Of the various options for future Omega modules for SFB outlined in the August 2012 memo, one set of options was to take three of "Omega's Lost Empires" (as detailed in Bruce Graw's article of that same name in Captain's Log #36) and publish them in a single module for each trio.

One such grouping would bring these three empires together, and it was this trio in particular which I wanted to start a new thread for.

(Note that this is by no means intended to be the place where the actual look of each empire would be covered. For the time being, my intent is to gather as much as is currently known about these three factions from pre-existing data files, in order to help inform the debate when the time comes for some or all of them to be worked up.)


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In terms of the kind of technology or history involved, this group of empires makes sense to do in a single module.

The Vulpa Insurgency arose in the wake of the Mæsron Civil War, when the losing side made a series of attempts to establish themselves as a power in their own right. These efforts would come to fruition by the onset of the Seventh Cycle, as the Vulpa Confederacy took its place as a new and aggressive realm on the post-Invasions stage. After working with the Nucian Yaskitor Clan to conquer the Nucian Cluster by Y210, the Confederacy would later defeat the Vari in Y217, and incorporate Alunda refugees fleeing the fall of their home space to the Echarri Dynasty in Y218.

The Nucian Clans are comprised of ethnic Vulpa from the colony world of Nucia, who rose up against the then-new Mæsron Alliance in Y20. While the Masrons debated on what to do with these rebels, the entire colony packed up and fled to a densely-packed region of space now known as the Nucian Cluster. Nucian society was chronically divided, with Clans frequently falling towards bitter internecine conflict. This would prove to be their downfall in the Seventh Cycle, as the Yaskitor (Bloodfang) Clan allied itself with the Vulpa and succeeded in annexing the entire Cluster for the Confederacy by Y210. Those Clans on the losing side were either conquered or forced into exile in Mæsron space.

The Paravian Jihad is reported to take place in the yet-to-be-published Eighth (and final) known Cycle of modern Omega Octant history. But even before then, the Paravians of Omega had left their mark. The early history of these Paravians is as yet unclear, but their presence in the octant becomes more widely known through a series of technology raids against more distant Omega powers. (One such raid into the Nucian Cluster led to the acquisition of Nucian tactical mine technology, which the Paravians re-worked into their own quantum wave mines.) After passing through the gauntlet of the Invasions, the Paravians of the Seventh Cycle discovered the homeworld of the long-defeated Ymatrians. This event led to the integration of the now-enslaved Ymatrians as ground forces in Paravian service, as well as the reported integration of Ymatrian antiproton technology into Paravian starship designs. By the end of the Seventh Cycle, the Paravians seem primed to launch their long-awaited Jihad, though their final aims (and full set of capabilities as of Y221) remain unknown.


Based on the above, there are various interlocking issues to consider. How the Vulpa diverge from the technology tree they once shared with the Mæsrons, and later expand in their own directions; how the Nucians developed their new technology in the Cluster (and did so while dealing with the often-fractious nature of their own society); and how the Paravians managed to steal Nucian and Ymatrian technology for their own ends.


Below, I intend to set up a separate post for each empire, and try to cover what is known about them based on what is seen in the sources available to us at this point.

As with the pre-existing Omega empires discussed over in the Omega Warships thread, I may go into a bit of speculation regarding if/when certain technological advances may come in; but in this case, despite all three empires (presumably) having "normal" hulls (no bioships or dark matter flying crystals or Andromedan-esque unfathomables to worry about), there is still a lot left to be decided which will have to wait until the time comes to formally develop them.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, July 09, 2013 - 10:31 pm: Edit

Omega's Lost Futures - The Vulpa Insurgency/Confederacy

Prior to the end of the Mæsron Civil War, the Vulpa were already in SFB - as Mæsrons. The lupine Vulpa species helped found the original Alliance in Y19, and fought alongside their Tazol and Wallimi allies in the First Great War. However, the Vulpa earned the emnity of their supposed allies by launching a "palace coup" in Y122, which establish clear Vulpa dominance of the Grand Council and led the Vulpa Council President to declare himself Emperor of the "Mæsron Empire". After his death in Y145, the rival ambitions of the Vulpa (who sought to enthrone a new Vulpa Emperor and continue the Pax Mæsra) and the Tazol and Wallimi (who sought to denounce the Empire and restore the balance of the original Grand Council) tore the original Alliance/Empire apart, and led directly to the Collapse which reduced the Mæsrons to a mere shadow of their former selves.

When the Tazol/Wallimi-led "New Alliance" defeated the Vulpa faction in Y161, the Masron Civil War came to and end. And so, as it turned out, did the willingness of the Vulpa to see themselves as "Mæsrons", rather than "Vulpa". When the time came for Vulpa nationalists to begin re-arming themselves (initially with covert assistance from the Probr, who wanted to use them as an ally against the Trobrin during the Superpower Wars), it was not to try and re-establish the Vulpa as "first among equals" within the Alliance. Rather, it was to forge a new and explicitly Vulpa-led faction, where there would be no doubt as to which species was in charge.

The Vulpa Blockade Runner from Module Omega 2 is an example of what the first wave of Insurgent ships looked like. The VBR was heavily modified from a Mæsron destroyer, with no space left for the "floating" aft firing platform used in the original, but enough for a two-box C Warp engine capable of pushing the ship to speed 31. (It should be noted that the VBR is intended to act as a fast ship for its era, so may not reflect the tactical speeds of other insurgent warships.)

The first wave if insurgency started in Y171, when Vulpa forces based in Mæsron space launched surprise attacks against the Trobrin Empire. In order to avoid a Trobrin invasion, the Mæsrons moved against the Vulpa, shutting down at least two hidden shipyards and several logistical bases, but missing at least three other yards in the first pass. This would return to haunt the Mæsrons in Y180, when the insurgents teamed up with the Sig-infested Nucian Treska Clan to launch an attack against the Masrons themselves.

The insurgency era came to an end in Y189, when the Mæsrons and FRA defeated them and managed to hunt down the last of their hidden yards. The Vulpa refused to surrender and declared they would launch guerrilla operations against any occupying troops, so the New Alliance elected to simply bottle up their enemies from space. This might have worked out for them had it not been for the Andromedan and Souldra invasions, which drove back the Alliance and isolated the Vulpa territories. By the time the invasion was at an end, the Vulpa had fianlly succeeded in establishing the Confederacy.


- What do we know about their technology? The VBR uses standard Masron technology; Phaser-Ws, Tachyon Guns, Tachyon-A missile racks. According to the TM rules in the OMRB, the Vulpa would become fans of the Tachyon-D rack by the onset of the Second Great War. In Bruce Graw's article in CL36, he implied that the Vulpa Confederacy might gain access to certain Nucian technologies through their conquest of the Cluster, and do the same with the Vari (both in acquiring Vari technology, and in pressing Vari ships into service with Vulpa tech equipped) in the wake of that later victory. Whether or not this would end up happening remains to be seen, as it is not explicitly outlined in the current Omega timeline.


- Can they refit their "middle years" ships? First we need to decide what their "middle years" ships will be. We don't know yet what their insurgent-era hulls (other than the VBR) look like, and nor do we know what kind of access they would get to captured samples of speed-31 Mæsron technology. Or even if they still use any of the "legacy" Mæsron hulls they inherited from the Civil War days. We do know that the Mæsrons thesmelves pioneer speed-31 cruisers in Y173, and it may seem logical to assume the Vulpa (with a common technology base) would be able to reverse-engineer any captured samples. But exactly when, or even if, this happens is not yet clear.


- Are they required to build wholly new "war" classes? For the Vulpa, their "war" classes would likely mark the first time when they would build ships for the Confederacy, rather than for the Insurgency. The FRA and Mæsrons developed their own CWs and DWs in Y187, using them to help defeat the Vulpa two years later. But the insurgents may not have enough time to come up with their own wartime hulls by then. However, a new generation of war classes would make for the perfect way to mark the newly-energent Confederacy as a "new" faction, or perhaps as a further evolution of the alternate path taken by the Vulpa since the end of the Mæsron Civil War.


- What about X-ships? No year of introduction has been given for the Confederacy's adoption of first-generation advanced technology, but presumably enough would remain of their old Mæsron design legacy to allow them to integrate Mæsron X-tech readily enough should they get a hold of it somehow. (There are a number of Mæsron attempts to ship gunboat and X-tech to other empires. Who is to say the Vulpa didn't manage to snag one of those shipments for their own use?) Whether or not any Nucian or Vari X-tech would be made available as later refits would be another matter.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, July 09, 2013 - 10:59 pm: Edit

Omega's Lost Futures - The Nucian Clans

From their arrival in the Cluster in Y20 to their defeat at the hands of the Vulpa Confederacy in Y210, the Nucian Clans seem mostly content to be left alone - to fight each other. However, a number of named Clans have surfaced in the timeline.

In Y172, the Chorrak Clan (noted as being vengeful and possessive) had one of its frigates, along with several tactical mine samples, captured by a Paravian Heavy Raptor. A Pair of Chorrak destroyers attempted to pursue the raider, only to be destroyed in a three-way battle which also involved a Trobrin patrol ship. The Paravians would take these tactical mine samples and come up with their own quantum wave mines by Y174.

Later, the Treska Clan would ally with the Vulpa insurgents in Y180, and make a joint assault on the Mæsron Alliance. As it turned out, the "Treska" were no longer truly Nucian at all; their entire Clan had been subverted by the Sigvirions. Once this subterfuge was uncovered, the Sigs would use Treska space to build "regular" Sig warships. The Treska were laid low in Y184, when three rival Clans agreed to destory them after the Mæsron ambassador offered a new vaccine which revealed dozens of Sig spies among their own people.

The Yaskitor (Bloodfang) Clan would take part in a massive new civil war in the Seventh Cycle, when those Clans left standing after the Andromedan and Souldra invasions (only 25% of the pre-invasion amount) sought to decide who would be in charge of the Cluster from then onwards. In Y207, the Vulpa Confederacy declared their annexation of the entire Cluster, and the Yaskitor's Lord Amrag (who self-declared victory over the other Clans in Y206) announced that he was in on the plan. As of Y210, the Vulpa-Yaskitor bloc had succeeded in conquering the Cluster outright; over a dozen surviving Clans fled into Mæsron space, where they were quickly integrated into the New Alliance.


- What do we know about their technology? A number of their weapons are named (and dated) in the Omega timeline:

*Type-E1 light mine (Y36),
*Type-C1 light mine (Y57),
*Armour shell for light mines (Y102),
*Type-E2 light mine (Y107),
*Type-C2 light mine (Y120),
*Light probe mine (Y125),
*Type-E3 mine, ECM shell (Y132),
*Type-C3 light captor mine (Y155),
*large and small light spearfish mines, advanced targeting shell, enlarged mine catapult rack (Y169).

What we don't know is what any of their ships look like. In Y20, the Vulpa (as part of the Alliance) had only begun to incorporate their first tactical warp drives (given to them by the Tazol as part of the Treaty of Mæsra) a year earlier. Did the original Nucians flee to the Cluster in non-tactical warp ships, and end up developing tactical warp drive by themelves?

And for that matter, just how do the numbers add up? Nucia had to be large enough a colony to support the founding of a series of fractious Clans upon arrival in the Nucian Cluster, but small enough for the primitive transports of the day to actually get them there. There has to be soem sort of answer as to exactly how many Clans there are (or have been), what their population numbers are, and how each can afford to have even one ship for themselves, let alone enough forces for each to be counted in their own right (but not enough to be a major threat to anyone outside of the Cluster in normal circumstances).


- Can they refit their "middle years" ships? One would need to work out what their actual "middle years" ships look like first. Presumably they'd become aware of speed-31 ships post-Y173, but how long it would take for their industrial base to catch up is another story.


- Are they required to build wholly new "war" classes? When would they even get "war" classes? Maybe not until the time of the invasions, or perhaps not even then. But since we don't know what their "peacetime standards" hulls look like, it's an open question as to whether or not those hulls could be converted into wartime ships or not.


- What about X-ships? A tough call. Considering how late X-tech develops in the Omega Octant, and how soon the surviving Clans fell into what would be their final round of internecine warfare, how many (if any) of them would be able to adopt X-tech? (Assuming the star systems of the Cluster can even generate XTPs.) Perhaps at least the Yaskitor Nucians might get access to Vulpa X-tech, either during or after the Confederacy annexation.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, July 09, 2013 - 11:31 pm: Edit

Omega's Lost Futures - The Paravian Jihad

When the original idea of there being Paravians in Omega sprang up, the concept seemed to be based around a fleet of refugees fleeing around the coreward edge of the Void and down into what would become their new home territories on the "top-left" corner of the Omega Octant map. (This trick of skimming the edge of the Storm Zone has been sugested as the means used by the Xorkaelians to get from their side of the galaxy to ours.)

However, it has not been confirmed one way or another if this was indeed the case, or of the Omega-Paravians have some other origin story waiting to be told. (For all we know, these Paravians may have nothing to do with the ones that will be extrapolated upon in Module C6.)

What we do know is that, prior to about Y170, they seemed broadly content to keep a low profile in their original three-hex pocket of Omega space. (In Y164, they destroyed a Trobrin ship which had uncovered one of their watchposts, but planted enough evidence to make it look like a warp accident. The Trobrin Empire would not formally uncover the existence of the Paravians until Y175.) The Chlorophons, busy sending ships to investigate the Andromedans, encountered the Paravians in Y171; but didn't seem to bother informing the Trobrin about their unknwon neighbours at the time.

From Y170 onwards, they sent a series of long-range missions into more distant corners of the Omega Octant, searching for information and samples of foreign technology. This "tech piracy" initially only provided one advancement of note, when the Nucian raid mentioned in the previous post led to the onset of quantum wave mine technology in Y174.

The Paravians started to push their luck on the Trobrin border in Y186, taking advantage of the Empire's heavy commitments in the Second Great War. A year later, this adventurism was reined in due to a Souldra incursion into Paravian space. By Y195, the Paravians (now in the midst of the Invasions) abandoned their outlying territories and concentrated their remaining forces in their core territories, but even then survived in part due to the intevention of the Loriyill Splinter Collective.

The Seventh Cycle, however, is when things really start to get interesting for the Omega-Paravians. in Y206, they uncovered the Ymatrian homeworld. The surviving Ymatrians, descendants of nomads who avoided the Drex orbital bombardment of Y129, mistakenly believed the avian sky-dwellers to be angels. This superstition doomed the Ymatrians to the status of a slave state, with Ymatrian ground troops serving on Paravian warships and buried samples of Ymatrian antiproton technology ending up made available to their new masters. Then, in the Y210s, the Paravians would sign a secret treaty with the Trobrin Empire, allowing them to launch increasingly savage raids against Mæsron and Probr space while retreating unmolested across Trobrin territory.

As of Y221, the Paravians have added the Vulpa, Drex, and Worb to their hitlist, and seem to on the verge of unmasking their true long-term goal: of unleashing a full-scale Jihad against the rest of the Omega Octant. Only the Eighth Cycle timeline (should it still exist somewhere) can say just how bad things are going to get when that happens.


But as an aside, them being so far "up" on the map raises another question; if the Xorks do end up skimming the Storm Zone to get to Alpha, what happens if they try to send ships along the Xork-Sigma-Omega route to Alpha, rather than the Xork-Sargasso-Alpha option? (or, perhaps, if they do both?) If each hex on the Omega map is assumed to be the same size as those on the Federation and Empire map (and I would sincerely hope this to be the case), the coreward edge of the Omega map would lap up against the rimward edge of the Storm Zone. So, if the Paravians end up holding territory which brushes up against this boundary, what kind of risk might they be of uncovering Xork ships in transit from the other side of the galaxy? And if the Xorks were to one day take a shot at the Omega Octant, might the Paravians find themselves on the front lines?

(I wouldn't complain if the "Jihad" ended up being a massive case of the Paravians being pre-empted by the Xorkaelians, forcing them to expend all of that pent-up energy against the Xorks instead of the other Omega empires. But I digress...)


- What do we know about their technology? There is no guarantee that any of the material being prepared for C6 would be relevant here. And to be fair, nor should there be. Even if these Paravians are given "standard" Alpha phasers and some version of the Quantum Wave Torpedo to start off with, they are quite liable to do things their own way (and to be under similar speed restrictions as other "middle years" Omega empires, depending on whether or not they had to develop their first TL 12 hulls independently). Once we have a sense of what Nucian tactical mines are like, we can then try to work out how to turn them into quantum wave mines. Also, once they uncover the Ymatrian home world, it can be decided which antiproton technologies (Phaser-As, Antiproton Beams, and/or the Antiproton Lance) they would use, and how they would use them. At least we know that one of their raiding ships is called a Heavy Raptor, but what size of hull that is supposed to be remains to be seen.


- Can they refit their "middle years" ships? Too soon to tell; but if it is technically possible, they would have the time and opportunity to incorporate such technology.


- Are they required to build wholly new "war" classes? Again unknown. For them, given their distance and relative isolation from the "mainstream" Omega powers by that time, they would likely be an Invasions-era innovation.


- What about X-ships? They would need to get X-tech at some point, if only to compete with the X-ships used by their enemies if the Seventh Cycle. If the Worb happen to get X-ships at some point, perhaps the kind of advancements they would make with the antiproton weapons they had once salvaged from the same source might also work out for Paravian X-ships. (Or maybe they would simply steal samples of Worb X-tech directly, and not bother trying to work it all out for themselves).

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, July 09, 2013 - 11:36 pm: Edit

Also, I forgot to note that "volatile warp" gunboats may be an option for all three empires.

The Vulpa might build boats that look the most like Mæsron ones, since they would have a similar need to build a larger boat in order to account for the use of TM racks. The resulting PF might still look quite different in outline, however.

The Nucians may be liable to use PFs, which could be a way to explain how the smaller clans lasted as long as they did against the Vulpa-Yaskitor bloc in the Seventh Cycle.

And the Paravians seem to be as good a set of candidates for PF use as any. One option could be to give them two classes of gunboat, each with its own distinct hull type (akin to how the Romulans have both the StarHawk and Centurion). One could be armed with QWTs and/or quantum wave mines, for use by the Paravians themselves; and a second would be equiped with antiproton weapons, which could be crewed by their more expendable Ymatrian slaves instead. The "native-flown" PFs could then be used as medium-range dancers, while the "Ymatrian-flown" antiproton boats could instead be thrown at the enemy to unleash a wave of brutal short-range attacks.

And I suppose all three could technically construct workboats, but may vary in terms of what they do with them. The Confederacy might be willing to sell them on the open market. The Nucians may not be able to spare any PF production prior to the annexation, but perhaps the "loyal" Yaskitor might be permitted to export workboats to the Confederacy proper post-Y210. And if the Paravians were to bother with workboats, I'm not sure they'd be in a mood to sell them to anyone, unless they felt like trading with their nominal Trobrin allies in the Y210s.

(So far as workboats go, I was thinking that, should they be allowed to exist in the Omega Octant, those empires willing to sell them on the export market would strip off the phaser mounts and let the purchasing empire install their own; while those workboats barred from export sales by their home governments would simply equip them with their home phaser-equivalent weapon/s instead. So, if a Mæsron workboat were sold to a buyer in the FRA, it would be delivered with empty phaser mounts and have the local Alpha phasers installed upon arrival; while a Loriyill workboat, which would presumably be off-limits to "lesser" species, would get the native phaser types installed as standard.)

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - 10:31 am: Edit

In light of the Echarri-Scon-Zosman discussion, it might be worth deciding if any or all of these three empires have weapons that can be captured and made use of by the Zosman Marauders.

(Even if the Zosmans are done later, each new weapon system might still need the same kind of rule governing non-native usage, as seen in the OMRB for the current crop of Omega weapons.)

Unless there is any particular exception one can think of, I might suggest that each of the three empires above would have at least one new weapon that the Zosmans can steal. (We already know that the Marauders can use tachyon missiles, so it's really more about what kind of Nucian and Paravian toys they can play with.)

By A. David Merritt Adm (Adm) on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - 02:27 pm: Edit

If it is of any interest to ADB, I still have the playtest SSDs for the Nucians. I have managed to loose the rules though.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - 03:32 pm: Edit

If those SSDs are deemed to be in any way workable (at least in terms of showing the hull outline the original designer had in mind for ships of the Nucian fleet), doing them first would help set the tone for both the Vulpa and Paravians. Once we know how the Nucians handle their tactical mine usage, we can then decide whether or not the Confederacy ever gains access to that technology, and extrapolate how quantum wave mines might be deployed.


Actually, I had a thought concerning the Omega-Paravians. What if, rather than going all-in for QWTs as their heavy weapons, the "middle years" Paravians in Omega retained a modified version of the old direct-fire quantum cannon to use as a secondary or tertiary weapon? As in, a CA could have 2 QWTs and two improved QCs, or some such.

That could give the Paravians here a different combat dynamic than their C6 counterparts, even before gaining access to quantum wave mines in Y174.

Plus, when the time comes to rifle through the Ymatrian filing cabinet, the Paravians wouldn't have to worry about losing torpedo firepower when refitting their ships with antiproton beams; they could simply remove the QCs and install the APBs in their place.

By Jeffery Smith (Jsmith) on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - 07:37 pm: Edit

that works if the improved QC's are inferior to the APB, but what if it is not. then why would they do it.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - 08:08 pm: Edit

Well, for one thing, the APB can be boosted by the use of the spinal lance (if the Paravians find a way to mount one of those on the hull).

But I was thinking that the improved QC could be done up in such a way that it was better than the Early Years version, but perhaps not as powerful as a standard antiproton beam.

Alternatively, it could be that the quantum cannon may run into a technological dead end, whereas an APB might be compatible with Omega X-technology. (If the Worb get X-ships with improved APBs, the same upgrade may be possible for the Paravians, too.) So, even if the improved QC was a decent enough weapon for a "middle years" Omega-Paravian force, it might be supplanted once the jump to TL 13 is made.


But then, there's no guarantee that the QC itslf can be upgraded to "middle years" tech, or if the Omega-Paravians would bother with it even if it was. Still, it might be an option worth considering, perhaps.

By A. David Merritt Adm (Adm) on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - 08:54 pm: Edit

Personally, I think the Anti-Proton Lance should have stayed Yamatrian only so that they would have something unique. The Worb certainly do not need it.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - 06:10 pm: Edit

A relevant note has recently surfaced on the storefront page for Module C6:

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Quote:

Paravian history also depends on a single leader, Marengo Firecloud Wildfeather, who (historically) tried to convince the other wing lords to stop raiding and start building colonies. Had he succeeded, the Paravians would have built an empire at the expense of the Gorns and ISC, and the ISC would never have become the peacemakers they historically were. While Marengo's campaign failed, he did build the remote colony of Wingatha, where those Paravians who survived the Gorn campaign gathered to decide their future. They could have built a world there and returned to raiding, but instead they headed for the Omega Sector.

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By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - 08:13 pm: Edit

Jean calls him Marigold Firetail Wingding.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - 08:26 pm: Edit

Perhaps that could be the name of a cartoon Paravian supervillain featured in an Auroran children's trivid broadcast!

"Watch out, kids, that dastardly Wingding is up to his old tricks again..."


Actually, it occurs to me that, since the Gorns would have had no way of knowing about Wildfeather's fate prior to the return of the Sakharov in Y219, at least some of the information about him in the data tapes had to have come from sources gathered in the Omega Octant after the exiles started to become more active there.

Unless the Gorns managed to find the abandoned colony at Wingatha by themselves, but were only able to put two and two together courtesy of the Sakharov?


Of course, the primary focus of C6 wil be on what might have happened had the Paravians stayed in the Alpha Octant (one way or another). But even so, if there are any further nuggets of information that can be teased out on the subject of the exiles, they would make for some very welcome reference points if/when the time comes for these Paravians to get their time in the spotlight.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - 08:59 pm: Edit

They would have known he was one of the five wing lords who formed the wing word. They would have known he called for a different policy. They would have known he was forced out of power, and that he died in the nova.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - 09:16 pm: Edit

Ah, so he was more Taneak than S'hor; he may have set the idea in motion, but others would have had to pursue it in his absence.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, September 30, 2013 - 10:29 pm: Edit

In light of the C6 preview, there seem to be a number of developments which may, or may not, have an impact for the Paravians of Omega.

It's clarified that the Paravians who made the crossing would have done so at a time when most of the Alpha Octant was still at the Y-era level of technology. So it may be that the new arrivals would have had to develop modern warp technology (and the means of getting around the W/Y-era turn mode issues) after re-establishing themselves. Ditto for any "modern" technologies used on their ships, such as overloadable QWTs and ship-mounted phaser-1s.


For what it's worth (which isn't much), I have a few ideas as to how I'd like to see things pan out for these Paravians tech-wise.


*Firstly, I would like to see them get only so far as the "middle years" speed limits seen with their Trobrin neighbours, at least prior to the onset of speed-30 cruisers in Omega from the Y170s. Whether or not that would include solving the turn mode problem prior to a speed-30 refit is a matter for debate, but perhaps they too could solve that issue even if their first cruisers have to go at speed 27 or so.


*As for early weapons, I wouldn't see an issue with developing the same kind of "modern" plaser-1s or QWTs seen in C6. But what I would like to see is these Paravians following the same kind of split fire arcs seen across the Omega Octant (even in the FRA).

For example, rather than having a CA with four FA-mounted QWTs, I would like to see 2 FA, 1 LF+L, and 1 RF+R torps instead. (That would follow the kind of pattern you see with numerous Omega empires with direct-fire heavy weapons, but would still be unique so far as Omega seeking weapon empires go. The closest in the latter case is the Souldra, who have most of their DMTs to FA, but also have launchers in the L+LR and R+RR arcs also.)

I actually kind of like the idea of these Paravians having a light-to-medium cruiser with 3 QWTs, spread out across all three arcs (akin to the TGs on the Vulpa blockade runner). That would provide an interesting layout for a ship captain to work with. (Perhaps the Heavy Raptor could have such a setup?)

This would make the shielding setup an interesting one. The C6 CW has a very heavy front shield, since it is needed for those FA-arc QWTs to launch behind. But if the Omega Paravians were to have split QWT arcs, might they also spread a few shield boxes from the #1 block to the #2 and #6 arcs while they were at it?


*So far as ship construction goes, it's notable that while the CW in CL28 had NWO and cargo boxes, the C6 CW has neither (since it is a line ship, not a lone raider). However, in the case of these Paravians, they would have a need both to defend their own space (from the Trobrin, Andromedans, Souldra, and Zosmans) and to launch long-range technology raids (to places as far apart as the Qixavalor Cloud and the Nucian Cluster).

So, I would suggest splitting the difference, akin to how the Qixa have both "in-cloud" and "out-cloud" ships in their own fleet. A handful of hulls, such as the Heavy Raptor recorded in the Nucian incident of Y172, could be designed with cargo boxes and NWO mounts; while line ships (to include hulls deemed too small to go so far into the octant, such as frigates and destroyers) would be built with a more C6-ey flavour.

War classes, should they exist, would likely only get built after the Invasions of the Sixth Cycle broke out, so they too would likely be built as line hulls.


*One key distinction here would be in how to incorporate new technologies swiped and/or re-purposed from the locals, be it quantum wave mines or Ymatrian antiproton weapons.

The QWM enters operation in Y174, so would likely appear as a refit to some or all of the pre-war hulls. Since "war" classes (again, should they exist) would appear much later, they would presumably be built with this technology in mind, so would come with them as standard.

So far as the Ymatrian weapons go, that is a more open question. Do the Paravians adopt antiproton phasers only, or add in APBs and/or the spinal lance also? If so, is only one generation of hull more likely to be so equipped, or is a fleet-wide refit?

Perhaps the "war" classes are more likely to be done up with antiproton weapons, or perhaps they are instead seen as a means of extending the lifespans of their older ships. Or perhaps they are more common in attrition units, such as PFs (ones flown by Ymatrian cannon-fodder?)


Of course, none of the above need end up as part of what the Omega Paravian fleet might look like when the time comes. But in any case, there are certainly plenty of interesting options to consider, in terms of highlighting how unique these Paravians will be compared to their C6 and SSJ2 counterparts.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, January 29, 2018 - 10:06 pm: Edit

It's hard to imagine that it's already close to five years since SFB Module C6 was published. Nevertheless, between it, the FC Lost Empires Preview Ship Card Pack, the Zosman Marauder preview material in Captain's Log #50 and Captain's Log #52, the rules and background material available in the 2011 Omega Master Rulebook, and the potential of one day seeing Paravian ship minis worked up on Shapeways, I wonder if there might be enough material to help revisit the concept of how the Paravians of the Omega Octant might potentially work.

Specifically, I would pose the following questions:

*What, if any, Middle Years rules and/or SSDs could be used (or adjusted) from those in Module C6?
*How should the reported "quantum wave mine" be implemented?
*Should these Paravians use any of the "wartime construction" ships from C6; and, if so, with what (if any) caveats or adjustments?
*How should Omega-Paravian attrition units be handled, relative to those in C6?
*How best should these Paravians make use of Ymatrian antiproton technology?
*And what kind of "update" material, such as Zosman Marauder activity and/or access to civilian Omega Octant unit types, should be set in place for these Paravians?

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By and large, I would lean on the side of making use of the Middle Years rules from Module C6 here: as in, these Paravians would develop phaser-1s and overloadable quantum wave torpedoes.

SSD-wise, I would suggest taking the appropriate ships from C6 (CA, CL, etc), and in effect replacing the current APR refits with Omega-appropriate warp refits - akin to those seen for the Zosmans in CL50 and CL52, and for the playtest Trobrin and Koligahr command ships also in CL52.

For example, take the Paravian light cruiser in Module C6. That CL has a set of three 7-box warp engines from its YIS date of Y125, but does not get its APR refit until Y168. For its Omega Octant counterpart, I would adjust the YIS date to, say, Y145; de-shade the APR boxes (as in, have the APRs be installed as standard), and instead shade one L Warp, one C Warp, and one R Warp box, which would appear in a warp refit from, say, Y178 onwards.

This would put the Middle Years Omega-Paravian CL at the same speed curve as the current Mæsron CL, which also has a total of 18 warp boxes (2x9, rather than 3x6). I would suggest not having this, nor any other, Omega warp refit be universal, so as to put a premium on the later development of ships built from the keel up to fight at Speed 30.

Also, while the C6 CL SSD accounts for the later use of advanced shuttles, these may not be an option in the Omega Octant. (Personally, I would have Omega advanced shuttles be exclusive to Omega X-ships, but that is a topic for another time and place.)

Similar warp refits could be worked out for other Middle Years Paravian ships, also.

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As noted in earlier posts, the "quantum wave mine" is reported to be derived from Nucian "tactical mines". Which would presumably mean that one would have to figure out a workable set of rules for the Nucian weapon before then adapting it into the QWM.

However, there is no reason to automatically assume that these QWMs would, or indeed should, be adopted fleet-wide. One could just as easily assign them exclusively to Paravian minesweepers - which, if they were to be anything like those in Module C6, would be somewhat ahead of the curve already, due to their ability to use quantum wave torpedoes to help sweep mines.

Which, if so, would allow for further speculation on other Omega-Paravian ship options without having to wait for the Nucians to be done first.

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The first Omega Octant war cruisers and war destroyers do not appear until Y187, when the Mæsrons and FRA jointly develop the technology required. Presumably, it would take time for this innovation to filter out across the rest of the octant; it may not be until after the onset of the Andromedan and Souldra invasions before the Paravians get around to fielding their first "war" classes.

Nevertheless, if one were to treat quantum wave mines in the manner suggested above - i.e. by limiting them to Omega-Paravian minesweepers - it might not be entirely unreasonable to use at least some of the Paravian "war" classes from Module C6 more or less as-is, minus the option of taking advanced admin shuttles.

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As for Omega-Paravian attrition units, there are two issues at hand: what to do about fighters, and how to handle "volatile warp" PFs.

In the case of fighters, the C6 Paravians have superiority fighters which are armed with quantum wave torpedoes, plus the option of taking more heavily-armed assault fighters. However, in Omega, where few empires are given the luxury of taking more than a handful of seeking weapon fighters in a give size-1 squadron, this approach may not be in keeping with how things are done locally.

I would not be averse to setting the standard Omega-Paravian squadron at 12 size-1 fighters, but I would suggest going with a 2:1 ratio of phaser-only fighters to QWT-armed assault fighters.

As for gunboats, the flexibility of "volatile warp" technology is such that Omega-Paravian PFs could, in principle, be larger (or smaller) than the "hot warp" PFs the C6 Paravians have on offer.

In any event, as seen with "volatile warp" gunboats elsewhere in the Omega Octant, these PFs should be designed from the outset to fight the Souldra and Andromedans, and only later be tasked with taking on others of their kind elsewhere in Omega.

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Perhaps the biggest point of divergence between the Paravians of Omega and their Module C6 counterparts will be in their adoption of Ymatrian antiproton technology, starting in Y207.

In order to gauge how this integration might work, a good point of reference would be to see how the playtest Zosman Marauders are currently able to acquire such weapons, primarily from the Worb Technocracy.

Antiproton phasers are straightforward enough; a Zosman ship can take AP-1s or AP-3s in its phaser option mounts, and also elect to use them in their weapon modules also (which, as the Broad Worb caste might argue, is a perfectly viable option in and of itself).

Antiproton beams each take up a single weapon option mount, whereas the antiproton lance requires two centerline adjacent option mounts. So, if a Zosman heavy cruiser wants to channel its inner Ymatrian, it would either take four APBs (two per weapon module), or more likely a pair of APBs in one module and a LNC in another. This is about 2/3 the striking power of a Ymatrian CA (which has three APBs and a spinal lance), but about at same as that offered by the turreted APBs and LNC on a Worb CA (which, of course, has a number of subspace rockets to make use of also).

Also, since the Zosman CL, DD, and FF only have one weapon module apiece, it would be pointless for them to take a LNC; they would have to make do with APBs - or, as noted, to take a leaf from the Broad Worb playbook and simply throw in another pair of antiproton phaser-1s.

So, if one were to try and create an experimental antiproton variant of a Paravian ship, based on the precedent in Module C6, how would that look?

C6's Paravian CA - like many Paravian ships - is shaped in no small part by the legacy of the Paravians as raiders. (Something which, perhaps, is not too far off from the Zosman Marauders themselves.) In exchange for the ability to land on planets and to disgorge a healthy number of boarding parties once they do so, the ship is somewhat limited in terms of weapon options, with room for four quantum wave torpedoes, six phaser-1s, and four phaser-3s.

If one were to assume the kind of "Omega-ification" proposed earlier in the post for the CL is in play here, the next step in creating a "CAA" could be to swap out the phaser-1s for AP-1s, the phaser-3s for AP-3s, and the four QWTs for two APBs and a LNC. This would give the resulting ship the same heavy weapon firepower as an equivalently-armed Zosman CA, plus slightly superior antiproton phaser firepower (as the Zosman has only six phaser option mounts, not counting the mounts on the weapon modules).

However, while Paravian ships with four or more QWT mounts can benefit from the use of the LNC (each of which can support fire from up to 3 APBs at once), those with three QWT mounts or less would perhaps be better off going solely with APBs. And there is the issue of how these ships could be integrated with those which retain the use of phaser-1s, phaser-3s, and QWTs.

Nevertheless, I would argue that, given the limited number of phaser and heavy weapon mounts on the base hulls involved, the Omega-Paravians should go "all-in" with their antiproton variants; even if the use of antiproton phasers reduces the medium-range phaser output of a mixed-technology squadron, the need to maximize the short-range firepower provided by these variants may be deemed to be worth the exchange.

I should note that, since full Aegis fire control does not exist in the Omega Octant, the "-A" designation is free to use for Omega-Paravian antiproton variants, just as the Probr use "-A" to designate their accentuation variant hulls.

Oh, and one could in principle also apply antiproton technology to Omega-Paravian attrition units; it would certainly make things lively for APB-armed gunboats.

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As for "update" material, there are two main details which could be of note at this time.

Firstly, I would grant these Paravians access to the four "civilian" hull types seen in Capain's Log #20 at some point; the "P-1", "P-3", and/or "WPN" mounts would be phaser-1s, phaser-3s, and/or QWTs respectively. (I wouldn't bother providing antiproton variants of these units.)

As for the Zosmans, I would count Paravian space as a "primary" territory from about Y170 or so. They would gain access to phaser-1/2/3s and QWTs from then. Since the Paravians themselves stole the basis for quantum wave mine technology, one could assume that, should the Zosmans be shown to make use of mine warfare, that they could in turn acquire QWM samples should they so wish. And antiproton technology would perhaps become available in, say, Y210, so as to give the Paravians enough time to build up an industrial and logistical base worth raiding.

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So, with all of that in mind, I would suggest that there, at the very least, could be enough to start off with, say in a future issue of Captain's Log, as was done for the Zosmans themselves.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the ideas suggested above - or, perhaps, have any thoughts of their own as to how to make the Paravians of Omega a unique and viable threat?

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - 02:55 pm: Edit

Given that the Paravians exist in both Quadrants, I would not reuse the "A" designation.

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar2) on Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - 07:09 pm: Edit

As an alternate combat ship, 'B' could be used, leaving 'A' for aegis (or something else) ...

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, January 31, 2018 - 01:37 pm: Edit

I suppose "-B" could stand for "beam" (as in antiproton beam), and the Iridani do use "-B" for their Bonnaventure variants; but I'm not sure if it would be necessary to avoid the use of "-A" in a strictly Omega context. (Aside from the Probr, the Chlorophons use "-A" for their assault frigate.)

That reminds me: so far as "update" things go, I would not be averse to having these Paravians gain access to limited Aegis in Y194, as a number of other (non-Drex) empires do according to (OR1.N1) in the 2011 Omega Master Rulebook.