Shepard Quest Mk VI, Technological Revolution
- Thread starter Hoyr
- Start date
- Location
- Leeds
They're fucking massive so it's something of a logistical nightmare.
Aside from that anything that destroys a solar system is always a bit of a worry to destroy.
Finally there are the same political problems that I mentioned earlier.
- Location
- Pallet town, Kanto
I said almost that is a key word. I was talking about other Sci-fi FLTs so but of course they can't be here also I do not like the relay FLTs because borders can get so FUCKING wonky like that.
With the multicore drives and QEC systems up and running, the concept of decentralized civilian "free search" exploration becomes viable. Basically? Market the hermit class private ships (see my proposal in the list of omakes), and have all the adventure seekers, outcasts, explorers, hermits, scientists and such go out and explore space on their own.
No, they wouldn't be able to. The engagement ranges are measured, at most, in light minutes. The advantage of 2x as fast tactical FTL means that, assuming unlimited endurance (possible with our tech), Reapers will never be able to catch the ships trying to escape them.
If there's no survivors, and we conclusively lost, we should just fire off Veto then escape the galaxy.
Speaking of, some investigation should be done to see if Veto-type devices were ever fired in the observable universe.
If we know how to build a Mass Relay, we should in theory also know how to modify existing relays.
Like ripping out the Reapers control systems and installing our own. That would also have political support when we discover that Relays can be controlled from the outside.
Exodus is also viable given Mass Effect Andromeda. The Citadel itself is basically a Relay that has the required range to get us at least partway there.
Like ripping out the Reapers control systems and installing our own. That would also have political support when we discover that Relays can be controlled from the outside.
Exodus is also viable given Mass Effect Andromeda. The Citadel itself is basically a Relay that has the required range to get us at least partway there.
- Location
- Leeds
Ignoring the discussion of resources.
For humanity to stay ahead forever, would require them to never make a mistake. Even assuming perfect play and that the fleeing people never enter a predictable pattern, there is always the chance that the Reapers get lucky or the humans make a mistake because of incomplete knowledge.
Stopping at a system in which there's a unknown Relay for example could mean they get caught while discharging their static build up. Or running into a group of Reapers chasing another refugee. After all I don't think anyone expects our QEC communications to be able to link everyone in the galaxy.
Knowing how to build a Relay is entirely different to working what is a remote control system. That's like saying, I know how to build a clock. There is a radio in my alarm clock therefore I know how to build a radio.
On top of that the Council would never allow us to install our own control systems in a Relay, perhaps exceptions would be made to allow races to control Relays for their core systems however they would never allow one company to decide who does and doesn't get to use the network. From their perspective the Protheans are logically the ones who hold that switch and they can quite happily be considered a perfectly neutral faction. Until/unless it becomes apparent that the Reapers are able to control it.
Also the fact that other than the one relay that has to be destroyed because of plot they're all consistently described as effectively indestructible. And it's a plot point that hitting one with a supernova just results in it being hard to find, but not damaged at all.
What static buildup? This is for after we have multicore eezo drives, ie "no static buildup, ever" technology. And yes, I do kinda expect QEC to eventually be able to link pretty much everyone.
Well not necessarily an asteroid. That's just what they had available in Arrival. By comparing the asteroid in Arrival to the known dimensions of the Mass Relay (15km long with 5km rings) I'd estimate 157-Golgotha as about 4km in diameter and traveling at around 2km/s relative to the Relay. Some comparison with similar looking asteroids of the same size IRL gives me an estimated mass of 50Pg. Combined that gives a kinetic energy of 100EJ.
A thirty ton Gladius would by comparison need to smash into one at 81,650km/s, or about 27.2% the speed of light. That sounds like a lot but it's not that unreasonable; it's about 4 days worth of acceleration.
Of course if it's a question of momentum then we'd have some issues since that same thirty ton Gladius would have to be going 11,119c which I suppose is technically doable but brings FTL into the situation and things get really complicated then.
That all being said if we were going about destroying Mass Relays we'd probably look into alternative methods. I suspect capital ship sized Black Hole Guns would be our best bet.
You do realize we're basically never going to be allowed to sell those right?
Repulsors are legally restricted to just PI, and it's subsidiaries like ParSec, and the Alliance Military because they represent too much of a tactical and strategical threat if they go into the hands of hostile groups. Multi-Core Drives definitely fall into that same category and there is a good chance QECs will as well.
People suspect they are indestructible but no one has actually tried because it's a terrible idea to destroy one:
Mass Effect Wiki: Mass Relays said:
As the Mu Relay wasn't hit by a supernova, at least not in the way your implying. Going by:
It sounds like the Relay was floating in interstellar space and so even the slightest push by the supernova, when combined with the cloud of hot gas and dust masking it's presence, made locating it almost impossible.Mass Effect Wiki: Mu Relay said:
- Location
- Leeds
Point about static build up. I must have had a momentary brain fart. Regardless I do still feel it's a lot to ask for perfect play from every single group, especially if there's even a single indoctrinated among them.
As for QEC well look how massive the QEC comm units in ME2 and ME3 are. It's implausible to offer one of those for every refugee group to every refugee group. This was discussed a while ago and it was never explained to my satisfaction, how will these be networked? If you are suggesting one which involves a hub then the Reapers will certainly be happy to spare the resources necessary to hunt those down quickly even if it allows all others a head start. Ring networks and like require information to be passed along a long chain and thus probably through any indoctrinated and if sufficient ships are destroyed it becomes unworkable.
Oh yeah I forgot those maths.
I will push very, very hard to disseminate QECs and multi-core drives into the general population. I am pretty sure that pretty much every other firm, save maybe ones that maintain the comm buoys, will also be pushing to get those.
Technology is restricted for now. It won't always be.
EDIT:
I think I remember that we should be able to make backpack sized QECs. So, multiple redundancy peer-to-peer networks with ships that meet each other exchanging randomized samplings of receivers should be fairly secure as a way to create and maintain the network connectivity.
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Knowing how to build a Relay means we understand what each part does and can spot stuff that is odd.
- Location
- Leeds
Its already established in quest canon that it's very possible to prevent people from working out how your tech works.
See the Blackboxing research tree.
Secondly you seem to be under the assumption that being able to make Relays will mean that every Relay we make will be an exact duplicate of a standard precursor Relay. This is stupid because we have Arc Reactors.
QECs I can see maybe getting cleared eventually because while communications are very important militarily the Alliance benefits more from their spread.
Multi-Core Drives meanwhile are far too much of a game changer to be unrestricted outside of the Reaper invasion causing everyone to band together and share all their most advanced military technology. Which I (depressingly) find kinda unlikely.
Eliminating static build up effectively eliminates the ability to use Relays as defensive points since they can be bypassed fairly easily. Furthermore when combined with the inability to detect FTL vessels until long after they've already passed it makes patrols useless and defense incredibly difficult.
An example of this would be building a swarm of high yield fusion/anti-matter missiles with FTL drives and preprogramming them to impact key targets, such as planets, in 5+ years. I say 5+ years since at 60LY/day you can reach any point in the Milky Way from any other point in at most 5.5 years. That might seem like a long time but military mobilization can take years and either way it gives you time to build up a fleet/army/whatever to follow up on that devastating alpha strike.
I understand, but the sheer economic utility would see pretty much all businesses lobbying for it so hard, I expect the governments to cave in. All resource extraction companies, everyone who profits from colonization, civilian and cargo transportation companies... Pretty much everyone. The benefits for the economy are so immeasurably huge that I think it would be pretty much impossible to contain the technology to military use of one government.
Once it's known that it works, there will be independent research that will succeed.
It's still likely to remain military tech for quite some time, with stiff fines at best for any non-military ship owners found using multicore drives in the space of wherever it's restricted to the military. Keep in mind that multi core drives also makes it harder to police colonisation.
That's true, but, if anything, I expect it to motivate piracy. Basically, as soon as people see that multicore drives work, there'll be a lot of money spent by pretty much everyone to create an analogous system. And once they succeed (they will), the djinn is out of the bottle.
Multicore drives are one of, if not the most disruptive techs we can release that upends the world. This is a concern, but one that'll have to be handled anyway.
meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
I wouldn't be so sure. Revy is very near-magical in her ability to finding solutions to engineering problems, like with practical and affordable QECs which has been in deveploment for a long time by other intelligent races. Multi-core drives have likely been suggested already by some brilliant mind long ago (don't remember if there is any QM word on that), but only Revy has the potential to make them truly workable in any reasonable period of time.
So while maybe the Geth could make the concept practical with a lots of physics crunching in a big enough Dyson Sphere and lots of time, I wouldn't put much assumption on lesser intelligences in succeeding in it anytime soon with just the basic concept and no Revy there to cut the Gordian Knots in design problems.
Reverse engineering is a thing. And yes, blackboxing, but basic concepts could still be seen, and there will be unlimited budgets involved in solving the problem. Because multicore drives are game changers in ways that even arc reactors weren't.
And, if nothing else, the Reapers are sure to give it to the Batarians. They were already given Arc Reactors, after all.
Speaking of the Batarians, how are they supposed to have bypassed Arcturus again? Even the Reapers couldn't do that, and you'd think any moderately intelligent race would set up comm buoy based FTL listening posts for anyone who tries to FTL in the 'slow' way (for certain values of 'slow' given we're talking about FTL travel here).
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
In Arrival DLC it's revealed that there is a "backup Relay" to the citadel, which gives access to every relay in the Galaxy. Guess who owns the system it's in?
meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
*Waves hand*. Space magic blackboxing/FRM.
Meanwhile, Elsewhere:
Reaper 1: WHAT DO YOU MEAN, "THE WHOLE REVERSE-ENGINEERING RESEARCH-CIRCLE WENT MAD AND IS NOW WORSHIPPING SHEPARD AS A LIVING GODDESS"?
Reaper 2: EXACTLY THAT.
Reaper 1: BUT THEY WEREN'T EVEN HANDLING ANY SAMPLES OR INVESTIGATING THE ORIGINAL BLUEPRINTS WE RECOVERED BECAUSE OF WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST TIME! JUST SEEING IF THE TECHNOLOGY COULD BE INVENTED AGAIN FROM THE PRINCIPLES! CORRECT?
Reaper 2: YES.
Reaper 1: ...MAYBE WE SHOULD CONSIDER MOVING SHEPARD FROM "CAPTURE" TO "ELIMINATE" PRIORITY ONE IF THIS GOES ON.
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- Location
- Somewhere, probably Earth
IA IAY SHEPARD PHTAGN!
The Reapers are unlikely to tell the Batarians about the specifics of that Relay, as it's one hell of an advantage to anyone who has it and knows what it can do. Remember that to the Reapers the Batarian Hegemony is, in the end, a disposable minion, and you don't give those your best gear, you give them good enough gear to be a threat to whomever you want to be rid of.
They're going to keep the Alpha Relay cold until they move in to complete the Cycle.