Willy Vereb

Point of Departure: World War II

I intended to finish my NS today but if I cut off other players from participating I can delay it for a few days.

[Ranked] Four Way: Convergence of Power

Oh, was it four days already?
Yeah, it seems it'd be my time to post.

Point of Departure: World War II

I plan to completely overhaul my profile. I made my previos NS in a hurry and it shows.
@Queen Raidne
Are you still fine with my race's attributes?
Some people worded their worry about the elves.
I can change almost anything with them but it would also change how I need to play them.

Started work on a Navy tab and completed the army.

Also *facepalms* I thought I was done with Kataylabinsk, Yamatia and those damn elves...

@Voltus_Ventus

Don't worry this time I am going to introduce the full name of the emperor in old elvish, no hiders included.
It'd only take roughly 2000 words so I am sure you can bear with it.

Some Miscellaneous NRP Ideas (New Ideas Added!)

Waterborne can be fun.
@ClocktowerEchos Given the ship-nation idea I feel your inspiration could be Gargantia.

If you aren't, I think you can take a lot of ideas from that setting.
Well, save for the giant mechs and Galactic Alliance bits.

The Intergalactic Collision of Entities (ICE) - A roleplay of science fiction.

<Snipped quote by Willy Vereb>

I had basically expressed this entire sentiment to catchamber in the chat, but not raised it as an issue mostly due to me awaiting further development.

Having GM'd quite a number of NRPs before, I can say creating these artificial rules only invites people to break them whether intentionally or not. Letting the shape of the setting develop more organically in the early stages is much more appealing. For example, if the players/GM felt I'd made a fleet to big, and asked me to address it, as a player I'd be more than happy to. Setting out harsh restrictions from the start just insinuates players are either ill-mannered or idiots and sets about a bad tone from the word go. Again this is just my opinion.

@Darkmatter

I don't mind certain limitations, actually.
While space is huge and poor gasp on this is the major gripe in sci-fi NRPs, managing actual extensive galactic powers with millions or billion of star system would just prove Wilson's point.
War becomes nearly meaningless because you can sacrifice thousands of planets and it doesn't bother you the slightest bit.
People in general like if the battles at least have a meaning.

So making player nations relatively small is understandable.
My only problem is that Wilson misunderstands the scele even with these "small" empires.
Even in other NRPs thousands or at times millions of soldiers fight. And these are from the same country or continent.
In WW2 thousands of tanks fought and while replacing them impacted the nation heavily these numbers were eventually replenished.
Space ships are the same. They are just weapons of war and something you must sacrifice to gain something.
Wilson only needs to intervene when somebody tries to BS their way out of the consequences or ignore the tiny but still important factor of time.

I also find the need to classify space vessels in strict naval terms rather contrary. It's a nice analogy to use so we all have a sense of a ships position in a fleet. But restricting them to specific roles assigned to naval vessels which operate essentially in a 2D plane vs the 3D plane of space warfare seems a bit silly.

Tl;dr Have some faith in players apply, approach issues as they arise.

More interestingly aside from maybe the battleships, the role of ship classes changed a ton over the centuries.
The distinction between these changes along with the advances in tech and military doctrines.

Frigates were used to be scout ships and shooting at them was considered a violation in the rules of war (unless the frigate shot first).
Nowadays our heaviest ships for combat are usually the frigates with battleships are pretty much being retired.
Destroyers? They were torpedo ships and while retained some of this role they also double as anti-submarine vessels and the second largest practical type of warship in modern fleets.

Motherships are also a good theoretical example. They launch aircraft so most of their surface are flight decks. But what if aircraft would barely require any space to land or take off? Then the only difference between motherships/carriers and the common warship that the former would spend more internal space to house aircraft.
And what if aircraft can float at only minimal energy expense and follow the mothership? Then only the existence of larger maintenance/resupply facilities is the only difference between the mothership and any other warship. Because there isn't even a need to keep the aircraft within the ship. At this stage the mothership would be just a better armed mobile refuel station.

Technology and the style of combat changes everything.

The Intergalactic Collision of Entities (ICE) - A roleplay of science fiction.

@WilsonTurnerAlright, I wanted to make a long post about strategies and tactics but it may come off a little insulting.
The long story cut short is that your intentions and proposed rules don't match.
Writing engaging battles is up to the player and their pool of creativity. Weapons and tech limitations almost don't matter.
Same with numbers, I personally can effectively write with any number of ships.
Though because of the influence of LotGH, I prefer playing with large fleets, using formations, flanking an all the other fun tactics you can just barely taste with only a few dozen ships.
There are tons of other issues I can talk about but really there are way too many directions I can approach this thing and it'd only turn into a tl;dr mess.
Let's just say your ideas are based on Hollywood and other popular media instead of level thinking.
If you want to avoid the insane messes space NRPs apparently come down to then you don't need rules, you need action.
When somebody gets lazy and engages in a war of numbers and doesn't even think about where or how these come from, warn him.
It's an effective method, even if admittedly management-intensive.

<Snipped quote by Kimiyosis>

My point exactly.

I'd rather have people play cautiously because each ship is costly to replace, and leaves up greater risk, rather than just have people throw everything at a problem and just replace all lost without a sweat.

@WilsonTurner

That's a misunderstandment of the scale here.
Shall I list how many fighters and ships we produce right now with boorish modern day technology and industry which doesn't involve all the delicious ways to get resources in abdunance?
The setting of most Space NRPs is very much an utopia compared to what we have now.

It's an issue if people get overboard but the cold fact of warfare is that practically everything is repalceable.
It'd hit the nation/civilization's economy and I'd love if players RP that but in effect replacing hundreds of ships in years, months or even days (depending on tech assumptions) is a cold fact with the scale we are all working at.

Even a single-planet civilization is pretty damn huge and can afford plenty of resource or industrial capacity.
Again, it seems to come back to using rules when it should be the responsibility of the GM.

EDIT:
Alright, so a few hard numbers.
- You have a civilization with billions of people.
- You live on a dirt ball with roughly 6 zettatons of mass.
- Assuming the solar system as average you have roughly 4 yottatons of matter to gather, not counting the Sun itself
- You have easy access to devices which generate at least megatons of energy (over thousands of times more than what the entire modern world produces altogether).
- You have ships that are efficient enough and have enough fuel to use these megatons/second or PW range reactors non-stop
- You have ships that not just capable of reaching any of the planets in your star system which each but even travel to other systems.

So yeah, what is really stopping you? I'm not even considering the various tech niceties like matter replicators.
This is more or less the utopia we want and you wonder that civilizations can handle loses in battle?

Point of Departure: World War II

Not being able to carry as much as a human means a lot for soldiers.
If you can only carry 40% of the weight that means the standard equipment of the US Marine would be a nightmare to an elf.
Mithril equipment can balance this but far from being an equal situation (it just ensures elves don't break their wrist for holding up guns that weight 4-5 or even more kilos, because they can't).
Admittedly they also use human soldiers who benefit from the mithril equipment but the lightweight metal is a bane for projectile mechanics. Lighter bullet means they penetrate less. It can be solved with composites but adding stuff would only make the manufacture more complicated which is an issue for smaller caliber ammo made in huge quantities.

The fragility of elven bones also means they're almost always dead when crashing with a plane. Survival rate can be rather low.
Being slender and less massive also quite a considerable tradeoff during melee or brawls which unlike your expectations is something which does occur a lot in combat. Not being able to take a decent hit to the countless wrong places is also an issue in this aspect.
Same for taking bullet, blast or fragment wounds. As I said, elves are fragile. Though they are way too proud to admit their weakness.

I can detail it further but I really, you were ought to connect the dots yourself.

Point of Departure: World War II

Post reserved for whatever.

Point of Departure: World War II

@Queen RaidneCan we assume that with the "magic" spamming of AU nations they also "magically" gain most knowledge needed?
Otherwise things may become awkward.
Same for the recipients.
Even if it doesn't make a fully logical sense the USA would be aware of Yllendthyr and eleves before technically meeting them.
Because they technically did exist to them, just lack the actual footprint.

Heavenly Empire of Yllendthyr

Territory ClaimsBrazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela

Leader
Ymherodr Ilehnaed IV en'Yllendthyr (Ilehnaed IV) - Aged 84, Emperor of Yllendthyr
Cyntwleidyddion Hîr Radidnahr en'Lóthien Gosodnelh (Radidnahr) - Aged 182, Prime Minister

Allegiance: Yllendthyr
Yllendthyr occupies a considerable portion of South America and has little ties with either Axis or the Allies. In effect he's a rival for both the USA and Japan over the control of the Pacific Ocean.

+Government:Federal Constitutional Monarchy
Yllendthyr is an empire divided into 27 states, formally ruled by the Ymherodr (Emperor).
Each state has its own ruler and possess a degree of autonomy.
The representatives of each state and people elected by other titles come together on each month in the Chymanfa (Parlaiment). Governors assigned over colonies are generally not required to attend but during special circumstances they are often invited.
The emperor directs the Parlaiment and in many circumstances has the right to veto any suggestion. Otherwise the emperor's authority is limited by the constitution and many of his former duties are divided to various Wleidyddion (ministers). The effective leader of the nation within this form of government is the Cyntwleidyddion (Prime Minister).

+History:Yllendthyr originates from a world where Homo Sapiens are far from the only sentient race populating the planet. In this world the rain forests of South Africa were the birthplace of elfkind. Evolved to be the graceful apex of the animal kingdom for long the elves lived in harmony with the nature. This changed drastically with the appearance of human settlers from Africa during 492AD. Their wooden arrows were no match against the brutality of steel and elves were driven back into their rain forests. Humans effectively ruled much of the continent for centuries until 896 when a yet insignificant tribe of Ylleva began their revolt. Using the same mines in the Andes which the humans built and imitating their industry, they produced armor and weapons from the strange white metal which is soon to be known as Mithril (actually it's an unusual lightweight grid structure for Titanium). This new equipment combined with the elves' still considerable home field advantage allowed Ylleva to drive away their oppressors and gradually conquer the continent for themselves. Yet the damage was already done, the elves' nature-loving culture was contaminated by human beliefs and methods. The benevolent movement gave birth to a massive empire, which from 1011 is called Yllendthyr. The tables have turned and the elves became the rulers over the remaining humans who were treated as a slave race. Centuries passed and thanks to their fertility humans were becoming the majority within the empire. Yet the status quo remained and the human slaves grew more and more discontent. The situation truly exploded during 1648 when thanks to foreign support the humans could take arms and fight back the elves on nearly equal terms. By this time human nations were using gunpowder for decades which the elves were aware of. In spite of that they regarded them as useless noisemakers compared to the graceful precision of their mithril bolt throwers. This kind of arrogance paid them dearly during the Battle of the Lóthien Plains where foreign musketeers annihilated the charge of the 1st Griffin Knight Company led by none other but Emperor Ilehnaed II. The death of their ruler shook the Empire and in the following decades the new emperor Delrasyn II. was forced to transform the nation into constitutional monarchy led by the diet. The power of the emperor was steadily wanning but in retrospect such development actually benefited the empire and by the 19-20th century it was a modern and advanced nation with extensive trade and international relations and overall influence comparable to the other leading powers.
+Culture:TBA

Elven Biology

According to the studies of Charles Dwarfwin from the last century, elves evolved from the prehistoric birds. They share a distant relation with the various Griffin species albeit just barely. The elves' distant ancestor was the Homo Auger aka "bird-man" but there are evidences pointing towards crossbreeding and the exact history of how the elves developed is shrouded in many mysteries. Regardless of the apparently different origins it turned out elves and humans can interbreed with each other, siring a half-elf. Albeit 9 out of 10 such pregnancies generally result in a miscarriage and may even threaten the mother's life.

In terms of physical characteristics, elves are generally tall and slenderly built, averaging at 6'4". Their bones are hollow which further reduces their average weight to around 90 lbs. They are fast and nimble compared to humans, further supported by their amazing sense of balance. Some studies attribute the latter to tiny organic gyroscopes but the research on elven physiology is somewhat inconclusive. Elves are also gifted with impressive senses, capable of matching or outperforming most animals. They can smell like a hunting dog, see with an eagle's eye and hearing almost rivaling bats. Elves have a slower metabolism and require less than half as much food compared to humans. Elves can also boast with a great immune system which might be partially responsible for their longevity. Elves can live for 300 years. In many aspects Elves could be seen as the "winners" in evolution. Yet all these advantages come at a cost. Elves are notably fragile when compared to humans. Their bones are designed to withstand strain in certain directions but they are weak and brittle from other angles. Young elves break a lot of bones and gradually learn to move with grace and precision to avoid such accidents. Their low weight also means that elves can generally carry only 40% as much as what a regular human could. Elves are also more sensitive to loud noises and find them uncomfortable. Similarly while the elven immune system is great, their frail body suffers heavily when they're exposed to something this system wasn't designed to handle. Poisons that effect elves are often also very lethal. Elves also have slightly different diet from humans which means they can't consume a few types of food a human could (on the other hand their digestive tracts can metabolize cellulose and they can pretty much eat grass for nutrition). Lastly, while long-lived, elves suffer from criminally low birth rates. They are considerably less fertile than humans and the number of miscarriages is also higher. Modern medicine is aiding the elves considerably but their birth rates are still nowhere near to humans'. Elves also require over twice as much time to grow up and only elves past the age of 30 are considered actual adults (equal to the development of a 13-14 years old human).

+Military:

Mithril

Primary Element: Mt-22 (Mithralium)
Color: whiteish-silver
Density: 2410-2540 kg/m^3
Mohs Scale: 3.7-6.8
Young's Modulus: 91-121 GPa
Yield Strength: 100-600 MPa
Ultimate Tensile Strength: 310-1000 MPa

A family of metal composites/alloys utilizing Mithral Ore combined with other materials through the ways of alchemy. Its toughness is almost comparable to steel yet its density is only 31% of that. Mithril is very resistant to the effects of corrosion which until the last century gave a strategic advantage for Yllendthyr. Compared to steel, mithril is less stiff and can temporarily deform to external force. Mithril is also more ductile and elastic, among others this makes them excellent choice for springs. As of late the newest high-strength steel alloys took the decisive lead from mithrils, albeit the lightness of the latter can often compensate to an extend.

Yllendthyr's military structure is complex and has various roots from local militia, standing armies, mercenaries and even the private armies of the nobles. Their technology and industry also differs from this world, relying on mithril instead of steel. Due to uing alchemists the production of mithril is slower, albeit less apparent for large scale industrial applications. The lightweight metal composite allows elven vehicles to be much lighter while maintaining similar performance, saving tremedous weight and gaining speed. On the other hand mithril is somewhat weaker than steel and in certain applications this show in their combat performance. For example the lower pressure limits of mithril means elven firearms often use larger bore diameter to compensate (elven 99mm cannons are barely better than human 75mm ones, for example). Elves are naturally gifted pilots and engineers. Their enhanced senses allow them to construct precision mechanisms with more ease. Their talents at understanding motion are almost unparalleled. Similarly the supposed existence of nautral gyroscopes within the elven body allows them to fly aircraft virtually without any device assisting them (though mechanics are even more precise so only the smallest aircrafts neglect them).

Point of Departure: World War II

@Willy Vereb You said the word "jet" and I got worried, but if I recall correctly, what few jets existed in the late war were mostly too fast to be useful anyway. Since you mention it, what are the ramifications of developing a jet engine in the 30's, anyway? I'm curious.

@Queen Raidne

Jets really weren't that fast, that's my point.
You won't see any jet designs breaking the sound barrier until after WW2.
The problem with jets wasn't really just that they were too fast, that's a relative issue. It isn't like they could not design or tune down the speed when needed.
The issues were:
1.) Fuel consumption due to compressor technology being kinda young, thus limiting the range.
2.) Inferior efficiency at sufficiently low speeds
3.) Less tested and proven compared to piston-driven propeller aircraft.
4.) Lack of heat-resistant materials which kinda impacted efficiency but also meant that until the late 50s the jet fighters needed engine overhaul 10 times more often.

Granted, I may solve some of these issues but in effect jet technology doesn't give me much edge in speed and it comes at the cost of range.
For example my fastest jet around this time would be the Tavr type interceptors with the top speed of 575 MPH.
While it's fast certain turboprop designs can nearly match this speed and even if they not those have much more bombs/cargo/weapons with multitudes the range.