Beyond Alpha Centauri:::: Discussion Thread 4

[Lonestar]

Advances on the Hive? We gaven't advanced nuthin'!

[Cybergod]

Time jump - I wouldn't like one now since too much stuff is going on and I wish to cook up some action around Titan soon...

We'd also like to split from TA in the future, when we think we're stong enogh to tackle provokations from the EC, but if we see no need (economically etc.) we won't.

If Terra chooses to colonise one of the outside systems, we'd send out colony ships aswell, to the same system and colonise another planet in that system, just to steer trouble...

That would be the basic agenda of the Titan faction - to steer as much trouble as possible for the EC and to become a more powerful and respected Terran faction.

[Cybergod]

Plus...

Frankychan, we'd love to trade and meet the Hive but our agenda would not involve allying with you, even more so since you have little plans going on with Earth

History Guy, will finish writing up by tomorrow, just have to go to a party...

[Mellian]

Why would Gaians, or atleast UN Unity people, bring tobacco? not even a nescessity for survival when colonizing. If your so into cigs, then maybe MI acquired tobacco from TA

as for aliens that smoke...they are not exactly human, meaning, cigs may be deadly or cause bad side affects. Smoking in a fighter is reackless and dangerous...uses up the lifesupport for nothing. take the aliens in Alien Nation, Salt Water is deadly accidic to them

[Mellian]

I am not too keen in the idea of a faction not part of TA within Sol, home system of TA and most of the members.... would just makes things completed and give headaches there would be downsides, especially when your surrounded by TA. Anyway, during the timewarp, can have the spark between the TAF and EC, which the friction will started up after the TAF went landed on Samnos and tried stoping their troops, and arresting them...while eliminating the Hive troops (since they wouldn't surrender). Plus, EC will be annoyed with some things in the Treaty. plus, EC may not be please with some of reforms being proposed in the Council, which some involves making TA tighter. spark will happen when EC becomes a Police State and all sort of nonsense happens, which could be in part the Saturn region. TA ends up putting EC trial, like they did with InEn in the Council, where EC simply quits from TA and hijacks the TA buildings in Geneva and TAF Command(just for show from the TAF, their real TAF Command as been relocated on Pluto, secretatly) TAF lands some Commando and Gear units to retake the TA holdings on Earth and generally overthrow the EC government by taking the gov buildings and some other sites on earth, like EC Command. Something needs to be discuss with kass, but EC goes back to Democracy, which will be even better then before and pro-TA....but there will be plenty of room for conspiracies, espionage, and so on after the civil war and agreement with EC, which becomes a member of TA again, and is decided that TA will control some territory in North America somewhere, maybe an entire state in the middle of USA or something, and found a new base/city, where the new TA Council Dome will be located, as well as TA Command and so on..as well where Embassy buildings of other factions will be located...as well as member embassies. City can be a focal point of Diplomacy between all factions who have embassies there. City/state is to be planned out as an Utopia like, well, as muich as possible. The state/city will be defended by TAF(which will become the TAAF). Before contruction is complete, council will return to the old TA Council building or temporally at Transquility City on the moon until the Council Dome is completed....

Now, as for the matter of Colonization... i have been thinking of reason why TA didn't colonize peacefully, well, here is the reason now....which makes lot more sense:

There had been problems as to who will colonize Wolf and Ross (Terra Nova was more military oriented, so pretty much TAF which led the colonization there), which did cause disputes and debates in the Council. EC was really into colonizing, same with InEn...but the colonies will be going under the members banner. SO, to avoid power struggles, was decided to have join colonization of the planets and so on, and join mining ventures and so on. There was also talk that when a colony does decide to become independent and that they achieve certain reasonable size, they become seperate members of TA...the colonists would then decide on their fate, how they will run their goverment and colony, and so on....as long as it follows the UN Charter, which still used...with some ramifications over time, like the geneva convention.... After Wolf and Ross, some of the members who are more capable to establish colonies got discouraged by the hassle they have to go through and so on.... so the best TA did afterwards was mining ventures in some surrounding unclaimed systems, without actually claiming them. Now, there will be reforms concerning colonization by TA members... doesn't have to be joint collaboration anymore, but if the member's colony decides to declare independent once it reach a reasonable size, they are to be allowed to do so and become new members of TA. TA Security (will be newly funded organization, which is mainly seperated from the TAF and has its own seperate organization charter) will make member govs won't do anything to prevent declaretion of independence. Also, members cannot claim an entire world in one shot....and sharing should be allowed and will be enforced. whatever system a member colonizes, will become a TA system.

what do you people think? the reforms concerning colonization should cause a colonial rush by TA members also, there will be new members.... Cyclanid, and the other two systems... now, after thinking over it, better to make them three new members...9 reps/votes that could be influenced by MI and so on. Possible Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus areas become new independent members after the short terran civil war. They won't be big members, but thats three votes each there could end up having 27 votes from Sol alone right now it is 18 votes and none in Wolf and Ross....has no colony decided to become independent yet, even thought they achieve the minimal requirements which would be atleast 10k population, be able to be self-sufficient if ever required too, and certain level of infrastructure....depending on location of the colony.

anyway, I vote for an 5 year time warp and rather have the timewarp happen after the peace conference is completed....and maybe a short Terran civil war or during the timewarp.... need to discuss with kass concerning this.

Oh another thing, at the end of the Timewarp, TA can start up again when the independent Barnard Star decides to join TA after a 4-5 since TA started its mass diplomatic spree, having embassies all over, aiding independents and passive TA propanganda to join TA meaning, Cadre, Firaxis, Concordia and so on with have TA ambassadors and embassies....with increase trading and so on.

-LMP

-LMP

[History Guy]

OK, Cyber, I hear ya.

Well, LMP, Heck, yeah! The Terrans gave them tobacco...Morgan monopolized on it...I knew it all along...yeah...

Well, Cepheleens won't have any problems with salt water...or any water for that matter...they are sea people after all...and tobacco doesn't appear to have done too much to old Meroz.

And hey, Spitfire isn't really much of a fighter...more like a converted garbage ship, really...

while eliminating the Hive troops (since they wouldn't surrender

Well, I think Franky will have to give his OK on that. I certainly wouldn't want a whole battle fleet of mine to be wiped out...OK, so maybe I've let whole battlefleets of mine get wiped out...but never as large as Bippol's.

anyway, I vote for an 5 year time warp and rather have the timewarp happen after the peace conference is completed....and maybe a short Terran civil war or during the timewarp.... need to discuss with kass concerning this.

That is, if there is a timewarp. The peace conference isn't the only thing to do in before the possible warp. I'd like to see where Cybergod goes with his stuff, Kass with his, Franky with his, Tacticus with his, and myself with mine. I'd vote for a two year timewarp at most, though I'd prefer no timewarp. I don't think it'd particularly service the story at all.

Concordia...ah...I'd like to know a bit more about that place...how's it run...who colonized it?

[Frankychan]

Just to remind everyone...

Anything to do directly with the Hive should be run through me. I don't know if it's just me but it seems some people are trying to make decisions for me. (This is something that I REALLY So, if one author wants to just wipe out my troops....My answer is NO. Now if someone collaborates with me, then I will say yes....So long as I have some say in what happens.

Well, I think Franky will have to give his OK on that. I certainly wouldn't want a whole battle fleet of mine to be wiped out...OK, so maybe I've let whole battlefleets of mine get wiped out...but never as large as Bippol's.

Thanks for sticking up for me History.

If I find that some one has made an important decision concerning the Hive directly....I will voice my opinion.
I do not want to find out that there's been an attack in my territory without me knowing beforehand (ME as in the AUTHOR). I do not want to find out my fleets are "mysteriously" destroyed without some kind of collaboration effort. Because I will be very angry if decisions are made on my behalf w/out me knowing about it.

(This is a pet peeve I have.)(Pet Peeve=Something that is really annoying and irritating)

K, that's enough seriousness. Let's go on to the fun stuff...

2 year timejump seems alright. It's not that long a time but just long enough to fix the SNAFU right now and still possess lingering feelings.

As far as I am concerned, The entire H.E.F. is still in Samnos' orbit, haven't landed anything on the planet yet, and are preparing for a last strike against the Morganites. (Sorry History Guy for not posting yesterday)

Cybergod-Hmmmm. Trade seems like a good first step to a Hive/Saturnian relationship. But I think that that will be further on in the future. My idea is that it would be a non-aggression pact. So GHE and S. Kingdom aren't buddy-buddy, but we don't hate e/other either. If anything happens, we wouldn't attack e/other (yet). Waddaya think?

Mr. President- . It is unfortunate that the lovely Kristy Adams has had to align her government with the militaristic Spartans. Think of the Drone people! The Hive is...

Aiight, I'm done for now.

[GeneralTacticus]

And general if you wanted ships, all you had to do was ask. Sparta would be happy to sell you arms. As long as they are used against Lysander's group or any Hiver. But I would assume that any deals with the Spartans wouldn't appear so well in the general public.

Just a question. What is the general attitude of the people in your faction towards Sparta? Not counting Lysander's group.

Heh, I'll be sure to have Menelaus ask about this... anyway, as to what we think of Sparta, well obviously Lysander's group hate them totally. The rest of them have mixed feelings about them, they mostly dislike them, but they've come to the same conclusion as Menelaus, namely that they can't win against Sparta. And the fact that the Spartans were quite friendly when the Cadre made their opening moves has had an effect, since mostly they only ever thought of Spartans as enemies.

About dealing w/ Sparta, well, the only people likely to complain about it as long as the Cadre benefits from it are those that sympathise with Lysander, and Menelaus wants to get rid of them anyway.

[Mr. President]

"Passive propaganda", eh? Well, just as long as you don't expect Firaxis to actually join the Terran Alliance, whatever you do there is probably fine with me. Probably.

I vote for a two-year time warp. I need to finish off the Lakedaemon negotiations, and do some more on the Temple. I'm also preparing a story about a Firaxian soccer fan and his adventures while watching his team play in all strange locations, but I might save that until later.

[History Guy]

Well, thanks Franky. I totally agree with this, as I am sure would LMP if she ended up with her entire attacking battlefleets suddenly get zapped without her permission. Anyway, I thought I should just say something against it.

Once again, I agree with Mr. Prez that before any warp comes that I definantly want to get my sub-plots worked out.

So yeah, I vote for two years.

[Sovereign]

(blinks)

LMP a.ka. Mellian is a woman? Damn, I never knew!

Hehe... now I understand her fierceness better

[Mr. President]

Originally posted by Sovereign
LMP a.ka. Mellian is a woman? Damn, I never knew!

Yeah, I also found that out a while ago, but I kept using "he" because before our minds were corrupted with overblown ideas of political correctness, those two letters used to be usable as a gender-neutral pronoun.

[Lonestar]

wait, wait, LMP is a woman?

Now I know how everyone reacted when they found out I'm (legally) Black.

:P

[Mellian]

Franky, sorry i wasn't making any decisions for anyone, just stating my ideas... not exactly official and i did ask what people thought of it. Now that you did, fine, Hive will listen to TAF warning and not land troops... now, Kass, will EC land troops and not stop that process when the TAF does and announces cease fire?

Okay, 2 years if people are into that, may leave Barnard Star thing as something to write about. TA will start out after timewarp in a period of a colonization rush, and trying to establishig embassies all over...and get them consider have an embassy at the recentl;y founded Unity City controlled by TA on Earth. Council Dome will have been completed in the past few months....and most member and foreign embassies are built. 2703 can be the year of the short terran civil war, followed by the application of new reforms and re-organization.

As for my gender, *shrugs*, rather not get into that here...

-LMP

[Sprayber]

Franky: I think Mellian was just throwing out the ideas to the rest of the writers. No one will attack or destroy anyting without first discussing.


For now lets just concentrate on our current storylines. Individual writers can dicuss their plans with others when the time comes.

Thanks History Guy for giving us the names. It will be easier to see things better now.


Concordia: Settled originally by Peacekeepers that wanted to get away from the rest of their faction. Eventually settlers from University, some Morganites and Drones have also settled there. Concordia is currently neautral and enjoys diplomatic contact with most goverments. For the most part they have a demorcratic goverment and smallish defense capability.


Benarnds Star: Settled by many groups including PK, Terran, Morgan, and Drone. Large Believer community exists on Benards Star. Neautral when dealing with other goverments. Suffcient defense force but not much in the way of attack capability.

Laekdaemon: See Cadre. Under GeneralTacticus direction.

Firixas: Under Mr. President.

Minos: Located at the conjuction of Spartan, PK, Believer territory. Minos is a refuge planet. Not much in the way of culture here. Groups stay to themselves and pretty much govern their own small territory. Some groups posses the means to leave the planet at their will but do not posses the means to take over control of planet. There are Believer elements on Minos comprised of monks and missionaries. They are there to bring the faith to the population. No real Planatary government at all. Treaty between Sparta and the PKs prevent any side from claiming Minos. Same treaty has traditionally kept other near by powers from trying as well. Minos is so unimportant that the expense of maintaining control would far outweigh rewards.


You all are welcome to come up with more independents if you want. The main things to keep in mind.

1. Keep them somewhat realistic

2. Don't create one just to harrase your neigbor unless they are brought in on the creation.

3. Idependent planets are independt because they are either unimportant or because their belonging to a large power would create an inter human war. ex. Firaxis.

4. Alien independents are ok, but they are to remain primative or at the industrial level. Lets try and keep contact with them limited unless you have something in mind. In that case throw it out to the group and see what comes of it.

[History Guy]

OK, LMP.

I've got the sub-plot at the casino to work on. I'd better start cracking to get it all whipped out before...the warp!

When the warp takes place, we will find Morgan Interstellar sticking simply to economics, having disbanded two of the three corps (as it always does when there is a lull in the wartime). The termpapers of the Soldiers of God are running down, but Morgan plans to rehire them when the papers run out to guard the Corporate Sector (which has been returned) and the new colonies. South of Castor, Morgan is expanding his territories to some distant systems for peaceful colonization. He won't run into any aliens, though, don't worry.

We will have improved relationships with the Terrans and the Believers as well as maintained our friendships with the Spartans, Drones, and University. As for the Gaians and the Peacekeepers, I can't say. I think Alynzia doesn't want to do anymore SMAC writing. Guardian will join in every so often, I believe. Morgan is on friendly terms with the Gaians and the Peacekeepers, and he has acquired the commlink to Yang, but has not contacted the old guy as of yet. What to do about the Protectorate, I don't know. Nothing big, I'd imagine, just a treaty, information exchange, co-operation between MI and Alchemax. Nothing to speak off.

Hmmmm...if I wanted to start fixing up things on an independent planet, as a part time thing, like Mr. Prez does for Firaxis and Franky might do with something else, I'd choose Concordia. The place sounds, well, tranquilitas.

[Mellian]

There is also Tau Ceti, which doesn't have much of a colony there...but have research bases, and outposts from various there like University, Gaians, Cyborgs and so on....exploring and studying the Tau Ceti manifold.

Minos seem an interest system for some pirate clans to hide as well.... and the Concordia system. Don't have to be on the world, just around the system....like moons, asteroids, around gas giants, and so on... with smallish bases, outposts, stations and starbases.

Also need another system where the unwanted go hide too...have bases and so on, which eventually lead to an Anarchistic world. Known location for various clans to hide or simply by...same with some data angel bases. Some faction or the other have tried taking the system, but becaming useless.... not that they were hard to defeat, just the time wasted going after them around the system Can also be where the Novans dropped the survivors of the Drone Freighter crew.

There is two or three smallish alien species i would like to introduce.....
the sesheyens, evolved in a massive forest/jungle moon around some gas giant in some system near the bottom of the galactic disc. They are still in th hunter-gathering period, tribalistic and so on. will give better desc later. Pirate clan or two were aware of them, as they have some bases in the system, but generally leave them alone. Maybe a Morganite or Drone scout/explorers discovers them, and so on the faction attempts to claim the system and the moon. soon later, TA scout happens to discover them and discovers the faction presense and them attempting to gain control of the moon or whatever... can be a situation which involves that faction, TA and the pirates.... and the general pro-sentient/human rights people. Thinking maybe that faction would be the Morganites, if history is interested...

Then there is the Mechalus....will give desc later, but they would be Pre-FTL in tech, but space travel capable...just hasn't started colonizing the system yet, but have wiped out a species at the neighbouring world....which later caused a period of depression among the Mechalus, realizing of what they done and so on. They are humanoids...and good relationship potential between them and the Cyborgs and Scions. Thinking that the Drones would be the best candidate to discover them.

then there is the Wern, or whatever, will get desc later. They would be in their reinnaisance when they get discovered....they would like like some form of werewolves, but quite culturally artistic. Thinking maybe the Believers could discover them?

(yes, trying to bring in Star*Drive species and create a similar situation of discovery ... if people agree)

Then, maybe have a system...doesn't have to be a good one, a barren world with terraforming potential would be enough.... so i can bring in the Fraal "Builders", which some humans will end up calling them.... Those Fraal won't be using very advance techs....just human level techs...to avoid some humans and others to acquire powerful fraal tech. Would only create some oddity and wonder among humans really....and no, it is not a new homeworld. with some young Fraals who wanted to colonize and so on, experience the same experiences humanity does... they pretty much become a Fraal faction...but won't be hostile against the main one....just difference in opinions.

-LMP

[Frankychan]

For independent worlds:

The world I'm thinking about, Sprayber, is industrial. I'm seeing it as having a large populace (more men=more power) and have maybe one unique tech that they have developed that Yang finds interesting and wants. Could be something like a more efficient way to process minerals or something.

The world has satellites/transmitters to broadcast messages into space (kinda like a reverse S.E.T.I.)<---I say reverse cause instead of listening, they are broadcasting to find other life in space. The government wants to seek out new life in space and see what's "out there".

Anyway, GHE receives transmission and decides to "liberate" the people of the planet who slave under the "despotic" rule of their government(s). The planet could be like present day Earth, with multiple governments or could just have one centralized govt. But I think it should be democratic. Maybe Spartans hear the broadcasts too. *shrug*

That's a pretty vague idea I have....not much else right now. But for the independent world "liberation", I don't want it to have ties to any faction. If it did, it would complicate things. This way, the Spartans or whoever can moan and complain, but not really interfere because the other factions are not the victim/beneficiary....to the delight of Emperor Sheng-ji Yang.

Waddaya think?

[History Guy]

Good heavens, Franky! You are now 2nd in command to Emperor Yang??!! I'm only a lowly patrician at MI!!

Are you going to post on Bippol's ship and fleet?

[Frankychan]

Originally posted by History Guy
Good heavens, Franky! You are now 2nd in command to Emperor Yang??!! I'm only a lowly patrician at MI!!

Are you going to post on Bippol's ship and fleet?

Heeheehee! You know this! If Yang dies, I'm in charge!

K, here's wassap. I usually type in school cause they have a fast internet connection. But @ home I gotta use dial-up and it takes 4ever. I lost my book w/the drafts somewhere at home and I'm trying to find it....I've been trying to buy some time until I could find it but 'Oh Well!'

If I can't find it when I get home, I'll just post whatever I can think of. But it probably wont be a full attack, but just have the beginning to the middle of the attack.

[History Guy]

Franky--

If Yang dies? I doubt that'll happen too soon...but if you really want to replace Yang in a short ammount of time with yourself CEO Morgan would love to help out...

Sorry to hear that you lost your drafts, Franky!!

[GeneralTacticus]

Wow, things seem to have slowed down a bit here.

Then there is the Mechalus....will give desc later, but they would be Pre-FTL in tech, but space travel capable...just hasn't started colonizing the system yet, but have wiped out a species at the neighbouring world....which later caused a period of depression among the Mechalus, realizing of what they done and so on. They are humanoids...and good relationship potential between them and the Cyborgs and Scions. Thinking that the Drones would be the best candidate to discover them.

The Mechalus might actually (that is, if we are also following the 'official' desc of the species from Star*Drive) become very important, since they are meant to be very advanced in bio-chemical weapons and counters to them (and have no knowledge of nukes, since their world has no uranium.

(yes, trying to bring in Star*Drive species and create a similar situation of discovery ... if people agree)

That would probably be interesting, but as I think Sprayber said, we should try to avoid introducing too many aliens into BAC. Remember, this is meant to be about human factions and what they do, with the aliens as outside forces.

[Mr. President]

I agree, plus if we're too "inspired" by other games, this might metamorphosize from Beyond Alpha Centauri into Science Fiction Crossover Marathon.

[Mellian]

Yes, but the aliens will simply be there...and for example of the sesheyens, they can be stuck between some human factions disputes...concerning them. The Weren will simply be there, and not really active...but they will start appearing in the community at some point. The Mechalus will simply be there as well, not really active. They are minor aliens, not a big huge of a deal already got the Fraal involved....

As for being a crossover, BAC is already is like the Bree, Gorn, and I am sure the Dosi came from somewhere.... also notice the Dosi's conquered aliens.... their names are familiar, hmmm

Anyway, doesn't hurt to see what some Human Factions does concerning alien species....as there is no ST directive.

anyway, gtg

-LMP

[GeneralTacticus]

Obviously there will always be aliens, but why not just make our own up? I mean it's fine copying attributes from other places, but if you start just 'cut'n'pasting' aliens from elsewhere, then they will probably end up dominating the whole thing... and I'm especially worried about the Protoss! In Starcraft the only things that prevent them from dominating everything are their honour code and the fact that they just got attacked by another species their equal. Unless you want to introduce the Zerg as well, (which I would definitely call going a bit far), I think we should just leave them out... they would either become totally dominant (if they got involved), or totally irrelevant (if they didn't).

[Guardian]

Ummm... well, if it ain't Guardian the slow...

I'm still coming, it's just taking a while...

Thought I'd drop in and wish you fellas a nice weekend, and... well, I'll catch ya later!

[Mellian]

Not bringing in the Protoss they are like 40k lightyears away from Sol in starcraft. Besides, the Fraal will protect humanity from big advance and powerful aliens. Pretty hard to make your own races when they will just end up being similar to some sci-fi ones somewhere I brought in the Fraal because society wise, they are the most common aliens people think of....like check out a lot of the UFO and alien sites, there bunch of pics or drawings or whatever of skinny black eyes aliens....commonly called as greys.... If you want made up races, i could always bring my Macky...but they pretty much evolved from humanity bio-engineering wise and them appearing is related to time travel and parallel dimensions...which we agreed not to have. Another thing, i suck with names, so nothing wrong borrowing names from other sci-fis, especially when we are not makin a profit off BAC.

Anyway, if you don't want to deal with minor species, so be it.... they will be at the edge of human space anyway....and haven't been discovered because in the past century or so, exploration was slow until recently...especially from TA which will be in a colonization rush when the game starts again after the timewarp.

-LMP

[Mellian]

sesheyens and weren will not be able to dominate anyone... as for the Mechalus, they will be in a period of depression to think about expansion. So they won't be a problem. Now, me personally see writing potential between concerning the Mechalus, Cyborgs and Scions....which they do have similarities. during the timewarp, relations as started up between the Scions and Cyborgs.

Only universes i COPY and pasting,then modify, is from the Battlezone 2 and Star*Drive. I see nothing wrong with that. Hey, i am pretty sure almost all of the ideas people add were base on some other universe or something.

-LMP

[History Guy]

Well, it's back...again!!

Tacticus-- You are darn right. It is slow...tooo slow for my liking. Is this the work of the time warp??!!

As for the aliens, I agree. I don't like the idea of lifting other alien races from other games and sticking them in the story, and I personally have never done it. The same is true of Franky and Mr. President. If we want aliens, we should create them instead of lifting them. It'd be much more interesting anyway. Simply because LMP isn't good at names doesn't mean she must lift other names, she can just ask some of us to create names for them.

I'm also very much against the presence of too many aliens in the first place. For someone who wants things believable, LMP sure does stick in a lot of aliens!

Hey Guardian! There you are!!

[Sprayber]

There is an old saying in Sci-fi. There are no original ideas around. Just about everything you see has been done in some way before. Everything from your thoughts are in some way influienced by others. It's just in how you present it


Aliens are ok. Just make sure the powerful ones don't

1. Give lots of advanced tech
2. Don't attack other human faction
3. Don't directly influience other factions without their pre approval
4. Don't clash with the current timelines

Like someone else already has said. This pretty much limits them to background roles. Which was the intention at first anyway. Once in a while we may feel the need to have them attack. But be sure that it will be rare and after Everyone is ok with it.

[story mode]Rest assured that the mighty Spartan Federation is not interested in Alien alliances. We in Sparta have resolved to fight the alien threat from all sources wherever they may lie[/story mode]