Mike wrote: > The Ghaould, do they have the way/means and mental/social abilities to take > other tech and reverse engineer it, even if just Earth Human and use it,or > need to? or do they depend on ancient and asgard tech left over to make > things happen?
That is a difficult question, with different answers on different levels. For starters, does reverse-engineering mean you have to recreate and understand the blueprints, or is a copy enough? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasnoye_Sormovo_Factory_No._112#Military_production - In the TV series, there were hints of a human military-industrial complex in action, but also television-style multitasking science heroes. So Carter can analyze anything which isn't in Jackson's department, but she didn't build the alone F-302 in her garage. - I don't recall a similar military-industrial complex by Goa'uld factions. Niirti had minions, not science staff. The Lucians had to put a gun to the head of a human researcher in SG-U -- where are their own scientists? - The Ori had massive parallel shipyards, but no assembly line. Human wave attacks on logistics problems :-) Do the humans have anything to offer to the Goa'uld? In a simple TL scheme, the Goa'uld are considerably beyond Earth. What makes you think that the puny Earthlings have anything which isn't in the musty archives of the Goa'uld? They just don't see the need to clone a P90 when they have those nifty Zat'nik'tel. - The Goa'uld seem to be superior in power systems, sublight and FTL drives, force fields, physical armor, beam weapons, medical technology, life support. - Humans might have a small edge in ground vehicles. I believe that the humans have a clear edge in mass production. But as you pointed out above, adopting that is a social question as well. I don't see anything like a market-based economy for the Goa'uld, and while Earth would never give the F-302 production to the lowest bidder, it uses a market to create the infrastructure for those special projects. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_economy IMHO a free market needs state control to curb some excesses, to compensate for wild swings, and to provide a safety net, but we can probably agree without flamewars that bronze-age palace economies are a non-starter. > Their hoods and like must have come from some place or .. For the vehicles series which starts in a week, I'm assuming that the Earthlings can draw on a TL8 industrial infrastructure and a few (found? captured? handmade prototype?) TL12 vehicles. The Evil Overlords (who don't necessarily have a snake in their belly) rely on a mix of TL12 technology with severe production bottlenecks and plentiful TL5- tech where quantity can replace quality. There are many feuding Evil Overlords, and the total numbers for the TL12 part of their civilization are very low. Say a typical EO establishment consists of 1 Evil Overlord 12 Trusted Lieutenants 12 Court Toadies 75 dependents for the overlords and underlords (children, spouses unless they have a job, some retired) 250 TL12-trained senior warriors 250 dependents for the warriors (mostly warrior caste in training, a few seniors on teaching jobs) 250 TL12-trained master craftsmen 250 dependents for the master craftsmen 250 TL12-trained gofers (drivers, pilots, people who can refill a TL12 automed). 250 dependents for the gofers --------------------------------------------------------- 1,600 people (training, working, or retired) at TL12 Housekeeping and the like will be done by low-tech servants, even of high-tech gadgets would do it better. Say a ratio of 1:4, four cooks, maids, etc for everybody in the inner circle. That sounds like a lot, but doing the laundry by hand takes time ... It is difficult to figure out how many low-tech workers support the TL12 establishment, from miners who supply the craftsmen with metal to to stonemasons who repair the buildings. Out of thin air, call it 1:20. Making the charcoal to make the iron to make the steel. I don't recall where I got it, but a low-tech society is going to have nine out of ten people in farming villages. Assume that holds for the low-tech infrastructure of the Evil Overlords, too, despite the benefits of crop rotation, etc. Two more figures from the back of my mind are that it takes 1:20 troops to population to properly suppress an insurgency, and that industrialized societies can maintain 1:100 soldiers and 1:200 cops without undue strain. Compromize at 1:20 for the total overhead to control the peasants, both troops and administrative village headmen and tithe collectors. The total domain of a single Evil Overlord could be 1,600 TL12-trained people in the palace and a few special sites. 6,400 Low-tech palace staff 32,000 Outlying low-tech workers supporting the palace. 20,000 Low-tech troops, cops and guards 20,000 Low-tech administrators 720,000 Low-tech peasants -------------------------------------------------------------- 800,000 people. This could be broken down into - The capital/gate town with the palace (800 high-tech people, 3,200 low-tech people), barracks for 4,000 low-tech troops, 8,000 workers, 4,000 administrators -- 20,000 total. - Four special project sites like shipyards, factories, ..., each with 200 high-tech people, 800 servants, 1,000 troops, 2,000 workers, 1,000 administrators -- 5,000 per site. - 60 market towns with 2,000 peasants, 200 low-tech troops, 200 administrators, 100 workers -- 2,500 per town. - 600 villages with 1,000 peasants each. - 10 mines/quarries/whatever with 1,000 workers each. The special sites could also represent off-world holdings, but that raises the question who feeds them. No low-tech wagon train with tithes. If there are ships, they are probably manned by 'detachments' from the TL12 people in the palace count, plus a few servants and low-tech troops as cannon fodder. If you look at these numbers, they're much greater than the look and feel from the TV series. So either my assumptions are wrong -- you could easily assume a higher agricultural efficiency -- or the outlying farms are just never shown because they don't matter unless you want to hold a palace, not just conquer it. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
