Time to ring some changes?
09 Dec 2018Thunktone
3304 December 09, Sunday18:12
A pattern seems to be emerging from GalNet reports. There's some sort of military treaty between the superpowers that's coming to an end on Tuesday. The full details of the treaty were never made public but it has something to do with containment of battles in designated conflict zones and the treatment of civilians, enemy pilots and mercenaries - mercenaries like me. But the treaty hasn't been renewed and it looks like the face of war in the galaxy is about to change. Rumour has it that the restrictions on attacking factions already engaged in conflict will be lifted. I know many factions feel that their rate of expansion is unfairly limited by these restrictions but I fear they've all forgotten why the rule was drafted in the first place. I certainly can't remember.
Then there's the reports of shifts in power in various parts of the galaxy, seemingly unconnected and yet suspiciously timed in the run up to the end of the treaty. The rise of Nova Imperium and their puppet emperor Hadrian Augustus Duval; the merger of Allied Medical Industries and Neosalve Inc. to form Neomedical Industries; the appointment of a Zaonce Fleet officer to the Alliance Council of Admirals; President Kincaid's new fleet of "ambassadorial emissaries"; the mysteries of the Far God cult's hidden bases and this hacker group they call the Collective. Some of these could be flashes in the pan, but something tells me I'll soon have a much broader choice of "powers" to work for.
There's a raft of new shipboard equipment being released on the same day as the treaty ends. But that probably has more to do with old gift-giving rituals. I hear there's a fleet stuffed with onionhead on its way to Colonia for the same reason. I'm sure the authorities there will have heard the same rumour. Some of the new mining gear might find a place in my fleet. I'm thinking of setting up an Adder to crack asteroids open with the new explosives. I guess I could even take a refinery on my next expedition, but I'd want a larger ship for that, I was thinking of joining "Distant Worlds 2" with a Type-10. Then again it wouldn't be easy to get one of those between the split rocks, so this all needs more thought.
Perhaps the most exciting new toy though is the integrated discovery scanner. I got to test a prototype and they make it much easier to find salvage and mission objectives. Signals like that are reliably detected at a whopping 1000 Ls and it can be focussed and tuned to detect signals anywhere in a stellar system. I haven't flown much this week because all my ships are being fitted with the new scanner. I only really put the bulky old one on exploration and tourism vessels.
I've kitted out an Asp Explorer to survey some systems near home. I wouldn't expect to find anything that exciting that isn't already known, but I'll be looking for things like canyons full of geysers and just generally getting an idea of any planets and moons that might be fun to duel or race over.
It has a long range FSD with a guardian booster. So after I've surveyed the local area I'm going to take it out to some of my past discoveries and update the maps. I might spend a bit of time looking for new earthlikes too, I have a hunch on where to find some.
I'm less excited by the new ships. That Mamba is pretty fast for a huge weapon mount but with poor turning and acceleration compared to my Viper it looks like a hit and run turret platform. Not much point in a huge mount then. The Krait Phantom might make an effective smuggler but it wouldn't be as satisfying as sneaking a Type-9 past a blockade. I'm sure other pilots are going to love them but I prefer small ships for combat.