Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

[Krulle]

What is the trade word for vermin?

Umiak. Or, depending on the local dialect, Loroi.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[joestej]

Both Deinar and Taben are planets seeded with Soia Liron lifeforms, so I think that it is safe to assume that most of the niche stuff of missing organism is handled through a limited number of these planted organisms.

I assumed as much. I was just surprised that some breed of harmless insect wasn't among those seeded, and figured I would check to see if there were a bunch of non-bugs that filled the vacuum, or if the plants/animals on the Sister Worlds have some freaky biology that make pollinators/decomposers/etc unnecessary.

[Arioch]

The introduced Soia-liron organisms are engineered farm crops and livestock. Such plants probably won't need external pollinators. Sexual reproduction is important in natural organisms to help drive evolution, but in an engineered crop sex may be unnecessary or even undesirable. The Soia-liron animals do reproduce sexually, and so they will have changed more rapidly and filled many available niches, but there's a limit to how radically the equivalent of chickens, pigs, goats and cows can evolve in ~200,000 years, so there will still be significant unfilled niches in the ecology of these worlds.

Deinar's native life is still at the microscopic level, so all visible flora and fauna are imported.

Taben's native life is more advanced and includes shark/ray-like cartilaginous swimmers and some primitive fern-like terrestrial plants, but almost no land animals (marine arthropod equivalents exist, but haven't yet made it onto land). Without any pollinators, native land plants will have to use wind-carried spores for reproduction (as many Earth plants still do), and will have no flowers or fruit.

An Earth colony might bring bees as pollinators for fruit-bearing trees... I don't think most grassy crops like wheat need external pollinators. It would be interesting to see how well bees could fill other niches on a primitive alien world like Deinar... whether workers would go rogue and start reproducing on their own, or whether the rigid social structure of bee society and control over reproduction would prevent or limit rapid diversification.

[Mr Bojangles]

What is the trade word for vermin?
What is the trade word for bugs or insects?

None of the Sister Worlds has a direct analogue to the insect (a small exoskeletal land organism). On Deinar and Taben, most land animals are introduced higher animals. Perrein has a variety of native creepy-crawlies, which tend to be less of a nuisance and more of a danger.

lanal means "pest" (a nuisance organism).
naga means "feral/wild" and has more dangerous connotations; on Deinar, most pests are feral versions of livestock animals.
rollat means plague or contagion.
sori is a class of "hypersquid" organisms on Perrein of various sizes that cause a lot of trouble.
sirar is a small soft-bodied flying creature that is not an insect, but is analogous in size and annoyance factor to a fly or small moth.

The sori - I get the squid part, but what makes them "hyper?" High intelligence?

[Razor One]

I'm going with it being Ika Musume.



Because that would be hilarious.

[Mr Bojangles]

I'm going with it being Ika Musume.

SpoilerShow

Because that would be hilarious.

Squid Girl is waaaay better than what I was thinking. Any way we could convince you to make that canon, Arioch?

[cacambo43]

I'm going with it being Ika Musume.



Because that would be hilarious.

THIS.

CJSF

[joestej]

The introduced Soia-liron organisms are engineered farm crops and livestock. Such plants probably won't need external pollinators. Sexual reproduction is important in natural organisms to help drive evolution, but in an engineered crop sex may be unnecessary or even undesirable. The Soia-liron animals do reproduce sexually, and so they will have changed more rapidly and filled many available niches, but there's a limit to how radically the equivalent of chickens, pigs, goats and cows can evolve in ~200,000 years, so there will still be significant unfilled niches in the ecology of these worlds.

Deinar's native life is still at the microscopic level, so all visible flora and fauna are imported.

Taben's native life is more advanced and includes shark/ray-like cartilaginous swimmers and some primitive fern-like terrestrial plants, but almost no land animals (marine arthropod equivalents exist, but haven't yet made it onto land). Without any pollinators, native land plants will have to use wind-carried spores for reproduction (as many Earth plants still do), and will have no flowers or fruit.

An Earth colony might bring bees as pollinators for fruit-bearing trees... I don't think most grassy crops like wheat need external pollinators. It would be interesting to see how well bees could fill other niches on a primitive alien world like Deinar... whether workers would go rogue and start reproducing on their own, or whether the rigid social structure of bee society and control over reproduction would prevent or limit rapid diversification.

I was also concerned about their use as decomposers and food sources for higher lifeforms, but if the biospheres of the Sister Worlds consist almost entirely of life forms genetically engineered for agriculture a variety of work-arounds would naturally be present. Thanks for the clarification!

[Tamri]

There are several questions, basically - armament:

1) Why Blisters listed as melee weapons, designed to increase the hit probability that the torpedoes and protection for enemy anti-missile defense, if the appointment of cluster munitions as a rule - to deliver the warhead to a distance of defeat and damaged the maximum area. Would not be more logical to make them more long-range and distance sub-munitions start - on the border of active missile defense opponent? This would deliver a weighty volleys of torpedoes from a safe distance, because even if the blister is attacking with a fixed platform, he singly isn't necessary to hit the target, and then some (most) of the way he can fly on a ballistic trajectory.

2) Why the variation of flight time per unit of fuel from the torpedoes?

10 sec per unit of fuels at acceleration of 60 G to USR - 12 Mm - 200sec

12 sec per unit of fuels at acceleration of 50 G to SR - 360 Mm - 1200sec

12 sec per unit of fuels at acceleration of 45 G to MR - 1.296 Gm(Gigameter) - 2400sec

8 sec per unit of fuels at acceleration of 60 G to LR - 1.728 Gm - 2400sec

~ 14.4 seconds per unit fuels the acceleration of 40 G to DXAB - 103.68 Mm - 720sec

On average, out ~ 2sec 10 G; Oh, and I believed, based on the start of a zero rate.

As can be seen from the calculations, for Loroi fuel consumption per unit of time is different in different ammunition 20 percent for equal acceleration, but equally for small and medium-sized torpedoes, despite the fact that the calculated maximum range of 4 different times, and the acceleration is less than the average of 10%. Perhaps justified different masses torpedoes \ blisters, but 10-20% efficiency here and there look strange;

3) the issue of the ammo for ship AMM weapons. Actually calculations:

On a standard launcher - 3 rails with 12-round cylinder each, and the same amount in the reserve store. For "Rapier" - charging 20-mesh launcher, as this support ship, assume five-six times the stock missile. Total obtain ammo 72 missiles on a standard launcher, and 120-140 missiles on the "boxed" launcher.

In "Rapier" with all + - normally, 200 missiles to get two boxes we have 5 full clips at launcher.

But all the others:
"Eye of Heaven" - no AMM launchers, but the missiles themselves as much as 200 pieces. How he launches it!?
"Lone Fire" - which means "1x6 launchers?" 6-barrel launcher? Or 6 standard combined in the battery? In the first case the ammunition obtained 6 * 12 = 72 + spare missile store of the same capacity, we get 144 missiles. In the second case 6 * 36 = 216 + stock of missiles - only 432 missiles. We have ammo - 100 missiles. How!?
"Vortex Mk.2" - again, this is "1x6". The situation is similar.
"Halberd Mk.17" - here is "1x3", but the question is the same. We get ammunition respectively 72 or 216 missiles. We have 64. Where are the others!?
"Greatsword" - "2x3". Ammunition, respectively - 144 or 432 missiles. We have 128. The same question.
"Swift Vanguard" - "1x6". The necessary ammunition - 144/432 missiles. We only 64. He was even one of the full store is not enough.
"Katana" - "1x3". The right amount above, and we have all the same 64 missiles.

In short, all the other ships of the situation is similar, the only issue in these "1x6", "1x3", "2x3", etc.

PS: Sorry for my bad english, if there are errors.

[Arioch]

1) Why Blisters listed as melee weapons, designed to increase the hit probability that the torpedoes and protection for enemy anti-missile defense, if the appointment of cluster munitions as a rule - to deliver the warhead to a distance of defeat and damaged the maximum area. Would not be more logical to make them more long-range and distance sub-munitions start - on the border of active missile defense opponent? This would deliver a weighty volleys of torpedoes from a safe distance, because even if the blister is attacking with a fixed platform, he singly isn't necessary to hit the target, and then some (most) of the way he can fly on a ballistic trajectory.

"Range" for missiles in space is essentially unlimited; all that is limited is fuel burn time. Many missiles, especially when fired from longer range, will coast for a significant portion of the flight time to conserve fuel (which is also the payload). You can load a DX blister up with larger torpedoes (as is indicated in the entry), but the main thing that the blister offers is protection for the submunitions, which is not as important at long range. If all you want is to increase range/burn time, a simple booster for each torpedo would probably be much cheaper than the shuttle-sized blister.

2) Why the variation of flight time per unit of fuel from the torpedoes?

I eyeballed the numbers, so I'm impressed that they're within 20% of each other. But I think a 20% variation in fuel efficiency seems reasonable given the widely varying masses, accelerations, and configurations of these different munitions. If and when I try to make a working simulation out of these data, the numbers will have to be more precisely formulated.

3) the issue of the ammo for ship AMM weapons. Actually calculations:

On a standard launcher - 3 rails with 12-round cylinder each, and the same amount in the reserve store. For "Rapier" - charging 20-mesh launcher, as this support ship, assume five-six times the stock missile. Total obtain ammo 72 missiles on a standard launcher, and 120-140 missiles on the "boxed" launcher.

In "Rapier" with all + - normally, 200 missiles to get two boxes we have 5 full clips at launcher.

But all the others:
"Eye of Heaven" - no AMM launchers, but the missiles themselves as much as 200 pieces. How he launches it!?
"Lone Fire" - which means "1x6 launchers?" 6-barrel launcher? Or 6 standard combined in the battery? In the first case the ammunition obtained 6 * 12 = 72 + spare missile store of the same capacity, we get 144 missiles. In the second case 6 * 36 = 216 + stock of missiles - only 432 missiles. We have ammo - 100 missiles. How!?
"Vortex Mk.2" - again, this is "1x6". The situation is similar.
"Halberd Mk.17" - here is "1x3", but the question is the same. We get ammunition respectively 72 or 216 missiles. We have 64. Where are the others!?
"Greatsword" - "2x3". Ammunition, respectively - 144 or 432 missiles. We have 128. The same question.
"Swift Vanguard" - "1x6". The necessary ammunition - 144/432 missiles. We only 64. He was even one of the full store is not enough.
"Katana" - "1x3". The right amount above, and we have all the same 64 missiles.

In short, all the other ships of the situation is similar, the only issue in these "1x6", "1x3", "2x3", etc.

Although it's not mentioned in the weapons page entry, there are two types of cylindrical AMM turrets; one has 3 tubes facing the same direction, and the other has 6 tubes spaced radially around the turret (you can see the two different types atop the Tsunami and Black Razor, respectively on this page).

The "AxB" notation describes A number of turrets with B weapon mounts each. So in this case 1x6 means a single missile turret with 6 tubes; a 1x3 means a single turret with 3 tubes, and a 2x3 means two turrets with 3 tubes each. In the standard 3-tube AMM turret, each of the three tubes has a 12-round magazine, for a total of 36 rounds for the whole turret, and each tube can fire 6 rounds per minute (a total of 18 per minute for the whole turret). In the larger 6-tube turret, each of the six tubes has a 6-round magazine for a total of 36 missiles for the whole turret, with the same per-tube rate of fire as the 3-tube version. The extra munitions listed in the ordnance section include reloads. For for example, the Tempest has a single 6-tube AMM turret, and typically carries 64 reloads, for a total of 100 missiles.

Eye of Heaven does not have an AMM launcher listed; I don't exactly recall, but I think what I had in mind was that the AMM's could be launched through the 2 torpedo tubes. The ship is no longer in service and only appears in the comic as a model in Stillstorm's quarters, and the design has as yet only been roughly sketched, so it's possible that this entry will be revised in some way in the future.

The description in the weapons page could be more specific, and I will edit it when I have an opportunity.

[raistlin34]

Not sure if this question has been posted before, but her I go:
Since the Loroi are a telepathic race with no privacy of the mind, does that mean there is no corrruption in their societies (like criminal elements, or slick politicians).

[Tamri]

Not sure if this question has been posted before, but her I go:
Since the Loroi are a telepathic race with no privacy of the mind, does that mean there is no corrruption in their societies (like criminal elements, or slick politicians).

They are, but a few and very well disguised.

[Arioch]

Telepathy makes it very difficult to lie, but it doesn't completely reveal all of a person's thoughts. Corruption and criminality are difficult to conceal, but not impossible.

[Tamri]

The "AxB" notation describes A number of turrets with B weapon mounts each. So in this case 1x6 means a single missile turret with 6 tubes; a 1x3 means a single turret with 3 tubes, and a 2x3 means two turrets with 3 tubes each. In the standard 3-tube AMM turret, each of the three tubes has a 12-round magazine, for a total of 36 rounds for the whole turret, and each tube can fire 6 rounds per minute (a total of 18 per minute for the whole turret). In the larger 6-tube turret, each of the six tubes has a 6-round magazine for a total of 36 missiles for the whole turret, with the same per-tube rate of fire as the 3-tube version. The extra munitions listed in the ordnance section include reloads. For for example, the Tempest has a single 6-tube AMM turret, and typically carries 64 reloads, for a total of 100 missiles.

Eye of Heaven does not have an AMM launcher listed; I don't exactly recall, but I think what I had in mind was that the AMM's could be launched through the 2 torpedo tubes. The ship is no longer in service and only appears in the comic as a model in Stillstorm's quarters, and the design has as yet only been roughly sketched, so it's possible that this entry will be revised in some way in the future.

However, this dosn't negate the oddities with incomplete ammo. 36 + 36 would still be 72, instead of 64. Unless the cylinder is not 32 rockets.


Okay, the next burst of questions (questions for and Umiak and Loroi, but I'm too lazy to take away their two threads ):

1) The AMM-100 and AMM 250 have a unitary gauge or AMM-250 bigger, and if the first question is "no", launchers "Rapiers" larger caliber or similar to standard?

2) What kind of strange things from "Tempest" at the bottom of this frame? For unlike unrecorded blaster tower.

SpoilerShow

3) The field for inertia canceller apply to the entire ship or only inhabited part?

4) How launching torpedos that modern Loroi ships, if anything even remotely looks like a torpedo launcher harder "Tolot" only to "Katanas" and "Greatswords" (External Ordnance racks)?

5) How many gunboats able to serve the Umiak tender? Only his or another for a number enough?

6) What are the types of Umiak ships participated in the battle in the Naam? We're available for almost all of the materials identified, but there was a couple unrecognizable:

SpoilerShow

And we find Type-HS Missile Destroyer too:

Or is it kind of a profile for Missile Cruiser!?

But that two unidentified ship? The first was seen walking along with other gunboats and missiles on page 78, and the second - launching missiles on page 75, but categorize them by arms and appearance have failed. By the way, what missiles they launch?

6.1) What kind of ship? It seems like Type-Kh Light Cruiser, but may be Type-H Heavy Destroyer(cut for page 84):

SpoilerShow

7) Ships of the Umiak are regular maintenance at shipyards/flydocks, or do calculations with the fact that the crew would have had the opportunity to spare having to maintain it on the go on their own?

8) Is it possible to "Tolots" use as AMM, if necessary?

9) The parties involved in the conflict colonization systems near of the front line \ on the periphery, or exclusively engage in a war of all known neighbors? Do they periphery of the little-known intelligence \ unknown territory and, if so, are engaged in this specialized units like Scout Corps or only free ships?

10) Why did the Umiak on page 75 attack Loroi for "Rockeyes" and "Gimlets"? Even if we forget that this is actually the AMM, they simply don't have enough range to attack.

[Arioch]

However, this dosn't negate the oddities with incomplete ammo. 36 + 36 would still be 72, instead of 64. Unless the cylinder is not 32 rockets.

The extra ammunition listed are sometimes extra rounds in a connected magazine, and sometimes individual rounds for manual reloads that are stored in a cargo hold. They don't have to be in exact multiples of the normal load. The listed numbers of additional ammunition are not especially meaningful, as the actual number of rounds on a ship at any given moment will depend on the mission and supply situation.

1) The AMM-100 and AMM 250 have a unitary gauge or AMM-250 bigger, and if the first question is "no", launchers "Rapiers" larger caliber or similar to standard?

All three of the AMM types (250, 500, and D) have roughly the same diameter and can be fired from the same tube. All three of the turret types use the same tube diameter, and can fire any of the three types.

2) What kind of strange things from "Tempest" at the bottom of this frame? For unlike unrecorded blaster tower.

SpoilerShow

Those are the 02x2 Heavy Blaster listed in Vortex class entry.

3) The field for inertia canceller apply to the entire ship or only inhabited part?

It usually applies to the entire ship.

4) How launching torpedos that modern Loroi ships, if anything even remotely looks like a torpedo launcher harder "Tolot" only to "Katanas" and "Greatswords" (External Ordnance racks)?

A lot of the Loroi ships that don't have dedicated torpedo tubes just launch torpedoes out of open bays. It takes slightly longer, but all you have to do is drop the torpedo and wait for it to "fall" far enough away for it to be safe to light its drive.

5) How many gunboats able to serve the Umiak tender? Only his or another for a number enough?

Depends on on how much fuel and supplies they have. There's no hard limit.

6) What are the types of Umiak ships participated in the battle in the Naam? We're available for almost all of the materials identified, but there was a couple unrecognizable:
http://s018.radikal.ru/i517/1601/10/d22a121be706.png
But that two unidentified ship? The first was seen walking along with other gunboats and missiles on page 78, and the second - launching missiles on page 75, but categorize them by arms and appearance have failed. By the way, what missiles they launch?

Umiak ships have a wide variety of forms and aren't really distinct classes. Many of the ships you see won't match the exact armaments of the types listed on the fleet page. There are also many torpedo types, and you'll see things that aren't classified. That's just the Umiak for you.

SpoilerShow

6.1) What kind of ship? It seems like Type-Kh Light Cruiser, but may be Type-H Heavy Destroyer(cut for page 84):

Those are both the same KS missile cruiser seen firing in the middle of page 75. The light destroyer in the foreground of the first panel of page 84 is the same one seen next to the KT at the top right of page 79-80.

7) Ships of the Umiak are regular maintenance at shipyards/flydocks, or do calculations with the fact that the crew would have had the opportunity to spare having to maintain it on the go on their own?

It depends on the situation. Umiak ships grab whatever drydock time is available, and make do for the rest.

8) Is it possible to "Tolots" use as AMM, if necessary?

The Tolot USR has a much larger diameter than the AMM, and so can't fit in the AMM mounts, if that's what you're asking.

9) The parties involved in the conflict colonization systems near of the front line \ on the periphery, or exclusively engage in a war of all known neighbors? Do they periphery of the little-known intelligence \ unknown territory and, if so, are engaged in this specialized units like Scout Corps or only free ships?

The goings-on of the Umiak in the periphery is not common knowledge.

10) Why did the Umiak on page 75 attack Loroi for "Rockeyes" and "Gimlets"? Even if we forget that this is actually the AMM, they simply don't have enough range to attack.

You can use submunitions-carrying torpedoes at long range; the blister just waits until it is close to release the submunitions. Gimlet KKV's would be very dangerous at such high velocities even to larger vessels, but they were probably targeted at SG51's interceptor squadrons.

[Tamri]

5) How many gunboats able to serve the Umiak tender? Only his or another for a number enough?

Depends on on how much fuel and supplies they have. There's no hard limit.

Well, at least roughly - how many gunboats can cater fully fitted out Tender.

8) Is it possible to "Tolots" use as AMM, if necessary?

The Tolot USR has a much larger diameter than the AMM, and so can't fit in the AMM mounts, if that's what you're asking.

I mean - is it possible to use the "Tolot" as AMM, starting from their own launchers. The fact that they are AMM launchers will not fit it's understandable.

9) The parties involved in the conflict colonization systems near of the front line \ on the periphery, or exclusively engage in a war of all known neighbors? Do they periphery of the little-known intelligence \ unknown territory and, if so, are engaged in this specialized units like Scout Corps or only free ships?

The goings-on of the Umiak in the periphery is not common knowledge.

What about the situation of the Umiak Humanity know better of the Union I understand. But what of the Union itself?

[Arioch]

5) How many gunboats able to serve the Umiak tender? Only his or another for a number enough?

Depends on on how much fuel and supplies they have. There's no hard limit.

Well, at least roughly - how many gunboats can cater fully fitted out Tender.

Keep in mind that there is a wide variety in Umiak ship design, and no true "classes" -- each ship that has gunboat linkages is different. Some are dedicated tenders with a lot of supply storage, and some are just warships with a couple of tow linkages on them. A dedicated Type-G like the one on page 71 with 5 linkages might carry enough extra supplies to replenish each gunboat 4 or 5 times, so it could potentially resupply about 20 gunboats individually. But this is a highly variable number; since the tender uses the same fuel as the gunboats, it could draw from its own fuel supplies to refuel its gunboats more often, if the situation demanded it.

I mean - is it possible to use the "Tolot" as AMM, starting from their own launchers. The fact that they are AMM launchers will not fit it's understandable.

If by "use as AMM" do you mean, "can you intercept a torpedo with another torpedo?" If so, the answer is "maybe." The USR isn't that much faster than most other torpedoes (accelerating at 60G, whereas the AMM accelerates at 200-400G), and so this would be an unreliable and expensive way to use them.

9) The parties involved in the conflict colonization systems near of the front line \ on the periphery, or exclusively engage in a war of all known neighbors? Do they periphery of the little-known intelligence \ unknown territory and, if so, are engaged in this specialized units like Scout Corps or only free ships?

The goings-on of the Umiak in the periphery is not common knowledge.

What about the situation of the Umiak Humanity know better of the Union I understand. But what of the Union itself?

What the Umiak are doing in the periphery is not common knowledge to either Humanity or the Loroi.

What I'm saying is that I'm not going to tell you.

[Krulle]

The goings-on of the Umiak in the periphery is not common knowledge.

What about the situation of the Umiak Humanity know better of the Union I understand. But what of the Union itself?

What the Umiak are doing in the periphery is not common knowledge to either Humanity or the Loroi.

What I'm saying is that I'm not going to tell you.

Besides you pointing out that an official answer from you would be a spoiler, one thing is obvious: converting conquered economies to their use as war-economies.
Then using the resources gained that way to push the border even further.

[joestej]

Though I'm certain someone must have asked this already, I've been unable to locate it, so I'll ask now.

What do the Loroi use as armor for their ships? Do the Umiak use anything different, or is armor pretty universal once you reach a certain level of technology?

[Arioch]

If you're asking what it's made out of, I don't know for sure. I imagine that it's probably a composite of a carbon fiber structural framework interwoven with an insulating material, alternating with layers of a strong, conductive alloy that helps spread and dissipate heat. Different combatants at the same tech level probably use the same materials, with variations in structure and manufacturing technique (Race A's alloy of X material might be more refined than Race B's).

There's a physical limit to how much energy any material armor can absorb, so I think we have to accept that defensive screens probably represent the majority of protection and armor is a minor component.