Re: [FT] Fleet design (Was Re: Alarishi Home Page)

At 11:54 AM 2/27/99 -0500, you wrote:
>>On a more serious note, it is entirely possible that smaller
governments
>>are willing to take chances on research that the Big Guys would never
even
>>consider; well-developed bureacracies cause nearly as many problems as
they
>>solve.  The Alarishi Empire would be a likely candidate for developing
new
>>tech: they probably have plenty of zero-G research facilities, and
they
>>seem to have a higher than normal collection of cranks and eccentrics.
>
>We're all perfectly normal, sane, and reasonable people.  Well, not the
>Radical Lesbian Collective, of course.  And the New Los Angeles mob is
>clearly a few control rods short of a power plant.  And you have to
wonder
>about the Knights Templar, although not while they're around to hear. 
And
>the Geek Squad is more than a little eccentric.  But aside from them,
we're
>all normal.  Except for the Forward Power Consortium.	And Jack Old
Ron.

For some reaon, I keep reading that name as "Foul Ol' Ron", from
Pratchett's "Discworld" series.  Is there a connection, or is it just a
coincidence?  Come to think of it, though, Ankh-Morpork would make one
hell
of a minor power.... 

> But yes, I did plan the Empire as a place where research is a
necessity,
>and having a batch of people with, shall we say, widely varying
viewpoints
>was a planned factor in this.	We specialize in naval architecture,
>environmental support systems, and anti-matter technology, all of which
>follow from our space-based lifestyle.  However, I'm sure that the
latest
>NAC designs would be slightly better than the latest Alarishi designs
in
>most areas, simply because the NAC have a lot more money to throw.  So
>rather than claiming that we're "ultra-high tech, with the latest in
>stealth, sensors, and advanced weapons", I'd say that we have a small
navy
>with dedicated and experienced crew, designs that are well suited for
our
>particular needs, and a slight edge in wave gun (anti-matter)
technology.

Along with Marines who are highly skilled at Zero-G combat, I'd bet. 
And
all of that makes sense.  It's my feeling that it is not impossible, or
even unlikely, that the smaller powers are going to have tech that the
major powers don't.  The wave gun is a good example: If the
Powers-That-Be
in the NAC have decided that wave guns are useless, you aren't going to
see
any ships that mount them, and nor will you see any time and/or money
being
devoted to improving it.  The smaller empires, looking for that "edge"
that
will allow them to stand up to the big boys, are going to be more
willing
to follow research paths that others have rejected.

In a gaming sense, I'd maintain that new systems should be balanced
with,
or inferior to, existing systems--it takes time to work those bugs out,
after all--and should mantain the "flavor" of their creators.  We are
probably not, for example, going to see any new innovations in SML Tech
from the NSL--they seem to see little value in this weapon.  For my own
part, the Illuminati are obsessed with maintaining their secrecy--thus
the
Illuminati stealth system, with all of its inherent limitations.

John X Crimmins
johncrim@voicenet.com
  "...is one of the secret masters of the world: a librarian.
They control information.  Don't ever piss one off."
  --Spider Robinson, The Callahan Touch.