I am working on a science fiction story and need some help with designing and drawing

As far as I am concerned, Jane's publishes the best guides to military hardware. An example:

It's rather,,, almost vintage ? And simplistic...
Jane's yearbooks are published, well, annually, and come out on a wide range of platforms and systems, see https://www.janes.com/publications/janes-defence-intelligence-yearbooks. You can get a feel for the contents in an excerpt at https://planesandstuff.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/awains.pdf. Brace yourself for sticker shock though, so I'd recommend to look for recent editions in libraries accessible to you.
I gave a look at their site...why it looks like a DoD website?
I'd speculate that both organizations tend to focus on facts rather than flash, but note that Jane's got started in 1898, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janes_Information_Services, so they're not exactly an upstart, but a renown and respected brand.
 
20 minute into the future? Brasil is in disarray right now and I don't see in near future of having any potential for expansion and what not.
We are not in disarray. We are not like Syria, Somalia, Lybia or even close to levels of Mexico,Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela. Maybe if one of the 2 main competitors in this year elections wins could see trouble, because boths are crooks, the ex president more than his contemporary, and the other candidates are equally crooked or buffoons. :rolleyes:

Personally, my prediction for the 2 canditates (yes there will be others but count next to nothing) :

1. Right-wing style democracy like Poland (don't like it but Italy is an worse position). Pro-American. Something I don't wish.
2. I wouldn't be surprise with the other we end up like Nicaragua, with the newly elected leader starting to jail the opposition. What would be confirmed for certain is a return to barely covered cronyism, fraud and bribery. And it's Sinophile, something I also really don't wish.

I am granted the ability of non-voting (because I will be working) as I did the previous one.

End of off topic. Also because it was already derailed.

On the topic of expansion : it's science fiction. While I am taking a realistic approach, I want to have a little playful fun with the imagination;)

So you're a right winger since you label previous president worse while complaining about Nicaragua that is being sanctioned by Americans that makes life worse than it could have been without sanctions as purpose is to agitate people by blaming government instead of American intervention. Poland effectively is dictatorship since PiS came to power and Hungary is no different as too Turkey.

Bolivia had a coup and Americans backed it until natives took back their land from that right wing European root supremacists.

Bolsonaro through his antics made situation worse, he always goes to hospital, gets covid and expensive treatments while they flush out feces just so he doesn't die from constipation while my Brasilian friends suffer from his policies of effective Americanization.

Americans demonize Chinese like they demonized Japanese 40 years ago. Hence fear of people deemed "Sinophile".

Irony is involving my country Croatia that Right Wingers abolished law from time of communism that was effective against corruption while power that anti-corruption investigators have in present day is basically nothing, only when there is extreme force in politics that someone gets busted in order to destroy their political career by very those that do same or even worse.
 
So, what would be a realistic scenario to have a complete steal to reproduce said vehicle in your opinion?

You'd have to have an industrial and scientific infrastructure already in place on par with the country you're stealing from. If the Untied States during WWII was somehow gifted a modern laptop, they might figure out how to use it... but they would be *decades* away from trying to reproduce it, or even understand it. Modern Brazil obviously isn't as far from the modern US as 1945 is from 2022, but the principle is the same. So if the Brazilian Intelligence Agency found out that the United States had some new wonder-weapon that the ABIN decided they had to have, they might steal/buy/extort the plans... and then they'll spend *years* also building up the native infrastructure to support it. This would mean not only years of work and expense at home (including potentially massive programs of theoretical science to understand what it is they've got), but years of additional espionage.
So either by your explanation, I would need someone to produce said planes and tech and more. Israel and Russia could also have infrastructure ?

Or :
So, what would be a realistic scenario to have a complete steal to reproduce said vehicle in your opinion?
You get a production license and then keep producing unlicensed copies once the contracted run is complete. That way you have the host country help you get the infrastructure set up. That's how China got to producing Flanker clones, much to the consternation of the Russians.

What I was thinking was, I could, like, Brazil already has a pre-existing infrastructure and contract from another company (or maybe Russian intel) THEN the war starts.

Can we please get back to helping this gentleman with designing some vehicles for his novel and stop playing 'who's regime did most evil"?
?
Okay, I'm sorry. :(

Nothing bad happened, though it was rather curious seeing you and @Orionblamblam verbally sparring with your keybords!

As far as I am concerned, Jane's publishes the best guides to military hardware. An example:

It's rather,,, almost vintage ? And simplistic...

My advice to you and other writers is do the research. If you don't understand the background material it will show in your work. Jane's is one source, find the other references. Read articles about current war planning. I spent most of the 80s doing that and it helped add realism to future work published by the company I work for.
 
20 minute into the future? Brasil is in disarray right now and I don't see in near future of having any potential for expansion and what not.
We are not in disarray. We are not like Syria, Somalia, Lybia or even close to levels of Mexico,Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela. Maybe if one of the 2 main competitors in this year elections wins could see trouble, because boths are crooks, the ex president more than his contemporary, and the other candidates are equally crooked or buffoons. :rolleyes:

Personally, my prediction for the 2 canditates (yes there will be others but count next to nothing) :

1. Right-wing style democracy like Poland (don't like it but Italy is an worse position). Pro-American. Something I don't wish.
2. I wouldn't be surprise with the other we end up like Nicaragua, with the newly elected leader starting to jail the opposition. What would be confirmed for certain is a return to barely covered cronyism, fraud and bribery. And it's Sinophile, something I also really don't wish.

I am granted the ability of non-voting (because I will be working) as I did the previous one.

End of off topic. Also because it was already derailed.

On the topic of expansion : it's science fiction. While I am taking a realistic approach, I want to have a little playful fun with the imagination;)

So you're a right winger since you label previous president worse while complaining about Nicaragua that is being sanctioned by Americans that makes life worse than it could have been without sanctions as purpose is to agitate people by blaming government instead of American intervention. Poland effectively is dictatorship since PiS came to power and Hungary is no different as too Turkey.

Bolivia had a coup and Americans backed it until natives took back their land from that right wing European root supremacists.

Bolsonaro through his antics made situation worse, he always goes to hospital, gets covid and expensive treatments while they flush out feces just so he doesn't die from constipation while my Brasilian friends suffer from his policies of effective Americanization.

Americans demonize Chinese like they demonized Japanese 40 years ago. Hence fear of people deemed "Sinophile".

Irony is involving my country Croatia that Right Wingers abolished law from time of communism that was effective against corruption while power that anti-corruption investigators have in present day is basically nothing, only when there is extreme force in politics that someone gets busted in order to destroy their political career by very those that do same or even worse.
Yeah sure. Whatever you say buddy and makes you sleep at night.

Are you finished with your antics that have nothing to do with the discussion?
 
So, what would be a realistic scenario to have a complete steal to reproduce said vehicle in your opinion?

You'd have to have an industrial and scientific infrastructure already in place on par with the country you're stealing from. If the Untied States during WWII was somehow gifted a modern laptop, they might figure out how to use it... but they would be *decades* away from trying to reproduce it, or even understand it. Modern Brazil obviously isn't as far from the modern US as 1945 is from 2022, but the principle is the same. So if the Brazilian Intelligence Agency found out that the United States had some new wonder-weapon that the ABIN decided they had to have, they might steal/buy/extort the plans... and then they'll spend *years* also building up the native infrastructure to support it. This would mean not only years of work and expense at home (including potentially massive programs of theoretical science to understand what it is they've got), but years of additional espionage.
So either by your explanation, I would need someone to produce said planes and tech and more. Israel and Russia could also have infrastructure ?

Or :
So, what would be a realistic scenario to have a complete steal to reproduce said vehicle in your opinion?
You get a production license and then keep producing unlicensed copies once the contracted run is complete. That way you have the host country help you get the infrastructure set up. That's how China got to producing Flanker clones, much to the consternation of the Russians.

What I was thinking was, I could, like, Brazil already has a pre-existing infrastructure and contract from another company (or maybe Russian intel) THEN the war starts.

Can we please get back to helping this gentleman with designing some vehicles for his novel and stop playing 'who's regime did most evil"?
?
Okay, I'm sorry. :(

Nothing bad happened, though it was rather curious seeing you and @Orionblamblam verbally sparring with your keybords!

As far as I am concerned, Jane's publishes the best guides to military hardware. An example:

It's rather,,, almost vintage ? And simplistic...

My advice to you and other writers is do the research. If you don't understand the background material it will show in your work. Jane's is one source, find the other references. Read articles about current war planning. I spent most of the 80s doing that and it helped add realism to future work published by the company I work for.
That's also why I am here. It's my starting ground.
 
As far as I am concerned, Jane's publishes the best guides to military hardware. An example:

It's rather,,, almost vintage ? And simplistic...
Jane's yearbooks are published, well, annually, and come out on a wide range of platforms and systems, see https://www.janes.com/publications/janes-defence-intelligence-yearbooks. You can get a feel for the contents in an excerpt at https://planesandstuff.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/awains.pdf. Brace yourself for sticker shock though, so I'd recommend to look for recent editions in libraries accessible to you.
I gave a look at their site...why it looks like a DoD website?
I'd speculate that both organizations tend to focus on facts rather than flash, but note that Jane's got started in 1898, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janes_Information_Services, so they're not exactly an upstart, but a renown and respected brand.

I am not saying it's an upstart. But it looks ...fishy. At least by just aesthetics.
 
Yeah sure. Whatever you say buddy and makes you sleep at night.

Are you finished with your antics that have nothing to do with the discussion?
You have tendency to project yourself about others when you go on with antics about left wing that a right winger would do.
 
As far as I am concerned, Jane's publishes the best guides to military hardware. An example:

It's rather,,, almost vintage ? And simplistic...
Jane's yearbooks are published, well, annually, and come out on a wide range of platforms and systems, see https://www.janes.com/publications/janes-defence-intelligence-yearbooks. You can get a feel for the contents in an excerpt at https://planesandstuff.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/awains.pdf. Brace yourself for sticker shock though, so I'd recommend to look for recent editions in libraries accessible to you.
I gave a look at their site...why it looks like a DoD website?
I'd speculate that both organizations tend to focus on facts rather than flash, but note that Jane's got started in 1898, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janes_Information_Services, so they're not exactly an upstart, but a renown and respected brand.

I am not saying it's an upstart. But it looks ...fishy. At least by just aesthetics.
De gustibus non est disputandum. Or are you trying to insinuate that Jane's might be just a front for the DoD? Given the relative age of both organizations (which I why I provided info on the founding year of Jane's), and all other circumstances as well that would be a conspiracy theory worthy of Qanon. I understand you're an absolute beginner when it comes to aerospace and engineering, but even a modicum of elementary googling would go a long way to remedy complete ignorance - no offence. Otherwise it may come across like you're trying to outsource all the STEM aspects of Sci-Fi and simply focus on the (political) fiction.
 
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1. Right-wing style democracy like Poland (don't like it but Italy is an worse position). Pro-American. Something I don't wish.

Huh.

I am wondering if it would be considered realistic that a country not Brazil but its allies could steal the projects of other countries for tanks/planes and son. Basically stealing the instructions and recipes, I don't what best analogy I could put.

Sure. Recent decades have shown that the most advanced, secret technology is available to pretty much anyone who wants to put in the effort to steal it, hack it, bribe or blackmail someone to walk it out the door. But just because you have the blueprints doesn't mean you can make it. Unless your files are *extremely* complete, there will probably be references to materials you don't understand ("Fogbank"), and production processes that are inexplicable and non-reproducible. Components that need to be procured, but you're unclear on what they are and where to get them. You might steal the plans for a main battle tank that can turn invisible, but unless you also stole the code that runs the software that controls the invisibility, all it does it turn neon pink and flash purple polka dots.
It's worse than that. The plans call for using special armor produced by manufacturer xyz. Without access to their manufacturing process you can't even build the tank to begin with. Or, the transmission is bought on your plans as a single assembly. Again, without those plans you can't make the transmission.
This goes on and on. Or, say it needs a fire control system, but that is installed after delivery so you have no idea what that system is other than you have mounting brackets and some wiring in the tank to go on.
Then the drawings call for a specific metal used in some part or another. What you don't know is your version of the plans are outdated and that metal changed grade on the final plans actually being used.

I've actually made stuff for the military over the years such as the ADU-801E SLAM ER adapter bracket (first 400 production run for the entire US military), or a number of different pieces of "yellow gear" for Harpoon, and lots of other stuff.
The drawings are often out-of-date, or the engineer put a spec on something that's insane. Then you are doing official mods and having to change stuff to make something.
 
Its hard to help you without establishing the basic ground rules of your scenario.

The US & China are knocked out in some way. The US is the largest producer of weapons today, and China is up and coming - is that supply cut off? How far into the future is this 'knockout?' Do US and Chinese arms manufacturers still exist and sell weapons? It could be that mostly the weapons in use will be current or near term programs only.

Jet engines - there are a small number of countries that can design and build modern jet engines, and your scenario knocks out two of them. UK. France. Germany and Russia (and possibly Japan) are left.
 
Yeah sure. Whatever you say buddy and makes you sleep at night.

Are you finished with your antics that have nothing to do with the discussion?
You have tendency to project yourself about others when you go on with antics about left wing that a right winger would do.
I am no stranger to what happened in Nicaragua thanks to Washington D.C. since even Brazil was couped in 1964 thanks to JFK.
That said, Lula is an alcoholic, vindictive crony crook kleptocrat. He was like that before and after being president.

Now, do you have any actual useful information like previous posters did or are you just here to vulgarily start a derail and keyboard smashing shouting match ?

End off topic.

1. Right-wing style democracy like Poland (don't like it but Italy is an worse position). Pro-American. Something I don't wish.

Huh.

I am wondering if it would be considered realistic that a country not Brazil but its allies could steal the projects of other countries for tanks/planes and son. Basically stealing the instructions and recipes, I don't what best analogy I could put.

Sure. Recent decades have shown that the most advanced, secret technology is available to pretty much anyone who wants to put in the effort to steal it, hack it, bribe or blackmail someone to walk it out the door. But just because you have the blueprints doesn't mean you can make it. Unless your files are *extremely* complete, there will probably be references to materials you don't understand ("Fogbank"), and production processes that are inexplicable and non-reproducible. Components that need to be procured, but you're unclear on what they are and where to get them. You might steal the plans for a main battle tank that can turn invisible, but unless you also stole the code that runs the software that controls the invisibility, all it does it turn neon pink and flash purple polka dots.
It's worse than that. The plans call for using special armor produced by manufacturer xyz. Without access to their manufacturing process you can't even build the tank to begin with. Or, the transmission is bought on your plans as a single assembly. Again, without those plans you can't make the transmission.
This goes on and on. Or, say it needs a fire control system, but that is installed after delivery so you have no idea what that system is other than you have mounting brackets and some wiring in the tank to go on.
Then the drawings call for a specific metal used in some part or another. What you don't know is your version of the plans are outdated and that metal changed grade on the final plans actually being used.

I've actually made stuff for the military over the years such as the ADU-801E SLAM ER adapter bracket (first 400 production run for the entire US military), or a number of different pieces of "yellow gear" for Harpoon, and lots of other stuff.
The drawings are often out-of-date, or the engineer put a spec on something that's insane. Then you are doing official mods and having to change stuff to make something.
Ok so it wouldn't be realistic to have just copy paste.

What's yellow gear ?
 
Its hard to help you without establishing the basic ground rules of your scenario.

The US & China are knocked out in some way. The US is the largest producer of weapons today, and China is up and coming - is that supply cut off? How far into the future is this 'knockout?' Do US and Chinese arms manufacturers still exist and sell weapons? It could be that mostly the weapons in use will be current or near term programs only.

Jet engines - there are a small number of countries that can design and build modern jet engines, and your scenario knocks out two of them. UK. France. Germany and Russia are left.
Ok yeah I am not very specific with the basic ground rules. More or less.

  1. US invades Brazil ( I am still trying to find a reasonable realistic reason)
  2. Occupation and creation of two puppet states and start of a resistance movement to occupation
  3. Israel & Russia, as well a few minor countries, try to help Brazil themselves or through third parties
  4. China & US go to war in a non-nuclear way (mabe Kill Sat trope? @Orionblamblam ) https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KillSat
  5. Brazil in the meantime tries to recover it's territory and slowly succeeds
  6. China & US mutual knock out
  7. Start of the story
 
It's worse than that. The plans call for using special armor produced by manufacturer xyz. Without access to their manufacturing process you can't even build the tank to begin with.

Yup. The Abrams is made of a composite of ceramics and steel and uranium. Even if you know *exactly* what materials are used... how many countries have the ability to work with tank-sized chunks of depleted uranium? How many countries have access to tanks-masses of depleted uranium?

The next armor might be woven diamond fibers with a special nanometer-thick coating of iridium, cast in a slush of titanium, molybdenum and osmium under a specific irradiation of high energy neutrons and gamma rays, a mix of materials and processes that can only be carried out in the microgravity of Lockheeds orbital materials processing facility. You can *know* how to do it up one side and down the other, but actually pulling it off? Nah.
 
It's worse than that. The plans call for using special armor produced by manufacturer xyz. Without access to their manufacturing process you can't even build the tank to begin with.

Yup. The Abrams is made of a composite of ceramics and steel and uranium. Even if you know *exactly* what materials are used... how many countries have the ability to work with tank-sized chunks of depleted uranium? How many countries have access to tanks-masses of depleted uranium?

The next armor might be woven diamond fibers with a special nanometer-thick coating of iridium, cast in a slush of titanium, molybdenum and osmium under a specific irradiation of high energy neutrons and gamma rays, a mix of materials and processes that can only be carried out in the microgravity of Lockheeds orbital materials processing facility. You can *know* how to do it up one side and down the other, but actually pulling it off? Nah.
Ok. So it's off the table logic and story-wise.
 
Yeah sure. Whatever you say buddy and makes you sleep at night.

Are you finished with your antics that have nothing to do with the discussion?
You have tendency to project yourself about others when you go on with antics about left wing that a right winger would do.
I am no stranger to what happened in Nicaragua thanks to Washington D.C. since even Brazil was couped in 1964 thanks to JFK.
That said, Lula is an alcoholic, vindictive crony crook kleptocrat. He was like that before and after being president.

Now, do you have any actual useful information like previous posters did or are you just here to vulgarily start a derail and keyboard smashing shouting match ?

End off topic.

1. Right-wing style democracy like Poland (don't like it but Italy is an worse position). Pro-American. Something I don't wish.

Huh.

I am wondering if it would be considered realistic that a country not Brazil but its allies could steal the projects of other countries for tanks/planes and son. Basically stealing the instructions and recipes, I don't what best analogy I could put.

Sure. Recent decades have shown that the most advanced, secret technology is available to pretty much anyone who wants to put in the effort to steal it, hack it, bribe or blackmail someone to walk it out the door. But just because you have the blueprints doesn't mean you can make it. Unless your files are *extremely* complete, there will probably be references to materials you don't understand ("Fogbank"), and production processes that are inexplicable and non-reproducible. Components that need to be procured, but you're unclear on what they are and where to get them. You might steal the plans for a main battle tank that can turn invisible, but unless you also stole the code that runs the software that controls the invisibility, all it does it turn neon pink and flash purple polka dots.
It's worse than that. The plans call for using special armor produced by manufacturer xyz. Without access to their manufacturing process you can't even build the tank to begin with. Or, the transmission is bought on your plans as a single assembly. Again, without those plans you can't make the transmission.
This goes on and on. Or, say it needs a fire control system, but that is installed after delivery so you have no idea what that system is other than you have mounting brackets and some wiring in the tank to go on.
Then the drawings call for a specific metal used in some part or another. What you don't know is your version of the plans are outdated and that metal changed grade on the final plans actually being used.

I've actually made stuff for the military over the years such as the ADU-801E SLAM ER adapter bracket (first 400 production run for the entire US military), or a number of different pieces of "yellow gear" for Harpoon, and lots of other stuff.
The drawings are often out-of-date, or the engineer put a spec on something that's insane. Then you are doing official mods and having to change stuff to make something.
Ok so it wouldn't be realistic to have just copy paste.

What's yellow gear ?
Google could really be your BFF, you know: "Material handling equipment known as “yellow gear" is used for aircraft handling, servicing, maintenance and fire fighting on aircraft carriers", see https://www.defenseindustrydaily.co...y-Contract-for-Yellow-Gear-HME-Support-06240/
 
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[*]US invades Brazil ( I am still trying to find a reasonable realistic reason)

And there's why this seems like an alt-history story, not a future history story. A reasonable explanation as to why the US would want to invade Brazil does not seem to exist. And if the rest of your story depends on an unreasonable initial condition, the rest of the story is shaky at best.

Alt-history explanations:
1) Brazil went full commie/Soviet vassal state in the 60's. Soviet Union never collapsed; World War Three finally kicks off, starting in Brazil for some reason.
2) The US Civil War ends with a CSA victory, at least insofar as the CSA survived as an independent nation. However, the rest of the territories of the US end up as US states, leaving the CSA as a small, angry little nation surrounded by a larger, more powerful enemy. As the CSA economy recovers from the war, The CSA turns southwards, conquering Mexico in, say, the 1880s, and slowly marching south, eventually conquering all of South America. By the 2020's the CSA is a vast empire, now with its capitol in Brazil. The USA and CSA go to war again.
2A) The same initial setup, but it takes until the 2020's for the CSA to get to Brazil. It's not the USA that invades Brazil but the CSA.

Second thought... a possible explanation why the US invades Brazil. Taking Afghanistan/Iraq as inspiration: Venezuela gets hold of a couple nukes (old Soviet? new Chinese?). As a way to divert the Venezuelan people from the continued economic disaster that socialist policies created, the Venezuelan government blames the phantom of eeevil Americans. As things continue to spiral, the Venezuelan government gets increasingly paranoid and crazy, and eventually sets off one of their nukes on US soil for reasons best described as "bugnuts." The US decides that that merits a full invasion of Venezuela; the Venezuelan government flees to Brazil and the Brazilian government refuses to hand them over to the Americans. The US then invades Brazil to grab the Venezuelan politicians responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans. the Brazilian government in this scenario would be objectively the badguys.
 
Ok. So it's off the table logic and story-wise.

It very much depends on what that neato new weapons tech *is* of course. The AK-47, after all, was a secret weapon that turned out to be a hell of a game changer, and it can be copied by impoverished tribal gunsmiths barely into the iron age. The secret weapon might be some nifty new type of firearm... a great new *design* that does not require unattainable tech. But a new firearm does not have the interest for a story that a hovertank would have.

The question is whether this new weapon is integral to the story, in which case it has to be reproducible by Brazil, or if it's a McGuffin that *shouldn't* be described in any detail; it's just a golden glow in a briefcase.
 
[*]US invades Brazil ( I am still trying to find a reasonable realistic reason)

And there's why this seems like an alt-history story, not a future history story. A reasonable explanation as to why the US would want to invade Brazil does not seem to exist. And if the rest of your story depends on an unreasonable initial condition, the rest of the story is shaky at best.

Alt-history explanations:
1) Brazil went full commie/Soviet vassal state in the 60's. Soviet Union never collapsed; World War Three finally kicks off, starting in Brazil for some reason.
2) The US Civil War ends with a CSA victory, at least insofar as the CSA survived as an independent nation. However, the rest of the territories of the US end up as US states, leaving the CSA as a small, angry little nation surrounded by a larger, more powerful enemy. As the CSA economy recovers from the war, The CSA turns southwards, conquering Mexico in, say, the 1880s, and slowly marching south, eventually conquering all of South America. By the 2020's the CSA is a vast empire, now with its capitol in Brazil. The USA and CSA go to war again.
2A) The same initial setup, but it takes until the 2020's for the CSA to get to Brazil. It's not the USA that invades Brazil but the CSA.

Second thought... a possible explanation why the US invades Brazil. Taking Afghanistan/Iraq as inspiration: Venezuela gets hold of a couple nukes (old Soviet? new Chinese?). As a way to divert the Venezuelan people from the continued economic disaster that socialist policies created, the Venezuelan government blames the phantom of eeevil Americans. As things continue to spiral, the Venezuelan government gets increasingly paranoid and crazy, and eventually sets off one of their nukes on US soil for reasons best described as "bugnuts." The US decides that that merits a full invasion of Venezuela; the Venezuelan government flees to Brazil and the Brazilian government refuses to hand them over to the Americans. The US then invades Brazil to grab the Venezuelan politicians responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans. the Brazilian government in this scenario would be objectively the badguys.
What would be a possible reason for future history ? Besides the ones you mentioned.

Ok. So it's off the table logic and story-wise.

It very much depends on what that neato new weapons tech *is* of course. The AK-47, after all, was a secret weapon that turned out to be a hell of a game changer, and it can be copied by impoverished tribal gunsmiths barely into the iron age. The secret weapon might be some nifty new type of firearm... a great new *design* that does not require unattainable tech. But a new firearm does not have the interest for a story that a hovertank would have.

The question is whether this new weapon is integral to the story, in which case it has to be reproducible by Brazil, or if it's a McGuffin that *shouldn't* be described in any detail; it's just a golden glow in a briefcase.

Integral to a degree, also because I want a character asking to another along these lines "Ok thanks for the demonstration, but how do I know you are giving me the real deal and not an export version? How do I know it won't become obsolete quicklier than it's original ? How do I know it's not a downgraded version ?"

I would have gone more with a pulse rifle of aliens and...taking from the tropes page, avoiding the Description porn of said rifle and guns.

In order not to be a one use only. Or a glowing Spongebob case as you said.
 
What would be a possible reason for future history ? Besides the ones you mentioned.

??? Not sure what you mean.
What would be a plausible reason for invasion ?

I had conceived a case of bad or false intel to justify an invasion.

Also what do you think of the Kill Sat trope to have something like a very destructive war without the side effects of a nuke war?
 
What would be a possible reason for future history ? Besides the ones you mentioned.

??? Not sure what you mean.
What would be a plausible reason for invasion ?

I had conceived a case of bad or false intel to justify an invasion.

Also what do you think of the Kill Sat trope to have something like a very destructive war without the side effects of a nuke war?
@Orionblamblam without using alternatehistory.
 
What would be a possible reason for future history ? Besides the ones you mentioned.

??? Not sure what you mean.
What would be a plausible reason for invasion ?

"The US then invades Brazil to grab the Venezuelan politicians responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans. the Brazilian government in this scenario would be objectively the badguys. "

Basically copying the reason why the US invaded Afghanistan, to take out Al Queda and punish the government that protected them.
 
Its hard to help you without establishing the basic ground rules of your scenario.

The US & China are knocked out in some way. The US is the largest producer of weapons today, and China is up and coming - is that supply cut off? How far into the future is this 'knockout?' Do US and Chinese arms manufacturers still exist and sell weapons? It could be that mostly the weapons in use will be current or near term programs only.

Jet engines - there are a small number of countries that can design and build modern jet engines, and your scenario knocks out two of them. UK. France. Germany and Russia are left.
Ok yeah I am not very specific with the basic ground rules. More or less.

  1. US invades Brazil ( I am still trying to find a reasonable realistic reason)
  2. Occupation and creation of two puppet states and start of a resistance movement to occupation
  3. Israel & Russia, as well a few minor countries, try to help Brazil themselves or through third parties
  4. China & US go to war in a non-nuclear way (mabe Kill Sat trope? @Orionblamblam ) https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KillSat
  5. Brazil in the meantime tries to recover it's territory and slowly succeeds
  6. China & US mutual knock out
  7. Start of the story
If you do not respect your own rules you will not get the respect of the readers. In your first post you did not mention China, nor the war between China and the USA and in the following ones you have stopped talking about NATO and African countries. And above all you have not defined the causes that originated the war. Science fiction allows you to do anything that allows your imagination, but there are rules for fantasy, for magic and for technology.:(
 
I am not saying it's an upstart. But it looks ...fishy. At least by just aesthetics.
Well if you think that Jane's is fishy then you might as well just go to Wikipedia and find what you want there.

Or maybe read some military fiction like Dale Drown or Michael DiMercurio because what your describing sounds like something they would do topped off by bleeding edge super tech.

The truth is the equipment of 2040 is going to look very much like the equipment of today. Certainly the bleeding edge of today is likely to be fairly new in 2040 (assuming production from the mid-2030s onwards).
 
Well if you think that Jane's is fishy
In fairness, Jane's did once mistake the USS Salem for a panzerschiffe!
What would be a plausible reason for invasion ?
China has made a concerted effort to take various veins of rare earth elements off the table recently, to the point they have almost cornered the market. Then a US-affiliated fracking company makes an unexpected discovery deep in the Brazilian interior? Power Games ensue.
 
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Some writing advice

Instalment of a Brazil Puppet state and Congo Free State
Sound more like USA want to secure resources for their large corporation ?
or that large corporation order the USA to invade Brazil and install a free state !

That good way to get story time line korrekt and give clear motivation for Parties involve in the Conflict.

I working on story about young Soldier in World were German Empire still exist in 1980s
I had to overlook 70 years, 2 world wars, several conflicts and developments
is allot work, but it flesh out the World and situation the Man has to face.
giving clear motivation for all characters in Story.
 
Well if you think that Jane's is fishy
In fairness, Jane's did once mistake the USS Salem for a panzerschiffe!
What would be a plausible reason for invasion ?
China has made a concerted effort to take various veins of rare earth elements off the table recently, to the point they have almost cornered the market. Then a US-affiliated fracking company makes an unexpected discovery deep in the Brazilian interior? Power Games ensue.

Not true. The U.S. has plenty but a lack of profit keeps them in the ground.
 
Cheaper is not always better. Sometimes, strategic resources have to be there just in case. Who maintains the Strategic Oil Reserve? Intel broke ground on a chip foundry in Arizona last year and will be setting one up in Ohio. When it's only about *** cheap *** as in labor in China is cheap then that will have to go by the wayside.

I lived through most of the Cold War and knew my odds of survival were zero. No sense in bringing that back in the form of HGVs.
 
Its hard to help you without establishing the basic ground rules of your scenario.

The US & China are knocked out in some way. The US is the largest producer of weapons today, and China is up and coming - is that supply cut off? How far into the future is this 'knockout?' Do US and Chinese arms manufacturers still exist and sell weapons? It could be that mostly the weapons in use will be current or near term programs only.

Jet engines - there are a small number of countries that can design and build modern jet engines, and your scenario knocks out two of them. UK. France. Germany and Russia are left.
Ok yeah I am not very specific with the basic ground rules. More or less.

  1. US invades Brazil ( I am still trying to find a reasonable realistic reason)
  2. Occupation and creation of two puppet states and start of a resistance movement to occupation
  3. Israel & Russia, as well a few minor countries, try to help Brazil themselves or through third parties
  4. China & US go to war in a non-nuclear way (mabe Kill Sat trope? @Orionblamblam ) https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KillSat
  5. Brazil in the meantime tries to recover it's territory and slowly succeeds
  6. China & US mutual knock out
  7. Start of the story
If you do not respect your own rules you will not get the respect of the readers. In your first post you did not mention China, nor the war between China and the USA and in the following ones you have stopped talking about NATO and African countries. And above all you have not defined the causes that originated the war. Science fiction allows you to do anything that allows your imagination, but there are rules for fantasy, for magic and for technology.:(
I am still in a creating process period. I also joined here to receive criticism and better myself for this

Some writing advice
Thanks!
Instalment of a Brazil Puppet state and Congo Free State
Sound more like USA want to secure resources for their large corporation ?
or that large corporation order the USA to invade Brazil and install a free state !
Yes, that was my intention... While I didn't told that before, I had thought it was stupid....until now!
That good way to get story time line korrekt and give clear motivation for Parties involve in the Conflict.

I working on story about young Soldier in World were German Empire still exist in 1980s
I had to overlook 70 years, 2 world wars, several conflicts and developments
is allot work, but it flesh out the World and situation the Man has to face.
giving clear motivation for all characters in Story.
Sounds the first actually original alternatehistory I have read in a while!
Its hard to help you without establishing the basic ground rules of your scenario.

The US & China are knocked out in some way. The US is the largest producer of weapons today, and China is up and coming - is that supply cut off? How far into the future is this 'knockout?' Do US and Chinese arms manufacturers still exist and sell weapons? It could be that mostly the weapons in use will be current or near term programs only.

Jet engines - there are a small number of countries that can design and build modern jet engines, and your scenario knocks out two of them. UK. France. Germany and Russia are left.
Ok yeah I am not very specific with the basic ground rules. More or less.

  1. US invades Brazil ( I am still trying to find a reasonable realistic reason)
  2. Occupation and creation of two puppet states and start of a resistance movement to occupation
  3. Israel & Russia, as well a few minor countries, try to help Brazil themselves or through third parties
  4. China & US go to war in a non-nuclear way (mabe Kill Sat trope? @Orionblamblam ) https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KillSat
  5. Brazil in the meantime tries to recover it's territory and slowly succeeds
  6. China & US mutual knock out
  7. Start of the story
If you do not respect your own rules you will not get the respect of the readers. In your first post you did not mention China, nor the war between China and the USA and in the following ones you have stopped talking about NATO and African countries. And above all you have not defined the causes that originated the war. Science fiction allows you to do anything that allows your imagination, but there are rules for fantasy, for magic and for technology.:(
Thanks for the criticism.

I will go point by point :

  1. I didn't you are right, I am a forgetful person.
  2. For the origin of the causes I am still trying to find one but @Michel Van did expose what I had thought initially through discarded because I thought it was foolish.
  3. Again thanks for the criticism
Some writing advice

Instalment of a Brazil Puppet state and Congo Free State
Sound more like USA want to secure resources for their large corporation ?
or that large corporation order the USA to invade Brazil and install a free state !
Yes that was my original intention...but until you said I thought it was stupid as I mentioned before-
That good way to get story time line korrekt and give clear motivation for Parties involve in the Conflict.

I working on story about young Soldier in World were German Empire still exist in 1980s
I had to overlook 70 years, 2 world wars, several conflicts and developments
is allot work, but it flesh out the World and situation the Man has to face.
giving clear motivation for all characters in Story.
That's sound a finally original alternatehistory!
Not true. The U.S. has plenty but a lack of profit keeps them in the ground.

Comes to it, it'll probably end up being cheaper to adsorb rare earths dissolved in seawater than launching a war of conquest in another hemisphere.
I mean, how many trillions were wasted on the War on Terror?

I am not saying it's an upstart. But it looks ...fishy. At least by just aesthetics.
Well if you think that Jane's is fishy then you might as well just go to Wikipedia and find what you want there.
No it's... looks like a government-financed website. That are the vibes it gives me.
Or maybe read some military fiction like Dale Drown or Michael DiMercurio because what your describing sounds like something they would do topped off by bleeding edge super tech.
Any more suggestions ? Wasn't like Brown like overrated?
The truth is the equipment of 2040 is going to look very much like the equipment of today. Certainly the bleeding edge of today is likely to be fairly new in 2040 (assuming production from the mid-2030s onwards).
Ok. What are the possibility of hidden and unrevealed but superadvanced tech?

Again apologies for the delay in a response, but with the time difference and the recovery from exhaustion is still difficult for me to reply to all.

Thanks again for your time guys.
 
Not true. The U.S. has plenty but a lack of profit keeps them in the ground.

Comes to it, it'll probably end up being cheaper to adsorb rare earths dissolved in seawater than launching a war of conquest in another hemisphere.
I mean, how many trillions were wasted on the War on Terror?

Wholly different sort of thing. A war to steal resources is going to be expensive and uncertain. Known extractable resources that don't need war (such as rare earths strained from seawater) might be more expensive than just the extraction of resources from the Amazon, but the constant expense of warfare will be a roughly calculable and definitely troublesome added expense. The "War on Some Terror" was not about a cheaper way to obtain resources, but to put down awful ideologies. How much would the US spend militarily to extract one metric ton of petroleum from, say, Iran? Not a dime. How much would the US spend militarily to bitchslap Iran if the Iranians, say, assassinated the President? Oh, a *whole* lot. Revenge is a dish best served expensively.
 
There are simple solutions to everything.

Want the US to invade Brazil? Simple, have Brazil commit some sort of terrorist act against the US. Why? That's a good question maybe an Argentinian style Junta (Falkland scenario) trying to distract the people, or invading a weaker neighbor (Guyana for their oil?).

Want the US and China to fight? Simple, China takes opportunity of the US being distracted in Brazil to invade Taiwan. The US responds and the war goes for longer than either side expected. Both sides are in too deep to pull out but also too scared to go nuclear.

As for Israel and Russia? Well Russia does it to piss off the US and Israel does it for the money, since the US is too busy to keep financing them.
 
Not true. The U.S. has plenty but a lack of profit keeps them in the ground.

Comes to it, it'll probably end up being cheaper to adsorb rare earths dissolved in seawater than launching a war of conquest in another hemisphere.
I mean, how many trillions were wasted on the War on Terror?

Wholly different sort of thing. A war to steal resources is going to be expensive and uncertain. Known extractable resources that don't need war (such as rare earths strained from seawater) might be more expensive than just the extraction of resources from the Amazon, but the constant expense of warfare will be a roughly calculable and definitely troublesome added expense. The "War on Some Terror" was not about a cheaper way to obtain resources, but to put down awful ideologies. How much would the US spend militarily to extract one metric ton of petroleum from, say, Iran? Not a dime. How much would the US spend militarily to bitchslap Iran if the Iranians, say, assassinated the President? Oh, a *whole* lot. Revenge is a dish best served expensively.
Could collective corporate power (Silicon Valley, Media companies, Arms industry) armstrong an intervention? Dulles style ?

There are simple solutions to everything.

Want the US to invade Brazil? Simple, have Brazil commit some sort of terrorist act against the US. Why? That's a good question maybe an Argentinian style Junta (Falkland scenario) trying to distract the people, or invading a weaker neighbor (Guyana for their oil?).
Brazil only aggressive Argentine style Falkland scenario that happened was the Acre Revolution. We only have issues with Venezuela as of now, mainly because of government difference and the costant influx of economic-political refugees/migrants.
Want the US and China to fight? Simple, China takes opportunity of the US being distracted in Brazil to invade Taiwan. The US responds and the war goes for longer than either side expected. Both sides are in too deep to pull out but also too scared to go nuclear.

As for Israel and Russia? Well Russia does it to piss off the US and Israel does it for the money, since the US is too busy to keep financing them.
I had envisioned a situation were Israel does the murder by inaction trope but, yeah. It's much simpler.
 
"No it's... looks like a government-financed website. That are the vibes it gives me."

You have been referred to a reputable reference source which most SPF members have been familiar with since childhood. You have rejected that referral because it "looks like a government-financed website." But 30 seconds of online research would have revealed that your "vibes" are wholly inaccurate.

Jane's has been publishing identification guides and analysis for 124 years. If anything about the Jane's Information Group smacks of 'government' to you, consider the possibility that it is government agencies which have been aping Jane's. Not the other way around.

I'm not sure how far back one can easily trace the ownership of Jane's. But, after a few minutes research, here is a list of owners for the last four decades:

1980-2001 - International Thomson Organization (ITO, later Thomson Corporation)*
- * Toronto, ON, Canadian newspaper holdings

2001-2007 - Sold to Woodbridge Co. Ltd. (Toronto, ON, a Thomson family holding company)

2007-2019 - Sold to UK data-tech group, IHS Inc. (Englewood, CO,* IHS Markit Ltd. after 2016)

2019-Present - Montagu Private Equity LLP (London, UK, a buy-out investment group)

So, plenty of rich, powerful people involved in the past and present ownership of Jane's, but nary an overt government-controlled investor to be seen ...

Although Fred T. Jane was an artist, like you, he wanted to write science fiction novels. Jane was also an avid wargamer - which, in part, led to him publishing his compiled research as Jane's All the World's Fighting Ships in 1898. His approach has formed the basis for identification guides ever since. That alone deserves some respect and fewer ill-informed "vibes".
 
"No it's... looks like a government-financed website. That are the vibes it gives me."

You have been referred to a reputable reference source which most SPF members have been familiar with since childhood. You have rejected that referral because it "looks like a government-financed website." But 30 seconds of online research would have revealed that your "vibes" are wholly inaccurate.
I did the research and it felt the same way.
Jane's has been publishing identification guides and analysis for 124 years. If anything about the Jane's Information Group smacks of 'government' to you, consider the possibility that it is government agencies which have been aping Jane's. Not the other way around.
What's aping ?
I'm not sure how far back one can easily trace the ownership of Jane's. But, after a few minutes research, here is a list of owners for the last four decades:

1980-2001 - International Thomson Organization (ITO, later Thomson Corporation)*
- * Toronto, ON, Canadian newspaper holdings

2001-2007 - Sold to Woodbridge Co. Ltd. (Toronto, ON, a Thomson family holding company)

2007-2019 - Sold to UK data-tech group, IHS Inc. (Englewood, CO,* IHS Markit Ltd. after 2016)

2019-Present - Montagu Private Equity LLP (London, UK, a buy-out investment group)

So, plenty of rich, powerful people involved in the past and present ownership of Jane's, but nary an overt government-controlled investor to be seen ...

Although Fred T. Jane was an artist, like you, he wanted to write science fiction novels. Jane was also an avid wargamer - which, in part, led to him publishing his compiled research as Jane's All the World's Fighting Ships in 1898. His approach has formed the basis for identification guides ever since. That alone deserves some respect and fewer ill-informed "vibes".
Man I did my research, but it is also the first time I am dealing with the subject at hand. Are you being hard on me ? Can't tell since we are both in front of monitors with keyboards.
 
Could collective corporate power (Silicon Valley, Media companies, Arms industry) armstrong an intervention? Dulles style ?

Could? Theoretically, sure. But the point of such an intervention would presumably be profit, and extracting resources from a war zone imparts added costs that resource extraction from the ocean, or the Canadian tundra, wouldn't.
 
Could collective corporate power (Silicon Valley, Media companies, Arms industry) armstrong an intervention? Dulles style ?

Could? Theoretically, sure. But the point of such an intervention would presumably be profit, and extracting resources from a war zone imparts added costs that resource extraction from the ocean, or the Canadian tundra, wouldn't.
Potentially, could they somehow convince through lobbying for the US to bear all expenses?
 
Could collective corporate power (Silicon Valley, Media companies, Arms industry) armstrong an intervention? Dulles style ?

Could? Theoretically, sure. But the point of such an intervention would presumably be profit, and extracting resources from a war zone imparts added costs that resource extraction from the ocean, or the Canadian tundra, wouldn't.
Potentially, could they somehow convince through lobbying for the US to bear all expenses?
Unlikely, barring the sort of sci-fi scenario where the company is more powerful than the government (Omni Consumer Products, Weyland-Yutani, Tyrell Corporation). But even then the company will have to devote a lot of perpetually ongoing expense to defending the local facilities, defending the logistics, fighting nonstop insurgencies, political movements, neighboring nations.

Given that some corporations like SpaceX may well make asteroid mining practical in the near future, the need to raid reasonably powerful distant nations for their subsurface geology is receding very quickly into the distant past. Hell, if the US was going to do that sort of thing, why invade Brazil when Afghanistan is ready for exploitation? The US *walked* *away* from that place and the trillions of dollars in minerals that are available there.
 
"I did the research and it felt the same way."

Then I must accept that we define 'research' quite differently.

"What's aping ?"

OED: gerund or present participle: Imitate the behavior or manner of (someone or something).

"... it is also the first time I am dealing with the subject at hand."

So you keep saying. And yet, based on your 'feelings', you reject suggestions by SPF members who are more experienced (in edwest2's case, that includes experienced in publishing).

"Are you being hard on me ?"

If you're still uncertain, the answer is Yes. But not to worry, I won't be back.
 

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