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Author Topic: Precursor Battleship wisdom by Valaggar Redux  (Read 19849 times)
Cyamarin
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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #15 on: February 07, 2003, 02:31:55 am »

I think you're absolutely right.  But it's worth taking into account that the other races--even humans, for some reason--are so stubbornly conservative in their ship design that they only have ONE kind of ship, even if (as in the case of the humans) it has some glaring weaknesses.

So, sure it's understandable that if the Precursors had two different kinds of ships, they would look different.  But if you look at, say, the Spathi, and notice that they have a million ships, all of which look exactly the same, and you look at the Precursors, who as far as we've discovered have two ships, and they're WILDLY different not only in appearance but in technology (The Sa-Matra looked almost organic)...well, you have to wonder.
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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #16 on: February 07, 2003, 03:07:18 am »

Actually, I recognized everything on the SC2 box pretty quickly.  The massive ship looked more like the Precursor tug to me than the Sa-Matra, especially with its side extensions.  That front part on top could easily be a crew pod (windows?).

As far as the tiny ships go, I see an Earthling Cruiser, a Yehat Terminator, a Syreen Penetrator, a really weird looking Spathi Eluder (the ball parts aren't balls; they're flattish things that look almost like miniatures cities), and what looks like a Mmrnmhrm X-Form with a missing top-right wing.  Or that might be a Vux Intruder.  If it is, the wings bend down for some reason though.  At any rate, they're all ships in the game, they're just painted gray/black/white, not psychadelic as in game versions tend to come.
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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #17 on: February 07, 2003, 03:27:57 am »

I guess one of the things that make the Precursors so mysterious is that they don't tell us anything much about them Tongue

I didn't get the idea behind the the Sa-Matra's form either; it really does seem somewhat organic, when you think of it!

Though if you think of it carefully, what we see is a 2D CUT of the ship. I think the asteroid shell is in fact covering it from all sides, so what you see is a giant asteroid with a force field in the middle..
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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #18 on: February 07, 2003, 04:20:43 am »

Which naturally raises the question:  if you were designing a ship, and it was surrounded by a fused asteroid shell + stasis field, wouldn't it be a better idea to put the shield generators on the INSIDE of the shell, so that they're protected from attack?

I guess we know why the Precursors aren't around anymore  Smiley
« Last Edit: February 07, 2003, 04:21:35 am by Nic. » Logged
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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #19 on: February 07, 2003, 04:34:45 am »

Actually I always thought the shield generators were put there by the Ur-Quan...

As for them being outside the shield, well...

Just step around the holes in the plot!

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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #20 on: February 07, 2003, 02:12:44 pm »

Another possibility is that the ships were built at very large time intervals. The tug we happily drive around in could have been a standard vechicel inm the Early Days of Precursorness. Later on,  a few thousand (or hundred thousand) years later, when the universe suddenly seemed darker and grimmer, their technology had advanced far enough to build quite different looking vechicles. The Sa-Matra might just be of a later time period.

Look at our own technology as an example. the good old Caravels and such and even older floats like Kon-Tiki don't look much like todays wild speedboats or oil Tankers. In their case the shape is still somewhat resembling, but who knows what new technologies the Precurosrs came up with?
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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #21 on: February 07, 2003, 04:07:41 pm »

Considering the fireballs and green things were created by the Ur-Quan to protect the Sa-Matra, that would make sense to say the Ur-Quan created the generators. I guess they put 'em outside since inside the shell you wouldn't be able to hit them Wink

Plus they (generators) might need some weird hyper-contact with the great balls of fire!
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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #22 on: February 07, 2003, 06:51:10 pm »

Maybe the shield generators run off sunlight? Enviromental friendly while enslaving galaxy. "Go green! You know it's right."
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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #23 on: February 07, 2003, 07:33:01 pm »

Well, you could always that that due to the physics of the matter, shield generators must be on the outside of the shield they generate.  That actually seems realistic, as the shield must be generated from some point within the generator.

Then the real problem becomes, why didn't they just have another set of shield generators to protect the original shield generators??  Yes, this is obviously because then we wouldn't have been able to beat the game Roll Eyes ...but, there are some potential explanations (for instance, you can't have two shields in close proximity to one another because the frequencies would conflict and everything would go Boom, or something).  Such explanations are far-fectched, but possible.
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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #24 on: February 08, 2003, 12:13:52 am »

Perhaps the Sa-Matra resembles a predatory creature that the Precursors thought looked threatening; something aquatic (or even space-based).
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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #25 on: February 08, 2003, 02:03:10 am »

heres some thing else to add to the madness, it took less than 10 yrs for all the precursors to disapear. question? what could do that to star faring race?: disease? war? genocide? hmm plus they just left all there goodies lying around tossed aside like old toys. better question is what would make u leave your technology behind?
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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #26 on: February 08, 2003, 05:37:32 am »

In the Mutineers Moon (etc.) Novels, the Super Advanced Race was wiped out almost instantly by a highly contagious infection which spread by a teleportation device.  They had advanced to the point where teleportation was possible, and unfortunately diseases also made it from point A to point B almost instantly too.  Just a thought.

As for the shields, maybe they needed space to cool them?
« Last Edit: February 11, 2003, 08:18:02 am by Fotsev » Logged

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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #27 on: February 08, 2003, 11:19:07 am »

That doesn't make much sense either.  Its actually very hard to cool things in space, because there's no air to absorb the heat.  You'd have to have some kind of microwave-style coolant system that transmits the heat.  Thats why cooling things on the space shuttle is such a tricky business.  Most of it is done with water coolant systems that just take forever.  You can get cold in space, but it takes a long time to do that.
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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #28 on: February 08, 2003, 01:43:52 pm »

Ah the shields.. such a fascinating problem Smiley

Maybe the shield generators are on the outside because the Quan never expected an attack on the Sa-Matra itself? They might be there sort of "just in case even though we KNOW it's not gonna happen". I mean, when the Sa-Matra is active, noone is going to get that close anyway, so where the generarators are isn't a problem. And when it's not, there's a HUGE fleet of battleships protecting it, the Quans probably didn't count on anyone having a Dnyarri with them.

A perimeter defense that's there just to look good, cuz noone is ever gonna make it that far anyway. Probably not, but it's one idea Smiley
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Re: you guys are missing the point
« Reply #29 on: August 22, 2007, 12:12:05 pm »

You guys are missing the point. The problem is simple: Excessive protection for their Great Trophy would be demeaning for the Ur-Quan. It is a weakness to require additional protection for your best weapon. The protection was placed there just to deter Kohr-Ah or Kzer-Za combatants in the Doctrinal Conflict to cheat by using the Sa-Matra, and it was the least protection required for that - the Ur-Quan philosophy seems to be "It is a weakness to use any more effort than required to do your job" - see how they used the Sa-Matra only in the end of the War, when it was clear that it was necessary.
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