CSC America

[sun1404]

The stations, I think, should be equipped with thrusters to enable them to control their movements. The reason they don't move around, may be because it's not worth the cost in terms of fuels, as they'll be very hard to accelerate. Also, some facilities of a station may need to be disabled while it's accelerating.

The Ronins are old designs, and I think already no more Ronins are being produced. They may not contend to the CW's present ship design standards, as suggested by no other ships having such variety. Many ships may have variety in their equipment, but only the Ronin is classified into A, B and C. And even these Ronins are customizable. Jenna pilots a unique Ronin, indicating that while they're manufactured with different variants, they're still customizable just like any other ships.

Maybe, none of the ships really have 'easily' customizable frame. You can't change your ship's equipment anywhere, but only in dedicated facilities. The ships are probably no more 'customizable' than present vehicles. No extra efforts were made to manufacture them to be customizable. The capability to customize ships lies not in their design, but in the facilities used for the purpose. They charge quite a fee to customize ships, too. Installing a moderate level equipment cost more than luxury food in tons. Imagine a modest family ordering a total ship customization. Changing the weapon: 400 credits. Shield: 500 credits. Armor: 150 each. Oh you wanna install a solar panel? That'll be 250 creds. The cost is negligible to pilgrims, because they engage in plundering, and actively hunting ships equipped with advanced technologies. You can sometimes get charged quite much, and end up with no money, in the early game, if you change equipments too often. This fee would suggest that changing a ship's equipment requires resources, and perhaps involves welding or other construction methods, just like if you want to customize your car.

[JohnBWatson]

As I said, I believe the Sung were not portrayed as attempting to avoid taking slaves from anyone. The reason why no one already do something about them, is that the only faction that can and have any solid reason to, that is, the CW, already have their resources taken up by something more pressing, which is the Ares war. The Fleet is the only CW military power capable of destroying the Sung. The militia field mostly particle weapons, and poor shields and devices. They're also largely taken up in their fight with the pirates. The Sung have: 1. The fastest fighter in the game, though very fragile. 2. Cyber attacks. 3. Tremendous amount of particle weapons. 4. The Earth Slaver, which can deal some unexpected amount of damage with their multiple omni particles, and the cursed launcher. 5. Their flagship, the Dragon Slaver, with the super weapon at a level unparalleled by anything the CW have except the Lamplighter, which is only perfected near the endgame. Protected by a fleet of the smaller ships, the Dragon Slaver can quickly destroy anything the CW (excluding the Fleet) can send against them.

There's a certain degree of abstraction here. The CW isn't really as defenseless as it seems, it's just shown that way because the player's unlikely to be fighting it. Same reason George is introducing new Fleet technology now - friendly factions that aren't directly player controlled don't have to be as powerful in game as they are in the story. It's even implied that the only thing preventing them from building more CSCs is that they don't particularly care about the war. If they were being bothered by the Sung, they'd either call for Fleet retaliation or simply militarize. The CH is also a factor - if the Sung attacked them, a single Corporate Cruiser can destroy even the Dragon Slaver.

The BM uses slaves for any reason, other factions may have the same incentive. And physical labour in the form of slaves may not be obsolete. It may not be as efficient as machine, but it's cheaper, in small scale at least. And also, the slaves can be used as biocomputers, as shown in the Huari quest line.

The BM's use for slaves would be sex trafficking or human experimentation. Unskilled physical labor is obsolete in most first world nations today, and the Sung are the only faction with biocomputers.

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Maybe, none of the ships really have 'easily' customizable frame. You can't change your ship's equipment anywhere, but only in dedicated facilities. The ships are probably no more 'customizable' than present vehicles. No extra efforts were made to manufacture them to be customizable. The capability to customize ships lies not in their design, but in the facilities used for the purpose. They charge quite a fee to customize ships, too. Installing a moderate level equipment cost more than luxury food in tons. Imagine a modest family ordering a total ship customization. Changing the weapon: 400 credits. Shield: 500 credits. Armor: 150 each. Oh you wanna install a solar panel? That'll be 250 creds. The cost is negligible to pilgrims, because they engage in plundering, and actively hunting ships equipped with advanced technologies. You can sometimes get charged quite much, and end up with no money, in the early game, if you change equipments too often. This fee would suggest that changing a ship's equipment requires resources, and perhaps involves welding or other construction methods, just like if you want to customize your car.

That's reasonable, but is contradicted by a few things. Firstly, the starting playerships have worse equipment than their stock counterparts, despite there being no reason for that if they are indeed the same model. Secondly, the Centurions are explicitly modified into Centurion X gunships from their stock chassis, something that isn't seen with the Ronins.

I'll be honest here, I'm not entirely certain how customization fits into the story, I'm just going based on what's hardest to disprove. I'm sure George will come out with a better explanation than mine in time.

[Atarlost]

Turrets are only ever found around starbases. There can be many reasons for this, from the fact that they are apparently unmanned, and thus need a control source, to the fact that they require energy, and are typically without much room for fuel and the like. In addition, maintenance at a great distance from a star base would be quite difficult, and constructing a facility in close proximity to a gate all but guarantees it will be destroyed before construction is completed.

There's a certain degree of abstraction here. The CW isn't really as defenseless as it seems, it's just shown that way because the player's unlikely to be fighting it. Same reason George is introducing new Fleet technology now - friendly factions that aren't directly player controlled don't have to be as powerful in game as they are in the story. It's even implied that the only thing preventing them from building more CSCs is that they don't particularly care about the war. If they were being bothered by the Sung, they'd either call for Fleet retaliation or simply militarize. The CH is also a factor - if the Sung attacked them, a single Corporate Cruiser can destroy even the Dragon Slaver.

There's a certain degree of abstraction in all game mechanics. I'm not sure why you persist in acting like some things in the game are gospel truth while claiming that others are abstractions.

All capital ships are absurdly underpowered in D&O so the player doesn't need to have one to compete. The absence of heavy fixed defenses is partly explained by the systems that have them not being in the topology (eg. the borders of uncontested Sung territory) and partly by the same pro-gunship bias that leaves capital ships so pitifully under armed.

The Rasiermesser Cruiser is another case. It exists to punish players for killing shopkeepers. Since it's supposed to wipe the floor with the player it doesn't have its power cut by 11/12 like the Aquila which has half the modeled turrets empty and the other half firing at 1/2 speed even though they're plainly dual mounts.

[JohnBWatson]

There's a certain degree of abstraction in all game mechanics. I'm not sure why you persist in acting like some things in the game are gospel truth while claiming that others are abstractions.

Things in game that can be backed up by the plot, I take as true. Things in game that contradict the plot, I treat as abstractions.

All capital ships are absurdly underpowered in D&O so the player doesn't need to have one to compete. The absence of heavy fixed defenses is partly explained by the systems that have them not being in the topology (eg. the borders of uncontested Sung territory) and partly by the same pro-gunship bias that leaves capital ships so pitifully under armed.

Most people seem to disagree on that point. I recall capital ships were much weaker until recently.

In addition, multiple simultaneously functioning weapons hardpoints is more of an asset than one might think, and, even in scenarios that greatly favor the gunships, capital ships tend to score massive amounts of victories against them.

Transcendence's space combat isn't like space combat in most other sci - fi media. Capital ships, while powerful, aren't meant to be outright impervious to attack from non - capships, and their primary advantage is their defense rather than their offense.

The Star Control influence is quite apparent here. Individual ships are supposed to be valuable, and everything has strengths and weaknesses.

The Rasiermesser Cruiser is another case. It exists to punish players for killing shopkeepers. Since it's supposed to wipe the floor with the player it doesn't have its power cut by 11/12 like the Aquila which has half the modeled turrets empty and the other half firing at 1/2 speed

It also has a rather fun secondary purpose of providing fire support against the Phobii you trick into killing said shopkeepers while you loot their wares, but I digress.

The Aquila is indeed more powerful in story than in game, and the Corporate Cruisers are probably rarer than the game shows them to be(it's likely they're used differently as well). Regardless, there's a reason nobody attacks their unarmed Enclaves, and that the lore states that the Sung are afraid of pushing them and the CW to retaliate.

even though they're plainly dual mounts.

I don't think that can be said for certain. Transcendence doesn't render rotating turrets(save for the TA3) or have a model for the Katana, so we can't be sure that that isn't simply the slot where the weapon fits into, or that the weapon itself isn't two pronged.

[sun1404]

The plot I know doesn't say the Sung is afraid of conflict with anyone. They're a quite large empire, and fear no one in the Ungoverned Territory.

And yes, the capital ships were weaker than now in prior versions, because they were designed to be beatable. Now they're slightly stronger, in that they have a secondary HP. They're still beatable, as designed.

The main reason no one attack CH Enclaves is the law. Enemies will attack any CH station they see.

[JohnBWatson]

The plot I know doesn't say the Sung is afraid of conflict with anyone. They're a quite large empire, and fear no one in the Ungoverned Territory.

Sung slavers forcibly take fully intelligent humans and imprison them in slave coffins to exploit their compute power. Nobody in the CW supports what they do--they just don't want to fight a war against the Sung (since they're still fighting the Ares). Also, the Sung are smart enough to not take (too many) slaves from the big powers (CW and CH), that's why they target the Huari (and other lesser powers).

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The main reason no one attack CH Enclaves is the law. Enemies will attack any CH station they see.

That's outright false. The AI can't target unarmed stations unless it is ordered to do so directly.

Of course, there has to be a plot - related reason why the CH feels secure building unarmed stations out in dangerous sectors of space, and the intimidation potential of their cruisers is the most logical answer.

[TVR]

Lore interpretation could fill several threads. I'll start a new thread for Persistent Units and Ship Customization in CSC America.

There are 4 known variants of the Ronin. The ultra - light A, the moderately capable B, and the advanced C, as well as Jenna's Ronin and those fielded by gladiators(while their hulls are listed as one of the A/B/Cs, this has no effect on their loadout.)

The underlined section is false, the class of Ronin determines its potential configurations.

[JohnBWatson]

The underlined section is false, the class of Ronin determines its potential configurations.

I didn't know about that. How does that work, and what's your take on why the playerships start with different loadouts than their NPC counterparts?

[sun1404]

One possible explanation is that the player buys an older version, no longer produced, for cheap prices. Or the player bought the ship second-handed.

[JohnBWatson]

One possible explanation is that the player buys an older version, no longer produced, for cheap prices.

Assuming the older version was more versatile, put into production before it reached the broader market and versatility became unprofitable, that would make sense. It would also explain the inferior loadouts on early gladiator ships.