Sierra

World of Nations - A freestyle Nation RP

@Arko This thread was last posted in over 1 year ago. It is therefore what we consider dead. You will not find anyone active here to interact with.

The Last Laugh

@Archetype Zero You do not get to speak to me about being unreasonable. Not after you misrepresented half of what I said in my original post about FTL a few days ago in the discord chat.

@Sigma You have never been among the individuals I have had issue with. Not even Oz has a place on my permanent shit list (such spaces are a grand dishonor to hold). It is unfortunate that it only takes so little to bring a good thing to an end. It will be my pleasure if our paths cross again.

The Last Laugh

@Ozerath The most implausible of space fantasy is still entirely capable of coexisting alongside the most rudimentary level of physics. The existence of things that tell the laws of physics to screw off in no way precludes things that dutifully comply with the laws of physics, or requires that physics itself be thrown out the window and its textbooks burned in holy fire. I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that a collaborative writing exercise would be capable of catering to both of these categories equally and effectively. I am no stranger to ignoring breaks from reality in the name of narrative or coolness or what have you, but I expect the barebones skeleton of the universe to work correctly when I need to rely on it, not be disregarded simply because the scales do not work out conveniently. I also do not consider it too much to ask that those who throw around real scientific terms have at least cursory knowledge of the context behind them. It is never undesirable to be aware of what the reality you are opting to discard actually is.

That said, your inference that this is a deal-breaker is not entirely accurate. I am entirely capable of mentally transforming the rule-as-written into something that both complies fully with its intents and also does not shatter the basic framework of physics upon which I rely. I completely understand the purpose and goals of the ruling, and at no point in this entire argument did I ever hold any objection to the spirit thereof. I simply wanted to see the number attached be revised to something less outlandish so that I would not have to jump through the mental conversion hoop. The context of the discord conversation around the decision strongly suggests you did not intend the monolithic reach your current numerical value has.

The primary motive behind my decision to withdraw is the apathetic and dismissive response I received to a politely phrased, reasonable criticism, where virtually any alternate tone would have been a superior option. I would have found the choice of tone to be in relatively poor taste coming from any player irrespective of rank, and I strongly believe that the GM should uphold a higher standard of behavior than his/her players in order to lead by example. You are thus about to lose a player to a conflict that did not need to happen. I would encourage you to reflect on that.

I will see to removing my faction from the table and tying up any loose ends to the best of my ability. I would like to apologize to those who are now being left hanging for my error in judgement. I will see that I am more scrupulous picking my RPs in the future.

The Last Laugh

I just want to be sure I completely understand this. You are not planning on reevaluating the number value assigned to the FTL ruling, and you intend to ignore many of the fundamentals of astrophysics in a science-fiction world because it clashes with the ruling as currently written.

Is that a valid description of the situation at hand?

The Last Laugh

Meh, there's no specific numbers on anybody's sublight speed or weapon ranges so it doesn't particularly matter in my mind. It's a completely arbitrary number and it makes no sense for it to be the same size for every celestial body, but I don't especially care.

For narrative purposes, everyone needs 'a good chunk of minutes' to approach or depart a planet. No jump in, deploy drop pods, jump out.

@Ozerath

I am at a complete loss for words ...

The Last Laugh

I'll just contextualize the "1 light-minute" distance for everyone: ~18 million km. The extent of the gravity well for 1 Earth gravity: 1.5 million km ... or about 1/12th of that. Carrying that through to its logical conclusion has some pretty disastrous consequences for narrative & gameplay.

That number seems just a few orders of magnitude more severe than intended (which is why I used planetary radii earlier).

The Last Laugh

[recinded]

The Last Laugh

If we take the gravity well definition to its absolute conclusion then you'd never be able to use FTL if you're within 100AU of any star.

I've been operating under the loose assumptions that:

• orbital space gets increasingly cluttered stretching from geostationary all the way down to the karman line and relativistic collisions become increasingly likely ...
• subspace becomes increasingly turbulent as you get closer to a large mass object, becoming dangerous to traverse ...
• The Ashtar fortress a Agdemnar is throwing off heavier subspace disturbances than usual, increasing the hazard zone on that hemisphere.

It thus becomes a bad idea to jump inside of geostationary for any developed world (without going through space traffic control), and basically impossible to jump in closer than ~4-5 planetary radii (unless the goal is to smack into the planet and be annihilated, or be uncontrollably slingshotted halfway across the star system).

I'm also playing a bit fast & loose with it because in-system warp is technically slower than light, due to the primary FTL system I wrote being hard stopped all the way out at termination shock.

The Last Laugh

@Predawnia As a fan and practitioner of sci-fi worldbuilding, I took a stab at those technologies. I threw up two possibilities for the shield tech, as dark matter is generally associated with both mass and gravity manipulation.

I also threw up ideas for all the others as well, as the gimbal concept was rather unimpactful in its existing iteration. All these ideas are written for uniqueness, viability, and a general aim of internal consistency (rather than realism because realism is dull).

Expand:

Hydromagnetic Lance Cannons
The hydromagnetic lance cannon is fed with a liquid ferrous-tungsten alloy which is cooled into a semi-molten state inside the chamber. The extreme magnetic forces stretch the metal into a long, thin rod on firing, achieving velocities well above conventional railguns due to low projectile mass. The solidifying rod’s slender profile greatly improves penetration and narrows the focus of damage compared to conventional kinetic weapons of similar impact energy.

Virtualized Mass Barrier Shields (more balanced but harder to miniaturize)
The use of dark matter fields to create virtual mass is a well-understood phenomenon. Its usage as a shield against incoming attacks, however, is a novel concept. A dark matter film, confined by local quantum subspace fields emitted from shield projectors, creates an ultra-high density barrier between the surface of a warship and the surrounding space. Incoming fire smacks into the virtual mass layer as if contacting the hull itself, and finds nowhere for its damage to go, instead blasting its energy off into the surrounding space. The shielding system is virtually impervious to any one attack, but can be overwhelmed by sheer magnitude of firepower due to distortions in the film that must be actively stabilized by the shield projectors. A large amount of dark matter must be stored in order to operate the shields, and account for potential losses from massive, close proximity detonations blasting parts of the film away.

Gravity Shear Barrier Shields (easier to miniaturize but also a bit harder to effectively counter)
A dark matter Quantum Field Core (QFC) aboard warships produces a gravitational distortion effect that is harnessed through the shield projectors to generate a millimeter-scale gravity shear around the surface of the vessel. A conventional ionized gas barrier is projected just beneath. Any object of mass passing through the gravitational shear suffers the extreme shear forces both entering and exiting, compromising its integrity. The resulting shrapnel of the disintegrated projectiles is deflected harmlessly off the plasma barrier. Pure energy weapons contacting the shear are severely redshifted, robbing most of their energy and again being harmlessly absorbed by the plasma barrier beneath. The dark matter fueled QFC requires significant amounts of energy to operate, but the power demands are relatively unaffected by incoming fire. The primary drawback of gravitational shear protection is a relative ineffectiveness versus massive, close proximity detonations.

Blink Drive
A subspace tunneling device is paired with warp field propulsion to launch the equipped vessel at rapid speeds through short-range subspace paths. The resulting effect is the outward appearance of near-instantaneous teleportation. In order to keep the drive profile and energy demands manageable aboard ships already fitted with standard Hybris FTL drives, the range of the tunneling component is exceptionally short, limiting its usage to all but the shortest of interplanetary jumps (and completely out of the question for any interstellar transit). In combat, jumping multiple vessels simultaneously requires careful synchronization to avoid unintentional collisions, as course cannot be altered once the tunneling route is locked in and prepared.

Magnetolevitation Gimbal Turrets
In an effort to improve responsiveness when tracking fast-moving targets, warship cannons were fitted into spherical maglev gimbals that eliminate conventional axis limitations. More advanced warships even include magnetic traversal rails which can relocate turrets between multiple firing positions at a moment’s notice, travelling across the hull or, for large centralized weapons of supercapital vessels, through internal tracks to swap between dorsal and ventral or port and starboard positions. The versatility and responsiveness allows for more effective engagements with hostile forces without shedding relative velocity, minimizing time in the critical knife-fight range where allied forces are subject to the most severe punishment.

Take from those whatever you wish ... all of it, none of it, up to you.

The Last Laugh

@Sigma You're both heretics. It's all the same to me. :P

I'll get around to retconning that later today when I have a moment to do so cleanly and thoroughly.