STGOD: A Dead Art?

[Stormbringer]

Like this would work fine for me too, I mostly just want to have at least some distance between me and my neigbors:

Looks good to me.

Do you have a huge population or are your planets just unusually spread out? I got the impression the GSC was more the later, the Polish more the former.

A little of column A, a little of column B. If you read the backstory, the present Imperium is descended from an older Empire. Back in the day it was a fairly large power and covered the entire extent of that area. Then the human derivatives that were the soldier class (as well as a good chunk of the work force) overthrew them. That brought about a pretty big crash and the whole Empire kind of fell apart.

Over the intervening time, the human derivatives have been pulling the former Empire back together. The present core is the dark purple and represents the worlds that are active parts of the Imperium. The population is fairly large but not overwhelming, they're just scattered a lot because of the old extent of the Empire. Some of the less productive simply have some high level civil servants, some troops, and a few law enforcement ships hanging around and not much else. Mostly a "Here's your new flag. Direct your questions to the man man with the really big hat and enjoy your new found status as an Imperial backwater planet."

The light purple were part of the Empire but aren't now. The government currently claims them and exercises a sort of protectorate status but they're not actively part of the Imperium.

[Starglider]

If you read the backstory, the present Imperium is descended from an older Empire. Back in the day it was a fairly large power and covered the entire extent of that area. Then the human derivatives that were the soldier class (as well as a good chunk of the work force) overthrew them.

they're humans, Roman humans to be exact. The Nathais race originally grabbed them up in the equivalent of a space going press-gang to serve in their military.

That's a hell of a long way to go for a press gang. Presumably they must have surveyed a good fraction of space out to a radius of at least half the map diameter, to find earth back when it had no signs of technological civilisation. Did that survey data survive the crash? If so it's two millenia out of date - I don't know what powers were around back then, mine certainly wasn't - but you'd probably know about species homeworlds, as (evolved) sapient species take a lot longer than that to spring up.

The population is fairly large but not overwhelming, they're just scattered a lot because of the old extent of the Empire. Some of the less productive simply have some high level civil servants, some troops, and a few law enforcement ships hanging around and not much else.

That sounds like the typical 'large empire = easier to raid but harder to conquer' situation.

[Stormbringer]

That's a hell of a long way to go for a press gang. Presumably they must have surveyed a good fraction of space out to a radius of at least half the map diameter, to find earth back when it had no signs of technological civilisation. Did that survey data survive the crash? If so it's two millenia out of date - I don't know what powers were around back then, mine certainly wasn't - but you'd probably know about species homeworlds, as (evolved) sapient species take a lot longer than that to spring up.

I know I haven't fleshed out the background but a big part of it is that the Nathais race essentially roamed a large area of space and pretty freely grabbed primitive races it thought it could use. They noted but tended to avoid any of the more advanced species as simply not worth the trouble. So while yes, they did grab up humans it was really more of a group of explorers/resource collectors coming through and seeing a species with potential uses.

And while they did have a lot of raw data, as you noted a whole lot of it's severely out of date. Even while the Empire was chugging along they really didn't make too much of an effort to keep track of primitive species way beyond their borders (one reason I wanted them way beyond their borders). It was mostly "Man apes here, giant spiders there, crazy slug people in between" and not really anything too precise.

Of course when the coup happened at least some of the data was either destroyed or at least lapsed into obscurity. So while the present government can probably dig out the information, the shift in priorities has left them little reason to do so.

That sounds like the typical 'large empire = easier to raid but harder to conquer' situation.

Basically yes.

[Stormbringer]

Is there a fairly complete but concise summary of what's happened any where around here? Because I'm interested in getting into the game but don't necessarily want to have to finish reading the entire game thread before I do.

[Bugsby]

I'll take a crack at a summary.

The diplomatic thread was eventful. Thirdfain (Poland) started things off by calling together a Coalition of Nations, a UN-esque forum on a station orbiting Earth. The CoN is neutral ground, but it is stationed over Polish holdings. There were some incidents around the first CoN meeting. Psychics mental fireowkrs interfered with each other, the emissary from the Pirate King was arrested for being a pirate, and Nitram's Wanderers, who were not invited but showed up anyway to observe, were detained as intruders. Thirdfain, as the one guaranteeing safety at the conference, was the one to take point on all these actions. The most significant action was when White Haven's League of Thought emissaries left in a huff, and fired their main thrusters right out of the dock, bathing the docking port in engine wash and killing several Polish civilians. When the LoT ship was ordered to stand down, they surrendered only the pilot who had made the error but refused to give up the ship. The Polish interpreted this as complete non-compliance with their demands to heave to and opened fire on the LoT ship. A brief battle ensued, wherein several Polish ships were damaged, and the League ship was destroyed.

MEANWHILE, a seperate coalition, the NGTO (North Galactic Treaty Organization, neh-gah-toh) was formed. This is strictly a defensive alliance (with no ambitions to galactic conquest whatsoever!), and some members of the NGTO are also members of CoN. The NGTO manufactured a cassus belli against Dark Hellions Heralds. Dark Hellion brought his case before the CoN, and Poland took the lead in guaranteeing the independence of the Heralds. The rest of the CoN followed suit. The NGTO backed down, but the members that were once part of the CoN quit or became inactive, creating two main power blocs.

MEANWHILE, consequences is tearing shit up in the Galactic south with a huge swarm of militaristic brain-parasites. He is functioning well outside the normal boundaries of known space, but recent activity in a world with indirect trade ties to Earth, Drakol, caused an investigation and, subsequently, the Polish obtained some video footage of the ruined world of Drakol, shot from orbit. The CoN had resolved to investigate this threat, but these plans seem to have been put on hold while new conflict breaks out.

Civil war has broken out in TGA (RedLeader)-controlled Africa. This was initially staged by the government of the TGA, but the revolution has since taken on a life of its own. Radiologicals have been smuggled in and used near major African cities. The Polish have offered sanctuary to the Uche, the rulers of the TGA, but this is not playing well with the general TGA populace. Recently, a shuttle carrying anti-matter broadcast a threat to Poland and their allies keeping peace over Africa. Poland, reacting quickly, shot down the shuttle with EMP. Anti-matter containment was breached, and the anti-matter detonated near an African city, killing tens of thousands. Poland alleges the shuttle was flying towards the city and their actions saved millions of lives. The TGA claims that the shuttle was flying away from the city, and Poland's reckless actions cost thousands of lives. Amateur video shot of the incident looks a whole lot like Poland firing on Africa. The TGA, which is a member of NGTO, is using this as a cassus belli against Poland and the CoN.

At an initial fleet rendesvous between different NGTO fleets, Beowulf's Kitaka backstabbed the NGTO. A battle yet rages between the betrayers and the betrayed. Meanwhile, NGTO raiders are disabling the Polish early warning net with nukes.

Still angry over NGTO agression, Dark Hellion declared war on the NGTO. He asked for CoN support. Since its not in the CoN charter to support preemptive strikes, they refused. As a result, Dark Hellion declared war on the CoN as well. Methinks the Heralds are fucked.

Nephtys controls a huge swarm of biological "ships," all of which are huge but don't pack much punch. A huge mass of these appeared near Sol suddenly, and, after milling around for a while, started strip-mining Mercury, including areas already colonized by Hawkwing's USA, killing the colonists. The CoN was summoned to help, and a half-dozen different fleets ripped the fleet of EVIL SPACE MONSTERS apart. Some of the ruined ships have been taken by CoN nations to be studied.



I probably forgot a thing or three in there, but that's the big stuffs.

[Starglider]

Is there a fairly complete but concise summary of what's happened any where around here? Because I'm interested in getting into the game but don't necessarily want to have to finish reading the entire game thread before I do.

Here's what I think happened, but this may miss out a lot of stuff I wasn't paying attention to:

1. Poland invites anyone who cares to come and form a UN analogue based on earth (the CON).

2. Six powers on the north side of the galaxy sign a mutual defense treaty (the NGTO - initiated by the Kiroter'nah but hosted by the UISC). Announcement is posted to earth. Golden Sky Combine, FEA and Heralds send representatives.

3. The earth powers form a mutual defensive tracking arrangement.

4. Poland siezes the Bootswellington delegation to the CON (a battleship and a few cruisers) under threat of overwhelming force.

5. The Hegemony of the Heavens tries to sieze a Kiro ship in earth orbit for using teleporters without proper authorisation. Kiro ship runs, Hegemony ship opens fire, then is fired upon by friendly forces. Hegemony claims the captain was insane and pays reparations.

6. Some kind of bizarre incident goes on in the galactic south involving an attack (possibly staged) on one of Spyder's ships and 'rescue parties' from at least two nearby powers. I don't know what happened to this plotline.

7. A shadowy conspiracy between elements of the NGTO powers intelligence services and xenophobic factions decides that Dark Hellion has to go. The GSC is added to the NGTO.

8. A strike force of Bootswellington ships blows up a series of outposts along the Nephilim border facing the Heralds. Meanwhile GSC cloaked ships temporarily appear (actually by accident, but it was fortuitous) and make it look like more heralds are on the way.

9. The conspirators fake an attack by the Herald probe (which is destroyed) on the NGTO conference site.

10. The NGTO gathers a big fleet to 'defend' Nephilim space (it's still there). Mudslinging back and forth at the Heralds. Various CON nations pledge to defend the Heralds if they're invaded.

11. Africa starts having internal rebellions - possibly formented by outside intelligence forces, I was never clear on that.

12. One of the League of Thought's battleship's accidentally toasts a Polish docking bay. Offers to surrended the crewmember they claim was 'responsible'. Polish ships insist on unconditional surrender. League refuses. Polish send marines over. League ship blasts them. Short battle results in League battleship being vaporised.

13. NGTO builds an embassy station in geostationary orbit over Africa.

14. Conspiracy of nations pissed off with Poland plots an attack on a Polish colony.

15. THEM invade and subjugate NPC nation. Lots of refugees flee, most of them infected with THEM parasites, telling tales of woe.

16. Fighting in Africa gets much worse, largely due to the actions of Straltoc mercenaries. Tactical nukes and orbital weapons are used. Poland deploys 'peacekeepers' that don't seem to help much.

17. The Android Colony, the Ninian Theocracy and the Golden Sky Combine go into permenant seclusion (players left the game).

18. The Cretacean Confederacy manages to (secretly) attract a large group of space monsters to the Sol system. After milling about for a couple of days they try to eat Mercury. Despite the vast numbers initially giving cause for concern the combined Earth fleets blast them into gibblets with negligable friendly losses.

19. The situation over Africa continues to deteriorate. Multiple nuclear initiations eventually terminating in a 64 megaton antimatter airbust that devestates a vast area and sets many thousands of square kilometres of grasslands on fire. Africa is basically a write off at this point.

20. Kioter'nah ships destroy several Polish listening posts as a preparation for the colony raid, with the loss of one ship. However the Polish have been warned by the Kitaka and have relocated backup tracking systems to the affected volume in advance.

21. Fleets from the FEA, Kitaka, League of Thought and Bootswellington prepare to advance into Polish space. However, the Kitaka open fire on the FEA strike fleet (they are at the same staging point) and four unarmed Kiro ships at the same location.

22. A hasburg fleet jumps in and joins the Kitaka in anhiliating the FEA fleet (ongoing ATM). One Kiro cloak cruiser gets a message off to home before being destroyed, but it won't arrive in time to do the advancing League and Pirate fleets any good (also ongoing ATM).

23. The Heralds declare war on the NGTO, saying that they cannot be tolerated any longer and the Herald forces will anhiliate them down to the last baby. This is not terribly popular. They then declare war on the rest of the Galaxy too for good measure.

EDIT: a couple of clarifications:

The NGTO backed down, but the members that were once part of the CoN quit or became inactive, creating two main power blocs.

Actually we just left a decent sized war fleet sitting opposite the Herald border until they cracked and cried Jihad.

The TGA, which is a member of NGTO, is using this as a cassus belli against Poland and the CoN.

AFAIK Redleader hasn't done this /yet/, at least not officially, but he certainly laid the groundwork by having mass protests against Polish actions in the shoot-down incident. The NGTO has not said anything official about anything going on in Africa; the tone has generally been 'we don't intefere in the internal affairs of members'. However I imagine if he actually declared war on another earth power the other players would say 'it's your funeral, best of luck though', unless there was irrefutable evidence that that power was responsible for effectively destroying Africa.

At an initial fleet rendesvous between different NGTO fleets, Beowulf's Kitaka backstabbed the NGTO. A battle yet rages between the betrayers and the betrayed. Meanwhile, NGTO raiders are disabling the Polish early warning net with nukes.

Only the FEA and the Kitaka rendeavoused; the other two came from their own territory. None of those players are NGTO members; I am, but I only sent nine cloaked ships, four of which were at the FEA/Kitaka staging area. None of the NGTO governments actually know what's going on, just a few conspirators in the Kiro, Catgirl and UISC intelligence services and black ops groups (and the later two only got a 'FYI').

Still angry over NGTO agression, Dark Hellion declared war on the NGTO.

Hellion made an RP mistake here and ranted about the fleet engagements as they were happening, despite having no way of knowing about them (there hadn't even been time for signals to travel from the battle site to nearby worlds), never mind about any connection to the NGTO. That was fixed by a retcon though.

[InnocentBystander]

24. The Heralds declare war with the Coalition of Nations. (silly robots)

[Starglider]

25. Polish scouts have some kind of interaction with THEM, CON talks about sending forces to liberate the invaded NPC nation, AFAIK nothing actually done yet though.

[Stormbringer]

Thanks guys.

[Dark Hellion]

When did I declare war with the Coalition? (I hope I didn't make a typo somewhere, that would be bad!!)

[Dark Hellion]

I most assuredly did not declare war on the Coalition, I in fact backed down because of lack of Coalition support and declared that I would not preemptively strike the NGTO despite my state of war with them.

Sorry about the confusing subjects, but my race isn't used to pronouns at all. But it pretty clearly is only addressed at the NTGO and the only mention of the Coalition is by name while all the yours in the post refer specifically to the NGTO.

[Hotfoot]

It's just as good as a declaration of war. You've thrown away the support of those that would help to protect you from the coming storm, you've declared your intent for Genocide against an intelligent race. Now the people who helped you are likely going to end you.

There's a reason something like this is called political suicide. Good luck kid, you're going to need it.

[Adrian Laguna]

There's a reason something like this is called political suicide. Good luck kid, you're going to need it.

Well, he has stated repeatedly that he is intentionally roleplaying his nation as being politically retarded. Granted some of it is probably not roleplaying, but you've said that it takes someone to do something interesting for the game to get really interesting. Besides, it ain't a real STGOD without a bangbus doing a few rounds.

[Starglider]

I in fact backed down because of lack of Coalition support and declared that I would not preemptively strike the NGTO despite my state of war with them.

What's the point of being at war if you're not intending to fire on the enemy? Isn't that just closing your borders? Hadn't you done that anyway?

[InnocentBystander]

However, the Coalition does not seem to share Our... enthusiasm... for this course. Rest assured, we will not pre-emptively strike. Whilst a state of war exists between Ourselves and your rabble we will not attack your planetary assets....anywhere your warships meet Ours We will destroy you, anywhere your soldiers encounter Us, you will be slaughtered

When I read this I assumed that you were talking about the Coalition when you say ' state of war exists between Ourselves and your rabble '. Am I reading this wrong? It really sounds like the Heralds are now declaring war on the Coalition. Was "[our] rabble" supposed to be the NGTO?

[Dark Hellion]

Given that I was directly responding to you, and all the indefinite pronouns where referring to the NTGO, I assumed that you would read all yours as "the NGTO".

Plus I stated that a "state of war exists between ourselves and your rabble" and I had only declared war on the NGTO.

And why the fuck is it that a bunch of supposedly alien species are all acting like they are ran by bad cliches of historical earth powers and no one has devoted any of their intelligence to studying the mindset of their enemies? Various groups on modern earth are so ideologically different that we require people with degrees to study them in order to understand them. Groups with 2000+ years of different history and different mental backgrounds and physiologies are going to require a lot more political leniancy and attempts at understanding than what is going on in game.

I mean fuck, I am clearly RPing crazy fundy robots and no one has even asked about my religion, despite major religious wars being a major part of multiple races back stories. I mean what the fuck is with that?

[Noble Ire]

I mean fuck, I am clearly RPing crazy fundy robots and no one has even asked about my religion, despite major religious wars being a major part of multiple races back stories. I mean what the fuck is with that?

If its any consolation, I've considered your religion in regards to my policy towards you.

[Dark Hellion]

I know, I am actually happy with your polite belligerence.

[Beowulf]

I mean fuck, I am clearly RPing crazy fundy robots and no one has even asked about my religion, despite major religious wars being a major part of multiple races back stories. I mean what the fuck is with that?

Eh, your religion doesn't actually matter to the Kitaka. What you are does. Of course, I haven't actually done much about that.

[Starglider]

And why the fuck is it that a bunch of supposedly alien species are all acting like they are ran by bad cliches of historical earth powers

Tragically, there are no catgirl matriarchies in earth's history, although partaking of too much manga could easily convince one to believe otherwise.

Seriously, very few professional sci-fi writers do better than 'recast (usually simplified and exaggerated) earth-historical cultures as aliens' - Star Trek is the archetypal offender.

and no one has devoted any of their intelligence to studying the mindset of their enemies?

I imagine virtually all nations do have intelligence analysts trying to study other nations, we just don't get to see them much, just like the Russian culture expert only gets a single scene in the average Tom Clancy novel. There isn't even much scope for that unless there's a genuine basis to predict what the other player is going to do based on the species/cultural psychology they've shown in their posts and maybe OOB, which doesn't seem to have cropped up yet. In your case, you sound like Beserkers with a comically inept attempt at a PR whitewash, you act like Beserkers with a transparent PR venner and there doesn't seem like much more to analyse.

I mean fuck, I am clearly RPing crazy fundy robots and no one has even asked about my religion

I think your speeches covered it. Asking an atomic war robot to explain the finer points of its crusader doctrine to you does not sound like a safe or terribly useful passtime.

[Dark Hellion]

Saying it isn't bad because you aren't worse than Star Trek is like bragging about your marksmanship because you are better than African Militiamen.

[Starglider]

Saying it isn't bad because you aren't worse than Star Trek is like bragging about your marksmanship because you are better than African Militiamen.

Earth history doesn't include any schizoid paranoid cyborg anarcho-syndicalist semi-anthromorphic bats either (sadly, as that would be at least as awesome as catgirls). Who exactly do you think is copying a historical earth culture, other than all the human nations that are explicitly described as nogalstic recreations of historical earth cultures (must've been a major retro craze around the Great Colonisation Wave immediately prior to the second dark ages...)? I'd like to hear your assessment of who is apeing what.

[Dark Hellion]

No one is specifically aping anyone exactly, but besides you most of the aliens follow very human thought patterns with very human rationalizations and leaps of logic. I mean we haven't had a Earth-Minbari style contact moment, most races followed earth docking protocols, met with earth type diplomats and did everything earth style. Where was someone who fires a warning shot as a sign of respect? Or will not enter a space until invited and just sits at the edge looking dumb? Or myriad other non-human interaction patterns?

I mean I a was one of the only ones who didn't send a trained diplomatic team to Earth. Are you honestly telling me that everyone in the fucking galaxy thinks of diplomacy in the same terms?

[Darkevilme]

Dark hellion, you have given me things to think about. though of course one problem with playing a race that doesnt follow human thought patterns and stuff is that of course we're still human and uh, some of us arent quite that good at this sort of thing.

[Starglider]

Where was someone who fires a warning shot as a sign of respect?

Any sapient worthy of the name would hold back on such highly context-dependent gestures in a first contact situation - assuming otherwise really is Trek-writer levels of stupidity. Thinking objectively takes effort, but yes there really are game-theoretic objective axioms for behaviour in the same way that maths is an objective basis for describing reality. Any species capable of the scientific progress required to build FTL drives is capable of not acting like a moron, unless they are in fact insane (admittedly a popular choice in STGODs, because being rational about everything important is kinda boring).

I was pushing it when I had my CON delegation teleport down without warning, when they knew that teleport technology is quite rare in the rest of the galaxy and also knew how unsettling it was. I rationalised it by saying they were inexperienced diplomats with a military officer in charge - OOC I just wanted to provoke an incident (though I was pleasantly surprised to see it go as far as a space battle).

Or will not enter a space until invited and just sits at the edge looking dumb?

This is sensible procedure in first contact anyway, but it's fairly inconsiquential. There was probably a lot of that sort of thing that just would've been tedious to RP, so most people didn't bother - exceptions include Academia Nut's accidental tentacle monster.

I mean I a was one of the only ones

'One of the only ones' is an oxymoron. You are by no means 'the only one'. Around a third of the players sent decent diplomatic teams to the CON, quite a few more sent observers, spies and diplomats of varying degrees of ineptitude, and plenty did not send anything at all.

Are you honestly telling me that everyone in the fucking galaxy thinks of diplomacy in the same terms?

The NGTO did things a bit differently than the CON, but there are sharp practical limits to this both on time and the fact that people are already having a hard time keeping up with the narrative, without having to parse entirely unfamiliar forms of communication. I'm finding it hard enough keeping track of 40 or so characters I am personally RPing and several hundred characters in total even when they're mentally fairly human.

Finally there is just the fact that some players are taking it rather more seriously than others. I think the only player to challenge the upper bound of acceptable silliness has been Redleader.