StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I'll spool up a minor plot arc and we'll see how it goes....

Perhaps a small council of leading players should determine the actions of all NPCs, but specifically Khitan and Japanistan, when prompted by events.

Honestly I think that a Japanistani-Egyptian-Khitanese alliance of some sort should form (though the Egyptians are, IIRC, mostly Japanistani satellites anyway, perhaps not full satellites just to appease Byzantine sensibilities) as a response to CATO.

CmdrWilkens wrote: Considering the kind of work arounds you would have to create in order to get a weapon with open breach to work in a vacuum without pumping out the entire capsule I'm willing to bet that strapping missiles to the hull probably nets you more ordnance in orbit.

Work arounds? It just needs a pressurized containment module around the breech, or perhaps an entire mounting separated from the rest of the cabin. Right now, though, the pilot can just fire from a depressurized cabin until the bugs are worked out and solutions thought of. Take note the autoloader and programmable rounds didn't really work very well in the test.

I also kinda assumed the gun would be more complicated than just installing a Shval, hence why it only carries eight rounds in the complicated vacuum-operating autoloader

EDIT: Also, Coyote, the Mig-29s go for 10 (ten) dollars each, and they have never been mothballed. Just FYI, may make it easy to push it through parliament. Though you still pay for training (Canissian pilots have never ever flown on Mig-29s...)

Steve wrote:Honestly I think that a Japanistani-Egyptian-Khitanese alliance of some sort should form (though the Egyptians are, IIRC, mostly Japanistani satellites anyway, perhaps not full satellites just to appease Byzantine sensibilities) as a response to CATO.

That seems like it would be the most realistic and logical course of events, along with reactionary factions taking power in each of those states.

PeZook wrote:You see, you can load dozens of rounds into the cockpit. Which means a single spaceship that gets amongst, say, a GPS consteallation can cripple it.

You plan to get Soyuz spacecraft into geostationary orbits ? And aren't satellites hella spaced out at those heights? I know I'm planning to use the SIM-147 long-range space missiles against GPS satellites, but a Soyuz armed with cannonry? How's the Soyuz reach something tens of thousands of kilometres above the planet?

And, well - it's a cheap fighter for permament stationing in space. We have the Mig-105/110 to carry a lot of missiles up there.

Does your MiG-105 have space for missiles aboard? 'Cause I don't think the RL version did...

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:If you and Constantinople Shipyards can put together a package, with licensing fees to throw in, I might consider.

I'd totally be up for a deal like that. We've a pretty good working relationship with CS after all.

Steve wrote:Honestly I think that a Japanistani-Egyptian-Khitanese alliance of some sort should form (though the Egyptians are, IIRC, mostly Japanistani satellites anyway, perhaps not full satellites just to appease Byzantine sensibilities) as a response to CATO.

This strikes me as an excellent plan, certainly far better than to have these massive lumps of land sitting about in 'isolation' meaning essentially jack squat on the global geopolitical stage.

Steve wrote:Perhaps a small council of leading players should determine the actions of all NPCs, but specifically Khitan and Japanistan, when prompted by events.

Honestly I think that a Japanistani-Egyptian-Khitanese alliance of some sort should form (though the Egyptians are, IIRC, mostly Japanistani satellites anyway, perhaps not full satellites just to appease Byzantine sensibilities) as a response to CATO.

I think given the pwoer bloc status of the game right now an ideal "mod" council could basically be convened which would be the final judge of everything from NPC writeups by other players to whether actions taken should be retconned or not.

I would propose:
1 MESS rep
1 CATO rep
1 FTO rep
1 Unaligned rep


Any retcon would require 3/4ths vote determination about NPC actions concurrence from at least 2 members. I'm betting its a bit more complicated than you were thinking Steve but I also expect that any such group would be very limited in its role, mostly just there as a sort of double check against crazy things like Ryan's "super sub of doom."

Actually, that's not far from what I imagined. A council of, say, PeZook for CATO, Coyote, Rogue, or you for the MESS, SiegeTank for the FTO, and... *looks at field of "unaligned players"* I guess either me or Phong for that entry.

Yeah that was pretty much my thought. Rogue has generally played the diplomacy game so he would be my nod for MESS, obviously PeZook or Stas for CATO (though Stas obviously has enough other shit going on making P the player with obvious time available) and Seige for the FTO.

I think all three of those are obvious choices and the unaligned vote really is either you or phongn. The thing is I dont' think it would be fair to seat you both since a) Marius and Langley are also pretty active and b) it gives an awful lot of weight to you guys and I don't mean in an OOC context (honestly I think both you guys woudl be fine as game mods) but rather I simply can't see how IG actions wouldn't start to be shaded towards appeasing IRT and Cascadian influences without a viable IG reason why. Yes it would be possible that this could happen with just one of you guys on this "council" but I doubt it because the rest of the blocs have enough weight to generate a better sort of balance.

This would also means a pretty even weight of representation
MESS ( 6 members not counting Byzantium which is also represented by CATO)
CATO ( 5 members)
FTO (6 members, 7 if you count Coilerburg as a seperate)
Unaligned (5 active members if I am counting right)

But who would actually post for them?

Coyote wrote:But who would actually post for them?

How did you guys play Terra Libertopia? Would that system work?

We played Libertopia by splitting the country into three, and then various power blocs remote-controlling them.

I would say that we won't be blowing all the cards on our space weapons, but anti-GPS is definetely a priority.

Using a high-powered laser would be necessary, kinda like the Soviet Polyus program.

SiegeTank wrote:Does your MiG-105 have space for missiles aboard? 'Cause I don't think the RL version did...

THere's a cargo bay yes. Worse come to worse, we create external pylons to fit missiles on them. The MiG-110 is a larger version of the aircraft with more payload and an internal weapons bay.

I'd totally be up for a deal like that. We've a pretty good working relationship with CS after all

Alright. The weapons packages we will handle on our side, just get the hull and the modular packages working. I was thinking that the ship might be great to put the planned sonar system on and that is moving on towards completion this year, if you aren't against it.

SiegeTank wrote: You plan to get Soyuz spacecraft into geostationary orbits ? And aren't satellites hella spaced out at those heights? I know I'm planning to use the SIM-147 long-range space missiles against GPS satellites, but a Soyuz armed with cannonry? How's the Soyuz reach something tens of thousands of kilometres above the planet?

Stick it on a bigger rocket. Duh

The satellites are spaced, yes, but they're essentially stationary targets. They can maneuver, but there's no way for an operator to tell which satellite should dodge when, and it jeopardizes the functioning of the system.

Also, you people are constantly forgetting the S-BK will have missiles, too.

On the mod issue, I'd have to issues with sitting on a council.

Kicking manned spaceships through the Van Allen belts doesn't seem sound... seems excessive, when you can utilize space-to-space missiles or lasers to hit them.

Stas Bush wrote:Kicking manned spaceships through the Van Allen belts doesn't seem sound... seems excessive, when you can utilize space-to-space missiles or lasers to hit them.

Why? VA belts are not really a people-frier, and the truly bad inner belt only extends to 1000 kilometers. It's certainly not healthy for people to stay in GEO for long periods of time, but then again - the Soyuz-BK is kind of a stopgap measure utilizing mostly existing technology in order to augment the space forces with pure numbahs

And it can be unmanned, too, once the technology matures

I actually agree that lasers are a way to go, especially with a nuclear reactor to power them. The Soyuz could disrupt GPS massively, a single Eagle with a bigass laser could totally wipe it out, and evade incoming space-to-space and ground-to-space fire.

The Soviet plan to lieft a 100-ton laser and fill it with counter missiles and nuclear mines if someone decides to attack it directly is what we should be aiming for. But yeah, as a stopgap measure, that ship works.

And surely we should pay attention to extending the range and accuracy of space-to-space missiles.

I had a plan to propose launching two Soyuz orbital modules, docking a Soyuz re-entry capsule to them and thus building a crude space-station for research on habitation in space. Gradually, we oculd move on to purpose-designed space stations.

Could be done relatively quickly, too.

We need a space station there certainly. Also, the ability to dock an armed spaceship to the station in case the crew needs prolonged space presence is a good ability.

A mod council sounds like a good idea, and I'd love to represent the FTO on it.

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:Alright. The weapons packages we will handle on our side, just get the hull and the modular packages working. I was thinking that the ship might be great to put the planned sonar system on and that is moving on towards completion this year, if you aren't against it.

Perfect. I might buy another one or two such ships myself, considering I might have to be moving stuff from one end of the continent to the other now. The ship hull and modular packages are already working by the way; I've had two Dampier ships active in the fleet for a few years now, so we could get cracking right away.

Ahhh, a brief stand-alone post to consider for Japanistan.

Coyote wrote:Ahhh, a brief stand-alone post to consider for Japanistan.

Where does it go from here?

The thing about Khitan is that it has not even so much as participated in world affairs since the last great war. At best it's a second world country, with a smaller economy than an Imperium but perhaps comparable to a Tsardom.

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:

Coyote wrote:Ahhh, a brief stand-alone post to consider for Japanistan.

Where does it go from here?

The thing about Khitan is that it has not even so much as participated in world affairs since the last great war. At best it's a second world country, with a smaller economy than an Imperium but perhaps comparable to a Tsardom.

I'd leave Khitan for the moment and work on securing the cooperation of the Egyptians. A mod council or whatever can determine if Japanistan's overtures are accepted or not (WRT Khitan).

Khitan wasn't even described all that well, to be honest.

BTW, one thing Japanistan could do in reaction to CATO is pulling out of the manned overflight agreement with FASTA countries, thus making test flights a royal pain.

PeZook wrote:Khitan wasn't even described all that well, to be honest.

BTW, one thing Japanistan could do in reaction to CATO is pulling out of the manned overflight agreement with FASTA countries, thus making test flights a royal pain.

Well, that means we have to move most of the flights to CSR or Comona. Or do we poke our thumb at them and see if they dare to fire off a missile at our rockets?

BTW PeZook, care to do a post on GLONASS sats?