If not Satellites

Well Satellites would equal greater communication to people on Felarya soil. Unfortunately Felarya has not real space or orbit, so that cant be feesible.

So as an alternative. Not great but solid. Why not just set up a temporary "watch eye" High in the sky, Sending information network using something like Drones or UAVs'. I mean it would be easier and safer then just sending in a person as a scout. Therefore saving a whole group from a predator ambush or other dangers.

On a larger scale, you could put out a more advanced one higher in the air. Mapping out a small quadrant in a canyon,jungle,forest; Showing where another buddy's group and your group is as long as it stays in the air uninterrupted. I Could see some ambitious organization Like the Adventure Guild or other private Companies using this to see where the boys and girls are. Maybe not for the longest time but its nice to see how much they would progress on their adventures.

Why stop there? you could use it to Find A thing your looking for. Just hook it up with...example a magic artifact that can point and sniff out the material your looking for. Launch and BAM! The signal maybe false or not,but at least you reduced search time right?

A down side which i can see to this is you have the possibility of avian life messing with it or somebody else hacks it for their own, or groups survival. A cyber fairy could easily mess with its functions, or a harpy just takes a grab at it thinking its an easy catch for food. That ultimately gives the manufacturer the decision whether to add Defensive/offensive features to it, or just make a cheap and low quality version that anybody can get their hand on.

This could be really useful and effective for technology users if they don't have (or anybody around them) that has magic to accomplish something similar and comparable. Best part that since its machine, there can be wide variety and can be massed produced. which means at least one person in an exploration group could have this on him/her.

Even though this gives the smaller prey *cough* people an advantage. It does by far not stop you from getting caught by surprise and vored down by a predator the next moment. Even if you see it coming. Can you stop or avoid him/her? Thats one of the good and bad joys of Felarya after all

I like the idea, but as you pointed out, creatures like Harpies, Sphinxes and Storm Sprites would mess it up too big to be efficient.

UAV's are a potential option for the more advanced races. Now, UAV use would probably be limited to smaller models, things 6ft long or less. Once you get much bigger, you start to need a lot of space for them to take off and land. There probably wouldn't be enough room to launch something like a Predator or Reaper drone without clearing out a little of the jungle around your outpost, which while potentially possible depending on the size of the trees, it would certainly draw attention to you. Of course, you'd need a reliable portal connection back to your homeworld as well, to get in fuel and replacment parts.

I really don't really see them all that willing to just share high-end robotics technology with more primitive people though. I mean, even today, the US is concerned with people capturing downed drones and back-engineering the technology to either make drones of their own, or to mess with control of ours. I just don't think these would be handed out in Negav or anything =P Now it IS likely that some of the more influencial groups like the Vishmitals , Magiocrats or Isolon Fist could have some...and they WOULD have more stable portals to worlds that trade with Negav to get fuel and stuff. Actually, the mapping capabilities alone would be extremely valuable to those groups.

Harpies, Storm Sprites, and any other giant flying animals are certainly an issue....which makes having a relyable way to get in spare parts, drones and fuel all the more important.

As for mass production....I just don't see that. You would need a way to make light-weight plastics, circuits, and the computer systems needed to control and program the drone. Export from offworld is really the only way to get any in. I do think that it is a potential option for any group from an Earth-level technology world and up. It would definately be handy in some situations.

EDIT: The fuel issue is assuming that engines cannot be rigged up to run on magic, or some kind of Felaryan mineral. That could potentially enhance the range and endurance of what would otherwise be a fairly short-range UAV.

What about the possibility of whipping up something powered by magic? Perhaps not any more secure against predators, but you could put a smaller piece of equipment up in the sky easier. Actually, most efficient would probably be a technology/magic hybrid, technology keeping it survivable and effective, magic keeping it unobtrusive and efficient.

Would magic protect it from being swallowed by a curious and harpy? It wouldn't do much good if it was in a belly. Also, would it be able to see through the trees? A predator could be wandering through the woods, but an eye from the sky would only see the trees she's walking under. ^^;

AisuKaiko wrote:

Would magic protect it from being swallowed by a curious and harpy? It wouldn't do much good if it was in a belly. Also, would it be able to see through the trees? A predator could be wandering through the woods, but an eye from the sky would only see the trees she's walking under. ^^;

If the magic makes the UAV invisable, the predator can't eat what it can't see. As for seeing through the trees, one would imagen the use of some kind of thermal imager, while the trees will blunt this, something the size of Crisis is going to have a very large heat sig.

rcs619 wrote:

As for mass production....I just don't see that. You would need a way to make light-weight plastics, circuits, and the computer systems needed to control and program the drone. Export from offworld is really the only way to get any in. I do think that it is a potential option for any group from an Earth-level technology world and up. It would definately be handy in some situations.

well i could see engineers and scientist sharing information like this, for their own personal gain and for others. As for getting material, u can make things purely from scratch, The rip saw Unmaned ground vehicle for example. two guys (maybe more) built that in a garage on their own. So i don't see why people that are great with Machines and earth level or higher tech, can't do that without getting resources off worldly.

CauldronBorn24 wrote:

If the magic makes the UAV invisable, the predator can't eat what it can't see. As for seeing through the trees, one would imagen the use of some kind of thermal imager, while the trees will blunt this, something the size of Crisis is going to have a very large heat sig.

Or radar. You can do a lot of fun things with radar, especially if you polarize it... like see which way the blades of grass are bent in a field, allowing you to see vehicle paths (or giant naga paths) for example.

rcs619 wrote:

engines cannot be rigged up to run on magic, or some kind of Felaryan mineral.

Former: Working on it
Latter: Done, Lydronite pretty much gets anything off the ground when you have enough. Then you could strap a steam driven propeller or something to your mass of rock-mineral and wood and get forward thrust.

It's definitely an interesting thought

in fact, looking at it, it seems quite obvious to me that remote-control technology would be a good option for many things for humans in Felarya. though like others pointed, you have to get a sufficient good ration on efficiency / cost which is not always easy XD

Actually this remind me a bit of the base concept of Avatar, using a vessel of sort controled from a distance.

a sattelite might work...as long as u hav something to guard it.
(king ghidorah, for example)

alliance wrote:

a sattelite might work...as long as u hav something to guard it.
(king ghidorah, for example)

Please, learn to spell, (No chatspeak)
And we've covered that satellites don't work because Felarya don't have a local, consistent, space-like vacuum.

For less expansive there are espionnage balloon , Observation Ballon and weather ballon The weather type is easier to develop even particular can have one

Sorry....ive been trying to curb that

gwadahunter2222 wrote:

For less expansive there are espionnage balloon , Observation Ballon and weather ballon The weather type is easier to develop even particular can have one

Balloons are certainly an option....but due to their slow nature, them getting taken out by Harpies, or even just plain old giant birds could be an issue. Definately cheaper than a UAV though.

i don't see why pred wold even bother with it for anything but curiosity... the pred sense should tell them nothing living was inside and if they are just hungry, they shouldn't wanna bother with it.

sounds logical to me

rcs619 wrote:

Balloons are certainly an option....but due to their slow nature, them getting taken out by Harpies, or even just plain old giant birds could be an issue. Definately cheaper than a UAV though.

The fact they are cheap make them easy to set up and improve even if they are destroyed by a flying predator they can be easily replaced. Their development will be faster than the UAV due to the fact it exist private version. They will be more numerous and more used.

yeah.....i mean we use balloons today but...even on the civilian market, people are going more towards remote controlled craft like UAV's because of overall effectiveness and how fast they can cover ground and information. Hence is what gear heads and techies would want, or at least most of them...

Reptillian wrote:

i don't see why pred wold even bother with it for anything but curiosity... the pred sense should tell them nothing living was inside and if they are just hungry, they shouldn't wanna bother with it.

True, but remember that not every predator or has the predator sense, which might not even work in the air.

ravaging vixens wrote:

yeah.....i mean we use balloons today but...even on the civilian market, people are going more towards remote controlled craft like UAV's because of overall effectiveness and how fast they can cover ground and information. Hence is what gear heads and techies would want, or at least most of them...

Yeah indeed but the actual cost in civilian market can reach 15500 $ easily. Balloon have great days of service

Reptillian wrote:

i don't see why pred wold even bother with it for anything but curiosity... the pred sense should tell them nothing living was inside and if they are just hungry, they shouldn't wanna bother with it.

Because Flying Sharks.

Not every pred is sentient. Many are very territorial. In fact, make that most are very territorial.

A rock harpy would probably be like: What thge Hell is that in my airspace!?

hmmm, but woldn't they quickly learn that it's not a threat or food and leave it alone?

Well if i was a sentient Pred that has seen something Like this i would have 2 choices. choice 1 would be following it to see where its being operated from. no doubt close. (if not near a town or city).

Two would be to destroy it if i wanted to catch prey by surprise. By all means that thing could give away my position making the prey all the more harder to catch, or more agressive defensive wise (you plan to attack you better have something that can take a predator down.)

Which is all the more reason the UAV would had some sort of Defensive/Offensive features on it for running into Predators,like ones stated up above.