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Post by The Evil Biscuit on Aug 25, 2011 16:04:46 GMT -5
Okay, so. I don't like to be selfish, so I'm not going to overhaul FRP without consulting you fine people first. I've created this discussion thread where we can bounce our ideas off each other about what we want in FRP, what we don't want, etc. I'll take those ideas and incorporate them into the world as we go, and hopefully by the end we'll have something great!
I'll start with the beginning stuff, which is the history. How did the world of ORP get to the world of FRP, and what happened during that time? First, I opted to add seventy years to the time frame, making the gap between ORP and FRP 100 years rather than 30. It gives us more play room with the feasibility factor of a lot of things that are going to happen between here and there, most specifically space-travel, which I know a few of you want. I understand that this eliminates a lot of the closeness that some of you wanted to keep with the original ORP world, BUT, I think you'll find that the style and feel of those ORP environments can still be achieved here. There's just going to be more stuff for other people to do. Like fly ships and pew pew each other.
So here's my initial outline - review as needed.
2012 (olololo) A comet hits the moon, sending debris to Earth.
2013 - retrieving the moonrocks ignites a race between the golbal superpowers to efficiently use He-3 as a fuel source.
2015 - the Russians win. The Seidin-Rusakov Fusion Engine produces 13 gigajoules for every 5 it consumes.
2030 - The Chinese win the space race, and colonize the moon. War nearly breaks out on Earth over who controls the resources and territory of the moon. An accord is reached and the moon is divided between the Americas, Europe, China and Russia.
2035 - Construction of two orbital elevators creates a steady route of travel for the fledgling He-3 export mining operations. The population of mining colonies on the moon exceeds 6 million.
2050 - Two orbital stations now circle the moon, serving as embassies and recreational centers for the nations and their moonbound citizens. The populations of each exceed 50 million, and more stations are commissioned as humankind urges to expand into space.
2066 - the Kasparov-Suzaku-Holland Warp Engine successfully drives a manned shuttle to Mars' orbit. FTL travel is now a reality.
2075 - The moon and her sixteen orbitals are home to nearly 3 billion people. The first research teams travel to Mars to survey and assess.
2080 - Terraforming is in its infancy. Chemical manipulation of the terrain and the environment is projected to be a two-hundred year task. The mining teams, however, turn up core samples rich in iron, and deep-core samples of volcanic sediments suggesting large veins of diamond and other rare metals. The mining wars begin.
2090 - Mars is now colonized by two camps - independent mining firms along the equator, and terraformation laboratories in the north and south hemispheres. Civilian colonization is prohibited.
2112 - Earth is home to 5 billion people. The moon is home to 2 billion people. The countless orbital stations and lagrange points along 'Lunar Road', the 240,000 mile stretch of space between the Earth and her satellite, hold nearly 3 billion.
Haven't gotten into ships and colonies and cultures and all that, but this is what I've got. THAWTZ?!
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Post by Tout-Perd on Aug 25, 2011 20:19:33 GMT -5
DO NOT get too in depth with the setting. It forms an insurmountable barrier to entry, at least from what I've seen of previous FRP.
At least, that's my basic assumption. We can't make it too hard-line scifi, or too in depth of a political climate with the initial setup, because it means only a few people will even want to write in there. Some of us want our giant robots and fancy space ships, after all.
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Post by The Evil Biscuit on Aug 25, 2011 20:50:10 GMT -5
I'm trying to leave it as open as I can, but any future-oriented setting is going to have to have SOME history behind it. The idea is to leave enough gaps in the timeline so that if someone has an idea or wants to incorporate their own plot element, they can historically justify its existence and keep it in sync with the universe. I'm not gonna write forty pages on how we got here, but I do want there to be at least some framework so people have something to go on.
Basically we're rolling back FRP to just Earth and the Moon, with Mars as an outlying zone. The metroplex effect has consumed both Earth and the Moon, so it's pretty much just cities everywhere. You've got this long stretch of no-mans-land between the two, so there's breeding grounds for vagrants and undesirables. I'm trying to open up the environment to house all the traditional characters of space opera and keep it close to what we had with ORP. Keeping things close to home means we can do more RP in the ACTUAL Exodus, and see how the city has evolved in the last hundred years. There will be grandchildren. A Renard Rouletabille Square.
And to those of you who want giant robots and fancy spaceships - go for it! They are totally doable here. I went for the two main requirements for both - huge powerplants for the robots, and warp drives for the ships - specifically so they could exist here.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Aug 25, 2011 21:26:07 GMT -5
There will be grandchildren. A Renard Rouletabille Square. <3
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 25, 2011 21:36:20 GMT -5
you must hate america.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Aug 25, 2011 21:38:56 GMT -5
Biscuit's from Tejas. I think they would've shot him by now if he hated America.
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 25, 2011 21:40:35 GMT -5
but he's making the god damn communists win.
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Post by The Evil Biscuit on Aug 25, 2011 22:53:00 GMT -5
America wins Mars, sort of. But when I do space opera, I usually do mix Communism with Capitalism.
The thing about Communism is that as far as a labor force is concerned, it is the purest form of no-waste output there is. I won't get into a socio-political debate here, but I can say that were the Chinese or the Russians to set their national mind to building an orbital elevator, they'd have the thing built in five years. So as far as technologically advancing ourselves to this point in time, the Communists do have the leg up on us, at least in this universe.
The Capitalism part, though, is where AMURKA comes into play. While there will be plenty of Chinese and Russian influence (think Firefly, but not as pervasive) it's gonna be survival of the fittest as far as markets and enterprises go. Even the Martian mining interests are almost their own corporate nations, selling their raw materials to all nations at their own price. Many of the orbital stations (apart from military and embassy stations) will be amalgamations of all nations, and are typically self-governing. No one will be reporting to their evil Chinese overlords. Democracy will dominate some areas, while other, less structured settlements further down the Road will be lawless tribal colonies or slave-driven dictatorships. The field is wide open for these people.
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 28, 2011 22:53:53 GMT -5
it sounds like we've got a sympathizer here. but really, I'm fine with whatever you do and I will work with whatever just to see what kind of barrier to entry I am imposing with Aleta.
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Prime
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Post by Prime on Aug 29, 2011 1:16:12 GMT -5
Just injecting a little thought here, I still think this should be more than 100 years in the future. If we skip forward 500 or 1000 years, we can just call Earth the capital of the Terran Republic, assume whatever we like about the systems population. (Like people live in colonies around jupiter,) and none of it really has to be described or predetermined. (IE, a colony around jupiter in bose setting would be very likely hush hush top secret or something, or it'd be mentioned.)
So yeah, assume we can be on any planet we want to imagine, assume our whole solar system is developed, assume there are other systems in our governmental alliance, and perhaps assume that we'd encountered aliens out there in some official capacity. From there you have a bit of a farscape or star wars setting, we don't know everything, nothing is set or written in stone, and so we're free to imagine anything.
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Post by {WW}BetaBloodWolf7 on Aug 29, 2011 3:17:36 GMT -5
I'll give input when I have time for it. Hopefully tomorrow night.
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Post by The Evil Biscuit on Aug 29, 2011 9:25:34 GMT -5
I like your thinking, Prime. I had tossed around the idea of a fully-developed future setting in the beginning, trying to create an environment where anybody could do anything in whatever way they wished, but I ended up throwing it out - and for good reason.
We don't have a very big user base right now. I could do write-ups for that whole setting, do all the planets, introduce races of aliens, tech, etc., but I ended up thinking, 'Man, who's gonna be IN this?' and I realized that if I get FIVE people in here RPing, that's huge. How could I expect five people to interact with ALL the things that a Farscape-esque universe would entail? I couldn't. It's too big.
So, I'm opting for an environment that keeps SOME connection to ORP and makes it attractive to those RPers so that they'll come over. Keeping things small keeps things close at hand and more accessible. That's not to say expansion into what you're talking about won't be possible later on. In fact, I'm down for planetary exploration teams at Jupiter, and definitely aliens. So if you have those ideas, let's hear 'em.
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 29, 2011 11:55:19 GMT -5
Alternatively you can just give suspension of disbelief the big ol' middle finger and say "it's THE FUTURE, man!"
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Post by {WW}BetaBloodWolf7 on Aug 29, 2011 13:13:36 GMT -5
For now I think that's somn to keep in the General section. If we get enough people doing it, then we can just say "it's the future". (Probably just shove it into a subboard, perhaps just do that now for those who really want it)
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Post by The Evil Biscuit on Aug 29, 2011 15:16:52 GMT -5
Choobs make me some cities.
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 29, 2011 21:33:23 GMT -5
Chang'e- The First Lunar City
Chang'e was the first city of the moon, colonized by the Chinese in 2030. Created at first by small, modular pieces brought by several spacecraft, what was originally a landing site with long term personnel has expanded into one of Luna's major cities.
Shortly after being declared an official colony, on-site engineers began construction of a more permanent facility. A new launch site and bigger housing was built nearby, and more prefabricated units were shipped in from Earth. Piece by piece, the city grew and expanded, with units sometimes even being built on top of older structures since the moon's lower gravity allowed for taller building.
Today, the city exists with a tiered infrastructure. At the top are the newest pieces, built to last and furnished with state of the art facilities. As one goes lower, one sees that older units were converted to support the upper tiers. Structures were reinforced and utilities were added with the knowledge that most of the population would no longer be using the area. Public and cargo transportation were also routed through this area to keep the upper tiers unclogged. The deepest and oldest layers have become home to those deemed unworthy or unable to live near the top.
The site acts as a node between the lunar space stations and earth, and therefore a major hub for space tourism, definitely fueling the dedication to excellence in the upper tiers of Chang'e.
You can have this one for free.
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Prime
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Post by Prime on Aug 31, 2011 1:04:50 GMT -5
Holm, the City Station First established in 2041, Holm started out as a joint project between Sweden and Canada. Origionally a large flat disc, with minimal life support area's and structure, Holm was designed to be a shipyard and deep space exploration station. As such, the 4 kilometer disk was designed with extensive power and ultilities in general, sections of the disk holding many hold down clamps and docks with the assumption that various shipyards, holding bays, and crew stopover stations would be attached in the future. In 2044, Holm complete, the project began running low on funds. To counter, the joint Canadian Sweden interest opened stocks and started renting or outright selling space on the disk. Current day, Holm has been expanded twice, re-enforcing the disk and running new structure. It is now six kilometers in diameter, with a few research shipyards still inhabiting those area's near the center. Docking area's ring its outer perimiter, and its currently the main hub, sending ships into deep space. Holm now hangs like a magnificent jewel in space, buildings stretching into the black. Starscrapers protruding from either side, balancing against each other. Giant class dombs near the edges housing parks and small ecological systems. Real life backing up artificial systems the keep Holm a well maintained, and sprawing, metropolis. The sheer number of jobs Holm now offers has attracted many people to live and work there fulltime, despite the complications of deep space. Holm hangs well past the moon, a hub and staging area for ships traveling out for a look around the solar system. Could use a graphic for this one I think.
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Post by The Evil Biscuit on Aug 31, 2011 15:53:00 GMT -5
Ooh, I like it. I wonder if IKEA built it. Not a joke.
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Post by ch00beh on Aug 31, 2011 22:19:37 GMT -5
Unstickied the old FRP history thread thing.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Sept 1, 2011 1:51:52 GMT -5
Now, Blood and I discussed an idea today which kind of takes all of these ideas and throws them together. There's a few distinct concepts, all struggling to become dominant here. There is: -The fall of the Powers. 20-50 years from the present. Space travel and lunar colonization is coming into vogue, and Powers seem to be dieing out. It's not a violent or sudden event, but the sudden spike at the start of the millennium has dropped off, and high-level powers have become scarce. -The expansion era. 50-100 years from the present. Powers are still existent, but have become more of a minor "race" than anything. The moon has actual cities forming, and efforts are being made to make Mars the newest human world. -The exploration era. 100 years-200 years from the present. Humanity is terraforming and colonizing farther and farther flung planets, and is begining to reach outside the solar system to look into other possible planets and heavenly bodies to add to their dominion. -The empire era. 200+ years from the present. Humanity has colonized pretty much the entire solar system, and is now on the offensive, out to gain further footholds into the universe as a whole.
My suggestion? Instead of picking just one, or splitting these into sub-boards, why not take a page from General RP, and use the titles to sort things out? So a topic would have a title, and then the year in parentheses.
For Example: "Moonrock Hustle (2015)" "A Dissertation on the Nature of Paternity (2035)" "Captain Hargrave and the Taming of Neptune (2107)" "Foray into the Zeta-Delphi System (2235)"
So that way, we have the means to use all the time periods without excluding any. On the other hand, it means that each person will need a bigger stable of characters, as we're dealing with four or five overlapping settings. It also means a bit more bookkeeping, but I think this could prove to be a very liberating storytelling tool.
Not to mention the fun for time-travel plots. We really could Dr. Who out with something like that. (The fun that could be had with pre-existing immortal or time travelling characters is also worthy of note. Rhometer, Vieve, Ysane, and Didn't all could have some fun with this system.)
So, how do you all feel about the "More complicated, but using multiple time periods to mask the confusion" ploy?
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Prime
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Post by Prime on Sept 1, 2011 7:16:41 GMT -5
Ok, point on the powers. I think powers should remain actually, and become more numerous if anything. If we work the numbers, we could easily say that with a total human population of 200 billion across multiple star systems, powers would still be a scarce 2% of the population. About as common as your 'average' genius. But this really should be for two reasons, otherwise I'd say 1 percent of the population. See, a lot of our heaviest hitters are so powerful and beyond human that they could easily be considered immortals, or at the very least long lived.
Primus, to name one example, is almost literally a God. I mean, in a galactic scale he'd probably be more like a God Like Entity or Being... Basically Doctor Who if he absorbed the time vortex and became an angry vengeful timelord god.
But yeah, it might be nice to shift the nature of powers towards something a little more stable, like if the majority were psionics with unique abilities. But by no means do I think we should eliminate powers, or decrease them. A power by himself, in rare cases, could easily be the match of a battleship, and stand toe to toe slugging it out with one.
Personally, the idea, and the freedom behind it, are very appealing to me. Unknown elements and rogue factors would make things far more interesting IMO. An Imperial Fleet is mighty threatening, certainly. But if there are 100 Jedi on the ground, powerful enough to pull a Starcruiser out of the sky, who'd flinch first?
Like I said before, I think we should leave it a very open ended background in the nearfar to farfar future.
IE
Earth, 3144 A.D. With Mars slowly being colonized, and the terraforming project long since begun, mankind has begun to stretch its wings across the stars. Communications aren't easy, any message sent across the void is carried. Every voyage can be dangerous, whether its short or long. Though our technology bridges the gaps between stars, there is still far to go and much to discovered.
Earth has become a giant metropolitan city, with a roughly 50% split between vegetation and city scape on the landmass. The ecosystem has been carefully, neutrally balanced against humanity. Some of the population even live on floating cities, high in the sky. Extreme altitudes mostly push them out of sight, preserving beautiful skylines. They sometimes burn as bright, orange stars, reflecting the sunlight as they cross the horizon.
The moon shines down on Earth with many lights, 20% or more of its surface industrial. The jewel that was humanities first step into a larger universe is now more commonly hailed by its proper name. Luna, custodian and defender, first line of defense on the way to humanities homeworld, and lauded romantic vacation spot. (When some crazy bastard paid to have a small sea and a beach shipped there.)
Mars surface is covered with many pressure doors and seals, the Martians enjoying near Earth gravity after several HeatSmash projects, increasing atmospheric pressure and weight by slamming asteroids from the belt into Mars.
Various other stations dot the solar system, beyond counting, and many unregistered. The line between the Earth and Luna is dotted with immeserable stations, producing the Solar Systems entire gross zero g refinery production materials.
Beyond the Solar System, the places we go, most Earthlings aren't even sure of the names. Small empires spanning local systems, and demoscracies others. The details go un-noticed, unknown. Interstaller trade is only viable for the most valuable of materials, which is more often then not information in this age.
But despite emerging differences, different cultural identities and civilizations, every Terran ship still bears the worlds. The words in all our hearts and minds and souls as the first man ventured into space, the words with which we bless all our explorers as they cross the line of the known, into the black of the unknown sitting between all the stars that dot the heavens.
We Terrans, as we travel into the black, carry with us peaceful intentions and strong wills. We look to the future with hope and curiosity, and as we send our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, parents and children into the unknown, we bid them to carry the words of our forefathers.
Godspeed.
Sorta make the 'history' a backstory that just sets the setting, and set the setting to infinity and let it stand.
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Post by ch00beh on Sept 1, 2011 11:22:00 GMT -5
I like the time shenanigans.
Also I figure Powers would probably been instrumental in the development in something or other due to all the government sponsored shit going on in ORP. But otherwise I support Powers being pushed to a minor thing. Let's say that the high level powers who are just about immortal got tired of this universe or decided to just watch humanity as they tried to reach for the stars with absolutely no desire whatsoever for any kind of reason to step in ever again, and the evil ones who wanted to fuck everything up got blasted by all the other Powers.
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Prime
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Post by Prime on Sept 1, 2011 11:27:28 GMT -5
Lame... Lol, just thinking about final fantasy or games like star ocean, everyone just having some sort of remarkable power just makes sense. Sephiroth flings energy blades at people, Cloud has omnislash, star ocean characters have insane crazy light and energy controlling freaky melee powers, and the only difference is, they all just act like its normal. No one makes a big thing, cares, or even mentions it. Its just how it is.
Thats what I think it should be, like, eh, you have a power, thats cool. Probably come out via latent telepathy and an intense desire or trauma or something. Cheers.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Sept 1, 2011 12:06:31 GMT -5
Yeah, my way of seeing things is that powers kinda bred into the main human gene pool, instead of being isolated, for whatever reason. So now, the percentage of the populace with powers is much higher, but Mid-to-High Level powers have become much more scarce. So, for the most part, I see it as Powers merely becoming a common demographic. By the end of the "Fall of Powers", where all the major ORP players (Bar immortals) have died off/wandered away, I can imagine there being roughly 1% or 2% of the human population being powers (that's actually quite huge, all things considered).
By the end of Exploration era, it's entirely possible that a tenth of humanity will be low level powers or such. There'll be exceedingly rare high-levels popping up from time to time, but for the most part, Power will begin meaning to the public "That boy down the street who can see in total darkness"/"My teacher who can tell anything about my homework paper just by touching it"/"That guy who whomps EVERYBODY in track because he can sprint 45 MPH", etc etc etc, instead of the "City destroying monster" view of the present day.
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Post by ch00beh on Sept 1, 2011 15:50:15 GMT -5
I dig it
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Post by {WW}BetaBloodWolf7 on Sept 1, 2011 22:15:22 GMT -5
Geez Alyssa, you city destroying monster.
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