Known Space Forever

I’ve really done a lot of stuff concerning Known Space recently. First of all, there’s my awesome map. This is the third version of said map, with the first draft and first version being lost forever, and the second version being found here. The third version is here.

Yes, I know. It’s big. Too big to post on this blog. But mere words cannot describe the awesomeness of this map. If it were any smaller, it would suppress the sheer beauty of it. A short key: dark blue is Garlings, plain blue is Norcaroians, light green is Kimeans, light grey is Sar Kerith, turquoise is Scallorothi, dark grey is Xorians, red is Zorga, orange is Hogrogs, dark yellow is Zalamath, dark green is Dekari (which are on the species wiki), and the normal grey is the Tzaru-Sokinu (which are Pieboy’s creation). Light blue is Terran, but those people come later.

I’ve been working with Pieboy and my brother on stuff concerning the Zalamath-Terran War, and I’ve started writing a story about it, which I’ll probably post up here at some point in the near future. Or at least, when I have a part/chapter that is satisfactory for me. Since the creation of the new map, we’ve found that we have room for a lot more development. We’ll have even more once I get the second page up, which should be tomorrow or the day after.

I’ve created a symbol for the Terran Empire, which everybody seems to love.

I am quite pleased with it, because it came out the exact way I wanted it to.

While I’m at it, over Thanksgiving break, Pieboy and I are going to collaborate and work on a Known Space related game idea. We’ll probably be using a lot of the stuff from when I was designing a Known Space RTS. Stay tuned for more…

Dust Bunnies!

I wrote a short story about dust bunnies. Check it out.

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There were two of them. Little globular things, sitting on the floor, each looking up at me with one eye. I did what any smart person would do and called pest control. I told them what I was looking at, and they told me that I shouldn’t worry. “They’re only dust bunnies.”

I looked at the fuzzy grey balls. They didn’t look very much like bunnies to me. I asked them if they were sure, and they said yes, they’d go away after I did a little house cleaning. I got out the vacuum cleaner and went to go suck them up, but they ran away at the sight of it. I chased them underneath the couch, and then I saw that there were more of them.

I determined that these dust bunnies had to be eliminated, no matter how cute and innocent they may have seemed. I set the vacuum cleaner to “ultra-suck” and stuck the hose under the couch. They all went into the tube and disappeared inside of the bag. I sighed with relief and put the appliance away.

The next day I woke up and discovered that during the night the dust bunnies had multiplied and broken out of the vacuum cleaner’s dirt bag. They were congregating in the attic. I knew this because of the trail of fuzz and dirt that they left behind. I got a gas mask and some heavy-duty floor cleaner in a spray can and went to confront them. I chased them around and sprayed all the ones I could find, but most of them got away. The attic was covered in white foam and dead dust bunnies. I swept the balls into a trash bag and put them outside.

The day after that, they had taken the attic and reclaimed the living room. I called pest control and notified them of this and they said they would send a man over to help me out. I waited a few hours, and in that time the dust bunnies had begun their invasions of the kitchen and the stairwell. I called the police and said I had an emergency, but they didn’t believe me when I said dust bunnies were taking over my house, while I was trapped in between hordes of the creatures. They told me not to make prank calls and hung up.

I decided to take matters into my own hands and got out of the house, escaping using my bedroom window. I went into the garage and got my leaf blower, and then I headed up to my room again. The dust bunnies were slowly making their way through the hall, which I didn’t like, so I turned on the blower to the maximum power setting and blew them all away. Then there were dead grey balls covering the ground near the floor. I ignored them and went upstairs to the attic.

The dust bunnies were still there, so I started blowing them away too. Some of them tried to get away, but I noticed them in time and got them. Then the attic was also filled up with fluffy orbs. I went down the stairway, into the kitchen, and finally I plowed my way through the living room, leaf blower going on the whole time. By the time I was done, the entire floor was knee-deep with dust bunny bodies.

Then I heard a knock on the door. I opened it up and saw the pest control guy. He looked at me, then at the dead bunnies, and told me not to make prank calls to pest control anymore. Then he left. I closed the door and wondered why people tell me that so much.

Science Fiction meets High Fantasy

Another idea popped into my head.

One hundred and fifty years before “modern” in this world, the world was populated by humans, elves, dwarves and gnomes. They lived in a generic sort of high fantasy world. Magic was abundant, and people used swords, wore armor and went to jousts and all that sort of thing. Humans, being humans, were very diverse. Elves, being elves, were quite adept at magic. Dwarves, being dwarves, were very good at metal-working. Gnomes, being gnomes, were brilliant and full of ideas.

Around that time, a gnome scholar made a breakthrough with technology. He somehow managed to crack the shell on how to make gunpowder work, and in the wake of that guns, cannons and primitive explosives were invented. All of the other races looked upon this with awe, and were hit with inspiration, which sent the entire world from a post-medieval state straight into the heart of the renaissance.

Other gnomes, equally inspired, collaborated on projects with up to one hundred working on a single theory. Technology quickly advanced, leaving crude gunpowder in the dust as steam power and electricity were invented. In the span of one hundred years, the technological level of the world went from pre-renaissance all the way to an industrial revolution. It didn’t stop there, even, and technology continued to progress abnormally fast.

Forty years before the present date, the genetic code of the four races were completely decoded, and everyone was surprised to discover that magic, which they had previously thought was everywhere and was a blessing from the gods, was actually controlled by one’s genes. Magic was a recessive trait for all races, save elves, for which it was dominant. People now felt confident that they could accurately predict whether their children would have magical capabilities or not.

It wasn’t too long before the first humans made it into space, with the help of gnomes and dwarves. The first astronauts made their baby steps on the surface of the moon. The entire project was considered an overwhelming success, and gnomish scientists and engineers put much of their attention on advancing the effectiveness of space ships. Space colonies were constructed, and nearby planets were colonized over the span of the next fifteen years.

With the help of magic, an FTL drive was developed, and explorers were capable of venturing to other planets in the system in an even shorter amount of time, as well as even leaving the system. Colonization flourished, and terraforming technology got to see the light as many of the previously uninhabitable planets discovered were converted into quasi-livable balls of rock. Wormholes were also discovered, allowing jump gates to be constructed.

Very recently, the first alien race was discovered. They were called the Issarians. They had noticed the amount of jumping that had been going on from one of their listening posts, which was roughly fifteen light years from the furthest colony controlled by the humans, elves, dwarves and gnomes. They claimed that the colonies were the rightful property of the Issarians, and that the united races should give them up peacefully. Of course, this wasn’t taken well by the high fantasy races, and they refused. This sparked hatred between them and the Issarians.

A war has started with the Issarians, and the colonies have started being built up with defense fleets.

Magic in this world is kind of like a merge between psionics and magic. It’s not like “magic is essence of everything”, or “magic is a power that can be harnessed at a price”. It’s more like “there’s this weird stuff that certain people have the power to control, and they can do a lot of things with it”. The more powerful a spell, the more experienced with your sense of magic you need to be. Some spells are just too law-defying to attempt alone, and that calls for teams of magi all working together.

Now, for minor adjustments to the races that should be noted.

Humans are diverse. This doesn’t mean that they can do everything. Just think of humans as being kind of like us.

Elves are good at magic, but they have a fascination for technology as well. They are graceful, they tend toward less muscular frames, but this is a mold that is easily broken. You can find a very muscular, clumsy elf. Also, while elves are normally immortal, this is not the case here. They live just as long as humans, but they do not really seem to age unless something really unnatural happens to them. They appear young until the day that they die.

Dwarves, being passionate about metal-working, do a significant amount of building space ships. Dwarf magi are also well-known, as they can shape magic with ease. And they don’t all have Scottish accents. Their accent depends on where they come from, like everyone else.

Gnomes are normally seen used as comic relief and crazy little eccentric people. This is not the case here. They are very highly respected, and for good reason, because the population would not be in space if it weren’t for gnomes.

The Issarians are like dinosaurs trying to evolve into birds, for those wondering. They have feathery crests, and feathers cover them. However, they are still flightless. These feathers almost form something like a cloak around them. They have sharp claws and teeth. They are very vicious.

Technology ranges from machine guns to lasers to missiles/nukes to other strange energy weapons. Most weapons are conventional, but some do use plasma or lasers.

Putting the “Science” in “Science Fiction”, Part One

I have decided that I need a way to vent my ideas other than Known Space. Not that I don’t like it, but it’s not the most realistic science fiction universe out there (although I try to keep it reasonable). Therefore we have the Solar Confederacy.

This idea came to me shortly after watching an episode of Battlestar Galactica. The new series, not the old. I decided that if BSG can be so awesome and yet use realistic physics, then I can make one too. As I was inspired, I quickly came up with an idea that I went for a test drive with in an AIM RP.

Basically the backstory is that shortly after humanity started colonizing the other planets and moons of the solar system, it became clear that with the current radical differences in ways of thinking, and with so many governments, adding more planets to the mix would just make things more complicated. So all the major world powers put their heads together and formed a new government to control the entire solar system as a democracy, with old countries becoming more like states that in the end had to answer to the rulings of the system-wide government. This was dubbed the Solar Confederacy.

Now, much like certain other countries, the Confederacy had different political parties. The two major ones were the Materialists and the Idealists. As you might imagine, the Materialists’ philosophy was based more on tangible evidence, while the Idealists made decisions based on theories and hypothesis.

Now, the Idealists turned out becoming quite friendly as a whole, whereas the Materialists focused on practical matters that made them seem kind of antisocial. The Idealists had brilliant ideas, so they were elected into office as the ruling party many terms in a row. The Materialists didn’t like this, of course, but they figured that soon enough they would be capable of regaining the office.

With all their time spent as leaders, the Idealists began to get a little careless and reckless. Going along with their friendly nature, they offered to help wherever needed. However, once their help was accepted, their ideas that they carried out, while being highly effective, were a bit questionable. Nobody thought much of this until a plague broke out on Callisto. The Materialists requested help from the Idealists in taking care of the plague, counting on their excellent ideas to find a cure for the plague. However, instead of curing the plague, the Idealists decided that there was no possible cure. They quarantined the moon and nuked it.

The public outrage by Materialists everywhere was tremendous. The Idealists argued that if they had not nuked the moon, then the plague might have spread, and since there was no cure in sight, they decided that it had to be utterly destroyed, along with any carriers. The Materialists did not accept this answer, and deep down they didn’t trust the Idealists anymore. They decided to take executive action.

“Modern” era consists of approximately two hundred to three hundred years in the future, I’m not sure which yet. The Materialists are in the process of constructing ten massive sleeper ships to save the population from the Idealists, whom have been judged as mad, power-hungry and psychotic, therefore they are too dangerous to allow the public to be near. They can only construct one ship at a time, for fear that the Idealists would discover their operations. Each ship is estimated to take near to twenty years to complete, so their plan will take time to come to fruition. They have constructed one of the ten.

The government is practically split down the middle, along with the military. The Idealists are still the ruling party, but the Idealists and Materialists are on the brink of war. Half the military has sided with the Materialists, and half has sided with the Idealists. The nuking of Callisto occurred nearly fifty years ago now, and tensions have only risen since then. The two military factions have branched off from each other in terms of technology. It seems that it will only be a matter of time before the entire system falls to chaos.

I’ll put more on this later. Possibly today, possibly tomorrow.

Game Building 4

I keep coming up with new ideas, and thinking I have to post these up, but then I never do. It’s tragic.

Okay, here goes new ideas.

I’ve been thinking that supply lines would be a cool idea. In games like Homeworld and… well, just about every other RTS out there, it doesn’t matter where you are, but you share a global resource allotment. I have decided that this will not be the case in my game. When you harvest resources, whichever ship your collector returns to is the ship that receives the resources (whether they are actually capable of building ships or not). For example, you may have a mining outpost, with a few collectors and a refinery. Every return the collectors make to the refinery, the resource count on the refinery increases, but you can’t use those resources yet. If that refinery was a carrier, you would be able to use the resources, but only for building ships with that particular carrier.

In order to get these valuable resources from one refinery to the next, and from that one to your shipyard/mothership/carrier, you will have to utilize supply ships, which carry a set amount of resources from one place to the next. Once they reach their destination, resources are dropped off, and poof, you can suddenly finish that uber ship you were trying to get done. In a similar fashion, transporting resources to a friendly vessel not owned by you will give that player the resources. However, these supply ships will be lightly armored and totally unarmed, so they will have to be escorted, lest another player begins pirating your well-earned resources, using their own collectors and salvage vessels to claim them.

If you’re wondering why you couldn’t just place a carrier or your shipyard next to every resource deposit, that is something you could do. However, only your biggest ship can construct those attractive uber ships, and generally seeing as that ship would be a shipyard or a station, or else quite slow, it would be inconvenient to have to haul them around (seeing as those ships only have small engines). So supply lines will be important.

After thinking more about resources, I have determined that most resources will either be plentiful, yet small, or sparse yet huge. So an entire battle could take place determining who has possession of that colossal asteroid in the middle of the map. The large asteroids would probably have enough resources to last the entire game, if not longer. Same goes for giant dust clouds, wisps of nebulae, et cetera.

In order to navigate the map (which may be huge or tiny) quickly and efficiently, you will have to construct hyperspace gates. These gates will allow easy access to remote corners of the maps (thus helping your supply lines a whole bunch), in addition to allowing reinforcements to be fielded quickly and conveniently.

Story – Noah’s Ark

I wrote a short story about Noah’s Ark, from someone else’s point of view. Here goes!

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How much longer must I wait for this to end? It seems that even those highest peaks would soon be drowned if this continues for much longer. I never believed in a God, but if there is a God up there, then surely he or she is testing me. A test of faith, nothing more. I laugh to myself in an attempt to cheer up, but the laugh turns into a hacking cough and my body is wracked with shivering.

It has been raining for more than a month now, something we originally thought was impossible. All of our best caution could not have prepared us for this when it started to look like a mild rainstorm would happen. How mild it was to have swept our sweet village below the waves. Maybe we should have listened when those Christians came to us and proclaimed us heathens. We were all going to hell, they said. They would be spared, they said, because their hearts were pure and God would protect them. I wonder where their waterlogged bodies are now…

Food originally wasn’t a problem. The goats and sheep were smart enough to climb the mountains, but the cows were confined, and nobody bothered to open the gates, being too busy saving their own lives, and their possessions. It was surprising how many people ran to their houses for their money when the water reached ankle-depth. I didn’t get my money. I made sure my wife and children were safe, loaded a donkey with all the food it could carry and left the village. Some would call it cowardice. I call it survival.

Of course, now I am the only one left. I haven’t seen another human soul for almost a week, and that was before I was forced to the rocky peaks. These rocks are my bed now. The snow has long melted from the peaks, however. It’s been raining too long.

And now, the water is beginning to seep through the door of my new home, my cave. I turn to the wall behind me and drop to my knees. I never believed in a God, but I pray now. If there is anything up there, then I hope they hear me.

Fire Warrior Class for D&D

I am such a nerd. One time, I took up my computer and just wrote the entire Fire Warrior class for D&D. Now I’ve got this really long document and no use for it, because Fire Warriors have no place in D&D. But I’ll post it here, just because.

Fire Warrior

Description: The fire warrior is the backbone of the Tau fighting force. Whether it’s an invasion of Orks, Space Marines or Tyranids, fire warriors are always the ones defending the borders of the Tau Empire. The fire warrior is a master of ranged weaponry.
Races: Tau. In order to be a fire warrior, you must be a Tau born into the Fire caste, although sometimes an exception can be made.
Alignment: Any.
Abilities: Fire warriors rely on Dexterity and Constitution to keep their ranged combat skills up and to take in more enemy fire. Strength can also be handy for situations when a gun would be too close to the enemy.
Hit Die: d10.
Class Skills: The fire warrior’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Craft (trade skill) (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (military tactics) (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A fire warrior is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, plus pulse rifles and pulse carbines. Fire warriors are proficient with light armor and medium armor, plus Tau fire warrior armor, but not shields.

Ranks: As a fire warrior advances in experience, he will eventually take upon a Trial by Fire. If he survives the trial, then he will be upgraded to the next rank. A fire warrior that receives a bonus feat due to rank does not need to meet the requirements, but the feat may not be used as a requirement for another feat unless all the bonus feat’s requirements are met. The ranks and their benefits are listed as follows:

Shas’la: The lowest fire warrior rank. A 1st level fire warrior is a Shas’la with no required Trial by Fire. A Shas’la has the benefits +1 to hit with ranged weaponry and Point Blank Shot as a bonus feat.

Shas’ui: The second lowest fire warrior rank. A 5th level Shas’la that passes a Trail by Fire becomes a Shas’ui. A Shas’ui has the benefits of an additional +1 to hit with ranged weaponry, Weapon Focus with pulse rifles as a bonus feat, and Shot on the Run as a bonus feat. A Shas’ui gains a XV15 Stealth battlesuit.

Shas’vre: The middle fire warrior rank. A 10th level Shas’ui that passes a Trial by Fire becomes a Shas’vre. A Shas’vre has the benefits of an additional +1 to hit with ranged weaponry, Weapon Focus with pulse carbines as a bonus feat, and Rapid Shot as a bonus feat. A Shas’vre gains a XV8 ‘Crisis’ battlesuit.

Shas’el: The second highest fire warrior rank. A 15th level Shas’vre that passes a Trial by Fire becomes a Shas’el. A Shas’el has the benefits of an additional +1 to hit with ranged weaponry, Weapon Specialization with pulse rifles as a bonus feat, and Sniper Shot as a bonus feat. A Shas’el gains a XV88 ‘Broadside’ battlesuit.

Shas’o: The highest fire warrior rank. A 20th level Shas’el that passes a Trial by Fire becomes a Shas’o. A Shas’o has the benefits of an additional +2 to hit with ranged weaponry, Weapon Specialization with pulse carbines as a bonus feat, and Precise Shot as a bonus feat. A Shas’o is the final rank of the fire warriors, and as such inspires courage in his companions. A Shas’o’s companions gain +5 to all saving throws when the Shas’o is within 30 ft.

In addition to these bonuses, having a rank will earn the fire warrior a certain amount of recognition depending on how far he has progressed.

Markerlight: At 2nd level, a fire warrior gains a markerlight for his ranged weapon if it is a pulse rifle, a pulse carbine or a Stealth suit burst cannon. Instead of firing a normal shot, the fire warrior may sacrifice one of his ranged attacks to fire a markerlight at his opponent. If the fire warrior or one of his allies attacks that opponent in the same turn, they will receive a +1 bonus to hit and damage. This number increases by one every other level after 2nd (to a maximum of +10 at 20th level). Keeping the markerlight steady and focusing it is a full-round action. The markerlight has a range increment of 200 ft.

Hard-wired Support Systems: At third level, and every three fire warrior levels thereafter, a fire warrior may select one of the following hard-wired support systems.

Multi-tracker: The fire warrior gains one more attack at his lowest base attack bonus with a -5 penalty.

Target Lock: The fire warrior chooses one enemy. He gains +2 to hit with his ranged weapon that round.

Blacksun Filter: The fire warrior sees twice as far in dark areas, as if he possesses low-light vision.

Drone Controller: The fire warrior gains drone companions. These may be gun drones or shield drones, or a combination of the two. The fire warrior may not have any more than two drones at any given time. Shield drones grant +2 to AC for all allies within 5 ft, including the shield drone. Gun drones have a twin-linked pulse carbine as a weapon, which has a base attack bonus equal to half the fire warrior’s level (rounded down). Drones have a base AC of 14 (+1 size, +3 dex) and 3 hp per fire warrior level.

Battlesuits: At the Shas’ui, Shas’vre and Shas’el ranks, a fire warrior gains a proficiency in one of three battlesuits. These battlesuits act like armor with weapon and support systems. They also grant special abilities to the fire warrior while he is wearing one. All battlesuits have the following traits in common.

Recoil Absorption: The fire warrior may always make a move action and a standard action when the battlesuit is being worn, even if the fire warrior is disabled.

Improved Sensors: The fire warrior may search for hidden enemies as a standard action while wearing the battlesuit. He gains +10 to his spot and listen checks against characters using the move silently or hide skill, and characters under the effect of the Invisibility spell.

Incredible Strength: The fire warrior calculates carrying capacity and loads as if he possesses 30 Strength while wearing a Crisis or Broadside battlesuit, or 20 Strength if he is wearing a Stealth suit. If the fire warrior’s current strength is higher than the Battlesuit’s carrying capacity Strength, then use the fire warrior’s strength score instead.

Clumsy: A fire warrior in a battlesuit takes a -5 penalty on skill checks that require delicate work. A fire warrior in a battlesuit also takes a -10 penalty on any skill checks involving using hands and fingers for manipulating objects. These penalties are lessened to -2 and -5 if the fire warrior is using a Stealth suit.

In addition to these, battlesuits have the following stat bonuses and may take the following upgrades. Note that the Battlesuit’s AC bonus does not stack with other armor bonuses and they have a maximum dexterity bonus of +0, although they do not incur an armor check penalty.

XV15 Stealth: +4 AC, +2 Strength. A Stealth suit is size medium. A Stealth suit comes with a burst cannon. The Stealth suit may become invisible for ten minutes, as if under the effects of an Invisibility spell. A Stealth suit has a fly speed of 20 ft and a maneuverability rating of perfect. A Stealth suit requires the Shas’ui rank.

XV8 Crisis: +6 AC, +4 Strength, +2 Constitution. A Crisis battlesuit is size large. A Crisis battlesuit must take three hard points worth of weapon or support systems. A Crisis battlesuit has a fly speed of 40 ft and a maneuverability rating of perfect. A Crisis battlesuit requires the Shas’vre rank.

XV88 Broadside: +8 AC, +4 Strength, +2 Constitution. A Broadside battlesuit is size large. A Broadside battlesuit must take two weapons systems (either smart missiles or twin-linked plasma rifles) and one support system. One of the weapon hard points already has twin linked rail guns. A Broadside battlesuit has a fly speed of 30 ft and a maneuverability rating of perfect. A Broadside battlesuit requires the Shas’el rank.

Battlesuit Weapon and Support Systems: A XV8 Crisis or a XV88 Broadside must select weapon or support systems. A Crisis battlesuit may not use rail guns or smart missiles.

Weapon systems: Burst Cannon (3d6 damage, 19-20/X2 critical, range increment 50 ft, 25 lbs), Flamer (4d4 damage, X3 critical, 20 ft cone, 25 lbs), Missile Pod (4d8 damage, X2 critical, range increment 100 ft, 20 lbs, 5 ft blast radius, may only fire once), Plasma Rifle (3d8 damage, X2 critical, 60 ft range increment, 25 lbs), Fusion Blaster (5d8 damage, X3 critical, 20 ft range increment, 25 lbs, may only fire twice, may only target vehicles and buildings), Rail Gun (5d12 damage, X2 critical, 200 ft range increment, 50 lbs, may only fire once, may only target vehicles and buildings), Smart Missiles (3d6 damage, X3 critical, 50 ft range increment, 25 lbs, no line of sight needed outdoors). A weapon system may be twin-linked. A twin-linked weapon system rerolls a missed attack once. The second result stands. However, a twin-linked weapon system takes up two gun hard points (unless it’s on a Broadside), and weighs as much as two weapons.

Support Systems:

Multi-tracker: Allows a battlesuit to fire two weapons as a full-round action. They need not be fired at the same target.

Target Lock: The fire warrior chooses one enemy. He gains +2 to hit with his battlesuit’s ranged weaponry that round.

Stacks with the hard-wired version of Target Lock.

Shield Generator: Adds a +4 bonus to AC.

Drone Controller: While the fire warrior is wearing the battlesuit, he may choose to have more drone companions in the same way as the hard-wired drone controller. All drones stack.

Seeker Missiles: At 10th level, if there is a friendly Devilfish, Hammerhead or Skyray outfitted with Seeker Missiles within 10 miles, the fire warrior may request one to fire at a target picked out by markerlight. The fire warrior must focus his markerlight on the target for one round per mile away the ship is from the target; otherwise the missile goes off-course and is wasted. When the seeker missile hits, it deals 8d8 damage to the target. The fire warrior may do this once per day at 10th level, and another time per day every three levels thereafter (to a maximum of four times per day at 19th level).

Class Level Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Ref Save Will Save Special
1st +1 +2 +2 +0 Shas’la
2nd +2 +3 +3 +0 Markerlight +1
3rd +3 +3 +3 +1 Hard-wired support system
4th +4 +4 +4 +1 Markerlight +2
5th +5 +4 +4 +1 Shas’ui, battlesuit
6th +6/+1 +5 +5 +2 Markerlight +3, hard-wired support system
7th +7/+2 +5 +5 +2 ——————
8th +8/+3 +6 +6 +2 Markerlight +4
9th +9/+4 +6 +6 +3 Hard-wired support system
10th +10/+5 +7 +7 +3 Shas’vre, battlesuit, markerlight +5, seeker missile 1/day
11th +11/+6/+1 +7 +7 +3 ——————
12th +12/+7/+2 +8 +8 +4 Hard-wired support system, markerlight +6
13th +13/+8/+3 +8 +8 +4 Seeker missile 2/day
14th +14/+9/+4 +9 +9 +4 Markerlight +7
15th +15/+10/+5 +9 +9 +5 Shas’el, battlesuit
16th +16/+11/+6/+1 +10 +10 +5 Markerlight +8, seeker missile 3/day
17th +17/+12/+7/+2 +10 +10 +5 ——————
18th +18/+13/+8/+3 +11 +11 +6 Markerlight +9
19th +19/+14/+9/+4 +11 +11 +6 Seeker missile 4/day
20th +20/+15/+10/+5 +12 +12 +6 Shas’o, markerlight +10

Pulse Rifle: 2d6 damage, 19-20/X2 critical, range increment 100 ft, 5 lbs.
Pulse Carbine: 2d6 damage, 18-20/X2 critical, range increment 50 ft, 5 lbs, fortitude save DC 10 or become shaken.
Fire Warrior Armor: +4 AC, +6 Max Dex bonus, armor check penalty -2, 30 ft movement, 20 lbs.

WordPress needs a spreadsheet function… If you notice any inconsistencies or typos, comment.

Game Building 3

Okay, it has come to my attention that I can’t keep up the daily posting anymore. Fortunately, I have a new laptop, which does have wireless, so I will be able to make posts more semi-frequently. Onwards.

I think that I’m not going to use any ideas besides the Known Space one, for several reasons. The first reason is that I have already got a very fleshed-out storyline for Known Space. The second reason is that I have vivid images of a lot of things from Known space in my mind, from planets to space ships to species themselves. Finally, I don’t really have good ideas about how the other worlds work, yet, and I don’t want to go through the trouble of defining them right now. So Known Space it is.

With that out of the way, we can begin our work.

Like all good old typical space-based 3D RTS games, the primary resource will be minerals, harvested from asteroids in either a style like the original Homeworld or latching onto the asteroids and chewing them up. Some may use different methods, but those two would be the main methods. Some other possibilities would be cutting them open with lasers and harvesting the debris, or maybe even huge refinery ships that swallow asteroids whole.

Another possibility for resources would be to have food and water be requirements. As all good creatures need to eat and drink, it would be a necessity to keep them well-fed, otherwise they will not fight at the rate they would normally fight at. In order to increase your food, you would build special stations with bio-domes for growing food. Water would possibly be found inside certain ice blocks, being harvested conventionally, inside asteroids, or even on nearby planets. More on this later.

Multiplayer games will either be played in specific scenario maps, normal maps or randomly generated terrain maps. This way players would have a choice as to whether or not they’d like to do something like capture the flag, resource rush or king of the hill-style games. Unlike in Homeworld and Homeworld 2, an asteroid field will not take up a significant portion of the map. It would either take up all of the map, some of the map or none of the map. Stray asteroids would have to be available, due to the inconvenience of a map without an asteroid belt. Alternate resources being available would also be a good thing, such as harvestable dust clouds and nebulae. However, these would also be big, with nebulae being on the same scale as asteroid fields and dust clouds ranging in size from minuscule to ginormous. Other terrain, such as black holes, suns, planets, moons, et cetera, would have to mean that a map would be very big, and it may take ages to span an entire map-system. This could easily be solved by implementation of buildable jump gates, worm holes and jump-capable ships, however, so maps the size of systems could work, and present opportunities for other ideas, even a multi-system game with a planet and system take-over game style. Realistic distances would also be fun…

Next time I will post regarding how each species will be specialized.

Birthday Lateness

Yesterday was my birthday, so I was too busy having fun and knocking myself out to post. I am finding it annoying that I still haven’t posted about flesydae, fauriums, shadows… eh. I’ll post them when I get the time to write an uber post, but right now, I have no time. So this makes this another short post.

Oh, by the way, check out my deviantart account.

My bad…

Okay, it has occurred to me that about half of the time, I will not be able to make posts on weekends. I only realized this after I got somewhere without internet access…

I promised a humans/shadows/fauriums/flesydae post, but I’m kind of tired right now. Tomorrow, I promise! *goes off to procrastinate*