Re: [OFFICIAL] Re: GZG Email?

From: "bill_armintrout" <bill_armintrout@EMAIL.MSN.COM>

> > Try the Unofficial GZGpedia for much of it.
> > http://www.warpfish.com/jhan/ft/gzgpedia/
>
> Tried it. Here's what I've got so far:
>
> ESU - no listing.
> FSE - no listing
> Islamic Federation -	OK
> NSL -
> NAC -
> OUDF - OK
> Outrim -
> Phalons -
> Sa'vasku -
> United Nations - OK
>
> Anyone want to volunteer to fill in the gaps? You can see the length
I'm
> going for - a brief synopsis of "who" the faction is, and a brief
statement
> about the design or capabilities of their ships.

The ESU, FSE, NSL and NAC you can find in Fleet Book 1, MT and FT.
The Phalons and SusVasku (and KraVak) are in FB2.
<<Note to J.Tuffley: Could we have permission to quote some of these
Verbatim?
Thanks>>

Outrim, Phalons, SsuVasku have been kicked about a bit or a lot on the
list.

It's intended by Jon (and I agree wholeheartedly) that the SsuVasku
remain
vry
much "Here Be Dragons", the enigmatic and mysterious Aliens. It appears
that they are large creatures, the size of Blue Whales or possibly
Tasmania.
They are biological engineers par excellence, growing rather than
building
ships.

KraVak are simple: Not-Predators. They may be vegetarians, but if so,
they've
got ATTITUDE. Warlike in the extreme. Think Bedouins, Scots Reavers,
etc.
There are many different clans. Ships are not unusually fast, but are
highly
manouverable.
Their armament consists of grav-pulsed Kinetic Energy Projectiles,
chunks of
matter that travel at enormously high speed. Get in front of them, and
you're history.

Phalons: My own personal views here: The Phalons are not heavily into
symbolic
actions. They don't have paper 'representative" currency, they insist on
tangible
assets being exchanged, barter rather than trade. They also consider it
not
just
stupid, but sinful to give a sucker an even break. So an unarmed Human
ship
entering a region with valuable cargo to exchange for Phalon valuable
cargo
is
not paying the price, he's trying to cheat. The fact that he has some
paper
promises about "If this ship is attacked, the entire NAC will take
revenge"
cuts
no ice. The goods will be taken, as they're obviously worthless.

OTOH if an unarmed Human ship PLUS the entire NAC 7th fleet comes in,
then the Phalons are getting a good deal, the Humans are paying *in
fleet
presence* more than the goods are worth.

Phalons appear to use biologically-produced components rather than
industially
produced ones. Unlike the SsuVasku, where a ship is a living entity or
hive,
think of the Phalon ships as being composed of whalebone, leather, and
spider
silk. But leather that's as strong as titanium, whalebone as strong as
carballoy.
They can take a tremendous amount of punishment without visible effect,
but
then go pop like soap-bubbles.
Their weaponry is broadly comparable to that of the Humans. They are the
most
similar race to Humans psychologically.