Super Carriers, Nuclear Subs, and Superweapons Thread - Vector Thrust

Super Carriers, Nuclear Subs, and Superweapons: on the scale of conflict in VT-verse

Though superweapons, arsenal ships and Typhoon class boomers are good and all, in real life few nations can afford to produce these weapons (and some would posit that even those who do can't) due to complexity and cost. So I thought I'd ask about what kind of scale the wars of the VT world are waged at.

Clearly, nukes are a big part of the world, as the Mushroom Kingdom exists, but we also have the Ziz and Leviathan ships, which are probably both made possible due to nuclear technology (reactors as powerplants) but also most vulnerable to it at the same time. Since a world dense with nuclear weapons and the people ready to use them encourages dispersed forces, one wonders how these weapons would be built. So what I wonder most about the world of VT is how common are these behemoths?

I mean, if it's something that you (dev team) would rather not reveal due to the story being a under wraps, I am fine, but I do get curious as to whether all the nations will have the military capacity of multiple USAs or whether countries' militaries are to be more modestly composed, with most operating under actual fiscal limitations (ie most wouldn't find a fleet of Nimitz class aircraft carriers economical, but LHDs and other platforms are within reach). It's part of my different military philosophies idea, as having less money to devote to military matters changes your approach to fighting wars.

Are superweapons commonplace because nations pour a large part of their wealth into them? Do these nations have some excuse for why they have so much spare hardware if so, like how ACI explained excessively available and cheap military hardware away? I mean, larger production runs certainly do reduce costs (I mean, we see the opposite effect in the F-35 which keeps getting more expensive in part due to cuts in order numbers), but there is a minimum materials and process cost to create these things. Is it just that raw materials are more plentiful or far cheaper? Is labor cheaper?

I mean, a couple societies existing solely for total war can be explained fairly simply, but is the entire world like that? Etc.

Doesn't mean I don't want there to be badass, set piece campaigns with fabulously outrageous fighting, but I am very curious.

One of the few to actually remember the The Kingdom's storyline, right? We made sure to scrub that entire plot drop from the forums a while ago, so good for you. We'd appreciate it if you keep remembering it to only yourself, we have enough hints through the screenshot descriptions and the Black Ops Reports to satiate for now.

Anyway, the EOS units, ANGELs, super weapons, all of them were made as a replacement of nuclear deterrence: a product of exploded military budgets that weren't entirely focused on nuclear proliferation. If I remember correctly, the Cold War-analogue in this world happened in reverse from the Great War.

Every superpower has some sort of super weapon, either be it of a mass produced design, or of more... peculiar types. The mass produced ones are ones such as the EOS units, at least in concept. The more peculiar ones are things like militarized rush drugs and, well, I won't reveal too much. Even god damn terrorists have access to some of the older Ziz designs, as noted in one of the earlier Black Ops reports.

I mean, nukes haven't fallen out of favor (in fact the reason why aircraft are so prevalent in this world is explained that the only way nukes can be delivered reliably is via aircraft), the Kingdom wasn't created with the fall of the World War that damned most of the world, however people are no longer afraid to use them if that makes any sense. Generally if nukes are to be used between two nations or alliances, there's a twenty four hour world wide notice before the nuclear weapons drop. This is the commonly accepted practice ever since the Third World War, and more prominently, the original Kingdom conflict. If this notice is not given, all parties involved in said conflict will be met with extreme prejudice by a certain agency made to make sure that another Kingdom does not come about: Legion.

Smaller conflicts, conflicts between two or three nations within a contained region of a continent, are much more common place, not so much those waged across oceans, on oceans, across hemispheres. The international community is conscience in that regard, but the concept of the Geneva Convention is moot in this world, mostly because it's far too late to enact such a thing.

Yes, there are many conflicts in this world, more than any sane world would allow, which is why standing militaries are still a thing, however these wars are waged as horribly as possible, as brutally as possible, in order to stop them as soon as possible.

Of course there are detractors: mercenaries and private militaries who make their business from war who would love for perpetual conflict to go on... The smaller countries who can't afford to maintain ANGELs hire mercenaries as their new deterrent.

The problem with this world is that the nations that survived and established themselves after the Great War wove themselves into a corner with all their alliances, so if two polarized nations go to war, they best make sure everyone in their circles are okay with it.

You might see World War 4, and it sure as hell won't be fought with sticks and stones.

That's my take from development anyway. I'm sure TS and Sider will be more than happy to add and redact some stuff here.

Okay, I get that I'm probably probing too deeply for story bits that are likely a little sensitive to the light of day.

My impatience to know is probably showing big time to be honest. I'm frankly working myself into a frenzy because I wanna write some fiction, which I haven't had much motivation to do in a while. However, having had a small sniff of VT's world, I am intrigued and want to know whether or not it'd be a world I'd want to write fiction inside for (granted, probably as fanfic, not hoping really to have a canonized storyline)! But being as it is, I know just enough to be intrigued but too little to write fiction based off of the VT-verse.

I mean, even just today, I came across a wikipedia article about merchant aircraft carriers and started imagining how it could work in VT as a setting! Of course, since I don't really know what kind of nations might call for something like this, I start to run into those gray areas where I just don't know enough about the setting to give it a base. Granted, a carrier is pretty much separated from the rest of the world, but it's not separated enough that knowing more would not enhance the story.

It's incredibly geeky, I am aware, but I am the type that likes stories (I mean I guess it's already somewhat apparent), and I'm honestly interested to see how this one (VT's) turns out!

So yes, feel free to ignore this heavy breathing of this fan who wants to know more if there are story details that aren't allowed to be known, since it means that you're doing enough to get me excited to see what comes of it (if only because I wanna know so I can be past the whole anticipation phase of things).

I'll add something minor: VT's world has gone down the path where war has become a money making industry. You'll see companies like Sigsawa and CRADLE getting increasingly involved whether through covert or overt means as we release stuff, trying to forge new markets and cover their bottom line.

That being said, this is a setting that keeps its wits about it. You won't see the corps helping terrorists, supporting crime, etc. because it'd look bad for their image and hurt their sales. You won't see them invading a sovereign nation (not militarily anyway), and for better or for worse most of the PMCs and weapons manufacturers will be part of the 'good' guys.

I have little to add for now besides what FAN and Hat already said. I fear if I was to explain the world in more detail you might be overwhelmed with all the text I would have to write.

But you might be interested to know that I’m working on ways deliver more information besides campaigns and missions.
For now it will be added in the loadings, but others systems are in progress, I think this might be one of the best and more interesting ways to tell more about the world and in small sized chucks, without throwing at the player huge walls of text.

I guess what I'm most concerned about as far as how the world works is how often we're going to find what should be a massively expensive units. I mean, I can understand each nation having a few superweapons up their sleeve, but are we supposed to expect them to have a bevy of 7-10 super carriers in their fleets? Is it reasonable for these countries to be operating large numbers of expensive surface combatants? Is it simply that the corporations of this world are supremely efficient at producing weapons or are weapons simply cheaper (materials or labor or other reason) to produce?

Some nations do, some don't.

I think it's a situation where rule of cool/fun takes priority over plausibility, but yes, I would say that this world is one where the price of weapons are very cheap compared to real-life stuff, given the amount of competition between the heavy industry corps.

I'm told that the official campaigns (or at least the first one released) are going to be similar to Ace Combat 2 in terms of story. However, is there room in the world building for some kind of final fantasy style story where our heroes start out fighting in a war between 2 minor powers only to eventually discover some plot to crash the world economy (or something equally cataclysmic?)