1.) Originally, we were going to have much commerce using Jumpgates to enter / exit Hyper, vs. having to use their own drives. Has this been changed? I ask because the structure of the Commonwealth, among others, varies extenively depending whether they can send small ships quickly from point to point or not.

2.) I don't have the extensive familiarity with Gunmm / Battle Angel Alita that I'd like, alas, but even a brief contemplation of her abilities indicates that she, in -s-p-i-r-a-l- terms, has a "Super-Martial-Arts" ESPability. Are we using the convention that extensive borging shuts down ESPer powers and that this would be considered to be highly unusual, or not?

3.) Is there any objection to my reducing, slightly, the sizes of the various Centauri-Sector baseline cruisers so that the performance disparities between them, what's reasonable, and a Taiidani D-class Impstar is less ... extreme?

4.) Much cross-Galactic trade traffic is going to consist of luxuries / entertainment. Beyond the obvious (nobody gets the local delicacies even _remotely_ right; Taiidani Tri-vids lack any slightest trace of grace or subtlety; Commonwealth gaming consoles set the standard, but the best RPGs come out of Juraii), does anyone want to suggest any fluff points in this area? Or serious points, for that matter?

5.) The HPG network obviously allows for _some_ interstellar data transfer, but what kind of a real Internet / SysInstruum would it be good to have?

6.) "Canonically", if that matters anymore, of the Bab5 "younger" races only the Mimbarii and the Brakiri have Grav-drives. Oh, and the Vree. Have we changed this for a reason, and, if so, which reason was it?

7.) If I was to try to gin up a "mercenary" unit, assuming I had access to the Black Market and effectively unlimited cash, but no access to Intelligence resources, what kind of stuff could I come up with, _without_ getting everybodies Intelligence forces immediately up my butt?
Taiidani Power Crystals? Taiidani esper-boxes? Juraiian bio-tech? A tree-ship? A Brain-ship? Silesian Grav-drive ships? Who _exports_ weapons systems? What story issues am I missing, here?

Eric Hallstrom, Speaker-to-Dreamworlds
--
<shodan> New Soylent Clear(tm)! Because People Are Bad For You(tm)!

>1.) Originally, we were going to have much commerce using Jumpgates to enter / exit Hyper, vs. having to use their own drives. Has this been changed? I ask because the structure of the Commonwealth, among others, varies extenively depending whether they can send small ships quickly from point to point or not.<

Any of the 'hundred thousand', the significant systems of the galaxy, will have a jump gate. Jump gates, while bloody huge, utterly immobile and terribly expensive, are also much more efficient than ship-mounted jumpdrives.

The military emphasis on jump capable starships has more to do with flexibility and independance than speed of motion.

>2.) I don't have the extensive familiarity with Gunmm / Battle Angel Alita that I'd like, alas, but even a brief contemplation of her abilities indicates that she, in -s-p-i-r-a-l- terms, has a "Super-Martial-Arts" ESPability. Are we using the convention that extensive borging shuts down ESPer powers and that this would be considered to be highly unusual, or not?<

Depends on the sophistication of the borging. The cruder the prosthetic, the more likely interference becomes.

>3.) Is there any objection to my reducing, slightly, the sizes of the various Centauri-Sector baseline cruisers so that the performance disparities between them, what's reasonable, and a Taiidani D-class Impstar is less ... extreme?<

Que? More specific, please, about both problem and solution.

>4.) Much cross-Galactic trade traffic is going to consist of luxuries / entertainment. Beyond the obvious (nobody gets the local delicacies even _remotely_ right; Taiidani Tri-vids lack any slightest trace of grace or subtlety; Commonwealth gaming consoles set the standard, but the best RPGs come out of Juraii), does anyone want to suggest any fluff points in this area? Or serious points, for that matter?<

The Narn concept of popular entertainment evolved out of the local version of opera. If you can accquire the taste, it's actually not half bad.

If.

>5.) The HPG network obviously allows for _some_ interstellar data transfer, but what kind of a real Internet / SysInstruum would it be good to have?<

Depends where you are. The Taiidani espercomm concept wins them a lot more bandwidth than is usual - enough for real threevee, and an integrated datanet.

The Centauri and Juraiian sectors have enough bandwidth from their transmitters for the equivalent of a couple of 2D cable channels. Generally, this is split about half and half between video transmissions and netlinks.

>6.) "Canonically", if that matters anymore, of the Bab5 "younger" races only the Mimbarii and the Brakiri have Grav-drives. Oh, and the Vree. Have we changed this for a reason, and, if so, which reason was it?<

My understanding: The Mimbari and the Vree have full gravtech. The Centauri have enough to generate artificial gravity and reduce the inertia of their ships. Nobody else has jack, including the Brakiri.

Brakiri and Narn ships look snazzy and impressive because they were designed to look snazzy and impressive, although for slightly different reasons.

>7.) If I was to try to gin up a "mercenary" unit, assuming I had access to the Black Market and effectively unlimited cash, but no access to Intelligence resources, what kind of stuff could I come up with, _without_ getting everybodies Intelligence forces immediately up my butt?
Taiidani Power Crystals? Taiidani esper-boxes? Juraiian bio-tech? A tree-ship? A Brain-ship? Silesian Grav-drive ships? Who _exports_ weapons systems? What story issues am I missing, here?<

Anything having to do with a Juraiian type gravdrive is going to be top secret. Likewise, well, pretty much anything Juraiian. Their foreign policy almost resembles Tokugawa Japan, at times. What can be found is both innocuous and pretty black boxy - no clues as to operational principles.

With enough money, you can get pretty much anything Taiidani or Silesian made, no questions asked. Likewise most things Cameronian.

Brainships will have to be dealt with, convinced and hired like normal people. Keep in mind that any brainship that's -not- actively working in a military role will be unarmed.

Minovskis are TOP SECRET. Pre almagation stingships/exos might be found, if you were willing to look hard, but you'd better have a good excuse.

Blessed be.
-n

>7.) If I was to try to gin up a "mercenary" unit, assuming I had access to the Black Market and effectively unlimited cash, but no access to Intelligence resources, what kind of stuff could I come up with, _without_ getting everybodies Intelligence forces immediately up my butt?
Taiidani Power Crystals? Taiidani esper-boxes? Juraiian bio-tech? A tree-ship? A Brain-ship? Silesian Grav-drive ships? Who _exports_ weapons systems? What story issues am I missing, here?<

The Andermanni will sell miltech equivalent to Havenite standard issue provided they have deniability (an end-user certificate from an accomodating but legitimate power, stating that yes, the goods are being purchased for their use, honest guv, usually costs 5-10% of the goods).

The Rishatan won't deal illegally in ANYTHING (they're really boring about some stuff) and the Quarn WILL deal in anything (but don't EVER try to cheat them). The Khanate will deal in ground equipment but not naval stuff since they NEED all their production domestically and their Quartermasters are being draconian about missing shipments.

Inside the cluster, the GalEmp just dumped a lot of fairly decent stuff (nothing fancy, but they weren't fussy at all about buyers) but none of their new stuff. Power Armour and small arms are a normal export and they're actually on par with the rimward parts of the Sector! The NEC regulated shipping too closely to sell (and they prefer to continually upgrade rather than sell off). Nueva Terra, on the other hand, will build you anything they produce routinely for their fleet as long as you're prepared to pay up front and habitually sell their decommissioned ships off to the highest bidder. You WILL get solid reliable equipment but it's not going to be bleeding edge in most respects and if you don't collect promptly that the Unified Fleet may 'borrow' it if they're short of ships - in which case you'll have to wait for them to build a replacement (It's only happened three times and they always make it good).

drakensis

A Toast to the Federated Commonwealth! Conceived 3022, born 3055, shot 3057, expired 3067.

>The Andermanni will sell miltech equivalent to Havenite
>standard issue provided they have deniability (an
>end-user certificate from an accomodating but legitimate
>power, stating that yes, the goods are being purchased
>for their use, honest guv, usually costs 5-10% of the
>goods).

Or, of course, you could just hook up with a Silesian "Planetary Governor". Ahem.

>The Rishatan won't deal illegally in ANYTHING
>(they're really boring about some stuff) and the Quarn
>WILL deal in anything (but don't EVER try to cheat
>them). The Khanate will deal in ground equipment but
>not naval stuff since they NEED all their production
>domestically and their Quartermasters are being
>draconian about missing shipments.

Which brings up an interesting question: what Tech can the above polities bring to bear, given that the Tech base of their home Fictons is _violently_ opposed to spiral standard?

>Inside the cluster, the GalEmp just dumped a lot of fairly
>decent stuff (nothing fancy, but they weren't fussy at all
>about buyers) but none of their new stuff. Power
>Armour and small arms are a normal export and they're
>actually on par with the rimward parts of the Sector!
>The NEC regulated shipping too closely to sell (and
>they prefer to continually upgrade rather than sell off).
>Nueva Terra, on the other hand, will build you anything
>they produce routinely for their fleet as long as you're
>prepared to pay up front and habitually sell their
>decommissioned ships off to the highest bidder. You
>WILL get solid reliable equipment but it's not going to
>be bleeding edge in most respects and if you don't
>collect promptly that the Unified Fleet may 'borrow' it if
>they're short of ships - in which case you'll have to wait
>for them to build a replacement (It's only happened
>three times and they always make it good).

This is all "standard" technology from Heavy Gear, for the most part, right?

Eric Hallstrom, Speaker-to-Dreamworlds
--
I remember back when computers were annoying because they did what you
told them to do regardless of your actual wishes.
-J.D. Baldwin, pining for the Golden Days of Yore, sdm

>The Andermanni will sell miltech equivalent to Havenite
>standard issue provided they have deniability (an
>end-user certificate from an accomodating but legitimate
>power, stating that yes, the goods are being purchased
>for their use, honest guv, usually costs 5-10% of the
>goods).
>
>Or, of course, you could just hook up with a
>Silesian "Planetary Governor". Ahem.

True. Generally the Andermanni sell stuff that's a _little_ better than Silesia and charge proportionally more. You get what you pay for.

>The Rishatan won't deal illegally in ANYTHING
>(they're really boring about some stuff) and the Quarn
>WILL deal in anything (but don't EVER try to cheat
>them). The Khanate will deal in ground equipment but
>not naval stuff since they NEED all their production
>domestically and their Quartermasters are being
>draconian about missing shipments.
>
>Which brings up an interesting question: what Tech
>can the above polities bring to bear, given that the
>Tech base of their home Fictons is _violently_
>opposed to spiral standard?

The former two have fairly standard ship systems (which doesn't change too much of their feel IMHO) but better AIs and cybertech. They have interstellar capable drones (although they're godawfully expensive, so courier boats are not out of business). The latter are similar, except for their slight edge in fighter craft (most of the major polities in the sector don't make much use of deepsace fighter - minor powers are more favourable and the Khanate are fanatical about them).


>Inside the cluster, the GalEmp just dumped a lot of fairly
>decent stuff (nothing fancy, but they weren't fussy at all
>about buyers) but none of their new stuff. Power
>Armour and small arms are a normal export and they're
>actually on par with the rimward parts of the Sector!
>The NEC regulated shipping too closely to sell (and
>they prefer to continually upgrade rather than sell off).
>Nueva Terra, on the other hand, will build you anything
>they produce routinely for their fleet as long as you're
>prepared to pay up front and habitually sell their
>decommissioned ships off to the highest bidder. You
>WILL get solid reliable equipment but it's not going to
>be bleeding edge in most respects and if you don't
>collect promptly that the Unified Fleet may 'borrow' it if
>they're short of ships - in which case you'll have to wait
>for them to build a replacement (It's only happened
>three times and they always make it good).

>This is all "standard" technology from Heavy Gear, >for the most part, right?

Yes and no. Nueva Terra & the NEC are sort of Heavy Gear plus a century of development. The GalEmpire are transitioning from being around 'Tenchi Muyo! Galactic Police' level to third- or fourth-rate Jurai style technology (no match for Jurai but worrying for their neighbours).

drakensis

A Toast to the Federated Commonwealth! Conceived 3022, born 3055, shot 3057, expired 3067.

>>1.) Originally, we were going to have much commerce
>>using Jumpgates to enter / exit Hyper, vs. having to use
>>their own drives. Has this been changed? I ask because
>>the structure of the Commonwealth, among others,
>>varies extenively depending whether they can send small
>>ships quickly from point to point or not.<
>Any of the 'hundred thousand', the significant systems of
>the galaxy, will have a jump gate. Jump gates, while
>bloody huge, utterly immobile and terribly expensive,
>are also much more efficient than ship-mounted
>jumpdrives.

Okeh. This is what I _thought_ we were doing, but one of your comments over in the Spacing GUild thread on Teleporters made me a bit confused.

>>2.) I don't have the extensive familiarity with Gunmm /
>>Battle Angel Alita that I'd like, alas, but even a brief
>>contemplation of her abilities indicates that she, in
>>-s-p-i-r-a-l- terms, has a "Super-Martial-Arts"
>>ESPability. Are we using the convention that extensive
>>borging shuts down ESPer powers and that this would
>>be considered to be highly unusual, or not?<
>Depends on the sophistication of the borging. The
>cruder the prosthetic, the more likely interference
>becomes.

Okay, fine by me.

>>3.) Is there any objection to my reducing, slightly, the
>>sizes of the various Centauri-Sector baseline cruisers so
>>that the performance disparities between them, what's
>>reasonable, and a Taiidani D-class Impstar is less ...
>>extreme?<
>Que? More specific, please, about both problem and
>solution.

Well: If we take a D-class as a base-line, we have something plasma-drive powered (hence needing large quantities of re-mass) which carries 48 fighters (albeit small ones) and a significant secondary "utility" craft contingent (including the capability to pull smaller "jump-capable" starships into it's ventral bay), and mounts a _broadside_ of 32 "Capital" class energy weapons (4 turrets of 8 turbo-lasers each) and somewhere around 30 - 50 secondary "Dual Purpose" energy lasers each. Plus smaller interceptors, to taste.

Now, in comparison, a Mimbari Sharlinn is about the same size, carries only 15 fighters, and four shuttles ("Flyers") and has a _total_ armament of 36 "Capital" class weapons and 48 "DP" class weapons, just a bit more than half a D-classes rate. It also carries no shields, and needs no remass tanks. Worse, the data-source for the "36 Capital, 48 DP" rate is suspect: the most "official" source of data I have, (which is, unfortunately enough, the "Babylon 5 Wars Ships of the Fleet book) lists no more than 4 Capital weapons and 18 DP class, although it does credit a Sharlin with carrying 24 Nialls.

Taken separately, neither set of data really bother me, but when you have to jam them together, there is the possibility of ... conflict, shall we say.

What I'd like to do is to make the standard Centaurii sector Cruiser weigh in at around 800 meters long. This would nicely resolve all the problems and fit in better with the Jovian Chronicles era Capships, which tended twards the 3-500 m range.

>>5.) The HPG network obviously allows for _some_
>>interstellar data transfer, but what kind of a real Internet
>>/ SysInstruum would it be good to have?<
>Depends where you are. The Taiidani espercomm
>concept wins them a lot more bandwidth than is usual -
>enough for real threevee, and an integrated datanet.

If you can get over the ickyness, anyway. But I'll bet it's mostly confined to the Taiidani military.

>The Centauri and Juraiian sectors have enough
>bandwidth from their transmitters for the equivalent of a
>couple of 2D cable channels. Generally, this is split
>about half and half between video transmissions and
>netlinks.

Okay.
>>6.) "Canonically", if that matters anymore, of the Bab5
>>"younger" races only the Mimbarii and the Brakiri have
>>Grav-drives. Oh, and the Vree. Have we changed this
>>for a reason, and, if so, which reason was it?<
>My understanding: The Mimbari and the Vree have full
>gravtech. The Centauri have enough to generate artificial
>gravity and reduce the inertia of their ships. Nobody
>else has jack, including the Brakiri.

My understanding (again, based on the supposedly "canonical" Bab5Wars, is that the Brakiri are also a full-gravtech race. Otherwise as above.

>Brakiri and Narn ships look snazzy and impressive
>because they were designed to look snazzy and
>impressive, although for slightly different reasons.

Certainly true of the Narn, in any event.

>>7.) If I was to try to gin up a "mercenary" unit,
>>assuming I had access to the Black Market and
>>effectively unlimited cash, but no access to Intelligence
>>resources, what kind of stuff could I come up with,
>>_without_ getting everybodies Intelligence forces
>>immediately up my butt?
>Anything having to do with a Juraiian type gravdrive is
>going to be top secret. Likewise, well, pretty much
>anything Juraiian. Their foreign policy almost resembles
>Tokugawa Japan, at times. What can be found is both
>innocuous and pretty black boxy - no clues as to
>operational principles.

My real question here was: if I made contact with a Tree-ship captain who wanted to join a mercenary force, would this get Misaki pissed off at me?

>With enough money, you can get pretty much anything
>Taiidani or Silesian made, no questions asked. Likewise
>most things Cameronian.

I'd figured that.

>Brainships will have to be dealt with, convinced and
>hired like normal people. Keep in mind that any
>brainship that's -not- actively working in a military role
>will be unarmed.

Well, relatively unarmed, considering the rather leniant Commonwealth weapons laws, anyway.

>Minovskis are TOP SECRET.

Not exactly true: Minovsky tech is pretty black-box, and the state of Galactic Reverse Engineering ability is low. There are a _lot_ of "second-line" and "first-generation" installations floating around in COmmonwaelth space and in the service of the "National" governments, and while these are supposed to be "downrated" before they leave Commonwealth hands, well ... accidents happen, y'know?



Eric Hallstrom, Speaker-to-Dreamworlds
--
I remember back when computers were annoying because they did what you
told them to do regardless of your actual wishes.
-J.D. Baldwin, pining for the Golden Days of Yore, sdm

>Okeh. This is what I _thought_ we were doing, but one of your comments over in the Spacing GUild thread on Teleporters made me a bit confused.<

Possibly arising out of the fact that the Guild and the Jurai are the only ones with access to QII.

>Que? More specific, please, about both problem and
>solution.

>Well: If we take a D-class as a base-line, we have something plasma-drive powered (hence needing large quantities of re-mass) which carries 48 fighters (albeit small ones) and a significant secondary "utility" craft contingent (including the capability to pull smaller "jump-capable" starships into it's ventral bay), and mounts a _broadside_ of 32 "Capital" class energy weapons (4 turrets of 8 turbo-lasers each) and somewhere around 30 - 50 secondary "Dual Purpose" energy lasers each. Plus smaller interceptors, to taste.<

That's what shields are for - Taiidani design doesn't really make use of the interceptor concept. They tend to go for the bigger hammer.

>Taken separately, neither set of data really bother me, but when you have to jam them together, there is the possibility of ... conflict, shall we say.<

Granted. However, there's a point to consider: power.

A D-class has massive but not infinite energy reserves, and once they're depleted it loses all of its shields and most of its firepower. A Sharlin, on the other hand, simply pulls whatever power it needs out of its reactor. It can't put out as much at one time, but there's a definite advantage in long engagements.

This is slightly balanced by the fact that its interceptor batteries will often be forced fire thousands upon thousands of 'rounds' during such an engagement, and will often need replacement or maintenence afterwards... if they don't just -fail- outright.

Also consider that there can be a definite variation in the power assigned to a capital weapon. A single shot from one of a D's heavy tubes will put a good sized dent in just about any ship in the sky. During the time it takes that weapon to recharge, a Sharlin's neutron laser could carve that same target ship almost in half. An Omega's primary battery, in pulse mode, has about the same per-shot yield - and a cyclic rate measured in hundreds of rounds per minute.

>What I'd like to do is to make the standard Centaurii sector Cruiser weigh in at around 800 meters long. This would nicely resolve all the problems and fit in better with the Jovian Chronicles era Capships, which tended twards the 3-500 m range.<

This works too. Other opinions?

>If you can get over the ickyness, anyway. But I'll bet it's mostly confined to the Taiidani military.<

The HOLOnet, to our SW fans.

>My understanding (again, based on the supposedly "canonical" Bab5Wars, is that the Brakiri are also a full-gravtech race. Otherwise as above.<

http://www.b5tech.com/league/leagueships/avioki/avioki.html

http://www.b5tech.com/league/leagueraces/brakirirace/brakirirace.html

Either way, it's a minor point. 2nd opinions?

>Brakiri and Narn ships look snazzy and impressive
>because they were designed to look snazzy and
>impressive, although for slightly different reasons.

>Certainly true of the Narn, in any event.<

Because no one would take them seriously if they flew around in these great ugly kludges, would they?

>My real question here was: if I made contact with a Tree-ship captain who wanted to join a mercenary force, would this get Misaki pissed off at me?<

Given that Misaki has more to do with the GDF (Ground Deployment Forces) than IEI, almost certainly not. On the other hand, Admiral Eschedez (an aggressively competent fellow who got his start as an officer in a Demense Security Force) and Queen Funaho would be rather interested.

Not neccessarily enough so to do anything about it, as long as he didn't act against the Empire, but they'd be watching.

>Well, relatively unarmed, considering the rather leniant Commonwealth weapons laws, anyway.<

There's that. It'll be galstandard stuff.

>Minovskis are TOP SECRET.

>Not exactly true: Minovsky tech is pretty black-box, and the state of Galactic Reverse Engineering ability is low. There are a _lot_ of "second-line" and "first-generation" installations floating around in COmmonwaelth space and in the service of the "National" governments, and while these are supposed to be "downrated" before they leave Commonwealth hands, well ... accidents happen, y'know?<

They also get noticed when you use them. Attract attention, and like that.

Blessed be.
-n

>7.) If I was to try to gin up a "mercenary" unit, >assuming I had access to the Black Market and >effectively unlimited cash, but no access to >Intelligence resources, what kind of stuff could I >come up with, _without_ getting everybodies >Intelligence forces immediately up my butt?
>Taiidani Power Crystals? Taiidani esper-boxes? >Juraiian bio-tech? A tree-ship? A Brain-ship? >Silesian Grav-drive ships? Who _exports_ weapons >systems? What story issues am I missing, here?

When a Shellperson graduates and gets their first assignment/installation (be it spacecraft, spacestation, or surface complex) they get a large debt that they have to work off (covers the medical/training/technological costs in their childhood). Shellpeople are well paid and usually pay off the debt within a span of several years. beyond that they can use their pay however they wish.

Shellpersons start off with acontract for set length of time (usually a certain number of years), with the shellperson arranging new contracts at the end of each if the wish to do so.

A shellperson who has cleared their debt is essentially a freeagent/skilled-tradesperson.