Exlor
Also yeah, the Hexers suck at diplomacy. Actually despite what we've seen of DIVA's successes, they also suck at intrigue, given their total and complete failure against the Coalition in preparation for the war, ad the fact that one of their most competent spies decided to abandon them the moment they got the chance. Speaking of which, they also suck at war, given that despite launching a surprise attack they proceeded to immediately get bogged down in attrition warfare, which would have gone even worse without Ves' glow mechs. Frankly, the only thing the Hexers have proven to be any good at is indoctrination.
Exactly, she's good at her job, and she also decided to desert from the country the moment she got the chance.
NAJ_P_Jackson:Don't forget that Calabast is from DIVA and she's good at her job. She's made some mistakes along the way sure but overall she's profficient in her profession.
He may not want for basic material goods like ships and mechs but I doubt he's be able to resist things which relate to his design philosophy: "Oh Mr. Larkson, we heard that you like these "P" and "F" stones, we happen to have gotten hold of an entire shipping container of them, along with another container of priceless cultural artifacts from around the galaxy, and we also have all these expert candidates who have been acting up, do with them whatever you want with no consiquences" Once Ves starts thinking with his Seed instead of his head it's all over.
Hm... the best negotiating tactic he could use with Gloriana is to pull out the Devil Tounge and make with the puppy dog eyes. "But... but.. I thought you loved me? Why am I putting in all the work to afford a 2nd Class ticket if you just hand over all your merits to the Woodlin Clan? The Larkinson Clan already has enough merits for a 3rd Class ticket, and the LMC is earning enough money to commission a brand-new 3rd Class fleet. Its easy enough to scale back the plans for implants and upgrade to make sure we stay qualified for a 3rd Class ticket as well. Why am I doing all this work when we can just go now without you? Especially because you are using all your merits to purchase a WOODLIN fleet ticket instead of a Larkinson one!"
The cooldown for "superpublishing" is coming up soon, right? Of all the designs on the table... I think the commercial light mech design would be the most useful! The clan currently has no glowing light mechs so making their ONE design as good as possible will be the most effective use of the 10% upgrade. And if Ves is planning on making Tulsa's expert mech first, having a Superpublished light mech design to study will be a LOT of help! Sanctuary is too simple to really benefit from the upgrade and Chiron is essentially a prototype testbed. Anything that shortcuts Ves's learning on Chiron would be bad. Cat's Paw is too far from completion to benefit, both Ves and Gloriana still have a lot of improvements they can make on their own first. As for the Hexxer commissions - superpublishing any of them would be a horrible idea! They are already getting slightly underpaid for the designs, adding in a free Master consult worth a million or more MTA merits would be foolish!
How short sighted can Ves be? It's the power of a 2nd Class State behind the Wodin. As much as Ves wants to upgrade the current Larkinson, it's a massive amount of ressources that are needed to do it. Even though they are Hexers, the Wodin are borned 2nd Class being with prepaid implants and educated with the know how. The ideology isn't ideal but if you are migrating you should at least be prepared to adapt yourself to a new reality.