I have been thinking about some of the mod implemented systems ingame lately and can see that this is definitely not an easy feat to make a memorable non vanilla system creating an incentive for people to go there.
Not trying to disrespect nor offend any of the system developers that try their best, however I can not help myself but see Newcastle in a bit of a pinch. The system comes off really as disharmonious and crowded, for it trying to have a bit too much at once, but offering not really a memorable vibe to be there.
With the addition of Knossos and the Omicrons existing occupying an entire designated third of a system for a Nomad City does not really work in my mind, especially since no one ever does anything there, because Bretonia seems too far remote... or the System too crowded for any subversive ambiguous alien role play to boot.
I'd like to approach a system rework to make Newcastle feel more spacious and sparsely inhabited like Pennsylvania as I find that Pennsylvania would be a good framework to apply.
There would be a civilized side, with the trade lane connections making the regular JG connections to Leeds and Manchester, but have an entire outback like Pennsylvania has.
This outback would feature various nameless landmarks and houses former lore sensible assets, like battles, debris, unlawful installations. The key landmark being either a lore rewritten or added smaller Planet, which would be an exotic savannah world housing dangerous exotic wildlife. This wildlife could become a HRC commodity used for smuggling routes or be usable for PoB as either to craft Scientific Ressources, other ressources for optimization or be used as food... See, we're getting a bit morally ambiguous here.
In lore the planet could be deemed as too expensive to be feasibly colonized by Bretonia at the moment but they endorse refugees and economically undesirable assets to rehouse and establish settlements poaching the wildlife and making way for colonization. It would be an entire wild west, where the Gaians are motivated to fight off morally bankrupt or desperate people trying to build up a new life with a last resort. It would be an entire morale dilemma and put up questions about the morals of expansion and what desperation can let people do things.
Additionally or alternatively as the system enjoys history as a mining and smelter system the introduction of a mineable zone could help, given the pretext. But an entire cleansing campaign for reckless industrial expansion would fit the bill for a desperate and greedy Bretonia and her speditions trying to make up for the loss of Leeds. Furthermore Orbital Spa and Cruise could place their Luxury Liner nearby, being a potential buyer for these natural peculiarities, because we know that people with a lot of money will love morally ambiguous businesses and might wanna get involved with.
This could lead to a potentially promising hotspot for various factions to interact and role play about. I am aware that this is not me reinventing the wheel and all those themes have occured before in Bretonia in some way or shape, but this constant moral question of expansionism and ecology and class fights are kinda what also shapes the faction dynamics in this house.
Anyway leave your thoughts down below. At the end it is just an idea and can always just be disregarded and forgotten about. I don't take it too deep no worries.
(10-12-2024, 10:43 PM)Solo Wing Sagume Wrote: With the addition of Knossos and the Omicrons existing occupying an entire designated third of a system for a Nomad City does not really work in my mind, especially since no one ever does anything there, because Bretonia seems too far remote... or the System too crowded for any subversive ambiguous alien role play to boot.
It used to be inside the planet if I remember correctly
I'll do something about my superiority complex when I cease to be superior.
"Whatever happened to catchin' a good old-fashioned passionate ass-whoopin and gettin' your shoes, coat, and your hat tooken?"
Personally, I like the idea of an entire Nomad city being inside a house and being kept secret from the population of that house/system. It adds a neat layer of discovery to a mod named for the same. Removing it would be a loss. Perhaps do more to draw attention to it in RP to generate some stories. I have found it odd that there isn't any stories generated around this unique addition, even from those factions that reside in Bretonia, specifically the Intelligence and Military factions.
If others agree that it's taking up too much room in Newcastle, perhaps take steps to move it to a system similar to that of Liberty's Alaska or Rheinlands Thuringia. One of the things I always found interesting in Discovery is you have these two secure systems for Rheinland and Liberty yet Bretonia and Kusari do not.
Bretonia: During one of their operations combating the (Molly/Gaian) threat in (Dublin/New London/Edinburgh), military forces discover an (Unstable Jump Hole/Ancient Nomad Gate) in the vicinity. A scouting party is sent through where they discover a massive Nomad city seemingly dormant but with massive shielding generators protecting the entire structure. Bretonia immediately classifies the entire region to prevent other parties from discovering the newly found gold mine of technology and other researchable possibilities.
OOC - This will give Bretonia a system in which to do research and also allow Newcastle, as you say, to be less crowded.
Kusari: Kishiro has been working on jump drive technology for several years. During a test in Hokkaido, the Jump drive inadvertently pulls the entire research group into a system located between Omicron Alpha and Chugoku. The entire system is covered in a dense nebula which is rich in some form of supercharged H-Fuel. Kusari classifies the system at the highest levels of their government to avoid GMG knowledge of the new fuel type and maintain a monopoly on this new found fuel source. However, lurking in the deep dark of the Nebula is a planet which houses mysteries far more dangerous than the Nomads. An ancient off-shoot of the Gammu AI slumbers here, waiting to reawaken and take revenge on those who attacked their brethren in the darkness of Omicron Kappa.
OOC - That last part of the Kusari idea is a bit of a self-motivated things considering my appreciation for AI roleplay, but I feel AI is heavily under represented in the mod.
I went a bit off on a tangent there, appoligies. It just sparked an idea in my head concerning your statement about removing the Nomad city and felt that an alternate resolution could be suggested. The Kusari section of my post I felt was necessary as well since I posted the Bretonia one. Just some errant thoughts, pay me no mind.
Newcastle has a cursed history. The system has seen so many reworks in both system and lore, every generation of Discovery players had a different memory on it, and it sucks. The system used to be huge, then got downsized, then resized, upscaled, downsized again. The nomad city was redesigned over and over again. For a time, it was a nomad weapon platform not even hidden in a nebula, then it was a Shrine-type station, then it got turned into Nomad City, got teleported into Darlington Atmosphere, then pulled out of it again and Darlington Atmoshere got replaced with Knosses Atmosphere.
Newcastle saw most of its activity in the war with Gallia and when the Mollys ran a scrappy Newark-type station surrounded by a mine field. Outcasts occasionally raided the system, too. The human stations in Newcastle are incredibly bland and always felt like they were just added to give Bretonia even more drydocks left and right as well as some economy, and the coolest thing about Newcastle was Carlisle essentially being a paradise full of unclaimed resources teasingly close to Bretonia's grasp but fully denied because of an incredibly dangerous flesh-eating bacterium that Bretonia feared so much that it did everything to prevent people from landing on Carlisle, as an outbreak of this bacterium would be absolutely fatal.
... and then all of that got solved. Cryer found a way to defeat the bacterium, the war with Gallia is over, the Mollys lost their station and Newcastle, previously known for having an insane amount of jump hole connections, got neutered drastically. Today, the only people going to Newcastle are powertraders.
I really don't envy the people who have to deal with Newcastle.
Newcastle is a strange lore entity. A well-secured house system full of resources and even a habitable planet, fully enclosed in the house and facing no threats except generic minor unlawful presence.
Systems like this used to be everywhere, mostly as guard systems, but over time they all slowly disappeared. The last one was Tottori.
Now Bretonia is the only house that kept their "bonus" system, which sort of undermines Bretonia's resource need to prospect in the Taus in the Omegas.
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Newcastle is on our list of systems needing a QA pass. I am a big fan of more desolate and wild areas in house space, and Newcastle losing that certainly was a shame. Like you said - something like Pennsylvania's split into lawful and remote halves is a good baseline. It's not on our priority list at the moment though.
(10-13-2024, 08:18 AM)Sombs Wrote: I really don't envy the people who have to deal with Newcastle.
Haddaway and shite man, the Toons a canny place, divvin' even think aboot gannin mad & dressin it up like one o those fancy
lardy dah southern poncy git systems, leave the Toon alone or you'll end up havin a broon ale bottle smashed ower ya heed.
If ya ganne dee own't, gan ower to Sunderland n git those radgie Mackens oot, the Toon's is a place for a proper gadjies.
Reasonable responses from all off you. To the devs I will patiently await and see what you got in stock, I'm glad to see some shared opinions and yes agreeing with Sombs the system is plagued by an identity crisis and poor write up to just bolster up Bretonia and her losses, instead of just letting her bite into the sour apple.
Imho this is why a world that has to be paved by brutal ambiguous means in a years long campaign rehousing people and enabling a poaching story and adding a moral question involving corporates and unlawfuls could add more depth and incentive. But I will look forward to see what other solutions there are...
For the nomad stuff... Honestly we had Chester once, which was a pretty cool remote outback system in Bretonia... maybe as a lost Uncharted Bretonia system it could make use again in the stage of Sirius, but I'm aware of the stance adding new systems. I wouldn't mind just seeing the system reshaped again not needing the nomad stuff entirely...
(10-13-2024, 09:50 AM)Karst Wrote: Newcastle is a strange lore entity. A well-secured house system full of resources and even a habitable planet, fully enclosed in the house and facing no threats except generic minor unlawful presence.
Systems like this used to be everywhere, mostly as guard systems, but over time they all slowly disappeared. The last one was Tottori.
Now Bretonia is the only house that kept their "bonus" system, which sort of undermines Bretonia's resource need to prospect in the Taus in the Omegas.
Virginia was the last if i remember right, Virginia was the Guard System (later Half-Guard) of the Liberty Navy (Or maybe was other reason Navy don't wanted anyone to be there until it was opened to "public"), Alaska being more LSF suited after the loss of Ellesmere Guard system, so i belive the "Bonus" system you say is actually wrong, so we can still say New Castle, Thuringia and Alaska are the remnants of what once were a "Guard System" that remain at the date as only Alaska became one, i am still beliving each house should get remain 1 lawful system where it became "Guard Systems" ... as by lore to bring those "Intelligence Agencies" stay in secret heaven, and it became really difficult reach those systems due heavy ship patrol, as any military research to be done should be there instead of just telling an open public place is where it was done ...
After all Guard Systems always were one of the most difficult places to enter, Wrong IFF/ID and you will be a pleasure to be targetted with the most potent NPC's, but right now some systems become as "just a small zone of guard system" ... but it remains Alaska as the last guard system, but other houses should keep one system to be a Guard system and useful in those scenarios...
What i said, it could be done just 1 Guard System per House instead of 1 Guard System per Faction as it was before, Liberty Has one (Alaska), Rheinland has "Half-of-One" (Thuringia), bringing back Tottori for Kusari...
Or put in there the NPCs of Battlezones, pushing at the extremes the bases from factions and make them clash in those Guard Systems, like Conquested ones ...
For example, make it Tohoku (or make Tottori) a thing between Blood Dragons, Nomads and KNF/KOI clash in there ...
De guard Alaska (and redo) and make faction like Lane Hackers, and Outcast clash with LN and LSF there...
Do that with the other systems, make only the biggest factions fight in their own territories (Make a mix of Xi and Phi and put Corsairs vs Outcast in there battling to hell for a Guard System)
Make that for each guard system and it is gonna be fun! ... but put really hard NPC's, not the joke we already have in game (Man, when i arrived into Discovery, NPCs were tough to beat, used Shield Batts, Nanos, Push hard and so other, what happened to those AI of the past? the ones are hard (cause you get out of energy before) and barely easy to kill ... they take their time and so ...
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