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Sleeping Dragon
Draconis Combine
Tai-i
Joined: 06-Apr-2005 00:00
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Location: Czech Republic
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 Posted: 01-Mar-2010 14:51 Post subject: A new playground |
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Well.. where to start? Umm... I'd like to make a new setting, or rather just an area of the battletech universe. Not a replacement, just an alternative unaffected by the Inner Sphere or Clans. I'd also like to build whole thing through discussion.
So... let's start with the story.
During the earlier eras of the Inner Sphere development and before formation of the Star League, a group of settlers along with a terraforming ship would set off from core worlds with minds aimed on forming their own empire away from the hungry grasp of the early interstellar nations. So they set off from the New Earth and Terra, made their way through disputed areas between early Free Worlds League and Lyran Commonwealth and continued anti-spinward as far as they could... and beyond. Many wondered why did the ships of the colonisation fleet haul so many tons of fuel with them, but the fleet captains had a plan. As daring as humans could be, these settlers came to areas where the stars were only few and far between. Rater than following the obvious jump paths, the ships simply jumped into the emptiness of the void and then again and again, using the fuel to recharge their K-F cores where stars couldn't do that. Aiming at an isolated star cluster the ships have finally arrived with less 20 % of their fuel reserves on a zenith point of a white dwarf star, where they could finally unfurl their solar sails...
So, how do you like it so far? in this I'd somehow like to toy with the colonisation efforts in the BT universe. I still need to determine what year could this all happen. My personal guess would be somewhere around 2550. Just before the formation of the Star League, but with more than a century of development there should already be a technology base solid enough to allow whole thing to be undertaken. I'd like to allow the settlers to take battlemech technology developed at least to the same degree as it was during the worst of the succession wars with them. I also aim to develop whole thing into a multi-polar and barely stable system that would be somewhere between Vestfallian system and the concert of powers, but first I'd like to determine with how many people you could disappear from the IS like this? (More questions will follow)
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Karagin
Imperial Karagin Army
Imperial General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 01-Mar-2010 15:15 Post subject: A new playground |
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Sounds interesting. Looking forward to more. I do like your choice of starting dates, that allows you enough time to have things happen without the need to rush into any one event.
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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Sleeping Dragon
Draconis Combine
Tai-i
Joined: 06-Apr-2005 00:00
Posts: 4820
Location: Czech Republic
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| Posted: 01-Mar-2010 15:49 Post subject: A new playground |
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Well, I'd like to have a setting fueled by national pride, traditions and hatreds running back centuries. Unlike in CBT I'm quite unconcerned by political correctness (although I don't feel the need to touch anyone's national pride), so I'd like to spin this tale with real world European and perhaps other (candidates?) nations, once again struggling for resources and colonies, forming ad-hoc alliances to keep themselves on top of the heap. I'd like to avoid current superpowers, who probably wouldn't have much reason to leave the Earth, but I'd rather have those who's national pride and dreams of the old glory could be rekindled at any time.
Do you have any suggestions for possible answers to my earlier questions?
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Vagabond
Mercenary
Mr. Referee
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 5741
Location: United States
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| Posted: 01-Mar-2010 17:43 Post subject: A new playground |
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hey SD, gimme a ring on aim or msn.
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Stinger
The Knights of Chaos
General
Joined: 30-Apr-2002 00:00
Posts: 1833
Location: United States
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| Posted: 02-Mar-2010 02:04 Post subject: A new playground |
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I do like this idea. Its a interesting take on the universe. Though I do have one concern though. The starting date, though and I am only bringing this up because I both like the starting date of 2550 and would rather see a later starting date.
I prefer a later starting date mostly because it would give them a better Mech and vehicle force for protection purposes, even if they only take first and second gen units.
You could explain it this way.
Near the end of the 15 year truce with the invading clans many people started to get sick of the constant threat of warfare. As the movement gained momentum groups of people started to get the idea for another exodus. Several of the smaller groups started to gather secretly and soon there was a meeting that started the plan to get everyone gathered for another exodus. Though the movement started small, it quickly gathered momentum, and after a few quiet troop movements to get the entire group together, they had a large enough flotilla to finally move out. roughly 10,000 military personnel quietly packed up their family and all extra fuel and equipment and quietly charted a course out of the IS.
Obviously it needs some refinement, (shouldn't write anything as I watch Scrubs).
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Stinger
If it's "creepy" to use the Internet, military satellites, and robot aircraft to find a house full of gorgeous young models so I can drop in on them unexpected, then FINE, I'm "creepy". Howard Wolowitz. BBT.
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Sleeping Dragon
Draconis Combine
Tai-i
Joined: 06-Apr-2005 00:00
Posts: 4820
Location: Czech Republic
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| Posted: 02-Mar-2010 11:45 Post subject: A new playground |
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I don't have either, but you know where to find me on Facebook (I'm the one bombarding you with gift recquests  ).
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Sleeping Dragon
Draconis Combine
Tai-i
Joined: 06-Apr-2005 00:00
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Location: Czech Republic
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| Posted: 02-Mar-2010 12:09 Post subject: A new playground |
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Actually I've picked this date on purpose. I want the newly formed nations to have a history of their own. I've chosen datum that is roughly 100 years after the development of Battlemech technology, but before even the Star League was formed. I would even like to mostly sever all the connection to the IS, beyond the grasp of ComStar and their Explorer Corps, although there would be a possibility some technology espionage, which I'd like to unveil later perhaps. If first reason is to get me well out of reach of the universe, the second reason for going 500 years in the past is purely practical. I want some REAL human potential to build up. 500 years roughly translates to 20 generations. Let's say that every family will have four children in average, who will form two new families, if the conditions are ideal. With 5000 families you'd be barely able to populate one planet to levels similar to Earth before 20th century. I want NATIONS and ARMIES, not just sparsely populated rocky balls of mud fought over by two heroic warriors 
Life is cheap 
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Karagin
Imperial Karagin Army
Imperial General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 02-Mar-2010 12:31 Post subject: Re: A new playground |
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| Sleeping Dragon wrote: | | I don't have either, but you know where to find me on Facebook (I'm the one bombarding you with gift recquests ). |
So you are that guy...
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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Stinger
The Knights of Chaos
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 02-Mar-2010 15:47 Post subject: A new playground |
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I can deffinetely see where you are comming from and it makes sense. I like both start dates. Its a senario I can see playing out earily on and again much later on as well.
I'm very interested to see where you take it
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Stinger
If it's "creepy" to use the Internet, military satellites, and robot aircraft to find a house full of gorgeous young models so I can drop in on them unexpected, then FINE, I'm "creepy". Howard Wolowitz. BBT.
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Sleeping Dragon
Draconis Combine
Tai-i
Joined: 06-Apr-2005 00:00
Posts: 4820
Location: Czech Republic
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| Posted: 02-Mar-2010 17:07 Post subject: A new playground |
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Okay, let's throw up a few more thoughts in the air. I still need to determine the size of the starting population and final scope of the thing. How large do you think a stellar nation would be? With Bears moving in the IS we all saw that thy could build a ship that could take 1 million of passengers, so a colonisation ships could have been pretty large, but how many could have left IS?
I'd like to avoid overextending most of them, but there should be enough colonized (which doesn't necessarily mean terraformed) planets to form borders and internal area. Rather than having whole districts with many star systems, I'd prefer to have a single star system equivalent of an important city and it's surroundings, like Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Lyon and others like that. Each empire would have two types of planets. Inner worlds would be fully in control of the nation and an attack on them would reacquire a major offensive. Border worlds or systems, on the other hand, would be shared by multiple nations (mostly just two) with heavily fortified holdings, regiments standing on alert and frequented battlefields. I could easily find 15 or more of such on French / German border, so I think that every nation should have 5 - 10 border worlds with each neighbouring state and every major player would have 2 or 3 neighbours. In addition to this there would be about 15 inner, fully controlled systems.
Now, before we'll try to spin off some history, I'd like to know, how many major and / or minor (the major players need some prey to fight over, ...) players would you like to include and whom would you like to nominate into the fray (Which nations and what position of power in relation the others would they take).
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Stinger
The Knights of Chaos
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Joined: 30-Apr-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 03-Mar-2010 01:17 Post subject: A new playground |
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| wrote: | | Okay, let's throw up a few more thoughts in the air. I still need to determine the size of the starting population and final scope of the thing. How large do you think a stellar nation would be? With Bears moving in the IS we all saw that thy could build a ship that could take 1 million of passengers, so a colonisation ships could have been pretty large, but how many could have left IS? |
Good question. I think you might want to look at what transports were avaliable. It sounds like you want a fairly substantial population, so I guess are you planning on starting this as soon as they leave the IS? or are you going to give them a couple hundered years of growth? As for ships that could be problematic. Jumpships avaliable around 2550 are as follows.
Merchant Class Jumpship
Introduced 2503
2 docking hard points.
Cargo 667 tons
Not many Dropships either.
Gazelle Class Dropship
Introduced 2531
cargo 950 tons
Leopard Class dropship
Introduced 2537
Cargo 600 tons (no mechs)
The only real cargo and troop haulers are Warships and they may be hard to pry away from the military.
Vincent MK42*
Introduced 2432
Cargo 91,085
Dropship capacity 0
Aegis*
Introduced 2372
Cargo 87,571
Dropship capacity 4
Congress*
Introduced 2542
Cargo 158,343
Dropship capacity 2
Liberator*
Introduced 2525
Cargo 71,430
Dropship capacity 6
Unfortunately most of the troop haulers and larger dropships werent avaliable till 2600 and later. The Potemkin isnt avaliable till 2611, and that is really the one you want. It has 25 hardpoints and over 373K tons. The other problem is what is avaliable for moving lots of personel at one time. Its only warships. The Vincent, Ageis, Congress and Liberator are all Warships.
| wrote: | I'd like to avoid overextending most of them, but there should be enough colonized (which doesn't necessarily mean terraformed) planets to form borders and internal area. Rather than having whole districts with many star systems, I'd prefer to have a single star system equivalent of an important city and it's surroundings, like Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Lyon and others like that. Each empire would have two types of planets. Inner worlds would be fully in control of the nation and an attack on them would reacquire a major offensive. Border worlds or systems, on the other hand, would be shared by multiple nations (mostly just two) with heavily fortified holdings, regiments standing on alert and frequented battlefields. I could easily find 15 or more of such on French / German border, so I think that every nation should have 5 - 10 border worlds with each neighbouring state and every major player would have 2 or 3 neighbours. In addition to this there would be about 15 inner, fully controlled systems.
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How many factions are you looking to have? I would say no more than 3. I would also say no more than 6 planets. Most likley they are going to be sparsly populated planets. So you dont want them spread to thin. But with what is avaliable to move troops, I think its going to be hard to move more than say 200 to 300K people, so figure maybe 100k per faction.
| wrote: | | Now, before we'll try to spin off some history, I'd like to know, how many major and / or minor (the major players need some prey to fight over, ...) players would you like to include and whom would you like to nominate into the fray (Which nations and what position of power in relation the others would they take). |
Well this is actually where you can have some fun. I like the idea of 3 major factions with all 6 houses being represented. But combine some of them. Steiner, Davion and Kurita should be the mains. Liao should be a minor player with the Kurita, Rasselhauge should be a minor player in Steiner, and then Free Worlds League becomes a minor player in Davion (or something like that).
As far as what is being fought over, well that could be something as trivial as the necessaties. Planets with a high crop output or rich in minerals, or even water. I would say that open warfare could be very very rare for over 2 hundered years. Just trying to survive is going to occupy everyone for a long time.
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Stinger
If it's "creepy" to use the Internet, military satellites, and robot aircraft to find a house full of gorgeous young models so I can drop in on them unexpected, then FINE, I'm "creepy". Howard Wolowitz. BBT.
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Karagin
Imperial Karagin Army
Imperial General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 4120
Location: United States
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| Posted: 03-Mar-2010 02:23 Post subject: A new playground |
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Okay so the carries are smaller, then either more get built or they work with what they have or new ones pop up.
One thing, once the first step is taken OFF the in game historical path, more doors open to what can and can not happen. This is the tricky part about alternate histories and such, how far to the left or right do you move and how much is too much.
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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Sleeping Dragon
Draconis Combine
Tai-i
Joined: 06-Apr-2005 00:00
Posts: 4820
Location: Czech Republic
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| Posted: 03-Mar-2010 14:23 Post subject: Re: A new playground |
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| Stinger wrote: |
Good question. I think you might want to look at what transports were avaliable. It sounds like you want a fairly substantial population, so I guess are you planning on starting this as soon as they leave the IS? or are you going to give them a couple hundered years of growth? As for ships that could be problematic. Jumpships avaliable around 2550 are as follows.
...
Unfortunately most of the troop haulers and larger dropships werent avaliable till 2600 and later. The Potemkin isnt avaliable till 2611, and that is really the one you want. It has 25 hardpoints and over 373K tons. The other problem is what is avaliable for moving lots of personel at one time. Its only warships. The Vincent, Ageis, Congress and Liberator are all Warships.
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A good question, but at first I was more concerned with how many people would set off in the first place. For transports I'd actually count on older ships that were to be mothballed after they were replaced by newer ships. Where did all the old pieces of junk that followed the TAS Charger went? I think that some of these decommissioned ships could be sold for some lower price and rebuilt for passenger and material transports in sufficient numbers. I'd definitely like to let the place settle for whole five hundred years, colonization takes time but there must be some kind of story to cover this time of course...
| wrote: |
How many factions are you looking to have? I would say no more than 3. I would also say no more than 6 planets. Most likley they are going to be sparsly populated planets. So you dont want them spread to thin. But with what is avaliable to move troops, I think its going to be hard to move more than say 200 to 300K people, so figure maybe 100k per faction.
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For a multi-polar system you need something around five major players. Of course that these players will control fewer planets than most Periphery nations, but it should work.
| wrote: |
Well this is actually where you can have some fun. I like the idea of 3 major factions with all 6 houses being represented. But combine some of them. Steiner, Davion and Kurita should be the mains. Liao should be a minor player with the Kurita, Rasselhauge should be a minor player in Steiner, and then Free Worlds League becomes a minor player in Davion (or something like that).
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I think you misunderstood my original post. I don't want to use any of the current IS factions. I wanted to use real world nations as a base. Original colonists would be the people who were disillusioned by the development in the IS (Age of war, ...) and the relatively minor role their once proud nations play in the universe. At first (transport and terraformation) the colonists would cooperate until greed and national pride would freeze the relations to bitter enmity and a situation ready to rip everything to ribbons.
That's why I was asking for the candidates
| wrote: |
As far as what is being fought over, well that could be something as trivial as the necessaties. Planets with a high crop output or rich in minerals, or even water. I would say that open warfare could be very very rare for over 2 hundered years. Just trying to survive is going to occupy everyone for a long time. |
Targets are obvious. Living space wouldn't be a problem, but resources (and markets!) certainly would.
Part of the fun could be the generation of planets and their peculiarities, colonisation and terraforming technologies, ancient ships and possible histories. These areas are largely uncovered by CBT and perhaps I've been GMing for way too long, but I'd just like to see what we'll be able to create in this pot of madness fueled imagination (and don't get me wrong, I already have a few wild ones). The scope of this setting should allow us to play with details.
Just one thing... I would like the planets to be lifeless at the start. No six-legged whales or tentacled bears, no plants, nothing. All life would be brought from the good ol' Earth and perhaps genetically modified to survive.
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Stinger
The Knights of Chaos
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| Posted: 03-Mar-2010 23:02 Post subject: Re: A new playground |
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| Sleeping Dragon wrote: |
A good question, but at first I was more concerned with how many people would set off in the first place. For transports I'd actually count on older ships that were to be mothballed after they were replaced by newer ships. Where did all the old pieces of junk that followed the TAS Charger went? I think that some of these decommissioned ships could be sold for some lower price and rebuilt for passenger and material transports in sufficient numbers. I'd definitely like to let the place settle for whole five hundred years, colonization takes time but there must be some kind of story to cover this time of course...
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I would say upwards of 250 to 500k IF the conditions are right. Is this being done publically? or is it kind of hush hush?
Unfortunately thoes are the only ones I could find in the 2750, 3057 TRO and the Dropship and jumpship books. Anything older you may have to make up. /shrug But there is no proplem there.
| wrote: |
For a multi-polar system you need something around five major players. Of course that these players will control fewer planets than most Periphery nations, but it should work.
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That sounds good.
| wrote: |
I think you misunderstood my original post. I don't want to use any of the current IS factions. I wanted to use real world nations as a base. Original colonists would be the people who were disillusioned by the development in the IS (Age of war, ...) and the relatively minor role their once proud nations play in the universe. At first (transport and terraformation) the colonists would cooperate until greed and national pride would freeze the relations to bitter enmity and a situation ready to rip everything to ribbons.
That's why I was asking for the candidates
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Your right I did. Not sure how you want to figure that out.
| wrote: |
Targets are obvious. Living space wouldn't be a problem, but resources (and markets!) certainly would.
Part of the fun could be the generation of planets and their peculiarities, colonisation and terraforming technologies, ancient ships and possible histories. These areas are largely uncovered by CBT and perhaps I've been GMing for way too long, but I'd just like to see what we'll be able to create in this pot of madness fueled imagination (and don't get me wrong, I already have a few wild ones). The scope of this setting should allow us to play with details.
Just one thing... I would like the planets to be lifeless at the start. No six-legged whales or tentacled bears, no plants, nothing. All life would be brought from the good ol' Earth and perhaps genetically modified to survive. |
Interesting. Not sure what to offer as ideas, it sounds like you have this part figured out.
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Stinger
If it's "creepy" to use the Internet, military satellites, and robot aircraft to find a house full of gorgeous young models so I can drop in on them unexpected, then FINE, I'm "creepy". Howard Wolowitz. BBT.
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Sleeping Dragon
Draconis Combine
Tai-i
Joined: 06-Apr-2005 00:00
Posts: 4820
Location: Czech Republic
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| Posted: 04-Mar-2010 00:22 Post subject: Re: A new playground |
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Well, some parts are figured up, but I think that if I published them, then I'd risk the possibility of loosing some interesting insights.
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