasse was resolved in an unexpected way. A young Senator, Antonius Tiberius, proposed that Senator Dei and his supporters should be exiled from the Earth. Due to recent breakthroughs in gravitational physics and cryogenics, interstellar sub-light travel was a theoretical reality. Although the expedition could take decades to find a habitable planet, time would stand still for the passengers. The idea of conquering a new world greatly appealed to Senator Dei and his supporters, especially as they believed that world would one day be a base from which to conquer Earth. Intense negotiations resulted in a cease-fire on the condition that planetary resources would be dedicated to building a fleet of colony ships for the Senator, his key supporters and at least ten million volunteers from the rebel population.

Aware that the Feudal faction might have the idea of returning to attack the Earth, the Senate had restricted the size of the colony fleet both on the ground of cost and with the intention of restricting the industrial base that the rebels would be able to create. While the cost of building the fleet was still immense, it was still far less than the cost of a nuclear conflict and also removed the long term problem rather than simply delaying the conflict until the rebels decided they had the strength to try again.

Five tense years later, during which any construction delay resulted in renewed rebel threats, the fleet was finally launched. Unknown to the Senate, the colony ships also carried ninety million frozen embryos, smuggled on to the ships as medical supplies. Senator Dei thought in the long term and knew a substantial industrial base would be key to his eventual return, Unknown to the rebels, the Senate's newly formed intelligence agency had introduced a computer virus to the colony ships, which would cause their navigational systems to fail in deep space. The Senate believed it had outwitted Senator Dei and his feudal faction, exiling all of Earth's troublemakers in one fell swoop and leaving them to perish in deep space while preserving their own population and industrial base intact. Unfortunately for the Senate, the feudal faction had one last surprise in store for them. As the colony fleet left the solar system and any possibility of retaliation, several hidden bases, constructed during the previous five years, spewed forth a hail of missiles with high yield warheads. Once again, nuclear devastation marched across the surface of the Earth, inflicting death and destruction even beyond that of the third world war. In future years it would be referred to simply as the Cataclysm.

This time the recovery took centuries rather than decades. The fledgling democracy was replaced by the Terran Imperium, an autocratic regime controlled by the remnants of the Senate and dedicated to the survival of the human race at all costs. Over time, a figurehead Emperor was installed but the power lay in the hereditary Senate, controlled by a small number of great houses. A state-controlled religion grew up in which the Emperor received the devotion of the people and Senator Dei was cast in the role of Satan. The pre-Cataclysm Roman influences remained, although they were not pervasive and were often integrated with older European and American naming conventions. The armed forces retained Roman-style rank designations and formations while unofficial unit names evolved into a mixture of Roman and religious-oriented themes.

By 2500AD, Earth was inhabited by approximately one billion people with technology and industry at early twenty-first century levels. Much had had been lost during the long recovery, including the capacity for interstellar flight. The Senate had the threat of Senator Asmo Dei and the rebels burned into its genetic memory. Therefore, despite the fact that pre-Cataclysm records suggested the rebels had perished in deep space due to sabotaged navigation systems, they were determined that the Imperium should once again develop its lost capabilities to ensure the safety of Earth against any attack. Scouts would eventually be dispatched to nearby systems to search for evidence of the rebel colony fleet or for any signs of alien civilizations that could pose a threat.

During the first decade of the twenty-sixth century, scientific progress was rapid as the necessary technology and infrastructure for spaceflight was developed. Gravitational physics was relearned and conventional industry was upgraded to take advantage of the new knowledge. Because key minerals on Earth were being mined out to support this new industrial revolution, new sources of the minerals were required. Shipyards were constructed and the first deep-space capable ship, a Vanguard class Geological Survey Vessel, was built in November 2514.

The Vanguard was little more than a pair of geological survey sensors, some living quarters and a large fuel tank strapped on to two newly developed Prometheus V nuclear pulse engines. The Prometheus V was designed for fuel efficiency and low maintenance requirements. Able to sustain an acceleration between 0.36G and 0.55G, depending on fuel state, the Vanguard was quite capable of surveying the inner solar system. On its maiden voyage to Earth's moon, the trip required less than seven hours. The orbital survey was completed within three days and Vanguard departed for Mercury. As the ship had fuel reserves for a total acceleration and deceleration of 24,748 km/s, its commanding officer, Primus Stein Astaroth, had orders not to exceed a speed of 500 km/s without clearance from naval headquarters. Surveys of Mercury, Venus and Mars were completed by mid-January and Vanguard moved into the asteroid belt.

Vanguard class Geosurvey Vessel   1,845 tons standard     2,845 tons full load   67 Crew  489.5 BP
Length 66.5m     Armour 1-76     Sensors 1/1/0/2     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 108    Max Repair 100 MSP
Active Signature 113    Thermal Signature 100    EM Signature 0/0

Prometheus V Nuclear Pulse Engine (2)    Total Power 10 MN    Fuel Use 630 LPH   Exp 5%
Full Load Acceleration  0.36G (3.51 mp/s)     Hourly Accel 12.65 km/s    Daily Accel 303.69 km/s
Standard Acceleration  0.55G (5.42 mp/s)     Hourly Accel 19.51 km/s    Daily Accel 468.3 km/s
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Delta-V Budget (Full Load) 24,748 km/s    FBD 66.1 days

Geological Survey Sensors (2)   2 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

to be continued...
 

Offline UnLimiTeD

  • Vice Admiral
  • **********
  • U
  • Posts: 1108
  • Thanked: 1 times
Re: Test Campaign Setup
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2012, 04:04:15 AM »
This.
Is.
Awesome. :D

Even though half the system seemingly hasn't been built yet, this will prove valuable insight on how stuff turns out, while being a good read already.
(Delete post if you want a unified thread)
 

Offline PTTG

  • Sub-Lieutenant
  • ******
  • Posts: 125
Re: Test Campaign Setup
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2012, 10:18:55 AM »
I'm real excited too! Can't wait to hear about the Feudalists.
 

Offline TheDeadlyShoe

  • Vice Admiral
  • **********
  • Posts: 1264
  • Thanked: 58 times
  • Dance Commander
Re: Test Campaign Setup
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2012, 11:32:55 AM »
That's really cool. I've been thinking about interstellar multi-polity starts but they always seemed liked kludges... or that I was better off just pretending that they wern't. lol.
 

Offline Nathan_

  • Pulsar 4x Dev
  • Commodore
  • *
  • N
  • Posts: 701
Re: Test Campaign Setup
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2012, 01:43:13 PM »
Can't wait to see how this turns out, likewise I enjoyed reading the previous campaigns as well.
 

Offline ollobrains

  • Commander
  • *********
  • o
  • Posts: 380
Re: Test Campaign Setup
« Reply #5 on: February 13, 2012, 06:21:48 PM »
and it seems to have stopped