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Borders in Supernova


Flagritz

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Hi Guys,

 

I thought I would try and spark some debate on what players thoughts are regarding empire borders.

My Empires are facing a difficult quandary and some outside perspective might help.

 

Are borders worth establishing, patrolling and monitoring or are they unimportant in the long run?

 

Does it matter if players cross and chart your territory or should you use all force to keep them out?

 

Are borders an important part of relationship building with other empires or just an obstacle that makes things harder?

 

What are people thoughts?

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The old Senate defined "your" space as anything within two jumps of your homeworld. That still seems reasonable to us, as we've found so many colonizable worlds in that area that we can't imagine needing to expand further than that.

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There are many different trains of thought on this, some say the two systems nearest your HW but any sensible empire holds at least 4 systems out to gain a buffer from TWD assaults. Other say that if you claim the system first publically it is yours while the majority seem to consider a system yours if you tell the involved parties that it is yours and you can hold with the enough firepower.

 

Considering colonisation and aquiring neutrals are a bust in this game as you get more efficient expansion from improving your HW and captured HWs and especially much more easily defendable, borders are more a matter of making it harder to reach your HW.

 

What I have is seeded every system within 12 Wps with sensor fleets at every WP and every gas giant. Since a 1000 tons of fuel tank, engine and jump drive seem capable of detecting alien fleets as well as a trillion ton of sensor fleets this has worked well for me in the past, only hindrance is that with 1800+ pages those pesky alien fleet sightings are easy to miss.

 

Cheers

 

/Locklyn

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Borders are arbitrary at best. In a 3-d system with one way WP's there is no way to draw a line and claim one side of it. To do so is the height of folly and arrogance. IMHO the only way to truly have borders is to go system by system laying out which systems are off limits. Of course this means you either have to trust your neighbor that he will play fair or you have to know the lay of the land in advance so you know for yourself that the "border" is fairly drawn. this also means that you would have to divulge all of your own systems in an effort to keep out your untrusted neighbor and that is counterintuitive at best.

 

If you trust your neighbor so much then there is little need for borders and if you don't then they are useless.

 

Also, for what it's worth, I claim anything within 4 of anything that I own plus any paths between assets. However, I generally don't mind travelers as long as they don't try and make counter claims.

:drunk::cheers::D

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Well then I claim everything...well except that the Starfinders have and that which my friends have and that which is useless...hmmm...guess that means I am content with my HW systems :D

 

/Locklyn

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Different players have different ideas about boundaries. When one of your fleets make "first contact" with a neighbor's fleet, get in touch straight away and make an agreement over borders. Most friendly players will be happy to make such an agreement, although they may station sentry ships to detect any violation of the agreement.

 

One neighbor (who subsequently dropped) was reluctant to agree to a border, saying that star systems with no occupants (either colonies or sentries) are free for all to map and explore. I was not happy with this as most of my "claimed space" had no occupants at the time - something I have since rectified - and my acceptance of this player's argument would have allowed his Empire's ships to explore up to my Home World.

 

Another neighbor believes that ownership of a star system goes to the Empire who discovered it first. In the early years of SNROTE, players would declare their finds on the Board in order to fulfill this requirement - something I still do (although I always ask if my newly-discovered star system is familar to anyone in case I have found a new neighbor).

 

Some neighbors are just unfriendly and will not recognise a border (or even communicate) unless you force them to do so through battle. So far, only the very unfriendly Crushbone Clan is in this category for my Empire.

 

I hope this helps!

 

 

/Len

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... with 1800+ pages those pesky alien fleet sightings are easy to miss.

This is why we like Acrobat's search function. The word "sighting" gets used very seldom in turn reports except when aliens show up.

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I consider Sabeli territory to be every system where I have a HW or colony, all systems within 4 of these systems and every system between that system and my HW.

Allowing aliens into any of these systems requires some sort of agreement with me. Most aliens of met, I think will say I'm pretty reasonable (although sometimes paranoid), heck, probably all except the Bovines, and I guess now the Obsidian, Inc., they aren't welcome, but that is because of their actions, not mine.

 

As Hobknob said, hard to maintain, but I keep warships on continuous patrol! :D

 

:drunk:

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There are many different trains of thought on this, some say the two systems nearest your HW but any sensible empire holds at least 4 systems out to gain a buffer from TWD assaults. Other say that if you claim the system first publically it is yours while the majority seem to consider a system yours if you tell the involved parties that it is yours and you can hold with the enough firepower. /Locklyn

I'm forced to agree with Locklyn on this one. Your 'Borders' are what you can claim & hold; since we don't have a Galactic Court to handle 'trespass' complaints, and several million tons of DepLoc probably won't care you were there first! :drunk:

 

The Gornase, in defiance of all logic, and in spite of administrative incompetance, are slowly reaching out to other systems. So you'll know, that means System Beacons & fleets at the Warp Points in the fond hope that whoever we make contact with has crying need & unquenchable desire for Improved Luxury Goods. :blink:

 

At least, we should be able to talk about it before the fur flies, scales shed, or what ever else holds your insides in [providing you even have insides]. :unsure:

 

Orderly.... Where does the Logistics Manager say the Fuel Stockpile went THIS time??? :D:cheers:

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A cool thing about this game is that your empire can do whatever it wants concerning relationships with other empires. Short of game mechanics issues, the limits to this are based on what your empire is capable of doing, not on any arbitrary rules placed on us by RTG or "out of game" player groups like Galactic Senates, etc. Other players opinions really have no impact on what you can do unless they happen to be an in-game neighbor.

 

It all comes down to what you want, what you can negotiate with your neighbors, and what you or your neighbors are capable of enforcing or are willing to sacrifice to get what you want.

 

If you don't mind other players mapping routes to your colonies and HW's, great. But be ready to deal with the potential consequences of this. If you want to maintain a border, great. But be prepared to enforce it.

 

Things change in the game. Information exchanges hands, empire ownership can change, alliances are formed, fueds are developed, players drop, HW's are conquered, mindsets change, etc., etc. In the world of gaming, we've all seen even the best of alliances fracture.

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I would say 3-4 jumps from your homeworld would be reasonable , and from what I have heard with other positions , that is about the norm . I can also see making allowances if someone stumbles into your area trying to find a way back home after going through a one-way . Most reasonable players would abide by that , and the ones that don't , well , those are the ones that one builds warships about. Same as in real life.....

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I would say 3-4 jumps from your homeworld would be reasonable , and from what I have heard with other positions , that is about the norm . I can also see making allowances if someone stumbles into your area trying to find a way back home after going through a one-way . Most reasonable players would abide by that , and the ones that don't , well , those are the ones that one builds warships about. Same as in real life.....

 

 

You build warships in real life? :D

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I would say 3-4 jumps from your homeworld would be reasonable , and from what I have heard with other positions , that is about the norm . I can also see making allowances if someone stumbles into your area trying to find a way back home after going through a one-way . Most reasonable players would abide by that , and the ones that don't , well , those are the ones that one builds warships about. Same as in real life.....

 

 

You build warships in real life? :cheers:

Nothing Texans do anymore surprises us. :drunk::unsure:

:D:blink:

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Hehe , yes , I have a 351,000 ton cruiser sitting in Lake Merideth ready to defend the homeland against any incursions . The dilithium crystals are fresh and the ship is ready to rise into orbit . It is lightly armed with a pair of Type A Spinal Meson Accelerators.....are you meaning to tell me you don't have a ship spirited away somewhere?

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Hehe , yes , I have a 351,000 ton cruiser sitting in Lake Merideth ready to defend the homeland against any incursions . The dilithium crystals are fresh and the ship is ready to rise into orbit . It is lightly armed with a pair of Type A Spinal Meson Accelerators.....are you meaning to tell me you don't have a ship spirited away somewhere?

 

Well...none that I'm willing to talk about on an open forum...

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