Shepard Quest Mk VI, Technological Revolution

[TotallyNotEvil]

Legionary deal was exclusivity for the Mk 1/1.5 only, right? It was noted we could churn out the MKII with no consequences.

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I believe so. 300 million for the exclusive contract, 75k as royalties for each unit, and ARC reactors bought directly from PI.

Remember when there was something along the lines of "his brother owns most banks on the planet, one of the few people there richer than you, and likely to stay like that for a long time"? Heh, funny that.

 

[TheEyes]

To be clear, what are the intended research plans for this quarter? Because I can't seem to find them and I'm not sure if the discussion has resulted in changes.

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The change to laser tech has kind of upended the medium term plans, since lasers feature so prominently in the Cabira. Now, I outlined what I thought were our priority techs, and charted out how we could get all of them on time, but there's some disagreement. In particular, there's a lot of people insisting that Gamma Ray Laser tech is really not all that necessary, possibly even X-ray lasers, and on further review I'm inclined to agree. OTOH, it may be useful to push up High GW-range lasers, plus Light and Heavy Cruisers so we can get on board with the block upgrades there, and Variable Wavelength lasers could still be useful because it would let us dynamically tune our lasership's main guns to preferentially target specific materials, therefore bypassing certain types of armor...

In other words, this is an ongoing area of discussion, and is likely to intensify when we get more details on what Mordin's special techs actually do.

Wasn't it written somewhere (I think it is on one of the specs or the presentation) that Revy could not only lift, but casually hold the smaller models?

There are three sizes right?

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You're talking about the Pilium, our miniaturized anti-tank munitions which we introduced along with the Legionary. The anti-ship missiles, on the other hand, are a much more recent innovation--I don't think we even have a Roman-inspired name for them yet!--and are meant to be mounted on the wings of space fighters, and definitely not held in the hand.

Interesting enough, 2014's World GDP actually was 78 something trillion dollars (according Wikipedia). In a very simplified manner, considering the population as 14 billion to account for inflation, that would give SA a GDP of roughly 160 trillion credits. That ballparks their Defense Budget at 6-8 trillions a year. Likely 14-18 at war time.

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That's the the GDP of 2013 earth. Earth 161 years later (2174) contemplated by at least at a 2% rate per year becomes 1,832.7 trillion GDP. Four percent of that as military is reasonable so 73.3 trillion per year on armed forces an in all honest. @TheEyes On look provides another look.

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Both of these are bad ways to extrapolate GDP. @TotallyNotEvil, you are forgetting that there is much more to GDP growth than population growth: there is also technological change, productivity improvements, regulatory and political reform, environmental change, etc. 160 trillion is going to be far too low, because all you are accounting for is the fact that there are more people, and not for the fact that each of those people is going to be earning more money, in terms of absolute value, after 160 years of advancement. There is a reason why I went out of my way to use the US GDP numbers rather than the world ones: the implication is that the average nation in the 2170s is roughly as wealthy, on a per-capita basis, as the richest one is today. Under your assumption, there is literally no difference between the world of 2014 and 2174, other than the fact that there are more warm bodies out there, working the same jobs for the same pay that they were 160 years ago. Not a chance.

@Hoyr, you're making two bad assumptions here. First, and most importantly, you're calculating 2174 GDP in 2014 US dollars. There is just no way that the 2174 Citadel credit is going to be equal in value to a 2014 USD. The credit is in fact going to be worth a great deal more, in terms of real value, than a 2014 USD, so much more that the credit can effectively cancel the effects of 160 years worth of inflation, such that we can use 2014 USD values to price things in 2174 Citadel credits. Your second mistake is that you're assuming an implausibly low GDP growth rate. 2%? I'd be willing to wager closer to 7-8%. Heck, I'd be willing to bet that inflation is going to be at least 3-4% in the long term.

Legionary deal was exclusivity for the Mk 1/1.5 only, right? It was noted we could churn out the MKII with no consequences.

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Yeah, but it'd still be kind of a dick move, and we don't want H&K as an enemy. We can wait until late 2176 to release the Mk II to the general public; hell, we might even have time to research the suit by then!

 

[Yog]

The change to laser tech has kind of upended the medium term plans, since lasers feature so prominently in the Cabira. Now, I outlined what I thought were our priority techs, and charted out how we could get all of them on time, but there's some disagreement. In particular, there's a lot of people insisting that Gamma Ray Laser tech is really not all that necessary, possibly even X-ray lasers, and on further review I'm inclined to agree. OTOH, it may be useful to push up High GW-range lasers, plus Light and Heavy Cruisers so we can get on board with the block upgrades there, and Variable Wavelength lasers could still be useful because it would let us dynamically tune our lasership's main guns to preferentially target specific materials, therefore bypassing certain types of armor...

In other words, this is an ongoing area of discussion, and is likely to intensify when we get more details on what Mordin's special techs actually do.

Click to shrink...

I think it would be really wise to invest in P&P skills. If nothing else, Cabiras and other paradigm-breaking ships would normally require long training time for their crews to learn how to operate, maintain and fully utilize them. At least a year, I would say. With P&P skills that time drops down dramatically. We could definitely swap x-ray lasers for those.

 

[killfr3nzy]

I would probably advise selling Mk IIs with "mere" composite armor, a Arcane Blur (Plus maybe Warp barrier) Mk II is just the thing to sell N7.

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Don't know about the rest but Hoyr has mentioned multiple times that any tech we release during but especially before the Reapers turn up is going to be used and improved upon by them, thus the reason behind hiding and delaying a fair portion of our research.

I mean the attack on our base was led by some superalloy-armoured, ArcReactor-powered biotic, which had only previously existed as an idea floating in the head of one of our researchers.
I.e., no-one in the thread thought of it, Revy IC didn't think of it, it wasn't published or theorized anywhere on the net, the Reapers made that leap all on their own.

That's the basis for a lot of my 'don't release this yet' arguments, anyway.

@Hoyr, you're making two bad assumptions here. First, and most importantly, you're calculating 2174 GDP in 2014 US dollars.

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I think a few pages ago when talking about the value of the 'Galactic Credit' or whatever against the value of whatever currency each race actually uses, it was mentioned that US$=Credit was how everything was priced.

IIRC.

I think it would be really wise to invest in P&P skills. If nothing else, Cabiras and other paradigm-breaking ships would normally require long training time for their crews to learn how to operate, maintain and fully utilize them. At least a year, I would say.

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What is the reason for that assumption, may I ask?

Most of the 'paradigm-breaking' will be in how mix-and-match and customizable we've made the ship, with the rest being different power and weapon systems. Any re-training needed would mostly be in terms of how to fight with it, not in how to fly or service.

Remember that the Cabiras system is a weapons&shield upgrade and not an actual ship, and that we'll be releasing it during Reaper Fever, where having researched and then unleashing P&P won't be a problem.

 

[Yog]

Remember that the Cabiras system is a weapons&shield upgrade and not an actual ship, and that we'll be releasing it during Reaper Fever, where having researched and then unleashing P&P won't be a problem.

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Err, no. We are releasing Cabiras relatively soon, for their political impact. They are pointless otherwise.

EDIT:

Don't know about the rest but Hoyr has mentioned multiple times that any tech we release during but especially before the Reapers turn up is going to be used and improved upon by them, thus the reason behind hiding and delaying a fair portion of our research.

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I'd like citation on this, please. We are researching lbackboxing to prevent exactly that, and we are not delaying our research at all.

 

[killfr3nzy]

Err, no. We are releasing Cabiras relatively soon, for their political impact. They are pointless otherwise.

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Cabiras is the 'Invisible Laser-Ship upgrade' design yes? I think we're only releasing the 'Lego-Ship' design.

Could be wrong on both naming and release schedules, but that's my understanding;
-Modular ships now
-Stealthy doom upgrade later

 

[Yog]

Cabiras is the 'Invisible Laser-Ship upgrade' design yes? I think we're only releasing the 'Lego-Ship' design.

Could be wrong on both naming and release schedules, but that's my understanding;
-Modular ships now
-Stealthy doom upgrade later

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"Later" is not "when (and if) Reapers invade". It's "when we actually have the tech". A big drive behind Cabira, at least for me, is that it demonstrates inherent asymmetry of mass-effect based warfare. The side defending stationary targets loses. That's what I want to pound into the heads of the military, pour on the screen of every computer, and place into the mouth of every politician. Stationary, ground based targets cannot be defended. Period. This is something that the society needs to adapt to if it is to stand a chance against Reapers.

 

[TheEyes]

I think a few pages ago when talking about the value of the 'Galactic Credit' or whatever against the value of whatever currency each race actually uses, it was mentioned that US$=Credit was how everything was priced.

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Read the rest of that paragraph. We are using US$ == Credit for purposes of employee wages, to establish a sort of baseline that we can use to compare values and prices in ways that correspond to how we naturally think of money already. That is not to say that a 2014 US dollar has the same real value as a 2174 Credit: in fact, at a rate of 3% inflation, if you took 1 USD, put it in a zero interest account for 160 years, and withdrew it you would not get a credit, but instead you would get 0.008 Credit.

It's a bad idea to try to evaluate the 2174 economy in 2014 dollars: the numbers just become weird and hard to relate to. You actually see something similar when you try to evaluate the 2014 economy based on say 1920s dollars. In the 1920s, your average factory worker earned $30 a week; then again a hamburger costed 5 cents and a movie costed a quarter. If we tried to talk about the 2174 economy in terms of 2014 dollars then our security guards would be earning $5,750,000 annually; then again a Space-Carl's Jr. six dollar burger would cost around $500. Those are not numbers that are easy to relate to, so we conjure up a "Citadel Credit" that shifts those numbers back to ones we can relate to: our security guards earn 46,000 credits per year, and a six dollar burger costs 3.95 credits.

Cabiras is the 'Invisible Laser-Ship upgrade' design yes? I think we're only releasing the 'Lego-Ship' design.

Could be wrong on both naming and release schedules, but that's my understanding;
-Modular ships now
-Stealthy doom upgrade later

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"Later" in this case means "at the end of next year."

"Later" is not "when (and if) Reapers invade". It's "when we actually have the tech". A big drive behind Cabira, at least for me, is that it demonstrates inherent asymmetry of mass-effect based warfare. The side defending stationary targets loses. That's what I want to pound into the heads of the military, pour on the screen of every computer, and place into the mouth of every politician. Stationary, ground based targets cannot be defended. Period. This is something that the society needs to adapt to if it is to stand a chance against Reapers.

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Well, to be fair you can put an entire planet behind a 50 quintillion credit "What attack?"-grade planetary shield (build time: 6 years), although if you have that kind of scratch you may as well install engines, replace its core with eezo, and build yourself a worldship.

 

[Yog]

Well, to be fair you can put an entire planet behind a 50 quintillion credit "What attack?"-grade planetary shield (build time: 6 years), although if you have that kind of scratch you may as well install engines, replace its core with eezo, and build yourself a worldship.

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And you'd need those engines too, given that super nova induction is a canonically possible weapon, while a galaxy-busting weapon is theoretically possible.

Really, if we are to ever have a hope of having stationary installations, we need to work out FTL interdiction fields somehow. This is probably up the artificial eezo techtree, where we'll need to make eezo anti-particles and very possibly bombard them with anti matter charge carriers.

 

[Hoyr]

While the exact date for the Gladius deal is harder to define, since you could start counting from multiple times, if we say it started counting down in 2173-Q2 when we started producing Gladii then it won't finish until 2178-Q2.

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It began the time the mutual research began as that would make sense.

Legionary deal was exclusivity for the Mk 1/1.5 only, right? It was noted we could churn out the MKII with no consequences.

Click to shrink...

Yep.

In other words, this is an ongoing area of discussion, and is likely to intensify when we get more details on what Mordin's special techs actually do.

Click to shrink...

I'll note that Mordin's special techs while partially hampered OoC by my brain just going what do I give this guy, there also the fact that he's testing the waters as it were.

Omni-tool Upgrades is folding a lot of your tech into omni-tools. A lot of that being up-rating everything to handle AR power levels (Arc-reactor powered overload mmmm...), but also other things. You could probably sell ones with DES blade apps. or ones that could do some battle-field time reductive 3-D printing. (may require miniaturized energy weapons to do that... Probably in the 100-200 points range.

Brain Shield is blocking out the lower level mind effecting stuff in ME. Basic Asari Melding, Consumer Grade Prothean stuff, external versions of your Neural interfaces around 400 points.

Colonization/Bioforming Genetics Package is about putting together a kit as it were of things that can be used in the process of making/alerting new life for colonization programs. Ideal rapidly accelerating the bioforming (that is altering the biosphere) step. It would be worth a fair amount of money and be generally good for PR as it may open up new colonization sites. Around 400RP

You're talking about the Pilium, our miniaturized anti-tank munitions which we introduced along with the Legionary. The anti-ship missiles, on the other hand, are a much more recent innovation--I don't think we even have a Roman-inspired name for them yet!--and are meant to be mounted on the wings of space fighters, and definitely not held in the hand.

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Yeah the anti-ship missiles are biggish not normally man portable (ignoring krogan and elcor). They do need names. Maybe from roman segie weapons? Ballista designs?

@Hoyr, you're making two bad assumptions here. First, and most importantly, you're calculating 2174 GDP in 2014 US dollars. There is just no way that the 2174 Citadel credit is going to be equal in value to a 2014 USD. The credit is in fact going to be worth a great deal more, in terms of real value, than a 2014 USD, so much more that the credit can effectively cancel the effects of 160 years worth of inflation, such that we can use 2014 USD values to price things in 2174 Citadel credits. Your second mistake is that you're assuming an implausibly low GDP growth rate. 2%? I'd be willing to wager closer to 7-8%. Heck, I'd be willing to bet that inflation is going to be at least 3-4% in the long term.

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2% was a inflation compensated lower bound to use as an example, basically to prove yes the SA's GDP is big eoungh that tens of trillions per 1 kmish warship isn't insane. Hell I knocked 90% off the price I first derived! It could be higher.

Well I have been stripping inflation as a conceit so I can use pricing I understand (also seems to be close to what happened in ME prices are with in an order of magnitude and well individual product prices do shift). So basically I just do (growth-inflation)% growth to ignore inflation. If institutions were willing you could practically remove direct monetary inflation (debates on if this is a good thing maybe held elsewhere), but doing stuff like that. If you want to be picky here: Gross world product - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
this chart uses "international" dollars and thus use 2000 USD. Growth is been between 3.5-6 percent so my estimates low... oh well I wasn't using it for anything other then to demonstrate a lower bound of the future economy.

Don't know about the rest but Hoyr has mentioned multiple times that any tech we release during but especially before the Reapers turn up is going to be used and improved upon by them, thus the reason behind hiding and delaying a fair portion of our research.

Click to shrink...

There are certain rules the Reapers follow in their tech stealing. One the have to get a copy/schematic/ete though one of their channels. If its a physical copy they can then use it as is (barring physical security) or they can try to R&D it to produce a schematic. Once they have a schematic they can A) build as many as they want/can, B) try to figure out how the thing works/look for weak point/etc.

Some general rules of thumb:

• A public patent means the Reapers will have a schematic no ifs ands or buts that's how patents work. It just maybe a little arcane thanks to Black Boxing, unfortunately this is a poor defense.
• Secret Patents need to be stolen from what ever database they're on or reverse engineered from an example.
• Private Patents is a silly phrase, but anything you keep on your servers only need to be stolen from there or reverse engineered from an example.
• Physical examples the Reapers need to reverse engineer. Perfect Black Boxing isn't a Perfect Defense ala exalted it's Black Boxing as good as you can ever get it (Okay, Okay there's probably a level over that called Out of Context Boxing, but it won't be appearing here most likely). Reapers have civilizations worth of mental power to throw at analysis stuff. I'm not going to give numbers, but lets just say there will be some Reapers that won't like Shepard much because they get forced to detangle PI tech gear. It also means Reaper will need to take more direct involvement as they can't abuse their pawns that much.
• Reapers have their own special Reaper technologies, if you recruit one you may even get to see them (Yes that's technically possible)
• While the Reapers may improve on stolen tech is quite unlikely unless its an obvious to them or minor improvement. The can however R&D as they need to.
• This does not stop the reapers from using the same tech creatively though (See super-biotic).

I will note that a least one Reaper, the Vanguard Nazara (aka Sovereign) is active and running around currently worried about how pissed his boss will be as he's running late.

Two other canon Reapers are in the Milky way in unknown states of activity.

 

[Emizaquel]

It began the time the mutual research began as that would mske sense.



Yep.



I'll note that Mordin's special techs while partially hampered OoC by my brain just going what do I give this guy, there also the fact that he's testing the waters as it were.

Omni-tool Upgrades is folding a lot of your tech into omni-tools. A lot of that being up-rating everything to handle AR power levels (Arc-reactor powered overload mmmm...), but also other things. You could probably sell ones with DES blade apps. or ones that could do some battle-field time reductive 3-D printing. (may require miniaturized energy weapons to do that... Probably in the 100-200 points range.

Brain Shield is blocking out the lower level mind effecting stuff in ME. Basic Asari Melding, Consumer Grade Prothean stuff, external versions of Neural interfaces around 400 points.

Colonization/Bioforming Genetics Package is about putting together a kit as it were of things that can be used in the process of making/alerting new life for colonization programs. Ideal rapidly accelerating the bioforming (that is altering the biosphere) step. It would be worth a fair amount of money and be generally good for PR as it may open up new colonization sites. Around 400RP



Yeah the anti-ship missiles are biggish not normally man portable (ignoring krogan and elcor). They do need names. Maybe from roman segie weapons? Ballista designs?



2% was a inflation compensated lower bound to use as an example, basically to prove yes the SA's GDP is big eoungh that tens of trillions per 1 kmish warship isn't insane. Hell I knocked 90% off the price I first derived! It could be higher.

Well I have been stripping inflation as a conceit so I can use pricing I understand (also seems to be close to what happened in ME prices are with in an order of magnitude and well individual product prices do shift). So basically I just do (growth-inflation)% growth to ignore inflation. If institutions were willing you could practically remove direct monetary inflation (debates on if this is a good thing maybe held elsewhere), but doing stuff like that. If you want to be picky here: Gross world product - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
this chart uses "international" dollars and thus use 2000 USD. Growth is been between 3.5-6 percent so my estimates low... oh well I wasn't using it for anything other then to demonstrate a lower bound of the future economy.



There are certain rules the Reapers follow in their tech stealing. One the have to get a copy/schematic/ete though one of their channels. If its a physical copy they can then use it as is (barring physical security) or they can try to R&D it to produce a schematic. Once they have a schematic they can A) build as many as they want/can, B) try to figure out how the thing works/look for weak point/etc.

Some general rules of thumb:

• A public patent means the Reapers will have a schematic no ifs ands or buts that's how patents work. It just maybe a little arcane thanks to Black Boxing, unfortunately this is a poor defense.
• Secret Patents need to be stolen from what ever database they're on or reverse engineered from an example.
• Private Patents is a silly phrase, but anything you keep on your servers only need to be stolen from there or reverse engineered from an example.
• Physical examples the Reapers need to reverse engineer. Perfect Black Boxing isn't a Perfect Defense ala exalted it's Black Boxing as good as you can ever get it (Okay, Okay there's probably a level over that called Out of Context Boxing, but it won't be appearing here most likely). Reapers have civilizations worth of mental power to throw at analysis stuff. I'm not going to give numbers, but lets just say there will be some Reapers that won't like Shepard much because they get forced to detangle PI tech gear. It also means Reaper will need to take more direct involvement as they can't abuse their pawns that much.
• Reapers have their own special Reaper technologies, if you recruit one you may even get to see them (Yes that's technically possible)
• While the Reapers may improve on stolen tech is quite unlikely unless its an obvious to them or minor improvement. The can however R&D is they need to.
• This does not stop the reapers from using the same tech creatively though (See super-biotic).

I will note that a least one Reaper, the Vanguard Nazara (aka Sovereign) is active and running around currently worried about how pissed his boss will be as he's running late.

Two other canon Reapers are in the Milky way in unknown states of activity.

Click to shrink...

@Hoyr do I get anything for my omake?

Omake : Shepard's Lil' Popgun

Shepard woke up one morning... at her desk. Again.

"I really have to stop doing this, I'm going to start getting back problems." She griped.

Her irritation was soon pushed aside by what sat infront of her, a modified Gorgon Sidearm Mini-Missile Projector. The previous flare-gun like one-shot configuration was swapped out for a six-shot magazine that was slotted in under the barrel. The handle's contents were replaced by ME field projectors, a targeting VI and a link up to her neural implant.

Sat next to the rather bulky pistol was her omni-tool, with an extra magazine for the Gorgon inserted into it. A quick look at the code revealed that you had replaced the standard 15-part cluster-missle system with a slightly simpler 8-part one. The system used parts forged from omni-gel for the most part create a simple tracking system that would take some initial data from the Gorgon for the large majority of the targeting before shifting to a simpler on board computer for the rest of the trip. The explosives were fitted from a reservoir within the magazine casing.

The system would use internal gyros to steady the gun and even correct Revy's aim slightly, allowing the little pistol to shoot out some rather high velocity rounds. All in all it was a punchy little weapon that she could carry around wherever she went.

Revy shook her head and stared at the gun, "I really have to stop doing this."

"Oh well," She decided, "Nothing for it, TO THE FIRING RANGE!"

Revy could almost hear crickets chirping as she walked sheepishly out of the empty room.

---

The pistol kicked in her hands, launching a missile down range. Moments later she was greeted with a very satisfying series of explosions as the eight mini-missies detonated on the targets down range.

Moving to the monitor room, she opened up the high-speed footage and watched as it split into it's separate parts and each fired their tiny engines. Flaps and groves opened up around the circumference of the missile to guide it one way or the other as it sped towards each individual target and impacted with great force.

The small missiles had impacted in staggered pairs on a set of cylinders that were designed to mimic the strength of infantry-grade shields and armor. Each pillar was now sporting a small, but noticeable hole, and the ballistics gel behind it was perforated with the shrapnel.

"Take Two : Light-vehicle Armor" you call out before launching another shot. You only target two points on the target plate this time, staggering them in pairs. While the amor isn't penetrated, it is heavily dented and you feel that you could add a modification to the program to allow the little missiles to create a small EMP when they detonated.

"Take Three : Airburst" warning everyone else of the third and final test. Swapping out the magazine for another one, she fired. This time each of the missiles arc off by themselves, detonating just past a series of barricades. The shielded pressure sensors noted that anyone without headgear would have easily been knocked out and those wearing some were quite likely to be disoriented by the blasts, not to say anything about the shrapnel that scarred the floor.

Revy looked at the little weapon once again, before setting it down and lightly massaging her wrist, she was going to have to get used to the kickback.

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[Yog]

Reapers have their own special Reaper technologies, if you recruit one you may even get to see them (Yes that's technically possible)

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Is that a cultural victory I sense? Yes, yes it is. This is what we need to do. A combination of cultural + technological victory which averts the war altogether making Reapers realize that our solution is better.

Two other canon Reapers are in the Milky way in unknown states of activity.

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Only two? Leviathan of Dis and Mnemozyne Reaper can't be out of the galaxy, so this can be taken as a confirmation that there are no other Reapers out there.

 

[Emizaquel]

canon Reapers

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I'm guessing that there is a number of non-canon reapers as well?

 

[TheEyes]

Quick impressions:

Omni-tool Upgrades is folding a lot of your tech into omni-tools. A lot of that being up-rating everything to handle AR power levels (Arc-reactor powered overload mmmm...), but also other things. You could probably sell ones with DES blade apps. or ones that could do some battle-field time reductive 3-D printing. (may require miniaturized energy weapons to do that... Probably in the 100-200 points range.

Click to shrink...

Pretty cool; will become more cool when the Gen II Reactor lets us build smaller scale Arc Reactors.

Brain Shield is blocking out the lower level mind effecting stuff in ME. Basic Asari Melding, Consumer Grade Prothean stuff, external versions of your Neural interfaces around 400 points.

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Critical, especially with the possibility that we might be able to follow this down the rabbit hole to find a treatment for Indoctrination. Interestingly, P&P skills might be a good IC motivation for looking into this as well, seeing as that particular tech is going to make mind-machine interfaces much more common.

Colonization/Bioforming Genetics Package is about putting together a kit as it were of things that can be used in the process of making/alerting new life for colonization programs. Ideal rapidly accelerating the bioforming (that is altering the biosphere) step. It would be worth a fair amount of money and be generally good for PR as it may open up new colonization sites. Around 400RP

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Not all that useful for the required points, though I am curious what the follow-on techs will be.

If institutions were willing you could practically remove direct monetary inflation (debates on if this is a good thing maybe held elsewhere), but doing stuff like that.

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Relevant link (and a good story too)

 

[killfr3nzy]

I'm guessing that there is a number of non-canon reapers as well?

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Probably means 'given a name and/or characterization'.

 

[Hoyr]

Really, if we are to ever have a hope of having stationary installations, we need to work out FTL interdiction fields somehow. This is probably up the artificial eezo techtree, where we'll need to make eezo anti-particles and very possibly bombard them with anti matter charge carriers.

Click to shrink...

Oh I like that interdiction idea.... but I think you just need to produce a large powerful PME field to interdict FTL. Stasis armor does it to the ship is on effectively.

Edit: Interdiction Missiles that hit a target and keep them from FTL or fast maneuvering would be relatively simple

Additionally anti-eezo, I can see that after anti-matter generation and artificial eezo. Probably just works backwards though.

Nerdyness begins:

Oh and question for you. As ME field strength for a unified field is effected by the total mass in the entire field should the change in field strength as new mass enters it propagate instantly (FTL games), or at the speed of light in the field (may cause warp effects due to field-change waves)? Or some other speed. I started wondering because of a thought experiments on lasers.

Also on that subject. A strong enough PME field acts as a light trap keeping light in it due to TIR. So instead of a double NME field TIR stealth can be done by projecting a very powerful shield bubble. TIR traps light in the slower medium after all. In addition this would look well black instead of being a mirror. Still should turn on the drive core to make a mirror shield when going out of stealth don't want to cook the crew.

Secondly... PME fields slow light (well the don't necessarily in canon that I can recall, but I assume they do), so I may be possible to produce a sort of "reactive" anti-laser shield, gets around that annoying TIR makes you blind thingy See if the laser light is being slowed by a PME field (so basically an active shield) stuff acting outside the PME can react faster than it. Problem is detecting light in a PME field. I have two ideas:

1) There should be a photonic sensor just outside the PME field (the closer the better) the leading edge of the laser will leave the field and trip the sensor at "normal" light speed, allowing the system reacting in "normal" light speed (or with optical computing tech better than light speed) to produce a TIR effect to deflect the rest of the laser beam that's still crawling though the PME field, Ideally the detected leading edge will have a very small percentage of the laser's total power and produce no damage to the sensor and you need lots of sensors, though ME field lensing might fix that by guaranteeing certain strike locations/areas

2) If Mass Effect field strength changes propagate faster than the fields internal speed of light, the increase in field mass-energy from a laser beam entering would change the field strength such that one cold detect the change while the laser was till propagating though the field. Once detected a TIR effect could be triggered again defecting the laser. The strength of a field at an known location is easy to test just look at it's TIR angle.

There maybe other ways but the main point is: can you detect a laser beam before it starts doing damage? Or even if it just when it does start doing damage, snapping on a TIR effect will block most of the pulse, vastly limiting pulse duration.

There are mind not a total no-fuck you to lasers. It just means that, like normal MACs, when a laser is about to hit the ship, the shield pops on so the laser is now just like MAC it has to batter though a shield to hurt the ship. The idea involves little more than some new sensors and code, most of the effects require PME projectors aka shield projectors which most ships have. Creative use of lensing may also help, but that's a bit over my head at the moment.

Thoughts?

Oooh... also Imagine the telescope /microscope you can make using ME fields as lenses.

TL;DR: Laser blocking shields maybe?

@Hoyr do I get anything for my omake?

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Oh yeah, I actually added that already and forgot to comment. Iell as I assumed stuff like that (Micromissile guns) was floating around, I added +50RP. already sounds good? Or should I do something else like a stat point thingy?

Only two? Leviathan of Dis and Mnemozyne Reaper can't be out of the galaxy, so this can be taken as a confirmation that there are no other Reapers out there.

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There are none ME canon mentions, the others are in dark space. In quest, their at least three total Nazara, the Leviathan of Dis, and the Mnemozyne Reaper as drawn from canon. I may or may not have few other legacies of the Reapers and the Leviathans hiding around, depends on if that kinda thing comes up.

I'm guessing that there is a number of non-canon reapers as well?

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In the Milky Way? Not telling. If there are they are either inactive or not actively aligned withe the main force of Reapers. In general? Well I think of each Reaper as being it's own unique "individual". And ME canon is short on Reapers you can talk to.

Not all that useful for the required points, though I am curious what the follow-on techs will be.

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You have to realize that OoC Mordin is spy... he's giving you certain techs for a reason. Follow up? Hmmm... Space?

 

[killfr3nzy]

Brain Shield is blocking out the lower level mind effecting stuff in ME. Basic Asari Melding, Consumer Grade Prothean stuff, external versions of your Neural interfaces around 400 points.

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Ok, want. If we can trundle this out for public release very quickly we might even be able to keep the Elusive Man and Cerberus non-(less-)crazy, or at least pointed towards the Reapers!
Only possible problem here is that we'd need to reveal the blue-prints to the Alliance/Council or they wouldn't use it, and that future Reaper effects and artefacts could be tuned to get passed it. Should still stop all existing artefacts.

Quick question for those with memory, where are we in the canon timeline? Because people were talking about releasing the Laser-Ship later this year, and that leaves a lot of time for the Reapers to learn how to become invisible, lasering death machines.
And who, if anyone, is the replacement Commander Shep? If our new security hire is on the level he could be a good fit skills-wise, though he wouldn't have the connection to events or high position to qualify for Spectre nomination.

Also we need to improve our sensor ability and recording coverage so that the Reapers can't be swept under the rug like in ME2.

You could probably sell ones with DES blade apps.

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Oh god, it spreads;

"How in the &!%^ do we @#$*ing X this Y?!"
Welcome to the CombApp Store.
"I've got an app for that."

 

[Hoyr]

Quick question for those with memory, where are we in the canon timeline? Because people were talking about releasing the Laser-Ship later this year, and that leaves a lot of time for the Reapers to learn how to become invisible, lasering death machines.

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About 9 years from ME1.

And who, if anyone, is the replacement Commander Shep? If our new security hire is on the level he could be a good fit skills-wise, though he wouldn't have the connection to events or high position to qualify for Spectre nomination.

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Brian aka that guy Revy dated for a while is following some thing kinda similar to canon Shepard's path. Only for him some crazy nut with a super suit put the kibosh on the Slaver Raid on Mindoir.

Also we need to improve our sensor ability and recording coverage so that the Reapers can't be swept under the rug like in ME2.

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All legionaries have helmet cams standard feature .

Oh god, it spreads;

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Considering what an omni-tool basically is? Makes perfect sense.

 

[killfr3nzy]

About 9 years from ME1.

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Whah! People, please don't release game changers until the Reapers are an acknowledged threat!

Also, I keep subconsciously blending this quest with a dead one where the MC was some civilian megacorp CEO that somehow mentally time-travelled from near-end ME3 - what with the whole... being a megacorp CEO inventing kick-ass tech and attack ships/drones wildly.
Before the other one died they'd done the Eden Prime attack so I keep mixing that up with the attack on our base and frantically going 'Who/where is Shepard? How can we best support Shepard?' Instead of going 'Fuckwit, you are Shepard and you're like seventeen, calm your tits'.

But this quest has waaaay better/friendlier QM's in my opinion, and we're doing much cooler things. Even if we don't seem to be designing enough combat drones, because combat drones, rawrgh!

 

[AbZHz101]

Thought of something for a "late game" idea. Sorry if someone thought of or expanded on it earlier. "Non-Relay/non-Mass effect based FTL."

I mean the Relays and the Citadel are all part of the Reapers' trap right? Set up a scenario where this part of the galaxy/the entire galaxy uses the same type of FTL, one that is reliant on platforms that have stable galactic locations, that the Reapers know where they are. From there the Reapers can knock out communication, as well as the ability for the races of the cycle to effectively fight back.

So in theory, if we had even basic FTL not reliant on Relays, though I would prefer if it weren't reliant on Mass Effect fields in general, that does a lot to break the trap. Because at that point, even with the Relays down, ships could still get away, giving warning and maintaining the tech from the previous cycle.

It really doesn't even matter if it's slow as shit compared to Relay/Mass Effect FTL, because it could be used in many more locations and have a variable destination point. The Reapers would have to go over the galaxy multiple times with a fine toothed comb, and even then there is no guarantee they'd get anything.

 

[Emizaquel]

already sounds good? Or should I do something else like a stat point thingy?

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I'll leave it to the thread.

@Everyone would you prefer a boost to Revy's firearms/heavy weapons stat or the general +50RP?

 

[UberJJK]

Whah! People, please don't release game changers until the Reapers are an acknowledged threat!

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These "game changers" are really entry level tech for us arranged into a devastating combination.

We have far scarier stuff that almost certainly won't get released before the Reapers arrive. For example while the Reapers are terrifying terrawatt range GRASERs are actually quite well suited to killing them. Reapers are suppose to be organic on the inside and have the size that even after penetrating their anti-radiation shielding there will sufficient organic mass for the energy to expend itself.

Then of course there is stuff like the "Go Away Beams".

Basically we need to start revolutionizing the way space combat is done so that by the time the Reapers arrive we'll be able to reveal our nastiest tech and have it seamlessly integrate into the existing techniques.

Which, incidentally, is what makes the Pynda, and it's future larger sized cousins, so valuable. They mean that come war time we can rapidly upgrade the Alliance Navy and buy the time needed to upgrade the other fleets out there.

 

[Hoyr]

So in theory, if we had even basic FTL not reliant on Relays, though I would prefer if it weren't reliant on Mass Effect fields in general, that does a lot to break the trap. Because at that point, even with the Relays down, ships could still get away, giving warning and maintaining the tech from the previous cycle.

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Repulsors + Multi-Core + Arc Reactors + QEC Does most of what you want. Makes the Relays useful but not needed.

There... technically is an in universe non-ME FTL thing, QECs/Rachni Telepathy/Reaper-Leviathan Magic. Of course I have a hypothesis that that actually is a very esoteric ME field trick based on field unity over entangled particle... but that's hypothetical technobabble. If its not ME related and it could be turned into FTL then your wondering off into ??? tech land.

 

[UberJJK]

Snip

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QECs should, provided we can mass produce them in sufficient numbers in time, solve the FTL Comms without relays problem.

Travel however is far more difficult. As it is we don't really have any techs that give a significant speed boost. Multi-Core FTL Drives and Repulsors means a ship can have unlimited* range but is still capped at 60LY/Day.

*Well technically limited by the ability to maintain the various components and supplies for it's living crew. But done right you are talking decades there.


60LY/day is fast but it's not fast enough. 60,000 light years, about 60% the diameter of the galaxy, would take 1000 days, 2 years and 269.5 days, to cross at that speed.

There is a simple solution; increase the amount of Eezo in the core you can increase it's top speed since apparently the current problem is that we're getting too close to lightspeed within the field.

The problem of course is that Eezo is expensive as hell, half of a normal ship's price, and to double the speed we'd need to double the amount of Eezo. So for a 46 billion credit drive we could get a Frigate going 120LY/day. Which while expensive is within PI's power.

Except 120LY/day isn't fast enough either, that is still 500 days to cross 60KLY, and making it fast enough to be even vaguely practical, ~30 days, would mean a ship capable of going 1,920LY/day and therefore have a core thirty two times bigger.

We could still do it, that only comes in at 736 billion credits in Eezo, but it would be more of a one off vanity project then anything remotely resembling realistic.


That is unless we can crash the galactic Eezo market. One of the things we've being working towards is a class of mining ships capable of going out to untouched supernovae remnants and harvesting their Eezo. That alone is going to drive down the value dramatically as a fresh new supply surges onto the market.

Grabbing Eezo Production would also work but seeing as it's an insane 8,400RP away we are probably better off going with the first plan.

 

[Dark Ness]

• Reapers have their own special Reaper technologies, if you recruit one you may even get to see them (Yes that's technically possible)

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I want to do this.