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[NationStates] Scientific Advancements

Lord_Sinclair

Lord of Altera
As outlined under the original reset proposal, nations will be allowed to research "unique" techs once they reach a Scientific Advancement Level (SAL) of 100. All nations, please post your techs here!

Basic Guidelines:

1. Nations may only research one new "unique" tech per 100 SAL.

2. Nations' "unique" techs must directly derive from technologies in real world prototype form.

3. Nations may research a "unique" tech even if another nation has already researched it.

4. Nations may share technology with other nations, but this does not give the other nation the technology directly.

5. You must post a factbook about the technology you are developing in order to claim it!

Guidelines in Detail:

1. One tech at 100 SAL, another at 200 SAL, another at 300 SAL, so on, so forth.

2. Examples of technologies in real world prototype form include Railguns, Scramjets, TALOS suits, etc.

3. Even though they are called "unique" techs, they aren't limited to a single nation.

4. When a nation shares its technology, it's as if they're manufacturing the technology in their home nation and shipping it off to the receiving nation. The receiving nation does not receive the actual tech, only the results of said tech. This means that if nations share their techs and then go to war against each other, they do not gain the advantages of both techs.

5. Just do it; it won't take that long.
 
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Lord_Sinclair

Lord of Altera
"Unique" Techs List:

> Zanala - Scramjets
> Tarcheya - Railguns
> Kronea - AEGIS System
> Harvendir - Advanced Ballistics
> Octois - High-Intensity Energy Beams
> Binaris - Internet of Things
> Holdtstein - Advanced Drones
> Dorthan - TALOS Suits
> Mosouria - Advanced Transgenetics
> Kogata - Graphene Production and Application
 
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Lord_Sinclair

Lord of Altera
Research Coalitions:

Nations may establish research agreements with one another in order to boost their SALs, as determined by the formula below. In a research agreement, each nation may claim to possess the SAL of the group as their effective national SAL.

( Individual Nation's SAL ) x [ 2 / ( # of Nations in Group + 1 ) ] = Individual Nation's contribution to Group's Total SAL

Nations in a research agreement may not research different unique techs, as such would be contradictory to the communal nature of the research agreement.

If a nation with an individual SAL of less than 100 gains a tech by virtue of being in a research agreement with a group SAL of 100 or more but then leaves the research agreement, the nation that left the research agreement must claim the tech gained from the research agreement as their unique tech once they reach an individual SAL of 100.

If a nation that has already researched a unique tech on their own enters into a research agreement, then the other nation entering into the agreement gains the same tech that the first nation has already researched. An alternate option is that the first nation may only contribute SAL points beyond the 100 SALs used to claim its unique tech. If both nations entering into the research agreement have already researched unique techs on their own, then they must both use the alternate option of only contributing individual SAL points beyond the 100 used by each to claim their individual unique techs.

If a group of nations desires to form a research coalition, they must post their intent as such on this thread.


Active research coalitions are listed below.

(None)
 
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Lord_Sinclair

Lord of Altera
Zanala has a SAL of 106 and is, to my knowledge, the first nation in our group to surpass the 100 SAL threshold.

Zanala will be researching Scramjet technology, effective as soon as I get the time to make a factbook about it.

Also, I highly encourage that nations link an article or something about the tech they are developing so people understand what it is.
For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramjet
 

Lord_Sinclair

Lord of Altera
I would also like to bring the topic of collaborative scientific endeavors up for debate.

It makes sense that nations that collaborate their scientific research with one another would reap benefits over other nations that do not, but at the same time, the current system could become unbalanced if the collaboration system advances collaborating nations disproportionately beyond their contemporaries. Collaborating nations should be given some boost, but not an overwhelming one. Of course, finding the balance to that end is a tricky matter.

In a previous thread, long ago, I proposed an equation for determining a collaborative SAL that went as follows:

( Individual Nation's SAL ) x [ 2 / ( # of Nations in Group + 1 ) ] = Individual Nation's contribution to Group's Total SAL

The above equation was fitting for our former situation, where there were nations with 360 SAL and other nations with barely 100 SAL, but now that the scores are closer together, it may not be quite as balanced. My basic question for all of you is, essentially, "is the above equation still balanced, in your opinion" with the follow-up question of "if not, then what do you feel would be a balanced way to calculate a collaborative science score?"

As for myself, I believe that the above equation is the most balanced equation realistically possible (aka without some really convoluted exponentials and/or decimals). However, I do believe that there needs to be an additional contingent to any formula: the tech that is developed as a result of the research. If a group of nations collaborates their research, then it seems only natural that all of the nations would be researching the same technology. Thus, if nations pass the 100 SAL threshold as a result of collaborative research, then all of the nations in the group must gain the same technology rather than a different technology per nation.

Thoughts?
 

Lord_Sinclair

Lord of Altera
Let me provide an example using Tarcheya and Curitis...

( Individual Nation's SAL ) x [ 2 / ( # of Nations in Group + 1 ) ] = Individual Nation's contribution to Group's Total SAL
Tarcheya currently has a Scientific Advancement Level (SAL) of 90.
Curitis currently has a SAL of 94.

So, for Tarcheya, the equation would be ( 90 ) x [ 2 / ( 2 + 1) ], which = 60.
The 90 is Tarcheya's normal SAL and there are 2 nations in the group, Tarcheya and Curitis.

For Curitis, the equation would be ( 94 ) x [ 2 / ( 2 + 1 ) ], which = 62 (round down, not up).

This means that the group's total SAL would be 60 + 62, which = 122. That means that Tarcheya and Curitis could each claim to have a SAL of 122 rather than 90 and 94, respectively.



Now, I suppose the next question probably relates to how the formula was devised.

First, I determined that it would be far too unbalanced to simply add SAL. In the example above, that would have resulted in a staggering SAL of 184 between just two nations.

Therefore, I concluded that it would be necessary to multiply SAL by a certain fraction, a fraction that was adjusted to balance itself with however many nations were a part of the group. The [ 2 / ( # of Nations in Group + 1 ) ] is the fraction part of the equation, and the denominator, ( # of Nations in Group + 1 ), is adjusted to account for the number of nations in the group for balancing purposes.

Under the current equation, the fractions would be as follows based on the number of nations in the group:
1 nation = 1 / 1
2 nations = 2 / 3
3 nations = 1 / 2
4 nations = 2 / 5
5 nations = 1 / 3
etc, etc, etc

The benefit of using fractions to calculate a collaborative SAL is two-fold. First, it prevents stacking SAL linearly, which would result in incredibly large and unbalanced group SAL. Secondly, it creates a system of diminishing returns. The system allows for the group SAL to be raised indefinitely, but it requires proportionately more nations to do so. The group SAL for two nations may raise their SAL 30 points, then perhaps another 15 if a third nation is added, then perhaps another 7 if a fourth nation is added, and so on, so forth.

Now, I've set the fraction to start with a set numerator, 2, to avoid an issue I found when testing the formula. With a numerator of just 1, the fraction for a group of just two nations became 1 / 2. In practice, this resulted in the two nations simply averaging their SAL together, which of course reaped no benefit whatsoever for the more advanced partner nation. In order to craft the formula in such a way that the more advanced partner nation would have incentive to collaborate, it was necessary to adjust the fraction above 1 / 2 for a group of two. Without resorting to decimals and such, the next closest fraction is 2 / 3, so I adjusted the formula accordingly.
 

Gaby

Lord of Altera
uh. what single technology would be necessary to create something like what STAG has in Saints Row 3,

http://saintsrow.wikia.com/STAG http://saintsrow.wikia.com/F-69_VTOL http://saintsrow.wikia.com/Condor http://saintsrow.wikia.com/Daedalus http://saintsrow.wikia.com/Specter

while still offering the capability of being used practically for other sorts of gadget-stuff-things?
it looks like its just heat rays and hovercraft tech....

I don't have the necessary components to take this, I'm honestly just being premature here, because in all honesty the only kind of high tech I wanna see in my nation is this nonsense.

I want hoverbikes and heatrays man.
 

Cap

Lord of Altera
Legend
Specter and Daedalus are both too fantastical to be allowed, I'd say. Only IRL prototypes / concepts allowed. As for the F-69 and Condor, I'm pretty sure we have the tech for that today. Heat-rays could be lasers, which do exist as prototypes (and have been proved to be effective at shooting down missiles.)
 

Gaby

Lord of Altera
Specter and Daedalus are both too fantastical to be allowed, I'd say. Only IRL prototypes / concepts allowed. As for the F-69 and Condor, I'm pretty sure we have the tech for that today. Heat-rays could be lasers, which do exist as prototypes (and have been proved to be effective at shooting down missiles.)
Daedalus is completely insane, I entirely agree.
I will have to argue about the Specter. yes, there's so much that could go wrong engineering and physics-wise with a "hoverbike" but you know that someone's going to use their 100 tech to reanimate the dead, make sentient AI, or genetically engineer a whole new species of lizard-people. all things, considered, a hoverbike with a laser gun isn't that bad. :^)

as for the F-69 and Condor, here's why I think implementing them would require 100 Science (Warning: Language, mainly Kanye West):

as you can see in the video, the F-69 VTOL has a dual "jet mode" and "hover mode," is capable of seamlessly shifting between the two modes at high speeds. the wings appear to have robotic parts so that the plane can essentially transform itself to best facilitate the two modes. it can fly upside-down and at 90 degree angles perfectly, and can shift modes without losing height. it has one ordinary heat-ray, and some sort of plasma missiles that can track targets. on top of this, it's capable of withstanding laser weapons being aimed at it multiple times without being shot out of the sky or sacrificing any kind of maneuverability. on top of that, it's fitted with a non-sentient AI, and doesn't seem to run out of fuel or ammunition.
and it has a radio that can play Kanye West for you.

I mean, yeah, bunch of that probably has to do with the fact that this is a videogame, and our current videogames don't have the time to program in such complex aerodynamic details that real-life flying must deal with, but it still stands that this sort of perfect maneuverability is a masterpiece of aeronautics. it flies better than anything evolution designed, and is basically both beautiful and an incredibly advanced piece of craftsmanship. definitely would take 100 science.

I'm honestly not an expert in technology, but I believe there are also stealth helicopters in development, no?
wat is that. I'm not a tech expert either.
 

Gregor

Lord of Altera
I think we should soften that rule, and discuss advancements and approve them as a group. After all, roleplay is collaborative, no?
 

Cap

Lord of Altera
Legend
Genetically engineering humans really doesn't seem that fun to me. 1990s to 2010s is the area that interests me, not the near future stuff. Obviously I'm not everyone, but the RP is more fun with tech we know and understand.
 
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