Something I'm wondering but how do people feel about researching tech like Plug and Play, Comm Buoy Construction and Anti-Matter Production? I'm asking since the latter two techs would seem like they would increase our GDP by a lot and PP would also help with creating a ton of jobs and expanding growth. CCC and AMP are also both highly important for the operation of galactic scale civilizations so seems like we would be able to make a lot of money off that.
The value of CBC will depend heavily upon how QECs turn out. The tech even says:
Barring a truly incredible leap in other communication technologies Comm Buoys are the best way to get large amounts of data around with low response time. The expensive but critical devices allow the galactic extranet to function and hold the galactic community together. They also are a stepping stone toward making one's own Mass Relays. (Requires a deep space lab)
and QECs could very well be that incredible leap.
Plug and Play Skills is basically a requirement for our ongoing expansion going by the prior update:
That reminds you, you would also have to immediately begin finding and hiring qualified personnel from other worlds to fill in the new job positions. As much as you would have liked to hire more of the people from the colonies there was only so many educated and skilled personnel that could be found. Plus you could not simply hire everyone as people were still required to farm, build, and develop the colonies. That was an idea, better farming equipment or hell even better GMO crops. Also finding some way to just download skills into people, that would definitely solve your manpower issue. Might have to bring that up with Mordin, he has been in a inordinately good mood lately.
Considering that is from building just 17 Small Shipyards, 6 Medium Shipyards, and 1 Large Space Station we are pretty clearly in desperate need of more personnel. How else are we going to staff 198 Factory IIIs and between ~70 to ~90 Space Factories? Sure there is a 3 quater lead time on Factory IIIs and a 7 to 11 (~2 to ~3 years) quarter lead time on the Space Factories but that is still a
lot of personnel we'll need.
Edit:
I almost forgot; Anti-Matter Production isn't really relevant. As far as I can tell it is only really used in universe for weapons and military engines. We have better alternatives for weapons and over the next few years the Alliance is going to be transitioning away from anti-mater thrusters to Repuslors. So the only real use is selling to the Citadel.
Except that as a key military resource not only is the sale of anti-matter likely restricted but foreign governments aren't going to be interested in sourcing significant amounts of it from Paragon Industries. It would give us too much control over their military capabilities.
End Edit
Plug and Play l don't personally like at all to much like borg and some types of hive minds plus the abuse to anyone that can program the chips that plug into your brain can basically turn you into a husk or slave if they feel nice so me no thanks by by. you can say our mc would prevent this but in long run this is impossible
I don't think this is a major concern. For starters there is pretty clearly meant to be an external interface since it is
plug and play which requires the ability to rapidly and easily exchange chips. This is important because as per the tech description:
[ ] Plug and Play Skills [800] (Requires Biology and Programming Skill Rank B): Want to learn Kung Fu? Here's a chip to slot into your brain. So long as the chip is installed you know what the chip knows once you get used to the new skills. It can also function as a teacher. Only challenge can be finding some one to record the skills from.
They only work while the chips are installed. So as a safety feature we could always just configure the interface to automatically eject the chips whenever the user falls asleep.
There also isn't any reason to think they can actually be used for brainwashing or the like. The brain is reasonably segmented so interfacing with someone's procedural knowledge doesn't really provide a jumping point for their declarative memories or personality. There is also the issue of all our technology being blackboxed and Paragon Industries having just developed our own coding language. Sufficiently reverse engineering our Plug and Play technology such that it can be used for other endeavors is going to be incredibly difficult. Likely to the point of it just being easier to invent the technology yourself.
Speaking of which:
Slavers are already massively abusive, they're already programming people the old fashioned way, with beatings and sleep deprivation.
Actually Mass Effect slavers already use mind-control:
ME Wiki - Batarians said:
Rogue batarian slave rings are feared throughout the galaxy, especially among colonists on remote worlds, which are often raided by batarian slavers. Victims of such raids are usually implanted with control devices in their skulls, a painful operation since the slavers rarely make use of anesthetic;
Talitha, abducted from Mindoir, was a victim of this practice.
Similarly a control chip was mentioned as a possibility (albeit one TIM rejected) during the
Lazarus Project:
ME Wiki - Lazarus Project said:
The one thing that the Illusive Man refused to do was implant a control chip in the Commander's brain, fearing that it may affect Shepard's personality and abilities.
So there isn't really any need to worry about the technology of Plug and Play Skills being used to brainwash/mind-control people. The sort of people who would do that
already have the technology to do so.
How is mineral/raw material supply doing? Rapidly building up multiple planets and orbital infrastructure at such a rate might put strain on the local economy. Will we need to expand into mining and refining, or is the SA economy ramping up to fill our needs?
As one of the Citadel races if the Alliance is suffering a shortfall of raw materials we are likely buying them from the Citadel market. There is probably a strong push to develop more primary industry within the Alliance to keep up with Paragon Industries' demand but regardless of if we get our supplies from the Alliance or have them shipped in from Citadel Space it doesn't really matter. Well we probably want to help grow the local mining markets due to our ongoing interest in the Alliance as a whole and thus a preference to spending credits locally rather then externally. Plug and Play Skills should help with that.
