Hey, I've been on holiday, having a break from this madhouse. So like everyone else I see this new guy posting all over the shop, some good, some bad, and say, "wow, is he a stereotypical male geek teenager?" As for SF warfare, it can be about a bunch of frolicking Llamas. The fact that they harbour invidious and lethal parasites that decimate the human population of the planet that just imported them is another matter entirely. I think my main point, that this isnt the best place for such discussion still stands. But that aside, you seem to have all the right "bits" for a story. Now you need to weave them together into a coherent and entertaining whole. This can be hard work. I know someone whos been writing for 20 years, been published for at least 15, and only now is he a top flight Science fiction author. So, write some story stuff, and practise it. There was a thread in the SF section for people to post their own stories and suchlike for ritical comment. Unfortunately your website wants me to sign in with an MSN key thingy, something I dont have.
damn it. i need to get that guy to fix that. i dont know how, so... we haven't started writing yet, but we will soon. actually, i came up with the idea in 1999, with "Zephyr Wars", in which a human supergovernment tries to colonize a galaxy, the Zephyr Galaxy, but the Zephyr, an alien species that uses almost exclusively mecha. blah blah blah. war and gore. we've re-vamped it so that there's more story on the CGU and more story on the alien races. We have yet to tie it all together, but we have a pretty good base going on the story. the site has a lotta pics of ships, guns, troops, and main characters.
I presume one side or both has FTL capabilities? If not then the whole concept is a load of hooey - as there's no way two civilisations would meet and engage in full-scale war in the year 6,000, as it would take too long to travel places - our galaxy being around 80,000 to 100,000 light years across. Also, time effects of travelling toward LS needs to be taken into account. If you do have FTL capability then fair enough. But then you need to consider whether it's a different "space" that FTL exists in (e.g. Babylon 5 style) or whether it's normal space. If it's normal space then why use Nuclear torpedoes when you can just ram planets and enemy ships with FTL (or near-FTL) masses and crack them wide open. "Mass-drivers" can be very effective radioactive-free kinetic weapons Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! And what magical power source are you using? What new technology have you come up with to power Teratonne and Gigatonne weaponary? Being geeky, one 2300 Teratonne weapon, fired for 1 second, would need roughly 10^25 joules of energy. (1 ton of TNT is equal to about 4.2*10^9 Joules). This is equivalent to 100,000 tonnes of mass converted at 100% effeciency (i.e. matter / anti-matter). If you use anti-matter then you would need to store 50,000 tonnes of it for each time you fired the weapon, utilising 50,000 tonnes of space dust / debris as the other 50,000. Unless I have my sums wrong? So, what other "mystical" power source are you using? Also - the ground forces. The CGU have these 2300 teraton weapons - and yet hand-held lasers are only just being created / tested?? Hmmm. I would find this to be unlikely, especially given primitive lasers are currently being tested in the 21st century - let alone the 60th century or so. Plus - what does it matter how tall or big the enemy is when you can destroy them from miles away? A good SF story generally has well worked out science - which is why Star Wars isn't that great a piece of Science fiction but rather excellent Fantasy. If it is just about warfare, with no semblance to realism (which is not a problem and can be great fun), then the characters become far more important to a good story - and you should certainly concentrate on that rather than on the specifics of the weapons. As a setting for stories... Hmmmm... seen thousands like it before - which is primarily just an interstellar war. Star Wars, for example. Star Trek isn't a far cry from it. Babylon 5. And that's just tv stuff.
thanks for posting. its been a while....i thought this thread was dead.,,, okay... FTL? hell, yes! CGU's capital ships move about 100-200 Lightyears per second...smaller ships move a bit slower, as they do not have as powerful engines/ Well, the older Nova-class battleships use 888mm Gauss Cannons, but they proved somewhat ineffective in comabat against Zaaroft cruisers. as for the nuclear torpedoes...ah, hell, they just sound cool. and stop spelling "ton" incorrectly. thats just not cool. as for the power source: fusion reactors and ion engines are the standard. they can be ultracompacted so that they can be used in starfighters, like the Tigershark or the Rex. well, they still had to invent way to make the fusion cells ultracompact, and the battery packs ultracompact, and such, to make it small enough for an infantry weapon and infantry armor. they aren't necisarrily just now testing them, just in the Zaaroft War, they start to make them the standard. Before this, .15mm Automatic Rifles were the standard infantry weapons. well, the thing is....the CGU usually does call in bomber and airstrikes...but they need the infantry to occupy the planets where the Zaaroft are at. They need them for those actual close encounters with the enemy. why to u think the Empire has Stormtroopers even though they could cook a planet with ISDs? same reason--sometimes, you just gotta face 'em head-on.
Tonne = 1,000 kg - it is otherwise known as a "metric ton". Your "ton" = 907.18kg - which is somewhat irksome to use in any calculations. Personally I prefer tonne - as it is simpler. But that's your choice. Firstly, Ion engines are incredibly slow accelerators. Their thrust is tiny compared to chemical rockets. You certainly wouldn't use ion propulsion to move vast capital ships around - they just wouldn't work very quickly at all. For example, a NASA test vehicle (Deep Space 1 - which will be fun when they get to the 9th vehicle!) will be firing its ion engines continuously for 20 months to achieve a delta-v of just 4.5 km/s. That's how slow ion engines are! Fusion reactors are fine for your spacecraft, large and small - but they wouldn't be able to generate the power sufficient for firing your "Teraton" weapons - as I stated earlier. The required energy is simply too high. Seriously, mate, the US are already developing hand-held laser weapons. Just google the "Stavatti TIS-1" Or click here for a *.pdf document Plus you'll most likely get other far superior weapons to .308 auto-rifles - such as pulse rifles, gauss cannons, mass-drivers etc. Standard projectile weapons will most likely be redundant by then. Just as the bow 'n' arrow is redundant now. So, other than the personal combat weapons, you still need to address the power of your ships' weaponary - and use E=Mc^2 to establish what is an acceptable energy / weight trade-off for your cannons. Plus you'll need to sort out what shielding, if any, the crafts have. If they don't have any then a simple projectile will cause havoc. If they have shielding other than mere mass then you again need to assess the power requirements and the mass implications for utilising the shield for any length of time.
Recently, I've made changes. I've changed the standard Infantry Weapon from a .308 rifle to a 15mm light hand-held autocannon. Laser rifles are in use then, but the conservative politicians of the CGU are all somewhat wary of energy weapons, but they are getting into standard use by the time of the Zaaroft War. I've made the infantry have powered armor, and personal energy shields. Ive reduced the main ship's weapon yields. The main guns? no longer 22 petatons (22000 teratons), but are now only 20 teratons. These have massive charge times, and a very loooong cool down & recharge time. The secondaries? no longer 500 gT, now just 50 gT. I've radically changed many things, after being on SB.com for a long while.
I've also recently added new ships to the CGU fleet. Carriers for one thing, and a combonation carrier-battleship. As well as a battlestation type of ship. Also, me & weston have desinged new vehicles: the Cockroach class mobile field base/assualt vehicle. and the Scorpio class support-assault vehicle. I'll post stats later.
Okay. Cockroach stats: Cockroach-class vehicle. Mobile Field Base/Assualt Vehicle. Basically, it's shaped like a cockroach, except it's a bit more square-like and utilitarian-looking. It has three sections: Head section, which contains the forward-firing main guns (405mm Phased Plasma Repeaters) and the command centre;t the second section, which contains two of the six legs, contains antiaircraft cannons, SAM pods and side-facing antivehicle guns; the rear section, which also had two leg pieces, also contains some 200 VLCM tubes. It also has heavy energy shields, and is made from a nigh-impregnable alloy known as Terranium.
No it doesn't... There's nothing to wonder about... The humans just decide too kill anythign that isn't a human, for no good reason... they're the bad guys, obviously... not even much to think of... And screw ground forces, btw, if the point is to extewrminate the race; just nuke the fuckers from space. This is stupid... Also, I'm sure teens of the future everywhere would appreciate it if you stopped telling people how old you are... I rmember at that age the second I told someone how old I was the respect level just plummetted, and there was nothing I could do to get it back... This is why...
Normally I would say this is the dumbest, cliche-sounding generic Sci-fi that I have ever heard of and the chances of people finding anything at all interesting in what a 15 year old has to say is almost as incredible as the fantastic ideas represented in the CGU story, and with that caveat I will say you actually have more than what most people have, something to work with. A kid wrote the story for "The Fifth Element" and that story is mostly space creatures, guns, and space ships darting around everywhere. As a writer myself, both professionally and for fun (I am a nerdy GM that has made my own game universe) I have a couple of suggestions that I think can help you out that you may or may not have thought of already. 1. Timeline Progression: Is this universe Earht related and if it is can you link up the progression of nations, history, technology, and space exploration? If it is not based on Earth how do humans become involved in the universe? 2. Political Alliances: Why are people at war and not at peace. This is especially tricky in space. Spaceships cost a whole heck of a lot and fighting in them has to have an equally lucrative gains involved. What do both species have to gain in fighting? 3. Value: Where does human values fit into this sci-fi thread? Do characters exhibit courage, justice, vengeance, honor, duty? These are things that often come out in sci-fi because it usually pushes human experience to an extreme. If humanity has an imbiguous role in the war then who will exhibit these traits and how? 4. Human Empathy: Who is the main character that the audience is shown with which to empathize? This is important in all stories and can be explained as the point-of-view, the story-teller, or the main character. If it is a human the story has to make humans naturally good, if it is another race then humans are bad, if it shows both sides of the story then war is bad and both sides are usually just mixed up in a confusing situation. 5. Realism in Science Fiction: I personally enjoy a universe in which normal rules of physics and cause-and-effect. This is a classic rule of sci-fi writing: good Science makes good Science fiction Anyway, I think that you made reference to this being your idea, well its not. Everything that you can ever think of has been done to death already. All you can do is steal the best ideas from the best sources and put them together around a good story. Condense your ideas and put them together a little more and then get writing. -ZERO MASS
OK, let's assume that by the date you're talking about, the 68th Century or whatever, the Human race have been in space for something like 47 or so centuries--i.e. entered space and started exploring beyond the Solar System by (at the latest) the end of the 21st Terran Century. Let's also assume that they started meeting alien races almost immediately, chiefly because the alien races were checking out this new species which had just entered space. So wouldn't the Humans (being Human, after all) start hopping into bed with the aliens almost straight away? That's what they did whenever they they meet each other on Earth. I mean, there must be some cute aliens out there, surely? They can't all be covered with long green body hair or scales, or have sharp barbs that come out of their skin every time someone walks up to them. (Mind you, even that could be a turn-on for some people. Nothing is too strange for people to get accustomed to.) Besides, what role does religion play in this latter-day fascist empire? Religion is one of the main causes of war on Earth, and has been ever since Humans started inventing gods (or vice-versa).
Actually, the humans are the good guys in the story. See, this is exactly the thing I was talking about. The plot makes you think that the humans are the bad guys here. Nope. Aliens are the real evil ones in the CGUverse.
Well, the Pope has a major say in the whole matter. Let's see...in the timeline that I've made for the CGUverse, Protestantism becomes effectively wiped out in the early 2900s. Most of the galaxy's population are catholic. They listen to the 'Space Pope'. Approxomately, at the height of the human-alien intiegration thing the mid-4500s, 75% of the human population were either Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, and the offices of Patriarch of Constantinople and Pope had been merged since 3116. One of the Papal decrees is that humans and aliens should not mate. Remember, up until this time, the galaxy is still the Galactic Confederation. The CGU has not even formed yet. There is no extermination policy, yet. People begin to feel resentment towards the aliens and feel that they are 'ruining humanity and human culture'. By the time of the Great Civil War, aliens are thoroughly hated by nearly all humans. There are some tranbreeds between aliens and humans, but these people are mostly shunned by society, and hated. When the CGU is founded in 6270, and takes absolute control of the Milky Way in 6275, the hatred and rage is turned into government policy. Systematic liquidation and extermination of all aliens and alien-human crossbreeds is made into official policy. In short: there are some human-alien crossbreeding, but most people are pure human, and show disdain on anyone who breeds with aliens. At the foundation of the CGU, 77% of humanity were Catholic, 13% were Orthodox, 5% were Jewish, 4% were minor religions, 0.5% followed alien religions (heretical in the eyes of the CGU), and 0.5% had no religion. Aliens aren't considered citizens. It plays a major part in politics, especially seeing as 90% of humanity listens to what the Space Pope says, and that the Pope has his own armada of staships. The Catholic and Orthodox churches both follow along with the Government's anti-alien policy. Essentially, religion is still a major political and social force, but the CGU government assures total freedom of religion to all citizens, and protects that right.
Yeas, everything is based around a slightly alternate future Earth. I have a timeline written, I just haven't presented it to ya'll yet. Well, for one thing, economies are outdated and obsolete in the Galaxy by this point. There is enough resources to go around for hundreds of years. Things don't 'cost' anything more than the contruction resources used. Well, the CGU is attacking the Zaaroft because the Zaaroft are aliens, not humans. It's just the government policy of the CGU. The Zaaroft have only one thing to gain: survival. THe CGU is just trying to wip out any aliens that stand in thier way. Well, yes, of course the characters show emotion, courage, etc. They're fighting an enemy that they hate with the burning anger of a thousand hells! The CGU's propaganda machine really implants all of this hatred of aliens and glorification of humanity. The individual soldiers exhibit a sense of justice in what they are doing, as they feel as though what they are doing is just, and is encouraged by the Papacy, a major political influence. The story is told from a 3rd Person, limited, point of view. The main character is a CGU Army soldier named Jason Strobol. The story follows Jason, and the unit he leads (Alpha Squad, 88th Platoon, 171st Infantry Battlion) through the major campaigns, the key battles, during the Zaaroft War. The story shows what the humans are doing, but in a good manner. Some scenes in the book will show things from the Zaaroft view, but mainly only from the key Zaaroft characters. The majority of the story, however, concerns Jason Strobol as he fights the war, and gets higher in the ranks (in the beginning of the story, he starts out as a Staff Sergeant). Yes, real physics apply in this. :bugeye: Um...no, dude, me & weston thought of the CGU ourselves. We did it once when thinking of an idea for our "The Dark Times" story, but spun it off into a seperate idea, with a totally different premise. It's an original idea. Don't call me a liar, bitch.
First off, how have economies become outdated? It is very difficult to have a society that is not based on commerce, and it is even more difficult to transition from a commerce based economy to another. Why do people work if everything is free? Is it a socialist or communistic society? You say it is a Nazi society but they were capitalists, what is the modern day analog to the CGU society?
Ah. Well, by the time the CGU exists, 6270, they have control over all of the milky way galaxy. Thusly, they have enough resources (food, water, minerals etc.) to feed every human for a thousand years, and enough materials to build massive warfleets. As for the main character: the purpose of him getting higher in ranks is more of a gootnote, just showing that he is becoming a better soldier. We haven't planned out everything, and we aren't writing yet, so, believe me, we have plenty of time to brainstorm and plan out how we will have the character develop. As for the FTL: They use warp drives to move at massively huge FTL speeds, and can travel from one end of the galaxy to the other in about a day to a week (depending on how powerful the FTL drive). Nuclear weapons are used frequently, but normally only on planets that the CGU has no use for. Remember, they have people to feed, and while there is more than enough to go around, the population is growing, and they need to produce more. Capturing a planet and using as large farming colonies works wonders. As for you last thing: thanks for clearing that up. I have never actually read or seen most of those names you just named...weird. Okay. It mostly shows how things have changed from modern times, while showing that no matter how far in the future we go, we will never get rid of the natural human lust for blood, power, and glory. And, actually, I'm more of showing the effeciency of totalitarianism. I'm not against it, that's why I have the "good guys" in the story as totalitarians. But, yeah, thanks for the input.
Okay, you said that the humans were the good guys, but why is this? They seem to be trying to wipe out aliens simply because they aren't human based on the orders of their autocrat and their blind faith in their church. While this may be realistic, it doesn't seem ethical, hence they are not the good guys. Also, regardless of which they are, there would be a resistance of some kind to the rule of a dictator and the members of other churches would not favor the decrees of the Pope. This resistance would be able to aid the Zaaroft in their fight, and most likely would do so on multiple fronts by spreading their own propaganda, placing sleeper cells on planeets targeted by the Zaaroft, and having infiltrated the military and government of the CGU. Just a thought...
The humans are the good guys because they are humans. Oh, and yeah, there is small rebel/resistance movement within the CGU, mostly on the outer rim. But, this is more or less a minor annoyance. Also, of course, there are marauding space pirates and smugglers all around the milky way, and no one really knows what in the no-fly zone, which is an area within the milky way that is just a massive clump of ion and electron storms, black holes, and asteroid fields. So, yes, there is human resistance, but they aren't too much of a problem.
Oh, for more info on vehicles and vessels and characters from not only the CGU 'verse, but all of PyroPics, go to here: http://groups.msn.com/PyroPicturesInc-
If this is true then wh take over new planets from aliens? Why not just nuke them into oblivion? Also, a ground war makes no sense in the future, it has almost become obsolete in 2005, in the year 6270 I would have to think that it would be gone. So lets break it down: If they have enough resources, why take over other planets? Have they the technology to terraform planets? In a society where there is food and resources for everybody why would anybody go to war? In the far future would we not have developed the ability to wage war without picking up a gun. And 4265 years in the future, I would think that laser technology would be archaic. Think of all the scientific advancements we have had in the last century, multiply that by 42 and that is what we should have in your time period. If we were going to fight ground forces to take over a planet, well, what did America do in Iraq? We bombed the hell out of the enemy. Why wouldn't the CGU just do that, or use chemical or biological warfare that wouldn't destroy the planet? I read someplace in your inane fluff that there was some kind of devastator ray like from latest Star Trek movie. Even if they did go to war and got involved in a ground conflict, it seems like it would be more of an occupation than anything else. If I were an alien race fighting a better equiped army then you either have to go underground or go home. Also, a society that has everything it wants, including a people that have no reason to hate aliens (did they attack humanity? did an alien diss the space pope? are they kilngons?) has no reason to go to war. no nation goes to war over grievances, that is bogus. Countries war because of money. Why is that? Because war costs a lot of money, and it is only worth it if winning said war would recoup the cost of mobilizing troops, weapons, etc. I think this is the main beef I have with your story, if it is going to be set in a reality that stems from human experiences here and now on earth, then it makes no sense: If there is no currenc in the future then there is no war but to protect yourself from invaders. Your storyline is a lot like a preverted Star Trek in that way. Well, I think it is important for the reader in a sci-fi story to either sympathize with the mian character or feel sorry for him. Hell, that goes for almost any story, but particularly sci-fi. If you are going to write a war story, then nobody cares how he develops as a soldier, show how he becomes a man or a more self-aware human being. Hmm, by my calculation that would be at its fastest about 4o,oo times the speed of light, which seems a bit comic bookish if you ask me. My whole beef with the economy thing has been stated, I don't think I have to repeat myself. But let me say that this is a major fallacy in your story, and it makes it look extremely amateurish, to be expected for a first timer, but that doesn't mean you can't change it. First off, I don't think that humanity has a "natural lust" for blood, we are essentially upright monkeys, have you seen a blood-thirsty monkey? or a power-hungry monkey? And I don't see that many people walking around with a lust for glory, that just sounds like fantasy, lord of the rings kind of stuff that has no connection with the state of our world today. Also, please listen up, nobody cares about sci-fi that has no ties to our contemporary human experience. Don't write sci-fi that shows an unrealistic view of the future because nobody will buy it except little boys, b/c it is the stuff of fantasy. If you want to write something that resonates, then it has to be steeped in the words, ideas, and events of the here and now. This world, as you have outlined it makes no ripples in the water, in fact as far as the metapho goes it is rather bone-dry. You have a couple of choices: either make it more realistic, like closer to home, or make it have some political or social commentary. Also, you say that you haven't even heard of 1984, Clockwork Orange, Fahrenheit 451, Ender's Game, or Starship Troopers...do yourself a favor and pick them up now. Especially Starship Troopers, don't watch the movie, read the book, it is very similar to your story, whether you intended or not. The number one rule of all writers is to "read like to write like". Sorry I have to drop the knowledge bomb on you yet again. Keep it real. -ZERO MASS
