alpha lore

[Helios.]

So there's going to be some lore derived from the successes of each faction, in case you havnt heard. my questions i would put ot the public are these:

1) where are the arashi and yeshans? why do we think they werent involved, lore-wise?

2)how do we explain the incredible territorial gains made by the mercantile guild? in-game im pretty sure people were flocking to the MG because their boss ship was absolutely devastating, and people were like 'if you cant beat em...' or they just kept trying to beat em, and couldn't.

3) if, as i feel like it might behoove the dev team to do, the MG boss ships laser lens array is nerfed during what appears to be a generalized lens ray nerf, should we take that into consideration? should we try to incorperate somehow the decrease in lens ray power into the lore?

my two cents for the questions, in order are these:

1) the arashi sinply aren't confederated quite yet, its the movings of the other great powers that are going to pull the independent minded arashi into a single organization.
The yeshans are fighting someone else. they are trying to stay out of the eastern war, hoping the mountain range will keep them safe until they are ready to turn their huge armada and shipyards against the east. their expansionist ethic and complicated government suggests that they cant spring out of nowhere overnight, but they cant sit still either, so they have to be both complete and expandign like crazy, just... somewhere else

2&3) i think the MG incredible success due to their sophisticated lens arrays is really fun, but in game terms needed a balance. In the lore i suggest something like 'the best and most precisely calibrated and maintained Dedalo ships cut great swathes out of the central world, gaining the MG huge amounts of natural resources and new markets. as attrition claimed more and more of these great flagships, however, the shipyards became more hurried as the quotas for new ships rose too quickly for them to put as much loving attention into every replacement ship as they had into the first wave. as such, the new ships lacked the precise, time consuming, optical calibration that the first wave had. even worse, the best engineers available, neccicarily on the great ships to take the precise measurements, and for constantly recalibrating and retuneing the precision devices, had flown in the great first fleet of ships, and had been lost. Even as territory as being gobbled up with victory after victory, the proud, perfect, expertly calibrated and maintained ships gave way to rushed work, and rushed training.  the Mercantile guild fleets over spent the cream of their fleet, and despite great successes would have to fight fiercely to maintain it; making up for their less powerful weapons with more ruthless tactics.'

[Nogitsune]

1) For me I imagine the Arashi were/are in a hated debate.  Normally they are just defense defense defense "Stay the HELL out of our desert, idiots" sort of mentality.  They are surviving just fine off the scraps and shrubs of the land and have literally zero reason to expand much since their population isn't nearly as high as the Yesha Empire is.  However, I wouldn't put it past the Arashi to be like, "Oh look, all these fleets moving about are leaving some places relatively undefended.  If we can exploit these weaknesses then we can bring back great loot for our people."  Alternatively they could just as easily find themselves growing as a people, despite the conditions, and feel they need more providing lands to accommodate.  As for the Yesha, I imagine the reason they are not in this conflict yet is because of several reasons, one being they are a large empire so there's a lot of moving parts to make the war machine start turning.  Another reason simply would be they don't want to reveal their latest weapons of war until tests are concluded, or perhaps they are standing by and observing the conflict, trying to see who has what weapons, who is dangerous and who is not, that way they have a solid strategy for the success of the empire.  As for their motivations, it's sort of self explanatory.  They want more land for the glory of the empire, and to grow as a people since they are probably one of the most overpopulated people in the Guns Of Icarus universe at the moment.

2)  The laser beam guns were a big bonus to ship destruction, for sure, however also as you can imagine, many people would willingly sell their services in the name of the Mercantile Guild simply because of the financial benefits one would have.  Nice ship, nice guns, nice payment.  Mercenaries, pirates, morally grey individuals who would sell themselves for a big bag of coinage, they all have something to gain by working for the Mercantiles for a short time, while other empires would pay less and at most give them "brownie points" with their people.  Also I made an observation that when the mercantiles push all the way north to the Republic forces, they defended the land like it was their own capital, bunkering down and refusing to give up an inch for the long stretch of land they gained for lucrative trading. 

3)  The lens rays probably have a crappy warranty, knowing businesses.  After just several days of extended use, the inner workings might show clear signs of fatigue and the lenses would be excessively expensive to replace daily so they make do with what warn guns they have left over.  Ship engineers and mechanics know how to keep them running effectively but they may never be as perfect as the original designs were, especially if the loss of ships demands more mass production so things became less hand crafted in the interest of time as the original post suggested.

[Helios.]

teh warrenty idea is an interesting one, but i was under the impression that the mercantile guild fleets weren't run as private security companies, but as governmental agencies, but now that you mention it, it would make a LOT of sense to have the navy be a company hired by the government. if everyone has something to sell, why not this as well?

by that same reasoning, it would make total sense that the handcrafted lenses might be incredibly devastating but also incredibly expensive, and the various military companies would be trying to cut costs and use factory made lenses rather than the hand crafted ones. by extension i would imagine that to exhibit some control over the military it wouldn't be so surprising to discover that the leaders of the mercantile guilds through either explicit stock ownership or merely to guarantee the continued good standing employment by the state, they would do as the guild leaders want, military campaign-wise.

[Naoura]

Considering the lore from the trailer, where the Arashi are dueling each other, I think the Arashi are currently wracked with internal conflicts. Multiple civil wars between seperate scavenger factions vying for power, and of course the cities of Nalm and Sylka in constant conflict with one another would likely make it difficult for the Arashi to ever consolidate into one, cohesive unit. Think of the Scaven from the 40K universe, that's how I'm looking at the Arashi, that they are a powerful, potent faction... if they can ever stop pointing their guns at each other long enough to target the enemy.

For the Yesha Empire... I think of them more Japanese/ Chinese. If you recall the culture of China during the Napoleonic wars, they were extremely xenophobic and were almost entirely unconcerned with events in Europe. They simply didn't care. Japan has a somewhat similar culture today, where they are more than happy to export their culture but unwilling to hostile to most things that are not Japanese. Perhaps the Yesha are more concerned with internal politics and expanding further westward, and will be drawn into the war should the conflict accidentally spill into their territory.

As for the nerfing of the lens array, I agree with the above. The Merchants Guild will cut costs wherever they can and however they can. The Lens array was godly, so obviously they don't need to invest THAT much into it... right? We can save a few pennies here, a couple of resources there...

It's a classic example of saving penies on sailcloth and losing a ship worth thousands. They started cutting corners when the array started cutting into profits, and it's going to absolutely bite them in the ass.

[Helios.]

there are only two issues with your analysis, wich i otherwise agree with

teh first is that the arashi dont control nalm or sylka, they are far far to the north, despite what it would appear from the duel at dawn description, neither faction is controlled by the arashi league. perhaps it is unaffiliated desert people, but those cities are up in the middle, while arashi territory is down in the corner

the second is that the yeshans arent xenophobic...at all. they are explicitly expansionistic and obsessed with spreading their meritocratic ideals to everyone else. they are modeled after a confucian chinese meritoratic framework, so you are pretty close to exactly right, except with a evangelizing bent to them

[Naoura]

Apologies on the Nalm-Sylka mistake. It made a load of sense to me from the Prologue Trailer, and I overlooked the map a little. However, I will stick to the fact that the Arashi are probably still at war with one another. More so than anyone else.

As for the Yesha... the xenophobia I'll admit was a mistake, shouldn't have thought about it that way. But I still think they are currently uncocerned with events in the East. Easier land to the West.

[Tylow Star]

This should help you a bit: 
https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/gunsoficarusonline/images/2/27/Guns_of_Icarus_Map.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140314035859