I don't recall the location of Droyne/Chirper worlds in/around the Hive
Federation, but they would have contacted any there, and I assume there
are some.
I don't know if this was clear in the published materials, but RC ships
were definitely intended to be built the way you describe, big hulls built
as economically and at the lowest TLs possible, with key force-multiplying
systems (jump drives, power plants, computers, sensors, weapons, etc.)
dropped in from higher TLs so the higher-tech worlds could focus their
labor force on manufacturing key technologies that would be used
elsewhere. If that wasn't clear it was probably because we had to publish
ships that followed the "classic" approach of an entire ship being
manufactured at a single tech level as examples of the normal approach.
There were also limitations on plug-and-play, as you can't drop a TL 15
computer onto a TL 10 network with a TL 12 databus and expect to get full
TL 15 performance out of it.
But the idea of maximizing production efficiency was embedded in a bunch
of places, the one I'm thinking of right now is in the Covenant of Suffren
where the waterworld had a big submarine hull industry that was going to
provide a lot of help in producing kludgy spaceships. Going down an
atmosphere is a lot easier than going up one atmosphere per 10 meters, the
problem would be that off-the-shelf submarine hulls would be heavier than
necessary, but they should have good G performance, and you could get SDBs
or starships that look like Star Trek's SS Botany Bay.
> I do agree that the Hivers must have made contact with the Droyne worlds.
> The thing here is motivation. The Droyne seem to me to be, well sort of
> stretched-back-take-things-as-they-come kind of race. Their genetic
> memory would be passed on to the next generation. I say this as they
> don't seem to want to expand and make multiple colonies and finally an
> empire.
> Hivers were looking for allies and people to fight or at least form a
> block against vampires and a return of virus. I think their motivation
> was to find someone who could and would fight virus. Trading with us,
> the Coalition, the Hivers most definitely do. Things that can't be made
> in the Coalition like TL-14 focal arrays, compact fusion plants, J-4 and
> 5 drives and advanced sensors. But more than this I think they bring in
> high-tech consumer goods and techs to teach us how to use and maintain
> the gear we find and they bring to the Coalition.
> If the Coalition is going to expand then more ships are needed BADLY. A
> fast way to expand both civilian and military ship construction would be
> to have the four class B starports turn out spaceships capable of being
> refitted into starships, just slap a third computer, extra fuel tanks and
> a J-drive onto the spaceship and you have a starship. Admittedly no one
> is going to want a TL-9 J-Hawk from Oriflamme when they could have a
> TL-11 one from Kruyter, but if Oriflamme bought a J-2/3 drive from
> Aubaine for their starship then why not buy more advanced sensors and
> weapons as well. Merchant rule number one: pride goes out the window
> before profit.
> I would like to see a TL-10 J-Hawk built on Trybec with a J-3 drive from
> Aubaine and sensors and weapons from TL-11 Eos, or a TL-12 Shukugan SDB
> with a 1-200 ton section welded on and sporting TL-14 weapons and sensors
> from the Hivers
> Roger
>
>
Federation, but they would have contacted any there, and I assume there
are some.
I don't know if this was clear in the published materials, but RC ships
were definitely intended to be built the way you describe, big hulls built
as economically and at the lowest TLs possible, with key force-multiplying
systems (jump drives, power plants, computers, sensors, weapons, etc.)
dropped in from higher TLs so the higher-tech worlds could focus their
labor force on manufacturing key technologies that would be used
elsewhere. If that wasn't clear it was probably because we had to publish
ships that followed the "classic" approach of an entire ship being
manufactured at a single tech level as examples of the normal approach.
There were also limitations on plug-and-play, as you can't drop a TL 15
computer onto a TL 10 network with a TL 12 databus and expect to get full
TL 15 performance out of it.
But the idea of maximizing production efficiency was embedded in a bunch
of places, the one I'm thinking of right now is in the Covenant of Suffren
where the waterworld had a big submarine hull industry that was going to
provide a lot of help in producing kludgy spaceships. Going down an
atmosphere is a lot easier than going up one atmosphere per 10 meters, the
problem would be that off-the-shelf submarine hulls would be heavier than
necessary, but they should have good G performance, and you could get SDBs
or starships that look like Star Trek's SS Botany Bay.
> I do agree that the Hivers must have made contact with the Droyne worlds.
> The thing here is motivation. The Droyne seem to me to be, well sort of
> stretched-back-take-things-as-they-come kind of race. Their genetic
> memory would be passed on to the next generation. I say this as they
> don't seem to want to expand and make multiple colonies and finally an
> empire.
> Hivers were looking for allies and people to fight or at least form a
> block against vampires and a return of virus. I think their motivation
> was to find someone who could and would fight virus. Trading with us,
> the Coalition, the Hivers most definitely do. Things that can't be made
> in the Coalition like TL-14 focal arrays, compact fusion plants, J-4 and
> 5 drives and advanced sensors. But more than this I think they bring in
> high-tech consumer goods and techs to teach us how to use and maintain
> the gear we find and they bring to the Coalition.
> If the Coalition is going to expand then more ships are needed BADLY. A
> fast way to expand both civilian and military ship construction would be
> to have the four class B starports turn out spaceships capable of being
> refitted into starships, just slap a third computer, extra fuel tanks and
> a J-drive onto the spaceship and you have a starship. Admittedly no one
> is going to want a TL-9 J-Hawk from Oriflamme when they could have a
> TL-11 one from Kruyter, but if Oriflamme bought a J-2/3 drive from
> Aubaine for their starship then why not buy more advanced sensors and
> weapons as well. Merchant rule number one: pride goes out the window
> before profit.
> I would like to see a TL-10 J-Hawk built on Trybec with a J-3 drive from
> Aubaine and sensors and weapons from TL-11 Eos, or a TL-12 Shukugan SDB
> with a 1-200 ton section welded on and sporting TL-14 weapons and sensors
> from the Hivers
> Roger
>
>