Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

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VonWolffe
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by VonWolffe »

JQBogus wrote:/Nitpick ON

Talon is actually the more senior of the two members of her squadron remaining, not the sole survivor. Given that the Tempest carries 8 fighters, that means that Talon's unit has suffered 75% losses, not 90%. Unless Tempest carries more than significantly more than 8 pilots for its 8 fighters.

Your point, of course, still stands. This is a nitpick :)

/Nitpick OFF
Ah, my mistake. I am not entirely sure where I got 20 from... Sorry.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by fredgiblet »

VonWolffe wrote:I didn't mean to compare the two as though one had more to lose, it just seems to me that Talon's squadron is a special case. Or at least I hope it is. I hope that Tenoin are not getting blown away by the dozens every other day. Heck, how many did Talon lose in that last fight alone? And then you know that the point defense squadron are going to be kicking themselves for letting the Winter Tide sink
IIRC fighter losses are very high, which is why they aren't used nearly as often as they used to be.

VonWolffe
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by VonWolffe »

fredgiblet wrote:IIRC fighter losses are very high, which is why they aren't used nearly as often as they used to be.
Of course, I can see that they would respond to these losses. My original question was more concerning how they deal with losing so many close to them using Talon as an example as she is so young and has nearly lost everyone in her squadron and so quickly.

Do they drink? Is that even acceptable aboard ship if they do or would they have to wait until they made it back to port? What would they think of human drinking and would our drinks be poison to them? Not that drinking is the only way to blow off steam :? . What do they do?

On another note, do Loroi units (ships/ground forces/etc.) have a version of Colours (That tapestry?) that collect battle honors for the engagements they participate in or distinguish themselves in? Do they have medals? Considering that they are a less formal military body, what would they think of flags/medals/saluting?

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Arioch
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

VonWolffe wrote:
JQBogus wrote:/Nitpick ON

Talon is actually the more senior of the two members of her squadron remaining, not the sole survivor. Given that the Tempest carries 8 fighters, that means that Talon's unit has suffered 75% losses, not 90%. Unless Tempest carries more than significantly more than 8 pilots for its 8 fighters.

Your point, of course, still stands. This is a nitpick :)

/Nitpick OFF
Ah, my mistake. I am not entirely sure where I got 20 from... Sorry.
You got it off the Cast page and it's correct, so there's no need to apologize. Talon and Spiral are the last two survivors of the original squadron of 20 that was deployed to Strike Group less than a year ago; Tempest only carries 8, and the rest of the squadron are carried by other vessels in the group, but the squadron deploys and fights as a unit. The squadron has been reinforced with younger replacements since, which is why Talon and Spiral are now the most senior.

Talon's attitudes toward dealing with loss are directly discussed in the comic (and soon) so I won't go too deep into it now except to say that fredgiblet is essentially correct; Talon and her compatriots grew up and came of age in an environment in which they were well aware that their chances of survival were not good.

Intoxicating drugs are a problem for Loroi, especially for those with abilities that could do serious harm if uncontrolled. But I think many Loroi will need some kind of chemical crutch to lean on in very difficult times. I suspect they will use sedatives and tranquilizers when they've just had too much as need to "turn it off."

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Trantor
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Trantor »

Hm, it´s the LOROI q&a-thread, but one question on the Barsam:

Please tell me that for their appearance you weren´t inspired by this:

ImageImage
sapere aude.

JQBogus
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by JQBogus »

Arioch wrote: You got it off the Cast page and it's correct, so there's no need to apologize. Talon and Spiral are the last two survivors of the original squadron of 20 that was deployed to Strike Group less than a year ago; Tempest only carries 8, and the rest of the squadron are carried by other vessels in the group, but the squadron deploys and fights as a unit. The squadron has been reinforced with younger replacements since, which is why Talon and Spiral are now the most senior.
OK... seems I am the one that needs to apologize for an unwarranted nitpick then... Sorry :(

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Hālian
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Hālian »

What effects would marijuana have on a Loroi?
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VonWolffe
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by VonWolffe »

JQBogus wrote:OK... seems I am the one that needs to apologize for an unwarranted nitpick then... Sorry :(
It's all good my friend. :) Thanks for setting us straight and for the info Arioch. It's the first I am hearing about Spiral by name, I'll have to look out for her more.

Edit: Saw her on page 41. Spiral and Talon are both awesome. Both of them in full preparation to launch for a combat operation and Jardin gets cute. "Hi!". Love it.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Karst45 »

bunnyboy wrote:But I think that loroi wouldn't like much of games of pure luck as it can be seen tempting of fate and jinx.
That and their point of view on being lucky?

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Arioch
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Trantor wrote:Please tell me that for their appearance you weren´t inspired by this:
I wasn't inspired by that.

The "big noseless aliens" unfortunately mostly look very similar.
CJ Miller wrote:What effects would marijuana have on a Loroi?
There's no way anyone could know at this point, unless Alex brought some with him (he didn't).

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Hālian
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Hālian »

Arioch wrote:...unless Alex brought some with him (he didn't).
He's from Cali, pot capital of the known universe, and he doesn't have any? :P
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Victor_D
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Victor_D »

CJ Miller wrote:He's from Cali, pot capital of the known universe, and he doesn't have any? :P
Beryl: "Captain Jardin, we've found these little bags containing green plant material in the wreckage of your vessel. There is something written on them in the script of your dialect, could you please translate?"
This stuff is MINE so don't even THINK about it! -Alex
Alex: "Um, it's a form of... ehm, food seasoning."
Beryl: "I am not yet completely familiar with your language, but this word written there seems to be your name, am I correct?"
Alex: "Um, yes, I mean, maybe, the handwriting is terrible..."
Beryl: "Are you in distress, Captain Jardin? Your face is changing colour."

;)

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Yiuel
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Yiuel »

I have been surprised by one thing. Loroi population, if I go along what I can infer from the Insider's guide, isn't much more than 2 billion people, 3 billion top. Their main sister planet barely reaches 1 billion. I compare that to present Earth, which probably crossed the 7 billion mark by now. And we are on a single planet. Something in there explaining why Loroi are so small in terms of total population, despite ruling the second largest State in the vincinity?
la nɔtʀʏltsɪmœ ʀɛv, dɛ ʒã puʀ la pʀɔtɛʒe
nu vœnõ dõkœ dœ tupaʀtu, puʀ ɛtʀœ sa ɡʀãdaʀme
dœ la site pʀɔtɛktœʀ, dœ sœ ʀɛvœ defãsœʀ
ynjõ dœ la fɔʀsœ dœ tus, nu vwasijalɔʀ lɛzɔʀiɔnɪt

- The Chant of A Certain Army

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by fredgiblet »

The Loroi are somewhere between 50 and 100 billion.

Humans in the story are at about 25 billion.

EDIT:
Arioch wrote:I don't have much in the way of hard Loroi population figures. Checking my notes, the three Loroi splinter worlds had a combined population of about 1.25 billion in 850 CE, at the time of rediscovery of starflight. I had made a note that Perrein's population had only increased from 200 million to 500 million since then, but that this was unusual, and also that the most populous Loroi planet was Maia. Most Loroi worlds would probably have populations much small than that of Earth, but Loroi territory is perhaps ten times as large. I would guess at a figure somewhere in the neighborhood to 50 to 100 billion. With high birth rates and appalling casualty rates, the number could fluctuate a lot.

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GeoModder
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by GeoModder »

Trantor wrote:Hm, it´s the LOROI q&a-thread, but one question on the Barsam:

Please tell me that for their appearance you weren´t inspired by this:

ImageImage
Good one. :lol:
Image

Victor_D
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Victor_D »

fredgiblet wrote:The Loroi are somewhere between 50 and 100 billion.

Humans in the story are at about 25 billion.

EDIT:
Arioch wrote:I don't have much in the way of hard Loroi population figures. Checking my notes, the three Loroi splinter worlds had a combined population of about 1.25 billion in 850 CE, at the time of rediscovery of starflight. I had made a note that Perrein's population had only increased from 200 million to 500 million since then, but that this was unusual, and also that the most populous Loroi planet was Maia. Most Loroi worlds would probably have populations much small than that of Earth, but Loroi territory is perhaps ten times as large. I would guess at a figure somewhere in the neighborhood to 50 to 100 billion. With high birth rates and appalling casualty rates, the number could fluctuate a lot.
Actually, this is something I don't understand - why should the Loroi suffer so high casualties that they need to lift population restrictions on their worlds?

If their population counts in tens of billions (regardless of whether it's close to 50 or 100 billion), I don't understand how could even the loss of their entire fleet worth of warriors each year even make a dent in this (barring the Umiak glassing their worlds in consequence, of course). Arioch stated that the number of ships in the Loroi fleet is "in thousands". I don't know what their crew complements are, but for the sake of the argument let's say an average Loroi ship has a crew of 1000 and that there are ten thousand ships in the fleet. This would put the number of Loroi warriors serving in the fleet at 10 million. Ok, so let's say you need 10 times the number if you include the support personnel - so it's now around 100 million Loroi serving in the fleet. That's still only something between 0.2 and 0.1 per cent of the overall Loroi population. Since about half of their people belong to the warrior castes, that's about 0.4 and 0.2 per cent respectively of the manpower available to the military. (By contrast, about 1% of Americans serve in the military/are in military reserve.)

Now, of course the Loroi aren't losing the whole fleet each year, so the the losses may be as low as, say, 0.04 per cent of the available manpower per year. That's nothing, it should be easily replaceable even without lifting population control limits. It seems to me that losses of ships, and thus of the invested industrial capacity, would be far, FAR, more problematic than the manpower losses. AFAIK, ground combat at this stage in the war is pretty rare, so it cannot account for the "missing" casualties.

So, is this an inconsistency in the story, or is there any other explanation for it that I've missed?

Suederwind
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Suederwind »

Just some minor questions after rereading the comic:
On page 88, Stillstorm says that she recognise the odd patterns of the Umiak Commander. What patterns did she meant and how could she recognise them, if communication between Umiak and Loroi forces is something unusual?
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Jericho
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Jericho »

Suederwind wrote:Just some minor questions after rereading the comic:
On page 88, Stillstorm says that she recognise the odd patterns of the Umiak Commander. What patterns did she meant and how could she recognise them, if communication between Umiak and Loroi forces is something unusual?

Oh oh let me guess :D .

Allright i think she is referring to the umiaks selfpreservational habits. Most umiak are rather uncaring of their own health or life so it's unusual for an umiak to deliberately seek to preserve losses and it's own life. The stray's (which it is called) tactics are from what i see more or less based on deception than brute force and numbers (not that it doesn't use them too). The stray's decision of withholding it's major force and rather test the defenders strength to better access the situation could be what she's meaning.
If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through. General C.H Melchett commander of some unknown british regiment in the western front.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Victor_D »

BTW, was Kikitik-27 really offering to spare Stillstorm and her crew, or was it just a jest on his part?

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Suederwind »

Oh oh let me guess :D .
Oh dear, I think I was a little lost in translation on this one. :lol:
I thought she was talking about the patterns of his ship or the "chitin" plates of his body. But his unusual tactics make much more sense as an explanation.
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