Has Agent changed your vision of the Third Imperium?

[mike wightman]

Marc's novel has got me thinking about what I thought I knew about the Imperial setting, and the implications of the technology in the novel and buried away in T5.

Just wondered what the novel has done for your interpretation of the setting?

 

[aramis]

The only thing it's adding is Brainchips and the agents themselves.

I found it scary how much like my prior games the novel was.

 

[Reban]

I'm still reading but two things stand out:

1. Everyone is very obedient; the agent is the voice of the Emperor, thats fine, he speaks with supreme authority, but there are also little hints. the marines and junior officers who bow and genuflect to the Captain's chair (notice that that changes as the novel progresses). There is no referencing higher authority for orders, that is in keeping with the Age of Sail motif, but the default rather than the senior officer being "Johnny on the Spot" is to defer to a personality chip which is out of touch with local events (although that probably means immune from local politics).

2. The complete separation between the Navy and the Worlds. In every crisis I've read so far the Agent deals with the Navy analysis without referencing the local nobles or inhabitants. That's stretching my credibility at the moment.

 

[Meteoric Assault]

I'm still reading but two things stand out:

1. Everyone is very obedient; the agent is the voice of the Emperor, thats fine, he speaks with supreme authority, but there are also little hints. the marines and junior officers who bow and genuflect to the Captain's chair (notice that that changes as the novel progresses). There is no referencing higher authority for orders, that is in keeping with the Age of Sail motif, but the default rather than the senior officer being "Johnny on the Spot" is to defer to a personality chip which is out of touch with local events (although that probably means immune from local politics).

2. The complete separation between the Navy and the Worlds. In every crisis I've read so far the Agent deals with the Navy analysis without referencing the local nobles or inhabitants. That's stretching my credibility at the moment.

I agree, I have found it hard to come to terms with what you have mentioned.. I do enjoy the fleshing in of details that make giving context to the OTU with such color and detail.

 

[mike wightman]

Imperial government begins at the subsector level - the subsector duke is the local emperor.

A ship captain/fleet admiral coming across a problem has three options:
1. deal with it;
2. send to the nearest subsector duke for guidance/orders/authority to act - this may take a couple of months;
3. activate an agent wafer.

Note that options 2 and 3 are both passing the buck...

Local nobles have no authority whatsoever over IN ship captains or fleet admirals, and they are likely to be part of the problem...

 

[Meteoric Assault]

Imperial government begins at the subsector level - the subsector duke is the local emperor.

A ship captain/fleet admiral coming across a problem has three options:
1. deal with it;
2. send to the nearest subsector duke for guidance/orders/authority to act - this may take a couple of months;
3. activate an agent wafer.

Note that options 2 and 3 are both passing the buck...

Local nobles have no authority whatsoever over IN ship captains or fleet admirals, and they are likely to be part of the problem...

Usually wouldn't in be in the best interest of the Noble to work and "manipulate" the imperial navy? This raises a question does a subsector duke exercise any administrative or command function with the subsector fleet/

 

[mike wightman]

A subsector duke is unlikely to be able to do more than make requests of IN ship captains or fleet admirals, unless they have an Imperial edict to back them up...

We know there is a sector admiralty, and it is they that issue fleet and ship orders, probably with some input from the sector duke and local megacorporatioons. The often forgotten aspect is that a fleet or ship could be months away from the sector HQ, and thus their standing orders must involve an awful lot of 'use your own discretion' clauses.

An IN fleet assigned to a particular subsector probably has to act most of the time on requests from the sub sector duke - providing they don't clash with sector fleet orders.

E.g the duke of regina can not order the IN 215th fleet to attack the Zhodani and begin a frontier war, but he can probably request that the fleet admiral sends some ships to efate to aid in putting down the unrest brewing there.

 

[aramis]

Usually wouldn't in be in the best interest of the Noble to work and "manipulate" the imperial navy? This raises a question does a subsector duke exercise any administrative or command function with the subsector fleet/

The subsector fleet? Yes, at least by prior canon. But we don't see any of those local navies in the novel; all we see are IISS and IN.

 

[ovka]

There seems to be a large number of people with wafer jacks. It never occurred to me that would be the case, but since it is on the T5 benefits table for all careers, it makes sense that maybe 1 in 5 people might have them.

Cheers,

Baron Ovka

 

[savage]

The Agents, Reference, Capital, etc. all flesh out 3I much better.

Would be nice to know more about the earlier ship versions. I'd rather see specific planet sheets than all the game stats in the back.

 

[Quint]

Kinda yes and kinda no?

Rather than wafers with Agents, IMTU I simply posited AI of varying levels of complexity/power were ubiquitous. The man on the street had a very basic AI that acted as a Siri/Cortana+ all the way to very powerful AI's that the highest ranked members of Imperial service and megacorporations had. A combination of personal assistants, oracles, and "business intelligence executives".

I saw an Imperium where the AI provided an invisible tripwire against internal aggression/revolt as well as providing "Russian Doll" layers of encryption for data and secrets which they would reveal on an as needed basis - up to a including someone having access to something like an Imperial Warrant which they didn't know that they had until the AI determined that a certain criteria were met.

That parallels the spots in the book where the Agent is activated "on the suggestion" (or directive, I'm not sure which) of the ship's computer. Clearly the idea that there is a relatively high-level heuristic monitoring the ship's activities makes sense when there are so many, many things that can threaten the ship, crew, or Imperial systems - most of which are probably highly, highly classified.

Sure, the big fear was that an AI of sufficient power would go rogue (that was a plot point for one campaign) - but (IMTU) the Imperium didn't see any other way to help those in power manage the sheer amounts of data needed to do their jobs.

What really resonated for me was the absolute authority and weight of the Emperor and his representative. Be it fear, respect, or something else, that is something that fits in my vision of the Imperium.

D.

 

[Reban]

That parallels the spots in the book where the Agent is activated "on the suggestion" (or directive, I'm not sure which) of the ship's computer.

Just thinking on this and connecting it to something in the T5 rules. Many organisations have a book of rules and regulations (The Book). The Book " detail how any specific situation should be handled bureaucratically".

For the Navy and Scouts when the Danger and Risk rating hits a certain mark it must trigger a certain set of responses according to The Book (which is contained in the computer's programming).

It would be interesting to know what the Imperial Navy's Book Rating or BR is. Which goes to my original comments in this tread about obedience.

 

[savage]

Travellermap

Forn 2404 Kulabisha will need a red zone having gone nova mid 502.

If they can predict a nova to within 6 months, I'd say they have the science down pretty tight.

 

[mike wightman]

Why will it need a red zone 500 years later?

 

[inexorabletash]

I assume that T5SS dataset changes will be made one someone picks up the reigns from Don. The Sophont review needs at least two new additions as well.

Hooray for our first canonical world in Itvi! Current sector data there is unofficial, but I'm not updating the name to match Agent just yet.

And I wonder what "Caes" is short for...

 

[Hyphen]

I saw an Imperium where the AI provided an invisible tripwire against internal aggression/revolt as well as providing "Russian Doll" layers of encryption for data and secrets which they would reveal on an as needed basis - up to a including someone having access to something like an Imperial Warrant which they didn't know that they had until the AI determined that a certain criteria were met.

Similar to the "toots" from March Upcountry?

 

[savage]

Why will it need a red zone 500 years later?

A question worth discussing.

First, in 502, 2404 supernovas; These worlds would've been charred. Mach 300 shock wave moving out thousand of light years with a Mach 1000 backwash in system. E687000-0
70% water vaporized. No longer a "Garden world".

This would could have poured gamma rays on local systems. Depending on the type, any system within a 100 light years would have more than noticed. Systems within 25 light years would have had ecological damage. This was a 2 subsector natural disaster not a brief event.

By the Golden Age, the system would either have a black hole, neutron star, or nothing, and gas clouds in the system would have high radiation levels giving off those pretty lights.

 

[mike wightman]

It's a nova - material on a white dwarf exploding. Not a supernova.

 

[aramis]

It's a nova - material on a white dwarf exploding. Not a supernova.

To clarify further...

A Nova is not the death throws of a star. The standard nova is a process.
Step 1: Binary system with imbalanced stars.
Step 2: A, the primary, collapses to a white dwarf.
Step 3: B, the companion, is destabilized in orbit, then starts to infall, still burning in the main sequence.
Step 4: As B spirals, it crosses the roche limit, and begins to lose mass to A.
Step 5: when enough "atmosphere" accumulates on A, it fuses.
Step 6: If B survives, it continues to lose mass to A's surface. Go to 5.
Step 6A: eventually, either B impacts A, or B is stripped down to nothing by A, eventually becoming one white dwarf, or maybe even a neutron star.


It can blow up as often as a few decades between bangs, if the stars are close enough.

If big enough, the final BANG from a nova is a type 1A supernova - the mass finally hits the point that the core of A collapses and the shell detonates, usually resulting in a neutron star A and a big ring of ejecta, and a glow that be seen for billions of light years, and can outshine a galaxy... for a few weeks.

 

[savage]

Thanks for the clarification.

However, the planets have a high probability of being laid to waste. In the story line it clearly says everyone will die. It will strip off the Ozone layer and boil the oceans. Perhaps the planet may survive but would be nothing more than another Mars.

We have yet to study worlds within a "Nova/Supernova" solar system. Our only example so far are the elements/ materials that reach Earth from distant events.
Some of the materials discovered lead us to believe there was a near Sol event sometime in recent stellar history.

Red or Yellow zone for sometime to come from natural hazards. Unless Marc says the star stabilized into a white dwarf. Also, if its an unstable star, these events aren't happening over the period of a few years.