Thinking Of A New Story Thread

[Argonaut]

I might be interested in picking up my usual, the Angels. Basic idea for a history: (Which hopefully would make more sense for them as a faction)

In the war with the Progenitors, Data Angel holdings were wiped out, with rag tag groups of survivors finding sanctuary in the bases of others. Datajack Roze herself is killed in the final attack on Data DeCentral.

After the humans sucessfully eradicate the Progenitor threat on Chiron, no efforts are made to reinstitue the Data Angels. Enemies made with some powerful factions (Morgan, perhaps Hive) refuse to consider the proposal and no strong leader comes forward to fight for the Data Angel cause. Data Angel refugees are treated as second-class citizens across Chiron and frequently resort to crime as a means of getting by. Sort of creating an Organized Crime ring across Chiron, with an emphasis on computer hacking.

When the FTL is developed they steal the plans, and start spreading the information around a little. The plan is to have as many factions as possible creating FTL ships so that they can steal some for themselves, seeing as they have no production facilities.

Eventually they get their hands on ships and make their way out into space. They manage to infiltrate most of the newly colonized planets, but have no world of their own. They have small squadrons of ships, with no permanent base and have now revealed their existance fully to the other factions. They seek to have a homeworld of their own and be given freedom to live in peace.

Just random thoughts spewing out of my head. It all makes sense in there somewhere. I can explain better if anyone cares.

[[LordLMP]]

Mr. President...i suggest you tone down as to how much of the galaxy is being influenced and travelled by humans from chiron and so on.... I rather keep the human space in the area of space where we have decent names for stars :P the stars with our eyes on earth....... like Vega, Alpha Centauri, Proxima Centauri, Tau Ceti, etc...... actually, suggest we use the names of real stars :P

-LMP

[Sprayber]

Argo: I already had this in my unofficial timeline. What do you think.

2575-Spartans encouter Gorn. Again limited contact is made. Spartans learn of Gorn hatred for Bree and the Morganite encounter.
2580-The body of Colonel Santiago dies. Mind is transferred to a cloned replica thanks to University technology that was stolen from their labs on the University homeworld. Spartan Federation comes out in support of a Datatech homeworld.
2582-Spartan scout ships encouter and battle Progenator scout ships. Boths sides withdraw.

Looks kind of like to that the Datatech supporters did the Spartans a favor and the Spartans are going to do them a favor. this can be moved up to where it occurs earlier if it suits you better that way. We need all the good people we can get.

[[LordLMP]]

I guess i will take the Pirates...... any thought about my ideas of the Terran alliance and the Fraal? what about the manifold worlds?


Okay, after the Proginator Wars on Chiron the factions acquiring FTL technology aswell as some ships.... the Pirates lose more and more influence on Chiron, mainly because they lag behind in the "instellar race to colonize whatever planets" Also, they have trouble building their own ships as their Space Contruction Complexs is limited as their barely control any land on chiron and their Seabases not capable to launch heavy loads into space.

relations with the Free Drones sours...especially when their society is changing more and more. The Nautilus Pirates becomes the only factions to support the Data Angels, creating a long lasting relationship. Pirates alow Data Angels refugees into pirate bases... but due to crampness in the bases, good portion of the Data Angels still spread across chiron and beyond...but uses Pirate bases as headquarters for their covert operations.

Along with the Data Angels, they succeed in capturing some FTL ships and go off into space.... Of course, they fell to find any worlds to colonize, since other factions get them first and also eventually bump into Terran Alliance...technicly being the first faction to encounter them. eventually, the Pirates, being their pirate selfs pirate other faction ships in Space, establish outposts/bases on various moons, asteroid fields and etc... they still maintain on anf off relationship with the Data Angels. Captain Svensgaard eventually passed away of old age...since his body started to get immune to the Longivity treatments.

After the death of their leader, the Pirates pretty much splintered into various gangs. Occasionally fighting among themselves, but will group together against other factions and aliens. but the main Pirate Gang is the one still in control of the seabases back on chiron and representing the Pirates in the Council. rest of the gangs eventually get adept in space like they were adept among the sea. they contruct moveable starbases, establish outposts/bases all the place, mine some moons and asteroid fields and Pirating other factions. Only way other factions can seriously fight the pirates is self defence when they attack...and when they do try to exterminate the pirate holdings at various places, they still show elsewhere. Pirates hae mix up fleet....each gang operating their own fleet of ships. The gang on Chiron is the one not really pirating...else the other factions will gang up on them on Chiron

So Argonaut, maybe have the Data Angels partly merge with the Pirates? but both factions still do their own thing, and a lot of times working together?


-----------------------------------

the Fraal: The Factions will contact them after they contact the Terran Alliance....which is small in comprison to the Factions holdings and forces combined. But the terran alliance more adept at interstellar combat as they been fighting themselves in the Sol system for several hundred years.

Anyway, the Fraal is nomadic, have big motherships moving about and have bunch of smaller ships mainly scouting, observing, and the occassional trading with others. No Race attack the Fraal, as their is pretty advance... motherships have powerful weapons (Phasers? Ion Beams? etc)... and will equip their smaller ships with similar weaponry when threating by anyone. So the Fraal is just the wise folks that been around in the galaxy for quite awhile Fraal mainly trade information/technology they have for resources or whatever they want. fraal is the aliens with big black eyes...most common in real life for kidnapping humans and etc... Oh, and they are telepathic, and the Fraal like talking with the Gaians

Terran Alliance: Alliance is comprised of various factions/nations/corperations/groups/etc....

here is some:

the Scions: they are the only alien like humans in the sol system and only control the Dark Planet... Scions are a fuse of Human and biometal.... Their origins go far back to the 1990s...where it seems Humanity as been fighting over biometal (which is use up throughout sol at the time, and only the Scions is capable of producing it) in the Sol system unknown to the rest of the world...Scions were created on earth and they broke off... the two big nations fighting over the biometal join forces against them... Scions (at the time, known as Furies and the Black Dogs before that) retreated and discovered the Dark Planet, practicly covered with infrastructure and artificial atmosphere....abandoned by some past unknown race. Later, the Scions are discovered and the joint secret earth forces fight them again....wearing out the earth forces and causing scions a lot of damage. They form a treaty where the Scions do not expand into the rest of the sol system and earth forces leave them alone. Scions kept that promise...so they stay quiet and properly grow on the Dark Planet..... while the earth force is disbanded, shuting down various outposts and etc...mainly due to lack of Biometal. The Biometal Wars, Scion War and the Scions are forgotten and Earth eventually ge stuck with its own problems...like the coming to WW3, United Nation building UNS Unity.... all this happening unknown to the Scions as the Scions didn't bother contacting Earth or check them out or expanding.......... the Scions were discovered again few hundred years later during the Sol system...partly dragging the Scions into the Sol wide warfare.....and eventually became part of the Terran Alliance after the contact of the Fraal. (Yes, i am mixing another game with SMAX :P why not? I love the Scions )

The Belters: They mainly control the Asteroid Belt in the Sol system, which they succeed in completly controlling it during the Sol wide wars.....the belters started out when they rebelled at various Asteroid mining operations against the nations of earth... (after the Starlancer type days ). Belters is the first group to declare (more like fighting for) their independence...the first offworld "nation"/"faction". They are superior at mining and quite use to live in harsh cramp conditions among the asteroid belt.... they were technicly the pirates during the Sol wars. So they are a group which the Nautilus Pirates and Data Angels can get along with


any other ideas for Terran Alliance factions? of course, if you people even agree with my Terran Alliance idea... and they can stay quiet while we play the Chiron factions

-LMP

[Mr. President]

The star names are a concern, but it really doesn't matter where space exploration goes, as long as someone keeps track of which stars are which.

Terran Alliance sounds cool. We might try some Ben Bova-style schisms between Earth and Mars, or between Earth and the Moon, or something like that.

I think someone was talking about religion before. It seems likely to me that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam will still be around in some form. There could be other religions that appeared more recently; I was thinking about one (inspired by Isaac Asimov's robot novels) that worships Earth, the birthplace of mankind. That one would probably exist off Earth, on Chiron or elsewhere. They (some of them at least) may want to claim it politically as well as religiously.

Anyway, more Free Drone ideas: I was going to keep Domai for the early parts of the story, but have him resign or be compelled to resign as Drone society continues to metamorphosize. They want to shed the rogue image they gained in past years and enter the community of respected nations. The government is wary of the remnants of the Data Angels, but is willing to lend qualified support for a Datatech homeworld, hoping it would cut down on the crime and the spying. As for the Pirates: they don't exactly hate them, but they don't trust them and would be happier if there was less actual piracy going on. They sometimes, however, use some of their splinter groups as mercenaries, particularly to keep the Bree in line without taking direct action, and to keep tabs on the movements of Gorn, Progenitors, and the Terran Alliance. Relations with the Peacekeepers have soured (perhaps influenced during the alliance with the Spartans? ), and they see the Cyborgs as a strategic competitor.

I'm not sure yet what I want to happen on Vega. Once idea: the creators of the Vegan technology are extinct, but some of the machines themselves are sentient, and are beginning to awaken. Something along the lines of mechanical intelligence meets biological intelligence.

The other Manifolds are, I think, supposed to be very far away in a different part of the galaxy. However, it would be fun to have someone find them and tangle with the Progenitors who occupy them. I designed a custom faction just recently, a Progenitor faction that was neither the Caretakers nor the Usurpers: Manifold Chaos, +1 Industry, -1 Research, whose goal is to dissolve civilizations and return the galaxy to primordial anarchy.

OK, enough out of me for now.

[Sprayber]

It might be better to keep some things a little vague. If we get bogged down on Terran relations with lunar colonists this will never get off the ground.

There will still need to be some interaction between the different factions. So say that Mr. Pres can make up drone relations with the Cult of Planet as long as no one is playing the Cult. There is so much that can be done, but we need to be able to get started first.

This is who I see as the major players

Spartans(They think it's their mission to bring order to the Human systems. That and they still have a score to settle with a few factions and the bugs)

Peacekeepers(they have control of chiron, since everyone seemed to take off)

Hive(If you thought they turned weird on Chiron, think about them being isolated in Space for decades)

Pirates(splintered and disorganized, they are looking for some loot. The spartans just hope they don't stumble across a planet that happens to be 85% shallow seas that lies on the border between them and the Drones.)

Believers(should enjoy converting the masses that are without factions guidence.)

Data Angel insurgents(soon to have a homeworld and back in the spy business)

Drones(posses great industrial potential, But can they survive the machines and the Bree)

Cyborgs(Since they built the first FTL comm devices, they seem to be always on the leg up on comm abilities. And why are they listening to everyone elses comm traffic.)

University(Still has the greatest tech and the greatest mindes)

Morganites(Very large Interstellar presence. They are trading with everyone it seems like)

Gaians(still meddeling in other factions enviromental policies but not even the Spartans relish the thought of invading the Gaian homeworld full of sentient native creatures.

Cult of Planet.(giving the Pks a hard time and anyone else that they happen to come across)

Unless someone wants to take care of the aliens they are just for backdrop. With incursions every so often.

Earth. This should be a flashpoint in the future. As each Chiron factions fight for influence of Earth and the Terrans think that the large human empires rightfully belong to Earth.

A note about Earth. I don't think that the Terrans should be too powerful. The should have colonized the Sol system thouroghly but really haven't gone much further except to fight the Frall. I do like the idea of the Chiron factions playing different groups on earth against each other. Might even lead to a wider war between the factions.

[[LordLMP]]

No wars with the Fraal please :P they just wander, explore, observe, trade information, have great conversations with factions like the Gaians (Telepathy), aliens no one seem interesting to fight and who would want to? Fraal is so friendly Fraal will only be in the background have motherships and scout ships all over th eplace. :P Like I said, the Terran Alliance is quite loose and comprise of its own factions..... The nations pretty much dissolve into various groups throughout the the sol system. And since the Terran Alliance gain FTL bit late in comparison to Chiron, they don't seem to have much room to expand....and don't have to many FTL ships, but they do have a lot of STL ships combined in the Sol system And should have in bonus in ship to ship combat

Terran Alliance factions/groups:

Earth/Terra: home of humanity and homeworld of the Terran Alliance...

Mars: Ben Bova style...declared independence from the various nations who controlled Mars and started a Earth vs Mars schism...but eventually join the Terran Alliance, but still don't trust Earth and worried that Earth will gain to much power in the loose alliance. Mars is quite terraformed and now have a barely breathable atmosphere.

Venus: population small, and colonies few on Venus... the people who originally colonized Venus were considered quite crazy by rest of humanity in the sol system quite a dangerous world to live on... yet they succeeded and slowly started to tame their environtment.... Usually keep to themselves, but have gone into a few spacial wars...as no one else is interested in landing troops on venus.

The Belters: talked about them already.... merge the pirates and free drones in space, voila....before their metamorphasis.

the Scions: talked about them and will post the proper description of them from battlezone2.... but i like them and like the Dark Planet idea

and few other factions in the Sol system...........

-LMP

[Kassiopeia]

Holy cow! I turn my back for a moment and the thread increases in size a twenty-fold Perfect ideas, Terran Alliance, the Aliens, the factions, the time.

I have no own ideas as of yet, but I think that the University does sound very appealing, however. So I think it will be the University, or "University of Galaxy"
Can't wait to have all that advanced tech around!

[Alynzia]

This is so cool!

Hey guys,

This is so cool! I would love to join in or just read if this becomes another role playing game. It's amazing what SMAC gets us thinking up! Do you finish playing a game and think 'Aww, dammit, dominating one Planet is never enough!'

Alynzia.

p.s. Are you (mostly) all still hating me from the Chiron Chronicles? Need I post an apology?

[Sprayber]

Re: This is so cool!

Originally posted by Alynzia
Hey guys,

This is so cool! I would love to join in or just read if this becomes another role playing game. It's amazing what SMAC gets us thinking up! Do you finish playing a game and think 'Aww, dammit, dominating one Planet is never enough!'

Alynzia.

p.s. Are you (mostly) all still hating me from the Chiron Chronicles? Need I post an apology?

Yeah, you can join in. We need everyone.

About the apology, I'm not the one that can answer that.

[Sprayber]

quote:
Originally posted by Sprayber
FTL Drive. Pretty much everyone uses the same type of FTL drive. The University may have better ones or maybe radically different ones. That is up to whoever wants them. Now each faction can attempt to improve their drives but lets say for the sake of consistency that they are mostly the same.

What about Warp type engines? it is more realistic to achieved according to Popular Mechanic I agree too...the theory makes sence then "Hyperspace" in Babylon 5 and etc.... but of course hard to know where your warping too...so have Nav buoys... also dangerous to directly in/out of the system unless you fly to the edge of the system....where you don't risk warping into a asteroid, meteor, another ship, etc..... Nav Buoys will use the FTL Comm technology.

Hmm, i never said what kind of FTL Drive.

As for travel times, I volunteer to organize it just need an agreement as to using the stars we know....which makes sence if there is an Alpha Centauri....and Free Drones takes Vega I am sure i can find a map of stars atleast withing 100 to 500 lightyears radious of Sol... I know that Alpha Centauri is 4 lightyears from earth or if people prefer, can use Parsecs to measure distance. With distances, we can agree as to how fast the FTL drives are...establish common star lanes/trade routes using Nav Buoys and etc...... But for some aliens like the Fraal, they have deep space sensors to know where they are going

The Fraal can have deep space sensors I guess, but the reason I wanted the humans to not have them was to not have it turn into Star Trek. The humans should be less shophisicated and sleek as you see on Star Trek. when a human fleet is in warp, they should be more or less blind until they return to normal space. Now maybe the University labs can come up with something later on. Bree would be the same way. Gorn may be more advanced.

TERRAN is the proper spelling and it is an alliance not dominated by earth...earth just the location of the headquarters and their Terran Council, comprise of representives from Mars, Venus, the Belters, the Scions, and other colonies/groups in the Sol system...... don't think Earth as to much problems with the Luna by the time the game starts Luna is so close to Earth and easy reach to pounce on any rebellions and blockading it.

Hey I was a hurry to get this wrote before my girlfriend called. . You can do whatever you want to with Earth.

FRAAL is the proper spelling.......yes, i am picky

ok. sure

I would prefer to keep this game focus in only in one small area of the Galaxy... so can't have to many big notch aliens in such a area.....but can still maybe find worlds of aliens that aren't advance enough yet to launch stuff into space.......:

I was mainly referring to evidence of ancient alien civs, kind of like Mr. President has already come up with. The ones I mentions are the only ones I see popping up. And like I said before, they are only for background story and the occasional flare up of war when someone comes along that might like to control them.

But you did bring up an important thing that everyone should pay attention to. There can be less evolved species on certain planets that the humans might take advantage of. This might also lead to PK condemnation but what can they do about what goes on deep in an empires boundries?

[Mr. President]

Originally posted by Sprayber

But you did bring up an important thing that everyone should pay attention to. There can be less evolved species on certain planets that the humans might take advantage of. This might also lead to PK condemnation but what can they do about what goes on deep in an empires boundries?

What a great idea! I never thought of that. It's a good idea, though.

By the way, the Peacekeepers don't have complete control of Chiron, since Free Drone headquarters is still there. I'm thinking of a storyline where most of the Drones left on Chiron leave because of disaster or something. Speaking of which, can I have a slightly altered name for my faction, like the Free Drone Republic or something like that?

If we need, I can use my astronomy texts to get a list of stars visible from Earth, many of which have cool-sounding names! Hint: You can conserve star names by settling more than one planet or satellite in each system.

[Sprayber]

You can name your faction whatever you want.

But it would be nice to retain some form of the original like you did with yours.

Yeah the PKs have chiron as their seat of government but other factions still have some land there.

Your point of settling more than one planet is good. Some factions may spread themselves thin or some may pack into one system.

[Sprayber]

Mr. President:


Here is a link to Vega

Here is the link for a list for the brighter stars . List

[Alynzia]

As an add on...

Here is a list of all the stars within 10 light years of our sun...

Alpha Centauri - 4.4 l.y.
Proxima Centauri - 4.3 l.y.
Barnard's Star - 5.9 l.y.
Wolf 359 - 7.7 l.y.
Lalande 21185 - 8.2 l.y.
Sirius - 8.6 l.y.
Luyten 726-8 - 8.9 l.y.
Ross 154 - 9.45 l.y.

Of course it might be good to know the distances between each of them relative to each other... but I couldn't find them.

Alynzia

p.s. Can I be the future star-hippy Gaians?