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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:20 am
by Suederwind
A rogue human nation that started to build a spacefleet would come under immediate pressure to join into and abide by the TCA rules.
So, no North Korean space navy? ;) Jokes aside: how would the TCA react to such a threat?
they are sharply limited in size, number, and capability
Could you tell us a bit more about those limits? How many ships would a human superpower typically have, how big are they allowed to be, what kind of weapons would be allowed, et... ?
Are conflicts between sucht national space navies and the TCA usual and how are they resolved, if the happen?
Are civilian companies allowed to send FTL vessels for exploration or is that handled exclusively by the TCA?

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:54 am
by Arioch
Suederwind wrote:
A rogue human nation that started to build a spacefleet would come under immediate pressure to join into and abide by the TCA rules.
So, no North Korean space navy? ;) Jokes aside: how would the TCA react to such a threat?
Probably in a similar manner to that in which the United States and the international community has reacted to the development of nuclear weapons by North Korea and Iran: diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions, and the ultimate threat of force.

Fortunately, construction in orbit is impossible to conceal, and very vulnerable to attack. Unlike nuclear warhead development, that can be moved underground and dispersed.
Suederwind wrote:Could you tell us a bit more about those limits? How many ships would a human superpower typically have, how big are they allowed to be, what kind of weapons would be allowed, et... ?
They're police forces, not space navies, and the allocation is by system, not by nation. There is no "territory" in space around a multinational planet, and so any police force patrolling the space around a multinational planet must be multinational. There is no "American" space fleet. The United States is a participant in a multinational Earth-Mars system police force. How such a force is made up and controlled is a local matter, out of the jurisdiction of the TCA. In the Earth-Mars system, the police force is broken up into divisions based at each planet.

Police frigates are usually under 200m in length, and are limited in number according the amount of traffic that they have to regulate. The Earth-Mars system would obviously require a much larger police force than remote Esperanza.
Suederwind wrote:Are conflicts between sucht national space navies and the TCA usual
No. As with local police, county sheriffs, state police, state militia and federal military, there may be jurisdictional disputes, but there is almost never armed conflict. The potential for conflict in the early unregulated colonial period between the various competing colonial authorities and individual nations is what led to the formation of the TCA, and this treaty was successful in averting such conflict.
Suederwind wrote:Are civilian companies allowed to send FTL vessels for exploration or is that handled exclusively by the TCA?
All FTL spacecraft must be licensed through the TCA. Private exploration is possible, but it must be authorized. Exploration and colonization is a very expensive and dangerous proposition. Most such activity is done as a joint venture between individual actors and the Scout Corps. A sufficiently funded lone wolf entity might take vessels licensed for something else and use them for independent exploration or even colonization, but they would do so without the support of the TCA or any licensed shipping, and any fruits of such unauthorized exploration (such as territorial claims) would not be recognized by the international community.

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 5:36 pm
by Hālian
Shame on you for not allowing a grossly oversized United States Space Force. :P

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 9:00 pm
by RedDwarfIV
Carl Miller wrote:Shame on you for not allowing a grossly oversized United States Space Force. :P
Or a Royal Space Force, even if it's only job is defending the British Outerspace Territitory of Triton (we saw it first, it's ours).

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 1:21 am
by Hālian
*captures a loroi warship and renames it the USS Delaware*

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 10:39 pm
by Mr.Tucker
Would a TCA warship be more resilient to critical damage that would cause a reactor explosion, since they rely on fusion technology rather than Tamat (antimatter?) reactors? Would a Terran ship in Winter Tide 's situation catastrophically explode as well?

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 10:58 pm
by Arioch
A fusion reactor would most likely quit when damaged, but there still might be issues with fuel containment or lack of adequate cooling afterwards. However, any explosion would be a chemical explosion rather than a thermonuclear explosion.

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 4:55 am
by RedDwarfIV
That is one of the happy good points of fusion reactors. If you breach containment, the plasma cools, and fusion stops. They just don't explode.


Well, unless you' have a literal star-in-a-box type reactor, like the ones from Honor Harrington. But those require higher technology than we have, in the HH-verse case, gravity manipulation. Basically, when containment fails on a HH-verse fusion bottle, that means the gravity system keeping the 'star' small fails. Then the star goes big.

I imagine the reason they use that system is because they'd need high energy output to run the impeller drives.

But yeah, fusion reactors safe, antimatter reactors inherently unstable. Yet another reason why merchant vessels would be better off using fusion engines.

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 6:42 pm
by Mr.Tucker
RedDwarfIV wrote:Well, unless you' have a literal star-in-a-box type reactor, like the ones from Honor Harrington.
Interestingly enough, that description would match a polywell device very nicely. Though it would have none of the described dangerously unstable characteristics of the HH reactors. Just and interesting side-note :) . Now on to my question:
Mjolnir modules are noted as being power-hungry. They're fed off capacitor banks. Are those capacitor banks part of the module itself (which is what would make it modular in the first place; the vessel just supplies power) or are they the ships' own, regular, banks (with the module being just a BFG)?

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 8:49 pm
by Arioch
Mr.Tucker wrote:Mjolnir modules are noted as being power-hungry. They're fed off capacitor banks. Are those capacitor banks part of the module itself (which is what would make it modular in the first place; the vessel just supplies power) or are they the ships' own, regular, banks (with the module being just a BFG)?
The weapon has its own capacitors. I think this would be necessary to avoid overloading the energy transmission infrastructure of a ship that wasn't designed for it.

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 9:16 pm
by dragoongfa
TCA question:

Are the dress TCA uniforms we see at the prologue and at the flashback full dress uniforms (worn at official gatherings) or duty dress uniforms (worn when on duty)?

It's obvious that there are no rank insignia on them so I guess that they are duty uniforms. If so, do you have a preliminary concept for a full dress uniform?

Also will Alex have the opportunity to ask his 'hosts' for a uniform that resembles a TCA dress uniform? Despite his lack of respect for military protocol being solely in a work uniform in such a situation would bother a lot of officers, especially ones who went through a top notch military academy.

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 10:14 pm
by Arioch
dragoongfa wrote:Are the dress TCA uniforms we see at the prologue and at the flashback full dress uniforms (worn at official gatherings) or duty dress uniforms (worn when on duty)? It's obvious that there are no rank insignia on them so I guess that they are duty uniforms. If so, do you have a preliminary concept for a full dress uniform?
The Scout Corps dress uniform is that seen worn by Alex and the other junior officers in the flashback at the beginning of Chapter 2: it's just the duty uniform with the addition of a jacket and a dickie. It's possible that the Scout Corps might also have a "full-dress uniform" for more formal occasions, but it's not something that we'll see in the comic.

The Colonial Fleet uniforms are different, a bit snazzier and with ranks more prominently displayed. The Colonial Fleet dress uniform looks something like this.
dragoongfa wrote:Also will Alex have the opportunity to ask his 'hosts' for a uniform that resembles a TCA dress uniform? Despite his lack of respect for military protocol being solely in a work uniform in such a situation would bother a lot of officers, especially ones who went through a top notch military academy.
The eventual deterioration and replacement of Alex's only set of clothing is something that will be addressed.

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 10:37 am
by Grayhome
This has probably already been answered, but how long was it after the Bellarmine jumped into the system before it was fired upon?

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 11:42 am
by Sweforce
Arioch wrote: The eventual deterioration and replacement of Alex's only set of clothing is something that will be addressed.
The "artifacts" collected from the wrecked Bellarmine may actually include all he needs.

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 2:56 pm
by Zakharra
Sweforce wrote:
Arioch wrote: The eventual deterioration and replacement of Alex's only set of clothing is something that will be addressed.
The "artifacts" collected from the wrecked Bellarmine may actually include all he needs.

It would be very amusing if the clothing was clothes from the female crew members. In all likelihood though, there is likely a selection from male and female crew members. Whether it fits him will be something else and I can see the Loroi making him outfits that both fits him and matches his current outfit, as well as a dress uniform or three.

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 12:25 am
by kclcmdr
Has Alex yet to think or even inquire with his Lorei handler on whether his hosts had salvage any clothing or stuff from his starship other than his deceased comrades that were undoubtedly autopsied for any planted artifacts from their Umiask foes...?

He's got a more or less friendly face with him now that might help him out on a change of clothing...

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2015 10:56 pm
by Grayhome
What religion does Alex believe in?

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2015 6:34 am
by Arioch
kclcmdr wrote:Has Alex yet to think or even inquire with his Lorei handler on whether his hosts had salvage any clothing or stuff from his starship other than his deceased comrades that were undoubtedly autopsied for any planted artifacts from their Umiask foes...?
It hasn't yet made it to the top of his list of important items.
Grayhome wrote:What religion does Alex believe in?
Alex isn't religious.

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2015 3:21 am
by Grayhome
What causes jump sickness? Why are the Loroi and Barsam immune/resistant to it?

Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2015 7:32 am
by Arioch
Grayhome wrote:What causes jump sickness?
This is not well understood. The inertial damping field protects the passenger from the discomfort of the gravitational passage into hyperspace (which would be lethal without such protection), so it shouldn't be the same as motion sickness or space sickness, and yet it has similar symptoms and characteristics. It seems as though there is some quality to being in hyperspace, even for a short moment, that is distressing to the nervous system.
Grayhome wrote:Why are the Loroi and Barsam immune/resistant to it?
No one knows for certain, but it seems reasonable to infer that they are both descended from ancestors who did a lot of interstellar travel, and would benefit from such resistance.