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Author Topic: Difference between Domain Probes and Survey Ships?  (Read 1341 times)

Biohazard041

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Difference between Domain Probes and Survey Ships?
« on: April 25, 2021, 07:50:39 PM »

The descriptions for both of them basically say the same thing. They go out to explore and survey, and they both can be manufactured by the Mothership.
Spoiler
derelict_probe,CUSTOM,"An example of one of the countless thousands of robot probe ships sent out into the galaxy by the Domain to find new resources to exploit, planets to colonize, and explore the unknown. Some variants are produced by automated motherships. This specimen appears to be inactive; pitted by small impacts, its hull displays iridescence from fearsome radiation scarring. This probe's manufacture could well date to a thousand cycles ago."

derelict_surveyship,CUSTOM,"An automated survey ship from a long-past wave of Domain exploration. Thousands of ships like this were sent in waves, some independent, others attached to (or manufactured by) similarly automated motherships following the first wave of robot probes. This apparently unresponsive hulk has been ravaged by centuries of exposure to charged particles and high velocity impacts from interstellar dust."

derelict_mothership,CUSTOM,"One of the legendary survey motherships, the quiet automated workhorse of the Domain exploration and colonization effort. This is in essence a von Neumann probe, as the survey motherships contain autoforge capacity to manufacture a suite of smaller survey ships and the supplies required to perform its ongoing mission. This specimen is burned and battered by its centuries of service to the Domain, a drifting forgotten hulk."
[close]
Since the Probe and Survey Ship seem to differ only in size, why would the Domain bother making the larger Survey Ship if a smaller Probe can do the job?

I know I might be taking it too seriously, trying to find meaning in something probably irrelevant. But hypothetically, why would the Domain bother?
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Alex

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Re: Difference between Domain Probes and Survey Ships?
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2021, 07:54:06 PM »

It's kind of a progression/hierarchy - a mothership shows up somewhere, and makes a bunch of survey ships, that then fan out to nearby areas. Those ships in turn make probes to do most of the detailed survey work.
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stormturmoil

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Re: Difference between Domain Probes and Survey Ships?
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2021, 02:44:07 AM »

I also figure the Hierarchy works on discovery too - if a Probe logs something interesting but weird according to it's parameters, it can squirt a messgae back to it's 'boss' survey ship, which can amble over and have a look with better facilities and more sensors, just to rule out false alarms etc. Also to restore it's stocks of material if a Probe spots a good location for easy Extraction. Hence why some systems will have Probes and a Survey/Mothership: sometimes a Probe called the other ship over for some reason...

Basically to avoid the Niven Ramrobot problem where the Probe reports something, you send a colony slowboat (or in this case, a Domain Cryosleeper...), and when you get there on your one-way trip, you find out the Probe was acting Janky. (For those not getting the reference, in Larry Niven's Known Space setting, the Ramrobots had a programming oversight that meant they were searching for a Habitable Point rather than a Habitable Planet, therefore on arrival at a system, they'd fly round endlessly looking for any single point that matched their criteria, then signal success. This lead to things like settling the inner planet of Tau Ceti, which was mostly like Venus, except for one Mountain plateau sticking up out of the clouds...)
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KDR_11k

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Re: Difference between Domain Probes and Survey Ships?
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2021, 05:18:06 AM »

How large are the probes supposed to be anyway, considering they can fit a whole fleet of battle bricks inside?
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Biohazard041

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Re: Difference between Domain Probes and Survey Ships?
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2021, 05:21:18 AM »

I think the Probe is around Cruiser size, and the Survey ship is around a Capital size
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