Saorstat Deoradh (Freespacers)

[Strangelove]

<Moved>

 

[Wes]

I like it.

 

[Derran Tyler]

Yo, man - I only skimmed this since I'm movin' around the country jacking wireless connections (if you find yourself in South Beach, Florida, come see me perform!) but this shit looks good.

Keep it up.

 

[Doshii Jun]

This is well done stuff. Seriously. I'm down with it.

But where the hell will we fit it?

 

[Strangelove]

Yeah, I know. I'm trying to trim it down. I've already cut out the history and some of the superflourous bits, so it's currently at 2/3 the original length. I can't decide what to kill though, which is why I needed opinions. At the moment I'm afraid it's so long a lot of potential readers may be turned off from using it if it's actually turned into a race.

 

[Fred]

Even in a long submission, you gain a lot of points just by clearing up your text and making it easily readable. This include paragraphs, paraphrasing when appropriate, taking advantage of lists, keeping an eye on your spelling and using forum text formatting tabs.

Race submissions aren't something I'm interested in since I'm fairly certain that I'm not including any race/aliens I won't have thought out myself (I have a biased opinion due to how I saw a GM deal with a player controlled race which led to no small about of bitching), but I've skimmed over the first parts and saw the feedback you got.

Looks like you are doing good. ^_^

 

[Zakalwe]

While this is extremely well written I find a few small problems:

1, You mention Neko's as known by them - they shouldn't have contacted SA already.
2, The same is true of SA technology - and their matterials.

Other than that - very very good.

 

[Yangfan]

After reading this most of the way through, I have a few concerns:

1. While space travel has been around for centuries, until the last few decades, it has been a messy and dangerous proposition. It is unlikely that any nomadic races (that split from Nepleslia) would have had the time or opportunity to develop this level of organization, culture, and technology.

2. On related note, I agree that, in its current state, this would not and should not be made a playable race. And making this a GM-only race might make life hard on our players. These guys make the Mishhu look, well, warm and fuzzy.

3.

It is believed this philosophy originates from near the end of the war of independence, when both sides of the conflict began to escalate their attacks without regard to collateral damage or civilian losses.

Please be more specific here. There were a few wars that could've been considered "war of independence". And SA history is only a few decades old. Are you referring to something pre-written-history?

I want to like this submission, I really do, but this greatly reminds me of:

1. The Borg.

2. The negative aspects of SARP in the olden days, when everyone was paranoid that they'd get blown away, and you couldn't even go grocery shopping without a few thousand warships as backup.

As for what to remove, I'd say anything that will tone the power level down. This race would have been a great fit for the SARP that was around a few years ago, but SARP has greatly evolved since then. With a little bit more work, this race can be a great fit for the SARP of today.

No offense is meant, and I hope none will be taken. I'm just trying to register my discomfort here.

 

[Doshii Jun]

*rubs head, embarrassed* After going over it again fully, my concerns match those of Yangfan and Zakalwe, though not exactly.

I think I'll stick to character evaluation. Yangfan, races are yours.

 

[Strangelove]

1, You mention Neko's as known by them - they shouldn't have contacted SA already.
2, The same is true of SA technology - and their matterials.

I was thinking along the lines that they had limited contact with the empires. Remember, they are traders even if they've all but isolated themselves through their stealth technology. My original intention was not to make one of those 'we've just discovered!' species but rather 'We've been around but just have been keeping to ourselves.' I'm not sure if doing that would be conisdered against SA policy, though.

1. While space travel has been around for centuries, until the last few decades, it has been a messy and dangerous proposition. It is unlikely that any nomadic races (that split from Nepleslia) would have had the time or opportunity to develop this level of organization, culture, and technology.

2. On related note, I agree that, in its current state, this would not and should not be made a playable race. And making this a GM-only race might make life hard on our players. These guys make the Mishhu look, well, warm and fuzzy.

3. Quote:

Please be more specific here. There were a few wars that could've been considered "war of independence". And SA history is only a few decades old. Are you referring to something pre-written-history?

1. True. Nepleslia is pretty young, isn't it? I'll have to fix that.

2. I wanted them to come off as a race of philosophers and scientists rather than tyrranical robots. I admit I was reading a bit of Nietzsche at the time, which is why his writings heavily influence my race. For example, Will to Power ('All living things strive to grow and enhance themselves'), Beyond Good and Evil ('don't blindly accept morality and values of others'), are all writings by Nietzsche that played a role in inspiration for this race. Most important was Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which explains the 'Ãœbermensch', the perfect state of enlightenment, so to speak. To achieve this 'perfect' state you need to reject morality, ethics, and the codes of the old societies. Shedding the old ideas and creating new ones. This is where their amoral nature and their ambitions for perfection stems from, not from the Borg.

Unfortunately, by some unlucky twist of fate the combination of Nietzsche's teachings and their scientific nature make a race that could be considered similar to the 'Borg'. I don't watch much Star Trek, but from what I've seen the only thing they do have in common is the idea of self-improvement through technology. Culture, degree of unification (individuality), technology level (starships), governing style (imperialist vs tribal), are all different. Though if you still think that they're too similar for comfort, I could re-work the cultural aspects of them.

3. Like I said, I cut out the history to shorten it. I'll have to fix that too.

1. The Borg.

2. The negative aspects of SARP in the olden days, when everyone was paranoid that they'd get blown away, and you couldn't even go grocery shopping without a few thousand warships as backup.

As for what to remove, I'd say anything that will tone the power level down. This race would have been a great fit for the SARP that was around a few years ago, but SARP has greatly evolved since then. With a little bit more work, this race can be a great fit for the SARP of today.

1. See the first point 2 above.

2. What do you mean by tone down the power level? I wish I still had that link for lists of material/weapon strengths... if I recall, tactical nuclear weapons are mid-level strength, and projectiles are near the bottom, aren't they? They also don't use shield technology or advanced armor plating, which in the SA universe means they'd be in for quite a beating versus more advanced races.

Not to mention the fact chemical-propelled projectiles have among the highest time latencies (travel time through space towards the target), thus would have the shortest effective range. Low defense plus short ranges would probably mean they would have to result to massed high-speed (and probably suicidal) charges to fight an enemy head on, which is why they have stealth technology and the ability to man ships with minimal crew.

The AI advantage is there for similar reasons. Since the most powerful weapons in their fleet are only mid-level (and their fleets are relatively small), they'd probably be ineffective against any ship with moderately advanced armour. I thought they should at least have the ability to blind or slow down enemy ships so they could stand a fighting chance.

In terms of personel combat, I don't think they'd really have or need a standing army since they have no need for planets. Maybe minimal forces for anti-boarding party defense, but thats all.

By overpowered are you speaking more along the lines of technology replication? I was planning to remove that as well, as it does seem that it may be prone to abuse. But remember, just having schematics doesn't guarantee you can make it. The Soviet Union stole plenty of American schematics, but couldn't reproduce most of the stuff due to costs (some resources common on one country might be quite rare in another), technology (lacking metallury techniques or factories are designed differently), and so on. But not to worry, I think I'll remove it with my next revision.

 

[Yangfan]

Re: Liberiex Mechanicus

I was thinking along the lines that they had limited contact with the empires. Remember, they are traders even if they've all but isolated themselves through their stealth technology. My original intention was not to make one of those 'we've just discovered!' species but rather 'We've been around but just have been keeping to ourselves.' I'm not sure if doing that would be conisdered against SA policy, though.

While there is no written-in-stone policy against it, we do frown upon that. Not a single species that proposed to operate on that model has been approved in the last few years. All known species outside of humanity's three major factions (Yamatai, Nepleslia, and Elysia) has had their first contact with humanity RPed out.

Since your race has obviously been forgotten about by Nepleslians, "first contact" needs to be established through RP if the race is approved.

They remind me of the Borg for the following reasons:

1. They're obsessed with the concept of "perfection".

2. They "seek knowledge purely out of curiosity."

3.

Type Fours are completely re-built in every aspect. The only parts of the body that aren't replaced are the head, spine, and surrounding tissue, as current technology cannot directly integrate the brain directly into a mechanical container without causing damage.

You just described a Borg Queen.

As for power level:

Because Motherships are completely self-sufficient (at least, assuming it's population and fleet are small enough), the Liberiex Mechanicus can travel far beyond the edges of known space without worry of supply lines. Theoretically, they could even travel to the far edges of the galaxy, assuming they could locate metal deposits along the way in order to build replacement parts every few decades. Their ability for virtually unlimited travel has resulted in the vast coffers of the Liberiex Mechanicus, allowing them to discover and sell rare and exotic goods, as well as give them access to virtually untapped resource pockets.

So the Mothership and her fleet can do something with solar power that not even the Star Army fleets (with their dreaded ZPE generators) can do: generate enough supplies to sustain its crew.

While I can see how a semi-robotic race would require less biomass for sustenance, but you make it sound like a Mechanicus fleet can stop and mine a few astroids, and then go on for decades without having to worry about supply issues.

The Great Lighthouse contains a greater industrial capacity than the whole of the other fleets combined. It is commonly used to produce cruisers, battleships, and on the occasion, Motherships. Resources are frequently gathered by roaming Motherships and deposited back at the planetoid for storage within the vaults. These were designed as safeguard by their forerunners to guard against war or disaster, should they fall upon their people. With the vast factories and resources stockpile The Great Lighthouse contains, an entire Armada could be produced within a single year should the need arise.

The Great Lighthouse is surrounded by an artificial radiation cloud composed of industrial wastes, which interferes with most types of sensors. The surface of the planetoid is riddled countless missile silos, docking bays, and artillery turrets.

In the event that the Great Lighthouse is discovered, probes and scout vessels outside the cloud feed targeting data back to the Great Lighthouse (via attached data cables). This allows the Great Lighthouse's turrets and missiles to bypass the radiation interference and fire accurately. The invading fleet, however, will have no such advantage and will have great difficulty hitting the planetoid itself, let alone hitting individual turrets and docking ports. Even should they make it into the cloud, there are countless minefields scattered within. The blinding radiation also enhances the use of guerrilla and raiding tactics on the invading fleet, operations the Liberiex Mechanicus are especially adept at.

So your race's homeworld is hidden... And even if an enemy fleet is right next to said homeworld, because your race threw some radioactive material around, they'd have trouble even hitting it? Pretty clever...

What if I were to tell you that the solar radiation generated by our sun is far more potent than any man-made radiation? (Solar flares have been known to knock out cell phone service in certain areas, or so I've heard.)

A popular tactic used by Liberiex Mechanicus fleets involves using solar sails to creep up on a target until they are just outside the sight of short-range sensors, then using superluminous propulsion to reach their intended target. With a degree of luck, this allows them to move entire fleets for surprise attacks while giving the enemy virtually no warning. After the objective is achieved they then use their superluminous propulsion to escape. Or, if the enemy employs interdictor fields, they can use the solar sails to harness local solar light and gravity (assuming they're within a solar system) to launch themselves out of the system at high subluminous velocities. This tactic often allows them to escape the system surpassing speeds of more advanced forms of subluminous propulsion, assuming they can withstand fire long enough to get into position for such a launch.

I highly doubt that anyone's sensors would be fooled by solar sails. Most space-faring species in SARP have access to both active and passive sensors. Solar sails might go past passive sensors undetected, but active sensors will definitely find them.

And how to you propose to go faster-than-light with fusion engines?

Liberiex Mechanicus, despite their seeminly low tech ships, are exceptionally advanced in the fields of genetic engineering and biomechanical engineering. This is both due to their obsession with self-perfection as well as their amoral nature; They will preform horredous biochemical and biomechanical testing on live humanoid subjects without hesitation. This has sped up their research in the respective fields, even to the point of equalling or surpassing their empire counterparts.

They are also highly adept at AI design, robotics, and cybernetics. Their Artifical Intelligence is advanced enough to allow them to run ships with only 3-10% the crew required on 'standard' ships of similar sizes (though the fact they use low maintainence and simplified starship technology also helps). This allows them to maintain fleets on proportion with those of small empires. Liberiex Mechanicus AIs are also capable of highly advanced calculations, more so than standard AIs, which Liberiex Mechanicus take advantage of through AI-assisted missiles and artillery. They are able to target and track 'weak spots' and sensitive equipment far better than other ships, which is a great help in fighting ships using far more advanced foes. If Liberiex Mechanicus weapons aren't powerful enough to defeat a target ship, the AIs can almost always find a way cripple and blind it.

These guys could rout a Nepleslian war fleet. Pretty good for a race of nomads.

Anyway, like I said, this race would have been approved a few years ago. As it stands right now, it certainly holds promise, but it needs more work.

I hope I didn't sound too harsh. I just wanted to point out the potential problems before they turn into real problems.

 

[Strangelove]

You raise a few good points.

As to the 'fleets on proportion with those of small empires', I meant that to be in conjunction with the fact they have relatively simplistic weapon and armour systems, manning skeleton crews. Hordes of simpler and reliable machines over a few high tech ones. Swarming tactics using large numbers. And remember, they do maintain a virtual monopoly over various uncharted luxury resources, so their treasury is quite large for an organisation their small size. In theory they would have a very high per capita income, so could afford quite a number of ships. However, this fact could be considered 'overpowered' as well, so I may have to re-work it too.

And as to the AI enhanced targeting, same reasons as the high number of ships. I thought that their relatively low firepower and armour would result in whole fleets coming to their knees should they encounter even one or two ships mounting zesuaium armour or decent shield technology. I sought to give them an edge to help balance out their poor firepower. I understand why you'd think it would be overpowered, my choice of words made it sound like it could disable any ship they chose to. I meant more along the lines to increase their firepower, making it more compariable to railguns, energy weapons, etc. Not a beat-all metagaming tactic.

As to exploration, Motherships aren't combat vessels, they're essentially city/factory ships. They're specifically designed to produce and refine resources for their fleet, while the majority of SA ships seem to be designed with combat in mind. Liberiex ships also man skeleton crews, and have very low food upkeep. A ship of it's size should easily be able to grow enough food to support a skeleton crew. Their breeder reactors can self-produce fissile materials, though in a 'dry spell' of resources they can simply float along on solar sails, even if it is a quite slow alternative.

As to the solar sails and radioactive blinding, good point. I mean if the races of the galaxy possess advanced quantum manipulating, entropy harnessing, gravemetric bending technology, of course they'd have highly advanced sensors. I meant to emphasis 'stealth' in the terms that their propulsion yields no form of exhaust, and their drive for self-sufficiency means their ships produce little waste either. And in theory you could run on little or no power while solar sailing, so the majority of the ship could be shut down. The end result would be a hunk of metal floating through space which would produces nil heat, energy, exhaust. I imagined that it would result in a very low signatures, but I guess I've underestimated sensor technology in SA yet again.

Same thing for the how-can-fusion-support-superluminous-travel. It's hard to imagine how fusion or fission technology would have evolved over hundreds of years, so I assumed that after so many years of development they would be able to support superluminous travel. After all, humanity went from shoddy wooden planes that could barely manage a few meters of flight, to putting people in space in only 50 years. Even if reactors aren't that advanced, I imagined the worst case scenario they would have to install multiple reactors on a single ship to produce energy for short superluminous trips, recharge, then jump again. I haven't really read anything on how developed fusion/fission technology in the SA universe, so I wasn't aware it was so underdeveloped.

And I keep hearing this Borg thing. At first I believed it neglible since, from my limited knowledge of Star Trek, there only seemed to be two factors in common with them and the Liberiex (ambition for perfection + biomechanical enhancment). Yet they are completely different in all other aspects (government style, philosophy, individuality, technology, diplomatic policy, economy, etc). But since you keep bringing it up, I guess my perception was wrong. Any suggestions on how to fix it? I don't want to sound like I'm being sarcastic or a smartass or anything, but... I realize the Borg are cyborgs, but does that mean it's prohibited to have individuals with more technology than flesh? Or do I have to completely abolish the 'try and become perfect through technology' doctrine before they're un-borgish?

I've seen many other appearances of such doctrine in sci-fi, including Hive and Cyborgs, Brotherhood of Steel, Adeptus, Nietzschean Alliance. I always thought that I was no more copying them than Yamatai was copying the generic 'very technologically advanced do-gooders that promotes civil rights and liberty' (Star Trek's Federation, Earth Alliance, Global Commonwealth, Earth Alliance, Asimov's Galactic Empire, etc) or the Nepleslia copying the generic 'lower-tech, crime-infested dog-eat-dog type agressive patriarchy' (Starcraft's Terrans, New California Republic, Terran Federation, Narn Regime). My point is, you can't draw a direct line between two seperate races based on only two or three similarities and ignore all their other differences. If you do, then you may as well consider 80% of sci-fi plagerised.

And no worries, I don't mind critique in the slightest. Remember, this was originally a creative writing project, so I didn't take into account balance issues with the SA universe or the specific 'technology rules and guidelines' that are part of it. Naturally it's going to clash in more than a few places.

 

[Yangfan]

I appreciate you not taking things personally.

I guess I'm not comfortable with introducing another race who power is anywhere near "on par" with Nepleslia, much less Yamatai. We're in the beginning steps of breaking down the "Yamatai versus the universe", bi-polar situation into a "Yamatai and allies against a dangerous universe", multi-polar situation that will hopefully make SARP an even more interesting and dynamic setting. (By popular request, really. It wasn't my idea. )

Counter-intuitively, you introducing another race who makes a viable "faction" only hurts our efforts. Allow me to explain: Right now, we're looking at creating a Yamatai-Nepleslia-Elysia power triangle, with Yamatai obviously dominant (but also the only one fending off external threats), and Nepleslia and Elysia eyeing each other suspiciously.

If you introduce a fourth faction, we have to throw all the power balance equations out the window. We'll have to re-consider the whole setting for your benefit, because you want your race to be able to stand up to the superpowers. No offense, but is that really fair for the rest of us?

For comparison purposes: My species (it seems everyone at SARP has one these days) is the Phods of Ohara. They're completely dependant on Yamatai for defense. Their homeworld's tech level is on par with 1960s Earth. Their defense fleet consists of several obsolete, rusty destroyers given to them by Yamatai.

Because they're so underpowered, no extra work had to be done when the Phods were introduced. They're not exactly on par with a playable race. (At least, no one seems to be interested in playing them.) But they make good NPCs; they have their own culture, their own problems / concerns / fears; and an unique identity within the SARP universe.

And I save myself from some uptight GM asking me questions about power balance issues.

Same thing for the how-can-fusion-support-superluminous-travel. It's hard to imagine how fusion or fission technology would have evolved over hundreds of years, so I assumed that after so many years of development they would be able to support superluminous travel. After all, humanity went from shoddy wooden planes that could barely manage a few meters of flight, to putting people in space in only 50 years. Even if reactors aren't that advanced, I imagined the worst case scenario they would have to install multiple reactors on a single ship to produce energy for short superluminous trips, recharge, then jump again. I haven't really read anything on how developed fusion/fission technology in the SA universe, so I wasn't aware it was so underdeveloped.

Sadly, the whole Relativity thing still exists in SARP. Faster-than-light (FTL) engines bypass this pesky physical law by doing some very pervented things to the local time-space fabric. However, this also means that your fusion engines could be generating a ridiculous amount of energy, and the ships they power will still only go 0.999c.

And I keep hearing this Borg thing. At first I believed it neglible since, from my limited knowledge of Star Trek, there only seemed to be two factors in common with them and the Liberiex (ambition for perfection + biomechanical enhancment). Yet they are completely different in all other aspects (government style, philosophy, individuality, technology, diplomatic policy, economy, etc). But since you keep bringing it up, I guess my perception was wrong. Any suggestions on how to fix it? I don't want to sound like I'm being sarcastic or a smartass or anything, but... I realize the Borg are cyborgs, but does that mean it's prohibited to have individuals with more technology than flesh? Or do I have to completely abolish the 'try and become perfect through technology' doctrine before they're un-borgish?

Well, the human mind is especially good at finding patterns that are not really there. I'm not saying you created a Borg clone or anything. I do feel, however, that their perfectionist philosophy, their amoral views, the hive-mind like combat tactics, reduced / lack of dependence on food, etc., are all strongly Borg-like.

In the end, it's up to you. My comfort is not your responsibility, really. I just wanted you to know that this is how I feel, and that others might possibly feel the same way.

I've seen many other appearances of such doctrine in sci-fi, including Hive and Cyborgs, Brotherhood of Steel, Adeptus, Nietzschean Alliance. I always thought that I was no more copying them than Yamatai was copying the generic 'very technologically advanced do-gooders that promotes civil rights and liberty' (Star Trek's Federation, Earth Alliance, Global Commonwealth, Earth Alliance, Asimov's Galactic Empire, etc) or the Nepleslia copying the generic 'lower-tech, crime-infested dog-eat-dog type agressive patriarchy' (Starcraft's Terrans, New California Republic, Terran Federation, Narn Regime). My point is, you can't draw a direct line between two separate races based on only two or three similarities and ignore all their other differences. If you do, then you may as well consider 80% of sci-fi plagerised.

Well, the Yamataians are too totalitarian to be civil rights promoters, and the Nepleslians are pretty advanced in cybernetics, so I get your point. But these races really evolved into their niches, their archtypes, if you will, over time. They were created to be original, with influences from a vast variety of sources, and not to mimic anyone in particular. It seems to me that the Mechanicus is too heavily influenced by one source, instead of several sources combining to form something that could be much more creatively organic (if you'll excuse the pun).

 

[Strangelove]

In regards to their power, I suppose you're right. I'll try to gear them more towards primarily a trade and profiteering organisation and lighten up on militarism. My first instinct was to give them a strong military arm simply because the majority of groups that have amassed wealth through trade tend to lean towards high military strength (ie, America, British Empire, even in Star Wars with the Seperatists and their droid armies). I didn't take into account balance issues, though.

And in regards to their nature: Certain traits naturally stick together. Like science and atheism, and amorality. Not always the case, but scientists tend to learn towards those traits more than the religious (Of the members of the National Academy of Sciences, 72.2% are atheist, 20.8% agnostic and only 7.0% theistic). It's hard to advance science in your field if you believe you're going to hell or that you're committing a grave crime.

Naturally such a science-minded organisation would lean towards efficiency over individual want since they tend to look at the whole picture instead of here and now. Remember, they have no true planets. Taking more than your share on a ship with limited food and supplies can effectively be murder, especially when you're far from help. It's natural a society like that would put heavy emphasis on rationing. As to their community-over-individual ideals: you're growing up and spending your entire life around the limited number of people in your fleet. Historically, the majority of tribal societies often have little sense of personal property but much in the way of communal ownership and loyalty to each other. Spending so much time between a limited number of people creates a strong sense of 'togetherness' and makes you feel like part of a family. Only once you start getting into large groups like countries or empires do people start feeling they are 'drops in the bucket', so to speak.

Fleets are similar to tribes, being small independent groups isolated from each other by their Mothership. It makes sense they develop a similar mentality since they're in similar low-population relatively isolated communities.

As to superluminous travel... Since they are a trade-based organisation, I'd imagine they would at least have a few vessels with such technology (ie, ferrying their goods between the Empire capitals and their border world depots). Since having superluminous travel could mean increasing profits hundreds or thousands folds, it's unlikely they wouldn't at least have it in limited doses. Perhaps they can purchase and re-fit freighters from corporate shipyards?

Or Motherships: being the size of a capital ships, should be able to fit some sort of basic superluminous propulsion device. Perhaps a variant designed for long-range trade runs? No fleet to support (save maybe a handful of fighters docked), increased cargo capacity, upgraded power systems and a superluminous propulsion drive.

I've also seen that some ships' hyperspace systems create large 'bubbles' in proximity to the ship. If upgraded power systems and hyperdrives were to be installed on Motherships be able to to move their fleets inside those? Or would that be too poweful?

Viable? Overpowered? Thoughts?

 

[Wes]

You seem to have a pretty good idea of what you're going for here. Let me know when you've made those tweaks you mentioned above. Also, tell me about the name; is there a reason it is Latin?

 

[Zakalwe]

I'm not sure introducing another major player in to the seeting is a good idea - it'll just make the situation far more complicated. An antagonist would be different - but a neutral race is just complex.

 

[Strangelove]

Originally I was going to use an Romani or Gaelic language influence as a reference to the Roma (Gypsy) or Pavee (Irish Traveller) peoples, since they were nomads. But in the end I decided on Latin, as a reference to the Roman Republic (not empire), the Greeks, and the Byzantine. The educated beacons of hope in a barbaric continent, which is what the Liberiex believe themselves to be.

The main reason I chose it, however, is that Latin is far easier for anglophones to read/write since English derives from Latin. Write any given paragraph in Latin, and you would probably be able to read a third of it with no experience in Latin. And there are many dictionaries and reference sites available on it on the web, so anyone can turn out bits of Latin with a little effort. Gaelic is much harder for laymans to read and write, and I was afraid would add more complication than culture to RP. The Romani languages are all but impossible to write in (for me at least), since they have nearly a dozen separate tongues all of which are hybrids of two or more languages.

So in the end I chose Latin, with bits of Gaelic culture thrown into the mix (ie, their views on the topic of death are similar to those held at Irish wakes).

And Zakalwe, I had similar concerns in my original post (before I edited them out to make it a shorter read). We have lots of under used races already. But as I said (before the edit), I'm in no hurry to have this completed. If the higher ups think SA isn't ready for a race, they can always file it in storage somewhere. But on the topic of neutral races, wouldn't more be better? If everyone was either good or bad, then the plot would be simply good races fighting generic evil empire #1 an #2. Neutral races may had complexity, but in a good way. At least in my opinion. "Do they trust us? Should we trust them? Can the aid us in this war? Should we form a defensive pact? Will they backstab us after we defeat this common foe?" And so on.

 

[Yangfan]

*shakes head* Like I said, it's simply not acceptable that this species can pretend that they've been trading with the established powers all along. Wouldn't someone have mentioned them by now? It's murder on the continuity.

And if they've lost contact with the rest of humanity (and I use the term humanity loosely), who the heck have they been trading with until now?

And why would a race of traders get up and go exploring to the north in the first place, when there were plenty of trading partners in the region of space surrounding Nepleslia?

I believe the "nomadic" aspect of this species holds much more promise than the "traders" aspect. You can still keep the "scientific" aspect if you want, since you put a lot of work into that. I don't really mind if they're a bunch of amoral, elitist scientists who eagerly perform experiments better left un-discussed in polite society.

Maybe they really don't have FTL engines. Maybe they were a group of Nepleslian scientists who went off to explore the universe decades, maybe even centuries ago. Maybe the exact location of human-occupied worlds are lost to them (the locations would be out of date in any case), but they still remember roughly the region. Maybe they decided to return (decades ago) because of some wonderful (or horrific) discovery.

Anyway, think about it.

Right now, this species's power levels are dangerously close to those of the established powers. Perhaps they are not "overpowered" in the technical sense, but they're too powerful to be approve-able right now.

 

[Strangelove]

I was working on re-working the paper yesterday but didn't have time to finish, which is why there were some old issues still in the original post (ie, overpowered). I've just finished making the changes, including the gearing them towards a nomadic lifestyle than a profiteering organization.

 

[Yangfan]

Take your time. ^_^