Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

[SVlad]

The names of the pawns being abstract makes sense, on chess the names are also abstract when one thinks about it. For example the Rook is meant to represent the raw straightforward hard power of the state, all reaching but always confined into a straight line. The bishop represents diplomacy and treachery, not straightforward and only confined to one avenue of accomplishing things. The horse represents human unpredictability and flexibility. The King represent the head of a state, the one who is obeyed, all powerful and moving but always visible to all and thus limited in actions. The Queen represents the best of all, the elite that a nation calls upon when they are needed. The pawns are interested, the average person, weak as an individual but can harm anyone who fails to take them seriously especially if the earn the experience necessary to be counted as an elite.

Very interesting. And what do you think about Russian names, where "bishop" named "elephant", rook - "longship" and "queen" - "vizier"?

[dragoongfa]

Depends on the cultural weight the words had when chess took hold of Russian society.

Early Russians were Sea Raiders like the Vikings, the assaults on Byzantium and Constantinople being well known so I can see how the Rook can be seen as a Longship since the longship was a force 'projector' of Russian force.

The queen being seen as a Vizier, this probably comes from the Mongol influence on Russians. The Mongols used Viziers to describe the local ministers and overall lords.

Elephant for Bishop, that would probably be a cultural parallel to the Rook. Large animals that Russians knew very little about. Like ships of the land in terms of strength but tamperamental so they always move diagonally.

[Werra]

Since chess came from India and Persia, the names of the pieces might simply be taken from those cultures. Makes sense for chess to have elephants and viziers this way.

Perhabs the discussion about crossfire and chess should be moved into its own thread?

[Hālian]

What is that I hear? Did someone say forum-wide Crossfire play-testing...?

I'm totally down. *fires up Tabletop Simulator*

[folti]

The names of the pawns being abstract makes sense, on chess the names are also abstract when one thinks about it. For example the Rook is meant to represent the raw straightforward hard power of the state, all reaching but always confined into a straight line. The bishop represents diplomacy and treachery, not straightforward and only confined to one avenue of accomplishing things. The horse represents human unpredictability and flexibility. The King represent the head of a state, the one who is obeyed, all powerful and moving but always visible to all and thus limited in actions. The Queen represents the best of all, the elite that a nation calls upon when they are needed. The pawns are interested, the average person, weak as an individual but can harm anyone who fails to take them seriously especially if the earn the experience necessary to be counted as an elite.

Very interesting. And what do you think about Russian names, where "bishop" named "elephant", rook - "longship" and "queen" - "vizier"?

Keep in mind, that the names and the capabilities of the units changed over time, and due to cultural influences. Like queen and bishop were weak units until the late 15th century when they have been promoted by rule changes, some coming from a line of ruling queens and other female rulers in the Iberian and Italian peninsulas.

Names are also a mixture of local tradition and/or influences.
Like in Hungarian:
pawn - either gyalog (shortened version of gyalogos, literally footsoldier) or paraszt (peasant)
rook - bástya (bastion)
bishop - futó (runner)
knight - ló (horse) or csikó (colt)
queen - vezér (leader or prince)

[Zorg56]

Is there any mine fields near important systems?

[Arioch]

Is there any mine fields near important systems?

No. Mines don't really work well in space. Space is too big compared to the small area of effect of an explosion, mines don't stay put (they must orbit or will fall toward the nearest mass), and they are too easy to detect and avoid.

[Zorg56]

Well i dont meant stationary mines like in WW2, i meant somthing more like mines from Dead Space 3, when they detect target they move.
If you have 1000 of this things in jump space you will be able to cripple even Battleship.

[Arioch]

Well i dont meant stationary mines like in WW2, i meant somthing more like mines from Dead Space 3, when they detect target they move.
If you have 1000 of this things in jump space you will be able to cripple even Battleship.

Even if they were essentially torpedoes, I don't think they would work very well. 1000 torpedoes in a jump zone would be spread across millions of cubic kilometers; only a few would be close enough to attack any given ship, and they'd be very easy to shoot down. And 1000 torpedoes are pretty expensive; I think you could find better uses for them.

The advantage of naval mines is that they're inexpensive, concealed, and they mostly stay where you put them. None of these things would be true of mines in space.

[boldilocks]

Well i dont meant stationary mines like in WW2, i meant somthing more like mines from Dead Space 3, when they detect target they move.
If you have 1000 of this things in jump space you will be able to cripple even Battleship.

If the mines detect something 10 thousand miles away and start moving towards it at the necessary speed to ever reach it, then you're dealing more with missiles than with mines.

[SVlad]

Due to orbital rotation any passive object like torpedo would leave a 1 000 000 km zone after a week or two depending on orbital height.
So torpedo platforms should have it's own maneuver engines.
Also the platform should have some detecting and monitoring equipment. The torpedo itself have some tracking equipment, but target search and recognition require more complex equipment.

And some numbers: if you want to create a flat wall of torpedoes (not even a sphere) a 1 000 000 km in diameter with platform every 10 000 km, you need approximately 1800 such launch platforms.and every platform is more like gunboat with own engines and radars.

[Werra]

Do Torrai ranks differentiate between Torrai from Soroin and Tenoin and Torrai from other castes?

For example, if a Gallen gets promoted to Torrai for the internal hierarchy of the Gallen caste, does her rank show her former caste? And if so, what would that look like?

[Arioch]

Do Torrai ranks differentiate between Torrai from Soroin and Tenoin and Torrai from other castes?

For example, if a Gallen gets promoted to Torrai for the internal hierarchy of the Gallen caste, does her rank show her former caste? And if so, what would that look like?

Sort of. Most of the Torrai titles are fairly specific, and often require a specific background. For example, a Torret would be the commander of a ship (and therefore a former Soroin or Tenoin), whereas a Gallen who reached an equivalent Torrai rank would have a different administrative title.

[Werra]

Say Teidar A telekinetically pushes Teidar B, can Teidar B then defend herself? If so is that automatic or does she have to spent conscious effort on her defense?

If it's automatic, does that mean that the weaker Teidar can't ever push the stronger Teidar? (barring other forms of attack, for simplicities sake)

If it's not automatic, doesn't that mean that all Teidar battles are decided by speed and surprise?

[Arioch]

Say Teidar A telekinetically pushes Teidar B, can Teidar B then defend herself? If so is that automatic or does she have to spent conscious effort on her defense?

If it's automatic, does that mean that the weaker Teidar can't ever push the stronger Teidar? (barring other forms of attack, for simplicities sake)

If it's not automatic, doesn't that mean that all Teidar battles are decided by speed and surprise?

Two psychokinetics can apply different forces to the same object, and one can try to counter the other, but it's not automatic, and the second PK needs to have some way of observing what the force to be countered is. Reaction time is a factor, and if one PK is trying to "break" the object rather than just move it and is powerful enough to do it quickly, this will be very difficult to counter. So PK vs. PK Teidar battles are a little bit like a quick-draw contest.

[Werra]

Did the quick nature of such combat reflect in uniforms for Teidar on ancient Deinar? I can't imagine it smart to have your Teidar stick out in that case.

[GabrielGABFonseca]

Now that the topic of sanitation has been dealt with and appropriately crossed from my Little Questions Notebook, the next topic seems to be... Loroi! So, questions for the questions god, answers for the answer throne!

(...)

Regarding Loroi Style:
- If, hypothetically speaking, the shuttle our Fearsome Foursome now find themselves on was, oh, I don't know, hit by an Umiak EMP missile, would Alex be indiscernible in the darkness due to the terrible human oversight of not having cool glowy-bits on their uniforms? (A vital flaw, I say!)

I have only one thing to say:

SpoilerShow

[Zorg56]

Not sure where i can ask this...

Supreme commander tech level by your standarts?
Soia had mass fabricators or somthing like this?

[Arioch]

Supreme commander tech level by your standarts?
Soia had mass fabricators or somthing like this?

I haven't played Supreme Commander, so I'm not familiar with the setting.

Most of the recovered Soia-era artifacts tend to be from settlements of the various "subject" civilizations, and so are thought to be kind of "hand me down" technology. Not much is known about what the apex Soia tech was like, or how it was manufactured (no remains of the legendary "dread-stars" have ever been found).

I think if we extrapolate our improving 3D printing capabilities into the future, we can guess that ultra-tech fabrication techniques will be very sophisticated. But I think they will fall short of the far-reaching direct energy-to-matter synthesis that we see in many RTS games (or Star Trek's transporters/replicators) until you get up to TL 14 or so.

[novius]

Most of the recovered Soia-era artifacts tend to be from settlements of the various "subject" civilizations, and so are thought to be kind of "hand me down" technology. Not much is known about what the apex Soia tech was like, or how it was manufactured (no remains of the legendary "dread-stars" have ever been found).

Which sort of begs the next question: How much of the current Loroi tech base is

1. directly copied from what they dug out of some ruin one time (amplifiers may be one thing)
2. based on Soia tech, and simply scaled up or down to its current use (like jump drives, they found just one design, but incorporated it on various ship classes)
3. based on Soia tech, but adapted/improved to its current use (as in, they may or may not have made substantial changes to a design and used the result for a different purpose than it was originally intended to - think Sildenafil, it was originally developed to treat headaches and heartburn, but is nowadays solved to cure a completely different ailment)
4. completely invented on their own

This question may be extended to the other races as well and would be interesting to follow up, as it says much about the mentality of the given species.

Slightly off-topic:

SpoilerShow

Am I too much of a nerd if I can translate this

"Enzin tii Eilis mé sibreg ranii tó lanzedad..."

good enough to discern the meaning without using the dictionary...?