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Terra
05-30-2011, 05:55 PM
This is my first attempt at creating a Roleplay on this specific site, and I hope this will be a good one. This is an idea I’ve attempted at less active forums, and the results have been.... disappointing to say the least due to many people not posting after we established the story. This is a character based Roleplay in a reasonably hard sci fi setting (although the hard sci fi setting will only be temporary as the story progresses) about the 87 year journey of the first Extra solar starship from Earth to Alpha Centauri. I’ve dedicated myself to nailing down lots of the science behind the setting, and limitations, but for now let’s enjoy ourselves in this Roleplay?



It’s the year 2219 AD, and for centuries humanity has been further constrained on Earth. The fantasies of Faster than Light Travel have proved to be just that and the myths of alien species filling the galaxy, living in harmonious existence is untrue as far as we know. We drift alone. However Humanity will not be deterred from exploration. The first Space craft capable of leaving our humble system is being dispatched to the nearest star system in response to odd transmissions there.

The UES Valor and her crew will be on an 87 year two way journey (43.5 years to get there, 43.5 to get back to Earth) to Alpha centauri to explore odd transmissions being sent out there.

You are all the most qualified and hand-picked members of the whole of the Earth. You, as the crew of the Valor, will go forth and explore the Galaxy, to find enemies, allies or mysteries? Will you find new marvels and amazing exhibitions of life and prosperity on the galaxy, or will you merely confirm the mindset of the pessimists, that we do indeed we drift alone?

Years before in 2076AD, a fuel war between the United States and Russia resulted in a long fought conventional war, ending in a nuclear strike to finally bring the conflict to an end. With this the Rio Protocol, the successor of the United Nations, forms and creates a directive: No war on Earth. Years of fragile peace allow the united world to combine, and soon the mysteries of fusion power are uncovered, and put into action to solve the world’s fuel crisis. Humans begin to regroup on Earth, hopeful of a new future on the horizon.

In 2157 AD the first compacted fusion drives are created, and used to power a new Earth Space Station, one that 80 people now inhabit. This new space golden age makes humanity look towards the stars, and the moon is designated as their next target.

Just 20 years later, the Luna base is up and running, and back on Earth there is unrest. Under the Rio Protocol they are only semi-united, and this recent incursion into space requires a much larger degree of Unity. From the successes of Rio, United Earth (UE) is established, and every nation of what is called “Old Terra” ratifies the constitution. To everyone’s surprise, the first UE president is a citizen of the United Korean Region, part of what was called “North Korea” in Old Terra.

A mere few years ahead of this, the first Artificially built, designed and modelled minds, featured many a time in speculative fiction, Artificial Intelligences are created to take over the workload of computers. Although they seem to be in their infancy, they easily managed to take over the runnings of cities, earning them the nicknames “Caretakers”.

All current human scientific and technological achievement pools into one project in 2184, as advanced Arcjet thrusters, Inertial Confinement Fusion engines, prototype AI’s, Cryo stasis technology are put into practice with the building of the first human space craft capable of leaving Sol for extended periods. To boost morale the project is made public the day it was conceived.

It all comes down to the year 2219, where 3 months before the newest and most experimental piece of technology was added to the ship which had been called the UES (United Earth Ship) Valor, Anti-gravity control units were added to create a gravity field that the same of Earth so the crew can feel at home aboard their new home.


Name (and rank):
Age:
Gender:
Role on ship:
Personality:
Description or picture:
Backstory:


- Because the Valor is a large starship, it needs many crewmen to run it, there are many roles for someone to take, I’m sure it will appeal to someone! Ones of the top of my head are Captain, Pilot, Tactical/Security Officer, Chief Medical Officer, Scientists/researchers (biology, Physics etc) Marine Lieutenant and Marine Grunts. Any roles you would like to take not covered here, suggest them to me! I’ll be taking over the role of ship, bar that any and all roles are free to grab.

[Roles with bold are roles required to be taken before the RP starts:
Captain
Tactical/Security officer
Chief Engineer
Chief Medical Officer
Marine Commander/Lieutenant





- Basic common sense rules apply, like don’t insult/be rude to other players and godmodding. You’re above that.

- Because of the focus on Sol, and Earth, characters can only choose to be human from this point on. This may change in the future, but not at this point of time.

- Have fun in this Roleplay, I hope it will be an enjoyable experience for everyone.


Any questions, feel free to ask me!

Leviathan
05-30-2011, 06:15 PM
You've really done your research, I particularly like the political atmosphere and find my own particular interests in the concept of the 'caregivers' could you explain the AI a bit more? Could one of the roles of the ship be a neurologist responsible for maintaining and monitoring the minds of the AI?

Also, you've set the story as discovering more about the message sent from alpha centauri (or so I gather) will there be subplots included like having a religious movement (or any anti-establishment) opposed to space travel attempt a kamikaze attack, or infiltrate the spaceship to wreak havoc from inside? Or does the story actually begin at the destination?

In any event subscription added.

Terra
05-30-2011, 06:25 PM
Thanks, I appreciate that and I'm glad you liked the concept a bit.

Regarding AI, I'll give you the lowdown of AI development in the RP from a Terran perspective. Terran AI development began in 2150, as the psychology and understanding of the human mind increased, resulting in the first AI capable of passing the Turing test, although they managed to pass the test few times, no AI as of the early 2200's was capable of completing it consistently. by 2210, they found a new AI program that could complete the Turing Test consistently, able to learn and in some cases, be able to be "creative" in a very loose sense, although it still had limited social intelligence. It was named Altair and work was set to fine tune it for usage as the ship AI of the UES Valor.

AI's have a short lifespan (10 years roughly) until the brain connections inside the processors and core logic begin to degrade. in general however Altair is a rare AI in that it's been active for 12 years and is still stable. Altair is the most advanced form of AI because it is fully sentient in the way it can feel, learn, initiate advanced social conversations and the like. However because of the fact AI's can easily degrade and become "insane" the need for someone to monitor them is always there, so yes, I believe a neurologist responsible for monitoring the AI would be a really good idea for a character.

Sorry for the wall of text explanation!

And to address your other point, the real story happens when we reach our destination, which will be exciting to say the least. However you raise an interesting point, I may consider a sub-plot before we begin our expedition and reach our destination.

Hoped this helped you.

Mat
05-30-2011, 07:54 PM
This looks really interesting. I'll definitely take part in this.

Enigma
05-30-2011, 08:02 PM
This is an 87-year journey? So basically a generation ship? Or are you set up to rotate crews out of cryo-stasis to man the ship for a set number of years? Or an emergency crew that can be thawed if someone dies?

Are we set up for families?

Will the civilian remain in cyro-stasis to be thawed on arrival or rotated too?

If AI's have such a limited lifespan of ten years, wouldn't it make sense to have additional AI units on board, to be plugged in at the first time an AI started to show its age?

And what about damage? If something goes wrong, wouldn't it make sense to have an alternate AI system, a sort of "co-pilot" that can take over if something happens to the main AI?

I can see AIs supervising computers, letting them do the number-crunching for the AIs who then issue adjustments much faster than the humans could. Should something happen to the AIs, everything could switch over to a "Manual Mode" where humans key in the adjustments instead. It would also allow for a fail-safe.

Terra
05-30-2011, 08:07 PM
This is an 87-year journey? So basically a generation ship? Or are you set up to rotate crews out of cryo-stasis to man the ship for a set number of years? Are we set up for families?

Will the civilian remain in cyro-stasis to be thawed on arrival or rotated too?

If AI's have such a limited lifespan of ten years, wouldn't it make sense to have additional AI units on board, to be plugged in at the first time an AI started to show its age?

And what about damage? If something goes wrong, wouldn't it make sense to have an alternate AI system, a sort of "co-pilot" that can take over if something happens to the main AI?

I can see AIs supervising computers, letting them do the number-crunching for the AIs who then issue adjustments much faster than the humans could. Should something happen to the AIs, everything could switch over to a "Manual Mode" where humans key in the adjustments instead. It would also allow for a fail-safe.

The Valor is a slow sleeper ship, it travels at slower than light speeds using an Inertial Confinement Fusion engine to achieve such speeds. the ships crew get put in cryo-stasis for the journey, and every few months a technician from a rota system will be brought out of cryo to do basic maintenance and upkeep of the AI.

And yes, although I neglected to mention it in my premise there is a back-up AI that has a 10 year lifespan, so the crew and the AI have 10 years to bring the primary AI to peak condition in cases of emergency. if a problem is found by the rota technician, the back-up AI will be brought on-line to take over.

And this is a primarily military mission, although an exploratory one as well. Reason being transmissions have been detected near their destination, and humanity doesn't want to lose their most valuable asset at the time to a potential threat.

I hope this answered your queries.

Enigma
05-30-2011, 08:11 PM
So there's just two, for a journey of 87 years? And is this trip one way or return? What I mean is, will it take another 87 years to report our findings?

Terra
05-30-2011, 08:14 PM
So there's just two, for a journey of 87 years?

Altair has a unique structure which should allow it to survive for such a journey, in theory. However with the ten year long lived back-up AI, any problems with the primary AI has a grand total of 10 years to complete, this includes access with the ships engineering crew if need be.

Edit: Just saw your edit. Yes, it will be a two way trip for the Valor crew.

Enigma
05-30-2011, 08:18 PM
Altair has a unique structure which should allow it to survive for such a journey, in theory. However with the ten year long lived back-up AI, any problems with the primary AI has a grand total of 10 years to complete, this includes access with the ships engineering crew if need be.

Edit: Just saw your edit. Yes, it will be a two way trip for the Valor crew.

So the mission is 87 years round-trip? How long at the destination will we have?

Leviathan
05-30-2011, 08:19 PM
You did mention that Altair has already defied expectation as a rare AI. Out of curiosity (and mostly a lack of knowledge) I assume the routine tasks of maintaining a ship throughout its 87 year journey isn't something that would be taxing, would that have any effect on how the AI is able to survive for so long? Less load = longer life so to speak?

Is it possible that Altair could run these programs from a form of sleep itself?

Not to detract from your topic in any way, sorry if these questions are pointless XD

Terra
05-30-2011, 08:22 PM
So the mission is 87 years round-trip? How long at the destination will we have?

However long it takes to explore where and how the transmissions were sent, and if there is any intelligent life that made them. If there is intelligent life that we find, depending on what the players choose, we will likely conduct first contact with them.


You did mention that Altair has already defied expectation as a rare AI. Out of curiosity (and mostly a lack of knowledge) I assume the routine tasks of maintaining a ship throughout its 87 year journey isn't something that would be taxing, would that have any effect on how the AI is able to survive for so long? Less load = longer life so to speak?

Is it possible that Altair could run these programs from a form of sleep itself?

Not to detract from your topic in any way, sorry if these questions are pointless XD

No, it wouldn't be very taxing if Altair stays stable and manages to stay away from anything that puts the ship into harm.

It is possible Altair could run these programs itself, might be worth considering.

Also, your questions aren't pointless, they're helpful to me to fine tune this RP.

Enigma
05-30-2011, 08:29 PM
Interesting. Going to think on this for a bit. Thanks for posting this! ^ _ ^

Terra
05-30-2011, 08:30 PM
Interesting. Going to think on this for a bit. Thanks for posting this! ^ _ ^

You're very welcome.

Mat
05-30-2011, 09:55 PM
hmmm...I'm thinking I'll make my character an engineer. I should have a character ready soon.

Kris
05-30-2011, 10:00 PM
This looks like a great game. Why not submit it for Roleplay of the Week (http://www.role-player.net/forum/showthread.php?t=905) or put it in the Roleplaying Games Directory (http://www.role-player.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2304) or click here (http://www.role-player.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3975) to help attract players?

Mat
06-06-2011, 02:13 AM
Okay, so maybe it's not as soon as I thought it would be, but here's my character. Tell me if anything should be changed or just wouldn't fit in the plot.


Name: Samuel Marr

Age: 29

Gender: Male

Role: Engineer

Personlaity: Sam is smart and a generally kind person. His intelligence and somewhat high opinion of himself sometimes causes him to be sarcastic and a little rude around people who aren't as smart as he is. Otherwise, Sam is usually always willing to lend a helping hand to anyone who needs one.

Description: Sam is tall, around 6 feet. He has cropped black hair and light hazel eyes. Though not too strong, being an engineer has given him a lean build.

Backstory: Samuel Marr was born in North America in 2190 to an average middle-class family. Growing up he was always good with machines and technology. By age 25, he was an engineer on Earth's Luna base. He showed a natural affinity for space technology that surprised his superiors, who were shocked to see someone so young being able to fix so many of the stations technological problems.
He continued to work on the Luna station and occasionaly worked on short orbital spaceflights until he was selected for the journey of the new spaceship, Valor. Chosen for his aptitude with machinery and his experience in space, Sam was viewed as a natural, if not a little young, candidate for the Valor's journey.