Author Topic: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread  (Read 170232 times)

glitterboy2098

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #510 on: 12 July 2014, 01:36:45 »
Actually it wouldn't be big companies. In old style colonization the group wanting to set up the colony set up a corprate entity of their own, then encourage individuals to invest in it to prove funding, with each investor getting a share of any profits. Often the biggest investors did so for idealistic rather than economic reasons though, and the first colonists were usually investors as well. The colony/company would recruit colonists, buy supplies, charter transport, etc. This is how most of the major European colonies were founded. Especially the french and British ones.the approaching it like a business also meant that if a colony needed more colonists, or trained specialists, or more supplies, etc. It could just send a few reprasentitives back and hire/buy what it needs, making bookkeeping and logistics simpler.

So niops wouldn't be some branch of a big corporation, it would something like 'Niops association LLC', with a board of directors from with the colony itself. Most of the investors would also be colonists, with a few big investors elsewhere they'd have to satisfy in a given time. I'd imagine that in niops case the big investors would have been scientific organizations willing to invest funds in return for the data niops collects.

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #511 on: 12 July 2014, 07:11:19 »
Scientific organizations don't set up entire colonies on their own.  Certainly not in the size to be able to generate trade with outsiders then not realize for more than six decades that something may be wrong after all contact with the rest of the universe breaks off.

You are pretty far from the old canon origins in FM: Periphery which clearly states that the Niops Association was founded by the Star League Astronomical Office to study stellar evolution.  It was founded 23 years (2741) before FM:SLDF (2764) was put together, yet somehow a secret, self-sufficient research colony founded to study stellar evolution grew enough to not only declare its independence and reorganize itself as an independent periphery state but also be able to produce an excess amount of supplies to make a dent in a SLDF Corps' material shortfall?
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glitterboy2098

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #512 on: 12 July 2014, 13:56:19 »
Your right.. scientific organization's don't set up colonies. They set up up outposts. Couple hundred people tops with a bunch of automated science gear.
So why did niops get a full blown colony complete with industry? Your argument against my suggestion is a bigger argument against your own stance.

Because I'm not saying the scientific organization did it. Because I'm saying that when the SLAO set up the niops outpost, entrepenuers in positions aware of it saw a possibility, and set up an business venture seperate from the SLAO, to found a full blown colony. That the colony and the SLAO research outpost started as separate entities, that just shared the same location.

The difficult issue is what a niops colony venture might be able to produce profit on or promise they can make profit from when getting investors, but if you figure the colony venture focused on science not under the SLAO plan, and sold the idea of it as being an isolated self sufficient think tank it it starts to explain a lot about niops in later times.. would also explain some of the industry.. it was to help produce specialized hardware needed to test exotic scientific ideas.
« Last Edit: 12 July 2014, 14:07:20 by glitterboy2098 »

Archangel

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #513 on: 12 July 2014, 16:56:14 »
Your right.. scientific organization's don't set up colonies. They set up up outposts. Couple hundred people tops with a bunch of automated science gear.
So why did niops get a full blown colony complete with industry? Your argument against my suggestion is a bigger argument against your own stance.

Well apparently you don't know what my stance is.  My stance has been that the new retcon is not in keeping with the original fluff of the Niops Association whereas you are looking for a way that the chances are still in keeping with the original fluff.

Could just be the support settlements for the science stuff were founded as an incorporated venture, like how a lot of real world colonies were bankrolled.. that would give it a pseudo government right from the start. One made of investors and corporate reps. That would seem to fit the older fluff, iirc.

Quote
Because I'm not saying the scientific organization did it. Because I'm saying that when the SLAO set up the niops outpost, entrepenuers in positions aware of it saw a possibility, and set up an business venture seperate from the SLAO, to found a full blown colony. That the colony and the SLAO research outpost started as separate entities, that just shared the same location.

Even the addition of outside parties to the original fluff would not lead the colony to becoming a "minor Periphery state."  The original fluff also clearly states that at the time of the arrival of the Capellan refugees Niops was still only an astronomical research station (FM:P, p 120).  According to the original fluff, the Niops Association dropped off the Inner Sphere radar and lost all contact with the Inner Sphere which the involvement of other parties and trade ties with the Inner Sphere would have made much more difficult.  Not only do you have the outside parties including scientific groups (and related institutions) that would have been aware of the existence of Niops, but you have the JumpShips/DropShips who facilitated the establishment of the additional group and the Star League from the SL's Department of Communications adding their HPG to the Communications Network to facilitate trade negotiations to the Star League establishing an embassy of sorts to help facilitate political negotiations.  Finally, your proposal would mean that the government and social strata would have already been established prior to the fall of the Star League while the original fluff clearly states that this happened after the Capellan refugees arrived (p111).

There are simply too many inconsistencies to reconcile the two without have to resort to making one excuse after another (which you are apparently doing).  Therefore the retcon FM:SLDF is inconsistent with the original fluff.

This was Øystein's response to:

Personally I find the retconning surrounding the Niops Associations' origins.  Originally it was an isolated scientific outpost that missed the Amaris Coup that didn't become an independent state until after the Succession Wars began.  Now its supposed to have been a fledgling Periphery State before the fall of the Star League (per FM:SLDF)?
Huh?

Niops is on the map because they were settled by then. This is nothing new. You'll note that there is no legend with the name "Niops Association" with it. This is because, as you correctly say, the NA didn't get founded until later. But the world were settled by the 2750s. And all settled worlds of Great House are shown on maps.

Øystein

Niops was founded prior to the fall of the Star League, but the Niops Association wasn't founded until after the fall of the Star League.  His response pretty much sums up mine when I first read the section in FM: SLDF: "Huh?".
« Last Edit: 12 July 2014, 17:01:17 by Archangel »
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Giovanni Blasini

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #514 on: 16 January 2015, 21:20:18 »
OK, so, things have been quiet in the Niops thread lately, and after seeing the Marian thread recently talking about what designs the Hegemony should produce, I revisited the idea for Niops: if and when Niops rebuilds their local military hardware manufacturing, what should they look into building?

Because Niops' industry has been beaten down to almost nothing, I decided to exclusively look at two tech bases: Primitive and Intro tech.  For the most part, I'm sticking to designs that Niops would either have likely have access to as a former Star League colony, or that are readily-available and common in the Periphery.  I've also tried to find as much overlap with fusion engines as possible, to cut down on the number of production lines they'd need, and prefer to minimize the number of weapons types that need to be manufactured, maintained, and fed as well.  I've also stuck exclusively to stock, canon designs

So, let's start with Intro Tech, shall we?  We know, from canon, that Niops expressly produced three named designs: the Black Knight, the Highlander and the Burke.

The Burke gives us a 150-rating engine, but uses ferro fibrous armor, so it's actually outside my criteria.  Should Niops continue to be able to produce its engines and PPCs, though, you can get the SPD-502 Spad, and that same engine could get you introtech Commandos like the COM-2D - according to the MUL, it's Periphery General in the early Republic era, so that's feasible.  The FFL-4A Firefly, an intro tech version of an old Star League design, would be another possibility.  The problem, of course, is there's almost no weapons commonality between the three designs.

The 270-rating engine opens up a few more doors.  first, you can keep intro-tech Highlanders, like the HGN-733P, in production, and also get the intro tech Phoenix Hawk, Hussar, Tomahawk and Ahab available to you.  I could not, however, find any intro tech vehicles that used the 270 standard fusion, and the AHB-X and Highlander also use a crapload of different weapons.  There is good overlap between the PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk and THK-33 Tomahawk, though, as well as with the HSR-300-D Hussar.

The 300 Vlar opens up huge numbers of doors.  You've got two intro-tech versions of the Black Knight (one with a PPC, LLs, MLs, and an SL, and the other with just LLs, MLs and SLs), the Marauder, the Orion, Atlas, intro-tech Mackie, intro-tech King Crab, intro-tech Champion, the Ostsol, the Chameleon, the Eagle, the Stuka, the Thunderbird and, for a tank, the Merkava Mk VIII.  If you've got the 300-rating engine, you're golden for frontline combatants.

Another one I looked into was the Vlar 160, which is used by the AM-PRM-SH1 Space Hound ProspectorMech, something I could see Niops and Interstellar Expeditions working together to build a production line for to aid in mining asteroids for germanium.  It's only got a single small laser, but the Vlar 160 was also used on the Whitworth, Locust and intro-tech Mercury.  The Locust and Mercury both have all-energy configs, which would cut down on logistics, too.

With the 300, the 270 and the 160, your best bet would probably be to build the following:

MCY-98 Mercury
Space Hound
PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk
BL-7-KNT Black Knight
Merkava Mk VIII tank
HGN-733P Highlander
Eagle ASF
AHB-X Ahab ASF

That puts your recon and your industrial 'Mech using one engine, your medium strike 'Mech, mainline BattleMech and main battle tank using another, and assault 'Mech and anti-ship ASF using the third.  It also gives you redundancy should there be an issue with one of those engine production lines.  There's overlap between the weapons production, too.  If you can't produce one of the three engines, you've got other solid options, as well.

Now, here's the tricky part:  what if they're stuck at a Primitive tech base for a while?

If that's the case, you're going to want to have as much overlap as possible, again, but this time you're starting from scratch.  Worse, exactly one of your old engines, the 270-rating, is used by a primitive design (the primitive EGL-R1 Eagle).  Ideally, assuming you'll be able to use these same fusion engines later down the road for intro or standard tech designs (see my rules board question), you'll not only want to maximize the number of designs you can use now, but also want to maximize your upgrade paths.  Vehicles, if you're this bad off, are probably going to be based on older primitive support vehicle tech, which don't use the same engines, sadly.

This, in the end, boils down into five engines: the 180-rating, the 220-rating, the 240-rating, the 255-rating and the 360-rating.

With the 180-rating, out the door, you could build the primitive Lightning and Helepolis, which gives you a useful aerospace fighter and an artillery 'Mech.  Your upgrade path to intro tech gains you 'Mechs like the Javelin and Blackjack, but also the intro-tech Wyvern and, when you eventually get back to your original tech base, the SLDF Wyvern and Galahad.  I've not, though, been able to find any intro-tech fighters or vehicles that use this engine.

The 220-rating may seem odd at first, but it gives you the original Kyudo, the Star Dagger ASF, and the primitive Centurion ASF.  Your upgrade paths here are weird: you end up replacing the Star Dagger or Centurion ASF with the SB-27 Sabre, and gain the ability to produce the intro-tech versions of the Prowler explorer vehicle, a unit that was highly popular with Explorer Corps, and one that Interstellar Expeditions might like, but which could also double as a decent infantry carrier for the Militia.

The 240-rating engine is, of course, a popular engine at the intro-tech level.  For primitive tech, it may only get you the SHD-1R Shadow Hawk and RFL-1N Rifleman, but moving up to intro tech your upgrade path gets you the RFL-3N and RFL-3C Rifleman, the various intro-tech Merlins, the intro-tech Lancelot, and the F-90 Stingray.

The 255-rating gives you an interesting starting point: the retrotech SPR-DH Sparrowhawk, with its MLs and ERSLs, and the ancient BKX-1X Battleaxe, with its large lasers, LRM-5s and SRM-6.  When you finally get an intro tech base back, you also get the Stalker, which everyone loves, the dumbed-down Crockett, the Longbow 7Q, and two useful vehicles once you can produce standard/Star League tech: the Thor and the Glory.

Lastly, there's the 360-rating engine.  This, of course, gives you the prototype Mackie 5S with its PPC, LL and AC/5, the production Mackie 6S with its PPC, twin MLs and AC/10, and, importantly, the primitive HMR-HA Hammerhead with its twin MLs.  Upgrading from here, though, is weird, because the only thing I could find that uses the same engine was the Cyclops - a decent enough 'Mech, but still kind of limiting.

If you're stuck at this level, then you should probably stick to two engines, at which point I'd say your best bet is to either do the 220 or the 240, and the 255 or the 360, depending on which plans you can get.

The 220-rating and 240-rating are both pretty safe options, since the primitive Kyudo, Star Dagger, Shadow Hawk and Rifleman were all Terran Hegemony designs, as was the Prowler.  You're probably going to be able to get the Sabre, too, without much difficulty.  The Shadow Hawk or Kyudo would give you a solid trooper, as well.

The 255-rating is tricky:  both primitive designs that use this engine are foreign, and may be hard to get ahold of.  With the 360-rating, though, you've got two solid Terran Hegemony primitive designs, which would serve well in the NAM: the primitive Hammerhead is quick enough and has solid enough armor to fulfill the role of general-purpose fighter, and the Mackie, despite being primitive, is a solid assault.

In the end, I'd probably say build production lines for the 240 and 360 fusion engines, then start building the following designs:

SHD-1R Shadow Hawk
RFL-1N Rifleman
MSK-5S Mackie
HMR-HA Hammerhead

That requires you to build the PPC, the large laser, the AC/5, and the medium laser.  Your Mackie and Shadow Hawk share AC/5s, your Hammerhead, Rifleman and Mackie share large lasers, the Shadow Hawk and Rifleman share medium lasers, and the only odd duck out is the PPC on the Mackie, but you're still building only a limited number of 'Mechs, getting you a trooper, a fire support 'Mech, an assault 'Mech, and a general-purpose fighter, and your forces still have a distinct Star League feel, even if it's a retro one.

(I've attached the spreadsheet I used to work all this up, BTW.)
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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #515 on: 18 January 2015, 09:24:35 »
Nice work, while I see the logic I think they would also need to factor in other points.

1. Who are your likely opponents. Marian's may raid but have lost interest in an invasion, FWL is busy but may still do a recon in force, Pirates will be the biggest problem.

2. My take on Niops is that they are still healing from bitter internal stresses. A mech with M Guns and SRM's will help with civil unrest (also good for anti infantry)

3. Any design picked needs to give them the best bang for the buck. It will need to be multi roll, have decent armor, and some what heat efficient to compete with modern designs.

My pick would be the Battleaxe 1X. It has LRM's for fire support , Large Lasers for hole punching, SRM and MGuns for infantry and crit seeking, it's armor allows it to take some damage before falling back, but most importantly to me it has enough Heat Sinks to fire both Large Lasers while running or adding one to it's close up fire without overheating.

Ostwar would be my second choice (better armor and good heat dissipation ) and a TBolt my third (armor and hands).

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #516 on: 18 January 2015, 09:32:43 »
Why not use FF amor? According to the dark age novels farmers can just make ff armor in their back shed.
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Giovanni Blasini

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #517 on: 18 January 2015, 10:40:36 »
What the heck novel was that in? That seems off - if it was that easy, I'd have expected to see it during the Succession Wars. ???

Also, with the loss of the workshops, Niops lost production capacity for all their old hardware, and are basically starting over from scratch.
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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #518 on: 18 January 2015, 13:59:56 »
Humm, I agree with the analysis of these would be good designs Saint pàra Nyops concerning mechs, ASF as I believe the Eagle would not be out of their way in Peripheral RATS abounds Seydlytz the same thing. As for the shield recalls that the Marian Hegemony have Ferrofibrous / case and advanced armor for battlearmor so I do not think the armor Ferrofibrous this out of range or in small quantities or by importing the Marian Hegemony or Rim commonality

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #519 on: 18 January 2015, 14:16:42 »
The very first DA novel. The one with the mining mechs. All my books are packed away from the move.
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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #520 on: 18 January 2015, 14:24:32 »
I'd start from scratch myself. A simple wheeled apc & light tank design.

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #521 on: 18 January 2015, 14:26:43 »
Not sure it was FF armor, and it was a later book- Patriot's Stand.  They also bought offworld equipment to make the more advanced armor.
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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #522 on: 18 January 2015, 14:38:50 »
That's the one. I don't remember them getting off world equipment to make it. I remember them going off world to try to hire merc... The same ones that attacked their planet. Either way, it still seemed easy for them to make it.
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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #523 on: 18 January 2015, 21:48:26 »
They bought a bunch of rusting gear with the individual pros they hired, basically set up a advanced machine shop and made the FF armor using mechanical processes to create the 'sandwhich' layers.

Gio, what about trying to get a connection to Randis and make Hawkwolfs?  Something modern . . . the other thing would be, what are their neighbors making that they could sell overruns of parts to?
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Giovanni Blasini

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #524 on: 18 January 2015, 22:43:16 »
Primitive HawkWolfs use a 290-rating engine, which, as far as I can tell, is only used by the primitive HawkWolf, the primitive Vulcan ASF, and the primitive Griffin.

Of course, Randis seems to have resolved the issue about building a different fusion engine...
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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #525 on: 19 January 2015, 13:13:40 »
About making Hawkwolfs in Niops....i can see the Hope Industrial Works selling both the primitive or/and the advanced Hawkwolf to Niops, but sharing the schematics is a little harder. If you read between the lines, i do not know how much control the HIW and/or the Knights of Randis have over the design and production of the Hawkwolf.
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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #526 on: 29 January 2015, 21:08:36 »
About making Hawkwolfs in Niops....i can see the Hope Industrial Works selling both the primitive or/and the advanced Hawkwolf to Niops, but sharing the schematics is a little harder.
Trade an embassy and land for an enclave for putting a factory on said enclave and selling Hawkwolves at market value.

What about Marshals from the Canopians?  They're not far off, don't seem to be interested in taking over the Association, and the thing's built to be a decent police Mech.

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #527 on: 30 January 2015, 00:47:49 »
Trade an embassy and land for an enclave for putting a factory on said enclave and selling Hawkwolves at market value.

The only difficulty with that is that another embassy probably won't fly on Niops. I mean, the Republic embassy is empty, and there are still protesters outside.

That said, Randis is a lot smaller than the Republic, and probably nowhere near as much of a busybody.

Quote
What about Marshals from the Canopians?  They're not far off, don't seem to be interested in taking over the Association, and the thing's built to be a decent police Mech.

That's not a bad choice at all, actually.  Certainly one of the more distinct Griffin variants out there.
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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #528 on: 30 January 2015, 06:25:21 »
One of the problems with trading with Randis is that the Brotherhood are basically a thousand light years away. Well, 998, if I got my numbers right. That's a long way to do much of anything.

For the purposes of comparison, New St. Andrews is about 210 light years away. Why not trade for their armed industrial 'Mech and develop a more modern design from it?

Alternatively, the Rim Collection is about 500 light years away, and they're churning out autocannons from Able's Hunting Arms, Ltd as well as a few basic 'Mech designs...

It's more interesting than optimal, and therefore better. O0 - Weirdo

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #529 on: 30 January 2015, 11:25:39 »
You could always trade with us Marians... ::)
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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #530 on: 30 January 2015, 11:33:13 »
Trade isn't the same as rebuilding their local infrastructure, and I have doubts Niops would invite the Marians to build a local factory.  Past interactions between Marians and Niopians on Niops worlds were occasionally... acrimonious.
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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #531 on: 30 January 2015, 11:43:36 »
In the past I could that relations have been hostile takeovers, but maybe if we provide some systems inhabited they may have in their base of astronomical data could get to convince the ATC or hadrian who are interested in investment that clear type with some commitment of production go to the Marian hegemony

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #532 on: 30 January 2015, 11:55:54 »
One of the problems with trading with Randis is that the Brotherhood are basically a thousand light years away. Well, 998, if I got my numbers right. That's a long way to do much of anything.

For the purposes of comparison, New St. Andrews is about 210 light years away. Why not trade for their armed industrial 'Mech and develop a more modern design from it?

Alternatively, the Rim Collection is about 500 light years away, and they're churning out autocannons from Able's Hunting Arms, Ltd as well as a few basic 'Mech designs...
If you're planning to make a trip to New St. Andrews, make sure you're friendly with the Marians, and do watch out for pirates as you pass the former Circinian worlds.
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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #533 on: 30 January 2015, 12:46:50 »
If you're planning to make a trip to New St. Andrews, make sure you're friendly with the Marians, and do watch out for pirates as you pass the former Circinian worlds.
There are pirates everywhere, and I suspect the local former FWL systems have no problems with trade running through their worlds if it's not supplying the Marians. Or are you happier going through the Canopians, Capellans, Taurians and FedSuns systems to get to Randis, assuming you don't run into pirates from Tortuga or the Badlands Cluster on the way? Assuming that the Regulans don't decide you're pirates anyway.
« Last Edit: 30 January 2015, 12:48:23 by BrokenMnemonic »

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #534 on: 30 January 2015, 12:50:17 »
180 SFE- Turhan tank, LB-X Carrier ( AC/20 variant),

Cooper-19 - Securitymech which is a direct lead to Commando

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Meteor - CF - Fusion Atmo-225

LTV-Hovertank - ICE
AC/2 Carrier - ICE ( Primative-4 or Standard-5 )
LRM / SRM Carrier - ICE ( Primative or Standard )
Maultier - ICE ( Basic )
T-12 Tiger tank - ICE
Marsden II tank - ICE ( Primative to II-A )

Small list...

TT
Khan, Clan Iron Dolphin
Azeroth Pocketverse
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Adacas

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #535 on: 30 January 2015, 12:58:40 »
The Marian Hegemony is closer to a space jump and even the capital is as close and where the political leadership and the headquarters of two companies with whom to negotiate

Giovanni Blasini

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #536 on: 30 January 2015, 13:43:19 »
The Marian Hegemony is closer to a space jump and even the capital is as close and where the political leadership and the headquarters of two companies with whom to negotiate

I'm still not clear on why you would think that the Niops Association, where they have "foreigners go home!" protesters outside an empty Republic of the Sphere embassy, would warmly welcome having the Marian Hegemony, who have attacked them multiple times, build permanent infrastructure in Niops, especially considering they're competitors in germanium mining.
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Adacas

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #537 on: 30 January 2015, 14:05:07 »
I'm still not clear on why you would think that the Niops Association, where they have "foreigners go home!" protesters outside an empty Republic of the Sphere embassy, would warmly welcome having the Marian Hegemony, who have attacked them multiple times, build permanent infrastructure in Niops, especially considering they're competitors in germanium mining.

Ehh, I'll give you an option ...., competitors? I doubt very much germanium we do not have a mine in a system, but mines in several systems


Arkansas Warrior

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #538 on: 30 January 2015, 15:27:31 »
There are pirates everywhere, and I suspect the local former FWL systems have no problems with trade running through their worlds if it's not supplying the Marians. Or are you happier going through the Canopians, Capellans, Taurians and FedSuns systems to get to Randis, assuming you don't run into pirates from Tortuga or the Badlands Cluster on the way? Assuming that the Regulans don't decide you're pirates anyway.
Sure, but the Circinians were the biggest, baddest Bandit Kingdom.  Best to avoid the area if at all possible, which means either traversing the MH, or taking a lengthy detour around them on the Rimward side, or all the way through the LC if you prefer a Coreward route.

As for Randis, What kind of strange route are you using?  The most direct route doesn't take you through Regulan or Canopian space, and you should be able to avoid Andurien, CC, FS, TC, or NCR territory with only a short detour.  At least, as long as you only need to avoid one.  If you need to avoid mthe FS and TC, for example, it's a much more significant detour.  But by no means should you have to go through MoC, CC, TC, FS, and Regulan space.
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Archangel

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Re: Empire of the Nerds: The Niops Association Thread
« Reply #539 on: 30 January 2015, 18:50:03 »
The biggest issue the Niops Association has is that they have little to offer in trade and would likely have to rely on the willingness of their trading partner(s) to help them out.  Not to mention their partner(s) would have to have the extra resources available to help them out.  Another considerations is that even at their height the Niops Association's ability to manufacture military equipment was limited so a trading partner would likely have to assistance with that as well.  A final consideration is that even before the Jihad the Niops Association didn't have a large JumpShip fleet.  What few they had were leftover from when refugees fleeing the Succession Wars settled on one of the Niops' worlds and were likely hit by the Blakists during their attack.  The few that were left over after that (that are still jump capable) are likely tied up transporting DropShips between the three systems.

Republic of the Sphere - Despite their disarmament policy, the Republic should have been willing to help the Niops Association establish at least a capable defense force. (Before the Blackout of course)

Regulan Fiefs - The Regulans know the feeling of have their homeworld devastated by the Blakists and have no love for either the Rim Commonality (if I recall they forced the Niops Association to permit them to establish an embassy on Niops) or the Free Worlds League so they might be willing to help although they probably would require that the Niops Association allow them to establish a forward staging base from which they could launch raids into the Rim Commonality and (later) the Free Worlds League.

Magistracy of Canopus - The Magistracy has no love for the Marion Hegemony so establishing a roadblock in to hinder Marian expansion would make sense.  With them might come some Capellan aid as well.

Duchy of Andurien - They know the feeling of being pressured by their neighbors so they might be willing to provide some assistance especially if it hinders Marian expansion into the former FWL territory.  After all if the Marians get too close, they might start expanding their raiding expeditions into Andurien territory (if they haven't done so already).

Randis - While they would probably be willing to help, they are too far away and their resources are too limited to be able to assist the Niops Association.

Fronc Reaches - They would certainly be willing to help but lack the resources to help beyond perhaps providing some instructors.

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