[Game] Generate a military sci-fi setting

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

That we have identified. There're almost certainly thousands of objects in this class.

Yes, "that we know of". My point, though, was that space is big and mostly empty; even with the gravity drive, it'd be impossible for the aliens to completely blockade the Jovian/Saturnian orbits, particularly when the Trans-Neptunian region has plenty of room to settle.

Unless of course it was raining on planet Mongo this morning.... ;)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Yes, "that we know of". My point, though, was that space is big and mostly empty; even with the gravity drive, it'd be impossible for the aliens to completely blockade the Jovian/Saturnian orbits, particularly when the Trans-Neptunian region has plenty of room to settle.

Unless of course it was raining on planet Mongo this morning.... ;)

Yeah, I was supporting that statement. If hundreds or thousands of KBOs are viable, then there is a huge unsecured frontier everywhere, including the outer planets.

Which actually is probably better for a chaotic setting like the one this is shaping up as. The moons might have strong alien enclaves, but that's probably about it.

[(E)]

I had put a couple of hooks in my answers to hopefully help cover the descrepancies mentioned, the area around the gas giants was just "largely claimed" not blockaded or even nessicarily settled.

Regarding the human population there is a comment about population size being politically important in answer 20. Also assuming digtal uploads count as "legally human" several other factors might increase growth rate. If for example the rather than die people where uploaded. Genetic modification suggests cloning as well.
Edit: the number of people who got left behind on earth during the exodus is another factor if the number needs to be reduced

I also had the active alien population at 120 million but I left space for artificial hybernation, stored genetic material etc. I didn't read that the pods where zoo like enclosures either, I was functioning on the theory they where closer to settlement pods.

[ericthered]

Answer 26A: (its kind of open)

Advanced tech base for the aliens coming along is by far the most interesting of the of the options listed, though all could help move things along. It also makes a good deal of sense.

Aliens in deep storage are another option. There might be a hundred deep hibernation aliens for every sentient alien.

Question 28: How much is left of the original arc, and what state is it in? is it in one piece? is it gutted for resources? Is any AI still around?

[(E)]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Question 28: How much is left of the original arc, and what state is it in? is it in one piece? is it gutted for resources? Is any AI still around?

The remains of the Arc were scattered across the system after its destruction. The bulk of the fragments either fell into jupiter or were gathered by the various alien races. The research the alien factions have performed on these fragments have produced results, while no single faction has fully reverse engineered the Arc technologies many are independently of each other quite advanced in a diverse range of areas. This is a reason for the Alien's technological superiority over humanity. Mankind managed to salvage a large piece of the superstructure and prevent it from impacting earth, this fragment designed to hold and link 314 habitats is now the largest single station in the system.

A great many fragments impacted Earth itself and were lost in the apocalyptic events that followed their crash. This isn't to say that no Arc Exotec was aquired by humans. While reverse engineering has yet to be successful thousands of power cells have been gathered, many of which are in private hands.

The Arc-mind is thought to still be in existence, analysis of Arc-bots has yielded strong evidence, "unable to connect to Arc-mind, [untranslatable] confirms Arc-mind function, seeking connection. ...."

A faction of humanity known disparagingly as the Noahs seek the Arc-mind. The Noahs also practice exogenetic splicing and are rumored to have aquired psi abilities.

Question 29
What purpose does the human Arc fragment station serve? What else can you tell us about it?

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by (E)

Edit: the number of people who got left behind on earth during the exodus is another factor if the number needs to be reduced

However many humans there were before, there are about a trillion now. Even if there were a large number left behind who perished, humanity's population has recovered. This is certainly quite likely what happened, actually.

I also had the active alien population at 120 million but I left space for artificial hybernation, stored genetic material etc. I didn't read that the pods where zoo like enclosures either, I was functioning on the theory they where closer to settlement pods.

I think the questions are how many aliens do we want now- which would tell us the growth rate we need to justify; and how much clout do they have beyond that suggested by their population base.

I was figuring that the habitat pods were more like idyllic haven-like zoos, because the whole premise sounds more like the Ark was run by some collector species or intelligence. That's why it'd been visiting as many civilised systems on its journey as it could. Settlement, as in colonisation, doesn't seem to fit the MO, but of course it could have some ineffably alien purpose. An experimental cross-species society? A wandering interstellar city?

I'm also not sure how they were going to get humans to join- "jump on our ship, leave home forever, and 100 generations of your progeny will know nothing more than the inside of their habitat pod"- unless it was by forced abduction or trickery. Anyway, I'm not trying to rip on the premise- just saying we need to justify why the pods would be more geared toward settlement.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Answer 26A: (its kind of open)

Advanced tech base for the aliens coming along is by far the most interesting of the of the options listed, though all could help move things along. It also makes a good deal of sense.

Aliens in deep storage are another option. There might be a hundred deep hibernation aliens for every sentient alien.

Okay, with this and what (E) was saying, how about this for one of the races then:

Alien Race #4- The Cicads
These flying, 8-foot insectoids are native to a gas giant homeworld and have a wide pressure tolerance. After the Ark's crash, they set up deep in the Jovian atmosphere by building or deploying their Cicadian Grapevines- chain-like combined gas mining and manufacturing facilities that suspend 300-500 miles through the gas giant's atmosphere. These extract carbon compounds from the atmosphere to use in their brand of extruded polycarbonate manufacture.

At the same time as they were setting up their manufacturing base, the Cicads started on their explosive repopulation program. The 10 million or so Cicads that arrived on the Ark were accompanied by another 100 million in a suspended larval stage, which were activated and soon brought to maturity.

So within decades of the Arkfall, the leaders of Ganymede Colony were surprised to find themselves orbiting above the Solar System's first appearance of a true space armada- the Cicadian Fleet. Proper investigation of the heatspots they'd been observing in the Jovian atmosphere revealed that they were not floating Ark fragments as they had surmised, but were instead thousands of Cicadian Grapevines. The fleet of extruded polycarbonate ships numbered close to a million fighters and frigates, but fortunately for humanity, their carbon-based construction meant they were unable to mount gravity drives and were effectively range-limited to within the orbits of Jupiter's moons.

In the wars that followed, the Cicads drove away all human occupation of the Jovian moons and, after capturing a few gravity drives, were also able to establish a similar occupation of Saturn. Now, planetologists observing Jupiter have surmised that the newly developed Mauve Spot in the Jovian atmosphere is the beginnings of an attempt to xenoform Jupiter into something more closely resembling the Cicad home planet's atmospheric mix.

Originally Posted by (E)

Mankind managed to salvage a large piece of the superstructure and prevent it from impacting earth, this fragment designed to hold and link 314 habitats is now the largest single station in the system.

I like this, though not sure what to do with it yet.

A faction of humanity known disparagingly as the Noahs seek the Arc-mind. The Noahs also practice exogenetic splicing.

I had the idea that a group called the Noahs would be seeking to build a new ark to embark all the aliens back onto and send them on their way, but you posted this first.

Question 30- Grav-Drives:
How do they work?
What are the necessary ingredients for their construction?
What kind of travel times do they allow around the system?
Does Grav-Drive tech have any secondary or spin-off tech? e.g. Artificial gravity, possibly, as weapons or defenses were ruled out by sir_pudding's answer.

Question 31- Expanding on Cicads
What redeeming qualities might the Cicads have, so that they're not just an evil, conquering alien bug species?
Does their occupation of Jupiter and Saturn's moons continue, or has that territory been ceded?

[(E)]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I was figuring that the habitat pods were more like idyllic haven-like zoos, because the whole premise sounds more like the Ark was run by some collector species or intelligence. That's why it'd been visiting as many civilised systems on its journey as it could. Settlement, as in colonisation, doesn't seem to fit the MO, but of course it could have some ineffably alien purpose. An experimental cross-species society? A wandering interstellar city?

I'm also not sure how they were going to get humans to join- "jump on our ship, leave home forever, and 100 generations of your progeny will know nothing more than the inside of their habitat pod"- unless it was by forced abduction or trickery. Anyway, I'm not trying to rip on the premise- just saying we need to justify why the pods would be more geared toward settlement.

How about a solution that splits the difference? The pods where luxurious zoo like habitats that had advanced and well designed life boat functionality capable of setting the foundation for a new settlement?

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by (E)

How about a solution that splits the difference? The pods where luxurious zoo like habitats that had advanced and well designed life boat functionality capable of setting the foundation for a new settlement?

Building on that a little: The pods are/were entirely self contained, and when the ark was destroyed, the pods broke away. Then they started pushing outwards, using repurposed exterior repair drones to maneuver to asteroids to get the materials the need to bootstrap.

When I came up with it, I thought of it less like a zoo, and more like a nature preserve. They would still need to take care of themselves and are seemingly free, but it's still a cage and they were still being managed.

Originally Posted by (E)

Question 29
What purpose does the human Arc fragment station serve? What else can you tell us about it?

The Arc Fragment (AKA The Corridor) was first visited by Humans about a year after the evacuation of the Earth (the main difficult was building a docking module for it). The Corridor is nearly 1500 km long, and for all intents in purposes, a single narrow room. The Corridor was built with technology well beyond anyone else in the solar system. For example, it has an artificial gravity system can be calibrated to provide different gravities to the square meter resolution.

The initial purpose of the Arc Fragment was for archeology and reverse engineering of the advanced craft. After the life support system was activated (it required a sample of air), people began moving into The Corridor for habitation. Buildings 10 stories high have been built inside The Corridor. Barely 1% of the Corridor has been explored.

A number of hibernation pods have been found, most containing unknown alien species, nearly all labelled with "(Uncleanable? Possibly Untranslatable) - Keep as Sample". There are conflicts on whether to revive these aliens, and technical difficulties that stop it all the same.

A large portion of the explored area contains a tremendously large automated factory system. It appears that given enough time and resources, the factory could produce nearly anything. However, efforts to connect to the system have been unsuccessful.

A power cell charger has been found. The power source is not understood, nor how the power cell contains such an incredible amount of energy. However, the process to recharge power cells is understood, and a small business that charges power cells operates to today. Usually, they are used in powering military hardware and spaceships.

Numerous robots are strewn around The Corridor, most do not seem to be of any consequence. However, occasionally a few rampant bots are found. Mercenaries aiding the archeological groups are usually successful in dispatching these threats.

Question 32
There are multiple factions on Mars. Are they in conflict with each other? Alliance? Coopetition?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Question 30- Grav-Drives:
How do they work?

By generating gravitational potential and having the ship fall into it continuously.

What are the necessary ingredients for their construction?

This is a pretty good opportunity to have a resource that drives conflict in the setting, so let's say that the required negative energy generators are available either as black box technology from the ark, or manufactured by a secretive cabal based in the Corridor called Horizon. Additionally it needs a significant power source like a nuclear reactor so it's limited to reasonably large and expensive vessels.

What kind of travel times do they allow around the system?

Accelerations of up to 3gs are possible, but most practical designs operate between .5 and .75 g for routine transit.

Does Grav-Drive tech have any secondary or spin-off tech? e.g. Artificial gravity, possibly, as weapons or defenses were ruled out by sir_pudding's answer.

Don't forget the Kzinti lesson, being able to project gravitational potential has some pretty good applications as both defensive and offensive weapons, but all of these effects are extremely short range. Military vessels therefore have a deflector field off their bow and are capable of doing a lot of damage if you let them get within a hundred meters or so.

Q33: Tell us about a mercenary company that would be a suitable employer for the PCs.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Building on that a little: The pods are/were entirely self contained, and when the ark was destroyed, the pods broke away. Then they started pushing outwards, using repurposed exterior repair drones to maneuver to asteroids to get the materials the need to bootstrap.

When I came up with it, I thought of it less like a zoo, and more like a nature preserve. They would still need to take care of themselves and are seemingly free, but it's still a cage and they were still being managed.

This is basically what I was thinking. So, for a hypothetical human preserve, would it look more like a savannah or forest, or more like Tokyo metropolis? Perhaps the like a stereotypical space colony?

The initial purpose of the Arc Fragment was for archeology and reverse engineering of the advanced craft. After the life support system was activated (it required a sample of air), people began moving into The Corridor for habitation. Buildings 10 stories high have been built inside The Corridor. Barely 1% of the Corridor has been explored.

Why has there only been this little explored?