Shepard Quest Mk VI, Technological Revolution
- Thread starter Hoyr
- Start date
So, we're done considering the problem, and everyone wants to set up their own hills to die on now? I thought it would be a good idea to think about specifications first, because there are a couple that might not actually turn out the way we're thinking. For instance:Are you sure that's a good goal? Preventing mono-focus as a specific goal is just going to mean that the players will have dozens of half-completed projects lying around, getting nothing done for the next 1-2-3 quarters while we sit around half-filling the completion bars of a bunch of projects. That seems more like a recipe for making things more complicated and frustrating for everyone."As a GM, I want ways to likely break up player mono-focus. Preferably subtle so that the players won't notice or avoid it."
Maybe instead you meant something like "As a GM, I want to re-introduce randomness to the research system, so it's not utterly predictable what we're going to have completed 6, 7, 12 quarters from now." ? Re-introducing research dice, though maybe with a better/more systematic explanation this time so there's less confusion over how the system works, might be more what you're after?
You're thinking Beckenstein. Benning is a small farming world near Arcturus; we're already expanding there, IIRC.
So having just finished Thread 4 after almost exactly two hours I'm absolutely dreading trying to go through this thread, after I finished Thread 5. At an average of 36 seconds per post and 1038 GM posts that comes out to ten hours. What's more Thread 4 had a good percentage of posts that I didn't classify as WoGs while IIRC this one is crawling with massive WoG posts, the worst kind to process. Oh and to make things even better thanks to a 20 page limit on search results the first half of the thread isn't covered by the results for Hoyr's posts which means I'll have to manually go through at least 259 pages...
Well at least Thread 5 shouldn't be too bad.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
To paraphrase my managers: and what do you do after lunch?
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
Join me in the insane asylum!
- Pronouns
- Exist
You mean we weren't already here?
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That must mean there is another one!
- Location
- Low Earth Orbit
Might be a weird question, but which of Revy's tech is patented in which way? I mean, we have at least two, if not three different tiers: SA military, SA general, and Citadel. What's subject to which law?
PS: …I accidentally just gave myself an idea for another omake. Its actualisation hinges on the answer to the patent question.
PS: …I accidentally just gave myself an idea for another omake. Its actualisation hinges on the answer to the patent question.
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- Pronouns
- Exist
Most of it is patented for SA in general. The Arc reactors are about the only think patented for the Citadel.
- Location
- Low Earth Orbit
…then I have to wonder what stops any run-of-the-mill patent troll from perusing the SA patent sites (the must be somewhat open to the public or paying clients the these same clients can make sure they're not infringing on already existing patents) and trying to patent PI's SA patents slightly changed in Citadel space.
Almost none of our technology is patented. We pretty much rely on effectively unbreakable blackboxing to protect our tech. The only things patented are:
Arc Reactor - Initially a Secret Military Patent with the Alliance and later a normal one with the Citadel
Repulsors - Secret Military Patent with the Alliance
Anti-Starship Missiles - Secret Military Patent with the Alliance
Well there are few products that probably got Secret Military Patents without us explicitly obtaining them but for the most part is all BB/FRM.
No, actually. Most of our stuff is not patented at all, instead relying on our FRM/blackboxing tech, which is why we're not licensing it for others to produce. We have the basic Arc Reactor patented Citadel-wide, and we have a few secret military patents for Legionary stuff, but Repulsor engines, and everything from the Tiger onwards is all trade secrets.
Edit: are you sure the Repulsor is patented Uber? I'm not sure we did; that's a Tiger/Pynda tech, after all.
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Repulsors are on of the things we explicitly patented. It was the update in which the Alliance barred any civilian sale of them:
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
Yeah, well, shit happens. As long as we keep from upteching the Reapers, enemies with our tech isn't that bad.
- Pronouns
- Exist
Technically, if we patent the stuff, then the blueprints become much more widely distributed--thus making them easier to steal.
While the specific question doesn't apply I can answer the general question: Virtual Intelligence.
The Patent system, or at least the US one, is broken not because there is something wrong with the system but because the Patent Office is broken. In the US the majority/entirety of the Patent Office's income come from approving patent. So they approve all the patents that aren't blinding stupid, and even then they sometimes fail at even that, despite the fact most those patents are violations of the laws regarding patents.
What's more the Patent Office has so little money that even with them flagrantly breaking the law to raise money they still can't afford to pay enough employees. This results in patent clerks on average having to review over a hundred patents per day. It's just flat out impossible to give each patent it's due diligence with that sort of workload. What's more is that most patents are highly technical while patent clerks, thanks to their dismal wages, generally have no technical or scientific background.
The end result of all that is thousands of loopholes for patent trolls to exploit.
However in a world with VIs capable of absurd data crunching all those problems go away. Now VIs programmed with all current scientific knowledge in the appropriate fields can check every submitted patent against every legal requirement to ensure they are valid. So patent trolls that try bullshit like making minor modifications to existing patents get instantly caught out.
What's more such a system would allow for secret patents because instead of the inventor having to personally check that their idea isn't infringing they can just submit it to a VI at the Patent Office who can do it for them without reveal any information other then a "Yes/No" response. Or if needed perhaps a more detailed "No/Yes 'These' parts are infringing" without revealing any details about the patent in question.
- Location
- United states
Talking about that have we actually taken measures to prevent espionage(it's been a lot of updates)? Like say hiring people that are good at counter espinioage? I mean considering how much top secret military tech PI works on you would think they would offer experts to prevent top secret tech from being stolen.
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
Well, we have a security guy and his assorted minions, and I think we voted to establish an intel branch of PI as well.
Ah. Huh, well that was kind of dumb of us, as that means that anyone who can penetrate the SA government now has detailed knowledge on how to create the best engine tech we'll ever be allowed to create, and since TIM's already there it means the Collectors and Reapers will already have it. Damn.
One of the core conceits of Mass Effect is that FRM is a thing that can exist, that even being explicitly above the law a Specter still has to pay for an FRM license because that shit just can't be hacked. And we've spent a total of 4800 RPs making that FRM even better. It's literally been one of our core areas of research for the past year in-game; if anyone out there, with the possible exception of the Reapers, is able to crack any of our FRM then I'm going to be a little pissed, honestly, given that so far we invested more time and effort into FRM than we have into all of our weapons technology.
- Location
- Low Earth Orbit
So… Omake time? Omake time.
Name, game,
this dame,
needs name.
Seriously, this isn't the name, it's a placeholder.
Far from the supposed homogeny of other species, humankind had always had its problems coalescing into a super-state, a form of government above the national level. The biggest of the human polities are on the level of continents and are made up of a plethora of ethnicities, cultural congregations, and other assorted differentiable groups.
Nevertheless mankind has had often enough an if not supranational, then at least cultural hegemony by one of its polities or the other. The species' history is rich in these shifts in cultural and sociopolitical lighthouses.
Due to this, but also other factors, some cultural concepts have found their way past not only their originating and neighbouring polities, but into the vast majority of human culture. The concepts may be viewed by one polity's culture as positive and by another as negative, but the concepts existence itself is never debated, but given as is.
One such concept is the ragtag group. It may be called differently elsewhere, but for now this descriptor suffices. A ragtag group can be made up of characters with vastly different backgrounds, or it may have recruited all its members from the same background. One of its common themes is its members being shunned for one reason or another, be that for their own liberal interpretation of the letter of the law, their unwillingness to conform to societal norms, or other reasons. Due to theses stressors members of that ragtag group are often intensely loyal to each other, however their views of the world beyond their group may be.
The quarian exodus from their home world Rannoch following the Geth uprising forced a wide cross-section of the quarian society to work together and flee from the murderous machines. A pop-star could find themselves sharing a cot with a mine-worker, a CEO had no better chance of success than a caretaker; this upheaval basically shattered the then existing quarian psyche. It was the factor forming the current quarian society, but it wasn't the only one. Following it closely in impact was the reaction of the galactic society in general, but also the Citadel Council in particular.
The quarian people were stripped of their embassy, cutting it of from influencing galactic politics in any meaningful way. The various species shunned the quarians, first to avoid any chance of being dragged into the Geth War, then later out supposed inability to support an influx of millions of people. They claimed the scope of charity the quarians required was beyond their own ability to offer charity.
As a result the Migrant Fleet, as the quarian continuing exodus fleet came to be called, developed a certain distaste for the rules and norms of galactic society, partially out of discontent, but also for necessity's sake to keep the Fleet going. This in turn resulted in the societies further shunning the Migrant Fleet.
It was a self-perpetuating circle.
Well, it wasn't like Tali'Zorah thought much about it. She'd had read about it, like every quarian, in the history books, but those were bo~o~ring. Sure, she hated the Geth like every other quarian did, but it was more like… like… they affronted her for wasting the potential of her people. And also killing so many quarians. Her people was intimately familiar with sudden death—a failure in any of a ship's systems could cook you, freeze you, electrocute you, or evacuate you.
Those were the easy death. The one you had a chance to do something about. The ones everyone dreaded were damages to their suits. A quarian would rather loose a foot and have their suit remain intact then keep the foot, but break their suit.
Tali couldn't do anything about the latter. She'd saved people preventing the former.
And she was doing that again. Right now. For every quarian, ever. At least she hoped she was.
Had Tali's father his say, his daughter wouldn't be on the Belpher, but Tali always had strong head on her shoulders, and this was the opportunity to work with a very early model arc reactor! How could she not do that?
Well, she had admittedly tried to work through the Citadel patent, but honestly? She dealt better with things when she could work hands on than on blueprints and formulas. It had always been that way. Somehow, when she worked with something with her hands and could see the results immediately, it clicked for her. Even in such abstract fields as hacking, some ideas and concepts simply seemed to flow from her brain through her hands far better than looking at information theory and coming up with stratagems to employ them.
"Tedenn!" Tali hollered. She hadn't needed to, every suit had coms, but, well, she had hollered. "Come over here!"
Tedenn'Befi had been accepted back from the pilgrimage by the captain of the Belpher, on grounds of his gift: a working, but used arc reactor. Unlike later charges delivered into Citadel space, this one hadn't been subjected to the whole barrage of black-boxing every new Paragon Industries product was delivered with these days.
The Belpher itself was a frigate-sized research ship housing mere 30 people constantly, with a flux of about twice that number in other personnel. Such a low number was only possible due to the research labourites it harboured in its role as a Special Projects vessel.
With so many people living in such close quarters the quarian people had honed their already astute senses the commune to an even greater degree. Strife was avoided, arguments discussed calmly, and grudges grudgingly talked out. To do less led to bad decisions; bad decisions led to dangerous consequences; and dangerous consequences killed people. Better to sort it out early with a few ruffled feathers than have a hull breach a few months later because a repair was put off since you didn't like your coworker.
Thus, despite himself, Tedenn paid more attention to the teenage Tali's demands; not because of any insight he had come to himself, but simply because most everyone else was treating her with some measure of deference. He had yet to understand why they did it, but until he did, he'd do well to follow his shipmates example.
"A minute!" he called back, then finished cleaning the air scrubber of its carbon gunk. "Coming!"
His long legs made quick of the distance. As expected the girl was poring over the arc reactor. She'd already peeled parts of the reactor's cowling away with the array of tools hanging off her belt.
Was the arc reactor always that bright? Tedenn wondered.
She must have heard his approach through the thrumming of the surrounding machinery as she was waving at him with a come-hither gesture without turning to look at him.
Yep, definitely brighter. It almost shines through the polarisation of her visor. It shone bright enough that he could see the outlines of her eyes when he settled down opposite from her, the arc reactor nestled between them.
"What is it?"
"I… think I figured out how to make a repulsor out of this thing."
[TheEyes told me I was basing the following part on wrong. To make right, I gotta rewrite this.]
Tedenn nodded sagely. It was one of the open secrets here on the research crew that actually dealt with technologies not immediately useful for the survival of the Flotilla; the arc reactor and the repulsors worked off the same principle, or at the very least the repulsor technology required the arc reactor in some significant way to generate its effect. Energy alone wasn't the key, there were after all more powerful sources of energy, if not ones as dense as the arc reactor.
The point stood: repulsors required arc reactors.
"We all know that."
"I know we know, but I fiddled a bit with this thing, and I think there's more to it."
"You know… if you break it, you'll have to start your pilgrimage early, right? This was a very expensive gift."
She didn't roll her eyes, that gesture wasn't present in the quarian people, but her tone conveyed that emotion regardless.
"As you've made a point of telling at every chance you get, Tedenn. Yes, it was a great gift, but the Flotilla flies on. Get with it." She shook her head slightly. "No, what always surprised me, I mean, there's only, what, a minute of Shepard's first fight against the batarian slave raid? Less? And maybe five seconds or so of her flying? But I looked into it, and her home was some distance from the city, and she arrived at her home flying. Then she flew from there to the city. But she had no propulsion tank."
Tedenn considered that. He'd seen the vids, read a few commentaries, even speculated with some coworkers, but for the most part his attention had been focused elsewhere, as he had just started his pilgrimage at the time.
"Go on."
"Well, I figured she had very little propulsion mass and sufficiently high exhaust velocity, but she didn't burn the forest down."
"Come again?"
"She didn't burn the forest down! At the exhaust velocity, it would've been like a… well, it would've burned pretty damn hot, cow can believe that. But there were no giant plumes of raised dust, no forest fire, and no glassing of the ground. Whatever propellant she used, it wasn't stupid fast."
"Stupid fast, scientific nomenclature coined by Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."
She made three sounds of decreasing pitch, like some kind of brass instrument. Clearly enough she didn't appreciate his lip, but didn't dare a more overt expression.
"You know what I mean."
"What about a jet engine powered by an arc reactor?"
"No, what I saw of her power armour didn't allow for that. Not with the way it was half kludge together from spare parts and still worked."
"What I've seen of your workbench that basically describes all your products."
Tali touched the inside of her visor with the tip of her tongue. The gesture held multiple meanings in the quarian society, some vulgar, others intimate, especially considering how deprived of physical contact the quarians are. On the whole, it depended on context; in this case it was just to show she'd stuck her tongue out at him.
"Anyway, I'll tell you, disregardless of your jerkiness. I'm thinking the repulsors are… well, not entirely reactionless, but close to as make no difference."
There was a long silence, then both started to speak at the same time.
"But Can I you can't prove it.?"
"…"
"Ah. That… sucks."
————————
As usual, C&C welcome. And… I know I let my world building desire got the better of me once more. I really need to learn to condense or cut that shit.
Weird. C&P from word processor to SB: everything's automatically line separated paragraphs. To SV: Nope, please press enter for every paragraph again.
Also callout for a name. again. I'm really bad at this. I wanna say 'You're repulsive', but Tedenn is actually kinda cute, once you get past his snarky-jerky suit coating. Oh, and also about ten years older than Tali, so… no romance.
Maybe possibly rewards? Whatever's deemed worthy that isn't RP > Iron Man II > RP pool
Ah, that reminds me, to all the participants:
The QM Hoyr offered to answer a question he/she/they wouldn't usually as a reward for the two "P……… by accident" omakes. Are there any pending questions that would qualify (for instance ones that weren't answered with plot or spoilers, but rather circumspect or mathematician-like) , or do I have to come up with one myself? (Please don't let it come to that, I'm not ready for that kind of responsibility. I can't even handle naming things!)
Also, could someone de-abbreviate FRM for me? My google-fu fails me.
Name, game,
this dame,
needs name.
Seriously, this isn't the name, it's a placeholder.
Far from the supposed homogeny of other species, humankind had always had its problems coalescing into a super-state, a form of government above the national level. The biggest of the human polities are on the level of continents and are made up of a plethora of ethnicities, cultural congregations, and other assorted differentiable groups.
Nevertheless mankind has had often enough an if not supranational, then at least cultural hegemony by one of its polities or the other. The species' history is rich in these shifts in cultural and sociopolitical lighthouses.
Due to this, but also other factors, some cultural concepts have found their way past not only their originating and neighbouring polities, but into the vast majority of human culture. The concepts may be viewed by one polity's culture as positive and by another as negative, but the concepts existence itself is never debated, but given as is.
One such concept is the ragtag group. It may be called differently elsewhere, but for now this descriptor suffices. A ragtag group can be made up of characters with vastly different backgrounds, or it may have recruited all its members from the same background. One of its common themes is its members being shunned for one reason or another, be that for their own liberal interpretation of the letter of the law, their unwillingness to conform to societal norms, or other reasons. Due to theses stressors members of that ragtag group are often intensely loyal to each other, however their views of the world beyond their group may be.
The quarian exodus from their home world Rannoch following the Geth uprising forced a wide cross-section of the quarian society to work together and flee from the murderous machines. A pop-star could find themselves sharing a cot with a mine-worker, a CEO had no better chance of success than a caretaker; this upheaval basically shattered the then existing quarian psyche. It was the factor forming the current quarian society, but it wasn't the only one. Following it closely in impact was the reaction of the galactic society in general, but also the Citadel Council in particular.
The quarian people were stripped of their embassy, cutting it of from influencing galactic politics in any meaningful way. The various species shunned the quarians, first to avoid any chance of being dragged into the Geth War, then later out supposed inability to support an influx of millions of people. They claimed the scope of charity the quarians required was beyond their own ability to offer charity.
As a result the Migrant Fleet, as the quarian continuing exodus fleet came to be called, developed a certain distaste for the rules and norms of galactic society, partially out of discontent, but also for necessity's sake to keep the Fleet going. This in turn resulted in the societies further shunning the Migrant Fleet.
It was a self-perpetuating circle.
Well, it wasn't like Tali'Zorah thought much about it. She'd had read about it, like every quarian, in the history books, but those were bo~o~ring. Sure, she hated the Geth like every other quarian did, but it was more like… like… they affronted her for wasting the potential of her people. And also killing so many quarians. Her people was intimately familiar with sudden death—a failure in any of a ship's systems could cook you, freeze you, electrocute you, or evacuate you.
Those were the easy death. The one you had a chance to do something about. The ones everyone dreaded were damages to their suits. A quarian would rather loose a foot and have their suit remain intact then keep the foot, but break their suit.
Tali couldn't do anything about the latter. She'd saved people preventing the former.
And she was doing that again. Right now. For every quarian, ever. At least she hoped she was.
Had Tali's father his say, his daughter wouldn't be on the Belpher, but Tali always had strong head on her shoulders, and this was the opportunity to work with a very early model arc reactor! How could she not do that?
Well, she had admittedly tried to work through the Citadel patent, but honestly? She dealt better with things when she could work hands on than on blueprints and formulas. It had always been that way. Somehow, when she worked with something with her hands and could see the results immediately, it clicked for her. Even in such abstract fields as hacking, some ideas and concepts simply seemed to flow from her brain through her hands far better than looking at information theory and coming up with stratagems to employ them.
"Tedenn!" Tali hollered. She hadn't needed to, every suit had coms, but, well, she had hollered. "Come over here!"
Tedenn'Befi had been accepted back from the pilgrimage by the captain of the Belpher, on grounds of his gift: a working, but used arc reactor. Unlike later charges delivered into Citadel space, this one hadn't been subjected to the whole barrage of black-boxing every new Paragon Industries product was delivered with these days.
The Belpher itself was a frigate-sized research ship housing mere 30 people constantly, with a flux of about twice that number in other personnel. Such a low number was only possible due to the research labourites it harboured in its role as a Special Projects vessel.
With so many people living in such close quarters the quarian people had honed their already astute senses the commune to an even greater degree. Strife was avoided, arguments discussed calmly, and grudges grudgingly talked out. To do less led to bad decisions; bad decisions led to dangerous consequences; and dangerous consequences killed people. Better to sort it out early with a few ruffled feathers than have a hull breach a few months later because a repair was put off since you didn't like your coworker.
Thus, despite himself, Tedenn paid more attention to the teenage Tali's demands; not because of any insight he had come to himself, but simply because most everyone else was treating her with some measure of deference. He had yet to understand why they did it, but until he did, he'd do well to follow his shipmates example.
"A minute!" he called back, then finished cleaning the air scrubber of its carbon gunk. "Coming!"
His long legs made quick of the distance. As expected the girl was poring over the arc reactor. She'd already peeled parts of the reactor's cowling away with the array of tools hanging off her belt.
Was the arc reactor always that bright? Tedenn wondered.
She must have heard his approach through the thrumming of the surrounding machinery as she was waving at him with a come-hither gesture without turning to look at him.
Yep, definitely brighter. It almost shines through the polarisation of her visor. It shone bright enough that he could see the outlines of her eyes when he settled down opposite from her, the arc reactor nestled between them.
"What is it?"
"I… think I figured out how to make a repulsor out of this thing."
[TheEyes told me I was basing the following part on wrong. To make right, I gotta rewrite this.]
The point stood: repulsors required arc reactors.
"We all know that."
"I know we know, but I fiddled a bit with this thing, and I think there's more to it."
"You know… if you break it, you'll have to start your pilgrimage early, right? This was a very expensive gift."
She didn't roll her eyes, that gesture wasn't present in the quarian people, but her tone conveyed that emotion regardless.
"As you've made a point of telling at every chance you get, Tedenn. Yes, it was a great gift, but the Flotilla flies on. Get with it." She shook her head slightly. "No, what always surprised me, I mean, there's only, what, a minute of Shepard's first fight against the batarian slave raid? Less? And maybe five seconds or so of her flying? But I looked into it, and her home was some distance from the city, and she arrived at her home flying. Then she flew from there to the city. But she had no propulsion tank."
Tedenn considered that. He'd seen the vids, read a few commentaries, even speculated with some coworkers, but for the most part his attention had been focused elsewhere, as he had just started his pilgrimage at the time.
"Go on."
"Well, I figured she had very little propulsion mass and sufficiently high exhaust velocity, but she didn't burn the forest down."
"Come again?"
"She didn't burn the forest down! At the exhaust velocity, it would've been like a… well, it would've burned pretty damn hot, cow can believe that. But there were no giant plumes of raised dust, no forest fire, and no glassing of the ground. Whatever propellant she used, it wasn't stupid fast."
"Stupid fast, scientific nomenclature coined by Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."
She made three sounds of decreasing pitch, like some kind of brass instrument. Clearly enough she didn't appreciate his lip, but didn't dare a more overt expression.
"You know what I mean."
"What about a jet engine powered by an arc reactor?"
"No, what I saw of her power armour didn't allow for that. Not with the way it was half kludge together from spare parts and still worked."
"What I've seen of your workbench that basically describes all your products."
Tali touched the inside of her visor with the tip of her tongue. The gesture held multiple meanings in the quarian society, some vulgar, others intimate, especially considering how deprived of physical contact the quarians are. On the whole, it depended on context; in this case it was just to show she'd stuck her tongue out at him.
"Anyway, I'll tell you, disregardless of your jerkiness. I'm thinking the repulsors are… well, not entirely reactionless, but close to as make no difference."
There was a long silence, then both started to speak at the same time.
"But Can I you can't prove it.?"
"…"
"Ah. That… sucks."
————————
As usual, C&C welcome. And… I know I let my world building desire got the better of me once more. I really need to learn to condense or cut that shit.
Weird. C&P from word processor to SB: everything's automatically line separated paragraphs. To SV: Nope, please press enter for every paragraph again.
Also callout for a name. again. I'm really bad at this. I wanna say 'You're repulsive', but Tedenn is actually kinda cute, once you get past his snarky-jerky suit coating. Oh, and also about ten years older than Tali, so… no romance.
Maybe possibly rewards? Whatever's deemed worthy that isn't RP > Iron Man II > RP pool
Ah, that reminds me, to all the participants:
The QM Hoyr offered to answer a question he/she/they wouldn't usually as a reward for the two "P……… by accident" omakes. Are there any pending questions that would qualify (for instance ones that weren't answered with plot or spoilers, but rather circumspect or mathematician-like) , or do I have to come up with one myself? (Please don't let it come to that, I'm not ready for that kind of responsibility. I can't even handle naming things!)
Also, could someone de-abbreviate FRM for me? My google-fu fails me.
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FRM: Fabrication Rights Management. Think DRM (Digital Rights Management), but for objects that you build in the real world. I mean, really, the concept is absurd, but it's sort of a core part of Mass Effect.
Also, regarding your omake, the suit that Revy used in the first Batarian battle had no Repulsors; in fact we haven't built any Repulsors until just before the IFV competition; even the Legionaries work by using a combination mass lightening core and some sort of booster engine, either jet turbine or rocket.
- Location
- Low Earth Orbit
HanEmpire
Delicious
Does this mean that even with our stolen blueprints they wouldn't be able to fabricate our products without our license?
Or rather, they could build it but wouldn't be able to use it as anything more than expensive weights?
Depends...they might be able to download [most] of the blueprint, but require certain parts mailed to them (the revanant rifle works in a similar fashion, I think) in order to work.
....The general idea is that if they got a fully working model and tried scanning it or pulling it apart, all the ludicrous amounts of extra material that seem to have no function would interfere with the process.
It wouldn't stop them per sae, but it would require dozens of samples to destructively reverse engineer on top of a few decades.....or centuries to do so, unless they are in possession of equipment that outstrips most, if not all, of the galaxy, like the Reapers.