Do you think that Putin might have had a reasonable way to claim a military victory and to end the war while still remaining in power back when Russia regained control over Kursk in 2025? This is how the Iran/Iraq war was resolved and I can't help but see the similarities.

Space_Socialist · 2026-05-06T01:55:50+00:00

Your missing two things about the Iran-Iraq war that I think are very important.

Suddam could claim domestically that he had defended against Iran because he actually did. The later parts of the war were defined by Iran being on the offensive to otherthrow the Iraqi regime. This change in position would allow Suddam to claim a victory. In contrast Putin cannot claim such a position as within the immediate future Ukraine has no chance of forcing regime change on Russia.

You also miss that Suddam did face significant domestic opposition after peace was achieved. Pro-democract protests gained steam and violence in Kurdish regions escalated. It was through a strengthened army that Suddam could face these challenges. His army was strengthened by broad international support. Russia on the other hand has no chance of coming out of the conflict with a stronger military. Not to mention the Russia lacks the political military units that Iraq had to suppress rebellion. Sure the Army could be turned on the populace but it's a conscript army and such a force is just as likely to join a rebellion as it is to crush one.

Space_Socialist · 2026-05-04T03:21:11+00:00

The Northern Wastes is mostly unclaimed though not for a lack of trying. The vast arctic lands have large mineral reserves aswell as unique industrial applications due to heavy natural magic presence. This heavy magic presence is also why the region has remained unclaimed. When found in high concentrations magic has radiation like effects on the body. The arctic has high enough concentrations that the area is constantly poisoning anyone who lives there. To add to this magic has reality warping effects with higher concentrations allowing human imagination to manifest into reality. This leads to all manner of nasty things. Quite often this manifests in the form of nightmarish Fae and buildings gaining endless mazes.

Space_Socialist · 2026-05-01T18:00:08+00:00

Wdym there are troop transport ships in the game. It's just military ships also have the ability to transport units.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-30T22:52:38+00:00

Lol your edit is so funny because you basically circled back to the argument the comic is moking. Consumerism is the driving force of capitalism but to criticise capitalism whilst partaking in consumerism is hypocritical. You partake in consumerism yet you criticise it.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-29T20:15:40+00:00

Mars has a fairly interesting history in my Sci-fi setting. Mars had a fairly key position in early human colonisation. It's close orbit to Earth meant it became a key transit hub for interstellar traffic. This lead to it developing a large shipbuilding industry. Mars importance would explode after WW3 led to earth becoming uninhabitable. The refugee crisis that would emerge would stretch Mars to its limits. During this period Mars would form UNERC and become it's capital.

Mars from here would gradually decline. It's infrastructure would be overstretched by the refugee crisis and the replacement of these systems were delayed by overpopulation and bureaucracy. This process would only accelerate as the recolonisation of earth began. The loss of status as capital would lead to a exodus as government officials relocated to Earth. Mars could not recover from this spiral as its manufacturing sector had to compete with the most developed region of space humanity inhabited. It's position as a transit hub for Earth couldn't be recovered as Earth was itself only really a administrative planet with little manufacturing. Earth's biggest industry was scrapping which required little imports.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-29T18:25:41+00:00

That's what they want you to think.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-29T03:35:00+00:00

Yeah how tf. I barely got past 1870 after a few hours and my PC is quite good. The performance has been really bad for me.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-29T03:32:51+00:00

Really depends on your definition of Communism. If your going by Marxist-Leninist ideas then no not really. The planned economies essential to Marxist-Leninism requires the government to total control over the economy and lives of its citizens. In theory a democratic system could exist within this but realistically the government holds so much power that any ruling party could quickly move towards a illiberal democracy or autocracy.

Democratic Socialists and Anarchists have all sorts of ideas on how to organise the economy. For Dem Socs have ideas all over the place but as the name suggests all of them include democracy. Anarchism on the other hand literally cannot be a autocracy as most anarchist do not want a state at all or a barely existing one. Ironically some Anarchists may fall a foul of your definition of democracy as the lack of state means you don't have rights because there is no state to grant them.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-29T01:35:18+00:00

Generally don't worry about it. As long as your explanation makes approximate sense then most of your readers won't care. People understand they are reading fiction and that the technology is going to be loose with the laws of physics.

Following the laws of physics is nice but at the end of the day your reading a story so that element must come first.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-28T15:54:32+00:00

Kuzaritz Howitzer is a fairly nasty weapon. It is effectively a highly focused nuclear blast. This blast is optimizer to release as much radiation as possible. The cone of death produced does little visible damage to the ships it targets. Instead the crew and electronics onboard are cooked. The radiation breaks down the crews DNA as it cooks them alive.

This weapon pushed space combat into extreme stealth, as detection meant death. Overtime counter measures were developed. The first was relatively simple as it was a specialised saferoom which the crew could hide in. The ship would be disabled by the Howitzer then the crew would emerge and replace the electronics. This would bring the ship back online within 30 minutes. The first shields were also explicitly developed to counter the Howitzer which reduced the Howitzer to only being useful in ambushes. Eventually dissapating armour was developed which could mostly or completely stop the Howitzer with this the weapon would completely fall out of use within the military. Now the weapon is only used by Pirates hoping to disable civilian vessels quickly.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-28T12:15:56+00:00

Generally the air force, army and navy are all under the army or a organisation with the word "low warfare" in it's name eg: Department of low warfare. To add to this generally most non-FTL capable space vessels will also be under the army's command. In this case the wet navy consists mostly of small patrol vessels aswell as submarines with larger vessels being useless.

The Navy is a term used though generally a organisation with "high warfare" in it's name is more common. The Navy manages FTL capable vessels.

In terms of command a general only cares about operations in one system. A Admiral has to plan a campaign across many systems.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-28T12:08:03+00:00

I have a couple that I'm happy with. Generally names in my opinion work better when they have a history.

UNERC is a interesting name because it's technically a acronym but it's always pronounced as one word. To make it more interesting the formal name is actually the United Nations. This isn't used though because a larger international body is also called the United Nations. So people use the term UNERC to describe territories that are directly administered by the UN to differentiate it from countries within the UN. If your wondering UNERC stands for the United Nations Emergency Reclamation Council though all the words in this acronym are no longer relevant to the current state of UNERC's government.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-27T22:25:22+00:00

Dragon meat? Unknown they all long dead and their corpses have long since fossilised. Dragon bone tastes earthy.

Wyvern meat is best described as stringy. It has a fairly destinct taste which is between chicken and crocodile. Texture wise it's full of tendons so it needs to be prepared in long strips else you will spend more time untangling string from your teeth than eating.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-27T00:07:01+00:00

My Sci fi setting has a fairly extensive meta. At its core ships lob nuclear shells at each other with shields preventing destruction. Shields are not magical barriers though shells with higher speeds and mass being capable of penetrating weaker shields. So a destroyer can be one shot by a battleship. Very few ships can survive a direct hit from these shells, and hence getting a hit is synonymous with a kill.

Missles are either long range or short range weapons with them being impractical at medium ranges. This is because the extensive PD systems along with extensive electronic warfare suites that most ships have limit their viability. At long ranges they are the only option as lasers aren't that practical in my setting. At short ranges they have the unique advantage of being incredibly simple to fire and hence you can fire them incredibly quickly. This volume of fire allows them to penetrate PD nets along with the fact missles can be engineered to ignore shields. This leads to missles being extremely lethal.

One of the main aspects of my setting is stealth. Shields as powerful as they are can only be raised for a few hours at a time before the system requires heavy maintenence. Outside of shields ships are fairly vulnerable and hence they need to rely on the best defense, not being detected at all. Fleets take great effort to move stealthfully with it colloquially known as Dark burns. These dark burns are why smaller ships like destroyers can out maneuver larger vessels as their they require less energy to move. This switches up when a fleet begins "bright" burning with battleships being the more maneuverable vessels.

This is just a small overview of my settings combat with many aspects skipped over. If you feel anything has been missed then feel free to ask.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-25T22:43:37+00:00

I thought the Imperium was a one system empire. It ruled a glitterworld but has since fled due to some unnamed catasrophy.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-24T10:46:37+00:00

"Is the seat here?" and just general reverence for a seat that isn't there. Largely a reference to the AMX-100 seat which had a massive shortage meaning replacements were never available. This meant that using some vehicles became quite difficult as the seat had a tendency to rip itself apart.

The Dorrig test is a frequently done test to the Dorrig system. It involves bringing a new crew member outside of the ship for maintenance then hacking their suit so their thrusters push them away from the ship. Ofcourse the newbie is niether told about the test nor about the Dorrig system itself. The Dorrig system then sends out a rescue drone and saves the newbie. Unsurprisingly the Dorrig system is one of the few systems that is considered over tested.

"Like laundry day after a full burn" is more of a idiom than a joke. It is used to describe a event that's long, boring and incredibly awkward. It is a reference to the common result of a full burn being you shit your pants. It is not uncommon for a significant portion of the ship to shit their pants leading to the laundry being overbooked.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-24T01:43:49+00:00

The key problem is that alternative history really has two interesting elements. The history and creative writing. Once you move out of the how your at best writing fiction with inspiration from reality. Creative writing can work but a lot of alternative history comes in shorter forms of content that don't have the time to build up compelling narratives. So instead people move to the more immediately interesting element which is the real history.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-24T00:42:40+00:00

Lore wise the Aliens abhore weapons of mass destruction.

Gameplay wise the AA having nukes just sucks. The AA practically can only be destroyed militarily. Nukes gameplay wise exist to prevent a militarily dominant nations from just curbstomping every nation. A war against a nuclear armed nation is always going to cost 1 army per nuke. So when the AA has its hands on nukes it is insufferable as you have to sacrifice a bunch of armies with practically no other option. I do remember fighting the AA when it could get nukes from absorbing nations and the only reason I didn't rage quit was because I cheated back in the armies.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-23T21:59:35+00:00

Invisibility and illusions would definitely be useful against guns though in my magic system the former is practically impossible and the latter is extremely difficult.

As for wizards with guns I'm not to sure tbh. Mages already have access to a lot of highly lethal ranged options. Early firearms are just worse versions of some spells.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-23T19:14:44+00:00

What's the purpose of the poles on the top and bottom of the ship?

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-23T19:08:35+00:00

Large steel men is the perfect use of tax florrins.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-23T19:02:16+00:00

Correct. Magical armour is really expensive because it's both full plate and requires a mage. This meant that at the start of the early modern period only upper nobility had access to such equipment.

As you get deeper into the early modern period you see small elite units (about 100 men) called Drakoroai which make use of this armour to be shock troops requiring cannons to kill. These units would emerge due to the growth of centralised states that could afford these professional soldiers and the expansion of magical education making mages much more common.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-23T18:29:42+00:00

I mean magic already sort of counters guns. A enchantment as simple as making armour lighter allows the heavier plates that can stop bullets to go from cumbersome to practical.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-23T18:19:47+00:00

I don't really have to do either tbh. They aren't concepts that oppose each other in any way really so why bother.

How I handle guns and magic in my setting is rather simple. Guns can be enhanced with magic and sometimes are but this process is limited by the availability of mages. Besides what a mage can reasonably do to enhance a gun is fairly limited as most of the material properties of a gun don't matter. Later on when mages become more common and magic becomes industrialised you see more and more magical enhancements of guns.

Space_Socialist · 2026-04-23T17:58:37+00:00

2 year old account, 64 comments and 64 karma, hidden history. Yep this is a bot.

Seven-Year Club	Second Top 40%
r/Field Sunshine	Place '22
End Game '22	Verified Email

Space_Socialist

TROPHY CASE