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Author Topic: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III (PvE Arms Race)  (Read 5593 times)

Nirur Torir

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Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III (PvE Arms Race)
« on: June 17, 2020, 02:18:20 pm »

This RTD is heavily inspired by Arms Race games. 5 players, all designers. Physics are soft and squishy.


Humanity has ruled the galaxy for thousands of years. Empires have risen and fallen with each warp collapse.

First was Humanity United. They disintegrated as hyperspace vanished and our hyperdrives failed. We learned to go faster than light by warping physics. Eventually the rules of the universe rebelled, and activating a warp drive created an uncontrollable black hole. Once again, every system was isolated. Then we discovered node travel, and our ships sailed with node drives. They weakened over time, needing to be rebuilt ever bigger. Nodespace stabilized when huge stations could support them, flinging our starships relatively short ranges.

One day nodespace became inaccessible. We eventually created our own copy, though synthspace was a poor imitation. For the next thousand years, we could directly connect people with miniature ground-based synthspace stations, but could not build them large enough for anything bigger than a fighter jet, and space engineering atrophied. And then our synthspace stations all exploded at the same time, and could not be rebuilt.

This time, it took barely a generation to rediscover FTL.
This time, it is actively dangerous.

A) Immaterium travel - We've discovered what seems to be a bizarre variant of hyperspace. Or we will have in thirty years. A large warship appeared in a trinary system one day, apparently from the future. We reverse-engineered their engines and figured out how to build more. The Immaterium hurts to exist within or look at, and ships keep going missing. Some blame demons.
B) Nodespace Rippers - We've re-opened nodespace, and can make our own node lanes. They're much easier to travel, but tend to collapse. Our crews feel very uneasy in Nodespace, like something is constantly watching, annoyed and biding its time.
C) R'lyeh Drives - A fanciful name, by a brilliant but slightly mad physicist. We understand nothing about how it works, but it appears to teleport ships directly and instantly. Occasionally crewmen vanish after activation, or strange symbols and mundane objects appear in the ship.
Write-in? Must be similarly exciting.


The King of Thaddeus III is worried about nearby polities mobilizing, and has started rebuilding the military.

The planet has always kept an extensive collection of obsolete ships for historical preservation. You are all expert level specialists in archaic starship technology and engineering. You're the closest the planet has to starship engineers, and have been hired or conscripted to lead your own design teams.

Each of you have made one major design already, and it's in production now. You don't know what the FTL method will be, and may have to retrofit these ships to use it later.
To emulate an initial ad-hoc fleet, PM me your starting designs and specialties. I will ensure that there aren't duplicates for roles, but there may be similar roles -- a fighter and a long ranged interceptor are allowed together, but not two interceptor designs. If your design relies on another role, such as a carrier(strike craft) or boarding shuttle(marines), and nobody designs one, a scrap-quality variant will be provided.

Each player will submit 1 starting design, and either 1 primary + 1 secondary specialty, or 3 secondary specialties. Narrower specialties are stronger, while something as broad as "weapons" will only negate the unskilled penalty.

Feel free to make up fluff for your design, and include the armament, ship's intended role, and if it has any particularly notable systems, such as an oversized shield generator. It may be entirely new, cobbled together from old designs, or just a rebuilt old design you've found and fixed up.
Starting designs will be pretty good, but the goodness might be spread thin if you try to put too much on -- If you have too many different useful systems and weapons on your battleship, you won't understand them as well. This might cause problems with using them on different designs, and they'll probably have various flaws.

Physics are soft, but don't start too exotic with your designs. You're around the laser and plasma portion of the tech tree, not the black hole missiles and living psi-ship era. You may start with such advanced specialties, but it will take time to redevelop functional and practical designs off of it. Building advanced designs early would likely be limited run vessels built around devices pried off ancient hulks and renovated with make-shift spare parts.


Your actions will be slightly stronger than revision actions in a traditional arms race. A player should spend a full turn for a new type of weapon, or might try to resize a Rockbreaker Cruiser as a frigate, with weapons upsized from Fighter IX. Multiple players may work together on a design, either to help on a single design, or to design a ship using a component that another player is making this turn.


To sign-up, post your character name and vote on FTL. Remember to PM me your specialties and design. If you write character fluff that hints at your specialty, please wait to post that fluff until I post the starting designs.
« Last Edit: June 20, 2020, 06:16:17 pm by Nirur Torir »
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Dustan Hache

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Re: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2020, 08:24:57 pm »

PTW/write-in, maybe join.
Psionic Jump - Powered by the sheer will of it's crew, Ships can enter Nodespace once again as long as there are enough minds focused on keeping it open. Something lurks within, and even the slightest distraction can give it a chance to strike and tear the ship and it's occupants asunder, if not bend them to it's will.
(Asthetically, a mix of options B and C with a heavier lean to the effects of option B)
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I figure at some point, you're just gonna run outta fucks to give and just off yourself whenever you get hurt at all. It's not like there's any downsides to it. Hangover? Suicide will fix that. Stubbed your toe? Suicide. Headache? Suicide. Papercut? Suicide.

chaotick21

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Re: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2020, 08:35:42 pm »

PTW
R'lyeh Drives These sound way too interesting to pass up
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Nirur Torir

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Re: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2020, 02:09:14 pm »

Still 0 players. Did I make signups sound too complicated? I'll accept as little as:
Quote
Mercury 7 Fighter
A short ranged, light fighter, with lasers and a small shield. It's specialized for high speed and fighting other fightercraft, using swarm tactics.

Primary specialty: Fast engines
Secondary specialty: Low cost designs
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Screech9791

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Re: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III
« Reply #4 on: June 18, 2020, 06:29:01 pm »

PTW. A PvE arms race RTD themed around designing spaceships in a galaxy where FTL methods inevitably give up and cease functioning seems quite interesting.

See the below post.
« Last Edit: June 21, 2020, 09:59:33 pm by 0cra_tr0per »
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Screech9791

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Re: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III (PvE Arms Race)
« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2020, 09:59:10 pm »

Name: Screech XIII
Preferred FTL Method: R'yleh Drive
« Last Edit: June 22, 2020, 12:45:11 pm by 0cra_tr0per »
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Nirur Torir

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Re: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III (PvE Arms Race)
« Reply #6 on: June 22, 2020, 09:14:34 am »

I appreciate having a player, but please delete that an PM me your designs and specialties. I want a disorganized starting force that's not built around itself.
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Screech9791

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Re: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III (PvE Arms Race)
« Reply #7 on: June 22, 2020, 10:20:36 am »

done
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TricMagic

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Re: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III (PvE Arms Race)
« Reply #8 on: June 22, 2020, 12:35:55 pm »

Name: Mana Drasil

Write-In: Universal Leylines: Special routes where energy flows throughout the universal conduit, connecting all planets in a single web. We've learned to tap these lines to transport ourselves between different, distant planets with life. However, it does not allow space travel, and sometimes what is transported goes missing, undoubtedly reaching a place outside our knowledge, or more likely a planet that does not allow life as we know it. Occasionally, a World Leyline flares up on a planet, causing a lot of destruction and mutations to life and objects infused with it. Not much is understood about it at the moment, or how it happens. Magic maybe?

May or may not have demons, gods, grudges, broken dreams, GMROBONTs, or other things lurking within it.
« Last Edit: June 22, 2020, 12:58:19 pm by TricMagic »
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Screech9791

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Re: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III (PvE Arms Race)
« Reply #9 on: June 22, 2020, 01:21:05 pm »

dafuq is a GMROBONT
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TricMagic

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Re: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III (PvE Arms Race)
« Reply #10 on: June 22, 2020, 02:31:58 pm »

A GM that is a ROBO, particularly of the Nirur Torir variety.
In other words, whatever the GM decides it to be. Which could be anything, from a robot to a biological menace to energy beings.

Note I am not a sane AR Designer.
« Last Edit: June 22, 2020, 02:40:25 pm by TricMagic »
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Nirur Torir

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Re: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III (PvE Arms Race)
« Reply #11 on: June 22, 2020, 03:08:40 pm »

Note I am not a sane AR Designer.
He's not. I'm excited to see what else he comes up with after this first design.

Quote
Universal Leylines
The general theme works, but it might be a bit too close to node travel.

Connecting orbitals of distant planets directly has weird doctrinal effects, and I'm not sure I'm creative enough to write the effects on space warfare that will bring. I can give it a shot though, if it's voted for.
« Last Edit: June 22, 2020, 03:10:17 pm by Nirur Torir »
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Screech9791

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Re: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III (PvE Arms Race)
« Reply #12 on: June 22, 2020, 03:26:44 pm »

So when will the first design rolls happen?
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Maxinum McDreich

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Re: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III (PvE Arms Race)
« Reply #13 on: June 22, 2020, 03:31:34 pm »

Name: Grigor Hoth

Write-In: Cosmic Trade Winds: The Galaxy is infused with dark energy, and psionics are beginning to sense this more and more clearly. What they've started to discover is dark energy, or cosmic energy, moves all the time. These create winds and currents of literally astronomical energy. A ship made with Cosmic sails can catch these winds and reach FTL. However, Cosmic storms can destroy ships as energy sweeps in every direction, often creating small nebula as the energy converts itself to matter. Other times, the routes can change, leaving systems without FTL travel until the fickle winds turn to them at another point.


(took inspiration from Tric. Age of Sail in space, anyone? No? Just me? Well, leaving it here for the moment anyways. I don't know if it's 'exciting' enough anyhow :P)
(Still working on initial design aaand specialisation, cos I'm indecisive, but wanted to let Nirur know of stated interest)
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Nirur Torir

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Re: Scrapyard Engineers of Thaddeus III (PvE Arms Race)
« Reply #14 on: June 22, 2020, 03:36:25 pm »

I'm re-balancing the R'lyeh Drive. It still teleports, but it's relatively short ranged (stellar neighbors), and the safe teleport distance gets shorter with bigger ships or fleets.

So when will the first design rolls happen?
After we either get 5 players, or I give up on that and make my own designs.

Quote
Cosmic Trade Winds
There's potential, but not enough Excitement to disturb or work around.
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