Recent content by Iracundus

But we aren't talking about resource abundance or supply, but about the battery technology itself. Other nations around the world also have rare earth elements as they are not that rare actually.

Saying an entire ethnicity, the Chinese, cannot innovate and can only copy is racist. The same was said about the Japanese in the 1980's, and they are US allies, so it's not about socialism. Again it is about racism. In World War 2, it was seriously suggested the Japanese could not design or fly...

For starters: The full paper of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute: https://ad-aspi.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/2024-08/ASPIs%20two-decade%20Critical%20Technology%20Tracker_1.pdf?VersionId=1p.Rx9MIuZyK5A5w1SDKIpE2EGNB_H8r On more specific examples, China has the world's first pebble...

That's simply racist xenophobic nonsense that has been debunked repeatedly year after year. That's the same accusation leveled at the Japanese in the 1980's.

If the criterion is to be able to manufacture as well, then China is probably the highest overall TL on the planet right now. It's also leading in research in the majority of technology fields now according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (hardly a Chinese mouthpiece)...

"And when at last it is time for the transition from megacorporation to planetary government, from entrepreneur to emperor, it is then that the true genius of our strategy shall become apparent, for energy is the lifeblood of this society..." Quote from another universe but they might as well...

That assumes that TL progress continues on the same trend/curve. I think one way to rationalize Traveller is that there is a point of diminishing return for research investment and plateau effect at certain higher TL. At some point it may require so much in resources and personnel to advance or...

I recall reading that Mongoose's FFW's outcome is not necessarily set in stone and that a final different canonical outcome is possible based on what we RL players do? Am I misremembering or is this still the case and if so, how are we players going to manipulate reality enough to change the...

What about if the war is meant to be a part of a psychohistory manipulation? Of course I'm just pulling something out of the air. BTW, has it been revealed yet how this FFW outcome could be different and how this would occur IRL? Currently aren't we still riding the rails?

Venting helium would leave an exhaust trail or cloud of hot gas, making stealth impossible. Now maybe that is used for normal non-stealth civilian travel, but the gravitic cooling by dumping the heat into other celestial bodies is a way to explain how there can be stealth in space.

Could it be handwaved that at higher TL, the hydrogen bubble is no longer necessary as refinements in jump drives mean the jump field has enough stability? The Vilani dimmed the lights to save every last bit of power to ensure jump, but then with time and advancement this was no longer necessary...

Could one way to rationalize it be just having these be different ways of jumping? Just like it said Vilani and Terran fusion plant designs varied before Fusion+ but now most are developments based off of Fusion+. So maybe there are different designs of jump drive and some use the H2 bubble and...

PCs finding such tech is potentially paradigm breaking as they can exploit it to gain fabulous wealth or other advantages. On a setting level, if governments and scientists learn that such a technology is possible (even if not understood or capable of being replicated), then it could...

Don't the Ancients show that ansibles are possible within the universe but humans and most other species have not reached the TL for them? I guess that is a bit of a semantic argument because any game at that kind of TL is not going to be Traveller as we know it.

GURPS Interstellar Wars has some of that