Vote up a Space Opera

[ericthered]

Results for Space Habitation

Very Rare
Most Planets have a station
Stations used as harbours + + +
Cities orbit + + + + +
10% pop in space
25% pop in space + + + +
50% pop in space
75% pop in space.

If you voted for both the number and cities in orbit, I used the number (If you had voted 10% I would have asked for clarification, only one vote was asked for, but all those votes were close to 25%).

The result: There are cities in orbit, and around 10 % of the population live on non-naturally habitable planets or on the orbital cities. This makes them a substantial setting, but there are deffinately times when you need to land.

Its likely that ships that can both land and takeoff from heavy worlds and go into hyperspace are rare, and good things for PC's to own, being the only way to get to wild worlds.

[ericthered]

Results for Territory Size

5-10 planets (2 weeks across)+
10-25 planets (3 weeks across) +
20-50 planets (5 weeks across) ++++
50-100 planets (7 weeks across)
100-250 planets (10 weeks across)
250-500 planets (15 weeks across)++
500-1000 planets (5 months across)++
1000-2500 planets (8 months across)+
2500-5000 planets (1 year across)

wow, how's that for bi-modal results.
taking the average gives us about 100 planets, or 2 months to cross. That makes for fairly large empires. It does, however, give us a size no one actually voted for.

Percent of territory overlapping with neighbors:
100%
80%
65% +
50%
35% +++++
20% +++
10% +
0%.
This is pretty clear. Species territory overlap by 30%, quite a bit.

[ericthered]

Results for TL

7+
8++
9++
10+++++
11++
12

average: 9.416

yes, there were two votes that said 7+2^, one of them asked for "TL9 in the style of the jetsons" and the other was for TL 7 unless otherwise specified.

result: The official TL is 9, a lot of super-science exceptions exist, including most weapons. Wealth is as TL 9.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Results for TL

7+
8++
9++
10+++++
11++
12

average: 9.416

yes, there were two votes that said 7+2^, one of them asked for "TL9 in the style of the jetsons" and the other was for TL 7 unless otherwise specified.

result: The official TL is 9, a lot of super-science exceptions exist, including most weapons. Wealth is as TL 9.

TL9 is fairly natural. Space Opera, as opposed to Cyberpunk has to assume that tech grows in a way to allow for heroic romance to be technically possible. As we live in a Cyberpunk universe already, it can get hard, though putting a Space Opera far into the future with at least one Long Night allows us to manipulate technology to our specified desire.

You can't have a universe where warfare is dominated by warbots and trade dominated by autopiloted ships in a space opera. These things can exist but they must not get in the way of old-fashioned badassery.

[ericthered]

Weapons Decisions:

most of out weapons are already decided on, either by TL or by super science. There are a couple of things I would like to do and wish to double check them with you.

Lazers: TL9 or TL10
Plasma: TL9^ or TL 10^
Sonic Stunning: TL9 or TL10

reasoning:

Lasers are Standard space opera, and guns are better at TL9, So I'm considering giving them a bump to TL10, where some of our other weapons are.

Plasma at TL10^ is scary deadly, though mostly reserved for emplacements (but do you really want to deal with the one weapon that can be used by a guy in power armor that does 3d*5 (2)?). I'm thinking of keeping those weapons as flamers, which do lots of damage, but not that much, and its not tight beam.

We voted in sonic weapons, mostly for non-lethal properties. They hit their high point at TL10, and thus I wish to bump them up.

each vote is a yes/no

[ericthered]

Custom Energy Weapon

there are 5 things that set a weapon apart. These will have to be balanced against each other. this vote is for priorities in weapon design. 5 elements are:

Damage:
Armor Divisor:
Side Effect:
ROF:
Range:

the priorities are:
Uber
High
Moderate
Fair
Low
none.

you may place any priority on any attribute. The most common vote will win, not the average. I am withholding my initial votes to break ties.

Also vote for damage type:
burning
cor
tox
pi-
pi+
cr
cut

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Weapons Decisions:

most of out weapons are already decided on, either by TL or by super science. There are a couple of things I would like to do and wish to double check them with you.

Lazers: TL9 or TL10
Plasma: TL9^ or TL 10^
Sonic Stunning: TL9 or TL10

UT has no laser pistols at TL9 or even 9^. The only thing it has at TL9 for lasers arer installation weapons and backpack-fed chemical alsers. Those are _distinctlly_ non-Space Opera. I do not think there is a viable choice in the matter.

Plasma is about the same. The TL9^ Flamers lack the range and armor penetration to have serious military utility. The TL10+ Heavy Plasma Gun might do 5Dx3(2) but a TL8 .50 Barrett loaded with APHEX-T does 7Dx2(2) with 1D-2 cr ex and frag which wlil be multiplied x3 for internal explaosion.

If TL9^ weapons do not perform better than TL8 ones why is anyone using TL9^? PCs probably won't

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

UT has no laser pistols at TL9 or even 9^. The only thing it has at TL9 for lasers arer installation weapons and backpack-fed chemical alsers. Those are _distinctlly_ non-Space Opera. I do not think there is a viable choice in the matter.

not pistols, but it does have a couple of riffles.

Plasma is about the same. The TL9^ Flamers lack the range and armor penetration to have serious military utility. The TL10+ Heavy Plasma Gun might do 5Dx3(2) but a TL8 .50 Barrett loaded with APHEX-T does 7Dx2(2) with 1D-2 cr ex and frag which wlil be multiplied x3 for internal explaosion.

because space opera is never about close range.

If TL9^ weapons do not perform better than TL8 ones why is anyone using TL9^? PCs probably won't

dominant TL 9 weapons are mostly advanced Guns. They're better than TL8, but they look very similar.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by ericthered

not pistols, but it does have a couple of riffles.

But those rifles are fed by chemicals in backpacks. Space Opera weapons don't work that way in any example I can think of off-hand.

Also, unless you go with ETC or liquid propellant thaos TL9 fireams may not be better than the ones in HT. The ones in HT tend to have higher ACC or lower RCL among other things.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Weapons Decisions:This is not a vote. This is just a series of opinions.


Lazers: TL9 or TL10

Might be replaced by Custom Beams that IIRC were voted in. But TL10 might be okay. Have to check the numbers.

Plasma: TL9^ or TL 10^
Have to check the numbers.

Sonic Stunning: TL9 or TL10
Wouldn't TL9 be quite sufficient?

ON GUNS:
We might actually have better results if we limit guns to TL8 (or even TL7!) for flavour. Weapons in High-Tech are brutal enough that, with proper accessories and ammo, they can seriously threaten Space-Operatic TL9 stuff.
E.g. the TL8 targeting computer is brutal.