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What, those are our only options?  What if I prefer Venus as the new Yellow Frontier (I'm rather partial to keeping Earth as our home; I'm not about to run away from those Fascists), or prefer Mars as our new home (not bloodly likely, but maybe somebody always wanted to call themselves "Martians")?

The obvious thing is, there are 2 planets with ruins. Both nations are eager to exploit it. But they only had manpower and resource to control only 1. So the logical way are one Nations claim one planet and then warn the others: NEVER ENTER ANY AREA 10M KM AROUND VENUS/MARS OR THE ALLIES WILL KICK YOUR ASS 'TILL IT BURN ON SIRIUS. You can go to Venus, you can go to Mars, but you can go to both at the same time. Although both ruins on planets are supposedly 'free' and a 'gift to humankind' and the UNAC will demand to participate on ruins excavations (forget China, they'll busy playing civil war on each other).

Now for some ramblings:
I envisage Venus as an earth like world with 90% surface covered with shallow sea. With a denser atmosphere, heavy cloud formation, almost raining all year, the equator are always ravaged with heavy storm. The remaining land (Terra Ishtar and Terra Aphrodite) is covered with swamps and local plant that can be describe as unholy marriage between coral and mangrove. The sea are fully packed with armored fish: fish with bony plates covering their body instead of scales, while in land numerous shelled therapod amphibians are the dominant large land animal. Venus biome seems to prefer shell and armored animals.
Map of Venus somewhat resemble this, until I photoshoped something more decent:

The North Continent are Ishtar, the Central One are Aphrodite Continent, divided into Alta (right) and Thetis (left). Far west is small Beta Continent and far east is Ovda Islands.

Mars is a planet with more thinner atmosphere, the Northern Hemisphere are mainly covered with oceans. It is covered with red dunes with little precipitation. Think it as Mojave in winter... Most plant and Animals packed around the coast of Northern Ocean. The dominant plants resemble giant ferns, and some animals had exoskeleton like insects while some did't had any skeleton structure...
Map of Mars (I like this one):

The Northern Ocean are lazily called Northern Ocean. The Southern Continent are still Called Southern Continent. The Big round sea in the West are called Hellas Sea that will be frozen in the Mars winter. While the smaller one in the East are called Argyre Lake. The one Island is called Elysium Island. The Mars Southern Pole are covered with Perma-Ice Field (and source of numerous rivers) are called Tartarus Ice Field. As Mars Continent are freakingly huge, the inner continents are very much dry cold steep just like Siberia!

Of couse both planets had their own variants of small bugs. And don't worry, our scientist found that microorganism in Venus and Mars can't infect humans, they never evolved with us afterall...

You mean we're not just going to start a bunch of colonies on mineral rich worlds and then nuke the crap out of earth?

You start on Earth of course, and we don't wanna to throwing nukes on Earth... At least while we still on Earth... And why do you want to nuke Earth? Are you a Socialist spy?

Oh shit, sorry mate. I Just started a Aurora Let's play...

About a space Reich. I did not notice this lets play of yours, really sorry.

No worry, SPACE NAZI are a populer tropes after all. And like what TVTropes ike to say: Our Reich are different.

In my timeline Hitler become vegetative since the failed assassination plot on 1935 that leaves many high rank NAZI officer dead or badly wounded that forced them to retire. Hitler become a figurative head of state (and connected into Life Support to keep Hitler alive). Think it as the same as the Emperor in Warhammer.
That makes my Reich didn't had a Fuhrer. Hitler are Fuhrer for life (even after his death on 1970s) so they don't elect more Fuhrer. The leader of Reich are what they called: Privatkanzlei. With Reichsleiters act as Kanzlei minister. So the Reich are much more benign, they still think slavs as uncultured brutes, they still believe women are better to stay at kitchen work, they still think jews as enemy of the state, they think human are the rightful ruler of universe and all aliens can be killed or subjugated without remorse, they banned homosexual and keep them with mentally insane in mental hospital, they do eugenics, but at least they more ecofriendly and trying the best to stop global warming. (What?)
You can join our game as well...

Throwing my hat into the ring as Prof M. N. Keyhead, High energy physicist. More than willing to RP the role, getting exited at any new ways to kill people and ships.

Done. Also, do you want to choose TN-start or conventional start?

I might be interested in being a civilian administrator.

Done. You will be the highest rating CA (and hopefully the first Earth Governor). Also, do you want to choose TN-start or conventional start?

I'd like to start as a fighter jockey as well, transferring to carrier command once I hit flag rank.

Anja Galena, Fighter Jockey, signing up!

Done.

As for naval rank, I though about something like this:
R1 - Captain: Any state controlled Commercial Ship, PDCs, Any Military Ships below 1000ton.
R2 - Flag Captain: Any survey Ships, Any Military ships between 1000-5000 ton range. Corvette and Frigate, any dedicated sensor ships.
R3 - Rear Admiral: Any Military ships between 5000 -10000 ton range. Most Destroyer and Cruiser, also Light Carrier.
R4 - Vice Admiral: Any Military ships above 10.000 ton. Most Carrier, Battlecruiser and Battleships.
R5 - Admiral: same as R4
R6 - Fleet Admiral: same as R4.
Of course as the techs progress and ship tonnage raised, it will be changed.

As for quick arbitrary ship classification:
By tonnages:
Any ship <500 ton: Fighter
500 -1000 ton: Fast Attack Craft (Gunboat or Missile Boat)
1000-3000 ton: Corvettes
3000-5000 ton: Frigates
5000-10000 ton: Destroyer (if mostly armed with Beam weapon)
5000-10000 ton: Cruiser (if mostly armed with Missile weapon)
10000-12500 ton: Battlecruiser
12500-15000 ton: Battleship
>15000 ton: Dreadnoughts
while ships with Parasite capabilites (Carrier) are classified as:
<5000 ton: Escort Carrier
5000-10000: Light Carrier
10000-20000: Carrier
>20000: Supercarrier / Mothership
But you can also submit your proposal about what kind of ship classification we should use...

The people of Allied Nations choose:
Conventional Start - 1999 : 0 vote
Trans-Newtonian Start - 2004 : 6 votes
It looks like the majority want TNS start heh? I generate the world game now...

To clarify: the TNS of 2004 is not a real vanilla TNS start. It only means that Earth had experience 5 years of modernization since the discovery of TNM technology in 1999 so a lot of conventional things still exist.

This will be the place where I'll also post the official officer list

CURRENT ALLIED NATIONS OFFICER LIST. (per 12 September 2012)

The Allied Directorate:
1. ANSEC: applicant: Sheb
2. ANEA: applicant: Wsoxfan
3. ANSA: applicant: Jarod Cain
4. ANFA: acting director: Jack Euchre
5. ANMoT: applicant: King Fisher MCXII

Officer Applicant:
Naval Officer:

• Captain Jack Euchre - Current Assignment: Acting Director of ANFA Office.
• Captain Fritz Wolfgang - Current Assignment: Schadenfreude Espionage Team. Hopefully can join Reich as Survey Corps  and stealing all Reich Geosurvey reports
• Captain Flying Dice - Current Assignment: C.O. PDC Maginot 008 - The Allied last line defense against Reich Missiles
• Captain Anja Galena - Current Assignment: Members of Mars Xenoarcheological Expedition Team
• Captain Darkening Kaos - Current Assignment: Contracted by MTC as Captain of ANCS-1 Starwagon

Ground Officer: None
Civilian Administrator: Mr. Rez - Current Assignment: Head of Administrator of Earth.
Scientist:

• Dr. Manfryd Koch, PhD - Current Assignment: Leader of Mars Xenoarcheological Expedition Team
• Prof M. N. Keyhead, PhD - Current Assignment: Idle (spying how he can got more security clearance and MESON SCIENCE!).

You want to explore Martian Ruins while also kicking some Socialist ass? Look no further, Join Allied Space Navy and reach for the stars.
UNCLE JOHN WANT YOU!
(I still need to start photoshop some propaganda recruitment poster)

Now, I post the game/world settings:

• I tweak the human baseline gravity tolerance into 90%. This open up Moon and Galilean Moon of Jupiter colonizable by human. How human handle the low gravity you ask? Insert your favorite technobable here: *****. I personally choose: nanomeds.
  Human also tolerate greater temperature range. Human can live without any advance colony infrastructures at -10 to 40 degree Celsius with out much difficulty.
• Probing during the late 80s and 90s shows that Venus and Mars both has ruins, and by ruins I means large ruins of unknown civilization, with breathable N2/O2 atmosphere, warm (Venus) and cold (Mars) temperature that still fall on human tolerances level, so both planets are readily colonizable.
• Analysis of lunar asteroid fragments show that Luna (Moon) had some Trans-Newtonian Mineral, both Allied Nations and Reich already got small research and deep space telescope base (represented in game as DSTS installations and 1 infrastructure) that established in late 1980s. Both nations had signed Lunar Treaty in 1986 about No Weapon Installation shall ever be built on Luna Surface and established Luna as Weapon Free Zone.
• East China are your faithful allies. Every month East China will provide you with 1/4 minerals that she mined for free. All they need is Allies help in defending against if West China invade again. IF East China still exist that is...
• You can also buy or sell minerals with Union of Non-Aligned Countries, Union of Non-Aligned Countries also can buy or selling you any techs, ships, ship components, installation, ground unit or more. Union of Non-Aligned Countries are your trade partner.
• Fast Attack Craft and Fighter Engine already researched, to emulate the new version 6.00 features. Box Launcher also already researched because really are we need to research something as simple as a launch rail?

Conventional Start - Start Year 1999:

• Research everything from rock bottom.
• Both Allies and Reich start with 1 (one) 10.000 ton Commercial Shipyard and 1 (one) 1.000 ton Military Shipyard.
• Both Allies and Reich start with 2 billion population, 1 Academy, 1 Ground Force Training Facilities, 1 DSTS, 20 Research Lab, 5 Maintenance Facilities that can handle 1000 ton ship, 2.000 Maintenance Supplies, 4000 Conventional Industry, and 80.000 billion dollars starting Wealth.
• Both Allies and Reich start with 40 Low Tech Infantry divisions and 20 Low Tech Armor.
• Both Allies and Reich start with 80 ICBM Missile Complex holding 800 ICBM with Nuclear Warhead (Strength-6). With 200 ICBM in stock.

Trans-Newtonian Start - Start Year 2004, At the start of the game:

• Most Basic Sensor, Logistic and Kinetic TransNewtonian Technology already researched. But NOT Beam Weapon. You automatically got Meson, Gauss and Microwave Weapon, but can choose only one between: a. Laser; b. Railgun; c. Particle Gun; d. Plasma Carronade; or e. Mobile Infantry. The tech taht you choose will instantly researched. I'll post later to list which tech are instantly researched if we pick TNS start.
• You got Pressurized Water reactor and Nuclear Thermal Engine techs. You can instantly research 1 Military Engine type and 1 Civilian Engine Type.
• You can Instantly Research these ship components: 4 type of Active Sensor, 2 Type of EM and Thermal Sensor, 6 type of Missile, Drone, or Buoy. 2 type of Beam Fire Control. 1 type of CIWS. 1 type of Gauss Cannon. 1 type of Meson Cannon, 1 type of High-Powered Microwave, 1 type of Laser/Railgun/Particle Gun/Plasma Carronade, 4 type of Missile Launcher, 2 Type of Missile Fire Control, 1 type of Magazine, 1 type of reactor. And you can do the component design by yourself. How cool is that?
  But only if the Research Point needed to research the component are below 500.
• You can already train Engineering regiment, Garrison battalion and Replacement battalion.
• You can instantly create 4 PDC that cost less than 1200 BP. You can instantly create 4 Commercial ships with max size 20000 ton and 2 Military Ships max size 2500 ton. The BP did not exceed 750 for ComShips and 500 BP for Milships. And yes, You will design the ships.
• You started with one 20000 ton Commercial Shipyard and one 10000 ton Commercial Shipyard; one 2500 ton Military Shipyard and one 1000 ton Military Shipyard. And you free to retool it to whatever class you want.
• You started with 2100 million pop, 2 Military Academy, 2 Ground Force Training facilities, 2 DSTS, 30 Research Lab, 10 Maintenance Facilities that can support 2000 ton ship, 1 Commercial Spaceport, 3000 Conventional Industries. 500 Construction Factories, 200 Mines, 75 Ordnance Factories and 75 Fighter factories, 100 Fuel Refinery, 50 automine, 2 Mass Drivers. and still 80.000 billion US starter wealth.
• You started with 2 Engineering regiment, 8 Garrison Infantry, and 2 Replacement Infantry. 20 Divisions of Low Tech Armor and 28 divisions of Low Tech Infantry.
• You started with 50 ICBM bases. 40 bases are equipped with 400 old ICBM. 10 Bases are equipped with new 100 TN-MIRV (release 16 Strength-1 sub-munition). 50 ICBM and 50 MIRV are in storage.

[li]Only Allied Nations and Reich had Trans Newtonian Technology and Space Ca[/li][/list]

I'm just announcing not putting an ads (suspicious specific denial).

Well we now had an Aurora community game... In what I admittedly very much inspired from a LetsPlay in Something Awful by bgreman.

Everyone invited and can join...
You can find it in Let's Play subforum...
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=115963.0
ONLY YOU can help the Allies expand and outperform the Reich.

Btw, is it legal or illegal if I promote the let's play? If it indeed illegal, I gladly erase this post...

Welcome to the Community Let's Play of Aurora, a game nicknamed Dwarf Fortress of space 4x games, becouse of the ridiculous complex, intimidating you-make-it design, spreadsheet lookish and its uninteresting interface, minus great ASCII art.

First, the ridiculous uninteresting badly written background of our scenario.
The premises is Germany did not invade Poland, Soviet did. The World War started in 1943 when Soviet try to invade Germany and the Balkan State. The Soviet think France and Britain will help Soviet, but instead both country make unlikely alliance with German Reich to stop Soviet from annexing countries left and right. Soviet cooperate with Japan in invading Western China and US Alaska, while Japan invade Hawaii and bombrun shipyards in US West Coast. Pasific War is much more bloody...
Then after the war, two superpower emerge. United State that come as victor after invading Japan Islands and Siberia in 1949 and German Reich who annexed most Soviet teritories west of Urals. The 2 superpower become suspicious with each other. Especially, US didn't like socialism ideology of the Nazi party and suspicious with Reich expansionism in Africa and Middle East.
Between period 1960s-1980s The US and Reich involved in a space race. The US always lose but nevertheless they manage to catching up. Because transistors only mass produced in late 1980s, most communication sattellite are manned, so both countries are heavily investing their resource in space programs. In this period also both country had arms race, and both heavily distribute their nuclear stock with their allies.
In late 1980s, both countries Venus and Mars probes find proof that Venus and Mars can support Earth life and both planet had indigenous lifeforms. Not ony that the probes find that there at east evidence of artificial structure taht indicate that in some time in the past both planet had civilization.
Oil crash came in 1990. After The Arab War that laid waste to whatever oil infrastructure in that region and cause distrupted oil suplly to both Reich and Western countries causing severe energy crisis. So both of them heavily investing in discovering new energy source. Because of the energy crisis, both nations' space program had been suspended.
The in late 1990s an Alliance geosurvey team find a large geode near gigantic underground cave complex 3 km beneath South China soil that the scientists around the world detect when they analyse seismic record from Great China Earthquake in 1996. The Geode contain an unidentified crytallized hydrogen like compound but with no physics nor chemical characteristic commonly found in hydrogen. The mineral if given sufficienty electric dischage, produce a stable hydrogen liquid at normal temperature taht is highly combustible and had energy density far exceed known fuel. The new minera then was dubbed Sorium (from Sol: the sun). Sorium based fuel industry solved whatever energy crisis Alliance had.
Subsequent probing and research find that the Geode had numerous other mineral with characteristic unlike anything the world had seen before. The scientists are bafled because these minerals exhibit properties that can be said simply as: defy Newtonian Law. So these minerals are dubbed Trans-Newtonian Minerals or TNM. And most minerals are predicted near the upper mantle of Earth Crust. Subsequent deep mining prove this hypothesis as true.
Alliance trying to confine the information for themselves, but an ideaist researcher that saw this as a gift for humanity disseminated it in netspace, and other nations started to copy Alliance findings. Sorium supplant fossil oil as fuel and energy sources.
Altough Sorium can be easily integrated into modern technology, other TNM are not nd more research are needed to explore what property of other TNM are and what can they be used for.
Both nations revive their space programs when a lunar probe bring back rock that contain TNM in microscopic amount. This means that other body systems also had TNM. And both nations desired to exploit those extra Earth TNM for themselves.

The Faction:

Player Faction:

1. The Allied Nations that consist of US, Canada, Caribian States, Mexico, most Central America, Brazil, South Africa, Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Nedelux, Sahara Union (ex-France NA colony), Arab Emirate Federation (ex-Britain Protectorate), Japan, Korea (united), Philipine, ANZUS, most Oceania nations, and Siberia Federation. East China is an informal member and did not had any real power in Alliance.
The Allied Nations are more centralized than real world NATO akin to loose federation, that altough various member nations still exhibit their power to decide their own domestic affair. Most foreign affair and policies that affect all of the member nations are directed by the Alliance as a whole. Member nations sent their representative to Alliance General Assembly that function as Legislative Power. Executive power lies in Alliance Directorate the that control members nation military and economic or social policies that affects all members nation.

Non-Player Faction:

2. The Greater German Reich (Großdeutsches Reich) and her client-states that consist of Central and East Europe countries, Central Asia, western-half of Rusia, Kaukasus states, and Greater Persia (Iraq-Iran almagation) - alias the Tehran Pact countries. The system are more or less similar to real world Warsaw Pact which Soviet Russia lead and dictate whatever her client state policy is.
As a side note the Nazi party that ruled Reich are not the same Nazi party as we known today. Altough they still discrimate 'non-Aryan' people, most Nazi leaders know that genocide are not a good practice (so no Holocaust ever happen). And in late 1980, as Reich expand into multi-ethnic nations, official discrimination against non-Aryan race are discontinued. Afterall, Hitler become a vegetative person in 1935... Btw, Stalingrad are now named Hitlerburg.

West:

East:

3. West and East China. After World War 2 ended in 1950. The 2 world superpower divide resource rich China into 2: Socialist Democratic Republic of China (West China) backed by German Reich and the old Republic of China (East China) backed by US and allies. As per Tianjin Aggreement after decade long China War, neither China can joined official alliance with either Reich nor US, but that didn't stop both countries to supply booth China with weapons, and it isn't a secret that both China had nuclear weapon capabilities. (This situation mirror our real world North-South Korea Confict but magnitude more epic).


4. Union of Non-Aligned Countries. Numerous Asia-Africa countries got their independence after revolution waves hit Asia-Africa countries in 1960s. This new nations decide that they didn't want to join with Allied Nation with their former master, nor join Reich as client states. The South America also didn't want to join neither bloc.
So Argentina, India and Indonesia established UNAC that consist on mosty South East and South Asian Countries, Some Oceania States, Some Central Africa State and Most South America. This is not a centralized union but rather a very loose union of states, each states free to decide their own domestic and foreign affairs..

Here are the (very crude) Political Map I made using Paradox Victoria 2 World Map...


Metagame Mechanics (modeled from Bgreman of SA forum)
This will be a Let's Play in more than just name, as I will be taking control of one of the Reich and other Nations, and you, the collective Dwarves, will be taking control of the Alliance. Both Alliance and Rech have an identical set-up and initial resources. There will be multiple levels of participation available, in two broad classes:

1. Policy Makers
These are players who shape the policy of their assigned bailiwick. For example, the peope at Alliance Directorate will be at the top of the hierarchy, providing a guiding hand to all other policy makers below their level. None of these players have a corresponding in-game character, since in game terms, they are represented by the player. Openings for these positions will be announced as they are created, and a 48h voting period will commence. To keep the thread from becoming too cluttered with voting, these will essentially be for-life assignments, so choose wisely! Inactive players will be replaced as necessary from a pool of interested candidates.

2. In-Game Characters
Interested users may apply to have an in-game character named after them. There are three types of characters available:
a. Naval and Ground Force Officers (who will be responsible for the implementation of military policy, strategy, and tactics and will have an active role in the game if desired)
b. Civilian Administrators (who direct planetary production, economic, and social policies for the colonies they control)
c. Research Scientists who are assigned to head research projects by the Head of the United Nations Science Administration (and as such, have no active role in the game other than your name being used).

There will be three separate waiting lists, one for each class of in-game characters. NB: There are limited availabilities early on, but as the game progresses, the rate of character creation quickly outstrips the in-game assignments available to them. So while your name might be pasted into the game, it may take a while for an assignment to open up that your in-game likeness is assigned to.

The Directorate position are the Allied Policy Makers, anyone interested may apply. (you can also rename your department to something that you like)
1. Head of Allied Nations Security Council. (ANSEC) The one who controls the Allied Nation military both ground army and space navy, and mostly ship design.
2. Head of Allied Nations Economic Administration. (ANEA) The one who control construction and colony management (the civilian aspect.)
3. Head of Allied Nations Science Administration. (ANSA) The one who control any Allied Nation research efforts.
4. Head of Allied Nations Foreign Affairs. (ANFA) The one whom main task are conductiong diplomacy with Reich or other nations and ensure no war happens before Allied Nations ready.
5. Head of Allied Nations Ministry of Transportation. (ANMoT) The one who control non-military ships and commercial shipping.

I assume that the player at least familiar with Aurora Mechanics because I can't give any kind of tutorials... But you can see a very nice and detailed tutorial (also the inspration of this community game) in here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3474164

INDEX:
PROLOGUE:
Starter Researched Techs
New Game Setting
Allied Nations: WELCOME 2004. Directorate Briefing. Part 1.
Allied Nations: WELCOME 2004. Directorate Briefing. Part 2.
World Situation in 2004, and Treaties Page.

CHAPTER 1: Early 2004
January 1st - January 17th: Starting on Mars, Looking at Uranus.
January 17th - January 23th: TRITANIUM SHORTAGE? THIS EARLY!?
January 23th - February 3th: Civilian Mining Complex in Titan? How the hell they get there?
February 3th - February 11th: Meeting Reich at Jupiter. The China Question.
OTHERS:
Officer List and Game Settings
Current Allied Ship Design - UPDATED 23 January 2004


MUCH INPUTS ARE APPRECIATED... Afterall I'm still new in this LP things...

THIS THREAD HAS BEEN MOVED HERE: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=115963.0

Well, start a thread, we'll follow.

Alright... Let me prepare the world first... I'll tweak the game rules so it less or more like the soon to be released 6.00 version...

I let my LP die because effort > motivation. Been thinking about starting an AAR because there's much less pressure involved. Not sure if I want to when 5.70 might be released "soon".

It not 5.70 anymore... It's 6.00 now... Steve implement so many changes that the number goes up...

Guess i am too retarded.
Wheres the fun in this game at?

The 'fun' part is meeting enemy ships in corundium rich system that 3 times bigger and 5 times faster, releasing missile salvos 4 times faster than your own and 3 times stronger while losing all of your carrier task groups and forces you to abandon the whole systems...
And then you spend 6 years in game time, researching necessary techs and building the new generation ships. Using these new technological breakthrough. You prepare your fleet, entering the systems hoping for battle only to find those ships that killing you 8 years ago, are now SPACE WRECKS... Someone already pull the trigger, and whoever he is, He is much more stronger than the enemy you expect...

Hmm.... I have some free time... maybe I can make some...
I need a break from my "super secret volcano laboratory for dwarf and elves related science incorporating magma" anyway...

I like to try organize a game as an Overseer a GameSpace Master, I had some wacky ideas...
Anybody like to take a game with SPACE NAZI-COMMUNIST (i know this is absurd as it sound) as the 'enemy' faction? If our resident dwarvesSpace commanders are interested, I think I'll start posting the game... I promise it involves lots of magmanuclear radiation and hopefully ships explosion!

I think I can't provide a tutorial about playing the game, but I can show where you guys can learn about it...
Of course I'll like some comments about this too...
Also can somebody show where the LP that mr. Sheb refer too?

(Notes: Since I'm not a native English speakers, please forgive any kind of grammar inconsistency, blame my spell checker instead)