Why are all of the ship designs so old?
- Thread starter Mohrgan
- Start date
Yep! It's expected to remain in service into the 2040s. That's nearly a 100 year lifespan for an extremely capable aircraft!
There's more going on than just old ship designs.
Technologically the ships, the control systems, and most tellingly the networks are quite some way behind what I would expect from an interstellar society a millenium from now.
Consider also the socio-political situation. Bandits, raiders, cops who shoot first and ask questions later, factions vying for control of individual stations... Slavery!
This indicates to me a civilization in decline... or perhaps a post-apocalyptic civilization. Which is why the lack of computer networking and general lack of advanced computing is somewhat interesting. Sure there are some physical limitations in spreading information networks over star systems - but these aren't insurmountable. So why is each station essentially cut off from every other station? Even within the same system we cannot view the bulletin boards and commodity markets of other stations - there is no network.
What if there was an apocalypse? an AI apocalypse... an out of control computer virus outbreak which destroyed networks and plunged the galaxy into chaos. The only way to survive would have been to abandon advanced computing and networking infrastructure, isolate ships and stations and socially revert to a somewhat more primitive way of living. The devastation must have been catastrophic - billions of people cut off, trade cut to a fraction of its former volume. We can see this evidenced by the number of stations which still struggle to find food and rely on pilots like ourselves to help them out.
There may be a Federation - but this isn't Roddenberry's vision... this is freakin' Mad Max in space.
Technologically the ships, the control systems, and most tellingly the networks are quite some way behind what I would expect from an interstellar society a millenium from now.
Consider also the socio-political situation. Bandits, raiders, cops who shoot first and ask questions later, factions vying for control of individual stations... Slavery!
This indicates to me a civilization in decline... or perhaps a post-apocalyptic civilization. Which is why the lack of computer networking and general lack of advanced computing is somewhat interesting. Sure there are some physical limitations in spreading information networks over star systems - but these aren't insurmountable. So why is each station essentially cut off from every other station? Even within the same system we cannot view the bulletin boards and commodity markets of other stations - there is no network.
What if there was an apocalypse? an AI apocalypse... an out of control computer virus outbreak which destroyed networks and plunged the galaxy into chaos. The only way to survive would have been to abandon advanced computing and networking infrastructure, isolate ships and stations and socially revert to a somewhat more primitive way of living. The devastation must have been catastrophic - billions of people cut off, trade cut to a fraction of its former volume. We can see this evidenced by the number of stations which still struggle to find food and rely on pilots like ourselves to help them out.
There may be a Federation - but this isn't Roddenberry's vision... this is freakin' Mad Max in space.
The chassis design is old but under the hood is not necessarily the same.
While this is, I think, the idea at work in ED, it raises some problems because new technologies or systems would without a doubt call for new platforms to be utilized effectively.
Eventually the same chassis with new kit would just be inefficient. You could only upgrade it so much in it's current shape.
Because back in the day, things were built to last!
Whereas in 3300 (like today) Things are built to fail so you have to upgrade.
Ya reckon? Take away the fancy holo display and you could run the entire flight control system on a raspberry Pi - I'd estimate your average road car of today has more built in intelligence
I'm just going to imagine that the ships are based on the old design but have since been heavily modified and probably look similiar to the originals. Basically the same way that a corvette from the 70s and a corvette from 2014 are different but have the same name.
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That's my thought on it. Some young programmer made an asteroids like game 30 years ago and thought ships being used for 400 years straight made sense. It doesn't of course, but that's what that kid decided. So here we are 30 years later with ancient ships according to the lore. Bad lore decisions just don't go away do they?
As for the B-52 and Tu-95, a 50-60 year service life isn't anything unusual historically speaking. It's odd for aircraft as they are a relatively recent invention and have undergone rapid change during that time. But if you look at naval vessels, 50 year service lives are completely normal. It's been that way dating back to Roman times. 300+ years is a bit much though. That would be like the US navy sailing the worlds oceans today in Galleons. Upgrade them all you like, they still won't be very practical.
My recommendation is to ignore the game's lore. It's all rather silly anyways and adds nothing to the game.
Also consider this: We live in an age of rapidly expanding tech and break throughs. Now imagine that we come to a point where there's not a whole lot left to discover. Really, all the ships do the same things. Enable us to travel faster than light and thus across the known galaxy. Innovation will stagnate, and really all the classes of ships do is just get bigger. Certainly the smaller ones are more maneuverable and capable, but that doesn't change the fact that humanity has an obsession with sticking with what is cost effective. I mean, we certainly could make newer, better ships; but who has time for that when there's money to be made in other markets and to continue to milk a perfectly good cash cow.
There were patents for huge innovations in the automotive industry made in the 1970's, but after the energy crisis stopped, all that got buried and sweapt under the rug. Did you know that we could make cars rust proof and it wouldn't cost anything extra on the consumers side? No? Yeah, thank the corporate dinguses in Detroit for burying that patent. Also, vehicles lasting ages isn't unheard of, I mean look at how long we used horse and buggy as a species. Thousands of years, and plenty of countries still use them in day to day life. The original VW Beetle wasn't taken off production lines until 2006, and plenty of places still use these cars as taxis, police cruisers, or just in general for civilian use.
The romans used largely the same technology throughout their reign, so is it so hard to believe humanity would use something for hundreds, if not thousands of years?
I don't have as big an issue with it. I just assumed that humanity is stagnant in innovation now. I mean, it makes sense. How can you make something newer and better when you've already got a handle on that?
There were patents for huge innovations in the automotive industry made in the 1970's, but after the energy crisis stopped, all that got buried and sweapt under the rug. Did you know that we could make cars rust proof and it wouldn't cost anything extra on the consumers side? No? Yeah, thank the corporate dinguses in Detroit for burying that patent. Also, vehicles lasting ages isn't unheard of, I mean look at how long we used horse and buggy as a species. Thousands of years, and plenty of countries still use them in day to day life. The original VW Beetle wasn't taken off production lines until 2006, and plenty of places still use these cars as taxis, police cruisers, or just in general for civilian use.
The romans used largely the same technology throughout their reign, so is it so hard to believe humanity would use something for hundreds, if not thousands of years?
I don't have as big an issue with it. I just assumed that humanity is stagnant in innovation now. I mean, it makes sense. How can you make something newer and better when you've already got a handle on that?
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Actually, there is a historical president for old designs persisting and it's in "wet navy ships."
The design of Royal Navy (and other navy) ships stagnated for around 200 years from the early 17th century until the coming of iron and steam in the early 19th century.
In the game Universe it seems that major advances have stalled with the diaspora of humanity. If it works then it's kept. In fact the Soviet/Russian space industry is like this. The current Russian Soyuz capsules and lift vehicles are direct modifications of the original Sputnik lift vehicle. That's nearly 60 years in a fast moving industry. That's like having today's Ford Transit being a larger, modified Model T. ��
