Tieom
2003-07-07, 02:44 PM
I've come up with better explainations than "game balance" for a couple of things, so I decided to post them here.
1. Alternate history
The reason why the NC and the TR are using what is basically mid to early 20th century weapons technology is because PS is based in a future that is not our own. In the PS world, WWII did not happen as WWI had a very clear outcome. The winning side managed to overtake much of the earth and maintain a grip on it, mostly through propaganda and extensive secret police forces. This world government is the TR. The lack of WWII means that nuclear technology and a lot of other war-driven breakthroughs don't happen for quite a while. Weapons technology basically stagnated as the TR government holds all the weapons and has no real interest in improving them, as they are sufficient to enforce the peace whereever it needs to be.
Fastforward to the 22nd century. Earth is getting more uninhabitable by the day, and the TR is slowly losing it's grip on the restless population. The government invests heavily in space technology and, with the coordinated minds of the entire earth population behind it, launches into space. The wormhole is discovered by a deep space probe, about 1 lightyear from earth. Having determined the prescence of a system on the other side, manned scout vessels are sent. Upon finding a habitable planet colony ships were quickly cobbled together and sent off. Landing, they find the remains of the Vanu. A string of remarkable discoveries are made, including nanites, which can be gotten only from the ancient warpgates. These discoveries are sent back to earth, and earth sends more supplies.
Skip ahead to 30 years ago from 'now' in the PS universe. The wormhole closes, yada yada yada, no permenant death, that's all in the official backstory. What is not said is that a major colony vessel was destined to pass through the wormhole at that point, which probably caused its collapse. Having expected 10000 more people, large bases were designed and prefabricated. The prefabs were hauled to various spots and set up, leaving shells ready for occupation. These bases were made entirely from the new nanites, and were self-repairing as long as the NTU silo was not empty. News of the collapsed wormhole reaches the public, and the TR splits into 3 factions, all hastily developing weapons and armor to combat their foes.
This explains:
1. Why the weapons aren't incredibly 'futuristic'
2. Why all the bases are the same, and why there are so many of them.
2. The Exosuits
One of the Vanu technologies was a small, safe, and reasonably efficient power generation method. Powered exoskeletons had been theorized but with this discovery they could be built. They were used, mainly, for construction and protection in high-risk environments. When war broke out all three factions quickly got the idea of strapping on some armor-grade metal.
Unfortunatly this made the suits really, really heavy (Read: 180+ pounds) and upping the strengh AND flexibility of the joints pushed the power supply to the limit. The powerplant can barely support automonous running, that is, running with out any musclular assistance from the human inside the suit. Capacitors and a rechargable battery allow power drain above this amount for short times. Jumping requires even more power to be used by the various pseudomuscles and thus drains from the battery. Implants (Which, for the most part, are implanted into the ARMOR but have components and interfaces that need to be put inside the body) also draw power from this supply. A suite of gyros and stabilizers keep the armor upright in almost all conditions.
Reinforced exosuits have the same powerplant but are heavier - they can't run as the same speed as Agile or standard without draining from the capacitors.
MAX units have larger powerplants, but most of the power goes into keeping the suit upright and mobile.
When the suits are suddenly jarred or impacted (By, say, gunfire) the powerplant output drops off dramatically. The suit quickly consumes a large portion of battery power before the plant comes back to optimum output.
If the batteries are exhausted the human inside has to make all movements unassisted, emergency power goes to the stabilizers until a safe level of battery power is reached. This effectively slows the person to walking speed, since running with 180 pounds of armor plus gear is out of the question.
This explains Stamina.
3. The Bases
All the large buildings now present on auraxis are made of nanites and follow one of several design plans. Since the bases were designed for civilian occupation and scientific research they had a minimum amount of security. When war came all three factions faced a problem - the nanites that make up the bases and perform repairs had a very complex code stating what the base should be. Unfortunatly this code was much different than what had been programmed into them when the bases were first made. It took years of effort from the top scientists of each faction before the Terran Republic made the first breakthrough and managed to add the plans for IFF locks on the most important doors. When the base was captured the relevant code was quickly copied to the rest of the bases, and towers, for all factions. So far few other additions have been made, and then stolen - phalanx turrets are one of them.
This explains why the bases aren't fortresses, and why the defenses are in the same spot on every base.
I think they'd ban me from the official forums if I even tried posting it over there...
If you read the whole thing, have a cookie.
1. Alternate history
The reason why the NC and the TR are using what is basically mid to early 20th century weapons technology is because PS is based in a future that is not our own. In the PS world, WWII did not happen as WWI had a very clear outcome. The winning side managed to overtake much of the earth and maintain a grip on it, mostly through propaganda and extensive secret police forces. This world government is the TR. The lack of WWII means that nuclear technology and a lot of other war-driven breakthroughs don't happen for quite a while. Weapons technology basically stagnated as the TR government holds all the weapons and has no real interest in improving them, as they are sufficient to enforce the peace whereever it needs to be.
Fastforward to the 22nd century. Earth is getting more uninhabitable by the day, and the TR is slowly losing it's grip on the restless population. The government invests heavily in space technology and, with the coordinated minds of the entire earth population behind it, launches into space. The wormhole is discovered by a deep space probe, about 1 lightyear from earth. Having determined the prescence of a system on the other side, manned scout vessels are sent. Upon finding a habitable planet colony ships were quickly cobbled together and sent off. Landing, they find the remains of the Vanu. A string of remarkable discoveries are made, including nanites, which can be gotten only from the ancient warpgates. These discoveries are sent back to earth, and earth sends more supplies.
Skip ahead to 30 years ago from 'now' in the PS universe. The wormhole closes, yada yada yada, no permenant death, that's all in the official backstory. What is not said is that a major colony vessel was destined to pass through the wormhole at that point, which probably caused its collapse. Having expected 10000 more people, large bases were designed and prefabricated. The prefabs were hauled to various spots and set up, leaving shells ready for occupation. These bases were made entirely from the new nanites, and were self-repairing as long as the NTU silo was not empty. News of the collapsed wormhole reaches the public, and the TR splits into 3 factions, all hastily developing weapons and armor to combat their foes.
This explains:
1. Why the weapons aren't incredibly 'futuristic'
2. Why all the bases are the same, and why there are so many of them.
2. The Exosuits
One of the Vanu technologies was a small, safe, and reasonably efficient power generation method. Powered exoskeletons had been theorized but with this discovery they could be built. They were used, mainly, for construction and protection in high-risk environments. When war broke out all three factions quickly got the idea of strapping on some armor-grade metal.
Unfortunatly this made the suits really, really heavy (Read: 180+ pounds) and upping the strengh AND flexibility of the joints pushed the power supply to the limit. The powerplant can barely support automonous running, that is, running with out any musclular assistance from the human inside the suit. Capacitors and a rechargable battery allow power drain above this amount for short times. Jumping requires even more power to be used by the various pseudomuscles and thus drains from the battery. Implants (Which, for the most part, are implanted into the ARMOR but have components and interfaces that need to be put inside the body) also draw power from this supply. A suite of gyros and stabilizers keep the armor upright in almost all conditions.
Reinforced exosuits have the same powerplant but are heavier - they can't run as the same speed as Agile or standard without draining from the capacitors.
MAX units have larger powerplants, but most of the power goes into keeping the suit upright and mobile.
When the suits are suddenly jarred or impacted (By, say, gunfire) the powerplant output drops off dramatically. The suit quickly consumes a large portion of battery power before the plant comes back to optimum output.
If the batteries are exhausted the human inside has to make all movements unassisted, emergency power goes to the stabilizers until a safe level of battery power is reached. This effectively slows the person to walking speed, since running with 180 pounds of armor plus gear is out of the question.
This explains Stamina.
3. The Bases
All the large buildings now present on auraxis are made of nanites and follow one of several design plans. Since the bases were designed for civilian occupation and scientific research they had a minimum amount of security. When war came all three factions faced a problem - the nanites that make up the bases and perform repairs had a very complex code stating what the base should be. Unfortunatly this code was much different than what had been programmed into them when the bases were first made. It took years of effort from the top scientists of each faction before the Terran Republic made the first breakthrough and managed to add the plans for IFF locks on the most important doors. When the base was captured the relevant code was quickly copied to the rest of the bases, and towers, for all factions. So far few other additions have been made, and then stolen - phalanx turrets are one of them.
This explains why the bases aren't fortresses, and why the defenses are in the same spot on every base.
I think they'd ban me from the official forums if I even tried posting it over there...
If you read the whole thing, have a cookie.