Talk:The Trigger Effect

Hey guys, thanks for this its really interesting and nice to see some meat on the setting's bones. I'm kicking around (well,have got half way through writing) a little self-contained story that I hope would fit into the setting and would like to ask a few specific questions if I may.

How tough is the RIDE export ban, does it prohibit all off world movement or just bulk sales? Can private citizens take their owned RIDEs off world and are they frequently smuggled? In a similar vein, how extensive is off world trade in this universe and what kind of things does Zharus import?

Thanks, and great work on the setting --Fibio (talk) 20:46, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the kind words! And I'm sure both Jon and I would be happy to look your story over before your post it if you'd like feedback and any suggestions for how to make it fit better into the world.

The rationale behind the ban is that they really don't want Earth's peeps to get their hands on this tech and realize how awesome it really is—because if they knew, they'd probably come calling with an army. So they tend to ban things that could result in that happening. So, at least until they're granted full personhood in the mid 160s (and can legally decide for themselves they want to go see the galaxy), even individually-owned RIDEs aren't supposed to be taken off-world for any reason. Or out-of-system, I should say, since I'm sure some specially-adapted RIDEs are used in asteroid mining too.

This prohibition applies to pretty much anything that uses qubitite or sarium, including AIDEs and IDEs (or even just the Ad-I or RI cores that power the mecha), Zharus's super-fast-acting nanites, or sarium storage batteries. (Jon's currently writing another in-universe piece during which a Sturmhaven native going off to visit the other colonies complains about his sarium batteries being confiscated by Nextus customs before he leaves the planet.)

The one exception to this travel restriction is travel to Wednesday, which is close enough to Zharus and far enough away from the other colonies, and tied closely enough to Zharus by their shared history, that it's effectively considered to be a next-door neighbor. (Though Wednesday has its own controls that are just as stringent preventing that tech from going anywhere from there except back to Zharus.)

Needless to say, no system is perfect, and undoubtedly some items (and even RIDEs) slip through the net from time to time. (Zharus has been fortunate so far in that none of these has yet been prominently waved under the nose of the Terran establishment, but that luck only lasts so long…) But I think that by the 150s, for the most part Zharus citizens understand the rationale behind the restrictions, as they don't want to attract any unwanted attention to their home (at least until they're better able to defend it), but there will still be some complainers or people who try to work around the ban (or even succeed), even for reasons as prosaic as wanting to take their RIDE to visit the rest of their family on one of the other colonies.

Hope that answers your question!

—Robotech Master (talk) 21:40, 28 July 2012 (UTC)