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Thursday, October 15, 2015

Fiddling With FOTS Ship Models

I've been fiddling around with several models for the ships in the Fire On The Suns novels. Here's 3 renderings I did for a Pyronian (Py'ron Ian) battlecruiser (BC),








The first one was done with full sun and two point lights. For the next two I decreased the light power. The basic design is correct for the Pyronians. I need to work on the Starfire system designs for these ships and then work out the model design for their cousins, the Kontairu (Kon'tai Ru) as the sphere on a string design just doesn't cut it against this (and, since the Kon'tai are a cousin species to the Py'ron, originating from the same evolutionary line, I'd think their ship designs would be similar if not nearly identical (the Kon'tai would have been influenced by the Terrans and the Py'ron possibly by the Q'Tez and Machines, however)..

Thanks,
Greg


Wednesday, October 14, 2015

New Fire On The Suns Novel Coming Along

The new FOTS novel, the second in the series is coming along decently. I hit Chapter 7 and around 11-12 thousand words the other day.


A snippet from the FOTS WIP...

"Have we ever seen one outside of that armor?" Commander Ames on the destroyer Simmons asked.

"No, sir. The Hee'Dra are gas giant dwellers though their legends, those they've shared and we've managed to decipher, say that that was not their original form. They bioengineered their entire species and civilization to allow them to live on gas giants millennia ago, possibly as much as fifty thousand years ago or more."

"Why?" Simmons asked.

"To escape something their legends call the Leviathan," Blake replied. "No, we don't know what this Leviathan was or if it's still out there somewhere, but it scared the Hee'Dra so badly they re-engineered their entire physical beings and civilization so they could hide from it under the clouds of those gas giants."

and...

Though there was no actual physical sensation, emergence from warp to real space always felt like a near-physical event, like a sudden stop from high speed to braking hard at a stop light for Rear Admiral Margaret Bennings, commanding officer of the Terran Federal Republic's 6th Fleet. The sudden cessation of all sense of movement imparted by the view screen's blue-to-red rendering of space around them to the actual near dead black of the real universe always left her reaching out for something to brace herself against forward velocity. Even after twenty five years in the fleet she'd never gotten used to it.

"Updates incoming. No hostiles detected in system" the Midway's Navigation and Tactical watch standers said almost in unison.


"Update. Five rocky bodies in system. Two gas giants at ninety and one hundred twenty light minutes from primary, Captain."


Benning's flag captain, the actual commander of her flagship, turned to Bennings. "No enemy contacts in system, Admiral."


She thought for a moment, reviewing her orders and the nearness of the closest Pyronian and Q'Tez Hegemony colonies displayed on her personal screens. Stiffening her resolve she looked up at Captain Mitchell Byrnes and nodded. "Proceed with deployment of the spy drones, Captain."


"Aye, Admiral," Byrnes said. He turned to the Flight Operations Officer who stood at his station nearby. "Release the Hounds,Mr Deng, if you please."


"Aye, sir," Deng replied. His fingers danced over the touch-sensitive controls on his own instrument panel. "Hounds are away."


"Tactical, confirm telemetry and tracking. Communications, confirm data uplink."


"Telemetry and tracking read fivie by five, Captain."


"Data uplink confirmed, sir. All drones are in the web."


"Excellent, people," Byrnes said. He turned back to Bennings. "Admiral, all Hounds are on course and feeding data to the Midways data web."


"Hounds, Captain?" Bennings asked.


"Yes, Admiral. It's what the crew has started calling the drones. A hound is an ancient Terran tracker dog. Given the spy drone's mission to keep track of activities along the border between the Pyronians and the Q'Tez, I thought it an appropriate nickname."


"How are the Hounds' stealth systems operating?"


Byrnes turned to check his own displays again. "Completely in the green, Admiral," he said after a moment. "If we didn't already know where they were and what course they're on, we'd have a very difficult time finding them ourselves."


"Very good, Captain. Okay, make our heading zero eight eight to the warp limit and on to the next target system. Warp five."


This book's actually coming together quite nicely in my opinion and I'm not having nearly as much trouble writing it as I did the first (which, in my opinion, needs a severe rewrite as it's mostly backgrounding). There's a lot more action coming up in the next few chapters as The Unspeakable War spreads across known space and involves 8 different star nations (and none of them even know they're in that war yet).

Anyway, a progress report is always good for the soul, I think.

Thanks,
Greg
 

Friday, July 31, 2015

Hugo Award Voting Ends Today

I know I've been neglecting this blog for awhile despite my recent promises to do better, but, well, real life and all that. Okay, in honesty, real life and not having much to write about that couldn't be done in a FB post.

However, today is important.

It's the last day to vote for the Hugo Award.

If you've been following the controversy this year you already know all about it, but if not, I'd encourage you to go read Larry Correia's, Sarah Hyt's, and Brad Torgersen's excellent blog posts regarding said controversy.

With that said, if you have a membership in the Sasquan WorldCon, I am heartily encouraging you to not cast aside your vote. I am, instead, actively encouraging you to cast your ballot. Exercise that franchise. Let's send a message loud and clear to the CHORFs that fans matter, that fandom has a voice, and that their choice of who is and who isn't a "truefan" and who gets to award the Hugo isn't what fandom truly believes.

Or, maybe it will turn out that way after all. That's why voting happens and why every vote counts.

You do have a say in all this no matter what way you believe orwhich way you lean in the controversy.

I voted my conscience yesterday evening. I can honestly say that many of my picks probably would not resonate with any of the slates on any side, but that's the way I voted and I don't have to tell anyone who I voted for or why.

Regardless of the outcome, I can say I voted and contributed and I'm proud of that.

So, if you're a member, get that ballot filled in and cast. Do it now because time is running out. Your voice, your vote counts. You paid good money to be able to cast that vote. Do it. Make that money count for something.

For the Hugo.

For the fans.

Thanks,
Greg

Saturday, June 06, 2015

I Missed May

One of the things that comes up now and again in an author/writer's life is the inability to stick to a personal commitment due to the intrusions of our personal and professional lives.

As some of you may know, I've been sic quite a bit this year, though I'm not certain you'd call 3 minor and 6major (if they put me out under anesthesia I call it major) surgical procedures and 6 weeks in the hospital in the first 6 months of this year "sick" exactly. I do know that it takes awhile to recover from any surgery and that the drugs being administered to keep one out of pain and from catching an infection can seriously muddle one's thinking and thus writing processes.

So, when I promise myself and others to commit to a certain blogging and writing schedule and then can't meet that schedule, please understand that it's due to circumstances largely beyond my control.

Thus it has been that I missed the entire month of May. I was posting on FaceBook, however, during much of the time, but just seemed to fuzz out about this blog and the half-dozen other projects I've had in progress. FB's nice, comforting, and a horrendous time sink for an actively employed author/writer. But posting short notices to FB doesn't get stories written nor inform people about my interests, what's going on in the FOTS Universe, or anything else. But it's a lot of fun to fiddle away over there while Rome burns over here.

So, dear reader, I promise I will try to do better in the future by doing at least one blog post a week dwelling on the state of my current slate of works in progress, happenings in the FOTS Universe (I should call it the Multiverse since there are now 2-3 different games running and more being planned and/or recruited for), a but about the Hugo Awards and my readings of the Hugo materials, and maybe a bit about what's going on with me personally.

In the meantime, thanks for your patience.

Thanks,
Greg

Thursday, April 30, 2015

The Great Hugo Dust-Up - A Comment

I received news the other day that the voting for the location of next year's (the year after next) Hugo Awards/WorldCon had been opened.

Today I received news that the voting for this year's actual awards had been opened - but the voting packages had not been sent out yet. Here's the email I received,

Hugo voting is now open. Go to the Hugo Award Voting page to cast your vote. Your voting credentials are:

Membership #:
PIN:  

The Hugo PIN lookup page can send you this information again if you misplace this email.
Your vote may be saved at any time. You can modify your vote by signing in again using your credentials, and entering new information. The information posted on your ballot at the closing time of 11:59 PM PDT, 31 July 2015 will be your final vote.

We hope to have the Hugo Packet ready by late May and will post an announcement on our website and via Facebook and Twitter when it becomes available.

If you have any questions or problems with your ballot, please write to hugoadmin@sasquan.org.

John Lorentz and Ruth Sachter
Hugo Administrators, Sasquan

Seems just a little "fishy" to me that you open the voting before the voting packages have been sent out, but that's just my suspicious nature with all the other things that have been flying around about the award this year.

Still, doesn't this give people who already own the works on the ballot a bit of an advantage over those who do not?

If I were one of those people who believed in back-alley conspiracies, I'd almost think that opening the voting before a lot of people had received their packages was actually intended to give a small, select group of other people the chance to vote, and vote often, for their favorites (like of the "No Award" type of vote).

Please note that I am not criticizing the Administrators nor Mr Lorentz and Ms Sachter. I am saying, however, that in a normal election you have your voter's packet and materials needed to vote before the ballot locations are opened and before voting can begin.

This just seems a lot like putting the cart before the horse or allowing certain sections of your voting community to get votes in early or to allow special select groups to do so in order to gain an advantage somehow. That's an admission of ignorance about that part of the process on my own part. I haven't been involved in voting until this year and that's a serious oversight on my part that shall not be repeated.

I hope that's not the case. I hope the voting process will be completely above-board, but after all the shenanigans I've heard of this year, I'm not so sure. It just smells to me. I'm too used to American politics and the way things are done therein, I suppose.

For the Hugo.

For the fans.

Thanks,
Greg

Py'ron Army Pushed Back in North by New Militant Coalition



Py'ron Army Pushed Back in North by New Militant Coalition
Nichelle Balford, GNN Foreign Office, Bietur - TFR Jane's Defense Weekly

Pro-Coalition Military government forces on Bietur (subsector 415x419) suffered the latest in a series of reversals when a recently formed rebel coalition captured the town of Jsir al-Shughur in the northern province of Ildib on April 25.

The recent defeats began at the end of March when the Southern Command rebel coalition seized the town of Busar al-Sham in southern Bietur and the Nisib crossing over the important  Jordnan River.

On March 28, the city of Ildib fell to the Jyash al-Tah Operations Room, a new coalition of anti-Coalition Military government militant factions led by former Py'ron Imperial Ground Forces General Jahbat al-Sunra, a member of Bietur's anti-Coalition affiliate. Jyash al-Tah capitalised on this success to attack Jsir al-Shughur located 30 km to the southwest, on April 22.

The operation was coordinated with Arhar al-Mash and several other rebel groups that launched attacks to the south to prevent reinforcements reaching the town from Hanrah.

It was assumed that the pro-Coalition Military government army would mount a robust defense of Jsir al-Shughur as it sits on the highway leading southwest to the regime stronghold of Lakatia. However, the town fell to Jyash al-Tah on April 25 and the Qamreed army base 8 km south of Ildib city was overrun on the following day.

The pro-Coalition army's presence in Ildib is now limited to a narrow finger of territory running along the M4 highway to the army base at Al-Matsumah, 5 km south of Ildib city.

Unless the pro-Coalition army is able to mount a counter-offensive to retake Jsir al-Shughur, the troops in the Al-Matsumah pocket risk being cut off. The rebels could also push further south toward the city of Hanrah or alternatively swing southwest towards Lakatia.

However, the pro-Coalition army already is seriously overstretched and is relying increasingly on auxiliary mercenary forces from Balanon, Riaq and Ghaniaf led by Rian's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The deteriorating situation in northern and southern Bietur appears to have been behind a visit to Retrahn on April 28 by Bietur Defence Minister Afhad Sajsim al-Reif. The Bietur News Agency said Reif's visit was aimed at "strengthening coordination and cooperation between the two armies".

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Galactic Network News & Rumors - FOTS-Related

Still staying away from The Great Hugo Dust-Up, but I'll get back to it in a few days. Right now, it's just time to climb down off my own high horse and have a little fun.

Naturally, in a 4x pbem game where there are several players playing essentially double-blind (ie they don't know what their opponent(s) are doing and often have limited information on the status of their own units until the turn is over), there's a lot of pressure on the GM to provide some kind of news & rumor service for the game. I've found this really helps keep the game "fun" and let's the players all get in on the action with their own interjections, news articles (factual or fictitious), and rumors via the wonder of FTL communications. In fact, FOTS last game spawned at least 1 website specifically designed to portray the "evil" Pyronians (Py'ron species) in their own light. Titled "Pyronia Today" the site is put together like a sort of daily or weekly news magazine and gazette designed to demonstrate that the Py'ron are not the slavering animals their cousins the Kontairu (Kon'tai species) portray them as.

Anyway, it's really fun for me when this type of stuff happens so I'm going to have a little fun with the same sort of thing here on the blog specifically concerning my upcoming RPG run at the Roll20 site for Fire On The Suns: A Blaze Of Glory. FOTS ABOG is the rpg based on FOTS, as if no one could have figured that one out. I like to say that FOTS ABOG is the "up close and personal" view of the FOTS Universe. I'll be using the Mongoose Traveller rules for the game for the most part, but the setting will be entirely in the Fire On The Suns Universe which is decidedly different from the standard Traveller universe and the Empire.

The game itself will begin approximately 10 years after the sudden withdrawal from the field of battle by The Unspeakable Ones, an advanced alien species that came to the FOTS region of space seeking the prison of their god "He Whose Name Is Unspeakable". Incredibly powerful compared to the star nations of known space, the UO were barely held at bay for 10 years by a powerful, but fragile alliance of the Terran Federal Republic, the Hee'Dra Republics, the Sa'Reen Confederation, the Kon'tai Unity and finally the Empire of Kahs (late, very late, to the party) after the UO had exterminated the Swarm, driven the Machines from their last holdouts, smashed the Q'Tez Hegemony, and coopted the Py'ron Ian (Pyronian Empire). Nobody knows for sure why the Unspeakable Ones suddenly picked up their toys and left, but everyone has been breathing a cautious sigh of relief that they did because things were close at the end, very, very close (as will become clearer in Fire On The Suns Book 2 and probably Book 3).

Anyway, the Galactic News Network (GNN) was the nom de pleume for the FTL news network for the FOTS Universe and that designation has stuck around through a dozen or more years.. I was working on my Roll20 game this afternoon at break time and, while looking at and designing the map(s) of known space, an idea and an article hit me all at once, so here's the first installment of the FOTS ABOG GNN News & Rumor Mill,

-----

TERRAN FEDERAL REPUBLIC ADMIRAL EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER HEE'DRA EXPANSION

GNN, Terra) - Rear Admiral James Tanaka (Terran Federal Republic Navy, Ret.) expressed concerns over Hee'Dra expansion this afternoon following a tour of the Terran Federal Republic's trans-Plutonian military shipyards today, alleging the Hee'Dra were "getting ready for a rematch with the Repubkic".

Tanaka, 75, is best known for ordering the fusion bombardment of the Py'ron colony known as Hell's Cauldron following weeks of intensive back-and-forth fighting between the TFRN, the TFR Space Marines, and the Py'ron Imperial Defense Forces in 2278 during the early days of the Unspeakable War. Three hundred and seventy five million Py'ron soldiers and civilians are believed to have been killed in the bombardment, virtually the entire population of the planet. He is also responsible for ordering the TFR's 5th Fleet, under Rear Admiral Richard Bainbridge at the time, into Hee'Dra Republics space and the resultant deaths of an estimated five hundred million Hee'Dra citizens. Both the Hee'Dra Republics and the TFR-outlawed Revolutionary Py'ron People's Ian have branded Tanaka a war criminal for his actions at Hell's Cauldron and later against the Hee'Dra. It should be noted that the RPPI is an outlawed organization that continues to persist throughout the worlds of the former Py'ron Ian which collapsed following the withdrawal of the Unspeakable Ones in 2284. The worlds formerly claimed by the Py'ron Ian remain part of the Terran Federal Occupation Zone today.

Interviewed following a tour of the TFR's trans-Plutonian military shipyards during which Tanaka was shown the TFR's latest Nighthawk class battlecruiser, the former Admiral expressed his concerns that the Hee'Dra were rapidly expanding on sll of their borders and potentially threateing their neighbors.

"The Hee'Dra are expanding toward the Sa'Reen, toward the Federa..., I mean the Republic, and have almost entirely cut off the Kon'tai from expansion to Coreward. They're crowding their neighbors, competing against our allies for space to expand into and colonize. If I were still in service I'd almost think they were spoiling for a rematch against the Republic."

It is well-known that Tanaka has held a grudge against the Hee'Dra since they allied with the Py'ron in the early days of the UO War and launch several attacks against outlying Terran colonies along their mutual borders. Almost seventeen million Terran soldiers and citizens were killed in the early attacks, Tanaka's only son being among the casualties.

This has been a report from Talak Singh, on assignment for GNN in the trans-Plutonians.

-----

Hope you enjoyed the read. Comments are, of course, invited, but please be polite.

Thanks
Greg





Monday, April 27, 2015

Just Getting Away For A Little Bit

This post will divert drastically from The Great Hugo Dust-Up and, instead, focus more on my game Fire On The Suns. In fact, it will focus completely on it. Once in awhile one just has to get away from all the chimps flinging poo.

Fire On The Suns is a 4X (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) play-by-email (pbem) game I designed about 20 years ago which is still going strong, held together, largely, by a small group of dire-hard fans. hen I designed the game it was intended to be a large-scale, computer program driven, campaign system for a variety of tactical games that badly needed a campaign system imnsho.

So, every now and then, my friend Jeff Engel sends me a "tech batch", writeups of new technologies for inclusion in the Master Tech Handbook which is, basically, the FOTS Bible. One of the conditions I originally set for the game was that every tech had to be internally consistent within the larger framework of the game and the game universe itself. We (myself, Jeff, and many of the fans) have worked hard to insure that no particular tech "breaks" anything else in the game.

This is just the latest tech batch Jeff sent me last week, which I haven't had time to go over in depth or detail, but which will serve as a sort of introduction to the way techs work in the game and how our thinking in regard to the game goes.

Don't worry, I'll get back to The Great Hugo Dust-Up in another day or three.

Casual officer-directed construction support

Officer-directed construction is a practical and technical prerequisite for this technology. It provides a certain quantity of the matching funds officer-directed construction requires as a normal part of the economic function of the state. Each level provides 5% of RP production per turn in RP's exclusively for that purpose and requires a Development stage of research, 5 AP pregame as a transferrable technology, or 2 AP pregame as a non-transferrable background ability.

Psionics: Eavesdropping (ESP ability)

An Eavesdropping cabal can catch whiffs of the basis of a technology in use nearby (in an interstellar sense) and give its state a large leg-up developing that technology itself. An Eavesdropping cabal has a base 10% chance each turn of providing the state the Discovery and Research stages of a technology in use on a foreign colony or unit within its range. Range is initially 8 sections, additional Development efforts adds 8 sections each. Additional levels increase the chance of Eavesdropping by 10% each. Some other psionic abilities interact helpfully with Eavesdropping. A cabal that also has Echoing can use Eavesdropping on ruins and derelicts, as if their technologies were still in use, when the cabal is actually, directly on-site, and gets a 50% higher chance of Eavesdropping if artifacts recently used by the current, living targets of Eavesdropping can be handled, as from free trade relationships in the case of some publicly used techs. Translating improves Eavesdropping chances by 25%. Clear Dreaming can share the same unit surcharge; there is enough overlap in the technical training and sensitivity to relevant technical impressions. However, any given cabal is either doing Clear Dreaming or Eavesdropping in a given turn, not both. The location for Eavesdropping for a given turn is that location as which the cabal spends most of the turn – players cannot get more Eavesdropping utility running the cabal up and down a border very quickly. In most cases, both Discovery and Research stages will be picked up, but GM's may rule that for extremely unfamiliar techs or strange tech bases, the Discovery stage only is acquired. This should be considered exceptional though. GM's may allow Eavesdropping sometimes also to detect that certain Development-only techs are in use by the target state, but Eavesdropping never grants those techs: the nuts-and-bolts of a Development stage are for other abilities or normal development.

Obscure (disadvantage)

An Obscure species has a persistent and unusually hard time communicating with others, with the following effects:
1 – Diplomatic communications should go through the GM to make sure they are at least somewhat unclear or mis-convey some details. Very basic communications may not be affected – especially hostile ones – but subtle misunderstandings should be almost inevitable. GM's should mitigate the forced misunderstandings over time.
2 – Espionage by the Obscure race suffers a 20% penalty.
3 – Free trade or better requires at least one turn at limited trade and either two more turns or a one-time 250 RP fee to establish regular translation services.
4 – Rights of passage or refuelling rights require a one-time 250 RP fee for their own regular translation services.
5 – Defensive and offensive military alliances are possible only using forces for which the Obscure race has a graded officer assigned to command: no routine measure of leadership suffices.
6 – Free communications, project co-development and intel-sharing arrangements are impossible.
7 – Tech transfers in either direction require an additional 100 RP's each the first turn of such exchange between the Obscure race and any other, and 50 RP's extra thereafter. On the third or later turn of exchanges, a 250 RP fee to establish a permanent translation service for tech exchanges can be paid by either party instead to waive the per-transfer fee.
8 – Non-standard treaty relationships should face similar problems – GM's can specify them for players as needed.
9 – Assimilation chances by the Obscure race are capped at 20% per turn, or 30% in case of assimilation into a periphery state. (In that case though, the periphery state will still suffer all the usual problems of dealing with an Obscure race.)
Obscure is worth 5 AP normally, but GM's may adjust that downward in case of species otherwise unprepared for civil arrangements anyway.

Private exploration

A state with private exploration has a tendency to have individuals or small groups, perhaps small companies – at any rate, non-governmental entities - perform some system surveys in nearby sectors on their own initiative, with their own choices for where to explore. Private exploration requires a 60% or less tax rate and is incompatible with Communist or Socialist economic policies or hivemindedness. Each turn, 50% of that turn's portion of the 6 th turn bonus is generated for spending on private explorer vessels, at 10 RP's each. Every 30 private explorer vessels perform one entire sector's system surveys each turn. In case of fractions, GM's may provide less than a sector's worth of surveys, or take it as a percentage chance pro-rated of a full sector's surveys. Anything hostile destroys or captures the private explorer vessel surveying that system, and creates some public pressure for the government to Do Something in response in the following turn or suffer a -5 PSR penalty per unanswered incident for that following tun (-20 PSR in any turn as a maximum). Private exploration survey targets should be revealed to the player before a turn's orders are completed, so that the player (1) can get some warning where people may be getting into trouble, and (2) avoid duplicating survey efforts. A player may deny private exploration in a given sector entirely in a turn, but suffers a flat -5 SR penalty for doing so in a turn, however many sectors are ruled off-limits for private explorers. Private explorers will not survey sectors more than a turn's safe starship cruise outside the comm grid, or sectors where there is a known hostile presence. Otherwise, GM's may select the target sectors randomly or according to any whims, designs, plans, or impressions of popular curiosity.

Natural beam weapon engineers

This background ability costs 10 AP, but could be discounted by specific background technology (beams) in the same way as a narrow or specific research aptitude in beams could be. Natural beam weapon engineers indicates a deep level of skill and familiarity with beam research, construction, operations, and upkeep, with the following benefits:
1) Beam research skips Research stages.
2) Units with one third or more of their equipment spaces in beams receive a 5% discount at construction or refit when built by this species, cumulative with Expense Management Tech and under the same 25% cap. In case of units with 50% or more of their spaces in beams, this is a 10% discount.
3) Background abilities specific to beams are half cost. Natural beam weapon engineers does not discount itself, and specific background technology is an additional exception.

Natural energy torpedoes engineers

This background ability costs 10 AP, but could be discounted by specific background technology (energy torpedoes) in the same way as a narrow or specific research aptitude in energy torps could be. Natural energy torpedoes engineers indicates a deep level of skill and familiarity with energy torpedo research, construction, operations, and upkeep, with the following benefits:
1) Energy torpedo research skips Research stages.
2) Units with one third or more of their equipment spaces in energy torps receive a 5% discount at construction or refit when built by this species, cumulative with Expense Management Tech and under the same 25% cap. In case of units with 50% or more of their spaces in torpedoes, this is a 10% discount.
3) Background abilities specific to energy torpedoes are half cost. Natural energy torpedoes engineers does not discount itself, and specific background technology is an additional exception.

Natural missile engineers

This background ability costs 10 AP, but could be discounted by specific background technology (missiles) in the same way as a narrow or specific research aptitude in missiles could be. Natural missile engineers indicates a deep level of skill and familiarity with missile research, construction, operations, and upkeep, with the following benefits:
1) Missile and missile launcher research skips Research stages.
2) Units with one third or more of their equipment spaces in missile launchers receive a 5% discount at construction or refit when built by this species, cumulative with Expense Management Tech and under the same 25% cap. In case of units with 50% or more of their spaces in missile launchers, this is a 10% discount.
3) Background abilities specific to missiles and missile launchers are half cost. Natural missile engineers does not discount itself, and specific background technology is an additional exception.
4) Missiles are built at double the build rate otherwise applicable in factories and in shipyards.

Natural railgun engineers

This background ability costs 10 AP, but could be discounted by specific background technology (railguns) in the same way as a narrow or specific research aptitude in railguns could be. Natural railgun engineers indicates a deep level of skill and familiarity with missile research, construction, operations, and upkeep, with the following benefits:
1) Railgun shell and launcher research skips Research stages.
2) Units with one third or more of their equipment spaces in railgun launchers receive a 5% discount at construction or refit when built by this species, cumulative with Expense Management Tech and under the same 25% cap. In case of units with 50% or more of their spaces in railgun launchers, this is a 10% discount.
3) Background abilities specific to railgun shells and launchers are half cost. Natural railgun engineers does not discount itself, and specific background technology is an additional exception.
4) Railgun shells are built at double the build rate otherwise applicable in factories and in shipyards.

Prompt fire training

Prompt fire training is available as a background or natural ability for 5 AP, but can also be researched in-game. Discovery stages should usually be waived for states with a pregame history of using the specific weapon, Research stages are transferrable, but Development stages are specific-specific. Prompt fire training is researched or bought by weapon type (beams, energy torpedoes, railguns, missiles, etc.) and a unit with it pays a 15% unit surcharge for the training. Only crewed units may make use of prompt fire training, but variants of it for automated units may be Researched and Developed. The unit's crew is able to fire that class of weapons on with hair-trigger reaction speeds. Assuming the first round of fire does not consist of a surprise attack or fire by cloaked units or weapons with longer than normal range, the units with prompt fire training can fire their weapons as if they were long range ones, ahead of other normal-range fire on either side. This round of fire replaces the first normal range round of fire by those weapons. Fire proceeds normally thereafter. In the case of fighter or similar units firing XO rack based weaponry, prompt fire training still replaces the normal range round of fire, even though the XO racks being fired in later rounds are clearly not the “weapons” fired in the prompt fire training round.

Natural shield engineers

This background ability costs 10 AP, but could be discounted by specific background technology (shields) in the same way as a narrow or specific research aptitude in shields could be. Natural shield engineers indicates a deep level of skill and familiarity with shield research, construction, operations, and upkeep, with the following benefits:
1) Shield research skips Research stages.
2) Units with one third or more of their equipment spaces in shields receive a 5% discount at construction or refit when built by this species, cumulative with Expense Management Tech and under the same 25% cap. In case of units with 50% or more of their spaces in shields, this is a 10% discount. Any unit with a technology for shields that normally carries a unit surcharge counts for the 5% discount; any with two or more, for the 10% discount, whether or not the equipment space requirement is met. Shield related, enhancing, or dependent systems like resistant shields count for the shield equipment space total as well.
3) Background abilities specific to shields are half cost. Natural shield engineers does not discount itself, and specific background technology is an additional exception.
4) Shields are repaired at half cost.

Natural hull engineers

This background ability costs 10 AP. It could be discounted by a state with specific background technology covering both structural reinforcements and ablative armor, but not otherwise. Natural hull engineers indicates a deep level of skill and familiarity with spacecraft hull research, construction, operations, and upkeep, with the following benefits:
1) Structural reinforcement, ablative armor, and resistant armor research skips Research stages, where applicable. Research into larger spacecraft hull sizes gets a 20% bonus to effective funding, as does build rate research.
2) Units with one third or more of their equipment spaces in structural reinforcements receive a 5% discount at construction or refit when built by this species, cumulative with Expense Management Tech and under the same 25% cap. In case of units with 50% or more of their spaces in structural reinforcements, this is a 10% discount. In case of component armor, count the total effective equipment spaces (including those from component armor) and all the effective structural reinforcements it provides. (Essentially, a unit making thorough use of component armor is very likely to get at least the 5% discount.) Any unit with a technology for hull or armor improvement, protection or regeneration that normally carries a unit surcharge counts for the 5% discount; any with two or more, for the 10% discount, whether or not the equipment space requirement is met. Armor and hull related, enhancing, or dependent systems like resistant armor count for the structural reinforcement equipment space total as well.
3) Background abilities specific to structural reinforcements and armor, or for higher build, refit, and repair rates, are half cost. Natural hull engineers does not discount itself, and specific background technology is an additional exception.
4) Hull and armor damage are repaired at 50% normal cost and double the normal speed.

Electronic warfare aptitude

EW aptitude is normally bought as a background ability for 5 AP per level, but could be researched in-game from a Discovery stage. A culture with EW aptitude takes to ECM/ECCM, battlecomputers, and other systems for electonic combat such as sensor ghost projectors with ease and skill. Each level discounts the purchase of such technologies pregame by 25%, up to 50% with two levels. Two levels in EW aptitude also allows the state to waive Research stages on electronic warfare technologies. Each level provides a 1 point target and DEFENSE bonus as a sort of primitive battlecomputer and ECM bonus, or a 20% bonus to the actual target, DEFENSE, yield, or RESIST value provided by electronic warfare systems.

Salvaged repair operations

Improved salvage operations is a technical and practical prerequisite for this technology. As a background ability, it can be bought for 5 AP with natural scavengers as a prerequisite. It allows RP's from a battlefield, recovered through salvage operations, to be used in that very turn for repairs to friendly units powered-down on-site. The amount of RP's salvaged from friendly units that is dedicated to friendly unit repairs is doubled, given that they are assumed to have similar structures and basic bits used. (Provoked by Tony  Fleming)
Your comments are, of course, invited.
Thanks,
Greg