This definately raises more questions then it answers, for sure. Mystery on top of Mystery.

Also "Armed with this knowledge, they took one of the larger codices, and successfully hooked a computer network to it, and promptly melted down the network. "

What kind of morons did they have for sysadmins? :) "You're going to hook _what_ up to my network? I don't think so."

Hooking it up to a single isolated computer as the first step would have been much more likely.

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4.5 nice piece of fluff., Oh how I wished you used your talent for good and did a lot more fantasy..............lol Go to Comment

Yup. That's the conundrum. They are only used when there is low risk. Go to Comment

The ships are built with extensive automation, as well as labor multiplying devices like construction mecha, and hardsuits designed for industrial purposes, plus labor robots. The cost of the ships is a combination of the materials they are made out of, especially the arcanotech parts like higgs cannons, caryatid core computers, dimensional engines, and the levitation engines, and the training of the crews and the mecha and vehicles they carry.

We are already at this point ourselves with things like the big nuclear powered aircraft carriers, and the monstrously expensive B-2 stealth bomber. They are very powerful and effective weapons but the amount of money and resources tied up in them, along with how long it wold take to replace them, make them strategically fragile. If a foe was to destroy a Nimitz class aircraft carrier, there's $12 billion dollars worth of boat gone, plus the cost of it's 100+ aircraft, plus the 6000+ crewmen aboard the ship. In one strike, as many personnel could be lost as have been lost in the entirety of the 14 years the US has been in Afghanistan. Then, with the ship gone, it would take 2 years to build it's replacement, plus many of the aircraft that it carried are no longer in production. Thus the Nimitz is a powerful weapon, but it is not used lightly, and it is not sent into highly dangerous situations.

The same would be said of the battleships of the Cosmic Era, they are powerful and dangerous, but no one has been willing to commit to a serious warship on warship engagement, yet. Thus far, when there is potential for confrontation, it is done through skirmishes of lighter ships, or the side at a disadvantage disengages rather than engages.

This has been a benefit to the Atlantic Federation as their battleship fleet is the largest, meaning that in the potentiality of a conflict, they have 12 battlestars at their beck and call, and putting 2-3 of them in a squadron deters pretty much everyone else, for the time being. Eventually someone is going to challenge the line, or isn't going to back down, and the Cosmic Era will see what happens when the big guns come out and play. Go to Comment

If they can't be risked in combat,the BattleStars are not as useful as they seem. Go to Comment

It's all about having a fleet-in-being vs decisive battle. It comes down to the doctrine at the time when they need to be deployed.

It's a little hard for me to imagine ships being so precipitously expensive to operate while still being constructible, but I suppose it could happen. Perhaps if most of the expense is in energy costs. Go to Comment

Mmmm. Have loved space-battleships since I was kneehigh to a grasshopper.

Argo and Arcadia/Yammato Represent!

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Not a Stub!!!! Let me vote!! LET MY PEOPLE GO!!!!!!!(4/5) Go to Comment

Only voted Go to Comment

Update: Written in 35 minutes, whew

Main visual inspiration was the Protoss Mothership, but with design influences from Sailor Moon, the main visual reference for Imbria. The Imbrians doles out things like the Neam Octillio as a sort of insult to the colonies, giving them the manual on how to make a dock for their space city battleship to land on when aside from the sheer size and power of it, it was an antique, a floating museum in and off itself.

I considered letting the FM be destroyed in mid fold, perhaps coinciding with a Caldera blast, but being an old Battletech player, the ship lost in mid jump is cliche, almost as cliche as the fortuitous hit to an ammo bin giving the protagonist the win in a pitched battle.

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Why would the Queen destroy her own world? Go to Comment

Conceptually, this is quite nice, but I struggled for a bit to think of how it might come up in a game. I think I would be inclined to say that it disappeared with that last explosion - perhaps vaporized, or perhaps teleported away. Then one can imagine people hunting for it as a sort of Once and Future King (of Battleships) in the future. Go to Comment

This should be canon Go to Comment

4.5/5 generally very good fluff about CE but I'm not seeing a lot of gaming material here. as always my votes are based on two concepts Art and Usefullness to gaming, Score of 4.5 is almost purely for art(which is quite good!) Go to Comment

The Cosmic Era keeps growing in wonderful, horrible ways.......5/5 Go to Comment

Typical Scras work 5/5!!! LOL, The glimpses into the Cosmic Era are always a bit disturbing(thats a good thing!) Lots and lots of plot hooks in this one. Go to Comment

There is a lot of really great stuff in here, the hints at internal politics, the logistical details and the other rationales behind the choices made add to sense of versimilitude. And while you don't describe any personalities the quotes give us a side long view of a mind behind this place (which maybe cooler than directly describing something). This is a very good sub. Go to Comment

Very good, love this level of detail.

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Not quite perfect but very very good Go to Comment

4/5 For anybody else this would be a great sub, but this seems....a little sub par....can't quite put my finger on what is lacking.....I think you've spoiled me. I do like the overlapping shields thing.. a lot, That brought the whole thing up a notch Go to Comment