Futuristic Anybody interested in some hard sci-fi?

[Mr.Sandstorm]

Addendum:

The top of the Propulsion Cap can be equiped to multiple purposes during interstellar cruising:

It has multiple ports that can mount high-power laser cannons, feeding directly from the powerplant to fire a battery of debree-melting and dust-ionizing energy.

It's surface can coat itself in thick water ice modified to absorve as much radiation as possible, and also aid in absorving impacts and deteoration

Lastly, the Mothership's Powerplant can generate powerfull magnetic fields to deflect radiation and ionized debree fields.

 

[Fishman Lord]

Well, I finished my first sketch. It's quite different from what you showed me, but I hope you still like it:

Now to explain what everything is:

1- Life support:
The ship's habitable deck is composed of two areas: the four centrifuges that simulate gravity, and a main tube, where the centrifuges are mounted.
Two of the centrifuges house the crew during their awake period, while the third one houses a micro-ecosystem that acts both as a bio-regenerative life support system and as the main source of food for the crew. It houses both vegetation and livestock.
The fourth centrifuge houses a medical center tasked with sealing and studying alien biological samples, from bacteria to whole groups of specimen; it also doubles as a momentary residence for any eventual alien diplomats/captives.
In case youre wondering, the antenna-like sticks are exactly that, antennae. I originaly tought them as rotating counterweights that keep the ship's payload in balance with the rotating habitats, but then I realized I dont realy know how angular momentum physics works all that well. So just asume they're antennae.
The main tube that connect all four habitats is quite big and can house a lot of people for emergencies, as well as pressurized working stations for the crew. It's the main access point to both the Equipment Bay and the Materials Storage.

2- Materials Storage:
This expansive area houses a series of containers for securing construction material and refinery stations to process the brute resources acquired during the ship's stay in any system; it also stores most of the ship's fuel, and transfers it to the Propulsion Cap as needed.
Deep at the center of the Storage lies the Criogenic Pods where the crew stays confined during interstellar travel, as the material and fuel tanks offer good protection against radiation and even weapons fire; because of this, the Storage can also double as a "storm cellar" for the crew should they be threatened by high radiation events.

3- High-tension Truss
The Payload (1, 2, 8, 9?) of the ship is actualy dragged along by a suspension system, instead of being suported by a tower structure. This makes heat management and protecting the crew from reactor radiation much simpler than with a rigid, compressed armature. This sturdy cable lattice is made of a sturdy supermaterial (carbon nanotubes?) cabable of handling the titanic tensions of maneuvering burns.
The Truss also supports multiple pipes and cables to transfer fuel and energy between the Propulsion Cap and the Payload.

4- Fusion Drives:
The ship uses these four fusion torches for interplanetary travel (as well as interstellar cruising?). They're directly connected to the ship's powerplant.

5- Laser/Photon Sail:
In case the Mothership has to interact with a native lasersail relay, it can seal it's Fusion Drives and unfold a pair of massive photon sails ( the size is arbitrary, I have no idea how big this sail would have to be move a ship this size).

6?- Warp Drive (plz?):
In case you're still ok with using sub-luminal warp drives, that's where it is. Most of the Warp Engine's systems are located deep inside the Propulsion Cap, with only the Field Emmiter popping out of the ship's entrails.

7- The Propulsion Cap:
The Mothership requires a massive fusion powerplant to operate, and this is where the most energy-intensive equipment of the ship resides. It also has it's own fuel tanks that store the fusion fuel to be immediately used by the reactors.
(Suggestion: Antimatter Factory
I have an idea for making big, vulnerable ships such as this one more justifiable in comparison to a swarm of smaller vessels. Fusion power is extremely hard to achieve, so it's possible that advanced power generation would require the usage of catalyst elements such as antimatter and muons.

Exotic particles such as antimatter would require bulky particle synthesis infrastructure that most ships could not hope to house or power; particle accelerators to manufacture antimatter, that is then stored in supercooled cells and transfered to the ships of the rest of the fleet, where these antimatter samples allow for smaller and lighter fusion reactors that warships would require.

However, these lighter reactors are heavily dependent on a periodic supliment from an "Antimatter Factory", so such facilities would be vital for power economies, and ships of the Mothership's class would be vital to military efforts.

The Mothership's Propulsion Cap is it's most heavily armored element. If it's antimatter storage cells recieve too much damage, the resulting explosion would make the Nostromo look like a firecracker by comparison.)

8- Equipment Deck:
Most vessels, from mining drones to some manned battleships, reside here during interstellar transit. During stays at star systems, the bigger vessels move out of the docking bays, but fastly-deployed ships such as fighter drones can stay here permanently until they need to be deployed. The Equipment Deck also holds the Mothership's defensive weapons, and most of the crew's high-end equipment.

9?- High-power Comm.s Laser (maybe?)
The ship's mission requires that it keeps a constant, reliant feed of information heading towards the home system, and it's not too wise to allow other systems to catch trace emmissions from this uplink, so this high-power laser could be usefull.

Wow, this is really awesome! I definitely approve of this design, looks very good and works in the setting. As for the warp drive, here's what I propose: we bought one from a very high-level AI a few thousand years ago in exchange for some info it found valuable(yes, we have been active for a very long time, that's what happens when a majority of your life has technically been sleeping during decade-long voyages). However, it has an extremely high energy requirement, high enough that the ship itself can't power it through it's own energy storage/production. Instead, we can only use it warping out of systems with an already established high-energy output system, like a Dyson Sphere or some other high amount of energy. That means that if we are leaving a system with that kind of established infrastructure, we can use the drive, but if we're leaving a system with a smaller population or no development at all then we'll have to use our fusion rockets or sails.

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

Wow, this is really awesome! I definitely approve of this design, looks very good and works in the setting. As for the warp drive, here's what I propose: we bought one from a very high-level AI a few thousand years ago in exchange for some info it found valuable(yes, we have been active for a very long time, that's what happens when a majority of your life has technically been sleeping during decade-long voyages). However, it has an extremely high energy requirement, high enough that the ship itself can't power it through it's own energy storage/production. Instead, we can only use it warping out of systems with an already established high-energy output system, like a Dyson Sphere or some other high amount of energy. That means that if we are leaving a system with that kind of established infrastructure, we can use the drive, but if we're leaving a system with a smaller population or no development at all then we'll have to use our fusion rockets or sails.

Allright, I supose for the size of the ship, it could be hanging around for quite a while now. After this much time tough, even with most of it spent in cryosleep, it would be safe to assume that the original crew is already starting to get old, and trained a "localy bred" next generation of crewmen during it's voyages? Possibly with a few alien compatriots trown in the mix?

We've touched on this subject a few times now, but I've got an idea to complement your proposal:

For "underdeveloped" systems that dont have the required power infrastructure needed when we arrived in it, maybe one of our missions aboard this ship is to spread power technology by building some quick, massed but sturdy power infrastructure (solar stations, an embryo of a Dyson Swarm maybe), and while we're at it we use that to store up the energy required to quick up the Drive for another journey (after a few years, of course, but nothing compared to the travel time spent in cryosleep). That adds a new objective to our Mothership: spread technology.

Have you ever played Homeworld? Because this ship of ours is starting to sound like the Bentusi.

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

In this case, the Fusion Drives would be used only as a intrastellar drive, and as an emergency option in case the Warp Drive becomes unavailable.

 

[Fishman Lord]

Allright, I supose for the size of the ship, it could be hanging around for quite a while now. After this much time tough, even with most of it spent in cryosleep, it would be safe to assume that the original crew is already starting to get old, and trained a "localy bred" next generation of crewmen during it's voyages? Possibly with a few alien compatriots trown in the mix?

We've touched on this subject a few times now, but I've got an idea to complement your proposal:

For "underdeveloped" systems that dont have the required power infrastructure needed when we arrived in it, maybe one of our missions aboard this ship is to spread power technology by building some quick, massed but sturdy power infrastructure (solar stations, an embryo of a Dyson Swarm maybe), and while we're at it we use that to store up the energy required to quick up the Drive for another journey (after a few years, of course, but nothing compared to the travel time spent in cryosleep). That adds a new objective to our Mothership: spread technology.

Have you ever played Homeworld? Because this ship of ours is starting to sound like the Bentusi.

I think that the construction of a Dyson Swarm could take from hundreds to thousands of years to complete, and that's with much more infrastructure than we have, so I think using a partially constructed swarm to power the drive would in the end take longer than just heading to the next destination at 0.1 or 0.2c. As towards the goal of spreading technology, it's interesting but I think everyone would be a little hesitant to leave self-replicating infrastructure builders willy-nilly ever since the Von Neumann Crisis. However, we could do something similar. The vast majority of people simply can't afford their own interstellar ship, let alone one where they'll live to see their destination through some means. If our ship had enough capacity, maybe for 200 passengers or more excluding the crew, people and governments would certainly be willing to pay us to bring them to their destination, whether they want to establish a colony or just want to see other parts of the Earthen Expanse. And yeah, the only part of the crew that's still around after a few thousand years is the AIs. The crew slowly changes over time, as people choose to stay in certain societies because they're done adventuring and new people from other colonies join the crew, as well as deaths and births among the crew.

 

[General Deth Glitch]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wait_Calculation
We getting into this territory now then?

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

I think that the construction of a Dyson Swarm could take from hundreds to thousands of years to complete, and that's with much more infrastructure than we have, so I think using a partially constructed swarm to power the drive would in the end take longer than just heading to the next destination at 0.1 or 0.2c. As towards the goal of spreading technology, it's interesting but I think everyone would be a little hesitant to leave self-replicating infrastructure builders willy-nilly ever since the Von Neumann Crisis. However, we could do something similar. The vast majority of people simply can't afford their own interstellar ship, let alone one where they'll live to see their destination through some means. If our ship had enough capacity, maybe for 200 passengers or more excluding the crew, people and governments would certainly be willing to pay us to bring them to their destination, whether they want to establish a colony or just want to see other parts of the Earthen Expanse. And yeah, the only part of the crew that's still around after a few thousand years is the AIs. The crew slowly changes over time, as people choose to stay in certain societies because they're done adventuring and new people from other colonies join the crew, as well as deaths and births among the crew.

Allright then, I guess that's that. Warp Drive for leaving type 2 systems, good old fusion torches for every other destination. I guess that adds an incentive to visit, or even re-visit, more advanced systems during the journey, just to get a nice boost from the higher-tech civilizations towards the next destination.

Now, about the AI, uh, are you planning on making this ship fully commanded by the AI or will the helm, despite the passing of generations, still be on the hands of organics?
I do hope we, or our superiors, at least still get to make meaningful decisions aboard the ship. Futuristic industry is already automated, science and research will have a lot of artificial mechanisms too, and that leaves command as the only realy meaningfull thing an organic crew could possibly add to the ship. Unless this giant ship is realy just a glorified luxury cruiser that people that want to see the galaxy hop aboard, and we're all at the mercy of a construct whohappens to not mind all this costly meaty baggage.

And I can see how an organic command line could still work despite the eventual change of both leadership and crew. It's going to take an extraordinary amount of social engineering, a crew population big enough to house a microgoverment, and a commanding species with a psychology heavily centered on duty and servitude to "the cause", but it could work.

But, if that's not what you have in mind, I have no problems with being told what to do by an AI (aside from the ever-present risk of said AI engaging Skynet mode or getting hacked), but only as long as I get to feel some character from it.
Some emotion, some interest, maybe even some flaws. Maybe a sinthetic built from the core to behave organicaly, but also to follow the mission nonetheless.

Oooh, that gives me an idea. If the commanding staff of the ship is fully sinthetic and the crew is organic but is also an important part to making sure the mission continues, this story could involve multiple ocasions when the crew of the ship decides it wants to stop the mission but the native replacements wont provide proper qualifications for the job anytime soon, so the ship has to stay coasted for a couple of years/decades, during wich the helm has to find a way to replace it's crew.
Engaging in shady deals and alliances against disagreable crewmembers, and even in political affairs with the locals to get the right crew replacements they need to keep the ship flying....
Lots of oportunities for drama and interesting conflicts...

 

[Fishman Lord]

Allright then, I guess that's that. Warp Drive for leaving type 2 systems, good old fusion torches for every other destination. I guess that adds an incentive to visit, or even re-visit, more advanced systems during the journey, just to get a nice boost from the higher-tech civilizations towards the next destination.

Now, about the AI, uh, are you planning on making this ship fully commanded by the AI or will the helm, despite the passing of generations, still be on the hands of organics?
I do hope we, or our superiors, at least still get to make meaningful decisions aboard the ship. Futuristic industry is already automated, science and research will have a lot of artificial mechanisms too, and that leaves command as the only realy meaningfull thing an organic crew could possibly add to the ship. Unless this giant ship is realy just a glorified luxury cruiser that people that want to see the galaxy hop aboard, and we're all at the mercy of a construct whohappens to not mind all this costly meaty baggage.

And I can see how an organic command line could still work despite the eventual change of both leadership and crew. It's going to take an extraordinary amount of social engineering, a crew population big enough to house a microgoverment, and a commanding species with a psychology heavily centered on duty and servitude to "the cause", but it could work.

But, if that's not what you have in mind, I have no problems with being told what to do by an AI (aside from the ever-present risk of said AI engaging Skynet mode or getting hacked), but only as long as I get to feel some character from it.
Some emotion, some interest, maybe even some flaws. Maybe a sinthetic built from the core to behave organicaly, but also to follow the mission nonetheless.

Oooh, that gives me an idea. If the commanding staff of the ship is fully sinthetic and the crew is organic but is also an important part to making sure the mission continues, this story could involve multiple ocasions when the crew of the ship decides it wants to stop the mission but the native replacements wont provide proper qualifications for the job anytime soon, so the ship has to stay coasted for a couple of years/decades, during wich the helm has to find a way to replace it's crew.
Engaging in shady deals and alliances against disagreable crewmembers, and even in political affairs with the locals to get the right crew replacements they need to keep the ship flying....
Lots of oportunities for drama and interesting conflicts...

Don't worry, the AIs on-board are on equal footing with the biological members. These aren't the super-AIs, in fact they're only about as intelligent as the average human/human-descended modified species. They have different capabilities, for example they're much better at coordinating and running the affairs of the ship than any of us could be, but they're about on our level. They're less capable in diplomacy and prefer to send down people in spacesuits rather than use bodies that they don't very much like.

I like the idea of occasional long stops in systems, kind of like "shore leave" but for interstellar travelers. It might be interesting if we leave a location and then return, we'll have only aged a decade or so because of cryosleep but their society will have had hundreds of years pass. Might meet your own great-grandkid who happens to be about your biological age and other wackiness.

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

Don't worry, the AIs on-board are on equal footing with the biological members. These aren't the super-AIs, in fact they're only about as intelligent as the average human/human-descended modified species. They have different capabilities, for example they're much better at coordinating and running the affairs of the ship than any of us could be, but they're about on our level. They're less capable in diplomacy and prefer to send down people in spacesuits rather than use bodies that they don't very much like.

I like the idea of occasional long stops in systems, kind of like "shore leave" but for interstellar travelers. It might be interesting if we leave a location and then return, we'll have only aged a decade or so because of cryosleep but their society will have had hundreds of years pass. Might meet your own great-grandkid who happens to be about your biological age and other wackiness.

So, can we say that theyre mostly just immortal maintenance staff?

 

[Fishman Lord]

So, can we say that theyre mostly just immortal maintenance staff?

Kinda, but they also kind of captain the ship and have equal choice in deciding what the group does. They're also "people", which in this universe basically means "anything sapient", so they have goals, emotions, needs, wants, and personalities too.

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

Kinda, but they also kind of captain the ship and have equal choice in deciding what the group does. They're also "people", which in this universe basically means "anything sapient", so they have goals, emotions, needs, wants, and personalities too.

Oh, wonderfull! Now I'm absolutely satisfied with this universe!
You know, even if this RP doesnt go anywhere, just know that as far as I'm concerned, you have a new friend. It was a pleasure trowing ideas around with a fellow hard sci-fi fan!
I'll totaly not stalk your next threads in the future!

Allright, I burned up the creamy top of my ideas already, I'll just sit down and see what ideas the rest of the group has....

 

[Fishman Lord]

Oh, wonderfull! Now I'm absolutely satisfied with this universe!
You know, even if this RP doesnt go anywhere, just know that as far as I'm concerned, you have a new friend. It was a pleasure trowing ideas around with a fellow hard sci-fi fan!
I'll totaly not stalk your next threads in the future!

Allright, I burned up the creamy top of my ideas already, I'll just sit down and see what ideas the rest of the group has....

Thank you very much! It has been really fun discussing hard sci-fi goodness with another fan.

 

[Fishman Lord]

Alright, so now we should work on some lore, mainly a rough timeline, some of the alien races, so on. For the timeline, I have a basic outline:

2093 C.E.: first human-level fully sapient AIs developed.

2150 C.E.: at this point there are small permanent colonies on the Moon and Mars.

2275 C.E.: first probe reaches Proxima Centauri, Proxima Centauri b found to be a lifeless mercury-like tidally locked planet

2600 C.E.: colony ship launched to Proxima Centauri b

2600-4000 C.E.: humanity slowly spreads to nearby stars

4600 C.E.: first Dyson Sphere completed around Barnard's Star, used as a Matrioshka Brain by a hyper-AI

4600-10,000 C.E.: continued expansion by humanity and other intelligents from Earth. Several planets with non-intelligent life have been found and a few alien transmissions have been confirmed.

12,155 C.E.: Sol and most of the systems within 30 light-years form the Inner Order, a powerful and utopian interstellar empire led by several Matrioshka Brain AIs.

12,941 C.E.: first alien civilization actually visited, an Information Age civilization that had just created sapient AIs. They soon mingle and mix with Earthen civilization and are generally considered part of the Earthen Expanse despite being true aliens.

13,000-60,000 C.E: a ton of shit happens obviously, but human ships trying to reach the Galactic Core find that it is already almost entirely inhabited by a hyper-advanced civilization of Matrioshka Brains. It is unknown if there are any current biological citizens as while the alien AIs were friendly enough they didn't allow anyone in very far and give little information. Earthen sapients have spread very far and encountered several other interstellar civilizations, star-hopping and slowly spreading much like the Earthen Expanse.

~72,000 C.E.: A second hyper-advanced civilization is found in a distant part of the Perseus Arm. Once again, they're friendly enough but tell Earthers to stay out.

~90,000-120,000 C.E.: somewhere during this time the first warp drives appear in the Inner Order and a few other scattered civilizations.

~120,000 C.E.: beginning of the Von Neumann Crisis.

~140,0000 C.E.: At this point tiny footholds have been established on the Sagittarius Dwarf and the Ursa Major II dwarf, meaning Earthkind is technically intergalactic. Many generation ships and probes and AI ships have launched for the Magellanic Clouds, Triangulum, Andromeda, and even beyond, but it'll take a long time for those to reach their destinations, assuming they ever do reach them.

156,239 C.E.: Present Day.

Mr.Sandstorm General Deth Glitch Shireling Tarmagon

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

Alright, so now we should work on some lore, mainly a rough timeline, some of the alien races, so on. For the timeline, I have a basic outline:

2093 C.E.: first human-level fully sapient AIs developed.

2150 C.E.: at this point there are small permanent colonies on the Moon and Mars.

2275 C.E.: first probe reaches Proxima Centauri, Proxima Centauri b found to be a lifeless mercury-like tidally locked planet

2600 C.E.: colony ship launched to Proxima Centauri b

2600-4000 C.E.: humanity slowly spreads to nearby stars

4600 C.E.: first Dyson Sphere completed around Barnard's Star, used as a Matrioshka Brain by a hyper-AI

4600-10,000 C.E.: continued expansion by humanity and other intelligents from Earth. Several planets with non-intelligent life have been found and a few alien transmissions have been confirmed.

12,155 C.E.: Sol and most of the systems within 30 light-years form the Inner Order, a powerful and utopian interstellar empire led by several Matrioshka Brain AIs.

12,941 C.E.: first alien civilization actually visited, an Information Age civilization that had just created sapient AIs. They soon mingle and mix with Earthen civilization and are generally considered part of the Earthen Expanse despite being true aliens.

13,000-60,000 C.E: a ton of shit happens obviously, but human ships trying to reach the Galactic Core find that it is already almost entirely inhabited by a hyper-advanced civilization of Matrioshka Brains. It is unknown if there are any current biological citizens as while the alien AIs were friendly enough they didn't allow anyone in very far and give little information. Earthen sapients have spread very far and encountered several other interstellar civilizations, star-hopping and slowly spreading much like the Earthen Expanse.

~72,000 C.E.: A second hyper-advanced civilization is found in a distant part of the Perseus Arm. Once again, they're friendly enough but tell Earthers to stay out.

~90,000-120,000 C.E.: somewhere during this time the first warp drives appear in the Inner Order and a few other scattered civilizations.

~120,000 C.E.: beginning of the Von Neumann Crisis.

~140,0000 C.E.: At this point tiny footholds have been established on the Sagittarius Dwarf and the Ursa Major II dwarf, meaning Earthkind is technically intergalactic. Many generation ships and probes and AI ships have launched for the Magellanic Clouds, Triangulum, Andromeda, and even beyond, but it'll take a long time for those to reach their destinations, assuming they ever do reach them.

156,239 C.E.: Present Day.

Mr.Sandstorm General Deth Glitch Shireling Tarmagon

Sounds good. I suggest you edit this onto the OP, to give newcomers a sense of what we came up for this story so far.

In the meanwhile, I'll make some more drawings of the mothership and other vehicles. I couldnt make colored drawings if my life depended on it, but I caught the hand of making pixel art, so that should do the trick.

 

[Fishman Lord]

Sounds good. I suggest you edit this onto the OP, to give newcomers a sense of what we came up for this story so far.

In the meanwhile, I'll make some more drawings of the mothership and other vehicles. I couldnt make colored drawings if my life depended on it, but I caught the hand of making pixel art, so that should do the trick.

Done. If we were to design some alien species, any chance you could draw them? That spaceship drawing was actually really awesome.

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

Done. If we were to design some alien species, any chance you could draw them? That spaceship drawing was actually really awesome.

Um, sure, but it's definitely gonna have to be in pixel art. I can't draw anything too complex on pencil yet.

Uh, here's what I'm talking about when I say pixel art, by the way. This is just a prototype, so definitely expect the colors to change:

 

[Fishman Lord]

Um, sure, but it's definitely gonna have to be in pixel art. I can't draw anything too complex on pencil yet.

Uh, here's what I'm talking about when I say pixel art, by the way. This is just a prototype, so definitely expect the colors to change:

View attachment 314994

I like it, looks pretty awesome! Thanks for the drawings and pixel art, a lot better than anything I can do.

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

(Re-)Update:




Since this ship is suposed to have a lifetime of thousands of years, I'm gonna give it a nicer, more ornamented casing. It had plenty of time already to make some "cosmetic" upgrades.

You'll se from the shape of the habitat rings that I encased three of the four spinning habitats with an outer, stationary shell. They still rotating independently of eachother, but now they have this rigid armature protecting it. It also doubles as extra room for cargo and fuel, of course.
The fourth ring that houses ocasional alien passagers is also cased in it's own shell.

I also decided to arrange the fusion torches to a more radial arrangement. I think that will make steering the ship a bit simpler.

 

[Fishman Lord]

(Re-)Update:

View attachment 315175


Since this ship is suposed to have a lifetime of thousands of years, I'm gonna give it a nicer, more ornamented casing. It had plenty of time already to make some "cosmetic" upgrades.

You'll se from the shape of the habitat rings that I encased three of the four spinning habitats with an outer, stationary shell. They still rotating independently of eachother, but now they have this rigid armature protecting it. It also doubles as extra room for cargo and fuel, of course.
The fourth ring that houses ocasional alien passagers is also cased in it's own shell.

I also decided to arrange the fusion torches to a more radial arrangement. I think that will make steering the ship a bit simpler.

That's very good, I like it a lot! I think I may get started on CSes and our first mission and where we start out, now that we have most of the other stuff worked out to various degrees.

 

[Shireling]

Hey guys any idea how fast this RP is going to move? Because I basically can't post anything between Monday and Thursday.

 

[Fishman Lord]

Hey guys any idea how fast this RP is going to move? Because I basically can't post anything between Monday and Thursday.

I'm not sure, it'll depend on how many people join. I think it'll be ok that you can't post during those times though, I'm not expecting us to move that fast.

 

[Shireling]

I'm not sure, it'll depend on how many people join. I think it'll be ok that you can't post during those times though, I'm not expecting us to move that fast.

Okay. That's good.

 

[Fishman Lord]

Alright, I have the basic outline for a CS. What do we need to add?
Name:
Gender:
Appearance: Image or description. Remember, with genetic engineering and augmentation, many groups of human descendants may have green skin, new eye colors, extra limbs, and a vast variety of other cosmetic and physical differences ranging from minor to drastic.
Personality: A few sentences at least. Are they quick to anger, are they calm, what are their likes and dislikes, all that stuff.
Backstory: Where were they born? Were they born on the ship or did they join it later on? Did they grow up in a hyper-advanced posthuman technological utopia or were they born in some planet that had regressed to medieval tech and redisovered advanced tech because of the ship's visit? If it was their decision, why'd they choose to join the ship's crew?
Crew role: Are they a diplomat? A scientist? Do they help the AIs run the ship? What is their job on the ship?
Skills: What useful skills do they have that can help them and the ship's crew?
Other: Anything else that doesn't fit into the other categories.
Mr.Sandstorm General Deth Glitch Shireling Tarmagon

 

[Mr.Sandstorm]

Uh, do you already have a firm idea of the species that first deployed the ship? It may have been thousands of years ago, but the ship is still on a mission to gather information for the home system, even if only the AI captains of the ship remember it.

Speaking of which, how much relevance does the original mission of the ship still hold?
Is the home system still giving any directives to the helm, or has it long stopped bothering with talking to it trough decade-long communications lag?
Is the ship even remotely close to the home system's boundaries, or have we ventured off into the galaxy, much farther than they can expect to maintain the most remote method of communication?

I ask these question because, despite the ship's "primary" mission being exploration, considering it has a drive system that can achieve much higher cruising speeds than other starships of the region (at least that's what I hope), It's likely that after a while the home system reassigned the ship to other, more consolidary tasks, other of exploration. At least for a while.

Maybe they plan to build a local federation of star systems (it cant hurt to have a few friends, right?) around the region where communication and lightsail traffic is still tangible, and has needed us to run around and transport people and technology for a few centuries. In this case, we'd have a lot more reasons to be revisiting star systems, and that could add some, let's say, consistency to the encounters.
Also, it would be easier to explain how we can all talk to each other despite the species barrier, since our species are all methodicaly exchanging information to form a coalition, as opposed to feeding a bunch of data to an incoming ship and hoping it can decode the differences in communication in the couple decades it takes to arrive in a new, unexplored star system. Eventualy, we'd be freed again to go explore the galaxy.

In this case, it would matter for us to establish a set of species first, and then make start our character creation from that.

 

[Fishman Lord]

Uh, do you already have a firm idea of the species that first deployed the ship? It may have been thousands of years ago, but the ship is still on a mission to gather information for the home system, even if only the AI captains of the ship remember it.

Speaking of which, how much relevance does the original mission of the ship still hold?
Is the home system still giving any directives to the helm, or has it long stopped bothering with talking to it trough decade-long communications lag?
Is the ship even remotely close to the home system's boundaries, or have we ventured off into the galaxy, much farther than they can expect to maintain the most remote method of communication?

I ask these question because, despite the ship's "primary" mission being exploration, considering it has a drive system that can achieve much higher cruising speeds than other starships of the region (at least that's what I hope), It's likely that after a while the home system reassigned the ship to other, more consolidary tasks, other of exploration. At least for a while.

Maybe they plan to build a local federation of star systems (it cant hurt to have a few friends, right?) around the region where communication and lightsail traffic is still tangible, and has needed us to run around and transport people and technology for a few centuries. In this case, we'd have a lot more reasons to be revisiting star systems, and that could add some, let's say, consistency to the encounters.
Also, it would be easier to explain how we can all talk to each other despite the species barrier, since our species are all methodicaly exchanging information to form a coalition, as opposed to feeding a bunch of data to an incoming ship and hoping it can decode the differences in communication in the couple decades it takes to arrive in a new, unexplored star system. Eventualy, we'd be freed again to go explore the galaxy.

In this case, it would matter for us to establish a set of species first, and then make start our character creation from that.

I'm thinking that perhaps we never had a 'home system' to work for. The ship could have been purchased by a wealthy adventurer and his AI friend when it was much smaller, and over the years many new parts have been added like the warp drive and all the original crew except that first AI have been cycled out and replaced. This way we'll be a bit more free to explore where we want and do the things that we decide.

I agree that an incentive to revisit systems would be nice, to see how they grow while we're gone and interact with those people and cultures more. I think the most obvious incentive to revisit planets and systems is building relations with local civilizations, getting in better standing with them so that they'll be willing to share knowledge with us and help us out when we need it. And yes, very few ships have access to a warp drive and so we have that advantage and hence a reason why people may want to work with us, as long as we had the available energy.

As to our species, I think it would be best if everyone played as humans and near-humans, as aliens and enhanced species like intelligent dogs and dolphins see the world from a very different kind of viewpoint. Since most of the crew has been picked up from various worlds over thousands of years, I don't think there has to be too much limit, just that we all stay human or near-human. Like it's said in the CS, exotic skin and eye colors and other such modifications are fine, as well as augmentations, but it'll be hard to keep a character relatable otherwise, although I'm open to that being proven wrong.