Novaris Without Numbers

Novaris is moprhing into a highly complex SWN setting, so let's review the differences.

Lore: The store of Stars is a post-scream after an already well off Star fairing civilization. Novaris is before any scream like event, in fact it is barely beyond modern day. There is no substantial history to this place with the exception of each factions history.

FTL travel and Meta Space: meta space doesn't exist, so FTL travel has to be different a psions work differently.

Consideration: FTL in SWN has a limit on drive complexity, low tier drives have max distances. I could mimic this with on board simulation systems. Jumping long distances requires simulating with high accuracy of micro debris and doing so across, say 2 hexes, is near impossible without a more complex simulation system. This would reshape my map in potentially more satisfying ways.

Crafting Worlds

World Tags: There are a handful of these tags I wouldn't care for, but that could also be that I have an idea of what I want my worlds/factions like already and these wouldn't fit in. For example, no RoA world would ever get Unbraked AI, in fact no one could, but this could be a tag that develops on a world. I'll give it a try assigning world tags, and just rerolling ones that make no sense.

Atmosphere/Temperature/Biosphere tags: I should probably assign a "preferred atmosphere" to each species, that would help me limit who can go where and with what tools but I'll revisit this when we get to alien crafting. It could be interesting to have planets with correct atmosphere but incorrect temperature requiring different things on different planets instead of a sea of perfect planets like there are currently. The Biosphere would likely be more about the age of life on that planet. It would provide interesting in 50% of planets that had life also had sentient life as that would cause a great level of confusion later when the, uh, when they explore more of the galaxy and find that this isn't exactly true.

Tech Levels

The system may need less adaptation that I initially thought. TL4 may be a good place for most world, with capital worlds being TL4+. There are no TL5 worlds, but one could argue Arduin Prime is getting close in many aspects. I would like to develop a proper tech tree, but we'll see.

Ideally each capital world is TL4+ with one or two specialties and each colony would be TL3, making progress to TL4. I'll likely start each faction with one other TL4 holding, if not two. TL4 holdings would be the location of a major seat of government in that region.

Considerations

FTL Capability: FTL in SWN has a limit on drive complexity, low tier drives have max distances. I could mimic this with on board simulation systems. Jumping long distances requires simulating with high accuracy of micro debris and doing so across, say 2 hexes, is near impossible without a more complex simulation system. This would reshape my map in potentially more satisfying ways.

FTL commonality: Current lore is that a Gate pair is able to be crafted every year with 4 teams crafting 4 gates per year. This is decidedly too much. I am reducing it to two teams capable of building a pair in 5 years under ideal circumstances but much lengthier if there are issues. If I want the Gate's to feel important but not the made mode of travel I need to limit them. 2.5km across is a good start, but I want the company to be picky. They currently hardly play favorites but are also meant to be a political force, this means that each Capital world should get a pair that links to the Hub system, and getting one should designate you, in the eyes of the Gate makers, as a Capital world. Since they don't care about government so much as propriety, this means Biona will get one even if it insults the RoA since the RoA is socialist. This is just something to keep in mind when rebuilding the map this weekend.

Aliens

I like my aliens, but they could be better.

SWN breaks aliens into like and unlike, with like being close enough to human in shape and psychology that there isn't much to build out, where unlike would require rethinking how they build clothing and architecture. Novaris will have some of Like aliens, for lore reasons.

SWN then goes onto describe general races; Avian, Reptilian, Insectile, mammalian, and Exotic. For lore reasons we do not have insectile. (I actually can't stand them) I can promote Dynasty to Avian with glide instead of proper flying.

Psychology and lenses

The next thing he talks about is psychology and lenses, I could use with implementing this in Novaris species. His list may not be exhaustive, so I'll build some as I need as recommended. One is required, two for more sophistication.

Monsi: Collectivity, Sage City

Tutinari: Collectivity, Tribalism

Rigna-et: Honor, Tradition

G-Dudes: Fear, Subtlety

Asida: Greed, Traditional, Pacifism

Structures

Technically all legal structures I've created could fit under the systems Kevin presents here.

Arduin is Monarchic

Vull is Monarchic

Compact is Oligarchic

RoA and Confederate are Democratic

Dynasty is Monarchic

Wow I don't have as much variety as I thought I did huh? I do, but these are a little too limiting and require a deeper look.

Arduin is a monarchy, but the Arduin doesn't try to rule everyone but allows AI to make the majority of decisions and has lesser monarchs for each city or borough.

The Vull is a monarchy in a more traditional sense, but they're also more tribal than truly united like the Arduin. While all tribes swear loyalty to the Vull, this oath is more political for some than others. While some see the Vull with a divine right to rule, others see it as order and tradition and are shaken to find heretics with better powers than themselves.

The Compact has oligarchs sorta, but there are very few large enough to even have enough cultural sway. The SecuraCorp CEO and Gatemakers CEO are powerful enough to be considered oligarchs. Even the Compact, of which the faction is named, has a board of directors and none of them singularly have enough sway to be considered oligarchs.

RoA is democratic but there are rumors of a monarchic element and even the democracy that exist seems hostile to those without privilege.

Confederate is a proper democratic place

Dynasty, rankly I'm still fleshing them out and after seeing this I'm considering making them more tribal.

Racial Traits

Actually found in the PC alien section, I could probably find a trait or two and apply them to Novaris Aliens

Tutinari: Nothing, strange.

Asida: Origin Skill(Good at math)

Monsi: Useful Immunity (Cells don't age)

Rigna-et: Tough, Strong Attribute.

G-boys: Psychic Aptitude, Unusual movement mode