' Wrote:that really proves the point of this thread. once people got a hold of something it can be taken apart and broken down the copied to excess.
real world examples of copies include: (mostly military tech mind you)
The Kalashnikov AK-47
The RPG-7
The AR-15 (also known as the M4A1. but mostly the receiver, its used in other weapons such as the MP5)
The Glock range
The Colt 1911
the Russian MIGs
Rolex Watches
Bessemer Cookware
the Shammy things which i call SHAM wows.
once something gets copied and then mass produced its flooded onto the market.
Ok, I was laughing at this thread till you guys dragged RL here.
The more complicated and advanced the technology is, the harder it is to reproduce it. Even if we take your examples of most primitive technology, there's a large difference between, say, Russian made - and Chinese/Romanian made AK's.
If we take something more serious into consideration, like jet engines, then Chinese, despite all their effort and the importance of such technology for their efforts on building a modern military, are still incapable of reproducing the AL-31F.
Do you have ANY idea on how insanely HARD it is to repeat a complex manufacturing method when you don't have blueprints of everything? And as history shows, the more technology develops, the harder it is to reproduce it. That is, with same or even close effectiveness.
Although, all of the above has no relation to Freelancer, since RL logic and analogues don't exist here. Otherwise, the game, and all the RP in it would look way different.
For example, Lane hackers would have same chance of reproducing (and I'm not even talking about actually producing that thing) Spyglass as junkers from Rochester. Their "hacking" capabilities have nothing to do with their ability to produce complex technology and materials. Hell, they wouldn't even have their capfleet. Same goes for the most independent/border world population.
P.S. Btw, "inRL" scanning Baltimore would give you nothing. You would only find the "lego" blueprints of how to construct a liberty dread (or was it a carrier?) out of the provided parts, at best. You will still have 0, yes - 0 information on how to make it from the beginning, since shipyards, generally, are just putting things together (which also requires some complex engineering procedures) To get full blueprints on everything, you'd probably need to visit around few hundred production facilities that are participating in the production of that ship (I'll try to get more precise info on how much factories/prod. facilities are participating in the creation of a modern ballistic missiles or SSBN, for an example)
edit: 250-500 factories and production facilities participated in the production of P36M2 (R36M2 ICBM), if we do not take such things as bolts and nuts into account, but starting from special alloys and electronic components.
That's how it is. "Just" an ICBM, 30+ year old one. (known in the West as "Satan"). Now imagine how much facilities, production capabilities and technologies you will need to create something like a Liberty Carrier. Or to "copy" LSC's forward cannon.
