anyone up for another Chiron Chronicles?

[Mellian]

hence why i suggested starting in 2200...and now thinking possibly pushing the starting date a bit later.

after we figured out some of the basics, we could also collectively figure the general chironian timeline, mentioning first contacts, major events, wars, seperation of the crossfire factions from the original factions, establishment of the planetary council, alien crash landings, and etc to help form the starting atmosphere in the world of chiron.

-mellian

[Illuminatus]

I would move the timelime to 2210 or 2220 for two reasons: factions are reaching of fusion/orbital age which would take time and this is not a regular SMAX game, + enough time for splinter factions to develop. Does someone agree?

[Sovereign]

2210 - 2225 sounds good, Obstructor.

I think after 110 - 125 years on Chiron, Humanity would have a considerable population, well developed bases, and the beginnings of "globalism" with communication, information exchanges, etc.

I think, with a considerable population growth, setting up mines and farms ASAP, etc. upon planetfall, Humanity would have a pretty good infrastructure in place to confront either each other, or the Progenitors.

[Illuminatus]

Exactly. Anyway, should we make Progenitors ahead in tech?

[Mellian]

i wouldn't say that the factions would have a considerable population, but something like under or around a million i mean...

while there is the beginnings of 'globalism', there is still plenty of room left for expansion, exploration and to fight over, especially at key resources and landmarks

they would have enough infracture, and tech, to build and maintain cruisers, needlejets and etc with beginnings into the use of Fusion and starting to shoot stuff up into space with Orbital Spaceflight tech... but wouldn't be big enough to field entire large armies. like, fielding a regiment of infantry would be quite a task, while Battalion and smaller units is more common. so would be like armies of today nations, where you don't need big armies like in world war two and previous wars to wage war.

As for the Proginators...yes they would be more advance. proginators would have been on chiron for at least 10-15 years when the story starts, where they may kept to themselves at during that time, with sparse contact with humanity. They could be the reasons why the chironians really started to globalize themselves, with the help of satellites when they start shooting them up, using the planetary council to cooperate a bit concerning the aliens who are still generally unknown and still no direct contact with them.

-mellian

[Illuminatus]

Ahem, one million ! And we should keep the realism, yeah.

Isn`t a bit odd that a faction cannot field a regiment but can launch a satellite into orbit? Must be that they got that tech somehow from Progenitors.

[Mellian]

more or less 500k then, whatever...

considering the size of their population, fielding regiment size units (the average size regiment in real life is what...1000+ people?) would end up having a good chunk of the population being part of the military.

of course, some factions would definatly have reserves, or have at least half or most of the population combat trained like the spartans for example...but in constant active military duty?

we would start the story with no war/conflict happening, unless some authors want to start the story in war *shrugs*

so really, there is no point, or cost effective, to field units. always thought the standard infantry unit would be a battalion, while rovers, needlejets and choppers would be platoons/company/squadrons. naval ships would would be single ship units.


as for shooting up satellites...you don't need to able to field regiments to be able to field satellites, which mainly only needs the infrastructure and technology. units require people in comparison. i can see some factions try to find alternatives in regards of human resources and support.

-mellian

[Sovereign]

I think, with the instinct and desire to survive, humans on Chiron would try to have as many children as possible.

After 100 - 125 years, 10,000 people could go up to a million.

I propose that every faction has a maximum of 1 million at the start of the story, around 2210 - 2225. The Hive should have 1.5 million due to its aceticism and communal nature, and the Peacekeepers should have 1.2 million due to its population growth bonus (I forgot the exact nature of the bonus from in-game). Or leave Peacekeepers at 1 million.

Thats my 2 cents for now.

[Mart]

Peacekeepers have one additional "talent" citizen per every four in a base. Plus they kinda more booming due to population floccing to them more than to others.

[Illuminatus]

And raised limit for population too. Still, a faction cannot afford to field a regiment, but can afford cost to shot up satelites?

[Sovereign]

Well, Obstructor, let me put it this way...

There's two kinds of currency in Chiron.

Energy / money.

People.


You can't field big armies yet during the first 1 or 2 centuries on Chiron.

You might have enough Energy / Money.

BUT.... You won't have enough People.

You can field big armies if your population is high enough, like 10 - 20 million or more. This is because there will be plenty of people to run infrastructure, farm, mine, oversee machinery, take care of daily faction needs, etc. while leaving millions of people to work jobs or be available for conscriptions.

The USA has a standing army of about 2 million people. I could be wrong, but I remember reading that somewhere. I believe divisions and task forces have like 100,000 people each.

With a population of 1 million, 100,000 people is quite a lot, especially when everybody's trying to farm, mine, build colonies, etc.

But if a faction has 10 million people, then a division of 100,000 people won't put a serious dent in the population "resource" of the faction.



Space flight is quite a different story.

The considerable Energy / Money requirements can be met.

People "currency" cost isn't high.

Therefore, it is affordable.


IIRC, in Houston and Cape Canaveral, I think there may be at most 10,000 people working with or for NASA. However, with robotics and automation, the number of people can be reduced to maybe 5,000.

5,000 out of 1 million people is pretty much neligible. Then the only question left is the raw resources and money needed to launch such a program. That won't be a big issue on Chiron. There would be plenty of metals, plastics, etc. which leaves the money issue.

If a faction is willing to invest considerable sums, it can achieve space flight and support a NASA style corporation or institution to maintain the faction's space program for the short term.


Hope this helps, Obstructor.

[Mellian]

also considering the longivity technology they brought with them from earth, a long with 2060 medical tech at first which will evolve to more improvements and discoveries as time goes on chiron... they could sustain a better rate of growth of population, especially if some factions may dabble into genetics, cloning and artificial wombs

yet even, around one thousand per faction to grow up to a million over a hundred years later? what would be the rate of birth year have to be? also consider the early years dangers they face before they feel comfortable...

anyway, overall, exact population size should be abstract in the story...

as for militar units....didn't say anything on how many units a faction can field, i just saying that a single unit should be a battalion for infantry, or platoon/company/squadron for mechanical units like rovers, aircrafts and etc...with single ship per naval unit.

it is a realistic limit for unit sizes, and varying unit sizes per faction caused problems of its own and unrealism in Chiron Chronicles...so not interested in seeing that repeated.



-mellian

[Trithemius]

Originally posted by Mellian
as for militar units....didn't say anything on how many units a faction can field, i just saying that a single unit should be a battalion for infantry, or platoon/company/squadron for mechanical units like rovers, aircrafts and etc...with single ship per naval unit.

Regardless of what people call them (battalion abteilung, cohort, etc...) standardised sizes are probably a sound idea.

What about:
300-1,000ish for Infantry.
12-25ish for Vehicles (possibly more for lighter vehicles than for heavier varieties?).
12-25ish for Aircraft.
2-5ish capital ships, plus support craft; or a horde of skimships for Naval.

This gives some relatively flexible numbers, but leaves terminology up to the writer.

[Mellian]

100- 1000 for Infantry per Unit

12-15 for Rovers, Crawlers, Hovertanks, etc per Unit

12-15 Needlejets, Choppers, Gravships, etc per Unit

1 Cruiser, Foil, and etc. per Unit (will have to check the manual for the size of a Foil when i come back home...)

5-15 Probes in a Probe Team unit


-mellian

[Sovereign]

Mellian, I must disagree a bit about ship fleets.

I believe this would be better....

1 Unit = 1 ship of cruiser class or higher.

1 Unit - 2 - 3 ships of Destroyer and Frigate class

1 Unit = 5 - 10 Transport ships

How can 1 transport cram in 8 infantry units, which can be up to maybe 10,000 people? That would be a floating city. Not to mention ALL the equipment, supplies, ammo, guns, etc. that the infantry would need.

I think 5 - 10 transports per 1 Unit would be reasonable. That way, it would be realistic to transport 8 to 16 units (I think the max units per transport was 16) of infantry, rovers, tanks, or hover tanks. Along with all the support equipment, supplies, food, ammo, etc.