[General Battuta]

Perhaps not, but from how it's been presented, the Federation pretty much falls lockstep behind them.

Lib has a point. The team has talked a lot about the various factions in the UEF and soforth, but they haven't actually presented a government with serious divisions. It may be a point of view issue, but...

Play the campaign, pay attention in m10. From the standpoint of a boots-in-the-place-where-boots-go-on-a-fighter military campaign, that's the kind of stuff you're gonna see. Bear in mind that Calder no longer has a government to answer to, but Netreba is definitely in dialogue with some civilian authorities. Also see some more resolution on the admiral/elder connectivity in the briefing for m13.

[Kolgena]

So whatever it is they are planning, it had better be something more grand

Cap ship shields! AKA invulnerability flags! I think that would win a war.

[Spoon]

So whatever it is they are planning, it had better be something more grand

Cap ship shields! AKA invulnerability flags! I think that would win a war.

'cept for the fact that beams pierce shields in the BP universe (at least, I remember reading Battuta say that on several occasions).

[Kolgena]

They do. But remember that the lucifer cap-ship shields took the form of an invulnerability flag. Beams don't do anything against SEXPs.

[Droid803]

That's because there are no beams in FS1!

[Qent]

When there are beams, there is no invulnerable flag and a self-destruct SEXP triggers when the reactors are destroyed.

[-Norbert-]

Considering that the Lucifer could be damaged by every weapon in that mission, I always assumed that the beams overloaded (and thus shut down) the shields rather than piercing them.
Either that or the Vishnan weapons go through the Lucifers shields too.

That's because there are no beams in FS1!

Technically correct, but not canonically. But since the only ship with "beams" was the Lucifer itself that isn't much of an argument I guess

[Akalabeth Angel]

So what's with the nearly all-female lead cast and all the lesbian undertones?

[Infamus]

Here is my theory on the Lucy's shields:

They are actually a inverse version of the containment field used to stabilize the powerhouse of the Lucy's flux weapons, and that's why they are so powerful. But they are built to handle erratic, indirect energies, but beam cannons are direct and focused as are both other newer Terran weapons and especially Vishnan weapons making them effective at piercing the Lucy's shields. Unfortunately FSOpen doesn't have shield type coding yet so we just have to turn the invun off.

[General Battuta]

So what's with the nearly all-female lead cast and all the lesbian undertones?

I'm trying to figure out if this was meant for the Wings of Dawn forum.  

The lead cast is actually split almost evenly. Brie, Kassim, Olefumi and Levi are male. Simms, Laporte and Karen are female.

This balance worked out pretty much accidentally.

When you get into secondary characters the cast is overwhelmingly skewed male, presumably because we are sexist pigs.

There are lesbian vibes because the story involves two women who are attracted to each other (though not necessarily lesbians.) This also worked out accidentally, though in the setting it doesn't really make a difference.

[-Norbert-]

When you get into secondary characters the cast is overwhelmingly skewed male, presumably because we are sexist pigs.

Let's just say it's a combination of the player base being mostly male, militaries today being predominately male and - the most important point -  that it's easier to get male roles voice acted

[Akalabeth Angel]

So what's with the nearly all-female lead cast and all the lesbian undertones?

The lead cast is actually split almost evenly. Brie, Kassim, Olefumi and Levi are male. Simms, Laporte and Karen are female.

<snip>

There are lesbian vibes because the story involves two women who are attracted to each other (though not necessarily lesbians.) This also worked out accidentally, though in the setting it doesn't really make a difference.

In the first mission Laporte says she doesn't want any "floozies" (when Kessim wants to set her up) so it's pretty clear that she's a lesbian or at least bisexual as floozie is term reserved for women. I'm not sure who Olefumi and Levi are, maybe they've not been introduced or I haven't noticed them.

Spoiler:

But at the point I'm at in the campaign (escorting the captured logistic ship past the gate blockade) the three main characters are all female and all of the male leads have dropped out of the war due to inability/weakness (Kessim and Brie). So it's not just about the ratio of female to male, it's also about how the men are weak and the women are not. Also I've noticed the command or flightops person is typically female as well.

Not that I mind a female lead, I encourage it, I did after all use a female lead in my own partial campaign. But for me personally the lesbian subplot distracts/detracts from the story.

[Qent]

Unfortunately FSOpen doesn't have shield type coding yet

Yes it does.

[General Battuta]

I'm afraid that may end up being a negative part of your experience, then. Sorry.

As for the gender balance, fortunes of war; no particular intentionality to it. Laporte was originally a male character, and when it became apparent he had to be a she for the story to work it may have created the appearance of a skew.

It's not a setting where it particularly matters, and the Indus tactical officer is female largely because it'll create a bigger voice contrast with the Indus' captain, who is male. Similarly for the Yangzte which has a female captain and a male tactical officer.

[Akalabeth Angel]

I'm afraid that may end up being a negative part of your experience, then. Sorry.

As for the gender balance, fortunes of war; no particular intentionality to it. Laporte was originally a male character, and when it became apparent he had to be a she for the story to work it may have created the appearance of a skew.

There's no need to apologize. Can't please everyone all the time.
Was just wondering what the deal was. If Laporte was originally a man and was changed to a female it would account for what seems to be somewhat feminist leanings.

[General Battuta]

Whatever desire there was to put tough female characters into the setting was probably born more out of a certain fondness for Ellen Ripley than anything else.

That and the fact that the themes re: the psychology of violence and the talent for killing showing up in unexpected places work better with a female lead because women are stereotypically gentler, which makes her arc a little more pronounced as her starting point is easier to believe.

[Pred the Penguin]

@Akalabeth Angel
Out of curiosity, why do you think it distracts/detracts from the story?
I thought it made it more interesting.

[-Sara-]

Always interesting again to see how people view the same-sex tension in this story. It seems to really draw parallels with television criticism of the past decades where for example sci-fi series boldly introduced the first black (and later female) starship captains. Some people seem not to care or take much notice, either accepting or tolerating the setting. Yet others find it out-of-place and distracting, or actually seem to find it amusing or interesting. Guessing it largely comes down to if the person views a same-sex romance as a taboo, nothing different and everything in between.

[Dilmah G]

I think even if you are tolerant and accepting of that sort of stuff, it's easy to find yourself in a bit of an awkward position when you're sat as Laporte flirting with your same-sex superior officer. It's not something I'd find awkward in the slightest if I was sat on the train reading this in a book, but to actually play as the character and have that sense of 'involvement', I guess you could call it, has the potential to leave you sitting there feeling something between 'Well, this is new, interesting, and totally fits in with who I saw Laporte as in this new-age society' and 'Um, this is a little weird. You're my Squadron OC and the Frigate CAG, and my character is flirting with you. mmkay.'

Either way, it's something I envisage you get more accustomed to with exposure. I didn't find it so detrimental to the story, but during testing I felt like it hit me from left field the first time I played.

[General Battuta]

Well, remember, there's no use pretending there aren't a lot of chain-of-command romances IRL. How things are supposed to work in the regs is one thing, reality is quite another.