My Vision for the Site

[Kalshion]

I was asked a little awhile ago to make a thread basically explaining my vision behind this site, sadly, if I went into absolute detail you'd be looking at an eighty two paragraph thread (no, I am NOT kidding) so I'll merely explain the vision I have right now.

Presently on the net there are a few RP sites out there, some of which that myself and others know of and others that we may not have discovered; however, for a role-player such as myself I have yet to ever find an RP site that blends both science fiction and magic. This setting basically takes place on a planet twice the size of our own earth, now that doesn't mean that space is limited - heck - look at our own planet. Despite thousands of years of humanity existing, there is still plenty of room for more people (though, not necessarily enough for food but eh, we'll tackle that if/when it happens :p)

Now, the planet itself along with its system are located in a region of space that is seemingly devoid of any other stars. Now, why is this? Well, the In-Character reason is due to there being a 'film' that surrounded that region of space, thus blocking out the other stars and making it appear as if the star is the only one that exists. This means that overtime, discoveries can be made that'll cause factions to start to look beyond the planet and see if there are other systems out there.

Undoubtedly I'm going to be asked: Why start this off as being on one planet? The answer is a simple one, because I'd like to start out small and slowly work our way up. If things were to start off big right off the bat then the site and setting would implode into one another. Of course, as mentioned earlier, there are plans to allow magic into the setting - but this isn't the only thing that could be permitted, but others as well such as psychic's. This doesn't mean that technology is obsolete but it does mean that some factions might have a different approach to things than others.

Even though this is my current vision for the site, things could undoubtedly change. Which is why I am making this thread and would like input from others! Now, I am going to run the risk of making this thread open to guests so that people do not need to register, but if it get's filled with spammage then I'll have to restrict it to members

[CadetNewb]

To be honest, I'm a bit skeptical of this setting since it's such a large transition from what we had before. On a single world, most of it will be known since this is a modern or post-modern era at the very least. Back at the old site, we could have ship to ship combat, boarding actions and even explore new worlds with new civilizations and life forms we've never seen before.

And kill them of course.

I would personally like it if the setting began with maybe 2 or 3 major factions - most likely modeled after what we're used to - and began from there. The different human or human-like factions and so forth would essentially be the ashes, the still glowing embers of a fallen humanity. A great empire now gone due to some cataclysm, with all of us retaining some of the technical know-how but almost all our older history lost. That way, we could justify how, even though different humanoid species aren't related, they still look alike as they are still related. They'd just be different forms that the ascended humankind once had.

Perhaps it even fits in with the site name - it's a mystery, an enigma, what happened.

As for tech level, stepping down from what we had before would be very nice - it got over the top too often. As much as people may gripe about the game itself, something on the level of Halo would be nice, with our suits being near Iron Man's kit and still vulnerable to conventional small arms fire. Energy weapons would still be present too, with ballistic and energy weapons being equal and more a preference. That's my own version so far. Quite different, yes? I haven't even mentioned the factions since that totally depends on what folks want.

Because of this, it's really important you make sure you sent the link for this discussion page to people who are interested and make it clear you want them to give their own ideas and feedback. Nevermind if they're shy or they think it's out of the way or stupid. After we start roughly agreeing on maybe 2 or 3 ideas in here, I would suggest setting up a poll and go from there. I know that not all of us will agree, but, we have to start somewhere, and that would likely be the best place to start.

Finding out where we all stand. This is, after all, something that we will all share.

[Kalshion]

Yer assuming that this planet has already been explored by the time the RP actually opens up, but that is not the case at all. Much of the planet is unknown to its inhabitants, this is largely due to both the hazardeous terrain (which will have taken years to figure out methods to deal with) but also because the factions that we'll be starting with will have been tending to their own affairs. Once the actual player timeline starts (when we open the forums up for actual roleplaying) that's when people begin to venture outward to explore the world.

Also, there is something of a mystery about this world not just in the form of who once lived on it but also in reference to something called 'Rift Space', basically a dimensional tear that allows ships to travel around the planet, its actually considered the fastest means of doing so but its also the most dangerous.

Although having two-three factions to start off with would be a good idea.

[Syaoran]

I do think that having multiple factions at the start would be the best option, even if they're the same race. I also think vehicles need their place in this setting. Yeah PAs are cool, but PA reliance makes things difficult for designers and it makes people not want to do infantry combat cause it's just "not as cool PA combat". Not to say I don't love me some PA combat, but I think PA combat is most useful when it's treated as specialized version of combat and not what everyone learns. (Plus it gives room for Powersuits, my personal favorite)

Aside form that though at the moment I don't have any specific request about exact, the only thing else I feel might be important to mention is that. The place we were at had it's goods and it's bads, but we shouldn't design this place as a replacement for that, we should let it be something that can stand on it's own not as a replacement, but as the next chapter of our RPing careers.

[CadetNewb]

Ugh. Much too long.

Since then, we did get to discuss all this on the IRC, and though I'm uncomfortable with the loss of many different setting elements in comparison to our prior site, it's an acceptable one considering this is the beginning. I am however, uncertain about the timing of this. How the main faction or others arrived here is not the most important thing yet, so I'll skip that. Instead, what I'm concerned about is how well established the main faction is since arrival. If they're too established, it will seem ridiculous that they haven't explored much sooner - even a newly established colony in a new world will send out scouts after all. Plus, considering the tech level, pioneering scouts leaving their sole city to explore is well doable. It's something that should honestly happen soon after or even while they're still trying to establish themselves and get a proper base of operations going to be honest.

So far, I've heard during the discussion that they've been there for a long while, and I"m not too fond of that since it makes them look less than competent.

Next, I agree that having multiple factions would be nice, but after discussing it on the IRC, there is also the potential to overstretch the playerbase this way. I would suggest the primary faction start out with multiple species, and through civil war, schism or independence, have more emerge. As much as we don't like conflict, it makes for good RP. Besides that, we could always have some come around via discovery, should there be enough interest. Now, I also miss the idea of having several planets and fighting for them, after talking it out with Eistheid, I find that they are correct in that none of them are fleshed out. We might as well just go with a single main city and make it come alive since this setting will be initially smaller in scale. As for combat, I do agree that power armor should not be the bread and butter - having them both be tough yet vulnerable to small arms fire, and also limited by resources would help a lot.

The next thing on my mind is 'Rift Space' - you mentioned exploratory ships using it on the planet's surface? I'm actually very skeptical about introducing any form of fast travel right now, since it's just one planet. Even though it's four times the size of earth, a good jet traveling mach-only-god-knows can still traverse it very quickly. I'd suggest putting that idea on hold until/if there's a need. At our previous site, fast travel times were an issue in that we didn't want them - they made things all too close, with no suspense, since first responders could arrive far too quickly.

And yes, this is even with your suggestion that it does not come without risks, since we don't even know how it all balances out.

Finally, since we're going to have Neshaten, I suggest examining them from an outsider's point of view. The perspective of someone who is looking to join something. The reason why I bring that up was because I was more or less lead to believe - based off all the artwork that I saw - that the humanoids were all perpetually children. When I learned otherwise, I have to admit that I found it very, very, very frustrating. I even felt mislead. What I'm trying to say is that their outward appearance/presentation could use some work. Think of it as advertising; if what someone comes for, what they saw, and what they got are all different from each other, we may have a problem. This is important because it'll be the foundation of player draw.

First impressions are everything, and in comparison, our previous site was typically consistent regarding the main faction.