Forging Ahead (GURPS Interstellar Wars/Celestial Forge)

[crazygrox]

Waiting at jump 3 for the next war is probably sensible, but depending on how the fourth war goes they might urgently need further technological improvements before the fifth war starts.

 

[gammoregan]

So will they be able to use the jump-3 drive along with that double-jump technique to go beyond jump-3, for ships that carry a double load of fuel?

I imagine an interstellar civilization with all 3 of these things compared to just jump-2 and nothing else would be almost night and day.

 

[Asmodyne]

So happy to see even more of this! The Saunders aspect is interesting, and I think its neat to see more people building on top of what she has brought to the table.

 

[Cyrus2]

I like that she's leaving hints in her work for others to pick up and expand upon.

 

[Fumbles]

I love how Mira has a complex mix of friendly concern, professional obligation, and intellectual curiosity going on. It's nice to enjoy a character that isn't one-note.
Our main character and the topic of her concern also continues to impress and entertain.

Chiming in with others, I love seeing how the scientists and engineers around her make use of the theory she produced. Makes the setting and her surroundings important, instead of window dressing.

I imagine this drive, created with her pseudo-magical engineering power, will have quite the reputation among technicians, spacefarers, and the public alike.

 

[Blade4]

To be honest, I really like the idea of other scientists picking up where Sofia left off and nabbing innovations for themselves. Sure, Sofia could trailblaze the entire tech tree on her own but there'd be no point, since the Confederation wouldn't be able to keep up with that sort of ridiculousness. Sofia was trying to stall her creations anyway; now she gets a totally natural method by which to pace the stuff she makes!

Also, I like the idea of Dr. Saunders getting something to show for his work. I'm sure he's very happy and feeling mighty fulfilled, and that's enough to make me happy. I'm simple like that.

Click to shrink...

At the same time the Confed looks to know she is a full on anomaly but a bloody useful and loyal one. They just dont know how to talk to her about it and she is to scared to talk for fear she will be locked up in a cage or a padded cell. Which is going to leave Mira in a very awkward and perhaps dangerous place trying to act as mediator and friend. Still Sophia is very young and she has dropped enough if the Confed is not stupid they can thrive hard. Though the coming spy games are going to get insane. The Vilani are going to be beyond desperate to get a jump 3 drive but direct war could go very bad very fast. Offers of mountains of gold or nobility for scrap of technical data. Trying to seize any ship they think might have one. Perhaps a actual envoy from the Vilani government to cut some actual deal not just a frontier governor doing things becuase the actual government is to far away to even try to manage things?

 

[Fellgar]

Transhuman Protocols (Generic Cyberpunk) cost me 600cp, but it was worth every point.

As the perk description said, "You can take any technology or procedure that you understand and easily figure out the flaws, pitfalls, drawbacks, and unintended or negative consequences, and as long as you put in the time you'll figure out how to get past them."

Click to shrink...

Oh yeah. It is all coming together. Not socially applicable but the ability to make sure the machine you build does something in exactly the way you want it too. Yeah. Worth.

Author's Note:

Click to shrink...

Yes, cue the screeching that Sophia is actually letting the jumpdrive research be led by someone else, down another path. And yes, it's largely due to the emotional reasons she acknowledges herself. But she still has an entirely logical point that with the original main quest completed – which it was, in chapter 8 – she doesn't have to operate on super time pressure anymore, and that not forcing the pace too much both avoids spooking her chain of command and lets the social dislocations of what she's doing not go supercritical.

Still figuring out which tech tracks and what big social effects I should try next, but at least I can progress some characters and set some stages.

Click to shrink...

Meh, it serves a purpose. Not what I would have done but I can see why she would do it. Frankly all I care about is that BT teleport ftl is getting implemented. It has advantages over the normal jump tech like the ability to travel through space between systems, the fact that technically it is instant travel, the fact that at the far end there is a way to get up to jump 18 at least. Frankly it looks to have more potential then the jump tech in the canon of the setting.

So I am interested in seeing what new tech your going to have her pick up. You have a decent ftl method in both movement and communication. So what next? Better slow then light drives? Ones that give insane maneuverability in real space? Something that would provide a massive tactical advantage and a lesser strategic advantage? Where you could go from mercury to pluto within a half a day or something?

 

[Blaflaix]

I was just self-aware enough to realize that I hadn't realized how lonely I'd been until I actually had someone to talk to that wasn't a co-worker or someone else I could keep at a professional distance.

Click to shrink...

So another side would be that they notice Sophia doesn't have any close friends and her social "safety-net" is a bit threadbare.
Isolated people can get pretty squirrley without any social checks stopping them, and it would only take one bad breakup to spiral into "I'll show him, I'll show them all!"

Preemptive counseling/friending would seem like a good precaution.

 

[Blade4]

Actually what are the chances of if the Vilani government upon finding out about ftl coms and jump 3/free jumping they send a full delegation to earth? With a blank check as long as they get the tech and preferably Earth into the empire in some fashion. Yes the reflex thing to do would be war but to deal with earth would mean marshaling a horrifying amount of their fleets and putting them a relative few hands to try and drown earth but even that might no be enough. If they have those kind of breakthroughs they might have others that could make direct battle to dangerous and frankly they could. If Sophia drops anti missile systems and navy ppc and lasers? The Confed could make key node systems slaughterhouses while raiders = rampage through back lines and the Vilani would be hard pressed to stop them.

The vilani should really really want this tech. Their empire is so large it literally only functions because of social engineering keeping things in line and cannot expand at all without risk of fracturing. Just a ftl com line between periphery capitals and homeworld would greatly ease the bureaucracy and speed up critical decision loops. The ftl drive advances would allow the Vilani to enter a new expansion phase. Of course many in the empire would rather these secrets stayed locked up and the status quo stay...

 

[SemiSaneAuthor]

Trying to just be The Golden Goose what Earth will not want to risk The Goose. Without being The Weapons Grade Uranium Goose that gets taken to a black site and never leaves? Is rather reasonable.

If, part of me now having made than analogy wants to see the, "Peace was never an option," Untitled Goose Game Goose turning up just for the hell of it.

 

[asdsaadsasd]

I really liked this chapter. Maybe it's because I enjoy watching determined highly motivated competent individuals working like clockwork to achieve a goal like in say the better episodes of Star Trek.

In my opinion one reason why most Forge stories fizzle out is that the MC in those stories makes all scientists and engineers in their setting obsolete so there's not much of a story left as why would they interract with anyone if they can do everything on their own. Some add an AI to have someone for the MC to talk to but that does not allow us to be immersed in the world.

On a re-read I really liked the interactions with the terraforming team where Sophia met the staff helped them achieve their goals using their own aproach and the data they spend a large part of their lives collecting. If she would have solved the terraforming project with say nanobots and made all the teams efforts be in vain it would not have felt half as good.

Thank you for the chapter.

 

[Vrenze]

I like that she's leaving hints in her work for others to pick up and expand upon.

Click to shrink...

She didn't do that intentionally though. She explicitly stated she didn't realize the math could be used to leapfrog the Jump-3 development and was surprised by it.

The vilani should really really want this tech. Their empire is so large it literally only functions because of social engineering keeping things in line

Click to shrink...

It functioning entirely because of social engineering is exactly why Earth cannot be allowed to continue existing once they find out about both things, possibly even just the FTL comms. Earth is too much a destabilizing element that, from the Empire perspective, barely looked at the idea of Jump tech before improving it beyond Empire capability AND made a better communication method.

 

[Blade4]

It functioning entirely because of social engineering is exactly why Earth cannot be allowed to continue existing once they find out about both things, possibly even just the FTL comms. Earth is too much a destabilizing element that, from the Empire perspective, barely looked at the idea of Jump tech before improving it beyond Empire capability AND made a better communication method.

Click to shrink...

Save by the time they find out about it and confirm Earth will have upgraded and probably won a war or perhaps 2. The frontier governor really wants that war but the tech upgrades mean that trying will probably end up with their fleets out flanked and slaughtered so by the time news reaches the homeworld in like 5? years earth could have seized a good section of said frontier and be digging in and by the time the empire can marshal fleets a decade or two could pass making it even worse odds. the shadow emperor and his court might decide diplomacy and trying a generational strategy trying to bring Earth into their system is better than trying to fight a war they have functionally already lost.

 

[SemiSaneAuthor]

the shadow emperor and his court might decide diplomacy and trying a generational strategy trying to bring Earth into their system is better than trying to fight a war they have functionally already lost.

Click to shrink...

That requires said Interstellar Empire to be rational actors. With things like, "Starting an Interstellar Empire when you have Jump Two and can't have FTL Comms," is ... Well, that requires vision. But not rationality.