SDNW5 Discussion Thread I

[Simon_Jester]

As much as it is an apt descriptor, can we not outright call it clusterfuck station? I mean, how in the name of the seven hells are you going to justify them naming it that from an in universe perspective without us dragging shroomy in to write the role?

I can think of a way.

[takes modhat FIRMLY off, hangs it up on a peg and does NOT wear it for this]

The stars in the immediate neighborhood have catalog numbers, but many of the names come from a local starfaring culture of no particular importance. Or a bunch of space nomads (Nation or otherwise) that passed through some long time ago. The local powers use those names, much as aliens visiting us might call the big white star eight light years from us "Sirius" just because we're doing it.

So the local powers all refer to the station by the name of the star it orbits on their books...

Only later is it realized that the name translates into Galstandard as, roughly speaking, "orgy gone wrong."

Clusterfuck Station. But only the informal and the bizarre call it that instead of [insert word in foreign-ese here].

[Skywalker_T-65]

Well there we go, now we have a way to make it work if I can't think up an actual name for it. Which for the record I'm still trying to do, with the other name being the informal one (like Huey). But hey, at least we have the other option.

[Simon_Jester]

The formal name might be [insert word of foreign-ese here]. Or it might get some vague, optimistic name like Resolution Base or Hope Station.

[modhat on]

Don't use those actual names. Make up your own.

[modhat off]

Vague and optimistic sounds in keeping with the Arcadian national spirit.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Or even better...both. A suitably hopeful Arcadian name (read: Space Swedish of some sort) coupled with a [foreign-ese] name that translates in a funny way. That should work, though obviously I will only use the Arcadian one.

EDIT: Only use the Space Swede name in my posts rather...the other name anyone else could use.

[Esquire]

From a linguistics perspective, Space Greek (Hellenic, if you want to get all serious) very well might have a single word that means both 'clusterfuck' and 'situation with unforseen potential,' or something like that. After all, the same word (logos) means everything from 'math problem' to 'political speech,' in Not-Space Greek. Something like... Aprosdioristos Telos is 'Indeterminate End,' more or less, and one could certainly imagine it getting shortened to the much more manageable Aprotelos (or something), and becoming idiomatic.

Then again, that might be more justification than you want for your station names.

[OmegaChief]

-Or- we could make the first story post the various attache's and advisors from the various nations who've installed themselves arguing over the name for the place, IE the Hellenics want to call it something in Space-Greek, the Capellans have thier own semi-whimistic/silly name in mind, the Haruhiists have an approriate Anime reference.

And all the while the Arcadians are trying to politly and without offending anyone remind them that it's thier base and so they should probably get the naming rights.

And some politition makes an off the record remark that the whole station is one giant clusterfuck.

Though the other suggestions are cool too!

[Skywalker_T-65]

We can probably do that actually. I already have a first post in the works, but it can just be the founding of the station, along with the Arcadian idea for a name. The other idea can be the second post, since I would have to get a lot of cooperation to make it work.

EDIT: Well, the first post is up. I decided to go all out on the DS9 motiff, as you can tell. As for why its a prologue post...I figured this way we could still do the other idea that Omega brought up for the name, and have that as the first story post for it. As for the name...Google translate gave me that for 'Eternal Hope Station'. Why that name? Because it is ironic considering this station is likely to be the shortest lived station in Arcadian history if I'm not careful with it of course!

Bear in mind something though...I haven't seen DS9 in years, so I'll probably butcher things. If anyone has advice on the characters, now would be the time.

As for the ship...here's what it is, so no one gets confused (going to modify that Patrol Fleet post too, so it is correct now):

-ARS Trotsiga

-Experimental Pocket-Battleship

-200 points

-Asgard Bilskirnir class from Stargate

EDIT Mark II: And yes I know that Eternal Hope Station is similar to Simon's 'Hope Station'. But it seemed to fit the best, and I put it in Space Swedish for good measure.

[Simon_Jester]

It's fine.

Your DS9 clone is a little too close; I advise you to mutate some names and make sure the characters are different- sit down and write out their personalities and explicitly how they differ from their DS9 counterparts. Keep it in your mind and they'll be yours, not just Star Trek's.

I did that a little with my Firefly clone, which was just about my first serious attempt at a storyline in SDNW4, two years and umpty thousand words ago.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Yeah, it was just a short little prologue. Hence Arcadian Sisko being the only character that talked. They will be different for one reason if nothing else...the fact that I haven't seen DS9 in years.

I couldn't write exact copies of the characters even if I wanted to. I'll work on changing the names too.

[OmegaChief]

You could always rename him Oksis, eh Force Lord? :p

[Skywalker_T-65]

You know, I think I'm going to set up a google-doc for the first story post. That way we can make it a massive collaborative post, and everyone can put int thier stuff for the naming convention.

How do you set it up so that anyone can mod it though...need to figure that out...

[Imperial528]

You share the document with the gmails of the people who will be editing it and give them editing powers over it.

[OmegaChief]

It's in sharing settings when you click on Share, but to save time;

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JPF ... Wun_Q/edit

I set one up already for us

[Skywalker_T-65]

So...working on planning the start of that story post...I need to know who plans on adding in a part. I plan to have the my first part be Sisko (I'm changing the other names...but Sisko stays darn it! ) greeting the diplomats and commenting on their ships, among other things. So I need to know who is in on this...at the moment I have Omega, Karmic, Dark, Esquire, and Vanas. Anyone else want in on this before I start it?

EDIT: Oh, and if you have a particular design you want for your part of the station...now would be the time. Don't want to end up like Karmic after all.

[Esquire]

A bit about the Hellenes on Clusterfuck Station:

Not-Garak's real name is Galenos son of Apollodorus of Athens. Started life as a clothing merchant - imported things from the rest of the galaxy, mostly, high fashion and costume pieces. He joined the Confederate Navy when the Chamarrans invaded and has risen to the rank of arkiploiarkos (commodore, 0-6) despite never actually serving aboard a warship. What exactly he does with his time is something of a mystery, and he tends to have at least one more combat-focused officer attached to his staff.

He's commander of the Hellenic delegation. Also along for the ride are Lokagos (Captain, 0-2) Brashidas son of Tellis of Sparta, Confederate Army, and Tagmatarkis (Major) Agamemnon son of Agamemnon of Corinth, Confederate Fortress Command. Captain Brashidas is in charge of the delegation's security, and Major Agamemnon is a sort of consultant for Commodore Galenos on what exactly the Arcadian base ought to look like - his areas of expertise are defense stations and logistics. He's exactly as arrogant as one would expect a man named Agamemnon to be.

They arrived aboard CNS Anthropos Megalopsuke* a Confederate-pattern hexareme configured as a battle carrier; three squadrons of fighters as well as heavy cannon. Those more observant than usual might have noticed that the ship had more stores aboard than strictly necessary for its mission and didn't replenish anything at Clusterfuck Station.

That should do. If you need anything else, Skywalker, don't hesitate to ask.

................

*Confederate Naval Ship Great-Souled Man

[Skywalker_T-65]

Yeah, that works. Now I just need to figure out the other ones and we can start this up. This is going to be fun.

[Karmic Knight]

So, here is what The Commonwealth, or more accurately, MultiGlobal United, is doing on Clusterfuck Station. The Berth is split into two sections, the Pub[lic] Office, and the Corporate Office. The Pub is just that, a pub, cantina, bar, operated as method of information gathering and as a post to extend the economic voice of MultiGlobal, the Corporate Office plans to maintain shipping manifests and importing higher quality objects to play into whatever natural market for luxury goods exists on the station.

The Bar and Office are run by Charles "Chuck" Baybridge Esq. and Charlotte "Charlie" Cystern, Charles being a bartender retrained by MultiGlobal in running a small business venture and Charlotte just the opposite. These two are the only people qualified to represent MultiGlobal United on the station, but the bar maintains another bartender and a small number of clerical AIs to maintain the shipping portion of the Office.

The option for a docking port, when filled, will essentially be a self-contained small docking port grafted onto the side of the ship, with umbilicals connecting the port to the Corporate Office for goods and crew.

[OmegaChief]

The Capellan delgation will arrive primarlly aboard three Phalanx class Patrol Frigates, with a pair of Pugna Infinita Corvettes escorting a fair few freighters of various sizes lagging a few days behind to provide the supplies for the Capellan chunk of the station.

The lead liasion officer is the Cog caste Captain Kelash, who's excited to be spreading out his patrols into this sector, all very keen to be doing what he thinks is the right thing, possibly to the point where he's annoying.

He'll also be rather focused on the various things he sees as problems from the real (IE the difficulty of policing a station like this with so much through traffic and differnt envriomental areas) to the 'make no sense to anyone who isn't a Capellan' (IE the station needs racing stripes).

There'll probably be some minor characters too, maybe a Quark equivalent from my guys, and of course Redshirt and 'Suzy' will be among the troops present.

I'm not sure if anyone would notice it, but there's also a subtle snub to the project from thier end as they've not included Apex or Shield caste members in thier deligation.

[Esquire]

Quick clarification - Capellan warships will also be based at the station?

[Skywalker_T-65]

Yep, but you can have warships there too. Anyone who has a base at the station can request a patrol group be based there. Hence me needing an absurd amount of ships there...not for anti-piracy, but to keep the liaisons from killing each other.

[Esquire]

Your prediction about entire navies showing up in P-23 appears to be coming true. I'll keep a few ships in the sector for appearance's sake, but not too many - we're right next to Hellas, after all.

[OmegaChief]

Quick clarification - Capellan warships will also be based at the station?

Not quite so many permenantly based there, typically it'll just be a Patrol Frigate and one or two Corvettes, just extra ships as we're bringing in a lot of personel and supplies right now.

But yea, we are what a days flight out from Adjoria? It's not surprising there'll be a heavy Capellan presence.

[Esquire]

Makes sense. I think I'll just station Anthropos Megalopsuke there and call it a day.

[Skywalker_T-65]

And I've got a nice sized battle fleet stationed there. Got to keep an eye on everyone after all...Arcadian Sisko can't do it all on his own after all.

[Force Lord]

Kierger: "What's this about some base in the middle of who knows where? Should I be worried? ...Maybe not."

If only you had some kind of completly reliable stealth ship to send over to keep an eye on people and not make any diploamtic incidents at all by alerting like 2/3's of the anti-CENTERN pact that the Centrality was there.

Then it's time to be indirect....