It does, yes. We should do something about that.
Shepard Quest Mk V, Base of Operations (ME/MCU)
- Thread starter Esbilon
- Start date
Van Ropen
Angry, angry about elves.
As long as the axes are Paragon Industries Securis (latin for axe, sounds like security - me gusta) brand, I am all for it!
...the axe also creates a barrier and is a particle cannon of course.
Van Ropen
Angry, angry about elves.
Don't see why not.
...and that is a good idea actually. Presumably they weren't generally worth it before due to eezo and energy costs - the arc reactor takes care of that last one nicely.
Our donation to the government of Mindoir? After we upgrade the Prototype ISAR to a real one?
...and that is a good idea actually. Presumably they weren't generally worth it before due to eezo and energy costs - the arc reactor takes care of that last one nicely.
Our donation to the government of Mindoir? After we upgrade the Prototype ISAR to a real one?
Van Ropen pretty much nailed it on the head. Buying a new building, like buying basically any asset besides Inventory, is a capital transaction not a part of our ordinary operation. So it's not recorded in the P&L but instead reflected in the Cash at Bank as a purchase and Balance Sheet as an asset.
Yep. It's something I pushed for (and failed) Revy to talk about during her press conference.
In theory it's a great idea and allows for minimizing military expense while maximizing defense by allowing rapid reaction.
In practice regular FTL and even Relay travel is simply too slow to make it practical. Even worse is that it seems relatively easy for a colony to be completely cut off from communication with the outside world so that by the time the Alliance even knows there has been an attack it's over.
That said there are ways to make it more practical.
The first is by fixing the communication problem. My suggestion is burying a QEC deep underground in the primary city of each colony and having multiple buildings connect to that so that in the case of an emergency communications simply can not be cut off. Even if it's just "SOS!".
That however doesn't solve the time issue. It takes hours for reinforcements to arrive. Which means the colonies need some kind of defense that can protect people until that happens.
My solution is a multilayer approch. First off throw up a some autonomous kill stats with gigawatt lasers. This will slow down and reduce the number of enemies capable of reaching the colony and should be relatively cheap.
The second layer would consist of a dozen or so Drone!Legionary suits in every population hub, with the more major ones likely having Drone!Tiger support, that will do their best to either eliminate the assault force or failing that bog them down in urban warfare.
The third and final lay of defense would be evacuation bunkers built into every population center that are designed to hold out for the hours it takes for the Alliance to arrive.
This should minimize the number of civilian casualties while also keeping costs as low as possible.
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Leingod
Immaculate Blooming Lotus
Why Legionary suit drones? We've already got a tech tree for mechs; why not use the 5-meter ones for colonial security? With all the advances we've made like the armor, weapons, arc reactor-powered shields and advanced VI, you probably wouldn't need more than one or two dozen to defend most colonies from small-scale threats like pirate raids. And once we get the Transforming capabilities we can have the bigger mechs turn into ground vehicles, or maybe even attack helicopters and the like.
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Because they're 5m tall, which isn't particularly conductive to operating within buildings. Plus, it's an additional research tree we'd have to pursue.
What Kelenas said plus the mechs are likely more expensive and the Alliance has tons of Legionaries.
5k+5k+10k+10k+10k+3+10 = 40,013 Legionary suits.
That's what they have right now and are contracted for at least another 110,000 suits.
Well assuming HK is selling all their suits to the Alliance, which they very well might not be, but I figure at the vast majority are going to the Alliance.
Leingod
Immaculate Blooming Lotus
But aren't the Alliance kind of using their Legionary suits? I'm not sure they're going to just hand out or even sell those cutting-edge suits of power armor that currently turn a single soldier into a virtual one-man army (or at least a platoon) to be used as drones for colonial defense rather than using them to curbstomp pirates and mercs in their home bases.
Actually, don't most established colonies have a militia of some sort? Rather than drones, why not just outfit them with Legionaries? They probably have more training than Revy did when she almost single-handedly repelled a batarian slave raid with a prototype model made in a cave with a box of scraps, so there's your effective colonial defense right there.
Personally, my ideal colonial defense method (if we ignore cost concerns) would be a network of our improved GARDIAN lasers (preferably in the Gigawatts of power) shooting down hostile spacecraft, then if any reach the planet they have to contend with a local militia that's been issued (or sold) at least a dozen or so Legionary suits, supplemented with a few of our new ground vehicles (or, if we've got the technology, mechs that transform into either ground vehicles or attack aircraft).
Actually, don't most established colonies have a militia of some sort? Rather than drones, why not just outfit them with Legionaries? They probably have more training than Revy did when she almost single-handedly repelled a batarian slave raid with a prototype model made in a cave with a box of scraps, so there's your effective colonial defense right there.
Personally, my ideal colonial defense method (if we ignore cost concerns) would be a network of our improved GARDIAN lasers (preferably in the Gigawatts of power) shooting down hostile spacecraft, then if any reach the planet they have to contend with a local militia that's been issued (or sold) at least a dozen or so Legionary suits, supplemented with a few of our new ground vehicles (or, if we've got the technology, mechs that transform into either ground vehicles or attack aircraft).
Well yeah but my point is that in a couple years, when I see this sort of thing been implemented, they'll have Legionary suits pouring out their ears.
No idea about the Militia but frankly I wouldn't be surprised if our drone suits get better performance. The important thing about the drones is that they can pretty much just sit in a warehouse and wait until their needed. Militia need training, resources, pay, ect and of course Militia are people so loosing their lives is a bad thing. Loosing a drone suit isn't.
Also I really wouldn't recommend taking Revy as the standard for what someone can do in the suit. She might not have had military training but she built the thing, had Cornata as backup and is probably the smartest person in the Alliance.
Hell she strolled through the tests on Earth and even the out of control YMIR attack. While some of that is the armor some of that is also Revy.
Well, at least some kinetic barriers can be substituted for non-eezo using technology in the situation of energy abundance. Plasma windows could certainly be used in the airlocks.
Leingod
Immaculate Blooming Lotus
Point, but I think we should at least look into selling a few suits to colonies interested in getting better defenses. Hell, after Elysium the requests will probably come flooding in if we spread word about the availability of the suits for purchase.
Honestly, I don't really see our suits completely replacing the civilian militia, no matter how effective they are. These are people who left Earth, the ancestral home of humanity, to make a new life for themselves among the stars. At least a couple of them are going to be pulling out a rifle and trying to defend their home; it's just human nature. They'll be more effective and safer if they have actual suits to wear, so we might actually want to have a mixed force of drone suits and militiamen wearing the armor.
Actually, we might want to consider developing a lower-end, stripped-down version of the Legionary for civilian militias, security forces and military support personnel. We could call it the Velites (skirmisher).
Well, yeah, I don't think anyone's going to be repeating Revy's feats in the suit. I'm just pointing out how much of a force multiplier a person in a Legionary can be. In fact, didn't the Alliance take out an entire Eclipse base with just three soldiers in Legionary armor?
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They did, yes.
Most wanted to know what was in the books, first. But otherwise, yeah, I'm hoping we'll be able to do some expansion soon.
An additional 100k income in Lucrestein might not be much, but every bit helps, and it costs the company's money, rather than our nation's.
Van Ropen
Angry, angry about elves.
Uhh, what do you mean?
So I was thinking. Anti-matter.
We know that it's used to boost combat thrust and that the Improved warhead for the Pilum uses it. But we also know it's a pain to produce.
E = MC^2
If we want a kilogram of anti-matter then it will take at least:
E = 1 * 299,792,458 * 299,792,458
E = 89,875,517,873,681,764 joules = 89,876TJ
Of course anti-matter production doesn't work like that. From what I understand the efficiency is hard capped at 50% since you always get an equal amount of matter and anti-matter, probably thanks to one of those conservation laws.
So even at full theoretical efficiency it would actually take. 179,751TJ of energy.
But that's not very realistic either. Now modern day accelerators only do something like one joule in every sixty million. However a study for the USAF found that a dedicated antiproton production facility could bring that up all the way to 0.01% efficiency.
Now that's with modern day tech. Given that the Citadel has been producing antiprotons for at least 1,500 years (Krogen Rebellion) I figure we can assume 1% efficiency.
So at 1% efficiency 8,987,551TJ of energy is required per kilogram.
If we build an accelerator, almost certainly in space, with three 40TW reactors we'd be looking at a daily production of 1.2kg of antiprotons.
I'm sure we could find some use for that. Of course this assumes that sufficient power is the problem rather then production technology but given the energy required I think that's a reasonable assumption.
We know that it's used to boost combat thrust and that the Improved warhead for the Pilum uses it. But we also know it's a pain to produce.
E = MC^2
If we want a kilogram of anti-matter then it will take at least:
E = 1 * 299,792,458 * 299,792,458
E = 89,875,517,873,681,764 joules = 89,876TJ
Of course anti-matter production doesn't work like that. From what I understand the efficiency is hard capped at 50% since you always get an equal amount of matter and anti-matter, probably thanks to one of those conservation laws.
So even at full theoretical efficiency it would actually take. 179,751TJ of energy.
But that's not very realistic either. Now modern day accelerators only do something like one joule in every sixty million. However a study for the USAF found that a dedicated antiproton production facility could bring that up all the way to 0.01% efficiency.
Now that's with modern day tech. Given that the Citadel has been producing antiprotons for at least 1,500 years (Krogen Rebellion) I figure we can assume 1% efficiency.
So at 1% efficiency 8,987,551TJ of energy is required per kilogram.
If we build an accelerator, almost certainly in space, with three 40TW reactors we'd be looking at a daily production of 1.2kg of antiprotons.
I'm sure we could find some use for that. Of course this assumes that sufficient power is the problem rather then production technology but given the energy required I think that's a reasonable assumption.
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Chargone
Invisable operator
- Location
- New Zealand
Looks like a post or two in the wrong thread.
Its not so much humanity's colonization policy, but the fact that the SA is a "Free Country" (Well Interstellar Nation w/e). A large amount of the colonization is from the perspective of a compete top down view, extremely stupid, but its a free country. Yes, yes, you're free to go colonize out on the edge of civilization when we don't have enough of a military to protect everyone, good luck. And some of you actively leave the SA when you colonize... dimwits. Sometimes "freedom" and "rights" means the ability to do really stupid things, I believe this is called natural selection.
That not to say that the military strategy couldn't use some work, but I'm willing to bet that the strategy is in a large part a function of the funding the military gets and how much manpower and material that can get them. The strategy is the same as I'd come up with if I was told to defend more points then I had effective fighting forces. Hell I've used it in sci-fi 4x games before, cause I'm horrible about having a big enough military (research for the win!).
Basically colonies can't or don't want to pay for there own defenses, and the SA government just isn't giving the military enough money. Consider that the rest of the council races consider humanity's military/population percentage small at 3%. I'd have to say it feels like the issue is money or a lack or recruits, that may also be an or the issue.
In unrelated news, Thread IV has been imported and is now searchable. Since not everyone has given consent to have their posts imported, some posts will be missing. I present to you: http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/shepard-quest-mk-iv-under-new-management-me-mcu.6969/
First of all, I've recently joined the forum, but I've been lurking and recently caught up with the quest and I must say that I am quite enjoying it.
Secondly, In response to the SA Colonisation Policy, I'd like to put my 2 cents in and say that on examination, it is quite intelligent if somewhat cold-hearted. To analyse this, we must first look back to the aftermath of the Relay 314 Incident, where the SA was given the permission to colonise and expand into the Skyllian Verge, a semi-legitimate 'Zone of Batarian' interest as they liked to call it. The Council probably did this to help create an additional buffer zone between the slaving Batarians and the civilized Citadel by utilising this new small, yet stable and militarily competent race. What this meant for the SA was that they were given territory between them and the 'slaving, pirating state', but, especially when the Batarians pulled out of the Citadel - not given exclusivity, so they only got as much territory as they could reasonably claim. The SA needed this to create strategic depth, or they would have wound up with a few more moderately defended/industrialised worlds only slightly beyond their borders. But on the other hand have ended up with a much larger Batarian Hegemony within striking distance of their core territories.
In addition, their policy was also beneficial in the long run, and would have born great fruit by 2200's had not the Reapers come. In many ways its like the early stage of a Civilization game. You can sit back and build up your holdings, securing yourself form the barbarians and hostile powers. However, its possible to find yourself boxed in by other powers, unable to get more resources in the mid stage. The other option is to expand aggressively earlier, whereby those far flung outposts are horribly vulnerable to barbarians/pirates/slavers, but once you start entrenching yourself you get yourself a much bigger resource/industrial base to play with. From here, I can also see elements of the US moving westwards towards the pacific, whereby people moved and took ground for themselves, gaining the US and enormous resource basin, and all the trappings of civilization - police, security etc, followed as soon as it was able. So in the context of the SA, the nodal doctrine is there to mostly dissuade proper nations from contesting their claims, where the civil and military force to actually police them come as soon as they become available.
Secondly, In response to the SA Colonisation Policy, I'd like to put my 2 cents in and say that on examination, it is quite intelligent if somewhat cold-hearted. To analyse this, we must first look back to the aftermath of the Relay 314 Incident, where the SA was given the permission to colonise and expand into the Skyllian Verge, a semi-legitimate 'Zone of Batarian' interest as they liked to call it. The Council probably did this to help create an additional buffer zone between the slaving Batarians and the civilized Citadel by utilising this new small, yet stable and militarily competent race. What this meant for the SA was that they were given territory between them and the 'slaving, pirating state', but, especially when the Batarians pulled out of the Citadel - not given exclusivity, so they only got as much territory as they could reasonably claim. The SA needed this to create strategic depth, or they would have wound up with a few more moderately defended/industrialised worlds only slightly beyond their borders. But on the other hand have ended up with a much larger Batarian Hegemony within striking distance of their core territories.
In addition, their policy was also beneficial in the long run, and would have born great fruit by 2200's had not the Reapers come. In many ways its like the early stage of a Civilization game. You can sit back and build up your holdings, securing yourself form the barbarians and hostile powers. However, its possible to find yourself boxed in by other powers, unable to get more resources in the mid stage. The other option is to expand aggressively earlier, whereby those far flung outposts are horribly vulnerable to barbarians/pirates/slavers, but once you start entrenching yourself you get yourself a much bigger resource/industrial base to play with. From here, I can also see elements of the US moving westwards towards the pacific, whereby people moved and took ground for themselves, gaining the US and enormous resource basin, and all the trappings of civilization - police, security etc, followed as soon as it was able. So in the context of the SA, the nodal doctrine is there to mostly dissuade proper nations from contesting their claims, where the civil and military force to actually police them come as soon as they become available.
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Well, ideally the SA will be able to shift more money into their military thanks to our inventions making colonization (and some other aspects of the SA's economy and military) much cheaper.
A number of Arc Reactors can easily provide huge amounts of power for a new colony, while requiring very little or even nothing in the way of fuel, maintenance and space. No need to ship in large fusion reactors and the He-3 fuel necessary to run them.
Repulsors mean that any ship equipped with them doesn't require fuel for its thrusters. In combination with an Arc Reactor, this not only means that the ship doesn't require any more fuel at all, thus reducing the running cost, it *also* means that the space previously dedicated to the larger fusion reactor and its fuel tanks can instead be used to transport more cargo, passengers, colonists, etc.
Additionally, ships equipped with Arc Reactors of sufficient size will have *vastly* stronger shields, making them much more resistant to attacks from pirates, giving them a much better chance to get away or send off a distress signal, which in turn reduces the economic damage done by pirates, especially to new colonies.
Overall, this should lead to fairly significant benefits to the SA's colonization program, as colonies can be established and expanded much more cheaply and quickly, and the smaller garrisons are able to fend off much larger forces, with comparatively low upkeep costs.
Which reminds me:
Ie, can we automatically build freighters, shuttles, passenger ships, surveyors, etc. pp. regardless of their size? Or do we unlock them via hull-research? Ie, researching Frigate means we can build ships <200m or so in length, Light Cruisers up to, say 400m, Cruiser up to 700, etc?
A number of Arc Reactors can easily provide huge amounts of power for a new colony, while requiring very little or even nothing in the way of fuel, maintenance and space. No need to ship in large fusion reactors and the He-3 fuel necessary to run them.
Repulsors mean that any ship equipped with them doesn't require fuel for its thrusters. In combination with an Arc Reactor, this not only means that the ship doesn't require any more fuel at all, thus reducing the running cost, it *also* means that the space previously dedicated to the larger fusion reactor and its fuel tanks can instead be used to transport more cargo, passengers, colonists, etc.
Additionally, ships equipped with Arc Reactors of sufficient size will have *vastly* stronger shields, making them much more resistant to attacks from pirates, giving them a much better chance to get away or send off a distress signal, which in turn reduces the economic damage done by pirates, especially to new colonies.
Overall, this should lead to fairly significant benefits to the SA's colonization program, as colonies can be established and expanded much more cheaply and quickly, and the smaller garrisons are able to fend off much larger forces, with comparatively low upkeep costs.
Which reminds me:
How does research into ship hulls work in regards to civilian vessels?
Ie, can we automatically build freighters, shuttles, passenger ships, surveyors, etc. pp. regardless of their size? Or do we unlock them via hull-research? Ie, researching Frigate means we can build ships <200m or so in length, Light Cruisers up to, say 400m, Cruiser up to 700, etc?