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So is "the Expanse" (upper left) an actual faction, or just a particularly large region of Wild Space?

The latter.

The name of that particular batch of Shoals. "Wild Space" is generally a term used for the Shoals that surround Solaria, the Imperium, Bragule, etc. Not sure what one would call the shoals by the Pfhor, the "Veil" perhaps. The Outback is adjacent to New Anglia and the Badlands separate Tianguo from the Trichempheles and, when he's done getting his info together, Shepistan.

Also, word of warning. Wikia's spam filter is going abso-fucking-lutely haywire right now and is blocking all sorts of strings. Don't try any editing on the Wiki for now.

Steve wrote:The name of that particular batch of Shoals. "Wild Space" is generally a term used for the Shoals that surround Solaria, the Imperium, Bragule, etc. Not sure what one would call the shoals by the Pfhor, the "Veil" perhaps. The Outback is adjacent to New Anglia and the Badlands separate Tianguo from the Trichempheles and, when he's done getting his info together, Shepistan.

And, let us not forget, the Umerians!

(Psst. Anyone want to buy a really big particle cannon?)

@Simon_JesterHow big is really big? We already have some crazy huge beamcannon as the main guns of the Juggernaut after all.

Also @Grif: looking forward to seeing your nation page.

The Sovereignty has turbo autolasers and gridfire line cannons, so we're all set in the big gun department.

We do not believe in big cannons. We believe in missile spam - backed up by big cannons.

Oskuro wrote: That sounds good. I guess having sectors spread accross the map would make a lot of people uneasy anyway

I don't mind it. Seeing a smattering of one-sector pirate kingdoms all over the map is not going to worry me too much.

Oskuro wrote: Wait, if my assets have no physical representation in the map, yet they provide their usual economic bonus (rules lawyering, here we go), wouldn't that be an unfair advantage since they cannot be destroyed (since they technically don't exist as a cohesive entity to be taken over) and thus provide said assets indefinitely?

This is what worries me. Drawing from what Simon_Jester said, how am I going to attack something I can't see? I may not even have an underlying populace to woo in my counter-guerrilla warfare.

IMHO, Oskuro should be assigned physical sectors on the edge of or in 'shoal' space. They can be considered shoals, but will be treated as a loose collection of private mercenary pirate bases (or something similar) that give us (1) another canvas on which to paint our stories and (2) a physical manifestation that we can, ah, interact with when we have... issues.

Simon_Jester wrote:(Psst. Anyone want to buy a really big particle cannon?)

A few of of my destroyers are experiments in massive and powerful spinally mounted particle projection cannons. Should I write you in as being the supplier of my CareBearStare-class PPCs?

Dave wrote:IMHO, Oskuro should be assigned physical sectors on the edge of or in 'shoal' space. They can be considered shoals, but will be treated as a loose collection of private mercenary pirate bases (or something similar) that give us (1) another canvas on which to paint our stories and (2) a physical manifestation that we can, ah, interact with when we have... issues.

Why? He still has his homeworld. Let the mods decide that if that is taken out, his pirate coalition will splinter and no longer be a threat.

Thanas wrote:We do not believe in big cannons. We believe in missile spam - backed up by big cannons.

Missiles are so 3399 A.D. .

Siege wrote:

Thanas wrote:We do not believe in big cannons. We believe in missile spam - backed up by big cannons.

Missiles are so 3399 A.D. .

Smart AI missiles are not, especially not when fired from long-distance.

What is the exact start date of this game again? in-universe that is, i know RL it starts on the 1st of next month.

Thanas wrote:

Dave wrote:IMHO, Oskuro should be assigned physical sectors on the edge of or in 'shoal' space. They can be considered shoals, but will be treated as a loose collection of private mercenary pirate bases (or something similar) that give us (1) another canvas on which to paint our stories and (2) a physical manifestation that we can, ah, interact with when we have... issues.

Why? He still has his homeworld. Let the mods decide that if that is taken out, his pirate coalition will splinter and no longer be a threat.

How does that let me deal with the local aspect of piracy? I mean, I don't want to find that his homeworld has been placed in a shoal area on the far side of the map, and that I have to haul-ass across the galaxy and blockade some hole-in-the-wall sector that has a pirate base to protect my merchants from what is essentially a local problem.

I don't care about other people being pirated, and the way I wrote my nation I don't have the political willpower to randomly blockade or forcibly occupy entire sectors some place far away for long periods of time. I think that I should simply need to make a showing of force at the local pirate base to reduce piracy in the area for a few months. (Why does this remind me of semi-current events? )

What is the exact start date of this game again? in-universe that is, i know RL it starts on the 1st of next month.

I am also interested in the in-game start date.

Thanas wrote:Smart AI missiles are not, especially not when fired from long-distance.

I suppose it all depends on how many you can throw . I don't want to go with missiles myself, mainly because everyone already has them, but I have to admit I haven't quite nailed down a proper replacement yet. I'd love to do something outrageous like teleport anti-matter onto enemy targets but that just won't do--far too wonky for this setting. So I'm still looking for something to complement the ubiquitous beam cannon...

As for the start date, I thought we were starting somewhere in the early 35th century, so 34XX. A precise date has never been given insofar as I know though.

Siege wrote:

Thanas wrote:Smart AI missiles are not, especially not when fired from long-distance.

I suppose it all depends on how many you can throw . I don't want to go with missiles myself, mainly because everyone already is, but I have to admit I haven't quite nailed down a proper replacement yet. I'd love to do something outrageous like teleport anti-matter onto enemy targets but that just won't do--far too wonky for this setting. So I'm still looking for something to complement the ubiquitous beam cannon...

I like missiles because they potentially allow for long-range stealth strikes and can be equipped with versatile warheads. Also, because the ships I will be basing my navy on are missile ships.

Ditto, more or less. Missile and hi-laser spam with a smattering of exotic particle projectors for good measure.

As of now I'm figuring start date is 1 January 3400 and I was intending to create the OOC and IC threads on 3 July 2010.

As for the issue of Oskuro, you can always blow up Ork pirate bases in nearby shoal regions, and if such is done I will make sure Oskuro accommodates this loss. And ultimately if he were to abuse my good will and leniency I would have a UN battle fleet pop up at the Ork homeworld and levy a... strongly-worded complaint.

That the words of the complaint will be written with orbit-to-surface gunfire scorching it on the landscape will be the fun part, and highlight the great skill of UN gunnery officers.

so the Chamarran hierarchy was founded 350 years ago with change. That works.

And seen as everyone is talking doctrine i'm sure those who've read my OOB have seen that the Chamarran's don't bother with what i'm terming anticapitalship batteries (ie dozens of moderately beefy broadside or turreted cannons) in favour of nastier top tier anti capital ship beam weapons, but otherwise have every other category of death dealing equipment represented.

Right now I'm thinking I'll just discard the primitive missile weaponry entirely and focus on the proper futuristic glitter and glam that is my exotic particle cannons. Yeah, that means no indirect fire, but my warships will instead be fast and well-shielded, so we'll just keep coming at you until we can vaporize your face with big energy guns. As is right and just and proper. Less skulking about, more pew-pew!

BTW, the Wiki is working again.

I don't really see any reason why the Trichemphiles fleet couldn't and shouldn't just be armed with colossal masses of rocket launchers and high power guns with the largest possible warheads. We have faster then light speed speed so nothing mandates long range engagments, and long range fights are likely to be as indecisive as the Komandorski Islands. Might be worse if people efficiently have ships shield each other, keeping only units with fresh shields on the outside of the formation.

So the plan is to just arrive right on top of the enemy and hopefully within his formation, accepting losses from collisions as likely to blow up someone elses more valuable ship, and then unload everything in the launchers in 20 seconds. If that doesn't work then I also intend to have ram bows with explosively opened boarding hatches which deliver invaders deep within the enemy, unless it all blows up which is fine too. The Trichemphiles are not openly suicidal, but they consider space warfare to be more lethal then WW1 trench fighting, and rightly so, and thus are willing to accept extreme measures to carry the day.

That kind of assumes the hyperdrive is accurate enough to get that close to an enemy, and that the enemy will be obliging enough to just sit there and wait for you to emerge from hyperspace. Which they probably won't be.

Siege wrote:That kind of assumes the hyperdrive is accurate enough to get that close to an enemy, and that the enemy will be obliging enough to just sit there and wait for you to emerge from hyperspace. Which they probably won't be.

Also, it assumes the enemy will not just simply spam missiles, have the ship turn away as fast as possible and leave the missiles to attack on their own.

But none of that matters anyway since we all got the point values etc.

Though the Heim Drive should be accurate enough for final maneuvers no matter if we declare hyperspace not to be.

I know this might of been more a dropped subject than a decided upon one but this seems to be a good point to bring up interdictors again as if i'm right about them then Skimmer's idea doesnt really work.

It was definitely established that barring stealth the default is you can detect ships in realspace and hyperspace using FTL sensor arrays.

I was under the impression it was established that every ship by default had interdictor capability.

This combines to mean that Skimmer's fleet gets knocked out of hyperspace by his adversary at beyond missile range and the two close to contact.

And just to re- hash the reasons for the 'by default everyone has interdiction' thing:
-It allows for borders and territory control as a ship in hyperspace isn't in godmode until it chooses to leave.
-It allows commerce raiding for the same reason.
-It allows interception of fleets beyond your territorial control.
-It does not make it mandatory that people have specializations in some of their ships for their fleets to be effective. (some people hate specializations with a passion)

With one exception other ways of treating interception and interdiction lead to one of these possible storytelling options being unavailable or us running afoul of point 4.
The exception is if in mass effect style hyperdrives must cool off in a star system between flights for an operationally significant amount of time.