2014 STGOD OOC Commentary Thread 1

[Siege]

I figured you'd do that . Also note that I just eyed the dimensions and what numbers of stuff would fit on a ship like that, so go easy on me there.

[TimothyC]

I figured you'd do that . Also note that I just eyed the dimensions and what numbers of stuff would fit on a ship like that, so go easy on me there.

I won't be too hard.

The truth is that the Admiralty does not know what they want exactly or what they can get fully funded in parliament, and that's why the RFP is so broad. I'm not sure how much the lack of focus is impacting the process would going to be picked up on by outside bidders, but there hints of it in the RFP.

Steve got it right - the Hawai'ians are looking to spend money (they've almost finished rebuilding the entire fleet over the last 10 years), and the replacement is one part major warship, one part prestige project.

[KlavoHunter]

I'm not exactly the Springsharpest ship designer out there, but I figure if the Komradistani offer includes LOTS of room for future systems growth - say, spaces for future railgun and laser systems - it should be an attractive offer.

Or am I already ripping off someone else's idea?

[Simon_Jester]

Umerians are going to make a boring offer, which I'm not quite ready to make yet.

[Skywalker_T-65]

If the Arcadian's submitted something (not a given as we are clear across the planet with different missions in mind), it would probably tilt more towards guns than missiles. That's just a given considering how Arcadian shipbuilders work.

Though it would be mildly amusing to have four different shipbuilders competing to be the 'official' response...hmm...

[Eternal_Freedom]

Orion is considereing making an offer, but I'm in the midst of writing a pub quiz today so writing up specs on a hypothetical warship that doesn't make sense to Orion isn't high on priorities (seriously, it's the displacement of a inter-war Treaty battleship, carries enough helicopters to put the real-world Royal Navy light carriers to shame, carries lots of missiles AND a gun system or two. Jeez."

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

The UOCSR will not be making an offer because it doesn't trust certain kapitalist nations with its technology.

(In any case, there is doubt there will be compatibility issues and monkey models will most certainly not fly)

[Simon_Jester]

Question:

Is anyone still working on plots that should logically take place in January? I ask because I would otherwise be just as happy to say 'set the clock forward' and advance to February...

Seriously, the nuclear reactor story is pretty well resolved, and has been sat on by the collective disaster response of the international community. The "AVALANCHE terrorists" story is not resolved, but hunting down a major international terrorist organization takes months or years anyway. Likewise the diplomatic stuff Thanas (and others) set in motion, and any planning for international space stations. For some of that, fast time progression is a blessing because it justifies us actually getting around to the cool parts (launching stuff into space, tracking down the last terrorist mastermind) before too much more time has passed.

The controversy over the killings in Orion might have some responses left in it, but it doesn't sound like anyone's doing anything extreme over it. A few more people might want to do the warship offer thing, but that's good through April anyway.

The only plot I can think of that is clearly not at all resolved and would logically be resolved by January 31, 2014 is the San Doradan mercenary raid... and maybe the (New) Britannian political issues.

If we have a few little things we can always backdate them, a la GODDAMN UNREAL TIME from the previous games but I'd rather get through the first month of game time in less than one months of IRL time...

One advantage of that is that as we progress the clock, people with other ideas about what interesting things can happen in the world are more encouraged. We might feel silly having all kinds of crazy stuff happening all over the place in the space of one month, but having a few interesting things happen that (directly or indirectly) result in several posts each per month is easier to arrange.

[Siege]

My stuff doesn't really rely on being chronologically synched with everything else. I don't mind advancing the timeline.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah, I'm fine with moving things along. The only things I'd have to do before we end January is the Liberation celebrations with Underwood and the weapons demo with Helix Industries, but we can always say that is happening in February, along with Chancellor Fischer's visit.

[Simon_Jester]

Also, individual events such as those can probably be backdated unless you intend anything nation-shaking to occur during them.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I can't speak for the Chencellor's visit, but the Liberation stuff will only be trade deals and anti-terrorist agreements, so those can definitely be backdated. The CHencellor thing is planned for February anyway.

[madd0ct0r]

I'm fine. Champa is wrapping up the inital emergency, and the broader resttlement challenge will rumble on for a few months. I never addressed Rheinland's UN and space agency proposal, but as a very minor power that shouldn't matter much. It'll come.

[KlavoHunter]

The UOCSR will not be making an offer because it doesn't trust certain kapitalist nations with its technology.

(In any case, there is doubt there will be compatibility issues and monkey models will most certainly not fly)

That is a worry, but let's face it: Our technology isn't appreciably better or worse than anyone else's.

Therefore the argument for Communists selling a capital ship to a dirty monarchy is... well, for one, navies have a habit of being absorbed by the people during a revolution.

And two, neither the Komradistani or UOCSR Navy is especially large or lavishly-funded. Getting to build an experimental next-generation capital ship on another nation's dime would be an invaluable experience for our own navies that we don't have to pay for. In fact, we'd be getting paid to do it!

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

The UOCSR will not be making an offer because it doesn't trust certain kapitalist nations with its technology.

(In any case, there is doubt there will be compatibility issues and monkey models will most certainly not fly)

That is a worry, but let's face it: Our technology isn't appreciably better or worse than anyone else's.

Therefore the argument for Communists selling a capital ship to a dirty monarchy is... well, for one, navies have a habit of being absorbed by the people during a revolution.

And two, neither the Komradistani or UOCSR Navy is especially large or lavishly-funded. Getting to build an experimental next-generation capital ship on another nation's dime would be an invaluable experience for our own navies that we don't have to pay for. In fact, we'd be getting paid to do it!

Well, the UOCSR declared some years ago to build a navy equal to Kapitalist nations, so we are in a midst of a build up over the next 15 years at least.

[Gill]

I'm fine. Champa is wrapping up the inital emergency, and the broader resttlement challenge will rumble on for a few months. I never addressed Rheinland's UN and space agency proposal, but as a very minor power that shouldn't matter much. It'll come.

We could always form a regional space program with neighboring powers, and even a modest series of cubesat launch vehicles would have very positive economic and defense implications. IE: Having the Belkan or Champan equivalent of KESTREL EYE would be tremendously helpful in multiple arenas, and getting guest spots on foreign space programs is doable.

[Skywalker_T-65]

I can't think of anything that would require being in January, so I'm fine with jumping forward.

[KlavoHunter]

Moving on to February? Oh dear. I do hope Fuso has decided to let my people go. Else sabers will be rattled...

[Simon_Jester]

Well, we won't know until Steve weighs in, and I'm not saying it should happen immediately.

Also, the issue of export controls on military technology is an interesting illustration of the difference between communism and Umerian technocracy, two states of affairs which are often similar in other respects.

[Steve]

I'm entirely in favor of February.

[Siege]

Oh, for future reference, Thunder Key has been used as a launch site for several decades. I imagine it's a popular and prominent rocket launch facility too given it's practically on the equator (it's in the northernmost of San Dorado's two Central Sea archipelago's), easily accessible by ship and Helix Highpoint are not politically difficult about third-party launches (as long as the payload stays up in space, that is).

In my mind the island has been in somewhat intensive use at least since its days as a coaling station in the 19th century, was extensively fortified during the Great War for fear of invasion (by either side), was chosen as a weapons test site in the sixties and developed into a rocket facility in the seventies and eighties. None of that was in any way knowable though so no big deal and uh... Maybe Colonel Sumner is new to the business .

This does bring up a question though: we don't have the ICBM threat looming over civilization in this world, so would it be standard to inform other nations of impending launches? On the one hand it kind of makes sense to do so... On the other hand, there's more opportunity for fun and chaos if there isn't.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah this is why I said "any scheduled," so I'm covered either way. If launches are announced, fine, if they aren't, I would imagine we'd be able to spot rockets on known launch pads in advance. And I figure that Sumner is less interested in history and is more focused on the future.

[Simon_Jester]

NO problem with OOC knowledge here. This is very much in keeping with exactly the sort of capabilities I'd expect Orion (and many other nations) to possess.

Now, spotting a rocket on a known pad before it launches is a hit-or-miss proposition unless you constantly task recon satellites or aircraft to monitor the pad and launch activities every few hours, which is kind of unnecessary work.

However, any nation with a competent economy and government would almost certainly maintain radar tracking stations in their own territory capable of monitoring rocket launches. For that matter, having good networks of tracking stations is a vital part of a nation's space launch infrastructure; you need them in order to know where rockets and satellites actually are, whether they're orbiting correctly, and to transmit instructions to them as they move around.

I would expect that most of the big players in the space launch industry (including Helix Highpoint) have some combination of land-based tracking stations and tracking ships to allow them to track launches and orbiting satellites. Smaller players may be sharing use of an internationally funded space tracking organization, and/or piggybacking off one of the big players.

Tracking ships may be more common in this setting, because we have several different countries that would want their own stations, and it's harder to find obliging allies to host stations on the other side of the world the way the US did with the tracking base at Woomera in Australia.

[Eternal_Freedom]

That's relieving to know.

Yeah, I would say we have a few tracking ships to supplement the Mt. Erebus radars (basically think Cobra Dane on steroids with it's own reactor to power it) and since our recon satellites aren't having to keep looking at missile fields, we keep an eye on satellite launch sites instead.

[Steve]

Cascadia launches from Baja. We'd rather launch further north, since Baja is closer to Klavostan, but the issue of being as close to the equator as possible comes into play.