You mean Chapter I is over. The Prologue ended with Comstar discovering the WCDC.@Blade4
The prologue is over. Chapter I is about to start.
You mean Chapter I is over. The Prologue ended with Comstar discovering the WCDC.@Blade4
The prologue is over. Chapter I is about to start.
Ah ok as long as we get them out i guess instead of a trickle. If not this time around thten next turn a slot opens and we can do it then. I am fine either way.They will ALL be thrown out at once. The goal of that is to just send the Invader IIs out to do jump trading in the Inner Sphere on their own volition and gather intel. Kinds a like the Dragoons, but with trade and not mercs.
Prologue ended with comstar poking us. Chapter 1 ended with us orchestrating their demise. Now we enter strange waters with many thing in flux. FedCom still looks to be the star league reborn but that could change with a big enough rock. The combine will probable die soon or rendered a minor state. Who knows with free worlds and andurian and we sit at the border growing ever stronger and functional kingmakers if pushed with unknowns farther to our west and the clans to our far north.You mean Chapter I is over. The Prologue ended with Comstar discovering the WCDC.
These worries could be assuaged by a diplomatic mission, negotiating a buffer zone of x lightyears around settled systems. For instance guaranteeing no operations within a 2 parsec bubble without prior confirmation, and having to negotiate for settling within 3 parsec. Though this might also be simply be folded into a Charm mission.The signing of the documents for the industrial cooperation did lead to massive protests within the native population, who regarded it as an attempt to colonize Woomera and Ohakune.
New action ahoy![] Operational Preparations:
With the destruction of Comstar, the focus of potential operational planning needs to be shifted towards the Inner Sphere nations and potential hostile actions coming from them. Operational plans should be prepared to deal with any eventuality involving the Inner Sphere nations.
Time: 4 turns, Chance of Success: 65%, Reward: +10 to combat with selected nation
Select one Inner Sphere nation to concentrate on
Probable best to do Lyran/FedCom first then Free world then work our way from there and need. Marian should not be neccessary since we out mass them so much a straight fight is a slaughter. Andurian cant reach us and neither can the combine. We dont know enough about other farther powers to really detail out plans. Our forces on other hand? Mission creep is very dangerous but you also need to see opportunities and seize them. With comstar functionally defunct IS Sol is about to be a battlefield as FedCom moves in possible with deep raids by other houses to at least pillage a little for what we can. There are targets there that would be beneficial for us to deny the houses at least and our forces are right there and can be in and out before the houses can move forces needed in. We wait for them to return then send back out it will either be to late or we risk trading fire with the houses. At least the shipyards but we might be able to force landings and do some looting. We wont know till we try.These
Our infolife is nicely chugging along with a growing population and demographic.@Warringer actually how is our infolife doing? Not heard about them really since we brought the robot back online. I assume there is a growing population of such in the OCP? Might be enough by now to get them a designated homeworld?
Problem is, we have AI already, and Clans know we exist. At least, Nova Cat knows.The houses would either try to kill or enslave it and the clans when they find out will declare a trial of annihilation.
In this case it would specifically be because he is a casper. They probable dont like AI anyway because of old bias but its hard to describe the hate and fear the caspers provoked. They were intended as a hard deterrent to the invasion of the Hegemony and once Amaris turned them they were horrifyingly effective. A large reason Amaris initial coup won was because he was able to steal their command codes from Richard and turn them on the SLDF and they were a primary reason Kerensky could not just jump straight to Terra and gank him. They made the war far longer and far more bloody forcing a step by step system by system war and they were brutally effective in attrition war as well. They had to invent a whole new form of electronic warfare specifically against them just to weaken them enough for the SLDF to stand a chance in the end. When all was said and done Kerensky himself iirc had all remaining caspers destroyed and any and all data deleted. If the clans find out one yet exist they would near certainly consider it a point of honor and necessity to hunt it down and kill it.Problem is, we have AI already, and Clans know we exist. At least, Nova Cat knows.
If they don't have a problem with an idea of AI in general, they have no way of distinguishing the old Star League AI from ours unless it (or he) explicitly tells them. Does it even think of itself as Star League considering its sentience was an accident?In this case it would specifically be because he is a casper. They probable dont like AI anyway because of old bias but its hard to describe the hate and fear the caspers provoked. They were intended as a hard deterrent to the invasion of the Hegemony and once Amaris turned them they were horrifyingly effective. A large reason Amaris initial coup won was because he was able to steal their command codes from Richard and turn them on the SLDF and they were a primary reason Kerensky could not just jump straight to Terra and gank him. They made the war far longer and far more bloody forcing a step by step system by system war and they were brutally effective in attrition war as well. They had to invent a whole new form of electronic warfare specifically against them just to weaken them enough for the SLDF to stand a chance in the end. When all was said and done Kerensky himself iirc had all remaining caspers destroyed and any and all data deleted. If the clans find out one yet exist they would near certainly consider it a point of honor and necessity to hunt it down and kill it.
Apparently it likes the ideals at least even if not the league itself which is very understandable. Those who created league should burn in hell and that stain tainted everything after. There is also fact that it might be a infomorph but it is not one of ours on computer architecture and programming no one knows jack about anymore because they are all dead and the files deliberately lost. John is probable the closest thing to a expert left on his own systems. We might be able to extract him but that will be a research project itself. Till then he is in a very recognizable body and the clan are not complete fools. They see him they will very quickly ID him as a casper unless we significantly rework his body or simple extract his core(s) and hope that does not kill him. Frankly comes back to we need to get him into dock and research him.If they don't have a problem with an idea of AI in general, they have no way of distinguishing the old Star League AI from ours unless it (or he) explicitly tells them. Does it even think of itself as Star League considering its sentience was an accident?
He does not, as the Star League is defunct. And since it does not exist anymore, he considers himself to be ex-Star League and noe ex-Comstar. In time he might consider himself to be OCP, given that he will have full sophont right when he is with us and can do whatever he wants, within the same bunds as everyone else.Does it even think of itself as Star League considering its sentience was an accident?
You know, I just realised besides the obvious casus belli we've already moved way past of, we could also have a humanitarian cause to move into Sol with a fleet by virtue of the Terra Belters. I don't know their overall political situation, but given the quest text their society appears to be mostly parallel to the IS and, broadly speaking, limited to IS-Sol, with very little cross over between the two. That said, IS-Sol was under control of Comstar for the last couple centuries, so the IS' general exposure to Terra Belters might be low enough that they'd be chucked in with Comstar and mopped up in the same operation, unless they have a backer or neutral observer with a big stick, like the OCP, ensuring their continuation.With comstar functionally defunct IS Sol is about to be a battlefield as FedCom moves in possible with deep raids by other houses to at least pillage a little for what we can. There are targets there that would be beneficial for us to deny the houses at least and our forces are right there and can be in and out before the houses can move forces needed in.
Well, there is an option to move TF Dolittle into Terra, as proposed by @Letsparty...You know, I just realised besides the obvious casus belli we've already moved way past of, we could also have a humanitarian cause to move into Sol with a fleet by virtue of the Terra Belters. I don't know their overall political situation, but given the quest text their society appears to be mostly parallel to the IS and, broadly speaking, limited to IS-Sol, with very little cross over between the two. That said, IS-Sol was under control of Comstar for the last couple centuries, so the IS' general exposure to Terra Belters might be low enough that they'd be chucked in with Comstar and mopped up in the same operation, unless they have a backer or neutral observer with a big stick, like the OCP, ensuring their continuation.
You know, I just realised besides the obvious casus belli we've already moved way past of, we could also have a humanitarian cause to move into Sol with a fleet by virtue of the Terra Belters. I don't know their overall political situation, but given the quest text their society appears to be mostly parallel to the IS and, broadly speaking, limited to IS-Sol, with very little cross over between the two. That said, IS-Sol was under control of Comstar for the last couple centuries, so the IS' general exposure to Terra Belters might be low enough that they'd be chucked in with Comstar and mopped up in the same operation, unless they have a backer or neutral observer with a big stick, like the OCP, ensuring their continuation.
I dont know man. The problem with rogue planets is they are rogue. They might be well positioned right now but a few hundred years from now? Could make a good fallback position and as the planet moves through the stars the AI can geoform and seed worlds as they pass... Actually might be worth looking for such worlds just for that or to mine... Kinda hoping general hyperspace opens up all sorts of options including long distance jumps. We are blazing fast now but if something is going on the other side of the sphere that is a major logistical challenge to do anything even before consider having to go through other people territory. Personally i am still hoping we can still find and use the fault lines as described in Far Country which allow for insane long range travel along set paths. Or figure out a reusable form of 1000 light year jump. Though with our repair ability we could possible get away with it now. We can just rebuild the damn drive as long as other systems and fabricators survive the trip.Regarding our infolife, since we have FTL comms they really don't need to limit themselves to a system, the could just take one of the myriad of rogue planets that flit about and use that as a heat sink or resource. These are probably, possibly, less likely to host life given their inhospitality. Hm… Initially for heat sink for the server farms, then later on, as the heat production exceeds a certain value, rogue planets would be more useful for their materials for more server farms.
As for the discovery of rogue planets, that could be a result of @AgentOrange's proposed giant distributed telescope array, or an outgrowth of General Hyperspace Research given that planets cast a hyperspace shadow or turbulence that our HFEG and KF engines are unable to penetrate. If me cartograph/map/measure hyperspace and find shadows/disturbance, this might indicate such gravity wells, or possibly KF drive cores, given that these also cast a shadow into hyperspace, if I remember correctly.
Personally, I believe that the Belters are quite a lot more numerous than what they pretend to be. There are litterally hundreds of systems that are ignored by the IS powers as they don't have any habitable planets.I would find it absurd if they were limited just to Sol. They have been around at least as long as the houses and frankly longer and have to have their own jumpships. They just present themselves as small and only in Sol because they know their ground dwelling kin are greedy assholes. They are probable very careful to not be seen outside Sol otherwise they would invite invaders or worse fucking taxmen trying to gouge them. As for danger yeah might be nice to keep fleet near if needed but the belters are a known quality and one ignored at their insistence. Us appearing to help them might give them unwanted attention. The houses have no idea the belters never lost their tech or wealth and think them weird bumpkins obsessed with living in the icy void if know about them at all. The houses will be far more interested in grabbing at the planets where obviously all the wealth is.
As for political/social stuff the belters abstain and they are left alone. They are the only ones who could say were mostly independent under the star league because the Camerons knew it was not worth it. Trying to subdue them meant fighting people scattered across a oort cloud who could fling dinosaur killer scale rocks at the inner system so it was MAD situation. Belters swore public fealty and paid some taxes and were left be and then Amaris fucked shit up. Amaris and his goons got off on mass murder and slaughtered entire habitats and the old rules did not matter because they were nuts and submit or fight were going to kill them for the giggles and the people in the inner system were just as much victims. They might have done something but by time they were getting ready Kerensky finally arrived and dealt with the problem then looked up and found very angry and very well armed belters staring back. He choose not to pick that fight and comstar inherited that mess. They mostly went back to same system were the publicly swore fealty and paid taxes and comstar did not provoke the belters but certainly did try to spread blakism to them which they ignored. What happen next depends on who takes the system and how far they push. Probable FedCom and they will find out fast the same situation and smart enough not to push but i expect will be a few incidents.
Rogue planets only move slowly through space. At most a few dozen km/s after being ejected from their origin system. And lets face it, their position doesn't really matter to anyone with FTL...I dont know man. The problem with rogue planets is they are rogue. They might be well positioned right now but a few hundred years from now? Could make a good fallback position and as the planet moves through the stars the AI can geoform and seed worlds as they pass... Actually might be worth looking for such worlds just for that or to mine... Kinda hoping general hyperspace opens up all sorts of options including long distance jumps. We are blazing fast now but if something is going on the other side of the sphere that is a major logistical challenge to do anything even before consider having to go through other people territory. Personally i am still hoping we can still find and use the fault lines as described in Far Country which allow for insane long range travel along set paths. Or figure out a reusable form of 1000 light year jump. Though with our repair ability we could possible get away with it now. We can just rebuild the damn drive as long as other systems and fabricators survive the trip.
Eh… To leave our solar system you need at most 600 km/s, but more likely 70 km/s or less (the former is from Sun's surface, and also the galactic escape velocity from Sun's orbit around the galactic core, the latter from Mercury's orbit around our sun), and then you'll be moving at close to standstill compared to Sol. Given that Sol is heavier than 90% of all other stars (most stars are smaller), we can assume that most rogue planets will move about at low hundreds of km/s. Even at 1000 km/s, the rogue planet would move position by a light day per year.Rogue planets I am thinking if they have enough velocity to escape their star systems they probably moving pretty fast and possibly on paths out of galaxy and everything is moving but yeah see where it goes.
The momentum of a spacecraft remains the same relative to their entry and exit vector for HFEG, So you either slow down before translating into the Everchanging Black, you move your vector to the one you want to exit with, or you burn to correct the vector after translating back to Einstein space.You know, that reminds me… how does velocity relate to FTL travel? When a ship leaves HFE space, does its orientation and velocity stay the same (a.k.a. speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out), or is it something different? It's not that relevant since we're flying around in torch ships and to get up to 1000 km/s takes only slightly above a day at 1 g acceleration, but if we can manipulate the ship velocities when exiting HFE space, well… that'd be neat for us and horrifying for everyone else (see Peter F. Hamilton's Judas Unchained).
They cannot be linked with Hyperwave, as those need time to propagate through the Everchanging Black. It anything, they need HPG or Ansible connections tom be actual sensory arrays to minimize data transmission times.A series of potential research actions to debate on. Most assume Helm core successful unlock. Comment/critique and by all means make your own.
Hyper Dimensional Very Large Arrays
With modern technology it should not only be possible to create very large arrays for long distance observation but with real time hyper communications link these bubbles together to create truly vast arrays across possible a 100 light years or greater in size. Current theory as presented by a Mr. Orange then expanded on by others is to create system size webs of sensors using the new Hyperwave Local Area Mesh Network then link these bubbles with Hyper comms feeding data real time into a central hub refining the data.
I'd like to note that PBPs are already giant particle accelerators. And its easy to scale them up, but due to being able one-shot anything, I didn't bring them to that power level. As such, there are Doaylist reasons not to get those involved at all...Project Optic November
While with stated goal posts for weapons development the overall project is to integrate advances in particle physics from our own research, captured IS PPC's and Helm core data to push the envelope of current understanding of the field and improve all applications. Split into 2 sub projects because of differences of opinions among the teams and stated goals.
Project Mjolnir
Project FireLanceThe ground aspect of Optic November. It takes the electric backwash effect of IS weapons and attempts to create a literal lightning gun. Traditional PPC and PBP are more like bolts weapons shooting discreet bursts but it should be possible create a chain lightning effect. At the very least it should be a giant taser it could also be a very effective anti armor weapon blasting through armor to fry systems and crew inside.
In general giant sensitive particle accelerators should not be on warships but the effects could be incredible devastating. Intend to create a literal particle lance it should allow a long range spinal mounted beam that will simple core through armor and hull straight through a ship possible killing BB in a single hit. Well so the scientists claim...
While there might be protomechs possible at this moment, there is not really any actual need. Power Armor and the Hunter Killers are not meant to directly engage heavier vehicles/mechs and our tactics are based around that. Our Power Armor and the Hunter Killers are meant to engage other power armor and heavy infantry and 'hunt from ambush'.Project Gold Granite
Between mechs and power armor exist a potential class of vehicles. Traditional power armor and current AI designs are not able to stand against heavier vehicles and tanks/mechs cannot always get into a area effecively especially cities which can rapidly become deathtraps. A heavier protomech form can act as heavier hitters for infantry and very mobile heavy infantry for tanks and mechs in situations where PA infantry either would have difficulty keeping up or would be near suicidal to be near the engagement.
The prides are officially called Hunter Killer Combat System under Informational threadmarks. And the Newest Vehicles are there, because for some reason, I cannot put anything under Informational...[/quote]@Warringer you might want to check the thread links i cant find the info on the prides for some reason and our newest vehicles designs are under the main thread and not information.
[/QUOTE]The prides are officially called Hunter Killer Combat System under Informational threadmarks. And the Newest Vehicles are there, because for some reason, I cannot put anything under Informational...