Timeline Technology and Rules

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Dawn of the Republic

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Timeline Technology​




Technology can be harsh and unforgiving. Sometimes it can be downright dangerous to use. Even doors can be dangerous. For the most part technology is fairly utilitarian, with little bells and whistles added. There are exceptions: sleek, ultra-modern Nabooan yachts are a statement of wealth and status. Mon Calamari designs are decidedly alien and an interesting mixture of utilitarian and aesthetically pleasing. Coruscant is a planet-wide city that uses ultra-modern architecture and aesthetics to show off its place as the crown jewel of the Galaxy.

But when you get away from opulent wealth, the Galaxy has a more rugged side. Moisture Farms operate in the barren deserts of Tatooine, hardened settlers used to an unforgiving home. Sand People raids are common. Poor get taken advantage of. The sinkholes of Utapau house thousands living on the edge of cliffs. Even Naboo, a gem in its own right, has an ugly disparity in the quality of life between her human inhabitants and the Gungan. Tech in the galaxy reflects those ways of life.








Personal weaponry takes many forms. The most common is the blaster, a gun that has a myriad of designs. Hunting rifles or heavy blaster pistols are common on more "undeveloped" worlds where rugged efficiency is favored over "tacticool" design. Wealthy individuals may have the latest civilian carbine design, or a platinum-plated piece, but by far the most popular civilian weapon is the blaster pistol.

Slugthrowers and other projectile weapons are seen as crude and barbaric in that they cause wounds that bleed. They are technologically inferior in almost every way to blasters, such as damage being worse. They are in general more expensive to produce as well. Only the meanest frontier worlds, or fledgling civilizations use them. Disruptors are illegal across the entire galaxy, resulting in finding an actual manufacturer next to impossible.

Militaries and security forces have the best equipment: blaster rifles that can fill the air with red plasma. Cortosis-weave or Phrik alloy vibroswords should they ever need to face a force-user. Landspeeders with actual armor rather than thickened durasteel plating. Sonic weapons for riot control. Military and Security force ships all have military-grade equipment, all more efficient and precise than their civilian counterparts. Of course, the black market sells almost all these fancy weapons, but at a considerable markup.

Vibroblades are popular, most examples are combat knives, though a few militaries have stores of vibroswords. Phrik or Cortosis-weave blades exist, and it is by no means impossible for soldiers and bounty hunters to acquire such weapons, and many military forces may provide these weapons for their troops. However, armor made of these materials still remains exceedingly rare, and so only one or two components of armor are ever made with lightsaber-resistant metal - typical pieces include the gauntlets, or pauldrons.

Despite advances in armor technology, even the best armor can stand up to only a few blaster shots before failing. Light armor would be a vest, medium armor would cover the torso and some appendages, while heavy armor would cover most of the body. Heavy Armor is comparable in appearance/coverage to Clone Trooper or Stormtrooper armors. Despite the common perception, "heavy" armor merely reflects the suit's coverage of the body, rather than being able to tank a dozen rounds.








Ship-based mass drivers are even more unheard of and almost never used against other warships. A few starfighters may have them every now and then as an experimental design, but limitations on size, cost, and sheer power drain means using them as main guns on a warship is impractical. The mainstay weapons on warships are lasers, turbolasers, torpedoes, and the occasional composite beam cannon. While military doctrines vary among the many races, technological limitations state that the effective or ideal turbolaser range against a maneuvering and evading foe, will be no more than 80-90km. Planetary bombardment takes place from a range usually around 250km.

Shields are a ship's main defense against damage, and come in two flavors. Particle shields prevent kinetic projectiles, stray asteroids, and other craft from hitting the ship. This however works both ways. A small craft launched from a ship with particle shields running will have a very bad day. Ray shields defend against energy attacks such as turbolasers.

Hyperspace Beacons exist largely as a navigational aid and to warn of dangers to ships. While commonly seen in the Galactic Core, and along major trade routes, the outer reaches of the galaxy only have enough of them to mark extraordinary dangers.

Communications are handled by Hyperwave Buoys, dedicated platforms devoted to handling large amounts of communication and relaying them at FTL speeds across the network. Access to the Buoys is possible only through dedicated Hyperwave Transceivers. If one has the power to spare, tightbeam transmissions can be sent from a ship or ground facility to nearby systems, though the range is severely limited without the Buoy system acting as relays. In addition, the prevalence of these Hyperwave Buoys outside of the Core is rare. The vast majority of Outer Rim systems cannot afford to build or maintain such expensive and complicated stations. Those that do, however, have them well-guarded.








Stealth on ships is focused on reducing detectable emissions, through the use of a combination of light absorbing coatings, internal heat sinks, and engine baffles. The technology to design and produce an effective stealth ship is expensive and complicated. Only major militaries (read: Main Factions) have the needed resources. Furthermore, the energy emissions from anything larger than a corvette are simply too massive to mask. While stygian crystals exist, making a ship truly invisible to sensors and the naked eye is only theoretical and would be ludicrously expensive to develop.

Personal shielding is rare. Exotic designs like Gungan handheld shields are rarely seen outside their species' control. Special Forces will sometimes make use of body-encompassing personal shields, but units are far too expensive to produce beyond squad-level numbers. Even then, technical limitations prevent shields from defending against both kinetic and energy attacks. It must be one or the other.

Cybernetics exist, though are utilitarian in design and droid in appearance. A missing limb can be replaced, if one has the cash, and the cybernetic limb can grant all the old capabilities of the missing organic limb. Large-scale bodily replacement, like turning someone into a cybernetic super-soldier, is considered too impractical and risky to even try.

Even more exotic technology such as cloning, nanotech, gravity weapons, to name a few, are common only on select worlds. Nanotech is in infancy and impossible to weaponize. All-consuming swarms of nanobots are the stuff of science-fiction. Weapons of mass destruction, from atomic bombs to superlasers are universally banned by the civilized races of the galaxy.

Lightsaber resistant materials are limited to Cortosis and Phrik. Due to their extreme rarity, and the even more rarer task of killing one, zillo beast scales cannot be used.










  1. Browse the Approved Board
    Before plopping down a blaster rifle or ship, read the stuff other people have written. Look for a piece of gear that suits your needs. Do a quick search in the board using some simple keywords - pistol, freighter, fighter, etc. There's a tremendous amount of gear that's been published in this board. Please make some use of it. I'm finding myself less and less willing to approve different shades of the same basic blaster pistol, so please take the time to read the board. If nothing else, it'll give you insight into what is approved and what is not.
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  2. Don't post generic gear
    I don't need to know about a featureless holdout blaster of average power and accuracy and middling ammunition capacity. I don't need to know about an ultra-fancy gold-plated folding knife with absolutely no unique features aside from a mind-boggling amount of bling. What I need to know about are things that push the envelope - new or unusual technologies, typical weapons and ships pushed beyond their limits, exotic or well-built body armor, anything with unique or especially useful features.
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  3. Stick to the Templates
    Deviation from the templates is not allowed - the more you tweak and fiddle with a template to make it look 'shiny', the harder it is for myself to read it and the less likely it is to be approved. (If we don't reject it outright for failing to follow the templates!) So again, please make sure you follow the templates!
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  4. Listen to your fellow members
    Like a few other boards, the Tech Profiles are commonly "self-moderated" by members of the community. While they don't have the same authority as the Admins, a fair number of them have been on the site for a long time and have a good idea of what will get approved and what needs work. You aren't required to heed their word, but please don't be rude to them if they say something might not fly.













  • Light, Medium, and Heavy armors all have a certain number of functions they may have. A function is defined as anything that lets you do more than absorb a hit. Some functions might be: Helmet HUD, mag boots, jet pack, cable launcher, energy shield, flamethrower, extendable blade, wrist blasters, etc. Because of the ubiquitous nature of commlinks, an integrated commlink in a helmet is not considered a function.
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  • You may not "layer-on" functions. For example, you cannot have Medium Armor and then take a separate submission (such as rocket boots or a wrist blaster) and equip your character with that, too.
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  • For balance reasons, Force-Users are restricted to functionless armor.
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  • Light Armor may have 1 function
  • Medium Armor may have 3 functions
  • Heavy Armor may have 4 functions
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  • Light Armor covers one part of your body (ie a breastplate).
  • Medium Armor covers multiple parts of your body, but isn't a suit and should only cover the more vital or exposed body parts.
  • Heavy Armor covers most or all parts of your body and is comparable in appearance/coverage to Clone Trooper or Stomtrooper armor. It is also restrictive and heavy, so your character will not be nimble or agile while wearing Heavy Armor.
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  • Excessive connectivity is not allowed. Meaning, your armor can't offer targeting assistance, fire your gun for you, control a droid/ship/vehicle, keep track of ammo or have a motion tracker. Essentially, your HUD should not look like a common FPS view.
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  • The more pieces and gadgets your armor has, the heavier it will be. A combat vest might be 2-5kg, but a full suit of heavy armor would easily be around 30-40kg. Similarly a combat vest would stop one or two rounds, while heavier armor would stop more across a wider portion of your body, but be more restrictive in movement.
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  • Keep rare or powerful materials like Phrik or Cortosis sparse. You can have 1 or 2 minor pieces made of those materials, but you need good reason to have them, as they'd be rare and expensive. "To protect against lightsabers" isn't a reason.
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  • Keep in mind that when creating armor, you cannot make it so you have pieces that, when put all together, will give you a functional immunity to all damage types.
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  • All-Encompassing Personal Shields may block physical OR energy attacks, not both. In addition, they would be a rare feature even among Main Factions and Indie Factions.
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  • No armor is invincible to damage.
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  • Be sure to describe how your armor holds up against various weapons such as lightsabers, vibroblades, explosives, blaster/slugthrower pistols, rifles, and heavy weapons. Can a piece hold up to a direct strike, multiple ones, or just a glancing blow?







  • Lightsaber-resistant materials such as Phrik and Cortosis are allowed, and are standard for melee weapons. Very rarely would you find yourself with a sword that cannot withstand a lightsaber.
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  • Pure Cortosis is not allowed
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  • Disruptor weapons are not allowed in any fashion. This includes projectile rounds sheathed in an energy coating. So, bowcasters will fire only plasma instead of a physical bolt encased in plasma.
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  • Smart Rockets and their launchers are not allowed.
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  • Thermal Detonators have a blast radius of 5m. They are extremely powerful and deal the same amount of damage everywhere within the radius. Heavy armor may save a character's life but, they will still be in bad shape.
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  • Pistols may not hold more than 20 shots.
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  • Rifles and Carbines may not hold more than 40 shots.
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  • Machine Guns and Repeaters may not hold more than 200 shots.
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  • Machine Guns and Repeaters are the only weapons capable of having an automatic fire mode.
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  • Any source of 'regenerating' or 'infinite' ammunition is allowed within reason (a survival/hunting rifle may have this feature, but would be impractical in combat, for example).
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  • For pistols, a good range is around 50 meters; for rifles, around 200-300 meters; and for sniping weapons, around 500 meters.
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  • Bullets and blaster bolts travel at the same speed (as in bullets being really slow). Bullets deal less damage than blasters.
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  • Lightsaber crystals may be used to add flavor to an RP, but not to provide ill-defined, arbitrary boosts to your 'stats'.
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  • Do not feel the need to go out of your way to compare every part of your gun to a real-world example. Detail is fine, but the more real-world and hard physics you get, the less Star Wars-y your tech becomes. Furthermore, if the only special thing about your gun is fluff description, I'll archive it. You don't need to do a tech submission for a gun that has a laser range-finder, or thermal scope for example.
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  • "Blasters burn" and "bullets puncture" are really all you need to know about guns. Heavy blasters are designed to punch through armor and have reduced ammo capacity, regular blasters are better for light infantry. There, there's your gun.
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  • When it comes to stun weapons, location and armor count. While Wookieepedia says that any hit will incapacitate, it is fairly OP to be able to hit someone in the hand and KO them for the rest of a thread. Armor will attenuate a hit to a degree; it will not afford any more protection than it does against regular blasters. However, stun bolts will have a "bleed-through" effect. That is, if you are wearing armor and get hit in the chest you'll fell some effects akin to an electric shock, ie pain, numbness, tightening and/or spasms of the muscles. To fully KO someone in armor, it would take a number of hits equal to the armor's rating against blasters. But, due to the effects mentioned, it would get progressively easier to hit.
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    This pain and spasms is enough to break a force-user's concentration. A shot to an extremity would cause a localized effect. So an arm hit would feel the effects of that hit, and would radiate up into the shoulder as well. If you are not wearing armor, you'll lose control of that limb for 3-4 posting rounds. To be clear, the pain doesn't last 3-4 posting rounds. The pain occurs in the post you get hit, then after that your PC's nerves in the affected area shut down. If it's a shot to the unarmored face/torso, it's a KO.







  • We currently use the Anaxes War College System
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  • The more guns/armor/functionality your ship/vehicle has, the slower it will be
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  • Most fighter-interceptors fly around 100MGLT. Having a ship that goes 200 MGLT is extremely unlikely. Such a ship would have paper-thin armor, one light laser cannon, and barely any extra dew-dads.
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  • Turbolasers may only be mounted on Capital ships.
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  • Player Characters may not own capital ships. Capital craft are owned exclusively by approved factions. (This is another way of saying player-owned ships can't have turbolasers).
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  • Antimatter may be used as a power supply ONLY. Weaponizing antimatter is not allowed.
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  • 'True' Cloaking devices (ie, stygium crystal based) are not available to anyone. "Mass Effect style" stealth is allowed, although it is extremely expensive and anyone outside of a faction would need a very good reason why they have access to the technology.
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  • PC's aren't allowed to own capital ships – if your ship is over 150M in any dimension, it might be considered a capital craft! Try to keep the size under 100M if you're designing a ship for your own personal use.
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  • If your ship doesn't have it in the description or equipment sections, it doesn't have it. So if there is no mention of escape pods in the profile, your crew is out of luck if the ship goes down. That said, very basic things that are 100% essential to ship operation (life support, computers, short-range radio, toilets) don't need to be listed.
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  • More detail on ship weapons can be found in the Timeline Technology thread







  • If your submission is not in the "spirit of Star Wars", the staff reserves the right to archive it. So for example, if a submission is quite clearly a Halo or Mass Effect knockoff, it doesn't really fit in the Galaxy Far Far Away and may get archived.
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  • The Intent section needs to be more than a sentence or two. It should contain all the OOC information of why this tech is needed, what role it fills, what it offers that other tech does not. We're not going to be approving unique tech just for a singular PC unless it's earned through the RP or you make a really convincing case in the Intent.
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  • You may not have a gear loadout that effectively and/or completely nullifies a Force-User's ability to use the force.
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  • Personal Cloaking Devices that provide full invisibility and/or immunity to sensors are not allowed
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  • Nanite-based weapons are not available [nor allowed] at this time.
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  • A broad range of Cybernetic implants are available, but they are expensive, crude, and carry a risk of health complications.
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  • The smaller your piece of tech is, the less functionality it will have
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  • Beskar is banned
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  • Zillo beast armor/scales/carapace is banned
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  • Crushgaunts are banned
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  • "Smart" or AI functionality that is linked to armor is banned.







  • ONLY the Dawn of the Republic account will post Faction Tech
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  • This means you physically can't use the tag, only the DotR account has the permissions. In other words, don't post faction tech.
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  • Indie Faction tech MUST be submitted by the Indie FL.











mGDM1Og.jpg

Fat Randy's Power Armor

Composition
Fat Randy's Power Armor looks big, but that's only because he is. The armor is high-grade plastoid-backed durasteel. Due to the sheer thickness of the armor it can withstand a direct missile hit and continue to function. It is virtually immune to light blasters and pistols. Concentrated heavy blaster cannon fire can eventually penetrate the armor. Redundant circuitry and non-conductive shielding makes the suit immune to ion and EMP attacks. Cortosis-phrik alloy is used to great effect in the hands, allowing Randy to grab lightsabers without any ill effect. Power is generated by a small nuclear reactor. In the worst situation it can be made to overload and the resulting explosion can cripple a dreadnought if detonated inside the ship. The entire system weighs only 85kg due to use of advanced materials.

Equipment
Energy Shield - Protects against energy attacks as slugthrowers and other projectile weapons are useless against the armor. Power from targeting, repulsors, and weapons can be diverted to the shield to greatly increase resiliency.

Microrepulsors in the hands and feet allow for an incredible range of movement and acrobatics, as well as increased strength over what the power armor already contributes. With the repulsors aiding, Fat Randy can lift and throw a tank with accuracy.

HUD - The helmet has a HUD that contains target tracking, fire control, thermal, IR, nightvision, and X-ray modes (can only see through one wall in X-ray). Fire control can target and engage 16 targets simultaneously.

Environmental filters - The armor allows Fat Randy to operate in every environment from underwater to space. Advanced filters and a 12 hour internal air supply means Randy is immune to any sort of toxic gas/nerve agent in the atmosphere.

Weapons
- Medium repeating blaster on left arm. 200 rounds, inertial dampeners and the suits strength allow this gun to be fired with incredible accuracy.

-Claymore sized cortosis-weave vibroblade. It has microserrations to double the already enhanced cutting power. It has a thermite core that be activated in emergency situations. This allows the sword to be stabbed clean through a tank. (one use though, then the sword is destroyed for balance reasons)

- 16 micromissiles, 8 stored in each shoulder. These missiles contain a baradium core and the resulting explosion is capable of engaging and severely damaging a starfighter. These are controlled by the fire control system and can all launch in under 3 seconds.

- Single-shot particle beam. This fires a 5-second long blast that is equal in damage to a heavy laser cannon. Then it takes 24 hours to recharge.

-Force multiplier punches. Servos and pneumatic systems allow Fat Randy to punch clean through a tank's armor.

-Chemical Spray. Using this power armor builds up a lot of sweat. The resulting mixture of sweat, doritos, stale beer, and shame can be concentrated into a potent chemical spray that can kill anyone not Fat Randy in a 15 meter radius, and incapacitate anyone out to 25 meters.

-155mm sabot launching railgun. 3 rounds, 100 km (in atmo) accurate range. Can penetrate a corvette's hull. Collapsable and stored on the back behind retractable armor plating.

Intent
Fat Randy is so incompetent that this armor is the only way he won't die instantly.






34550f931eb6b58246b939e782aa45ea.jpg


Affiliation: N/A

Intent: To provide the players with a common combat vest.

Model: M91 Light Combat Vest

Weight: 5kg

Composition: Plastoid plating with armorweave backing.

Rating: Ineffective against heavy blasters. Resistant to blaster pistols, rifles, and vibroblades. Highly resistant to non-vibroblade edged weapons and slugthrowers.

Description: The M91 offers protection to the front and rear of the torso, and can stand up to 2-3 pistol rounds or 1-2 rifle rounds in the same plate. Repeated strikes in the same plate with a vibroweapon can break through the armor. Being a simple vest, it offers no protection against explosives. Still, for the spacer on the go or if you need to move fast, the M91 will not encumber the wearer or restrict his movement. The armor comes with spare power pack pouches for blasters. Commonly seen in the use of light infantry, pirates, or the safety-conscious pilot, the M91 is an extremely popular Outer Rim product and is an excellent vest for skirmishes or small gunfights.








Q: I still don't understand how you guys approve tech.

A: First, that's a statement not a question. Second, we generally look at certain criteria.

  • How does this affect timeline technology as a whole? Is it too advanced for 1,000 years before the Prequels? Does it introduce something new, if so, how well developed is this new tech?
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  • Is this gun/ship/armor clearly designed to give one PC or one faction a decisive advantage over everyone else? ie. is there a function that's absurdly powerful?
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  • Is this piece of tech blatantly min-maxed?
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  • Are we going down the old road of an arms-race with tech submissions?



Q: My tech was archived by a mod/admin, can I argue with them about it?

A: No, decisions are final. You also can't go around a mod's back and ask the Tech Admin (or vice-versa) to take a look at an archived piece of tech.



Q: My tech was approved a week/month/1,000,000,000 ages ago, and now someone says it needs "fixing", what gives?

A: So in the 6th Timeline, tech was pretty broken, and each tech admin had their own way of doing things. This lead to a lot of weird continuity errors, so to speak. There was a lot to overhaul with the old system, and we're still working out kinks on how to continually improve the tech rules/guidelines. Plus, we're all human. Sometimes a piece of tech slips by, or gets used in a way that's broken. In which case we will correct the issue.



Q: I still don't understand Generic Tech. What makes it Generic?

A: A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself "Can everything in this submission be replaced with 'pistol with mother-of-pearl handle'?" ie. do the changes you made from a basic version of that ship/gun/armor add nothing even somewhat special to the submission's functionality? If no, it's probably Generic.



Q: What's the difference between mods and Tech Admin?

A: The Tech Admin retains exclusive right to make rulings on tech usage, changes to the tech rules, and the handling of disciplinary matters.
 
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