Alterra Energy Shields
Isummon_Durt
Lower MiddleEarth Join Date: 2017-12-09 Member: 234349Members
Lower MiddleEarth Join Date: 2017-12-09 Member: 234349Members
Ok. So, first off, I want to make my usual cynical assessment of the topic. Alterra's technology is almost genius but mainly just annoying that they can create slow-time pockets within plasma gravity fields, but still use ion drives for transport. That they can do all of these logic-defying things, and yet still use all of this technology which we have around today. But anyways!!!
The reason for this post was inspired by Scifiwriterguy and his example of the GUN trying to take out a Mongolian battle cruiser or something and not causing a dent. So, being as cynical as ever, I wanted to make a short post about the subject of armor in the subnautica universe and if the GUN could cause damage to a cruiser made by Alterra.
First of all, I wish to mention that the player's survival isn't really all that tailored. Seamoths, PRAWNS, propulsion cannons and the like seem to be the same as those which are found inside the Aurora and mentioned within PDA's. And so, I'll have to assume that Alterra mainly bases its technology off of materials which can be found on Earth-like planets like planet 4546B. Although it's of course possible that, in predicting the path around 4546B, Alterra had for some reason stocked the Aurora full of vehicles which can be constructed from the materials on 4546B. Although this makes no sense, really.
But anyhow, because of the seamoth, (described as one of the most popular vehicles for its aquatic and space qualifications,) can be made solely out of materials on 4546B, we can make the assumption that Alterra has a knack for Earth-like planets. This being said, the Aurora is likely made out of plasteel and titanium, primarily; most likely titanium due to the scraps we find around the planet. So, I suspect that in order to keep a moderate budget, (and provided that the companies of the subnautica universe focus on economy more than warfare,) we can assume that any war-ready vehicle's shielding is going to be based off of the shielding projected on the Cyclops and Neptune, (I decided to call my rocket the Altracorp. Watney). Now, to estimate the capacity for the shielding displayed in-game, a single shield layer can protect from a Reaper attack which, since it can exert more pressure on a seamoth than the seamoth can resist, (and a fully depth-capable seamoth can survive a whopping maximum of 3545 newtons of pressure,) the in-game cyclops shielding can resist 3545 newtons of pressure in all directions!!! And only use up 50 out of the 1200 units of power which the cyclops can store; (Which, as a fun-fact, is equal to slightly more than the energy generated by two ion cubes combined)!!!
While I'm at it, I'm going to double-check my figuring above by determining at roughly what speed the Neptune escape rocket would have been traveling as it collided with the bit of debris which took out its shields and partially damaged the interior. Assuming that 4546B is roughly the same size of Earth, the rocket was traveling at minimum 17,600 mph, (although using ion power cells may have given it a bit of extra kicks.)
Now for the GUN's statistics. Assuming that the 'beam' that the GUN fires, it either fires Krypton or copper plasma; likely the former. Assuming that the beam in question is straight and isn't a cone, (and if it were light, it'd have to be a cone or else it would be invisible,) it could have theoretically infinite range assuming that whatever electromagnetic guidance system it has to control the path of the plasma doesn't have to aim through anything. So from the GUN, theoretically, you could blow up anything in the observable universe at any time. However, We're led to believe that the GUN can only focus on larger or closer things; as we can see in the loading screen that the Aurora is well aways from sea level when it has a gigantic hole ripped in its side, while the Sunbeam had to be relatively close to it before the GUN fired. So we can make the assumption that the GUN has pretty bad sensors despite its apparently infinite range and undoubtable power. But as for the beam itself, since I don't know exactly what its plasma is made of, I'm going to skip all of that and focus on what can be gleamed by observing its affect on the Sunbeam. (That could be turned into a pun if you think of plasma as the stuff suns are made of and the GUN as a beam. Sunbeam.) Anyhow, from the point at which the beam first hits the Sunbeam, the beam seems to only affect it slightly for three seconds, and then completely detonate after a fourth has passed. assuming that the sunbeam was made of similar stuff as the Aurora, and was about 8 or so meters long and 4 to 5 meters wide. Assuming it has the structural integrity necessary for a vehicle which both exits and enters planets' atmospheres, (17,600 miles per hour worth of pressure,) the GUN would have to be pretty darn beefy to crack it. Especially so because while the sunbeam was built to land on planets, the Aurora wasn't; sufficed to say, the GUN would undoubtedly be able to tear through any energy shielding that a battle cruiser might have.
As a recap, one of the many intriguingly unimportant factoids I unearthed was that a single ion cube can give off about 70900 Newtons of pressure in its lifetime. I think.
The reason for this post was inspired by Scifiwriterguy and his example of the GUN trying to take out a Mongolian battle cruiser or something and not causing a dent. So, being as cynical as ever, I wanted to make a short post about the subject of armor in the subnautica universe and if the GUN could cause damage to a cruiser made by Alterra.
First of all, I wish to mention that the player's survival isn't really all that tailored. Seamoths, PRAWNS, propulsion cannons and the like seem to be the same as those which are found inside the Aurora and mentioned within PDA's. And so, I'll have to assume that Alterra mainly bases its technology off of materials which can be found on Earth-like planets like planet 4546B. Although it's of course possible that, in predicting the path around 4546B, Alterra had for some reason stocked the Aurora full of vehicles which can be constructed from the materials on 4546B. Although this makes no sense, really.
But anyhow, because of the seamoth, (described as one of the most popular vehicles for its aquatic and space qualifications,) can be made solely out of materials on 4546B, we can make the assumption that Alterra has a knack for Earth-like planets. This being said, the Aurora is likely made out of plasteel and titanium, primarily; most likely titanium due to the scraps we find around the planet. So, I suspect that in order to keep a moderate budget, (and provided that the companies of the subnautica universe focus on economy more than warfare,) we can assume that any war-ready vehicle's shielding is going to be based off of the shielding projected on the Cyclops and Neptune, (I decided to call my rocket the Altracorp. Watney). Now, to estimate the capacity for the shielding displayed in-game, a single shield layer can protect from a Reaper attack which, since it can exert more pressure on a seamoth than the seamoth can resist, (and a fully depth-capable seamoth can survive a whopping maximum of 3545 newtons of pressure,) the in-game cyclops shielding can resist 3545 newtons of pressure in all directions!!! And only use up 50 out of the 1200 units of power which the cyclops can store; (Which, as a fun-fact, is equal to slightly more than the energy generated by two ion cubes combined)!!!
While I'm at it, I'm going to double-check my figuring above by determining at roughly what speed the Neptune escape rocket would have been traveling as it collided with the bit of debris which took out its shields and partially damaged the interior. Assuming that 4546B is roughly the same size of Earth, the rocket was traveling at minimum 17,600 mph, (although using ion power cells may have given it a bit of extra kicks.)
Now for the GUN's statistics. Assuming that the 'beam' that the GUN fires, it either fires Krypton or copper plasma; likely the former. Assuming that the beam in question is straight and isn't a cone, (and if it were light, it'd have to be a cone or else it would be invisible,) it could have theoretically infinite range assuming that whatever electromagnetic guidance system it has to control the path of the plasma doesn't have to aim through anything. So from the GUN, theoretically, you could blow up anything in the observable universe at any time. However, We're led to believe that the GUN can only focus on larger or closer things; as we can see in the loading screen that the Aurora is well aways from sea level when it has a gigantic hole ripped in its side, while the Sunbeam had to be relatively close to it before the GUN fired. So we can make the assumption that the GUN has pretty bad sensors despite its apparently infinite range and undoubtable power. But as for the beam itself, since I don't know exactly what its plasma is made of, I'm going to skip all of that and focus on what can be gleamed by observing its affect on the Sunbeam. (That could be turned into a pun if you think of plasma as the stuff suns are made of and the GUN as a beam. Sunbeam.) Anyhow, from the point at which the beam first hits the Sunbeam, the beam seems to only affect it slightly for three seconds, and then completely detonate after a fourth has passed. assuming that the sunbeam was made of similar stuff as the Aurora, and was about 8 or so meters long and 4 to 5 meters wide. Assuming it has the structural integrity necessary for a vehicle which both exits and enters planets' atmospheres, (17,600 miles per hour worth of pressure,) the GUN would have to be pretty darn beefy to crack it. Especially so because while the sunbeam was built to land on planets, the Aurora wasn't; sufficed to say, the GUN would undoubtedly be able to tear through any energy shielding that a battle cruiser might have.
As a recap, one of the many intriguingly unimportant factoids I unearthed was that a single ion cube can give off about 70900 Newtons of pressure in its lifetime. I think.
Comments
There are substantial inconsistencies in how the tech is portrayed. Personally, I've always wondered/worried about the stasis rifle. Freeze components so you can work on them in safety? Unless it's freezing the entire powertrain of whatever machine you just put in a cosmic headlock, something is gonna break pretty spectacularly. It's like trying (DO NOT TRY THIS) to stop the camshaft in your car's engine but letting everything else keep going. Your mechanic is going to be rich. But as for using old technologies, hey, we do that every day. The knife is hardly a new development.
That said, there are a few things I need to bring up relative to this post. (As usual, I'm containing the science-heavy walls o' text inside spoiler sections for your reading convenience.)
Actually, the PDA itself tells you that the recipes it provides are tailored to the materials you have at hand. It's not hard to do this, either; we do it all the time down here on the boring present-day Earth. You can build a submarine out of an old storage tank or even some oil drums - it won't be very good, but you can do it. Similarly, the PDA is giving you specs to use based on the materials you can scrape together without an advanced, complex industrial base. Not all titanium is equal, after all; depending on how it's alloyed, you'll see tremendous changes in ultimate tensile strength, modulus, and other key factors. A "proper" Seamoth or PRAWN could be built from higher-quality metals. But since you don't have access to that, the PDA is doing the best it can.
The technologies may be similar, but almost without fail (at least today), military-spec versions of just about anything are more capable and durable than civilian counterparts. Since the Aurora wasn't a warship - and the Cyclops is likewise a civil design and the Neptune, well, was kind of a lash-up - we would have to assume that a military vehicle would be more capable, not as capable. It'd be like comparing an SUV and a Stryker; not a fair comparison at all.
As for the rest of this section, we got us a big ol' tangled mess here. Let's straighten it out.
A shield layer can protect against a Reaper hit, but we can't say what a Reaper's bite force is with any certainty based on the evidence we have. "But why? We know it can crack a Seamoth, and a Seamoth is good to 1300-some-odd PSI!" True, but again, it's not a true comparison. Here's the whys and wherefores if you want to know:
The key element here, though, is uniform pressure. Just about anything is going to fare better under uniform pressure than non-uniform or point pressure. For example, I turn you to the humble egg. If you put the average egg in your hand and squeeze it uniformly - like the ocean squeezing a sub - it can resist a lot of pressure before it folds (breaks). But you can cheat. If you're wearing a ring, that egg will fail a lot faster. Why? Because that ring serves to concentrate pressure on a single spot of the structure rather than the pressure being spread evenly. That spot will fail quickly because it can't withstand that multiplied force, and the rest of the egg pops because it's no longer structurally stable.
The same holds true with our Reaper attack. It's not behaving like the ocean, squeezing the hapless Seamoth with uniform pressure. Instead, it's chomping on our 'moth with pointy mandibles, each of which act as force multipliers, exerting a far greater point pressure. Just like an egg faced with a ring, the 'moth can't resist that focused, multiplied force.
Since the pressure of a Reaper bite is non-uniform, that leaves us with a question of bite force. How much force can a Reaper exert? It has to be a lot! Well, no, not really. Since we already established that point pressure cheats the system and causes an otherwise sound structure to fold under pressure it would be able to resist when applied uniformly, our Reaper could well have a bite force well below the Seamoth's maximum dive pressure of 1,300 PSI. But even if it didn't, the Reaper is still hardly anything special; we have a number of animals here on Earth with a greater bite pressure:
So it doesn't necessarily mean the Reaper has one heck of a set of chompers; it just means that since the Reaper has a big enough mouth that it can grab the 'moth, it can apply pressure and crack its hull like a walnut. (In fact, exactly like a walnut; this is also how nutcrackers work.) The only reason a saltwater croc isn't a threat to subs is because it's just too small. (And also doesn't find subs tempting.)
The Cyclops has the same problem. Fully upgraded, it's good to a depth of 1,700m, which works out to (on Earth) a shade over 2,493 PSI of static pressure. But since the Reaper can get its mandibles around at least part of the Cyclops, its force-multiplying bite is again what's causing the damage, giving your nice sub some new windows.
From all of this, we draw two possibilities:
A. The Cyclops shield does not provide uniform resistance, but rather focused resistance against the force of the Reaper's bite, preventing it from sinking its mandibles into the hull.
B. The Reaper's bite force is insanely large even for its body size.
Between the two, I'd say A is more likely.
When considering escape velocity for any body, the old saying is quite true: size isn't everything. It's half of the argument. The other half is density. By combining density and volume, we can calculate mass. With mass, we calculate acceleration due to gravity, and from that we know our escape velocity.
For Earth, our escape velocity is 25,020 miles per hour. Anything less than that and the object will not escape Earth's gravity well; sooner or later, it's going to be coming back down. At or above that point, that object is on its way out. If we assume that the volume and density of 4546B work out in such a way that its mass is equivalent to Earth, then these numbers hold true. Since our character appears to be in no great distress breathing the air, we can assume that sea level pressure is somewhere around 1 atm, so it's at least plausible that the masses are roughly equal.
Flag on the play.
Part 1: What the gun fires - Plasma is not your buddy
As for the composition, neither krypton nor copper work. Plasma produced using krypton is white; copper is purple. Krypton is prized specifically because of its wide-spectrum characteristics. Despite being somewhat blue-weighted, its emission lines run the gamut. Some other elements are better (calcium), but working with them is a REAL pain. Xenon is easy and provides a nice spectrum coverage.
There are only really two candidates for the brilliant green we see:
1. Mercury. When mercury is ionized at extremely high voltage, its plasma is green; at lower voltages, it's blue.
2. Ne-Xe-Kr. Blending 95% neon with 2.5% each of xenon and krypton produces a green(ish) plasma with striking orange secondary colors when it interacts with a ground.
But when we consider the problem in getting a plasma to go anywhere without breaking the known laws of physics, it's kind of a dead issue.
So what, then, is the green glow? Well, laying aside the sci-fi Rule of Cool, there is a very much science answer: oxygen. If the beam is ionizing the air as it goes through (which, if it's a particle weapon as I've previously hypothesized, it would be), then you'd see ionization colors for atmospheric components. Since we know 4546B has an oxy/nitrogen atmosphere, we can use Earth's aurorae as a yardstick. Green auroras are caused by ionized oxygen. Nitrogen emits several colors when ionized, including blue. So what we could be seeing is an invisible beam ionizing the air along its track, producing a short-lived aurora.
Part 2: Beam shape - Visibility and shape aren't related
If you put a laser through a beam spreader, essentially changing the beam shape from a line to a cone, the beam is still invisible until it hits something. Thus the beam shape has no impact on its visibility.
Part 3: Control and range
I'd have to disagree. When considering the QEP's performance with targeting, we also need to consider the targets. The Aurora, despite being at high altitude, is big. Big things that obey the rules of physics (as we currently understand them) are not going to be nimble. It takes time to shift a lot of mass, which means that it's not going to be dancing a buck and wing; it can't accelerate into new vectors quickly. Conversely, we have the Sunbeam, a little ship. Smaller ship means less mass, which in turn means greater ability to maneuver. Thus predicting where Aurora is going to be at the end of beam flight is pretty straightforward. Trying to predict the position of an erratic little gnat, on the other hand, isn't easy at all. Assuming the QEP can't just beam spam until it hits its target, it makes sense for the gun to hold fire until its tricky little target is so close that it has no reaction time to avoid the shot. It'd probably been tracking the Sunbeam for a while, but was holding fire until the Sunbeam had no time to evade. A fair number of predatory species here on Earth do the same thing.
Not necessarily. We can draw an inexact but adequate parallel to atmospheric reentry. When its time for a low-orbit satellite to die, we deorbit it in such a way that its track (the line it'd follow if it were invulnerable) would drop it somewhere nobody is.
Any directed energy weapon takes time to do its nastiness and the Sunbeam isn't made of tissue paper. After all, it has to contend with micrometeoroids, space dust, and all kinds of other hazards, so it's going to be at least somewhat sturdy for general use. Naturally, an alien beam weapon falls outside the boundaries of "general use," so the beam probably tore through the hull pretty quickly...call it a second. That means that Captain Avery Quinn and his less-than-impressive sensor tech were probably incinerated before they knew something was wrong. Then more substantial structural components were vaporized - bulkheads and framing members, say. And so on and so forth until the most durable component of the ship. By all rights, this would be its power source. Call it what you will - drive core, reactor, Super Space V8 (patent pending) - the power source of the ship is probably going to be the most durable simply because as part of its job it has to contain some pretty awesome energy. Thus, that final impressive boom is probably the beam finally rupturing that drive core, and that was the last piece of the ship. The rest had already been converted into gas.
So, while we can assume the QEP gun is no slouch (completely incinerated a small ship, disabled a large one), it similarly isn't necessarily an apocalypse on wheels; it just has enough oomph to do its job. If it really were an apocalypse of a gun, the Aurora would've been similarly vaporized and our game would've been a lot shorter.
Rewind a sec. An ion cube is a power source. As such, its output would be measured using units for power. Watts, most likely. I think sometime early last year (maybe the year before) some intrepid math wizard here actually worked out the wattage of the batteries, power cells, and ion cells in the game when the ion cell was first introduced. Math isn't my friend, though, so I won't be taking a stab at that one.
Edited: Someone cheerfully pointed out (read: yelled at me) that my maximum Cyclops depth was wrong. Whoops. It's been fixed and the pressure recalculated.
note that an 'improper' seamoth, (just like a nuclear submersible made from oil drums,) wouldn't really look like- or be- a seamoth. Also, scanned fragments will drop the titanium salvageable from broken tools and vehicles; suggesting that those things were made of mainly titanium just like anything the player would make.
Well... for the first part, SUV's are made out of plastic and a thin metallic alloy frames with a transparent material very similar to glass all over it... but you do have a point. But then, wouldn't a military-grade PRAWN suit only need to be as badass as an industrial one?
Spoiler
Heehee. Admittedly, my suggestion of the GUN's electromag.-based targeting system was based partially on a book I read recently which was, (among many things,) about the lightsabers and blasters of starwars
Ok, I deserve a neck on this one. Although... if it were light, it'd still have to have enough dust particulates to reflect itself and so still proves that the beam can't be light, I guess
Part 3: Control and range
I wasn't trying to suggest that the destruction of anything would be instantaneous... just that you could hope to eventually destroy something if your James Bond villain targeting computer is all that capable.
(Opening sequence of James Bond. Weird tube thingy fires first this time; expelling a green plasma projectile. Targeting system, being based on electromagnetism, causes the projectile to fly in a wide arc around the atmosphere and then fly around in its loop and hit the barrel from which it came from)
I'd have to disagree. When considering the QEP's performance with targeting, we also need to consider the targets. The Aurora, despite being at high altitude, is big. Big things that obey the rules of physics (as we currently understand them) are not going to be nimble. It takes time to shift a lot of mass, which means that it's not going to be dancing a buck and wing; it can't accelerate into new vectors quickly. Conversely, we have the Sunbeam, a little ship. Smaller ship means less mass, which in turn means greater ability to maneuver. Thus predicting where Aurora is going to be at the end of beam flight is pretty straightforward. Trying to predict the position of an erratic little gnat, on the other hand, isn't easy at all. Assuming the QEP can't just beam spam until it hits its target, it makes sense for the gun to hold fire until its tricky little target is so close that it has no reaction time to avoid the shot. It'd probably been tracking the Sunbeam for a while, but was holding fire until the Sunbeam had no time to evade. A fair number of predatory species here on Earth do the same thing.
Aha! I was about to try to prove that the QEP trains on the same point in the sky during the sequence, (and proving us both incorrect,) I looked up a video of the sequence. Well you were definitely right! The QEP does re-adjust! I am so blind!!!
Yeah... that really doesn't make sense now that I look at it the night after... But born a lazy, always lazy!
Also, I apologize to the discussion gods for my poorly-researched deductions.
The gods only get angry when someone necroposts or breaks the forum rules, and only the latter brings down a lightning bolt.
As for the poor fish...
You've probably heard the word "mesmerize" meaning to hypnotize or otherwise derail someone's brain. It's from that word that UWE and Bethesda extracted a root "mesmer" to serve as both the fish and the root of "Mesmetron" in Fallout 3.
The root of the word really is "mesmer"...with a capital M. Named by and for Franz Mesmer, a so-called "physician" in 18th and 19th century Germany. The short version is that the guy was a bigger quack than a 60-foot Donald Duck. The longer version...
The problem, of course, is that people in the 18th century were, not to put too fine a point on it, stupid. So when Mesmer trotted out his "I can cure you through Mesmerism!" crank, people bought it. He'd go through an elaborate "treatment" involving - I kid you not - sitting with his knees against the patient's, holding the patient's thumbs, and staring into the patient's eyes. For as long as it took - minutes to hours. Occasionally, he'd press on the patient's hypochondrium (relax; it's the spot just below your diaphragm). From time to time, the patient would have a tremor or feel something peculiar, which Mesmer would claim was one of these crisis blockages clearing. (Realistically, though, it's called boredom. Try sitting perfectly still while staring into a crazy man's eyes for a few hours. Bet you're gonna fidget sooner or later. Bam, Mesmerized.) When the game started to fall off in popularity - medical effectiveness in the 18th century was largely gauged by what was popular at the time - he added magnets to the schtick.
Ultimately, King Louis the 16th decided that something was up with Mesmer and his crazier-than-a-soup-sandwich approach to healing and appointed four members of the Faculty of Medicine to look into what Mesmer was up to. The four investigators were interested enough to ask for five specialists from the Royal Academy of Sciences. Not because they were concerned about public welfare, oh no, they were worried that Mesmer had actually found a new physical fluid before they did. The conclusion? Mesmer was more full of fertilizer than a manure silo. There was no such fluid and any benefit from his "treatments" was purely imaginary. (Their word, not mine.) But, as is so often the case, one of these commissioners thought Mesmer was onto something and that it warranted further study. Adding to this was the fact that they didn't investigate Mesmer himself but rather one of his students who was peddling the same crap elsewhere in the country.
Ultimately, he fell out of favor and was exiled - reason depends on who you ask.
When you cut right down to it, though, Mesmer was a fraud, a charlatan, and nothing more than a con artist. He took advantage of the ignorant for his own gain and personal glory, and stamped his name onto the collective consciousness when he was nothing more than another in a long line of hucksters deserving of nothing more than to be forgotten in disgrace.
And that's why I call him a jerk.
It is an exploratory vessel, designed to build a new phasegate on a solar system beyond the "edge" of "civilized" (human dominated) space.
Historically exploration vessels tend to be the embodiment of the tech and power of a nation. The Aurora is the newest capital ship of Alterra Corp., a trans-gov (essentially a nation spreading through several star systems, and it appears to be very influential).
Im going to spoiler tag this just in case.
This gives us the following timetable.
SN > NS > NS2. While NS1 lacks alterra as a corporation, that does not mean perse that it does not hold to lore. But you can skip from SN to NS2 if you truly wish to. But lets just say NS1 ran on equipment of a competitor. (Which doesnt sound that weird, Alterra is the one who messed up after all and got the Kharaa out there.)
NS1 and NS2 establish some things of the UWE universe with Alterra which we can use in this debate.
* Military gets a lot more high tech stuff then civilians do. (note corp militia, not government perse.) One example is the military grade nanobots which civs simply do not possess, in NS2.)
* Armour is the thing to go to for things of prawn & exosuit size. No small shielding exists, unless its attached to something utter massive like a compound.
* Shielding in NS2 is for very large things and of insane strength. (A onos, the strongest alien in NS2 and NS1, can pound on a energy shield protecting something forever.. its not going to give. But those shields are large, like for shuttle doors and the likes.
* Dont overcomplicate if simple works. Aka dont go for big inefficient energy guns if a bullet to the head does the same thing, cheaper. (aka dead thing.)
* In NS/NS2 lore its established that the frontiersman use the best stuff available to fight. Alterra (ns2) wants them to win. They dont get 'good as'.. they get the best. Top of the line.
* If memory serves the Kharaa is the first and only sapient alien species encountered by humans. (although i guess SN makes this Kharaa the 2nd sapient known species. They be a hivemind and plenty sapient.)
In SN we have energy shield tech protecting semi large constructions so its reasonable to say it either scales well for the larger uses in NS2, or they improved shielding to begin with.
They do not use shielding on small things in SN and NS2, meaning in the timegap between NS and NS2 it hasnt become beneficial to use shielding vs armour for smaller things.
One does not need to exclude the other.
So would military vessels have armour in SN time? Most likely, in NS2? Hell yes.
Armour would be used in any case and shielding assuming the shields size could be maintained by the vessel. (Note only shielding shown in NS2 are compounds, so use of shielding on ships could be non-existent due to power cost.)
The shield tech is present but the power cost would most likely be the defining factor, needing loads of power for even small sizes. (again, nothing small and stand-alone uses shields in NS2.)
I think the Aurora has less armour then some may think. Either Alterra isnt that far into armour yet in this part of the timeline, or more likely its not needed on a exploration vessel.
Space ships needs to protect vs radiation, impact damage and such lovely stuff. Nothing includes 'big ass energy weapons'.
You do not start adding mass to a spaceship if its not 'needed'.
SN might be after, during, or slightly before NS2. The PDA will probably recognize the normal form of Kharaa from the conflict, but would it recognize the wilder variant that wasn't adapted as much (as it was held in check by Enzyme 42 and Warpers)?
I can somewhat say that may be true but nah.. it would be a much harder sale.
In the UWE/Alterra universe, the kharaa thread are very well known, both with military and civs. Its totally known how to combat them with nanobots on such a scale.
With databanks of knowledge, you would expect the PDA to pick up some resemblance.
It would solve a lot of those icky questions just making SN pre NS/NS2.
I just wanted the NS2 poster to be more believable in-universe, instead of just a shout-out (it's not like it's a hidden Easter Egg or something).