Welcome to Gaia! ::

...I think I'll have more energy to expound on this tomorrow, but for tonight, I wanted to put this out there so that everyone can read and think up of ideas.

In my mind, the ASDF needs to change some.

This is because I feel that it'll be difficult to create a constant threat to the ASDF without Antag, and Antag requires a group to be in opposition. ASDF is the big old Goodie Two Shoes of our factions, so that means that as it stands, we need to recruit players who want to play villians (tough to find!) and build them a fleet of fighters capable of providing a challenge to the ASDF...in other words, we'd have to develop an entirely new nation, since the ASDF is Gaia's defense force. Why does the ASDF need a constant threat? Because without one, our characters become lax and bored. Challenges force us to develop our characters...and that is the RP that we really need right now.

So what options do we have for the ASDF that I can immediately think of:

• Make the ASDF more gray...The Ixchatl and Alternida's band could be the catalyst... the Ixchatl forces the ASDF to desperation. Alternida's group shows the ASDF how to get things done... but it's not pretty. It involves breaking eggs.
  
  
• Downsize the ASDF. Tanasha's hinted at this already in her RP posts... the Senate is doing things that have been eroding at the funding the ASDF is allocated. Also, the ASDF still hasn't recovered, manpower-wise, from the disaster. Less manpower, less money...ASDF becomes less dominant.
  
  
• Bring up TORAMA - I think that TORAMA might be a good opposition group. They already don't like the ASDF 100%. They possess interdimensional travel capabilities. They too might have encountered the Ixchatl. They are already on the grayer side of things....the elements are all there, just need some big boon that will increase TORAMA's power and influence....say a dimension filled with metal...and then access to an abandoned automated fabrication facility to process that metal....maybe an old Robotech Factory Satellite?

These are just ideas, I don't know how plausible they are. But I think the problem needs to be discussed....and so I'm throwing stuff at the wall til something sticks. sweatdrop

Anyone watch JLU? Particularly when the Justice League got so big and powerful that it started to cause fear among the populace? I have no clue just what Tanasha or you guys have in mind, but some enemies could well be members of the Senate.

I'll give Lindy a big sigh of relief in saying that thanks to a nice scholarship I'll be able to purchase a laptop when I goto Japan for study abroad later this month. (Was planning to have her take over while my access was questionable.) The current TORAMA RP really is going to dictate just how bad relations between the two will be. Just need a few more people that have issues with ASDF, like to make $$$ in a variety of ways (right now scrap since we're rebuilding), displaced from their home, enjoys playing the underdog, etc. Just how fun would it be to fight against people you once worked with, especially the conversations. (I'm getting the whole Fokker vs. Ivanov thing from Macross Zero in my head.) I have a list of zingers just waiting once Keno becomes active. xd

I like it all. whee You know... I bet that Owle could give us some really cool ideas on how the rest of Gaia could percieve the ASDF.

It just seems that the unless someone plays an opposition, only then would anything get moving. As if all sole purposes only revolves around the battlefield or an invasional forces. Only a few of us(well, very very few of us who are only the few.... ... whaa? ... nevermind) are running a story and the rest kicks in when theres actions.

Im not sure how we could interest everyone to run an intergrated story system. Like... we have Saoszuc taking care of a handfull of nutca- errr AlterNidas and the Ixchatl factions. Without Sao, no one else would be able to do anything. So rather then leave it at that, would it be possible to include everyone's character into the same story in some way? Uhm for instance, maybe characters with more of a White medical degree would find the AlterNida existence and blashphemy. So this medical character would have a side story that inter-connects with the existence of the Main story runned by Sao? Well, maybe white medical useage was a little... odd or bad example.

Uhm let me try anotehr example. Say my character, Thrie, as seen in his returning post, isnt human, like many other characters we have here in ASDF. Going back to ASDF history, Thrie had amnesia, wasnt born on this planet, arrived in a Colony class spaceship that had an error and crashed into this side of Gaia. The phenominal effect of the Ixchatl's technology brought up some similiar case or cause or even stories to.... a story... sweatdrop Nevermind.

Er.... Gah, im brain dead now. Anyway... I guess what im trying to say is for more stories about the main character coming from each person? So we arent restricted to whats going on currently? Hrm bad internal suggestion.

For more of an external method....

So my question is, would it be better for us to expand our themes beyond just military and into something more recreational? Thought this suggestion requires more of a work then just what i plain said. Kind of hard to deal with this one. Such as doing more of a Public Barton-town deal RP. For example, we would move into a current RP roaming about in the RP forums of Barton Town, with the same theme as ASDF and RP our existence there, when that ends, we move onto other threads. Or threads within a Guild after we asked if we could join them. Even though thats out of GNG RPing boundary and its purpose, it could bring a new hand to RPing? We are partially doing that just now with the GNG Recruiting Outpost. Just this seemed to be more of a difficult step upward.

I agree that having someone to be an opposition of is quite difficult. TORAMA is a good opposition group but what would TORAMA group be considered as? I cant really say they are an evil faction. Since we lack people who would be villians and doesnt act like Cobra and his forces from GI_Joe. Rather, I'd like to have an opposition that poses a threat because their Ideal differs from us. An ideal that doesnt label them as Evil nor does it label us evil. A force that is almost aiming for the same goal as ASDF but the way it runs and its final outcome will be different from us. But i have no idea how could that be brought upon. Hell, if it would be of any good, i'd suggest the guild im affiliated with, an academic guild to act as a competitor with ASDF. One being military-wise for its goal while the other be more of an Academic for a common goal as ASDF. But that'll be no good. And the fact that im a member of ASDF and the other guild, that poses a difficult existence for my involvement in any conflict.

I've also thought about a Ying/Yang method. This is too original and simple but it could develop a possible force enough of a challenge. For everyone member who are in ASDF or so, they should have a... as i would call it... "An Evil Twin". Just a secondary character that would oppose you and what you are fighting for. Uhm say my character as we know him as Thrie, for him to exist, there would be another character that poses a threat and the possibility to kill him is low because changes are, if that secondary character dies, your main character dies as well. So we have everyone in ASDF, the number of main character to equal to the number of Arch-villian character... They would run like an Opposite, darker side of ASDF. But the Your 'Evil Twin' would not fight your own good character, but instead, fight another ASDF Main character other then your own. This sounds like a hard suggestion but thats the few i only can come up with.

Damnit sweatdrop It doesnt seem like i have Any simple method can be used to resolve such problem. Hell, If i were to come up with a suggestion, it should be something i could handle as well. But as most of these i've stated, requires alot more.

....... sweatdrop uhhhh theres my uh, 10 cents... emo

I lost myself long before that... sweatdrop

Not only does Thrie have some capital ideas, but now I can practice my linguistics. xd Jodan datta!



This is what I dream of. Not a series of plots, one after the other, but a morass of them. So when I see something interesting in someone's bio, I can keep it in mind, maybe make a hole in a plot I'm running that fits that bit of information - and now not only have I worked to throw the spotlight on someone else, but now our characters are probably interacting. Everyone's plots intersect. Just like RL. razz

So should we include a spot in the bios? "Plot hooks"? sweatdrop



This is terribly reminiscent of the old, pre-GGN days I keep mooning over... when Nida would spend about two posts at the ASDF base, then post in and out of the GPD thread as she went by - just so she could be seen observing whatever was going on - on her way to the Yakuza stronghold. After that, she had her own home thread, where her experiments were recorded.

It's terribly inefficient, of course, especially now with the GGN system. But damn, did it make for some spectacular alliances and events. If anyone has any idea how to bring that flavor back with less fuss and mess, then I'm all ears.



This is what I was hoping would happen with Antag: everyone has one character in a GNG branch, then another character in an opposition group. Wouldn't have to be a group opposing "their" branch; one could have a GN character and a Lanzeraedi character, with the latter rivaling the GA rather than the GN. Savvy? We should make a rule or something. razz

And by that you mean what? The ASDF is an almighty godly force that no one can touch, not even liter on?