 September 21, 2011 - 6:44pm | Or IMPP's are enormous, fully automated starships that are sent to uninhabited star systems, where they turn the abundant mineral resources of planets and planetoids into another generation of mining, transport and processing machines. This second generation of machines becomes a mammoth industrial complex that prepares valuable raw materials and industrial products. These products are then shipped back to the culture that originally sent out the IMPP.
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 September 21, 2011 - 6:53pm | No and No and I do not think the Sathar would use them. They are given the impression of being low tech but coming up with uniquee ideas. The Vrusk would not be the only ones threatened by such a machine seems like a commercial version of the DoomsDay machine from the Original Star Trek. Maybe using Atomic Drives from a Starship to destroy it? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
September 21, 2011 - 7:44pm | According to "The War Machine" the sathar have several. I don't consider them high-tech, the one in FS 30 needs constant attention and slave labor. So... this hints towards other intelligent races that are subjugated to the sather. Might be a fun campaign to free those races from the sathar grip. I need to come up with a Mhemne character race for the Star Frontiersman... |
 September 21, 2011 - 7:51pm | You may wish to consult the Von Neuhman Machine article in Ares or Polygon as it has similar ideas and actually detailed a sort of sathar IMPP I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 21, 2011 - 11:54pm | Yes, and Yes but not exactly... I Have used IMPP and Von Neuhman Self Replicating Robot type operations for both the Sathar and the Mechanon (and the K'Cliik!k'|h|), and used dZuraq!or and M3ch4n or Core-Four and the Minor-Natives (and Heliopet and S'sessun), as labour respectively. I have used low-tech versions on a minor scale as part of the Streel, PGC, and a couple homebrew corps... but this was considered possible only by the extreme push of these industrial giants. As far as the Sathar capability, yes I have seen the war machine, and I take a different view... the Sathar for me seem to be sitting on a high-tech inheritance of science they take for granted, but require other races to be innovative in technology for them, but are par-none in the fields of organization (especially of subjected conquests), 'cloak and dagger' strategies, and political manipulations... even the Vrusk are easily confused by these enigmatic puppet-masters. They easily use and manipulate the Zuraqqor and Mechanon, who have found no proper footing or favor in the region, nor gained support from the greater frontier civilization anyway, and are thus easily everyone's favorite pawns. Only S'sessu are likely to understand a Sathar's plans and motives, and they still don't fully comprehend. The S'sessu are what the Sathar would have been, if they had no high-tech inheritance, and had to develop one world at a time like all the other fledglings. As far as an IMPP/SRRS being a 'threat' it is a one system operation, to feed resources to one (or several) other systems... It need not be a doomsday device scenario, as it takes considerable time and resources in initial investment, and pays out enough that any otherwise worthless system (which there are many of all over the unmarked portions of the map) can support several garden utopias in near-by systems, or fuel one systems massive industrial resource economy. The idea of turning it loose on an unsuspecting frontier to eat healthy planets at random, is alarmist reaction not rational thinking. But such a scare-tactic is definitely not outside of Sathar MO... a convenient way to start a riot in a nearby system. Oh humans!!  We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
September 22, 2011 - 5:33am | I think that there would be concern over what might be lost or destroyed by a fully automated IMPP. I find it hard to think that any Frontier race would do this except possibly the vrusk. It just seems to risky to do this, especially in light of what could be accidentily destroyed because the programing wont recognize a natural wonder and think to preserve it for study and enjoyment. Sathar on the other hand "smelt it all down and the sathar will sort it out". I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 22, 2011 - 6:33am | I'm thinking about crafting a module around the vrusk colonies war with an IMPP but not sure if it really fits the SF theme. |
September 22, 2011 - 7:56am | Well perhaps it an automated MPP that is set up with the colony and runs amok. Forcing the vrusk colonist to fight back even recruiting a ships crew passing threw the system, in their "war" with the machine. This is the classic "man against the machine" scenario with shades of Hal from 2001. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 22, 2011 - 5:06pm | I like the idea of such a construct but not in the hands of any of the core races. I would not even put this in the hands of the Sathar. I would throw this in as a foreshadowing to some great and mysterious race somewhere beyond the rim. It could even by a still functioning relic from a long extinct race of ancients. Imagine a party that was sent out to explore a system that was recorded and reported by a deep probe. The data on this system had been filed and forgotten for a very long time. Due to a change in management in a mega corp and a change of direction in their goals, they decide to further explore probed regions that showed promise. The corp hires the party to explore the system and sends them on their way. After dropping out of the void, the party finds only a single star surrounded by dust and a debris field that is a dozen AU’s wide. The party is able to examine near by systems (perhaps communicating with a home world) using deep space telescope images to compare to file footage and finding inconsistencies (like a couple of planets missing!). Making their way to the next system, they can encounter the machine engage it, study it, or run away from it. Or if they are fortunate, intercept a shipment of materials. If one wanted to keep this type of technology as a mysterious foreshadowing, the party could oversee the destruction of the device with just a few bit of information gleaned from the remains to make them scratch their heads or even just letting the machine ‘warp out’ to a new and undiscoverable location. This could be explained by a random (pre-programmed) list of systems to devour rather than a systematic approach, or a glitch developed in the astrogation program causing random jumps. Now, a question for you authoritative types. What is the feasibility of such a machine being able to devour a star? Can anyone think of a way to extinguish a star? Causing it to explode is not an option because it would not only disperse the desired resources but could also destroy the machine in the process. |
September 22, 2011 - 5:36pm | Hrm... a semi-intelligent robotic race from beyond the edge of the star map... sending IMPP's into the Frontier Sector and sathar controlled systems.... :-) |
September 22, 2011 - 5:40pm | w00t has discovered his family tree. |
September 22, 2011 - 5:46pm | Heh. It's definitely worth a thought to create a frontier-scale threat besides the sathar. That is if you tire of one sathar plot after another. :-P |
September 22, 2011 - 5:56pm | w00t has discovered his family tree. Next we'll get a novel from him like Roots except it will be Bolts or Schmatics I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 22, 2011 - 6:12pm | To be honest, I have never been a big fan of the sathar. Though I have seen them in a new light ever since seeing the Goa'uld from Star Gate 1. I am still waiting for the release of w00t autobiography, "Hardwired". Or was that "Haywire"? |
September 22, 2011 - 6:54pm | It's Arrr Wired mate. I'm a pirate robot. |
September 23, 2011 - 7:45pm | With a patch covering a damaged optics? |
September 23, 2011 - 8:36pm | With a patch covering a damaged optics?
At my age, me whole bodies done been patched! Luck would have it I download some tech skillz from MicroHard Inc. |
September 24, 2011 - 10:59am | from jedion: "...especially in light of what could be accidentally destroyed ...preserve it for study" This ties in with why I think the Sather would either be careful or have additional programing just for the purpose... the Sathar are not dumb, they know the area has secret technologies that predate their own... and with more familiarity, a better possibility of recognizing function and method when they find it. from Inigo Montoya: "...not in the hands of any of the core races ...a still functioning relic from a long extinct race of ancients." I completely agree, this is exactly how I see the Mechanon... the Enora and their "creation" are quite ancient and close enough to extinct, and the whole of the event foreshadows of even older technology and civilizations than they are. The Mechanon are perfect for this role in theory, able to move in, self-replicate, strip every resource, recognize important artifacts... and in some cases even cosmetic relics, which can at least be thoroughly documented in a main holographic cortex... and require nothing but a Tetrarch Overwatch Observation Base in orbit at most... several surviving Mobile Bases already belong to the Sathar, (remote and widely spaced, often extremly modified or rebuilt) in my take of Annos Devenire -Historias. The far-reaching Clikk, some scattered remnants of Enora, and one group of renegade Mechanon can make their own. When I speak of the; Sathar, Clikk, Enora, or even Roge Mechanon, Tetrarch, and Unspec, it is good to remember that at the galactic-scale the younger wolflings (like the Humans and other Core-four) are not players in the game... the galaxy is the big-boys playground, and yet there are still fish bigger than them.  consume an entire star!?!Possible theoretically, but impractical and an extreme waste of resources by the Type-II or Type-III that achieves the capability... A High-Type-II might be able to do so with a major muscle-flex, but would still lose more energy than any resources gained and would be quite capable of knowing how much of a waste it is... A mid to late Type-III would be able to do so with very little effort and far greater benefit... but would find it unnecessary... even useless... compared to other easier and far more beneficial methods of energy collection and resource creation. A High-Type-I might be able to blow one up though... not that that leaves anything significant they would be able to harvest afterword. Type-I would lose a plentiful nigh-infinite and perpetual energy source for a few moments of spiked energy and not a lot of harvestable raw material... not to mention irreparably killing their life-support (assuming they are biologically based... or even mechanical ergivores to some degree.) Type-II would find more use in building a Ring World or Dyson sphere... but might blow up a couple just for the thrills of the science project, or to try and set some example of superiority to their worshipers. Type-III would find more use in building a Dyson-ship or ?Nested Hollow Worlds?-ship... possibly with a Singularity-drive... and just move around with the star inside their ship... but the occasional teenager might convert an entire star into a high-school physics project... though likely being told to put it back afterwards... these societies never have a need to intentionally impress worshipers, because they are already impressive naturally... they may however occasionally find it an unfortunate necessity to eliminate a particular ripple of collective continuance or sanguine sapience tangent, for the greater preservation of their antecedent introspective theorem or intuitive discretionary accountability, by dismantling the cradolcula of cognizant continuance. Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
