Kyle said:
Knock off the snarkiness Osaka, Amary is asking questions related to your submission, getting snarky or even rude with him WILL result in a rejection next time.
You've been warned.
I think the problem here is that Osaka is getting nervous with the submission rot that is happening here. This submission was made on December 14th 2012, the review was supposed to be completed on the 16th of December. It is now the 13th of February 2013. This is severely stalled, and what is taking place here is just adding to anxiety about a submission which is just waiting for Wes to make up his mind since he was the last person to touch it.
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Now, as for submission politics and things people are nervous about...
What we have here is something to provide a new flavor in the most reserved and well fleshed out way possible. Well fleshed out technologies are self-limiting, due to their flaws and benefits being explicitly made clear for any and all observers. This is a
safe item, there are no mysteries to it, no uncertainties, no unpredictable factors, no distinctive leaps or bounds above or beyond any other faction that is in the setting.
Without new technology articles, we end up with setting homogenization. There is the same ceiling for everyone to hit with their faction as plot progresses. The Lorath Matriarchy for example has been part of this setting for thereabouts of eight years. During that time, progress has been slow. We've yet to tread on the same ground as the big boys such as Nepleslia and Yamatai, yet, the Lorath are working and have been trying to conduct their own research, instead of the blatant robbery of technology which fueled their original advancement.
Without a third party such as Lazarus, to provide R&D and technology, the Lorath Matriarchy would be forced to continue and seize the low-hanging fruit which stands before them, the same fruit that tempts any and all who have been impacted by the Empire. Aether weapons, CDD systems, transposition weapons, aether generators, phase shifting kit, Yamataium, Yarvex, and it has even been stated that the Lorath are at the technological level to produce Zesuaium. This means, effectively, technology between the factions would be
exactly the same with all of its mystery, uncertainty, and flat-out exploit-ability. What small-faction managers want is to get away from that, what we want is our own identity, and in a Sci-Fi setting, identity is established by the fictional science. It is the difference between a TiE and a X-Wing, the difference between a Constitution-Class and a Bird of Prey, the difference between a Gouf and a Guntank.
What we do, is for diversity, and for the setting.