Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26372030-20151206001252/@comment-25467429-20151208212312

So, it's suggested that there are multiple elevators and each is guarded by one of the prop-driven drone-bases. The basic assumption from that the drones themselves function not unlike what we've seen from Butterfly Master - swarming the area with near constant laser fire, and using the mothership as targeting support and recharging station. I imagine the idea of it being prop driven is bbased on fuel savings for the actual mothership. Seeing no solar panels or anything like that, I can already see them making an assault on a resupply/refueling shipment one of the missions.

If the suggestion of mmultiple towers is not a mistranslation or typo, etc, that complicates the story somewhat. I never did buy the idea that only one elevator would bebuilt and destroyed. Such an obvious and massive structure cannot reach fruition in secret, and would be destroyed if itself considered a threat well before reaching completion. It's not like Megalith, which cuold be done in a complex but stelathy way, or even the fortresses which could be built in massive but ultimately unssuming hangars. A space elevator is an enormous structure sitting in the wide open stretching miles and miles into the air.

Based on that, if there are multiple elevators then the idea of them being built under a consortium of world powers makes sense. It's not a great parallel, but look at the basic early background story for Gundam 00. You had multiple world powers construct several elevators and jointly administer them, leaving smaller nations destitute due to economic outflows. It might be reasonable to assume that if this is relativley shortly after the Osea/Erusea conflict (less than 30 years I'd say) that Osea might band with other nations to keep Eruesea out of the alliance to build the elevators and thereby not build one in Erusean territory, exacerbating existing tensions and possibly driving their economic woes. Given AC history, Erusea would either then decide to take over one of the elevators, triggering a regional war the other allied nations have to get invovled with (NATO style conflict), or even for a fresh twist Erusea could buy off a memberr of the alliance with military support and anex them (Russia in Crimea sort of thing).

Again, this all assumes the idea of multiple elevators holds. I still don't very much like the idea of having this take place prior to AC3. Even with Strangereal's different pace and cadence of technological development, it feels like a major shoehorn to put space elevators in a game that timeline wise is before there latest game, which doesn't even mention anything like a space elevator. The idea that even if there was only one elevator that got destroyed by the end of the game, space elevators are a keystone type of tech that you don't say "well, that didn't work out, let's scrap it altogether" - it would be like no flying fortresses because the first one got destroyed. I know it's a nitpicky sort of thing, but that sort of literary jumping jacks is a pet-peeve so I hope they make a convincing excuse by the time the game comes out.