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Growing Horizons: Inner Sphere - Quest

While the WCDC does not realize it yet, but they essentially have at least half the production capabilities of the Lyran Commonwealth within the Three Systems, if not more...
Depends on the items really. Consumer goods, foodstuffs, and raw materials are definately a lot lower than the LC. However, in terms of heavy military industry? I'd be very surprised if the WCDC is more than 10-20% behind. Having a fully intact manufacturing and research base allows for a correspondingly large military industrial complex. Hell, the Sleipnir alone is essentially half a Leopard in cost. We have hundreds, if not thousands, of the things in only a few years with the biggest constraint on their production is how many are really needed. And as per your own comment, jumpship production is going to spike to 20 per month. 240 export models per year is easily 10-20 times the entire Inner Sphere's production.

The jumpship production and dropship production alone separate us out from anyone else as in this period, not enough jumpships and dropships is the biggest hurdle in interstellar logistics. Particularly for the Great Houses who have lots of commitments tying down their units and supply lines.
 
So, given our production capacity I'm wondering how we can get paid. I mean, I usually accept many an economic handwaving in any setting and world I read since I understand too little about these fields, but here I've been considering. We're very disjunct from the other polities in that money is basically trust, and we have to build trust before our coin has any worth (assuming we're all working with fiat money here).
In these cases the exchange is facilitated either by something that is rare for both parties, or at least valued, and given that the Inner Sphere has a dirge dearth of JumpShips from previous numbers, that also means their bottleneck will be production, not supply of raw materials. In other words, we can be initially paid in (possibly preprocessed) germanium, which our traders would deliver back to us.
Incidentally, The biggest dropships mass in at 100kt, with 75kt of those being used for cargo. Our Interstellar Jump Trader classes are equipped with 1–4 dropship collars. Since they're traders, I assume the collars are big enough to meet these mass requirements. Also, since our smallest trader is in that mass range (Coaster-class, 78kt) we could effectively ask anyone interested to exchange germanium ore directly for jump traders. As in, a couple of our traders arrive in a system, transmit "we exchange this ready-made ship, fresh off the assembly line, for its raw germanium value (plus X percent) provided by you. You can come over to inspect the ship and at the same time look also at this other stuff we got to trade with."
This should really get our foot in the door, we'd increase our stock of germanium while the mines get up to our production rate, and smooth any intranational price fluctuations of germanium while we're at it.
 
So, given our production capacity I'm wondering how we can get paid. I mean, I usually accept many an economic handwaving in any setting and world I read since I understand too little about these fields, but here I've been considering. We're very disjunct from the other polities in that money is basically trust, and we have to build trust before our coin has any worth (assuming we're all working with fiat money here).
In these cases the exchange is facilitated either by something that is rare for both parties, or at least valued, and given that the Inner Sphere has a dirge dearth of JumpShips from previous numbers, that also means their bottleneck will be production, not supply of raw materials. In other words, we can be initially paid in (possibly preprocessed) germanium, which our traders would deliver back to us.
Incidentally, The biggest dropships mass in at 100kt, with 75kt of those being used for cargo. Our Interstellar Jump Trader classes are equipped with 1–4 dropship collars. Since they're traders, I assume the collars are big enough to meet these mass requirements. Also, since our smallest trader is in that mass range (Coaster-class, 78kt) we could effectively ask anyone interested to exchange germanium ore directly for jump traders. As in, a couple of our traders arrive in a system, transmit "we exchange this ready-made ship, fresh off the assembly line, for its raw germanium value (plus X percent) provided by you. You can come over to inspect the ship and at the same time look also at this other stuff we got to trade with."
This should really get our foot in the door, we'd increase our stock of germanium while the mines get up to our production rate, and smooth any intranational price fluctuations of germanium while we're at it.
@Blade4
@Warringer
In relation to the IS Germanium economy and other stuff. Can we research Silicone-based FTL-cores? Because having a several times more abundant material as a substitute for Germanium would be neat for us and nobody else.
 
@Blade4
@Warringer
In relation to the IS Germanium economy and other stuff. Can we research Silicone-based FTL-cores? Because having a several times more abundant material as a substitute for Germanium would be neat for us and nobody else.
That might be a research action after the better jump cores. Or the HFEG Jump. ;)

Heck... it might be the result of the Better jump core action... ;)
 
The economics is probable going to be one of the harder parts. We at least have experince of it with our internal economies but the houses are just now grasping at concepts lost generations ago when the star league dollar died with it and most all neighbors were to busy shooting to do much real trading. Not helped that for us and our healthy economies everything is so cheap and easy to make in comparison. Perhaps a 10% mark up at our prices and see where it goes?


That might be a research action after the better jump cores. Or the HFEG Jump. ;)

Heck... it might be the result of the Better jump core action... ;)
Well @Durabys guess we can take that as a yes. If we can can make silicon cores that will literally blow the market up and getting cries of hax and space magic from every other power with scientists sacrificing chickens and interns in our direction hoping whatever god is on our side will favor them as well. I am not sure how the IS powers and clan would react if suddenly jumpships or even warships were suddenly pretty cheap. So much of the cost of both is in the germanium cores.

Shit Snow Ravens will either be all in our faces trying to Trial for the tech or just outright defect to us. Houses will want to buy them up like crazy and if we can also make the holy grail of shipable jump cores might try to buy warships cores from us. Oh yeah jumping a core inside field of another core is a double negative bad thing. Shipping a core involves processing it into a non hyperspace reactive alloy then reprocessing it on arrival back into the proper alloy to be a core.
 
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Ah, I read about that. As I understood it you can't jump with an assembled jump core in tow (gotta grind it down to inch-sized pebbles or something), but what about transitioning? Would engaging a HFEG drive with an inactive jump core in the cargo bay work? Jumping is very energy intensive, instantaneously traversing many lightyears, while transitioning is more of a slow and steady approach. My mental model is akin to shooting a cannonball ballistically vs. walking the same distance. Heck, looking at that metaphor it might make sense in a twisted way, after all having two cannonballs launched from the same cannon breaks both balls (and the cannon (nitpicker detail: unless all are designed with that use in mind)), whereas dragging the cannonball like a millstone with you as you walk the same distance would just slow you down (introduce drag while in HFE-/hyper-/hyfer(?)-space).
I gather HFEG Jump will shed some light in that direction, and if the research fails something like HFEG & JumpDrive Interaction would be a possible research option we'd unlock, hopefully bestowing a small bonus on HFEG/JumpDrive research.
 
I gather HFEG Jump will shed some light in that direction, and if the research fails something like HFEG & JumpDrive Interaction would be a possible research option we'd unlock, hopefully bestowing a small bonus on HFEG/JumpDrive research.
HFEG seems fine since we just had research project putting both drives on same ship. Jumpdrive when you activate it the core acts a tuning fork and field expander. A second core is kinda like throwing another magnet next to another which completely changes field dynamics. Our ships can just adapt to the change i assume but IS drives cannot because of vastly more limited computation ability.
 
Ah, I read about that. As I understood it you can't jump with an assembled jump core in tow (gotta grind it down to inch-sized pebbles or something), but what about transitioning? Would engaging a HFEG drive with an inactive jump core in the cargo bay work? Jumping is very energy intensive, instantaneously traversing many lightyears, while transitioning is more of a slow and steady approach. My mental model is akin to shooting a cannonball ballistically vs. walking the same distance. Heck, looking at that metaphor it might make sense in a twisted way, after all having two cannonballs launched from the same cannon breaks both balls (and the cannon (nitpicker detail: unless all are designed with that use in mind)), whereas dragging the cannonball like a millstone with you as you walk the same distance would just slow you down (introduce drag while in HFE-/hyper-/hyfer(?)-space).
I gather HFEG Jump will shed some light in that direction, and if the research fails something like HFEG & JumpDrive Interaction would be a possible research option we'd unlock, hopefully bestowing a small bonus on HFEG/JumpDrive research.
Of course you can ship a completed jump drive core via HFEG. Its what out jumships do when they move into the Everchanging Black with their Hein-Feynman Event Generators. Or have you forgotten that we have already researched the capability. Its what enabled the HFEG Jump action.

So there is nothing that would prevent us from exporting completed Jump Cores sans Jump Ship. Hell, with the right transport vessel, we can transport multiple Jump Cores at the same time. ;)
 
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Of course you can shit a completed jump drive core via HFEG. Its what out jumships do when they move into the Everchanging Black with their Hein-Feynman Event Generators. Or have you forgotten that we have already researched the capability. Its what enabled the HFEG Jump action.

So there is nothing that would prevent us from exporting completed Jump Cores sans Jump Ship. Hell, with the right transport vessel, we can transport multiple Jump Cores at the same time. ;)
Shit out cores?:ROFLMAO:
 
Something else I would like to point towards...

Doctor Backaroo Freaking Banzai had a look at our mechs and a nice talk to some technicians... He is likely to get ideas...

In about 8 turns, I will do a few rolls to see just what ideas he has from that visit... ;)
 
Houses will want to buy them up like crazy and if we can also make the holy grail of shipable jump cores might try to buy warships cores from us. Oh yeah jumping a core inside field of another core is a double negative bad thing. Shipping a core involves processing it into a non hyperspace reactive alloy then reprocessing it on arrival back into the proper alloy to be a core.
@Warringer
It is possible to research that as well? I mean. KF derived drives that ignore each others too close jump fields? You could have ships jumping out in very close formations of a few hundred meters.
 
@Warringer
It is possible to research that as well? I mean. KF derived drives that ignore each others too close jump fields? You could have ships jumping out in very close formations of a few hundred meters.
Might be a jump off point from HFEG Jump, should it not be successful.
 
Something else I would like to point towards...

Doctor Backaroo Freaking Banzai had a look at our mechs and a nice talk to some technicians... He is likely to get ideas...

In about 8 turns, I will do a few rolls to see just what ideas he has from that visit... ;)

Good they will need them and when we see them we should get more ideas of our own.
Might be a jump off point from HFEG Jump, should it not be successful.
Well that's not ominous but i assume that is if research crit fails to point scientist write off the possibility until later or new data presents. And i guees two cores are possible with enough research. We have the computers and sensors to see what is happening and try to manage the problems. We might be able to make a hyperspace null container that grounds out the core.
 
Would a crit!fail make it literally impossible for that universe to get that tech?

Could I get from you a dice roll regarding the laws of physics permitting merging our HF FTL with KF FTL?
Only if all fails were crit fails.

Though if you wish, I do a 1d100 roll: 93
 
Something else I would like to point towards...

Doctor Backaroo Freaking Banzai had a look at our mechs and a nice talk to some technicians... He is likely to get ideas...

In about 8 turns, I will do a few rolls to see just what ideas he has from that visit... ;)
Well, I think I'll take a couple guesses. The obvious ones would be the lack of the gyro, massively improved lasers, and the complete replacement of all autocannons with much, much, much lighter and more potent railguns.

Now, removing the need for a gyro is a long-term project, but getting a team started on it now should see results in a few decades. Sorry Banzai, but you need to work up to it, though you might see incremental improvements sooner than later.

The lasers he should have a few options at least. The first is transforming a small or medium laser into a LAMS. The second is looking at improving the lenses. The third option is to somehow make a variable wavelength laser to choose the most efficient wavelength to minimize attenuation. A Free Electron Laser maybe? The last two improvements would have the potential to increase range and possibly striking power.

As for the railguns, coilguns, and hybrids. Yeah, I have no clue how Banzai would approach things. The closest technological equivalent that the IS has ever built is the Gauss Rifle, which is about 2 and half times heavier than the WCDC equivalent, though only twice the weight once Heat is considered. Actually, is that part of the IS's problem? By focusing on low heat in the gun itself, they accidentally made everything too heavy and overbuilt? Hmm, something to consider.
 
Banzai i think is supposed to be a super scientist and from what i read on wikipedia can cross dimensions and has a phasing device through matter. So yeah should see some crazy stuff if let off the leash. He was a joke/cameo character in canon here he could be unleashed to be one the greatest assets of the FedCom.
 
Banzai i think is supposed to be a super scientist and from what i read on wikipedia can cross dimensions and has a phasing device through matter. So yeah should see some crazy stuff if let off the leash. He was a joke/cameo character in canon here he could be unleashed to be one the greatest assets of the FedCom.
The problem is that Battletech's Banzai is not the TV series Banzai. BT's version is a direct shoutout to and was inspired by the series, but they're not the same person. So yes, Banzai is definitely going to get ideas. But the one's I suspect he'll go for are the ones that are workable within the framework of BT's and Growing Horizon's mechanics.
 
Yeah but they dont know we got better stufff. Yet. Once they do they will be quite desperate to protect there market share and see if they can steal stuff. Which will be a bitch because all our stuff might as well be black boxed because of divergent tech and construction techniques. Still I bet we will see all kinds of crap and them trying to grab text books and samples and trying to purchase or steal full up fabrication gear. With more subtle attempts like trying to buy up shares or buy out companies. Get you fancy suits and martini's folks James Bond time...

Or time for shadowrun without magic and dragons...
Well.

BT does have some strange crap? Like that chi super speed/ black shield thingy?
 
Black Shield Thiny?
It has been many years but I remember that there was a novel in which during the Jihad of Blake one of the Kuritas piloted some sort of super mech capable of deploying some sort of black energy shield. I am not certain if it was the Kuritas ki fuckery or something the mech did but I will try to find it.

TBH alot of weird crap popped up during the Jihad of Blake novels be it one off Blakist prototypes or Characters with outright supernatural powers.
 
 
The problem is that Battletech's Banzai is not the TV series Banzai. BT's version is a direct shoutout to and was inspired by the series, but they're not the same person. So yes, Banzai is definitely going to get ideas. But the one's I suspect he'll go for are the ones that are workable within the framework of BT's and Growing Horizon's mechanics.
Probable but i find it better to overestimate than under. This guy was a key part in the tech recovery so he probable will be able to pull something out of his hat.
Well.

BT does have some strange crap? Like that chi super speed/ black shield thingy?
Yes... But tends to be very rare and mostly disappear later on in series. No idea what you are talking about though. Closest thing to psyker stuff is phantom mech were under enough stress a pilot can spontanously gain ability to disappear from sensors and stuff like nova cat mystics and precogs having just enough effectiveness to not discount.
It has been many years but I remember that there was a novel in which during the Jihad of Blake one of the Kuritas piloted some sort of super mech capable of deploying some sort of black energy shield. I am not certain if it was the Kuritas ki fuckery or something the mech did but I will try to find it. The combine is supposed to have at least one clan of ninjas that are just to good to be normal but that could be just be very effective training.

TBH alot of weird crap popped up during the Jihad of Blake novels be it one off Blakist prototypes or Characters with outright supernatural powers.
If you could remember name would help but i would probable put it down to a shitty book in a shitty section of the time line after things went to hell.

..Yeah no. BT has never had shields save for weird crap that should not be there, remember a shield in mechwarrior 2 and was very out of place, and lava guns are absurd. Closets to a shield they have is a magnetic thing iirc that help blunt ppc hits and that is a cap ship grade device.
 
Probable but i find it better to overestimate than under. This guy was a key part in the tech recovery so he probable will be able to pull something out of his hat.

Yes... But tends to be very rare and mostly disappear later on in series. No idea what you are talking about though. Closest thing to psyker stuff is phantom mech were under enough stress a pilot can spontanously gain ability to disappear from sensors and stuff like nova cat mystics and precogs having just enough effectiveness to not discount.

If you could remember name would help but i would probable put it down to a shitty book in a shitty section of the time line after things went to hell.


..Yeah no. BT has never had shields save for weird crap that should not be there, remember a shield in mechwarrior 2 and was very out of place, and lava guns are absurd. Closets to a shield they have is a magnetic thing iirc that help blunt ppc hits and that is a cap ship grade device.
Certainly.

I simply raised the point that while BT is mostly hard physics or at least SF some low fantasy elements exist in an one off or niche kind of way.
 
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