[OFFICIAL] Re: GZG Email?

> In message <3B16F826.3C321484@pacbell.net>, thwaak writes:

I've just had a reply from my ISP saying that they think the problem is now
fixed and the blocks removed - can anyone who's had trouble getting
through to me please try again, and we'll see if it works now?

Thanks,

> I've just had a reply from my ISP saying that they think the problem

This one's going to both addresses - let me know if you get it twice,
Jon!

Another thing I need for the Directory is a brief description (2-4
sentences) for each of the major factions for which starship miniatures are
available. I was going to work from the descriptions in the rulebooks, but I
don't see any.

I need descriptions for: ESU, FSE, Islamic Federation, NSL, NAC, OUDF, Outrim
Coalition, Phalons, Sa'vasku, Kra'vak, UNSC.

Also, could you explain the significance of "GF Range"? This is listed in the
online catalog as if its another faction, but includes ships that look to
belong to the other groups. (i.e., should we list GF 006 under UNSC rather
than GF Range?)

Are the Brigade Models 1:3000 ships part of the FT universe?

On Sat, 2 Jun 2001 16:58:12 -0400, "bill_armintrout"
> <bill_armintrout@EMAIL.MSN.COM> wrote:

> Another thing I need for the Directory is a brief description (2-4

The bulk of them are in the Fleet Books. *S* If Jon is too busy, I'm sure some
of us could supply descriptions.

Out of curiousity, Bill, will you be putting in, or do you already have,
listings for Jon's other miniatures, such as the Stargrunt II and Dirtside II
ranges?

From: "bill_armintrout" <bill_armintrout@EMAIL.MSN.COM>

> Another thing I need for the Directory is a brief description (2-4

Descriptions of what? Society, Foreign Policy, Tactics or Fleet?

Try the Unofficial GZGpedia for much of it.
http://www.warpfish.com/jhan/ft/gzgpedia/

As regards Fleet tactics for things like the UN, OU, OC, IF, that'll have to

> This one's going to both addresses - let me know if you get it twice,

Didn't work - here's the error message:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Unable to deliver message to the following recipients, due to being unable to
connect successfully to the destination mail server.

> The bulk of them are in the Fleet Books. *S* If Jon is too busy, I'm

Maybe you all could propose them here, and see if Jon agrees?

> Out of curiousity, Bill, will you be putting in, or do you already

The intention is to eventually put EVERYTHING into the new database. I'm
holding off on putting any more "ground" sci-fi yet, since I'm having
trouble figuring out how to categorize it.

In most other cases, the breakdown is by nationality and then function. Or
with starships, there are some commonly agreed upon ship classes
(battleships, destroyers, carriers, etc.) that work well. With sci-fi
infantry, there are no useful nationalities, and the weapons are all "made up"
too!

Right now, I've got the sci-fi infantry already in the Directory grouped
by Human and Alien. I can break it down further by armor type and weapon type,
but that would have to be real fuzzy categories ("light" armor, "rifle" type
weapons, "heavy" weapons, etc.), and I'd need to practically see every mini to
know how to classify it.

I should mention that the eventual object is that a user can look up what he
wants by scale and function, and find who makes the right figures. For
instance, 28mm, Human Marines in Light Armor, boom, see all the figures from
the various manufacturers.

> Try the Unofficial GZGpedia for much of it.

Tried it. Here's what I've got so far:

ESU - no listing.
FSE - no listing
Islamic Federation - "The Islamic Federation is a significant minor
power, capable of competing directly with any other power except the four
Major Powers. It enjoys a large pool of manpower and abundant natural
resources, but suffers from an overly aggressive foreign policy and a second
rate technological capability. The Federation is in theory ruled by the Sultan
with the assistance of the provincial and planetary amirs; in practice, the
amirs only put their feuding on hold when it is obviously necessary to fight
off an immediate outside threat."
NSL -
NAC -
OUDF - "The Oceanic Union is a federation of states, covering the South
Pacific, with some off-world colonies. The OU armed space forces consist
of
a relatively large Navy, which is composed of semi-civilian multipurpose
patrol, cargo and exploration craft, and a much smaller purely military fleet.
Most of the patrol craft can be converted to fleet capable units at short
notice, but few stocks of the expensive conversion kits are held (enough for
about 20%)."
Outrim -
Phalons -
Sa'vasku -
United Nations - "The United Nations of the current era bears little
resemblance to the troubled institution born in the aftermath of World War II.
The UN maintains stability over the Inner Systems, and keeps the peace by
maintaining the balance of power among all the Great Powers. This means the UN
leads a very exciting and very dangerous life. UN ships are technically
superior, and have the unique advantage of being built around modular systems
that can be quickly swapped in and out. However, the UN fleet is also small,
suffering from budget constraints."

Anyone want to volunteer to fill in the gaps? You can see the length I'm
going for - a brief synopsis of "who" the faction is, and a brief
statement about the design or capabilities of their ships.

From: "bill_armintrout" <bill_armintrout@EMAIL.MSN.COM>

> > Try the Unofficial GZGpedia for much of it.

The ESU, FSE, NSL and NAC you can find in Fleet Book 1, MT and FT. The Phalons
and SusVasku (and KraVak) are in FB2. <<Note to J.Tuffley: Could we have
permission to quote some of these Verbatim? Thanks>>

Outrim, Phalons, SsuVasku have been kicked about a bit or a lot on the list.

It's intended by Jon (and I agree wholeheartedly) that the SsuVasku remain vry
much "Here Be Dragons", the enigmatic and mysterious Aliens. It appears that
they are large creatures, the size of Blue Whales or possibly Tasmania. They
are biological engineers par excellence, growing rather than building ships.

KraVak are simple: Not-Predators. They may be vegetarians, but if so,
they've got ATTITUDE. Warlike in the extreme. Think Bedouins, Scots Reavers,
etc. There are many different clans. Ships are not unusually fast, but are
highly manouverable.
Their armament consists of grav-pulsed Kinetic Energy Projectiles,
chunks of matter that travel at enormously high speed. Get in front of them,
and you're history.

Phalons: My own personal views here: The Phalons are not heavily into symbolic
actions. They don't have paper 'representative" currency, they insist on
tangible assets being exchanged, barter rather than trade. They also consider
it not just stupid, but sinful to give a sucker an even break. So an unarmed
Human ship entering a region with valuable cargo to exchange for Phalon
valuable cargo is not paying the price, he's trying to cheat. The fact that he
has some paper promises about "If this ship is attacked, the entire NAC will
take revenge" cuts no ice. The goods will be taken, as they're obviously
worthless.

OTOH if an unarmed Human ship PLUS the entire NAC 7th fleet comes in, then the
Phalons are getting a good deal, the Humans are paying *in fleet presence*
more than the goods are worth.

Phalons appear to use biologically-produced components rather than
industially produced ones. Unlike the SsuVasku, where a ship is a living
entity or hive,

> This one's going to both addresses - let me know if you get it twice,

I don't know what Jon will do about the UN in the next generation of FT, but
our group's UN (played by me often) has grown quite large as a human group
effort to stem the Kra'vak invasion. Not only is the UN navy bigger, but the
ships are often purpose designed to fight the Kra'vak.

> bill_armintrout wrote:

Not officially, no. Many people use them as 'New Israeli' ships which are part
of the FT universe, but they aren't 'official'.

> OK Bill, I'll forward this on to my ISP; is anyone else still having

I found out what the problem is. Apparently some spammers in the Ukraine
forged my email address as the sender of some spam they send out two weeks
ago. That was enough to get my email address added to various anti-spam
filters. The only practical solutions seems to be to change my email account.
(sigh)

Jon: Send me the faction descriptions whenever you can; everything else here
is ready to go. (If you want to see the Excel spreadsheet with all the info
for your check-out, let me know.)