Empyrean Talk:Main

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12/1/07: Factions and Fantasy vs. History

Having looked at the rather small Factions section of Aerodrive, I noticed that the original author, presumably Alex, seems to have more of a fantasy mindset to the setup, with abstract factions that follow differing design philosophies. However, I thought it might make more sense to have the factions such as they are simply be various European powers, such as Britain, France, Prussia, etc. Each government would have it's own look, but would also provide skyships in the militarized style, the classic style, and the organic style (what are currently called Stratans, Cirrusians, and Nimbians, respectively.)

I like the idea of having the game world as alternate history that diverged from real history, but kept many of the same features and events. The 1800s were a turbulent time for Europe, as the old monarchies were toppled by democratic revolutions. There's a lot of very interesting history in there, and we might want to keep a real anchor in that in the game, instead of diverging too far. --Jacobdruker 12:48, 1 December 2007 (CST) 

 Changes being added to main article.  --Jacobdruker 17:01, 1 December 2007 (CST)


I rather like this idea: it keeps the story quite real but designs an alternative route it may have taken. The factions as Jacob wrote are already pretty well characterized and show their point of strenght and weakness; while some "default" and well-known forces exist (britain, france, ...), other evil people such as pirates and members of the dreaded supreme guild try to make their own interests, damaging components of the regular factions.

--Giulio 07:57, 3 December 2007 (CST)



Some of the changes:

Factions

British

Her Majesty's Royal Airborne Forces are the largest in Europe. They produce a wide array of flying vehicles, from nimble short-range scouts to massive mobile command centers bristling with radio and wireless telegraph antennae. There is also a growing market in civilian air transport, as such vehicles are faster than those on land or on sea. Due to the incredible complexity of keeping their skyships airborne, the British also control many Analytical Engines, which are housed in special laboratories. Most of the gear-time on the Engines goes to computing the solutions to air resistance and lift equations, and the scientific field of fluid dynamics has become huge.

French

The inventor of the first skyship hails from France, and this nation stays on the cutting edge of skyship technology. However, their smaller industrial base keeps them from matching the numbers of the Germans or the rapid technological turnover rate of the British. France's skyship military is much smaller, and it is more focused on producing civilian craft, for pleasure and business. Their long-range cargo craft are renowned throughout the world, and are based on a secret design that the British, Germans, and Americans are desperately trying to copy.

Germans

Fast approaching the size and power of the British sky fleet, the Luftstreitkräfte (Imperial German Army Air Service) is funded more than the nation can quite afford, leading to a downturn in the rest of the economy. Diplomats fear that Germany may turn its might against other countries in Europe.

United States

An emerging world power, they are at the forefront of nuclear technology. Much of their

Supreme Guild

Based in the Netherlands, the Supreme Guild is an international union with subsidiaries in all major countries. It is a guild of specialists that acts to control access to aerodrive and computational technology. It is also playing a large role in the development of atomic power.

Composed of:

  • Guild of Chemists - Purification, Fuel Production
  • Guild of Engineers - Computation, Manufacturing
  • The Scintillary Order - Aerodrive, Radio, Atomic power

There is also an internal disagreement within the Supreme Guild as to which power source to favor; the Chemists appreciate fossil fuels, the Engineers wish to use solar stirling engines in vehicles and geothermal for steam, while the Scintillary Order is a proponent of nuclear power.

Since hydrocarbons are already well-established, the Chemists, known for their skill in matters fiduciary and political (they are very much bourgeois capitalists), are quite powerful, and are quite happy with the way things are. They oversee mining facilities, petroleum refineries, and purification laboratories. Purification is their newest business, but it is also their most valuable.

The Engineers are a guild of environmentally-conscious, forward-thinking individuals who, govern nearly all production of heavy machinery such as computers and engines. Using technology from the Scintillary Order and raw materials from the Guild of Chemists, the Engineers were able to create processes that catalyzed the production of heavy machinery to the point where analytical engines could be produced in an economically viable manner. They also produce the great stirling engines that drive the massive French cargo dirigibles.

A somewhat mysterious and secretive force in the field of skyship engineering, the Scintillary Order produces Aerodrive technology, which is much coveted by world powers. Aerodrive relies primarily on radio and electronics technologies to produce what has been called 'Empyrean Locomotion', and these technologies are very difficult to work with due to scintillary impurities. They also have spies within national nuclear power projects, and have a vested interest in atomic pile technology.

World governments usually lay their own airframes and keels, and construct their ships, contracting to the guild only for key technological componentry.

Pirates

With homebuilt, grassroots technology, smaller ships

I made some additions to your work. Alex Trujillo 00:00, 4 December 2007 (CST)

Plot (with emphasis on the bigger picture)

Disciples of Ouranos

Worshippers of an entity known as Ouranos (Uranus), they even less is known of them than the Scintillary Order. They believe there are two forces, locked in an earthly struggle between the natural elements and mankind. The Scintillary Order is concerned with the natural scintillae, the realm in which Gaia lives, whereas the Disciples of Ouranos are concerned with scintillae that belong to the Spirit of Ouranos. They believe very strongly in 'returning to the sky', and it is said they are creating a floating temple.

What does everyone think of these guys? Alex Trujillo 00:00, 4 December 2007 (CST)

We also need to detail the story of the hero's birth.

Perhaps he has no scintillae in him because he was planned by the natural scintillae, and didn't want biological scintillae to affect him; they know that by removing him from the realm of biological scintillae, the natural scintillae have more effect over him However, his friends and family are just as easily affected and manipulated by biological scintillae, and this sort of determines how evil your character is If you betray the natural scintillae that created you, you are good, if you go against the biological scintillae, a lot of bad things happen to people close to you, but the biological scintillae have their own machinations (heh) and as such, they're no sweethearts either.

Something else that needs work is where nations are building flying fortresses out of descintillated materials, later on in the plot.

Ship stuff

Fooz and I talked, and what we have so far is that the player should control one ship throughout the game which is upgraded throughout the game. It could go either towards cargo, carrier, or destroyer ship types, and will have several different models. Other ships will be small pleasure craft, small cargo haulers, large cargo haulers, fighters, destroyers, and carriers.

When major modifications are made, new models will be appended to the main ship model. Example: if you buy a radio antenna, you will see it sticking off your ship. Ships will have scale: tiny pleasure craft will be less than 1/10,000th the volume (meaning that if each ship was a cube, the large ships would have side lengths approximately 21.5 times greater than the small ones) of big cargo haulers and military ships.

Damage will be indicated by fire and smoke, and only major damage will be shown in actual models. If we ever get a physics system or some kind of procedural method of breaking the ships, that could change. Damaged ships will move more slowly and less precisely. Weather effects might include wind currents that effect the direction of smoke and steam. --Jacobdruker 15:15, 8 December 2007 (CST)

Aerodrive Availability

I believe we need to make purified materials more commonplace, with certain varying levels of purity. That way, regular airplanes (sky-ships) can have aerodrives, but in a limited fashion, whereas capital ships use the real intricate, expensive aerodrives provided by the Supreme Guild.

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