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Shepard Quest Mk V, Base of Operations (ME/MCU)

Lone Wolf 666 said:
Difference between spectres and STG?. Spectres are lone Wolfs, easily disappear. STG have backups, with even their backups. Kill one, and you can bet. They have group task to warn and call the rest. Basically its not the Spectres we have to fear, but STG.
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Spectres work either alone or in small groups according to the nature of a particular task and to their personal preference.
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I read the this after Van Ropen reminded me that I had forgotten a lot about them even if they work without other Spectres I imagine many of them have a retinue like an Inquisitor from Warhammer 40k, Shepard had one for example in all the games that he/she was in. Spectres are basically the Mass effect version of an Inquisitor so be very afraid if they're interested in you.
Datakim said:
I think the original idea was that once Revy starts throwing crazy invention after crazy invention out there, the first assumption might be less "she is a super-prodigy on a level never seen before in the galaxy, ever" and more "she found a usable prothean beacon or equivalent and is just selling ancient tech as her own inventions". The players know its the first, but the council might well suspect the second. And if they assume the second, they would be less interested in Revy, and more interested in whatever source of tech they falsely think we have.

Thats when they might send spectres to acquire this "beacon", so they can gain all the benefit without having to worry about us at all. And if they send someone like Saren, he might not care overly much if Revy dies in the process. Especially if he is already working for Sovereign.
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She is pretty much laying a ton of golden eggs at the moment, I think that they would send someone able of being subtle to first confirm things before doing something like that against us. Saren if he's working for Sovereign already then I can see him doing something under the table against us if he thinks he can get away with it or his patron demands something from him.
 
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Datakim said:
Thats when they might send spectres to acquire this "beacon", so they can gain all the benefit without having to worry about us at all. And if they send someone like Saren, he might not care overly much if Revy dies in the process. Especially if he is already working for Sovereign.
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Legally, all Prothean Beacons are the property of every race and are to be held in trust by the Citadel Council and used to advance the common good. It's part of the treaties every race has to sign to join the citadel races.

And interestingly, to counter the "You must have a beacon!" argument, human history does support the occasional super genius. We can point at people like Nikola Tesla and Leonardo da Vinchi and just tell them that yeah, every couple of centuries the human race throws out a super genius. No one knows why, but it's been happening for millenia. This is just the first time we're really in a position to take full advantage of it.
 
Wait how would STG and Spectres manage espionage on Revy. Data won't easily leave the compound and their are not Human Spectres, in the game Shepard was the first, and STG are all Salarians so that's out and as far as I know all of our researchers and workers are human. How would they actually manage to sneak into the facility just the fact that an Alien got into the area would point to an attack.
 
Stroth said:
Legally, all Prothean Beacons are the property of every race and are to be held in trust by the Citadel Council and used to advance the common good. It's part of the treaties every race has to sign to join the citadel races.

And interestingly, to counter the "You must have a beacon!" argument, human history does support the occasional super genius. We can point at people like Nikola Tesla and Leonardo da Vinchi and just tell them that yeah, every couple of centuries the human race throws out a super genius. No one knows why, but it's been happening for millenia. This is just the first time we're really in a position to take full advantage of it.
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Da Vinchi lived in a time when it was possible to learn most of the things we had discovered about the world so using him as an example of what is possible now and in the future of mass effect is pointless, he was talented but if he had lived in our times he wouldn't have been able to accomplish what he did now it just takes to much time to learn just one specific field let alone most of them. Asari with their extremely long lives along with the krogan if you find can one with the right mentality might be able to become modern renaissance men and women.
 
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Qazplm said:
Da Vinchi lived in a time when it was possible to learn most of the things we had discovered about the world so using him as an example of what is possible now and in the future of mass effect is pointless, he was talented but if he had lived in our times he wouldn't have been able to accomplish what he did now it just takes to much time to learn just one specific field let alone most of them.
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In real life, yes. In this quest? Revy is doing exactly that right now.
 
Stroth said:
In real life, yes. In this quest? Revy is doing exactly that right now.
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And at such an insane speed that I wouldn't be at all surprised if even people in the Alliance started to suspect she's got a personal beacon. Really by any sane standard her learning curve is ludicrous. Forget Tony Stark; at the rate we're going we'll probably pull out the Ultimate Nullifier when the Reapers invade.
 
Stroth said:
In real life, yes. In this quest? Revy is doing exactly that right now.
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If there are other people like Shepard then we should notice them unless their governments are sitting on them. If more people like Revy existed before her then we shouldn't have a setting that would be even remotely like the setting which appears to be pretty much pure Mass Effect besides Revy and her inventions.
 
Mannan said:
Wait how would STG and Spectres manage espionage on Revy. Data won't easily leave the compound and their are not Human Spectres, in the game Shepard was the first, and STG are all Salarians so that's out and as far as I know all of our researchers and workers are human. How would they actually manage to sneak into the facility just the fact that an Alien got into the area would point to an attack.
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Right now? Things are pretty secure (though bribery and electronic espionage are still concerns). In the future, as we expand? Vulnerabilities will appear.

Either way, this conversation is about a Spectre knocking on the front door and asking to see our Prothean Beacon.
 
So, lets talk about factories. How many should we build in Elysium? We should probably build at least one their when we start our lab, but should we aim for saturation, or keep our factories more spread out? (E.G., more on other planets.)

I'd like to be able to consolidate our Shipyards in Mindoir, if we can, but I again fear that we would be putting all our eggs in one Reaper sized basket. On the other hand, we could then consolidate all of our defenses... Idea!

Given that the alliance doesn't like people holding orbital supremacy over their colonies, Should we then devote a personal action next turn to found a colony in a system perfect for mining, And start building shipyards there? If we do, we can put as much fire power up there as we want, and probably control traffic in and out, with fairly strict customs?

And for my second section: Research heroes!

Does anybody mind if we start spending personal actions on trying to find somebody who can make true energy shields? Say, ones that can block lasers. Either that, or trying to find some quarian geneticists and helping their immune systems. Esbilon has said we get to direct what type of hero we search for, though we aren't likely to find them on the first action spent.

Edit: A list of things I want Research heroes to gain...

  • Energy shielding
  • Quarian immune system
  • Spreading peak genemod to other council races.
  • Terraforming?
 
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As far as the Alliance goes, they don't seem to have a problem with PMCs. Get us a license for a PMC of our own, and build our own space navy. They probably won't care if we're stationing 2-3 frigates and a cruiser in each of the systems we have facilities in.

Alternatively, well, gigawatt lasers may not be a good idea in atmosphere but I bet we could use gigawatt GARDIAN turrets to swat targets in orbit ruthlessly.
 
Alanek2002 said:
Given that the alliance doesn't like people holding orbital supremacy over their colonies, Should we then devote a personal action next turn to found a colony in a system perfect for mining, And start building shipyards there? If we do, we can put as much fire power up there as we want, and probably control traffic in and out, with fairly strict customs?
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It's got precedent. As long as the company is paying for everything there's no problem with a Megacorp starting a colony on an uninhabated world and running it with pretty much no oversite. If Feros was a good example then the only real rule is don't get caught. And if you do then make sure you covered your ass.
 
Stroth said:
It's got precedent. As long as the company is paying for everything there's no problem with a Megacorp starting a colony on an uninhabated world and running it with pretty much no oversite. If Feros was a good example then the only real rule is don't get caught. And if you do then make sure you covered your ass.
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And we wouldn't be pulling any shady shit like with Feros, so even better!
 
Alanek2002 said:
So, lets talk about factories. How many should we build in Elysium? We should probably build at least one their when we start our lab, but should we aim for saturation, or keep our factories more spread out? (E.G., more on other planets.)

I'd like to be able to consolidate our Shipyards in Mindoir, if we can, but I again fear that we would be putting all our eggs in one Reaper sized basket. On the other hand, we could then consolidate all of our defenses... Idea!
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Spreading out is a better idea I think. Building up a Lab I/II/III, Factory I/II/III, and Barracks on the new planet will take three quarters. Adding more defenses (GARDIAN towers and the like) should be accomplished in same time frame. Go all in with the investment from the get go, and build this all up in one spot (which should cost us like 2 billion a pop, maybe a bit more if we spend a lot on defenses). That gives us a single location to defend instead of stuff all over the planet...then we move on to the next colony, since we want to spread and don't want all our eggs in one basket.

Those security garrisons can be expanded/serve as secondary bases for our PMC too.

As for the shipyards...that is more problematic. I would actually prefer to have that centralized, so we can better maintain security and secrecy. Preferably, we claim a resource rich system on the Verge/Terminus border for our own (so technically a corporate planet in the Terminus, not Alliance), and make that our actual headquarters. The Reapers are a problem...think we can make FTL drives large enough to let them be moved via Relay, even if it is slow as fuck between jumps?

So we have a dense set up with loads of shipyards and factories above/on Planet Shepard - which is also the base for our PMC, while we have single installations on lots of other colonies, each with their own garrisons (which will include ships once the PMC is up and running). Mindoir is the exception, with three factories and its own single shipyard, but that's fine...its where we started out after all. It can be a major hub for the company and our forces in Alliance Space.

Edit - as for the next hero...I'd hold off on the quarians, its not really a pressing issue. Energy shielding is far more important, especially with how we are changing warfare.
 
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Have you guys thought of researching your own unique FTL drives not reliant on Element Zero. If you want something that cements the edge of humanity, having one of these would definitely be it. After all humanity would no longer be reliant on the Mass Relays and that would definitley be a massive advantage against the Reapers.
 
It would be nice - I am hesitant to do so though. It is probably just the shitty HFY fics tainting the idea by association, but the eezo-FTL is kinda the hallmark of the setting.
 
Van Ropen said:
It would be nice - I am hesitant to do so though. It is probably just the shitty HFY fics tainting the idea by association, but the eezo-FTL is kinda the hallmark of the setting.
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We aren't saying make it as cheap as eezo-ftl. Just that we have it as an actual option... and tell me straight do you have proof something like that doesn't just sit on a dusty shelf in canon because say the energy requirements are obscene, or some other reason why eezo is used rather then the new design.

Eezo-ftl is a known, well tested ftl that is based off of their current infrastructure. Who knows how many theoretical FTl types they could have had and simply not pursued simply because there was no profit in it. Any new FTL system will have to beat out the current one which as stated has been in use for a really damn long time. All the bugs have been worked out.
 
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Daniel14541 said:
tell me straight do you have proof something like that doesn't just sit on a dusty shelf in canon because say the energy requirements are obscene, or some other reason why eezo is used rather then the new design.
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...no? How could I possibly say that?

Do you have proof that any other FTL is even possible via Mass Effect physics? They certainly tried a bunch of random shit but gave up on it when eezo-ftl was discovered, but it is up to Espilon whether we can pursue any of that with even a hope of success. This isn't an in-story decision, it is something that has to be considered from a game balance/story impact perspective.
 
Mannan said:
Have you guys thought of researching your own unique FTL drives not reliant on Element Zero. If you want something that cements the edge of humanity, having one of these would definitely be it. After all humanity would no longer be reliant on the Mass Relays and that would definitley be a massive advantage against the Reapers.
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Mass effect FTL is ~5,478.75 times faster then C on the high speed ships. Even getting to C is fuck all hard w/o a cheat. Now imagine all the development time and effort to get the drive even a fraction as good as a mass effect one. And don't BS me about how easy it is to get mass effect drives that good. The ~5,478.75C one is a Citadel standard one; the best human FTL before First Contact was ~50C or about 1% of the citadel drives (and they still only were that fast during 2165). People wounder what the citadel races have spend the last ~3000 or so years researching? Faster FTL. better guns, better lasers, better armor. I truly imagine that human stuff actually sucked compared to the citadel level stuff, its just that it was good enough to be competitive, barely.

Unless we can get the FTL method up to around 5k C its just not worth it, to slow. The reapers on a side note rock 10k C. It doesn't matter if the drive can run for ever if it takes you a hundred days to get there.

Anyone have data on estimated speeds for an Alcubierre drive? I frond something that mentioned 10C, but that was in relation to the first paper on it.

As for comparison to other Sci-FI deals Mass Effect FTL is up there with Star Trek in terms of speed (top end citadel drives are about warp 9.9-9.99 if I'm reading this right), its an order of magnitude or so slower then WH40K (well when they're reliable, crazy time travel magic and/or plot speed :rolleyes:) it losses to the top sci-fi settings of star wars and stargate and other shows that have galactic/intergalactic travel. ME FTL is freaking good, just watch that 3 day limit on most drives (note that you can increase the limit by adding more eezo)

What we might be able to do is figure out a metamaterial that can effect dark energy and thus bypass the need for eezo, or create cheap(ish) small scale mass relays ala the conduit.

Now if MCU or the Iron Man movies had FTL we might have a leg to stand on. So basically we'll be able to use wormholes if we can get ourselves a magic glowy blue box.
 
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I think we should think very carefully if we are deciding whether or not to get our own planet ala Noveria. While its attractive in keeping security and keeping nosy Spectres and the like out, it also isolates our assets from Alliance military support unless we lobby to keep a Alliance response force near. Plus, we are going to have to pour ridiculous amounts of money into defenses.
 
aceraptor said:
I think we should think very carefully if we are deciding whether or not to get our own planet ala Noveria. While its attractive in keeping security and keeping nosy Spectres and the like out, it also isolates our assets from Alliance military support unless we lobby to keep a Alliance response force near. Plus, we are going to have to pour ridiculous amounts of money into defenses.
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... I don't see why that is a minus. Heck, that is our main reason for wanting to do so.
 
aceraptor said:
I think we should think very carefully if we are deciding whether or not to get our own planet ala Noveria. While its attractive in keeping security and keeping nosy Spectres and the like out, it also isolates our assets from Alliance military support unless we lobby to keep a Alliance response force near. Plus, we are going to have to pour ridiculous amounts of money into defenses.
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But knowing us and our invention. Wouldn't that attract them more?.
 
aceraptor said:
I think we should think very carefully if we are deciding whether or not to get our own planet ala Noveria. While its attractive in keeping security and keeping nosy Spectres and the like out, it also isolates our assets from Alliance military support unless we lobby to keep a Alliance response force near. Plus, we are going to have to pour ridiculous amounts of money into defenses.
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Meh, how much support does the Alliance actually give? It took them hours to reach Mindoir. If we ever reach the point where we can maintain the equivalent of an Alliance Fleet over our planet, we have already exceeded the maximum possible rapid response force the Alliance could send us - and that too, something that would only be deployed in the case of all out invasion by a galactic power. This of course assumes we are totally cut off from them....not likely, given we make their toys.

We plan on defending ourselves adequately anyways, and that can be done pretty cost effectively with satellites/GARDIAN towers/shields in the interm while our PMC gets set up.

Defending ourselves against pirates and that kind of shit? Not even worth mentioning as a problem.
 
Hm, well, planet acquisition can wait until we've got a full on PMC built up to hold our facilities. And 'till we are rakin in enough money to build some frigates.
 
Definitely. If it costs us around ~2 billion per foothold on established colonies, we should have a much higher income when we establish our corporate planet...and yeah, some ships from the Mindoir shipyard.
 
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