OBT Forum

Not necessarily, it still seems like the bulk of the high tech materials coming into fashion and distribution came from factories in the Terran Hegemony. This is certainly true during the Reunification War, but an argument can be made that many of the Successor States were producing the equipment during the later half of the Star League. IMO, the tech decline still works - just means the first two Succession Wars and ComStar's Holy Shroud missions were particularly devastating to the Member-States.

Honestly, I feel like the Hegemony maintained a pretty decent stranglehold on high-tech toys simple because the SLDF was the largest buyer. Any company violating a Hegemony rule was likely to go out of business since, for most of the Star League, the SLDF was the chief buyer of war material. The Council Edicts limiting the size of the House militaries played into restricting new weapons, while the intervening decades between the decline of the League and the outbreak of the First Succession War were marked more for the expansion of new regiments, than upgrade packages. While new units could and probably inevitably used new tech, the same restrictions mentioned above would still be in affect until the Amaris Coup - at which point, the main source of high tech weapons was already being threatened with destruction. The First Succession War just capitalizes on the pre-existing damage. Collapse of the interstellar economy probably helped the decline, only insofar as exacerbating the effects of the First Succession War.

I'm rambling now, but it's something to think about I guess.

prototype double heat sinks were developed as early as 3030, but their construction method was so unstable that they would need frequent replacement and thier coolant was nothing short of toxic (Mercury based)

I tend to agree with the opinion that there was almost too much advanced tech "introduced" into the Reunification War era. The Periphery simply didn't have that many Mechs and such. Yeah the Star League was technologically superior but I just don't buy that all that Level 2 was intro'd by then. Don't get me started on warships. ...

The increase in the availability of L2 tech has been going on since the introduction of TR2750.  Look at the designs in TR2750- most of them had very little in the way of advanced tech on them- generally no more then 2 or 3 pieces.  The feel of the book was that during the SL era tech advance was slow because 1) there was no need to spend heavily on military R&D since the IS was at peace and 2) the money was better spent on other research projects (water purification, medical science, HPGs, etc).  L2 tech felt rare and it was understandable why it was lost so easily. (TR2750 also says that most of the advances were made late in the SL era, explaining why so few mechs had the new weapons)

The we got TR3058 which gave us a look at more former SLDF designs.  Unlike the TR2750 designs, these mechs used large quantities of L2 weapons.  They made the designs from TR2750 look pretty poor.  And yet the SLDF was supposed to have such superior weapons and mechs compared to those of the IS states.  (For the record TR2750 claims it is "providing information on the most advanced military equipment ever known to man")

This lead to the idea that the TR2750 were not the ultimate mechs, but rather the hand me downs that were given to the IS powers and that there were other, more advanced mechs (the Royal variants) that were only available to the Royal regiments of the SLDF.   So if the SLDF Royal regiments had such advanced designs, then it was easier to justify the IS powers had at least some L2 tech since we've known since the SLSB that the SLDF had to turn over new technology to the IS houses after a period of time.  Which is where we are today, with L2 tech spread widely across the IS in 2750.  At this point if the writers tried to say that the IS powers didn't have a lot of L2 tech in 2750 it wouldn't match up with what has been said in the past.   

Here, here!

Well said Irose.  What I, personally object to, is ANYONE having advanced tech in the 2570s, not the 2750s.  Reunification War is just completely out of control (IMHO, again) with the sheer amount of advanced technology. 

I don't think it is wrong for the SLDF to have advanced tech in the 2570's - I think the amount they deployed was excessive and I think some of the technologies they deployed cause logical failures.  For example - the LB-10x began prototype testing in 2590 and full deployment in 2595- but apparently the SL was unable to develop the LB-2x, LB-5x or LB-20x over the next 150 years.  Really?  I though their R&D was supposed to be so superior to well everyone else. 

If you look at the mechs in TR2750, most of the new technologies were introduced in the 27th Century.  The few exceptions were:
Endo Steel- first shows up on the Thorn which dates to the late 25th Century
Case - also shows up on the Thorn
NARC - introduced in 2587 -during the RW which it makes sense that new tech would be developed for the war.
Ferro-Fibrous Armor - used on the Kintaro which appeared in 2587
XL Engines - Introduced on the Lancelot in 2581
Double Heatsinks- Used on the Thug which was introduced in 2572
Beagle Probe- deployed on the Black Knight in 2578
Gauss Rifle- used on the Highlander in 2592

Every other L2 tech either does not appear in TR2750 (for example the ER PPC is not used on a single design in the book) or was introduced after 2600.  By keeping weapon development slow, you don't have to explain why the SLDF only had LB-10Xs, ER Large Lasers, Streak-2s or Ultra AC-5s with out too much effort.  It's because they were new technologies in the mid 2700s that did not get fully developed before the SL fell. (But even this fails since the LB-10X was introduced on the Champion in 2602)

But now with most L2 tech being introduced early we have have a problem where the SL R&D looks pretty lame-  look at the 3060s to 3090- the IS introduced more new technologies then the SL did during it's entire 150 year history.  We have Light FF, Heavy FF, Stealth Armor, special AC munitions, Light Fusion Engines, XXL Engines, Compact Engines, Heavy Duty Gyros, XL Gyros, Improved Jump Jets, Machine Gun Arrays, MRM, MML, HPPC, LPPC, Plasma Weapons, Heavy Gauss, Light Gauss, PPC Capacitors, Superchargers, X-Pulse Lasers, RACs,  Tasers, ELRMs, C3 tech, Bloodhound Active Problem and Angel ECM.  And that doesn't include 3rd/4th SW tech such as the full head ejection system, hatchet and TSM.

Either the SLDF Military R&D budget was really small, SLDF scientists were pretty unimaginative or something just doesn't make sense when it comes to the SL and advanced tech development. 

Either the SLDF Military R&D budget was really small, SLDF scientists were pretty unimaginative or something just doesn't make sense when it comes to the SL and advanced tech development.

There are some lines in the text (at least regarding the LBX) that some items (the LBX in particular) were considered so wonderful that development on the other calibers stopped. It probably wouldn't be my first choice for an explanation, but they are there.

Your last point is one that has been really making me wonder as well. If the advanced tech found such a wide spread and usage back to 2570, what happened between then and 2750? The SLDF managed to start getting the snub-nose PPC into at least a prototype status, but not a great deal else seems to have moved forward. It seems like there might be some room there for some AU thoughts. With the spread of tech among non-Hegemony factions in 2750, it makes it harder to think of the Succession Wars tech back-slide as making sense. A number of the places mentioned as producing the advanced equipment seem to be far interior worlds that show no signs of being hit hard during those wars. There's something here that calls out for modification or further explanation, but I'm not sure exactly how yet.