Couple questions

[Trantor]

Most Loroi worlds have managed economies. Business is considered a civilian pursuit (warriors are prohibited from owning businesses), and so is viewed with suspicion by the ruling warrior class.

What prevents the warriors from changing this?

[Tamren]

Most Loroi worlds have managed economies. Business is considered a civilian pursuit (warriors are prohibited from owning businesses), and so is viewed with suspicion by the ruling warrior class.

What prevents the warriors from changing this?

Pride?

[Arioch]

What prevents the warriors from changing this?

Nothing. It was the warriors themselves who made this rule.

I would expect a world with a large population, large tracts of fertile landscape, and a high level of technology to have a very specialized workforce with an economy focusing not mainly on agriculture but on producing high-tech items, industrial goods, education and an advanced service sector. Production where the people are. Hell, I feel this world should be the economic epicenter of the empire.

It is. Having a large percentage of its land devoted to agriculture doesn't prevent California from supporting a variety of businesses and having the largest economy in the US.

Question: How is war production handled for the Loroi? Are ships and such made by civilians or are they in-house projects by the state?

Manufacturing firms are civilian (or alien) companies, though many are heavily managed or owned by the state, especially those that are key to the war effort. Defense industries are still civilian, though with military officers heavily involved in design and specifications (as they are with our own civilian military-industrial complex).

[Trantor]

What prevents the warriors from changing this?

Nothing. It was the warriors themselves who made this rule.

Respect. That´s the best way to prevent black economy and good fella-business.


(We need a "thumbs up"-smily.)

[Ktrain]

Perhaps I should have been a bit more focused in my previous post, but the point of contention I am fixated on is not land use but the phrase "farm produce and various biological products are the primary Maiad export," which has various implications about the nature of the planet's economy. It suggests that the planet is more of an exporter of raw resources which later have value added elsewhere. While I could see such goods being a major part of the relationship between Maia and Donei, I find it a stretch that they would be a primary export. Farm produce is generally a low value good and thus seeing mass exportation of such commodities across an interstellar empire seems unlikely; I feel it would be more likely that higher value goods (aka: processed/refined) would make the bulk of Maia's exports.

Ghaaa... extrapolation from one word


PS: tangential, but a cool chart on California's economy 2008



PPS: On the Warrior/Civilian/business question: Is it me or does anyone else sense a veneer of Plato?

[Arioch]

I was thinking of "primary" in terms of tonnage, not dollar value.

[Trantor]

I was thinking of "primary" in terms of tonnage, not dollar value.

What´s the name of Loroi currency? And do they (still) have coins and notes?
Or cards only? Or sth totally different?

[Solemn]

What prevents the warriors from changing this?

Nothing. It was the warriors themselves who made this rule.

Respect. That´s the best way to prevent black economy and good fella-business.

I think their motives might be a little more selfish than the prevention of gangsterism.

The point of commerce is the exchange of goods or services for goods or services of equal or greater value. Preferably greater, so long as you're not the one being shafted. This might seem questionable at best to the Loroi, who appear to have an unusually strong ethos regarding honesty ingrained into them, rooted all the way into the basic nature of their standard means of communication. It's actually a little hard for me to imagine how they could come to a free market system without much ability to negotiate.

Then there comes the issue of pride. Consider Ulysses S. Grant, who failed spectacularly at every civilian endeavor from politics to venture capitalism largely because when he entered them he was a (drunk) honest man in a den of thieves. He was the most important General on the winning side of the most important war in his country's history up to that point, and he died penniless and dishonored, with his family and name being restored to some position afterwards only by virtue of the sales of his memoirs. This was not uncommon for Union generals; Ivan Turchaninov died a failure too. I doubt that the Loroi would suffer such insults to their greatest warriors to the extent that the Yankees did, but bailing such failed warriors out would be so expensive and would probably just add further insult to their dishonor.

The warrior caste might have barred themselves from business much more to preserve their own dignity and stature in Loroi society than to protect the civilians or the integrity of the system.

[Arioch]

Though the Loroi have an official currency (called the talent, worth several thousand dollars; it originated in ancient times on Deinar as a representation of the value of one year of unskilled labor), it is used mainly for high-level transactions between businesses and government entities. Most individual Loroi are members of a warrior caste or a civilian guild, which often provides housing and other services as part of the compensation for "employment." Most caste and guild members are not paid a salary; rather, they are allocated a sort of "allowance" that is usually in a local currency or company/military scrip. Most of these currencies have some sort of tradable token that represents cash, but most transactions are virtual (as you would expect). The various alien members of the Union also have their own currencies (or multiple currencies).

[Trantor]

...
Most individual Loroi are members of a warrior caste or a civilian guild, which often provides housing and other services as part of the compensation for "employment." Most caste and guild members are not paid a salary; rather, they are allocated a sort of "allowance" that is usually in a local currency or company/military scrip.
...

They´re communists?

[Ktrain]

I was thinking of "primary" in terms of tonnage, not dollar value.

Ghaaa, microeconomic accounting measures, my only weakness....
Thanks for the clarification and tolerating my over-analysis.

They´re communists?

Sounds more like a West Virginia coal town to me... the more and more I learn about the Loroi economy, the more I feel that there are a lot of disgruntled/alienated workers. One's freedom is so constrained, both economically and sexually

Also the better term might be statist, communist has certain ideological ideals about egalitarianism which the Loroi do not share

[Grayhome]

How many driver rounds is a Terran vessel stocked with? For heavy and medium rounds respectively I was wondering how many reloads they could have.

[Arioch]

How many driver rounds is a Terran vessel stocked with? For heavy and medium rounds respectively I was wondering how many reloads they could have.

A destroyer would probably have about 250 rounds in its magazines, and a heavy cruiser perhaps 1000.

[Mjolnir]

How many driver rounds is a Terran vessel stocked with? For heavy and medium rounds respectively I was wondering how many reloads they could have.

A destroyer would probably have about 250 rounds in its magazines, and a heavy cruiser perhaps 1000.

Would the limitation be ammunition mass, or wear on the rails making it pointless to carry more?

[Arioch]

Probably a combination of cost, weight, and the number of rounds thought likely to be fired in an engagement. Those numbers are, I believe, typical of the number of primary-armament shells carried by WWII surface vessels.

[fredgiblet]

Since my thread has been resurrected:

Is the Listel's eidetic memory a psi ability or a mundane ability?
Does a Loroi who fails the tests for a specialty caste (Teidar for instance) have an opportunity to try again at a "lower" caste like Soroin? Or is it a one-shot deal where you go big or go home?

[javcs]

Actually, I'd expect driver round mass to be a less important factor than driver round volume.
Sure, the mass is important (technically), but at the scale of the drives, even Terran drives, mass is probably less of a limiting factor on storage than the volume required for that storage. How much does a round mass? Maybe a hundred kilograms or so? How much does a ship mass? Maybe 75 thousand or more tons (empty) for a Terran scout? A significant amount more when the consumables (food, air, water, fuel) are all loaded. The relative mass increase for more rounds is almost certainly going to negligible when compared to the amount of force the propulsion systems are putting out, but the relative volume increase is going to be noticeable.

[Arioch]

I'm having trouble finding reliable numbers on WWII-era destroyer magazine capacities. It looks like modern destroyers carry more like 500 rounds per mount, so perhaps the numbers I quoted may be on the low side. But it's in that order of magnitude.

Is the Listel's eidetic memory a psi ability or a mundane ability?

It's a mundane ability, just like human "photographic" memory.

Does a Loroi who fails the tests for a specialty caste (Teidar for instance) have an opportunity to try again at a "lower" caste like Soroin? Or is it a one-shot deal where you go big or go home?

The trials are a form of extended basic training, and are uniformly tough, so a warrior candidate who can't handle Teidar trials won't find the Soroin version any easier (and the Soroin would chafe at being referred to as a "lower" caste). However, if a candidate in a specialty caste is having troubles with skills or abilities that are specific to the specialty, then she may be passed through the trials and subsequently transferred to a more appropriate specialty.

The warrior trials are as much of a rite of passage as they are a test. Being born the daughter of a warrior in some ways is considered as having the "right" to become a warrior, and so unless she is unfit, outright incompetent or quits/refuses, it is uncommon for a candidate to fail the trials. They are as much of a group trial as they are an individual trial; failures of individuals are stikes against the whole band, so the rest of the band will usually try to "carry" the weaker members through to initiation. However, everyone in the band knows who the weak links are, and in subsequent training these individuals will be steered toward desk jobs (the warrior classes having no shortage of bureaucratic positions that need filling).

[icekatze]

hi hi

I'm pretty sure mass is still the most important consideration for space travel concerns, since all movement is complicated by having extra mass. If volume was a concern, I think we'd probably see ship designs that are more spherical in nature, since those are inherently more volume efficient than cylindrical designs. (and significantly narrower corridors, though I realize that a lot of this is artistic license, so grain of salt taken.)

Things also tend to get more volume efficient as they get bigger, but we don't really know many specifics about how much armor plating costs. Still, for non-volatile components like mass driver rounds, you could probably store extras in an unshielded section of the ship with no real volume costs.

I always had the idea for rail guns that you could include a "rail lining" in with each round. Each time a round is fired, it shreds most of the rail liner, leaving the rail undamaged. Then, as the new round is chambered, the old lining is replaced with a new one at the same time.

[NOMAD]

I'm having trouble finding reliable numbers on WWII-era destroyer magazine capacities. It looks like modern destroyers carry more like 500 rounds per mount, so perhaps the numbers I quoted may be on the low side. But it's in that order of magnitude.

.

hey Arioch, not sure if these could work for you but
WWII US main guns
http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/U/s/US_5_38_DP_gun.htm