|
A valid point. At least the connecting HPGs will know when the heartbeat signals are missed. Getting no dial tone is still a tip off, of a sort. I'm not saying they'll be able to run the HPGs as effectively as ComStar, or that there will be no problems. Just that they're a lot better off than the other IS houses were when they acquired HPGs. More knowledge is better than less (or no) knowledge.
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 21:48
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 13, 2024 04:53 |
|
|
Zaodai posted:HPGs work on magic technology where a stationary transmitter on the opposite side of a planet, on the far end of an orbit "behind" its sun, can still transmit to the same HPG. The actual HPGs are in space. They always have been. And they only ever communicate with a few neighbors within 30 light years, typically.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 21:49
|
|
|
Didn't we have a HPG discussion earlier in this thread, where the science behind is largely magic? Cause if you think about how difficult it would be to keep two dishes that are in separate star systems aligned ... it goes into 
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 21:50
|
|
|
If they only have to be roughly aligned, then its less of a problem. Also it might explain the problems with maximum range. "We can't send it any farther because we can't tell the pulse from background noise at those power levels, focusing the beam more is hard and also causes alignment problems, we haven't figured out how to make HPGs that can take more power without melting." "Also the invoicing module of the PBX tends to fry when we do that."
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 21:57
|
|
|
K-F reactions have a hard limit of 30 light years or so and can be aimed, remember that planets move in predictable orbits for the most part and thus you can predict where a station will be, and since hpgs only use tiny tiny holes in space rather than starship sized, you don't need to aim for a lagrange point to not get murdered brutally by angry physics for what you hath wrought.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 22:03
|
|
|
SIGSEGV posted:If they only have to be roughly aligned, then its less of a problem. Also it might explain the problems with maximum range. "We can't send it any farther because we can't tell the pulse from background noise at those power levels, focusing the beam more is hard and also causes alignment problems, we haven't figured out how to make HPGs that can take more power without melting." "Also the invoicing module of the PBX tends to fry when we do that." How much is "roughly"? If youre on Earth, and you have something pointed at Alpha Centauri, just a little bit of Earth's rotation is going to miss by over an AU* * Did not actually do the math.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 22:04
|
|
|
The idea is that the HPG is aimed at "roughly" the star system in question and the aiming is continuously adjusted because otherwise the rotation of the planet would do it in.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 22:14
|
|
|
AtomikKrab posted:K-F reactions have a hard limit of 30 light years or so and can be aimed, remember that planets move in predictable orbits for the most part and thus you can predict where a station will be, and since hpgs only use tiny tiny holes in space rather than starship sized, you don't need to aim for a lagrange point to not get murdered brutally by angry physics for what you hath wrought. Well, there was that one Star League jump ship crewed by fuckups and equipped with an experimental 50-light year K-F drive. Of course, it misjumped during the Exodus and didn't arrive at its destination until the 3060's...
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 22:33
|
|
|
The HPG network is basically a radio that teleports the signal to its destination before the signal expands out, so precision isn't required in most cases. For things like text and basic images, hitting the right solar system once is perfectly fine; start transmitting computer programs, however, and you either need to keep blasting a star system until the download finishes, or transmit with incredible precision with fewer blasts. The real 'value' of the network is that it can transmit large programs across the entire Inner Sphere reliably, but the Cappellans obviously don't need to worry about doing that, so the biggest difficulties of running the system aren't something they have to worry about. As always though, anything that involves FTL is going to clash with established science.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 22:46
|
|
|
PoptartsNinja posted:Who's up for some mercenary contract negotiations instead? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4Qcm24dxaA&t=39s
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 23:39
|
|
|
DatonKallandor posted:Of course it's entirely possible ComStar won't want to point their HPGs at the Capellans either - two can play the "upload a virus to your FTL network" game and the Clan science caste is probably at the top of their nasty tricks game. I'm guessing the Capellans have less than 10 Clan scientists of varying specialities. What they would have is what, a hundred or so Clan technicians? Clan technicians assigned to a second-line garrison Cluster, at that. They'll know how to maintain, repair, and operate the equipment, maybe insight into its construction, but I don't know how these guys are going to be at mixing it up with ROM's cybersabotage battalions. I mean, don't get me wrong, they could have a lot of tricks ComStar doesn't know about, but ROM's been bricking hard drives of smart people for centuries and probably haven't been standing still themselves. Just because they could conceivably be at a general technological disadvantage doesn't mean that they are disadvantaged when it comes to malware. It could just as easily be the Clanners who end up getting schooled.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 23:45
|
|
|
It may just be that one of the clan scientists they captured had Ideas about the future and had friends who thought the same and they all shared data and schematics Just If and that Just If came to happen to him, from then he just had to off-load bits of it to Cappelan scientists to sound like a genius.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 23:52
|
|
|
DatonKallandor posted:Of course it's entirely possible ComStar won't want to point their HPGs at the Capellans either - two can play the "upload a virus to your FTL network" game and the Clan science caste is probably at the top of their nasty tricks game. I didn't know I wanted this until now, but I really want the Capellans to make SpaceStuxnet now. Can you imagine how hosed everything would be if there was a virus out there designed to run silent until it finds certain hardware, like factory machinery, and then it begins to alter the operation of that machinery in subtle and hard to detect ways while reporting systems normal to the operators? "Ooops all your missiles are subtly broken and explode when being loaded into mechs because they get jostled too hard. Why are all you actuators terrible now, that's really odd. No, I'm not sure why you DI computer is doing that, it's factory fresh and should be fine." This could gently caress everyone so hard. It is the best idea. PTN do this, please. Or do it and have it fail hilariously, that would also be fantastic. E: If this happened it could be amazing. It subtly cripples the new star league and most of the successor states (not their existing assets, but anything new) and would be exactly the sort of devious master plan that could backfire terribly that I've come to expect from the Capellans. And it has the added bonus of being slow to spread because of the nature of the HPG system and makes ComStar interdiction just a tiny bit less awful because you are now less likely to get the virus, undermining the power of ComStar in a small and insidious way. It also gives the Capellans a trump card of sorts, but not so big a trump card that they can't gently caress it up terribly. Imagine a whole set of new DI computers that can ID Capellan units and just miss a lot more often when fighting them. Hell, they don't even need to align the networks for this, just send a commando team/some random dude with a SpaceUSBKey to a system outside of Capellan space and have him slap that fucker into a computer somewhere. Extra points if this person is a double agent, because that's basically how we think Stuxnet actually got where it needed to go in the real world. Air gapped networks don't mean poo poo if you can smuggle things in/out of the facility and have someone malicious or lazy and stupid that works there. Olothreutes fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Feb 9, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2016 23:52
|
|
|
Olothreutes posted:I didn't know I wanted this until now, but I really want the Capellans to make SpaceStuxnet now. Can you imagine how hosed everything would be if there was a virus out there designed to run silent until it finds certain hardware, like factory machinery, and then it begins to alter the operation of that machinery in subtle and hard to detect ways while reporting systems normal to the operators? "Ooops all your missiles are subtly broken and explode when being loaded into mechs because they get jostled too hard. Why are all you actuators terrible now, that's really odd. No, I'm not sure why you DI computer is doing that, it's factory fresh and should be fine." That's a much better way to get to the Dark Ages setting than the one they actually used.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 00:17
|
|
|
Servicio en Espanol posted:I'm guessing the Capellans have less than 10 Clan scientists of varying specialities. What they would have is what, a hundred or so Clan technicians? Clan technicians assigned to a second-line garrison Cluster, at that. They'll know how to maintain, repair, and operate the equipment, maybe insight into its construction, but I don't know how these guys are going to be at mixing it up with ROM's cybersabotage battalions. I mean, don't get me wrong, they could have a lot of tricks ComStar doesn't know about, but ROM's been bricking hard drives of smart people for centuries and probably haven't been standing still themselves. Just because they could conceivably be at a general technological disadvantage doesn't mean that they are disadvantaged when it comes to malware. It could just as easily be the Clanners who end up getting schooled. ROM hasn't been wiping systems and bricking smart people's hard drives. They've been bombing the facilities and shooting the people involved. They're basically Al Gore's Vice Presidential Action Rangers. [EDIT] "Murder isn't working, and that's all we're good at!" seems to very fitting when it comes to ROM. Eventually.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 00:21
|
|
|
PoptartsNinja posted:I've been having a heck of a time coming up with something worthy of a political vote after writing the state of the Inner Sphere fluff. You mean, they don't just walk up to a comstar terminal and browse available contracts?
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 00:36
|
|
|
Endomorphic posted:Negotiation is something like this, right? I'm keen. A bit more like this, actually: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZd6-t27fx8&t=329s
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 00:54
|
|
|
Zaodai posted:ROM hasn't been wiping systems and bricking smart people's hard drives. They've been bombing the facilities and shooting the people involved. Why are we presenting that as an "or" scenario? They brick your hard drive, crash your system, torch your lab, put a bullet in your head and then bomb the site on their way off-world.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 01:16
|
|
|
Defiance Industries posted:Why are we presenting that as an "or" scenario? They brick your hard drive, crash your system, torch your lab, put a bullet in your head and then bomb the site on their way off-world. The best part is that nobody ever figures it out. "What happened to our new research base?!" "Well, as best we can tell, there was a software bug. That caused the hard drives to fail, which made sparks that set the building on fire. The fire spread to the armory in the Security quarter, which exploded and simultaneously shot all the scientists in the head. Then the generators exploded, leveling the building." Seems legit.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 01:40
|
|
|
Well it happens every friday over more than a century and everyone with any understanding of statistics is dead it can start making sense. Or you can blame O5P / the Death Commandos / SAFE, somehow? / Loki / DMI for it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 01:47
|
|
|
Which one of the Intelligence agencies is supposed to be the best?
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 01:50
|
|
|
ROM is the best as far as actual intelligence gathering goes, and one of the best for randomly removing people. Death Commandos aren't so much an intelligence agency as they are general purpose murder men, but they do it well. The Draconis Combine has (or now had, I suppose) Space Ninjas, so they were pretty decent at the stealthy aspect of it. The bottom of the list is Clan intelligence agencies though. They'd have better luck just declaring a trial of possession for your secrets.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 02:08
|
|
|
Saint Celestine posted:Which one of the Intelligence agencies is supposed to be the best? O5P, then a toss-up between LOKI and DMI, followed by the Maskirovka, SAFE, whatever Rasalhague had, and finally the "we don't understand how anyone else thinks but this is how we interpret this via reading entrails and/or decapitating a chicken to see where its body falls" I mean the Watch. The Order of the Five Pillars had agents loving everywhere (sometimes literally). They're the only ones to successfully infiltrate ComStar. Edit: WITHOUT ComStar catching on. Double Edit: And got their agent into the First Circuit and eventually made Primus. Triple Edit: Subhash Indrahar is loving terrifying. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Feb 9, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 02:08
|
|
|
Never even heard of 05P. Wiki says they have their own space marines and their own jump fleet? That can't be normal?
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 02:14
|
|
|
Zaodai posted:The best part is that nobody ever figures it out. It's like in Sword of the Stars, how boosting your research into alien languages can cause your science lab to explode. Saint Celestine posted:Never even heard of 05P. Wiki says they have their own space marines and their own jump fleet? That can't be normal? http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Order_of_Five_Pillars It's... weird. Basically Siriwan Kurita raised the O5P's profile big time when she was in charge because she didn't trust the ISF at all and it's been a thing ever since. Defiance Industries fucked around with this message at 02:21 on Feb 9, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 02:17
|
|
|
They're not a House Intel Agency, but the Wolf's Dragoons (in the OTL) should count as an Intelligence Agency in the "Competent or Higher" category.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 02:26
|
|
|
berryjon posted:They're not a House Intel Agency, but the Wolf's Dragoons (in the OTL) should count as an Intelligence Agency in the "Competent or Higher" category. Until they went native, anyway.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 02:28
|
|
|
Defiance Industries posted:It's like in Sword of the Stars, how boosting your research into alien languages can cause your science lab to explode. My Queeeeen! Inflammable means flammable!
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 02:29
|
|
|
Defiance Industries posted:It's like in Sword of the Stars, how boosting your research into alien languages can cause your science lab to explode. Today, we discovered that someone in intelligence decided it was a good idea to have their high end warship computers self-destruct when they detect spoken Tarkan. Unfortunately our linguistics lab used one of said computers for its processing needs. We need a new lab now. Remmon fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Feb 9, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 02:32
|
|
|
Also more processors and starship parts. Enough to build about 30 Dreadnaughts. And, yes, we need all these by friday. Yes, AI command on each and every one of these.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 02:38
|
|
|
Defiance Industries posted:http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Order_of_Five_Pillars ISF is the FBI. They're good at what they do but when they get loud they get loud. O5P is like the CIA with Geishas.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 03:23
|
|
|
PoptartsNinja posted:O5P is like the CIA with Geishas. I thought we were talking about O5P being -good-. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 03:40
|
|
|
berryjon posted:They're not a House Intel Agency, but the Wolf's Dragoons (in the OTL) should count as an Intelligence Agency in the "Competent or Higher" category. Yeah but it's extremely stupid that they have that capability so I'm willing to ignore it. Like, I'm willing to buy that they were able to keep people from tapping their comms because duh, they have Clantech which means they have an actual ECM and poo poo. But having them be so incredibly loving good at infiltration that they're on ROM's level when they come from a society that has no use for it whatsoever?
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 03:41
|
|
|
Defiance Industries posted:Yeah but it's extremely stupid that they have that capability so I'm willing to ignore it. Like, I'm willing to buy that they were able to keep people from tapping their comms because duh, they have Clantech which means they have an actual ECM and poo poo. But having them be so incredibly loving good at infiltration that they're on ROM's level when they come from a society that has no use for it whatsoever? On the other hand, it's not a high bar they have to pass. They're a LosTech Merc Company, not spies from beyond the Outer Sphere. I can buy them being that good simply because most of their targets simply underestimated them.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 03:46
|
|
|
Pussy Cartel posted:I thought we were talking about O5P being -good-. They are. They sleep their way to knowledge because OpSec is something that medieval knights don't understand.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 03:59
|
|
|
berryjon posted:On the other hand, it's not a high bar they have to pass. They're a LosTech Merc Company, not spies from beyond the Outer Sphere. I can buy them being that good simply because most of their targets simply underestimated them. But the Houses were putting them at the top of their priority lists. Literally everyone in the Inner Sphere was gunning for them. That's not how underestimation works I think.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 04:04
|
|
|
Defiance Industries posted:having them be so incredibly loving good at infiltration that they're on ROM's level when they come from a society that has no use for it whatsoever? I always wondered what FASA's what-became-the-Clans society concept might've originally looked like. Wolves on the Border laid out that the Dragoons were strange outsiders with their own culture and customs, sure. Maybe in that concept instead of the Clans being pants-on-head retarded in intelligence and special operations, they were just a weird recluse SLDF in Exile that decided to sprinkle some corrupted Hebrew words in their official meeting speeches but maintained institutional knowledge of intel gathering and all that, and that's the version that Wolves on the Border was rolling with.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 06:19
|
|
|
Technically, Wolf's Dragoons were spies, just for the Clans. The fact that they were so good at it, though, can probably be chalked up to being one of those writer-favored groups who tended to hold the protagonist ball more often than not. In the Dark Ages they're "just" an elite mercenary group, but considering the hits the mercenary industry took post-Jihad, including the whiteout that kicked off the dark age, it would've been impossible for them to completely recover from the fall of Outreach.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 06:44
|
|
|
Grizzwold posted:As long as one of those negotiators is named Roger Smith I'd say go for it. Rorahusky posted:Please tell me he negotiates with a 100-ton Battlemech armed with dual Pilebunkers. Zebulon posted:A bit more like this, actually: BIG O, SHOWTIME! Oh man, nostalgia bomb right there. I would love it if he showed up. PTN has already stuck a bunch of animu references in this LP (Sergeant Weber and SSgt. Mao in the Duchy of New Syrtis split mission post Taurian nuking, anyone? Rick Hunter in the Wolfhound back on Somerset? Whatever happened to that dude anyway? Wasn't he taken bondsman along with Caesar and Lieutenant Sam Clover, which is why Muk still can't use contractions here when they post in this thread?), what's one more? GhostStalker fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Feb 9, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 07:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 13, 2024 04:53 |
|
|
Defiance Industries posted:But the Houses were putting them at the top of their priority lists. Literally everyone in the Inner Sphere was gunning for them. That's not how underestimation works I think. Mercenaries with pristine SLDF mechs and their own private space station/mech factory? No reason for anyone important to pay any attention to those guys
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2016 07:18
|
|