anyone up for another Chiron Chronicles?

[Mart]

Twenty squares is more or less area of the closest economically dependent establishments. This is how I understand that. We may think that there are smaller "towns" somewhere there - workers on farms, in forests or miners or just simply supply crawler routs crews. Realy small posts-bases, too small to be represented on the map.

[Mellian]

Originally posted by mart7x5
Twenty squares is more or less area of the closest economically dependent establishments. This is how I understand that. We may think that there are smaller "towns" somewhere there - workers on farms, in forests or miners or just simply supply crawler routs crews. Realy small posts-bases, too small to be represented on the map.

yes, but even then, what is being represented is way in the game is way to much, considering each square is about 44 516 km2 (yes, i did the math), so about 210km x 210km squares.

that would make ottawa and montreal just under square away from each other... so me thinks bases can survive pretty well, being one square from each other, considering it will be awhile yet before the chironians will end up having the kind of populations those two cities have.

for story purposes, can just consider each square 200x200 km sectors.

-mellian

[Mart]

Well, presently I'm in Utah, for me distance of 200 km between large cities is really very small. It's desert around. I wouldn't worry that much about this math though. Also, if there is such wish, maximal size of a map is 256 squares, like twice huge size 128. That would make squares 100km?

[Sovereign]

Hmm... my reasoning behind the mega-city of size 20+ is from a few Secret Project movies.

Energy Exchange movie shows a huge city with very tall skycrapers.

The Ascent Movie shows a contient fully covered in a city (I forgot if its Voice of Planet or Ascent Wonder movie).

[Mellian]

Originally posted by mart7x5
Well, presently I'm in Utah, for me distance of 200 km between large cities is really very small. It's desert around. I wouldn't worry that much about this math though. Also, if there is such wish, maximal size of a map is 256 squares, like twice huge size 128. That would make squares 100km?

umm, no.... how many squares in a game map will not change the fact that Chiron's surface area of 7.18x10^8 square kilometres.

also, really not interested in trying to recreate a modified planetx map to the maximum map size possible and i rather keep it to 200x200km squares.

-mellian

[Mellian]

Originally posted by Sovereign
Hmm... my reasoning behind the mega-city of size 20+ is from a few Secret Project movies.

Energy Exchange movie shows a huge city with very tall skycrapers.

The Ascent Movie shows a contient fully covered in a city (I forgot if its Voice of Planet or Ascent Wonder movie).

if we are going to be realistic, it will be a few centuries before Chironians could seriously have 20+ size bases.

like, i can definatly see factions starting to have their own unique architectures, and some skyscrapers (or underscrapers for Hive ) by 2200.

anyway, we shouldn't focus to much on population sizes for particular bases...we can just keep it abstract and not really mention it in the story, like Mike did in his books.

actually, how many years in the first book, Centauri Dawn, went by before Peacekeepers started establishing a second base?


-mellian

[Illuminatus]

If we stick to "realism", on Chiron faction will be to far apart to do anything. They would literally be too far to interact physicall nad story would eventually come to who and where built what.

[Mellian]

i like to the idea to still have some open space between factions, while still capable to strike at each other. sensors/radar seem to be pretty good, a long with long range communications without help of satellites.

anyway, to keep with realism, we would have to pick a realistic year to start the story from. also, we would be starting off with cruisers, needlejets, some fusion and the beginnings of orbital spaceflight tech/capabilities. would also start the story with all factions having comms of each other, and also having an established Planetary Council, done via holographic/virtual communication.

also, the distances, and the average rolling terrain of Chiron, would explain they prefer Rovers as mobile units initially....and aircrafts would definatly help.

overall, story will not end up being all about production and etc.

-mellian

[Sovereign]

Well, Mellian, I think population does play a vital role in any empire or nation.

Simple reason that can be summarized in two words.

Taxation / Economy.

If a nation is developed with a sufficient technology level, its citizens would be educated, doing technological related jobs.

In addition, if the nation has many citizens, they'll be able to have excellent production capabilities, because there will simply be many people working in factories.

These factories would produce loads upon loads of goods, material, and machinery. This in turn, will fuel the eonomy, boosting life standards, due to the wealth of material available for purchase, usage, or trade.

Then in turn, the people become wealthy, and increases the amount of money that can be taxed. The government, a wise one, could use the wealth gained from taxes to improve its infrastructure, thus improving its economy and life standards even further.

This cycle goes on and on, thereotically.


I am under the impression that people on Chiron *must* be well educated in technologies simply to survive. Dummies won't make it far in Chiron.

Therefore, education fuels economies and taxation processes.

[Sovereign]

Arg, I forgot to add...

I understand where you guys are coming from about population. I just feel that it is a major factor in determining a faction's power. After all, without sufficient population, things won't get done as efficiently.

However, I have one question though.

Food stuff / nutrient production and management.

How will we use this to determine how a base grows? After all, people NEED food.

[Mellian]

yes, it does play a vital role...but we are doing a story. is it all that important to mention how many people base or faction has, how much energy credits, or how the economy works in the story? can we leave those generally abstract for story simplicity? also would avoid some 'who as the longest dick' type arguments between authors.

edit: just want to say that authors will not have to keep tract of everything about their factions, just mainly the stuff involved by the various plots in the story.

-mellian

[Mellian]

Originally posted by Sovereign
Arg, I forgot to add...

I understand where you guys are coming from about population. I just feel that it is a major factor in determining a faction's power. After all, without sufficient population, things won't get done as efficiently.

However, I have one question though.

Food stuff / nutrient production and management.

How will we use this to determine how a base grows? After all, people NEED food.

is it that really all that important to the story thought?

yes, it is important to determine how many bases a faction can start with, and general idea of how big they would be, before the story starts....but after it is does, is it really needed to keep track of such things, unless we are speeding through the years in the story...?

maybe we should decide on the story time progression before answering/deciding on those questions.

-mellian

[Sovereign]

Thanks for the clarification, Mellian.

I agree with the abstract idea. I was merely pointing out the vital issues, so that we can figure out what to do with them.


As for the time progession, we had a little discussion earlier about advancing time.

IIRC, I stated "1 game year = 1 week in real world" or something to that extent. This will resolve the problem with inactive authors.

However, you gave a valid point about rushing things, and the various activity of authors.


So I'm prepared to compromise my idea for time advancement.

Here goes...

Authors advance the timeline by reasonable amounts. For instance, if an author needs to advance time by 2 weeks in the middle of a post so that their scouts can reach a particular area... They should be allowed to do that.

However, time advances of 3, 4, 5, or more years at one time is out of the question. Forget it. Do not pass "Go".

After all, not much happens during the first century or two after planetfall. It's all exploration and building.


How about that?

[Mart]

I think that for the story it would be good to think about early contact between factions. I understand the in-game lack of contact is something like coppying civ games, where ancient times did not have contact between civilizations very often. Here i can imagine that early colonists might attempt to build some radio-communication early. That would make starting years after planetfall more interesting. Exchanges with exploration discoveries, first technologies swapping, etc.

[Sovereign]

You read my mind, Mart.

I knew early games wouldn't be fun, with the "turn mashing" until you get a moderate sized empire, with instant transportation (train rails in Civ games, and Monorails in AC), and aircraft to fly over oceans.

However, I believe the first few years would be very isolated because factions don't know each other's frequencies yet. Perhaps they would scan through millions or billions of possible channels or hertz for radio chatter. It'd be like finding a needle in a haystack the size of a planet.