Gather round my sleepy children

[appleciders]

Bipolarbear and I had been kicking around an idea where an NES takes place over a star system. One star, nine or ten planets, assorted asteroids and comets. That might be fun if we account for the planets having different periods, because that would mean borders would constantly change; you might be only a short distance from an enemy one turn, then far away the next. Screwy borders like that could be a lot of fun. I don't, however, like some of the things I've read about in future NESes; nukes and other superweapons especially. Mechs would only get on my nerves if people take them to excess; they should play only a supporting role, not the majority.

[Micha]

Star sytem!!!

anything involving magic powers

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by appleciders
Bipolarbear and I had been kicking around an idea where an NES takes place over a star system. One star, nine or ten planets, assorted asteroids and comets. That might be fun if we account for the planets having different periods, because that would mean borders would constantly change; you might be only a short distance from an enemy one turn, then far away the next. Screwy borders like that could be a lot of fun. I don't, however, like some of the things I've read about in future NESes; nukes and other superweapons especially. Mechs would only get on my nerves if people take them to excess; they should play only a supporting role, not the majority.

"low tech" Sci-fI set within a solar-system would be fun, too.


... Or how about steampunk? Perhaps a sort of jules-verne kind of setting.

[appleciders]

I agree; no gravity drives, no really weird technologies, and definately no nukes. Here's a thought; as a bit of background, write in that one planent controlled the whole system, but that planet managed to blow itself up with nuclear weapons, which have therefore been banned. We get a good reason not to use nukes, a power vacuum, and an asteroid belt all in one.

[foolish_icarus]

You have 60 hours to make proposals and cast your votes. I start setting up this weekend.

[Micha]

vote:
- Age of Discovery (Maybe not real world to prevent unfair knowledge)
- Solar System with low tech
- new planet colonization

vote against:
- magic
- lord of the rings
- flash gordon
- superman and the ninja turtles

[appleciders]

Aye:
- Age of Discovery (Maybe real world to reward people who do research)
- Solar System, low tech
- Postapocalyptic
- Working in weak psychic powers in a supporting role only. It shouldn't take over the game.

Nay:
- LOTR
- Superheroes
- Amoebas

[General Ludd]

For:
- Low tech Sci-fi
- Amoebas
- Omnipotent Asshats
- Jules Verne

Against:
- Anything historical

[Gamecube64]

For:
post-apoc
Amoebas
low-tech solar system
Against:
Historical

[appleciders]

I'm seeing a pattern here in favor of low-tech solar system.

[foolish_icarus]

Yep. I'll get started. Conceptualization, mechanics, and setup will take a couple days at least, expect to see this ready in about a week (sooner with some luck). Feel free to continue making suggestings on specifics or your visualization of the overall "feel" in the meantime.

[appleciders]

Having an asteroid belt would be fun; something to mine, a place for bandits to hide out, that sort of thing.

Having one planet be a penal colony might be fun; lower tech, but very resourceful and hard-working populace, if a little disorderly.

[General Ludd]

I think there should be an emphasis on the low-tech part. Weapons should be mostly munitions based, lasers should be largely inefective or so big and power consuming as to be impractical. No Forcefields. Water should be a limited comodity on many planets, and interplanetary bulk freight should be expensive and labourous.

You should also try to play on each planet's characteristics. A planet close to the sun, for instance, could potentialy collect incredible amount of solar energy, while a planet on the rim would have difficulty collecting any energy at all. Heavy gravity planets should be more difficult and expensive to launch from. Most colonies should be inside bio-domes or underground facilities, as it's highly unlikely that there would be more than one habitable planet in a solar system.

[appleciders]

None of the planets needs to be absolutely hostile to life, though, and there might be more than one that's habitable; statistics state firmly that coincidences do happen. I also think each planet should have a distinctly different culture, just for fun.

I don't know how in-depth you're going in designing these planets, but these sites may be useful.

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tech/Beam/Calculator.html

http://www.bumply.com/astro.html

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by appleciders
None of the planets needs to be absolutely hostile to life, though

But some should be.

Another thing to consider as far as the planets go is rare minerals and metals. Some may be more abundant than others, while others may have very little of a certain resource.