Strangelove
Inactive Member
The ships, drones, turret grid, and pirate mercenaries were all submitted (the first on its own, the other three as part of the main prefabricated CSEIA station; See the Wiki). As for missiles, they do possess teleoperated vessels and short-range drones; I assumed that it wouldn't be a far stretch to cram them full of explosives in a pinch. Though refining beyond that into 'true' weapons would require a proper submission, as you said. As to SRP, CSEIA hasn't built anything new since its creation so I haven't bothered crunching the numbers. All their current property has been part of prefabricated set numbers directly submitted with approved submissions. I'd always assumed since they are involved in no major conflicts and research doesn't cost any SRP, that they'd always have more than enough to replace the occasional lost vessel. Even if they are attacked they don't have the manufacturing facilities needed to produce more than one or two science vessels a month anyways, so SRP wouldn't really matter.
To the second point, the main vessel of CSEIA is based on a scientific/sensor vessel with a constant interlinked with the station supercomputer (again, see the Wiki). As science vessels, they possess precision scanners advanced enough to reveal basic deceptions. Even if an enemy possessed the technology to fool their high-grade sensors, the station teleoperation uplink means the station sees everything each ship sees. It would likely only work a few times before the computers/scientists noticed something strange was up, put two and two together, and decided to investigate further. Speaking of which, and not all CSEIA vessels may be actually carrying incriminating evidence. Some on patrol might investigate a threat, attack, or jump out instead of blowing up needlessly.
As to politics: Perhaps infamy was too strong a word. I meant more along the lines of like a low-key criminal organization. Known well enough to intimidate, bribe, and otherwise cohere politicians into deterring an attack. But not so blantaly dangerous as to summon an entire strike force upon them. Ignominy, stigma, perhaps would be better choices? Of course, I know CSEIA is in a dangerous position at best since they're playing the high stakes game of the middle ground between the criminal and legitimate markets. I know they're certainly vulnerable, but I'm just saying they aren't so easy as anyone bored can drop buy and 'just beat them up cause we feel like it.'
Mercenary-paid assassinations, bribery, and indirect influence through criminal connections can work wonders. And their defensive tech (teleoperated drones, mercenary forces, turret grid, weapon prototypes from research) doesn't hurt either. Finally, don't forget their tact; They're not so stupid as to sell military-grade technology to terrorist factions intending to directly attack major nations, for example. Their arms dealing is more focused on 'off-the-radar' conflicts between smaller groups such as crime syndicates or minor nations, which will attract less attention from major powers. But by all means: if a leader or nation is the type that would invade a suspected black market with little or no conclusive evidence, then I'm not going to fight it OOCly. Such threats are obviously part of such a dangerous line of work.
... And thats all I have to say about that. ^^
To the second point, the main vessel of CSEIA is based on a scientific/sensor vessel with a constant interlinked with the station supercomputer (again, see the Wiki). As science vessels, they possess precision scanners advanced enough to reveal basic deceptions. Even if an enemy possessed the technology to fool their high-grade sensors, the station teleoperation uplink means the station sees everything each ship sees. It would likely only work a few times before the computers/scientists noticed something strange was up, put two and two together, and decided to investigate further. Speaking of which, and not all CSEIA vessels may be actually carrying incriminating evidence. Some on patrol might investigate a threat, attack, or jump out instead of blowing up needlessly.
As to politics: Perhaps infamy was too strong a word. I meant more along the lines of like a low-key criminal organization. Known well enough to intimidate, bribe, and otherwise cohere politicians into deterring an attack. But not so blantaly dangerous as to summon an entire strike force upon them. Ignominy, stigma, perhaps would be better choices? Of course, I know CSEIA is in a dangerous position at best since they're playing the high stakes game of the middle ground between the criminal and legitimate markets. I know they're certainly vulnerable, but I'm just saying they aren't so easy as anyone bored can drop buy and 'just beat them up cause we feel like it.'
Mercenary-paid assassinations, bribery, and indirect influence through criminal connections can work wonders. And their defensive tech (teleoperated drones, mercenary forces, turret grid, weapon prototypes from research) doesn't hurt either. Finally, don't forget their tact; They're not so stupid as to sell military-grade technology to terrorist factions intending to directly attack major nations, for example. Their arms dealing is more focused on 'off-the-radar' conflicts between smaller groups such as crime syndicates or minor nations, which will attract less attention from major powers. But by all means: if a leader or nation is the type that would invade a suspected black market with little or no conclusive evidence, then I'm not going to fight it OOCly. Such threats are obviously part of such a dangerous line of work.
... And thats all I have to say about that. ^^
