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Omegasgundam wrote:I would like to take this opportunity to state that I now realize that much of my work amounts to taking the stuff Gleba, Coffin, and Campbell have published, covering it in gas, and setting it on fire. I can live with this.

You gotta have a hobby.

I dunno how much of my own material started with me being upset at something and wanting to imagine a scenario where it happened differently, or was avoided altogether, even if by some fantastic and improbable deus ex machina.

Here's a fluff drop to explain a few things. No mechanical bits yet, but its something to build from.

CG-Field Tweeking and Implications
“First off, ‘life support to engines’ doesn’t do much by itself, as the overall power consumption isn’t enough to make a big impact. What DOES matter is how the CG-Fields interact with each other. Keeping the interior of the ship livable for the crew means that there’s a CG field stopping you from being crushed, and that field is on the same hull as the CG field providing propulsion and the one keeping your reactor working. Working this interaction out is complicated if you want to be efficient, and not having to deal with it much is one of the reasons ASFs have their advantages, particularly production time. If you don’t have to deal with it all, due to having an AI ship or an all Cyborg crew, you can push effective thrust substantially higher with the same machinery and power plant. The Shemarians and Central Alliance are the go to examples of the latter, with the SSN going faster and the CA getting more out of their less advanced technology.”

“On a related note, the SSN is infamous for running their AM plants much closer to the edge than anybody else. This gets them substantially more power out of the same mass and volume, at the cost of having to baby it constantly and having way higher maintenance demands. CG fields are used to provide containment in the reaction chamber, and they’re not weak ones either, so cutting the crew space fields helps there as well. I hear that they’re all psionic to a degree as well, and having that much Telemechanics would let them be able to respond faster to potential problems before they become problems. You can do it with massed AIs as well, but that has the problems of getting them and keeping them working. Fusion plants have weaker fields, which makes them easier to compensate for, but the power difference usually makes it an inferior choice for a given tech level, assuming that you have the option of establishing an AM production infrastructure.”

“Now that the BHD-files are becoming available to engineers outside of the Dreadnought program, we’re starting to see practical returns from the project. A lot of the fine tweeking of ship’s engines that had to be figured out after completion can now be done beforehand, and it also simplifies relative maintenance requirements. From what I’ve been told, the Predator has a fifth greater acceleration than it would have otherwise had, and it can use it for almost twice as long as the Hunter could. I shouldn't need to elaborate on the tactical implications, and it’ll make putting in a faster FTL drive substantially easier that it would have been previously. Some napkin math tells me that it should be able to handle a 6.25 ly/h drive without major alterations to the reactor, and the Dauntless can get up to a full 7. Bigger ships start running into other problems though, to 6 ly/h is going to be the standard for the big boys for some time yet."
---- Captain Harriet McKenna, CAF, Director of Project Prominence

Network Omni News Article
Orsak Ley Lines Stabilize in Rhilith
Dateline: 11/7/284535500

10 years to the day of the death of Demon World Orsak, its remains have given their last ‘present’ to the system of Rhilith, and for once its actually a positive. The planetoids’ mystic energy and finally settled into its long term configuration, resulting in a joined set of cosmic Ley Lines. This means that the one technological member of the UWW now has a Cosmic Nexus Point within its own system, which will have profound implications going forward considering their already major significance. King Silverwind has already announced plans to construct a Tangent Station ‘with all possible haste’, and experts are speculating just how this will be accomplished. And it might get even more non-conventional than the UWW norm.

The Rhilith system has plenty of appropriate rocks, but some are thinking that the UWW might do something a bit more dramatic. The ‘heart’ of Orsak was turned to mundane stone by the sacrificial ritual of Archmage Alexia Fay, and the 10 mile wide sphere is already perfectly situated. While carving it into the right shape would make it the largest Tangent by a large margin, there are a number of sympathetic effects that could make it viable, the UWW leadership is almost certainly going to throw any practical artifact they have at the effort. As the enduring monument to the Warlock Fleet’s sacrifices during the war, it has an immense symbolic significance, and these have a real world effect when magic is involved. The primary question is whether or not the last traces of Orsak have been fully expunged from it.

Details aside, the question then goes to the actual implications of Rhilith having its own Tangent. We go to Senior Mystic Market Correspondent Hiksa Relito for more…..

NETWORK OMNI NEWSFLASH
Dateline: 1/11/2314241241-3112
Major Shipping Consortium Merger Signed
-Mospo Station, Velegia IV, Renis Sector, Anvil Galaxy.
Dweelie-owned Darwylie-Kominsk Kombyne today signed a formal treaty merging its business interests with Earndroth Kalsa Earthclaws Great-Clan.
(Camera POV shows a hulking female Earndroth in clan matriarchal robes shaking hands with a smaller hamster-like Dweelie in ripple-striped fur, the latter suspended in mid-air in an anti-gravity field)
The deal made will merge the space transit business of the Kombyne with the Kalsa Earthclaws’ port security services, securing the Kombyne’s groundside facilities while allowing the Kalsa clan to expand their own presence and holdings. The deal makes the combined Dwawylie-kominsk-Kalsa organization the largest shipping concern in the Greater Zoist Sector, and is expected to affect the expanding Tasian Hyper-Way and businesses beyond the anti-spinward borders of the Golgan Republik.
“We’re looking at a real change in our business dynamic, especially with regards to the direct-to-planet services,” Senior Darwylie-Kominsk Chairbeing Glesa Wozzolor said after the signing, “Previously we were reliant on by-system local contracting to handle such things, with a considerable variance in the reliability and dependability of service. But with a steady partnership with the Kalsa, we can expand our operations together and deliver a higher standard of service and security.”
The merger comes amidst reports of growing pirate activity along the former border zones of the Republik, making the prospect of greater security welcome to the many worlds reliant on interstellar trade in the regions serviced by the new agreement organization.
Others are less pleased with the merger. “This amounts to little more than an excuse to plant armed Earndroth thugs and increase the number of foreign paramilitary forces active in the region, in the name of protecting ‘business interests’,” read a statement by the organization WorldRight, which has offered criticism of the agreement, “The DeeKay-KayEE conglomerate is taking business away from LOCAL operators, muscling aside local shipping concerns, and incidentally insulting the reliability of local businesses to do galactic business. You’ll see a lot of local companies put out of business, not into it, with the DeeKay-KayEe expansion. That will only lead to more trouble.”
DK-KE representatives we asked for response to the WorldRight allegations were dismissive of them; “We’re not imposing our will on local worlds, we’re expanding to better serve them. We’re further opening up trade, not closing the doors.”

I wish i had any idea of how you guys make up the Datelines, what's the rhyme or reason for the numbers given in each article if any.

SolCannibal wrote:I wish i had any idea of how you guys make up the Datelines, what's the rhyme or reason for the numbers given in each article if any.

It's like stardates in TOS; they're nonsensical....(only later did somebody try to create a standardized star date system
I follow a general format like modern dates...three -/-/-/ and punch in numbers mainly at random(I may have thrown in a few winning lottery numbers or locker combinations...If so, I can't remember which).

And given how time might be flowing differently in local areas or at different ends of the Three Galaxies? If you make a mistake with the Datelines, who's going to call you on it without admitting they're 'not from around these parts'?

taalismn wrote:

SolCannibal wrote:I wish i had any idea of how you guys make up the Datelines, what's the rhyme or reason for the numbers given in each article if any.

It's like stardates in TOS; they're nonsensical....(only later did somebody try to create a standardized star date system
I follow a general format like modern dates...three -/-/-/ and punch in numbers mainly at random(I may have thrown in a few winning lottery numbers or locker combinations...If so, I can't remember which).

And given how time might be flowing differently in local areas or at different ends of the Three Galaxies? If you make a mistake with the Datelines, who's going to call you on it without admitting they're 'not from around these parts'?

Just wanted to be sure, i thought i saw some almost-pattern in one or two, what left me in doubt, but i guess it was mostly coincidence then. Thanks for clearing it up.

SolCannibal wrote:[
Just wanted to be sure, i thought i saw some almost-pattern in one or two, what left me in doubt, but i guess it was mostly coincidence then. Thanks for clearing it up.

I mighta tried dating them in some way referencing the current month/year IRL, but I figure I abandoned that just a s quickly.....