Sci-fi Setting: Concepts for a Sequel

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Alfryd

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Jul 9, 2007
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EDIT: It just occurred to me that folks coming fresh to this thread might be totally unaware this has something resembling a working demo now:


I've included the original post below for the sake of posterity, but I'm afraid the embedded images expired a long time ago, so I'll see if those can be updated.




After some casual mention of the idea of a potential sci-fi direction at some point, and following some debate and suggestions on the subject, (mainly between me and Nerdfish,) I came up with some rough concepts for buildings and hero classes. What I'm imagining personally is a universe completely seperate from Ardania, that just happens to resemble it in a coincidental fashion, but I've tried to make things at least compatible with a far-future version of majesty's original classes.

From left to right, you have:

The Initiate- equivalents to priestesses of Krypta, controlling several robotic drones for purposes of reconnaissance and defence. Initiates are cyborgs, but their modifications consist largely of internal brain augmentation, leaving their minds half-human, and half-machine. Which half is fully in control is an open question.

The Archon- equivalents to servants of Helia, Archons are full cyborgs encased in suits of nuclear-powered armour that greatly enhance their strength and allow them to sustain advanced cybernetics. They live in symbiosis with nanobots who feed off their reactor's energy and heavy element biproducts. SOL INVICTUS!

Pilot and Myrmidone Assault Suit- Myrmidone power armour provides it's wearer with unparalleled battlefield protection and an array of imprecise, but powerful, weapons. The suit is itself a semi-autonomous AI, and often develops a close emotional rapport with it's pilot, allowing them to work independantly for short periods.

The Spacer- Originally mistaken for true xenomorphs, Spacers are in fact the descendants of early human spacefarers who have adapted themselves genetically to life between the stars. All Spacers are telepathically Gifted, legally human, and- though stronger than they look- are frail in high-gravity environments.

In reading order, you have:

The Collective's Nexus:- equivalent to the Temple to Agrela, the Collective represent an ever-growing cybernetic group-consciousness that allows it's members to share thoughts, feelings, and experiences- and dream of one day unifying all life. Their Androids are free-willed humanoid AIs conditioned never to harm intelligent beings. Both are on excellent terms with the Logicians, Ecologists, and Temple of the Sacred Fire.
Associated Heroes: Androids and Collective.

The Oracle's Complex:- equivalent to the Temple to Krypta, the Oracles are hyperintelligent thinking-machines whose thought-processes are far beyond mortal comprehension. Physically immobile, and strictly conditioned for both perfect logic and obediant service, they serve the Initiates in their ostensible goal of furthering understanding of human origins. Spacers, Shapers, and Artificers often revere them both.
Associated Heroes: Initiates and Oracles.

The Logician's Sanctum:- equivalent to the Temple to Dauros, the Logicians, and their agents- the Gifted Palatines- both practice monkish self-discipline and mastery of emotions in order to hone their remarkable respective powers of mental calculation and telepathic control. They have been the galaxy's most potent force for political and social status quo, admirably suiting the agenda of the Spacers, Collective, and Praefects.
Associated Heroes: Logicians and Palatines.

The Shapers' Colony:- equivalent to the Temple to Fervus, the Shapers use their mastery of genetic tailoring- more an art than a science- to create bizarre new lifeforms and biosculpture, for defence, terraforming, or self-improvement. Certain Gifted also find their way into the hands of the Shapers, becoming alarmingly powerful, unpredictable Xenopaths. Allies include Initiates, Ecologists, and the Temple of the Sacred Fire.
Associated Heroes: Shapers and Xenopaths.


Anyways. Hope this all proves to be of mild interest to someone...
 
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That's some pretty neat shit there Alfyrd! That would be grat to have as sci-fi sim games are hard to come across... but thanks for the suggestion Cheesethief, I looked at some screenshots of that just now and I think that I will try to find a download of that.

And to Barda278- Stop raining on the parade! ;)
 
They're intended as ranger analogues, but there's definitely a connection to barbarian-equivalents (if you've read Dune, you'll see what I mean.)
 
What do they do ? run around extracting water from Collective's temple ? :rofl:
*ponders for a moment*
...Actually, that could work. I mean, the Nexus is basically a biodome of sorts, maintaining a stable environment for plant species...
...Anyway!
What I meant was that Dune's Fremen (who seem pretty clear barbarian-equivalents) are led by the planetary ecologist Kynes, and then by his son, Liet-Kynes. As a people, they're engaged in actively terraforming their world, and use animals as both steeds and couriers, so one can see a definite connection there. Harnessing ecosystem interactions for terraforming purposes strikes me as one of the things Ecologists would be primarily concerned with.

What I had in mind for a barbarian-analogue would be the Janissary: Something similar to a cross between the Fremen or Sardaukar, Riddick from Pitch Black, and possibly the Sand People from Star Wars or the ice-bound natives of Sol Draconi Septem in the Hyperion Cantos- y'know, the sort of folks that WH40K Space Marines would be made out of. Tough, loyal soldiers drawn from hellish, borderline-habitable ice worlds, desert worlds, jungle worlds, and hive or prison worlds. (Often places where Ecologists' services could be very valuable.) Resourceful, self-sufficient, and lethal.
 
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*ponders for a moment*
...Actually, that could work. I mean, the Nexus is basically a biodome of sorts, maintaining a stable environment for plant species...
...Anyway!
What I meant was that Dune's Fremen (who seem pretty clear barbarian-equivalents) are led by the planetary ecologist Kynes, and then by his son, Liet-Kynes. As a people, they're engaged in actively terraforming their world, and use animals as both steeds and couriers, so one can see a definite connection there. Harnessing ecosystem interactions for terraforming purposes strikes me as one of the things Ecologists would be primarily concerned with.

What I had in mind for a barbarian-analogue would be the Janissary: Something similar to a cross between the Fremen or Sardaukar, Riddick from Pitch Black, and possibly the Sand People from Star Wars or the ice-bound natives of Sol Draconi Septem in the Hyperion Cantos- y'know, the sort of folks that WH40K Space Marines would be made out of. Tough, loyal soldiers drawn from hellish, borderline-habitable ice worlds, desert worlds, jungle worlds, and hive or prison worlds. (Often places where Ecologists' services could be very valuable.) Resourceful, self-sufficient, and lethal.

Although both Sardaukar and 40K marines are portrait as disciplined soldiers rather then resourceful skirmishers - the traditional barbarian do not respect discipline.

Oh btw, for this setting, I think warrior and rogues would be merged into a single class (mercenaries) and rangers and wizard merged into a single class (explorer). The reason is that pure rogue equivalent would make little sense, neither would rangers.
 
Fremen are superbly disciplined, and in many ways, so are barbarians and tribal peoples in general, insofar as they have their one set of strict laws and taboos to abide by- it's simply that those laws and taboos differ radically from those of adjoining civilisation, giving the appearance of unpredictability (that, and difficulty with maintaining large-scale, long-term organisation.)

There isn't any clear equivalent to the wizard for the simple reason that there's no magic, but the Xenopath would probably be the closest equivalent in terms of raw destructive power. There are several 'outlaw/renegade' options possible: The Runner, the Bounty Hunter, and as you suggest, the Mercenary. However, one idea that I had is that the distinction between henchmen and heroes would be largely eliminated (e.g, Artificers would have little or no inherent combat ability.) But anyways- that's a more involved discussion.
 
that's some high-quality work. WHO are YOU? :)
 
Fremen are superbly disciplined, and in many ways, so are barbarians and tribal peoples in general, insofar as they have their one set of strict laws and taboos to abide by- it's simply that those laws and taboos differ radically from those of adjoining civilisation, giving the appearance of unpredictability (that, and difficulty with maintaining large-scale, long-term organisation.)

I don't know, tribes (or enclaves of equivalent) had difficulty enforcing any kind of discipline or practice drills, as subsistence cultures focus on, you know, subsistence.

There isn't any clear equivalent to the wizard for the simple reason that there's no magic, but the Xenopath would probably be the closest equivalent in terms of raw destructive power. There are several 'outlaw/renegade' options possible: The Runner, the Bounty Hunter, and as you suggest, the Mercenary. However, one idea that I had is that the distinction between henchmen and heroes would be largely eliminated (e.g, Artificers would have little or no inherent combat ability.) But anyways- that's a more involved discussion.

Since scifi nerds usually just sit in front of a computer all day. It's difficult to come up with an equivalent heroic class of wizard in this setting. However, Ranger and wizard could be combined into "explorer". It make sense for explorer in these settings to have scientific knowledge and problem solving skills after all. The explorer would have access to prototype technology to make up for their lack of staying power. Things like cloaking fields, high powered energy weapons with no recoil, electronic warfare, granitic shields and so on. "Spells" would come in the form of "calldowns", which explorers invoke using their communication equipment and target designators. (which start out with things like supply drop, as they become better established, they might call in UAV strike or even orbital bombardment.)

As for mercenaries - I think merging warrior with rogue make sense because rank and file soldiers aren't very heroic (irony really, they tend to be some of the most heroic people outside fiction). And it make sense for indirect control. rank and file solders obey orders to the letter, that is their job.
 
Nerdfish said:
I don't know, tribes (or enclaves of equivalent) had difficulty enforcing any kind of discipline or practice drills, as subsistence cultures focus on, you know, subsistence.
They don't need to. Hunter-gatherer societies tend to have a very conformist mindset strongly focused on tribal taboos and protocol. (It's also a misconception that hunter-gatherers work more than settled societies- some can get by just fine with only 15 hours work per week.) Also, in Dune, the Fremen are clearly dsecribed as having immense discipline (particularly with regard to water rationing) and capacity for self-sacrifice.

Your other ideas deserve a more detailed discussion, but I'll just touch on two points: 1. I see no particular reason why explorers would get access to orbital weaponry and not, e.g, almost every other class, and 2. there are difficulties with a sci-fi society that has a heavy emphasis on technological progress or R&D: basically, you risk rendering human life-as-we-know-it rapidly obsolete.

Sovereign spells are actually problematic here in the absence of divine magic, but your suggestions for orbital re-supply might work that way.