Closed We should Sectorize the Star Army Setting

[Soban]

So I've actually been thinking of this suggestion for a while for other reasons than the recent problems. One of the problems I think we are facing is not being welcoming and fertile enough for GMs to run plots without interference from other people. This is a problem that has been slowly strangling the site for a long time, and far as I can tell it's mostly not a deliberate suffocation. A lot of it is based on very valid logic about how to handle things that are relatively close together. None the less, it is suffocating.

Here is an observation, you can fly over the entire Kikyo Sector (240 light years) in 4 days with instant communication from one side to the other. What I'd consider the central part of the sector that sees the most action is roughly a day across. Effectively, we are emulating the United States in a lot of our broad structure. In many ways, the United States is a single nation that is the same if not everywhere than across broad swaths of the nation. I feel this is somthing that hinders diversity in RP.

So how do we fix this? I think our setting shouldn't emulate modern America in structure. The structure should be closer to that of the Brittish Empire. With major chunks of it not out of reach, but distant and not going to effect you immediately. I think we need to create distance in the setting.

There are a few ways to do this, but I think Yamatai should be a multi-sector empire. A game master should be have the option to create a sector for their creation and then decide how that sector interacts with the larger universe. Also if a Game master starts something perhaps under anouther GM but decides that it's enough to be on its own, they can move it to a new sector. Alternitively, sectors that aren't being used can be remerged into the main Kiyko sector if appropriate.

We currently have a excellent legal set up for this with the governors and set up. Each sector has a governor controlled by it's sector manager. It should also have a Taisho who is in charge of the Star Army in that sector who is controlled by the same Sector Manager. They both have very wide authority to constitute their fleets to the situation in their specific sector. Crosscutting concerns are centralized in the core Yamatai sector, but are primarily done by Chujo who report to their local Taisho. Sectors are vaguely related with communications and travel taking weeks or possibly even months to go from one sector to another. Yamatai would be a multi-sector empire with Core Yamatai as it's seat. The Federal aspect should be a very light touch to let GMs do whatever they want.

This also gives us a good way to reintroduce factions. A new faction has a single sector. While it can choose to generally keep people out and be isolationist, it does need at least one location (typically a port or space station) that people from outside the sector can visit and experience what that sector is like. It is permissible to prevent people (even specific types of people and specific individuals) from entering anywhere else in the sector. It isn't permissible to prevent people from leaving the sector.

I do think there should be some limits to the top size of a faction. Your maximum number of simultaneous players is how many systems you can have. The maximum size of your millitary is limited by the number of systems you have. If you want to effectively create your own faction that is just you, you can get a sector and a system and do whatever you want.

Such as how we have setting elements and then perhaps faction/sector specific elements. Setting elements are things anyone can use across the whole setting. An example of this might be a FTL drive that anyone can use if they want or a enemy that can threaten everyone. While a faction specific element might be Zesuainum that only Yamatai can use.

There are probably some more details to be worked out. However, I think this makes for a good basic structure to the setting that will do a lot of stuff we need it to.

Overall, the structure looks something like this.

Setting Manager: Nothing changed here. It's Wes.

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V

Faction Manager: Person who is in charge of a faction. Factions have one or more of their own sectors.

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V

Sector Manager: Someone who wants their own slice of the pie and have their own sector to do stuff with.

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V

Game master: Someone who runs games for other people to join in.

In many cases, these people might be the same person. Wes for example is all of them. Many people will be Faction/Sector/Game Master. Some people will prefer to just be game masters who are in someone else's sector. However, there might be a chance for some interference if they are in the same sector.

So in summary, my suggestion boils down to Game Masters can get sectors to play with that are to a large degree causally disconnected from the rest of the setting.

I think this can fuel the growth of factions and roleplay plots.

 

[FrostJaeger]

I like the concept and the idea behind it, but in my opinion this could be solved by simply lowering the speed of FTL drives (thus preserving that “British Empire” feel) instead of adding more bureaucracy and bookkeeping - as someone has to make those sector maps.

In my opinion, lowering ship counts would also contribute towards the aforementioned “British Empire” feel, but that admittedly is a debate best left for a different thread.

 

[Soban]

I don't think Sectors should be required to have maps. I also think we should be vague about how sectors are related.

 

[FrostJaeger]

I don't think Sectors should be required to have maps. I also think we should be vague about how sectors are related.

Fair enough; I thought you meant sectors as in something like the western sector map, not something akin to, say, the Ketsurui Military Sector.

 

[Ametheliana]

I was writing my own sci fi before coming back but in the end the act of cooperating within the faction of Yamatai is what I wanted to do and couldn't do basically alone. So I came back and as a GM I am saying, no way do I want my own sector! I want to visit ALL of Yamatai and be able to both be needed anywhere in it and also be known/able to work with others in it. Putting the writing and RP into bolstering Yamatai is why I'm here, not to carve out my own piece of my friend's pie.

 

[Locked_0ut]

I do like this and it promotes more cultural diversity from players and stuff. Especially because the senate also has different zones of control
Also historically for empires to be successful especially on a wide scale is with localized rule. Makes sense that there's localized military control or like local military and imperial military

 

[Alex Hart]

To make this change and implement longer travel times would require one of two things: Option one is to slice up Yamatai (and possibly other nations) into smaller sectors on the existing map, and globally reduce starship speeds and FTL velocities. This would create OOC administrative borders within these nations, and increase travel times between them.

Option two is to, pretty much, do away with the existing starmap and create a grid of optionally-mapped sectors and instead of dealing with any kind of FTL velocities just impose a broad "It takes X days to cross a sector" rule.

I'm personally not a fan of either option, because option one involves a lot more bureacracy and option two means throwing out established geography. It honestly feels a bit like a way to try to administrate a way around a culture problem we've been having where people don't seem to resepct each other's ideas when it comes to Yamatai. Some people want to (from the perspective of those self-described old-guard) want to change everything about it and turn it into an unrecognizable faction, and other people want to (from the perspective of those who want to try to innovate and introduce new elements to roleplay around) stifle anything new. Obviously, neither of these is actually the case, but I think it speaks to a failure in both parties to respect each other that these are pretty often spoken views of what's happening.

 

[Miko]

I personally put my first mission in the middle of no where to try and not steps on toes. Yam is very dense and honestly has too much history for me to try and understand every little thing. At least out in the black I can get the feel for being a GM and not have to deal with OOC issues because I did something to a random clan someone made 4 years ago that happen to be in this one very specific location.

This has my approval and fits into what I was going to do with my plot anyways.

 

[Soban]

Fair enough; I thought you meant sectors as in something like the western sector map, not something akin to, say, the Ketsurui Military Sector.

Yhea, more like the Kikyo sector rather than Ketsurui Military Sector.

no way do I want my own sector

You don't have to have your own sector, you can work with Sector Managers to play in their sectors. You just can't force yourself on them. A lot of people come here wanting the freedom of creating their own slice of the pie.

 

[Ametheliana]

Most times when people want their own slice of the pie, they make their own faction. Serving yourself from the pre-existing work of others means you should work with them, though; otherwise you're asking to eat some food at a party in the bathroom.

 

[Immortal Cyan]

Nah, I'm not vibing with this, tbh.

 

[Soban]

To make this change and implement longer travel times would require one of two things: Option one is to slice up Yamatai (and possibly other nations) into smaller sectors on the existing map, and globally reduce starship speeds and FTL velocities. This would create OOC administrative borders within these nations, and increase travel times between them.

not quite, I think that if people wanted their own sectors, they should be able to excise themselves from whatever one they currently exist in and go somewhere else.

Option two is to, pretty much, do away with the existing starmap and create a grid

I don't think the sectors should be on a grid or mapped at all.

I actually think we have a in cannon way to do this, TLDR; Nagashun gets her giant computer sphere wishes she was wearing brown pants and basically says "I need to rearrange the furniture, you might not get notice about when this is going to happen sorry, but your continued existence depends on it for reasons you can't quite grasp right now."

otherwise you're asking to eat some food at a party in the bathroom.

I'm sorry, I didn't really follow this analogy.

Nah, I'm not vibing with this, tbh.

Why not?

 

[Alex Hart]

I actually think we have a in cannon way to do this, TLDR; Nagashun gets her giant computer sphere wishes she was wearing brown pants and basically says "I need to rearrange the furniture, you might not get notice about when this is going to happen sorry, but your continued existence depends on it for reasons you can't quite grasp right now."

Oh ok, the suggestion is that we *entirely* throw the entire geography of the setting?

 

[Soban]

No, it's more like that the geography is mutable to the needs of the setting. Things can keep their relationships within a sector, but the relationship between sectors is mutable and systems can change sectors if needed. (For example if the sector isn't being used anymore or someone (with permission) wants to expand on IDK cellondora or something in its own sector.

 

[Wes]

I'm actually already working on this. We have an OOC Star Army Research Administration team that's been building a plugin where we can make our own dynamic maps on the wiki using whatever background (think sector map, galaxy map, city map, etc) that we want by putting struct data on wiki pages. For example there's a "Map Test" page on the wiki right now where you can see the YSS Resurgence on the map at Sood Zadra! It's using this plugin. My intent is to give players and GMs the ability to make up new sectors on the fly and then easily map them out by simply doing basic wiki editing. For example I'd like to make a sector on the Ghost Nebula image and then put little markers on there for Star Army bases, etc.

We've actually talked about this idea extensively in the past and I've been working towards it. When we adopted the Kagami Galaxy map the intent was to get out there, out of the Kikyo Sector, and into the other parts of the Galaxy. That's why the Kuvexian War happened, among other reasons--to light a fire under the factions to worry about threats from elsewhere. It's just been taking a long time to happen. I'd be doing it in the Resurgence if the Resurgence didn't already have a focus on the Kikyo Sector (it purposes is to give new life to already-existing places in the RP that haven't had much attention).

What I don't think we need is sector managers. There's enough OOC management positions on SARP already and I think existing Staff/FMs/GMs can handle them. Mainly GMs.

 

[Alex Hart]

I'm actually already working on this. We have an OOC Star Army Research Administration team that's been building a plugin where we can make our own dynamic maps on the wiki using whatever background (think sector map, galaxy map, city map, etc) that we want by putting struct data on wiki pages. For example there's a "Map Test" page on the wiki right now where you can see the YSS Resurgence on the map at Sood Zadra! It's using this plugin. My intent is to give players and GMs the ability to make up new sectors on the fly and then easily map them out by simply doing basic wiki editing. For example I'd like to make a sector on the Ghost Nebula image and then put little markers on there for Star Army bases, etc.

I think this suggestion also involves chopping up the existing Kikyo sector as well, which is my major point against it. Physically moving everything inside the Kikyo sector further apart into their own sectors.

 

[Wes]

I think this suggestion also involves chopping up the existing Kikyo sector as well, which is my major point against it. Physically moving everything inside the Kikyo sector further apart into their own sectors.

That's not going to happen. We've discussed this before in the past and ultimately decided not to and I stick by that. I'd give a link to these discussions but I've got a lot to catch up on right now. But basically the one surviving piece of it is why the Iroma have their own sector map.

 

[Soban]

We need a unit of "This is your slice of it that other people can't mess with while you are here" and being a GM or a FM isn't it. We could perhaps make FM it, with the caviat that being a Sub-FM is a fine thing to do. I don't care what it's called.

 

[Wes]

So I was too busy earlier to find the link before, but here it is now: Implemented - Open Sandboxes

 

[Wes]

I'm closing this thread due to low vote score (0). I actually upvoted it for the record, but it seems it was pretty controversial. That's okay, the point of this forum is for us to be able to check if ideas are popular. Sometimes they seem great to us but not everyone else is onboard, and knowing that helps everyone. Thanks everyone who voted and gave feedback.