When I was a younger man, before I became the old and decrepit 24 year old before you, there was a little-known game not much unlike this one. It was fun, nerdy, made by a small yet very active company (before Microsoft got it, I guess), and had a small, dedicated community of players. Okay, not "Holy crap there are 200 people on ICO at the same time?!" small, but you get the idea. The game was Mechcommander and one of the leagues formed around it went by the name of Steel Command.
The SCL was a heavily role-played league which used Mechcommander as a vehicle to wage an enormous interstellar war between the various Battletech factions (faction websites still exist today, in all their 1998 glory). Factions would fight for territory and resources. They would commit Mechs and other resources to battles, then play out those battles in the game. There was diplomacy and even an enormous map which was manually updated to reflect faction ownership changes (this was back before the web was "dynamic"
I think a league like this would work well in Sins for a few reasons. First of all, it is asynchronous. That is, factions can schedule games or just issue orders ("Explore this planet", etc.) and won't need to randomly have a whole lot of players on at the same time (this is the main reason clans don't work right now). Secondly, Sins is very customizable, which is required for this sort of thing to work. The Map Designer is quick and dirty, but the real power lies in Galaxy Forge (assuming it gets fixed) which allows maps to be custom-tailored to battles. With this customization combined with the fact that different battles can have different supply caps, sizes and so forth, games can be long or short depending on the battle setup and include any number of other variables.
Sins games can be incredibly long, back and forth, intense experiences even though the action isn't necessarily constant -- that's what I love about it. You have to make big decisions -- do I build up and dig in or rush? Do I save that planet being attacked or do I counter? -- which can affect where you are an hour later. But what if the game didn't end in an hour, a day, or a month? What if there were an entire Universe to conquer and not just a star or two at a time?
If there's a game out now that could be used to resurrect the enormous scope and breadth of Steel Command, it is almost certainly Sins. However, this is no minor task and will require dedication and effort from many -- not to mention players! I'm not sure if we have enough people yet, but we'd have to start somewhere. This would be a considerable undertaking and I am already extremely low on free time, so I'm putting this out now to see what sort of interest there is, if any. Please provide feedback!
P.S. If you're wondering who would actually make the site for this, the answer is me. I do it for a living so we've at least got that part covered.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!
Like what you've read so far? Then check this out!
Okay folks, it seems like we have enough people interested to make an official inquiry here on the boards. The way I see it, we need a minimum of 25 people to start really getting the ball rolling in an official way on this thing. To that end, I have created a form that interested parties should fill out. It shouldn't take more than 30 seconds and will give me a way to keep track of people with serious interest.
One of the questions asks what you want your "role" to be; I have created the following roles with my recommendation of minimum numbers to fulfill in parenthesis (assumes 3 initial factions; one for each race):
Fill out the form here: http://binjured.wufoo.com/forms/sins-league-signup/
Thank you in advance!
(Entrenchment required for membership for the time being; with more players, hopefully we can have two leagues... but that's a dream for now.)
Idk man, i dont think i will, If i get sum free time, I will try to help you guys out, bc to be blunt, the current vasari lore is a mess... Like... sorrowsworn=total wtf
Well if you dont, thats cool. But I thought I offer for you to redo the Vasari lore. LOL, cuz like you said wtf on their current lore. Nothing against Shadow. I say if you stick around just redo it all ^^
Yeah, i would need a consolidated version of the Vasari Lore and important characters in order for me to work the vasari in correctly in my story line. Once ive have the revisions done, including parts that will be drawn down, i will foward it to you carbon and desamator for review and commentary.
Sounds great! Hope you have enough on our lore and importaint characters.
Um, im not gunna be doing anything lore-related, as, my sister has mono, and refuses to stay in her room, *bitch*, so im going to my friends house
Well lol, dont blame you from running from Mono. Bummer about the Vasari Faction. I guess its officaly dead.
Nyczzz, did you want to merge our site into a new site dedicated to 'Steel Commad' lore and stories? I be happy to post all our side stories and lore up on your site for easier access. I have redone but reposted the -Ue_ background lore to update and further explain how we fit into the TEC as a faction. Ive also added a bit more info for my personal profile. Mostly about my fleet (or division as its called within my faction), rough numbers and key cap ships will be in the addtion. But Im gonna hold off posting both till you get back to me on the transfer of stories.
Any room left in the TEC? I love roleplaying
Always room for more. Though Im not sure what you have read. The league aspect of this group has been put on hold due to there just not enough intrest. We do how ever plan to keep roleplaying this little episode.
If your interested in the -Ue_ (currently the only TEC faction) see this: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/346132
For rules and who to contact for deployment. If you got questions about the rules and guildlines, let me know.
Hey carbon, how are things going, sorry ive been a bit MIA. So much work to do and practically very little time to game at all as of late. Let me know if there is anything i need to do for you regarding the site and any stuff you may need and ill foward it over to you asap.
I didnt play SCL but this is along the lines of what I had envisioned Stardock/Ironclad taking SINs 2 if they were to create a sequel. But what you describe is even larger then what I had envisioned. But I definintely would be interested in playing a part in this. Been looking for a good enough reason to go MP sign me up for the TEC!
Np Nyczzz, Ive been busy myself with 2 jobs and other projects.
Right now for the Steel Command site, it just depends on if you want to use your current fourms or mine. Or create a whole new one. Once that is decided we can transfer what we need to the site and restructure the lore to fit better together. Also ya might want to head over to these lore based post on the backstory for each faction.
TEC- https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/364997
Advent- https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/365012
Vasari- https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/363669
Ive not given much input into these topics yet. I wanted to get our Steel Command lore in order then submit our versions of the back lore to each respective topic. Though its nice to see others involved with lore.
@Allegiance: Your more than welcome to join us. Though Im not sure what you have read up on. Right now the actually competitive league aspect of the Steel Command is on hold. Not enough intrest. How ever we are still going to be working on the lore part. Creating a place for fan fiction within the Steel Command SoaSE universe. It will vary from other fan fiction Im assuming. There is 1 TEC faction already created -Ue_ , the link to our recruitment topic is a few post above. Feel free to post there with questions and such. And there is nothing stopping you if you dont like how -Ue_ is organized, on making a new faction. Since we are not concentrating on the competitive league part then I safe its say we can create as many different factions as we want.
I think if we create a collective website, sorta like a HUB where people can go to for all of our respective factions and future factions. We should set a mutual day that were both free so we can hammer out a new website and all.
What ever became of this?
It died, though the main champion (-Ue_Carbon) has continued to haunt the forums and has started another lore/rp idea with Distant Stars Lore
come check it out
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/372058
Hmm shame, came back to see if this was alive, would've loved to continue where I left off or Nyczzz its been a while.
Edit: Where are the old faces
Nautilae! Glad to see you alive. lol. If your still interested in some RP, check out the link Ryat posted. We have some interesing stuff going on! We could always use another Advent player! It is a shame this Steel Command lost steam. I still love to get something like it up and running for SINS. One can dream. lol.
Nice to see u Carbon, I'll check it out, dunno what I'm doing yet though. RL morphs time quite quickly some times and not sure if it's finaly giving me a break. Take it Advent lore is completely changed now from my perspective right?
Well I totaly understand the RL thing. Got some issues with that myself.
As to the Advent lore, here on Steel Command its as you left it. On our RP we had one fellow step up and work on some but his character is an rogue section of the Advent. All the major Advent lore has really yet to be written and such. Like I said your more than welcome to join us! Its just us posting a story really, no game time invovled. If you got time PM me or read up. Hope all is well over there!
I'll consider taking reins and making more advent lore, Just gotta see what ur guy is doing / going with them. I got a new email so Ill send u a pm and can get reacquainted that way, hard for me to remember to check game site.
I was in Steel Command for abit, I enjoyed actually getting to play match's where people REALLY made mechs, not those figgen laser running tin cans.
Good to see some people still up and around. I feel bad that I lost sight of the Advent lore and never got around to continue it. I recently tried to get back onto the website I had made but I had forgotten my admin password.
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