Well, Phoenix Massing is about 160 pixels away, so with the galaxy about 2500 pixels in diameter, it's only little more than 6 thousand light years or 7 jumps from us. Not that much.
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Terminus Quest: A CKII Mass Effect Quest
@PoptartProdigy is the secondary relay already covered with defenses or do we have to take a action to cover it? Maybe add some mine fields.
pbluekan
Somethin's Fucky ...
- Location
- Trumpistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Just out of curiosity, why didn't you just ignore/eliminate secondary relays entirely? Not that I'm complaining.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Somebody asked, and it's worth answering publicly:
As for why dreadnoughts at all, they now have mass effect accelerator cannons, which have effective ranges in the thousands of kilometers and traverse that distance in seconds, even in atmosphere. With the invention of the mass effect railgun, the era of the airplane finally came to a close, and the era of the big gun enjoyed a renaissance. Submarines, meanwhile, suffer heavily at the hands of modern sensor technology. That same sensor technology renders missiles hideously vulnerable to mass-effect railgun point defenses, especially if they attempt to compete with big gun dreadnoughts at the latter's maximum effective range (plenty of time and lots of effective range over which to fire). That said, the field of wet-water navies is always shifting.
Moreover, I'm not sure how you're calling her government analogous to a political party. She hires people to do jobs. She doesn't require or expect that they all vote for her come election day. It's not really a power bloc in the sense that you're asserting. She's just running a government. Unless you want to assert that all governments are political parties -- and although that would be a fascinating discussion to have, it's one that might be better had elsewhere --I don't think her government is, in and of itself, a political party. If somebody doesn't like her governance, they can resign in good faith and be seen on their way with appropriate severance and references -- and doing so does not impact for what their vote counts, which is one of Mira's core objections.
Finally: the conflict between her and the corporations is not because Mira views them as, "not-tribe," although the reverse might not be true. That conflict exists because she is suspicious of their constant efforts to organize sketchy attempts to undercut her position as Prime Minister, and their involvement in the nearly-suicidal corruption of the prior administration.
To sum up: in Mira's mindset, she's not acting as part of a political party, because her objections to political parties cover very specific issues which she tries very dearly not to personally typify during her day-to-day governance.
Everything is a worthless waste of military resources when compared directly to an orbital mass accelerator. The reason they have armies at all is because the fighting still comes to the ground eventually, and orbital dominance is not guaranteed; thus, the fight is not always, "water dreadnought vs. orbiting warship," but rather sometimes, "water dreadnought vs. hapless infantry," or indeed, "water dreadnought and orbiting warship vs. hapless infantry." Thus, while the army gets less funding, it is still important for it to be as diverse and competent as the navy.Somebody said:
As for why dreadnoughts at all, they now have mass effect accelerator cannons, which have effective ranges in the thousands of kilometers and traverse that distance in seconds, even in atmosphere. With the invention of the mass effect railgun, the era of the airplane finally came to a close, and the era of the big gun enjoyed a renaissance. Submarines, meanwhile, suffer heavily at the hands of modern sensor technology. That same sensor technology renders missiles hideously vulnerable to mass-effect railgun point defenses, especially if they attempt to compete with big gun dreadnoughts at the latter's maximum effective range (plenty of time and lots of effective range over which to fire). That said, the field of wet-water navies is always shifting.
I mean, I also would hope not to have to explain that military coups do not feature in Mira's desired end state of national governance. She's not proud of the methodology and wouldn't endorse it on a systemic basis; she just thinks it had to be done in that case. Because, in fact, of the political cult formed around Kerak which rendered it impossible to unseat him by conventional means (and the fact that election year was a ways away and she knew exactly how long Virmire had to live). Additionally, for reasons I hope are obvious, I tend to keep political parties like Democrats and Republicans separate, in my mind, from armed rebels who have personally agreed upon all of their actions because somebody personally came around to all of them and convinced them to join in. I also helps that she maintains her rule through political successes and campaigns rather than the threat of military force; realistically, she simply doesn't maintain rule through the power bloc of the military. Further, I would not presume to claim that her own political origins in a military coup render her unsuitable to preventing future military coups; her methodology's ideological purity has little bearing on its effectiveness.
Moreover, I'm not sure how you're calling her government analogous to a political party. She hires people to do jobs. She doesn't require or expect that they all vote for her come election day. It's not really a power bloc in the sense that you're asserting. She's just running a government. Unless you want to assert that all governments are political parties -- and although that would be a fascinating discussion to have, it's one that might be better had elsewhere --I don't think her government is, in and of itself, a political party. If somebody doesn't like her governance, they can resign in good faith and be seen on their way with appropriate severance and references -- and doing so does not impact for what their vote counts, which is one of Mira's core objections.
Finally: the conflict between her and the corporations is not because Mira views them as, "not-tribe," although the reverse might not be true. That conflict exists because she is suspicious of their constant efforts to organize sketchy attempts to undercut her position as Prime Minister, and their involvement in the nearly-suicidal corruption of the prior administration.
To sum up: in Mira's mindset, she's not acting as part of a political party, because her objections to political parties cover very specific issues which she tries very dearly not to personally typify during her day-to-day governance.
Some, but not as much as actives. Remember, you have to be real confident to attack through a one-way relay connection.
I get a lovely, satisfying feeling from making the pieces fit.
In prison, charges of treason. Mira didn't actually have anything to do with that one; he was convicted in an open court with no pressure from her. Unless Shurna pulled something, Kerak is rotting by the will of the people and justice of Virmire.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I can actually see a role for a sort of weird mutant submarine in Mass Effect, as a planetary defense gun. Build a single spinal gun along the hull (more or less to space-naval scale, at least a few hundred meters long), and design the submarine to be functional when poking up out of the water at an angle (this is the hard part).
Then surface and fire, submerging when the enemy zeroes in on you. Gives you a hope of sniping orbiting warships and ducking back under 'cover' of the ocean. Being underwater doesn't make you immune to detection but it does make you hard to localize and gives you some resistance against enemy return fire striking the ocean.
This might actually not work I guess.
Then surface and fire, submerging when the enemy zeroes in on you. Gives you a hope of sniping orbiting warships and ducking back under 'cover' of the ocean. Being underwater doesn't make you immune to detection but it does make you hard to localize and gives you some resistance against enemy return fire striking the ocean.
This might actually not work I guess.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
It's not a bad idea, honestly. Ground- (or water-) -based railguns still have some practicality issues, but that's a proposed tactic for subs. The main issue is keeping the pressure hull from rupturing when the shockwave of a mass accelerator strike hits the water in its vicinity, which tends to happen even if they can't perfectly locate you. Kinetic barriers are one proposed solution, but the tech isn't there yet.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Hm. I wonder how "cushiony" a barrier is, in terms of transferring impact to the shielded object- does it absorb shocks like a spring or like a rigid wall?
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
At its most basic (what you have), kinetic barriers work by reducing the mass of incoming objects to zero or nearly-so, thereby robbing them of all effective kinetic energy. This is not very efficient, though. Biotic barriers work differently, but replicating the techniques on a mechanical level is still a ways out.
- Location
- USA
What about the whole trying to invade Switzerland (mountainous terrain + bunkers out the yin yang) after achieving orbital dominance. How does orbital bombardment fair in that kind of scenario?
HanEmpire
Delicious
How much support does he have outside prison? I mean he did run a cult of personality before Mira, he must have some fanatic supporters left in spite of Mira's constant PR crits.
- Location
- Northish
I'm not sure if the tech to compensate for the movement of the sub and atmospheric disruption is there yet. Unlike space anything on or in the water is going to be moving randomly to some degree.
Point the spinal mass accelerator down and keep firing? It would take on hell of a bunker to stand up to any real naval bombardment.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
It actually starts hitting limits. Dig deep enough, and unless the attacker wants to Beshkar the planet (which, if they have troops on the surface to begin with, they likely don't), they need infantry to dig you out. It's not pleasant for the defenders, though.
I suppose, "cult," is something of a mischaracterization, actually. Kirai, an admitted military novice, spent a lot of political effort getting the asari into a voting bloc in support of him since she saw him as a least-bad option, and Shurna says that, before she flipped, she occasionally did some unsavory things on his behalf. His support base has largely evaporated in the face of your continued military victories and the general improved quality of life around Virmire. The remnants of his camarilla who are neither of Shurna or imprisoned really hate your guts, though.
RoninSword
Sky God
- Location
- Canada
Fairly certain the Normandy 2's Cyclone upgrade was state of the art in Mass Effect 2, so ship grade mechanical biotic barriers (the shifting mass effect field it uses), seems to be nearly 2 millennium out.
Unless I am hopelessly off base? My assumption is that the Cyclone's shifting mass effect fields fit biotic barrier better than kinetic shield.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
By the time of the games, all barriers work by exerting small amounts of force to repulse incoming projectiles, according to the wiki, so not quite that far out.
The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
Lystheni delenda est.
VoidZero
Passing Flan 布丁魔王
- Location
- Anywhere but RL
Trade sanction and strong worded letter seems bit weak, their compartmentalized society wouldn't be damaged too much by open hostility short of actual fleet above their world. But i'm not fond of 10 million unfriendly new population either. We should study the Quarian data this turn to improve our future ship developments, this bug war requires every edge.
Valkur
The True Valkyria, Valkur!
- Location
- Fólkvangr
@PoptartProdigy
I have an incredibly dumb idea! I want to make my own political party VIA omake and have them be led by firebranded anarchist by a Thomas Paine expat! He'll be loud, confrontational, and attempt to use any and all powers provided by his party and constituency to take down Mira.
Oh and he'll be Volus because they seem like they need a bit of a firebrand on there team.
Party Name: United Opposition to the Prime Minister. [UOPM]
Speaker: Thomas Paine expy
Leadership: Assembly Councilors
Nickname: The Opposition
Platforms:
1. Disagree with the Prime Minister's Agenda.
2. Increase the power of the Assembly. Limit the power of the Prime Minister.
3. Take over the civilian bureaucracy.
4. Complain about issues.
I have an incredibly dumb idea! I want to make my own political party VIA omake and have them be led by firebranded anarchist by a Thomas Paine expat! He'll be loud, confrontational, and attempt to use any and all powers provided by his party and constituency to take down Mira.
Oh and he'll be Volus because they seem like they need a bit of a firebrand on there team.
Party Name: United Opposition to the Prime Minister. [UOPM]
Speaker: Thomas Paine expy
Leadership: Assembly Councilors
Nickname: The Opposition
Platforms:
1. Disagree with the Prime Minister's Agenda.
2. Increase the power of the Assembly. Limit the power of the Prime Minister.
3. Take over the civilian bureaucracy.
4. Complain about issues.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
...Oh, Lord Hater, you get me the best presents~!
The way I would describe it is that right now there is one salient political issue on Virmire: how to survive the war against the Rachni. There is also near universal agreement on the correct answer: let Mira handle it.
Mira doesn't need a political party because she's basically a single issue candidate whose issue dominates everything. It would be like if Ross Perot had racked up 95% of the vote, except more so.
At the end of the war--or maybe even just if there's enough progress made that Virmire's ultimate survival is assured--Mira could be in for a rude awakening. Her rise to power and success in war have some parallels to Winston Churchill. If she's not careful her post-war arc might follow his as well.
pbluekan
Somethin's Fucky ...
- Location
- Trumpistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Is there a bad tempered Matriarch in the assembly with the last name Kinsey?
Jesus fuck, yes.
Uuh, lol, no. That assumes each secondary goes the maximum of 1000 lightyears and that all of them point right at the final destination. Most of them are likely a shorter distance and deviate from that straight line path significantly.
The whole idea of these secondary relay paths is it's more like taking the winding back road rather than the highway.
Admittedly, your rough scale is pretty good, given a 100kly diameter of the Milky Way.
TBH, I'm almost more excited by the fact that we have some extra clusters that are, relatively speaking, closer to Hoc than even SO 28.
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So, others have said it, but the "Pickpocket" and "Trade Sanctions" options are pretty much mandatory regardless of what we do. That -40k is going to hurt, though. I also think the options covering the Amalinya research colony and the personal visit are mandatory as well. That is an absolutely obvious plot hook if I ever saw one.
VoidZero
Passing Flan 布丁魔王
- Location
- Anywhere but RL
Independence party's black site experiment outbreak?
Secret Lystheni covert action? Surprise party planned by our loving cabinet?Though straight path deviation might add a jump or two.
- Location
- Aotearoa
If we're polling, I'd rather you didn't. Plenty of enemies exist already, no need to undermine Mira's position.
Just because they can reach 1000ly, doesn't mean there is one exactly 1000ly away, even in roughly the direction you want to travel.
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