Antony--
First, check out this note at the bottom of your message:
> -----
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 2012.0.2177 / Virus Database: 2437/5088 - Release Date: 06/23/12
That is such a lie, you said "virus" two or three times.
> Would the Regency have still had the remaining Kinunirs in service in the
> post virus era given that in the Regency at least they were a none
> standard
> design.
The Kinunirs were established as being something of a "dog" of a design in
Adventure 1, already being taken out of service. However, the Regency is
re-using everything it can get its hands on, so any Kinunirs lying around
in mothballs would be refurbished and re-used in some fashion. However, as
part of the refurbishing, the first thing to be improved would be
electronics, so I would not say that limited AI system would still be in
them.
> I was wondering on the technology behind the "limited" AI, based
> on
> when they were built 1074-1089 these would be very old ships of a non
> standard design with a non Cymbeline origin (presumably) AI. Was this
> developed in the Spinward Marches - certainly a project for one of the
> Imperial Research facilities. What else was this AI used on and were there
> any other types.
My clear sense of Traveller was that Imperial Navy starships were largely
manufactured locally, perhaps to a common design, for obvious reasons. And
I think that Kinunir gave the shipyards that all were built in, and all
were in SM, so yes, treat all of that as local home-grown technology.
Me recollection is that the AI was deemed unsuccessful, and so was
probably not re-used. However, Traveller was very skittish about ever
admitting that anything was "truly" AI or not, so the word "limited AI"
was tossed around quite a bit without really meaning anything, like people
lying about their age. Google and that lady's voice on the new iPhone that
that putz Malkovich is in love with are "limited AI" by the standards of
1980.
> I also vaguely remember that the Solee had some vessels of this type,
> though
> looking at the TNE version the black globe was gone (makes sense) and they
> seemed underarmed to me. These were presumably patterned on the one given
> to
> the Vegans. But why would the imperium start building this odd vessel in
> this area given its troubled history in the Spinward Marches?
I think that's two questions:
1. Solee use. Although the ships were dogs, they were an established
design that would take you back and create a connection with the original
CT adventure, so were used for that reason. Anytime we could make a
reference back to our roots, we liked to do that. Arrival Vengeance was
another example. As I recall, the AHLs were no great shakes as High Guard
designs, but there were deckplans, dammit!
2. Why did they build Kinunirs for the Vegans? Given my point about
starships being built locally, that doesn't make a lot of sense. There
probably would have been a better local design down there, and it would
have taken longer to ship the plans by Xboat to Sol Rim then just to build
the local standard design. But Kinunir was written before my time.
Probably the reasoning is that some corrupt industrialist-noble paid off
some other corrupt noble-diplomat paid off some other corrupt noble-naval
officer to get the Kinunirs built down there for probably eighteen times
what they should have cost, and had drinks and cigars afterwards.
> Then given the self-preservation instinct found in the malfunctioning AI
> on
> Kinunir it may have helped in the development of both the virus inserted
> in
> Averys AHL and other anti-viral weaponry developed by the Regency.
I agree that the local RS experience in the Regency with things like that
are directly related to how they were able to "breed" "tame" versions of
Virus.
> This is one of the things I liked about TNE you could always come up with
> something from the backstories and tie them together in interesting ways.
Yes, even if the older things were mistakes, they could be helpful that way.
> Antony