Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

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Jakelope13
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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by Jakelope13 »

Arioch wrote:A military vessel would have a protected internal CIC in addition to the windowed bridge, like real naval warships do today. The reason the Terran vessels don't have elaborate projected displays like the Loroi is to emphasize both the relative difference in technology between them and the Spartan accommodations of the Terran vessels.
Since the TCA is commissioning a new Battlecruiser-type vessel, would it come equipped with a Flag deck for an admiral? Or do other ships have a flag deck?

Actually, how many admirals are there in the Terran Colonial Fleet that started within it? Or are the majority of admirals in the Fleet drawn from the navies of the TCA's member nations?

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Jakelope13 wrote:Since the TCA is commissioning a new Battlecruiser-type vessel, would it come equipped with a Flag deck for an admiral? Or do other ships have a flag deck?
All of the heavy cruisers have flag facilities, but whether this would be a separate bridge or deck is not clear.
Jakelope13 wrote:Actually, how many admirals are there in the Terran Colonial Fleet that started within it? Or are the majority of admirals in the Fleet drawn from the navies of the TCA's member nations?
It's probably a significant number. I'm always suprised how many admirals the US Navy has; it's almost as many admirals as it has active-duty vessels (one count says 216 admirals to 285 vessels).

The TCA members nations don't have military space fleets to draw admirals from. As I mentioned above, I don't think there would be rules against hiring free agents from other services, but I think in most cases the military prefers to promote its own people.

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Gudo
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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by Gudo »

Arioch wrote:
Jakelope13 wrote:Actually, how many admirals are there in the Terran Colonial Fleet that started within it? Or are the majority of admirals in the Fleet drawn from the navies of the TCA's member nations?
It's probably a significant number. I'm always suprised how many admirals the US Navy has; it's almost as many admirals as it has active-duty vessels (one count says 216 admirals to 285 vessels).
That's because the Navy has alot more than just ships. There are admirals for Navy Air Forces, submarines, Navy installations, special forces, intel services, etc. The Chief of Chaplains is a two-star. Then there's the strategic, over-all pentagon staff admirals too. But when you look at actual "surface" admrials, there's something closer to 6 or so ships per admiral.

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

It makes sense logically when you consider the size of the organization; it's just one of those perception things that seems surprising.

Jakelope13
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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

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How large are the UAV fighters that the TCA use? Are they deployed from a ship's shuttle bays, or are there UAV hardpoints on the hull of the ship, so when the drones launch, they detach themselves from the hull? Or are the UAVs used more akin to a reconnaissance drone, sneaking into enemy formations and gathering data for its mothership to use?

For that matter, what kind of weapons would the drones use in combat? Lasers, missiles, mass-drivers? I'd imagine that they'd have to refuel a few number of times during combat, even more so when using mass-driver cannons.

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Jakelope13 wrote:How large are the UAV fighters that the TCA use? Are they deployed from a ship's shuttle bays, or are there UAV hardpoints on the hull of the ship, so when the drones launch, they detach themselves from the hull? Or are the UAVs used more akin to a reconnaissance drone, sneaking into enemy formations and gathering data for its mothership to use?

For that matter, what kind of weapons would the drones use in combat? Lasers, missiles, mass-drivers? I'd imagine that they'd have to refuel a few number of times during combat, even more so when using mass-driver cannons.
The defense drones are deployed aboard a few large space stations for emergency defense against small craft and missiles. They are typically launched from hangar bays. They are not deployed aboard any ships, though there's no reason they couldn't be if it was decided that they would be useful. They are armed with laser cannon, and there are options to arm them with missiles.

I don't think such drones would be useful for recon, as in space you can usually see the enemy just as well from half a million kilometers away as you can from ten thousand kilometers away. Unless the enemy hides out of line-of-sight, but then your drone has to go out of line-of-sight too, and you won't be able to communicate with it. Unless you have a relay, in which case you'd be using the relay for recon instead of sending a drone...

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

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Arioch wrote:I don't think such drones would be useful for recon, as in space you can usually see the enemy just as well from half a million kilometers away as you can from ten thousand kilometers away. Unless the enemy hides out of line-of-sight, but then your drone has to go out of line-of-sight too, and you won't be able to communicate with it. Unless you have a relay, in which case you'd be using the relay for recon instead of sending a drone...
True, but what about enemy ships using ECM or using ships to physically hide their forces from line-of-sight sensors? In that case, a stealthed recon drone could be useful, as it could easily position itself 'above' the enemy formation, relaying back a more accurate count of enemy vessels. Or, possibly as some sort of mobile jamming system, confusing enemy targetting systems and rendering them useless as they start shooting at targets that aren't there.

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Jakelope13 wrote:True, but what about enemy ships using ECM or using ships to physically hide their forces from line-of-sight sensors? In that case, a stealthed recon drone could be useful, as it could easily position itself 'above' the enemy formation, relaying back a more accurate count of enemy vessels. Or, possibly as some sort of mobile jamming system, confusing enemy targetting systems and rendering them useless as they start shooting at targets that aren't there.
Recon and intelligence satellites and probes will have many uses, but when I said "such drones" I was talking about unmanned fighter craft. Such things are a bit expensive for the job of information gathering. There are cases in which "reconnaissance in force" will have practical application, but I don't think this is one of them.

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

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Murica wrote:So in other words humanity is inexperienced outgunned and outnumber do we have anything going for us?
Do remember that humanity does have at least some experience in more or less constant warfare in some parts of the world up to today. And most likely for a fair bit beyond. I'd not be surprised if we were one of the more aggressive and warlike species out there. Which makes us more similar to both the Krayak and Loroi in many ways. As far as I can see from the codex, many of the client species of both were not.

While much of that warfare is fairly small scale it does create massive changes in tactics, doctrine and many other things. On top of that we learn fairly quickly.

Just compare british authorities on the civilian front between ww1 and ww2 and how much much better were things like food, nutrition, population preparedness organised.

Of course on the current tech level humanity is in, it would probably more less be wiped out by any middle sized player in the surrounding space, without actually us actually seeing them. The only benefit we seem to have is fairly frenetic expansion which is not all that dissimilar from the colonial era of - uh suitable rock, let's put a flag on that.

So I'd wager, as a species we'd be very resilient to an attempt to eradicate us. As a civilisation though, we'd be boned.

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by saint of m »

How long could one of these ships stay out for? Say they have to be out longer, or are caught in a cosmic storm, or have to be extra stealthy to avoid being blasted into stardust, or quarantine due to an alien infection?

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

saint of m wrote:How long could one of these ships stay out for?
Which ships are you referring to? Endurance would depend greatly on the type of vessel and what the mission was.

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by Absalom »

junk wrote:
Murica wrote:So in other words humanity is inexperienced outgunned and outnumber do we have anything going for us?
Do remember that humanity does have at least some experience in more or less constant warfare in some parts of the world up to today. And most likely for a fair bit beyond. I'd not be surprised if we were one of the more aggressive and warlike species out there. Which makes us more similar to both the Krayak and Loroi in many ways. As far as I can see from the codex, many of the client species of both were not.
We might be notably less war-like than the Loroi. Arioch mentioned recently that the Loroi managed to collapse their civilization through warfare several times (on Deinar, at least), whereas I only know of war being the likely cause for Humans once: the Bronze Age collapse (you may know this as the era of history when the Trojan War occurred: that was just one of many fights, and it was so bad that one of the Egyptian pharaohs apparently thought that the world was going to end). In contrast, the fall of the Roman Empire was more of an extended slump (the Byzantine branch, as I best recall, lasted to around 100 years of Columbus), and has been suggested to have been largely due to disease, and the resulting invasions. It's almost certain that the Black Plague is responsible for the Byzantine Empire not retaking Italy: they had an army prepared, and then the plague struck.

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by junk »

Absalom wrote:
junk wrote:
Murica wrote:So in other words humanity is inexperienced outgunned and outnumber do we have anything going for us?
Do remember that humanity does have at least some experience in more or less constant warfare in some parts of the world up to today. And most likely for a fair bit beyond. I'd not be surprised if we were one of the more aggressive and warlike species out there. Which makes us more similar to both the Krayak and Loroi in many ways. As far as I can see from the codex, many of the client species of both were not.
We might be notably less war-like than the Loroi. Arioch mentioned recently that the Loroi managed to collapse their civilization through warfare several times (on Deinar, at least), whereas I only know of war being the likely cause for Humans once: the Bronze Age collapse (you may know this as the era of history when the Trojan War occurred: that was just one of many fights, and it was so bad that one of the Egyptian pharaohs apparently thought that the world was going to end). In contrast, the fall of the Roman Empire was more of an extended slump (the Byzantine branch, as I best recall, lasted to around 100 years of Columbus), and has been suggested to have been largely due to disease, and the resulting invasions. It's almost certain that the Black Plague is responsible for the Byzantine Empire not retaking Italy: they had an army prepared, and then the plague struck.
Sure, but there's two possible takes on this
a) either our civilisations, in part because they tend to be more fractured without telepathy, tend to be a bit more resilient at taking on war time damage
b) we've not had a MAD scenario yet

Personally as far as I can see it, it's a bit of a mix of both. Also take Syria as an example - the place is pretty much stuck in a debilitating and destructive civil war for over two years, yet civilisation there continues.

Compared to that, the loroi aren't in a homefront scenario yet.

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by Charlie »

Two years for civil war isn`t very long at all, some African countries has be going on with that ten times as long. Civilization, if you want to call it that, in those affected countries just barely staggers on.

I don`t think Humans are "less warlike" just more controlled in their going about it`s business. Bantu tribes here have being in a constant war in one area of another since before my fathers family arrived on this continent more than two-hundred years ago from France. I could also point fingers at the middle east, that also seems a good local for strife.

Smaller conflicts don`t necessarily mean less war. We've had eons to perfect the art of butchering each other.
No sorcery lies beyond my grasp. - Rubick, the Grand Magus

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

I'm not sure of how much benefit a warlike nature or a long history of primitive butchery are going to be when faced with a technologically superior opponent fighting a completely unfamiliar type of war. Despite their familiarity with conflict, the Bantu did not fare well when faced with weapons and a style of fighting for which they had no answer.

I'm also not sold on the idea that humans are inherently warlike. We fight well, to be sure... but I think most of us would rather be doing something else, if given the chance. I was born during the height of the Cold War, and I learned Russian and studied to be an Air Force pilot to prepare for what seemed an inevitable global conflict. I never imagined that the Soviet Union could fall without bloodshed, but it did. We now live, amazingly, in a time in which war between major powers is almost unthinkable. We have many small-scale battles to come as the forces of Traditionalism make their last stand against the powers of Progress, but I don't think the outcome of that fight is in doubt.

Next, human civilization has to figure out a way to survive through an era of technology in which anyone will be able to make a weapon of mass destruction in his garage. But that's a different subject.

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

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Charlie wrote:Two years for civil war isn`t very long at all, some African countries has be going on with that ten times as long. Civilization, if you want to call it that, in those affected countries just barely staggers on.
To be fair in a lot of those places there wasn't much to begin with. For many of them the colonial powers built the civilization but kept the natives from being part of it so when they bailed there wasn't a tradition for the natives to fall back on, then before they can get it figured out war breaks out and nothing good happens.

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by Charlie »

I suppose Blood River is an example of technologically superior colonialist forces mowing down the primitive thorn-walkers in the thousands. But, on that same note; Native Americans, once armed with rifles were a serious threat to the regular army.

Also, it wasn`t really the Colonial powers leaving that caused war in many of those places, they all have a long history of violence against one and other. The problem wasn`t as noticed in the Colonial period as they shot trouble makers to keep the rest in line and cooperators were given "great gifts" such as steel machetes. And, they only traditions they did have were near constant tribal warfare.
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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by Murica »

Charlie wrote:I suppose Blood River is an example of technologically superior colonialist forces mowing down the primitive thorn-walkers in the thousands. But, on that same note; Native Americans, once armed with rifles were a serious threat to the regular army.

Also, it wasn`t really the Colonial powers leaving that caused war in many of those places, they all have a long history of violence against one and other. The problem wasn`t as noticed in the Colonial period as they shot trouble makers to keep the rest in line and cooperators were given "great gifts" such as steel machetes. And, they only traditions they did have were near constant tribal warfare.
The natives were a threat no matter what they just needed to fight in hit and run tactics using the environment I actually live near fort niagara and during one ambush a force of a dozen natives managed to annihilate a British convoy of about hundred

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by Murica »

Ok this may not have to do much with the story but I gotta ask what with Alex's lack of beard did he use something before he left human space to conserve resources or is it just natural?

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Re: Miscellaneous Terran question-and-answer thread

Post by junk »

Charlie wrote:Two years for civil war isn`t very long at all, some African countries has be going on with that ten times as long. Civilization, if you want to call it that, in those affected countries just barely staggers on.

I don`t think Humans are "less warlike" just more controlled in their going about it`s business. Bantu tribes here have being in a constant war in one area of another since before my fathers family arrived on this continent more than two-hundred years ago from France. I could also point fingers at the middle east, that also seems a good local for strife.

Smaller conflicts don`t necessarily mean less war. We've had eons to perfect the art of butchering each other.
Oh sure - but there's a difference between the scale of conflict in many of those african countries and the one in Syria. In part due to what is being used there and what the state of the place was beforehand.

Honestly though, a good example on human adaptibility was in Generation Kill. While the disparity in gear was just massive and the Iraqi's never did stand a chance there was a moment when the much more advanced and geared up american soldiers were surprised at how relatively quickly they did adapt to IR at night.

Obviously it also shows an example of how superior tech allows you to pretty much walk over the enemy, but it still did show the adaptability.

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