- Location
- Rapidly approaching your location.
- Pronouns
- Any/Morb
But but muh levitating water trains...
Who Needs Harmony?: An MLP Empire Quest
- Thread starter Questor
- Start date
- Location
- Syric
like @Sentient Tree said the airships can be used over water but you also have to take into account the fact that we would need to build up the infrastructure for the trains. we would need to build stations, lay down the tracks, build refueling stations to refill the boilers and stock the train up with coal and then we would need to build the trains themselves.
don't get me wrong we will do it as like you said it will help our economy immensely but to me it seems like we should go for the airships because while yes they're fragile we can still use them to transport people and supplies to places trains can't go like closer to the front of any theoretical war or even use them to haul the wood and steel needed to make the train tracks in the first place.
lastly one thing i think people forget is that while yes our griffons can fly they need to still work to get anywhere. expending energy flapping they're wings and tiring themselves out bringing the armor, weapons and other gear that a soldier needs while they're on the march or getting ready to go into combat. with the airships they can bring more with them at once and use it as a launch platform so they don't need a running start or a hard take off to get airborne while being more rested since they didn't need to carry all the food and tools they would normally need to carry the entire way there while also being faster then the normal wagon trains that we used to need.
- Location
- Italy
that would probably require magic
Well, trains are better for mass/cheap transport ON LAND. They require infrastructure though, while airships... Don't.
Airships can go over mountains and sea, can go from the center of our empire to the islands of Neighpon... and while our people (and soldiers) can fly, Airships can probably mantain a higher average speed for much longer, while carrying more. and they could carry Kitsune and Tanuki for camouflage
and if the passengers are gryphons it doesn't even need to actually LAND for boarding or even to refuel. Just have the gryph fly up to it/down from it (they could even probably carry dogs and ponies)!
The fact it doesn't need infrastructure means they can also be used in enemy territory (hopefully hidden by illusions), or maybe to explore those still unknown territories.
And of course nobles and rich merchant would pay quite a bit for a luxury cruise in the air.
Airship travel would probably be the most expensive, but also the safest and fastest. Good for the rich, for the military, and to move expensive goods.
- Location
- Ohio
I did not forget.
- Location
- Maryland
Yes, though given the recent nature of the innovations it's going to be a while before many of the newly born children reach working/enlistment age.
- Location
- SF Bay Area
That's rather the point I'm inviting them, possibility of creating backchannels and allowing them a venue to showcase their nation, and the scorn or ridicule of their own nation will be a learning experience, we are clearly entering an area where the concert of nations is at play
- Location
- A house
I'm more against sharing tech with people who are pretty much guarantee to be our enemies in the near future. Even it its only a showcase, just seeing and a demonstration is more than I'm willing to present to them at this current moment.
I'm up for diplomatic summits between sovereign nations though. A UN would be neat, but don't think we've hit the number of nations required for it though. I'd expect a minimum of 5 before something like that.
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- Location
- The state of Paranoia
On the other hand, we might be able to get a look at their best technologies. Could be valuable for strategizing if we do need to go to war.
- Location
- A house
Ah, but I'm pretty confident our spies can accomplish much the same in sampling their tech, if they can sneak around noble's places without getting caught.
- Location
- Italy
Also their best would probably require unicorn/Pegasus magic, so it's of nearly zero use to us. Pure, magicless technology comparable to ours is VERY Unlikely. There might be a few exceptions, something like the Qilin' seed drills, or maybe a mechanical loom, but we'd lose much more than we stand to gain by giving them a chance to see and possibly copy our best tech.
Until we make peace with them our tech should be kept to our people and our allies: Neighpon, The Empire, The Crystal Protectorate, and the Yaks.
...just thinking, but if/when we convince the Yaks to give us access to their oricalchum mine (or even just to sell us the metal, I'd be ok with either) we should definitely build a railway from it to our smelting centers. Actually the railway could be something we offer in exchange for the metal! It would certainly be worth a lot.
..you know, one of the most valuable things we could get from Maretonia (or even the pirates!) It's access to more languages! We still have the Sendak manuscript to translate, and his original writer is the one who taught Tirek how to steal/drain pony magic!
That would be so useful if we actually go to war!
- Location
- A house
Honestly, even building such a railway for free or at a much reduced cost through their lands might be worth it. The trade increase would be worth the cost in the long run, and one can never underestimate how much being interconnected and getting from one place to another brings a sense of unity, which could further de-escalate the yak situation. Plus bonus points with the yaks is always nice. Money comes and goes, but trust is something that is worth more than gold.
Oh, also, cant forget the telegraph. Once that's invented, doing an extensive railroad plan would be well worth it.
Just gotta remember to keep the railways under government control. Keeping utilities in the hands of companies is almost always never a good thing.
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- Location
- A house
Well, omake I wrote and is canon does have the science crew coming up with the prototype for a gun, but decided theyd be useless against sombra since he had giant behemoths and theyd do less damage against those units, were less accurate, couldnt be made in time and were only worth it in large volumes. Not to mention lugging around black powder for them. Now that that threat is over and war may be on the horizon, they could pick up that line of invention again, since now the targets are squishy and not dragons/behemoths/zombie-like soldiers
- Location
- Australia
If sufficiently regulated I think that private enterprise could run at least some railroads, the danger is that they may stop competing, which could drive invocation forward without us handholding plus shelling out for the whole process and encouraging them to find new ways to keep prices down but work together to rig the market (or one rail baron will get enough of the market to do this all by themself). And of course we would need to have a great deal of oversight on where they are built and the ability to exert total control in times of emergency or war. Maybe a mixed market of public and private with strong government controls would work?
Although regardless of how private or public we make the system now that industrialization is starting and as capitalism starts to go into overdrive we should probably start to think about creating a corporate watchdog and help establish unions to protect the workers from Victorian era style injustices.
- Location
- A house
I'm personally firmly in the "dont let companies get a hold of utilities. Ever." Camp since they have always proven never to be trusted with them, given enough time (US railroads, bell, any of the big US internet services, just to name a few). Luxuries and goods? Fine. Utilities? I'm going to say no. Greed always seems to shine through over decency.
But that's just me. Could wind up being different in quest.
- Location
- Rapidly approaching your location.
- Pronouns
- Any/Morb
Ah but see there can't be monopolies if there are no polies! Remove the corporations, absolutism shall reign supreme!
btw do corporations even exist right now?
btw do corporations even exist right now?
Red_Faux
私を終わらせる
- Location
- 'Straya M8
I'm thinking probably not. Everything is for and by the empire!
- Location
- A house
Probably not corporations as they are now, but stuff like trade companies probably exist, like the east India trading company.
- Location
- Rapidly approaching your location.
- Pronouns
- Any/Morb
Ah yes that turned out wonderfully for the British, with no negative effects whatsoever.
I'd almost say they'd be closer to the trading republic of Venice and other early mercantile groups, where those who are in charge pool resources in order to accomplish a goal and then split the proceeds.Ah yes that turned out wonderfully for the British, with no negative effects whatsoever.
Be interesting to get a fiat (or commodity backed I guess) currency and fractional reserve banking going though.
Red_Faux
私を終わらせる
- Location
- 'Straya M8
I wonder if this setting will ever have some kind of world war? We've got a Europe, Japan and a bit of the middle east with the yaks, we meet the zebras and we get some of Africa. With a little, read a lot, of global development some kind of great war analog could feasibly happen at some point in the future.
- Location
- Rapidly approaching your location.
- Pronouns
- Any/Morb
Maybe? Hopefully not. Would be worse since we've developed cannons and will likely progress that. Magic will make total war even more deadly. Probably way in the future though, probably 100 years or so at least, when this generation has passed.
Maretonia is directly land adjacent to the southern border of the Crystal Protectorate. It doesn't matter that trains don't go over water; our current opponent shares a continent with us.
I'm not opposed to air research, but we have limited actions and are about to be engaged in conflict with a military peer. In a choice between trains and airships, trains simply offer a better return on investment in the short term.
I'd also say that they're better in the medium and long term as well, what with mass movement of freight being the number one most important thing for an industrial power, but the short term is what needs to be the focus until we have a better measure of Maretonia. I mean, we don't currently know if we can destroy them or if they're the kind of enemy that will survive a war with us. If they're longer term foes then the short term stops being important, but I digress.
Tl;dr: Choo Choo superior, airship inferior.
- Location
- The state of Paranoia
Good points, but airships can also be used inside enemy territory. Trains stop at the border or sooner, but airships can keep supplying logistics even when we're on the offensive.
A better argument would have been that they can go over mountains. We can build train tracks up to the border but past that we go on foot. An airship would extend our logistical range significantly.
Edit :Ninja'd