Speaking about resourcefullness and materials, it’s we, Caldari, who opened and colonized Black Rise. We pretty much can find ways of expanding and getting materials without raiding or invading someone… like certain other empires (Federation… or Republic…) do.
But can your scientists make ships from rust and debris if given no other choice? Not doubting Caldari prowess, just havent seen what they can do with real limitations.
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Yes.
Melting debris can give metal, and smelting rust with carbon can give metal as well. The chemistry is very simple: 2Fe2O3 + 3C = 4Fe +3CO2. Even our ancestors could do that to create swords, using just clay ovens, why would you think our modern engineers couldn’t implement that to reuse rust?
Really, almost any station can reprocess the salvage to create materials suitable for spaceship construction.
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That sounds like you have more than the rust and debris. Like a smelter.
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Making a smelter out of debris doesn’t sound really that difficult. All you need is some engineering skills, chemical knowledge and a bit of imagination.
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You’d also need the debris to include the materials and the chemicals needed to heat everything to the melting point.
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I was kinda implying litterally using those items, not modifying them into normal components. While yes that would be the better approach, is it required for caldari scientists, ect? It isnt for us.
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So, for what it’s worth, Ms. Vess, the Kairiola, the most famous carrier in Caldari history, was a converted water freighter.
It’s been a little longer, maybe, since the Caldari have needed to make do the way the Matari have more recently. By about a century, probably. But the Caldari did, at one time, have to build a war fleet out of basically nothing to challenge the Federal military with the survival of the Caldari people potentially at stake.
The Kestrel is actually a similarly-famous design from that time: they were originally troop and supply transports. The Kairiola bought time for the evacuation of Caldari Prime while flights of Kestrels did the actual evacuating.
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I actually am aware of those examples. I don’t hold the Caldari engineers in high regard for nothing. Can they still do it? They’ve definately had their successes, I just wonder if they’re lessons still taught or merely a foot note on history? For us its a common reality and a standard benchmark. Is it for them? I honestly would hope so but knowing how things are in this day and age I doubt any people really take into consideration what lacking resources really is. The simple reply of “we’ll simply make what we need” doesn’t hold much when it comes a time you cant make what you need, via time constraints or infrastructure. I do feel we are more competent under adverse conditions as that is a large part of our doctrine.
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How many of their people take their ships apart and rebuild systems for fun?
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I never have known many. Honestly aside from modifying other peoples work via making rigs I’ve done little, but even I can come up with something, useless as it may be. I honestly do hope many do. If not, well its sad I can do what their best and brightest can’t, realistically I’m not exactly good at engineering, my circles were more social based as a child.
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The Caldari literally have a Technician caste, and I seem to remember the State is the only empire where Splinterz is more popular than Mindclash. That doesn’t just apply at the televised, professional level, either.
So, basically, the answer is, “Yes, and then make them fight. Also, bet on the outcome.”
(What Caldari sometimes lack in good humor and sense of fun they tend to make up in competitive spirit.)
What Caldari generally do not do is pursue knowledge for its own sake. Pragmatic knowledge and clever engineering are pursued with enthusiasm, but actual intellectualism isn’t actually valued a lot. That’s a lot of why Achura tend to be valued in teaching and research positions, even if we have to be kept culturally isolated: we look at knowledge the way the Caldari look at material resources (“Even if you don’t yet know what it’s for, you can never have too much!”), so we don’t have to have a reason to explore … basically anything.
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Yeah, that whole ‘Technician caste’ thing… I mean… just one?
Literally 90% of the Sebiestor I know are at least tinkerers. As for Splinterz… wouldn’t it make sense that a techno-sport of Caldari origin is most popular in the State?
And I dunno, making destructo-bots just… it seems pretty limited. Breaking other stuff isn’t even a percentage of everything technology can do. Why be so tunnel-visioned, you know?
I mean, personally… one of the things I plan to do when I finally feel like I have things here at a point where I’m completely replaceable is fixing the horrible way warp drive works right now. There’s no excuse for the clunky, limited fashion it operates in, nor for the incredibly low speeds we attain with it.
It can’t take that much work to get it functional for reasonably-fast interstellar travel. Maybe a week or so for a hundred light-years. Not as fast as a stargate, of course, but much better at getting someplace where there isn’t already a compatible gate to receive.
Rather like self-contained acceleration gates, really. The theory, at least, appears sound.
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Uh … so, a person of a given ethnicity and culture liking that ethnicity and culture’s approach to stuff better than how other people do it isn’t really news? Seen cynically, the whole State’s built on that principle (if principle is the word).
That said, the State’s also got a pretty wide anti-intellectual streak. It’s probably the largest cultural barrier between the Caldari and Achura (we tend kinda strongly the other way).
Actually, if your culture has real competition in this area it’d probably be from the Achura, if we got spaceborne very much. Not all of our curiosity gets focused on technical things, but inventors are considered a form of “seeker” and enjoy very high social status.
(Only, again, person of cultural and at least half-ethnic identity approves of that identity: how unusual.)
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The merit is measured in the competitions. To be a good engineer you don’t have to be just good, you have to be better than others. While you can do it, you’ll hold the position, you’ll be pampered. When someone else shows to be better than you… well, it’ll turn badly for you. That’s why Caldari engineers hone their skills. Yes, our engineers will just make what they need. But they won’t make it simple. They will try to make it better than their competitor - another Caldari engineer.
That’s not what Caldari engineers do. They won’t take ship apart and rebuild it for fun. They’ll just build new ship that is better.
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Hmm, well said.
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I think I liked it more when it was discussion about massagers and power tools instead of ships.
And those engineers honing their skills…
Like why people try to eliminate vibratons from power tools, I mean, its pleasant from time to time.
I think I will install a massager in my capsule.
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Well, see now, that’s a great way to not be able to survive when you and your crew are isolated and stranded on a critically-damaged ship with widespread systems failure… which is when you need those engineering skills the most.
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Wait, you deliberately complicate things? That’s just silly.
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Vibrations are not friendly to ship integrity.