Eternity RPC Board
This is a continuation of this post and the discussion that followed on Discord between me and Lines. I've come up with an idea to attempt to address the two issues I brought up in the post linked above, which I will expand on here.
One of the biggest problems we have in Eternity, is the geopolitical nightmare that leads to a situation where every continent/region keeps to itself and interacts very little outside of its comfort zone. This kills wars, as most of them end up being very one-sided, or don't get enough activity due to regionalist restrictions. It also makes most diplomacy pointless, as Eternity has a very passive status quo, which is strictly enforced by the geopolitical situation. What's the point of signing anything more than a trade pact and a couple of generic defense accords with a few neighbors, if there is no risk of a major war occurring in the foreseeable future.
There's also the problem of a lack of theme, which is important more for recruiting new members, although it can help foster activity for the old members as well. We have a very good community here and a fairly expansive lore, but on their own, these two aspects do not make good enough selling points for a lot of people, since every good NS community also has these advantages. We need a theme, something to set Eternity apart from the other NSMT groups, that can catch the eye of people and get them to join up.
So, in order to address the geopolitical issues of regionalism and lack of global issues that would circumvent that, I came up with the idea to spawn a second NPC superpower, on par with Nyland in terms of GDP and overall strength, but this time a totalitarian, dystopian state that would partner up with other dictatorships, just like Nyland partners up with the democracies/capitalist states. This would tilt the balance of power between the democracies and dictatorships and maybe put them close to being on par with eachother.
This can also serve as the seed of an ongoing, overall theme. I'm taking inspiration from a number of sources, such as the Killzone series (very good games, you should give them a try if you have a PS3) and the Red Rising series of books (something of a mix between the Hunger Games, Red Faction and some inspiration from the Holy Roman Empire).
My idea is of an antagonist who doesn't simply want to oppress everyone because evil, but a nation with an ideology that it believes, is for the overall greater good and the betterment of humanity. The as-of-yet unnamed ideology incorporates ideas of military rule, with eugenics and a good dose of social darwinism. The strong thrive and rule, the weak go extinct. They believe that ideas of freedom, democracy, equality, communism and individual rights, are detrimental for the long-term survival and evolution of humanity and that in order to insure the survival of the species, a strict, new world order must be established, one which exercises complete control over every aspect of society, with the clear goal of advancing the human species technologically, culturally and genetically.
The society of this nation would be stratocratic, somewhat reminiscent of Starship Troopers. There is a clear distinction between civilians, citizens and leaders. Civilians do the work, citizens serve in the military (the only way to obtain the status of citizen) and vote leaders, while only the leadership caste may run for office (this caste is drawn from the highest-ranking military officials and scientists).
My idea was to drop this NPC in not-Antarctica (there already is an NPC there, which could be expanded into this). They'd have to import their food and would have a hard time maintaining a high population, so I'm thinking about 100 million people. They offset this population defficiency with a massive economy fueled by a powerful industry, vast reserves of natural resources such as oil and minerals and the most advanced technology in the world. This location also fits with their theme of "survival of the fittest", as a civilization of this size existing in such an environment, would face tough challenges and would realistically opt towards a strict, highly ordered society in order to simply survive.
Also, since this isn't enough to prevent Nyland & friends from just invading anyway, I was thinking we should give this NPC nukes. A monopoly on nuclear weapons would make a strong deterrent that would offset the lack of population, but their arsenal shouldn't be big enough to allow them to outright attack everyone else, just a deterrent that puts them on par with Lanlania and Nyland.
EDIT: Forgot to mention this, but if we go down this route, our NS page, as well as our recruitment/promotional material should include references to this. We should have a short description of Nyland and this new NPC, their summarized beliefs and a short snippet about the geopolitical situation.
One of the biggest problems we have in Eternity, is the geopolitical nightmare that leads to a situation where every continent/region keeps to itself and interacts very little outside of its comfort zone. This kills wars, as most of them end up being very one-sided, or don't get enough activity due to regionalist restrictions. It also makes most diplomacy pointless, as Eternity has a very passive status quo, which is strictly enforced by the geopolitical situation. What's the point of signing anything more than a trade pact and a couple of generic defense accords with a few neighbors, if there is no risk of a major war occurring in the foreseeable future.
There's also the problem of a lack of theme, which is important more for recruiting new members, although it can help foster activity for the old members as well. We have a very good community here and a fairly expansive lore, but on their own, these two aspects do not make good enough selling points for a lot of people, since every good NS community also has these advantages. We need a theme, something to set Eternity apart from the other NSMT groups, that can catch the eye of people and get them to join up.
So, in order to address the geopolitical issues of regionalism and lack of global issues that would circumvent that, I came up with the idea to spawn a second NPC superpower, on par with Nyland in terms of GDP and overall strength, but this time a totalitarian, dystopian state that would partner up with other dictatorships, just like Nyland partners up with the democracies/capitalist states. This would tilt the balance of power between the democracies and dictatorships and maybe put them close to being on par with eachother.
This can also serve as the seed of an ongoing, overall theme. I'm taking inspiration from a number of sources, such as the Killzone series (very good games, you should give them a try if you have a PS3) and the Red Rising series of books (something of a mix between the Hunger Games, Red Faction and some inspiration from the Holy Roman Empire).
My idea is of an antagonist who doesn't simply want to oppress everyone because evil, but a nation with an ideology that it believes, is for the overall greater good and the betterment of humanity. The as-of-yet unnamed ideology incorporates ideas of military rule, with eugenics and a good dose of social darwinism. The strong thrive and rule, the weak go extinct. They believe that ideas of freedom, democracy, equality, communism and individual rights, are detrimental for the long-term survival and evolution of humanity and that in order to insure the survival of the species, a strict, new world order must be established, one which exercises complete control over every aspect of society, with the clear goal of advancing the human species technologically, culturally and genetically.
The society of this nation would be stratocratic, somewhat reminiscent of Starship Troopers. There is a clear distinction between civilians, citizens and leaders. Civilians do the work, citizens serve in the military (the only way to obtain the status of citizen) and vote leaders, while only the leadership caste may run for office (this caste is drawn from the highest-ranking military officials and scientists).
My idea was to drop this NPC in not-Antarctica (there already is an NPC there, which could be expanded into this). They'd have to import their food and would have a hard time maintaining a high population, so I'm thinking about 100 million people. They offset this population defficiency with a massive economy fueled by a powerful industry, vast reserves of natural resources such as oil and minerals and the most advanced technology in the world. This location also fits with their theme of "survival of the fittest", as a civilization of this size existing in such an environment, would face tough challenges and would realistically opt towards a strict, highly ordered society in order to simply survive.
Also, since this isn't enough to prevent Nyland & friends from just invading anyway, I was thinking we should give this NPC nukes. A monopoly on nuclear weapons would make a strong deterrent that would offset the lack of population, but their arsenal shouldn't be big enough to allow them to outright attack everyone else, just a deterrent that puts them on par with Lanlania and Nyland.
EDIT: Forgot to mention this, but if we go down this route, our NS page, as well as our recruitment/promotional material should include references to this. We should have a short description of Nyland and this new NPC, their summarized beliefs and a short snippet about the geopolitical situation.