Sirrocco: Well, the facility *is* poorly defended. There's only one person there!
...in the cockpit of the second model of prototype Zaku, but still...
CD: Why that particular list of products? Who is that rival company, and why are they rivals? Why would they be pro-space?
Are they ideologically driven? Financially linked to Zeon/Zeon-affiliated companies/other pro-space powers? Out for revenge against Sovereign Earth for some sort of legal slight?
Don't get me wrong- I like content. Content is good. The point of this, though, is to establish the world- and you can't have a world without reasons and connections.
Angryoptimist: Wow. This is the sort of reaction I was hoping for. You've given me a reason to explain more of what I've come up with to date, and (hopefully) spark more discussion.
I don't (yet) have any plans to write anything in this. I'm trying to develop a setting, partially to get others to write/GM in it, and partially because I liked the idea too much not to. My Nanoha fic takes up all my writing time at the moment.
Now, to answer your questions:
-I'm drawing influence from the entire AC series, save for AC4/4A, for reasons (for and against) that come out across this entire post. As far as I'm concerned, any and all of the megacorps from AC can exist in it; and the Layered can be closed-type colonies off on one of the other Sides, someplace.
-I can't simply describe the techbase in one simple statement. I can say that Shadowrun and Deus Ex: Human Revolution are good sources for the pre-space techbase. Space and mobile suit tech starts out basically as per Mobile Suit Gundam canon, up to the time of the One Year War. Figure that Zeon has the same edge in mobile suit development and Minovsky tech usage they had in canon Gundam at that point- everybody else has fusion and potentially particle spreaders, but nobody else has the ultracompact (MS-sized) reactors yet. After the One Week War, expect megacorp leaders the Sphere over to take one look at the Zaku, call in their R&D departments, and yell "GET US SOME OF THAT!"... then call in their space ops department, and tell them to set up a rush salvage op to that area of space/orbit, and expect to have to fight off the competition when they get there. At the start of the OYW, EVERYBODY is working on mobile suit theory and mechanics.
Figure that, once everybody gets a handle on how to build giant war machines, then they'll start trying to add in their own special features. Zeon and Earth have things like psycommu and EXAM to develop- Human+ would fit in right alongside that, and build off of the preexisting human augmentation technology. OCP... well, if they ever had another successful Robocop, I could see them trying to pull a Ghor with him.
At some point, either during or after the War, some bright sort is going to figure out that mobile suits are far too large for much of the urban combat that the now-cyberpunk colonies will require, and look into miniaturizing the tech. Enter the urban suit- a mecha someplace in between personal armor, and the multi-story war machines the space and land wars are fought with. This was another piece of AC influence- AC1-4 had their ACs be 30+ feet tall, but AC5 cut that in half, and scaled the power levels down appropriately. No more constant boosting, for one thing- AC5 ACs lost the ability to fly. Figure urban suits are 10-20' tall, while a standard Zaku is 57' tall. Urban suits won't start out able to power energy weapons of any kind, but I have some delightful ideas involving E-caps on that front. Some might even be powered by E-caps.
ESWAT's landmates, motoslaves, and the AMP suits from Avatar are roughly what I'm aiming at for that urban suit category. AC5 Armored Cores are on the tall end, and a bit advanced, but fairly close.
-Zeon isn't actually all that different from canon. Figure Side 3 was mostly colonized by private investors- the sort of people who would throw mountains of cash into an idea. Idealistic mega-rich, collections of like-minded upper-middle class investors, and maybe the odd former sovereign nation, here and there. Then zum Deikun came along, and unified them. His philosophies would be slightly different in this setting than in canon, mostly because Newtypes wouldn't be the only types of beings to come into existence as a result of space colonization. The other races of Shadowrun started to be born around the same time- I'm figuring space colonization triggered the return of magic in this setting, by means I have yet to reasonably explain- so his theories took them into account. Zeon ended up being one of the few nations in space that welcomed elves, dwarves, and orcs because of that. The Zabi family would be corporatist nobles- probably in charge of a war-essential industry or two. Figure that Degwin takes over Zeon, and starts a war. If he wins, he's expanded his power by taking over the Earth. If he loses, he's expanded his power by making gobs of money on the war economy, and has friends who've done the same that he can flee to. Either way, he wins.
-While I love AC4, the theme of technology destroying the Earth by being used doesn't really fit UC Gundam. Now, if one were to postulate a Gundam 00 cyberpunk setting, one could tie together GN and Kojima particles... but I digress.
-Post-OYW, I'm thinking there'll be some danger of things getting nasty. Not sure how much. I do know one of the things I want to have happen is the commercialization of the 'Gundam' name. Basically, the scientists behind Project V start up an independent company that owns the rights to the name and likeness of the RX-78 line. Given the war, and the effectiveness of the Gundams, everybody wants one of their own... more than that, everybody wants to make the NEXT Gundam. So they trade on that, and basically say 'Send us a mobile suit, its blueprints, and a pile of money. If our impartial testing process deems it good enough, we'll declare it a Gundam, and give it the right to use the name and the helmet.' To get the cert, your suit basically has to be bleeding-edge good... and if you try and use the name and design without it, they sue you so hard your colony explodes. Oh, and they certify both urban and mobile suits, and reserve the right to remove the cert at any time, for a handful of reasons, including your suit no longer performing well enough in comparison to the current-gen. There is such a thing as a former Gundam, not that even ex-Gundams can be taken lightly.
I suspect that nothing past the halfway point of the War will be recognizable as Gundam canon any longer, so really anything could go from that point on.
-As for characters, I really don't know. This is part of why I wanted to get this idea out where people could pick it up for themselves- I don't have enough Gundam background to do it justice. I haven't actually seen any of it- all my knowledge is from fic, games, reference materials, and the like.
The start of the metaplot should have most of the canon UC characters still exist, though not all as you know them. Some will end up being metahumans, cyborgs, or both. Others should end up playing different roles than before. Some will stay entirely the same, or close enough that you can say 'Yeah, that's basically the same person.' I can't see Bright as having been changed at all, for one thing. Dozle Zabi might be an orc, or just naturally big- not sure which is more fitting. I suspect Johnny Ridden will end up becoming an ex-Zeon corporate soldier, probably for one of the 'corps that are pro-spacenoid and anti-Zeon, only to crash a fight between the Gundam and a certain red suit later on... not that anybody understands why.
The Amuro/Char dynamic is both too classic and too good to change without a very good reason, and I don't have one yet. I suspect, given that I like the idea of the Zabis being corporatist usurpers, Char will end up having to make a tough choice- destroy the Zabis' corporate interests for REVENGE and weaken Zeon when she least needs it, or leave them intact and let his father's killer make more money? By 2193, he's probably more interested in wiping out the megacorps than the Earth, so whatever version of CCA happens will be decidedly different.
"Dear ol' Pappy", as you call him, will be mostly unchanged, save of one little thing. Which Jupiter Fleet will he be from? I mean, there's the Jupiter Energy Fleet, UAC Jupiter, Shinra Fusion Power Company...
-Hey, contribute as much as you want. I want to see fic in this universe written as much as you- I just don't have the time, or the skills to do it justice. The more we do, the more we have to offer to somebody who does.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
...in the cockpit of the second model of prototype Zaku, but still...
CD: Why that particular list of products? Who is that rival company, and why are they rivals? Why would they be pro-space?
Are they ideologically driven? Financially linked to Zeon/Zeon-affiliated companies/other pro-space powers? Out for revenge against Sovereign Earth for some sort of legal slight?
Don't get me wrong- I like content. Content is good. The point of this, though, is to establish the world- and you can't have a world without reasons and connections.
Angryoptimist: Wow. This is the sort of reaction I was hoping for. You've given me a reason to explain more of what I've come up with to date, and (hopefully) spark more discussion.
I don't (yet) have any plans to write anything in this. I'm trying to develop a setting, partially to get others to write/GM in it, and partially because I liked the idea too much not to. My Nanoha fic takes up all my writing time at the moment.
Now, to answer your questions:
-I'm drawing influence from the entire AC series, save for AC4/4A, for reasons (for and against) that come out across this entire post. As far as I'm concerned, any and all of the megacorps from AC can exist in it; and the Layered can be closed-type colonies off on one of the other Sides, someplace.
-I can't simply describe the techbase in one simple statement. I can say that Shadowrun and Deus Ex: Human Revolution are good sources for the pre-space techbase. Space and mobile suit tech starts out basically as per Mobile Suit Gundam canon, up to the time of the One Year War. Figure that Zeon has the same edge in mobile suit development and Minovsky tech usage they had in canon Gundam at that point- everybody else has fusion and potentially particle spreaders, but nobody else has the ultracompact (MS-sized) reactors yet. After the One Week War, expect megacorp leaders the Sphere over to take one look at the Zaku, call in their R&D departments, and yell "GET US SOME OF THAT!"... then call in their space ops department, and tell them to set up a rush salvage op to that area of space/orbit, and expect to have to fight off the competition when they get there. At the start of the OYW, EVERYBODY is working on mobile suit theory and mechanics.
Figure that, once everybody gets a handle on how to build giant war machines, then they'll start trying to add in their own special features. Zeon and Earth have things like psycommu and EXAM to develop- Human+ would fit in right alongside that, and build off of the preexisting human augmentation technology. OCP... well, if they ever had another successful Robocop, I could see them trying to pull a Ghor with him.
At some point, either during or after the War, some bright sort is going to figure out that mobile suits are far too large for much of the urban combat that the now-cyberpunk colonies will require, and look into miniaturizing the tech. Enter the urban suit- a mecha someplace in between personal armor, and the multi-story war machines the space and land wars are fought with. This was another piece of AC influence- AC1-4 had their ACs be 30+ feet tall, but AC5 cut that in half, and scaled the power levels down appropriately. No more constant boosting, for one thing- AC5 ACs lost the ability to fly. Figure urban suits are 10-20' tall, while a standard Zaku is 57' tall. Urban suits won't start out able to power energy weapons of any kind, but I have some delightful ideas involving E-caps on that front. Some might even be powered by E-caps.
ESWAT's landmates, motoslaves, and the AMP suits from Avatar are roughly what I'm aiming at for that urban suit category. AC5 Armored Cores are on the tall end, and a bit advanced, but fairly close.
-Zeon isn't actually all that different from canon. Figure Side 3 was mostly colonized by private investors- the sort of people who would throw mountains of cash into an idea. Idealistic mega-rich, collections of like-minded upper-middle class investors, and maybe the odd former sovereign nation, here and there. Then zum Deikun came along, and unified them. His philosophies would be slightly different in this setting than in canon, mostly because Newtypes wouldn't be the only types of beings to come into existence as a result of space colonization. The other races of Shadowrun started to be born around the same time- I'm figuring space colonization triggered the return of magic in this setting, by means I have yet to reasonably explain- so his theories took them into account. Zeon ended up being one of the few nations in space that welcomed elves, dwarves, and orcs because of that. The Zabi family would be corporatist nobles- probably in charge of a war-essential industry or two. Figure that Degwin takes over Zeon, and starts a war. If he wins, he's expanded his power by taking over the Earth. If he loses, he's expanded his power by making gobs of money on the war economy, and has friends who've done the same that he can flee to. Either way, he wins.
-While I love AC4, the theme of technology destroying the Earth by being used doesn't really fit UC Gundam. Now, if one were to postulate a Gundam 00 cyberpunk setting, one could tie together GN and Kojima particles... but I digress.
-Post-OYW, I'm thinking there'll be some danger of things getting nasty. Not sure how much. I do know one of the things I want to have happen is the commercialization of the 'Gundam' name. Basically, the scientists behind Project V start up an independent company that owns the rights to the name and likeness of the RX-78 line. Given the war, and the effectiveness of the Gundams, everybody wants one of their own... more than that, everybody wants to make the NEXT Gundam. So they trade on that, and basically say 'Send us a mobile suit, its blueprints, and a pile of money. If our impartial testing process deems it good enough, we'll declare it a Gundam, and give it the right to use the name and the helmet.' To get the cert, your suit basically has to be bleeding-edge good... and if you try and use the name and design without it, they sue you so hard your colony explodes. Oh, and they certify both urban and mobile suits, and reserve the right to remove the cert at any time, for a handful of reasons, including your suit no longer performing well enough in comparison to the current-gen. There is such a thing as a former Gundam, not that even ex-Gundams can be taken lightly.
I suspect that nothing past the halfway point of the War will be recognizable as Gundam canon any longer, so really anything could go from that point on.
-As for characters, I really don't know. This is part of why I wanted to get this idea out where people could pick it up for themselves- I don't have enough Gundam background to do it justice. I haven't actually seen any of it- all my knowledge is from fic, games, reference materials, and the like.
The start of the metaplot should have most of the canon UC characters still exist, though not all as you know them. Some will end up being metahumans, cyborgs, or both. Others should end up playing different roles than before. Some will stay entirely the same, or close enough that you can say 'Yeah, that's basically the same person.' I can't see Bright as having been changed at all, for one thing. Dozle Zabi might be an orc, or just naturally big- not sure which is more fitting. I suspect Johnny Ridden will end up becoming an ex-Zeon corporate soldier, probably for one of the 'corps that are pro-spacenoid and anti-Zeon, only to crash a fight between the Gundam and a certain red suit later on... not that anybody understands why.
The Amuro/Char dynamic is both too classic and too good to change without a very good reason, and I don't have one yet. I suspect, given that I like the idea of the Zabis being corporatist usurpers, Char will end up having to make a tough choice- destroy the Zabis' corporate interests for REVENGE and weaken Zeon when she least needs it, or leave them intact and let his father's killer make more money? By 2193, he's probably more interested in wiping out the megacorps than the Earth, so whatever version of CCA happens will be decidedly different.
"Dear ol' Pappy", as you call him, will be mostly unchanged, save of one little thing. Which Jupiter Fleet will he be from? I mean, there's the Jupiter Energy Fleet, UAC Jupiter, Shinra Fusion Power Company...
-Hey, contribute as much as you want. I want to see fic in this universe written as much as you- I just don't have the time, or the skills to do it justice. The more we do, the more we have to offer to somebody who does.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.