# Initial Server Sketch

* Setting should remain minimalistic - lore kept vague but specific enough to provide decent background.
* Accept player-made lore on a approval basis.
* Be welcoming to all sections of the SS13 Community (including custom species, etc)
* Avoid labels like HRP.
* 18+ only.
* Provide an interesting backdrop to the station, but keep it mundane enough to not seen overly exceptional.
* Focus on the mechanics of a trade station at a fairly large intersection of trade routes.
* Encourage persistent character development, but don't force a focus on it.
* Provide a change in the station's backdrop every 1-2 months to keep things fresh.
* Provide traits that can be unlocked through play time and experiences which develop a character.

# Roadmap

- [ ] The Map Itself
- - [ ] Rough Sketch
- - [ ] Rough Draft
- - [ ] Turf Layout
- - [ ] Areas
- - [ ] Pipes And Wiring
- - [ ] Structures (windows etc)
- - [ ] Objects & Machinery
- - [ ] Details Pass
- - [ ] Q/A Pass (after testing)
- - [ ] Department Variants (stretch)

- [ ] Character Customizations
- - [ ] Custom Race Stuff
- - [ ] Tails and Ears
- - [ ] Traits, Perks, and Disadvantages
- - [ ] Long-Term Perks System
- - [ ] Improved Examine System

- [ ] Lore Integration
- - [ ] Corporation Lore
- - [ ] Saumlaki Expanse Lore
- - [ ] Cairo Station Lore
- - [ ] Subcontractor Details

- [ ] Rules

# Initial Lore Blurb, Draft 1

Old Earth is but a memory to the oldest humans alive ... and even then, it fades by the day.

Humanity nearly died, hundreds of years ago, snuffed out by it's own ambition. It's own hubris, thinking that they could not die.

The circumstances of Old Earth's death are wide and varied, but they all end in the same point: Humanity was doomed, the bang of the anthropocene turning to a roar, then a whimper, and finally a murmur...

... until the stars were opened by the discovery of faster-than-light travel.

## The World At Large

Hundreds of years onward, Humanity exists in a loose congolmeration of interstellar states clustered around Sol, which remains the notational home of Humanity - and the gravesite of Mother Earth. The march of progress, halted by Humanity nearly suffocating in the cradle, now continues on. An exceptional focus on adaptability has become common, and gene-tailoring to specific enviroments - or aesthetic desires - is commonplace.

Known space can be seperated into two parts; The Core, and the Frontier. The Frontier remains ever in the interest of individuals and corporations alike, with many of the successor states focused on ensuring their own stability rather than outward expansion; the collapse of Old Earth remains a cautionary tale in ambition.

Traces of Old Earth remain in a number of these smaller successor states that survive today - each small, but impactful in it's own right. These are loosely around major nationalities, but many minorities managed to survive and even thrive in the wake of Earth's fall.

## Faster Than Light Travel

Faster than light travel is achieved by two means: jumpships and bridgegates. Jumpships are enormous, self-contained gantaries of docking arms, reactors, and fuel tanks all clustered around a heavily protected faster-than-light drive. These massive, fragile, and expensive assemblages carry ships to distant stars, and often spend most of their lives shuttling around the Frontier.

Bridgegates are less complicated, but stationary constructions. Their endpoints are strictly defined, exceptionally stable points in space typically well outside the gravity well of a target star-system. Bridgegates can be linked together to provide transit links, but the process is somewhat experimental and energy intensive - it remains uncommon. Rather, stations are set up near the far-side destination point of a bridgegate to serve as a refueling and rest-stop.

The natural topography of known space creates barriers in the substrata bridgegates and jumpships use, leading to the creation of natural nexus points between star systems; certain corporations exploit these nexus points for profit.

## The Old Earth Trading Company

One of the oldest corporations known to exploit this tactic is the Old Earth Trading Company - it's original name is long gone and buried, just like the memories of Old Earth, but it is one of the largest trans-stellar corporations that actively trades across all five Human states. The Old Earth Trading Company has a history of naming it's permanent bases of operations after cities from Old Earth.

### Cairo Station

Cairo Station, based in the Saumlaki Expanse, is a relatively busy trade station serving the needs of ships that come-and-go between the various trade routes which all link to the Saumlaki Expanse. Cairo is notable for being one of the more profitable stations of the Old Earth Trading Company, and has recieved some interest in it's position by various research corporations and logistic organizations.

One of the primary functions of Cairo Station is to provide fuel to passing ships - and the most common request serviced is simply an automatic proceedure to dock and refuel. However, sometimes ships request to dock for leave and leisure, or other issues.

#### The Saumlaki Expanse

The oddities of hyperspace routing have led to various nexus points - called hypernodes - where various hyperspace routes intersect with or otherwise terminate at. The Saumlaki Expanse, located relatively proximal to the Frontier, is one of these. It provides easy access to the rich Frontier, and a shorter than usual route back to civilized space.

### Nanotrasen Transtellar

The main competitor to the OETC's reach is Nanotrasen Transtellar. Originaly a pharmaceuticals company chasing the latest craze in biotech and exploratory chemicals, Nanotrasen's reach has broadened as competitor companies have been gradually swallowed up and reshaped into it's own internal divisions. Nanotrasen is the spitting image of a typical megacorporation.

## Other Corporations

The Old Earth Trading Company, while expansive, is not the only major corporation vying for dominance among the stars. It's more than willing to subcontract outside of it's specialties, as well. Many of these companies are partly, or wholly owned by the OETC.

### OETC Subcontractors

#### Araka-Mikoyan Cosmodynamics (ENG)

#### Red Star Protective Services (SEC)

#### Caduceus Bionetics (MED)

#### Pinnacle Astroscientifics (SCI)

#### Napier Biocybermedical (CYBER)

### OETC Competitors

But just as the OETC subcontracts, so does Nanotrasen; albiet, these are not particularly indepedent companies but sub-brands Nanotrasen utilizes to diguise it's operations.

#### Amadeus Heavy Astroworks (ENG)

#### ASPEC Biosciences (MED)

#### FENRIS Tactical Enterprises (SEC)

#### Astra Development Group (SCI)

#### Jovian Transtellar Freight (CRG)