These are things I'm still considering.Sorry, another question I've forgotten to ask for a few days now. With regards to wealth, do you have any ideas about per capita wealth, national/colony GNPs, productivity, and so forth?
Something along the lines of "The UN is the wealthiest trade bloc, but it's larger populations means it lags in per capita wealth behind..." or "The IC bloc's productivity edge means it is more wealthy than population totals would suggest.".
Keep in mind that the Trading Blocs are limited in their power; beyond Earth orbit, they are only a bit more than flags of convenience for the major corporations.
You mean how some Latin American countries are descended from Spain while kthers are descended from Portugal?How does the language/culture divide work in South America. One of the many things 2300AD got right was acknowledging the long standing gulf between hispanophones and lusophones.
You mean how some Latin American countries are descended from Spain while kthers are descended from Portugal?
Corporations and, to a lesser extent, colonies is one of the reasons I asked those questions.
With the "nations" making up the bloc little more than collections of arcoblocks surrounded by a "blasted heath", their economic clout and the clout of their parent blocs is going to smaller than one would first assume. With the blocs weaker, the corporations are going to be more likely to ignore the blocs at home and colonies are going to more likely to declare independence.
In a sense my 'nation-states moved to orbital colonies and an Alpha Centauri world' vs. Pharmabanks setup presents similar issues- I have them more as coequal though since ultimately through desperation and guns nations still 'know where the megacorps live' and retain naval and expeditionary power as an ultimate veto to access to markets if nothing else, and seizure of wealth in a showdown.
Here you have more varied types of corporations - one doing biotech, indeed, but another one is primarily into mining, another into agribusiness (and terraformation), and the fourth deals with general exploration and colonization.In a sense my 'nation-states moved to orbital colonies and an Alpha Centauri world' vs. Pharmabanks setup presents similar issues- I have them more as coequal though since ultimately through desperation and guns nations still 'know where the megacorps live' and retain naval and expeditionary power as an ultimate veto to access to markets if nothing else, and seizure of wealth in a showdown.
But the nations did sign away large assets to 'buy' cooperation in staving off The Plague, including the Earth's biological diversity itself and pretty much all explored world's biotemplates, thus monopolizing most biotech to the pharmabanks at a nexus of medical, industrial and financial power that undercuts national authority.
I'm gathering though that the OP's Universe doesn't have any one corporate type have quite that much power- more diffused and counterbalancing/competitive but ubiquitous.
Yes, here expansion is quite fast. Approximately 25-30 years per "generation". So many corporate colonies ala Outland/Aliens.Big difference is my limited expansion vs. a more open rapid interstellar expansion. If the latter is allowed, you can expect more 'corporate colonies' and more of a 'captured' populace brought up in the megacorps system. Depending on the 'personnel policy', that might mean very loyal employees or very resentful populations that would look to a nation for redress- or rebel to make their own...
The Wilds on Earth are indeed available for all sorts of secret activities, though this is dangerous, as the environment is hostile and often so is the local population.I guess the other parallel I see with this latest installment is that my Cloud is something like his Wilds, but I'm wondering if he has considered using it the way I am- strange societies, secrets, source of illegal weapons/drugs/research including deniable activities/labs by the corps, etc.
Yes, 9+ is arcology or city center; 5-8 is Blight; and 4- is Wilds.Given his definition, I might consider SOC to indicate how far up the Corps/Bloc feeding chain the character is. Below 6, out in the Wilds, maybe has to have a work permit (temporary) to even do starship jobs.
Blocs are relatively more powerful on Earth but have a lesser capability of projecting force to the colonies. They have small space navies and rapid-intervention forces (such as Marines). They nominally govern the colonies and perform basic government functions there. However, the ones with significant space budgets are the corporations.Those are all good points and illustrate how much thought you've put into your setting. It also touches on my admittedly vague musings about Omer's Hard Space setting.
I'd first ranked the relative strengths of the three "players" in Hard Space as Blocs > Corps > Colonies. There would be exceptions to that ranking at various times and in various places naturally. With the nature of the nations making up the blocs being explained as "arcoblocks" or wastelands with little in between, I'm more inclined to the idea of bloc and corp strengths being coequal. Omer's explanation that the corps use blocs as flags on convenience strongly suggests as much.
Pretty close; also similar to what you see in Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Deus Ex: Invisible War. Of course, the Blade Runner aesthetic is also an inspiration.For arcologies, how similar would say Night City from Cyberpunk 2020/2077 is to them, in your mind?
Blocs are relatively more powerful on Earth but have a lesser capability of projecting force to the colonies.
They nominally govern the colonies and perform basic government functions there.
Here you have more varied types of corporations - one doing biotech, indeed, but another one is primarily into mining, another into agribusiness (and terraformation), and the fourth deals with general exploration and colonization.
Exactly.Yup. The level of power a bloc or corp depends on where and when you're measuring that power. When smeared out, however, those levels are roughly equal.
Add to that the relative lack of political goodwill and trust of the population towards the governments following WWIII and the lack of Blight/Wilds investment. Corporations get more trust; they might be heavy-handed and their competition might be cutthroat, but at least they didn't end up blowing up half the world, exhausting the world's resources, and then claiming "victory", like the major WWIII combatants did.Nice trick by the corporations. The blocs are throwing away blood and treasure to develop and "governing" colonies which are going to rebel sooner or later anyway. All the money, men, and equipment sent parsecs away to develop, "govern", and control an off-world colony is that much less money, men, and equipment available to reclaim, restore, and develop the wastelands just a few hundred km outside the "arcoblocks".
Well payed, corps, well played.
The areas less devastated by the war, especially Latin America and Africa, are the world's new breadbaskets. They too have suffered a decline in productivity due to fallout, bioweapon spread, and climate instability, but they have a level of agriculture and less Wilds.Considering the outsides of arcologies are either urban blight or blasted wasteland, how are people fed here generally?
Lots of soy food?
... the lack of Blight/Wilds investment.
Yes. Complexity means interesting adventures and layered plots.I have those, just not on the same power level creating a multipower setup per specialization/expertise like yours. Sounds almost more like the Corporations from Rollerball, sans total control, but with layers, each struggling or cooperating against both external and internal competitors.
Diverse corporations lead to diverse adventures and NPC cultures. They also prevent the formation of insular "corporate fiefs" among the stars. Certain companies are more dominant in certain areas, such as Sanatech and RBIC in the UN arm*. However, this is not absolute control, as, for example, asteroid mining is a secondary field of activity for Sanatech and UAM mines asteroids and rockballs in the UN arm as well. This allows a more diverse play experience when travelling through space.Of course, the key to any of these sort of setting decisions is what adventures stories and memorable characters flow from the environment and natural conflicts inherent IYTU.
Yep. If this turns on its head, you'll have an OV-type situation with a strong Earth government counterbalancing (and sometimes eclipsing) the corps off-world. Which the corporate quasi-monopolies fear more than anything else.And that lack of Blight/Wilds investment helps the vicious circle of mistrust on one side and abandonment by the other keep turning.
You can bet your bottom dollar that the Corporations make sure to employ whatever political influence they have within the Blocs to distract and divert Bloc attention away from their own backyards and instead keep it firmly focused parsecs away.
Even with a population of "only" three billion, Earth has more potential muscle than all the extraterrestrial colonies combined and will still have for generations to come. An Earth nation or bloc which achieves only partial success in reclaiming, repairing, and revivifying the damaged lands and populations of the Blights and Wastelands - a nation or bloc which starts to offer hope - would be a terrible danger to the Corporations.
The Corporations need to keep the 800lb gorilla that is Earth divided, distracted, and disheartened.
Which the corporate quasi-monopolies fear more than anything else.
Indeed.Bingo. From the Corporations' point of view, Earth must be kept crippled. That desire is going to lead to a LOT of adventuring possibilities.
